When spell check and grammar check features became available in the late 1970s, critics feared that we would rely on technology to edit our work and that the quality of our writing would diminish. Then when the internet first appeared in 1983, critics worried that people would lose the ability to think critically.
Both the internet and spell/grammar check features have become a mainstay in writing and we rely on them for research and editing our work. Today ChatGPT – an artificial intelligence software program that provides instant research results and can write an original essay in a matter of seconds – is the new obsession. Teachers and administrators are anxiously searching for ways to ban it and penalize students for using it.
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no putting it back, so we best find how we can make GPT a positive educational tool.
One of the benefits of GPT is that all students have equal access to it. It’s like having a private tutor, 24/7, to answer questions and help write essays. Up until now, only wealthy students have had access to private tutors who teach concepts that they didn’t get in school and help them prepare for exams. These students have also had the luxury of private tutors who organize, edit, and even write their essays. With GPT, all students will have the opportunity to get individualized attention and guidance. It actually evens the playing field between the haves and the have nots.
I recently opened a GPT account to experiment with it. I recommend that everyone do this before condemning it. Go to https://chat.openai.com/chat to enter a question. Ask it to write an essay. You’ll see that it writes a good essay using proper grammar and spelling. It may suggest that you add information to personalize it. As you read the responses, you’ll see that GPT functions like a personal search engine and secretary. The writing style is basic; nobody is going to win essay contests with GPT.
While we have become dependent on spell check, has created a generation of poor spellers. Likewise, grammar check helps us keep pronouns matching their antecedents, and reminds us of parallel structure and verb agreements, but sadly, has not helped us learn these skills as they autocorrect our writing. In other words, spell check and grammar check features temporarily help students with assignments but they don’t make them better writers.
Recently, teachers now have access to software that will be able to detect if ChatGPT (or other programs) were used in writing students’ essays. This will be a never-ending challenge for the AI and the software-detection developers, similar to the programs that teachers use to detect plagiarism.
Some teachers are now requiring students to handwrite in-class essays. Others are providing students with word processors that allow them to type their responses in class without access to the internet. GPT is forcing us to quickly adapt to new ways of doing research and writing essays.
When classes were conducted online in Zoom during the COVID pandemic, teachers cleverly administered exams (without access to search engines and textbooks) while students were at home. Naturally, some students found ways to cheat by finding ways around GPT-detection software.
Since OpenAI released GPT-3 in June 2020, there’s been an uproar about how to grade student performance. Maybe we’re going to have to rethink what we are testing and how we are evaluating student learning. With search engines at our fingertips 24/7, do we really need to make students memorize facts like dates and names? If we want students to identify their beliefs or perspectives, should we allow them to use GPTs to write the first draft but require them to personalize their ideas by incorporating them in further drafts? Maybe teachers will ask students to defend their writing or request that they add new material that will require critical thinking, research, grammar, and style to their essays.
If GPT helps everyone produce well-written essays and comments that reflect their ideas, should we welcome this refreshing opportunity? Over the past decade, the ability to communicate ideas in writing have dwindled away with the vast expansion of text messaging. Without an emoji, many text messages are incoherent and often don’t make sense. Has good writing become a lost art?
The future of GPT programs and software to detect machine-generated text will be ever improving. I hope that students will learn how to use these powerful resources to improve their written communication skills by giving them a start with GPT drafts. Educators have a new opportunity to teach concepts, utilize these AI software programs, and evaluate student learning and progress. We are in the midst of a huge paradigm shift – whether or not we like it.
When spell check and grammar check features became available in the late 1970s, critics feared that we would rely on technology to edit our work and that the quality of our writing would diminish. Then when the internet first appeared in 1983, critics worried that people would lose the ability to think critically.
Both the internet and spell/grammar check features have become a mainstay in writing and we rely on them for research and editing our work. Today ChatGPT – an artificial intelligence software program that provides instant research results and can write an original essay in a matter of seconds – is the new obsession. Teachers and administrators are anxiously searching for ways to ban it and penalize students for using it.
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, there’s no putting it back, so we best find how we can make GPT a positive educational tool.
