cooperative learning: overview (johnson, johnson & holubec)

If you wish, check out my intro to this book, Cooperative Learning in the Classroom, by Johnson, Johnson & Holubec.

This post will lay out a basic overview of the book's instructions for teachers. I have filled in a few details for the part I've already read; I'll fill in the rest as I finish reading the book. I also hope to have separate posts providing more detail for some of the sections, which will be linked from this page when I've finished them.

1. Pre-instructional decisions
   
   • select the instructional materials and objectives--be sure the goal is clear (see my Wong & Wong post on objectives!)
     
   • structure the task according to the five key aspects of cooperative learning:
     
     1. positive interdependence: a shared goal that makes every group member's individual contribution absolutely indispensible to his/her teammates
     2. individual accountability: everyone is responsible for the material; no one can just "goof off"
     3. face-to-face mutually supportive interaction
     4. interpersonal & small-group skills development
     5. group processing: groups openly discuss their working process and how they can become more effective
        (more on these five key aspects in the future)
     
     
   • determine what kind of groups you will have, and assign students to groups
     
   • arrange the classroom to facilitate cooperation and minimize disruption
     
   • structure the group interaction, creating and assigning roles to maximize participation and results
   
   
2. Explain the task
   
   • provide a CLEAR, MEASURABLE goal and make sure the students understand it
     
   • explain the concepts, principles and strategies that students will need to use to reach the goal
     
   • relate the new information to the students' prior experience and knowledge as much as possible
     
   • provide examples or model the work the students will need to do to reach the goal
     
     I love this--it took me years to figure out how to give directions, and here it all is, written down! I love it but it makes me very frustrated with my teacher ed program!!!
   
   
3. Explain how the cooperation/teamwork should proceed
   
   • define what it means to "work together"
     
   • define and teach teamwork skills: in order of increasing difficulty (taught incrementally as students become more adept at cooperative work), this includes skills related to:
     1. forming a group
     2. functioning as a group
     3. learning as a group
     4. pushing each other to a higher level of achievement
     
     
   
   
   I have to cut this short because I think I'm keeping my partner awake, also because I haven't read much farther, but I'll finish it ASAP
   
   
   
4. Monitor students working together
   
5. Evaluate students' individual and collective work throughout the process, and evaluate/assess the end product
   
6. Encourage/require students to evaluate how well their groups are functioning and make plans for improved functioning in the next assignment
   

cooperative learning: intro (johnson, johnson & holubec)

I was recently out of town (hence the big gap in posts) and on the plane ride, I zipped through much of a very useful book:
Cooperative Learning in the Classroom (c 1994, by Johnson, Johnson & Holubec)

It's a slim little volume by what appear to be (at least, judging from the bibliography) several people who have devoted the last decade or more to researching (and reviewing others' research) into effective procedures for cooperative learning.

I recommend this book highly--as I said it is brief (110 pages incl. bibliography), and it goes quickly because it covers a tremendous amount of ground, with clarity but in a very succinct space. I'm going to try to post the key ideas here, chapter by chapter, for those of you who don't have time to go read it this instant, i.e. all of you (if there are any of you in the first place) *grin* Also, for myself for future reference.

Anyway, in the introduction, the book asserts that cooperative learning accomplishes three separate goals:

1. raises the achievement of all students, including those who are ahead of their classmates and those who have disabilities or other "issues"
   
2. builds positive relationships among students, which is essential to a positive classroom environment
   
3. provides the opportunity for students to have a variety of experiences that promote their development on three levels: social, psychological, and cognitive.

Instead of a model where the teacher is the one working hard, trying to pump knowledge into students as passive vessels, this model requires the teacher to structure and facilitate tasks where the students do the hard work of learning.

[My observation is that although this seems like a lot of work to set up, once it's up and running smoothly, it's actually easier on the teacher than the traditional model, because you don't need to propel students through material--they move under their own steam. This ties in with stuff in the Wong & Wong book, too--if the teacher does all the work, then the teacher does all the learning...].

Important: I didn't know this, but the authors state that in order to be successful,

cooperative learning should be used 60% to 80% of the time!

This makes sense if you think about it--cooperative learning requires a particular set of social skills, a particular orientation toward work and toward classmates, that really would become a part of the classroom culture and climate. If you were constantly switching back and forth between cooperative learning and other systems, then you would dilute the strength of that culture and climate, and reduce the students' ability to function successfully in a cooperative context.

The introduction also lays out the teacher's basic jobs, which are described in more detail in later chapters...this is essentially the table of contents. I'll make this a separate post.

fwd: school news

The following news links were posted on the MAFAAC list. I haven't checked them out. I'm just passing them on; a few comments are footnoted.

