Category Archives: History

Jessica Baladad shares how her family's history told her she needed to go hard on cancer

Jessica Baladad, the founder of Feel For Your Life, shares how her family's history made her think she would one day get cancer, and that she would fight as much as she could.

Henry Taylor, Nashville Tennessean

Its not over yet.

The coronavirus has taken more than 5 million lives worldwide and has heightened health concerns. However,knowing your family's health history has always been important.

The holidays are approaching, and for those who will have the privilege of being around family, dinner-table talkabout sports, politics and social issues ispar for the course.Its also an opportune time to start asking (sometimes tough) questions that could directly affect certain health decisions throughout your life.

Dr. Vipul Bhatia is the medical director of continuing carefor WellSpan in central Pennsylvania. He specializes in internal medicine and said knowing your familys health history can be ablueprint for medical professionals.

The family history can be used as a diagnostic tool and can also help guide decisions about any kind of testing that the patient or the rest of the family will need.

Certain diseases are hereditary and chronic. Being able to share that information with doctors can help them address preventive measures sooner. For example, 5% to 10% of breast cancers are thought to be hereditary, which means they come from passed-down genes.

The pandemic, Bhatia said,has almost eliminated a go-to option for getting a family's health history. Normally, it's retrieved through a group exercise withthe patient and family members who are with them at the hospital.There are still guest and visitation restrictions in hospitals that leave the patient to answer certain questions alone. Knowing family health history "can shape the type of care that the individual receives and the timing of it, Bhatia said.

COVID booster shot: With demand for boosters low, Murphy says NJ may waive eligibility requirements

Your ultimate Thanksgiving guide: What to buy, cook, eat and drink

Bhatia reflected on his own family's health history, mentioning that a couple of members were diagnosed with colon cancer at a very young age.

"Someone with that type of family history [means]the colon cancer screening procedure, such as a colonoscopy,starts at a younger age compared to the general population."

A delay in early screenings could affect preventive measures and a diagnosis, if any, because of that strong family health history.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when asking about your familys healthhistory:

Not sure how to keep track of all of this information? The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionhas an online resource for recording your familys health history. My Family Health Portraitwill allow you to enter information over time and keep it stored. Its free, and you can update itand print and share with your family.

Popular family history resources like Ancestry.com and 23andMe exist, butgetting the information firsthand from relatives is preferred.

No one really wants to have this conversation, but knowing a person's last wishes or advanced care planning has become even more important during the pandemic. WellSpan refers to the process as "horizon planning," which is having a plan in place if you become too ill to make your own medical care decisions.

Communicating this planto medical professionalscan make a difference in the type of care you receive, Bhatia said.

Jasmine Vaughn-Hall is a culture reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Region How We Live team. Contact her at jvaughnhal@ydr.com or (717) 495-1789. Follow her on Facebook (@JasmineVaughnHall),Twitter (@jvaughn411), and Instagram (@jasminevaughnhall).

Read more:

Why you should discuss family health history at the table this holiday season - NorthJersey.com

This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

History Channel Latin America launched the call to participate in the seventh edition of 'An idea to change history' . The initiative rewards the talent of those Mexicans who seek solutions to improve people's lives based on technology and innovation.

Depositphotos.com

Great innovators do not come out of nowhere, they are the result of experiences that later transform into ideas capable of changing the world, such as the printing press, the telegraph or WiFi. Those disruptive people are out there, waiting for an opportunity to generate positive changes with their creations.

For this occasion, the television station joins forces with the automaker Nissan , in order to find those who want to make history through their creativity. Those who participate will have the possibility of winning up to 250 thousand pesos .

"In this special edition we recognize Mexican talent, bringing to light those ideas that seek to improve the reality of man, in any of its aspects through technology and innovation," reads the official site of the call.

Those interested have until November 30, 2021 to register their projects on the official site of the initiative 'An idea to change history' . There they must fill out a form and upload at least 3 images of the project, as well as a video with a duration of 3 to 5 minutes where the idea is described. Candidates will also need to explain the social impact of their idea, both in the short and long term.

Subsequently, a jury of professionals and experts will select the '60 New Nissan Innovators' - the 60 most creative and inspiring ideas. These will be broadcast on the History Channel and all its platforms and then choose the five that "have the most decisive technological and innovative impact."

The five semifinalists will proceed to the next stage, where the public can vote online for their favorite. The three that get the most votes from Internet users will occupy the first three places and will be awarded a prize of up to 250 thousand Mexican pesos. The announcement of the winners and the awards will take place from March 15 to 17, 2022.

Do you have any idea? Share it and be part of the story of those who have changed the world.

