Nonviolence comes to DeWitt Clinton High School, Part 1 - a visit from Mark Kurlansky

by Raymond Pultinas

Last summer, I picked up some small stones from the bed of the Westfield River while vacationing in Western Massachusetts and they reminded me of what I’ve written and thought about for some time now.   Entering and wading in a cool river creates the kind of moment I need to have before returning to the practice of teaching high school students. Sitting and stretching in the buoyancy and flow of water I touch a stone made smooth over the course of this river’s life, millions of years in the making.  I hold the stone in my hand.  I work the stone with my fingers. 

The work of educating one’s emotional sensibilities, one’s self control, I imagine might take a process that is akin to this patient circular rubbing of a smooth stone between thumb and forefinger for the act of rubbing is deliberation itself.  In practice, I am  educating myself to be at peace in the world and it requires just such patience and contemplation, I would think.  The process involves affirming but holding the passions we carry; not acting first, but thinking first.  During these times, we look for a center, and the stone seems to signal for us this retreat into the contemplative - away from the world.

So I imagine carrying this stone around with me wherever I go and taking it out as needed to think through a problem.  To gently rub the stone smoother, perhaps somewhat prayerfully, as an accompaniment to the consideration of what to do next, where to go, what is right and what is wrong, what is best, or any other question that needs an application of thought or thinking through.  The gentle rolling of the smooth stone with the fingers accompanies deliberation and thinking in harmony with it.

David in his epic battle picks up the same smooth stone perfect for sling-shot and hurls it into the forehead of Goliath.   A boy is caught on video throwing a stone through tear gas at soldiers behind shields.  Throwing a stone in anger to hurt, damage or destroy is a choice that some humans make.  It is the choice to be violent.  Countless circumstances, provocations, self-defenses, just causes will certainly complicate any discussion of violence, but at its heart, at its origin, at its core, one might find and feel a smooth stone and what to do with it. Carry it or throw it and under what circumstances?  The choice to do one or the other is a defining moment of life and “coming of age.” 

In his book Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea, Mark Kurlansky examines an historic arc of nonviolent resistance from biblical times to the present.  In the fall of 2010, Mr. Kurlansky visited a combined class of sixty 12^th grade literary criticism students at DeWitt Clinton to discuss nonviolence in an event made possible through Behind the Book. The book fills in a substantial gap in our knowledge of names and events that have been central to the nonviolent movement for centuries. Students prepared for the visit by reading and discussing each chapter, constructing group presentations to a class audience who also researched deeper, generated vocabulary lists, developed questions, debated points, wrote poetic improvisations, and created wonderful and incisive drawings.  

I was interested in the connections students could make between Mr. Kurlansky’s book and what they were presently facing in a school saturated in hostility and violence.  Last year around this time, DeWitt Clinton was a much different place than it is now.  Each period of each day was punctuated by some disturbance in the halls or in our own classrooms.   Large groups of defiant and troublesome teens would routinely circulate and instigate looking for open doors and fights would break out.  Even some of our best students would run out to the halls in a frenetic and bloodthirsty way to spectate on some faked or real physical and emotional turmoil. 

Nonetheless, prior to Mr. Kurlansky's visit, groups of students in my literary criticism class prepared and presented chapters in literary circles for about a month and constructed a visually enticing wall of hope, a museum of responses with comments and drawings inspired by our discussion of nonviolence.  The behavior of students, the tone of the school and the newspaper headlines of the day immediately became the common reference point in our discussion.  Our school had become a microcosm study of global and national unrest and discontent.  And in the midst of chaos some students chose to pick up the smooth stone of contemplation and deliberate.

In Part 2, I’ll share some of these student voices and more excerpts from Mark Kurlansky's visit.

Midsummer Garden Report

By Raymond Pultinas

Arriving back to the garden a week after being away I approach as I might a present to be opened.   What happened since last time I noticed that some of the carrots had just fully matured, or that the tomatoes were about to change and some had the blight?  The variety of peppers we planted were about to give us cheery little standing at attention fruit and the beautiful squash flowers gave way to a perfectly formed little pumpkin.  

Sunflowers belong to the bees.

A pumpkin arrives in the carrots.

My desire to be in the garden accumulates while on vacation and I cannot walk by one on my travels without stopping to notice.  I can't help but take solace and strength from the health and beauty of the gardens I see. How can we not draw health and vitality from direct sensuous experiences in a healthy garden?  Whether I am simply working it or taking its nourishment home, the garden is part of my sustenance. I'm certain too that if I had seen a troubled garden while away, I would sense some worry and fear within me.  

