Here’s to the State of Oklahoma

Here's to the state of Oklahoma.1 Your artificial borders are losing in the courts.2 A loss of jurisdiction is your due and just rewards. Tribal rights and sovereignty your privilege to thwart. Half-truths of your misdeeds you're happy to report. Whoa, here's to the grass still growing in the heart of.3 Oklahoma, this land tells …

No, Gerry Brooks, It’s Not Funny When Educators Ridicule Parents

Gerry Brooks (pronounced like “Gary”) is an elementary school principal at Fayette County Public Schools in Lexington, Kentucky. Almost three years ago, Mr. Brooks uploaded his first YouTube video, and subsequently has added over 180 videos to his channel and has amassed over 102,500 subscribers. His most popular video to date, “First week of school …

Trauma Informed Schools: The New ‘New Paternalism’

In 1997, New York University professor, Lawrence M. Mead, edited a book entitled “The New Paternalism: Supervisory Approaches to Poverty.” Mead’s work, spanning more than 30 years, has been highly influential in the implementation of draconian and ineffective work requirements for government assistance programs. “The New Paternalism” directly inspired noted education reformer, David Whitman, to …

When Suspensions Are Down, But Restorative Discipline Is Not Up

The racism, once long latent in “zero tolerance” school discipline policies, is now manifest to many education stake holders, especially in urban school districts with majority non-white students. White educators everywhere are waking up to the reality that America’s addiction to incarceration is directly tied to school discipline policies that disproportionately push students of color …

Zero Tolerance Policies Are Not Pro Teacher

One of the many education related bills already introduced in Oklahoma’s 56th Legislature is Senate Bill 81, filed by Senator Ron Sharp, Republican, of Shawnee. The headline at http://www.newsok.com on Tuesday, January 10th, reads, “Under proposed bill, violent elementary school students subject to suspension.” According to the introduced version at http://www.oklegislature.gov, the bill is “an …