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The Civil War Was One Of The Most Shameful Things In The Short History Of The U.S

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I am going to approach this as an educator, because that is what I am and that is what I do when trying to make a point. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died from combat, accident, starvation, and disease during the Civil War (this is just soldiers mind you, not civilians so the numbers are much larger). No other war in our history killed so many:   This was a war that deeply divided a nation, and whatever your ideology, those divisions were not good for the country and some areas never recovered.      I have heard people from the south refer to the civil war as “the war of northern aggression”, I still find that amusing, but my point is the war is still a sore point with people even today.   The confederate flag is called a battle flag to some, and people want to use it to remember their war heroes; we are all entitled to our thoughts and beliefs, and quite frankly it does not bother me but I have an advantage of being a first generation A...

National tradgedies belong to all of us...

We have another awful incident in this country today, and unfortunately it will not be the last. However, how we approach and talk about it can change right now. These were American victims killed, so they were all our victims, and there will be more victims before this is all done including the family of the shooter. Do not concentrate on sound bites, approach this with love and compassion, not hate and more hate. We need to come together to solve future incidents, and we need to do it now before each story fades away as old news. Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

Sharing and article June 10, 2015

This is worth a read and thoughts: The War on Thugs How propaganda fuels our prison problem By Jason Stanley “I n 1980, there were 500,000 Americans in prison or jail . By 2013, there were more than 2.3 million. The explosion in incarceration has fallen disproportionately on the descendants of slaves. White Americans are 77 percent of the U.S. population, and black Americans 13 percent. Yet more blacks are incarcerated than whites. There has scarcely been a time in history when one group has composed so much of the world’s prison population; black Americans may only be 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they are 9 percent of the world’s prison population.” Read the whole thing here: http://chronicle.com/article/The-War-on-Thugs/230787/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en Keeps this conversation going because it is an education problem.   Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

Race is still a consideration in America

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If you look at the title of this piece, and nothing jumps out, then you are missing the point. We still divide people in this country into various races, as if we are genetically different. Yes I know race is a social construct, but many people do not ; they really believe there are different races. I have said this before, and I will say it again; when a country as young as the United States, that is built upon oppression of poor people and people from different lands, and we do not acknowledge this sordid past, then we will never be post-racial. Also, there is a difference between bigotry and racism, but that is a different subject. From a simple numbers perspective look at the facts: ·          Law enforcement and legal punishments are extremely skewed when it comes to people of color. It so happens poverty is higher in this group, and so those same stats are skewed against poor people in general ( http://apps.washingtonpos...

Social media and Education

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Have you ever tried to incorporate social media into your classroom? I often hear the argument that it is important to use the tools students are using in order to reach them; trouble is what if the students are using the tools badly in the first place? Dr Flavius A B Akerele III The ETeam

Do you really know what your job description is?

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Look at some of the classified job ads on the internet today, read the descriptions and then compare the descriptions to the titles. Now, take a look at your own job title and compare it to what you actually do. Does the information match? Companies are obsessed with productivity nowadays, to the point where there are actual metrics for how much time you spend in the bathroom (seriously). Funny thing is, we are more productive than ever thanks to technology. It seems we are constantly plugged in to some kind of information stimuli, even when we should be relaxing, and companies seem to want to capitalize on this trend until they can discard you for the “newer model". There is no social contract at work, and the expected ramp up time for jobs is getting shorter and shorter. Now back to the job description. The descriptions are so general or so all-inclusive that it borders on false advertising; and the reward for doing a good job is more work (with no pay increase). There...

True patriotism

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There are a lot of common misconceptions it seems on what it means to be a patriot, now keep in mind this is just my opinion, but since I am highly educated educator I hope you will give my opinion some thought. Being a patriot does not mean you must have done a combat tour in the military, only 7% of the population currently serve, and of that 7% percent most will never see combat. But I dare you to try and run a war without your supply or mess hall unit; let me know how that works out for you. Also, do not tell me the community volunteers are not serving their country Hoisting a flag in your front yard does not make you a patriot. Most people are not even aware of proper flag protocol anyway, but they mean well. The flag is a symbol of something bigger than you not a symbol of you. Being anti immigrant does not make you a patriot, especially since this country was built on immigration (listen to what I just said not what you interpreted) You do not have to be...