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755,131 | theindependent--2019-04-08--China aposforces millions of peopleapos to download app and earn points by following President X | 2019-04-08T00:00:00 | theindependent | China 'forces millions of people' to download app and earn points by following President Xi Jinping news | China’s government is forcing millions of people to download an app promoting president Xi Jinping and his Communist Party, according to reports. Tens of millions of people use the “Study the Great Nation” (Xuexi Qiangguo) app, which allows users to earn points by following news about Mr Xi, such as watching videos of his international visits or answering quiz questions about economic policies. Critics warn the app’s popularity is engineered by Communist Party officials, who put pressure on citizens to use the app and punish those who ignore it. Study the Great Nation, which is a pun on Mr Xi’s name (Xuexi can be read as “Study Xi”), was developed by technology giant Alibaba and launched earlier this year. It has since become the most downloaded app for Apple devices in the country, surpassing messaging app WeChat and viral media app TikTok, with state media claiming it has more than 100 million registered users. The app has been compared to Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book” which was widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. “He is using new media to fortify loyalty towards him,” Wu Qiang, a political analyst in Beijing, told The New York Times. Thousands of Communist Party officials have reportedly been ordered to ensure citizens use the app, with schools criticising students with low scores and companies ranking employees based on their usage. Many employers reportedly require workers to submit daily screenshots to document their progress on the app or deduct pay if the app is not used frequently. “It’s a perfect example of propaganda in the Xi era ... that appeals to China’s large online population,” Manya Koetse told AFP in February. Ms Koetse studies social trends in China as the editor of What’s on Weibo, based on the popular social media website Sina Weibo. The app is thought to be the latest attempt to solidify Mr Xi’s control over China. Mr Xi is considered one of the most powerful Chinese leaders since Mao and could rule the country indefinitely – the Communist Party removed presidential term limits in March 2018. The president’s political theory, known as Xi Jinping Thought, was officially incorporated into the Constitution of the Communist Party of China in 2017, putting him among the country’s most significant leaders. Efforts to crack down on criticism in recent years have included banning search terms related to political dissent and banning Winnie the Pooh, due to memes likening the character to Mr Xi. It is not known how closely the government can track users on Study the Great Nation, although the app requires a mobile number to register and a national identification number for some features. “You cannot divert attention away from it,” Haiqing Yu, an Australian professor who studies Chinese media, told The New York Times. “It’s a kind of digital surveillance. It brings the digital dictatorship to a new level.” | Conrad Duncan | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-xi-jinping-app-millions-forced-download-a8859511.html | 2019-04-08 09:03:00+00:00 | 1,554,728,580 | 1,567,543,567 | politics | political dissent |
777,791 | theindependent--2019-12-03--Thich Tri Quang: Buddhist monk who wielded political might during the Vietnam War | 2019-12-03T00:00:00 | theindependent | Thich Tri Quang: Buddhist monk who wielded political might during the Vietnam War | Thich Tri Quang was a Buddhist monk who led waves of protests that brought down South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963 and later contributed to growing American ambivalence about the Vietnam War. For about three years during a critical phase of the war, from 1963 to 1966, Tri Quang, who has died aged 95, commanded headlines as a figure of international interest if not outright intrigue. Clad in grey robes, he appeared on the front of Time magazine in 1966. “Lean, well muscled, with a sensual electricity, in every gesture and blazing eyes that can mesmerise a mob, Thich Tri Quang … has long been South Vietnam’s mysterious High Priest of Disorder,” the article read. Part of the fascination surrounding Tri Quang – Thich is a religious title, akin to the reverend – stemmed from what to western observers sometimes seemed the contradictory nature of his objectives. He was variously described as the great champion of Vietnam’s Buddhist majority and a radical sowing political dissent in an already tortured land. At times, he was called a communist; at other times an anti-communist. In 1963 he was granted a haven in the US embassy in South Vietnam after escaping government raids on Buddhist pagodas. But by 1966 he charged that Vietnam was “oppressed by two pressures: the communists and the Americans”. Tri Quang (the name means “brilliant mind”) was born Pham Quang in Diem Dien, a village in the central province of Quang Binh that would later become part of the communist North. He was the son of a farmer and became a monk at age 12 or 13, a practice not unusual in Vietnam. He settled in Hue, which after 1954 became part of South Vietnam. Early on, Tri Quang was inspired by the struggle against the French colonial rule that ended with the conclusion of the first Indochina war in 1954 and the division of Vietnam at the 17th parallel. He was also concerned with what he described as the “unity of the Buddhist faithful” across Vietnam. He first came to prominence in 1963 as a leader of protests that led to the ousting of Diem, the first president of South Vietnam, in a US-backed coup that November. Diem was Catholic, with a brother who was a powerful archbishop, and most of the protesters seeking his overthrow were Buddhist. Tri Quang reportedly employed spies in the Diem government and armed monks with insecticide sprayers filled with vinegar and red pepper. Hostilities reached a flash point on on 8 May 1963, when South Vietnamese soldiers fired on a group of Buddhists flying a Buddhist flag in Hue. Nine people were killed. Protests culminated with the ritual suicide a month later of the Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc, who was soaked with gasoline and then sat lotus style as he burnt to death on a Saigon street. That image ricocheted around the world and pushed President John F Kennedy to reconsider US support for Diem, who was ultimately assassinated in the coup. After Diem’s death, to the chagrin of US officials who wished to see a more stable South Vietnam amid the ongoing war with the North, Tri Quang mobilised his followers to help overthrow a succession of governments and their holdovers from the Diem regime. A second Buddhist uprising, again with Tri Quang as a principal leader, erupted in 1966 during the government of Nguyen Cao Ky, revealing the extent of fissures within South Vietnamese society and government. The protests, which were eventually crushed, were regarded as an unwelcome development in the US, which by then had deepened its involvement in war with the deployment of combat troops. Little is known about Tri Quang’s activities after the end of the Vietnam War. He reportedly spent a period under house arrest at his pagoda. In its 1966 cover story, Time reported that Tri Quang lived for at least one period in a small cell at his pagoda, where he did not partake of meat, cigarettes or alcohol. He rose with the sun, a reporter wrote, “spending a third of his waking day in prayer, a third in activity, a third in contemplation of his mistakes”. Paul Mooney in Hanoi contributed to this report | Emily Langer | https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/thich-tri-quang-death-obituary-buddhist-monk-vietnam-war-a9208026.html | Tue, 03 Dec 2019 13:38:27 GMT | 1,575,398,307 | 1,575,419,543 | politics | political dissent |
34,577 | bbc--2019-12-29--The best science long reads of 2019 | 2019-12-29T00:00:00 | bbc | The best science long reads of 2019 | From the search for new dinosaur skeletons in the "Badlands" of Wyoming, to the push to return humans to the Moon for the first time since 1972, here's a festive selection of the best science and environment long reads published by the BBC this year. This year, a team of scientists began an audacious dinosaur hunt. They have started to excavate a square mile (260 hectares) of land at a secret location in the "Badlands" of Wyoming - and have already discovered a treasure trove of bones. The researchers hope it will give them an unprecedented understanding of the dinosaurs that lived 150m years ago, and could help to solve the mystery of how these Jurassic beasts grew so huge. Electric car future may depend on deep sea mining. By David Shukman The future of electric cars may depend on mining critically important metals on the ocean floor. That's the view of the engineer leading a major European investigation into new sources of key elements. Demand is soaring for the metal cobalt - an essential ingredient in batteries and abundant in rocks on the seabed. David Shukman visited a ship off the coast of Malaga in southern Spain, where a prototype mining machine was being lowered to the seabed to test the extraction of precious minerals. Chernobyl: The end of a three-decade experiment By Victoria Gill After the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, an area of more than 4,000 square kilometres had to be abandoned. The accident turned this landscape into a giant, contaminated laboratory, where hundreds of scientists have worked to find out how an environment recovers from nuclear catastrophe. An exclusion zone- covering more than two thousand square kilometres - was established around the plant. Its purpose was to protect the public and reduce the spread of radiation. But, as the BBC's Victoria Gill found out, talks have been underway to re-draw the boundaries of this zone. To the Moon and Beyond By Paul Rincon The White House wants to send Americans back to the Moon by 2024. This mission will be the first to land humans on the lunar surface since 1972. But this time, Nasa plans to do things differently. The Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts on their lunar journey, superficially resembles hardware used in the Apollo era. But it's packed with technology that was unimaginable in the 1960s. The agency also plans to build a space station in lunar orbit, called Gateway, which could act as an operations control centre. But can Nasa safely mount a return mission in just a few years, given that some critical hardware has neither been built nor flight-tested? Twelve years to save the planet? Make that 18 months. By Matt McGrath In July, Matt McGrath wrote about a growing consensus that the subsequent 18 months were critical for the climate crisis. More than five months have now elapsed and, after a compromise at the UN climate conference in Madrid, the urgency is even greater. Among experts on the climate, there's a sense that 2020 is the last chance saloon for protecting our planet from the dangerous effects of climate change. The UN's climate conference in Glasgow next year - COP26 - could be a pivotal moment. But because the summit in Madrid failed to clarify so many key issues, the talks in Glasgow have a mountain to climb. How much warmer is your city?By BBC Visual and Data Journalism team The world is getting hotter. July 2019 was one of the warmest months ever recorded - and July temperatures almost everywhere on Earth have been higher in the last 10 years compared with 1880-1900. Find out how the temperature in 1,000 major cities across the world has changed already and how much it could rise by in the coming years. Go to the page Climate change: Your choices have a ripple effect. By Justin Rowlatt Is individual action pointless in the face of climate change? What difference does one person forgoing a lamb chop for a lentil bake make if the other 7,699,999,999 of us humans here on Earth don't do anything? But 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg made headlines this year when she opted to travel to climate change meetings in New York on a racing yacht rather than fly there. Ms Thunberg told the BBC the point was just as much about sending a signal to those in power as it was about individual contributions to tackling the climate crisis. The island nation of Madagascar has a dubious accolade: it is the world leader in deforestation. In 2017 alone, 500,000 hectares were cut down - half a million football pitches of rich, diverse rainforest. It is home to species threatened by the pet trade, which will go extinct in the next few years if things don't change. Now, some of the island's teenagers are mobilising to stop food production from destroying the island's rich rainforest ecosystem. Microplastics: Seeking the 'plastic score' of our food. By Helen Briggs Microplastics - defined as plastic chunks that are smaller than 5mm - are found everywhere on Earth. But we know surprisingly little about what risks they pose to living things. There are many unanswered questions about the impact of these tiny bits of plastic, which come from larger plastic debris, cosmetics and clothes. What's not in dispute is just how far microplastics have travelled around the planet in a matter of decades. Scientists are now racing to investigate some of the big unanswered questions. The vast sand scheme protecting the Norfolk coast. By Rebecca Morelle A huge "sandscaping" scheme has been carried out in the UK, on the eroding Norfolk coastline. Engineers created a 6km-long dune to protect Bacton Terminal, which supplies one third of the UK's gas. The station is teetering just metres from a cliff edge. But the project is also intended to protect two nearby villages. The Norfolk coastline is losing land every year as part of natural geological erosion. When big storms occur, several metres of coastline can vanish at once. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48275581 | Sun, 29 Dec 2019 00:54:08 GMT | 1,577,598,848 | 1,577,621,219 | science and technology | scientific institution |
117,535 | conservativehome--2019-02-25--Calling Conservatives New public appointments announced Chair of the Defence Science and Technolog | 2019-02-25T00:00:00 | conservativehome | Calling Conservatives: New public appointments announced. Chair of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory – and more | Six years ago, the TaxPayers’ Alliance reported that “in the last year, five times more Labour people were appointed to public bodies than Tories”. Since then, the figures have varied, and some Conservative members or supporters have been selected to fill important posts. Nonetheless, it remains the case that, since it took office in 2010, our Party has punched beneath its weight when it comes to public appointments. One of the reasons seems to be that Tories simply don’t apply in the same number as Labour supporters. To help remedy this, every week we put up links to some of the main public appointments vacancies, so that qualified Conservatives might be aware of the opportunities presented. “The Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) is a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation, and an organisation committed to putting children and students first. Ofsted is recruiting up to four individuals to its board. The board agrees Ofsted’s strategic priorities, targets and objectives. Its members provide constructive and supportive advice and challenge to Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) on Ofsted’s activities and performance, and monitor Ofsted’s performance and spending. Successful applicants will be strategic thinkers able to lead and influence at Board level. You will be able to consider issues from a big picture, macro perspective, and to support and challenge the executive in its strategic planning. Practical experience in a relevant sector, and theoretical understanding of the challenges and issues facing Ofsted will be crucial to your ability to contribute across the breadth of Ofsted’s activities.” “Those who serve on the Boards of public bodies play a vital role in the life of this country, whether by improving the delivery of public services or providing independent advice to Government. Many people from a wide range of backgrounds across the whole of the UK participate in public life by being members of the Boards of public bodies. They are involved in making decisions that develop, shape or deliver government policy and public services. The information pack sets out the requirements for the RSH Chair position along with information on the work of the RSH and the appointment process. On 1 October 2018, through a Legislative Reform Order, the RSH became an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which is responsible for the regulation of social housing. The successful candidate will have experience and understanding of how to operate effectively at Board level, and have knowledge of the social housing sector, regulation and finance.” “Ofqual wishes to recruit up to five, high calibre individuals to the Board. We are looking to appoint at least one in each of the following areas: assessment and qualification design, regulation, finance and apprenticeships. You will be expected to support Ofqual’s aims and objectives and act as ambassadors for the organisation. We are looking for independent thinkers who will offer challenge and guidance to Ofqual’s executive to support their decision making. We seek applicants who have significant experience and expertise to bring to Board discussions and are committed to driving forward the work of the organisation. You will have: the ability to think strategically and to contribute to strategic development in different organisational contexts; the ability to build effective relationships at senior levels and/or between organisations; and the ability to support and provide challenge to Ofqual’s executive on both strategy policy and organisational matters.” “The Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence (MOD), whose world-class workforce is proud to provide Defence with long-term agile sovereign capability. It delivers maintenance, repair, overhaul, upgrade and obsolescence management services for a range of avionic and electronic equipment. Run along commercial lines, it also grows profitable business streams through the supply of electronics components products and services to its customers, the Army, Navy, RAF, Defence Equipment & Support (DES) and industry. The current Chair is standing down after four years’ successful stewardship of this complex organisation and a successor is now being sought to continue leading the Board in overseeing its important delivery programme and in transforming the organisation’s capabilities.” “Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The highly-skilled 4,000 strong workforce is committed to providing sensitive and specialist science and technology research, advice and analysis for MOD and the wider UK government. The context is exciting and demanding, with continuing globalisation and the rapid development and emergence of new technologies, against a backdrop of ongoing shifts in economic and military power, all influencing our customers and, by extension, DSTL. It plays a central role in helping MOD respond in a rapidly evolving and complex setting, and our advice to the Department’s Chief Scientific Advisor and other MOD stakeholders makes a major contribution to keeping our country safe.” “The National Infrastructure Commission is recruiting for a National Infrastructure Design Group to advise on how best to embed design into the culture of infrastructure planning, to save money, reduce risk, add value, support environmental net gain and create a legacy that looks good and works well. We are seeking up to five Group members with relevant infrastructure and design expertise to contribute to the Group to ensure quality design in future infrastructure and to support the implementation of the recommendations on design made in the National Infrastructure Assessment. The Group will be chaired by Professor Sadie Morgan and will meet formally four times a year.” “As our new Chair you’ll certainly be kept busy. You’ll lead us through the next stage of our development. This will include working through and shaping a new future following the LEP review, introducing a Local Industrial Strategy, embedding new relationships, engaging across the County, harnessing all the strengths of a high calibre private sector led Board, bringing us a national profile and ensuring a relentless focus on delivery. You’ll serve all of Lancashire and every sector, visible to our 52,000 businesses and 1.5m people. You’ll see the big picture, understand what makes our economy tick and what’s needed to accelerate growth. With deep private sector experience, you’ll be relentlessly commercial, but understand that real cross-sector partnerships create strong foundations for success.” “The Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG) is an independent body which acts as the customer on behalf of the public and public sector users of the Public Weather Service (PWS). It provides independent advice to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to enable the formal agreement of the PWS Customer-Supplier Agreement (CSA) between Government and the Met Office. It is responsible for defining the outputs required from the Met Office and holding them to account for delivering to a satisfactory level. The funding for the PWS is currently around £120M per annum, of which £100M is paid by BEIS. The PWS provides a coherent range of weather information and weather-related warnings that enable the UK public and professional bodies to make informed decisions in their day-to-day activities, to optimise or mitigate against the impact of the weather, and to contribute to the protection of life, property and basic infrastructure.” | Conservative Home | https://www.conservativehome.com/public-appointments/2019/02/calling-conservatives-new-public-appointments-announced-chair-of-the-defence-science-and-technology-laboratory-and-more.html | 2019-02-25 10:00:28+00:00 | 1,551,106,828 | 1,567,547,385 | science and technology | scientific institution |
234,266 | hitandrun--2019-04-18--Middlebury College Cancels Speech by Polish Politician-Academic | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | hitandrun | Middlebury College Cancels Speech by Polish Politician-Academic | [UPDATE: Also check out this analysis from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.] Legutko was to speak on The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies, and seems to be a pretty serious scholar: Ryszard Legutko lived and suffered under communism for decades — and he fought with the Polish anti-communist movement to abolish it. But having now lived for three decades under a liberal democracy, he argues that western democracy has over time crept towards the same goals as communism, albeit without Soviet-style brutality. Both systems, says Legutko, reduce human nature to that of common man, who is led to believe himself liberated from the obligations of the past. Both the communist man and the liberal democratic man refuse to admit that there exists anything of value outside the political systems to which they pledged their loyalty. And both systems refuse to undertake any critical examination of their ideological prejudices. Mr. Legutko is a Member of the European Parliament. He has served as the Republic of Poland's Minister of Education, Secretary of State, and Deputy Speaker of the Senate. As a Member of the European Parliament, he chairs the Parliamentary Group of European Conservatives and Reformists and serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He has been an active participant in recent debates over Brexit in the European Parliament. Under communist rule, Legutko served as editor of the illegal samizdat publication, Arka. After the collapse of the communist regime, he co-founded the Centre for Political Thought in Kraków. One of Poland's foremost public intellectuals, Mr. Legutko is Professor of Philosophy at Jagiellonian University (Kraków, Poland). As a specialist in ancient philosophy and political theory, he has translated and written commentaries to Plato's Phaedo (1995), Euthyphro (1998), and Apology(2003). He is the author of several books, including Plato's Critique of Democracy (1990), Toleration (1997), A Treatise on Liberty (2007), An Essay on the Polish Soul (2008), and Socrates (2013). He had been invited by the Alexander Hamilton Forum, a faculty-run program, and his talk had been cosponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs. But he drew opposition from faculty and students who argued that his views were "homophobic, racist, xenophobic, [and] misogynistic"; and the College administration canceled the lecture, writing (I quote here the Washington Free Beacon (Alex Griswold)): In the interest of ensuring the safety of students, faculty, staff, and community members, the lecture by Ryszard Legutko scheduled for later today will not take place. This decision was not taken lightly. It was based on an assessment of our ability to respond effectively to potential security and safety risks for both the lecture and the event students had planned in response. At least some of the organizers of the planned protest against Legutko say they weren't trying to prevent Legutko from talking: "In light of the recent announcement by the Middlebury College administration to cancel the Legutko event this afternoon, we are reiterating that it was never our intention to shut this event down, nor prevent the speaker from speaking," Taite Shomo wrote. But the administration did prevent it. | Eugene Volokh | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/Y9gEriMTYqE/ | 2019-04-18 00:00:35+00:00 | 1,555,560,035 | 1,567,542,546 | science and technology | scientific institution |
235,490 | hitandrun--2019-07-29--Even Amy Wax is Protected by Academic Freedom | 2019-07-29T00:00:00 | hitandrun | Even Amy Wax is Protected by Academic Freedom | Over at the American Association of University Professors' Academe Blog, I have a post on the latest brouhaha over Penn law professor Amy Wax and her views on immigration and the relative virtues of "First World" culture. There are those who say she should be fired or stripped of her teaching duties. There are those who say that she does not deserve the usual protections of academic freedom and that her speech rights should be curtailed. As usual, protections for free speech do not matter much when people are saying things that are pleasant and agreeable. Our tolerance is tested only when someone says something unpleasant and controversial. Read the whole thing here. A taste below: The Wax case is not a hard case. She should be fully protected from employer sanction based on the content of the views that she has expressed in her public writings and speeches. This principle is foundational to the modern protection of academic freedom, and there is no exception for faculty speech that makes students uncomfortable or contradicts a dean's opinion about the values of the institution. Wax is being criticized not merely for how she says things, but for the very substance of her ideas, ideas that are close to her scholarly endeavors. If her speech is not well inside the protected sphere of academic freedom, then academic freedom has little to offer those who might hold controversial views. Of course, my views on the Wax case reflect the principles I elaborate and defend in my recent book, Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech, which oddly enough is available for purchase here. | Keith Whittington | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reason/HitandRun/~3/XQNKPHKkp2k/ | 2019-07-29 11:30:13+00:00 | 1,564,414,213 | 1,567,535,443 | science and technology | scientific institution |
237,725 | hotair--2019-01-09--Academic who hoaxed grievance study journals could lose his job | 2019-01-09T00:00:00 | hotair | Academic who hoaxed grievance study journals could lose his job | Last October I wrote about the trio of academics, Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian, who submitted bogus papers to supposedly serious journals and discovered that a number of them were not only accepted but praised. Now one of the professors who engaged in that attempt to point out the deficiencies in contemporary scholarship fears he is in danger of losing his job. Peter Boghossian, an associate professor of philosophy at Portland State University, says the university is considering accusing him of “fabricating data” in the papers which were so obviously absurd they bordered on satire. From Fox News: Four days before Christmas, Portland State University Vice President Mark McLellan emailed Boghossian that he had been found guilty of “a clear violation of the policies of your employer” for hoaxing the journals without first seeking permission from an “Institutional Review Board”. Institutional Review Board rules mandate “informed consent” from “human subjects” – in this case, the fooled journal editors – meaning the university would have required him to get consent from the journals in advance of sending the hoax papers. Boghossian notes that would have defeated the whole point. Boghossian says the university has assigned him extra training as a punishment – but that a more serious punishment, to be determined by the university’s President and Provost, will also be announced soon, that may include his termination… The university is currently deliberating about finding Boghossian guilty on an additional charge of “fabricating data”. Boghossian’s published hoax paper about “rape culture and queer performativity” in dog parks extravagantly claimed to have examined 10,000 dogs’ genitals and then surveyed their owners about their sexual orientations. Boghossian and his co-authors say the claim to have such data was “clearly preposterous” and that the whole point was to see if the journal editors would pick up on the absurdity. It seems pretty clear what is happening here. Entire fields of feminist and gender studies (what the academics call grievance studies) have been embarrassed by this experiment and the people who look like frauds for praising rewritten versions of Mein Kampf (just one example of a paper that was accepted for publication) are looking to lash out at those who embarrassed them. And it’s not just the publication of the papers that started this. Last year Boghossian invited James Damore to speak on campus. That event was interrupted when someone cut the microphones to silence the speakers. Not long after that, all three of these academics hosted a talk on campus titled “Is Intersectionality a Religion?” They concluded that it was a kind of religion. Part of the irony of the reaction to them is that all three professors are liberal atheists. They aren’t remotely on the right themselves, they’re simply critical of the far left. That’s enough to make them enemies in modern academic settings. Last November, a group of a dozen PSU professors contributed an anonymous hit piece to the student paper in which they claimed Boghossian’s efforts had damaged the value of a PSU degree. Though they wouldn’t put their names on the attack, they clearly wanted to see him punished or fired. “It is utterly incredible to me what the university has become,” Boghossian said at the time. Here’s a video made the day the article was published: In case you’ve forgotten what the fake journal papers were about, here’s a video summary of the trio’s efforts. I strongly suspect one of the things motivating this backlash is how much joy these three took in mocking the grievance studies journals and their idea of academic rigor. | John Sexton | https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/09/academic-hoaxed-grievance-study-journals-lose-job/ | 2019-01-09 20:21:50+00:00 | 1,547,083,310 | 1,567,553,344 | science and technology | scientific institution |
256,224 | instapundit--2019-02-04--PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD Why arent illiberal universities challenged Its high time academics | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | instapundit | PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Why aren’t illiberal universities challenged? It’s high time academics… | PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Why aren’t illiberal universities challenged? It’s high time academics started standing up to the campus thought police. | Glenn Reynolds | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/4-9nJM0sRvA/ | 2019-02-04 18:00:50+00:00 | 1,549,321,250 | 1,567,549,627 | science and technology | scientific institution |
286,711 | lewrockwell--2019-06-27--The Purge of Trans-Sceptical Academics | 2019-06-27T00:00:00 | lewrockwell | The Purge of Trans-Sceptical Academics | In the UK academy, we have become accustomed to students deploying the ‘No Platform’ policy to silence external speakers. Now this same censoriousness seems to have spread to the world of academic journals, as evidenced by the pressure put on two academics recently to stand down from their editorial roles. In the first instance, Sarah Honeychurch, one of the editors of the journal Hybrid Pedagogy, received a formal email from Chris Friend, the journal’s managing editor, asking her to resign her position. This was all because she had signed a letter to The Sunday Times, in which a number of academics critiqued the close relationship between the LGBT charity Stonewall and UK universities. The letter argues that via the education section of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme, trans-awareness workshops are being delivered to academics which present only one set of ideas on gender, some of which are anti-scientific yet presented as objective fact. In the second instance, Michele Moore (full disclosure: I have just co-edited a book with her), another signatory of The Sunday Times letter and honorary professor at Essex University, found herself the subject of a petition demanding her resignation from the journal Disability and Society, where she is editor-in-chief. This was sparked by the letter, but her thinking on transgender issues is well known: she is concerned that children with complex psycho-social needs, including autistic children, are vulnerable to being pushed towards transitioning, exposing them to a lifetime of medical intervention and potentially sterility. The Free Society Laurence M. Vance Buy New $19.95 (as of 02:50 EDT - Details) Friend, in justifying his decision to push out Honeychurch, says that ‘just as marginalised students who feel unsafe in school face obstacles to learning, marginalised authors who feel unsafe in journals face obstacles to writing’. ‘Before any debate can take place, our authors must be safe’, he continues. ‘[This] is not a matter of shutting down an argument or censoring a perspective. It is about holding space for a group that needs protection against the entrenched powers of authority already in place.’ Dr Angharad Beckett, associate professor of sociology at the University of Leeds, and an editor at Disability and Society, resigned her post over Moore’s involvement with the letter. She says that Moore’s views are ‘damaging to the wellbeing of trans children and their families’ and that the Sunday Times letter ‘will do little to make transgender colleagues and students feel welcome in universities’. Thankfully, Taylor and Francis, the journal’s publisher, is standing by Moore and has not asked her to resign. Jessica Vivian, a director at Taylor and Francis, tells The Times: ‘Having seen both the petition and social-media discussion online, we are working with the journal’s editor and board to put into place a review of the journal’s editorial policies.’ But, she stresses, ‘our focus remains on ensuring the journal continues to challenge, debate and publish research from across the full spectrum of views’. | No Author | https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/06/no_author/the-purge-of-trans-sceptical-academics/ | 2019-06-27 04:01:00+00:00 | 1,561,622,460 | 1,567,537,952 | science and technology | scientific institution |
332,863 | nationalreview--2019-10-18--An Ominous New Rationale for Trampling on Academic Freedom | 2019-10-18T00:00:00 | nationalreview | An Ominous New Rationale for Trampling on Academic Freedom | An NYU professor sees free speech as a tool of a ‘reactionary agenda.’ Free inquiry on campus has come under fire. Survey data make it clear that many students (especially conservative ones) are hesitant to speak up in class. Faculty at schools ranging from Portland State to Sarah Lawrence to Northwestern University have been castigated by campus mandarins for the sin of challenging the regnant groupthink regarding such issues as the legacy of colonialism, the role of campus support staff, and Title IX. In light of that, one might expect academics to man the ramparts of academic freedom in the name of self-preservation. Even as faculty have been investigated and intimidated for questioning campus orthodoxy, however, the academy has stood mutely by. And yet campus apologists have felt obliged to insist that concerns over attempts to encroach on academic freedom are exaggerated or overstated. For all the hypocrisy and obfuscation, this has at least suggested a professoriate that thinks it’s supposed to defend free inquiry. That’s what makes a recent turn so disturbing. Some in the academy increasingly argue that the whole notion of free inquiry is a reactionary blemish rather than a bedrock principle. Indeed, in a new book published by Oxford University Press, New York University professor Ulrich Baer has done a signal (if disheartening) service in articulating this ominous new stance. NYU’s Baer, a professor of comparative literature, German, and English, and author of What Snowflakes Get Right, told Inside Higher Education last week that “the urge to block speech, which is really a reminder that the university’s purpose is to vet ideas and regulate speech so that teaching and learning can proceed, is related to a new generation’s realization that free speech has become a weapon for conservatives to undermine equality and the university itself.” He explained that free speech “is neither a blanket permission to say anything without consequence . . . nor identical with academic freedom.” Got that? Forget all that talk of free, untrammeled inquiry. The university’s very purpose is to “vet ideas and regulate speech” — with an eye to the fact that “free speech” itself is a political “weapon” that threatens the “equality and the university itself.” What Baer offers is a pivot that would leave behind any squeamishness for those wishing to stifle conservative perspectives or maintain any romantic attachment to the age-old principles articulated by the American Association of University Professors. You see, Baer argues, “universities get confused about their mission in the free speech debates and insist . . . that open-ended and unregulated inquiry is their purpose.” In fact, Baer says, universities are supposed to tolerate free inquiry only as a means for “advancing knowledge and seeking truth,” and the campus mandarins should serve as censors who determine which ideas and speech do so — and which do not. This is the next front in the push by campus culture warriors to marginalize and silence those who hold objectionable views or values. Baer is explicit on this count, explaining that “free speech only has meaning in the university when it’s paired with the legally mandated principle of equality for all qualified participants.” He elaborates: “When a speaker proposes that some people are innately inferior, such speech conflicts directly with the university’s mandate to provide equal access to its facilities and resources.” Now, I’m scratching my head trying to think of many campus speakers in 2019 who spend their time arguing “that some people are innately inferior.” But the game, of course, is that Baer and his cronies will define ideas and thoughts they dislike as fitting the bill — and they trust that progressive, weak-kneed campus censors will see things their way. Recent history suggests that they’re on safe ground, on that score. Baer explains that this profound redefinition of the university reflects the “new generation’s” sense “that free speech can serve as a hollow concept to advance a reactionary agenda.” This cynical dismissal is a telling summation of how Baer and likeminded illiberal thugs view the ideals of free inquiry and academic freedom. A century ago, in 1915, the American Association of University Professors, then led by John Dewey, set forth its founding principles, proclaiming, “The university cannot perform its [primary function] without accepting and enforcing to the fullest extent the principle of academic freedom.” In 1940, the AAUP and the Association of American Colleges declared, “Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good. . . . [And the] common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.” The question for the academy is whether these values still hold sway. Will a left-leaning professoriate accept Baer’s convenient new doctrine and the chilling future it portends, or will it choose to say “Enough is enough” and reassert a faith in its enduring principles? | Frederick M. Hess | https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/nyu-professor-calls-free-speech-tool-of-reactionary-agenda/ | Fri, 18 Oct 2019 10:30:14 +0000 | 1,571,409,014 | 1,571,413,984 | science and technology | scientific institution |
431,710 | prisonplanet--2019-07-25--PSU punishes prof who duped academic journal with hoax dog rape article | 2019-07-25T00:00:00 | prisonplanet | PSU punishes prof who duped academic journal with hoax ‘dog rape’ article | The professor who duped academic journals into publishing bogus articles has now been banned by Portland State University from conducting any and all university-sponsored research and threatened with an administrative review of his “questionable ethical behavior.” Peter Boghossian made headlines in 2018 after he and two other researchers set out to prove a point about the integrity of “peer-reviewed” academic publications by submitting several fake studies including an analysis of “dog rape culture,” and a piece that was simply a section of Hitler’s Mein Kampf reworked to include a smattering of academic buzzwords. After seven of the team’s fake submissions were accepted and published by esteemed academic journals, a Campus Reforminvestigation led the publisher of the infamous Portland “dog park rape culture” article to question the origins of the submission. This ultimately revealed the article as part of a larger effort by Boghossian and his team to demonstrate the inadequacies of these publications. After his experiment, Portland State threatened Boghossian with disciplinary action, accusing him of conducting research misconduct. The school asserted that Boghossian had unethically conducted research on human subjects with his experiment. According to the school’s Institutional Review Board, Boghossian would have needed to obtain “informed consent” from the individuals reviewing his hoax articles in order for his actions to have been considered ethical. The IRB conducted several reviews of Boghossian’s work involving his treatment of animal subjects, human subjects, and the possibility of “plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification.” On July 17, the university sent Boghossian a letter informing him that he is now barred from conducting any “human subjects related research,” as well as any university-sponsored research. The radical left will stop at nothing to intimidate conservative students on college campuses. You can help expose them.Find out more » Boghossian is prohibited from conducting research until he “can show satisfactory evidence of understanding of the protections afforded human subjects,” by completing a “protection of human subjects” training course and subsequently meeting with the Assistant Vice President for Research Administration to “assure [his] understanding.” The letter, sent from Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Mark McLellan, also warns Boghossian that the university president, as well as his department chair, dean, and provost, will be advised as to his “lack of academic integrity” and “questionable ethical behavior.” McLellan then encourages Boghossian’s superiors to conduct “an appropriate academic and/or administrative review.” In a statement to Campus Reform, Boghossian said that he has “not had time to process this yet,” noting that he has been busy recording an upcoming audiobook. “I am incredibly grateful for the thousands and thousands of letters of support sent to PSU on my behalf,” Boghossian added, referencing the hundreds of letters from students, professors, and other scholars from around the world who voiced their support for the PSU professor, on which Campus Reformreported exclusively. This article was posted: Thursday, July 25, 2019 at 6:27 am | admin | https://www.prisonplanet.com/psu-punishes-prof-who-duped-academic-journal-with-hoax-dog-rape-article.html | 2019-07-25 11:27:37+00:00 | 1,564,068,457 | 1,567,535,901 | science and technology | scientific institution |
500,441 | sottnet--2019-04-17--Vanishing breed Philadelphia university president stands up for academic freedom | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | sottnet | Vanishing breed: Philadelphia university president stands up for academic freedom | What happens when university students call on authority figures to censor students or staff at institutions of higher education? At Yale such students have been awarded prizes, at the University of Missouri they've been successful in forcing administrators to resign, at Claremont they were able to force their president to implement a long list of demands, and at Evergreen State College a throng of students were allowed to take control of the campus while harassed faculty sought refuge off-campus.This pattern of weakness has been dismaying for all people who value academic freedom and open inquiry. This week, however, a line has been drawn by David Yager, President of Philadelphia's University of Arts (UArts). In response to students calling for the censorship of Camille Paglia-one of the most admired humanities scholars in the world-he articulated a full-throated defence of intellectual freedom, showing administrators of supposedly superior universities what real leadership looks like.To understand what happened, one has to go back in time to 2016, the year when Camille Paglia recorded an interview with Ella Whelan of the British magazine Spiked. In this interview, Paglia criticised the transgender and feminist activist movements in her usual colourful and provocative style. She queried whether every single case of transgenderism was genuine, and. While controversial, Paglia's comments. Part of her popularity comes from saying what no-one else has the courage to say.Yet it was only last week, after UArts student Joseph McAndrew-who identifies as "non-binary" and who stipulates their personal pronouns as they/their/them-began making posts on Facebook and Instagram, that a complaint against Paglia was made:After McAndrew made their social media posts, a petition was created and a protest was organised during one of Paglia's lectures on Nefertiti and Egyptian design , with a fire alarm being set off. The petition demanded that UArts sack Paglia, who has been a tenured faculty member since 1984, and replace her with a "queer person of colour." The text of the petition reads as follows:This particular protest and petitionWhile her work is hard to simplify and compress into a few neat sentences, anyone with a passing familiarity with Paglia's career would know that transgressive ideas around sexual and gender expression is one of the central themes of her work. The notion that she "oppresses" transgender people is as ill-informed as it is illiterate.Paglia's career as an academic and public intellectual has coincided with the hollowing out of humanities departments by ideologues and activists intent on undermining the very principles that such departments were created to uphold. While English Studies lecturers joined the flock of Foucault worshippers in the '80s and '90s, Paglia maintained an interest in close-reading and the teaching of the Western Canon.Her fame has fluctuated with the political correctness of America's cultural atmosphere. In the early '90s, she became a celebrity as she pushed back against the stifling conventions of bourgeois feminists, and in recent years she has been increasingly sought out again as authoritarian, illiberal students, academics and administrators have stifled dissent on campuses and within academic and artistic communities. In an interview with Quillette last year, Paglia commented on the sad state of humanities departments:Readers of Quillette will be familiar with the wasteland that Paglia describes. On a podcast with Joe Rogan last year, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt gave an intriguing explanation of the underlying logic that motivates such protests, likening them to a status game for the student-activists. You can't understand these protests unless you think about the social milieu that these students exist in, and the incentives that reinforce their behaviour. After every social media post calling for someone to be censored or deplatformed, for ostensibly humanitarian or compassionate reasons, an activist will receive "likes" and attract more followers. A quick perusal of the social media posts of Joseph McAndrew, Camille Paglia's self-appointed Torquemada, is a case in point:The problem with status games is that they often turn toxic. They can be dangerous to the individuals who engage in them-whether it's drinking games, drag races or boxing matches-and also toxic to outsiders. In his podcast with Rogan, Haidt likened this type of activism to the head-hunting rituals of teenagers in Melanesia or Papua New Guinea.Status games notwithstanding,in an email sent out to staff and students. It read:At Quillette we hope David Yager's moral leadership becomes a turning point in the defence of free thought. We raise our glasses to him and to Philadelphia's University of the Arts. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/411333-Vanishing-breed-Philadelphia-university-president-stands-up-for-academic-freedom | 2019-04-17 17:35:49+00:00 | 1,555,536,949 | 1,567,542,768 | science and technology | scientific institution |
83,665 | cbsnews--2019-05-06--Service academy athletes may be able to delay duty to play pro sports Trump says | 2019-05-06T00:00:00 | cbsnews | Service academy athletes may be able to delay duty to play pro sports, Trump says | The Trump administration is considering allowing athletes at service academies to delay their active duty service so they can play sports professionally first, President Trump announced in a ceremony honoring the Army Black Knight football team at the White House Monday. "I'm going to look at doing a waiver for service academy athletes who can get into the major leagues like the NFL, hockey, baseball. We're gonna see what we can do and they'll serve their time after they're finished with professional sports," Mr. Trump told the audience in the White House Rose Garden, giving few details on how such a waiver would work or how it would benefit the military. "I think it's a great idea, I think it's really fair, too," the president added, generating applause from the audience for the proposal. It's a big day for sports at the White House, where Mr. Trump presented the Army Black Knights with the Commander-in-Chief's trophy and plans to present Masters champion Tiger Woods with the Medal of Freedom as well. Mr. Trump has praised Woods for his career comeback. "Congratulations to @TigerWoods., a truly Great Champion," the president tweeted after Woods' victory last month. But there are lots of other pressing matters in Washington Monday. Democrats want special counsel Robert Mueller to testify, and are threatening to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress. Meanwhile, the Dow plummeted Monday after Mr. Trump threatened to level new tariffs on China while the U.S. and China are negotiating a trade deal. | null | http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-honors-u-s-military-academy-football-team-in-rose-garden-today-2019-05-06-live-stream/ | 2019-05-06 18:14:15+00:00 | 1,557,180,855 | 1,567,541,035 | science and technology | scientific institution |
260,995 | instapundit--2019-04-18--SAD Storm Clouds Over Tulsa Inside the academic destruction of a proud private university A | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | instapundit | SAD: Storm Clouds Over Tulsa: Inside the academic destruction of a proud private university. A … | SAD: Storm Clouds Over Tulsa: Inside the academic destruction of a proud private university. A Harvard Business School professor recently predicted that up to half of all American colleges and universities will go bankrupt in the next ten to 15 years. While this may be a worst-case scenario, universities have for years been offering an increasingly inferior product at unsustainably high prices to an ever-more skeptical group of prospective students. Many institutions below the top tier are scrambling to respond to the collapse of the higher-education bubble by jettisoning the liberal arts and pumping up the practical ones: health care, computer science, business, and other technical fields that promise to yield jobs immediately after graduation. This approach has been employed in a particularly crude and short-sighted manner at the University of Tulsa, where a new administration has turned a once-vibrant academic institution with a $1.1 billion endowment and a national reputation in core liberal arts subjects into a glorified trade school with a social-justice agenda. Our story is worth telling, because we have been hit by a perfect storm of trends currently tearing through the American academy: the confident ignorance of administrators, the infantilization of students, the policing of faculty, the replacement of thinking with ideological jargon, and the corporatization of education. | Glenn Reynolds | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/ll9irJ8Jaxo/ | 2019-04-18 02:29:57+00:00 | 1,555,568,997 | 1,567,542,499 | science and technology | scientific institution |
527,960 | sputnik--2019-03-14--UK Academics Alarmed Over Cambridge Unis Bid for Military Research Into PSYWAR | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | sputnik | UK Academics Alarmed Over Cambridge Uni's Bid for Military Research Into PSYWAR | The project, called the Human Social Science Research Capability (HSSRC) programme, was designed to deliver research into human capabilities, ostensibly the aim of building a better military. According to a Ministry of Defence presentation, it focused on six areas of research, which includes personnel, training and education, humans in systems, human performance, and enhancing medical systems and capabilities. The sixth area was titled "understanding and influencing human behaviour"; specifically, the research would cover "the challenges of rapidly developing information technologies and their impacts on social interactions and cohesion within and across generations and cultures" as well as "automation and cyber warfare and their influence on trust in technologies and democracy". The government earmarked £69 million ($92.4 million) for the HSSRC project; if selected, Cambridge would receive up to one-tenth of this money over four years. Its researchers would also receive £20m in research funding, while the university would also be able to compete for research funding worth £42m. Cambridge's General Board of the Faculties approved the bid in June 2018, and the university was among the four shortlisted institutions at the final stage of the bidding process, but eventually decided to pull out for unclear reasons. Cyberwarfare is 'Dangerous As It's Put Us On Path of New Cold War' – Activist The Defence, Security and Technology Laboratory — the agency within the Ministry of Defence that placed the tender — mentioned "potential reputational risks" of the programme, vowing to mitigate them through "a targeted communications effort" which would stress "the positive impact of the University's involvement". According to the Guardian, a spokesperson for DSTL said that this research was focused on "communicating with overseas audiences and deterring adversaries who threaten the UK's interests". Varsity reported that over 40 Cambridge academics sent a letter to the vice-chancellor, saying that the university is not supposed to "involve staff in armed conflicts by acting as a supplier of contract research to the MoD". "Undertaking government-funded contract research of this nature is troubling enough, but looking to profit from it is shocking. What kind of paying clients did you imagine would have wanted to buy services such as these?" they were quoted as saying. A senior university manager was quoted as saying that it was "entirely appropriate" for researchers to apply for the tender. It comes weeks after hackers exposed the activities of the Integrity Initiative — a US government-led project which is ostensibly devoted to combating disinformation but appeared to be mostly focused on targeting Russia's influence in Europe. According to the exposé, the Integrity Initiative consists of a network of clusters involving pundits, academicians and journalists, which are meddling in the domestic affairs of EU member states and waging an information campaign targeting Russia. | null | https://sputniknews.com/europe/201903141073223542-cambridge-bid-for-military-researhch-programme-disclosed/ | 2019-03-14 10:05:00+00:00 | 1,552,572,300 | 1,567,546,327 | science and technology | scientific institution |
614,252 | thedailyecho--2019-10-04--New university laboratory will lead national infrastructure development | 2019-10-04T00:00:00 | thedailyecho | New university laboratory will lead national infrastructure development | SOUTHAMPTON is set to be at the centre of developing Britain's infrastructure with the opening of a new facility. The University of Southampton has officially opened its National Infrastructure Laboratory (NIL), which will provide researchers and students with state of the art equipment to aid their projects. At the heart of the facility is the Large Structures Testing Laboratory, with a four-metre-deep reinforced concrete floor. This will be where the strength of heavy-duty components such as railway tracks, bridge beams and wind turbine blades will be tested to their limits under loads of up to 50 tonnes, increasing in future to 250 tonnes. The NIL also includes a geotechnical centrifuge, which will allow researchers to simulate the behaviour of an infrastructure component in service conditions. William Powrie, professor of geotechnical engineering at the university said: "Infrastructure and urban systems underpin modern life. "Our new facilities, which will be open to researchers from around the world, will support research to ensure that our infrastructure is affordable, adaptable, resilient and transformational. "Our research in rail infrastructure has underpinned innovation and design improvements for several years. "This new investment by Network Rail will accelerate customer focused improvements in performance, cost-efficient design and carbon neutral construction. He added: "Decarbonisation of the infrastructure and the way we use it, to help avert the climate catastrophe, will be a major goal." As well as taking on new research projects, existing programmes led by the University of Southampton will continue in the laboratory. These include 'Track to the Future', which aims to develop a railway track that will cost less and last longer. Chief executive of National Rail, Andrew Haines, said: "The laboratory will increase our ability to keep trains running in the face of extreme weather, reduce infrastructure failures and downtime for repairs, and reduce the cost to the taxpayer of maintenance. "It will make it easier to test new ideas, realistically test the demands of heavy rail use, and speed up the delivery of essential improvements. "I’m looking forward to seeing the developments that come out of this and other partnerships, as we work together to give passengers the service they expect and deserve." | null | https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17946552.new-university-laboratory-will-lead-national-infrastructure-development/?ref=rss | 2019-10-04 04:13:26+00:00 | 1,570,176,806 | 1,570,633,651 | science and technology | scientific institution |
533,115 | sputnik--2019-05-03--Cambridge Slammed for Bizarre Choice of White Academic for Slavery Study | 2019-05-03T00:00:00 | sputnik | Cambridge Slammed for 'Bizarre' Choice of White Academic for Slavery Study | Phillips questioned Cambridge's appointment of Prof Martin Millett of Fitzwilliam College — to lead a two-year investigative research of ways the university "contributed to or benefited from the Atlantic slave trade and other forms of coerced labour during the colonial era." Following a televised interview where he criticized the choice of a white academic to lead the study on "Cambridge's entanglement in the legacies of slavery," he posted on Twitter: Phillips used artificial intelligence programmes used to make decisions on mortgage applications and insurance premiums, producing worse outcomes for representatives of ethnic minorities, as an example. "If (Cambridge) really wanted to tackle this issue of racism, instead of putting these guys in a basement somewhere to look at plantation records from 200 years ago and come up with stuff everybody already knows, they could put some of their brilliant people into this," he said. Cambridge University responded to the criticism, saying that it has commissioned an eight-member Advisory Group to oversee this two-year inquiry. "The panel represents a diverse range of experience — with five out of eight members from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) background. The investigation will also be drawing on the wide views of the BAME academic community. ‘The relationship between artificial intelligence and racial bias is a topic of study at Cambridge's Centre for the Future of Intelligence and features in our landmark AI Ethics Roadmap recently published with the Nuffield Foundation," a Cambridge spokesperson said. READ MORE: UK Banks Less Likely to Refund Black, Old or Poor Victims of Fraud — Report | null | https://sputniknews.com/society/201905031074681969-cambridge-university-slavery-links/ | 2019-05-03 16:25:00+00:00 | 1,556,915,100 | 1,567,541,326 | science and technology | scientific institution |
290,496 | lifesitenews--2019-12-04--UK schools directed to massively incorporate gay, trans themes for kids as young as 5 | 2019-12-04T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | UK schools directed to massively incorporate gay, trans themes for kids as young as 5 | UNITED KINGDOM, December 3, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A major LGBT lobbying group has produced sweeping guidelines for British schools designed to indoctrinate children beginning at age 5 in every primary school subject area and in every grade level by embedding gay, lesbian, and transgender themes and examples. The “voluntary guidance” authored by Stonewall, an LGBT lobbying group roughly equivalent to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in the United States, was sponsored by the Government Equalities Office (GEO) and Pearson, a U.K.-based education assessment and publication powerhouse, using a £1-million grant awarded to LGBT organizations, according to a report in the Sunday Times. The effort is timed to coincide with the new relationships and sex education (RSE) courses scheduled to take effect in September, 2020. While parents will be permitted to exempt their children from lessons on sex, the relationships portion of the curriculum is mandatory. A review of the suggested guidelines, which touch upon every area of study, reveals an unvarnished intent to thoroughly normalize homosexuality, transgenderism, and LGBT relationships in young minds. The 56-page document, titled “Creating an LGBT-Inclusive Primary Curriculum,” targets every subject a young student encounters, including math, science, and even physical education and religion classes. Here are some suggestions from the guidebook, revealing a constant emphasis and repetition of examples focused on households headed by two gay dads or two lesbian moms: • Pretend to be guests at Fatima and Shanika’s wedding. Share out the biscuits so that everyone has two. How many biscuits are left? • Eddie’s mums tell him that his grandad is coming round at 5:30. He wants to practice using his watch. Draw the hands on the clock face to show what his watch will look like at 5:30 • Laura builds a tree house with her mums. The perimeter of Laura’s tree house is 12m. What could the area be? • Nita and her dads want to go on a healthy picnic. What foods could they take? • Jamal is helping his mums choose material to make a coat, what materials would be the best to use? Why? • Dean and Ishmael have bought a holiday home in Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands. Fuerteventura is warm and windy, so water evaporates quickly there. They want to avoid having to top up their swimming pool, so should they use normal water or salt water in their pool? • Introduce the rainbow flag and discuss the meaning of the different colours. You might also want to look at the trans flag and the bi flag. Children design and make their own flag to celebrate diversity and different families. • Design and make a castle for King and King from the ‘King and King’ books. • Introduce the idea of the AIDS memorial quilt and other memorial quilts. Make a class or year group quilt with the theme of celebrating diversity — each child contributes a square. • Learn about Alan Turing’s role in cracking the enigma code in World War II, Roberta Cowell’s role as a fighter pilot or Joesphine Baker’s role as a spy. Be sure to highlight their LGBT identities as well as focussing on their roles in the war. • Learn about Sappho’s love poetry as part of your topic about Ancient Greece. • Help to pack a bag for Emma, who is going on a sunny holiday with her mums. What clothes should she take? • Children use holiday brochures to choose a honeymoon destination for Simon and Pete. They should act like travel agents and persuade Simon and Pete that their chosen destination is the perfect one. Encourage children to research the different countries and to be aware that Simon and Pete might be worried about facing discrimination. • The music world is full of visible role models. Whether your children are in Early Years or Year 6, you can use the music of LGBT artists such as Queen, The Pet Shop Boys, Little Ax Broadnax, Josephine Baker, Janelle Monae, Years and Years or Frank Ocean as a stimulus for their work. This work would also provide the opportunity for the children to learn more about an artist’s LGBT identity. • Listen to ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore. Write a rap about acceptance that could replace Macklemore’s rap. This could also be used as an opportunity to discuss the idea of being an ally to the LGBT community, as an opportunity to discuss stereotypes or to discuss homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in general. • Use books with LGBT themes as a stimulus for programming based activities or artwork or challenge your children to research an LGBT hero. • Whilst the children are getting changed for PE, make use of the time to show them videos which challenge gender based stereotypes. • Highlight an inspirational sports person every week, be sure to include LGBT role models such as Tom Daley, Keegan Hirst, Lee Pearson, Nicola Adams or Claire Harvey. • As part of learning about families, weddings and traditions, read ‘King and King.’ Discuss that King and King had a church wedding or blessing, in line with Christian traditions. • Compare different weddings from across different faiths, including non-religious weddings. Children could even create an order of service for the wedding or civil partnership of a same sex couple. • When learning about religious naming ceremonies, teach that some trans people choose to have a ‘naming ceremony’ or blessing following their transition. • As part of your work on festivals, learn about LGBT Pride as a celebration of diversity and as an event that promotes respect. You could even plan your own school based Pride celebration. Publication of the guidelines met with a sudden backlash. Tanya Carter of the Safe Schools Alliance —a group of concerned parents, grandparents, teachers, and others— told the Times, “We are concerned that the aim of challenging homophobia is being used to sneak gender ideology into the curriculum.” “It is being taught as fact that children can be born in the wrong body and are able to change sex, neither of which is true,” she added. Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, told the Times that Stonewall’s campaign for “acceptance without exception” as disguising a “manipulative agenda aimed brazenly at our youngest and most impressionable.” “The innocence of our children is being robbed by introducing them to concepts they cannot be expected to understand and from which they should be protected,” continued Williams. “This curriculum is deeply subversive. It should be scrapped.” Others took to Twitter. “Stonewall has been going into schools for some years now.... Why?” asked Dr. Sarah Rutherford. “It is a lobby group that is pushing an ideology of gender identity under the LGBT banner. What better way than having access to young impressionable minds. This is not for children’s benefit.” “Stonewall has lost it,” asserted Wendy Wheeler. “This is where the worthy liberal aim of equality for all slips into hyper-liberal extremism which is socially destructive.” “The state continues to drive a wedge-like stake between concerned parents & so-called education trailblazers who work in our kid’s Primary Schools,” tweeted Let Kids Be Kids. “All with the full autonomy for implementation in the hands of individual Headteachers.” | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/uk-schools-directed-to-massively-incorporate-gay-trans-themes-for-kids-as-young-as-5 | 2019-12-04T21:26:00+00:00 | 1,575,512,760 | 1,575,504,157 | education | school |
349,493 | newspunch--2019-09-23--UK Schools to Teach 6yo Kids How to Stimulate Their Private Parts | 2019-09-23T00:00:00 | newspunch | UK Schools to Teach 6yo Kids How to ‘Stimulate’ Their Private Parts | Children as young as 6 years old will be taught about “stimulating” their own genitals in compulsory classes across hundreds of primary schools in the UK. The controversial classes have caused outrage among parents who believe the lessons are “sexualizing” young children. The new sex education teaching program called ‘All About Me’ is being rolled out across 241 primaries by Warwickshire County Council. Rt.com reports: The program, in turn, is designed to be taught in accordance with the compulsory Relationship and Sex Education (RSE), which will be implemented all across the UK next September. In the section called ‘Touching Myself’, the teachers are advised to tell the youngsters that “lots of people like to tickle or stroke themselves as it might feel nice,” including touching their “private parts.” The children are told that this is “really very normal,” despite the fact that “some people may get cross or say that it is dirty.” The children are then warned that it is “not polite” to touch themselves in class or other public places, and they should “only” do it when they “are alone, perhaps in the bath or shower or in bed.” Some parents were shocked by the program, saying that children of such young ages should not be exposed to mature topics like masturbation. “This sexualisation of our children is just totally inappropriate,” Matthew Seymour told the Mail on Sunday. “They are calling it self-touching and they won’t use the term masturbation, but when you read it that’s exactly what they’re talking about.” Parents who disagree with this type of sex education took their children from school when it was taught. A number of education experts and teachers criticized the program’s wording for being too vague and not suitable for primary schoolers. “We never use the word self-stimulation, not in primary school. For us it is not appropriate,” teacher Lynette Smith said. Even some politicians who support the idea of compulsory sex education are skeptical towards All About Me. Conservative MP David Davies was “furious” over the program. “These classes go way beyond the guidance the Government is producing and are effectively sexualising very young children,” he said. Warwickshire County Council, meanwhile, maintains that the lessons simply tell young students how to “distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate touching” and “recognise the difference between public and private behaviours.” The council’s website says the program helps to develop the skills required for managing “healthy relationships,” builds “self-esteem” and allows the children “to explore personal identity.” One of the program’s authors, education consultant Jonny Hunt, argued that “however uncomfortable adults may find it, children of all ages will self-stimulate from time to time.” | Sean Adl-Tabatabai | https://newspunch.com/uk-schools-teach-6yo-stimulate-private-parts/ | 2019-09-23 12:03:18+00:00 | 1,569,254,598 | 1,570,222,411 | education | school |
