Patrick Peterson wrote: > Broadly, we can look at our curriculum to ensure that no gender bias exists > in that, and train staff and faculty in our schools to not use gender bias > in their relations with students and the community.
Are such training program effective? > I wrote: Just what is "healthy sexuality?" > > -=-=-=- > I'm not going to bore Mpls-Issues to death any longer with obscure > intellectual fieldtrips in the social sciences. Read "Drowning Ophelia" by > Mary Pipher for an academic perspective or "Ophelia Speaks" by Sara Shandler > for the perspective of the girls themselves (With all this "Ophelia" talk I > know some of you are thinking of the 'brevity is the soul of wit' comment. > I never intend to be witty, but I'm working on being more brief.) > -=-=-=- I think that Mr. Peterson needs to develop the skills necessary to define the terms that he uses. We have heard more than enough political double-speak. If someone needs to refer to secondary sources to explain what they mean, then they might be better off as a stockbroker or a travel agent, than as a school board member > -=-=-=-=-=-= > Okay. That doesn't change the fact that we should be respectful of people > anyway. My guess is that women firefighters don't appreciate being called > men, or that when women first were elected to Congress that all the > restrooms for MC's were called "gentlemen's rooms". It's called respect. > -=-=-=-=-=-= If you can show that the public is concerned enough about this to justify the expense, then I'll accept your argument. If not, then should acknowledge your position as a personal agenda. > I wrote: To me, being politically correct is about trying to artificially > enforce respect in violation of individual rights. > > -=-=-=-=-= > Thanks for sharing. Now everybody knows what we both thing of political > correctness. And the internet proves indispensable yet again. > -=-=-=-=-= This is far more than just a minor difference of opinion. The Supreme Count has repeatedly struck down "speach-codes," because they violate the Constitution and individual rights. If you believe that cohesion is acceptable to promote your version of respect, then I don't believe you belong on the school board. > I said: Good idea; can you cite research to show that such programs > are effective? > > 1. "Peer Mediation in the Schools: Teaching Conflict Resolution to > Students." NASSP Bulletin: v78 n560 > 2. "A Review of Selected School-Based Conflict Resolution and Peer > Mediation Projects." Journal of School Health v65 n10 p426-31 Dec 1995 > 3. The Impact of Peer Mediation Training on the Management of School and > Home Conflicts. American Educational Research Journal v32 n4 p829-44 Win > 1995 > 4. The Benefits of Peer Mediation in the Context of Urban Conflict and > Program Status. Urban Education v35 n3 p324-55 Sep 2000 > > All these journals are accessible at the University of Minnesota libraries > and maybe from MPL. As someone with a tc.umn.edu address I assume you know > where to look. Ok. We agree on student mediation and monitoring to reduce violence in schools. > -=-=-=-=- > I support human sexuality courses as well as providing access to birth > control in schools. > -=-=-=-=- Ok, there's something else we agree on. > -=-=-=-=-= > You're right -- I was being Minnesotan (Minnesota Nice, actually). Here is > what I mean to say: Gay men engage in a broad range of activities and one > cannot characterize the gay lifestyle as being one thing (seducing straight > people, circuit parties, excessive drug use, promiscuity, leering, > over-sexed men or all the other gay stereotypes out there) or another. Do > some gay men seduce people who identify as straight -- probably. Does the > Gay High Council meet to decide that all gay people are to engage in that > behavior? Come on. Frankly, on this issue, I have trouble seeing your > example as a valid one given that (to the best of my knowledge) you are not > a gay man nor do you (again, TTBOMK) engage in such behaviors regularly. > -=-=-=-=-=- It seems to me that liberals love to reduce discussions to individual differences so that it is impossible to draw conclusions. Some generalizations maybe misleading, and others maybe correct. We could not function cognitively with extracting general features of our world. It's true that every gay man, is different from other gay men, but it is still possible to make general statements that characterize gay men in America. The statements may not be true of every individual, but they may correctly represent the majority. For instance, I can state that it is rare that gay men molest children (there is no difference in rates of molestation according to sexual preference). This is certainly true for most, but not all. > I wrote: Without directly answering my questions. Supplemental teacher > training does not have much of an impact on achievement, > without accountability. What type of accountability do you > propose? > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Sorry Michael, but Sullivan, Howard J. and Niedermeyer, Fred C. disagree. > They wrote Pupil Achievement under Varying Levels of Teacher Accountability. > Professional Paper 28. They work for the Department of Education. > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= And, I had started to respect you ability to justify your positions with research, but this doesn't cut it. An interal DOE report that has not been peer reviewed or replicated (and cannot be found on their webserver) is not enough evidence to invalidate my claim. > I wrote: Why don't you respond to my questions here? I asked you what your > educational philosophy was and what you propose to do about the > dropout rate? > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= > The dropout rate is actually a function of several factors -- poverty (some > kids need to drop out to work and support their family), families that need > help (drugs, crime, etc...), teen pregnancy, and getting turned off by > school. There is not "one thing" that we are going to do to fix the dropout > rate -- it's going to require that we work with parks, libraries, > neighborhoods, churches, community centers, and businesses to care about the > health of the kids in this city and participate in early intervention so > that small problems don't develop into big ones. > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To conclude that the dropout rate is just too complex of a problem to solve, is defeatist and will accomplish nothing. If you can't think of anything else, pick one of these problems to work on; say teen pregnancy. There was an article (I think it was the NYT) that reported about one high school principle whose management had resulted in a 30% (as I remember) reduction in the dropout rate at his school. If one person can achieve these results, then they can be implements on a wider basis. I can't vote for someone for school board who doesn't at least have a basic proposal for dealing with the dropout problem. The most important problem facing the MPS. If you don't have your own proposal, use mine (or show that it's unlikely to succeed). Also, I asked you about your educational philosophy. A question which you have declined to answer. For those interested there's an article in the current issue of Scientific American which supports my previous posts about class size: Ehrenberg, R. G., Brewer, D. J., Gamoran, A. & Willms, J. D. (2001). Does class size matter? Scientific American, 285(5), 79-85. Michael Atherton Prospect Park _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