One of the benefits of GPT is that all students have equal access to it. It’s like having a private tutor, 24/7, to answer questions and help write essays. Up until now, only wealthy students have had access to private tutors who teach concepts that they didn’t get in school and help them prepare for exams. These students have also had the luxury of private tutors who organize, edit, and even write their essays. With GPT, all students will have the opportunity to get individualized attention and guidance. It actually evens the playing field between the haves and the have nots.
I recently opened a GPT account to experiment with it. I recommend that everyone do this before condemning it. Go to https://chat.openai.com/chat to enter a question. Ask it to write an essay. You’ll see that it writes a good essay using proper grammar and spelling. It may suggest that you add information to personalize it. As you read the responses, you’ll see that GPT functions like a personal search engine and secretary. The writing style is basic; nobody is going to win essay contests with GPT.
While we have become dependent on spell check, has created a generation of poor spellers. Likewise, grammar check helps us keep pronouns matching their antecedents, and reminds us of parallel structure and verb agreements, but sadly, has not helped us learn these skills as they autocorrect our writing. In other words, spell check and grammar check features temporarily help students with assignments but they don’t make them better writers.
Recently, teachers now have access to software that will be able to detect if ChatGPT (or other programs) were used in writing students’ essays. This will be a never-ending challenge for the AI and the software-detection developers, similar to the programs that teachers use to detect plagiarism.
Some teachers are now requiring students to handwrite in-class essays. Others are providing students with word processors that allow them to type their responses in class without access to the internet. GPT is forcing us to quickly adapt to new ways of doing research and writing essays.
When classes were conducted online in Zoom during the COVID pandemic, teachers cleverly administered exams (without access to search engines and textbooks) while students were at home. Naturally, some students found ways to cheat by finding ways around GPT-detection software.
Since OpenAI released GPT-3 in June 2020, there’s been an uproar about how to grade student performance. Maybe we’re going to have to rethink what we are testing and how we are evaluating student learning. With search engines at our fingertips 24/7, do we really need to make students memorize facts like dates and names? If we want students to identify their beliefs or perspectives, should we allow them to use GPTs to write the first draft but require them to personalize their ideas by incorporating them in further drafts? Maybe teachers will ask students to defend their writing or request that they add new material that will require critical thinking, research, grammar, and style to their essays.
If GPT helps everyone produce well-written essays and comments that reflect their ideas, should we welcome this refreshing opportunity? Over the past decade, the ability to communicate ideas in writing have dwindled away with the vast expansion of text messaging. Without an emoji, many text messages are incoherent and often don’t make sense. Has good writing become a lost art?
The future of GPT programs and software to detect machine-generated text will be ever improving. I hope that students will learn how to use these powerful resources to improve their written communication skills by giving them a start with GPT drafts. Educators have a new opportunity to teach concepts, utilize these AI software programs, and evaluate student learning and progress. We are in the midst of a huge paradigm shift – whether or not we like it.
Kids these days! We’ve left them holding the bag of unintended consequences of our own indulgences, yet our children are still vested in righting our wrongs. What solutions might they find if given the opportunity and resources?
Ishan and Alisha Bhatia are twins. People ask: Do you think alike? You could say so. Both tackled the same global crisis: water pollution, each from a unique perspective. Before they were out of high school, each had discovered viable solutions and showcased them in talks at TEDxMeritAcademy.
Here’s what they have to say:
Ishan
Imagine a contagion that popped out of nowhere, threatening 385 million lives with cancer, birth defects, and DNA degradation. It travels through the air, through our food, and even worse — through water. Seemingly innocuous streams meander along, spreading this contagion everywhere.
Unfortunately, this is our reality. Every year, 5.6 billion pounds of pesticides are used worldwide, contaminating our water and food supplies.
After years of research, I discovered an alternative to deadly commercial pesticides that’s just as powerful yet completely safe: Cordyceps militaris.
This is a mushroom specialized to kill insects, using spores that breach their exoskeletons, disarm their immune systems, and extract nutrients until the critters die. Only 8% survive the mushroom, versus 5-10% against conventional pesticides.
But to you and me, Cordyceps militaris is a friend, used for thousands of years as a health supplement. That’s as safe as it comes for a pesticide.
At TEDxMeritAcademy, I encouraged gardeners to use Cordyceps militaris to rid their plants of common pests like aphids. You can do the same, just by visiting my website, cordyceps-pesticide.com, for instructions for making your own Cordyceps militaris spray.
