I've Got The Rhythm, But I Still Hate The Song

 

So Much.

That's my response when people ask what it's like to teach right now. It is just so much. I honestly have not worked this hard, or this long, or done this much since I student taught 23 years ago. However, 23 years ago I had no idea what I was doing. It's 23 years later and I know very well what I'm doing but it is just harder now. A LOT harder. Who knew that teaching in a pandemic would be this hard? This was definitely not something that was covered in any of my teacher prep classes back in college and it has never been addressed in any staff meetings or professional developments I have ever attended. How has this been particularly difficult? Let me share the ways. However, before I do, let me first say that I am not complaining. I am not a really a complainer, and honestly complainers are probably my number one pet peeve. I hate hearing people complain. So this is not a complaining rant or a woe-is-me diatribe. It is simply the reality of teaching in October of 2020.

We are now almost two months into this school year and it still seems so surreal. Almost Kafkaesque. The school has been transformed into something almost unrecognizable. One way hallways, limited access to bathrooms, one way stairways, and classrooms with half the desks. At my school, Pomona, there is a large tile "P" on the floor in the main hallway. This was THE hangout spot for students. They would congregate there before school, during passing periods, at lunch, and after school. Students would regularly receive texts from friends during class to "meet me at the P". No longer. The P is now visible during passing periods as the students silently and solemnly move about the hallways from class. Absent from the hallways is the usual strident plagency of teenagers engaged in the usual jocularity and gossiping that are commonplace among adolescents. In its place is a placid, eeire quiet more like a seminary than a school. In person the students hardly speak, ever. They simply look at you with their lifeless eyes peering at you above their masks which are covering their expressionless faces. They don't respond to you, they don't laugh, they rarely even speak with one another. Teenage boys, who prior to COVID, found it impossible to keep their hands off of each other, now quietly get out of their desks and stand at the back of the room with their hands dangling lethargically at their sides, staring straight ahead while I spray their desks with a solution to kill any possible Corona virus particles before the next class arrives. When the bell sounds, the students silently file out into the dour hallways, as the next equally morose class enters into the room.

Teaching to the remote students is even my disheartening. You speak at a computer screen filled with black boxes because none of the students will turn on their camera. They are as silent as a grave. You can't help but wonder to yourself 'Are they listening? Are they even there?' Ask a question and it will be followed by a minute or two of deafening silence as you stare hopefully and defeatedly at a series of black boxes on your computer screen. Eventually a disembodied voice will answer from the void. It is never an expansive answer. It is simple, to the point, and absent of any wonderings or nuance. Just as quick as the ghostly voice answers, it is gone. Ask if there are any further questions or problems and the screen remains reticent. So the natural response is to tell them to work on their assignment and to remind them you are available if they have any questions or problems. At this point, one by one the black boxes disappear from the computer screen as they students retreat to their gloomy solitude. The question now is, "Did they understand the work, and more importantly, will they turn it in?' Sadly, for the most part, the answer is no.

I am now in my third decade of teaching and I have never had this many failing grades, ever. It's not from bad scores on assignments or poor test grades. The high number of F's is due solely to the fact that the students simply do not turn in their work. However, it is not all work that they are not turning in, it is overwhelmingly the work they need to do when they are remote that does not get submitted. For whatever reason, any work assigned when the students are remote simply does not get done. Further exacerbating the issue is the fact that I will only see each student in person once a week, the rest of the week they are remote for my class which means that most of the work needs to be done remotely. I use Google Classroom which allows me to look at the students assignments to see what they have done even if they haven't submitted the assignment yet. I've done this often during this school year and, for the most part, the students never even start their remote assignments. This is defeating for teachers as we are left to wonder what else and how else can we teach our content when we only have contact with them once a week. It is even more crushing for the students as they see their grade slowly sink while their work slowly rises. This whole year is a discomfiture for students and teachers and the other side of this is still somewhere around the corner.

I will say that as the school year has progressed I have gotten better in teaching and presenting information. I can confidently say I am a better teacher in this format now than I was in August and I am certainly better now than I was in April. When we began in August, I could not wrap my mind around hybrid teaching. I was going to see my students in person once a week, students would be remote twice a week and I would have each class for a total of three times a week. They were divided up into Group A and Group B by alphabet. Group A would come to school on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday Group A will go to period 1-4, on Tuesday Group A would go to periods 5-7. Each class period is 80 minutes. While Group A was in person, Group B was at home following the same schedule but remotely. On Wednesday and Thursday Group A and Group B switch with Group B being in person and Group A going remote and the same schedule of classes is followed. On Friday both Group A and B are all remote and they go to all their classes which are 50 minutes long. Doing this means I need to have a separate grade book for each class so now instead of having to maintain five gradebooks, I now have ten gradebooks to maintain. Instead of posting work for five classes on Google Classroom, I now need to post work for ten classes. Instead of needing to create two different lesson plans for the two different subjects I teach, I often times now need to create four to six different lesson plans for the two subjects I teach. All of this, of course means more grading (assuming the work will be turned in). At the beginning of the school year, I tried to teach both the remote and the in-person students at the same time. I quickly found this next to impossible as you had to ensure the remote students could not only see what you were doing but also hear what you are doing which is a challenge when you are wearing a mask and not close to the computer. I quickly ditched that idea, that was just too much and too difficult. So now I actively teach the students who happen to be in person that day and I post the work for the day in Google Classroom for the remote students. I usually make a video explaining the work for the day or giving the students content and contextual information they need. Making a video for everyday means I have to take the time to make the video, edit it, download it and then post it. I do this everyday and sometimes I need to make two or three for each day. On top of all this, each class usually has a few all remote learners sprinkled into the mix, so I have to keep them in mind when I'm doing check-ins and posting assignments. 

If this sounds like a lot, it is. If it sounds confusing, it is. When we began in August I was scrambling everyday to keep up and I was exhausted all the time. Having done this for several months now, I've got the rhythm down, I know what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and when it needs to be done. Friday's, I have found, are a God-send for me. I don't regularly meet with my classes, I post the work for the day to Google Classroom for each class at 8:00 am and then I leave my Zoom link open all day if they need to jump on and ask a question or have a problem. Usually they don't but every once in a while a student does come on to ask a question or sometimes they come on just to talk about random stuff. For myself, I use this time to catch up on the week as well as to plan and prepare for the coming week. I have figured out how to make the work more mangealbe but it is still a lot. I am working more, harder and longer than at any point in my teaching career. Because I can no longer go into the school at 4:30 am like I used to, I am at the breakfast counter in the kitchen every morning by 4:30 doing school work. I am at the doors of the school by 5:45 when the custodians are opening the school for the day to get to my room and continue working. I usually stay at school until 4-4:30 in the afternoon working and when I come home, I usually have a few hours of work to finish before I can spend time with my family. I follow this routine everyday Monday-Friday. On weekends, I usually have a few hours of work that I need to do as well. I am putting in on average 70 hours of work a week. It is a lot and it is hard but I figured out the rhythm, I have got the beat to this requiem down, but I still hate the song.  

