#what is the implicit messaging students are absorbing from us

[whentherewerebicycles]

@justinelark ok i don't have one clear, consistent take but i am just starting to collect some thoughts as we work through badging conversations at our institution.

first and foremost i think it is hard to have meaningful conversations about badging when people use the term to mean so many different things... even within our institution there are probably at least five competing definitions of what a badge or a microcredential is, maybe more. i think that if an institution is going to use them they should have an institution-level definition of what a badge is/means and clear criteria that people have to meet in order for their badge to be considered an official recognition of something within the institution.

relatedly it is not at ALL clear to me how badges are perceived outside the institution and i worry that we are just encouraging students to collect like, essentially meaningless girl/boy scout patches and sew them onto their linkedin profiles in hopes that this will help them get a job. but like how do different industries understand badges?? how do we know that a badge actually qualifies the student to do whatever it claims to certify? i just have questions!! and i think that most people who are using badges, at least here, do not have clear answers.

to me the main benefit of a badge or a microcredential is that it can make visible a pathway that might otherwise not have been visible or obvious to a student. for instance our institution is exploring offering badges that are tied to very specific entry-level careers in a very specific part of the tech industry. so a student might be like 'oh i didn't even know [insert job title] was a thing, and i would've had no idea how to prepare for that career. but now, because of this badging program, i see that i need to take these classes, pursue these experiences, and talk about my experiences in these ways to make myself more competitive for this specific job.' i think that is super useful! but that to me is more like, a pre-professional pathway that just happens to have a badge attached at the end. like the badge isn't the point, the point is helping students see and start down the pathway, and the badge is just the way you get their attention. so idk. there are probably other ways to do that.

to me the main DRAWBACK of a badge or microcredential is that i think (??) we have reasonably good scientific evidence (??) that 'you get a gold star for doing XYZ!' approach to teaching actually kills intrinsic motivation and makes people less curious, less observant, less motivated to go above and beyond, etc. idk this is the part that i feel most strongly about on an emotional level but also find most challenging to articulate. like in college i figured out around sophomore year that i wanted to get a phd in a humanities field and become a faculty member. but i had absolutely no idea how you did that. and i think if someone had been like "oh there's a badge for that. you need to do XYZ things and then you will earn the Aspiring PhD badge and that will make you more competitive for grad school" i would've just done those things. and it might not have occurred to me to do a bunch of other random, exploratory things i did in college - a mix of professional opportunities and purely 'i'm fascinated by this, i want to think about this idea and read everything i can about it' activities i engaged in on my own - that i think actually prepared me for thriving in grad school and pursuing a career in higher ed much more than taking a What To Expect In Grad School course might've been. i would have ALSO benefited from taking a course like that, fwiw! but i think that if everyone in my life told me there was an extremely clear path to my goal and a very clear checklist of things i had to do in order to earn a little credential that would make me more competitive for that goal, i probably would have seen those other activities i engaged in as like, not relevant, or not worth pursuing if i had to sacrifice time i could've spent on Items on the Checklist, or whatever.

so idk. i think this is all tied to larger fears i have about the career readiness arms race higher ed is involved in right now... like we want to funnel kids onto Career-Connected Pathways so early on (in our institution we obsessively target first-year students!!), so we can prove to them and everyone else that your higher education is worth it because it made you competitive for a very specific job in an industry that you learned about within like six months of arriving in college (because you were obsessively targeted by Career Services and all these other units lol). and we want to make everything Worth It so every activity has to be evaluated in terms of how it will directly lead to a career outcome, and every activity you engage in has to be part of a Pathway or a Credential that awards you a gold star which you can put on your LinkedIn profile at the end, and blah blah blah. i get that it is a privilege to get to experience college as a purely exploratory time where you get to try on different things and discover different pathways and pursue random interests. and i DO think that we need to be thinking carefully about whether higher education in its present form is preparing students for the world they will encounter beyond it. but i actually think, like, given the pace of technological change, most of the jobs we are preparing students for now will probably not exist in five or ten years. i worry that badging (as it employed by some people, in some places) may encourage increasingly rigid thinking about what the purpose of higher education is and how that education prepares us to succeed/thrive in life after formal education, in a time when we most need flexibility and adaptability and a willingness to explore/discover/not follow rigidly charted pathways. i guess i would boil all of this down to something like: badging seems to message to students that adult life - in and out of the workplace - is going to be about checking items and experiences off a clearly defined checklist that someone else provides for you. and my experience is that adult life is nothing like that at all. and the qualities i value most in myself are my flexibility, my curiosity, the delight i take in exploratory thinking, and my firm belief that pursuing a seemingly unrelated or unproductive detour is often what most enriches the project or work or pursuit i am engaged in, even if it seems at first like a distraction.

i have so many thoughts about "badges" and other forms of microcredentialing in higher ed. consider this a placeholder for a post on a subject no one cares about lol

[basicsofislam]

ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Reflections (Tafakkur): Abuse of Religion and Religious Sentiments

ABUSE OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS

The quest for truth has two principal branches which, if the quest is motivated by sincere love of the truth sought, are radically joined – that is, they have fundamentally the same root and goal even though the branches diverge. The two branches are the seeking represented by religion and the seeking represented by science. The effort of the quest is aimed at discovering the relation between existence and human consciousness and perceptive powers within that existence. But the effort is also directed at what it (the effort) is for, and what attitude is to be taken to the knowledge we are given or obtain. This means that purpose and moral judgements enter the quest for truth and shape and colour its achievements. Now some people pretend that the science of nature is neutral about such matters. They are wrong to do so. In fact, though an individual working at some particular problem may believe him or herself to be applying neutral, objective procedures, that person’s work nevertheless entails sharing in all the structures of thought, the assumptions and purposes, which are a part of the culture of science as a whole in any particular epoch. That culture is not independent of questions of purpose and meaning: it is simply that such questions are not the immediate objective or concern of the individual scientist, and, for that reason, they remain implicit in the work being done. They become explicit in human attitudes (personal and societal) and in the technology that funds and (by its success) justifies the quest for scientific knowledge.

