DEEP message to the school system!
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http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/11/21/literacy-not-a-right-for-detroit-school-kids-says-state/
Literacy Not A Right For Detroit School Kids According To State
November 21, 2016 10:27 AM
Filed Under: Literacy
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) – Detroit school children have no fundamental right to literacy, according to Gov. Rick Snyder’s attorneys, in the midst of a suit claiming the poor reading skills of Detroit students at five schools, deplorable building conditions, and lack of basic classroom necessities are the fault of the state.
A California public interest law firm is representing seven Detroit public school students who believe the education they are getting is substandard and essentially want the courts to rule that literacy is a fundamental constitutional right reports WWJ legal analyst Charlie Langton.
The suit looks to establish that literacy is a U.S. constitutional right.
“Decades of State disinvestment in and deliberate indifference to Detroit schools have denied Plaintiff schoolchildren access to the most basic building block of education: literacy,” the suit claims at its start.
The lawsuit says the schools are in “slum-like conditions” and “functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy.” The case, filed in federal court, directly accuses Gov. Rick Snyder, the state school board and others of violating the civil rights of low-income students.
The lawsuit could face some challenges says Langton, adding that while there are some difficulties with Detroit public schools, the judge could say that the solution may be better addressed by the elected school board, or through the political process.
In January, a review of Detroit school buildings uncovered mold, water damage and rodents – this after teacher sick-outs in protest of working conditions within the deteriorating school buildings.
A 2011 report showed 47 percent of Detroiters were functionally illiterate— meaning nearly half of they were not able to fill out basic forms for getting a job or having a command over basic understanding for such things as reading a prescription bottle.
The judge will conduct a hearing in February.
Literacy Not A Right For Detroit School Kids According To State
November 21, 2016 10:27 AM
Filed Under: Literacy
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) – Detroit school children have no fundamental right to literacy, according to Gov. Rick Snyder’s attorneys, in the midst of a suit claiming the poor reading skills of Detroit students at five schools, deplorable building conditions, and lack of basic classroom necessities are the fault of the state.
A California public interest law firm is representing seven Detroit public school students who believe the education they are getting is substandard and essentially want the courts to rule that literacy is a fundamental constitutional right reports WWJ legal analyst Charlie Langton.
The suit looks to establish that literacy is a U.S. constitutional right.
“Decades of State disinvestment in and deliberate indifference to Detroit schools have denied Plaintiff schoolchildren access to the most basic building block of education: literacy,” the suit claims at its start.
The lawsuit says the schools are in “slum-like conditions” and “functionally incapable of delivering access to literacy.” The case, filed in federal court, directly accuses Gov. Rick Snyder, the state school board and others of violating the civil rights of low-income students.
The lawsuit could face some challenges says Langton, adding that while there are some difficulties with Detroit public schools, the judge could say that the solution may be better addressed by the elected school board, or through the political process.
In January, a review of Detroit school buildings uncovered mold, water damage and rodents – this after teacher sick-outs in protest of working conditions within the deteriorating school buildings.
A 2011 report showed 47 percent of Detroiters were functionally illiterate— meaning nearly half of they were not able to fill out basic forms for getting a job or having a command over basic understanding for such things as reading a prescription bottle.
The judge will conduct a hearing in February.
The following is from a pua/misogynistic site
But you cannot deny some of the points made and when you consider these types of actions are even worse for our melanated school children, it gives an important insight and warnings for us.
8 Reasons Why American Women Are Terrible Teachers
But you cannot deny some of the points made and when you consider these types of actions are even worse for our melanated school children, it gives an important insight and warnings for us.
8 Reasons Why American Women Are Terrible Teachers
If you see feminism for the toxic and corrosive ideology that corrupts women and society at large, then we must come to terms with the fact that American women—along with their Canadian, British, Australian, and other counterparts—should not be teachers who are responsible for the developmental years of children’s lives. The marriage between today’s feminized education system and modern women is ruining entire future generations with their incompetence, contempt, and brainwashing. I don’t expect things to change overnight, but the following points must be addressed regarding the nature of today’s female teachers.
1. They are lousy role models
Would you like to have a divorced Instragram whore as your child’s role model?
With just how low Western women have gone these days, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that female teachers are no exceptions—being in a position of teaching doesn’t suddenly make them morally upstanding. Really, why would anyone want their children to be taught by these women? Are we to believe that a woman who spent her entire adult life drinking and partying to suddenly become a mentor for our sons and daughters? If you can’t turn a whore into a housewife, the same is doubly true for those trying to pass off as educators.
2. They are not serious about teaching
I’ve met dozens of girls who were either studying or on their way to become teachers and the majority of them tended to be party girls with no real interest in intellectual pursuits.
The truth is that most female teachers don’t have any passion for teaching. They just want an easy and secure government job that will elevate their sense of self-importance. If you ever observe them in classrooms, you’ll know that they have no standards and enjoy texting and chatting on their phones during their class time. To them, it is the status of being a teacher that matters, not the substance of what that they can deliver to their pupils. These teachers don’t encourage independence and free thought and they’re not interested in letting students inquire and learn on their own; they’re more interested in having them do as they’re told as passive subjects in a controlled environment.
3. They hate children (especially boys)
In addition to their lack of passion, the teachers and would-be teachers I’ve known throughout my life don’t seem to like children all. In spite of how much they profess their love of teaching kids, all these females tend to do is bitch non-stop about their “stupid” students while making minimal effort to guide them in their learning.
4. They brainwash children with degenerate progressive ideas
If you think feminist and progressive brainwashing is limited to colleges, you are wrong. Public schools and even kindergarten are now battlegrounds to teach young children about “gender fluidity” and other nightmarish garbage instead of preparing for their futures. And we all know that women are more likely to spread these progressive ideas than men (all the teachers I’ve had who preached progressivism were females), making them the primary offenders in indoctrinating children.
5. They love to power-trip
Yes, she has to do this in the classroom because she can’t signal her status on social media without it.
Teachers are in a delicate position of power to lead their students and women seem to love abusing that power. I’ve noticed that teaching jobs attract women who are unbearable control-freaks who love to tell others what to do and how to do them. These women care more about asserting their authority than in fostering a healthy learning environment.
