WOW: Massachusetts school district to give condoms to 12-year-olds

19 Mar

Increasingly, this culture is taking decisions about values away from the family. Cara Pallone of the Statesman Journal of Oregon has written an article about a Halloween incident which describes the cultural divide which currently exists in this culture. On the one hand, are the Sex and The City mavens who advocate sex with anything with a pulse. On the other hand, are those who espouse what is commonly described as traditional values and who advocate a bit more restraint. Pallone reports in the article, Condoms for Halloween Trick-Or-Treaters

Some teenage trick-or-treaters received condoms in their bags on Halloween night in Silverton.

For the couple who handed out the prophylactics, the act was a community service, health education and a message of pregnancy prevention.

For the father of one 14-year-old girl who got them, the act was an intrusion of family privacy and a violation of his right to raise his daughter as he wishes…..

Is providing condoms to teenagers a pragmatic strategy to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, or is it an unintended signal that promotes promiscuity? Or did the Harrises just overstep?

“It is hard for me as a parent to imagine any justification for giving children condoms without parents’ consent,” Côté said. “It’s inappropriate. I want to deal in my own house with my own children.”

Parents must be involved in the discussion of sex with their children and discuss THEIR values long before the culture has the chance to co-op the children. Moi routinely posts the number of Planned Parenthood at the blog along with information about the vacuous and troubled lives of Sex and the City aficionados and troubled pop tarts like Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton. Kids need to know that much of the life style glamorized in the media often comes at a very high personal cost.

Hopefully incidents like this will prompt parents to have discussions about sex and values at an age appropriate time for their child. Parents have an absolute right to instill THEIR values into THEIR children as long as they are not abusive or neglectful.

In answer to the question of whether handing out condoms to kids on Halloween was OK?

Dr. Wilda says NO. This is a discussion for the child’s family.

Huffington Post is reporting in the article, Condoms For 12-Year-Olds: Springfield Massachusetts School Committee Approves Contraceptive Policy:

A Massachusetts school has taken its first step toward giving students as young as 12 free access to condoms at school.

The Springfield School Committee voted 5-1 Thursday in favor of the “Comprehensive Reproductive Health Policy,” which aims to promote safe sex, prevent sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy.

Under the proposed program, students would be able to acquire condoms from school nurses and high-school based clinics, according to The Republican. Those who receive the contraceptive would be counseled on abstinence and proper storage and use.

The district would notify parents of the program before it takes effect, allowing them to opt out if they don’t want their children to participate. The proposal requires a second vote of approval to be implemented.

The sole dissenting vote came from committee member Peter Murphy, who said he’s not comfortable with providing condoms to 12-year-olds when the legal age of consent in Massachusetts is 16, according to The Inquisitr.

Springfield’s teen birth rate has increased to make it the fourth-highest in the state in 2009, The Republican reports.

Springfield’s move counters a number of political efforts on sex education across the country. The Wisconsin State Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill that would impose abstinence-only sex ed in schools. The proposal also requires that sex ed courses discuss parental responsibility and the socioeconomic benefits of marriage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/condoms-for-12-year-olds-_n_1354621.html?ref=education

Parents must have THAT discussion about sex earlier and earlier.

Moi wrote about the need for parents to talk to their children about sex in Teaching kids that babies are not delivered by UPS https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/teaching-kids-that-babies-are-not-delivered-by-ups/ Parents and guardians must have age-appropriate conversations with their children and communicate not only their values, but information about sex and the risks of sexual activity. Lisa Frederiksen has written the excellent article, 10 Tips for Talking to Teens About Sex,Drugs & Alcohol which was posted at the Partnership for A Drug-Free America

1. Talk early and talk often about sex. “Teens are thinking about sex from early adolescence and they’re very nervous about it,” explains Elizabeth Schroeder, EdD, MSW, Executive Director, Answer, a national sexuality education organization based at Rutgers University. “They get a lot of misinformation about sex and what it’s supposed to be like. And as a result they think that if they take drugs, if they drink, that’s going to make them feel less nervous.”

Take this quiz to sharpen your talking skills.

2. Take a moment. What if your teen asks a question that shocks you? Dr. Schroeder suggests saying, “‘You know, that’s a great question.‘ or ‘I gotta tell you, I’m not sure if you’re being serious right now but I need a minute.‘” Then regain your composure and return to the conversation.

Learn how to handle personal questions from your teen like: “How old were you when you first had sex?” and “Have you ever used drugs?”

3. Be the source of accurate information. Beyond many school health classes, teens have lots of questions about drugs, pregnancy, condoms, abstinence and oral sex.

Find out what one mom discovered when she sat in on her daughter’s sex ed class.

4. Explain the consequences. Since teen brains aren’t wired yet for consequential thinking and impulse control, it’s important to have frank discussions with your teens about the ramifications of unprotected sex and the importance of using condoms to prevent the spread of STDs, HIV and unwanted pregnancy.

Find out how to guide your child toward healthy risks instead of dangerous ones.

5. Help your child figure out what’s right and wrong. Teens need — and want– limits. When it comes to things like sexuality, drugs and alcohol, they want to know what the rules and consequences are.

6. Use teachable moments. Watch TV shows (like “16 and Pregnant,” “Teen Mom,” “Jersey Shore” and “Greek”), movies, commercials, magazine ads and the news with your teen and ask “What did you think about that?” “What did you notice about how these characters interacted?” “What did you think about the decisions they made?” For us, one of the best ways to talk about a number of heavy topics was to take a drive — that way we weren’t face-to-face.

7. Explain yourself. Teens need to hear your rationale and why you feel the way you do. One approach is to talk about sex, drugs and alcohol in the context of your family’s values and beliefs.

One of the most challenging moments for me was when my daughters brought up the subject of intercourse. I explained that my hope was they would not do it until they were in a committed, mutually caring relationship and that it would be a choice, not an attempt to hold onto a relationship and that it would be mutually satisfying.

8. Talk about “sexting.” Texting sexual images and messages is more prevalent than you may think. Read more.

9. Remember how you felt. I know when I started puberty I had many thoughts, feelings and questions that weren’t discussed in my family. Things like body changes, feelings of attraction, acne, weight gain, emotional confusion and the desire to push your parents away. I wanted to help my daughters avoid that confusion. I wanted them to understand early on that puberty is a hardwired, biological change that happens to all humans so they become interested in sex for the purposes of procreation. It’s natural to have impulses and feelings that are part and parcel to puberty. Teens don’t have control over these feelings and impulses, but they do have control over whether they act on them.

10. Persevere. Dr. Schroeder warns that your teenager may not want to talk — he or she may shrug and walk away. “Adolescents are supposed to behave in that way when inside what they’re really saying is ‘Keep talking to me about this. I need to know what you think. I’m trying to figure this out for myself as a teenager and if I don’t get messages from you, then I’m not going to know how to do this,’” she explains.

Parents not only have the right, but the duty to communicate their values to their children.

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Tags: 10 Tips for Talking to Teens About Sex, Children and Family, Condoms, Condoms For 12-Year-Olds Springfield Massachusetts School Committee Approves Contraceptive Policy, Condoms for Halloween Trick-Or-Treaters, Drugs & Alcohol, Sex Education, Talking to kids about sex

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Categories Dr Wilda

Accountability in virtual schools

18 Mar

Moi voiced her skepticism about for-profit online charter schools in Online for-profit K-12, good for bankers, bad for kids https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/online-for-profit-k-12-good-for-bankers-bad-for-kids/ : All children can learn. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times is reporting on the cynical operation of for-profit charter schools in the article, Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools which describes how the dreams of some children are being hindered.

By almost every educational measure, the Agora Cyber Charter School is failing.

Nearly 60 percent of its students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll.

By Wall Street standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.

Agora is one of the largest in a portfolio of similar public schools across the country run by K12. Eight other for-profit companies also run online public elementary and high schools, enrolling a large chunk of the more than 200,000 full-time cyberpupils in the United States.

The pupils work from their homes, in some cases hundreds of miles from their teachers. There is no cafeteria, no gym and no playground. Teachers communicate with students by phone or in simulated classrooms on the Web. But while the notion of an online school evokes cutting-edge methods, much of the work is completed the old-fashioned way, with a pencil and paper while seated at a desk.

Kids mean money. Agora is expecting income of $72 million this school year, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total anticipated revenues of K12, the biggest player in the online-school business. The second-largest, Connections Education, with revenues estimated at $190 million, was bought this year by the education and publishing giant Pearson for $400 million.

The business taps into a formidable coalition of private groups and officials promoting nontraditional forms of public education. The growth of for-profit online schools, one of the more overtly commercial segments of the school choice movement, is rooted in the theory that corporate efficiencies combined with the Internet can revolutionize public education, offering high quality at reduced cost.

The New York Times has spent several months examining this idea, focusing on K12 Inc. A look at the company’s operations, based on interviews and a review of school finances and performance records, raises serious questions about whether K12 schools — and full-time online schools in general — benefit children or taxpayers, particularly as state education budgets are being slashed.

Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards.

Current and former staff members of K12 Inc. schools say problems begin with intense recruitment efforts that fail to filter out students who are not suited for the program, which requires strong parental commitment and self-motivated students. Online schools typically are characterized by high rates of withdrawal.