True science and true religion should be, as it were, fellow-travellers in that both passionately oppose superstition and falsehood; and, in any case, both have the same right of appeal to reasoned argument and to experience. Religion is the older quest in two important respects: first, in that it teaches and inspires love of truth for its own sake (that love is not and cannot be generated by science itself, though it motivates the best science); and, second, in that it upholds the Authority which gives to human reason its conditional authority – the Revelation of Gods Will to His Messengers, most comprehensively, reliably and finally in the Qur’an and in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace. Religion has a moral and philosophical, as well as a historical, priority. Denial of that priority in human life robs it of its most vital element, its deepest dynamic, and it deprives science of nobility of purpose. Scientific endeavour which does not aim to understand existence, which does not depend on the love for and zeal to know the truth, is liable to blindness and falling into contradictions. Perhaps without knowing it, but (surely) sometimes also knowingly, science becomes captive to ideological and doctrinal preconceptions, cultural prejudices, to the pursuit of power (instead of knowledge and understanding). When that happens, the inquirer’s way to truth is blocked up, and the endeavour of science as a whole does not yield understanding or improvement in either physical or human nature, but leads to the opposite, the ruin and degradation of both.

The priority of the religious quest for truth over the scientific quest for truth does not mean that it is exempt from falling into error and wrongdoing. Rather, it is the reason for even greater vigilance to maintain the soundness of beliefs and principles, the purity of intention and practice. Just as science can be rash and intolerant in attitude towards that which it regards as outside its culture, and so fail its vocation to seek the truth, so too religion can be abused and turned from a quest for pure, heavenly truth into a means for hatred, rancour and vindictiveness. A dogmatic and narrow-minded scientific community, enslaved to certain philosophical or ideological prejudices, can become more fanatical and dangerous in its consequences than ignorance. So too can a religious community when it reduces religion to a device to serve certain political interests or worldly advantages. Religion then ceases to be a heavenly inspiration for thought and conduct, and becomes instead an assemblage of meaningless ceremonies and a worldly ideology.

Institutions where sciences are taught and scientific studies are conducted are to be esteemed as highly as places of worship. However, the institutions where sciences are used to promote certain ideological biases or impose certain concepts to obtain material advantages, no longer deserve respect, as they are structures where selfish, ignoble desires and passions are nurtured. Likewise, if religion and religious sentiments are exploited to promote political ambitions and to divide people into factions, and if religion is taken as a rigid ideology giving rise to polarization and disruptions among people, then religion is no longer a means serving to lead people to God; rather, it is an obstacle before the true religion of God, an obstacle made up of fanaticism, enmity, hatred and belligerence.

However he may outwardly appear, a man unconscious of the true nature of belief and deprived of knowledge and love of God, who cannot measure the principles of religion in the scales of the religion itself, who does not give priority to that to which God gives priority, is disrespectful of the heavenly and universal identity of religion and has no right to claim to be truly religious. What is most opposed to both religion and science is that selfish desires and fancies are presented in the guise of objective knowledge and religious sentiments. This is a weakness in human nature leading people to ostentation and worldly expectations. People tend to sublimate their defects and shortcomings and science and religion are two important devices they use to this end. The most effective weapon of conscience against such a tendency is love of truth; if there is an elixir to dissolve from minds the ‘scientific’ dross, and remove from hearts the tendency to false show of religious devotion, it is love of the Creator and love of truth and the love of His creation arising there from. If hearts are ardent with love and spirits with yearning, it is possible to mend moral defects and elevate human beings to true humanity.

The world of mankind recognized love of truth through the Prophets, and it is this love which leads people to love of God and to build healthy relations with existence. From the very beginning, all Prophets guided their followers to that love and based their relations with their people on that love. It was only when absorbed in love of God that men have been able to find their true identity and value. The Prophet Jesus upon him be peace, composed a poem of life based on love of man and fulfilled his mission by conveying it to others. The Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, honoured the world as, in the words of a classical Turkish poet, ‘the commander of the army of lovers’ and expressed love throughout his life. When love of God became in him irresistible, he went on to the other world. The Qur’an, when recited with conviction and concentration, will be understood as a declaration of love, in addition to the charm of its music and phrasing. Love of truth, love of science, the urge to research, the call to reason and to exercise self-control – these are the points which the Qur’an reiterates and about which it warns people. They are like mines in which a careful, believing reciter of the Qur’an can find new, different jewels every time he seeks.

How unfortunate it is that, despite its wealth of power to heal all our wounds, to end all our centuries-old pains and cure our diseases, this precious Book has long been approached with superficial attitudes and disagreeable intentions and used by many capricious persons, desirous of the world and in pursuit of self- interests, as a device to always accuse others and acquit and absolve themselves, and exploited as an excuse for the hatred, belligerence and impudence originating in their own dark souls. This is why many seeking truth and the true path come to it with suspicion and doubt. Approaching people with anger and feelings of enmity and vengeance in the name of the Qur’an, and confusing communicating its message with looking for ways to satisfy certain political or worldly ambitions disguised under religious aims, results in imitating others in atrocities and wrongdoing. It should be understood that Islam is neither an ideology nor merely a political, economic and social system, nor is the Qur’an a book calling its followers to kindle fires of war and enmity among people.

The Qur’an came down to the world with a balance. It seeks to establish a perfect balance – the balance observed in the whole of the universe which the Qur’an orders us not to destroy – in the relations of an individual with other individuals, with his family, his community and with the whole of existence. The Qur’an aims to establish peace and harmony. So, it ought never to be used to cause disruptions and mischief among people and it by no means sanctions or allows putting pressure on consciences and minds. Rather, it seeks to remove pressure from consciences and minds so that people may find truth.

Those who set their hearts upon the lofty ideals established by the Qur’an continue to live until eternity and have an honoured place in the hearts of others, similarly inspired. But those who exploit those ideals in pursuit of their debased ambitions remain as chained slaves of their desires and fancies. Their lives are spent in humiliation and end in doom.

