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113,315 | cnsnews--2019-06-26--Pompeo Visits India Amid Spat Over Religious Freedom Violations | 2019-06-26T00:00:00 | cnsnews | Pompeo Visits India Amid Spat Over Religious Freedom Violations | (CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is visiting India Wednesday, just days after his department, in a major annual report, highlighted serious incidents of religious persecution there, including “an increase in attacks against religious minorities and the perceived diminishing space for religious freedom.” In an assessment that raised the ire of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the State Department report released by Pompeo on Friday pointed to instances of Hindu mob violence against religious minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, in 2018. It cited non-governmental organization (NGO) reports charging that “the government sometimes failed to act on mob attacks on religious minorities, marginalized communities, and critics of the government.” Moreover, “some senior officials” in the BJP “made inflammatory speeches against minority communities,” it said. The report identified as major triggers for mob violence accusations that non-Hindus are killing cows, which Hindus consider sacred, and accusations that Christians and others are converting Hindus, using inducements or coercion to do so. “Mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, especially Muslims, continued throughout the year amid rumors that victims had traded or killed cows for beef,” it said. “According to some NGOs, authorities often protected perpetrators from prosecution.” Nine of India’s 29 states have laws that restrict or criminalize religious conversion, and Christians accused of “forced conversions” faced criminal charges in several states. Religious freedom is not the only potential irritant in the relationship between the world’s two biggest democracies, but it is a particularly sensitive issue. “We see no locus standi [legal standing] for a foreign entity/government to pronounce on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally protected rights,” foreign minister spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in response to the report. “India is proud of its secular credentials, its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion,” Kumar said. “The Indian constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all its citizens, including its minority communities. It is widely acknowledged that India is a vibrant democracy where the constitution provides protection of religious freedom, and where democratic governance and rule of law further promote and protect the fundamental rights.” The national spokesperson of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP, Anil Baluni, said the U.S. report “shows clear bias against the Modi government and the BJP.” “The basic presumption in this report that there is some grand design behind anti-minority violence is simply false,” he said. “On the contrary, in most of such cases, these instances are carried out as a result of local disputes and by criminal mindsets.” India has slowly been edging up the Open Doors USA annual watch list of “countries where it is most dangerous to follow Jesus.” In 2012, it was in 32nd place, but by 2016 – two years after Modi’s BJP came to power – it had climbed to number 17. Last year it was in 11th place, and this year India is at number ten. The BJP is closely affiliated to radical Hindu nationalist groups accused of violence against converts from Hinduism to other faiths. Modi’s own record is controversial too. He was chief minister of Gujarat state during the worst episode of interreligious violence in modern Indian history, when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in 2002. After Muslims attacked a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, Hindus carried out retaliatory attacks against Muslims across the state. Modi was accused of doing nothing to stop the carnage. The State Department subsequently charged that there was “a comprehensive failure on the part of the state government to control the persistent violation of rights of life, liberty, equality, and dignity of the people of the state.” Modi was consequently denied a visa to enter the U.S., a restriction only lifted when he became prime minister in 2014. Other difficult issues in the bilateral relationship include trade tariffs, U.S. visas for Indian nationals, and Indian arms sales from Russia, a longstanding ally. Still, the partnership is an important one, the State Department stressed in a statement on Tuesday. “As vibrant democracies rooted in shared values, with fast-growing economies, cultures of entrepreneurship, and leadership positions on the global stage, the United States and India are natural strategic partners,” it said. “President Trump and Prime Minister Modi are firmly committed to accelerating the upward trajectory of this partnership.” The statement also focused on economic ties, noting that the U.S. is India’s most important trading partner and number one overseas market, while India is the fastest growing major market for U.S. goods. “Two-way bilateral goods and services trade with India totaled $142 billion in 2018, up 12.6 percent, or almost $16 billion, over the prior year,” it said. “The United States exported nearly 50 million barrels of crude to India in 2018, compared to less than 10 million barrels in 2017, and is on pace to export even greater volumes in 2019.” | Patrick Goodenough | https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/pompeo-visits-india-amid-spat-over-religious-freedom-violations | 2019-06-26 08:48:43+00:00 | 1,561,553,323 | 1,567,537,987 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
216,737 | france24--2019-08-31--Millions face losing citizenship as India seeks to weed out foreign infiltrators | 2019-08-31T00:00:00 | france24 | Millions face losing citizenship as India seeks to weed out ‘foreign infiltrators’ | Buu Boro, AFP | Assam State National Register of Citizens (NRC) officials check documents of Indian residents during a hearing against the non-inclusion of their names in the citizens register in India’s northeastern state of Assam on May 31, 2019. Almost two million people in India were left facing statelessness on Saturday after the state of Assam published a citizenship list aimed at weeding out “foreign infiltrators”, in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide. A total of 31.1 million people were included in a final National Register of Citizens (NRC), but 1.9 million were deemed ineligible, according to a statement from the Assam government in northeast India. Most of those excluded were expected to be Muslim. Assam, an impoverished isolated state of 33 million, has long seen large influxes from elsewhere, including under British colonial rule and around Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence when millions fled into India. For decades this has made Assam a hotbed of inter-religious and ethnic tensions. Sporadic violence has included the 1983 massacre of around 2,000 people. Security was beefed up in Assam ahead of the release of the NRC, with some 20,000 extra personnel brought in and gatherings banned in some locations. Only those who can demonstrate that they or their forebears were in India before 1971 could be included in the list. But navigating the complex process is a huge challenge for many in a region of high illiteracy where many lack documentation. Members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party run Assam and critics say the NRC process reflects the BJP’s goal to serve only its co-religionists. In January India’s lower house passed legislation that grants citizenship to people who moved to India from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as recently as six years ago as long as they are not Muslims. This has stoked fears among India’s 170-million Muslim minority for their future. Home Minister Amit Shah, Modi’s right-hand-man, has called for the ejection of “termites” and said before the BJP’s thumping re-election victory in May that it would “run a countrywide campaign to send back the infiltrators”. Those left off the NRC have 120 days to appeal at special Foreigners Tribunals, which the government says are being expanded in number. But critics say that tribunal members can be underqualified and are subject to “performance” targets, and that the entire process has been riddled with inconsistencies and errors. The number of errors has also turned some in the BJP in Assam against the process, with Himanta Biswa Sarma, a BJP minister in the state, saying it had left off “so many genuine Indians”. “We have lost hope in the present form of the NRC,” Sarma told reporters, saying that the party was already mulling a “fresh strategy on how we can drive out the illegal migrants”. Those who have been rejected by the tribunals and have exhausted all other legal avenues can be declared foreigners and -- in theory -- be placed in one of six detention centres with a view to possible deportation, although Bangladesh is yet to signal its cooperation. Ten new such camps have been announced. One with space for 3,000 is being constructed in Goalpara, west of Assam’s capital Guwuhati. The camps currently hold 1,135 people, according to the state government, and have been operating for years. Nur Mohammad, 65, spent almost 10 years in one such camp until a Supreme Court order saw him released this month. “I just want to ask them what is my crime? I was born here and lived in Assam all my life,” he told AFP. “I don’t know if my name will be in the NRC or not.” Media reports say that there have been more than 40 cases of suicide caused by concern over the NRC. Samujjal Bhattacharya from the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), a key driver behind the NRC, said the register was necessary to protect Assam’s indigenous “sons of the soil”. “We are not ready to live here like a second-class citizens in our own motherland,” he said. Minister Hubert Minnis said. “The price you may pay for not evacuating is your life.” | NEWS WIRES | https://www.france24.com/en/20190831-two-million-people-face-statelessness-india-publishes-citizenship-list | 2019-08-31 06:55:32+00:00 | 1,567,248,932 | 1,569,416,887 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
229,175 | globalresearch--2019-05-01--Sri Lanka Candidate for a New NATO Base | 2019-05-01T00:00:00 | globalresearch | Sri Lanka: Candidate for a New NATO Base? | Sri Lanka, Easter Sunday, 21 April 2019: More than half a dozen bomb blasts shook the country killing from 250 to more than 350 people. Depending on who counts, the death toll varies. The devastation took place in in several catholic churches and luxury hotels. Other explosions, including from – what they say – are suicide bombers, have since killed another several dozens of people. Many are children, women – christen worshippers. Why the luxury hotels? Western (Christian) tourists? Yesterday, another explosion ripped through a suspicious building, killing 18, including children and women. Again, they, the ‘authorities’, say suicide bombers, who didn’t want their ‘cache’ to be discovered. Conveniently they are all dead – the “suicide bombers”. Nobody can ask them any questions. There was a lot of confusion, and still is, all through Sri Lanka. Nobody claimed credit for the massacres. There were rumors that Sri Lanka’s President received warnings ahead of the attacks from foreign intelligence, but ignored them. The President denies these allegations. And the explosions continue. Finally, the verdict is in. The culprits are an Islamic terrorist group, associated with ISIS. What else is new. Sri Lanka’s population is composed of about 70% Buddhists, 13% Hindus, almost 10% Muslims, mainly Sunni, the Salafi version, and about 7% Christians. The New York times reports that the accused mastermind of the terror attacks was strongly influenced by Wahhabism, the same extreme hardliners that control most of Saudi Arabia. Hatred between religions seems on the rise. In New Zealand a few weeks ago a white supremacist assaulted a mosque, killing 50. This past weekend, a shooting in a Synagogue near San Diego, California, killed a woman. The murderer said he was inspired by the New Zealand massacre. Are these spontaneous, interreligious mini-wars part of a foreign directed ‘divide to conquer’ effort, a strategy that has been used by empires for centuries, but seems to be alive and well with the current Washington based empire? May we expect a wave of Saudi-sponsored WSD terrorism in the east too? – Is the horror Saudi government protected by the US, because it does its bidding? And this bidding leads to making gradually Islam extremism the justification for NATO bases around the globe? – Perhaps in Sri Lanka, tomorrow? So far Sri Lanka is clean from NATO. Sri Lanka has not even an association agreement with NATO. Just look at the world-geostrategic location of Sri Lanka, linking the Arabian Sea with the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka may also have a direct, open-sea connection with the small British island of Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Archipelago, north-east of Madagascar. Diego Garcia hosts the US’s largest Navy base outside the American Continent. Many of the drone killings in Yemen, Syria and other places in the Middle East originate from Diego Garcia. The “civil war” in Syria was (and still is) largely directed from Diego Garcia, as well as from Djibouti. Wouldn’t it be logical for NATO to set up base in Sri Lanka to control South East Asia? Saudi guided WSD attacks would create the necessary chaos justifying Western secret services – plus NATO – to descend on Colombo, to create further protests and anarchy – a never-ending internal strife, giving the war industry a new never-ending flow of profit, hence, further justifying the never-ending war on terror – and, thereby, moving yet an inch closer to Full Spectrum Dominance over Mother Earth and her hapless spectators, what western humanity has become – a bunch of complacent consumers, drenched in turbo-capitalist market ideology, too comfortable to go on the barricades. The key and engine to all of this is NATO, whose modus operandi is killing for a living, for dominance and for profit. If there is ever to be Peace – and that’s what the vast majority of the inhabitants of this globe wants – I’m not exaggerating pretending that 99.99% of world population wants to live in peace – then NATO must go, NATO must be dismantled. So, Europe which has the largest membership in NATO (27 out of 29 nations) has to put the money where her mouth is: Europe calls for Peace, Europe claims to be Peace-loving – really? Then put your money into creating Peace – pulling out of NATO, refusing at once to fund this killing machine under the pretext of “protecting Europe”. Protecting Europe from what? From whom? – Not from Russia – despite all the highly propagandized and highly corporate-funded Russiagate / Russiaphobia, exacerbated by a new artificially implanted fear – China. These countries have no history of expansion, like the west. They only seek friendly relations of trade, of transport, cultural and research interconnectivity within the supercontinent, Eurasia, and ultimately, they promote a multi-polar world. The best example is the Chinese President Xi’s ingenuity – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that just finished its highly successful forum in Beijing – where more than 120 nations signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) and cooperation agreements with China for tens of billions of dollars equivalent. – What a way of cooperating, instead of sowing western-style belligerence. Europe and the rest of the world is not in danger, except in danger of itself for being a vassal of the US and for hosting 30-plus NATO bases which would be first in the line of fire, if the east is forced to defend itself from that permanent Pentagon-NATO driven aggression. Europe withhold your funding for NATO, get out of NATO, dismantle NATO, – NOW, before NATO sets up yet another base in Asia, before NATO spreads more death around the globe. Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. This article was originally published on New Eastern Outlook. Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. | Peter Koenig | https://www.globalresearch.ca/sri-lanka-candidate-new-nato-base/5676134 | 2019-05-01 11:13:00+00:00 | 1,556,723,580 | 1,567,541,479 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
232,031 | globalresearch--2019-12-02--How Israel Became One of the World’s Worst Rogue States | 2019-12-02T00:00:00 | globalresearch | How Israel Became One of the World’s Worst Rogue States | As an integral part of its ongoing propaganda, Israel, along with its fervent supporters and legions of paid and anonymous agents, zealously repeats and disseminates – in the media, on university campuses, in blogs and comment sections, at conferences and more – the same old, tired Zionist myths. Propaganda guides and tool kits, such as the “global language dictionary”, offer ready-made arguments and counter-arguments to sell Israel to journalists and critics. Such talking points come with tips on what tone and rhetorical tactics to use, what words and formulas “work”, and how to discuss “sensitive” issues, such as Israel’s illegal colonisation and annexation of Palestinian land, Jewish settlements and the killing of civilians. All of which are now set to get worse since US President Donald Trump has both rewarded and emboldened Israel by recognising its illegal and brutal colonisation (its “settlements”). By the same token he has offered yet another spectacular demonstration of the complete contempt of the United States for the rule of international law. Setting such an example will only send the message to all the despots, autocrats and tyrants of various stripes around the globe that not only it is ok to steal, colonise, and brutalise weak and defenceless populations, but that you may even be rewarded by the West for adopting the “law of the jungle”. The media is saturated with uplifting news about the “Israeli economic miracle”, its wealth and high living standards, and its thriving startup and high-tech industry. But have you ever heard from a mainstream Western media outlet or politician that a fifth of Israelis live below the poverty line, that people are forced to look through rubbish for food to avoid starving, or that Israel has (according to the Jerusalem Post) the highest poverty rate in the developed world? The answer is most likely not, and we should ask ourselves why. Other lies propagated by Israel’s disinformation machine include origin myths, the most famous being the romantic theme of Palestine as “a land without a people for a people without a land”, which strangely persists, despite its historical absurdity. Israel relies a lot on ignorance and gullibility. This magnificent interactive photographic collection of pre-1948 Palestine is enough to pulverise that revisionist lie, which seeks to eliminate the very notion of the existence of Palestinians on the land before it was taken from them by Western colonial powers to be given to Jewish emigrants from Europe and elsewhere. Palestinians were made to pay for a Holocaust that Europe had committed, and in which they themselves played no part. Besides the pathetic nature of such PR operations to counter critics and improve Israel’s disastrous global image, its effectiveness is more than a little uncertain. When news and images of Israel’s killing and mutilation of Palestinian children, deliberate bombing of schools, and indiscriminate use of white phosphorus on entire neighbourhoods circulate around the world, it is hard to convincingly portray such a predatory, violent and terrorist rogue state as noble, democratic, peaceful or gentle. “The Only Democracy” in the Region By far the most common Zionist myth is the notion that Israel is the “only democracy” in the region – one that some even describe as a liberal, egalitarian, Western-style democracy. This grotesque, self-serving fairytale perpetuates the fallacy of a similarity of regimes, of a common destiny, and of a natural alliance between Israel and Western nations. Racist propaganda often pits this against the inevitably “barbaric”, backward and undemocratic Arab states and Muslim-majority societies. This misleading description echoes the larger, even more sinister – but equally fallacious – Huntingtonian “clash of civilizations” discourse, which is itself the cultural reformulation in civilisational terms of the old ideologies of racial differences. Repeating a lie multiple times does not make it true, although Israel’s agents clearly think it does. Israel is no democracy, and certainly not a “liberal, egalitarian” state. Two cold, hard facts can easily debunk this myth. Firstly, there is the acquisition of Israeli nationality and citizenship through religion. The Law of Return allows any Jew, anywhere in the world, to emigrate to Israel and obtain full Israeli citizenship, whether or not they have ever set foot there or have any relatives living there. A privileged, royal path to citizenship is reserved exclusively for Jews, while being denied to members of other religions. Religious discrimination is thus institutionalised as official policy. Just imagine for a minute how “democratic” countries such as France, Germany, Britain or the United States would be if they decided that from now on, Christians from all over the world – but only Christians – could freely emigrate and settle there, and unlike members of any other religion, or even atheists, they would automatically be granted citizenship upon arrival. This would amount to discarding their most fundamental and basic democratic principles, including their cherished secularism – but such institutionalised religious discrimination is exactly what Israel practices. Secondly, there is the issue of marriage. Given the massive pro-Israeli propaganda machine, coupled with the silent complicity of our Western media and governments, many people might be unaware that in Israel, only religious authorities are allowed to officiate marriages. Civil, non-religious marriages are not permitted. Even worse, inter-religious, mixed marriages are also forbidden by law, forcing inter-religious couples to marry abroad. When they return, the non-Jewish partner often receives second-class citizen treatment by the state. Again, let’s imagine what would happen to the French, British, German or US democracies if we were to apply such archaic principles. Rather unthinkably for those of us living in actual democracies, the Israeli state manages to make those already backward practices even harsher, levying a two-year prison sentence on couples who get married by a religious authority not accredited by the state. Despite all this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his PR minions continually explain to us – with a straight face – how democratic, egalitarian, tolerant, open and enlightened the state of Israel has always been, and how it grants all of its citizens equal rights. Israel was already a profoundly racist, unegalitarian, undemocratic, ethno-religious state before the nation-state law was passed last year. Now, it is even worse. Conceived of from the start as an ethno-religious “Jewish state” – a description it has finally openly acknowledged through the nation-state law – just as other countries thought of themselves as “white states” (South Africa, the segregationist US), it is not surprising that Israel quickly instituted a veritable apartheid system. This reality is easily visible to anyone on the ground, and has been abundantly documented for decades by the media, all major human rights organisations, UN-mandated independent teams on the ground, Palestinian and Israeli activists, NGOs and academics, who explain how Israel’s apartheid regime constantly invents new, creative ways to perpetuate and consolidate itself. Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants have themselves denounced Israel as a structurally segregationist, and even fascist, apartheid state. One can safely assume that when you have survived Auschwitz, as did Professor Hajo Meyer, you can recognise fascism in action – particularly in your own country. ANC veterans who spent their own lives fighting apartheid in South Africa have also declared that what they saw in Israel was in some respects worse than what they confronted at home. Even US President Jimmy Carter wrote an entire book on Israel’s apartheid, explaining how Palestinians were caged in an open-air prison worse than what the South Africans had to face. Israel’s discrimination against its Arab citizens, among others, is thus not just a societal, economic or cultural phenomenon. Every country has a share of that. In Israel’s case, discrimination is institutionalised, inscribed in its justice system as well. “Israeli law includes numerous provisions that explicitly assert and institutionalise a principle of inequality between Jews and Arabs,” notes Arab-Israeli professor and politician Yousef Jabareen. “To cite only one example, the Israeli flag, with its Star of David, represents only the Jewish majority of the country. But this differential treatment is certainly not limited to the realm of the symbolic. It exists in all domains of life: the definition of the state and its symbols, but also immigration laws, citizenship, political participation, access to land, culture, religion, budgetary policies, etc.” Similar to the Law of Return, the “settlements” in the occupied West Bank – often direct breaches of Israeli law itself and major violations of international law – are exclusively reserved for Jews. Israel invests considerable resources there on infrastructure and social services, but non-Jews are not allowed to live in the settlements – even though they are often built on confiscated land privately owned by Palestinians. These settlers live among a population of more than three million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who live under an all-pervasive, brutal military occupation. Another two million Palestinians live under siege and ongoing military terror in Gaza. None have a right to vote in Israeli elections. Again, imagine the outcry if Britain or the US started invading territories outside of their internationally recognised borders, illegally annexed the land and resources, and then began creating Christian-only settlements in those areas. The dozens of Israeli laws that explicitly discriminate against Arab citizens and Palestinians in the occupied territories are well documented. They can be accessed through the Adalah searchable database, and they apply to all aspects of Palestinian life: citizenship, education, political and economic rights, residency, language, culture, religion, and so on. Even access to water, the most fundamental and life-sustaining resource, is the object of differential treatment by Israel, which has never hesitated to confiscate water or to use it as a war weapon to collectively punish entire populations. Since the nation-state law has been adopted, Israel’s already systemic discrimination has become even worse, with new laws being passed to further entrench and expand inequality. In addition to all of this evidence that Israel is no democracy, the state has also become globally infamous for its relentless, illegal, supremacist, hyper-violent colonialism; its annexation of land at gunpoint; its terroristic military; and its armies of fanatic Jewish “settlers”, who are little more than international rogues and land thieves. During its half-century of illegal occupation and annexation, which is now doomed to get even worse, Israel has wilfully and knowingly violated almost every major international law convention, treaty and UN resolution, including the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, the 1947 Partition Plan, the Camp David and Oslo accords, and so on. Such lawless behaviour has given Israel the distinct honour of being among the countries that for decades have been, and continue to be, regularly condemned by all major human rights organisations out there, and by the UN itself. It is difficult to find a worse rogue state than Israel. From its very inception, writ with ethnic cleansing, Israel has made the collective punishment of defenceless civilian populations, the killing of entire families, the deliberate mutilation of children, the bombing of schools and hospitals, and other barbaric atrocities as distinctly, recognisably Israeli as challah, hamin and gefilte fish. Even Israeli soldiers themselves – thousands of them, often elite soldiers regrouped in veteran organisations such as Breaking the Silence – are exposing and documenting Israel’s systematic and deliberate targeting of defenceless Palestinians. As much as the ANC veterans know apartheid, and Holocaust survivors know fascism, when they see it, these brave soldiers surely know what they are talking about, as they were once a part of it. But they, too, are probably just “antisemites” or “self-hating Jews”; instead of them, maybe we ought to believe the likes of Netanyahu, who continues to claim that Israel is the region’s “only democracy”? Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Dr Alain Gabon is an associate professor of French based in the United States and the head of the French Department at Wesleyan College in Virginia. He has written numerous papers and articles on contemporary France and on Islam in Europe and throughout the world. | Prof. Alain Gabon | https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-israel-became-one-world-worst-rogue-states/5696515 | Mon, 02 Dec 2019 16:10:37 +0000 | 1,575,321,037 | 1,575,308,717 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
387,988 | npr--2019-11-29--These Students Speak Perfect Spanglish — And Now They're Learning To Own It | 2019-11-29T00:00:00 | npr | These Students Speak Perfect Spanglish — And Now They're Learning To Own It | These Students Speak Perfect Spanglish — And Now They're Learning To Own It Porfa please. Pero like. Janguear (to hang out). These Spanglish phrases are all the results of contact between Spanish and English. In a Texas college classroom, students are learning that Spanglish — a version of Spanish that's influenced by English — is just as valid as any other Spanish dialect. "What history teaches us is that the only constant is change," explains Meghann Peace, who teaches this class primarily in Spanish at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. "When two or more languages are in constant geographic and social contact, there will always be linguistic consequences." And yet Spanglish, or U.S. Spanish, is sometimes looked down upon by native speakers of both languages. Even in a state like Texas, where nearly 30% of the population speaks Spanish at home, there's a perception that it's better to speak "pure Spanish." Peace is teaching her students — who mostly grew up speaking a mix of Spanish and English — to challenge those negative perceptions. "I think the one that judges me the most is myself," says freshman Angie Bravo, 18. Bravo grew up in Laredo, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. Her first language was Spanish, and she wishes she were better at it. But this semester, she's learning there's nothing wrong with the way she speaks the language. It's just a different dialect from the one spoken in Madrid or Mexico City. The pressure to be perfect U.S. Spanish has been in college course catalogs for several years. According to a 2016 survey from New Mexico State University, more than 40 colleges across the country are teaching about it. Peace asks her students if they ever get negative reactions when they speak U.S. Spanish. Mary Villines, a biology major from the Rio Grande Valley, says she does. She says people who speak only Spanish or English will sometimes assume she doesn't speak their language well and correct her. "But what bothers me is that they only speak one language," Villines explains in Spanish. "How are you going to correct me when you don't even know what I'm saying?" Elisha Carrillo, an international and global studies major, also feels the pressure to speak flawlessly. "I think people get confused because they assume if you're brown, you speak perfect Spanish," she says after class. "People everywhere just expect you to be a certain way because of how you look." Carrillo's family has lived in San Antonio for generations. She says her mom and grandma speak Spanish, but they didn't really teach it to her. Instead, Carrillo learned the language in school. "My grandparents talk a lot about being discriminated in school for speaking Spanish," Carrillo says. There's a long history of "English only" policies in some American schools, including in Texas. "I think, just like subconsciously, they think, 'Oh, we're not supposed to speak that.' " "Should I be Hispanic, or should I be American?" Spanglish isn't the only dialect that has popped up from contact between two languages — there's also Franglais, Taglish and Portuñol. And while Spanglish is sometimes thought of as a random mishmash of two languages, Peace tells her class the dialect is actually very systematic. She says its speakers follow both languages' rules when they code-switch. She writes an example on the classroom's whiteboard — the phrase "a girl who was walking her dog." In Spanish, it would be "una chica que estaba paseando su perro." One way to say it in Spanglish: "una girl que estaba walking her dog." Then she gives an example of a sentence that doesn't work as well in Spanglish: "I already told you the most interesting story." In Spanish, it would be, "Ya te dije la historia más interesante." Peace says this one is harder to translate into Spanglish because it has a different sentence structure in Spanish and English. "Bilingual speakers have to know both languages very, very well in order to code-switch in the same sentence," she explains in Spanish. That lesson resonates with Bravo, who grew up near the border. "It's taught me to be a lot more accepting," Bravo says. "I didn't really take into account the rules that we don't speak about but we understand." For Bravo, language is intertwined with identity. "When I was growing up, I had a lot of issues [around] being Hispanic. I didn't understand, like, what does it mean to be Hispanic? Should I be Hispanic, or should I be American? And so I think it's because I struggled with that that I want to be able to do both," Bravo says. "To be able to speak Spanglish is to be able to say to people that I am Mexican American, and that's OK." Peace has one thing to say to those who believe Spanglish is an attack on a "pure" language: "A standard dialect is simply the standard because the people who are in power made it the standard." | Camille Phillips | https://www.npr.org/2019/11/29/775035698/these-students-speak-perfect-spanglish-and-now-theyre-learning-to-own-it?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | Fri, 29 Nov 2019 11:00:18 -0500 | 1,575,043,218 | 1,575,137,663 | education | teaching and learning |
690,949 | theguardianuk--2019-02-20--Poorer families to get text messages in trial to support early learning | 2019-02-20T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Poorer families to get text messages in trial to support early learning | Parents are to be sent three text messages a week offering tips on how to support their child’s early learning at home as part of a government drive to improve school readiness among children from poorer families. The texts will be sent to disadvantaged families with four- and five-year-olds, encouraging activities to improve literacy and numeracy, “such as counting the number of plates on the table”, according to the Department for Education. It is one of a number of trials being launched by the DfE aimed at supporting the early educational development of disadvantaged children who, on average, are four months behind their wealthier peers by the age of five. By the time they sit their GCSEs, their overall attainment lags by 19 months. The study will involve 2,700 families from 105 schools in the north-east over an eight-month period. The results will be compared with those from separate trials that will test the effect of regular home visits by early years experts on the development of disadvantaged children. In one, trained experts will visit 320 families with two-year-olds in South Yorkshire twice a week at home for 15 months, providing books and educational toys and teaching parents activities to help develop their children’s reading and conversation. Announcing the trials on Wednesday, the education secretary, Damian Hinds, will also outline plans for a separate project in which families from disadvantaged backgrounds with children aged two to four will be given free access free to DfE-approved early learning apps for smartphones and tablets. The DfE is promising to buy subscriptions to “the best” early learning apps, which will be made available to parents in 12 pilot areas across England. The apps will be selected by an expert advisory panel set up by the government last month to test apps and provide guidance to parents. “The home learning environment can have a huge impact on a child’s ability to succeed in life,” said Hinds, “so I want to support families with hints and tips to propel their child’s learning so they are not behind on their first day of school and they can go on to reach their full potential, whatever their background.” Acknowledging the difficulties that new technology can present for parents, he added: “Screens can be an easy distraction for children, but harnessing the power of technology to support early communication and development means that we have another tool in our arsenal to help young kids develop those skills.” The projects will be run by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Leeds-based education charity SHINE. Sir Kevan Collin, EEF’ chief executive, said: “Parents want the best for their children, whatever their background or wherever they come from. But it can sometimes be difficult to get parents involved in their child’s learning in practical ways which make a difference and we know little about how to do this well. “By testing different ways of improving the home learning environment, from texts to parents to home visits, these new trials will give us much needed information about how we can give mums and dads the tools they need to give their child the very best start in life.” | Sally Weale Education correspondent | https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/20/poorer-families-to-get-text-messages-in-trial-to-support-early-learning | 2019-02-20 00:01:24+00:00 | 1,550,638,884 | 1,567,547,915 | education | teaching and learning |
783,745 | theirishtimes--2019-01-28--Digital natives prefer learning from books rather than screens | 2019-01-28T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | ‘Digital natives’ prefer learning from books rather than screens | Young “digital natives” are much more likely to absorb information from printed books rather than screens even though they have grown up surrounded by iPads and smartphones, new research shows. The analysis of how more than 170,000 people are learning across Europe finds that paper is the preferred reading medium for both children and young adults when reading novels and longer-form articles. Researchers have found that young readers are more likely to skim longer pieces of text when using iPads or e-readers, especially when under time pressure. They are also less likely take notes for comprehension or “get lost” in the immersive experience of a novel when reading on screens. Dr Ann Marcus-Quinn, a lecturer at University of Limerick who is part of an EU-wide research team, said the findings have implications for how students learn both at home and in the classroom. “Just because young people can master electronic devices doesn’t mean that they have the critical skills to interpret texts,” she said. “While there is a bigger focus on independent learning, students still need expertise and help [from teachers] . . . and if students are taking notes, the old approach of using a pencil and pen or Post-It notes has its place.” The research also indicates that teachers tend to underestimate the negative impact of digital technology when their students read longer texts, while students are more likely to be overconfident about their comprehension ability, researchers found. However, Dr Marcus-Quinn cautioned against ditching technology entirely and said shorter texts, such as poetry, can work well on screens. She said she is involved in research which indicates that engagement with poetry can be boosted when there is access to layers of richer content on screens, such as deeper analysis of the text. There have been a team of almost 200 scholars and scientists researching the impact of digitisation on reading practices across the EU as part of a wider research project. It has involved more than 50 individual studies with more than 170,000 participants over the past four years. Dr Marcus-Quinn said there is a major challenge to discover ways in which to facilitate deep reading of long-form texts in a screen environment given the growing use of screens. As part of the project, Dr Marcus-Quinn and Dr Triona Hourigan of UL have been focusing on the impact of e-learning for reading-based activities in secondary schools. They are investigating how typographic presentation can optimise users’ experience of learning from screens. Experts involved in the research group – known as E-Read, or Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation – have called for caution when introducing digital technology into education on foot of these findings. They have also urged that teachers should be made aware that a “rapid and indiscriminate” move away from paper is “not neutral”. “Unless accompanied by carefully developed digital learning tools and strategies, they may cause a setback in the development of children’s reading comprehension and emerging critical thinking skills,” the group said, in a joint statement. Funding for the research has been partly prompted by concern within the EU over relatively low reading standards compared to Asian countries. In international reading assessments, however, Irish children are the best readers in Europe and among the best in the world. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/digital-natives-prefer-learning-from-books-rather-than-screens-1.3772618 | 2019-01-28 00:12:23+00:00 | 1,548,652,343 | 1,567,550,558 | education | teaching and learning |
819,757 | theonion--2019-11-15--Flu Outbreak Reduces Class Sizes To Level Appropriate For Learning | 2019-11-15T00:00:00 | theonion | Flu Outbreak Reduces Class Sizes To Level Appropriate For Learning | ST. LOUIS—With student-to-teacher ratios beginning to approach a more manageable level, sources confirmed Friday that a highly infectious strain of the flu sweeping through Washington Middle School this month has reduced class sizes to the point that learning is now feasible. “With this terrible illness forcing so many of our kids to stay home, I can actually give the students who remain some of the individualized attention they deserve,” said American history teacher Gina Wright, who along with her colleagues reported finally being able to meet some of the basic educational needs of her pupils now that a devastating virus has infected more than 300 of the school’s children. “Our classes are still overcrowded, but if a few more kids go down, it may, for the first time, be possible to implement a truly adequate curriculum. I’m sure we could have caught the outbreak earlier if we were able to afford school nurses. To be honest, though, this is a pretty nice trade-off.” Wright went on to predict that a new round of cuts to the school lunch program would likely weaken student health and keep class sizes small as more children are sickened. | null | https://local.theonion.com/flu-outbreak-reduces-class-sizes-to-level-appropriate-f-1839892824 | Fri, 15 Nov 2019 17:29:00 GMT | 1,573,856,940 | 1,573,863,930 | education | teaching and learning |
989,095 | thesun--2019-12-04--How to get teens to fly the nest and prepare them for the real world- from doing laundry to learning | 2019-12-04T00:00:00 | thesun | How to get teens to fly the nest and prepare them for the real world- from doing laundry to learning about failure | RECORD numbers of young adults in their twenties and thirties are still living at home, official figures reveal. In two decades there has been a 46 per cent rise in the number of 20 to 34-year-olds living with their parents – and now 3.5million people do, says the Office For National Statistics. So what can mums and dads do to prepare their children for independence? Dr Dominique Thompson who co-wrote parenting book How To Grow A Grown Up, says: “The whole point of being a parent is to teach your children to be able to leave home once they finish school and make their way in the world without the constant support of Mum and Dad. “Being able to survive outside the nest is the main aim of growing up. Yet growing up today is very different from when today’s parents were growing up.” Here Dominique, who was a GP for 20 years, gives her top tips to help your child take the next step off your sofa and out into the world. Help them, but don't do it for them MAKE sure your teenager can make and go to their own GP or dentist appointments by the time they are in Sixth Form. If they are having problems with friends or even teachers, try to help them work out what they need to do to sort things, but don’t rush straight in to fix problems for them. You might want to speak to the teacher, but you might actually help your child more by talking through with them how they want to handle things. Doing this will help them deal with difficult colleagues and bosses in later life, too. SHOW them how to cook basic healthy meals, to do their washing, how to get around by public transport, or to drive, and encourage them to earn their own money. Having a weekend job, or babysitting, will build their self-esteem and confidence, as well as teach them about the value of money and maybe even how to save it. If they are going to open days or interviews, suggest they go on their own or with a friend, not with you, so that they explore, make decisions or get that job independently. Help them to take positive risks TEENS are known for taking risks, but engaging in “good” risks is important in life. They know that drugs and alcohol can land them in trouble, but do they know that trying new sports, taking a gap year, meeting new people, or getting out of their comfort zone can lead to top opportunities? They should say “yes” to the chance to do something new. Tell them no one is perfect NOTHING worries the teenagers of today more than failure. They are terrified of letting people down and getting things wrong. You can help them to learn that things will go wrong in life and they need to bounce back and cope with that when it happens. They need to know that Mum and Dad are OK with them not being perfect. They already have too much pressure from social media to be their “best self” all of the time. They need to be able to relax and be themselves with you. This will build their confidence. MAKE sure your teenager knows that they can talk to you about the important things in life. That you won’t overreact and that you will listen without interrupting. Talk together when in the car or walking the dog as it’s easier for them than face-to-face. Make sure they know they can come to you with anything if they’re worried, and that they won’t be letting you down. You need to be their safe place when they feel stressed, so they don’t feel trapped or take potentially tragic action when the outside world gets too much. Then when they leave home they will know you are still there for them. FRIENDS are what keep us sane in life, and having more than one group of pals at school, or in a sports or a social club, can make sure teenagers have somewhere to fall back if things go bad with one crowd. Learning to get on with others is a life skill, as is negotiating and compromising when you disagree. Having different friendship groups is sensible and will give them support when they leave home. • How To Grow A Grown Up – Prepare Your Teen For The Real World, by Dr Dominique Thompson & Fabienne Vailes, £12.99, Penguin Random House is out now. GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected] | Lauren Burns | https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/10484499/how-to-get-teenagers-to-fly-the-nest/ | Wed, 04 Dec 2019 22:00:02 +0000 | 1,575,514,802 | 1,575,505,578 | education | teaching and learning |
501,976 | sottnet--2019-05-29--University of Denver offers Problematizing Whiteness course | 2019-05-29T00:00:00 | sottnet | University of Denver offers 'Problematizing Whiteness' course | In March, I wrote on the " American Political Thought " course offered by the political science department at the University of Colorado Denver that deliberately removed all white males and their contributions from the curriculum, instead focusing on "voices from the margins."The trend of anti-white "wokeness" at CU Denver continued this semester. This spring, its ethnic studies department offered a course called "Problematizing Whiteness: Educating for Racial Justice."The syllabus, a copy of which was obtained by The College Fix, spells out its details.Its instructor, Associate Professor Cheryl Matias, said in an email to The College Fix that whiteness is a term often misunderstood."Whiteness is not about culture or white skin as your question presumes," said Matias, who includes in her email signature the moniker "Motherscholar."Asked what kind of prospective career path her course prepares students for, Matias said: "Any job that respects diversity and people."With regard to the charge that Matias's course only further provokes racial divides in society, she responded: "Before judging a book by its cover, they should take the course and learn first."According to the syllabus, during "Problematizing Whiteness," one of the essential objectives is for students to understand "whiteness" is not restricted to actually being a white-skinned person, and instead it is a set of beliefs, characteristics, values and norms that determine somebody's "whiteness."This is echoed in the course readings, which includes such texts as "White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism," "Black Bodies, White Gazes," "White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism" and "Handbook of Social Justice in Education."In addition, some of the required items of reading are Professor Matias's own work, which includes publications such as:The syllabus is from 2016 but Matias declined an opportunity to spell out to The College Fix any updates or changes it has undergone in recent years.The course's three essential questions listed in the syllabus are: "What is whiteness?" (Where does it come from? What does it do to us?); "How do I identify whiteness in the self and society?" (What does it look, feel, or sound like?); and "What do we do about whiteness?"To put the questions into academic practice, students are given four major assignments. The first is called "Getting Down and Dirty with Whiteness," in which students are asked to take what they've learned in the course readings and lectures and describe how it applies to the world around them.The second assignment, "Deconstructing Whiteness in the Self and/or Society," tasks students with finding whiteness in media. "In this presentation, you are to use the literature, lectures, and class discussions from the course to unveil how Whiteness and race covertly operates. Meaning, what is the subliminal message being sent about whiteness, white culture, and people of color?"The third assignment, "Doing something about it: Racial Justice Advocacy," requires the student to be - quite literally - an activist for racial justice."There is a moral and ethical dilemma when learning about whiteness and race. If one is to learn about the racial injustices of society they must, in good faith, engage in processes that enact racial justice. That is, although education should be free, learning comes at a price: that price is doing something that benefits the community with that knowledge," the syllabus states.Students can take on projects such as to launch a blog to "push the conversation of race beyond mere comfort levels or white fragility" or "create a plan of action on how to disseminate the knowledge of whiteness in other departments, organization, communities, etc."The fourth assignment - "Are you truly feelin' it?" - is effectively an overall grade for a student's "emotional commitment" to the course, the syllabus states.Supplementary course material includes a chart on how to deconstruct common arguments of "examples of whiteness all around us."Another is a flowchart titled "Operations of Power in Institutionalized White Supremacy." The flowchart has two columns: how white supremacy impacts whites and how white supremacy impacts people of color."Elements of whiteness" listed include: investment, privilege, naturalization, identity, emotionalities, colorblindness, wealth, victimization in reverse racism rhetoric and authority.Items it suggests are "dynamics of racism" include: racial microaggression, Eurocentrism, job discrimination, achievement gap, model minority and "submission of docile body."In the center, there is a short list of ways in which "whiteness" can impact people of color: internalized racism, self hate, inferiority complex, dependency, color blindness and denial and adopting white emotions.What's more, let's replace the word "white" or "whiteness" with, say, "blackness," or "Mexican-ness" or, in my case, "Bangladeshi-ness." Imagine the (rightful) outcry if modes of thought, lifestyles, social and political views, and modes of behavior were simply dismissed as traits of "blackness" - even when they're not exhibited by individuals who are black.For all this, she has been praised. Matias is a two-time recipient of CU Denver's "Rosa Parks Diversity Award," the recipient of an award from the American Medical Research Association, and was listed in the journal Diverse: Issues in Higher Education as one of its Top 25 Women in Higher Education. In December, the popular Denver magazine 5280 wrote a glowing article about Matias headlined "How to be a True Anti-Racist.""At the end of the day, the one thing that all people can get by learning about racial identities is that you can feel like a human," Matias told the magazine. "You feel like, 'Wow, I'm connected.' We're sharing a burden as a common humanity. It's not about not seeing race-not that. It's understanding and seeing how race impacts the humanity of all of us."But these platitudes do not negate the reality of this course.If this is the new trajectory of CU Denver - one which devalues the contributions of white men in an American Political Thought class and one which teaches students to "problematize" whiteness in the ethnic studies program, then the school will have only itself to blame for disenfranchising such a large student demographic who no longer feel welcome.But as it currently happens on campuses, ideas are being sacrificed in favor of identities, victimhood has replaced merit and virtue, and the pragmatists of the old guard are left at the mercy of the woke brigade. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/413967-University-of-Denver-offers-Problematizing-Whiteness-course | 2019-05-29 14:17:10+00:00 | 1,559,153,830 | 1,567,539,928 | education | teaching and learning |
743,153 | theindependent--2019-01-25--10 online courses to better yourself in 2019 | 2019-01-25T00:00:00 | theindependent | 10 online courses to better yourself in 2019 | Self-improvement is a phrase you hear banded around a lot these days, but particularly in January. As we gracefully settle into 2019, the phrase “new year, new me” has become an unavoidable jingle, with everyone and their uncle vowing to better themselves for the months ahead. But setting ambitious resolutions can be disheartening when, a few weeks later, you find yourself falling at the first hurdle. It’s all very well and noble to say you’ll hit the gym more or eat fast food less, but in moments of great vulnerability (i.e. hangovers), it’s all-too-easy for desire to supersede willpower. That’s why one of the best ways to commit to some self-improvement may be to take an educational approach and sign up to an online course that you can’t wriggle out of quite so easily. There’s a beginning, an end and, sometimes, a fee, which means you’re even more likely to stick it out. So, from becoming a networking master to learning how to play tennis from Serena Williams – yes, really – start the year with a dose of optimism and sign up to one of our top 10 online courses to better yourself with in 2019. Learning to work within a team is a skill that could benefit you in the workplace and beyond. This course, taught by University of Pennsylvania professor Greg Urban, Ph.D, focuses on educating people about the different aspects of team culture (rituals, approaching tasks, tackling a crisis) that you might not necessarily be familiar with. “Knowledge of the ideas and information in this class enables you to be a better team player and a more effective team leader,” its description reads. The subject of wellbeing has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, mostly thanks to an influx of Instagrammers happily snapping away as they guzzle green juice and twist their bodies into strange yoga poses. But wellbeing is about more than just a nicely-filtered snap. Yale professor Laurie Santos teaches this online course, which lasts 10 weeks and focuses on the psychological science behind wellbeing and tackles some of the common misconceptions about what it takes to be well and happy. It also offers strategic tips for participants to incorporate wellness into their lives as simply as possible. Success if something we all strive towards, but it’s an umbrella term that can mean different things to different people. Award-winning author Professor G. Richard Shell designed this four-week-long course to help people assess what success means to them and guide them towards finding it. Shell applies this strategy to everything from happiness in your love life to confidence at work. “Get ready for the journey of a lifetime,” the course description reads, “one that will help you reevaluate your future and envision success on your own terms”. You might have it listed on your CV, you may even write it on your dating app profile, but time management is harder than it sounds. This course is only two hours, but it packs in all the key info you need to help you organise your time more efficiently. It consists of two modules, covering a range of topics such as overcoming procrastination and the benefits of organisation and includes a final assessment. The very idea of public speaking can elicit feelings of dread in the most confident of people. But it’s a useful skill to have. Even if you have no intention of ever standing up to speak in front of a crowd of people, knowing how to deliver a basic argument and persuade someone with your language can be beneficial in all sorts of scenarios, from pitching an idea in a meeting to trying to convince your friend why you should watch your favourite film and not theirs. There are 10 lessons in this course, with most participants completing three to five hours each week. It’s taught by Matt McGarrity, a senior lecturer in the communication department at the University of Washington. Now, this one might be a bit niche. But when we live in a world where people juggle multiple jobs and often work into the wee hours, it’s important to have hobbies outside of your work life – and photography is a great place to start. Smartphones now have cameras that rival some professional lenses, which means any snap-happy person with an iPhone can take a decent photograph. This Masterclass series is taught by one of the most esteemed photographers in the biz. It’s expensive, sure, but with 15 lessons in which Annie Leibovitz will talk you through everything she knows about portraiture and shooting in natural light, it’s probably worth it. As the prevalence of the global obesity epidemic continues to rise, it’s never been more important to learn about nutrition and diet-related disease. That’s what this course aims to do by offering practical tips on distinguishing between foods that will boost your health, and those that will threaten to destabilise it. It takes five weeks to complete and contains six different modules, including one on contemporary trends in eating. Before you start saying that you can’t be taught tennis on a screen, consider the prospect of being taught tennis on a screen by the one of the best tennis players on the courts today: the inimitable Serena Williams. In this two hour-long course, Williams takes viewers through in-depth lessons on fitness drills, perfecting your serve (via the help of a 15-page workbook) and improving your mental wellbeing on the court. It’s a great opportunity for people who want something to take their mind of work at the weekends, but fear their lack of sporting prowess will hold them back. Let Williams fix that. It may sound somewhat basic and too good to be true, but having a life that leaves you feeling both happy and fulfilled is certainly something to aim for. This two-hour long course is taught by the author of If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?, Professor Raj Raghunathan, who draws on his experience in psychology, neuroscience and behavioral decision theory to explore one of life’s most pressing questions: What does it mean to be happy and how can I get there? The idea is that upon completion, students will not only have a better understanding of the science behind happiness, but feel genuinely happier themselves too. Cooking is an art that few millennials have learned to master in the age of Deliveroo and Uber Eats. Today, it’s all too easy to forgo your pots and pans altogether and order a fresh pizza to your door in a few minutes instead. But celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, is on hand to help talk you through some of his kitchen secrets in this 16-part course. He’ll talk you through everything from mastering some of his most tantalising dishes (think tuna sashimi and seafood gazpacho) to creating decent and risk-free recipes from scratch. | Olivia Petter | http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/online-courses-better-yourself-2019-networking-public-speaking-social-media-cooking-tennis-a8745176.html | 2019-01-25 17:00:50+00:00 | 1,548,453,650 | 1,567,550,860 | education | teaching and learning |
785,064 | theirishtimes--2019-03-11--Choosing the right conversion course for graduates | 2019-03-11T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Choosing the right conversion course for graduates | As a Guidance Counsellor, I would always advise aspiring undergraduate students to study what they are passionate about. Nothing gets you successfully through the rigours of a four-year degree programme, where your own self-motivation is crucial, than your passion for its content. But, as you move into the final year of your degree, your own personal development over those years, as you grow into your early twenties, alongside the opportunities in areas that interest and excite you in the labour market, may lead you to consider a postgraduate degree programme either totally or marginally unrelated to your undergraduate studies. This is a totally normal aspect of career development and should not in any way call into question the validity of your undergraduate course choice. Choosing to convert disciplines prior to seeking to enter the labour market is a perfectly rational decision. Conversion programmes are typically one-year taught courses and are available in most subject areas, with many in business subjects (such as human resources and marketing), arts and humanities, IT and finance. Conversion courses can be taken as the first step towards a postgraduate degree or standalone qualifications and are highly valued by employers. If you feel you didn’t reach your full potential at undergraduate level, a conversion course can offer a chance to redress the balance. Given the high rate of graduate employment in the area, it’s not surprising many graduates consider a conversion programme in information technology. Courses typically last for one year and offer a solid grounding in the theory and practice of computer science. Many colleges offer cross-departmental programmes such as the higher diploma in applied science (applied computing technology) at University College Cork and the higher diploma in information technology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Students who wish to move into IT in a particular subsector of the industry may wish to explore the UCD taught master’s programme in computer science by negotiated learning. This flexible programme helps students to customise their learning to their individual student needs and their prior learning experiences. As well as data science, cloud computing, software engineering, forensics and security, artificial intelligence and cognitive science, students can choose a range of tailored modules to aid their specialisation such as app design, data mining, recommender systems or computer graphics. A postgraduate conversion course in IT can fast-track you on to a master’s, such as UCC’s MSc in Interactive Media or an MSc in Data Analytics at Technological University Dublin. Pac.ie is a central application centre for postgrad teaching programmes. It processes applications for the recently introduced two-year Professional Master’s in Education (PME), which saw its first graduates enter the teaching force in September 2016. To teach in Northern Ireland you need a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Graduates of many disciplines can do a teaching postgrad, but check your primary degree meets the entry requirements for your proposed teaching subjects (see teachingcouncil.ie). DCU Institute of Education offers the Professional Master of Education, a conversion course for non-teaching graduates wishing to teach at primary or post-primary level. For graduate degrees and training in psychology, you need a first qualification in psychology which grants you graduate membership (GM) and the graduate basis for registration (GBR) in the relevant professional organisation. GBR is a pre-requisite for entry to postgraduate training in applied areas of professional psychology. Trinity College Dublin offers two fully accredited graduate conversion courses for people who wish to pursue a professional career in psychology (e.g. in counselling psychology, clinical psychology, educational psychology, occupational psychology or other related areas). The MSc in Psychology (conversion course) is a one-year full-time course for applicants holding at least an upper second-class honour’s bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (GPA 3.3) from a recognised university course. Applicants will need at least 60 psychology ECTS credits earned as part of a cognate primary degree, or alternatively will have completed a minor psychology honours degree that did not confer eligibility for the graduate basis for membership. The psychology conversion course is a two-year, full-time course for applicants holding at least an upper second-class honour bachelor’s degree or its equivalent (GPA 3.3) from a recognised university course in any discipline but with no prior academic experience of psychology. The level-nine postgraduate diploma in applied social studies at Trinity College Dublin has particular appeal to graduates who wish to pursue a master’s programme in social work, social studies and social policy but who do not have an undergraduate social science qualification in these fields. This fully online postgraduate diploma can act as a conversion course for such graduates and enhance their application for specialised programme such as a master’s in social work. The programme will also appeal to applicants from outside Ireland, in particular North America, who wish to study in Ireland’s leading university with expertise in Irish, EU and global social policy, without disrupting their current living and work arrangements. The place of study is flexible as online delivery allows students to engage in learning activities at home or in the workplace and there is no requirement to attend at the Trinity campus in Dublin. Students will have access to weekly materials using a virtual learning environment and the opportunity to engage with other students and lecturers using discussion boards. There are more than 100 postgraduate programmes in law on the Qualifax.ie website, many open to non-law graduates. A postgraduate law degree increases your expertise and specialisation in a particular area of law but is also widely respected in other sectors. The MSc in International Law and Business is for graduates with an education background in law or business, or in a related academic area such as economics and is run jointly by the UCD Sutherland School of Law and the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. The programme lays the theoretical foundations in the areas of law and business and places them in the real-life context of the international business environment and can lead to careers with international law firms and multinational professional service firms through to multinationals requiring in-house legal advisers. For a career as a solicitor or barrister you must take the examinations of the professional body: the legal practice course (LPC) or the bar professional training course. A graduate diploma in law is the fast-track route on to these courses and is ideal for students without accredited undergraduate degrees in law. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is aimed at graduates of business and other disciplines who wish to enhance and develop managerial and leadership skills. They can be full-time for a year or part-time over two years. Many of the large professional service firms are hiring graduates from non-business backgrounds, as they bring a different perspective to business challenges and situations. Now in its fifth year, the UCD MSc in Aviation Finance has a specific focus on the practical features of global aviation markets. It is a one-year full time or two-year part-time programme suitable for graduates from a wide variety of disciplines including business, economics, finance, engineering and science who want to pursue a career in the highly dynamic international sector of aviation finance and leasing. Each year, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School offers a range of scholarships to both domestic and international students. They are awarded to exceptional students who will be ambassadors for the school during their studies and after graduation. The graduate entry medical schools at the University of Limerick, UCC, University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland all offer four-year medical degrees for graduates of any discipline. The degree is not strictly a postgrad programme as the award is the same as that of an undergraduate medical student. Applicants need 2.1 honours bachelor’s degree and a sufficiently high mark in the Gam Sat (Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test). | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/choosing-the-right-conversion-course-for-graduates-1.3821706 | 2019-03-11 16:00:00+00:00 | 1,552,334,400 | 1,567,546,731 | education | teaching and learning |
