Community Inquiry Project- The Poster

So one of the components of our community inquiry project is a poster presentation. Which is in about 4 hours actually. So while I was finishing up the paper I was thinking about and gathering materials for that.

I decided to divide my poster into three areas, left, center and right, and go with a different focus with each or them. In the center I had a copy of my paper abstract, a copy of the map from my walkthrough of Newark and a few graphs of information on substance use prevalence and the influence of risk and protective factors on substance use. So mostly pure information.

The right side I went with quotes from people I heard speak in AA meetings, along with a couple sets of song lyrics that have a lot of personal meaning to me with regards to substance use. I used multiple fonts and orientations when attaching them to mimic random conversation and make them seem more like they were coming from many different people. Which they do.

The left side I went with photos related to substance use. They start off at the top, well organized and depicting mostly "nice" casual scenes of substance use. As they descend down the poster the pictures get more serious. People passed out, police giving breathalyzers, addicts shooting up, etc. At the bottom is a body bag being led past a cop car (that pic is from Heath Ledger's OD, just to let you know). The pictures become progressively more skewed and chaotically arranged as you go down. My goal was to visually depict the continuum of substance use, starting with "normal" recreational use and proceeding through the descent addicts suffer, both in terms of visual consequences as well as the emotional and psychological consequences most people don't see.

At least that's what I was shooting for. I'll try to get a picture of it up later.

Inquiry Project Abstract

So after a later night than I would have preferred I've pretty much got my community inquiry project done. Personally I don't think it's anywhere near my best work, though my wife read it and said it was fine. I do still have to collate and type my references, but that's what work is for, right? So here is the abstract/summary of my project:

ABSTRACT
Adolescent alcohol and drug use are a major concern today. There are numerous negative consequences of substance use including medical and psychiatric disorders as well as social, economic, emotional and legal consequences. The duration and severity of these consequences is directly related to the age at which the substance use commences. In this paper, using a combination of literature review, information garnered through attending local meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and walkthroughs of urban communities in Newark, NJ, we examined the prevalence of substance use among urban adolescents as well as the consequences of substance use and the impact this use has upon adolescents. Additionally, the relationship between the urban environment and adolescent substance use was explored. We found that substance use and abuse is highly prevalent among adolescents, despite recent education efforts. In urban areas, protective factors that may act to ameliorate substance use appear to be outweighed by the risk factors found in these areas. We concluded that a better understanding of the effects these factors have upon substance use among urban adolescents in necessary in order for effective prevention of adolescent substance to be achieved.

Inquiry Project Methodology

So here is the methodology section of my Community Inquiry Project paper. I'm not super happy with it personally. I also haven't edited it yet. I'm used to writing similar stuff, but there are enough differences between what I think we're supposed to be doing with this and what I'm used to doing with my hardcore scientific papers that it's driving me nuts. Well, more nuts than usual. Anyways, here you go:


Methodology
Literature Search and Online Statistics
The extensive reservoir of literature available in the field of substance use was searched using Google Scholar and the U.S. National library of Medicine. The focus of the literature search was on urban adolescent alcohol and drug use. More focused searches on education in this field and comparisons between urban, suburban and rural, substance use were also performed.
Online statistics relating to substance use were gathered primarily from U.S. Government Agencies specializing in health issues and are referenced as such. Additional statistics were gathered from similar State agencies.

Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings
AA meetings were attended in and around the city of interest from 2/5/08 to 12/17/08. For the purposes of this paper, information from discussion and speaker meetings was used exclusively. Speaker meetings involved 1-3 AA members speaking before the group. Speakers generally talked about their experiences with alcohol and with the AA program. Discussion meetings involved members from the group sharing their opinions or experience on a topic or problem suggested by the group. Scope of topics was extremely broad.
In deference to the principles of anonymity subscribed to by AA, we did not take notes of any kind while the meeting was in progress. After the meeting ended, we recorded our impressions and thoughts on what had transpired.

Urban Neighborhood Walkthrough
In order to gather information on the prevalence of alcohol and drugs in urban communities we initiated a walkthrough of several neighborhoods in the city of interest. There were two primary criteria for selecting an area for the walkthrough. The first was the presence of public schools. The area examined contained four pubic schools, two High Schools and two Elementary Schools. The second was the presence of a mixture of residential and commercial areas within the area. The area examined was primarily residential, but contained three larger thoroughfares that were heavily commercial.
For the walkthrough itself we traveled the selected area on foot, following roads. All street areas were covered; however areas off the street were not seen in details. Additionally, we did not enter any businesses or residences in the examined area, but focused exclusively on exterior areas. Our primary purpose during the walkthrough was to examine and map the number of liquor stores, bars, clubs and other establishments that served alcohol. We also made a note of schools and other institutions that related to the topic area. Additionally, we made general notes and observations about the area during the walkthrough.

Walking Around Newark...

So for my Urban Education classes final community inquiry project, one of the things we needed to do was create our own map of Newark. Or a portion of Newark, at least. Mapping out locations that were relevant to our project topic. As I've mentioned previously, my topic is looking at adolescent alcohol and drug use. It's starting to look like it'll really focus on abuse, not use (Yes, there is a difference!), largely because I understand abuse, but I really can't wrap my head around the idea of casual alcohol and/or drug use.

