Was President Obama’s expression of support for same-sex marriage a profile in courage on civil rights or a wrongheaded view on a highly politicized, fundamentally religious issue?

Not surprisingly, the reaction to the president’s statement Wednesday  depends largely on the prism through which people have viewed the issue since it began.

For Helen Hull Hitchcock, president of the group Women for Faith and Family, Obama’s interview was a disappointing stance on a “seriously divisive issue.” She knows that some people describe it as a civil rights question, but she doesn’t see it that way.

On May 2, 2012 a group of interested community members, many of them Public Insight Network sources, gathered at Nine Network of Public Media for a conversation on educational issues. It was a rich and vibrant discussion about the factors that affect our students today and can influence some of them to drop out of school.

Click on the video below and listen to part of the conversation. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. We are really interested in your feedback.

If you live in Missouri, Illinois, or any neighboring states, your chances are pretty good for coming under a tornado watch or warning, or even the real thing. This week, the National Weather service confirmed 59 tornadoes over the previous weekend, striking Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Missouri and Illinois came out unscathed — this time. But that wasn’t the case seven weeks earlier, when a tornado blew through Harrisburg, Ill., and left seven people dead, or Joplin, Mo., where a terrible twister killed 161 people last May.

In parts of north St. Louis County — including Berkley and Lambert St. Louis International Airport — and the Sunset Hills area in south county, repairs are finally complete, or nearly so, after tornadoes hit those areas over holiday weekends. The north county storm hit last year on Good Friday, which fell on April 22. The south county storm struck on Dec. 31, 2010. However, on Lewis Place, a tiny street in north St. Louis that was also hit by that New Year’s Eve tornado, recovery efforts continue.

According to the National Weather Service, “Most tornadoes occur in the deep south and in the broad, flat basin between the Rockies and the Appalachians, but no state is immune. Peak months of tornado activity … are usually April, May and June. However, tornadoes have occurred in every month and at all times of the day or night.”

The statement on the weather service’s website warns: “Remember, tornadoes can occur at any time. The time for planning is now.”

The Beacon, using the Public Insight Network, asked readers to share how they prepare for storms, and how they respond when they learn that inclement weather may be heading their way.  Those who responded all said they pay close attention to radio or television reports when they hear a storm warning. They keep flashlights and extra batteries handy, and in most cases, they head to a safe place in their homes.

Elizabeth Campbell of Bellefontaine Neighbors has worked as a volunteer with the Community Emergency Response Team in helping people recover from storm damage.

“Usually, I check the weather alert radio and check the sky, west of the house,” she wrote. “The Good Friday storm in St. Louis came my way. I was a half block away.” Her house had minor damage.

“I was lucky,” she wrote.  She had to replace her roof, and the repairs are now complete.

Campbell wrote that she believes special alarms should be required in businesses and factories. “You can’t hear anything except the factory machines. Rarely do we hear thunder during a storm. We would never know,” a tornado was approaching, she wrote.

“As a CERT member in Ferguson, we train year round and refresh our skills. CERT programs should be more frequently used and promoted. … More people should participate and we would all be safer. And all students in junior high and up should train in these things. Society needs to wake up and participate and be prepared.”

Tasha Burton of Ferguson wrote: “The Good Friday storm only affected us with a power outage, however, just a block away, businesses and homes were damaged.”

Burton wrote that since the storms of last year, she takes the warnings more seriously.

“Before the Good Friday storm, when we would hear the siren one time, we usually didn’t go to a safe place in the home. We kept a close watch on the TV. If the siren sounded again, we would go to the basement. After the Good Friday storm, after hearing the siren once, we now go to the basement. During the Good Friday storm, we eventually moved into an interior bathroom space located in our basement. The sirens wouldn’t stop and my dog — usually a telltale sign of bad weather — was very anxious. He was panting and would not keep still. We have a weather radio, flashlights, cell phones and more that we take with us.”

Ellen Reed of University City wrote that she always pays close attention to the weather, and is usually aware of potential danger, even before storm warnings sound.

“I always respond. I have a weather radio, lots of water in various places throughout my house, and I keep a backpack with emergency gear in case I have to flee with my animals. If I am in the basement because a storm is imminent, I take my keys, purse, animals, leashes, blanket, water, a small bag of animal food and meds — they go in the backpack when we are in a bad storm period.

“In 2011, I watched the weather constantly and released staff when the weather was really dangerous. I also unplug my electronics, take my laptop to the basement with me and run it on battery to track radar. I am a complete and total disaster nerd,” she wrote.

Reed suggested that businesses “partner with the Red Cross and emergency management to do neighborhood-wide preparedness planning at neighborhood churches and community centers, starting with our most vulnerable neighborhoods — those most at risk of building collapse and no-insurance for emergency repairs. Planning at the neighborhood/family level should include designation and promotion/publication of emergency shelters.”

This report appeared first in the St. Louis Beacon on April 20, 2012.

In this year’s Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession 2012, a collaborate publication by Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, more than 10,000 teachers were asked about their schools and classrooms; student and teacher performance and the way in which they should be evaluated, supported and rewarded. The teachers shared their honest, professional opinions on many subjects ranging from teacher tenure, family involvement, job satisfaction and salaries.

