The Discipline Crisis That's Breaking Teachers (and
What Schools Can Do This Summer)
72% of educators reported this year
that student behavior is WORSE than before the Pandemic. Teachers are quitting
mid-year. Office Discipline Referrals have tripled. Classroom instruction stops
daily for disruptions. Some students are not even showing up for school.
The brutal truth? The discipline strategies
schools are relying on are failing spectacularly. . . including the PBIS and
SEL frameworks. . . and suspending MORE kids this Fall is NOT the solution.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This Blog article (and accompanying
Podcast) provides a proven lifeline by describing:
📊The 5 Pillars of Safe & Effective Schools -
The exact model used by award-winning principals nationwide.
⚡The 5-Component Solution for Classroom Management and Student
Self-Management -
Dr. Howie Knoff's evidence-based framework that's transformed 1000s of schools
nationwide over the past 40 years.
🔍How Teachers and Support Staff fit in –
What teachers and related service professionals need to do - this Fall - to
turn things around.
📋Your Summer Action Plan - Exact
steps to implement before August (includes Needs Assessment Questions to ask
NOW).
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
FACT: This isn't another education Blog
or Podcast with feel-good theories. This is a survival guide, backed by hard
data and proven results.
Don't let another school year slip
away while your teachers burn out and students fall behind. The research is
clear. The solution exists.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The question is: Will you act?
Every day you wait, you lose another
great teacher.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
👉BONUS:The Blog Article and Podcast are FREE (see the Link)...
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👉Share With Your Team - Everyone
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👉Forward this to every educator and
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Why the U.S. Women’s Gold
Medal Olympic Gymnastics Team is a Model for All Schools
[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project
ACHIEVE Webpage]
Dear Colleagues,
Introduction
There are no perfect schools, just as there are no
perfect teams.
But there are winning teams, just as there are winning
schools.
Howie Knoff
In late June, I
delivered three presentations at The Model Schools Conference in
Orlando. Since then, I have been using some of the quotes in my primary
presentation to contextualize some current issues and events in education. . .
especially as we move toward the beginning of the new school year.
Today’s Blog is
Part III of this Series.
Just to recap:
Blog Part I outlined
the “Seven Sure Solutions for School Success”—an evidence-based blueprint with
seven specific interdependent components that are essential both for long-term
school success, and to help schools move “to the next level of excellence.”
The piece noted
that many schools are demonstrating progress relative to students’ academic
proficiency and social, emotional, and behavioral interactions. . . but we
still have such a long way to go.
The Seven Sure
Solutions provide the science-to-practice understanding of why students are
successful and unsuccessful, and help schools design and implement proven
instruction and multi-tiered services, supports, and interventions to “close
the gaps.”
July 13, 2024
The Seven Sure Solutions for Continuous Student and School
Success (Part I): “If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Any Road Will Get You
There”
In Blog Part II, we
discussed the social, emotional, and behavioral challenges identified in a May,
2024 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey of 1,714
public school (K-12) leaders from every state in the country and Washington,
D.C. Anticipating these same challenges in the coming school year,
These challenges
included students’ (a) lack of focus and preparation for class; (b) classroom
disruptions and the mis-use of electronic devices; (c) verbal abuse and
disrespect toward teachers; (d) (cyber)bullying and peer-to-peer physical
attacks; and (e) substance abuse and bringing weapons into school.
The Blog critiqued
the “solutions” suggested by the surveyed leaders and stressed, instead, the
importance of (a) analyzing student and staff data to determine what problems
exist, why they exist, which ones to target, and how to prevent or eliminate
the targeted problems during the first three weeks of the new school year.
July 27, 2024
Are Schools Really Prepared to Address Educators’ Biggest
Behavioral Student Concerns Right Now? “We’ve Got Serious Problems and We Need
Serious People” (Part II)
In this Third Part
of the Blog Series, we use the Gold Medal-winning Women’s Olympic Gymnastics
team as a model and analogy of what schools need to do to “Win the Gold” for
every one of their students during the coming academic year.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Courage of Winning Teams
Quote 1
There are no perfect schools, just as there are no
perfect teams.
But there are winning teams, just as there are winning
schools.
Howie Knoff
Just a week or so
ago, Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera joined
forces as an Olympic unit to win the Women’s Gymnastics Team Olympic Gold medal
in Paris.
But the “win” did
not occur just on the night of the competition.
The win was,
individually for each of these Olympians, years in the making. . .
Parent support,
persistent dedication and practice, God-given talent honed by committed
coaches. . . and a dream whose promise was not guaranteed.
The win was,
collectively as an Olympic team, also years in the making. . .
Five world-class
athletes supporting each other, shutting out the expectations of the public. .
. and the noise of the doubters, competing selflessly for each other and their
Country.
_ _ _ _ _
How is this like
your school (department, district, agency, or place of employment). . . or the
school it should be?
If the dream—as it
should be—is to help students to maximize their academic and social, emotional,
and behavioral learning, progress, and proficiency. . . know that you cannot do
it alone.It takes a team.
And to “get the
Gold”—on behalf of your students—takes more than God-given ability. It will
take years, a well-coordinated series of teachers and support staff, days of
frustration and other days of exhilaration. . . and an individual and team
dedication of Olympic magnitude.
·Do you and the colleagues in your school have
the spirit, skills, motivation, and perseverance to “get the Gold”. . . this
coming year?
·Do you and your colleagues have the resources
and relationships, professional development and coaching, camaraderie and
solidarity. . . not just this year, but every year?
·Do you and your colleagues have the ability to
handle the desired “highs” and the predictable “lows”. . . specifically, the
lows fostered by uncertainties and the unexpected, obstacles and barriers, weaknesses
and lack of skill?
·And, do you and your colleagues have the
patience to address your “other colleagues” who are unhappy, conflicted,
negative, uncooperative, or resistant to change?
When and how
are you and your colleagues going to discuss and begin to answer these
questions. . . starting to build or continuing to strengthen your team?
And how are you
going to involve your students in these discussions. . . because they also are
part of the team. . . from preschool through high school.
_ _ _ _ _
A “winning” school
is defined by the definition agreed on by everyone in your organization.
And winning means
that sometimes you lose, pick yourself up, and go “back to the gym” to begin
again.
If you remember,
just four years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, this same Gold Medal-winning U.S.
Woman’s Olympic Gymnastics team won the Silver medal in the team event.
While winning any
Olympic medal is an accomplishment of the highest order (even if it’s not
always portrayed that way in the Press), remember, too, that Simone Biles
famously stepped down for some events in Tokyo. . . because the pressure was
impacting her mental and physical health.
And yet, the Team
still medaled.
But there are three
messages here. . . for education and in life.