Try it! Let me know which insects and plants it works with. Let’s identify all the insects that Cordyceps militaris can attack, and start replacing toxic pesticides today.
There’s a role for each of us in making our food and water safe. Will you join me?
TEDx Talk: bit.ly/3CXXFyW
Alisha
Flames spew from a garden hose and smoke permeates the sky. Laughter-filled playgrounds become toxic cemeteries of childhood memories. In 2015, there were 300,000 hydraulic fracturing wells in the US. Today, there are over 1.7 million.
Noxious fracking fluid infiltrates our aquifers. Communities unknowingly ingest water with over a thousand of volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, and bacteria. The result: cancer, neurological disorders, organ failures, and high-risk pregnancies.
Starting in middle school, I channeled my hope into devising an affordable water filter specialized to capture fracking toxins. I developed a prototype using a pump sprayer, activated carbon, an ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid resin, and a 0.2 micron filter. My filter significantly removed total organic carbon, copper, and microorganisms, though I plan to continue fine-tuning the design.
I was just getting started.
Energy companies were still recklessly drilling. The cries of people petitioning for clean drinking water were lost in a sea of corporate control. Poisoned families were targeted with public ridicule and relocated from their homes under gag orders, preventing them from exposing the deadly truth about fracking.
My years of research culminated in my TEDxMeritAcademy talk, We Have a Big Fracking Problem!. I exposed the companies responsible, sounded the alarm over fracking-induced fatalities, and detailed my water filter solutions.
Wanting to do more, I developed America Is Fracked Up, a national organization. Through its website, www.americaisfrackedup.com, people can locate fracking wells, learn more about commercial water filters, and sign a petition to make gas companies provide them. Instead of spending millions to fight the truth, companies must channel their resources to repair the damage they’ve done and provide Americans with clean drinking water.
Will you join me?
TEDx Talk: bit.ly/3HeRSHD
We count on our young people to see the world with fresh eyes. Four million teens in this country start high school every year, each of them brimming with potential. Imagine if all students had the opportunity Ishan and Alisha did to start projects and discover practical solutions to the challenges we face. How much more would these students learn? How much more self-assured would they be, knowing what they’re capable of? And how much better off would we all be, as beneficiaries of their powerful contributions?
As expected, students suffered academically during the COVID pandemic. While students are now back in the classrooms, math and reading scores plummeted this year in 2022. Compared to 2019, math dropped 8 points in eighth grade and 5 points in fifth grade across the nation. Scores dropped 3 points in reading for both grades.
In California, fewer than half of the students (47%) passed the English language arts test, which was a 4 point drop from pre-pandemic 2018-2019. In math, only one third of the students passed, which was a 6% decline. Stanford, USC, and the UC system say that this massive decline has never been seen before and that this is an unprecedented challenge that we have to face. The disparities plaguing ethnic groups remain high, with 70% of Asian students scoring above the national standard, which is triple the rate for Latinos and Black students.
So what does this mean? We need to support our students as we ramp up our curriculum. But there’s a huge teacher shortage across the United States.
Remember when we used to give teachers shiny apples and gifts for the holidays? Those memories are long gone as students face classrooms with revolving doors for teachers, substitutes, and teacher aides. Some teachers are required to teach students with disabilities or English learners in addition to their regular classes because special education teachers are absent or didn’t return for the school year. Many schools shut down when 30% of their staff and 25% of their students call in sick. Imagine that? Other schools are reverting to remote learning when there aren’t enough teachers to cover classes. Principals are even stepping in to teach several classes at once just to fill staffing gaps.
Teacher shortages aren’t equally spread out among subject areas. Special education teachers ranks the highest in shortages, followed by mathematics, science, and foreign language. And many teachers are having to step up to help in the cafeteria work and to work without instructional aides.
So how do we recruit and encourage college students to become teachers? First we need to pay them and give them benefits like the professionals they are. Consider this report that considered teacher wages in 26 industrialized countries: teachers in the United States ranked dead-last on the list of average pay – making only 60% of what other college graduates make. In countries like Sweden, Germany, and Australia, teacher compensation is higher than 80% of other college graduates. And, US teachers work more hours than other countries.
