Cell Structure
The microscope--- as developed by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and improved over the years via stereomicroscopes, electron microscopes (EM), transmissions electron microscopes (TEM), scanning electron microscopes (SEM), contact ray microscopes, and scanning tunneling microscopes--- allowed humankind to observe and investigate tiny internal structures of organisms, including the most fundamentally important of all: the cell.
The cell, ranging in size from 0.5 to 40 microns, is the internal bodily structure responsible for the development and functioning of living things. A cell membrane (also called plasma membrane, covering just 80 angstroms [eight-millionths of a millimeter) encompasses the cytoplasm (material within the cell), within which is the vital nucleus that governs developmental processes for the cell, and therefore the organism, as a whole. Materials flow in and out of a cell through active transport (occurring when a cell expends energy to move molecules from one location of the organism to another) and passive transport (involving either diffusion [movement of particles from areas of high concentration to those of low concentration] or osmosis [movement of water across a cell membrane).
The nucleus contains chromosomes, long, thin structures composed of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and protein; these chromosomes deliver all instructions concerning life processes of the cell.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) are crucial to the storage and transmission of genetic information that controls cell functions and interactions. Vital DNA and RNA are among those
nucleotides (containing carbon, hydrogen, phosphorus, and nitrogen) that compose and according to their sequence determine the distinctive properties of those organic compounds known as nucleic acids.
All nucleic structures are ensconced in viscous (dense) material called the nucleoplasm, which is bound by a nuclear membrane; the latter allows only selected material to enter the nucleus,
obstructing many substances that were able to pass through the relatively permeable membrane encompassing the whole cell. Attached to the outside of the nuclear membrane is an
endoplasmic reticulum, important in facilitating the flow of materials in and out of the nucleus. Most cells contain a structure known as the nucleolus, which contains high concentrations of DNA and proteins.
Contained either within the endoplasmic reticulum, or found as free-floating organelles (intracellular structures) within the cytoplasm, are ribosomes, tiny granules containing high concentrations of ribosomal RNA (rRNA), which abets synthesis of the protein also found in ribosomes.
Other cellular organelles include the Golgi apparatus, lysosome, mitochondria, plastids, microfilaments, microtubules, centrioles, cilia, and flagella:
Golgi apparatus >>>>> flat, smooth, oval organelle that receives protein, carbohydrate, and
other molecules previously processed in ribosomes and transferred through the endoplasmic reticulum ; further processing proteins and carbohydrates into more complex molecules such as glycoproteins and mucopolysaccharides, the Golgi apparatus then emits these as secretions, including mucus.
Lysosome >>>>> single-membrane storage vesicle containing powerful enzymes for
digesting materials that have penetrated the cell membrane; also breaks down older parts of the cell into constituent materials for reuse by the cell.
Mitochondria >>>>> the cell’s power station, supplying the high-energy molecule adenosine
triphosphate (ATP , active in many cellular activities, including cell division and muscle contraction) ; most abundant in cells with great energy needs, as in a plant’s growing root tip and in animal’s muscle and liver cells.
Plastids >>>>> large cytoplasmic organelles that include three types:
Leucoplasts >>>>> and colorless plastids that store oils, protein granules, as well as energy-rich starch formed from simple sugars;
Amyloplasts >>>>> plastids that specialize in the storage of starch;
Chloroplasts >>>>> plastids that contain the green pigment
chlorophyll (important to photosynthesis) and red, yellow, and orange pigments that remain in temperate zone autumnal leaves after green pigment has broken down, accounting for the arboreal (tree) color of autumn.
Vacuoles >>>>> cellular spaces found in both plants and animals that fill with fluids
containing high concentrations of sugars, amino acids, some proteins, and several pigments; vacuoles protect the cell by safely storing toxic chemicals, expelling water and waste from the cell, and collecting material that has penetrated the cell membrane (passing this material on to lysosomes for the digestive action of enzymes).
Microfilaments >>>>> long protein fibers that maintain cell structure and movement, including
the contraction of muscle cells.
Microtubules >>>>> hollow structures that act as tracts along which organelles move, and
along which chromosomes move in cell division.
Centrioles >>>>> structures that occur in pairs--- each composed of nine sets of triplets
that revolve in a cylindrical shape--- and play a role in the formation of microtubules, which in turn facilitate the movement of chromosomes in cell division.
Cilia >>>>> short, thin organelle that band with other cilia to beat back and forth or
to move in corkscrew fashion so as to propel or pull a cell through
liquids
Flagella >>>>> long, thin organelle similar to the cilia in action (but isolated rather
than banded together with others), beating back and forth
or moving in corkscrew fashion so as to propel or pull a cell through
liquids.
Cells are of two general types, prokaryotic and eukaryotic:
Prokaryotic cells are the more primitive of the two types, occurring in organisms such as bacteria and algae (identified, therefore, among the prokaryotes). Unlike eukaryotic cells, prokaryotic cell walls are filled with muramic acid and may have an infolding of the plasma membrane that is given the particular term, mesosome. Prokaryotic cells have no nuclear membrane but rather feature a nucleoid, a nuclear area that typically includes a single circular chromosome. The chromosome is devoid of protein and composed entirely of nucleic acids. Ribosomes and flagella of prokaryotic cells are different in shape from those of eukaryotic cells, and they have no Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, lysosomes, or vacuoles. Photosynthetic prokaryotes contain photosynthetic membranes and chlorophyll, but these are not enveloped inside chloroplasts.
Eukaryotic cells are the more complex types found in all of those organisms all protists, fungi,
4
plants, and animals--- known collectively as the eukaryotes. Eurkaryotic cells are those with the multiple structures and organelles (Golgi apparatus, endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, lysosomes, and vacuoles) discussed above. In these cells, a nuclear membrane encloses a nucleus, within which are the long filamentous chromosomes composed of nucleic acids and proteins and along which occur genes responsible for inherited traits.
Oct 12, 2016
Oct 10, 2016
Update >>>>> Academic Success under Circumstances of Extreme Poverty: The Continuing Triumph of Damon Preston and Javon Jakes in the New Salem Educational Initiative
Note >>>>>
The names used in this article are data privacy pseudonyms--- my practice always for participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative who gain reference in articles posted on this blog.
This article is connected to another posted on 5 September 2016, and part of an ongoing saga that I have frequently related for this family of longtime participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
The saga provides a salient example of my efforts in the New Salem Educational Initiative to provide assistance to students and families in their life situations, with the ultimate goal of imparting to my students knowledge-intensive college preparatory education that will maximize their chances for lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
As I have recounted in prior articles posted on this blog, the family of reference below is one that I have known for eight years, following Evelyn Patterson and her sons Damon Preston and Javon Jakes in their occupancy of three residences in Minneapolis, one in St. Paul, and one recently secured in a move (for which I was the moving company) to Coon Rapids; this and other accounts also include reference to the relationship between Evelyn Patterson and Marcel Gifford.
...........................................