Teachers have had to take on more and more students, relaxing rigor and achievement along the way, according to interviews. While teachers do not have the burden of a full day of classes, they field questions from families, monitor students’ progress and review and grade schoolwork. Complaints about low pay and high class loads — with some high school teachers managing more than 250 students — have prompted a unionization battle at Agora, which has offices in Wayne, Pa. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/online-schools-score-better-on-wall-street-than-in-classrooms.html?emc=eta1

The Illinois Online Network has a good synopsis of the pros and cons of online education at Strengths and Weaknesses of Online Learning K-12 for profit schools exhibit many of the deficiencies of other for-profit schools. See, For-profit colleges: Money buys government, not quality for students, https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/for-profit-colleges-money-buys-government-not-quality-for-students/

There are different types of online or virtual schools.

Technology Source.Org defines what a virtual school is:

Virtual school refers to an institution that is not “brick and mortar” bound. All student services and courses are conducted through Internet technology. The virtual school differs from the traditional school through the physical medium that links administrators, teachers, and students.

http://technologysource.org/extra/20/definition/1/

The Executive Summary of the 2001 report, Virtual Schools: A Study of Virtual Schools in the United States provides a good summary of the types of virtual schools:

Examples of Virtual Schools

State-sanctioned, state-level. In at least 14 states, entities can be identified that have been sanctioned by state government to act as the state’s “own” virtual school. The two newest ones, in Idaho and Maryland, have not yet been launched..

§ Example: The Florida Virtual School (previously the Florida Virtual School), begun in 1997, has been state funded as an independent entity. It offers a full online curriculum but not a diploma. The largest virtual school in terms of enrollments, it acts as a course provider for districts in Florida and other states.

College and university-based. Some university independent study high schools and video-based continuing education programs have taken their K-12 courses online. Virtual colleges and universities make hundreds of their introductory college-level virtual courses available to upper division high school students through dual or concurrent enrollment, a phenomenon not studied in depth here.

§ Example: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Independent Study High School developed CLASS online diploma program courses with a federal grant, marketed through the for-profit CLASS.com, and is now creating its own new courses.

Consortium and regionally-based. A number of virtual school consortia have been created. Virtual school consortia are national, multi-state, state-level and regional in nature. Many regional education agencies have added virtual K-12 courses to their service menus for schools. Most virtual school consortia act as brokers for external provider opportunities or share courses among members.

§ Massachusetts. The nonprofit VHS Inc. (formerly Concord VHS) is the most successful collaborative or barter model of virtual schools in existence, seeking sustainability through its broad network of participating schools.

Local education agency-based. A large number of local public schools and school districts have created their own virtual schools, mainly to serve their own supplemental or alternative education needs and to reach out to home school populations. They usually employ their own regular certified K-12 teachers, either within the regular course of instruction, or “on the side.”

§ Example: The HISD Virtual School in Houston offers middle school curricula for enrolled and home school students, and AP courses to supplement its high school offerings, while Mindquest is a Bloomington (MN) public schools program offering interdisciplinary project-based courses for persons 17 or older, for remedial work, GED Fast Track and regular high school diplomas

Virtual charter schools. State-chartered entities including public school districts, nonprofit and for-profit organizations operate public charter schools exempt from some rules and regulations. Charter school legislation has a major impact on how these schools operate.

§ Example: Basehor-Linwood Virtual Charter School in Kansas focuses on providing statefunded

public education opportunities for K-12 home schoolers across the state. Founded in 1998, it delivers self-developed courses in a full diploma program, using a certified district teacher in each elementary grade level and secondary content area.

Private virtual schools. Like local public schools, many private schools have developed virtual school programs. Their programs are mainly designed to provide supplemental courses and instructional materials for home schoolers. A limited number offer state-approved or regionally accredited high school diplomas, including Keystone National High School, Laurel Springs school, and WISE Internet High School.

§ Christa McAuliffe Academy in Washington state has offered Internet-based K-12 learning since 1995. Student cohorts meet weekly with their mentor in an online virtual classroom meetings, and students also undertake online mastery-based learning curricula facilitated by CMA mentors and developed by external providers. The school has regional accreditation, state approval and is seeking cross-regional approval through the Commission on International and Transregional Accreditation (CITA).

For-profit providers of curricula, content, tool and infrastructure. Many for-profit companies have played an important role in the development of virtual schools. Companies such as Apex Learning and Class.com have provided “starter” courses for many new virtual school efforts. Blackboard and eCollege have provided delivery platforms used by many virtual schools. Many companies are expanding their original focus, offering expanded curricula or comprehensive services to meet the needs of this growing market. Web development software companies such as Macromedia have provided the tools used by virtual schools to self-develop courses.

Building on the previous study (Clark, 2000), some key characteristics of virtual schools are presented in Summary and Recommendations, according to eight aspects of virtual high school organization: funding, technology; curriculum; teaching; student services; assessment; policy and administration; and marketing and public relations. Based on an analysis of virtual school activities and trends, recommendations are made at the end of this study in these key areas, for virtual school planners.

http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/virtualschools.pdf

No matter the type of school, whether bricks and mortar or online, there must be accountability.

Michelle R. Davis writes in the Education Week week article, E-Schools Put Specific Measures for Success in Place: The devil is in the details when evaluating the educational effectiveness of virtual schools:

Virtual schools, particularly those that provide full-time services for students, are coming under increasing scrutiny over student achievement and accountability. Several reports in recent months have questioned everything from the transient nature of virtual student populations to the integrity of student work and the lack of comparisons between online and face-to-face learning….

In 2011, Welner was a co-author of the report “Online K-12 Schooling in the U.S.,” which raised questions about the quality of online programs and concerns about growth and oversight of such programs. It looked mainly at schools operated by private companies.

While many of the criticisms are directed at virtual schools run by for-profit companies, even online schools affiliated with states and school districts say they are taking new steps, or reinforcing established ones, to ensure that students are learning….

Michael K. Barbour, an assistant professor of instructional technology at Wayne State University, in Detroit, says online schools should be held to the same accountability standards as brick-and-mortar schools, whether that means meeting AYP standards or state and local testing levels. Though some online schools may argue their test scores won’t measure up because students start out several grade levels behind, Barbour doesn’t believe that is a valid response.

“A lot of excuses they give are just excuses,” he says. “These kids that are at risk or behind came from traditional brick-and-mortar schools in that position.”

E-Learning Accountability Measures

Experts say virtual schools should take some key steps to integrate accountability into their programs, including:

Have students take exams in person to ensure they are doing their own work and absorbing information.

Assess how students are doing numerous times throughout a course and provide intervention strategies as early as possible

Use programs that can track detailed data on how long it takes a student to complete assignments, how often students are participating, and how frequently students and teachers have contact.

Judge online schools by the same measures that brick-and-mortar schools are evaluated by, for example, adequate yearly progress and state testing

SOURCE: Education Week

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/03/15/25measure.h31.html?tkn=XXQFmpNv2tBGNFrkUNXOwxV%2FgrWFc03LcwJ8&cmp=clp-edweek&intc=TC12EWH

Technology can be a useful tool and education aid, BUT it is not a cheap way to move the masses through the education system without the guidance and mentoring that a quality human and humane teacher can provide. Education and children have suffered because cash sluts and credit crunch weasels have destroyed this society and there is no one taking them on. They will continue to bleed this society dry while playing their masters of the universe games until they are stopped.

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Tags: -Schools Put Specific Measures for Success in Place, Online Education, Online Learning, Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools, Virtual Education, Virtual Learning, Virtual Schools: A Study of Virtual Schools in the United States

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Categories Dr Wilda

Conducting a superintendent search

18 Mar

In Life expectancy of a superintendent: A lot of bullets and little glory, https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/16/life-expectancy-of-a-superintendent-a-lot-of-bullets-and-little-glory/ moi wrote:

Just about anyone in education has a tough job these days, from the building staff to the superintendent. There is pressure to perform in an environment of declining resources. Lately, the job of superintendent of large urban school districts has been characterized by turnover. Thomas E. Glass in The History of the Urban Superintendent writes:

The twenty-first century finds one-third of America’s public school children attending one of ten large urban (large-city) school districts. By 2020 approximately one-half of public school enrollment will be clustered in twenty districts. The educational stewardship of a majority of the nations youth rests uncomfortably on the shoulders of a very few large-city school superintendents. Their success and the success of their districts may very well determine the future of American democracy.

Urban districts are typically considered to be those located in the inner core of metropolitan areas having enrollments of more than 25,000 students. The research and literature about large-city school districts portray conditions of poverty, chronic academic underachievement, dropouts, crime, unstable school boards, reform policy churn, and high superintendent turnover.

The typical tenure of a superintendent in the largest large-city districts is two to three years. This brief tenure makes it unlikely a superintendent can develop and implement reform programs that can result in higher academic achievement–let alone re-build crumbling schools buildings, secure private sector assistance, and build a working relationship with the city’s political structure.