As a former teacher for many years, I found a few of the results just what I expected! Take a minute to read the two that stood out for me and let me know what you think in the comment section below the blog.

• When teachers were asked what was the most important factors in retaining good teachers they were very clear about the need for school-wide systems supporting their teaching including supportive school leaders, engaged parents, help for students with learning or behavioral problems and quality curriculum. In fact, the teachers say these same items would improve student academic achievement indicating that family, school leadership and curriculum are critical to the mission of today’s schools.

• Not surprisingly, teachers who are very satisfied with their careers are more likely to be engaged in all aspects of their students’ lives.

• Primary Source is the beginning of an ongoing dialogue with America’s Teachers. To read the whole report and give your thoughts on the report go to www.scholastic.com/primarysources.

Think fast — who spoke at your college graduation ceremony?

If you’re like many graduates, old or young, you have no idea. Neither does Mike Peters, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist who has been chosen to address commencement next month at Washington University, where he graduated in 1965.

Does that blank spot in his memory put more pressure on Peters to make his speech something the graduates will cherish over time? Or does it bring less pressure, knowing that no matter what wisdom he has to share, the newly minted alumni aren’t likely to take much notice?

Peters considered the question for a second, then laughed.

“I have given commencement addresses before,” he said in a telephone interview, “but surely not to my school. What a cool thing. I love the fact that I’m giving it to Washington U. I love Washington U.”

“I’m just going to do the best I can. I’m very proud that the chancellor and the trustees have given me this opportunity, and I am just blessed to be able to do this.”

The announcement of Peters’ selection was not a big hit with everyone. Student Life, the Washington U. student newspaper that he drew cartoons for when he was enrolled back in the 1960s, even had an editorial titled “Give Mike Peters a Chance” that included this reasoning:

“He’s no Conan O’Brien, President Barack Obama or Bono, as many of the Class of 2012 may have hoped for. But Peters is a unique, interesting and extremely relevant choice for commencement speaker….

“Although his name isn’t instantly recognizable, he has the potential to give a comical, inspiring, and most importantly, memorable speech to the graduating class of 2012.”

It went on to compare Peters to recent Washington U. graduation speakers, including Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who addressed the ceremony last year. The editorial called Wiesel “the big name that many in the community had been hoping for.”

Other recent speakers, including Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews, were described in less enthusiastic tones.

Making the choice

The selection of Peters was part of a yearlong process that starts with a committee of the university’s board of trustees and includes students, faculty and staff. Anyone from the committee — or the community at large — can nominate a potential speaker, said Rob Wild, assistant to Chancellor Mark Wrighton.

From there, it’s a matter of sifting through the names, finding out who may be available and coming up with a short list for the chancellor to consider — enough so that if the first choice says no, backups are available.

“I wouldn’t call it a ranked list,” Wild said, “but the chancellor knows who the priorities are.”

The speaker is also awarded an honorary degree, so that consideration fits into the mix.

“It’s a big day,” Wild said. “But I don’t think the university goes into this wanting the commencement speaker to be the thing that people remember from the day. It’s a day of celebration, of being with family and friends and celebrating the accomplishments of our students.

“If you look at the list of speakers, you can see the kind of back and forth that we go through — a big name speaker, chancellors, political figures. I don’t remember the last time we had an alum speak, but having someone who graduated from the institution, especially someone who is accomplished like Mike Peters, and someone who knows our community very well, is a dimension we have this year that we may not have had in the past.”

Other schools, other methods

Unlike Washington U., which combines the commencement from all of its schools into one ceremony on its Brookings Quadrangle, larger state schools often host separate ceremonies for each of their colleges.

The School of Journalism at Mizzou, for example, holds its own ceremony that always features speakers who have graduated from the school. Suzette Heiman, director of planning and communication for the J school, said the school tries to have a variety of speakers who represent the different areas of concentration, such as radio and TV, print, magazine, advertising and others.

“We’re looking for somebody who we feel will have something to share with the students,” Heiman said. “The graduation ceremony is all about the graduates.”

Recent speakers include CBS correspondent Bill Geist, Ken Paulson, who is head of the First Amendment Center, and advertising executive Joyce King Thomas, who created the MasterCard “Priceless” campaign.

More important than the name, she said, is the message.

“They speak on topics that they think are important,” Heiman said. “Many of the graduates will say they don’t remember who their graduation speaker was, but they remember something that was said.”

This year’s speaker will be Cindy Brinkley, a 1991 journalism grad who is the vice president for global human resources at General Motors.

At Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Elizabeth Keserauskis, assistant vice chancellor for university relations, marketing and communications, said that commencement ceremonies are conducted by schools because the university doesn’t have a facility large enough for all the graduates.

Faculty committees want to recognize people for distinguished service and excellence, she said, not necessarily someone whose name is instantly recognizable.

“We’re not looking for that one marquee speaker that is going to attract a lot of attention,” Keserauskis said.

