17 FOOD | Country captain chicken 19 MUSIC | Emerald Underground 20 EVENTS | Star parties FREE March 11-17, 2021 • Vol. 46, No. 34 Performing in a pandemic Artists keep moving and dreaming 12 ARTS AND CULTURE | Rachel Otwell March 11-17, 2021 | Illinois Times | 1 SHOP LOCAL Support local businesses 2 | www.illinoistimes.com | March 11-17, 2021 OPINION Phonics needs grammar on its team Langfelder goes it alone GUESTWORK | Cinda Ackerman Klickna And let’s get ready to rumble Bruce Rushton Rachel Otwell’s “Rethinking reading” UPON FURTHER REVIEW | (IT Feb. 25) raises the need for phonics instruction, the process of learning letter sounds. I agree. Phonics hasn’t been stressed Mayor Jim Langfelder has authorized $44,572 ROCK ’EM SOCK ’EM ALDERMAN: lunch money taken – most people don’t know for many years. I encountered the lack of for a building associated with the Springfi eld Ward 2 Ald. Shawn “Rabbit Punch” Gregory that a Don King portrait covers an entire wall in phonics instruction in 1970 as a student at chapter of the National Association for the never has shied from a fi ght. “Willie (that’s the his offi ce. the University of Illinois. One of my classes Advancement of Colored People, which couldn’t alderman’s given fi rst name) told us that he is a In lieu of murky politics, let’s set up a ring, required tutoring a student in reading. My get money from the city council last fall. very good fi ghter and could hold his own,” cops or perhaps a wading pool fi lled with Jell-O, student did not know pronunciations so I Th e funds are going for HVAC and roof reported in 2002 when interrogating him about inside city council chambers. Who wouldn’t introduced phonics. He improved. In my repairs on a building at 801 South 11th Street a parking lot encounter with a sheriff ’s employee pay good money to see Ward 7 Ald. Joe “Th e required paper for the class, I shared the that Visions 1908, a fl edgling nonprofi t, who was much bigger. A friend back then said Enforcer” McMenamin in a tag-team match success. Th e professor gave me a C, with purchased last fall. Th e NAACP is using the that the future alderman, accused of brandishing against nine? Before we knew it, coff ers would the comment, “Well-written. But, we do premises for offi ces and an alternative high a pistol, had no fear. “I know Shawn, and he overfl ow, and we’d have plenty of cash for not teach phonics.” Stunned, I said, “If a school. Th e building, vacant for years, had a won’t back down from anyone,” the friend told fi refi ghters to hose everyone clean before fi nal child needs phonics, then I think phonics leaky roof and needed other fi xes, Teresa Haley, detectives, who found it hard to believe that votes. should be taught.” He just peered at me NAACP president, told the council in October. someone as svelte as Shawn would talk trash and repeated, “We do not teach phonics.” “It is literally raining inside this building,” without packing heat. Gregory was acquitted of SPEAKING OF WEIRDNESS: Th at civic I continue to believe teaching phonics is Haley told the council in October, when council a weapon charge. leaders would hold a press conference across important. members tabled a proposal to provide $150,000 Years, maybe, have taken their toll. Gregory the street from a Feb. 20 mass shooting yet Phonics, alone, though, will not create in federal block grants for rehab. got his behind kicked in a street fi ght one day unsolved seems some amount of chutzpah, better readers. Th is must be combined with Th e council said no after Haley, under before appearing at a March 5 press conference, given the tragedy might not have happened had writing and grammar, starting with the eight questioning by Ward 1 Ald. Chuck Redpath and when cops, prosecutors and sundry civic the city paid more attention. After the fact, cops parts of speech which I learned in eighth Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner, acknowledged that leaders urged an end to violence – gunfi re and acknowledged that nearby business owners had grade at Grant Middle School. As a teacher, she has an ownership interest in the property homicides have been rocking the city. During complained about noise and trash weeks before I stressed grammar instruction, combined and that no public bidding had been done to one minute at the podium, he said that he was the tragedy at a shuttered beauty shop turned with writing. Unfortunately, I have never felt determine what work would cost. Visions 1908 sorry, then skedaddled. clandestine