• Don't be a Statistic: Fight the Achievement Gap - Lafollette Student Jazmin Jackson writes a must read.*
  
  
• Schools Could Use a Makeover, by Rob Zaleski (with links & related articles)
  
  
• Malcolm Gladwell on Education - New Yorker writer and author (Blink, Tipping Point) spoke at the Memorial Union last week. Interesting stuff, including some words on education and inadvertent (or not) gender bias.
  
  
• March 7, 2005 Madison School Board Meeting Budget Comments, including the administrations's proposed strings program elimination.**
  
  
• Carol Carstensen & Ruth Robarts exchange views on the District's current budget process
  
  
• Mary Battaglia offers up Virginia's recent school funding change
  
  
• Blogshine Sunday, FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and PAC money in the
  local school board races
  
  
• Madison School Board Candidate election site
  

Up to date local school information, links, events and ideas: http://www.schoolinfosystem.org

Send your ideas and information: http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/ideas/

Best wishes!
Jim Zellmer

---

* I'm not reading this now because I'm trying to get back on track with my work, but I hafta say, the last time I saw a student article about the achievement gap, it was a Black student telling other Black students it was (essentially) all their fault. I couldn't help seeing this article because someone cut it out and taped it to the wall about every three feet all over Sherman Middle School. I don't blame the kid--this is the message she gets--but the publisher who didn't include any other points of view, and the teacher(s) who loved this "get out of the doghouse free" card, earn my ire (not that this would concern them at all).
**My first reaction: good. As it is, "strings" is used to segregate--the rich kids who have had private tutors or something like that go into "strings," and everyone else goes into "band." god, there are so many little trap doors like this--and the parents' ways of communicating about it are so subtle and awful, so that they probably convince themselves they aren't doing it! Now, before I seem like the grinch that stole music classes, there's nothing wrong with strings per se, and I generally oppose cutting music and art just on principle--but there are other things going on here.

how to write good objectives (Wong & Wong)

From pp. 209 - 222 in Wong & Wong, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (one of my current fave teaching books)...

Assignments must be clear and precise....A poor assignment tells the student what to do at the BEGINNING of the assignment. A good assignment states what a student is to have accomplished or achieved when the assignment is FINISHED. You tell students what you want accomplished. Then you give procedures to help them do so.

In other words, a good assignment is based on a good objective.

Objective criteria do two things: assign and assess.

1. Assign: Objectives...tell a student what is to be...mastered in an assignment.
2. Assess: Objectives tell the teacher if additional study is needed to reach the objectives."

Seems obvious, and yet, it's amazing how easy it is to miss the obvious. The Wongs' sterling advice continues:

Objectives are to be given to the students when the lesson begins so that the students know what they are responsible for. It is easy to write objectives.

1. Step 1: Pick a verb [from the table below]...and use the verb you select as the first word in a sentence.
2. Step 2: Complete the sentence...Make sure that the sentence is precise and easily understood by you, the students, and their parents.

- 6 - Evaluation	appraise, choose, compare, conclude, decide, defend, evaluate, give your opinion, judge, justify, prioritize, rank, rate, select, support, value
- 5 - Synthesis	change, combine, compose, construct, create, design, find an unsual (or original) way, formulate, generate, invent, originate, plan, predict, pretend, produce, rearrange, reconstruct, reorganize, revise, suggest, suppose, visualize, write
- 4 - Analysis	analyze, categorize, classify, compare, contrast, debate, deduce, determine the factors, diagnose, diagram, differentiate, dissect, distinguish, examine, infer, specify
- 3 - Application	apply, compute, conclude, construct, demonstrate, determine, draw, find out, give an example, illustrate, make, operate, show, solve, state a rule or principle, use
- 2 - Comprehension	convert, describe, explain, interpret, paraphrase, put in order, restate, retell in your own words, rewrite, summarize, trace, translate
- 1 - Knowledge	Define, fill in the blank, identify, label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, recall, spell, state, tell, underline

And in big bold letters after this, they have,

Do not use these verbs when you write objectives:

• appreciate
  
• be happy
  
• beautify
  
• celebrate
  
• enjoy
  
• like
  
• love
  
• understand

[They explain that these] "are not good action verbs because it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine from them what the student is to do."

I love Wong & Wong. Everything you were supposed to learn in Teacher Ed school, but most definitely did not.

---

As a result of reviewing these instructions, I was forced to rewrite the objectives for the lesson plan I'm working on right now. See if you can spot the Wong & Wong touch!

Before:

"Students will develop a richer frame of reference for imagining the beginning of farming, and for understanding its impact on human life and society."

After:

"Students will interpret data sources--including maps, timelines, and descriptions of archeological evidence--and draw conclusions about the reasons why people began farming."

