Tag: education policy

Categories
politics

A Brief Statement Regarding the Gathering of Kyles in Kyle, Texas

Tomorrow, Sunday, May 21, 2023, at 4 p.m. local time, the city of Kyle, Texas, will host a gathering of Kyles in Kyle Park in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with the same first name.

As happened before when an event regarding the name “Kyle” swept the news cycle, the nation’s Kyles convened in groups of 99 via Zoom to determine how we felt as a group about the news-causing event. The online convention was attended by over 90,000 Kyles from around the country, including just under a hundred ex-patriated Americans who go by the name Kyle.

Because this was our second online convention, we were able to dispense with preliminary discussions about how the process would work, and each group agreed from the outset that the representatives we elected at our previous convention would remain in place.

Humbly, this decision made me the de facto spokesperson for the nation’s Kyles. I did not and do not take this role lightly. I understand that my rëelection does not mean that the way I feel about a particular issue is the way all Kyles feel about that issue; instead, it means they trust me to craft the opinion of the majority of Kyles, regardless of how I feel.

With that being said, I offer the following statement regarding the gathering of Kyles in Kyle, Texas, on behalf of the nation’s Kyles:

In 2021, the state of Texas prohibited the right of child-bearing persons to have an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. It also created a civil enforcement measure that allows any non-governmental employee to sue any other person involved in providing or intending to provide an abortion, including those who pay for the abortion. It also banned abortion-inducing medicine from the state, forbidding its delivery by mail, delivery service, or courier.

Between July 2021 and June 2022, school administrators in Texas banned over 800 books from their schools, making it the most censorious state in the nation. Between July and December 2023, Texas added another 438 instances of public school districts removing books from libraries and classrooms. The wave of book bans have caused entire classrooms and school libraries to suspend access to all of the books on their shelves in order to evade potential lawsuits.

Earlier this week, the governor of Texas announced he would sign Senate Bill 14 into law, which will prevent transgender youth from receiving puberty blockers and hormone therapies and undergoing gender-affirming surgeries (which are rare among children). Puberty blockers and hormone therapies are critical tools for improving the mental health of transgender children and stemming the high suicide rates among transgender individuals.

(Speaking for myself and as a teacher of several transgender students, I know that the loss of such medical care would likely cause more than one of my students to descend into irrecoverable depression and eventually result in a suicide attempt.)

Further, the governor of Texas has directed the Texas Department of Family Protective Services to investigate the parents of transgender youth, categorizing any attempt at providing transgender-affirming care for their child as “child abuse.” While courts have prevented the state from investigating specific families, it has not issued a universal ban on the state’s policy. Schools have pulled trans students from their classrooms to be interrogated about their medical care. Teachers, who are mandated reporters, are required to report to the state any knowledge they have of families who allow their children to live in a manner counter to the gender inscribed on their birth certificate.

During the 2023 legislative session and its special sessions, Texas legislators put forward 76 bills that targeted the LGBTQ+ community. These bills called for:

  • allowing Texas residents to file civil lawsuits against anyone who helped another Texas resident receive gender-affirming care, including out-of-state residents
  • removing the statute of limitations for malpractice claims related to gender-affirming care, allowing people to file a malpractice case against any doctor who provided such care to any person before the person’s 25th birthday
  • banning gender-affirming care for adults
  • making it a state felony to attempt to conduct surveys and studies related to Texas’s LGBTQ+ youth population
  • banning classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to 12th grade
  • forcing schools to disclose to parents any request from students to be identified as other than the gender on their birth certificates, as well as any exhibition of behavior for the purpose of exploring their gender identity
  • banning extracurricular clubs, activities, celebrations, or discussions related to sexual orientation or gender
  • banning all books a school district deems as obscene, and then registering the vendor of said books and banning all schools in the entire state from purchasing books from that vendor
  • requiring schools to enforce a separation of bathroom use based on “biological sex,” authorizing a civil penalty of up to $100,000 against the school for lawsuits related to a violation of the requirement
  • prohibiting teachers and other school employees from affirming a trans or nonbinary student’s gender in any way, including through the use of a student’s preferred pronouns
  • banning trans youth from participating in all sports as well as any school-based competition
  • restricting the state from developing forms that include anything other than “male” and “female” as an option for someone’s sex
  • defining any business that hosts performers exhibiting a gender identity different from the performer’s birth, including makeup or clothing, as a sexually oriented business in the eyes of the law
  • revoking state funding from municipal libraries that host an all-ages drag storytime
  • requiring birth certificates to mark down the biological sex of an infant defined exclusively by the presence of a Y chromosome

In 2021, Texas began preventing teachers from talking about “a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs” without giving deference to all sides, regardless of the ignorance that may fuel one or more of those sides.

