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Betsy DeVos, Walking Meme, Was Blocked From Entering a School By Protesters - Shame! Shame! Shame!

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devos dog

Betsy DeVos was scheduled to visit a D.C. middle school today, and, well, things didn’t go too great for her. She was met by a group of protesters and, first of all, her car may or may not have run over the foot of one of those protesters.


The small but fierce group of protesters physically blocked DeVos from entering the school.

One person yelled, “She does not represent anything that they stand for.” Another shouted at DeVos, “Keep giving money to senators and buying your way into the position. You should be so proud of yourself.” I really do love some good snark thrown into a political protest. The same man yelled “Shame. Shame. Shame” (a la Game of Thrones, perhaps?) as DeVos got into her car and drove away.

DeVos did eventually enter the school, and she released a statement saying,

I respect peaceful protest and I will not be deterred in executing the vital mission of the Department of Education. No school door in America will be blocked from those seeking to help our nation’s school children.

But the protesters at least made it clear that she isn’t going to get her public school photo ops easily.

Because that’s all this is. Just total lip service in response to the criticism that this woman has no business running our national school system. Yet some critics (in this case, meaning people who typed words into Twitter) are questioning why DeVos’ opponents, who are so vocal about her lack of experience inside schools, would think it’s the right course of action to actively keep her out of one. Wouldn’t we be wanting her to learn?

First, no. These cabinet positions, like the presidency and the role of Counselor to the President and all the rest of these openings being filled by supremely unqualified candidates, are not learn-as-you-go jobs. The Education Secretary should have had experience working in, or at the very least with, the public school system before running it. White House staffers should know how to turn on the lights before they’re allowed to make policy decisions that affect the entire country. The President’s Counselor should know the ethical guidelines of her job before she violates them on television.

Also, no one actually expects DeVos to be influenced by this trip to this school. She is not one of the people most Americans consider among “those seeking to help our nation’s school children.” Is this–again, simple, basic–photo-op with public school students actually going to make her rethink her lack of interest in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? Is this going to convince her to participate in the proficiency vs. growth conversation she had clearly never been questioned on or interested in before?

That would be fantastic. About as fantastic as it is unrealistic.

No one’s keeping Betsy DeVos from doing her job or from serving the American people. DeVos is doing that quite well on her own. Her total lack of any qualifications at all is much more of a hindrance to the Department of Education than some protesters. (Whom Trump and his team are sure to label “professionals” anyway, which reminds me, does anyone know if the Protester office is hiring? Because that looks like a heck of a fun job.)

DeVos has in front of her an important job and zero credibility. Just look at this tweet she sent out following her confirmation:

Yes, that’s clearly supposed to be a fun little cheeky joke. But as anyone who has ever worked in a public school knows, it’s incredibly tone deaf. Why? Because it’s been reported again and again and again that school teachers spend, on average, upwards of $500 a year on supplies for their classrooms. In a country where the best solutions so far include setting up GoFundMe campaigns for teachers to buy school supplies, asking where the pencils are IS NOT A FUNNY JOKE, DEVOS. IT’S LITERALLY YOUR JOB TO MAKE THEM APPEAR.

(image via Victoria Pickering / Flickr)

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Donald Trump Has a Dangerously Misguided View of Autism

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It shouldn’t come as a surprise anymore when Donald Trump makes statements amounting to little to nothing more than parroting back verbal clickbait sensationalism. This is a man who spent his campaign answering actual policy question with myriad versions of “Don’t worry about it, I’m, like, really smart, I’ll figure this stuff out,” and who literally just tweets Fox News headlines. And yet here I am, continuously finding myself surprised. I suppose that’s on me.

Today, Trump’s dangerously, willfully misinformed information comes in the form of a discussion about autism rates. During a “Parent-Teacher Conference Listening Session” with education icon obstacle Betsy DeVos and a roundtable of educators, Trump stopped the introductions to focus on the principal of a special needs school serving students with autism and physical and medically fragile–oh wait we can’t hear the rest because Trump hears a talking point calling his name and can’t even let her finish.

The interaction starts at the 6:10 mark:

Trump interrupts the principal to ask the super incisive question, “How’s that going?” After a pause (how do you even answer that vague of a question?), she responds, “Well.” Trump pushes to ask if she’s seen “a big increase in the autism with the children.” She says she has, to the point that the school has shifted its population with more of a focus on students with autism.

Trump responds, again, with the vaguest of follow-ups, “So what’s going on with autism?” He continued with his usual rancid word salad.

“When you look at the tremendous increase, it’s really–it’s such an incredible–it’s really a horrible thing to watch, the tremendous amount of increase. Do you have any idea? And you’re seeing it in the school?”

The principal responds then with the statistic that 1-in-66 or 1-in-68 children are diagnosed with autism, and Trump speculates that “Well, now, it’s gotta be even lower than that, which is just amazing – well, maybe we can do something.” (A lower statistic in this case would mean a higher number of autistic students.)

The problem here is that this principal was talking about the number of children diagnosed with autism (which, by the way, has remained fairly steady over recent years), while Trump and others who can’t be bothered with science and facts and nuance and all those annoying little details of the world, equate that with children who have autism.

And these, it shouldn’t need to be said, are not the same thing.

The spectrum of autism is still something doctors and researchers are working to understand. The number of cases that have gone diagnosed in previous generations (and still today) is unknowable. But when a principal is saying her school has such a high number of autistic students that their whole population has shifted, one response to that information is to be grateful that people like her are (presumably) working to understand those students and give them a great education.

The other response, the one people like Trump give, is to assume there’s a plague running rampant our society and deem it “horrible to watch.” And that is incredibly insulting to people with autism and those who advocate for their rights and respect.

This, again, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Pre-presidency, Trump tweeted a lot about the nonexistent link between vaccines and autism.

And now, terrifyingly, Trump is looking like he might be in a position to make good on some totally baseless promises he made back in 2014.

Trump is now, just as he was then, latching onto fear-baiting non-science. As autism expert and author Steve Silberman told the website Science of Us,

There’s no consensus as to whether or not there’s been any significant increase in the actual prevalence of autism, period. The real debate is whether or not there has been a small increase, and there are a number of factors that could play a role in that small increase… But the consensus is that there has been no huge, startling, ‘horrible,’ as Trump said, increase in autism. And the CDC estimate has been flat for a couple of years, just as they expected it to be, because the major source of the increase that started in the 1990s was broadened diagnostic criteria and much more public awareness of what autism looks like.

For Trump to be spewing rumors rather than facts and science, he’s in a position to cause real damage to both the perception of people with autism, and the potential progress we’re able to make in diagnosis and care over the next however may years we have left with him in office.

As Silberman put it, just as Trump does in so many areas, he “is listening to the wrong people and trusting the wrong people.” And that can only work against people like this principal, and anyone else trying to make actual progress.

(via Science of Us, image via YouTube)

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Betsy DeVos Doesn’t Think Her Job Should Exist, Wants to Send Kids to Some Kind of Schools “That Haven’t Even Been Invented Yet” - This should go well.