It's the same lesson plan--I was already gonna have them "interpreting data sources" even while the objective was lousy--but now that I've clarified the objective, it makes a lot of things easier, including (1) giving directions, (2) identifying the phase in the process that gives one or more students difficulty, (3) figuring out how long it will take, based on EXACTLY what skills are needed to succeed in the lesson, and my knowledge of which students have & lack these skills, and (4) determining whether they've done what I wanted them to do.

(Note the nefarious sleight-of-hand in the "before" objective--I knew you weren't supposed to say "understand," but obviously, "develop a frame of reference" is just a fancy way of saying "understand." *grin*)

The main thing I realized here is that it really is worthwhile to force yourself to use these verbs, because each of them describes an action that is **MEASURABLE**.

"Understand" is not measurable.

"Interpret" is measurable--can the student tell me what the map or timeline says?

"Draw conclusion" is measurable--can the student tell me his/her conclusion?

Suddenly I realize why I have had so much trouble in the past (well, one reason)... my objectives have basically been fifty-bajillion ways of saying, "think like me, see things the way I do." Then, when they don't, I'm often at a loss as to how to help them learn to.

Whereas, with the precise & clear objective method, I am identifying in small precise steps what I want them to do, so it's hard to stray too far from "the point" or get confused about whether it's more important for them to do x or y at this time, as a building-block for the next lesson.

It occurs to me I could probably create a year-long plan based on historical thinking & writing skills, and apply that to whatever course I teach--in other words, figure out what skills need to be learned in what order, and create a step-by-step approach that builds each skill onto the next. Just fill in the content--that's the easier part.

Hmmmmmm...

LA Teachers' Union upset election

Apologies for posting such lengthy excerpts, but the LA Times requires you to be registered to view the whole article.

Members of L.A. Teachers Union Elect New Leaders
By Cara Mia DiMassa, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
March 2, 2005

Los Angeles teachers threw out most of their current union leadership Tuesday, electing as president a special education teacher and a slate of newcomers who campaigned on a social justice-centered agenda.

By more than 2,000 votes, teachers selected A.J. Duffy, a 35-year district veteran and longtime union activist, over incumbent President John Perez. About 11,300 teachers, or 27%, of the union's 41,000 members cast ballots.

It was the first time in United Teachers Los Angeles' 35-year history that an incumbent president and his slate had been ousted.

"This is a really completely new look to UTLA," said Duffy, a special education teacher at Palms Middle School. "From the top down. We're all activists. We're all organizers. We go to work with the community."

Duffy was supported by the new United Action slate, which pushed for what one incoming UTLA leader called "militant rank-and-file unionism."
...
"Our slate won every single race, top to bottom," said Joshua Pechthalt, the union's incoming vice president. "This is wholesale change in the union."

So this sounds exciting, right? A social justice slate? I'm here thinking that this means social justice for the students....

...teachers who supported Duffy said they blamed the current union leadership for an 18-month delay in negotiations over a new contract.

[The district] recently offered teachers a 1.5% raise; Perez countered that teachers should get at least 2%. Duffy, in campaign materials, told teachers that, because of cost-of-living increases, "any pay raise less than 7% means a pay cut."
...
Teachers, Pechthalt said, look to contracts first. "If you can deliver a good contract, you can keep the support of the membership. Perez has not been able to do that," he said.

So now I'm confused. Is the union really pushing social justice, or what I would call social justice, i.e. justice for teachers AND students? If so is it just the spin (from whatever quarter) that is trying to say it's all about the contract, money-grubbing teachers, blah-de-blah?

Or is the union's definition of "social justice" different from mine (i.e. protect the teachers's salaries = main priority; students, not so much)?

Obviously teachers are workers, and there's a lot to be discussed with regard to the impossible working conditions (and the gendered aspect of that--teachers like nurses are expected to be "naturally" good at their jobs and not need training or support or real money)--I'm not trying to undermine the necessity of a union to protect teachers--but I had understood that the big change in LA was about a new alliance among teachers, parents and students for the good of all, and this doesn't sound like that, exactly... so what's the story, I wonder?

