Humanities II

"Alongside activists - and sometimes as activists, and more about that particular problem below - more and more Americans also are practicing citizen journalism, posting, sharing and uploading photos, videos and stories as they happen. And that can be a problem: Unlike career reporters, students and new citizen journalists may or may not know how to identify themselves in public, what to say if confronted by law enforcement, how to handle volatile crowd situations and whom to turn to for help."

"Teachers are taking up the challenge to change that. NPR Ed put out a social media call asking how educators are teaching fake news and media literacy, and we got a lot of responses. Here's a sampling from around the country:"

"New Hampshire Public Radio's Civics 101 and The Washington Post's Can He Do That? are helping to contextualize Trump's presidency for those who don't have much background knowledge."

" These are signs of unusual times. With Mr. Trump in the White House, the obsession with politics that has many adult Americans fiercely focused on the Senate's latest confirmation hearing and the president's last Twitter message has filtered down to those not yet of voting age. High school and even middle school students are showing a level of civic engagement not seen in years, their teachers and principals say. Continue reading the main story RELATED COVERAGE Donald Trump Loves New York. But It Doesn't Love Him Back. DEC. 9, 2016 Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary; Pence Breaks Tie FEB. 7, 2017 "

"It's become alarmingly clear that we've neglected an education that underpins civic engagement. Civics is dropping out of the curriculum across the country in favor of training for jobs. Students don't know how our government works, let alone why we want it to work that way. And the heart of civics education is literacy. Today, in the 21st century, when so much of our information comes in visual form, and information systems are created on a base of algorithms using big data that is collected via media, literacy is synonymous with media literacy."

"Faith in-and basic knowledge of-America's most essential institutions has rarely felt so tenuous. Can our educational system save us?"

"At EL Education, we believe that this is best done consciously and intentionally. We are unafraid to say that teachers and schools shape student character. We specify what we believe they should work towards: students who are not just effective learners, but also ethical people, and active contributors to a better world. We believe that this is supported when educators elevate student voice and leadership and model a schoolwide culture of respect, compassion, honesty, integrity, and kindness. In times of crisis, small-scale or large, this also means modeling courage in standing up for those values, and standing against racism, injustice, acts of hate, and the undermining of public education. One unheralded but powerful possibility is this: giving students real material to engage with and supporting them to do work that matters to them. This is what helps students become ethical adults who contribute to a better world. In EL Education schools, this deeper learning is the daily fare of classrooms. And, it's what empowers them to engage in civil debate. If students are fearful about what may happen to them or their loved ones, we can help them research what has actually been said or proposed, and what is possible according to the U.S. Constitution as it has so far been interpreted. We can help them respond in ways that build their own agency: writing letters, like students at World of Inquiry, or making videos and organizing actions like the Melrose Leadership Academy Peace and Kindness March. We can tell our students they matter, not just to us personally but as members of a society. We can show them we mean it by giving them chances to create work that both responds to and acts upon that society. We can walk side by side with our students as we all process this political transition together. We can show them, and they can show us, what kind of adults to be: what it looks like in 2017 to be an ethical person, contributing to a better world. "

"Worried about unemployment and global competition, governments and schools have focused on preparing young people for work, rather than to participate in democracy. Citizenship education, said Michael Gove, Britain's education secretary from 2010 to 2014, was a "pseudo-subject". In America, schools no longer bother testing it. When the subject survives, it is often recast narrowly, says Bryony Hoskins of Roehampton University, as a way to counter radicalisation or promote national values to recent immigrants. The best civic-education classes do more than impart knowledge about how government works. They create environments in which pupils get used to the tools of democracy, such as debating controversial issues and disagreeing respectfully. Parents may worry that schools are indoctrinating their children, and teachers can be wary of treading on thorny ground. But schools are more ideologically diverse than many other environments, making them ideal testing-grounds for such skills."

"As we educators enter Black History Month, it's easy to focus our energy on Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.-and typically sanitized versions of their radical activism. It's tempting to try to make talking about race as "easy" as possible. However, doing that does a disservice to our students, because then they can't enter conversations about the world around them-whether it's a news story or a music video-with the full story. Delving deeper into untold histories and modern pop culture results in interdisciplinary possibilities that result in and more thoughtful and well-informed discussions about race in America. After our initial discussions about the video and performance (and some quick history lessons about Katrina, New Orleans, segregated swimming pools, and the Black Panthers), I asked students in all of my classes-Composition I, Composition II, Diversity in the Media, and Intro to Film Studies-to complete the following assignment. The results were universally thoughtful and analytical, without the discomfort and anger that was in their voices the day after the Super Bowl performance."

"To holistically prepare this new generation for life in an open society, what's needed is a new model for high-school civics; one that integrates American history and government, critical thinking, media literacy, and digital literacy. The goal of such education should not be merely to instill understanding of our online civic landscape, but how to navigate and participate in it in constructive and meaningful ways: Not what to think, but how to think."

