“This is a fabulous opportunity to grow as an activist, meet people who are as inspired as you are to make change, and learn about issues that will affect our students’ futures,” reads an announcement. “No previous activism experience is necessary, so bring your friends and neighbors!”

Cost is $25 per person.

Registration begins at 8:15 am and sessions will begin promptly at 9:00 am

Coffee and lunch will be provided and parking is free.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Education Activist Training

WHEN: Saturday, Jan. 7 at 9am

WHERE: Highline Community College Building 8–The Student Center (2400 South 240th Street, Des Moines, WA 98198).

COST: $25

REGISTER: Register online here: https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5892/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=33467

INFO: “Please join us for an day’s worth of workshops, including a keynote speaker and break-out sessions on the following issues:

• State Funding
• School to Prison Pipeline and School Pushout
• Public Charter Schools
• Universal Pre-Kindergarten
• Disproportionality in Advanced Placement Coursework
• Algebra 1 and College-Ready Curriculum

There is a registration fee of $25 to cover cost of food, facility rental and materials. If this is a financial hardship, please contact Maggie Wilkens: maggie@educationvoters.org in order to request a waiver.:

Our friends at Discover Burien (we’re members – join here) want our Readers to know about their upcoming business seminar on Tuesday, Sept. 20th called ’5 Marketing Steps You Wish You Hadn’t Skipped,’ featuring Zev Siegl and Rich Shockley from Highline College’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

The event will be held from 8 a.m. – 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20th at the Tin Theater (923 SW 152nd) in Olde Burien.

Cost is FREE for Discover Burien members, and $10 for Non-Members.

Here’s more from a newsletter:

In any economy small businesses are always looking for new ways to expand their customer base, increase sales and where exactly to begin. This months Business Educational Seminar will focus on just these topics.

Zev and Rich draw on years of experience as advisors to hundreds of King County business owner to show in detail how you can take control of your marketing and get more from the time and money you put into it. Because these five steps are often skipped, companies that actually do them gain an advantage.

1.  Identify your most profitable customers and products
2.  Do a marketing calendar for the next 12 months
3.  Do a marketing budget for the next 12 months
4.  Set up a marketing advisory board
5.  Promote your company through existing organizations and         networks

Space is limited and an RSVP is required for this event.

Discover Burien’s educational programs, or Business Educational Seminar Talks (BEST) are a great way to get access to experts in their fields to benefit your business and personal life. These seminars and topics are created from ideas and requests from our members.

The Small Business Development Center (The SBDC) for Southwest King County At Highline Community College.

RSVP required, space is limited – RSVP BY EMAIL HERE.

For more information, call Discover Burien at (206) 433-2882.

By Nicholas Johnson

As much as letter writers may have condemned Highline Community College for inviting Dr. Bill Ayers to speak about education reform during the college’s MLK Week, Ayers’ presentation Thursday made no significant mention of his past. Rather, the education professor from the University of Illinois focused on the subject he has practiced since he graduated college in the ‘60s and studied for more than two decades: education.

“The lecture was to focus on education, not Bill Ayers,” said Natasha Burrowes, chair of the college’s MLK Week Committee. “This week is not about creating polarity. We didn’t organize this by labeling people. It’s about the issues.”

And for Ayers, the issues were simple. First, teaching should not be constricted to traditional roles. Second, democratic principles require the recognition of each student as having incalculable value. Third, citizens in a democracy must open their eyes to the world as it is, become motivated to do something and always doubt so as to avoid becoming dogmatic.

Deconstructing the tradition of teaching

Early in his presentation, Ayers revisited his first teaching experience at the age of 20. When his kindergartners began asking questions to which he had no good answer, Ayers said he began questioning traditional models of teaching and learning.

“If the teacher has to be an expert on everything that comes up, it leads to all the squirrelly answers that teachers give,” he said. “The point being that if you think of knowledge as linear and flat and complete, then you’re always in this position where you are trying to figure out, ‘how do I answer that,’ as if there’s a sequence to learning.”

For Ayers, learning isn’t scripted and modeled; rather it’s a unique and differing process for each student. Once he broke down the traditional model of education, he realized alternatives were possible.

