Highbrow Magazine - education https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/education en Dreaming of Future Possibilities in New Documentary, ‘Inventing Tomorrow’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9465-dreaming-future-possibilities-new-documentary-inventing-tomorrow <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 11/18/2018 - 12:31</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1tomorrowfilm.jpg?itok=jMbq8DK4"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1tomorrowfilm.jpg?itok=jMbq8DK4" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from an article originally published by <a href="https://asamnews.com/2018/11/15/kids-dream-whats-possible-in-inventing-tomorrow/">AsAmNews</a>. </strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Often in life, experiences, current events, and exposure to skepticism can limit what we dream is possible. Many times, obstacles are self-imposed, driven by doubt and fear. In fewer instances, it can inspire. <em>Inventing Tomorrow</em> documents several high school students who learned what’s possible at the esteemed Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.  Pacific Arts Movement showcased Inventing Tomorrow as its centerpiece presentation this past weekend at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.</p> <p> </p> <p>The film by Laura Nix follows teenagers from India, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States who were inspired by serious environmental problems in their communities. Jared Goodwin, one of <em>Inventing Tomorrow’s</em> subjects, was in San Diego with producer Diane Becker for the screening. The pair sat down with AsAmNews before the screening to discuss Goodwin’s science project and how the film showcases children dreaming big to save the world.</p> <p> </p> <p>The International Science and Engineering Fair or ISEF, put on by the Society for Science and the Public, draws 1,800 students from 80 countries every year to compete in all levels of science including Environmental Science, Becker told AsAmNews. <em>Inventing Tomorrow’s</em> director, Laura Nix, and producers had the tremendous task of finding just a few projects to feature among the more than 1 million students who compete for a spot at ISEF every year. In the final cut of the film, just four projects and their creators were featured.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2tomorrowfilm.jpg" style="height:384px; width:512px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>A student from India created an app to crowdsource water testing in her hometown of Bangalore, India, where a lack of wastewater treatment led to major pollution in the city’s lakes. Two teenage girls from a community in Indonesia reliant on tin mining studied the effects of unrestricted dredging in the waters surrounding their island. The pair created a prototype filter for limiting pollutants. The third team, a trio of boys from Mexico, studied the effects of industrial air pollution in their city and developed a paint that could render certain pollutants non-toxic in daylight.</p> <p> </p> <p>Becker also talked about the filmmakers taking a risk in filming students who might have failed to advance to the ISEF competition. Unlike many films, she said, they did not choose to profile the students after learning the fate of the projects.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Laura didn’t want to focus on the winning. That wasn’t the point,” said Becker. “The point was the motivation, and the passion, and the work that these kids do, and that we need to support this next generation because they’re growing up in a different world than we did. They know from the minute they’re born that the planet is dying, and they see solutions in clear and simpler ways. And they’re not bound by politics and money, so they’re curious. They dream big, and we need to support them.”</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Inventing Tomorrow</em> made its debut at Sundance earlier this year.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This is an excerpt from an article originally published by <a href="https://asamnews.com/2018/11/15/kids-dream-whats-possible-in-inventing-tomorrow/">AsAmNews</a>.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/isef" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">isef</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/science-fair" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">science fair</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/students-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">students</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/laura-nix" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">laura nix</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/inventing-tomorrow" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">inventing tomorrow</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/documentaries" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">documentaries</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sundance-film-fest" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sundance film fest</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mandy Day</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 18 Nov 2018 17:31:34 +0000 tara 8360 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/9465-dreaming-future-possibilities-new-documentary-inventing-tomorrow#comments Why I'm Protesting Against Betsy DeVos https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8583-why-im-protesting-against-betsy-devos <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 10/15/2017 - 12:47</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1devos.jpg?itok=5Pg7msQy"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1devos.jpg?itok=5Pg7msQy" width="480" height="302" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.iexaminer.org/">International Examiner</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Opinion:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>On Friday, October 13, I [was] in the streets protesting Betsy DeVos, the U.S. Secretary of Education, because I believe in freedom and equal opportunity for all students, regardless of skin color. I also have experience with fascist leaders relentlessly targeting minorities, and believe DeVos’ Education Department is part and parcel of Donald Trump’s fascist agenda.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the Philippines, we had a president, a man who rose to power democratically, who held is seat for more than 20 years by persecuting those who disagreed with him, silencing the press, and attacking the rights of his citizens. When I was 11, I moved from the Philippines to America, narrowly escaping the 21 years Ferdinand Marcos spent as “President.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In America, I learned about our freedoms of the press, speech, and assembly. I learned that liberty was inherent in human life. Starting in 1972, I also learned that tens of thousands of Filipinos were abducted, tortured, and killed. Though every person is born with inalienable rights, Marcos denied those rights to the Filipino people.</p> <p> </p> <p>He was a force of evil, power hungry, violent, and unwavering. But I was pretty stubborn myself. I knew what was happening in the Philippines was wrong. So I did what I was best at: I called my friends, neighbors, and community leaders. I organized and protested. I spoke out about the murders of two anti-Marcos activists, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, and called for an end to the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship on the streets of New York and Seattle.</p> <p> </p> <p>I used the freedoms of America to fight fascism in the Philippines: the freedom of public assembly, the freedom to criticize the government—freedoms Marcos had stolen from Filipinos and replaced with oppression. These freedoms enable regular people to make real change. They were crucial to free the Philippines from tyranny.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Friday, October 13, I intended to use these freedoms to do the same.</p> <p> </p> <p>America, my home of 45 years, has a president who attacks protesters, the media, and the rights of citizens. It is a familiar story to me and millions of my fellow Filipino Americans.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2devos.jpg" style="height:394px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>We have a lot to lose. Trump issued a racist immigration ban based on religion and skin color. He continues to imperil undocumented students and their families. He threatens to cut critical services that many Americans need to live. The AAPI community needs to be worried—Trump’s agenda makes clear that the rights of people of color are secondary to those of his white constituents. Our fundamental freedoms are at risk.</p> <p> </p> <p>After years of working to stop Marcos, fighting for unions, and serving as Washington State Representative, I now continue to fight for the rights of Americans. This includes the right to a world-class education for all students, regardless of ethnicity.</p> <p> </p> <p>Washington’s education system doesn’t serve our community equally. 50-70% of Southeast Asian Americans don’t have a college degree. Most teachers lack an understanding of API cultures and languages. They struggle to communicate with AAPI parents. And too often, grouping all “Asians” together in one broad, unequal racial category blurs the data that dictates public education services.</p> <p> </p> <p>Together we’ve fought for real victories: disaggregating data, pushing for more bilingual teachers, and growing ELL programs. But there still remain significant concerns. .</p> <p> </p> <p>President Trump appointed Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. DeVos is a billionaire who believes schools are for profit and not for students. Trump and DeVos have proposed a budget that cuts $9 billion from public education and gives hundreds of millions to for-profit schools. DeVos’ plan funnels taxpayer dollars from the schools our kids attend to predominantly white institutions.</p> <p> </p> <p>Under DeVos, public schools will be even more underfunded. The programs we’ve fought so hard for, the ones that protect our AAPI students will be first on the chopping block.</p> <p> </p> <p>That’s why on Friday October 13, I join[ed] thousands in protesting Betsy DeVos as she sp[oke] to the Washington Policy Center in Bellevue. I fought fascism in the Philippines and now I will fight it in America, standing up for the rights of AAPI everywhere.