Tag Archives: inner-city families

Ballot Question 2 – What would “Ma” do?

October 13, 2016 admin

Yesterday: Rosalie and her smudged mirror

By Rosalie Tirella

What would “Ma” do?

That’s what I ask myself every time my “libby” (liberal) self is on the cusp of carrying away my more staid, practical, inner-city Green Island Grrrl self. My late Mom was way smarter than I am and more sensitive to others; she had an open heart and open mind at all times. But she was no push over. She knew how hard life could be – especially for poor folks – because her life was unremitting poverty. She made tough choices every day, yet she lived with such grace and wicked humor … Her life was outsized! Full! Her cup runneth over!

So I think of Ma when I think of Ballot Question 2: LIFTING THE CAP ON CHARTER SCHOOLS … MORE CHARTER SCHOOLS IN MASS. Up to 12.

At first, my liberal reaction: GAWD NO! For all the libby reasons. But then my mom and how she raised us kids in Green Island in the ’60s and ’70s surfaces…how she got the most out of Woo schools for her three girls – with no money, no connections, no car, not much of a clothing budget, no high school diploma (my mom completed the 8th grade and was promptly farmed out to Springfield, along with her three sisters, to be the Bishop of Springfield’s housekeeper/cook, during the Great Depression) but plenty of natural ability. Thanks to Ma, we kids got what we needed from the schools: for me, the Worcester Public Schools, K to 12. Ma knew I loved -LOVED!!! – to learn and that the best chance for her little whiz kid to excel was to keep her in the Worcester Public Schools with their smart, serious teachers, impressive science labs, serious sports equipment, big stately buildings (Prov) or spanking new digs (just built Burncoat), new text books, tons of homework and college-oriented goals. I was expected to – cuz I was smart – get straight As, take all honors classes at Providence Street Junior High and enroll in A.P./honors classes at Burncoat Senior High School. I did and Ma was over the moon! She also got a bit pushy – made me take accordion and violin lessons and pushed me to join the schools all city orchestra. I put my foot down: I was too shy for performing on stage and hated the old violin Ma rented for me out of some music store on Main Street where the piano teacher was deaf!, and I grew bored with my accordion, despite the sparkly rhinestones in some of its buttons and its cool iridescent mother of pearl front!

My two kid sisters attended Lamartine Street School until grade 4, then Mom transfered them to St. Mary’s, her alma mater, on Richland Street. My mom felt my kid sisters “wouldn’t make it” in the rough and tumble Worcester Public Schools where kids often fought in the school yard and a few, I remember my pal showed me hers!, even carried knives. St. Mary’s, the little school for Polish kids and families, was much tamer (and to me sooo BORING): small, intimate and safe. Students had to wear conservative looking school uniforms, go to mass at least once a week at the mother church across the street on Ward Street – Our Lady of Czetchowa – and kow tow to nuns who taught most of the classes and brooked no bull shit. The nuns could be sadistic – they were allowed to pull kids up out of their chairs by their ears! The first grade and seond grade nun/teachers were young and sweet and round faced (I went to St. Mary’s catechism class every Monday eve so I knew my sisters’ teachers), but things progressed badly as you went up in grades. In your 10th grade biology class you could see the hair growing out of your nun’s nostrils! The nuns at the high school weren’t sweet and they certainly weren’t pretty.

I could also tell my sisters’ St. Mary’s school books weren’t as up to date or challenging as mine, their homework was easier and they had much less of it. But St. Mary’s was way less rough than Lamartine and “Prov.” Everyone was kind of the same. My sisters, twins, awefully skinny, kinda shy and didn’t crush the books the way I could, were happy at St. M’s. They weren’t beaten up anymore. They had fun. They had friends. They liked their classes – and the penguins aka nuns! Ma knew my public school honors classes would be tough for them – no matter how hard Ma tried to help them with homework – and Ma did sit with us and struggle through our projects with us! But she was ok with less excellence because my sisters didn’t crave it like I did. Sure, I was bullied at Lamartine and Prov cuz I was a straight A brainy nearsighted bookworm, and Ma knew it. But I was so crazy about my schools, my teachers, the competitiveness of my fellow smarties and the friendship of my good gal pals that I stuck it all out. And Ma loved her chubby little shining star!