First, mental
health is a prerequisite to physical health, learning, progress, and success.
Second, Simone
Biles was a winner because she put her mental health first. She let no one down
in Tokyo. . . in fact, she raised many people up.
Third, “winning” is
not always “getting the Gold.”
There are only
three medals for every Olympic event, and very few Olympic athletes win a
medal. But how many of these athletes seize their Olympic moment, and do “their
personal best?”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Characteristics of Winning Teams
Quote 2
Education is a “tag-team” marathon for students from Kindergarten to the end of Grade 12.
For them, then, a school is only as strong as its
weakest teachers.
Howie Knoff
The Women’s
Gymnastics team competition at the Olympics consists of four rotations
involving a Vault; separate routines on the Balance Beam and Uneven Bars,
respectively; and a Floor Exercise. Three of the five Team members compete in
each rotation, and everyone’s score is summed together for a Total Team Score.
The U.S. Women’s
Gymnastics Team tallied 171.296 points during the team competition in Paris. .
. 5.802 points ahead of the Italian Team, and 6.799 points ahead of the
Brazilian Team (that’s pretty dominant!!!).
While one member’s
bad score on one apparatus might not “doom” a team’s medal chances, clearly the
team wants its three strongest gymnasts competing in each of the four separate
events (as different combinations can participate in different events).
_ _ _ _ _
Educationally,
students find themselves in a preschool (or kindergarten, or— in some
states—first grade) through high school “tag-team” marathon.
With graduation as
the goal (or “Gold”), they must cumulatively learn and master their academic
and social, emotional, and behavioral skills from 30 or more different teachers
across a multiple year “competition”. . . where they have limited
self-determination on who their “coaches” are than most Olympic athletes.
You see, most
Olympic-quality athletes choose their own coach. They can stay with a coach for
their entire career, or change coaches when they feel it is beneficial to their
short- and long-term goals.
Students typically
do not have that flexibility. They get the teachers they are assigned to, the
teachers are often changed every year, and—in many ways—their cumulative
education may be dictated by their weakest teacher.
I remember when my oldest son was in fourth grade.
While he had qualified for the Gifted program, the “Gifted” math teacher that
year was a long-term substitute who was unprepared to teach math. Deciding that
I did not want to be “the parent” who complained about the quality of the math
instruction, my son’s Gifted math class ended the year well behind the
“regular” fourth grade math class.
It took my son years to catch up in math. And it was
not an issue of motivation. Indeed, my son is now a very successful Chief
Financial Officer for one of the largest construction companies in his state.
_ _ _ _ _
It goes without
saying (but I will) that the educators in every school across the country are
responsible for every student’s success in their school. . . and across their
district.
To meet their
responsibilities. . . as “coaches” in a preschool through high school marathon,
they must:
·Make sure that the instruction at every grade
level is of the highest quality for every student. . . so that each “leg” of
the marathon prepares each student for the “next leg.”
This means that teachers (or other
staff) who are struggling with one or more students (a) need to self-identify
or be identified for help; (b) need to receive the assistance, training,
coaching, or supervision required to get them “on-track” in a timely way; and (c)
the students need to similarly receive assistance, reteaching, and
coaching so that they get back “on-track.”
_ _ _ _ _
·Make sure that the “baton” at the end of each
leg of the tag-team marathon is seamlessly passed on to the next “runner” (i.e.,
teaching team) in the race.
This means that the teachers at the
end of each year need to fully brief the teachers at the grade level for next
year as to each student’s academic and social, emotional, and behavioral
(a) history and status, (b) progress and proficiencies, and (c) instructional
preferences and/or intervention supports.
_ _ _ _ _
·Make sure that the curriculum, instruction,
services, and supports—from preschool to elementary, elementary to middle
school, and middle school to high school—are aligned, differentiated,
consistent, and integrated.
While a marathon may take a runner
across many different terrains and levels of difficulty, the course is still
designed ahead of time, it is marked-out and well-organized, and it is revealed
beforehand to the runners. . . so that they can effectively train for their
best results.
Schools’ different courses of study
should have these same characteristics. . . so that the “race” for students is
fair, predictable, well laid-out. . . so that every student has the greatest
probability of success.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Conditioning of Winning Teams
Quote 3
The definition of “mastery” is when students can demonstrate their skills under conditions of
emotionality.
Howie Knoff
Earlier, we noted
that, in Tokyo, Simone Biles needed to step back from the team competition to
address some issues affecting (in her words) her “mental health”. . . issues
that were also affecting the performance of her routines and, hence, her
physical safety during the Olympics.
There is a lot of
pressure on Olympic athletes.
And that’s why most
Olympic athletes (and other world-class athletes and teams) have Sports
Psychologists.
You see. . . “winning”
is not just about physical acumen. Winning is also about state of mind,
social-emotional awareness, mental health, and performing under conditions of
emotionality.
And many times, in
competitions where world-class athletes have such elite physical attributes
that the “distance” between them is measured in millimeters and milli-seconds,
it is their social-emotional preparation that often makes the behavioral
difference.
Indeed, how many athletes
have “crashed” due to the emotional pressures of their “Olympic moment,” and
how many have seized their Olympic moment, over-performed, and “gone for the
Gold” (or, at least, attained a personal best)?
And how are the crashes
prevented?
By learning
social-emotional control and thinking (attributional) skills, practicing
them in the gym by simulating the same conditions of emotionality that exist
during competitions, and by overlearning them to the degree that they
can be automatically triggered and successfully applied at any time. . . in any
moment.
_ _ _ _ _
Once again, schools
and students are no different.
Schools and staff
need to prepare all students—from preschool through high school—to be not only
academically proficient, but to perform academically and socially under
conditions of emotionality.
This takes explicit
instruction. . . the same instruction that teachers provide to students in
reading, math, and science. . . the same instruction provided to world-class
athletes.
Indeed, classroom
teachers and support staff are the “Olympic coaches and sports psychologists”
for all of their students.
And, hence. . . students
need to—in developmentally sensitive ways, and matched to the social demands
and interactions consistent with their ages—learn emotional awareness, control,
communication, and coping skills.
These skills need
to be learned and mastered so that they can be applied to both academic and
social-interpersonal circumstances.
For example:
·How many students are academically proficient,
but have not learned to handle the emotional conditions present when taking
their State Proficiency Tests. . . thereby “shutting down” during the test?
·How many students have difficulty, emotionally,
accepting suggestions (that they view as criticism), consequences (that they see
as unfair), or peer feedback (that they interpret as rejection)?
·And, how many students are not skilled in “stepping
back” from emotionally-charged situations so that they can take care of
themselves, not worrying about “what someone else thinks about me?”