As an anecdote, I had a friend who had the misfortune of having a feminist as his English teacher in high school. He told me that she would openly say things like “Why are all the boys so dumb?” and give all the girls bonus marks just for being girls while the boys were constantly graded low. When all the male students went to complain to the principal, the teacher naturally played the victim by claiming that the male students hated her just for being a feminist. The cuck of a principal didn’t take any action as a result and she was allowed to continue abusing her power.
I’m sure there are countless more feminist teachers who are denigrating the boys in every way imaginable so that they will not succeed. If this is not a systematic effort to bring down the male population, I don’t know what is.
6. They are incapable
What?! The school fired this lady because she refused to teach due to her phobia of children? Fucking misogynists.
It is clear that many women are not capable of handling the slightest stress that comes with teaching and maintaining a class. When I was in high school, I once had a female teacher walk out of the classroom and not return. This didn’t happen because the students were being dicks, but because she was getting too stressed and overwhelmed from… grading quizzes. Like most “strong and independent” women usually do, female teachers focus more on maintaining an outside shell and a facade of competence than delivering excellence.
Then there’s the recent issue of teachers calling the police because they are incapable of dealing with children themselves. In New Jersey for example, a female teacher called the police on her 3rd grader because the way he said “brownies” was misconstrued as being “racist” by another student (the fact that 3rd graders are even complaining about racism should be an alarm). That single incident is already insane enough, but in that elementary school alone, the police are apparently called as often as five times a day to handle incidents which the female teachers seem incapable of dealing with.
7. They are mentally unstable
Many female teachers I’ve known all seemed to have varying degrees of emotional issues that should disqualify them as teachers. And as more and more American women are becoming mentally ill, we can expect increasing number of female teachers to be unstable and unreliable in the future. And as they say, crazy people make other people crazy.
8. They are sexual predators
The number of female teachers who are having sex with their students are on a dramatic rise, which I suspect is due to laxer punishments and consequences for women as well as the you go, girl! attitude promoted in our culture. But I suppose expecting these young women—who aren’t married and don’t even have children of their own—to behave in any other way is asking for too much.
Conclusion
This one posted pictures of herself nude and smoking weed on Twitter as well as calling her student “jailbait.” How many more women of this quality are passing off as educators today?
Ideally, the public education should be abolished and be replaced by homeschooling or other more effective means of preparing children for their future, but as long as boys are made to go to school, American women need to be screened better or be completely removed from teaching positions lest they do more harm than good. Yes, there are male teachers who are just as bad, but know that early education is almost completely dominated by women and the few men who are teachers are heavily influenced by them.
And as recent studies show, feminism is having a negative impact on boys while eliminating such feminist bias from teachers erased the boys’ failing grades, proving that feminism is systematically harming the male population from a young age. As long as these feminism-infected women are in charge of the future generation, don’t expect the society to change for the better.
Dayyyyyaaaammm!!
When it comes to proper moves
Homeschooling just went up some more levels
When it comes to proper moves
Homeschooling just went up some more levels
Powerful and true
If a Man/Woman has no children they shouldnt be allowed to teach. Theres a difference between dealing with kids 8 hours a day and dealing with kids 24 hours of the day.....Just my opinion
Get out your feelings. Theres nothing stopping you from creating a better version.
If a Man/Woman has no children they shouldnt be allowed to teach. Theres a difference between dealing with kids 8 hours a day and dealing with kids 24 hours of the day.....Just my opinion
Get out your feelings. Theres nothing stopping you from creating a better version.
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white teachers, Black kids... poor economic backing...yall know the rest
One D.C. school lost more than a quarter of its teaching staff this year.
By Alejandra Matos May 28 at 3:33 PM
Dwight Harris, 16, an 11th-grader at Ballou High School, pictured outside the D.C. school. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
Nearly 200 teachers have quit their jobs in D.C. Public Schools since the school year began, forcing principals to scramble to cover their classes with substitutes and depriving many students of quality instruction in critical subjects.
The vacancies hit hardest in schools that already face numerous academic challenges, according to data The Washington Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
At Ballou High School in Southeast Washington, more than a quarter of the faculty quit after starting work in August. Many of their classrooms now have long-term substitutes. Dwight Harris, 16, an 11th-grader, said his Algebra 2 class has been chaotic since his first teacher left in January.
“No one is teaching. It’s been like that for months now,” Harris said. “We don’t do anything, so I leave and go to my biology class or English class and go do other work.”
Most teachers wait until summer to call it quits, but in DCPS a rising number are leaving during the school year.
The mid-year resignation rate for DCPS was higher than for some other urban school systems The Post checked. In the D.C. system, 184 of about 4,000 teachers — nearly 5 percent — quit from September to mid-May. That was a 44 percent increase over the 128 teachers who left in the 2013-2014 school year.
In Denver Public Schools, which employs about 4,600 teachers, 115 teachers left in a comparable period this year. In Baltimore City Public Schools, with about 5,150 teachers, the total who quit was 145. In Seattle Public Schools, with about 4,000 teachers, 55 quit.
DCPS spokeswoman Michelle Lerner acknowledged it is a challenge to lose teachers mid-year. School officials try to fill vacancies as quickly as possible with a full-time teacher, but she said the best time to hire is in the summer.
“Having a high-quality teacher in front of every classroom is a huge priority for us,” she said.
[1 in 4 U.S. teachers are chronically absent, missing more than 10 days of school]
While the number who quit abruptly is small compared with the total workforce, experts say mid-year resignations are particularly disruptive and harmful to student learning because it’s very difficult to fill sudden vacancies.
Most good teachers are employed during the school year. That means if a teacher leaves mid-year, classrooms are left to a rotation of short-term substitutes or a long-term sub who may not be fully qualified to teach at that grade level or in a specific discipline, such as math or biology.
“Every teacher, no matter how successful they are at their job, knows that leaving mid-year is a really unkind thing to do to kids and the school. If they are doing it, it’s out of anger, or an overwhelming sense that you are not doing anybody any good by staying,” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality.
The Post obtained two sets of data on DCPS teacher resignations. One covered the systemwide totals for the past four school years. The other, from the FOIA request, showed in detail how many teachers quit at each campus this school year from August through February. Students started classes on Aug. 22, but teachers reported to work earlier that month. Hiring typically occurs by the end of June.
In most DCPS schools, the faculty is stable. Of 115 schools in the system, 59 had two or fewer resignations after teachers reported to work, the data showed.