The large-city superintendency is a position defined by high expectations, intense stress, inadequate resources, and often a highly unstable politicized board of education.
Read more: Superintendent of Large-City School Systems – History of the Urban Superintendent, The Profession, School Boards,

Characteristics of the Large-City Superintendent http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2470/Superintendent-Large-City-School-Systems.html#ixzz0p6HySmU0

See, District Administration’s article, Superintendent Staying Power http://www.districtadministration.com/article/superintendent-staying-power

Mike Bowler of the Baltimore Sun writes the article, Urban Districts Struggle to Find Qualified School Superintendents: Pool of `Messiahs’ is quickly drying up, which was republished at SF Gate:

It’s becoming harder and harder to find chief executives for the nation’s school districts, and the reason is distressingly clear: a shortage of saviors.

Dozens of districts are dipping into a pool of candidates that has been evaporating for more than a decade. For example, Baltimore, looking for its 11th school leader since 1960, is competing with a dozen urban systems, all looking for someone who can perform the miracle of turning the schools around.

The nation’s largest and second- largest cities, New York (1.1 million students) and Los Angeles (711,000), are both looking for superintendents. So are Detroit (167,455), Memphis (111,200) and San Francisco (61,000).

The same candidates keep appearing on the same short lists, and superintendent musical chairs is a common game. The San Francisco spot, for instance, has been vacant for almost a year, since Superintendent Bill Rojas abruptly left for the superintendency in Dallas.

The Detroit school board tried to hire John Thompson, the school chief in Tulsa, Okla. When that appointment was blocked, Thompson went to Pittsburgh. Each lateral move leaves a vacancy behind; when Carlos Garcia was hired last month as superintendent in Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas), that opened the top job in Fresno, Calif., another urban district.

MANY TURNING TO PRICEY RECRUITERS

The game of musical chairs has created a growth industry in headhunters — companies, often founded by former superintendents, that recruit school chiefs for fees of up to $50,000. Baltimore eschewed the help of a search company this year after a terrible experience two years ago, when it hired Robert Booker from San Diego, Calif., as chief executive officer. (School officials were unhappy with the candidates the recruiters came up with and ended up finding Booker on their own.)

It’s also harder for job-hunting superintendents to keep their aspirations under wraps, a development that discourages some qualified candidates. The nation’s education writers are joined in a computer network, keeping a close eye on comings and goings. One day last month, Anthony Amato, the Hartford, Conn., superintendent, was “outed” on the network as a candidate for superintendent in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas….

NEW CHIEFS FACE THORNY PROBLEMS

The urban school superintendency might be the toughest public service job in America. In addition to managing 13,000 employees and an $800 million budget (while lobbying for more in Annapolis), Baltimore’s Booker faces overwhelming pressure to raise test scores. Everything he says and does is set against a backdrop of poverty, homelessness, crime, drug abuse, racial tension, teen pregnancies and the like….

The lack of talent development and the constant churning in big- city districts leads some experts to believe boards should look within for leadership. “The idea of turning to insiders is getting more currency around the country,” says Michael Usdan, president of the Washington-based Institute for Educational Leadership.

“It’s clear that the Messiah syndrome hasn’t worked particularly well.”

This article appeared on page A – 10 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/05/08/MN3255.DTL#ixzz1pUialNi7

There are no easy answers to solving problems in education and as Usdan says, there are no messiahs in education.

Art Stellar writes in The School Administrator, October 2010 Number 9, Vol. 67,The Search:Public or Confidential?The Changing Rules of the Superintendency Hunt: A veteran leader’s personal recounting of sundry changes in the conduct of the search process over three decades. Here are some of his comments:

Serving as superintendent, going into my 24th year, I have completed hundreds of applications and interviewed for nearly a hundred superintendencies. I have accepted seven superintendencies and, in more than 20 instances, have declined offers or withdrawn from consideration after being interviewed. This cumulative experience has produced a personal perspective of how markedly the process has changed over time — not necessarily for the better.

A Negative Swing
The most significant change in the way school boards search for a new superintendent over the years has been the shift from focusing on the positive to dwelling on the negative. In the past, the strengths and talents of individual candidates were at the center of the search process, and the search process emphasized what a candidate did well. School boards wanted to know what you have done in previous leadership posts and what you could do to support their schools’ students.

The emphasis now has migrated into finding reasons to weed people out rather than why to consider them. Background checks, drug testing and standard professional referrals have been replaced by exhaustive hunts for whatever details may be negative about a person and his/her experiences. Digging for the “dirt” seems more central in today’s superintendent searches than the capacity to raise student test scores, to close achievement gaps or to reduce the number of dropouts….

Headhunter Proliferation
One interesting trend has been the proliferation of superintendent search firms. There are dozens of firms today, which has added complexity to the marketplace because school boards have many more options from which to choose…

The best consultants also attempt to steer school boards toward particular candidates who will be impressive and who might be a good fit with the needs of the school district. The worst consultants have particular candidates in mind whom they would like to place due to personal relationships or because they are part of the consultant’s stable. (The latter happens a lot less frequently than it did 20 years ago.)

Some consultants pigeon hole candidates based on unique attributes or recognition. One consultant used to contact me regularly, but only for extremely difficult urban superintendencies owing to my successful experiences in Oklahoma City and Boston. Another consultant only wanted me to meet school boards interested in raising student achievement based upon my track record in this area. These stereotypes are hard to overcome when a consultant is at the wheel of the search vehicle….

Investigators Everywhere
The rise of the Internet and search engines has made everyone a private investigator, capable of pulling together bits and pieces of controversial actions involving public officials. Search consultants and newspaper reporters used to be the only parties with the resources to dig up anything questionable. Now, once the list of potential superintendent candidates is given to school board members and the public, the googling exercise commences.

Experienced superintendents are at a disadvantage because there is bound to be one or more controversial decisions (school consolidations, changes in school boundaries, budget cuts, union negotiations, etc.) in a school district where they served. As a candidate for a position you should be ready to explain anything and everything that has ever happened in public over the course of your career….

Board Misbehavior
One would hope that school board members would be on their best behavior when interviewing candidates. Some are; others aren’t. Some boards just ask prepared questions without giving any feedback. On the other hand, some boards would appear more professional if all members stuck to a script. Common courtesies are less in vogue today than 20 years ago when board members were more civil and accommodating….

http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=16596

No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.

Peter Drucker

Resources:

Superintendent Search http://wssda.org/Portals/0/Resources/Publications/suptsrchman.pdf

Urban Superintendents, Characteristics and Tenure

Factors Impacting Superintendent Tenure

Superintendent Tenure

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Tags: Superintendent Tenure, Superintendent Turnover, The History of the Urban Superintendent, The Search:Public or Confidential?The Changing Rules of the Superintendency Hunt, Urban Districts Struggle to Find Qualified School Superintendents, Urban Superintendent

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Categories Dr Wilda

Sometimes schools must help children grieve

14 Mar

Life intervenes whether people are ready or not. Sometimes, children will lose a family member or another person who is close to them. Unfortunately, sometimes children may lose a classmate or even a staff member at their school. It is important to deal with the child’s grief and to be sensitive to the child’s manner of grieving. Help Guide.Org has some excellent resources about grief. In Coping with Grief and Loss: Understanding the Grieving Process, Help Guide.Org offers the following advice:

Everyone grieves differently

Grieving is a personal and highly individual experience. How you grieve depends on many factors, including your personality and coping style, your life experience, your faith, and the nature of the loss. The grieving process takes time. Healing happens gradually; it can’t be forced or hurried – and there is no “normal” timetable for grieving. Some people start to feel better in weeks or months. For others, the grieving process is measured in years. Whatever your grief experience, it’s important to be patient with yourself and allow the process to naturally unfold.

Myths and Facts About Grief

MYTH: The pain will go away faster if you ignore it.

Fact: Trying to ignore your pain or keep it from surfacing will only make it worse in the long run. For real healing it is necessary to face your grief and actively deal with it.

MYTH: It’s important to be “be strong” in the face of loss.

Fact: Feeling sad, frightened, or lonely is a normal reaction to loss. Crying doesn’t mean you are weak. You don’t need to “protect” your family or friends by putting on a brave front. Showing your true feelings can help them and you.

MYTH: If you don’t cry, it means you aren’t sorry about the loss.

Fact: Crying is a normal response to sadness, but it’s not the only one. Those who don’t cry may feel the pain just as deeply as others. They may simply have other ways of showing it.

MYTH: Grief should last about a year.

Fact: There is no right or wrong time frame for grieving. How long it takes can differ from person to person.

Source: Center for Grief and Healing

http://helpguide.org/mental/grief_loss.htm

A survey indicates that schools are generally not helpful in helping children with the grieving process.

Kim Painter has written the USA Today article, Grieving kids say schools could be better at helping:

But a new survey suggests many grieving kids don’t get as much help as they’d like from schools, even as they draw strength from friends and families and struggle with sadness and feelings of isolation.

For the survey, 531 children and teenagers who had lost a parent or sibling filled out questionnaires at community bereavement centers. Since the kids were getting services, they might not represent all grieving children. But the survey is the first of its kind, says Chris Park, president of the New York Life Foundation, which did the poll with the National Alliance for Grieving Children.

