There's a fine line between advocate and nut job

On a Facebook post, Mike, member of the hiking group, wrote in response to "Don't Toss Apple Cores and Banana Peels on the Ground":

I think there is a point of ridiculousness and I think this article about discarded fruit in the forest has breached that point. What fruit takes two years to decompose? Seriously. Certainly not an apple core or a banana peel. What is the difference between an apple core and all the other trillions of tons of organic matter that the forest produces? I would argue that placing organic waste in the forest is BENEFICIAL to the forest, adding humus composition and ground cover to prevent erosion. Let's keep it real. This article about the evils of apple cores brought to you by people who drive fossil fuel burning automobiles to get to the forest for which they are pontificating. Once you embark on silly talk, people stop listening to the important stuff.

I remember being chastised by a guide in the Grand Canyon for peeing too close to a stream. (I think he thought people should be at least 20 feet away and I was probably only five or six feet distant.) I asked him how they train deer and other animals to observe the 20 foot rule of urination, to which he simply gave me a look like I was being a smart-ass. Without adequate explanation of how human urine differs from that of other mammalian urine, he lost credibility with me. 

I often wonder how much more progress we would make in our advocacy efforts if we took a more modest approach. When we become so extreme in our views that what we say is perceived as "silly talk." For example:

• I can get behind removing statues of Confederate generals,  but removing George Washington and Abraham Lincoln?
• I support selecting new library materials that reflect a more racially and culturally sensitive POV, but tossing out To Kill a Mockingbird, Little House on the Prairie, and Dr. Seuss?
• I believe in background checks and buyers permits for gun ownership, but I can not support allowing assault rifles to be sold OR not allowing people to own guns at all.
• I want people to have the right to free speech in all media, but I have real problems with spreading unfounded conspiracy theories that may lead to violence. 

For nearly every controversial issue, there is a middle ground which those on both extremes would oppose, but with which most thinking people would agree. Of course, this approach isn't as satisfying as being sanctimonious or as engaging as Twitter battles. 

But it might actually lead to permanent change. Studies show that dieters who lose weight slowly over time tend to keep the weight off, but those who crash diet put the pounds back on just as fast.

How do you sound when you want change - as an advocate or a nut job?

Libraries and PC balance

The February 27, 2021 Minneapolis Star Tribune news[paper included the opinion piece "Woke revolution looms for schools" by conservative columnist Katherine Kersten. In her usual hysterical style, she "reports" on the new social studies standards under development by the department of education. She warns:

The new standards focus primarily on cultivating politically correct attitudes and commitments, rather than preparing students to take on the duties of citizenship by ensuring they understand the chronological story of the key events, actors and ideas that shaped American democracy and the larger world.

George Washington and D-Day rate no mention, though they were highlighted in earlier versions of the standards. Abraham Lincoln and the Battle of Gettysburg are omitted, but students study partus sequitur ventrem — the legal principle adopted in Virginia in 1662 that a child followed the slave or free status of its mother.

World history from classical Greece and Rome to World Wars I and II — a major focus of the current and original 2004 standards — has been virtually eliminated. In its place, for example, as young people study “where buildings can and cannot be built” in the U.S., they will learn about “feng shui” — a pseudoscientific Chinese practice that Merriam-Webster defines as configuring a site or structure to “harmonize with the spiritual forces that inhabit it.”

My immediate reaction to Kersten's concerns was to remind the newspaper readers that school curricula and history itself have always contained bias, which is why school libraries are so critical to a balanced education. Librarians have, as a part of their professional ethical practice, the obligation to provide voices from across the political and cultural spectrum, selected for age-appropriateness, curricular relevance, and responsible editing oversight. We should, I always felt, be carrying both the left-leaning New York Times as well as right-learning Wall Street Journal. That even students in conservative states could find Howard Zin's The Peoples' History of the United States and students in the most liberal states could still find Huck Finn in their school libraries. I would argue that the best defense against conspiracy theories like those perpetrated by QAnon are materials that support a responsible conservative point of view, rather than a heads-on rebuttal.

But then I read in the next day's issue of the Strib "Woke left wants to erase classic literature for kids," in which John Kass' warns:

But the purging of great literature often takes place quietly, among woke teachers and librarians. If the classics aren’t exactly banned outright or burned, they have another way:

To place offending literature on the back shelf, out of the reach of the young, where they’re lost to gather dust in the shadows.

Author Padma Venkatraman wrote an essay titled “Weeding Out Racism’s Invisible Roots: Rethinking Children’s Classics” in the School Library Journal. She supports this purge.

“Challenging old classics is the literary equivalent of replacing statues of racist figures,” she writes. “… Exposing young people to stories in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm may sow seeds of bias that can grow into indifference or prejudice.”

And so, the astounding complexity of great literature and great writers is now reduced, as are so many things these days, to angry zealotry and political correctness.

I then found and read Venkatraman piece and it made me ask some very hard questions about the role of school libraries and the selection/weeding practices of school librarians.

The Code of Ethics of the American Library Association says:

VII.    We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources. 

ALA's  “Library Bill of Rights” clearly states:

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

And ALA's own “Freedom to Read's”  first statements exhorts:

It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those that are unorthodox, unpopular, or considered dangerous by the majority.

