Those who Read Will Know

One of my personal prize possessions is my library. I have hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics. With the advent of eBooks and Kindle, there were prognosticators who predicted that the book could become obsolete. That has not happened. What has occurred because of the Internet and social media, people are reading less. We can access magazine articles, read a paragraph (or two) and then move on. According to a Washington Post article this summer, a study completed by Neilson concluded that the average American spends more than 10 hours a day consuming all types of media. According to the Post story, Warren Buffet admitted to reading 500 pages a day-well beyond the scope of most of us. Other celebs had tried to read on average 5 hours a week. What is a realistic goal for you? What about for your students?

I once had a professor who remarked, “ Those who read will know and those who don’t won’t.” We need to instill a genuine curiosity in students and encourage them to read. Last week I was on a local college campus to participate in viewing the solar eclipse. There were well over one thousand people there, including many children. I was encouraged to hear families discuss the elements of the eclipse and what they had read about it prior to the big event. There are many teachable moments that occur during the course of a school year. Use those moments as opportunities to encourage your students to read. Filter out the distractions and READ.

c. 2017 J Margolis

A Revolutionary Idea- Public Education for All

  For those of you who live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the new Museum of the American Revolution is a “Must See.” If you are a teacher or administrator in an area school, a field trip for your students would be a meaningful experience. There are interactive kiosks; a chance to dress up in colonial attire and students can board a model of a privateer vessel.

One of the information panels that caught my eye was entitled “ Educating Citizens.”

It read “ After the a Revolutionary War, many Americans believed that education was the best way to secure their republic.” They held that only people who had been taught to think critically could rule themselves without a king.”

 In fact Dr. Benjamin Rush, a physician in colonial Philadelphia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a treatise on the importance of education.

"Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic" was written in 1786. Rush observed, “Education must take place in the United States.  A general, uniform system of education needs to be established that would be adequate for all of the essential purposes of citizenship.” 231 year later his observations are still true. If we are to continue to succeed as a nation, we must have an educated population.

As you prepare for the coming school year, keep these notions in mind, as you get ready to meet your students. We wish you much success and satisfaction in gthe coming school year.

c. 2017 J. Margolis

Book Review- “Shame Nation”

I recently had the opportunity to preview a book that is going to be published in October. “Shame Nation” takes an introspective look at the rise of online hate and shaming both in the United States and around the world. One of the facets of the book is to look at cyber bullying. This has become an epidemic among school students that has unfortunately led to the tragic suicides of a number of students.

The authors have defined shame in three parts:

“1) a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety

2) a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute

3) something that brigs censure or reproach” (page 8)

As we approach the start of a new academic year, this book is a MUST READ for teachers. We live in a society filled with negativity and given that computer and cell phone use is so prolific, anyone (even teachers) can become a an online victim almost instantaneously.

Monica Lewinsky will pen the foreword of this book. Her one quote printed thus far observed “ There is a very personal price to public humiliation, and the growth of the Internet jacked up that price.”

The authors of this important work are Sue Scheff and Melissa Schorr. Both are published authors. Ms. Scheff is the founder of Parents Universal Resource Experts and has been involved with working with teens.

Publication information’

Publisher: Sourcebooks

Price- $25.99

Format: Hardcover

ISBN: 978-1-4926-4899-4

c. 2017 J. Margolis