It might be summer, but the education know-nothings are clearly not at the beach. The latest case-in-point is former CNN correspondent Campbell Brown’s incredibly uninformed comments on teacher tenure that, unfortunately, millions of people saw and didn’t stick around for the fact-checking. Her musings come on the heels of a California decision in which a judge ruled that tenure is unconstitutional because it deprives some students of a quality education. There is another case against tenure in New York States and I will assume that many other states will soon join in. It is true that there are some teachers who should not be in classrooms because they are ineffective or burned out, but depriving teachers of a due process right and subjecting them to firing because of issues unrelated to their job performance is the height of irresponsibility.
In Campbell Brown’s case, she quotes the popular half-truth that the teacher is far and away the most important factor in a child’s success, and that if all classrooms had effective teachers, then all students would learn. I suppose we could read this as a compliment for great teachers, but I also read it for the folly of what it implies.
What she and other education know-nothings are essentially saying here is that an effective teacher can overcome poverty, child abuse, hunger, malnutrition, unemployment, dysfunctional and nonfunctional families, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, developmental disabilities, ADHD, the autism spectrum, lack of sleep, entitled parents and students, and general ennui and make productive citizens out of every child. This is what teachers see in their classrooms and every one of these factors, or a combination of many of them, is a distraction or an impediment to learning. If effective teachers could negate them and educate children in spite of them, then we also need to elect teachers to Congress and the Presidency because the country clearly needs them.
The truth is that teachers do overcome these obstacles, but not at the pace that society needs in order to help all students. What then happens, and the education know-nothings are quick with the response, the teachers, whose students do not perform well on the latest misuse of data, the teacher evaluation metrics, are labeled incompetent and worthy of firing. Since tenure is in the way, getting rid of it is the know-nothing’s illogical retort.
The proper response would be for those with microphones and cameras to focus their attention on providing living conditions in all communities that allow for jobs with livable wages, responsive public services, adequate public health care, affordable housing, enrichment opportunities for the children, and safe neighborhoods. Those teachers who work in such communities know why their students are more prepared than others. It’s not rocket science, but it is science; and we know how the right wing feels about science.
To further the folly of their arguments, though, the know-nothings have managed to institute teacher evaluation systems throughout the land that will do everything except provide for a valid measure of an effective teacher. They’ve made testing the default activity in schools when there is little research to support a system based on such testing. And for those teachers who don’t teach a testable subject, there’s the SGO, or Student Growth Objective. But now those measures are under review because, surprise, SGOs don’t provide for a valid measure either.
In New Jersey, teachers who have questioned the testing/SGO folly are finally being heard. Tests, which were going to count for 30% of a teacher’s evaluation, will now only count as 10% for the coming school year, and SGO’s will be under scrutiny for how they are used for evaluation. Neither measure has been shown to predict or confirm a teacher’s effectiveness, and putting them under a microscope should confirm that. Of course, with Governor Christie now running for president, the chances of further reform are nonexistent, but perhaps in a few years things will change. Still, many otherwise qualified teachers will be affected by the evaluation system. That’s the shame of it all.
I know, I know: Money is the answer, plain and simple. School districts don’t want to pay teachers for advanced degrees and right wing politicians don’t want public schools to begin with, so it makes sense that Texas and North Carolina are both in the forefront of starving their states of effective teachers in an effort to…well, I’m not sure.
The debate over whether teachers who earn advanced degrees and credits that allow them to earn more money on the salary scale are actually better teachers than those who don’t, or are better themselves than if they had just stuck with their Bachelor’s degree credits, is becoming louder and more intense. As any teacher can tell you, though, there really is no debate. Teachers who continue their educations, broaden themselves or even go in a new educational direction tend to be more effective. There is no question that teachers should be encouraged (required?) to take courses in content or pedagogy.
So why the screed? Because a few states, most notably Texas and North Carolina, have decided that paying teachers more for advanced degrees doesn’t necessarily lead to high student test scores. And they might be right, but that’s exactly what’s wrong with the current push for test scores to evaluate teachers. Earning a higher degree makes the teacher more knowledgeable and exposes them to more effective teaching methods. Students are then exposed to a greater variety of teaching methods and more expansive content. That’s the point of an education. Equating the tests with teacher effectiveness is a terrible idea whose time, unfortunately, has come.
Even worse is the fact that public leaders continue to say that we need the best and brightest college graduates to become teachers (as if we don’t have a significant majority of them in classrooms right now). What the best and brightest know, and being one of them allows me to represent their argument, is that educating yourself is the best practice any teacher can follow. The best and brightest also know that motivating people to push themselves should be recognized monetarily. Isn’t that what law firms, banks and other corporations do?