386,981 | npr--2019-09-11--Should Black Athletes Go To Black Schools | 2019-09-11T00:00:00 | npr | Should Black Athletes Go To Black Schools? | An Alabama helmet on December 31, 2016, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA. **Scott Donaldson/Getty Images** ****hide caption**** ****toggle caption**** Scott Donaldson/Getty Images An Alabama helmet on December 31, 2016, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA. Scott Donaldson/Getty Images _Top-tier black college athletes should take their talents to historically black institutions._ That's the argument that Jemele Hill is making in [a new piece for the Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/10 /black-athletes-should-leave-white-colleges/596629/). She says that doing so could benefit both the colleges and the communities around them. The piece, [It's Time for Black Athletes to Leave White Colleges](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/10/black-athletes- should-leave-white-colleges/596629/), argues that when highly-ranked black athletes even _look_ at HBCUs, it "threatens to crack the foundation on which the moneymaking edifice of college sports rests" — that foundation being black athletes drawing acclaim, attention, and money to primarily white institutions. It's an argument that has drawn some criticism — Hill says she's been called a "segregationist" for even suggesting the idea. To that, she says, "those people don't know very much about HBCUs." (Of course, Hill is no stranger to that kind of critique. She famously drew the ire of President Trump and his supporters after referring to him as a [white supremacist](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/12/26/jemele-hill- stands-by-calling-president-trump-white-supremacist-i-thought-i-was-saying- water-is-wet/?noredirect=on) on Twitter.) Hill spoke to _All Things Considered_ about the piece. **Interview Highlights** **On the history of student athletes at HBCUs** That was exclusively where [black students] could go, and as a result you had a lot of the top talent. At that point in time you had a college like [Grambling State University](https://www.gram.edu/), which was basically considered to be what would be today's version of the University of Alabama, because they were that talented, putting so many players in the NFL over the course of their history. But obviously once there was desegregation, a lot of these black athletes began to go all over. HBCUs in the major revenue sports — talking about basketball and football — began to lose, or not have as much of a foothold. If you look at the college landscape now, everybody pretty much knows [it] has become a billion dollar industry, given the television contracts, the money, the interest, the marketing, shoe deals, all of that. But black athletes in general are being exploited, because they're not being paid, and they're clearly the backbone of a lot of these universities, of which their labor has helped them become these huge powerhouses. You're looking at schools like Texas and Alabama who have a 200 million dollar athletic budget — not a school budget, just the athletic budget. All that is built on the backs of black athletes. HBCUs generally speaking do not have large endowments, nothing that could equal any of some of the universities like Harvard. Why not take your talent to these HBCUs that once were the only place that you could go, and help to reimagine those universities from a financial standpoint the communities around them and to some degree kind of rebuild these historic institutions. **On what it would take for this to work** You would need a group, frankly, a whole exodus of athletes who would think really really really big picture in order for this to happen. It can't be one or two, because one or two is not enough. There have been individual cases of a top-tier black talent going to these schools. But they need a wave of a conscientious effort on behalf of these athletes to do that, to help to rebuild these schools, the communities around them. And I think it will be a trickle down effect into strengthening essentially a huge base in the black community, which has always been kind of the black middle class. When you look at the number of lawyers, doctors, professionals that have come from HBCUs, I mean Kamala Harris is running for president. She went to Howard University. So when you look at the level of output that most black colleges have in general, to strengthen that even more with a very solvent, steady, stable financial base I think is just a huge benefit all around. **** **On the precedent for this kind of movement in athletics** We see this happen a lot in college football and college basketball, where you have athletes who have been playing together in high school, maybe on the same team. Because a lot of these guys play on the same [AAU teams](https://aausports.org/), two or three of them will go to one university, because they all want to play together. One of the more famous examples is [University of Michigan's] Fab Five: Jalen Rose and Chris Webber both are from Detroit, both had a relationship, and they got to know the other members — Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson and Jimmy King. And five freshmen went to the University of Michigan and changed college basketball. I don't see why that couldn't happen for an HBCU. I mean look, we've seen a lot of these athletes. They have chosen to go to smaller schools or be walk ons sometimes at some of these bigger schools. My thing is like, why be a walk somewhere? Go to an HBCU. I know I was speaking from a standpoint of utter utopia. It's a little bit more more challenging than that. But I do think it's possible. I think some of it has to be a concerted push, and some of this has to come from their own homes. When I was making my college decision, no one talked to me about going to an HBCU. I'm from Detroit, and that's a black city, right? I knew other people who had gone, but nobody said, "Hey, did you ever think about going here now?" Two HBCUs wound up being on my final list of colleges, and I owe that to the _Cosby Show_ and _A Different World_. **On the exposure athletes get at larger schools** As we've seen always has been the case in sports, and really virtually anything entertainment based, is exposure goes where the talent is. So the exposure would be, to me, the least of the issues, because again, there are players in the NFL and NBA who went to black colleges and they were found. And I think that's part of what I got at in this piece is the mentality that some of these young athletes have. They think the schools make them. Now I'm not going to pretend that if you go to a black college there are things you have to prove that say, somebody who goes to Oregon or Florida State doesn't have to prove. That being said, teams want to get better, and they want to go where the talent is, and it's the same with television networks. They follow where the audience goes and where the talent is. | Mary Louise Kelly | https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/09/11/410268200/should-black-athletes-go-to-black-schools?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 2019-09-11 20:18:00+00:00 | 1,568,247,480 | 1,569,330,455 | education | school |
387,666 | npr--2019-11-10--Here's How 2 Schools Have Made Free College Work — For Decades | 2019-11-10T00:00:00 | npr | Here's How 2 Schools Have Made Free College Work — For Decades | Here's How 2 Schools Have Made Free College Work — For Decades Two colleges in Kentucky offer something that most university administrators can only dream of. Berea College and Alice Lloyd College charge students nothing for tuition. While each developed unique business models that don't transfer easily to other schools, they do have some tips to help reduce the price of college tuition. More precisely — two tips and one caution. Located in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains in central Kentucky, Berea College was founded by an abolitionist in 1855. It was the first interracial and coeducational college in the South. When students couldn't afford to pay for tuition, school officials eliminated it. "Berea College has not been collecting tuition from students since 1892," says Jeff Amburgey, Berea's vice president of finance. To cover costs without tuition revenue, Berea's board of trustees did something almost 100 years ago that impacts its financial situation today. In 1920, the board ruled that any unrestricted money given to the college would be invested in an endowment to grow over time. The endowment is now worth around $1.2 billion, and profits from the investments cover a large portion of what it costs to educate more than 1,600 students. Most students come from Appalachia. They all come from low-income families. And none pays for tuition. "A lot of people say, 'This has gotta be fake.' But I came here. And it's legit," says 22-year-old Hollie Jameson, who is finishing a nursing degree. She's the first in her family to go to college. "I will leave in May of 2020 with a free education as an RN. Absolutely no debt." That's not normal. At least, not compared with her hometown friends. Jameson says, "I have friends in nursing schools here in Kentucky that say, 'Oh, my gosh, you're so lucky. Like, I already have $20,000 in debt and I'm where you are, and you have zero.' " It's all made possible by that endowment. Takeaway No. 1: If a college doesn't have one already, it should fund an endowment designed to reduce the cost of tuition. Still, even with good investment decisions and some luck, it could take 50 to 75 years before an endowment completely offsets tuition revenue. For the impatient who can't wait for 75 years, the next example — Alice Lloyd College — shows what's possible without a massive endowment. The school started when Alice Lloyd relocated in the early 1900s from New England to the town of Pippa Passes in eastern Kentucky. An Appalachian mountain man persuaded her to educate the local kids. He gave her a barren strip of land along a creek, where Lloyd founded a school that would grow into a college. Locals had no money for tuition, and students weren't asked to pay. Instead, they provided labor, building the campus and staffing it. Money was always tight. In perhaps its most famous fundraising windfall, Lloyd appeared on the show This Is Your Life in 1955. At the end, the host asked viewers to send a few dollars to the college. Bags of mail overwhelmed the local post office, delivering around $200,000 in donations. But while Lloyd never asked students to pay, she did ask them to go home and serve their neglected communities. Lloyd kept framed pictures of students on the wall. "If someone chose not to come back, she would turn the picture around backwards, so you couldn't see their face," says Jim Stepp, executive vice president at Alice Lloyd College. Today, the college serves around 600 mostly low-income students. According to Stepp, about 85% of alumni return to live and work in Appalachia. TaLaura Mathis, 21, from Manchester, Ky., is finishing a degree in biology. Next, she plans to study dentistry. "Where I come from, it's very poverty-stricken," says Mathis. "I really want to help blue-collar, hardworking people that just can't afford dentistry." Student like Mathis are able to study at Alice Lloyd because of its unconventional budgeting method. "When you begin with the concept that you're not going to charge out-of-pocket tuition, everything you do has to be built around that concept," says Stepp. The college has a decent endowment, worth around $44 million. Alice Lloyd also relies heavily on fundraising. Professors teach a heavier class load than at similar colleges. Also, Alice Lloyd doesn't give tenure, which might spark a revolt at other schools. But there is one thing other colleges could learn from Alice Lloyd — the way it pays for new buildings. "Typically, when colleges build buildings and they go into a lot of debt, you build that into tuition costs. Students have to bear that ultimately," says Stepp. "Here, we raise the money from private donors before we build." On a campus tour, marketing director Katie Westerfield points out a new recreational center with a 550-seat gymnasium, which is still under construction. "Even though it is not completed and won't be until the end of 2019, [this building] is fully funded at $20 million," says Westerfield. Stepp says he understands how competition for students can make new facilities seem urgent. At the same time, he wonders, "How much debt should a college really go into as an institution? Do you need to put as much money into the facilities when students ultimately are going to pay for that through tuition?" Takeaway No. 2: Don't do debt — it's too expensive. Finally, the last lesson is really more like a caution. Alice Lloyd and Berea do something that, at first glance, may seem like a good way for a college to save money. Both are work colleges — requiring students to work at least 10 hours a week. The act of working is considered more important than learning any specific skill. Many students come from tiny towns where jobs are scarce. So these college labor programs may be a student's introduction to the culture of work. Administrators at both Berea and Alice Lloyd praise the work program for building character, instilling values and helping young adults develop a professional mindset. On the downside, students often work just two- or three-hour shifts. And every year, when seniors graduate, a quarter of the workforce must be replaced and trained all over again. "It's not one of those items you would implement to offset some financial difficulties," says Berea's Amburgey. And while college labor programs receive some federal funds, he says, "It is a lot of work to do this. It costs money to [run] the labor program." Some colleges have tried to adopt the work-college approach only to give up because implementing the labor program was too expensive. Also, research suggests that the work-college model is best suited for smaller institutions. In a chapter titled " 'Work Colleges' as an Alternative to Student Loan Debt" in The Neoliberal Agenda and the Student Debt Crisis in U.S. Higher Education, Nicholas Hartlep, chair of Berea's Education Studies department, and Diane Dean, an Illinois State University associate professor, write, "creating mandatory jobs for all students may not be feasible in institutions that have larger enrollments. Even scaling up to 5,000 students could prove unfeasible, let alone employing enrollments of 12,000 to 16,000." Instead, the authors suggest that larger schools could try a hybrid of the work-college model. "Although transforming entire existing colleges into this model may be unrealistic and improbable, interest is growing and it may be possible to create similar small programs on campuses to offer as an option alongside other forms of financial aid." Takeaway No. 3: The work-college model can help control costs. But it can also be expensive. Be wary. | Jeff Tyler | https://www.npr.org/2019/11/10/776348972/heres-how-two-schools-have-made-free-college-work-for-decades?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | Sun, 10 Nov 2019 07:00:00 -0500 | 1,573,387,200 | 1,573,431,270 | education | school |
451,101 | realclearpolitics--2019-09-08--As NY Charters Turn 20 Let Good Schools Flourish | 2019-09-08T00:00:00 | realclearpolitics | As NY Charters Turn 20, Let Good Schools Flourish | Twenty years ago this summer, I was a founder of the first charter school in New York state: the Sisulu-Walker Charter School of Harlem. Ten years ago, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised charter schools as key to education success. But this summer, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared that he “hates” charter schools. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama championed charter schools, but many current Democratic presidential candidates now disparage them. What has happened, and why? After years of never-ending political attacks by the traditional education establishment, New York charter schools are winning academically but struggling politically. They are winning with the long under-served minority communities who best know them; African American and Hispanic Democrats nationwide support the creation of charter schools by a 51% to 35% margin, according to Education Next’s 2019 poll. However, white Democrats now appear to oppose charters by a 57% to 33% margin and, I believe, may badly misunderstand the facts. Still, the facts support charter schools. The hating should end, and the best public schools -- charter or traditional -- should be allowed to flourish. Let’s all recall why charter schools were created in the first place. My chief community partner in starting Sisulu-Walker was Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, the near legendary civil rights leader who had been executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King Jr.’s right hand in Birmingham and elsewhere, and chairman of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Walker had “come north” in 1966, and as a local minister, he had watched the traditional public schools in Harlem and other poorer communities fail year after year, decade after decade, for over 30 years. He viewed charter schools as a civil rights issue, and as the best chance to break the unending history of education failure in Harlem and elsewhere. “As I worked on other justice issues (housing, employment), I was frustrated that I had no tools to better the school system that served the families in my congregation,” Walker wrote in the forward to the book “A Light Shines in Harlem.” “I became convinced that quality education was the inevitable component of the struggle that I had given my life to. That’s what led me to dive into the charter school movement. I have no regrets whatsoever,” Walker added. “In my most reflective moments, I believe this is where Dr. King would be if he were still alive.” The little neighborhood school we started – Sisulu-Walker on 115th Street -- now serves 213 children, grades K-5. It opened its doors on Sept. 8, 1999, and is both New York’s longest-running charter school and the only charter school to survive from that pioneering year. Sisulu is governed by local civic and community leaders and is led by an outstanding principal, Michelle Haynes, who grew up near the school and began at Sisulu as an assistant teacher in the founding year 1999. Like all charter schools, Sisulu is tuition-free and open to all. Under New York’s charter school law, it receives about 30% less funding per child than a traditional public school. It has never had use of a public school building and has always had to pay rent out of its already reduced budget. About 96% of Sisulu’s kids are African American or Hispanic (many from Central Harlem, District 5); about 90 percent qualify for free lunch; about 21 percent receive Special Education; and about 6 percent are English Language Learners. Despite always needing to do more with less, the parents and teachers at Sisulu have used the “tools to better the school system” that Dr. Walker sought, and have used them well. On the latest state exams, over 75% of Sisulu students tested in the top two performance categories (i.e., proficient or highly proficient) in math, vs. approximately 47% for all New York state students, 46% for all New York City students and 31% for Harlem District 5. On English language arts, Sisulu kids scored about 65% in the top categories vs. 45% for all New York state, 47% for all New York City, and 25% for Harlem District 5. Just as importantly, the parents and teachers of Sisulu-Walker have had the freedom and respect that, in the past, only money could buy: the freedom to control your own future and to choose the school that your child attends. Overall, there are now about 292 charter public schools in New York state, serving about 130,000 students, and they also outperform the traditional public schools. Charter schools had 59% math proficiency vs. the state’s 47%. They had 54% ELA proficiency vs the state’s 45%. What causes this outperformance for charter schools? It is not cherry-picking the “best” kids. The charter school movement was built on the idea that all children can learn, and charter schools are tuition-free and open to all by law, with a lottery used to choose students in case of a waiting list. When Stanford University did a rigorous study to compare students of equal ability and desire (some of whom won the charter school admissions lottery, and some who lost), they found that charter schools raised learning levels, often by months of learning time each year. It is not because of an inherent opposition to unions. New York’s charter law was originally written so that large charter schools begin with a union as a matter of law, and teachers at small charters can adopt a union at will. Dr. Walker was a strong supporter of organized labor as an ally of the civil rights movement. My own past activities include work with and for many unionized schools, including successful efforts to turn around schools and save union jobs from state takeover or closure. It is not because charter schools are “for profit” vs “nonprofit,” a perpetual red herring issue. All New York charter schools have always been nonprofit 501(c )3 charities by state law. The so-called for-profit schools were ones where the community leaders hired professional education managers to advise them, just as they hire professional lawyers (“for-profit” lawyers) or architects (“for-profit” architects). The ability to hire and fire experts empowered the local leaders, and often gave them the critical start-up support they needed. In any case, about 10 years ago, charter school opponents made it illegal in New York for new schools to hire professional education managers as a way to prevent leaders like Dr. Walker from opening schools like Sisulu ever again. The real reason a charter school succeeds is because of the entrepreneurial energy and talents of the school community itself. Think of the traditional public school bureaucracy of Harlem in 1999 as a giant, monopolistic machine that everyone is sentenced to use; that is delivering failing results day after day, year after year; that never gets better; and that never has any competition to get better. Charter schools are like little islands of freedom launched around the giant machine. Each must be licensed by the state (i.e. chartered) to regulate quality, but otherwise they are free to create: to offer programs based on core knowledge, or dual language, or a longer day, or whatever best idea they can conceive. The results of each effort depend on the team running it. There is no magic bullet for success, and the “customers” (the teachers and parents) decide where to go. The good projects grow, and the bad ones are shut down. Eventually, even the staff of the state machine realizes that the local kids can do better than the system ever expected, and so raise the system’s quality and goals as well. Here in New York, the parents in Harlem, the Bronx, and elsewhere have voted in support of charters in the most important way possible: by entrusting their children to the better performing local charter schools. There are about 50,000 names on waiting lists for admissions to New York City charter schools. The families in Harlem and elsewhere who support charter schools know these schools firsthand, while charter opponents from outside the community may be too influenced by political messaging, or campaign fundraising power, separate and apart from real-world knowledge. How can anyone “hate” a high-performing, succeed-against-all-odds little school like Sisulu? In truth, the real opposition to charter schools is driven by the traditional education establishment’s desire to protect money and turf; that is, because “money follows the child.” Yet competition can often improve traditional public schools, and Sarah Cordes of Temple University has found that “students whose [district] schools are near charters do better, and the closer the charter is, the better these [district school] students do.” Further, a good fraction of money does not follow the child. If, for example, every child in New York City except one joined a charter school, there could be as much as $5 billion or more left in the traditional school budget with that last student. In considering charter schools, you can look through the lens of the managers of a monopoly machine concerned with losing customers to the upstarts opening around them. Or you can look through the lens of Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker and the pioneering parents, children and teachers who started Sisulu-Walker 20 years ago; from the perspective of good people trapped in a failing education system for decades and desperate for a chance to have the respect, voice and freedom to build a newer, better public school of their own. “In the charter school movement,” Walker wrote, “I am continuing the work of Dr. King that has far-reaching meaning. Every American child is deserving of a quality education.” On the 20th anniversary of New York charter schools, haters should stop hating. The best performing public schools – charter or traditional – should be allowed to flourish, for the good of children and the civil rights of all. | <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/steve_klinsky" data-mce-href="../../authors/steve_klinsky">Steve Klinsky</a>, RealClearPolitics | https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/09/08/as_new_york_charters_turn_20_let_good_schools_flourish_141194.html | 2019-09-08 11:18:14+00:00 | 1,567,955,894 | 1,569,330,756 | education | school |
472,305 | rightwingwatch--2019-01-31--More Bible Teaching in Public Schools What Could Possibly Go Wrong | 2019-01-31T00:00:00 | rightwingwatch | More Bible Teaching in Public Schools: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? | A national campaign to undermine church-state separation—Project Blitz—encourages like-minded state lawmakers to introduce legislation designed to move more of the Religious Right’s worldview into law—and into public schools. This week President Trump gave an endorsement-by-tweet to one specific Project Blitz goal—getting more public schools to teach about the Bible. There are many reasons to be deeply skeptical of the current push by right-wing organizations for more Bible teaching in public schools. Religious Right activists have turned public schools into culture-war battlegrounds, routinely denouncing Supreme Court rulings from the 1960s that upheld church-state separation by forbidding state-sponsored prayer and devotional Bible readings in public schools. One of Project Blitz’s promoters is “historian” David Barton, a Republican political activist whose WallBuilders organization promotes a Christian-nation approach to U.S. history that has been widely discredited by actual historians. Making the Bible a primary textbook in American public schools is one of the goals of Christian nationalist political operative David Lane, who hosted President Trump at one of his events during the 2016 presidential campaign. Earlier this month, controversial Florida legislator and pastor Kimberly Daniels filed HB 195, legislation that would amend a current state law that permits school districts to offer elective Bible classes. Daniels’ bill would require every school district in the state to offer a set of courses about religion, the Hebrew scriptures, and the Christian Bible. Daniels, a self-described “demon buster” and “apostle,” has sponsored other Project Blitz legislation, including a bill to require public schools to post “In God We Trust” in “a conspicuous place.” (That legislation became law last year.) God TV celebrated the introduction of Daniels’ new bill, saying it brought Florida “[o]ne step close to seeing prayer in public schools again.” Courts have ruled that teaching about the Bible—as literature, for example, or as comparative religion—is constitutional in public schools, but using the Bible for indoctrination or proselytizing is not. Teaching about the Bible’s role in history is permissible; teaching the Bible as if its stories are factual history is not. In order to help school officials understand and navigate these tricky legal waters, People For the American Way Foundation worked with scholars and organizations across the political spectrum to produce “The Bible & Public Schools: a First Amendment Guide,” which was published in 1999 by the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center and the National Bible Association. The guide makes clear that teaching the Bible in public schools in a neutral and academic way requires a serious commitment to, among other things, the selection and training of qualified teachers. It’s not easy to do correctly, especially if there’s no will or effort to do so. In 2000, People For the American Way Foundation published “The Good Book Taught Wrong,” the results of an in-depth investigation of the way “Bible History” was being taught in 14 Florida school districts. The investigation, grounded in written course materials obtained by PFAW Foundation, documented that all of the school districts had been “violating the U.S. Constitution by teaching the Bible from a religious perspective—often assuming teachers and students were Christian—or using the Bible as if it were a history textbook or otherwise failing to provide objective and secular instruction.” Among the details included in the PFAWF report were this question which appeared on tests in two high schools: “Why is it hard for a non-Christian to understand things about God?” Another high school exam question asked, “If you had a Jewish friend who wanted to know if Jesus might be the expectant [sic] Messiah, which book [of the Gospels] would you give him?” Another lesson asked, “Who, according to Jesus is the father of the Jews?” The answer: “The devil.” The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund has published multiple reports on the way Bible classes have been taught in that state’s public schools. Southern Methodist University religious studies professor Mark Chancey has documented that classes were being taught from a right-wing fundamentalist Christian standpoint, including a literal interpretation of the Bible, with materials “designed to evangelize rather than provide an objective study of the Bible’s influence.” In addition, noted Chancey in a report originally published in 2006, Bible courses often fostered “notions of American identity as distinctively Christian,” using videos and materials from Barton’s WallBuilders. Chancey described WallBuilders’ “America’s Godly Heritage” video as “so inaccurate in its content and so unabashedly sectarian in its goals that one federal court has prohibited its use in public schools.” Daniels’ new bill requiring all Florida school districts to offer multiple courses on the Bible includes language stipulating that the courses must maintain religious neutrality and not promote or disfavor any particular religious outlook. That’s a good thing. But as the PFAWF and TFN studies make clear, it’s one thing to require neutrality, and it’s another thing to ensure that course materials, teacher training, and actual classroom practice reflect those legal requirements. If states continue to expand teaching about the Bible in public schools, there will be a lot of work for parents, teachers and other concerned individuals to make sure that public officials are providing oversight and accountability to ensure that schools are respecting the Constitution as well as the rights of all students. | Peter Montgomery | http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/more-bible-teaching-in-public-schools-what-could-possibly-go-wrong/ | 2019-01-31 15:18:20+00:00 | 1,548,965,900 | 1,567,550,166 | education | school |
478,712 | russiainsider--2019-09-05--Russian Schools Are Anti-Family Factories Just Like in the West | 2019-09-05T00:00:00 | russiainsider | Russian Schools Are Anti-Family Factories, Just Like in the West | Archpriest Iliya Shugaev, rector of the Church of Michael the Archangel in the city of Taldom (Moscow Region), author of numerous books on the problems of adolescents, shares his thoughts on contemporary Russian education. — What would you change in the education of modern schools? Modern education has the same drawbacks as the whole of modern Western European civilization, which is increasingly penetrating into our completely different civilization of Orthodox (including Slavic) countries. One of these drawbacks is that in the hierarchy of values, professionalism is superior to family values. This means that if you are a highly qualified specialist, you will be respected regardless of whether you are a good family man or not. In this society, you are needed, first of all, as a cog of a large system that creates material benefits for general happiness - in the end, an economic system. In the field of education, this is manifested in the fact that the child is evaluated primarily on the scale of academic performance and level of knowledge, and not at all on some personal qualities, for example, the ability to love, to be a true friend. Of course, this is also taken into account, but is not in the first place. The whole child's life revolves around success in school, starting from kindergarten, where he is already being prepared, and often simply trained for future studies at school. As a result of this situation, the school turns into a conveyor for the production of these very cogs, not developed personalities. I don’t want to offend the teachers — they try to develop the children's personalities — but the education system itself is designed just like a conveyor belt, therefore, if the teachers manage to do something, it’s not thanks to the system, but in spite of it. I will give two examples portraying the fact that the school does not take into account the personality characteristics of the child. First, the gender of the child is not even taken into account. Separate schools for boys and girls completely disappeared from the 1950's. Any psychologist, and most ordinary parents, know that at school age girls are two years ahead of boys in their psychological development. The Church was always aware of this, which was why girls were allowed to marry from the age of 14, while guys were only allowed from the age of 16. At this age young people achieved complete inner maturity and willingness to start a family. Unfortunately, due to strong infantilism, this is not the case with modern youth. For example, in the seventh grade, as a rule, all girls have already entered the transitional age, while the majority of boys only enter it in the eighth grade. So for ten years boys sit next to girls who are on average psychologically two years older. It is not surprising that during Soviet years girls were the Komsomol leaders, the heads of their classes, and the most active participants in various school events. Ten to eleven year old girls and girls within school walls receive the impression that boys are irresponsible, stupid, and lazy; that they can't be entrusted with anything, and that the girls must do everything themselves. They gain experience in leading boys, lecturing them on their behavior, rebuking them, and scolding them. They absorb a sense of superiority over males. And with guys it's the other way around. Male pride suggests that it shouldn't be this way, but at the same time they really are weaker than the girls. In response they act up more; tripping the girls, pulling their braids, tossing their bags around. They are easily offended by the girls, and as a sign of protest they refuse to carry out their obligations. They see girls as upstarts who stuff their minds with meaningless information. As a result, the guys get a completely different experience — the experience of shying away from duty, the experience of protesting by bullying. And if we add to this picture that the vast majority of teachers are women, and, accordingly, the teaching style and requirements for students are those of women, then we are faced with the mass production of anti-family education. All teachers theoretically want to help children grow up and create a good family in the future, but the system does just the opposite. I will give a second example that proves that the features of a person’s personality are not taken into account in a modern school. I had the chance to meet a little thirteen-year-old boy whose mother and father drink. He himself does not smoke or drink. He is very worried that his parents drink, and the teachers clearly say that the boy is very kind and helpful. But, nevertheless, he does not fit into the life of this world. He can’t learn: he often gets F's and he skips school. Not because he’s stupid, but because nothing will stick in his mind, because all his mental strength goes to reconcile with the fact that everyone else has normal parents, while his drink. After all, he has to love degenerate people, and that isn't easy! Because of this he behaves badly in the classroom, talks a lot, and is often distracted. The teachers have to put him in a place where he won't disrupt the class, and sometimes they are forced to expel him from the classroom. And gradually the persecution begins: "You are a loser, you are stupid, you are the son of an alcoholic and will be one yourself. Your road leads either straight to prison or else to wallowing in filth as a drunk for your entire life." And the adults are not the only ones who say this. His classmates also consider him stupid, cheeky, and generally insane. I’m sure that if nothing changes, then another two years will pass, he will turn fifteen, and he will break loose and fall into many serious sins, because this world does not accept him. He’s uncomfortable at home, it's hard for him at school, and this makes it easier for him to break the law: “You yourselves called me a bully and a bandit. Why should I abide by the rules of a world in which I have no place? I’m not from this world, and its laws are not my laws!" And the one to blame for the fact that he was hounded like a wolf, is the system that places the level of education over kindness and helpfulness in the criteria of a good person. If no one had harassed the boy with compulsory secondary education, but had instead sent him to work quietly, then he would have become a good worker or farmer, and no one would think he was stupid because he hadn't finished eleventh grade. For such children, the modern educational system does not practically provide a normal path. This is the case when a conveyor disfigures any child that does not fit into the general format. I will try to make a conclusion. What would I change in a modern school? It is necessary to make the school personality-oriented. It sounds beautiful, but is very difficult to implement. As the first stage, we should at least introduce separate education for boys and girls in large schools, and in low-grade schools all teachers should go through courses of gender and age psychology. — What is good in the current education system? What is wrong? What does it not teach? The good thing is that we are the heirs of a non-Western European civilization oriented towards success and quality. Our value is our teachers, who for the most part are not only wonderful people and love children, but also do not "stamp" faceless creatures out of them, trying to ensure that the school is not like a conveyor belt. But I repeat: they do it in spite of, and not thanks to, the modern education system. The current education system does not teach independence, does not teach the basics of family life. Although I think that in order to teach independence at school, it will be necessary to change the entire education system. If there are 30 children in the classroom, then the main virtue of the student is obedience and diligence. But then we will not get mature and independent personalities. Independence training is a "private” work, here 10 students are an overload. And for teaching the basics of family life, there’s still a lot of work to do, because I can’t even imagine what the secular concept of family life might look like. These two gaps in education are in the very nature of modern school. After all, the school was conceived as a factory for raising children, which would take the place of artisanal education in family conditions. Therefore, the impression on the mind of the student (who is like a blank sheet of paper) and the separation of the child from the family are inevitable. The task of education is to teach how to get information. I note two points. Here is the first one: For a hungry man, it is better to give him a fishing rod and teach him how to fish, than just to feed him. In the first case, he will be well-fed and hardworking, and in the other, well-fed and lazy. This can rightly be applied to study. The task of education is not to cram a child with information, but to teach him to obtain and process it. In my opinion, it is possible to calmly reduce the amount of teaching, but to teach a child to work with primary sources, extracting bits of knowledge. The knowledge obtained in this way will be less in volume, but more durable. What is easily received is easily forgotten. Knowledge acquired with difficulty will not lie on the margins of memory, but will always be active. The second point: Education is also a great opportunity to apply knowledge. If a high school student knows the “gimlet rule”, but has not fixed a single outlet in his life, then, in my opinion, he did not receive an education. Labor develops a person even more than theoretical knowledge. I clearly felt this at the age of 15, when my mother asked me to build a toilet in the country. At first I thought that this was the most trivial thing, and that I could easily cope. But as soon as I got down to business, I realized that there are certain difficulties. I didn’t make such a breakthrough in mathematics solving trigonometry problems as when I managed to make a “primitive” toilet. All the tasks in the textbook are already clearly formulated: here are the conditions, here is the question. And now I stood in indecision and thought for a long time: we must set a task for ourselves, choose the conditions. In my head there were 33 options for how to make a toilet: it can be triangular, or it can be rectangular, you can make a door like that, or you can do another, this sort of window, or you can do something else. I began to make it. The first mistake I made was not taking into account the land slope, and I had to redo some things. I continued, and again there was a miscalculation. It was necessary to coordinate the roof slope with the length of the metal sheets, otherwise it would be necessary to cut it and some would be wasted. For the first time, I realized how difficult it is to think through everything from start to finish, all the smallest details, and then finish it all to the end, so that all the handles, covers, hooks, and eyelets are in place, and that everyone is comfortable. This was the first thing I did independently in my life. And most importantly: every five minutes I had to make the choice myself among many options, and make a decision if something did not fit. It was not at all like solving problems from a textbook. Labor teaches us to set a clear task and solve it, and teaches us to correct mistakes if the task is set incorrectly. To increase the effectiveness of education, it is necessary to increase the share of labor training. — Was your education better than that which exists today? It seems to me that a feature of modern education, unlike the Soviet one, is a greater excess of information content. Saying that the world is changing rapidly, they begin to say that the child needs to know a lot in order to keep up with life. As a result, the child receives a flood of information which he cannot digest. He can’t because first it is necessary to form a worldview in the child. To do this, you do not need a lot of knowledge, but you need to give the child a system of values, that is, firstly, a hierarchy of values (what is important, what is not important), and secondly, a moral scale (what is good, what is bad). Then he will learn to comprehend any new information. He will have a holistic picture of the world, and he will be able to put every new knowledge in a certain place in his system of knowledge; he will be able to evaluate it. In terms of knowledge, I cannot compare modern and Soviet education. As for the worldview, I am sure that I received a better education than what our children receive. They gave us a worldview system, although, of course, it was not based on some deep ontological foundation. For example, everyone was told that one had to be kind and honest, but only then, so as not to do to another what one does not want for oneself. But why can't I lock myself in a room, close the door with a key, pull the curtain and watch a depraved movie or get drunk quietly? Nobody sees me, I don’t do anything bad to anyone — why can't I do this? Only a believer understands why it is impossible — you offend the presence of God. Of course, the Soviet worldview was weak in the sense of thoroughness, which is why it gradually eroded and collapsed. But even having such a worldview is better than having a head full of information, but not having a clear idea of good and evil. Here in Russia, this website is currently the only source of income for the Gleason familyand the Silva family. Both families now live in Russia, and they appreciate your support. To keep the Russian Faith website running, a recurring donation of even $15 or $25 per month would be a huge blessing. | Archpriest Iliya Shugaev | https://russia-insider.com/en/culture/russian-schools-are-anti-family-factories-just-west/ri27549 | 2019-09-05 13:09:00+00:00 | 1,567,703,340 | 1,569,331,175 | education | school |
483,673 | skynewspolitics--2019-08-30--PM promises 16314bn schools funding over three years | 2019-08-30T00:00:00 | skynewspolitics | PM promises £14bn schools funding over three years | Boris Johnson has said that his education spending is well in the headroom for the budget for the UK. Boris Johnson is promising a cash boost totalling more than £14bn for primary and secondary schools over the next three years. The prime minister revealed the increase ahead of next week's spending review, where Chancellor Sajid Javid will announce updated budgets for government departments. In an interview with Sky News, ahead of Mr Javid's speech, Mr Johnson appeared to commit himself to fiscal rules drawn up by former Chancellor Philip Hammond. The prime minister vowed to "continue to keep debt coming down every year" despite his series of spending pledges, including on the NHS, police and now education, since entering Number 10 in July. Downing Street had previously said the rules, which require the government to balance the nation's books by the mid-2020s and to ensure that debt is falling as a share of GDP by the end of this parliament, were "under review". During the Conservative leadership campaign, during which he made a pledge to reverse Conservative education cuts since 2010, Mr Johnson was also reported to have been considering loosening Mr Hammond's controls on public spending once in power. The cash boost for schools will see an extra £2.6bn for 2020/21, £4.8bn for 2021/22 and £7.1bn for 2022/23, compared to funding levels for this year. By the end of the period, the schools budget will total £52.2bn. The prime minister told Sky News the objective of the money is to "level up across the country". "The effect is - I hope - not just to give every school an increase, both primary and secondary, but to make sure the schools allowed to fall furthest behind are seeing the biggest uplift." He added: "I can't think of anything more fundamental for society than education spending." Mr Johnson denied, under his leadership, the Tories were ditching their commitments to fiscal discipline. He claimed extra public spending would be funded by an intent to "grow this economy with a proper supportive approach to business and industry and enterprise". "Wait to see what Sajid Javid announces - the fiscal headroom, the tax revenues have been coming in to enable us to make these commitments," the prime minister added. Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner claimed the government's announcement "comes nowhere close to meeting the prime minister's pledge to reverse the Tories' education cuts, let alone matching Labour's plans to invest in a National Education Service". "Instead, it is yet another con trick by a politician who shown time and again that you just can't trust his promises," she said. "With the chancellor only committing to a one-year Spending Round schools are being told to wait years for desperately needed funding, and the truth is that the government's figures would prove an absolute fantasy after the damage done by a disastrous no-deal Brexit. "Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities are struggling to access the help they need, and yet today the education secretary hasn't even offered enough to cover half of the funding shortfall and not for another year. "Today's announcement completely ignores the impact of cuts on vital services like nursery schools and Sure Start centres or adult learning and training, and school buildings will continue to crumble as cuts to capital funding continue." :: Listen to All Out Politics on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker As part of the government's promise, every secondary school will receive a minimum of £5,000 per pupil next year, with every primary school getting a minimum of £4,000 from 2021/22. It will ensure that per-pupil funding for all schools can rise at least in line with inflation There will also be £700m extra for children with special educational needs and disabilities in 2020/21. Mr Javid said: "We said our priorities were police, healthcare and education, and that's what we are delivering at next week's spending round. "Because of the hard work of the British people to put our finances in order, we can now invest in their priorities." Education Secretary Gavin Williamson hailed the more than £14bn spend over three years as "the largest cash boost in a generation". "In addition to this package, schools will receive £4.4bn over three years to cover rising pension costs and ensure they can focus their resources on the front line," he added. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told Sky News the government's plan appeared to be a "genuine increase" in education funding and would meet the prime minister's promise to reverse previous Tory cuts. "It's an increase which, within three years, will be enough to restore school funding per pupil to what it was back in 2010," he said. "It's quite a big increase, actually, over the next three years. Looked at the other way, that means there's been no increase over the 12 years since 2010 [to 2022/23]. "So, it's a clear change in direction, it's a clear increase in funding for schools and it's a significant increase over the coming period." However, the IFS boss warned the prime minister's commitment to keep debt coming down every year could be blown off course by a no-deal Brexit. "If the economy contracts, as the Office for Budget Responsibility, or the Bank of England or the International Monetary Fund expect it would in the context of a no-deal Brexit, then it will be very difficult - perhaps impossible - to keep to that pledge," he added. | null | http://news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-promises-16314bn-extra-for-schools-over-three-years-11797989 | 2019-08-30 15:19:00+00:00 | 1,567,192,740 | 1,569,416,937 | education | school |
484,235 | skynewspolitics--2019-11-21--Hundreds of small, rural schools fear budget cuts will force them to close | 2019-11-21T00:00:00 | skynewspolitics | Hundreds of small, rural schools fear budget cuts will force them to close | Hundreds of small, rural schools in England are under intense financial pressure and are concerned about the possibility of closure, according to new research. The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) estimates there are 3,475 small schools nationally with fewer than 150 pupils. Their findings suggest that about 1,460 are worried they could shut. Tittensor First School in Staffordshire has 76 pupils. "It's more difficult for small schools obviously because we've got a smaller number of children but we still need to put teachers in front of classes so without the classes being full it's very difficult to be able to find that teacher," headteacher Emily Proffitt said. "It's also difficult because we don't have the same level of leadership. So in our school for example I am the leadership. "I am the headteacher and there's nothing underneath me in the hierarchy that means that when you're looking at making cuts there is very little to cut so we're already down to the bare bone and there's nothing more to cut in to." Like many schools, Tittensor depends on parents to pay for extra activities or fundraising. One parent said: "I know how difficult it is for teachers to afford even basic needs like pencils and paper and if it wasn't for the help of the Parents, Teachers and Friends Association and all the fundraising we have to do now the children wouldn't get that." Another said: "The children are all thriving and really happy but you've got the cost of maintaining the whole building and the overheads of it so you've got to be realistic. With government cuts can it survive? Hopefully it can." There is a £40bn budget for schools in England. The Department for Education says that small and remote schools get additional funding of £25m. Some say it is not enough. "The feedback we get from our survey is that school budgets are now at breaking point and have been for quite some time actually," Steven George from the NAHT said. "The data that we collect year on year suggests that seven out of 10 school budgets are at breaking point right now and data that we are publishing today says that for small schools that is particularly true." A spokesperson for the Conservative Party said: "We are investing £14bn more in our schools over the next three years, meaning that we are increasing per-pupil funding for all schools. "The schools funding formula provides additional support for small schools, and this will also increase next year." Angela Rayner, Labour's shadow secretary of state for education, said: "Labour will give all schools the resources they need, fully reversing Tory cuts and providing sustainable long-term investment." The Liberal Democrats' spokesperson for education, Layla Moran, said: "By 2024, we'll spend £10bn a year more on schools and employ 20,000 more teachers, to build a brighter future for our children, no matter where they go to school." | null | http://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-small-rural-schools-fear-budget-cuts-will-force-them-to-close-11866818 | Thu, 21 Nov 2019 23:35:00 +0000 | 1,574,397,300 | 1,574,425,407 | education | school |
485,867 | skynewsus--2019-08-22--School renovation gives children places to hide from gunmen | 2019-08-22T00:00:00 | skynewsus | School renovation gives children places to hide from gunmen | US school renovation gives children places to hide from gunmen US school renovation gives children places to hide from gunmen A US school is undergoing a $48m (£39m) renovation to help protect children in case of a mass shooting. Fruitport High School in Michigan is making some of its hallways curved to cut down a potential gunman's firing range and installing cement blocks for children to hide behind. Walls are also being erected in classrooms, where up to 40 students can hide so any killer cannot see them as they pass, and impact resistant film is being added to windows. District leaders were behind the design changes, which will see current school buildings renovated and new ones built too. Fruitport Superintendent Bob Szymoniak told KCEN-TV electronic locks are being fitted to the doors, too. "These are going to be design elements that are just naturally part of buildings going into the future," he said. "This building will be the safest, most secure building in the state of Michigan when it opens." "Our ask is that our community be very understanding, keep the eyes on the prize because when our high school is done it's going be magnificent." The whole project is reportedly costing $48m, funded by a bond scheme, and due to finish in 2021. Fruitport school posted the link to a news article about it on its Facebook page on Thursday, prompting mixed reaction. "This is really sad that this is what our kids have to worry about," one user wrote. Another said: "It's sad how my old high school has to take drastic measures to be sure that malicious people don't hurt any students and staff. That is how America is now. But nice work on the new school." While one posted: "Our country has come to everybody whining about give the criminals another chance. Quit blaming the guns and start discipline children at home like I was when I was younger." According to the local Fox affiliate station, a false bomb threat was reported at the school in December 2018. | null | http://news.sky.com/story/us-school-renovation-gives-children-places-to-hide-from-gunmen-11791409 | 2019-08-22 15:21:00+00:00 | 1,566,501,660 | 1,567,533,787 | education | school |
488,294 | slate--2019-05-08--A Texas High School Wants a Dress Code for Parents Guess What Kind of Parents It Targets | 2019-05-08T00:00:00 | slate | A Texas High School Wants a Dress Code for Parents. Guess What Kind of Parents It Targets. | At this point, it’s clear school dress codes are, more often than not, relics of “traditional” values that tend to disproportionately affect girls and students of color. Every few months some school’s unnecessarily punitive dress code goes viral. BuzzFeed has an entire video series dedicated to adults trying to navigate the school dress codes of specific states, with the simultaneously strict and vague mandates rendering half their closets unwearable. Amid all this, it’s hard to be too surprised by the lengths schools will go to eradicate the scourge of bare shoulders. Even so, a new dress code from James Madison High School in Houston announced in April managed to raise some eyebrows because of its new target: parents. Announced in a letter, the public school’s new dress code bars parents from the school grounds if they’re wearing ripped jeans, leggings, short-shorts, mini-dresses, sagging jeans, undershirts without an additional layer, or cleavage-exposing tops. A number of other items, including hair bonnets, pajama pants, and rollers have also been banned, in a supposed effort to teach children “the appropriate attire they are supposed to wear when entering a building, going somewhere, applying for a job, or visiting someone outside of a home setting.” The strange new policy went viral when a parent said she was prevented from enrolling her daughter in school because she was wearing a T-shirt dress and a headscarf. It has since faced widespread criticism. The Washington Post reported that 58 percent of the students at Madison are Hispanic, and 40 percent are black. And as Nadra Nittle of Vox pointed out, a ban on items like hair bonnets seemed to “disproportionately target black women’s grooming practices.” Though the school’s principal, Carlotta Outley Brown, denied that the new dress code had any discriminatory intent, her defense of the policy still manages to traffic in respectability politics: “[The policy] is about elevating standards for students who will go out into the world in the near future and seek opportunities for themselves. I do not want them to face possible barriers,” she told Vox. “Respectability politics” describes the idea that black people can disprove perceptions of their inferiority thorough their own personal behavior, like, you know, not dropping off your child at school in a hair bonnet. The thinking goes that if we don’t respect ourselves, how can we expect others to respect us? Because, clearly, respecting ourselves not only requires submission to antiquated ideas of propriety that cater to whiteness but also means black cultural traditions are inherently not “respectable.” These politics place the onus of eradicating racism on the victim of a stereotype instead of on the person who holds and weaponizes the stereotype. Even if we accepted that premise, there’s evidence it doesn’t work. Proponents of respectability politics, who have included Booker T. Washington to Charles Barkley, have long argued that the more education black people attain, the less likely they will be to face discrimination or be treated unfairly because of their race. In fact, the opposite is true. Recent data from the Pew Research Center shows that more than 8 in 10 blacks with at least some college report they’ve experienced racial discrimination, while fewer than 7 in 10 blacks with high school or less say the same. (About 2 in 10 blacks with some college reported regular discrimination, while fewer than 1 in 10 blacks with high school or less do.) Half of all black people with some college experience say they’ve feared for their personal safety because of their race, while only about a third of those with less education say the same. This holds true across multiple surveys: A 2017 NPR report found that black people with college degrees were more likely to report being subjected to racial slurs. The working theory behind this apparent paradox is that because college-educated black people are more likely to work and study in predominately white environments, they are also more likely to be exposed to racial prejudice. But these studies also suggest that even if black people adhere to bedrock social definitions of respectability by pursuing higher education, they still face—or are even more likely to face—the barriers that path would supposedly prevent. Dress codes like the one at Madison High School are just another rung on this creaky ladder. In truth, racist social barriers are simply standards invented to justify racism, codes put in place to assert black inferiority. Teaching children that they can avoid bias by wearing business casual 24/7 lends undue credence to the idea that black people are somehow to blame for our own marginalization, that if we just stopped wearing sagging pants or hair rollers—in, let me reiterate, not a work-related context—that we’d get more respect. It ultimately prepares kids for disappointment, anger, and heartbreak when, even in their sweater vests at the grocery store, they still face discrimination. The solution to racism is not to put the weight of eradicating bias on the shoulders of high-schoolers, who are at school to learn, or to suggest to them that their parents are not worthy of respect because of the way they dress. James Madison High should focus on giving these kids a real education—not in the service of disproving racist myths, but because by virtue of being a child in America, that is their right. | Rachelle Hampton | https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/05/dress-code-for-parents-james-madison-high-school-racist.html?via=rss | 2019-05-08 20:44:43+00:00 | 1,557,362,683 | 1,567,540,840 | education | school |
490,203 | slate--2019-08-27--How Do You Design a School for the Era of Mass Shootings | 2019-08-27T00:00:00 | slate | How Do You Design a School for the Era of Mass Shootings? | SANDY HOOK, Connecticut—There’s a gate to the parking lot, and a plaque stating “In Loving Memory” by the front door. Those are the only signs that I’ve arrived at the site of an unspeakably dark American moment—the Dec. 14, 2012, murder of 20 first graders and six women who taught them. I half expect the grass not to grow. Instead, the architect Jay Brotman parks the car and we walk toward the whimsical, undulating façade of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School, fronted with a rain garden that is flush with milkweed and marsh grasses. The timber is dotted with windows; its height rises and falls like the hills around the town, with two peaked second-story hallways poking up like little farmhouses. A low stone wall marks the base. “My goal is to lead everybody to more open and accessible schools, instead of prisonlike spaces,” the architect says. “You’re not going to raise a good person in a prison.” This may be the most scrutinized school design in the United States, the landmark project of the era in which stopping school shootings became the responsibility of architects and administrators because the U.S. Congress would do nothing. Designed by Svigals + Partners, the New Haven firm where Brotman is a partner, the new Sandy Hook Elementary opened in 2016; when I visited last week with an eye toward assessing the impact of shootings on school architecture, incoming students’ names were already affixed by classroom doors to prepare for the first day of school on Monday. The animating theme is nature: Through the front doors, reliefs in the great entry hall call back to the ducks that frequented the demolished school’s courtyard. A tree-shaded terrace sits beyond a wall of windows. On the second floor, the hallways end in “treehouses,” cozy nooks with windows facing onto the forest behind the school. The ubiquitous black globes of cameras in the ceiling are a reminder that this is also a school designed with the unthinkable in mind. The glass in the double row of doors is bulletproof, a feature that costs 10 times what normal glass does. Each classroom door is propped open with a wall magnet, which is connected to a centralized lockdown button that sends all doors swinging shut at once. The below-grade rain garden doubles as a moat that limits the school to three entry points and allows child-level windows to stand, on the outside, high above the ground. Brotman is one of the architects who argues that a school designed to resist a massacre need not look that way. As school districts rush to redesign facilities for the post–Sandy Hook, post-Parkland era, it’s not clear his ideas are carrying the day. Elsewhere, frightened parents, liability-conscious administrators, and a school-safety industrial complex are pushing for an architectural posture that is more explicitly defensive, one designed to reassure students and teachers at every turn that their classrooms are ready for the horrific but vanishingly remote possibility of a school shooting. Last week in Jefferson County, Colorado, home of Columbine, public school teacher Cassie Lopez received buckets, kitty litter, and a Sharpie to start the year. The buckets and the kitty litter can comprise a makeshift toilet during a prolonged lockdown. The Sharpie is there so Lopez can write the time she applied a tourniquet to a bleeding student. A new high school in Fruitport, Michigan, has limited sightlines, wall protrusions for students to hide behind, and an all-seeing reception desk the architect calls an “educational entry panopticon.” It’s an example of the ghastly protocols that school districts have undertaken as another school year begins with no movement in Washington on gun control. Armed volunteers have arrived in elementary schools. Parents have gone their own route, stocking up on bulletproof backpacks. Because the average U.S. school is 44 years old, architectural adaptations to gunfire have been slower to arrive—but now that they are being considered in the design of every new school in the United States, their impact will last for decades. In Shelbyville, Indiana, a high school redesigned at the behest of the state sheriff’s association has teachers wearing panic buttons, and motion detectors and smoke cannons in the hallways. When it opened a few years ago, Indiana Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Steve Luce labeled it a “paradigm change in public safety.” In a PR coup for the planners, NBC called it the “safest school in America.” The Shelbyville school is an extreme case. It was built by NetTalon, a Virginia security company that doesn’t seem to have been able to convince anyone to replicate its prototype. But it is far from the only school where military technology drives design. In Fruitport, Michigan, superintendent Bob Szymoniak boasts the new high school will be “the safest, most secure building in the state of Michigan,” with limited sightlines, wing-wall protrusions for students to hide behind, and an all-seeing reception desk the architect calls an “educational entry panopticon.” The firm behind the building, TowerPinkster, has built a number of school facilities—as well as jails in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Midland. Matt Slagle, the architect on the project, says all this is standard procedure—and that with its emphasis on glass windows (coated in ballistic film) and open sightlines, the Fruitport school is on the less carceral end of the spectrum. Commissions on school safety have prepared reports with standardized school safety recommendations after the shootings at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Newtown, and Parkland. But on the ground, approaches are highly localized and often dependent on the whims of one superintendent or the entreaties of a local entrepreneur. In Charleston, South Carolina, for example, Tony Deering, a local manufacturer of bomb-resistant vehicle armor, has a new venture in bulletproof doors, incorporating “the experience we gleaned from protecting the war fighter.” Deering has offered the doors free to three district schools, which will begin installing them this year, and he hopes Charleston’s schools will be the first of many clients. “There is this industry that is monetizing off of fear,” said Jenine Kotob, a D.C.-based school architect, when I spoke to her earlier this month. “The school security industry is now a $2.7 billion industry in the United States, and those numbers keep rising. Thinking about the building and the site in a holistic way, and not necessarily focusing on the bells and whistles that come after the fact, would probably be a better investment.” Kotob is one of the estimated 225,000 Americans who have lived through a school shooting. One of her best friends was killed at Virginia Tech. Later, she studied in Israel and Palestine, and saw schools built for war, with features like perimeter walls designed to withstand explosives. “If America continues along a trajectory of fear, we will end up in a situation where the building and the infrastructure we’re investing in are not places we want to be. We’re talking about a building that will be standing for 20, 30, 40 years. And how we react today says a lot about who we are as a society and what our beliefs are.” Listen to our What Next episode with Jenine Kotob on this topic: One place where the military-educational complex is winning: a particular piece of panic hardware called a “barricade device,” which is supposed to prevent anyone from entering or exiting a classroom during a lockdown. The National Association of State Fire Marshals argues that it should always be easy for anyone to exit a room—and for authorized officials to enter a locked room. But several states have bucked that advice and changed the law to permit barricades in school settings. Those might include steel bars that secure the door to the door frame or into the floor. In Arkansas, for example, the Legislature changed the fire code, overruling the fire marshal. Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert was subsequently appointed CEO of Arkansas-based ULockIt, which has sold barricades to dozens of schools in the state. (He had recused himself from the vote because he had investments in the firm.) “What happens is, when these companies come in, some of them can try to take advantage of situations,” said Guy Grace, security director of public schools in Littleton, Colorado, where Columbine is located. He is also the chair of the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools, or PASS, which has argued that barricades will create more problems than they solve. “When you have an active shooter situation, I guarantee in the first couple days your inbox is going to have solutions from companies trying to market their technology.” PASS, in turn, is criticized for being a vehicle for security tech. Its school design guidelines are “mostly from security industry folks with their products as their main concern,” Brotman wrote to me. They recommend that new schools be equipped with biometric screening, outdoor lighting optimized for video surveillance, and audio analytics that can detect “specific acoustic signatures of threat indicators, such as aggression or panic in people’s voices.” The resistance to barricades isn’t just about fire. Far more common than school shootings is routine violence, including threats, fighting, and sexual assault. Many forward-thinking architects see themselves as responding not just to the infinitesimal threat of a shooting but the far more common incidence of bullying. “To truly create spaces where students feel safe, to a certain extent those interventional strategies have to be as unobtrusive as possible,” observes Karina Ruiz, a Portland, Oregon–based architect who chaired the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on Education. She recalled speaking to survivors of the 2017 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, who returned to a school that required passing through a metal detector with a clear backpack. “They said, ‘We are the victims—and we feel like we’re being punished.’ ” Metal detectors have been a fixture in inner-city schools for decades, but there is still little evidence on whether they make students safer or put them at ease. There is less evidence still about the new active-shooter-exercise “start kits” that the Department of Homeland Security now releases, which are designed to help administrators prepare kids for a lockdown. In Littleton, Grace argues the twice-a-year drills are “empowering, not overwhelming” for the district’s students. “When you don’t tell them anything is where the fear factor comes into play.” Virtually nothing is known about the utility or consequence of architectural modifications. What are the long-term effects of spending your youth in a classroom with red tape on the floor telling you where to stand when someone opens fire? No one knows. In a 2016 study, researchers from Johns Hopkins University wrote there was “limited and conflicting evidence in the literature on the short- and long-term effectiveness of school safety technology.” Back at Sandy Hook, Brotman knows that’s true. He does his best to hide his bulletproofing, and he also acknowledges that no school will ever be completely invulnerable, not even this one. The first concern in school design should always be education, he said, even as the grim headlines fuel parental concern about security: “Parents will bring it up, and it’s up to us to help them understand it’s a priority—but it’s not the No. 1 priority.” We were standing among the tiny, thigh-high chairs in the library as a summer thunderstorm battered the windows and filled the rain garden outside. If we’re designing shooter-proof schools, I hope they look like this. It was also clear, as Brotman and I gamed out the path of bullets in the empty hallways, that this is a small victory in a war we have lost. | Henry Grabar | https://slate.com/business/2019/08/school-shootings-design-architecture-sandy-hook-columbine.html?via=rss | 2019-08-27 21:54:42+00:00 | 1,566,957,282 | 1,567,543,643 | education | school |