So anyways, I decided to map the area near Barringer High School. My north border was Lake St., East border was 2nd Ave., South border was Broadway and West border was Park St. I actually think this area was smaller than what we were supposed to do (instructions was to do 10 square blocks, but blocks there aren't really square) but it was still an afternoon on foot with this stupid flu bug everyone has had, which was quite enough for me!

I picked this area because A) I knew where it was and where to park, B) Barringer is right next to the Cathedral, which made finding where I parked much easier (I'm geographically challenged, see my previous posts), C) I knew there was at least one High School in my area, D) the area was mostly residential, but contained a couple major commercial strips (Bloomfield Ave., Park St., Broadway).

I was mostly looking for liquor stores and bars, but I also noted schools (Barringer and Technology HS's and Ben Franklin and something-Brook Elementaries were in my area). There was also one obvious substance-abuse treatment center that I noted as well.

What did I find? Not nearly as many alcohol sources as I thought I'd find. Sadly my explicit notes are at home right now, but in the entire area there were less than a dozen liquor stores and bars. Maybe it was the area I was in, but my perception from driving through Newark was that there would be more than that. I will say that based on my personal experience the liquor stores were doing a lot of business for a Sunday afternoon. There was also one disturbing moment when I saw a kid (8-10 years old) walking down the street by himself away from a liquor store (I did *not* see him leave the store itself) carrying two opaque plastic bags that I'm certain contained booze.

Every school had a bar or liquor store within a 3 minute walk. Bar/club across from Barringer. Liquor store across from Tech. Liquor store around the corner from the elementary schools.

The other thing that *seriously* jumped out at me were the sheer volume of empty beer and liquor bottles scattered all over the place. Throughout my entire mapped area, I couldn't go 10 feet without seeing an empty alcoholic container of some kind. Actually, it was worse in the residential areas than on the commercial roads, some of the major roads (Bloomfield Ave., Broadway) were fairly clean. And these were fairly nice neighborhoods in my estimation. In hindsight I probably picked one of the more affluent areas of Newark to survey, or so it seems to me. The houses were nice and well-maintained. Vehicles were well cared for (several people were out front washing their cars in 40 degree weather) and quite a bit nicer than what I drive. Most of the neighborhoods I walked through were nicer than where I live, in my opinion. But there was a huge ammount of litter, and a big percentage of the litter were beer and liquor bottles. (Mostly Corona and Heineken, if anyone was wondering).

So right now I'm willing to speculate that alcohol use is highly prevalent in Newark, even if there weren't as many sources in my area as I expected. From a student perspective, most of these kids likely pass liquor stores or bars going to/from school, and are walking on sidewalks covered in empty beer and liquor bottles (plus the occasional dead cat, which made me sad). Based on my experience and the people I've talked with in Alcoholics Anonymous, that is definitely the kind of environment conducive to kids drinking or at least being willing totry drinking.

Open School Board meetings...

So I went to the Newark Public Schools open board meeting last night. It was an intertesting experience. Getting there was half the battle. Okay, I don't live all that far from Newark, about 15 minutes or so (less than 10 miles) to the north, in Bloomfield. I think. I'm directionally challenged in this state (no mountains for me to judge which way is east or west). But I rarely drive anywhere. I work in NYC and take mass transit 90% of the time, and my wife typically drives the other 10%. I basically only drive to get to my AA meetings, and they are all within a two mile radius of my house. So I drive (with myself behind the wheel) outside my immediate area maybe 6-10 times a year.

I had mapquested how to get to the meeting at Shabazz HS and had directions. Of course I decided not to follow them exactly. I knew where Bloomfield Ave was and knew how to get there, and planned to follow the directions from that point. Well, the route I took didn't allow me to make a left onto Bloomfield. And I did a typical Dr. MS thing. I said, I don't need to turn around, I know how to get back to Bloomfield Ave from where I am.

When will I learn? And that was a rhetorical question!!!

Next thing I knew I was in East Orange. Oops! No problem, I can cut over and be where I should be. Five minutes later I didn't know which way was up or down, let alone N, S, E or W! I kept seeing roads that sounded familiar and following them. Then I was in South Orange. Huh!? Ooooh, that road sounds familiar. Wait, where the heck is Irvington and why am I there?

Finally I saw signs saying "This way to downtown Newark" and stopped panicking. Of course I didn't follow the signs totally. I saw a couple roads that sounded right and followed them. What!? I'm back in Irvington!? Dang it! But finally I got where I was going. The meeting started at 6. I left home at 5:30. I got there at 6:45. Luckily I found a couple of my classmates to sit with. What have we learned from this? Don't let Dr. MS drive anywhere. Ever.

But luckily I didn't miss much of the meeting. Approving the minutes and the beginning of some budgetary stuff. The part I caught was the most exciting thing I've seen since the Iowa professional grass-growing championships. But then they had public commentary, and that made the whole thing worthwhile.