Fewer college students are entering teaching careers today. Back in the 1970s, about 12% of students planned to become teachers. Today, only 4% of college students are pursuing teaching degrees. That comes as no surprise when teaching has become a thankless job that won’t even pay a livable wage.
With increased teacher vacancies, and a dramatic drop in college students entering the teaching field, several states have eased teacher certification requirements. Some schools issue emergency teaching credentials just to speed up the process to secure the certification. In high schools, teachers are normally required to have a bachelor’s degree in the subjects they are credentialed to teach. While that makes sense because they need to have in-depth understanding of the subject to effectively teach a wide range of students to prepare them for higher education.
But some states, like Arizona, students can enter teacher training programs without a bachelor’s degree. The only requirement is that they enroll in college and they are supervised by a licensed teachers. In Florida, military veterans without bachelor’s degrees can receive a 5-year teacher certificate as long as they have 60 college credits (AA or community college degree) with a 2.5 GPA and pass a state exam to demonstrate their mastery of the subject-area knowledge.
This is appalling. Have we really devalued the education of our children – the youth who will take the reins and lead our nation? Teachers should be our most valued profession. They guide, mentor, and prepare all of our children to go out into the world. How will we be able to maintain our superpower status when our future leaders don’t have the academic acumen to compete on a world stage?
I started a private school for my daughters when the California reading curriculum implemented the “Whole Language” approach and stopped teaching phonics in 1994. I worried that as the pendulum swung to the extreme left, we would have a generation of students with reading and spelling problems – something I didn’t want for my girls.
I tried to understand the “Reading Wars” and researched the benefits of each approach.
The Whole Language method teaches children to read by recognizing a group of letters as an entire word. They don’t learn that individual letters make different sounds. Instead, young students memorize these sight words and put the words together in a sentence using context clues to understand the general meaning of the sentence.
The Phonics-Based method teaches children the sounds that each alphabet makes so they can string the sounds together to make new words. The students learn spelling rules so they can decode words. Next they learn blends and digraphs (ch, gl, st, fr, etc) to expand their vocabulary.
I found that teaching reading in the English language was difficult and frustrating because English doesn’t consist of just phonemes or sight words. How can a young reader sound out “fight”? It’s not phonetic. But then how can a child tell the difference between “through” and “though” when they look similar and they haven’t learned phonograms (ight, ough, tion, etc.)?
I couldn’t believe that there was just one way to teach children to read. After consulting with reading specialists, I designed a curriculum that gave students all the tools they would need to read. It included phonics, phonograms, sight words and whole language — in this order.
Starting at age 2, we taught phonemes (individual speech sounds). There are 44 phonemes in the English language. The students learned all of the sounds that each alphabet makes (A= ah, ay, uh; S=s, z). This gives the child basic rules to begin to see how words are simply a string of letter sounds. They enjoyed reading C-A-T and making that successful connection between the spoken and written word.
Next, we taught phonograms (fixed combinations of letters that make one or more sounds). There are 49 multi-letter phonograms. By learning phonograms, students use these tools to read much more than the basic consonant-vowel-consonant words. Children can sound out words using phonemes and phonograms: S-IGHT. By encouraging students to make lists of words with the phonogram of the week, they learned that the “ite” sound can be spelled either “ITE” or “IGHT.” Students who learn phonograms are better spellers than those who memorize groups of letters in sight words.
While students master phonemes and phonograms, we also introduced sight words. Certain words are just too difficult to sound out – even with phonograms – so we introduce certain words that they simply need to memorize. Words like “the” or “what” need to be memorized and recognized by sight.
Students begin to apply their knowledge of phonemes, phonograms, and sight words as they read, and then they use context clues to increase their comprehension and fluency. That’s where we incorporate the Whole Language approach to reading. I also found that having children write words, and then sentences, paragraphs and stories, reinforced their reading skills. As we read classics to children, we pointed to the words to build their sight vocabulary.
By giving students the tools to divide words into sound bites and to memorize words that are rule breakers, they can become confident readers. Both of my daughters learned to read at age 3 and started writing 2-3 page stories at age 4. Introducing a variety of reading instruction strategies ensures that all children can find their way to reading that works for them.
Although most schools in Santa Cruz have adopted a hybrid approach that includes an eclectic way to teaching reading, these “Reading Wars” continue in many places across the United States.
