I started a new World Religion class today, but it is much more short term--just a brief introduction to the major World Religions. And I used the following videos, which I think is such a wonderful resource for these types of classes:
This is a 90 second video that traces the birth and growth of five major world religions-Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. It shows how each religion has evolved over time, using the timeline at the bottom, and over space, since it shows each one how it came to dominant various countries across the world, as depicted on the map.
I have some quibbles with it, especially since it doesn't deal with paganistic faiths that have played and continue to play a major religious role in some countries, particularly in parts of Africa and China. But I can't imagine a better way to show the timing and the territories of the major religions.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
What If We Could Eliminate Math Anxiety?
What is it about math? We all have subjects that we are better at or are worse at, or that we like or don't like as well. But no one ever talks about having "history anxiety" or "grammar anxiety." Math, however, is a whole different matter, at least for thousands....no, let's be honest...millions of us (of all different ages). If there is any topic that our children (or, again being honest, ourselves) are likely to say that they hate or just don't get or just try to avoid, it most often math.
But what if we could eliminate that for the next generation of students? Wouldn't that be worth a few dollars to you?
My friend Maria of Natural Math has some great ideas about how to raise children so that they love, rather than fear and resist, math. Through Maria's eyes, math is a language or an art form through which to view, understand, and communicate about life, not a series of incomprehensible formulas to be memorized and worked over and over again. And Maria believes that, just like language, basic math concepts--even those that form the basis of calculus--are best absorbed when the human brain is young and plastic....say, up to five years old. After that, according to Maria's research and experience, it is harder to children to learning the basic mathematical building blocks, just as it is harder for older brains to hear and repeat the distinct sounds of a different spoken language.
I am one of the privileged few who lives close to Maria, and has had the benefit of her experience in teaching my son about math. Since math was my toughest subject as a child--I'm definitely one of those who continued to suffer from math anxiety into adulthood (although, thank goodness, my husband is really strong in math)--I attribute my son's recent confidence and high performance in math to what he has learned from her, not from me. But she is only one person in one place, and the problem is so much larger than what one person can do.
So here is what we are doing to try to make Maria's expertise available to a larger population. Maria has a fundraising effort going on at Tipping Bucket, a cool new social media fundraising vehicle. Tipping Bucket takes proposals from worthy efforts, checks them out to make sure they are legitimate and have a reasonable plan, and then selects some to support through their website. Each project has about a week to present their case to the world. People check it out, and if it speaks to them, they pledge money. HOWEVER, their pledges only count IF the project reaches its desired goal. If it falls short, all the money is returned.
Maria is seeking $6,200 to turn her expertise about introducing math concept to infants and toddlers into a book, which could then be made available to everyone. So we are trying to mobilize hundreds or thousands of us who care about children and the math education they receive BEFORE they ever get to school to give just a few dollars to make this project a reality.
If this speaks to you, please use the button below to go to Tipping Bucket to donate:
Then, spread the word among your communities. Each of us may only be able to give $1, $5, or $10 dollars. But if we share this educational opportunities with our friends and colleagues, and ten of them choose to give as well, that raises another $10, $50, or $100.
However, there is a short deadline on this project. We must raise the entire $6,200 by Wednesday, September 21, or all the money is returned to the donors.
So if you would like to be part of the effort to raise our children to embrace and create with math, rather than to dread and dislike it, please act right away.
If you want more information, visit Maria's blog post about the project, or see the Tipping Bucket page.
PS: If you would like to post a button on your own blog or website, please copy the HTML code below:
But what if we could eliminate that for the next generation of students? Wouldn't that be worth a few dollars to you?
My friend Maria of Natural Math has some great ideas about how to raise children so that they love, rather than fear and resist, math. Through Maria's eyes, math is a language or an art form through which to view, understand, and communicate about life, not a series of incomprehensible formulas to be memorized and worked over and over again. And Maria believes that, just like language, basic math concepts--even those that form the basis of calculus--are best absorbed when the human brain is young and plastic....say, up to five years old. After that, according to Maria's research and experience, it is harder to children to learning the basic mathematical building blocks, just as it is harder for older brains to hear and repeat the distinct sounds of a different spoken language.
I am one of the privileged few who lives close to Maria, and has had the benefit of her experience in teaching my son about math. Since math was my toughest subject as a child--I'm definitely one of those who continued to suffer from math anxiety into adulthood (although, thank goodness, my husband is really strong in math)--I attribute my son's recent confidence and high performance in math to what he has learned from her, not from me. But she is only one person in one place, and the problem is so much larger than what one person can do.
So here is what we are doing to try to make Maria's expertise available to a larger population. Maria has a fundraising effort going on at Tipping Bucket, a cool new social media fundraising vehicle. Tipping Bucket takes proposals from worthy efforts, checks them out to make sure they are legitimate and have a reasonable plan, and then selects some to support through their website. Each project has about a week to present their case to the world. People check it out, and if it speaks to them, they pledge money. HOWEVER, their pledges only count IF the project reaches its desired goal. If it falls short, all the money is returned.
