A little bit of news
We're all in transition. Let's do it together.
Good People,
The country is about to face a huge transition and I’m ready. Are you? Let’s get back to having functional systems, restored decorum, and a collective focus on helping our young people become the best they can be.
Let’s get back to WE. If we can.
As for me, I have a little bit of news (very little). I’ve spent a month rethinking my strategy for talking with you. You’ll still see me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, of course, but I will be writing here - mostly. The Citizen Stewart blog that I’ve been writing since 2010 got to be a lot of upkeep for not enough engagement, so I’ve cleaned it up to be more of an introduction page (see it at www.citizenstewart.com).
Hold me accountable for connecting with you here. Together we can change the world for kids. Ok, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but I’m really trying to sell it here.
I also have a bright and shiny and new-ish series of YouTube Live discussions, UnPublic with Citizen Stewart, which is focused on closing the #BeliefGap, and studying Black educational success. Join me at 9 am Central on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Along those lines, here’s an example from today. I was lucky enough to talk with Derrell Bradford of 50CAN who is a great example of how school choice can change lives.
Check it out:
If you have thoughts or ideas about how we can truly build community around the idea of educational freedom, personal learning, and intellectual self-defense, let’s talk about it. And please: help me get the word out by sharing this newsletter with friends!
The best way to reach me is to either email citizen@hey.com or text me at 213.443.8381.
WE ACHIEVE
ED FUBU: What do Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris have in common? Besides being brilliant and diligent history-makers, they are also proof positive of the importance of HBCU’s. see: http://bit.ly/3sQgxt8
DOCTOR: via NBC. VERBATIM: “Dr. Shamaria Engram has made history as the first Black woman to graduate from the University of South Florida’s Computer Science and Engineering doctoral program.”
TEACHING ABOUT US: New Jersey has a strengthened its Amistad Commission and that body’s role in ensuring that American slavery and Black contributions to society are explicitly taught in public schools. see: http://bit.ly/2XVxqEn
WE MUST NEVER SLEEP
BYE DON: On his way out of office Trump has released an outstandingly bad retort to Nikole Hannah Jones’ 1619 project. The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission issued a report intending to lessen the importance of the slave-owning status of America’s constitutional framers, and to force us into a false patriotism. see: https://bit.ly/3iroz6Z
BIDEN: For the first time, there will be a special live broadcast of the presidential inauguration. Join on January 20, 2021 at 10am ET. see: https://bit.ly/3qEswYy
IRONIC: via Education Next. “Students are more likely to be attending in-person schooling in places where Covid is spreading more rapidly.” see: http://bit.ly/2NcLmYs
ADULT LEARNING: LinkedIn, Microsoft, and GitHub have joined together to offer free online training for high-ish wage, high growth jobs (i.e. Data Analyst). VERBATIME: “These 10 jobs were identified as having the greatest number of job openings*, have had steady growth over the past four years, pay a livable wage, and require skills that can be learned online.” see: http://bit.ly/39TrX6O
SURVEILANCE SCHOOLING: The Tampa Bay Times is reporting U.S. Congressman and chairman of the House Committe on Education Labor Rep. Robert Scott (D-Virginia) has raised flags about one school district’s outrageous relationship with law enforcement. The Pasco school district quietly shares “data on grades, attendance, and student discipline with the Pasco Sherriff’s Office,” and that data is used to create “pre-criminal” categories, and lists of school children who might “fall into a life of crime.” This story is crazy and should be garnering much more attention. see: http://bit.ly/2KAXdPi
VANISHING MEN: via Hechinger Report. The pandemic has colleges shedding men at seven times the rate of women. VERBATIM: “While enrollment in higher education overall fell 2.5 percent in the fall, or by more than 461,000 students compared to the fall of 2019, the decline among men was more than seven times as steep as the decline among women, according to an analysis of figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.” see: http://bit.ly/3a2wELF
LOSING GROUND: via Boston Globe. VERBATIM: “More than 2.3 million of this country’s roughly 51 million K-12 public school students receive special-education services for what’s known as a specific learning disability: some problem that interferes with their ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, or do math. Of those, the vast majority have dyslexia. The problem may be much larger, as most researchers believe lack of diagnosis and services means between 5 percent and 15 percent of all children actually have the disorder….Kids in need of remedial support already were vulnerable before the pandemic. Now they’re facing educational ruin.” see: http://bit.ly/2XSmo2G
Please my friends, pray for the nation.
Peace be with you!
Chris