The latter is what
Simone Biles did in Tokyo, so that she could “get the Gold” in Paris.
And what did Simone
(and team-mate Jordan Chiles) do, also in Paris, when Rebeca Andrade from Brazil
won the Gold in the individual Floor Exercise event (Simone won the Silver, and
Jordan won the Bronze)?
They demonstrated
their humility, admiration, sense of humor, and emotional intelligence by “bowing
down” to Rebeca in recognition of her accomplishment during the Medal Ceremony.
Parenthetically,
the trio made Olympic history—for both men and women’s gymnastics—as the first
all-Black medal winners ever.
As Simone said
about the bow-down:
“Rebeca's so amazing, she's a queen. She's such an
excitement to watch and then all the fans in the crowd were always cheering for
her, so it was just the right thing to do.
It was an all-black podium so that was super-exciting
for us, but then Jordan was like 'should we bow to her?' and I was like
'absolutely'.
Why could this also not happen in
every school in our country?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _
Summary
This Blog (Part III)
used the Gold Medal-winning Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team—at this year’s
Paris Olympic Games—as a model and analogy of what schools need to do to “Win
the Gold” for every one of their students during the coming academic year.
Through three
quotes taken out of a June presentation at the Orlando, FL Model Schools
Conference, we analyzed examples of the courage, characteristics, and
conditioning of the Women’s U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team, and encouraged educators
to discuss the questions below with their colleagues as the new school year
begins.
If the dream—as it
should be—is to help all preschool through high school students to maximize
their academic and social, emotional, and behavioral learning, progress, and
proficiency. . . does your school or educational setting have the team
perspective and will needed to:
·Courageously work together—during both the days
of exhilaration and the days of frustration—to support each other’s dedication
and excellence. . . even when specific colleagues need support, encouragement, or
honest feedback?
·Recognize that all staff in a school need to
coordinate and integrate the characteristics of effective school and schooling—on
behalf of all students—during the “tag-team” marathon that is their preschool
through high school education. . . so that their instruction and support seamlessly
progress from year to year, school to school, and teacher to teacher?
·Prepare students in the social, emotional, and
behavioral areas so that they can demonstrate their learned skills under “conditions
of emotionality” when they are stressed, tired, pressured, triggered, or
otherwise “on the edge?”
Educators are the
Olympic coaches and Sports psychologists for all of their students.
And every school
day is another “day in the gym”. . . teaching new academic and social-emotional
skills, routines, or “aerobatics”. . . tearing the skills down, giving
feedback, and putting them back together.
We need to best
coaches to teach our students. . . and our best coaches need to continually “be
on their game.”
Does this describe
your school or educational setting?
If so, how do you maintain
and extend your success?
If not, when are
you going to get the “team” together, and figure out how to move forward?
_ _ _ _ _
With the school
year beginning for some. . . and forthcoming for others, we hope that this Blog
Series (and this current Part III) is helpful and relevant to you and your
colleagues.
If my thoughts
resonate with you, and you would like to explore ways to more personally
involve me in your setting, please drop me an e-mail (howieknoff1@projectachieve.info)
or set up a free Zoom call so that we can look at your needs and desired
outcomes.
Together, I know
that we can attain the short- and long-term, sustained successes that you want
and that every student needs.
Best,
Howie
[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project
ACHIEVE Webpage]
[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project
ACHIEVE Webpage]
Dear Colleagues,
Introduction
My home is
currently in a state of complete disruption, disarray, and destruction!
Since returning
from a two-week consultation trip, workmen have taken over the premises to
renovate three central rooms. . . a project that has been in the works for well
over eight months.
And that is the
point. . .
Anyone who has
embarked on a major renovation project in their home knows that, if everything
is not well-coordinated. . . the permits and permissions, demolition and dumping,
materials and machinery, contractors and crews, skills and skill-synchronization
. . . what should have been finished in less than two weeks ends up taking more
than two months!
And so. . .
planning and preparation is essential.
And yet, how many
schools plan and prepare. . . at the end of each school year for the beginning
of the next year.
I continue to
restate and reinforce one of my many maxims:
“The beginning of
the new school year starts in April and May.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Student Engagement and Disengagement: What are
We Talking About?
While I could
reiterate all of the statistics and statements from experts around the country
regarding the extreme number of students who are disengaged from their studies,
classes, and schools, let’s focus instead on helping schools and districts to
solve their specific, “local” problem. In other words, let’s stop
“admiring” problem, and get on with solving it.
Indeed, let’s be
honest.
It is not wise for
districts and schools to assume that the student disengagement described in a national
or state report accurately reflects their student disengagement problem.
That’s like driving to an unknown destination without directions or a GPS.
Instead, districts
and schools need to evaluate their students, interacting (or not
interacting) with their administrators, teachers, and support staff, in their
schools.
And the first step
in this process is to define exactly what. . . for each school in a district. .
. “disengagement” looks like.
That is:
What are the highest frequency student behaviors that
represent “disengagement”. . . that exist in your school, and that you want to
change?
Without this
behavioral specificity, school administrators and staff members are
figuratively “wandering in the desert.” They do not know what behavioral
outcomes they are targeting, they cannot accurately determine why the
problems are occurring, and they will be unlikely to successfully change or increase
and then sustain student engagement.
Said a different
way. . . with the specific, observable, and measurable descriptions of the
disengaged student behaviors that a school wants to change, its staff cannot
accurately evaluate. . . after interventions have been implemented with
fidelity. . . whether or not they have changed the behaviors and solved the
problem.
_ _ _ _
Critically. . . note
that the paragraph above pluralized “disengaged behaviors.”
That is because
most schools have students with different disengaged behaviors that need
to be changed. Student disengagement is not a “one size fits all” problem.
For example, Student
Disengagement could be specified and quantified as:
·Chronic or periodic absenteeism;
·Non-completion of homework or class work;
·Not participating in classroom discussions or
project-based/cooperative learning groups;
·Refusing to follow directions or cooperate with
teachers;
·Over-socializing with peers during classroom
instruction, and/or Under-socializing with peers when those interactions are
expected and appropriate; or
·Just intentionally wandering around the
classroom, leaving the classroom without permission, or not showing up to class
at all.
Critically. . .
some of these behaviors represent not just problems or gaps, but symptoms that
are occurring due to other underlying or hidden circumstances. . . that need to
be addressed to change the original, symptomatic behaviors.
And that’s why, in
a multi-tiered context. . . groups of students and, sometimes, individual
students need to be assessed to determine the root causes of their
disengagement.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Determining—Now—the Root Causes of Student Engagement
and Disengagement
Returning to one of
the “themes” of this Blog, we want to emphasize that districts and schools right
now should be evaluating a number of student disengagement areas. These
evaluations should occur before the end of this school year so that the
information can be used during the summer planning days to organize the
activities that will “kick-off” the new school year.
