Category: Education,

Florida Panthers pay tribute to Parkland high school shooting victims, Roberto Luongo gives emotional speech

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Schools,Leave a comment

Before the game, the arena video screen showed the names and faces of each of the 17 students who were killed on Valentine’s Day in nearby Parkland. The darkened ice was then illuminated with 17 circles of light, with a student’s name inside each one.

Players from both teams stood for the ceremony, some wiping tears from their eyes.

Luongo followed with an emotional address about how he has lived in Parkland for 12 years with his wife and children and how much he loves the town. He lauded the bravery of those who lost their lives trying to save others and spoke about how inspiring the students have been in coping with the tragedy.

…Florida players will wear Marjory Stoneman Douglas logos on their helmets and MSD uniform patches for the remainder of the season.

Florida Panthers pay tribute to Parkland high school shooting victims, Roberto Luongo gives emotional speech

hmmmm

Momastery’s Glennon Doyle shares anti-bullying strategy

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Schools,Leave a comment

Every Friday afternoon Chase’s teacher asks her students to take out a piece of paper and write down the names of four children with whom they’d like to sit the following week. The children know that these requests may or may not be honored. She also asks the students to nominate one student whom they believe has been an exceptional classroom citizen that week. All ballots are privately submitted to her.

And every single Friday afternoon, after the students go home, Chase’s teacher takes out those slips of paper, places them in front of her and studies them. She looks for patterns.

Who is not getting requested by anyone else?

Who doesn’t even know who to request?

Who never gets noticed enough to be nominated?

Who had a million friends last week and none this week?

You see, Chase’s teacher is not looking for a new seating chart or “exceptional citizens.” Chase’s teacher is looking for lonely children. She’s looking for children who are struggling to connect with other children. She’s identifying the little ones who are falling through the cracks of the class’s social life. She is discovering whose gifts are going unnoticed by their peers. And she’s pinning down — right away — who’s being bullied and who is doing the bullying.

Momastery’s Glennon Doyle shares anti-bullying strategy – TODAY.com

brilliant!

7-year-old boy handcuffed in Florida school after allegedly attacking teacher

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Schools,, UncategorizedLeave a comment

7-year-old boy handcuffed in Florida school after allegedly attacking teacher – ABC News

1.) If an adult wants to press charges against a 7 year old child they do not have the cognitive ability necessary to function as an adult.

2.) If an adult cannot control a 7 year old child they should not be in a position where they are charged with the care of children.

3.) If an officer of the law thinks it is appropriate to handcuff and arrest a seven year old, they should surrender their badge and gun immediately because their poor judgement is a danger to the community they are employed to serve and protect.

Period.

Harvard can save West Station, bu tthe question is are they willing to back up claims of being a good neighbor by putting their money where their mouth is?

On By peanutgallerynhIn Boston,, Infrastructure and Transportation,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

[State Representative Michael] Moran’s district includes much of Brighton and Allston, including the site of a massive project that would take down a decrepit Mass. Pike viaduct, straighten the highway, and free up dozens of acres, now owned by Harvard, for new development.

…In a public comment letter also signed by other elected officials representing Allston and Brighton in the House, Senate, and Boston City Council, Moran urges the state to “monetize the total benefits” to Harvard — the “single biggest beneficiary” of the Pike realignment — to guarantee the construction of West Station sooner rather than later. In other words: While Harvard has already committed to covering a third of the station’s cost, the state should hit the school up for the majority of it.

…In general, the Greater Boston region, which might otherwise have become the eastern end of the Rust Belt, shouldn’t take its universities for granted. Yet there are some problems that only an institution like Harvard can solve. It would be a shame if the university stood aside as a major transit hub — the key to an urban vision for Allston — fell victim to bureaucratic inertia.

Harvard, only you can save West Station – The Boston Globe

Louisiana teacher handcuffed, arrested after bringing up brass salary at school board meeting

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Gulf Coast Region,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

Louisiana teacher handcuffed, arrested after bringing up brass salary at school board meeting – NBC News

Jeezus Kerrreyst…. Clearly some of the individuals involved need to be put in handcuffs and dropped into the swampy morass that is the Louisiana justice system but the teacher is not in that group….

‘The difficulty is the point’: teaching spoon-fed students how to really read

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

If you are reading this essay, you’re a reader. You probably know this sentence, and if you don’t, you are comfortable with interpreting it. You can hear a character beginning to form: its romantic, optimistic, nostalgic voice; a voice yearning for simplicity; probably, in its deliberate imitation of a child’s singsong, the voice of a woman, a mother. You know it might take a few pages to learn just who this woman is. You’re skilled in this sort of patience.