The best and brightest are not swayed by specious arguments from elected officials who are not, in most cases, the best and brightest. For proof, consider the reaction in North Carolina:
In April, the Wake County Public School System – the largest in North Carolina with about 150,000 students – said more than 600 teachers had left since the beginning of the school year, an increase of 41 percent over the same period the year before.
One district official blamed a lack of a significant pay raises in recent years, along with the phasing out of tenure and extra pay for advanced degrees. Human Resources Superintendent Doug Thilman called the figures “alarming” but “not surprising.”
Not surprising? If your best teachers are leaving the schools, why continue the policy? And who, might I ask, is taking the place of these best and brightest? People with no interest in getting advanced degrees? These are not the best people to have in your classrooms. This is the kind of lazy thinking that will rule the country if conservatives are elected to the Senate and the White House.
Something to seriously think about this fall and for 2016.
What of the African presence in early China? Have there been Black people in China? If so, what became of them? What happened to the Black people of early China? Are they still there? These are profound questions. Indeed, the African presence in China is perhaps the most challenging area of research within the broad realm of the African presence in Asia. Challenging though it may be, however, it is not an area that can be dismissed. Chancellor Williams, for example, in his classicDestruction of Black Civilization, noted that:
“Ancient China and the Far East, for example, must be a special area of African research. How do we explain such a large population of Blacks in southern China, powerful enough to form a kingdom of their own?”
While in September 1998, a scientific study posted in the Los Angeles Times concluded that:
“Most of the population of modern China — one-fifth of all the people living today — owes its genetic origins to Africa.”
From the realm of the physical anthropology of early China, according to the preeminent scholar in the field, Kwan-chih Chang:
“Skeletal remains from the Hoabinhian and Bacsoinan strata, similar to those found in southwest China, bear Oceanic Negroids features.”
The first Black people in China then — the people who are probably the first of any people in China — were apparently Black people akin to the Batwa of Central Africa and the people of the Andaman Islands today — we call the Diminutive Africoids. They survived well into the historical periods. The presence of Diminutive Africoids (whom Chinese historians called Black Dwarfs) in early southern China during the period of the Three Kingdoms (ca. 250 CE) is recorded in the book of the Official of the Liang Dynasty (502-556 CE).
They are said to be Diminutive Africoids and are variously called Pygmies, Negritos and Aeta. They are found in the Philippines, northern Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra in Indonesia and other places.
Chinese historians called them “Black dwarfs” in the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220 to AD 280) and they were still to be found in China during the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1911). In Taiwan they were called the “little Black people” and, apart from being diminutive, they were also said to be broad-nosed and dark-skinned with curly hair.
These Diminutive Africoids inhabit the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago east of India, and are direct descendants of the first modern humans to have inhabited Asia, geneticists conclude in new studies. Their physical features, short stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair and large buttocks are characteristic of so-called African “Pygmies.” Only four of the numerous groups that once inhabited the Andamans survive, with a total population of about 500 people. These include the Jarawa, who still live in the forest, and the Onge, who have been settled there by the Indian government.
Similar groups of Black people have been identified in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, and it seems almost certain that at one time a belt of Black populations of this type covered much of Asia, including early China and especially southern China.
So there is little doubt that in the early ages of China, a Black presence was prevalent. Now what of African presence in the great civilizations of China? Ivan Van Sertima always preached that “It is one thing to say that you were first and yet another to say what you did.” So what did Africans do in ancient China? What was their status? What positions do we find them in?
Regarding the African presence in early China civilization, three dynasties in particular stand out — the Shang, the Tang and the Yuan.
The Shang Dynasty (1766-1027 BCE), China’s first dynasty, dating from the 18th to the 11th century BCE, apparently had a Black background, so much so that the conquering Zhou described them as having “Black and oily skin.” Bronze vessels, such as Le Tigresse are thus an extremely important component to our case and helps buttress our position.
Le Tigresse is by far the most spectacular of such vessels. It is a Yu vessel. In addition to Le Tigresse, in the Cernuschi Museum in Paris, there is a similar and near identical artifact in the Sumitomo Collection in Kyoto, Japan.
Le Tigresse is from the late Shang Dynasty period, about 1250 BCE. It is from Hunan Province and measures about 2 feet high. The vessel was intended to hold fermented beverages and is unquestionably the most famous and splendid object in the Cernuschi Museum. The vessel depicts a feline, a tigress with an open mouth, holding a small human in a close embrace with its front paws. For years, I had thought of the small human figure as a child. But on closer inspection, it appears that it may well be an adult. Is it a Diminutive Africoid? Whether adult or child, the features are clearly Africoid and may well be a depiction of one of the Diminutive Africoid-types associated with early China, protected in the powerful embrace of a tigress.