nightclub. Neighbors reported lines the teaching of grammar has been presented is headquartered in Haley’s home, according Purported leaders at the press conference down the block to get inside the building where correctly. My students were the ones who led to online property records maintained by kept saying, “If you see something, say one person was killed and four others wounded. me to develop a successful grammar unit. Sangamon County. something.” How should prosecutors handle Liquor reportedly was dispensed free to women Th at happened around my 20th year of Th e amount approved by Langfelder is below a brawl with video leaving no doubt about while strippers entertained. teaching. While discussing a story with my a $50,000 threshold that triggers a council who was involved? Sangamon County State’s Alerted to looming mayhem weeks before junior advanced English class, a student vote. Th e mayor authorized the money three Attorney Dan “Mills Lane” Wright said that he the shooting, Gregory and the cops alerted interrupted and said, “Mrs. Klickna, we all days after the council rejected Langfelder’s wouldn’t respond to hypotheticals, nor would he the building and zoning department, the same have been talking, and we want you to teach appointment of Roy Williams, Jr. to replace discuss the Gregory fi ght. folks who ride herd on dilapidated buildings us grammar.” At no time in my career had Turner, who’s moved to the state Senate. Sounds like we have us a referee. Meanwhile, that never get fi xed. It’s hard not to recall last students asked to study grammar. Shocked, Whether it’s because Williams won’t promise Langfelder sanctioned Gregory’s bout, saying summer’s pop-up parties in parking lots and I asked them to explain. Th ey admitted not to run in two years or an equally silly that the alderman and whomever it was who parks: Someone got shot while neighbors they didn’t understand grammar, or even reason, who knows, but Langfelder isn’t coming kicked butt had handled things the right way, complained about cops standing around. remember the eight parts of speech and up with a new appointment, nor does he plan just like he once did. Reliable sources say that Police chief Kenny Winslow told reporters were just guessing where commas should be on lobbying council members. Langfelder is no slouch in the sweet science, that his offi cers had no inkling that a party placed. Th ey were concerned that they would “I think if I call, it’s a lightning rod,” the having once terrorized the Sacred Heart-Griffi n scheduled to end at 3 a.m. was going on at one be headed to college without needed skills. mayor said after the council vote. student body after saying no mas to having his of the city’s busiest intersections when gunfi re I pondered for days. When I had studied erupted last month. He sounded serious last the eight parts of speech in that eighth grade week. “I’m calling you out, BP and Squad!” class, we had spent a week on each. I didn’t Editor’s note warned the chief, referencing the city’s best- have time in the curriculum to do that. What known street gangs. Heckuva job, Brownie. if there were a way to teach all at the same Offi cial statistics confi rm what many already knew, that working mothers are bearing the time? Watching my own children and their ERRATA: brunt of the pandemic (see p. 9). That’s largely because child care arrangements have been Last week, I reported that 20 Spring- friends playing video games gave me the disrupted in various ways – including mothers losing their jobs, and schools and day cares fi eld fi re department employees earn six fi gures. key. Th ey somehow saw the entire screen yet closing. Illinois has helped out, by limiting child care copays to $1 a month for families that Th at doesn’t include overtime, according to knew what each character was doing. A game qualify for the state’s Child Care Assistance Program (see p. 7). The copay limit expired last McMenamin, who pegs the true number at 76 – that is what grammar really is. month, but the new federal COVID rescue package includes money to states for child care, so and is a stickler, thank goodness, for detail. My I had a plan. I started by asking four it may be revived. Meanwhile, parents are doing the best they can for their kids, which may bad. students to play a game and asked them to include getting them into an online book club where they learn to read from their own book be the catcher, goalie, lineman and pitcher Contact Bruce Rushton at and to stand where they would in a game.