I do have to say, that while my schedule is overwhelming at times and very difficult, elementary school teachers have it much worse. Their students are there everyday Monday through Friday. They do not have the opportunity to use Friday's as a catch up/plan day. That should and must change if this model is to continue for sometime. 

COVID-19 has absolutely turned all of our lives completely upside down. Everyone's lives are harder, more difficult and more dangerous now than they were last February. My wife, who I adore and dearly love, works in healthcare and she has been going into people's homes and nursing homes to deliver treatment to patients since May. She does this five days a week. Her job is significantly more difficult and more dangerous than it was, but she keeps doing it. She doesn't like it any more than I like what I'm doing. This is the story for all of our society. Everything is different, everything is more arduous but we have all figured out how to make it work. None of us like the song, but at least now we can dance to the beat. My advice on this is simple; keep swimming we are bound to find solid ground at some point. We have to. Right? 

The Wild, Weird, Wacky World of Presidential Campaigns

For whatever reason President elections tend to bring out the worst in our leaders and in ourselves. Are you turned off by the nastiness and brutishness of today’s politics and elections? Just be glad that you live today and were not around during our nation’s past. Your friendly American History teacher here with a quick lesson on the nastiness, bizarreness, and flat-out meanness from past presidential elections.

The election of 1800 between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams  was remarkably sleazy and obnoxious with both sides hurling wild accusations against each other. Supporters of Jefferson charged that Adams was abusive and neglectful of his wife. That he worked against the U.S. on behalf of England. That he supplied several very young prostitutes to a visiting Russian dignitary. And most shocking of all, it was alleged that Adams was a hermaphrodite! Supporters of Adams alleged that Jefferson stole money from a widow and her children. That he was an agent of France. That he was a “slave lover” (this happened to be true, by the way). That he was an Atheist (although he probably was not, he was not really a Christian either). Adams supporters, relying on the fact that lies spread faster than truth especially in 1800, even said that Jefferson had died! Opponents of Jefferson even went so far as to warn that should Jefferson be elected president, his administration would actively teach and support “murder, robbery, and rape!” Of course, Jefferson won the election and none of these things were taught nor supported by Jefferson. 

Throughout our nation’s history there are several instances of similar crazy allegations made against presidential candidates by supporters of their opponents. In 1840, Whig supporters of William Henry Harrison, cast incumbent Martin Van Buren as a rather effeminate dandy who spent taxpayer money on fancy foreign made finger cups in which he would “wash his pretty, tapering, soft, white lily fingers”. Furthermore, Whigs alleged, Van Buren also spent taxpayer money on a closet full of fine silk, frilly clothing. Not one of those allegations were true, but Van Buren nonetheless lost the election. In 1876, Democrats charged that Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes shot his mother. He did not. In 1948 Harry S. Truman stated that a vote for his opponent, Thomas Dewey, was a vote for Fascism. In 1964 the Lyndon Johnson campaign ran a now infamous TV commercial that alluded should Republican Barry Goldwater be elected president, Goldwater would start a nuclear war that would kill your children. In 1988 Republican George H.W. Bush had a commercial that Democrat Michael Dukakis, while governor of Massachusetts, gave weekend furloughs to “268 first degree murders to kidnap, rape and murder some more”. A wildly inaccurate and misleading charge.  

Religion is also a favorite target for scurrilous lies to be spread about presidential candidates. Especially if they can connect them to the Catholic Church. 1856, the Democratic Party charged that the Republican candidate, John C. Fremont, was an alcoholic, a crook and worst of all a Catholic. While Fremont may not have been the most virtuous person, he definitely was not a Catholic. He was an Episcopalian. During the 1928 presidential campaign, many Republican Protestants argued that good Christians could not vote for Democrat Al Smith, who was a devout Catholic, because Catholicism was really a cloak for the forces of Hell. In 1960, it was widely and not so quietly whispered that Americans should not vote for John Kennedy as President because Kennedy would simply be a minion for the Pope. In recent times, religion has again often taken center stage for outrageous accusations against candidates. In 2008 and again in 2012, seizing on the Islamophobia that gripped the nation following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many opponents of Barack Obama alleged that Obama was a Muslim who would institute Sharia Law. Obama was not, nor had ever been an Muslim and he obviously did not impose Sharia Law. During the 2020 election, there were again questions arising about the Democratic nominee Joe Biden, because he is a Catholic and concerns that if he were elected the nation would in essence be turned over to the Vatican. We know that did not happen. 

Recently in the Truly Weird and Bizarre Category there have been allegations- that have been supported by some- , that are so crazy it would seem more appropriate to have come from earlier, more informationally challenged times than now. In 2016 it was alleged that Bill and Hillary Clinton along with the rest of the Democratic Party were running a weird child-sex ring out of a pizzeria in Washington D.C. This was taken so seriously that shortly before the election a “good samaritan” charged into the alleged pizzeria armed with a high power rifle demanding that the surprised and confused pizzeria workers release the child sex slaves from the back room. Also, in 2016 opponents of Donald Trump stated that, while on a business trip to Russia, Trump had two Russian prostitutes urinate on each other while he watched. Eeeeeewwwww. Gross. While Trump did pay a porn star to have sex with him, there is not any evidence that Trump watched Russian call girls urinate on one another. In our current election, Trump seemingly accused Kamala Harris of not actually being black, but instead decided one day that she would say she was black. To be clear, Kamala Harris has always claimed to be partially black, because she is! Her mother was an Indian immigrant and her father is a immigrant from Jamacia. Finally, the election of 2020 provided American voters perhaps the most bizarre story of all. One so kooky and fantastic, not even the supporters of Adams or Jefferson in 1800 could have envisioned it. In our current 2020 election there is a story circulating that shadow forces are at work to ensure that Joe Biden is elected president so he can cover up and protect high ranking members of the American government and powerful figures in the entertainment industry who are Satan worshipping, cannibalistic, pedophiles....WOW! 

Presidential politics have always been fraught with mud-slinging, half-truths, and outright, outrageous lies. We hopefully can take heart that, until very recently, the lies, half-truths and distortions have become more tame over time.  Hopefully, brazen and scurrilous allegations of late are only an anomaly and will fade following the election of 2024. Luckily, no one has accused the other of being a hermaphrodite. Yet.

The Difference Between Now & Then: Restarting School, A Bunch of No Good, Very Bad Decisions

This is different. This is very different.