785,143 | theirishtimes--2019-03-12--Spotlight on courses around the country | 2019-03-12T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Spotlight on courses around the country | We take a look at a selection of the many postgraduate courses available in Ireland’s universities, institutes of technology and colleges. Where indicated, we have listed the most popular courses by number of applications in the higher education institutions. We have also included some salary expectations for some of the potential jobs for graduates of these courses. Prof Diarmuid Ferriter, one Ireland’s best-known and respected historians, is one of the lecturers on this new course from the largest school of history in Ireland. Students will work closely with him and other renowned historians, including Dr Lindsey Earner Byrne. Students will have an opportunity to focus on their own particular areas of interest, and be guided by historians with a strong track record in the teaching, research and writing of a range of absorbing and provocative themes. Modules include case studies in 20th century Irish history; welfare, health and gender; public history; the legacies of Irish revolution; and European history to place Irish history in a comparative context. Students will also complete a dissertation on a specialist topic of their choice, working with their supervisor to produce a thesis based on original research. And there’s an opportunity to organise a conference, sharing research findings and developing presentation skills. Applicants are required to have a minimum of a 2.1 or international equivalent in BA history or a related discipline. History graduates are employed in fields including law, business, journalism, public relations, broadcasting, education and creative writing. EU fees for the full-time course are €7,055 for the year or €4,235 for a part-time two-year course. Popular courses on offer, by number of applications, include: Interested in working in business, but lacking that primary undergraduate degree? The MSc in management – ranked first in western Europe for general management by Eduniversal in 2018 – might just be the course for you. Over one full-time yea, students on this programme will be equipped with the management skills needed to work in the world of global business, with all the key areas of management covered including people management, finance, operations and strategic planning. As the course is not designed for business graduates the intake has been consistently diverse and includes students with primary degrees in arts, science and medicine. Modules on the course include financial management, ethical business, entrepreneurship, the psychology of management and leading change in a complex world. Students will also learn about research methods, and carry out a dissertation project based on primary research; previous projects have covered a diverse range of areas including cinema and marketing management, engineering and strategy and fashion and supply chain. Expert guest speakers, case studies and interactive discussion will help students to critically analyse business issues and to develop their own style of leadership. Graduates have gone on to work in areas including consulting, financial services and media/entertainment in companies including Accenture, Deloitte and EY. Applicants must have a minimum level eight 2.1 degree as well as two academic referees. Spotlight on: MA in critical and creative media The MA in critical and creative media offers flexibility to students who are new to media studies and wish to gain a broad understanding of media (these students will generally need a BA undergraduate degree) or those who have studied media or a related discipline and wish to specialise. The course allows students to choose from a selection of subjects with a wide range of themes relating to production and practice, media history and media theory. Students who are keen to explore the interdisciplinary nature of media can also choose to take courses in related disciplines such as sociology, law, geography, anthropology and Irish. They will develop transferable research, writing and analytical skills. Depending on the route students take through the degree, the course prepares them for a career in digital media, audiovisual production, marketing and advertising, research, content production, the arts sector or further postgraduate studies. Graduates have gone on to work in content writing, journalism and digital marketing. One graduate, Dafe Pressu, produced a soundtrack and documentary on Irish hip-hop music,and is now working in marketing. Students must have a 2.1 honours degree in media studies or a related subject in humanities, art, social science, communication or ICT. Full-time EU fees are €6,200 for the one-year programme or €4,170 for a flexible two-year part-time course Popular courses on offer, by number of applications, include: This two-year, full-time course offered by UCC’s college of medicine and health is an accelerated pre-registration programme for students with a primary degree in subjects other than diagnostic radiography. The course – which was the first programme of its kind in Ireland – aims to provide students with knowledge and experience of both academic and clinical environments including clinical and research skills and the abilities necessary for working and developing as clinicians, researchers and agents of change in healthcare. Modules on the course include professional practice in radiography, biological sciences for health professionals, image interpretation, advanced radiation science and diagnostic pathways and patient needs. Students will also undertake three clinical placement blocks in semesters two and three of first year, four clinical placement blocks for a total of 20 weeks in second year and an elective three-week placement for those who wish to encounter other hospital experiences. There’s also a short research proposal and a research dissertation to complete. Classes will take place from 9am-5pm every day during term time. Possible careers, once graduates are registered with CORU, include advanced or consultant practitioner, management or teaching. Some students may be eligible for a part-scholarship sponsored by the HSE South/South West Hospital Group. Fees are €11,000 for each of the two years (total: €22,000). Popular courses on offer, by number of applications, include: New course: MA sports journalism and communication AI is predicted to make many jobs obsolete with the coming decades, but – according to research carried out last year by audit firm PWC – it will create many more than it displaces. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025 machines will perform more current work tasks than humans today, while AI and robotics could contribute over €13.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030. This new full-time, one-year programme will equip graduates to work in this major growth area, which has the potential to transform every aspect of our lives and worlds. Foundational modules include machine learning and deep learning, ethics in AI and natural language processing, while advanced modules include data visualisation, web and network science and tools and techniques for large-scale data analytics. This is a particularly competitive course: applicants should have a first class honours from a level eight computer science programme, or a level eight science programme that provides extensive training in computing (such as object-oriented programming, modern software engineering and database development). However, applicants with a strong 2.1 degree may be admitted on the recommendation of the programme director. EU fees for this course are €7,215. New courses at Dublin City University and the University of Limerick This year DCU has introduced three very timely new courses with a focus on mental health, wellbeing and inclusion. The new MSc in psychology and wellbeing provides psychology graduates with a strong grounding in theory, policy and practice of wellbeing. The focus of the course is on the psychological, societal, environmental and physical factors on the wellbeing of individuals, families and whole communities. This programme is intended as a springboard for students going on to further clinical, research or professional psychology careers in education, community settings, mental health, family support and clinical psychology. The course is offered on a one-year full-time or two-year part-time basis. Fees are €7,650 (full time) or €15,300 part-time. The second of DCU’s courses is a Masters of education in autism (MEdA). Last year DCU became the world’s first autism-friendly university. This has involved creating spaces that are more comfortable for students with autism, providing training to help staff understand the challenges that people with autism may face and celebrating students on the autism spectrum. This new course is a part-time blended, two-year programme open to qualified teachers working with pupils on the autism spectrum and is focused on developing teachers with a greater understanding of the educational needs facing learners with autism. There is a significant amount of online learning. Students on this course complete a thesis. Applicants must hold a minimum H2.2 level eight education qualification. EU fees are €4,500 per year. The MEd in specific learning difficulties (dyslexia) is a two-year part-time course with a mix of online learning and some weekend lectures. The course aims to develop expertise among educators working with learners who have specific learning difficulties, and is based on a professional portfolio rather than a thesis. Participants on this course learn to write diagnostic reports, especially in the context of the teaching environment, and will become specialists in diagnostically assessing for dyslexia, planning the most appropriate interventions and teaching students with dyslexia and literacy difficulties. Applicants working in a range of educational settings, including primary, post-primary and higher education, are welcome. Fees are €3,900 in year one and €4,300 in year two. The University of Limerick has also introduced a number of new courses. The MSc in design for health and wellbeing, offered by the faculty of science and engineering, is a one-year, full-time programme bringing together students from across different disciplines to develop and apply people-centred, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to designing consumer health and wellbeing products, medical devices and product service systems for health. Stakeholders from hospitals, mental health services, public health and health care have been involved in designing the programme. EU fees are €6,225 for the year. The MSc in applied sports coaching, offered by the faculty of education and health science, is a two-year, part-time programme giving experienced coaches the chance to develop their skills and work with leaders and researchers in sport coaching. The programme is offered by the department of physical education and sports sciences, and the fee is €4,000 per year. Also at UL, the new MSc in business analytics is a one-year, full-time on offer at the Kemmy Business School which will train graduates to work in the growing area of solving business problems using statistical methods, large data sets, predictive models and optimisation techniques. The MA in composition and creative music practice, a one-year full-time programme where students will create acoustic and/or electronic music through a range of composition, improvisation and performance practices. The course draws from UL’s expertise in music teaching and research, and students from all music traditions and sound art practices are welcome. For fee information on these two courses contact UL’s postgraduate office. Popular courses on offer, by number of applications, include: This is a two-year part-time masters with classes taking place on Mondays and Wednesdays in TU Dublin’s Tallaght campus (formerly IT Tallaght before its merger with the Dublin Institute of Technology and IT Blanchardstown). The course is for hospitality and culinary management professionals who are interested in innovative food to meet the consumer demands and expectations in the growth area of health and wellness. Modules on the course include flavour science, human nutrition, culinary nutrition, food regulatory affairs and strategic marketing for the contemporary chef. Students will also complete professional practice and an applied research project. Graduates can expect to develop the skills needed to work in diverse roles including culinary innovation and food product development, food consultancy, food marketing, food production and service, food science research and nutritional analysis. Applicants must have a level eight honours degree, although applicants who hold a level-seven (ordinary degree) but have gained sufficient industry experience will also be considered. Students who do not wish to complete the applied research project can exit with a postgraduate diploma in applied culinary nutrition. The course costs €2,750 per year (€5,500 in total) including a non-refundable €100 application fee. Popular courses on offer, by number of applications, include: Cyber security has become increasingly important as more and more life moves online, and the skills gap in this area continues to grow. CIT’s MSc in information security has a strong emphasis on how knowledge can be applied, while being underpinned by in-depth theoretical knowledge. Modules on the course include web application and network penetration testing, cloud security, incident response and digital forensics, data analytics and malware investigations. Students will also carry out an information security research project. The course is offered on a full-time on-campus day programme basis as well as part-time online night programme. EU students will pay €6,500 for the full-time course, and €9,000 for the part-time course. Applicants should have a minimum level eight honours degree in computing or a related discipline, although applicants with significant industrial experience may also be considered. Popular courses on offer, by number of applications, include: MSc in quality and safety for health and social care This one-year, full-time taught MSc degree focuses on how we can apply the insights gained from animal behaviour to wildlife conservation. Conservation behaviour is a relatively new area of study, and will be of interest to people interested in careers in ecological consultancies, research institutes, government agencies, NGOs and charities. Students will study species in marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats, acquiring a range of skills including acoustic and visual monitoring of marine mammals, camera trap surveying for terrestrial mammals, geographic information systems and data analysis. Modules include studies in conservation behaviour, animal behaviour, recording and analysis, and acoustic monitoring as a marine conservation tool. Students will also develop practical field skills during a residential field course in an area that allows them to study a range of animals in a variety of habitats (eg the Aran islands, the Burren, the Dingle peninsula) and to undertake a research thesis. EU fees for this course are €6,000. A selection of postgraduate research groups across business, engineering, health sciences, science and computing, humanities, and lifelong learning and education are looking for students to carry out postgraduate research degrees including masters by research and PhD degree programmes. Programmes are designed to allow students network with postgraduates in other disciplines, with optional weekly seminars on a range of topics as well as sessions aimed at developing practical skills organised by the WIT graduate studies office. Students are supervised by at least two academics with experience in the research topic. In addition, PhD students will be able to develop transferable skills through modules such as academic writing for research postgraduates and research integrity and ethics. Students can apply for funded or self-funded research programmes. Anyone interested in self-funded programmes should contact WIT academic staff to discuss potential topics, while those applying for funded positions as advertised on the WIT website and elsewhere can apply directly to the research group on Google search “WIT postgraduate prospectus” for more information. MA and PhD by research in art and design Youth workers will be interested in this level nine special purpose award which aims to equip them with the skills to engage young people in youth work through games. Students on the course will learn about the role of games in youth culture, and will gain the skills needed to design them. Students on this part-time course must be actively involved in youth work, either as a paid employee or a volunteer. Teaching will be by online lectures, reading material, weekly seminar at the LIT Thurles campus and a monthly three-hour webinar. Modules on this course include critical youth work theory, games and youth engagement, digital games in contemporary youth culture and designing games for youth work practice. Assessment will be by a project agreed with the host youth organisation, an essay or project, and online questions. PG Dip/ Master of engineering in connected and autonmous vehicles This is a two-year, full-time programme concentrating on advanced interior architectural design. The course combines elements of architecture, art, fashion, furniture and product design, graphics and performing arts. Students will be encouraged to discover their own style and expression by engaging in active research. There are four elective streams on this programme including interiors without boundaries, innovative building conservation, contemporary furniture design and energy and the built environment. Applicants should have a minimum 2.2 degree in interior architecture, architecture, interior design or a related subject. For fee details, contact IT Sligo on 0719155222 or email [email protected] Popular courses on offer, by number of applications include: Spotlight on: MA in advanced professional practice (intake every second year) Using a mix of online and blended learning options, this is a two-year, part-time programme geared towards graduates from a range of backgrounds including health, education, welfare and social care. The course aims to equip graduates with a thorough understanding of how research, policy and practice are important in shaping work activities. Modules on the course include leadership, social policy, affecting social justice in practice and international comparative social policy. Students will also undertake a research project. Applicants should have a minimum 2.2 honours level eight degree. Fees are €6,375 in total across the two years. NCAD is offering four new design MA programmes for 2019, all of which are suitable for applicants from a broad range of disciplines including design, art, humanities, social science, computer science, engineering and business. Scholarships are available across all disciplines. The MA in service design is a one-year taught masters applying design practice, methods and thinking to the service sector, including retail, tech, banking, transport, health and education, with students examining the issues facing business and governments, and creating new services to transform customer and citizen experiences. The MA communication design is a 15-month research masters where students will develop the skills needed to succeed within contemporary graphic design, illustration and moving image. Research and critical studies are combined with advanced studio practice. The MA design for body and environment, also a 15-month research masters, covers a broad range of design disciplines including fashion and textiles, jewellery and accessories. Students will examine the past, challenge the present and develop ideas that address industry, social, cultural and political agendas. Finally, the MA product design is a 15-month research masters where students will address real world challenges of balancing creativity and technical capability to meet the needs of people in homes, workplaces or the public domain. A small but well-respected college at the intersection of Dublin’s IFSC and Silicon Docklands, NCI specialises in business, computing and human relations. This one-year full-time or two-year part-time course is aimed at anyone who wants to advance their career at senior management, particularly in HR. Graduates will be eligible for chartered membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Modules include employment law, talent development and mediation and conflict management. Students will also learn about research methods and carry out a dissertation. Applicants should hold a minimum 2.2 level eight degree, although some graduates with extensive professional experience or other relevant qualifications will be considered. Griffith College offers three separate law masters courses, including LLM in international law, LLM in international commercial law and LLM in international human rights law. The LLM in international law is offered across one year full-time or two years part-time. Core modules on the course include public international law, international commercial law and international human rights law, while electives include corporate governance, international tax law and international criminal law. Applicants should have a minimum 2.2 degree in law or a related discipline where law comprises at least 50 per cent of the course. EU fees are €7,200. This course aims to produce graduates who understand how tech is changing the world of finance, with digitisation, block chain and the cloud among the innovations affecting the industry. The course was developed with industry collaboration to meet specific skills shortages in the finance sector (including banking, insurance, tech and start-ups) and students can expect to learn about financial analytics, advanced databases, disruptive technologies, web tech and security. Students will also learn about research methodologies, and carry out a project. Applicants should have a minimum 2.2 level eight degree in a related discipline, or at least two years’ industry experience. The MSc nursing (advanced leadership) aims to develop the student’s ability to reflect on their leadership role and examine theories and policies underpinning health and healthcare at individual and organisational level. During this two-year part-time programme students will have the opportunity to build their confidence in taking a leading role as an effective member of a healthcare team and enable them to actively participate in the interdisciplinary team approach to care delivery. The course also provides an opportunity to develop and engage in research projects and activities across disciplinary boundaries in the area of leadership. Students will develop an in-depth knowledge of information retrieval, data management skills, referencing skills, systematic reviewing, research implementation and action research skills. The early childhood care sector has grown significantly in recent years and is becoming a graduate-led workforce. Graduates with recognised degrees attract higher capitation fees for early-years settings which offer the free childcare scheme, and, as a result, are highly sought by employers. One of these degrees is the higher diploma in arts in early years Montessori education, delivered by St Nicholas Montessori College in Dublin and Cork. While this is a level-eight qualification it is only open to learners who have previously earned a degree. The degree provides a foundation in Montessori philosophy and practice while also providing graduates with the core competencies, skills and knowledge needed to work with children in the national Síolta and Aistear frameworks. Students will also complete business and legal modules to enable them establish their own early-years businesses. The course is delivered across 18 months on a full or part-time basis, with tuition in the evenings and weekend. Placement is an essential part of the course. For more information, see smsi.ie or call 012300080. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/spotlight-on-courses-around-the-country-1.3810076 | 2019-03-12 00:00:00+00:00 | 1,552,363,200 | 1,567,546,606 | education | teaching and learning |
789,430 | theirishtimes--2019-09-26--Learn or earn Is a postgraduate course the right choice for you | 2019-09-26T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Learn or earn: Is a postgraduate course the right choice for you? | Gone are the days when education was capped with a third-level or postgraduate qualification. Today, in most professions, some level of lifelong learning is unavoidable. But for many people who have recently finished their undergraduate degree, deciding whether or not to take on a postgraduate course or go straight into the workplace can be a tough call. And, unfortunately, there really is no one-size-fits-all answer. Dr Fergal O’Brien is the assistant dean of postgraduate studies at the University of Limerick. “Demand for postgraduate courses is cyclical and driven by the economy,” he says. “In a recession, people may want to stay in education but there are issues around financing. During a boom, there is the attraction of the labour market, whereas a [full-time]postgraduate course may delay it.” Right now, we are in the teeth of a boom, but Brexit, Donald Trump’s trade war and our relentless capacity to trash the environment could herald a recession. One seemingly obvious decision is to work for a few years and consider a postgraduate course down the line, but the risk is that it can be very hard once you’re earning money to go back to education. “Many are still choosing to do a postgraduate course fresh out of college,” says Dr O’Brien. “There is a trade-off. You can go into the workforce now and, if there’s a recession in two years’ time, you have to consider whether the employer will value that experience more than a postgraduate.” “It really depends on the employer,” Dr O’Brien says. “When a slowdown comes, new entry positions will have higher entry requirements than before. A masters qualification is really helpful in getting a promotion or when moving jobs, but it’s perhaps less important in the first job. When you’re up against colleagues with the same level of experience, the postgraduate qualification [can help].” At Trinity College, Shaz Oye, the new president of the Graduate Students’ Union, took 52 per cent of the vote in a three-horse race by promising to fight for the rights of postgraduates and ensuring they are not taken for granted. She says Irish society needs postgraduates, and a qualification is a prerequisite for some for many jobs – but many are saying that courses are hard to fund and that their contribution isn’t adequately valued. After leaving school, Oye went straight to work. She is one of those relatively rare postgraduate students who was accepted onto a course based entirely on her prior work experience. “I have never been impressed, if on an interview panel, if someone sitting in front of me has never worked. If they have gone straight from school to undergraduate and then immediately onto a postgraduate, without any work experience, I’m hesitant. Ultimately, there is no shortcut to experience, and you can’t learn everything in the classroom. I have worked in companies where they need people who can hit the ground running – you need to have some sort of experience.” Postgraduate courses can cost between €7,000-€15,000 depending on what you study and where, but the big question is whether it’s worth the investment. “Research shows it does pay off over a person’s career, but it can be hard right now when the cost is exacerbated by higher rental and living costs,” says Dr O’Brien. Either way, there are options. Part-time courses, often delivered fully or partially online, are in demand, because it means people can work and study at the same time. “Universities are becoming more flexible and adaptable to accommodate the different needs of different learners, including those who are some distance from the college as well as student professionals who may wish to do just one module in an area that will enhance and improve their work,” says Oye. The downside, of course, is that working and studying at the same time can be exhausting. And, as Oye points out, postgraduate programmes mean that you are, at least, “studying to become a master of knowledge in that specialist field, so you have to be very clear about why you are doing it, and be aware it requires a high level of academic rigour”. Of course, in some instances, a postgraduate is particularly useful, or even essential. “There are two types of postgraduate students: one group have been studying for three or four years and want to learn more, while another group may wish to change course or reposition themselves,” says Dr O’Brien. “So we see a lot of finance graduates who might, for instance, wish to move into analytics, and a postgraduate course is the route.” Postgraduate students at DCU Business School also tend to fall into two categories, says Prof Anne Sinnott, executive dean at the DCU Business School: those students opting to convert to business after completing an undergraduate degree in science or the arts, or business students who want to specialise further in a business discipline or in an industry that is of particular interest to them. Either way, the benefits are clear: “Postgraduate programmes offer a very different learning experience, such as smaller class sizes, tailored course content, opportunities to engage with companies and personal development opportunities,” she says. “These add value to students’ employment prospects and form a much stronger base for career development than just having an undergraduate degree.” Some graduates can have the best of both worlds: with a shortage of staff in many areas, many big firms recruit straight out of college in areas as diverse as finance, accounting, pharmaceutical, technology, retail, fast moving consumer goods and elsewhere. This means graduates can go straight into a paid role where they also receive on-the-job training and opportunities for further learning and career progression too. Free, massive open online courses (MOOCs) may also be a way for graduates to learn new skills: although they don’t lead to a qualification, they can help people to figure out whether a course is a good fit. Value postgrads – or take them for granted? At Trinity, Oye’s platform includes entering into a conversation with the college authorities on accepting and recognising that postgraduate and masters students are doing extensive work for the college without adequate payment. “PhD candidates teach, design new modules, assist tutors in labs and classrooms, have their own projects and put in a lot of hours. They may receive a stipend of €16,000 a year in the best-case scenario, but others are on less. This is not enough to cover the cost of rent and living in Dublin. There has been a culture in academia that treats students as lucky to be here, and there has been a lack of recognition that they are service users of the organisation and paying a lot of money. We need innovative thinking to get postgraduate work and study appropriately valued, and this is a hot issue in college life.” Oye says a rise in research grants for the work doctoral candidates carry out, even by about €4,000, would make a real difference to people’s lives but barely make a dent in the education budget. Is it worth it? Oye is careful, however, not to paint postgraduate courses as all doom and gloom. “I loved it the day I came here. I am doing something I adore and would not be anywhere else for any money. I would recommend to younger students who are considering a postgraduate course to think carefully about the type of career they want and the experience and knowledge they will need. Find out what employers are looking for in the areas that interest you. There may be opportunities in some areas, such as drama, to do a continuous professional development course that is much shorter, cheaper and more suitable than a postgrad.” Prof Sinnott says there are plenty of options available for further study but stresses the importance of preparation. “Employers value lifelong learning and many students will opt to complete a part-time programme or executive education programme as their career progresses and the skills needed in a particular field evolve,” she says. “It’s never too late. I’d advise anyone thinking of doing a masters to understand their motivation, look closely at course content and be sure to get answers to any questions you may have about particular course. Come to an open evening if you can.” If postgrads were free and people were paid to do them, the choice would be a lot easier. But just how can a student finance their course? Springboard is a Government-run initiative that offers free courses in areas of the economy that are experiencing key skills shortages. At the moment, there’s strong demand for ICT skills conversion courses, with one-year full-time and two-year part-time courses open to graduates a year after completing their undergrad. For full details and eligibility criteria, see Springboard.ie. Postgraduate students can apply for a limited amount of financial assistance: this can vary between €2,000 and €6,270, depending on your personal circumstances. You’ll find more details on Susi.ie. Various third-levels and their individual faculties or departments also offer scholarships. At UCD, for instance, these include the Réalta Master in Engineering Scholarship and the Caroline Walsh Bursary in Creative Writing. It’s definitely worth contacting the department you’re interested in and seeing what’s on offer. The Irish Research Council also offers potentially lucrative awards to research students, but the process is highly competitive. See Research.ie. Tax relief of 20 per cent is available on postgraduate fees. And don’t forget: students can claim postgraduate grants and multiple scholarships at the same time. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/learn-or-earn-is-a-postgraduate-course-the-right-choice-for-you-1.4017199 | 2019-09-26 23:01:00+00:00 | 1,569,553,260 | 1,570,222,172 | education | teaching and learning |
237,366 | hitandrun--2019-12-12--Trump's Order Aimed at Fighting Anti-Semitism Is Constitutionally Problematic, but It's Not Anti-Sem | 2019-12-12T00:00:00 | hitandrun | Trump's Order Aimed at Fighting Anti-Semitism Is Constitutionally Problematic, but It's Not Anti-Semitic | When it comes to refuting dubious allegations of anti-Semitism, Donald Trump cannot win, a point dramatically illustrated by the reaction to the executive order he signed yesterday. The order, which is aimed at fighting "anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses," raises serious First Amendment concerns, which I'll get to in a minute. But much of the initial backlash against the order focused on its purported anti-Semitism. That's right: An order targeting anti-Jewish prejudice somehow became yet another example of Trump's anti-Jewish prejudice. On Twitter, the president's reflexive critics described his order as reminiscent of Nazi racial ideology, "fascist," and "as antisemetic [sic] as it gets." Those comments were based on a New York Times story that erroneously claimed the order "will declare that Judaism may be considered a national origin." That phrase has since been stricken from the article, without any indication of a correction. But the story still says "the order will effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion," which is not accurate either. Here is what the order actually says: As George Mason University law professor David Bernstein noted yesterday in a Volokh Conspiracy post, that understanding of Title VI is consistent with the policies of the last two administrations. The Justice Department during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations took the position that Title VI "provides protection to Jews, Arab Muslims, Sikhs, and/or members of other religious groups" when "discrimination is based on the group's actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, rather than its members' religious practice." The Trump administration's take on Title VI is not new, and it does not reflect a belief that Jewishness resides in one's blood or DNA. "The executive order does not mean that the Trump administration is declaring that Jews are, objectively speaking, a nation or a race," Bernstein writes. "Rather, it's that Jews are protected as a nationality or race if discrimination against them is motivated by the perception that they are a nationality or race. Consider Hispanics. Hispanics are not a 'race,' and indeed can be from any racial group. But no one would raise an eyebrow to discover that Hispanics are protected from discrimination based on race or national origin if subject to discrimination by someone who hates Hispanics as a group." A Times editorial avoids the mischaracterization of Trump's order presented in the paper's news coverage, saying the administration is trying to "combat anti-Semitism on college campuses by using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to withhold federal money from schools that fail to counter discrimination against Jews." The Times generously concedes that "Mr. Trump's action might seem like a gesture of real concern" but complains that "it does little to target the larger source of violent anti-Semitism." In other words, Trump is targeting left-wing anti-Semites when he should be targeting right-wing anti-Semites. The Times compounds its churlishness by averring that "the president himself has trafficked in anti-Semitic stereotypes, frequently endorsing crude, negative caricatures about Jews." To back up that claim, the editorial cites a speech that Trump delivered on Saturday at the Israeli American National Council Summit in Hollywood, Florida. After bragging about his efforts to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem at a reasonable cost, Trump said this: So we [were] going to spend 2 billion, and one of the [proposed expenditures] was going to buy a lousy location. A lot of you are in the real estate business, because I know you very well. You're brutal killers. (Laughter.) Not nice people at all. But you have to vote for me; you have no choice. You're not going to vote for Pocahontas [i.e., Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren], I can tell you that. (Laughter and applause.) You're not going to vote for the wealth tax. "Yeah, let's take 100 percent of your wealth away." No, no. Even if you don't like me; some of you don't. Some of you I don't like at all, actually. (Laughter.) And you're going to be my biggest supporters because you'll be out of business in about 15 minutes, if they get it. So I don't have to spend a lot of time on that. In case you doubt that the audience actually greeted Trump's remarks with laughter and applause, you can watch the video here. Although the Jews who listened to Trump's speech evidently were not offended by what he said, the Times is offended on their behalf. But that reaction hinges on an uncharitable interpretation of Trump's comments, colored by the presumption that he "traffick[s] in anti-Semitic stereotypes, frequently endorsing crude, negative caricatures about Jews." Trump may or may not be right that the rich developers who heard his speech will vote their pocketbooks next November (regardless of how they feel about him), but that suggestion is hardly proof of anti-Jewish bias. The real problem with Trump's executive order is not that it incorporates a Nazi-esque definition of Jewishness, or that the president's sincerity is questionable in light of things he has said that the New York Times editorial board considers anti-Semitic. The real problem (one the Times also notes) is the order's potential impact on freedom of speech. The order says federal agencies enforcing Title VI should "consider…the non-legally binding working definition of anti-Semitism" adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). That definition, which is also used by the State Department, cites "contemporary examples of anti-Semitism" that include "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis," "blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions," "applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation," "focusing on Israel only for peace or human rights investigations," and "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination" or "denying Israel the right to exist." These positions strike many Jews (including me) as grossly unfair, but they are not necessarily motivated by anti-Semitism, let alone synonymous with it. They raise important questions about the justice of Israeli policies, the sources of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, collective vs. individual rights, and the legitimacy of nation-states. A college campus is precisely the sort of place where issues like these should be hashed out. But if allowing students, faculty members, and outside speakers to express vehemently anti-Israel views can be construed as a Title VI violation, and therefore a threat to federal funding, universities may be inclined to err on the side of censorship. That possibility is not far-fetched, since discrimination can include a "hostile environment" that interferes with a student's education, and a hostile environment can be created by things other people say. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which is committed to defending freedom of speech for people across the political spectrum, notes that the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism "may apply to core political speech protected by the First Amendment." FIRE rightly worries that the executive order's "ambiguous directive and fundamental reliance on the IHRA definition and its examples will cause institutions to investigate and censor protected speech on their campuses." There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Trump's executive order, but they have nothing to do with his purported anti-Semitism or any other special characteristic of this particular president, his party, or his administration. To the contrary, the order reflects a bipartisan tendency to battle bigotry by suppressing controversial speech. | Jacob Sullum ([email protected]) | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/PX26R7AbnFI/ | 2019-12-12T20:05:33Z | 1,576,199,133 | 1,576,196,397 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
290,134 | lifesitenews--2019-11-05--EXCLUSIVE: LifeSiteNews translates Final Document of the Synod on the Amazon into English | 2019-11-05T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | EXCLUSIVE: LifeSiteNews translates Final Document of the Synod on the Amazon into English | VATICAN CITY, November 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― LifeSiteNews has translated the Final Document of the Amazon Synod into English for the benefit of English-speaking Catholics, as the document has been officially released by the Vatican only in Spanish, although an “unofficial” working translation has been given to the press — one that omits certain controversial passages in the document. The full translation is found below, and also here in PDF format. LifeSite’s Spanish-speaking reporters, Martin Barillas and Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, prepared this English translation so that Catholics who do not speak Spanish will have access to a document that may have wide-reaching effects on the universal Church. As readers will see, the Final Document was largely a toned-down version of many of the same elements that led cardinals and bishops to denounce the synod preparatory documents for undermining the Catholic faith. Essential matters of Christianity, such as supernatural grace, the truths of divine revelation, freedom from idolatry and superstition, the importance of traditional family values and sexual morality, salvation from sin, and eternal life with God, are mentioned only briefly and in passing, or entirely omitted. They are largely replaced with an agenda that conforms closely to eco-socialist and cultural diversity ideologies, displacing distinctly Christian values with an alternative set of concerns. The words “Trinity,” “heaven,” and “hell” never appear, and “sin” only a handful of times, never with specificity except to mention “ecological sin” in paragraph 82. “Salvation” is mentioned four times but never with regard to sin. The name “Christ” appears frequently though, a total of 24 times. The document repeatedly exalts indigenous cultures and traditions, characterizing them in almost entirely positive terms without mentioning that they are largely inspired by paganism and a pantheistic worship of nature. The Synod Fathers mention the deep moral collapse of the region without any reference to causes within indigenous and local cultures. Instead, the document blames the existence of vices in the area on capitalist economic development and urbanization [10]. It also encourages the creation of new religious rites inspired by the ritual practices and worldview of local cultures [for example 52, 116-119], largely ignoring their pagan foundation, and only briefly mentioning that such traditions need to be “purified” [52]. No mention is made of pedophilia, incest, and burying deformed children alive, practices that traditionally have been widespread among indingeous groups, nor the rampant forms of superstition and idolatry that characterize their traditional cultures. Perhaps most alarming for defenders of life and family is the synod’s neutral-sounding description of “new family structures” that have emerged in the region, explicitly mentioning an increase in divorce, the loss of institutional marriage, and the rise of single-parent families with no expression of concern, or disapproval: “Thus, we find new family structures: single-parent families under the responsibility of women, an increase in separated families, consensual unions and reunited families, a decrease in institutional marriages. The city is an explosion of life because ‘God lives in the city’ (DAp 514)” [34]. An almost absolute cultural relativism is promoted with the condemnation of any attempt to “impose” one way of life or even one kind of religion over another, and claims that Amazonian cultures are “equal” to others: “We are all invited to approach Amazonian peoples as an equal to an equal … Colonialism is the imposition of certain ways of living of some peoples over others, economically, culturally, or religiously. We reject an evangelization of a colonialist style” [55]. Nature itself is treated as a person, the subject of rights [74, 84], although man is seen as the “center” of the economy [73], and repeated mention is made of “mother earth” [10, 25, 101]. The expression is taken from a highly metaphorical canticle of praise to God by St. Francis of Assisi, but also dovetails with pagan conceptions of the earth as a mother goddess, a notion to which the Synod Fathers make an oblique reference [101]. The Virgin Mary is only mentioned in an invocation at the end of the document, but is called “Mother of the Amazon” [120]. The document mentions Pentecostal and Evangelical Protestant sects in the region and even offers a brief criticism of them as emotionalistic and “closed off,” but fails to note that they have replaced Catholicism as the majority religion in the Amazon, and encourages dialogue and even cooperation with such groups [24]. “Evangelization” is mentioned many times, but with little specificity regarding is meaning, and in the context of a multiculturalist agenda: “The evangelization that we propose today for [the] Amazon is the inculturated proclamation that generates processes of interculturality: processes that promote the life of the Church with an identity and an Amazonian face” [55]. The document almost entirely attributes the region’s vices to modern economic development, which is characterized in mostly negative terms, contrasted with the virtuous pre-civilized lifestyles of the indigenous. It characterizes economic activities like logging and mining as “extractivism” [27, 67], and claims that the region is endangered by anthropocentric climate change. Such activities are to be opposed with the alternative of nature-friendly primitivism in the region. The document asks that governments cease to consider the Amazon as their “inexhaustible pantry” and adopt more ecologically friendly economic policies [71]. The right to life “from conception to death” is mentioned once, but never abortion, euthanasia, and other traditional attacks on the right to life, which is instead explained as the right of the indigenous “to have their own and tranquil life, respecting the values of their traditions …” [80]. As expected, the Final Document seems to open the way to a married priesthood, women in clerical “orders,” and a general assault on the patriarchal structure of the Church, encouraging women to take leadership positions. In a long section following the subtitle “New paths for ecclesial ministry” [93-133], readers will find proposals for new lay ministries [93-96], official ministries for women [102], encouragement for the work of the “Study Commission on the Women’s Diaconate” [103], a “broader understanding” of the permanent diaconate [104], and the admittance to the priesthood of married men already deacons [111]. Regarding this last proposal, the author of the document wrote: “With regard to this, some wished that the topic be addressed in a universal way,” apparently referring to ordination of married men outside of the Amazon region. The document admits the need for “missionaries,” to the region but tends to confine their activities to matters of social justice. Every congregation of professed religious is invited to begin a missionary endeavor in one of the Amazonian countries [40]. It also encourages indigenous missionaries, writing, “Amazonia must also be evangelized by Amazonians” [26], and even states a “preferential option for indigenous peoples” [27]. The Synod Fathers place great emphasis on Pope Francis’ agenda of a decentralized “synodal” Church that allows each region to make its own rules and even doctrine. The words “synodal” and “synodality” occur a whopping 41 times. There are also proposals for a “synodal structure” for the Amazon [112-115], which would allow it to develop its own regional form of Catholicism and incorporate its native traditions into its religious practices. A definition of “ecological sins” as “an action or omission against God... others, the community and the environment” is proposed, as are ecological ministries at the parish level [82]. A global fund to repair the world’s “ecological debt” to the Amazon is proposed, as are “responsible habits that respect and value the peoples of Amazonia, their traditions and wisdom, protecting the land and changing our culture of excessive consumption, the production of solid waste, stimulating reuse and recycling” as well as reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, plastics, meat, and fish. The synod makes reference to a large number of other social and economic issues in the region, including migration, youth unemployment and suicide rates, drug addiction, and human trafficking. These concerns were added to the more timid and subdued expression of the themes promoted by the “liberation theologians” who created the preparatory documents, to produce a document that may be used in the future to open the way to more novelty and innovation in the Catholic Church, while retaining a superficial expression of some of the Church’s more traditional forms of doctrine. SYNOD OF BISHOPS SPECIAL ASSEMBLY FOR THE PAN-AMAZONIAN REGION AMAZONIA: NEW WAYS FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR A HOLISTIC ECOLOGY FINAL DOCUMENT English translation from the original Spanish by Martin Barillas and Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, for LifeSiteNews Note: The Spanish original can be found here. The final vote tally on each paragraph can be found here. 1. “And he who sat on the throne said: “Look, I make all things new” And he said: “Write: these words are faithful and true!” (Rev. 21.5) After a long synodal path of listening to the People of God in the Church of the Amazon, which Pope Francis inaugurated during his visit to the Amazon, January 19, 2018, the Synod was held in Rome in a 21-day fraternal meeting in October 2019. The climate was an open, free, and respectful exchange on the part of the pastoral bishops of the Amazon region, male and female missionaries, laymen and laywomen, and representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. We were witnesses participating in an ecclesial event marked by the urgency of the issue that claims to open new paths for the Church in the region. Serious work was shared in an environment marked by the conviction of hearing the voice of the Spirit present. The Synod was held in a fraternal and prayerful environment. Several times the interventions were accompanied by applause, singing, and all with deep contemplative silences. Outside the synodal hall, there was a notable presence of people coming from the Amazonian world who organized acts of support with different activities, processions, such as the opening with songs and dances accompanying the Holy Father from Peter's tomb to the synodal classroom. It impacted the Via Crucis of the martyrs of the Amazon, in addition to the massive presence of the international media. 2. All participants have expressed an acute awareness of the dramatic situation of destruction affecting the Amazon. This means the disappearance of the region and its inhabitants, especially indigenous peoples. The Amazon rainforest is a "biological heart" for the increasingly threatened land. It is in an unbridled race to death. It requires radical changes with great urgency, a new direction that can save it. It is scientifically proven that the disappearance of the Amazonian biome will have a catastrophic impact for the whole planet! 3. The synodal process of the People of God in the preparatory stage involved the whole Church in the region: the Bishops, missionaries and missionaries, members of Churches of other Christian confessions, lay men and women, and many representatives of the indigenous peoples, regarding the consultation document that inspired the Instrumentum Laboris. It stresses the importance of listening to the voice of the Amazon, moved by the greater breath of the Holy Spirit in the cry of the wounded land and its inhabitants. The active participation of more than 87,000 people, which came from different cities and cultures, as well as numerous groups from other ecclesial sectors, was registered, as well as the contributions of academics and civil society organizations in specific core issues. 4. The celebration of the Synod highlighted the integration of the voice of Amazon with the voice and opinion of the participating pastors. It was a new listening experience to discern the voice of the Spirit that leads the Church to new paths of presence, evangelization and intercultural dialogue in Amazonia. The call for the Church to be an ally of the Amazon region, raised in the preparatory process, was strongly affirmed. The celebration ends with great joy and the hope of embracing and practicing the new paradigm of integral ecology, the care of the "common home," and the defense of the Amazon. THE AMAZON: FROM LISTENING TO INTEGRAL CONVERSION “Then he showed me a river of water of life, shining like crystal, that comes out of the throne of God and the Lamb ”(Rev. 22:1). 5. "Christ points to the Amazon" (Paul VI, attributed). He frees everyone from sin and grants the dignity of the Sons of God. Listening to the Amazon, in the spirit of the disciple and in the light of the Word of God and Tradition, impels us to a profound conversion of our schemes and structures to Christ and his Gospel. The voice and song of the Amazon as a message of life 6. In the Amazon, life is inserted, linked, and integrated to the region that, as a vital and nourishing physical space, is the possibility, sustenance and limit of life. The Amazon, also called the Pan-Amazon region [Panamazonía], is an extensive territory with an estimated population of 33,600,000 inhabitants, of which between 2 and 2.5 million are indigenous. This space, made up of the Amazon River basin and all its tributaries, covers 9 countries: Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. The Amazonian region is essential for the distribution of rainfall in the regions of South America and contributes to large air movements around the planet. At present, it is the second most vulnerable area in the world in relation to climate change due to the direct action of man. 7. The water and land of this region nourish and sustain nature, life and cultures of hundreds of indigenous communities, peasants, people of African descent, mestizos, settlers, river dwellers, and inhabitants of urban areas. Water, the source of life, has a rich symbolic meaning. In the Amazonian region, the water cycle is the connecting axis. It connects ecosystems, cultures and regional development. 8. In the Amazon region, there is a multiethnic and multicultural reality. The different peoples knew how to adapt to the region. Within each culture, they have built and rebuilt their worldview, their signs and their meanings, and the vision of their future. In indigenous cultures and peoples, ancient practices and mythical explanations coexist with modern technologies and challenges. The faces that inhabit Amazonia are quite varied. In addition to the original peoples, there is a great racial blending born of encounter and disagreements among the different peoples. 9. The search of Amazonian indigenous peoples for life in abundance is materialized in what they call "good living" [buen vivir], and which is fully realized in the Beatitudes. It is about living in harmony with oneself, with nature, with human beings, and with the Supreme Being, since there is an intercommunion throughout the entire cosmos, where there is nothing that excludes or is excluded, and where we can establish a plan of a full life for everyone. Such an understanding of life is characterized by the connectivity and harmony of relationships between water, territory and nature, community life and culture, God and the various spiritual forces. For them, "good living" [buen vivir] is to understand the centrality of the transcendent relational character of human beings and of creation, and requires “good doing.” This integral way is expressed in its own way of organizing on the part of the family and the community, embracing a responsible use of all the goods of creation. Indigenous peoples aspire to achieve better living conditions, especially in health and education, to enjoy sustainable development led and determined by themselves, one that maintains harmony with their traditional ways of life, dialoguing between the wisdom and technology of their ancestors and that which they have newly acquired. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor 10. But the Amazon today is a wounded and deformed beauty, a place of pain and violence. The attacks on nature have negative consequences for the life of peoples. This unique socio-environmental crisis was reflected in the pre-synodal hearings that pointed out the following threats to life: appropriation and privatization of natural assets, such as water itself; legal logging concessions and the entry of illegal loggers; predatory hunting and fishing; non-sustainable mega-projects (hydroelectric, forest concessions, massive logging, single-crop farming, roads, waterways, railways, and mining and oil projects); pollution caused by the extractive industry and city dumps and, above all, climate change. They are real threats that have serious social consequences associated with them: diseases derived from pollution, drug trafficking, illegal armed groups, alcoholism, violence against women, sexual exploitation, trafficking and trafficking in persons, the sale of organs, sex tourism, the loss of the original culture and identity (language, spiritual practices, and customs), the criminalization and murder of leaders and defenders of the territory. Behind all this are the economic and political interests of the dominant sectors, with the complicity of some rulers and some indigenous authorities. The victims are the most vulnerable sectors: children, youth, women and sister mother earth. 11. The scientific community, for its part, warns of the risks of deforestation, which to date is close to almost 17% of the total Amazon forest, and that threatens the survival of the entire ecosystem, endangering biodiversity and changing the life cycle of water for the survival of the tropical forest. In addition, the Amazon also plays a critical role as a buffer against climate change and provides invaluable and fundamental life support systems related to air, water, soils, forests, and biomass. At the same time, experts remember that, using advanced science and technologies for an innovative bio-economy of standing forests and flowing rivers, it is possible to help save the tropical forest, protect Amazonian ecosystems and indigenous and traditional peoples, and at the same time provide sustainable economic activities. 12. One phenomenon to address is migration. In the Amazonian region, three simultaneous migration processes are occurring. First, the cases of mobility of indigenous groups in territories in which they traditionally circulate, separated by national and international borders. Secondly, the forced displacement of indigenous, peasant and river-dwelling peoples expelled from their territories, and whose final destination is usually the poorest and worst urbanized areas of the cities. Third, interregional forced migration and the phenomenon of refugees, who are forced to leave their countries (among others, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba) and must cross Amazonia as a migratory corridor. 13. The displacement of indigenous groups expelled from their territories or attracted by the false sheen of urban culture, represents a unique set of migratory movements in Amazonia. The cases in which the mobility of these groups occurs in territories of traditional indigenous circulation, separated by national and international borders, requires cross-border pastoral care capable of understanding the right to free movement of these peoples. Human mobility in the Amazon reveals the face of Jesus Christ impoverished and hungry (cf. Mt. 25:,35), expelled and homeless (cf. Lk. 3:1-3), and also in the feminization of migration that makes thousands of women vulnerable to human trafficking, one of the worst forms of violence against women and one of the most perverse violations of human rights. Trafficking in people linked to migration requires permanent pastoral work in networks. 14. The life of Amazonian communities not yet affected by the influence of Western civilization is reflected in the beliefs and rituals about the actions of the spirits of divinity, named in innumerable ways, with and in the territory, with and in relationship with nature (LS 16, 91, 117, 138, 240). Let us recognize that for thousands of years they have taken care of their land, their water and their forests, and have managed to preserve them until today so that humanity can benefit from the enjoyment of the free gifts of God's creation. The new paths of evangelization must be constructed in dialogue with this fundamental knowledge in which they manifest seeds of the Word. The Church in the Amazon Region 15. The Church, in its process of listening to the cry of the region and the cry of the people, has to remember its past. Evangelization in Latin America was a gift of Providence that calls everyone to salvation in Christ. Despite the military, political and cultural colonization, and beyond the greed and ambition of the colonizers, there were many missionaries who gave their lives to transmit the Gospel. The missionary sense not only inspired the formation of Christian communities, but also legislation such as the Laws of the Indies, which protected the dignity of the indigenous people against the abuses of their peoples and territories. Such abuses caused injuries in the communities and overshadowed the message of the Good News. Frequently the announcement of Christ was made in collusion with the powers that exploited the resources and oppressed the peoples. At the present time, the Church has the historic opportunity to differentiate itself from the new colonizing powers by listening to the Amazonian peoples to be able to exercise their prophetic activity with transparency. In addition, the socio-environmental crisis opens up new opportunities to present Christ in all his liberating and humanizing potential. 16. One of the most glorious pages of the Amazon has been written by the martyrs. The participation of the followers of Jesus in his passion, death, and glorious resurrection has accompanied the life of the Church to this day, especially in the moments and places in which she, because of the Gospel of Jesus, lives in the midst of a sharp contradiction, as happens today with those who fight courageously in favor of an integral ecology in the Amazon. This Synod recognizes with admiration those who fight, with great risk of their own lives, to defend the existence of this territory. 17. Listening to the clamor of the land and the cry of the poor and the people of the Amazon with whom we walk calls us to a true integral conversion, with a simple and sober life, all fueled by a mystical spirituality in the style of Saint Francis of Assisi, an example of integral conversion lived with Christian happiness and joy (cf. LS 20-12). A prayerful reading of the Word of God will help us understand more deeply and discover the groans of the Spirit, and will encourage us in the commitment to care for the "common home." 18. As a Church of missionary disciples, we beg the grace of that conversion which “implies letting out all the consequences of the encounter with Jesus Christ in relations with the world around them” (LS 217); a personal and community conversion that commits us to harmoniously relate to the creative work of God, which is the "common home"; a conversion that promotes the creation of structures in harmony with the care of creation; a pastoral conversion based on synodality, which recognizes the interaction of all of creation; a conversion that leads us to be an outgoing Church that enters the heart of all Amazonian peoples. 19. Thus, it will be possible to carry out the only conversion to the living Gospel, which is Jesus Christ, in interconnected dimensions to promote an outreach to the existential, social and geographical peripheries of the Amazon. These dimensions are: pastoral, cultural, ecological, and synodal, which are developed in the next four chapters. “..unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (Jn. 3:5) 20. An outgoing missionary Church calls us to a pastoral conversion. For the Amazon region this movement means also “navigating” our rivers, our lakes, and among our people. Water unites and separates us in Amazonia. Our pastoral conversion will be Samarian, in dialogue, and accompanying people with real faces of indigenous, peasants, descendants of Africans, migrants, young people, and city residents. All of this will require a spirituality of listening and proclamation. This is how we will proceed and navigate in this chapter. 