My mom knew she had to make school work for my kid sisters who wouldn’t thrive in public schools. She was too poor to pay for a private Catholic school, but she, like her Mom before her, was a parishoner of Our Lady of Czetchowa and worked a special deal with the church for its St. Mary’s school: free tuition up to graduation from high school (St Mary’s went K to 12), free everything for her two girls (except uniforms). Why? Because Ma was a parishoner who was a single mom who worked 60 hours a week at the dry cleaners for minimum wage and was killing herself to pay the bills and provide a good life for her girls and Polish immigrant mother (“Bapy”) who lived with the family on Lafayette Street. And she and her girls walked to church to attend mass every Sunday morning and on every Holy Day of obligation – of which there are a multitude, if you’re an old school Catholic. Which my mom was.

We were a well deserving church “charity case.”

Fast forward to 2016. St. Mary’s school doesn’t offer the same deal to my mom cuz the pastor is an ASSHOLE. I’ve written about him in this space… you all know the straight dope.

So…What would Ma do for my two kid sisters today? How would she educate two fragile little inner city gals today?

SEND THEM TO A CHARTER SCHOOL.

WORK IT SO THAT HER TWO GIRLS COULD ATTEND A CHARTER SCHOOL – the perfect place for them to learn!

Today Worcester’s charter schools offer a CHOICE to parents like my mom. Parents who don’t often have a lot of choices in their lives and are DOING THEIR BEST AND WANT THE BEST FOR THEIR KIDS. They can’t afford chi chi private schools, they may not be able to drive their kids to another town’s safer, (better???) schools. They may feel, like my mom did, that their kids can’t thrive in a sometimes chaotic public school setting and that they may need smaller and intimate classroom settings. They may feel their kids need to go to school with kids who don’t pose huge discipline problems. School uniforms may help parents save money – I know that was the case for my mom. And while the school’s curriculum or teachers may not be inspiring, they are solid – their kids will graduate knowing how to read and write and do arithmetic. They’ll have a grasp of the basics and can go on from there.

If my mom had boys she would be checking out the Nativity School in the old Girls Club Lincoln House building.

She’d be intrigued by the WPS school President Obama visited a few years ago: Worcester Technical High School. For awhile, as a kid, my mother attended the WPS’s Girls Trade School. Something for which she was always grateful and proud.

Ma would look for the best schools that fit her kids in the best possible way – taking into account a lot more than academics. And because she’d be poor the school choices had to be free. The Worcester Public Schools did well by my immigrant Polish and Italian family: two doctors, a few school teachers, a nurse, a nursing home administrator, an accountant, a lawyer…many of us the first in the family to go to college. Many living the American Dream! There’s even a Hollywood set painter … and a feisty editor of a feisty inner-city community newspaper!

Ma would vote YES ON QUESTION 2.

So will I.

Fashion

WPS students – always in style! … AFTER 15 YEARS THE MISSION IS THE SAME … THE HOME AND SCHOOL WORKING TOGETHER

August 8, 2016 admin

WPS inner-city students and families … ASPIRE!! pic:R.T.

By John Monfredo, Worcester School Committee

Congratulations is sent out to InCity Times‘ editor and publisher Rosalie Tirella on their 15th anniversary. The newspaper continues to be an alternative newspaper, with a goal to support those individuals most in need in our community.

One may not always agree with editor “Rose” (including me), but the idea of supporting, giving advice and advocating to those in need is a good concept. Rosalie grew up in the Green Island area of the city and knows the hardships that individuals experience – she has been a strong supporter of our inner-city parents.

As a matter of fact, at the age of 21, my first teaching assignment was at Lamartine Street School, and that’s where I first met Rosalie and her lovely mother. Rosalie was in my 5th grade class!

Since those early days, I have continued to reach out to our inner city parents with ideas and advice that hopefully make a difference in the lives of their children. I did it as a teacher, as the principal of Belmont Community School, and when I retired I still wanted to make a difference. That’s why I ran for Worcester School Committee.

Believing that a parent is a child’s first and most influential teacher – every school needs to have as its highest priority parent involvement within the schools.

You don’t need to be a researcher to know that family involvement can make a positive difference in school attendance, student behavior and academic achievement. What is needed is for schools to develop and ensure that parent involvement is embraced and not just given lip service. All schools need to welcome family members to their school. If schools don’t, the lack of positive interaction will stifle family-school connections.

Here are just a few suggestions for all schools:

Place positive signs on the schools entrance doors welcoming parents to the school.

Invite family members to eat lunch with their children. I can tell you that it works because I did it at Belmont Community School. We don’t have to feed the parents – they can bring in a lunch and spend time with their child. How about having lunch with parents on the first Friday of every month?!