Originally posted here:

If you have 'An idea to change history' you can earn up to 250 thousand pesos in this initiative of History Channel - Entrepreneur

These goals are part of an attempt to revive the deep, almost symbiotic relationship between corn and humans.

For Native people, its not just about growing out the corn and bringing it back home, Mrs. Greendeer said. Its about creating a spiritual connection and relationship with this being, the corn. Shes alive. So the goal is to ingest it and become one with the corn.

The past doesnt always define us, but the stories we tell about it do. Thats their purpose.

The United States is in the middle of a fierce battle over the stories Americans tell themselves about how the nation was built and what it stands for today. Dramatic and at times violent conflicts have erupted over monuments to Confederate soldiers, institutions named after slave traders and plantation owners, the history lessons children learn and the books they read. Efforts to revise popular narratives about history to include Black, Indigenous and other points of view that have been ignored, and resistance to those efforts are now a central feature of political life.

One aim of many stories Americans tell about Thanksgiving is nation-building. In 1863, when he called for its first observance as a national holiday, President Abraham Lincoln asked my fellow citizens to fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Another aim is to paper over the long and shameful history of killing Native Americans, driving them from their land and shattering their culture. For many Native people, Thanksgiving is a national day of mourning, a time to remember what they have lost since Europeans first sailed into sight.

Mrs. Greendeer has just finished her own tale of the original 1621 feast, a childrens book to be published next year called Keepunumuk: Weechumuns Thanksgiving Story. Written with two other Native American authors, the book is narrated by a Wampanoag woman who tells her grandchildren that the protagonist of the Pilgrims harvest feast was the corn.

A plague had killed many Wampanoags before the Pilgrims arrived, and in the winter of 1620-21 the Pilgrims were dying off, too. Seeing all this, the corn asks the Native people to show the newcomers how to take care of me so they wont starve, Mrs. Greendeer said.

See more here:

A Thanksgiving History Lesson in a Handful of Corn - The New York Times

Eleven months into Joe BidenJoe BidenRittenhouse says Biden defamed his character when linking him to white supremacists Man accused of threatening Congress sentenced to 19 months in prison 91 House Dems call on Senate to expand immigration protections in Biden spending bill MOREs presidency, voters have developed a contagious case of buyers remorse. Bidens approval rating stands at a dismal 41 percent, with six-in-ten respondents saying he has accomplished either little or nothing. A summer coronavirus surge, a messy U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, an influx of migrants at the southern border, Democratic Party infighting over the infrastructure and Build Back Better programs, rising gas prices and the highest inflation rate in 30 years have cast a pall over the White House.

With the 2022 midterm elections drawing near, Republicans enjoy a 10-point lead in congressional balloting, the largest GOP advantage since the Washington Post and ABC News first began asking the question in 1981. Pundits agree that continued Democratic control of Congress is at a tipping point. As Bill ClintonWilliam (Bill) Jefferson ClintonCan America prevent a global warming cold war? If voters did give Biden a mandate, it wasn't to pander to progressives Biden's deficiencies and strengths both on display MORE admitted in 1994, during a similar trough in his presidency, We still havent quite got the rhythm right.

Biden has made a big bet that James Carvilles famous adage Its the economy, stupid! still holds. His $1 trillion infrastructure bill, combined with the Build Back Better program, promises to create 1.5 million new jobs over the next 10 years. At the White House infrastructure signing ceremony, Biden said, I truly believe that 50 years from now, historians are going to look back at this moment and say, Thats the moment America began to win the competition of the 21st century. Bidens bet is that by 2024, Americans will see evidence of his prophesy coming to fruition as roads, bridges, railroads and airports get fixed; lead pipes are removed; and broadband finally arrives to hard-to-reach rural communities.

Biden is making another big wager with his human infrastructure bill. As it currently stands, the legislation passed by the House includes funding for universal pre-school for three-and-four-year-olds; extends the child care tax credit for another year; includes a four-week paid family leave program; contains provisions for home health care for the elderly and those with disabilities; expands ObamaCare subsidies and allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices; contains several environmental safeguards and tax credits that address climate change; and limits expenditures for daycare to no more than 7 percent of a familys income, among many other goodies.

Both measures are popular: According to one poll, 63 percent of American adults support Bidens infrastructure bill, and 58 percent back spending $2 trillion to address climate change and expand preschool, health care and other social programs. While several provisions in the Build Back Better bill will expire in the coming years unless they are renewed by Congress, Biden is betting they will be so popular that even a Republican-controlled Congress would dare not repeal them.