A true, sincere student of the Qur’an aims to convey others to eternity. While he is constantly advancing to his destination along his own way, those drowned in their wrong suppositions and ambitions regard him as mad and see him as misguided.

The aim of a sincere student of the Qur’an is like a catapult throwing him directly into the world of pure spirituality beyond this base world tainted with selfish interests and mean aspirations, or it is like a rocket put in orbit round the truth. Religion is the pure source feeding him and the Prophet is the one who offers it. Those who cannot approach this blessed source through the gate of the Prophet, those who cannot dive deep in this source after the guidance of the Prophet with the necessary equipment to find the gems of truth required in this age, will not succeed in presenting as religion the ideas originating in their dark minds and souls, nor succeed in disguising their fancies and desires as religious ideas.

The Qur’an is a resource of infinite depth; whoever dives in it with a sincere intention to satisfy his needs of every kind – spiritual, intellectual, social, etc.- will find the cure he seeks. The deeper one grows in understanding and knowledge, the more one will find the Qur’an, like a rainbow, far above one’s level, impossible to reach. Following religion means being able to see the light of the Qur’an and the Prophetic way of life reflected through the prism of one’s time, place and conditions and being illumined by it.

[tawakkull]

ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Reflections (Tafakkur): Part 2

ABUSE OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS

The quest for truth has two principal branches which, if the quest is motivated by a sincere love of the truth-seeker, are radically joined – that is, they have fundamentally the same root and goal even though the branches diverge. The two branches are the seeking represented by religion and the seeking represented by science. The effort of the quest is aimed at discovering the relation between existence and human consciousness and perceptive powers within that existence. But the effort is also directed at what it (the effort) is for, and what attitude is to be taken to the knowledge we are given or obtain. This means that purpose and moral judgments enter the quest for truth and shape and color its achievements.

Now some people pretend that the science of nature is neutral about such matters. They are wrong to do so. In fact, though an individual working at some particular problem may believe him or herself to be applying neutral, objective procedures, that person’s work nevertheless entails sharing in all the structures of thought, the assumptions, and purposes, which are a part of the culture of science as a whole in any particular epoch. That culture is not independent of questions of purpose and meaning: it is simply that such questions are not the immediate objective or concern of the individual scientist, and, for that reason, they remain implicit in the work being done. They become explicit in human attitudes (personal and societal) and in the technology that funds and (by its success) justify the quest for scientific knowledge.

True science and true religion should be, as it were, fellow-travelers in that both passionately oppose superstition and falsehood; and, in any case, both have the same right of appeal to reasoned argument and to experience. Religion is the older quest in two important respects: first, in that it teaches and inspires love of truth for its own sake (that love is not and cannot be generated by science itself, though it motivates the best science); and, second, in that it upholds the Authority which gives to human reason its conditional authority – the Revelation of Gods Will to His Messengers, most comprehensively, reliably and finally in the Qur’an and in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace.

Religion has a moral and philosophical, as well as a historical, priority. Denial of that priority in human life robs it of its most vital element, its deepest dynamic, and it deprives the science of nobility of purpose. A scientific endeavor which does not aim to understand existence, which does not depend on the love for and zeal to know the truth, is liable to blindness and falling into contradictions. Perhaps without knowing it, but (surely) sometimes also knowingly, science becomes captive to ideological and doctrinal preconceptions, cultural prejudices, to the pursuit of power (instead of knowledge and understanding). When that happens, the inquirer’s way to truth is blocked up, and the endeavor of science as a whole does not yield understanding or improvement in either physical or human nature but leads to the opposite, the ruin and degradation of both.

The priority of the religious quest for truth over the scientific quest for truth does not mean that it is exempt from falling into error and wrongdoing. Rather, it is the reason for even greater vigilance to maintain the soundness of beliefs and principles, the purity of intention and practice. Just as science can be rash and intolerant in attitude towards that which it regards as outside its culture, and so fail its vocation to seek the truth, so too religion can be abused and turned from a quest for pure, heavenly truth into a means for hatred, rancor, and vindictiveness. A dogmatic and narrow-minded scientific community, enslaved to certain philosophical or ideological prejudices, can become more fanatical and dangerous in its consequences than ignorance. So too can a religious community when it reduces religion to a device to serve certain political interests or worldly advantages. Religion then ceases to be a heavenly inspiration for thought and conduct and becomes instead an assemblage of meaningless ceremonies and a worldly ideology.

Institutions where sciences are taught and scientific studies are conducted are to be esteemed as highly as places of worship. However, the institutions where sciences are used to promote certain ideological biases or impose certain concepts to obtain material advantages, no longer deserve respect, as they are structures where selfish, ignoble desires and passions are nurtured. Likewise, if religion and religious sentiments are exploited to promote political ambitions and to divide people into factions, and if religion is taken as a rigid ideology giving rise to polarization and disruptions among people, then religion is no longer a means serving to lead people to God; rather, it is an obstacle before the true religion of God, an obstacle made up of fanaticism, enmity, hatred, and belligerence.

However he may outwardly appear, a man unconscious of the true nature of belief and deprived of knowledge and love of God, who cannot measure the principles of religion in the scales of the religion itself, who does not give priority to that to which God gives priority, is disrespectful of the heavenly and universal identity of religion and has no right to claim to be truly religious. What is most opposed to both religion and science is that selfish desires and fancies are presented in the guise of objective knowledge and religious sentiments. This is a weakness in human nature leads people to ostentation and worldly expectations. People tend to sublimate their defects and shortcomings and science and religion are two important devices they use to this end.

The most effective weapon of conscience against such a tendency is the love of truth; if there is an elixir to dissolve from minds the ‘scientific’ dross and remove from hearts the tendency to false show of religious devotion, it is love of the Creator and love of truth and the love of His creation arising therefrom. If hearts are ardent with love and spirits with yearning, it is possible to mend moral defects and elevate human beings to true humanity.