California children born on or after July 1, 2022 will qualify to receive up to $100 for newborns and up to $1500 for low-income students. CalKids is a state-funded college savings program designed to encourage all students to consider higher education by giving them a small, long-term college savings account.
Research shows that children, and their parents, consider college as a viable route to future careers when they have a dedicated savings account set aside for college. There are over 120 similar programs nationwide, but California has almost 3 times more students enrolled and more money allocated than the 120 programs combined. This year, California will enroll about 3.4 million school-aged children, and about 450,000 newborns annually.
All of the funds for California children will be in a single account owned by the state, with a sub-account designated for each child. The best part: families can watch their accounts grow, but they can’t withdraw it or use it for other purposes.
When the child graduates from high school and enters college (community or a 4-year college) or a technical/vocational program, the state will send that child’s money directly to the institution for education expenses. The money won’t be taxable to the parent or the child. If the money is not used before the child turns 26, the money stays in the fund for others to use. The student must live in California for at least one year immediately before funds are distributed to the postsecondary institution.
While parents can open separate 529 accounts (college savings programs), they cannot mix the 529 account with the CalKids account. Parents can open 529 accounts with ScholarShare (https://www.scholarshare529.com/documents/ca-checklist.pdf) and they can view their CalKids account with their 529 plans to see the collective savings account together.
The state allocated $1.9 billion last year for low-income students (1st-12th grades). This year, the budget includes $170 million for children entering 1st grade (2022-2023). Every year, the state will open an account for any child born after July 1, 2022, regardless of income or school child will eventually attend, and has set aside $15.3 million for these newborn accounts.
To qualify for the $1500 low-income student account, the student must meet at least one of the following criterion:
• National School Lunch Program
• CalFresh
• CalWorks
• Foster Youth
• Homeless
• Migrant Students (immigration status is not considered)
• English Learners
To get the full $1500, students would have to be low-income, homeless foster youth. All low-income students will automatically receive $500, plus $500 if they are foster youth, plus $500 if they are homeless. California has identified 1,250 students who will qualify for the full amount. This is a one-time grant.
The only recurring grants will be for newborn children and incoming low-income students entering first grade. The state will deposit $25 for each newborn child. When the parent registers the account, the child will receive another $25. If the parent links their child’s account to a new or existing ScholarShare account, they’ll receive an additional $50. They’ll receive a maximum of $100.
Parents must register their child’s account at CalKids.org. For newborns, they’ll need to provide the child’s birthdate, county where they child was born or attends school, and the Local Registration Number found on the birth certificate or the code provided on the notification letter.
For school-aged students, parents must provide the student’s statewide student identification number (SSID) or the code sent on the notification letter. The SSID can be obtained from the child’s school or district office.
The CalKids account can be opened without a Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification number. But, both parent and child need either Social Security or ITIN number to open the ScholarShare account.
Share this information with all new parents so they can start a CalKids savings account for their newborns or children entering 1st grade. The $1500 funds for low-income students can be an incentive to stay in school and seek higher education.
As teachers prepare for the new school year, besides books and class supplies, some teachers are stocking their classrooms with military-grade devices to protect their students. One Bay Area teacher purchased a metal bat and the Barracuda, a metal bar that prevents entry, for her classroom. She also plans to run drills for her elementary school students to teach them how to stay quiet and to listen to her directions when there is an intruder who can harm them.
Seems to me that when our teachers need to arm themselves with active-shooter backpacks loaded with bullet-proof vests, bullet-proof plates/shields, and tourniquets, we need to rethink who we allow to have weapons and under what conditions. No teacher can realistically protect all of the students from a mentally ill person carrying an AK-15 rifle. Consider Uvalde, Texas, where 400 good guys with guns wouldn’t stop one bad guy with a gun for over an hour because they were afraid of the destructive power of a weapon of war in a classroom. 19 children and two teachers were killed.
Schools in 10 states allow teachers to carry concealed weapons to deter would-be shooters. These states are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. A teacher’s job should be to build strong academic foundations to prepare our youth to be literate, to move on to higher education, and to understand how to function in our society. Many teachers have also taken on parenting roles to feed students who go to school hungry and mentally support abused students. Providing weapons to teachers and administrators will neither protect students nor make schools safer. Instead, it will make guns more available to students and teachers who would not normally have access to them – causing opportunities for more devastating deaths.