These evaluations
should be guided, as noted immediately above, by how each district and
school has defined its specific, local student disengagement behaviors.
For each district
(and schools), these evaluations should, at least, address:
·The current status of student disengagement (and
engagement) based on the specific, local behaviors of concern;
·What individual (and groups of) student(s) are
involved—by name and demographic background;
·What multi-tiered services, supports, and/or
interventions were implemented during the 2023-2024 school year to address which
specific disengagement root causes, and which interventions were successful,
near-successful, or unsuccessful; and
·Which disengaged students have the greatest
current need for intervention, and which students have the highest probability
of success—with the “right” intervention.
_ _ _ _ _
To assist in this
evaluation process, a modified root cause analysis template is suggested. . .
organized in the acronym “RIOTS.”
·Review existing Data/Complete a Relationship
Map;
·Interview Students in
Strategically-Selected Focus Groups;
·Observe Student-Staff and Student-Student
Interactions
·Talk with Selected (or Entire Classrooms)
of Students
·Survey Students and Staff
We will briefly describe these data collection and analysis
approaches in two clusters.
Review/Relationship
Maps and Observing Students’ Interactions. We have long known that, when
students have at least one caring adult in their school, they feel a greater
sense of belonging and acceptance, show better academic and social-emotional
outcomes, and demonstrate lower rates of bullying and other antisocial
interactions.
Given this, we
recommend that every school create a Relationship Map for all of the students
in a school—identifying the “caring” adults that they are connected to (or not
connected to) before the end of this school.
To complete a
Relationship Map, school staff (teachers, administrators, related services and
support staff) need a list of all of the students in the school that they
interact with. They use this list to identify those students with whom they
have a positive and trusting relationship (3 points), a reasonably positive
relationship (2 points), a peripheral relationship (1 point), or no
relationship at all (0 points).
This can be done in
a whole-staff meeting, a grade-level meeting, or electronically by entering the
information above, for example, on a Google-Doc on a shared drive. Critically,
given the rich discussions that typically occur, we strongly recommend some
type of face-to-face meeting.
This is especially
true as schools want to do more than generate a list of students who, based on
their definitions, are disengaged. . . they also want to identify the broader, contextual
information that includes (a) where, when, and with whom, and (b) how often and
how intensively specific students are disengaged.
Moreover, it is
important to identify the times and conditions when apparently disengaged
students are appropriately engaged. This information provides a broader
context and may identify possible student-specific solutions.
Clearly, most
disengaged students will be identified based on the observations of one or more
staff people. And while there is not enough time to do extensive observations right
now—at the end of the school year—some observations could still occur if
schools are going to complete Relationship Maps in two to three weeks or at the
very end of the school year.
If this is the case,
staff could be told (a) that a Relationship Mapping meeting will occurring
soon, (b) what student disengagement behaviors to look for—in their classrooms
and across the common areas of the school—during the next week or so, and (c) that
they should create a list of students who appear to be disengaged.
During the
Relationship Mapping meeting, staff can also use the student list to identify
the two or three peers (if they exist) with whom each student has their most
positive relationships. This information can be used to create a Sociogram
of the peer support networks in the school.
Based on these two
activities (i.e., the Relationship Map and the Sociogram), a school can
identify their “engaged or connected” versus their “disengaged or
unconnected/disconnected” students. During this process, some of the reasons
for specific student’s disengagement may emerge.
Interviewing,
Talking with, or Surveying Students. These three root cause analysis activities
all involve getting information, actively or more passively (as with a Survey),
from engaged and disengaged students.
Clearly,
interviewing students in a strategically pre-selected focus group differs
somewhat from an open discussion with students in an already-existing classroom
setting. . . which differs from asking students to complete a survey on an
individual basis.
The “common theme”
across these three approaches, however, are the questions that schools ask so
that the underlying contexts and reasons for students’ disengagement can be
discerned.
Significantly, some
schools begin with a student survey, and then conduct classroom and/or focus
group discussions to “drill-down” the survey results. Thus, more specific clarifying
questions are asked so that a “granular or molecular” understanding of why
different students’ disengagement is present can eventually be determined.
In order to help
schools generate the survey, interview, or discussion questions, we have modified
and reorganized the questions from the U.S. Department of Education’s ED
School Climate Survey (EDSCLS) for students.
The EDSCLS is a
suite of survey instruments that collect and report multi-factored school
climate data from students, teachers, non-instructional school staff, and
principals. The surveys all focus on three content domains: Engagement, Safety,
and Environment.
Below are the
questions from the Student survey that, once again, can be used or modified in
whole or in part for a school’s survey, interview, or discussion activities.
Once the root causes for selected students’ disengagement from school, studies,
staff, or peers are determined, strategic services, supports, and interventions
can be linked to the results.
ED
School Climate Survey--Student Survey Questions
Safety—Physical Safety
I feel safe going to and from this school.
I feel safe at this school.
I sometimes stay home because I don't feel safe at this
school.
Safety—Emotional Safety
I feel socially accepted.
I feel like I am part of this school.
I am happy to be at this school.
Environment—Mental Health
My teachers really care about me.
Safety--Emotional Safety
At this school, students work on listening to others to
understand what they are trying to say.
At this school, students talk about the importance of
understanding their own feelings and the feelings of others.
Students at this school get along well with each
other.
I feel like I belong.
Engagement—Participation
I have lots of chances to be part of class discussions
or activities.
There are lots of chances for students at this school
to get involved in sports, clubs, and other school activities outside of class.
At this school, students have lots of chances to help
decide things like class activities and rules.
I regularly participate in extra-curricular activities
offered through this school, such as, school clubs or organizations, musical
groups, sports teams, student government, or any other extra-curricular
activities.
I regularly attend school-sponsored events, such as
school dances, sporting events, student performances, or other school
activities.
Engagement—Relationships
If I am absent, there is a teacher or some other adult
at school that will notice my absence.
Students like one another.
Students respect one another.
My teachers make me feel good about myself.
It is easy to talk with teachers at this school.
Teachers are available when I need to talk with them.
Teachers understand my problems.
Engagement—Cultural and Linguistic Competence
People of different cultural backgrounds, races, or
ethnicities get along well at this school.
Adults working at this school treat all students
respectfully.
This school provides instructional materials (e.g.,
textbooks, handouts) that reflect my cultural background, ethnicity, and
identity.
Boys and girls are treated equally well.
All students are treated the same, regardless of
whether their parents are rich or poor.
Environment—Instructional Environment
My teachers expect me to do my best all the time.