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via Shutterstock

If you thought Donald Trump and Sean Spicer had the market cornered on nonsensical Mad Lib statements and professional incompetency, that means you’ve probably temporarily forgotten about Betsy DeVos. But the new education secretary isn’t going to let anyone out-WTF her. She recently gave an interview to Axios in which she ran down a list of some of the things she might have said differently during her confirmation hearing, as well as lay out her hopes for her new job.

First of all, she doesn’t even want her job to exist. She’d be happy if some kind Congressperson came along and did away with her entire department.

It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job, but I’m not sure that — I’m not sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that.

Okay, but since she does have this job, what does she see as happening during her tenure? Well, in addition to still not giving a crap about public schools, she seems to be really looking ahead to the future and all the, like, future-type things we can’t even comprehend yet.

I expect there will be more public charter schools. I expect there will be more private schools. I expect there will be more virtual schools. I expect there will be more schools of any kind that haven’t even been invented yet.

Schools that haven’t even been invented yet? What does that even mean? Something like…

jetsons school

Via Hanna-Barbera

xavier school

Via Marvel/20th Century Fox

hogwarts hermione

Via Warner Bros.

Like that? I don’t know, I’m just spitballing here and also trying to distract myself from the very unfunny horrors of the rest of the interview. What horrors? Here are a few:

–She’d literally never thought about having this job before about 3 months ago.

“It was the day after the election that somebody with whom I’ve worked for a number of years actually e‑mailed and said, ‘Would you ever think about Secretary of Education?’ She didn’t respond to the email for a day, but after talking to her husband, Dick, she replied: “I literally have never given it a thought, but if the opportunity ever presented itself, how could I not consider it?”

–When the Democrats were trying to just get a yes or no answer as to whether or not she was for “equal accountability” for all schools that receive federal funding, and she refused to say a simple yes or no, but rather kept repeating the asinine phrase “I believe in accountability,” what she actually meant was no. According to this interview, equal accountability is “a concept with which she’ll never agree.”

–But that equal accountability is a huge issue for students with disabilities, as was made clear during the hearing. So will she “never agree” that federal law has to protect these students’ rights, and that their treatment and access to education can’t be left up to the states?

Absolutely. Absolutely … I have so much compassion for families who have to avail themselves of that law.

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? That’s still a “no,” right?

–So does the federal government have any role in education? As in, what is her job?

“I think in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them, there is a role to play … I mean, when we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren’t allowed to have the same kind of sports teams — I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved.” But are there any remaining issues like that where the federal government should intervene? “I can’t think of any now,” she replied.

Funny, I can think of a few. Like, for instance, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, that thing you have “so much compassion” for. And without government oversight, does she really think that all states will be super enthusiastic to hold themselves to the same level of accountability for those basic human issues of racial equality and gender rights?

I don’t know if she really does believe that, or if she has just really never had to think about the question. I’m guessing… both?

(via Gizmodo)

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Betsy DeVos Is Rewriting History Now to Ignore School Segregation

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Another day, another laughably (if it weren’t so upsetting, that is) ignorant statement from Betsy DeVos.

What does our new education secretary have for us today? She released a statement in which she called Historically Black Colleges and Universities “the real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” According to DeVos, these colleges, which were borne of segregation and discrimination, “are living proof that when more options are provided to students, they are afforded greater access and greater quality. Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.”

Again, HBCUs were established as a response to Jim Crow laws following the Civil War. They came from Black students literally having no choice.

Making this statement even more tone-deaf is that it is labeled as “following a listening session with HBCU leaders.” It feels like maybe “listening” isn’t DeVos’ strong suit.

She has since walked the statement back on Twitter, saying,

Providing an alternative option to students denied the right to attend a quality school is the legacy of #HBCUs. But your history was born not out of mere choice, but out of necessity, in the face of racism, and in the aftermath of the Civil War. #HBCUs remain at the forefront of opening doors that had previously been closed to so many.

That only came after some intense criticism and a thorough dragging online.

The upsetting part of this that doesn’t get washed away with that not-actually-an-apology up there is that this isn’t surprising in the slightest. This sort of statement represents so much of what we’ve heard from DeVos on a range of subjects. Of course she would see the great good in HBCUs and chalk it up to being an endorsement of their roots.

DeVos has spoken against a number of federal laws and mandates meant to protect potentially marginalized groups of students, as with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She favors charter, private, and religious schools, ignoring public ones. And by storing up examples of times when huge communities were ignored by their governments and still thrived, she has manufactured ammunition at the ready to support her ultra-privileged viewpoints.

She’s using the stories of those who overcame circumstances created by people like herself to support her own actions.

 

(image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

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Feminist Alert: Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Is Sending Women to College Through Formation Scholars Program

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Okay scholars, now let’s get in formation. Ethereal queen of feminist pop music Beyoncé Giselle Knowles is caping for her fellow women with a scholarship program that would send four bright young minds to college.

In celebration of Lemonade’s 1-year anniversary (Side question: Did we ever confirm that Becky has good hair? How many of you all went to Red Lobster after that song came out? Who is still sorry not sorry?), the singer announced the creation of Formation Scholars, which supports women who are “unafraid to think outside of the box and are bold, creative, conscious, and confident.” To be eligible, you’ll have to be enrolled in a program for creative arts, music, literature, or African-American studies.

Per Vulture, participating schools include HBCUs Spelman College and Howard University, Parsons School of Design and Berklee College of Music. Right now, the program is pretty small but perhaps it will grow larger in time. I’m just glad to see someone with such a huge platform investing in women’s education seeing as countless others around the world refuse to do so.

With people like Betsy “I don’t understand how public schools work” DeVos seemingly okay with needy college students drowning in high-interest loans, programs like this will be more important than ever. Who knows, maybe the next creative genius will rise from this and deliver us from anti-intellectualism through thought-provoking art…or just make some really interesting things. Whatever the case, this is a good thing and deserving of more attention.

Who’s planning to apply? And raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by Sallie Mae Navient.

(via Vulture, image: screencap)

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Betsy DeVos Confirms That She Will Literally Never Stand up Against Discrimination

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Representative Katherine Clark (D-MA) recently pushed Betsy Devos on her budget proposal, which will cut $11 billion from the Department of Education’s overall budget while funneling $1.4 billion into school voucher programs. The budget has already come under fire for its vicious dismantling of funding for arts education, anti-bullying programs, and STEM, civics, and foreign language education. However, Clark was particularly concerned about how the vouchers program will be implemented.

Clark asked DeVos about a specific school: Lighthouse Christian Academy in Bloomington, Indiana. Under Indiana’s voucher program, the academy receives over $665,000 from the state. However, their handbook clearly permits discrimination against LGBTQIA individuals and their families. The handbook says that “if you are from a family where there is homosexual or bisexual activity, or practicing alternate gender identity, you may be denied admissions.” Given that the school has already been approved for Indiana’s state vouchers program, Clark rightly asked if DeVos would insist that the school open its doors to all students in order to receive federal funding.

“You are the backstop for students and their right to access a quality education,” said Clark. “Would you, in this case, say ‘we are going to overrule, and you cannot discriminate – whether it be on sexual orientation, race, special needs – in our voucher programs’? Will that be a guarantee from you for our students?”