Allowing college students to carry concealed weapons on college campuses already exists in 10 states today. These states are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. That means that these 18-22 year old students, whose ability to control and self-monitor their behavior is not fully developed because their frontal lobes are not completely formed, have access to guns. So when college kids party and get drunk, instead of fighting with their fists, they can pull out their guns? This sounds like a terrible idea.
Whether we’re talking about guns on elementary, middle school, high school, or college campuses, we’re opening doors to more carnage. Guns, especially AK-15s, are designed to kill. In a civil society, disputes should be settled by discussions and compromises – not murder. To protect myself, I carry pepper spray and keep a bat by my bed. Both are good defensive protections, and they don’t kill.
Protecting your family, home, or business should be done in a way that deters invasions. Because we can mistakenly think that an intruder is going to kill us, our actions should be to disable, not to murder. I remember the time my daughter surprised us with a visit at 2:00 AM. My husband could have shot her – thinking she was a burglar. We need solutions that allow for human error without killing.
Our Founding Fathers did not have access to security cameras, alarms, pepper spray, and 9-1-1 (established by AT&T in 1968), and that’s why they used muskets to protect their homes. We no longer need to have guns to protect our families. In fact, only 13% of colonial Americans owned a gun. The muskets built in the 1770s were not accurate weapons; they’re nothing like the pistols, semi-automatic pistols, rifles (AK-15s), and shotguns that about 72 million Americans own today. Maybe we should take the Constitution literally and allow people to own muskets with lead balls instead of bullets. They would most likely miss their targets and they would only be able to shoot once every minute or so.
During the past 6 months of 2022, about 200 children were killed and about 500 children were wounded by gunshot. Guns make our homes less safe for our families. The press didn’t show images of the carnage from the Uvalde School massacre. The AK-15 is a weapon designed for war. The bullets fire at such velocity that it can decapitate an adult leaving the body like a grenade obliterated it. Children’s bodies were so blown away that it took parents over 6 hours to identify their children through DNA and other means.
In an ideal world, guns would be available only for sport and under careful supervision of gaming and sportsmen’s clubs. Our world is not the same as it was in the 1770s. Today, people handle pressure in different ways and their mental health is not predictable. What we need is a more effective way of screening for mental illnesses. Some states consider family, neighbor, and fellow worker input to get a more accurate read on people who are applying for gun carrying permits.
Other nations like Japan and Singapore have the lowest mortality rate (by firearms) in the world because they have strict gun-control laws. When their citizens get angry, they deal with their anger in non-lethal ways. Guns are a coward’s way out. We need to think smart and stop the carnage now. Let’s make it an inalienable right for every American to protect themselves with security cameras, pepper spray, and bats – not guns.
As teachers prepare for the new school year, besides books and class supplies, some teachers are stocking their classrooms with military-grade devices to protect their students. One Bay Area teacher purchased a metal bat and the Barracuda, a metal bar that prevents entry, for her classroom. She also plans to run drills for her elementary school students to teach them how to stay quiet and to listen to her directions when there is an intruder who can harm them.
Seems to me that when our teachers need to arm themselves with active-shooter backpacks loaded with bullet-proof vests, bullet-proof plates/shields, and tourniquets, we need to rethink who we allow to have weapons and under what conditions. No teacher can realistically protect all of the students from a mentally ill person carrying an AK-15 rifle. Consider Uvalde, Texas, where 400 good guys with guns wouldn’t stop one bad guy with a gun for over an hour because they were afraid of the destructive power of a weapon of war in a classroom. 19 children and two teachers were killed.
Schools in 10 states allow teachers to carry concealed weapons to deter would-be shooters. These states are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. A teacher’s job should be to build strong academic foundations to prepare our youth to be literate, to move on to higher education, and to understand how to function in our society. Many teachers have also taken on parenting roles to feed students who go to school hungry and mentally support abused students. Providing weapons to teachers and administrators will neither protect students nor make schools safer. Instead, it will make guns more available to students and teachers who would not normally have access to them – causing opportunities for more devastating deaths.