The world of mankind recognized the love of truth through the Prophets, and it is this love which leads people to love of God and to build healthy relations with existence. From the very beginning, all Prophets guided their followers to that love and based their relations with their people on that love. It was only when absorbed in love of God that men have been able to find their true identity and value. The Prophet Jesus (upon him be peace), composed a poem of life based on the love of man and fulfilled his mission by conveying it to others. The Prophet Muhammad, (upon him be peace), honored the world as, in the words of a classical Turkish poet, ‘the commander of the army of lovers’ and expressed love throughout his life.

When the love of God became in him irresistible, he went on to the other world. The Qur’an, when recited with conviction and concentration, will be understood as a declaration of love, in addition to the charm of its music and phrasing. Love of truth, love of science, the urge to research, the call to reason and to exercise self-control – these are the points which the Qur’an reiterates and about which it warns people. They are like mines in which a careful, believing reciter of the Qur’an can find new, different jewels every time he seeks.

How unfortunate it is that, despite its wealth of power to heal all our wounds, to end all our centuries-old pains and cure our diseases, this precious Book has long been approached with superficial attitudes and disagreeable intentions and used by many capricious persons, desirous of the world and in pursuit of self- interests, as a device to always accuse others and acquit and absolve themselves, and exploited as an excuse for the hatred, belligerence and impudence originating in their own dark souls. This is why much seeking truth and the true path come to it with suspicion and doubt. Approaching people with anger and feelings of enmity and vengeance in the name of the Qur’an, and confusing communicating its message with looking for ways to satisfy certain political or worldly ambitions disguised under religious aims results in imitating others in atrocities and wrongdoing. It should be understood that Islam is neither an ideology nor merely a political, economic and social system, nor is the Qur’an a book calling its followers to kindle fires of war and enmity among people.

The Qur’an came down to the world with a balance. It seeks to establish a perfect balance – the balance observed in the whole of the universe which the Qur’an orders us not to destroy – in the relations of an individual with other individuals, with his family, his community and with the whole of existence. The Qur’an aims to establish peace and harmony. So, it ought never to be used to cause disruptions and mischief among people and it by no means sanctions or allows putting pressure on consciences and minds. Rather, it seeks to remove pressure from consciences and minds so that people may find the truth.

Those who set their hearts upon the lofty ideals established by the Qur’an continue to live until eternity and have an honored place in the hearts of others, similarly inspired. But those who exploit those ideals in pursuit of their debased ambitions remain as chained slaves of their desires and fancies. Their lives are spent in humiliation and end in doom.

A true, sincere student of the Qur’an aims to convey others to eternity. While he is constantly advancing to his destination along his own way, those drowned in their wrong suppositions and ambitions regard him as mad and see him as misguided.

The aim of a sincere student of the Qur’an is like a catapult throwing him directly into the world of pure spirituality beyond this base world tainted with selfish interests and mean aspirations, or it is like a rocket put in orbit around the truth. Religion is the pure source feeding him and the Prophet is the one who offers it. Those who cannot approach this blessed source through the gate of the Prophet, those who cannot dive deep in this source after the guidance of the Prophet with the necessary equipment to find the gems of truth required in this age, will not succeed in presenting as religion the ideas originating in their dark minds and souls, nor succeed in disguising their fancies and desires as religious ideas.

The Qur’an is a resource of infinite depth; whoever dives in it with a sincere intention to satisfy his needs of every kind – spiritual, intellectual, social, etc.- will find the cure he seeks. The deeper one grows in understanding and knowledge, the more one will find the Qur’an, like a rainbow, far above one’s level, impossible to reach. The following religion means being able to see the light of the Qur’an and the Prophetic way of life reflected through the prism of one’s time, place and conditions and being illumined by it.

[ixvyupdates]

We Need to Keep Talking About Serena Williams and the Dignity of Black Children

By now we’ve all seen the headlines after the most recent U.S. Open in which Serena Williams lost to Naomi Osaka. Yet the headlines weren’t about the match itself, they were about the courtside dispute between Serena and a referee.

During that moment I held my breath as the camera zoomed in on Serena, close enough to hear her demanding an apology, which she rightfully deserved. As she shouted over the crowd, I thought, “Don’t lose control, Serena! They’ll only peg you as an Angry Black Woman!”

That inevitable accusation came anyway, in a torrent of tweets immediately following the showdown, as well as in a racially charged cartoon.

Educators can learn a lot about themselves from this controversy, particularly how they succeed—or fail—in empowering Black children to advocate for themselves with dignity.

The backlash following Serena’s controversy boils down to one thing: a very real fear of Black people having too much dignity.

By dignity, I don’t mean arrogance, just self-respect. Any bit of dignity a Black person displays can be seen as a threat to the legacy of a racial hierarchy wherein Black people have a “place” at the bottom of the totem pole.

When a Black person’s self-esteem seems unscathed by the messages of racial inferiority all around them, many perceive their tenacious confidence as aggressiveness or pretentiousness. Even the most modest and personable Black folks are still liable to get humbled, if their self-assuredness garners too much praise or recognition. The relentless attempts to undermine Barack Obama’s presidency proved this.

As Kris Kristofferson says in the song “Jesus Was A Capricorn,” ���Everybody’s got to have somebody to look down on, who they can feel better than at any time they please.”

At a young age, Black children internalize this idea that they aren’t worthy of loving and being proud of themselves. Yet, despite this, Serena’s father made it a point to shield her dignity and self-esteem.

In this clip from a 1995 interview, a journalist presses 14-year-old Serena for any sign of self-doubt concerning the friendly sibling rivalry between herself and Venus, her older tennis champion sister—and her father shut him down.

“You think you can beat her?” the reporter asks.

“I know I can beat her,” Serena responds.

“You know you can beat her? Very confident,” he says.

She nods, replying, “I’m very confident.”

“You say it so easily. Why?” Without missing a beat, Serena snaps back, “’Cause I believe it.”

Suddenly, Serena’s father emerges from behind the set. “All right, stop right there if you don’t mind. And let me tell you why. What she said, she said it with so much confidence the first time, but you keep going on and on an on.”