If Duffy spends all this time as a union activist... how good of a special education teacher is he? What KIND of a special education teacher is he? Hmmmmmmm....

other supremacists

As'ad AbuKhalil's poetic commentary on the strife in his native Lebanon:

Find Me a Homeland
I want a homeland with no flags and no national anthems. I want a homeland that has open borders, and requires no entry visas. I want a homeland that does not have maids, and has no "dirty jobs." I want a homeland that does not hate others to feel better about itself. I want a homeland where people do not think that they are better than their neighbors. I want a homeland where people do not mock regional accents. I want a homeland where clerics (of all religions) are assigned more useful jobs. I want a homeland where people demand higher taxes to help others in need. I want a homeland that spends more on arts and public libraries, and nothing on defense. I want a homeland where the most admired are poor and nameless. I want a homeland where men do not call women bad names to stroke their silly "manhoods". I want a homeland with no presidents. I want a homeland that cares more about social justice than about whether this rich person or that rich person made it to that public office. I want a homeland where Larry King is not allowed near a TV station. I want a homeland where charity is more important than wealth, and courage is not defined by traditional standards. I want a homeland where cedars are considered just...trees. Mere trees. I want a homeland where opposition to war is appreciated more than wars. I want a homeland that does not preach, and does not submit to Empire out of fear. Oh, and I would like Milka chocolate (they are hard to find in the US).

I don't agree with every word, but I like the jist of it... I wonder if I were to write something like that, what would I say. Might be an interesting assignment in school.

teaching tolerance (combating white supremacist attempts to recruit our youth)

I've been hearing that white supremacist groups are on the rise again around the country. I've tried to brush it off, but lately I'm hearing it from too many sources, and the recent passage of the anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona (among other places)--which originated from, and is backed by, white supremacist groups--has been very disturbing.

Many teachers are probably already familiar with it, but in case you are not, the "Teaching Tolerance" project of the Southern Poverty Law Center is a fantastic resource for combatting these viewpoints & preventing them from taking hold in our schools and youth.

Check out Tolerance.org, a general news and info outlet of the SPLC. You can find links such as "Ten Ways to Fight Hate," which sounds like it would be obvious but actually has a lot of really helpful ideas based in concrete past experience. On the "speak up" page, for example, you can find links telling you

• What should you say when the Klan comes to your town?
• Learn how to fight hate with the media.
• What you can do if you are the media.
• Find out how a local newspaper started a frank community discussion about race in New Orleans.

And that's just one page out of the "ten ways!"

For teachers specifically, there is Teaching Tolerance, a website where you can subscribe to the magazine, get information, and also order a stunning array of free materials including free videos, kits, lesson plans, and more. I have the Rosa Parks video, which is just excellent, and I see they have a new one I want to check out: "Mighty Times: The Children's March."

There is also a lot in the parents' section that can be useful to teachers, such as this article on helping children develop a positive self-image without denigrating others who are different. The article begins by talking about the author's attempts to help her son (both mother and child are African-American) to develop a positive self-image in contrast to the negative images of Black men he sees elsewhere in the culture; this is something i've thought about a great deal as a teacher.

This stuff specifically came to mind today because a friend sent me this article:

White women kick Neo-Nazi organizer out of [San Francisco] Coffeeshop (Monday, March 14, 2005)

I found it very inspiring, and thought-provoking too--I don't know if I would have been able to do what the two women in the article did. I try to be someone who "puts my money where my mouth is," but perhaps there's a limit to my courage.

Although, when a local store had "ask about our Arab shoplifting policy" posted in the store, I was working on organizing people to go confront the manager when the sign was removed. So maybe I'm selling myself short. When these occasions arise, and I know I have to do something, I usually just move forward without thinking too much about it. So maybe I would have done what the two women did. I don't know. Anyway their action is an inspiration.

know the enemy (white supremacist "history")

I came across this while searching for something else (isn't the internet a wonderful place?)... it's a glimpse into the mind of "the enemy," though the Buddhist stuff I've been studying would encourage me not to designate anyone this way.

At first I hesitated even to open the link, as though it would contaminate me somehow, but once I started reading it, I started thinking that I really should be more familiar with the rhetoric and ideas, so that I can spot them when they (inevitably, I have to say with regret) crop up among my students.

It also makes me think more carefully about the link I posted previously--to the list of fallacies. Reading stuff like this "white power" BS can help me refine exactly how those fallacies can be used so perniciously. For example, one of the items in the list of fallacies is that an author may use words with multiple meanings to "prove" a point when actually the arguments are not using the same meaning of the word... the examples given on that page are silly, but the "white history" pages give perfect examples--for example, the idea of "race" or "civilization." I need to think about this more carefully in order to be able to counteract it.

I still feel a bit paranoid so I'm not going to include an actual link; if you want to venture into this territory (and I recommend that you do, under the heading of, as I said, "know thine enemy"), just highlight the web addresses and copy-paste them into your browser.

Here it is, white supremacist take on history...
"March of the Titans - A history of the White Race" - link: http://www.white-history.com
The main thesis is summarzied as follows:

"Most importantly of all, revealed in this work is the one true cause of the rise and fall of the world's greatest empires - that all civilizations rise and fall according to their racial homogeneity and nothing else - a nation can survive wars, defeats, natural catastrophes, but not racial dissolution."