Joe Bidens gamble is similar to another historic wager made by Ronald Reagan. In 1982, voters also came down with a severe case of buyers remorse. Reagans approval rating stood at a grim 43 percent. Fifty-six percent disapproved of his economic performance, and an astounding 70 percent gave him a failing grade in handling unemployment. By Election Day that year, unemployment hovered at 10.8 percent and voters doubted Reaganomics would ultimately work. While Reagan bet that his tax and budget cuts were the right economic prescription, Republicans realized that Dr. Reagans remedy was, in the words of Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.), a riverboat gamble.

Democrats hammered Reagan during that midterm campaign with the slogan, It isnt fair; its Republican. A peevish Reagan lashed out: Is it news that some fella out in South Succotash someplace has just been laid off, that he should be interviewed nationwide? 1982 saw Reagan lose his de facto majority of Republicans and conservative southern Democrats. House Speaker Tip ONeill (D-Mass.) regained control of that chamber thanks to the addition of 26 Democratic seats.

By years end, Reagan was so unpopular that 47 percent said they would support Walter Mondale for president in 1984; just 41 percent backed Reagan. Taking note of his poor public standing, Reagan joked with his pollster Richard Wirthlin that he could get shot again. (After the 1981 assassination attempt, Reagans job approval soared to 67 percent.)

But by 1984, Reagans flagging poll numbers recovered. Throughout the year, unemployment and inflation rates dropped, and the economy came alive with renewed prosperity. On Election Day, Reagan won 49 of the 50 states, and an astounding 59 percent of the popular vote. His dominance was such that historian Sean Wilentz noted that the 1980s began the age of Reagan. One can argue that until the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have continuously lived under Ronald Reagans shadow.

Joe Bidens bet is that by 2024 inflation will have subsided, shovels will be churning the earth, middle-class wallets will be thicker and there will be an abundance of, as Biden has put it, Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! That is a big bet that also rests, at least in part, on James Carvilles maxim about the economy trumping any influence the culture wars may have on voters.

Like Ronald Reagan, Joe Biden has swung for the fences, and his legislative record is both historic and substantial. But, as with Reagan, the upcoming midterms are not the final payback. Instead, Bidens wager will be called in 2024. Until then, all bets are off.

John Kenneth White is a professor of politics at Catholic University. His latest book is What Happened to the Republican Party?

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Joe Biden's gamble with history | TheHill - The Hill

No response came from her teacher or classmates, recalls the Chariho Regional School District alum, who graduated in 1986.

It just didnt matter, she told The 74. You were insignificant.

Now, decades later, Baker has two children in the same school system who have navigated similar experiences of hurt and invisibility. Sometimes, the racism has been overt, like when a classmate muttered the N-word at her daughter in middle school. But more often, it comes in the form of quiet erasure and inaccurate tropes.

In history class, its mostly the history of the colonizers, said her daughter Nittaunis Baker, 19, who graduated from Chariho High School in spring 2021 and now attends the University of Rhode Island.

We didnt really talk about Native people that much, she told The 74.

Even now, as the topic of how to teach U.S. history in schools is receiving an unprecedented level of public attention, Indigenous parents say the debates still largely exclude lessons on Native people.

Its [been] very Black/white centric, said Samantha Cullen-Fry, a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe who has two young children in the West Warwick School District. She agrees that highlighting the Black experience is important, especially in wake of the police murder of George Floyd. But efforts to diversify K-12 curricula are incomplete, she says, if they fail to accurately teach about Native people.

When English colonists first came to New England in the 17th century, the Narragansett people had been living in the region for some 30,000 years making the vast majority of North American history, chronologically speaking, Indigenous history. In the following centuries, Native people have continued to live in the region.

There is no United States history, there is no Rhode Island history, without Indigenous history, the West Warwick mother told The 74.

Across the country, fights over critical race theory have elevated conversations over social studies curricula to the central stage in many school boards and state legislatures. CRT is not an ideology, but rather a scholarly framework that views racism and inequality as ingrained in law and society. Still, in Oklahoma, a bill to restrict its teaching led to the removal of classic books such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Raisin in the Sun from reading lists, according to a recent ACLU lawsuit. In Texas, the crackdown prompted a school administrator to call for an opposing perspective on the Holocaust.

The Ocean State has emerged as a hotbed for the controversy. Over the summer, a South Kingstown mother made national headlines for filing more than 200 public record requests investigating if the district taught terms like systemic racism, white privilege or the 1619 Project. Education writer Erika Sanzi, a former Rhode Island teacher and school board member, has become a national spokesperson opposing CRT and other curricular changes her group, Parents Defending Education, see as divisive.

And although Rhode Island was not one of the dozen states to enact laws restricting teaching on race and gender, a bill to do so was introduced by state legislators in spring 2021, though it failed to pass.