“For states who have programs that allow for parents to make choices,” said Devos, “they set up the rules around that.”

“So that’s a no,” snapped Clark. “Do you see any circumstance where the federal Department of Education, under your leadership, would say that a school was not qualified?…Do you see any situation where you would step in?”

“Well, again, I think the Office of Civil Rights and our Title IX protections are broadly applicable across the board,” said DeVos, “but when it comes to parents making choices on behalf…”

“This isn’t about parents making choices. This is about use of federal dollars. Is there any situation…Would you say to Indiana: ‘that school cannot discriminate against LGBT students if you want to receive federal dollars’? Or would you say the state has the flexibility in this situation?”

“I believe states continue to have flexibility.”

“So if I understand your testimony – I want to make sure I get this right – there’s no situation of discrimination or exclusion, that if a state approved it for its voucher program, that you would step in and say, ‘That’s not how we’re going to use our federal dollars’?”

“I think a hypothetical in this case…”

“It’s not a hypothetical. This is a real school applying.”

“I go back to the…the bottom line is we believe that parents are the best-equipped to make choices for their children’s schooling and education decisions,” said Devos, “and too many children today are trapped in schools that don’t work for them. We have to do something different. We have to do something different than continuing a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach. And that is the focus. And states and local communities are best-equipped to make these decisions.”

Clark then summed the exchange up perfectly: “I am shocked that you cannot come up with one example of discrimination that you would stand up for students.”

You can watch Devos’ full testimony here.

It’s been clear from the day of her nomination that DeVos is deeply unqualified to be Secretary of Education, and we’ve seen from her recent policy decisions that she doesn’t care about the function of the Civil Rights Office or the way student loan protections should work. However, in this testimony, she doesn’t even try to pretend that she would stand up for the students her office is meant to serve. She barely even pays lip service to the rights of America’s children. Couldn’t she have lied just a little?

This is where the Trump administration has brought me. All I want from my government officials at this point is the dignity of being convincingly lied to – and they won’t even give me that.

(Via C-SPAN and U.S. News; image via screengrab)

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The U.S. Department of Education is Cutting Back Its Civil Rights Investigations

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To wish everyone a happy Juneteenth, nightmare lady Betsy Devos will oversee what The New York Times describes as a “scaling back” of civil rights investigations in the Department of Education. Luckily, those pesky ol’ checks and balances may get in her way – eventually. That’s because the United States Commission on Civil Rights, an independent and bipartisan federal agency whose members are appointed by both Congress and the president, has opened a two-year investigation into whether the Trump administration is duly protecting and enforcing Americans’ civil rights.

First, the nightmare. ProPublica posted an internal memo from Candice E. Jackson, the acting head of the Department of Education’s office for civil rights, which lays out changes to the way the office will handle some types of complaints. In sum, officers of the department are no longer advised to expand certain types of individual investigations – such as those that deal with complex issues, or rights that haven’t been fully legislated yet – to look for wider, more systemic problems. Under the Obama administration, the guidelines recommended that investigators request at least three years of university, school, or district records when investigating a complaint of this nature. These records helped to identify patterns of discrimination that might not be apparent in an individual case – for example, in the treatment of sexual assault at universities, or in a school district’s racist assignment of detentions and suspensions.

Under the new guidelines, three years of records will no longer be required. As the Los Angeles Times summarizes, officers are instead directed to “look into broader patterns of noncompliance only when a complaint explicitly mentions that such broader patterns are possible.”

Now, in fairness to Devos, the Office for Civil Rights currently faces a sizeable backlog, and both complainants and schools have criticized the length of the investigations. Reducing the records requirement could help them to process more clear-cut cases faster and thereby speed up overall processing time.

However, I might buy that explanation if this didn’t so clearly fit a pattern. Devos infamously refused to say that she would stand up for LGBTQIA students, her department has dropped a number of transgender students’ cases, and Trump wants to slash the budget for the office of civil rights. The Department of Justice is similarly cutting back on its enforcement of civil rights. If this were really about helping victims of discrimination to get justice more quickly, none of the above would be true.

However, there’s a small, small light at the end of this tunnel. The United States Commission on Civil Rights – an independent and bipartisan federal agency whose eight members must be split evenly by party and are appointed by the President (4), Senate (2) and House (2) – has launched a two-year investigation into the Trump administration’s civil rights enforcement. In its statement, the Commission referenced a number of issues, from the presence of ICE officials in courtrooms to Devos’ obvious refusal to assert the rights of students. However, they also pointed to Trump’s proposed budget, stating that “proposed cuts would result in a dangerous reduction of civil rights enforcement across the country.” I recommend you read the whole statement; it was heartening for me, since it echoed so many of my own concerns.

The investigation will present its findings to Congress in 2019, after the crucial 2018 elections in the Senate and House of Representatives. If the Democrats control either body, they will have some power to act on the Commission’s findings.

If Republicans still hold the majority, though, I won’t hold my breath for action on behalf of America’s students.

(Via ProPublica, The New York TimesLos Angeles Times, and NBC News; image via Shutterstock)

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Georgetown Law Center Study Illuminates the Disturbing “Adultification” of Black Girls by Adults with Authority

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We’ve long known that black boys are seen as older than they are by those in authority, whereas white boys manage to be seen as “boys” well into their twenties (and even thirties), and that this particular manifestation of racial bias affects how black boys are punished for behavior and infractions that would, in white boys, be tolerated or excused because they’re “just kids.” A new study out of Georgetown shows that the same “adultification” is true for black girls.

In this study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, titled Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood, researchers surveyed 325 adults from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, many of whom had a high school diploma or higher.

According to the Huffington Post’s Black Voices section, “adults believe that black girls seem older than white girls of the same age, and think that black girls need less nurturing, protection, support and comfort than white girls. It also found that people assume black girls are more independent, know more about adult topics and know more about sex than young white girls.” We’re talking about little girls from the ages of 5-14. Five to fourteen years old!

Why is this important? I mean, besides the fact that we have everyone from other parents, to teachers, to law enforcement officials transmitting the message that black girls are unworthy (or, at least, less worthy) of love, nurturing, and support? This affects how black girls are treated, accused, and punished legally.

The study clarifies what this means by starting with the special legal status that children enjoy:

“Children occupy a unique position in our public systems. Once treated as miniature adults, our perception of young people’s innocence and ongoing development has led, over time, to granting children leniency when determining the consequences of their behavior. The special legal status bestowed on youth, in particular, is based on a well-established understanding of children’s social and psychological development—that they should be held less responsible and culpable for their actions, and that they are capable, through the ongoing developmental process, of rehabilitation. These foundational legal and moral principles protect children from criminalization and extend safeguards that shield them from the harsh penalties levied on adults.”

Yet, even as far back as slavery, black children weren’t seen as innocents, even when compared to “miniature adult” white children. The study discusses the fact that child slaves were put to work as young as 2 or 3 years old. They were “[s]ubjected to much of the same dehumanization suffered by Black adults, Black children were rarely perceived as being worthy of playtime and were severely punished for exhibiting normal child-like behaviors.”

