He Gave Voice

There are truly just a few people I can comfortably call a “hero.” Howard Zinn is one. The author, historian, and activist died Thursday:

Anyone who believes that the United States is immune to radical politics never attended a lecture by Howard Zinn. The rooms would be packed to the rafters, as entire families, black, white and brown, would arrive to hear their own history made humorous as well as heroic. "What matters is not who's sitting in the White House. What matters is who's sitting in!" he would say with a mischievous grin. After this casual suggestion of civil disobedience, the crowd would burst into laughter and applause.

Only Howard could pull that off because he was entirely authentic. When he spoke against poverty it was from the perspective of someone who had to work in the shipyards during the Great Depression. When he spoke against war, it was from the perspective of someone who flew as a bombardier during World War II, and was forever changed by the experience. When he spoke against racism it was from the perspective of someone who taught at Spelman College during the civil rights movement and was arrested sitting in with his students.

And of course, when he spoke about history, it was from the perspective of having written A People's History of the United States, a book that has sold more than two million copies and changed the lives of countless people. Count me among them. When I was 17 and picked up a dog-eared copy of Zinn's book, I thought history was about learning that the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. I couldn't tell you what the Magna Carta was, but I knew it was signed in 1215. Howard took this history of great men in powdered wigs and turned it on its pompous head.

In Howard's book, the central actors were the runaway slaves, the labor radicals, the masses and the misfits. It was history writ by Robin Hood, speaking to a desire so many share: to actually make history instead of being history's victim.

Howard was asked once whether his praise of dissent and protest was divisive. He answered beautifully: "Yes, dissent and protest are divisive, but in a good way, because they represent accurately the real divisions in society. Those divisions exist - the rich, the poor - whether there is dissent or not, but when there is no dissent, there is no change. The dissent has the possibility not of ending the division in society, but of changing the reality of the division. Changing the balance of power on behalf of the poor and the oppressed."

I first encountered Professor Zinn's work a few years ago while researching American foreign policy. His pull-no-punches assessment of US imperial ambition struck a chord in me.

Zinn's A People's History of American Empire has been turned into a graphic novel - of sorts

I read more Zinn, including his seminal work, A People's History of the United States. But it was wasn't until I read Zinn's autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, that he became a hero for me. In it he describes his time teaching in the 1950's at Spelman College, an all-girls school for blacks in Georgia. It was there that he began his activism, empowering students by leading civil rights marches and sit-ins. Eventually he was fired from his post: Insubordination. From there he took a position teaching history at Boston University. He became an active leader in the Vietnam War protests, he marched for women's rights, and rights for workers. He also wrote about his role as a teacher of history. He taught that history is an interpretation of events past, therefore it is inherently biased. Each year he would tell his students that the history he taught was his interpretation, it came with his bias. As a teacher of history myself I understood what Zinn was saying. Any time you teach history you are teaching an interpretation of history. His honesty and straightforwardness were refreshing, and inspired me to view history in a new light.
Right up until his death (he suffered a heart attack while swimming during a speech tour) Zinn continued his life's work:

One of Zinn's last public writings was a brief essay, published in The Nation, a weekly American journal, about the first year of the Obama administration. "I've been searching hard for a highlight,'' he wrote, adding that he was not disappointed because he never expected a lot from Obama. "I think people are dazzled by Obama's rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president which means, in our time, a dangerous president unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.''

Ultimately Zinn was an agitator. Unapologetically. Proudly. Men like Zinn will never be accepted by the mainstream - those in power - because they threaten their grasp of the reins. These men will always be cast as outsiders, cranks, operating on the fringe.
But for millions, worldwide, including me, this man continues to inspire.

"My hope is that you will not be content just to be successful in the way our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you."

- Howard Zinn (1922-2010)

Changes

I'm in the process of making significant changes to the look and feel of this blog.

I ask that you be patient with the new format as we both get used to it. I believe in time it will prove to be easier to read and more user-friendly (and more blogger-friendly)

Basic Needs Must Be Met

It's stories like this that remind me just how uneven the global educational playing field is. Imagine the joy these girls must have experienced upon learning there is a solution to their problem.

Sanitary Pads Help Ghana Girls Go To School

Schoolgirl absenteeism in Ghana could be cut by half by providing free sanitary towels, a study has shown.

The Oxford University research team found in a six-month trial that with pads and hygiene education, girls were more confident about attending school.

The research was conducted in four villages where the traditional method for period protection was cloth rags.

"It's a taboo subject, [but] we found they were very anxious to try something else," researcher Linda Scott said.