The things I'm learning in school are important to me.
My teachers often connect what I am learning to life
outside the classroom.
My teachers give me individual attention when I need
it.
My teachers praise me when I work hard in school.
Environment—Discipline
Discipline is fair.
School rules are applied equally to all students.
Adults working at this school help students develop
strategies to understand and control their feelings and actions.
Adults working at this school reward students for
positive behavior.
My teachers make it clear to me when I have misbehaved
in class.
Environment—Physical Environment
Broken things at this school get fixed quickly.
I think that students are proud of how this school
looks on the outside.
The school grounds are kept clean.
The temperature in this school is comfortable all year
round.
The bathrooms in this school are clean.
Environment—Mental Health
Students at this school try to work out their
disagreements with other students by talking to them.
Students at this school stop and think before doing
anything when they get angry.
I can talk to a teacher or other adult at this school
about something that is bothering me
I can talk to my teachers about problems I am having
in class.
Engagement—Relationships
At this school, there is a teacher or some other adult
who students can go to if they need help because of sexual assault or dating
violence.
Safety—Bullying
Students often spread mean rumors or lies about others
at this school on the internet (i.e., Facebook, email, and instant message).
Students at this school try to stop bullying.
Students at this school are often bullied.
Students at this school are teased or picked on about
their real or perceived sexual orientation.
Students at this school are teased or picked on about
their physical or mental disability.
Students at this school are teased or picked on about
their cultural background or religion.
Students at this school are teased or picked on about
their race or ethnicity.
Safety—Emergency Readiness and Management
If students hear about a threat to school or student
safety, they would report it to someone in authority.
Students know what to do if there is an emergency,
natural disaster (tornado, flood) or a dangerous situation (e.g., violent
person on campus) during the school day.
Safety—Physical Safety
Students at this school fight a lot.
Students at this school damage or destroy other
students' property.
Students at this school steal money, electronics, or
other valuable things while at school.
Students at this school threaten to hurt other
students.
Students at this school carry guns or knives to
school.
Safety—Substance Abuse
Students at this school think it is okay to try drugs.
Students at this school think it is okay to get drunk.
Students at this school think it is okay to smoke one
or more packs of cigarettes a day.
It is easy for students to use/try alcohol or drugs at
school or school-sponsored events without getting caught.
Students use/try alcohol or drugs while at school or
school-sponsored events.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Planning—Now—to Change Student Disengagement on Day
One of the New School Year
Once the
Relationship Mapping, Sociograms, and the other problem identification and root
cause analyses are finished, schools can plan and integrate the specific,
needed engagement interventions—once again, before the end of the current
school year—into the activities that typically occur at the beginning of
the new school year.
Usually organized
by the School Leadership Team, along with the School Discipline/Climate
Committee, we recommend that the first three to five days of every new school
year be focused less on academics and more on:
·Introducing students to other students,
teachers, support staff, and administrators
·Getting everyone excited about being together
and the new school year
·Building relationships, positive school and
classroom climates, collaborative formal and informal teams, and prosocial grade-level
teams, classrooms, grade-levels, and cross-grade levels
·Identifying and beginning to teach the
behavioral expectations in the classrooms and the common areas of the school
(e.g., hallway, bathroom, cafeteria, playground/common areas, buses)
·Identifying and beginning to teach the
grade-level social, emotional, and behavioral skills in the school’s social skills
curriculum
·Identifying classroom and school incentives and
consequences to motivate students’ social, emotional, and behavioral
self-management
·Introducing the school’s health and mental
health and emotional support staff, and discussing relevant topics
·Addressing the impact of social media, teasing
and bullying, ChatGPT and plagiarism, dress code expectations
·Discussing and practicing crisis management
situations (e.g., fire drills, bus evacuations, lock-downs, etc.)
As is evident, many
of the topics above correlate both to the EDSCLS Survey questions and the
typical reasons why students are disengaged from school.
And yet, while some
disengaged students may have their needs met through the whole-class or group discussions
referenced above, many more disengaged students will probably require—in addition—smaller
group or individual interactions with teachers, support staff, and/or
administrators—especially given the more unique reasons and circumstances for
their disengagement.
Critically, while
we have specifically targeted the beginning of the school year as an
intervention “start date” . . . if the student disengagement identification,
analysis, and planning recommendations in this Blog are truly followed, some of
these strategic activities—for individual or groups of disengaged students—might
actually start during the summer.
These activities
could include home or virtual “re-connection” visits, parent and/or student
conferences with mental health support staff, restorative conversations with
administrators at school, or even some social and relationship-building activities
like barbecue luncheons or open houses at the school for disengaged students
and their parents.
The point in all of
this is that schools—before this school year ends—need to:
·Know what students are disengaged, to what
degree, and why;
·How they are going to strategically re-engage
these students during the summer and/or the first days (weeks) of the new
school year;
·Who is going to implement the interventions, who
else needs to understand and support these interventions, and what does everyone
need to know and be prepared to do; and
·How and who is going to evaluate the success of
the interventions, whether they need to be modified or adapted, and when they need
to be faded out because they are no longer needed.
An additional point
is that schools often need to involve everyone in the re-engagement
process. . . not just administrators, teachers, and professional support staff.
. . but bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals,
extracurricular coaches and after-school club and activity leaders, and students.
Relative to the
latter group, the “power of the peers” should not be missed.
That is, many
successful school re-engagement initiatives use formal and informal student
leaders, mentors, peer coaches, athletes, previously disengaged students, and
others to connect with and support specific now-disengaged students. This, once
again, could occur during the summer. . . or it could begin at the start of the
new school year as a way to communicate with disengaged students that “you
matter.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
Disengaged students
do not magically “get better” during the summer. In fact, if anything, there is
a higher potential. . . during a summer away. . . that their disengagement
strengthens.
This Blog has
applied the maxim. . .
“The beginning of
the new school year starts in April and May”
. . . and applied it to the need to identify, analyze, and
plan interventions for disengaged students before the end of the current
school year so that the interventions can occur either during the summer or
immediately at the beginning of the new school year.
We have emphasized
that districts and schools need to recognize the importance of:
·Defining and identifying disengagement relative
to their own students;
·Analyzing the root causes of individual and
groups of disengaged students by using approaches embedded in the acronym “RIOTS”—
oReview existing Data/Complete a Relationship
Map;
oInterview Students in
Strategically-Selected Focus Groups;
oObserve Student-Staff and Student-Student
Interactions
oTalk with Selected (or Entire Classrooms)
of Students
oSurvey Students and Staff
·Interviewing or surveying students using some of
the items in the U.S. Department of Education’s ED School Climate Survey
(EDSCLS) for students;
·Connecting the results of the root cause analysis
with specific interventions that are integrated into the back-to-school
activities that typically occur during the first days (weeks) of the new school
year; and
·Involving everyone.