But a handful were hit hard.
Raymond Education Campus in Northwest lost 13 teachers, which accounts for a quarter of its faculty. Columbia Heights Education Campus in Northwest lost 11 teachers, or 10 percent. H.D. Woodson High in Northeast lost 10 of its 50 teachers, or 20 percent.
No school has suffered more turnover than Ballou High. It lost 21 teachers from August through February — 28 percent of its faculty. Many of the resignations occurred in the math department, current and former teachers say.
Several former Ballou teachers told The Post they did not want to leave mid-year and felt bad about the consequences for students. But they said a number of problems drove them to leave, from student behavior and attendance issues to their own perception of a lack of support from the administration. They also raised questions about evaluations. Some veterans said that in previous years they had received high marks from administrators, but this year they were given what they believe are arbitrarily low evaluation scores.
DCPS officials declined to make the principal of the school, Yetunde Reeves, available for an interview.
Lerner, the spokeswoman, said the school system is looking closely at the Ballou situation.
“We are working with the school to make sure that the staff in the building feel supported and to create a long-term vision so we don’t continue to see high turnover at Ballou and other schools,” she said.
[D.C.’s overhauled training program is paying off for some teachers]
Rowan Langford was the Algebra 2 teacher for Harris when the school year began. The 22-year-old was a teaching fellow at Ballou. It was her first teaching job after graduating from Tulane University with a bachelor’s degree in math.
Former Ballou High math teacher Rowan Langford. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)
Langford said she asked administrators for help with behavior problems in her classroom — but didn’t get it.
Her classes were large. One had more than 33 students. She said the students were very far behind and lacked the foundation needed to be successful.
“A lot of them felt really discouraged about math and used other methods to lash out,” Langford said. “I couldn’t address those problems they were having on my own.”
Langford said she threatened to quit two months into the school year but was hopeful she would get support to manage her classroom. She said nothing changed. In January, she decided to quit.
“I felt awful about it,” she said. “Before I started this job, I said I didn’t understand why anyone would quit mid-year. But being in it, you realize how long a year is because every single day feels like three.”
Ballou has about 930 students, and all qualify for free or reduced-price lunch because they live in poverty. Many come from homes where their parents didn’t go to college. The school ranks among the city’s lowest-performing high schools on core measures. Its graduation rate in the last school year, 57 percent, was second-lowest among regular high schools in the DCPS system.
In 2016, 3 percent of Ballou students tested met reading standards on citywide exams. Almost none met math standards.
The school was reconstituted in the 2015-2016 school year, its second shakeup in five years. Reconstitution means the teachers and staff all had to reapply for their jobs.
Yetunde Reeves, Ballou principal (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Principal since 2014, Reeves recently said she and her staff were working to change Ballou’s image by raising expectations for students. In March, the school said all of its seniors had applied to college, a first for Ballou.
[Entire senior class at D.C.’s Ballou High School applies to college]
Monica Brokenborough, a music teacher and the school’s union representative, sent a letter this month to the D.C. Council, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and DCPS Chancellor Antwan Wilson raising concerns about the staff vacancies.
“Students simply roam the halls because they know that there is no one present in their assigned classroom to provide them with an education,” Brokenborough said. “Many of them have simply lost hope.”
Richard Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and expert on the nation’s teacher workforce, said there is no national data on what portion of teachers leave in the middle of the school year. But he said a quit rate as high as Ballou’s signals “there are some problems in that building.”
Ingersoll’s research shows that teachers who resign abruptly often do so because they do not feel supported by their administration. Some may leave if they do not feel safe in schools where there are fights and other disruptions. Those issues take a greater toll on inexperienced teachers.
“High turnover, whenever it happens, suggests there are problems in the workplace,” Ingersoll said. “If it’s in the middle of the year, that suggests things are so bad people can’t wait until the end of the year.”
[High-poverty schools often staffed by rotating cast of substitutes]
Walsh, with the National Council on Teacher Quality, agreed that “leadership is everything.” Walsh said that when a large group of teachers leaves mid-year, many could be “disgruntled” and that students may be better off if ineffective teachers leave. Still, she said the school system needs to examine what is driving teachers out.
“I imagine behind closed doors, they are questioning leadership,” Walsh said. “They ought to be using it as a point of discussion with those school leaders.”
Harris said that since his teacher left, he hasn’t learned much in algebra. Substitutes have told him and his classmate to fill out worksheets, he said, which they answer by Googling the problems.
Many times, Harris said, he stays in the room for 10 minutes, long enough for the sub to mark him present.
“I have no idea what my grade is right now,” he said, “but I think I’ll pass the class.”
Asked about Harris’s class, Lerner said that students in it are still receiving instruction. The school is “on a watch for how students do,” she said, and if there is any loss of learning officials will add extra time to the next year’s schedule for math instruction.
In her message to city officials, Brokenborough included handwritten letters from students who described feeling unprepared for their Advanced Placement exams and fearful that their prospects for college will be hampered by not having a teacher in key classes.
Iyonna Jones, an 18-year-old senior, said in one of the letters that security guards tell the students lingering in hallways to go to class, but she has a substitute teacher in her math class and doesn’t feel she is getting the instruction she needs.
“We should just stay home, because what is the point of coming to school if we are not learning and have no teachers,” she wrote.
wow, thanks for this info man
Saw this a while ago. Fire
from a friends blog
The Purpose of Education_My Philosophy of Teaching
To many, teaching is defined quite simply as imparting knowledge or information about a subject. The student is seen as a sponge ready to soak up all the teacher has to deliver. Typically, the emphasis is on the content of the subject matter so that, for example, an accounting instructor will discuss how to make a journal entry and post to the ledger or how to generate a cash flow statement. Or, a professor of engineering would provide information about how and why mass, velocity and force interact. In these and other cases, instructors impart knowledge, assist in understanding the subject content or demonstrate how to apply the subject-specific information. I agree that educators are commissioned by society and by a sense of responsibility to accomplish all the above, but I also believe that educators have an equally important, if not more important, duty – to challenge and teach students to think in a higher-order manner. Thus, teachers are to present challenging material in concert with critical thinking demands.