490,551 | slate--2019-09-14--A Simple Trick to Get Your Kid to Tell You What Happened at School Today | 2019-09-14T00:00:00 | slate | A Simple Trick to Get Your Kid to Tell You What Happened at School Today | On a recent episode of How To!, Charles Duhigg brought a listener’s (and his own) parenting anxieties to Wendy Mogel, a clinical psychologist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. They talked about how many parents overprotect, overindulge, and overschedule their kids—and how they can learn to chill out. Some highlights of their conversation, condensed and edited for clarity, are below. Wendy Mogel: If we solve every small problem for our kids, we see the pattern that we’re now seeing in college students, who are attached by an electronic tether to their parents and asking them questions like “Mom, could you take a look at this apple? I’m just going to turn on FaceTime so you can see it. Should I eat this part over here, or is that not a good part to eat?” Charles Duhigg: I want to be a fellow traveler with my kids, but I have all this advice! I have 44 years of good advice. Mogel: Not for 2019, Charles, you don’t. We want to learn from them and then take all our life experience and blend it with their knowledge of this moment. And that’s how we make our decisions. Duhigg: I have an 11-year-old named Ollie, and this summer he went to this camp where they fight with foam swords and they’re assigned to groups based on Greek mythology. It’s Brooklyn. But when I dropped him off each morning, I would get worried because he didn’t seem like he was socializing enough with the other kids. Some of the kids are playing swords with each other, and Ollie goes and sits on the wall. And I want to go over and be like, “No, no. Ollie, go play with those kids. They want to be friends with you. You should go be friends with them.” What should I do? Mogel: You sound so sad, and slightly hopeless, and you felt much worse than Ollie feels when he’s watching them. Duhigg: I’m actually the problem. It’s not that Ollie doesn’t want to go play with the other kids. It’s that he has a father who keeps on hectoring him. Mogel: We all do this. Every single one of us does this every day as parents because it’s all trial and error. Some kids are slower to warm—they just need time to rev up and figure out how to join the group. But you just have this little snapshot, and so in your eyes, he is the lonely, lost boy who will never get to engage in swordplay. And at the end of the day, you want a little reassurance so that you can sleep through the night. “OK. Ollie, did you do any swordplay? Did you play with anybody, or did you sit by yourself the whole entire day, and actually were there tears?” Duhigg: No, you’re right. That’s what I do. I’m the worst. Mogel: Does he not want to go to camp? Mogel: Yes. Just write that on a note and put it in your pocket. Mogel: Three-quarters of the parents who come to see me are not coming about problems. They’re coming with anticipatory anxiety. “What if this is the wrong school? What if he doesn’t make friends? What if he doesn’t have a good teacher?” And then they’ll ask the children if they like their teacher. I say never, never ask your child that because someday we want them to learn how to get along with difficult people. They’re going to have an unenlightened, uninspired boss one day. This is good for them. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect for them. So if kids are having trouble making friends, what the parents can say is “Wow” or “Tell me more,” and let them speak without interrupting with advice or guidance or recommendations until they make a statement with a question mark at the end. Duhigg: Instead of solving the problem, you just give them an opportunity to suggest new alternatives for themselves. Mogel: And you don’t do it in an annoying shrinky-like voice. You don’t say, “Hmm,” or put your finger on your chin. You’re engaged, but you’re treating them as though you have confidence that they have the tools somewhere inside to solve this. And you can say to them, “Have you ever been in a situation like this before? What did you do? How did it turn out? What are you thinking of trying? What’s your next step? What’s your plan?” Duhigg: Like I actually want to know what the answer is, not that I have an answer in mind and I’m waiting for them to guess it. I am actually curious—how are they going to solve this? Mogel: You are curious, respectful, and calm. What I see so often is escalation of anxiety until the parent is at the point where they drunk-text the principal or the head of the school. Duhigg: Those pointed questions we ask, oftentimes without understanding it, sometimes become interrogations—as you put it, that we are interviewing for pain. We’re asking questions like “Was Jimmy mean to you again today? Did you like your lunch?” Our natural instinct as parents, because we’re caring, is to try and find these moments when our kids aren’t happy and try and help them solve it. But oftentimes our kids are just exhausted. Mogel: Our job as parents and educators of certainly girls, but especially right now young boys, is to be enchanted with their enchantment. … When you pick your kid up at school, put down your device and say, “I thought about you today when I saw anything that they talk to you about,” if you came across something that connects their passion and their great store of information that they just treasure with your day, so that they know—these emotionally sensitive creatures—that you hold them in mind when you’re not together. It means so much to them. And it’s really a magic trick. It really works. Mogel: A surprising, sort of paradoxical way to do this comes from the brilliant research of a Norwegian child development specialist named Ellen Sandseter. Her premise is that without exposure to danger, children will be more fearful. She lists specific things that children need in order to become appropriately daring, confident, and resilient: to be at great heights from which they could fall and harm themselves, to be near bodies of water where they could drown, to be near fire, to travel at great speed. And this is the tricky one for all of us: wayfinding. Duhigg: But there’s a right way and a wrong way to stress your kid, and we have to be mindful of the difference. Mogel: There are signs to look for: a child who’s been previously dry at night who starts wetting, lots of complaints about tummy aches and headaches, loss of pleasure in activities that were previously very satisfying to the child, loss of exuberance. Then you can consider that your child has too much stress. If you’re not seeing those things, then we accept that it’s exactly like the way you build muscle—you have to stress the muscle, and actually tear it slightly, for it to become stronger. To listen to the entire episode, including Duhigg’s interview with parents of an introverted kid, click the player below or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. | Charles Duhigg | https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/kid-talk-about-day-parenting-wendy-mogel.html?via=rss | 2019-09-14 15:00:00+00:00 | 1,568,487,600 | 1,569,330,300 | education | school |
490,637 | slate--2019-09-18--Dear Care and Feeding Whats the Best Way to Help My Sons Underprivileged School | 2019-09-18T00:00:00 | slate | Dear Care and Feeding: What’s the Best Way to Help My Son’s Underprivileged School? | Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. We are super excited to send our son to our neighborhood public school. It is the most diverse in the city, and it has a significant percentage of kids whose families are underprivileged. We make plenty of money. I am ready to write the checks and show up wherever we’re needed. My question is about how to discuss this with our son. I want to build a sense of community such that he understands that we help people who need help, but that he doesn’t feel “better” than anyone. How do I talk to him about this? Also, can I just donate money so he doesn’t have to sell wrapping paper? Or maybe so his whole class doesn’t have to sell wrapping paper? I can’t figure out how to navigate this territory. —Trying to Help Without Hurting Unless you can donate enough money to prevent the entire school from having to sell wrapping paper, I would advise against making a gift to prevent him or his classmates from participating in those much-loathed fundraisers—which can be a lot of fun and educational for the kids, no matter how annoying we find them as parents. There may be some need that you can solve without much fanfare, such as replacing a broken copy machine or purchasing enough crayons or toilet paper to last through the semester. (Yes, those school fundraisers are often for basic needs, not just fun trips or celebrations.) His privilege should not cause him any guilt, but he should be very grateful for what he has and never take it for granted. The influx of new, moneyed students can be both a gift (more parents who have the resources to be engaged and supportive) and a curse (rising rents, class tensions, families demanding changes that run counter to the needs and desires of longtime residents). Speak to his classroom teacher and the principal about wanting to find some ways to support the school financially; just be sensitive to the fact that both of them (especially the teacher) may be earning less than they would if they were working in a wealthier area and may be a bit touchy around the subject of money. Ask that your donations or gifts are kept confidential so as not to create an awkward situation for your son, who’d likely prefer not to be known as the rich kid. I’d actually advise against telling him about your gifts as well. Be sure that you and your spouse are sensitive when interacting with school employees, your child’s classmates, and their parents. Please don’t be the family at the PTA meeting harping about organic lunches when there are parents there worrying over having enough money to keep any kind of food in the house at all. Take the time to learn the school culture and offer to support change where it is most needed, not where it would simply fit your own expectations or desires. As far as speaking to your son about the obvious class differences between him and his classmates, explain that most people aren’t fortunate enough to be as financially stable as his parents are and that you all are privileged to be able to have everything you need and much of what you want. However, he must also understand that having more money than other families does not mean that you work harder or are better than anyone else in any way. Explain how you got to where you are, whether it was a matter of sustaining family wealth or being the first in your family to be highly successful. In the meantime, he must understand the importance of being kind and treating everyone with respect, no matter how different they are. His privilege should not cause him any guilt, but he should be very grateful for what he has and never take it for granted. Also, explain that family business is personal—that includes finances. Your son should not talk to his friends about how much money his family has and should also understand that some of the things that he can take for granted (regular vacations, dining out, car ownership) may be out of reach for his classmates’ parents. Encourage him to avoid talking about those things too much and to listen to how friends speak about their own households. There’s no need to brag about getting a ton of Christmas presents or going to a fancy party if his buddies are describing very different lifestyles. That doesn’t mean he has to hide everything that makes him happy, just that he has to develop a level of class sensitivity a bit earlier in life then he may have if he were surrounded by other well-off children. Best of luck for a great school year. How important is it for babies to “socialize” with other babies? My infant hasn’t met any other kids his age yet. Is it bad that he spends most of his time with grown-ups? We’ve been to a local playgroup a few times and he seemed to enjoy watching older kids, though he’s a bit young to interact with them. I’m something of an introvert and homebody, so the idea of getting out and meeting other parents makes me anxious. But I don’t want my hang-ups to affect him and his development—maybe he wants to be social! Is there an age where we should make a concerted effort to be social with other kids? Should we put him in day care to meet other kids? How do we even meet other babies? Having children requires most parents to step outside of our comfort zones at times, if not often: making corny faces, sitting through hours of YouTube videos that you’d prefer to avoid, and yes, forced social interaction with adults so that our little ones can be friends with their kids, which sucks so very much. Lucky for you, you’ve got some time before you need to do that. A child under 1 needs social interaction, but he’s getting it from his parents, sitters, family friends, store employees, etc. Could watching a slightly older child toddling across the living room help inspire him to push a little harder to start walking on his own? Sure. Would he enjoy more time with kids? Perhaps. Is he suffering for the lack at this point? Nope. If your work schedules change and you find that day care is a necessity, that’s one thing. But if you’re able to keep things going as they are, there’s no need to enroll him somewhere just to get him to meet new friends. I have a personal vendetta against “mommy and me” groups because 1) plenty of kids come with other parents and 2) they typically take place during the middle of the traditional workday. Alas, there may be one in your area that works for your schedule. Consider giving them another shot six to 12 months before you plan to enroll your son in preschool or pre-K so that he can get used to being around kids then. Places where families convene are also great for meeting other kids and their parents: the playground, the beach, the local YMCA. Conversations can be easily started over two kids wanting to use the same swing or sharing a ball—you may find that by then your little boy is a social butterfly and won’t need any assistance from you at all. There’s a lot to be anxious about as the parent of such a tiny person. His friendships, however, needn’t cause you any real worry just yet. Try to relax and trust that he’ll be OK. Good luck to you! • If you missed Tuesday’s Care and Feeding column, read it here. • Discuss this column in the Slate Parenting Facebook group! I have a 9-year-old and a 6-year-old. Due to my ongoing struggle with depression and anxiety, I have let a lot of parenting things fall by the wayside over the years: grooming, ensuring the kids have healthy eating habits, monitoring their screen time, making them help around the house. Really, a lot of stuff. After several years of therapy and other hard work, I’m in a much better place, and I’m ready to create and/or restore some of the much-needed order that has been missing from our household. But I’m struggling to figure out just how to present new family rules and rituals without it seeming like punishment or an unfair revocation of my children’s independence or “rights.” I’m also having a hard time prioritizing which changes I should focus on, and which things I may simply be unable to take on, as I’m not 100 percent better and I don’t want to overextend myself. I want to be able to explain why things that were once OK aren’t acceptable anymore without making them feel like they’ve been doing things wrong up until now. I also don’t want to be on their cases about every little thing all of a sudden. I’ve given them some age appropriate info about my depression and anxiety, but it’s been more along the lines of “it’s not your job to make Mommy happy” as opposed to “depression and anxiety can make you live in a way that seems fabulous when you’re 6 or 9 but is actually not great.” Do you have suggestions on how I can explain all of this to my kids in a way that will (hopefully) get them to buy in to a new way of living? —I’m Better Now, So You Have to Do Chores and Eat Vegetables First, congratulations on being in a better place than you once were. By attending to yourself, you have already taken major steps toward improving the quality of your kids’ lives, even if adjusting to the changes may prove to be a difficult task for the entire household. Start by giving them a more comprehensive (while still accessible) explanation of what depression and anxiety are and how they’ve affected your life, with particular attention to how they led you to parent in ways that you may not have otherwise. Make it clear that these issues are not your fault nor theirs—as you’ve said, it’s not their job to make Mommy happy, and they aren’t the reason that she’s been unhappy either. Rituals and rules may seem particularly challenging at first, but they will help you reset the household. Balance out those that feel tedious—no screens after 7, say—with ones that are fun and give the kids something to look forward to: a weekly Netflix night, “Taco Tuesdays,” monthly visits to a local museum or beach. Try to adhere to a schedule and keep it posted where the kids can see it. Keep yourself and the children accountable for adhering to it and acknowledge when you fall off (“OK, Maddy needed a little extra sleep and we were late today. It happens! But we’re gonna work on an on-time departure tomorrow”) and when you decide to make a change (“We usually come home by 7, but we’re staying out a little late today because we’re going to dinner”). As you put new habits and practices into place, remind them each step of the way that they will make life better for the whole family. Explain that there are things that parents have to do for their children to make sure they have what they need to be happy, healthy, and successful at school, and that it was hard for you to do those things before you started getting better. Don’t be afraid to let them know when you are feeling overwhelmed and need a moment to yourself, and set them up with a good show or their tablets while you reset. Establish regular breaks for yourself throughout the day, especially on weekends when the kids are likely glued to your side. Finally, accept and acknowledge that this is a lifelong process. You have battled for so long and right now, things are good! That is an accomplishment to celebrate, but you and I—and the many other parents like us who are struggling to manage anxiety and depression and family life—know that some days will be darker than others. Forgive yourself for your past and for those times you don’t feel you’re being the best mom you can be in the future. Prioritize therapy and other measures you have established with your doctors in order to be well. Remember that taking good care of your children requires you to take good care of yourself too. Sending you the best wishes I can summon up. I have a 9-year-old stepson who spends the weekends with us. My husband and I are expecting a baby in December. I plan on breastfeeding. We live in a small apartment and I’m wondering if it’s appropriate to nurse in front of my stepson, or if I will have to excuse myself and go into our bedroom with the door closed. My husband’s ex-wife is also remarried and they recently had a new baby as well. She nurses in front of her son, but my feeling is that the rules are different for me because I’m a stepmom. Are they? —To Feed or Not to Feed Breastfeeding is only “inappropriate” when it creates a safety hazard (while driving) or a distraction that could be avoided (while delivering a eulogy at a funeral). Should you consider covering your breasts with a nursing apron or blanket? Yes, if that will make you (and, perhaps, your stepson and his biological parents) feel at ease. He may sneak a peek out of curiosity, but he may also be less interested than the average kid because he’s seeing his mother do the same mundane, natural act in her home. Either way, it’s not a big deal. Nurse where you’re most comfortable, whether at home or otherwise. I hate playing with my kids. They’re 3 and 6, and I find it torturous. I cuddle them and read to them and fix their boo-boos, I help them with homework and take them for walks and check on them at night, but I hate pretending to be a cat or playing Twister. All the books say that they need quality time with parents. Am I screwing my kids up for life? | Jamilah Lemieux | https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/privileged-parents-underprivileged-school-care-and-feeding.html?via=rss | 2019-09-18 10:00:02+00:00 | 1,568,815,202 | 1,569,329,897 | education | school |
491,210 | slate--2019-10-10--Ask a Teacher: Why Does My Daughter’s School Hold Elections if They’re Going to Ignore the Results? | 2019-10-10T00:00:00 | slate | Ask a Teacher: Why Does My Daughter’s School Hold Elections if They’re Going to Ignore the Results? | Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. In addition to our traditional advice, every Thursday we feature an assortment of teachers from across the country answering your education questions. Have a question for our teachers? Email [email protected] or post it in the Slate Parenting Facebook group. Both of my kids attend the local high school, and at our school, each student organization holds elections to elect officers. I’m seeing a disturbing trend in which the teacher adviser of the organization doesn’t like the outcome of the election and instead decides to overrule the democratic results. In one case, the teacher outright decided to name a different nonwinning student president. Another case involved my daughter, which is where this becomes more fraught for me. My daughter ran for president and lost the election. The teacher said the results were “close” so decided that each position should be jointly held—co-presidents, co–vice presidents, etc. I’ve asked my daughter to resign her “co-presidency,” since she didn’t win, but she’s refusing. She says she cares too much about the organization to see it fail. (Last year, only three families participated in the organization’s fundraiser, and she does not want this to happen again.) When my kids were younger, I definitely bought into paying for a trophy for recreation soccer to make sure each child on the team received a trinket at the end of the season—but these kids aren’t 6 years old. Most of them are seniors and will soon be heading to college. With the whole college scandal fresh in everyone’s mind, I’m trying to underscore for her the concept of meritocracy—if you didn’t earn it fairly, then you don’t deserve it. I’m not sure why they bother to have elections if the will of the students isn’t going to be considered. Should I force her to quit? Should I go directly to the administration and ask them to intervene? You should definitely not force your daughter to quit, nor should you ask the administration to intervene, because this should be her decision. Ask yourself why this bothers you so much. What exactly do you fear? What lesson are you hoping your daughter will learn by resigning her role as co-president? What is the harm in allowing her to serve? Conversely, how might she benefit from a leadership role in an organization she cares about deeply? How might the club itself benefit from her leadership? It doesn’t sound like your daughter is “résumé building”—from your letter, she seems to genuinely care about this organization. I fear that if you wield a heavy hand or get too deeply involved, you’ll drive a wedge between you and your daughter instead of teaching her a life lesson about merit. I get your criticism—why hold elections if the results won’t be honored? But I’m wondering how, exactly, you know that teacher sponsors are disregarding election results. In my experience, there’s usually more to these stories once you get the teacher’s perspective than what you hear from your children or through the grapevine. Or, perhaps the issue is overblown—perhaps it has happened once but is not a rampant problem. I share your dismay at the celebrity college admissions scandal. Honestly, it makes my blood boil. But I am even more infuriated by the immense advantages given to “legacy” applicants who currently make up one-third of Harvard’s freshman class. Do we truly live in a meritocracy? Are you sure that the student who won the election is in fact more worthy than your daughter? While we hope that students vote for the best candidate to be the president of the student council (for example), such elections are often popularity contests instead. It’s possible the true source of your anxiety is your daughter’s “unearned” position as co-president. Or, are you bothered by larger, societal issues of unfairness that you don’t want to perpetuate? Regardless, I don’t think this issue is on par with people who pay thousands to buy their kids’ way into college, nor do I think forcing her to resign will do anything to mitigate deep-seated inequality. After reflecting on these questions, talk with your daughter openly about your concerns. Listen to her perspective. Ask her if she thinks elections are, in fact, the best way to choose leaders for her club. While the democratic process is important, it’s not the only path to leadership. We don’t elect our bosses, for example. Many of the “team captains” on sports teams are appointed by their coaches. Maybe some of the clubs at her school should consider other processes, and she could be the leader who brings those ideas to the table. I fear that if you wield a heavy hand or get too deeply involved, you’ll drive a wedge between you and your daughter instead of teaching her a life lesson about merit. Let the students figure this one out themselves. Is it reasonable to expect that teachers shouldn’t yell at children? By the fifth day of kindergarten, my son had already reported being yelled at a few times, for pretty innocuous stuff like not looking at the book while the teacher was reading a story, for example. We chose a progressive private school in hopes of having our son in a happy, nurturing classroom that has a very low student-teacher ratio so it’s definitely not like the teacher is overwhelmed. But maybe my expectations are unrealistic. I mean—I yell sometimes, too. Relatedly, I did speak to the teacher and she acted baffled that my son was scared of her and denied yelling (and I later found out that another mom also spoke to the teacher about the exact same thing with the exact same result). I believe my son. He’s an honest kid who has never gotten in trouble and has always loved school and various camps, and for the first time he’s sobbing inconsolably, can’t sleep at night, and saying he’s scared of school all the time. This teacher isn’t new to the school, and I think is well liked and does seem really nice when I interact with her. So, now what? I’ll admit that I tend to be a very involved parent. Do I just need to step back and give this time? —Trying to Let the Storm Pass Is it reasonable to expect that teachers shouldn’t yell? Yes. Do you need to step back and give this time? Yes again. Kindergarten has barely started, and your son has never been in school before—not like this. I have worked in kindergarten and in preschool, and the difference is pretty stark. Preschool is mostly play-based, creative, and focused on teaching social skills in addition to behavioral expectations that prepare you for kindergarten (like listening to groupwide verbal directions as opposed to individualized directions, or walking in a line, which children don’t typically experience before preschool). Kindergarten is mostly academic-based. Although there’s some leniency for teachers to get creative, they are required to meet all the Common Core state standards, which can be a lot. I’m not saying your kid’s a liar, but there are lots of possibilities to account for his perception. His teacher may not be yelling but rather using a loud enough voice to be heard over the noise. She may not be raising her voice at all but speaking in a manner he finds unusually firm. Or maybe she did raise her voice, but there was a valid reason (and perhaps one your child wasn’t aware of or didn’t tell you about). Sure, there are teachers in the world that yell at kids unfairly. But less than a month into the school year, you don’t really know whether she is yelling out of anger or whether something else is afoot. Keep this situation on your radar. Stay involved and in communication with the teacher. If, a month or two into the school year, your son is still afraid of her, bring it up again. I always recommend parents approach situations like this with an “assume the best” attitude. Try something like, “My son says he’s afraid of you. Could we problem-solve together to figure out why he feels scared and help him adjust to the school environment?” Also, as a general rule, if you’re admitting aloud that you don’t want to be that parent, then you won’t be (that parent is never aware that they’re being difficult), so I wouldn’t worry too much about being overly pushy. Instead, try to strike a balance that feels right to you between giving the teacher space to do her job and being your son’s advocate. My 9-year-old son is in third grade. His teacher approached me with concerns that he is having trouble paying attention in class—he gets distracted, and he sometimes bothers his seatmates. (She emphasized he’s not being malicious, and that it seems to stem from boredom.) She’s tried changing his seat but still notices he’s talking or playing with his pencil, instead of paying attention. She’s asked me to talk to him. I’m perfectly happy to do so, but I’m at a loss as to what impact she thinks this will have. He’s an active kid who gets bored easily with things that don’t immediately interest him. He is not ADHD and does not have any other different learning abilities to our knowledge (certainly no one has suggested to us that he should be evaluated for anything). He’s a smart kid who has always done well in school, but this is his first year with an “old-school” style teacher who values the “sit at your desks and let me teach you” style of learning. I like his teacher a lot. But I’m not sure what I am supposed to do to get him to pay attention when I am not physically there. When I talked to my son about this, he asked to be changed to a different classroom (I told him I don’t have this power). He also told me that he’s spending a lot of effort trying to keep from fidgeting in his chair, as this is something he’ll get called out for in class. I should add that he’s not always the most reliable narrator. What can I do? I agree with you it’s kind of crazy to expect a student’s behavior to change on a long-term basis because his mom spoke to him about the behavior. That is pie-in-the-sky thinking at best. This is not the way to change a student’s behavior. What I would propose is simple: Rather than speaking to your son as the teacher requested, propose a meeting with the teacher, your son, and yourself. Engage in an open and frank discussion about the behavioral issues that are taking place in class. As a team: • Determine the causes of these behavioral issues • Identify strategies to improve his behavior and guarantee his success • Create a system of accountability • Establish a regular line of communication so that all three parties can be informed when positive change occurs or at some predesignated point if change does not happen I’ve already conducted several of these planning meetings this year, and they work well. The student is made aware that parent and teacher are now linked in a common cause. The student is given an opportunity to propose solutions on his behalf. Oftentimes, the reasons for the behavioral issues are uncovered in this process. Most important, a guarantee is made that as soon as a positive change takes place, I will contact the parents with the good news, and a follow-up meeting is planned in the event that change does not take place. When teacher, student, and parent work as a team to improve behavior, real change can take place. Otherwise, the teacher is simply passing an impossible problem onto you. I’m a teacher myself, and I’m in a situation I honestly don’t know how to deal with. I have a middle school student who has been diagnosed with autism. I’ve been following his IEP. He’s quite intelligent, and capable of doing grade-level work. However, he can be extremely aggressive and rude when he’s displeased about anything. This includes things that happen outside my class, which I may not be aware of until too late. During his episodes, he will yell (often inappropriate things), and become very disruptive. The last time this happened, he broke all of the colored pencils in my pencil box and threw them at me while I was trying to continue teaching. His para left the room to get help, leaving me alone. He threw pencils at me for around five to 10 minutes while I mostly tried to ignore him. By the time “help” arrived, he had “calmed down,” and he was allowed to remain in class. His behavior was very upsetting and horribly disrespectful, and it seems like the consequences for him are very light. I understand that he has special needs, but it seems as though his teachers are expected to put up with treatment that no one would ever accept in any other circumstances. When I talked to his mother, she seemed more concerned with making excuses than addressing his behavior. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want things thrown at me while I’m working. What should I do to prevent this? Do I need to talk to administration or special ed? Should I file a police report if he continues to physically harass or threaten me? I want to feel safe at work. I’m so, so sorry this happened. That sounds incredibly stressful and demoralizing, and my heart goes out to you. Given what you’ve described, filing a police report is probably overkill. It doesn’t sound like you are genuinely afraid for your safety but rather frustrated and angry—understandably so—with these disruptive, upsetting episodes. However, this behavior is intolerable and must be addressed immediately. You should definitely meet with the special education teachers who work with this student, including his case manager. To prepare for this meeting, there are a few things you should do. First, review the student’s IEP. Does he have a behavior improvement plan? If not, he needs one stat. If he does have a BIP and you’ve been following it, it’s obviously not working for him right now and needs to be adjusted. Sometimes, as students progress through school, they experience new stressors (a transition from elementary to middle school, for example) that require an updated IEP. Next, do some light research. Review materials about autism and talk with his other teachers. Does he have similar problems in their classes? Or is he more successful? These conversations may help you suss out potential triggers or effective de-escalation strategies. Finally, document everything. Document the accommodations you’ve provided. Document what you’ve learned from conversations with his other teachers. Document his outbursts. You will bring this documentation to your meeting with the special education department to help demonstrate a need for new accommodations. When you’re discussing the student, keep the focus on problem solving. You want to help the student be successful. You also have other students in the class whose learning is affected by this student’s disruptions. But be patient—the case manager may need to call a meeting of the child’s IEP team or initiate a functional behavior assessment. In the meantime, they should help you craft a plan for what to do when he becomes combative again. If I were in your shoes, I might strongly request (or even insist) that he leave the classroom with his paraprofessional until he calms down if I’m not satisfied with their response. The school has an obligation to meet this student’s needs. One of the things he needs is to learn how to deal with frustration in constructive ways. Allowing this behavior to persist will harm him in the long run. I will be thinking of you! I am hopeful that your colleagues in the special education department will work with you to find a good solution. Please write back and let me know how it goes. | Matthew Dicks, Katie Holbrook, and Cassy Sarnell | https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/10/school-elections-gone-wrong-parenting-advice.html?via=rss | Thu, 10 Oct 2019 09:55:00 +0000 | 1,570,715,700 | 1,570,711,372 | education | school |
495,341 | sottnet--2019-01-20--Israel to shut UN run Palestinian schools in east Jerusalem | 2019-01-20T00:00:00 | sottnet | Israel to shut UN run Palestinian schools in east Jerusalem | National Security Council said to decide on revoking permits from UN agency for Palestinian refugees, to be replaced next year by city-run schools using Israeli curriculumIsraeli officials are reportedly set to revoke permits for schools in East Jerusalem run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.Israel's National Security Council decided to revoke permits allowing UNRWA schools in the city's Palestinian neighborhood to operate, starting next school year, Israel's Hadashot TV news reported Saturday.According to the report, the UNRWA schools will be replaced by schools run by the Jerusalem municipality and under the aegis of the Israeli Education Ministry.The network said the decision was reached during a National Security Council meeting last month to discuss expelling UNRWA from East Jerusalem following US President Donald Trump's decision to end American funding for the agency.According to UNRWA, the group runs seven schools in two refugee camps that sit within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries, serving over 3,000 students.Israel claims East Jerusalem as part of its undivided capital, in a move largely unrecognized internationally, and has sought in recent months to push the UN Palestinian refugee agency out of the city.Israel alleged the UN agency perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by making it harder for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to settle abroad. It also rejects UNRWA criteria, under which refugee status is extended not only to the tens of thousands of Palestinians still alive who used to live in today's Israel but also to over five million of their generations of descendants. Officials have called for the body to be shuttered and the refugees absorbed into other existing UN programs.Prior to the end of his tenure last month, Jerusalem mayor Nir Bakat detailed a proposal to expel UNRWA from the capital and have the municipality provide education, health, welfare, and sanitation services in its place.Barkat accused UNRWA of failing those under its purview and instead inciting terror activity. He also gave details of a plan prepared by a team of city officials and experts to replace all of UNRWA's functions with municipal services in the Shuafat refugee camp, founded in 1965 and home to some 20,000 residents., and said that it would no longer back the agency after decades of support. Washington has also cut other aid to the Palestinians in a bid to pressure the Palestinian Authority into negotiations with Israel."The US decision to stop funding UNRWA creates a rare opportunity to deal immediately and decisively with the PA's intention to perpetuate the 'refugee problem' and encourage incitement," Barkat said in a statement in October."There are no refugees in Jerusalem, only residents. They will receive their services from the Jerusalem Municipality alone, like all other residents," he added.Barkat proposed to expropriate or lease the existing UNRWA schools to use as municipal buildings, and in addition will construct an educational and municipal services complex near the East Jerusalem neighborhood "whose services will be far superior to those that UNRWA has provided."At the time, UNRWA pushed back against Barkat's statement, and said it was operating in East Jerusalem "with the cooperation and on the basis of a formal agreement with the State of Israel, which remains in force."There was no immediate comment from UNRWA on the report.Israel recently put forward a NIS 5 billion plan to invest in Arab parts of East Jerusalem, though much of the education funding is conditioned on adopting the Education Ministry's approved curriculum.There was no immediate confirmation of the report from the Prime Minister's Office. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/405382-Israel-to-shut-UN-run-Palestinian-schools-in-east-Jerusalem | 2019-01-20 16:22:08+00:00 | 1,548,019,328 | 1,567,551,691 | education | school |
506,357 | sottnet--2019-09-22--Parents shocked as UK schools teach 6-10yo kids to touch their private parts in beds showers | 2019-09-22T00:00:00 | sottnet | Parents shocked as UK schools teach 6-10yo kids to touch their 'private parts' in beds & showers | Parents in Britain are outraged after more than 240 primary schools introduced lessons on "self-stimulation" for children as young as six as part of their sex education program.A teaching manual, published by the Mail on Sunday, instructs how to teach children aged six to ten about "the rules of self-stimulation." The lessons are part of the new All About Me program rolled out in more than 240 primary schools in central England's Warwickshire County. The program, in turn, is designed to be taught in accordance with the compulsory Relationship and Sex Education (RSE), which will be implemented all across the UK next September.In the section called 'Touching Myself', the teachers are advised to tell the youngsters that "lots of people like to tickle or stroke themselves as it might feel nice," including touching their "private parts." The children are told that this is "really very normal," despite the fact that "some people may get cross or say that it is dirty."The children are then warned that it is "not polite" to touch themselves in class or other public places, and they should "only" do it when they "are alone, perhaps in the bath or shower or in bed."Matthew Seymour told the Mail on Sunday."They are calling it self-touching and they won't use the term masturbation, but when you read it that's exactly what they're talking about."Parents who disagree with this type of sex education took their children from school when it was taught. A number of education experts and teachers criticized the program's wording for being too vague and not suitable for primary schoolers."We never use the word self-stimulation, not in primary school. For us it is not appropriate," teacher Lynette Smith said.Even some politicians who support the idea of compulsory sex education are skeptical towards All About Me. Conservative MP David Davies was "furious" over the program.Warwickshire County Council, meanwhile, maintains that the lessons simply tell young students how to "distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate touching" and "recognise the difference between public and private behaviours."The council's website says the program helps to develop the skills required for managing "healthy relationships," builds "self-esteem" and allows the children "to explore personal identity."One of the program's authors, education consultant Jonny Hunt, argued that "however uncomfortable adults may find it, children of all ages will self-stimulate from time to time." | null | https://www.sott.net/article/420810-Parents-shocked-as-UK-schools-teach-6-10yo-kids-to-touch-their-private-parts-in-beds-showers | 2019-09-22 16:32:32+00:00 | 1,569,184,352 | 1,570,222,521 | education | school |
507,246 | sottnet--2019-10-14--Ohio school replaces homecoming King/Queen with gender-neutral 'homecoming royalty' | 2019-10-14T00:00:00 | sottnet | Ohio school replaces homecoming King/Queen with gender-neutral 'homecoming royalty' | An Ohio high school is doing away with gendered language for its homecoming court after two female students were crowned what would usually have been "king" and "queen" — but will now be known as "Homecoming Royalty" instead.Milford High School said the "change in terminology was made to reflect the voice" of the student body and to "ensure all students have the opportunity to feel included."The decision was made after the homecoming votes were tallied at last week's Friday night football game and female students, Abbey Stropes and Trinity Miller, won both titles., saying in a statement that the winners will be known "this year and in the future" as Homecoming Royalty. The school statement also described the vote as a "popularity contest" and a "long-standing tradition."The girls held scepters instead of wearing crowns at the event.School principal Josh Kauffman said he "fully supports" the voice and choice of the student body.Gender-neutral toilets are also becoming more popular in schools and other public buildings, despite some backlash from those who say it amounts to an uncomfortable invasion of privacy. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/421949-Ohio-school-replaces-homecoming-King-Queen-with-gender-neutral-homecoming-royalty | Mon, 14 Oct 2019 15:39:16 +0000 | 1,571,081,956 | 1,571,095,137 | education | school |
508,578 | sottnet--2019-11-20--Seclusion and isolation: Children are being locked away, alone and terrified, in schools across Illi | 2019-11-20T00:00:00 | sottnet | Seclusion and isolation: Children are being locked away, alone and terrified, in schools across Illinois | The spaces have gentle names: The reflection room. The cool-down room. The calming room. The quiet room.In Illinois, it's legal for school employees to seclude students in a separate space — to put them in "isolated timeout" — if the students pose a safety threat to themselves or others.Children were sent to isolation after refusing to do classwork, for swearing, for spilling milk, for throwing Legos.For this investigation, ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune obtained and analyzed thousands of detailed records that state law requires schools to create whenever they use seclusion. The resulting database documents more than 20,000 incidents from the 2017-18 school year and through early December 2018.Of those, about 12,000 included enough detail to determine what prompted the timeout.The Tribune/ProPublica Illinois investigation, which also included more than 120 interviews with parents, children and school officials, provides the first in-depth examination of this practice in Illinois.Because school employees observing the students often keep a moment-by-moment log, the records examined by reporters offer a rare view of what happens to children inside these rooms — often in their own words.Without doubt, many of the children being secluded are challenging. Records show school employees struggling to deal with disruptive, even violent behavior, such as hitting, kicking and biting. Workers say that they have to use seclusion to keep everyone in the classroom safe and that the practice can help children learn how to calm themselves.No federal law regulates the use of seclusion, and Congress has debated off and on for years whether that should change. Last fall, a bill was introduced that would prohibit seclusion in public schools that receive federal funding. A U.S. House committee held a hearing on the issue in January, but there's been no movement since.Nineteen states prohibit secluding children in locked rooms; four of them ban any type of seclusion. But Illinois continues to rely on the practice. The last time the U.S. Department of Education calculated state-level seclusion totals, in 2013-14, Illinois ranked No. 1.Although state law requires schools to file a detailed report each time they use seclusion, no one is required to read these accounts.Several school district officials said they had not reviewed seclusion reports from their schools until reporters requested them. The Illinois State Board of Education does not collect any data on schools' use of isolated timeout and has not updated guidelines since issuing them 20 years ago.Informed of the investigation's findings, the Illinois State Board of Education said it would issue guidance clarifying that seclusion should be used only in emergencies. Officials acknowledged they don't monitor the use of isolated timeout and said they would need legislative action to do so.This investigation, based on records from more than 100 districts, found seclusion was used in schools across every part of the state and by a range of employees, from teachers and aides to social workers and security personnel.Some districts declined to provide records or gave incomplete information. Others wouldn't answer even basic questions, saying the law did not require them to. Of more than 20 districts reporters asked to visit, only three said yes."Is this something that we're ashamed of? It's not our finest," said Christan Schrader, director of the Black Hawk Area Special Education District in East Moline, which documented about 850 seclusions in the time period examined.Schrader said she thinks her staff generally uses seclusion appropriately but acknowledged room for improvement. She met with reporters at the district's administration building but wouldn't let them see the seclusion rooms in the school across the parking lot.About 20 minutes after he was put in one of his school's Quiet Rooms —— 9-year-old Jace Gill wet his pants.An aide, watching from the doorway, wrote that down in a log, noting it was 10:53 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2018.School aides had already taken away Jace's shoes and both of his shirts. Jace then stripped off his wet pants, wiped them in the urine on the floor and sat down in the corner."I'm naked!" Jace yelled at 10:56 a.m.Staff did not respond, the log shows, except to close the door "for privacy.""Dancing in feces. Doing the twist," staff wrote at 11:14 a.m., noting that the boy then started pacing back and forth."I need more clothes," he called out."We know," an aide answered.Jace banged on the walls and tried to pry open the door. He sat against the wall, crying for his mom.The incident began that morning when Jace ripped up a math worksheet and went into the hallway, trying to leave school.Jace was diagnosed with autism when he was 3 and began having epileptic seizures at 5. In first grade, officials at his local school referred him to the Kansas Treatment and Learning Center, a public school in east-central Illinois for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities.Jace's mother, Kylee Beaven, had heard about the Quiet Rooms at Kansas and had strong reservations about the concept, even before she took a school tour and stepped inside one. She recalls being told he would never be shut inside alone."I remember standing there and thinking, like, if I was a kid, how would I feel if I was in this room by myself?" she said.Once, he was shut in after he pushed a book off his desk, said "I hate reading," raised his fist and tried to leave the classroom. Another day, he refused to get out of his grandmother's car at school drop-off, so a staff member took him straight to a Quiet Room.After he went into a Quiet Room on Feb. 1, a staff member took notes every one or two minutes. The handwritten incident report stretches nine pages on lined paper.A mental-health crisis worker arrived to talk to him, but he wouldn't answer her questions.He was not released until his grandmother — his "Gammy" — came to pick him up at 2:07 p.m.In the nearly 50,000 pages of reports reporters reviewed about Illinois students in seclusion, school workers often keep watch over children who are clearly in distress.Kansas TLC is operated by the Eastern Illinois Area Special Education district, which serves students from eight counties and is based in Charleston. Illinois has about 70 regional special-education districts that teach students who can't be accommodated in their home districts.Zayvion Johnson, 15, remembers how it felt. He used to go to the Kansas school, too, and spent time in the same rooms as Jace.The Eastern Illinois district's executive director, Tony Reeley, said he had not grasped how often seclusion was being used in his schools until he read some of the documents requested by reporters."Looking at a stack of 8,000 pages at one time really did kind of hit home," Reeley said when he met with reporters in the spring. He has not responded to recent requests for comment, including about specific incidents.Reeley and assistant director Jeremy Doughty said they were surprised and concerned about how frequently staff used seclusion rooms after students were disobedient but not physically aggressive."When we read it, it reads punitive," Doughty said."We have to do something to address this," said Reeley.In October 2018, Jace died at home in rural Paris of a seizure in his sleep. He had not returned to Kansas TLC that fall; his family had decided to home-school him, in part to keep him out of the Quiet Rooms.In the family's living room, Jace's mom shared photos of him at a Wiggles concert, in a Spider-Man costume, sitting on Santa's lap. A favorite image features the family wearing "Team Jace" T-shirts at an autism walk; Jace's shirt reads "I'm Jace.""He loved his dad and loved me and he loved his Gammy," his mother said. "He had issues, but they weren't his fault. He couldn't control it."The plywood box in the middle of Ted Meckley's special-education classroom was 3 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 7 feet tall. The schools around Pontiac had been using boxes to seclude students for years, and Ted, a nonverbal 16-year-old with developmental disabilities, was routinely shut inside.In 1989, Ted's mother, Judith, started speaking out. Newspapers published stories, people got upset, and the boxes were removed.Judith Meckley joined a state task force to examine the use of seclusion. After a brief ban on the practice, the state Board of Education issued guidance and then, a few years later, rules that carried the weight of state law.The Illinois rules accepted the need for seclusion, a practice already used in psychiatric hospitals and other institutional settings.After Congress enacted a 1975 law guaranteeing a free public education to children with disabilities, the colleges and universities that trained teachers sought guidance from behavioral psychologists on how to manage these potentially challenging students.Illinois' rules, now 20 years old, require that school employees constantly monitor the child and that they be able to see inside the room. Locks on the doors must be active, meaning they have to be continuously held in place. That's so a child can't be trapped during a fire or other emergency.But the rules also cemented the use of seclusion in Illinois' public schools.The Illinois law also lists reasons children can be physically restrained, a practice sometimes used in conjunction with seclusion. But the law is less precise about seclusion than about restraint, leaving room for misinterpretation by school officials."It makes it even more dangerous because schools are widely using it as punishment," Naiditch said after reading some of the incident reports obtained by ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune.School administrators who use seclusion say they need it to deal with students whose behavior is challenging, disruptive and, at times, dangerous."If (students are) committed to hurting someone, that room is a way to keep them safe," said Alicia Corrigan, director of student services for Community Consolidated School District 15, which operates a therapeutic day program in Rolling Meadows for 40 students with disabilities.Students there were secluded about 330 times in the time period reporters examined.But "that's the smallest part of our day," Corrigan said. "That is not what we do all day."The Belleville Area Special Services Cooperative, near St. Louis, has two timeout rooms. Scratch marks are visible in the blue padding inside and on the windows in the heavy, locking doors." said Jeff Daugherty, who heads the cooperative. He allowed journalists to tour the Pathways school and see timeout rooms. "It's never pleasant. I do believe it's a necessary tool for our line of work with our students."A few school districts in Illinois prohibit seclusion, including Chicago Public Schools, which banned it 11 years ago. But these districts often send students with disabilities to schools that do use it, such as those operated by most of Illinois' special-education districts.Danforth said seclusion goes unexamined because it largely affects students with disabilities.To put children in timeout rooms, "you really have to believe that you're dealing with people who are deeply defective. And that's what the staff members tell each other. ... You can do it because of who you're doing it to."Ted Meckley, whose experiences in Pontiac's timeout box as a teenager helped change the practice of seclusion, is now 45 and living in a group home. When a reporter told his mother that seclusion still is widely used, she gasped.In fact, reporters identified several schools that have added more seclusion rooms in the past year or so. North Shore School District 112 converted two coat closets to isolation rooms. The McLean district in Normal opened two rooms in an elementary school.And at Dirksen Elementary School in Schaumburg, two new 6-by-6 rooms are in use. They're called "resolution rooms."By 8:35 a.m. on Dec. 19, 2017, all five of the timeout "booths" at Bridges Learning Center near Centralia were already full. School had been in session for five minutes.Each booth is about 6 by 8 feet, with a steel door. That day, one held a boy who had hung on a basketball rim and swore at staff when they told him to stop. In another, a boy who had used "raised voice tones."Yet, over the course of that one day, the rooms stayed busy, with two turning over like tables in a restaurant, emptying and refilling four times. The other three were occupied for longer periods, as long as five hours for the boy who hung off the basketball rim. In all, Bridges staff isolated students 20 times."There were kids there every day," said Brandon Skibinski, who worked as a paraprofessional at Bridges for part of the 2018-19 school year. "I didn't think that was the best practice. I don't know what the best practices are, though."Cassie Clark, who heads the Kaskaskia Special Education District, did not respond to requests for comment about the district's practices."That is clearly not good practice," said Kevin Rubenstein, president of the Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education, which represents 1,200 public and private special-education administrators in the state. "To the extent there is bad practice going on across the state, we need to fix that."The Kaskaskia district's revolving-door use of the timeout booths stands out, but some other districts seclude children nearly as frequently.The Special Education District of Lake County used isolated timeout about 1,200 times over the 15-month period reporters examined. Northern Suburban Special Education District in Highland Park put children in seclusion more than 900 times.Some traditional school districts also relied on seclusion. For example, Valley View School District 365U in Romeoville and Schaumburg District 54 each secluded students more than 160 times in the time period examined. Wilmette District 39 put students in isolated timeout 361 times in 2017-18 alone.Illinois' seclusion rules are more permissive than federal guidelines, which say seclusion should be used only in cases of "imminent danger of serious physical harm." In Illinois, children can be secluded for physical safety concerns regardless of the threat level.At the Braun Educational Center in south suburban Oak Forest, a classroom door features a sign saying: "If you walk to the door or open it you WILL earn" a visit to the "isolation and reflection" space. The school's director said the sign is not a threat but a visual reminder that leaving is a violation of school rules.The Tri-County Special Education district in Carbondale routinely made children write sentences as a condition of release, records show.Tri-County Director Jan Pearcy told reporters those practices ended this year.Administrators in some districts have decided that putting a child in a room is not an isolated timeout if there is no door or the door is left open — even though the student is being blocked from leaving. State law does not say an isolated timeout requires a closed door."We only consider something isolated timeout if a student is in the room with the door shut and magnet (lock) held," said Kristin Dunker, who heads the Vermilion Association for Special Education in Danville.Laura Myers saw Bridges' timeout booths during school meetings and told administrators they should never be used on her 6-year-old son, Gabriel. A tiny, giggly boy with bright red hair, Gabriel has autism and is nonverbal, though he can sign a few words, including "blue," "green" and "truck.""There's a metal bench, the lock and key, the whole nine," Myers said. "The sad part is there are parents there who don't know it's wrong and don't know how their children are being treated."She was assured Gabriel would not be secluded. But she started to worry when he came home signing "timeout." Now, she's fighting for a different school placement.Darla Knipe could hear it when she walked toward the timeout room in her son's school: a thudding sound, over and over.She turned to a school aide and asked: "'What is that noise?'"It was her 7-year-old son, Isaiah. The first grader was banging his head against the concrete and plywood walls of the timeout room at Middlefork School in Danville. Knipe was shocked. He didn't do that at home, she said."Isaiah states he has headache and ringing in his ears," according to a report from Dec. 8, 2017. "Nurse filling out concussion form."Then, a month later: "Nurse is concerned he has been head banging several times, even slower to answer than usual, he was dizzy when he stood up, almost fell over."Sitting in his home last spring, Isaiah, now 10, looked down when asked why he hits his head."I tell the teachers why," he said. "The timeout room ... I don't like it.""My concern is the damage that has been done, socially, emotionally and physically," said Martin, whose son went to school in the Lincoln-Way Area Special Education district program in Chicago's southwest suburbs. He now attends a private school.The Tribune/ProPublica Illinois analysis found that the median duration of a seclusion was 22 minutes; in at least 1,300 cases the student spent more than an hour in isolated timeout.Ross Greene, a clinical child psychologist and author of the book "The Explosive Child," said repeated seclusion fuels a harmful cycle. Children who are frustrated and falling behind academically are taken out of the classroom, which makes them more frustrated and puts them even further behind.Amber Patz, whose 11-year-old son Dalton was repeatedly secluded at The Center, an elementary school in East Moline for children with disabilities, said spending so much time in isolation put him behind academically and did not help him regulate his behavior.Parents often do not know the details of what happens in seclusion. Though state law requires schools to notify families in writing within 24 hours each day a child is secluded, that doesn't always happen.While some notices describe the incident, others are form letters with just a checked box to indicate that a child was secluded. The law requires only that parents be notified of the date of the incident, whether restraint or seclusion was used, and the name and phone number of someone to call for more information.Crystal Lake school employees have suggested to Kayla Siegmeier that her son, Carson, who has autism, might benefit from time in a "Blue Room," she said."It turns out the Blue Room is a locked, padded room," she said.Crystal Lake school officials acknowledged they could be more transparent with parents and said they use the rooms only in emergencies.In Danville, Darla Knipe knew that her son Isaiah was frequently in seclusion, but she didn't know the school kept detailed incident reports each time it happened until reporters showed them to her."I never got anything like this," Knipe said.The district gave her 212 reports, and she didn't tackle the huge pile of paper right away. Then one night she woke up at 2 a.m. and stayed up for hours reading them. She learned what set Isaiah off and how he reacted."If we had talked after three, five, six of these, was there something I should have been doing?" she wondered.She said she would have shared the reports with doctors who were working to diagnose the cause of his behavioral challenges. "I think about how different that boy could have been."Dunker, the district director, said that although parents don't get minute-by-minute reports, they are notified by phone and then in writing after a seclusion. "I feel like that is just fine in terms of what a parent needs," she said.There are school districts in Illinois — and all across the country — where seclusion isn't the response to defiant or even aggressive behavior. In fact, it's never an option.Jim Nelson, who took over the North DuPage Special Education Cooperative in July 2016, said he put in a maintenance request on his first day to take the door off the seclusion room at Lincoln Academy, a therapeutic day school for students with emotional and behavioral difficulties.The year before, the school in suburban Roselle, which has an enrollment of about 30, had placed students in the room 181 times, federal data shows. The space now has a lava lamp, fuzzy pillows, a beanbag and puzzles, and students go there on their own when they need a break, Nelson said.Administrators at schools that have closed their rooms say the cultural shift takes a lot of effort and training.Eliminating seclusion generally requires two steps: first, embracing the philosophy that isolating children is unacceptable; second, teaching staff members how to identify and address the causes of challenging behavior before it reaches a crisis point.Zac Barry, who teaches a system based at Cornell University called Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, said staff often get into a power struggle when students don't obey, even over trivial matters."Don't argue with them," Barry said at a recent training session in Peoria for people who work with children. "If they don't want to sit down, don't try to make them sit down!"In Naperville School District 203, the rooms formerly used for isolated timeout are now sensory areas stocked with weighted stuffed animals and sound-blocking headphones.Christine Igoe, who oversees special education in the 16,000-student district, said eliminating seclusion helps teachers and other staffers build relationships with students. Without seclusion as an option, she said, students and staff are less likely to be on high alert and anxious that situations will escalate."When you change your lens from 'the student is making a choice' to 'the student is lacking a skill,' everything changes," Igoe said.Kim Sanders, executive vice president of the Grafton behavioral health network in Virginia, which includes private therapeutic day schools, said schools there overhauled their approach after employees were injured in confrontations with students so frequently that the district lost its workers' compensation insurance."Our outcomes were not great," she said. "It was horrible for our staff morale."Since then, Grafton has developed a behavior model called Ukeru that it now sells to other schools. It's based on the idea that staff should attempt to comfort, not control, children. When a child becomes violent, the system suggests staff use cushioned shields to protect themselves.Illinois schools secluded an 8-year-old boy who got upset when he couldn't ride the green bike during recess, a first grade boy who didn't want to stop playing tag and a third grader who didn't get the prize he wanted.The majority of incident reports reviewed for this investigation did not specify the grade of the child. But ProPublica Illinois and the Tribune identified more than 1,700 incidents when the student being secluded was in fifth grade or younger. Hundreds of seclusions involved kids in preschool, kindergarten or first grade.Still learning to say some of his letters, Eli calls the spaces the "flection" rooms. When his mom, Elisha, gently corrects him, he snuggles into her side. "It's hard to really say," he explained.Eli was referred to The Center, which offers a program for children with behavioral and emotional disabilities, when he was in kindergarten. Records show he sometimes had trouble coping with the frustrations of elementary school — not unlike many other Illinois children who were secluded after outbursts common for their age.When staff told him he couldn't play with toys, he started to tip desks and chairs. Because he didn't want to come inside from recess, he began "flopping," refused to walk and was "being unsafe." He "could not continue to play nice" with blocks and started to hit and tried to run out of class. Sometimes, he would kick staff or throw objects around the room.Elisha pulled her son out of The Center at the end of last school year after noticing bruises on his arm and a fingernail indentation that broke the skin. Records show Eli was physically restrained by three staff members and put in isolated timeout that day. He now attends a private school.Schrader, director of the Black Hawk Area Special Education District, which operates The Center in northwestern Illinois, said staff at the school use the seclusion room "on a case-by-case basis, incident by incident" to help students learn strategies to calm themselves. She declined to comment on Eli's case or that of any specific child."We use it more as a way to help the student learn to deescalate themselves and constant supervision to maintain their safety," she said.The seclusion rooms inside Braun Educational Center in Oak Forest look like so many others across Illinois: blue padding along the walls, a small window where staff can look in. The red button outside that locks the door. A mirror in the upper corner to give a fuller view.In one room, three long tear marks were visible in the padding of the door — left there, the principal said, by a student with autism.About 150 elementary through high school students with disabilities attend programs at Braun, which is operated by the Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association for Special Education. Gineen O'Neil, the co-op's executive director, described many as troubled and challenging; some are homeless, abuse drugs, get pregnant or struggle with mental illness, she said. Some, she said, "run the streets" at night."People have to realize they get educated somewhere, and this is where it is," O'Neil said.Over 1½ school years, staffers isolated students nearly 500 times. O'Neil said students are not secluded as punishment."You are making 1,000 judgment calls a day, you know what I mean?" O'Neil said. "You don't always call them right."On a recent Friday afternoon, it was quiet in the halls. Most of the children had gathered to watch a movie and eat popcorn. They had earned the reward for good behavior.But one boy didn't qualify — and he was mad. The principal, Kristine Jones, said that after the rest of his class left for the movie, he shouted: "This place sucks. I'm leaving."He didn't actually leave. But the boy was a "runner" when upset, Jones said, and they wanted to "pre-correct" his behavior.So they took him to an isolation room. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/424308-Seclusion-and-isolation-Children-are-being-locked-away-alone-and-terrified-in-schools-across-Illinois | Wed, 20 Nov 2019 19:43:11 +0000 | 1,574,296,991 | 1,574,296,447 | education | school |
527,864 | sputnik--2019-03-14--Death Toll in Nigerian School Collapse Climbs to 18 - Reports | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | sputnik | Death Toll in Nigerian School Collapse Climbs to 18 - Reports | Earlier reports indicated eight killed. Over 100 people were in the building when it collapsed. READ MORE: It Can't Happen Here: Exxon-Connected Pipeline Explosion Kills 50 in Nigeria According to the Nation newspaper, the emergency team has rescued 41 injured from the debris. On Wednesday, Guardian Nigeria reported that a three-storey building collapsed in the Itafaji area of Lagos, adding that over 100 people are trapped under the debris, while several pupils had been sent to a hospital. | null | https://sputniknews.com/africa/201903141073222313-nigeria-death-toll/ | 2019-03-14 09:06:55+00:00 | 1,552,568,815 | 1,567,546,327 | education | school |
539,158 | sputnik--2019-07-29--Indian Volunteer Organisation Plans to Start Army-Linked School for First Time | 2019-07-29T00:00:00 | sputnik | Indian Volunteer Organisation Plans to Start Army-Linked School for First Time | The school is named after former Chief of RSS Prof. Rajendra Singh, popularly known as Rajju Bhaiya and is located in Shikarpur in the Bulandshahr district of northern Uttar Pradesh. It will follow the syllabus of the Central Board of Secondary Education for public and private schools. Besides academic studies, the students will be given physical training and will be able to join any of the three armed forces upon graduation. The brochure of the school notes that there is a shortage of about 10,000 officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force and that existing state-funded Army Schools are unable to satisfy the demand. “This is an experiment we are doing for the first time in the country and the model can be replicated to other places in future,” Dr Ajay Kumar Goyal, in charge of the school said. The school would come under Vidya Mandir, an affiliate of RSS, which runs more than 20,000 schools across the country. In the first year, the school plan to take 160 students with 56 places be kept aside for the orphans of army veterans. Retired officers from the armed forces are set to suggest a specific curriculum for the students to equip them to compete for jobs in the army, air force and navy, said Goyal, although the school has no plans to appoint trained armed forces personnel as part of the regular teaching staff. Construction of the school building is underway. It will have separate blocs for academics, a hostel for students, living accommodation for teachers and staff, medical facilities and a huge stadium. The cost of these facilities will be around Rs. 40 crore (approximately $58 million). RSS strongly advocates army education and training. “The school will fulfil the dreams of children to serve the country as officers of the armed forces in future,” said Goyal. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which translates as National Volunteer Organisation, is a right-wing volunteer organisation, set up to provide character training and ingrain nationalistic feeling in Indian society. It has grown into one of the largest voluntary organisations in the world, with several affiliates promoting education and charity work. | null | https://sputniknews.com/asia/201907291076393061-indian-paramilitary-volunteer-organisation-plans-to-start-first-ever-army-school/ | 2019-07-29 08:35:37+00:00 | 1,564,403,737 | 1,567,535,485 | education | school |
548,288 | sputnik--2019-11-06--False Alarm: French Police Respond to 'Bomb Threat' Report at High School in Mulhouse | 2019-11-06T00:00:00 | sputnik | False Alarm: French Police Respond to 'Bomb Threat' Report at High School in Mulhouse | According to media reports, the school authorities and local police received two calls about a bomb in the facility and a "group of several armed individuals," at around 15:30 pm local time. Upon the arrival, the police placed a cordon around the school, while students of the two classes weren't able to leave the building after the evacuation was declared. Later on, local authorities said via Twitter that the bomb alert was false and slammed those responsible for it. In June, a hostage incident occurred in the Conde-sur-Sarthe prison in the northwestern French department of Orne. A 35-year old prisoner kept a warden hostage, using a self-made weapon. The prisoner had been demanding to be relocated to another facility. | null | https://sputniknews.com/europe/201911061077238886-police-operation-underway-at-high-school-in-mulhouse-france-due-to-bomb-threat/ | Wed, 06 Nov 2019 19:26:00 +0300 | 1,573,086,360 | 1,573,064,856 | education | school |
551,403 | sputnik--2019-12-02--Suspect in Custody After Shots Reportedly Fired at High School in Wisconsin - Police | 2019-12-02T00:00:00 | sputnik | Suspect in Custody After Shots Reportedly Fired at High School in Wisconsin - Police | According to the police, it was an isolated incident, the suspect is already in custody, while the building is safe and secure. Waukesha South is on lockdown, as is the nearby Whittier Elementary School. The police reportedly responded to the incident at 10:15 a.m. local time (16:15 GMT). Multiple police cars, ambulances, and the fire department have promptly arrived at the site. ABC News reported that at least one person is wounded. There is an active police situation at South High School. One young man was loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher. We will provide more details as they become available. | null | https://sputniknews.com/us/201912021077465260-suspect-in-custody-after-shots-reportedly-fired-at-high-school-in-wisconsin/ | Mon, 02 Dec 2019 20:22:02 +0300 | 1,575,336,122 | 1,575,312,406 | education | school |
