In which I argue with a Tim Tebow

 

 

In this recent tweet, The Timmy Tebow brings up a valid point on the issue of priorities and values. He implies that the spending on campaign ads demonstrates a mis-step in priority and values, but he doesn’t articulate who makes the mis-step. In other words, who has spent the money on the ads? Who has provided the funding for the money to be spent?

I know that at least some of the money comes from voters. Or, at least, that’s what an influx of emails tells me every day. As of August 2012, Obama raised $348m  to Romney’s $193m so far. However, this doesn’t take into account additional fundraising from their parties – the Republicans have raised $239m  to the Democrats’ $210m – or the money generated by the campaigns’ political action committees (PACs) (McGuiness).

Those PACS can include corporations and unions. There are also non-profit, social welfare groups that contribute money.

So, we’ve got these categories of organizations that sound so vague and general, we sometimes forget that these organizations are comprised of people. Individual people. Primary voters.

When we give donations, we give an organization the right to use it however that organization sees fit to do so.  Whether we donate $3 or $3 million, our priority is made clear in the giving. 

Every time we choose to spend aka donate a dollar, we’re making an argument of our priority. 

We do love to say that we prioritize education.  (Focusing on education as this is an education blog.) We want our students to be on “top”, but we don’t want to pay a penny more in taxes. We cannot have the educational system of Finland, for example, which provides for truly equal opportunities for students. Why? Consider these points from Kaiser’s article,” Why Can't We Be Like the Finns?”

Finns live in smaller homes than Americans and consume a lot less. They spend relatively little on national defense…Their per-capita national income is about 30 percent lower than ours. Private consumption of goods and services represents about 52 percent of Finland's economy, and 71 percent of the United States'. Finns pay considerably higher taxes -- nearly half their income -- while Americans pay about 30 percent on average to federal, state and local governments.  

Willing to live in a smaller home so that our children can have a better education? Ready to spend less on national defense? Ready to pay half of your income to the government? 

No?

Sorry, Mr. Tebow. Until we’re ready to demonstrate, through our choices of donation and spending, what our priorities are, then you will see millions of dollars spent on these and similar endeavors. It's far more accurate to tweet:

              American voters have spent almost a billion dollars on ad campaigns so far. 

Be mad. Be very mad.

References:

McGuiness: Where do Barack Obama and Mitt Romney get their election funding?

Kaiser: Why Can't we be Like the Finns?

Mindy Keller-Kyriakides is the author of Transparent Teaching of Adolescents: Defining the Ideal Class for Students and Teachers.  Become part of the conversation!

Did the Brown Decision Really End Segregation?

The short answer to the question posed in NBC’s Chicago Town Hall is:  No.

The Brown decision did not truly end segregation. It did, however, certainly make some strides in state mandates. And as of today, at the bare minimum, all students, no matter their particular niche of diversity, have access to an education. A huge disparity still exists in the quality of the education to which they have access, however. One need only visit the public schools of Detroit and the public schools of Hartford, Connecticut to see that disparity.

The first day of desegregation, on Sept. 8, 1954, at Fort Myer Elementary School in Fort Myer, Va

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/weekinreview/10liptak.htm

  Despite the data on the matter, a persistent mental model exists:

       Well, if an African-American child lived in Hartford, he or she would not be denied access to its 

        public schools. Therefore, Brown has done its work.  We can’t help where people choose to live. 

       Besides, we have magnet schools that are open to everyone. 

Thus, the issue of school segregation through this discipline is a mental shrug of “Oh, well…” followed by a presupposition of a “choice” and a cursory Band-Aid of “We’re trying”. The segregation today is much more sordid than in the past because it is a silent belief and noiseless assent.  

Hutchens (1999) asserts that “mental models determine how we think and act” (p.65).  Unfortunately, the mental model of segregation persists in the minds of the very ones who can make a change as they fall back on the comfort of mandated legislation, arms open wide in supplication.

      What else can we do?

Dr. Chandra Gill, educator, founder and CEO of Blackademically Speaking, put it best in the town hall discussion:  “You know what's striking to me is the fact that Doctor King suggested you can legislate policy but you can’t legislate attitudes…why was Brown v. Board even necessary?”