The work includes such chapters as, "Chapter 9: Alpha and Omega - The Rise and Fall of Civilizations" (link: http://www.white-history.com/hwr9.htm), whose main thesis is that "history is a function of race."
An excerpt:

If, however, the society within any particular given area changes its racial makeup - through invasion, immigration or any decline in numbers - then the civilization which that society has produced will disappear with them, to be replaced by a new civilization reflecting the new inhabitants of that territory.

OK, not entirely unreasonable, although a bit simplistic (civilizations don't generally just "disappear"...this is the kind of thinking that results from the ridiculous textbooks used in schools today!)... it's only after this that it starts to get a bit ludicrous...

DISAPPEARANCE OF WHITES LED TO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THEIR CIVILIZATIONS

Originally created by Proto-Nordics, Alpines and Mediterraneans, and then influenced by waves of Indo-European invaders, the White civilizations in the ancient world, the Near and Middle East all flourished, producing the wonders of the ancient world.

These regions were either invaded or otherwise occupied (through the use of laborers or by immigration, or in rare cases, by conquest) by non-White peoples - Semitic speaking peoples, and in many cases Black peoples.

What happened was that the original White peoples who made up those civilizations vanished, were killed, or were absorbed into other races, and with their disappearance, so their civilizations "fell" in exactly the same way that the Amerind civilization in North America "fell."

Uh, yeah. Not.

For the moment, and since I'm not actually talking to my students (or, current signs indicate, to anybody other than my spouse) I'm just going to file that under "too silly to even address."

It starts to get ugly in other spots, such as Chapter 8, which argues that Egypt's achievements were produced by a white group, which was destroyed by the Arabs and Black inhabitants of Kush--the phrase that reveals the ugliness underneath all this smooth prose and "I'm not a racist, the Chinese are fine as long as they stay in China" bs is:

The existence of these two non-White groupings within Egypt was later to have a major impact on the history of that civilization, and also do much to destroy the "environmental" theory of the origin of civilizations, as all three groups shared the same environment, yet produced very different levels of achievement.

*sigh* Know the enemy, indeed. These ideas are very easy to refute, but at the stage that this writer has reached, it would be impossible. Equipping children to see through and refute such fallacy-based scholarship is an important task for social studies teachers....

And the Buddhism comes into it after all, as I can't help thinking that it's also our task to help them see themselves in harmony with others, not locked in mortal combat.

current events w/BBC daily news?

I often tape & watch the half-hour early-morning BBC news (well, it's BBC-America). I've been thinking about how to integrate current events into the curriculum, and often I wish the students could see the BBC presentation.*

One idea I had for current events was to have students keep a daily notebook (well, many of my ideas about teaching involve a daily notebook). I thought I would tape the BBC every day, show the first ten minutes (the top headlines and a major story), and have students write questions in their notebooks. Then on Thursday I'd look at the questions, and on Friday I'd pull together a presentation and discussion culled from the week's events, answering the most persistent and repeated questions...

Overall though this seems pretty unworkable. Not enough time and not enough student skills--we'd just run into the perennial problem of i-don't-get-this-shutdown.

On the other hand, I get sick of the classroom being this little bubble with no connection to the outside world at all... what is the solution... there must be some good ideas out there somewhere; I should go look.

---

*I used to think the BBC was just superior to CNN for some reason, but when I put this proposition to a British friend, she was disgusted; when I was actually in England, I saw why--it turns out that the BBC in situ is just as full of sensationalized crime and celebrity pseudo-drama as CNN; it's actually BBC America specifically that does a good job... I wonder if this is due to its compressed form--a half hour instead of twenty-four--or to some attempt to find a niche audience apart from CNN's audience... any ideas?

list of logical fallacies

I learned about these in sixth grade. We did a great unit on advertising. We had I think six of these fallacies as the main ones used in ads; we had to find examples of them, then write our own ad using as many of the fallacies as possible. I think it *really* helped prepare me for logic and critical thinking work down the road.

Logical fallacies

deductive vs inductive reasoning

I was never clear on this. In case you're in the same spot:

Deductive

theory >> hypothesis >> test >> observation >> confirmation



Inductive

observation >> pattern >> tentative hypothesis >> exploration/testing >> theory

Some links:

• Social Science Research Methods
  
• Deductive/Inductive tutorial - a little more confusing but also more examples. Includes the comments that a deductive argument is proven with "reasons, examples, facts, and statistics," while an inductive argument is supported with "opinions, observations, experimentation, and explanations;" apparently "science is heavily based on inductive evidence."