Through August and much of September, Evelyn Patterson and her sons Damon Preston and Javon Jakes were doing well in their new home in Coon Rapids.
Damon and Evelyn were getting along amicably. Ever the old soul and mature in many ways beyond his years, Damon was working hard to be respectful and helpful to his mom. Javon was not acting out with his former frequency.
Evelyn and I talked frequently. I complimented her for how neatly she was keeping the new place, which is much better appointed than the apartment in eastern St.Paul (her key social worker in the program in which she is enrolled helped her secure some quite decent furniture and lighting for the new residence). I always told her that she looked good (she had dropped a few of the many extra pounds that she carries for her average frame and height) and was glad that she seemed in fine spirits.
On one such occasion, Evelyn said, “Thank you, Mr. Gary. [Despite my encouraging students and their families to call me simply, 'Gary,' many prefer to confer on me the title culturally bestowed on an honored elder.] And thank you for all that you have done. Thank you for not turning away when I said all that crazy stuff. My boys and I just would not be where we are now without your help.”
I just replied: “It’s all been my pleasure--- and your efforts to gain your current situation are all that I need for thanks. I love you and the boys and will always be here for you, whatever you need.”
Her eyes teared up behind an expression of relief and joy. I hugged her, Damon, and Javon and then departed with a share in that joy.
...................................................
As for Marcel, he came around every so often and from the beginning of Evelyn’s move to Coon Rapids was a too-frequent source of irritation. Marcel went to work at midsummer as a cook in a mid-range quality restaurant; he knew that he needed greater stability to avoid doing something rash, including any unwise impulsion back to the life of the street in Southside Chicago.
But Marcel missed too many days by calling in late or being a no-show for the new restaurant gig, the sort of behavior that has been a chronic behavioral disease for all of Marcel’s adult life. By mid-September, Marcel was showing up at the Coon Rapids residence far too often.
Unfortunately, a woman that Marcel had known lives close to where Evelyn and the boys have settled; Marcel seized on this coincidence of proximity to reconnect with his old acquaintance and to deliver numerous false shadings of the truth about Evelyn’s treatment of him in their relationship. Some of the resulting rumors circulated the neighborhood.
When Evelyn got firmer about Marcel’s needing to stay away from her house, he launched a verbal tirade. He did not get physical, but she and the boys felt ascending fear. Evelyn’s social worker counseled that she get a restraining order against Marcel.
Evelyn consulted me concerning the restraining order, and I concurred. I have great empathy for Marcel and love him as I have Evelyn, Damon, and Javon for the eight years that these people have been part of my life. But for the good of everyone, Marcel needs to make a clean break for a long stretch of months and, better, years, so that all concerned can try to move on toward more productive circumstances.
As I write this article on 10 October, Evelyn is due soon for a second court appearance that should definitively caution Marcel away from her residence at the peril of bearing the judicial consequences.
..................................................................
Meanwhile, Evelyn, Damon, and Javon are welcoming academic year 2016-2017.
With favorable prospects for securing the restraining order, Evelyn seeks to maintain her newfound stability and decency of residential circumstances, and to realize her hopes for her boys. I continue to assure Evelyn that I will never fade from view, as so many others on whom she has placed hopes have been lost to her in this one earthly sojourn.
Damon and Javon are both doing splendidly in their new Coon Rapids academic environs:
Javon is reading now at the Grade 4 level and now has most of his multiplication tables memorized at only Grade 2.
Damon, on the strength of his achieving grade level performance on both math and reading components of last spring’s Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), was placed in an accelerated math class of just ten students and is one of the top three achievers in the class. He is making “A’s” “B’s” in all of his classes, and he continues to move through the Political Science chapter of my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the third chapter that he has negotiated in this advanced text.
I remain adamant that Javon and Damon will receive the mentorship and academic training with me in the New Salem Educational Initiative that will assure futures more typically descriptive of children of upper middle class parentage.
And I continue through advocacy in the many venues that I've created for the K-12 revolution to exert pressure on decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools to deliver that excellence of education for all of our precious children that will make of our nation the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.
The names used in this article are data privacy pseudonyms--- my practice always for participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative who gain reference in articles posted on this blog.
This article is connected to another posted on 5 September 2016, and part of an ongoing saga that I have frequently related for this family of longtime participants in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
The saga provides a salient example of my efforts in the New Salem Educational Initiative to provide assistance to students and families in their life situations, with the ultimate goal of imparting to my students knowledge-intensive college preparatory education that will maximize their chances for lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.
As I have recounted in prior articles posted on this blog, the family of reference below is one that I have known for eight years, following Evelyn Patterson and her sons Damon Preston and Javon Jakes in their occupancy of three residences in Minneapolis, one in St. Paul, and one recently secured in a move (for which I was the moving company) to Coon Rapids; this and other accounts also include reference to the relationship between Evelyn Patterson and Marcel Gifford.
...........................................
Through August and much of September, Evelyn Patterson and her sons Damon Preston and Javon Jakes were doing well in their new home in Coon Rapids.
Damon and Evelyn were getting along amicably. Ever the old soul and mature in many ways beyond his years, Damon was working hard to be respectful and helpful to his mom. Javon was not acting out with his former frequency.
Evelyn and I talked frequently. I complimented her for how neatly she was keeping the new place, which is much better appointed than the apartment in eastern St.Paul (her key social worker in the program in which she is enrolled helped her secure some quite decent furniture and lighting for the new residence). I always told her that she looked good (she had dropped a few of the many extra pounds that she carries for her average frame and height) and was glad that she seemed in fine spirits.
On one such occasion, Evelyn said, “Thank you, Mr. Gary. [Despite my encouraging students and their families to call me simply, 'Gary,' many prefer to confer on me the title culturally bestowed on an honored elder.] And thank you for all that you have done. Thank you for not turning away when I said all that crazy stuff. My boys and I just would not be where we are now without your help.”
I just replied: “It’s all been my pleasure--- and your efforts to gain your current situation are all that I need for thanks. I love you and the boys and will always be here for you, whatever you need.”
Her eyes teared up behind an expression of relief and joy. I hugged her, Damon, and Javon and then departed with a share in that joy.
...................................................
As for Marcel, he came around every so often and from the beginning of Evelyn’s move to Coon Rapids was a too-frequent source of irritation. Marcel went to work at midsummer as a cook in a mid-range quality restaurant; he knew that he needed greater stability to avoid doing something rash, including any unwise impulsion back to the life of the street in Southside Chicago.
But Marcel missed too many days by calling in late or being a no-show for the new restaurant gig, the sort of behavior that has been a chronic behavioral disease for all of Marcel’s adult life. By mid-September, Marcel was showing up at the Coon Rapids residence far too often.
Unfortunately, a woman that Marcel had known lives close to where Evelyn and the boys have settled; Marcel seized on this coincidence of proximity to reconnect with his old acquaintance and to deliver numerous false shadings of the truth about Evelyn’s treatment of him in their relationship. Some of the resulting rumors circulated the neighborhood.