I've been in education for almost a quarter century and I've seen a lot of weird, bizarre, strange and bad things. But this, the world we are currently in is unlike anything any of us have experienced before. This is the greatest crisis JeffCo Schools have faced since the election of the Bad Board in 2013. But this crisis is much different than that time. This time around there is are not really any "bad guys". The enemy is not anything tangible. During the Troubled Times, there was no doubt who the enemy was. We could see them, we could hear them and they seemed to say and do things weekly, if not daily, to stoke the flames of passion and anger against them. It was easy to focus our energies and anger, there was a focal point and, in 2015, there was an end date- Election Day. If we were able to win at least three seats during that election, education as we knew it in JeffCo would be saved. If we failed, we knew the consequences; JCEA would cease to exist as an official body in JeffCo Schools come the summer of 2016, and then there would probably be a bloodbath of firings and dismissals of those who were deemed "problematic" which was what was currently happening in the Douglas County School District. Either way, we knew the end date was that fateful November day of 2015. Of course we all know the outcome. JeffCo Schools won not just three board seats, all five seats. For all intents and purposes the Reign of Terror was over. Teachers, students and JeffCo Schools were victorious. In this crisis there was a definite, tangible enemy and there was an identifiable end date. This is different.

This time the enemy is a virus. You can't see with the naked eye. It doesn't say or do things on a regular basis that we can easily turn into a rallying point. There is nothing you can look and say, 'There is the bad guy. That's who we are against.' There are not any supporters who are favored and protected or detractors who can be labeled as "Rebels", "Fear-Mongers", or "Troublemakers". No this enemy is invisible, it is silent, and it is more insidious. It is indiscriminate. It will target some, it will strike without reason or warning, for many it will be miserable for a few weeks, for some it will be deadly. Even more frustrating, there is not any end date to which we can point knowing that on that date we will know the end. We don't know. It may be late Fall, it may be early 2021, it may not be until September of 2021, maybe it will linger until 2024. We just don't know. And our response to COVID-19 becomes more complicated by the day.

Presently we are in the middle of the summer. A time when most educators begin thinking about and planning for the coming school year. However, instead of planning for the upcoming year, the issue is now how to restart the school year. District management have changed their plan multiple times since the end of the 19/20 school year. Initially we were told to be prepared to begin the 20/21 school year online. Soon afterwards we were told that the district was considering some sort of hybrid plan with students rotating between in-person and virtual learning. Currently the plan is 100% in-school or 100% virtual. Uuuuugggghhhhhh! As we know, the reaction to this announcement was swift, direct and colored with frustration. COVID cases in Colorado and in Jefferson County are currently rising. Indeed there are more new cases now than there were in mid-March when we ended the school year online. How is this even an logical response? Teachers were sent a survey from the district asking if they their intention was to return to the classroom or if they wanted to teach online. Many, if not most teachers are saying they want to begin the year teaching virtually. If there are enough students who are going to learn online to match up with the number of teachers who want to teach online, everything will work out great. However, the chances of this happening is highly unlikely. There probably will be more teachers wanting to teach online than there will be students who are going to learn online. When this happens, Human Resources and building principals will be saddled with the unenviable task of determining who gets to teach online and who does not. Nothing good can come from this process. The only outcome here is anger, division, rage, and heartbreak. (Despite this current plan from the district, there are ways to influence changes in this plan, continuing reading to find out how) In the interests of full-disclosure, I chose to return to the classroom full time.  I do not like nor do I approve of the current plan. But then I don't know I would be enthused about any decision that could be possibly made at this point. I will certainly be worried everyday in the classroom in front of 100+ students. My reasons are varied. I absolutely hated the end of the past school year. For the first time in my entire teaching career, I felt as though I had failed as a teacher. Also I am reasonably healthy. I am not immunocompromised, I am not taking any prescription medications, no one in my house has any chronic health problems, therefore, I think I should choose to go back to the classroom so that someone whose health is in jeopardy if they return to the classroom should be able to teach online. Now this is my choice. You should make your choice. I can't, I shouldn't, and I won't make any judgments on your choice any more than you should on my choice.

While I disagree with the district's current plan, I also understand, to some degree, their decision. Looking at the results from the community survey, 90% of the respondents stated that they wanted students back in the classroom full-time. Furthermore, any instruction that would be delivered online to students who are at home, inequity becomes a real concern. There is a sizable portion of our student population for whom any online, at home learning will become no learning at all. For many of our students they either do not have access to a device, they do not have access to the internet, or they do not have enough bandwidth to access online learning. For many of our students coming to school is the only time during the day that they will be able to have a hot meal and a warm, relatively safe environment. For many of the parents in JeffCo Schools, they have job that does not or will not allow them to be able to stay at home with their children while they are learning online. The end result of these problems is this; either these students just don't receive any education or they are withdrawn and enrolled elsewhere that will allow them in person learning. This is a no win situation in a battle with a treacherous, invisible enemy.

So, the question becomes this: What can be done to change to the current plan? BE ENGAGED! JCEA is hosting a Town Hall on July 16th at 1:00 to discuss actions that you can take to pressure the district for changes. Write to your school board members and express your concerns. Talk with your neighbors and friends about the dangers and your fears of returning full time. Join one of the many JCEA  Restart Committees to work on actions and solutions to address the problems with returning as well as the inherent inequities of not returning. Tell non-members to join their professional associations. There is greater strength of many speaking as one than there is in speaking alone. We are month away from start of the 20/21 school year, there still many questions and concerns that need and must be addressed and answered before August 24th. Things can, and I fully believe will, change between now and then. What it will take is your efforts and voice to cause that change. Stay informed. Stay vigilant. Stay engaged. We will get through this and we will be better and stronger when we get to the other side. Remember, day always follows night and light always chases dark. Stay Strong JeffCo.

Considering School Restart: A Letter Between My Head, My Heart and My Conscience

For this blog I fashioned it after Thomas Jefferson's famous "Head & Heart Letter". Written in 1786, Jefferson depicted an internal debate between his head and heart after Maria Cosway, a young woman with whom Jefferson had a brief but intense affair with while he was the US Ambassador to France, went home to England with her husband. Jefferson was not above having "questionable" romantic relationships (see Sally Hemmings). Immediately after having seen Mrs. Cosway for the last time, Jefferson sat down and wrote a letter to Maria depicting a debate between his head and heart as they discussed the pros and cons of love and friendship. My blog depicts a debate between not only my head and my heart, but my conscience as well as I wrestle with restarting school in August.

This past week I sat in my hot classroom for 55 1/2 hours grading AP US History exams. I had to learn how to read the essays and grade them according to the standards the College Board wanted completely alone and in isolation. I came to the realization that I dislike learning and reading online as much as I dislike teaching and meeting online. As I sat alone in my classroom looking at my desks which have not been occupied since the middle of March I thought about the restart of school. For every compelling argument for one proposal, there are at least two to three equally compelling arguments against that proposal. I do not know what the right answer is for this problem.

HEART: You seem to be deep in thought.

HEAD: I am thinking about the best way to restart school come August.

HEART: We hated online teaching so it's obvious, we need to go back to in person teaching as soon as possible.

HEAD: I don't disagree.

CONSCIENCE: But, it's not that simple is it? COVID is still out there and it's still a threat isn't it?