First off, I love people who are passionate about education and what they believe in. And there were several speakers who were certainly passionate about what they were saying. But most of them were not particularly good at arguing their points. Passion is wonderful, but I believe a logical, well-reasoned argument will do you more good than yelling and rousing the crowd will.

Of course I don't really believe the speakers really accomplished anything. I got the distinct impression that the board members were humoring the speakers and couldn't wait for the public comments to be done. The way they seemed to rush through the list of speakers (calling a name, waiting 5 seconds, then saying they were absent) and the patronizing smirks on thier faces at times did not lead me to believe they were taking the speakers concerns seriously at all. There were exceptions to this, one or two board members made comments or asked questions, so at least they seemed to be listening.

The most useful thing for me at the board meeting was hearing, from the students, staff and parents who spoke, what their concerns were about Newark schools. Facilities issues were big. Leaky roofs, mold, mice/bugs, lack of restroom supplies (that was a frequent one) were all topics that were brought up. Several parents commented on how they didn't feel informed by the board on what was going on with their childrens schools. A few people commented on an apparently very unpopular change in the districts free meals program. I don't know the details but several people were very angry about it. And the board is apparently suspending the changed program on 12/1 until further review.. And one teacher commented, rather eloquently, on her belief that teacher evaluations were being used punitively to punish teachers who were speaking out about problems in the district.

Overall the meeting was a good experience for me. I think I learned a lot about the situation I'm going to be going into. I will probably try and attend more of the board meetings in the future.

Spectacular Things, Part One...

For our Urban Education class we were assigned to Read the book Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way, by Brian Schultz. I admit, I actually read it two months ago. I got bored and my class books were sitting there so I pulled out the shortest one (Spectacular Things) to keep me occupied till dinnertime.

I ended up finishing it on the train the next morning. Then I reread it. Finished it the second time on the train ride home. I love this book. Seriously. I would have read it again, but I loaned it to a classmate and by the time I got it back I was swamped with work/school/life.

Anyways, Spectacular Things describes a year in the academic lives of Class 405. Class 405 is a class of 5th graders at Cabrini Green Elementary School in Chicago. Cabrini Green is not a good area. Cops are afraid to go there. Heck, pizza delivery guys are afraid to go there!

Into this environment steps the author, Brian Schultz. As the teacher of Class 405 he initially seems out of place. But he continually tries to relate to his students and hits the jackpot when he introduces them to Project Citizen (http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=introduction). While asking his students what sort of project they’d like to tackle for Project Citizen, the students of Class 405 overwhelmingly bring up the terrible conditions at their school.

Poor heating and cooling, disgusting bathrooms, cracked windows and a lack of basic facilities most schools take for granted, such as a cafeteria or auditorium, were just some of the problems the students brainstormed with their teacher. And then they set about doing something about it.

But enough of repeating the book. Reading the first few chapters really drove home how bad many students in America have it. Almost everything their school lacked, I took for granted in my schools. And I would be outraged if my son’s school was anything like the school in Cabrini Green. But while I could fairly easily move to a new district, this isn’t a viable option for the majority of residents near schools like Cabrini Green. They've learned to make do with what they have. But, to me, this just leads to a self-perpetuating cycle. They don't (can't) succeed. Why pour resources into a failing school? Next generation doesn't succeed. They struggle to provide the opportunities their kids need to succeed. Do you see where I'm going with this? And the sad thing is occasionally you'll get an exceptional kid who manages to "make it" despite the decjk stacked against him. And then the other kids community are told, "If he succeeded so should you. It's your own faults you're not."

Okay, I digressed. And I'm out of time. I'll try to come back to this later tonight...

Annotated bibliography

So, for our Community Inquiry Project for my urban education class, I decided to look at the prevalence of alcohol and drug use in Newark Public Schools. That topic will likely evolve somewhat as I do additional research into it. This post is an annotated bibliography of an article I found discussing adolescent alcohol use and violence.



Felson, Richard (2008, May) The Influence of Being under the Influence: Alcohol Effects on Adolescent Violence. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45(2), 119-141.
http://jrc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/45/2/119

This article examines the relationship between intoxication, chronic alcohol use, and violent behavior in an attempt to determine if the link between adolescent violence and alcohol use is causal or spurious. The authors used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to base their conclusions on. There were three basic issues the authors focused on: First, how much of the relationship between frequent alcohol use and violence is due to the causal effects of intoxication, and how much is spurious? Second, whether intoxication has a greater effect on violence among adolescents who already have violent tendencies. And lastly, whether the effects of intoxication depend upon the adolescent’s sex and other social-demographic characteristics.
The authors conclude that the relationship between adolescent violence and alcohol use is mostly spurious, i.e. one does not lead to the other. Drinkers are actually more likely to engage in violence while sober than while drinking. Overall, people who drink are more likely to engage in violence, independent of whether they are drunk of sober at the time.
Additionally, the authors concluded that alcohol has a stronger effect on more violent-prone adolescents, potentially facilitating violent behavior among those who are already inclined to behave that way. The authors also allowed the possibility that alcohol could be used as an excuse for violent behavior.
On the third basic issue, the authors concluded that, in adolescents, there was no evidence that alcohol had a greater effect on boys than girls in relation to violence. They did, however, find both age- and race-related differences. Alcohol had greater effects on older adolescents versus younger, and on White adolescents versus black adolescents.
Overall, I found this to be an interesting article. I wasn’t particularly surprised by any of their findings, because they fit in well with my personal experience and observations. Personally, I believe that certain types of personality defects can manifest through both violent actions as well as self-medication through alcohol. The authors touched upon an overarching link between alcohol and violence, but they stopped short of hypothesizing anything specific.