Maria is seeking $6,200 to turn her expertise about introducing math concept to infants and toddlers into a book, which could then be made available to everyone. So we are trying to mobilize hundreds or thousands of us who care about children and the math education they receive BEFORE they ever get to school to give just a few dollars to make this project a reality.
If this speaks to you, please use the button below to go to Tipping Bucket to donate:
Then, spread the word among your communities. Each of us may only be able to give $1, $5, or $10 dollars. But if we share this educational opportunities with our friends and colleagues, and ten of them choose to give as well, that raises another $10, $50, or $100.
However, there is a short deadline on this project. We must raise the entire $6,200 by Wednesday, September 21, or all the money is returned to the donors.
So if you would like to be part of the effort to raise our children to embrace and create with math, rather than to dread and dislike it, please act right away.
If you want more information, visit Maria's blog post about the project, or see the Tipping Bucket page.
PS: If you would like to post a button on your own blog or website, please copy the HTML code below:
Monday, September 12, 2011
The Songs of 9/11
I'm sorry if I seem too stuck on this theme, which is not directly related to education. But as I said in my first blog post on this topic, I'm not sure that any content we can teach our children can compare with the context we teach them about how to deal with this issue and other tragedies that will occur in their lives. Plus, I consider Washington DC to be my home town, and I know how it feels to live in one of our enemies' Number One targets.
I'm someone who has always been highly effected by music, and we've spent a lot of the summer on music education, so it seems like one way to sum up the responses to 9/11 (and the 10th anniversary thereof) is the music we associate with it. So here is my take on things.
One of the great things about music is that there is such a variety of musical responses to 9/11 that there is something for everyone. So let's start with the biggies: rock and country. I think those are probably the most popular genres among the entire American population.
Rock
There have been many rock songs about 9/11, but probably the most popular and influential has been Bruce Springstein and his The Rising album. And that makes sense. Not only is Springstein a wonderful musician and songwriter, but he came from the area (New Jersey) middle class (his father was a bus driver) population that developed so many of the police and fire fighter heroes of the 9/11 attack. At our spiritual center, they played Springstein's The Rising as the song after our meditation on healing and peace, and it's hard to think of a better song for that purpose:
Country
There are numerous country songs on this theme, but I think the most famous is Alan Jackson's Where Were You When The World Stop Turning? Once again, it is hard to beat that one. What I really like about that song is that is poses some of our choices:
Folk Rock
Of the folk rock contenders, my favorite is Melissa Etheridge's Tuesday Morning. This song is a tribute to a different hero than Springstein's first responders, who died while doing the job they had chosen. Instead, this song deals with the passengers on Flight 93, the ones who overthrew the terrorists in the belief that it was better to die in a field in Pennsylvania that to be the vehicle of death for others in some unknown destination, but probably a major Washington DC landmark. Actually, it is dedicated to one in particular--Mark Bingham, a gay man who apparently was one of the leaders of the resistance to the terrorists in the plane. Etheridge highlights the fact that he died to saved others, even though his native land was denying him some basic privileges. As she says,
It pains me to admit that the day after 9/11/11, the North Carolina legislature voted to put on our ballot a constitutional amendment to deny gay couples the right to marry. At a time when we should be pulling together, some legislators are insisting that we enact provisions that drive us apart. So I hope the people of North Carolina will embrace the unifying spirit of 9/11 and reject this legislative mandate.
If you need a reminder why, listen to Etheridge's song:
Classic Rock
Finally, I have to mention a song not typically mentioned in terms of 9/11, at least until recently. Paul Simon sang at the 10th anniversary commemoration/Ground Zero dedication, and apparently was supposed to sing the more positive-looking Bridge Over Troubled Waters. But instead, he chose to sing The Sound of Silence, which I have always thought is one of his most beautiful and poetic songs.
Until I wrote this post, however, I never knew that he wrote the song in response to the John K. Kennedy assassination. But when I learned that, it seemed even more appropriate. I think the JKF assassination threw an entire generation into shock and upset and re-alignment and questioning, just as the 9/11 killings did for the generation about 40 years later. And once again, it seems to me that the song is about not just the event, but our choice to use it to either connect, or to avoid each other with the sound of silence. My favorite lyrics, delivered by the author who has grown gravelly and grey since the time he first shared them with us, are:
But why not listen for yourself?
To me, all of these songs say that certain events happened, and they weren't very happy events. They weren't events than most of us could control. But our interpretations and reactions to those event--that is our responsibility. We can choose to use these events to move us towards love and connection, or towards hate and separation. It is our choice.
But, as always, I hope we choose love. If we can't choose that for ourselves, then let's choose that for our children. We can leave them a much better world that way.
I'm someone who has always been highly effected by music, and we've spent a lot of the summer on music education, so it seems like one way to sum up the responses to 9/11 (and the 10th anniversary thereof) is the music we associate with it. So here is my take on things.
One of the great things about music is that there is such a variety of musical responses to 9/11 that there is something for everyone. So let's start with the biggies: rock and country. I think those are probably the most popular genres among the entire American population.
