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Welcome to the Tuesday morning, February 20, 2018, edition of the HML Post. This weekly newsletter is a service to the members of the Horace Mann League of the USA.
More articles of interest are on the HML Flipboard site.
Editor's note: The HML Board encourages the wider distribution of the
HML Post. If you would like to have the
HML Post made available to your administrative team (or graduate students),
click here.
Donations to support the League's activities, like the HML Post, are always appreciated. The HML is a 501c3 non-profit association.
Click here for more information.
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Sign Up a Colleague.
The HML Post is a service provided by the Horace Mann League. If you know of a colleague who might appreciate the research and editorials relating to public education, send the person's email. Click here.
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Quote of the Week
We become what we think about.
Earl Nightingale
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Horace Mann League Recognizes Outstanding Educational Leaders by Jack McKay.
The Horace Mann League presented awards to four outstanding individuals at the 98th Annual Meeting in Nashville in conjunction with AASA's Annual Leadership Conference on Education.
The
Ou
tstanding Friend of the Horace Mann League was presented to
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| Kevin Rilkey and Jay Goldman |
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Jay Goldman, Editor of the School Administrator Journal, published by AASA. Jay Goldman was presented the award by Kevin Riley, Superintendent of the Gretna Public Schools in Gretna, Nebraska.
The Outstanding Public Educator award was presented to two highly
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| Kevin Welner and Bill Mathis |
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respected educational researchers.
Kevin Welner and Bill Math
is
of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado.
The awards were presented by David Berliner, Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University.
The Outstanding Friend of Public Education was presented to Carol
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| David Berliner and Carol Burris |
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Burris, Executive Director of the Network for Pulic Education.
The Outstanding Friend of Education award was present by David Berliner, Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University.
The four HML Awardees took part in a panel discussion about the role of the superintendent in being both proud and assertive about the success of public education, particularly in their community. The panel presentation was presided by Lisa Parady, Executive Director of the Alaska Association of School Administrators.
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Bill Mathis, Jay Goldmanm Kevin Welner, Carol Burris and Lisa Parady
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Providing a safe and secure environment for students to learn and staff to work is critical to the success of any school. Creating that environment while balancing the equally important welcoming atmosphere can be a challenge.
School shootings continue to make news headlines and stir debate on a range of issues. We're universally shocked, horrified and frustrated. In the wake of these tragedies we'll hear from stakeholders and leaders with a sense of urgency to "do something" to stop the violence. All too often, school districts will rush to launch untested response systems and one-size-fits-all training in an effort to demonstrate responsiveness.
If history is any guide we'll cry and wonder why. We'll express sentiments of shock and surprise. Maybe we'll convene a task force, community council and get serious about updating crisis response plans and training.
The three phases of effective crisis management
School emergencies evoke thoughts of high-profile incidents - Columbine, Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech to name a few. Schools are more likely, however, to experience untimely student and staff deaths, or other non-lethal incidents. Collectively, these events are very broad in severity and their impact on students, staff, parents and community.
Each incident will create disruption or chaos, and trigger emotional and psychological responses that have short- and long-term consequences.
Effective crisis management focuses on three phases: 1) pre-crisis; 2) crisis response; and 3) post-crisis. (
Learn more.)
Take Action: National Day of Action Against Gun Violence in Schools Body: Friend, I took an action on Action Network called National Day of Action Against Gun Violence in Schools.
I pledge to join the National Day of Action on April 20 to Protect Students Against Gun Violence. I will urge my friends, family, and neighbors to join the Day of Action as well. The failure to enact rational laws around the purchase of guns that are designed for mass shootings is inexcusable. The time to act is now. Every child deserves to learn in a school that is safe. Can you join me and take action?
Click here: Thanks! (
Learn more
.)
I'm tired of this. Americans are tired of this. Mass shootings are now occurring with a
depressing regularity, including well
over a dozen school shootings in 2018 alone.