Teaching content without teaching critical thinking is to create students who are veritable biological tape recorders that play back thought for thought the ideas of the teacher or a textbook. Such an educator creates mindless parrots and awards them grades that correlate with their facility to regurgitate on demand. Too often, critical thinking, if considered at all, is viewed as ancillary or possibly a separate course altogether, as opposed to something that should be etched and dyed into the fabric of the course.
In other words, learning is best achieved and superior long-lasting results can be achieved when students are challenged to both know and understand the subject and to think critically. To reshape the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in education, the subject or course is the ‘tool’ (and there are many) but critical thinking is “the handle which fits them all”. Thus, my philosophy is two-fold:
The Purpose of Education_My Philosophy of Teaching
To many, teaching is defined quite simply as imparting knowledge or information about a subject. The student is seen as a sponge ready to soak up all the teacher has to deliver. Typically, the emphasis is on the content of the subject matter so that, for example, an accounting instructor will discuss how to make a journal entry and post to the ledger or how to generate a cash flow statement. Or, a professor of engineering would provide information about how and why mass, velocity and force interact. In these and other cases, instructors impart knowledge, assist in understanding the subject content or demonstrate how to apply the subject-specific information. I agree that educators are commissioned by society and by a sense of responsibility to accomplish all the above, but I also believe that educators have an equally important, if not more important, duty – to challenge and teach students to think in a higher-order manner. Thus, teachers are to present challenging material in concert with critical thinking demands.
Teaching content without teaching critical thinking is to create students who are veritable biological tape recorders that play back thought for thought the ideas of the teacher or a textbook. Such an educator creates mindless parrots and awards them grades that correlate with their facility to regurgitate on demand. Too often, critical thinking, if considered at all, is viewed as ancillary or possibly a separate course altogether, as opposed to something that should be etched and dyed into the fabric of the course.
In other words, learning is best achieved and superior long-lasting results can be achieved when students are challenged to both know and understand the subject and to think critically. To reshape the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in education, the subject or course is the ‘tool’ (and there are many) but critical thinking is “the handle which fits them all”. Thus, my philosophy is two-fold:
1. The subject matter should be sufficiently rigorous so that students must exert themselves mentally to succeed in the course
2. The course should be designed so that critical thinking is necessary if the student is to be a top performer
Challenging The Students
Regarding the first point, I embrace the belief espoused by John Stuart Mill who so brilliantly stated, “A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can.” Or, as I have often stated in my classes where I speak of a girl who tells her coach, “I never knew I could run a mile until you told me I had to run two.”
Learning is best accomplished when the mind is challenged, pushed, pulled, stretched and otherwise subjected to the paces so that the student comes to know and understand the subject as best she can. This is not to say that a course should be taught in such a way that it is impossible to learn it sufficiently, but it is to say that it is a disservice to students when they are not required to exert themselves beyond their mental set points. (Of course, there are statistical outliers, namely, those for whom what is challenging for the majority is either impossible to attain or comfortably and easily attained.)
Many students have set points or limits to their abilities that are either self-imposed or internalized as a result of embracing limits others have imposed on them. Education should be, in part, about bursting through those limits and reaching just beyond what was presumed to be their maximum reach. No matter the course or class a student takes, the educator should move appropriately from being a life jacket to a life-guard. Ideally, she should inspire the student to welcome the pursuit of the difficult and to convey to the students that they are best served by attempting the difficult.
This is not to say, however, a fifth-grade student should be taught analytic geometry when all she knows is fifth-grade arithmetic. I am saying, however, that a fifth-grade course can be designed with the intent to push the student beyond assumed limitations so that her reach extends farther; her boundaries have expanded because the educator has laid the basis for such expansion. The educator must strike that sweet spot between the easy and the impossible. The course subject matter should never be easy but never be impossible. It is the responsibility of the educator to know the difference. In short, the student, in concert with the educator, should create new limits (that, it is hoped, will also be exceeded later) in the same way a personal trainer prepares and pushes her clients to new levels of performance.
Pushing students beyond their current limits may cause frustration or dismay. Though it is the obligation of the educator to challenge any initial excessive confidence a student may have, she also has the duty to save the student from sinking into a state of abject defeat when the challenge seems too great. Being challenged will often create discomfort just as physical exertion during exercise creates discomfort. This assignment is certainly a challenge for the educator but failure to embrace such a challenge would amount to dereliction of duty.
Lastly, it should be noted that a rigorous course has more to do with the quality of the material and not merely the quantity of work to be done in the course. Piling on tons of homework or reading material rather than developing challenging material is simply a gross disservice. Quality first – quantity second. Once again, this may be a challenge to the educator but such is the path we have chosen in life.
Critical Thinking
With respect to the second point, namely, critical thinking, there are several different definitions or perspectives such as Francis Bacon’s: “Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of posture.” Francis Bacon [1605].
As if elaborating on Bacon’s formulation, W.G. Sumner in his work entitled, Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals (1940) writes: “Critical thinking is… the examination and test of propositions of any kind which are offered for acceptance in order to find out whether they correspond to reality or not. The critical faculty is a product of education and training. It is a prime condition of human welfare that men and women should be trained in it. It is our only guarantee against delusion, deception, superstition, and misapprehension.” (Emphasis mine).
Mr. Sumner expands on the role of education with respect to critical thinking by asserting: “Education is good just so far as it produces well-developed critical faculty… A teacher of any subject, who insists on accuracy and a rational control of all processes and methods, and who holds everything open to unlimited verification and revision, is cultivating that method as a habit in the pupils. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators.”
He then cites the benefits of critical thinking. Persons who think critically “are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty … They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence … They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens.” (Emphasis mine)
Thus, education should be a rigorous mental exercise with the intent to learn the subject matter content complimented by exercises in critical thinking. One without the other is like a hand without an opposable thumb. Subject content are the bricks and critical thinking is the mortar.
To define critical thinking less eloquently, critical thinking requires that one confronts a claim or assertion, punch it, kick it, stomp on it and if it stands back up, then it is worthy of qualified acceptance – until it no longer is. Stated otherwise, in my own words: There is no idea or belief I so dearly cherish so as to shield it from rigorous scrutiny or thoughtful challenge. There is no idea or belief I esteem so highly that I will not alter it or abandon it – sacrifice it in favor of standing even closer to the truth. Thus, critical thinking, of necessity, demands that one also “audi alteram partem” (hear the other side) and to be willing to change one’s ideas or beliefs out of respect and adoration of accuracy or truth.