When Evelyn got firmer about Marcel’s needing to stay away from her house, he launched a verbal tirade. He did not get physical, but she and the boys felt ascending fear. Evelyn’s social worker counseled that she get a restraining order against Marcel.
Evelyn consulted me concerning the restraining order, and I concurred. I have great empathy for Marcel and love him as I have Evelyn, Damon, and Javon for the eight years that these people have been part of my life. But for the good of everyone, Marcel needs to make a clean break for a long stretch of months and, better, years, so that all concerned can try to move on toward more productive circumstances.
As I write this article on 10 October, Evelyn is due soon for a second court appearance that should definitively caution Marcel away from her residence at the peril of bearing the judicial consequences.
..................................................................
Meanwhile, Evelyn, Damon, and Javon are welcoming academic year 2016-2017.
With favorable prospects for securing the restraining order, Evelyn seeks to maintain her newfound stability and decency of residential circumstances, and to realize her hopes for her boys. I continue to assure Evelyn that I will never fade from view, as so many others on whom she has placed hopes have been lost to her in this one earthly sojourn.
Damon and Javon are both doing splendidly in their new Coon Rapids academic environs:
Javon is reading now at the Grade 4 level and now has most of his multiplication tables memorized at only Grade 2.
Damon, on the strength of his achieving grade level performance on both math and reading components of last spring’s Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs), was placed in an accelerated math class of just ten students and is one of the top three achievers in the class. He is making “A’s” “B’s” in all of his classes, and he continues to move through the Political Science chapter of my Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education, the third chapter that he has negotiated in this advanced text.
I remain adamant that Javon and Damon will receive the mentorship and academic training with me in the New Salem Educational Initiative that will assure futures more typically descriptive of children of upper middle class parentage.
And I continue through advocacy in the many venues that I've created for the K-12 revolution to exert pressure on decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools to deliver that excellence of education for all of our precious children that will make of our nation the democracy that we imagine ourselves to be.
Oct 6, 2016
Another Highly Personal View of Love and Education >>>>> Midweek Missive #405 (X-6) to My Son, Ryan Davison-Reed
Note--- Reference to names of students and their parents are rendered in data privacy pseudonyms. All other names are actual.
October 6, 2016
My Beloved Ryan---
What a great conversation was ours this past Monday (3 October). There is no one in my personal universe with whom I have such conversations: No one else has the sort of information base on the topics that we covered, and very few aside from My Love have the analytical capability and brainpower to range over and ratiocinate upon the matters of politics, history, economics, psychology, philosophy, literature, and religion that suffused our discussion on this particular and many other occasions.
I do appreciate you, as does your paternal grandmother:
Na said that you and she had another super conversation, full of laughter and love--- those two very important qualities of life well-lived life. Na loves your calls; you, Barbara, Dennis, Beth, Judy, Gloria, and I have especially in these last couple of years provided plenty of reasons for her to persevere through the aches and pains of 95 years on the planet to take considerable joy in the hours of each day.
I love you all for the contributions that you have made and are making to the endurance of what has become Mom's truly remarkable journey.
.........................................................
Two of the young people with whom I worked today are particularly interesting cases; rather than transport them to New Salem, as I do for most of my students, I work with these two students one on one for one hour each rather than two hours but right in their own residences.
At 3:00 PM, I go to a subsidized (by Volunteers of America) high-rise a few blocks off the southern extreme of Nicollet Mall where Alisha Carlson lives with mom Tanya Webster. Alisha came to my attention via the auspices of Shana Lyle, mother of Nita Bolton, the other student to whom I refer above. The concern when I started working with Alisha during school year 2015-2016 (when Alisha was in Grade 2) was behavioral, but with some extension to her academic progress--- so that she had been given an Individual Education Plan (IEP) by the end of her kindergarten year.
My image of Alisha as I rode the elevator to her 11th floor apartment for the first time about six months ago now was that of a student who may have some level of biological damage and dysfunctional deportment.
In fact, she was a delight.
Alisha was the essence of sweet and smart from the time I first started sketching out math problems and vocabulary on my yellow pad to assess her math and reading level--- smiling all the while in pride and gratitude. By the end of that academic year 2015-2016, Alisha was off of her IEP, demonstrating math and reading level at Grade 3 while still in Grade 2, and working enthusiastically through a book of readings that I gave her.
At the New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet this past June 2016, I awarded Alisha and two other strikingly adept youngsters the Precocious Young Scholar award, calling upon Alisha and the others to demonstrate their skill in arithmetic mental calculation, knowledge of multiplication tables at only Grade 2, and advanced reading capability. Alisha basked in the attention, beamed with pride and accomplishment---and loved the fried and barbecued chicken, tossed salad, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, spaghetti, and lasagna that I prepared for the students and families in my mode as cook and caterer.
Today Alisha easily zoomed through a ridiculously easy homework assignment that called upon her to write and then spell orally a dozen one-syllable words. We then went to a book of advanced readings that I gave Alisha, today focusing on an article about the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alisha learned how in the world an ancient Roman casket ended up at The Met and how other items of interest draw three million people to this great cultural institution annually. In doing the reading, Alisha mastered the meaning and spelling of new vocabulary terms valuable, casket, businessman, businesswoman, businessperson, and magnificent.
I then sketched out several conceptual arithmetic problems calling for decisions as to whether to employ addition, subtraction, or multiplication. At just this juncture at early Grade 3, Alisha can utilize carrying and borrowing (regrouping) for three digit numbers and perform multiplication operations with two digits top and bottom.
At the end of our academic session, Alisha and I showed Tanya what her daughter had accomplished, as mom and off-spring radiated joy and pride.
I could see in Tanya's eyes a vision of a better life than she had considered possible for herself--- and we are now talking about a redress of the latter situation as Tanya herself plans to become my student in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
......................................................
I next zoomed over to work with Nita in the 33rd block of Chicago Avenue South. Alisha and Nita present cases of downtown and Southside students who were referred to me via a parental pipeline running from North Minneapolis.
I had helped Shana's son Donnie nurse wounds inflicted in the SPAN program for behaviorally extreme cases, working with him from his Grade 8 year four years ago up through Grade10 before he moved to live with relatives in Seattle for attendance in and graduation from high school.
I met Nita when she was a tyke but did not start working with her until I got an emergency call from Shana at the beginning of her daughter's Grade 6 year at Ramsey K-8. During that academic year of 2015-2016 I launched Nita on an aggressive program of skill remediation and she finished the year making mostly B's.
Today Nita had no homework, so we went over a reading that I had left her focused on the life, intellectual trajectory, and political and social activism of Malcolm X. Along the way, Nita mastered the elements of my background history lesson, provided--- as is typical with all of my students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- because she had learned nothing of this in school.
Contextualizing the article, I conveyed to Nita the meaning and significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; Lyndon Johnson (with reference to his relationship with Martin Luther King), the Union versus the Confederate States of America; the Civil War; Reconstruction; the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; the Compromise of 1877; Jim Crow; sharecropping; the meaning of centuries (that, for example, the 19th century runs from 1801 through 1900--- astoundingly, students from the Minneapolis Public Schools never know this until I tell them); Islam by comparison and contrast with the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims); Saudi Arabia; Mecca; and pilgrimage.
