Kids come in last again

 Kids come in last again!

 

There is a great debate going on across the country right now and even in the great state of Maryland.  Should children after almost a full year come back into the building for school.  Is it safe cry the teachers’ unions from behind their laptops wherever they can get a signal?

The reality is that is it much more unsafe to keep children out of school buildings.   Adults have acquired skills that children NEED in-school learning to acquire.   Yes students have lost up to a year academically during the lock-out.  But that is not anywhere near the penalty they have paid emotionally. 

The suicide rate among adolescents is climbing almost daily.   An Arizona study found a 67% higher suicide rate in 2020 over 2019!  The Centers for Disease Control have reported a marked increase in depression and anxiety among children.  

Children use school to learn academically.  They also use school to learn emotionally.   They learn the skills to make friends.  A child in kindergarten cannot learn that on a Chromebook.   A year is a critical time in a child’s life.   Adolescence is another critical time.  Kids' bodies are changing dramatically.  They are beginning to sort out what their cohort is socially, jock? nerd? Their bodies are sending them sexual signals and many kids need peers with whom to discuss these feelings.  What equals normal?  Only another kid going through these feelings can validate what is normal.   Think about this- A stranger looking at a child can usually accurately guess whether that child is 5 or 6, or 12 or 14.  That same stranger looking at an adult would be hard pressed to guess if the adult were 35 or 36.  The reason is that a year is a child’s life is reflective of much more growth and development than in an adult’s life.

 The medical evidence is clear.  A child’s emotional safety is much more at risk with online instruction than his or her physical safety is at risk if attending school.  For the most part, kids in western Europe have been in school.  Not in the U.S.  One of the reason is the age of our school buildings.  They are difficult to retrofit for better ventilation.  Another big reason is the refusal of the teachers’ unions to give up online teaching.  They don’t even have to do lesson planning anymore.  Most of the school districts are providing them to the teachers.  One size fits all right?   Something that every short, tall, thin, heavy person knows for sure.

Our children are suffering and we adults are looking the other way, feeling secure that in providing for our children’s physical safety they will just “catch up” academically and emotionally.  That just ain’t so!

Our society always talks big about how kids come first.  But our behavior repeatedly demonstrates they come in last again.

How about the truth this time?

 How about the truth this time?

 

Teachers’ unions across the country are crying foul because families and elected officials are suggesting now might be a good time to get students back to work in school buildings.  The unions are crying it is not safe for the children.   I can’t remember the last time the unions did anything for the children.  The negotiations for new contracts are all around salary and benefits for themselves.  In fact, there is little evidence that being in the building seriously endangers children or teachers.   How could there be since it is almost a year since either has been in buildings.  Yet private schools both large and small have had in-school classes for many months without any significant outbreaks.  And the cases of the virus that do exist in these schools were almost entirely contracted outside of school.  Teachers have not been particularly smart either.  While arguing that being in school buildings is unsafe, they post FB photos showing themselves teaching from various vacation spots.  

What IS unhealthy for students is being out of school.  Very young children are losing opportunities to be taught social skills and develop emotional growth.  All children are losing ground with online instruction, some a year or more. The dropout rates in urban areas are huge. Will these kids come back and how far behind will they be?  Adolescents are suffering severe mental health issues while the suicide rate spikes.  Meanwhile, teachers insist that they are not safe in schools!   

Somehow frontline health care workers are doing their jobs.  People who work in grocery stores and at the Amazon warehouses and delivery personnel are doing their jobs.  Auto mechanics, retail sales people are all doing their jobs.  These teachers who refuse to do their jobs are being very well paid to teach from a lap top on a beach, their deck at home or wherever they can get an internet signal.  The average teacher’s salary in Maryland is over $69,000.   In normal times they work 180 days plus a few training days and other days off to do paperwork.  The rest of us work 237 days a year- that includes time off for weekends, federal holidays and a 2-week vacation.  I am pretty sure the grocery clerks that make sure we can get food are not that well paid.  So far Congress has appropriated 54 BILLION dollars for COVID aid to public schools and another 130 billion is in the works.

When are the kids going to see the benefit of this money?   The unions need to fess up.  They have a good deal here.  Full salaries and benefits, no commuting, working from wherever there is a signal- Oh right but is only the children’s safety that concerns them.  How about the truth this time!

How much is enough?

 How much is enough?      

 

The current federal minimum wage for typical people is $7.25 an hour.  Most states have minimum wages much higher than that but a significant minority stick to the federal minimum.  HOWEVER, under a law dating back to 1938, employers are able to receive special 14(c) certificates from the U.S. Department of Labor allowing them to pay individuals with disabilities much less than the federal minimum wage.

Disability advocates have been pushing for years to end this practice.  A few states and cities have already banned it.  As a candidate, Biden pledged to support a phase out of this exception for individuals with disabilities.