HEAD: Yes, it is. I know it doesn't seem to affect younger people as much however many teachers, para's, office staff and custodians do happen to fall into a high risk category. Many of them have their own health issues, many of them have family members who have health issues. On top of all that, these kids will be going home to parents or other relatives who may have their own health issues. What then?

HEART: Well, I'm sure everyone will be required to wear masks, there will be social distancing and the school will be disinfected regularly.

HEAD: Many adults, myself included, hate wearing the masks and often forget to put them on when in public places, how are kids supposed to remember this? Students in the primary grades won't be able to keep the masks on all day, at least not without playing and touching them. Social Distancing? Have you ever seen 8th and 9th grade boys? They can't help but touch each other all day long! They always have to have their hands on each other pushing, shoving, bouncing off of each other. And on recess in elementary school, how do you socially distance recess? As for disinfecting regularly; as you know we are in a budget crunch. Before the budget crunch there weren't enough custodians to regularly and thoroughly clean the school then. They were scrambling just to do the bare minimum, now with even less money they are going to be able to disinfect classrooms as well as the whole school on a regular basis?

CONSCIENCE: Parents have to work. Many can't work from home so their child can learn remotely. We may not be babysitters, but we also know that many parents work their schedules around the times their children are in school. If we are not open students to come back, parents may begin to withdraw their student to enroll them into a school or a school district that is open. That means even less money coming into the district. Both of you know those are not possibilities, but realities.

HEAD: This is also true.

HEART: (sigh) I know. But if we don't go back full time, think about the amount of education lost  to these students. We know there is an education regression that takes place during the summer, think about how much will happen if we don't go back until January of 2021 or later.

HEAD: In the late 1940's, during polio outbreaks, there were entire school systems that were shuttered for a year and the kids would simply resume their education where they left off at. Those kids seemed to do fairly well. Kids are pretty resilient.

HEART: What about performance, arts and occupational skills classes? Those really cannot be taught or learned virtually.

HEAD: Fair question for which I don't have an answer. What if  we do temperature checks daily and regular on-going testing? Besides the question of how will these be paid for during a budget crisis, what if a teacher shows up to work but is found to have a temperature or tests positive? Who will cover those teachers classes? We have enough trouble finding enough substitutes as it is, do you really think it will get any easier during a pandemic?

HEART: No, it won't.

CONSCIENCE: Would some sort of hybrid model work? With some of the students in school for one or a few days while other students are at home learning remotely. Then a rotation takes place with some of the students at home come into school to learn and the students who were previously in class learn at home? You could break the class up into thirds. Might that be better? It would allow all of the students some in-person learning and teachers in-person contact?

HEART: This might be the best of both worlds. There are somethings that really must be taught and learned in-person while there are other things that can be done at home as well as they can be done in a classroom. Plus if a student contracts or come into contact with the virus, they can stay at home for 2-3 weeks as they recuperate, continue learning without infecting others in school.

HEAD: Let's seriously think this one through. Let's say the class is divided into thirds, so that at any given time the teacher is seeing one third of their students in class while the other two thirds are learning at home. First, teachers and other school staff are pretty much still at the same risk of exposure as they would be if we went fully back.

Two, let's assume that we are going to divide the class into thirds. It seems to me that you are going to be needing to create three different lesson plans for the same class. One set for the students who you currently have in class, one set for the students who just rotated out of your class and another set of lesson plans for those who are to rotate next into your class. This seems to be very confusing and unwieldy for even the most organized and seasoned teacher. How will a newbie teacher keep up with this? In the elementary grades, teachers teach multiple contents therefore you are asking them to create at least three lesson plans for each content. If they teach reading, writing, math, and are the science teacher for their team they are being asked to create three different lesson plans for four different subjects. All of us know we are not very good at math, but I'm pretty sure that's twelve different lesson plans. Secondary teachers are not in much better shape as most of them teach at least two different subjects.

All of you know that we go into school everyday at 4:30 in the morning to start working on lesson plans, grading papers and post assignments. We do that so we can go home and be with our family and not bring work home with us. Sometimes, even going in at 4:30 am is not enough time to do everything we need to do. Can you imagine what it will be like if we do a hybrid model? I'm pretty sure it goes well outside of our contract.

HEART: You make a lot of valid points. Another concern is equity. Even if we supply students will a Chromebook or some other laptop, many students don't have internet at home or unreliable internet.

Many of our students are homeless and rely on coming to school to eat, to be warm and dry at least for a while. If we do adopt a hybrid model how are we addressing their needs?

CONSCIENCE: Another thing to consider in any virtual learning situation is the reality of the home. Many families may have a computer, but only one but may have two or more students at home. Who gets to use the computer first? For how long? What if the internet bandwidth won't allow for multiple computers to access the internet at the same time? What if there is nowhere in the home for the student to go that will allow them the solitude and quiet to learn and work?

HEART: Maybe we should just stay with all remote learning until a vaccine is found or the virus is at a very low level. We did it for ten weeks at the end of the last school year, we can just resume teaching and learning the same way. That way, everyone stays safe and there is not any risk of infection and it would probably be cheaper in the long run since we are in a budget crunch.

HEAD: You cannot be serious. First off, what we did at the end of last semester was not really teaching and learning, it was triage. It was emergency education. We were figuring out what was the most important and immediate information from the curriculum that students needed and then we were trimming it down into something that could be easily consumed online by students. Depth of knowledge and complexity went by the wayside. Of course it did. None of us had been trained how to teach online. We didn't know what we were doing. We just did it because there wasn't an option. But real teaching and learning? That didn't happen. We are not online teachers, we are not trained in that and our students were not really online students, they too were lacking many of the skills needed.

Secondly, all of you saw what happened in our classes as online learning progressed last school year. Engagement steadily dropped. At the end we were lucky if half of our classes checked in for attendance. By the beginning of May if a quarter of our class turned in their assignment we considered it a victory. And our story is not unique, almost every other teacher we spoke with had the same issues. And these were students with whom we already had a relationship with, they knew who we were, they knew what to expect. What will it be like if we start the next school year with students who don't have any relationship with us? How likely are they to engage with the class or us online?

CONSCIENCE: The whole issue of parents having to work and the equity piece must be a heavy consideration with this proposal.

HEART: But if we want to keep ourselves, our families, our students and our students families safe, this may be the only alternative for now. You don't want yourself or anyone else to get sick or die from this do you?

HEAD: No, of course not. That's the only reason this option would even be considered. Safety is paramount, that's the first and last consideration.

But what if there is not a vaccine in the near future and the virus doesn't begin to fade? What then? Do we conduct school virtually until then? For how long? A year? Two years? Indefinitely until there is a vaccine or the virus dissipates? Is that a viable option?

HEART: Probably not....

CONSCIENCE: So, we know school will restart in August at some point, what's the best way to do it?

HEART: I don't know.

HEAD: There isn't a good answer.

CONSCIENCE: Every answer is better than any other answer and every proposal is worse that every other proposal.