Culture Collage...

(Advance apologies for writing way too much yet again)

So for my urban education class last week we had to prepare and present a collage displaying our culture as a person and as an educator.

I really didn't enjoy this project.

Apparently several of my classmates didn't enjoy it either, they didn't want to think about or discuss the events that have shaped them or were disturbed by the feelings that arose in putting the collage together.

I didn't like it for a different reason: I *hate* doing "artsy" stuff. Give me a textbook, 700 pages of notes and 12 hours to study for a midterm and I'm as happy as a clam. I thrive under the "read, lecture, regurgitate" format of teaching that the current theory of education deplores. And I actually learn pretty well in that format, how else do you think I got my Ph.D? But I do accept that I'm a little unusual in that regard and I'm happy to adapt my style to whatever will work best for my students.

I found it very interesting how many different interpretations of culture my fellow students had. Some people focused on music/TV/movies that were important to them. Some people focused on things that are important in their lives now. I focused on the things in my life that have shaped my culture. Things that have helped determine my values and beliefs. Short version: my family (parents/siblings and wife/sons), my environment (being from Alaska), school (gee, I've only spent 90% of my life as a student of one kind or another) and AA (which plays a huge role in who I am now. Trust me, you don't want to know the guy I was prior to AA).

Talking about being a recovering alcoholic and being in AA was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm typically pretty open about my disease, because it does play a big role in my life and in who I am. But I struggle a lot with the expectation that people will react negatively when they find out I'm an alcoholic. There are a lot of negative characterizations of alcoholics out there, and I have had situations where I think people have reacted negatively when finding out I'm an alcoholic. And the people I'm in class with are people whose opinions I value and who I want to think I'm a good person. I put several weeks of thought into whether or not I'd talk about my disease in my classes. But in the end, I decided it would have been dishonest to not talk about something that is such a big part of who I am. I also decided that it would be helpful for me to work through my fears and try and become more comfortable with who and what I am. Let's face it, my fears about peoples reactions are really just a reflection of my own thinking and the discomfort I feel in being an alcoholic. For the most part, talking about it in class wasn't bad. The rough part was that both my professor and program director decided to hang out with my group when I talked about my collage, and I got very flustered when I got to the AA portion. But overall it went well. But enough of that...

There were actually several commonalities between the different collages presented. Family was definitely a major theme for most of us. Important activities were another. I had my participation in AA on my collage. Other people had music, several had various sports. But most people had an favorite activity or two appear on their collage.

As a future educator, I think collages like this can be a very useful tool. I would certainly try and carefully explain that nothing had to be put on there that the student wasn't comfortable with and really just put a lot of effort into making sure everyone was comfortable with the project. Doing the collage was useful to me in terms of evaluating my strengths and weaknesses as an educator. For example my culture as an educator is dominated by my extensive formal schooling. I have lots of experience as a student at every level of education. But I'm pretty weak on "real world" experience. In knowing this about myself I can better prepare as a teacher, focusing on my stregths and buttressing my weaknesses.

I think students can learn similar things about themselves by putting together a similar collage. But I really think aa teacher can learn a great deal about his class and how he or she relates to that class through this. Commonalities between the teacher and the students may suggest effective topics or strategies to teach. Commonalities between students may suggest topics the teacher could study up on to better relate to the students. One of my classmates who is currently teaching had students ask for "Hannah Montana" related material, a topic she knew nothing about. But by being willing to listen and adapt to the things her students are into, she can become a more effective teacher.

Okay, I'm shutting up now, sorry for yet another dissertation-length post!

The "Real" Cost of Living in NJ...

So, as part of a "webquest" our professor assigned, we were assigned to read an article on the "Real" Cost of Living in New Jersey. Let's face it, the federal standards of poverty, very poor, poor, etc. are not very useful in most cases. It is very easy to make enough money to be far over the federal poverty cap, yet still have difficulty making ends meet.


This article presents a different, and I feel more accurate, take on cost of living. First of all, it takes into account more than just food. If you didn't know, federal poverty guidlines are based on the assumption that food equals one third of the budget. Multiply that by 3 and you have the federal poverty level income. Easy? Yes. Accurate? Not so much.


Another thing I really liked about the article was it took childcare into account when considering cost of living. As a father of a child who just started school and another who will be starting life in a couple months, I was gratified to see something that acknowledged how huge an expenditure child care can be. Before our son started school childcare was probably our #2 cost each month, behind housing. And that was with just one child.


There are some things about the article I didn't like. One big thing was the articles tendency to focus on "one parent, one school-age child and one preschool age child" as their typical family unit. Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't stirke me as the "normal" household, despite the articles claims that it was the more useful measure. It isn't my household, nor is it the household of anyone I know, off the top of my head.