The entire effect is accentuated by the dark green, almost black, brilliance of the vessel, and the calm demeanor shown in the person’s face suggests an ease and confidence in its surroundings. Le Tigresse was acquired by the Cernuschi in 1920.
From the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) come statues of Africoid-looking dancers. I have photographed two such statues in both the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. They have spiral hair and seem to twirl around with one arm in the air topped by clenched fist. Were these the Black dwarfs that we have read about in Chinese literature and Chinese tradition? Did they survive into the era of the Tang Dynasty?
In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) founded by Kubilai Khan, the Black presence is visible in a number of notable paintings. The first of these paintings by the Yuan court artist Liu Guandao in 1280, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, is of a Mongol hunting scene. Specifically, the painting depicts two powerful looking Black men on horseback with Kubilai Khan during a hunt. Kubilai Khan was arguably the most powerful man in the world at the time and the easy posture that these men are depicted in gives one reason to think that that they are more than the Khan’s bodyguards, more than mere soldiers but quite possibly nobles or high officials of the Yuan court.
The second painting is a handscroll depicting “tribute bearers” toward the end of the Yuan Dynasty, about 1350 CE. It is housed in the Asian Art Museum, Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco. The painting depicts four Black men, one of which is of great prominence.
What is most striking about the Shang Dynasty Yu vessels, the Tang Dynasty statues and the Yuan Dynasty paintings — all clearly Africoid — is that race and ethnicity of the people depicted are never mentioned, and if one does not see these objects for themselves you would never guess, from reviewing the relevant literature, they were Black.
Speaking of which, the famous Chinese sage, Lao-Tze (ca. 600 BCE), by tradition, was “Black in complexion.” Lao-Tze was described as “marvelous and beautiful as jasper.” Magnificent and ornate temples were erected for him, inside of which he was worshipped like a god.
Such is our brief sketch of the Black presence in early China. What I have found most interesting in my researches, including the work that I am doing on China today, is the failure, I am sure deliberate, to mention the race or ethnicity of clearly Africoid objects of art. Indeed, it seems to be even more extreme in the case of the African presence in Asia than the cover-up of the African origins of ancient Egypt. This cover-up — we must call it that — of the African presence in classical civilizations is truly a global phenomenon.
*Runoko Rashidi is a historian, writer, lecturer and researcher based in Los Angeles, California. He has written extensively on the Global African Presence and leads tours to various sites around the world. This essay is culled from his most recent work African Star over Asia: The Black Presence in the East, published by Books of Africa in 2012. His upcoming tours include the African heritage in Mexico in July 2014, the African heritage in Europe in August 2014 and Nigeria and Cameroon in December 2014. For more information write to Runoko@hotmail.com or go to www.travelwithrunoko.com
SOURCES:
Chang, Kwan-chih. The Archaeology of Ancient China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963.
Chi, Li. The Formation of the Chinese People: An Anthropological Inquiry. 1928; rpt. New York: Russell and Russell, 1967.
Komaroff, Linda. Gifts of the Sultan. New Haven: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yale University Press, 2011.
Quartly, Jules. The Taipei Times, Nov. 27, 2004.
Rogers, J.A. Sex and Race, vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Helga M. Rogers, 1968.
The Los Angeles Times, Sept. 29, 1998.
Williams, Chancellor. The Destruction of Black Civilization. Chicago: Third World Press, 1976.
The historic Bradshaw Cemetery in Houston, Texas was bulldozed without its owners consent and now the family is searching for answers.
Bradshaw, a cemetery dating back to the 1800s and owned by the Nelloms family, was the final resting place for the “bodies of slaves and African Americans who fought in wars and were denied a proper burial…and the family who owns the land say they don’t even know who is responsible,” reportsNews92FM.
“I don’t want to see my grandmother dug up out of the ground,” said Jeremy Nelloms. “There’s no way. I’d die before I’d let that happen.”
Nelloms reportedly approached trespassers who were clearing the land, so they stopped—leaving in their wake desecrated sacred land, heartbroken family members and a mystery.
The recent decision in California regarding teacher tenure is causing a great deal of anxiety in public education and in those states where teacher tenure still has some meaning. The ruling that tenure is unconstitutional because it denies students the right to a decent education is an interesting take on the subject, but it obscures the truth about how tenure works and why it’s still needed.
I’ve already visited the subject, but it’s worth repeating that tenure is NOT, I repeat, NOT a guarantee of lifetime employment, no matter how many times the know-nothing reformers repeat that it is. Earning tenure merely means that after four years in one district, a teacher must get a due process hearing if a school district wants to fire them. In New Jersey, the tenure laws were changed in 2012 to streamline the process so it didn’t take years and a lot of money in order to fire a teacher. Now, an arbitrator hears the case and generally rules within five months, and their decision is final.