“But we can’t keep interrupting…,” the frustrated reporter says, cutting off Serena’s father. A big mistake.

“You’ve got to understand that you’re dealing with the image of a 14-year-old child. And this child gon’ be out there playing when your old a– and me gonna be in the grave,” Serena’s father shouts, pounding his chest and hovering over the reporter.

“You’re dealing with a little Black kid, and let her be a kid. She done answered it with a lot of confidence. Leave that alone!”

You See It in the Classroom

In my work, I’ve witnessed a number of situations where educators have spoken negatively about Black children—or spoken down to them—with the exact same patronizing tone.

An academic advisor persuading an ambitious but struggling Black student to drop advanced courses, without first identifying their strengths or devising an academic support plan.

A Black parent requesting that a teacher recalculate a report card grade, only to be told that their child should be happy to have earned a B.

A teacher encouraging a Black student to “be realistic,” by applying to more safety schools than dream colleges.

Popular Black athletes stereotyped as self-absorbed jocks with a chip on their shoulder, despite being congenial and respectful.

In all of these circumstances, Black students confronted pushback—just like Serena—for having the dignity to strive to be exceptional, or to advocate themselves.

Whether these educators—as well as Serena’s referee—were aware of their motives or not, their negative assumptions and expectations derived from implicit biases about the status of Black culture and Black people’s “place” in society.

These educators conflated the ambition, dignity and self-respect of their Black students with feelings of superiority. Yet many of them admired and encouraged White students for displaying these same aforementioned traits.

The Problem for Black Girls

Specifically in regard to Black girls, I’ve observed implicit bias play out in disciplinary disputes that left a mark on their permanent records.

One recurring example involved authority figures declining to resolve conflicts between Black girls with mediation or restorative justice—just severe punishment for all parties involved. If Black girls challenged this verdict, they were reprimanded for having an attitude or talking back.

“Push Out: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools,” as well as a plethora of educational research, substantiates this stereotyping of Black girls. They pay a price for speaking up in schools.

Furthermore, because the majority of research on the school-to-prison pipeline focuses on Black boys, most educators don’t know that Black girls are 5.5 times more likely to get suspended than White girls, and are also more likely to receive multiple suspensions, compared to students of any other gender or race.

This reality is the same reason why many people exaggerated Serena’s assertiveness, despite a long history of White male tennis stars going ballistic on referees, without half as much press or scandal.

A recent video from Rebel Girls that proves this double standard.

On top of stereotypes about Black girls being confrontational, school dress codes often punish Black girls most severely, and there a number of cases of Black girls who have gotten suspended or expelled for wearing cultural hairstyles.

And it seems that they can’t win, no matter what. There are Black girls who stay home from school, out of embarrassment about their natural hair, when they can’t get an appointment with their beautician over the weekend. They don’t go back until their hair is “done.” Even then, it’s often “done” in styles that some schools have banned, like braids and twists, which smooth down curly, kinky and afro-textured hair.

The price that Black girls pay for taking pride in their appearance is often written off as being rebellious or unruly, even considering that assimilation and conformity to Eurocentric beauty standards is almost always the goal. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Wake Up, Teachers

Educators must realize that so many of us make assumptions about Black children that strip them of dignity and innocence. A recent study even explored how adultification causes adults to see Black girls as less innocent and less worthy of protection than White girls.

Another study among kindergarten teachers found that the faces of Black boys could activate the same region of the brain associated with rapid detection of danger.

Based on what I’ve seen in schools and on the news, Black children aren’t afforded a childhood, because adults, whether cops or teachers, fear them and rarely handle them with care. Adults play hardball with Black children, whether or not they follow the rules.

So many educators fail to realize that Black children do not have thicker skin. By undermining Black students’ self-esteem—by either putting them down or punishing them—educators are only compounding the relentless indignity that Black children and youth face out in the world, at an age when they have yet to develop the coping skills to process the psychological toll of racism.

It’s no wonder, then, that so many Black students feel disconnected.

Fellow educators, it should disturb us that so many Black children feel humiliated by us, silenced by us, stereotyped by us, underestimated by us, undermined by us. They deserve so much more than we are offering them.

A conversation about how schools perpetuate a culture that disempowers Black children and youth, within and outside of school, is long overdue. At the heart of that conversation should be our own self-reflection about how we are often the culprit.

And if it takes Serena’s bold example to start that conversation, then let’s begin now.

Photo courtesy of Serena Williams/Facebook.

We Need to Keep Talking About Serena Williams and the Dignity of Black Children syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

[angrycollectordaze-me-blog]

Essay代写：Recessive education

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文- Recessive education，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了隐性教育。作为思想政治教育工作重要的方法，隐性教育法在实践中被教育者广泛运用，与显性教育互相互补，推动思想政治教育工作的发展。隐性教育的目的是为了熏陶。而隐性教育的熏陶功能是指教育者在内隐教育目的的前提下，通过创设有教育意义的情境，在良好氛围的熏陶中，受教育者不自觉的接受潜移默化的间接的教育影响。

​As an important implementation method of ideological and political education work, implicit education method is widely used by educators in practice, complementing each other with explicit education, promoting the development of ideological and political education work. This paper focuses on the features and functions of implicit education, which are different from explicit education.