“A number of schools are doing a great job,” says Andy McNiel, executive director of the alliance. But nearly half the kids gave their schools a “C” grade or lower for helping them deal with their loss; nearly one in four assigned an “F.”

“It just breaks my heart to hear that,” says Sandy Austin, a counselor at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, Colo. Austin helps organize student B.I.O.N.I.C. (Believe It Or Not, I Care) teams to reach out to peers who are grieving, sick or otherwise in need. She says students benefit when they know they can turn to at least one adult at school.

But “the reality is that most educators have no training specifically directed at how to help students who are grieving,” says David Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “Many are afraid they are going to say the wrong thing, and as a result they say nothing.”

Among other survey findings:

• 75% said they were sad. “Even when they get support, the sadness doesn’t disappear,” says McNiel. The kids were, on average, two years past a family member’s death.

• 72% said the death made them feel “life is not fair.” These kids “are now aware of something about life that other kids are not,” McNiel says. “That makes them feel different.”

• 39% worry a surviving guardian will die. “If they can’t get their parents on the phone at the end of the school day, they worry,” Park says.

But most of the kids also said they expected to have good lives, felt that friends and families had been helpful, and agreed that they “just want to be treated like everyone else.” Some reported trouble eating, sleeping or with grades, but most did not. Some wanted more people to ask about their deceased family member; others wanted fewer questions.

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/story/2012-03-14/Grieving-kids-say-schools-could-be-better-at-helping/53536276/1

Parents, caregivers, and schools should get appropriate assistance to help children with the grieving process.

The National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has some excellent resources:

School Resources

Download practical guidelines, tip sheets and training modules for school administrators and teachers who respond to the needs of students and staff after a loss.

> Read More

Psychological First Aid

The Psychological First Aid brochures are designed to provide guidance to children, parents and caregivers after natural disasters. Chinese and Japanese translations are available.

> Read More

Support a Grieving Child: Parent Guide

NCSCB partners with the New York Life Foundation to provide booklet for parents on supporting grieving children.

> Read More

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/service/n/school-crisis/default/

Guidelines for Responding to the Death of A Child or Staff http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/assets/0/78/1067/4357/4389/2fa07dc5-0e85-4495-aa9c-2b31fd837ba1.pdf

There is nothing wrong with getting the necessary help.

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Tags: Children and Grief, Coping with Grief and Loss: Understanding the Grieving Process, Grief, Grieving kids say schools could be better at helping:, The National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

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Categories Dr Wilda

Ohio State University study: Characteristics of kids who are bullies

13 Mar

A Rotary Club in London has a statement about the Ripple Effect

Ripple Effect – Sending Waves of Goodness into the World

Like a drop of water falling into a pond, our every action ripples outward, affecting other lives in ways both obvious and unseen.

We touch the lives of those with whom we come into contact and, by extension, those with whom they come into contact.

When our actions spring from a spirit of kindness or compassion or generosity, we set into motion a “virtuous cycle” that radiates far beyond our ability to see, or perhaps even fully comprehend.

Just as a smile is infectious, so are more overt forms of service. Our objective — whether in something as formal as a highly-structured website development project or as casual as the spontaneous small kindnesses we share with strangers in hopes of brightening their day — is to send waves of positive change in the world, one act of service at a time.

Unfortunately, some children due to a variety of behaviors in their lives miss the message of the “Ripple Effect.”

Ohio State University is reporting in the press release, SCHOOL BULLIES MORE LIKELY TO BE SUBSTANCE USERS, STUDY FINDS:

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Middle- and high-school students who bully their classmates are more likely than others to use substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, a new study found.

Researchers found that bullies and bully-victims – youth who are both perpetrators and victims – were more likely to use substances than were victims and non-involved youth.

“Our findings suggest that one deviant behavior may be related to another,” said Kisha Radliff, lead author of the study and assistant professor of school psychology at Ohio State University.

“For example, youth who bully others might be more likely to also try substance use. The reverse could also be true in that youth who use substances might be more likely to bully others.”

The researchers didn’t find as strong a link between victims of bullying and substance use.

Radliff conducted the study with Joe Wheaton, associate professor in Special Education, and Kelly Robinson and Julie Morris, both former graduate students, all at Ohio State.

Their study appears in the April 2012 issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Data for the study came from a survey of 74,247 students enrolled in all public, private and Catholic middle and high schools in Franklin County, Ohio (which includes Columbus).

Among the 152 questions on the survey were eight that involved bullying, either as a victim or perpetrator. Students were asked about how often they told lies or spread false rumors about others, pushed people around to make them afraid, or left someone out of a group to hurt them. They were also asked how often they were the victims of such actions.

In addition, the questionnaire asked how often they used cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana. For this study, users were defined as those who reported use at least once a month.

Results showed that bullying was more common among middle-school students than those in high school, while substance use was more prevalent among high-school students.

About 30 percent of middle-school students were bullies, victims or bully-victims, compared to 23 percent of those in high school.

Fewer than 5 percent of middle-school youth used cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana. But among high-school students, about 32 percent reported alcohol use, 14 percent used cigarettes and 16 percent used marijuana.

But substance use varied depending on involvement in bullying, the researchers found.

For example, among middle-school students, only 1.6 percent of those not involved in bullying reported marijuana use. But 11.4 percent of bullies and 6.1 percent of bully-victims used the drug. Findings showed that 2.4 percent of victims were marijuana users.

Among high school students, 13.3 percent of those not involved in bullying were marijuana users – compared to 31.7 percent of bullies, 29.2 percent of bully-victims, and 16.6 percent of victims.

Similar results were found for alcohol and cigarette use.

But the percentages tell only part of the story, Radliff said. The researchers also used a statistical analysis that showed that bullies and bully-victims had much higher than expected levels of substance use.

“That suggests there is a relationship between experimenting with substances and engaging in bullying behavior,” she said.

Statistically, however, there was no connection between being a victim and substance use among middle-school students, according to Radliff. The use of cigarettes and alcohol was statistically greater for victims in high school, but there was no statistically significant effect on marijuana use.

Nevertheless, it was the bullies and bully-victims who were the most likely to be substance users.

Radliff said these results may lead to ways anti-bullying initiatives can be improved.

“Many schools are mandating anti-bullying programs and policies, and we think they need to take this opportunity to address other forms of deviant behavior, such as substance use,” she said.

This might be especially important in middle school, where bullying is more prevalent, but substance use is still relatively rare.

“If we can intervene with bullies while they’re in middle school, we may be able to help them before they start experimenting with substance use,” she said.

Contact: Kisha Radliff, (614) 292-6485; KRadliff@ehe.osu.edu
Written by Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/bullyuse.htm

See, Kids Who Bully May Be More Likely to Smoke, Drink http://news.yahoo.com/kids-bully-may-more-likely-smoke-drink-170405321.html

Teri Christensen , Senior Vice President & Director of Field Operations at The Partnership at Drugfree.org has written some excellent rules for helping kids develop healthy friendships.

Christensen suggests the following rules:

Here are 8 ways to encourage healthy friendships:

1. Regularly talk about what true friendship means – and the qualities that are important in a friend.

2. Help your child recognize behaviors that do not make a good friend.

3. Let your child know if you disapprove of one of his or her friends (or a group of friends) and explain why.

4. Try to be a good role model and use your own relationships to show how healthy friendships look and feel.

5. Get to know the parents of your children’s friends.

6. Talk to your child frequently — about everything from events of the day to his hope and dreams to dealing with peer pressure.

7. Know who your kids are hanging out with. (I don’t make my girls feel like I am being nosy but I do let them know that I have the right to check their phones, email and text messages should I feel the need to.)

8. Remind your child that that you are always there to lend an ear.

To me, a good friend is someone you can always count on. Someone who is there in the good times and bad. A true friend loves you for who you are and does not change how she feels based on what other people think.

Related Links:
When You Don’t Like Your Teenager’s Friends
5 Things Parents Should Explain to Teens About Sexting
Teenage Girls and Cyber-Bullying
Obsessed with Being Connected: The Downside of Social Networking for Teens
How to Get Your Teen to Open Up and Talk to You More (and Text A Little Less)

The Partnership for A Drug Free America has many resources for parents.

Here are some additional resources Christensen suggests from The Partnership for A Drug Free America:

Download our Healthy Friendships Tipsheet-PDF)

Since starting middle school, my girls seem to have a “best friend” of the week. While I think it’s terrific to make new friends, I want to make sure they aren’t ditching their old pals. “How would you feel if you were her?” I asked when they suddenly stopped being friends with a girl they’d been close with for years. I cannot tell them who to be friends with, but I can teach them to be sensitive to the feelings of others.

And then there’s the flip side – comforting your child when a friend turns on her.

(Blogger and friendship expert Dr. Irene S. Levine offers tips on cheering your child up when a friend lets her down.)

I remember when Kendall told me how two of her “friends” suddenly cast her out at the lunch table. “Who invited you to sit here?” they asked before telling her to leave. It was heartbreaking to hear.

(Don’t like your child’s friends? Mommy blogger Jenny Runkel offers 3 things you can do.)

I had to remind Kendall that girls in their teenage years can be mean and say hurtful things just to make themselves feel better.

(Ask these 20 questions to find out if your teen has a toxic friend.)