...

HEART: You seem to be deep in thought.

HEAD: I am thinking about the best way to restart school come August....

Racism, Responsibility and The Social Contract

Social Contract: An implicit agreement among members of a a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. If the state fails in upholding this contract, the members of society have a duty and a right to demand the state adhere to the Social Contract. If the state fails to comply, the members of the society have a right and an obligation to change the state.

Over the last few days I have been fairly silent. I have been trying to make sense of the world, events, and people. There have been so many things happening in our nation over the past week, accompanied by the dissonance of competing views and actions, often leveled at those who are allies in the debate. When I am trying to make sense of situations and problems I don't react, I listen. I have found that being reactionary serves no real purpose other than to further fan the flames of unfocused passion and often only exacerbates the existing problem. So I listen. I listen to both sides, intently and actively. While I listen, I think and begin to ferret out my own thoughts and opinions. This past week has been particularly vexing as there are so many angles and issues, all with their own independent problems, tied into one single idea: The Social Contract.

Racism and Race Relations
Racism or bigotry in any form is wrong. If you believe that any group of people or any individual is inferior to you because of the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, who they are attracted to, their political beliefs, their economic situation, their nationality, or their ethnicity it is not these people who are inferior, it is you. If you hold these beliefs, you are inferior because you are so insecure in who you are and what you believe that you are scared and threatened by those who are different than you. You would rather be wrapped in the weighted blanket of insularity and remain sequestered as a monk in your gloomy cell of uniformity. Simply because someone does not look the same as you, live the same as you, or see the world the same as you does not make them bad or wrong, it just makes them different. If you are scared of people who are different, I really do pity you. If you just hate or dislike people who are different, I truly believe there is a special place in hell for you.

I have written a past blog on racism as well as a blog post on what I believe to the be the origins of bigotry in the United States so I do not intend to spend much time on those issues here. However, I will say this; While race issues may seem to be unique to the United States, they are unique only by circumstance. We are a nation that really has no defined nationality or ethnicity. We all say we are "Americans", but what does that really mean? There is not any real nationality or ethnicity that is "American". American is a made up term to encompass a broad swath of people who came here, and still come here, from all over because they believed that here was better than where they came from. This is truly special. It is also a curse, because with such diversity in looks, beliefs and lifestyles comes suspicion and ignorance. These are the prime ingredients of bigotry and racism. We have overcome many of these problems but for every one we overcome, there are five more to confront. We can do better and, I believe, we will continue to work towards fulfilling the promise of America. One step at a time.

Responsibility
I, like most of the world, was shocked and horrified when I saw the video of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police officers. What happened was inexcusable, inexplicable, and disgusting. Those police officers should go to prison and never again see the light of day as free men. Since that incident, I have spent time thinking about "law and order" in the United States and I have come to this conclusion: It is time to have real, honest conversations about how to apply and preserve "law and order" in this nation.

I think it is inescapable to come to the conclusion that minorities in this nation, particularly young black males, have entirely different experiences with law enforcement than do whites, particularly white males. I have never been fearful of law enforcement in my life and when I have had interactions with the police never have I been worried about how that interaction would turn out. I have had several students of color tell me that they when they have interacted with the police they are very worried about how the situation will resolve. All we need to do is look at two events that took place just days apart. In Michigan many angry people, most of whom were white men, entered the Michigan state capitol wearing combat fatigues and tactical gear with weapons- many of which were semi-automatic weapons. These protesters stood toe to toe with a phalanx of police officers who were preventing them access to the state legislature chambers, yelling and spitting in the faces of these officers. The officers stood their ground, calmly took the abuse and allowed these "freedom protesters" to make their voice heard. At no point did it become violent or chaotic save for the wanna-be soldiers who felt it necessary to parade around a state capitol building with high powered weapons. Now juxtapose this to George Floyd who was an unarmed black male being arrested for attempting to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. The result of this fairly low level crime was Mr. Floyd laying face down on the pavement handcuffed while a police officer knelt on his neck applying his body weight and slowly choking to death Mr. Floyd while several other officers stood and watched. The response to both of these situations was remarkable. The amount of restraint shown in one and the lack of restraint shown in the other. Unfortunately, these juxtapositions are not exclusive and isolated to these incidents. There are several, well documented instances where minorities- young male minorities specifically, and young black males in particular- are treated, or mistreated far differently than are whites, specifically white males. This inequity has got to change. The creed of our nation, and our bond of humanity demands that this be changed.

One step in this direction is identifying and eradicating the "bad cops" from the police force. There are "bad apples" who are not police for the right reasons and are there to satisfy some unmet need in their lives. These "bad cops" sully the reputation of all police officers. It is for this reason that all police officers must "out" the bad cops. If a cop is abusing their position, and is an officer for any reason other than protecting and serving their community they need to outed as well as be dismissed. All of this "protect our own" nonsense has got to stop. If protecting your own interferes with protecting the community, then the police have failed in their mission. If the mission of police is to protect and serve the community, then it is the duty of the 98% who are good cops to help rid themselves of the 2% who are not upholding that mission. One bad cop destroys the standing of one thousand good cops.

I am not painting in a broad stroke that all police are bad. Because I know they are not. I personally know and have known many police officers. I count among my friends several police officers. They do, day in and day out, a very tough but important job. I know that the overwhelming majority of police do their job for the right reasons. I admire their tenacity and dedication. I too work in a profession that has some image problems. There are people out there who believe that lots of teachers go into education so that they can have access to young children, groom them and then subsequently abuse them. These same people also believe that if teachers are not abusing students, they know teachers who are. Both of these notions are wildly inaccurate. The vast majority of teachers go into education for the right reasons. If I knew of a teacher who was abusing students I would feel a moral and a professional obligation to report that teacher immediately. Not doing so makes me complicit and would represent a colossal failure on my part. Any time a teacher does abuse a student it damages the reputation of my profession, I have a duty to protect myself and my profession by turning in any teacher I know perpetrating such acts. I do not want that teacher to be the face or representative for my profession. Police need to have the same mentality. It is our shared responsibility for those that we serve as well as our professions.

The Social Contract
Over the past several days I have heard and read in various forms these two statements: Why are they rioting and looting? and America has a historical record of enacting change through riots. Both are valid points to a degree, but both, I believe, are limited as well.

I understand the rage and anger of the protests this past week. The frustration is palatable. Peaceful protest is a protected and cherished right in this nation. Violent protest is not protected. The protests that were at times loud and disruptive and at other times solemn and powerful were immensely effective. However, when the riots became destructive that's when the impact of the protest was lost. Indiscriminately shattering windows, destroying or defacing property, or looting only erodes the message and only serves to limit any public support for the movement. However, it is also a manifestation of the fury and sense of helplessness felt by segments of society. Is it unhelpful? Without a doubt. Is it to a degree understandable? Perhaps.