“What we’re doing for the awards is looking to recognize members of the community, whether they are current faculty or citizens or alumni, who have contributed to the university in various ways. When it comes time to help them prepare speech topics, we make it clear it is a speech they are giving to graduates as they begin their next step. So it’s a twofold process.”

SIUE speakers this spring will be Fernando Aguirre, a 1980 business graduate who is chairman and CEO of Chiquita Brands International, and Paige St. John, a 1986 mass communications grad who won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Overall, she said, the process is fairly low-key.

“It’s pretty safe, with no controversy — not nearly what you’ve seen at other institutions.”

That kind of controversy can take many forms. In 2008, for example, when Phyllis Schlafly received an honorary degree from Washington University — though she was not the commencement speaker – many graduates, along with family members and even professors on the stage — stood and turned their back as her citation was read.

More recently, Fontbonne University had to withdraw its invitation for Greg Mortenson to be its graduation speaker last spring after “60 Minutes” raised questions about the truthfulness of his book “Three Cups of Tea.”

Remembrance of speeches past

Maybe allowing Mortenson to speak would have given graduates and their families a better shot of remembering who gave the commencement address as other memories faded.

Wild, at Washington U., said he remembers who spoke at his 1993 graduation from the university — Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden — but he admits he is more sensitized to such event than others may be.

On a personal note, the speaker at this reporter’s graduation ceremony from Washington University in 1971 was Thomas H. Eliot, who also was leaving campus after serving as chancellor since 1962 — a turbulent time that included sit-ins and the burning of the campus’ ROTC building.

Peters, who is the son of the late, local entertainer Charlotte Peters, chronicled part of that era with his cartoons in Student Life , recalled Eliot as an occasional antagonist who first gave him a sense of the influence his kind of drawings could have.

“I was doing cartoons about him,” he said. “He would write me letters. That was when I first understood about the power of being a cartoonist, about being in the paper. How cool is that, where you can have conversations with the top guy, and they tell you no, you’re seeing that all wrong?”

As they begin to crawl out of the recession, local art gallery owners are getting creative not only in their exhibits but with their business plans.

Two — who hold opposing views about whether a street side presence even matters — are moving. A third is selling his building to support African-American artists. A group of 16 is finding fiscal strength in numbers as it enjoys year eight of a cooperative venture.

Philip Slein, whose namesake gallery has operated in two different Washington Avenue addresses since 2003, is relocating to the Central West End. He’ll open his next show May 18 in the building where William Shearburn ran his art gallery for 20 years on McPherson near Euclid. Shearburn sold the building to LS Investments, which is leasing the space to Slein.

Slein will continue to live on Washington Avenue, and praises the area as an entertainment district. But in recent years, he’s seen the departure of Ellen Curlee and Third Floor galleries, leaving his the only such business in the area.

Moving to the Central West End location puts him near high-end homes and Chase residents as well as Duane Reed and Atrium art galleries, several antique dealers, numerous restaurants and Left Bank Books. This collection makes it a desirable spot for strolling arts patrons, according to Slein.

“There’s no other block or area that offers art and antique furniture retail like Euclid and McPherson. It’s unique to St. Louis,” Slein said.

A new gallery model?

Jim Schmidt, who left his Schmidt Contemporary Art space in Grand Center last year, will consult and curate for Slein. Temporarily moving into Schmidt’s old North Grand space is William Shearburn, until he finalizes a lease on another spot in the same area.

While Shearburn will maintain a storefront location, he depends much more on ongoing relationships and wider exposure to create sales. Relying on passersby to purchase art is an outdated model for galleries, he said.

“The way the business works today is I have two internet sites and I go to art fairs,” Shearburn said. “The idea that someone would walk in off the street and be remotely interested in what I do is crazy.”

Slein agreed that both fairs and internet sales are important. But he still believes strongly in accessible galleries, which function as incubators for new collectors and artists.

“They are places for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. The physical gallery space is very much alive and will continue to thrive long into the future,” Slein said.

Grand Center’s Bruno David, whose gallery also bears his name, tries to make his Washington Avenue location an open, welcoming space. He bemoans the reputation of galleries as culturally elite, and considers them magical places offering unique opportunities.

“Entering a gallery or museum is like entering into a book, reading a story from the inside. There is no experience like that anywhere else,” David said in an online questionnaire.

Boosting minority artists

Like Shearburn, Robert Powell is selling the building that houses his gallery, located on Delmar behind Powell Hall. Powell is asking $850,000 for the Portfolio Gallery and Education Center building, which has been on the market for a year and a half. His plan is to earmark $200,000 of the proceeds as seed money for African-American artists and arts organizations.

Powell

To demonstrate the need for more support for black creatives, Powell is known to ask the question: “Can you name five nationally known African-American artists, living or dead?” Few can, he said.

Powell said his new funding organization would hold black-tie events for the purpose of selling art. That money would be distributed among local visual and other artists and places like the Griot Museum of Black History and Culture and Harambee Institute, which fosters social and personal development through African-focused cultural activities.

St. Louis has numerous world-class cultural institutions, Powell noted, but a well-funded African-American organization is lacking.

“People seem to give you the economy as a reason but it’s really all about who wants to support you,” Powell said. “I’ve met a lot of people in my life and have not asked them for anything. But I’m going to start asking them for support, and if their hearts are in the right place, maybe they will help us.”