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>The Honorable Velma Veloria, was born in Bani, Pangasinan, Philippines and immigrated to the United States in 1961. She was elected into office and became the first Asian American woman and first Filipina American elected to the Washington State legislature. Representing the 11th District, Veloria served from 1992 until 2004. Now she works as Community Organizer for the Equity in Education Coalition, and is active in the Faith Action Network and CIRCC.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://www.iexaminer.org/">International Examiner</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/betsy-de-vos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">betsy de vos</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/public-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">public schools</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/protests" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">protests</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Velma Veloria</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 15 Oct 2017 16:47:05 +0000 tara 7763 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/8583-why-im-protesting-against-betsy-devos#comments The 4-Year College Myth: Why Students Need More Time to Graduate https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5783-year-college-myth-why-students-need-more-time-graduate <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 13:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcollegegraduates%20%28Wiki%29_2.jpg?itok=Jhdx9IZG"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2mediumcollegegraduates%20%28Wiki%29_2.jpg?itok=Jhdx9IZG" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From the Richmond Pulse and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/01/the-college-myth-why-most-students-need-more-than-four-years.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The teacher smiled and held a hat as a line of about a dozen students looked at each other nervously. Inside the hat were small pieces of paper with each student’s name. Luck would determine who would be part of the class, and who would have to continue the search.</p> <p> </p> <p>Those of us already enrolled in the class waited quietly, watching the smiles and frowns as lucky students moved closer to graduation, and others possibly further. In my four and a half years at San Francisco State University, I saw this scenario play out year after year. Some professors tried to help us by taking into consideration the number of credits students needed, or by adding more students to the class than the limit stipulated — but often times getting into a class just felt like a matter of luck.</p> <p> </p> <p>This phenomenon isn’t unique to SFSU, in many universities across California it’s difficult for students to graduate on time because of the space constraints in required classes, tuition costs, credits lost when transferring schools and generally not enough courses offered. And, a new study shows that the commonly held goal of graduating within four-years is unattainable for a growing number of students.</p> <p> </p> <p>Four-Year Myth, a report from the national nonprofit, Complete College America, declares that a 4-year degree has become a myth in American higher education. The study finds that the majority of full-time American college students do not graduate on time, costing them thousands of dollars in extra college-related expenses.</p> <p> </p> <p>Policy experts who analyzed the statistics believe a more realistic benchmark for graduation is six years for a bachelor’s degree and three years for a “two-year” certificate.</p> <p> </p> <p>While in college I heard numerous friends and students debate whether higher education is worth the debt. It’s difficult to maintain an optimistic outlook with increasing tuition costs, long commutes and a bleak job market for graduates.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumcollegeeducation.jpg" style="height:335px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Fellow students frequently bowed to the pressure of not wanting to fall too deep into debt and would work part-time or full-time while in school, which usually meant extending their time in school. Not a great tradeoff.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ideally, students would be able to make classes fit into the demands of the rest of their lives. As is, it works the other way around. Students are given a day and time to register for classes depending on a number of variables: what year of school they’re in, whether they’re athletes or in a special program because of disabilities or income level. Often, popular classes—and even those needed for graduation—fill up fast. Imagine being given a day and time to register only to discover that the classes you need are already full, with a full wait list too. This is the frustrating reality for many students.</p> <p> </p> <p>We are told that education is the way to success and better lives, but for many it becomes a stressful cycle and may not guarantee anything more than years of debt and an unfinished dream.</p> <p> </p> <p>As a solution, Complete College America suggests a more structured higher education delivery method, called Guided Pathways to Success (GPS), which would provide students with a direct route to graduation. Utilizing GPS, majors are organized into a semester-by-semester set of courses that lead to on time graduation.</p> <p> </p> <p>My first two and half years at SFSU, I played for the women’s soccer team, which helped me obtain priority registration, and due to my low income background I was part of the EOP (Educational Opportunity Program), which also offered priority registration. Both of these programs also provided tutoring, counseling, money for books and guidance. To stay in these programs I had to keep a 2.0 GPA and complete 12 units each semester, which kept me on track for graduation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Ultimately, these structured programs helped me complete classes, save money, and provided moral support that made me feel more confident in my college experience. If in practice, GPS functions the way the programs I was part of did, it may very well prove to be the answer to the increasing time and costs of college.</p> <p>                                                                                                     </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From the Richmond Pulse and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2015/01/the-college-myth-why-most-students-need-more-than-four-years.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/college-education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">college education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/college-degree" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">college degree</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/students-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">students</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/college-students" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">college students</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-debt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student debt</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Joanna Pulido</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 01 May 2016 17:37:38 +0000 tara 6877 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5783-year-college-myth-why-students-need-more-time-graduate#comments Secularism in Public Schools: Teaching Religion and Teaching About Religion https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5714-secularism-public-schools-teaching-religion-and-teaching-about-religion <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 03/31/2016 - 20:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1prayer.jpg?itok=ZTPhg5vV"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1prayer.jpg?itok=ZTPhg5vV" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>In October of 2015, Representative Sheila Butt (R-Columbia) <a href="http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/109/Bill/HB1418.pdf">introduced</a> a bill into the Tennessee legislature prohibiting the state Board of Education from including “religious doctrine in any curriculum standards for grades prior to grades ten through twelve.”  In other words, it banned the teaching of religion in public schools for any grades below tenth.</p> <p> </p> <p>A seemingly commonsensical and arguably reasonable statute, the bill drew a significant amount of both backlash and support because of the inherent ramifications it would produce. Congresswoman Butt argued that the current teachings were not age-appropriate and that, at that age, students are not able to discern between indoctrination and learning about what religion teaches. The bill was introduced at a time when anti-Islamic sentiments have surfaced across the country, and when Tennessean parents have expressed discontent with schools teaching about the Five Pillars of Islam.</p> <p> </p> <p>If passed, the bill would, intrinsically, ban schools from teaching about Islam and other topics that the state may consider indoctrination. Opponents of the bill (mostly educators) argue that it is a targeted attempt at a particular religion because, as it is, laws banning the teaching of religion in schools already exist at the federal level. The bill has also spurred the conversation on whether religion should be taught in public schools at all, regardless of the secularism facet of such teachings that the law would demand.</p> <p> </p> <p>One early test of the separation of church and state, at least with respect to education, came in the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/333/203"><em>McCollum v. Board of Education</em></a><em> [of Champaign County, Illinois]</em>. In her lawsuit, McCollum asked that the Board of Education to adopt and enforce rules and regulations prohibiting all instruction and teaching of all religious education in all public schools.</p> <p> </p> <p>Eight years prior to the lawsuit, various members of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths formed an association and obtained permission from the Champaign County Board of Education to offer voluntary religious classes for public school students from grades fourth to ninth. McCollum argued that these classes were not in fact voluntary, as they took place during school hours in school buildings, and students were nothing short of forced to attend, lest they miss out on actual school time and were ostracized for not being present.  