“Rather than seeing the teacher as the master and commander in charge of the podium, in charge of the classroom, you could begin to see the teacher as a pilgrim on a voyage, with his or her students, on a voyage of discovery and surprise,” he said. And instead of thinking of kids as a mass of deficits, which is what the school system tends to do, we can think of kids as unruly sparks of meaning-making energy on a voyage.”

Why does the ball bounce?

What democracy requires of education

Regarding the requirements democratic principles place upon education, Ayers’ key critiques included the inequities of funding and resources for schools, political rhetoric framing education as a product to be bought and sold, and the labeling of students that stands in the way of recognizing each student as having incalculable value.

“What’s important is how people, including students, think of themselves,” he said. “Not how they are labeled.”

He stressed the importance of viewing education as a human right, rather than a product, and denounced a system based upon standardized testing and the weeding out of winners and losers. The issue of inequitable funding for schools prompted Ayers to mention the gap in funding per student per year between students on the west end of Chicago and the east.

“What are we saying to kids?” he asked. “We’re saying to kids, ‘we have an educational policy and that policy is simple: chose the right parents. If you choose the wrong parents, don’t blame me. What were you thinking? Why did you get born in that town instead of that town? You could have done better.’ Well, that’s wrong. In a democracy, that is fundamentally, profoundly backward.”

Open your eyes

Ayers then proceeded to argue that to be worthy of citizenship in a democracy, a person must open his or her eyes.

“We are all blind people who can see; we are all seeing people who are blind,” he said. “So when I say open your eyes, I don’t mean once or for a minute. I mean continually. There’s always more to know, more to see. And as soon as you are satisfied that you can see everything, then you are dead as a seeing person.”

The essential reason Ayers advocates opening your eyes, questioning and doubting, is so you can consider alternatives and avoid dogmatism. Ayers said seeking alternatives is to believe another possible world sits right next ours, a world where the inequities that challenge us now have been overcome.

“You cannot be an engaged and moral person if you can’t begin to posit, either tease out or invent or imagine, that standing right next to the world as such is a world that could be,” he said. “Another world is possible. Alternatives are there. If you can’t find them, you have to search for them. If you can’t find them once you search for them, you have to group up with other people and search harder. It’s our responsibility to open our eyes and imagine another world.”

Audience reaction

Tim Lloyd, a Des Moines resident who lives down the street from Highline, attended Ayers’ presentation and said he felt the controversial activist made a great contribution to MLK Week.

“The things he is doing today are definitely things Dr. King would absolutely advocate for,” Lloyd said. “He’s about leveling the playing field, about making sure everyone in our country gets the same type of education and the right kind of education, and I think he perfectly addressed all that.”

Bill Ferguson, a part-time instructor at Highline, said he felt Ayers represented Dr. King’s ideals and principles very well.

“One thing I liked about his presentation is that he said, ‘I don’t like being labeled. I don’t like being put into a box of what I might believe,’” Ferguson said.

Burrowes, who organized the event, said labeling hinders open discussion of important issues, which has not been the goal of MLK Week.

“I think what we’re really trying to do is continue [Dr. King’s] legacy of dialogue in order to create more non-violent, just, equitable communities,” she said.

To see a full video of Dr. Ayers’ presentation, click here.

Dr. Ayers addresses community’s criticism

When asked whether he felt he made a suitable representative for Dr. King in participating in Highline’s MLK Week, Ayers had this to say:

“I never for a minute claimed I was a good representative for MLK Week. That wasn’t my choice. I think people at the community college have a right to speak to whoever they want to in the spirit of dialogue. Because they invite somebody does not even mean they agree with that person.”

Regarding similarities and comparisons between Dr. Ayers and Dr. King, Ayers had this to say:

“There’s a lot of mythology that surrounds me and what I’ve done. There’s also a lot of mythology that surrounds Martin Luther King. He was an absolute champion of non-violence. He was also a champion of activism. Martin Luther King stood for non-violent, direct action. I think that’s a healthy aspect of every democracy.

Martin Luther King was a radical. He was in the tradition of radical social democracy. By radical I mean what Ella Baker said about King. Baker defined radical as going to the root; finding out the root cause of something.