Powell compared his prospective organization to the privately funded Arts and Education Council, which has raised nearly $100 million for arts institutions in the bi-state area since 1963. Susan Rowe Jennings, the council’s vice president of administration and grants, encourages Powell as he strives to create a source of funding specifically for African-American efforts.

“The more support these artists and groups can get, the better St. Louis will be as a community,” Rowe Jennings said.

Sixteen heads better than one?

Seven years ago, a collection of local artists who weren’t accepted into the St. Louis Art Fair in Clayton decided if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.

One of the group, whose day job is commercial real estate, found an empty storefront in the middle of the art fair site and contacted the landlord. The artists worked a deal to rent the space for six days wrapping around the fair weekend.

Wells

The landlord was so happy with the situation, according to another artist Michel Wells, that he wanted to continue the arrangement. Thus, the Gateway Gallery was born. Today, the 16 gallery co-owners share the rent and other expenses.

“I probably would never have been part of a gallery if we hadn’t already been in there and said, ‘OK, let’s try it,’” Wells said.

Recently, Gateway Gallery moved to a new location, two blocks away. It might seem a daunting challenge to get 16 people to agree on issues ranging from the new space to what color to paint the gallery walls, but Wells said there have been few disputes. Everything is decided by a majority, in regular meetings run in accordance with Roberts Rules of Order.

Wells sells about 20 of her watercolors and pastels every year, more than enough to cover her gallery expenses but hardly enough to pay for her time. She’s glad her full-time job as an electrician pays the bills, and that she doesn’t have to worry that sales of her art have slowed during the economic downturn.

“It’s just too hard to try to make a living at what I would call a hobby,” Wells said.

David

Full-time gallery owner and manager Bruno David acknowledged the harsh realities of the business of art. The recession that began in 2008 has been “terrible,” forcing David to cut back on many expenses to keep the doors open. But 2011 was a little better and 2012 is looking up even more.

Slein’s sales have also improved in the past few quarters.

“Things aren’t back to how they were, pre-recession,” Slein said. “But I’m definitely seeing a positive trend and we’re hoping this trend has legs and the  worst is behind us.

School choice is a hot topic in education today, but as lawyers for all sides in the St. Louis school transfer case prepare their final arguments, they are faced with a range of choices that are difficult if not impossible to reconcile.

Over three days this week, in the court of St. Louis County Circuit Judge David Lee Vincent III, attorneys for the St. Louis and Clayton school districts as well as taxpayers in those districts, the state of Missouri and plaintiff Gina Breitenfeld argued over how to implement a law that on its face seems clear:

Students who live in an unaccredited school district have the right to transfer to an adjacent district that is accredited, with their home district paying the tuition and transportation and the receiving district having no discretion about how many students it must accept.

The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the law in 2010 but sent the case back to Vincent’s court for a trial on how it should be implemented. Here are the pieces of the puzzle he will have to try to put together:

• If thousands of students transfer from the city to accredited suburban schools, as projected by a telephone survey, St. Louis Public Schools say they won’t have enough money to operate for the students left behind, and their progress toward regaining accreditation will stop.
• And if those thousands of students flock to just a few choice districts, like Clayton, those districts say they will be overwhelmed by the influx and unable to offer the quality of education that attracted the transfers in the first place.
• But if the law as written isn’t enforced, students living in St. Louis won’t have the choice to attend class in an accredited school district unless they pay for the privilege the state says they are entitled to for free.
• And the law would give transfer rights not just to students who now attend St. Louis Public Schools but all students who live in the city, even those who attend private or parochial schools, charter schools or county schools under the voluntary desegregation program, which does not include all county districts.

Planning, possibilities

Two of the words heard most often as the nine lawyers questioned expert witnesses were planning and possible.

How possible would it be for county districts to plan for a sudden spurt in enrollment without having the time to plan in advance? And how possible would it be for the city schools to educate the students who chose not to transfer if its budget were wiped out by transportation and tuition?

Much of the debate came back to a telephone survey, commissioned by the Clayton School District and conducted by Terry Jones of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, that concluded that more than 15,000 students would leave the city for accredited county districts — 3,500 of them going to Clayton, which now has only 2,500 students.

For the districts trying to limit the scope of transfers, those figures show how impossible it would be to provide education without having some discretion over the number of students accepted.

Asked whether it would be possible to use trailers, or split schedules, or year-round school as tools to handle a suddenly larger student population, St. Louis School Superintendent Kelvin Adams — who worked in New Orleans when that district had to recover from Hurricane Katrina — had a quick opinion of those solutions:

“I think they’re criminal. I think it would be segregation again…. It would not be the best educational environment.”

He also rejected comparisons to Joplin after it was devastated by a tornado last May.

But attorneys seeking to limit the scope of the remedy, concentrating not on the thousands of possible transfers but on the solution being sought only for Savanna and Elle Breitenfeld, continually cast doubt on the results of the telephone survey and tried to get incremental answers:

Could a district survive if it had many additional students, or if it lost this much money in transportation and tuition costs?