Allowing college students to carry concealed weapons on college campuses already exists in 10 states today. These states are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. That means that these 18-22 year old students, whose ability to control and self-monitor their behavior is not fully developed because their frontal lobes are not completely formed, have access to guns. So when college kids party and get drunk, instead of fighting with their fists, they can pull out their guns? This sounds like a terrible idea.
Whether we’re talking about guns on elementary, middle school, high school, or college campuses, we’re opening doors to more carnage. Guns, especially AK-15s, are designed to kill. In a civil society, disputes should be settled by discussions and compromises – not murder. To protect myself, I carry pepper spray and keep a bat by my bed. Both are good defensive protections, and they don’t kill.
Protecting your family, home, or business should be done in a way that deters invasions. Because we can mistakenly think that an intruder is going to kill us, our actions should be to disable, not to murder. I remember the time my daughter surprised us with a visit at 2:00 AM. My husband could have shot her – thinking she was a burglar. We need solutions that allow for human error without killing.
Our Founding Fathers did not have access to security cameras, alarms, pepper spray, and 9-1-1 (established by AT&T in 1968), and that’s why they used muskets to protect their homes. We no longer need to have guns to protect our families. In fact, only 13% of colonial Americans owned a gun. The muskets built in the 1770s were not accurate weapons; they’re nothing like the pistols, semi-automatic pistols, rifles (AK-15s), and shotguns that about 72 million Americans own today. Maybe we should take the Constitution literally and allow people to own muskets with lead balls instead of bullets. They would most likely miss their targets and they would only be able to shoot once every minute or so.
During the past 6 months of 2022, about 200 children were killed and about 500 children were wounded by gunshot. Guns make our homes less safe for our families. The press didn’t show images of the carnage from the Uvalde School massacre. The AK-15 is a weapon designed for war. The bullets fire at such velocity that it can decapitate an adult leaving the body like a grenade obliterated it. Children’s bodies were so blown away that it took parents over 6 hours to identify their children through DNA and other means.
In an ideal world, guns would be available only for sport and under careful supervision of gaming and sportsmen’s clubs. Our world is not the same as it was in the 1770s. Today, people handle pressure in different ways and their mental health is not predictable. What we need is a more effective way of screening for mental illnesses. Some states consider family, neighbor, and fellow worker input to get a more accurate read on people who are applying for gun carrying permits.
Other nations like Japan and Singapore have the lowest mortality rate (by firearms) in the world because they have strict gun-control laws. When their citizens get angry, they deal with their anger in non-lethal ways. Guns are a coward’s way out. We need to think smart and stop the carnage now. Let’s make it an inalienable right for every American to protect themselves with security cameras, pepper spray, and bats – not guns.
College-bound seniors are just days away from complete freedom. For the first time in their lives, they won’t be studying for SATs/ACTs, taking community college classes, or immersing themselves in projects and extracurricular activities to build strong portfolios for college admissions. Phew! And they deserve this break in pressure so they can decompress before heading off to college in the fall.
Some colleges give incoming freshmen summer reading assignments to discuss when they arrive on campus. Most books are meant to stimulate philosophical thinking, and in an ideal world, it could be just what the students need.
But, I’ve noticed that students who were voracious readers in elementary and middle school often stopped reading for pleasure in high school because they were inundated with required reading and homework overload. When applying to college in 12th grade, these students create lists of their favorite nonfiction read during high school — as part of their college applications – many gasp at the thought that they hadn’t read anything for fun since 8th grade.
While I don’t support mandating that college-bound students read a laundry list of required books during the summer before heading off to college, I do believe that they’ll enjoy reading some of the books on colleges’ lists.
Here’s a list of books required by some colleges:
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, assigned by Sienna College
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, assigned by Goucher College
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, assigned by Seton Hall
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, assigned by Smith College
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequity and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil, assigned by SUNY Binghamton
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde, assigned at Moravian University
This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman, assigned at the University of Louisiana at Monroe
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, assigned at New York University
Junaluska: Oral Histories of a Black Appalachian Community, edited by Susan E. Keefe, assigned at Appalachian State University
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, assigned at Bucknell University
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans, assigned at Saint Michael’s College
Dig by A. S. King, assigned at SUNY Oswego
Or, maybe college-bound kids could immerse themselves in some of those books that they just never had time to read during high school.