Invite family members to attend workshops on important concepts that are taught to their children on a regular schedule. Inviting parents into the school for a special workshop does work! It serves as a way for the parents to assist their child at home.

Have staff and the principal make phone calls to invite families to participate in special events, meetings or other activities. Here in Worcester we have the Connect Ed. system where the school can invite parents to special events via the telephone.

Let’s go a step further and call parents with good news! It could be if a child had success on a test or just had a great day in school. Let me tell you it works! I did it for over 20 years at Belmont! Parents loved hearing good news and were more receptive in coming to school because of the call. Let’s start with that one positive telephone call.

Be sure that language translation is available in the office and for conferences and other contacts with parents.

Have workshops on reading and math. All families want to help their children, but many parents may not know how and that’s why the schools must reach out to our inner-city parents.

Have a family center stocked with learning materials that families can take home. Such a center would be a welcome addition for the schools . A Family Center should be part of each school – a special place in school where family members can meet, plan and implement programs.

In essence, schools must create a culture of wanting parents to be involved by modeling their beliefs, in both words and deeds, to the entire school community.

When families of all backgrounds are engaged in their children’s learning, their children tend to do better in school, stay in school and pursue higher education. Clearly, children at risk of failure or poor performance can profit from the extra support that engaged families and communities provide.
Remember, the research is clear: When parents play a positive role in their children’s education, students tend to do better in school. That all important teacher and parent PARTNERSHIP must be part of every school!

Good luck, InCity Times, on your 15th birthday and for the next 15 years! Continue your mission of involving inner-city parents in the learning process!

Fashion

I was in Piedmont earlier today, at Family Health Center …

July 28, 2016 admin

I love my docs on Queen Street! -Rosalie Tirella

Check out their neighborhood health fair!

Annual Neighborhood Health Fair

August 12

Family Health Center of Worcester, Inc. welcomes you to join us for our annual Neighborhood Health Fair on Friday, August 12

At 26 Queen St.

11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Our health fair theme, “One Big Happy Family,” celebrates the global family located right here in our community. We hope you can join for this exciting, fun, family-oriented event that will rejoice in the vibrancy of our diverse city!

The Neighborhood Health Fair is an outdoor event held at 26 Queen St. which promotes health, fitness and fun!

Family Health Center staff will offer health screenings and insurance enrollment assistance to interested community members!

There will be food, music, games, balloons, face painting and much more!

BE THERE!!!!

InCity Yum Yums

Yummy! Back when ice skating was FREE FOR ALL in Worcester!

February 16, 2016 admin

The Worcester Historical Museum

30 Elm St., Worcester

for more information, visit www.worcesterhistory.org

A GREAT PLACE TO TAKE THE KIDS DURING SCHOOL VACATION WEEK!

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From the Worcester Historical Museum:

Ice skating comes to Worcester!

Main South’s University Park, circa 1920

When a wave of enthusiasm for group sports swept America in late 1850s, ice skating became instantly popular.

It was the first recreational activity for both men and women to be promoted commercially and civically, and it was accessible to a broad sector of the population.

The [Worcester] Commission of Public Grounds began allocating funds for preparing lakes and parks to support this “exhilarating and healthy exercise” and also hosted skating parties.

The exhilarating pastime was made possible from December 20th to February 15th, at Worcester’s Elm, Green Hill, North, University, East, Crompton and Greenwood parks, by removing the snow with horses and large scrapers.

Elm Park, 1912

The surfaces were kept in a smooth condition by using an ice planer throughout the day and sprinkling with water after 9 o’clock pm.

It is a conservative estimate that 108,000 availed themselves of this pleasure. – John H. Hemingway, Report of the Park Commissioners, 1908

Skating parties!

Worcester and surrounding towns hosted many skating parties attended by thousands.

Newspapers announced dates, times, train schedules, and ticket prices.

Train ticket prices varied depending on location, but averaged between 15 and 25 cents round trip.

Extra trains ran as needed.

Crowds included people from all ranks and races.

Skating at Vernon Hill park, circa 1920

Two trains, numbering twenty one cars were required to convey the party … again was the pleasant sight of all classes, occupations, and colors, uniting heartily in a common recreation.
Daily Spy, February 13, 1858

The skaters had a merry time last night on Salisbury Pond, both sexes were largely represented there. If there had only been a moon, those present wouldn’t have complained if the thermometer had gone from 14 degrees down to zero.
– Daily Spy, December 14, 1859

Worcester businesses noticed the extreme popularity of ice skating and soon tried to capitalize.

Winslow ad, 1877

Samuel E. Winslow Ice Skating Company To test the market.