Opponents of tenure, and these are the people who want to privatize all government functions in the United States except the military, say that tenure, and unions, protects bad teachers and makes it almost impossible to fire them. They also say that seniority rules that protect experienced educators at the expense of newer teachers when there are layoffs are outmoded and result in many young, energetic educators being let go before they can even begin their careers. I will admit that there are teachers in classrooms right now who do not belong there and who should not be teaching. There are also middling teachers for whom a younger replacement might mean an improvement in children’s education.
But blaming teacher’s unions is not the answer. No, the real reform in teacher retention, training and development rests with the administrators who run the school districts and schools. They are the ones who have the ultimate power to evaluate and make hiring decisions about their staffs. If these administrators keep teachers who should not be in the classroom, then they will be the ones responsible when those teachers do not turn out to be effective educators.
And who are these administrators? They are self-selected people who decide on their own to become principals and superintendents. There is no national or state organization that recognizes and encourages people who would be excellent administrators and sets them on a path to effective leadership. It’s the luck of the draw, and the deck is thinning in New Jersey due to Governor Christie’s support and signature on a law that limits pay for superintendents and other upper echelon school management. Yes, yes; I’ve heard the false argument that money doesn’t matter in education, at least where pay is concerned, because the false common wisdom is that teachers do not enter their field for the money. If you don’t pay people enough, though, then you don’t get good people to fill those jobs whose charge is to maintain and grow excellent teaching staffs.
It’s a terrible cycle and the California ruling will unfortunately reinforce the idea that if we could only fire incompetent teachers that our schools would improve. Of course, that would be true, but the problem is that schools wouldn’t only fire incompetent teachers. They would fire expensive teachers, union leadership members, teachers who cross administrators or don’t fit the boss’s vision of what a successful teacher looks like. It would also open the floodgates for purely nepotistic and corruptive practices that would make the schools worse. Facebook gave the Newark school system $100 million dollars; don’t you think that any corporation would love to make hiring and firing decisions?
There is far more to this reality than what the know-nothings are saying in response to the California ruling. Only time will tell if the political winds indeed do blow eastward in this country.
Aniruddh Chaturvedi came from Mumbai to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., where he is majoring in computer science. This past summer he interned at a tech company in Silicon Valley.
During two years in the U.S., Chaturvedi has been surprised by various aspects of society, as he explained last year in a post on Quora.
Chaturvedi offered his latest thoughts on America in an email to Business Insider.
The most surprising things about America:
Nobody talks about grades here.
Everyone is highly private about their accomplishments and failures. Someone’s performance in any field is their performance alone. This is different compared to India where people flaunt their riches and share their accomplishments with everybody else.
The retail experience is nowhere near as fun/nice as it is in India. Because labor is cheap in India, there is always someone who will act as a “personal shopper” to assist you with holding your clothes, giving suggestions, etc. In America, on the other hand, even if you go to a Nordstrom or Bloomingdales, there is almost nobody to help you out while you’re shopping. Shopping in America is more of a commodity / chore than it is a pleasurable activity
This may be biased/wrong because I was an intern, but at least in the tech world, nobody wants to put you under the bus for something that you didn’t do correctly or didn’t understand how to do. People will sit with you patiently till you get it. If you aren’t able to finish something within the stipulated deadline, a person on your team would graciously offer to take it off your plate.
The same applies to school. Before I came to the United States, I heard stories about how students at Johns Hopkins were so competitive with each other that they used to tear important pages from books in the library just so other students didn’t have access to it. In reality, I experienced the complete opposite. Students were highly collaborative, formed study groups, and studied / did assignments till everyone in the group “got it”. I think the reason for this is that the classes are / material is so hard that it makes sense to work collaboratively to the point that students learn from each other.
Strong ethics — everyone has a lot of integrity. If someone cannot submit their completed assignment in time, they will turn in the assignment incomplete rather than asking for answers at the last minute. People take pride in their hard work and usually do not cheat. This is different from students from India and China as well as back home in India, where everyone collaborates to the extent that it can be categorized as cheating.
Rich people are thin/ well maintained, poor people are fat. This stems from the fact that cheap food is fatty, rich people don’t eat cheap food — they tend to eat either home-cooked food which is expensive or eat at expensive / healthy places. Unfortunately, it is expensive to be healthy in America.
Fat people are not respected much in society. Being fat often has the same connotations as being irresponsible towards your body. If you’re thin (and tall, but not as much), people will respect you a lot more and treat you better. You will also receive better customer service if you’re well maintained. This extends my previous point which mentioned that if you’re thin, you’re statistically likely to be rich. Reason why I know this is that I went down from being 210lbs to 148-150lbs. The way people started treating me when I was thin was generally way better than the way I was treated when I was fat. As a small example, the Starbucks baristas were much nicer to me and made me drinks with more care / love.