21. The Church is missionary by its nature and has its origin the “fount of God’s love.” The missionary dynamism that springs from God’s love radiates, expands, overflows, and is diffused throughout the Universe. “We are inserted by baptism into the dynamic of love by the encounter with Jesus that gives a new horizon to life” (DAp 12). This overflow impels the Church towards a pastoral conversion and transforms us into living communities that work as teams and networks in the service of evangelization. Understood this way, mission is not something optional, a Church activity among others, but its very nature. The Church is mission! “Missionary action is the paradigm of all work in the Church” (EG 15). Being a missionary disciple is something more than completing tasks and making things. It is found in the order of being. “Jesus tells us, His disciples, that our mission in the world must not be static, but is itinerant. A Christian is itinerant.” (Francis, Angelus, 30/06/2019). 22. We want to be an Amazonian, Samaritan Church, embodied in the way in which the Son of God became incarnate: "He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases” (Mt 8,17b). He who became poor to enrich us with his poverty (2 Cor 8.9), through his Spirit, exhorts the missionary disciples of today to reach out to everyone, especially the original peoples, the poor, those excluded from the society, and others. We also want a Magdalene Church, which feels loved and reconciled, that announces with joy and conviction Christ crucified and risen. A Marian Church that brings forth children in the faith and educates them with love and patience, while also learning from the wealth of the people. We want to be a servant Church: kerygmatic, educating, inculturated in the midst of the towns we serve. b. The Church in ecumenical, interreligious, and cultural dialogue 23. The multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious reality of Amazonia demands an attitude of open dialogue, recognizing the multiplicity of interlocutors: indigenous, river-dwellers, peasants and afro-descendants, other Christian churches and religious denominations, organizations in civil society, popular social movements, government: in sum, all people of good will who seek to defend life, the integrity of creation, peace, and common good. 24. In the Amazon, “relations between Catholics and pentecostals, charismatics, and evangelicals are not easy. The sudden appearance of new communities, linked to the personality of certain preachers, contrasts strongly with the principles and ecclesiastical principles of historic Churches and may hide the danger of being dragged along by emotional waves of the moment or of closing off the experience of the faith in protected and tranquil environments. The fact that not a few Catholics feel attracted by these communities is a cause of friction, but can become on our part a reason for self-examination and pastoral renewal” (Pope Francis, 28.9.2019). Ecumenical, interreligious, and intercultural dialogues must be taken up as an irrevocable way towards evangelization in the Amazon (cf. DAp 227). The Amazon is an amalgam of creeds, the majority of which are Christian. In view of this reality, effective means of communication open up to us: “Expressing good sentiments is not enough. Effective gestures that penetrate spirits and shake up consciences are necessary, pushing each person towards internal conversion, which is the basis of all progress on the road of ecumenism” (Benedict XVI, Message to the cardinals at the Sistine Chapel, 20/04/2005). The centrality of the Word of God in the life of our communities is a factor for union and dialogue. In the context of the Word, there are many actions that can be taken in common: translations of the Bible to local languages, joint editions, dissemination and distribution of the Bible, meetings of theologians, and meetings between male and female Catholic theologians and theologians of other confessions. 25. In Amazonia, interreligious dialogue takes place especially with indigenous religions and religions of Afro-descendants. These traditions deserve to be known, understood in their own expressions and in their relationship with the forest and mother earth. Together with them, Christians, based on their faith in the Word of God, engage in dialogue, sharing their lives, their worries, their struggles, their experiences of God, to deepen each other's faith and act together in defense of the “common home.” Therefore, the churches of Amazonia should develop initiatives of encounter, study, and dialogue with the followers of these religions. Sincere and respectful dialogue is the bridge towards the construction of "good living" [buen vivir]. In the exchange of gifts, the Spirit leads more and more towards truth and good (cf. EG 250). A missionary Church that serves and accompanies the Amazonian peoples 26. This Synod wants to be a strong call to all the baptized of Amazonia to be missionary disciples. The sending of the mission is inherent in baptism and is for all the baptized. Through it, we all receive the same dignity of being sons and daughters of God, and none can be excluded from the mission of Jesus to his disciples. "Go all over the world and proclaim the Good News to all creation" (Mk 16,15). Hence, we believe it is necessary to give a greater missionary stress to native vocations; Amazonia must also be evangelized by Amazonians. a. A Church with an indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendant face 27. It is urgent to give indigenous pastoral care its specific place in the Church. We start from diverse realities and diverse cultures to define, elaborate and adopt pastoral actions, which allow us to develop an evangelizing proposal among the indigenous communities, placing ourselves within the framework of an indigenous pastoral care and land. The pastoral care of indigenous peoples has its own characteristics. Colonizations motivated by extractivism throughout history, with the different migratory currents, put them in a situation of high vulnerability. In this context, as a Church, it is still necessary to create or maintain a preferential option for indigenous peoples, by virtue of which diocesan indigenous pastoral organizations must be established and consolidated with a renewed missionary action that listens, dialogues, is embodied and has a permanent presence. The preferential option for indigenous peoples, with their cultures, identities and stories, requires us to aspire to an indigenous Church with our own priests and ministers always united and in total communion with the Catholic Church. 28. In recognizing the importance of the attention that the Church is called to give in the Amazon to the phenomenon of urbanization and the problems and perspectives related to it, a reference to the rural world as a whole and to rural pastoral care in particular is necessary. From the pastoral point of view, the Church must respond to the phenomenon of the depopulation of the countryside, with all the consequences that result from it (loss of identity, prevailing secularism, exploitation of rural work, family disintegration, etc.). 29. Given its increase and volume, the phenomenon of migration has now become an unprecedented political, social, and ecclesial challenge (cf. DA, 517, a). Given that, many ecclesial communities have received migrants with great generosity, remembering that: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt. 25:35). The forced displacement of indigenous, peasant, Afro-descendant, and riverine families, expelled from their territories due to pressure on them or asphyxiation in the absence of opportunities, requires pastoral work on the periphery of urban centers. For this, it will be necessary to create missionary teams for their accompaniment, coordinating the conditions of reception with the parishes and other ecclesial and extra-ecclesial institutions, offering inculturated liturgies and in the languages of the migrants; promoting spaces of cultural exchanges, favoring the integration in the community and in the city and motivating them to activism in this work. 30. Among the various faces of Pan-Amazonian realities, that of young people present throughout the region stands out. They are young with faces and indigenous identities, Afro-descendants, river-dwellers, extractivists, migrants, refugees, among others. Young residents of rural and urban areas, who daily dream and seek better living conditions, with a deep desire to have a better life. Young students, workers and with an important presence and participation in various social and ecclesial spaces. Among the Amazonian youth, sad realities such as: poverty, violence, diseases, child prostitution, sexual exploitation, drug use and trafficking, early pregnancy, unemployment, depression, human-trafficking, new forms of slavery, organ trafficking, difficulties in accessing education, health and social assistance. Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in suicide among young people, as well as the growth of the young people in prison and crimes between and against young people, especially Afro-descendants and those on the margins. They, living in the huge region of the Amazon, have the same dreams and desires as other young people in this world: to be taken into consideration, respected, to have opportunities for study, work, for a future of hope. But they are experiencing an intense crisis of values, or a transition to other modes of conceiving reality, where ethical elements are changing, even for young indigenous people. The Church's job is to accompany them to deal with any situation that destroys their identity or damages their self-esteem. 31. Young people are also especially present in the migratory contexts of the region. Special attention is needed towards the reality of young people in urban centers. More and more cities are receiving all the ethnic groups, peoples, and problems of the Amazon. The rural Amazon is becoming depopulated. Cities face huge problems of juvenile delinquency, lack of work, ethnic struggles and social injustices. Here, in particular, the Church is called to be a prophetic presence among young people, offering them adequate accompaniment and appropriate education. 32. In communion with the reality for Amazonian youth, the Church proclaims the Good News of Jesus to young people, discernment, and vocational accompaniment, the place of appreciation for local culture and identity, youth leadership, the promotion of the rights of youth, the strengthening of creative, innovative and differentiated spaces of evangelization through a renewed and bold youth ministry. A pastoral care that is always in process, centered on Jesus Christ and his project, dialogical and integral, committed to all existing youth realities in the region. Indigenous young people have enormous potential and actively participate in their communities and organizations, contributing as leaders and activists in defense of rights, especially regarding territory, health, and education. On the other hand, they are the main victims of insecurity over indigenous lands and the absence of specific and quality public policies. The spread of alcohol and drugs often reaches indigenous communities, seriously damaging young people and preventing them from living in freedom to build their dreams and actively participate in the community. 33. The prominence of young people appears clearly in the documents of the Synod on Young People (160, 46) in the papal exhortation Christus Vivit (170) and in the Encyclical Laudato Si (209). Young people want to be protagonists and the Amazonian Church wants to recognize their space. She wants to be a listening partner recognizing young people as a theological place, as "prophets of hope," committed to dialogue, ecologically sensitive and attentive to the "common home." A Church that welcomes and walks with young people, especially in the peripheries. Faced with this, three emergencies arise: promoting new forms of evangelization through social media (Francis, Christus Vivit 86); helping the young indigenous to achieve a healthy interculturality; helping them to cope with the crisis of anti-values that destroys their self-esteem and makes them lose their identity. d. A Church that travels down new paths in the urban pastorate 34. The strong tendency of humanity to concentrate in cities, migrating from the smallest to the largest, also occurs in the Amazon. The accelerated growth of the Amazonian metropolis is accompanied by the creation of urban peripheries. At the same time, lifestyles, forms of coexistence, languages and values configured by the metropolis are transmitted and are increasingly being implemented both in indigenous communities and in the rest of the rural world. The family in the city is a place of synthesis between traditional and modern culture. However, families often suffer from poverty, poor housing, lack of work, increased consumption of drugs and alcohol, discrimination and child suicide. In addition, in family life there is a lack of dialogue between generations: traditions and language are lost. Families also face new health problems, which require adequate education in maternity. The current rapid changes affect the Amazonian family. Thus, we find new family structures: single-parent families under the responsibility of women, an increase in separated families, consensual unions and reunited families, a decrease in institutional marriages. The city is an explosion of life because "God lives in the city" (DAp 514). In it there are anxieties and searches for the meaning of life, conflicts, but also solidarity, fraternity, desire for goodness, truth and justice"(cf. EG 71-75). Evangelizing the city or urban culture means “to achieve and, so to speak, modify, by force of the Gospel, criteria of judgment, values that matter, centers of interest, lines of thought, sources of inspiration and models of human life, which are presented in contrast to the Word of God and the plan of salvation "(EN 19). 35. The rights of all people in the city should be defended. The right to the city that is demanded can be defined as the equitable enjoyment of cities within the principles of sustainability, democracy, and social justice. However, it will also be necessary to influence public policies and promote initiatives that improve the quality of life in the rural world, thus preventing its uncontrolled displacement. 36. The grassroots ecclesial communities have been and are a gift from God to the local Churches of the Amazon. However, it is necessary to recognize that, over time, some ecclesial communities have settled, weakened, or even disappeared. But the vast majority continue to persevere and they are the pastoral foundation of many parishes. Today the great dangers of ecclesial communities come mainly from secularism, individualism, lack of social dimension, and lack of missionary activity. Therefore, it is necessary that pastors encourage in each and every one of the faithful a missionary discipleship. The ecclesial community must be present in the public policy participation spaces where actions are articulated to revitalize culture, coexistence, leisure and celebration. We must fight so that the “slums” [favelas] and “shanty towns” [villas miseria] have fundamental basic rights secured: water, energy, housing, and the promotion of integral ecological citizenship, and also that there be instituted a ministry of welcoming in the urban communities of the Amazon for fraternal solidarity with migrants, refugees, homeless people and people who have abandoned rural areas. 37. Special attention should be paid to the reality of indigenous people in urban centers because they are the most exposed to the enormous problems of juvenile delinquency, lack of work, ethnic struggles, and social injustices. It is one of the biggest challenges of today: more and more cities are the destinations for all ethnic groups and peoples of the Amazon. An indigenous pastoral ministry of the city that meets this specific reality will have to be articulated. 38. Pastoral action is based on a spirituality that is based on listening to the Word of God and the cry of His people, so as to then be able to announce the good news with a prophetic spirit. We recognize that the Church that hears the call of the Spirit in the cry of the Amazon can make its own the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of all, but especially of the poorest (cf. GS 1), who are favorite daughters and sons of God. We discover that the mighty waters of the Spirit, similar to those of the Amazon River, which periodically overflow, lead us to that overabundant life that God offers us to share in the proclamation [anuncio]. 39. Traveling missionary teams in the Amazon are weaving and making community along the way, helping to strengthen ecclesial synodality. They can bring together several charisms, institutions and congregations, lay men and women, religious men and women, priests. Gather together to go where one cannot go alone. The travels of missionaries who leave their headquarters and spend time visiting one community at a time and celebrating sacraments give rise to what is called the “pastorate of visitation.” It is a type of pastoral method that responds to the current conditions and possibilities of our churches. Thanks to these methods, and by the action of the Holy Spirit, these communities have also developed a rich ministeriality that is a reason for thanksgiving. 40. We propose an itinerant network that would bring together the different efforts of the teams that accompany and energize the life and faith of the communities in the Amazon. The paths of political influence for the transformation of reality must be discerned by pastors and laity. With a view towards moving from pastoral visits to a more permanent presence, congregations and / or provinces of religious of the world, who are not yet involved in missions, are invited to establish at least one missionary front in any of the Amazonian countries. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1,14) 41. Latin America has immense biodiversity and great cultural diversity. The Amazon is a land of forests and water within it, of moors and wetlands, savannas and mountain ranges, but above all a land of countless villages, many of them thousands of years old, ancestral inhabitants of the region, peoples of ancient perfume that continue to aromatize the continent against all despair. Our conversion must also be cultural, incline us towards the other, to learn from the other. Be present, respect and recognize their values, live and practice inculturation and interculturality in our proclamation of the Good News. Expressing and living the faith in the Amazon is always a challenge. It is embodied not only in pastoral care but in concrete actions for others: in health care, education, in solidarity and support for the most vulnerable. We would like to share all of this in this section. The face of the Church in the peoples of the Amazon 42. In the territories of the Amazon there is a multicultural reality that requires a vision that is all inclusive and uses expressions that allow identifying and linking all groups and reflect identities that are recognized, respected and promoted both in the Church and society, which must find in the Amazonian peoples a valid interlocutor for dialogue and meeting. Puebla [Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate] speaks of the faces that inhabit Latin America and notes that, in the original peoples, there is a mixing [mestizaje] that has increased and continues to increase with the encounters and disagreements between the different cultures that are part of the continent. This face, which also belongs to the Amazonian Church, is a face embodied in its region, which evangelizes and opens paths for people to feel accompanied in different processes of evangelical life. Also, there is a renewed missionary sense on the part of the members of the same peoples in carrying out the prophetic and Samaritan mission of the Church that must be strengthened with openness to dialogue with other cultures. It is only a missionary Church that is inserted and inculturated that will raise up the particular indigenous churches, with Amazonian faces and hearts, rooted in the cultures and traditions of the people, united in the same faith in Christ and diverse in their way of living, expressing and celebrating it. 43. In the people of the Amazon, we find teachings about life. The original peoples and those who came later and forged their identity in coexistence, provide cultural values in which we discover the seeds of the Word. In the jungle, it is not only plants that are intertwined and link one species to another: people also interrelate with each other in a network of alliances that benefits everyone. The forest lives by means of inter-relationships and interdependencies that occur in all areas of life. Thanks to this, the fragile balance of the Amazon was maintained for centuries. 44. The thinking of indigenous peoples offers an integrated view of reality, which is capable of understanding the multiple connections between everything that is created. This contrasts with the dominant current of Western thought that tends to fragment in order to understand reality, but fails to re-articulate the set of relations between the various fields of knowledge. The traditional management of what nature offers them has been done in the way we call sustainable management today. We also find other values in the native peoples such as reciprocity, solidarity, a sense of community, equality, family, social organization and a sense of service. b. A Church that is present and allied with the peoples of the region 45. Greed for land is at the root of the conflicts that lead to ethnocide, as well as murder and criminalization of social movements and their leaders. The demarcation and protection of land is an obligation of the national states and their respective governments. However, many of the indigenous territories are devoid of protection, and those already demarcated are being invaded by extractive initiatives such as mining and forest extraction, by large infrastructure projects, by illicit crops and by large estates that promote monoculture and extensive livestock. 46. In this way, the Church undertakes to be an ally of the Amazonian peoples to denounce the attacks on the life of indigenous communities, the projects that affect the environment, the lack of demarcation of their territories, as well as the economic model of predatory and ecocidal development. The presence of the Church among indigenous and traditional communities requires the awareness that the defense of the land has no other purpose than the defense of life. 47. The life of indigenous, mestizo, river dwellers, peasants, Afro-Brazilian [quilombola] and / or afro-descendants, and traditional communities, is threatened by destruction, environmental exploitation, and systematic violation of their territorial rights. It is necessary to defend their rights to self-determination, the demarcation of territories and prior, free and informed consultation. These peoples have “social, cultural and economic conditions that distinguish them from other sectors of the national community, and which are governed totally or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special legislation” (Conv. 169 ILO, art. 1, 1a). For the Church, the defense of life, community, land, and the rights of indigenous peoples is an evangelical principle, in defense of human dignity: "I have come so that men may have life and have it in abundance" (Jn. 10:10b). 48. The Church promotes the integral salvation of the human person, valuing the culture of indigenous peoples, speaking of their vital needs, accompanying movements in their struggles for their rights. Our pastoral service constitutes a service for the full life of the indigenous peoples, which moves us to announce the Good News of the Kingdom of God and to denounce the situations of sin, structures of death, violence and injustices, promoting intercultural, interreligious, and ecumenical dialogue (cf. DAp 95). 49. A specific chapter specifies Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation (PIAV) or Indigenous Peoples in Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI). In the Amazon there are about 130 towns or segments of villages, which do not maintain systematic or permanent contacts with the surrounding society. Abuses and systematic violations of the past caused their migration to more inaccessible places, seeking protection, seeking to preserve their autonomy and choosing to limit or avoid their relations with third parties. Today they continue to have their lives threatened by the invasion of their territories from various fronts and their diminished demographics, being exposed to ethnic cleansing and disappearance. In his meeting with the Indigenous Peoples of January 2018 in Puerto Maldonado, Pope Francis reminds us: “They are the most vulnerable among the vulnerable ... Continue to defend these most vulnerable brothers. Their presence reminds us that we cannot dispose of common goods at the rate of an avid consumption.”(Fr. PM). An option for the defense of the PIAV / PIACI does not exempt local Churches from pastoral responsibility over them. 50. This responsibility must be manifested in specific actions for the defense of their rights, rendered concrete in effective actions, so that governments will take up the defense of their rights through the legal and inviolable protection of the territories they occupy in a traditional manner, including adopting precautionary measures in regions where their presence is not officially confirmed due to insufficient evidence, and establishing mechanisms for bilateral cooperation between governments when these groups occupy cross-border spaces. At all times, respect for their self-determination and their free decisions for the type of relationships they want to establish with other groups must be guaranteed. For this, it will be necessary that all of the people of God, and especially the neighboring populations of the PIAV / PIACI territories, be sensitized to respect these peoples and the importance of inviolability of their territories. As St. John Paul II said in Cuiabá, in 1991 “The Church, dear Indian brothers and sisters, has always been and will remain at your side to defend the dignity of human beings, their right to have a peaceful and proper life, respecting the values of their traditions, customs and cultures”. 51. With the incarnation, Christ left behind his prerogative as God and became man in a particular culture to identify with all mankind. Inculturation is the incarnation of the Gospel in indigenous cultures (“what is not assumed is not redeemed” St. Irenaeus, cf. Puebla 400) and at the same time it is the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church. In this process, the peoples are protagonists, accompanied by their agents and pastors. a. The experience of faith expressed in popular piety and inculturated catechesis 52. Popular piety constitutes an important medium that links many peoples of the Amazon with their spiritual experiences, their cultural roots and their community integration. They are manifestations with which the people express their faith, through images, symbols, traditions, rites, and other sacramentals. Pilgrimages, processions, and festivities should be valued, accompanied, promoted, and sometimes purified, as they are privileged moments of evangelization that should lead to the encounter with Christ. Marian devotions are deeply rooted in Amazonia and throughout Latin America. 53. The non-clericalization of brotherhoods, confraternities, and groups linked to popular piety is characteristic. The laity assume a role that they hardly achieve in other ecclesial areas, with the participation of brothers and sisters who perform services and direct prayers, blessings, traditional sacred songs, encouraging novenas, organize processions, promote patron feasts, etc. It is necessary to “give an appropriate catechesis and accompany the faith already present in popular religiosity. A concrete way may be to offer a process of Christian initiation ... that leads us to become more and more like Jesus Christ, causing the progressive appropriation of their attitudes”(DAp 300). b. The mystery of faith reflected in an inculturated theology 54. Indian theology, theology with an Amazonian face, and popular piety are already a wealth of the indigenous world, its culture, and spirituality. The missionary and pastoral agent, when he carries the word of the Gospel of Jesus, identifies with the culture and the encounter from which the testimony, the service, the announcement, and learning of the languages takes place. The indigenous world with its myths, narrative, rites, songs, dance, and spiritual expressions enriches intercultural encounters. Puebla already recognizes that «cultures are not empty territories, lacking authentic values. The evangelization of the Church is not a process of destruction, but of consolidation and strengthening of these values; a contribution to the growth of the "seeds of the Word" »(DP 401, cf. GS 57) present in cultures. a. Respect for cultures and the rights of peoples 55. We are all invited to approach Amazonian peoples as an equal to an equal, respecting their history, their cultures, their style of "good living" [buen vivir] (PF 06.10.19). Colonialism is the imposition of certain ways of living of some peoples over others, economically, culturally, or religiously. We reject an evangelization of a colonialist style. Announcing the Good News of Jesus implies recognizing the seeds of the Word already present in cultures. The evangelization that we propose today for Amazon is the inculturated proclamation that generates processes of interculturality: processes that promote the life of the Church with an identity and an Amazonian face. b. The promotion of intercultural dialogue in a global world 56. In the evangelizing task of the Church, which should not be confused with proselytism, we must include clear processes of inculturation of our missionary methods and schemes. Specifically, it is proposed that the Church’s research and pastoral centers, allied with the indigenous peoples, should study, compile, and systematize the traditions of the Amazonian ethnic groups to favor an educational program based on their identity and culture to help in promoting and defending their rights, preserving and disseminating their value to the Latin American cultural scene. 57. Educational actions are today challenged by the need for inculturation. It is a challenge to look for methodologies and content appropriate to the people in which to exercise the ministry of teaching. For this, knowledge of their languages, beliefs and aspirations, needs and hopes is important; as well as the collective construction of educational processes that have both the form and the content, the cultural identity of the Amazonian communities, while insisting on the formation of integral ecology as a transversal axis. c. The challenges for health, education and communication 58. The Church assumes as an important task the promotion of preventive health education and the offer of health care in places where government aid does not reach. It is necessary to favor integration initiatives that benefit the health of the Amazon. It is also important to promote the socialization of ancestral knowledge in the field of traditional medicine typical of each culture. 59. Among the complexities of the Amazonian region, we highlight the fragility of education, especially among indigenous peoples. Although education is a human right, educational quality is poor and school dropout is very frequent, especially among girls. Education evangelizes, promotes social transformation, and empowers people with a healthy sense of criticism. “A good school education at an early age plants seeds that can produce effects throughout life” (LS 213). It is our task to promote an education for solidarity, which springs from the awareness of a common origin and a future shared by all (cf. LS 202). Governments must be required to implement a public, intercultural and bilingual education. 60. The world, increasingly globalized and complex, has developed an unprecedented information network. However, such instantaneous information flow does not lead to better communication or connection between peoples. In the Amazon, we want to promote a communicative culture that favors dialogue, the culture of encounter, and the care of the “common home”. Motivated by an integral ecology, we wish to strengthen the communication spaces that already exist in the region, in order to urgently promote a comprehensive ecological conversion. For this, it is necessary to collaborate with the training of native agents of communication, especially indigenous ones. They are not only privileged interlocutors for evangelization and human development in the region, but also help us spread the culture of "good living" [buen vivir] and care for creation. 61. In order to develop the various connections within the entirety of Amazonia and improve its communications, the Church wants to create a Pan-Amazonian ecclesial communication network, which comprises the various means used by private churches and other ecclesial organizations. Its contribution may resonate and aid in the ecological conversion of the Church and the planet. REPAM may assist in advising and supporting the training processes, monitoring and strengthening of communications in the Pan-Amazonian region. 62. In this sense, we propose the creation of a network for bilingual education for Amazon (similar to Fe y Alegría) that offers educational proposals that respond to the needs of the communities, respecting, valuing, and integrating cultural and linguistic identity among them. 63. We want to sustain, support and favor the educational experiences of intercultural bilingual education that already exist in the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the Amazon, and involve Catholic universities so that they may work in and become committed to, networks. 64. We will look for new forms of conventional and non-conventional education, such as distance education, according to the needs of places, times and people. "I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10.10) 65. Our planet is a gift from God, but we also know that we live in the urgency of acting in the face of an unprecedented socio-environmental crisis. We need an ecological conversion to respond appropriately. Therefore, as the Amazonian Church, in the face of the growing aggression against our biome threatened by its disappearance with tremendous consequences for our planet, we put ourselves on a path inspired by the proposal of integral ecology. We recognize the wounds caused by human beings in our region; we want to learn from our brothers and sisters of the original peoples, through a knowledgeable dialogue, the challenge of providing new answers in the search for models of fair and solidary development. We want to take care of our "common home" in Amazonia and propose new paths for it. Towards an integral ecology from the encyclical Laudato si’ a. Threats against the Amazonian biome and its peoples 66. God has given us the earth as a gift and as a duty, to take care of it and to answer for it; We are not its owners. Integral ecology is based on the fact that "everything is closely related" (LS 16). That is why ecology and social justice are intrinsically linked (cf. LS 137). With integral ecology a new paradigm of justice emerges, because “a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach, which must integrate justice into discussions about the environment, to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”(LS 49). Integral ecology, therefore, connects the exercise of the care of nature with that of justice for the most impoverished and disadvantaged people on earth, which are God's preferred option in revealed history. 67. It is urgent to face the unlimited exploitation of the "common home" and its inhabitants. One of the main causes of destruction in Amazonia is predatory extractivism that stems from the logic of greed, typical of the dominant technocratic paradigm (LS 101). Faced with the pressing situation of the planet and Amazonia, integral ecology is not just one more way that the Church can choose for the future in this territory, it is the only possible way, because there is no other viable path to save the region. The depredation of the territory is accompanied by the shedding of innocent blood and the criminalization of the defenders of the Amazon. 68. The Church is part of an international solidarity that must favor and recognize the central role of the Amazonian biome for the balance of the planet's climate; encourages the international community to provide new economic resources for its protection and the promotion of a fair and supportive development model, with the prominence and direct participation of local communities and native peoples in all phases from the approach to the implementation, also strengthening the tools already developed by the framework convention on climate change. 69. It is scandalous that leaders and even communities are criminalized, simply for claiming their rights. In all Amazonian countries there are laws that recognize human rights, especially those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, the (Amazonian) region has undergone complex transformations, where the human rights of the communities have been impacted by norms, public policies and practices focused mainly on expanding the extractive frontiers of natural resources and on the development of megaprojects and of infrastructure, which exert pressure on indigenous ancestral territories. This is accompanied, according to the same report, of a serious situation of impunity in the region regarding human rights violations and barriers to obtaining justice (IACHR / OAS Report, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the Panamazonía. 5 and 188. Sept . 2019). 70. For Christians, interest and concern for the promotion and respect of human rights, both individual and collective, is not optional. The human being is created in the image and likeness of the Creator God, and his dignity is inviolable. That is why the defense and promotion of human rights is not merely a political duty or a social task, but also and above all a requirement of faith. We may not be able to modify immediately the prevailing destructive and extractive development model, but we do have the need to know and make clear: where are we? On whose side are we? Next to whom are we? What perspective do we assume? How do we transmit the political and ethical dimension of our word of faith and life? For this reason: a) we denounce the violation of human rights and extractive destruction; b) we take up and support the divestment campaigns of extractive companies related to the socio-ecological damage of the Amazon, starting with the ecclesial institutions themselves and also in alliance with other churches; c) we call for a radical energy transition and the search for alternatives: “Civilization requires energy, but the use of energy should not destroy civilization!” (Pope Francis, Address to participants in the conference “Energy transition and care of the common home,” June 9, 2018). We propose to develop training programs on the care of the "common home", which should be designed for pastoral agents and other faithful, open to the whole community, in "an effort to raise awareness of the population" (LS 214). b. The challenge of new fair, supportive and sustainable development models 71. We note that human intervention has lost its “friendly” character, to assume a voracious and predatory attitude that tends to squeeze reality until the exhaustion of all a | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/exclusive-lifesitenews-translates-final-document-of-the-synod-on-the-amazon-into-english | 2019-11-05T15:33:00+00:00 | 1,572,985,980 | 1,573,062,108 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
290,326 | lifesitenews--2019-11-20--Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Pachamama was worshiped at Vatican and it wasn’t harmless | 2019-11-20T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Pachamama was worshiped at Vatican and it wasn’t harmless | November 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – On October 4, 2019, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, in the presence of Pope Francis and other high ecclesiastical dignitaries, there was held a ceremony in the Vatican Gardens that was clearly religious in character, as stated in the Vatican press release of October 4, 2019: “During the prayer ceremony, concluding the ‘Season of Creation’ initiative promoted recently by Pope Francis, a tree from Assisi was planted as a symbol of integral ecology, to consecrate the Synod on Amazonia to Saint Francis, shortly before the fortieth anniversary of the papal proclamation of the Poverello of Assisi at the patron of ecologists. At the end of the celebration the Holy Father recited the Lord’s Prayer. The ceremony was attended by representatives of indigenous populations from Amazonia, Franciscan brothers and various members of the Church“ What this statement has concealed is the fact that during this prayer ceremony, religious rites from the pagan religions of the Native Americans took place. There were gestures and words that expressed a religious worship of mythological figures of the aboriginal religion, above all, acts of prostration were performed in front of two naked pregnant female figures, which should represent fertility. There was also a religious dance performed around these figures, in which a woman dressed as a shaman used rattles that symbolized pagan fertility gods. The use of the "maracas" or rattles by the shaman means in the indigenous cults of Amazonia the voice of the spirits and they are used to claim the help of the power of the animals and the spirits. The "Maracas" are one of the most powerful magic instruments for these peoples. The head of the "Maraca" is a pumpkin, with the head of the rattle with the shaft represents the fertilization union of the male world (shaft) with the female world (head). Exactly such "maracas" were used at the "Prayer Ceremony" on October 4th. The statues depicting naked pregnant women were then placed briefly in the Basilica of St. Peter in front of the Petrine tomb, again in the presence of the Pope, and then during the entire time of the Amazon Synod in the church of Santa Maria Traspontina on the Via della Conciliazione and were in regular prayer ceremonies worshiped in a church with a tabernacle and the Eucharistic presence of Christ. Furthermore, the statue of the naked pregnant woman was even carried on October 19 in a Way of the Cross organized by participants of the Synod. In the first days after these ceremonies, the Vatican avoided mentioning the exact meaning of the two naked pregnant female figures. Only after these figures were removed on October 21 from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina and thrown into the Tiber, Pope Francis himself announced on October 25 the identity of these figures, which should symbolize the Pachamama, saying: "I would like to say a word about the statues of Pachamama that were removed from the church in the Traspontina and were there without idolatrous intentions and thrown into the Tiber. This was first done in Rome, and as bishop of the diocese, I apologize for the people who are offended by this gesture." The Jesuit Father Fernando Lopez, one of the organizers of the veneration of the Pachamama statues in the Vatican, said that these statues were bought at a craft market in Manaus, a city in the Brazilian Amazon, adding that the Pachamama makes sense to all of us and that we should continue "the dance of life on Mother Earth". To declare all these acts of worship of the Pachamama statues, which always took place during a prayer ceremony and in churches, as non-cultic and not religious, but merely as an expression of culture and folklore and thus declare them as something harmless and trivial, denies the evidence and flees from reality. In the face of the grave fact of such dubious acts of religious worship, which are obviously at least close to superstition and idolatry, some cardinals, bishops, priests, and many lay people have publicly protested, and some of them have even called Pope Francis to repent and make amends. Unfortunately, these brave voices are criticized even by righteous Catholics, often on the grounds that it personally attacks Pope Francis. Such a reasoning is very reminiscent of the story of the Emperor's new clothes. Others regard the worship of Pachamama statues as harmless and compare this issue to the dispute over the so-called Chinese rites (called the "accommodation dispute") in the 17th and 18th centuries. Those who make such affirmations, lack both factual knowledge of what the Pachamama means to indigenous peoples and the worldwide propaganda of the new "Gaia or Mother Earth religion" today, as well as a more detailed knowledge of the historical problem of Chinese rites and their solution in the 20th century. The fact that the phenomenon "Pachamama" has a clearly religious connotation already proves its definition in the generally accessible and most frequently consulted sources of information, such as, e.g., in Wikipedia, which states, "Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. She is also known as the earth/time mother. In Inca mythology, Pachamama is a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own self-sufficient and creative power to sustain life on this earth. Pachamama is usually translated as Mother Earth, but a more literal translation would be "World Mother" (in Aymara and Quechua). The Inca goddess can be referred to in multiple ways; the primary way being Pachamama. Other names for her are: Mama Pacha, La Pachamama, and Mother Earth. La Pachamama differs from Pachamama because the "La" signifies the interwoven connection that the goddess has with nature, whereas Pachamama – without the "La" – refers to only the goddess.“ Anyone who has dealt with the global environmental movement has undoubtedly heard the term Gaia. Gaia is a revival of paganism that rejects Christianity, views Christianity as its greatest enemy, and sees the Christian faith as the only obstacle to a global religion that focuses on the worship of Gaia and the unification of all forms of life concentrated around the goddess “Mother Earth“ or the “Pachamama”. A sophisticated mix of science, paganism, Eastern mysticism and feminism has made this pagan cult a growing threat to the Christian church. The worship of "Mother Earth", or "Gaia" or "Pachamama" is the focus of today's global environmental policy. The 2009 UN General Assembly proclaimed April 22 as International “Mother Earth Day”. On that day, Bolivian President Evo Morales, a self-proclaimed Pachamama worshiper, made this telling statement to the United Nations General Assembly: "’Pachamama’ - Quechua's ‘Mother Earth’ - is a fundamental deity of the Native world view, with is based upon a total respect for nature. The earth does not belong to us, but we belong to the earth". That the expression "Mother Earth" or "Pachamama" is not a harmless cultural name, but has religious traits, is proved, for example, also in a teacher's handbook published in 2002 by UNESCO with the significant title "Pachamama Teacher's Guide". It states, inter alia: "Imagine, Mother Earth assumes a physical form and imagine what it would be like to meet with her. How would she look? What would you talk to her about? What would be your main concern and your questions? How would you answer them? Where could you meet her [Mother Earth]? Think of a place where you could meet them." Such a place, for example, where one could meet "Mother Earth" or "Pachamama" in the guise of nude pregnant women carved as wooden figures, was the prayer ceremony in the Vatican Gardens on the mentioned October 4, 2019, St. Peter's Basilica, the Stations of the Cross Prayer on October 19 and the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome. Bishop José Luis Azcona, emeritus bishop of the Amazonian Prelature Marajó, convincingly referred to the absurdity and untenability of the belittling of the Vatican's Pachamama worship. He is a connoisseur of the religions and customs of the Amazon Indians, lived among them for more than 30 years and evangelized them. In an open letter of November 1, 2019, Bishop José Luis Azcona pointed out that it was especially the "little ones" in the Church, and then also converts among the Amazonian Indians who live intensely the Catholic faith, who were scandalized by the Pachamama worship in the Vatican. They were confused and deeply hurt in their Catholic sense of faith. The following statement by Bishop José Luis Azcona causes dismay: "But this gesture [of Pachamama worship] was a scandal (and not pharisaic) to millions of Catholics throughout the world. Especially the poor, the ‘little ones’, the ignorant, the ‘weak,’ who apparently possess the ‘sensus fidei’ (the sense of faith) and are defended by Pope Francis justly and permanently, were severely struck in their unarmed conscience, completely defenseless against such religious violence. At least the poor, the simple, the ‘weak’, the unprotected of Amazonia are the most affected deep in their heart by this idolatrous stroke, which is an attack against the Christian faith, against the ecclesiastical conviction that the only queen of Amazonia is Our Lady of Nazareth, the Mother of God the Creator and the Redeemer. No other mother, no Pachamama of the Andes or from anywhere else and no Yemanja [mother goddess of Afro-Brazilian cults]!". Bishop José Luis Azcona also referred to the devastating impact that the public acts of Pachamama worship in the Vatican had on faithful Protestants: "For the Protestant and Pentecostal brothers, this scandal had a devastating effect. Horrified, they have witnessed scenes of true idolatry, and between amazement and astonishment they feel more and more confirmed in their erroneous view that the Catholic is a worshiper of idols, not of saints, of Joseph, Mary, but of true demons. In this way, the ecumenical-interreligious dialogue has been shaken with humanly irreparable consequences and grave ecumenical complications for those who want to understand the mystery of the Church as the "Universal Sacrament of Salvation" (Lumen Gentium). " Bishop José Luis Azcona aptly stated that the idea and symbolism of Mother Earth, the "Gaia" and also the "Pachamama", which is widespread today, can not be detached mentally and religiously from the phenomenon of the many historical pagan mother deities: "Let us remember the countless Mother Earth deities who preceded and accompanied the Pachamama as goddesses of fertility in all biblical cultures and religions. In the Old Testament, Astarte (Asherà) is the goddess of fertility, of sensual love in her nude portrayal. In the New Testament, Acts 19: 23-40; 20, 1, it is the Artemis of Ephesus, "the Great," the goddess of fertility; she is depicted with half of her body full of breasts. She sums up what is meant by the statue of Mother Earth "Pachamama". It is impossible to place the image of Our Lady of Nazareth, the Mother of God and the Church, and the statue of Pachamama, the goddess of fertility, upon the same altar or the same church. " The comparison of Pachamama worship in the Vatican with the historical dispute of Chinese rites is factually untenable. The Chinese rituals involved acts of worshiping the image of Confucius, a historical person who was revered as a great national hero and thinker of the Chinese culture. Furthermore, it was about the worship of the deceased ancestors. In both cases before the portraits of these historical persons acts of veneration such as bowing or lighting candles were performed. Because these rites in the 17th and 18th centuries were still associated with superstitious beliefs of Confucianism as a religion, the Church has rigorously forbidden such rites to avoid any appearance of superstition and idolatry. In the twentieth century, the acts of veneration of Confucius were purely civil in nature and took place in non-sacral and non-religious places. Furthermore, the effigies of the ancestors were worshiped by the Catholics without the usual inscription "seat of the soul" as it was usual among the Chinese pagans. Thus, after any appearance of of superstition and idolatry ceased, the Holy See allowed the Chinese rites in 1939 by an Instruction of the Propaganda Fide Congregation, however, under the following conditions: one is allowed to make only a head bowing before a Confucius' picture displayed in the civil places, and if it is to be feared a scandal, the right intention of the Catholics must be publicly explained. Further, the Instruction says that Catholics may only make honorific attestations that are purely civil in nature, and if necessary, explain their intent to correct a misinterpretation of these acts. The same applies to the act of veneration of the portraits of the ancestors. Further, the Catholic Church has permitted the use of only the unequivocal divine name, "Lord of Heaven," and forbade other ambiguous Chinese divine names, such as "Heaven" or "Supreme Deity" or "Supreme Emperor", and this prohibition was not repealed by the 1939 Instruction. The essential difference between the rites of Pachamama worship and the so-called Chinese rites is the fact that the Pachamama is a construct of pagan mythologies, i. e. it is worshiped as either a pure myth or an inanimate and impersonal conglomeration of matter, such as the earth. Anyone who claims that the worship of Pachamama was harmless and had no religious, but only a cultural aspect, is better taught by a prayer to Pachamama published in the context of the Amazon Synod by the "Fondazione Missio", an organ of the Italian Episcopal Conference, where it is said: "Pachamama, good mother, be propitious to us! Be propitious to! Let the seed taste good, that nothing bad happens, that frost should not disturb it, that it produces good food. We ask you: give us everything! Be propitious to us! Be propitious to us!". The Pachamama cult practiced in the Vatican during the Amazon Synod is either a form of idolatrous superstition because it contains gestures that in its original form imply the worship of the "mother earth" considered a deity, or it is a form of non-idolatrous superstition. For this Pachamama cult expresses the belief in the earth as a living and personal being, therefore, it is a syncretism that introduces deceptive elements into the Christian cult, which, after all, must always be directed towards the true God. In an article on October 23, 2019, for Internetsite Infocatolica (www.infocatolica.com), Fr. Nelson Medina, OP, himself a Columbian Amazon missionary, unmasked the fraud of allegedly innocuous Pachamama worship with the following apt statement: "The image [the pachamama] brought to Rome is not representative of the Colombian Amazon, and I believe nowhere in the Amazon. The figure represents nothing of the ‘ancestors’ in the culture of the Amazon. And does our faith adore or worship cultically fertility, life or the woman as such? If they are not worshiped, why associate this worship with the altar, on which the unique and universal sacrifice of Christ is present? Is not this exactly a public, an scandalous public violation of the First Commandment of the Law of God? Bringing these statues to sacred places can only mean that they have a religious significance, as they would otherwise have been exhibited in an art gallery or museum of ethnic or Amazonian history.” Vatican representatives also used St. John Henry Newman to legitimize the Pachamama worship with his help. However, this comparison is far-fetched and factually inaccurate, as Fr. Nelson Medina has convincingly put it, by showing that John Henry Newman was referring to some actions or objects that are relatively neutral in themselves, and then transformed in their meaning in order to be used in the church. The images designed for the Amazon Synod have nothing of this neutrality: celebrating "life" without worshiping God, the only Creator, is simple paganism. And among the pagan idols, be it the golden calf or the money of the merchants in the Temple of Jerusalem, decisive and clear measures are needed ... which can reach even as far as the Tiber. At all times, and also through the instruction of 1939 on the Chinese rites, the Catholic Church, in faithful imitation of the Apostles' behavior, was as it were scrupulously engaged in its words and actions, to avoid even any shadow both of idolatry (idolatria) and of superstition (superstitio) and not to give it the least appearance (see also St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theol., IIa IIae, q 93, a.1). With Gianfranco Amato, an Italian lawyer and life-lawyer, the following can be summarized as regards the Pachamama worship in the Vatican (see his essay in "La Verità" of November 14, 2019): "To portray Pachamama as an icon of the indigenous culture of the Amazon not only means distorting reality, but denying and humiliating the diversity of true Amazonian cultures in order to impose an indigenous theological vision for enforcing purely ideological and political purposes. The Mexican President Lopéz Obrador has held a ritual in honor of the deity Pachamama to apply for permission to build the Mayan railway in southeastern Mexico. Hugo Chávez, Nicolas Maduro, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega are just a few heads of state who have officially participated in worship services in honor of Mother Earth. So, not only is it a purely Peruvian religious fact, but we are facing a real political fact that is inserted in a precise political agenda that promotes pantheistic thinking. It excludes the Christian idea of a transcendent God in relation to creation and places the dignity of the earth above the dignity of the human person. A Copernican Cultural Revolution is being attempted: to overcome the anthropocentrism of modernity with an ecological "geocentrism". The earth and not the human being should now be at the center of the cosmos, to the point that we already hear speeches in which the limitation of human rights in favor of the "rights" of the earth is theorized. The Pachamama is a theological deceit for Christians. As we have seen, it is a pagan Inka-deity. The images that reproduce it from a theological point of view are simply idols. The fact that a theologian, a priest, a bishop, a cardinal, a pope, or a simple believer can not recognize this apparently indisputable fact seems truly disturbing and completely incomprehensible. We could say that we are facing a new eclipse of conscience, this time not in the sphere of the law of life, but in the sphere of the first and most important commandment: in the rights of God. To this comes the aggravating circumstance that not only the conscience of a people, but the conscience of the Church itself is obscured by this cult of Pachamama. In the light of the divine revelation contained in the Word of God, in the Tradition of the Church and in the Magisterium, the question is very simple: to make idols for worship is a very grave sin. To prostrate themselves before idols is idolatry. Offering them gifts and sacrifices, carrying them in triumph, setting them on a throne, crowning them and burning them incense is a manifest idolatry that is utterly immoral. To put them on altars or in consecrated churches in order to worship them, is a true and plain desecration. The Pachamama worship is a deception in terms of understanding tolerance. The sensitivity of the faithful seems rightly hurt when they experience the bleak spectacle of idols worshiped in Catholic churches. It is a deeply unpleasant fact that requires a strict condemnation. This is not a lack of respect or tolerance for people who profess a different religion. We respect everyone's religious beliefs, but this is about imposing tolerance for idolatry in Catholic churches and places desecrated by the presence of idols. That is not acceptable. To tolerate all this means to be accomplices of the desecration. For this reason, the gesture of "idoloclasmus" (destruction of idols), courageously carried out in the Roman church of Santa Maria in Transpontina, is the expression of the noblest faith. It is not the subject of slander but deserves praise. The Pachamama worship is a deception of inculturation. The principle of inculturation is the proclamation of the Gospel, which can be welcomed by all peoples of all cultures. The dynamism of evangelization leads to a gradual process of transformation of the culture that welcomes the Word of God, and penetrates into the heart of the same culture through the maintenance of the good, the cleansing of the evil that is contained in it, and brings about a dynamic evolution of the faith that is always able to renew everything. Without consideration of the criterion of contrast, we can not speak of inculturation. It is clear that evangelization is a necessary contrast to the grave immoral aspects of the cultures that it seeks to achieve, and obviously demands the renunciation of idolatry." The story of Pachamama is an accurate x-ray of the state of the Church at this dramatic moment in history, reminiscent of the truly prophetic words of Professor Joseph Ratzinger in his essay "The New Pagans and the Church," first published in the magazine "Hochland" (October/1958). The following shocking words of Joseph Ratzinger can certainly be read as a kind of topical commentary on the acts of Pachamama worship that took place in the Vatican and were even justified by Pope Francis: "Paganism today sits in the church itself, and that is what characterizes the Church of our day, as well as the new Paganism, that it is a paganism in the Church and a Church in whose heart paganism lives." The following flaming words from the heart of Bishop José Luís Azcona, an Amazon missionary and a worthy successor to the apostles, remain glowing in history: "One of the most shameful aspects of this idolatrous gesture [in the Vatican] was the crushing of the conscience of the ‘little ones’ through this scandal". In view of the undeniable fact of the objective gravity of the acts of Pachamama worship in the Vatican, with its clear pseudo-religious entanglements and its sentimentalization for the propaganda of the globalist world religion of "Mother Earth", can one still speak of harmlessness or take refuge to the alibi of the "Chinese rites"? That would mean defending the indefensible. At the time of the great ecclesial doctrinal and pastoral confusion during the Arian crisis in the 4th century, St. Hilary of Poitiers, the Athanasius of the West, had the conviction that such a state must not be accepted with silence or belittling of the situation. These words, quoted in the following, are of the utmost timely and quite applicable to the Vatican's scandal of the Pachamama worship: "From now on, silence would no longer be called restraint but inertia" (Contra Const. 1). To all those in the Church of our day, who have neither belittled nor silently accepted the acts of Pachamama worship in the Vatican, but raised their admonishing voice, should be given gratitude and appreciation, first and foremost to the laity, who were moved by their supernatural sense of faith and through these acts expressed their true love and respect for the Pope and their mother, the Holy Catholic Church. + Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana Editor's note: This was originally published on Kath.net here. This translation was authorized by Bishop Schneider. | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/bishop-athanasius-schneider-pachamama-was-worshiped-at-vatican-and-it-wasnt-harmless | 2019-11-20T21:37:00+00:00 | 1,574,303,820 | 1,574,294,540 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
399,065 | osce--2019-08-21--To combat religious hatred we must recognize its link to other human rights abuses OSCE human righ | 2019-08-21T00:00:00 | osce | To combat religious hatred, we must recognize its link to other human rights abuses, OSCE human rights head says | WARSAW, 22 August 2019 – Amid increasingly violent outbreaks of religious intolerance, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) welcomes the first-ever United Nations International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion today, and calls on governments to promote the interfaith dialogue and education needed to combat hatred and violence. “The hate crimes and intolerance we are seeing against people with a particular religion or belief rarely take place in isolation, but go hand in hand with other human rights violations,” said ODIHR Director Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir. “The negative effect of such violence and discrimination should not be underestimated, on the communities concerned but also on the security situation in the OSCE region overall.” In order to counteract hate crime and discrimination, governments are encouraged to adopt a comprehensive approach that helps to build a culture of mutual respect and understanding through interfaith and interreligious dialogue and partnerships, and education programmes that promote equality and respect for human rights. At the same time, they have to develop a strong support system to assist victims. The efforts of civil society, including religious or belief communities and other community organizations, are vital in this area, making the freedom to carry out their activities and access to funding particularly important. ODIHR is making every effort to assist countries across the OSCE in living up to their commitments on freedom of religion or belief as well as tolerance and non-discrimination. It works with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that no group is singled out for protection at the expense of another. More information about ODIHR’s work in this area is available here. | SMukhametrakhimova | https://www.osce.org/odihr/428384 | 2019-08-21 13:09:51+00:00 | 1,566,407,391 | 1,567,533,902 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
425,900 | pravadareport--2019-03-20--Christchurch aftermath Invaders complain of invaders | 2019-03-20T00:00:00 | pravadareport | Christchurch aftermath: Invaders complain of invaders | Brenton Tarrant, the shooter from New Zealand's Christchurch, was not a lone wolf. The West has missed out an important point - the formation of organised Christian extremism. Tarrant killed about 50 people in two mosques. At first glance, this crime is reminiscent to the that committed by Anders Breivik, who killed 77 in Norway in 2011. Breivik was a "lonely wolf", though. Is Tarrant another lone terrorist, or is he a member of an extremist group? In his 74-page manifesto titled "The Great Replacement," Tarrant said that he comes from a working, low-income family. He moved to New Zealand from Australia to plan an attack that would reveal the truth about the "attack on our civilization," "that nowhere in the world is safe." "We must crush immigration and deport those invaders already living on our soil," he wrote. "It is not just a matter of our prosperity, but the very survival of our people." By "invaders" Tarrant means Muslims. The killer described his attack as an act of "revenge on the invaders for the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by foreign invaders in Europeans lands throughout history. Here is an excerpt from the manifesto: "To take revenge on the invaders for the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by foreign invaders in European lands throughout history. "To take revenge for the enslavement of millions of Europeans taken from their lands by the Islamic slavers. "To take revenge for the thousands of European lives lost to terror attacks throughout European lands. "To directly reduce immigration rates to European lands by intimidating and physically removing the invaders themselves. "To incite violence, retaliation and further divide between the European people and the invaders currently occupying European soil. "To avenge those European men and women lost in the constant and never ending wars of European history who died for their lands, died for their people only to have their lands given away to any foreign scum that bother to show up." New Zealand is a country where it is not easy to buy automatic or semi-automatic weapons, which Tarrant used in his attack. One requires a license, which a person can receive after a number of thorough police inspections. It does not seem to be likely that the killer could obtain the license himself. It seems much more likely that the weapons were provided to him from local members of a criminal group. It just so happens that the West has missed the moment of the formation of the organised protest extremist movement of white people with Bibles in their hands. It goes without saying that they have nothing to do with Christians and Christianity, just like those who kill in the name of the Quran. Such terrible crimes come as a radical act of protest against the policy of the global melting pot, multiculturalism and omnipresent tolerance. Security Specialist Paul Buchanan told Herald.nz that Tarrant was a member of ultra-right communities on social networks. Another member of those groups shot parishioners at a synagogue in Pittsburgh last year. Buchanan believes that Christchurch is home to a very active community of white supremacists who have repeatedly attacked refugees and people of color in the last 20 years. "New Zealand had succumbed to "the homicidal politics of confrontation that we see in the US and Europe," Buchanan said. Dmitry Mosyakov, chief of the Center for Southeast Asia at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Pravda.Ru that in Europe, tensions between migrants, most often from Muslim countries, and the local population are most often eased at courts. "In most cases, people would make some posters and hold a demonstration to say that they condemn violence. However, Australia and New Zealand is a patriarchal society, in which non-acceptance of migrants may lead to a terrible tragedy. When migrants tried to harass Australian women on the beach, all of Sydney was infuriated very quickly," Dmitry Mosyakov said. In other words, the "Western periphery" has never become part of liberal policy of multiculturalism and tolerance. "Many believe that New Zealand is like heaven on Earth. It is really so, if you come to the country as a tourist. However, if you live there as a local resident, then you live in the environment that is exempt from global Western trends," the expert noted. According to him, the Christchurch massacre will cause great and just riots in the Muslim world, because it is an absolutely unprovoked terrorist act: there is no Muslim extremism in New Zealand." "At the same time, there were examples of such extremism in South-East Asia, for example, when Australians were killed in Bali explosions. This indicates deep contradictions inside the modern Western world. The liberal paradigm is not successful in regulating interethnic and inter-religious relations," concluded Dmitry Mosyakov. We would like to add here that New Zealand, just like Australia and many other countries of the world, used to be a British colony. Anglo-Saxons had colonised those countries and did their best to exterminate indigenous populations. They colonise half of the world, use humans as slaves and then complain of immigrants and call them invaders. | null | http://www.pravdareport.com/world/142313-chirstchurch/ | 2019-03-20 16:17:00+00:00 | 1,553,113,020 | 1,567,545,490 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