To embrace such a credo, one must constantly embrace critical thinking and therefore be suspicious of “certainty” and approach it with caution. That does not mean that cynicism should be the norm; it means, that healthy skepticism should be the practice – healthy skepticism as one of the functions of critical thinking. an experienced critical thinker raises sharp questions and identifies assumptions. She gathers relevant data and information and uses them adroitly to reach a well-reasoned and logical conclusion that can withstand intelligent scrutiny. She is open-minded and is willing to dismiss what she formerly believed if by doing so, she is more correct than before.
At this point I want to compare the value of learning subject matter content versus learning critical thinking. Learning to think critically is the superior one of the two. Firstly, subject matter content is a product of critical thinking. For example, whoever developed the formula for the quadratic equation, or whoever discovered the structure or shape of the DNA molecule had to use critical thinking. In short, all subjects taught are primarily (though not always) derived from critical thinking. Even if the content turns out to be incorrect, the correction is also a function of critical thinking.
Furthermore, critical thinking has a vastly more utilitarian function than learning a particular subject matter. As I tell my students, ten years from now, some of them may not remember how to determine the net present value of an investment or what the four Ps of marketing are. Knowing how to amortize a corporate bond that was sold at a premium is important but learning to think critically is priceless. Critical thinking trumps content and content is almost always based on critical thinking.
To further confirm the superiority and importance of critical thinking it should be noted that critical thinking is uncommon; in fact, it is essentially unnatural. Too many people merely swallow the ideas fed to them from youth up without pushing back or questioning the veracity or logic of assertions presented to them. They follow the crowd and often fear casting doubt on commonly-accepted premises and their subsequent conclusions. Accepting what one is told is much easier and much more comfortable than deciding to challenge whether an idea or belief is actually correct or logical. Educators should encourage students to reject such fears and to live a life in which critical thinking becomes as nearly as important as oxygen.
Thus, critical thinking is a vital life skill. Failure to have and exercise it can have baleful consequences. Adolph Hitler stated, “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.” And to reveal how rare critical thinkers are, when Governor Adlai Stevenson (who was considered erudite and scholarly) ran for President it is claimed that one reporter shouted out, “Governor Stevenson, every thinking person is on your side”. The Governor reportedly said in response, “That’s not enough. I need a majority.” It is because people fail to think or that many do not, that they are misled “by stump orators” or that they are victims of “delusion, deception, superstition and misapprehension.”
All too often, people seek confirmation rather than truth. They reject or ignore what is contrary to their untested ideas or beliefs. It is the responsibility of the educator to subject her students to the rigors of critical thinking. Even if truth is elusive, the student is better for having been put through the paces of critical thinking.
Another aspect of critical thinking is creative thinking. Critical thinking involves synthesizing information as well as analyzing it. Creative thinking is a specialized way of synthesizing information to produce something “new”. Creative thinking to a lesser or greater extent requires the other aspects of critical thinking, namely, evaluating, and seeking proof and challenging assertions.
Looking at the relationship between the teacher and the pupil from a different angle, there may be specific points in time when the teacher can learn from the student. Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “I am never angered when contradicted; I seek to be enlightened.” If an educator is going to weave critical thinking throughout the course there may be times when she is respectfully challenged. As a devotee of critical thinking, she should welcome any demonstration of critical thinking even if it is presented as a respectful challenge. Sometimes, the teacher can learn from the pupil. To that end, it is better to be enlightened than to be “right”.
Being taught the subject without being taught to think produces an educated fool at worse or a mediocre student at best. Hence, the true mission of an educator.
2. The course should be designed so that critical thinking is necessary if the student is to be a top performer
Challenging The Students
Regarding the first point, I embrace the belief espoused by John Stuart Mill who so brilliantly stated, “A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can.” Or, as I have often stated in my classes where I speak of a girl who tells her coach, “I never knew I could run a mile until you told me I had to run two.”
Learning is best accomplished when the mind is challenged, pushed, pulled, stretched and otherwise subjected to the paces so that the student comes to know and understand the subject as best she can. This is not to say that a course should be taught in such a way that it is impossible to learn it sufficiently, but it is to say that it is a disservice to students when they are not required to exert themselves beyond their mental set points. (Of course, there are statistical outliers, namely, those for whom what is challenging for the majority is either impossible to attain or comfortably and easily attained.)
Many students have set points or limits to their abilities that are either self-imposed or internalized as a result of embracing limits others have imposed on them. Education should be, in part, about bursting through those limits and reaching just beyond what was presumed to be their maximum reach. No matter the course or class a student takes, the educator should move appropriately from being a life jacket to a life-guard. Ideally, she should inspire the student to welcome the pursuit of the difficult and to convey to the students that they are best served by attempting the difficult.
This is not to say, however, a fifth-grade student should be taught analytic geometry when all she knows is fifth-grade arithmetic. I am saying, however, that a fifth-grade course can be designed with the intent to push the student beyond assumed limitations so that her reach extends farther; her boundaries have expanded because the educator has laid the basis for such expansion. The educator must strike that sweet spot between the easy and the impossible. The course subject matter should never be easy but never be impossible. It is the responsibility of the educator to know the difference. In short, the student, in concert with the educator, should create new limits (that, it is hoped, will also be exceeded later) in the same way a personal trainer prepares and pushes her clients to new levels of performance.
Pushing students beyond their current limits may cause frustration or dismay. Though it is the obligation of the educator to challenge any initial excessive confidence a student may have, she also has the duty to save the student from sinking into a state of abject defeat when the challenge seems too great. Being challenged will often create discomfort just as physical exertion during exercise creates discomfort. This assignment is certainly a challenge for the educator but failure to embrace such a challenge would amount to dereliction of duty.
Lastly, it should be noted that a rigorous course has more to do with the quality of the material and not merely the quantity of work to be done in the course. Piling on tons of homework or reading material rather than developing challenging material is simply a gross disservice. Quality first – quantity second. Once again, this may be a challenge to the educator but such is the path we have chosen in life.
Critical Thinking
With respect to the second point, namely, critical thinking, there are several different definitions or perspectives such as Francis Bacon’s: “Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of posture.” Francis Bacon [1605].