Girls are not very promiscuous, contrary to most Hollywood films
Almost every single person in America has access to basic food, clothing, water and sanitation. I haven’t been to states like Louisiana and cities like Detroit, but from what I can tell, nobody is scrambling for the basic necessities required for sustenance.
Dearth of African Americans in technical fields. This probably stems from the fact that they aren’t given enough opportunity, broken families, etc. I’m pretty sure you can extend upon this if you’d like.
It’s expensive to have brick houses in America, contrary to India where brick houses are the norm
Emphasis on physical fitness / being outdoorsy — this is more of a California thing but I noticed families going on biking trips, boat trips, hiking, camping, barbecuing, etc. Americans take pride in the natural beauty of their surroundings and tend to make the most of it
Americans waste a lot of food. It is very easy to buy in bulk because it’s so much cheaper and as a result a lot of wastage occurs.
Obsession with coffee — Starbucks, Dunkin’ etc is crowded with office-goers and students every morning. I don’t understand why they can’t drink or make coffee before leaving for work. Such a waste of money! ($5/day * 5days / week * 52weeks/year)!
Split families, not having married parents, etc is not seen differently than the contrary.
Support towards the LGBT community — it’s fairly normal to be part of the LGBT community; it’s not considered a mortal sin if you like someone in your own gender or if you aren’t comfortable being male/female/etc. Proof of this is the LGBT Pride Day held in every city etc.
Smoking weed is seen the same as smoking cigarettes.
The way that stores price their products makes no apparent economic sense, and is not linear at all.
For example, at a typical store:
– 1 can of coke : $1.00
– 12 cans of coke : $3.00
– 1 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar : $3.00
– 12 Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars : $7.00
The return policy on almost everything: None of my friends back in India believed me when I told them that you can literally buy anything, including food, and return it within ninety days for a full refund even if you don’t have a specific reason for doing so (most stores actually have a “Buyer’s Remorse” category under Reason for Return options while returning the product).
The pervasiveness of fast food and the sheer variety of products available: The typical supermarket has at least a hundred varieties of frozen pizza, 50 brands of trail mix, etc. I was just astounded by the different kinds of products available even at small gas station convenience stores.
Soda being cheaper than bottled water: It makes no sense that carbonated and flavored water with HFCS are cheaper than regular water, but hey, that’s just how it is.
The fact that there are full service rest stops with decent chain restaurants and big supermarkets every couple of miles on interstate highways
Fruit and vegetable prices, as compared to fast food prices:
– Bag of grapes : $6.00
– Box of strawberries : $5.00
– 1 lb tomatoes : $3.00
– McChicken : $1.00
– [McDouble] : $1.00
Unlimited soda refills:
The first time (and one of the last times…) I visited McDonalds in 2007, the cashier gave me an empty cup when I ordered soda. The concept of virtually unlimited soda refills was alien to me, and I thought there was a catch to it, but apparently not.
Slightly digressing, I’ve noticed that the typical fountain machine has a huge selection, including Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Sprite, Sprite Zero, Hi-C, Powerade, Lemonade, Raspberry Lemonade (and/or their coca-cola counterparts)… The list goes on. This may not seem like much, but it is actually a lot more compared to the 3-4 options (coca-cola, sprite, fanta, limca) that most Indian soda fountain machines have.
Serving Sizes: American serving sizes are HUGE! I’ve noticed that entree sizes are huge as well. I am by no means a small eater, but it usually takes me at least 1.5 meals to finish the entree.
US Flag displayed everywhere: I was surprised to see that the US flag is displayed in schools, on rooftops of houses, etc. India has very strict rules governing the display and use of the national flag. Also, something that struck out to me was how it was completely normal to wear the US flag or a US flag-like pattern as a bikini.
Over-commercialization of festivals: I’m not denying that festivals like Diwali and Eid aren’t extremely commercialized in India, but America takes it to a whole new level. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc., and an almost year-round sale of Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc. items.
An almost-classless society: I’ve noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I’ve seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.
Also, (almost) all sections of society are roughly equal. You’ll see service professionals owning iPhones, etc. as well. This may be wrong but part of it has to do with the fact that obtaining credit in this country is extremely easy. Anybody can buy anything, for the most part, except for something like a Maserati, obviously. As a result, most monetary possessions aren’t really status symbols. I believe that the only status symbol in America is your job, and possibly your educational qualifications.
Roosevelt High School senior Jabre White was doing what so many of us were taught to do, respectfully addressing authority figures, when his teacher responded in one of the least respectful, and most dehumanizing, ways of all.