560,634 | tass--2019-01-30--Schools shut down in Russias Arkhangelsk following bomb scare | 2019-01-30T00:00:00 | tass | Schools shut down in Russia's Arkhangelsk following bomb scare | ARKHANGELSK, January 30. /TASS/. Lessons have been cancelled in all schools in Arkhangelsk following anonymous bomb threats that some educational institutions received by e-mail, the press service of the city administration reported. "After a session of the emergency headquarters, which just ended in the Arkhangelsk administration, the decision was made to cancel lessons for all school students. The school buildings will be examined in light of the bomb threats that some educational institutions received by e-mail," the report says. In other media | null | http://tass.com/emergencies/1042400 | 2019-01-30 08:37:56+00:00 | 1,548,855,476 | 1,567,550,225 | education | school |
564,330 | tass--2019-04-15--WWII projectile discovered near Moscow school | 2019-04-15T00:00:00 | tass | WWII projectile discovered near Moscow school | MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. Almost 200 children were evacuated from a physical culture school in western Moscow after a projectile dating back to the Great Patriotic War had been discovered nearby during construction work, an emergency source told TASS. "A projectile dating back to Great Patriotic War was discovered near a school facility, 67, Udaltsova Street," the source said. One hundred and ninety children and 30 teachers were cleared from the building. "The children were released home," the source said. According to information from public sources, this is the address of the Olimp sports and education center. In other media | null | http://tass.com/emergencies/1053682 | 2019-04-15 09:51:24+00:00 | 1,555,336,284 | 1,567,542,927 | education | school |
567,051 | tass--2019-06-28--American Private Schools With Religious Background Are Attracting More Students | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | tass | American Private Schools With Religious Background Are Attracting More Students | CHICAGO, June 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2019-2020 admission season for international students into American Private Schools has come to end. According to Amerigo Education, the number of international students applying for their religious American private schools has doubled. Private schools with religious background are attracting more international students for their excellent performance in academic and moral standards. Currently, more than two-thirds of private high schools in the United States are religious schools and they are well-known to be prestigious and offer top notch academic and extracurricular programs. Compared with non-religious schools, the school style of church schools is relatively "rigorous", because the school uses religious concepts and management models to regulate student learning or behavior. In addition, because of their religious beliefs, most teachers and students are generally friendly and helpful in dealing with people and things, and they are more accepting to students from different backgrounds. Amerigo believes that international students are more easily to adjust to new environment in such a supportive and caring atmosphere. One Amerigo student from Russia said that before he entered into Amerigo campuses, he had worries about whether studying in a Catholic school would have conflicts with his own belief. After one-year studying, he said there should not be any worries because there are no restrictions on the religious background of students. And each staffs and students respect the idea of freedom of religions. In addition, the student said that taking religious classes helped him to better understand western history, culture, art and social changes of the ancient western world. The so-called religious curriculum, in fact, is similar to a course integration on history of world civilization and western ideology which helps international students build a thorough understanding of American society in a holistic way. Currently, all ten campuses from Amerigo are Catholic High Schools. Besides its advanced facilities, each campus also is made up of first-class teachers. In addition, Amerigo attach great importance to cultivating students' well-being and personal growth in and out of the classroom, and helping students to successfully enter the ideal top university in the United States. Amerigo supports international students at premier U.S. high schools with a holistic and supportive approach that emphasizes excellent academic outcomes. We help international students seeking a preparatory education in the United States thrive both in and out of the American classroom. Combining a nurturing boarding environment, supplemental academic support, English language development, and an approach oriented around successful college outcomes, Amerigo prepares students with the skills, values, and care required to succeed in high school, at the university level, and beyond. For more information, visit www.amerigoeducation.com. | null | https://tass.com/press-releases/1066039 | 2019-06-28 06:00:00+00:00 | 1,561,716,000 | 1,567,537,679 | education | school |
571,533 | tass--2019-09-30--Defenders of Russian schools in Latvia will never put up with ban of Russian language | 2019-09-30T00:00:00 | tass | Defenders of Russian schools in Latvia will never put up with ban of Russian language | "The goal is to show to the government that the Russians never give up and will never agree to the rejection of the use of the native language in the educational system," he said. "Our goal is to make the authorities see relations between the Latvian majority and the Russian minority in other way and recognize that the Russians have the right to receive education in their native language and the right to a decent equal life in their country." RIGA, September 30. /TASS/. The Latvian Russian Union (LRU) is going to make the country’s authorities recognize the right of the Russian-speaking minority to Russian-language-based education during a protest rally on October 5, co-chairman of the LRU’s board Miroslav Mitrofanov said on Monday. He called the destruction of the Russian education in the republic a disaster. "The fact that Latvia’s authorities decided to destroy the Russian education is a disaster," Mitrofanov said. "It leads to the marginalization [of Russian-speaking children] and unequal competitive conditions on the labor market." From 1,000 to 3,000 people will take part in the protest rally on October 5, Mitrofanov said. The LRU’s chairperson, Tatyana Zhdanok, earlier reported that the defenders of Russian schools will march from the Town Hall Square in downtown Riga to the cabinet of ministers’ building on October 5. In September, Latvia’s ruling coalition supported the full transfer of the entire educational system in the country to the state language. Secretary General of the national association "All for Latvia - For Fatherland and Freedom/Movement for the National Independence of Latvia" Raivis Zeltits said that the agreement was reached during the discussion of the initiative to oblige self-governance authorities to ensure education in the state language in each municipal pre-school institution if a child’s parents demand so. "The regulations on the national governing principles of pre-school education and models of programs of pre-school education" came into force in Latvia on September 1, following the government’s adoption. According to this document, pre-school facilities that carry out education in the Russian language should offer support for children in studying the national culture and the Latvian language. Latvian will become the main language of communication for children under five, if it is not the Russian culture subject. According to the law on the reform, Russian-speaking schools started the transfer to the Latvian-language study of most subjects. Only several subjects linked to culture and history will continue to be studied in Russian. All this drew discontent from Latvia’s Russian-speaking citizens, who make up 40% of the population. Defenders of the Russian schools carried out numerous mass rallies, marches and actions against the reform. The ban on the study of the Russian language in private higher educational institutions and colleges was also launched in Latvia in early 2019. These educational facilities, along with the state ones, should carry out educational programs only in the Latvian language or in any other EU official language, among which there is no Russian. | null | https://tass.com/society/1080555 | 2019-09-30 15:56:06+00:00 | 1,569,873,366 | 1,570,221,902 | education | school |
576,911 | theamericanconservative--2019-08-13--Public School Cronyism is Fueling the Pension Crisis | 2019-08-13T00:00:00 | theamericanconservative | Public School Cronyism is Fueling the Pension Crisis | Prior to running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, a Harvard Law professor named Elizabeth Warren published what is widely regarded as one of the best studies of personal bankruptcy ever compiled, The Two-Income Trap. In it, she showed that the most common reason American families go broke is not taking too many trips to the mall or some other stereotypical profligacy, but underestimating what it takes to afford pricier houses in towns with better public schools. Thinking they can pull it off by having both spouses work, couples overlook how much of their added income will be eaten up by daycare, another commuting car, higher income taxes, and the other costs of a second earner. As her subject was bankruptcy, Warren was naturally more interested in the fate of families who fail to survive pricier zip codes than of those who manage to hang on. But the latter group turns out to have had a much greater, if widely unappreciated, influence on how American public education functions. The effect of so many families treading water in order to live in superior school districts is perhaps best described with the phrase “school booster cronyism.” That means the tacit agreement between financially stretched parents and public school teachers to game local education to their mutual advantage, showing only as much concern for the larger taxpaying public as necessary. Under the guise of improving the quality of instruction, parent-dominated boards of education, PTAs, and other community groups tolerate increasingly generous compensation packages for teachers and school administrators, as well as flexible work rules and lax financial oversight. In return, educators deem an ever-expanding number of extracurricular activities and family services as “educationally necessary,” providing them at low to no cost. These include taxpayer subsidized daycare, eclectic sports programs, holiday “socials,” inexpensive summer camps run out of public school buildings, and a variety of student perks, such as pottery and ballet lessons, cafeteria pasta bars, and media centers with state-of-the-art video equipment. It is not unusual for suburban high schools outside of major cities to have as many electives as a small college, with for-credit courses in jewelry making, computer animation, and the history of television. While it’s easy to mistake this parent-teacher backscratching for the kind social harmony that community newspapers exist to brag about, school booster cronyism has long triggered the resentment of residents who either have no children or who pay after-tax dollars to educate their own through homeschooling, private academies, and online curricula. From their perspective, the ever-growing cost of local K-12 education is a thinly veiled racket designed to exploit primarily themselves. Exactly how much is extracted from households without district children is hard to calculate, but a little math on typical numbers for affluent communities illustrates the complaint. A family paying, say, $10,000 annually in local property taxes and sending three children to public school at a per pupil cost of $9,000 nets a yearly gain of $17,000 in goods and services from the larger community. Even among public school parents, some gripe privately about district priorities, which almost always favor mainstream pupils at the expense of exceptionally talented students and those with learning disabilities. Other parents are disappointed to discover that their higher status zip codes are no guarantee of higher academic standards. As far back as 2005, the Yankee Institute for Public Policy looked at every school district in Connecticut, comparing per pupil costs to student scores on state administered mastery tests. It found that affluent communities with reputations for superior schools were in fact spending “much more than middle class towns for the same educational outcomes.” Four years later, the Pacific Research Institute studied many of California’s supposedly better public school systems, including those in Newport Beach and Capistrano, only to find more than a dozen districts where 50 to 80 percent of students lacked proficiency in grade-level math. And according to College Board research reported in 2017 by Atlantic Monthly, the biggest scholastic advantage of attending school in wealthy districts is not the quality of instruction, but the tendency of teachers to give higher grades for mediocre work. The problem for all these dissatisfied sub-groups is that over time school booster cronyism has produced some very effective techniques for silencing would-be critics. These include everything from packing public hearings on district budgets with vocal sympathizers to, as University of Missouri professor J. Martin Rochester puts it, “collectively demonizing” those who complain too loudly about how the schools are run. As suggested by the title of his book, Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom, Stanford professor emeritus Larry Cuban believes that administrators in affluent districts have become adept at using the latest technology to create a “leading edge” aura without making any real academic improvements. If they wanted to, he says, “curricula, teaching methods, and schedules [could easily] be customized to meet the learning styles and life situations of individual students” and “coursework from the most remedial to the most advanced [could] be made available to everyone.” But such advances are rarely, if ever, implemented. Parent-teacher cronyism in affluent communities even helps to protect dysfunctional schools in poor and minority districts by shielding them from constructive criticism. As the famed social critic Upton Sinclair noted more than a century ago, no reform movement in the U.S. ever succeeds without the participation of middle- and upper-middle class taxpayers. Unfortunately, the same upscale parents who today think nothing of marching for LGBTQ rights, gun control, or green energy would ever risk being tagged as “anti” any form of public education, even the worst. As powerful a social force as it is, school booster cronyism does have a vulnerability, one that American voters are only just beginning to appreciate. For while the self-serving alliance of public educators and opportunistic parents in affluent communities can almost always muster the local support it needs to pass annual school budget increases, there is a practical limit on how much more can be asked of taxpayers in a given year. And when the cost of satisfying both factions’ priorities comes up against this limit, the temptation has always been to seek out other monies. Bonding against a presumably more prosperous future has always been one option, but one that had to be used sparingly, lest cumulating debt for operating purposes ever become an argument for less school spending. High operating debt would also make it more expensive to borrow for school roof repairs, classroom renovations, and other capital improvements. As a result, even well-to-do school districts have habitually resorted to the same irresponsible budget practice long employed by less wealthy communities: deferring or skimping on promised contributions to the teacher pension fund. How exactly this practice became routine has varied from state to state, depending on statutory constraints. But in each case, local taxpayers were encouraged to ignore their cumulating obligation to retired educators, while educators themselves were legally assured that their pensions would remain backstopped by future levies. One widely used gimmick, only recently checked by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB), was to overestimate how much a pension fund could grow from its own investments, effectively lowering the amount that school districts had to contribute each year. A very different custom involved a state legislature agreeing to cover all of its districts’ retirement costs with money from sales, income, and other taxes. In this way, local voters were lulled into thinking they had no liability when capitol lawmakers themselves shortchanged teacher pensions to free up money for other spending. Of course, the danger with any such accounting ploy is that there could theoretically come a time when underfinanced benefits could no longer provide for the number of teachers stepping down—which is exactly what has begun to happen in recent years. Caught between a cumulative $5.96 trillion in state and local pension liabilities (overwhelming for teachers and school employees) and a simultaneous explosion of Baby Boomer retirements, a growing number of school districts now find themselves under pressure to make up for decades of retirement fund neglect. This is, in fact, a looming problem for taxpayers everywhere, especially in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and other states with above average pension deficits. But it has also become a problem for school booster cronyism itself, as the two factions long accustomed to divvying up local tax revenues suddenly find themselves in an unfamiliar struggle for scarce resources. Already in California, where local spending to make up for underfunded pensions has tripled in recent years, teachers and administrators are unwilling to make even the slightest financial sacrifice to preserve low-cost daycare, small class sizes, school-based summer camps, or any other family perk. Noting a similar resistance across the country, the Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas has taken to warning would-be home buyers that they should discount list prices by the increase in real estate taxes needed to fully fund promised educator benefits. For their part, public school parents have begun taking the previously unimaginable step of demanding forensic audits of their respective districts. From Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Berkeley County, South Carolina, families are attempting to identify enough waste to sustain at least some of the non-academic programs they’ve become accustomed to. This growing split between parents and educators is likely only to deepen as the pension pressure on district budgets exposes decades of administrative fraud and abuse. As Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst Jonathan Butcher has observed, the historical tendency of education boards to indulge lax accounting standards has been an open invitation to racketeering—everything from pilfering field trip money to payroll padding to massive kickbacks for expensive school services such as insurance and heating oil. And while the possibility of such corruption has rarely bothered parent-run civic groups in the past, the coming excavation of wrongdoing will make any reconciliation difficult. Even the most well-intentioned pension solutions from both left- and right-wing policy groups seem to just aggravate the situation. In Connecticut, for example, a recent proposal by civil rights organizations to generate savings by consolidating the administrations of big city schools with those in adjacent districts quickly prompted suburban parents to mobilize against it. They feared that any kind of regionalization would give cities the same financial leverage over suburbs as they themselves now enjoy over local taxpayers without kids in school. And while the Left has been pushing school consolidation, think tanks on the Right have been showing parents how to solve their pension problems with modest school choice programs targeted to special needs, uniquely talented, and other student populations. A 2014 report by the EdChoice Foundation, which examined the 10 largest school voucher programs in the United States, found that each participating student saved his or her community an average of $3,400 annually. Two years later, another fiscal analysis by EdChoice—this time of 10 programs in seven states that allowed tax credits for private schooling—revealed identical economies. Unsurprisingly, teachers unions remain dead set against any program, however limited, that sends public funds to private schools. For decades, affluent school districts have been characterized by self-serving alliances of parents and teachers, who use the system to achieve non-academic goals. No doubt this collusion goes back to a time when farsighted parents joined forces with educators to persuade the rest of their neighbors to subsidize universal schooling—but that goal was achieved long ago. Today, the ill-advised willingness of both factions to spend money that was promised to pension funds has finally backfired…with fiscal, political, and educational consequences that no one can predict. Dr. Lewis Andrews was executive director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy at Trinity College from 1999 to 2009. He is author of the forthcoming book Living Spiritually in the Material World (Fidelis Press). | Lewis M. Andrews | https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/public-school-cronyism-is-fueling-the-pension-crisis/ | 2019-08-13 04:01:24+00:00 | 1,565,683,284 | 1,567,534,245 | education | school |
579,512 | thebeaverton--2019-03-18--Ford government increases high school class size to reduce learning | 2019-03-18T00:00:00 | thebeaverton | Ford government increases high school class size to reduce learning | TORONTO – Education minister Lisa Thompson recently announced that class sizes for grade four and above will increase from 22 to 28 students, resulting in a 4% reduction in costs, and 8% reduction in learning. “It’s really simple, educating children costs money. If we reduce the amount of education we can reduce the amount of the money spent,” stated Thompson. “Our original plan was just to drop grade six, and let kids run wild for a year.” The increase in class size is the latest in a series of cost cutting measures by the Ford government, including cutting funds for upgrading school buildings, shutting down the Truth and Reconciliation curriculum writing program and ripping out every 3rd page of textbooks and burning it for fuel. “With the new sex ed curriculum we’re going to have a lot more unwanted children and we’re going to have to fit them all into schools somehow.” said Premier Ford. “But parents don’t have to worry, if they’re concerned about their children getting lost in large classes, they can just pay to put them in the private school.” Naturally there is an extra benefit to the move for the PCS, as experts have noted a strong correlation between a decrease in education and an increase in Ford voters. In related news, Health minister Christine Elliot has announced, that to further cut costs, all surgeons will now be expected to operate on two patients at the same time. | Callum Wratten | https://www.thebeaverton.com/2019/03/ford-government-increases-high-school-class-size-to-reduce-learning/ | 2019-03-18 19:04:38+00:00 | 1,552,950,278 | 1,567,545,736 | education | school |
591,429 | thedailybeast--2019-02-09--Puffy Nipples Masturbation and Friendship Inside PEN15s Middle School Traumedy | 2019-02-09T00:00:00 | thedailybeast | Puffy Nipples, Masturbation, and Friendship: Inside ‘PEN15’s’ Middle School Traumedy | “Seventh grade is going to be amazing .” It takes roughly five seconds—the very first line of the series—for you to reflexively cringe and your heart to shatter into a million pieces during the premiere of PEN15. It’s the year 2000. Best friends Anna and Maya are on the phone the night before the first day of school, gossiping about what boys they have crushes on, which cool girls to cozy up to, and all the positive ways they’ve physically transformed over the summer in order to blow everyone away in their new grade. “I’m also thinking of wearing a bra,” Anna confides. “That’s like really smart,” Maya supportively nods. “You need it for nipples.” You don’t need more than those few seconds with Anna and Maya, spitting their naïve optimism through respective constellations of orthodontia, to know that seventh grade will not, in fact, be amazing for them. You knew Anna and Maya, and the fate about to befall them. If we’re all being honest, you probably were Anna and Maya, still working through the trauma triggered by time spent in the toxic incubator of insecurities and cruelty that is a middle school hallway. PEN15 is Maya and Anna’s story. It is all of our story. The comedy series, which launched on Hulu Friday, is co-created by real-life best friends Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine, along with writer-director Sam Zvibleman, and loosely based on the 31-year-old pair’s respective middle school experiences. The name comes from a cruel playground prank. “It’s an ode to the rejects, the people who had that written on them,” Konkle tells me. “Because we did,” Erskine says. When people talk about excellent pop culture crafted around the melancholy and the adventure of adolescence, it’s rare for the genius to be rooted in a gimmick. But that’s precisely what sets PEN15 apart. Konkle and Erskine star as the show’s fictional Anna and Maya, two grown adults in their early thirties acting against a cast of actual middle school-aged young actors. Konkle wears braces and contorts her tall frame into a gawky cadence, while Erskine tapes down her chest and sports a wig styled into a tragic bowl cut, the result of her character attempting to give herself layers using only a picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover of Teen magazine as a guide. The sight gag underlines a universal truth: none of us truly fit in in middle school. But Konkle and Erskine’s commitment to their characters is so transformative that the gimmick quickly gives way to the authenticity of the seventh grade experience. That whole disaster. In the first episode of PEN15, Maya is floored when she learns that the two hottest boys in school have crushes on her. But it’s all a bullying ruse meant to build Maya up so when the cruel punchline lands—the boys actually are going to proclaim her this year’s U.G.I.S., the Ugliest Girl in School—it is all the more devastating. For all the pain, PEN15 captures the adrenaline-filled thrill of a time in a person’s life when everything is new, exciting, and unknown: Body parts and body hair; kisses, hormones, and sexual exploration; friends and mistakes made under peer pressure; bras and thongs; and, especially in this Y2K setting, the world at your fingertips through an AIM chat or a query to AskJeeves. In its glowing review of the series, The New York Times calls PEN15 “the square-peg kid sister of Broad City and Eighth Grade.” It’s both a hilarious comedy and a horror show, bridging the genres with a simultaneously uncomfortable and cathartic reflection of the human spirit at its most brittle stage of development. Figuring out in the writer’s room which anecdotes to include—trying a beer for the first time, figuring out masturbation, being jealous of your friend making another friend—was surprisingly organic. The experiences PEN15 depict all have purpose, Konkle says. “Maybe it was something that made us feel less alone, or was a secret that was hopefully going to be someone else’s, too.” Someone would share a story, and a chorus would chime in that they know that feeling. Like what, I ask? “Um, well, getting nipples before breasts,” Konkle says, bashfully. On the show, fictional Maya and Anna cry a lot. “I like describing the show as an opera, because middle school is a real extreme time of highs and lows,” Erskine says. “It’s life or death. It’s a bunch of firsts. It’s operatic.” Erskine’s mother plays her character’s mother on the show, and her brother worked as an editor on it. He jokingly reported experiencing PTSD from their actual childhood watching Maya reenact those heightened emotions on the show. “It’s a bizarre time,” says Konkle. “If somebody wasn’t crying a lot, I would like to meet them. Of course, mortification never leaves our lives, though it may be felt more deeply in adolescence, with only 13 years of life experience to give it context. Those horrors may shape us and prove formative, but they never stop happening. To wit, Konkle and Erskine met under circumstances of diarrhea while studying in Amsterdam as NYU Tisch School of the Arts students engaged in a study abroad program. As they recently told New York magazine, they had anxiety over a performance in the style of Bertolt Brecht they were assigned, and encountered each other “dealing” with those anxieties in the bathroom. They bonded instantly, respectively pursuing their own acting careers when the NYU program finished before reuniting to write their own projects. They first started working on a script for PEN15 six years ago. “Our first script that we wanted to sell as a pilot was maybe 45 pages, which had like #MeToo characters in it and everything,” Erskine says. “We read it with our friends and Anna remembers asking them OK, does anyone have any notes and they all raised their hands immediately. That was humbling.” The script was eventually picked up with the men of Lonely Island—Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone—on board as executive producers. “I was like, yeah but we should probably keep our schedule clear for next year,” Konkle remembers. “So naive. It took a lot longer.” It is of note that, unlike their characters, the duo are not childhood friends. That their characters’ connection on PEN15 pulses with such a rooted lifelong connection speaks to the fact that deep friendships are meaningful at any stage of life, and that the touchstones of those relationships are instantly to familiar to all of us. When Anna cheers Maya up in the show’s premiere by telling her, “You are my actual rainbow gel pen in a sea of blue and black writing utensils,” I felt that. Konkle and Erskine felt that. We all felt that. “Your friendship is the most important thing in the world when you’re at that age, and it was nice to remember that and experience that with Anna again,” Erskine says. That PEN15 is coming from a female perspective matters. The adolescent experience, with rare exception, is exclusively told in pop culture from a male point of view, giving young boys permission, comfort, and even messages of normalcy through their awkward years, with the XY lens still meant to be universally relatable. PEN15 purports that same relatability, but it feels transgressive for the specifics of the experiences to be happening to two girls. “We were excited to write the masturbation episode,” Erskine proudly proclaims, before immediately lowering her voice to a hush. She and Konkle are in a car full of people, she explains. “Actually, I’m just going to go there,” she says, shouting to the driver: “Sorry, sir!” “It’s telling the shame that I felt when I did it as a kid and how alone I felt, now that we’re talking about it and showing a female perspective on sexuality and masturbation, I’m hoping it can spark a conversation or make other women go, OK, I wasn’t a freak,” she says. “I wasn’t a pervert. I wasn’t disgusting when I did that, because that was the story I told myself constantly. Because I didn’t see any representation of it as a kid. I didn’t see any representation of it as an adult in a way that felt honest.” Konkle remembers it being cool for boys to joke about masturbation when she was growing up. “Then as a girl, you didn’t talk about that. Or the joke would be made about you.” They’re both extremely proud of the kind of deliriously weird and beautiful way they handled a masturbation storyline in PEN15. But it’s more than sexuality that needed their perspective. Body changes did too, for starts. “We always wanted to put puffy nipples on our flat chest,” Konkle says. “That was such a weird seminal moment in our lives, where you have puffs with tits. There was a lot of stuff. Even our period. Things that felt wrong to talk about. A lot of this stuff felt wrong to talk about. It still does, to be honest. So it’s like, alright let’s push the envelope and just do it.” Given all this talk about the trauma of middle school, I ask Konkle and Erskine what it was like to see themselves transformed back into versions of their 13-year-old selves. Both say the wilder experience was seeing their friend physically regressed into the character, to the point that they became oddly attached to the costumed versions of each other. When Erskine took off her bowl-cut wig, for example, Konkle would tell her how much she would “miss my buddy.” “I miss her now,” Konkle says, laughing. “I miss that freaky little girl.” | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedailybeast/articles/~3/nvD2HN9KXGE/puffy-nipples-masturbation-and-friendship-inside-pen15s-middle-school-traumedy | 2019-02-09 03:13:40+00:00 | 1,549,700,020 | 1,567,549,059 | education | school |
601,845 | thedailycaller--2019-04-10--Student Finds Human Remains On High School Campus In Arkansas | 2019-04-10T00:00:00 | thedailycaller | Student Finds Human Remains On High School Campus In Arkansas | Human remains were discovered by a student Tuesday at Riverview High School in Searcy, Arkansas, and subsequently removed by police. The remains were found in the woods behind the administration building on the school’s campus by an unnamed student. Searcy police are still working to identify the body, according to a Tuesday Facebook post from the Riverview School District. Riverview Parents and Patrons: Searcy Police Department and White Co. Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of adult human remains in the woods behind the administration building on the high school campus. A student discovered the remains and reported it to police. The remains have not been identified. A huge thanks for the quick response from the Searcy Detectives, White County Coroner, and Officer Kyle Williams for handling the situation quickly and professionally. Police believe that the remains belong to an adult and could have been located on the Riverview campus for several years, but no further details concerning how they got there or how the student found the remains have been released at this time. (RELATED: Boys Sweeping Girls’ High School Track In Connecticut Wouldn’t Break Top 100 In Male Competition) The remains have been sent to the state crime lab while investigators search missing person cases from adjacent states in attempts to identify the body. | Matt M. Miller | https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/10/student-finds-human-remains/ | 2019-04-10 20:22:08+00:00 | 1,554,942,128 | 1,567,543,382 | education | school |
619,659 | thedailyexpress--2019-09-22--Labour Party votes to AXE private schools as Corbyn declares class war | 2019-09-22T00:00:00 | thedailyexpress | Labour Party votes to AXE private schools as Corbyn declares class war | Members have supported a motion which calls on the next Labour general election manifesto to commit to "integrate all private schools into the state sector". This would include withdrawal of charitable status and "all other public subsidies and tax privileges", including business rate exemption. The motion adds universities would have to admit the same proportion of private school students as in the wider population, currently at seven percent. This vote came during the Labour Party's annual conference, which is taking place in Brighton this weekend. Campaigners welcomed the vote for the party to effectively abolish public schools. Momentum's national coordinator Laura Parker said: "This is a huge step forward in dismantling the privilege of a tiny, Eton educated elite who are running our country into the ground. "Every child deserves a world class education, not only those who are able pay for it, and I'll be proud to campaign on this manifesto pledge at the next election." Holly Rigby, from the Abolish Eton campaign, said: "We are delighted that Labour has committed to integrating all private schools into the state sector and that it will feature in the next manifesto. "This huge leap forward is a testament to the hard work of grassroots Labour members and the ambition and determination of Angela Rayner and John McDonnell. "They have worked with and listened to members every step of the way, writing this policy hand in hand with the movement. This is what a democratic Labour Party lookS like. "We will dismantle systems of privilege and inequality and build a society that works for the millions and not the millionaires." READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn crisis: Labour leader forced to deny he is quitting Earlier in the day, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said a Labour government would scrap the "tax loopholes" which benefit private schools in its first budget. She said she will task the Social Mobility Commission, which the party would rename the Social Justice Commission, with "integrating private schools". She added: "We will set that commission to making the whole education system fairer through the integration of private schools. "Myself and John McDonnell will set out further steps the Labour government will take, but I can say today that our very first budget will immediately close the tax loopholes used by elite private schools and use that money to improve the lives of all children." DON'T MISS Labour Party blasted as slogan created by 'Oxford elite' [REVEALED] Corbyn's finished! Labour implodes as MP says he won't win majority [INSIGHT] Nigel Farage predicts end of Labour Party at next general election [WATCH] There was also a debate on schools motions, including one moved by Battersea constituency party which calls on the next Labour general election manifesto to commit to "integrate all private schools into the state sector". This would include withdrawal of charitable status and "all other public subsidies and tax privileges", including business rate exemption. The motion adds universities would also have to admit the same proportion of private school students as in the wider population, currently 7%. In her speech, Ms Rayner also said Labour will introduce a price cap for school uniforms to make education fairer to "stop the scandal of children priced out of school" and end the "spiralling cost of school uniforms". She added: "Parents forced into debt, children in clothes that often don't fit, and the Tories failing for four years to keep their promise to act." | null | https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1181280/Labour-party-private-schools-vote-conference-jeremy-corbyn | 2019-09-22 16:28:00+00:00 | 1,569,184,080 | 1,570,222,511 | education | school |
658,667 | thedenverpost--2019-01-04--Pressure in school social media among risk factors contributing to Colorados youth suicide crisis | 2019-01-04T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | Pressure in school, social media among risk factors contributing to Colorado’s youth suicide crisis, report finds | The pressure placed on children and teenagers to perform well in school and extracurricular activities, along with the anxiety it creates regarding failure, are among the leading risk factors contributing to the growing number of youth suicides in Colorado, according to a new report. Mental Health First Aid: mhfaco.org. Get trained to recognize the signs and how to respond. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: afsp.org. Join one of their upcoming walks for awareness in Colorado. Crisis Text Line: crisistextline.org. Text 741741 from anywhere in the nation to reach a counselor. Second Wind Fund: thesecondwindfund.org. Links students to mental health professionals and pays for up to 12 counseling sessions. The 87-page report, released Thursday by Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, found that children and teenagers have little time to decompress and get no break from the “bell-to-bell instruction” in schools and other activities. “This included feeling that the expectations placed on youth were unrealistic and youth were not given the tools to manage the pressure in a healthy way,” the report said. The report examined trends in suicidal behaviors among youths in four counties — El Paso, La Plata, Mesa and Pueblo — with the highest youth suicide rates in order to determine strategies for addressing the issue of youth suicide. The study was funded with $173,000 from the attorney general’s office. “We know that we have many young people in our state who are struggling, and my hope is that this study will shed light on the very real impact of suicide loss and help to provide coordinated and comprehensive prevention efforts going forward,” Coffman in a statement. The report also found that the counties examined lacked the necessary funding needed for public health and social services programs, and that there was a shortage of mental health providers. Other barriers that prevent young people from getting help include stigma against or by specific populations, such as discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. The suicide rate among youths is increasing both in the state and nation. It’s the leading cause of death in Colorado for individuals between the ages of 10 and 24. The increase in youth suicidal behavior has been noted by schools and health care professionals. Safe2Tell Colorado, an anonymous hotline for students, has seen suicide-related reports jump ninefold in six years. And Children’s Hospital Colorado has seen the number of patients who have attempted suicide soar 600 percent since 2009. The crisis has prompted the attorney general’s office to give a $2.8-million grant to support a collaboration between hospitals and nonprofit organizations that aims to increase access to pediatric mental health treatment. In its report, the attorney general’s office lists other risk factors, including substance use and trauma, that are contributing to youth suicide in the state. Also among the list was the use of social media, and subsequently cyberbullying. Teenagers and children feel both empowered and overloaded by the information available online, according to the report. The report said many of those interviewed “expressed concern that adults do not know how to navigate the technological world of youth, and thus don’t know how to help build youth resiliency around it.” | Jessica Seaman | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/03/colorado-youth-suicide-attorney-general-report/ | 2019-01-04 01:04:37+00:00 | 1,546,581,877 | 1,567,553,882 | education | school |
659,812 | thedenverpost--2019-01-31--Large fight causes lockdown at Delta and George Washington high schools | 2019-01-31T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | Large fight causes lockdown at Delta and George Washington high schools | An off-campus fight that spilled onto the campus of George Washington and Delta high schools triggered a temporary lockdown which caused some students outside of the campus for lunch to be sent home early. The fight occurred during lunch between students from George Washington, Delta and non-students, Will Jones, a spokesman for Denver Public Schools, said. The lockdown was changed to a lockout approximately 10 minutes after it was announced. The lockout meant that all school activities inside the buildings went on as scheduled, but no one was allowed in or out of the building. Students that were off campus for lunch during the fight were sent home as they were not permitted to re-enter the building. Denver Public Schools did not know how many students were sent home or involved in the fight. Denver police only described the fight as “large” and could not provide a more specific estimate. Multiple officers were dispatched to the school to address the altercation and an enhanced police presence is planned to stay at the school throughout the evening. No arrests were made when first contacted, but the investigation remains active and ongoing, Denver police Spokesman Doug Schepman said. The motive for the fights also remains under investigation. Both Delta and George Washington, which share a campus, continued all school operations as normal through the lockout. A wrestling tournament is scheduled to go on as planned at the campus this evening, Jones said. | Jackson Barnett | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/31/fight-lockdown-delta-george-washington-high-schools/ | 2019-01-31 22:53:33+00:00 | 1,548,993,213 | 1,567,550,051 | education | school |
660,981 | thedenverpost--2019-03-17--Colorado School of Mines engineers turn their talents from the terrestrial to the celestial | 2019-03-17T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | Colorado School of Mines engineers turn their talents from the terrestrial to the celestial | Enter the huge building that houses the Excavation Engineering and Earth Mechanics Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, walk past the massive tunnel-boring machine, rotary and percussive drills, and you’ll get a glimpse of the new frontier of development — space resources. What looks like a big sandbox with a Tonka-truck-size rover is part of the work underway in Mines’ Space Resources Program. The “sand” in the large, shallow box is finely ground basalt, meant to simulate the moon’s surface. And the 22-pound rover is equipped with mass spectrometers, which reveal the composition of different elements, as well as a drill, a camera and LIDAR — Light Detection and Ranging, which uses light to produce three-dimensional images. The little rover, or prospector, as Lunar Outpost CEO Justin Cyrus calls his vehicle, was built to explore the resources available on the moon. Cyrus is also a Ph.D. student at Mines in a first-of-its-kind program, which draws on earthly technology and practices to develop the resources necessary to sustain space missions that go farther and longer. “It’s a living-off-the-land approach. For Mines, being a university that has been looking at terrestrial resources for 145 years, it was a natural thing to do it now beyond Earth,” said Angel Abbud-Madrid, the program’s director. The small, self-navigating vehicle roaming through the lunar-like surface is the next evolution in prospecting, Abbud-Madrid said. “This is exactly the equivalent to the pan that miners were using two blocks away from here in Clear Creek, trying to find gold. But it’s a very sophisticated version of that,” Abbud-Madrid added. Depending on shipments of supplies from Earth limits the duration and distance of space missions. So, universities, scientists, aerospace companies and NASA have been looking for a while at ways space travelers can take advantage of the resources available where they’re going. NASA refers to the field as in-situ resource utilization, or using what’s in place. “Mining and in-situ resource utilization will play an important role in NASA’s future human exploration of the Moon and Mars,” NASA said in an email. “The benefits of space mining, and making things where you want to explore versus bringing everything from Earth, are a reduction in overall cost and risk for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.” Mines has been involved in space resources research since the 1990s, when Mike Duke, a former NASA geologist considered a pioneer in space resources, started working at Mines. Twenty years ago, the school convened its first round table on extraterrestrial resources. People from NASA and other universities attended, and participation has grown since, Abbud-Madrid said. One of the participants was George Sowers, then a scientist and executive with Centennial-based United Launch Alliance. He told the crowd that his company was willing to buy made-in-space propellant to fuel rockets if somebody could supply it. Now, Sowers is a Mines professor and on the Space Resources staff. After he announced that he wanted to buy propellant, several fledgling space mining companies asked him for letters of intent they could take to their investors. “It’s a little bit of chicken and the egg. The whole thing needs to get bootstrapped,” Sowers said. “You can’t have a business as a supplier unless you have a customer, and there’s no demand for a product unless there’s a supply.” However, momentum is building to develop supplies as NASA and aerospace companies aim for longer stays on the moon and trips with humans onboard to Mars. People will need to restock fuel, water and other materials on the fly, so to speak, if that’s going to work. “The efficient utilization of space resources is a key technology enabler to support long-term, sustainable human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit,” Paul Anderson, Lockheed Martin’s director of the Orion Service Module, said in an email. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor on NASA’s Orion, designed for long explorations of deep space with the goal of eventually carrying people to the moon and other planets. The company has been working since the early 2000s on technologies to tap space resources, said Anderson, a Mines alumnus. In the fall of 2018, Mines became the first university to offer master’s and doctorate degrees in space resources. The school describes the program as bringing together many fields, including mining, resource economics, robotics, advanced manufacturing, remote sensing, metals/metallurgy, solar and nuclear energy. “We announced the program in 2017 and the interest was worldwide to the point that we had to abandon the idea that we were going to have it on campus,” Abbud-Madrid said. “It has attracted a lot of professionals, students in aerospace, metals, mining, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, economists — in all aspects of the field.” The 45 students in the program are from three different continents and 12 different countries, including the United States, Poland, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Mines Space Resources staff has had input into efforts to create a national institute for research into what natural resources in outer space could be used on trips to faraway spots. Colorado Reps. Scott Tipton, a Republican, and Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat, are sponsoring a bill that would establish the Space Resources Institute. The goal is to have a central hub “to support the development of foundational science and technology and options for using space resources,” Tipton said in a release. So, what’s on the moon, asteroids and other planets that’s usable and how can people extract it? Those are the kinds of questions that students and researchers at Mines, other universities, NASA and in the aerospace industry are trying to answer. Metals, like platinum or gold, might come to mind. “In fact there are many things,” Abbud-Madrid said. “There’s solar energy, low gravity, ultra-high vacuum, water, minerals and gases, all over the solar system. “And more than bringing those resources to Earth, which may seem attractive, it’s about how those resources in space can help us as we expand to the moon, Mars and the rest of the solar system,” Abbud-Madrid added. Actually, solar energy is one of the resources that scientists want to bring more of to Earth. Researchers in China are said to be looking into space-based stations that would beam a steady supply of solar power to Earth, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The paper said scientists are looking at possibly building a station in space so it wouldn’t have to be launched from Earth. Researchers in other countries are also exploring the idea, Sowers said. “We could use lunar resources to build a network of satellites in Earth orbit, collect sunlight and beam the energy down to Earth, creating an inexhaustible source of energy that’s completely green forever,” Sowers said. “This is not science fiction. This is maybe 20, 30 years in the future. Space can fix Earth’s energy problems forever.” In a lab on the Mines campus in Golden, Hunter Williams, who is earning a master’s degree in space resources, is creating conditions as similar as possible to those on the moon. He’s using a 3D printer to turn simulated moon dust into layers of building materials, which would be needed if people establish a base on the moon. Sunlight could be used to power the printer. “In space, it costs $50,000 to send a single kilogram of stuff to the moon and you usually don’t do a one-off. You can’t send a single kilogram,” Williams said. “Brick-making is the first step, but as we refine this technology we’re going to be making things like wrenches, parts for robots.” In the same lab, Ben Thrift, a Ph.D. student, has buckets of materials that he uses to whip up objects similar in composition to asteroid surfaces, including those containing hydrated minerals. He then uses an intense lamp and elliptical reflector, simulating concentrated solar power, to heat the material to extract water from the minerals. “We can make water. We can also get carbon dioxide. From water, we can make rocket propellant and that’s the first thing you should go after in space, to enable transportation,” said research professor Chris Dreyer. Breaking down water into oxygen and hydrogen will allow production of propellant to fuel rockets. There is a lot of water on the moon, in asteroids and on Mars, the researchers said. While aiming for the moon and beyond, student and Lunar Outpost CEO Cyrus is among professionals and entrepreneurs finding ways to put their technology to work closer to home to keep their companies going. The software and other systems in the company’s roving prospector can be used to navigate in and map underground mines. The startup helped develop customized air-quality sensors for local schools that won the city of Denver $1 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies for a network of the solar-powered, wireless devices. The technology grew out of Lunar Outpost’s work to mitigate the effects of the moon’s air quality due to the gritty lunar soil, which is bad for people to inhale and rough on robots’ systems. “Obviously, we need a way to keep the lights on. And two,we wanted to have positive impact in our background,” Cyrus said. And Cyrus would love to see his prospector ferried by companies tapped by NASA to bid on making deliveries to the moon. Lockheed Martin and another Colorado company, Deep Space Systems, were designated in November 2018 as eligible to bid to provide Commercial Lunar Payload Services. “If you look at most lunar rovers, they’re the size of mini vans, ” Cyrus said. “So, what we’re trying to do is bring the cost, the size, the power and all the requirements down from those large rovers so we can actually distribute swarms of them on the lunar surface cost effectively.” | Judith Kohler | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/17/colorado-school-mines-space-program/ | 2019-03-17 12:00:58+00:00 | 1,552,838,458 | 1,567,545,868 | education | school |
664,693 | thedenverpost--2019-10-01--Denver alternative high school adds dental services to keep students from missing classes | 2019-10-01T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | Denver alternative high school adds dental services to keep students from missing classes | Getting dental care can be a hassle, but for Armani Manzanares, a student at Denver’s Florence Crittenton High School, it’s relatively pain-free: She can pick up her son Nathan from nursery school, walk less than a football field away and knock out both their appointments at once. Manzanares, 17, said she appreciates being able to get care for herself and her son, 1, without having to worry about transportation. “It’s on campus. I can do it myself, so I feel like it’s making me more independent,” she said. Florence Crittenton, an alternative high school serving pregnant and parenting teens, recently added dental services to its health clinic, which already offered pediatric and gynecological care to students and their children. It’s the fourth building in Denver Public Schools to add dental care for routine needs over the last four years, said Kathrine Hale, the district’s nursing manager. Clinics in partnership with Denver Health are available in 17 of DPS’s more than 200 schools, though most only offer primary care. The district hasn’t studied whether school-based health services reduce absenteeism or improve grades, but it is clear that students who are dealing with tooth pain or another health problem are going to have a harder time focusing on their lessons, Hale said. Ideally, all students would have access to a range of health services, but schools have space and financial constraints, she said. “It’s a benefit on many levels” to offer health care, she said. “We would love to see it expand.” Suzanne Banning, president and CEO of Florence Crittenton Services, said wraparound services at the high school contribute to a graduation rate about twice the national average for teen mothers, with about 75% of students getting a diploma by age 21. The students do tend to take longer than four years to graduate high school, but in some cases that’s by design, so they can continue to take advantage of concurrent enrollment and free child care, she said. DPS provides teachers for the school, and the nonprofit provides services like parenting classes, art therapy and a store where students can spend “baby bucks” they earned in school on diapers, used clothing and toys, Banning said. Some take multiple RTD buses to get to school every day, so it’s important to remove barriers to both health care and education, she said. “These girls are very determined,” she said. “They are looking for a better future, like any parent.” The health center has helped improve attendance at Florence Crittenton while reducing the odds that young moms will put off necessary care, Banning said. “Prior to the health center being on site, our moms might put off going to get something taken care of because of the challenge of getting to a clinic. If they did go to the doctor or dentist, often urgent care, they would end up missing school that day,” she said. Terrill Graden, a dental hygienist at the Florence Crittenton clinic, said they can offer routine care like dental exams, cleanings and X-rays. A dentist comes once a week and will start offering more involved work like fillings and extractions in January, he said. Carmen Rivera, a pediatric patient navigator at the clinic, said they try to schedule the mother and child for the same time, if possible. She works with the mothers to help them set up with a regular medical and dental provider when they graduate, and to coordinate any care that can’t be done in the clinic, like removing wisdom teeth. Most mothers have health insurance through Medicaid or Child Health Plan Plus, but there’s no charge for uninsured moms and kids, she said. The Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation contributed $300,000 over three years to start the clinic. Some of the students had never been to a dentist before, so they were excited for the chance to get their teeth checked, Banning said. Others need more coaxing, either because they’ve heard myths like dental care isn’t safe during pregnancy, or just because many people don’t like going to the dentist, Graden said. Pregnant women are vulnerable to dental problems because the stomach acid from morning sickness damages enamel, the hard cover that protects the tooth itself, Graden said. Women who develop infected gums are at a higher risk of delivering too early or having a low-birth-weight baby, though the biological mechanism isn’t well understood. At Manzanares’ appointment on a Thursday in September, Graden asked if she if she was brushing Nathan’s tiny teeth twice a day, if he used a sippy cup and if anyone in the house had cavities, because the bacteria can spread from person to person. With Nathan in the comfort of his mom’s arms, Graden managed to sneak a look in his mouth and establish that there was no cause for concern. Then they switched, with Manzanares lying in the chair while Nathan sat on her stomach, distracted by a Baby Shark video long enough for Graden to check Manzanares’ mouth and determine she wouldn’t need anything beyond a routine cleaning. In addition to letting moms and kids get care they need now, the clinic can help kids develop positive ideas about the dentist, Graden said. “If (Nathan) has a bad visit, he probably won’t remember it now, but if he has a bad visit at 6 … it can start a cycle,” he said. | Meg Wingerter | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/01/florence-crittenton-dental-clinic/ | 2019-10-01 12:00:53+00:00 | 1,569,945,653 | 1,570,221,806 | education | school |
665,142 | thedenverpost--2019-11-12--Many young Americans say high school diploma is enough for success, poll finds | 2019-11-12T00:00:00 | thedenverpost | Many young Americans say high school diploma is enough for success, poll finds | Although most young Americans believe in the value of higher education, many still consider a high school diploma alone to be enough for success, according to a survey of teens and young adults by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The findings alarm some experts who say young Americans don’t seem to be getting the message that college pays off. Federal labor data shows a wide earnings gap between Americans who do and do not have a college degree, and unemployment rates are far lower for those with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. More than half of Americans ages 13 through 29 do see college as a path to economic success, but about 4 in 10 believe a bachelor’s degree prepares people only somewhat well, or even poorly, for today’s economy. Meanwhile, about half said their high school education has provided the skills they need to get a good job right after they graduate. And 45% say a high school diploma is good preparation for future successful workers. Researchers disputed that notion, saying it has been decades since a high school diploma was enough to earn a good living. “With a high school diploma alone, it’s very hard to earn the kinds of wages one would need to support a family,” said Thomas Brock, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University. “There’s just such a strong association between employment rates, as well as earnings, and education.” In 2018, the median earnings for workers with only a high school diploma was $730 a week, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For those with a bachelor’s degree, it was $1,200, while those with a master’s degree typically made $1,400 a week. Teens are especially likely to think high school is a good path to success in today’s economy, while young adults were less likely to say so, 51% versus 42%. And there were stark differences by race: At least half young black and Hispanic Americans said high school is a good path to success, compared with 41% of young white Americans. More than any type of degree, 73% of young Americans said they think job experience is good preparation for success. Their esteem for practical experience is shared by the Trump administration, which has pushed to expand apprenticeship programs, and experts say it reflects today’s economy, in which more employers require internships or other work experience. While 6 in 10 said a bachelor’s degree is a route to success, an equal number said they see vocational school as good preparation, and about half see the same value in an associate degree. The finding was a surprise to some researchers who say students — and their parents — often think of college only as a bachelor’s degree. “That’s not what I would expect to see,” said Heather McKay, director of the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University. “It’s really great that young people are thinking of these alternatives, because there are some really good non-degree credential options out there.” The survey also found disparities in the types of colleges young Americans choose. Overall, 3 in 4 said they plan to attend some type of college or have already done so. For about half, their plans included a four-year university, while about a quarter opted for community college or vocational school. Another quarter had no college plans. Wealthier Americans were more likely to pursue four-year universities, while those from poorer families leaned toward other options or no college at all. Those from wealthier families were also more likely to say their parents were helping pay for tuition and many forms of college preparation. McKay said the findings suggest students are steering toward education choices they think they can afford. “It’s a little bit saddening,” she said. “We need to do a better job of educating students and parents on that life-long learning pathway, and the value of different kinds of education.” A common thread among many young Americans is a concern over the cost of education. Nearly 8 in 10 said they think college affordability is a very or extremely serious problem, and a majority said they were at least somewhat concerned about debt. Of those with college plans, a majority said they were borrowing or planning to borrow loans to pay for tuition. In some ways, young Americans are right to be worried, said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. The transition to adult independence is taking place later in life, he said. Education requirements for good jobs have grown, and there are fewer available to young people. Still, he said, there’s evidence that investments in college pay off. “Eighty percent of four-year college degrees do bring sufficient earnings to pay for the cost over a career,” Carnevale said. “The truth is, it’s very hard for colleges at the four-year level to build programs that aren’t worth the loan.” Debate over student debt and college affordability has come to the fore recently as Democratic presidential candidates court young voters with promises to make college free and erase debt. And many young Americans say they like those ideas, the poll found. Overall, 65% of young Americans said they support making tuition free at community colleges, an idea that has been adopted by some states and is being proposed nationally by Democrats including former Vice President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, 60% support plans to make tuition free at all public colleges and universities, a proposal that’s supported by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Both ideas have wider support from Democrats, but each one had backing from nearly half of young Republicans. Young Americans also widely support plans allowing student debt to be refinanced and plans to forgive debt for households earning less than $100,000 a year, the poll found. Despite their reservations about debt and affordability, young Americans ultimately see value in college. Only about a quarter said attending a four-year college brings more disadvantages than advantages. More than 7 in 10 said college brings more benefits or that the balance is equal. The AP-NORC poll of 2,573 teens and young adults ages 13 through 29 was conducted Aug. 7-Sept. 9 using a combined sample of interviews from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population, and interviews from opt-in online panels. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The AmeriSpeak panel is recruited randomly using address-based sampling methods, and respondents later were interviewed online or by phone. | Collin Binkley, Hannah Fingerhut | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/11/11/college-education-poll/ | Tue, 12 Nov 2019 00:03:35 +0000 | 1,573,535,015 | 1,573,518,283 | education | school |
668,876 | theepochtimes--2019-08-20--Poll Public Support Grows for School Choice Vouchers | 2019-08-20T00:00:00 | theepochtimes | Poll: Public Support Grows for School Choice, Vouchers | Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos listens during an Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs meeting at the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on March 18, 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) A new nationwide opinion poll on education policy released by Education Next shows growing support for a number of initiatives, namely school choice, and vouchers. The findings of the 13th annual Education Next survey are based on a nationally representative sample of 3,046 adults. The pollsters identified 10 major findings. The first key discovery highlighted how support for vouchers that help low-income students afford private-school tuition rose to 49 percent; in 2016, support for these vouchers was 37 percent. At the same time, support for tax credits for donations to organizations that give scholarships to low-income students grew to 58 percent, from 53 percent previously. Public support for charter schools also increased to 48 percent from a low of 39 percent in 2017. For Republicans, 61 percent currently support charter schools, while among Democrats, 40 percent do. Pollsters noted that the respondents of the survey include “an oversampling of teachers, African Americans, and those who identify themselves as Hispanic.” Support for increasing wages for teachers also reached the highest point since 2008. For those that were provided information on state salary levels, 56 percent said teachers’ salaries should be higher. The percentage represents a 20 point jump over the approval level two years ago. For those who weren’t provided any salary information, 72 percent said salaries should increase, 5 points higher than the results in 2018. In an Aug. 20 statement reacting to the poll, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos called the findings “no surprise to those of us who believe in students and trust parents and teachers.” “American families want more control and more options when it comes to education, which is why every poll conducted shows the growing, bipartisan support for education freedom. This research is just the latest indication that voices of America’s parents are growing louder in demanding something other than a government-assigned, union-controlled school for their children,” she said. “Behind each percentage point in the column for education freedom is the face of another forgotten voter who has been taken for granted for far too long. I hear it from students who want to learn more and learn differently, but are constrained by their assigned school building.” DeVos has asked Congress for a “$5 billion annual federal tax credit for voluntary donations to state-based scholarship programs.” The initiative is called “Education Freedom Scholarships.” According to its official website, the proposal “would empower students and families to choose the best educational setting for them—regardless of where they live, how much they make, and how they learn,” according to a fact sheet. In her statement, DeVos references that proposal and described it as a rational solution. She added that Congress would be “wise to heed the call of America’s families.” “Clearly, our Education Freedom Scholarships proposal is the solution American families want. This common-sense approach puts students and parents in control, without taking a single cent from public schools or teachers,” she said. “It’s time opponents of education freedom tamped down their overheated political rhetoric and instead focused on improving student outcomes. They should take note that this poll shows students rank the quality of their own schools lower than anyone else does.” | Bowen Xiao | https://www.theepochtimes.com/public-support-grows-for-school-choice-vouchers-poll_3049368.html | 2019-08-20 21:50:24+00:00 | 1,566,352,224 | 1,567,533,983 | education | school |
