Tuskegee Airmen medal ceremony set for March 29

March 23, 2007

Tuskegee Airmen in Europe, Library of Congress photo

Congress voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor to the Tuskegee Airmen as a group. The ceremony is set for Washington, D.C., in the Capitol Rotunda, for March 29, 2007.

This is another great story of Americans, otherwise held down in their daily life, who rise to meet a monstrous challenge. They not only met the challenge but achieved a degree of triumph beyond what anyone had hoped. The story is a natural segue to the post World War II civil rights movement, and it fits nicely into studies of the war or studies of civil rights. News items around the time of the ceremony should update the history of the Tuskegee Airmen and provide good photos for classroom presentations.

“It’s sort of an open validation of the Tuskegee Airmen, that we fought stereotypes, overcame them and prevailed,” said Roscoe Brown, an 85-year-old Riverdale, N.Y., resident who graduated from the Tuskegee program in 1944. “This is the ultimate when your nation recognizes you.”

The gold medal, equivalent to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is awarded to individuals or groups for singular acts of exceptional service and for lifetime achievement. The Tuskegee fliers will join a distinguished group of recipients that includes George Washington, Winston Churchill, Rosa Parks, the Wright brothers and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced identical bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2005 to give the airmen the congressional medal. The Senate bill passed in October 2005 and the House followed in February 2006. President Bush signed the bill into law last April.

It is also a story of racism and bureaucratic bungling delaying appropriate recognition to heroes for 60 years.

Lee Archer, 87, of New Rochelle, is America’s first black flying ace.

“It shows the country is trying to right an old wrong,” Archer said. “I never thought we would get it, but we would have done it without any recognition … . My family is very excited. I am, too.”

Of the 994 black aviators who got their training at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama beginning in 1942, fewer than 385 are still alive. On March 4, Edgar L. Bolden, 85, who trained at Tuskegee and flew P-47s, died in Portland, Ore.

More information:

Tip of the old scrub brush to Resist Racism.

Leave a Comment » | Civil Rights, Current History, Curricula, Freedom - Political, Heroes, History, Leadership, Patriotism, War, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quote of the moment: Sunshine

March 16, 2007

Quote of the Day

“Gee, open meetings actually leading to better government. Now there’s an idea.”

— Political columnist Bob Bernick complimenting Utah House Republicans for opening their caucuses this year. He also writes about the SLC mayoral election. (Morning News)

[Presented here raw, with a tip of the the Bathtub’s old scrub brush, from the newsletter of Utah Policy Daily. Bernick is the long-time political reporter for the Deseret News, and a former classmate of mine from the University of Utah; Utah Policy Daily is operated by Bernick’s predecessor at the News, LaVarr Webb.]

 

Leave a Comment » | Ethics, Government, Leadership, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

‘We could tell you how to save your life, but it’s secret, and we can’t tell you.’

March 12, 2007

Communications students at Brigham Young University (BYU) were assigned to test the public disclosure laws as practiced by Utah’s 29 county governments. They decided to use as their test, county emergency evacuation plans, critically important in the wake of terrorist attacks on the U.S. in the past 15 years, and especially critical after the disasters in evacuation failures during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

The Deseret Morning News reports:

Many Utah counties contacted by the BYU students outright refused public access to any information about their plans, while a good number of them said the plan was being revised and not available because it had not been officially adopted.

[Joel] Campbell [assistant professor in the department of communications,] said there were a few counties that at least tried to balance the public’s interest with security concerns by providing some information.

“In today’s world of threats of violence and terrorism, a county official charged with law enforcement responsibilities, as some who were contacted, could and probably should be suspicious about releasing such information,” said Brent Gardner, executive director for the Utah Association of Counties.

One might think that emergency evacuation plans would be spread as far and wide as possible, so that citizens could have at their fingertips the information they need to save their lives.

Not in Utah. Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | Ethics, Freedom of Information, Government, Leadership, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Tom Peters, good leadership, or the lack of it

March 10, 2007

My aging process keeps jumping up to nip at my heels and remind me that time doesn’t just pass; time zips along well over the posted speed limit.