Currently, education recipients of ideological and political education are mainly college students in 80 and 90, who have strong self-esteem, independence and diversity of values, while the traditional forced indoctrination of dominant education has been unable to meet the needs of the new situation, and implicit education has come into being as the supplement of dominant education. Compared with the features of overt education, system, specification and infusion, implicit education has the following features and functions:

The action is carried out under the guidance of the purpose, the action without purpose is blind, the ideological and political education work is also purposeful, and the fundamental purpose is to improve people's ideological and moral quality and promote their free and all-round development. Implicit education purpose is to point to in the process of ideological and political education, educators will education purpose to hide into the educatee and the activities in the work, study and life, including: daily activities, entertainment, economic and cultural activities, etc., through various channels, fun way, rich content, interest educatees, make educated unconsciously accept message and educators want effect, achieve the aim of education educators

The implicit function of implicit education is the edification function. The word "edification" was first derived from liang qichao's "(Darwin) as a teacher, by whose edification, he had the ambition to make contribution to the academic world", which means that people's thought and behavior are influenced by good things because of long-term exposure to some things, and also refers to the gradual assimilation of a kind of thought, conduct and habit. The edification function of invisible education refers to the indirect education influence that the educator unconsciously accepts unconsciously in the edification of good atmosphere by creating the context with education meaning under the premise of the purpose of implicit education. By organizing visit revolutionary sites, for example, watch the patriotic films, to carry out the interesting knowledge contest, listen to the famous report, speech contest, the educated will accept edification in pleasure, rather than antipathy to resist, and suggests that education influence in these activities will also be in imperceptible in beneficence, pedagogue ideology, character, habits, prompted the educatees to habits of thought, morality, and the requirement of the ideological and political education unifies.

The content of ideological politics education is the concretization of purpose and task of ideological politics education. Its fundamental purpose is to constantly improve people's ideological and moral quality and promote their all-round development. In order to achieve this fundamental purpose, the ideological and political education should include world view education, political view education, life view education, legal view education, moral view education and other five aspects. The content richness of hidden education refers to the education that can realize various contents in a single education process. For example, we can receive the education of ideal, value and morality in Chinese class, and the education of world view, political view and outlook on life in history class. Implicit education has no classroom form across time and space, so its education content is non-normative content with multi-aspect content infiltration and association. In this way, not only can the interest of the educatee be enhanced, but the educatee can choose the content that he likes and is willing to accept from the various and abundant contents to be internalized and absorbed, and the actual effect of ideological and political work is guaranteed.

Rich education content can play an integral role in ideological and political work. Integration means to connect the scattered things to each other in a certain way, so as to realize resource sharing and collaborative work of information system. Its main essence is to allow different things and matter to permeate and interact with each other, allowing them to exert maximum value through combination. The integration function brought by education content refers to the hidden education constantly excavating new education content, and infiltrating and interacting the content boards of each system, so as to achieve the overall optimization of education content and make education objects develop in an all-round way. Integration is not only for the education content of ideological politics education, but also for the overall coordinated development of the educated. Recessive education is like a net, will rich the content of the radiation to the educatees in various environment and activities, through the edification infiltration, unknowingly into the thought of educatees, and in the process of internalization by its own "pursuit" between "true", mutual penetration, mutual coupling, mix, realize overall development.

Ideological and political education is always carried out through certain carriers, the realization of goals, the completion of tasks, the implementation of contents, and the interaction between education subject and education object. The carrier of ideological and political education refers to the factor of carrying and transmitting ideological and political education, which can be used by the subject of ideological and political education, and the subject and object can interact with it. Meetings, talks, theoretical study, management work, cultural construction, mass communication, and spiritual civilization creation activities can all become education carriers. If the educator simply carries out explicit indoctrination to the educatee in the form of traditional, single and standard, then the educatee will have resistance psychology and defend the indoctrination of the educatee. Not only the initiative and enthusiasm of the educatee will be hit, but also the work of the ideological educator will be blocked. Therefore, in the process of hidden education, educators must break the standard barriers, adopt a variety of carriers, combine non-normative forms to conceal education purpose, cleverly avoid the protective layer of thoughts, and escort the education purpose safely to people's thoughts.

The diversity of implicit education vector gives it the function of explicit and implicit cooperation. Explicit implicit cooperation function refers to the recessive education is different from the standardization of the dominant education in the form of a class of unified management mode, it stresses is a kind of no class in the form of the standard "have always, ever-present in" education, education of recessive education using carrier and dominant education carrier complement each other, the impact on the education of educators also complement each other. Implicit education integrates the required education content into various carriers, which is not paid attention to by everyone, but ACTS around the life of the educatee, and plays a role and influence on the educatee. The transfer of invisible education information is not the main purpose of the activity context. The acquisition of this education content is only an addition, which is obtained by the educated through their own direct experience or indirect observation. Whether you take part in recreational and cultural activities, scientific and technological activities, speeches or debates, whether you wander around campus or listen to the wonderful reports of well-known scholars, you will be imperceptibly influenced. This is where explicit education cannot be achieved, and implicit education is complementary.

The autonomy of educatee refers to the autonomous reaction, autonomous selection, autonomous integration, autonomous internalization and externalization of education information in the process of education. Traditional dominant education deviates from the characteristics and practical needs of the physical and mental development of the educated and has a low degree of internalization. However, in the process of implicit education, the subjective initiative of the educated has been given full play with a high degree of internalization. The purpose, content, process, method and other aspects of hidden education are hidden, different from the explicit education infusion type acceptance, it does not clearly require the educatee to accept the influence, must accept the influence of what kind of education in what way. The educatee is completely autonomous, and has the power of independent choice and independent decision. He can choose whether to accept or not, the way and content to accept. Therefore, in the process of hidden education, the educated actively participates in education activities as the main body, which is a gradual process of being free, natural, self-aware, self-conscious, self-strengthening and self-acting.

The autonomy of the educatee makes the implicit education law produce the function of self - education. The method of self-education has existed since ancient times, and the method of self-cultivation advocated by Confucianism already contains the factor of self-education. In the long-term practice of education, our party has also created many effective methods of self-education, such as recall, contrast, discussion and consultation, criticism and self-criticism. "Only education that motivates students to perform self-education is truly education," the Soviet educator sukhomlinsky said in his advice to teachers. Our country educator ye shengtao said: "the purpose of education is to achieve not education." Recessive education latent own education process and education purpose, using a variety of carrier, will rich education content into the educatee's daily activities, through relaxing way, effectively prevent the educatees recalcitrant at the same time, the pedagogue in context will self awareness, self driven, self management, self development.

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[hottytoddynews]

Anxiety Fast Facts by Amy Rosenthal Create your own infographics

“I see a lot of anxiety,” said Allison Layton, a counselor at the Oxford Counseling Center. “Anxiety in college students and young adults – it’s wild. There are so many pressures that come from so many different angles.”