Rock
There have been many rock songs about 9/11, but probably the most popular and influential has been Bruce Springstein and his The Rising album. And that makes sense. Not only is Springstein a wonderful musician and songwriter, but he came from the area (New Jersey) middle class (his father was a bus driver) population that developed so many of the police and fire fighter heroes of the 9/11 attack. At our spiritual center, they played Springstein's The Rising as the song after our meditation on healing and peace, and it's hard to think of a better song for that purpose:
Country
There are numerous country songs on this theme, but I think the most famous is Alan Jackson's Where Were You When The World Stop Turning? Once again, it is hard to beat that one. What I really like about that song is that is poses some of our choices:
Did you open your eyes, hope it never happenedBut it always returns to the gifts of spirit, which he says are "faith, hope, and love," and reminds us the greatest of these is love:
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Or speak to some stranger on the street?
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Or go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watchin'
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns?
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers
Did you stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love?
Folk Rock
Of the folk rock contenders, my favorite is Melissa Etheridge's Tuesday Morning. This song is a tribute to a different hero than Springstein's first responders, who died while doing the job they had chosen. Instead, this song deals with the passengers on Flight 93, the ones who overthrew the terrorists in the belief that it was better to die in a field in Pennsylvania that to be the vehicle of death for others in some unknown destination, but probably a major Washington DC landmark. Actually, it is dedicated to one in particular--Mark Bingham, a gay man who apparently was one of the leaders of the resistance to the terrorists in the plane. Etheridge highlights the fact that he died to saved others, even though his native land was denying him some basic privileges. As she says,
And the things you might take for granted
Your inalienable rights
Some might choose to deny him
Even though he gave his life
It pains me to admit that the day after 9/11/11, the North Carolina legislature voted to put on our ballot a constitutional amendment to deny gay couples the right to marry. At a time when we should be pulling together, some legislators are insisting that we enact provisions that drive us apart. So I hope the people of North Carolina will embrace the unifying spirit of 9/11 and reject this legislative mandate.
If you need a reminder why, listen to Etheridge's song:
Classic Rock
Finally, I have to mention a song not typically mentioned in terms of 9/11, at least until recently. Paul Simon sang at the 10th anniversary commemoration/Ground Zero dedication, and apparently was supposed to sing the more positive-looking Bridge Over Troubled Waters. But instead, he chose to sing The Sound of Silence, which I have always thought is one of his most beautiful and poetic songs.
Until I wrote this post, however, I never knew that he wrote the song in response to the John K. Kennedy assassination. But when I learned that, it seemed even more appropriate. I think the JKF assassination threw an entire generation into shock and upset and re-alignment and questioning, just as the 9/11 killings did for the generation about 40 years later. And once again, it seems to me that the song is about not just the event, but our choice to use it to either connect, or to avoid each other with the sound of silence. My favorite lyrics, delivered by the author who has grown gravelly and grey since the time he first shared them with us, are:
"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But why not listen for yourself?
To me, all of these songs say that certain events happened, and they weren't very happy events. They weren't events than most of us could control. But our interpretations and reactions to those event--that is our responsibility. We can choose to use these events to move us towards love and connection, or towards hate and separation. It is our choice.
But, as always, I hope we choose love. If we can't choose that for ourselves, then let's choose that for our children. We can leave them a much better world that way.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
9/11 Anniversary and 10,000 Acts of Kindness
I wrote yesterday about how we had spent 9/10/11 delivering cakes to local fire fighters in remembrance of those who had died in 9/11 and in appreciation for the character and selflessness it takes to show up for that kind of a job every day. That had been organized by my friend Marcia's Triangle Kindness Project as part of a 9/11 Anniversary Pay It Forward campaign, in which EnviroMedia would pay $1.00 to the Pay It Forward Foundation for every act of kindness done in honor of 9/11.
So on 9/11 itself, I wanted us to be one of those 10,000 acts of kindness. But what to do? I really thought hard about something that we could do that would be worthy of the significance of this anniversary. What would be the biggest difference we could make? What would be in keeping with the event? Then, as so often happens, an idea occurred to me that immediately seemed so right, it knew that was it.
How about, I thought, if we gave some flowers as a sign of unity and good will...to some Muslims?
I bought the flowers from our local farmer's market (helping local farmers--bonus points for that, right?). Most of their flowers had been destroyed by Hurricane Irene, but they did have some sunflowers. I thought they were the perfect flowers, because they always seem so optimistic and life-affirming to me, without being too girly or romantic or anything like that. After all, the sun shines on us all equally; it doesn't care if we are Christians or Muslims or Americans or Chinese or whatever.
And I knew just the place to deliver them. As I stated in an earlier blog, representatives from the Islamic Association of Raleigh had come to our World Religion class to give a presentation on Islam, and we later observed a prayer ceremony at their mosque. So it seemed perfect to return the favor with some flowers on behalf of the entire class, given in appreciation and in friendship. I had also found a card with a dove in it (doves have a significant role in Islam as well as in Judaism and Christianity, in addition to their symbol of peace), in which I wrote a message of peace and unity on a day associated with acts of violence and hate.