After both the County Circuit Court and the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Board of Education, McCollum appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. SCOTUS found in favor of McCollum, and effectively ruled that all religion teachings in tax-funded public schools are unconstitutional. </p> <p> </p> <p>A landmark decision, <em>McCollum v. Board of Education</em> also sparked a divisive gray area between what is legally permissible in schools and what can be considered religious indoctrination. Many wrongfully believe that public schools are religion-free zones because of this ruling, but the Equal Protection Act of the highly contested Fourteenth Amendment of the United States says otherwise. It is a very murky area that still has many difficult issues to resolve. Under the Equal Protection Act, for example, a student is allowed to submit an art assignment depicting a religious act or iconography, and it must be accepted and graded accordingly and without any bias. But because of the <em>McCollum v. Board of Education </em>ruling, this same artwork may not be allowed to be exhibited on a school hallway. (The other landmark <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203">case</a> often cited with the topic of secularism in public schools is <em>Abington School District v. Schempp</em> of 1963<em>, </em>in which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an actual Pennsylvania law that required at least ten verses from the Holy Bible be read as part of the beginning of each school day in all its schools within its district.)</p> <p> </p> <p>A more recent case based on this same gray area between indoctrination and teaching about religion was brought to a U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. In July of 2011, 16-year-old Jessica Ahlquist sued the City of Cranston, Rhode Island, over a <a href="http://law.rwu.edu/story/eberle-cranston-prayer-banner-case">banner</a> that hung on her public school’s auditorium. A gift from the class of 1963, Cranston High School West’s first graduating class, the banner displayed a prayer that began with the phrase “Our Heavenly Father” and ended with an “Amen.” Ahlquist, who had been raised a Catholic but considered herself an atheist at the time, sued the city (with the backing of the American Civil Liberties Union) on the grounds that the banner violated her First and Fourteenth Amendments.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1students.jpg" style="height:336px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The banner had drawn controversy before when a year prior to the lawsuit, the ACLU requested the school board remove the banner because it infringed on the beliefs of nonreligious students and was unconstitutional. After many heated debates brought upon by this request, the school board voted to keep the banner hanging in the auditorium. In <a href="http://www.rid.uscourts.gov/menu/judges/opinions/lagueux/01112012_1-11CV0138L_AHLQUIST_V_CRANSTON_P.pdf"><em>Ahlquist v. City of Cranston</em></a>, the defendants argued that the banner’s significance was not principally religious but rather a memento from the school’s founding days, and the message in itself was largely secular. The District Judge however, an appointee of Ronald Reagan, sided with Ahlquist and ordered that the banner be taken down, as he found its display on public school grounds to be unconstitutional.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Rhode Island is a vastly democrat state (it has only voted Republican in four presidential elections) that remains the second most Catholic state of the Union, the first being Massachusetts. Ahlquist drew severe <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/us/rhode-island-city-enraged-over-school-prayer-lawsuit.html?_r=0">backlash</a> for her lawsuit, received death threats, and at one point had to be escorted to school flanked by security personnel. Democrat State Representative Peter Palumbo caller her “an evil little thing” on a radio show, and florists refused to deliver flowers that had been sent to Ahlquist from supporters around the country.</p> <p> </p> <p>Cases like Ahlquist’s, and even McCollum’s over half a century prior, exemplify the divisive nature of the topic. Should religion be taught in public schools, in a responsible and completely secular manner? Or should it even be mentioned at all?</p> <p> </p> <p>There is, certainly, the inescapable fact that religions are so irrevocably weaved with world cultures that they must be mentioned in a number of subjects, such as Geography, History, or Social Studies classes. After all, it would be impossible to teach students about the Mayflower, algebra, or the Crusades without also touching base on the importance that religion took in all these matters. Proponents of teaching about religion in schools argue that it is an important facet for pupils to understand the world around them, particularly for younger students. They say, for instance, that teasing about religion can begin as early as kindergarten; and that Americans simply remain woefully ignorant about world religions in general.</p> <p> </p> <p>A 2010 Pew Research Center survey <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/">found</a> that more than half of adults did not know Friday evening was the start of the Jewish Sabbath, or that the Dalai Lama was a Buddhist. Meanwhile, over half the participants knew the Koran is the holy book of Islam, but did now know that Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, is mostly a Muslim country; in fact, it is the most populous Muslim-majority country. The quiz, by the way, also included the questions of whether or not, according to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, a teacher is allowed to lead a prayer in a public school, or read from the Bible as an example of literature (the answers to which are no and yes, respectively).</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/jesusmary.jpg" style="height:625px; width:417px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>On the other hand, opponents on the issue <a href="http://religionandpolitics.org/2014/01/07/the-dangers-of-religious-instruction-in-public-schools/">argue</a> that any presence of religion in public schools creates divisiveness, and that awareness of religious differences often creates walls between students. They state that teaching about religion should be the responsibility of the parents, and that no student should feel ostracized at any moment because of religious differences, as was the case with Ahlquist. The Freedom from Religion Foundation, for example, handles over 2,000 complaints per year from parents concerned about the separation of church and state. Devotional instruction and religious exercises are, of course, different from academic instruction, and opponents confer that, ideally, there would at least be a class on comparative religion at the high school level in public schools. The issue, they say, is that the non-religious sectarians are often overlooked, and the absence of faith itself should be considered and also be taught in these classes. Interestingly, atheists/agnostics, Jewish, and Mormons fared better on the Pew Research Center’s test cited above, while Black Protestants and Hispanic Catholics fared the poorest.</p> <p> </p> <p>In contrast with Rep. Butt’s initiative, some schools are taking an active approach to teaching about religion. In Wichita, Kansas, students begin learning simple facts about at least three major world religions in the first grade. In Modesto, California, high school students are required to take a world religions class in order to graduate. And in <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2011/09/23/test-faith/tHJoFiiHL1MW7FKSrKViWL/story.html">Wellesley</a>, Massachusetts, students even take field trips to local mosques and temples, an activity that has sparked nationwide criticism. In May of 2010, as part of a mandatory class of world religions, over 200 middle school students visited the mosque at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. During the call to afternoon prayer, a male worshipper told five Wellesley boys that they could participate if they’d like. The boys did and, unknown to anyone, this was videotaped by an unidentified parent. After the video surfaced, Wellesley Middle School found itself in a media conundrum.  The school conceded that there had been an oversight and the boys should not have been left unattended, but remained adamant that it was an individual who had asked the boys to join them, not any school official and had thus broken no laws. Parents were also divided on the issue, some condemning the practice while others applauded the inclusion of other cultures and religions into the school’s curriculum.</p> <p> </p> <p>The issue of secularism in public schools remains widely contested. The legislature that Rep. Butt introduced has since been withdrawn, but suburban towns in Tennessee are still grappling with the very thin line between indoctrination and instruction (a rather fascinating phenomenon in some cases, such as in Williamson County, which has almost 200 <a href="http://www.thearda.com/rcms2010/r/c/47/rcms2010_47187_county_name_2010.asp">churches</a> within its limits alone, and its ongoing battle <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/fear-islam-tennessee-public-schools/420441/">against</a> what parents are afraid is Islamic indoctrination in the county’s schools).</p> <p> </p> <p>Our very own pledge of allegiance, which is dutifully and traditionally recited at the beginning of each school day, contains a religious passage. Meanwhile, Wellesley Middle School continues to teach world religion classes and taking its student to temples and mosques, as they believe that it is a very enriching experience and, with the appropriate guidelines, it can be done without breaking the separation of church and state. For their field trips now, though, they visit the mosque in Wayland, which doesn’t offer regular prayers during the day and students being asked to join in is much more unlikely.  <a name="_GoBack" id="_GoBack"></a></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><br /> <strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/prayer-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">prayer in schools</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/religion-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">religion in schools</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/banning-prayers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">banning prayers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/teachers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teachers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/teaching-religion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teaching religion</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/public-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">public schools</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 01 Apr 2016 00:37:49 +0000 tara 6785 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5714-secularism-public-schools-teaching-religion-and-teaching-about-religion#comments Tackling America’s Growing Education Debt Crisis https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4673-tackling-america-s-growing-education-debt-crisis <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 02/27/2015 - 10:20</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1studentdebt%20%28under30ceo%29.jpg?itok=G52lODgV"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1studentdebt%20%28under30ceo%29.jpg?itok=G52lODgV" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Education is one of the most crucial issues in American society. The crux of the discussions revolve around the astronomical costs of higher education. This issue largely targets Generation- Y (millennials) especially hard.</p> <p>The millennial generation is on track to become the most educated generation thus far. This is likely due to the emphasis placed on higher education due to continued statistical data concluding that those with a higher education degree earn significantly more than their high school diploma or no high school credential counterparts. While it is easy to simply applaud this data, a deeper look reveals issues that desperately need attention from the general public and lawmakers alike.</p> <p>According to the College Board, "The average cost of tuition and fees for the 2013-2014  school year was $30,094 at private colleges, $8,893 for state residents at public colleges, and $22,203 for out-of-state residents attending public universities." Multiply that number by two to get the average cost of an Associate's degree, by four for a Bachelor's degree, and any degree higher is even more expensive, with no help offered through financial aid past the Bachelor's point. This is leaving millennial graduates with tens of thousands, and in some cases even hundreds of thousands of dollars, in debt. This outrageous debt that was once predominately common at the graduate level has now become the norm for most college graduates in the undergraduate level. Even though a college education still remains a worthwhile investment, the financial burden placed on millennials after graduation is unprecedented in severity.</p> <p> </p> <p>In order to satisfy these financial burdens, many students have turned to financial aid and loans through the  government or private lenders. The combined balance of federal student loans nationwide have now exceeded the trillion-dollar mark.</p> <p> In Andrew Martin and Andrew W. Lehren's <em>New York</em><em> Time's</em> "Degrees of Debt" article, they use one story as a microcosm for this much greater issue.  They speak to a recent graduate and marketing major from Northern Ohio University about her particular predicament. Her $120,000 debt equates to her owing about $900 in student loans per month, and the debts are so brutal that she has to move back in with her parents.</p> <p> </p> <p>This story of millennials having to move back in with their parents has become all too common for this generation. In this particular instance, the graduate's mother co-signed the loan with her and is going as far as taking out life insurance on her daughter in case something were to happen to her since the amount due is so immense.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2studentdebt.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>One reason that students apply to more expensive schools is that these large schools have become extraordinary at selling the benefits of attending a school of their stature while downplaying the actual costs. A second important element is the emphasis placed on attending a large university with a plethora of different fields of study and the ever important name recognition. Each student's particular situation and reasoning is case sensitive, but whatever it may be, it seems to always equate to a large sum of debt.</p> <p>In President Obama's latest State of the Union speech, he outlined a plan to help tackle this issue weighing down on millennials. The president's suggestion is to make the two years at community college free of tuition to students who attend school at least half time and maintain a GPA of at least 2.5 and are making serious progress towards completing a two-year degree or transferring to a four-year school. Statistics show that about 40 percent of students choose to attend community college. President Obama went on to say “Some are young and starting out. Some are older and looking for a better job. Some are veterans and single parents trying to transition back into the job market. Whoever you are, this plan is your chance to graduate ready for the new economy, without a load of debt.”</p> <p>Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts and popular liberal figure, has also spoken out against the high levels of interest on student loans for years. This led her to come up with the "Student Loan Fairness Act" last year. The intent was to make the interest rate on federal Stafford loans the same as the one that banks receive from the Federal Reserve. Under her plan, the rate on government-issued student loans would fall from 6.8 percent to 0.75 percent, saving students thousands over the life of their loans. Unfortunately, this bill was ultimately blocked by House Republicans.</p> <p>With the issue of incomparably high education-related debt for students still relatively unsettled, this debate will surely continue in the 2016 presidential elections.  The millennial vote is in high demand, so it will be important how politicians address the issue of education costs in order to appease a generation that is straddled with so much debt.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-loans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student loans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-debt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student debt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/debt-crisis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">debt crisis</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/colleges" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">colleges</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/university" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">university</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/college-students" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">college students</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paying-college" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">paying for college</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Laura Storch</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">under 30 ceo; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:20:49 +0000 tara 5770 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4673-tackling-america-s-growing-education-debt-crisis#comments Recent Hazing Deaths in S. Korea Shed Light on Increasing Homegrown Violence https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4204-recent-hazing-deaths-s-korea-shed-light-increasing-homegrown-violence <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 08/08/2014 - 09:21</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1hazing.jpg?itok=PeAC3CFi"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1hazing.jpg?itok=PeAC3CFi" width="480" height="263" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From the <a href="http://www.koreatimesus.com/?p=15855">Korea</a> <a href="http://www.koreatimesus.com/?p=15855">Times</a> and reprinted by our content partner New America Media:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>An Army private, 23, is brutally beaten by his colleagues, put on an IV drip so he can recover to be beaten again, has his genitals coated with anti-inflammatory medicine, is forced to swallow a tube of toothpaste and prevented from sleeping at night during which he has to stay crouched. He inevitably collapses and dies.</p> <p> </p> <p>Four schoolmates and three men lock a girl, 15, in a motel room, forcing her into prostitution. They beat her repeatedly, splash boiling water on her, and make her drink bowls of liquor and eat her own vomit. She inevitably collapses and dies. (Her attackers then burned her face with gasoline, poured cement over her body and discarded it in a suburban field.)</p> <p> </p> <p>There is enormous anger over the two horrific hazing deaths, which continue to dominate headlines, social media conversations and political speeches.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, the emotional outbursts and bureaucratic vows for quick fixes are an admission of our reluctance to ask harder questions: should we approach these deaths as isolated incidents or view them as symptoms of a deep cultural disease that we have allowed to take hold and which we so proudly defend?</p> <p> </p> <p>How the young victims died was undeniably shocking. But their deaths were equally disturbing because they felt not so unusual.</p> <p> </p> <p>Those who attacked the soldier and schoolgirl shared an alarmingly low level of basic human respect. It could be argued that this respect is first compromised at schools and further damaged at all levels of Korea’s highly hierarchical society, perhaps most dramatically in the military, where every able Korean male must serve for two years.</p> <p> </p> <p>Obviously, not all Koreans grow up to be bullies or killers. But at varying levels, we are all victims of our own collective understanding of human rights that urgently needs a modern update.</p> <p> </p> <p>Human rights principles are based on the theory of natural rights ― a person should be valued and treated as a human for no reason other than that he or she was born one.</p> <p> </p> <p>This idea is quickly destroyed by the oppressive and violent teachers at many Korean schools. Ask any Korean adult about their school days and their memories about teachers will be quite similar.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Humans are only humans if they are able to listen and follow instructions,” my third-grade elementary school teacher, who I have no wish to meet again, used to say. ”Those who cannot are no better than dogs or pigs.