Interesting read on how things might be different. Interestingly, sexual violence is one area that even some RJ practitioners struggle to work in. How do you bring those experiencing harm face to face with those who are the cause of it? Why is it harder?
"I wanted what Ana María Archila Gualy, the survivor who confronted Sen. Jeff Flake when he stated he planned to vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, described: 'The way that justice works is that you recognize harm, you take responsibility for it, and then you begin to repair it.'
But for this to happen, everyone impacted by sexual violence needs to feel they can speak openly. Expulsion hearings, tribunals, or courts of law are not designed to do this; rather, these forums disincentivize truth-telling because those who harmed us know they’ll be punished if they admit what really happened. The risks are also high for survivors, who face social stigma for coming forward about their experiences and are often forced to undergo painful questioning."
"A person is good not by avoiding those evils he already finds horrible, but by avoiding those evils that he finds attractive and available. We must measure a person's virtues by his circumstances, not our own." -Marc Barnes, First Things, December 2017
I read old copies of First Things as I am able, passed from my father on to me. This short article by grad student Marc Barnes expresses well something I've struggled to put into word myself- the concept that "a generation is good or evil according to its genuinely possible actions." Barnes argues that "Moral arrogance and historical ignorance reinforce one another. To ennoble ourselves, we make irrational barbarians our of our ancestors and ignore the complexities of their times."
There's something dissatisfying out of my own explanation, where I often find myself saying something along the line of- We ought to judge a person in the context of their times...
I'm not familiar with this summer camp, but I found their short video to be very helpful in explaining Restorative Justice in a non-sensationalist way and without getting bogged down into the many RJ practices that you may associate with RJ.
The ACLU's argument regarding the "establishment clause," which relies heavily on intent We'll See You in Court How controlling is intent? Turley debates Katyal "the justice Department attorneys are in a fetal position every time anyone like this talks about the purpose of a law" Some sharp and helpful commentary... How to Read and How Not to Read Today's 9th Circuit Opinion, Lawfare "...the grounds on which this order was fought are not the grounds on which the merits fight will happen. Eventually, the court has to confront the clash between a broad delegation of power to the President—a delegation which gives him a lot of authority to do a lot of not-nice stuff to refugees and visa holders—in a context in which judges normally defer to the president, and the incompetent malevolence with which this order was promulgated."
A final set (for now) of doodle notes or visual notes from my students. These are 8th grade History students and I would say that overall, they've greatly improved. I've been encouraged and continue to feel like visual literacy is a skill that can be learned.
This year I will be completing a graduate certificate program in Restorative Justice for Schools through Eastern Mennonite University. My hope is that this course of study will compliment my growth as a 6-12th grade independent schools education leader. While I began teaching primarily focused on content (the emphasis of my M.A.T. portfolio at Johns Hopkins University), I've seen that the best teachers, and certainly the best administrators, are much more than master teachers of content. They are counselors, mentors and yes, disciplinarians.
Travel from South Jersey to Alexandria, VA in heavy holiday traffic. 4 hours! Tomorrow, I'll be touring Mount Vernon for the morning and then traveling south to Chancellorsville, VA to tour the battlefield where Stonewall Jackson lost an arm, and subsequently his life.
Washington and the "Patriarchal Problem"
In preparation for this tour, I pulled a number of books from the shelves at Schmidt Library, including His Excellency, by Joseph Ellis. In his introduction, Ellis describes the difficulty of capturing who Washington really was, noting that "Washington poses what we might call the Patriarchal Problem in its most virulent form: on Mount Rushmore, the Mall, the dollar bill and the quarter, but always an icon- distant, cold, intimidating. As Richard Brookhiser has so nicely put it, he is in our wallets but not our hearts."
I think Ellis is right that we have alternated between idolization and "evisceration" in the treatment of Washington. The facts of Washington's life give us plenty to work with on both counts.
Every couple of years the English department decides to take on an "all-school" (6th-12) summer read. This summer, I'm particularly excited to be sharing I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb.
With so much of our international news dominated by the havoc being wreaked by radical Islamists, it feels that a giant veil has been drawn over the Mideast and beyond, obscuring and entrenching our sense of the evil "other." Ms. Yousafzai helps remind us of the good people beyond the headlines.
There are a number of other reasons why this book will be important for our students in the months ahead. First, the book provides a very interesting angle on U.S. foreign policy. Yousafzai and Lamb seem particularly conscious of an American audience and generally only make small inferences and suggestions about U.S. involvement in Pakistan. These remarks often feel artificial, but are just right to provoke thought and discussion with middle and high school students.
Secondly, our students need to understand the Taliban and the complexities of radical Islam. To Yousafzai's credit, she doesn't resort to an excuse common among U.S. politicians that "the terrorists are not Muslims." Yousafzai knows that they are, while speaking passionately against what she sees as their perversion of true Islamic beliefs. She is reverent, honest, and outspoken. She notes that radical Islamic organizations were often the first to step in with humanitarian aid but also vividly shows how the Taliban ultimately advanced its control over large areas by using fear.