In his writings from 1965 to 1968 King identified himself as a radical – opposed to racism, opposed to militarism and also opposed to capitalism. People want to rewrite all that and say he was just a saint who mainly thought we should all be nice to each other. That’s not quite right. When he died, he was less popular than George W. Bush when he left office. His popularity came later, after he was defanged and made more palatable. He was a radical and he was an activist, and those are important things to remember about him.”

Regarding accusations of violence on the part of The Weather Underground, he had this to say:

“What I find objectionable is when people single out The Weather Underground as the exemplar of violence when 6,000 people a week were being murdered, and when John McCain runs for president on this phony narrative of being a war hero. He was not a war hero. War heroes don’t actually fly over civilian targets and bomb and kill people. That’s what he did. Forty years later he wanted to make that narrative one of heroism. He’s a violent person.”

Your paper recently announced the speech to be given by Bill Ayers at Highline Community College (see our story here). I am dismayed.

With the recent shootings in Arizona and the subsequent heated debate about threats against public officials, I am aghast at the description given Ayers as an activist. You must surely be aware of his past connection with the Weather Underground and their terrorist activities to bomb government buildings and kill the public employees therein. You must surely be aware of his book Prairie Fire which he, Ayers, dedicates to Sirhan Sirhan the murderer of Sen. Robert Kennedy.

An activist? Really?

Let me inform you how one of the Kennedy’s feels about Bill Ayers. Chris Kennedy, Robert Kennedy’s son, sits on the University of Illinois board and spoke out at the thought of Bill Ayers being given “emeritus” honor at the University. Chris stated to the board, “I intend to vote against conferring the honorific title of our university to a man whose body of work includes a book dedicated in part to the man who murdered my father, Robert F. Kennedy.”

Bill Ayers' 1968 mugshot, and a recent photo of him.

Now as part of Martin Luther King Jr’s event Bill Ayers is to be a guest speaker. Recall if you will that Mr. King was very much a “peace” activist. How incredulous it is that a terrorist activist is given seat of honor at a peace activist’s remembrance. How disgusting. How shameful of the Board at Highline Community College.

And it is wondered why all these killings continue.

Charlie Rangel
Burien, WA

[EDITOR'S NOTE: What do YOU think of Highline College having Bill Ayers as a guest speaker? Please take our Poll below, or leave a Comment below. You can also email us a "Letter to the Editor" by clicking here. Be sure to include your real name and a way to contact you, and, pending our review, we'll most likely post it.]

Highline Community College will celebrate 25 years of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day from Jan. 18-21, with events featuring nationally known figures, including former activist Bill Ayers, scholar Dr. Jared Ball, author Dr. Michael Honey and the first Filipina elected to state legislature in the U.S., Velma Veloria.

Now in its 19th year, Highline’s Martin Luther King Jr. Week is one of the college’s biggest events and features authors, scholars and activists discussing a variety of topics, including diversity, politics, social justice, equity and the legacy of Dr. King.

This annual event is sponsored by HCC’s Center for Leadership & Service, Multicultural Services and Learning & Teaching Center.

Here are the details:

WHAT: Highline College’s Martin Luther King Jr. Week.

WHEN: Jan. 18-21, 2011, various times (see below, or visit www.highline.edu/stuserv/programs/mlkweek.htm for details).

WHERE: Highline Community College’s main campus, located midway between Seattle and Tacoma at South 240th Street and Pacific Highway South (Highway 99); address: 2400 S. 240th St., Des Moines, WA 98198.

COST: FREE and open to the public.

INFO: More information available at www.highline.edu/stuserv/programs/mlkweek.htm.

Events include:

TUESDAY, JAN. 18th:

• Radical Politics of MLK
  9-9:50 a.m., Building 7
  Dr. Jared Ball, assistant professor of Communications Studies at Morgan State University and journalist in Washington, D.C., explores the radical politics of Dr. King and why he was considered such a controversial figure during his time.
• ‘Boondocks’ and Social Justice
  Lecture 10-10:50 a.m., Q&A 11-11:30 a.m., Building 7
  Dr. Jared Ball and Dr. Mark Bolden discuss how “The Boondocks,” the award-winning comic strip turned animation series, uses comedy, satire and art to explore issues of social justice and equity.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19th:

• Empowering Ourselves for Positive Change
  9-9:50 a.m., Building 7
  Velma Veloria, the first Filipina elected to state legislature in the U.S. and served in the Washington State Legislature from 1992-2004, shares her perspective on how individuals can be solutions to such large systematic problems of inequality.
• America: A Culture of Fear?
  2-3 p.m., Highline Student Union (Building 8), room 302
  Shaquita Pressley, speaker of the caucus for the Associated Students of Highline Community College (ASHCC), facilitates a discussion that explores the culture of fear in America and the impacts it has on policy, community and social change.