I have to admit, however, that as we were driving to the Islamic center, I had a few twinges of doubt. Would this seem too weird? Is it inappropriate to bring flowers to a mosque? We had studied the etiquette of visiting, and that wasn't mentioned as a taboo, but maybe they hadn't listed everything. My son, who has been a real trooper through all this, was a little uncomfortable as well, but we talked about the need to reach out to others who were different from us, even when it is uncomfortable.
However, as soon as I got to the mosque, I knew it was right that we were there. Because what was sitting in the middle of the parking lot but a police car.
Fortunately, the police officer was very laid back, so it appeared that she was just there in case of trouble, but apparently there hadn't been any so far. She complimented our flowers, and seemed to be glad to see some people who definitely looked like they didn't belong to the Muslim community dropping by for good purposes, rather than the kinds of reasons she was probably there to deter.
So we went in, and I asked for the man who had spoken to our class. The people in Security didn't seem to know him, and were asking around among various supervisors, when he walked through the door! Once again, things aligned perfectly. It turns out he had spent the morning at a special interfaith service for the 9/11 anniversary held by Habitat for Humanity. So he had spent his morning reaching out to others on this day, but I think he was touched that others reached out to the Islamic Association as well.
So that was our act of kindness for 9/11. I hope there were at least 9,999 others, and that all of them were as satisfying and meaningful to those involved as we found our small act to be.
So on 9/11 itself, I wanted us to be one of those 10,000 acts of kindness. But what to do? I really thought hard about something that we could do that would be worthy of the significance of this anniversary. What would be the biggest difference we could make? What would be in keeping with the event? Then, as so often happens, an idea occurred to me that immediately seemed so right, it knew that was it.
How about, I thought, if we gave some flowers as a sign of unity and good will...to some Muslims?
I bought the flowers from our local farmer's market (helping local farmers--bonus points for that, right?). Most of their flowers had been destroyed by Hurricane Irene, but they did have some sunflowers. I thought they were the perfect flowers, because they always seem so optimistic and life-affirming to me, without being too girly or romantic or anything like that. After all, the sun shines on us all equally; it doesn't care if we are Christians or Muslims or Americans or Chinese or whatever.
And I knew just the place to deliver them. As I stated in an earlier blog, representatives from the Islamic Association of Raleigh had come to our World Religion class to give a presentation on Islam, and we later observed a prayer ceremony at their mosque. So it seemed perfect to return the favor with some flowers on behalf of the entire class, given in appreciation and in friendship. I had also found a card with a dove in it (doves have a significant role in Islam as well as in Judaism and Christianity, in addition to their symbol of peace), in which I wrote a message of peace and unity on a day associated with acts of violence and hate.
I have to admit, however, that as we were driving to the Islamic center, I had a few twinges of doubt. Would this seem too weird? Is it inappropriate to bring flowers to a mosque? We had studied the etiquette of visiting, and that wasn't mentioned as a taboo, but maybe they hadn't listed everything. My son, who has been a real trooper through all this, was a little uncomfortable as well, but we talked about the need to reach out to others who were different from us, even when it is uncomfortable.
However, as soon as I got to the mosque, I knew it was right that we were there. Because what was sitting in the middle of the parking lot but a police car.
Fortunately, the police officer was very laid back, so it appeared that she was just there in case of trouble, but apparently there hadn't been any so far. She complimented our flowers, and seemed to be glad to see some people who definitely looked like they didn't belong to the Muslim community dropping by for good purposes, rather than the kinds of reasons she was probably there to deter.
So we went in, and I asked for the man who had spoken to our class. The people in Security didn't seem to know him, and were asking around among various supervisors, when he walked through the door! Once again, things aligned perfectly. It turns out he had spent the morning at a special interfaith service for the 9/11 anniversary held by Habitat for Humanity. So he had spent his morning reaching out to others on this day, but I think he was touched that others reached out to the Islamic Association as well.
So that was our act of kindness for 9/11. I hope there were at least 9,999 others, and that all of them were as satisfying and meaningful to those involved as we found our small act to be.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
What to Teach Your Children about 9/11
As parents, we teach our children tons of things. We teach them to walk and to talk, to say please and thank you, to tie their shoes and to pick up their toys. We teach them to be respectful to their grandparents and other adults, to cooperate when it is appropriate and to go their own way when it is appropriate, and to follow the religious, spiritual, or moral values of our chosen community. And, if you homeschool, you also teach them all the subjects from Algebra to Zoology.
But one of the most important things that we teach them is what to do when tragedy strikes. It is easy to be honest and brave and generous and considerate when everything is going your way. It is when it is not--when we must face the sad, the unthinkable, even the horrific--that shows our true mettle.