In a recent interview with The Des Moines Register, White says that, when he politely told his economics teacher Shawn McCurtain “Yes, sir,” the latter corrected him, insisting he “say ‘Yes, master.’”
White stood up for himself, replying, “Who the f— are you talking to? You’re nobody’s master, and this is not the slave days. If you thought it was funny, it’s not.” When he later reported the incident to Roosevelt High School’s white Vice Principal Joseph Blazevich, White claims that Blazevitch “didn’t seem surprised about what the teacher said.” Instead, White says, Blazevich “was more interested in about what I said. He was upset that I dropped the f-bomb.”
After White’s mother asked Blazevich to investigate the incident, however, he did say that it was “terrible” and “shameful,” and claimed that “the instructor was very remorseful.” Nevertheless, it is unclear whether McCurtain has been punished for the way he treated one of his African American students — though he did call White’s mother to apologize for the remark. According to a district spokesperson, McCurtain is still employed by the school district.
Co-Op High senior Ade Ben-Falahuddin will attend Yale University in the fall after carrying a 4.72 GPA through high school. pcasolino@newhavenregister.com (Peter Casolino-New Haven Register)
NEW HAVEN >> Ade Ben-Salahuddin grew up around the sound of gunshots in New Haven, but when given the chance to attend a number of Ivy League schools, he decided to stay.
Ben-Salahuddin will attend Yale University this fall, turning down the likes of Princeton and Columbia in the process.
A senior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, Ben-Salahuddin has maintained a 4.72 grade point average throughout high school and is an active jazz trumpet player. He was accepted to Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Wesleyan, Yale, Tuskegee, Amherst College, Connecticut College and the University of Connecticut.
“He’s my hero,” said Tariq Ben-Salahuddin, Ade Ben-Salahuddin’s father.
Tariq said his son has managed to always make the right decisions in a society where there are many opportunities for him to do the wrong thing.
“Personally,” Abe said, “it’s always been me wanting to just learn more and always being driven and nurtured to explore different options and become immersed in a lot of different cultures, be as open to the world as possible, while still retaining a focus on: you have to educate yourself.”
A Wesleyan graduate, Tariq Ben-Salahuddin said he and his wife have been in competition to see which school Ade Ben-Salahuddin would attend. His wife is a Yale graduate.
While Wesleyan’s acceptance letter arrived first, Tariq Ben-Salahuddin said he knew the game was over once the letter from Yale arrived.
Abe Ben-Salahuddin said when he began exploring colleges, he looked for a school that would allow him to pursue both music and biology. He said many of the Ivy Leagues presented themselves as “very strong candidates,” and that he considers the schools the “pinnacles of formal education.”
The senior visited Princeton and UConn before being won over by Yale’s Bulldog Days program in April — a three-day program offered to admitted Yale students to provide a sense of what it’s like to be a “Yalie.” The program pairs potential students with a student host and includes tours, meetings with undergraduate organizations and free time to explore downtown.
“It was just a really fun experience seeing New Haven from the perspective of a college student,” Ben-Salahuddin said. “Bulldog drove home that sense of community among Yale students.” As a city student, Ben-Salahuddin said he frequented downtown cafes with friends and noticed there was a lot to do, but only if you were college-aged. The fact that there was less to do for younger students initially was “off-putting” for Ben-Salahuddin.
“I actually couldn’t really picture myself staying here for another four years,” he said. “I said I was going to drive myself insane at some point.”
But after getting a taste of what the city feels like for a Yale student, and how inspired and inspiring the students are, Ben-Salahuddin’s perspective changed.
“A lot of people who go to the school are really passionate about what they want to learn and are trying to learn a lot of things at the same time, and are very active in the community,” he said. “A lot of really driven people, and I like to be around that sort of crowd because it pushes everybody toward their ultimate goals, whatever those might be.”
Ben-Salahuddin said he ran into Enin during a visit to Princeton and looks forward to having him as a colleague.
For youths coming behind him, Ben-Salahuddin offered a lesson on “self-worth” and suggested finding something positive for oneself and the community.
“Reject what the media perception of you is; if you continue to count that as a factor in how you judge and how you value yourself, then you’re not going to succeed in any substantial way,” he said.
It’s important to find something that’s both positive for you and for the community, and “to be role models for the generations that come after you,” he said.
As for the high school experience in New Haven, Ben-Salahuddin said it is what you make of it.
“The school system in general, the resources are there. As to how efficiently they’re being used, I cannot really say,” he said.
“I would stress to both parties, teachers and students, to really embrace the moment, seize every learning moment that you have,” he said.