Fast forward to the present day, and black girls:

  • are five times more likely to be suspended as white girls and twice as likely to be suspended as white boys
  • account for 28% of referrals to law enforcement and 37% of arrests, even though they make up less than 16% of the female school population
  • are almost three times more likely than white girls to be referred to the juvenile justice system and 20% more likely to be charged with a crime

It is heartbreaking to know that little black girls are being handicapped in this way before they even have a chance to define themselves. It’s a bias that we have to fight at all levels. I would encourage anyone reading this to check out the Georgetown report in full. It’s in layperson’s terms, so it’s an easy, if harrowing read.

Whether you’re a parent, a leader in a community organization like the Girl Scouts, a teacher, a school administrator, or in law enforcement, we all have a part to play in ensuring that all children are protected, nurtured, educated, and guided toward being healthy, fully-developed adults. Our country cannot achieve its fullest potential if we continue to allow racism to inform how we treat a significant portion of our children.

(via Boing Boing, image: Shutterstock)

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Malala Yousafzai Reflects on Her Graduation and Fight for Girls’ Education in First Tweets

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Malala Yousafzai has just finished her last day of secondary school, and shared some thoughts today in her first posts on Twitter.

The young activist, who made a huge impact as a voice speaking out against Taliban efforts to keep girls from school, has advocated for education from a young age. She persevered through an assassination attempt in 2012, after which she and her family relocated to the United Kingdom, where Yousafzai and her family continues to fight for education through the Malala Fund and other initiatives. (Her story is documented in the film He Named Me Malala which is an absolutely worthwhile watch.)

Here’s her Twitter thread in full:

In case you’re having trouble reading the tweets, here’s her message:

“Today is my last day of school and my first day on Twitter. Graduating from secondary school (high school) is bittersweet for me. I’m excited about my future, but I know that millions of girls around the world are out of school and may never get the opportunity to complete their education. Next week, I will be back on my #GirlPowerTrip to meet girls in Middle East, Africa & Latin America. Each girl’s story is uniqueand girls’ voices are our most powerful weapon in the fight for education and equality. On and off Twitter, I’m fighting for girlswill you join me? ✋🏾”

Yousafzai’s Girl Power Trip is the journey the activist is taking in her months before college, where she hopes to “spend as much time as possible meeting with girls around the world and fighting for their futures.” You can follow the stories of these girls on the Malala Fund blog here.

(image: Fox Searchlight Pictures)

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Malala Yousafzai Continues to Be Taliban’s Worst Nightmare By Continuing Education at Oxford

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You remember Malala Yousafzai, right? The young Pakistani woman who, when she was 14 years old was shot by a Taliban gunman because she dared be a girl who wanted an education? Well, one high school diploma, a documentary, a Nobel Prize, and an eponymous foundation later, Yousafzai is continuing her education at one of the most prestigious universities in the world!

Yousafzai revealed on Twitter that she has accepted a place at Oxford for the coming school year to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. In making the announcement, the 20-year-old shouted out all the other students who completed their A-levels, saying “So excited to go to Oxford!! Well done to all A-level students – the hardest year. Best wishes for life ahead!”

It’s so amazing to see that she’s still this enthusiastic about school in a life that has already been filled with tons of adventure. In the five years since the shooting, Yousafzai has done more than most people do in their whole lives. The most inspiring thing about her story is that, rather than be cowed by a horrific event, she was able to find the strength not only to come back harder and live life on her terms (including continuing to pursue the education she wanted), but to help other girls do the same, becoming a globally-acclaimed education activist.

Her Malala Fund, which she co-founded with her father in 2014, works with local education experts and advocates in developing countries to create culture-specific plans that will allow more girls to pursue educations without fear. That same year, she became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate when it was announced that she was a co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi, for her struggle for the right of all children to an education.

In 2015, a documentary about her story called He Named Me Malala was shortlisted for an Oscar, further raising her profile, and she’s spent the past few years speaking and advocating all over the world. So it’s understandable that the Internet is thrilled that Yousafzai is continuing to do great things while sticking it to the Taliban by becoming educated af:

But perhaps the sweetest Twitter response was the one from her dad, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who inspired her activism in the first place:

Congratulations, Malala! I hope your Oxford experience is everything you want it to be, and I can’t wait to see what you do next!

(via The Daily Dot, image: JStone/Shutterstock)

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Netflix’s Teach Us All Shows Educational Inequality Didn’t End With Brown Vs. Board of Ed

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In addition to creating searing documentaries about injustice, like her Emmy-winning 13th, Ava DuVernay also distributes worthwhile films from other talented filmmakers through her distribution company, ARRAY. The latest is a documentary called Teach Us All, which takes on the systemic inequality in education.

In the above trailer, we’re introduced to a student named Bradley Pointdexter from Little Rock who describes his life as a kid growing up in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood. Kids like him were not encouraged to strive or succeed, and either being an athlete or being a drug dealer were the only two paths through which anyone expected young men from this neighborhood to support themselves.

Meanwhile, he describes the feeling of his school administration and his teachers not particularly caring about him, or kids like him, allowing them to fall through the cracks.

He might not have cared about education at all were it not for the death of his brother in 2008. He says, “He died with a part-time job at Taco Bell. I don’t want to end up like that.” And then there was one special teacher who went the extra mile and actually asked him about himself, where he was from, and wants out of life, and got him excited about learning. Now, he sees how powerful having an education is.

Teach Us All is a documentary written, directed, and produced by Sonia Lowman, Director of Communications for the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes. Here is the official synopsis, from the film’s website:

In September 1957, following the watershed Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, a group of African-American students known as the Little Rock Nine courageously attempted to defy the notion that skin color should determine educational access by integrating an all-white southern high school. Nearly 60 years after the “Little Rock Crisis,” disparities in access to quality education remain among the most urgent civil rights issues of our time. With its school district hanging in the balance following a state takeover in January 2015, contemporary Little Rock presents a microcosm of the inequities and challenges manifesting in classrooms all across America, which is seeing a re-segregation of its schools.

Through case studies in Little Rock, New York City, and Los Angeles, TEACH US ALL seeks to bring the critical lessons of history to bear on the current state of U.S. education and investigate:

60 years later, how far have we come – or not come – and where do we go from here?

Teach Us All isn’t only a film. It’s also a movement, in which people who care about making education available to everyone can participate by engaging in social action. The website has a bunch of resources that will allow you to educate, inspire, and lobby for change both at the state level, and federally.

You can watch the film on Netflix now! And then maybe you’ll be one of those people organizing a local screening of the film to spread the word and prioritize education for everyone, regardless of race or class.

(image: screencap)

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Interview: PBS Digital’s Danielle Bainbridge Is Here to Teach You The Origin of Everything

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Danielle Bainbridge

If you’re the kind of person who want to learn more about, well, everything, PBS Digital Studios has an amazing offering. The Origin of Everything is a digital series that’s exactly what’s advertised on the tin. Each short episode (they’re each about 10 minutes) delves deeply into one random topic that is of interest to the show’s host, the effervescent Danielle Bainbridge.