We covered more African American history, and for that matter United States history, in an hour and a half (we went longer today than my usual visit to her house) than this Grade 7 student has ever learned in school.
Nita was raptly attentive.
Students hunger for knowledge.
Thus the importance of Alisha, Nita, all of my students, and waging of the K-12 Revolution.
Shana asked me if I was headed home.
I said "No, when I leave here I head to work with many other students."
She asked me when I'd finish.
I told her 9:00 or 10:00 PM.
Shana smiled with expressive eyes that exerted a bit of fatigue in my behalf, even as I bounded down the steps from her apartment.
How wonderful to love what one does in life, as I do--- and there so much teaching, research, public speaking, and advocacy to do.
Waging the K-12 Revolution impels me forward in the most important endeavor imaginable--- achieving excellence of education for all of our precious children, especially those who have been waiting for even a modicum thereof for a very long time.
............................................................
I have my passport renewal in expeditious mode, to arrive in three weeks--- by the end of October.
With that document renewed and on the way, we can continue to move toward a union of itineraries for the trip to Taiwan.
We'll also continue our discussion concerning the Thanksgiving trip to Dallas--- and so much more--- in that ever-looming conversation.
I love you so very much, my dear son---
Gary
October 6, 2016
My Beloved Ryan---
What a great conversation was ours this past Monday (3 October). There is no one in my personal universe with whom I have such conversations: No one else has the sort of information base on the topics that we covered, and very few aside from My Love have the analytical capability and brainpower to range over and ratiocinate upon the matters of politics, history, economics, psychology, philosophy, literature, and religion that suffused our discussion on this particular and many other occasions.
I do appreciate you, as does your paternal grandmother:
Na said that you and she had another super conversation, full of laughter and love--- those two very important qualities of life well-lived life. Na loves your calls; you, Barbara, Dennis, Beth, Judy, Gloria, and I have especially in these last couple of years provided plenty of reasons for her to persevere through the aches and pains of 95 years on the planet to take considerable joy in the hours of each day.
I love you all for the contributions that you have made and are making to the endurance of what has become Mom's truly remarkable journey.
.........................................................
Two of the young people with whom I worked today are particularly interesting cases; rather than transport them to New Salem, as I do for most of my students, I work with these two students one on one for one hour each rather than two hours but right in their own residences.
At 3:00 PM, I go to a subsidized (by Volunteers of America) high-rise a few blocks off the southern extreme of Nicollet Mall where Alisha Carlson lives with mom Tanya Webster. Alisha came to my attention via the auspices of Shana Lyle, mother of Nita Bolton, the other student to whom I refer above. The concern when I started working with Alisha during school year 2015-2016 (when Alisha was in Grade 2) was behavioral, but with some extension to her academic progress--- so that she had been given an Individual Education Plan (IEP) by the end of her kindergarten year.
My image of Alisha as I rode the elevator to her 11th floor apartment for the first time about six months ago now was that of a student who may have some level of biological damage and dysfunctional deportment.
In fact, she was a delight.
Alisha was the essence of sweet and smart from the time I first started sketching out math problems and vocabulary on my yellow pad to assess her math and reading level--- smiling all the while in pride and gratitude. By the end of that academic year 2015-2016, Alisha was off of her IEP, demonstrating math and reading level at Grade 3 while still in Grade 2, and working enthusiastically through a book of readings that I gave her.
At the New Salem Educational Initiative Banquet this past June 2016, I awarded Alisha and two other strikingly adept youngsters the Precocious Young Scholar award, calling upon Alisha and the others to demonstrate their skill in arithmetic mental calculation, knowledge of multiplication tables at only Grade 2, and advanced reading capability. Alisha basked in the attention, beamed with pride and accomplishment---and loved the fried and barbecued chicken, tossed salad, mashed potatoes, macaroni & cheese, spaghetti, and lasagna that I prepared for the students and families in my mode as cook and caterer.
Today Alisha easily zoomed through a ridiculously easy homework assignment that called upon her to write and then spell orally a dozen one-syllable words. We then went to a book of advanced readings that I gave Alisha, today focusing on an article about the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Alisha learned how in the world an ancient Roman casket ended up at The Met and how other items of interest draw three million people to this great cultural institution annually. In doing the reading, Alisha mastered the meaning and spelling of new vocabulary terms valuable, casket, businessman, businesswoman, businessperson, and magnificent.
I then sketched out several conceptual arithmetic problems calling for decisions as to whether to employ addition, subtraction, or multiplication. At just this juncture at early Grade 3, Alisha can utilize carrying and borrowing (regrouping) for three digit numbers and perform multiplication operations with two digits top and bottom.
At the end of our academic session, Alisha and I showed Tanya what her daughter had accomplished, as mom and off-spring radiated joy and pride.
I could see in Tanya's eyes a vision of a better life than she had considered possible for herself--- and we are now talking about a redress of the latter situation as Tanya herself plans to become my student in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
......................................................
I next zoomed over to work with Nita in the 33rd block of Chicago Avenue South. Alisha and Nita present cases of downtown and Southside students who were referred to me via a parental pipeline running from North Minneapolis.
I had helped Shana's son Donnie nurse wounds inflicted in the SPAN program for behaviorally extreme cases, working with him from his Grade 8 year four years ago up through Grade10 before he moved to live with relatives in Seattle for attendance in and graduation from high school.
I met Nita when she was a tyke but did not start working with her until I got an emergency call from Shana at the beginning of her daughter's Grade 6 year at Ramsey K-8. During that academic year of 2015-2016 I launched Nita on an aggressive program of skill remediation and she finished the year making mostly B's.
Today Nita had no homework, so we went over a reading that I had left her focused on the life, intellectual trajectory, and political and social activism of Malcolm X. Along the way, Nita mastered the elements of my background history lesson, provided--- as is typical with all of my students enrolled in the Minneapolis Public Schools--- because she had learned nothing of this in school.
Contextualizing the article, I conveyed to Nita the meaning and significance of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; Lyndon Johnson (with reference to his relationship with Martin Luther King), the Union versus the Confederate States of America; the Civil War; Reconstruction; the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; the Compromise of 1877; Jim Crow; sharecropping; the meaning of centuries (that, for example, the 19th century runs from 1801 through 1900--- astoundingly, students from the Minneapolis Public Schools never know this until I tell them); Islam by comparison and contrast with the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims); Saudi Arabia; Mecca; and pilgrimage.
We covered more African American history, and for that matter United States history, in an hour and a half (we went longer today than my usual visit to her house) than this Grade 7 student has ever learned in school.
Nita was raptly attentive.
Students hunger for knowledge.
Thus the importance of Alisha, Nita, all of my students, and waging of the K-12 Revolution.
Shana asked me if I was headed home.