I try to encourage my girls to be kind to everyone, even if they don’t like the person. As cliché as it might sound, what comes around goes around.

(Mommy blogger Lisa Frederiksen shares this important parenting reminder: Teens Learn Best When the Going Gets Tough.)

Parents have a huge influence on their children, particularly in the example they set in the use of alcohol, drugs, substances, and behavior.

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Tags: Bullies, Characteristics of Bullies, Healthy Relationships, Ohio State University, Ripple Effect, SCHOOL BULLIES MORE LIKELY TO BE SUBSTANCE USERS, The Partnership for A Drug Free America

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Categories Dr Wilda

Cultural literacy: Is there necessary core knowledge to be academically successful?

12 Mar

Back in the day there was this book entitled “Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.” It was published in 1988 and was written by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. Moi liked the concept, some others, not so much. “Cultural Literacy” is defined by Education. Com:

Having sufficient common knowledge, i.e., educational background, experiences, basic skills, and training, to function competently in a given society (the greater the level of comprehension of the given society’s habits, attitudes, history, etc., the higher the level of cultural literacy). http://www.education.com/definition/cultural-literacy/

Marci Kanstroom wrote E.D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy and American Democracy which was published in Education Next liked the concept. http://educationnext.org/e-d-hirsch-cultural-literacy-and-american-democracy/ Others, like Patrick Scott criticized the concept in articles like Scott’s A Few Words More about E. D. Hirsch and Cultural Literacy. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/378146?uid=3739960&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=55881093943Scott takes issue with Hirsch’s criticism of education icons Dewey and the NEA.

Bernard Schweitzer wrote an interesting 2009 piece for the NEA, Cultural Literacy: Is It Time to Revisit the Debate?

Some will say, “What’s so wrong with being unable to pick up references to a few historical figures, most of them dead White males? Our students are equipped with vibrant local cultural knowledges of their own.” Others will caution me not to expect too much from freshmen, saying that it is my job to ensure that they leave the academy armed with a degree of common knowledge that they may not have when entering it. Yet others may be more concerned, agreeing that while a basic fund of knowledge should be expected of freshmen, my students are perhaps performing so poorly on general knowledge issues because most of them come from underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds (e.g., poor inner-city high schools) and diverse ethnic backgrounds (e.g., immigrants). But here’s the rub. If undergraduate students have never heard of Gandhi, Orwell, or Thoreau (or have no reason to remember them), they obviously have such a huge gap in general knowledge that four years of college education are not likely to make up for what has been missing since middle school. Although I may strive diligently to fill those gaps, I realize that we no longer live in a culture that encourages and reinforces a shared knowledge basis with regard to history, geography, literature, and the sciences. But that does not mean that this kind of cultural literacy has ceased to be relevant. Indeed, I believe it is still alive and well, but that it is now cultivated only in a narrow circle of the privileged classes. The reason I don’t see much evidence of this shared knowledge in my own classroom is that I do not, as a rule, encounter the products of the country’s elite preparatory school systems. What I’m saying, then, is that the issue of cultural literacy is socio-economically coded.

Some will say, ‘What’s so wrong with being unable to pick up references to a few historical figures,most of them dead White males?’

The problem with the argument that cultural literacy is irrelevant is that it does actually matter to some. It matters to the upper-middle and upper classes, who hold the reins of wealth and power. Those families who can afford to send their children to top schools can be sure that their offspring are inculcated with precisely the kind of cultural fluency that some are trying to persuade us holds no importance in today’s diversified world. The more we argue the unimportance of cultural literacy among the general populace, the more we relegate the possession of this knowledge to the province of a socio-economic elite, thereby contributing to a hardening of social stratification and a lessening of social mobility. In the upper echelons of society, cultural literacy indicates belonging, and it signals the circulation of knowledge within tightly knit coteries. http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/TA09CulturalLiteracy.pdf

Whether one wants to argue that certain cultures are not included or do not have a prominent enough place in the definition of cultural literacy, the real question is what is the baseline knowledge necessary to be upwardly mobile?

Anna M. Phillips has an interesting New York Times article, Nonfiction Curriculum Enhanced Reading Skills, Study Finds, which will do nothing to quiet the debate.

Children in New York City who learned to read using an experimental curriculum that emphasized nonfiction texts outperformed those at other schools that used methods that have been encouraged since the Bloomberg administration’s early days, according to a new study to be released Monday.

For three years, a pilot program tracked the reading ability of approximately 1,000 students at 20 New York City schools, following them from kindergarten through second grade. Half of the schools adopted a curriculum designed by the education theorist E. D. Hirsch Jr.’s Core Knowledge Foundation. The other 10 used a variety of methods, but most fell under the definition of “balanced literacy,” an approach that was spread citywide by former Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, beginning in 2003.

The study found that second graders who were taught to read using the Core Knowledge program scored significantly higher on reading comprehension tests than did those in the comparison schools.

It also tested children on their social studies and science knowledge, and again found that the Core Knowledge pupils came out ahead. Citywide, budget cuts and the drive to increase scores on the state reading and math exams have led many elementary and middle schools to whittle down their social studies and science instruction.

“This data shows a promising option for principals to consider,” said Josh Thomases, the deputy chief academic officer for the city’s Education Department.

He said the new curriculum could be useful in helping achieve the new learning targets, known as the Common Core, that New York and most other states have adopted. “As we align curricula and materials with the new Common Core Standards, we look forward to working with this group and others toward a higher standard,” he said.

The pilot program and study were started in the 2008-9 school year by Mr. Klein, who worried that students suffered from what he called a “knowledge deficit.” The study was conducted by the Education Department and paid for with $2.4 million in private donations raised by the Fund for Public Schools, a charity that supports department initiatives.

But city officials said it was not an indication that balanced literacy methods should be abandoned. And several proponents of the longstanding approach, including Carmen Fariña, a former deputy chancellor, said the study focused on too few schools to be used in policy decisions.

“I think it’s a very problematic study,” said Lucy Calkins, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and an architect of the city’s balanced literacy program.

“As far as I can tell, they gave resources to 10 schools to support content literacy and then they tested all of the schools on content literacy,” she said, adding that there was no way of knowing with what fidelity the 10 comparison schools were using a form of balanced literacy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/nyregion/nonfiction-curriculum-enhanced-reading-skills-in-new-york-city-schools.html?emc=eta1

This debate will not be quieted anytime soon. Moi still likes the concept of “Cultural Literacy.”

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Tags: Cultural Literacy, Cultural Literacy and American Democracy, Cultural Literacy: Is It Time to Revisit the Debate?, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, E.D. Hirsch, E.D. Hirsch Jr., NEA, Nonfiction Curriculum Enhanced Reading Skills

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Categories Dr Wilda

Children need time to play and just be children

11 Mar

Children are not “mini mes” or short adults. They are children and they should have time to play, to dream, and to use their imagination. Alison Gopnik has an excellent article in Slate which reports about the results of two new studies, Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School

In the first study, MIT professor Laura Schulz, her graduate student Elizabeth Bonawitz, and their colleagues looked at how 4-year-olds learned about a new toy with four tubes. Each tube could do something interesting: If you pulled on one tube it squeaked, if you looked inside another tube you found a hidden mirror, and so on. For one group of children, the experimenter said: “I just found this toy!” As she brought out the toy, she pulled the first tube, as if by accident, and it squeaked. She acted surprised (“Huh! Did you see that? Let me try to do that!”) and pulled the tube again to make it squeak a second time. With the other children, the experimenter acted more like a teacher. She said, “I’m going to show you how my toy works. Watch this!” and deliberately made the tube squeak. Then she left both groups of children alone to play with the toy. …

As so often happens in science, two studies from different labs, using different techniques, have simultaneously produced strikingly similar results. They provide scientific support for the intuitions many teachers have had all along: Direct instruction really can limit young children’s learning. Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific—this tube squeaks, say, or a squish then a press then a pull causes the music to play. But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions….

These experts in machine learning argue that learning from teachers first requires you to learn about teachers. For example, if you know how teachers work, you tend to assume that they are trying to be informative. When the teacher in the tube-toy experiment doesn’t go looking for hidden features inside the tubes, the learner unconsciously thinks: “She’s a teacher. If there were something interesting in there, she would have showed it to me.” These assumptions lead children to narrow in, and to consider just the specific information a teacher provides. Without a teacher present, children look for a much wider range of information and consider a greater range of options.

Knowing what to expect from a teacher is a really good thing, of course: It lets you get the right answers more quickly than you would otherwise. Indeed, these studies show that 4-year-olds understand how teaching works and can learn from teachers. But there is an intrinsic trade-off between that kind of learning and the more wide-ranging learning that is so natural for young children. Knowing this, it’s more important than ever to give children’s remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein. That means a rich, stable, and safe world, with affectionate and supportive grown-ups, and lots of opportunities for exploration and play. Not school for babies.

In the rush to produce baby Einsteins and child prodigies, perhaps we are missing the creativity that play activities by preschoolers produces.

John Tierney has an interesting New York Times article, Findings: Can A Playground Be Too Safe?

After observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia, Dr. Sandseter identified six categories of risky play: exploring heights, experiencing high speed, handling dangerous tools, being near dangerous elements (like water or fire), rough-and-tumble play (like wrestling), and wandering alone away from adult supervision. The most common is climbing heights.

“Climbing equipment needs to be high enough, or else it will be too boring in the long run,” Dr. Sandseter said. “Children approach thrills and risks in a progressive manner, and very few children would try to climb to the highest point for the first time they climb. The best thing is to let children encounter these challenges from an early age, and they will then progressively learn to master them through their play over the years.”

Sometimes, of course, their mastery fails, and falls are the common form of playground injury. But these rarely cause permanent damage, either physically or emotionally. While some psychologists — and many parents — have worried that a child who suffered a bad fall would develop a fear of heights, studies have shown the opposite pattern: A child who’s hurt in a fall before the age of 9 is less likely as a teenager to have a fear of heights.

By gradually exposing themselves to more and more dangers on the playground, children are using the same habituation techniques developed by therapists to help adults conquer phobias, according to Dr. Sandseter and a fellow psychologist, Leif Kennair, of the Norwegian University for Science and Technology.

“Risky play mirrors effective cognitive behavioral therapy of anxiety,” they write in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, concluding that this “anti-phobic effect” helps explain the evolution of children’s fondness for thrill-seeking. While a youthful zest for exploring heights might not seem adaptive — why would natural selection favor children who risk death before they have a chance to reproduce? — the dangers seemed to be outweighed by the benefits of conquering fear and developing a sense of mastery…

“There is no clear evidence that playground safety measures have lowered the average risk on playgrounds,” said David Ball, a professor of risk management at Middlesex University in London. He noted that the risk of some injuries, like long fractures of the arm, actually increased after the introduction of softer surfaces on playgrounds in Britain and Australia.

“This sounds counterintuitive, but it shouldn’t, because it is a common phenomenon,” Dr. Ball said. “If children and parents believe they are in an environment which is safer than it actually is, they will take more risks. An argument against softer surfacing is that children think it is safe, but because they don’t understand its properties, they overrate its performance….”

“What happens in America is defined by tort lawyers, and unfortunately that limits some of the adventure playgrounds,” said Adrian Benepe, the current parks commissioner. But while he misses the Tarzan ropes, he’s glad that the litigation rate has declined, and he’s not nostalgic for asphalt pavement.

“I think safety surfaces are a godsend,” he said. “I suspect that parents who have to deal with concussions and broken arms wouldn’t agree that playgrounds have become too safe.” The ultra-safe enclosed platforms of the 1980s and 1990s may have been an overreaction, Mr. Benepe said, but lately there have been more creative alternatives.

“The good news is that manufacturers have brought out new versions of the old toys,” he said. “Because of height limitations, no one’s building the old monkey bars anymore, but kids can go up smaller climbing walls and rope nets and artificial rocks.”

Adults are trying to eliminate the risks of childhood and that simply is not possible.

Valerie Strauss has an interesting Washington Post article, Robbing kindergartners of play in the name of reform:

We used to debate how much academic work is too much for preschoolers and kindergartners to handle at their developmental stage, but over the past dozen years or so that has been increasingly drowned out by the rise of standard- and test-driven accountability.

Now all we hear is about getting kids ready for the rigors of rigor at school (“rigor” being an operative word today in education, even for 5-year-olds). That includes subjecting 5-year-olds to test after test.

Kids who can’t read in kindergarten and certainly by the end of first grade are at risk of being declared laggards. Boys, who generally develop the skills needed to learn to read later than girls, suffer tremendously from this pushdown of curriculum.

Try as they might, school reformers can’t change the course of human evolution. While kids are certainly exposed to more at an earlier age than they were even 20 years ago, their little brains and bodies haven’t evolved along with school reform thinking. They still can’t handle what they couldn’t back then.

Chip Wood, the author of the seminal “Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14,” tells us what we need to know about 5 year olds. They are active and receptive, taking in things through their senses, and they love to play. He writes:

“Every location in the classroom and at home appears full of possibilities. And fives know how to get the most out of each possibility for as long as it holds their interest. Play, of course, offers endless potential and is the five-year-old’s primary occupation. The adults may call it something else, like ‘Choice Time,’ but five-year-olds know what they are doing.”

It’s the adults who won’t let them play who don’t know what they are doing.

Since some kindergartners today are 6, let’s look at them: Six-year-olds, Wood says, “take on every activity, at home and at school, with unbridled enthusiasm,” “love jokes, silly songs, and guessing games,” and “love to be outdoors.”

No time for that in many kindergartens today. They have to do their math and literacy work.

Now the superintendent of the Hartford School District, Christina Kishimoto, wants kindergarteners at the district’s lowest performing schools (as measured by standardized test scores) to stay in class for 11 months a year instead of the regular nine, and stay hard at work. That leaves less time than ever for the thing they should be doing the most — playing.

Yes, it is true that many students, especially in high-poverty areas, enter preschool and kindergarten without the same literacy skills as students from middle- and higher-income families, and this puts them at an enormous disadvantage at school. And it is important for schools to learn how to help these students overcome their early literacy deficits.

But there are right ways to do this and wrong ways to do this.

Child development expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige has written in this article, “Through play children build the foundation they need to understand the concepts they learn in school, but play offers an even deeper benefit as well. Through play children continually regain their sense of equilibrium which is what allows them to greet learning tasks in school with openness and confidence—to have the emotional and mental readiness to say: I can do this task and I want to do it!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/robbing-kindergartners-of-play-in-the-name-of-reform/2012/03/06/gIQA9NaM5R_blog.html

We must not so over-schedule children that they have no time to play and to dream.

The ‘whole child’ approach to education https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/the-whole-child-approach-to-education/

Tags: Children and Families, Findings: Can A Playground Be Too Safe?, Play, Robbing kindergartners of play in the name of reform:, Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School

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Categories Dr Wilda

Teens need sleep

11 Mar

Lindsey Tanner, AP medical writer in a story which was reprinted at Seattle PI.Com reports on a study which says teens do better with later start times for school. In Study Shows Teens Benefit From Later School Day Tanner reports:

Giving teens 30 extra minutes to start their school day leads to more alertness in class, better moods, less tardiness, and even healthier breakfasts, a small study found.

“The results were stunning. There’s no other word to use,” said Patricia Moss, academic dean at the Rhode Island boarding school where the study was done. “We didn’t think we’d get that much bang for the buck.”

The results appear in July’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The results mirror those at a few schools that have delayed starting times more than half an hour.

Researchers say there’s a reason why even 30 minutes can make a big difference. Teens tend to be in their deepest sleep around dawn – when they typically need to arise for school. Interrupting that sleep can leave them groggy, especially since they also tend to have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m….

Starting times were shifted from 8 to 8:30. All class times were cut 5 to 10 minutes to avoid a longer school day that would interfere with after-school activities. Moss said improvements in student alertness made up for that lost instruction time. [Emphasis Added]

Lack of sleep can be responsible for some illnesses.

The UK’s Daily Mail is reporting that not only does lack of sleep result in kids not being ready to learn, but may be an explanation for some mental illnesses. In Online Night Owls ‘Risk Mental Illness’: Sleepless Nights Blamed For Rise in Teen Depression the Daily Mail reports:

Young people who become sleep deprived by using the internet into the small hours are much more likely to become mentally ill in later life, research shows.

Lack of sleep may help explain the puzzling increase in mental illness among young people in recent decades, according to an extensive study.

And regularly staying up late to surf the internet and chat on social networking sites could be one reason young people are sleeping less, according to the research.

The study of about 20,000 young people aged between 17 and 24 found that those who slept fewer than five hours a night were three times more likely than normal sleepers to become psychologically distressed in the next year.

Each hour of sleep lost was linked to a 14 per cent increased risk of distress, according to the results, published in the journal Sleep.

Professor Nicholas Glozier, who led the research, said: ‘Sleep disturbance and in particular insomnia is a predictor of later development of depression and possibly anxiety.’

Less sleep was also associated with longer-term mental health problems – which were the focus of the professor’s study.

A lot of mental ill-health comes and goes, he said. ‘It’s the ones who don’t get better that we are particularly interested in.’

It is important that children get enough sleep.

Vicki Abeles, director of the documentary “Race to Nowhere,”and Abigail A. Baird, associate professor of psychology at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Baird’s primary area of research focuses on the neurophysiology of adolescence are reporting in the Washington Post about the effect of sleep deprivation on teens. Abeles and Baird write in the article, Sleep deprivation and teens: ‘Walking zombies’:

Over the past several years we’ve created national guidelines for eating and exercise, shouldn’t we do the same for sleep?

We can also make changes in our schools, like advocating for later high school start times. An adolescent’s brain works on a different circadian rhythm than that of adults — theirs thrives with later wake-up times. After the start time at a high school in Edina, Minnesota, was changed from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., verbal SAT scores for the top 10 percent of students increased by several hundred points. The increase could not be attributed to any variable other than later start times.

Schools should also adopt block schedules and bring back study halls, both of which reduce the number of classes students must prepare for each day and give them more in-school time to complete academic assignments rather than requiring them to put in a grueling “second shift” after school.