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The problem with this sort of thinking is that it allows organizations ― whether they be schools, companies, military or government ― to define what is to act as human. These definitions will always vary by circumstance. Human rights are reduced to an idea that is conditional and relative.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s easy to imagine that many of those who have expressed anger at the deaths of the soldier and school girl are the same people who will humiliate younger colleagues at work for not adjusting to the office rules fast enough.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2hazing.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Cultural explanations are often a lazy cop-out when describing tragic events. But they are unavoidable for the recent hazing deaths as the culture at schools and barracks continues to be dysfunctional.</p> <p> </p> <p>The revelation of the soldier’s death, which came to light after an activist group revealed the details of the case last week, came on the heels of a deadly shooting rampage that killed five at an Army unit close to the North Korean border in June.</p> <p> </p> <p>The sergeant charged with the shooting spree has testified that he opened fired on his colleagues after being bullied by them for an extended period. This reminded the nation of another deadly incident in 2005 when a soldier, who said he was constantly bullied, attacked his colleagues with a grenade.</p> <p> </p> <p>Perhaps, in relation to the size of its population, Korea has too big of an Army for the conscripted soldiers to be properly monitored and controlled. But forget about the military, which represents Korea’s most unyielding realm of bureaucracy, ever agreeing to move toward a smaller number of soldiers.</p> <p> </p> <p>That said, Korea may have a better chance of reducing violence in the barracks than in classrooms where teachers continue to be a constant source of horror stories.</p> <p> </p> <p>An Incheon high school teacher is facing punishment after spraying a can of bug repellent on a student’s face for leaving his seat last month. This was weeks after a 17-year-old high school student in Seoul was treated for a torn thigh muscle and internal organ damage after his math teacher forced him to sit up and down 800 times for undone homework.</p> <p> </p> <p>In February, a high school student in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, suffered brain death hours after a teacher smashed his head into a wall for being late.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From the <a href="http://www.koreatimesus.com/?p=15855">Korea</a> <a href="http://www.koreatimesus.com/?p=15855">Times</a> and reprinted by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/south-korea" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">South Korea</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hazing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hazing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hazing-deaths" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hazing deaths</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cruelty" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cruelty</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/army-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">army</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/korean-teachers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">korean teachers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">violence</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kim Tong-hyung</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 08 Aug 2014 13:21:21 +0000 tara 5052 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4204-recent-hazing-deaths-s-korea-shed-light-increasing-homegrown-violence#comments The Education Crisis, Rising Student Loan Debts Loom Large in ‘Ivory Tower’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4096-education-crisis-rising-student-loan-debts-loom-large-ivory-tower <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 06/26/2014 - 12:32</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ivorytower.jpg?itok=gCvCt57W"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ivorytower.jpg?itok=gCvCt57W" width="324" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Andrew Rossi’s new documentary <em>Ivory Tower</em> highlights the rising cost of higher education and what students are getting for it in the United States.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Ivory Tower</em> shows university after university simultaneously touting their rock-climbing walls and shopping-mall-esque student unions and failing to ensure that the student will be able to compete in the job market. “An arms race,” the documentary calls it.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a problem that’s shown in the statistics: student loan debt has grown 517 percent in the last five years; colleges are spending money on fancy buildings; and graduates are unable to find jobs. The documentary shows some students who are opting out of a formal education for one that is self-led and highlights alternative learning centers like Deep Springs College and the dramas at Cooper Union, the NYC school that recently went from entirely free to regular tuition. <em>Ivory Tower</em> seems to suggest this might be a better solution for prospective students.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2iivorytower.jpg" style="height:352px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>While it is surely convincing, <em>Ivory Tower’s</em> message is not groundbreaking. Student loan debt has been a hot topic for years, and earlier this month, President Obama signed a memorandum directing the Secretary of Education to propose regulations to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income.</p> <p> </p> <p>The timing of <em>Ivory Tower</em> is its downfall: it’s a novel in the middle of a #studentloan Twitterfeed: we’re hearing about student loan debt and working to fix it already.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Stephanie Stark is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-loans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student loans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ivory-towern-andrew-rossi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ivory towern andrew rossi</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/student-debt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">student debt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education-crisis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education crisis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/attending-college" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">attending college</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/college-tuition" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">college tuition</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Stephanie Stark</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 26 Jun 2014 16:32:11 +0000 tara 4899 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4096-education-crisis-rising-student-loan-debts-loom-large-ivory-tower#comments The Power Struggle Behind the Teacher Tenure Lawsuit https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4069-power-struggle-behind-teacher-tenure-lawsuit <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 06/16/2014 - 11:12</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2classroom%20%28Google%29.jpg?itok=8WPxAmqN"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2classroom%20%28Google%29.jpg?itok=8WPxAmqN" width="480" height="347" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/06/the-power-struggle-behind-the-teacher-tenure-law-suit.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>The Los Angeles court decision against teacher tenure laws has something in common with No Child Left Behind. The Bush administration rolled out NCLB with pretty slogans about helping poor children. In the end, the law enriched testing companies and left more children behind.</p> <p> </p> <p>The L.A. court decision striking down California teacher tenure laws was financed by the foundation of Silicon Valley millionaire, David Welch, who argued that the laws harm children. If allowed to stand, the court decision, like NCLB, is likely to hurt both students and teachers in two ways. First, it does nothing about the real issues of teacher availability and support. And second, its actual impact has more to do with political power than education.</p> <p> </p> <p>There is a large and growing shortage of long term, highly dedicated teachers in the U.S., especially in schools attended by children without money. That teacher shortage is caused by two factors, neither of them having anything to do with tenure. First, the set of bureaucratic procedures, tests, and financial burdens required of prospective teachers, do not predict good teaching and prevent community people who want to teach from getting the credential that allows them into the profession.</p> <p> </p> <p>Second, half the people who do manage to get a credential leave the profession in less than five years. The speed of exit has increased as standardized testing has overwhelmed U.S. classrooms and a wrong-headed critique of teachers has derailed the on-going project of making schools into loving, safe, stimulating places where young people want to be.</p> <p> </p> <p>Even if ending tenure laws were actually designed to get rid of bad teachers, it would not create any new teachers to fill up the classrooms so rapidly vacated in urban schools. In fact, it is likely to make teaching an even less appealing profession.</p> <p> </p> <p>But this issue is fundamentally about power. The general attack on teachers and teacher unions has little to do with education and more to do with the tussle for overwhelming political power being carried out by the wealthiest few among us.</p> <p> </p> <p>Teachers are one of the most solid, progressive forces in the U.S. Teaching is the largest profession in the world; large portions of teachers are unionized; and by some estimates 8 in 10 teachers are Democrats.</p> <p> </p> <p>The National Education Association has political power that it often wields in a progressive direction, working to uphold school funding, workable class size, free speech, and more fair taxation to name just a few issues It is one of few organizations that requires ethnic and gender diversity in its own elected representation.