Elkin Kistner, lawyer for the Breitenfelds, dismissed the survey entirely, saying:

“I don’t believe in the Jones report. It’s unreliable.”

PIN responders weigh in

While planning and possibilities were common topics in the trial, notably absent was the plaintiff. Gina Breitenfeld observed the proceedings on Monday but did not return, and no students, parents or others who would be most directly affected were called to testify.

To provide an additional perspective, sources in the Public Insight Network responded with their views of the so-called Turner case and the remedies it provided. Here is what some of them have told the Beacon. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Amy WhiteStacy Washington

Amy White, teacher:

Inclusion of students from (St. Louis Public Schools) would enhance the diversity of student populations in Clayton and Webster Groves, benefiting all students. This is an issue of class. As long as Missouri does not have an effective formula for equitable distribution of funds to school districts, SLPS will have a difficult time improving.

Stacy Washington, member of Ladue School Board:

This solution makes absolutely no sense. Neighborhood schools with high parental involvement and engaged teachers create good schools. To burden already cash-strapped county districts with providing classroom space and adequate teaching staff for students that may or may not return year after year is lunacy. There are so many variables involved. Will the funding follow? Will the students be successful in a new environment where they begin the day after an hour-long commute? How about the community aspect? Children bond over after-school activities and playdates. How can a child participate in his new community if he is shuttled off by bus for an hour-long ride home to his neighborhood. How will the county districts fund the new buildings that will be required in order to maintain DESE mandated class size requirements? These are just a few of the problems that this “solution” presents the districts involved.

Of course the best solution is the one that no one wants to discuss. Choice. Any unaccredited district should immediately be dissolved and vouchers issued for each student. Private schools educate children for far less than the $16,000 a pupil expenditure currently wasted in the city schools. Of course everyone will scream about the Blaine amendment to the Missouri Constitution. This is an excellent time to place the repeal of that amendment on the ballot and allow the voters to decide in favor of school children.

Joseph Higgs

Joseph Higgs, teacher and father of five home-schooled children:

The St. Louis metropolitan area is already seen as a region, not just a collection of municipalities. Allowing a child from a failing school district to attend a neighboring and successful district is the most appropriate way to provide a quality education. As a region, one municipality cannot sit idly by and believe they will be immune to the educational failure of a nearby district.

Districts don’t fail overnight. The overall failure of a district to maintain the proper standard of education is a cultural problem. In the case of St. Louis, it appears that fashion has a much higher cultural value than education. The only way to force quality education in the city would be to bring in private, for-profit group to run the district.

The company would then be paid based on student performance, not attendance.

Mary Diboll, retired SLPS teacher:

The St. Louis Public Schools will continue to fail if the motivated parents continue to take their children out of the system. The money available to the system will be reduced, and the students who remain will be high needs students.

The system as it is presently constituted pits one district against another. The only real solution to the problem is creation of a consolidated district across the entire metropolitan area. I am not holding my breath waiting for that to happen, considering past history.

Julia DiSalvo, writer and editor:

It may serve as a temporary solution, but city students should not expect to receive a permanent education in county districts. It fails to address the lack of quality education in the city, and it overwhelms county schools, lowering the quality of education for everyone.

Peggy Kornfein, retired teacher:

In the short term, allowing students to attend other schools is a solution. However, with tight budgets and limited space, districts in the county should be allowed to limit the number of students accepted.

The ideal solution is to improve city schools. If the fix were an easy one, it would have been done years ago.

Bill Henske, teacher:

This is fair to the children who are not offered a quality education but it does not fix the problem and aggravates the other systems tasked with taking on additional students. Many of the surrounding districts have been one size for 75 years. There is no growth and no room for new schools in cities like Maplewood, Brentwood, Webster. Adding a large amount of students to these districts will lessen their quality and further aggravate the problems of city schools with bright flight.

The best way to improve quality is to work with winning schools. The are similar districts around the country and in the area with similar demographics, winning students back from private and charter schools with higher quality, developmentally responsive and forward thinking curricula. St. Louis has massive inertia. Break it apart into small, manageable units with more autonomy from the bureaucratic history and problems the greater district has. Without any other change – increase transparency of all aspects of a district and see what happens.

Erik Olsen, parent:

I am split on this issue. I feel that if a school district lost accreditation it needs help to get it back. However, once it had failed so much that the state has taken over, such as is the case with St Louis and Riverview Gardens, it should be acceptable for state funds to be spent to allow students to enroll in a district where they are able to learn.

This report appeared first in the St. Louis Beacon on March 8, 2012.

While I was combing through tweets today, I discovered on the Wyman Center site an encouraging post by a young woman, Simone Bernstein, introducing me to “Volunteen Nations”. It is a great website that helps young people find ways to volunteer and give back to their community.

I went to the site to see how it worked. I pretended to be 17 and filled out the “Find a Volunteer Match” and behold I found a half dozen places that needed youth volunteers in my interest area!  It is a colorful site with resources for teen volunteers, blogs, and information.

What a wonderful resource for teens that are looking for constructive and learning filled ways to fill their free time. They will be giving back, feeling good about themselves, and using their extra time for constructive purposes.