Its author, Representative Patricia Morgan, did not respond to questions from The 74 asking whether topics such as the 1675 Great Swamp Massacre, which took place just miles outside the Chariho school systems present day boundaries, would be among the divisive concepts that the bill sought to ban. In the event, 1,000 English colonial soldiers, joined by about 150 Pequot and Mohegan soldiers, attacked and burned a Narragansett stronghold, killing hundreds, including women and children. In late October, the Rhode Island Historical Society transferred the 5-acre South Kingstown site back to the Narragansett Indian Tribe, nearly three and half centuries after the deadly event.

In Chariho schools, where more than 9 in 10 students are white, alumni of the district who are Indigenous and graduated in recent decades have recounted experiences of being steered away from college by their counselors. In nearby Narragansett Regional School District, Cullen-Fry had to spend a post-grad year doing unnecessary pre-college work, she said, because her counselor did not send in her paperwork, assuming she couldnt afford higher education. The experience, she learned later at a high school reunion, was shared by numerous peers of color.

Chariho Assistant Superintendent Michael Comella said he was not aware of Indigenous students having had issues with the districts college counselors in the past, but mentioned that the school system is working with local Narragansett leaders to improve school policy and providing professional development sessions on equity and inclusion for teachers. He said teachers typically cover the Great Swamp Massacre in fifth grade during lessons on King Philips War.

The district remains committed to ensur[ing] that we account for all important information and history as it relates to our tribal community, he wrote in an email to The 74.

Though there is much more work to do, the elder Baker appreciates that the Chariho district has made some efforts to better serve its Native students. The high school has a Native American student advocate on staff and, recently, has begun engaging in conversations with Indigenous parents about further improvements.

This isnt about bashing the Chariho school district, she said. This is about recognizing that there are issues that have affected past and present generations of Indigenous students who have attended this school system and they need to be addressed on behalf of present and future generations.

Chariho has formed an anti-racism task force that has been meeting since the fall of 2020 in pursuit of more equitable school policies, practices and curricula. Some residents, such as the Bakers, say that the changes are sorely needed, but others staunchly oppose them.

I do not support, at this point, the anti-racism task force, audience member Jim Sullivan said during public comment at a Nov. 9 school committee meeting. I am concerned about their bringing racism into the Chariho system.

We are not domestic terrorists, he added, referencing escalating tensions nationwide at board meetings that recently prompted the National School Boards Association to send a letter to the White House requesting increased support and security.

The pushback does not phase endawnis Spears, who recently joined the Chariho School Committee after a members resignation. Spears, who does not capitalize her first name, is a member of the Navajo Nation, with ties also to the Chocktaw, Chickasaw and Ojibwe people. Diverse perspectives, she believes, are necessary to the development of all children.

I want to ensure that teachers have everything they need to prepare their students all of their students to be able to navigate citizenship in the United States, she told The 74. That includes Indigenous histories.

The lack of nuance around Indigenous histories also is a form of erasure, she added. It continues the process of erasing Native people from this landscape.

Statewide, Lorn Spears, executive director of the Tomaquag Museum for Indigenous history, culture and arts in Exeter, Rhode Island and related to endawnis Spears by marriage, believes officials must work to better represent the states Native students.

I think its been very teacher-by-teacher, the improvement, rather than the system of education improving, she said on a recent episode of the Boston Globes Rhode Island Report podcast. I would like to see, you know, the Department of Education really take an active role in ensuring that the history is inclusive and includes Native people.

State social studies standards do not stipulate that schools teach specific aspects of Native history or culture, said the Rhode Island Department of Education, instead leaving those decisions up to districts.

If materials [that districts] use presently from a publisher do not adequately address Indigenous representation, [the state education department] would strongly encourage school leaders to develop materials they can use to meet the standards, Communications Director Victor Morente wrote in an email to The 74.

Accurately representing Native Rhode Islanders means addressing certain truths that may be difficult, said the younger Baker. But covering those facts in schools, rather than mythologized narratives of harmony between colonists and Native people, doesnt mean placing blame on any students, she said.

The establishment of this country was pretty much the murder of a lot of Indigenous people, including my ancestors, she said. I dont think that [white] kids should feel ashamed because its not really them. Its their ancestors.

Its only shameful when students shy away from those histories, she believes. If they refuse to acknowledge that that happened, then you kind of become complicit in not recognizing the struggles that [Indigenous] people went through.

In school, the only time she remembers a lesson on Indigenous people was a brief mention in fifth grade around Thanksgiving. She doesnt recall any lessons on the Great Swamp Massacre. Additionally, in high school, outside of class, she had a teacher who held a reading group focused on Native sciences, which discussed Braiding Sweetgrass, a book written by a member of the Potawatomi Nation. She enjoyed the experience, and wishes there could be official courses devoted to such topics.