</p> <p> </p> <p>Recent Supreme Court decisions have given the wealthy the ability to make unlimited contributions to political candidates and campaigns. Teachers unions are one of the few entities with anywhere near the financial muscle to stand up to the funding provided by millionaires. The series of efforts designed to weaken the political power of teacher unions make sense in this context.</p> <p> </p> <p>Are the teachers unions always right? The unions supported a change from a three-year probationary period to two years, which was probably a bad idea.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumclassroom%20%28Esparta%20Palma%20Flickr%29_2.jpg" style="height:401px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In cases with which I am personally familiar, this change has actually caused potentially good teachers to be dismissed before they had taught long enough to prove that that they could do a good job.</p> <p> </p> <p>And though seniority should translate into some job security, the practice of bumping teachers from one school to another based on seniority during times of layoff is not a good idea.</p> <p> </p> <p>The countries which have the strongest schools, according to international comparisons, have strong teacher unions and they do not have millionaires making education policy from foundations funded by other millionaires.</p> <p> </p> <p>Teachers unions need to adopt the kind of community alliances and activities practiced by Karen Lewis of the Chicago teachers union and Alex Caputo-Pearl, newly elected president of the L.A. union.</p> <p> </p> <p>Community involvement in setting the criteria for good teaching; aggressive recruitment of Spanish speakers into teaching; funding for the year of unpaid student teaching which most applicants are now forced to endure; and an ethos of love and respect, rather than suspicion and control, can create the teachers we need.</p> <p> </p> <p>On the other hand, trying to knock teachers unions out of the political box will have devastating impacts on advocacy for children, for education funding, for decreased standardized testing, and for free speech.</p> <p> </p> <p>The sunshine in this event might be the shock it provides to all of us to work harder on that community-teacher alliance before public education really is a thing of the past.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em>Kitty Kelly Epstein, PhD, is recipient of the 2013 Scholar Activist award from the Urban Affairs Association and author of </em>A Different View of Urban Schools<em> (2012).</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/teacher-tenure" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teacher tenure</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/teachers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teachers</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/educators" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">educators</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/students-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">students</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/public-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">public schools</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/los-angeles-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">los angeles schools</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/teaching" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">teaching</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/no-child-left-behind" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">no child left behind</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kitty Kelly Epstein</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Esparta Palma (Flickr)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 16 Jun 2014 15:12:46 +0000 tara 4851 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4069-power-struggle-behind-teacher-tenure-lawsuit#comments Are School Closures Discriminatory? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4016-are-school-closures-discriminatory <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 05/29/2014 - 10:01</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1schoolclosing.jpg?itok=P-P093Hv"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1schoolclosing.jpg?itok=P-P093Hv" width="480" height="315" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/05/new_civil_rights_case_calls_school_closures_discriminatory.html">Colorlines</a> and reprinted by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/05/new-civil-rights-suit-calls-school-closures-discriminatory.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p>           </p> <p>Sixty years after <em>Brown v. Board of Education</em>, schools are still both separate and unequal. Community and civil rights groups say they’ve identified a key force that’s aggravated the inequity: school closures. On May 14, on the same week the nation recognized the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark school desegregation ruling, the civil rights group Advancement Project and the national community group network Journey for Justice Alliance filed three federal complaints with the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice alleging that school closures in Newark, Chicago and New Orleans discriminate against African-American students.</p> <p> </p> <p>“We’re in a new era of separate and unequal,” says Jadine Johnson, a staff attorney at the Advancement Project. “Inequity and discrimination still occur in many schools across the country.” In Chicago, Johnson says, black students make up 40 percent of the district enrollment but were 88 percent of those affected by the 111 school closures the city has undertaken since 2001. In Newark, African-American students comprise 52.8 percent of the district enrollment, and 73.4 percent of those whose schools were closed. In New Orleans, African-American students are 82 percent of the district’s schoolchildren, but 96.6 percent of those whose schools closed. “When you look at who’s impacted, you realize this is more than just reform. This is discrimination and this is abuse,” Johnson says.</p> <p> </p> <p>School closures are one of four turnaround options outlined by the federal government for transforming schools deemed failing based on their test scores. The other options include firing a school’s principal and staff and rehiring no more than half the school’s staff, and restarting a school and handing it over to a charter school. School closure is typically seen as a measure of last resort only for those school sites beyond repair. But it’s all too frequently used in communities of color, says Jitu Brown, director of the Journey for Justice Alliance.</p> <p> </p> <p>What’s more, says Johnson, “When you pull back the data, even using [school districts’] own metrics and standards, school closures” are selectively used against students of color.</p> <p> </p> <p>New Orleans, set to become the nation’s first charter-only school district this fall, has been ground zero for school closure-driven reforms. In the city’s post-Katrina reform frenzy, New Orleans has shut down all but five of its traditional public schools, kicked out tenured teachers, and replaced schools with charters and a predominantly black teaching force with young, overwhelmingly white recruits from the controversial education reform and teaching training program Teach for America. However, the complaint alleges, struggling charter schools with higher white enrollments have been spared as the district “turned a blind eye and allowed those schools to remain open.”</p> <p> </p> <p>As neighborhood schools are shuttered, students in New Orleans have to cross town, sometimes up to 10 and 15 miles, to get to school. That means that even young elementary school students are waiting at bus stops at 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning, the complaint alleges.</p> <p> </p> <p>In New Orleans, that means that it’s much harder for parents to be involved in their kids’ education, says Minh Nguyen, executive director of the community organizing and advocacy group VAYLA-New Orleans. Parents without cars can’t just pop over to their children’s school for a parent-teacher conference, or lean on the community for advice in navigating their child’s faraway school, says Nguyen.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Schools are cornerstones of communities,” says Adrienne Dixson, a former New Orleans public school teacher and professor of education policy at University of Illinois. They’re very often the heart of the community, the only place where parents and families and community members regularly interact. And when they’re gone, it undercuts a community.</p> <p> </p> <p>In Chicago, a rash of gun violence in recent years has been aggravated by school closures, says Brown, the director of the Journey for Justice Alliance. As a result of school closures, students have been forced to cross neighborhood and rival gang lines to get to school, putting themselves in daily harm just to get their education.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumclassroom%20%28Esparta%20Palma%20Flickr%29_1.jpg" style="height:401px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>What’s more, the complaint says, when schools are shuttered, students are reassigned to schools that are very often no better than the ones they were sent away from.</p> <p> </p> <p>School closures are not limited to the three cities named in the federal complaints. Baltimore, Columbus,  Detroit,  Houston, Milwaukee , Philadelphia,  Pittsburgh and St. Louis have all closed dozens of schools in the last 15 years. New York City has closed 140 since 2002. “The common element among them is they’re districts with high concentrations of kids of color, most of them in poverty,” says Dixson. Indeed, school closures are a phenomenon which is disproportionately targeted at schools with high African-American and Latino enrollments.</p> <p> </p> <p>There is a political tension, though. The Obama administration, via reform initiatives such as Race to the Top, has written school closures into its reform mandates. The Department of Education, in other words, is arguably driving the very civil rights violations that groups are asking it to investigate.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment. A Department of Education spokesperson told Colorlines that the agency doesn’t confirm the receipt of federal complaints, but does let relevant parties know if it opens an investigation from a complaint it’s received. Johnson of the Advancement Project and Brown of the Journey for Justice Alliance both said they had not heard anything from the Departments of Education or Justice.