684,797 | theguardianuk--2019-01-13--Britains private school problem its time to talk | 2019-01-13T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Britain’s private school problem: it’s time to talk | The existence in Britain of a flourishing private-school sector not only limits the life chances of those who attend state schools but also damages society at large, and it should be possible to have a sustained and fully inclusive national conversation about the subject. Whether one has been privately educated, or has sent or is sending one’s children to private schools, or even if one teaches at a private school, there should be no barriers to taking part in that conversation. Everyone has to live – and make their choices – in the world as it is, not as one might wish it to be. That seems an obvious enough proposition. Yet in a name-calling culture, ever ready with the charge of hypocrisy, this reality is all too often ignored. For the sake of avoiding misunderstanding, we should state briefly our own backgrounds and choices. One of our fathers was a solicitor in Brighton, the other was an army officer rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel; we were both privately educated; we both went to Oxford University; our children have all been educated at state grammar schools; in neither case did we move to the areas (Kent and south-west London) because of the existence of those schools; and in recent years we have become increasingly preoccupied with the private-school issue, partly as citizens concerned with Britain’s social and democratic wellbeing, partly as an aspect of our professional work (one as an economist, the other as a historian). In Britain, private schools – including their fundamental unfairness – remain the elephant in the room. It would be an almost immeasurable benefit if this were no longer the case. Education is different. Its effects are deep, long-term and run from one generation to the next. Those with enough money are free to purchase and enjoy expensive holidays, cars, houses and meals. But education is not just another material asset: it is fundamental to creating who we are. What particularly defines British private education is its extreme social exclusivity. Only about 6% of the UK’s school population attend such schools, and the families accessing private education are highly concentrated among the affluent. At every rung of the income ladder there are a small number of private-school attenders; but it is only at the very top, above the 95th rung of the ladder – where families have an income of at least £120,000 – that there are appreciable numbers of private-school children. At the 99th rung – families with incomes upwards of £300,000 – six out of every 10 children are at private school. A glance at the annual fees is relevant here. The press focus tends to be on the great and historic boarding schools – such as Eton (basic fee £40,668 in 2018–19), Harrow (£40,050) and Winchester (£39,912) – but it is important to see the private sector in the less glamorous round, and stripped of the extra cost of boarding. In 2018 the average day fees at prep schools were, at £13,026, around half the income of a family on the middle rung of the income ladder. For secondary school, and even more so sixth forms, the fees are appreciably higher. In short, access to private schooling is, for the most part, available only to wealthy households. Indeed, the small number of income-poor families going private can only do so through other sources: typically, grandparents’ assets and/or endowment-supported bursaries from some of the richest schools. Overwhelmingly, pupils at private schools are rubbing shoulders with those from similarly well-off backgrounds. They arrange things somewhat differently elsewhere: among affluent countries, Britain’s private‑school participation is especially exclusive to the rich. In Germany, for instance, it is also low, but unlike in Britain is generously state-funded, more strongly regulated and comes with modest fees. In France, private schools are mainly Catholic schools permitted to teach religion: the state pays the teachers and the fees are very low. In the US there is a very small sector of non-sectarian private schools with high fees, but most private schools are, again, religious, with much lower fees than here. Britain’s private-school configuration is, in short, distinctive. And so what, accordingly, does Britain look like in the 21st century? A brief but expensive history, 1997–2018, offers some guide. As the millennium approaches, New Labour under Tony Blair (Fettes) sweeps to power. The Bank of England under Eddie George (Dulwich) gets independence. The chronicles of Hogwarts school begin. A nation grieves for Diana (West Heath); Charles (Gordonstoun) retrieves her body; her brother (Eton) tells it as it is. Martha Lane Fox (Oxford High) blows a dotcom bubble. Charlie Falconer (Glenalmond) masterminds the Millennium Dome. Will Young (Wellington) becomes the first Pop Idol. The Wire’s Jimmy McNulty (Eton) sorts out Baltimore. James Blunt (Harrow) releases the bestselling album of the decade. Northern Rock collapses under the chairmanship of Matt Ridley (Eton). Boris Johnson (Eton) enters City Hall in London. The Cameron-Osborne (Eton-St Paul’s) axis takes over the country; Nick Clegg (Westminster) runs errands. Life staggers on in austerity Britain mark two. Jeremy Clarkson (Repton) can’t stop revving up; Jeremy Paxman (Malvern) still has an attitude problem; Alexandra Shulman (St Paul’s Girls) dictates fashion; Paul Dacre (University College School) makes middle England ever more Mail-centric; Alan Rusbridger (Cranleigh) makes non-middle England ever more Guardian-centric; judge Brian Leveson (Liverpool College) fails to nail the press barons; Justin Welby (Eton) becomes top mitre man; Frank Lampard (Brentwood) becomes a Chelsea legend; Joe Root (Worksop) takes guard; Henry Blofeld (Eton) spots a passing bus. The Cameron-Osborne axis sees off Labour, but not Boris Johnson+Nigel Farage (Dulwich)+Arron Banks (Crookham Court). Ed Balls (Nottingham High) takes to the dance floor. Theresa May (St Juliana’s) and Jeremy Corbyn (Castle House prep school) face off. Prince George (Thomas’s Battersea) and Princess Charlotte (Willcocks) start school. The statistics also tell a story. The proportion of prominent people in every area who have been educated privately is striking, in some cases grotesque. From judges (74% privately educated) through to MPs (32%), the numbers tell us of a society where bought educational privilege also buys lifetime privilege and influence. “The dogged persistence of the British ‘old boy”’ is how a 2017 study describes the traditional dominance of private-school alumni in British society. This reveals the fruits of exploring well over a century of biographical data in Who’s Who, that indispensable annual guide to the composition of the British elite. For those born between the 1830s and 1920s, roughly 50-60% went to private schools; for those born between the 1930s and 1960s, the proportion was roughly 45-50%. Among the new entrants to Who’s Who in the 21st century, the proportion of the privately educated has remained constant at around 45%. Going to one of the schools in the prestigious Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) still gives a 35 times better chance of entering Who’s Who than if one has not attended an HMC school; while those attending the historic crème de la crème, the so-called Clarendon Schools (Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylors’, Rugby, St Paul’s, Shrewsbury, Westminster, Winchester), are 94 times more likely to join the elite than any ordinary British-educated person. Even if one’s child never achieves celebrity, sending him or her to a private school is usually a shrewd investment – indeed, increasingly so, to judge by the relevant longitudinal studies of two different generations. Take first the cohort born in 1958: in terms of those with comparable social backgrounds, demographic characteristics and early tested skills, and different only in what type of school they attended when they were 11, by the time they were in their early 30s (around 1990) the privately educated were earning 7% more than the state-educated. Compare that with those born in 1970: by the same stage (the early 2000s), the gap between the two categories – again, similar in all other respects – had risen to 21% in favour of the privately educated. The only realistic starting point for an analysis lies with the assertion that, in the modern era, most of these schools are of high quality, offering a good educational environment. They deploy very substantial resources; respect the need for a disciplined environment for learning; and give copious attention to generating a positive and therefore motivating experience. This argument – the resources point aside – is not an altogether easy one for the left to accept, against a background of it having historically been undecided whether (in the words of one Labour education minister’s senior civil servant in the 1960s) “these schools are so bloody they ought to be abolished, or so marvellous they ought to be made available to everyone”. We do not necessarily accept that all private schools are “marvellous”; but by and large we recognise that, in their own terms of fulfilling what their customers demand, they deliver the goods. Above all, private schools succeed when it comes to preparing their pupils for public exams – the gateways to universities. In 2018 the proportion of private-school students achieving A*s and As at A-level was 48%, compared with a national average of 26%; while for GCSEs, in terms of achieving an A or grade seven or above, the respective figures were 63% and 23%. At both stages, GCSE and A-level, the gap is invariably huge. There are, of course, some very real contextual factors to these bald and striking figures. Any study must take account of where the children are coming from. Nevertheless, the picture presented by several studies is one of relatively small but still significant effects at every stage of education; and over the course of a school career, the cumulative effects build up to a notable gain in academic achievements. Yet academic learning and exam results are not all there is to a quality education, and indeed there is more on offer from private schools. At Harrow, for example, its vision is that the school “prepares boys… for a life of learning, leadership, service and personal fulfilment”. It offers “a wide range of high-level extracurricular activities, through which boys discover latent talent, develop individual character and gain skills in leadership and teamwork”. Lesser-known schools trumpet something similar. Cumbria’s Austin Friars, for example, highlights a well-rounded education, proclaiming that its alumni will be “creative problem-solvers… effective communicators… and confident, modest and articulate members of society who embody the Augustinian values of unity, truth and love...” If, on the whole, Britain’s private schools provide a quality education in both academic and broader terms, how do they deliver that? Four areas stand out. First, especially small class sizes are a major boon for pupils and teachers alike. Second, the range of extracurricular activities and the intensive cultivation of “character” and “confidence” are important. Third, the high – and therefore exclusive – price tag sustains a peer group of children mainly drawn from supportive and affluent families. And fourth, to achieve the best possible exam results and the highest rate of admission to the top universities, “working the system” comes into play. Far greater resources are available for diagnosing special needs, challenging exam results and guiding university applications. Underpinning all these areas of advantage are the high revenues from fees: Britain’s private schools can deploy resources whose order of magnitude for each child is approximately three times what is available at the average state school. The relevant figures for university admissions are thus almost entirely predictable. Perhaps inevitably, by far the highest-profile stats concern Oxbridge, where between 2010 and 2015 an average of 43% of offers from Oxford and 37% from Cambridge were made to privately educated students, and there has been no sign since of any significant opening up. Top schools, top universities: the pattern of privilege is systemic, and not just confined to the dreaming spires. Going to a top university, it hardly needs adding, signals a material difference, especially in Britain where universities are quite severely ranked in a hierarchy. Ultimately, does any of this matter? Why can one not simply accept that these are high-quality schools that provide our future leaders with a high-quality education? Given the thorniness – and often invidiousness – of the issue, it is a tempting proposition. Yet for a mixture of reasons – political and economic, as well as social – we believe that the issue represents in contemporary Britain an unignorable problem that urgently needs to be addressed and, if possible, resolved. The words of Alan Bennett reverberate still. Private education is not fair, he famously declared in June 2014 during a sermon at King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. “Those who provide it know it. Those who pay for it know it. Those who have to sacrifice in order to purchase it know it. And those who receive it know it, or should.” Consider these three fundamental facts: one in every 16 pupils goes to a private school; one in every seven teachers works at a private school; one pound in every six of all school expenditure in England is for the benefit of private-school pupils. The crucial point to make here is that although extra resources for each school (whether private or state) are always valuable, that value is at a diminishing rate the wealthier the school is. Each extra teacher or assistant helps, but if you already have two assistants in a class, a third one adds less value than the second. Given the very unequal distribution of academic resources entailed by the British private school system, it is unarguable that a more egalitarian distribution of the same resources would enhance the total educational achievement. There is, moreover, the sheer extravagance. Multiple theatres, large swimming pools and beautiful surroundings with expensive upkeep are, of course, nice to have and look suitably seductive on sales brochures – but add relatively little educational value. Further inefficiency arises from education’s “positional” aspect. The resources lift up children in areas where their rank position on the ladder of success matters, such as access to scarce places at top universities. To the considerable extent this happens, the privately educated child benefits but the state-educated child loses out. This lethal combination of private benefit and public waste is nowhere more apparent than in the time and effort that private schools devote to working the system, to ease access to those scarce places. What about the implications for our polity? The way the privately educated have sustained semi-monopolistic positions of prominence and influence in the modern era has created a serious democratic deficit. The unavoidable truth is that, by and large, the increasingly privileged and entitled products of an elite private education have – almost inevitably – only a limited and partial understanding of, and empathy with, the realities of everyday life as lived by most people. One of those realities is, of course, state education. It marked some kind of apotheosis when in July 2014 the appointment of Nicky Morgan (Surbiton High) as education secretary meant that every minister in her department at that time was privately educated. On social mobility, there has been in recent years an abundance of apparently sincere, well-meaning rhetoric, not least from our leading politicians. “Britain has the lowest social mobility in the developed world,” laments David Cameron in 2015. “Here, the salary you earn is more linked to what your father got paid than in any other major country. We cannot accept that.” In 2016 Jeremy Corbyn declares his movement will “ensure every young person has the opportunities to maximise their talents”, while Theresa May follows on: “I want Britain to be a place where advantage is based on merit not privilege; where it’s your talent and hard work that matter, not where you were born, who your parents are or what your accent sounds like.” Rather like corporate social responsibility in the business world, social mobility has become one of those motherhood-and-apple-pie causes that it is almost rude not to utter warm words about. Yet the mismatch between such sentiments and policymakers’ practical intentions is palpable. The Social Mobility Commission, with cross-party representation, reported regularly on what government should do, but in December 2017 all sitting members resigned in frustration at the lack of policy action in response to their recommendations. The underlying reality of our private-school problem is stark. Through a highly resourced combination of social exclusiveness and academic excellence, the private-school system has in our lifetimes powered an enduring cycle of privilege. It is hard to imagine a notable improvement in our social mobility while private schooling continues to play such an important role. Allowing, as Britain still does, an unfettered expenditure on high-quality education for only a small minority of the population condemns our society in seeming perpetuity to a damaging degree of social segregation and inequality. This hands-off approach to private schools has come to matter ever more, given over the past half-century the vastly increased importance in our society of educational credentials. Perhaps once it might have been conceivable to argue that private education was a symptom rather than a cause of how privilege in Britain was transferred from one generation to the next, but that day is long gone: the centrality of schooling in both social and economic life – and the Noah’s flood of resources channelled into private schools for the few – are seemingly permanent features of the modern era. The reproduction of privilege is now tied in inextricably with the way we organise our formal education. Ineluctably, as we look ahead, the question of fairness returns. If private schooling in Britain remains fundamentally unreconstructed, it will remain predominantly intended and destined for the advantage of the already privileged children who attend. We need to talk openly about this problem, and it is time to find some answers. Some call for the “abolition” of private schools – whatever that might mean. We do not call for that, because we think it is better – and feasible – to harness for all the good qualities of private schools. Feasible reforms are available; these do not require excessive commitments from the Treasury, but do require a political commitment. We are, however, under no illusions about the task of reform. The schools’ links with powerful vested interests are close and continuous. London’s main clubs (dominated by privately educated men) would be one example; the Church of England (closely connected with many private schools, from Westminster downwards) would be another. Or take the City of London, where in that historic and massively wealthy square mile not only do individual livery companies have an intimate involvement with a range of private schools, but the City corporation itself supports an elite trio in Surrey and London (City of London, City of London school for girls, City of London Freemen’s school). While as for the many hundreds of individual links between “top people” and private schools, often in the form of sitting on governing bodies, it only needs a glance at Who’s Who to get the gist. The term “the establishment” can be a tiresome one, too often loosely and inaccurately used, but in the sense of complementary networks of people at or close to the centres of power and wealth, it actually does mean something. All of which leaves the private schools almost uniquely well placed to make their case and protect their corner. They have ready access to prominent public voices speaking on their behalf, especially in the House of Lords; they enjoy the passive support of the Church of England, which is distinctly reluctant to draw attention to the moral gulf between the aims of ancient founders and the socioeconomic realities of the present; and of course, they have no qualms about utilising all possible firepower, human as well as media and institutional, to block anything they find threatening. The great historian EP Thompson wrote more than half a century ago about The Peculiarities of the English. Historically, those peculiarities have been various, but the most important – and pervasive in its consequences – has been social class. Of course, things to a degree have changed since Thompson’s time. The visible distinctions of dress and speech have been somewhat eroded, if far from obliterated; the obvious social manifestations of a manufacturing economy have been replaced by the more fluid forms of a service economy; the increasing emphasis of reformers and activists has been on issues of gender and ethnicity; and a series of politicians and others have sought to assure us that we are moving into “a classless society”. Yet the fundamental social reality remains profoundly and obstinately otherwise. Britain is still a place where more often than not it matters crucially not only to whom one has been born, but where and in what circumstances one has grown up. It would be manifestly absurd to pin the blame entirely on the existence over the past few centuries of a flourishing private-school sector. Even so, given that these schools have been and still are places that – when the feelgood verbiage is stripped away – ensure that their already advantaged pupils retain and extend their socio‑economic advantages in later life, common sense places them squarely in the centre of the frame. Is it possible in Britain over the next 10 or 20 years to build a sufficiently widespread consensus for reform?Or, at the very least, to begin to have a serious, sustained, non-name-calling, non-guilt-ridden national conversation on the subject of private education? A poll we commissioned from Populus shows a virtually landslide majority for a perception of unfairness about private education, indicating that public opinion is potentially receptive to grappling with the issue and what to do about it. The poll reveals, moreover, that even those who have been privately educated, or have chosen to educate their own children privately, are more likely than not to have a perception of unfairness. The question of what to do about a sector educating only some 6% of our school population might seem relatively trifling, and difficult to prioritise (especially in challenging economic circumstances), compared with say the challenges of quality teacher recruitment across the state sector or the whole vital area of early-years learning. Yet it would be a huge mistake to underestimate the seriously negative educational aspects of the current dispensation and to continue to marginalise the private-school question. The private schools’ reach is very much broader than their minority share of school pupils implies. Unless some radical reform is set in train, an unreconstructed private-school system, with its enormous resource superiority and exclusiveness hanging over the state system as a beacon for unequal treatment and privilege, would make it hard to sustain a fully comprehensive and fair state education system. Ultimately, the issue is at least as much about what kind of society one might hope the Britain of the 2020s and 2030s to be. A more open society in which upward social mobility starts to become a real possibility for many children, not just a few lucky ones? A society in which the affluent are not educated in enclaves, and in which schooling for the affluent is not funded at something like three times the level of schooling for the less affluent? A society in which the pursuit through education of greater equality of life chances, seeking to harness the talents of all our children, is a matter of real and rigorous intent? A society in which there is a just relationship between the competing demands of liberty and equity, and in which we are, to coin a phrase, all in it together? For the building of such a society, or anything even remotely close, the issue of private education is pivotal, both symbolically and substantively. The reform of private schools will not alone be sufficient to achieve a good education system for all, let alone the good society; but it surely is a necessary condition. At this particular moment in our island story, the future seems peculiarly a blank sheet. Everything is potentially on the table. And for once, that has to include the engines of privilege. For if not now, when? • Engines of Privilege: Britain’s Private School Problem by Francis Green and David Kynaston is published by Bloomsbury on 7 February (£20). To order a copy for £17.60 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99 There are broadly two types of option: those that handicap private schools, making them less attractive to parents, and those that envisage “crossing the tracks” – some form of integration with the state-school sector. Some reforms would have much more of an impact than others. 1. Handicaps Contextual admissions to universities Where universities, especially the high-status ones, make substantial allowances for candidates’ school background; alternatively, as another method of positive discrimination, some form of a quota system. Upping the cost Where the fees are substantially raised, making some parents switch away from the private-school sector and opt for state schools. Even though tax subsidies are not huge, the government could reduce them, for example by taking away charitable status (from those schools that are charities) or by requiring that all schools pay business rates in full (as in Scotland from 2020). Alternatively, something that would “hurt” a bit more, government could directly tax school fees (as in Labour’s manifesto pledge to impose VAT or in Andrew Adonis’s proposed 25% “educational opportunity tax”). 2. Crossing the tracks There are several proposed schemes for enabling children from low-income families to attend private schools. Mainly, these would leave it to schools to choose how they select their pupils. Some are relatively small in scope, including a proposal from the Independent Schools Council that would involve no more than 2% of the private-school population. Others are more ambitious: the Sutton Trust’s Open Access Scheme proposes that all places at about 80 top private secondary day schools would be competed for on academic merit. The government would subsidise those who could not afford the fees. In another type of partial integration, schools would select a proportion of state-funded pupils according to the Schools Admissions Code, meaning that the government or local government would set the principles for selection and the extra places would become an extension to the state system. We suggest a Fair Access Scheme, where the schools would be obliged initially to recruit one-third of their pupils in this way, with a view to the proportion rising significantly over time. | Francis Green and David Kynaston | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/13/public-schools-david-kynaston-francis-green-engines-of-privilege | 2019-01-13 08:00:06+00:00 | 1,547,384,406 | 1,567,552,707 | education | school |
689,355 | theguardianuk--2019-02-09--Schools staff crisis looms as austerity hits teachers pay | 2019-02-09T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Schools staff crisis looms as austerity hits teachers’ pay | Ministers have conceded that teachers’ pay has fallen by thousands of pounds a year since the public spending austerity drive began, amid warnings of a “looming crisis” in attracting and retaining new staff. Classroom pay has fallen by more than £4,000 a year since 2010 in real terms, according to a government assessment. Damian Hinds, the education secretary, warned that only a 2% increase can be expected for the next academic year. The admission comes in the Department for Education’s official submission to the School Teachers’ Review Body, which makes recommendations on pay deals. It states that pay is also lower than it was 15 years ago in real terms. “From 2002-03 to 2017-18, classroom teacher median salaries have seen a drop of 10% and overall teacher median salaries of 11% in real terms,” it says. It argues that the fall was smaller than that suffered by private sector graduates. Unions have been calling for a 5% rise for the next academic year, arguing that low pay makes it hard to retain staff. Last year, about 60% of teachers were expected to receive below-inflation awards. Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “We welcome the DfE’s admission that teachers’ pay has fallen so far in real terms. It is no good Damian Hinds trying to argue that this is the same for private sector jobs – those figures reflect the many graduates forced into low-paid, part-time, semi-casual jobs, whereas we are talking about the pay rates being offered to those joining a profession.” The number of secondary school pupils is forecast to rise by 15% during the next decade. However, the government missed its recruitment targets for trainees for the past six years, with the biggest shortfalls in key subjects like maths, modern foreign languages and physics. Ministers have responded with a series of measures designed to ease the pressures with job shares, more support for new staff and a reduction in paperwork. James Zuccollo, from the Education Policy Institute, said there was evidence that “targeted pay increases” could greatly reduce the looming crisis. “Recent research suggests a 5% pay supplement for early-career science and maths teachers could have avoided the increased shortages since 2010, for instance,” he said. “The government’s new bursary scheme for early-career teachers may help to tackle acute retention problems in shortage subjects and disadvantaged parts of the country. But, unless it is applied immediately to existing teachers, it is likely to be a few years before we see any improvements to exit rates.” Hinds has announced that English schools will no longer be punished for failing to meet government standard on tests, in an attempt to release teachers from the stress of results and stop schools with challenging pupils from being punished. He also wants to cut down on marking, data collection and lesson planning. However, Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, said years of cuts had led to teachers being “thousands of pounds a year worse off. Across our schools we are seeing the result in the crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. Teacher recruitment targets have been missed year after year, with more teachers leaving the profession than joining. In response to this crisis, the government will give the majority of teachers another real-terms pay cut.” Labour is pledging to end the public sector pay cap with additional, ring-fenced funding. School leaders have been angered by a suggestion last week that they will have to fund this year’s pay increase from their existing budget, without extra help from the government. A note from the department warned: “A pay increase for teachers of 2%, in line with forecast inflation, is affordable within the overall funding available to schools for 2019 to 2020, without placing further pressure on school budgets.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Last summer saw the biggest teacher pay rise in almost 10 years, worth between £800 and £1,366 for classroom teachers and supported by a £508m government grant. In addition to an annual pay award, many teachers also receive increases from promotions and responsibility allowances. “Whilst we know pay is an important issue for teachers, there are also other factors which can affect recruitment and retention. That is why in January we unveiled the first ever integrated recruitment and retention strategy in England, which will provide teachers with more early careers support and opportunities for flexible and part-time working. The strategy also builds on the work we have done to support school leaders to strip away unnecessary workload.” | Michael Savage | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/09/teacher-pay-down-real-terms-since-2003 | 2019-02-09 15:00:09+00:00 | 1,549,742,409 | 1,567,549,117 | education | school |
692,543 | theguardianuk--2019-03-12--Lessons in Sweetieland Matthew Bournes old primary school dance his Nutcracker | 2019-03-12T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Lessons in Sweetieland: Matthew Bourne's old primary school dance his Nutcracker! | It looks, at first glance, like a regular rehearsal for a school play. A line of primary students march around the hall brandishing handmade props, feet stomping and pigtails swinging. But this school in Walthamstow, east London, has a superstar alumnus and all the pupils – almost 500 of them – have been enlisted for his latest gala production. Matthew Bourne, the British choreographer who was knighted in 2016 and is about to receive a special Olivier award for his achievements in dance, attended Roger Ascham primary school in the 1960s. He has returned to his old patch to prepare a one-off performance this Friday. A new version of his 1992 classic Nutcracker! will be performed by the pupils – and two teachers – as part of this year’s London Borough of Culture celebrations in Waltham Forest. Bourne, best known for reimagining Swan Lake by replacing the female corps de ballet with a male ensemble, has happy memories of Roger Ascham. Born in Hackney, he moved to Walthamstow aged six. His father worked for Thames Water and his mother worked part-time for the local council; both were also youth workers. Bourne and his brother grew up in a rented house in nearby Douglas Avenue. “There was no drama class as such,” says Bourne of the school. “But I was so grateful to them for letting me do what I clearly wanted to do.” Aged eight, he put on his own versions of Cinderella – “All the boys played girls and all the girls played boys” – and Mary Poppins in the school hall. His love of both stories endured. In 2017, Bourne’s Cinderella, set during the second world war, was a hit at Sadler’s Wells; his celebrated version of Mary Poppins is back in the West End later this year. Bourne says that staging this 45-minute Nutcracker! will give the students a “sense of unity” and the feeling that they’ve “conquered something together”. Certainly, the whole school is buzzing. In rehearsals, class 1B (aged 6-7) are busy running on the spot, then practising robot poses, jerking their bodies while trying to keep straight faces. One student gets a high-five from Gavin Eden, part of a small team from Bourne’s company, New Adventures, who have been based at the school for six weeks. “Wiggle like you’ve got no muscles,” one group are told by Kerry Biggin, who performed in Bourne’s professional version of Nutcracker! as Clara. As the children assemble a Nutcracker soldier puppet, brandishing body parts on sticks, I step out to meet some of the sixth-year students. “It’s a big opportunity,” says Mila. “We’re working with people who are really top-class.” Yasmina thinks it’s great that “everyone gets to have a part” while Thevhan says he wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. “And then I started to like it,” he says, busting out some moves as he talks: “Yeah, I get this, yeah!” Emily, from year 5, proudly says: “I’m one of the choreographers” and Mila explains the concept: “There are six storytellers who help tell the story.” Yasmina explains: “The storytellers get sucked into the book.” Thevhan says that in dance “you use your body to replace the words”. Emily reflects: “It’s quite hard!” The project was designed to change the model of an “artist in residence” so that it’s not about an artist creating a solo work reflecting on their individual experiences. Instead, it’s a collaboration – and the process is as important as the final production. Dancer Michela Meazza – who played Princess Sugar in Nutcracker! – says this new version relocates the story from an orphanage to a Victorian school. This means the children “can start thinking about the differences between their schools and Victorian times”. When the action shifts to Sweetieland, the show’s appeal for the students is self-explanatory. “They become snowflakes, there are chocolate rivers,” explains Meazza. “We can play a lot with their imagination.” Biggin believes the landscape has changed for dance education since she was a child: “We had a ‘music and movement’ class. The teacher would bring in a tape recorder and press play. The tape told you what to do, like ‘Run! Stop!’” A PE teacher who was passionate about dance recognised her talent and encouraged her to pursue it in her spare time. Eden, 34, remembers his school as “absolutely not supportive of me, as a boy, dancing. For the end of year show they would not encourage me to dance, which was a shame.” New Adventures hope the project will encourage pupils to think of dance as a career option. There are many benefits of dance, they say, include confidence building, a sense of empowerment and accountability. Meazza says that Bourne’s professional productions are always based on individuals’ contributions. “Everyone brings something to the creation of the material, to the choreography, the ideas, the story. The same approach has been used with the children. “We teach them a little bit from the show but it’s very important that they create their own movement and we include that in the piece. So there is a sense of ownership. They can feel: ‘I’ve created this and I’m performing it. And some of my friends are performing my movement.’” In the hall, I see the children practise the art of taking a final bow. But the company is also helping them to explore techniques for handling pre-show jitters, including breathing techniques and ways to focus, which will prove to be transferable skills. The performance takes place at Walthamstow Assembly Hall on Friday and is for family and friends only. Entry is free, which wasn’t the case for the shows Bourne staged at home as a child. “I advertised them,” he remembers with a laugh. “You’d get a free cup of tea and a biscuit with your ticket.” | Chris Wiegand | https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/mar/12/roger-ascham-pimary-school-dancing-matthew-bourne-nutcracker | 2019-03-12 12:00:39+00:00 | 1,552,406,439 | 1,567,546,620 | education | school |
693,194 | theguardianuk--2019-03-15--Schools have become fourth emergency service for poorest families | 2019-03-15T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Schools have become 'fourth emergency service' for poorest families | Schools have become “an unofficial fourth emergency service” for vulnerable families across England and Wales, offering food parcels, clothing and laundry facilities to those worst affected by austerity, according to a new report by a headteachers’ union. A majority of the 400 school leaders surveyed by the Association of Schools and College Leaders (ASCL) said they were seeing a “rising tide” of poverty among their pupils, at a time when they were having to cut their own budgets and receiving less support from local councils. Sarah Bone, headteacher of Headlands school, a comprehensive in Yorkshire’s East Riding, said: “We have far too many children with no heating in the home, no food in the cupboards, washing themselves with cold water, walking to school with holes in their shoes and trousers that are ill-fitted and completely worn out, and living on one hot meal a day provided at school.” Other heads reported pupils with no winter coats, while others said they regularly had to buy shoes for their pupils. “A decade of austerity has wreaked havoc with the social fabric of the nation and schools have been left to pick up the pieces while coping with real-term funding cuts,” said Geoff Barton, the ASCL’s general secretary. “They have become an unofficial fourth emergency service for poor and vulnerable children, providing food and clothing and filling in the gaps left by cutbacks to local services. “Politicians must end their fixation with Brexit and work together to build a new sense of social mission in our country. We simply must do better for struggling families and invest properly in our schools, colleges and other vital public services.” Nearly all of the headteachers who responded to the survey said schools struggled to access local mental health services for pupils needing specialist care, which they attributed to both cuts in services and increased demand. Nine out of 10 heads said they gave clothes to their most disadvantaged pupils, and nearly half said they washed clothes for pupils. More than 40% reported operating a food bank at the school or giving food parcels to pupils and their families. One school leader commented: “In 24 years of education I have not seen the extent of poverty like this. Children are coming to school hungry, dirty and without the basics to set them up for life. The gap between those that have and those that do not is rising and is stark.” Another teacher said some families had nowhere left to go for help: “We have seen an increase in the number of families needing support for basic human needs.” Edward Conway, headteacher of St Michael’s Catholic high school in Watford, said: “Pupil poverty has increased significantly over the past eight years, with us providing food, clothing, equipment and securing funds from charitable organisations to provide essential items such as beds and fridges.” The report comes as the ASCL meets for its annual conference in Birmingham, with Damian Hinds, the education secretary, addressing the headteachers on Friday. Hinds will unveil a new strand in his efforts to make teaching more attractive, with a new expert panel to advise on teacher wellbeing headed by Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind. “Like any really important job, teaching comes with its own challenges and, whilst rewarding, I don’t need to tell you how stressful it can be,” Hinds will tell the audience of around 1,000 school leaders. Farmer said he welcomed Hinds’ support for wellbeing in the workplace. “Teaching staff do an incredibly important and demanding job, so employers need to support their staff so that they can come into work at their best,” he said. | Richard Adams Education editor | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/15/schools-have-become-fourth-emergency-service-for-poorest-families | 2019-03-15 00:00:11+00:00 | 1,552,622,411 | 1,567,546,153 | education | school |
694,613 | theguardianuk--2019-03-24--Blocked drains mystery stinks heads warn of schools repair crisis | 2019-03-24T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Blocked drains, mystery stinks – heads warn of schools repair crisis | In one of the classrooms of Gillotts secondary school in Henley-on-Thames, there is a mysterious, acrid smell. It is a school day but the room is empty because this “awful” scent, a mix of damp and chemicals, clogs children’s throats and clings to the teachers’ hair and clothes long after they go home. “That classroom is shut and unusable because of the smell – and I could really do with that classroom,” said headteacher Catharine Darnton. Her state school has 900 pupils and, like many other heads across the country, she has struggled to maintain her dilapidated building in the face of the government’s austerity cuts. As well as the stink, heating failures and electricity blow-outs have led to partial temporary closures of the school and blocked drains have threatened to leak raw sewage onto the playground. Darnton has been forced to take money intended for the education of students and allocate it to repairs and even capital expenditure. The low point came when, in winter, the building was so cold and dark she had to consider closing the school. “It was insane,” she said. Last week, a survey of 3,500 teachers revealed two-fifths of schools have set up buckets to catch drips when it rains and over a quarter do not believe their schools are in a good state of repair. The research, by the survey app Teacher Tapp in collaboration with Schools Week, found that teachers working in schools built in the mid-20th century were the most likely to report using buckets – but even in schools built in the 2010s, around 27% of teachers still reported having to resort to this tactic. Theresa Madden is among the many headteachers who have learnt to dread bad weather: “When it rains, I worry about where the building will burst at the seams.” She teaches at St John Fisher Catholic College, a comprehensive school in Staffordshire. Despite achieving “excellent” outcomes for her students, Madden said “years of underfunding mean we are reactive rather than proactive to repairs. We receive just over £20,000 in capital funding annually which we could spend tenfold on repairs alone, before we even consider small projects. It is shameful the government fails to recognise that underfunding means young people are receiving an education akin to 50 years ago.” Darnton, like Madden, is calling on the government for more capital investment. Gillotts was one of five schools in Oxfordshire designated for a full rebuild under Labour, but this was cancelled after Michael Gove axed the Building Schools for the Future programme in 2010. The school’s capital budget used to be about £80,000 a year, but was cut by 80% to £18,000 in 2011 and has stayed at that level ever since. Also, funding per pupil has remained the same (around £4,700) between 2012 and 2018: a cumulative 16% cut after inflation is taken into account. The terrible stink first emerged in classroom X2 when a 40-year-old leaky pipe caused a huge heating failure. Even after further leaks partly closed the school, the government’s central improvement fund repeatedly refused applications to fully repair the school’s disintegrating underground heating system, landing Darnton with a £30,000 bill and effectively wiping out her year’s planned maintenance budget. While she was trying to find funds to repair the leak, the smell got worse. Now the heating is fixed but she has been forced to allocate £11,000 for air tests and underground drilling to try to get rid of the stench, and still cannot use the classroom. It may have be demolished and rebuilt – and that is not the only significant expense Darnton is facing this year. In December, a blocked drain threatened to send raw sewage back up through the school’s pipes. After repeatedly paying £1,500 to clear it, Darnton is now facing a bill of around £50,000 to keep sewage out of her playground. Most of this colossal expense, she says, could have been avoided if the school had been able to afford to line its drains, as it was advised to do, a few years earlier. “By not maintaining our schools, we are storing up problems and the cost is higher when we have to do it in an emergency,” she said. What upsets her most is the government’s lack of respect for heads, who are speaking out. “The government mantra is that there has never been more money for education. It doesn’t matter to me how much money there is across the system. What I see is that I’ve had real terms cuts to my funding every year.” She is working 70-hour weeks, trying to make do with the current level of funding. “I can’t go on doing that. I’m desperate for my capital funding to be reinstated.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have allocated £6bn in capital funding to maintain and improve ... school buildings since 2015, which includes an additional £400m for schools in 2018-19. “In addition, our Priority School Building Programme is rebuilding or refurbishing over 500 schools across the country, and we have reduced delivery timescales and driven down the costs of building schools. As the National Audit Office said in its report from February 2017, the Priority School Building Programme has delivered schools around a third cheaper than Building Schools for the Future.”“We are updating our information on the condition of state-funded schools in England, so that we can carry on targeting funding.” | Donna Ferguson | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/24/schools-repair-crisis-blocked-drains-mystery-stinks-budget-cuts | 2019-03-24 08:59:37+00:00 | 1,553,432,377 | 1,567,545,038 | education | school |
696,925 | theguardianuk--2019-04-10--Schools put down your begging bowls Unite and protest instead Holly Rigby | 2019-04-10T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Schools, put down your begging bowls. Unite and protest instead | Holly Rigby | Given the [£5.4 billion ](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/25 /schools-funding-shortfall-of-54bn-worse-than- estimated)[shortfall](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/25 /schools-funding-shortfall-of-54bn-worse-than-estimated) in funding that schools across England have suffered in the last three years, it’s little wonder that school fundraising efforts to plug these gaps have had to become increasingly creative. In the school I taught in last year, the school building was hired out in the evening to raise extra cash, so it wasn’t unusual to finish my marking to the lively sounds of the local Ghanaian church service in the canteen next to my classroom. At the end of last term, my current school hosted a conference for 500 teachers from across the country for a lively day of collaborative discussion on classroom pedagogy, with tickets costing visiting teachers £50 a head. Now a Guardian [report](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/09 /cash-strapped-english-schools-turn-to-online-donations-to-close-funding-gap) has shown that schools are embracing the modern trend for crowdsourcing and taking their fundraising efforts online. Gone are raffles of supermarket shampoo sets and Saturday afternoons spent flogging crumbling Rice Krispie cakes. Instead, the Guardian has shown that more than 1,000 schools are raising money through crowdfunding platforms like JustGiving or creating Amazon wish lists of basic supplies such as notebooks, glue sticks and cleaning products. With any cash injections to schools from the Treasury looking unlikely, schools should not be blamed for trying to raise the money they need to keep afloat. But allowing local community groups to use school premises after hours or organising events for teachers to collaborate in shouldn’t be luxuries that schools have to charge for. When schools have to proffer their online begging bowls for pencils and lined paper, we know that something has gone seriously wrong with our school system. We must not underestimate how dire the situation has become, even if the chancellor, Philip Hammond, insultingly claimed that schools only needed “[little extras](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/oct/30/schools- angry-philip-hammond-budget-little-extras-education)” in last year’s budget. Teachers are volunteering to reduce their [salaries](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/30/teachers- volunteer-pay-cut-save-colleagues-jobs-furzedown-funding) in order to safeguard the jobs of their teaching assistants. A school in [Stockport](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/28/school- stockport-close-early-fridays-lack-funding) is closing early on Fridays to save money on salaries and utilities. And a recent [survey](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/24/schools-repair- crisis-blocked-drains-mystery-stinks-budget-cuts) of 35,000 teachers on the parlous state of school buildings has found that two-fifths of schools had set up buckets in their classrooms to catch drips when it rained. In light of this, charitable fundraising efforts are only ever going to provide a temporary sticking plaster over the wound inflicted on schools by this government’s punishing austerity agenda. These fundraising efforts, no matter how innovative or well meaning, also risk legitimising the “[big society](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/jul/19/david-cameron-big- society-launch)” ethos once espoused by David Cameron, which suggested that individual generosity could patch up the unjustifiable gaps in state provision created by Conservative austerity. Instead, schools would be far better served if they joined the mass campaigns to pressure the government to increase school funding, particularly given there will be a spending review later this year. The National Education Union (NEU) is organising a mass [planning day](https://neu.org.uk/togetherforeducation) in Westminster’s Central Hall in June to bring together school leaders, teachers, parents and local councillors from across the country to build on the existing success of its School Cuts campaign. Just last week, the NEU collaborated with the f40 campaign group for fairer funding in education, chaired by Conservative councillor James McInnes to deliver a letter signed by [1,000 councillors ](https://www.bbc.com/news/education-47772862)demanding that the education secretary, Damian Hinds, delivers billions in funding in the upcoming spending review. I’m personally not going to hold my breath over Hinds’s promise that schools have a “[strong case](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/15/uk- headteachers-told-they-have-strong-case-for-extra-funding)” for extra funding. After all, there’s a reason why 750,000 people [switched their vote](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/20/schools-theresa-may- electorate-cuts) in the 2017 general election as a result of worries about school funding. Many of these votes went to Labour following its promise to invest [£6 billion](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/09/labour- pledges-6bn-annual-boost-to-school-budgets) in schools if elected. I understand why people committed to their local schools have not wanted to stand by and watch as school leaders and teachers struggle to provide even the basics our children require for a decent education. But fundraising is not the answer. Instead, passionate educationalists everywhere must now unite to take mass action to ensure we have a government committed to providing the school funding that our children and their schools deserve. • Holly Rigby is a teacher, a Labour party member and an activist in the National Education Union | Holly Rigby | https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/10/schools-begging-unite-protest-crowdfunding-cuts | 2019-04-10 13:56:59+00:00 | 1,554,919,019 | 1,567,543,351 | education | school |
697,089 | theguardianuk--2019-04-11--Ofsted uncovers 500 suspected illegal schools in England | 2019-04-11T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Ofsted uncovers 500 suspected illegal schools in England | More than 500 suspected illegal schools, educating thousands of pupils, have been identified in England over the past three years by the schools watchdog Ofsted, according to data published for the first time. Some of the schools were in an appalling condition with rat traps, exposed wires and open sewers, Ofsted inspectors said. In one, pupils were left to play computer games all day, while in another inspectors found children in every classroom repeating religious texts with no other apparent education going on. In some cases local authorities were unwittingly sending children to unlicensed alternative provision. In one case, a council paid £27,000 a year for one of its students to be educated in an unregistered setting. Elsewhere, students were found being taught by teachers who had been banned and untrained staff who had undergone no employment checks, in buildings where hygiene and facilities were poor. The data, released by Ofsted on Friday and never published before, shows the illegal schools task force has investigated 521 settings, and inspected 259 since January 2016. Ofsted estimated that 6,000 children were being educated in the 259 unregistered schools it has inspected to date but, according to Ofsted’s deputy director, Victor Shafiee, who heads the unregistered schools taskforce, the figures represent the “tip of the iceberg”. “All my inspectors tell me there’s still lots out there,” he said. “It just isn’t good enough that vulnerable children, isolated children, end up in these places where there is no oversight, no quality assurance, and they are out of sight.” He said the most vulnerable children ended up being looked after by the least capable adults and as a result were “robbed of their life chances”. Parents were often misled, sometimes paying £7,500 a year for their child to be educated in an illegal or unregistered school. “People hang on to the bottoms of lorries, and jump trains to get to this country because education is free. So why would you then send your child to an unregistered school and pay for them to go to these settings? It is something that I find unfathomable,” said Shafiee. Almost a quarter (23%) of the unregistered schools Ofsted inspected were in London, with the rest evenly spread across the country as far afield as Cornwall and the north-east. A fifth (21%) were faith schools, including 36 Islamic, 18 Jewish and 12 Christian schools, and 28% were alternative provision for students who struggled to cope with mainstream education. “As today’s data shows, this is not simply an issue with faith settings, nor is it limited to certain areas of the country,” said Shafiee. “Unregistered schools come in many shapes and sizes, and not all of them are run with malicious intent. But all children deserve the best.” So far, 71 of the schools have been issued with a warning notice by inspectors; 15 of those have since closed down while 39 have changed the way they operate in order to comply with the law, and nine have registered as independent schools. So far, however, there has been just one prosecution, with two more prosecutions pending. Ofsted is calling for greater powers to inspect unregistered schools and says the current legislative framework is inadequate, with inspectors unable to seize evidence, hampering potential prosecutions. Sue Will, an inspector on the unregistered schools taskforce, said she had been shocked by health and safety issues at some of the schools she had visited. She said she had seen portable buildings balanced on top of one another to maximise space. “Some of the buildings that we have been to are in really poor state – unsafe. We are not just talking about run-down places that could do with a lick of paint, we are talking about some not very nice places at all. “Open sewers, rat traps in rooms … exposed electrical work. I’ve seen holes in walls and floors, I have seen locked fire doors, I have seen holes where children have probably punched plaster walls. That is the bit for me that I always find so shocking.” An institution must register as a school – and therefore be open to inspection by Ofsted – if it is providing full-time education to at least five children of compulsory school age, or one child who is looked after by the local authority or who has special educational needs. The Department for Education (DfE) says that 18 hours or more a week constitutes full-time education so some providers avoid having to register by operating for 17 hours and 50 minutes per week. The DfE said a new register for children not in school – recently announced by the government – would help councils to identify children in unregulated settings and intervene. A spokesperson said the DfE had already signalled its intention to legislate to enable Ofsted gather evidence to support prosecutions and help close down illegal schools. | Sally Weale Education correspondent | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/12/ofsted-uncovers-500-suspected-illegal-schools-in-england | 2019-04-11 23:01:34+00:00 | 1,555,038,094 | 1,567,543,212 | education | school |
697,533 | theguardianuk--2019-04-16--The Great British School Swap review racial harmony Its childs play | 2019-04-16T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | The Great British School Swap review – racial harmony? It's child's play | Pupils from Asian and white-majority areas are put into a classroom together in a well-intentioned social experiment that fails to get to the root of prejudice Amina, a brown-skinned, teenage, Muslim pupil from Saltley academy, a secondary school in a predominantly brown-skinned Muslim area of Birmingham, thinks white people have different accents. “They’re like: ‘Ew, yew fucking plonkah!’” Her friends, of similar ethnic and religious heritage, think white people have “really messy houses”, they “don’t give a shit” and have “alcohol bottles everywhere”. They “have their feet up watching TV with a bowl of popcorn on the sofa”. There also seems to be a consensus that white people go to “naked beaches” a lot. White-skinned Lucas from Tamworth Enterprise, a secondary school in a predominantly white area of Birmingham a few miles away, thinks Muslims “worship a god called Allah and their prophet is Muhammad Ali”. He is doing better than Lauren, who thinks Islam may be a country, and Dan, who reckons Mecca is a YouTuber. They and their friends think Muslims wear burqas, smell of curry, shop at Primark and can be “horrible and nasty people”. “That’s because of terrorism,” Cabdul explains wearily to his fellow Saltlerians as outrage begins to build. Welcome to The Great British School Swap (Channel 4). It is the same premise you have seen before, only this time it is set in schools instead of homes. Or it is the other premise you have seen before, but this time looking at race and religion instead of money and class. Two groups of people who don’t normally meet are forced to spend time together in each other’s environments in the hope they can all learn something about themselves, about each other and, hey, maybe about life, too. In this opening episode, the Tamworth teenagers (a dozen boys and girls aged 13 and 14) are bussed across the invisible lines that separate them from Saltley. They will take part in a week of specially devised lessons aimed at making both groups think more deeply about messages they have received uncritically and ideas they have internalised. As is almost always the case with even the most well-intentioned social-experiment programmes, the pace is dizzying and the results maddeningly superficial. There are plenty of telly-worthy moments – the strangely pure innocence of Dan, for example, as he explains earnestly that he doesn’t use the word “Paki” because, in Tamworth, “there’s no Pakis around to say it to”, or the explanation from one student to another of what a golliwog is: “A black doll, costs about £7.” There is the standout character around whom a whole series could be built: the mighty Kiran, who has yet to have an unexpressed thought. On white girls’ clothing, she says: “You seen ’em on the streets in short skirts and boob jobs? Are you being serious? Keep it PG!” Talking about a transgender pupil, Lucas (a model of impressive grace under increasing pressure, as his gender becomes a source of growing fascination to many Saltley students), she admits: “Do you want my honest opinion? I just don’t like gay people. I feel weird around them.” And yet she is charming. She is clearly wrestling with herself and the received wisdom with which she has grown up. The obviousness of the cogs turning is enough to give you hope. As Mr Turnkey, the headteacher at Tamworth, says: “The important thing is that we’re working with minds still open to change.” But it feels so slight, so fragmentary. The sense of the programme itself preaching to the choir is pervasive. Of course, you can take your own deep dives into more thoughtful waters off the rocky promontories that the pupils’ unguarded words, attitudes and relationships provide, but only if you are already that way inclined. If you want to inspire deeper thought among a wider demographic – as you surely should, to justify putting these children in extremely exposing positions – then you need to drill down, follow through, unpick some issues and lay them out for examination. It isn’t clear yet whether the next two episodes will do that. A trailer for next week’s show, which concentrates more on the children’s parents, suggests that, whether it is as superficial or not, it is going to be several degrees bleaker as they work with minds less open to change. On the upside, you can already see the two dozen children doing each other good. Simply getting to know each other – none of them drunk, naked, terrorists or clad in Primark – is enough to have an effect. It’s so simple, isn’t it? And so, so hard. | Lucy Mangan | https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/apr/16/the-great-british-school-swap-review | 2019-04-16 21:00:01+00:00 | 1,555,462,801 | 1,567,542,859 | education | school |
697,571 | theguardianuk--2019-04-17--A bunker for Bauhaus design school comes home to Weimar | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | A bunker for Bauhaus: design school comes home to Weimar | The German city of Weimar has long bathed in its historic cultural heritage, boasting such illustrious former residents as Goethe, Schiller, Bach and Liszt. Its quiet cobbled streets are lined with creamy stuccoed piles where great men of letters convened, and stately theatres where premieres were performed. But, while it is happy to wallow in the völkisch annals of its distant past, the city has never much cared for the fact that it spawned the most influential art school of the 20th century, perhaps of all time. “People here are still a bit unsure about the Bauhaus,” says Wolfgang Holler, museum director of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the city’s foundation for classical heritage, which has opened a new Bauhaus museum to mark the school’s centenary. “It is still very much a backward-looking place.” One hundred years after the Bauhaus was founded here, Weimar has come to terms with it just enough to allow a museum to be built. The small town of Dessau, where the radical school was forced to move in 1925, still boasts the dazzling white studio buildings designed by its founding director, Walter Gropius, while Berlin, where it moved again in 1932, has the Gropius-designed Bauhaus Archive. Both have (delayed) buildings in the works to mark the centenary. But Weimar, which remains a stronghold of the conservative forces that originally pushed the school out, has only ever had a paltry display tucked away in a poky space – until now. Standing as a chiselled concrete bunker on the edge of a new public square, the €27m (£23m) Bauhaus Museum is a stark arrival. It presents a windowless frontage to the square, exuding the austere presence of a memorial, a mute grey block that might not seem out of place at the Buchenwald concentration camp nearby. Some locals have even compared it to the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s eastern front headquarters. “It was important to express Weimar’s ambivalent relationship with modernism,” says the museum’s architect, Heike Hanada, who studied and taught at Bauhaus University in Weimar, and won the project in an anonymous international competition in 2012, having built nothing else before. “It also had to respond to the politically charged site.” The museum stands next to the Gauforum, a puffed-up administrative complex built by the Nazis in the 1930s as the headquarters of their slave-labour programme. Its central courtyard, originally named Adolf-Hitler-Platz, remains fenced-off to prevent neo-Nazi gatherings from occupying the space – a very real threat in a city where the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland is poised to make strong gains in forthcoming elections. As a blunt grey block inscribed with horizontal strata, Hanada’s building has eerie echoes of the Gauforum’s stone tower, designed to the directions of Hitler himself. “Unfortunately, he was not so bad at architecture,” she says, although she insists that any similarity is a coincidence. The Third Reich may have been interested in the monumental power of a particularly steroidal kind of classicism, but it had no time for the avant-garde work of the Bauhaus, labelling its output “degenerate” and finally closing the school in 1933. The museum’s sombre character is strangely fitting: it is a mausoleum for a school of thought that Weimar once did its best to eradicate. The subdued container is, thankfully, enlivened by the colourful stories found within it. History has done its best to normalise the Bauhaus, straightening it out as a pure, modernist bastion of form follows function, but the truth is it was a weird, riotously plural place, particularly in its early years. The Bauhaus Weimar period, from 1919-25, is by far the most strange and untold of the school’s history, so this museum fills a welcome and fascinating gap. The exhibition begins by introducing the range of oddballs and eccentrics who made up the school’s initial teaching staff, alongside a rich range of work their students produced. We meet Gertrud Grunow, who taught classes in “harmonisation”, rhythmic gymnastics where students learned how to relate colours to certain sounds, movements and materials. “You close your eyes and, after a short period of inner reflection, you receive an instruction,” wrote an observer of her class, “either to imagine a certain colour ball and to feel it by penetrating it with your hands, or to concentrate on a note played at the piano. In less than no time, almost everyone is fully in motion.” Grunow was recruited by Johannes Itten, a primary school teacher-turned-painter Gropius hired to run the preliminary Vorkurs, a compulsory six-month programme for new students. A shaven-headed mystic who wore his own special uniform of funnel-shaped trousers and a high-necked jacket fastened with a belt, Itten was the most cultish of the Bauhaus masters. He was a devout follower of Mazdaznan, a neo-Zoroastrian movement that prescribed a strict vegetarian diet and breathing exercises, which he conducted at the beginning of each class. His methods attracted as many critics as disciples: he “had something demonic about him”, said one former pupil, which might not have been far off the mark. Among his many rambling essays was a text on how the white race represented the highest level of civilisation (this unsavoury side is glossed over in the museum). The work students produced during these early years was as peculiar as the teaching staff. The winning design for the Bauhaus emblem, by Karl Peter Röhl, looks like a masonic seal, depicting a matchstick man holding up a striped pyramid surrounded by stars, circles and a reverse swastika. Plans for a Bauhaus commune by Walter Determann show a huddle of traditional log cabins in a forest setting, while another of his psychedelic drawings imagines housing and studios arranged in a crystalline starburst. It is a fusion of the folksy and expressionist that also imbues the woodcuts of the printing department, and the rustic pots produced under Gerhard Marcks, who moved the school’s ceramics studio to the town of Dornburg, where he lived with his apprentices like primitive settlers, making jam jars to sell at farmers’ markets. It is all as far from the minimal “Bauhaus style” as could be imagined. The exhibition paints a picture of the school as a lively, ad hoc place with no single clear direction but a multitude of experimental goings-on, a heady melting pot of visionaries and vegans, conservationists and cosmologists. It was a messy, conflicted place, housing the competing interests of art for self-fulfilment and hard-nosed design for industrial production – and many shades in between. As Gropius put it: “My sole aim is to leave everything in suspension, in flux, in order to prevent our community from solidifying into a conventional academy.” On the second floor, the wild world of Bauhaus theatre, music and parties takes over, with a section devoted to the school’s theatrical laboratory, headed up by Oskar Schlemmer. The experimental tutor – who made his name with the futuristic Triadic Ballet in 1922, with performers dressed as space-age lollipops – encouraged his students to work in miniature, developing marionette theatre and puppet shows. Many of their surreal creations are on show here, along with scenes from the outlandish dressing-up parties. “Tell me how you party,” Schlemmer proclaimed, “and I’ll tell you who you are.” The more familiar, later side of the Bauhaus is not forgotten either, with a large area devoted to the products of the furniture and metalwork departments, from a pleasingly DIY-store display of doorhandles to shelves piled high with kitchen utensils, crockery and coffeemakers – stripped-back designs that have become so familiar. But there are some gaping holes, which the centenary could have provided a timely point to address. Along with some Bauhauslers’ questionable attitudes to race, the subject of gender inequality is mostly ignored. As early as 1920, Gropius suggested that student “selection should be more rigorous … particularly in the case of the female sex, already overrepresented in terms of numbers”. He had reckoned on “50 ladies and 100 gentlemen”, but the reality was more like half of each, since the Weimar constitution guaranteed women unrestricted freedom to study. Some histories have painted a picture of merry equality at the Bauhaus, but this masks the reality that Gropius recommended women be sent straight from the Vorkurs to the weaving workshop, and he agreed with Marcks to admit “no women at all if possible into the [pottery] workshop, both for their sakes and for the sake of the workshop.” One of the few who asserted herself against these restrictions was Marianne Brandt, whose elegant metal teapots and ashtrays, composed from elementary forms of spheres and triangles, have become notable symbols of the Weimar Bauhaus. Her products are on show here in a glass vitrine (and on sale in the gift shop, from €150), but without so much as a caption. Similarly, the contribution of Lily Reich to the well-known works of Mies van der Rohe is barely mentioned. As you leave the museum, down an imposing five-storey staircase in a narrow slot at the rear of the building, a large window frames a view of the rolling countryside, where a memorial tower stands in the distance. It marks Buchenwald, whose gates were designed by prisoner Franz Ehrlich, a former Bauhaus student. It is a powerful ending. As Germany faces the rising spectre of rightwing nationalism once more, the museum provides a poignant reminder of how fragile our freedoms remain. | Oliver Wainwright | https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/17/a-bunker-for-bauhaus-design-school-comes-home-to-weimar | 2019-04-17 12:21:19+00:00 | 1,555,518,079 | 1,567,542,725 | education | school |
697,860 | theguardianuk--2019-04-18--Teaching union warns of super-sized classes in English schools | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Teaching union warns of 'super-sized' classes in English schools | Class sizes in secondary schools in England will hit a 40-year high owing to a sharp increase in pupil numbers being compounded by the growing funding crisis, teachers’ leaders havesaid. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), predicted that significantly more secondary school pupils would find themselves being taught in “super-sized classes”, which will “enrage” parents. Secondary schools in some areas of England are already starting to experience significant growth in pupil numbers as a bulge in the population caused by rising birth rates in the 2000s makes its way through the education system. School funding cuts are also having an impact. Last year education unions claimed that cuts were forcing up class sizes as schools sought to balance their budgets by cutting staff, with 62% of state secondary schools in England reporting larger class sizes than two years earlier. In an address to delegates gathered for the final day of the NEU annual conference in Liverpool, Courtney accused the government of failing to prepare for the crisis, while class sizes continue to grow. He told the conference: “We are about to see a significant increase in the number of secondary school children in super-sized classes. And my prediction is that this will enrage parents. The government can keep repeating its lines about more funding than ever before, but what’s happening to class sizes will give the lie to that.” Courtney went on: “Astonishingly, we are about to see the number of secondary children in classes of 31 and above is about to pass the number in primary schools. That’s completely unprecedented in this country.” Historically, classes in secondary school have been smaller than those in primary, but the rapid increase in secondary pupil numbers means that may change. There is also mounting concern that a recruitment and retention crisis means England’s secondary schools will not have enough teachers, particularly in subjects such as modern foreign languages, maths and science. Many secondary teachers are already having to teach outside the subject they trained in – for example, PE teachers taking maths classes. “This represents a real problem in our schools,” said Courtney. “It represents a real problem for our members as well as their pupils. It’s a real problem this government has seen coming for 11 years. It’s a real problem it hasn’t dealt with.” The secondary school-age population is forecast to grow by nearly 20% over the next decade. The government has been working to build capacity, but more than 10% of secondary school teachers left the profession last year. The government has also missed its targets for recruiting secondary teacher trainees for five years in a row. Courtney also used his speech as a rallying call to urge parents to campaign on the issue of school funding in the run-up to the local elections, urging them to “ramp it up even more” in the case of a general election. “Our funding campaign is going from strength to strength,” he said. “School funding is an issue that will not go away for this government … No politician in this country can safely ignore the fact that three-quarters of a million people changed their vote in the last general election because of school funding.’” Teachers and school leaders were criticised in the rightwing media for their role in the campaign against funding cuts two years ago, before the 2017 general election, when education became the third most discussed issue on the doorstep. The Department for Education has been contacted for comment. Previously it has said that the government is on track to create a million new school places by the end of this decade – the largest increase for at least two generations. | Sally Weale Education correspondent | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/apr/18/english-schools-will-see-super-sized-classes-warns-teachers-union | 2019-04-18 15:38:34+00:00 | 1,555,616,314 | 1,567,542,585 | education | school |