As expressed in “Access to Resources and Services in the School Library Media Program: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights” 

Although the educational level and program of the school necessarily shapes the resources and services of a school library media program, the principles of the Library Bill of Rights apply equally to all libraries, including school library media programs.

Personally, I very much support Venkatraman's suggestion to "actively add to shelves and reading lists, books that win awards celebrating excellence and honoring diversity ...curate books that can become future classics." in order to help created a more culturally empathic society. However, what I believe runs counter to ALA's principles and the good professional practices that they guide is her admonition to keep "racist books out of young readers' hands." 

I have always been a proponent of a well-weeded school library collection. My very first professional article was "Weeding the Neglected Collection" in the November 1990 issue of School Library Journal in which I shared how I tossed old nonfiction  books that reflected gender bias.ie:The Boys' Book of...

Weeding non-fiction based on age, accuracy, lack of use and irrelevance to the curriculum, I can certainly get behind. But waters get murky when we start tossing (or hiding) materials that may be personally offensive or contain philosophies or beliefs contrary to our own. When a practicing librarian, despite having my own political views, I always felt comfortable explaining to my school board and administration that I maintained a thoughtfully chosen, carefully weeded, balanced collection. 

If school libraries are to survive in this politically divided climate,  this balance is more important than ever. Do our hard line community members really need another reason not to fund good library programs - maintaining they support radical social views rather than provide student the resources they need to make informed judgements?

BFTP: 10 things teachers can do to protect student data

 

Educators, each year an increasing amount of information about your students is being communicated and stored - especially in electronic formats. You as a professional have an ethical obligation to know the laws and best practices around data privacy as it pertains to education.

Yes, I know you also have a new curriculum, five preps, two extra curricular coaching responsibilities, and a family you like to see now and again. I'll try to keep this short and practical. Here we go...

1. Always lock your computer screen when it's not being used. A simple keyboard command will lock most computers (Windows-L on a Windows PC.) If you have problems remembering to do this, set your computer to go into sleep mode after 5 minutes of inactivity and require a password to wake it up. Oh, papers with student info on your desk can be easily viewed as well.
2. Protect your passwords and change them now and again. I am not a huge fan of extraordinarily long or complex passwords or changing a password every two weeks, but passwords do need to changed now and again (once a semester, anyway) and passwords ought to be a combination of numbers and letters. Does anyone really need to be reminded not to write passwords on sticky notes placed on your monitor? Get and learn a password keeper program if you'd like.
3. Be wary of educational products that create student accounts. Be very careful when using new online products that want information so they can create individual accounts for students. Your district should have a list of programs that have been vetted by the technology department for acceptable data privacy practices (COPPA compliance, at least.) Yes, explore new programs that will aid your students - just do it carefully.
4. Store student data in the cloud. Cloud-based applications and data storage programs have a good track record for being secure. Please use GSuite or other online storage environments your district may provide. Cloud-based student information systems and learning management programs are pretty secure. Please don't keep student data on the hard drive of your laptop and leave your laptop where it could be stolen. Or on a flash or other type of portable drive. 
5. Don't post printouts with  private data in your classroom and be cautious about what you put online. Guess what - kids know each other's student ID numbers so if you associate test scores or overdue books or grades with ID numbers instead of names, you are not really honoring student privacy. This regardless of whether the data is on a webpage or a paper printout.
6. Be cautious when posting photos of your students to the web or social media. Most districts have parents who have requested that student information, including photos, not be share in the public media. You need to know which kids' faces in your class can't grace your website, newsletter, or Facebook page.
7. Only use trusted wifi connections when working with student data. I don't check my bank account from any "free" wifi services in coffee shops, airports, hotels, etc. And you shouldn't be doing school work that involves student data using those networks either. Please use our secure network here at school rather than the public wifi as well.
8. Understand the concept of spear phishing and double-check odd data requests. Get any strange requests from a colleague or administrator asking for data? Please double-check that these are legitimate. Spoofing the email address of an authority to send emails requesting data aka spear phishing is a too common practice that has caught a lot of people. Don't be a sucker (pun intended).
9. Know your district and state's data privacy laws and policies. You don't have to read the laws (FERPA, COPPA, PPRA plus state laws and district board policies) but you better know the gist of them. Do you know what is considered PII - Personally Identifiable Information - in your district?
10. Help your students understand what they can do to protect their own privacy. Sharing passwords is a common practice among younger students (and probably a few older ones). Every teacher should be addressing Digital Citizenship in her/his classes and protection of and respect for the privacy of others is a critical part of these instructional efforts.

A good resource to learn more about how you as a teacher can help safeguard your students' personal data is ConnectSafely's The Educator's Guide to Student Data Privacy. Put it at the top of your professional reading list.

Oh, we've come a lond way as eductors getting privacy savvy. In the mid 2000's I remember visiting a teacher in an elementary classroom who had asked me to troubleshoot something on her computer. When I asked her to log-in, she called a student over and had him to it since, she said, she could never remember her own passwords.

Original post 8/10/18