Another thing I disliked about the article was their use of medians and average values in their calculations. Especially for housing. I think median housing costs can be easily and severely skewed by small ammounts of highly affluent housing. Say you have an area with 90% cheap housing but one area (10%) of ultra-affluent mansions (ever been to Glen Ridge? Just kidding, they don't have cheap housing). The average housing cost would come out much higher than the "norm" and you could conclude that most people in that area didn't have the income to live there, when it reality there was plenty of housing that fit their budgets. And NJ certainly has a good chunk of highly affluent housing areas, much more it seems than other parts of the country I've lived.

To put it another way, I know many young people in Essex County (single, no kids) who don't make anywhere near what this report says they should be making in order to meet the cost of living (they would have perhaps 50% wage adequacy, according to this report). But they get by just fine. They do have economic difficulties, but they don't have major issues covering the necessities of life. And totally without government support, I might add.


So I struggle with the validity of the data and conclusions in this report, based on my own experiences. I do think the guidlines set forth in this report are an improvement over standard federal guidlines, but I still don't know that they're a truly accurate measure of the "real" cost of living. I'd expand, but I'm making an effort to shorten my posts enough so that they don't resemble "War and Peace" any more.

What is urban?

So, continuing from my previous post, what is it that makes an area "Urban"? "Rural"? "Suburban"? Comparing Anchorage, AK and Newark, NJ there isn't a major difference in population. Racially Anchorage is a lot "whiter" than Newark (~70% overall vs. ~25% overall). Is race a way to judge "urbanicity"? Is income or poverty a way to judge "urbanicity"?

According to wikipedia for Anchorage:
"The median income for a household in the city is $55,546, and the median income for a family is $63,682. The per capita income for the city is $25,287. 5.1% of families and 7.3% of the population are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 8.8% of those under the age of 18 and 6.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line."

While Newark:
"The median income for a household in the city was $26,913, and the median income for a family was $30,781. The per capita income for the city was $13,009. 28.4% of the population and 25.5% of families were below the poverty line. 36.6% of those under the age of 18 and 24.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. In 2003, the city's unemployment rate was 12%."

So Anchorage has significantly less poverty and higher overall incomes (though I'm willing to bet Anchorage has a higher overall cost of living as well). Is this a way to judge whether an area is "urban"? I don't think so. While I do believe race and income play a significant role in the general perception of urban areas, there are certainly suburban and rural areas with high minority rates and low income, but they would certainly not be considered "urban" simply because of this fact.


But there are a couple major differences between these two cities I keep coming back to. Namely, population density and surrounding areas. There are major, colossal differences between Anchorage and Newark in these categories, and, to me at least, these are two attributes that shape how I discern between urban, suburban and rural areas.

On surrounding area: Anchorage is surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. Wilderness. I mean we're talking Call of the Wild around there. There are some rural suburbs, some farmland to the north and the tourist destinations on the Kenai Pennisula to the south (which are multiple hours away and not considered part of Anchorage) but mostly you have a city surrounded by undeveloped (or undevelopable) wilderness.

Newark's surrounding area? Hmmm, New York City? The Oranges? Hoboken? Are you seeing a trend here? Newark is surrounded by more cities, suburbs of cities and suburbs of the suburbs. It is just people, people everywhere as far as the eye can see.

If you consider Newark part of the Greater New York Metropolitan Area (which the US census does) then it is part of a metropolis of over 18 million people. Anchorage? Even counting the rural suburbs the Anchorage Metropolitan Area tops out at under 400,000 people. That is a huge difference there.

That ties into population density. As I said, Anchorage and Newark have similar populations. The difference? Newark comprises some 26 square miles. That includes waterways, airports and rail lines. Anchorage comprises just over 1800 square miles. Admittedly a lot of that land does not support people, being mountains (most of Chugach State Park is within the Anchorage city limits), tundra, wetlands, waterways etc. But it is still a huge difference. To put it in perspective, the city of Anchorage is larger than the *state* or Rhode Island. If you took all of New Jersey from New Brunswick north, that'd be around the size of Anchorage.

Net result? Anchorage has a population density of ~164/square mile. Newark? 11,400 people per square mile. Just a bit of a difference there. And I really believe these are two aspects that really help define why one is urban and the other is not. I'll expand more on this later hopefully, but this is too long as it is and I have to get back to work. :-)

I hate writing!

There, I said it. Writing is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. Not that I'm bad at it. On the contrary, I've had people tell me most of my life that I have a gift for writing. I've had people suggest I get more into writing, that I could be very successful as a writer. But God do I hate the actual process.

I'm currently working on a paper for my Urban Education class that's due tomorrow night. It's not a particularly tough paper (compared to writing scientific journal articles it's a cakewalk, albeit with very different "rules") but it's the process of organizing my thoughts and shaping them into a coherent whole that gets me. The paper is supposed to be on my frame of references regarding urban areas and urban education. Which I'm interpreting as describing how events in my life have shaped my views and preconceptions on urban education. It doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist, and I constantly worry, and reread, and edit, trying to fit my writing into my perfect ideal of what it "should" be. Which frequently involves trying to read the instructors mind, with variable ammounts of success. I'll get it done (though it may involve working till 1am tonight, my schedule being what it is) and it'll most likely be good, but I still hate the process.