425,984 | pravadareport--2019-05-24--The neverending containment of Iran | 2019-05-24T00:00:00 | pravadareport | The neverending containment of Iran | The Trump administration seems to have brushed up a dream of global hegemony called "Project for a new American century", developed in the 90s by thinkers and strategists belonging to the neocon universe, such as Robert Kagan, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and John Bolton, Trump's National Security Advisor. The ambitious goal of the think tank, now dissolved, but whose ideas continue to permeate the Republican Party, the religious right and the American exceptionalism's world, was to adequately exploit the Cold War victory to extend American hegemony on a world-level, with a particular focus on the Middle East. The new American century supporters are often remembered for the alleged influence played on the Bush Jr. era's foreign agenda, particularly in the launch of the so-called War on Terror, during which Saddam Hussein's Iraq was hit by a regime change. It was the beginning of the chaos in the Middle East: it were scattered the seeds for the spreading of chronic instability, proxy wars, interreligious violence, feeding a twenty-year-long prosperous Islamic radicalism, of which not Al-Qaeda but the birth of the self-proclaimed Islamic State undoubtedly represents the most emblematic experience. The problem was not Iraq itself, but the presence of Saddam Hussein, who was a valuable strategic partner for the West during the Cold War, armed and funded to declare war on Iran, but with over time he had become intolerable due to its expansionist ambitions in the Arab region. Iran, on the other hand, was described by the think tank as a threat of a different nature, namely not eliminable through a mere regime change but deserving a long-term containment strategy due to a series of geopolitical and cultural characteristics. Recently, The New York Times published a very interesting analysis by Carol Giacomo entitled "Iran and the United States: Doomed to Be Forever Enemies?". Giacomo describes carefully the phases that have led the two countries to transform themselves from strategic partners to bitter enemies, and the conclusions are sharable: both countries should find a way to cooperate in order to avoid an international-level dangerous escalation. The real problem, which analysts of international relations seem not to understand, is the following: between Iran and the United States there can never be a long-lasting peace, because Tehran, just like Moscow, is doomed to be considered a natural-born enemy by the American empire. Iran and Russia share a similar story and destiny, and it was precisely the perennial feeling of encirclement by foreign powers willing to deprive them of their natural spheres of influence, and to subdue them by means of puppet governments, that pushed them to forge a close relationship in the last decade. The anti-Iranian and anti-Russian containment also share also a common starting point: the Great Game. At the time, however, it was not the United States that led an expansionist agenda in the Middle East and Central Asia, but the United Kingdom and Russia. Some countries are victims of the so-called "resource curse", others, like Iran, are victims of what can be called the "curse of geography". Iran is the true meeting point between the Middle East and East Asia, between Russian Asia and the Indian subcontinent, it is the site of a millenary civilization that has flourished for centuries exploiting this geostrategic position, and which boasts contacts dating back to ancient times with the European, Russian, Ottoman, Indian and Chinese civilizations. Unlike the other countries in the area, Iran has a long-standing tradition of political and social stability, a deep-rooted national identity which has been strengthened to every attempt of westernization, also because it is linked to a precise (and not artificially-constructed) history, on the background of a significant disposal of strategic resources, such as oil and natural gas. It is because of these factors that Iran has been at the center of hegemonic clashes between the world-greatest powers since the so-called Great Game, a period of opposition mainly between the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire that lasted from 1830 to 1895. The British feared that Russian adventurism in Asia would end with the fall of the Persian and Ottoman empires in Moscow's sphere of influence, with inevitable repercussions on the control of the Indian subcontinent and, therefore, of the entire Far East. At the same time, Russians feared that the British could use their influence on Muslim-majority lands to provoke anti-Russian uprisings throughout the empire and in Russian-friendly khanates. The declining Persian empire was between two fires, led by the Qajar dynasty. Eventually, the royal family had managed to survive the Great Game, succeeding in the difficult task of satisfying both Russian and British interests in a precariously-balanced way. In the post-WWIr, the British took advantage of the Soviet Union's moment of weakness to depose the Qajar dynasty because judged too incompetent to defend the interests of the British crown. It was established a new dynasty, based on the Pahlavi family. Reza Shah was chosen by the British as the dynasty's leader and the country and, at least initially, he satisfied the requests coming from London. Since the 1930s, however, his political line had progressively changed direction, revealing the Shah's will to emancipate Iran from the British subjection. In 1932 he canceled the oil concession to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to retract a new division of profits more favorable to Iran, obtaining a new compromise the following year. Then, he transferred the right to print money from the British Imperial Bank to the National Bank of Iran, and issued a series of laws to limit the presence of foreign personnel in strategic sectors. In line with his nationalistic ambitions, in 1935 he changed the country's name from Persia to Iran, on the background of the reduction of trade with the Soviet Union and Great Britain in favour of new partners, including Nazi Germany. At the outbreak of World War II, London and Moscow jointly decided to depose the Shah, invading the country in August 1941 and occupying Tehran. The British forced the Shah to abdicate, leaving the throne to his son Mohammad. Mohammad initially met the British needs, continuing his father's path of cultural and economic westernization but, just like him, he gradually turned towards a nationalistic policy with the aim to reduce British influence. In 1951 Mohammad Mosaddegh, a fervent nationalist, was appointed prime minister, marking the start of a battle season that ended three years later in the Ajax operation. Mosaddegh was the leader of the most intransigent wing of the nationalist front and the nationalization of strategic sectors, including the oil industry, was his most important workhorse. Mosaddegh convinced the Shah, politics and society of the need to fully control Iranian oil, both to achieve economic and political independence, in order to deprive Britain of its main instrument of domination over Tehran. Britain asked for US assistance to remove the uncomfortable PM and bring the Shah back into line, emphasizing the (false) possibility that the nationalization program might actually hide communist ambitions, even in light of the anti-Western and anti-imperialist rhetoric used in Iranian panorama. With the help of military disloyal to the government, CIA and SIS spread chaos and violence in the country as part of the so-called Ajax operation. The Shah was forced to depose the PM in favour of the pro-American General Fazlollah Zahedi. The Ajax operation marked a watershed moment in the Arab-Islamic world's recent history: on one side it sanctioned the definitive end of the British rule over the Middle East and the entry of the United States, on the other its cultural legacy played a key role in feeding the Islamic revival occurred some decades later. In post-Ajax, the Shah invigorated the policy of forced westernization, known as the "white revolution", and he started encountering the harsh opposition of the Shiite clergy, but also of a good part of society. Furthermore, on US initiative, he established close diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, giving rise to the so-called two-pillar policy: Tehran and Riyadh had become custodians of US interests in the Arab-Persian area. In the 1970s, the Shah gave new life to a new political course based on nationalism, though weaker than in the Mossadegh era, establishing relations with Gaddafi's Libya, supporting and encouraging OPEC countries during the 1973 oil crisis, criticizing the influence of the Israeli lobby in US policy, and signing the Algiers agreements with Iraq, without prior consultation with the United States, on the basis of which all forms of support to the Kurds were ceased and the US and Israel were prevented from using the Iranian territory to send them aid. The westernization of society and the gradual return to anti-imperialism in foreign policy took place on the background of the country's fall in instability, due to the increasingly frequent and violent protests led by the Shiite clergy and the Communists. In 1979 the country was on the brink of civil war, a situation that convinced the Shah to flee, receiving asylum in Anwar Sadat's Egypt, and the temporary government led by Shapour Bakhtiar to call back Ruhollah Khomeini, the protests' moral leader, to homeland. On April 1, 1979, Iranians were called to a referendum to transform Iran into a sharia-based Islamic republic: they voted "yes". Later the same year Khomeini assumed the role of Supreme Leader and quickly transported the country out of the Western orbit. 40 years after the revolution, it is still a source of debate if there was an actual interest by the West to overthrow the untrustworthy Shah. It was precisely him, from exile, to spread conspiracy theories expressed in the famous sentence: "If you lift up Khomeini's beard, you fill find 'Made in England' written under his chin". Some CIA declassified documents, whose authenticity is disputed, seem to prove that Khomeini tried to approach the US to overthrow the Shah since the 1960s. Furthermore, it is undoubtedly true that the higher ranks of Iranian army were infiltrated by US-paid men since the post-Ajax and no shocking revolution would take place without their consent in such a strategic country. We should take into account Shah's claims only because history teaches that even when a revolution may be spontaneous and bottom-up, it always takes place an external influence aimed at taking advantage of the newly-created dynamics. But even if the Shah was right and Khomeini was truly helped by the West, nothing changes the fact that the West eventually lost the one-century-long match against a misunderstood freedom-aspiring nation. Indeed, Khomeini's Iran quickly ended the two-pillar policy, by engaging a proxy war with Israel and Saudi Arabia, challenged the US hegemony over the Muslim world, and started spreading the revolutionary values all over the world. The West tried to overturn the situation by instigating Saddam Hussein to declare war on Iran, but Tehran showed to the world an incredible will to survive and resist. To date, despite the Mossad-backed campaign of targeted killings that deprived the country of its best minds, hindering Iran's arms race, the 20-year-long harsh sanctionatory regime, and the periodic attempts to provoke colored revolutions, Khomeinism continues to permeate deeply the Iranian society, culture and politics, and Tehran has gradually succeeded in exporting revolutionary values all over the world, as shown by the unstoppable growing of Twelver Shi'ism in the Middle East and Latin America, and to extend its sphere of influence up to Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, with the aim of giving rise to the so-called "Axis of resistance". The Trump administration has recovered the new American century's project and, together with it, the idea of exerting maximum pressure on Iran to provoke a bottom-up regime change. The war, in fact, is not a valid option: the costs, both human and economic, would be too high and, contrarily to Saddam's Iraq, Iran has all the potential to extend the war to the entire Middle East, up to the gates of Israel and Saudi Arabia, thanks to the galaxy of proxies built in the last twenty years. But even if the Bolton's hard-line proved to be successful and the Khomeinist regime fell, it is the application of geophilosophy to the reading of history to show that cultural and geopolitical peculiarities make vain any attempt to subdue Tehran. A pro-Western order would not last in the long run, because the people, the intellectual world and the political class would demand greater autonomy. It were always the same men carefully chosen by London and Washington to protect Western interests that, in the end, decided to break the chains of oppression, despite the awareness of the risks, to gain power. and independence. Political realism must take into consideration the existence of only-marginally-alterable variables that make not practicable the coercive diplomacy with Iran, such as a deep-rooted national consciousness, a resistent and resilient culture, both expressions of a millenary civilization. This set of variables should push the US to accept the presence, and the existence, in international relations of players willing to have their own spheres of influence. The Iran deal signed during the Obama era has shown that the two countries can, and must, replace rivalry with mutual respect in order to achieve goals whose importance is of global interest, even if the price to pay is the sacrifice of purposes considered of vital importance. | null | http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/142418-iran/ | 2019-05-24 12:30:00+00:00 | 1,558,715,400 | 1,567,540,194 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
427,632 | prepareforchange--2019-11-02--Report Exposes Right-Wing Effort to Ban Criticism of Israel in US Schools | 2019-11-02T00:00:00 | prepareforchange | Report Exposes Right-Wing Effort to Ban Criticism of Israel in US Schools | “Fanatical Zionists are pushing U.S. state legislatures to pass sweeping new restrictions on free speech. Human rights and free speech advocates responded with alarm Thursday to a Guardian report revealing that pro-Israel and right-wing lobbyists are encouraging Republican state lawmakers to pass legislation that could outlaw discussions about the Israeli government’s human rights abuses and occupation of Palestinian territory at all levels of the U.S. public education system under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism. Concerns about the legislation relate to its wide definition of anti-Semitism that goes beyond protecting Jewish people from hate speech. According to The Guardian: Among the activities that would be prohibited by the new laws are human rights investigations focusing specifically on Israel. Also banned would be any speech “demonizing Israel by … blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions” or “delegitimizing Israel by … questioning Israel’s right to exist.” The push began at a conference in August held by the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, a conservative network which has a long history of propagating right-wing policies at state level through model bills. The report stems from a pair of emails (pdf) that David Armiak, research director for the watchdog Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), obtained under a Freedom of Information request and shared with The Guardian. ALEC, which did not reply to the newspaper’s request for comment, has a record of churning out right-wing model legislation on a variety of issues, from criminalizing environmental and animal rights activism to promoting the privatization of schools, gerrymandering, and union-busting. Alluding to the organization’s history, writer Regina Schrambling shared The Guardian‘s report on Twitter with the introduction, “Today in ‘all evil leads to ALEC.'” The emails reveal that Republican state lawmakers from Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and South Carolina met with representatives from pro-Israel lobbyist groups at ALEC’s August conference in Austin, Texas. Florida Republican Randy Fine reportedly led a private meeting at the conference after pushing through the first anti-Semitism state law earlier this year. Critics say Fine’s law “goes too far,” the Sun-Sentinel explained in an editorial in May. “Some of its provisions confuse anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel. That has profound constitutional problems, as the bill is plainly meant to be enforced throughout Florida’s public schools, colleges, and universities.” Liz Jackson, a staff attorney with the group Palestine Legal, is Jewish and a critic of certain components of Florida’s law, which was passed amid rising rates of anti-Semitism attacks in the United States and around the world. “It’s riding off the universally agreed idea that anti-Semitism is bad and must be stopped at a time of a frightening resurgence in white supremacist violence,” Jackson told The Guardian about the state law. “It’s extremely cynical to masquerade as fighting anti-Semitism when you are, in fact, shutting down criticism of Israel.” The week after the ALEC meeting, Fine sent an email to state lawmakers; A.D. Motzen, national director of state Relations at Agudath Israel of America; and Joseph Sabag Israeli-American Coalition (IAC) for Action. Fine briefly outlined the Florida measure and encouraged the lawmakers to reach out to him and Sabag with questions about pursuing similar legislation in their states. Sabag wrote in a response to the group that “my legal team has now taken Randy’s bill and refined it into a model that can be brought everywhere.” Sabag urged the lawmakers to contact him or Republican South Carolina state Rep. Alan Cemmons, who is ALEC’s national chairman and sponsored anti-Semitism legislation in his state, “and take advantage of our policy support if you are considering filing a bill.” Contacted by The Guardian, Sabag said the emails “emerged out of an after-hours private gathering of friends and colleagues, not an ALEC function and ALEC held no such forum or discussion at its conference.” He also pushed back against the suggestion that IAC for Action was encouraging lawmakers to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism that’s provoked criticism, saying that his organization “provides legal analysis and policy resources in response to requests from legislators who wish to draw upon our subject matter expertise.” Summarizing The Guardian‘s report, Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah wrote in a series of tweets that “fanatical Zionists are pushing U.S. state legislatures to pass sweeping new restrictions on free speech, including a ban on ‘demonizing Israel’ and investigating Israeli human rights abuses.” “There is no doubt whatsoever,” Abunimah added, “that the Israel lobby is the greatest direct threat to free speech in the United States.” Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm. | Edward Morgan | https://prepareforchange.net/2019/11/02/report-exposes-right-wing-effort-to-ban-criticism-of-israel-in-us-schools/ | Sat, 02 Nov 2019 21:35:41 +0000 | 1,572,744,941 | 1,572,881,065 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
505,570 | sottnet--2019-09-02--Indias published citizenship list leaves 2M stateless | 2019-09-02T00:00:00 | sottnet | India's published citizenship list leaves 2M stateless | Almost two million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness on Saturday after they were excluded from a citizenship list aimed at weeding out "foreign infiltrators", in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide.according to an official statement. A large chunk of those excluded were expected to be Muslims.Shahibul Haque Shikdar, a Muslim college teacher, was distraught after two of his children made it to the list but he was left out. "Even my father's name is there in the final NRC but I have been left out," the 39-year-old told AFP.Assam has long seen large influxes from elsewhere, including under British colonial rule and around Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence when millions fled into India. For decades this has made Assam a hotbed of inter-religious and ethnic tensions. Sporadic violence has included the 1983 massacre of around 2,000 people.Security was beefed up in Assam ahead of the release of the NRC, with some 20,000 extra personnel brought in and gatherings banned in some locations. There were no disturbances reported on Saturday however.Anxious residents had started queueing up since early morning, braving rain and bad weather to check their names on the list.But navigating the complex process is a huge challenge for many in a flood-prone poor region of high illiteracy where many lack documentation.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party runs Assam, and critics say theIn January India's lower house passed legislation that would grant citizenship to people who moved to India as recently as six years ago -- as long as they are not Muslims. This has stoked fears among India's 170-million Muslim minority for their future.Home Minister Amit Shah, Modi's right-hand-man, hasand said before the BJP's thumping re-election victory in May thatThose left off the NRC have 120 days to appeal at special Foreigners Tribunals, which the government says are being expanded in number. But activists say that tribunal members are often underqualified and are subject to "performance" targets, and that the process has been riddled with inconsistencies and errors.Instances of people being declared foreigners because of clerical errors, such as differences in the spelling of names, are "appallingly common", Amnesty International said Saturday.Local lawmaker Ananta Kumar Malo, whose name was missing from the list, said he was appalled by the process. "There are some problems with the system, otherwise how can they exclude my name?" he told AFP.With many "genuine Indians" left off, the party is mulling a "fresh strategy on how we can drive out the illegal migrants", said Himanta Biswa Sarma, a local BJP minister.Those rejected by the tribunals who have exhausted all other legal avenues can be declared foreigners and -- in theory -- be placed in one of six detention centres with a view to possible deportation, although Bangladesh is yet to signal its cooperation.One with space for 3,000 is being constructed in Goalpara, west of Assam's biggest city Guwahati. The camps currently hold 1,135 people, according to the state government, and have been operating for years.Nur Mohammad, 65, spent almost 10 years in one such camp until a Supreme Court order saw him released this month. "I was born here and lived in Assam all my life," he told AFP this week. "I don't know if my name will be in the NRC or not."Samujjal Bhattacharya from the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), a key driver behind the NRC, said the register was necessary to protect Assam's indigenous "sons of the soil".he told AFP. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/419664-Indias-published-citizenship-list-leaves-2M-stateless | 2019-09-02 18:10:35+00:00 | 1,567,462,235 | 1,569,331,672 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
533,620 | sputnik--2019-05-07--Netizens Condemn Honour-killing as Young Couple Set Ablaze in Indian Village | 2019-05-07T00:00:00 | sputnik | Netizens Condemn ‘Honour-killing' as Young Couple Set Ablaze in Indian Village | New Delhi (Sputnik) — Last week's incident of a young village couple in the Indian state of Maharashtra allegedly being set ablaze by the woman's livid relatives over their inter-caste love marriage, has left a lot of netizens disgusted, evoking sharp reactions. Police have termed it an "honour-killing". The 19-year-old woman, who sustained burns over 70 percent of her body and died on Sunday night, was pregnant. Her husband suffered 50 percent burns and is being treated at the hospital. The incident took place in Nighoj village, around 55 km from Ahmednagar, on 1 May, Police Officer Vijay Kumar Botre told Sputnik. "There is no ‘honour' in killing", tweeted this user. "Rukmini's two uncles have already been arrested. Now, her father has also been apprehended", Investigating Officer Vijay Kumar Botre told Sputnik news agency on Tuesday afternoon. "Mangesh (23) and his wife Rukmini (19) were accosted and set ablaze because they had embarked on an inter-caste marriage against their families' wishes", he added. Quoting the police, The New Indian Express has reported that Rana Singh, a construction worker and Rukmini had married in November last year against the wishes of the latter's parents. "On 28 April, she came to meet her parents. On 1 May, Mangesh also came to take her back to their marital home", a police official said. The woman's father Rama Bharathiya along with her uncle Surendra Bhartiya and maternal uncle Ghansham Saroj allegedly locked the couple in a room and set them ablaze, the official added. Noteworthy is the fact that to tackle the menace of honour killings, the government in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where this crime took place, is mulling to bring about a law to encourage inter-caste and inter-religious marriages, and give protection to such couples. | null | https://sputniknews.com/asia/201905071074783778-young-indian-couple-set-ablaze/ | 2019-05-07 12:36:00+00:00 | 1,557,246,960 | 1,567,540,993 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
548,828 | sputnik--2019-11-09--Six Top Facts About Hindu-Muslim Conflict Over India's Ayodhya Amid Supreme Court Ruling | 2019-11-09T00:00:00 | sputnik | Six Top Facts About Hindu-Muslim Conflict Over India's Ayodhya Amid Supreme Court Ruling | The Ayodhya dispute dates back to the 16th century, and the construction of the Babri Masjid Mosque. Built between 1528 and 1529 on a holy hill thought by Hindu believers to be the birthplace of Rama, a major deity of Hinduism, the mosque’s construction soon became a bone of contention between India’s Hindu and Muslim communities. These divisions were intensified in the 1830s, after a surveyor from the British colonial administration concluded that the pillars used in the construction of the mosque were taken from a pre-existing Hindu temple which was demolished beforehand. Legal disputes, protests and violent clashes over the site would continue for nearly a century, and in December 1949, two years after India was granted independence from the British Empire, Hindu activists placed Hindu idols in the mosque, after which Hindu believers began visiting the site, prompting heightened inter-religious tensions and mass protests which ended in the government placing the holy place under lock and key, preventing visits from Muslims and Hindus alike. In 1986, after more than 30 years on lockdown, the holy site was reopened, with Muslims staging protests as Hindus were allowed to carry out religious ceremonies at the mosque. Tensions continued to grow throughout the 1980s, as Hindu nationalist activists began campaigning to build a Hindu temple at the site, with the campaign soon joined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (the party of current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and other Hindu nationalist forces. In December 1992, tensions reached a boiling point after Hindu activists gathered at Ayodhya and destroyed the Babri Masjid Mosque. This event sparked a spate of riots across the country that lasted two months; at least 2,000 people, most of them Muslim believers, were killed in the violence. This included 700 deaths in the city of Mumbai alone, between December 1992 and January 1993. The Mumbai riots were themselves followed by the March 1993 Mumbai bombings, when over 300 people were killed and 1,400 others injured in a series of car bombings orchestrated by a local criminal syndicate affiliated with Islamist terrorists. A 2002 Islamist train bombing targeting Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya led to the deaths of another 58 people, with over 2,000 more believed to have died in further rioting. The Indian government first set up a commission to investigate the destruction of the Babri Masjid Mosque in 1993, with further investigations established over the next two decades to establish the legitimacy of Hindu claims, including claims as to whether a Hindu temple dedicated to Rama was originally located at the site. In 2010, the Allahabad High Court, which has jurisdiction over the state of Uttar Pradesh, ruled to divide the Ayodhya holy site’s territory into three parts, giving two thirds control to two Hindu groups, and one third to a local Sunni Muslim group. This ruling was later challenged, and in mid-2011, India’s Supreme Court nullified the ruling amid contesting claims from both Hindu and Muslim entities. In August 2019, after several more years of hearings and debate, mediation and repeated adjournments, the Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench began day-to-day hearings in the Ayodhya dispute, which continued until mid-October, when the court concluded them and began preparations for their final judgement. This judgement was finally delivered on November 9, with the Supreme Court ruling to grant Hindu believers the entire 2.77 acre territory in Ayodhya, with Muslims receiving 5 acres, paid for by the central government, at a separate location. Given the violence previously associated with the Ayodhya dispute, and Indian-Muslim tensions associated with New Delhi’s recent decision to change the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir, the Modi government has braced for renewed violence between India’s 960 million Hindu and 195 million Muslim communities over the Ayodhya ruling. Over 5,000 Indian troops and police were deployed in Ayodhya in the run-up to the Supreme Court ruling, with hundreds of people reportedly detained Friday while awaiting the verdict. Fears of violence spread to Mumbai, where authorities imposed prohibitions on the assembly of four or more people in one place on Saturday. Late last month, Prime Minister Modi urged Indians of all faiths to show restraint on the matter to avoid provocations and violence. | null | https://sputniknews.com/asia/201911091077265577-six-top-facts-about-hindu-muslim-conflict-over-indias-ayodhya-amid-supreme-court-ruling/ | Sat, 09 Nov 2019 15:07:13 +0300 | 1,573,330,033 | 1,573,304,082 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
566,238 | tass--2019-06-03--Crimea successfully resists outside attempts to sow inter-ethnic discord official | 2019-06-03T00:00:00 | tass | Crimea successfully resists outside attempts to sow inter-ethnic discord — official | ### Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko © Mikhail Metzel/TASS YALTA, June 3. /TASS/. Crimean residents are successfully withstanding attempts from the outside to sow inter-ethnic discord on the peninsula, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told reporters on Monday after a meeting with representatives of Crimea's cultural and religious organizations. "What are our enemies trying to do from the outside now? They are doing everything possible to sow inter-ethnic and inter-religious discord in Crimea. They are distributing made-up news, trying to fan tensions with the help of extremists, and so on. However, this does not succeed, as there is a different basis, different foundation. There are Crimean residents who want to leave in peace and accord," Matviyenko said. She noted that Crimean authorities are working effectively to preserve inter- ethnic accord and resolve problems. "Peace, accord and mutual understanding are evident in the region," she added. Matviyenko reminded that there are three official languages in Crimea — Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. "There are no infringements on anyone's rights, be that language rights or cultural traditions. Everybody said that over the 5 years since reunification with Russia, many positive changes have occurred," she stressed. "Inter-ethnic accord in Crimea is an important element of peaceful, free and happy life, it is a condition for successfuly development of the peninsula's economy," Matviyenko said. In other media | null | http://tass.com/politics/1061527 | 2019-06-03 21:07:56+00:00 | 1,559,610,476 | 1,567,539,217 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
726,699 | thehuffingtonpost--2019-04-30--Florida Passes Bill Banning Anti-Semitism In Public Schools After Synagogue Shooting | 2019-04-30T00:00:00 | thehuffingtonpost | Florida Passes Bill Banning Anti-Semitism In Public Schools After Synagogue Shooting | The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Joe Gruters, referred to the shooting at Chabad of Poway before the bill was passed. One woman was killed in the rampage on Saturday and three others were wounded. The 19-year-old suspected shooter allegedly yelled anti-Semitic slurs as he entered the synagogue on the last day of Passover, The New York Times reported. Officials are investigating whether he posted an anti-Semitic and white nationalist manifesto to an online message board before the shooting. “He knew nothing about the victims, other than that they were Jewish. That was enough for them to die in his own mind,” Gruters said about the shooter, according to the Miami Herald. “Anti-Semitism is on the rise, and we have the ability to do something about it. No one is born with hate in their heart.” The suspect has been charged with murder and attempted murder, The Associated Press reports. Poway Mayor Steve Vaus and President Donald Trump have both described the shooting as a hate crime. The Florida bill requires public school officials to treat anti-Semitic behavior by students or employees the way they treat racial discrimination. The measure includes a lengthy explanation of anti-Semitism, defining it as expressing hatred for Jewish people, making “mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical” allegations about Jews or Jewish organizations, and denying facts about the Holocaust. The bill also incorporates Israel into its definition of anti-Semitism. It states that “delegitimizing Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” “blaming Israel for all inter-religious or political tensions,” and “requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation,” should all be counted as examples of anti-Semitism. Critics of the bill take issue with the fact that it only refers to religious discrimination against Jewish people, since other religious minorities have also been recently targeted for violence. Some also fear the bill would silence legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies. The bill’s text states that “criticism of Israel that is similar to criticism toward any other country may not be regarded as anti-Semitic.” The measure was first introduced in the Florida House in February, where it later passed unanimously. It was tabled in the Senate, but leaders in the legislature allowed it to be brought before legislators on Monday. The bill comes amid a nationwide spike in anti-Semitism. According to the Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitic incidents at K-12 schools and on college campuses nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017. | null | https://www.huffpost.com/entry/florida-anti-semitism-bill_n_5cc76141e4b0537911497c15 | 2019-04-30 01:24:45+00:00 | 1,556,601,885 | 1,567,541,651 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
1,099,485 | westernjournal--2019-02-02--Central African Republic 14 armed groups reach peace deal | 2019-02-02T00:00:00 | westernjournal | Central African Republic, 14 armed groups reach peace deal | The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal. JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A peace deal has been reached between the Central African Republic government and 14 armed groups after their first-ever direct dialogue aimed at ending years of conflict, the United Nations and African Union announced on Saturday. The peace deal represents rare hope for the impoverished, landlocked nation where interreligious and intercommunal fighting has continued since 2013. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a conflict that has sent two people to the International Criminal Court. “I am determined to work with the president and his government to address the concerns of our brothers who took up arms,” said Central African Republic’s Cabinet director Firmin Ngrebada, according to the U.N. The parties on Sunday will sign a draft of the agreement, which focuses on power-sharing and transitional justice, Sudan’s state media reported, citing Sudan’s chief negotiator Atta al-Manan. The final deal is expected to be signed on Wednesday. Talks began Jan. 24 in Khartoum. “This is a great day for Central African Republic and all its people,” said the AU commissioner for peace and security, Smail Chergui. TRENDING: Trump Has Pelosi and Schumer Right Where He Wants Them The fighting has carried the high risk of genocide, the U.N. has warned. The conflict began in 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the capital, Bangui. Largely Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back. Scores of mosques were burned. Priests and other religious leaders were killed. Many Muslims fled the country after mobs decapitated and dismembered some in the streets. The vicious fighting in a country known more for coups than interreligious violence was so alarming that Pope Francis made a bold visit in 2015, removing his shoes and bowing his head at the Central Mosque in the last remaining Muslim neighborhood of the capital, Bangui. “Together we say ‘no’ to hatred,” the pope said. The violence has never disappeared, intensifying and spreading last year after a period of relative peace as armed groups battled over lands rich in gold, diamonds and uranium. After more than 40 people were killed in a rebel attack on a displaced persons camp in November, both the leader of the 13,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission and the country’s prime minister both acknowledged shortcomings in the response. “I knew that we did not have all the necessary means to protect our people,” the prime minister said. In a grim report last year marking five years of the conflict, the U.N. children’s agency said fighters often target civilians rather than each other, attacking health facilities and schools, mosques and churches and camps for displaced people. At least half of the more than 640,000 people displaced are children, it said, and thousands are thought to have joined the armed groups, often under pressure. Last month the chief of Central African Republic’s soccer federation appeared at the International Criminal Court for the first time since he was arrested last year in France on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona is accused of leading the anti-Balaka for at least a year early in the fighting. In November a Central African Republic militia leader and lawmaker, Alfred Yekatom, made his first ICC appearance, accused of crimes including murder, torture and using child soldiers. He allegedly commanded some 3,000 fighters in a predominantly Christian militia in and around the capital early in the fighting. He was arrested last year after firing gunshots in parliament. So far no Seleka fighters have been publicly targeted by the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. As the peace talks began last month, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned of “catastrophe” if no agreement was reached, saying repeated cycles of violence in one of the world’s poorest nations had “pushed people(asterisk)s resistance to breaking point.” A majority of Central African Republic’s 2.9 million people urgently need humanitarian support, the group said. On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend an arms embargo on Central African Republic for a year but raised the possibility that it could be lifted earlier as the government has long urged. The Associated Press contributed to this report. We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. | AP Reports | https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-central-african-republic-14-armed-groups-reach-peace-deal/ | 2019-02-02 15:40:22+00:00 | 1,549,140,022 | 1,567,549,890 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
1,108,161 | windowoneurasiablog--2019-07-07--Ethno-National Identities in Russia Intensifying as is Civic Russian Identity Drobizheva Says | 2019-07-07T00:00:00 | windowoneurasiablog | Ethno-National Identities in Russia Intensifying as is Civic Russian Identity, Drobizheva Says | Staunton, July 5 – Many had expected Tatar officials and scholars to make use of the 13th Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia, held this year in Kazan, to make an impassioned defense of the rights of non-Russian peoples and of their languages. But at the plenary session at least, that did not happen. The deputy said that officials keep promising to present a concept paper on the study of native languages but “no one has seen it yet.” The only document that has been prepared, he said, is a draft law creating a register of numerically small peoples, something the Russian Federation needs but that isn’t as critical as one about national languages. Valery Tishkov, former director of the Moscow Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology, former Russian nationalities minister, and chief proponent of making the study of non-Russian nationalities entirely voluntary, chaired the meeting but didn’t make a speech, leaving the task of presenting Kremlin’s position to others. Leokadiya Drobizheva of the Moscow Institute of Sociology did that. She said that the construction of a single civic Russian nation had already been constructed and that recognition of this was simply a matter of time. Ever more residents of the Russian Federation identify as rossiyane, she said, something that reduce interethnic and interreligious tensions. At the same time, however, the senior scholar said that ethno-national identities are strengthening as well, as indication that in her mind at least the strengthening of the civic national identity need not come at the cost of ethnic ones as many have assumed and some have feared. From the point of view of non-Russian concerns, perhaps the most important speech was delivered by Marina Martynova of the Moscow Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology who pointed out that “the first and chief hit on national education was made in 1950 by the decree concerning the voluntary choice of the language of instruction.” After that time, she said, “the number of those studying in non-Russian language schools had unceasingly fallen,” exactly the point many non-Russians have made about Vladimir Putin’s push to make the study of non-Russian languages voluntary while keeping the study of Russian compulsory. Despite the upbeat remarks from the first speakers to the conference, Olga Artemova of the Moscow Institute spoke about the difficult state of ethnology in Russia as a result of the dramatic fall off and in some places elimination of ethnographic instruction in universities and of budgetary places for those where such instruction is still available. If that trend continues, the field will inevitably age and contract; and there won’t be the experts necessary to evaluate this most sensitive area of public life. As a result, the political leadership almost certainly will make decisions with less input about the situation among the non-Russians, further tilting policy in the direction of the ethnic Russian majority. | paul goble ([email protected]) | http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/07/ethno-national-identities-in-russia.html | 2019-07-07 11:36:00.001000+00:00 | 1,562,513,760 | 1,567,536,567 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
4,536 | activistpost--2019-04-24--Facebook Just Hired a Lawyer Who Helped Write the Patriot Act | 2019-04-24T00:00:00 | activistpost | Facebook Just Hired a Lawyer Who Helped Write the Patriot Act | (CD) — Social media giant Facebook made a major hire Monday, bringing on lawyer Jennifer Newstead as the company’s general counsel—a move that generated criticism due to Newstead’s work two decades ago drafting the Patriot Act. The company announced the hire by citing Newstead’s extensive work in government. Most recently, Newstead acted as the legal adviser for the State Department. During her time in the Bush administration, Newstead was known for being the “day to day manager of the Patriot Act in Congress,” according to torture memo author John Yoo. “Jennifer is a seasoned leader whose global perspective and experience will help us fulfill our mission,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a statement. Newstead referred to Facebook’s role in the public discourse in a statement released by the company. “Facebook’s products play an important role in societies around the world,” said Newstead. “I am looking forward to working with the team and outside experts and regulators on a range of legal issues as we seek to uphold our responsibilities and shared values.” Support Independent Media for as Little as $1 Per Month Newstead’s history in government, though, triggered criticism of Facebook for putting her in a position of power—especially in light of recent comments from the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that emphasized a more secure and private experience for users. The Observer, in a report on the hire, took a skeptical view of Newstead’s past as far as it related to tech. Thus, as technologist Ashkan Soltani pointed out to Politico, the hire of Newstead is incompatible with the company’s public pivot to privacy. “It’s almost as if we’re living in some bizarro world where the company does exactly the opposite of what Zuckerberg states publicly,” said Soltani. Fight For the Future deputy director Evan Greer mused about how Newstead’s hiring fits into an ostensibly different privacy culture at Facebook. “I can’t help but wonder how all the ‘privacy advocates’ that Facebook has been hiring lately are going to feel about working with a LITERAL AUTHOR OF THE PATRIOT ACT as their general counsel,” Greer tweeted. Writer Jonah Blank put the hire in perspective, implying that Newstead’s addition to the Facebook team was not the best move. “How has #Facebook responded to charges that it violates its users’ privacy, fuels ethnic/racial/religious tension, and may have helped #Russia interfere with the 2016 US election?” asked Blank. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/04/facebook-just-hired-a-lawyer-who-helped-write-the-patriot-act.html | 2019-04-24 17:53:33+00:00 | 1,556,142,813 | 1,567,541,862 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
10,415 | aljazeera--2019-02-27--At Indian air raid site no casualties and a mysterious madrassa | 2019-02-27T00:00:00 | aljazeera | At Indian air raid site, no casualties and a mysterious madrassa | Jaba, Pakistan - Indian air raids launched on Pakistani territory earlier this week destroyed parts of a mostly uninhabited forest and a farmer's field, witnesses and local officials told Al Jazeera, although mystery remains around a seminary run by armed group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) near the bombing site. Four bombs hit a forest and a field in a remote area outside of the northern Pakistani town of Jaba, about 100km north of capital Islamabad, Al Jazeera found on a visit to the site on Wednesday. Splintered pine trees and rocks were strewn across the blast craters, and there was no evidence of any infrastructure debris or casualties. Metal shrapnel from the bombs was visible at four distinct craters. India claimed on Tuesday to have conducted air raids against a "Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp" in the area, saying "a very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were being trained for [suicide] action were eliminated." Pakistan denied that any casualties had occurred. On Wednesday, Pakistan's military said its aircraft launched air strikes on six locations on the India-administered territory in the disputed region of Kashmir. Local hospital officials and several residents who rushed to the scene said they did not find any bodies or wounded people following the Indian attack, which took place at approximately 3am local time on Tuesday. "I woke up at the sound of the first explosion, and ran out of bed," said Nooran Shah, 58, a farmer on whose land two of the bombs landed. "The second blast knocked the doors off my house." When Shah went outside to investigate, he said, a piece of shrapnel or a stone struck him on the forehead, leaving a wound. Syed Rehman Shah, 50, a neighbour, said he, too, ran outside his home when he heard the explosions. "I heard four loud explosions, separated by a few seconds each," said Rehman Shah. "It felt like the day of judgement had come." Shah said he saw "fire and smoke" when he exited his home, and ran to the aid of his neighbour. Shah was unconscious on the ground with a wound to his forehead, Rehman Shah said. He was moved to safety and later taken to hospital. The walls of Shah’s home appeared cracked, with several holes where shrapnel appeared to have hit them. "We are just farmers out here, we grow wheat and maize," said Rehman Shah. "Some people keep some livestock." Following the air raids, India's foreign ministry said it had hit a training camp run by JeM founder Masood Azhar's brother-in-law, Yousuf Azhar. Founded in 2000, JeM is an armed group that has launched several high-profile attacks against Indian security and government targets, mostly in the disputed region of Kashmir. Most recently, JeM claimed a suicide attack that killed more than 42 Indian security forces personnel in the Indian-administered Kashmir town of Pulwama, triggering the latest crisis between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of offering sanctuary to JeM and other armed groups. Following the Pulwama attack, a top Indian military commander said the country had evidence the attack had been "controlled" by Pakistani intelligence. Pakistan denies the charge, and says it has been acting against JeM since it banned the group in 2002. Less than a kilometre to the east of one of the bomb craters, atop a steep ridge, sits a seminary run by JeM, residents told Al Jazeera. A road sign located some distance away confirmed the location of the seminary, and that it was run by the armed group. The sign for the Madrassa Taleem-ul-Quran lists Masood Azhar as its leader, and Muhammad Yousuf Azhar as its administrator. Masood Azhar founded the JeM after he was released from Indian custody in exchange for more than 150 hostages after the hijacking of an Indian commercial airliner in 1999. He remains under US sanctions for JeM's alleged links with the Afghan Taliban. Yousuf Azhar is wanted by India in connection with the 1999 hijacking. Al Jazeera was unable to visit the site of the seminary. Residents offered conflicting accounts of the facility's work, with some saying it only offered religious education for local school children, while others alleged it was a training camp for JeM fighters. "The madrassa there, at the top of the mountain, that is a training camp for mujahideen [religious fighters]," said one resident, gesturing in the direction of the seminary. He spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the subject. "Everyone here knows there is a Jaish camp there, at the madrassa," said another 31-year-old local resident, also on condition of anonymity. "It is an active training centre, they teach people how to fight there." Others, however, disputed that claim. "There is no camp here, and no terrorists either," said Mir Afzal Gulzar, who lives a few kilometres away from the bombing site. "There was a mujahideen camp here, during the 1980s, but it is gone now," he said. There is evidence to suggest the seminary was an active recruitment centre, if not training site, for JeM. In April 2018, Abdul Rauf Asghar - a top JeM commander and Masood Azhar's brother - addressed a yearly religious gathering at the seminary, calling upon those present to join "jihad", or Islamic religious war, according to an article in JeM-affiliated publication al-Qalam. "This institution is progressing every day in its aim of providing education, and instruction in religion and jihad," reads the article. Speakers at the event praised the concept of fighting in the name of religion and "offered arguments against certain notions that have been spread against jihad", the article says. A US Department of Defence memo dated January 31, 2004, leaked by Wikileaks in 2011, indicates the existence of "a [JeM] training camp that offers both basic and advanced terrorist training on explosives and artillery" located near Jaba's geographic location. The memo detailed the case of Khalil Rehman Hafez, a Pakistani national and member of JeM, who was captured in Afghanistan while fighting US forces and transferred to the Guantanamo Bay prison. Hafez was released and repatriated to Pakistan in 2004. Back at the bomb site in Jaba, the afternoon sun shines through a thick pine forest, as local residents gather at Nooran Shah's house. Some investigate the crater, under the watchful eye of Pakistani soldiers, while others pose for local news media cameras. In the shadow of the cracked wall of Shah's house, a defiant group begins to yell patriotic slogans for the cameras. Shah, a slight man clad in a blue shalwar kameez and still sporting a white bandage around his forehead, turns to face another interviewer. Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera's digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/indian-air-raid-site-casualties-mysterious-madrassa-190227183058957.html | 2019-02-27 20:18:44+00:00 | 1,551,316,724 | 1,567,547,154 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
12,457 | aljazeera--2019-04-24--Not your enemies Sri Lanka Muslims fear backlash after blasts | 2019-04-24T00:00:00 | aljazeera | 'Not your enemies': Sri Lanka Muslims fear backlash after blasts | Mohamed Hasan has barely left his home in Colombo since a string of deadly blasts struck Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, afraid he could be attacked because he is Muslim. He has a job at a printing press, but the 41-year-old's family have begged him to stay home. "They are worried that if I go out, will I be able to come back alive?" he told AFP news agency outside the Jumma mosque in Dematagoda, where he had ventured briefly to pray. More than 350 people were killed in the carnage unleashed in the Easter attacks against churches and hotels, which have been claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS). The armed group has provided no evidence. On Tuesday, the country's state minister of defence said the bombings were in retaliation for a recent attack on mosques in New Zealand. Ruwan Wijewardene made the comment to politicians in parliament without providing evidence or explaining where the information came from about the worst attacks since the country's civil war ended in 2009. The deaths have horrified Sri Lankans and been condemned by Muslim groups, but many in the community have been left feeling vulnerable. Zareena Begum, 60, said she had barely slept since the weekend. "I know people are angry at Muslims," she said in tears outside the mosque. "Infants being carried in the arms of their mothers were killed. "I never imagined such hatred being there in the hearts of these people (who attacked). Hatred must not sow more hatred." Wearing a black dress and white headscarf, Begum added: "We have been huddled at our homes. We are scared about going out." Sri Lanka's population of about 22 million is a patchwork of ethnicities and religions, dominated by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority. Muslims account for 10 percent of the population and are the second-largest minority after Hindus. Around seven percent of Sri Lankans are Christians. Ethnic and religious tensions abound in the country, which suffered through a decades-long Tamil armed rebellion and more recently has seen outbreaks of sectarian violence. Muslims have been at the receiving end of sporadic violence and hate attacks since the civil war ended in 2009. Hardline Buddhist monks have led campaigns against the community and in 2013 and 2018, Muslim businesses came under attack. Rumours were even spread that Sinhalese could become sterile if they wore underwear bought from Muslim shops, and that food sold by Muslims would cause infertility. In the wake of the attacks, Sri Lankan leaders including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have urged calm and solidarity. "The vast majority of Muslims condemn this and they are as angry as the Tamils and the Sinhalese about what happened," he said on Tuesday, calling for unity. But at the Jumma mosque there was an atmosphere of anxiety, and several worshippers said they hoped police would "take care of every citizen in such critical times". Hilmy Ahamed, vice-president of the influential Muslim Council of Sri Lanka, said the community was braced for a backlash, with emotions running high. "Hundreds of people are being buried (so) there is going to be an emotional outburst and some of it could be justifiable," said Ahamed. "We have asked the government... to ensure security is maintained. This (attack) has not been carried out by the Muslim community but by some fringe elements." In fact, Ahamed and other Muslim leaders said they had warned Sri Lankan authorities years earlier about the leader of the National Thowheed Jamath, a group the government says is its key suspect in the attacks. The group's leader, Zahran Hashim, was well known to Muslim leaders as a hardliner. "This person was a loner and he had radicalised young people in the guise of conducting Quran classes," Ahamed said. Back at the mosque, RF Ameer said the community just wanted safety. "We are living in constant fear because if someone sees us wearing the skull cap they will perceive us to be their enemies," he said, his forehead creased with worry. "But we want to tell everyone we are not your enemies. This is our homeland, it is known as the pearl of Asia. We want it to remain like that." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/enemies-sri-lanka-muslims-fear-backlash-blasts-190424081042798.html | 2019-04-24 08:48:01+00:00 | 1,556,110,081 | 1,567,541,930 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
12,615 | aljazeera--2019-05-01--Mozambique church a refuge for Muslim cyclone survivors | 2019-05-01T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Mozambique church a refuge for Muslim cyclone survivors | Next to a marble pulpit inside a Catholic church, a young Muslim girl chases around with other children. The church has become a home for her and nearly 1,000 others from different faiths as they wait out the aftermath of Mozambique's latest devastating cyclone. Situated in the heart of this predominantly Muslim but diverse city ravaged by Cyclone Kenneth, the Maria Auxiliadora parish houses those displaced by the storm in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique's northernmost province. "We don't ask about people's religions, human life is all we value," Father Ricardo Filipe Rosa Marques, the 41-year-old priest in charge, told AP news agency. The government has said 41 people have died after the cyclone made landfall on Thursday, and the humanitarian situation in Pemba and other areas is dire. More than 55 centimetres of rain have fallen in Pemba since Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique. This is the first time two cyclones have struck the country in a single season, and Kenneth was the first cyclone recorded so far north in Mozambique in the era of satellite imaging. The danger is not over. More rain was expected and rivers were expected to reach flood stage by Thursday, the United Nations humanitarian office has said, citing a UK aid analysis. It is the end of the rainy season and rivers already were running high. Shelter is a top priority for most cyclone survivors and this is what the church is providing, promoting itself as a safe space even before the storm. In a region where little-known Muslim armed groups have reportedly killed dozens of people in recent months, a certain amount of tension might be expected. But for some, what matters most is shelter. "I had never been in a church before ... but as long as I am safe I don't mind," said Aamilah Felciano, who is Muslim. "It doesn't mean I have abandoned my faith, I am just saving my life." The church has suspended mass and other routine programmes. There is no space or time for such activities, the priest said. "There can be no better mass than giving people shelter and hope. That is the church's mission," he said. Women and children have taken up residence inside the main hall. The few belongs they could carry as they fled, mainly clothing and plastic buckets, are tucked close by. Children climb over the pulpit and the priest's chair, playing. In one corner a woman breastfeeds her baby. Church pews have been turned into washing lines. Outside, shielded from the pounding rains, girls and boys take turns stirring huge pots of rice and soup. As nightfall approaches, people prepare reed mats or pieces of cloth. Some will sleep on the bare floor. Men sleep on the hall's balcony. More than 900 displaced people are sheltering here, while about 200 others are staying at church centres elsewhere in the city, according to Joao Paulo, an official with Caritas, a Catholic relief agency. Some people are still arriving. But getting people to leave their homes was not easy at first. "The difficulty was that a lot of people here are Muslims, some said they cannot stay in a Catholic church," said the priest, Rosa Marques, adding: "Some refused and preferred to stay at their homes. My heart broke because these people chose to face death over safety." But there are few religious tensions among city residents, he said, and many of the people arriving at the church with food, medicine and other aid are Muslim. "It is not as difficult as in other areas," he said. As he spoke, the Muslim call to prayer blared from speakers at one of the numerous mosques nearby, and people left the church to pray. Kenneth is not the first calamity to bring people of different faiths together in the province. When the Muslim armed groups intensified their attacks on local communities last year, Muslims and Christians organised joint prayer meetings and opened an inter-faith dialogue centre, the priest said. "People here have suffered a lot. They have been through (Portuguese) colonialism, civil war and the recent killings. They have been living with scars for years yet their love and sense of sharing is amazing," he said. "I am learning from them. The people here are teaching me how to be a true priest." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/mozambique-church-refuge-muslim-cyclone-survivors-190501080006649.html | 2019-05-01 08:18:42+00:00 | 1,556,713,122 | 1,567,541,534 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
13,224 | aljazeera--2019-05-29--Myanmar Arrest warrant issued for anti-Muslim monk Wirathu | 2019-05-29T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Myanmar: Arrest warrant issued for anti-Muslim monk Wirathu | Yangon, Myanmar - A court in Myanmar has issued an arrest warrant against Wirathu, a notorious Buddhist monk whose hate-preaching sermons against the Rohingya and other minority Muslims have stoked religious tensions. The monk, who once reportedly dubbed himself the "Burmese bin Laden", faces up to life imprisonment under the country's sedition law, which prohibits stirring up "hatred", "contempt" or "disaffection" towards the government. Police have so far declined to say why Wirathu has been charged, but the monk recently drew anger from senior officials for a series of speeches in which he attacked Myanmar's de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Wirathu has not yet been arrested and his exact whereabouts are unknown. A police spokesperson did not answer calls from Al Jazeera seeking comment. He is usually based at his monastery in the city of Mandalay, but a judge has told police to bring him before a court in the country's main city of Yangon before June 4, the Myanmar Now news agency reported. Contacted by phone, a man who described himself as a student of Wirathu told Al Jazeera the monk had left Mandalay for Yangon, where he has been summoned to appear before a panel of senior monks on Thursday. The panel is expected to reprimand him for his involvement in "mundane affairs" after a recent speech he gave defending Myanmar's military-drafted constitution and railing against Aung San Suu Kyi's efforts to amend it. During the speech he said military members of parliament, who are guaranteed unelected seats by the constitution, should be worshipped like the Buddha. His nationalist followers have vowed to show their support for him with a protest on Thursday near Yangon's Shwedagon pagoda, the country's holiest Buddhist site. Wirathu has described Muslims as "mad dogs" and threatened to use violence to oppose international efforts to bring Myanmar's generals to justice for the slaughter of thousands of Rohingya in 2017, which United Nations investigators have said may amount to genocide. In 2003, he was jailed for almost 10 years for inciting deadly riots against Muslims. Last year, Facebook barred him from the platform in response to his incendiary posts about the minority. Myanmar's first civilian government in decades, led by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, has long regarded Wirathu as a nuisance. In 2017, a government-appointed committee of top monks barred Wirathu from preaching for a year, stating that he had "repeatedly delivered hate speech against religions to cause communal strife." In the same year, the committee disbanded Ma Ba Tha, a Buddhist nationalist group in which he was a key figure. But Aung San Suu Kyi has been unable to shake criticism that she is bowing to pressure from Buddhist hardliners. David Mathieson, a Myanmar-based analyst, said the sedition charges against Wirathu followed a shift in public opinion towards the monk. "Wirathu has been widely dismissed inside Myanmar as a buffoonish ultranationalist for a long time now," he told Al Jazeera. "The authorities may have calculated what remained of his support base would be unlikely to create serious trouble if he was arrested." With an election coming up next year, "the NLD may well have calculated moving against Wirathu would generate more popular support, not less," he added. Rights groups are uneasy about the decision to target the monk with a sedition law. "The government's use of sedition charges raises concerns about the focus of the investigation, which should be squarely on Wirathu's incitement of violence and hostility," said Matthew Bugher, head of Asia for Article 19, an advocacy group focussed on freedom of expression. "Wirathu's speech is vile and repugnant," he added. "International investigators have already reported on the apparent links between his words and the violence and discrimination directed at Muslim populations. A criminal investigation into his speech and actions is clearly warranted." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/myanmar-arrest-warrant-issued-anti-muslim-monk-wirathu-190529051810338.html | 2019-05-29 08:09:09+00:00 | 1,559,131,749 | 1,567,539,872 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