As for the argument that riots have helped bring about change in America, this notion is true as well, with this caveat; the overwhelming majority of riots that helped bring about change were very targeted and focused riots. If we look at the most famous riot in American history, the Boston Tea Party, it was very focused on one specific thing, English tea. There was not indiscriminate destruction or rioting that took place. The same is true with Bacon's Rebellion in which western Massachusetts farmers attacked and burnt courthouses that were foreclosing on farms due to unfair taxes. Again in Nat Turner's Rebellion, the violence was focused on their oppressors and not on everyone. When the Minneapolis Police Precinct building was burned this past week, shocking as it was, that was a powerful and focused statement. The shattering of windows and destruction of private vehicles in the street? Not so much.

In all of the instances mentioned above, including the burning of the Minneapolis Police Precinct, were the result of people realizing that the Social Contract between them and the state had been broken. Under this theory, when the state is unable or unwilling to adhere to the Social Contract, the people have the right to demand changes to the Social Contract. In focused attacks those demands are being forced upon the state.

Epilogue
I firmly believe that these events of the past week will serve some good. It will force long needed conversations to take place about American society. We need to further discuss the role of race and racism in America. We need to re-examine police culture and policing tactics in this nation. We need to reflect upon and rededicate ourselves to the American Promise and the ideals upon which this nation was found.

Moving forward, I think we will make progress in race relations and systemic problems in this country. It still won't be perfect, and there will still be work to be done but we will be closer to the end than we were before. Ultimately that is the story of America, we are not perfect, we will never be perfect, but we will always strive to achieve a more perfect union.

When the "Good Old Days" Really Were And It was Just Weeks Ago.

This is not the blog I was planning to post today.

Today is graduation. Or at least it was supposed to be. Today was the day that my wife and I had circled and highlighted on every calendar- electronic and paper- that we had. Today my oldest son was going to wear his gown, wear his stupid looking hat that somehow signify's that you are smart, hear his name announced, walk across the stage, receive his diploma, and graduate from high school.

I had the entire day built up in my mind what it would look like. I would sit in the same row as my son so I could give him a giant hug when he returned the row after having received his diploma cover. My wife, my youngest son and the rest of our families would all be there at the arena to witness this momentous event. My blog today was going to detail what a truly special day this was and how it was a testament to fortitude and resiliency as my son's path to this moment was not an easy one and indeed there were moments that I thought it would never happen.

Alas, it will not happen. But the reason for it not happening has nothing to do with the reasons I thought it might not, it happened because of a pandemic that has completely altered every facet of every persons life.

When it was first announced in mid-March that school would be closed due to the Coronavirus, my first thought was, 'Well, we'll be out for a few weeks and then we'll be back. I can do virtual teaching until the middle of April.' I eagerly jumped into teaching via my computer. It was a novelty, it was an adventure, and it was just for a few weeks. Quickly, the uniqueness of virtual teaching wore off. Then, it was announced that we would not be coming back at all during the school year. That was devastating. My little world, as I knew it, was no more. Very often you hear people talk about the "good old days" and more often than not, upon closer examination, those old days really were not good, people just remember their past to be better than it really was. In this case however, the "old days" really were much better than the present because the present days, well.....suck.

There are a number of things I miss about the "good old days". I miss going to dinner, drinks and a movie. I miss going to hear live music. I miss not being able to attend sporting events. Heck, I even miss just going shopping. But most of all I miss my job. I've read that most people really do not like their jobs, so I must be an exception. I absolutely love my job. And I really miss it.

I miss the cacophony of sounds as students come into my classroom. I miss the joking and gentle teasing that I have with my students as we work our way through American History. I miss working one on one with students who are struggling with understanding the importance of Contextualization and Point of View when reading documents. I miss the banter with colleagues in the hallway during passing periods. I miss the laughter and bizarre conversations with my department during lunch. I even miss arriving at school every day at 4:30 in the morning to start my day. I miss teaching.

This current format of teaching and learning is as good as could be expected for something was literally created as it was being implemented. But let's be honest, it is truly is not working.  Everyday I have assignments for my students to do. I have, for the most part, stayed on my planned pace of instruction but I really don't feel like I'm teaching. For the first time in my entire career, I really do feel like I've failed my students in giving them the very best I could give them. The worst part of that is this; It isn't anyone's fault and that is the most frustrating thing. Are my students learning? I honestly don't know. In the classroom I can look at them and tell if they are or not. On the computer, it's hard to say.

I read in the newspaper that the district said that student engagement is quite high. My experience is quite the opposite. Judging from posts I've read and conversations I've had with other teachers, their experience is very similar to mine. Initially, it was fairly good. Students were checking in on the attendance and were doing the assignments. I would receive a fair amount of emails with questions about the content or the assignment and they would show up for Zoom meetings. As virtual learning progressed, student engagement began to wane. When it was announced that student grades were essentially frozen on March 13th,meaning whatever their grade was on March 13th that would be the lowest possible grade they could finish the year with, student engagement plummeted. It is now not unusual for around 50% of my students to check into attendance. In my computer grade book, the cell turns red if a student receive a failing grade on an assignment. In the last few weeks my gradebook looks as though someone cut an artery on my gradebook as it is now a sea of red. Yeah, this is working pretty well.

Now there is talk about what the Fall will look like. It has been proposed that we would operate on rotating split schedules with about a 1/3 of the students on any given day being in the classroom and the other 2/3 would be learning on-line. Meaning that teachers would have to have lessons for virtual learning as well as in person learning. Essentially double the workload for teachers, but oh yeah, hey teachers might be asked to work for less. More work for less pay, that seems legit. If we stay on virtual learning, what about students who don't have reliable or any internet access? If student engagement has precipitously dropped over the last few weeks, what will it look like if we pick up again in August? What about the enormous learning gap that most educational experts are predicting for current students because of this virtual learning. How do we close that gap by re-engaging in virtual learning in the fall?  On the other hand, how can we do this in August when parents, hopefully, will be back to work? What does that look like for a 1st grader? If we open up schools again, how does that work? Children in general, middle school boys in particular, are walking germ magnets. What about teachers that have compromised immune systems or are otherwise susceptible to the virus? There are not any good answers to any of these, the only answer we do have it that all of this will take place with even less money than before. So here's a hearty handshake (or elbow bump) and a laurel wreath and good luck! You can do this.

Our current reality isn't working. It's just not. It takes a special kind of student and and special kind of teacher to excel at virtual teaching and learning. Most teachers and most students don't fall into that category. For most teachers and most students this is a real struggle and it is not working. At all. At the beginning of this year, I thought to myself "Wow, I only have 9 years until I can retire. But I could see myself going another 12-15 years. Why not? I love what I do." At the end of my 21st year of teaching I now think "I have 8 more years? If it is anything like the past few months, can I make it 8 more years?"