Which brings me to my next point, using words like "hate". We had a discussion in class on this topic, based on our readings in the text "Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life". The book states that suburban, middle class children use words like hate far more often than working class and poor children. Okay, that fits in with my experience. I use the word hate all the time, see the title of this post. I consider hate to be a relatively mild word. Now when I use words like "loathe", "detest" and "despise" you can assume I *really* mean it. But in class we discussed how in poorer areas words like hate are considered inappropriate because, to many people, poor equals black/minority and, being frequent victims of hate (why are racially-based offenses referred to as "hate crimes"?), minorities charge the word hate with meaning that is absent in more affluent, whiter communities. One of my classmates made a nice post summarizing the discussion in her blog.


But while I can understand intellectually where the belief is coming from, I don't really agree with charging words like hate with extra meaning. Now I'll admit to being a nice middle class white boy who has never faced discrimination and hate the way many minorities have. But I've always believed that words only have the power you give them. There are a lot of "charged" words out there. Just look at George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't say on TV! (Obviously, bad language and NSFW!) I think making a big deal over words actually encourages kids to use them, because they're "more adult". Growing up for me, profanity was strictly prohibited. I swore like a sailor, at least when my mom wasn't around, cause that's what grown ups and "cool" people did. Or so I believed.


In my opinion and based on my experiences, reacting to and making a big deal about words, behaviors and actions that bother you frequently (but there are of course exceptions) encourages people to continue with the objectionable behavior. Ignoring it or acting like it isn't a big deal reduces the power of the word or behavior and removes a lot of the incentive people have for using the word.


But that's just my personal opinion.

All of the above?

Okay, we read this article about urban vs. suburban vs. rural education. And it made me think, how would I classify the school district I grew up in? For those who don't know, I grew up in the Anchorage School District in Anchorage, AK. I've thought about this since we started talking about urban vs. suburban. Then my professor made an offhand comment last week that kind of annoyed me. She said, "So, rural schools, Dr. Mad Scientist you went to school in Alaska, you should get this." Or something like that. And I was thinking, "Huh? I did *not* go to a "rural" school!"


Anchorage has roughly the same population as Newark. It is admittedly much larger geographically. It actually has more public students than Newark, ~50,000 vs. ~42,000. Anchorage most definitely does not have the bad reputation that Newark does, though Anchorage does have its share of violence, gangs and poverty, and more than its share when it comes to alcohol and drugs.


In terms of education, most, if not all, schools in Newark would qualify as urban. My instructors and people in general seem to agree on that. Anchorage on the other hand has schools that I would classify as urban, many that are suburban, and a few that are pretty rural. Classifying the six high schools that were there when I attended school (two new high schools have opened in the last five years or so) I would call two "urban" two suburban and one rural. Bartlett High is a little weird because it's where all the military kids went. I'd probably call it suburban as well. Now, I've never set foot in a "real" urban high school, like in Newark. Yet. But I do consider my high school, East Anchorage, to be urban. It matches most of my criteria: mostly students from low income families, higher numbers of minority students, more bilingual/non-native English speakers, a lot of students in vocational training (the vocational "school" was built down the street, the "special needs" school which, among other things, is where the teen mothers went, was also down the street). Most parents of students were "working class", the percentage of parents who'd gone to college was not particularly high. All in all, I think I'm justified in saying I went to an urban school. I reserve the right to change that opinion as my experiences broaden though.


I'll let you know how it goes...


EDIT: My wife (Mrs. Dr. Mad Scientist) apparently decided to take a look at crime statistics between Anchorage and Newark, in part based on this post and in part for her own reasons. You can see her analysis on her blog.

The Annenberg Promise

I'm starting off with a brief disclaimer. If you can't tell, my training and experience to date has been as a scientist/researcher. I am realizing that this gives me a very distinctive way of looking at the readings I discuss here. I tend to approach them the same way I would a research article on, say, cell biology or signal transduction. But of course they are very different and are written different ways for different purposes. I think learning to look at things in a different fashion is going to be a major lesson for me. Not that there's anything wrong with the scientists approach to these things, I just know it's not always the best way. Moving on.


As it says in the title, this post is discussing the Annenberg Promise, another article we read for my urban education class. The title of the article is actually, "The Promise of Urban Schools" and it is written by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. And no, I don't have any real idea who these people are (okay, they're a panel of "experts" in urban education, but that's all I really know) or why they're any more reputable then any other school reform group out there, but I'll set that aside and dive into the article.


The first thing that jumped out at me was a brief section on what is education for? This made me think of what *I* think the purpose of education is. I certainly think education should be more than just job prep. But I don't really buy what I view as the utopian ideal of "education as a vehicle for creating a more democratic and just society". My personal belief on what the purpose of education is? The goal of education is to allow students to learn the knowledge and skills required for them to be successful in life. These skills may include facts and basic knowledge, but also social skills, technology skills and especially learning skills. I think teaching students how to learn is the most important lesson a teacher can impart.
But hey, that's just me.