16,518 | aljazeera--2019-10-12--At least a dozen killed in Burkina Faso mosque attack | 2019-10-12T00:00:00 | aljazeera | At least a dozen killed in Burkina Faso mosque attack | Armed men have stormed a mosque in Burkina Faso as worshippers were at prayer, killing at least a dozen people and sending residents fleeing, according to media reports. The attack took place at the Grand Mosque in the northern village of Salmossi on Friday evening, according to AFP and Reuters. The village is located in the Oudalan region bordering Mali. One source told AFP 13 people died on the spot and three succumbed to their injuries later. Two of the wounded were in critical condition. "Since this morning, people have started to flee the area," one resident from the nearby town of Gorom-Gorom told AFP. He said there was a "climate of panic despite military reinforcements" that were deployed after the deadly attack. A security source and a local official told Reuters about 15 people were killed in the attack. The identities of the gunmen were not yet clear. In recent years, Burkina Faso has seen a surge in violence linked to armed groups, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS). The groups, who crossed crossed into Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali, igniting ethnic and religious tensions, especially in northern regions. Combining guerrilla hit-and-run tactics with road mines and suicide bombings, the fighters have killed nearly 600 people, according to a toll compiled by AFP. Civil society groups put the number at more than 1,000, with attacks taking place on almost a daily basis. Almost 500,000 people have fled their homes because of the violence, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis affecting 1.5 million people. Almost 3,000 schools have closed, and the impact on an overwhelmingly rural economy is escalating, disrupting trade and markets. Last week, 20 people were killed in an attack by gunmen on a gold-mining site in the north. Meanwhile, Burkina Faso's defence and security forces are badly-equipped, poorly trained and have shown themselves to be unable to put a halt to the increasing violence. France has a force of 200 in the country but also intervenes frequently as part of its regional Barkhane operation. Although hit by violence, many Burkinabes oppose the presence of foreign troops on their territory. On Saturday, a crowd of about 1,000 people marched in the capital Ouagadougou "to denounce terrorism and the presence of foreign military bases in Africa". "Terrorism has now become an ideal pretext for installing foreign military bases in our country," Gabin Korbeogo, one of co-organisers of the march told AFP. "The French, American, Canadian, German and other armies have set foot in our sub-region, saying they want to fight terrorism. But despite this massive presence... the terrorist groups... are growing stronger." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/dozen-killed-burkina-faso-mosque-attack-191012193112330.html | Sat, 12 Oct 2019 21:17:50 GMT | 1,570,929,470 | 1,570,919,962 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
17,431 | aljazeera--2019-11-15--Sri Lanka set for presidential vote after divisive campaign | 2019-11-15T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Sri Lanka set for presidential vote after divisive campaign | Colombo, Sri Lanka - Sri Lankans are set to vote on Saturday to elect a new president in an election that has seen rising religious tensions and a slowing economy take centre stage in the South Asian island nation. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former defence minister and brother of two-time former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, and Sajith Premadasa, the ruling United National Party's (UNP) candidate, are the top two contenders in a poll that has a record 35 candidates vying to lead Sri Lanka's government. Polls are due to open at 7:00am local time (01:30 GMT), with 15.9 million Sri Lankans eligible to vote at 12,845 polling stations in the country's 22 electoral districts, according to the Election Commission. • Sri Lanka's presidential election 2019: All you need to know Historically, voter turnout for presidential elections has been high, with more than 81.5 percent of voters casting their ballots in the last election in 2015. Outgoing President Maithripala Sirisena, who won that vote, will not be seeking re-election, but his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) is backing Rajapaksa. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who Sirisena unsuccessfully attempted to remove in October last year, is backing his own party's candidate, Premadasa. The six-week campaign divided the country, with Rajapaksa promising to bring in strong, centralised leadership to tackle security, boasting of his credentials of being the defence minister who presided over the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year war with Tamil rebels. Rights group have long called for accountability for allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other violations allegedly committed during that tenure. According to a United Nations report, as many as 40,000 Tamils may have been killed in the final months of the war. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who Gotabaya says he will name prime minister if he is elected, has also been accused of widespread rights abuses aimed at silencing dissent during his previous two terms in power. For voters, the election comes as economic growth is slated to slow to 2.7 percent this year, according to the IMF, and security has become a major issue following the Easter Sunday suicide attacks that killed more than 269 people. "The cost of living and the state of the economy, these are our biggest issues," said Shriyani Gamage, 56, a homemaker in capital Colombo. "We don't have enough money … this country has gone to the dogs." Analysts say there is little to choose between the candidates' economic policies. "It's a form of crude mercantilism where the rich in Colombo can prosper but the middle class will also feel squeezed out," said Kumaradivel Guruparan, an academic in the northern city of Jaffna. "It is crude capitalism that is then sprinkled with here-and-there policies inspired by welfare economics or socialism." The six-week campaign in a neck-and-neck race has seen tensions mount across Sri Lanka, with the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV) documenting at least 743 electoral violations, including at least 45 cases of assaults or threats. The alleged violations are split relatively equally between the two leading parties, Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP) and Premadasa's UNP, the CMEV data shows. Election observers say there has been widespread misuse of government resources in the run-up to the poll, with state governors, local government officials and others all using state resources to illegally back both candidates. "I am not willing to say this election is free and fair," said Manjula Gajanayake, CMEV's national coordinator. "Due to these [violations], elections can be manipulated." Gajayanake pointed in particular to the backing of Gotabaya Rajapaksa by prominent Buddhist religious leaders, who have allowed his party to campaign on temple premises. Sinhalese - who are mainly Buddhists - form about 70 percent of Sri Lanka's 21.8 million citizens, according to the Sri Lankan government data. Tamils form roughly 15 percent of the population, with Muslims - many of whom consider themselves a distinct ethnic group - forming roughly 10 percent. Analysts say the minority vote will be crucial in determining who wins the election. "Both Tamils and Muslims are likely to vote overwhelmingly for Sajith Premadasa, although not necessarily because of his policies," said Ahilan Kadirgamar, a Jaffna-based political economist, citing fears among minority communities of repression under a Rajapaksa government. On Wednesday, the International Crisis Group said the prospect of a Gotabaya Rajapaksa win had created "fear of a return to [a] violent past". "The prospect of a new Rajapaksa presidency has heightened ethnic tensions and raised fears among minorities and democratic activists," wrote ICG Sri Lanka director Alan Keenan. "They worry electing Gotabaya, a strong Sinhala nationalist, would deepen already serious divides among the country's ethnic communities and threaten its recent modest democratic gains." Analysts say Saturday's vote can also be seen as a continuation of last year's constitutional crisis, when President Sirisena attempted to replace Wickremesinghe with Mahinda Rajapaksa, but was ultimately forced to reverse his decision after the Supreme Court said he did not have the power to dismiss the prime minister. With both top candidates having stated their intention to replace PM Wickremesinghe if elected, the possibility of a standoff immediately following the vote is strong, said Kadirgamar. "Once the presidential elections are over and the president is elected, there will very quickly be a reconfiguration of forces in parliament," he said. If Rajapaksa wins, analysts told Al Jazeera he is likely to attempt a vote of no-confidence against PM Wickremesinghe in parliament. If Premadasa wins, he may ask Wickremesinghe - his party's leader - to step down, they said. "You'll have an awkward cohabitation, either a temporary one if Gotabaya Rajapaksa wins, and a possibly more long-lasting one under Sajith Premadasa," the ICG's Keenan told Al Jazeera. The potential political ramifications are complicated by recent changes to Sri Lanka's constitution that weaken the power of the presidency and will become effective for the first time following this vote. "Previously everyone knew and assumed that the new president would set up his own administration, his own cabinet and appoint his own PM," says Asanga Welikala, a Sri Lankan constitutional expert. "That is no longer a power that the president has." Under the 19th amendment to the constitution, the presidency has been stripped of key powers, including eligibility to hold ministerial portfolios, from this election onwards. Sri Lanka operates a semi-presidential system of government, where the executive comprises of the president, who is directly elected, and a prime minister and cabinet which are drawn from and answerable to parliament. It is "a system built on tension", according to Welikala. "It is essentially a hybrid system between the US presidentialism and the UK parliament system," he said. "The president is head of state, head of cabinet and head of government. He is the only person who is directly elected. The president does have power, but it is not untrammelled power [anymore]." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/sri-lanka-set-presidential-vote-divisive-campaign-191115165216846.html | Fri, 15 Nov 2019 20:42:32 GMT | 1,573,868,552 | 1,573,863,929 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
17,636 | aljazeera--2019-11-21--Sri Lanka's Muslims have reason to fear the new Rajapaksa era | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Sri Lanka's Muslims have reason to fear the new Rajapaksa era | On Saturday, Sri Lankans elected Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former secretary of defence and brother of two-time former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as their new president in an election that has seen rising religious tensions take centre stage. Gotabaya's election marked a return to majoritarian politics in the predominantly Buddhist South Asian island nation and left Sri Lanka's myriad minorities, especially the Muslims who constitute roughly 10 percent of the population, in a precarious position. He secured victory with an impressive 52.25 percent of the vote but achieved this result with hardly any support from Sri Lanka's minorities. This marked a significant shift in Sri Lankan politics since Muslims have long been perceived as "kingmakers" in the country and played a key role in determining the winners of presidential and parliamentary elections. In the 2015 presidential elections, for example, they formed a united front with Tamil and Sinhalese opposition groups to defeat then-President Mahinda. But this time around they failed to influence the result of the election and likely lost the opportunity to have a representative in the new cabinet that will be sworn-in in January 2020. But not having any representation in the cabinet is only the tip of an iceberg of problems awaiting Sri Lanka's Muslims following Gotabaya's election. The newly-elected president, who served as defence secretary under his authoritarian older brother between 2005-2015 and helped him bring an end to Sri Lanka's 26-year war with Tamil rebels, based his campaign for Saturday's election on providing strong leadership on national security issues in general and the perceived threat of "Muslim extremism" in particular. This raised concerns among Sri Lanka's human rights activists, who fear Gotabaya could repeat the human rights violations allegedly committed against minorities during his brother's tenure. Gotabaya's election victory came on the back of a series of coordinated bombings on Easter Sunday that killed at least 257 people and wounded hundreds of others. The attacks, which were claimed by a little known local Muslim armed group, caused the country's Sinhalese Buddhist majority to openly turn on the Muslim community. In the months that followed, as the International Crisis Group (ICG) documented in a recent report, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalists waged a campaign of "violence and hate" against Sri Lanka's Muslims, while "a weak and divided political leadership has either stood idly by or, worse, egged on the abuse". Large-scale violence was seen in Kurunegala, Kuliyapitiya and Minuwangoda among other places. As part of the Buddhist hardliners' campaign against Muslims, it is estimated that more than 30 mosques and Quranic schools, as well as 50 Muslim-owned shops and more than 100 houses, were attacked. Leading Buddhist monks, such as Venerable Rathna Himi and Galaboda Ghanasara, also openly criticised Muslims and encouraged violence against them. All this boosted the political fortunes of Gotabaya who seized the opportunity to position himself as the nation's protector against the "Muslim threat" and to run for president on a security ticket. The dramatic shift in Sri Lankan society's perception of Muslims and its decision to elect a strictly majoritarian leader like Gotabaya, however, cannot be tied solely to the Easter Sunday bombings. Tensions had long been simmering under the surface The growing anti-Muslim sentiment in Sri Lanka that at least partially led to the election of Gotabaya as president is the cumulative result of a set of insecurities specific to the Sinhalese majority. First, the Sinhalese believe that Muslims in Sri Lanka, who first arrived on the island as traders and continued to be involved in trade over the centuries, are economically better-off than the rest of the Sri Lankan population. This perception fosters a sense of unfair distribution of wealth and is one of the underlying causes behind the long-simmering tensions between the Sinhalese and Muslim communities, which led to bursts of communal violence even before the Easter Sunday attacks. Second, while the Sinhalese are clearly the majority in Sri Lanka, they carry significant demographic insecurities stemming from the fact that they are a minority in their wider neighbourhood, which is home to some 70 million Indian Tamils. As a result, even a decade after their victory against Tamil rebels, they still have deep-rooted fears about being "outnumbered" in their own homeland. Today, certain politicians and military leaders are using this deep-rooted fear to fuel not only anti-Tamil but also anti-Muslim sentiments in Sri Lanka in order to retain power and advantageous access to resources. Following the definitive defeat of Tamil separatists in 2009, the post-war economic and social challenges, particularly the lack of progress in terms of reconciliation and resettlement of displaced people, caused the Sri Lankan population to slowly cease its support for Mahinda's government. Sri Lankans raised questions about the need to maintain the very high levels of military expenditure, given that the threat posed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been eliminated completely. The only way for the government to hold on to power at the time was to turn a blind eye to or even actively encourage the creation of "extremist" Buddhist groups, such as Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) and Ravana Balaya; groups which sought to represent the country's Muslim minority as the new enemy of the state and, in so doing, helped the government to justify its high military spending. Moreover, the creation of this new "threat" allowed Mahinda to ask the public to support the incumbent government that defeated the LTTE in the face of a new security crisis. While all these efforts did not prove enough to keep Mahinda in power - he lost the presidency in 2015 when the minorities he tried to turn into public enemies joined forces against him - it slowly paved the way for his brother's election some four years later. Even after Mahinda's removal from office, radical Buddhist groups continued to steer anti-Muslim feelings in the Sinhalese population. They even tried to use the desperate attempts by a very small number of Muslim-majority Rohingya to reach the shores of the island to convince the Sinhalese majority that Muslims present a threat to them. The BBS was very vocal of its criticism of the arrival of Rohingya refugees on the island and heavily lobbied the government to "send them back". The group argued that allowing the arrival of a small number of Rohingya refugees could pave the way for a major Muslim refugee influx which, they claimed, would cause a "religious imbalance" and a higher number of terror incidents on the island. These very same groups also led the attacks and boycotts on Muslim businesses following the Easter Sunday bombings. Third, Sri Lankan Muslims are treated with a growing sense of suspicion by the Sinhalese partly due to a rising conservative trend linked to religious influence from the Middle East. In early 1980, Following the entry of Saudi-funded mosques and satellite television channels proselytising Wahhabi ideals into the country, Muslims in Sri Lanka started to take on increasing signs of religious identity, beginning with the introduction of Hijab as part of school uniforms for girls in the 1980s. This caused alarm among the Sinhalese, who viewed the growing conservatism of the Sri Lankan Muslim community as a worrying sign of its descent into extremism. These insecurities, exacerbated by the fears triggered by the 9/11 attacks and the consequent mainstreaming of Islamophobia across the world, led the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka to grow increasingly suspicious of Muslims. With some politicians and nationalist groups using these fears and insecurities to gain favour in the eyes of the public, and fringe Muslim extremist groups targeting innocent civilians, these suspicions transformed into outright hostility and caused a return to majoritarian politics in the country. Following the election of Gotabaya as president, Muslims in Sri Lanka are facing the risk of being marginalised further. As he was elected on the premise of restoring security, Gotabaya is likely to bring forth a government that will play on Sinhalese fears about Muslims and prioritise security on the national agenda. In short, Muslims in Sri Lanka are likely to face a harsher crackdown under Gotabaya's leadership than ever before. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/sri-lanka-muslims-reason-fear-rajapaksa-era-191121085426396.html | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 14:35:50 GMT | 1,574,364,950 | 1,574,382,171 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
18,369 | aljazeera--2019-12-12--Citizenship Bill: India deploys army in Assam to quell unrest | 2019-12-12T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Citizenship Bill: India deploys army in Assam to quell unrest | India deployed thousands of troops to the northeastern state of Assam on Thursday as violent protests erupted against a new law that would make it easier for non-Muslim minorities from some neighbouring countries to seek citizenship. A curfew was imposed in parts of northeast India, including Assam, after protesters came out on the streets against the bill that they fear will encourage Hindus from Bangladesh to settle in the region. • What you should know about India's 'anti-Muslim' citizenship bill • Are the foundations of India's secular democracy crumbling? Resistance to the bill has been the strongest in the Assam state, where a movement against undocumented immigrants has simmered for decades. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) passed by parliament's upper house on Wednesday blocks naturalisation for Muslims from neighbouring countries - a fact critics say violates India's secular constitution. "It is constitutionally suspect and legally untenable but let's see what the Supreme Court does in this case," said Faizan Mustafa, an expert on constitutional law and vice chancellor at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government has said the CAB is meant to protect besieged minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In Assam, protesters defied a curfew, torching cars and tyres and chanting anti-Modi slogans. While the streets of Assam's capital Guwahati were largely calm as troops moved in from neighbouring states, protesters were back on the streets in other parts such as Morigaon, where they set tyres alight. Mobile internet has been suspended in 10 districts in Assam for 24 hours until 7pm Thursday, the government said in an order, adding that social media platforms could potentially be used to "inflame passions and thus exacerbate the law and order situation". "It looks like the government is perhaps planning to send more boots on the ground," Al Jazeera’s Anchal Vohra, reporting from Guwahati, said. "The protesters are not giving up, they have blocked many roads and are chanting slogans around burnt tires. "They say their struggle is to protect their indigenous culture and livelihoods." The turmoil in Assam comes just days ahead of an annual summit there in which Modi plans to host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his campaign to move high-profile diplomatic events outside Delhi to different parts of India, to showcase its diversity. Protesters attacked the homes of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and other members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) overnight, blaming them for playing politics in a region with a history of ethnic and religious tensions and by opening the floodgates to more outsiders. "This a spontaneous public outburst," said Nehal Jain, a masters student in communications in Guwahati. "First, they tell us there are too many illegal immigrants and we need to get rid of them. Then they bring in this law that would allow citizenship to immigrants," she said. The Indian Express said the law, which now only requires presidential assent, unfairly targets India's 170 million Muslims. "It is a political signal of a terrible narrowing, a chilling exclusion, directed at India’s own largest minority. India is to be redefined as the natural home of Hindus, it says to India’s Muslims. And that they must, therefore, be content with a less natural citizenship." The Amnesty International dubbed it a "bigoted law that must be immediately repealed". "The Bill, while inclusionary in its stated objective, is exclusionary in its structure and intent," it said in a statement on Thursdsy. Meanwhile, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a regional political party based in southern Kerala state, on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the bill. The government has said the new law will be followed by a national citizenship register which will put the onus on Muslims to prove they are original residents of India and not refugees from these three countries, potentially rendering some of them stateless. Members of other faiths listed in the new law, by contrast, have a clear path to citizenship. Also left out are other minorities fleeing political or religious persecution elsewhere in the region such as Tamils from Sri Lanka, Rohingya from Myanmar and Tibetans from China. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/citizenship-bill-india-deploys-army-assam-quell-unrest-191212073854681.html | Thu, 12 Dec 2019 09:18:38 GMT | 1,576,160,318 | 1,576,153,341 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
18,865 | aljazeera--2019-12-24--Turkey in talks with Russia as thousands flee bombing in Syria | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Turkey in talks with Russia as thousands flee bombing in Syria | A Turkish delegation was in Russia on Monday for talks on Syria, following reports that Russian-backed attacks there were forcing tens of thousands more Syrians to flee towards Turkey. This developed as a car bombing in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey, killed at least eight civilians, including a woman and a child. Turkey already hosts at least 3.7 million Syrians - the world's biggest refugee population. • Clash at UN Security Council over cross-border aid for Syria President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday it could not handle a new influx and was urging Russia to stop the attacks in Syria's northwestern Idlib province. The Turkey-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said on Monday 120,000 Syrians were fleeing towards the Turkish border - higher than Erdogan's estimate of 80,000. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to the hostilities, which he said had displaced 30,000 people in the last week alone, his spokesman said. "The Secretary-General reminds all parties of their obligations to protect civilians and ensure freedom of movement," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has promised to recapture the Idlib region, the last significant area of Syria still under rebel control after eight-and-a-half years of civil war. Russia and Iran have supported Assad's forces during the Syrian conflict while Turkey has backed Syrian rebels fighting Assad. Russian and Syrian army jets have been hitting civilian convoys trying to flee the Idlib city of Maarat el-Numan, leaving hundreds of families still trapped there, activists and aid groups have said. "It's a tragic situation for civilians remaining in the city since Russian jets are hitting any convoy that leaves the city, while those who were able to reach areas closer to the border have nowhere to shelter," said Mohamad Rasheed, an activist in the area. Libya also on the agenda The Syrian army said on Monday it had fought fierce battles in southeastern Idlib and seized several villages after killing large numbers of what it called "terrorists". "People are lying on the ground sleeping in the open with no blankets and under rain and cold," said Feras Saad, who fled the city with his family and found shelter in the border village of Harabosh. Moscow and Damascus deny allegations of indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and say they are fighting al Qaeda-inspired religious fighters. A Turkish diplomatic source said the delegation in Russia will also discuss Turkey's potential troop deployment and military support to Libya, after Ankara and Tripoli signed a military cooperation accord last month. Russia has said it is concerned about any such deployment. Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey could increase military support to Fayez al-Sarraj's UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), which has been fighting off an offensive by east Libya forces led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar. Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have backed Haftar's forces. Later on Monday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss developments in Syria and Libya. It did not give further details. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/turkey-talks-russia-thousands-flee-bombing-syria-191224012228415.html | Tue, 24 Dec 2019 01:52:58 GMT | 1,577,170,378 | 1,577,190,102 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
26,385 | bbc--2019-04-27--Sri Lanka attacks Children of the Easter Sunday carnage | 2019-04-27T00:00:00 | bbc | Sri Lanka attacks: Children of the Easter Sunday carnage | One week ago many dozens of children were killed in Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday attacks. Dressed in their finest clothes for one of the most important church services of the year, this was the first generation in decades to grow up free of violence. Their stories - and the struggle for the surviving children to comprehend the carnage - take the island down a devastatingly familiar path. When bubbly Sneha Savindri Fernando went along for the Easter Sunday Mass at St Sebastian's church in Negombo, her mind was on something else entirely. She had spent weeks excitedly making plans for her 13th birthday - a day she would never get the chance to celebrate. "She was like a little bird. She loved to dance. She danced to anything. If you asked her to dance, she would immediately jump into a sari or a long skirt and oblige," her mother, Nirasha Fernando says. Sneha, Ms Fernando and their neighbours Gayani and Tyronne all left together in Tyronne's auto-rickshaw. Sneha was among many children who died when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the church in the Negombo community of Katuwapitiya. At almost that precise moment five other locations, churches and hotels, were hit by bombers. It was the first thing that first responders I talked to noticed as soon as they walked into the churches that had been targeted: the large number of children among the dead. The overall number of casualties from the attacks is unclear but officials believe children could end up accounting for more than a fifth of the final death toll. This is because the bombers' targets were the softest of them all - morning church services on a major religious festival and luxury hotels where families settled down to Sri Lanka's generous breakfast buffets. Now Sneha's mother Nirasha gazes in anguish at her daughter's photo. Part of the bomb embedded itself in her upper lip - a constant irritant, a permanent physical mark and reminder of her loss. "We called her duwani (daughter) at home. She was my first. I rocked her to sleep... I held her in my hands... I brought her up with so much love and now she's gone." They were in the third pew of the church - very close to the front - when the bomb went off. The damage to Sneha's body was so severe she was brought home in a sealed casket. "I couldn't even see her face," Nirasha says blankly. A hall in another Negombo home hosts an unbearable scene. Four open caskets lie next to each other. Three contain bodies of children: siblings Rashini Praveesha aged 14, Shalomi Himaya, nine, and Shalom Shathiska who was seven. Shocked relatives keep walking into the house as though to confirm the truth of what they are seeing. An elderly relative enters and immediately becomes incoherent with grief. "Shalom! Shalom! Our youngest, our baby," she says, almost falling on to his coffin. "You were always so naughty, you always loved playing tricks on us. Get up my baby, please get up!" Relatives rush in and take her away, even as she keeps shouting. It is a similar story in the eastern coastal town of Batticaloa on the other side of the country. Like Negombo, Batticaloa is adorned with banners strung up to commemorate the dead, many of them children. Among them is the banner for 13-year-old John Jesuran Jayaratnam dressed in his finest red shirt and braces. He had just finished his Sunday school lesson. His mother tells the BBC she had been standing outside with him as they waited to enter the Zion church for Easter service. He told her he would get a drink of water from the fountain and come back. That was the last time she saw him. Outside John's house, a basketball hoop attached to a dusty wall sways in the breeze. "He used to love basketball. I used to sit here and watch him play," his mother says, as she stares out of the living room window. The youngest of three sons, John was her baby and a regular worshipper at the church. For Sri Lankans the loss of so many children has been one of the most defining features of these attacks. It is not the bombers who are the subject of conversation - but the children. In the days immediately after the attacks, versions of events involving the children began to circulate on WhatsApp and Facebook, in family conversations and even during exchanges in the street. They were narratives about the children who died. People began saying there were so many of them because bombs exploded as children were called up for a blessing, or because a choir was at the front when the bombs hit, or that they had all been dressed as angels. It has been difficult to confirm such details - and few of these stories appear to have any foundation. One survivor of the Negombo attack told me that so many women and children were among the casualties only because they sat inside, where it was cooler, while the men stood outside. But the narratives about the children kept spreading. Counselling psychologist Nivendra Uduman says such narratives can take hold for a number of reasons - it could be seen as a way of feeling useful at a time of crisis, an important way to connect. Whatever the reason, it was the images of innocence that gripped the public imagination. In Sri Lanka, however, these children also represented what could be called the first "innocent" generation. War, division and brutality were not part of their daily diet. In just a few weeks, the country is due to mark 10 years from the end of a 30-year civil war between government forces and separatist Tamil militants. It was a conflict that saw bomb attacks unleashed across the country and brutal violence meted out by both sides. The "pre-war" generations witnessed two bloody Marxist insurrections - first in the late 1970s, then in the late '80s and early '90s, which saw massive and violent disruptions to daily life, including months-long shutdowns of schools. A brutal retaliation from the government saw even more bloodshed. So the deaths of so many of these children on Easter Sunday felt especially poignant because this was the first generation for decades for whom violence wasn't part of their day-to-day lives. That's not to say there wasn't strife - there have been anti-Muslim riots and attacks on churches. Religious tensions were on the rise albeit never on this scale. However, the bloodshed that regularly affected Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims of generations before had all but gone. For Dr Ajith Danthanarayana, director of Lady Ridgeway children's hospital in Colombo, the aftermath of the bomb attacks are a bitter reminder of the past. "These are all children. There is no race, no religion. We have faced 30 years of war, and also the tsunami. We faced so many bad things and we managed to tolerate and do the best for our patients. That's all we can do." On the ward, it's a similar sentiment. "At least I was used to this. We all either knew or heard of people who had been killed in violence, and we constantly saw pictures on TV and in the newspapers. But how can I explain this to my son? How will he even process it?" Wasantha Fernando asks me, while standing at his son's bedside at the hospital. Seven-year-old Akalanka was among those injured at St Sebastian's church. An iron ball bearing had ripped into his leg, fracturing the bone and embedding itself into his muscle. He was being discharged that day, but still had no clear idea of why he was in hospital. "He has heard us use the word bomb and is asking us what it means. I have told him that it is something that makes a loud noise like a firecracker. He doesn't know that it can hurt or cause death. But I will have to say something to him, because so many of his friends and peers are gone," Mr Fernando says. This represents the second big challenge to a population already reeling from the brutality of these attacks. How do they explain it to their children, many of whom are already traumatised? Dr Gadambanathan, the consultant psychiatrist at the Batticaloa Hospital, visited some of the injured children immediately after the attacks. His staff had identified a range of immediate challenges - panic attacks, sleep disturbances and nightmares, worries about facial disfigurement due to injuries, parents overwhelmed by grief who were unable to care for their remaining children, or adults who struggled to communicate the loss of a sibling or parent to a child. A mental health and psychosocial support worker in Batticaloa, who does not wish to be identified, says the most obvious impact was on those children directly connected to the attacks. However, watching videos of the attacks, experiencing the panic induced by rumours or perceiving the fears of the adults around them could also affect children quite distant from events, he says. "I have been in contact with parents from across the island whose children have been terrified by the thought that bombers may target their homes or towns, who are unable to sleep, who have questions about why this happened, or who are expressing strong feelings of anger towards the perpetrators," he said. A number of organisations including Unicef have been putting out guidelines to help adults talk to their children about what happened in an age-appropriate way. These have been shared widely on social media and also with parents and medical staff in hospitals as well as teachers. In fact, returning to school, experts say, is another good way to help children process such events. Dayani Samarakoon, who teaches children between seven and 12 at a Colombo school, describes how she had been preparing for the return of her students. Her approach, she says, depends on the age group. "The youngest ones may or may not know some of what has happened. I will get them to talk to me about what they know. Some of what they know could be the truth while the rest could be hearsay. But the important thing is to hear them out and listen to their fears," she says. The extent to which such services are freely available is unclear. In Sri Lanka, seeking help for mental health conditions is still considered taboo and adults - many themselves traumatised - may not have the necessary tools to comfort their children. But in the meantime, loss and funerals still consume the living. Back in Negombo, a woman wails in anguish, beating her chest in agony. She has lost her husband and both her children in the St Sebastian's attack. Her daughter Sachini Appuhami was 21, and Vimukthi, her son, was 14. Her brother-in-law Jude Prasad says both children were bright students. Sachini had finished secondary school and was doing a course in accounting. Vimukthi, apparently never had to be nagged to do his homework. "We tried so many times to get them interested in sports, but they were much more interested in their books," he says smiling. Yet Vimukthi, he adds, also had a keen interest in music. "When he passed his standard five examinations, he asked his father for that," he says his voice breaking, pointing to the mezzanine floor above with an elaborate drum set. "My brother and I went all the way to Wennappuwa (a large town 21km away) to get this for him. He really loved it." Just then, another relative walks in and heads straight to a wall on which framed photographs of the family are displayed. She touches the faces of the two children in a photo taken when they were much younger. "Why couldn't even one of you live for your mother?" she demands, growing increasingly hysterical. "Why couldn't at least one of you stay?" Additional reporting in Batticaloa from the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48048856 | 2019-04-27 23:19:16+00:00 | 1,556,421,556 | 1,567,541,824 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
32,420 | bbc--2019-11-09--Ayodhya verdict: Indian top court gives holy site to Hindus | 2019-11-09T00:00:00 | bbc | Ayodhya verdict: Indian top court gives holy site to Hindus | The disputed holy site of Ayodhya in northern India should be given to Hindus who want a temple built there, the country's Supreme Court has ruled. The case, which has been bitterly contested for decades by Hindus and Muslims, centres on the ownership of the land in Uttar Pradesh state. Muslims would get another plot of land to construct a mosque, the court said. Many Hindus believe the site is the birthplace of one of their most revered deities, Lord Ram. Muslims say they have worshipped there for generations. At the centre of the row is the 16th Century Babri mosque which was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots that killed nearly 2,000 people. What did the court say? In the unanimous verdict, the court said that a report by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) provided evidence that the remains of a building "that was not Islamic" was beneath the structure of the demolished Babri mosque. The court said that, given all the evidence presented, it had determined that the disputed land should be given to Hindus for a temple to Lord Ram, while Muslims would be given land elsewhere to construct a mosque. It then directed the federal government to set up a trust to manage and oversee the construction of the temple. However, the court added that the demolition of the Babri mosque was against the rule of law. What has the reaction to the verdict been? Despite warnings by authorities not to celebrate the verdict, BBC correspondents in court say they heard chants of "Jai Shree Ram" (Hail Lord Ram) outside as the judgement was pronounced. "It's a very balanced judgement and it is a victory for people of India," a lawyer for one of the Hindu parties told reporters soon after. Initially, a representative for the Muslim litigants said they were not satisfied and would decide whether to ask for a review after they had read the whole judgement. However, the main group of litigants has now said that it will not appeal against the verdict. Outside the court, the situation has been largely calm. Hundreds of people were detained in Ayodhya on Friday ahead of the verdict, amid fears of violence. Thousands of police officers have also been deployed in the city, while shops and colleges have been shut until Monday. The government issued an order banning the publication of images of the destruction of the Babri mosque. Social media platforms are being monitored for inflammatory content, with police even replying to tweets and asking users to delete them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reacted to the verdict on Twitter and said that it should not be seen as a "win or loss for anybody". What was arguably one of the world's most contentious property dispute has finally come to an end. The dispute over the plot has polarised, frustrated and exhausted India. The reason is that this is not a humdrum civil matter. It was touched by faith (Hindus believe the plot was the birthplace of Lord Ram, a revered deity) violence (the demolition of the mosque in 1992) and subterfuge (idols of Lord Ram were placed in the mosque surreptitiously in 1949). Saturday's unanimous judgement by the five most senior judges of the court will hopefully lead to some reconciliation that the country badly needs. The verdict showed "judicial craftsmanship and statesmanship where the letter of the law was adhered to, but the relief was moulded, taking into account the ground realities," lawyer Sanjay Hegde told me. The judges appear to have gone by the evidence laid before it. "They have applied a plaster. Let's not reopen the wounds," Mr Hegde added. Will the verdict lead to a closure of past animosities and help close India's deepening religious fissures? Only time will tell. For the moment, India's main communities need to avoid triumphalism - because eventually there are no victors and vanquished, in what is essentially a contestation of faith. What is the row actually about? Many Hindus believe the Babri Masjid was actually constructed on the ruins of a Hindu temple that was demolished by Muslim invaders in the 16th Century. Muslims say they offered prayers at the mosque until December 1949 when some Hindus placed an idol of Ram in the mosque and began to worship the idols. The two religious groups have gone to court many times over who should control the site. Since then, there have been calls to build a temple on the spot where the mosque once stood. Hinduism is India's majority religion and is thought to be more than 4,000 years old. India's first Islamic dynasty was established in the early 13th Century. Have religious tensions eased in India in recent years? Ever since the Narendra Modi-led Hindu nationalist BJP first came to power in 2014, India has seen deepening social and religious divisions. The call for the construction of a Hindu temple in Ayodhya has grown particularly loud, and has mostly come from MPs, ministers and leaders from the BJP since it took office. Restrictions on the sale and slaughter of cows - considered a holy animal by the majority Hindus - have led to vigilante killings of a number of people, most of them Muslims who were transporting cattle. An uninhibited display of muscular Hindu nationalism in other areas has also contributed to religious tension. Most recently, the country's home minister Amit Shah said he would remove "illegal migrants" - understood to be Muslim - from the country through a government scheme that was used recently in the north-eastern state of Assam. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50355775 | Sat, 09 Nov 2019 11:47:36 GMT | 1,573,318,056 | 1,573,301,576 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
32,693 | bbc--2019-11-14--Sabarimala temple: India court to review ruling on women's entry | 2019-11-14T00:00:00 | bbc | Sabarimala temple: India court to review ruling on women's entry | India's Supreme Court has agreed to review its landmark judgement allowing women of menstruating age to enter a controversial Hindu shrine. A five-judge bench last year ruled that keeping women out of the Sabarimala shrine in the southern state of Kerala was discriminatory. The verdict led to massive protests in the state. Women who tried to enter the shrine were either sent back or, in some cases, even assaulted. The move is likely to anger women who fought hard to win the right to enter the temple. Hinduism regards menstruating women as unclean and bars them from participating in religious rituals. Many temples bar women during their periods and many devout women voluntarily stay away, but Sabarimala had a blanket ban on all women between the ages of 10 and 50. What did the court say? On Thursday the five-judge bench, responding to dozens of review petitions challenging the court's landmark judgement last year, said that the matter would now be heard by a larger bench. In doing so, however, it did not stay its earlier order. This means women can still legally enter the temple. But it's not going to be easy for them. A temple official welcomed the ruling and appealed to women to stay away. Women trying to enter the temple after the verdict last year were attacked by mobs blocking the way. Many checked vehicles heading towards the temple to see if any women of a "menstruating age" - deemed to be those aged between 10 and 50 years - were trying to enter. Following Thursday's verdict, police in Kerala have appealed for calm, saying that action will be taken "against those who take the law into their own hands". They added that social media accounts would be under surveillance and those stoking religious tensions online would be arrested. Today's verdict will come as a massive disappointment to women's rights campaigners. It's a case of one step forward, two steps back. In 2018, while lifting the ban on women's entry into the shrine, the Supreme Court had said that everyone had the right to practice religion and that the ban was a form of "untouchability". It was seen as a hugely progressive ruling and had given hope to women that they were equal before the law and could now claim equality before the gods too. What happened in court today has taken that sense away. The Supreme Court has not put its earlier order on hold, but with the ambiguity over women's entry continuing, it's very likely they could be kept out in the name of keeping peace. With the case now to be reopened by a larger seven-judge bench, the fight will have to be fought all over again. Why is the temple so controversial? Part of the violent opposition to the Supreme Court order to reverse the temple's historical ban on women was because protesters felt the ruling goes against the wishes of the deity, Lord Ayappa, himself. While most Hindu temples allow women to enter as long as they are not menstruating, the Sabarimala temple is unusual in that it was one of the few that did not allow women in a broad age group to enter at all. Hindu devotees say that the ban on women entering Sabarimala is not about menstruation alone - it is also in keeping with the wish of the deity who is believed to have laid down clear rules about the pilgrimage to seek his blessings. Every year, millions of male devotees trek up a steep hill, often barefoot, to visit the shrine. They also undertake a rigorous 41-day fast, abstaining from smoking, alcohol, meat, sex and contact with menstruating women before they begin the journey. Women's rights campaigners who appealed to the Supreme Court to lift the ban said that this custom violated equality guaranteed under India's constitution. They added that it was prejudiced against women and their right to worship. Supporters of the ban argued that the practice had been in effect for centuries, and there was no need to change it now. So, were any women able to enter last year? In January, two women defied protesters and entered the shrine. Kanakadurga, 39, and Bindu Ammini, 40, made history when they entered the Sabarimala shrine - but they had to do so under heavy police protection and were also met with massive protests after. Right-wing groups, supported by India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded a state-wide shutdown after, and businesses and transportation became paralysed. Across the state hundreds were arrested, and at least one person was killed in clashes. In an interview with the BBC, the women said they felt it necessary to uphold women's rights and they weren't afraid of mobs "enraged" by their actions. "I am not afraid. But every time women make any progress, society has always made a lot of noise," Ms Kanakadurga told the BBC in January. But their decision to enter the temple also came at heavy personal cost. She alleged that she had been beaten by her mother-in-law and abandoned. She has since filed for divorce. Read more on the Sabarimala temple: • The Indian god who bars women from his temple | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50415356 | Thu, 14 Nov 2019 06:44:27 GMT | 1,573,731,867 | 1,573,733,295 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
37,727 | bbcuk--2019-03-14--Crime author kills it with Yorkshire noir | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Crime author kills it with Yorkshire noir | AA Dhand sits at a table in the balcony cafe at Bradford's magnificent old Wool Exchange and points to the spot where his latest victim was found. She was hanged in a particularly grisly fashion from a ledge below the hammer-beam roof, suspended between two grand granite pillars. Her name was Usma and she met her tragic fate at the start of City of Sinners, the Bradford crime author's latest novel. "That idea came to me when I was doing the Girl Zero book launch," Amit Dhand says, referring to his 2017 thriller. It was launched in the same building, which now houses surely the most beautiful branch of Waterstones in the country. Dhand continues: "I was being interviewed [at the launch] and mid-question I looked up to the ceiling and thought, it would be really bizarre if there was a dead body hanging from that ceiling. Ideas just ping into your mind. "I'd finished the interview and she was still just hanging there from the ceiling. I come here quite a lot, and every time I came back she was still there, saying, 'How did I get here? Who put me here? Why?'" Dhand's fictional detective Hardeep Virdee - known as Harry - had to answer those questions. The title City of Sinners - the third Harry Virdee book - offers a fair idea of how the Yorkshire city is portrayed. The ornate Wool Exchange, built in 1867, is a symbol of the prosperity Bradford enjoyed as the global centre of the wool trade in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The city's subsequent decline provides the grit that is plentiful in Dhand's books. In his 2016 debut Streets of Darkness, Bradford is described as "the cesspit of Yorkshire". "I do regret that line," the author admits, claiming that it was actually his editor's idea. "I didn't know what a cesspit was until she put that in there." But at the time he was writing, he says was angry at how the city had been treated, not least after a substantial part of the centre was flattened for a promised regeneration project that then stalled for years after the recession. "When I put that line in about the cesspit of Yorkshire, it was because I felt angry that the city had just been forgotten," he says. "It had been left. You know, we've knocked it flat, we've cut all of the services - youth services, council services - and we've just left it. "And nobody cared, and nobody did anything about it. So I wrote the book really bitter. Whoever allowed that to happen allowed Bradford to descend from a position of greatness, which is what it was, into what it became, which was abandoned. "You only need to go up and down the country and say the word 'Bradford', and people get a very specific image of racial tension and an economy which is on its arse. We are, I think, starting to turn that corner, but it's hard." The reputation may not be helped by crime thrillers that paint a picture of its mean streets. But Dhand says his books, which tackle racial and religious tensions, child grooming and terrorism, can't try to please anyone but his readers. "My job as a crime writer is to thrill and entertain and to keep you turning the page," he responds. "It's not to try and make the city read a certain way." The author moved to Bradford at the age of two, when his dad bought a corner shop there. When they arrived, they discovered they were the first Asians on the estate. On the first day of business, Dhand says, more than half the customers cancelled their newspaper deliveries and an elderly local dropped dead of a heart attack in the shop. "What you don't want to happen at that point is for my elderly grandmother to come down the stairs, light some incense and start praying and warding away the evil spirits because a dead body's in the shop - because now we're the voodoo witch doctors that are killing white people. It was just a total catastrophe." However, Dhand says his father took on the challenge of changing their neighbours' attitudes. "My mum said we should pack up and leave because they're never going to allow us to stay here. My dad's famous words, which will stay with me, were, 'No, we're going to change the narrative. We're going to win.' "And we lasted 33 years and left as equals." Hours upon hours were spent observing human behaviour from behind the corner shop counter. Dhand later trained as a pharmacist and still works in pharmacies in Bradford and Leeds. He now likes to use his dad's phrase "change the narrative" himself about how he wants to break the mould for British Asian authors and characters. He is the first Asian author to write a series of crime novels, he says. The books are now being developed for the BBC, and he is desperate to see a TV drama that shows a wider range of Asian characters. He says: "I'd heard a lot, 'Asian people don't write crime.' I was fed up with that because I'm not a Goodness Gracious Me caricature and I'm not a Citizen Khan sketch. "There's a place for those and a place for comedy, but we have to balance it with real, gritty heroes who we can look to. "I've got two boys and I want them to grow up knowing Asian people can be heroes and be compelling and be unlike anything we've ever seen before. That's why I write Harry in the way I do - because I refuse to live in a society where we don't have an Asian lead." He recalls one occasion when a group of young British Asians challenged Dhand to name a true global superstar and role model from an Asian background. "I was racking my brain. I said Riz Ahmed, which was the only name I could think of." He adds: "It was a really sobering moment. The black community have got Beyonce or President Obama or Denzel Washington. They've got real issues in their communities, but they've got real superstars who they can look to and say, 'We want to be like that.' [The youths said] 'Who do you want us to be like?' "It was a really upsetting conversation because I thought, 'God you're right.'" If and when Harry Virdee reaches the screen, Dhand hopes he will give those boys a person to look up to. "That's why I sit in the chair and write," he says. "It feels bigger than me writing a book." City of Sinners is out in paperback on 21 March. The follow-up, One Way Out, is published on 27 June. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47542301 | 2019-03-14 02:28:10+00:00 | 1,552,544,890 | 1,567,546,317 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
147,193 | drudgereport--2019-04-22--USA warns terrorists continue to plot attacks | 2019-04-22T00:00:00 | drudgereport | USA warns terrorists continue to plot attacks... | Sunday's attacks saw suicide bombers target churches during Easter services and high-end hotels in Colombo (AFP Photo/Jewel SAMAD) The US State Department has warned of possible terrorist attacks in a revised travel advisory for Sri Lanka, after a series of deadly blasts killed nearly 300 people -- including Americans -- in the island nation on Easter Sunday. Sunday's attacks saw suicide bombers target churches during Easter services and high-end hotels in the capital Colombo. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said "several" Americans were killed -- the worst violence to hit Sri Lanka since a long and bloody civil war ended a decade ago. "Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka," it said. "Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls" and other public locations like hotels, clubs, restaurants, and places of worship. Travel advisories from other nations like Australia and Ireland also suggest citizens exercise caution while in Sri Lanka. Authorities have said citizens of India, China, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, Portugal, Britain, and Turkey died in the attacks. The US embassy in Colombo said it would remain closed to the public on Monday and Tuesday, but will continue to provide citizen services. There has been no claim of responsibility yet for the attacks, which the White House described as "despicable and senseless." Security has been ramped up across Sri Lanka as security forces hunt for suspects, with 24 people arrested so far. Wary of sparking ethnic and religious tensions, the government has given few details about those detained. Authorities have said, however, that they are looking into whether the attackers had any "overseas" links. Travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet in October named Sri Lanka as its top destination for 2019, describing it as "the island opening up to new travellers like never before". | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/m-Wm31tye1g/us-warns-terrorists-continue-plot-sri-lanka-attacks-090121152.html | 2019-04-22 20:34:37+00:00 | 1,555,979,677 | 1,567,542,194 | religion and belief | religious conflict |
790,790 | theirishtimes--2019-12-03--Private schools keep grip on high-points college courses | 2019-12-03T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Private schools keep grip on high-points college courses | Pupils emerging from private schools are keeping a strong grip on the most sought-after third-level courses, despite millions being spent on narrowing the class gap in education. The annual Irish Times Feeder Schools list – which measures the proportion of pupils who progress to third level – shows a gaping social divide between affluent and poorer areas. Half of the 25 schools which sent the highest proportion of their students to third level this year were fee-paying schools. Almost all pupils in these schools went on to higher education, and the bulk were in affluent areas of south Dublin. By contrast, the proportion of students going to higher education in some of the poorest schools is as low as 15 per cent. The dominance of the private school sector is likely to spark a fresh debate over State subsidies for the sector, which are worth €90 million a year. This funding goes on salaries for teachers in the 51 fee-paying schools, along with capital expenditure, grants for computer equipment and sports facilities. State support for disadvantaged secondary schools – known as the Deis scheme – is worth about €60 million a year. This targeted funding goes towards additional teachers, grants for school books, school meals and other supports, over and above regular funding. On average, fee-paying schools send 100 per cent of students to higher education, while this rate falls to 57 per cent among Deis schools. This gap has not narrowed over the past six years, data shows. The social divide is more stark when third-level participation rates are broken down by schools sending the most pupils to high points courses. These are courses offered in the universities and other colleges. Some 18 of the 25 schools which sent the highest proportion of their pupils to high points courses were fee-paying schools. When overall third-level progression rates are broken down by school types, it shows there are significant differences. Voluntary secondary schools – typically schools owned or run by religious groups – send the highest proportion of pupils to higher education (82 per cent). They are followed by comprehensive schools (79 per cent), community schools (72 per cent) and Education and Training Board – formerly vocational – schools (69 per cent). There has been no significant shift in these patterns over the past six years, data shows. In a sign that the rising cost of college accommodation may be a factor for students, this year’s data shows lower third-level progression rates in counties which do not have a large third-level institution on their doorstep. For example, third-level progression rates in Cavan (69 per cent) and Longford (66 per cent) lag well behind Galway (82 per cent), home to NUI Galway and GMIT. When this year’s feeder school figures are broken down to show schools which have recorded the biggest increase in third-level participation in recent years, some disadvantaged schools come out on top. For example, Adamstown Vocational College in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, a Deis school, has seen its third-level progression rates jump by almost 50 per cent in the past six years. Education analysts say that while data in the feeder school lists shows the proportion of students who go to third-level, it is not a reflection of whether one school is better than another. Factors such as social class and geography play a significant role, given that more affluent students can afford additional support such as grinds. The data also does not show the proportion of students progressing to further education or apprenticeships. The Irish Times has requested this data, but education authorities have not yet released it. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/private-schools-keep-grip-on-high-points-college-courses-1.4102138 | Tue, 3 Dec 2019 02:00:00 +0000 | 1,575,356,400 | 1,575,376,010 | education | teaching and learning |
792,177 | themanchestereveningnews--2019-01-07--Learn a new language with a free Spanish course with Instituto Cervantes | 2019-01-07T00:00:00 | themanchestereveningnews | Learn a new language with a free Spanish course with Instituto Cervantes | “I would love to learn another language!” It's something we've all said at some point, even more so at this time of year. It may even be one of your new year's resolutions, but for the vast majority of us we always seem to find an excuse as to why we don't fully commit to it: “Not enough time”, “too busy”, “can't find a place near me.” Luckily for you the Instituto Cervantes are offering the chance to win a free Spanish course to help you take the plunge into learning a new language. The cultural centre offers a wide range of differing courses. The lucky winner will have the option to pick whichever course suits them best, in terms of their existing Spanish language knowledge, from the next term of courses starting on January 14. The 30 hour course can be broken down into once, or twice a week sessions. So whether you’re a beginner with a burning passion to become bilingual, or an intrepid intermediate looking to delve deeper into all things Spanish, the Instituto Cervantes has got you covered. The Instituto Cervantes is a public institution founded in 1991, although the Manchester branch opened in 1997, to promote Spanish language teaching and knowledge of the cultures of Spanish speaking countries throughout the world. It is the largest worldwide Spanish teaching organisation, which operates in 40 countries across five continents. It also happens to be the only Spanish language and cultural centre endorsed by the government of Spain. All of Cervantes' teachers, whose mother tongues are Spanish, are university qualified and have trained specifically to teach Spanish as a foreign language using the most up-to-date methods. In addition to the general Spanish courses offered, there are also a wide range of more specific courses available, such as; courses to prepare for the DELE Spanish official exams; general business Spanish; translation, language and culture (literature, cinema, history); conversation courses. Other courses and private and corporate tuition are also available on demand. At the Instituto Cervantes there are a host of workshops you can get involved in to improve your dancing with classes in Salsa, Flamenco and Tango and even an all Spanish singing choir you can join. Also you can take advantage of the on-site library which houses more than 25,000 books. To enter and stake your claim of winning a free Spanish course with Instituto Cervantes just follow the details below. Competition closes on the 11th and courses start from the 14th January so be quick, and all that’s left to say is: ¡Buena Suerte! (Good Luck!) | Jonny Dillon | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/special-features/learn-new-language-free-spanish-15641275 | 2019-01-07 16:57:33+00:00 | 1,546,898,253 | 1,567,553,624 | education | teaching and learning |
1,005,494 | thetelegraph--2019-04-21--Pupils being persuaded to come into school during Easter holidays for crammer Sats courses to boos | 2019-04-21T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Pupils being persuaded to come into school during Easter holidays for 'crammer' Sats courses to boost schools' performance in league tables | Easter holiday Sats “cramming” courses are on the rise, a union has warned, as headteachers attempt to boost their school’s league table performance. Hundreds of schools are now “persuading” parents to send their children in for several days during the holidays, as they seek to get an edge on other local schools by outdoing their results. Key Stage Two Sats, which are sat in May by pupils in their final year of primary school, test children on spelling, punctation, grammar, maths and science. While it is common for schools to put on extra lessons for GCSE or A-level students during the Easter holidays, revision classes for eleven-year-olds is a more recent phenomenon. Darren Northcott, the national official for education at the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said that the rise in Easter revision courses for Sats could be linked to the introduction of tougher Sats in May 2016. He said that while it is in a student’s best interest to get good GCSE and A-level grades, this is not the case for Sats where an average score is taken for the year group and results are used as an accountability measure for schools. “If you go back, let’s say in the last decade, you really didn’t hear of any [primary] schools doing this,” he said. “It is something that’s become increasingly prevalent. | Camilla Turner | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/04/21/pupils-persuaded-come-school-easter-holidays-crammer-sats-courses/ | 2019-04-21 18:28:38+00:00 | 1,555,885,718 | 1,567,542,238 | education | teaching and learning |