I said "No, when I leave here I head to work with many other students."
She asked me when I'd finish.
I told her 9:00 or 10:00 PM.
Shana smiled with expressive eyes that exerted a bit of fatigue in my behalf, even as I bounded down the steps from her apartment.
How wonderful to love what one does in life, as I do--- and there so much teaching, research, public speaking, and advocacy to do.
Waging the K-12 Revolution impels me forward in the most important endeavor imaginable--- achieving excellence of education for all of our precious children, especially those who have been waiting for even a modicum thereof for a very long time.
............................................................
I have my passport renewal in expeditious mode, to arrive in three weeks--- by the end of October.
With that document renewed and on the way, we can continue to move toward a union of itineraries for the trip to Taiwan.
We'll also continue our discussion concerning the Thanksgiving trip to Dallas--- and so much more--- in that ever-looming conversation.
I love you so very much, my dear son---
Gary
Oct 5, 2016
Staff Cuts at the Minneapolis Public Schools, Spring 2015 (an inadequate but more competent response this time from Nan Miller at MPS Data Requests)
Aiming for clarity, I present in the space below (as you scroll on down) data that I requested regarding Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) staff cuts in spring 2015.
The data were given to me in the form of a document presumably generated by Scott Weber (MPS Human Resources) and then conveyed to me in an email from Nan Miller (MPS Data Requests), dated 4 October 2016.
The document features four columns listing the following information: level of FTE reduction, bargaining unit, position, and employee impacted.
The term “FTE” refers to Full-Time Employee (or Position).
“Bargaining unit” indicates the labor union or organization to which the affected staff member belonged.
“Position” connotes job title.
And “employee impacted” gives the name of the staff member affected (a more aesthetically pleasing word than “impacted”) by the reduction or conveys such information as “vacant-closed position,” “vacant,” or “open.”
I interpret “vacant-closed position,” to mean that an employee had resigned or been terminated, with the position as yet unfilled as of spring 2015, with no intention by MPS decision-makers to reopen the position.
I interpret “vacant” to mean that an employee had resigned or been terminated, with the position as yet unfilled as of spring 2015, with prospects for reopening the position left unstated.
I interpret “open” to mean that a never-filled position was as yet unfilled as of spring 2015, with prospects for opening the position left unstated.
Budgetary considerations driving the decisions of spring 2015 regarding staff cuts suggest that in the latter two cases (“vacant” and “open”) there was no intention to fill the indicated positions anytime soon--- but this is a matter that I will continue to investigate.
I originally requested confirmation that before the staff cuts of spring 2015 the Davis Center contained 651 positions, that 120 were cut, and that this left 531 positions at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools. The former figures were those given in a Star Tribune article (written by Alejandra Matos) in spring 2015; the latter figure results from arithmetic calculation based on those figures.
Scott Weber informed me that my request could be fulfilled by conveying information according to FTE, position, or employee affected--- and asked me which type I preferred. I requested all three types of reportage. I also requested the names of those employees whose positions were cut and were no longer working at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The figures given below indicate that Scott Weber gave me a response that as nearly met my request as he was able to give, based on records as they are kept at the Minneapolis Public Schools. But the official response from Nan Miller (seemingly based on the information given to her by Mr. Weber) indicated that the figures of 651, 120, and 531 pertinent to original positions, cuts, and positions remaining could not be confirmed, given records-keeping categories utilized at MPS, without a labor-intensive response. Ms. Miller similarly suggested that labor intensity would be necessary in order to answer my questions pertinent to staff working before the cuts but no longer at MPS after the cuts. Staff labor for answering these questions, she indicated, would be expended at a rate of $25 per hour.
I indicated in an email to Ms. Miller that I would examine the data given and otherwise pursue answers to my questions, drawing upon my own experience and efficiency as a researcher >>>>>
>>>>> I was able to run the following analysis in pursuit of answers to my questions, taking no more than thirty minutes.
>>>>> I have a plan for pursuing the matter of staff no longer worker at MPS after the cuts of 2015 that also will be implemented efficiently--- so look for that information in a future article.
Consider, then, the following presentation relevant to staff cuts at the Minneapolis Pubic Schools in spring 2015 >>>>>
Data Relevant to Reductions at Minneapolis Public Schools in Spring 2015
Full-Time Positions Eliminated 128.0
Part-Time Positions Eliminated 31.8
Total FTE Reductions 159.8
Regarding positions eliminated, the following data are also instructive >>>>>
Full-Time Positions Eliminated 17.0
Via Closure of Vacant Position
Part-Time Positions Eliminated 0.8
Via Closure of Vacant Position
Total FTE Reductions Via Closure 17.8
Full-Time Positions Eliminated 4.0
Via Vacancy
Part-Time Positions Eliminated 0.0
Via Vacancy
Total FTE Reductions Via Vacancy 4.0
Comment
The above calculations come close to yielding an answer to my question regarding confirmation of the Star Tribune figures revealing 120 staff cuts from the 651 staff working prior to the cuts:
My calculation of 159.8 total FTE reductions suggests that those figures given in the Star Tribune were at least close and possibly correct, with the difference explained by the conceptions of officials working at the behest of then-Interim Superintendent Michael Goar:
The 120 figure may have focused on staff members, and that 120 figure given to Ms. Matos may have been provided by officials who did not count about 40 employees who may have been reassigned to positions that were vacant at the Davis Center but were not among the listed FTE reductions; or who took reductions in FTE.
Documents relevant to total staff employed at the Davis Center in January 2015 and June 2015 should provide more definitive answers to my question relevant to the staff reduction figures, especially enabling me to find out who was and who was not working at the Davis Center after the reductions were made. I have requested such documents pertinent to staff currently working at the Davis Center, and Scott Weber has provided these to me with great efficiency.
In the meantime, the figures given above are highly instructive for indicating the very significant staff cuts that were made at the Davis Center in spring 2015:
These data yield information regarding staff cuts made recently in an effort to reduce the burden of the central bureaucracy at MPS that will provide important factual reference as I investigate the impact of these cuts---
and as I advocate for further reductions at the Davis Center, in accordance with the the fifth of my five major points for overhaul of the Minneapolis Public Schools for the provision of an K-12 education of excellence for all of our precious children.
The data were given to me in the form of a document presumably generated by Scott Weber (MPS Human Resources) and then conveyed to me in an email from Nan Miller (MPS Data Requests), dated 4 October 2016.
The document features four columns listing the following information: level of FTE reduction, bargaining unit, position, and employee impacted.
The term “FTE” refers to Full-Time Employee (or Position).
“Bargaining unit” indicates the labor union or organization to which the affected staff member belonged.
“Position” connotes job title.
And “employee impacted” gives the name of the staff member affected (a more aesthetically pleasing word than “impacted”) by the reduction or conveys such information as “vacant-closed position,” “vacant,” or “open.”
I interpret “vacant-closed position,” to mean that an employee had resigned or been terminated, with the position as yet unfilled as of spring 2015, with no intention by MPS decision-makers to reopen the position.