An “Education Talk Radio” Interview on Re-Engaging
Students
As a final summary,
we would like to share a 30-minute interview on this topic that Howie Knoff did
this week (May 21, 2024) with Host Larry Jacobs on Education Talk Radio.
_ _ _ _ _
We hope that this
Blog has been both relevant and helpful to you.
While I understand
(and experience) the “ups and downs” of the typical school year, I also know
that just as teachers need to teach “bell to bell,” educators need to maintain
our focus and productivity from “Day 1 of the school year to Day 180. . . 185.
. . or whatever.”
I also believe that
educational and strategic planning occurs within an ongoing cycle, and that we truly
do need to plan now for the new school year that is coming.
In this context, I
am always available to you and your team to discuss any of the topics in today’s
Blog. . . or in any previous Blog. Our first conversation is free, and many
districts and schools take the recommendations from this “first” conversation
and move “to the next level of excellence” on their own.
I hope to hear from
you. . . or see you at the Model Schools Conference, June 23-26, 2024 in
Orlando, FL where I will be making two presentations: “Building Strong Schools
to Strengthen Student Outcomes: The Seven Sure Solutions,” and “Successful
Federal Grant Writing 101: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing U.S. Department of
Education Grants that Get Funded.”
Best,
Howie
[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project
ACHIEVE Webpage]
A Personal Reflection on Why
Black Lives, History, and Education Matter
[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the
Project ACHIEVE Webpage]
Dear
Colleagues,
Introduction
My Facebook feed
reminded me today that, last year at this time, I was attending my 50th High
School reunion.
While I do not feel
one year wiser, I have been reflecting this summer on the Supreme Court’s June
29th decision (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University) to strike
down affirmative action-based college admission decisions. Declaring that race
cannot be a factor in these decisions, the Court has now forced colleges and
universities nationwide to find different ways to select a diverse,
multi-racial and multi-cultural matriculating class each year.
Critically, if you
remember or research the Supreme Court’s 1978 Regents of the University of
California v. Bakke decision—ruling that universities’ affirmative action
admission decisions were constitutional, but their racial quotas were not—you
will recognize that (a) this new Harvard University case has completed
what Bakke started; and (b) universities did successfully find
new ways to adapt to the decision and recruit diverse entering classes.
And while the
institutions that want a diverse study body—in 2024 and beyond—will again
adapt and succeed, the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University
decision is yet another historical example of the centuries-long implicit and
explicit bias, prejudice, and legal oppression experienced by Black students
and the Black community.
Indeed, as Justice
Sonia Sotomayor, the Court’s first Latina, wrote in her dissent, (This decision)
“rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”
But today, I want
to pass on an analysis of how the recent Supreme Court decision occurred, and
reflect on a more personal journey of Black unawareness to a greater (but,
still incomplete) beginning level of awareness.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
We are What We Live
“I did not get it.
And, I’m sorry.”
_ _ _ _ _
We all necessarily
live in an attention deficit world and state of awareness.
And our attitudes,
beliefs, and expectations are all influenced by our lived and “unlived” experiences,
and positive and negative biases.
There are two kinds
of unlived experiences. First are those that are experienced by others, but not
by us. If one person lives their entire life in New York City, and another in
Unalakleet, Alaska, they each live common, yet unique, experiences that the
other never has or would understand.
The second unlived
experiences are those that are present in our lives, but that we consciously or
subconsciously miss or choose to ignore.
In today's world
with hundreds of satellite TV channels, millions of pages of internet sites,
and a constant barrage of news, information, entertainment, and other bytes, we
all control our unlived experiences by being “attention deficit.”
That is, in order
to be productive, maintain our sanity, and sustain our ability to “live in the
moment,” we have to choose what we attend to—leaving parts of our lives
“unlived.”
But all of us have
another dimension of unlived experiences.
Those are the
experiences that are unique to when we “grew up”—the broad historical, social,
economic, technological, and other contexts present during our childhood,
adolescence, early adulthood, and so on.
These are the
contexts that continually influence us, our communities, our educational
system. . . all the way up to who is on our Supreme Court, how individual and
coalitions of Judges rule, and what decisions they collectively make.
And these are the
contexts that we must allow today’s preschool through high school students to
experience.
For when these
contexts, experiences, and opportunities—for example, through curriculum,
instruction, books, and discussion—are controlled, restricted, or denied, these
students have lost their potential to be fully educated and prepared to succeed
in their worlds.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I am What I’ve Lived
“I did not get it. And, I’m sorry.”
_ _ _ _ _
I was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in the suburbs about 20 miles due west of the
city. Our school district was integrated, multi-racial, and multi-cultural, but
White students and teachers were clearly in the majority.
While I was in High
School—fifty years ago—the Viet Nam War was escalating, Martin Luther King and
Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, Woodstock and the Antiwar Movement collided, the
Civil Rights Movement and racial unrest continued, and the Women’s Rights
Movement began.
At the time, I had
a number of Black friends, but I knew nothing of Black history—beyond what was
superficially taught in American History. Martin Luther King’s assassination
was briefly discussed in class, but not in the broader context of 400 years of
African-American denial of rights and oppression, slavery and Dred Scott,
lynchings and Jim Crow, segregation and red-lining, and Brown v. The Board
of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a decade later.
In fact, in my
ignorance, I remember wondering why there was a need for the emerging courses
in African-American history—even though I never questioned why there were
history courses in Ancient and Medieval History, Comparative Religion, and the
Depression and World War II.
And not to excuse
my ignorance. . . but when I graduated from High School in 1972, many of us
understood the world around us—as discussed above—through our lived and unlived
experiences, what we were taught in public school during the week and religious
school on the weekend, and what we read on our own. At that time, there were
four television stations, a morning and evening newspaper, and a large public
library which we used to complete research that was assigned at school.
Clearly: When I
“grew up,” we received a White, Eurocentric education. Culturally understanding
my Black friends and their history—from a Black perspective—was not on the
“agenda.”
Even when I went to
college, I did not learn about Black history or interact often with my Black
peers. While the opportunities were there at my small liberal arts college, we
were largely allowed to choose our own courses. . . and Black history was not typically
embedded in the science and psychology courses that I took.
In fact, during my
junior year abroad in England, I learned more about British, French, and
Italian history and art. . . and the Holocaust. . . than I learned about Black
history when I hitchhiked extensively around Europe.
And so. . .
relative to my awareness and understanding of Black history, and its depth,
breadth, and importance—even as I graduated from college. . .
“I did not get it.