Each and every time we are subjected to the same arguments, a circular merry-go-round of desperate anger from families and mainstream Americans, shocking bad faith by those who want to preserve the status quo, and callous opportunism by those trying to shoehorn their own separate issue advocacy into the discussion. The cycle of violence and reaction is a mandala of pain and futility.
And every time the bottom line is and remains the same: if you want to end gun violence, reduce the number of guns. It's that simple. There
is no other answer
. The simple reason is that the only difference between America and other industrialized nations on the issues so often blamed for gun violence is access to guns. (
Learn more.)
Using scientific findings, "educational engineers" (historians call them "administrative Progressives) in the early 20
th century sought the best ways for students to learn, teachers to teach, administrators to manage, and school boards to govern. Policymakers asked: how much does it cost to teach Latin? Can teachers get fifth grade students to learn more by lesson worksheets done in class or homework? How can money be saved in heating the building during the winter? How can school boards divest party politics from making educational decisions? Researchers of the day answered such questions (see
here and
here)
These policymakers also wanted "social efficiency," that is, graduates of age-graded schools were to be prepared to enter the workplace and act as responsible adults-public schools were to serve both the economy and society.
(
Learn more
.)
In one America, a mentally unstable president selected partly by Russia lies daily and stirs up bigotry that tears our social fabric.
In another America, a can-do president tries to make America great again as lying journalists stir up hatred that tears our social fabric.
The one thing we all agree on: Our social fabric is torn. In each America, people who inhabit the other are often perceived as not just obtuse but also dangerous. Half of Democrats and Republicans alike say
in polls that they are literally afraid of the other political party.
This is not to equate the two worldviews. I largely subscribe to the first, and I'm a villain in the second. But I do believe that all of us, on both sides, frequently spend more time demonizing the other side than trying to understand it, and we all suffer a cognitive bias that makes us inclined to seek out news sources that confirm our worldview. (
Learn more.)
The Horace Mann League install its new officers and directors at its annual luncheon in Nashville on Friday.
The incoming leadership is as follows:
President: Eric King, retired superintendent, Muncie, Ind.;
The Horace Mann League, a pro-public education advocacy group, holds its installation each during the AASA national conference. (
Learn more.)
When you are part of a community, you can get to know and befriend learners over time. You can learn their unique stories, their preferred ways of absorbing content and taking notes, their preferred language and ways of interacting with others, and their individual challenges. You learn about their individual abilities. A classroom is one such example where this sort of learning about learners occurs.
However, with digital security workshops, you may not have that same benefit.
People don't always attend trainings consistently; learners often drop in and out of the room during a training; you may be unsure of a person's mental and emotional state; and you may not have a deep enough relationship with the learners to understand the challenges they face when trying to learn something new, or what you need to scaffold for them individually.
(
Learn more
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By nearly every metric relating to personal vice, American teenagers have become virtually puritanical. Through the years, rates of illicit drug use have plummeted. Despite the crisis that opioids have inflicted on our collective well-being, teenagers have remained for the most part directly unharmed.
The same organization recently noted that the rates of binge drinking among eighth, 10th and 12th graders are well below what they were a decade ago.
In recent years, public health officials have grown increasingly concerned about the popularity of vaping among teenagers - omitting tobacco, e-cigarettes deliver warmed-up liquid nicotine turned into a vapor. (
Learn more.)
The United States, to put it bluntly, has grown callous about the lives of its children. We mourn their deaths when they happen, of course. But it's an empty mourning, because it is not accompanied by any effort to prevent more suffering - including straightforward steps that every other affluent nation has taken.
Guns are a big part of the callousness, but only a part of it. They are one of three main reasons the United States has become "the most dangerous of wealthy nations for a child to be born into," according to
a study in Health Affairs. The other two are vehicle crashes and infant mortality.