Even having a class just on the history of Indigenous peoples, like how they have classes on ancient Greek and Roman things, that would be really cool, said the college freshman, who is studying marine biology. She receives free tuition at URI thanks to her status as a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

Teachers can cater Indigenous history and culture to learners of any age, said Cullen-Fry, who works as an educator at the Tomaquag Museum. For example, many classes visit the museum in November, Native American Heritage Month. She corrects the youngsters misconceptions about Thanksgiving, teaching them that its traditional in many Indigenous cultures to celebrate 13 Thanksgivings, one for each of the years moon cycles.

States such as Oregon have moved in recent years to require that schools teach lessons on Native history and culture, and to bring tribal educators into the states teaching force.

But until such shifts, large and small, are incorporated into Rhode Island schools, the Baker family will celebrate progress on a more personal level.

When Nittaunis walked across the graduation stage in May 2021, she was adorned with tribal jewelry and ornamentation, passed down from her ancestors. Her mother, after so many of her own personal experiences of feeling that her Indigenous identity was erased by the world around her, wanted people to know: Another Indigenous child just graduated from Chariho High School.

The proud message was simple.

Society doesnt think that were here, the elder Baker said. We are here.

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We Are Here: Debates over teaching history in R.I. exclude Native People, indigenous parents say - The Boston Globe

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Published November 23rd, 2021 at 6:00 AM

Classrooms should be safe spaces to learn, say two Kansas City teenagers.

Increasingly, K-12 classrooms have become hotbeds for debate about what should or should not be taught, especially when it centers around race and history.

Jude Anderson and Sanaa Best are friends and high school seniors at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy and have seen classes change over the past few years.

Anderson, who is white, and Best, who is Black, say classes on race and history are essential to building a more informed and compassionate society.

Including diverse racial and ethnic histories should be a no brainer, Anderson said.

He added: I think that speaks volumes on why people dont want to talk.

Best responded: When (race and history) are not taught, children who are not people of color tend to be less sensitive to the things that we go through.

People who push back when teaching history as it is, as it was, you know, as it happened thats very dangerous, she said. Very, very, very dangerous.

African American history wasnt part of Lincolns curriculum until this year, Bests senior year. During her sophomore year, though, one teacher made sure to have a Black History Month assembly. That was the first time she saw people like her represented in a school setting.

At home, however, her family taught her Black history both the difficult and the inspiring. Like clockwork, every February her parents gathered the family to rewatch famous speeches and movies of Black leaders. Best rattled off names like Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X and other historical figures whove stuck with her.

But when the lessons shed learned while watching TV in her parents bedroom suddenly took place in Lincolns classroom, she noticed a shift in dynamics, a disconnect.

There is awkward silence in the classroom, because I guess people dont know how to interpret that type of history yet, because its so new, she explained.

Anderson agreed.

Yeah its hard to watch, he said. But also when like-minded individuals of similar age get together in a space it becomes easier to talk about.

Best added: Education goes so far, like ignorance is not bliss.

These teens, like many of their peers, are cognizant of how education shapes who they become in society. Learning about it helps them, they insist.

Conversations about how identity, history and race intersect with current issues are already happening, they said. So why arent they learning how to navigate these conversations sooner?

School board meetings across the U.S. have become a catch-all for debate about a poorly understood academic framework critical race theory or CRT.

During one Blue Valley School Board meeting, a presenter said CRT is divisive material that teaches teachers to hate America and ultimately break down everyone to the privileged and the oppressed.

The theory has also been mistakenly associated with diversity, equity and inclusion, and more recent reports show some believe it to be a part of schools mental health programs.

Public attendance at school board meetings has amplified a vocal few: the parents and politicians who are adverse to what has repeatedly been called divisive teachings. This inspired a group called the 1776 Project Political Action Committee to endorse certain school board candidates, which the PAC group announced in August.

Some candidates say they were endorsed without their knowledge, according to another Flatland report.

Seven of the 10 Kansas school board candidates who were endorsed by 1776 won the election, according to the Kansas Reflector, which includes new members in Olathe, Lansing and Blue Valley districts.

The locus of this festering issue appears to be discomfort when talking about and addressing race relations past and present.

Its really hard sometimes for white folks like myself to see some of these issues when Ive seen white people represented all through history, their presidents and their business leaders and their innovators and theyre doing all these great things, said Tina Ellsworth, member of the National Council for the Social Studies. Ellsworth also is an assistant professor of education at Northwest Missouri University.