In a couple of my past incarnations Tom Peters was part of my daily reading. At AMR’s Committing to Leadership, we purchased parts of Tom’s “In Search of Excellence” video as jumping off points for key leadership techniques. I was especially fond of Tom’s take on training at Disney, and I loved the retail wisdom of Stew Leonard at Stew Leonard’s Dairy in Connecticut. (The other segments we used detailed the work of a woman who turned around a GM plant — she took a buyout package midway through the first year of our use of the stuff — and the turnaround at Harley Davidson. The Disney stuff became cliche, I haven’t heard much of Stew Leonard lately, GM is clearly on the ropes, but everybody still likes Harley Davidson. There was also a segment on a principal in New Hampshire who had gotten great results from management-by-wandering around; I have no idea where he is today, or how his school is doing.*)

Good business consultants should know what Peters said. I have run into a few managers who claim Peters is not au currante with their business or methods, and I know a few consultants who think they know better and know more. I don’t like to work with those people. They are often wrong about other things, too.

Mentioning Peters and his uncanny resemblance to Millard Fillmore a couple of posts ago reminded me to check to see what he’s up to recently. Hard core bloggers will not be impressed by his blog output. If you do not find something useful in the last ten posts, however, you may want to have your physician check out your cynicism level.

Peters’ theme since he left McKinsey — heck, for a good deal of time while he was there — is the search for excellent performance. Some of the organizations he’s profiled have later failed. Bob Dylan noted, “the first one now will later be last/the times, they are a-changin'” and it’s still true. We can learn a lot by focusing on the first one, now, and how and why she is not last, now (we can learn a lot by studying the later fall, too).

Peters also tends to note things that are good and potentially useful, without over analysis. Contrast Peters’ comments about wikis, here, with the comments by the cynical and overweeningly self-righteous “Constructive Curmudgeon.” Peters wouldn’t run from a title of curmudgeon, I think. But he’d make sure that he was an effective and genuinely constructive curmudgeon.

We can observe a lot just by watching, Yogi Berra said.

I lament that so many in education, teachers and administrators, don’t take a more business-like attitude in appropriate things. Often when I mention Tom Peters in education meetings, I get blank looks. Peters’ first books mention “management by wandering around,” which is a great technique. Recently I mentioned to a colleague that a principal had not visited my classroom in several weeks. She looked a little tired, and said that he’d not visited her classroom to see her teach, ever. Not in years. A quick survey of other colleagues found similar results, but also got the opinion that the only time the principal did visit a classroom, it was bad news.

How can such a leader defend and represent his team in administrators’ meetings?

Educators, go read Tom Peters.

*  In a Twitter exchange with Tom Peters in 2013, @Tom_Peters, I learned this principal has moved from public schools to a private school in Connecticut.  That’s not really good news, I think.

3 Comments | Business, Business Ethics, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Ethics, Free market economics, Leadership, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Guess who said it: Quote for the day

January 26, 2007

The first step to maintained equality of opportunity amongst our people is, as I have said before, that there should be no child in America who has not been born, and who does not live, under sound conditions of health; who does not have full opportunity for education from the kindergarten to the university; who is not free from injurious labor; who does not have stimulation to ambition to the fullest of his or her capacities. It is a matter of concern to our government that we should strengthen the safeguards to health. These activities of helpfulness and of cooperation stretch before us in every direction. A single generation of Americans of such a production would prevent more of crime and of illness, and give more of spirit and progress than all of the most repressive laws and police we can ever invent — and it would cost less.

Who said it? Who prescribed such a “socialist” plan for our children? John Dewey?  Hillary Clinton?  Answer below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments | Accuracy, Education, Herbert Hoover, Leadership, Lesson plans, Politics, Presidents, Quotes | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Applying the lessons of Vietnam in Afghanistan and Iraq, part 1

January 12, 2007

In pedagogy, the indicator that a lesson has been learned manifests in changes in actions, not in a high score on a paper test.

Did the United States really learn the lessons of Vietnam?  Can we even say, with assurance, what those lessons are?

Lesson 1:  Support of a corrupt government often leads to disaster.  One  of the continuing problems of U.S. policy in Vietnam was that the South Vietnam governments were usually corrupt.  Citizens knew that.  A people rarely loves a corrupt government, unless the corruption inures to the benefit of the people — a degree of graft may be tolerated, for example, if the garbage is picked up on time and the streets are cleared after snow storms.  People quickly lose patience with corruption that does not benefit them, however, and South Vietnam’s government simply could not get basic services to work well.