So as Daylight Savings Time kicks in and we lose our annual hour of sleep, let’s make a pledge to help our children get the sleep they need to be happy, healthy, and successful in school and in their lives. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/sleep-deprivation-and-teens-walking-zombies/2012/03/10/gIQAr0QP3R_blog.html

The National Sleep Foundation (Sleep Foundation) has some great information about teens and sleep.

According to the Sleep Foundation:

FACTS:

Sleep is vital to your well-being, as important as the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat. It can even help you to eat better and manage the stress of being a teen.

Biological sleep patterns shift toward later times for both sleeping and waking during adolescence — meaning it is natural to not be able to fall asleep before 11:00 pm.

Teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep each night to function best (for some, 8 1/2 hours is enough). Most teens do not get enough sleep — one study found that only 15% reported sleeping 8 1/2 hours on school nights.

Teens tend to have irregular sleep patterns across the week — they typically stay up late and sleep in late on the weekends, which can affect their biological clocks and hurt the quality of their sleep.

Many teens suffer from treatable sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, insomnia, restless legs syndrome or sleep apnea.

CONSEQUENCES:

Not getting enough sleep or having sleep difficulties can:

Limit your ability to learn, listen, concentrate and solve problems. You may even forget important information like names, numbers, your homework or a date with a special person in your life;

Make you more prone to pimples. Lack of sleep can contribute to acne and other skin problems;

Lead to aggressive or inappropriate behavior such as yelling at your friends or being impatient with your teachers or family members;

Cause you to eat too much or eat unhealthy foods like sweets and fried foods that lead to weight gain;

Heighten the effects of alcohol and possibly increase use of caffeine and nicotine; and

Contribute to illness, not using equipment safely or driving drowsy.

SOLUTIONS:

Make sleep a priority. Review Teen Time in this toolkit and keep the Teen Sleep Diary. Decide what you need to change to get enough sleep to stay healthy, happy, and smart!

Naps can help pick you up and make you work more efficiently, if you plan them right. Naps that are too long or too close to bedtime can interfere with your regular sleep.

Make your room a sleep haven. Keep it cool, quiet and dark. If you need to, get eyeshades or blackout curtains. Let in bright light in the morning to signal your body to wake up.

No pills, vitamins or drinks can replace good sleep. Consuming caffeine close to bedtime can hurt your sleep, so avoid coffee, tea, soda/pop and chocolate late in the day so you can get to sleep at night. Nicotine and alcohol will also interfere with your sleep.

When you are sleep deprived, you are as impaired as driving with a blood alcohol content of .08%, which is illegal for drivers in many states. Drowsy driving causes over 100,000 crashes each year. Recognize sleep deprivation and call someone else for a ride. Only sleep can save you!

Establish a bed and wake-time and stick to it, coming as close as you can on the weekends. A consistent sleep schedule will help you feel less tired since it allows your body to get in sync with its natural patterns. You will find that it’s easier to fall asleep at bedtime with this type of routine.

Don’t eat, drink, or exercise within a few hours of your bedtime. Don’t leave your homework for the last minute. Try to avoid the TV, computer and telephone in the hour before you go to bed. Stick to quiet, calm activities, and you’ll fall asleep much more easily!

If you do the same things every night before you go to sleep, you teach your body the signals that it’s time for bed. Try taking a bath or shower (this will leave you extra time in the morning), or reading a book.

Try keeping a diary or to-do lists. If you jot notes down before you go to sleep, you’ll be less likely to stay awake worrying or stressing.

When you hear your friends talking about their all-nighters, tell them how good you feel after getting enough sleep.

Most teens experience changes in their sleep schedules. Their internal body clocks can cause them to fall asleep and wake up later. You can’t change this, but you can participate in interactive activities and classes to help counteract your sleepiness. Make sure your activities at night are calming to counteract your already heightened alertness.

If teens need about 9 1/4 hours of sleep to do their best and naturally go to sleep around 11:00 pm, one way to get more sleep is to start school later. http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/teens-and-sleep

Our goal as a society should be:

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Categories Dr Wilda

The rich are different: Mercer Island underage drinking

10 Mar

Hemingway is responsible for a famous misquotation of Fitzgerald’s.

According to Hemingway, a conversation between him and Fitzgerald went:

Fitzgerald: The rich are different than you and me.

Hemingway: Yes, they have more money.

Studies are supporting the alleged Fitzgerald view.

Jack Broom is reporting in the Seattle Times article, Mercer Island dad may fight $250 fine for son’s party:

A Mercer Island man who expects to be the first person cited under a city ordinance holding parents responsible for underage drinking in their homes — even if they are away and unaware — says he may go to court to challenge the citation.

“I have a problem with the idea that you can fine someone for someone else’s actions,” said Greg James. “The more I think about it, the more I think it’s kind of a dumb law.”

James said Friday he has not decided whether he will pay the $250 fine, and has not been officially informed that he would be cited.

Police earlier this week said on Feb. 24, officers broke up a party that had drawn about 75 teens to the family’s home in the 7600 block of Southeast 37th Place, and involved large numbers of teens consuming alcohol.

Police said the party would trigger the first use of the ordinance that took effect in January.

James said his 16-year-old son, a junior at Mercer Island High School, had invited seven or eight friends over for pingpong, but word of the gathering quickly spread through cellphones and social media.

“So pretty soon, you have teenagers streaming through the door, and before you know it, you have a big party.” James was taking the family’s three younger siblings skiing at the time.

“Teenagers are teenagers. They’re not the smartest people in the world at that stage….”

Earlier this week, James told a TV reporter that despite his feelings about the law, he would go ahead and pay the fine.

But on Friday, James said he is reconsidering, in part because an attorney he knows told him he doubts the Mercer Island ordinance is constitutional. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017708126_party10m.html

Is the behavior of this father an example of a recent study?

Maia Szalavitz has an interesting Time article, Why the Rich Are Less Ethical: They See Greed as Good:

While stereotypes suggest that poor people are more likely to lie and steal, new research finds that it’s actually the wealthy who tend to behave unethically. In a series of experiments — involving everything from dangerous driving to lying in job negotiations and cheating to get a prize — researchers found that, across the board, richer people behaved worse. But, rather than class itself, the authors suggest that it’s views about greed that may largely explain the difference.

In the first two experiments, University of California, Berkeley, psychologists positioned observers at San Francisco intersections to watch for drivers who didn’t wait their turn at lights or yield for pedestrians. The researchers noted the make, age and appearance of cars — a marker for the drivers’ socioeconomic status — as well as the drivers’ gender and approximate age.

If you ever thought that the guy driving a late-model Mercedes is more of a jerk than the one behind the wheel of a battered Honda, you’d be right. Even after controlling for factors like traffic density and the driver’s gender and perceived age (younger men tend to drive faster and often rudely), drivers of the newest, most high-status cars were much more likely to cut other drivers off.

“The drivers of the most expensive vehicles were four times more likely to cut off drivers of lower status vehicles,” says Paul Piff, a doctoral student at Berkeley and lead author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Drivers in fancy cars were also three times more likely than those in beaters to threaten pedestrians by failing to yield when the walkers had the right of way at a crosswalk. So much for the theory that owners of expensive cars try to protect their vehicles from being sullied by common blood!

MORE: The Rich Are Different: More Money, Less Empathy

In five further experiments, researchers looked at moral behavior in more controlled lab settings. The experiments were designed to determine what made people lapse into bad behavior, and how difficult it would be to change it. The results offer some hope in an otherwise bleak picture.

In one study, participants reported their own socioeconomic status and then read descriptions of people stealing or benefiting from things to which they were not entitled. When asked how likely they would be to engage in similar behavior, the richest of 105 undergraduates were more likely admit that they would do so, compared with those from middle-class or lower-class backgrounds. Of course, this finding could simply reflect the fact that the rich are more likely to get away with such things — and therefore may feel more comfortable admitting it — so the researchers also studied actual behavior.

In the next experiment, researchers asked 129 students to compare themselves with those who were either far richer or far poorer than they were. Previous studies have found that this manipulation influences people’s perceptions of class and their own behavior, with those primed to feel wealthy behaving less generously and becoming less sensitive to the emotions of others, regardless of their actual socioeconomic class.

The participants were then offered candy from a jar that they were told would otherwise be given to children in another lab. Those primed to feel rich took more candy than those who were made to feel disadvantaged. Fortunately, there were no children actually waiting for the sweets.

MORE: Study: The Rich Really Are More Selfish

But why would people who feel socially elevated behave less ethically? The next set of experiments sought to examine this question, finding a connection between wealth and positive perceptions of greed. Among adults who were recruited online for one such experiment, those who were wealthier were more likely to lie in a simulated job interview scenario. The participants — acting as managers — were told that their hypothetical applicants would be willing to take a lower salary in exchange for job security. The applicants wanted a two-year contract position, but the managers knew that the available job would last only six months before being eliminated — and that they could get a bonus for negotiating a lower salary. People of high social class were more likely to lie to the job seekers, researchers found.