</p> <p> </p> <p>“In America, we have good schools being destabilized as a direct result of district policy and the continuation of destructive policies, and being repackaged and sold to us as school reform,” says Brown. “We’re trying to call [Attorney General Eric] Holder to the plate and say, ‘You gotta swing.’”</p> <p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/05/new_civil_rights_case_calls_school_closures_discriminatory.html">Colorlines</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/brown-v-board-education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">brown v. board of education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/supreme-court" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Supreme Court</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/school-closures" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">school closures</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-orleans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new orleans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/detroit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">detroit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/baltimore" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Baltimore</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/charter-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">charter schools</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education-poor-children" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education for poor children</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/school-closings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">school closings</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Julianne Hing</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 29 May 2014 14:01:54 +0000 tara 4763 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4016-are-school-closures-discriminatory#comments When Does Discipline in School Border on Cruelty? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3941-when-does-discipline-school-border-cruelty <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 04/28/2014 - 11:04</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumclassroom%20%28Esparta%20Palma%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=YJ9-khrh"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumclassroom%20%28Esparta%20Palma%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=YJ9-khrh" width="480" height="321" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From the <a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/civil-rights-complaints-are-filed-against-three-n-o-schools/">Louisiana Weekly</a> and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/04/civil-rights-complaints-filed-against-three-new-orleans-schools.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>At Carver Collegiate, the family handbook describes in great detail precisely how students should walk, talk, dress, sit, raise their hand, and move their eyes.</p> <p> </p> <p>Volume levels at lunch are hushed (level 2), and silent in the hallways (level 0).</p> <p> </p> <p>Demerits are given if a student does not lock their elbow while raising their hand, does not smile while shaking hands, does not walk on the taped line in the hallway, does not track the speaker with their eyes, or if both feet are not flat on the floor while seated.</p> <p> </p> <p>The handbook instructs “scholars” to always be grateful: “Scholars say ‘Thank you’ when they receive something – even the opportunity of being called upon to answer a question during a class.” And how to answer questions: “If you ask a scholar, ‘Did you have a nice weekend?’ a scholar will respond, ‘It was nice. How was yours?’”</p> <p> </p> <p>According to the handbook: “If a scholar is passing an adult in the hallway, he or she should make eye contact with the adult and smile.”</p> <p> </p> <p>A student can receive a demerit if she or he has on more than one bracelet, if the bracelet is not green, orange, white, gold, silver, or black, or for wearing a belt that is made of cloth rather than of leather or a material resembling leather.</p> <p> </p> <p>“If the scholar cannot get the proper uniform piece dropped-off and they refuse to wear loaner items they will be suspended from school the following day,” the handbook says.</p> <p> </p> <p>And there is the (often subjective) demerit for acting in any way deemed disrespectful.</p> <p> </p> <p>Accumulated demerits lead to suspensions, and Carver Collegiate has the city’s highest out-of-school suspension rate at 68.85 percent, meaning that nearly 70 percent of the student body was suspended out of school at least once during the 2012-2013 school year.</p> <p> </p> <p>The state average for out-of-school suspensions is 9.2 percent, which is higher than the national average.</p> <p> </p> <p>Any faculty member, including first-year teachers without a degree in education, has the authority to suspend a student with requiring another level of approval.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Carver Collegiate is not a military academy and it’s not an alternative school – it’s a public (charter) high school.</p> <p> </p> <p>And these aren’t bad kids, they are just kids.</p> <p> </p> <p>To some, it’s seen as structure and grooming. But to others, the “hyper-discipline” is seen as oppressive, irrational, belittling, and even abusive.</p> <p> </p> <p>On Tuesday, New Orleans attorneys Anna Lellelid and Bill Quigley filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of parents and students requesting local, state, and federal investigations into three schools, including Carver Collegiate, regarding discipline policies and culture they allege to be abusive and in violation of the law.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I’ve heard from students who say they feel so depressed to be treated this way, but they feel they can’t speak out because they will get in trouble,” said Anna Lellelid.</p> <p> </p> <p>The complaint “demanded an immediate investigation into whether students were subjected to emotional and physical abuse under the guise of ‘discipline,”’ according to a press release.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lellelid calls it a “culture of fear and intimidation,” and questions whether the (majority white) administrators would put their own children in the (majority-Black) schools they run, unconditionally exalting and defending their approach to education.</p> <p> </p> <p>Teachers who leave the school are required to sign a non-disparagement clause.</p> <p> </p> <p>The complaint against Collegiate Academies, the Charter Management Organization that runs Carver Collegiate, Sci Academy and Carver Prep, represents 20 students, 12 parents, and one teacher.</p> <p> </p> <p>The complaint alleges that the policies and practices violate the students’ right to an education by constantly kicking them out, as well as laws that prevent schools from suspending students without documentation, due process, or properly notifying parents.</p> <p> </p> <p>There are also violations of laws related to students with special needs, the complaint charges.</p> <p> </p> <p>Examples cited include excessive suspensions and inappropriate punishments for students with disabilities without properly notifying parents of meetings and decisions regarding Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).</p> <p> </p> <p>According to the complaint: “One student diagnosed with autism and cerebral palsy was punished because he was unable to walk in a straight line due to his uncontrollable muscle spasms.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The complaint references an autistic child who was called “stupid” by his teacher, who then permitted the other students to throw things at the autistic child. Also described is a student with an IEP who was made to sit in the back of the class every day facing the wall, and a student with disabilities who claimed that “Carver Collegiate falsified his transcript by stating that he had taken courses that he had not taken.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Other concerns in the complaint address safety concerns for students who, after being suspended, spend their day hanging out at the park and library, or are required to stay late for detention and then take public transportation home.</p> <p> </p> <p>The experiences and sentiments expressed by the 20 students who were willing to go on the record echoes what they have heard from many, many others, Lellelid said.</p> <p> </p> <p>In November, about 100 students walked out in protest of Collegiate policies. In addition to getting “disciplined for anything and everything,” their concerns, presented in writing to the board, included not having textbooks, not having a library, having their reading level publicized to peers, not being allowed to go to the bathroom for long periods of time, and not being able to bring their own food when the school’s lunch left them hungry. The complaint addresses bathrooms with locked doors, and even reports of door handles being removed. Many of the students who walked out were later suspended.</p> <p> </p> <p>The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote a letter to the board and administration of Collegiate Academies on Dec. 18 in support of the Carver Prep and Carver Collegiate students, and echoing many of the same concerns about a the “poor school climate and harsh disciplinary practices” that lack “pedagogical value.”</p> <p> </p> <p>“The descriptions of emotional abuse and a demeaning culture of discipline at Collegiate Academies’ schools raise serious civil rights concerns,” Lellelid said in a press release.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lellelid and Quigley filed the complaint with United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, the Louisiana Recovery School District, and the Louisi­ana Department of Edu­cation, among others.</p> <p> </p> <p>A month after the November student protest, Collegiate Academies CEO Ben Marcovitz issued an open letter on Dec. 20 to the Collegiate Academies community.</p> <p> </p> <p>In it, Marcovitz writes that “Scholars are suspended only for more serious infractions, such as verbal altercations, skipping class, destruction of property, and repeated refusal to follow directions, despite multiple interventions.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But that has not been Lellelid’s experience. She described students who (as a result of demerits) were suspended for bursting out laughing, for coughing too much, for rolling their eyes, and for hugging another student.