As part of the same law — which attempts to target “critical race theory” as understood by ignorant Texas politicians — the state also prevents students from critically considering whether slavery and racism “are anything other than deviations from, betrayals or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States” (ignorant, of course, because slavery was baked into the founding document of the United States and was only outlawed through President Lincoln’s objectively unconstitutional Emancipation Proclamation, which itself was only issued as a war-saving measure, and whose civil-rights legacy continues to be opposed by Lincoln’s Republican party, opposition whose modern form was inspired by the Supreme Court’s decision to ban legalized racial segregation in Brown vs. the Board of Education).

Of course, Texas would not be Texas if it limited its hate to women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and Blacks.

This session, the state legislature is considering a bill, H. 20, which would enact anti-immigration measures in opposition to Federal authority. It would compel the state to create a Border Protection Unit whose officers can arrest, detain, or deter individuals crossing Texas’s southern border using non-deadly force. It would also give those officers immunity from criminal or civil liability. The bill attempts to supersede the Federal government’s exclusive power over immigration by deputizing the state’s citizens as anti-immigrant vigilantes. It would require, de facto if not de jure, that all brown-skinned Texans living along the border carry their identification papers with them at all times or risk the effects of arrest, detention, and “non-deadly” violence.

Adding to its parade of hatred and condemnation, Texas has challenged the Indian Child Welfare Act in the Supreme Court. The act was passed by Congress in 1978 to atone for the United States’s disgusting history of removing Indigenous children from their cultural communities. It establishes a preference for placing any Native American child who has to be removed from their home with another Native family, ideally an extended family member, but if one is not available, with a member of the same tribe, and if that is not available, with a member of any tribe.

If Texas has its way (which it may at least in part, given the Suprem Court’s statements and questions during the oral argument in November), Native children may once again be stolen from their families and cultural communities, adding even more tragedy to our nation’s continuing genocide against the continent’s indigenous peoples.

While the Kyles of the United States welcome the attempt to assemble the world’s largest gathering of individuals with the same name, we cannot stand idly by while Texas threatens by law and by body the rights and privileges of the state’s women and minorities. If we were to venture to Kyle, Texas, this weekend, we would bring with us hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars of economic activity, thereby giving tacit consent to Texas’ hatred.

This we will not do.

And so, on behalf of the nation’s Kyles, I have the honor of saying:

Fuck Texas.

Categories
asides

Free Community College Won’t Be in Spending Bill, Jill Biden to Say

From Free Community College Won’t Be in Spending Bill, Jill Biden to Say:

“One year ago, I told this group that Joe, my husband Joe, was going to fight for community colleges. But…”

Anything after Dr. Biden’s “but” is just more bullshit to cover up the corruption and immorality of corporate Democrats.

Since I’m not a dumb-ass Trump supporter, I’ll say it outright: Fuck Joe Biden.

Categories
asides

News We Don’t Want to Hear

We Cannot Return to Campus this Fall:

Parents: No matter how exhausted or confused you are after a few months of helping your child with distance learning, I hope you are horrified at the mortal danger these politicians’ ideas pose to you, your children, and the professionals who teach them. Educators: I hope you’re ready to fight for what many of us already know to be true. We cannot return to campus this fall. We must use the time we have to build the best alternative we can: robust distance learning, universal computer and internet access, and community services for students and families throughout fall semester and, if necessary, spring semester too.