And, I’m sorry.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Boston’s Battle
for Integration
Ironically, I went
to high school and college during an immensely important time for Black
students in my birth-town of Boston.
According to the Encyclopedia
of Boston from the Boston Research Center:
In 1965, the Massachusetts General Court passed
the Racial Imbalance Act, outlawing
segregation in public schools and defining segregated schools as those with a
student body comprised of more than fifty percent of a particular racial group.
Though 44 of Boston’s schools fell into this category, Boston School Committee
members refused to develop or implement plans to integrate the city’s schools.
In response, African-American parents began to
organize. They organized protests and boycotts, established “freedom schools” with more inclusive, often
Afro-centric curricula, and lobbied for access to better-equipped and
better-staffed schools in the suburbs. They established the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) in
1966, which enabled African-American students to travel to surrounding suburban
schools. African-American parents also partnered with the NAACP to compel the
Boston School Committee to integrate the city’s schools, filing a
lawsuit, Morgan v. Hennigan, against the committee in 1972 for its ongoing
refusal to comply with the state’s Racial Imbalance Act.
On June 21, 1974, Judge
Wendell Arthur Garrity Jr. found the Committee’s efforts to
preserve segregation unconstitutional. To address longstanding segregation,
Garrity required the system to desegregate its schools, busing white students
to black schools and black students to white schools across the city. Garrity’s
decision and his subsequent oversight of the busing plan provoked outrage among
many Bostonians. Garrity and his family were subjected to frequent death
threats and placed under round-the-clock protection for several years as a
result.
Critics of the decision also protested that busing
would accomplish little other than interracial violence. They argued that
moving students from one failing school to another didn’t address the system’s
larger failures, pointing to Garrity’s decision to bus students between the
poorly performing high schools in South Boston and Roxbury. Though Bostonians
often criticized busing on logistical or socioeconomic grounds, their
complaints were often motivated by thinly-veiled racism.
Protests erupted across the
city over the summer of 1974,
taking place around City Hall and in the areas of the city most affected by
busing. One prominent leader of these anti-busing protests was Louise Day Hicks, chairwoman of the Boston School
Committee, former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and
leader of an anti-busing group called Restore Our
Alienated Rights (ROAR). Comprised mainly of women, ROAR staged
protests, sit-ins, and prayer sessions, as well as violent protests, arguing
that Garrity and the state had usurped the custodial rights of parents. ROAR
also worked to intimidate black students, hurling racial epithets at
schoolchildren and burning a wooden school bus in effigy. In 1974, ROAR
organized a march of thousands on the Massachusetts State House in protest of
desegregation.
On September 12, 1974, the first day of school, many
students stayed home, some in protest, some for safety. Only 13 students from
South Boston High School appeared in Roxbury, and only 100 out of the 1300
students from Roxbury assigned to South Boston High School showed up. When black
students arrived in South Boston on buses escorted by motorcycle-mounted police
officers, protestors met the buses with eggs, bottles, and bricks. The
Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts National Guard had to be
called in to control the area. Throughout the year, violence flared on and
beyond school grounds. Bused children were jeered, menaced, and periodically
attacked; many students suffered from stress, fear, and illness as a result.
All told, 18,000 students were bused into other neighborhoods in the 1974-75
school year. More than 30,000 Boston Public Schools students left to attend
private and parochial schools.
I watched these events from my college perch in Maine and. . .
“I still did not get it. And, I’m sorry.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Starting to Get It
I went to Graduate
School in 1976 in Syracuse, New York.
While there, I
started to get it.
But there was no
turning point. . . no climactic moment. . . no thunder-and-lightning epiphany.
It simply started
with my practicum work in the inner city schools of Syracuse, and a continuing,
horrified recognition of the disparities between rich and poor, Black and White,
well-resourced schools and those “on the other side of the city” that were
dilapidated and forgotten.
While my sense of
social justice had always been nurtured by my religious and Jewish youth group upbringing,
by the Holocaust and my visits to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps while in
college, and by the antisemitism that I periodically experienced. . . this
sense now included an urgency to understand the discrepancies that I saw in
Syracuse (and soon, in schools across the country).
And so, in order to
be an effective psychologist, educator, professional, and person, I have tried
to be a student of Black history and experience from my graduate school days
on.
And part of this
includes my advocacy that every student in this country learn about the full
depth of Black history as part of their understanding of American history.
And if some
students are uncomfortable confronting the facts of Black history. . . then
that is a good thing.
It is the same good
thing that explains why at least 20 states in our country require Holocaust
education in their schools.
It is the same good
thing that encouraged 60 House of Representative bipartisan co-sponsors and the
House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism to introduce the Holocaust
Education and Antisemitism Lessons (HEAL) Act on January 27, 2023.
This Bill, still
going through the early stages of the legislative process, will determine which
states and school district require and/or offer Holocaust education, identify
the standards and requirements framing this education, and analyze the
approaches used by schools to assess what students are learning.
The Press Release
announcing the filing of this Bill stated:
There is mounting evidence that knowledge about the
Holocaust is beginning to fade. A 2020 survey measuring Holocaust
awareness in the U.S. found that roughly two-thirds of those asked did not know
how many Jewish people died. The survey of Americans between 18 and 40 also
found that 48% could not name one concentration camp or ghetto.
Personally, I don’t know anything more
emotional than watching scenes from the Holocaust, or anything more troubling
than knowing that our President and Congress at the time restricted Jewish
immigration and did not immediately respond to documented reports of the death
camps.
Anne Frank was 15 years old when she died in
February 1945 in the Bergen-Belson concentration camp in northern Germany. She
would have been a high school junior.
Shouldn’t every high school junior in our
country today be taught about her, and how and why she died? Should they not
view and discuss video clips like the one below?
Will they potentially be upset and impacted
emotionally? (Yes)
But is this not the right thing to do?
_ _ _ _ _
And, similarly, should not high school
juniors not be taught about the full depth of Black history? And should they
not view and discuss video clips like the one below?
Will they potentially be upset and impacted
emotionally? (Yes)
But, once again, is this not the right thing
to do?
How can 60
Congressional Representatives agree to co-sponsor a Bill on the Holocaust and
antisemitism, and not support legislation that allows teachers across the
country to teach the full breadth and depth of Black History without
restriction?
“I’m still trying
to get it. And, I’m sorry.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A Final Piece in Little Rock, Arkansas
For 18 years—up
until the beginning of this year—I lived in Little Rock, Arkansas. When driving
to my Arkansas Department of Education office for 13 years there, or to the
airport on a consulting trip for all 18 years, I always passed the exit to
Central High School. In fact, on a number of occasions, I attended meetings at
Central, a National Historic Site since 1998.