The reason for this was not necessarily their class, but the fact they agreed with Wall Street‘s Gordon Gekko that greed is good. When the researchers examined the connection between beliefs about greed and unethical behavior, they found that class was no longer a significant variable. In other words, rich people tended to take advantage of others primarily because they saw selfish and greedy behavior as acceptable, not just because they had more money or higher social status.h people are fairly sensitive and just need little reminders.”
http://healthland.time.com/2012/02/28/why-the-rich-are-less-ethical-they-see-greed-as-good/#ixzz1ogreeDSb

Citation:

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior

Paul K. Piff ^a,¹,

Daniel M. Stancato ^a,

Stéphane Côté ^b,

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton ^a, and

Dacher Keltner ^a

+ Author Affiliations

^aDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and

^bRotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3E6

Edited* by Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and approved January 26, 2012 (received for review November 8, 2011)

Abstract

Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lower-class individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals’ unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.

There are some strategies for preventing substance abuse. If this father fights the ticket, he is sending the message that there are not consequences for behavior and with enough money and power you can appear to escape.

Partnership for a Drug Free America has some better strategies in their 6 Parenting Practices Help Reduce the Chance That Your Child Will Develop A Drug or Alcohol Problem:

Here are 6 ways to help you reduce the chance that your teenage child will drink, use drugs or engage in other risky behavior.

Build a Warm & Supportive Relationship with Your Child

Be a Good Role Model When It Comes To Drinking, Taking Medicine & Handling Stress

Know Your Child’s Risk Level

Know Your Child’s Friends

Monitor, Supervise & Set Boundaries

Have Ongoing Conversations & Provide Information About Drugs & Alcohol

http://www.drugfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/partnership_6_components_tool_final.pdf

This parent needs to set an example for their child. The wrong place to look for parenting advice is from most practicing attorneys.

Parents giving liquor to minors: New Mercer Island law https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/parents-giving-liquor-to-minors-new-mercer-island-law/

Underage drinking costs society big-time https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/underage-drinking-costs-society-big-time/

Tags: Mercer Island dad may fight $250 fine for son's party:, Mercer Island Teen Alcohol law, Partnership for A Drug Free America, Why the Rich Are Less Ethical: They See Greed as Good

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Categories Dr Wilda

Paul E. Peterson will piss you off, you might want to listen

8 Mar

Moi has been saying for decades that the optimum situation for raising children is a two-parent family for a variety of reasons. This two-parent family is an economic unit with the prospect of two incomes and a division of labor for the chores necessary to maintain the family structure. Parents also need a degree of maturity to raise children, after all, you and your child should not be raising each other. Moi said this in Hard truths: The failure of the family:

This is a problem which never should have been swept under the carpet and if the chattering classes, politicians, and elite can’t see the magnitude of this problem, they are not just brain dead, they are flat-liners. There must be a new women’s movement, this time it doesn’t involve the “me first” philosophy of the social “progressives” or the elite who in order to validate their own particular life choices espouse philosophies that are dangerous or even poisonous to those who have fewer economic resources. This movement must urge women of color to be responsible for their reproductive choices. They cannot have children without having the resources both financial and having a committed partner. For all the talk of genocide involving the response and aftermath of Katrina, the real genocide is self-inflicted. https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/hard-truths-the-failure-of-the-family/ It is interesting that the ruling elites do not want to touch the issue of unwed births with a ten thousand foot pole. After all, that would violate some one’s right to _____. Let moi fill in the blank, the right to be stupid, probably live in poverty, and not be able to give your child the advantages that a more prepared parent can give a child because to tell you to your face that you are an idiot for not using birth control is not P.C.

Paul E. Peterson has written a real engine starter for Education Next, Neither Broad Nor Bold: A narrow-minded approach to school reform:

The Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, a coalition of education professors and interest-group leaders, including the heads of the country’s two largest teachers unions, have concluded that family income itself determines whether or not a child learns. In the first paragraph of its mission statement, the coalition claims that it has identified “a powerful association between social and economic disadvantage and low student achievement.”

“Weakening that link,” the Broader, Bolder group goes on to say, “is the fundamental challenge facing America’s education policy makers.” For this group, poverty and income inequality, not inadequate schools, are the fundamental problem in American education that needs to be fixed. Other possible approaches to improving student achievement—school accountability, school choice, reform of the teaching profession—are misguided, counterproductive, and even dangerous. The energy now being wasted on attempts to enhance the country’s education system should be redirected toward a campaign to either redistribute income or expand the network of social services.

The Broader, Bolder platform has won the wholehearted support of the country’s teachers unions. But it’s much to the credit of the current U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan, that he has carefully kept his distance, insisting instead on accountability, choice, and teacher policy reforms that the Broader, Bolder group finds dispensable.

Inasmuch as the Broader, Bolder movement can be expected to gather steam in an election year, especially given the success of Occupy Wall Street and the “1 percent” campaign, it is worth giving attention to the scholarly foundation on which its claims rest. That is best done by looking closely at the presidential address given before the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management by one of the coalition’s cochairs, Helen Ladd, a Duke University professor, which she summarized in a December 2011 op-ed piece published in the New York Times.

The Platform

The central thesis of the Ladd presidential address is certainly sweeping and bold: The income of a child’s family determines his or her educational achievement. Those who come from low-income families learn little because they are poor. Those who come from prosperous families learn a lot because they are rich. Her solution to the nation’s education woes is almost biblical. According to St. Matthew, Jesus advised the rich man to “Sell what you possess and give to the poor.” Not quite as willing as St. Matthew to rely on the charitable instinct, Ladd modifies the biblical injunction by asking for government intervention to make sure the good deed happens. But she is no less confident than Matthew that wonderful things will happen when the transfer of wealth takes place. Once income redistribution occurs, student achievement will reach a new, higher, and more egalitarian level. Meanwhile, any attempt to fix the schools that ignores this imperative is as doomed to failure as the camel that struggles to pass through the eye of a needle.

Of course, Ladd does not put it quite that bluntly. But her meaning is clear enough from what she does say: education reform policies “are not likely to contribute much in the future—to raising overall student achievement or to reducing [gaps in] achievement….”

Drawing on a study by Stanford education professor Sean Reardon, Ladd says that the gap in reading achievement between students from families in the lowest and highest income deciles is larger for those born in 2001 than for those born in the early 1940s. She suspects it is because those living in poor families today have “poor health, limited access to home environments with rich language and experiences, low birth weight, limited access to high-quality pre-school opportunities, less participation in many activities in the summer and after school that middle class families take for granted, and more movement in and out of schools because of the way that the housing market operates.”

But her trend data hardly support that conclusion. Those born to poor families in 2000 had much better access to medical and preschool facilities than those born in 1940. Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start, summer programs, housing subsidies, and the other components of Johnson’s War on Poverty did not become available until 1965. Why didn’t those broad, bold strokes reduce the achievement gap?

What has changed for the worse during the intervening period is not access to food and medical services for the poor but the increment in the percentage of children living in single-parent households. In 1969, 85 percent of children under the age of 18 were living with two married parents; by 2010, that percentage had declined to 65 percent. According to sociologist Sara McLanahan, income levels in single-parent households are one-half those in two-parent households. The median income level of a single-parent family is just over $27,000 (in 1992 dollars), compared to more than $61,000 for a two-parent family. Meanwhile, the risk of dropping out of high school doubles. The risk increases from 11 percent to 28 percent if a white student comes from a single-parent instead of a two-parent family. For blacks, the increment is from 17 percent to 30 percent, and for Hispanics, the risk rises from 25 percent to 49 percent. In other words, a parent who has to both earn money and raise a child has to perform at a heroic level to succeed.

A better case can be made that the growing achievement gap is more the result of changing family structure than of inadequate medical services or preschool education. If the Broader, Bolder group really wanted to address the social problems that complicate the education of children, they would explore ways in which public policy could help sustain two-parent families, a subject well explored in a recent book by Mitch Pearlstein (Shortchanging Student Achievement: The Educational, Economic, and Social Costs of Family Fragmentation) but one that goes virtually unmentioned in the Ladd report. http://educationnext.org/neither-broad-nor-bold/

Even though Peterson may piss off some folks, he makes some good points.

Parents MUST be involved in the lives of their children. Some, like Detroit Prosecutor Kim Worthy, have advocated jailing M.I.A. Parents. Problem is, jailing them will not force the majority of them into meaningful involvement and interaction with their child. Society has a couple of options to counter the “it’s my life and I’ll do what Iwant” philosophy. The first is discouraging and condemning out-of –wedlock births, particularly among low-income women. Too bad the First Lady doesn’t want to take this one on. The second thing is to intervene early and terminate the rights of negligent and abusive parents, freeing children up for adoption earlier. Finally, this society needs to support adoptive parents with financial and counseling resources. Not PC, but there it is.

A baby changes everything: Helping parents finish school https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/a-baby-changes-everything-helping-parents-finish-school/

Tags: Education and Poverty, Helen Ladd, Neither Broad Nor Bold: A narrow-minded approach to school reform:, Paul E. Peterson, Sean Reardon, The Broader Bolder Approach to Education

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Categories Dr Wilda

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Paul E. Peterson will piss you off, you might want to listen

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A baby changes everything: Helping parents finish school https://drwilda.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/a-baby-changes-everything-helping-parents-finish-school/

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