TYTY, as always, M. Loury. It's about noon and I've been up for 10 1/2 hours already, so I don't have the patience I would like. Here's the thing: It's ALL OF IT, it's about mindset. And people changing who they are for the better. Tho this may not SEEM completely logical, the ONLY person who can change someone, is that person THEMSELVES. Technically, it's impossible for one person to change another person. INFLUENCE? Yeah, but usually that never happens either.
All that to say... I think it's a lot easier for the anatomy of a human brain to find out what's wrong with a situation. That's the design of the brain.
What's one whole lot HARDER is to come up with solutions to problems, not in identifying them, right? Besides, my Instincts/Intuitions tell me that 90 - 95+% of the time M. Woodson is gonna be right, and that it's pretty easy to take shots at him from the peanut gallery. Or at anybody.
I read a lot, but sometimes I forget things. But it's been said many times before and will be said again. I think the quote goes something like this, "As long as Black females are giving sex out to Black males who have a lotta sex appeal, instead of Black males who would MAKE GOOD FATHERS..." MIGHT-a been M. Adam B. Coleman in "Black Victim to Black Victor." Mebbe not.
Schooling is the key, after fathers, right? It always HAS been anyway.
"The Education of Eva Moskowitz" is a memoir that tells a lot about Success Academies, or whatever they call themselves. A public charter school. Just finished that lately. They take 15,000 kids outta the poor neighborhoods of NYC, at random, and teach them to excel. Not easy, but their students outperform most-a the white kids, they are THAT good. They've honed the method and put it online someplace. I'm not one-HUNDRED percent behind Moskowitz. She's made a lotta enemies, and likely where there's smoke there's fire. But success? She's been there, done that for a decade? Mebbe?
I'm on Wilfred Reilly's "Taboo." Probably finish tomorrow. If people would just look at what he writes as a GIVEN, as FACT, then I think there'll be plenty of possibilities.
Oh! One more: "The Alternative: Most of What You Believe About Poverty Is Wrong"
by Mauricio L Miller. WHen I read it, reminded me a LOT of M. Woodson's approach. That there was some things to gain from Miller's POV. But You gotta realize he's dealing with a different group of people. The book talks mainly about immigrants coming to the country for the express PURPOSE of bettering themselves. Well-motivated, with better resources. IOW, I dunno his poor and M. Woodson's poor are in the same ballpark. Still, things could be learned. His approach is to get a number of families to join up together in his program. And they work together, as a mini-community, to GET THINGS DONE.
Going back to M. Woodson. I can't believe that anyone would question that the solutions have to be PROMOTED by the community, if their gonna take hold. Telling them, "DO this" and "DO that" just would slow things down, if not completely stop any progress whatsoever.
The Unions also might be a little more amenable with their approach than Success Academy's. They see training and continuous improvement as the solution to underperformance with teachers (fewer firings) and also generally seem to have far lower burn rates on staff. That being said, there are a lot of complaints about workloads for the latter on some of the employment sites.
I follow Miss Snuffy (Katherine Birbalsingh) on Twitter. Recently trainee teachers posed the question 'why does she hate kids so much?' As if being strict and preparing kids to excel in the world were somehow a bad thing, through having demanding standards...
TYTY, as always, M. Loury. It's about noon and I've been up for 10 1/2 hours already, so I don't have the patience I would like. Here's the thing: It's ALL OF IT, it's about mindset. And people changing who they are for the better. Tho this may not SEEM completely logical, the ONLY person who can change someone, is that person THEMSELVES. Technically, it's impossible for one person to change another person. INFLUENCE? Yeah, but usually that never happens either.
All that to say... I think it's a lot easier for the anatomy of a human brain to find out what's wrong with a situation. That's the design of the brain.
What's one whole lot HARDER is to come up with solutions to problems, not in identifying them, right? Besides, my Instincts/Intuitions tell me that 90 - 95+% of the time M. Woodson is gonna be right, and that it's pretty easy to take shots at him from the peanut gallery. Or at anybody.
I read a lot, but sometimes I forget things. But it's been said many times before and will be said again. I think the quote goes something like this, "As long as Black females are giving sex out to Black males who have a lotta sex appeal, instead of Black males who would MAKE GOOD FATHERS..." MIGHT-a been M. Adam B. Coleman in "Black Victim to Black Victor." Mebbe not.
Schooling is the key, after fathers, right? It always HAS been anyway.
"The Education of Eva Moskowitz" is a memoir that tells a lot about Success Academies, or whatever they call themselves. A public charter school. Just finished that lately. They take 15,000 kids outta the poor neighborhoods of NYC, at random, and teach them to excel. Not easy, but their students outperform most-a the white kids, they are THAT good. They've honed the method and put it online someplace. I'm not one-HUNDRED percent behind Moskowitz. She's made a lotta enemies, and likely where there's smoke there's fire. But success? She's been there, done that for a decade? Mebbe?
I'm on Wilfred Reilly's "Taboo." Probably finish tomorrow. If people would just look at what he writes as a GIVEN, as FACT, then I think there'll be plenty of possibilities.
Oh! One more: "The Alternative: Most of What You Believe About Poverty Is Wrong"
by Mauricio L Miller. WHen I read it, reminded me a LOT of M. Woodson's approach. That there was some things to gain from Miller's POV. But You gotta realize he's dealing with a different group of people. The book talks mainly about immigrants coming to the country for the express PURPOSE of bettering themselves. Well-motivated, with better resources. IOW, I dunno his poor and M. Woodson's poor are in the same ballpark. Still, things could be learned. His approach is to get a number of families to join up together in his program. And they work together, as a mini-community, to GET THINGS DONE.
Going back to M. Woodson. I can't believe that anyone would question that the solutions have to be PROMOTED by the community, if their gonna take hold. Telling them, "DO this" and "DO that" just would slow things down, if not completely stop any progress whatsoever.
All that to say... IMHO.
If you like Success Academy, you should read this article by Robert Pondiscio: https://www.the74million.org/article/pondiscio-i-just-wrote-a-book-about-success-academy-charter-schools-it-does-not-support-your-preferred-narrative-i-hope-you-hate-it/ . Did you see their recent SAT scores? 1268! There are also a couple of great examples from here in the UK, across the Pond. The Michaela Community School is one. But Brampton Manor Academy is killing it- they recently outpaced Eton in placing kids at Oxbridge.
The Unions also might be a little more amenable with their approach than Success Academy's. They see training and continuous improvement as the solution to underperformance with teachers (fewer firings) and also generally seem to have far lower burn rates on staff. That being said, there are a lot of complaints about workloads for the latter on some of the employment sites.
I follow Miss Snuffy (Katherine Birbalsingh) on Twitter. Recently trainee teachers posed the question 'why does she hate kids so much?' As if being strict and preparing kids to excel in the world were somehow a bad thing, through having demanding standards...
TY M. Geary. I can't recall if I bought Pondiscio's book or put it on the list. But, yah...