703,310 | theguardianuk--2019-06-25--Tuesday briefing Nice work if you can get into the right school | 2019-06-25T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Tuesday briefing: Nice work if you can get into the right school | Hello, I’m Warren Murray with the day’s conversation-starters. Members of the uppermost echelons of British politics, the judiciary, media and business are five times more likely to have been to private school than the general population. Privately educated people, many of whom went to Oxbridge, continue to dominate high-ranking jobs: 39% had an independent education compared with 7% of the general population, according to a study called Elitist Britain 2019 by the Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Commission. The report identifies a “pipeline” from fee-paying schools through Oxbridge and into top jobs. Luke Heselwood from the Reform thinktank says the “scandalous” figures show that the UK is far from being a meritocracy. “Fixing this will require serious reform to the education system as, despite improvements, the most advantaged are nearly 10 times more likely to attend elite universities than the most disadvantaged.” The shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, said: “The old boys’ network and the old school tie still hold back talented and hard-working people from less privileged backgrounds.” Love holding me back, says Johnson – Boris Johnson has set out on a media blitz in which he is vowing never to reveal the events that led to the police being called to the home of his partner Carrie Symonds. The Tory leadership frontrunner insisted on the BBC that “I do not talk about stuff involving my family, my loved ones” because “that is not fair on them”. Johnson is now understood to be rolling out a “media blitz” for the coming days, beginning with a series of closely controlled events on Tuesday. Rival Jeremy Hunt’s camp pointed out that “bottler Boris” has declined all television debates until Conservative members have already begun returning their ballot papers. In a BBC interview, Johnson defended his Brexit plan to renegotiate a deal with the European Union but admitted he could not rip up the entire withdrawal agreement; and said he would tackle the Irish border “on the other side of 31 October during what’s called the implementation period”, but then was forced to agree the UK would not get an implementation period without the withdrawal agreement. Sweaty times – It is going to feel like 47C in parts of Europe as an unprecedented week-long heatwave rolls across the continent. Meteorologists say temperatures will soar from Spain to Switzerland as hot air is sucked up from the Sahara by a storm stalling over the Atlantic and high pressure over central Europe. Officials in Paris have set up “cool rooms” in municipal buildings, opened pools for late-night swimming, installed extra drinking fountains and postponed school exams. Temperatures in the French capital reached 34C on Monday and that’s just the start. France’s deadliest recent heatwave was in August 2003 when almost 15,000 mainly elderly people died as hospitals were overwhelmed. Roof over Archie’s head – Frogmore Cottage cost the British taxpayer £2.4m to renovate so Harry, Meghan and Archie could live there, accounts reveal. The 18th century Grade-II listed house – which is actually rather large and uncottagey-looking – is close to Windsor Castle. The bill included work to convert the five apartments in the building back into one single dwelling, which is now the couple’s official residence since they left Kensington Palace to set up their own royal household. Defective ceiling beams and floor joists need doing, as well as upgrades to the heating, power, gas and water. ‘Someone knows who she is’ – A woman posed as the aunt of a cyclist who was killed in London to speak at a meeting against plans for a new segregated bike lane, according to the victim’s mother. Kensington and Chelsea council rejected the scheme. Eilidh Cairns died aged 30 in 2009 after being hit by a tipper truck in the borough. Her sister, Kate Cairns, who founded the road safety charity See Me Save Me after Eilidh’s death said the bike lane scheme, had it been in place, “would surely have prevented the death of my sister”. Eilidh’s mother, Heather, blasted the “effrontery” of the mystery person as she demanded the council identify her: “Someone knows who she is.” The cycle lane plan was drawn up by the office of the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. The borough says it is producing its own plan to direct cyclists to back streets rather than have protected lanes. Down with filth – The notion that over-cleanliness is bad for children’s health is a dangerous myth, a report from the Royal Society for Public Health has warned. In its survey, 23% of 2,000 people thought “hygiene in the home is not important because children need to be exposed to harmful germs to build their immune system”. “The time has come when we need to sort this one out,” said Sally Bloomfield, lead author of Too Clean or Not Too Clean. “The public is becoming very confused.” Playing outside in the dirt does children good by exposing them to good bacteria, but it is vital they wash their hands before eating and after going to the toilet, says the RSPH. It stresses the importance of cleaning food preparation surfaces and wash dishcloths, but most crucial is hand washing – after going to the toilet, being around pets, before and after preparing food, and after coughing, sneezing or nose-blowing. Adults get four to six colds every year, children pick up six to eight, around one in 20 people get the vomiting bug norovirus, and it could all be kept in check by proper hand washing and hygiene, says the RSPH. The Tory leadership hopeful has been avoiding questions on how the police were called to his home after an altercation with his partner. But will questions about Johnson’s previous behaviour and character damage his chances of becoming prime minister? The Guardian’s chief political correspondent, Jessica Elgot, discusses how the incident has been handled by Johnson’s campaign team and the wider questions that have arisen over his judgment and character. And, Bethan McKernan on the mayoral election rerun election in Istanbul that has dealt a serious blow to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. For almost half a century, the left has won progress on how people think about prejudice, personal identity and freedom, exposed capitalism’s cruelties, sometimes won elections, and sometimes governed effectively afterwards. But it has not been able to change fundamentally how wealth and work function in society. The left, in short, has not had an economic policy to answer that of the right: privatisation, deregulation, lower taxes for business and the rich, more power for employers and shareholders, less power for workers. Capitalism has been made to appear inevitable, and any alternative impossible. But in recent years the prevailing system has started to fail. Rather than sustainable and widely shared prosperity, it has produced wage stagnation, ever more workers in poverty, ever more inequality, banking crises, populism and the climate crisis. Even some rightwing politicians concede the seriousness of the crisis. A huge political space has opened up, and a transatlantic movement of leftwing economists is building a practical alternative to neoliberalism. The result, the new economists claim, will be a “democratic economy” that suits society, rather than a society subordinated to the economy. Fifa is holding a priority investigation, to be concluded within 48 hours, into the behaviour of the Cameroon team during their 3-0 loss to England in the last 16 of the Women’s World Cup. The hype around the US finally appears to be waning, even as the Americans beat a resilient Spain side 2-1 with the help of two penalties. Stina Blackstenius fired Sweden into the quarter-finals but they needed a penalty save from Hedvig Lindahl to beat Canada 1-0 in Paris. Eoin Morgan has declined to join the chorus of voices asking supporters not to boo Steve Smith and David Warner in today’s World Cup match at Lord’s, adding that the pair may have served bans for last year’s ball-tampering scandal but rebuilding public trust takes longer. If England needed a reminder of just how fragile their hopes of making the semi-finals currently are, the presence of Bangladesh breathing down their neck in the standings following a convincing win against Afghanistan provided it. And the Australian Christian Lobby is hosting a fundraising effort on its website for the former Wallabies star Israel Folau after his GoFundMe page was shut down. The digital bank Monzo is being valued at £2bn after a new wave of fundraising attracted £113m from a group of investors led by Y Combinator, a firm best known for Airbnb, Dropbox and Reddit. The bank has two million users and is aiming to increase that by 50% this year. On the markets, stocks have been down in Asia as investors await the outcome of this weekend’s meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The FTSE100 is set to drop 0.3% at the opening while the pound is buying $1.275 and €1.117. The picture of Boris Johnson holding hands with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds features on several front pages today, though many papers express cynicism about the timing and staging of the pic. “What a Carrie on”, says the Mirror, while the i has: “Johnson breaks his silence but refuses to discuss his ‘loved ones’”. The Telegraph writes: “Boris tries to keep the show on the road” and says that while the “picture paints a thousand words” it “raises many more questions”. Other papers don’t feature the picture but still report on the Tory leadership dramas. The Guardian has: “Johnson plans media blitz as Hunt calls him a ‘bottler’”, the Times says “‘Cowardly’ Johnson launches fightback”, the Express reports on Jacob Rees-Mogg coming to Johnson’s defence: “Time to stop the war on Boris”. The Mail features the picture of Johnson and Symonds and a deeply unimpressed headline: “Boris and the Mills & Boon scene that takes us all for fools”, though its main story is “Your £2.4m bill to do up Meghan and Harry’s cottage”. As is the Sun’s: “Harry’s £2.4m home Megover”. The Guardian Morning Briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes bright and early every weekday. If you are not already receiving it by email, you can sign up here. | Warren Murray | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/25/tuesday-briefing-nice-work-if-you-can-get-into-the-right-school | 2019-06-25 05:24:23+00:00 | 1,561,454,663 | 1,567,538,208 | education | school |
704,752 | theguardianuk--2019-07-04--700 English schools reported over asbestos safety concerns | 2019-07-04T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | 700 English schools reported over asbestos safety concerns | Nearly 700 schools have been referred to the national health and safety body over concerns they are failing to safely manage asbestos in their buildings, potentially putting thousands of staff and pupils at risk, it has been revealed. It is thought that about 90% of school buildings in England contain asbestos, often around pipes and boilers, and in wall and ceiling tiles. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises that it is only a risk if it is disturbed or damaged, which releases fibres into the air. However, campaigners and unions say asbestos in schools is often poorly managed and that staff are frequently unaware of its location in the buildings they work in. Even low levels of exposure to asbestos fibres can cause cancer decades later. Research has shown that exposure to asbestos is more dangerous the younger a person is, raising concerns over the future health of children. Last year, the government launched the asbestos management assurance process to find out more about asbestos in schools. According to information released following a freedom of information request, of the 2,952 schools bodies that responded in full to the survey, 2,570 (87%) reported having asbestos in at least one of their buildings. The Department for Education (DfE) has now referred 676 state-funded schools and academies in England to the HSE as they did not provide evidence “that they were managing asbestos in line with regulatory requirements”. The HSE will now carry out inspections of some of those schools. Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), which is part of the joint union asbestos committee, 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. The HSE, which lacks resources following years of budget cuts, will now be expected to investigate these cases and we are concerned that it may struggle to do so.” The HSE estimates that about 5,000 people die every year in the UK from asbestos-caused cancers, which can develop decades after exposure. According to figures from the ONS, since 2001 at least 305 teaching and education professionals have died of mesothelioma, a cancer almost exclusively caused by asbestos. A 2018 study suggested that there were five times more deaths from mesothelioma among teachers and three times more among nurses than expected in populations not exposed to the substance. In 2017, an NEU survey of members found that of the 46% of respondents who had been told that their school contained asbestos, half had not been told where the asbestos was located. Nearly 75% of those who had been told where it was located said the asbestos was in accessible locations, such as floors, ceilings, and window frames. Materials containing asbestos become more dangerous as they deteriorate or get damaged, and 60% of the school estate is more than 40 years old, according to the NEU. Lucie Stephens started campaigning about asbestos in schools after her mother, Sue, died of mesothelioma in 2016. Sue had worked as a primary school teacher for 30 years and was diagnosed with the cancer in 2014. An inquest found she had died from an industrial disease and that on the balance of probability she was exposed during her time as a teacher in schools in Buckinghamshire. “What really bothered Mum was that because she didn’t know there was asbestos there, she wasn’t able to protect herself, but she also wasn’t able to protect the children she was teaching,” said Stephens. “So she unwittingly exposed her children to asbestos as well and they will be in their 40s now.” Stephens and the joint union asbestos committee are calling on the government to implement the phased removal of all asbestos from schools, something that was recommended by the all-party parliamentary group on occupational health in 2012. Stephens is also campaigning for the government to release the names of all schools with asbestos in and is raising funds to build a website to make the information accessible. The DfE has so far refused to release the names on the grounds it would deter schools from sharing information with it in the future. In April, Latimer AP academy in north London was forced to close when asbestos was discovered inside door frames in its Victorian building. Last month, the HSE confirmed it had found traces of asbestos at Brunel primary and nursery academy in Saltash, Cornwall, following an investigation. Charles Pickles, an independent asbestos campaigner who until recently worked as an asbestos consultant, said: “In the 60s and 70s we all knew that smoking was dangerous, then suddenly we became aware that passive smoking could cause cancer as well. It’s the same with asbestos. “If you were a builder or working in an asbestos factory in the 60s, 70s or 80s you could have had huge exposure and your fate may be sealed, but most of the asbestos that was manufactured then is still in our public buildings now. There is no safe level for exposure to asbestos. It’s still there and it will be getting disturbed.” A DfE spokesperson 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.” A HSE spokesperson said: “The HSE have worked with the DfE to use the asbestos management assurance process returns to provide targeted intelligence for a planned programme of proactive visits to schools.” | Frances Perraudin | https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/04/700-english-schools-reported-over-asbestos-safety-concerns | 2019-07-04 15:52:51+00:00 | 1,562,269,971 | 1,567,536,931 | education | school |
565 | 21stcenturywire--2019-09-01--Parents Sue Over Vaccine Requirement Compare it to Military Draft | 2019-09-01T00:00:00 | 21stcenturywire | Parents Sue Over Vaccine Requirement, Compare it to ‘Military Draft’ | How far would you go to protect your children from a potential harm? Currently in the US, all 50 states have laws requiring specified vaccines for students. While exemptions many vary from state to state, all states do grant exemptions for medical reasons. In total, there are 45 states (including Washington D.C.) which grant exemptions on religious grounds, and at least 15 states which allow for “philosophical” exemptions which can be justified based on one’s personal, moral or ideological beliefs. The following chart is a state by state breakdown of vaccine exemptions in the United States: However, sometimes such legal provisions are not enough and parents have no choice but to wage battle in the courts. One such case is that of Linus and Terri Baker, are have been forced to take on the government in order to protect their grandchild from what they believe is a health risk – as well as an direct infringement upon their liberty. A Johnson County lawyer and his wife — who have never vaccinated their 4-year-old son — are suing Blue Valley schools and state officials, calling Kansas’ immunization requirements unconstitutional and archaic. Linus and Terri Baker had previously sued the Kansas Department of Children and Families, which in 2017 had notified them it would vaccinate the boy against their wishes. That never happened. Last year, a federal judge dismissed all claims. Now that the boy is approaching school age, the family is trying again. This week the Bakers — who are the child’s biological grandparents and now adoptive parents — filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Kansas against the Blue Valley school district, Gov. Laura Kelly, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lee Norman, secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “We have this right of having bodily integrity,” said Linus Baker, who works as a lawyer in Stilwell, in southern Johnson County. “You can’t pump someone’s stomach against their wishes. You can’t make someone take drugs. You can’t make a woman have an abortion. You can’t do a lot of things because of bodily integrity. So why is it we can force a child to be injected with vaccines 24 times? It’s the same principle.” Spokeswomen for both Blue Valley schools and the state health department on Friday declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying it is under review. But state health officials and vaccine proponents have argued that unvaccinated children pose a health risk to others. They point to the recent measles outbreak in Johnson County and elsewhere, a disease that has reappeared since the anti-vaccination movement has grown. The Bakers’ son, who is being referred to as S.F.B in court documents, was born with a heart condition, which required surgery when he was 6 months old. He’s now physically healthy, according to the new lawsuit, but Linus Baker said he has mental disabilities. The family worries about how vaccines could affect his health. And they have religious objections. When S.F.B was 2 years old, he was placed in temporary state custody after a Johnson County judge ruled he was a child in need of care. His biological mother — the Bakers’ daughter — was notified that the Kansas Department of Children and Families, or DCF, might vaccinate her son. DCF gave the mother 14 days to submit a written objection. Linus and Terri Baker are taking on the government – and by extension, the pharmaceutical industry too. Watch: Kansas law provides two exemptions to the school immunization requirement, based on religious beliefs and medical concerns. To claim the medical exemption, a family must provide an annual written statement signed by a licensed physician stating vaccinations would seriously endanger the life or health of the child. Linus Baker said his child would not qualify for that exemption under state law. For the religious exemption, the state offers two versions. To enroll in a child care facility, a parent must sign a statement saying: “As the parent or legal guardian, I state that I am an adherent of a religious denomination whose teachings are opposed to immunizations.” But to enroll a child in a school or preschool — which is the case with the Bakers’ boy — the parent must submit in writing that “the child is an adherent of a religious denomination whose religious teachings are opposed to such tests or inoculations.” That’s the statement S.F.B’s mother submitted to the state. Linus Baker said the statement is “irrational” and “does not comply” with Kansas statutes. The family does have religious objection to vaccines, he said. Terri Baker is a Christian and holds a strong belief that vaccines pose health risks, despite scientific research showing the benefits far outweigh any risks. But he argues that a 4-year-old mentally challenged child cannot choose to adhere to a religious denomination. “As students get older, they certainly formulate their own beliefs. But this is a 4-year-old without the mental capacity to make that decision,” he said. “He likes Spider-Man. But I doubt he knows anything about adhering to a religious denomination.” In the lawsuit, the Bakers request an injunction allowing their son to attend public or private schools without being vaccinated, and without filing a religious or medical exemption. They also ask for a declaration that Kansas’ exemption statute is “unconstitutionally vague,” and that requiring a child to be an adherent of a religious denomination is a violation of parents’ right to make decisions for their child… | 21wire | https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/09/01/parents-sue-over-vaccine-requirement-compare-it-to-military-draft/ | 2019-09-01 13:37:05+00:00 | 1,567,359,425 | 1,569,331,674 | religion and belief | religious belief |
720 | 21stcenturywire--2019-11-29--QUO VADIS, LEBANON? | 2019-11-29T00:00:00 | 21stcenturywire | QUO VADIS, LEBANON? | The mean streets of Beirut (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) Good bye to a country which, many believe, actually has already ceased to exist. For five long years I have been commuting between the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. And Beirut, for all that time, it was one of my homes. I arrived in Beirut when the situation in the region was beginning to be unbearable; when destabilized, tortured Syria commenced losing its children in large numbers. They were forced to leave their homeland, heading for Beirut and Beqaa Valley, and in fact, to all parts of the world. I arrived when Syrian refugees were freezing to death, exploited and brutalized in ancient, godforsaken villages lost in the deep, lawless Lebanese valleys. I was not supposed to write about it, but I did. I was not supposed to see what I saw. It was the UN’s shame, a well-hidden and well covered one, obscured by technical jargon. Refugees were not called refugees, and camps were not really officially registered as camps. What you had clearly seen with your own eyes, you were told, was actually totally something else. But it wasn’t. Eyes hardly lie. Lebanon’s mirages, sand castles and myths. If you live here, they surround you, suffocate you, choke you, all the time. I arrived when the Palestinians began rebelling inside the horrific camps; hopeless, monstrous places where tens of thousands of human beings have been forced to live, for decades, without help, with hardly any rights. And I left when the country collapsed. When the gap between the haves and have-nots reached such enormous proportions, that it often began to appear that there were actually two different countries, even universes, on the same tiny geographical territory that is called Lebanon. But before I left, there was an uprising. Of course, periodically, there are rebellions here, which are misleadingly called “revolutions”. The “revolution” of 2005, of 2015, and now again, in 2019. I worked in the center of Beirut, in the squares packed with the protesters. I tried to understand, to analyze, to find context. And what did I witness? Huge clenched fists, those of the Serbian “Otpor”, a CIA-Serbian (extreme right-wing) ‘organization’, which forced the government of Slobodan Milosevic out of power, and which later infiltrated and destroyed genuine revolts all over the Middle East; revolts cynically called by the Western mass media – “Arab Spring”. I actually saw many signs of Otpor, a sister group of CANVAS, and when I asked protesters in Beirut whether they knew what these organizations represented, they replied that “no”, they didn’t but “they’d definitely ask their designers”. There was a lot of waving of flags, plenty of singing, and even dancing. Rebellion Lebanese-style. One big party. Smiles, laughter, even when things get desperate. “Can you hear the people sing?” In true Lebanese style, lite entertainment was on offer at the barricades (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) Protesters have many grievances, and they are willing to discuss them, openly: corruption, hardship, almost non-existent social services, and hardly any future. But do not look for any signs of ideology here, in 2019: this is not a communist, or even a socialist, rebellion, although historically, Lebanon has vibrant socialist and communist movements, both of them. One thing is certain: protesters “do not like ‘elites’”, but you will search in vain for slogans denouncing capitalism; something that is so common in Chile and of course, in Bolivia (but not in Hong Kong, where the riots are clearly backed by the West and by some local ‘elites’). Protesters do not like electricity blackouts, water shortages, filth accumulated everywhere because of the failed garbage collection and recycling. The protesters hate the high prices, and traffic jams. Aftermath: some commercial spaces took the brunt of weeks of protests in downtown Beirut (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) But what do they want, really? They want a “better Lebanon”. But what is that? A Lebanon free of racism, for instance? No, I never saw any signs denouncing racism. When I first began living here, I was horrified by the bigotry of the locals. A driver working for one of the UN agencies, did not even try to hide his ‘beliefs’: “The Turkish nation has improved. In the past, they only screwed Asian women, and as a result, they all looked like dogs. After they conquered the Balkans, and began screwing European women, their stock got better.” Arriving at Rafik Hariri International Airport, I often saw humiliated Philippine, Ethiopian, or Kenyan women, locked in crowded rooms, guarded by Lebanese security forces. They looked like slaves, treated like meat. Unhurriedly, their “owners” would come to fetch them, signing release papers, leading them away. The abuse of domestic workers in Lebanon is horrific; torture, rape and death are common. Foreign workers are regularly committing suicide. While there is hardly any legal protection for them. Is this going to change? Are protesters demanding a “better Lebanon” which would once and for all finish with this sort of discrimination? Again, I have never heard about such demands. And what has been sustaining Lebanon, financially, for decades? All over West Africa, unscrupulous, racist and brutal Lebanese business people have been exploiting local folks, while plundering natural resources. The things that I heard in Ivory Coast, would shock even the most hardened readers. But are there any slogans in Beirut demanding the plunder of West Africa stop? Another fabled source of income are the narcotics, grown and processed in the Beqaa Valley. If it were to be marijuana, who cares? But Lebanon is producing heroin and cocaine, but above all, so-called “combat drugs”, including Captagon, which is used on the battlefields of Syria and Yemen. Captagon is regularly smuggled out of the country by the Saudis, and used in jihadi operations, as I have reported. Is this going to end? Are Lebanese protesters demanding a “better Lebanon” without drugs that are helping to kill and torture tens of thousands of innocent people, all over the region? What are the other sources of income here? Banking, of course. Banks that operate all over the Middle East, and the Gulf. And, of course, “foreign aid”. Aid which is supposed to “help the immigrants”, as well as the poor Lebanese who are “suffering from the waves of refugees”, arriving from countries destabilized by the West. These funds regularly disappear, fully or partially”, into the deep pockets of the Lebanese elites, who make sure to generate profits no matter what: when the refugees keep arriving, and even when they leave. Before I departed, I spent one week wandering all around Beirut, day and night, searching for answers, looking for signs that the protesters were really determined to change the country. Not just for themselves, but for everyone in Lebanon, and for the entire Arab world. Demonstrators have resorted to blocking roads in Beirut and elsewhere (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) I encountered too many abstract slogans, most of them of Western origin. Not even a trace of Syrian Pan-Arabism. Nothing that would even remotely resemble internationalism. This was clearly a “European-style” rebellion. As always, the Lebanese security forces were intimidating me and many others. Coming to Martyr’s Square, at night, I only pointed the lens of my camera in the direction of a group of lazy, cynical looking soldiers, and it propelled them immediately into action. They tried to force me to delete the images, to apologize. I did not budge. I had no problem photographing police in Hong Kong, or in Paris, Chile or other places. And I have had enough, after 5 years here, of inept thuggish law enforcement. But here, the armed forces are “unique”; not much is expected from them. It is Hezbollah which comes to the rescue of Lebanon whenever it is attacked by Israel. Hezbollah fighters are well-trained, and they are disciplined. While the Lebanese army (and its various “forces”) is manned by many who simply cannot find a decent job. If it protects somebody or something, it is the Lebanese regime, sustained by the West and Saudi Arabia. I refused to hand over my phones and cameras to them. They did not. It would be too much effort, and paperwork. Later, the protesters hugged me: “It is great that you did not surrender your material to them. You see, if it was us, the Lebanese, they would beat us up, and smash our cameras.” “You never know what they are hiding, but they are hiding something, always. Perhaps they did not want the world to see how lazy they are. They stand here, in clusters, doing nothing, chatting. Then, when they get tired of doing nothing, they mobilize and attack us. They are unpredictable.” A couple of months ago, during the short conflict between Israel and Lebanon (an Israeli drone attack and Hezbollah retaliation), I managed to drive to the border, as I had on several previous occasions. Almost the entire defense of Lebanon has been resting on the shoulders of Hezbollah, with UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) troops, consisting of Indonesian, South Korean, Italian, Ghanaian and others forces, patrolling the frontier in armored vehicles, and providing mostly psychological deterrence from the large fortified bases, including the one at Naqoura. Lebanese armed forces have very little ability to defend their country. They were trained by the United States, but they are basically toothless, when it comes to fighting true foreign enemies. Perhaps it was plotted like that. ‘Toothless-ness’ includes the Lebanese Air Force, which mainly counts on things that could be described as toy airplanes, with converted Cessna models. Now, the Lebanese army and police are facing and confronting their own people, protecting the regime in Beirut, as well as foreign, mainly Western and Saudi, interests. But back to the main question which is, surprisingly, very rarely asked by the Western mass media outlets: “What do Lebanese people really want? What is the goal of the uprising?” Hope: Lebanese of all faiths and sects came out in record numbers this fall to reclaim their sovereignty and control over their country’s affairs (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) Rebellion began on October 17, against proposed tax on WhatsApp calls. It soon turned into call for resignation of the entire government; call for total overhaul of the Lebanese system. Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, resigned. Others stayed, but country has been paralyzed for weeks. Some Lebanese call what is happening on the streets of Beirut, Tripoli and other cities, an “October Revolution”, but in reality, this uprising has very little to do with the iconic Russian Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. However, one positive thing is that many Lebanese people are now calling for direct democracy, and for a people’s parliament. Alessandra Bajec recently wrote for The New Arab newspaper: “Protests and strikes are not the only nationwide thing dominating Lebanon. Open discussions held by groups of citizens is the latest phenomenon happening on the streets of Lebanon. A series of open discussions led by a variety of groups of citizens are held daily around Lebanon helping to feed the hearts and minds of the revolutionary movement since the start of the country’s so-called “October Revolution”. I witnessed those gatherings in Beirut. It is an impressive idea, in a way far more advanced than what has been observed in Europe, during the recent protests in France and elsewhere. It is clear that Lebanese rebels have had enough of the sectarian politics, of savage capitalism (although, this is not being pronounced as such), and of the endemic corruption. For decades, after the devastating Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), the country remained bitterly divided. Again, it is actually something that is not supposed to be discussed, even mentioned, but allegiances in this nation of (officially) 4.4 million, have been commonly pledged to religious leaders and movements, and not to the state. “Lebanon’s political system has a uniquely confessional character, which has its origin in the National Pact of 1943. Under this unwritten Pact, the President of the Republic must be a Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the President (Speaker) of the Parliament a Shiite Muslim. What is more, 50% of the 128 seats in the Parliament are allocated to Christians, and 50% to Muslims, and these allocations are further sub-divided for Christian and Muslim sects. In total, seats are allocated to each of 18 sects. Nationally, the 64 Christian seats are allocated as follows: Maronite 34, Greek Orthodox 14, Greek Catholic 8, Armenian Orthodox 5, Armenian Catholic 1, Protestant 1 and Others 1; and the 64 Muslim seats are allocated as follows: Sunni 27, Shiite 27, Druze 8 and Alawite 2. So, in total Christians have 50% of the seats, and the Sunni and Shiite communities just over 20% each. There was no provision in the National Pact for altering these allocations to reflect demographic changes. And there is still none today. These allocations may have corresponded to the proportion of each sect in the electorate at one time, but they certainly don’t today. But it’s impossible to say with any precision what they should be, since there hasn’t been a national census since 1932. This is a very sensitive issue within Lebanon, an issue that has the potential to trigger civil conflict.” Naturally, this sclerotic and stale system of secretive divides and coalitions, led to outrageous corruption. Religious and family clans managed to amass tremendous wealth, while enjoying almost absolute impunity. Despite its regular influx of foreign cash and aid, Lebanon still cannot overcome its crippling poverty visible everywhere outside of the posh commercial and residential districts, where Palestinian and Syria refugees are relegated to level of second class residents (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) Discussing sensitive political issues with various Lebanese protesters and activists in 2015 (“You Stink” movement), as well as during the recent uprising of 2019, I came to the clear understanding that most of the educated protesters (and Lebanon is without any doubt one of the most educated nations in the Arab world), have been totally rejecting the sectarian system. In fact, they were thoroughly disgusted with it. As early as in 2015, one of the main demands was to “unite Lebanon”; to make sure that it gets governed by people elected based on their virtues and excellence, instead of religious beliefs. Particularly young people have had enough of those escapes to Cyprus (in order to get married), if a couple belonged to two different religions, or if one or both individuals had no religion at all. They were revolted by the fact that their child could not be registered in their own country, if there was no official Lebanese marriage certificate. And most of the people I spoke to, understood that the shocking lack of transparency on which the Lebanese regime has been thriving, only serves those very few extremely rich individuals and families. The economy of the country is shattered, debt is at 150% GDP, basically unserviceable, and the divide between the rich and poor, monstrous. For millions, leaving the country became the only option. But luxury marinas are full of lavish yachts, while Maserati sport cars and Range Rover SUVs are parked all over the capital, in front of luxury restaurants and bars. Bourgeois contrast: the wealth gap in Lebanon is extreme, and like no other place in the region (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) The Lebanese revolutionaries are organizing open discussions, but that is not all – they want a totally new political system. The problem is, they are not sure which one. But, they are certain that by holding open forums and public meetings, they will, eventually, find out what precisely it is they want. “Rachad Samaha, a social activist and core member of the free discussions group adds, “We were talking among ourselves about how we could be more involved in the revolution… not just by joining protests, but through helping to bring people together to discuss issues that we are all fighting against. We can then reach some common ground.” Centering such group discussions over the need to change the current political system, and put an end to sectarianism, and possible ways to fix the country’s rapidly declining economy has been the leading drive for prompting exchanges of views between people from within the largest protest movement. The major matters of national concern voiced by citizens taking part in the talks include the accelerating economic crisis, the embezzlement of public funds, the decades-long ruling political elites who are being held responsible for the deepening crisis, and the confessional system, where power is divided among sects and has created patronage networks and clientelism at the detriment of the population.” All this is true. But this is Lebanon, the Middle East, where nothing is really simple. Here, the West has a tremendous influence, and so do the best allies of Washington in the region, the Saudis. All this money ‘wasted’, all that eye-closing, simply ought to have guaranteed certain allegiances. Under the surface, the West, Israel and Saudi Arabia are all after Iran, and Iran is allied with Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is the only true and powerful social force in Lebanon, a country where almost everything public has been already privatized, or stolen, or both. Hezbollah is also the only true protection that Lebanon has against Israel. While the West does not want anyone to be protected against Israel. Predictably, Hezbollah is on the “terrorist list” of the United States, and on the lists of several of its allies. Hezbollah had a strategic alliance with the previous government of Hariri, who resigned several weeks ago (and Hezbollah was warning against pushing for the collapse of the government, and even tried to clear the roadblocks erected by the protesters). Now, what will really happen if the protesters win? Who will be benefiting? What if the old regime collapses; what if there is no more Hezbollah, and no more protection against the “Southern Neighbor”? What kind of Lebanon can replace this present, terribly inefficient, even brutal and corrupt state? Cities and towns are laden with various sectarian martyrs, this one is a Christian rightwing figure in Beirut (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) If you are in Achrafieh neighborhood, the richest place in Lebanon, where the old Christian money resides, you would be told, by many, things that you would most likely not want to hear. You’d be “explained” that Lebanon was supposed to be a Christian country, that the French created it as the only Christian state in the Middle East. You would hear Palestinians being insulted, horribly, and you would see posters of extreme-right-wing political leaders. Once, there, I had a haircut, and an old barber parted with me, by raising his right hand into the air, and shouting: “Heil Hitler!” (After that, I quickly switched to a Syrian barber). “French imperialism? Oh, but we would love to have the French back! That would be brilliant, to be colonized by them, again, no?” It was not a joke. He meant it. Each and every word, that he uttered. These things are not supposed to be written about, at least not in the mainstream press. But this is not the mainstream press, and I believe that without understanding these nuances, it is impossible to understand Lebanon, and what could happen if the revolution wins. Who is singing and dancing at the center of Beirut? Who is demanding for the resignation of the entire regime? Are these mainly Christians or Muslims? I am not sure. Judging by the number of headscarves, most likely, the majority are not Muslim. But again, I am not sure. This is not a question that one can present, to the protesters. This is definitely not a revolution that would advance the interests of the Muslim-socialist Iran. And the same could be said about what is going on, simultaneously, in Iraq. Can Western-backed “secularism” convert Lebanon into a Western outpost in the Middle East? Could it further hurt, even damage, Syria? Theoretically, yes. Could it hurt the interests of non-Western, anti-imperialist countries like Russia and China? Most definitely. Is that what is happening? Could this be another shade of the “Color Revolutions”, or a continuation of the so-called Arab Spring? No one can answer these questions, yet. But the situation has to be monitored, extremely carefully. Given the history of Lebanon, given its position in the world, its political and economic orientation, as well as education, the country can go either way. Given the choice, people could opt for a socialist state, or of returning to the Western colonial realm. The West is doing all it can to bring Lebanon into its orbit. The clenched fists of Otpor are clear proof and warning of it. It is a well documented fact, that Canvas has been operating here at least since 2005. Otpor fist: symbols used by US-backed Serbian regime change consultancy CANVAS were visible in Beirut (Photo: Andre Vltchek 2019©) “Clashes between supporters of Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Saad Hariri, and Shiite groups Hezbollah and Amal erupted into gunfire in Beirut late on Monday. The clashes marked the second consecutive night of violence linked to Lebanon’s political crisis, threatening to tip largely peaceful demonstrations directed at the country’s ruling elite in a more bloody direction.” Armed forces were first reluctant to intervene. Later, they fired tear gas. The situation in the country is deteriorating, dangerously. Old wounds are reopening. Leaving Beirut, at the gate, I was once again stopped by an officer of the security forces. He was rude. They always search for Israeli stamps or for exit stamps, or something, in the passports. And I had enough of him. Here, at Rafik Hariri, I saw them, for years, humiliating Ethiopian women, crushing Syrians, while treating like gods, white visitors from Europe and the United States. “Why not fight Israelis, instead of women and children?” I suggested to him, grinning. And all hell broke loose. And they dragged me away from the gate. And the giant Boeing 777-300 had to wait, as Air France refused to back down and download my luggage and leave me behind. They called some generals back in Beirut. They were jumping around, shouting something, bluffing. I couldn’t care one single bit. My work here was finished. In Paris, I had nine days to kill, writing, before departing for South America. Waiting there, or in some filthy jail in Lebanon, made very little difference to me. I would have liked to be in Damascus, but my visa had already expired. So, I just waited. In the end, they let me go. Prisoners who are not scared, are not fun to hold. The airplane maneuvered towards the runway, then the engines roared, and we took off. Halas. I have hours of footage from all corners of Lebanon. I am not sure what I will do with it. Above all, I was not sure what the Lebanese will do with their own country. A giant clenched fist was sticking out from the Martyr’s Square. Was this a foreign implant, a well-planned sabotage, or a genuine symbol of resistance? On Independence Day, the fist was burned down, destroyed. “Vandals!”, screamed foreign media. I am not sure: this is extremely complex country. The country was collapsing. Perhaps it has already collapsed. People were talking, shouting, singing. Some were living in dire misery. Others were driving Ferraris and torturing imported maids. The country has been desperately trying to go forward. But forward could mean many, many different directions. In Lebanon, for each person, for each group: forward is towards somewhere else! *** Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Five of his latest books are “China Belt and Road Initiative: Connecting Countries, Saving Millions of Lives”, “China with John B. Cobb, Jr., Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his . Support his Patreon here. HELP SUPPORT THIS MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV | 21wire | https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/11/29/quo-vadis-lebanon/ | Fri, 29 Nov 2019 17:06:13 +0000 | 1,575,065,173 | 1,575,137,053 | religion and belief | religious belief |
1,639 | abcnews--2019-03-14--Irish prime minister makes annual visit to the White House Capitol Hill | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | abcnews | Irish prime minister makes annual visit to the White House, Capitol Hill | Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar met with President Donald Trump Thursday before heading to Capitol Hill to take part in the annual Washington tradition of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day and the relationship between the U.S. and Ireland. Varadkar's visit comes as the United Kingdom is embroiled in chaos over Brexit and Ireland's concerns over its border and potential trade problems with Northern Ireland. During his talks at the White House, the Taoiseach (Gaelic for "leader") spoke with Trump, wearing a green tie and sporting shamrocks in his coat pocket, about Ireland’s position opposing Brexit and the current imbroglio. "As you know, he's in a very complicated position right now because of Brexit, you're going to have to tell me what's happening, and tell the world what's happening because I'm not sure anyone knows," Trump told Varadkar, before criticizing Prime Minister Theresa May's leadership on the recent vote to salvage a Brexit deal that she lost by a landslide. "I'm surprised at how badly it has all gone from the standpoint of the negotiation. But I gave the prime minister my ideas how to negotiate it. I think you would have been successful," Trump said. "She didn't listen to that and that's fine. She has to do what she has to do." The president added that the two leaders were discussing trade with the European Union, as well as Trump's threatened tariffs. "We’re talking about trade with the European Union. They’ve been very, very tough over the years," Trump said. "If they don’t talk to us, we’re going to do something that’s going to be pretty severe economically. We’re going to tariff a lot of their products." The Irish prime minister’s annual trip to Washington involves a visit to the U.S. Capitol for a special Friends of Ireland luncheon attended by the president, vice president, House speaker, the Taoiseach, and members of Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi greeted the president and the Taoiseach of Ireland on the steps of the Capitol and then at the luncheon toasted the annual event as a tradition where "we dispense with our differences" to celebrate the strong U.S.-Irish bonds. She ticked through some historical giants who’ve participated in past celebrations and offered what seemed like a subtle jab at Trump's immigration policies by reminding the audience that Reagan once declared "if we shut the door to new Americans, our leadership will soon be lost." The president, who faces the potential public rebuke of his national emergency declaration in the Senate, stuck to the script in his brief remarks. "The U.S. and Ireland tied together by both ties of kinship and friendship," he said. "Today, our relationship is as strong and resilient as the great Irish people are strong and resilient." "May we all be blessed with the luck of the Irish," the president said. After their display of smiles and kind comments, Trump kissed Pelosi on both checks as he left the lectern. The Taoiseach presented Pelosi with a historical, framed copy of a message of support of Ireland’s new constitution sent from the U.S. in 1937, signed by 300 American lawmakers. Thursday morning, Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the Taoiseach to his residence in northwest Washington for breakfast. The Taoiseach, the first of Indian-descent, and the first openly gay leader of Ireland, brought his partner Matthew Barrett to visit with the Vice President, who is known for his conservative views on homosexuality. Varadkar touched on his sexual orientation when speaking at the Naval Observatory. "I stand here, leader of my country, flawed and human, but judged by my political actions, and not by my sexual orientation, my skin tone, gender or religious beliefs." "We are all God's children," Varadkar added. Both President Trump and Vice President Pence said they accepted invitations to visit Ireland at some point this year. Last year, Trump was scheduled to visit Ireland either before or after his trip to Paris. The Ireland leg of his trip was canceled. Later Thursday at the White House, the Taoiseach will present the president and first lady with a crystal bowl filled with shamrocks. | Meridith Mcgraw, Jordyn Phelps | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/irish-prime-minister-makes-annual-visit-white-house/story?id=61679025 | 2019-03-14 23:01:03+00:00 | 1,552,618,863 | 1,567,546,248 | religion and belief | religious belief |
1,776 | abcnews--2019-10-31--Kentucky Supreme Court dismisses gay pride T-shirt case | 2019-10-31T00:00:00 | abcnews | Kentucky Supreme Court dismisses gay pride T-shirt case | The Kentucky Supreme Court has sided with a print shop owner who refused to make a gay pride T-shirt because he says it was against his religious beliefs. The state's high court dismissed the claim after two lower courts also ruled in favor of Lexington print shop Hands-On Originals. The company declined a T-shirt order from Lexington's Gay and Lesbian Services Organization for the city's 2012 Gay Pride Festival. The design said "Lexington Pride Festival" on the front. The high court ruled Thursday that the gay advocacy group lacked standing to make a claim against shop owner Blaine Adamson because the city's gay rights law was written to protect individuals. "While this result is no doubt disappointing to many interested in this case and its potential outcome, the fact that the wrong party filed the complaint makes the discrimination analysis almost impossible to conduct, including issues related to freedom of expression and religion," the justices wrote in the ruling. Adamson said after a hearing before the Supreme Court in August that the T-shirt he was asked to print "goes against my conscience." Lexington's Human Rights Commission ordered Adamson in 2012 to print the shirts and attend diversity training. Adamson appealed and won rulings from the circuit court and state court of appeals. The appeals court said in 2017 the printing business was subject to the city's fairness ordinance but nothing in that ordinance prohibits a private business "from engaging in viewpoint or message censorship." | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/kentucky-supreme-court-dismisses-gay-pride-shirt-case-66674543 | Thu, 31 Oct 2019 17:34:05 -0400 | 1,572,557,645 | 1,572,559,521 | religion and belief | religious belief |
2,142 | abcnews--2019-11-12--Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops | 2019-11-12T00:00:00 | abcnews | Court rules against warrantless searches of phones, laptops | A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. Tuesday's ruling in U.S. District Court came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched without individualized suspicion at U.S. ports of entry. ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari said the ruling strengthens the Fourth Amendment protections of international travelers who enter the United States every year. The ACLU describes the searches as "fishing expeditions." They say border officers must now demonstrate individualized suspicion of contraband before they can search a traveler's electronic device. The government has vigorously defended the searches as a critical tool to protect America. The number of electronic device searches at U.S. ports of entry has increased significantly, the ACLU said. Last year, the government conducted more than 33,000 searches, almost four times the number from just three years prior. Documents filed as part of the lawsuit claim the scope of the warrantless searches has expanded to assist in enforcement of tax, bankruptcy, environmental and consumer protection laws, gathering intelligence and advancing criminal investigations. The court documents also said agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement consider requests from other government agencies in determining whether to search travelers' electronic devices. They added that agents are searching the electronic devices of not only targeted individuals but their associates, friends and relatives. Requests for comment from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security were not immediately returned Tuesday. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that while it does not comment on matters in litigation, in Fiscal Year 2019, the department processed more than 414 million travelers at U.S. ports of entry. During that same period of time, it conducted 40,913 border searches of electronic devices, representing less than .01 percent of arriving international travelers. Jessie Rossman, a staff attorney at ACLU's Massachusetts chapter, said the ruling is a victory for constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. "The court said today that suspicionless searches at the border of cell phones and laptops violate the Fourth Amendment," Rossman said. Rossman said two of the plaintiffs — Ghassan and Nadia Alasaad — were stopped as they tried to re-enter the U.S. after a visit to Canada. Both are U.S. citizens and live in Massachusetts. Rossman said Nadia Alasaad felt uncomfortable handing over passwords because she wears a head covering as part of her religious beliefs. She asked that a female officer review her phone because it contained photos of her and her daughters without their headscarves. Alasaad said she was told that would take a few more hours. The couple, who had already been delayed several hours, ultimately decided to leave their phones — which they did not have returned to them for 15 days, according to Rossman. Ten of the plaintiffs in the case were U.S. citizens. One was a permanent legal resident. When the suit was filed in 2017, Department of Homeland Security officials said U.S. citizens and everyone else are subject to examination and search by customs officials, unless exempted by diplomatic status. Searches, some random, have uncovered evidence of human trafficking, terrorism, child pornography, visa fraud, export control breaches and intellectual property rights violations, according to the department. Rossman said the court acknowledged that the sheer volume of digital information accessible on a phone or laptop is vastly different than more traditional searches of briefcases or backpacks. "It's the difference between a ride on a horse and a flight to the moon," Rossman said. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/court-rules-warrantless-searches-phones-laptops-66950824 | Tue, 12 Nov 2019 23:20:35 -0500 | 1,573,618,835 | 1,573,646,770 | religion and belief | religious belief |
2,812 | abcnews--2019-12-03--Texas judge warned for refusing to perform same-sex weddings | 2019-12-03T00:00:00 | abcnews | Texas judge warned for refusing to perform same-sex weddings | The Texas agency that investigates judicial misconduct issued a public warning to a justice of the peace who has refused to perform same-sex marriages while continuing to marry same sex-couples. In its warning made public on Monday, the Texas Commission on Judicial Misconduct said McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley has refused to perform same-sex weddings since August 2016, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision a year earlier that established the constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Some other justices of the peace in the county stopped performing weddings altogether after the Supreme Court’s ruling. The commission said Hensley is violating the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct by “casting doubt on her capacity to act impartially to persons appearing before her as a judge due to the person’s sexual orientation.” The commission referred to comments Hensley made to the Waco Tribune-Herald in 2017 in which she said her “Bible-believing” Christian conscience prohibits her from doing same-sex weddings. She also told the newspaper that she believes she’s entitled to a “religious exemption.” Her office sometimes will tell same-sex couples that the judge is not available, giving them a list of those who will perform same-sex weddings and a document stating, “I’m sorry, but Judge Hensley has a sincerely held religious belief as a Christian, and will not be able to perform any same-sex weddings,” the commission’s order said. Hensley has 30 days to appeal the sanction. She and her attorney have both declined to comment on the commission’s warning. McLennan Country Judge Scott Felton, however, said that as an elected official, Hensley has the right to run her office the way she wants to. Waco attorney Mike Dixon, who represents the county, agrees, saying elected officials can operate their offices as they wish, especially when it involves a duty, such as performing weddings, that they are not statutorily required to do. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-judge-warned-refusing-perform-sex-weddings-67470356 | Tue, 03 Dec 2019 17:48:00 -0500 | 1,575,413,280 | 1,575,417,941 | religion and belief | religious belief |
3,300 | abcnews--2019-12-17--Woman forced to remove hijab in jail settles for $120K | 2019-12-17T00:00:00 | abcnews | Woman forced to remove hijab in jail settles for $120K | MINNEAPOLIS -- A Minnesota Muslim woman has received $120,000 to settle her lawsuit alleging she was forced to strip in jail and remove her hijab for a booking photo over a traffic offense, the woman and her attorneys said Tuesday. Aida Shyef Al-Kadi, of St. Louis Park, appeared with her attorneys at the Minneapolis headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to announce the settlement approved last month by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim. Al-Kadi, 57, said her treatment at the Ramsey County jail in August 2013 was “one of the most humiliating and harmful experiences"of her life. “I knew that I did not want any other Muslim woman to experience what I did,” she said. A judge had issued a warrant for Al-Kadi's arrest after she missed a court hearing over a traffic offense while taking her daughter to the hospital, the Star Tribune reported. Under the settlement, the jail has put in place specific rules about how to accommodate inmates with religious headwear when taking booking photos. The county also agreed to destroy all hard copies and delete any electronic copies of Al-Kadi's booking photo. The settlement does not require the county to admit wrongdoing. “We believe that this settlement agreement is fair and in the best interests of all of our residents. Ramsey County’s values hold that the rights, beliefs, well-being and dignity of all our residents are protected and honored in all aspects of what we do. The practices outlined in the agreement to improve the booking process for those with religious head coverings better reflect these values," Ramsey County Board Chair Jim McDonough said in a statement Tuesday. In her lawsuit, Al-Kadi's argued that the county violated her constitutional rights and discriminated against her for her religious beliefs. Al-Kadi was born and raised in Ohio. She moved to Minnesota in 2005 so her daughter could receive specialized medical care. When Al-Kadi turned herself in, she said was told to remove her hijab and abaya, a long dress that covered her body, in front of male jailers. When she objected, she said she was removed from the area and taken to a holding cell, where she removed her hijab in front of a male jailer. She said she agreed to remove her headscarf for her booking photo after being told that the photo would never be released to the public. But months later, she found it on a third-party website that charges users to take down the photos. After taking the photo, officers gave her a bedsheet to use as a hijab. Al-Kadi eventually was told to remove her abaya and change into a jail uniform, while two female officers watched her. Ramsey County policy says that misdemeanor inmates such as Al-Kadi "will not be viewed without clothing," according to court records. In 2014, the county revised its jail policies to include that inmates who wear hijabs will not be forced to remove them in front of men. A facility-approved hijab will be provided. Sheriff spokesman Roy Magnuson said bedsheets are no longer used. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/woman-forced-remove-hijab-jail-settles-120k-67784222 | Tue, 17 Dec 2019 17:39:07 -0500 | 1,576,622,347 | 1,576,627,584 | religion and belief | religious belief |
3,635 | abcnews--2019-12-30--Officials: Hanukkah attack suspect researched Hitler online | 2019-12-30T00:00:00 | abcnews | Officials: Hanukkah attack suspect researched Hitler online | MONSEY, N.Y. -- A man charged with federal hate crimes Monday in a bloody attack on a Hanukkah celebration had handwritten journals containing anti-Semitic references and had recently used his phone to look up information on Hitler and the location of synagogues, authorities said. Grafton Thomas, 37, was held without bail after appearing in federal court in White Plains on five counts of obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by attempting to kill with a dangerous weapon. Five people were stabbed and slashed in the Saturday attack north of New York City. A blood-stained 18-inch (45-centimeter) machete was recovered from his car, along with a knife smeared with dried blood and hair, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint. Thomas, his ankles shackled, shuffled into the courtroom in a prison jumpsuit, telling a judge who asked him if his head was clear that he was “not clear at all” and needed sleep. But he added: “I am coherent.” His court-appointed attorney, Susanne Brody, said Thomas has struggled with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Another attorney retained by his family, Michael Sussman, said Thomas had been hearing voices and may have stopped taking psychiatric medications recently. The stabbings on the seventh night of Hanukkah came amid a series of violent attacks targeting Jews in the region that have led to increased security, particularly around religious gatherings. A criminal complaint said journals recovered from Thomas' home in Greenwood Lake included comments questioning "why ppl mourned for anti-Semitism when there is Semitic genocide" and a page with drawings of a Star of David and a swastika. A phone recovered from his car included repeated internet searches for "Why did Hitler hate the Jews" as well as "German Jewish Temples near me" and "Prominent companies founded by Jews in America," the complaint said. On the day of the stabbings, the phone's browser was used to access an article titled: “New York City Increases Police Presence in Jewish Neighborhoods After Possible Anti-Semitic Attacks. Here's What To Know,” the complaint said. Sussman told reporters he visited Thomas' home and found stacks of notes he described as “the ramblings of a disturbed individual" but nothing to point to an “anti-Semitic motive” or suggest Thomas intentionally targeted the rabbi's home. “My impression from speaking with him is that he needs serious psychiatric evaluation,” Sussman said. “His explanations were not terribly coherent.” Thomas' family said he was raised to embrace tolerance but has a long history of mental illness, including multiple hospitalizations. “He has no history of like violent acts and no convictions for any crime,” his family said in a statement. "He has no known history of anti-Semitism and was raised in a home which embraced and respected all religions and races. He is not a member of any hate groups.” Thomas served in the Marines and was president of his class at a high school in Queens, Sussman said. He attended William Paterson University between 2005 and 2007, the university confirmed, where he played football as a walk-on running back. Thomas' family said his mental health deteriorated over the years. He would hear voices and have trouble completing sentences at times. Thomas said a voice talked to him about property that was in the rabbi's house, according to Sussman. In court papers filed in a 2013 eviction case in Utah, Thomas said he suffered from schizophrenia, depression and anxiety and his “conditions are spontaneous and untamed.” Thomas was arrested within two hours of the Saturday night attack in Monsey. When police pulled his car over in Manhattan, he had blood all over his clothing and smelled of bleach but said “almost nothing" to the arresting officers, officials said. Thomas' aunt told The Associated Press that he had a “germ phobia” and obsessively washed his hands and feet with bleach. She said Thomas grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and “lived peacefully” among Jewish neighbors. She said Thomas had not been taking his medication and recently went missing for a week. The woman spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear she would lose her government job for speaking publicly. “They're making him look like this monster,” she said in a telephone interview. “My nephew is not a monster. He's just sick. He just needs help.” According to the complaint, Thomas, a scarf covering his face, entered the rabbi's home next door to a synagogue and said “no one is leaving.” He then took out a machete and started stabbing and slashing people in the home packed with dozens of congregants, the complaint said. The five victims suffered serious injuries — including a severed finger, slash wounds and deep lacerations — and at least one was in critical condition with a skull fracture, the complaint said. On Sunday, Thomas pleaded not guilty to charged including five counts of attempted murder. He was detained on $5 million bail. In a release, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said Thomas “targeted his victims in the midst of a religious ceremony, transforming a joyous Hanukkah celebration into a scene of carnage and pain.” Thomas' criminal history includes an arrest for assaulting a police horse, according to an official briefed on the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. A lawyer representing Thomas at the arraignment said he had no convictions. The criminal complaint said one passage in Thomas' journals stated that the “Hebrew Israelites” took from the “ebidnoid Israelites." The FBI agent who wrote the complaint said that appeared to be a reference to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, some branches of which have been associated with anti-Semitism. The attack was the latest in a string of violence targeting Jews in the region, including a Dec. 10 massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. Last month in Monsey, a man was stabbed while walking to a synagogue. No arrest has been made in that stabbing. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said Saturday's savagery was the 13th anti-Semitic attack in New York since Dec. 8. Monsey, near the New Jersey state line about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of New York City, is one of several Hudson Valley communities that has seen a rising population of Hasidic Jews in recent years. At a Sunday celebration that was planned before the attack, several members of the community stood guard armed with assault-style rifles. “The Jewish community is utterly terrified," Evan Bernstein, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey, said in a statement. “No one should have to live like this." In New York City, the Rev. Al Sharpton appeared Monday with Jewish and other faith leaders at his Harlem headquarters and said he was disturbed and upset that several of the suspects in recent attacks on Jews have been black. “We cannot remain silent as we see a consistent pattern of attacks on people based on their faith and who they are,” Sharpton said. “You can’t fight hate against you if you aren’t willing to fight hate against everybody else.” ——— Mustian and Neumeister reported from New York. Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in New York contributed to this report. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/family-hanukkah-stabbing-suspect-mental-illness-history-67981538 | Mon, 30 Dec 2019 17:30:05 -0500 | 1,577,745,005 | 1,577,750,734 | religion and belief | religious belief |