Worcester residents and brothers Seth and Samuel Winslow made 25 pairs of skates as a sideline to their machine jobbing business in 1857. They sold 19.

The next year they sold 2,500 pairs!

After Seth died in 1871, Samuel bought his interests, moved from the Merrifield Building to a new factory on Mulberry Street, added roller skates to the line, and expanded sales to Europe and India.

He incorporated as Samuel Winslow Skate Manufacturing Company in 1886.

By 1889, its 200 employees turned out 1,200 pairs of skates daily — 40 styles of ice skates and 15 styles of roller skates ranging in price from 15 cents to $10.

In 1894, Samuel’s son, “Colonel” Samuel Winslow, took over. At the onset of the Great Depression, but Matthew Manufacturing Company bought it and continued production until 1959.

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LET’S EMBRACE ALL CLASSES AND RACES, WORCESTER! IT’S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN BECOME GREAT AGAIN!

FREE THE WORCESTER COMMON ICE OVAL!
– R.T.

InCity Feature, InCity Voices

South Worcester: box gardening!

August 10, 2015 admin

Executive Director Ron Charette at the neighborhood garden beds. 50 Worcester inner-city families have their own big box gardens or beds like this one! Go, South Worcester, go!!!!!

By Ron O’Clair

I had an opportunity to visit recently with Ron Charette of the South Worcester Neighborhood Center at 47 Camp Street to see what they have been doing with the families in the area in regards to providing a place for them to grow their own food.

There are 50 Box Gardens and 10 Garden Beds set out in the far right corner of the property. which once was devoted to a City of Worcester Swimming Pool that was a memory of my own youth growing up around the Four Corners when I lived on Princeton Street and would go to what we referred to as: Maloney’s Field to swim, play in the grass, and just have a good time. Back then, the City of Worcester maintained a number of pools throughout the city for the residents to enjoy on the hot summer days of my youth. Now, there does not seem to be enough money in the budget to provide pools for the neighborhoods like back then.

Big, healthy veggies in South Worcester box gardens!

Anyways, the earth that is being used to grow the vegetables outside the neighborhood center is actually composted from yard wastes that city residents drop off at the City of Worcester drop sites on Chandler Street, across from Foley Stadium, the old Ballard Street incinerator that is now on Millbury Street with the change in the street names that coincided with the Rt. 146 project, and I believe out on Clark Street.

City residents can drop off their yard wastes, provided it is not full of trash, and is in paper bags, no plastic allowed.
The WorcesterMa.gov website gives the details of where and when they allow you to bring your material for recycling.

The gardens are a collaborative effort of the South Worcester Neighborhood Center, Nuestro Huerto, and the City of Worcester Department of Public Works & Parks to provide area residents a place to learn how to produce their own food. There are 50 families who have box gardens and come to tend to the task of making things grow. It is a rewarding experience for all, especially the young who learn that food just does not magically appear on supermarket shelves.

Poor families learn how to grow their own food. So healthy for the kids – and a great learning experience for them, too!

Executive Director Ron Charette refers to it as a “partnership for the future” that will bring awareness to many about how they can help provide for their family through efforts such as this. Many of these urban gardeners would not have a place to use to grow their own food without this program being in place. Many of the families come from various parts of the world: there are African, Asian and Latino families, as well as just about every type of family there is here in the great melting pot that is Worcester.

There are many different varieties and types of vegetables being grown, each according to the taste of the participant.

In the South Worcester gardens I saw many different varieties of lettuce. There were items that grow on vines, like cucumbers, squash. pumpkins and zucchini, as well as corn, beans and peas of many different varieties. Someone who likes eggplant is growing them as well.

This is basically for the children, who learn as well as have fun growing the food stuffs that eventually they will be be able to enjoy when harvest time comes.

All of the people involved in this project deserve recognition for all they do to make it possible: Ron Charette and the South Worcester Neighborhood Center, Nuestro Huerto – which also has other spots in the city under cultivation like the spot on Oread Street – and the City of Worcester Public Works & Parks Department which provides the compost to grow the vegetables in, and all the people of the city who contribute to the recycling program that produces the compost through participation in the yard waste recycling program.

It seems like a win/win situation all around!

If you care to comment, you may contact the author at: ronaldoclair@hotmail.com

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog

Hooray for our Piedmont kids!!!!!!!