Categories
education

Dual Enrollment for High Schoolers

One of the interesting things about Vermont’s education system (and it may apply in other states too) is that it offers flexible pathways to a high school diploma. In practice, that means schools are directed to be as creative as possible when it comes to awarding a student a high school diploma. The state doesn’t scrimp on putting rigor into the system, but it also recognizes that one person’s rigorous education is another person’s improperly installed faucet. The state looks at the range of possible, successful lifestyles available in the culture and allows students to tailor their educational path to the lifestyle that most attracts them, only asking that they pursue that lifestyle with a sense of discipline and focus.

That is an educational mission I can get behind, and it’s one of the reasons I work at the school that I do. It takes the spirit of that mission and tries to live it out to its fullest. Whatever flaws exist at our school exist solely because of the resources that are available to it, and not due to any flaws in the underlying system.

Because virtually every school is working with limited resources, Vermont taxpayers have, through our legislative process, made certain resources available to each and every one of the state’s high school students. One of those resources is the ability to take two college courses for both high-school and college credit. Though it has other benefits, the “Dual Enrollment” program allows every student in Vermont to receive their high school diploma with six college credits under their belt, provided gratis care of Vermont’s taxpayers.

Not every high school student is prepared to take advantage of this resource, however. College classes are no joke, and many high school students don’t possess the necessary study habits to succeed at the college level, where for every hour of class time, students should expect to put in a minimum of two to three hours of indepedent work-time. Unfortunately, that kind of sustained, unsurpervised work time is often beyond the ken of an attention-limited teenager.

That’s where the high school comes in. Schools need to schedule time in each student’s day to receive direct assistance on how to manage themselves and their resources when it comes to achieving their academic goals. The role of the high school in the Dual Enrollment process is not to help the student learn the content — college resources must be used for that, whether by taking advantage of a campus tutorial center, advocating for accomodations for their specific learning disabilities, or seeking direct help from the professor or teaching assistant; instead, the role of the high school is to improve the student’s executive functioning.

If students are interested in attending college courses (and at my school, we actually require it as a condition of their diploma), then the high school must do everything it can to support them, short of following them to class and taking notes for them.

Not every student needs assistance all of the time, but high schools need to continually check in with them and schedule time each week to dedicate their attention solely to the question of their college class, time when they are more or less guided depending on the student’s needs.

Not every student wants to go on to college. Some don’t even want to achieve a high school diploma — they think of themselves as just killing time until they’re old enough to drop out (of course, educators try to use what time we have available to us to convince them to do otherwise, but that’s neither here nor there).

Regardless of a student’s future plans, they ought to have the experience of attempting to succeed in a bona fide college-level course. It’s a gut check. It may disappoint them — it may destroy their confidence or increase their anxiety — but it will also give them a sense of what they’re able to achieve when the academic rubber hits the rigorously tested road.

I don’t say that to be cruel. I say it because, when the dual enrolled student experiences that gut check, they still have time left in high school to work on whatever skills they found lacking during the experience. I also say it because college is not cheap, and every student ought to receive a free (and honestly offered) sample before they decide to buy.

I’m proud to live among taxpayers who are willing to foot the bill on those initial costs, and as an educator, I do everything I can to make sure our tax dollars don’t go to waste, applying my portion of it to ensuring each student understands at least one way they might be able to approach an academically challenging goal.

This is not say each student I’ve helped with this process has been successful in their college class. Students drop courses halfway through a semester, and despite their best efforts, students sometimes fail a whole semester. That’s okay. From a high-school teacher’s perspective, the only thing I care about is whether, through that experience, the student learned something about themself, something they can work on if they so choose.

College credit is nice. It has real monetary value and (ideally) tangible or intangible educational value, but college credit is also just a bonus; it sits atop the experience’s instrinsic value, which, intrinsic as it may be, still must be earned.

Dual enrollment, while open to every student, is not for every student simply because not every student is ready for a reality check on their study habits. But for students who are capable of self-reflection and of setting and acting upon a goal, the experience is as good as it gets, passing grade or no.

As a high school educator, an adjunct college professor, and a lifelong student, I can’t recommend it enough.

Categories
education

A Serious Mistake

I had a moment with a student this week. It was early in the morning, and this student was not feeling up to it. I entered the classroom and already I could tell that something was wrong.

