The Kelefors

Dear Family and Friends,

A few weeks ago, Jeannette and I attended an event supporting Youth Speaks, an organization that helps young people find their voice through slam poetry. It was just days before the Ferguson verdict and, in that context, the message of the evening was profound: There is power in giving young people a platform to express their ideas unadulterated. Full stop. So, in that spirit, we offer a different kind of message this year, one that comes from each of us individually.

Dylan: I’ve experienced some dramatic changes in my life this year. First, I transitioned from elementary school to middle school at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8. My teachers are great and help me in all of my subjects to feel comfortable and learn. I feel more responsible and more independent while getting myself to school and helping with chores around the house. Second, my soccer has taken a path that I was not expecting. I was invited to the Player Development Program in the area where players from San Francisco to San Jose competed for a spot while coaches observed. I learned a lot of valuable skills, including being responsible and keeping your cool when losing. Also, I just recently changed soccer teams in preparation for our move to South America. In South America I am hoping to get onto an academy team. Finally, this summer we went to Brazil for the FIFA 2014 World Cup. It was an exciting experience I will never forget. In the Arena Pernambuco in Recife, being with the American fans chanting the whole game against Germany even though we lost was indeed memorable. And last but not least, I’ve been taking Hebrew classes and preparing for my Bar Mitzvah in a few years. I’ve been learning a lot and caught up with the other kids in my group. It has been an exciting year and I hope to have a great year in 2015.

Adela: This year, I’m in fourth grade. During the summer, after I graduated from third grade, we went to Brazil. We had lots of fun adventures. For example, we went to a few soccer games and the food was amazing. But the one thing I loved the most on the trip was when we went to an island called Fernando de Noronha. We stayed in a place called a posada. The people there were kind and loving. They told us about all the wildlife and, sure enough, there was so much wildlife and beauty there. All of a sudden, I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up. It all started on our first day snorkeling. We saw all kinds of fish, some manta rays, eels, and even some sea turtles. The coral had such precise lines and carvings. It was super fun! That’s when I decided what I wanted to be. I want to be a marine biologist and a geologist. The reason I want to be a scientist is because I want to discover things. And, I want to prove that science is NOT just for men but for women, too.

Now, as some people who are younger siblings know, it’s hard to be the youngest. People sometimes treat you like a baby, which can get in the way of achieving your goals. For, example, to be a marine biologist, you have to persevere in school and act like an adult, not be treated like a baby. We are moving to a Spanish speaking country this summer, and I know I have to persevere to get through some tough times, like being different and not having as good Spanish as some of the other kids in the new school I will go to. But the thing is, I’m never giving up singing and science no matter where I go. Just like Nelson Mandela. He persevered to make Africa a free place for all people. Like Barack Obama. He persevered and became the first black president. And just like Steven Hawking. Even though he had a disability, he persevered and became one of the best scientists in the world. As Mandela said, “Everything is impossible until it is done.”

Jeannette: As I reflect on the year, I am inspired by many voices. At home I am routinely amazed by Dylan and Adela who enrich our world through their insightful observations, beautiful music, Spanish language skills, and independent thinking. At work I am driven by the voices of students who lack the high quality education they deserve. I started my fourth year as the Director of Practice at the Education Trust-West, and am privileged to work with committed and capable colleagues as we address the opportunity gaps affecting too many of California’s students. This year I treasured triumphant voices in sports as well — from World Cup stadiums in Brazil filled with the chants of enthusiastic fans, to hours on the sideline cheering for our favorite soccer star, and a whoop of satisfaction as a friend and I completed a 72-mile ride around Lake Tahoe. I also cherish the laughter and voices of friends and family we’ve been blessed to share time with throughout the year — you all bring us much love and happiness. I look forward to developing my Spanish voice with our move to South America and hope you will make plans to visit us in 2015!