The chart here, from that study, shows just how much of an outlier the United States has become. This country suffers almost 21,000 "excess deaths" each year. That's how many children and teenagers would be spared if the United States had an average mortality rate for a rich country. (
Learn mor
In a famous essay published four decades ago, the Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter set out to explain a paradox: "situations where outcomes do not seem intuitively consistent with the underlying individual preferences." What explains a person or a group of people doing things that seem at odds with who they are or what they think is right? Granovetter took riots as one of his main examples, because a riot is a case of destructive violence that involves a great number of otherwise quite normal people who would not usually be disposed to violence.
Most previous explanations had focussed on explaining how someone's beliefs might be altered in the moment. An early theory was that a crowd cast a kind of intoxicating spell over its participants.
Then the argument shifted to the idea that rioters might be rational actors: maybe at the moment a riot was beginning people changed their beliefs. They saw what was at stake and recalculated their estimations of the costs and benefits of taking part. (
Learn more.)
In deep-red America, the white Christian god is king, figuratively and literally. Religious fundamentalism has shaped most of their belief systems. Systems built on a fundamentalist framework are not conducive to introspection, questioning, learning, or change. When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn't open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power. The problem isn't that coastal elites don't understand rural Americans. The problem is that rural America doesn't understand itself and will never listen to anyone outside its bubble. It doesn't matter how "understanding" you are, how well you listen, what language you use...if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted. I've had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they will not even entertain the possibility that it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact that I'm the enemy because I'm an educated liberal. (Learn more.)
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The Education Cartoon of the Week.
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The Superintendent's Special topics:
(Please share your ideas. Contact Jack McKay
)
Sponsor a Professional Colleague for membership
in
the Horace Mann League.
Click here to download the "Sponsor a Colleague" form.
On the Art of Teaching by Horace Mann.
The book, On The Art of Teaching by Horace Mann has been presented to new teachers as a welcome gift by a number of
schools district
. For orders of 50 or more, the district's name is printed on the front cover.
Ordering Information
Cost per copy: $12.50
Orders of 50 to 99: $11.00
Orders of 100 or more: $10.00
Send orders to: (include name of district, P.O. #, and address)
The Horace Mann League of the USA
560 Rainier Lane
Port Ludlow, WA 98365
or
email: Jack McKay
FAX (866) 389 0740
About Us
The Horace Mann League of the USA is an honorary society that promotes the ideals of Horace Mann by advocating for public education as the cornerstone of our democracy.
Officers:
President: Dr. Martha Bruckner,
Exec.Dir., MOEC Collective Impact, Omaha, NE
President-elect:
Dr. Eric King, Superintendent, (ret.) Muncie Public Schools, IN
Vice President: Dr. Laurie Barron, Superintendent, Evergreen School District, Kalispell, MT.
Past President:
Dr. Christine Johns-Haines, Superintendent, Utica Community Schools, MI
Directors:
Dr. Ruben Alejandro, Supt.
of
Schools, (ret.) Weslaco, TX
Dr. David Berliner, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Dr. Evelyn Blose-Holman, (ret.) Superintendent, Bay Shore Schools, NY
Mr. Jeffery Charbonneau, Science Coordinator, ESD 105 and Zillah HS, WA
Dr. Carol
Choye
, Instructor, (ret.) Superintendent, Scotch Plains Schools, NJ
Dr. Brent Clark, Executive Director, Illinois Assoc.
of
School Admin. IL
Dr. Ember Conley, Supt.
of
Schools, Park City, UT
Dr. Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, Stanford U. CA
Dr. James Harvey, Exec.
Dir
., Superintendents Roundtable, WA
Dr. Steven Ladd, Superintendent, (ret.) Elk Grove USD, Elk Grove, CA
Dr. Stan Olson, President, Silverback Learning, (former supt.
of
Boise Schools, ID)
Dr. Lisa Parady, Executive Director,
Alaska Council of School Administrators
Dr. Kevin Riley, Superintendent, Gretna Community Schools, NE
Executive Director:
Dr.
Jack McKay, Professor Emeritus, University of Nebraska at Omaha,
560 Rainier Lane, Port Ludlow, WA 98365 (360) 821 9877
To become a member of the HML,
click here to download an application.
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