Finally, this book is humanizing. Though literarily clunky, brief vignettes about schoolgirl drama and bothersome little brothers help Ms. Yousafzai seem a bit more her age. The book reads in part as a tribute to her father -who serves as both inspiration and comic relief. He is worshiped by his daughter, but also fearful and stubborn.
I was moved to tears by this book. You will be too!
I wanted to share the results of my "Causes of the Civil War" Doodle Test (7th grade History). First, the students received the idea enthusiastically. For some, it was because they were genuinely interested in sharing their knowledge in a visual way. Others clearly were hopeful that the project would be "easier" than a traditional test. The results were indicative of the approach that each student took. In general, I don't think my class thought of this assignment as seriously as if it were a traditional assessment. But a number of students demonstrated as much learning, if not more, than they would have otherwise. Check out the results below. I did not include some of the poorest examples.
While really short on information,
I loved the visual concept of this doodle.
The student was required to re-submit the assignment.
Blood! Interesting use of flag throughout projects- Our
Upper School recently had some intense discussions about the flag and its
use in provocative art. Stepping point for engaging some difficult conversations.
This doodle had a great visual scheme, although
it fell short on details and content.
REFLECTION
1) Did this assignment reach students effectively, or did it play into the hand of my "artistic" students while setting up others for failure? Grade average was about 90%, median around 85%, and a few were 'D' or below.
2) For those that struggled, was the visual requirement of the project a barrier? Does it have to be if they are taught to re-think what doodling really is?
Sometimes the impact of a conference takes time to trickle down into your classroom. Inspired by some very artistic 6th grades with a habit of doodling and drawing in class, I began thinking a lot about Sunni Brown's presentation at NAISAC this year. I think it's time to embrace a bit of visual literacy in my Humanities classes. Recently, this took the form of doodle review sheets created by the 6th grade as we prepare for an exam on the Roman Republic and Empire.
Without a doubt, these aren't Sunni Brown worthy doodles. They're clearly the work of students who haven't had a lot of experience or time developing their visual vocabulary. Instead, they reflect the type of visual work the students have been most often exposed to- graphic organizers. Only the first doodle departs from a traditional categorized\boxed\webbed map of ideas. But I suspect with time, the students, at least some of them, will begin to explore beyond.
Just today I assigned a large scale doodle of "Major Causes of the Civil War" as a 7th grade end-of-unit test. So the experiment of teaching continues.
from "Three Sonnets" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, 1930
I know my mind and I have made my choice; Not from your temper does my doom depend; Love me or love me not, you have no voice In this, which is my portion to the end. Your presence and your favours, the full part That you could give, you now can take away: What lies between your beauty and my heart Not even you can trouble or betray. Mistake me not -unto my inmost core I do desire your kiss upon my mouth; They have not craved a cup of water more That bleach upon the deserts of the south; Here might you bless me; what you cannot do Is bow me down, that have been loved by you.
Is it possible that some actions, in fact most actions, are both drivers and symptoms of cultural change?
Post Script...
"During peace time a scientist belongs to the World, but during war time he belongs to his country."
-Fritz Haber
Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen
Read by Joshua Kelly
Winner, Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest
"Here's a guy that just wanted to do everything better than it had been done before...and he does...but he does it with a kind of immoral athleticism, he does it without humility, without a lot of doubt. It's a craft, but it's a craft with consequences... I would rather have scientists that carry doubt with them as they proceed."(17:30 RadioLab)
Notice how Dr, King goes "off script" in the last third or quarter of his speech. The story, according to King's speech writer Clarence B. Jones, is that King literally pushed his prepared notes aside. Prompted by the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson who shouted "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" King gave us the final and most memorable lines of this speech. Jones, at that moment, remembers saying to a member of the audience to his side, "These people out there, they don't know it, but they're about ready to go to church."
After leading discussion with my 8th graders of John Calhoun's address
to the Senate in 1837 opposing the rise of abolitionism, I am struck by
parallels between his comments and the comments of incoming NRA President
James Porter.
Porter recently argued that, "This is not about gun rights." He argued that instead the NRA was fighting a "cultural war". See a ABC News article on the speech here. It seems fairly evident, even without invoking the most extreme stereotypes, that the NRA gains much of its support from a significant minority group genuinely concerned with what they perceive as a threat to their way of life.
Similarly, Calhoun argued that abolition was pursued by some "with a systematic design" and a "general crusade against us and our institutions." In 1837, Calhoun called it a "deadly war" but could hardly have imagined a civil war so deadly as that which broke out 23 years later. The death he so feared, was a way of life. His speech can be found here.