So there has been much discussion in the past few weeks about what to teach our young adolescents, who were alive, but not cognisant at the time, about 9/11. How much should we tell them? Should we show them the actual videos of the death and the destruction, the fear and the courage, or will that still be too intense for this age? How do we inform them about terrorism without making them live in fear? And these are all good question to consider. Undoubtedly, our students have been receiving more facts about this event in their schools, churches, and homes.
But even more important, I think, is how we model for them how to react to an act like this. By the way we behave, are we teaching them to blame an entire race of people for the actions of a few? Are we teaching them to hold onto anger, because of our own beliefs that forgiving will mean forgetting? Or are we teaching them to look for what good we can, to see the heroism instead of just the terrorism, and to find a positive lesson even as we grieve for what has been lost?
Today, my son and I got to participate in a wonderful way to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My friend Marcia, who runs the Triangle Kindness Project, lead a group of us in appreciating a few of our local fire fighters. We delivered cakes donated by Harris Teeter, The Chef's Academy, and TKP to three of the area fire stations.
Marcia read them a wonderful letter she wrote that acknowledged them not only for their service, but the selfless character they demonstrate through their jobs, which is a great role model for all of us, but especially for our children.
The guys were so appreciative, and so nice to us. They let us try on JUST the air canisters worn by the fire fighters on 9/11 (that alone weighed 60 pounds) to give us an idea of what it was like to charge into the building with a hundred pounds of gear on, and even pulled out some fire engines for us to check out.
At another fire station, most of the fire fighters were out, preparing for some 9/11 commemoration events tomorrow. The one who remained, however, was working with the Junior Explorers program, which gives high schoolers who are considering a career as a fire fighter after they graduate some hands-on experience in the fire fighting field.
I found it to be a really wonderful way to channel all those feeling and energy we have on 9/11 into a positive expression. I'm really thankful that my son and I had the opportunity to participate.
I also have to acknowledge my son for his willingness to take part in this activity, which was fairly emotional for me. Because he is such a wonderful drawer, I asked him to make a card for each of the fire stations. I left the cards up to his discretion, but told him they should be respectful of the occasion. He went off and worked on them, and ending up drawing hoses and fire hydrants and SUCH a better fire engine than I could ever draw.
But the best thing of all was what he wrote inside. He is not like me, who tends to write on and on and on (as any regular reader knows). In each card, he wrote just a single expression:
Thank you for your immeasurable service.
Then he signed it with his name, followed by "An appreciative kid."
And, really, who could improve on that?
But one of the most important things that we teach them is what to do when tragedy strikes. It is easy to be honest and brave and generous and considerate when everything is going your way. It is when it is not--when we must face the sad, the unthinkable, even the horrific--that shows our true mettle.
So there has been much discussion in the past few weeks about what to teach our young adolescents, who were alive, but not cognisant at the time, about 9/11. How much should we tell them? Should we show them the actual videos of the death and the destruction, the fear and the courage, or will that still be too intense for this age? How do we inform them about terrorism without making them live in fear? And these are all good question to consider. Undoubtedly, our students have been receiving more facts about this event in their schools, churches, and homes.
But even more important, I think, is how we model for them how to react to an act like this. By the way we behave, are we teaching them to blame an entire race of people for the actions of a few? Are we teaching them to hold onto anger, because of our own beliefs that forgiving will mean forgetting? Or are we teaching them to look for what good we can, to see the heroism instead of just the terrorism, and to find a positive lesson even as we grieve for what has been lost?
Today, my son and I got to participate in a wonderful way to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My friend Marcia, who runs the Triangle Kindness Project, lead a group of us in appreciating a few of our local fire fighters. We delivered cakes donated by Harris Teeter, The Chef's Academy, and TKP to three of the area fire stations.
 |
| Terrible picture, but this Harris Teeter cake actually has a picture of one of the fire stations |
Marcia read them a wonderful letter she wrote that acknowledged them not only for their service, but the selfless character they demonstrate through their jobs, which is a great role model for all of us, but especially for our children.
The guys were so appreciative, and so nice to us. They let us try on JUST the air canisters worn by the fire fighters on 9/11 (that alone weighed 60 pounds) to give us an idea of what it was like to charge into the building with a hundred pounds of gear on, and even pulled out some fire engines for us to check out.
At another fire station, most of the fire fighters were out, preparing for some 9/11 commemoration events tomorrow. The one who remained, however, was working with the Junior Explorers program, which gives high schoolers who are considering a career as a fire fighter after they graduate some hands-on experience in the fire fighting field.
 |
I found it to be a really wonderful way to channel all those feeling and energy we have on 9/11 into a positive expression. I'm really thankful that my son and I had the opportunity to participate.
I also have to acknowledge my son for his willingness to take part in this activity, which was fairly emotional for me. Because he is such a wonderful drawer, I asked him to make a card for each of the fire stations. I left the cards up to his discretion, but told him they should be respectful of the occasion. He went off and worked on them, and ending up drawing hoses and fire hydrants and SUCH a better fire engine than I could ever draw.
But the best thing of all was what he wrote inside. He is not like me, who tends to write on and on and on (as any regular reader knows). In each card, he wrote just a single expression:
Thank you for your immeasurable service.