But if you have never read anything more difficult than a Harry Potter book, how are you meant to proceed?

Well, there is only one way to go on, as I tell students – and that is to go on. This is the first and greatest difficulty they face. There’s no reason for them to continue reading. There is so much else to read that is shorter, and not just aimed at them, but, in the case of their Facebook feed, tuned to their experience. Marketed to them. Why would they bother reading something that was neither for them nor about them?

… “Some students want Nietzsche in the same way that they want a hamburger; they fail to grasp – and the logic of the consumer system encourages this misapprehension – that the indigestibility, the difficulty is Nietzsche.”

…many of his students are in a state that he calls “depressive hedonia … an inability to do anything else except pursue pleasure”. I’m not trying to give my students pleasure, or make them enjoy themselves. I’m trying to show them how critical engagement with literature enables critical engagement with living. I’m trying to interrupt what Fisher calls “the constant flow of sugary gratification on demand”. And finally, I’m trying to help them pass that literacy test.

‘The difficulty is the point’: teaching spoon-fed students how to really read | Books | The Guardian

hmmm

Out of options, rural communities turn to charters to keep schooling local 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

Nationally, about 44 percent of all charters are professionally managed by either a non-profit Charter Management Organization (CMO) or a for-profit Educational Management Organization (EMO), according to data from 2014-15. Just 19 percent of rural charters are operated by CMOs or EMOs, however, with 81 percent run independently, often by local community groups, based on data from 2009-10. 

In rural places affected by public school consolidation, the argument for keeping a community school through chartering often extends beyond academics. A school can provide a small town with economic benefits, employing residents and consequently helping out local businesses, notes Mara Tieken, an associate professor of education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. 

Less tangibly, Professor Tieken and others say, a school can be a powerful force for building relationships between members of the community and giving a town an identity.

…Part of working toward rural sustainability at River Grove and other charters involves nurturing a deeper connection between students and their hometowns through place-based education and involvement with the local community. At River Grove, this means lots of outdoor time and hands-on science lessons to reflect the natural setting of Marine on St. Croix. 

The Sugar Valley Rural Charter School, a community-run school in Loganton, Pa., employs a similar strategy to bolster students’ appreciation of the local farming culture. The charter school, founded by a group of parents in 2000 after the closure of Loganton’s longtime K-12 public school, also teaches the region’s agricultural history to its 485 students. 

…To encourage relationships between students and members of the community, the school has neighbors volunteer to give lessons in areas of expertise such as gardening, baking, and art.

…Back in the days of the traditional public school, she recalls, high school sports were a popular attraction for locals. She’s hopeful that building a new gymnasium and expanding the charter school’s athletic offerings will help rally neighbors around something to root for. 

Out of options, rural communities turn to charters to keep schooling local – CSMonitor.com

hmmmm

Little Rock Nine: the day young students shattered racial segregation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Race,Leave a comment

Brown v Board of Education, the landmark 1954 supreme court ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional, should have meant she and fellow pupils could take their places at Central High. But Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas, in the deep south, remained defiant and used the national guard to block their enrollment. The African American children were left in limbo for three weeks.

On the first day of term, the national guard were there to stop the nine entering Central High, where all 1,900 attendees were white.

…On 23 September 1957, the group did get into the building with police protection. But an angry mob of more than a thousand white people had gathered in front of the school, chanting racist abuse such as “Go back to Africa.”

The mob started a riot and police decided to remove the students for their own safety. “At about 10am they said: ‘You’ve got to come down to the office,’ and we went down into the basement. They put us in these cars and the cops driving the cars were shaking. They had the guns and sticks and they were scared. ‘Oh wow, this is scary.’ Some of us were told to keep our heads down

……President Dwight Eisenhower sent in 1,200 paratroopers from the 101st airborne division. 

…On 25 September, the group braved a hostile white crowd, climbed the school steps and were escorted to class by US army troops. …The soldiers escorted the students single file into the school for their first full day of classes and dispersed the demonstrators.

…But although 25 September is the date people remember, troops remained at Central high school for the rest the school year and the Little Rock Nine ran the gauntlet of hatred every day. They were taunted, assaulted and spat upon by their white counterparts; a straw effigy of a black person was hung from a tree. They were kept apart in different classes so they could not vouch for each other’s claims.

Little Rock Nine: the day young students shattered racial segregation | World news | The Guardian

Only sixty years ago!