4,663 | activistpost--2019-05-14--Why Outlawing Cryptocurrency Purchases is a Terrible Idea | 2019-05-14T00:00:00 | activistpost | Why Outlawing Cryptocurrency Purchases is a Terrible Idea | A member of the U.S. House of Representatives last week called for a bill outlawing Americans from making cryptocurrency purchases, aligning with anti-cryptocurrency policies in countries such as Iran and Egypt. There is no language for this potential bill or any explanation of whether such a bill would ban Americans from buying cryptocurrencies, using cryptocurrencies to make other purchases, or both. Nonetheless, it’s a good moment to remind everyone why a bill outlawing cryptocurrencies is a terrible idea. Attempts to ban cryptocurrencies are often rooted in fundamental misunderstandings. One common refrain is that criminals use cryptocurrencies to facilitate illegal activity, and thus we should ban cryptocurrencies to hamper that illegal activity. This is wrong for several reasons: first, it ignores the many entirely legal uses for cryptocurrencies that already exist and that will continue to develop in the future. Cryptocurrencies have been used for a decade to store and transfer value with near-zero transaction costs and no need for intermediaries like banks. As more applications make holding and exchanging cryptocurrencies easier, everyday consumers are using cryptocurrency regularly for innocuous activities like buying furniture on Overstock.com and sending money to family members overseas. And innovation related to cryptocurrency technology is giving rise to more use cases: for example, some cryptocurrencies enable programmers to write computer programs (so-called “smart contracts”) that automatically transfer cryptocurrency to others upon certain conditions being met. These are just a few examples of the many potential uses of this technology that a ban on cryptocurrency would undermine. The fact that a technology could be used to violate the law does not mean we should ban it. Notably, criminals have long used cash—which, like some cryptocurrencies, allows for greater anonymity—to aid in committing crimes. But we don’t call for a ban on cash as a result, and we don’t blame Ford when one of its cars is used as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery. Nor would such a law likely stop criminals from using cryptocurrency, since criminals are, by definition, more willing to violate existing laws. Ultimately, banning cryptocurrencies would rob Americans of opportunities to access potentially significant technologies, and have no real impact on criminals abusing these tools. We’ve seen this line of reasoning before. Critics of end-to-end encryption and Tor have claimed criminals can hide behind the privacy-protective functions of such technologies. But the increased anonymity and privacy-enhancing features of some cryptocurrencies are part of what make the technology so potentially important. To date, many cryptocurrencies are not terribly private; transactions are recorded on permanent public ledgers, and while users are identified with pseudonymous public keys, this is far less privacy-protective than using cash. There are promising new approaches to developing more private cryptocurrencies. However, none of those tools has yet reached the widespread popularity of Bitcoin or Ethereum. As the rise of privacy-protective cryptocurrencies begins to gain traction, it’s important we don’t let regulatory backlash prevent these tools from reaching people. Our financial transactions paint an intimate portrait of our lives, often exposing our religious beliefs, family status, medical history, and many other facets of our lives we might prefer to keep private. Yet American laws do not adequately secure financial privacy. Rather, there is a patchwork of limited protections. These include the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (which requires banks to notify you about their information-sharing policies and give you some opportunity to opt out); the stronger California Financial Information Privacy Act (if you happen to be Californian); and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (which is primarily focused on credit and not financial transactions). That’s why new tools that people can use to protect the privacy of their own financial transactions are so appealing: they offer a technological solution to protecting consumer privacy when the legal rights aren’t as robust or enforceable as we would like. A bill banning cryptocurrency would cut off this pro-privacy innovation, chilling the development of new technologies that might protect financial privacy before they have any chance of being developed and widely adopted. Cryptocurrency innovation also holds the promise of righting other power imbalances. There are millions of people living in the United States who cannot obtain a bank account because they don’t have appropriate government-issued identification, don’t have a permanent physical address, fear exposing their home address for safety reasons, or have a history of unpaid bank fees. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires banks to tell consumers why they are denied an account, but doesn’t guarantee them a bank account. Cryptocurrency may eventually help many of these unbanked individuals get access to financial services. Cryptocurrency is also naturally more censorship-resistant than many other forms of financial instruments currently available. At EFF, we’ve tracked numerous websites engaged in legal speech that faced financial censorship, often with little recourse. These include a social network for kinky people, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQ fiction, an online bookseller, and most famously the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. Cryptocurrencies provide a powerful market alternative to the existing financial behemoths that exercise control over much of our online transactions today, so that websites engaged in legal-but-controversial speech have a way to receive funds when existing financial institutions refuse to serve them. These ideas are not new. Censorship-resistance and privacy are attributes of cash, which people have enjoyed for thousands of years. Cryptocurrencies offer a pathway for bringing those attributes into our online world. This is not to imply that cryptocurrency has achieved all of these goals. In fact, many watching the space have expressed frustration and skepticism about whether cryptocurrency can ever execute on some of the hopes of early adopters. But even the staunchest cryptocurrency critic should be concerned about how misguided regulation in this space might constrict the legal rights of coders. As with many new technologies, the cryptocurrency ecosystem faces serious challenges. These include fraudsters taking advantage of people’s ignorance about technology to scam them, problems around achieving true decentralization of control, strong security in the applications built on top of cryptocurrencies, and the opportunity for entities holding cryptocurrency keys to abuse that access. These problems likely require responses that are technological and community-driven. In some instances, laws may be appropriate. But thoughtful laws regulating cryptocurrencies must focus on those who abuse the technology for fraud, not everyday consumers. Crafting such laws requires a lot of care. Any such law would need to provide a significant on-ramp for emerging technologies, clear protections for anyone engaged in non-custodial services that technically aren’t able to exchange or take cryptocurrency from users without their participation, and strong protections for people who are merely writing and publishing code. These laws must also be technologically neutral, to avoid enshrining one particular cryptocurrency into law in ways that have unexpected consequences for projects with similar functionality. Finding the right balance for regulating cryptocurrency requires that lawmakers protect consumer rights and foster innovation. Banning Americans from cryptocurrency purchases is short-sighted and anti-consumer, and falls far short of that standard. With thanks to Marta Belcher, who provided feedback on an early draft of this post. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/why-outlawing-cryptocurrency-purchases-is-a-terrible-idea.html | 2019-05-14 16:01:53+00:00 | 1,557,864,113 | 1,567,540,665 | religion and belief | religious belief |
5,118 | activistpost--2019-07-30--How The Question Who Benefits From This Can Change Your Life | 2019-07-30T00:00:00 | activistpost | How The Question “Who Benefits From This?” Can Change Your Life | “Cui bono?” is a phrase you’ll often see used on conspiracy-minded YouTube videos and discussion forums. It’s Latin for “Who benefits?”, and it refers to a perspective in legal analysis that the one who stands most to gain from a crime is often the perpetrator. It’s the “motive” part of “means, motive and opportunity.” The term comes up in conspiracy circles a lot because motive is often the biggest plot hole in the official story promoted by the authorized narrative managers of the political/media class about a given event. The alleged Douma chemical attack last year, for example, had no discernible benefit to the Assad government whatsoever, but would have benefited the cornered Al-Qaeda affiliates in the city by provoking air strikes from the West, so there remains a lot of skepticism from those who don’t automatically believe their government and the plutocratic media when they say that Damascus was responsible. Such skepticism is dismissively branded “conspiracy theory” by the establishment narrative managers, but it is fully justified. So it’s a useful concept for analyzing world events in a way that punches through the fog of imperial propaganda. But the question “Who benefits from this?” can, and should, be taken much further. Don’t just ask “Cui bono?” of potential false flag events. Ask it about every belief in your head. Rigorously holding that candle up to the ideas in your own mind will reveal a lot of junk floating around in there that benefit other people, both the powerful and the not-so-powerful. To pick one of many possible examples, it’s very interesting how many of America’s ostensibly anti-establishment movements encourage their adherents to support one of America’s two mainstream establishment political parties. The so-called “Resistance” and the progressive movement both herd people who might otherwise support actual leftist movements into the oligarchic folds of the Democratic Party, as does even the lesser-evil voting promoted by those closer to the fringe like Noam Chomsky. On the right you’ve got the warmongering corporate whore party of the Republicans being enthusiastically backed by the MAGA crowd, who you’ll routinely see backing garden variety GOP agendas like the Supreme Court nomination of a longtime Bush lackey in the name of fighting the establishment. Closer to the fringe you’ve got the insufferable QAnon cult, who consistently argue that every Trump move from Assange’s arrest to bombing Syria is a brilliant 5-D chess maneuver against the Deep State. If those in any of these various factions began sincerely asking the question “Who benefits from my believing this?” about the various reasons they hold for espousing their respective political positions, the answer would come back clear as day that of course the ones who benefit are the plutocratic class which owns both mainstream political parties and the opaque government agencies with which that class is aligned. In the flurry of reasons being proffered in favor of supporting a given faction, it’s easy to overlook the fact that some very powerful people are likely to benefit from that support. All the information going around about what’s going on in the world is like this. News media must be consumed with an acute awareness that there are extremely powerful people who have a vested interest in manipulating the way you think and perceive. It’s just a fact, and if it isn’t at the forefront of your consciousness, your worldview will necessarily be severely malformed. Cultivating a reflexive curiosity about who benefits from a given narrative being promoted nips this in the bud. But this isn’t just limited to news media. We get tons of stupid ideas in our heads from things like advertising, which obviously benefit no one but the advertisers and their employers. Women in particular are plagued with body image problems from being pummeled from a very early age with corporate psyops designed for precisely that purpose, and as a result we feed billions of dollars into various interests who profit from our belief that we shouldn’t have small tits or wrinkles or body fat. Religion is another one. There are of course many immensely wealthy and powerful structures today which benefit from adherents to religion, but most of those who’ve benefited from widespread religious indoctrination aren’t even alive anymore. Governments and world religions have historically been inextricably intertwined with and supportive of each other, because religions can be used to manipulate the masses into believing that it’s virtuous to be poor, humble, meek, submissive and obedient, to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”, and to believe it would be generally sinful to use the power of their numbers to kill their rulers and seize their wealth. The answer to “Who benefits from my religious beliefs?”, if you’re Christian, is something along the lines of “All existing Christian churches, all existing political structures built around exploiting Christian beliefs for political leverage, every preacher, pope and bishop who’s ever lived, and every western ruler since Emperor Constantine.” Many of the beliefs which have been put into our heads for someone else’s benefit don’t profit the powerful at all; many of them have been implanted by our own loved ones. It’s unfortunate, but friends and family members will often have a vested interest in putting beliefs in our heads which don’t benefit us but them. Such beliefs often revolve around keeping us from getting above our station, from feeling too good about ourselves so that we don’t go off and improve our lives instead of staying in the confining circles we were born into. Others can include believing positive things about loved ones who were actually destructive and abusive to us. Some of them are as simple as beliefs about how we are and how we should be that kept us from talking back to our parents, which if left unexamined can create submissive psychological postures in us that can stay with us to the grave. We form a lot of the beliefs we have about ourselves from the feedback we get from other people, so even something said decades ago by a schoolmate who was only interested in keeping us from rising above them in social status can continue to warp our self image. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/07/how-the-question-who-benefits-from-this-can-change-your-life.html | 2019-07-30 15:09:44+00:00 | 1,564,513,784 | 1,567,535,298 | religion and belief | religious belief |
5,370 | activistpost--2019-08-23--The Govt Gave Her Son a Sex Change Without Parental Consent And Other Weekly News From The Twiligh | 2019-08-23T00:00:00 | activistpost | The Gov’t Gave Her Son a Sex Change Without Parental Consent, And Other Weekly News From The Twilight Zone | Welcome to our Friday roll up, where we highlight the most interesting, absurd, and concerning stories we are following this week. It all started when a boyfriend playfully tried to push his girlfriend into the pool. Most people would see that as harmless horsing around. But one lady saw domestic violence. So she called the police. Police came and arrested the boyfriend. His girlfriend, the alleged victim, became quite irritated, as you could imagine. She insisted that he had done nothing wrong, and they were just fooling around. Then she walked away from police as they were talking to her. So one officer saw fit to run up behind this 5-foot tall woman and body slam her to the ground. He took her down with such force that he broke her collarbone, and she lost consciousness. Amazingly enough, the police then arrested HER and charged her with disturbing the peace. I’m not joking. The lady who broke her collar bone due to excessive police force is the one who apparently disturbed the peace. Naturally this became a lawsuit. But last week, a federal court ruled that the police officer cannot be sued. He gets “qualified immunity”, because, while he was slamming this petite bikini-clad woman to the ground and crushing her bones, he was performing his official duties as an agent of the government. Therefore he cannot be held personally liable for his actions. Click here for the court documents. And when the government came after him for tax evasion, the whole matter went to court. In April 2018, though, courts dismissed tax evasion charges because Michael openly refused to pay the taxes. He wasn’t lying or engaging in fraud– he openly and conscientiously objected to paying. As a conscientious objector, Michael opposes the fact that his tax dollars fund programs that go against his religious beliefs. The court recognized this claim and dismissed the charge. But Bowman was also charged with failure to file tax returns… which is another crime. And that case has recently resulted in a mistrial; the hung jury could not come to an agreement on whether Bowman held a good faith belief that he was not breaking the law. This is a victory for Michael… though the government could still decide to re-try the case. Click here for the full story. Social media giants will ban anyone for “hate speech” these days. That could be for anything as simple as expressing an unpopular opinion, or sharing a politically incorrect meme. But when it comes to spreading Chinese propaganda, Twitter and Facebook are happy to oblige. For a price. A Chinese state-owned media source, Xinhua News, has been buying ads on Twitter and Facebook, to show in Hong Kong and overseas. The ads claim that most Hong Kong residents want the protests to end, and support the Chinese government. This, of course, is according to the Chinese government. One advertisement stated that “All walks of life in Hong Kong called for a brake to be put on the blatant violence, and order to be restored.” Another claimed Hong Kong citizens were calling China their motherland. All were misinformation, aimed at countering the true scope and purpose of the Hong Kong protests against Chinese control over Hong Kong. Only after public backlash, Twitter and Facebook removed a number of accounts placing the ads. Twitter said they will not accept advertising from state-controlled media. Click here for the full story. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/08/the-govt-gave-her-son-a-sex-change-without-parental-consent-and-other-weekly-news-from-the-twilight-zone.html | 2019-08-23 17:26:00+00:00 | 1,566,595,560 | 1,567,533,553 | religion and belief | religious belief |
5,517 | activistpost--2019-09-05--US Government Blacklisting System is Unconstitutional Judge | 2019-09-05T00:00:00 | activistpost | US Government Blacklisting System is Unconstitutional: Judge | In an opinion issued late today in Alexandria, VA, US District Court Judge Anthony Trenga has upheld the complaint by 23 victims of US government blacklisting that the system pursuant to which the government has designated them as “suspected terrorists” on the basis of secret algorithms applied to secret datasets, without notice or an opportunity to contest any allegedly “derogatory” information, does not provide those who are stigmatized, and whose stigmatized status is broadcast to tens of thousands of law enforcement and other government agencies and private entities around the world, with the procedural due process required by the US Constitution. This decision is one of the most fundamental victories for the rule of law since 9/11. According to today’s opinion, it is undisputed that the DHS and FBI define anyone who has been arrested or charged with an offense related to terrorism as a “known” terrorist, even if they have been acquitted of that charge. In other words, the DHS and FBI think that what is “known” is what they believe, not what judges or juries have found the facts to be. That presumption that by definition their secret judgements are more reliable than judicial fact-finding pretty much sums up why this decision is correct, why it is so important, and why it should be upheld if, as seems a near certainty, the government appeals. None of the plaintiffs have even been arrested, much less convicted, for any criminal offense, terrorist or otherwise. The plaintiffs include, among others, several infants whom the government has apparently blacklisted as “suspected terrorists”. But even though the government will neither confirm nor deny that anyone is or is not, or has or has not been, included in the “Terrorist Screening Database” (TSDB), the court found that the plaintiffs have demonstrated sufficient basis for their belief that they have been blacklisted. The “No-Fly List” is only a subset of the TSDB, and not being allowed to fly is only a subset of the consequences of blacklisting detailed in the plaintiffs’ submissions to the court and the government’s admissions during discovery and depositions. The TSDB is used as the basis for a plethora of decisions, as the plaintiffs have experienced, from whether to have them arrested at gunpoint when they try to cross land borders to whether to interrogate them for hours about their religious beliefs, seize their electronic devices for copying and forensic analysis of the data stored on them, or deny them public or private-sector jobs. The government’s use of secret criteria, secret datasets, and guilt by association as the basis for secret decisions — communicated to tens of thousands of other decision-makers, but not to those who have been blacklisted — resembles the worst of McCarthyism, just with “terrorist sympathizer” or (literal) “fellow traveler” substituted for “Communist sympathizer” or (ideological) “fellow traveler”. Judge Trenga found that inclusion on the TSDB deprives those who are blacklisted of their liberty interest in freedom of movement, both internationally and domestically; that the government stigmatizes them by distributing the blacklist to many other entities; that the secret, standardless, and non-adversarial (i.e. one-sided) decision-making process is inherently likely to result in errors; and that all of this is unconstitutional: We congratulate the plaintiffs for risking retaliation to challenge the government’s supposedly anti-terrorist, and in practice anti-Muslim, witch-hunting program, and attorneys Gadeir Abbas, Lena Masri, and the rest of CAIR’s legal team for their legal leadership. Judge Trenga has ordered the parties to submit additional briefs over the next six weeks with respect to what he should order to be done to redress the violations of the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights that he has found to have occurred and to be ongoing. We think the answer is clear: the way to provide procedural due process, when the government wants to restrict someone’s movements or other lawful activities, is for the government to apply to a judge for an injunction or restraining order. No new laws or procedures are needed. Courts have procedures for considering requests for orders restricting movement, and act on them every day in domestic violence and other cases. But the government has never tried to use existing laws to request a no-fly injunction or other restraining orders against a “suspected terrorist”, preferring to substitute the infallible clairvoyance of the pre-cogs in the Terrorist Screening Center for the fallibility of judges and juries using established adversarial fact-finding procedures. Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Follow us on Minds, Twitter, Steemit, and SoMee. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month. Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/09/us-government-blacklisting-system-is-unconstitutional-judge.html | 2019-09-05 15:15:44+00:00 | 1,567,710,944 | 1,569,331,162 | religion and belief | religious belief |
6,143 | activistpost--2019-12-02--EFF Report Exposes, Explains Big Tech’s Personal Data Trackers Lurking on Social Media, Websites, an | 2019-12-02T00:00:00 | activistpost | EFF Report Exposes, Explains Big Tech’s Personal Data Trackers Lurking on Social Media, Websites, and Apps | —The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today released a comprehensive report that identifies and explains the hidden technical methods and business practices companies use to collect and track our personal information from the minute we turn on our devices each day. Published on Cyber Monday, when millions of consumers are shopping online, “Behind the One-Way Mirror” takes a deep dive into the technology of corporate surveillance. The report uncovers and exposes the myriad techniques—invisible pixel images, browser fingerprinting, social widgets, mobile tracking, and face recognition—companies employ to collect information about who we are, what we like, where we go, and who our friends are. Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and hundreds of lesser known and hidden data brokers, advertisers, and marketers drive data collection and tracking across the web. “The purpose of this paper is to demystify tracking by focusing on the fundamentals of how and why it works and explain the scope of the problem. We hope the report will educate and mobilize journalists, policy makers, and concerned consumers to find ways to disrupt the status quo and better protect our privacy,” said Bennett Cyphers, EFF staff technologist and report author. “Behind the One-Way Mirror” focuses on third-party tracking, which is often not obvious or visible to users. Webpages contain embedded images and invisible codes that come from entities other than the website owner. Most websites contain dozens of these bugs that go on to record and track your browsing, activity, purchases, and clicks. Mobile apps are equally rife with tracking code which can relay app activity, physical location, and financial data to unknown entities. With this information companies create behavioral profiles that can reveal our political affiliation, religious beliefs, sexual identity and activity, race and ethnicity, education level, income bracket, purchasing habits, and physical and mental health. The report shows how relentless data collection and profile building fuels the digital advertising industry that targets users with invasive ads and puts our privacy at risk. “Today online shoppers will see web pages, ads, and their social media feeds. What they won’t see are trackers controlled by tech companies, data brokers, and advertisers that are secretly taking notes on everything they do,” said Cyphers. “Dominant companies like Facebook can deputize smaller publishers into installing its tracking code, so it can track individuals who don’t even use Facebook. “Behind the One-Way Mirror” offers tips for users to fight back against online tracking by installing EFF’s tracker-blocker extension Privacy Badger in their browser and changing phone settings. Online tracking is hard to avoid, but there are steps users can take to seriously cut back on the amount of data that trackers can collect and share. “Privacy is often framed as a matter of personal responsibility, but a huge portion of the data in circulation isn’t shared willingly—it’s collected surreptitiously and with impunity. Most third-party data collection in the U.S. is unregulated,” said Cyphers. “The first step in fixing the problem is to shine a light, as this report does, on the invasive third-party tracking that, online and offline, has lurked for too long in the shadows.” For more on behavioral tracking: https://www.eff.org/issues/online-behavioral-tracking Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit. Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/12/eff-report-exposes-explains-big-techs-personal-data-trackers-lurking-on-social-media-websites-and-apps.html | Mon, 02 Dec 2019 18:07:00 +0000 | 1,575,328,020 | 1,575,331,605 | religion and belief | religious belief |
6,881 | ageofautism--2019-01-19--Nutmeg State of Connecticut Sets Sights on Religious Exemption | 2019-01-19T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Nutmeg State of Connecticut Sets Sights on Religious Exemption | I live in Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States. We are one of the original colonies. We , like this nation, were founded on freedom. Rhode Island, our small neighbor to the east, was founded on religious freedom specifically. Currently, we have two vaccine exemptions, religious and medical. The legislature is now seeking to remove the right to refuse a vaccine based on religious beliefs. I've lived in Connecticut for more than a dozen years. I had no idea what is the state motto. We all know New Hampshire's, "Live Free or Die" motto. And my home state of Massachusetts' motto is "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." What has happened to our liberty? We now live under not the sword of a King, but the syringes and pills of a government/industry kingdom. Back to the motto of Connecticut: He Who Transplanted Still Sustains. The State website has a derivation of the motto below, from the Bible perhaps. Ah yes, religion. Take a look: . The motto "Qui Transtulit Sustinet," (He Who Transplanted Still Sustains), has been associated with the various versions of the seal from the creation of the Saybrook Colony Seal. While the origin of the motto is uncertain, the late Charles J. Hoadly, a former State Librarian, suggested in an article entitled "The Public Seal of Connecticut," which appeared in the 1889 edition of the Connecticut State Register and Manual, that we look to the 80th Psalm as a possible source. "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it." I assume the heathens were the early settlers, the Englishmen and women who fled the King and not the Native Americans who were slaughtered once "we" of European descent arrived. So much religion is entwined with our nation's history. And here our state is trying to remove my religious right to make medical decisions for our children. Visit Health Choice CT to stay abreast of the demise our rights here in the nutty Nutmeg state where we might have to change our motto to "Vox clamantis in deserto." KIM | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/yBdYXbDsTLE/nutmeg-state-of-connecticut-sets-sights-on-religious-exemption.html | 2019-01-19 11:00:00+00:00 | 1,547,913,600 | 1,567,551,751 | religion and belief | religious belief |
6,995 | ageofautism--2019-03-22--Common Sense in the Commonwealth of Kentuckys Governors Home Chicken Pox Once and Done | 2019-03-22T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Common Sense in the Commonwealth of Kentucky's Governor's Home: Chicken Pox Once and Done | Note - Nothing subliminal about that message from the family or the vaccine commercial from the Health Department. The Health Department said the chickenpox vaccine is the best way to prevent becoming ill and spreading the varicella virus. They said it is very safe and prevents almost all cases of severe illness. Ensure all members of your household are up to date on all vaccinations. “I don't believe in that vaccine at all and they are trying to push it on us,” Bill Kunkle said. They say the belief is derived from their Christianity. Bill Kunkel said his son Jerome, 18, is being discriminated against because of his religious beliefs regarding a vaccine for chickenpox. In separate areas of the state of Kentucky, two individuals are sharing their beliefs about vaccines, in the news. One is a high school senior who is suing, along with his family, the local Dept of Health. Check this out : NOTE: When Mia and Gianna were 3 and 2, the Varicella vaccine had just hit the market and I BEGGED their pediatrician for it. He refused to administer it to the girls telling me it was too new, and it was better for them to catch the chicken pox and be done with it for life. This was in 1998 or so. Not 1898. Governor Bevin gave his kids the gift of lifelong immunity from Varicella. The media will spin him into an anti-science monster who doesn't love his children. Nonsense. Below is a take on the story from the AofA POV. ### Kentucky, known for mint juleps, great bourbon, and the Kentucky Derby, has been in the news, and not just about March Madness. It’s another kind of madness --- the horrendously, horrible treatment of those who believe in Vaccine Choice. That was a few days ago and a tamer version of what is happening now. Here is the Washington Post. As you read, note the slew of sarcasm and an attempt to show a skewed moral compass in the family. They are being portrayed as “antivaxx,” It is a set-up. God, country and chickenpox: How an outbreak entangled one school in a vaccine showdown Bill Kunkel used to vaccinate his children, before he read where some vaccines come from. He is skeptical of the pharmaceutical industry’s motives and came across anti-vaxxer theories online, though they aren’t supported by science. But his main objection is about abortion. Decades ago, cells were taken from legally aborted fetuses to create some vaccines. Kunkel is Catholic. Vaccines derived from an abortion are, in his mind but not the church’s, immoral. So he and his wife chose not to vaccinate their fourth child, Jerome. Years later, that decision has positioned the Kunkels and their now 18-year-old son as the latest face of the nation’s anti-vaxxer movement — and exposed the tension between individual liberties and the public good. Since Feb. 5, Jerome’s K-12 Catholic school, Assumption Academy, has been experiencing an outbreak of Varicella zoster, the virus commonly known as chickenpox. And I am going to stop her right there. Wow. Do you see what I mean and there is plenty more. Like a tabloid tongue, gossiping about the sordid affairs of some famous, immoral family. Instead we are talking about attending high school, playing basketball and being Catholic --- oh and “antivaxx.” This is not news but a cookie-cutter attack that we keep seeing around the country. Read the entire WashPo article as the ending that I am posting below leads us to an ironic development happening ALSO in Kentucky, and ALL over the news in the past hours: The school canceled class on Friday and Monday and avoided interacting with reporters during a parent meeting last week about the outbreak. It’s unclear if vaccinated students will return to school this week and how unvaccinated students will go about their studies during the quarantine. Jerome Kunkel said he’s not sure how he’ll fill his time. He cleaned out his car, he said, and will probably begin practicing baseball with a teammate also kept from school by the ban. Three weeks is too short a time span to get a job, the high school student said. And he’s nervous about falling behind in class. “He’s being penalized because he’s a healthy child,” Bill Kunkel said. “He may not ever get chickenpox.” Kunkel said he attended “chickenpox parties” as a child and took his own children to one at his brother’s house, with the intention to expose children to the virus. But health officials strongly urge parents not to do this because the virus can cause unpredictable and severe reactions. The Northern Kentucky Health Department recommends the vaccine in each of its letters to parents at Assumption Academy. And as that bubble of comments made its way across the state, the Governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, had this to say: Kentucky governor says he exposed his children to chickenpox rather than getting vaccine (CNN)Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said he made sure all his nine children were exposed to chickenpox and caught the disease instead of giving them a vaccine. "They had it as children. They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine," Bevin said in an interview with WKCT, a Bowling Green radio station. Bevin and his wife, Glenna, have nine children between the ages of 5 and 16, according to his campaign website. The governor says he supports parents who choose to get their children vaccinated and also those who decline to do so. But he said the decision shouldn't be up to the government. "This is America," he said. "The federal government should not be forcing this upon people. They just shouldn't." That is an amazing statement and our thanks to Governor Bevin for supporting what so many other keep saying. There is an effort to make vaccines the “good guys” and thus, unvaccinated people become “the bad guys.” What is really bad is that true science is being ignored, too much. If there are outbreaks it is wrong to scapegoat the unvaccinated, as the issue is that vaccination is not without error. It does not last and it causes unintended consequences. With Chicken Pox (Varicella), the failure of life-long immunity has become a never ending commercial of first ONE vaccine then TWO vaccines and pretty soon will we be told, THREE or MORE Varicella vaccines to prevent Chicken Pox? The connecting issue is that Shingles for all ages is increasing and it can be more serious. Some facts to ponder from real research and data, that you won’t get from WashPo or CNN: Review of the United States universal varicella vaccination program: Herpes zoster incidence rates, cost-effectiveness, and vaccine efficacy based primarily on the Antelope Valley Varicella Active Surveillance Project data Prior to the universal varicella vaccination program, 95% of adults experienced natural chickenpox [162](usually as pre-school to early elementary school children)—these cases were usually benign. In the prelicensure era, the periodic exogenous boosting that adults received from those shedding VZV resulted in long-term immunity. This high percentage of seropositive individuals and their long-term immunity have been compromised by the universal varicella vaccination of children which provides at best 70–90% protection [142, 163-166] that is temporary and of unknown duration—shifting chickenpox to a more vulnerable adult population which, as Dr. Jane Seward cautioned in 2007, carries 20 times more risk of death and 10–15 times more risk of hospitalization compared to chickenpox in children [167]. Thus, the proponents for universal varicella vaccination have failed to consider increased HZ-related morbidity as well as the adverse effects of both the varicella and HZ vaccines which have more than offset the limited benefits associated with reductions in varicella disease. The universal varicella (Chicken Pox) vaccination program now requires a booster vaccine for children and an HZ (Shingles) vaccine to boost protection in adults. However, these are less effective than the natural immunity that existed in communities prior to licensure of the varicella vaccine. Hence, rather than eliminating varicella in children as promised, routine vaccination against varicella has proven extremely costly [60, 62,168] and has created continual cycles of treatment and disease. Lastly, in that WashPo article, God, country and chickenpox: How an outbreak entangled one school in a vaccine showdown, the author highlights aborted fetuses and when you click on it, it takes you to this page, Immunization Action Coalition. Here is their list of financial contributors. You can see that Merck and other pharmaceutical companies are listed, and since Merck does make both Varicella and Shingles vaccines, and make millions of dollars from them, it seems pretty ridiculous to list this IAC as an unbiased resource. As for Kentucky, their state motto is - United we stand, divided we fall - and that seems true more than ever. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/hb5R50pGqvg/commonsense-in-the-commonwealth-of-kentuckys-governors-home-chicken-pox-once-and-done.html | 2019-03-22 10:00:00+00:00 | 1,553,263,200 | 1,567,545,241 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,032 | ageofautism--2019-04-10--Child Health Defense Launches Immediate Legal Challenge Against New York Citys Public Health Emerge | 2019-04-10T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Child Health Defense Launches Immediate Legal Challenge Against New York City’s Public Health Emergency Due to Measles | From Robert Kennedy Jrs's Child Health Defense organization. In an unprecedented move, the New York City Health Commissioner on April 9, 2019 has imposed an emergency forced vaccination order, requiring ALL people living in four Brooklyn zip codes to receive the MMR vaccine (if they do not have proof of immunity or medical contraindication) within 48 hours or risk criminal and civil penalties. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio made the announcement. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said today that it’s “legally questionable” whether people can be forced to get vaccinated if it violates their religious beliefs. “Look it’s a serious public health concern, but it’s also a serious First Amendment issue and it is going to be a constitutional, legal question,” Cuomo said. “Do we have the right — does society, government have the right to say ‘you must vaccinate your child because I’m afraid your child is going to infect my child, even if you don’t want it done and even if it violates your religious beliefs?’ So that is, that’s an issue that’s going to be legally questionable and I’m sure it’s going to go down that path,” Cuomo added. Children’s Health Defense is supporting a legal effort to restrain this order immediately. Vaccination choice is a human right. While New York City unquestionably has the authority to isolate infectious individuals, and even to quarantine them, and to exclude unvaccinated children from schools during an outbreak in that school, it does not have the authority to require vaccination for all individuals on the basis of zip codes with vaccines that explicitly carry the risk of death. This government overreach requires challenge. SUPPORT CHD’S LEGAL EFFORTS THROUGH ONLINE DONATION. Or, mail a check to CHD\. (You can also authorize a bank transfer or open a donor advised fund. Contact us for more information.) | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/CSNApi2wUaM/child-health-defense-launches-immediate-legal-challenge-against-new-york-citys-public-health-emergen.html | 2019-04-10 10:01:00+00:00 | 1,554,904,860 | 1,567,543,331 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,047 | ageofautism--2019-04-17--Vaccine Exemption Removal Bills ARE the War on Women | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Vaccine Exemption Removal Bills ARE the War on Women | In all the articles and statements on “vaccine hesitancy” that are thrown at us, have you noticed how it seems to be a mystery to those conducting the “research” as to why these “parents” just won't do what they are told? Have you noticed that they never actually quote these “parents” on what their reasons for backing out of the vaccine schedule actually are? If they actually told you why the WOMEN... the almost exclusively female primary care givers... were reporting about their treatment, it would force a change in the vaccine industry from top to bottom. Because women who challenge the absurd “vaccines are safe and effective for everyone” claim in the office, even with the vaccine package inserts themselves, are often offered harassment, are subject to gaslighting and are treated like “emotional” children that need to be handled. That is what the vaccine industry has trained medical providers to do. Last month I asked the moms in the Maine Facebook group to post a short comment on the mistreatment they have encountered while dealing with vaccine issues in the office. I thought I would get a few quotes that would make it easier for the Committee to see the flat out misogyny that women are dealing with. The post had more than 500 comments in 24 hours. In a group of only 2,000 members. I have whittled it down a bit, but the “highlights” below is still 15 printed pages long. You can see the raw data on “vaccine hesitancy” for yourself before it is filtered through the narrative of the medical industry publishing monolith. I respectfully request that if you are a male, that you read the entire document so you can see what it is like to be a woman alone in a medical provider's office - something you will never experience in life. If you choose not to read it all, please at least read the last quote from the Maine Medical Association testifying in 2015 at the hearings on LD 606 that they do not believe women's reports of poor treatment by medical providers on vaccine issues - then - remember that we all collectively decided in October of 2017 that we would #BelieveAllWomen The vaccine exemption removal bills exist to control women who can see with their own eyes the damage that the current liability-free vaccine industry is doing to children, and read with their own eyes the official government documentation admitting that vaccines are “Unavoidably Unsafe” and cause harm. We asked mothers in a Maine Facebook vaccine group to tell us about their poor treatment in the doctor's office surrounding vaccination. We selected some for you to read so that you may have a greater understanding of the true reasons for "vaccine hesitancy": When pregnant with my 7th baby I went preterm (34 wks) I was sent to Maine med. My triage nurse every time she came in to check vitals would ask me if I changed my mind and would like dtap and flu shot. After about the 6th time I asked her to stop asking me. She replied "I am just trying to protect your baby from your ignorance " My son was vaccine injured and vaccinated without consent. We chose to selectively vaccinate and office nurse lied and told me she was giving the course of the 3 vaccines we chose. He would always get a fever but the last time he got a fever and broke out in hives and was sick for a week, we stopped all vaccines at that point. Later I was told by the doc he had received all but the last set of his vaccines for his 1st year. Our doctor told us my daughter would be stronger, smarter, happier, healthier if she had her shots, then informed us that he doesn't have to see our child as a patient because we don't vaccinate and we would have a hard time finding ANYONE with an office in the area that would take her at all. Convinced us that we wouldn't be able to find another pediatrician if we didn't agree with him, and then he said we should reevaluate our research and get off google. My daughter is 18 months old and hasn't had a checkup by him since 9 months because of this. I'm terrified to go back and be harrassed. I cried and left the office in a rush and he knew he had hurt us. I will never forget the look on his face when i asked "how could she be healthier?" Because she's never been sick. We see a naturopath for all of our well checks instead now because i am terrified to be scolded when having my daughter checked for something as simple as a cold. "I lose sleep over your children and all the children they could potentially infect" I had an old man pediatrician doing rounds at the hospital when I declined vitamin k for my son in September 2018. He said, “I am an expert at making babies mad and taking them away from their moms today.” And a few minutes later after we said we declined vit k, he said, “your baby WILL die without that.” I was in the middle of trying to do a weighted feed to please the nurses and he didn’t give one crap! "As long as you're civil with us, you can stay at our office." I was civil. I just asked questions. A doctor asked me what a titer is after I asked for one. "Your son will do fine with his shots, just cause his sister had (in your opinion) a bad reaction, doesn't mean he will, just do it." When I asked for the package inserts I was told that they didn't know what those were, and once I explained what they were, they told me that they had thrown everything away. Any question I ever asked was met with "I cant answer that for you"or we'll agree to disagree." I asked for a titer, and he said, "well that’s a needle . I thought you didn’t want him getting a shot." f you don’t give your child the HPV vaccine she will get cancer, and they said it in front of my daughter so she was terrified. “Don’t you want to protect your future sons wife’s life?” Regarding the hpv vaccine for my son. If you don't have her vaccinated, you're hurting your daughter. You're not going to be a very good mom.--said to me 2 days after giving birth to my daughter because I made known my stance. I know we've discussed this before, but I wanted to let you know how important it is to vaccinate your daughter. “I’ve seen cute babies just like yours die” You're a good mommy, right? Good mommies vaccinate their babies. Sign the paper. “Well she probably won’t have a reaction like that again, bc it’s a whole different set of shots this time.” “Your baby will die if you don’t follow the vaccination schedule” I shouldn’t have gone alone I figured I’d get some lecture, but that comment really hit me, I was clearly getting upset, so she stopped. She gave me some book to read (which went straight to the trash) and then assured me that her kids get all their vaccines and are fine we left that office. Our current dr left abruptly, haven’t been to any well checks since. You're not vaccinating?? Are you aware of the consequences of your neglectful actions. "There is no evidence that suggests that this will harm you or your unborn baby." The insert stated no tests had been done regarding pregnant women or the unborn and it stated in bold capital letters not to use while pregnant because miscarriage could happen. My very first experience was 11 years ago, i was in the waiting room with my daughter, and our ped was in the hallway and i hear her snicker to the other peds, "she's the one that don't vaccinate'. it wasn't what was said, it was their tone and talking behind my back, publicly in the hall. I called with a question about fevers and was told by the nurse, reiterating the pediatrician, "because your child is not vaccinated she needs to be seen immediately. We need to do x-rays, catheter, blood work, and start antibiotics. Me: "would you do the same for a fully vaccinated child who's only symptom was a fever? Nurse: "no the risk wouldn't be as high." I was shocked because her ONLY symptom was a fever and they NEVER answered my initial question. “If you’re not going to directly protect your children then you could at least protect them a little by getting the Tdap yourself.” I was in the ER for bleeding during early pregnancy. "You're just comparing her to her older sister who was advanced in her development. You need to look at the developmental norms". (In reference to my MULTIPLE concerns about developmental delay and regression between 4 and 11 months when looking at child development books NOT comparing her to her older sister) Eye rolling and seeming annoyance with my questions and bringing in sources to validate my concerns and statements like, "I have a very busy schedule. I can't possibly answer all of your questions in this visit." PCP insisted medically-fragile infant MUST have DTaP before scheduled heart surgery at 3 months, that it was "Required before surgery." (because, ya know, an instrument might fall in the manure on the OR floor). We went on to a new PCP: "Well, if you're never going to do anything to protect her health (since you're declining vaccines), it's not worth ordering any tests for these other issues you're mentioning." "You will have to vaccinate after this new bill passes, you will not have an option" She also told me that my thoughts on MTHFR were absurd. At the ER once a doctor demanded I give him an explanation as to why my son didn’t receive certain vaccines. It was very degrading and condescending, he backed off and actually laughed when I said “well we don’t do hep b because my child isn’t having sex or shooting IV drugs yet.” “Do you have a thermometer? Being unvaccinated, your baby is much more likely to run a fever” this was in regard to a 2 day old. If something were to happen, I don't know how YOU could live with that.... Every fever they will probably need to do a spinal tap. With my unvaccinated son (10 months old) in the ER after an injury requiring a butterfly suture to close a gash resulting from his sister's dollhouse falling on his head... "oh, he will definitely need a tetanus shot. You can get tetanus from dust" My doctor told me my daughter could get tetanus if she ate any food from a can. My son bit his tongue really bad. There was a flap sticking up. It didn't get sutures but they wanted a tetanus shot. I was like, "He bit it with his own teeth!!!" Small gash from the corner of a kitchen cabinet above his eye. ER told me they would take extra precaution with the wound being sure to keep it “extra sterile” because he didn’t have tetanus shot. “My plan to safely catch your son up would be to give all 9 shots in one visit to minimize trauma”. Laughed in my face when I asked about the insert. Told me it was legalese and that it didn’t mean anything. My timeline of my sons health meant nothing to her. We haven’t gone since my youngest was 4 months old. Our pedi flat out refused to have any discussion/conversation about the matter. They couldn’t answer any questions we had with anything other than, “they’re perfectly safe. Fever, rash, vomiting is a normal reaction.” So we quit going. I desperately want to find a pedi that wouldn’t heckle us though. "Do you not believe in death?" Severe eczema flares are not vaccine reactions. Everyone has eczema dormant in their bodies, and it's completely random as to what causes the break-out. Even though he has an allergy to eggs, getting vaccines that are grown on egg embryo's is completely safe. Each time we were in the ER with 105-106 fevers with my kids. "nope the vaccines didn't do this" yet it was in the same week as the vaccines. Where are all the doctors who don't pressure parents? I need one desperately :( You haven't seen what I've seen. Children die from these diseases. I'm going to have to keep telling you about this every time you come in. I was scolded in a room at Waterville pediatrics for over an hour with a patronizing male doctor. I felt like a hostage. I was yelled at, called ignorant and a terrible mother for wanting my kid to risk dying all while he stood in front of the door so I couldn't leave. “What religion are you that can’t vaccinate ? Oh well I know for a fact it isn’t against Christianity to vaccinate so yeah right” Oh man this makes me livid when I think back on it. It was an ER nurse who kept badgering me when I had a sick baby and was a first time mom back in 2009... I WISH someone would try that crap with me now. I was told vaccinations should not be my choice. My child would survive from the measles but would “randomly die in his sleep 10 years later as an after effect”. Refused to have my sons titers tested upon my request. We had a doctor who would roll his eyes there and when asked questions about vaccines in his office would only answer staring at a computer and would not look you in the eye. We left that office very quickly after the flags went up. Do you know what you're doing? Do you know the repercussions of this? Where did you get your information from? Basically - think twice about your actions. We were at a regular visit. Dr. wanted us to give him a flu shot. I wasn’t keen on the idea. I asked if they had thimerosal them. Her answer was, “it’s not going to give him Autism”. He already had an Autism diagnosis at this point and she knew it. For any check up/visit the first thing they do is say if you were up-to-date on vaccinations or not. If you are not that must be the cause of why you were here. It's as if they are not even going to listen to why I brought my sick kid in if I do not have all vaccines on their schedule. I brought my 20 m/o to the doctors 3 weeks ago to be tested for pneumonia because I'm positive that's what he has. They refused to test for pneumonia, and instead tested for pertussis because he's not vaccinated so he must have it. He tested negative for it btw, as well as RSV. He's still sick, and still not diagnosed :'( What is your intent when LD798 passes? (Maine General Express Care This past Saturday) "You want to delay vaccines? Well you better keep her in a bubble then." My daughter was 1 week old at that point. “So you want your child to end up with cancer? You’re just ASKING for them to die young. How unfair.” What the Dr told us when we denied vx at birth. I saw a covering doc when mine was out when my youngest had his first cough/fever. As a new mom I thought I should bring him in for a fever. The doc said " this child could have any possibility of sickness as he isn't vaccinated...some 3rd world disease for all I know!"....we didn't see him ever again. I was never insulted or belittled. I had a great experience in NH where my 1st daughter was born and they never made it an issue. But recently, when my 3rd daughter had her 2 month well check I was given a “sub” doctor. Dr. Losey. When vaccines came up he said “ok, time for shots!”. I said “not today and likely not ever. And it isn’t up for discussion. This is my informed non-consent.” He turned, (literally) threw his hands up in the air and walked out on me and my infant daughter. I’ve never been given a VIS... required by law... "Have you ever seen a baby with pertussis?” Around this time last year, I brought my daughter to her 4 year "well-child" visit. At this visit, I dare question how vaccines may affect children of different races (my children are biracial) and the answer was "There is no data saying it is not safe." ...doctor and nurse left room. Then 2 doctors and 3 nurses came jammed back into our tiny room. They were trying to show all the inserts they could, while each chiming in how they are safe. I felt cornered, I felt shamed. I was in tears! I almost gave in until I heard the doctor over everyone say "you are not a bad mom for not vaccinating because you can get her all caught up today!" When I heard that, the feelings of meekness and shame left me, and I told them "I do not feel guilty for not being up to date. I feel guilty for allowing them to receive the previous onslaught of fevers, lethargy, bowel issues and allergies. I told them there would be no more vaccinations until someone shows me a verified study proving my child will not be harmed based on their ethnicity... I left and haven't been back since. Now, I am afraid to bring my kids to the doctors. I walked out of there with my head high and tears running down my face! No one should face that type of gang-like activity! "Why cause you believe some young dumb blonde, by the name of Jenny McCarthy who thinks vaccines are linked to autism"...he laughs and said "your beliefs are ridiculous because it's been proven many times that there is no correlation between the two. "You would rather have your son die of a dangerous disease than get autism?" Ours made a snide comment about putting them off too long or even not doing them in general, and they literally said “but you wouldn’t do that, you’re good parents.” The ONE time my son has ever been sick with a fever (he’s almost 3 now and has only been sick twice in his life) I called and asked if he should be seen or not, and they said well it was urgent since he’s unvaccinated, it could be ANYTHING. He was perfectly fine the next day btw. Found a great naturopathic doctor since then, all set with the fear mongering pediatrics. My son was born at 27 weeks and weighing 2 lbs. The dr in the NICU wanted to give him a bunch of vaccines all at once. He was about 4 lbs by this point, and still on an high amount of oxygen. I said no, repeatedly. They said what if someone here is Hep B positive and infects your baby! Then after me just saying no thank you, he's all set. The dr. said I hope you change your mind because I'd hate to see your baby die. "I've been a doctor for 40 years and before vaccines patients were coming in by the dozens with measels and smallpox!! You should be thankful you have vaccines to protect your child!" This was said to me after our 2nd had an adverse reaction at his 2 month shots and the doctor was told me it was "totally normal" and "totally safe." 2 months after he had another vaccine reaction and since then neither of our children have had shots. I declined whooping cough vaccine while pregnant (gave birth in January). OB said to me, "did you know if you give your baby whooping cough, they could die. Your BABY could die". When I explained I was well educated and wanted to take my time to give vaccines she said while patting me on the leg condescendingly "just so you know all the research will support vaccinating on the schedule we follow." 8 years ago- Tulsa's’ most famous respected pediatric gastroenterologist, “I think you’re overreacting. There is no connection between the stomach and the brain. It’s not related to his autism.” When we were interviewing pediatricians ... “You can do a delayed schedule but you WILL do them.” My kid has never been to a pediatrician for all the reasons above, but when I was planning a pregnancy, at an annual exam, my doctor wanted to get me up to date on all shots because “it would protect my unborn baby...” Her nasty comments included: “Babies die all the time from vaccine preventable illnesses”...she’s actually “seen babies die from said illnesses... in Amish communities where they don’t vaccine, disease runs rampant,” “If you think you need to follow the advice of a porn star...” (I’m assuming she’s referring to Jenny McCarthy.) “You’ll never be able to go to Target.” This was from the first pediatrician I saw after my son was born. This is what she told me when I brought up my concerns about vaccinating him. I never went back and I never vaccinated him. Her stupidity literally solidified my decision not to vaccinate. Made me question doctors and the vaccines even more. After the first reaction, “I don’t understand why we need to stop vaccinating, he’s fine, babies do weird breathing things. You’re a brand new, overprotective mom. You don’t know.” After the second, “Do you even know what a seizure is? Babies have jerky movements, babies die from these diseases, you don’t know more than me. He won’t be able to go to school.” When my oldest was a newborn (she’ll be 20 in May) I took her for her first check up. The Ped (who I found out later was on some sort of board that supports vaccines) told me that I was “not smart to not vaccinate”. White I took my son into the ER when he was little because he hit the back of his head off from the corner of our coffee table. Before they would do anything about his bleeding head they lectured me for a long time about how sick my kid could be from not vaccinating. Before my son was born, I wanted to interview pediatricians before making a decision on who would care for him and basically see what their stance was on vaccines. Ended up going to Intermed in Yarmouth... after about 15 minutes of pleasant conversation I took a deep breath and brought up my fears about vaccines and my thoughts of delaying and skipping out on some altogether. Her demeanor towards me completely changed, arms crossed across chest. I felt very uncomfortable. She proceeded to tell me that she has watched babies die from not being vaccinated and that she would not feel comfortable treating my son basically if I did not follow her protocol and it might be better to find a different doctor. So I did. Having my daughter in Maine, the internal fetal specialist I was seeing was hella supportive. However, after she was out I made my husband go with her. Just to be sure. Surely enough, a nurse came in my recovery room a short time later, having a little conniption because my husband wouldn't let them vaccinate her. I confirmed the denial. And voila! Just like that my post OP pain med order disappeared. Took 12 hours, the next shift, to get anything. It was late at night, I was trying to nurse and in so much pain tears silently streaming down my face, when my new nurse came on. I never got an apology. But I did get pain meds. Why do you want to decline vaccines? You know the doctor that claimed vaccines cause autism was discredited and lost his license. Interviewing pediatricians when I was pregnant with my first. Asked about delay or altering schedule and he basically Said I was doing wrong by my child to do anything other than all the vaccines on time. "I believe not vaccinating your child is a form of child abuse." Later on in the conversation he says "you know I am a mandatory reporter. If I feel there is abuse in a family I am required to report it to the state." "The AAP advises all infants with an unexplained fever must be cathed, have blood work taken and a spinal tap done. Otherwise you're going against medical advice in which we would notify CPS." "All of my kids have been vaccinated and none have autism." A hospital doctor gave my husband a hard time about our daughter who has cancer not being vaccinated. Wanted her to get vaccines while in the hospital with pneumonia. "I see your son is due for his IPV, would you like to get him up to date today?" "He is due for all vaccines, but we are religiously exempt. I'm concerned you would vaccinate him while sick, though." "What does the science say about giving a polio vaccine to a child with a fever of 103 that youre currently unable to diagnose?" “What are you afraid of...autism or something” If you don't give your kid the chickenpox vaccine he could die. Told by the nurse I WOULD give my child her shots after speaking with doctor. I meet with the doctor, he “ agrees” to no vaccines at this time since my daughter is so ill.. nurse comes in and opens the shots, tries to guilt me into doing them because they are open and can't be used on another child now... with stern voice and face clearly expressing I am the problem. Took my twins in for their 2 month checkup. I knew I didn’t want to vaccinate that day. Wanted to wait until they were a bit older and space them out. I wasn’t even against necessarily getting the vaccines (at that time). My twins were breastfed, not in daycare, and their 3 older siblings were vaccinated. The doctor lost his mind on me. Raised his voice, belittled me, threatened me and said if I didn’t vaccinate that day I would have to SIGN a paper that said if my babies died it was my FAULT. We didn’t vaccinate and it was the last time we saw that pediatrician. I had forgotten that I also was told by my first pediatrician that I had to sign the paper handed to me stating that I was willingly putting my child in danger. "I will treat your children, but every time you come into my office I will remind you of the terrible choice you are making to not vaccinate." “Tell me why were holding off on vaccines?” “I can promise you vaccines do not cause autism if that’s what your worries about” “Were gonna have to have a come to Jesus moment before he starts school” Not a doctor for my child, but one of the nurses at the OB's office : "You'll be getting the flu and tdap today." "No thanks, should be a note in the chart from last appointment when it was mentioned, I will not be receiving those." "You HAVE to get them." "I don't HAVE to do anything, and I will absolutely NOT be getting any vaccinations." "Well, we'll see what the doctor says." " the doctor can say and make any recommendations that she wants, I'm still the one who gets to make the decision.... I am 100% unvaccinated, and I'm certainly not going to start while I'm pregnant." “I hope you are ok with you child dying because that is what you are doing by not vaccinating him and if that happens I hope you can live with yourself.” Went in for a sick visit with a ped who was not my ours many years ago. Nurse and dr wanted to vax even though she'd had a fever less than 12 hrs before. I had to school her on the CDC guidelines and even then she argued with me till I flat out told her she shouldn't have even asked that day due to the reason for our visit. (I was already not vaxing at that point and was at several rounds behind schedule.) Since then I've found most of the family has genetic mutations and possibility of congenital lyme etc. No way will I vaccinate. “I want you to know that you are risking your child’s life and if they die from something preventable, you will have to live with that” "If you don’t vaccinate I’ll have to fire you from the practice." I don’t recall the belittling exactly but it was there. A doctor who basically talked at you, and repeated the “vaccines are completely safe and they prevent disease “ laughed at us when we asked questions or voiced our reluctance and continued to repeat the vaccine mantra. We asked for vaccine inserts but never returned. “I’ve seen soooo many kids die of measles.” “Why don’t you want to give her the vitamin k drops? But why? But why? What is your evidence?” - A nurse literally while pushing in labor When bringing my then 7-year-old son to the surgeon for a follow up exam after his hernia repair, the surgeon told me, "He's all set! As long as he doesn't die of a communicable disease." In front of my 7-year-old. When my youngest was 2 months old the pediatrician told us, “she could be bitten by a baby with hep b.” A couple weeks later I had to reschedule a follow-up because I was called into work (1st time cancellation) and we were dropped from her practice. "Vaccines have nothing to do with religion." "Your child will not be able to attend school." "Don't believe everything you read on the internet." "We do not accept patients who are unvaccinated." "Come back when you change your religious beliefs." She told me two varicella vaccines were required for school. I was pregnant with my first, it was swine flu scare. I had four doctor's including the OB corner me and say I'm a bad mother for not protecting my child. I took the shot, immediate remorse. Also switched to midwife. I was told that I was ignorant and a terrible mother for wanting my kid to die. This was yelled at me while this Doctor blocked the door. This was 7 years ago This visit unfortunately I caved since I was cornered and yelled at. My son was hospitalized less than 12 hours later with reaction to Generally the office I go to is pretty good about it, but a couple of the Dr's and one nurses have said things. Both Dr's said something like “Can you tell me why you are not getting vaccines?” I usually answer with "I am confident with my choice, so we don't need to talk about it." That is followed by randomly throwing out "facts" to discredit the reasons that are generally assumed as why people choose not to vaccinate, like “Vaccines don't cause autism, if that is one of your concerns.” The nurse made a comment at the end of an appointment for my 5 year old. She said "I don't think he will be able to go to school with out the MMR vaccine." I started to tell her that he would be able to due to Maine's exemptions, but she cut me off part way through saying "I know about those" as she walked off. We actually had a PA write on a script for one of our kids, “not to expect this filled because they’re anti-Vaxers" When looking for a doctor for my first child I talked with a doctor and when we asked about vaccines and the inserts the Doctor proceeded to repeat “ well it’s not like I’ll report you to the police if you don’t but ....” At our first appointment with an osteopath (who told me she would work with us regarding not vaccinating), she laughed at my comments about vaccine injuries and she literally stuck her finger in my face and said “it’s because of people like YOU that pertussis is making a comeback!” I packed up all three girls (7, 3 and 1) and walked out. I never took them anywhere for Well Child visits after that. They’re now 19, 16, and 13, and healthy. At every appointment I wasn't asked I was told "oh today you WILL be getting the tdap and flu shot, not sure why that didn't happen yet" every visit. I was never once asked. They just assume because its recommended they don't need to inform and get consent. Just because your older son had a vaccine reaction (according to you) that’s not a reason to not vaccinate your youngest, or to stop continuing to vaccinate your oldest. Vaccines are very safe and effective, and you shouldn’t listen to google. When our pediatrician announced he was retiring last summer, we were told that no other doctors in the practice would be a good fit for our family - after we had been patients since April 2002, and my kids are almost 100% vaccinated (one missing the MMR, and the other two missing tdap / This may be the saddest thread I’ve read in our group in a long time. The belittling and bullying that happens to (mostly) Moms is astonishing. No we don’t get belittled or bullied. According to the media we are the ones doing the bullying. As soon as we get in the room the nurse usually says something to the effect, today’s going to be rough you’ve got a lot of shots today. When I say I’m deferring I get the uncivil look and asked what the date or age I plan to give them. Education that diseases are “ in pockets” and that I will have to have extra nurse visits between physicals to get her caught up. The doctor and nurse wore masks when I took my son to a different pediatrician for a referral because his sister isn't vaccinated and she was with us. Vaccines are safe and effective. My kids are fully vaccinated and I've never seen a bad reaction with anyone I've treated. There is so much false information out there and that Dr's (she didn't know his name) license was revoked because of spreading false information. I really want to be your son's Dr but you need to trust me. "You might as well fill out your sons toe tag if you don’t vaccinate for chickenpox" He also said that parents like me was the worst part of his job. My daughter had a severe cough. Saw another doc not our usual doc. Pediatrician: Has she had her flu shot? Pediatrician: She has the flu. Me: She doesn’t have the flu. Him: Yes she does (barely examines her). 3 days later back at doctor who is our regular doc. Good Pediatrician: Well good thing you brought her back. Her lungs are wheezing and she has bronchial pneumonia. Me: Not the flu? Good Pediatrician: God no. Why do you think that I’ve had a few that just don’t listen to me and use fear mongering. They try to tell me my kids could die from chicken pox, but then I ask basic questions like how many kids die from the vaccine or what are the ingredients and they have no idea. I quickly realized I knew more about vaccines then they did. Also while I was in labor several nurses were badgering me about vitamin K and hep B after I asked them to stop. The doctor called me in the middle of the night at the hospital to try to pressure me right after giving birth. I also speculate that they retaliated on me by referring my newborn to the nicu. Nothing ended up being wrong with her they tried to tell me something could be wrong with her intestines because of spit up and then tried again to get me to get vitamin K. She was the healthiest baby in the NICU. It was a horrifying experience though. "As a medical professional you should know better than to deliberately put your child at risk for preventable diseases. At least give her the MMR vaccine." Tried to ask questions .... "excuse me, i forgot about something" walked out and probably saw 2 more patients before coming back. I should have left, but i felt so awkward... My pediatrician was transferring care of my 3 1/2 week old to a large hospital and told them I was biased and unreliable in part because I chose not to have the Hep B vaccine for my baby when she was discharged from 12 days in the NICU. He didn't know I could hear him talking. Subsequently every doc and med student I encountered at the large hospital questioned my about why my baby ( 3 1/2 weeks old) was not vaccinated when she was there because she had a digestive issue requiring surgery!! My almost 3 year old gets measles and autistic symptoms from MMR shot and her pediatrician said: "It's not from the vaccination. She started preschool three weeks ago, correct? She's either stressed from that or probably coming down with something." I was a brand new mom with tiny 2 week old at first week child. Baby received her hep B shot, Afterward nurse told me 'oh she might have a reaction to this'.... I stopped all further vaccines until I learned more..... got an threatening letter in the mail from me doctor telling me I was negligent and could be calling on CPS. My child contracted pertussis when she was 2, from a recently vaccinated child at a birthday party. When I had her tested, I was told that I was negligent in regards to not vaccinating and that I was responsible for adding to the “disease problem” in the area. I was then lied to and told my insurance wouldn’t continue to cover visits unless my child was up to date on vaccines. I left the practice. My pediatrician harassed me at every single visit and each visit I told him I was delaying all vaccines until 2 years old. I got a lot of eye rolls and snarky comments from the nurses but my doctor was always civil. Over my twins' first year we learned… I was cornered in our Pediatrician’s office (by the dr) as she told me if I didn’t sign the form saying I’m knowingly harming my child that she will call the police and have me arrested. We fired her as our dr and changed to another dr in the office that respects our wishes. We were told by cds after they had rescheduled us several times (waited over 6 months just for an eval) that the evaluator is canceling our appointment because our children are not vaccinated. Then they told me I’ll have to wait while they found an evaluator that would be willing to “take the risk” of coming to our home. I cancelled all services with cds and paid for an independent evaluation. I was told my child wouldn't be allowed to attend public school (he does) and was told that he would die a painful death and I would have to live with knowing I was responsible. “Would you like to watch a video so you can become educated?” I have a son with a rare disease. He is approx. 