When she reflects on her own experiences as a young student, she realizes there were gaps in her knowledge.

I completely missed the fact that, Oh, we never talked about Black inventors. We never talked about Black people fighting for agency.

Thus the push for change. The data bear out the negative implications of not teaching with race and holistic histories in mind.

A U.S. Department of Education study from 2018 drew the connection between poor racial and ethnic representation and achievement gaps and retention rates, among other education disparities.

We cannot ignore the fact that data is glaringly evident that we are not doing right by our students of color, Ellsworth said. Were just not.

Shes a few months out from exiting the K-12 world, but saw people working behind the scenes to help shape the classes that will help close those gaps.

Before joining the higher education world, she was part of a curriculum committee. Composed of a group of parents, educators and administrators, the process to develop a curriculum takes about two years. She wants folks to understand that.

Its a well thought-out process, she said.

But the fight against certain racial and historical teachings continues, at times through the legislature.

Missouri is one of many states where a law has been proposed to ban critical race theory in K-12 classrooms.

House Bill No. 952 outlines elements the attorney general considers CRT adjacent, which include programs like 1619, BLM at schools or anything resembling that content. The bill states that if a publicly funded school is found implementing these programs, it has 30 days to cease.

The bill proposes that, if it doesnt, the state board shall direct the department of elementary and secondary education to withhold a maximum of ten percent of the monthly distribution of state formula funding to the education entity.

A Brookings Institute analysis summarized the goal of bills like these:

The legislations mostly ban the discussion, training, and/or orientation that the U.S. is inherently racist as well as any discussions about conscious and unconscious bias, privilege, discrimination, and oppression. These parameters also extend beyond race to include gender lectures and discussions.

This, education experts argue, doesnt give youth the space to process.

Kansas City area educators who have introduced coursework that embodies the breadth and nuance of U.S. history say their students are ready to have honest discussions.

Crystal Everett, real world learning coordinator at Kansas City Public Schools, was part of the group that applied for and earned a grant to teach the 1619 curriculum. Tymia Morgan, who works at Central High School, was one of the two teachers to take that material and implement it in her classrooms.

Everett and Morgan are long-time friends and products of the KCPS system who went to predominantly white universities, returned to Kansas City and wanted to give back to their community.

Our job in public education or education in general is not to tell people how to think, but give them the resources to think critically and not just accept everything that theyre given, Everett said.

In the KSPS district, more than half of the students are Black, 27% Latino, 11% white and 8% other.

Morgan has been surprised by the conversations students are having. Students who were otherwise quiet speak up.

Theyre chiming in in ways that are thoughtful, that are compassionate. So its helping me to see a different side of my students, Morgan said, who teaches seniors.

At that point in their lives, she explained, those students are about to enter the real world where their actions have very real consequences.

She called her class a space (that) makes learning current.

Information is available with a click or a swipe. What they dont find in education settings youth will find elsewhere, at risk of being digested out of context.

On the other side of the coin, students want to be heard and seen. They crave safe spaces to talk and learn.

PaKou Her, who works for a family advocacy group and has been a racial equity trainer for the past 25 years, has led education sessions for schools. She knows how complex these situations are. Her, who is Asian American, says removing or ignoring non-white histories doesnt just eliminate narratives.

It erases people.

What little truth young people are getting, theyre getting even less of it and are essentially engaged in what I would call a larger social project to erase huge parts of history and, or minimize them so that they no longer matter, she said.

Thats Jimmy Beason IIs experience too.

Beason is a member of the Osage Nation and a professor of American Indian Studies at Haskell Indian Nations. He said Indigenous history, like that of his own tribe, has historically been paper thin in U.S. school books.

Students are taught of Native Americans living in the past but not in the present.

Demeaning and minimizing the indigenous presence usually takes place through the educational curriculums of American schooling, where the colonial history is being placed, above all the other narratives, he said. So any kind of settler colonial violence is minimized, and actually valorized and turned into, you know, holidays.

He added: It comes back down to the schooling.

To the youth who are in these classrooms, some only one year away from being part of adult society, they want nothing more than to have the permission to tease out big ideas and address questions about race with their peers.

But they need proper guidance.

I cant put myself in a mindset where somebody would think that racial training would be harmful to their child, Best said.

We spend a lot of our time in their classrooms, and if theyre not instilling this in us, where do we learn it from? We need to know how to coexist.

Vicky Diaz-Camacho covers community affairs for Kansas City PBS.

Discover more unheard stories about Kansas City, every Thursday.

Check your inbox, you should see something from us.