Views among college students regarding the First Amendment

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,Leave a comment

…there is a significant divergence between the actual and perceived scope of First Amendment freedoms. More specifically, with respect to the questions explored above, many students have an overly narrow view of the extent of freedom of expression. For example, a very significant percentage of students hold the view that hate speech is unprotected. In addition, a surprisingly large fraction of students believe it is acceptable to act—including resorting to violence—to shut down expression they consider offensive. And a majority of students appear to want an environment that shields them from being exposed to views they might find offensive.

Views among college students regarding the First Amendment: Results from a new survey

hmmm

University of Wisconsin and the aftermath of destroying professor tenure.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

But academics don’t want tenure because they think they’re better or smarter than you. Academics, whether they have it or not, want some form of tenure to exist to protect the integrity of the knowledge that is produced, preserved, and disseminated.

Wisconsin professors simply do not want research limited by the whims of 18 people appointed by a governor with an openly stated anti-education agenda. And you shouldn’t, either. Think university research doesn’t affect you? You’re wrong. Hundreds of technological and social advances that you depend upon have been made thanks to the research of some brainiac at some university somewhere: what kind of cities to plan; how (and where) to alleviate poverty and hunger; what kind of diseases to treat; what kind of drugs to invent (or make obsolete); what kind of bridges and roads to build (and where). If professors are not protected from disagreeing with the agenda of their “bosses”—whether that be Dow Chemical, Gov. Walker, or President Trump—the consequences will go far beyond one person’s paycheck.

University of Wisconsin and the aftermath of destroying professor tenure.

hmmm

Civics, Community, and Allyship: Why We Chose Our Local Public School 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Modern Parenting,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

When parents ask me where my daughter is going to kindergarten, I tell them my local, public, elementary school. Many are surprised, and follow the question up with “Oh! Is that a good school?” 

…Because it IS a good school, with loving parents, teachers, and administrators. Without the glossy brochures, the extra fancy professional development, the “team-building.”

Because there is no lottery, no admissions process, no waitlist. No back door secret enrollment policies. You live in this neighborhood; this school belongs to you.

Because it is a school brimming with potential and excellence, despite many families and people in our neighborhood who ignore it or don’t consider it worth attending and supporting

Because just as the grassy strip of parkway in front of my house is my responsibility to maintain for myself and my neighbors, my local elementary school is also that- my responsibility. My responsibility to patronize, to trust, to support.

Because unless I am intentionally placing my children in diverse settings, both socio-economically and racially, unless I am intentionally acknowledging and addressing the issues of school segregation that have divided this great city, I will raise a racist. I won’t mean to. But intentions are no longer enough. Unless I am forcibly putting her out in to the world, confident in her resilience, humanity, and grit, I will keep her cloistered and separate from the truth of what it really means to be an equal among equals.

Civics, Community, and Allyship: Why We Chose Our Local Public School – IntegratedSchools.org

Amen, like-minded parent.
A-f’ing-men.

* = I fucking hate the word “ally” and the word “allyship.” I think both of them sound patronizing and disconnected as all hell. So fuck that word choice but I’m with this guy on everything else he says.

Students Stood Up To A White Nationalist March in VA

On By peanutgallerynhIn Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

“Tell me again how today’s college students are scared snowflakes.”

A Small Group Of Students Stood Up To A White Nationalist March And People Are Lauding Them As Heroes

Go VA students!

Ruby Bridges, the Little Black Girl Who Desegregated New Orleans Schools, Is Only 62. Let That Sink In. 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Gulf Coast Region,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

…After exhausting all stalling tactics, the Legislature had to relent, and the designated schools were to be integrated that November. Fearing there might be some civil disturbances, the federal district court judge requested the U.S. government send federal marshals to New Orleans to protect the children.

On the morning of November 14, 1960, federal marshals drove Ruby and her mother five blocks to her new school. (biography.com)

 

 

Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach Ruby. …Ruby was the only student in Henry’s class, because parents pulled or threatened to pull their children from Ruby’s class and send them to other schools. (bigraphy.com)

 

Ruby Bridges, then.

 

Ruby Bridges, now.

Ruby Bridges, the Little Black Girl Who Desegregated New Orleans Schools, Is Only 62. Let That Sink In. – Watch The Yard

Crazy, right?!!!

Mother of African-American student files lawsuit after her daughter was named ‘co-valedictorian’ alongside white student with ‘lower GPA’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

An African American woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a Mississippi school district, claiming that a white student was named “co-valedictorian” alongside her daughter, despite the white student having a lower grade point average (GPA).

