Showing posts with label Steve Orel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Orel. Show all posts

Friday, June 4, 2010

Ohanian Comment Triggers Memories

Susan Ohanian, one of the leading progressive educators in the nation, kindly mentioned me in a recent post on the trip we all took to The Woo in Birmingham, Al in an introduction to this post:

Another Comment on Believe Charter

In March 2003, about 30 people traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to pay tribute to Steve Orel and The World of Opportunity (The WOO), giving the WOO The Courage in Education award. That's where I met Norm Scott, who made a number of trips to The WOO, taking needed supplies. Those of us who traveled to The WOO formed bonds that will never break.


Susan is so right about bonds being formed amongst people meeting for the first and in some cases only time (the only time I met her). I can never stop thanking John Lawhead for taking me down there. Face to face still works in building relationships, though the web certainly helps you keep in touch.


Just think of it - Steve Orel, Susan Ohanian, Bill and Joanne Cala, Juanita Doyon, Kathy Emory and too many others to name were there. Bill Cala, who should be state ed commissioner, and I are still in touch. I remember we just found so much to laugh about and had a lot of fun thinking about running a make believe campaign against the former awful State Ed Comm Richard (Dickie Boy) Allen. (Actually, on a subsequent visit to NYC Bill asked me to attend a meeting where I met Ann Cook from Urban Academy and Time Out From Testing's Jane Hirschman for the first time.)


Bill ran the Fairport schools for many years before retiring and then was asked to run the Rochester schools briefly before they hired Kleinite John Claude Brizzard, sort of like going from Cinderella to Godzilla. Bill is one of the leaders of the fight to keep Mayor Duffy, now Cuomo's choice for Lt Gov, from taking over the schools.


Susan's post gives me an excuse to talk a bit about Steve Orel, who is one of the great heroes of education. We made one trip down with supplies and got to see Steve when he was still hanging in and still running The Woo - saw him once more when he visited NY for medical care. I actually get ill at times just thinking about him not being with us. And I only met him 3 times. I captured just a flavor of Steve in my Wave column:


I recently revisited the WOO when I hitched a ride with friends driving down south. We were on the highway following our sketchy Mapquest directions to the WOO, which is in a remote high poverty area on the edge of Birmingham across the street from a housing project (with buildings no more than two stories tall) when a van cut in front of us and the driver started gesturing to follow.

Not sure if this was a carjacking or someone with a barbecue restaurant looking for business (we had been doing our share of damage to our cholesterol counts), we hesitated until out popped a yellow piece of paper that said "The WOO" on it. The driver was Steve Orel who just happened to come across our van. "You think I couldn't recognize three Jews from New York?" Steve told us later. Steve is Jewish and a civil rights activist - which must go over real big in Birmingham -- he has had his house shot at.


Steve paid me one of the greatest compliments I had as a teacher. I was working with a student doing one on one tutoring for about 2 hours when we were at The Woo. Steve was rushing around all over the place and I never thought he noticed me. The next day he told me he could tell what kind of teacher I was by the way I interacted with the student - who was a 24 year old high school dropout. "You never saw me with an entire class," I told him. "One on one I easy." "I can tell," he said. Steve understood what teaching was all about - a relationship between student and teacher. He made me think of that angle in judging teachers. Not the outcome only crap they are throwing at people.


Of course, Steve's immense sense of humor was always there. I wish I had a video of Steve telling stories of Steve the Jew at southern revival meetings with his wife's family. My side hurts just thinking about how hard I laughed.


I am reminded of Steve because The Woo suffered greatly with his death but is still functioning.

Contributions would be welcome. Here is an email sent out by his wife Glenda Jo.


Dear WOO Friends:

It has been far too long since you have heard from the World of Opportunity, but we now have to turn to our friends to help sustain us. There have been many changes at the WOO in the last few years following the untimely death of our founder and guiding spirit, Steve Orel. Over the last few years, the students who come to see us are younger and younger and, today, we are seeing 15-year-olds pushed out of high school and referred by their schools to us. We have just learned that other agencies that get these referrals are paid for each student they receive, but we have never received such an offer, although we are now regularly receive funds from the City of Birmingham. We have moved to a new location and, even without a listed phone number, we are seeing dozens of new students monthly. We keep a constant number of 15 students in our Patient Care Assistant (PCA) program and we have over thirty names on the waiting list. Almost everyone who has completed our Patient Care Assistant (PCA) program has found employment.

In short, the WOO has been remarkably successful in its mission. Unfortunately (and you knew this was coming), we have been less successful in getting money for our work, which is why we are writing you. We have been working virtually without pay for months and, while we have grant proposals in the works, we cannot sustain ourselves without immediate funding. The good new is that we have a new web site at www.worldofopportunitywoo.com and the even better news is that if you go to it, you can donate directly to us through PayPal. If all of you on our email list donate as little as $10.00, and as much as you can, and forward this appeal to your friends who believe in education, we will be able to continue our work until our other funding requests come through. Regardless, the WOO has always sustained itself through the generosity of hundreds of our supporters across the country. Because of the crush of the work, we have neglected our friends and for that we apologize. We hope you will forgive us. If you do, we will not make that mistake again.