Native butterfly garden includes the Three Sisters, corn, beans and squash.

Our garden has grown to at least double the size from last year at this time. Thanks to generous support from Citizen's Committee of New York City, GrowNYC, Bronx Green-Up and Green Thumb, we have fulfilled our goal of growing the garden.  Last year we planted five of six raised beds that were donated to us by Montefiore.  This year, we have added four additional raised beds from lumber that was delivered by Green Thumb for a total of nine beds.  We have also planted flowers, basil and vines in five large containers.

Squash and basil intermingle.

Presently, we anticipate another abundant crop of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, basil and peppers.  We also are eager to see how the vegetables we’ve introduced this year (string beans, corn, carrots, watermelon, broccoli and pumpkin) will produce.   

Five foot high tomato plants

Broccoli flowerets forming.

One of our goals had been to create a plant border along the 20’ fence that separates the garden from the faculty parking lot.  Morning glories and hyacinth beans are presently planted, perhaps grapes will be in the future.

It's still a parking lot.

We have succeeded in preparing DeWitt Clinton High School’s Garden to be an onsite place of learning where students and faculty could witness and practice sustainable urban living.  

DeWitt Clinton High School Garden expands.

The garden demonstrates where food comes from and how it is grown and we have begun to educate students about the value of fresh food and fresh ingredients that contribute to healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle.  

An early summer harvest of carrots.

The Witt Seminar has built an alternative space on the campus of the high school and is now poised to engage the entire school in taking more responsibility for its own health and well being.

Calendula and eggplants.  

The Witt Seminar Wants to Cook!

by Ray Pultinas

Cooking with my students has been among the most transformative experiences I’ve had as a teacher with over 20 years in the classroom.  There is something transfixing when we work around food.  It is an intensely social occasion that accumulates its own energy and momentum as a meal moves from the planning stage through prep and cooking and finally enjoying with one another the rewards of our efforts.  It is also a highly cooperative enterprise that seems to bring out the most charming, confident and satisfying expressions in my students as they compete with one another for a chance to help measure or pour or mix ingredients.  Those who stand back to observe the scene are often looking for a role to play, something to do, and in the kitchen there is always something to do.  Students guard over the cooking detail they’ve assumed or have been asked to perform, yet I detect a cooperative anticipation of the tastes they’ve all helped to create out of raw ingredients.  What will the magic of this mixing and making be?   Of course, this is the kind of delayed gratification that we would want to encourage in all of our classes and with all of the subjects we teach.

Mark and Elca

In the fall of 2005, I was given permission to teach a course on activism and publication at DeWitt Clinton High School called the Witt Seminar.  Four school wide conferences on activism and three publications later, in 2009 we decided to narrow our focus on food politics in an attempt to confront the poor eating habits of our students.  With alarming rates of obesity, diabetes and other health and diet related illnesses in the Bronx and reflected in our student population we felt that we could have an immediate impact studying and working on this problem.  One of our first tasks was to develop a survey to inform ourselves of the eating habits of our students and we learned that most students self reported that they know the value of eating healthy food but also find it difficult to obtain it.  Of the approximately 400 students we surveyed in our school of almost 5,000 students, almost 70% felt that eating healthy food is necessary in order to do well in school.  70% said they found nutritious food to be delicious and satisfying.  However, there is a significant amount of students, 53.9%, reporting that they never eat school cafeteria food and only 25%, one in four students, eat cafeteria food more than 3 times per week.   This might indicate that most students do not feel that the cafeteria offers healthy and nutritious food.  When asked to describe the lunches served in our school cafeteria, a total of 49% found that the food was either not too nutritious or not at all nutritious.  Also significant are the 24% of students who had no opinion.  Only 1.4% of students found the food to be very nutritious and 25.2% found the food to be only “somewhat nutritious.”  And where do students who don’t eat cafeteria lunch eat during the day?  Among those who do not eat cafeteria food, over 60% wait until after school to eat.  While only 15% of students surveyed bring their own lunch, over 26% use either the snack line, the G.O. store or R.O.T.C. to meet their hunger demands by purchasing chips, cookies and now the ever-present granola bars. 

Debra, Cire, Kimberly and Abigail

The present mission of the Witt Seminar emerged in the fall of 2009 and we have oriented our curriculum to address what we saw as fundamental needs of our students to have healthy food choices at our school.  We partnered with the New York Coalition for Healthy School Food and became one of only six high schools in the city to participate in the Cool School Food program.  Our school cafeteria now offers plant-based (vegetarian and vegan) menu options twice per week.  The Witt Seminar has promoted these meals through biweekly public announcements, posters and bulletin boards, as well as healthy school food “speak outs” and food “sampling” events in the school cafeteria.  We also started a school garden and in the fall of 2010, thanks to our partnership with Behind the Book, celebrated our first harvest by inviting Wellness in the School founder and world renowned chef, Bill Telepan to use our abundant eggplant, acorn squash, basil, turnips and onions to cook our first harvest meal.  Our Green Thumb registered school garden continues to flourish with generous support from Citizens Committee for New York City and Grow to Learn. 