I had the chance to chat with Bainbridge about her love of learning, and what inspires her and gets her excited. Currently toward the end of her final year at Yale University, where she’s completing her PhD in African-American Studies and American Studies with a certificate in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, Bainbridge had also been an English and Theater major at UPenn (Ivy League brain making me feel like a slacker over here!), and is also a writer of fiction.

Her interests are varied, and when she describes the way she learns, she says, “I’m that person that prefers when weddings have buffets as opposed to service dinners. Because at a buffet you can try a little of everything! But if they serve you dinner, you just have to eat chicken. You can only have one thing. And if you ask for more than one thing, the waiters look at you like you’re crazy.”

Likewise, her PhD contains the multitude of her interests, and she combines feminist study with the history of 19th Century African-American sideshow performers. “The first year I came to Yale,” she explains. “I decided to get a PhD, because I was interested in asking more long-term, bigger historical questions, but I didn’t have a clear sense of what I was going to do.” She then describes the moment that directed her course of study forever:

“It turned out that Yale happened to buy an archive of two women who were a set of conjoined twins, born in North Carolina in 1851 named Millie and Christine McKoy, and they toured the world as a sideshow act, a musical duet, and they were great performance virtuosos who were kind of under study. When I went to the archive for the first time, they had all this different material from the incredible African-American theater artists and literary figures on the table. Like there was stuff from James Baldwin and Richard Wright and whatever. And I looked down, and I saw this photograph of these two women. And it didn’t have much information except for their names and the year the photograph was taken. And it was probably the most uncanny feeling I’ve ever had that I looked at something and thought OK, I recognize them in some way. I don’t know why I thought that. I’m not related to them, obviously. I felt I recognized something in them and something in the photograph that was just so captivating: the way they stood, their beautiful costumes, the directness of their gaze. I thought, Let me look into this.”

This led her to a fascination with other black, disabled sideshow performers she discovered. Performers who were enslaved in the U.S, as well as those who continued on after emancipation. She learned that they were extremely popular big names in their day, and so was surprised that so few people know about them today. Even though there are other scholars researching these performers, Bainbridge wanted to throw her hat in the ring, and deliver their stories through her unique lens.

History has always been a fascination for her. Bainbridge hopes to transmit that love of history to those who watch The Origin of Everything, examining each topic like this: “OK, this is a conversation, these are the questions, this is the stuff that we’re gonna look at from all different perspectives, and what does it mean for us to look at the antithesis to something, not just the straight-forward answer?”

Since she’s so enthusiastic about learning, and we are The Mary Sue, I asked her what the word “geek” means to her, and what her history is with being a geek-type person. She replied,

“I guess I never use the word ‘geek’ to apply to myself. I just think of myself as, like, overly-enthusiastic about very specific things. I try to frame it that way, where I’m like There are always certain things that always make me excited. And I love people who are very expressive, who are very willing to take risks, who are not ashamed to say they’re into something, that they really want to dig into something. That it’s not about how you look, or how you appear to other people, but more about what’s interesting to you, what makes you excited, what makes you feel passionate.”

Bainbridge herself is certainly one of those people, and it’s her enthusiasm for learning, as well as the way she transmits that information to others was what inspired PBS Digital Studios producer Kornhaber Brown to approach her after having seen some work of hers online and ask her to audition for The Origin of Everything.

She received the call that she’d been chosen on her birthday (best birthday ever!), and she accepted the job, because she already loved the producers’ other work for PBS Digital Studios, and she relished the opportunity to teach in a way that wasn’t insular, academics talking to academics. She wanted to bring excitement about learning to everyone.

Once she completes her PhD, she’s looking forward to continuing to teach at the university level, as well as continue creating fictional work and, of course, more Origin of Everything.

“Those are the kinds of projects that motivate me,” Bainbridge says. “Things that have a direct impact on people, so I can connect with them in a really intense and emotional way, but also an intellectual way. Things that encourage empathy, that encourage people to think harder and be more critical and more compassionate, and to think of other stories outside of their own.”

Compassionate discourse is extremely important to Bainbridge, and she tries to model and nurture that behavior through Origin of Everything‘s social media platforms. If you visit the comments sections on the show’s YouTube page, Facebook, or Instagram, you’ll find that the comments are extremely thoughtful, even if they disagree. This is because Bainbridge actively participates and engages in thoughtful conversation herself.

“I think that’s great,” she says. “Even when people disagree with the content of the video, I like to leave it up and respond to them. Just because I think that sometimes discourse, especially the state of discourse that we’re in right now, it feels like people are getting increasingly brittle, and scared to voice any opinion, because they’re afraid that others aren’t going to receive them well, or even kindly. Even amongst people who have the same opinion…I’ll sometimes be in a class with students who agree with each other, and they’ll still be afraid to say something, because I just don’t want people to yell at me.”

Bainbridge definitely has an optimistic view of humanity, and says that “ultimately, history isn’t static, and human minds are incredibly elastic, and we have the capacity to learn and change and be different from each other.”

According to Bainbridge, you have topics like “Why do you get grades in school?” and “Why is there a North and South Korea?” to look forward to on Origin of Everything, as well as an episode on the myth of poison in children’s Halloween candy.

Bainbridge definitely has a gift for teaching, and her enthusiasm for learning and discovery is infectious. If you’re not already keeping up with The Origin of Everything, head on over to their YouTube page and catch up in time for their next weekly episode!

(image: PBS Digital Studios)

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Betsy DeVos Just Rescinded 70+ Guidelines That Protect the Rights of Students with Disabilities

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Betsy DeVos continued her assault on the rights of American students this month, rescinding 72 guidance documents from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS).

Now, this doesn’t change the reality of students’ rights under the law. As the Department of Education’s own website says, “Guidance documents represent the Department of Education’s (ED) current thinking on a topic. They do not create or confer any rights for or on any person and do not impose any requirements beyond those required under applicable law and regulations.”

However, federal regulations require plenty of interpretation when they’re applied to specific schools and students. By “set[ting] forth a policy on a statutory, regulatory or technical issue or an interpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue,” guidance documents make it easier for schools to interpret and apply the law, and they also make it easier for parents and students to advocate for themselves.

For example, Obama-era guidelines clarified what particular rights the Department of Education believed were covered under Title IX, including the right to a speedy and just response to sexual assault and the right for transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. These guidelines did not rewrite Title IX, or add a section to it. They interpreted it, and crafted a Department policy from that interpretation.

The resulting guidelines meant that a student whose rights were being violated could cite the guidance documents as an affirmation of their rights. They meant that a school which was confused about how to handle sexual assault cases, or which faced pressure from transphobic parents, could cite the guidelines to make and defend its decisions. When Devos rescinded and rolled back those guidelines earlier this year, these interpretations were no longer the de facto reading of Title IX – and schools were free to craft their own, less generous policies.

Disability rights advocates are still analyzing the effects of the “72 guidance documents that have been rescinded due to being outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective – 63 from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and 9 from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA).” But it doesn’t look good.

Some of these guidelines may have been genuinely outdated. As The Chicago Tribune writes, “some of the guidance documents that were cut had been on the books since the 1980s.” Given how much technology has changed, and how much more we now understand about learning disabilities, it’s entirely possible that they needed an update. However, DeVos hasn’t rewritten or replaced them thus far. She just rescinded them.