History: Iroquois Constitution; Iroquois viewpoint

Here is a useful version of the Constitution of the Five Nations (aka Iroquois Confederacy or League of the Haudenosaunee), with an introduction and some annotation inserted into the text in brackets.

While looking for it, I found this--check it out!--a comprehensive, annotated paper that makes a compelling case for dating in 1142 instead of 1536: A Sign in the Sky: Dating the League of the Haudenosaunee. Along the way, it provides an excellent summary of a Native viewpoint on European incursions along with other aspects of the history of the nations of the Great Lakes and Northeastern regions. Fascinating material--and it's going to come in handy as a summary, I expect.

I bet the main site on which this is posted would also be a great resource--it's called "The Wampum* Chronicles: Mohawk Territory on the Internet," self-described as "dedicated to the study of history, culture, and contemporary issues of the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Nation...."

...but I am restraining myself from exploring further, since, of course, I have plenty else to do!

---

*I admit I had to look up "wampum." FYI wampum = a type of beadwork that functioned as "a method of recording solemn agreemnts, history, or religious matters." The person in the picture at right is Wolf Clan Mohawk Tiyeeneenhogarow; he is holding a wampum belt whose significance is unknown, but the portrait was painted when he was in London agreeing to fight for the British in the so-called "French and Indian War." Click here for more info on wampum.

Okay okay, back to work. See under "restratining myself from exploring further..."

documenting public school needs

My mom forwarded me information about Critical Exposure, a project that provides public school students with cameras and other materials, together with training in photojournalism, so students can document the challenges their schools are facing as well as the positive growth and potential they see in their schools.

I don't know any more about it, but it's an interesting concept, potentially empowering depending on how it's handled. I checked out the Critical Exposure website, and from the photo on the home page (the only photo I could find on the site), became somewhat concerned with how race will be used in this photography.



Have you ever noticed how Blackness (and other overt manifestations that are associated with race) are used to represent other things, like poverty or need or loneliness or sadness? What a mind-trip for kids of color...Of course there may be vast differences between how the racial aspects of the subject are seen by the photographer, vs how they are perceived by hundreds of different viewers, vs how they are used by the various entities that are trying to create change using the photographs...

But, why was this photograph (file titled "child4.jpg,"with no name for the child, and--more undermining for a supposedly empowering project--no photo credits) chosen to represent the project? Are we supposed to think this child is poor and lost? pathetic and needy? adorable and "at risk"? innocent and worthy? What is the look on his face supposed to convey? My first instinct when I saw it was to read the look as lost and lonely--"feed me, love me"...

But it could just as easily be, "Huh, what, who said my name?" Look closely and you'll see that he is holding the hand of the adult in front of him--not so "little lost boy," now, is he. Could it be that someone called his name, he turned around to see who it was, and *snap* he became the poster child for "the poor needy children of Baltimore."

Has he seen the website? What does he think it means to have his picture up there? If the events unfolded as I am imagining, I'd be willing to bet that if he asked some white teacher-type why his face is up there, she said, "Cuz you're the handsomest, sweetie," and gave him a hug or a smile or a pat on the head, which left him knowing that she was lying, wondering why she would lie, wondering more than ever why his face is up there, and feeling perhaps that he is being used in some way that he doesn't quite grasp.

I'm probably over-analyzing. On the simplest level, if they are able to create positive change, great. Check out the site and let me know what you think. Contributions to the project can be made on the site.

Nepal crisis

Interesting that there is so much focus on Lebanon and nothing in the papers/tv about Nepal, even though the crisis there is worsening daily with rumors of skirmishes and attacks on civilian areas by both the royal forces and the Maoists. I had completely forgotten about the Nepal situation, to be honest, until I came across a link to a very interesting Nepal blog. Check out this great photo:

"Kabir Rana of Deshantar Weekly, Gopal Budhathoki of Sanghu weekly and Rajendra Kumar Baidh of Bimarsha weekly display the issues of their newspaper immediately after the Feb 1 Royal Takeover when they published blank opinion pages in protest of media censorship."

Apparently, the editors were summoned to the palace on Feb 23 to "clarify" the blank pages. That would be funny if it weren't so serious. Read the full story here.

Also of interest are daily news updates and this appeal from a Nepali student leader, which condemns both the King and the Maoists:

"We the youth of Nepal have to fight our war on two different fronts at this critical moment of history: Monarch and the Maoists. Monarch on the one hand has shown its ambition of maintaining state power at all cost. Maoists on the other have not shown commitment towards the practice of democracy. Both the Monarch and the Maoists have established themselves as extremists with whom the democratic forces cannot afford to comply with until the Maoists change their stance theoretically as well as practically. We the youth, believe that we have a capacity to eradicate the injustices that have prevailed since its unification and to face those that are yet to arise."