Mother of African-American student files lawsuit after her daughter was named ‘co-valedictorian’ alongside white student with ‘lower GPA’ | The Independent

hmmm

When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code

On By peanutgallerynhIn Boston,, Race,, Schools,Leave a comment

For wearing their hair in braids, two teenagers were threatened with suspension at their charter school. Similar incidents show that strict dress codes can punish students for their racial identity.

…According to Colleen Cook, administrators at Mystic Valley have routinely reprimanded black students for dress code violations involving hair.

Other black girls have been pulled out of class, she says, lined up, asked if they had hair extensions and given detention if they did.

Colleen remembers when one student, who wore her hair in its natural texture, was taken out of class and told that she would need to relax, or chemically straighten, her hair before returning to school the next day.

In defense of their daughters, the Cooks brought in a yearbook to show school leaders the many white female students with hair extensions and dyed hair.

But, the Cooks say, the administration didn’t see that those students were in violation of the dress code, stating those hair alterations weren’t as obvious.

…”I feel like the school is pushing us to raise them as white children, but that’s not who they are or who they’re going to be.”

When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code : NPR Ed : NPR

Criminalizing being black starts at an early age. I hope the Cooks sue the school into stone age. If the school system insists on disrupting the education of young people who happen to be black, then in all fairness everyone else’s education needs to be disrupted as well.

Teacher at Mormon University Loses Job Over Pro-LGBT Facebook Post 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Religion,, Schools,Leave a comment

Ruthie Robertson, an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University-Idaho, refused to retract her supportive Pride Month post.

…She mentioned that the Bible’s book of Leviticus, which has verses often used to condemn homosexuality, also prohibits the wearing of garments made from two kinds of fabric, and teaches that women are unclean during their menstrual periods and for a time after childbirth.

“None of this is archaic, sexist, or totally illogical at all though, right?” Robertson wrote. “God commanded these things, so we need to make sure we make these into policies as well! What I’m trying convey is that we like to pick and choose from the scriptures, and if we choose to use the Old Testament as a defense for condemning homosexuality … there’s a whole lot more we need to be condemning as well.”

“This is my official announcement and declaration that I believe heterosexuality and homosexuality are both natural and neither is sinful,” she continued. “I will never support the phrase ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ because that ‘sin’ is part of who that person is. Homosexuality and transgenderism are not sins; if God made us, and those are part of who we are then God created that as well.”

Robertson, a lifelong Mormon and BYUI alum, added that the LDS Church has changed policies on other issues, so she hopes it will someday change its approach to LGBT people. “I will always and forever stand up for the equality of the LGBT community,” she concluded. “Sexuality and gender are not binary, they are on a spectrum and that’s how we were made. Stand up for humanity, love people because of who they are … not despite who they are. Trump can break the tradition of June being LGBT pride month, but I’m still going to celebrate it … this month and every month to follow. #LGBTPrideMonth.”

Teacher at Mormon University Loses Job Over Pro-LGBT Facebook Post | Advocate.com

Good on ya, Professor. They can fire you but they shouldn’t be able to make you deny what is in your heart. Sounds like another university or college would do well to scoop you up.

DeVos Sympathizes with the Accused and Not the Victims in Campus Rape Policies 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Schools,Leave a comment

Ms. Jackson represented sexual assault victims as a private lawyer before joining the Education Department. She is best known for her involvement in attacks against Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign, when she elevated women who had accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault or harassment, while denouncing women who accused Mr. Trump of such behavior.

…Catherine E. Lhamon, who led the Education Department’s civil rights office from August 2013 through December 2016, called Ms. Jackson’s claims that investigators were told to fish for violations “patently, demonstrably untrue.” For the department to distinguish between violent and nonviolent assaults in investigations, she added, “portrays a profound misunderstanding of Title IX.”
Ms. Lhamon said investigations under her tenure turned up “jaw-dropping degrees of noncompliance” with sexual assault law.

Well, duh! She works for the pussy grabbing cheeto, of course she is ont he side of rapists and not victims.

Shan S. Tsutsui | Farm to School Initiative

On By peanutgallerynhIn Hawaii,, Schools,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Across the nation, farm to school programs are reconnecting students to a better understanding of the food system and where their food comes from. Farm to school programs introduce students to healthier eating habits and help them become familiar with new vegetables and fruits that they and their families will then be more willing to incorporate into their own diets.

The goal of the Farm to School Initiative is to address the supply and demand issues surrounding the purchasing of local food for our State school cafeterias. The Initiative also aims to systematically increase State purchasing of local food for our school menus as well as connect our keiki* with the aina* through their food, using products from the local agricultural community.

Shan S. Tsutsui | Farm to School Initiative

Very cool.

*Hawaiian translation for all you mainlanders*
keiki = children
aina = land