Understanding the link between the 'refuse to give an inch' attitude of the NRA and the perception of a cultural war, is essential in explaining how gun rights advocates are gloating after defeating the recent mild and middle of the road gun-control legislation in the Senate. The NRA's message of cultural resistance has been highly effective. Rather than get caught up in fruitless quibbling about the specifics of "common sense" gun control, the NRA has deftly allowed the 2nd Amendment to speak for itself, while invoking a powerful argument of cultural crisis that translates into whatever it is their base is feeling anxious about at the moment. Its "not about guns" (or slavery), but a "crusade against us and our institutions."
Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Porter and the NRA are not just channeling Calhoun, they are taking a play out of his playbook.
There are periods in the history of nations when statesmen can make themselves names for posterity; but such occasions are never improved by cowards. In the acquisition of true fame courage is just as necessary in the civilian as in the military hero. In the Reformation there were men engaged as able and perhaps more learned than Martin Luther. Melancthon and others were ripe scholars and sincere reformers, but none of them had his courage. He alone was willing to go where duty called though" devils were as thick as the tiles on the houses." And Luther is the great luminary of the Reformation, around whom the others revolve as satellites and shine by his light. We may not aspire to fame. But great events fix the eye of history on small objects and magnify their meanness. Let us at least escape that condition. -Thaddeus Stevens, 1867
One of the wonderful things about being a teacher is that you are paid, in part, to learn. Much of this learning comes via discovery and exploration during lesson planning. I bring you then poetry Wednesday, the result of a rabbit trail adventure for the benefit of my 6th and 7th grade English students: The first poem, by Galway Kinnell, is really one of the more incredible poems I have read in a while. "William Goode," by Edgar Lee Masters, expresses what I have felt in various ways for some time now. Yet Grace paints strangely linear lines among the zig-zags of our striving. Finally, "After making love we hear footsteps" surely will resonate with any new (or old) parents.
First Song
by Galway Kinnell
Then it was dusk in Illinois, the small boy
After an afternoon of carting dung
Hung on the rail fence, a sapped thing
Weary to crying. Dark was growing tall
And he began to hear the pond frogs all
Calling on his ear with what seemed their joy.
Soon their sound was pleasant for a boy
Listening in the smoky dusk and the nightfall
Of Illinois, and from the fields two small
Boys came bearing cornstalk violins
And they rubbed the cornstalk bows with resins
And the three sat there scraping of their joy.
It was now fine music the frogs and the boys
Did in the towering Illinois twilight make
And into dark in spite of a shoulder's ache
A boy's hunched body loved out of a stalk
The first song of his happiness, and the song woke
His heart to the darkness and into the sadness of joy.
A masterful song by Andrew Bird using Kinnell's words:
William Goode
by Edgar Lee Masters
To all in the village I seemed, no doubt,
To go this way and that way, aimlessly.
But here by the river you can see at twilight
The soft-winged bats fly zig-zag here and there --
They must fly so to catch their food.
And if you have ever lost your way at night,
In the deep wood near Miller's Ford,
And dodged this way and now that,
Wherever the light of the Milky Way shone through,
Trying to find the path,
You should understand I sought the way
With earnest zeal, and all my wanderings
Were wanderings in the quest.
After making love we hear footsteps
by Galway Kinnell
For I can snore like a bullhorn
or play loud music
or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman
and Fergus will only sink deeper
into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash,
but let there be that heavy breathing
or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house
and he will wrench himself awake
and make for it on the run—as now, we lie together,
after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies,
familiar touch of the long-married,
and he appears—in his baseball pajamas, it happens,
the neck opening so small he has to screw them on—
and flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to sleep,
his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child.
In the half darkness we look at each other
and smile
and touch arms across this little, startlingly muscled body—
this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making,
sleeper only the mortal sounds can sing awake,
this blessing love gives again into our arms.
Tim Challies, summarizing, the Leonard Sax book, Boys Adrift. I haven't read the book, but I can only say that this rings so incredibly true, it's hardly worth debating.
"Schools, he says, have begun to focus on academics at too early an age, leaving boys hating education from their earliest days. Programs that focus more on fun and less on academics up to age seven or eight would reap educational dividends. Important also is the distinction between learning as merely collecting facts and learning as experience. Regarding video games he believes that boys today are dedicating far too much time to this form of entertainment. As boys play these games they gain false perceptions of power and inadvertently remove themselves from reality until eventually they prefer the world of video games over the real world. ADHD is vastly over-diagnosed and huge numbers of boys are given medications they simply do not need. These medications have been proven to change the way boys develop and do far more than simply calm down hyperactive children. Endocrine disruptors, and especially artificial estrogens found in plastic bottles and other similar products, are delaying boys' development (while accelerating girls' development) and contributing to many associated problems. And finally, boys are suffering from a distinct lack of good and manly role models, both in their homes and in their communities."