THURSDAY, JAN. 20th:

• Education for Democracy: School Reform and the Legacy of Martin Luther King
  Lecture 11-11:50 a.m., Q&A noon to 12:30 p.m., Highline Student Union (Building 8), Mt. Constance and Mt. Olympus rooms
  Bill Ayers, distinguished professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discusses the battle over education reform and democracy.
• ‘9500 Liberty’
  1-3 p.m., Building 7
  “9500 Library,” a documentary, highlights the immigration debate through the eyes of a community in Prince William County, Virginia. The film viewing will be followed by a group discussion.

FRIDAY, JAN. 21st:

• Reclaiming Martin Luther King’s Vision of Social and Economic Justice
  Lecture 10-10:50 a.m., Book signing 11-11:30 a.m., Building 7
  Dr. Michael Honey, professor at the University of Washington – Tacoma, discusses his new book of Dr. King’s speeches, “All Labor Has Dignity.” “All Labor Has Dignity” explores a different aspect of Dr. King’s ministry – his service to the working-class and poor left out of opportunity in American capitalism.
• Skills for Anti-Oppression: Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment Model
  Noon to 2 p.m., Highline Student Union (Building 8), Mt. Constance and Mt. Olympus rooms
  Dr. Leticia Nieto, professor at St. Martin’s University, leads a workshop that introduces participants to skills-based approaches that support organic development of anti-oppression in individuals.

Highline Community College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County. With approximately 18,900 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day, evening and weekend classes. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida, Washington state poet laureate Sam Green, and even Scott Schaefer, the Publisher/Editor of this here website.

Breeders Theater will be holding a special performance of ‘Casting Call’ on Wednesday, Jan. 26th, as a fundraiser for the Highline Community College Foundation’s Breeders Theater Performing Arts Scholarship.

This special performance of this new play, written by Highline Professor Dr. T.M. Sell, will benefit the Highline Community College Foundation’s Breeders Theater Performing Arts Scholarship, an organization dedicated to raising funds that help provide quality education at Highline.

“Casting Call” centers around three actors vying for what could be the role of a lifetime. While performing a death scene in a play, one of them appears to actually die. Was it an accident, suicide or murder?

Tickets, which cost $20 each, also include tasting of four wines from the E.B. Foote Winery. Bottles of E.B. Foote’s wines will also be available to purchase.

Tickets are available from the HCC Foundation and at E.B. Foote Winery and Corky Cellars, 22511 Marine View Dr. S. in Des Moines.

WHAT: Special performance of the new play “Casting Call”

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011; doors open at 6:30pm; show starts at 7pm.

WHERE: E.B. Foote Winery, located at 127 S.W. 153rd St., Suite B in Burien.

COST: $20 per ticket; available from the HCC Foundation and at E.B. Foote Winery and Corky Cellars, 22511 Marine View Dr. S. in Des Moines.

For more information:

• www.funds4highline.org
• www.breederstheater.com

Seattle & King County Public Health will offer FREE flu vaccinations for adults and children at Highline Community College in Des Moines this Saturday, Nov. 20th, from 10am to 1pm.

This is an excellent opportunity for people who do not have health insurance to cover the cost of flu vaccination.

According to a statement:

Health experts recommend that everyone over six months of age should get the flu vaccine to protect their health and the people around them.

This year, a single vaccine provides protection against the H1N1 flu that caused outbreaks last year and two other flu viruses that are expected to cause illness this season.

In addition to providing free flu vaccines, the clinics will also serve as a preparedness exercise for Public Health to practice its ability to provide vaccinations to a large number of people in a short amount of time. More than 1,000 doses of vaccine will be available at each location.

WHAT: FREE Flu Vaccine Clinics.