I think this is a great way to help teens stay in school and value education as they work along side adults who have purpose and meaning in their lives.

Take a look at the article Simone wrote and the Volunteen Nation website.  It really inspired my day – I am off to find an adult volunteer site!

Article link: http://t.co/V4iq7QWk

Volunteen Nation website:  Volunteen Nation.org

Patricia Von Zur Muehlen crosses plush carpet toward a kitchen, checking on the tea kettle and the man she works for as a live-in caregiver. In the back of the quiet apartment in the Central West End, she prepares a cup of Swee-Touch-Nee for him. It’s an orange pekoe, delivered in bulk from New Jersey, and it’s his favorite. When his tea is ready, she comes back up front and settles into a chair.

In March, Von Zur Muehlen turns 69. The man she cares for is in his 80s. Past an age when many retire, she’s still working.

But she loves this work, loves caring for people, and even though it’s not the career she set out for, she is, at least, doing one thing that she planned.

Seniors are, most commonly, considered to be anyone 65 and older. But demographers have recognized for a while now that not all seniors are created equal.

“At the very least, we have to think of people in terms of ‘young olds,’ ‘old olds’ and ‘oldest olds,’” says Tom Meuser, a clinical psychologist and director of the gerontology graduate program at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

Those categories break into decade slices. “Young olds” are 65-75, “old olds” are 75-85, and “oldest olds” are 85-95. That categorization allows for demographers, gerontologists and, in some case, public policy makers, to examine the needs of each group, which can be quite different. These categories reflect not just numbers, but also the different stages of aging, says Mark Tranel, director of the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri St. Louis.

While issues related to health and mobility can happen at any time, in general, he says, “young olds” might still be working, they enjoy better health, participate more in the  community and contribute more to the economy. “Old olds” tend to be less active and may need assisted care because of issues with health and mobility. And “oldest olds” might face  more dramatic changes in lifestyle — such as moving to a nursing home, losing the ability to drive and coping with declining  health.

The categorization also recognizes something that more and more Baby Boomers and “young olds,” like Von Zur Muehlen, are proving with their own lives.  Growing old is not  what it used to be. It is, instead, defined by things such as health, personalities, social interactions, expectations and economic security.

“We used to think of aging only in terms of deficit and decline,” Meuser says. “And that’s changed markedly.”

Kristen Hare | St. Louis Beacon

Patricia Von Zur Muehlen

‘When I’m 64…’

In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. In 1940, according to the Social Security Administration, men who made it to 65 would live for an average of 12.7 more years, and women 14.7 more years. That year, there were 9 million Americans 65 and older. In 2000, there were 34.9 million. In 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 39.6 million age 65 and over, with a projected population of 88.5 million by 2050.

According to a 2010 report from the Census, the number of people aged 65 to 74 grew 35 percent from 2000 to 2010. People aged 75 to 84 grew 14.8 percent, and people 85 to 94 grew 60 percent over the decade.

Over several decades, our ideas about aging and retirement have been shaped by policies such as Social Security, says Meuser, as well as Medicare and defined benefit plans for retirees.

But 65 then is like 78 now, he says. In general, people are healthier, they work longer and have a higher quality of life than they did 70 years ago.

Still, many policies operate on old expectations, and the people who grew up during those times are now catching up to the current reality. That can be seen in the numbers of older workers working longer, both because they’re able and because they must.

Between 1977 and 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of people 65 and older increased 101 percent. This is despite higher rates of unemployment compared with younger workers, and for longer durations of time. In 2009, 57 percent of those aged 65 and older were working full time.

A 2010 report from BLS traces the trend of older workers working longer to the ‘90s when workers had to adjust to the loss of defined benefit plans by employers.

According to the report: “Despite the recession — or perhaps because of it — older workers continued to increase their participation in the job market, at least through mid-2009. Whether the long–term pattern of growing labor force participation rates among older workers will continue beyond the recession remains to be seen.”

And just how those older workers will make it in the future also isn’t clear. In a 5,000 personsurvey by the AARP, participants reported a bleak view of the future.

• 67 percent applied for Social Security earlier than they had planned.
• 33 percent chose to keep working instead of retiring.
• 37 percent had to use credit cards on a daily basis.
• 36 percent were either no longer saving for retirement, or had cut back.
• And 12.4 percent lost their health insurance.

Currently, nine out of 10 people 65 and older receive Social Security, according to the Social Security Administration, and those benefits make up 41 percent of the income of the elderly.

According to the Census, the median income of households composed of people 65 and older is $31,408.

Health and home

When Marcia Newton’s mother was 65, she retired because of glaucoma but kept active with her children, grandchildren and the community.

Marcia Newton

Now, Newton is 65. And she doesn’t feel like a senior.

“To me, a senior is my mom,” she says. “My mom’s 87.”

Newton, a Baden resident, retired in 2009. She worked in health care for 30 years and was laid off in 2007, then found work until 2009, when she officially retired. Newton completed her bachelor’s degree in 2010.

“I don’t feel like a grandparent at times,” she says. “My grandfather lived with us until he died, and I don’t see myself as being him at the same age.”