On September 4,
1957, the first day of school at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas
and three years after Brown v. the Board of Education, nine Black
students—Minnijean Brown, Terrance Roberts, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green,
Thelma Mothershed, Melba Patillo, Gloria Ray, Jefferson Thomas, and Carlotta
Walls—attempted to enter the previously all-White school.
This was fully 17
years before the buses of Black students arrived at South Boston High School to
begin their (desegregated) school year.
Now known as the
Little Rock Nine, they were met on the stairs leading up to Central High
School’s ornate, yet intimidating, front doors by an angry White crowd, and
members of the Arkansas National Guard who were deployed by Governor Orval
Faubus to prevent them from going into the school.
Responding to
Faubus’ action, Thurgood Marshall—part of a team of NAACP lawyers—won a federal
district court injunction to prevent the Governor’s attempt to block the
students’ entry. And so, on September 23, 1957, protected by police escorts,
the Little Rock Nine entered Central High School through a side entrance and
began their classes. Significantly, they were protected by federal troops and
the Arkansas National Guard for the remainder of the school year.
Late last month, on
the 66th anniversary of their desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High
School, the same Little Rock Nine gathered at a press conference in Little Rock.
Criticizing legislation sponsored by new Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and
passed by the Arkansas Legislature in its Spring 2023 session, they decried
their State’s—and all States’—legislation restricting what can be taught in
public school classrooms.
Indeed, one of Governor
Huckabee Sanders’ first official acts after being sworn in on January was to
sign an Executive Order prohibiting indoctrination and critical race theory in
the State’s schools (even though there was no evidence that these were
present). The new March, 2023 law prohibits the teaching of “divisive concepts”
about racism and critical race theory, as well as classroom instruction on
gender identity and sexual orientation before the fifth grade.
Among those who
referenced this legislation at the 66th Little Rock Nine anniversary
celebration were:
Robin White, the Superintendent
of the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Society:
Each generation calls for agents of change. And in
their moment of courage and change, 66 years ago, the Little Rock Nine, ages ranged
from 14 to 17, (became those agents). So yesterday, today, and tomorrow, they
are our symbol of hope. They—without pause—paved the way for us, and we are the
benefactors of their sacrifices.
_ _ _ _ _
Jermall Wright, the
Superintendent of the Little Rock School District:
(It is) hard to imagine that nine brave young people
who were just teenagers, just like you, could cause such a seismic shift in
education that would impact generations worldwide.
Their cause was simple: equitable access to receive a
quality education. Sixty-six years later, our charge and our cause remains the
same.
_ _ _ _ _
Little Rock Mayor
Frank Scott Jr., who highlighted the sacrifices made by the Little Rock Nine
and their families, and then discussed how Black history in education was under
attack:
But yet there's still Elizabeth Eckford, who stood at
15, but yet some weeks ago, she stood at the age of 81 to ensure that the
Little Rock School District made certain that their history, American history,
was still taught to each of you.
And that is the type of fight, that is the type of
solidarity, that is the type of work ethic that we need to continue to have in
the Little Rock School District and the state of Arkansas: not allowing others
to revise our history.
_ _ _ _ _
Melba Pattillo
Beals, one of the Little Rock Nine, who told the high school students in attendance that there were three
things the Little Rock Nine wanted when they integrated their school: Voice, Choice
and Inclusion.
She assured the students:
I've got faith in you, baby. You're going to make it,
OK? You deserve to be whoever you think you are.
Beals compared
lawmakers' bans on critical race theory with the opposition to integrating
Central High School.
You did it once in 1957, and look what you got. We are
nine monsters just roaming forth. Have you ever in your life seen such
big-mouthed people? So do it again and see what you get out of it, OK?
_ _ _ _ _
And, finally, Minnijean
Brown-Trickey, another of the Little Rock Nine, who expressed her concern that
the history of the desegregation crisis isn't more extensively taught in the
United States. She noted that, when she visits other parts of the world, the
people there know more about this history than most young people in the United
States.
She noted:
It takes a half-page in your history books, if that,
but it's really a complex, amazing story about all components of government,
about courts, about persistence of the human spirit.
(I) believe the country grapples with a disease called
'profound intentional ignorance.' When we talk about things like that, it is an
intent to have an ill-informed population so that demagogues can do whatever
they want.
She said the
desegregation crisis hurts both Black and White students, and she encouraged
the audience to imagine what a story like theirs did to the city, and to the
country. Later, Brown-Trickey said that people need to look beyond Arkansas—that
the national effort to restrict curricula is having a chilling effect on
education, learning and thinking.
She warned:
(Young people) are going to get sick of this stuff. They're
going to get sick of being told they don't deserve to know. They're going to
get tired of being told they're too young to know. They're going to be tired to
have somebody decide whether they should feel guilty or not. And they're going
to rise up, and I'm waiting for that. I'm helping them in every possible way I
can.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
This Blog has asserted
that our attitudes, beliefs, and expectations are all influenced by our lived
and unlived experiences. . . which often establish and anchor our positive and
negative biases.
While our lived
experiences unfold in both planned and unplanned ways across our lifetimes, we
discussed two kinds of unlived experiences: (a) those that are experienced by
others, but not by us; and (b) those that are present in our lives, but that we
consciously or subconsciously miss or choose to ignore.
But we also noted
that many of our experiences (and positive and negative biases) are
contextualized by when (i.e., in which decades) we “grew up.” This is because
every decade brings different historical, social, economic, technological, and
other events to our lives when we were children, adolescents, in early
adulthood, and so on.
Sharing an autobiographical
journey, this Blog described how my awareness and understanding of Black
history and “being Black in America” has evolved over the years—based not just
on who I am and where I’ve lived, but also based on the history I have seen and
the people with whom I have interacted.
Part of this
journey (and discussion) juxtaposes the Holocaust with Black history and the
Civil Rights Movement (right up to today—2023).
In the end, this
Blog advocates for today’s preschool through high school students—each and
every one of them across our country.
Learning the depth
and breadth of Black history should not be an unlived experience for these
students as they attend school.
No one—especially
for political purposes—should take away these students’ rights to this information,
knowledge, discussion, and understanding.
Living is made up
of thousands of emotional events. And History necessarily involves events that
evoke our emotions.
Students need to
experience these events and their emotions as part of their lived experiences,
and because we are mandated to educate them in the broadest ways possible.
This must be our
present. . . because these students are our future.
_ _ _ _ _
How have your lived
and unlived experiences, and the events during the decades of your life,
influenced your journey and current beliefs regarding these issues?
Will this Blog
encourage you to think (and, in some cases, rethink) your beliefs. . . changing
them or making them stronger?
Best,
Howie
[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]