Then he signed it with his name, followed by "An appreciative kid."
And, really, who could improve on that?
Friday, September 9, 2011
Majority of Texas Middle and High School Students Suspended At Least Once
In the debate this week, it appears the single major word that Texas Governor Rick Perry used most often was "border." Many uses of that term came as he talked about how dangerous things are along the Texas-Mexico border.
However, it appears that the border line isn't the only dangerous place in Texas. A six-year study of one million students in Texas--all the 7th grade public school students in Texas in 2000, 2001, and 2002--discovered that between 7th-12th grade, nearly 60% were expelled or suspended from school at least once. Because only a small fraction of these cases (3%) were legislatively-mandated (violations such as illegal drugs or bringing a weapon to school), it indicates that the vast majority of these suspensions or expulsions were done at the discretion of the school.
The study, which was conducted by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center in partnership with the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, considered many variables, including age and income level, but found that only two sub-populations in the student body had higher-than-average suspension/expulsion rates: African Americans and student with certain learning disabilities. The data reported that 75% of African American had some form of discipline, compared to 65% of Hispanics and 47% of white students. For students with educational disabilities, 75% of all disabled students, and 90% of students with an emotional disability, were expelled or suspended at least once, compared to 55% of students without any recorded disability.
The report also addresses the consequences that being suspended or expelled has on student success. Of the 60% of students who had been so disciplined, 31% were held back for at least one year (which many previous studies link to poor academic achievement and higher drop out rates) and 10% officially dropped out (the study also notes that the system underreports how many students have actually dropped out but haven't completed the official paperwork confirming that decision). Among the 40% who made it through school without suspensions or expulsions, 5% repeated at least one grade and 2% officially dropped out before graduation. Even worse was the correlation between suspensions and expulsions to being involved in actual crimes; of those who had been so disciplined, almost a quarter eventually became involved in the juvenile justice system, compared to only 2% among the non-disciplined population.
The problem with reports like this is that they are only dealing with numerical correlations, not cause and effect. So how people interpret the results probably depends on whether your world view is more Hobbesian (who described the life of man as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”) or Rousseau-ian (who argued that poor human institutions warp people's natural tendencies towards both self-sufficiency and compassion). That is, some people think that the high number of drop-outs and juvenile offenders among those who have been disciplined is just common sense; their innate bad behavior and/or anti-social principles showed up in school, and was properly disciplined, before they engaged in actual crimes or stopped bothering with school. Thus, the students' bad character was the cause of both the suspension/expulsion and the dropping out/juvenile crime. Others, however, wonder to what extent such harsh discipline actually caused the high drop out and juvenile justice figures. This side would argue that when struggling students are banned from school (for a short term or permanently), that encourages them to spend their time with "bad influences" and/or have more time and opportunity to get into trouble. In addition, students who have been suspended or expelled probably have more negative feelings about school--either around their ability to succeed there, or whether it is a hostile and unfair, rather than a nurturing and encouraging, place to be, which effects their decisions about whether or not to continue their education and to pursue fields outside the illegal alternative available to them. The study, however, does not contain the kind of information that helps to support or refute either interpretation.
And I don't know about you, but my immediate reaction to these findings were "They suspend or expel 60%? Surely they can't have THAT many "bad" students in Texas! If so, the Wild, Wild West ethos must still rule in the Lone Star state." But am I just uninformed? How far from the "norm" is a 60% suspension/expulsion rate? It turns out that is a hard question to answer, because the study had a more comprehensive database and addressed the question in a way that hadn't been done before. So I was never able to find a national average for suspensions and expulsions (although, I will admit, this was not an exhaustive effort....given that this blog is done with the time and money I have to spare after everything else I do). But I did find at least some information in my home state of North Carolina.
While North Carolina generally collects suspension and expulsion data in a different way--it is much more focused on the number of missed days, rather than the percentage of students--I did find one report from the state Department of Education that stated that in 2006, approximately 10% of North Carolina students had short-term suspensions. That statistic was for the entire school system, but let's just assume that percentage applies to middle and high schoolers, since that is what the Texas study covered. But that is just short term discipline, and doesn't include long-term suspensions or expulsions. I believe the Texas study said that 70% of its disciplinary actions were short-term, so if we apply the same statistics to North Carolina and round out the numbers (generously), then that would mean that about 15% of North Carolina students had been suspended or expelled in 2006.
If that figure was accurate, then that would indicate that about four times the number of secondary students in Texas had been suspended or expelled, compared to those in North Carolina (in terms of percentages, not in actual numbers, since Texas is a much larger state). Is Texas so wild that four times as many student misbehave? Or is something else going on?
There was one other interesting data analysis that was included in the report. The researchers actually divided the schools into three different categories, based on such demographics as family income level, percentage of immigrants or migrants, size of school, etc., and predicted whether disciplinary actions would be at a low, average, or high level. But when they looked at the three categories, they found that about half reported the "expected" number, but a little less than a quarter had higher than expected percentages, while a bit more than a quarter had lower than expected numbers of disciplinary actions. This was true regardless of expected level of school, size of school, type of school, or year of analysis. And the good news was that those that had fewer percentages of students suspended or expelled certainly did no worse than those with average or even high numbers of disciplined students.