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Students Want to Learn 'History As It Is, As it Was' - Flatland

The lost dream of Soul City (Black Perspectives)by Joshua Clark DavisIn 1969, Black Power advocate Floyd McKissick began building Soul City, a brand new multiracial community in North Carolinawith the help of the Nixon administration. A new book argues that we shouldnt see the citys ultimate failure as a sign that it was a doomed utopian enterprise from the beginning.

How historical are historical novels? (Perspectives on History)by Jeffrey WasserstromHistorical fiction isnt just escapism. A history professor explains how it can help readers understand the past in ways that nonfiction may not capture.

The Thames is coming back to life (The Hill)by Jenna RomaineIn 1957, Londons Thames River was declared biologically dead after centuries of abuse from the industrial, sewer-spewing city. Now, its home to a thriving array of species, including several kinds of sharks.

Life in the society of children (Sapiens)by Karen L. KramerIn international and historical terms, kids in the U.S. spend a shocking amount of time in age-segregated spaces or small nuclear-family settings. What could we learn from societies that do things very differently?

The long afterlife of bad obesity science (Scientific American)by Kelso HarperSince 1994, doctors and journalists have been quoting statistics about huge numbers of deaths supposedly caused by obesity. Volumes of research have shown that theyre not accurate. So why wont the myth die?

Got a hot tip about a well-researched story that belongs on this list? Email us here.

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Soul City, History in Fiction, and Life on the Thames - JSTOR Daily

On Monday (Nov. 22, 2021), the Bucksabsolutely dominated the Magic at the Fiserv Forum.

Their final score of 123-92 doesn't completely illustrate the real difference between both teams. With the game out of hand, by a huge margin, the Magic outscored the Bucks 36-18 in garbage time to bring their margin of defeat to a respectable 31 points, considering the margin of their largest deficit during the game.

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At halftime, Milwaukee led by a franchise-record 41 points (77-36), a lead they pushed up to 51 points.

Every one of the 12 Bucks players to check into the game ended up getting their name on the scoresheet, led by Jrue Holiday's 19 points. Meanwhile, Giannis Antetokounmpo nearly recorded a triple-double in just 24 minutes of action with 12 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

If they somehow managed to maintain that 51-point gap, they would have still not cracked the Top 10 largest margins of victory in NBA history. It would have got them close but they wouldn't have made it.

The record for the largest margin of defeat was set in 1991, nearly 30 years ago in Cleveland when the Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, a team only formed a couple of seasons ago, 148-80.

Of the top 10 margins of defeats in NBA history, six have occurred after the introduction of the three-point line (1979) and four of those six occurred in the 1990s.

Here's a look at the top 10 margins of defeats in NBA history:

The most recent entry on the Top 10 came in 2018 when the Charlotte Hornets defeated the Memphis Grizzlies by 61 points.

As recently as May 1, 2021, we nearly received a new entry to the leaderboard when the Indiana Pacers blew out the Oklahoma City Thunder 152-95. That 57-point margin of defeat ranks 11th all-time and seventh-most since the introduction of the three-point line.

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What are the largest margins of defeats in NBA history? - Sporting News

PLYMOUTH, Mass. The town of Plymouth steps into the spotlight each Thanksgiving. The concept of sitting down with family and friends to give thanks for lifes blessings started with the Pilgrims in Plymouth 400 years ago.

But its more than just Thanksgiving thats carried on for four centuries.The colonists set up a lot of rules and guidelines for their society still in place today.Thankfully, the colonists had some detailed systems to keep track of land and other assets and put them on the record.

All this information is preserved at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds, where actual documents from 400 years ago have been preserved and are well taken care of. Flipping through them is like taking a trip back in time. It might sound a tad dull, but it all depends on how you look at it.

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Highlighting Plymouths history ahead of Thanksgiving - Boston 25 News

Mark S. Weil, the E. Desmond Lee Professor Emeritus for Collaboration in the Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, died at his home in Jamestown, Rhode Island, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. He was 82.

A native of St. Louis, Weil earned a bachelors degree in art history and archaeology from Washington University in 1961. He then earned both a masters (1964) and doctorate (1968) from Columbia University, where his mentors included the influential art historians Meyer Schapiro, Julius Held and Rudolf Wittkower.

I led a charmed life as a graduate student, working with people who were pioneers of art history and studying in some of the greatest museums and libraries of the world, Weil recalled to Washington Magazine in 2015. It set an incredibly high standard of excellence for me.

Weil returned to WashU in 1968 as assistant professor in the Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences, where he taught courses on Renaissance architecture, Rembrandt van Rijn and 15th through 17th-century art theory, among other topics. He served two terms as department chair, from 1982-88 and from 1995-99.