</p> <p> </p> <p>One student, whose uncle and brother both were shot and killed, was suspended for wearing the wrong kind of belt on the day she returned, Lellelid said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Collegiate Academies president Morgan Carter Ripski released the following statement regarding the civil rights complaint:</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1school%20%28wiki%29.jpg" style="height:468px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“Collegiate Academies’ schools remain a popular choice among New Orleans families. We work in partnership with our families to create a school culture and academic program that will help students reach their potential. We look forward to welcoming our students back on Tuesday, and to continue helping them learn and grow.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But Lellelid challenges the notion of choice. Families can be limited by geography, and many come from Carver families in hopes of carrying on tradition. In addition, if a parent wants to transfer their student after Oct. 1 to a different school, the RSD policies make it extremely difficult. Parents are often simply told that they cannot transfer after Oct. 1. The Carver Collegiate handbook tells parents that if they show up to the school to talk to someone without an appointment, they may wait for hours, and that, “If you have a concern about a school policy, academic grade, discipline decision, or anything else, we ask that you take some time to reflect on it before contacting the school. We want to hear your concerns because we value your input and opinion. We also want to make sure every conversation is respectful and productive. We understand that you have very strong feelings about issues concerning your child but if a parent/guardian/family member is disrespectful to a Carver Collegiate teacher or administrator, we will end the conversation and wait to continue it at another time.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Approximately 15 students have dropped out of Collegiate Academies schools since the November protests, Lellelid said.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lellelid said that since November, Marcovitz did hold at least one meeting, and that she has seen better documentation regarding suspensions. However she said that the students and parents still do not feel they have been heard, and that the policies continue to hurt students and violate laws.</p> <p> </p> <p>“As the public, are we okay with those tasked with educating our children continuing to break the law, because they say ‘We are working on it’?”</p> <p> </p> <p>As taxpayers, we are paying to educate our children, Lellelid said, and based on the numbers, Collegiate seems to be more focused on kicking kids out of school than educating them.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marcovitz’s publicly funded salary for the 2013-2014 school year is approximately $130,000. Lellelid said she has spoken with first year, uncertified teachers who make an annual salary of $45,000.</p> <p> </p> <p>Carver Prep and Carver Collegiate opened in 2012 with only a 9th-grade class, adding a 10th grade in 2103. Sci Academy opened in 2008.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marcovitz wrote that “Suspensions are not correlated with poor drop out or expulsion rates. Collegiate Academies’ 2011-12 drop out rate was 1.6 percent, compared to the state average of 4.7 percent. Collegiate Academies’ 2012-13 expulsion rate was 2.6 percent.”</p> <p> </p> <p>However Carver Prep and Carver Collegiate did not exist in the 2011-2012 school year.</p> <p> </p> <p>Marcovitz also points out that a majority of the out of school suspensions (80% at Carver Collegiate for 2012-2013) are only a one-day suspension.</p> <p> </p> <p>He attributes the November protests to a “a small group of activists. . . making inaccurate claims.”</p> <p> </p> <p>But Lellelid said that based on her extensive work with students and parents, she believes the civil rights complaint represents a majority of students.</p> <p> </p> <p>And for Jolon McNeil, Schools First project director &amp; managing director for the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana (JJPL), the sky-high suspension rates (61.36% percent for Carver Prep and 38.9% for Sci Academy) at all three schools raise larger concerns about the emotional, psychological, and long-term effects on the students.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2school%20%28Thom%20Cochrane%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>McNeil stresses that the aim of her advocacy work is not just to criticize policies, but to foster conversation with all voices at the table, and to work collaboratively with schools to share best practices and identify effective ways to reduce out of school suspensions.</p> <p> </p> <p>Suspensions don’t work, McNeil said. For one, if a student is in class, they aren’t learning. In addition, she said she wants administrators to look at whether suspensions are achieving the desired effect – Are suspensions working as a deterrent? Are behaviors changing? By and large, they aren’t effective as a deterrent, she said.</p> <p> </p> <p>In addition, suspensions increase student disengagement, increase distrust between the students and parents and the school, and increase the chances that kids will enter the juvenile justice system, McNeil said. She said suspensions are also a moderate to strong indicator of later dropping out.</p> <p> </p> <p>McNeil does not argue against suspension for behavior that is violent or threatens safety and security at the school, but the first thing she wants to know when she see numbers close to 70 percent are “What are they being suspended for?”</p> <p> </p> <p>When students are getting the same punishment for a subjective and often impulsive catch-all like “willful disobedience” as they do fighting — or even something like not walking on a taped line or a uniform violation – then, McNeil said, as a community we have to ask “Why is this a rule that needs a consequence?”</p> <p> </p> <p>At many schools across the country, the zero tolerance approach that was initially designed for things like drugs and guns, has been “expanded to anything you don’t want kids to do,” McNeil said.</p> <p> </p> <p>As with the case of the student who was allegedly suspended for a belt violation after losing two family members, the rules are not individualized, McNeil noted – “Rules are rules are rules.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Punishment for uniform violations also often “penalizes poverty,” McNeil said.</p> <p> </p> <p>McNeil also said she wants to see more support and training for teachers throughout the school year in terms of avoiding bias, identifying self-triggers, and making the best possible decisions in the classroom.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lellelid noted the need for better cultural sensitivity training, as many of the teachers are young, white, uncertified, unexperienced, and from other parts of the country.</p> <p> </p> <p>The JJPL holds workshops on positive behavior support, and works to give educators numerous (proven effective) tools that can work as alternatives to out of school suspensions.</p> <p> </p> <p>In his letter, Marcovitz writes that Collegiate Academies does use alternatives including positive reinforcement, peer remediation, and restorative justice techniques.</p> <p> </p> <p>But McNeil still sees a need fundamentally rethink “not just the consequences of behavior, but why we have the consequences to begin with.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Many students and parents want the zero tolerance structure, McNeil acknowledges, but that for those who don’t, New Orleans isn’t really an environment of “choice” if the only alternatives are selective admissions schools that are on the opposite side of the city.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Rules exist for some kids and don’t exist for others,” McNeil said.</p> <p> </p> <p>The disparities are undeniable. A report released in March by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights found that black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than white students. The study found that students with disabilities are twice as likely to receive an out of school suspension as students without disabilities.</p> <p> </p> <p>McNeil stressed that when reform is something that “happens to people,” it is vital to include the voices of community, parents and students in the conversation.</p> <p> </p> <p>“If we want to get to the educational equity that this reform is supposed to be about, we can’t leave out the data on discipline,” McNeil said. “It’s critical to what is happening in schools, and part of the equation of school success.”</p> <p> </p> <p><em>This article originally published in the April 21, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>From the <a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/civil-rights-complaints-are-filed-against-three-n-o-schools/">Louisiana Weekly</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-orleans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new orleans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-orleans-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new orleans schools</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/colegiate-prep" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">colegiate prep</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sci-academy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sci academy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/lawsuits" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">lawsuits</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education-lawsuit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education lawsuit</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discipline-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discipline in schools</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/special-needs-students" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">special needs students</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/educators" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">educators</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/charter-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">charter schools</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Kari Harden</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Esparta Palma (Flickr); Google Images; Tom Cochrane (Flickr)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:04:54 +0000 tara 4636 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3941-when-does-discipline-school-border-cruelty#comments