Agency
Yeah, so the major sections of this paper are all summarized by a vowel. A, E, I, O, U. And the A is for Agency. Agency is the power to cause positive change in ones life and the sense of hope and possibility that one can make a difference. Developing agency involves giving students a positive cultural and social identity and an understanding of their relationship to society. They then discuss ways to promote agency and the reasons why agency is important. Which is all good and I don't really disagree with it. What I wonder about is the feasibility. How can you empower students when many (most) schools operate in an environment of control and punishment? How can you help individual students develop a positive cultural identity in a class of 30, with perhaps a half dozen or more different cultures represented? Take the time to cover every culture? Or do you focus on the majority? I don't believe that's right. Overall I've found myself struggling with the concept that the best (in my opinion) teachers try to individualize the learning process with their students. Working with each students individual strengths and weaknesses, etc. But in practical terms, you can't. There aren't enough hours in the day. So how do you determine the "happy medium" of doing the best job for the entire class? Definitely something I've spent time thinking about so far. Moving on.


Equity and Justice
This section discusses equity vs. equality. Or fairness vs. equal, and how equal is not always fair. They talk extensively about Brown vs. Board of Education as an example of an attempt to increase equality without trying for equity. This is actually the first time I've seriously heard a discussion on Brown having a downside. It's not smething I'd ever really considered. Like most of the lemmings out there I've been taught racism bad, segregation = racism, removing segregation is ergo good. So this article touches on the downside of desegregation, such as the firing of African American teachers and the loss of autonomy and community engagement. But as my wife pointed out, it was still an improvement, right? Eh, I'm going to fall back on my "need more data" excuse. I can see how a plan that was great in principle may not work out great in practice.


Instruction and Curriculum
This section discusses the standards of education, and how urban schools should be held to the same high standards as other schools. Communities should also have a role in the development of standards for "their" schools. It also discusses powerful learning experiences, "highly challenging for learners, even at the risk of failing. They allow learners to explore and build upon their own, nascent ideas and knowledge. And they are bolstered by the caring attention of a teacher." I can agree with that. I like the view of a teacher as a mediator, who is there to guide and moderate the students on their individual educational journey, rather than as a galley master who flogs them along the path he or she has determined to be right. Not sure how to make that come about, but I like it as a concept. The article goes on to discuss some specific examples of these techniques, many of which had me thinking, "How will I go about this when I'm teaching?" Overall I thought this was a great section.


Outcomes and Impacts
My take on outcomes and impacts is that it refers to what the goals of education are, and how can progress towards those goals be assessed. To be honest, I was a little unclear on how the title related to the material here. The article is highly critical of the current paradigm of assessment, i.e. achievement on standardized tests. I wholeheartedly agree with this. I tend to do very well on standardized tests. In large part because I am just a very good test taker. I had a friend in grad school, smart guy and he studied his ass off for our exams. I doubt I studied a third as much as he did but I still tended to get better scores. Guess which of us is now on the faculty of a medical school and which of us is looking at a major carreer change? Because, big suprise, being able to do well on tests is not an indicator of how well you'll do in the real world.

This section also talks about accountability, and how currently teachers, schools and administrators tend to be the ones held accountable for poor student performance, even when they were never given the resources to be successful in the first place. I agree in the injustice of this, and I believe we need accountability throughout the educational process, from the students themselves up to the policy makers. Yes, teachers should be held accountable, but they should not have to bear the whole burden when others are part of the problem as well.


Urban Conditions and Context
There are both opportunities and challenges in urban schools. Then again the same can be said for any school system, and really for any field of human endeavor at all. But I will put forth the idea that in urban schools the relative magnitudes of the opportunities and challenges have been systematically minimized or exagerrated, respectively, by the media and by generally ignorant public perception. The opportunities exist because there are schools and teachers out there right now getting it right. And what one person can do, then so can another. And yes, there are serious and "unique" challenges involved in urban education, but they are by no means insoluble. Otherwise the cities would have fallen into screaming barbarism long ago. Sorry, I get these weird urges to try and sound eloquent from time to time. :-)

Anyways, that's it for this post. It's later than I planned, due to my wonderful experience with the flu. Class again tonight, so I'm sure I'll have more to talk about soon.

Demographics and Hope...

So this is my first post based on our homework readings. There are two articles we were assigned to read for class last week. The first was on the shifting demographics of urban schools, and the challenges implicit in these shifts. The other article was the Annenberg promise. It is much more hopeful, discussing pros and cons of urban teaching and suggesting possible solutions to the issues of urban education.

So, as I said, the first article is on the shifting demographics of America and how these shifts may/will impact education. First off let me say I am very suspicious of statistical analysis. I do them all the time and it's really not hard to play with the numbers in such a way so that they'll support your viewpoint, regardless of what your viewpoint is. As Mark Twain said, "There are three types of untruths: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics!"