I thank you and, even more importantly, our wonderful students thank you for the keeping their world of opportunity open to them.

David Gespass on behalf of the WOO Board

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Steve Orel: He is gone...

Posted by Glenda Jo Orel
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W. H. Auden


We are so sad to report the passing of the remarkable Steve Orel after putting up one of the great battles against colon cancer. But no one was surprised that Steve would fight to the end. After all, he fought the Klan in Birmingham (as a Jew and civil rights worker in Birmingham, that ain't easy), the racist policies of the Birmingham Board of Education, and his most valiant fight of all - to make the WOO (World of Opportunity) a place where the poorest, most downtrodden students would get a second chance. The recipient of ACT NOW's "Courage in Education Award," that barely touches on the incredible things Steve accomplished.

It is often said about people who pass, they will be sorely missed. By t
he people who loved them. Or worked with them. In Steve's case, he will be missed by all of humanity. There is probably no worse time to lose someone like Steve.

In April 2006 I hitched a ride with friends Ira and Sheila Goldfine who were driving down south. We loaded up the Godfine's van with old computers, books and whatever else we cou
ld gather, as The WOO has become a center for the distribution of "stuff" to people in need. With Steve's illness looming so large, we never expected to see Steve, who I met at the ACT NOW conference organized by SusanOhanian, Juanita Doyan and others to forge a national resistance to the evils of high stakes testing and to battle against the upcoming NCLB Act. The conference was held at the WOO in March 2003 where Steve was given his Award. Steve included the entire WOO in accepting the Award.

We were on the highway looking for The WOO, when a van cut us off, the driver pointing to follow him. Hey, this is the south, and we were nervous, but we got off at the exit. A yellow paper popped out the window. In bright red letters, it said "WOO" on it. when we pulled into theWOO's driveway, out popped Steve from the car, his arm in a sling from all the crap they had been pumping into him. "You didn't think I wouldn't recognize 3 Jews from New York, did you," he said with a big smile? That was the first time Ira and Sheila had met Steve and after an hour with him talking education, politics, people, kids, etc. theimpression he made on them was as great as anyone they had ever met.


Ira, Sheila and I visited with Steve and Glenda Jo one evening a few months ago on one of their visits to Sloan Kettering here in NY and heard all the horror stories about the health care system directly from them. Michael Moore could have made "Sicko" just using their story. I consider myself very lucky to have gotten to see Steve twice in the past year or so.


The other day, when things were looking bleak, Glenda Jo, asked for final messages to be read to Steve in his final days. Knowing Steve as a man with one of the great senses of humor, I could imagine him making jokes about his situation 'till the end. So I sent a bunch of politically oriented chicken crossing the road jokes along with the message below. I hope he got to hear a few of them and smile.


Dear Steve,
While there's much to be sad about, there's so much to cheer in a life well lived
. We only met a few times but I feel I've known you so well. I wish we had more time to hang out and schmooze, and, most of all, laugh. Of course, your first words to me when we met at the WOO were "Hello, what subject do you want to tutor? Here's someone to work with. See you later." No laughs there. I didn't find out about your amazing sense of humor 'till later when we went to get those peace banners from your car for the weekly anti-war vigil on a corner in downtown Birmingham, Al., as surrealist experience as I've had.

You said such kind words about what you noticed about the work I did with the student. You got me as a teacher in just a few moments. I value those words of yours as much an any praise I have received.

But enough of the serious stuff, Steve. As a man with as good a sense of humor as anyone I have met, we know that there's nothing you like better than a good laugh. And you are about the only one I know who, despite your situation, will find a laugh to be the best medicine. When Oscar Wild was in your situation he said, "
Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

And given the point we are at and the risk of doing anything in bad taste - but of course, "bad taste" are my middle names, I revert to the venerable use of the "chicken crossing the road" series, which no matter how dire the situation, I hope will bring a smile to your face. Or at least, get you to start removing that wall paper.

From Susan Ohanian:
I mourn the loss of my soul brother, friend, and great champion of young people. He started the World of Opportunity in Birmingham, Alabama to right the injustice of students terminated by the public school system. The door at the WOO is always open for students to get a second chance. . . and a third and a fifteenth, when need be.

Steve, your spirit fills the streets of Birmingham and the hearts of all who were privileged to know you.

Susan has been sending contributions to the WOO from the sale of this CD:
Order the CD of the resistance:
"No Child Left Behind? Bring Back the Joy."
To order online (and hear samples from the songs)
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dhbdrake4
Other orders: Send $15 to
Susan Ohanian
P. O. Box 370
Charlotte, VT 05445

Another way to assist Glenda Jo in keeping The WOO running.

Support the World of Opportunity!
Start your Amazon.com shopping at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/102-6736567-7856906


Thanks to John Lawhead for these pics of Steve when we visited the WOO in '03