Why did we have to be mandated to be fair? Why did we need a government entity to require us to allow all children a quality education?

 Brown has not ended and will not end--not until the mental models that require an authority to tell us what to do and what is right shift and the attitudes make a huge adjustment. This authority should already be IN us, not an external mandate OF us.

And it isn’t necessarily the loud, obnoxious, outspoken attitudes that cause the most problems. It can also be the quiet, unintentional ones.

My former school, a Title urban school, was primarily composed of minority students. However, segregation did exist in the form of “academies”. There was an “Agricultural Academy” and a “Vet Academy”, for example. African-American students did not join these programs, and the smaller percentage of white students gravitated to these academies.  

However, the Chorus program was predominantly African-American as their musical selections and style was (still is) religious. To what degree does a teacher overseeing a program segregate students?

Did I unintentionally segregate students from the Theatre program, based on my curriculum and program choices? I can only hope that I didn’t, and at the time, I really didn’t pay attention. But the numbers of White students did exceed those of minority students.Thus, I can only conclude that I'm part of the problem and that I must, if I were to return, consciously make a change in my mental model: simply because someone is permitted to do something then everything's alright. 

What Brown does remind me every time I’m asked to comment or reflect upon it is that every child deserves to go to a school that will provide them with the best opportunities in education.

Every child, every school, every program.

Mindy Keller-Kyriakides is the author of Transparent Teaching of Adolescents: Defining the Ideal Class for Students and Teachers.  Become part of the conversation!

References:

Holt, L. & Brooks, M. (Creators). (2010, April 28). NBC: Chicago town hall. [Video iCue]. Retrieved from:  https://www.nbclearn.com

Hutchens, D. (1999). Shadows of the neanderthal. Waltham, MA: Pegasus.

 

10 Things That Creative Teachers Do

Creative Teachers:

1. see how single parts can be put together to make a whole:  

Writing assignment: Select five quotations, one per text, from anything we've read thus far. Find a way to link them together conceptually. 

2.  sometimes hear voices:

Reading strategy: Select the best actor for the character of ____.  Read the dialogue inside your head with his/her voice or do your best impression out loud for the class! 

3.  are humble:

How-to: Find out something your teacher does NOT know how to do (e.g., change the oil in a Harley Davidson). Write a how-to essay, specifically designed with your teacher in mind. The class will pick two that the teacher must do.

  



   

4.  see the creativity in others:

Quickwrite: Argue what the teacher should do in this situation. Explain your reasoning. Consider all of the consequences, including that the student needs to learn how to do the math problem! 

5.  see possibilities in blank stares:

Note to educators: These masks cost 50 cents a piece. Provide one per student to create a character. Student must justify his/her design choices in an oral presentation or defense essay.  (Keep options open, but the goal is to defend choices.)

 
6.  know that sometimes wisdom comes in strange packages:

Discussion:  Ask students to consider a time when they’ve heard valuable advice from someone unexpected. Did they adhere to that person’s advice? Why or why not? 

7. understand connectedness:

BBC:  Facebook Connections Map the World.

Visual Literacy:  Have students analyze the cultural, political, and economic significance of this map. 

8.  find ways to reach kids where they are:

Text Your Homework*

Write a text message to your great-great grandchild. You'll be gone by the time they are born but if you could speak to them and tell them something important about life and how to live it, what would it be?  Have fun and share here. And don't write it while you're driving!

Self Image Upload

It's self-image gut check time. You’re invited to upload a photo of your ideal self. Who do you want to be? A priest? A rockstar? An attorney? One of the nameless of the working stiff masses? Someone laughing with friends? In a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife? Behind the wheel of a large automobile? Take your pic! Don’t break any laws or school policies, and follow our three Ps: no profanity, no pornography, no plagiarism.  Text it .

9.  visualize and follow-through:

Homework: Create a Found Art Sculpture in your backyard. Upload image. Share your thoughts on the “doing” of this sculpture. 

10.  are unafraid of non-examples:

  

Homework: Create and print an Unhelpful High School Teacher Meme image. Write a paragraph on the back that explains why you chose to word your meme this way.

  













Mindy, together with some of her former students, recently published Transparent Teaching of Adolescents, a discussion of effective teaching strategies for high school. Join the conversation!


* From Soul Pancake.