That could be, in part, thanks to her health. “People my age are a lot more active,” she says. “We’re doing things.”

When Newton first lost her job in 2007, though, she also lost her health insurance. She used the clinic at Grace Hill Health Centers, Inc., and in August, finally got Medicare.

Now, Newton says, she’s actually healthier than she was while working. She also joined her local health club recently. She was waiting to turn 65 to get her senior discount.

When Franklin McCallie retired as the principal of Kirkwood High School, he had both knees replaced and got braces.

“One of the things you do when you retire is you catch up with some things on your health,” says McCallie, a Kirkwood resident. Since retiring, he’s lost weight and is an active cyclist.

And he’s dealing with another issue that “young olds” may not have to face just yet but will eventually. Where will they live?

This summer, after 35 years in St. Louis, McCallie and his wife will move back to Chattanooga, Tenn. The neighborhood they’ve chosen is walkable, with a trolley, and they’re relocating to a place that’s reviving and in need of some elders. The couple has planned for the next phase of their lives, too, adding plans for an elevator in their new home.

McCallie, now 71, has made much of his life since retiring a decade ago, including teaching at the university level, serving on boards and spending time with his grandchildren.

Now, he and his wife are preparing for what comes next as they age into “old olds.”

Aging in

Issues for each group of people 65 and older are different or the same in different ways. For “young olds” maintaining health may be a priority, as well as traveling before getting around is an issue, and making financial decisions that could impact them for several decades to come. For “older olds” and “oldest olds,” it might be finding community resources that help them stay healthy, get around and remain in their own homes.

What’s changed over the last several decades is a longer life expectancy, as well as more choices for how to live that longer life.

“There are a lot more opportunities today because of changing social attitudes about aging,” Meuser says, “opportunities to be engaged in volunteerism, including working in politics, you name it. There’s a lot more space to be engaged and to define one’s place than might have existed 50 or 100 years ago.”

Take Colin Powell, Meuser says. He’s 73.

“I don’t think of him as old. He doesn’t look old in my mind. I expect him to be engaged and if he wasn’t, it would irritate me.”

Already, Tranel says, a number of community organizations and advocacy groups work with the aging as a whole and in groups, focusing on their various needs. Changes to public policy to meet those needs, he says, are evolving because Baby Boomers are aging as a generation and not all at once. The first stepped into the “young olds” category last year, when they began turning 65. Baby boomers are considered people born between 1946 and 1964, so the youngest, at 48, still have decades to go before joining the ranks of the “young olds.”

Despite the marked differences between the groups of people 65 and older, Tranel doesn’t think public policy has quite kept up.

“In general, I think we’re certainly thinking of people 65 and over as seniors, as a block,” he says.

That could be changing, though.

“There is a recognition, not only with the resources front, but I think in the policy front, too, that aging is not a homogeneous experience,” Meuser says. “And older adults hate being lumped together as older adults.”

Forget the arm chair Coming of age

Back in the Central West End, Von Zur Muehlen sits in a chair by the wall, remembering how she got here. She thought she might retire a few years ago before she started caring for her current client.

“But now, I’ve given up all thoughts of it,” she says.

And she’s very happy with that. Von Zur Muehlen loves this work, though she knows not everyone would. And aside from her job, she keeps quite busy. She volunteers for the St. Louis Genealogical Society editing an electronic newsletter, among other jobs. She serves on the board of the German School Association of Greater St. Louis, and she takes weekly German classes.

Von Zur Muehlen’s mother, who still lives by herself, is 91. She’s amazing, Von Zur Muehlen says, and a great example of how she hopes to age.

“In some ways, I just want to be productive. That’s my goal,” she says. “I don’t want to sit and stare out a window.”

——————————

Coming of age

This report appeared first in the St. Louis Beacon on March 6, 2011.

Mike Murray has friends he affectionately refers to as “Egg Man,” “Chicken Man” and “Cheese Lady.” But his friends are not Sesame Street characters or costume fanatics — they are farmers.

Murray, a 72-year-old Central West End resident, is one of a growing number of St. Louisans who venture out to farmers’ markets through the cold months of winter. Farmers and those who manage farmers’ market say that new technology and the availability of non-produce items have made locally sourced markets viable through all four seasons.

“You could easily have an 8- or 9-month market,” Maplewood Farmers’ Market manager Brian DeSmet says. “People are extending the season and have coop houses, green houses, hydro, that allow them to grow year round. They will bring in all kinds of greens, radishes, turnips, that basically go all year long.”

At the Maplewood farmers’ market, which is held monthly during the winter inside the Schalfly Bottleworks building near the intersection of Manchester and Southwest, vendors often fill the space long past what he called the traditional growing season of April through October.

While the winter market draws slightly less than the summer’s average of 30 vendors, Desmet sees upticks before the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays — during the latter, he hosted more than 30 vendors in late November — as well as a steady presence in January and February. DeSmet is quick to point out that at his farmers’ market, vendors can only sell what they personally grow and prepare, making the winter success even more remarkable.