Matt: Dottie Kelemen, my last living grandparent, passed away this year, at 99. On a snowy day in January, the Kelemens and Roths gathered together to say goodbye to a kind and loving woman and, really, to a generation. With her passed our family’s living memories of the era between the world wars. I have spent a lot of time this year reflecting on my grandparents — Dottie, Joe, Catherine and Carl — especially while trying to stomach over-heated debates about immigration in America. The four of them were immigrants or children of immigrants who came to this country with nothing but a network of family and friends to support them. As President Obama reminded me, they were strangers here, too. I’ve kept their memories with me as I continue to work with New Leaders to help states, school districts and universities better prepare and support excellent principals. It has been very fulfilling work and allowed me to work with inspiring leaders in Hartford, Dover, St. Louis, Nashville, Indianapolis and Cleveland, among other places. Beyond work, I’ve kept up with piano and soccer, I’m still teaching education policy at Stanford, and I’m still volunteering on two boards.

2014 by the numbers:

1 – The number of gold medals awarded to the winning family (that would be us) of the inaugural BurrOlympics, the winter competion among the owner families of our wonderful Tahoe house

2 – The number of days old Andrea Paula (second child of Mirian and Enrique) was when we met her in December

4 – The number of matches we saw live at the World Cup in Brazil

4.8 – The kilograms of carbon dioxide we avoided on the first full day’s use of our new solar panels

25 – The number of family members who gathered at the Burrow for the second LaFors Tahoe family reunion

100+ – The number of cartwheels Adela turned while parading with Abada Capoeira for Carnaval in San Francisco

300+ – The number of peaches and nectarines we picked at the Masumoto Family farm this summer (our ninth year at the harvest)

312 – Dylan’s soccer juggling record, though that might be eclipsed by the time you read this

2009 – The year of opening of the Angel Island Immigration Station Museum, where we had a private tour this fall (and a night on the island) thanks to Katherine Toy and Tony Tam

6000+ – The number of miles Dylan and Adela flew unaccompanied in August to spend a fantastic week with Mimi, Pop-Pop and all of their Kelemen cousins in Vermont

As usual, we were so pleased by visits with family and friends this year: We enjoyed spending 4th of July watching fireworks on Donner Lake with the Zepponi family. It was great to celebrate Felix Hebert’s first birthday and spend some time with Grandpa Pete and Aunt Karen visiting for the occasion. It was powerful to watch Laura Fayer instruct our kids in her approach to art when she came for a gallery showing in Palo Alto. And there was no better way to close out the year than to have most of the Kelemen clan — Michele, Benoit, and their boys, along with Mimi and Pop-Pop — join us for the Christmas week in the mountains. It was especially meaningful to spend time with Benoit after the loss of his father, Andre Bosquet, this year.

Looking ahead to 2015, we are preparing to embark on a big adventure. This summer, we’ll be taking up residence for two years in South America. We’re still deciding on the right place. Much depends on job opportunities. But we’re narrowed down to Chile and Colombia as possible destinations. We’re going for several reasons: to expand our understanding of what it means to be global citizens, to get better at Spanish, to immerse Dylan in the culture of futbol, and to connect our professional work to the challenges of global educational opportunity. We would welcome any contacts that you have in either of these countries and, more than that, we fully expect visits!

Enjoy the photos. Click the image to start a slide show.

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by Jeannette LaFors

On June 25^th we had the great fortune to meet up with Luiz Paulo Ferraz, a history teacher who generously spent his day taking us to three schools and the Institute of Ricardo Brennand in Recife. The regular school term was not in session, so we didn’t get to see typical classes, but we still had a great day learning more about Brazil’s school system. We are grateful for all the educators and students who kindly allowed us to have a glimpse of their school experiences.

The first school we visited is a top-notch private K-12 school in Recife founded in 1979 by folks influenced by Brazil’s Paulo Freire – a founder of critical pedagogy who asserted that any learner can bring important experiences to the task of learning and co-create knowledge. Most of the students we saw were using the interim session to study for exams that they needed to pass in key subjects. And while we learned from Luiz Paulo that generally secondary teachers are pressed to prepare their students for the national exams and have little opportunity to engage their students in more critical thinking activities, he was glad that this school where he teaches two classes puts more emphasis on thoughtfully engaging students than doing test prep and keeps classes to a “reasonable” 35 students per class.