Layton, a marriage and family counselor, says that anxiety often stems from a lack of confidence or self esteem that comes from messages, either implicit or explicit, that we absorb from the experiences in our lives.

“If we never begin to push against those messages then they can manifest in anxiety,” she added.

Psychotherapist Leigh Ann Teague defines the condition in a similar way.

“Anxiety is an internal reaction to outside stress,” she said. Teague is in private practice in Oxford where she treats patients 13 years old and up.  She says she particularly loves working with college students and finds that anxiety is one of the top issues her clients face. “Probably 90% of the college students I see,” she added.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), the group of people who are most commonly affected by anxiety disorders are adults under the age of 35. The ADAA also reports that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 18 percent of the population. 

  Anxiety by generation Anxiety by Generation by Amy Rosenthal

Yet, it can be difficult for someone suffering from anxiety to reach out for help. Ole Miss graduate Amanda Sladky initially resisted therapy.

“It was hard to open up at first,” said Sladky, “but once I started going and got comfortable, I realized it was just a safe place to bring important things to light.”

Sladky, who has been out of school now for two years, sought counseling on the recommendation of a friend who saw her being overwhelmed by her emotions and unable to cope with them. She now attends counseling sessions once a week. 

According to Layton, although genetic predispositions to anxiety exist, it is rare that anxiety is completely a genetic problem. When meeting a new client, Layton tries to identify the real source of the anxiety.

“I ask a lot of questions to find out where’s it coming from,” she said. “I kind of like to dig before I move into a prevention or coping plan.”

Both Layton and Teague embrace the use of practical tools to help their clients deal with anxiety. In some cases, that could mean thoughtful breathing and relaxation methods, in other cases, medication.

“I’m not against medication,” said Teague. “It can be very helpful in the case of true diagnosed clinical anxiety. But if you’re just dealing with anxiety, medicine is never my first course of treatment. I would rather meet 4 to 6 times, put some coping skills in place, teach some stress management techniques, and put those into practice.”

Layton also stresses coping skills first.

“What I usually do with clients is teach them how to distract, relax and cope,” said Layton.

According to Layton, anxiety is rooted in the amygdala of the brain, the source of our innate “fight or flight” protective mode. When anxiety comes on, cortisol levels rise, adrenaline pumps, palms sweat, hands shake, heart rate increases and thoughts race. “Your body is responding like you’re in danger,” she explains.

The physical impact is another reason to take anxiety seriously.

“Your emotions will come out, I promise. They can either come out of your mouth in a safe environment or they can come out sideways, and they affect your relationships and they affect your well being, your work life, they affect everything.”

So, how do you know when counseling is warranted?

“When regular anxiety starts affecting your daily life,” Teague said. “When the anxiety is so great that it’s affecting your sleep, your appetite, your mood, that to me is when you cross over from regular anxiety and stress that everyone feels to needing professional help.”

“I think everyone can benefit from therapy,” Layton added. “I don’t think everyone needs to go every week. But you tune up a car to make sure it’s still working properly, why don’t we do the same thing for our emotional health?”

Sladky seems to agree.

“It’s now kind of a highlight of my week,” she said as she smiled and leaned back in her plush beige arm chair. “It’s a place where I can be completely myself and process through life and the things that cause me stress and anxiety.”

     Produced by Amy Rosenthal: acrosent@go.olemiss.edu.

      The post Anxiety Grows Among Young, Oxford Therapists Help appeared first on HottyToddy.com.

[basicsofislam]

ISLAM 101: Muslim Culture and Character: Reflections (Tafakkur): Part 2

ABUSE OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS

The quest for truth has two principal branches which, if the quest is motivated by a sincere love of the truth-seeker, are radically joined – that is, they have fundamentally the same root and goal even though the branches diverge. The two branches are the seeking represented by religion and the seeking represented by science. The effort of the quest is aimed at discovering the relation between existence and human consciousness and perceptive powers within that existence. But the effort is also directed at what it (the effort) is for, and what attitude is to be taken to the knowledge we are given or obtain. This means that purpose and moral judgments enter the quest for truth and shape and color its achievements.

Now some people pretend that the science of nature is neutral about such matters. They are wrong to do so. In fact, though an individual working at some particular problem may believe him or herself to be applying neutral, objective procedures, that person’s work nevertheless entails sharing in all the structures of thought, the assumptions, and purposes, which are a part of the culture of science as a whole in any particular epoch. That culture is not independent of questions of purpose and meaning: it is simply that such questions are not the immediate objective or concern of the individual scientist, and, for that reason, they remain implicit in the work being done. They become explicit in human attitudes (personal and societal) and in the technology that funds and (by its success) justify the quest for scientific knowledge.

True science and true religion should be, as it were, fellow-travelers in that both passionately oppose superstition and falsehood; and, in any case, both have the same right of appeal to reasoned argument and to experience. Religion is the older quest in two important respects: first, in that it teaches and inspires love of truth for its own sake (that love is not and cannot be generated by science itself, though it motivates the best science); and, second, in that it upholds the Authority which gives to human reason its conditional authority – the Revelation of Gods Will to His Messengers, most comprehensively, reliably and finally in the Qur’an and in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace.

Religion has a moral and philosophical, as well as a historical, priority. Denial of that priority in human life robs it of its most vital element, its deepest dynamic, and it deprives the science of nobility of purpose. A scientific endeavor which does not aim to understand existence, which does not depend on the love for and zeal to know the truth, is liable to blindness and falling into contradictions. Perhaps without knowing it, but (surely) sometimes also knowingly, science becomes captive to ideological and doctrinal preconceptions, cultural prejudices, to the pursuit of power (instead of knowledge and understanding). When that happens, the inquirer’s way to truth is blocked up, and the endeavor of science as a whole does not yield understanding or improvement in either physical or human nature but leads to the opposite, the ruin and degradation of both.

