Happy Thanksgiving

I am taking a vacation until after thanksgiving.

Wishing you and yours a good holiday!

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III
The ETeam

Ending the week with positive news

Sometimes we need to just celebrate the simple things in education rather than pointing out the big bad things, so, on that note I want to share something personal.

My now 7 year old daughter told us almost a year and half ago that she was going to the Olympics for gymnastics. As parents, we sometimes do not realize how determined kids can be, myself included. Yesterday, she made the official team, and this particular team has been a feeder for various US national gymnasts.

It looks like she is one step closer to the Olympics and I am filled with pride about her!

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Sexual assault is about the victim not the school’s reputation

It seems sexual assault ‘embarrasses’ certain types of institutions; professional sports and college campuses. What bothers me about the college campus is that it is supposed to be a place of learning and enlightenment, so they should know better.

Instead of absolute outrage at the fact that students were sexually assaulted on a campus, we get outrage that the campus’ good name might be tarnished, we get spin control, we get threats of retaliation; but we do not get a serious solution.

It is great that the schools have policies on sexual assault and that on paper they take it very seriously. However, a piece of paper is not going to protect the victim; they can wave it all they want but it will not help them.

What are schools doing to put absolute fear in potential rapists? What are schools doing to change the culture to the point where rape becomes a distant memory of barbaric times instead of an everyday occurrence?

“Spotlight on Campus Responses to Rape Puts Presidents in a Bind”

“When seven current and former students at the University of Connecticut filed a federal complaint last month alleging that the university had failed to protect them from sexual assault, the response from the president there was brusque”.

“"Astonishingly misguided and demonstrably untrue," the president, Susan Herbst, deemed the allegations in remarks to the Board of Trustees. "I completely reject the notion that UConn somehow doesn't care about these all-important issues, because nothing could be further from the truth. I cannot speak to the motivations of the people who have suggested this."”

“The reaction to her comments, on the campus and beyond, was scathing. "Tone-Deaf," declared a headline in The Courant, a Hartford newspaper. "Defensive" and "surprisingly dismissive," a state senator said. One of the students who had filed the original complaint, with the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, posted the president's comments and a plea for advice on a private Facebook page for anti-rape activists. Her word for the president's remarks: "violent."”

“In the weeks since, the university has found itself in a harsh spotlight’

Read the whole thing here: http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/143199/

Two steps forward three steps back. It is about the student; please keep them safe, that is all.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Sharing an article 11/20/13

My purpose of sharing this is to make you aware, and hopefully start talking about this issue.

“The Hard-Knock (and Downright Dangerous) Lives of Teachers”

“The Associated Press this week reports on the dangers teachers face on a daily basis”.

“"When a 16-year-old student slammed a metal trash can onto Philip Raimondo's head, it did more than break open the history teacher's scalp, knock him out, and send him bleeding to the floor," the Associated Press writes”.

“Violence against teachers isn't new ground, it's just progressively sadder ground dampened by further bloodshed. In September, the Teaching Now Blog's Hana Maruyama wrote about other recent physical assaults on teachers, including incidents in Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Georgia; the Brooklyn borough of New York”

“A master's degree in teaching does not confer upon the recipient any form of invisible shield. It does not bestow super strength or airbags. Teachers are no less immune to a violent climate than their school's students, and yet they're in a position to have a vastly greater influence, both positive and negative, than a single student likely is”.

“Earlier this month, I wrote about the Broward County, Fla., community-wide agreement that would establish the point at which police should become involved in school discipline issues; it's basically a flow chart. Everyone in Broward County, based on the enthusiasm expressed at multiple events pertaining to the agreement's adoption, seems thrilled. But some were quick to point out that discipline is a reaction to an event, not a proactive solution. Or, in less diplomatic terms:”

Read the whole thing here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/2013/11/the_hard-knock_and_downright_dangerous_lives_of_teachers.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS3

 

This is not an easy topic because as educators we sometimes feel we need to be prepared to ‘bleed’ for our students. However, violence is not part of the job description, and placing blame is not a solution.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

 

Sharing an article 11/19/13

“For-Profits Step Up Gainful Criticism”

“Representatives of for-profit colleges stepped up their criticism Monday of the Education Department’s efforts to rewrite the “gainful employment” rules that would apply to their institutions and vocational programs at community colleges”.

“As a federally appointed panel kicked off a second round of negotiations over the regulations, the for-profit-college members of the committee lamented a lack of information and questioned the department’s rationale for putting forth a stricter, more sweeping proposal than the department originally suggested in its first draft”.

“The department is now proposing standards that include a debt-to-income measure, a program-level cohort default rate, and a loan repayment rate. With that more aggressive proposal on the table, the negotiators Monday appeared even further apart than they did during the first round of discussions”.

Read the rest here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/11/19/profit-colleges-step-criticism-gainful-employment-regulations-negotiations-continue

So it continues…

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

An interesting piece of research

First and foremost, I am simply presenting a piece of information not a political opinion. This information is not new, but the author has presented in what I found was a fresh and riveting way.

My hope is that you will read this and see that there is not just a social problem, but a systemic education problem that threads itself through systems from beginning to end. I am a firm believer that educators have or can find the answer to this issue.

“The American Police State: A sociologist interrogates the criminal-justice system, and tries to stay out of the spotlight”

“ On a winter afternoon in 2004, a woman waits in the detective unit of a Philadelphia police station. Two officers, outfitted with combat boots and large guns, enter the room. The cops place their guns on the table, pointed at her. The woman is 22, tiny, and terrified”.

“The officers show her a series of photos of men from around her neighborhood. Two of the men are her roommates, Mike and Chuck, low-level drug dealers who keep crack and guns in the shared apartment. Some of the photos were taken in front of her home. Spewing obscenities about the woman's supposed appetite for casual sex, the cops press for information about her roommates and threaten criminal charges if she fails to cooperate”.

“In a book to be published this spring, Alice Goffman, a sociologist at the U. of Wisconsin at Madison, describes America’s prison boom through the story of a group of friends in a

Will Steacy

"If you can't work with us," one cop says, "then who will you call when he's sticking a gun to your head? ... He'll kill you over a couple of grams. You know that, right?"”

 

“Such scenes are nothing unusual in the lower-income black neighborhood where this woman spends most of her time. Girlfriends and relatives routinely face police pressure to inform on the men in their lives”.

“Unknown to the cops, though, there is one difference this time. The woman under interrogation, Alice Goffman, has been watching them”.

In a book coming out this spring, Goffman, now a 31-year-old assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, documents how the expansion of America's penal system is reshaping life for the poor black families who exist under the watch of its police, prison guards, and parole officers.

Read the whole article here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-American-Police-State/142965/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

 Focus on the topic and not the irrelevant and titillating questions that might pop into your head, please do not miss the point!

Educators, we regularly find ways to help people with physical disabilities, mental blocks, ADHD, dyslexia, etc, etc. I am convinced that if we look at this revolving system of institutionalized damnation, we can come up with a workable solution for this as well.

 

No politics here just about people.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

“Teachers Share Advice on Classroom Management"

“To improve their classroom-management skills, teachers are often advised to seek help from talented peers. To that end, we recently sent out emails and tweets to teachers asking: “What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received regarding classroom management?””

“Over 40 teachers replied with tips on everything from timed activities to relationship building. Here's a selection of their responses:”

Read it all here: http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/10/14/cm_advice.html?tkn=YXLFg8Pkn%2BGLNZzj1Eqpx0r4NHi6w3gDHwyv&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam