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The Highlighter #186: Vanishing Youth Violence

Posted on by Mark Isero

Youth violence is way down, especially in California. But that doesn’t mean juvenile halls are closing. Find out why in this week’s lead article, and ready yourself for outrage when you find out how much money counties are spending to incarcerate young people. Optional: Record your outrage here.

Also in today’s issue, you’ll find well-written articles on the inspiring impact of a mobile school in San Francisco, the lasting effects of the school shooting in Columbine, and the unfortunate reality of rodents living among us. Please enjoy!

Vanishing Violence: Empty Cells, Rising Costs

In this three-part special report, the San Francisco Chronicle reveals that the construction of juvenile halls in California has risen over the last 30 years, while at the same time, crime among young people has plummeted. As a result, the cost of locking up juveniles is stunning: $493,000 per juvenile per year in Alameda County, $514,000 in Santa Clara County, and $530,000 in Nevada County. Some counties, like San Francisco, are debating whether to dismantle their detention centers, while others remain cautious about cutting funding. (Note: California spends $12,003 per student per year on education.) (13 min)

A High School on a Bus in San Francisco

Let’s do more of this and less of that. For 15 years, Five Keys Charter School (#34) has helped incarcerated youth and adults to earn a high school diploma, centering on the principles of restorative justice. When school leaders learned that attending Five Keys meant that some students had to enter rival gang territory, they launched the Mobile Self-Determination Project, a classroom on wheels, offering one-on-one support on a refurbished city bus that serves Sunnydale, Double Rock, and other poor communities in San Francisco. (25 min)

The Wounds That Won’t Heal: Columbine Survivors, 20 Years Later

Next month marks the 20th anniversary of the school shooting in Columbine, Colorado. This article profiles four survivors, now in their late-30s, who continue to suffer from trauma. Some find that advocating for school safety and gun control is helpful, while others prefer connecting with other survivors via support groups, like the Rebels Project, which now includes 970 members from 56 incidents of mass trauma. (25 min)

There’s No Way To Escape Rats

There’s a very specific reason I don’t like rodents, but let’s not get into that story right here. Instead, enjoy this outstanding article about all things Rattus: how quickly they reproduce (14 pups at a time!), why they can swim up your toilet, how we’re trying to eradicate them (dry ice, blood thinners, poison, dogs), and why we’ll never succeed. Warning: Be ready for the photos. (13 min)

www.nationalgeographic.com

So sad, no more articles. Thank you for reading this week’s issue, and please hit reply or use the thumbs below to tell me what you thought. Also, let’s welcome this week’s new subscribers Tre, Tse-Sung, Renee and Shalini. Thank you for trying out the newsletter. Hope it’s a good match!

If you like The Highlighter, tell your friends. (Amanda did!) Look at the things you can do:

On the other hand, if you like the newsletter only so-so, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

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The Highlighter #185: White Nationalism Is Deeply American

Posted on by Mark Isero

This week’s lead article about the roots of white nationalism in the United States came to my attention the day before the horrific act of hate in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 50 Muslims as they met in mosques to worship and pray. My worry is that after Charleston, after Charlottesville, after Pittsburgh, we’ve become hardened, accustomed to the terrorism carried out by white men. In addition to reading this article, which I encourage, what can we do? (Note: This is not a rhetorical question.)

Also in today’s issue, you’ll find well-written articles on the power of cult-like self-help programs, the rise of fentanyl as a public health emergency, and the downfall of vegetables as a rightful category of food. Please enjoy!

+ If you like to read and discuss important topics in a safe, intimate setting, sign up for Pop-Up Article Club #3 on April 13, 2-4 pm in Oakland. You’ll join a great group of eight loyal readers who will listen with empathy and push your thinking.

White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots

When white men killed Black churchgoers in Charleston and Jewish worshipers in Pittsburgh, most Americans called these acts un-American. But in this outstanding article, Adam Serwer argues that white nationalism is deeply rooted in the American experience. One hundred years ago, the eugenics movement advocated white superiority, Congress banned immigration, and Madison Grant worried about white genocide in The Passing of the Great Race, a book Adolf Hitler loved. In fact, Mr. Serwer writes, Nazis studied American slavery and Jim Crow and marveled how the United States could construct a mirage of equality while at the same time promote white supremacy. (21 min)

+ Let’s talk about this article. Hit reply or leave me a voice message.

The Cult of Self-Help

If Tony Robbins told me to walk across red-hot coals, no matter how loudly he shouted, I likely would balk. But like most Americans, I’m captivated by self-help. Who doesn’t want to improve their lives? In this rollicking piece, follow Rosecrans Baldwin as he joins Mastery in Transformational Training, a New Age transformation program. In M.I.T.T., you can’t sneeze or go to the bathroom. If you do, you’ll miss a breakthrough activity, like re-enacting your childhood, or realizing you’re the reason you’ve suffered so much pain in your life. (41 min)

The Fentanyl Failure

Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin, has contributed to our nation’s declining life expectancy, killing 67,000 people over the past four years. This article faults President Obama for failing to declare a public health emergency and blames Attorney General Eric Holder for scaling back law enforcement against drug dealers. The result: the deadliest drug crisis in American history. (25 min)

+ To read more on fentanyl, please see Issue #43.

Vegetables Don’t Exist

Fruit has dominated this newsletter (muskmelons, oranges, bananas), so now it’s time for vegetables. Except according to botanists, most vegetables are fruits or fungi (and sometimes tubers or flowers). Really it all comes down to whether you subscribe to a prescriptivist or descriptivist view of linguistics. And how you pronounce tomato (a fruit). (9 min)

+ Reader Annotations: Loyal reader and educator Steven made this astute point about last week’s lead article on growth mindset:

As educators looking for the “fix,” we exploit many of these theories and then don’t appropriately use them to enhance our teaching. We use them as the “pills” or a replacement for skill building. Exploring growth mindset might help to reach kids, but direct, explicit, consistent skill-building is the only clear path to learning — academically, socially, and emotionally.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Steven! (You should, too.)

You’ve reached the end! Thank you for reading this week’s issue, and please hit reply or use the thumbs below to tell me what you thought. Also, let’s welcome this week’s new subscribers Megan, Jennifer, and Summer. Thank you for trying out the newsletter. Hope it’s a good match!

If you like The Highlighter, tell your friends. (Sonya did!) You can:

On the other hand, if you find my newsletter efforts wanting, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

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The Highlighter #184: The Problem with Growth Mindset

Posted on by Mark Isero

The college admissions scandal riveted our attention this week, and several loyal readers reached out for my take. Besides the usual thoughts — yes, the system is rigged — I was reminded of the hard work of teachers and mentors who support young people who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. This is deeply important work. Certainly, it’s hard to compete with rich cheating parents and pricey college counselors. But still, young people persist, and they hold fast to their dreams of higher education, because of the good people who surround them.

+ HHH #9 was great (thank you!), but if you prefer a smaller, more intimate space to read and think with other loyal subscribers, sign up now for Pop-Up Article Club #3 on April 13, 2-4 pm in Oakland. There are four spaces left!

The Problem With Growth Mindset

All good theories in education eventually get debunked. Or at least things seem that way. A few examples: the marshmallow test, the 30-million word gap, the 10,000-hour rule, and my favorite, grit. Now growth mindset, which focuses on the malleability of intelligence, might be on the chopping block. Apparently 30 years of research by psychologist Carol Dweck is not showing up in the same way in classrooms across the country. Prof. Dweck says educators are oversimplifying her theory, misappropriating growth mindset as the new self-esteem. This is likely true; after all, educators do enjoy repeating buzzwords over and over again. (15 min)

America, Say My Name

This delightful essay by novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen asks a simple question: “What exactly is an American name?” After trying on Troy as a kid, and adopting a Starbucks nickname, Mr. Nguyen now demands that people call him Viet. He writes, “All of our names, no matter their origins, [can] be a part of this country. All we have to do is proudly and publicly assert them.” Teachers, try this on Day 1 next year, or pair it with Langston Hughes’s “I, Too.” (6 min)

Remapping California: How Los Angeles Was North and East Before It Was West

“Maps,” Carolina A. Miranda writes, “shape our view of the world.” Drawing from the history of Indigenous peoples, Chinese Americans, and Mexican Americans, Ms. Miranda looks closely at various maps of Los Angeles, portraying the city as quintessentially Californian, embroiled in conflict and brimmed with beauty. (18 min)

Who Needs Permanent Shelter When You Can Live in a School Bus Instead?

With Bay Area housing prices likely to skyrocket soon, when Airbnb and other tech companies go public, maybe the trick to life is to shun immobile shelter altogether. But #vanlife is so 2017. Enter #skoolielife, where mostly white people get bored of their lifestyles, convert school buses into trendy RVs, and hit the road with their unschooled children. (Danny and Alex did it to avoid the rain.) (18 min)

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of The Highlighter! Hit reply or use the thumbs below to tell me what you thought. Also, let’s welcome this week’s new subscribers Donnaraé and Vinci. Thank you for trying out the newsletter. Hope it’s a good match!

If you like The Highlighter, please tell your friends. You can:

On the other hand, if opening this newsletter is a chore, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

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The Highlighter #183: The Whitest News You Know

Posted on by Mark Isero

For a very long time, I have loved journalism and believed in its quest for truth. Every morning as a kid, I devoured the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sporting Green. Then there was my hard-hitting third grade newspaper, my middle school baseball fantasy league newsletter, my high school newspaper, and of course, the esteemed and honorable publication you are reading right now. Because “democracy dies in darkness,” we need a vibrant press to help us see the light and hold power to account.

But this week’s lead article poked a small hole in my unflinching view of journalism. Reporter Aaron Miguel Cantú warns against placing blind trust in a longstanding white-dominated institution that has for hundreds of years excluded journalists of color. Which stories are told? Which facts are missed? Please read the article and let me know your thoughts!

+ Tonight is HHH #9! See you at Room 389 in Oakland beginning at 5:30 pm. Join other loyal readers, talk about the articles, and win the grand prize. No free ticket yet? Get yours here.

+ Can’t find your Highlighter? It might be going to your promotions tab! Gmail is the worst. (Yes, I use it, too.) Watch this short video for 3 quick tips to ensure you’ll never miss an issue.

How Journalism Maintains White Supremacy

In News for All the People, Juan Gonzalez and Joseph Torres write, “For more than 250 years, the nation’s news media, no matter how politically liberal, conservative, or radical, no matter what class they purported to represent, remained the press of its white population.” This sobering article chronicles the history of journalism — from the penny press to wire services to cable network conglomerates to YouTube — and argues convincingly that the press has remained complicit in the maintenance of white supremacy. Newsrooms are still overwhelmingly white. Reporters call racist acts “racially tinged” and amplify the voices of white nationalists. Meanwhile, at the same time Maggie Haberman writes stories that may oust our current president, her newspaper may prefer, in order to sell subscriptions, that our current president stay in power. (20 min)

Surrounded: Killings Near School, and the Students Left Behind

Young people should not fear for their lives on their way to school. But for students at Dymally High School in Los Angeles, where 20 people were murdered last year within a 1-mile radius, each day is “a guessing game,” says sophomore Carl Hull. This outstanding five-part series follows young people as they deal with unrelenting loss. You’ll also learn how the school offers mental health resources to support students to process their trauma. As senior Jaleyah says, “I just can’t be sad forever.” But then she adds, “You never know when it’s going to be a person’s last day.” (25 min)

The Effects of a Living Wage

After a long time away, Matthew Desmond (#29), author of Evicted, is back with a thought-provoking article about the public health benefits of a living wage. Instead of focusing on economics, Mr. Desmond writes: “A living wage is an antidepressant. It is a sleep aid. A diet. A stress reliever. It is a contraceptive, preventing teenage pregnancy. It prevents premature death. It shields children from neglect.” Also, it offers dignity. (10 min)

Being 97: On Death and the Point of Life

Longtime readers know that I don’t shy away from including pieces on death, with the understanding that if we’re aware of our mortality, we’ll live with more purpose and more presence. This video about the daily life of philosopher Herbert Fingarette is slow and methodical, like its 97-year-old subject, but I encourage you to take it in and reflect on how it affects you. (17 min)

Is this week’s issue of The Highlighter already over? Sadly, yes. Hit reply or use the thumbs below to tell me what you thought. Also, let’s welcome this week’s new subscriber, Tamyra. Thank you for trying out the newsletter. Hope you like it!

If you like The Highlighter, please get the word out (like Olivia did last week).

On the other hand, if you don’t open this newsletter regularly, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am!

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The Highlighter #182: How America Remembers

Posted on by Mark Isero

My first year of teaching, I challenged my students to create museum exhibits of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, told from various historical viewpoints. Though my intent was to promote critical thinking, only years later did I fully acknowledge the moral failure of the assignment. This week’s lead article, which focuses on the lynching of Emmett Till, raises the question of how to come to terms with our country’s history, when some people resist the truth. Please read it and share your thoughts.

+ HHH #9 is next Thursday! Loyal reader Tucci is happy she’ll be able to attend her first HHH. Come and meet her (and 30+ other great people) at Room 389 in Oakland! Get your free ticket here.

+ Can’t find your Highlighter? It might be going to your promotions tab! Gmail is the worst. (Yes, I use it, too.) Watch this short video for 3 quick tips to ensure you’ll never miss an issue.

Emmett Till’s Murder, and How America Remembers Its Darkest Moments

Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, where Emmett Till was accused of whistling at a white woman, before two white men kidnapped and lynched him in 1955, still stands, barely, in Money, Mississippi. The Emmett Till Memorial Commission wants to restore the market. The family of Ray Tribble, who sat on the jury that acquitted the white men, and who currently owns the market, does not. (8 min)

+ For more on Emmett Till: Please see Issues #78 and #111.

Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education

Get ready, data lovers: This behemoth report by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a treasure trove. Get lost in charts and tables — disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender — that tell the story of who graduates from high school, who persists in college, who goes on to graduate school, and who owes how much money. For you longtime educators out there, you’ll spot surprises and want to share them with your colleagues. (60 min)

Stories About Our Weight: “Lose Two Pounds and You’ll Be Perfect”

Some of you know that I was a chubby kid and went on my first serious diet when I was 12. Though 20 years later I finally lost the extra weight, sometimes I still see my kid self in the mirror. That’s why I identify with so many of these vignettes, written plainly and vulnerably by readers of The Sun Magazine. If one resonates with you, please let me know. (13 min)

The Trauma Floor: The Secret Lives of Facebook Moderators in America

If you’re close to deleting Facebook, this article may push you over the edge. You’ll meet Chloe, Miguel, and Randy, three of the 15,000 reviewers worldwide who scrub horrific content from the platform so we can share fake versions of our lives. Not only are they bombarded, every 30 seconds, with new images of violence and hate, they’re paid $15 an hour and given nine minutes a day of “wellness time” to process their trauma. (31 min)

+ Reader Annotations: Loyal reader Nancy Jo, who teaches Ethnic Studies to ninth graders in Oakland, wrote:

Thank you for the article about Chinese exclusion in Eureka(#181). My next unit is about the construction of race in the United States, and I use the Naturalization Act and Chinese Exclusion Act as beginning documents that created race in America. I can’t wait to add this article as a first-hand account of the impact of such laws and ideologies.

Are you a teacher who uses The Highlighter in your classroom? I’d love to hear your story. Please reply and let me know!

It is an unfortunate situation that you’ve reached the end oftoday’s issue of The Highlighter. Hit reply or use the thumbs below to tell me what you thought. Also, let’s welcome this week’s 6 new subscribers: Donna, Lauren, Nora, and three people via Stoop. Thank you for trying out the newsletter. Hope you like it!

If you like The Highlighter, please help build our reading community by getting the word out there.

On the other hand, if this newsletter has become a drag, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am!