President Biden is making good on his promise.  He is proposing a new federal minimum hourly wage of $15 and eliminating the subminimum wage for those with disabilities.  

There is some pushback to this plan.  A minimum wage means an employee receives that amount whether or not he/she earns that amount with labor skill  and contributes that amount to the bottom line of the business.   Some advocates are suggesting that if employers were required to pay people with disabilities the same minimum wage as the non-disabled, employers would be much more slow to hire those with disabilities.  The unemployment rate for people with disabilities for 2019 was double that for the non-disabled.   The pandemic has dramatically increased that discrepancy since people with disabilities are more susceptible to most viruses and may be at home in an abundance of caution regarding their health.  

To be fair, most people earning the minimum wage are among the lower skilled workers with or without disabilities.  And the argument that employers will not hire people in these low skilled jobs at a higher minimum wage is regularly advanced every time any effort is made to raise the minimum wage for anyone.   So far, every time the minimum wage has been raised, employment dips for a short time, then moves back to its previous levels.   Would this same situation occur for people with disabilities?

As with most things in life, the glass is both half full and half empty.  Is it better to have fewer people employed but with a higher wage or to have more people employed with a lower wage. And there is no guarantee that the lower wage would result in higher employment rates once the pandemic is over.   Should people be paid what they earn or what they need to live on?  How much is enough- that’s a question for society and the taxpayer to answer.

Actually, it is who we are

 Actually, it is who we are.

 

After every event of egregious violence, whether it is the recent attack on our Nation’s Capitol, the rampage in Charlottesville championing White supremacy, or the looting and store burning when the Black Lives Matter marches get out of hand… someone will write a column or give a speech proclaiming that this is not who we are.  Well in point of fact- it is exactly who we are.  Every one of those instances of extreme, unacceptable behaviors were committed by Americans and that is who we are.  More people are incarcerated in the United States than in any other western democracy.  We have more guns than any other western democracy.  Sadly, violence from the very beginning of our nation found a happy home on our shores.

In many ways, ours is a double-edged sword.  One the one hand, we are more religious but less organized, less class-conscious, and more libertarian than our western democratic counterparts.  On the other hand, we are more violent and more indifferent to economic inequality.  We are among the most charitable of all people and often resentful of government assistance to those most in need.  As the King says in the King and I, “’tis a puzzlement”.

What can we do about this for our children.?  First of all, we must conquer the racial divide.  The United States is no longer majority white.   Latinos are the largest minority group.  It is confusing as to the traits white supremacy folks believe makes them supreme?   Based on their behaviors, it is certainly not intelligence, reasoning ability or problem solving.  Is it just that they think peach is a better color than black, brown, yellow or red?  Makes no sense.

The United States is exceptional even though we mess up mightily on a regular basis.  The fact remains that we are the longest existing democracy that still clings to the rule of law.  The 46^th President of the United States was inaugurated in a peaceful process that included many of the pre-pandemic traditions.  The inauguration happened even if Washington, D.C. was guarded by national guard troops and the insurrectionists got that they shouldn’t show up.  

Our children do not know these facts.   The news media binges on all the negative.  They grab defeat from the jaws of victory every time.  Evidently bad news sells better than the good stuff.

As educators we must teach our kids enough history and civics so they can be stalwarts against the misinformation and partial information that is proliferating.  Amanda Gorman, the very young poet laureate who read her poem at the January inauguration reminded us, “there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it.  If only we are brave enough to be it.”   We must teach our children to both see the light and be the light for the next generation.

Betcha you couldn't pass it!

 Betcha you couldn’t pass it

 

Immigrants need to pass a test in order to become citizens.   Native born Americans just need to be born in the States.  They still get to vote.   

Our schools have worried that we are not giving kids a rigorous education so all students  are taking algebra II, but not civics.   Doesn’t take a genius to figure out which content will be more useful!   

Events of the last few weeks have shown how little the average citizen knows about civics and how the government works, yet they get to protest, to vote and to spread information that is clearly false.

It is probably too late to fix adults.   I am not arguing for a return of tests for voters because we all know how that turned out as the tests were used to disenfranchise minority groups.  And those efforts continue to be in play in some states.

But, we are short changing our students if we do not teach them how a democracy functions.  As Winston Churchill said, “democracy is the worst form or government except for all other forms that have been tried from time to time”.   He was correct.

We live in a democracy and our young people need to understand that democracy is messy.  That is the downside. An authoritarian dictatorship is ever so more efficient. The dictator speaks and the people hear and obey.   Without knowing how a democracy functions our children will never learn why we tolerate the downside to get to the upside that is so much more relevant to our lives.   Unfortunately, it would be great if adults were required to get some sort of instruction as well, but I am not that much of a Pollyanna  to expect anything to come of that.