1,011,473 | thetelegraph--2019-07-26--University of Oxford a guide to the courses rankings and student life | 2019-07-26T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | University of Oxford: a guide to the courses, rankings and student life | As the oldest university in the English-speaking world (and the second oldest surviving in the world after the University of Bologna), the University of Oxford can trace its roots back to at least the 11th century. Throughout the centuries, the university has seen some of the world's greatest writers, thinkers, politicians and scientists both study or teach at its colleges. The likes of Stephen Hawking, Margaret Thatcher and Bill Clinton included. The Complete University Guide, which ranks universities nationally and in 70 subjects, currently ranks the university second in the country, behind the University of Cambridge. One of the most popular courses at Oxford is PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), a programme which is only offered at a handful of institutions across the UK. Newer combinations such as Economics and Management have also proved popular in recent years, but the university does offer a full spectrum of traditional academic courses from Classics to Physics and Philosophy. For 2019, the cost of an undergraduate degree at Oxford is £9,250 for Home and EU students. For overseas students, costs can reach up to £34,678. The 38 individual colleges are a huge source of nightlife activity for Oxford's students, as each one has its own bar. There are also a number of clubs and pubs within walking distance, but Oxford benefits most of all from being a historical city full to the brim with local attractions. | Aaron Wheeler | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education-and-careers/0/university-of-oxford-guide/ | 2019-07-26 12:20:30+00:00 | 1,564,158,030 | 1,567,535,712 | education | teaching and learning |
63,232 | birminghammail--2019-06-19--Primary school to get huge expansion and take on more pupils | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Primary school to get huge expansion and take on more pupils | Planners have given the green light for a Streetly school to expand and take in more pupils. Walsall Council's planning committee approved a proposal - without debate - submitted by Manor Primary School in Briar Avenue, to create a new classroom. The extension will now enable the school to cater for up to 30 more pupils on its roster, in addition to the 340 children already on its roll. The school, which employs 15 teachers and a further 23 support staff, also houses a 52-place nursery that will not be expanded as part of the plans. Residents raised objections about the school increasing its capacity as they felt it was unsuitable at that location. Other concerns raised included noise and pollution, traffic issues and the increased risk for children and parents accessing the school as well as more pressure on parking spaces in the area. Earlier this year, the school was granted planning permission to bulldoze an existing unused caretaker's house and create an extra 11 parking spaces on the school grounds. In the report to committee for this application, planning officer Devinder Matharu said: "The proposed classroom would accommodate an increasing number of pupils joining the school in the forthcoming term, September 2019 and as such, the proposal would be supported. "Neighbouring objectors have stated that the school is located in an inappropriate area and pupil numbers keep increasing. "The school is located in a residential area where families with school age children reside and where it should be located. "The increase in pupil numbers at the school, would be over a seven year period and not with immediate effect. "The proposed classroom is set away from the neighbouring properties on both Briar Avenue and Hawthorn Road. The classroom would be set in between two existing classrooms as an infill extension. "It is considered that the proposed classroom would not unduly harm the amenities of these neighbouring properties to warrant refusal of the application." | [email protected] (Gurdip Thandi) | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/primary-school-huge-expansion-take-16449320 | 2019-06-19 08:09:01+00:00 | 1,560,946,141 | 1,567,538,673 | education | teaching and learning |
371,202 | newyorkpost--2019-02-22--Elementary school apologizes for runaway slave gym lesson | 2019-02-22T00:00:00 | newyorkpost | Elementary school apologizes for ‘runaway slave’ gym lesson | A Virginia elementary school apologized after criticism over a Black History Month lesson that instructed children to pose as runaway slaves. The principal at Madison’s Trust Elementary School acknowledged the mistake after parents complained when teachers modeled a gym exercise after the Underground Railroad. “The lesson was culturally insensitive to our students and families,” the principal, David Stewart, said in a statement. “I extend my sincerest apology to our students and school community.” During the class, 3rd-grade students were urged to overcome a physical barrier, said Loudoun County Public School spokesman Wayde Byard. About 10 families complained after their children participated in the gym class. “It’s awful,” local NAACP President Michelle Thomas told NBC Washington. “It’s really insulting. It makes me feel unsafe because I have kids in Loudoun County Public Schools.” “It shows that there’s some implicit bias problems right here at this school,” she added. Principal Stewart said the school would form an “equity/culturally responsive team” to remedy the issue. | Ben Feuerherd | https://nypost.com/2019/02/21/elementary-school-apologizes-for-runaway-slave-gym-lesson/ | 2019-02-22 04:53:11+00:00 | 1,550,829,191 | 1,567,547,694 | education | teaching and learning |
535,041 | sputnik--2019-05-30--US Teacher Fired for Auctioning Off Black Students as History Lesson | 2019-05-30T00:00:00 | sputnik | US Teacher Fired for ‘Auctioning Off’ Black Students as History Lesson | In a Wednesday press release, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that an investigation conducted in March found that an unidentified teacher at the Chapel School in Bronxville, New York, conducted reenactments of a slave auction on two different occasions as part of a lesson plan on colonial America. In two fifth-grade social studies classes, the teacher asked all African-American students in the class to raise their hands, before asking them to exit the classroom and stand in the hallway. The teacher then placed imaginary chains on the students' necks, wrists and ankles before they were allowed to enter the classroom again. The African-American students were then asked to stand against a wall in front of the white students to simulate an auction in which African-Americans are sold as slaves to white people. According to the attorney general, an investigation was carried out after several complaints from parents regarding "unequal discipline of students on the basis of race, a lack of racial sensitivity and awareness in school curricula, and a lack of diversity among the teaching faculty." The teacher involved in the incident has been fired. The Chapel School, however, did not immediately respond to Sputnik's request for comment. In the statement, James announced that the state has established a series of actions the school has to implement following the incident, which had a "profoundly negative effect on all of the students present — especially the African-American students." "Every young person — regardless of race — deserves the chance to attend school free of harassment, bias, and discrimination," James said. "Lessons designed to separate children on the basis of race have no place in New York classrooms, or in classrooms throughout this country." The school will be required to hire a chief diversity officer and a diversity consultant to help with development training at the school. It will also be required to develop a Staff Diversification Plan, outlining steps the school plans to take on a yearly basis to increase "minority representation among the school's teaching faculty." In addition, the school has committed to a new financial aid effort to increase diversity and will also submit a new code of conduct for approval by the attorney general. The new code will outline how school community members should address racial and ethnic discrimination and harassment. | null | https://sputniknews.com/society/201905301075491084-us-teacher-fired-auctioning-black-students/ | 2019-05-30 20:57:01+00:00 | 1,559,264,221 | 1,567,539,755 | education | teaching and learning |
654,524 | thedailyrecord--2019-12-09--David Livingstone Memorial Primary kids are given a lesson in health | 2019-12-09T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | David Livingstone Memorial Primary kids are given a lesson in health | Pupils at David Livingstone Memorial Primary and Nursery School, in Blantyre, thoroughly enjoyed their recent annual health week. The children learned all about having a healthy diet, healthy mind and a healthy body. During the week they tried out different types of healthy snacks and participated in lots of sporting activities including a whole school fitness workout. In their classes they rotated around a variety of activities including, orientating, mindfulness, Go Noodle, yoga and smoothie making. Jennifer Lattimer, principal teacher at the school, said: “Staff and pupils at the school would like to say a great big thank you to all who contributed to make the week such a success. “A special thank you to Miss Campbell for organising the week.” • If you would like to see your school featured in Class Acts, then call reporter Kirsten McStay on 01698 205202 or email her at [email protected] | [email protected] (Kirsten McStay) | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/david-livingstone-memorial-primary-kids-21037716 | Mon, 9 Dec 2019 09:00:00 +0000 | 1,575,900,000 | 1,575,894,487 | education | teaching and learning |
654,641 | thedailyrecord--2019-12-11--NL Leisure encourage parents to bring children with disabilities to mainstream swimming lessons | 2019-12-11T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | NL Leisure encourage parents to bring children with disabilities to mainstream swimming lessons | The parents of children with disabilities in North Lanarkshire are being encouraged to send them to mainstream swimming lessons. Scottish Swimming has launched a campaign to get parents to talk more openly about their children’s needs. They have partnered with Scottish Water for the #SeeMyAbility inclusion programme, which is being delivered by NL Leisure. As part of the campaign, swimming teachers and coaches will be provided with a resource toolkit that will help them teach and coach in an inclusive way. It’s been launched by Learn to Swim ambassador and multi-medal winning para-athlete Toni Shaw who came through a mainstream Learn to Swim programme. Toni who went on from the programme to join Cults Otters swimming club, said: “I’m really proud to be an ambassador and really pleased that children with a disability are taught in inclusive learn to swim environments. “If there’s someone with a disability and the swimming teachers are aware of the impairment the lessons can be adapted. “It’s great to develop as a swimmer and be seen beyond my disability. “This has helped me integrate into a performance environment where I get to train alongside other world-class athletes.” The National Learn to Swim Framework aims to raise standards in swimming programmes. The plan is to roll the programme out to 100,000 children across Scotland. More information can be found on www.learntoswim.scot | [email protected] (Michael Pringle) | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/nl-leisure-encourage-parents-bring-21064509 | Wed, 11 Dec 2019 16:00:00 +0000 | 1,576,098,000 | 1,576,110,385 | education | teaching and learning |
683,085 | theguardianuk--2019-01-03--Back in Time for School review alarmingly relevant lessons in empire | 2019-01-03T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Back in Time for School review – alarmingly relevant lessons in empire | It is 1897 and at a school in Coventry the coal burners have been lit, the inkwells filled, and the portrait of Queen Victoria straightened. The classrooms are all worn, wooden desks, wildly inaccurate world maps, and pupils in caps and corsets. Everything looks as cosy as a period drama, except this is a geography lesson. And the subject is the empire. Teacher Sue taps the map to show how Britain holds territories on every continent of the world. She transcribes lines extolling the virtues of colonialism and white British supremacy from a standard Chambers textbook of the time on to a blackboard. The children – a 21st-century mix of races and ethnicities – copy them obediently into their ledgers. “You can see where racism comes from,” says one girl. “It’s really upsetting.” And so we return to the series format with never-ending potential for resurrection. Back in Time for School (BBC Two) follows similar adventures returning to dinners, weekends, Christmases, teas and factories of the past. The reason for this is ostensibly to see how we used to live, but also to watch folk in olde hats retching over a spoonful of brimstone and treacle. Fifteen pupils and three teachers, plus Sara Cox presenting and Polly Russell doing the social-historian bit, time-travel through 100 years of education. Which makes this sound like a boring episode of Doctor Who, but it’s actually entertaining – plus I learned stuff. Like, for example, that for a brief period from 1895 to 1902 girls and boys were taught maths and science together in what were known as higher-grade schools. (Then school inspectors found out and they were separated again into Latin for boys and bed-making for girls.) Or that free school dinners were introduced in 1906 when the Liberal party came to power. Which means fish pie and tapioca pudding for lunch, no matter if our 21st-century pupils deem tapioca to be frog spawn by another name. “It looks like off Coco Pops in sick,” one teenager complains. In 1895, when just 4% of 11-16 year olds were in education, the school day begins with a rousing rendition of All Things Bright and Beautiful. I sang this in school too, although not quite as long ago. Drama teacher Mr Charles, what with being the only man, is assigned the role of headmaster and fears having to be a stern presence when his style is more “taking the mickey … a lot”. There is a quick rundown of rules (neatly combed hair, no writing with the left hand) and when to opt for corporal punishment (only beat them if you’re about to lose control). Before we know it, it’s 1901. Queen Victoria is dead and a pupil at an after-school club hosted by the temperance movement is asking, apropos of learning that alcohol is legal for over-12s, “but could they get hammered?” Herein lies the problem with this kind of format: it rattles through history at such a pace it ends up feeling like you’re winging it with Cliff’s Notes on the Victorians. The first episode sticks to the Victorian and Edwardian eras, which always make the best telly. Partly because they look nice, partly because so many of our social mores and deeply ingrained prejudices can be traced back to those times. Which we cannot help but romanticise. Seriously, we will always get top marks for over-sentimentalising the Victorian era, something the sentimental Victorians would no doubt love us for. But the best thing about Back in Time for School is it has less palatable lessons to teach us. Like the boys learning to shoot rifles first as a sport, then in preparation for war. Or the six hours of manual work many children had to do after school – the girls destined for domestic service. And the Empire Day celebrations. In the early 1900s, schools all over the empire led patriotic parades, waving banners bearing the names of colonies even as Britain was losing its grip on world domination. All of which looks both sinister and alarmingly relevant from our vantage point of right now. As ever, it’s the young people who restore the faith. “I would have rather done needlework,” says one pupil responding to the sexes being split. “It’s good to be a bit more gender neutral.” History isn’t necessarily a story of progress, but we can always learn from kids. | Chitra Ramaswamy | https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jan/03/back-in-time-for-school-review-alarmingly-relevant-lessons-in-empire | 2019-01-03 21:01:27+00:00 | 1,546,567,287 | 1,567,554,137 | education | teaching and learning |
763,870 | theindependent--2019-06-27--Parents should be stopped from withdrawing children from religious education over Islam lessons hea | 2019-06-27T00:00:00 | theindependent | Parents should be stopped from withdrawing children from religious education over Islam lessons, headteachers say | Parents should not be allowed to selectively remove their children from religious education (RE) lessons, headteachers say, as study reveals many withdrawal requests are over the teaching of Islam. More than two in five school leaders and RE teachers have received requests for students to be withdrawn from teaching about one religion, research from Liverpool Hope University has revealed. Islam is the dominant focus of these parental withdrawal requests, according to the study of 450 school leaders and heads of RE. One participant, who received requests for children to be withdrawn from mosque visits said: “The students that have been removed are the ones that need to understand different cultures the most.” The majority (71 per cent) of teachers believe a law allowing parents to withdraw their children from RE is no longer required, according to the study in the British Journal of Religious Education. It comes after a report from Thurrock council revealed that parents in Essex were withdrawing their children from religious education lessons on Islam and stopping them from visiting mosques. Iman Atta, director of Tell Mama, an activist group which records and measures anti-Muslim incidents in Britain, told The Independent: “We have been hearing about cases where parents are pulling their children out of mosque visits as part of religious education since they do not want them to be near a mosque. “This has been taking place over the last five years and shows that there are parents who have fears or dislike Islam. This is also concerning, since what kinds of views are their children being exposed to? It does not bode well for the future of people and communities living together”. The right of parents to withdraw their children from RE and from collective worship has been in enshrined in law by both the 1944 and 1988 education acts. Parents can withdraw their children from some or all of the RE curriculum without giving a reason. Teachers warned in April last year that parents were increasingly abusing the right to withdraw their children from religious education lessons due to their prejudices. Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers section of the National Education Union called on the government to take steps to prevent parents from selectively withdrawing youngsters from RE classes. “Cases of parents withdrawing selectively from teaching of one religion, predominantly Islam, were often presented by participants as representing a hostility and intolerance to those of other faiths,” the new research says. But it concludes: “While it was true that Islam’s prominence as a target for withdrawal implies prejudice, our findings suggest that teachers saw the reasons for this withdrawal as misunderstanding more than prejudice.” | Eleanor Busby | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/parents-religious-education-islam-headteachers-liverpool-hope-university-study-a8976366.html | 2019-06-27 05:20:00+00:00 | 1,561,627,200 | 1,567,537,843 | education | teaching and learning |
966,439 | thesun--2019-06-19--Schoolboy chucked out of lesson by furious teacher after insisting there are only two genders | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | thesun | Schoolboy chucked out of lesson by furious teacher after insisting there are ‘only two genders’ | A TEENAGER was chucked out of a lesson by his furious teacher after insisting there are "only two genders". The unidentified 17-year-old secretly filmed his teacher who was punishing him for his "beliefs". A three minute clip was uploaded to social media and YouTube where he explains "it's not very inclusive" to kick him out of the classroom. The incident is understood to have happened within a school in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The discussion begins with the teacher explaining to the lad that he is of the opinion that there is "more than one gender" which is an opinion "acceptable" to the school. He adds in response to the pupil: "Unlike yours where you say there's no such thing other than male or female - that's not inclusive." The student blasts back saying: "I think it's silly to have other than two genders", to which the teacher again restates: "Could you please keep that opinion to your own house." After another back-and-forth the pupil adds that the policy is "not scientific whatsoever" before his teacher responds "not every policy is scientific." Reaffirming his own opinions, the student says: "I'm simply saying there are two genders, male or female. "Anything else is a personal identification." He goes on to thank his teacher for "wasting his time" with the argument. The clip surfaced on YouTube and racked up more than 74,000 views. It had initially been shared on Reddit but was deleted by its original source. Aberdeenshire Council explained how the video was taken out of context with regards to the bigger incident that had happened previously within the classroom. A spokesman said: "As part of our Public Sector Equality Duty we aim to: eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation; advance equality of opportunity between those who have protected characteristics and those who don't; and foster good relations between those who have protected characteristics and those who don’t. “It is important to understand the context of any video clip taken without a person’s consent. In our schools, fostering good relations among different groups can be a real challenge but our aim is to support a fairer, inclusive environment for all.” We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Mark Hendry | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9333747/teenager-school-lesson-gender-teacher/ | 2019-06-19 21:44:27+00:00 | 1,560,995,067 | 1,567,538,729 | education | teaching and learning |
99,802 | cnbc--2019-09-04--Back to school and back to another year of our dumb education funding system | 2019-09-04T00:00:00 | cnbc | Back to school, and back to another year of our dumb education funding system | Tens of millions of American children are back at school this week, and that means we've begun another year of what has to be one of the wackiest and least effective ways of funding education on Earth. Instead of assessing school taxes directly to the parents of kids currently in the school system, states mostly use property sizes and values to determine how much residents pay in taxes to fund local schools. That's regardless of a homeowner's ability to pay, whether or not he or she has any children in a school system, and no matter how badly a local real estate market may be faring. That doesn't sound like the best foundation for education, does it? But wait, there's more! The property tax-dependent education funding system creates a massive disconnect between the consumers of education and those providing it. It's a third-party billing set-up on steroids. People or families who actually pay for education may not ever even receive that education, creating an unpredictable or even non-existent framework for accountability on both the buyer and provider sides of the equation. This scenario is eerily similar to some other essential services Americans tend to buy in this kind of indirect way, with health care being the best example. The bottom line is when consumers don't pay for something directly, the actual price and even the overall quality of what they're paying for gets murky at best. On top of all those problems, we have a millennial generation that continues to reject the very idea of home ownership in larger numbers than previous generations. That's an ominous sign for the future of education, especially in suburban areas where millennials aren't even showing much interest in living in rental properties. Before you throw in more exotic forms of education funding like sales taxes and multi-state lotteries, remember that they're both even more likely to be funds coming from sources disconnected to the actual payer-provider relationship. Also remember that lottery proceeds are not used as extra money for education. Instead, those funds simply replace state income that used to go to education that's been lost or diverted to other areas of the budget. The line fed to the public about lottery money helping to meaningfully boost education spending and quality nationwide has long been debunked over, and over, and over as misleading marketing at best. Then there's the problem of just how that money is spent. With the rising costs of teacher pensions and retiree benefits, more of the money is not even going to teachers currently in the classrooms. It's not that these pensions or benefits have to be cut or eliminated, it's just that they need to be restructured or at least not included in those highly misleading "spending per student" figures so many school districts pump out to the public. Lastly, ask any teacher what usually makes the biggest difference in student performance and they'll probably tell you it's less about money and more about parental participation in their child's education and repeated reminders in the home about the importance of education. | null | https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/back-to-school-and-another-year-of-our-dumb-funding-system.html | 2019-09-04 18:39:00+00:00 | 1,567,636,740 | 1,569,331,481 | education | teaching and learning |
112,639 | cnsnews--2019-05-15--Walter Williams Higher Education in America | 2019-05-15T00:00:00 | cnsnews | Walter Williams: Higher Education in America | Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University Richard Vedder's new book, "Restoring the Promise," published by the Independent Institute based in Oakland, California, is about the crisis in higher education. He summarizes the three major problems faced by America's colleges and universities. First, our universities "are vastly too expensive, often costing twice as much per student compared with institutions in other industrialized democracies." Second, though there are some important exceptions, students "on average are learning relatively little, spend little time in academic preparation and in some disciplines are indoctrinated by highly subjective ideology." Third, "there is a mismatch between student occupational expectations after graduation and labor market realities." College graduates often find themselves employed as baristas, retail clerks and taxi drivers. The extraordinary high college cost not only saddles students with debt, it causes them to defer activities such as getting married and starting a family, buying a home and saving for retirement. Research done by the New York Federal Reserve Banks and the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that each dollar of federal aid to college leads to a tuition increase of 60 cents. For the high cost of college, what do students learn? A seminal study, "Academically Adrift," by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, after surveying 2,300 students at various colleges, argues that very little improvement in critical reasoning skills occurs in college. Adult literacy is falling among college graduates. Large proportions of college graduates do not know simple facts, such as the half-century in which the Civil War occurred. There are some exceptions to this academic incompetency, most notably in technical areas such as engineering, nursing, architecture and accounting, where colleges teach vocationally useful material. Vedder says that student ineptitude is not surprising since they spend little time in classrooms and studying. It's even less surprising when one considers student high school preparation. According to 2010 and 2013 NAEP test scores, only 37 percent of 12th-graders were proficient in reading, 25 percent in math, 12 percent in history, 20 percent in geography and 24 percent in civics. What happens when many of these students graduate saddled with debt? The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in an October 2018 report, finds that many students are underemployed, filling jobs that can be done with a high school education. More than one-third of currently working college graduates are in jobs that do not require a degree, such as flight attendants, janitors and salesmen. In addition to this kind of resource misallocation, 40 percent or more college students fail to graduate in six years. It is not unreasonable to ask whether college attendance was a wise use of these students' time and the resources of their parents and taxpayers. Vedder has several important ideas for higher education reform. First, we should put an end to the university monopoly on certifying educational and vocational competency. Non-college organizations could package academic courses and award degrees based upon external examinations. Regarding financial aid, colleges should be forced to share in covering loan defaults, namely they need to have some skin in the game. More importantly, Vedder says that we should end or revise the federal student aid program. Vedder ends "Restoring the Promise" with a number of proposals with which I agree: —College administrative staff often exceeds the teaching staff. Vedder says, "I doubt there is a major campus in America where you couldn't eliminate very conservatively 10 percent of the administrative payroll (in dollar terms) without materially impacting academic performance." —Reevaluate academic tenure. Tenure is an employment benefit that has costs, and faculty members should be forced to make tradeoffs between it and other forms of university compensation. —Colleges of education, with their overall poor academic quality, are an embarrassment on most campuses and should be eliminated. —End speech codes on college campuses by using the University of Chicago Principles on free speech. —The most important measure of academic reforms is to make university governing boards independent and meaningful. In my opinion, most academic governing boards are little more than yes men for the president and provost. Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. | Walter E. Williams | https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/walter-e-williams/walter-williams-higher-education-america | 2019-05-15 12:53:41+00:00 | 1,557,939,221 | 1,567,540,558 | education | teaching and learning |
113,108 | cnsnews--2019-06-18--Walter Williams Black Education Decline | 2019-06-18T00:00:00 | cnsnews | Walter Williams: Black Education Decline | New York Mayor Bill de Blasio says that the city's specialized high schools have a diversity problem. He's joined by New York City Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza, educators, students and community leaders who want to fix the diversity problem. I bet you can easily guess what they will do to "improve" the racial mix of students (aka diversity). If you guessed they would propose eliminating the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test as the sole criterion for admissions, go to the head of the class. The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test is an examination that is administered to New York City's eighth- and ninth-grade students. By state law, it is used to determine admission to all but one of the city's nine specialized high schools. It's taken as axiomatic that the relatively few blacks admitted to these high-powered schools is somehow tied to racial discrimination. In a June 2, 2018 "Chalkbeat" article (https://tinyurl.com/y64delc3), de Blasio writes: "The problem is clear. Eight of our most renowned high schools — including Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School — rely on a single, high-stakes exam. The Specialized High School Admissions Test isn't just flawed — it's a roadblock to justice, progress and academic excellence." Let's look at a bit of history to raise some questions about the mayor's diversity hypothesis. Dr. Thomas Sowell provides some interesting statistics about Stuyvesant High School in his book "Wealth, Poverty and Politics." He reports that, "In 1938, the proportion of blacks attending Stuyvesant High School, a specialized school, was almost as high as the proportion of blacks in the population of New York City." Since then, it has spiraled downward. In 1979, blacks were 12.9% of students at Stuyvesant, falling to 4.8% in 1995. By 2012, The New York Times reported that blacks were 1.2% of the student body. None of the usual explanations for racial disparities make sense. In other words, would one want to argue that there was less racial discrimination in 1938? Or, argue that in 1938 the "legacy of slavery" had not taken effect whereby now it is in full bloom? Genetic or environmental arguments cannot explain why blacks of an earlier generation were able to meet the demanding mental test standards to get into an elite high school. Socioeconomic conditions for blacks have improved dramatically since 1938. The only other plausible reason for the decline in academic achievement is that there has been a change in black culture. It doesn't take much to reach this conclusion. Simply look at school behavior today versus yesteryear. An Education Week article reported that in the 2015-16 school year, "5.8% of the nation's 3.8 million teachers were physically attacked by a student." The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics show that in the 2011-12 academic year, there were a record 209,800 primary- and secondary-school teachers who reported being physically attacked by a student. Nationally, an average of 1,175 teachers and staff were physically attacked, including being knocked out, each day of that school year. In the city of Baltimore, each school day in 2010, an average of four teachers and staff were assaulted. A National Center for Education Statistics study found that 18% of the nation's schools accounted for 75% of the reported incidents of violence, and 6.6% accounted for half of all reported incidents. These are schools with predominantly black student populations. It's not only assaults on teachers but cursing and disorderly conduct that are the standard fare in so many predominantly black schools. Here are questions that might be asked of de Blasio and others who want to "fix the diversity problem" at New York's specialized schools: What has the triumph of egalitarian and diversity principles done for the rest of New York's school system? Are their academic achievement scores better than students at New York's specialized schools? The most important question for black parents: What has been allowed to happen to cripple black academic excellence? Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com. | Walter E. Williams | https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/walter-e-williams/walter-williams-black-education-decline | 2019-06-18 14:46:38+00:00 | 1,560,883,598 | 1,567,538,846 | education | teaching and learning |
221,374 | freedombunker--2019-05-30--Rising Education Costs Stem Primarily from More Teachers and Bigger Salaries Not Administrative Blo | 2019-05-30T00:00:00 | freedombunker | Rising Education Costs Stem Primarily from More Teachers and Bigger Salaries, Not Administrative Bloat | In Why Are The Prices So D*mn High? Helland and I examine lower education, higher education, and health care in-depth, and we do a broader statistical analysis of 139 industries. Today, I will make a few points about education. First, costs in both lower and higher education are rising faster than inflation and have been doing so for a very long time. In 1950 the U.S. spent $2,311 per elementary and secondary public school student compared with $12,673 in 2013, over five times more (both figures in $2015). The rate of increase was fastest in the 1950s and 1960s—a point to which I will return later in this series. College costs have also increased dramatically over time. For this book, we are interested in costs more than tuition because we want to know what society is giving up to produce education rather than who, in the first instance, is paying for it. Costs are considerably higher than tuition even today, although in recent years tuition has been catching up. Essentially, students and their parents have been paying an increasing share of the increasing cost of higher education. Moreover, as with lower education, costs have been rising for a very long period of time. I will take it as given that the explanation for higher costs isn’t higher quality. The evidence on tests scores is discussed in the book: It is sometimes argued that how we teach has not changed but that what we teach has improved in quality. It is questionable whether studies of Shakespeare have improved, but there have been advances in biology, computer science, and physics that are taught today but were not in the past. However, these kinds of improvements cannot explain increases in cost. It is no more expensive to teach new theories than old. In a few fields, one might argue that lab equipment has improved, which it certainly has, but we know from figure 1 that goods in general have decreased in price. It is much cheaper today, for example, to equip a classroom with a computer than it was in the past. The most popular explanation of why the cost of education has increased is bloat. Elizabeth Warren and Chris Christie, for example, have both blamed climbing walls and lazy rivers for higher tuition costs. Paul Campos argues that the real reason college costs are growing is “the constant expansion of university administration.” Redundant administrators are also commonly blamed for rising public school costs. The bloat theory is superficially plausible. The lazy rivers do exist! But the bloat theory requires longer and lazier rivers every year, which is less plausible. It’s also peculiar that the cost of education is rising in both lower and higher education and in public and private colleges despite very different competitive structures. Indeed, it’s suspicious that in higher education bloat is often blamed on competition—the “amenities arms race“—while in lower education bloat is often blamed on lack of competition! An all-purpose theory doesn’t explain much. More importantly, the data reject the bloat theory. Figure 8 (above) shows spending shares in higher education. Contrary to the bloat theory, the administrative share of spending has not increased much in over 30 years. The research share, where you might expect to find higher lab costs, has fluctuated a little but also hasn’t risen much. The plant share, which is where you might expect to find lazy rivers, has even gone down a little, at least compared to the early 1980s. Nor is it true that administrators are taking over the public schools, see Figure 10 (above). Compared with teachers and other staff, the number of principals and administrators is vanishingly small, only 0.4 per 100 students over the 1950–2015 period. It is true, if one looks closely, that the number of principals and administrators doubled between 1970 and 1980. It is unclear whether this is a real increase or a data artifact (we only have data for 1970 and 1980, not the years in between during this period). But because the base numbers are small, even a doubling cannot explain much. A bloated little toe cannot explain a 20-pound weight gain. Moreover, the increase in administrators was over by 1980, but expenditures kept growing. If bloat doesn’t work, what is the explanation for higher costs in education? The explanation turns out to be simple: We are paying teachers (and faculty) more in real terms, and we have hired more of them. It’s hard to get costs to fall when input prices and quantities are both rising and teachers are doing more or less the same job as in 1950. We are not arguing, however, that teachers are overpaid! Indeed, it is part of our theory that teachers are earning a normal wage for their level of skill and education. The evidence that teachers earn substantially above-market wages is slim. Teachers’ unions in public schools, for example, cannot explain decade-by-decade increases in teacher compensation. In fact, most estimates find that teachers’ unions raise the wage level by only approximately 5 percent. In other words, teachers’ unions can explain why teachers earn 5 percent more than similar workers in the private sector, but unions cannot explain why teachers’ wages increase over time. If the case for unions as a cause of rising teacher compensation in public schools is weak, it is nonexistent for increased compensation for college faculty, for whom wage bargaining is done worker by worker with essentially no collective bargaining whatsoever. A signal to where we are heading is this: This article was reprinted with permission from Marginal Revolution. | Sean McBride | http://freedombunker.com/2019/05/30/rising-education-costs-stem-primarily-from-more-teachers-and-bigger-salaries-not-administrative-bloat/ | 2019-05-30 17:00:41+00:00 | 1,559,250,041 | 1,567,539,654 | education | teaching and learning |
221,379 | freedombunker--2019-05-30--Todays Schools Are Yesterdays Streetcars How Technology Will Transform Education | 2019-05-30T00:00:00 | freedombunker | Today’s Schools Are Yesterday’s Streetcars: How Technology Will Transform Education | We can predict the future of education by glimpsing the past of transportation. Fueled by technological innovation, namely electricity, streetcars gradually replaced the horse-and-buggy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, followed by mass-produced automobiles that ultimately toppled the streetcar. Throughout the 20th century, cars became safer, faster, cleaner, and cheaper and allowed individuals unprecedented mobility and autonomy. Then, in the 21st century, car-sharing applications showed how technology could once again disrupt the transportation industry, expanding rider options and challenging entrenched systems of control. Education transformation will take a similar path. Fueled by technological innovation, schools are now in the middle of their streetcar moment. Chalkboards are still ubiquitous, but computers are increasingly being used not only to supplement learning but also to administer it. Personalized learning, as this technology-enabled classroom education is called, is all the rage. In public schools like those using Summit Learning, a personalized, online learning approach developed by Facebook engineers and funded by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the computer becomes the teacher, executing a largely self-paced curriculum and offering more flexibility and autonomy for students.True education transformation will come when learners realize that they don’t need an intermediary at all. The platform has sparked controversy, as some parents and educators resist change. Like the streetcar and transportation, personalized learning in schools is altering and modernizing the educational landscape. But it is just a launchpad. True education transformation will come when learners realize that they don’t need an intermediary at all. Personalized learning in conventional schools will shift to self-directed education or unschooling, driven by the learner herself using the resource-rich networks of both real and digital communities. As Ivan Illich wrote in Deschooling Society: Illich wrote those words in 1970 before the technological webs now at our fingertips were ever imagined. The funnel model of education, even when augmented by technology, is simply passé. Conflating learning with schooling, mired in coercion and a controlled curriculum, is an outdated idea. Schooling is something that others do to you; learning is something you do for yourself. We already see how this works in our own adult lives. Just as the first automobiles began to disrupt old notions of transportation, recent technological innovations are recalibrating the way we learn. Whether it’s using YouTube to fix a toilet, Duolingo to learn a language, Audible to listen to books, or FaceTime to have lessons with your guitar instructor, technological platforms and applications are quickly helping us to shed our schooled vision of learning. Increasingly, we see that we can self-educate by following our own curiosities and pursuing our own personal and professional goals. We can choose our own teachers and select the learning tools that work best for us. In his book, Illich wrote, Technology frees us from this institutional paradigm of education and lets us teach ourselves. It can do the same for our children. As our own relationship to learning shifts in response to new technologies that make information and knowledge more accessible, we may begin to question the worn-out ways our children learn. As we realize the value and reward of self-education in our own lives, we’ll want to give this gift to our children. In his academic papers and award-winning 2013 TED Talk, Newcastle University professor Sugata Mitra explains how children teach themselves without institutional schooling. His “hole in the wall” studies have been widely cited, showing how children from the poorest slums of India to elsewhere around the world are able to learn to read, to teach themselves English, and to understand advanced scientific content (like DNA replication) simply by having access to an Internet-enabled public computer. Mitra calls this approach “minimally invasive education” and concludes in his talk: Thanks to technology, we adults now see this learning emerge all the time in our own lives. It can be the same for our children. We will realize that we can be educated without being schooled. In the 21st century, the transportation industry was jolted again by technological innovation. Uber, Lyft, and other car-sharing companies challenged longstanding local monopolies, granting riders more choice and flexibility with better service and lower costs. Next, autonomous vehicles may be the new wave of disruptive innovation in transportation. Meanwhile, in education, technology will continue to expand access to resources, information, knowledge, and skills that make self-education outside of schooling not only possible but preferable. Like the streetcar and horse-and-buggy, institutional schooling will become a cultural relic, a quaint reminder of yesteryear. We will realize that non-coercive, technology-enabled, self-directed education in collaboration with others results in better, more meaningful, more enduring learning than its institutional predecessors can offer. We will realize that we can be educated without being schooled. Indeed, the future is here. | Sean McBride | http://freedombunker.com/2019/05/30/todays-schools-are-yesterdays-streetcars-how-technology-will-transform-education/ | 2019-05-30 13:00:56+00:00 | 1,559,235,656 | 1,567,539,654 | education | teaching and learning |
222,743 | freedombunker--2019-09-11--Charter Schools vs the Education Monopoly | 2019-09-11T00:00:00 | freedombunker | Charter Schools vs. the Education Monopoly | With most services, you get to shop around, but rarely can you do that with government-run schools. Philadelphia mom Elaine Wells was upset to learn that there were fights every day in the school her son attended. So she walked him over to another school. "We went to go enroll and we were told, 'He can't go here!' That was my wake up call," Wells tell me in my latest video. She entered her sons in a charter school lottery, hoping to get them into a charter school. "You're on pins and needles, hoping and praying," she said. But politicians stack the odds against kids who want to escape government-run schools. Philly rejected 75 percent of the applicants. Wells' kids did eventually manage to get into a charter called Boys' Latin. I'm happy for them. I wish government bureaucrats would let all kids have similar chances. Wells was so eager for her sons to attend that she arranged to have one repeat the sixth grade. "That was the moment where I most despised Boys' Latin," the son told me. But the boys' attitude quickly changed, says their mother. "Before Boys' Latin, I would come home and say, 'Read for an hour, read a book,' and their response would be, 'Why? What did we do?'—like reading was a punishment!" But after they started at Boys' Latin, she found books scattered around the house. Suddenly, her boys were reading without her pressuring them. She also was surprised to discover her son on the phone at 10 p.m. at night—talking to a teacher. Boys' Latin teachers often volunteer to help students with homework—even at night. Other differences: Charter students spend more time in school—from 8 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m., and they have to take Latin. "We picked Latin because it was hard," he answered. "Life is hard. In order to be prepared, you have to work hard. We want to get that into the psyche of our students." It works. Boys' Latin students do better on most state tests than kids in government-run schools. Hardy says, "We've sent more black boys to college than any high school in Pennsylvania." But people who work in government monopolies don't like experiments that show there's a better way to do things. Philadelphia and other cities are rejecting new charter applications. Philadelphia rejected Hardy's plan to open a Girls' Latin. "They realize that if we continue to take children away, they won't have jobs," says Hardy. Instead of approving more charters, the education establishment just says, "Give us more money." But get this: Philadelphia schools already spend $18,400 per child, about half a million dollars per classroom. With that money, they could hire five experienced teachers for every class. But they don't. So, where does all that money go? Bureaucracy, says Hardy. "They have a director of special ed and assistant director of special ed…director of high school athletics and an assistant…lot of overhead." The establishment's new attack on charter competition is: Charters drain resources from public schools. It's a clever argument, but it's a lie. Charter schools are public, too, and Philadelphia, like other cities, gives charters less money than it gives to schools the city government runs. In Philadelphia, charters get only 70 percent as much. So government schools actually save money when a kid leaves for a charter. Even if charters got equal money, says Wells, "you can't tell me that charter schools take funding from public schools! Every parent pays taxes that fund the school system. If I choose for my child to go to a charter school, then that's where my taxes should go!" She's right. So why aren't more charters approved? "It would mean a whole lot less union jobs," Hardy says. "The unions are not going to be for that." It's not just unions. Education bureaucrats love working in a monopoly where they are basically guaranteed jobs. Bad charter schools close, but government-run schools almost never do—no matter how badly they treat kids. | Ed Krayewski | http://freedombunker.com/2019/09/10/charter-schools-vs-the-education-monopoly/ | 2019-09-11 04:01:51+00:00 | 1,568,188,911 | 1,569,330,356 | education | teaching and learning |
223,035 | freedombunker--2019-10-10--When the Quest for Education Equity Stifles Innovation | 2019-10-10T00:00:00 | freedombunker | When the Quest for Education Equity Stifles Innovation | In March, efforts to open an innovative public high school in a diverse, urban district just outside of Boston received a devastating blow. Powderhouse Studios was in the works for seven years, with grand hopes of changing public education from a top-down system defined by coercion to a learner-driven model focused on student autonomy and self-determination. The vision for this school was so compelling that it won a $10 million XQ Super School innovation grant and was positioned to lead efforts to inject freedom into a conventional schooling system characterized by force. The school was set to open this fall in Somerville, Massachusetts, clearing high hurdles along the way, including gaining the crucial support of the teachers’ union. Everything looked ready to go. Then, in a startling turn of events, the local school committee voted unanimously in March not to approve the school’s launch. Entrepreneurs can catalyze far greater educational equity than well-intentioned central planners ever could. Boston’s local NPR station ran a story about the Powderhouse debacle. While the school committee members said they appreciated the high school’s novel approach, which would focus primarily on project-based learning tied to student interests, they decided they couldn’t approve a school that would only serve 160 high school-age students when there are 5,000 students in the district who wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the program. According to the NPR reporter: It wouldn’t be fair, school committee members concluded, to allow some young people to attend Powderhouse if not everyone could attend. As the school committee chairperson told NPR: In the all-out quest for educational equity, innovation is systematically stifled. If not everyone can have something, then no one can. An All or Nothing Approach Just imagine if Motorola had the same perspective regarding its invention of the first cell phone. Imagine if company leaders (or politicians!) said: “We can’t manufacture these mobile phones because not everyone will have access to them and therefore no one should.” Fortunately, manufacturers didn’t pay attention to equity, and as a result, over five billion people around the world now have a cell phone. Five. billion. people. Powderhouse sounded like an ideal incubator of educational innovation, where teenagers would be responsible for their education in a hands-on way. At first, cell phones were incredibly expensive and only a few people could own them, but thanks to the power of innovation and the timeless laws of supply and demand, the costs of cell phones dropped dramatically—even as their features became more state-of-the-art. This is how innovation works in the marketplace—when it is not halted by government central planners who think they know what is best and most “equitable.” I wrote about Powderhouse in Unschooled, before the March vote, and even then I was pessimistically hopeful. The school sounded like an ideal incubator of educational innovation, where teenagers would be responsible for designing, managing, and executing in-depth, multiyear projects leading to mastery in various subjects in a more authentic, hands-on way. There would be no assigned classes, no grades, no age-segregation, and no testing. Teachers would act as mentors and guides. The space would look more like a research lab than a school, and project mastery would ultimately be mapped back to district-wide core competency expectations. Dreamed up by Alec Resnick, an MIT graduate inspired by social reformers like John Holt (a teacher who coined the term “unschooling” in 1977) and Ivan Illich, who wrote Deschooling Society in 1970, Powderhouse had a bold vision to move self-directed education into the public sector. Resnick was also very concerned about equity and access, ensuring that students would be selected into the school by lottery and that the population would be reflective of the demographic diversity of the larger district. The new school could be a beacon for change. But then the March vote came. This outcome shouldn’t surprise us. The historical track record for innovative public schools like this one is dismal. They will sometimes succeed in launching with much fanfare and excitement and then eventually get reabsorbed into the larger district, ultimately becoming virtually indistinguishable from other conventional schools. True educational innovation must occur outside of the public schooling system.Since its 19th-century inception, the compulsory mass schooling system has shown itself to be remarkably resistant to change. The future of Powderhouse is unclear, but the past is often prologue. The Powderhouse story is just the latest example of why I believe that true educational innovation must occur outside of the public schooling system. Like they did with cell phones, entrepreneurs will be the ones to create meaningful and lasting change with the potential to reach more people—with lower costs and better results. Entrepreneurs can catalyze far greater educational equity than well-intentioned central planners ever could. That is, if they are not halted by elected officials and government bureaucrats who think they are the guardians of us all. | Sean McBride | http://freedombunker.com/2019/10/10/when-the-quest-for-education-equity-stifles-innovation/ | Thu, 10 Oct 2019 13:00:11 +0000 | 1,570,726,811 | 1,570,753,521 | education | teaching and learning |
223,790 | freedombunker--2019-12-04--Fraud in Higher Education | 2019-12-04T00:00:00 | freedombunker | Fraud in Higher Education | This year’s education scandal saw parents shelling out megabucks to gain college admittance for their children. Federal prosecutors have charged more than 50 people with participating in a scheme to get their children into colleges by cheating on entrance exams or bribing athletic coaches. They paid William Singer, a college-prep professional, more than $25 million to bribe coaches and university administrators and to change test scores on college admittance exams such as the SAT and ACT. As disgusting as this grossly dishonest behavior is, it is only the tiny tip of fraud in higher education. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2016, only 37% of white high school graduates tested as college-ready, but colleges admitted 70% of them. Roughly 17% of black high school graduates tested as college-ready, but colleges admitted 58% of them. A 2018 Hechinger Report found, “More than four in 10 college students end up in developmental math and English classes at an annual cost of approximately $7 billion, and many of them have a worse chance of eventually graduating than if they went straight into college-level classes.” According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “when considering all first-time undergraduates, studies have found anywhere from 28 percent to 40 percent of students enroll in at least one remedial course. When looking at only community college students, several studies have found remediation rates surpassing 50 percent.” Only 25% of students who took the ACT in 2012 met the test’s readiness benchmarks in all four subjects (English, reading, math and science). It’s clear that high schools confer diplomas that attest that a student can read, write and do math at a 12th-grade level when, in fact, most cannot. That means most high diplomas represent fraudulent documents. But when high school graduates enter college, what happens? To get a hint, we can turn to an article by Craig E. Klafter, “Good Grieve! America’s Grade Inflation Culture,” published in the Fall 2019 edition of Academic Questions. In 1940, only 15% of all grades awarded were A’s. By 2018, the average grade point average at some of the nation’s leading colleges was A-minus. For example, the average GPA at Brown University (3.75), Stanford (3.68), Harvard College (3.63), Yale University (3.63), Columbia University (3.6), University of California, Berkeley (3.59). The falling standards witnessed at our primary and secondary levels are becoming increasingly the case at tertiary levels. “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” is a study conducted by Professors Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. They found that 45% of 2,300 students at 24 colleges showed no significant improvement in “critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years.” An article in News Forum for Lawyers titled “Study Finds College Students Remarkably Incompetent” cites a study done by the American Institutes for Research that revealed that over 75% of two-year college students and 50% of four-year college students were incapable of completing everyday tasks. About 20% of four-year college students demonstrated only basic mathematical ability, while a steeper 30% of two-year college students could not progress past elementary arithmetic. NBC News reported that Fortune 500 companies spend about $3 billion annually to train employees in “basic English.” Here is a list of some other actual college courses that have been taught at U.S. colleges in recent years: “What If Harry Potter Is Real?” “Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame,” “Philosophy and Star Trek,” “Learning from YouTube,” “How To Watch Television,” and “Oh, Look, a Chicken!” The questions that immediately come to mind are these: What kind of professor would teach such courses, and what kind of student would spend his time taking such courses? Most importantly, what kind of college president and board of trustees would permit classes in such nonsense? The fact that unscrupulous parents paid millions for special favors from college administrators to enroll their children pales in comparison to the poor educational outcomes, not to mention the gross indoctrination of young people by leftist professors. The post Fraud in Higher Education appeared first on LewRockwell. | Walter E. Williams | http://freedombunker.com/2019/12/03/fraud-in-higher-education/ | Wed, 04 Dec 2019 04:01:00 +0000 | 1,575,450,060 | 1,575,462,772 | education | teaching and learning |
259,518 | instapundit--2019-03-30--HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE A Mole Hunt for Diversity Bias at Villanova An atmosphere o | 2019-03-30T00:00:00 | instapundit | HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Mole Hunt for Diversity ‘Bias’ at Villanova: An atmosphere o… | HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: A Mole Hunt for Diversity ‘Bias’ at Villanova: An atmosphere of fear-imposed silence makes it impossible to achieve a real liberal-arts education. Last fall we were notified by the Villanova administration that new “diversity and inclusion” questions would be added to the course and teaching evaluations that students fill out each semester. In addition to the standard questions about the intellectual worth of the course and the quality of instruction, students are now being asked heavily politicized questions such as whether the instructor has demonstrated “cultural awareness” or created an “environment free of bias based on individual differences or social identities.” In short, students are being asked to rate professors according to their perceived agreement with progressive political opinion on bias and identity. Students are also invited to “comment on the instructor’s sensitivity to the diversity of the students in the class.” Professors are rated on their “sensitivity” to a student’s “biological sex, disability, gender identity, national origin, political viewpoint, race/ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, etc.” The “etc.” in particular seems like an ominous catchall, as if the sole principle of sound teaching has become “that no student shall be offended.” . . . The larger implications are even more disturbing. The new evaluations will allow a professor’s professional performance to be recast as a human resources or even a legal problem. Think about it: You can’t fire a professor for being conservative, but you certainly can fire him for creating a “hostile work environment.” At a minimum, all charges of insensitivity, injustice and bigotry will become part of the faculty’s permanent record. How long will it be before professors cease to challenge their students for fear of losing their careers and livelihoods? | Glenn Reynolds | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/igIxpZk3w0k/ | 2019-03-30 16:24:51+00:00 | 1,553,977,491 | 1,567,544,631 | education | teaching and learning |
286,480 | lewrockwell--2019-05-15--Higher Education in America | 2019-05-15T00:00:00 | lewrockwell | Higher Education in America | Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics at Ohio University Richard Vedder’s new book, “Restoring the Promise,” published by the Independent Institute based in Oakland, California, is about the crisis in higher education. He summarizes the three major problems faced by America’s colleges and universities. First, our universities “are vastly too expensive, often costing twice as much per student compared with institutions in other industrialized democracies.” Second, though there are some important exceptions, students “on average are learning relatively little, spend little time in academic preparation and in some disciplines are indoctrinated by highly subjective ideology.” Third, “there is a mismatch between student occupational expectations after graduation and labor market realities.” College graduates often find themselves employed as baristas, retail clerks and taxi drivers. The extraordinary high college cost not only saddles students with debt, it causes them to defer activities such as getting married and starting a family, buying a home and saving for retirement. Research done by the New York Federal Reserve Banks and the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that each dollar of federal aid to college leads to a tuition increase of 60 cents. For the high cost of college, what do students learn? A seminal study, “Academically Adrift,” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, after surveying 2,300 students at various colleges, argues that very little improvement in critical reasoning skills occurs in college. Adult literacy is falling among college graduates. Large proportions of college graduates do not know simple facts, such as the half-century in which the Civil War occurred. There are some exceptions to this academic incompetency, most notably in technical areas such as engineering, nursing, architecture and accounting, where colleges teach vocationally useful material. Vedder says that student ineptitude is not surprising since they spend little time in classrooms and studying. It’s even less surprising when one considers student high school preparation. According to 2010 and 2013 NAEP test scores, only 37% of 12th-graders were proficient in reading, 25% in math, 12% in history, 20% in geography and 24% in civics. What happens when many of these students graduate saddled with debt? The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in an October 2018 report, finds that many students are underemployed, filling jobs that can be done with a high school education. More than one-third of currently working college graduates are in jobs that do not require a degree, such as flight attendants, janitors and salesmen. In addition to this kind of resource misallocation, 40% or more college students fail to graduate in six years. It is not unreasonable to ask whether college attendance was a wise use of these students’ time and the resources of their parents and taxpayers. Vedder has several important ideas for higher education reform. First, we should put an end to the university monopoly on certifying educational and vocational competency. Non-college organizations could package academic courses and award degrees based upon external examinations. Regarding financial aid, colleges should be forced to share in covering loan defaults, namely they need to have some skin in the game. More importantly, Vedder says that we should end or revise the federal student aid program. Vedder ends “Restoring the Promise” with a number of proposals with which I agree: —College administrative staff often exceeds the teaching staff. Vedder says, “I doubt there is a major campus in America where you couldn’t eliminate very conservatively 10 percent of the administrative payroll (in dollar terms) without materially impacting academic performance.” —Reevaluate academic tenure. Tenure is an employment benefit that has costs, and faculty members should be forced to make tradeoffs between it and other forms of university compensation. —Colleges of education, with their overall poor academic quality, are an embarrassment on most campuses and should be eliminated. —End speech codes on college campuses by using the University of Chicago Principles on free speech. —The most important measure of academic reforms is to make university governing boards independent and meaningful. In my opinion, most academic governing boards are little more than yes men for the president and provost. The Best of Walter E. Williams | Walter E. Williams | https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/05/walter-e-williams/higher-education-in-america/ | 2019-05-15 04:01:00+00:00 | 1,557,907,260 | 1,567,540,659 | education | teaching and learning |