I interpret “vacant” to mean that an employee had resigned or been terminated, with the position as yet unfilled as of spring 2015, with prospects for reopening the position left unstated.
I interpret “open” to mean that a never-filled position was as yet unfilled as of spring 2015, with prospects for opening the position left unstated.
Budgetary considerations driving the decisions of spring 2015 regarding staff cuts suggest that in the latter two cases (“vacant” and “open”) there was no intention to fill the indicated positions anytime soon--- but this is a matter that I will continue to investigate.
I originally requested confirmation that before the staff cuts of spring 2015 the Davis Center contained 651 positions, that 120 were cut, and that this left 531 positions at the central offices of the Minneapolis Public Schools. The former figures were those given in a Star Tribune article (written by Alejandra Matos) in spring 2015; the latter figure results from arithmetic calculation based on those figures.
Scott Weber informed me that my request could be fulfilled by conveying information according to FTE, position, or employee affected--- and asked me which type I preferred. I requested all three types of reportage. I also requested the names of those employees whose positions were cut and were no longer working at the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The figures given below indicate that Scott Weber gave me a response that as nearly met my request as he was able to give, based on records as they are kept at the Minneapolis Public Schools. But the official response from Nan Miller (seemingly based on the information given to her by Mr. Weber) indicated that the figures of 651, 120, and 531 pertinent to original positions, cuts, and positions remaining could not be confirmed, given records-keeping categories utilized at MPS, without a labor-intensive response. Ms. Miller similarly suggested that labor intensity would be necessary in order to answer my questions pertinent to staff working before the cuts but no longer at MPS after the cuts. Staff labor for answering these questions, she indicated, would be expended at a rate of $25 per hour.
I indicated in an email to Ms. Miller that I would examine the data given and otherwise pursue answers to my questions, drawing upon my own experience and efficiency as a researcher >>>>>
>>>>> I was able to run the following analysis in pursuit of answers to my questions, taking no more than thirty minutes.
>>>>> I have a plan for pursuing the matter of staff no longer worker at MPS after the cuts of 2015 that also will be implemented efficiently--- so look for that information in a future article.
Consider, then, the following presentation relevant to staff cuts at the Minneapolis Pubic Schools in spring 2015 >>>>>
Data Relevant to Reductions at Minneapolis Public Schools in Spring 2015
Full-Time Positions Eliminated 128.0
Part-Time Positions Eliminated 31.8
Total FTE Reductions 159.8
Regarding positions eliminated, the following data are also instructive >>>>>
Full-Time Positions Eliminated 17.0
Via Closure of Vacant Position
Part-Time Positions Eliminated 0.8
Via Closure of Vacant Position
Total FTE Reductions Via Closure 17.8
Full-Time Positions Eliminated 4.0
Via Vacancy
Part-Time Positions Eliminated 0.0
Via Vacancy
Total FTE Reductions Via Vacancy 4.0
Comment
The above calculations come close to yielding an answer to my question regarding confirmation of the Star Tribune figures revealing 120 staff cuts from the 651 staff working prior to the cuts:
My calculation of 159.8 total FTE reductions suggests that those figures given in the Star Tribune were at least close and possibly correct, with the difference explained by the conceptions of officials working at the behest of then-Interim Superintendent Michael Goar:
The 120 figure may have focused on staff members, and that 120 figure given to Ms. Matos may have been provided by officials who did not count about 40 employees who may have been reassigned to positions that were vacant at the Davis Center but were not among the listed FTE reductions; or who took reductions in FTE.
Documents relevant to total staff employed at the Davis Center in January 2015 and June 2015 should provide more definitive answers to my question relevant to the staff reduction figures, especially enabling me to find out who was and who was not working at the Davis Center after the reductions were made. I have requested such documents pertinent to staff currently working at the Davis Center, and Scott Weber has provided these to me with great efficiency.
In the meantime, the figures given above are highly instructive for indicating the very significant staff cuts that were made at the Davis Center in spring 2015:
These data yield information regarding staff cuts made recently in an effort to reduce the burden of the central bureaucracy at MPS that will provide important factual reference as I investigate the impact of these cuts---
and as I advocate for further reductions at the Davis Center, in accordance with the the fifth of my five major points for overhaul of the Minneapolis Public Schools for the provision of an K-12 education of excellence for all of our precious children.
Oct 4, 2016
Consider This Abysmal Perfomance of Students at the Minneapolis Public Schools as You Evaluate the Obstructionism of MPS Official Nan Miller as to Data Requests
I have been stringently compiling data in an effort to be as accurate as possible in my ongoing investigation of the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Scott Weber at MPS Human Resources has frequently been very efficient and highly responsive; the meticulous compilations of Eric Moore, director of MPS Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment (REA) are a marvel; and Communications Director Gail Plewacki is a very diligent and responsive public official.
But most requests for information at the Minneapolis Public Schools have to be routed through Data Requests, formally overseen by General Counsel Amy Moore but with Nan Miller as the official making responses that come from Data Requests.
In replying to my two most recent requests, Ms. Miller has given evidence of a spirit of obstructionism, appalling ignorance, or both. I will be detailing Ms. Miller's stonewalled and delayed responses as often as necessary as I seek ever more data on the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The data that I compiled below required my going to a source other than Ms. Miller. Much of the information was in fact embedded in the recent MPS Report Card giving Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment results. I additionally sought a finer gender breakdown, especially as we think about the effectiveness of the Office of Black Male Achievement that was created two years ago.
Ms. Miller, two weeks after my request was issued, gave me a reply that indicated the compilation of the figures given below would take seven hours of staff time and cost me $1,750. Instead, I drew from research that I had already done and went to a source for additional information; none of this took more than 30 minutes.
This strongly suggests either prevaricating obstructionism or appalling incompetence on the part of Ms. Miller.