The school has very nice facilities and students in the high school have all of their books available to them on line. But a fact that blew my mind is that only a small portion of the teachers working at the school are full-time teachers there. This is commonplace in Brazil — more than 60% of teachers work at two schools or more, and they are poorly paid. Luiz Paulo shared his experience a few years ago of having 600 students across three different schools.

Our second school visit – to the Colégio de Aplicação – is what we’d call a university lab school. It is a public secondary school located on the campus of the federal university of Pernambuco in Recife, is the top public school in the state (based on test scores), and benefits from having university professors working with school. Unlike the first school we visited, over 90 percent of the faculty are contractually committed to working only at that school. And this allows the faculty to spend time with one another. In fact, they spend at least one meeting a week discussing and planning ways to improve the school. And they have opportunities to build strong relationships with one another, with their students, and with parents and other school staff members. In addition, teachers working there are eligible for federally-funded advancements.

And while the academic term was over, Matt, Luiz Paulo, and I caught a golden moment observing an “end-of-term” review. As in most Brazilian schools, students are taught in a cohort and teachers move from classroom to classroom. (Consider this means that all teachers have to bring their teaching materials to each class period they teach.) At this school, the students meet voluntarily with the school psychologist to prepare written comments that they read out to their teachers in a student/teacher forum known as the “conselho de classe” or “class council” when students evaluate the teachers and the class behavior in every teacher’s class. We spent an hour with one cohort, listening to what a few student representatives reported out for the group followed by teachers’ reflections about their teaching experiences with the students. While the student comments were mainly about their teachers’ strengths (e.g., “you are dynamic and keep our interests,” “you build strong relationships with us,” and “you allow us to debate current topics that we care about”) they included an occasional recommendation (e.g., “you should reduce the length of the texts we read in class”). After the students’ comments, each teacher took a turn sharing some comments about their experience with the cohort, commending them for their curiosity, their collaboration, their hard work, and good humor. Before the teachers went into a session when they discussed individual student strengths and weaknesses, Matt and I introduced ourselves and thanked them for allowing us the opportunity to sit in on their session.

Meanwhile Dylan and Adela were hanging out in the commons area initially entertaining themselves but then holding an informal interview with several curious students peppering them with questions about school, soccer, and their impressions of Brazil.

Most of Recife’s students, probably more than 70 percent, attend public schools — students from families who cannot afford to send their children to private schools. The third school we visited, Escola Matias de Albuquerque, is a high performing public K-6 school serving 500 low-income students in two sessions (morning and afternoon) and an evening adult school (from 6:30 – 10:00pm). We had the pleasure of meeting the director, Rivaldo Nascimento, a friend of Luiz Paulo who graciously toured us around the school and shared with us candidly some of the challenges he and his colleagues face in running a school. Many of the challenges are the same school leaders face in the U.S.: there is not enough time for principals to offer supports to teachers that will meaningfully help them grow in their practice, they face bureaucratic roadblocks when attempting to hire the best possible teacher candidates for open positions, they struggle to get an internet connection that can adequately serve the needs of the school, and they work hard to engage parents and community members in the school so both students and adults can benefit from academic supports.

But get this. Public school principals are elected by the teachers to serve in that role. On the one hand, it is great that school leaders are endorsed by the faculty; on the other hand, I wondered how responsible and motivated a principal is to take on any tough conversations necessary to improve the school. Given that teachers are not commonly employed at one school, the task of nurturing a professional community must be remarkably hard.

Space is tight at the school, and there is not much space for outdoor activity so students use a playground in a small park across the street from the school. And you can imagine that the five fans blowing to cool off 35+ students in a classroom might get pretty loud – there isn’t air conditioning despite temperatures that reach more than 85 degrees Fahrenheit. But the school has some valuable assets: a full kitchen staffed all day to ensure students in all three sessions have something to eat, a well-cared for common area for assemblies and performances, a modest computer lab with about seven functioning computers, and a faculty room with lockers, refrigerator and television where teachers can work, eat, or rest between classes.