The priority of the religious quest for truth over the scientific quest for truth does not mean that it is exempt from falling into error and wrongdoing. Rather, it is the reason for even greater vigilance to maintain the soundness of beliefs and principles, the purity of intention and practice. Just as science can be rash and intolerant in attitude towards that which it regards as outside its culture, and so fail its vocation to seek the truth, so too religion can be abused and turned from a quest for pure, heavenly truth into a means for hatred, rancor, and vindictiveness. A dogmatic and narrow-minded scientific community, enslaved to certain philosophical or ideological prejudices, can become more fanatical and dangerous in its consequences than ignorance. So too can a religious community when it reduces religion to a device to serve certain political interests or worldly advantages. Religion then ceases to be a heavenly inspiration for thought and conduct and becomes instead an assemblage of meaningless ceremonies and a worldly ideology.

Institutions where sciences are taught and scientific studies are conducted are to be esteemed as highly as places of worship. However, the institutions where sciences are used to promote certain ideological biases or impose certain concepts to obtain material advantages, no longer deserve respect, as they are structures where selfish, ignoble desires and passions are nurtured. Likewise, if religion and religious sentiments are exploited to promote political ambitions and to divide people into factions, and if religion is taken as a rigid ideology giving rise to polarization and disruptions among people, then religion is no longer a means serving to lead people to God; rather, it is an obstacle before the true religion of God, an obstacle made up of fanaticism, enmity, hatred, and belligerence.

However he may outwardly appear, a man unconscious of the true nature of belief and deprived of knowledge and love of God, who cannot measure the principles of religion in the scales of the religion itself, who does not give priority to that to which God gives priority, is disrespectful of the heavenly and universal identity of religion and has no right to claim to be truly religious. What is most opposed to both religion and science is that selfish desires and fancies are presented in the guise of objective knowledge and religious sentiments. This is a weakness in human nature leads people to ostentation and worldly expectations. People tend to sublimate their defects and shortcomings and science and religion are two important devices they use to this end.

The most effective weapon of conscience against such a tendency is the love of truth; if there is an elixir to dissolve from minds the ‘scientific’ dross and remove from hearts the tendency to false show of religious devotion, it is love of the Creator and love of truth and the love of His creation arising therefrom. If hearts are ardent with love and spirits with yearning, it is possible to mend moral defects and elevate human beings to true humanity.

The world of mankind recognized the love of truth through the Prophets, and it is this love which leads people to love of God and to build healthy relations with existence. From the very beginning, all Prophets guided their followers to that love and based their relations with their people on that love. It was only when absorbed in love of God that men have been able to find their true identity and value. The Prophet Jesus (upon him be peace), composed a poem of life based on the love of man and fulfilled his mission by conveying it to others. The Prophet Muhammad, (upon him be peace), honored the world as, in the words of a classical Turkish poet, ‘the commander of the army of lovers’ and expressed love throughout his life.

When the love of God became in him irresistible, he went on to the other world. The Qur’an, when recited with conviction and concentration, will be understood as a declaration of love, in addition to the charm of its music and phrasing. Love of truth, love of science, the urge to research, the call to reason and to exercise self-control – these are the points which the Qur’an reiterates and about which it warns people. They are like mines in which a careful, believing reciter of the Qur’an can find new, different jewels every time he seeks.

How unfortunate it is that, despite its wealth of power to heal all our wounds, to end all our centuries-old pains and cure our diseases, this precious Book has long been approached with superficial attitudes and disagreeable intentions and used by many capricious persons, desirous of the world and in pursuit of self- interests, as a device to always accuse others and acquit and absolve themselves, and exploited as an excuse for the hatred, belligerence and impudence originating in their own dark souls. This is why much seeking truth and the true path come to it with suspicion and doubt. Approaching people with anger and feelings of enmity and vengeance in the name of the Qur’an, and confusing communicating its message with looking for ways to satisfy certain political or worldly ambitions disguised under religious aims results in imitating others in atrocities and wrongdoing. It should be understood that Islam is neither an ideology nor merely a political, economic and social system, nor is the Qur’an a book calling its followers to kindle fires of war and enmity among people.

The Qur’an came down to the world with a balance. It seeks to establish a perfect balance – the balance observed in the whole of the universe which the Qur’an orders us not to destroy – in the relations of an individual with other individuals, with his family, his community and with the whole of existence. The Qur’an aims to establish peace and harmony. So, it ought never to be used to cause disruptions and mischief among people and it by no means sanctions or allows putting pressure on consciences and minds. Rather, it seeks to remove pressure from consciences and minds so that people may find the truth.

Those who set their hearts upon the lofty ideals established by the Qur’an continue to live until eternity and have an honored place in the hearts of others, similarly inspired. But those who exploit those ideals in pursuit of their debased ambitions remain as chained slaves of their desires and fancies. Their lives are spent in humiliation and end in doom.

A true, sincere student of the Qur’an aims to convey others to eternity. While he is constantly advancing to his destination along his own way, those drowned in their wrong suppositions and ambitions regard him as mad and see him as misguided.

The aim of a sincere student of the Qur’an is like a catapult throwing him directly into the world of pure spirituality beyond this base world tainted with selfish interests and mean aspirations, or it is like a rocket put in orbit around the truth. Religion is the pure source feeding him and the Prophet is the one who offers it. Those who cannot approach this blessed source through the gate of the Prophet, those who cannot dive deep in this source after the guidance of the Prophet with the necessary equipment to find the gems of truth required in this age, will not succeed in presenting as religion the ideas originating in their dark minds and souls, nor succeed in disguising their fancies and desires as religious ideas.

The Qur’an is a resource of infinite depth; whoever dives in it with a sincere intention to satisfy his needs of every kind – spiritual, intellectual, social, etc.- will find the cure he seeks. The deeper one grows in understanding and knowledge, the more one will find the Qur’an, like a rainbow, far above one’s level, impossible to reach. The following religion means being able to see the light of the Qur’an and the Prophetic way of life reflected through the prism of one’s time, place and conditions and being illumined by it.