One might have hoped the U.S. learned the lesson, especially when Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, recommended to President Ronald Reagan that the U.S. not pledge military support for Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, because of the corruption in the Marcos government.  As a result, the Philippines today has a democratic government, not one that works with great efficiency (which may be a hallmark of true democracy), but a government that the people understand is elected by them.  Similarly, governments of Eastern Bloc nations under communism frequently were corrupt.  The swift changes that occurred after Poland’s defection from communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, led to massive change.  Where the new governments are not corrupt (Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany) or even just less corrupt, popular support is stronger and national recovery is a genuine hope, if not reality.

Of course, the U.S. was burned by this policy in Iran.  When Jimmy Carter’s administration refused to back the increasingly corrupt and unpopular government of the Shah of Iran, revolutionaries found other reasons to lash out at the U.S.  A wise person may contemplate that at least the U.S. has not been involved in a continuing war in Iran since the 1980s.

But the lesson stands.  One would think that the U.S. would make great effort to assure non-corrupt government in Iraq and Afghanistan, and make the strongest possible effort to make clean government manifest to the local population and the world at large. One might be unsure that is happening today.

In Vietnam, communist forces were trained along the model that Mao Zedong had used in China against the Japanese, and then against the Nationalist army:  Train in military methods, and emphasize the political aspects of the war, too.  Mao’s army had songs they were required to memorize that emphasized high moral conduct of the soldier, with verses that encouraged full payment to anyone from whom anything was taken, such as food or shelter.  Such actions would encourage civilians to support the army, Mao correctly hypothesized.  Ho Chi Minh’s forces did not practice the rules perfectly, but, for example, they were successful often in pointing out that the destruction of cropland was not their doing, but was instead the result of U.S. war efforts.  Vietnamese citizens may not have strongly supported Ho’s forces, but neither did they support the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam.  When the reason for the fighting is unclear, fighting often cannot be successful.  Corruption in a government makes reasons to support that government suspect, fogging the reasons to fight for it.

Cleaning up corruption in Iraq’s government should be a very high priority of U.S. policy. 

[This is the first of a series of posts on the Lessons of Vietnam.]

3 Comments | History, Iraq, Leadership, Lessons of Vietnam, Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Rep. Ellison and the Islamic roots of American law

January 3, 2007

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., delivered a lesson to critics today on the value of knowing history.

First, Los Angeles conservative radio host Dennis Prager embarrassed himself by calling on Ellison to use a Christian Bible to put his left hand on while being sworn in as a Member of Congress, the first Moslem to be a Member. Ellison pointed out that in the swearing-in ceremony, no book is used, and noted that other religious texts have been used by people of other faiths during the photo session afterward, when members re-enact the swearing in with the Speaker of the House. Prager compounded his history sins by refusing to back down. Ellison correctly stood his ground.

Then Virginia’s U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode pushed it farther, warning that unless we control immigration, Ellison will be the beachhead for a Moslem take-over of Congress. Ellison, defending the Bill of Rights, stood his ground and refused to get into a name-calling discussion.

Then Roy Moore of Alabama, who was rejected by voters for governor after having made a spectacle of himself and the Alabama Supreme Court over his efforts to install his own religious shrine in the Supreme Court Building, called for Ellison to be denied his seat. Ellison coolly ignored Moore, defending the First Amendment instead.

Now Ellison has acted, and his action comprises a neat, clean and witty rebuttal to the critics.

Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | First Amendment, History, Leadership, Politics, Religious Freedom, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Gerald Ford, National Park Ranger

January 1, 2007

Gerald Ford was a very likable guy.  Since his death last week, I have been impressed with the number of people who have stepped forward with different stories about how Ford was just a regular guy called to duty.

Researching the updating of the story about the sale of creationist books in the Grand Canyon, I stumbled into a press release from the National Park Service.  It turns out that Ford is the only president ever to have worked as a National Park Ranger (well, the National Park Service itself has only been around since 1901, so that lets out about half the presidents from even the possibility — though, of course, Yellowstone was established in 1862 1872).