But for some reason, I didn’t do anything to help him. I was in my own head, feeling self-important as I entered the room and focused on my own agenda for how the next sixty minutes would go. While I saw him and knew something was wrong, I did not let that deter me from accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish.

In my school, teachers share classrooms. While we are a one-to-one school, very few of our blocks are truly one-to-one. Even if we have one staff member assigned to one student, we often group students and staff together in the same space, even when they’re not working on the same subject. This allows the students and the staff to play off of each other in fruitful and often serendipitous ways.

So that morning, as I entered the classroom, I saw this student having a real problem, but he wasn’t my student for the next sixty minutes, so I passed him by and moved on to what I imagined my responsibilities were for that block, a combination of administrative obligations and student supervision (not teaching, per se, but supervision; my assigned student works independently that block). There were two other teachers in this shared space, so I assumed he was one of theirs, and hence, his problem was their problem.

About twenty minutes later, I noticed that the student was still sitting there, without any adult’s undivided attention, so I asked him, “Hey, who are you supposed to be with this block?” He looked up at me and said, “You.”

And then it hit me: he was absolutely right. It’s just that, until this day, he had worked side by side with the student who was working independently, and so I forgot he was assigned to me. And then, on this day, when it really mattered, I wasn’t there for him.

As soon as I realized my mistake, I immediately left behind every obligation I imagined I had and sat down with this student, made direct and clear eye contact with him, and asked him what was going on. Within moments, he had tears in his eyes, and for the next 30 minutes, we just talked. We didn’t talk about the problem directly (he doesn’t yet trust me enough for that), but we did talk about something else that was bothering him, and by helping him process that more minor problem, I believe I helped him talk about the real problem later on in the day with our school counselor (not to take anything away from the incredible skills of our school counselor, who is perhaps one of the most analytical and yet most present listeners I’ve ever met).

But that’s not the point. It’s not about the twenty minutes he and I spent together, having what I felt to be a meaningful conversation; it’s about the 35 minutes before that, when I told him with every fiber of my being that he didn’t matter (not enough for me to stop focusing on my goals anyway).

Unfortunately, at my school, there’s really only one thing our boss completely expects from us (most staff members have other obligations, but this is the big one), and that’s to be present with the kids we are assigned to. When a staff member is having an issue connecting with one of our kids, they can blame whoever does the schedule, but I’m the guy who does the schedule, so there’s no one left to blame but myself. In my capacity as the scheduler, I chose this student for this block; I knowingly committed myself to him; and that day, I forgot he was mine.

As I said, I didn’t solve my student’s underlying problem that day. And the truth is, I’ll never be able to. It’s a systemic problem that originates in the home, is diffused and exacerbated by society, and spilled onto the floor for everyone else to deal with. It’s the problem of being (or at least feeling like) an unwanted child.

Most of the students in my school have come to us as the last stop. There really isn’t anything after us except a bed in a state-run institution, and there’s not always enough beds. They’ve been told by almost every single adult they’ve ever interacted with that they’re not wanted. Many of them are in some kind of foster care, or living with non-parental relatives, or shuttled off into quasi- or state-paid-for apartments. They’ve been kicked out of every school they’ve ever attended, and sometimes they’ve even been kicked out of other schools like ours.

We are the last stop, and when they don’t make it with us, the next stop might not just be a state-run institution; it might actually be death.

I’m not trained to handle that kind of responsibility. But honestly, who is?

You might think, “Um….psychiatrists? psychologists?…you know…doctors?”

Okay, fine. But do you know how much doctors get paid? How much are you willing to pay in your taxes for some other kid’s education? Would it be enough to pay for a school full of doctors? And just one school or two? What about seven? What about 250? What about 98,271?

Until society decides to pay teachers like doctors (or pay doctors to be teachers), who are we willing to pay to be present with those kids whose next step might include a noose, or even worse, holding a loaded machine gun?

Me. That’s who.

You’re willing to pay me.

An adult who sometimes forgets what kid he’s assigned to. But also an adult who is willing, every single day, to sit down with any troubled young person and ask, with all my heart, “What’s going on?”