“You could easily have an 8- or 9-month market,” Maplewood Farmers’ Market manager Brian DeSmet says. “People are extending the season and have coop houses, green houses, hydro, that allow them to grow year round. They will bring in all kinds of greens, radishes, turnips, that basically go all year long.”

At the Maplewood farmers’ market, which is held monthly during the winter inside the Schalfly Bottleworks building near the intersection of Manchester and Southwest, vendors often fill the space long past what he called the traditional growing season of April through October.

While the winter market draws slightly less than the summer’s average of 30 vendors, Desmet sees upticks before the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays — during the latter, he hosted more than 30 vendors in late November — as well as a steady presence in January and February. DeSmet is quick to point out that at his farmers’ market, vendors can only sell what they personally grow and prepare, making the winter success even more remarkable.

“At my market, there’s none of that [reselling]. It’s all the people who made it, there selling it to you,” DeSmet says.

Five vendors at Maplewood Farmers’ Market have been able to sell produce through the winter, including one farm in Illinois that had fresh cherry tomatoes available in January. The rest of his vendors are comprised of meat, cheese, baked goods and other prepared foods, such as “Mofu” a tofu made from Missouri grown soy.

With growing numbers — nationally, farmers’ markets grew in number by 17 percent across the country from 2010 to 2011 — Farmers’ Markets face a defining moment in St. Louis, says Molly Rockamann.

Organic farm training program

Rockamann is the founding director of EarthDance Farms, a farm in Ferguson that serves as a training center for organic farmers through an apprenticeship program. The food grown at the farm is sold through the Ferguson Farmers’ Market.

EarthDance trains the “next generation of farmers” and encourages “farm enterprise.” While farmers’ markets are growing more popular, she said that the markets need a stronger base of regular consumers to make markets a reliable source of income for most farmers. Strong year-round markets have the potential to provide more stable revenue.

“At my market, there’s none of that [reselling]. It’s all the people who made it, there selling it to you,” DeSmet says.

Five vendors at Maplewood Farmers’ Market have been able to sell produce through the winter, including one farm in Illinois that had fresh cherry tomatoes available in January. The rest of his vendors are comprised of meat, cheese, baked goods and other prepared foods, such as “Mofu” a tofu made from Missouri grown soy.

With growing numbers — nationally, farmers’ markets grew in number by 17 percent across the country from 2010 to 2011 — Farmers’ Markets face a defining moment in St. Louis, says Molly Rockamann.

“It’s great that folks might go to a farmers’ market one time, but we need that regularity of patronage to make it viable for farmers’ markets to be a main source of revenue,” Rockamann says.

And if vending can be a difficult enterprise in the summer, when produce is in abundant supply and warm weather attracts customers and passerbys to outdoor markets, the winter offers further challenges.

Markets that are open weekly in the summer are often only open monthly in the winter — the monthly Vine at St. Stephen’s church is a smaller, indoor version of the Ferguson Farmers’ Market, which is held weekly from April to October. With winter markets still in a developing stage, recent proposals by the St. Louis County Department of Health to change permitting structures and regulations of farmers’ markets created a stir.

Permits for vendors

Under proposals that were at the foreground of a Feb. 14 public hearing, vendors would purchase a seven-month long permit for $75, valid at one location with additional charges for more locations. Among other proposals, such as barring dogs from markets and forbidding sampling of food without an additional permit, the discussion drew attention to the vague definition of farmers’ markets in county code and regulation.

“There wasn’t any specific language for farmers’ markets at all prior to the proposal. Temporary food establishment is what category farmers’ markets sell under, which is the same category that festivals that sell funnel cake and deep fried Twinkies,” Rockamann says.

“Those kind of things are in the same category, and you’re really dealing with different transactions, different products.”

Dr. Dolores Gunn, director of the St. Louis County Health Department, says the department was trying to “come up with legislation that is promoting farmer market venues, but at the same time keeps the basic tenants of public health.”

Rockamann believes that implementing new, specific regulation for farmers’ markets is ultimately beneficial for managers, vendors and customers at local markets. Rockamann and DeSmet both say that a lack of communication and transparency led many managers and vendors to worry that the regulations would be harmful to business. After the hearing, both said they thought the regulations showed steps in the right direction.

“Many misrepresentations were made of what the proposal was,” Rockamann says. Still, she believes that the seven-month permit is based on “older notions” of when farms can grow.

With the approach of a new season, Gunn is hoping for new legislation sooner than later.

“Usually we meet with our farmers’ markets right before the start of the season and some of our season starts in about March,” Gunn says. “So we are feeling a little bit of pressure.”

Murray said he was unaware of any proposed regulations facing Chicken Man or Cheese Lady — he shops in the city, which is not directly affected by the county’s decisions. Reached by email in Puerto Rico, he waxes poetic about the growing role of farmers’ market produce available in the 80-degree temperature. But he said he misses his St. Louis markets and seeing neighbors at weekly markets.

“It’s as much a social experience as it is a shopping experience. You get a chance to see people who you don’t see during the week,” he said, adding that it is “absolutely” a public space.

“I guess it’s what took place in the old market places of yesteryears,” he said.

This report appeared first in the St. Louis Beacon on Feb. 29, 2011.