As if elaborating on Bacon’s formulation, W.G. Sumner in his work entitled, Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals (1940) writes: “Critical thinking is… the examination and test of propositions of any kind which are offered for acceptance in order to find out whether they correspond to reality or not. The critical faculty is a product of education and training. It is a prime condition of human welfare that men and women should be trained in it. It is our only guarantee against delusion, deception, superstition, and misapprehension.” (Emphasis mine).
Mr. Sumner expands on the role of education with respect to critical thinking by asserting: “Education is good just so far as it produces well-developed critical faculty… A teacher of any subject, who insists on accuracy and a rational control of all processes and methods, and who holds everything open to unlimited verification and revision, is cultivating that method as a habit in the pupils. Men educated in it cannot be stampeded by stump orators.”
He then cites the benefits of critical thinking. Persons who think critically “are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty … They can wait for evidence and weigh evidence … They can resist appeals to their dearest prejudices. Education in the critical faculty is the only education of which it can be truly said that it makes good citizens.” (Emphasis mine)
Thus, education should be a rigorous mental exercise with the intent to learn the subject matter content complimented by exercises in critical thinking. One without the other is like a hand without an opposable thumb. Subject content are the bricks and critical thinking is the mortar.
To define critical thinking less eloquently, critical thinking requires that one confronts a claim or assertion, punch it, kick it, stomp on it and if it stands back up, then it is worthy of qualified acceptance – until it no longer is. Stated otherwise, in my own words: There is no idea or belief I so dearly cherish so as to shield it from rigorous scrutiny or thoughtful challenge. There is no idea or belief I esteem so highly that I will not alter it or abandon it – sacrifice it in favor of standing even closer to the truth. Thus, critical thinking, of necessity, demands that one also “audi alteram partem” (hear the other side) and to be willing to change one’s ideas or beliefs out of respect and adoration of accuracy or truth.
To embrace such a credo, one must constantly embrace critical thinking and therefore be suspicious of “certainty” and approach it with caution. That does not mean that cynicism should be the norm; it means, that healthy skepticism should be the practice – healthy skepticism as one of the functions of critical thinking. an experienced critical thinker raises sharp questions and identifies assumptions. She gathers relevant data and information and uses them adroitly to reach a well-reasoned and logical conclusion that can withstand intelligent scrutiny. She is open-minded and is willing to dismiss what she formerly believed if by doing so, she is more correct than before.
At this point I want to compare the value of learning subject matter content versus learning critical thinking. Learning to think critically is the superior one of the two. Firstly, subject matter content is a product of critical thinking. For example, whoever developed the formula for the quadratic equation, or whoever discovered the structure or shape of the DNA molecule had to use critical thinking. In short, all subjects taught are primarily (though not always) derived from critical thinking. Even if the content turns out to be incorrect, the correction is also a function of critical thinking.
Furthermore, critical thinking has a vastly more utilitarian function than learning a particular subject matter. As I tell my students, ten years from now, some of them may not remember how to determine the net present value of an investment or what the four Ps of marketing are. Knowing how to amortize a corporate bond that was sold at a premium is important but learning to think critically is priceless. Critical thinking trumps content and content is almost always based on critical thinking.
To further confirm the superiority and importance of critical thinking it should be noted that critical thinking is uncommon; in fact, it is essentially unnatural. Too many people merely swallow the ideas fed to them from youth up without pushing back or questioning the veracity or logic of assertions presented to them. They follow the crowd and often fear casting doubt on commonly-accepted premises and their subsequent conclusions. Accepting what one is told is much easier and much more comfortable than deciding to challenge whether an idea or belief is actually correct or logical. Educators should encourage students to reject such fears and to live a life in which critical thinking becomes as nearly as important as oxygen.
Thus, critical thinking is a vital life skill. Failure to have and exercise it can have baleful consequences. Adolph Hitler stated, “How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.” And to reveal how rare critical thinkers are, when Governor Adlai Stevenson (who was considered erudite and scholarly) ran for President it is claimed that one reporter shouted out, “Governor Stevenson, every thinking person is on your side”. The Governor reportedly said in response, “That’s not enough. I need a majority.” It is because people fail to think or that many do not, that they are misled “by stump orators” or that they are victims of “delusion, deception, superstition and misapprehension.”
All too often, people seek confirmation rather than truth. They reject or ignore what is contrary to their untested ideas or beliefs. It is the responsibility of the educator to subject her students to the rigors of critical thinking. Even if truth is elusive, the student is better for having been put through the paces of critical thinking.
Another aspect of critical thinking is creative thinking. Critical thinking involves synthesizing information as well as analyzing it. Creative thinking is a specialized way of synthesizing information to produce something “new”. Creative thinking to a lesser or greater extent requires the other aspects of critical thinking, namely, evaluating, and seeking proof and challenging assertions.
Looking at the relationship between the teacher and the pupil from a different angle, there may be specific points in time when the teacher can learn from the student. Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “I am never angered when contradicted; I seek to be enlightened.” If an educator is going to weave critical thinking throughout the course there may be times when she is respectfully challenged. As a devotee of critical thinking, she should welcome any demonstration of critical thinking even if it is presented as a respectful challenge. Sometimes, the teacher can learn from the pupil. To that end, it is better to be enlightened than to be “right”.
Being taught the subject without being taught to think produces an educated fool at worse or a mediocre student at best. Hence, the true mission of an educator.
Educate New York
#SchoolsNotJails
Full report pdf
https://cynthiafornewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Educate-NY-Platform-2018.pdf
https://blackdoctor.org/522213/the-impact-of-trauma-on-a-black-boys-genius/
THE IMPACT OF TRAUMA ON A BLACK BOY’S GENIUS
Black pain often goes unaddressed. African Americans are less likely to seek mental health services than other minorities according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. Black children are no different. Black kids are exposed to violence at much higher rates than any other rates.
The impact of seeing and normalizing violence is traumatic. Studies say that Black youth are three times more like to be victims of reported child abuse or neglect, five times more likely to be victims of homicide and three times more likely to be victims of child abuse or neglect.
This victimization comes with a lot of traumatic implications for the plight of the Black child. The National Center for Victims of Crime marked that oftentimes victims of crime experience alienating feelings such as denial, anger, shock, numbness, and PTSD.
Kids often don’t have the mental faculty to process such extreme situations. With mental health being a taboo subject in a lot of our communities, the question is “How do our children survive inside of supposed safe-havens such as school?”