"In case you are just now waking up from a coma, let me tell you what happened Wednesday at Donald Trump's first press conference as president-elect. (Yes, that Donald Trump! He will be the next president!)"

"Urban-education programs prepare them for imperative contemporary conversations with students."

"Art can shake us out of complacency, introduce abstract ways of thinking, and help us imagine the impossible."

"Three -- three decades of research reveal that students of color are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students, and are punished in harsher ways for the same infractions. They also learn this through the absence of their lives and narratives in the curricula. The Cooperative Children's Book Center did a review of nearly 4,000 books and found that only three percent were about African-Americans. And they further learn this through the lack of teachers that look like them. An analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics found that 45 percent of our nation's pre-K to high school students were people of color, while only 17 percent of our teachers are. 7:35 Our youth of color pay a profound price when their schooling sends them the message that they must be controlled, that they must leave their identities at home in order to be successful. Every child deserves an education that guarantees the safety to learn in the comfort of one's own skin."

" A new study shows that as people become more intelligent they don't become any less prejudiced, they only change who they are prejudiced towards, with the usual direction going towards those who we see as different from ourselves. In order to study a wide range of biases, and to avoid confusion, the researchers defined prejudice as "'a negative evaluation of a group or of an individual on the basis of group membership" for the purposes of this study.  The study took 5,914 individuals and tested them for their "cognitive ability", determined by their score on the Wordsum test of verbal ability. The subjects were asked of their opinions of certain groups of people such as Christians, Hispanics, or the poor. Those answers were later converted to a zero to 100 scale, with 100 being the most negatively viewed. The study showed that individuals of higher and lower intelligence showed similar levels of prejudice, but not towards the same people. Persons of lower cognitive ability tended to be prejudiced towards "low choice" groups, persons who have little control over the fact that they happen to be a member of that group. More intelligent persons were more prejudiced against "high choice" groups, where the members of that group, hypothetically, had greater ability to opt in or out of membership in that group."

"The case can be made that all subject areas are important, but students often lack the educational opportunities to put their learning from these subject areas to work in the real world. My students now take part in community research projects where I ask them to identify a problem or issue that they care about in our local community. Their topics have included the school dress code, teen drug use, bullying, rural road conditions, and suicide prevention. In this process, students undertake a variety of research efforts. They work with primary sources. They interview community members, fellow students, and school officials. They create online surveys, and they visit the library, the museum, and the courthouse. They seek out knowledge from experts (including other teachers) regarding statistics, technology, and hazardous chemical compounds. They even become experts on the ins and outs of state laws that are relevant to their causes. They learn to value evidence. Sometimes that causes students to change their minds too. But just gathering the information isn't enough. We have to do something with that information. We have to take action and argue for reasonable solutions to our community issues based on the best information available. The secret is harnessing the spirit each student holds for the issue they seek to solve and allowing that spirit to develop each student's ability to reason. If I can accomplish that, I find that my students care enough about their writing to revise, edit, spell, and punctuate just fine. A recent study also confirmed that students' mastery of conventions can improve as a by-product of writing arguments on topics they care about. But first I had to go bigger with my expectations and with the lessons I valued. I had to believe they could change the world around them if I gave them the opportunity."

"The surge in demand for its resources comes at a time of transition for Facing History. Since taking over as CEO and president from co-founder Margot Stern Strom in December 2014, Roger Brooks has been working on a five-year strategic plan to vastly expand the program's reach. He wants to employ more interactive digital tools, partner more with complementary organizations, and tap descendants of Holocaust survivors to perpetuate their stories. Facing History has more than 160 staff members in nine offices, as far-flung as San Francisco, Memphis, Toronto, and London. It has trained 48,000 teachers - a number it hopes to raise to 200,000 in five years - and hosts forums, seminars and workshops, both in person and online. Facing History's multimedia-rich website (www.facinghistory.org) offers free access to many of its resources."

"The online survey is not scientific but offers a wealth of information and insight about the post-election school climate. Participants included teachers from nearly all states and the District of Columbia. According to the report, those who responded may have been more likely to perceive problems than those who did not. It was distributed among several organizations that reach a large teacher population, including the American Federation of Teachers.  The report also offers a set of recommendations to help school leaders manage student anxiety and combat hate speech and acts of bias. In short, these recommendations are: Set the tone. Take care of the wounded. Double down on anti-bullying strategies. Encourage courage. Be ready for a crisis. Teaching Tolerance will further analyze the survey results and use the data to shape our resources and offerings to K-12 teachers and others who work in schools. Visit Voting and Elections: Resources for a Civil Classroom to view a package of materials currently available to help educators navigate these troubling times.

"Media literacy is suddenly a front-burner issue for schools, thanks to the recent presidential election, a spate of reports on "fake news," and new research demonstrating just how ill-equipped young people are to critically evaluate information they encounter online and via social media. As a result, educators find themselves behind the eight ball, expected to help students negotiate everything from internet hoaxes, to partisan policy advocacy disguised as unbiased news, to a President-elect who has used Twitter to spread baseless claims originating in unfounded conspiracy theories."