Marks lifelong passion for the study of original works of art was distinctive and contagious, said Chair Elizabeth Childs, the Etta and Mark Steinberg Professor of Art History. An exceptionally devoted teacher,he introduced students to close looking in museums and notable private art collections including his own. Markedly productive in his retirement, he actively continued to collect, to mentor art historians and to conduct research. Just months before he passed away, he published a scholarly study of the Renaissance engraver Giorgio Ghisi.

Weils scholarship fell into four primary areas: Italian Baroque sculpture, 16th- and 17th-century garden and stage design, the Marvelous age, and art connoisseurship. In the early 1980s, he led planning for a national Baroque festival, which included a symposium, an exhibition of theater and stage design, and a production of Handels opera Orlando.

Weil also helped found a center of archaeometry, which brought together scholars from across campus to apply scientific approaches to art conservation and the analysis of archaeological material. His publications includeThe History and Decoration of the Ponte S. Angelo(Penn State University Press, 1974/1990) as well as numerous articles and exhibition catalogs.

In 1998, Weil was named director of the universitys Gallery of Art, now the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, for which he organized several major exhibitions. He also helped to create the master plan that would link the museum with the universitys schools of art and architecture to create the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Weil retired in 2005 and later relocated to Rhode Island with his wife, Joan Hall, the Kenneth E. Hudson Professor Emerita of Art and former director and master papermaker for Washington Universitys Island Press. While living in Rhode Island, Weil embraced his love of photography, exhibiting his own work at the Jamestown Arts Center. He also took up the sport of ocean kayaking, enjoyed sailing, collected contemporary works on paper and, with his wife, served as an adviser to Dieu Donn, the acclaimed New York papermaking workshop. His final scholarly study, Giorgio Ghisi, The Allegory of Human Life: An Analysis centered on Isabella DEste and Her Heritage, was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Weils generous philanthropy has supported a range of institutions and arts programs, including Dieu Donn, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and the Saint Louis Art Museum, where his many roles ranged from trustee and commissioner to chair of the collections committee. Weil and his former wife, Phoebe Dent Weil, donated nearly 200 works to the museum. These have been featured in numerous exhibitions, including Learning to See: Renaissance and Baroque Masterworks from the Phoebe Dent Weil and Mark S. Weil Collection (2017), co-organized by Weils former doctoral student Judith Mann (MA 78, PhD 86). Weil and Hall made an additional gift of artworks earlier this year.

In 2018, Weil created the Mark Steinberg Weil Professorship in Art History and Archaeology in Arts & Sciences, currently held by Claudia Swan. The following year, he and Hall established the Mark S. Weil and Joan M. Hall Fund for Art History and Archaeology, again in Arts & Sciences, which supports several annual research awards, fellowships and internships for both faculty and students. This fall, they expanded those efforts with a substantial gift to found the Mark S. Weil and Joan M. Hall Endowment for Art History and Archaeology to further support student and faculty research projects and collaborative initiatives in the study of the visual arts.

Mark was a wonderful scholar as well as a passionate advocate for the arts and humanities, saidFeng Sheng Hu, dean of Arts & Sciences and the Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences. For more than five decades, Washington University has benefitted from his leadership, enthusiasm and discerning eye. These gifts will help to ensure the continued excellence and vitality of our humanities programs.Marks engagement in our mission and our future never wavered, and I always looked forward to our conversations.He will be sorely missed.

Weil, in a note shared by Hall, recently wrote that I am a great believer in the importance of the study of the humanities in education. If possible, I would fund the entire division of the humanities at Washington University.

The commitment to Washington University runs deep in Weils family. Steinberg Hall, which today houses classrooms and studios for art and architecture students, and Steinberg Auditorium, which serves the needs of the broader campus, were both a gift from his grandmother, Etta Steinberg, in memory of his grandfather, Mark C. Steinberg. Weils parents, Florence and Richard Weil, contributed many works of art to the university collection, and Richard served on the university Board of Trustees.

To honor their mothers memory, Mark and his siblings Richard, John and the late Paula Weil and their spouses supported the creation of the Kemper Art Museums Florence Steinberg Weil Sculpture Garden. John, an emeritus trustee, and his wife, Anabeth, recently supported creation of Anabeth and John Weil Hall.

In addition to his wife and brothers, Weil is survived by his sons, Daniel and Alexander, and a grandson, Nathan. A campus memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. Jan. 8, 2022, in Steinberg Hall. Details will be forthcoming.

Weil donated his body to the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence. Memorial contributions in his name can be directed to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Jamestown Arts Center and the RISD Museum.

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Obituary: Mark S. Weil, emeritus professor of art history, 82 - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis - Washington University Record