Despite these challenges, this school counters the myth that poverty is a sentence for low academic achievement. Rivaldo shared his expectation that over 80 percent of the students from his school will graduate from high school – evidence of the high expectations that he and others have for students regardless of their socio-economic background.

While each of these schools differed in many ways from one another – three observations emerged clearly for me: 1) the resource discrepancies between schools are stark; 2) there are bright, committed adults working to ensure student achievement in each setting, and that can help to overcome the resource discrepancies in some cases; and 3) Brazil’s national futbol craze finds its way into the curriculum of every grade and subject.

I woke up yesterday morning to see a river washing down our street in Recife. Brown water pouring down the street, washed in waves by tire-deep cars slowly fording the streets. Rain bucketing down while pedestrians in flip-flops cautiously made their way knee deep over deluged sidewalks. Normally, I might be concerned for my safety in such a situation. Will the power go out? Will our building flood? But yesterday, I only had one question: Would a drenched pitch be better for the Yanks or the Germans at the Arena Pernambuco? Six hours to game-time and my mind was on the match. THE match. Axis and Allies. David and Goliath.

We donned our red, white and blue and waded our way to the metro, which was altogether too quiet. So I took up the role of cheer leader, starting with my standby: “Ole, ole, ole, ole, USA, USA.” The American fans joined in and, to my delight, so did some of the Brazilians on the train. The Germans sat on their hands.

We switched trains, the crowd swelled, and I kept up my singing. “Oh when the Yanks. Go marching in. Oh when the Yanks go marching in. I want to be in those numbers. Oh when the Yanks go marching in.” More Americans joined. But still no response from the Germans. The mighty Germans, who just 10 days ago had draped the stadium in Salvador with banners and had thundered out their chants, drowning out the Portuguese. They were eerily quiet.

And on the way to the stadium, all of the ticket-seekers were Americans, desperate to get into the Arena and cheer on the US. We passed by them signing new songs we had learned: “We love you, we love you we love you, and where you go we’ll follow, we’ll follow, we’ll follow, because we are the US, the US, the US, and that’s the way we like it, we like it, we like it, o-o-o-o-ooooooooo, o-o-o-o-ooooooooo.” Still nothing from the Germans. No chanting. No cheers. Nothing.

And then I realized. There are more of us than them. More Americans sloshing through the apocalyptic rain for the privilege of watching Jurgen’s new boys than fans showing up to cheer on Die Mannshaft, a bona fine contender to lift the trophy.

So, when the seats were filled and we were among the die-hard supporters from the American Outlaws, I happily passed my song-leading to a fan dressed as Teddy Roosevelt facing his fellow fans and conducting them in the call-and-response cheer that has become our new anthem.

“I…

A simple word.

“I believe…

Feels like church.

“I believe that…”

A little bit louder now.

“I believe that we…”

Yes. We. The 11 guys on the pitch and the 20,000 people in the arena standing together.

“I believe that we will win.”

Everyone starts jumping up and down, singing that line over and over. And at that moment, it’s clear: WE OWN THIS ARENA!

I flash back to other moments I’ve had in big stadiums: flags waving around the Maracana during a Flamengo-Fluminense clasico. 90,000 fans for La Universidad de Chile jumping up and down and signing for the full 90 minutes. I remember wishing that it could be like that for American soccer fans. And now it was. No, we didn’t win the game. And yes, the Germans got their chance to be loud when Muller scored a dagger of a goal. And no, it wasn’t even that good a game. You could see it on the faces of Clint Dempsey and Jermaine Jones and Tim Howard that limping out of the Group of Death into the knockout round wasn’t good enough.

But for me, seeing our fans absolutely dominate a stadium a continent away, it was an unqualified win.