286,635 | lewrockwell--2019-06-19--Black Education Decline | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | lewrockwell | Black Education Decline | New York Mayor Bill de Blasio says that the city’s specialized high schools have a diversity problem. He’s joined by New York City Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza, educators, students and community leaders who want to fix the diversity problem. I bet you can easily guess what they will do to “improve” the racial mix of students (aka diversity). If you guessed they would propose eliminating the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test as the sole criterion for admissions, go to the head of the class. The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test is an examination that is administered to New York City’s eighth- and ninth-grade students. By state law, it is used to determine admission to all but one of the city’s nine specialized high schools. It’s taken as axiomatic that the relatively few blacks admitted to these high-powered schools is somehow tied to racial discrimination. In a June 2, 2018 “Chalkbeat” article (https://tinyurl.com/y64delc3), de Blasio writes: “The problem is clear. Eight of our most renowned high schools — including Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School — rely on a single, high-stakes exam. The Specialized High School Admissions Test isn’t just flawed — it’s a roadblock to justice, progress and academic excellence.” American Contempt for ... Walter E. Williams Best Price: $11.48 Buy New $11.54 (as of 07:35 EDT - Details) Let’s look at a bit of history to raise some questions about the mayor’s diversity hypothesis. Dr. Thomas Sowell provides some interesting statistics about Stuyvesant High School in his book “Wealth, Poverty and Politics.” He reports that, “In 1938, the proportion of blacks attending Stuyvesant High School, a specialized school, was almost as high as the proportion of blacks in the population of New York City.” Since then, it has spiraled downward. In 1979, blacks were 12.9% of students at Stuyvesant, falling to 4.8% in 1995. By 2012, The New York Times reported that blacks were 1.2% of the student body. What explains the decline? None of the usual explanations for racial disparities make sense.In other words, would one want to argue that there was less racial discrimination in 1938? Or, argue that in 1938 the “legacy of slavery” had not taken effect whereby now it is in full bloom? Genetic or environmental arguments cannot explain why blacks of an earlier generation were able to meet the demanding mental test standards to get into an elite high school. Socioeconomic conditions for blacks have improved dramatically since 1938. The only other plausible reason for the decline in academic achievement is that there has been a change in black culture. It doesn’t take much to reach this conclusion. Simply look at school behavior today versus yesteryear. An Education Week article reported that in the 2015-16 school year, “5.8% of the nation’s 3.8 million teachers were physically attacked by a student.” The Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics show that in the 2011-12 academic year, there were a record 209,800 primary- and secondary-school teachers who reported being physically attacked by a student. Nationally, an average of 1,175 teachers and staff were physically attacked, including being knocked out, each day of that school year. In the city of Baltimore, each school day in 2010, an average of four teachers and staff were assaulted. A National Center for Education Statistics study found that 18% of the nation’s schools accounted for 75% of the reported incidents of violence, and 6.6% accounted for half of all reported incidents. These are schools with predominantly black student populations. It’s not only assaults on teachers but cursing and disorderly conduct that are the standard fare in so many predominantly black schools. Here are questions that might be asked of de Blasio and others who want to “fix the diversity problem” at New York’s specialized schools: What has the triumph of egalitarian and diversity principles done for the rest of New York’s school system? Are their academic achievement scores better than students at New York’s specialized schools? The most important question for black parents: What has been allowed to happen to cripple black academic excellence? The Best of Walter E. Williams | Walter E. Williams | https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/06/walter-e-williams/black-education-decline/ | 2019-06-19 04:01:00+00:00 | 1,560,931,260 | 1,567,538,814 | education | teaching and learning |
447,447 | realclearpolitics--2019-03-11--The Recurring Question What About Education | 2019-03-11T00:00:00 | realclearpolitics | The Recurring Question: 'What About Education?' | Whenever I am asked to speak before a gathering of conservatives, one question I can count on hearing is some variation of "What about education?" In other words, "Is there any way to reclaim the culture without first winning back the halls of academe?" Sadly, there isn’t, yet short of violent revolution, there is also little hope for restoring traditional education in public schools that includes civics, moral instruction, and strict discipline. That’s why I tend to be pessimistic about the long-term chances of survival for the free society that is the bequest of the ancient Greeks to our ungrateful generation. Storming the Bastille is one thing, but storming the ivory tower behind its massive defenses of tenure and obdurate tenacity is quite another. I read with interest, therefore, James Delingpole's lament at Breitbart.com last week titled "O Tempora, O Mores! Social Justice Is Killing Classics." It should be noted first of all that Delingpole doesn’t feel the need to translate his Latin quotation, which is the sign of a true classicist. That signals his expectation that anyone with a decent education ought to recognize the quote from Cicero, the Roman statesman, which bewails roughly, “Oh, what times! Oh, what customs!” But of course Latin, once a standard tool of education in Western society, was one of the first casualties of the progressive education system advanced by John Dewey at the start of the 20th century. Under the principles advanced by Dewey and now embedded in every public school in America, education doesn’t serve society. It doesn’t even serve the parents who pay for it. Rather, progressive education sees its client as the student, and this, in a nutshell, is why it caters to the whims of children — children, it goes without saying, who have no interest in learning the dead language of Latin with its declensions, cases, genders and a host of accompanying dead writers to rub it in. As one reporter noted in a news story in 1900 (printed in the Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Journal), the John Dewey school in Chicago is “where children are permitted to grow up and acquire knowledge with the least possible interference from those in charge of them.” No wonder another syndicated writer in 1900, Milton B. Marks, described Dewey’s elementary school at the University of Chicago as a place where children “have little use for books.” “The casual observer would probably make neither head nor tail of the class instruction as it is carried on in this school,” Marks wrote, “and would conclude that the children were enjoying a perpetual holiday.” Well, that perpetual holiday has now lasted more than 100 years, and the children who were educated by Dewey taught the children who grew up to teach communist educator Bill Ayers, who grew up to teach the teachers who teach your children, and now your children think that they can do whatever they want whenever they want — and frankly so do most of their parents! But it would be nice if they would keep their hands off the classics. Plutarch and Homer and Herodotus and Marcus Aurelius were doing just fine before the social justice warriors discovered them. Sadly, the pesky revisionists of the left have taken over classical studies and are busily cleansing their ranks of backward-thinking scholars who reject identity politics and political correctness. Delingpole recounts the story of Mary Frances Williams, a classics Ph.D. who attended the annual meeting of the Society of Classical Studies for intellectual stimulation but left it in academic disgrace. Her crime? As Delingpole notes, “She made the mistake of trying to speak out against the corruption of the [c]lassical curriculum by identity politics, race-baiting and anti-male hysteria.” Williams told her own fascinating story in a Quillette essay titled “How I was Kicked Out of the Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting.” To make a long story short, it turns out that a speaker at the conference, Princeton professor Dan-el Padilla Peralta, had stumbled upon the “dirty secret” of classics — that old white men were more interested in Latin and Greek than any other group of people. No surprise there, right? Another speaker at the conference, Joy Connolly, said that “ancient languages could not be taught anymore by [c]lassics departments” because students just weren’t interested. Those old white men were, but it seems that their aptitude for ancient languages, history and philosophy means less than their “white privilege.” Interest in the classics should not predetermine success in the field, Padilla seemed to be arguing — not if you are white. Instead, qualified scholars who happened to be white men should voluntarily step aside in order to improve the quantity of scholars of color enjoying the perks of publication. Sound too crazy to be true? Just read his words for yourself: “... white men will have to surrender the privilege they have of seeing their words printed and disseminated. They will have to take a back seat, so that people of colour, and women, and gender-non-conforming scholars of colour benefit from the privileges, career and otherwise, of seeing their words on the page.” According to Williams, “Padilla said nothing about merit, the content of the article in question, or how it was reasoned. He said that articles by white men should be excluded from consideration, regardless of their merit, if members of other ethnic or racial groups submitted work for publication at the same time.” Williams tells the story of how she rose to speak in defense of traditional scholarship and of the importance of the classics to the development of Western civilization and “the concepts of liberty, equality, and democracy” that underpin it. She never got a chance to argue against using race as the determinant in scholarly publication because her defense of Western civilization triggered those in the audience into a state of near panic. Nothing better encapsulates the state of disrepair of our education establishment than this pitiful encounter that resulted in Williams being banned from the conference and losing a part-time job for another professional society. With her essay in Quillette, Williams has become an accidental warrior in the battle to preserve the best of Western civilization from the likes of John Dewey and Dan-el Padilla Peralta. As she wrote, “Of all the academic disciplines, [c]lassics alone has managed until now to withstand most of the corrupting influences of modern critical theory and ‘social justice’ activism. Ours is the last bastion of Western [c]ivilization in the academy.” If that tiny redoubt has fallen, then we must be even more pessimistic than ever that there is a road back from the brink. If we are to enjoy a new Renaissance, it must begin with a cry of retreat — whether in the form of home-schooling or increased participation in private schools — but then it would ultimately require a non-violent revolution on local school boards. Parents must demand a return to methods of traditional education — the kind of education that insists on students learning not just the fundamentals of knowledge, but also the moral, religious and cultural underpinnings that give that knowledge meaning and significance. Without such a change, we face a long Dark Age where dogma replaces logic and wisdom is hidden away in hopes of a future generation that escapes the tyranny of political correctness. | <a href="/authors/frank_miele" data-mce-href="../../authors/frank_miele">Frank Miele</a>, RealClearPolitics | https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/11/the_recurring_question_what_about_education_139701.html | 2019-03-11 12:16:26+00:00 | 1,552,320,986 | 1,567,546,678 | education | teaching and learning |
499,905 | sottnet--2019-04-07--University of Washington Ed Program Leftist Indoctrination Not Teacher Education | 2019-04-07T00:00:00 | sottnet | University of Washington Ed. Program: Leftist Indoctrination, Not Teacher Education | Having decided to become a high school teacher, I was excited to be accepted to the University of Washington's Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP), which awards a masters degree in teaching and bills itself as a 12-month combination of theory and practice. Cognizant that in just over a year I would be responsible for teaching students on my own, and because of the university's laudable reputation, I expected the program to be grounded in challenging practical work and research, both in terms of how to develop academic skills in young people, and also in the crucial role public education has in overcoming some of the most grave and intransigent problems in society.I am not interested in politics or controversy, and I derive no pleasure in creating difficulties for the UW out of personal resentment. But whenever family and friends ask me about graduate school, I have to explain that rather than an academic program centered around pedagogy and public policy,As a consequence, the key components of teaching as a vocation-pedagogy and how best to disseminate knowledge-are fundamentally neglected. With little practical training or preparation, graduates of the program begin their teaching careers woefully unprepared. Even for the most ardent social justice activist, STEP's lack of practical content is a serious shortcoming.To put this in context, STEP's approach to education deserves some explanation. Public schools haven't done a great job of bridging ugly chasms in American life, such as the racial academic achievement gap between black and white populations, which has hardly narrowed since the Civil Rights Act. Discrimination based on gender and sexuality remain impediments to equality of opportunity and the way children are currently treated in public schools is clearly a part of that. The statistics on these matters are appalling, and slow progress is no excuse for complacency. Additionally, teachers should work to cultivate catholic tastes, and in light of demographic changes, white Americans shouldn't expect the literature and old-fashioned narrative history of Europe and the United States to be considered the normal curriculum, with a few token "diverse" authors alongside Shakespeare and Hemingway. Nonetheless, while these challenges exist, and although public education is a vital mechanism in the struggle to resolve inequality and to further the development of an open cosmopolitan culture, the program's attempts to address these issues are deeply disturbing.And so a culture emerges rapidly in the 60-student cohort in which words and phrases fall under constant scrutiny, and ideas thought to be inimical to social justice are pounced on as oppressive. Moreover, instead of imparting knowledge about the rudiments of pedagogy or how to develop curriculum content and plan for high school classes, the faculty and leadership declare that their essential mission is to combat the colonialism, misogyny and homophobia that is endemic in American society.When you consider that STEP's ostensible purpose is to prepare graduates to become novice high school teachers, this approach in a public university is difficult to justify.With a few notable exceptions, the content one might expect to study at graduate school is absent.Students are expected to demonstrate that the attributes of their personal identity (always reduced to race, sexuality and gender, and sometimes disability status) will shape their assumptions when they work as classroom teachers. Practically speaking, the purpose is to have teachers acknowledge and embrace a broad variety of behavioral norms and activities in the classroom and to explore a wider range of academic content than has traditionally been the case in American public schools. Above all,A good illustration of this ideology in practise is manifest in ' The Case of Carla ,' a Science Education paper that has gained something of canonical status at the UW. After observing a sixth-grade classroom, the authors of this study conclude that the subconscious privileging of white students' behavior by a white teacher and her white students is the cause of an African-American girl's relatively low academic performance. In this article, sweeping conclusions about the impact of racial and gender dynamics in science education across the public school system are based on the observation of four elementary school students over a few weeks, which doesn't seem like a very robust approach. Nonetheless, the faculty of UW's Ed School treat it as an intellectual lodestar. In one of our classes, students were asked to parse a transcript from the classroom of a white American teacher in which she challenged one of her Native American students who had claimed that water is biologically alive. Rather than analyzing her academic aims, how she came to develop her lesson plan, or her pedagogical techniques, the purpose of this session was to impress upon us that she was perpetuating oppression because she had rejected the spiritual beliefs of a non-Western culture.STEP's relentless assumption is that group identity is the most important determinant of success or failure in public education and in civic life, and that all inequality can be attributed to discrimination, conscious or unconscious, perpetrated primarily by straight white men and other reactionary elements. BecauseThis focus on ideology comes at the cost of studying the craft of teaching or how to productively deal with difficult social problems on a small scale. Much of the practical teaching guidance we were given has no demonstrable efficacy or validation in the peer-reviewed literature.. STEP is a travesty in its disservice to its own students and, because the program neglects the practice of teaching in favor of pontifications on social justice, it lets down the disadvantaged children it purports to serve. Each year it sends out a cohort of graduates who, due to a lack of preparation, are likely to become overwhelmed in a profession already suffering from alarming rates of attrition, particularly in high-needs schools.One of the more peculiar and psychologically manipulative requirements in STEP is called. White students are required to demonstrate contrition for their privilege with examples of how whiteness, latent racism, and America's institutionalized racism has benefitted them personally. Essentially, in these classes white people are asked to sit around to free-associate and express how badly they feel about race relations in America. Students of color are put in a separate caucus and at the close of the first quarter the two groups are united into one caucus and, convening in a large circle, are asked to stand up and pat their thighs, rub their palms together and click their fingers-to create the sound of a thunderstorm, for some reason. If my experience is anything to go by, the students of color then regale the group with their painful experiences and excoriate the white students, making accusations of racism and subconscious marginalization. After many tears and public apologies, my caucus finished with everyone being asked to hug one another.This, inevitably, led to further apologies, crying, hand-wringing, mandatory contrite letter-writing for white students, and a deep sense of foreboding each week as the class descended further into chaos and uncertainty from which it never recovered.The worrying educational disparity between girls and boys that has emerged in recent decades-whereby girls outperform boys in every educational phase-was not discussed, presumably because it falls outside the paradigm of male privilege and female oppression. Again and again, for months on end, several professors addressed the concept of microaggressions, always in a blatantly accusatory manner, as if graduate students in Seattle are likely to say to a female student "You're smart-for a girl!" or ask an Asian-American person: "But, where are you really from?"In STEP it is considered wholly appropriate to saddle an individual with all the characteristics of their group identity, a frightening concept indeed, which obviously has a real effect on how students conduct themselves towards one another, and, presumably, their future pupils.Another interesting and lengthy feature in STEP areStudents and instructors then parse the performances and discuss the dynamics of identity that play out in each scene. Eventually, when I questioned the pedagogical rationale of the "Theatre of the Oppressed" and the inordinate amount of time being spent on these workshops-I was paying good money for this course-I was told that it would help me as a classroom teacher to avoid the "violence" shown in the theatre scenes. When I pressed the TA to show me the evidence that this was an effective method, I was told that these workshops are "considered valuable" and that I should "work through" my "discomfort." Obviously, no evidence for their efficacy was ever presented.In one session, the instructor rejected all gender pronouns and required that we dance to Beyoncé songs while discussing instances of hetero-normative behavior and homophobia. In another class in the second quarter we were required to bring in items that represented us-a task that proved to be nothing more than Show & Tell, a harbinger of the academic rigor to come. These tasks, which require precisely no academic work, would be comical if graduate school was tuition-free and a lack of preparedness for teaching had no real-world impact.Another issue with STEP is that it woefully misallocates resources and time, even if the content under consideration is reasonable in and of itself, which it occasionally is. For instance, one class focused on the historic discrimination against African-Americans in Seattle through practices like red-lining, wherein banks would refuse to grant mortgages to qualified black customers in certain neighborhoods, inhibiting the accumulation of inter-generational wealth in black communities. This class went on for an entire quarter, with presumably no purpose other than to demonstrate reasons for the educational achievement gap and the related wealth divide between black and white populations in the United States. I was shocked at the level of ignorance assumed by the faculty in a cohort of graduate students-as if educated adults would have been hitherto unaware of the effects on contemporary society of the historic persecution of African-American people. However, openly disputing the academic program would have drawn social stigma and accusations of racism or "white fragility," which proved to be a powerful incentive to slog through the content, regardless of its relevance to pedagogy or the dissemination of academic knowledge to young people.. In one class, students in small groups monitor how much each person speaks, and for how long, in order to collect data on the participation rates of the various racial, gender, or sexuality categories. Incredibly, the chosen teaching method of several instructors is to put students in groups to create a poster using a sheet of butcher paper and colored Sharpies in reference to an issue raised in the week's readings, or after jigsawing a complex text between several students who have to explain it to one another. After several three-minute lectures, students then mill around the room with Post-It Notes making anodyne comments. These kinds of ridiculous juvenile tasks and restrictions, put on by professors with little work experience outside K-12 education, make a mockery of graduate school and remind you of the worst teachers you had growing up. I suppose they had one redeeming virtue: they teach you exactly how not to behave in a classroom.The program does have some elements of practical merit. A few sessions on how to create academic assessments for students were engaging and useful. I took two social studies methods classes and found them to be excellent. These classes teach you what methods to use to engage students in critical thinking and historical debate. One method, called Inquiry, calls for the teacher to ask a question, present different hypotheses and data sets, and then ask the students to work together to construct arguments for the validity of each side in a debate. Compared with lecturing, students are much more likely to engage with the content and to understand that history is debatable, authority should be challenged, opinions have to be grounded in data, and that engaging with the other side is critical in the development of academic expertise and authority. This is backed by decades of pedagogical research, and is the content that one might expect would typify the teaching in an ed school at a research university. Unfortunately, the professor who teaches these classes, who has been at the UW for more than 30 years, is about to retire, and there is no reason to expect him to be replaced by someone with a similar approach. And although he has garnered immense respect from decades of teaching and research, identity politics encroached on his classes, too: students complained of prejudice because he asked us to consider the various plausible reasons for the sinking of the Titanic as an illustration of how to debate a well-known historical narrative with high school students-this, apparently, is "Eurocentrism."To dispute the UW's received wisdom that a cohort of 60 graduate students should spend most of their year in ed school discussing identity politics would be tantamount to opposing the goal of ending discrimination and inequality in American life. This is how a pervasive intellectual orthodoxy emerges and remains unchallenged. And this is how the social justice elements in STEP get ratcheted up each year by a small, noisy group of committed student activists who intimidate their peers and professors into agreement and silence. Indeed, the program prides itself on its innovative and extreme measures to incorporate social justice activism into the academy with an almost theological confidence that this panacea will finally resolve all the problems in contemporary public education. At the University of Washington, the social justice zeitgeist has transformed a vocational program into something unrecognizable if you're not already familiar with campus activism., such as the courses offered by Western Governors University , an online college. A combination of that alongside easily-attainable reading materials and a chance to develop your expertise organically through field experience and trial and error and advice from veteran teachers who live and work in the real world is far more worthwhile. This is a terrible conclusion to draw, because teaching is an immensely difficult task and graduate school programs with a focus on pedagogy and academic excellence could ease the transition for novices into a successful teaching career. The instructors at STEP might even alleviate some of the social problems they claim to care about if they did.Nick Wilson is a pseudonym. He is a graduate of the University of Washington's secondary teacher education program. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/410708-University-of-Washington-Ed-Program-Leftist-Indoctrination-Not-Teacher-Education | 2019-04-07 21:08:15+00:00 | 1,554,685,695 | 1,567,543,730 | education | teaching and learning |
576,244 | telesurtv--2019-06-25--Cuba To Help Nicaragua Improve Its Education System | 2019-06-25T00:00:00 | telesurtv | Cuba To Help Nicaragua Improve Its Education System | Cuba’s government has signed cooperation agreements with Nicaragua, which the Sandinista government hopes will help strengthen its education system. There will be "exchanges" whereby Cuba will visit and share their experiences building a world-class school system. > _**RELATED:**_ > > [_**Nicaragua Creates 2,000 ‘Reconciliation Commissions’ for Peace**_](https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Nicaragua-Creates-2000 -Reconciliation-Commissions-for-Peace-20190618-0007.html) Nicaragua’s Vice President Rosario Murillo announced Tuesday that Cuba’s Education Minister Ana Elsa Velazquez is visiting the country. The visit comes as the two countries sign accords relating to cooperation in various areas of education, and on the training of Nicaragua’s teaching staff. State media has reported details of what Cuba’s minister has planned during her visit. She will speak in the towns of Esteli and Matagalpa to conferences of primary school teachers, where she will explain how Cuba has built a quality education system, including the use of "mobile teachers" that are deployed to homes where children are unable to attend their local institution. Vice President Murillo celebrated the visit, saying; “Cuba is a wonderful country of solidarity, and with a high level of development in quality education, and with a long-standing commitment to solidarity and revolutionary fraternity.” The achievements of Cuba’s education system have been praised internationally. These include the elimination of illiteracy in just one year at the beginning of the revolution. The teaching methods and programs used to achieve this, known as ‘Yo Si Puedo’ (Yes I Can) have been deployed in Venezuela and Bolivia to eliminate illiteracy in the respective countries. According to World Bank figures, as a proportion of its GDP, Cuba[ spends more](https://cuba- solidarity.org.uk/information/facts/) than any other country in the world on its public education system, which is free at all levels for its citizens. | teleSUR/ov-MH | https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-To-Help-Nicaragua-Improve-Its-Education-System-20190625-0013.html | 2019-06-25 16:47:19+00:00 | 1,561,495,639 | 1,567,538,224 | education | teaching and learning |
576,761 | theamericanconservative--2019-05-13--How Massachusetts Showed the Way on Education Reform | 2019-05-13T00:00:00 | theamericanconservative | How Massachusetts Showed the Way on Education Reform | We are now nearly four decades beyond the publication of A Nation at Risk, a federal report that indicted the “rising tide of mediocrity” and initiated a well-deserved period of hand-wringing about K-12 public education in the United States. Massachusetts was the only state to respond to the call to create a school system that would be among the best in the world. Sadly, now even the Bay State is retreating from the policies that delivered its historic success. The landmark Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, which was entirely state-led, pushed academic content and high standards over the Bush I and Clinton administrations’ agenda of K-12 education as merely workforce development training. Today, however, Beltway-driven initiatives like the Obama administration’s Common Core State Standards, together with a new generation of state leaders who seem to have forgotten the importance of tying new money to high standards, accountability and enhanced school choice, threaten to undermine the reforms that made the Bay State the nation’s unquestioned educational leader. The Education Reform Act required the state to draft liberal arts-rich “curriculum frameworks” to help schools choose curricula by specifying the content students should be able to master. Developed after years of public debate and with input from teachers and experts, the English, writing, math, science, and history frameworks were internationally benchmarked, with an eye toward authentic college readiness. Classic literature, like the works of Charles Dickens, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, made up about 80 to 90 percent of the English content. In math, students were required to start studying algebra in the eighth grade, years before the National Mathematics Advisory Panel made the same recommendation. A wide range of voices—including the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, noted standards expert E. D. Hirsch, Jr., educational historian Diane Ravitch, Achieve, Inc., and the American Federation of Teachers—hailed the Massachusetts frameworks as national models. Passing Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests based on the frameworks became a high school graduation requirement early in the current century. The tests also earned accolades and applied pressure to school systems to develop rigorous curricula. If they didn’t, their students’ scores would show it. Another state test was developed for new teachers, who had to demonstrate communication and literacy skills and the knowledge to teach this material within the frameworks. The results of the reform were better than even the law’s authors had hoped. Beginning in 1993, Massachusetts’ SAT scores rose for 13 consecutive years. The state’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shot up, too. By 2005, Massachusetts students became the first to score best in the nation in all four major NAEP categories (fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math). Since then, they have repeated the feat on every subsequent administration of NAEP except one. While American students as a whole lag behind their international peers, the 2007 and 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study results showed that Massachusetts students were competitive with their counterparts in places like Japan, Korea, and Singapore. In 2007, the Bay State’s eighth graders even tied for first place internationally in science. In addition to across-the-board improvements, race- and class-based achievement gaps narrowed. E.D. Hirsch found that Massachusetts was one of three states that made the most progress at reducing achievement gaps between 1998 and 2005. Between 2002 and 2009, the NAEP scores of African Americans and Hispanics on both fourth- and eighth-grade reading tests improved more rapidly than those of white students. Low-income students made gains as well. With this record, Massachusetts should be the model for other states to follow. But the Bay State has chosen to retreat from its own success. In 2008, Massachusetts turned its back on accountability when an independent agency that conducted comprehensive audits of school districts was eliminated. When the Obama administration kicked off its push to federalize public education by making adoption of Common Core English and math standards a condition of receiving federal grant money, Massachusetts acquiesced. It adopted the standards in 2010. Common Core cut the amount of classic literature, drama, and poetry that Massachusetts students study by 60 percent. The math standards, which Stanford University mathematics professor emeritus R. James Milgram called “shopping cart math,” no longer get students to algebra by eighth grade. Subsequent revisions also dumbed down the Bay State’s science and U.S. history standards. In 2009, then-governor Deval Patrick’s administration brushed aside the state law that required history to join English, math, and science as a high-stakes test. Instead he pushed new age fads, including educating the “whole child” and vacuous “21st-century skills.” The Education Reform Act had also created the nation’s best charter schools. A Stanford University study found that Boston charters were doing more to close achievement gaps than any other group of public schools in the country. But after the failure of repeated legislative attempts to loosen restrictions on the number of charters that could operate, supporters chose to make the issue the subject of a statewide referendum in 2016. Opponents prevailed, claiming charters “drain money” from traditional public schools, even though Massachusetts is the only state to provide full and partial reimbursements to school districts that lose students to charters. Results from the dismantling of education reform have been swift and predictable. While Massachusetts still ranks first on NAEP, from 2011 to 2017, state scores either stagnated or declined in both English and math. In the Common Core era, the Bay State was among those that saw the biggest declines in math. By 2013, the percentage of students scoring “Proficient” on MCAS fourth-grade reading tests had fallen by 10 points. SAT scores have also dropped significantly, especially in writing. More than a quarter-century after education reform, the state’s K-12 funding formula is no longer keeping up with rising health insurance and special education costs. Rather than tie new money to reforms, the foundation of the historic 1993 law, it appears lawmakers plan to simply increase spending with no strings attached. If your children ever grouse about why they have to learn history, you might want to direct them to the story of public education in Massachusetts. Here, state leaders have forgotten what led to the nation’s most successful reforms and appear determined to return to the barren landscape that existed before they were enacted. Massachusetts has demonstrated what works in public education. Why are the state’s leaders running away from it? Charles Chieppo is a senior fellow at and Jamie Gass directs the Center for School Reform at Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank. | Charles Chieppo and Jamie Gass | https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-massachusetts-showed-the-way-on-education-reform/ | 2019-05-13 04:01:17+00:00 | 1,557,734,477 | 1,567,540,774 | education | teaching and learning |
684,621 | theguardianuk--2019-01-11--What do you think about the future of education | 2019-01-11T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | What do you think about the future of education? | Do you have good ideas about education, or want to ask a question about what it could like like in the future? If so, let us know by sharing your thoughts with our panel of education experts to examine what can be done to improve education, and make systems more equal. Whether you’re a teacher, student, academic, social worker, policymaker, parent, and wherever you are in the world, we want to hear from you. This is what Alex Beard, author of Natural Born Learners, and one of our panellists for this podcast, has to say: “Most schools today are not teaching kids how to learn. We lack a common understanding of what education is and what purpose it serves. We set national targets and arrange institutions and organise people so that they can deliver on those targets. This managerial thinking has been around for 100 years. But by standardising things in this way across classrooms, you undermine the efforts of educators.” In an increasingly interdependent world, it’s vital that we strive to understand not just what it is that makes other societies tick, but how others – be they British, Japanese, German or Argentinian – endeavour to solve the same problems that we all share. In this month’s podcast, we will be focusing on the issue of education, and how we as a global community can improve standards of education for children of all nationalities, genders, ethnicities and economic backgrounds. What are the techniques and methods we can all use to reform education models? How far are they needed, and how far can they stretch? Wendy Kopp explains the extent of the issue in her article ‘It’ll take a village to reform global education’: “More than 60 percent of primary school children in low- and middle- income countries do not reach a minimum proficiency in reading and math. We’re even further from ensuring the world’s children gain the competencies and dispositions necessary to shape a better future for themselves and all of us.” One thing is clear: the learning crisis is severe. But the conversation on education still needs to shift towards an understanding that this is a crisis that needs fixing – we know where we want to get to, but we don’t yet know how to get there. Of course, what works in one country might not work entirely in another, but recognising that there are other ways to do things might be a good place to start. What are the common issues we all face? What approaches have you seen implemented, or helped to implement, and what beneficial changes have been brought about in the systems you work in? Now we’d like to hear from you. What ideas do you have for education? How do you think we can make it more inclusive? What can we learn from other societies? Or what questions would you like answered? Let us know by sharing your questions in our encrypted form below. Or you can send an email to [email protected], please include your question or comment, your name, and a phone number so we can call you to make a recording. We’ll feature some of your responses in our podcast. If you’re having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here. If you’d like to catch up with the podcast and previous discussions, you can do so at gu.com/talk-about. | null | https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2019/jan/11/podcast-future-of-education | 2019-01-11 15:05:14+00:00 | 1,547,237,114 | 1,567,552,961 | education | teaching and learning |
2,748 | abcnews--2019-12-02--Police: ‘Critical incident’ at high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but building ‘safe,’ suspect in c | 2019-12-02T00:00:00 | abcnews | Police: ‘Critical incident’ at high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but building ‘safe,’ suspect in custody | Police: ‘Critical incident’ at high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but building ‘safe,’ suspect in custody Police: ‘Critical incident’ at high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, but building ‘safe,’ suspect in custody | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-critical-incident-high-school-waukesha-wisconsin-building-67440894 | Mon, 02 Dec 2019 12:17:23 -0500 | 1,575,307,043 | 1,575,308,811 | education | school |
167,492 | eveningstandard--2019-03-13--Nigeria school collapse Eight dead after three-storey building collapses with 100 children inside | 2019-03-13T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Nigeria school collapse: Eight dead after three-storey building collapses with 100 children inside | Eight people have died after a three-storey building that contained a primary school in Nigeria collapsed with at least 100 students inside. A major, frantic rescue operation was under way and rescuers have carried about 37 people out from the rubble. Video from the scene in the country's commercial capital Lagos on Wednesday showed at least one dust-covered child being carried out of the wreckage. Onlookers crowded around in the densely populated neighbourhood in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, cheered as the child was lifted out. The crowd again celebrated as another child was pulled from the rubble. National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye said 37 people had been pulled out alive while eight bodies were recovered from the ruins. An unknown number remained missing. It was not immediately clear why the building collapsed but such disasters are all too common in Nigeria, where new construction often goes up without regulatory oversight and floors are added to already unstable buildings. Lagos state governor Akinwunmi Ambode said the building, which had been marked for demolition, was classified as residential and the school was operating illegally on the top two floors. Thousands of people swarmed the rescue site, with people standing in narrow streets and on rooftops of rusted, corrugated metal as a single yellow excavator scooped at the ruins. A number of shirtless, barefoot men jumped in to offer assistance with hacksaws and mallets in hand. It is not yet clear how many children have been pulled from the rubble, and how many have survived. Management Agency's southwest region, adding that casualty figures were not yet available. Building collapses are common in Nigeria, where new construction often goes up without regulatory oversight The collapse comes as President Muhammadu Buhari, newly elected to a second term, tries to improve groaning, inefficient infrastructure in Africa's most populous nation. "Nigeria's infrastructure is generally less than half the size than in the average sub-Saharan Africa country and only a fraction of that in emerging market economies," the International Monetary Fund has noted. "The perceived quality of the infrastructure is low." In 2016, more than 100 people died when the roof of a church in Uyo, in the south of Nigeria, caved in. | Sean Morrison, Bonnie Christian | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/nigeria-school-collapse-major-rescue-operation-under-way-after-threestorey-building-collapses-with-a4090701.html | 2019-03-13 12:55:00+00:00 | 1,552,496,100 | 1,567,546,392 | education | school |
185,191 | eveningstandard--2019-09-23--Nairobi school collapse At least seven children killed after building falls down in Kenya | 2019-09-23T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Nairobi school collapse: At least seven children killed after building falls down in Kenya | At least seven children have been killed after a school collapsed in Kenya's capital. Hundreds of people gathered at The Precious Talent Top School in Nairobi as emergency workers picked through the debris. Parents were wailing over the school's remains and it was not clear whether anyone was still trapped underneath. Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna confirmed the seven deaths, and Kenyatta National Hospital later said 64 children had been admitted, most with minor injuries. However, two children were said to be in a critical condition. "The children here were all running away and crying," said neighbour Michael Otieno. More than 800 students are enrolled at the school, officials said. One survivor, 10-year-old Tracy Oduor, said: "We were in class reading and we heard pupils and teachers screaming, and the class started collapsing and then a stone hit me on the mouth. "When we got out of the gate we heard that pupils were dead. I feel so sad." It was not immediately clear why the building of corrugated metal and wood collapsed on Monday morning. Construction can be poorly regulated in some fast-growing Kenyan communities. "You can easily break it with your own hands, as easy as that," Peter Ouko, a neighbour, said of the building materials. "This is chicken wire, not a construction material, and someone had the guts to use this to build a construction for our kids. I think this is basically premeditated murder." Nathaniel Matalanga, a structural engineer with La Femme Engineering Services, told reporters he didn't think "any professionals" were involved in the school's construction and he blamed "greed." There was no immediate comment from school officials. | Rebecca Speare-Cole | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/nairobi-school-collapse-at-least-seven-children-killed-after-building-falls-down-in-kenya-a4244186.html | 2019-09-23 13:39:29+00:00 | 1,569,260,369 | 1,570,222,401 | education | school |
337,176 | naturalnews--2019-10-04--Engineering school lowers entry requirements for women guaranteeing the future collapse of building | 2019-10-04T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Engineering school lowers entry requirements for women, guaranteeing the future collapse of buildings that are engineered by people who couldn't make the cut | (Natural News) Since women apparently aren’t smart enough to make it in the field of engineering on their own merits, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia has decided to give them a little extra boost by drastically lowering its entry requirements, making it easier for women to get accepted into the program. According to reports, the goal is “to get more women to study engineering and consequently get into the engineering workforce” by basically dumbing down the entire engineering curriculum. In the process, UTS will be able to virtue signal about how “diverse” it is, while simultaneously disenfranchising men who are actually qualified for entry into the program. Even though the actual reason why there are more men than women in engineering has to do with lack of interest rather than lack of smarts, UTS has decided to insult the entire female gender by insinuating that women require special treatment because they’re just too darn stupid to achieve anything on their own. What UTS is telling women, in essence, is that their brains are incapable of comprehending what it means to be an engineer under the current high standards. As a results, these standards need to be abolished in order to make engineering more “inclusive.” Our immediate thought, which may be yours as well, is that dumbing down the field of engineering like this in a sexist attempt at drawing in more women isn’t exactly sustainable in terms of public safety. Sponsored solution from the Health Ranger Store: Lab-verified Nascent Iodine solution is a dietary supplement that provides your body with supplemental iodine to help protect your thyroid during radiation exposure. Nuclear accidents such as Fukushima (or nuclear war) can expose your body to radioactive iodine-131, a dangerous radioisotope. Pre-loading your system with stable iodine occupies the iodine receptor sites on your organs, causing your body to naturally expel radioactive iodine you may have been exposed to through air, food, water or milk products. This defensive strategy is recommended by nearly all health authorities, worldwide, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Discover more at this link. Recognizing that female “engineers” will now be given certifications and degrees for qualifications they don’t actually possess, it’s only a matter of time before the office buildings and parking structures they help “build” start collapsing due to shoddy work. Such a scenario has already taken place in Florida, where a bridge actually collapsed due to “a glaring weakness at a key connection point,” which experts admitted after the fact was “apparently overlooked by designers.” The bridge was built at Florida International University in Miami, and was meant to be a “uniquely memorable bridge” – which it has now become, but in a much different way than intended. “… the design hid a fatal flaw that its designers and reviewers failed to recognize, according to experts who have examined plans and mathematical calculations of the project,” reported the Miami Herald. If the next generation of engineers ends up lacking the know-how in properly building bridges, skyscrapers, and other massive structures because they were unfairly awarded the title of “engineer” simply for having a vagina, then it’s only a matter of time before more such incidents become an everyday occurrence, putting potentially millions of lives at risk. On the flip side, there are plenty of women currently studying law and medicine, two fields with high or higher standards than engineering, which once again proves that women aren’t too dumb to be engineers, but rather aren’t interested in being engineers. “The men who are discriminated against, who work hard to get into the schools, who have an actual interest in engineering who will now be passed over for less qualified women, are not victims,” wrote one Infowars commenter, sarcastically. “No, it’s the women who are given preferential treatment who are the real victims,” he added, noting that the feminist society of today is “always pretending that everyone except white men are the victims, even as it is only white men who are discriminated against.” For more news about how American society caters to women at the expense of men, and all in the name of “diversity,” be sure to check out PoliticalCorrectness.news. | Ethan Huff | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-10-04-engineering-school-lowers-entry-requirements-for-women.html | 2019-10-04 03:46:21+00:00 | 1,570,175,181 | 1,570,633,660 | education | school |
569,108 | tass--2019-08-14--Russia to build 83 new schools before year-end minister says | 2019-08-14T00:00:00 | tass | Russia to build 83 new schools before year-end, minister says | GORNO-ALTAYSK, August 14. /TASS/. The Russian "Education" National Project stipulates construction of 83 schools in the country in 2019, Russian Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva said at an extended meeting overseeing the project implementation on Wednesday. "Thirty-nine new schools have already been built across the country by now, 83 schools will have been built by the end of 2019. This is a great number that cannot but delight us. At the same time, each [citizen] should be aware that it is not just construction of boxes, buildings. This is installing modern, advanced equipment," she said. The minister underlined that the construction of schools is an important yet not the key task of the National Project. "We should strive for every family, every student, every parent and every person living in Russia to feel that something is truly changing in the national education [system]," she clarified. The "Education" National Project is implemented in 2019-2024, with the overall budget of 784.5 billion rubles ($12 billion). It is planned that the project will ensure the competitive nature of the Russian education, as well as Russia’s ascension to the top ten leading countries in the education quality. | null | https://tass.com/society/1073321 | 2019-08-14 06:31:37+00:00 | 1,565,778,697 | 1,567,534,204 | education | school |
644,023 | thedailyrecord--2019-02-04--Balloch school celebrates positive report one year after new building opens | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | Balloch school celebrates positive report one year after new building opens | Staff at Balloch Primary have welcomed a positive report from school inspectors - almost one year since the new school opened its doors. Learning, teaching and assessment were evaluated as “good” by Education Scotland inspectors when they visited the newly formed Balloch Primary campus last year. Raising attainment and achievement were also evaluated as “satisfactory” and numeracy was identified as a particular strength across the school. Education Scotland have praised the “very positive relationships between staff and children” and noted that “the whole school community has made a commendable effort to merge two schools and develop a new identity.” We reported in February last year how pupils from the former Jamestown and Haldane primaries merged together in a new state of-the-art campus to form Balloch Primary. The school shares its new campus with St Kessog’s Primary. The inspection commended Balloch Primary’s adopted motto: “Be Brilliant at Balloch” for its positivity However, inspectors also noted areas for improvement including the recommendation of a more effective use of assessment and encouraging the children to read more for enjoyment. For more local news, click here. | Carla Donald | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/balloch-school-celebrates-positive-report-13951520 | 2019-02-04 15:49:24+00:00 | 1,549,313,364 | 1,567,549,685 | education | school |
653,309 | thedailyrecord--2019-11-05--Work to begin on new school building for Carnbroe and Sikeside merger | 2019-11-05T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | Work to begin on new school building for Carnbroe and Sikeside merger | Work is set to start in late summer next year on the new school building to replace the existing Carnbroe and Sikeside primaries. The project, which also includes new facilities for Calder community centre, is currently at the “detailed design and cost modelling” stage, which is due to be complete by mid-2020. Pupils could then move into the building at Paddock Street in August 2022; and a two-year construction project would then get underway to build a new St Stephen’s Primary building on its current site at Sykeside Road. North Lanarkshire’s education committee members were recently updated on the progress of the Coatbridge schools, plus three others across Monklands which are at early planning stages. The merger of Sikeside and Carnbroe primaries was first agreed by councillors five years ago, with the amalgamated school originally due to move to a new joint campus with St Stephen’s; but the proposal was changed in 2017 to the creation of two schools due to rising projected rolls. A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council told the Advertiser: “The Carnbroe and Sikeside primaries project is about to commence detailed design and cost modelling, due to be complete by summer 2020. “Construction is expected to commence on site towards the end of the summer next year, for approximately 24 months, with the new facilities fully operational for the start of the new term in 2022. “It will incorporate the existing Carnbroe and Sikeside primaries, [and] will have a pupil capacity of 534 to meet future roll requirements as a result of the significant increase in housebuilding in the area. “The new [building] will also provide a replacement for the existing community facilities provided by Calder community centre; the local community will have use of its sports facilities, including the large games hall and 3G all-weather playing field.” Pupils at St Stephen’s will then decant into the former Sikeside building – located beside their current school on Sykeside Road – for two years while a new school is built on its current site. Click here for more from Airdrie and Coatbridge The local authority spokesperson added: “Design development of St Stephen’s will commence when construction of the new [Carnbroe] community campus starts. “The aim is that when Sikeside Primary relocates, St Stephen’s will decant into their old building [to] allow demolition of the existing St Stephen’s and the construction of its replacement – expected to commence in summer 2022 with likely completion in 2024.” Original proposals for a joint campus incorporating all three schools and a community centre had been drawn up in 2016, but changed to two standalone schools after roll projections reached a combined 926 pupils because of “a significant increase in housebuilding”, with 455 homes due to be built in the area. Education committee members were also updated on work towards providing new schools for Gartcosh, Chryston and St Kevin’s primaries. “A preferred site has been identified” for Gartcosh Primary, while preparatory work on the requirements for an enlarged Chryston Primary is soon due to be finalised – and both are described as “a top priority due to current capacity pressures”. The Advertiser told in May how St Kevin’s Primary is to move out of the joint campus it has shared with Bargeddie for the past 12 years and into a new standalone school on the former Drumpark site, in order to increase capacity at both to accommodate major housing developments. Councillors were told: “A scoping exercise is underway to review long-term requirements linked to housing to finalise the size of school [and] number of spaces/classrooms required.” They were also reminded that this year’s budget included a community investment fund to replace the remaining 97 North Lanarkshire schools which have not already moved into new premises since 1996. A project plan and order of priority will go to the policy and strategy committee in the coming months, and a report noted: “A significant part of this fund will be used to help deliver 21st-century community assets.” | [email protected] (Judith Tonner) | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/work-begin-new-school-building-20815376 | Tue, 5 Nov 2019 12:12:04 +0000 | 1,572,960,213 | 1,572,960,213 | education | school |
662,875 | thedenverpost--2019-05-30--New school buildings going up near Stapleton as summer construction kicks off for Denver-area distri | 2019-05-30T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | New school buildings going up near Stapleton as summer construction kicks off for Denver-area districts | When school winds down, construction season ramps up. Schools in Denver and Jefferson County are upgrading their buildings over the summer, with plans to have everything ready before students return in August. While some of the projects are more or less contained within school walls, you can’t miss the signs of construction at Denver Public Schools’ Paul Sandoval Campus. Work recently started on a new “small learning community” with 46 classrooms and assorted offices, a $66.7 million project meant to alleviate population pressure at Northfield High School due to growth in the surrounding Stapleton area, said Jennifer Song Koeppe, the district’s director of planning, design and construction at Denver Public Schools. It will be set up somewhat like a college campus, with two classroom buildings and separate facilities for shared spaces like the cafeteria and gymnasium. “Very shortly we’ll be up to 2,000 students and we need the space before we can grow,” she said. The campus also will have a new performing arts building and a relocated cafeteria, but the priority is to finish the classrooms first, said Jim Staples, DPS project manager for the Sandoval Campus. The district has a goal of finishing the project in time for the school year starting in August 2020. “We have kind of an aggressive schedule,” he said. “We want to get the classrooms up and running as soon as possible.” Liz Mendez, director of operation support services at DPS, said the current construction is part of a plan to gradually expand the campus, since the budget wouldn’t allow for building everything at once. The shared facilities will maximize what they can build in an area where “land is at a premium,” she said. “It’s a way to sort of maximize our limited funds,” she said. “We’re not building cafeterias that are being used for one hour a day.” Northfield isn’t the only place in Denver getting work done this summer. DPS spokesman Will Jones said the district has 75 projects at 90 schools in the works. Some of the larger projects include redesigning the Montbello campus’ 1970s-era cafeteria to offer new seating options and different lines for different types of food; converting officers into a health clinic at East High School; and installing new floors, lockers and equipment in the North High School gym, he said. To the west, Jeffco Public Schools also has multiple projects finishing up this summer. Tim Reed, executive director of facilities and construction management at Jeffco Public Schools, said work has started on replacing the dirt tracks with rubber ones, and replacing grass fields with artificial turf. Some playgrounds also are getting updated equipment and a base of wood chips, which hurt less than the gravel kids currently fall on, he said. Summit Ridge, Creighton and Ken Caryl middle schools also are finishing up construction, so they can add sixth-grade classrooms, Reed said. Each middle school has eight new classrooms in a wing off the existing building, and the construction crews will remove the walls separating them from the rest of the building this summer. They couldn’t do it while classes were in session because of the need to keep whatever Mother Nature threw at them out of the hallways, he said. “They’re shaping up real good right now,” he said. | Meg Wingerter | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/05/30/denver-school-construction-stapleton/ | 2019-05-30 12:00:39+00:00 | 1,559,232,039 | 1,567,539,652 | education | school |
692,975 | theguardianuk--2019-03-14--Lagos school building collapse search for survivors ends | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Lagos school building collapse: search for survivors ends | Emergency services have called off the search for survivors of a building collapse that killed at least nine in Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, as anger mounted over dilapidated property and unscrupulous owners. The building, which housed a primary school and nursery, came down without warning in the teeming Lagos Island area at mid-morning on Wednesday. Firefighters and other emergency services worked through the night to find anyone still trapped. One body was recovered in the early hours, the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) said. “We have gotten to ground zero,” added Kehinde Adebayo, a spokesman for the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency. “The debris has been cleared. “All those trapped have been evacuated and the rescue operation has ended,” he told AFP. Final casualty figures were still being compiled and would be announced later, he said. Nema has said that 37 people were rescued alive. The Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, said the building had been earmarked for demolition and a nursery and primary school were being run illegally on one of its floors. Schoolbags, toys and clothes were among the piles of rubble as a bulldozer tried to clear a path through wreckage. A shopworker, Adeniyi Afolabi, who lives nearby, gave the name of the school as the Ohen nursery and primary and said there were 144 pupils in attendance on Wednesday. Another local, Zion Munachi, also confirmed the name and the number of pupils. But both said not all children were at the school because of sports activities. Chaotic scenes of heavy lifting equipment and ambulances trying to pick their way through huge crowds and narrow streets gave way to anger on Thursday, as residents demanded answers. Lagos Island is the historic heart of the city, which is home to an estimated 20 million people, and also home to its central business district. Building collapses are common in the city and elsewhere in Nigeria, where building regulations are routinely flouted. In September 2014, 116 people died, 84 of them South Africans, when a six-storey guesthouse collapsed at the Lagos church complex of the celebrity televangelist TB Joshua. An inquiry found extra floors had been added without planning permission. Engineers responsible for the construction are currently on trial for manslaughter. In 2016, at least 60 people were killed when the roof collapsed at a church in the southern city of Uyo. The prominent Lagos builder and surveyor Alani Fasiu Amusa said the “unscrupulous activities” of some developers and property owners were to blame. “Why would somebody convert a residential building to a school, for instance? Most of the buildings in central Lagos are old and cannot pass the structural integrity test,” he told AFP. “They were built many years ago with sub-standard materials and without the involvement of qualified building engineers … The government should be strict in enforcing its building codes and regulations.” | Agence France-Presse in Lagos | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/14/death-toll-rises-after-lagos-school-building-collapse | 2019-03-14 13:12:02+00:00 | 1,552,583,522 | 1,567,546,301 | education | school |
716,675 | theguardianuk--2019-12-05--Tell us about your run-down school buildings | 2019-12-05T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Tell us about your run-down school buildings | In a survey conducted by the National Education Union last month, 47% of members said the school or college buildings they worked in was not fit for purpose, with 22% reporting that the condition of the buildings was unsafe for pupils and staff. With years of austerity putting school budgets under strain, 65% of members blamed funding cuts for the poor quality of British school buildings. We’d like to hear from staff and students who work and study in run-down school buildings. What condition is your school building in? How long has it been that way? Why has it not been improved? Tell us about your experiences – and any photos you may have – in the encrypted form below, only the Guardian has access to your responses. One of our journalists may be in touch to discuss further as part of an upcoming news report. If you’re having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here. | Guardian community team | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/dec/05/tell-us-about-your-run-down-school-buildings | Thu, 05 Dec 2019 11:37:06 GMT | 1,575,563,826 | 1,575,593,099 | education | school |