“If the documents that are on this list are all covered in newer documents that were released – which sometimes does happen – that would be fine,” said Lindsay Jones, the chief policy and advocacy officer for the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Instead, they were all eliminated in bulk.

In response to this negligence from the woman who’s meant to be American students’ #1 advocate, parents have begun sharing stories on Twitter under #ThisIsMyChild to highlight the children who are hurt by this decision.

With a different Secretary of Education, it might be possible to give this decision the benefit of the doubt – but Betsy DeVos hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt. Without any forthcoming replacements, there’s only one thing we know for sure: this change will make it harder for students with disabilities to get the services, support, and constitutional right to an equal education that they need.

(Via The Chicago Tribune; image via Shutterstock)

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New Mexico Tried to Water Down Its Science Standards, but Parents and Teachers Fought Back

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The New Mexico Public Education Department recently proposed a much-needed change to the statewide science education standards, which were initially adopted in 2003 and last updated in 2009. The new standards were supposed to be based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a multi-state set of standards developed by the states in partnership with the National Research Council (NRC), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—but the changes New Mexico made didn’t exactly feel scientific.

For example, the new standards removed a reference to the 4.6-billion-year age of the Earth, replaced the phase “process of evolution” with “biological diversity,” reframed climate change as “fluctuations” rather than “a rise” in the Earth’s temperature, and added some free PR for the oil and gas industry with a middle-school standard that read, “Describe the benefits associated with technologies related to the local industries and energy production.”

These changes are relatively small in the text, but they give creationist and climate-change-denying teachers far more leeway in the classroom to promote bad science or oil-industry ideas. Students deserve an education that’s in line with basic scientific consensus – not their teacher’s personal politics and religion – and state standards are meant to rigorously enforce that right.

Luckily, teachers, scientists, students, and parents weren’t going to stand for this watering down of their education system. On Monday, October 16, they showed up at an all-day public hearing dedicated to the new standards to protest these concessions to climate-change denial and creationism.

“More than 200 people showed up at the Public Education Department on Monday to voice opposition to the New Mexico STEM-Ready Standards,” reported the Santa Fe New Mexican, “Of those, at least 70 spoke against the standards … By midafternoon, not one person spoke in favor of adopting the standards.”

As a result of the public outcry on Monday, by Tuesday afternoon the department had quickly changed its tune and announced a number of updates to the proposed standards. As Mother Jones reported, “Those include restoring references to the 4.6-billion-year age of the Earth and to evolution; replacing a reference to the supposed ‘fluctuation in global temperatures over the past century’ with a more accurate reference to the ‘rise in global temperatures over the past century’; and making a fourth change that more accurately reflects the facts of rising global temperatures and climate change.”

On the national level, there are a lot of battles for social justice and science that we feel like we’re losing. But on the local level, by getting involved and voicing their opinions, the people of New Mexico just won a victory for fact-based science education – and that’s worth celebrating.

(Via Mother Jones and The Santa Fe New Mexican; image via Shutterstock)

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Interview: Saara Chaudry Calls The Breadwinner a Hopeful Story About the Power of Girls’ Education

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Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner is a beautiful adaptation of Deborah Ellis’ novel, and at the center of this narrative full of strong female characters is Parvana, voiced by 13-year-old Saara Chaudry. Chaudry’s lends her voice to Parvana, who herself plays several roles. In the film, she bickers childishly with her sister, tells grand stories to her younger brother, disguises herself as a young boy in order to travel and buy food, and pleads for the freedom of her father who’s unjustly arrested.

Chaudry, who read the Breadwinner years before, saw the role of Parvana not only as a “dream come true”, but also an opportunity to raise awareness about gender equality and the importance of education. To do Parvana justice, but also to do justice to all the Parvanas of the world, was her utmost priority in voicing the character.

TMS (Charline): What drew you to the role of Parvana, and what do you admire about her as a character?

Saara Chaudry: When I was 9 I asked my librarian to recommend a book for me to read over March break. She handed me the Breadwinner. I started reading the Breadwinner, the first novel in the trilogy, by myself. Part way through, there were some scary parts, so I asked my mom to read the rest of the trilogy with me. I could not put the book down and read the entire trilogy in 10 days.
Also over March break, I was preparing to audition for Little Cosette in Les Miserables. Reading the Breadwinner really helped me to understand Little Cosette’s suffering. I honestly believe reading the Breadwinner helped me to get into character and helped me to land the role.

A short while thereafter I was fortunate enough to meet Deborah Ellis at my school. I actually asked her if she would do a movie based on the book and she said it was a possibility. I was so excited when my agent called and said there was an audition for the Breadwinner. Getting the part was a dream come true.

Having read the entire Breadwinner trilogy as well as I am Parvana, was really helpful because I really got to understand Parvana and her different relationships — with Shauzia, her mother, her sister, and of course her father. Seeing her grow up through 4 books, I felt like I knew her and could really relate to her. I’m not sure why but I felt really close to her.

I really admire her strength and determination. Despite the terrible circumstances she finds herself in, she does not give up hope and struggles on until she finds solutions.

TMS: Storytelling is so important in The Breadwinner. Can you talk a bit about what storytelling means to you and why you think it’s important?

Chaudry: I have always loved listening to stories and story telling has always been very important to me. My dad is a great storyteller and growing up we used to lie in bed with my brother and sister and listen to my Dad’s stories of his childhood and growing up in Bradford. We even made up our own story that we added to every night. It was called the Land of Bazooka and was the story of 3 kids just like my family. Those stories helped put things in perspective for us and helped explain things that were going on around us. For example bullying, sickness, arguments with my sister.

So for me storytelling is learning about my family and where I came from. But it is also a way of helping me make sense of the world around me. And in the Breadwinner stories are used to learn the history of Afghanistan, and for Parvana, as a form of distraction and to make sense of the chaos around her.

For myself, I think I am drawn to stories that have characters that are like me – that perhaps look like me, having similar experiences. Or like Parvana, has characteristics I can relate to: a young girl the same age as me, from the same region of the world where my relatives came from. The Breadwinner made me realise that if my grandparents and great great great grandparents had not been as lucky to have moved to South Africa and England and then Canada, I could have been one of those Parvanas. This allowed me really to connect emotionally with Parvana. I felt like I could feel all her pain and suffering. And I could really relate to her and her relationships with her father, her sister and her friend Shauzia. The writing by both Deborah Ellis and Anita Doron was inspiring.

TMS: Were there any great challenges to voicing Parvana?

Chaudry: Making sure that I did justice to the amazing character Deborah Ellis created in Parvana. Making sure I got the accent correct. Making sure I could convey all of Parvana’s strength and character with just my voice.

Animation is very different to live action. With animation, you have only your voice, to convey your emotions and mood, and to give the character personality, to bring the character to life and make her believable

In this movie, the accent was also very important to be true to the characters. I looked for examples and practiced with Youtube at home. And then of course, while we were recording we had Kawa Ada (Razaq who was so helpful in making sure we got the accent correct). Having read the book, actually the entire trilogy as well as I am Parvana was really helpful because I really got to understand Parvana and her different relationships.—Shauzia, her mother, her sister, and of course her father.