We talked with two Black men from Chicago who are dedicated to creating safe spaces for young Black children. Kendall Straughter is the founder of GT7, an organization that is designed to support the social, emotional and academic development in young men of color within the urban communities. Darnell Leatherwood, is the founder of Black Boys Shine, a campaign to highlight the awesomeness of Black boys in all of their glory.
These two brothers are deeply concerned about addressing the unchecked pain of our Black children, especially our Black boys. Here’s what they had to say.
THE IMPACT OF TRAUMA ON A BLACK BOY’S GENIUS
Black pain often goes unaddressed. African Americans are less likely to seek mental health services than other minorities according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. Black children are no different. Black kids are exposed to violence at much higher rates than any other rates.
The impact of seeing and normalizing violence is traumatic. Studies say that Black youth are three times more like to be victims of reported child abuse or neglect, five times more likely to be victims of homicide and three times more likely to be victims of child abuse or neglect.
This victimization comes with a lot of traumatic implications for the plight of the Black child. The National Center for Victims of Crime marked that oftentimes victims of crime experience alienating feelings such as denial, anger, shock, numbness, and PTSD.
Kids often don’t have the mental faculty to process such extreme situations. With mental health being a taboo subject in a lot of our communities, the question is “How do our children survive inside of supposed safe-havens such as school?”
We talked with two Black men from Chicago who are dedicated to creating safe spaces for young Black children. Kendall Straughter is the founder of GT7, an organization that is designed to support the social, emotional and academic development in young men of color within the urban communities. Darnell Leatherwood, is the founder of Black Boys Shine, a campaign to highlight the awesomeness of Black boys in all of their glory.
These two brothers are deeply concerned about addressing the unchecked pain of our Black children, especially our Black boys. Here’s what they had to say.
BlackDoctor: As an educator what do you feel trauma does to the outlook of a child? Specifically affects it effect them in the classroom or school in general.
Leatherwood: The dictionary defines trauma as “a deeply distressing or disturbing experience”. As and educator, I believe trauma has the potential to completely derail a student in the classroom…distracting them for their work, handicapping their social emotional development, keeping them from realizing their full potential. However, trauma is not a singular event/experience and all students are not the same.
So a blanket statement about the relation of trauma (there are various traumas one may experience) and the academic outcomes of students is a bit unstable in my opinion. Therefore, I would like to think of this relationship from a research perspective (in addition to my educator perspective) and engage this question empirically. Scientifically, what do we know about the relationship of trauma and student academic outcomes?
Let’s take one example for the sake of discourse. In a study conducted by Boyraz and colleagues (2013) on the relation between Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and college persistence for Black students in their first year of study, the authors found that PTSD levels were positively associated with an increased likelihood of leaving college before the end of the 2nd year of college for women. However, Boyraz and his co-authors (2013) found no such relationship (at least a statistically significant one) for Black males.
There are more examples that we can cite but for the sake of time I will end with this, personally I believe trauma to have the capacity to seriously disturb the potential for academic success for
any student. However, some research would suggest, and this is my hypothesis as well, that the relationship between trauma and student academic outcomes varies based on the trauma and who experiences said trauma.
Straughter: In urban education, there are many variables that impact the academic achievement for students. The emotional well-being is a key variables that lends the opportunity for students to strive or survive. Our students come to school daily with unresolved trauma from adverse childhood experiences from their homes, social experience and school experiences.
The negative impact from unresolved trauma and reoccurring trauma effects students ability to cope properly which in terms causes a disruption in learning. Students can’t learn when they are emotionally unhealthy! Students can’t strive when they are stuck in survival mood!
So, it shows in their grades, behavior and attendance which are all three metrics for students to be academically successful.
In additional, the vicarious trauma that impacts the teaching staff in school. When students are unhealthy, the teaching staff feels it too! Now, we have a school community with emotionally unhealthy students and teaching staff. That’s an environment where academic rigor cannot occur. It’s a place where hope fades away.
BlackDoctor: How is your organization addressing the mental health/trauma needs of Black Boys?
Leatherwood: Black Boys Shine is a campaign to illuminate the character and contributions of Black Boys and Men nationally and internationally. It’s concerned with controlling and strengthening a positive narrative of Black boy- and manhood. In promoting a positive narrative we have the additional benefit of potentially producing positive identity formation, increasing self esteem, and addressing the mental health/trauma needs of Black boys by providing the kind of capital that may shield them from unproductive outcomes.
Straughter: Gifted and Talented Seven (GT7) Inc. believes that you can nature youth to a healthy place where they can strive. GT7 provides structure where youth can learn to identify to emotions, express their emotions and cope with the various emotions in which they will experience.
During our Summer Male Enrichment Camp, our youth receive therapeutic supports from clinicians twice a week for a full hour. During these sessions, we focus on the 5 social and emotional learning competencies to accept them in being a place with they can strive emotionally.
Our youth feel good, feel safe and feel supported which in terms allows them to positively contribute to GT7 community and other global communities.
BlackDoctor: What can the community (parents , teachers etc) do to support Black Boys ?
Leatherwood: The community has an immense role in supporting the development of every child. Parents, teachers, and other stakeholders are tasked with “preparing and showing the way” for our young people. Let’s think about it like this, if our students are on a street to their destiny what was/is my role in constructing, maintaining, and embellishing said street.
Have I laid a street that is easily traversed or have I done nothing and just left gravel and dirt at the feet of the children. Am I putting potholes in this street or am I providing directions that will aid in them getting to their destination. Are you a support or hindrance, make up your mind for our children are to valuable to wait on and deal with capricious adult stakeholders.
Straughter: INTENTIONAL COLLABORATION WITH FIDELITY! We have to work together! We can no longer play the blame game of debating which group isn’t providing the right amount of support for proper development.
The GT7 Triangle of Support outlines, the need for intentional support from the parent (household), the school and the mentor program in effects to drive the development of the the youth. In a perfect world, all three areas have a high level of functioning. However, it’s the real world and unfortunately there are challenges that cause an off balance of support. But, it is importance for all three areas to understand that its a team efforts… its the NBA Championship in we’re in game 7 so you have to give it all that you have because we can’t afford to lose another black male youth!
It’s going to take time, this is a generational problem with strong systemic barriers tied to can’t black, brown and poor male youth disenfranchised and underserved. We have to triage this community health issue! We have to figure out the interventions that work and don’t work. GT7 is committed to changing the narrative for black and brown male youth.