We can help the next generation.   Currently some states (including Maryland) require a course in government and an exit exam for the course.  That course itself is barely relevant because it asks students to memorize things that are not functional to their daily lives.  Why not make native born students pass the citizenship test in order to graduate high school?   Immigrant students in our high schools could wind up being their coaches.

What students need is a course in civics.  They need to know the functions of each branch of government, what each branch can do and what it cannot do.  They need to learn that rights have connected responsibilities and that when advocating for their rights they must engage in those responsibilities.  Kids need to know what the Constitution says citizens are guaranteed and what it does not guarantee.  Students need to be taught that the U.S. is a nation of laws- not men or women!  They need to learn that the Constitution is the bedrock of those laws.

One of the things we learned about getting people to stop smoking is that the dangers of smoking taught in school were often delivered to families by the kids.  Maybe if we required and tested for civics education children could educate adults, who I bet couldn’t pass the citizenship test!

Character Counts

 Character Counts

 

This past week our nation was rocked by behaviors that were both frightening and disgusting.   American citizens performed act of insurrection against our Capitol building and upon the elected officials of our government.  

The people who did these things while primarily white and male, came from all walks of life.  It is totally irrelevant what one's political beliefs are.  What is very relevant is exactly what the Vice-President of our country said, "violence does not solve problems".

 People are blaming Trump for the violence and in some ways he is certainly to blame. However, there is enough blame to go around.  Somewhere along the line, the thousands of people at that insurrection also need to be accountable for their behaviors.

When these adults were children where were the people who are responsible for teaching character- I’m looking at the adults in the lives of these children- parents, educators, clergy, community leaders.  Why were they not taught that freedoms are inexorably linked to responsibility?   Yes our Constitution guarantees free speech, but that free speech is not unfettered.   We cannot cry fire in a crowded room where there is not fire; and we cannot make threats to the physical safety of others.

We have allowed the character of too many of our citizens to be lost to corruption.  Corruption is the erosion of standards and principles and their replacement with baser motives like money and power.

What is most frightening of all is that we live in a capitalistic society where supply and demand rule the economy.   So it is also true that when there is a high demand for these outrageous behaviors, market incentive increases and we get more of the vile twisting of character to cater to ego rather than principle.

We need to teach our children both at home and in schools and in the community that there are yardsticks of good character and these yardsticks are not bent or shaved to meet ego needs of others.

Each time a person accepts an unacceptable behavior, we all move closer to the fire.  And one day as last week, we find ourselves in the flames and wonder how that happened.

It happened because we failed to say “NO” to the minor acts of indecency by our children, adults and particularly our “so called” leaders. And so each time we did not call the person out on a wrongful behavior, each time we did not exact a consequence for that behavior, the next act of indecency just got more indecent until you had an attempt at a full-scale insurrection.  And each of us became complacent in those terrible behaviors. 

Character counts and we cannot start too soon to teach that concept to our children.

Make this a year of CAN

 Make this a year of CAN

 

Not sure about you, but I am really tired of the 2020 and the year of CAN’T.   We can’t be in school, we can’t eat in restaurants, we can’t travel, we can’t gather with loved ones!   How much CAN’T can people put up with?   I am done.

2021 needs to be the year of CAN!

First of all, let’s get more kids back in schools.   We know that the schools have not been a significant spreader of the virus.  Schools can open safely.  We also know that even middle class kids are going to lose six months to a year of academic achievement and lower socio-economic kids are expected to lose a full year or more.  That is learning that will not be easily caught up.

We also know that kids with disabilities have a finite amount of time for their entitlement and there has been slim to none discussion about extending that time.  The learning loses for those kids will have life-long impact.

We CAN have a more positive attitude about what is happening.   Right now the positivity rate in Maryland is about 9.5%.  That is really high, but it also means that the NEGATIVETY rate is 90.5%.   Why don’t we announce that along with the positive rate.   My guess is because we are afraid that folks won’t take the danger seriously enough.  But there is a significant danger to the mental health of all of us with the constant drumbeat of negativity.  This situation is particularly true for kids who are showing increasing anxiety, either because they are reflecting how their families are feeling or because  they are so anxious themselves.   We CAN have a more positive attitude and we need to start cultivating that for all of us.

We CAN reach out to our neighbors and to our schools and offer to volunteer.  We CAN volunteer virtually.  There are kids who are learning online by themselves.  We CAN volunteer to coach them virtually either during instruction or later.

We CAN read to kids online.  We CAN help kids create a virtual social group besides school.  We CAN prioritize learning over other activities such as medical appointments and visits with family members.  Too many people are acting as if online learning is something to do when there aren’t other activities scheduled sort of like watching a streamed new episode on NetFlix.  

We all need a YEAR OF CAN.   And we each need to pitch in so we CAN!