A day largely spent indoors at the Nittany Lion Inn, our conference venue.
The program began with breakfast at 0730 - which meant a brisk 15 minute stroll to get there for me. the first keynote was delivered by Moses Davis of Penn State who works in cultural diversity. He spoke about the importance of self in creating a world of difference, and focussed on manifestations of racism with an interesting slant on the difference between intent and impact, and what he called micro aggressions - which can be well intentioned but hurtful. I gave my presentation in the same session as Charles Burford and Phil Pettit - and it seemed to go quite well. After lunch I began to struggle with the combination of jet lag in an overheated room but came wide awake when a group of LA urban school leaders from the projects in places like Watts- gangland central - spoke about the work they were doing. Check out the Social Justice Humanitas Academy www.sjhumanitas.org. The principal is a great speaker and a passionate advocate for his kids. Some gems include: 'Charter schools are not the enemy, poverty is' and 'My kids don't have a union, they have me'. The final plenary was, I regret to say, long on style and short on substance. Saying anything further would be to dignify it beyond its desserts