I have been trying to find out exactly what kind of Maoists these are, and this comment provides some clues. My guess is the Maoists must have some support among the population--it's hard for guerilla armies to exist without support--but how much and whether it's divided along ethnic lines, I still don't know.

Here are some links to BBC stories:

• Nepal's former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has been freed more than month after he was sacked by the king and placed under house arrest. (March 11)
  
• Nepal frees political detainees (March 10)
  
• Nepal arrests 200 demonstrators (March 8)
  
• King tightens censorship of Nepalese media (March 2)
  
• One month after seizing power, King shows no sign of relinquishing it (March 1)
  
• King says he is fighting "terrorism" and asks for help (rest of world to King: "Nepal has no oil; go screw yourself")
  

And some more background:

• Q&A: Nepal crisis
  
• Nepalese history chronology
  
• Who are Nepal's Maoist rebels?quick summary -
  
  • main complaints = political squabbling, rural poverty, caste system
    
  • key rebel leaders inspired by Peru's Shining Path
    
  • human rights groups accuse rebels of torture & summary executions
    
  • only consistent demand is abolition of monarchy
    
  • started small in 1996 & were ignored, but today very powerful & well-armed
    

Well, that's enough for now. I'm glad I loooked around; I know more than I did before.

useful US history links

Useful sites for US history documents...

• Chronology of US Historical Documents - University of Oklahoma College of Law - about 140 items - includes links to other websites such as "The Papers of George Washington" at the University of Virginia
  
• "From Revolution to Reconstruction" - around 300(?) documents - the classics (Declaration, Constitution), plus, way past reconstruction, with a focus on presidents (state of the union addresses, letters, etc. through Clinton) but also including such gems as the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations, c. 1500).
  
• "Primary Source Documents for US History" - East Tennessee State University Dept of History - Wow! more than 400 documents, with a focus on lesser-known stuff--it looks like all 13 colonial charters are there (including 3 versions of Virginia's!), but the Declaration of Independence is not (see above for that). More recent documents focus on Supreme Court decisions and key laws.*
  

---

* and then, among the items listed under "the sixties" are ten Bob Dylan songs and five Phil Ochs songs...and the Communist Manifesto. As if anyone living in the sixties could have written a sentence like "Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes." These history profs are insane. But I digress.

outcomes research that supports inclusion

Came across this bibliography of research that supports the value of inclusion. Also came across a lot of frustrating stuff. The opponents do not address, but instead just caricature and then ridicule, the idea of inclusion... usually what is being opposed is something that would not be acceptable to inclusion advocates either.

And of course there's the usual plenteous helping of breathless concern for the baby geniuses who are forced to endure the torture and travail of being in a class with everyone else.

History of Lebanon (& surrounding area)

For anyone who is confused about contemporary events in Lebanon, here are some useful Lebanese history links.

Here is a quick summary on Wikipedia.

And here is another overview by historian Kamal Salibi, much longer, but easy to read and absolutely fascinating. It covers not only Lebanon but all of the former Ottoman lands taken by Britain and France after WWI.

See also the ever-enlightening commentary on the contemporary situation by Lebanese As'ad Abu-Khalil on his blog, "Angry Arab News Service" (e.g.,March 7 - March 5 - March 4 - March 3 - there's a lot on March 3).

I still don't know what's going on, but I feel much more prepared to interpret whatever happens next. ;-)

The scariest thing you'll ever read...

I've been continuing the process of uploading old notes and response papers, in hopes of creating a general archive of my work and the process of learning about teaching (if you're interested check out the archive links--right column, click on a month, such as February 2003).

In the process I was reminded of one of the most important things I read at the beginning of the teacher ed program: Chapter 7 of John Taylor Gatto's book, The Underground History of American Education.

I posted what I wrote at the time back in January 2003, but I wanted to write a bit more about it from my perspective now (not sure it's changed much, but still). I definitely recommend going to read the article yourself--it's all online, and completely fascinating--a real page-turner despite the florid style.

Briefly, the article explains that the first state to institute compulsory schooling (in the early 1800's) was Prussia, a heavily militarized state (in what is now Northern Germany) that can justifiably be described as the cradle of 20th century German fascism. Gatto provides convincing evidence that the Prussian model of schooling, with its primary emphasis on creating an obedient, gullible populace, was intentionally adopted by US politicians (in the late 1800's) with the same goals in mind.

