Board of Directors
St. Louis Language Immersion Schools
February 25, 2009
4:00pm-6:00pm
RubinBrown
Clayton, MO
General Session
Hiring
Enrollment
Charter
Funding
Executive Session
It’s been a while since we introduced a SLLIS Board Director. Here is Aliah Baker in her own words…
As the SLLIS Board member who is chronologically closest to memories of school and as a partial product of the Saint Louis Public School system, I feel that I was led to this project to finally “give back to the community” in a way that I feel passionate about. With that, I will now share some of the experiences that led to my overall world view and how that relates back to SLLIS.
My family lived in the University City area when I was born. My neighbors and friends were diverse and I have vivid memories of playtimes with a variety of characters from different backgrounds. At that age, I did not understand our differences but I enjoyed them.
When our family moved to the not-so-diverse Brentwood suburb I became painfully aware of the fact that my family was “different”. I attended McGrath Elementary School during the height of the city’s Desegregation program and I was one of very few African Americans that walked to school rather than being bused in. Faculty referred to those students as “Bus Kids”, which I never thought twice about until my first grade teacher insisted that I stand in line with the “other Bus Kids”. She thought I was being insubordinate when I stayed in line with my (mostly white) neighbors. The altercation ended with me in tears in the Principal’s office and with my mother sternly addressing both the teacher and the principal that the title “Bus Kid” was being used as code for “Black” and thusly was subversive and inappropriate.
In second grade a Japanese family moved into our neighborhood and despite their limited command of the English language, our families became fast friends. My mother volunteered me to read with them most days after school. I remember that I loved going to their house to play and read because they had the coolest, most vivid picture books (they read backwards!), the most unusually tasty snacks and the cutest colorful outfits I’d ever seen. But that year my family decided to move to the city and I faced the trauma of becoming a “Bus Kid”. My culture shock continued when I was admonished by my new (mostly Black) neighbors for my “white” accent.
There was no larger culture shock than when I finally left the Brentwood system for middle school at Classical Junior Academy at Enright, a magnet school. The classrooms, amenities and supplies I found there were far leaner and cruder than what I was used to but I found far more accepting and diverse (Black, white, Asian, Latino, international and so on) classmates. There I was introduced to my second language, Spanish. Despite the limited resources, I learned a lot and matured significantly. I was finally at an age where I could not just identify but appreciate and celebrate people’s differences. I finally felt like I belonged.
From there I was forced to enroll in John Burroughs School where I encountered a whole new category of people, the incredibly wealthy and privileged. High School was hard for me, as it must have been for any angst-ridden teen, but I persevered and ended up loving my overall experience. It was there I finally learned that I could find a comfort zone just about anywhere, but more importantly, that I could grow from being exposed to any and all kinds of differences.
When I moved to New York City for college I was determined to never move back home. I was certain that St. Louis was too conservative, too segregated, and too small for me. A gradual change in my mindset occurred in my 6th year in the city, when I became aware of the struggles my mother faced as the President of the St Louis Public School Board of Education. The situation infuriated me and it also impacted my mother’s health. At the end of my 8th year in New York, I resolved to come home, not just to live, but to reconnect with my family while finding a way to make the city better than it was when I left. I wanted to find a way for the painful experiences of my educational path to be beneficial for others.
My mother’s fellow former School Board member Vince Schoemehl invited me to join the SLLIS board to use my marketing expertise to help promote the school. I was immediately intrigued by the concept… Expanding the worlds of young children through language immersion. I signed on and in doing so, have expanded my own world view as well as my view of the growth and progress made by my hometown. I am encouraged by this project, am excited about the future of Saint Louis and am happy to back home!
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Categories: Introductions
Tagged: Aliah, board, busing, intro
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: board, charter, community, facilities, financials, update