For the benefit of my readers, I give the data that seemed to elude Ms. Miller (I have provided this information to her, the same that I originally sought from her, conveying to Ms. Miller that I will waive the $1,750 fee that she indicated was the going rate for the information):
Percentage of Students Recording
Grade Level Performance on MCAs:
Disaggregated Data for Academic Years
Ending in 2014, 2015, and 2016
Math
African American 2014 2015 2016
Male 20.8% 22.0% 19.1%
Female 21.2% 20.7% 20.5%
African (Somali, Ethiopian, Liberian---
(late 20th/early 21st century immigrant populations)
2014 2015 2016
Male 24.2% 25.0% 23.6%
Female 24.1% 25.9% 21.5%
Hispanic 2014 2015 2016
Male 32.1% 33.5% 32.1%
Female 29.4% 30.3% 30.4.%
Native American/ 2014 2015 2016
American Indian
Male 19.9% 16.5% 16.0%
Female 25.0% 21.9% 21.3%
Asian 2014 2015 2016
Male 44.1% 47.4% 45.4%
Female 51.3% 53.4% 54.1%
White/ Caucasian 2014 2015 2016
Male 76.7% 78.4% 77.4%
Female 77.0% 77.9% 78.4%
All Students 2014 2015 2016
Male 43.1% 44.3% 42.9%
Female 43.9% 44.5% 44.4%
Percentage of Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs:
Disaggregated Data for Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, and 2016
Reading
African American 2014 2015 2016
Male 18.8% 18.5% 18.2%
Female 24.0% 24.5% 23.4%
African (Somali, Ethiopian, Liberian---
late 20th/early 21st century immigrant populations)
2014 2015 2016
Male 18.8% 19.3% 20.4%
Female 27.6% 24.3% 23.2%
Hispanic 2014 2015 2016
Male 22.0% 22.9% 24.7%
Female 24.5% 26.6% 27.6%
Native American/ 2014 2015 2016
American Indian
Male 18.3% 13.9% 15.3%
Female 23.6% 26.1% 25.9%
Asian 2014 2015 2016
Male 36.0% 35.8% 38.8%
Female 44.7% 44.1% 50.6%
White/ Caucasian 2014 2015 2016
Male 75.3% 74.3% 74.0%
Female 81.0% 80.2% 80.0%
All Students 2014 2015 2016
Male 39.2% 38.7% 39.6%
Female 45.3% 45.1% 45.8%
Scott Weber at MPS Human Resources has frequently been very efficient and highly responsive; the meticulous compilations of Eric Moore, director of MPS Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment (REA) are a marvel; and Communications Director Gail Plewacki is a very diligent and responsive public official.
But most requests for information at the Minneapolis Public Schools have to be routed through Data Requests, formally overseen by General Counsel Amy Moore but with Nan Miller as the official making responses that come from Data Requests.
In replying to my two most recent requests, Ms. Miller has given evidence of a spirit of obstructionism, appalling ignorance, or both. I will be detailing Ms. Miller's stonewalled and delayed responses as often as necessary as I seek ever more data on the inner workings of the Minneapolis Public Schools.
The data that I compiled below required my going to a source other than Ms. Miller. Much of the information was in fact embedded in the recent MPS Report Card giving Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment results. I additionally sought a finer gender breakdown, especially as we think about the effectiveness of the Office of Black Male Achievement that was created two years ago.
Ms. Miller, two weeks after my request was issued, gave me a reply that indicated the compilation of the figures given below would take seven hours of staff time and cost me $1,750. Instead, I drew from research that I had already done and went to a source for additional information; none of this took more than 30 minutes.
This strongly suggests either prevaricating obstructionism or appalling incompetence on the part of Ms. Miller.
For the benefit of my readers, I give the data that seemed to elude Ms. Miller (I have provided this information to her, the same that I originally sought from her, conveying to Ms. Miller that I will waive the $1,750 fee that she indicated was the going rate for the information):
Percentage of Students Recording
Grade Level Performance on MCAs:
Disaggregated Data for Academic Years
Ending in 2014, 2015, and 2016
Math
African American 2014 2015 2016
Male 20.8% 22.0% 19.1%
Female 21.2% 20.7% 20.5%
African (Somali, Ethiopian, Liberian---
(late 20th/early 21st century immigrant populations)
2014 2015 2016
Male 24.2% 25.0% 23.6%
Female 24.1% 25.9% 21.5%
Hispanic 2014 2015 2016
Male 32.1% 33.5% 32.1%
Female 29.4% 30.3% 30.4.%
Native American/ 2014 2015 2016
American Indian
Male 19.9% 16.5% 16.0%
Female 25.0% 21.9% 21.3%
Asian 2014 2015 2016
Male 44.1% 47.4% 45.4%
Female 51.3% 53.4% 54.1%
White/ Caucasian 2014 2015 2016
Male 76.7% 78.4% 77.4%
Female 77.0% 77.9% 78.4%
All Students 2014 2015 2016
Male 43.1% 44.3% 42.9%
Female 43.9% 44.5% 44.4%
Percentage of Students Recording Grade Level Performance on MCAs:
Disaggregated Data for Academic Years Ending in 2014, 2015, and 2016
Reading
African American 2014 2015 2016
Male 18.8% 18.5% 18.2%
Female 24.0% 24.5% 23.4%
African (Somali, Ethiopian, Liberian---
late 20th/early 21st century immigrant populations)
2014 2015 2016
Male 18.8% 19.3% 20.4%
Female 27.6% 24.3% 23.2%
Hispanic 2014 2015 2016
Male 22.0% 22.9% 24.7%
Female 24.5% 26.6% 27.6%
Native American/ 2014 2015 2016
American Indian
Male 18.3% 13.9% 15.3%
Female 23.6% 26.1% 25.9%
Asian 2014 2015 2016
Male 36.0% 35.8% 38.8%
Female 44.7% 44.1% 50.6%
White/ Caucasian 2014 2015 2016
Male 75.3% 74.3% 74.0%
Female 81.0% 80.2% 80.0%
All Students 2014 2015 2016
Male 39.2% 38.7% 39.6%
Female 45.3% 45.1% 45.8%
Oct 2, 2016
Observations in a Highly Personal Context >>>>> Midweek Missive #404 (X-5) [to my son, Ryan Davison-Reed]
September 30, 2016
My Beloved Ryan---
I write to you today from a place that looks more like a beckoning autumn than was the case one week ago at that season's advent.
These last couple of days have featured highs near 70 degrees Fahrenheit, dry atmosphere, and radiant sunshine--- a very welcome assemblage of climatic factors, given the extraordinary amount of rain that we in Minnesota had in the now officially past summer. What I had been noting in anecdotal conversation with many folks is now headed for meteorological confirmation: This has been the wettest summer since Barbara and I arrived close to the North Woods lo now thirty-four years ago in the summer of 1982. Yesterday was one of those days that I have described as reaching out and giving everyone a big hug--- a day when good things seem magnificent and any challenges seem much more manageable. Since my day was filled with many good things, the day was one of those that might allow one to imagine that this is, in the parlance of Dr. Pangloss of Voltaire's prescient imagination, "the best of all possible worlds."
.........................................................
But we may have to wait awhile for the best-world scenario to gain manifestation.
I marvel with virtually every step I take at how Malcolm X's dictum that "the chickens are coming home to roost" seems to be more pertinent now than when he uttered that comment at the assassination of JFK in 1963.
>>>>> African Americans are declaring loud and clear that they are mad as Hades and they aren't gonna take it any more.
>>>>> Donald Trump continues to appeal to far too many (albeit in reduced number, post-debate [see below]) ignorant or fact-indifferent folk, thereby revealing the appalling ignorance and anti-intellectualism that invest far too much of our society, detailed in Rick Shenkman's book, Just How Stupid Are We?, and summarized again in a recent post on my blog.
>>>>> And decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) seem determined to press on with their hopeless Acceleration 2020 Plan amidst failure to grasp the principles relevant to knowledge-intensive curriculum, thoroughly retrained teachers, aggressive remedial instruction, family and community outreach, and central bureaucratic cutting that will be needed first to get all students up to grade level and then to move toward genuine excellence in education.