But really Nora was the key to this. I could not have done it without Nora’s direction—she helped me to find something more out of each of Parvana’s lines and to really feel what Parvana was going through

I remember at the end – when Parvana is trying to get her father out of prison, Nora really pushed me to feel Parvana’s pain and suffering. I could feel Parvana’s anxiety and fear for her father, and how desperately she wanted to rescue him. Nora brought me to tears (in a good way). She was incredible.

TMS: The Breadwinner has been receiving so much great praise, have you had any notable encounters with people who have seen the film?

Chaudry: I think it’s wonderful that the movie has been receiving so much attention and praise, I am forever grateful for the support. One notable encounter I had with someone who watched the film was with a young girl who was 6 or 7 years old. She walked out of the theatre and told me that she wanted to be just like Parvana. I was speechless. The fact that other young girls are finding similarities with Parvana and are recognizing values/character traits that they want to emulate in their lives is incredible. This movie is all about creating awareness and starting a conversation. The fact that this young girl was able to do so, and was able to grasp that concept, is amazing.

TMS: What do you want people to take away from the film?

Chaudry: I think every young person should not only see the movie, but read the books (the entire trilogy). It has had such an enormous impact on me.

As a very luck child growing up in Canada, with every opportunity and one of the best educations in the world, it is hard to fully understand what other kids/ girls just like me, have to endure in other parts of the world. Deborah Ellis and the Breadwinner helped me to understand just how lucky I am and to raise my awareness about gender equality issues and to make me passionate about helping girls and helping them get an education.

The Breadwinner is a very realistic story of the angst and suffering of women and girls in Afghanistan, but at the same time it is a story of hope, determination and survival that everyone can relate to. Parvana is hopeful despite her dire circumstances. It’s a story of millions of girls and women all over the world who do not have equality and are denied an education. I remember Deborah Ellis talking about all the potential that we are missing out on. One of those girls may hold the answer to solve global warming or a cure for cancer, but their potential is being wasted by war and ignorance. When you educate a boy, you educate a man. When you educate a girl, you educate her family, her community, her country and the entire world. That stuck with me.

So for me the take away is to raise awareness and to start the conversation of the issues in the hopes that change will follow.

The Breadwinner opens in select theaters November 17th.

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littleBits Competition Brings Boys and Girls to STEAM Through the Power of Star Wars—Do You Wanna Built a Droid?!

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Droidathon

(Photo by Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for littleBits)

STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) programs, while often gutted and underfunded in our education systems, are one of the most important outlets for children to express themselves and channel their frustrations into something positive. That is what makes the current littleBits Competition so much fun.

littleBits and Lucasfilm have teamed up to host a droid-designing competition that will help empower children to get invested in STEAM programs. “Star Wars has always expanded kids’ imaginations and inspired them to see what is possible,” said Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm. “We’re excited to collaborate with all of these incredible companies and littleBits to showcase the power of STEAM in action and inspire the next generation of inventors.” Star Wars is the perfect franchise to explore something like this: not only is it filled with creative technology, it is also a franchise filled with optimism and protagonists that prove good can triumph over evil.

The competition will run from November 15, 2017 to January 10, 2018. Fans and families will be able to submit their own Droid design creations, with qualifying submissions judged by Star Wars: The Last Jedi stars Daisy Ridley (the actress who portrays Rey in the current Star Wars trilogy) and Kelly Marie Tran (the actress who portrays Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi) alongside Ayah Bdeir (founder and CEO of littleBits) and Kathleen Kennedy (president of Lucasfilm).

On the 15th, children from local organizations including Black Girls CODE, Booker T. Washington School Community Center, The Boys & Girls Club, and the YMCA were taken to the Lucasfilm San Francisco campus for “Droidathon,” which was the official kick-off of the competition. Kids were able to speak with inventors about their ideas and also meet Star Wars star Kelly Marie Tran, who is the best of people.

littleBits’s founder is MIT alum Ayan Bdeir, who started the organization back in 2011 as a way to bridge the gap between men and women in STEAM by creating a “gender-neutral platform” and “attracting an industry high thirty-five percent of young girls to invent with littleBits.”

I am immensely looking forward to what the program will be able to accomplish and the fun droid designs that will come from it. I especially love that the program did amazing outreach to boys and girls from different backgrounds. That is the future of STEAM, and it looks pretty damn good. If you know any little kiddies who would like to take part, more information can be found here.

(image: littleBits )

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It’s Giving Tuesday! Some Suggestions for Putting Your Money Where Your Values Are.

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Today is Giving Tuesday, the day after Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Sunday and Monday where we forget about being capitalist consumers for five minutes and remember that there are amazing causes that need our help. Here at TMS, there are many issues about which we’re passionate, and we love supporting the organizations entirely devoted to helping those causes and communities.

So, if you haven’t yet decided who’s getting your charitable giving yet, we’d love to suggest these worthy non-profits!

Electronic Frontier Foundation – want to lend “support for building privacy-enhancing tools, stopping illegal government surveillance, fighting censorship, protecting the open web, and more?” Contribute to EFF’s “Power Up” campaign, where they have matching donations today up to $203,137.

Arts Out Loud – want to help “make arts education more accessible to LGBTQ young adults?” Contribute to Arts Out Loud’s inaugural “Dream Out Loud” scholarship program crowfund, which ends TOMORROW. Disclosure: I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m on the board of this organization, so you should know about that relationship.

Trans Lifeline – want to support an organization “dedicated to the well being of transgender people” that runs “a hotline staffed by transgender people for transgender people?” Consider donating to this amazing organization that provides the hotline and other resources in the U.S. and Canada.

EMILY’S List – believe that there need to be more women involved in U.S. politics? Donate to EMILY’s List and help them back worthy, progressive female candidates so that they have the resources they need to win their races and make change!

Black Lives Matter – believe, well, that black lives matter, and that this is an important point to assert in today’s sociopolitical climate? Give generously to this collective that is continually putting themselves on the front lines in the fight against racism.

Indivisible – think that we could all stand to be a little more active in the democratic process? Indivisible has been teaching us all how to be more engaged in politics at the local, state, and federal levels for the past year, equipping us with the tools we need to resist. Donate to help them continue the work they do.

conPRmetidos – it might not be in the news as much right now, but the people of Puerto Rico are still suffering and rebuilding after Hurricane Maria. Consider giving to conPRmetidos, an organization located in Puerto Rico and run by Puerto Ricans both on the island and as part of the diaspora that is doing targeted work on the ground.

Remember that your giving doesn’t have to be limited to today. The winter holiday season is a wonderful time to let your generosity shine through as you prepare for the new year. Got any other suggestions? Leave them in the comments below!

(image: Giving Tuesday)

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Voucher Schools Can Teach Whatever They Want & Taxpayers Will Pay the Bill

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DuVos Trump

One of the big agenda issues pushed by Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration about education is allowing parents more “choice” in where they send their children to school. While that on the surface sounds like a reasonable desire, what it is really about is allowing tax-payer money to pay for religious private schools that have the freedom to teach whatever they want. Huffington Post did an investigative piece on this issue and what it managed to find was upsetting.