So the bottom line is, looking at the entire Texas secondary school system, is that suspending or expelling students is associated with dropping out or getting involved with the juvenile justice system. But individual schools have a lot of discretion about whether or not they suspend or expel students. Those who have a more lenient disciplinary system don't do any worse than the schools with higher percentages of disciplined students. But there is obviously a lot of leeway between schools about who--and how many--are being suspended or expelled.
And either Texas is a LOT tougher on students than North Carolina, or they have a LOT more bad seeds--like four times as many. Whether you think that is good or bad...well, like I said in paragraph 5 above, that probably depends more on your underlying assumptions about people than any statistics I can report.
However, it appears that the border line isn't the only dangerous place in Texas. A six-year study of one million students in Texas--all the 7th grade public school students in Texas in 2000, 2001, and 2002--discovered that between 7th-12th grade, nearly 60% were expelled or suspended from school at least once. Because only a small fraction of these cases (3%) were legislatively-mandated (violations such as illegal drugs or bringing a weapon to school), it indicates that the vast majority of these suspensions or expulsions were done at the discretion of the school.
The study, which was conducted by the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center in partnership with the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University, considered many variables, including age and income level, but found that only two sub-populations in the student body had higher-than-average suspension/expulsion rates: African Americans and student with certain learning disabilities. The data reported that 75% of African American had some form of discipline, compared to 65% of Hispanics and 47% of white students. For students with educational disabilities, 75% of all disabled students, and 90% of students with an emotional disability, were expelled or suspended at least once, compared to 55% of students without any recorded disability.
The report also addresses the consequences that being suspended or expelled has on student success. Of the 60% of students who had been so disciplined, 31% were held back for at least one year (which many previous studies link to poor academic achievement and higher drop out rates) and 10% officially dropped out (the study also notes that the system underreports how many students have actually dropped out but haven't completed the official paperwork confirming that decision). Among the 40% who made it through school without suspensions or expulsions, 5% repeated at least one grade and 2% officially dropped out before graduation. Even worse was the correlation between suspensions and expulsions to being involved in actual crimes; of those who had been so disciplined, almost a quarter eventually became involved in the juvenile justice system, compared to only 2% among the non-disciplined population.
The problem with reports like this is that they are only dealing with numerical correlations, not cause and effect. So how people interpret the results probably depends on whether your world view is more Hobbesian (who described the life of man as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”) or Rousseau-ian (who argued that poor human institutions warp people's natural tendencies towards both self-sufficiency and compassion). That is, some people think that the high number of drop-outs and juvenile offenders among those who have been disciplined is just common sense; their innate bad behavior and/or anti-social principles showed up in school, and was properly disciplined, before they engaged in actual crimes or stopped bothering with school. Thus, the students' bad character was the cause of both the suspension/expulsion and the dropping out/juvenile crime. Others, however, wonder to what extent such harsh discipline actually caused the high drop out and juvenile justice figures. This side would argue that when struggling students are banned from school (for a short term or permanently), that encourages them to spend their time with "bad influences" and/or have more time and opportunity to get into trouble. In addition, students who have been suspended or expelled probably have more negative feelings about school--either around their ability to succeed there, or whether it is a hostile and unfair, rather than a nurturing and encouraging, place to be, which effects their decisions about whether or not to continue their education and to pursue fields outside the illegal alternative available to them. The study, however, does not contain the kind of information that helps to support or refute either interpretation.
And I don't know about you, but my immediate reaction to these findings were "They suspend or expel 60%? Surely they can't have THAT many "bad" students in Texas! If so, the Wild, Wild West ethos must still rule in the Lone Star state." But am I just uninformed? How far from the "norm" is a 60% suspension/expulsion rate? It turns out that is a hard question to answer, because the study had a more comprehensive database and addressed the question in a way that hadn't been done before. So I was never able to find a national average for suspensions and expulsions (although, I will admit, this was not an exhaustive effort....given that this blog is done with the time and money I have to spare after everything else I do). But I did find at least some information in my home state of North Carolina.
While North Carolina generally collects suspension and expulsion data in a different way--it is much more focused on the number of missed days, rather than the percentage of students--I did find one report from the state Department of Education that stated that in 2006, approximately 10% of North Carolina students had short-term suspensions. That statistic was for the entire school system, but let's just assume that percentage applies to middle and high schoolers, since that is what the Texas study covered. But that is just short term discipline, and doesn't include long-term suspensions or expulsions. I believe the Texas study said that 70% of its disciplinary actions were short-term, so if we apply the same statistics to North Carolina and round out the numbers (generously), then that would mean that about 15% of North Carolina students had been suspended or expelled in 2006.