Because of the level of anger that I am accumulating regarding the cluelessness of decision-makers at MPS, I am rapidly moving toward a position of opposition to the funding referendum that will be on the ballot come 8 November. Officials at MPS, both central bureaucracy administrators and members of the MPS Board of Education, clearly need a wake-up call, with the signal to school board members that they took far too long to opt for Ed Graff as superintendent, in making that selection got a sturdy proponent of education-professor vacuity, and have no hope given present policy to achieve anywhere close to the excellence of education that our students must have.
.....................................................
As usual, these observations contrast strikingly with the joy I take in my interactions with students and families in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
I have reams of requests from folks seeking to enter the program and have been able to accommodate quite a few new participants. Abiding relationships with student and family participants are amazing. Many an emergency situation has been addressed, sometimes in the context of midnight calls and my unscheduled visits to quell life-storms and provide direction toward satisfying resolutions.
I recently posted a bevy of blog articles and published a new edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; recorded a new episode of the television show; and have now moved well into my eleventh chapter (Biology) in writing my fourteen-chapter Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education.
What a blessing is mine that I am able to act meaningfully in these ways in the face of all the stark stupidity of the world.
.......................................................
With regard to the latter, the presidential debate does seem to have moved Nevada and Florida back in Hillary's column, so that the electoral margin would be 300 t0 238 were the election held today. That provides a level of comfort, above the 272 votes that I have indicated as solidly in Hillary's favor.
And then there are you and Barbara, who every day your feet hit the ground prove what life can be for those who hold stores of knowledge in their brains and use this treasure to forward the human enterprise.
Let's make sure that a conversation looms soon, during which we can move further toward a decision as to our mutual trip to Taiwan to see My Love, the most resplendent Professor Reed.
I love you so very much, my dear son---
Gary
My Beloved Ryan---
I write to you today from a place that looks more like a beckoning autumn than was the case one week ago at that season's advent.
These last couple of days have featured highs near 70 degrees Fahrenheit, dry atmosphere, and radiant sunshine--- a very welcome assemblage of climatic factors, given the extraordinary amount of rain that we in Minnesota had in the now officially past summer. What I had been noting in anecdotal conversation with many folks is now headed for meteorological confirmation: This has been the wettest summer since Barbara and I arrived close to the North Woods lo now thirty-four years ago in the summer of 1982. Yesterday was one of those days that I have described as reaching out and giving everyone a big hug--- a day when good things seem magnificent and any challenges seem much more manageable. Since my day was filled with many good things, the day was one of those that might allow one to imagine that this is, in the parlance of Dr. Pangloss of Voltaire's prescient imagination, "the best of all possible worlds."
.........................................................
But we may have to wait awhile for the best-world scenario to gain manifestation.
I marvel with virtually every step I take at how Malcolm X's dictum that "the chickens are coming home to roost" seems to be more pertinent now than when he uttered that comment at the assassination of JFK in 1963.
>>>>> African Americans are declaring loud and clear that they are mad as Hades and they aren't gonna take it any more.
>>>>> Donald Trump continues to appeal to far too many (albeit in reduced number, post-debate [see below]) ignorant or fact-indifferent folk, thereby revealing the appalling ignorance and anti-intellectualism that invest far too much of our society, detailed in Rick Shenkman's book, Just How Stupid Are We?, and summarized again in a recent post on my blog.
>>>>> And decision-makers at the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) seem determined to press on with their hopeless Acceleration 2020 Plan amidst failure to grasp the principles relevant to knowledge-intensive curriculum, thoroughly retrained teachers, aggressive remedial instruction, family and community outreach, and central bureaucratic cutting that will be needed first to get all students up to grade level and then to move toward genuine excellence in education.
Because of the level of anger that I am accumulating regarding the cluelessness of decision-makers at MPS, I am rapidly moving toward a position of opposition to the funding referendum that will be on the ballot come 8 November. Officials at MPS, both central bureaucracy administrators and members of the MPS Board of Education, clearly need a wake-up call, with the signal to school board members that they took far too long to opt for Ed Graff as superintendent, in making that selection got a sturdy proponent of education-professor vacuity, and have no hope given present policy to achieve anywhere close to the excellence of education that our students must have.
.....................................................
As usual, these observations contrast strikingly with the joy I take in my interactions with students and families in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
I have reams of requests from folks seeking to enter the program and have been able to accommodate quite a few new participants. Abiding relationships with student and family participants are amazing. Many an emergency situation has been addressed, sometimes in the context of midnight calls and my unscheduled visits to quell life-storms and provide direction toward satisfying resolutions.
I recently posted a bevy of blog articles and published a new edition of Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota; recorded a new episode of the television show; and have now moved well into my eleventh chapter (Biology) in writing my fourteen-chapter Fundamentals of an Excellent Liberal Arts Education.
What a blessing is mine that I am able to act meaningfully in these ways in the face of all the stark stupidity of the world.
.......................................................
With regard to the latter, the presidential debate does seem to have moved Nevada and Florida back in Hillary's column, so that the electoral margin would be 300 t0 238 were the election held today. That provides a level of comfort, above the 272 votes that I have indicated as solidly in Hillary's favor.
And then there are you and Barbara, who every day your feet hit the ground prove what life can be for those who hold stores of knowledge in their brains and use this treasure to forward the human enterprise.
Let's make sure that a conversation looms soon, during which we can move further toward a decision as to our mutual trip to Taiwan to see My Love, the most resplendent Professor Reed.
I love you so very much, my dear son---
Gary
Sep 29, 2016
New Update as of Friday, 30 September 2016 >>>>> All Five Articles Now Posted >>>>> The Knowledge-Poverty of Citizens in the United States
To my readers >>>>> All five articles in this new series, The Knowledge-Poverty of Citizens in the United States--- and Rectification Via the K-12 Revolution,
are now (Friday, 30 September) posted as a complete unit.
The five articles are now sequentially placed in order from Article #1 through Article #5 as you scroll down. The three interior articles (Article #2, Article #3, and Article #4) are new posts. Article #1 and Article #5 had been recently posted, on 28 September and 29 September respectively.
All articles in this series are updated and extended versions of previously posted material assembled and presented so as to detail the lack of knowledge prevailing among United States citizens as an outcome of our terrible system of K-12 education--- and with firm indication as to how we will rectify this knowledge-poverty via the knowledge-intensive K-12 revolution that I advocate in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
The five articles are now sequentially placed in order from Article #1 through Article #5 as you scroll down. The three interior articles (Article #2, Article #3, and Article #4) are new posts. Article #1 and Article #5 had been recently posted, on 28 September and 29 September respectively.
All articles in this series are updated and extended versions of previously posted material assembled and presented so as to detail the lack of knowledge prevailing among United States citizens as an outcome of our terrible system of K-12 education--- and with firm indication as to how we will rectify this knowledge-poverty via the knowledge-intensive K-12 revolution that I advocate in the New Salem Educational Initiative.
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