Here's my hope. Although this is as bad as it seems, it's not forever. At some point things will return to as close to normal as possible. I will be able to go out for dinner, drinks and a movie again. I will be able to go shopping again. And my son Ayden, is scheduled to have his graduation ceremony this August. and I will be able to hug him after he exits the stage. At some point I will have students in my classes again. There will be laughing and jocularity with my co-workers again. I will once again be engaged in the great Cell Phone Wars in my classroom. And all will seem to be right again as the current Bad New Days give way to the Good Old Days. Always have faith.

Fixing Education? I've Got A Plan For That!

It is among the most widely believed untruths in all of American society. To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, 'It rings like a fire-bell in the night': "Our schools are failing our kids". Few things in the last 40 or so years has caused as much unneeded panic and alarm as this oft-repeated, widely believed misconception. The release of the 1983 report on public education. A Nation At Risk was the first shot across the bow for the education alarmists. Then came the highly ambitious but incredibly unrealistic brainchild from Ted Kennedy and George W. Bush, No Child Left Behind. For whatever reason, in the past few weeks, the Trump administration has been ramping up the "schools are failing" rhetoric. In between these two watershed moments in education as well as after them came a cavalcade of various education reforms, agendas, curriculum's, antidotes, and silver bullets all guaranteed to address and fix the ails of American education. 


I am currently in my 21st year of teaching, and I have seen this endless silly parade of education reforms. Their life cycles are all the same: They come in with a flourish with a whole new set of acronyms (education has never met an acronym it didn't absolutely love) and buzz words, lots of training, admonishments if you are not seen as faithfully implementing the new scheme into your lessons, and then within 3-5 years it is gone only to be replaced by a different program which promises to do the exact same thing the previous program did but only better. If you stick around for 10+ years (which unfortunately most teachers don't- more on that in a moment) you begin to realize that these "new" programs are just recycled old programs just with a different name.

Here is the clean, unvarnished truth about education in the United States: It is not failing, it is not close to failing. Comparing those all important test scores of American students to the rest of the world is folly at best. The US educates ALL students in much the same way all through high school, meaning that ALL US students are required to take the same tests. In Europe and the rest of the world, this is not necessarily the case. Furthermore, the vast majority of students graduating from American high schools are leaving with skills and knowledge that will benefit them and in turn society as a whole. I can honestly say, that students graduating in 2020 will leave high school knowing more than myself and my peers did in 1989. And I know that when I graduated from high school, my classmates and I knew more than those who had graduated in 1969. On the whole, education is not failing, it is fulfilling its charge in American society.

However, that does not mean that education in the US cannot be improved because it can. It does not mean that there are not reforms- REAL, TANGIBLE reforms- that should be taken, because there are. If I were to be named the Grand Education Czar and could do whatever I pleased in making education better, I would definitely have some ideas.

All Education Policy Makers Must Have A Background In Classroom Instruction
Just because you are rich or spent some time as a child in a classroom does not make you an expert in education much less earn you the right to make decisions for education. We certainly don't allow regular people to make policy decisions for any other profession. Only in education do non-experts get to make decisions about how best to teach, or the best curriculum to use, or the best way to organize our school days, or... and the list goes on. Bottom line, unless you have been in a classroom as an instructor and have a track record of being effective in education, you don't get to set policy.

School Choice Is Fine, But The Choices Must Be Equal
I am a huge proponent of having choice. I certainly don't want only one choice for my meal when I go out to eat, I don't want one choice when I'm buying a car, and I don't want one choice when choosing which cereal to buy at the grocery store. Choice is a hallmark in any free-market society. School should be no different. However, if a school is going to receive tax-payer funds, it must follow the same regulations and requirements that other tax funded schools must follow. All teachers must be licensed teachers, all students must be accepted and serviced- and I mean ALL students must be accepted and serviced, you cannot pick and choose what you will teach and what you will not teach, you will teach the same topics and subjects that all other tax funded schools are expected to teach. If a school receives tax money, then that school must be held accountable and follow the same set of rules that all others follow. That said, no tax money should be diverted to private schools, especially religious ones. That is a dangerous mix of church and state as well as sending money to entities who answer to no one but themselves. We certainly wouldn't allow tax money to be diverted to private police departments or fire departments, why would we do the same in education?

Stop The Ridiculousness With Teacher Evaluations
Currently the teacher evaluation system in Colorado is a mess. That is actually a very kind statement. It is overwhelming, unruly, confusing, overly burdensome, and woefully inconsistent. Some of it is the fault of state law which has set up a system designed to weed out ineffective teachers. A noble undertaking to be sure but difficult to quantify. Furthermore, the requirement of yearly evaluations for veteran Effective and Highly Effective teachers is unwieldy and problematic for administrators. If I have a track record of being at least an Effective teacher every year for the last several years, am I really going to be any less effective the next year? Doing these yearly evaluations for all teachers is to the determent of younger teachers or truly Ineffective teachers who do need a lot of support to become an Effective classroom teacher. However, part of this problem is also the fault of districts and individual administrators. Why do some districts or administrators insist on beginning every school year with the assumption that all teachers are beginning at "Ground 0" instead of assuming that all teachers are at least Effective and go from there? If your teachers are not at least beginning as Effective teachers, what does that say about you as a district or administrator? You chose these teachers to be in you building. Are you saying you chose teachers who were less than effective to be in front of students? Moreover, the evaluation is so long and so exhaustive an administrator will probably never see ALL of the indicators on the evaluation. Just because you didn't see an indicator or requirement don't assume that the teacher doesn't do that requirement. I have heard of administrators marking down teachers on their evaluation because they didn't see the teacher do the indicator. That's just crazy. Again, the administrator chose these teachers because they believed they were the best, administrators should show some faith in their teachers as well as their own judgement.

Increase Educator Pay
When I say educator, I mean the people who are actually in the buildings working with students everyday from the cafeteria workers, to the custodians, to the secretary, to the para's, to the teachers. All of them. Most teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching. If you want to reduce teachers leaving the classroom, increase the pay. When compared to workers in other fields with similar education requirements, teacher pay is well below those other fields. Stop increasing pay of district administrators, stop hiring people at district administration buildings, start funneling that money to the building employees. Simple.

If You Have An Educator License, You Will Be A Substitute
Jefferson County Schools has a severe sub shortage. On any given day, it is not unusual for a sub job in a building to go unfilled. We are not unique. There are two main reasons for this; low unemployment and low substitute pay. Usually, it is other teachers in the building who are expected to become the sub giving up their planning periods or combining classes. This is frustrating and exasperating. I have a solution to at least alleviate this problem: If you have an Education Licence but you are not assigned to a classroom you would be required to spend at least three days every semester as a substitute teacher. This would apply to the Superintendent on down to building level administrators. This would lower the number of unfilled sub jobs as well as exposing district and building administrators to the everyday realities of the classroom. I have found that once someone is out of the classroom for three or more years, they lose touch with the realities of the classroom and teaching. This would help keep them rooted in sensibilities and not theories.