Children, and adults, are anxious about the negative effects of wildfires and climate-related disasters. The uncertainty of when they will strike and the restrictions it puts on after-school activities, family vacations, and even on-site classes are taking its toll on all of us.
I recently hosted the North Rodeo Gulch Firewise event to encourage residents to take action to mitigate wildfires. With over 17 expert speakers from Supervisor Manu Koenig to Central Fire’s top brass to SC County sheriff to ARES (ham radio), they addressed concerns and offered excellent tips on how to navigate the upcoming fire season.
My daughter, Dr. Nicole D’Arcy, ER physician at Valley Medical Center in San Jose, spoke about how to treat burns and injuries when emergency aid is not available. Sean Gomez, my 9th-grade student, spoke about his cyber deck project that can give us vital information when we are cut off from all forms of communication.
You can watch the entire presentation at NRGfirewise.com/events.
Here are the 5 steps you can take now to prepare for the inevitable wildfires – and to ease your stress knowing that you are proactive in protecting your family and home.
1. Pack Go-Bag
Besides food, water, meds, toiletries and clothing, add these vital items: butterfly bandages, duct tape, ACE wrap, headlamp, tweezers, gauze, antibiotics ointment/medi-honey, goggles, respirator N95 masks, the list of all your medications, and all your essential prescriptions (inhalers, EpiPens, heart medications). Keep these in your bag so you’re always prepared.
2. Sign up for CodeRED
This reverse 9-1-1 system will alert you about emergency evacuations, severe weather, missing persons, and more. You’ll be notified by cell phone or landline. Go to scr911.org to sign up.
3. Purchase a MURS Radio
When your power goes off and/or you lose cell phone reception, you will be able to communicate with neighbors using the MURS radio system to get emergency updates from the OR3, fire department, sheriff/police, etc. We recommend the Dakota Alert or the BaoFeng UV-82C radios. You don’t need a license to use these radios and you can talk to ham radio operators to relay your emergencies.
4. Clear all Combustible Materials 5 Feet Around your House
Remove all wood, plastic, or anything that is flammable that touches your house and work your way outward 5 feet. That means your patio set, stacks of firewood, planter boxes, and any vegetation. I just cut 100-feet of gorgeous wisteria that completely wrapped around my house. The fire inspector told me the vines would act like a wick to ignite my house; that’s all I needed to hear before I pulled out my shears.
5. Reduce Fire Risk by Limbing up Trees and Clearing Roadways
Think about what you can do to keep wildfires from igniting on your property. Limb up tree branches to 6-10 feet from the ground. Thin trees so their canopies don’t touch each other. Weed whack brush to 2”-4” tall. Clear trees and overhanging branches so a fire apparatus can safely drive up your roads. The road should be cleared at least 26 feet wide and at least 13 feet 6 inches tall. Fire fighters will not drive up roads that are unsafe for their teams. Work with your neighbors to clear your roads and maintain them.
Create a plan that gives you several months to complete your fire prevention preparation. Lay it out in your planner or calendar; having it written will help ensure that you get it done. Continue to make plans into the future so you can take steps that work within your budget and free time.
Check out NRGfirewise.com for resources and more tips.
Congratulations to UC-bound students! While you’re preparing for graduation, there are a few things you need to do to complete your requirements for admission to the University of California. Submit the following:
1. Final high school transcript indicating your graduation date and final grades for 12th grade by July 1, 2022 (electronically, not emailed).
* If your transcript will not be available by July1, email AskUC@ucop.edu and your college with high school name, CEEB code, and date transcript will be available.
2. Transcripts from all college coursework taken during high school. (electronically, not emailed).
3. AP/IB/A-level exam scores by July 15, 2022
4. Full or partial UC IGETC certification by July 15, 2022
5. Analytical Writing Placement Exam and Entry Level Writing Requirement
* Check with your individual campus to see what specific guidelines for meeting the Entry Level Writing Requirement.
* UCD, UCI, UCM, UCSB, UCSC does not require the AWPE
* UCB,UCLA, UCR, and UCSD can take the AWPE to satisfy the Entry Level
Writing Requirement. Check with the individual campus for further information.
We are helping students lay out their 4-year plans to ensure that they take full advantage of courses, research opportunities, internships, and prep for grad school. If you’d like to create your 4-year plan, contact us at Merit (info@meritworld.com).