1/900 in the world. We went to a new pediatrician on our new health plan. During our visit I was told his case was too complicated, why didn’t I schedule more time and that I could vaccinate. I declined. No questions about my son, his condition and our choices. I then received a letter in the mail stating I could come back only if I was willing to follow the CDC guidelines. We were fired. At an appointment to confirm pregnancy with my now 3yo, I declined the flu shot for myself. When I wouldn’t give in, the PA very forcefully said, “If you don’t get the flu shot, your baby could die!” I was so furious. “The Hep B is the least harmless. That’s the one I would recommend if you’re hesitant.” "DHHS investigates for neglect if you wait too long to catch up" (wic office Bangor) I always lied about my sons vaccine status after that. My biggest anxiety when he got sick or hurt was the doctors asking his vaccine status and whether they could read through my lies. I hate hate hate when they ask me if my kids are up to date. Major anxiety. I grew up a lot in that moment. That was the first time I had to physically advocate for my son I had to push the nurse away who was holding the needle and make her leave to check his chart to confirm he just had that shot. While she lunged at him insisting I was wrong. "Is there a reason why we're only giving one shot today?" I was told “that’s fine, if you want to take the chance of your child to dying of a preventable disease that’s your choice.” When my child was injured (which is why we no longer do vacc My daughters PCP looked my 11 yr old daughter in the eye (in front of me) and said, “I’m sorry your mother is putting you at risk for cancer.” I refused the HPV shot for my 11 year old SON. She told me I needed to give it to him to protect the girls he's going to have sex with. When I told her I did research and didn't want him to have it, she said here's some websites only use these websites to research vaccines because other websites aren't accurate. She wouldn't drop it until I promised I would research through her websites. "I guarantee nothing bad will happen because of these vaccines." Dr Howard Silversmith, June 20, 2003. 27 hours later he would advise a panicked mom who was a licenced Emergency Medical Technician, that the seizure she witnessed while taking Cyndimae out of her car seat was probably REM sleep. Her next seizure was less than two hours later while sitting in her high chair eating. In the hospital when my 7 month old had a high fever.. the ER doctor, “Because of your ignorance, your son could die from meningitis!” (He hadn't been tested and I had the sense to refuse the spinal test and leave.) "Your child will most likely die from one of these diseases"... I told her that was enough and she said "I just need to tell you this from our side" whatever that means. My last pediatrician visit ended up being an hour long debate when I told him that I was no longer vaccinating my 11 year old that had already had ALL the 50 something vaccines on the schedule. He wanted to give her 4 more different injections at this visit! I was considering a delayed schedule with my youngest a year ago and the pedi at the time told me I would be traumatizing her to bring her in and have her get shots so often instead of all at once. I can’t remember all the details but she basically made me feel like a horrible person for even Our PA wanted/insisted on doing my sons Chicken Pox vaccine, it was a heated debate over why I needed to do this. I said, Fine I'll think about it between now and our next well-child check. My son came down with chicken pox on his own before the next well-child check. (I will add, that when I offered to bring him in so that they could verify it, they said no that was fine they'd just make a note in his chart.) I was told that if my son ever had a febrile seizure again from a high fever it would be my fault and if he died it would be on me. This was after I confronted him about my son having a 8 min long febrile seizure after the MMR shot. He said that was not a side effect of the MMR vaccine. Haven’t taken him back since. I am literally honestly afraid to take my kids to the doctors! My 10 year old started getting seizures after her 4 month shots, was diagnosed with epilepsy at 5 months old, she had her last seizure when she was 6. None of this ever dawned on me until I went back and looked at her chart and it all made sense. One time my husband found her and she wasn’t breathing, by the grace of God she’s still here. I so wish I knew what I know now. But those eight minutes holding my son was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life and the doctor said it was no big deal. It is so crazy. My son started stopping breathing in his sleep after 2 mos shots only dtap because my gut was telling me no more. Dr dismissed it. At 4 mos bullied me into hib and Pneumococcal and seizures for the next 5 months. Dr told me babies have jerky movements and I didn’t know what a seizure was the joke was on him since I have a BA in neuroscience. Fired him! When I look back I can definitely see how each of my five children all had different reactions, but yet the doctor never believed me which is so infuriating. But now my children know and no longer want shots, my oldest speaks out a lot about them. I just wish more people would understand My mother was harassed to the point of crying and feeling she couldn't leave and eventually consented to one vaccine (DTaP) when I was 13 months old. She was told to leave the room while they did it and locked out. I’ve been called multiple times about my daughters mmr and to schedule. I have been told that I am not a doctor and these decisions are important for my child’s life. I went to the pediatrician because my daughter had a severe diaper rash and nothing I did was helping. The dr we normally see wasn’t available so we had to see a different one. What should have been a 15 minute visit ended up being over an hour of this man telling me over and over how uneducated I am and that I’m clearly too young to be a good mother (I’m 25) that if I wasn’t going to “properly care for” my daughter I should give her to a family who will, how autism isn’t caused by vaccines (I never said it was)and they are COMPLETELY safe and no one is ever harmed, he went on to say that my daughter’s rash was DEFINITELY a reaction to “lack of vaccinations” he ended the conversation with me in tears and said “when your baby dies don’t come to us looking for answers.” My son was bruising his head, banging it incessantly after 6 month vaccines. Our pediatrician laughed and said it was "normal baby behaviour." Um .... or not. Obviously left that practice. During the 2015 hearings on LD 606, the bill to remove the philosophical exemption, Peter Michaud told the committee, "As you know I represent the Maine Medical Association. I have heard a lot of horrible things about doctors today. And you'll believe what you believe based on what you've heard. I refuse to believe that so many doctors in this state are unfeeling, are horribly rude, are bullies, don't have the best interests of their patients in mind.” Keep in mind that it is the policy of the Maine Medical Association not to believe any of the stories that you just read from Maine mothers. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/p2Mdk0A05E0/vaccine-exemption-removal-bills-are-the-war-on-women.html | 2019-04-17 09:34:00+00:00 | 1,555,508,040 | 1,567,542,710 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,105 | ageofautism--2019-05-16--Undue Burden Abortion Rights V Vaccination Rights | 2019-05-16T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Undue Burden: Abortion Rights V. Vaccination Rights | Alabama has all but removed a woman's right to choose to terminate a pregnancy, even in cases of rape and incest. As a Mom of three disabled daughters who face a lifetime of sexual assault, this ruling appalls me. Undue burden means significant difficulty or expense: In the field of reproductive rights, having the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a fetus that is not yet viable. Laws that impose an undue burden on a fundamental right are unconstitutional under current Supreme Court cases.( https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/undue_burden) What about the undue burden of vaccination rights? How far will a parent have to travel to find a doctor willing to give a medical exemption to a child, when that doctor knows his license will be at stake? We're creating a new back alley. In 2019. Not to mention the threat of vaccine injury to every single child. That fact is swept under the rug because most politicians, heck, most Americans, simply do NOT believe vaccine injury exists beyond the redness at the injection site. Vaccine injury is as mythical as the Jabberwocky. And if vaccine injury does not exist, there is no reason to ever say "no" to a vaccine, therefore exemptions are not needed. Find me a bottle that says "Drink Me," please. Maine removed a woman's right to choose to say "no" to pediatric vaccines for her children, even in cases of previous family injury, religious belief or scientific research having convinced her that to delay or deny a vaccine is in the best interest of her child. Women who rally against Alabama's law are considered Handmaid Heroines. Women who rally against Maine's (and New York and Connecticut, and California, and Oregon et al) law are considered dangerous, selfish, obnoxious threats to be silenced. Here's a clever way to sum up American politics today. Republicans = Guns and Buns (in the oven.) Democrats = Vaxes and Taxes. "Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome wraths outgrabe." (Lewis Carroll.) This is not, as our Dan Olmsted would have said, a "frabjous" day for any of us. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/TOkS60VSCPE/undue-burden-abortion-rights-v-vaccination-rights.html | 2019-05-16 10:00:00+00:00 | 1,558,015,200 | 1,567,540,532 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,196 | ageofautism--2019-07-11--Families Sue New York State to Stop the Repeal of the Religious Exemption to Vaccines | 2019-07-11T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Families Sue New York State to Stop the Repeal of the Religious Exemption to Vaccines | Albany, NY—Attorneys Sussman and Kennedy filed a lawsuit today in New York State (NYS) Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the NYS legislature’s June 13, 2019 repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination, Public Health Law Section 2164(9). The plaintiffs, 55 NYS families who held lawful religious exemptions, request that the court enjoin the enactment of the repeal temporarily, preliminarily and permanently. The plaintiffs are of diverse religious faiths, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. As a result of the repeal, these families can no longer educate their children in any schools or camps in New York without violating their religious faith. The parents who bring the suit seek to represent thousands of other families likewise affected by the repeal. The complaint argues that the repeal violates both state and federal law. And, the repealof this longstanding religious right, without a single public hearing, unreasonably interferes with religious freedom. “To deprive families of the rights to freedom of religious expression, parental rights, and the right to either a public or private education, the state must demonstrate a “compelling state interest” that the state has failed to prove here,” said Sussman. Furthermore, the state must act with neutrality towards all religious faiths and may not display impermissible animosity or hostility to religion. Yet, in this case, many NYS legislators showed great animosity to those with religious exemptions, calling the nature of the exemption “utter garbage,” “a myth and fabrication,” “a loophole,” and many other slurs. While irreparably harming plaintiffs and similar families, the state has failed to prove even a rational basis to mandate all the vaccines on the NYS schedule to those who hold genuine, sincere religious beliefs against them. Kennedy, Chief Legal Counsel for Children’s Health Defense, stated, “Religious rights are fundamental. It is unconstitutional for the state to deprive people of such important rights when religious animus has played a key role. To enact such harsh legislation without any legislative fact-finding, and with the legislators’ open display of prejudice towards religious beliefs different than their own, is simply un-American; it is essential that we fight this.” | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/q8xor73x_Jk/families-sue-new-york-state-to-stop-the-repeal-of-the-religious-exemption-to-vaccines.html | 2019-07-11 09:59:00+00:00 | 1,562,853,540 | 1,567,536,523 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,244 | ageofautism--2019-08-14--Judge to Hear Oral Argument on the Repeal of theReligious Exemption to Vaccination for New York Chil | 2019-08-14T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Judge to Hear Oral Argument on the Repeal of theReligious Exemption to Vaccination for New York Children | Judge to Hear Oral Argument on the Repeal of the Religious Exemption to Vaccination for New York Children After the Wed., Aug. 14th, 10: 00 a.m. hearing, Attorneys Michael H. Sussman and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chairman of Children’s Health Defense, will answer questions on the Albany County, NY Courthouse steps, 16 Eagle Street. Albany, NY—On July 10, attorneys Sussman and Kennedy filed a lawsuit in New York State (NYS) Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the legislature’s repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination. Suing on behalf of 55 NYS families who held lawful religious exemptions, Sussman and Kennedy requested that the court enjoin the repeal temporarily, preliminarily and permanently. The Honorable Denise Hartman, Supreme Court judge, will hear oral argument Wednesday, August 14th. With school only three weeks away, plaintiffs present their case that on June 13, 2019, NYS halted more than fifty years of lawful religious exemptions from vaccination for those with genuine and sincerely-held religious beliefs. The law, which became effective immediately, threw more than 26,000 NYS families into chaos, barring their children from school and daycare. A representative group of affected families, from different regions and diverse faiths, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam, challenged the repeal as constitutionally defective and unlawful. They seek judicial intervention to enjoin the repeal and permit their children back to school and camp throughout the state. The ruling will not only affect the 55 plaintiffs but the thousands of other similarly situated families. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/Pnu2qDjGwDY/udge-to-hear-oral-argument-on-the-repeal-of-thereligious-exemption-to-vaccination-for-new-york-children.html | 2019-08-14 10:00:00+00:00 | 1,565,791,200 | 1,567,534,216 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,300 | ageofautism--2019-09-12--9/11, California, New York and Maine, Terrorism eighteen years on. | 2019-09-12T00:00:00 | ageofautism | 9/11, California, New York and Maine, Terrorism eighteen years on. | That horrible day generated thousands of questions. One key question was, “Why?” A week or so later President George W. Bush offered an answer in a joint session of Congress. He said, “They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” Later, that awful day, my wife and I received the devastating confirmation that our fears about our younger son Luke were correct, and that he had autism. We didn’t know it at the time but our experience with Luke was a common one. Following a fever after getting a group of shots, Luke lost his few words, began to appear deaf, lost any sense of pain, and began odd repetitive behaviors. That news turned our personal lives upside down, on 9/11 the entire world seemed upside down. Eighteen-years ago today hijackers transformed two airliners into cruise missiles and crashed them into the World Trade Center. As we all know, thousands died. Anyone who is old enough to remember that day will never forget it. That morning I heard a report on the radio that a “light plane” had crashed into one of the towers. Even from a distance of 18 miles, the World Trade Center was normally clearly visible from our kitchen window, and as I looked toward lower Manhattan on that crystal blue day, I thought it strange that there was a weird cloud obscuring the towers. Then I realized it was billowing smoke. THANK YOU, to John Gilmore, whose Autism Action Network fights deep in the trenches every day for our rights. Below is his editorial from his site (please consider a donation to his work) that says what so many of us are thinking. AAN, like AoA and so many of the "A" orgs relies on donations from concerned citizens, readers, friends, family. Our work may look grand (we hope!) but we are Davids among Goliaths. Thank you. KIM ### 9/11, California, New York and Maine, Terrorism eighteen years on. This morning I was thinking about that day 18 years ago, and what is happening now. Several days ago, three brave parents in Sacramento took the step we all knew was coming, just like Rosa Parks more than half a century ago on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, they refused to comply with injustice and conducted civil disobedience leading to their arrest. No doubt this this will be the first of many to come. The parents were in Sacramento attempting to stop the passage of a law that will muzzle physicians from straying from the medically orthodox line that, “Vaccines are safe!” The people who are always telling us to suspend our own judgment and listen to doctors are now telling us not to listen to the doctors, and taking away the doctors' right to think, use their judgment, and put their patients’ interests first. The same day in Albany, the state capital of New York, 500 parents were locked out of a normally public meeting of the Regents, our state board that sets school policy. In a few days 26,000 students will lose their right to an education because their families have religious beliefs the State will no longer tolerate, and our Regents had nothing to say about it. In Albany and Sacramento thousands of parents had the same chant, ‘Let us in!” The Autism Action Network fights for you and your family every day, please keep us in the struggle. If you value the advocacy and information brought to by the Autism Action Network, please make it possible for us to continue our work by donating at our one fundraiser of the year we do in conjunction with the Autism Community Walk here: https://grouprev.com/autismactionnetwork2019 A few months ago, New Yorkers had our right to a religious exemption from vaccine mandates to attend school taken away. Our legislators took away a fundamental right we have always had in this state without a single public hearing or opportunity for the people to be heard. Our Assembly Health Committee re-voted at the behest of our Speaker when the first vote came back to kill the bill. Our Senate conducted their vote behind locked doors. We now have internal religious refugees in the United Sates, thousands of families have fled, or are planning to flee, New York, California and Maine for states where they will be able to live in accord with their religious beliefs and exercise their God-given right as parents to care for their children. Dozens of states are considering bills to limit our rights and force more vaccinations on unwilling people. Measles outbreaks are used around the world as a pretext to eliminate any right to refuse vaccines. The political party that claims, “My body, my choice,” as one of its most closely held values, leads the charge to take away any choice at all to decide what will happen with our bodies or our children’s bodies. Presidential candidates try to one-up each other to show how ferocious they would be in doing the vaccine cartel’s bidding. We have members of Congress calling for censorship of any criticism of the vaccine industry. The giant tech monopolies are more than happy to oblige. The US House of Representatives is considering a resolution denying that vaccine injuries even happen, a mantra that we hear repeatedly in the media and from our elected officials. This is a global fight between the parents of the world against the cartel that controls 90% of the world vaccine market: Pfizer, Merck, Glaxo and Sanofi. We tend to focus on the politicians, but they are just the hired help in this war. These four are also the largest drug manufacturers in the world. They are the largest source of campaign money for politicians in the US, and they are the leading source of advertising dollars as well (the two largest recipients of advertising revenue in the world are Facebook and Google.) In our efforts to keep our rights in New York we were called Nazis, lunatics, and every expletive you have ever heard. Far more troubling, a former Obama administration official in an editorial published in a newspaper owned by the richest man in the world called parents who question the good intentions of the vaccine cartel, “terrorists." “Terrorists.” Just like the hijackers on 9/11. And we all know what happens to terrorists. This battle for our fundamental human rights has reached a place most of us probably never imagined it could reach. But here we are. And we will be in it for the long haul. Let’s look to those brave parents in Sacramento, and the long history of Americans fighting for our rights, and know that we have truth and justice on our side, and if we persevere, we will prevail. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/umknYXACmSs/911-california-new-york-and-maine-terrorism-eighteen-years-on.html | 2019-09-12T06:00:00-04:00 | 1,568,282,400 | 1,570,492,613 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,316 | ageofautism--2019-09-19--September is for the FIRST Day of School NOT the Last Except in New York | 2019-09-19T00:00:00 | ageofautism | September is for the FIRST Day of School NOT the Last, Except in New York | Note: We doctored the photo for privacy. Atty Palma posted it publically on FB. This darling, healthy, American boy has been kicked out of school in New York because of the removal of the religious exemption. His teacher and classmates made him a goodbye card. Look at his face. His tears. Imagine telling your child he is not welcome in school because of your religious beliefs. This is 2019, children of every race, creed, color, illness status, and gender orientation are to be welcomed and embraced. Alas, vaccination status is "exempt" from logical or rational thought. Or kindness. | Age of Autism | https://www.ageofautism.com/2019/09/september-is-for-the-first-day-of-school-not-the-last-except-in-new-york.html | 2019-09-19 10:04:00+00:00 | 1,568,901,840 | 1,569,329,852 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,320 | ageofautism--2019-09-20--Was CT DPH Commissioner Strongarmed into Removal of Religious Vaccine Exemption | 2019-09-20T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Was CT DPH Commissioner Strongarmed into Removal of Religious Vaccine Exemption? | A message from our friends at HealthChoice Connecticut: Was the DPH Commissioner strong armed into supporting a draconian push to create an unnecessary solution to an imaginary problem? On Monday September 16, 2019, Governor Ned Lamont and DPH Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell held a press conference to announce their support for the removal of Connecticut’s long-standing religious exemption to school immunization requirements. Recently, Coleman-Mitchell was quoted as saying, “I am not able, nor should I weigh in on anything that’s public legislation that comes about as a result of any of the work we do. That’s not in the purview of my role.” A month before, in a prepared statement to the CT Mirror, she stated, “In Connecticut, we have only had three measles cases so far in 2019 and the last case was in April. Given that we have not had any further measles cases since April and because the immunization rate for the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines in Connecticut remains above 95 percent statewide, we will not be releasing immunization rates by school for the 2018-2019 school year at this time.” Though she was subsequently overruled by the governor to release this data, this clearly shows she was not concerned about a public health crisis, because one does not exist. Health Choice CT asks Coleman-Mitchell and Governor Lamont how CT went from the Commissioner seeing no need to release data, to the state demanding the removal of healthy kids from school by eliminating the religious exemption from vaccines. The alleged 25% increase in religious exemption rates has not been verified, and while it sounds like a lot, 25% of a very small number is still a very small number. CT boasts one of the highest vaccination rates in the country and has for the past several years. The unnecessary and illegal release of school level data was a political move to create a non-existent crisis. To so flippantly strip children’s rights to attend school due to their religious beliefs is appalling, and the idea that healthy kids pose a threat to others is wildly misguided. Unvaccinated children cannot spread an illness they do not have. Are the medically unvaccinated an equal risk? Or does the threat only arise when a child is exempt for religious reasons? And what about the adults in our school who are not up to date on their vaccines? | Age of Autism | https://www.ageofautism.com/2019/09/was-ct-dph-commissioner-strongarmed-into-removal-of-religious-vaccine-exemption.html | 2019-09-20 10:00:00+00:00 | 1,568,988,000 | 1,569,590,593 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,379 | ageofautism--2019-10-11--Children Banned From School: Attorney Statement on Sullivan-Knapp v. Cuomo (Steuben County) | 2019-10-11T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Children Banned From School: Attorney Statement on Sullivan-Knapp v. Cuomo (Steuben County) | Jim Crow laws have returned from what should have been the fully, totally, unequivocally dead in the form of vaccination status discrimination. From New York State: October 9, 2019 Attorney Statement on Sullivan-Knapp v. Cuomo (Steuben County) We are extremely disappointed by the fainthearted and incohesive decision filed today by Judge Wiggins, but we are encouraged by most of the content of the Judge’s decision. Judge Wiggins acknowledged that the New York legislature “callously disregarded” the religious beliefs of 19.54 million New Yorkers when removing the religious exemption to vaccination without holding “any committee hearings or substantial debate”. He wrote that the legislature’s actions led to the “unconscionable consequence” of 26,000 healthy children being denied access to New York schools. He ruled that “the danger to the public was somewhat overstated” in Judge Hartman’s Albany decision. He stated, “children not vaccinated because of religious exemptions make up less than 1% of the population, which hardly seems like a public health crisis”. Meanwhile, the rationale which the legislature used to repeal the religious exemption was itself overstated and nonexistent public health crisis, to which the expert affidavits attest. Yet, despite including the above in his decision, Judge Wiggins ultimately denied the preliminary injunction, which would have eliminated the “unconscionable consequences" of the repeal bill while this case progresses to trial. He writes near the end of his decision that “precedent appears to give the legislature the authority to bar the doors (to school) to the unvaccinated". It seems he ruled this way because he believed he had no other choice to “precedent”, but this is not entirely accurate. Sullivan-Knapp v. Cuomo is a novel case of first impression. This gives Judge Wiggins the opportunity to create new precedent in his decision. In the history of the United States, there has never been a case based solely on a state constitution involving the removal of a religious exemptions to vaccination. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/dKPCXh-wKRM/children-banned-from-school-attorney-statement-on-sullivan-knapp-v-cuomo-steuben-county.html | 2019-10-11T06:00:00-04:00 | 1,570,788,000 | 1,570,795,750 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,473 | ageofautism--2019-12-08--Health Choice 4 Action Responds To False & Disparaging Remarks | 2019-12-08T00:00:00 | ageofautism | Health Choice 4 Action Responds To False & Disparaging Remarks | It is with great disappointment that Health Choice 4 Action (HC4A) is forced to address the emphatically false and disparaging remarks being shared on several social media platforms. Health Choice (HC) and HC4A have been referred to as “controlled opposition” while insulting remarks have been cast toward individual members and our national founders. Our main goals have empirically been, and continue to be, to protect our children and safeguard parental rights. It is apparent that these people do not share the same vision or objectives of HC, HC4A and its members. Our national founders and local leaders have volunteered countless hours over combined decades in advocacy to ensure that individual health choice rights and the rights of parents, as the ultimate decision makers for their families’ health, are retained. In 2019, we have fought and continue to fight for informed consent, religious freedoms, civil liberties, parental rights and the guarantee that all children are afforded their fundamental right to an education - no matter race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or disability. We are unpaid parents, who spend countless hours and sleepless nights advocating to preserve our rights. We believe that these other individuals do not have the best interests of our children at heart. The mission of these local groups that support and promote distracting, divisive and destructive behavior does not align with HC or HC4A. The abusive actions and derogatory remarks towards mothers are a reflection of those individuals’ true character. HC and HC4A does not condone and will continue to refrain from engaging in social media peacocking, a distraction from our goals, and will solely focus on the real issues currently in our state, eliminating the bills and preventing discrimination in education. | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/koV0u6eP_dE/health-choice-4-action-responds-to-false-disparaging-remarks-.html | 2019-12-08T18:48:43-05:00 | 1,575,848,923 | 1,575,849,797 | religion and belief | religious belief |
7,481 | ageofautism--2019-12-15--ACTION ALERT!! New Jersey S2173 12/16 Signing to Remove Religious Vaccine Exemption | 2019-12-15T00:00:00 | ageofautism | ACTION ALERT!! New Jersey S2173 12/16 Signing to Remove Religious Vaccine Exemption | This new bill S2173/A3818 completely removes the religious exemption from New Jersey law. No longer can the faithful believe in God’s power to protect them. No longer can the faithful rely on their God-given immune system to fight the everyday battles it was designed to do. No longer will a person of faith be able to choose whether to partake in substances being injected into his/her body. There is no more choice and no more consent for the faithful in New Jersey who want to attend public or private school. For over 50 years, the religious exemption in New Jersey has required a parent or guardian to write a letter explaining how vaccinating their child(ren) went against their religious beliefs and interfered with their relationship with God. This letter was then required to be privately submitted to primary and secondary schools. This system worked, proving that public health measures and religious liberty can co-exist in NJ. A few days prior to the Health Committee vote, the language of the Senate bill was made available online for the interested public to read. There has been and continues to be total media silence that a civil and religious right is being removed from New Jersey citizens. Interested parties who were tracking the bill discovered that it was on the docket themselves. With not much time to prepare, New Jersey vaccine and consent rights groups such as NJ Hope from Holly, Innovative Parenting NJ, New Jersey Coalition for Vaccine Choice, The Real Crunchy Mommas, First Freedoms, and Children’s Health Defense joined their voices to oppose this bill. These groups aligned and asked their members to call and email all Senators, especially those on the Health Committee, and also asked their members to meet at the Trenton state Capital building in a boots-to-ground effort to educate legislators and squash the bill. The NJ legislature has moved like lightning to pass a law that will ELIMINATE the religious exemption for ALL children in daycare and ALL students in public and private schools starting in June 2020. To preserve your rights, email and tweet—and then send a video message. New Jersey Residents: Click HERE before 1:00pm 12/16 By Kathleen Hayes McCarthy Trenton, NJ -- New Jerseyans were busy cleaning turkey pots and shopping for holiday gifts when their Senators quietly slated Bill S2173 for the voting docket on December 12. This bill is the companion bill to A3818, which was introduced by Assemblyman Herb Conaway in April, 2019 to the Assembly Health Committee as a restriction on the religious exemption. It passed out of that committee, and then the restriction language was stripped to completely remove the religious exemption during the full Assembly floor vote. It then was voted on and passed by the full Assembly. Law enforcement is required to obtain a warrant prior to piercing the skin to acquire blood samples from suspected criminals, yet, if these bills pass, law-abiding New Jersey citizens will be forced to pierce the skin of their children in opposition to their religious beliefs to inject into their bodies substances that the government requires to attend school. The preamble to the New Jersey State Constitution asserts that “We, the people of the State of New Jersey, grateful to Almighty God for the civil and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavors to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations, do ordain and establish this Constitution.” This preamble contains very strong language securing civil and religious liberties for New Jersey citizens, and requires the duty to pass the same to future generations “unimpaired.” These words are an umbrella covering all that is contained in the Constitution. This document, and these words, is a guiding principle for legislators creating law in New Jersey. Removing the religious exemption certainly impairs religious liberty. On December 12th, the Senate Health Committee met to vote on S2173. People in the thousands showed up in Trenton to demonstrate opposition to the bill. Intelligence provided by vaccine rights groups showed that seven of the ten seated members of the Committee did not support the bill. There were rumors that Senate President Steve Sweeneywanted to change the membership of the Committee to change the outcome of the vote. The voting public and bill detractors struggled to believe that something so corrupt would occur; however, on the morning of the critical vote, Senator Sweeney did indeed swap three of the Senators who were confirmed as No votes with three Senators who professed to vote Yes. Sweeney even swapped himself in as a Yes vote, effectively changing a 7-3 vote to retain the religious exemption to a 6-4 vote to remove it. With that simple and corrupt act – flouting our legislative process and voting honesty – Senator Sweeney’s manipulations stole religious rights from 9,000,000 New Jerseyans. On Monday, December 16th, the bill will be voted on by the full Senate and the full Assembly. Unless enough Democratic Assembly and Senate members reject these bills for the incredibly sleazy way in which they were passed out of Committee, the bills are expected to pass both houses. The voting is split along party lines - Democrats seeking to strip religious liberty and Republicans seeking to maintain it - and the Democrats want this bill to pass. It will then be on Governor Murphy’s desk for signing. When the ink from Governor Murphy’s pen hits the paper, New Jerseyans will lose a right that for over 50 years has been recognized as God-given and inalienable. Unless enough Democrats reject the corrupt way these bills made it to a floor vote, this will be a very dark day in the history of New Jersey. Born and raised in New Jersey, Kathleen grew up in Belmar. This legislation, however, may cause her to leave the state. Kathleen has a BA in English from Drew University, and an MBA in Marketing/Communications from Fordham University Gabelli School of Business. She is passionate about health, human rights, and the environment. A businesswoman and mother, Kathleen adores her two children. She is on the Advisory Board of First Freedoms, a non-profit organization. First Freedoms is a 501.c.3 non profit formed to address the right to freedom of health choice, religious freedom and other freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. First Freedoms is formed to protect, defend and create awareness of Civil Rights laws (both State and Federal) and other applicable laws and standards; to provide information to individuals concerning their rights as well as information concerning environmental factors that may impact not only acute but also chronic disease in individuals, both in the United States and globally. www.firstfreedoms.org | Age of Autism | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ageofautism/~3/m_iCo1N4njE/action-alert-new-jersey-s2173-1216-signing-to-remove-religious-vaccine-exemption.html | 2019-12-15T16:02:28-05:00 | 1,576,443,748 | 1,576,454,622 | religion and belief | religious belief |
8,184 | aljazeera--2019-01-15--Indias mega Kumbh festival gets BJP boost ahead of election | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | aljazeera | India's mega Kumbh festival gets BJP boost ahead of election | New Delhi, India - Over 100 million people will be taking a holy dip at the confluence of two rivers in northern India's Prayagraj city as the eight-week-long Kumbh festival began on Tuesday. The Kumbh, billed as the world's biggest gathering of humanity, is a mass pilgrimage in which Hindus gather in specific locations along the holy rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical river Saraswati for a holy dip that they believe will cleanse their sins and bring salvation. The religious event in the Uttar Pradesh state, which will continue till March 4, is being organised by the right-wing governments at both the federal and state levels in an election year. Astrology determines most aspects of the UNESCO-listed festival, including its exact date and length. Where the festival will be held depends on the positions of the planet Jupiter, sun and the Earth. "It is an exhilarating experience. To be part of a sea of humanity that arrives to take a dip in the holy waters, it is humbling and joyful. You abandon your fears at the Kumbh and hopefully your sins," Gopal Mishra, a devout Hindu who has been to the festival several times, told Al Jazeera. There are six particularly auspicious days to bathe, termed as Shahi Snan, meaning a royal bath. The biggest bathing day is February 4, when approximately 30 million people are expected to take a dip. The first Shahi Snan began before the dawn on Tuesday. "Teams will be managing crowds on the river bank. All roads leading to the Kumbh Mela grounds will be packed with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in the coming days," Bimlesh Kumar, a senior official at the government tourism department told Al Jazeera. "We are expecting around 120 million people, and an additional two million foreign visitors this year. The festival will continue for 49 days. An average two million people are likely to take a dip every day," he added. Prayagraj city had been preparing for the festival for months as the government built communal areas with 20,000 beds and a tented city with 4,200 "premium" tents around the river. According to a report, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led federal and state governments are spending over $620m, more than triple the public money spent in 2013 on the same event. The government says 116 roads have been constructed and 524 shuttle buses deployed to transport the pilgrims. More than 122,000 toilets have been built for the attendees. On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted to say he hoped visitors to this year's Kumbh would "experience India's spiritual, cultural and social diversities". Translated tweet: "Good wishes for the sacred Kumbh Mela starting at Prayagraj. I hope the devotees from India and abroad will get a glimpse of the country's spiritual, cultural and social diversities. I wish more and more people become part of this divine and grand event." The relentless promotion of Kumbh by the ruling BJP coincides with the general election due in a few months. The BJP's electoral losses in five Indian states last month have shown a dip in Modi's popularity. The ruling party is making renewed appeals to its hardcore Hindu nationalist base in Uttar Pradesh, India's politically most important state, which is hosting this year's Kumbh. Ahead of the Kumbh gathering, BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath changed the name of the historical city of Allahabad to the more "Hindu" sounding Prayagraj. The BJP has also announced the construction of a giant statue of Hindu deity Ram in the state. In contrast, the state police are cracking down on Muslims praying in open areas like parks. Earlier in 2018, the Indian government had also announced the end of a decades-long policy of giving subsidy to thousands of Muslims heading to the holy city of Mecca to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 200 million people, sends 80 MPs to Parliament's lower house, the reason it is a politically crucial state. Opposition parties say the government is trying to hide its failures in governance and is promoting itself in the media instead of the Kumbh festival. Images of Modi and Adityanath are splashed on Kumbh promotional billboards across Prayagraj city. "Kumbh is not a substitute for effective governance. The BJP often behaves like a publicity and marketing company. This holy festival has always been organised by the government. But money was never spent such lavishly, solely for advertisements of the government," Akhilesh Pratap Singh, national spokesperson of the Congress party, told Al Jazeera in Lucknow. "At the moment, people want answers from them. Where are the jobs for our youth, safety for women, rule of law, industry? It's not possible for them to deflect attention from their governance failures any more," he added. The Kumbh has been marred several times by stampedes. Over 800 people were killed in 1954, 40 died in Nashik western India in 2003, while 36 people died in the 2013 gathering in Allahabad (now Prayagraj). On Monday, a small fire broke out at one of the camps, although no casualties were reported. Hindu religious belief says that in a fight over an urn between the gods and the demons, a few drops of the essence of immortality spilled on to four places on the Earth, which now host the Kumbh, one of which is Prayagraj. There are three different kinds of Kumbh: an Ardha (or half) Kumbh held every six years at two locations, a Purna (or full) Kumbh every 12 years at four locations and a Maha Kumbh that happens every 144 years or after 12 Purna Kumbhs. Critics of the Modi government say a half Kumbh is being given unprecedented prominence this time and there is a conscious attempt to boost support for events that reinforce Hindu symbols appealing to the BJP's Hindu nationalist support base. India's 1.3 billion people are about 80 percent Hindu and appeals to religion or caste are deeply ingrained in Indian politics. A report by the investigative magazine Caravan last month said the BJP's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is attempting to drum up support for the government using the Kumbh ahead of the elections. Hindu supremacist groups such as the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) are clamouring for a government order to bypass the Supreme Court in order to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya city of Uttar Pradesh. In 1992, a Hindu mob tore down a medieval mosque, which they claim stood at a contested site believed to be the birthplace of Ram. "Right from the Babri mosque demolition, the right-wing in India always uses religious congregation to promote Hindutva or a militant radical strain of Hinduism backed by the current ruling party. Previous Kumbh festivals from the mid-1980s onwards have been fertile ground for making political demands," Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst in New Delhi, told Al Jazeera. But the ruling BJP denies any political overtones to the festival. "It is a sacred and auspicious time for Hindus. Kumbh has a special place in not just the religious but cultural life of Indians. Every government, irrespective of ideology, has been organising this festival at a mega scale," Sudhanshu Mittal, spokesperson of the ruling BJP, told Al Jazeera. On January 31 and February 1, a Dharma Sansad (religious assembly) will be held at the Kumbh by the VHP, one of the many far-right Hindu groups linked to the ruling BJP party. On the opening day of the festival, the Indian media reported slogans of "Modi, you lead the fight, we are with you" and "the temple will be built in Ayodhya" being raised on loudspeakers amid religious Hindu chants. The idea is to use Kumbh as a rallying point, says Akshaya Mukul, the author of "Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India". "In the times of divided polity and an election year, a Hindu nationalist party like BJP will definitely extract political mileage out of it. Social media is abuzz with videos praising the BJP for its arrangements. Apparently, never before has a state administration worked so hard," Mukul told Al Jazeera. "It is ironic that in a state where infants die for the lack of oxygen, arrangement of a religious fair is seen as a marker of good administration," he said, referring to a 2017 tragedy in which more than 60 infants died for lack of oxygen in a state-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh due to unpaid bills. "The BJP will use this year's Kumbh to the hilt and maximise benefits. It remains to be seen if it succeeds or not since it has failed in fulfilling its basic promises of jobs, education and healthcare," said Mukul. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/india-mega-kumbh-festival-bjp-boost-election-190115074006347.html | 2019-01-15 09:49:51+00:00 | 1,547,563,791 | 1,567,552,409 | religion and belief | religious belief |
10,271 | aljazeera--2019-02-24--Cubans vote on new constitution to replace Cold War-era charter | 2019-02-24T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Cubans vote on new constitution to replace Cold War-era charter | Cubans began voting on Sunday in a referendum on a draft constitution to update its 1976 charter on the heels of significant economic reforms on the island over the past few years. The new constitution, approved in the National Assembly late last year after a popular consultation, enshrines private property and promotes foreign investment. State enterprise remains the cornerstone of the economy, though the new constitution dictates state-owned companies have autonomous management. On the political front, the document limits the president to two consecutive five-year terms, but does not open the door for Cubans to elect the president directly. The Communist Party remains the central political force in a one-party system. Jose Jasan Nieves, editor at the non-state media outlet El Toque, told Al Jazeera by legalising economic measures put in practice in recent years, the new constitution "adapts" to a set of reforms already under way. "This is the first opportunity the Cuban people will have in 43 years to express 'yes' or 'no' in the face of a government programme," he said. "That is a unique opportunity because it will allow us to know what percentage of the Cuban society will start to express dissent." He estimated one-quarter of voters could reject the new constitution. Eight million Cubans are eligible to vote on Sunday. The polls will close at 6pm (23:00 GMT) local time. More than 225,000 electoral authorities will oversee the vote, while some 200,000 students will steward the ballot boxes. The electoral commission will release preliminary results in a press conference Monday at 3pm local time (20:00 GMT). "This constitution is a step forward, we cannot deny that. But I think most Cubans were hoping for more," Camilo Condis, an entrepreneur in Havana, told Al Jazeera. "Most of the changes in the Constitution are to legalise what was already happening in the country." Economic reforms introduced under former President Raul Castro in 2010 and 2011 to encourage self-employment and entrepreneurship "helped to boost the private sector", said Condis, who rents out a residence and works as a contractor for restaurants. But he added that the rollback in US-Cuban relations under President Donald Trump has created fresh challenges. Now, he sees the Cuban government's approach to private enterprise as an effort to "regulate but not shrink the private sector". Close to 600,000 people are currently self-employed in Cuba, up from 150,000 in 2010. For Maria Jose Espinosa Carrillo, director of programmes and operations at the Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas, one of the positive outcomes of drafting the new constitution has been the public debate that grew out of a three-month consultation process. Nearly nine million people attended public meetings to discuss an earlier draft of the Constitution, putting forward more than 700,000 proposals. "For the first time, people had the opportunity to debate on issues that hadn't been part of grassroots debates before," Espinosa Carillo told Al Jazeera. "This, together with access to the internet, has brought new platforms for discussion that was previously not public." She expects such public debate to be an "increasing trend", especially through new digital media outlets, Twitter, and other online platforms. After the popular consultation, the drafting commission made 760 changes to the draft constitution, revising about 60 percent of articles in the document. Critics say it was not clear how the commission evaluated and incorporated feedback. More than 11,000 proposals called for a direct vote for the president, for example, but the suggestion was not included in the text. Meanwhile, marriage equality sparked a debate that is likely to continue after the referendum. An earlier version of the draft constitution defined marriage as a union between two people. But the final draft sidestepped outright legalisation after evangelical protests, leaving the definition of marriage to be determined in a separate referendum at a later date. "It created a big debate, which is positive because it gave space and visibility to tensions that are happening and that people maybe weren't even aware of," Maria Isabel Alfonso, professor of Spanish and Cuban studies at St. Joseph's College, New York, told Al Jazeera. State-led mobilisations "are progressively being replaced by these spontaneous associations and ways of thinking", said Alfonso, creator of the documentary, Rethinking Cuban Civil Society, and cofounder of Cuban Americans for Engagement, an organisation that promotes the normalization of US-Cuba ties. "Many of them are very emphatic that they don't want to be in the opposition because the opposition receives, in many instances, funds from the US government," she added. Nieves agreed the debate is "complex and varied" beyond clear cut "yes" versus "no" or government versus opposition lines. "These sectors - journalists, intellectuals, artists, entrepreneurs, LGBTI activists, animal rights activists, religious activists - are sectors of a thriving, growing civil society that don't necessarily have an agenda of opposition politics, but rather of participation and defence of their respective interests," he said. Changes to political and social rights in the Constitution include broader recognition of freedom of thought and expression, a right to request and receive information from the state, and the ability to hold dual citizenship. The document expands non-discrimination to include on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in addition to sex, gender, age, ethnic origin, skin colour, religious belief, and ability. On women's rights, the new text guarantees women's sexual and reproductive rights and protects women from gender violence. Cubans living abroad also were able to submit proposals for the new constitution in the public consultation process. "That was a great step to include the diaspora," said Espinosa Carillo. However, other than diplomats, Cubans abroad will not be allowed to vote in the referendum unless the return to the island to cast their ballots. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/cubans-vote-constitution-replace-cold-war-era-charter-190224035045660.html | 2019-02-24 17:18:45+00:00 | 1,551,046,725 | 1,567,547,504 | religion and belief | religious belief |
10,743 | aljazeera--2019-03-14--China rejects US criticism of its abuse of Muslim minorities | 2019-03-14T00:00:00 | aljazeera | China rejects US criticism of its abuse of Muslim minorities | China's foreign ministry said on Thursday a US State Department report critical of its human rights record was filled with "ideological prejudice and groundless accusations". The US report slammed human rights violations in China, saying the sort of abuses it had inflicted on its Muslim minorities had not been seen "since the 1930s". US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted abuses in Iran, South Sudan, Nicaragua and China in the department's annual "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," but told reporters that China was "in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations." "Today, more than one million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims are interned in re-education camps designed to erase their religious and ethnic identities," he said. Michael Kozak, the head of the State Department's human rights and democracy bureau described abuses of China's Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region. "Rounding up, in some estimations ... in the millions of people, putting them into camps, and torturing them, abusing them, and trying to basically erase their culture and their religion and so on from their DNA. It's just remarkably awful." "It is one of the most serious human rights violations in the world today," he said. "For me, you haven't seen things like this since the 1930s," he said, apparently referring to the policies of persecution of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. China had initially denied there even were camps, Kozak said, adding its explanation now that they were for voluntary labor training "does not match the facts." "But at least we're starting to make them realize there is a lot of international scrutiny on this," he said. Xinjiang Governor Shohrat Zakir said on Tuesday that China was running boarding schools, not concentration camps, in the country's far western region as the US ambassador for religious freedom called the situation there "completely unacceptable," and said sanctions against Chinese officials under the Global Magnitsky Act remained a "possibility". The administration of President Donald Trump has weighed sanctions against senior Chinese officials in Xinjiang, including the Communist Party boss there, Chen Quanguo, who as a member of the powerful politburo is in the upper echelons of China's leadership. Beijing has warned of retaliation if Washington were to target Chen and the administration has yet to act despite complaints from US lawmakers. The State Department report said Chen had replicated in Xinjiang policies similar to those credited with reducing opposition to Communist Party rule in Tibet, where he was previously stationed. The report said that in the past year, China had significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang. It said authorities there were reported to have arbitrarily detained from 800,000 to possibly more than two million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslims in camps with the aim of erasing religious and ethnic identities. The report says children of the detained have been placed in "orphanages or boarding schools, or "child welfare guidance centres", where they were forced to shout patriotic slogans, learn Mandarin Chinese, and answer questions about their parents’ religious beliefs and practices." It said it did not know how many children were affected. Iran also came in for harsh criticism while rival Saudi Arabia, cited for many identical domestic rights abuses as well as the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, was given easier treatment. Pompeo said the Iranian government had killed more than 20 people and arrested thousands without due process for protesting for their rights "continuing a pattern of cruelty the regime has inflicted on the Iranian people for the last four decades". Tehran was also cited for contributing to rights abuses in Syria through its support for President Bashar al-Assad, and in Yemen for backing the Houthi rebels battling for control of the country. In the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela and Nicaragua came in for strong criticism for extrajudicial murders, disappearances, torture by security forces and denial of basic freedoms. Pompeo assailed Nicaragua for the government's use of snipers and live ammunition to repress protests that the report says left "at least 325 persons dead and more than 2,000 injured" last year. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/china-rejects-criticism-abuse-muslim-minorities-190314062523930.html | 2019-03-14 08:24:47+00:00 | 1,552,566,287 | 1,567,546,298 | religion and belief | religious belief |
271,916 | instapundit--2019-12-14--WHEN FACULTY ATTACK THEIR OWN STUDENTS: The faculty association at California State University-Chic | 2019-12-14T00:00:00 | instapundit | WHEN FACULTY ATTACK THEIR OWN STUDENTS: The faculty association at California State University-Chic… | WHEN FACULTY ATTACK THEIR OWN STUDENTS: The faculty association at California State University-Chico released a statement slamming the College Republicans group on campus. The statement called their ideas “white supremacist” while also calling Trump re-election signs a “racist provocation.” Keep this stuff up and people are going to conclude that higher education isn’t worth supporting with taxpayer dollars. | Glenn Reynolds | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pjmedia/instapundit/~3/BAywo0-pWp4/ | Sat, 14 Dec 2019 15:00:23 +0000 | 1,576,353,623 | 1,576,369,193 | science and technology | scientific institution |
289,991 | lifesitenews--2019-10-16--American Medical Association endorses abortion with unscientific claims | 2019-10-16T00:00:00 | lifesitenews | American Medical Association endorses abortion with unscientific claims | October 15, 2019 (Radiance Foundation) — We unfairly give way too much authority and credibility to medical associations. They're composed of people who are no more moral or ethical than the rest of the human race. Heinous acts have been committed in the name of "medical science" throughout history: Shark Island, Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Nazi Science Experiments, Gosnell's Supercoil Experiment, Puerto Rico Birth Control Experiment, Philadelphia Prison Experiments, Children with Cerebral Palsy at Sonoma State Hospital, University of Iowa 'Monster Study', and so many more. So why do we accept their blatant political activism disguised as healthcare? The American Medical Association (AMA) just released one of the most ludicrous defenses of abortion ever, entitled: "Ban on standard D&E abortion procedure is unsafe, unwarranted." Killing our children is unsafe and unwarranted. But, when it comes to abortion, the AMA is interested in not humanity, but histrionics. In its political opposition to Kentucky's H.B. 454 ("An Act Relating to the Human Rights of Unborn Children and Declaring An Emergency"), the AMA laments that pro-life laws put "patients at serious and unnecessary risk." Isn't that what abortion does to any human being on which it is committed? Significantly increasing risk of preterm births (a major cause of birth defects), triple-negative breast cancer, adverse mental health consequences, and killing millions of America's youngest patients...aren't these negative outcomes unnecessary? The AMA's affairs with pseudoscience are nothing new. Up until 1953, the organization profited from cigarette ads placed in its own Journal of the American Medical Association despite years of research showing the serious harms of smoking. The ads would even feature "doctors" promoting the cancer sticks. In 1964, when the U.S. Surgeon General issued the first report on how cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, what did the AMA do? They remained silent. When Congress passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 and the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, putting warning labels on cigarette packages and banning cigarette advertising on TV, did the AMA finally sound the alarm? According to a shocking Journal of American Public Health Association article, it wasn't until 1978 that the AMA finally publicly addressed the dangers of cigarette smoking. How many years and how many millions of lives destroyed will it take for the AMA to do the same regarding abortion? It took until 2008 for the AMA to formerly apologize for over a century of systemic racism in discriminating against black doctors and preventing them from joining the nation's (mis)leading medical society. Black physicians had to create their own organization called the National Medical Association (NMA). Sadly, the NMA has abandoned facts for fiction, too, when it comes to abortion — the leading killer in the black community with rates up to 5 times higher than the majority population. When did a negative health disparity become something to defend? Deaths of unborn black lives, via abortion, are 69 times higher than HIV deaths, 31 times higher than all homicides, and nearly 4 times higher than both cancer and heart disease deaths. Despite this, the NMA promotes Planned Parenthood — an organization birthed in eugenic racism and elitism. The abortion giant kills an estimated 250 unborn black lives every day. The late trailblazing Dr. Mildred Jefferson, who became the first black woman to graduate from Harvard and first woman to become a general surgeon at Boston University Medical Center, denounced Planned Parenthood and its eugenic DNA. She declared that Roe: "...gave to my profession an almost unlimited license to kill." In a 1978 article in Ebony, she called out the blatant racism of the abortion industry, saying: "I would guess that the abortionists have done more to get rid of generations and cripple others than all of the years of slavery and lynchings." Yet, the NMA falsely and bizarrely claims that pro-life bills challenging Roe, especially in the black community, are "fraught with issues that are severely detrimental to the health of mother or child." Isn't killing the child "detrimental" to the child? Aren't harming a woman and increasing her risks of triple negative breast cancer and negative mental health outcomes "detrimental"? An induced first-trimester abortion is, according to the National Academies of Sciences, a known medical risk factor associated with preterm births. Isn't a disparity in preterm births (a leading cause of infant mortality), which is three times higher among black women, "detrimental" to mother and child? Similarly, the AMA complains that Kentucky's pro-life bill (are we really squabbling over how we kill our posterity?) "criminalizes the state's primary second-trimester abortion method without safe, available, and reliable alternatives." Safe? Not killing anyone, which is available to everyone, is safe. Reliable alternatives? Women deserve reliable alternatives like completely free pregnancy support, maternity homes, and adoption. AMA sums up its extremism in this statement: "... medical literature shows that a fetus likely cannot experience pain at any gestational age, because it is kept in a sleep-like state by environmental factors in the uterus, including certain hormones and low oxygen levels." Really? So the day before a child is born, she is so asleep that she wouldn't feel her body being ripped apart? Never mind the increasing number of studies showing that unborn babies can feel pain as early as 20 weeks gestation. It's strange, too. Guess the AMA never heard of fetal anesthesia, done for purposes of pain management, for surgeries on unborn children. Nope. Not without scrutiny. America, pursue that second (fact-based) opinion. I'll trust those, like the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), who see every human life — born and unborn — as a patient. I will trust those who don't see induced death as a "medical procedure." I'll trust former abortionists, like Dr. Anthony Levatino, who say abortion is never medically necessary. I'll trust those who speak truth and defend human life, no matter the consequences to their "professional" reputations. People and principles are always more important than politics and profit. Published with permission from the Radiance Foundation. | null | https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/american-medical-association-endorses-abortion-with-unscientific-claims | 2019-10-16T01:56:00+00:00 | 1,571,205,360 | 1,571,227,352 | science and technology | scientific institution |
333,973 | naturalnews--2019-01-09--Left-wing lunacy invades the behavioral sciences as American Psychological Association labels mascul | 2019-01-09T00:00:00 | naturalnews | Left-wing lunacy invades the behavioral sciences as American Psychological Association labels masculinity "harmful" | (Natural News) Traditional masculinity was the driving force behind the exploration of the Americas. The grit and determination of traditional masculinity established the first thirteen colonies on the North American continent. The toughness and aggressiveness of traditional masculinity paved a path into the unknown, fought for independence, and established founding principles for the greatest country in the world. Yet, in the 21st century, the American Psychological Association (APA) has defined traditional masculinity as “harmful.” The APA opened up 2019 with an article that reads, “Men socialized in this way are less likely to engage in healthy behaviors.” The article postulates, “The main thrust of the subsequent research is that traditional masculinity—marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance and aggression—is, on the whole, harmful.” The rule makers and behavioral science “experts” at the APA would fail to exist if it weren’t for the bold competitive nature that drove mankind to colonize North America and create the most prosperous and comfortable of societies. These APA intellectuals sit in heated corridors, with flick-of-the-switch lighting whilst the men of past centuries chopped firewood, skinned animals for food, and erected log shelters in a vast wilderness. Yet, limp-wristed APA intellectuals believe that mental health professionals should teach young men and boys that masculine behaviors and traits are on par with a mental disorder. It’s this kind of thinking that further suppresses man’s potential in modern society. Mother Nature's micronutrient secret: Organic Broccoli Sprout Capsules now available, delivering 280mg of high-density nutrition, including the extraordinary "sulforaphane" and "glucosinolate" nutrients found only in cruciferous healing foods. Every lot laboratory tested. See availability here. In order to cooperate in modern society, men are discouraged from competing, discouraged from striving to make themselves better, discouraged from becoming stronger, more independent, and more resilient people. The public school system chokes the life out of young boys from the start. Educational institutions now chastise masculinity and promote “gender fluidity,” a concept that promotes the feminization of men. One of the authors of the new men’s guidelines, Ryon McDermott, Ph.D. asks the question, “What is gender in the 2010s?” The psychologist at the University of South Alabama says gender is “no longer just this male-female binary.” McDermott believes that boys should no longer feel pressure to meet the expectations of past masculine norms and should be free to identify as bisexual, gay, or transgender without question. The new guidelines instruct mental health professionals to look for and eliminate “dominant masculine ideals” and to identify “male privilege” and “male power” as harmful behaviors that trap men in “narrow roles.” (Related: However you “identify” there are only two types of brains: male and female.) The guidelines instruct mental health professionals to fight “against homophobia, transphobia” but the guidelines openly discriminate against the innate masculine qualities of being male. No organization of limp-wristed psychologists should be dictating what healthy masculinity is and what it is not. Males should feel free to express themselves however they desire, but discouraging bold masculine traits and suppressing men from being all they can be is no way to help boys and young men. Young men should never be told to poison themselves with feminizing synthetic hormones that cause cancer and suppress their testosterone and innate purpose. This is child abuse and medical malpractice. The AMA is discouraging men from engaging in behaviors that are inherent to being a man. Traits such as decisiveness, commitment, courage, hard work, winning, and strong leadership should be freely expressed by men. Men should step up and open doors for women. More men should be masculine, step up and take the wheel. Men should feel free to compete, to be the best at what they do. They shouldn’t be ashamed for winning, dominating, and pushing one another to new heights. Men should desire respect, not to be coddled as submissive, superfluous pawns. The American Psychological Association is harming the mental health of men by shaming their innate masculinity. Psychologists must rebuke left-wing lunacy and encourage men to be independent, kind, and unashamed to let their testosterone work to its advantage, to carry out the purpose of the individual male. For more about how society is trying to redefine the genders, visit Gender.News. | Lance D Johnson | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-01-09-american-psychological-association-labels-masculinity-harmful.html | 2019-01-09 23:09:30+00:00 | 1,547,093,370 | 1,567,553,275 | science and technology | scientific institution |
335,827 | naturalnews--2019-05-03--American Medical Association which pushes anti-gun agenda warns that media coverage of mass shooti | 2019-05-03T00:00:00 | naturalnews | American Medical Association, which pushes anti-gun agenda, warns that media coverage of mass shootings causes MORE mass shootings to occur while boosting gun sales | (Natural News) To the brainiacs at the American Medical Association, pencils cause misspellings, forks and spoons cause obesity, and cars cause drunk driving. That’s the only way to explain the AMA’s position regarding media coverage of mass shootings, based on the group’s conclusions from a recent study. “Nearly 40% of major mass shootings were followed by a significant rise or fall in Americans buying guns, a new study says, with researchers concluding that understanding the mechanisms propelling these choices will be an important part of the public health community’s response to future gun violence,” the AMA said in a news release last week. The AMA cited an analysis that was published in the JAMA Network Open which found that following mass shootings with a high number of deaths (five or more), a drop in handgun sales most often occurred. Researchers examined data from 124 mass shootings from November 1998 to April 2016 and found that 18 percent of the time, according to a cross-sectional study of federal background check data, sales of handguns and long guns fell. But, “handgun purchases rose after a mass shooting 21 percent of the time,” the AMA press release stated, a statistic that is associated “with mass shootings that received extensive media coverage defined as 1,000 or more articles being published about a shooting within a month.” Researchers from Oxford University in the U.K. and the University of Pennsylvania hypothesize that Americans purchase guns, in many cases, out of fear they could become victims if they remain unarmed. Also, researchers say that people will buy guns following any actions they see being proposed or taken by lawmakers that restrict or could limit their access to a gun in the future. Get CLEAN FOOD and help support our mission to keep you informed: The Health Ranger Store lab verifies everything we sell with accredited testing for heavy metals, microbiology and food safety. Certified organic facility, ISO-accredited on-site laboratory, no GMOs or synthetic ingredients. The world's #1 source of lab-verified clean foods and superfoods for nutritional healing. 600+ products available. Explore now. New, additional gun control measures are go-to policy proposals for Democrats after all mass shootings, despite the fact that while horrific, they are statistically insignificant in terms of overall gun deaths in the U.S. annually — which are low considering that nearly 328 million people live in America. Gun sales, researchers said, are driven post-shooting by outsized media coverage. (Related: Gun control advocates refuse to place ‘gun free zone’ signs in their own front yards.) “As the media coverage that mass shootings receive is disproportionate and frequently sensationalized, it thus inspires fear and motivates gun purchases for self-defense,” wrote the authors, Gina Liu and Douglas J. Wiebe, Ph.D. In addition, they wrote that “as the shooters race/ethnicity and ideological motivation are also associated with an increase in the extent of media coverage as well as with its content, media focus on the perpetrator rather than the victims may also contribute to increasing handgun purchases.” Those findings, coincidentally, “buttress” an AMA policy that was adopted by the organization last year calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to develop recommendations or best practices for coverage of mass shootings.” In other words, the AMA wants the government to limit the amount of coverage our supposedly free press can produce regarding mass shootings — all because researchers believe media coverage drives sales. The fact is Democrat calls for more gun control following highly publicized mass shootings are more likely what produce additional gun sales. While some shootings are certainly hyped and overhyped, during the same news cycle the Left-wing establishment media also provides outsized coverage to any and all Democrats to give them a platform for spreading more anti-gun hype and calls for new gun control laws. We have anecdotal evidence for that. Whenever a mass shooting occurred during President Obama’s reign of authoritarianism, he would obsessively discuss gun control and new measures aimed at restricting our Second Amendment rights. And sales would reach new records. There is no mystery as to why gun sales rise following an overhyped mass shooting. It’s because the additional media coverage gives Democrats another opportunity to push for new gun control. Read more about Democrats’ push to ban guns and subvert the Second Amendment at Guns.news and SecondAmendment.news. | JD Heyes | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-05-03-ama-pushes-anti-gun-agenda-warns-media-coverage.html | 2019-05-03 09:41:08+00:00 | 1,556,890,868 | 1,567,541,285 | science and technology | scientific institution |
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