717,057 | theguardianuk--2019-12-08--Revealed: one in five school buildings in England require urgent repairs | 2019-12-08T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Revealed: one in five school buildings in England require urgent repairs | Nearly one in five school buildings in England require urgent repairs, a Guardian investigation has found, leading to warnings that they are “crumbling around teachers and pupils”. Almost 4,000 schools across the country have been judged by surveyors to be in need of immediate restoration work, and many more were found not to have the paperwork required by law, including electrical test certificates, fire risk assessments or asbestos management plans. According to data gathered through a government programme to assess the condition of England’s schools estate, 17% (3,731) were found to have buildings with “elements”, such as a roof, wall or window deemed in need of immediate replacement or repair. Of the 21,796 schools for which information was released, 1,313 had elements that were given the worst possible condition grade D, defined as “life expired and/or serious risk of imminent failure”. Seven hundred and five schools had more than two elements awarded a grade D, while 69 had more than 10. The data, which was obtained though freedom of information requests, were gathered through the Department for Education’s school condition data collection (CDC) programme, launched in early 2017. As part of the scheme, surveyors visited every government-maintained school in England to collect data about the physical condition of school buildings and how they are managed. Schools were also asked to fill in a survey before the surveyor’s visit to provide information about its buildings. According to FOI data, 2,939 schools – 14% of the 20,854 respondents – did not have an asbestos management plan; 2,717 (13%) did not have a fire risk assessment; 2,215 (11%) did not have a gas safety test report; and 2,098 (10%) did not have an electrical test certificate. The Department for Education (DfE) said that in some cases the documentation could have been held off-site by the multiacademy trust managing the school. However, a spokesperson for the National Education Union (NEU) said such paperwork was pointless if it was not held within the building it related to for staff to refer to. Critics said the findings pointed to a system in which overstretched school leaders were struggling to keep their buildings safe after years of budget cuts. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the NEU, said the figures highlighted the effect of failure to invest in a crumbling educational infrastructure and that teachers, other staff and pupils deserved better. He added: “It makes no sense for important practical documents, required by law, not to be held on the premises of a school or college. The reason the government gives – that they may be held by a multi-academy trust would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. If they are missing how can the risk be safely managed?” Teachers across England told the Guardian they were having to work in buildings so cold they had to keep their coats on, with damp walls and infestations of vermin. One teacher in a primary school in Teesside said she worked in a 26-year-old portable building with windows that would not open and others that would not close. “There is a horrendous cold draft, so I often have to sit with my coat on with the children coming in,” she said. “We had to shut for a week last year because of a massive rat infestation.” She helped to fix a leak in her classroom because the school could not afford to call a plumber. “I know the state of the school budget and I know that lots of schools in the area have faced restructuring and redundancies and I don’t want us to become one of them,” she added. Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said schools across the country were in dire need of repair, but the funding was not available. “That failure to invest has left our children and hard working school staff at risk, trying to teach in buildings that are crumbling around them,” she said. Labour has pledged to spend £7bn on repairs and upgrades to school buildings in England. Upon arriving in office in 2010, the Conservatives scrapped the previous Labour government’s Building Schools for the Future scheme, a £55bn programme to rebuild every secondary school in England. By 2017, the National Audit Office (NAO) warned the condition of schools was worsening, with about 40% of the schools estate built between 1945 and 1976 coming up for replacement or major refurbishment. The NAO estimated it would cost £6.7bn to bring existing school buildings up to a satisfactory standard, a figure that was expected to double over the course of five years to 2020-21. In a survey conducted by the NEU last month, 47% of members said the school or college buildings they worked in were not fit for purpose, with 65% blaming funding cuts. Twenty-two per cent said the condition of the buildings had lead to an unsafe environment for pupils and staff. The issue of health and safety in schools was highlighted in July when the Guardian revealed that nearly 700 had been referred to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over concerns they were failing to safely manage asbestos in their buildings. Lucie Stephens has campaigned for asbestos to be removed from school buildings since her mother, Sue, a former teacher, died of the asbestos-caused cancer mesothelioma in 2016. She said the discovery that more than one in 10 schools did not have the legally required documents on site was horrifying. Stephens has launched a website that aims to show parents and pupils that schools contain asbestos, but has accused the DfE of a lack of transparency for refusing to release the necessary data. The HSE advises that asbestos is only a risk if it is disturbed or damaged, which releases fibres into the air. Responding to the findings, the schools minister Nick Gibb said: “The Conservative government provides money annually to improve the condition of school buildings. In this academic year, over £1bn has been made available. We also recently announced a £400m fund for schools to improve their buildings. “A Conservative majority government would build on that record with £14bn over the next three years, and by increasing the minimum level of per pupil funding in primary and secondary schools.” | Frances Perraudin | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/dec/08/revealed-one-in-five-school-buildings-in-england-require-urgent-repairs | Sun, 08 Dec 2019 16:18:14 GMT | 1,575,839,894 | 1,575,850,975 | education | school |
769,470 | theindependent--2019-08-23--US school building new classrooms with places to hide from mass shooters | 2019-08-23T00:00:00 | theindependent | US school building new classrooms with places to hide from mass shooters | Engineers in World War I dug through the earth to build serpentine trenches borne from horrifically clear logic. If enemy soldiers ever breached it, the zigzagging pattern would prevent them from shooting in a straight line down the length of the trench - leaving only a relative few exposed to gunfire or shrapnel. That concept has been reinvigorated a century later, in a sense, for a western Michigan high school, to dampen the killing potential of a mass shooter. A $48m major construction project at Fruitport High School will add curved hallways to reduce a gunman's range, jutting barriers to provide cover and egress, and meticulously spaced classrooms that can lock on demand and hide students in the corner, out of a killer's sight. "If I go to FPH and I want to be an active shooter, I'm going in knowing I have reduced sightlines," Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak told The Washington Post about the curved hallways. "It has reduced his ability to do harm." The major overhaul of an existing building was driven by the ubiquity of mass shootings in the United States, Szymoniak said, citing the El Paso, Texas, killings at a shopping area this month, along with notorious school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. In 2018, there were 24 school shootings in which there were injuries or deaths. More than 228,000 students have been exposed to gun violence during school hours since the 1999 Columbine slayings, an analysis by The Post concluded. The construction in Michigan is also part of a grim reality of schools methodically preparing for massacres as if they were lesson plans and quizzes. Jefferson County schools in Colorado have given teachers buckets and kitty litter to have on hand in case children need to relieve themselves during a prolonged active shooter lockdown. Sharpies are supplied for writing the time in which tourniquets were applied, and candy helps diabetic children with low blood sugar hiding in darkness. And this year, bulletproof backpacks are a hot back-to-school item. "I don't know if this is the new normal, but it certainly gives cause of concern," Szymoniak said. Other features allow all doors to be locked from the front office and film applied to glass to keep it from shattering. Classrooms will be built with a "shadow zone" where a gunman peeking in could not see students cowering along a side wall, said Matt Slagle, an architect for the project and director of K-12 projects at the TowerPinkster design firm. The front office includes an educational Panopticon - an office administrator who will have views of the main approach, the vestibule and some of the hallways from one seat, Slagle said. School shooters are often students themselves or are familiar with the building, though Slagle said some features, such as the locks and hiding areas, would be difficult to overcome even with inside knowledge. But that doesn't make the school invincible. "Unfortunately that's the way things are now," Slagle said, describing mass shootings. "We'll never make it completely safe from someone who desires to cause harm." The overhaul, which is mostly new construction, will finish in 2021, Szymoniak said, though students will arrive for class in two weeks and gradually take advantage of new spaces once they are constructed. "When we open it, it will be the most secure high school building in the state," he said. Slagle said he was careful with his design. His firm also designs prisons, and we wanted to strike a balance between security and a welcoming presence without the pendulum swinging too far in either direction. Szymoniak would rather be talking tests, not killers. But the latter has become a looming priority for his students and teachers. "I don't want to have to have these conversations," he said. "I don't want to have to worry about having a school designed to prevent an active shooter." | Alex Horton | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/school-shooting-us-mass-classroom-hide-michigan-a9076996.html | 2019-08-23 19:31:25+00:00 | 1,566,603,085 | 1,567,533,588 | education | school |
787,497 | theirishtimes--2019-06-19--Flawed school buildings to be repaired by end of the year | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | theirishtimes | Flawed school buildings to be repaired by end of the year | Remediation works on 22 schools found to have structural flaws last year are expected to be completed by the end of the year, the Department of Education has said. Precautionary measures were already put in place at the schools built by Western Building Systems (WBS) which found itself at the centre of a controversy over building standards. Last year, the department said considerable amounts of money had been spent on amending the problems and that costs were due to escalate following more detailed structural investigations. Minister for Education Joe McHugh has announced that a structural remediation programme for the schools will begin on Thursday. Over the course of the last fortnight information sessions have been held for principals and management of the 22 schools and their patrons. Each school has been given a brief on the detail of the permanent remediation works to be carried out in their school. “The timetabling of works and arrangements for contractors to be on site have been designed to ensure all schools can re-open as normal at the end of the summer holidays,” said Mr McHugh. Structural remediation will commence in 14 schools initially, as and when they close for the summer holidays. This work will roll over to the remaining eight schools. In the event that some works in some schools are not completed by the end of August, contractors will carry out the remaining work outside of school hours to prevent disruption. “We targeted the summer holidays to get as much of the structural work done as we can, so that the precautionary measures can be removed from the schools as soon as the permanent works are completed,” said Mr McHugh. “I am fully aware of the difficulties that this issue has caused for principals, teachers, parents and pupils as they go about their day to day business. “I am glad that we have now reached the stage where we can implement works that will enable the schools to return to a normal school environment as quickly as possible. “I want to sincerely thank all the schools’ patrons, the boards of management, principals and entire school communities as we work our way through this complex issue.” The structural remediation work will be carried out by John Sisk & Son and overseen by Arup Engineers. The delivery of the programme by the Department of Education is being supported by the National Development Finance Agency. The department said it is aiming to have as much of the works as possible completed in the 22 schools by the end of 2019. | null | https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/flawed-school-buildings-to-be-repaired-by-end-of-the-year-1.3931329 | 2019-06-19 22:10:44+00:00 | 1,560,996,644 | 1,567,538,747 | education | school |
805,570 | themanchestereveningnews--2019-10-17--Plans to merge two Trafford schools and knock down 100-year old buildings move a step closer | 2019-10-17T00:00:00 | themanchestereveningnews | Plans to merge two Trafford schools and knock down 100-year old buildings move a step closer | Plans to merge two schools and knock down their 100-year old buildings have moved a step closer, with bosses now involved in talks for the first time. Trafford council wants to 'discontinue' Stamford Park Junior School and Stamford Park Infant School and build a new 21-classroom school in their place. The Edwardian school buildings, where mould was found in classrooms and children are sometimes taught in corridors, could be demolished and the Stamford Park Primary School opened by September 2021. Despite continuing opposition from the junior school's governing body - and two previous rejections of Trafford council's £8m offer to build the new school - junior school head teacher Cathryn Downing has confirmed the school is now 'actively working' with the authority. She said: "While the governing body of Stamford Park Junior School does not consider the council's proposal to be in the best interests of the junior school pupils and have voted twice to reject the proposal, we are now actively working with the local authority to gain the best possible provision for the juniors within the proposed new build primary school. "The continuing concerns of the junior school governing body, around the over development of this very restricted school site, have not been addressed in our discussions thus far with Trafford council." Previously, Ms Downing pushed for the junior school to become an academy, which would have meant no local authority involvement. She made no comment on that when asked. In the summer term, mould was found in the ageing classrooms of the infant school. The building was temporarily closed while air purifiers were installed. A spokesman said: "Our vision is to provide an inspirational learning environment, fit for the 21 century, for the benefit of the current and future children of Altrincham. "The new school will bring together two highly effective schools to improve the teaching and learning environment for staff and pupils alike. "The new school will be an energy efficient, low maintenance building, sensitive to the heritage of the previous schools and to the changing interests of the wider community." If approved by both schools - and Trafford council's planning committee - construction work on the new school could begin in summer 2020. The town hall is consulting on the plans. Stamford Park Infant School was contacted for comment. Its head teacher spoke in favour of the plans earlier this year. | [email protected] (Todd Fitzgerald) | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/plans-merge-two-trafford-schools-17100235 | Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:03:32 +0000 | 1,571,328,212 | 1,571,316,888 | education | school |
971,795 | thesun--2019-07-04--Nearly 700 schools could have unsafe asbestos in their buildings putting thousands of pupils at ris | 2019-07-04T00:00:00 | thesun | Nearly 700 schools ‘could have unsafe asbestos in their buildings putting thousands of pupils at risk’ | NEARLY 700 schools could have unsafe asbestos in their buildings putting thousands of kids and staff at risk, it was claimed. The Department for Education has referred 676 state schools to the Health and Safety Executive, according to The Guardian. Trade union bosses branded the numbers “shocking” and warned cash-strapped investigators might not be able to fully probe all the cases. Around 500 people a year die from asbestos-related illnesses, according to official figures. Kevin Courtney, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “The fact that nearly 700 schools have been referred to HSE because they weren’t able to satisfy the DfE that they were managing their asbestos in line with legal requirements, is a shocking indictment of current systems of oversight. “The lives of thousands of staff and pupils could be at risk in these schools.” A Department for Education spokesman said: “The safety of pupils and staff is our highest priority which is why we have asked schools to provide information through the asbestos management assurance process. “This data will help the department develop a greater understanding of the management of asbestos in schools. “We plan to publish a report of the findings shortly. Asbestos is a term for a group of minerals made of microscopic fibres. Before its dangers were known, asbestos was often used in buildings for insulation, flooring and roofing and sprayed on ceilings and walls. It is now banned in the UK. Buildings constructed before the year 2000 may still have asbestos in them. If the asbestos-containing materials inside these buildings remain intact, they pose very little risk. It’s only when these materials are damaged or disturbed that tiny asbestos fibres can be released into the air and breathed into your lungs. The symptoms of asbestos-related disease take many years – even decades – to appear after the original exposure to asbestos, so exposure a long time ago might only be showing up as a disease today. HSE Spokeswomen said: “The HSE have worked with the DfE to use the AMAP returns to provide targeting intelligence for a planned programme of proactive visits to schools. “This identified a number of schools in England to select from to be included within the profile of HSE visits planned across Great Britain. “The visits will assess compliance in respect of the duty to manage asbestos with the school buildings.” | Adam Sonin | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9440479/asbestos-schools-pupils-at-risk/ | 2019-07-04 22:49:29+00:00 | 1,562,294,969 | 1,567,536,909 | education | school |
996,016 | thetelegraph--2019-01-16--Schools with debating clubs or cadets to be rewarded to help build childrens resilience Ofsted chi | 2019-01-16T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Schools with debating clubs or cadets to be rewarded to help build childrens' resilience, Ofsted chief says | Schools with debating clubs or cadets are to be rewarded under the new inspection regime, as Ofsted seeks to help build resilience in young people. Under the new draft framework, published today, inspectors will mark schools on how much they help children “develop their character” which includes their resilience, confidence and independence. Ofsted is proposing to have a stand-alone category for “personal development” for the first time, as a way to encourage schools to prioritise extra-curricular activities. This could include debating or public speaking societies, cadet forces, Duke of Edinburgh, or extra music or drama clubs. Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector, said the move is intended to emphasise to headteachers that building resilience in young people is an integral part of education. “It’s about making clear that education is not just about teaching a good set of academic subjects really well,” she said. “There is something a bit intangible and bigger than that, and it is making sure they recognise that.” Ms Spielman said that inspectors would not reward schools for putting on any one particular extra-curricular activity, but rather they would look at the range of pursuits on offer. “It's not about any one thing, it’s about having a range of opportunities so people can discover their talents and interests,” she said. “A good school or college has that range of activities, so that everybody can discover what they are good at.” | Camilla Turner | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/16/schools-debating-clubs-cadets-rewarded-new-chief-inspection/ | 2019-01-16 20:44:28+00:00 | 1,547,689,468 | 1,567,552,204 | education | school |
1,004,384 | thetelegraph--2019-04-10--Housing developers should pay to build new schools new Department for Education guidance says | 2019-04-10T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Housing developers should pay to build new schools, new Department for Education guidance says | Housing developers should pay to build new schools, new Department for Education guidance says. It comes amid pressure on school places with the secondary school population set to swell to 3.3 million within a decade, according to official projections. Developers already contribute to the cost of new infrastructure in the local area, but ministers are concerned that council requirements are sometimes vague and they vary around the country. The new guidance is designed to embolden councils to insist that new developers foot the bill for new school places their developments create, as a condition for granting planning permission. Developers must also pay for the construction of new schools or new classrooms at existing schools, and finding the sites to build them on, it says. A report published by Scape Group, a public sector procurement company, found that by 2020/21, an additional 12,835 additional school classrooms will need to be built in England to accommodate the rise in pupil numbers, or 640 new schools. The report advocated building flatpack classrooms as a cost-efficient way of meeting demand. Lord Agnew, a schools minister, said: “It isn’t enough for developers simply to build houses; we need to build communities. “Schools are at the centre of any community and that’s why it’s vital that developers contribute to the cost of the school places they create.” He said that a huge expansion in school places is already underway, but added: “Schools can still find themselves under pressure from new housing developments, and where they do it’s right that where appropriate developers support these costs. The secondary school population hike is fuelled by a baby boom in the early 2000s, as well as a high birth rate among women from immigrant communities. The bulge in the population of children has been making its way through the school system, passing up from primary to secondaries. Secondary pupil numbers are expected to rise by 14.7 per cent in the next 10 years, meaning there will be another 418,000 children in secondary schools by 2027, according to DfE’s projections. | Camilla Turner | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2019/04/10/housing-developers-should-pay-build-new-schools-new-department/ | 2019-04-10 23:01:00+00:00 | 1,554,951,660 | 1,567,543,308 | education | school |
1,069,449 | urbanintellectuals--2019-12-06--Serena Williams Is Building Schools in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya & Jamaica | 2019-12-06T00:00:00 | urbanintellectuals | Serena Williams Is Building Schools in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya & Jamaica | Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time broke the internet world. Not about the sports but with her charitable works. Yes! You heard it right, the tennis champion was working! She builds schools in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Jamaica with her charity. Some celebrities may simply write a check towards a good cause but Queen Serena Williams is no stranger to hard work. She recently built a new school in Jamaica. She posted photos and videos where she enjoyed painting the school and getting her hands dirty while helping with the construction of the new school. Serena Williams’ non-profit charity, The Serena Williams Fund is the one who helped build the school. The mission of this charity is to help “individuals or communities affected by senseless violence, and equal access to education.” The Serena Williams Fund partnered with Helping Hands Jamaica to build the Salt Marsh Primary School. Salt Marsh Primary School is the third school Serena Williams has built. There are previous secondary schools in Uganda, Kenya and Zimbabwe were created by The Serena Williams Fund in partnership with Build Africa Schools. People living in Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Jamaica were very happy and will never forget Serena Williams for what she has done to their country. Serena Williams left a good mark to the heart of the people whose lives have changed through her act of kindness. Memories of Serena Williams will always stay in the school she builds for the people in Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Jamaica. Serena Williams proved that education is very important in the life of each individual. Building schools in developing countries like is Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Jamaica is a very big help to achieve the goals of each individual and living their best possible life. Serena Williams is a great tennis player with a good heart! This is a post from Serena a few years back | gamma | https://urbanintellectuals.com/serena-williams-building-schools-uganda-zimbabwe-kenya-jamaica/ | Fri, 06 Dec 2019 19:55:11 +0000 | 1,575,680,111 | 1,575,676,930 | education | school |
2,469 | abcnews--2019-11-21--Homemade bomb found at California high school | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | abcnews | Homemade bomb found at California high school | Police confirm that they found a homemade bomb at a San Jose high school. Authorities were called to Oak Grove High on Tuesday after a gardener found the device in some bushes in the student parking lot and took it to the administration building. Police tell the San Jose Mercury News that it was determined to be an improvised explosive device. The school was evacuated and the device rendered safe. Classes cancelled Wednesday are to resume Thursday. Police say there were no reported threats to the school before the bomb turned up and investigators are trying to determine its origin. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/homemade-bomb-found-california-high-school-67189163 | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:27:24 -0500 | 1,574,314,044 | 1,574,337,994 | education | school |
2,988 | abcnews--2019-12-08--In US schools, resource officers woven into daily life | 2019-12-08T00:00:00 | abcnews | In US schools, resource officers woven into daily life | An imposing presence in uniform at 6-foot-5, Officer Will Chapman towers over students in the halls of Newtown Middle School, but he tries to be as approachable as possible. The school resource officer known as “Officer Will” aims to been seen by each student at least three times a day as he walks the halls 2 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a 2012mass shooting left 20 students and six educators dead. He drops into art class and joins in on projects. Some days, he takes math quizzes alongside students. The police officers assigned to schools receive scrutiny in times of emergency — as in Wisconsin, where school resource officers were involved in two student shootings this week — but they also play a less-known role in the rhythms of everyday American classroom life. Beyond their law enforcement role, the model for school resource officers endorsed by the U.S. Justice Department enlists them also as mentors, informal counselors and educators on topics ranging from bullying to drunk driving with the goal of promoting school safety. School resource officers receive the same baseline training as other officers, but experts say doing the job well requires skills and training to understand and build strong relationships with young people. “It is very much a community-based policing approach,” said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. “This is about problem solving, relationship building and doing things to make a positive difference in the lives of kids, quite frankly.” Chapman, for one, said he works hard to ensure students know he is there for them — and not because of them. “I want my students to understand first and foremost that I love them dearly and there is nothing they can do, bad or good, to change how much I care about them,” he said. "Their choices can limit my options in how I communicate that love, but it is never any less true." Nationwide, 43% of public schools had an armed law enforcement officer present at least once a week in the 2015-2016 school year, the last time the National Center for Education Statistics released data on this topic. The officers work closely with school administrators, who are encouraged to reach understandings with officers that disciplinary issues short of anything illegal are to be handled by school officials. In cases of real and immediate threats to students or teachers, however, the rules on use of force are set by the police departments that assign the officers to the schools. That is important because it is the police department that ensures the officer has the appropriate training, said Jeff Kaye, president of School Safety Operations, a consulting firm. In the event of a police shooting, the officer also should face oversight from an agency with expertise in use-of-force policies, he said. In Wisconsin, an Oshkosh Police Department resource officer shot a 16-year-old student Tuesday after the boy stabbed him at Oshkosh West High School. On Monday, a resource officer at Waukesha South High School helped clear students out of a classroom after a student pointed a pellet gun at another student’s head. Another police officer entered the room and shot the student. Neither of the students who were shot suffered life-threatening injuries. Chapman said he always parks his cruiser where it is visible from the street, in part to reassure parents in a community still recovering from one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. He's able to focus more on students because of private armed security hired in the tragedy’s aftermath. “It frees me up to go into a classroom and sit down and dissect a frog with seventh graders because I’m not constantly worried about, ‘What if somebody comes in that we don’t want here?’” he said. At Aberdeen Middle School in Maryland, school resource officer Jason Neidig said he greets students as they enter the building to look for anything out of the ordinary and takes aside any who seem upset to ask if they want to talk. He walks the hallways, checks areas where weapons could be hidden and joins administrators in meetings with troubled students. He pokes fun at himself and trades messages with students on his Instagram account as @srojason. “I do not take the stereotypical ‘aggressive’ approach when talking to students, not even the ones I sometimes have to refer to the Department of Juvenile Services or arrest,” he said. The growth in the number of officers inside schools over the last quarter century has led to fears about children getting caught up in the criminal justice system, furthering the so-called school-to-prison pipeline. A 2013 review by the Congressional Research Service found that students in schools with resources officers might be more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses, but studies also indicated that the officers could deter students from committing assaults or bringing weapons to campus. Critics in some communities also have argued the funding would be better spent on mental health programming and school counselors. Some school resource officers have come up short of expectations, including the school resource officer in Parkland, Florida, who remained outside rather than entering the building to engage the shooter. In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, school security video showed a sheriff's deputy slamming a 15-year-old girl to the ground in September after she tapped his knee with her foot. In October, a New Mexico police officer was shown on video throwing an 11-year-old girl on the ground. Officers with experience as school resource officers say those with the right skills can make a lasting difference in children's lives. “A patrol officer can get an award for saving a life or reviving a person in an overdose situation. You can’t quantify how successful a school resource officer is,” said Officer Kelly DeJonge, a spokeswoman for the Glendale, Wisconsin, police department who spent a decade as a high school resource officer. “If a kid is dealing with mental health issues, and they come to a school resource officer, and they are there to help and listen to them, did that officer save that person’s life possibly? You never know.” | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-schools-resource-officers-woven-daily-life-67578435 | Sun, 08 Dec 2019 10:47:45 -0500 | 1,575,820,065 | 1,575,849,935 | education | school |
4,037 | activistpost--2019-02-14--How Underground Private Schools Are Outperforming Government Schools in Developing Nations | 2019-02-14T00:00:00 | activistpost | How Underground Private Schools Are Outperforming Government Schools in Developing Nations | In a very limited sense, there is private education in the developed world, but private schools are almost always heavily regulated by the government. There is also the issue of compulsory attendance laws. Competition in schooling that is unapproved by government bureaucrats is prohibited since attendance does not qualify as actual “education” in the eyes of the government. Therefore, we lack the means to compare an actual free market in education with government schooling. In underdeveloped nations, however, because societies are much poorer, governments lack the resources to crack down on underground private schools. In his book The Beautiful Tree, James Tooley explored and researched numerous poor countries including India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and China. He described a recurring theme of government education officials not even being aware of private schools for the poor. Usually, they balked at the idea. Private schooling is generally regarded as a luxury for the rich. In cases where government agents did know of the schools, regulation was rarely enforced. Officials did not always visit schools in poor areas, and when they did, a bribe was enough to get them to leave. Tooley’s research showed low-cost, private, usually unregulated schooling to be a thriving market in many areas. In Nigeria, for instance, Tooley wrote: Writing of a visit to India, he commented: In rural Gansu, China, Tooley’s team located 586 private schools in the villages. “Officially,” there were only 26 schools in Gansu, all of which were government schools in the larger towns. It was a matter of policy in China to deny these private schools existed. After all, China had already declared that universal public primary school had been achieved. Tooley’s research, therefore, provides unique insight into comparing government schooling with private alternatives. Teacher absenteeism in government schools is probably the most blatant issue. While visiting a government school in India, Tooley observed 130 students cramped together in one room. The head of the school mentioned that the other teachers were absent that day, so they were teaching them all together. “They’ll be absent every day,” he was told by the deputy district education officer. Transparency International has estimated that government teacher absenteeism in the developing world ranges from 11 to 30 percent. Conversely, Tooley reported that when he visited private schools unannounced, it was rare to find teachers not teaching, and in those instances, the principal had taken over the class for the day. The absence of teachers is not the only problem. In 2003, Kenya introduced free primary education. Many parents who transferred their children from private schools to the new government schools soon reversed their decision. Tooley’s team interviewed parents from four different schools who had tried the government schools. He reported that every parent interviewed commented on how the private schools were of higher quality. He encountered quotes like this: While interviewing mothers in India who sent their children to low-cost private schools, all were very open about why they chose private over government. One mother, when asked about government teachers being well-trained, replied: “They might be very good at studying, but they are not very good at teaching.” Another commented: “They even beat the children very badly, treat them as slaves.” This was, of course, if the teachers showed up. Tooley encountered similar stories everywhere he went. A man in Nigeria commented: Even though these schools serve some of the poorest people on the planet, they still take in enough in fees to be able to stay open. They do so by hiring and personally training teachers who do not demand high wages due to being extensively trained in universities (education of many teachers tends to be at about a high school graduate level). Low-cost schools also invest significantly less in buildings and playgrounds. Though the fees are low enough to be manageable for most parents in poor areas, many of the schools Tooley visited were also providing free education to orphans, as well as families who were exceptionally poor. In some cases, 20 percent of the students were receiving free education. The studies that Tooley organized in India, Nigeria, Ghana, and China comparing government schools with both private recognized and unrecognized schools confirmed his experiences on the ground interacting with parents and teachers. Below is his summary of the results: I don’t intend to go over all of the data here, but for a couple of examples, here is the raw data of student scores in Ghana: The success of entrepreneurs in developing countries at meeting the demand for education is quite impressive, especially when compared to the failures of the government alternative. The myth that education cannot possibly be provided to the poor through non-governmental means is shattered. In fact, it may be the only effective way for them to receive a quality education. One wonders what could be achieved if educators were completely freed from the threat of regulation, the corruption of government agents, and the crowding out effects from massive subsidization of poorly performing government schooling. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/02/how-underground-private-schools-are-outperforming-government-schools-in-developing-nations.html | 2019-02-14 16:31:26+00:00 | 1,550,179,886 | 1,567,548,479 | education | school |
5,460 | activistpost--2019-08-31--Colorado Teen Suspended From School After Target Practice With Mom | 2019-08-31T00:00:00 | activistpost | Colorado Teen Suspended From School After Target Practice With Mom | A Colorado teen has been told he cannot return to school until authorities hold a “threat assessment hearing” after he went target shooting with his mother. Nate Evans, a junior at Loveland High School in Loveland, Colorado actually got a visit from police after he posted video of his plinking with his mom Justine according to the Colorado 2nd Amendment group Rally For Our Rights. A report had come in to the police department about the video and they were told Nate was a threat. After showing the videos to the police officers and explaining that they’d simply gone on a mother-son outing to train with their legally owned firearms, the police stated that they had done nothing illegal and were well within their rights. They also determined Nate was not a threat to himself or anyone else, and went on their way. Unfortunately, even after police determined that there was nothing nefarious about a mom taking her son out for some firearms training, the school district wasn’t convinced. Justine immediately contacted the school assuming she could easily clear things up, especially since the police had already assessed the situation and realized no one had done anything wrong or made any threats. She was wrong. The school not only refused to provide her with more information about the “threat”, but they refused to provide Nate with schoolwork so he doesn’t get behind. A “threat assessment hearing” has been scheduled for Thursday morning at 10am at the school admin building where Justine will be allowed to defend her son against SEVEN school officials who will be in attendance to, as she was told, “make their case”. Make their case of what? That Nate’s outing with his mother to train with her firearms somehow makes him a danger to the school? This is a pretty clear abuse of the program “Safe 2 Tell”, which is designed to allow students to report potential threats to school safety. As Lesley Hollywood with Rally for Our Rights points out, the way the program currently works almost invites abuse. I spoke with Justine, as well as two different attorneys who specialize in Second Amendment issues. The bottom line is the school is legally within their rights at this time. According to the attorneys, the school has a protocol that must be followed when a report of a threat comes in through Safe 2 Tell or other means, even if the report is completely false – and there is nothing parents or students can legally do about it, even with a lawyer. If the student is charged or further action is taken, that changes. This is why students have dubbed Safe 2 Tell as “Safe 2 Swat”, referencing the act of “swatting“, a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police and emergency service response team to another person’s address. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/08/colorado-teen-suspended-from-school-after-target-practice-with-mom.html | 2019-08-31 15:31:26+00:00 | 1,567,279,886 | 1,569,416,820 | education | school |
60,787 | birminghammail--2019-04-17--Great British School Swap sees Birmingham school children switch ethnic groups | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Great British School Swap sees Birmingham school children switch ethnic groups | Last night saw The Great British School Swap debut on Channel 4 - and it features kids from Birmingham and Tamworth. The eye-opening documentary, set to air weekly on Tuesday evenings at 9pm, featured saw a predominantly white school and a mainly Asian school swap pupils in an experiment. This week, white pupils from the town of Tamworth get a shock when they arrive in Saltley, central Birmingham, and become the racial minority. A transgender pupil is paired with a devout Muslim girl, a white mother overcomes her prejudices to go for dinner in an Asian house for the first time, and tensions rise when the students find out what they really think about each other. “Now is not the time to be building fences, now is the time to be knocking them down,” says the head teacher of Tamworth Enterprise College, Staffordshire, whose 95 per cent white secondary school is about to embark on an exchange with Saltley Academy, Birmingham, which is less than one per cent white British. Headteacher at Tamworth Enterprise College Simon Turney says: "Now is not the time to be building fences, now’s the time to be knocking them down. "I think our students are going to be really challenged by the differences in cultures, they would never have been so far out of their comfort zone in their 13/14 years of life." When the 12 pupils from Tamworth arrive at Saltley Academy, some of them are genuinely scared when the school bus drives through Bordesley Green, where three quarters of the population are Muslim. Now the white British children are in the minority. Looking out of the window onto the busy Alam Rock Road, one Tamworth pupil says: "Right now I'm petrified and nervous." Another says: "It's really different. I've seen a Gregg's though." At the beginning of the episode, the first of three, pupils are asked whether they've ever seen an Asian person. When asked what is Islam, one pupil says: "I don't know. Is it a country?" Arriving at the school all of the students are nervous as they sit in their segregated groups in the classroom. Their teacher starts the lesson by showing the pupils a powerpoint presentation - it's the answers the pupils wrote down to a questionnaire before the swap. They were asked to write down what they thought about their respective cultures. For many of the Saltley Academy pupils, they view their white peers as 'bacon-loving, lazy, fat poshos'. And they even believed all white people enjoy nudist holidays. When the tables are turned, the Tamworth students said their new classmates 'only shop at Primark and eat curry'. These are some of the less offensive prejudices the groups had of one another. The students also discuss racist language, with many of the Tamworth students not believing 'half-cast' and 'Paki' to be classed as racist until they talk about it in the lesson. To break up the two groups, they're put into pairs and this is when the students soon learn they're not so different after all. One pupil says after getting to her new friend: "I thought they were going to be posh but they were normal human beings. We’re so close together but it’s like completely different countries." It's evident the kids get their attitudes from their parents and in one scene, a white mother overcomes her prejudices when she goes to dinner in an Asian house for the first time. "That was lovely," she says. "They have a skybox, the house was clean. It wasn't at all what I thought it'd be like." Tensions do rise between some of the pupils, particularly for a transgender student who faces difficult questions from his new classmates. But many of the students begin to form strong friendships that will last for life. | James Rodger | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/great-british-school-swap-sees-16140473 | 2019-04-17 06:08:16+00:00 | 1,555,495,696 | 1,567,542,642 | education | school |
62,154 | birminghammail--2019-05-20--Nearly 90 per cent of Solihull schools contain asbestos - revealed | 2019-05-20T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Nearly 90 per cent of Solihull schools contain asbestos - revealed | Almost ninety per cent of the schools that Solihull Council is responsible for contain asbestos, according to official figures. A Freedom of Information (FoI) request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed that 46 of the 53 schools are understood to have the material inside the buildings. Twelve sites are listed as containing crocidolite - also known as blue asbestos - which is considered the most harmful type of the substance. If inhaled, asbestos fibres can cause a range of life-threatening illnesses, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. While the material was eventually banned outright in 1999, it had been routinely used in construction projects in decades gone by. Schools, in common with many public buildings, often made use of asbestos to fire-proof structures. While many builders and other tradesmen exposed to the material have suffered health problems in later life, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggests there is a low risk to the general public if the material is properly handled. A Solihull Council spokesman said that the local authority closely followed the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 - which spell out the legal duties for managing the substance. "Each school has its own register which lists where asbestos is present on the premises," the council said. "Each asbestos occurrence has its own material and priority rating. "Each occurrence is risk assessed and this dictates whether it will be managed or removed." The data provided relates only to those schools which are still part of the local authority and not those which have converted to academies (which in Solihull includes all but one of the secondary schools). The names of the schools that contain chrysotile (including presumed): Berkswell Primary Blossomfield Infants Burman Infants Castle Bromwich Infants Castle Bromwich Juniors Cheswick Green Primary Coppice Juniors Cranmore Infants Dorridge Primary George Fentham Primary Greswold Primary Haslucks Green Juniors Hazel Oak School Kineton Green Primary Lady Katherine Leveson Primary Langley Primary Marston Green Juniors Meriden CofE Primary School Mill Lodge Primary Monkspath Primary Oak Cottage Primary Olton Primary (Old Chapelfields Primary) Olton Primary (Old Daylesford Infants) Our Lady of Compassion Primary Our Lady of the Wayside Primary Peterbrook Primary Reynalds Cross School Sharmans Cross Juniors Shirley Heath Juniors St Alphege Infants St Alphege Juniors St Andrews Primary St Anthonys Primary St Augustine's Primary St George & St Teresa Primary St John the Baptist Primary St Mary & St Margaret's Primary St Peters Catholic School Tidbury Green Primary Ulverley Primary Valley Primary Widney Juniors Windy Arbor School Woodlands Infants Yew Tree Primary Yorkswood Primary The names of the schools that contain amosite (including presumed): Berkswell Primary Blossomfield Infants Burman Infants Castle Bromwich Infants Castle Bromwich Juniors Cheswick Green Primary Cranmore Infants Dorridge Primary Greswold Primary Haslucks Green Juniors Hazel Oak School Kineton Green Primary Langley Primary Marston Green Juniors Meriden CE Primary School Mill Lodge Primary Our Lady of Compassion Primary Our Lady of the Wayside Primary Peterbrook Primary Reynalds Cross School Sharmans Cross Juniors Shirley Heath Juniors St Alphege Juniors St Andrew's Primary St Anthony's Primary St George & St Teresa Primary St John the Baptist Primary St Mary & St Margaret's Primary St Peter's Catholic School Ulverley Primary Valley Primary Widney Juniors Windy Arbor School Woodlands Infants Yew Tree Primary Yorkswood Primary The names of the schools that contain crocidolite (including presumed): Blossomfield Infants Dorridge Primary George Fentham Primary Greswold Primary Haslucks Green Juniors Our Lady of the Wayside Primary Sharmans Cross Juniors St Andrew's Primary St Anthony's Primary St Peter's Catholic School Yew Tree Primary Yorkswood Primary | David Irwin | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/nearly-90-per-cent-solihull-16303546 | 2019-05-20 15:37:58+00:00 | 1,558,381,078 | 1,567,540,384 | education | school |
62,381 | birminghammail--2019-05-28--New special school set to be based in North Solihull | 2019-05-28T00:00:00 | birminghammail | New special school set to be based in North Solihull | A site in Smith's Wood is looking the most likely location for a new school to cater for the growing number of Solihull pupils with autism. Solihull Council had originally hoped to have two campuses for the special school, identifying Jensen House, in Auckland Drive, and the Daylesford Infants site, in Lyndon, as plausible options. But the Department for Education (DfE), which is putting up funding for the project, has signalled it will only support development at the one location. A report considered by councillors indicates that the Smith's Wood site will probably be the one taken forward and that the first pupils could start in just over four years' time. Ann Pearson, from the council's education team, said that initial discussions were now underway on how to deliver the project - which aims to offer up to 100 places for seven to 16-year-olds. "Really early on in that conversation [the DfE] has indicated that it'll be a one-site solution ... early indications are it will be the north site," she told last night's children, education and skills decision session. "It will be able to accommodate a whole school, so it's not a reduction in provision." The project is central to efforts to make it possible for more children with special needs to be educated within the borough. Demand has risen dramatically in recent years and the cost of places in other authorities is considerable. Negotiations officially started following the news in March that Solihull's funding bid had been successful. Officers have said that the most "likely outcome" is that the school will have a new building as opposed to remodelling existing premises on the site. Cllr Ken Meeson, cabinet member for children, education and skills, urged his department to push for the first option. "I've been working on the assumption we are going to have a new school," he said. A process to select a trust to run the institution - which will operate as a type of academy - is also underway, with an organisation due to be chosen next year. At this stage the DfE believe that the first intake of pupils could start in September 2023. | David Irwin | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-special-school-set-based-16325649 | 2019-05-28 09:35:44+00:00 | 1,559,050,544 | 1,567,539,940 | education | school |
62,395 | birminghammail--2019-05-28--Solihull primary school set to double in size | 2019-05-28T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Solihull primary school set to double in size | A Solihull primary is set to double in size as part of efforts to meet rising demand for school places across the borough. It is intended to expand St Augustine's Catholic Primary from September 2020, with the total number of pupils eventually scheduled to rise to 420 - up from 210 at present. The proposals feed into a wider strategy to create 525 more places by next year. There is a particular need for more Catholic places for four to 11-year-olds and demand more generally is being driven by major new housing developments at Blythe Valley, Tidbury Green and Shirley. In order to meet the needs of Solihull's rapidly expanding population, around 1,200 primary places had already been added by September last year. It was agreed this week that the latest plans, for St Augustine's, will be put out for consultation. Cllr Ken Meeson, cabinet member for children, education and skills, said: "We have a policy on this, we work closely with the Roman Catholic education authorities. "They're the ones which come up with the proposals for which particular school they want to expand." Council officers said that St Augustine's, in Whitefields Road, had a good "central" location in relation to the new housing developments. The education department has confirmed that the school buildings would be expanded to accommodate the increased number of pupils and that plans would be on show as part of the consultation. Cllr Jean Hamilton (Green, Smith's Wood) had asked if there was room at the existing site and officers had assured her there was. | David Irwin | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/solihull-primary-school-set-double-16325905 | 2019-05-28 10:03:57+00:00 | 1,559,052,237 | 1,567,539,941 | education | school |
63,379 | birminghammail--2019-06-20--Walsall school ordered to be improved by Ofsted | 2019-06-20T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Walsall school ordered to be improved by Ofsted | Government inspectors have ordered a Walsall school to improve - despite praising it in almost all of the key educational areas assessed. Ormiston Shelfield Community Academy, in Broad Way, Pelsall, was given Ofsted's second lowest 'requires improvement' rating following a visit last month. Inspectors said the main reason for this was that outcomes for pupils needed improving because children hadn't made as much progress as they should have done. But in the same report Ormiston's quality of teaching, effectiveness of leadership, personal development and behaviour of pupils and its 16-19 study programmes were all rated as 'good'. Bosses at the academy said they were pleased that their strengths had been identified by the report and vowed to make the improvements necessary to address Ofsted's concerns. The report said: "Outcomes for pupils require improvement because pupils have not made as much progress as they should have done in the past. "Although progress for current pupils is improving and is now stronger, attainment and progress need to improve further to be at least in line with national averages. "Although attendance is improving, a small number of pupils continue to be absent too often. "Gaps in pupils’ knowledge and weak basic literacy skills hamper pupils’ access to the curriculum and achievement. Pupils do not have enough opportunities to write at length." But it added: "The principal, together with the leadership team, governors and the Ormiston Academies Trust, have established an ambitious culture and curriculum, underpinned by a commitment to equality, inclusion and raising aspirations. "Teaching, learning and assessment have improved as a result of leaders’ strategic focus on improving teaching. As a result, progress for current pupils is improving. "Pupils behave well in lessons and at breaks and lunchtime. They show respect and concern for each other. They say bullying is rare. "Pupils are safe in school. Staff are well trained in safeguarding procedures. They are vigilant and apply procedures effectively in practice, taking prompt action when they have concerns." Stuart Turnbull, Principal at Ormiston Shelfield Community Academy, said: “We are pleased that the Academy has been rated Good in four key categories, and whilst Ofsted has recognised that student outcomes require improvement, we are already working incredibly hard to build further on the improvements we have already made in this area. “Alongside the support of staff, students, parents, Governors, the Trust and the wider community, we will be working tirelessly to ensure that every aspect of our provision is the very best it can be. "I am confident that we are well-placed to achieve this, given the strength of the school’s leadership and management, and teaching and learning, as praised by Ofsted”. | [email protected] (Gurdip Thandi) | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/walsall-school-ordered-improved-ofsted-16454870 | 2019-06-20 08:51:37+00:00 | 1,561,035,097 | 1,567,538,513 | education | school |
65,793 | birminghammail--2019-08-23--School reborn after Trojan Horse scandal celebrates wonderful GCSE results day | 2019-08-23T00:00:00 | birminghammail | School reborn after Trojan Horse scandal celebrates 'wonderful' GCSE results day | A school which was in 'turmoil' and branded 'failing' amid the legacy of the Trojan Horse affair is celebrating outstanding GCSE results with smiling pupils - marking what its chief called "the end of the beginning". Adrian Packer, chief executive of the trust that oversees Rockwood Academy in Alum Rock, said the school had been on an incredible journey since opening in 2015 in the midst of the damaging controversy. "The young people we have seen this week collecting their GCSE results are those that arrived here as Year 7 students on day one of the new academy, at what was a difficult time that was challenging for them and their families. "To see the happiness, and to see them get results they have worked so hard for - this is all about their smiles, it's lovely to see," said Mr Packer. "They had a difficult time and have shown incredible determination and resilience. This is the end of the beginning for the school." The school sits on the site of the former Park View School, which was at the heart of a probe into discredited allegations of a plot to oust some Birmingham head teachers and make their schools adhere to more conservative Islamic principles. Dubbed 'Trojan Horse', the allegations resulted in five inquiries and a series of disciplinary hearings against teachers. The school was one of five that were put in special measures as a result. Rockwood Academy is now rated Good by Ofsted. Said Mr Packer: "The media interviews I gave when we first opened as Rockwood Academy were quite defensive about what was going on at the school - there was a lot of concern about the quality of education the pupils were getting. My job was to look forward to days like this really. "If there is a secret to our success it is about being optimistic and to strive for improved outcomes for the children, with an incredible head teacher and hard working dedicated workforce. "That doesn't just mean GCSE results - this is amazing but what's more amazing is to stand here and reflect on the kind of education these children get every day. "We have really broadened the curriculum and given them far more opportunities outside of the day to day curriculum," he added. "For example we are now a UCL Beacon School and we lead on Holocaust education - that could not have happened five years ago because we were just not ready for it, the school was in turmoil. "In those years we have focussed on providing a fantastic experience every day. That sounds easy but there have been challenges along the way - there have been tears and tantrums, but it's absolutely worth it for days like today. Their smiles give me so much energy and fuel to work harder. It's wonderful. "We are truly proud of our students." The school has adopted a key focus on science, technology, engineering and maths - the STEM subjects - with pupils performing exceptionally well. Some 15 students secured the top grade 9 in a range of topics - the highest grade which is only achieved by the top 3% in the country. Sara Abdi Osman, just 15, achieved seven 9s and two 8s (the equivalent of nine A*). She is the first in her family to complete a British education and her success was being shared by phone to her wider family. She attended early morning intervention groups put on by the school to provide extra assistance, and also attended additional tutoring in the evenings. Said her proud mum and sister: "She has worked so hard, she has never missed any lessons or opportunities. I was worried she might burn out but she kept focussed and can relax now, it was all worth it." Said Sara: "I am proud of myself. The school encourages girls to study science and engineering and maths as options - many girls maybe think it's more related to boys but they are my passion." Ikram Khan, 16, said he was happy with his results, particularly as exams fell during Ramadan - achieving four Grade 9s. "We were fasting during the exams - so you lose out on sleep and nutrition and has an impact on how you think and how much information you retain so the school helped us to schedule everything, they were really supportive." “I see tears of happiness and I am so proud. "We have high aspirations, high expectations and no excuses here - we provide opportunities for every pupil and encourage them to take them. We have very dedicated highly skilled staff and we have a true partnership with our parents. It's such a strong partnership. I am so proud of all our students’ achievements; this year group has been a fabulous cohort of young people. They have worked hard both inside and outside of the classroom." She added: "A big thank you goes to all members of staff for their unstinting hard work and commitment to support our students in becoming well rounded and resilient individuals. We wish the students all the best when they now embark on the next chapter in their lives.” The school and its surroundings is undergoing building work, with a £14 million expansion project under way to create a new teaching block with 14 new classrooms, plus a state-of-the-art library, specialist dance studio, improved science labs and additional music practice rooms. There will also be a stunning new atrium with a social space at the centre, to provide a new heart to the school. Overall results for the school include 56% of students achieving Maths and English combined at Grades 9-4. In English, Maths and triple Science students did particularly well, with 77%, 58% and 100% respectively achieving Grade 4 and above. “Congratulations to all the pupils and staff at Rockwood Academy, and the wider team at CORE Education, on such an impressive set of results. GCSE results day marks the moment so many young people will make choices that can shape the rest of their lives, so whatever path they choose, every pupil at Rockwood Academy should do so full of confidence.” | [email protected] (Jane Haynes) | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/school-left-turmoil-after-trojan-16798437 | 2019-08-23 06:25:16+00:00 | 1,566,555,916 | 1,567,533,561 | education | school |
92,125 | chicagosuntimes--2019-01-10--Chico plan 8 more selective enrollment and 6 more vocational high schools | 2019-01-10T00:00:00 | chicagosuntimes | Chico plan: 8 more selective enrollment and 6 more vocational high schools | Mayoral candidate Gery Chico vowed Wednesday to create eight new selective enrollment high schools — four by building new schools and four by re-purposing half-empty high schools –– to reverse an exodus that has left the Chicago Public Schools with 150,000 more seats than students. To prevent parents from “voting with their feet,” Chico also wants to give them the choice to send their kids to Level 1 schools with 60,000 vacancies, triple the number of social workers and International Baccalaureate programs and build six more vocational and technical high schools. “Parents are applying for selective enrollment programs at eight, nine, ten times capacity to accept students That’s way too stressful. And it’s causing an exodus of good students from or system. We need to keep them,” Chico said. As a former board president of CPS, City Colleges and the State Board of Education, Chico has more credibility and experience in education than any of the other candidates vying to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel. His ambitious education agenda is grounded in the notion that “four-year universities are not for everyone” and that students need to be exposed early to alternatives that lead to substantial careers. Towards that end, he wants to require middle school students to take “one or two courses” of career and technical education programs offered in high school and ensure that they graduate from high school with apprenticeship certificates. “Trades [union] leaders are telling me people with four-year college degrees are seeking to enter their apprenticeship programs so they can pay off college debt. They’re prepared to invest capital and time to craft this curriculum and make this four-year program with a certificate of eligibility for apprenticeship a reality,” Chico said. “We have to seize the moment…No more talking about how there aren’t African-American men and women in the trades. Time to do something about it.” CPS has 150,000 more seats than students. Much of that excess capacity is located in South and West Side neighborhoods hard hit by a black exodus from the city. Pressure is building for another round of school closings now that a five-year moratorium has expired. Other mayoral candidates have run from the issue of school closings, well aware of the heavy political price Emanuel paid for closing a record 50 public schools. Chico vowed to confront the issue head-on, even as he simultaneously moves to “re-purpose” shuttered schools “blighting” neighborhoods into community centers, affordable housing, retail, mental health centers and job training facilities. “I have not closed the door on school closings because, the more I keep open a school that has a handful of students, I’m not doing right by the students in that neighborhood who may benefit under a better set of options,” Chico said. “We will work with communities to have discussions where there are a handful of students in schools and it doesn’t make sense to keep them open anymore….We’re not gonna leave people in the lurch. It makes it hard to operate when those 50 closures still sit there in that fashion. We need to get that done very quickly. But we don’t have the luxury of just sequencing these things. We’ve got to be walking and chewing gum at the same time.” When the Illinois General Assembly gave former Mayor Richard M. Daley control over CPS in 1995, Chico was dispatched to the schools in a dream-team pairing with fellow mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. They raised test scores, reduced class sizes, expanded after-school and tutoring programs and embarked on a $3 billion school construction spree that built 16 new schools, 27 school annexes and 29 school additions. They built Gwendolyn Brooks and Jones College Prep, along with two of the state’s most highly-acclaimed selective enrollment high schools: Walter Payton and North Side Prep. North Side came to be known as “Chico High” because it was built in time for Chico’s daughters to attend. Pressed on how he would pay for the new round of school construction, Chico talked about three different sources: the $43 million property tax increase approved by the City Council in 2015 and earmarked exclusively for school construction; tax-increment-financing (TIF) surpluses; and his proposal for a 1.2 percent tax on homes sold at more than $1 million. Despite a $450 million windfall in state funding, Chico also demanded that the Illinois General Assembly “fully-fund” both pensions for Chicago teachers as well as a “per-pupil suggested level” of funding now short by $4,000-per-student. “If we do those things, we’ll have more than enough money to, not only build and re-purpose these schools I’m talking about, but go into every neighborhood and make sure that every school is high quality physically with the labs that are necessary today’s education,” he said. | Fran Spielman | https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/chico-education-plan-8-selective-enrollment-6-vocational-high-schools-mayors-race/ | 2019-01-10 04:00:43+00:00 | 1,547,110,843 | 1,567,553,037 | education | school |
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