Since 2010, the district’s dropout rate has fallen from 27.3 percent to 20.7 percent and the four-year graduation rate has increased from 62.5 percent to 71.4 percent. Also, the percentage of students enrolled in their first year of college has increased by 2 percentage points from 62 percent in 2010 to 64 percent in 2012. Only about half of the district’s graduates make it to the second year of college.
Ben-Salahuddin said there are a lot of resources and programs for students in the city but many are confined to specific schools. Ideally, he said, he would like to see more citywide programs for youth.
Ben-Salahuddin listed Nelson Mandela and South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela as role models because of their activism, and said his passion for science came from no particular scientist, but from the nature of the topic itself. While he is unsure of his exact focus of study, his eyes are set on evolutionary studies or possibly biomedical engineering.
As for whether or not Ben-Salahuddin will remain in New Haven post-college graduation, the aspiring researcher said it’s likely he will, but not forever.
“I’ve said to myself, well if you’ve made the commitment so far, and you’re already at Yale; Yale is one of the best research institutions in the country, if not the entire world so you shouldn’t close yourself off to it,” he said. “If opportunities do arise, I will certainly at least be open to it, though I would at some point want to expand beyond New Haven.”
Symptoms of myocardial infarction, or heart attack, are different in men and women. Experts say signs of heart attack exhibited in men are not displayed by women. Extreme chest pressure is one symptom. It’s important to understand the signs of heart attack in women as it can happen at any time.
Here are 7 signs of heart attack in women:
1. Unexplained Fatigue More than 70% of women suffer from extreme fatigue before a heart attack. They suddenly feel exhausted even after small tasks like getting up from a chair and going to the kitchen. Flu-like exhaustion is also experienced by women. This fatigue is different from chronic fatigue that is caused by hormonal imbalance.
2. Struggling while sleeping If you are unable to fall asleep it may indicate a heart attack. It’s difficult to detect this sign as it may be due to many other reasons, if you notice any unexplained reasons or prolonged disturbance in your sleep this may be warning you of a heart attack. One study found almost half of women who had a heart attack experienced sleep disturbances beforehand.
3. Pain If you are experiencing mild pain in your jaw, back, shoulder, neck, or ear, these might be signs of heart attack. Women usually don’t feel the numbness in chest and shoulder like men, but may feel tightness running along their jaw and going down the neck. These mild pains can expand down to shoulders towards left side. Pressure in breastbone and upper back are also signs of heart attack in women.
4. Short of Breath Difficulties taking long and deep breaths is a bad sign. More than half of women suffer shortness of breath before the heart attack. They find it difficult to talk from inability to catch oxygen. This is one of the most common early heart attack signs in women.
5. Indigestion or Nausea Dizziness or nausea is a sign prior to heart attack women often display. They may have indigestion or vomit shortly before their heart attack. The chances of experiencing gastrointestinal problems double in women before a heart attack.
6. Anxiety and Stress Women often feel anxious, stressed, and keyed up before a heart attack. Anxiety is a common sign of heart attack in women, more than 30% of women get this symptom. This has been described as a feeling of impending doom by several women.
7. Sudden Sweat Sudden pallor for no apparent reason is not a good sign and may be an indicator of heart attack. More than 40% of women feel dizzy and break into a cold sweat before a stroke. You should call 911 when you experience abrupt lightheadedness or dizziness, these signs should not be taken lightly.
Immediately notify your doctor if you observe any of the above-mentioned signs in you or anyone else.
Due to the size of the chapel, a live stream will be held by Wake Forest University so that fans, and people that were touched and inspired by Angelou can tune and watch and pay their respects.
Angelou, a professor at Wake Forest University taught American Studies since 1982. Angelou also received an honorary degree from Wake Forest University in 1977. She died while at home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina last week on May 28. The poet was 86-years-old.
The service is scheduled to start at 10 am, EST. Reports are saying that close friend, and TV host, Oprah is expected to be in attendance, as well as other celebrity and honorable guest.
Other events honoring Dr. Maya Angelou have been scheduled by the family, according to the University. No details have been announced yet.
In December of 1996, I was a programmer and producer of the Slamdance Film Festival, the punk alternative to Sundance. It was the third year of the festival, and we were still a very scrappy bunch. At the time all films were submitted on VHS tapes. We got over a thousand submissions that year. Each of us would take home a plastic mail bin full of tapes every night to watch, and as you can imagine, a large majority of the films submitted were not of acceptable quality, making my job the cinematic equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. The tapes only had the titles of the films and maybe the director’s name. There was no other information to go on. When you picked up a tape from the bin you had no idea what you were getting.
