Teaching about enslavement

Presidential candidate Will Hurd put it so well in his recent tweet: “Unfortunately, it has to be said – slavery wasn’t a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms.”

I wonder if members of the DOE in the State of Florida have actually read any of the first-person narratives of enslaved peoples? They are quite easy to access; they could start with the Library of Congress. And while many of these narratives reflect a feeling of goodwill from masters, it is best to remember the context. These fellow human beings were dehumanized, treated as property, and always subjugated to their owner’s whims.

This, then, is the only way in which this could possibly happen in a country that professes such ideals as:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

The slave owners must have ignored reality and acted under the belief that these human beings were not fellow human beings at all; they were property to be bought, sold, and dealt with however the property owner wished. Are we carrying out this same belief today that we can simply reframe reality to make it bend to our bias? Are there certain self-evident truths?

The whitewashing of history that is being proposed ignores the fact that our country was born with a compromise to allow for the enslavement of human beings. That legacy continues to thread through much of the socio-political maelstrom we still confront. We see it on the streets, we see it in the courts, we see it with policing, we see it in our government – Senate, House, Supreme Court, and the Presidency.

Rather than whitewashing, we must diligently use our history as a lens through which we make our decisions and policies.

Distractions

Gee, I wonder what kind of pie that is?

Much of the discussions in the media are distractions, pretty ways to trim a pie crust.

I posit that a few of the latest significant distractions are Reading Wars and Woke vs. Anti-Woke.

I propose that the end of petty localism is long overdue. It is time for real nationwide action. I realize to recommend the actual federalizing of our education system flies in the face of current events. Still, we have historical precedence from the Sputnik Era:”…Indeed, while Congress may have been hesitant to expand the federal role in research and education before, the investments seemed inevitable, even vital, after the Soviets made their move toward the stars…”

Does the system of state education superintendents setting standards and local school boards adopting curricula continue to best serve our nation, especially against the following threats? 

1) Climate Crisis
The genuine possibility of a manmade extinction event eclipses any and all previous challenges. Could not a cohesive education system play a prominent role in fighting a threat tantamount to WWIII?

2) Class Wars

The relationship between class wars and “Wokeism” is a complex and multifaceted topic that can be approached from various perspectives; thus, the sound bites we get on the media cannot quickly address it. We are in the midst of a giant shell game.  The masses get distracted by false dichotomies; meanwhile, the top 1 percent owns over half of U.S. corporate stock, and the 9 percent — owns almost all the rest of U.S. corporate stock. The number of billionaires in the US has risen from 66 to 614 since 1990. Then there are the rest of us who seem to have the least power and increasingly fewer options. Although I must admit, I am a minor player in this system since my retirement plan makes investments in the same system. In addition, funding for our schools is often based on property values, a system with inherent inequities. Again, should not our education system be educating the 90% about this threat?

Instead, here are some of the ways our “system” is addressing these issues:

1. Defunding free public education; Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Miami, Ohio
2. So-called Anti-Woke legislation
3. Some of the top 10% get loans forgiven, but many with student loans are not
4. Climate Crisis not being taught
5. Reading Wars

Of course, I realize that these few websites cannot begin to address the multifaceted nature of this discourse, which is beyond my purpose: to promote the idea of a much more vital national role in education.

I’ll leave with a quote from George Bailey-It’s a Wonderful Life:

 "Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other."

Connect with other Educators on Spoutible

If you are like many other educators, you may have recently felt the need to change your leading social media presence for one reason or another.

It is inspiring to see a new platform that checks all the boxes (see below). This new platform is called Spoutible and was created by Christopher Bouzy. From his profile and introduction: “When I was 9, I started coding on a Mattel Aquarius computer, and when I was 30, Avanquest USA acquired my first encryption product Cloak. In 2018, Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy) launched Bot Sentinel to help fight disinformation and targeted harassment.”

We need to get the word out to let other educators know about this new, great platform and all its advantages. That’s where you come in.

Below I have shared some Spoutible FAQ’s and a Google Form/Sheet that will allow us to make “waves” on Spoutible.

FAQ

• About Us-Welcome to Spoutible, a social media platform that is committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and enjoyable online space for all.
• Features
• Comparables-created by Brynn Tannehill @brynntannehill
  
• Appearance-As you can see from the chart there are Hashtags, Threads, easy-to-add GIFs, and DMs and Bookmarks, to name a few.
• App- Android     iOS

Some screenshots:

All aboard!

1. Go to Spoutible.com
2. Create a Username and Password
3. Enter your email
4. Click Sign up
5. Create your Profile; check your Profile Settings
6. Start spouting off 🐳

Spouting Off

🐳Spouts can be up to 300 characters. They may include photos, links, GIFs (embedded GIF generator), video, emojis, polls, and up to 3 collaborators on a thread.

🐳You can view Likes, Echoes (reposts), Quotes, Bookmark, Pin, Copy links, and Share to other platforms.

Connect with other Educators on Spoutible

Now here’s where you come in. To help us connect with each other, please use the Form linked below to share your Spoutible contact information after you have created your account.

🐳Share your Spoutible contact info –

Google Form Link

Here is a link to all the submissions so far: Google Sheets link

Looking forward to connecting with everyone.

“In Pursuit of Excellence”

In Pursuit of Excellence, is a fitting title for this post from a Tom Peters book.  This is a book I was required to read before I started in my new position as a 4th-grade teacher at my new school back in 1999. My how we have devolved since then, but this excerpt from another blog post provides hope and a path back and yet also forward.

“Effective schools have strong principals who demand the freedom and flexibility to hire and fire, to set curriculum and school policy. Effective principals provide instructional leadership. They support teachers’ efforts to excel through training and mentoring. They find ways to help parents support their children’s academic achievement but demand that students take responsibility for their own education — regardless of the level of their parents’ involvement.

Effective schools employ teachers who support and mentor one another. Effective teachers concentrate on academic achievement. They recognize that all students need to master a set of basic reading, math, and English-language skills. They teach those skills first, and they consistently measure their students’ performance through standards-based testing.

Effective schools have a clearly defined mission, supported by specific measurable goals. That mission and those goals are communicated to staff, parents, and students, and everyone is expected to make a commitment to promote them.

Effective schools expect students to excel and maintain a culture of excellence.

Yes, it is harder to teach today. It is harder still to teach in schools with a preponderance of poor or minority students. Kids have changed. Parents have changed. Society has changed. Educators, however, cannot throw up their hands in defeat because they are no longer greeted each morning by students who are ready and eager to learn. Schools have to change too. Some already have.

We can’t “fix” society, but maybe — just maybe — we can improve society by fixing our schools.”

https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/columnists/starr_points/starr017.shtml