If that figure was accurate, then that would indicate that about four times the number of secondary students in Texas had been suspended or expelled, compared to those in North Carolina (in terms of percentages, not in actual numbers, since Texas is a much larger state). Is Texas so wild that four times as many student misbehave? Or is something else going on?
There was one other interesting data analysis that was included in the report. The researchers actually divided the schools into three different categories, based on such demographics as family income level, percentage of immigrants or migrants, size of school, etc., and predicted whether disciplinary actions would be at a low, average, or high level. But when they looked at the three categories, they found that about half reported the "expected" number, but a little less than a quarter had higher than expected percentages, while a bit more than a quarter had lower than expected numbers of disciplinary actions. This was true regardless of expected level of school, size of school, type of school, or year of analysis. And the good news was that those that had fewer percentages of students suspended or expelled certainly did no worse than those with average or even high numbers of disciplined students.
So the bottom line is, looking at the entire Texas secondary school system, is that suspending or expelling students is associated with dropping out or getting involved with the juvenile justice system. But individual schools have a lot of discretion about whether or not they suspend or expel students. Those who have a more lenient disciplinary system don't do any worse than the schools with higher percentages of disciplined students. But there is obviously a lot of leeway between schools about who--and how many--are being suspended or expelled.
And either Texas is a LOT tougher on students than North Carolina, or they have a LOT more bad seeds--like four times as many. Whether you think that is good or bad...well, like I said in paragraph 5 above, that probably depends more on your underlying assumptions about people than any statistics I can report.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
The Most Adorable (and Tasty) Star Trek Tribute EVER!
We interrupt our regular educational programming with the following announcement:
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT TODAY IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST STAR TREK EPISODE!!!!!!
Yikes! I watched Star Trek as a child, and granted, that was 45 years ago, but still, somehow, it seems shocking....
But I've always loved Star Trek, especially the original series in all its cheesy and earnest glory. My husband was more of a "Second Generation" guy (and, admittedly, the Borg is a great concept), but those characters never captured my heart the way James T. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhuru, Sulu, and Chekov did.
Which is why I am so enraptured by this:
from Darla at Bakingdom.com, one of my new favorite blogs.
Can you believe she made the entire cast into cookies? You can see them all up close on her post, along with details about her recipes and techniques involved in recreating everyone in flour, sugar, and butter.
Her entire site is filled with similarly creative pastries and other goodies. Truly, her stuff is incredible. I like to use food to enhance certain educational ideas and subject, like our Presidential Palate series of cooking a meal to represent the US Presidents, but I can't hold a candle to her when it comes to cookie- and cake-based tributes.
However, her tasty Star Trek reminders does make me think about incorporating watching some Star Trek into our 20th century history this year once we get to the 1960's. The original series had a political agenda; Gene Roddenberry wanted it to support the anti-war, feminist, and pro-Civil Rights positions of the 60's counter culture. And as I reported in an earlier post, actress Nichelle Nichols has a story of a chance encounter with Martin Luther King Jr., who called himself "the biggest Trekkie on the planet," and claimed that Star Trek gave people a concrete vision of how life could be if we were committed to equality and peace (well, not that there wasn't plenty of fighting in Star Wars, but the goals were always to forward peace). The show was pretty radical for its time, especially with the racially-mixed crew and television's first scripted inter-racial kiss.
So maybe I can justify revisiting some of my favorite childhood memories for academic purposes!
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT TODAY IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST STAR TREK EPISODE!!!!!!
Yikes! I watched Star Trek as a child, and granted, that was 45 years ago, but still, somehow, it seems shocking....
But I've always loved Star Trek, especially the original series in all its cheesy and earnest glory. My husband was more of a "Second Generation" guy (and, admittedly, the Borg is a great concept), but those characters never captured my heart the way James T. Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhuru, Sulu, and Chekov did.
Which is why I am so enraptured by this:
from Darla at Bakingdom.com, one of my new favorite blogs.
Can you believe she made the entire cast into cookies? You can see them all up close on her post, along with details about her recipes and techniques involved in recreating everyone in flour, sugar, and butter.
Her entire site is filled with similarly creative pastries and other goodies. Truly, her stuff is incredible. I like to use food to enhance certain educational ideas and subject, like our Presidential Palate series of cooking a meal to represent the US Presidents, but I can't hold a candle to her when it comes to cookie- and cake-based tributes.
However, her tasty Star Trek reminders does make me think about incorporating watching some Star Trek into our 20th century history this year once we get to the 1960's. The original series had a political agenda; Gene Roddenberry wanted it to support the anti-war, feminist, and pro-Civil Rights positions of the 60's counter culture. And as I reported in an earlier post, actress Nichelle Nichols has a story of a chance encounter with Martin Luther King Jr., who called himself "the biggest Trekkie on the planet," and claimed that Star Trek gave people a concrete vision of how life could be if we were committed to equality and peace (well, not that there wasn't plenty of fighting in Star Wars, but the goals were always to forward peace). The show was pretty radical for its time, especially with the racially-mixed crew and television's first scripted inter-racial kiss.
So maybe I can justify revisiting some of my favorite childhood memories for academic purposes!
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