Anyways, the article itself is fairly straightforward. The first section discusses overall changes in enrollment and debunks the belief that there is a massive "Tidal Wave" of incoming students. Really, there are a few areas/districts that are expecting increases (I'd guess CA, TX and FL, based on the article. Probably other border states as well), but in most of the US enrollment will remain static or even decline slightly. Okay, I can accept that. Though I wonder how they determine where kids now growing up will end up? The same section discusses transiency, and how students tend to move around a lot. What if all the families with young students in San Diego suddenly moved to Iowa? Wouldn't that throw off all the demographic projections being made in this article? I'm sure they have historically proven models for studies like this. I suppose this is one reason why I'm more comfortable with populations I can fit in a petri dish.

The second section states several facts about race in the US. Increased numbers of "minorities", increases racial mixing, increase in people claiming "multi-racial" heritage and increasingly uneven distribution of racial diversity. I hadn't really thought of most of this before, but it makes sense and I can accept that these are all very important issues for education. But the article barely touches on how to deal with these issues. And even if a good plan was put forth, how would it get through the bureaucratic and political mess, get funded and come to fruition?

The third section talks about the aging population in America, many of whoms children are grown and out of school already. Will these people be willing to continue to fund education? I say hell no. Okay, maybe they'll have grandkids in school they'll want to suppport, but I know people on a fixed income and they are uniformly against anything that cuts into that income. Growing up in Anchorage, AK I remember many ballot measures in the 80's that would increase taxes or issue bonds that were soundly defeated. Why? There were more voters without kids than there were with kids. And the ones without kids didn't want to fund the education of other peoples kids. They didn't worry about improving society as a whole or where the doctors and judges that would be supporting them in the future came from. They just didn't want their pocketbooks affected in the here and now. I'd say Alaskans are very shortsighted, but sadly I've found that trait is a lot more widespread then just up north.

The last section discusses race vs. national origin and that the latter will become more important than the former. I've seen this firsthand to an extent. Again, growing up in Alaska, my high school was very diverse. We had a lot of different nationalities represented, particularly from Pacific Rim countries. And yes, different nationalities behaved differently, and had different expectations in behavior. Japanese vs. Phillipino vs. Samoan vs. Alaska Native, they tended to react differently to situations, because they had different cultural standards for behavior than I did.

I also work in a major NYC hospital, and it is very, very diverse. It's not unusual to see labs where less that 20% of the employees are US citizens. And I really believe every nationality on Earth is represented there somewhere. And again, people from different cultures and different nationalities react differently. And the reactions may seem odd to those of us raised in a different culture, but if you try and figure out why they react the way they do it always makes pretty good sense. It's just a matter of making the effort to understand where they're coming from.

Okay, so I write like I talk: Way too much. I'm going to cut this short and review the Annenberg Promise tomorrow. Let me know what you think and I'll talk to you all later.

At long last, Dr. Mad Scientist is joining the blogosphere!

Welcome to the lab! I'd say I started blogging because I feel I have an interesting and unique viewpoint I'd like to share with the world, but I'm trying not to lie as much as I used to. In reality, I'm taking a course in Urban Education. This blog is part of the course requirements, so it my posts will most likely be focused on Urban Education and a number of my posts will be on topics assigned by our instructor. I will also run a little farther afield. Get ready to hear (to a nauseating extent) about Colorado State football, my greatest love (oh, along with my wife and kids, I may post about them too, on occasion).



For those of you who aren't familiar with me, Dr. Mad Scientist is the name my wife refers to me by in her blog. She's a much more established blogger then I am. I recently decided my current/previous career just wasn't doing it for me. I have a Ph.D in a biological science and am currently doing medical research in NYC. I really can not see myself doing it for the next __ decades.



So after a period of self reflection, and more than a little anxiety, I realized the teaching aspects of my previous job were what I enjoyed most about it. I also realized I'm craving the feeling that I'm really making a difference (preferably for the better!) in the world. That lame old cliche about making the world a better place is alive and well in me. So I took a deep breath and applied to go back to school to become a teacher. Specifically I'm looking to teach high school biology, and I'm planning to teach chemistry as well once I get a little more settled.



I ended up in a program that is geared towards producing math and science teachers for urban school districts in general and Newark, NJ in particular. So I will be teaching in Newark Public Schools in the relatively near future. And yes, I've heard from many, many people that I am insane for voluntarily going into Newark. I know, I know, I will be beaten, stabbed, mugged, shot and called mean names. I know the general public perception of Newark is that I would be better off teaching in one of the lower circles of Hell.

But you know what? That's where good teachers are most needed. It's where I think I'll be able to do the most good, and have the greatest chance to actually make the world a little bit better. No, it probably won't be easy (but you will not hear me complain if it is) but it's my experience that the things most worth doing rarely are.

Stay tuned for my first class-related blog post. It will be a scintillating review of a couple articles we read for class. You really won't want to miss it. Well, objectively you probably will want to miss it, but I hope you'll check it out anyways.

Oh, and as a final note, I know the blog looks a little drab right now. I am going to spruce it up a bit and start adding more links and pictures to my posts. I just need to figure out how first. Thanks and welcome to Dr. Mad Scientists lab!