WHEN:  Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010 from 10am – 1pm, or until vaccine supply is exhausted. A pre-clinic tour is available for media from 9-9:30 a.m.

WHERE: Highline Community College (Student Union Building), located at 2400 S. 240th St., Des Moines, WA 98198.

Also, a second clinic will be held at Parkwood Elementary School (Gymnasium), located at 1815 North 155th Street, Shoreline WA 98133

For more information, visit www.kingcounty.gov/health/flu.

BTB Advertiser Highline Community College will be holding its first-ever Highline Business Festival on Tuesday, Nov. 30th from 9am to 3pm at their campus in Des Moines.

The Festival will be held in Building 8-Mt. Townsend, is open for everyone to attend, and there is no charge.

Rachel Collins and Donna Longwell, coordinators of the Business Festival, have partnered with StartZone to introduce new businesses to the Highline Community.

The event’s focus is to give companies the opportunity to introduce their products and services by selling and displaying their products at the Festival.

It will also serve as a way for visitors to get started on their holiday shopping.

For more information please contact the Hospitality Services department at (206) 870-3777 or by email at conference@highline.edu.

“By locating these classes close to where people live and work in Burien, we hope to make it more convenient for local residents to fit college into their busy lives,” said Rolita Flores Ezeonu, the college’s dean for Transfer and Pre-College Education.

Registration for winter quarter begins for current students on Nov 2 and for new students on Nov 22. Winter classes begin Jan 3, 2011.

This winter’s offering include Pacific Northwest History from 6-8:10 PM Mondays and Wednesdays and The Latino Experience from 6-8:10 PM Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The college plans on offering two classes a quarter at the center and may add Saturday and pre-college classes, as well as hybrid classes (a mix of in-class and online instruction), in the future.

Evening classes will be held typically from 6-8:10 PM and 10 PM to 3:30 PM Saturdays to allow students an opportunity to plan around their family life and work schedules in advance.

The classes are designed to meet basic education requirements for transfer to a four-year college or university, regardless of the student’s major.

“We plan to provide the kind of courses that most students take in their first year or two of study, regardless of their eventual major,” Ezeonu said.

To make it more convenient to take classes, the Highline Bookstore allows student to order textbooks online and offers free delivery. Or, students can select in-store pick-up. For textbook information, visit www.highlinebookstore.com.

Highline’s Continuing Education program is also offering classes at the Burien Community Center Annex winter quarter. Residents have the opportunity to take non-credit classes for professional and personal enrichment, including Beginning French from 9-11 AM Tuesdays Jan 25 through Mar 8 and Advanced French from 11 AM to 1:30 PM Tuesdays Jan 25 through Mar 1.

For more information about Highline’s Burien classes:
Call (206) 878-3710, ext. 3373
Visit burien.highline.edu
Stop by 425 S.W. 144th St. in Burien from 4-6:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays

Highline Community College announced Wednesday (Sept. 1st) that they will begin offering evening classes at the Burien Community Center Annex beginning Sept. 20th.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to provide higher education access to the Burien community,” said Rolita Flores Ezeonu, the college’s dean for Transfer and Pre-College Education. “By locating these classes close to where people live and work in Burien, we hope to make it more convenient for local residents to fit college into their busy lives.”

Fall quarter classes will begin Monday, Sept. 20th, and will include Art Appreciation from 6pm – 8:10pm Mondays and Wednesdays, as well as American Government from 6pm – 8:10pm Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The introductory general-education classes are designed to meet basic requirements for transfer to a four-year college or university.

The college plans to offer two courses each quarter. Future offerings may include Saturday courses and pre-college credit classes.

“Right now, we’re focused on offering enough courses to help people get a good start on a college degree,” Ezeonu said. “We plan to provide the kind of courses that most students take in their first year or two of study, regardless of their eventual major.”

The center is located at 425 S.W. 144th Street in the “old” Community Center building, near downtown Burien transit facilities. On-site registration assistance is available from 4pm – 7pm Mondays through Thursdays starting Sept. 8th.

For more information, call (206) 878-3710, ext. 3373, or visit www.highline.edu/burien.

Highline Community College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County. With approximately 18,300 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day, evening and weekend classes. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida, Washington state poet laureate Sam Green, and yes, even B-Town Blog Founder/Publisher Scott Schaefer.