So what are voucher programs? Basically, voucher programs offer publicly funded financial aid to parents for private schools. They usually get this money from individuals and corporations who donate money to a “scholarship granting organization” that can then be used to provide scholarships to private schools. The people who donate this money get a tax credit for it.

Doesn’t sound too terrible or nefarious yet. Well, within these private school choice programs no one is tracking the type of curriculum that is being taught, including religious schools. HuffPo found that:

About 75 percent of voucher schools across the country are religious ― usually Christian or Catholic, with about 2 percent identifying as Jewish and 1 percent identifying as Muslim. There were gray areas: At least six schools identified as non-religious but used a curriculum created by the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard.

 

The majority of these schools are non-Catholic/Christian institutions and their textbooks come from Christian textbook companies: Abeka, Bob Jones University Press, and Accelerated Christian Education. These texts are filled with biased and ultra-conservative information like the following:

If I were to get into everything that is discussed in the Huffington Post piece this article would become insanely long and honestly, the entire article is an excellently researched and well-sourced piece that reminds us all why good long-form journalism is super important. However, what is terrifying about what is going on is that tax-payer money is being used to misinform students.

Now, if parents want their children to be taught that Nelson Mandela was a Marxist and that the Civil War was “likely” fought over slavery but totally not the only reason, then they can do that. But they should pay for it themselves. My mother worked her ass off to put me through Catholic school from Pre-k all the way to High School (not a choice I would have made, but I appreciate the effort ma) because for her putting me into Catholic school was a way to keep me safe. Which meant she was making the choice to spend money on my education rather than get me a free one.

Additionally, I don’t want to pay into a system that is bullshit and not preparing these students for life outside of their bubble. Ashley Bishop, the human element of the story, talks about how growing up she was taught “to dance was to sin, that gay people were child molesters and that mental illness was a function of satanic influence. Teachers at her schools talked about slavery as black immigration, and instructors called environmentalists ‘hippie witches.'”

No. Thank. You.With all the underfunding going on in public schools that exist already, I do not want more money to be taken away in order to allow evangelical schools to teach that slavery was “black immigration.” Many pundits spend time wondering how certain voters can vote against their own best interest, this is why. When you give them the wrong information all the way up until high school, an environment is created where people are stuck in believing things that any information-no matter how well-researched because a part of an agenda meant to turn Evangelicals into martyrs against a sinful America.

(via The Huffington Post, image: a katz / Shutterstock.com )

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Lin-Manuel Miranda Honors Teachers By Having a Chat With His High School Theater Adviser

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Wherever you see a talented artist, know that there are talented teachers behind them who made them what they are. Hamilton creator and current Disney songsmith extraordinaire, Lin-Manuel Miranda, totally acknowledges this by having a touching sit-down with his high school theater adviser.

As reported by GOOD Magazine, Miranda returned to Hunter College High School, where he was a student, to meet up with his theater adviser, Gina Nocera McCort. After a squeeful reunion, they sit down to have a conversation about what teaching means to her, and what her work and encouragement meant to him.

He starts by saying that, despite his considerable accomplishments, being back in the school’s auditorium, “still feels like the biggest theater in the world to me.”

Miranda asks her when she realized she was a teacher and what that means for her. “You have to set the bar high, right?” she says. “Set high expectations. I think we did that together. I didn’t say, Oh you guys have to work up here. But I said, ‘What if?’ and you said ‘Okay.’ And I stepped back, and I started asking more questions. Helping them tap into their own spark, wherever that leads them.”

He then thanks her for teaching him, and they hug, and it is magical and brought all my high school drama memories back and made me want to contact my high school drama adviser to say hi (yes, we still keep in loose touch. Hi, Marjorie!).

This is all a part of the #ThanksForTeachingMe campaign, which is related to The Super School Project, an awesome initiative looking to rethink public high school, a system that has remained virtually unchanged basically since its inception.

One thing that will never change is the need for passionate, inspiring, and nurturing teachers. Thank you to all the amazing teachers out there who spend their lives helping the rest of us grow.

(image: screencap)

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15 Reasons America Might Be the Real “Shithole Country”

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Image of Donald Trump from Shutterstock

Donald Trump opened his mouth and something racist came out, shocking approximately zero persons. Specifically, he whined that the U.S. was mostly attracting immigrants from “shithole” countries. The clapback and backlash were swift, especially since Donald Trump and the Republican party are doing their damnedest to make the United States itself into a true shithole.

However, I’m feeling charitable, so I’ll give Trump the benefit of the doubt and assume he is genuinely curious why so many immigrants aren’t interested in coming to the United States. Here’s a brief, and by no means exhaustive, list of reasons why:

  1. We have an undemocratic thing called “the electoral college” which made Donald J. Trump the president, even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes.
  2. 62 million Americans voted to make Donald J. Trump the president.
  3. Our health care prices are some of the highest in the world, but we don’t have better outcomes. Compared to other high-income countries, we have lower life expectancy, more chronic health problems, and higher infant mortality rates than other developed nations. We pay more for less.
  4. The top 10% of earners in the United States now make 50% of all pre-tax income and own 75% of total household wealth, according to a number of economists and a recent report from Deutsche Bank.
  5. The United Nations is investigating the U.S. crisis of extreme poverty. Yes, there is a crisis of extreme poverty in one of the wealthiest nations on Earth.
  6. The city of Flint, Michigan has had a years-long crisis of high lead levels in their tap water, which made it undrinkable and forced them to rely on bottled water. Some Flint homes are still facing higher-than-average lead levels in their water. They are not the only U.S. city with unsafe lead levels in the water.
  7. Our own American Society of Civil Engineers gave the United States a D+ on its infrastructure report card. It would take an estimated $4.59 trillion to get our infrastructure to an adequate B by 2025.
  8. A college education costs more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world, as calculated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
  9. According to the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, the United States ranks 38th out of 71 countries in math, and 24th out of 71 countries in science.
  10. The United States and Papua New Guinea are the only two countries in the world that don’t guarantee paid maternity leave under the law.
  11. With a long history of police brutality, the United States still has a crisis of police killings of civilians. U.S. police kill more people in a few days than many other developed countries kill in a few years, and they disproportionately target minorities.
  12. 33% of Americans cannot name even one of the three branches of government, and 37% of Americans can’t name any of the rights protected by the First Amendment.
  13. The U.S. Congress just passed a historically unpopular tax bill which overwhelmingly benefits the super-wealthy, but they cannot pass gun control legislation favored by 94% of Americans or protections for DREAMers favored by 76% of Americans. Why are their priorities so profoundly undemocratic?
  14. The United States is on track to become the only country in the world that won’t be part of the Paris Climate Agreement, come November 2020.
  15. It bears repeating. 62 million Americans voted to make Donald J. Trump the president.

Now, obviously, no country is really a “shithole country,” because countries are made up of human beings who have intrinsic worth and value; every nation on the planet has made some positive contributions to human culture, innovation, and politics. But before Donald Trump talks trash about the rest of the world, he might want to look a little closer to home—and a little closer at how his own policies are exacerbating America’s problems.

(Image: Shutterstock)

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