Suicide Prevention is Everyone’s Responsibility

According to recent reports, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people between the ages of 10 and 24. That number increases for LGBT youth. Additionally, one out of six students nationwide (those in high school) have seriously considered suicide during the past year.  One of the more popular shows currently running on Broadway is “ Dear Evan Hansen, which” has a main theme of teen suicide as an integral part of the plot.

It is the responsibility of all educators to be on the lookout for signs of students who harm themselves, write notes about suicide or talk to their peers about it. Do not leave a student threatening suicide alone! When in doubt, call 911 immediately.

C.2018 J. Margolis

New Book “Truth Decay”- Just the Facts

In the March/April issue of Rand Review, a magazine published by the RAND Corporation, there is a brief review of a new book titled  “Truth Decay.” Written by political scientist Jennifer Kavanagh and RAND president and CEO, Michael Rich, the book explores the changing roles of facts and analysis in American life today. This disintegration of truth has historical as well as psychological implications. For educators today, being able to present facts in a cogent and understandable manner in the classroom presents a modern dilemma. Facts are supposed to be incontrovertible. Yet, when looking at both print and on-air media, reports of the facts can change form one station or newspaper to another. The lines between fact and opinion have become hopelessly blurred.

This important work is must reading and can the purchased from the RAND Corporation. It can also be downloaded as an eBook from their web site

(www.rand.org)

c.2018 J.Margolis

To Home School or Not

I am a lifelong proponent of public education. I believe that school is a much a social institution as an academic one. For much of my academic career I have frowned upon the home schooling of school age children. I have championed of the value of groupthink, of developing peer relationships and of working together. I had felt that home schooling was isolationist and that children were missing out on an important part of the education process.   Back in the colonial era, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a treatise stating that he believed that in order for the fledgling United States of America to survive, it needed a strong public education program. Back in my days as a middle school guidance counselor, I remember a parent coming to me to request home schooling for her daughter. She petitioned the board of education, requested a copy of the curriculum as well as copies of then textbooks used. The board approved her request. A few weeks later, the same parent approached the school board requesting that her daughter be allowed to play on the middle school girl’s basketball team. Again the board granted approval. I was annoyed. I felt that you had to be either all in or all out and should not be able to pick and choose what you liked and disliked about public education.

That all changed on Valentine’s Day, 2018 with the carnage that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. If everything about the need for home schooling centered on the safety and security of children, I get it now. It’s more than academic. There is a place for home schooling on education continuum. Home schooling students have gained admission to some of America’s top universities. Others have won national spelling and geography competitions.

Still other home-schooled children have made it to Broadway or Hollywood.

So where does that leave the rest of us? The gun debate will go on and on. The mental heath debate will go on and on. What will happen to the future of “ a place called school?”

C.2018 J Margolis