It all started to fit together when I later figured out that the adoption of compulsory schooling in the US occurred at a time of massive unrest--in the West, the active bloody genocide of remaining Native American nations; in the urban centers, an influx of activist socialists and anarchists driven out of European countries, daily labor riots and regular disturbances on a broader scale (such as the fourteen-city railroad strike in 1877); in the South, the end of reconstruction & the rise of the Klan--in short, a time when it is hardly surprising that those in power would be seeking a way to bring order from chaos and get a stronger grip on their control over the country.

Here is one of the more chilling excerpts from the article (again, I urge you to check it out in full):

"The Prussian mind...held a clear idea of what centralized schooling should deliver:

1. Obedient soldiers to the army
   
2. Obedient workers for mines, factories, and farms
   
3. Well-subordinated civil servants, trained in their function
   
4. Well-subordinated clerks for industry
   
5. Citizens who thought alike on most issues
   
6. National uniformity in thought, word, and deed.
   

"The area of individual volition for commoners was severely foreclosed by Prussian psychological training procedures drawn from the experience of animal husbandry and equestrian training, and also taken from past military experience.

"Prussian schools delivered everything they promised. Every important matter could now be confidently worked out in advance by leading families and institutional heads because well-schooled masses would concur with a minimum of opposition."

--John Taylor Gatto
"The Underground History of American Education"
Chapter Seven

When I first read this, it finally answered a question that had been bugging me for a long time... The question was, since most teachers really are kind, compassionate, caring, and genuinely want to teach well--at least we start out that way--why is it that schools are such degrading, demoralizing, depressing, and dehumanizing places? This article explained that schools are that way because they were structured that way intentionally (based on horse training, no less!).

Ohhhhhhh.... so it's NOT that schools are mysteriously ineffective at their oft-stated purpose of fostering the personal growth of students into creative, critically-thinking, intellectually capable, confident, and let's not forget, well-informed adults! No, instead, schools are VERY effective at producing exactly what they were designed to produce, as described in the six points listed above!

It's a really intense portrayal of how powerful institutions really are, in overpowering the individual intentions of those who operate within them.

It is a constant struggle to try to be effective as a teacher and yet not be effective in the goals for which the institution of schooling was so effectively designed. But at least, knowing what those goals are can help us operate more effectively in advancing our own goals, which we know are the goals of most parents and most of the community.

History: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877

While I'm at it, the Great Railroad Strike really is an amazing piece of history--just like the draft riots mentioned in a previous post--very dramatic and completely missing from history books--or if it was mentioned, it certainly made no impression on me at the time. I certainly would never have imagined that anything like what happened, had ever occurred in US history--that the initial flare-up in Pittsburgh touched off a 14-city general strike, and that the rail yards in Pittsburgh were completely destroyed.

The University of Pittsburgh has some great photos of the immediate aftermath on their site. Here's a little teaser...

There's an archival document introducing the photos which reads:
"THE RAILROAD WAR at Pittsburgh, July 21-22, 1877
The following list of Stereographs...gives a complet [sic] historical view of the district burnt over..."

"Opposite 16th St., looking up the track"	"Interior of Upper Round House"
	(left) "Opposite 32nd and 31st streets"

Heh--and they thought the "Battle of Seattle" in 1999 was bad! People have short memories.

Amazing that something termed a "war" by contemporaries could just vanish from people's consciousness...

The same website has other great primary source documents, listed on this page: Document Sets. Doncha just love primary sources?

Oops, have to go for now--maybe I'll add to this later--it's quite a story.

gangs of new york/1863 draft riots

If "Gangs of New York" is on TV again (I think it's on STARZ a lot this week for those who get that channel), anyone with an interest in history who hasn't seen it should try to see the first ten minutes and the last thirty. The intervening 4+ hours are painfully crappy (and don't worry about the plot elements you won't understand in the last thirty minutes--actually you will understand all there is to understand). The setup and climax, however, are an amazing depiction of a New York I never knew existed, prior to the first time I saw the film. The 1863 civil war draft riots alone are a fascinating (if grisly) chapter in the city's history that never gets talked about. Click on the image below to read more...



The targeting of African-Americans did not make a big impression on me the first time I saw Gangs of New York, but this time, knowing the background, I noticed it more prominently. I think the first time I didn't have enough contextual information to process much of the imagery--I was still busy being blown away that something so dramatic had happened and I'd never heard of it. Or, perhaps, I was noticing only the class element (part of the immediate cause of the resentment that helped spark the riots was that rich men who were drafted could pay for another man to fight in their stead) and feeling somewhat sympathetic to the rioters, so I didn't want to see the unsympathetic elements.

In the latest issue of Social Education, published by the National Council for the Social Studies, there's also a great article on the draft riots with some suggestions for classroom activities. The article suggests that the riots are an interesting place to explore various intersecting, opposing, and/or overlapping ethnic, racial and class identities in that era.

More links: the film - the book on which it was based