Third floor bulletin board

Poster near cafeteria entrance, basement level

Though we have acquired a modest sum of money to continue to grow our garden, we are currently seeking support that will enable our Witt Seminar students as well as other students at DeWitt Clinton to have increased opportunities to prepare their own healthy meals from the food we grow in our garden and healthy food that can be found, grown or purchased in our local urban communities.  We need to make it possible for the students in our school to develop culinary skills that they could take back to their friends, families and communities. I have learned that caring communities can emerge around shared food and if we want our young people to eat better we need to teach them to make their own delicious healthy food so they are not as dependent on fast and convenient food.  In order to empower our students to make healthy food choices they must experience directly the vegetables, fruits, grains, and other ingredients that go into the preparation of healthy food. Our long-term goal is to convert an abandoned teachers cafeteria space into a working instructional kitchen to expand opportunities for students to cook for themselves, make oven meals or bake bread.   This would take a substantial amount of money for we would need to purchase a stove, refrigerator as well as kitchen supplies, equipment and utensils.  A more modest goal is to use what we already have while we build towards this larger dream.  We have cleared and cleaned an alternative cooking space amidst the unused steam tables and microwaves to practice the arts of preparing our own meals using an electric skillet.  

Abigail scooping the last of the Banana Beignet batter

What we are missing is a solid foundation in community food education that an organization like Family Cook Productions currently provides to teachers and students.    The program would allow me to be certified as a community food educator and help train students to become food educators as well.  The training would allow me to run Teen Battle Competitions that have already made a powerful impact on the food issues in urban environments like ours. To run this program successfully, we also will require a healthy food budget that will keep our program running throughout the school year.  

Gogola (Banana Beignets) are delicious.  (See "Eat, Pray, Smear" by Julia Moskin, March 23, 2011, New York Times.)

The Witt Seminar Journeys to Albany With a Purpose

by Kevin Nipal, Abigail Barima, Cire Kaba, and Licia Hooks of the Witt Seminar

Clinton students assemble to strategize in between visits to Assemblymembers José Rivera and Marcos Crespo.

We boarded the bus at 7:00 am on February 8 and headed to Albany in the hopes of persuading our State Assembly members to continue their support for our Montefiore school-based health center.  Our clinic is important to us because without it we wouldn’t have free health care services that include treatment for chronic illnesses like diabetes and asthma, physical check-ups, mental health counseling, and dental care.

When we arrived in Albany after a three-hour bus journey, we first entered a conference room where hundreds of students, parents and teachers from throughout the state were already gathered to “speak out” about how vital their clinics were to the members of their school communities.  This was an opportunity for all of us to listen to and be inspired by stories from second graders to high school students about how much they loved their own clinics, how they felt cared for and safe knowing that there were health care professionals right in their own schools. 

DWC student Teddy Reyes delivers at the "Speak Out" in Albany.

Our primary task of the day was to speak to two of our own State Assembly members representing districts in the Bronx where students from DeWitt Clinton live.  Montefiore Clinic Community Health Coordinator Jessica Moorman prepared us with speaking points and we were prepared to insert our own personal stories to convince lawmakers to vote to preserve the money that Governor Cuomo has already set aside in the budget for school-based health centers. 

From left, students Kevin Nipal, Arieal Figueroa and Marc Perez try to get some straight answers from Assembly Member José Rivera.

We first met Assemblyman José Rivera and were very eager to hear him respond to us.  As we presented our ideas and related our information to him however we felt that he didn’t really listen to us.   It seemed impossible to get a straight answer from him.  Fortunately, our second visit was to Assemblyman Marcos Crespo. We were very impressed to hear what he had to say.   After we stated one idea to support our cause he went on to answer all of our questions without us even having to ask him. He covered everything that we wanted to know. He had us speechless and he helped us to understand not only how state government works but how his 85th district that includes Hunts Point was one of the poorest in the nation and how needy residents there had few health service providers and depended on clinics including those in schools to help meet basic health care needs.

             This trip was a major success because we got to prove our point.   On the long way back to the Bronx, we felt a sense of accomplishment.  We were finally listened to and knew we helped to make a difference for our school.