April 30, 2015 admin

This winter we asked for a play scape to be built on the empty, ugly cement lot of a school yard behind Chandler Elementary School, on Chandler Street, in Piedmont. Piedmont is as urban as our Worcester neighborhoods come. The neighborhood kids who attend Chandler are poor, cut off from so many experiences and opportunities our West Side kids take for granted. LIKE TREES, FLOWERS, GREEN SPACE, HUGE BACKYARDS, PLACES TO RUN AND PLAY AND FEEL FREE AND SAFE! Just look at their school yard (below – I took the pic this past winter)!!!

Well, I wrote about it, and we got results: Brandy new slides, soft mulch, repaved school yard … .

Hopefully, this is just the beginning, and we’ll see some additions: A few benches around that play scape for parents so they can chat together while watching their kids play, flower beds for the kids so they can see something beautiful grow day by day (like them!), another slide or two because there are a ton of children in the neighborhood, and a basketball hoop or two for the teens. Maybe a picnic table or two so people can enjoy meals and snacks outdoors – so many Piedmont families live in three deckers with crappy/no yards and don’t have the $$ to buy a cool, old fashioned, stained, wooden picnic table of their own. I love a cool, old fashioned, stained, wooden picnic table! Don’t you?

It’s a really big school yard! All of the above can fit into that space!!

BUT FOR TODAY: I say, THANK YOU, Worcester Mayor Joe Petty and Worcester School Committee member Brian O’Connell for caring about our littlest citizens! Making it happen for Piedmont kids this spring was the cool and COMPASSIONATE thing to do!

– Rosalie Tirella

InCity Voices

Massachusetts Farm to School Conference at Holy Cross college! BE THERE!

December 15, 2014 admin

Today is the last day to register at the early bird rate!

Join over 300 other enthusiastic farm to cafeteria advocates from the preschool, K-12, and college sectors for a full day of workshops, networking, cooking demonstrations, and fun.

We will have over 20 different workshops including:

Farm to School Policy and Advocacy

Funding Farm to School Programs

On Campus Farming

Farm to Preschool 101

Farm Based Education Initiatives – Urban and Rural Farm Field Trips

Sea to School: Incorporating Local Seafood in School Meals

The conference will also include Farm to Cafeteria Regional Networking Sessions so that you can connect with others in your community who are involved in farm to cafeteria activities. Learn from their best practices, share your own tips, and move forward together!

We will be holding a concurrent Buyer Tradeshow and Networking Session for Farmers and Distributors. This will be a great opportunity to make direct connections with farmers from your region and discuss local sourcing with distributors.

REGISTER HERE to secure your spot! Discounts are available for students and conference presenters.

We expect the conference to attract over 300 individuals from a variety of fields including school and college dining services, farmers, non-profit organization staff, state agency representatives, legislators, school educators and administrators.

Massachusetts Farm to School

34 Main Street, Suite 10

Amherst, MA 01002

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And …

DONATE TODAY!

December 2014

Dear friends:

Nearly 365,000 Massachusetts schoolchildren rely on school meals for more than half of their daily calories.

Serving children healthy food that they like to eat is a simple and effective way to protect them from hunger, ward off health risks, and help them to do better in school, but all too often kids are denied the critical benefits that daily access to fresh fruit and vegetables can provide.

These same children often have limited exposure to where real food comes from, a connection that we know plays an important role in developing healthy eating habits.

That’s why Massachusetts Farm to School introduces school children across Massachusetts to local fruits and vegetables, and to the farmers who grow them.

Through this program, schoolchildren regularly enjoy fresh Massachusetts vegetables, fruits and dairy products as part of their school lunch.

Our approach is hands-on, personal and effective:

We connect school districts with farmers who provide affordably-priced local food;

We provide cafeteria cooks with healthy recipes that are easy to prepare and kid-tested;

Students are introduced to a wide range of local fruits and vegetables; and

New, life-long healthy eating habits are instilled.

Visits from Massachusetts farmers and special field trips to local farms spark curiosity, and can be transformative for those children who rarely see anything green and growing in their neighborhood.

Massachusetts Farm to School is already very successful, but the number of students who benefit is still small. Hundreds of thousands of children across the Commonwealth still need our help.

Your generous tax deductible gift can help Massachusetts Farm to School ensure that every child in our state has access to the fresh and healthy food they need to grow and thrive.

DONATE HERE!

Sincerely,

The Mass. Farm to School Team

P.S. Your support today will help students across the Commonwealth to have access to a well-balanced school lunch every day this school year – giving a chance for a brighter future.

Massachusetts Farm to School

34 Main Street, Suite 10

Amherst, MA 01002

Worcester's Alternative Newspaper