The AACP Newsletter Asian American Curriculum Project, Inc. - Books for All Ages |
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By Leonard D. Chan |
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For the first time in over 40 years, the new school term will begin without the reopening of a San Francisco Luther Burbank School. With the constant changes in life - people coming and going, stores opening and permanently closing, new libraries replacing old - the one constant we assumed would out live us was our schools. Luther Burbank was my junior high school. The demographic report article in this newsletter actually started off as a search for the answer to why Luther Burbank Middle School was being closed. The school board gave low enrollment as one of the main factors for the school's closure. How could this be? In my past research on California demographics, I had found that the number of children in California actually far exceeded the baby boom school enrollment figures of the sixties and seventies. In contrast to the rest of the state, which has even seen shortages of schools in some areas, San Francisco public school enrollment has gone way down over the last few years. Former San Francisco school superintendent Arlene Ackerman stated in 2004 that the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) had gone from highs of around 93,000 in the 1960s to the 2004 rough figure of 57,000 students. San Francisco is one of the few major cities in California that has not progressively increased in population and to make matters worse for the SFUSD, San Francisco's composition has been getting older. Luther Burbank was originally designed for a maximum student capacity of 1500. By 2004 the enrollment had dropped to around 400. No wonder it was being tagged for closure. Strange enough, the building itself will still be used as a school, but under a different name and entity. SFUSD has been going through a metamorphosis with the creation of many small specialty schools taking the place of larger, supposedly impersonal, general-purpose schools. Starting this school term Aim High Academy will move into the Luther Burbank building and share the building with another small specialty school called June Jordan High School. This past June, my sisters and I went back to visit Burbank. Much had changed since we |
last stepped foot in the school. It no longer was the new and shiny school we remember it as. Back when we were there, they even had a laser for science classes. I'll always remember the laser demonstration that didn't work during an open house night. It was my siblings' school at that time and I was a younger little kid waiting to see something that was only being seen in science fiction TV shows and movies. Who would have ever thought that people would one day have laser on their key chains :)? I'll remember the day it snowed in San Francisco and there was enough on the ground to make snowballs for tossing at classmates. Burbank is situated at a slightly higher altitude next to a park with lots of evergreen trees. When the snow covered the ground, one could possibly mistake the area around Burbank for some place in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I'll remember the times we had to run cross country through that park. Ugh, I thought I would die running down those gravelly dirt trails. I'll remember the times we went on nature excursions through the park for science class. We would collect pinecones and needles to help us identify the trees and then save the cones for art classes to make Christmas decorations. I'll remember the great music department and auditorium. The auditorium was far superior to my nieces' private school gymnasium/auditorium. And what about the music department? Here's where the connection with Asian Americans comes in. Some years after I had graduated from the school, Burbank created the only marching band in the SFUSD. They didn't have fancy uniforms, but would instead perform in the school's traditional green sweaters. Each year I would catch a glimpse of them performing in the Chinese New Year Parade. This was a source of pride for my siblings and me - after all, Lowell High School, the academic pride of San Francisco, didn't even have a marching band performing in the parade :). I'll remember all the great classes and wonderful teachers I had too. The detailed memories of them may fade, but I'll always think fondly of my time at Luther Burbank Junior High School. Goodbye. |
The following books are discounted for subscribers to our newsletter. The discounts on these books end September 15, 2006. |
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Chinese American Voices
Compiled and edited by Judy Young, Gordon H. Chang, and Him Mark Lai |
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The Art of Gaman
By Delphine Hirasuna |
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Hannah Is My NameBy Belle Yang2004, 24 pages, Hardback. A Taiwanese girl named Hannah and her family immigrate to the United States. Many immigrants will be able to relate to Hannah's family's difficulties with survival and gaining permanent residency status. This is an inspiring story, based on author Belle Yang's real life transitional experience in 1960's San Francisco.
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San Francisco's ChinatownBy Judy Yung and theChinese Historical Society of America 2006, 127 pages, Paperback. This is another one of Arcadia Publishing's marvelous books that shows the history of a community in pictures, and insightful captions and notes. Historian Judy Yung and the Chinese Historical Society of America have managed to distill over 150 years of San Francisco Chinatown history into a little over 100 pages. As condensed as it is, these pictures and notes tell volumes. You'll see cobblestone streets, foods drying on the streets and roof tops, the fashions, signs on the windows and walls, lots of Chinatown residents and visitors, and much more, and you'll learn how Chinatown has changed and stayed the same over the many years of its existence.
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What About Me?By Ed Young2002, 29 pages, Hardback. A young boy goes to a Grand Master in search of some knowledge. The Master sends him on a quest that ultimately results in the boy's attainment of some knowledge. Like the moral teaching Aesop Fables, "What About Me?," based on a Middle Eastern Sufi tale, will enlighten all.
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