I was told in high school by my mentor, “Kendall, there is a little black boy in the future and he is waiting on you. If you don’t do what is necessary now, you are going to miss you opportunity to help him and he will die. Do you want his blood on your hands?” In high school, I was a blame away! As an educator now for the last 13 years, nonprofit organizer, and social father to my amazing sons, I understand now more than I every have before; they need us!
Daunte Henderson, founder of the MADEMAN Foundation, author, and educator based in Chicago. You can follow him at @brotherhenderson on IG
Leatherwood: The dictionary defines trauma as “a deeply distressing or disturbing experience”. As and educator, I believe trauma has the potential to completely derail a student in the classroom…distracting them for their work, handicapping their social emotional development, keeping them from realizing their full potential. However, trauma is not a singular event/experience and all students are not the same.
So a blanket statement about the relation of trauma (there are various traumas one may experience) and the academic outcomes of students is a bit unstable in my opinion. Therefore, I would like to think of this relationship from a research perspective (in addition to my educator perspective) and engage this question empirically. Scientifically, what do we know about the relationship of trauma and student academic outcomes?
Let’s take one example for the sake of discourse. In a study conducted by Boyraz and colleagues (2013) on the relation between Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and college persistence for Black students in their first year of study, the authors found that PTSD levels were positively associated with an increased likelihood of leaving college before the end of the 2nd year of college for women. However, Boyraz and his co-authors (2013) found no such relationship (at least a statistically significant one) for Black males.
There are more examples that we can cite but for the sake of time I will end with this, personally I believe trauma to have the capacity to seriously disturb the potential for academic success for
any student. However, some research would suggest, and this is my hypothesis as well, that the relationship between trauma and student academic outcomes varies based on the trauma and who experiences said trauma.
Straughter: In urban education, there are many variables that impact the academic achievement for students. The emotional well-being is a key variables that lends the opportunity for students to strive or survive. Our students come to school daily with unresolved trauma from adverse childhood experiences from their homes, social experience and school experiences.
The negative impact from unresolved trauma and reoccurring trauma effects students ability to cope properly which in terms causes a disruption in learning. Students can’t learn when they are emotionally unhealthy! Students can’t strive when they are stuck in survival mood!
So, it shows in their grades, behavior and attendance which are all three metrics for students to be academically successful.
In additional, the vicarious trauma that impacts the teaching staff in school. When students are unhealthy, the teaching staff feels it too! Now, we have a school community with emotionally unhealthy students and teaching staff. That’s an environment where academic rigor cannot occur. It’s a place where hope fades away.
BlackDoctor: How is your organization addressing the mental health/trauma needs of Black Boys?
Leatherwood: Black Boys Shine is a campaign to illuminate the character and contributions of Black Boys and Men nationally and internationally. It’s concerned with controlling and strengthening a positive narrative of Black boy- and manhood. In promoting a positive narrative we have the additional benefit of potentially producing positive identity formation, increasing self esteem, and addressing the mental health/trauma needs of Black boys by providing the kind of capital that may shield them from unproductive outcomes.
Straughter: Gifted and Talented Seven (GT7) Inc. believes that you can nature youth to a healthy place where they can strive. GT7 provides structure where youth can learn to identify to emotions, express their emotions and cope with the various emotions in which they will experience.
During our Summer Male Enrichment Camp, our youth receive therapeutic supports from clinicians twice a week for a full hour. During these sessions, we focus on the 5 social and emotional learning competencies to accept them in being a place with they can strive emotionally.
Our youth feel good, feel safe and feel supported which in terms allows them to positively contribute to GT7 community and other global communities.
BlackDoctor: What can the community (parents , teachers etc) do to support Black Boys ?
Leatherwood: The community has an immense role in supporting the development of every child. Parents, teachers, and other stakeholders are tasked with “preparing and showing the way” for our young people. Let’s think about it like this, if our students are on a street to their destiny what was/is my role in constructing, maintaining, and embellishing said street.
Have I laid a street that is easily traversed or have I done nothing and just left gravel and dirt at the feet of the children. Am I putting potholes in this street or am I providing directions that will aid in them getting to their destination. Are you a support or hindrance, make up your mind for our children are to valuable to wait on and deal with capricious adult stakeholders.
Straughter: INTENTIONAL COLLABORATION WITH FIDELITY! We have to work together! We can no longer play the blame game of debating which group isn’t providing the right amount of support for proper development.
The GT7 Triangle of Support outlines, the need for intentional support from the parent (household), the school and the mentor program in effects to drive the development of the the youth. In a perfect world, all three areas have a high level of functioning. However, it’s the real world and unfortunately there are challenges that cause an off balance of support. But, it is importance for all three areas to understand that its a team efforts… its the NBA Championship in we’re in game 7 so you have to give it all that you have because we can’t afford to lose another black male youth!
It’s going to take time, this is a generational problem with strong systemic barriers tied to can’t black, brown and poor male youth disenfranchised and underserved. We have to triage this community health issue! We have to figure out the interventions that work and don’t work. GT7 is committed to changing the narrative for black and brown male youth.
I was told in high school by my mentor, “Kendall, there is a little black boy in the future and he is waiting on you. If you don’t do what is necessary now, you are going to miss you opportunity to help him and he will die. Do you want his blood on your hands?” In high school, I was a blame away! As an educator now for the last 13 years, nonprofit organizer, and social father to my amazing sons, I understand now more than I every have before; they need us!
Daunte Henderson, founder of the MADEMAN Foundation, author, and educator based in Chicago. You can follow him at @brotherhenderson on IG
Just dropping some knowledge brother roots69 shared here
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Letting your enemy educate your children isn’t intelligent - MALCOLM X
Yeap, thats about right!! Its all about puttin people inside those decorated boxes!!
full talk
shirley breaking stuff down
It's not an education but rather instructions on how to do the basic's like read,count, and sign your name which is dying out because they don't teach cursive like that anymore.
When they said that the pipline from schools to prison is the problem,they mean it and the teachers are the guards ;For every good teacher there's 10 bad ones who just want to make a living.
When they said that the pipline from schools to prison is the problem,they mean it and the teachers are the guards ;For every good teacher there's 10 bad ones who just want to make a living.
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