It’s hard for me to call Dave Shaw anything other than Mr. Shaw. Even as our orbits continued to collide during my adulthood, he was always my teacher. His classroom moved around the Rochester High School campus during seemingly endless renovations. Regardless of his location – a trailer, a garage – Mr. Shaw’s classroom was […]
Rachel Otwell
Posted inArts & Culture
The neighborhood is going to art
It was a recent weekday afternoon in Springfield when Erin Washington was hanging crystal prisms from a neon-pink geodesic dome. The dome is outside of Springfield Art Association (SAA) in the Enos Park neighborhood. It is a bright pop of color that draws attention to the lawn, which includes a nearby mural and other displays […]
Posted inOpinion
Stopping stigma
People who struggle with mental health disorders often also struggle with stigma. This year, Gift of Voice – an Edwardsville-based technical assistance and mental health training center led by those in mental health recovery – kicked off its Disclosure Scholarship. Winners were announced last month. The scholarship awards students who have gone public with their […]
Posted inOpinion
186 Supt. Jennifer Gill warns of TikTok “challenges”
Students engaging in pranks at school is nothing new. But a new trend is apparently encouraging criminal activity. In a letter emailed to parents on Oct. 1, District 186 Supt. Jennifer Gill asked families to urge students not to participate in “challenges” circulating on TikTok that encourage physically hitting teachers and stealing school property. TikTok […]
Posted inOpinion
Fighting COVID callousness
During the early days of the pandemic, we all seemed to come together. Distantly, anyway. We stayed home to save lives. We taped up hearts and praised essential workers. Now – all these months later – many say they have never seen the country more divided. In Sangamon County alone, more than 270 people have […]
Posted inOpinion
Taking on “critical race theory” critics
A new national movement that aims to support the teaching of accurate history launched earlier this month with a call including more than 2,500 people from across the U.S. Learn from History is a coalition taking a stand against efforts to ban teaching about racism and other forms of oppression in public K-12 schools. The […]
Posted inOpinion
“No bans, no bounties”
Kodi Smith, a 22-year-old paramedic student from Taylorville, joined a protest outside the federal courthouse in Springfield on Sept. 10. The demonstrators were speaking out against a major win for anti-abortion advocates – the ban in Texas that makes it next to impossible for those seeking abortions to do so legally in the state. “I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Out of this world
There’s something strange growing at the University of Illinois Springfield Visual Arts Gallery. Fittingly, the gallery is attached to the Health and Sciences Building, because the current exhibit looks as though some wild experiments made their way into the art space. Only, these plants dance and sing. They are robotic. In fact, one resembles some […]
Posted inOpinion
School staff vaccine mandate
“We are facing a time of great decision here. We want our kids back in school, but we want them to be safe – that is the highest priority,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield. On Aug. 26, Durbin gathered reporters to talk about COVID-19 and schools, during which he “wholeheartedly” endorsed the governor’s call […]
Posted inOpinion
Reaching rural residents
“We have individuals who get COVID and then ask if they can have a vaccine,” Dr. Rajesh Govindaiah told Illinois Times. He’s senior vice president and chief medical officer for Memorial Health System. “The vaccine does not treat COVID. The vaccine prevents you from getting COVID in the first place. And if you get COVID, […]
Posted inOpinion
Hit and run heartbreak
If the past year and a half of the pandemic hasn’t been enough of a lesson that life can change quickly and unexpectedly for the worse, an event earlier this month involving a former Illinois Times reporter and veteran journalist spotlights the message. Dusty Rhodes was walking her dog Rosie, a beautiful Shar-Pei, around 9 […]
Posted inOpinion
Back to school
It’s the first school year since the pandemic began that all students are to be in classrooms full time. Schools have planned ways to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and its potentially more contagious variants, as the delta version is proving to be. As of Aug. 18 the community transmission level was high in nearly […]