Late one night, faced with a mountain of tapes and a looming deadline, I pull a tape out of my bin. It was a documentary called Perfect Moment. I inserted the tape in the VCR and pressed play. The movie began with the unmistakable, inimitable voice of Maya Angelou piercing the silence of my tiny one-bedroom apartment in Loz Feliz. She was reading not one of her own works but rather an adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, The Masque Of The Red Death, which considering the film’s introductory subject matter — the unrelenting reality of the AIDS crisis — was eerily fitting. As I watched the first five minutes of the film, all I could think was whoever directed this was a great artist — not only did this film need to be in the festival, but I had to become friends with him.
But this documentary had a larger scope, as it turned out. People from all walks of life were asked the same question: “If you were about to die, what moment would you remember most?” The film featured luminaries such as Phillip Glass, Edward Albee and Larry King along with priests, gang members, veterans and the homeless. I realized that I had discovered something special, singular and haunting. When the film ended I knew I had made a great discovery. I was ecstatic.
The next day I got in touch with the director, Nicholas Hondrogen, and told him how moved I was by his film. And I was not alone: in January of 1997, the film screened at Slamdance and won the Audience Award. By the end of the festival, Nick and I had become close friends. And over the next decade, we grew as close as two heterosexual men could be. He was at once like an older brother and father figure to me. But in 2007, our friendship ended tragically, nearly as fast as it had begun, when Nicholas died of mesothelioma cancer. I miss him every day, and there is always a small part of me that is empty because he is not here.
Perfect Moment was overlooked by potential distributors, meaning that it was never screened in theaters or on TV. When Maya Angelou died, I immediately thought about her powerful performance in this documentary that deals with truly timeless subject matter. Which, of course, begs the question: What moment will you remember when you look back on her iconic life?
Here is the clip from the opening of Perfect Moment as a tribute to Maya Angelou’s life and her work.
The chances are, if you are reading this, you have been to your GP, had a blood test and been told to reduce your cholesterol. If that’s not you, it might be someone you know – as about 60 per cent of the British population have blood cholesterol levels that increase the risk of heart disease.
The reason you’ve been told to get your levels down is to reduce that risk. So what now?
Last week in You magazine, we revealed how certain foods can lower cholesterol, with exclusive extracts from the first recipe book to combine them into a diet which could transform your health.
Dr Laura Carr and Ian Marber have written a book, Eat Your Way To Lower Cholesterol, published by Orion
This week, we explain exactly how much of each ingredient you need to eat, alongside more delicious meals for the whole family.
It is important to realize that although you need to know what your cholesterol level is, numbers are not everything. The risk of heart disease depends on a number of factors that also include genetic predisposition, smoking cigarettes, diabetes, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and obesity.
In fact, the majority of those who suffer a heart attack have cholesterol levels that are considered ‘normal’. Even so, cholesterol is a fundamental part of the problem.
If your doctor has recommended medication in the form of statins, you should follow that advice. But whether or not drug treatment is needed, lifestyle is fundamentally important.
A central part of lowering risk is diet – but it’s not all about cutting out foods.
Building certain ingredients into your diet can actually lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and strokes.
We have looked at the most up-to-date international research and identified six foods for which there is the best evidence for this.
There are some foods, including nuts, olive and rapeseed oils, that may stop LDL from causing damage
Studies have shown a reduction in LDL cholesterol (the bad type, see below) by as much as 20 per cent in three months when a combination of these foods was taken with a healthy diet. And the more often the foods were eaten, the greater the benefit.
With the help of dietician Dr Sarah Schenker, we have included these foods in healthy, easy-to-prepare, delicious recipes – featured in the new book Eat Your Way To Lower Cholesterol. Our hope is that everyone will enjoy them – whether or not they need help with their heart.
What is cholesterol anyway?
People think of cholesterol simply as a bad thing, but it’s not. In fact, this fatty, waxy substance is essential for building cells and is also needed to make sex and stress hormones.
Most cholesterol in the blood is produced by the liver, which manufactures it from almost any food you eat. The liver adjusts the amount it makes in response to the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood.
This is why, when cholesterol-containing foods like eggs or shellfish are eaten, in most people the blood cholesterol doesn’t change – as the liver simply makes less.
As well as releasing cholesterol directly into the blood, the liver uses some cholesterol to make bile, a digestive fluid secreted into the gut that helps us absorb fat from the food we eat.
Bile cholesterol is either re-absorbed and recycled by the liver, or is passed out as waste.
We all know that oil and water don’t mix, and because cholesterol is a type of fat, and blood is mostly water, they wouldn’t get along without an important addition. In order for the cholesterol to be transported easily in the bloodstream, the liver coats it in proteins.
The resulting tiny balls of fat are known as lipoproteins, and it is these we are usually referring to when we talk about cholesterol.
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