Ban Cellphones
These are the greatest detriment to education today. I am absolutely convinced of that. Anyone who says otherwise has never had to compete for the attention of a 15 year old who was more interested in the latest amusing video on social media or the importance of scheduling a bathroom break with their friends. France has outlawed all cell phones in their schools. We should as well. Generations of students have gone to school without them (myself included) and survived. Get rid of them.

Improve Discipline
I am not in favor of running classrooms or schools like a prison, nor do I expect absolute obedience from students. Students are children and will do dumb or bad things. It's part of childhood and growing up. However, I believe that schools have become too tolerant of certain behaviors. There are students who should not be in a regular school setting because they are habitually disruptive, however, because of some notion that we cannot deny students an opportunity to an education, these students are allowed to remain in schools. The right of one student does not come before the rights of other students to learn. If a student is unwilling or unable to refrain from interfering with the rights of other students to learn, that student should not be allowed to remain in class or school. I do not support arbitrary, capricious, or instantaneous removals, but if a student has proven themselves to be detrimental to the decorum of classrooms and schools, they do not have the right to deny the rights of others.

So, there you have it. If I were in complete control of education policy these are the changes I would like to see take place. Education is at times messy, convoluted, confusing and sometimes...dumb. But it is so vitally important. In a nation such as ours, which allows so much choice and freedom, education is essential. Therefore, our attention to education is essential.

Pride and Prejudice 2020

"Angry people are not always wise." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice 

My wife and I recently did a genetics test through 21 & Me. My results were, for the most part, unsurprising; 99.7% Northwestern European descent, mostly Scotch-Irish, some French and German, a small percentage of Scandinavian, and .3% North African/Arab. The last part was the lone surprising part. I had no idea I had any African or Arab genetics. Interesting. That is truly fascinating and so cool. We are all truly interlinked in so many ways.

I have always known that I was mostly Scotch-Irish. I was raised in an Irish Catholic house and I take a great deal of pride in my heritage. I hold a great deal of affinity for the Catholic Church while also acknowledging their excesses and innumerable failings throughout history up to and including today. I am very proud to be a Scotch-Irish American. In my classroom I proudly display the Irish and Scottish flags as well as the American flag. Every summer one of my favorite events is the Scotch-Irish Festival. One of my all time favorite books was "How The Irish Saved Civilization", and my profile picture on Facebook is one of me in a kilt. I take a great deal of pride in who I am and my heritage. Everyone should have pride in who they are, their ancestors, as well as their culture. However, there is a very thin, but very distinct, line between pride and prejudice.

 All too often throughout history people have either blurred, blended, or confused Pride and Prejudice. Within the past few years there has been a proliferation of groups who claim to be promoting pride of their culture or otherwise defending their heritage from perceived threats. They claim to not be prejudiced in any way, just expressing pride in their heritage. Proud Boys and Identity Evorpa, and the  American Identity Movement immediately come to mind. These are organizations that claim to only be defending Western European culture and promoting its successes. They claim that they are not bigoted or racist but with the next breath also claim that all other cultures outside of Western Europe or Anglo-Saxon ancestry are not as accomplished as those of Western European descent. These organizations and others similar to them are quick to point out that there are any number of organizations in existence that promote pride in African, Hispanic, Latino, and Asian cultures, so why can there not be organizations that promotes pride in white or Western European accomplishments? The answer for me is quite simple. For the most part the organizations promoting pride and culture outside of the WASP-ish (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) world are not advocating that those who are not like them, look like them, or think like them are lesser than them. Nor are these groups arguing for the exclusion of the WASP heritage in deference to theirs. Instead they are simply asking for the inclusion of their cultures along side Western European cultures. Inclusion does not mean less for Western European culture, it just recognizes that there are others who are equally important. Groups like the Proud Boys, the American Identity Movement, and Identity Evropa see inclusion of these other identities as a threat to or exclusion of Western society. Very often these groups will claim that all races, ethnicity's, all life-styles are allowed to join their various organizations however it is with the explicit understanding that Western European cultures are superior to all others. And there is that thin, but very distinct, line between pride and prejudice. Prejudice sees those who are not like them as inherently inferior, pride does not.

Very often the genesis of these misguided, dangerous ideals comes down to an attempt of using historical evidence to support their perceived preeminence. However, these attempts are always very narrow in scope and ignorant, often willingly, of the greater historical record. In the case of the aforementioned groups, they trumpet that Western European and American civilizations are superior to all others because of their contributions in politics, economics, religious, scientific, and social arenas.  If you are to only focus on the past 350+ years, it is difficult to dismiss this notion. Since the 1600's the history of humankind has been, for the most part, dominated by western civilization (we can debate the merits of this at another time). However, this is such a narrow construct of reality. It is ignorant of the previous 5,000 years of civilization. The earliest civilization was born along the Tigris and Euphrates River in present day Iraq. Some of the most sophisticated and advanced civilizations for their time were Asian. Indeed the largest, contiguous empire in history was Asian (Mongol Empire). During the Middle Ages, when Europe was woefully underdeveloped, and generally backwards in all manners of life, the most dominate and advanced societies on Earth was that of Arabic Muslims. From these Arab cultures tremendous advances took place in medicine, mathematics, science, astronomy. If we are to measure success in terms of material wealth, the richest person ever was a 14th century African ruler by the name of Mansa Musa of Mali. His wealth was so great that is generally described by historians and scholars of Musa as being "inconceivable". Musa was so wealthy that during a trip to Egypt he gave so much money to the poor there that he single handily caused massive inflation in the Egyptian economy. Not even Jeff Bezos would be capable of doing any such thing. In addition, during the middle ages there were cities that were larger and far more advanced in the Americas than anywhere in Europe. So, to claim some sort of supremacy based on a very narrow tunnel view of the past 350+ years while turning a blind eye towards the previous 5,000 years is enormously misleading and insincere at best.

I believe it is fine to take pride in the accomplishments of your culture and past. You should. I certainly do. I take great pride in being of Scotch-Irish descent. I would never want to be anything else. I love being an American. I would never want to be from somewhere else nor would I ever want to live anywhere else. I am happy to be a Catholic. I've never had any interest in converting to any other religion. While I take a great deal of pride in my heritage, I also acknowledge that I am not always proud of everything that my people have done. Scottish people have done some terrible things, as have the Irish. American history certainly not one that is always good or honorable. The Catholic Church has a long history of various abuses and immoral acts. But I also know that there is not a civilization, religion, ethnicity, or race that does not have similar skeletons in their respective closets. Despite the transgressions of the people with whom I identify, I have always taken pride in who I am. I am proud to say I am an American Catholic of Scotch-Irish decent. However, I do not believe that any of these things are better or superior to any other culture or heritage. Every culture, every heritage, every religion has something to be proud of as well as something to be ashamed for. Take pride in who you are and your heritage, but never believe- even for a moment- that who you are and what you believe makes you better or superior to those who do not share similar views or lineage. That is the thin, but very distinct, line between acceptance and hate. Between Pride and Prejudice.