"There girls are so poor that they have to use whatever cloth they can find," she told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"The cloth is so scarce that they only have two pieces of it, so they have to wash it at night and hope that it dries in the morning, which of course in a damp climate it doesn't, so they end up wearing damp and soiled cloths which is not hygienic."

She said in one of the villages, there was only one community toilet, the school had no toilet of its own and there was no running water at all in the village.

"Conventional thinking would be in an environment like this it's not sanitary pads you need it's toilets and plumbing," she said.

"But in fact... it is in those dire circumstances that the pads are most needed and have their biggest effect."

Why We Must Be ACTIVE News Readers

Today the US Commerce Department released the first data on the GDP (the best overall measure of a nation's economic production) during the final three months of 2009. Our reaction to the data, however, will probably depend on where we get our news.

Two of the nation's (and world's) largest news agencies, The Associated Press and Reuters, reported the story, as we would expect. However, take a look at the first few paragraphs of each agency's dispatch:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The economy grew at a faster-than-expected 5.7 percent pace in the fourth quarter, the quickest in more than six years, as businesses made less-aggressive cuts to inventories and stepped up spending.

The robust performance closed out a year in which the economy contracted 2.4 percent, the biggest decline since 1946.

After falling off a cliff at the start of the year, gross domestic product turned higher in the third quarter, and the quickening fourth-quarter pace reported by the Commerce Department on Friday suggested a sustainable recovery was building.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy grew faster than expected at the end of last year, though the engine of that growth -- companies replenishing stockpiles -- is likely to weaken as consumers keep a lid on spending.

The 5.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter was the fastest pace since 2003. The Commerce Department report Friday is the strongest evidence to date that the worst recession since the 1930s ended last year, though an academic panel that dates recessions has yet to declare an end to it.

The two straight quarters of growth followed a record four quarters of decline. Still, the expansion in the fourth quarter was fueled by companies refilling depleted stockpiles, a trend that will eventually fade. Some economists worry that when that happens, the recovery could slow.

Is either story wrong? No.

A significant difference though, huh?

The lesson: Know the source, read critically, remain skeptical, and only reach conclusions after significant research.

In the Classroom

It has been great to finally get into the classroom and start teaching here in Ghana. I teach economics to two groups of students - both in their second year of secondary school (equivalent to American high school juniors). One group is home economics students - they are generally preparing for careers in trades like sewing, cooking, and nutrition. Some may go on to become nurses. There are about 30 students in that class, all girls.
The other class is general arts (In Ghanaian education you join a "class" at the start of secondary school: science, business, general arts, visual arts, home economics. Then, as a group, you go through school, taking courses as determined by the class requirements. So a science class will take more science courses than, say, a home economics class). There are 53 students in this class - a mix of boys and girls. Each class meets with me three times a week. Two times it is for 80 minutes each, and the other time it is for 120 minutes. The two hour classes are very tiring.
The classrooms are in buildings known as "blocks." The blocks are generally divided up by subject area. There are blocks for science, music, home economics, and some are generic classrooms. Unlike the US, teachers do not have their own classrooms (which I'm perfectly prepared for since I don't have a classroom at Germantown). Instead the students, more or less, remain in the same room all day while teachers come and go.
Also, the students aren't supervised at all times as they are in the US. Certainly there are restrictions on the students - they can't leave campus without permission, and they can't return to the dorms during class hours - but for the most part they move about campus like you might see at a college.
The classrooms are not "climate controlled." They are cinder block buildings with open spaces in the walls for ventilation. My classrooms are equipped with a dry erase board, centered between two chalkboards. One room has electrical outlets, so I plan to use the computer and a projector there from time to time, assuming the LCD projector can overcome the brightness of the room. If not, I will search for an alternative location.
So far my students have been very respectful and a joy to teach. The most striking difference compared to teaching in America is the student's desire to learn. During one of my first days teaching I was reviewing the previous term's final exam, methodically going through each question making sure the student understood the correct answer. It had been a long day - both of my 120 minute classes are on the same day, back to back. The second class ends at 3:45pm, so it's right in the middle of the hottest part of the day. Every day here tops out at 94-degrees. It's so predictable that at times I think my thermometer must be broken. So, towards the end of the second class I had become a puddle of sweat. I also noticed the students were increasingly fanning themselves. So, believe that I would be the hero of the day, I announced my intention to end class 10 minutes early, and told the students we would review the final 10 questions the next day. Instead of the expected cheers I received silence.

Then, from the smallest girl in the class, a sheepish, "please sir, may we review the final questions so we can study them tonight?"

I was so surprised I thought my head would explode.

"Well, um, sure! Let's go over the remainder of the exam."

The class expressed collective relief. They WOULD have something to study tonight.

Brilliant!