In the summer of 1936 Ford worked in Yellowstone National Park.  He had duties that sound rather quaint and definitely antiquated today:  Ford was a guard on the bear feeding truck.  Bears have to fend for themselves in today’s National Parks.  No, it’s not due to budget cuts in bear food.  Bears do better as wild creatures, and so feeding was stopped to discourage them from becoming tame and dependent on humans.

Gerald Ford, ranger mensch.

2 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Current History, Gerald Ford, History, Leadership, National Parks, Natural history, Natural resources, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

First woman Scoutmaster, Catherine Pollard

December 16, 2006

Catherine Pollard died in Largo, Florida last week. She was 88. Catherine Pollard volunteered to be Scoutmaster for Milford, Connecticut Boy Scout Troop 13 from 1973 to 1975, when no one else would volunteer. Scout officials refused to accept her application at the time, citing a perceived need for male role models for boys. Eventually the troop dissolved when no one else stepped up as Scoutmaster.

In 1988 Boy Scouts of America abolished gender requirements on all volunteer positions, and made Ms. Pollard the first woman Scoutmaster.

A funeral service is set in Milford for Monday, December 18. Her casket will be carried on a fire truck from the Milford Fire Department, for whom she volunteered in different positions for years. When the ban on female Scout volunteers was lifted, it was the Milford FD that sponsored a troop so Pollard could be Scoutmaster. Read the rest of this entry »

52 Comments | Boy Scouts of America, Civil Rights, Current History, Leadership, Women's rights | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

NOW they tell us: Education reform not working

November 2, 2006

Yesterday I wondered about the effect of next Tuesday’s elections on education and education reform.

Last night I discovered the Fordham Foundation published a new study showing that “half of states miss the bus on education reform.”

Say what? One week before the election?

Fordham Foundation’s President Chester E. Finn, Jr., was a high-ranking official in a Republican administration, true, but that was after working closely with Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan for years. I doubt the study was published with any intent to affect the election at all.

It’s well worth the reading, though.

A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation finds that just eight states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are at or above proficient in reading, math or science.

The study also finds that most states making significant achievement gains-including California, Delaware, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas-are national leaders in education reform, indicating that solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results.

“Many state officials have claimed credit for gains in student achievement,” said Chester E. Finn, Jr., the Foundation’s president. “But this study casts doubt on many such claims. In reality, no state has made the kind of progress that’s required to close America’s vexing achievement gaps and help all children prepare for life in the 21st Century. Nor are most states making the bold reforms most likely to change this reality. Real leaders will study these data, then focus on what needs doing, not what’s been done.”

The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state’s track record in implementing bold education reforms. (Click here for more information on the indicators and methodology http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/TFR06Methodology.pdf.) A table listing states’ performance in all three categories is at http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/global/page.cfm?id=388#TFR06fullstategrades.

And, one week before this year’s election, it is not too early at all to start thinking about the next elections, and how to use the results of this report.

3 Comments | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, Education reform, Leadership, No Child Left Behind Act, Public education, School vouchers, Testing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Texas better than Paris (France)?

October 29, 2006

I think such comparisons are usually a bit on the odious side — but this blogger, Faux Parisianne, balances it with a “Why Paris is better than Texas” post.

All beside the point. The best part of this post is the photo, with the one line caption.

Go see.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Humor, Leadership, Politics, School vouchers, Texas, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

More on Nobel to Grameen Bank

October 18, 2006

The Peace Nobel pleased and surprised a lot of fans of Grameen Bank and Muhammad Yunus. Here is a post that poses an interesting and encouraging question, “Can a man make a difference in the world with just 27 dollars?” The post features several links to other comments.

How long before the backlash against microlending begins to be heard? Five, four, three, two . . .

3 Comments | Current History, Economics, Leadership | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Progress in public schools: Boston schools win Broad prize

September 19, 2006

No, I’d not heard of the prize, either. But we should spread the good news.

Via the Sacramento Bee (subscription required), I see an Associated Press report that Boston’s public school system won $500,000, or half of the Broad Prize for Public Education. (Here’s a link to the same story in the San Jose Mercury-News which did not require a subscription.)

This year, 100 districts were eligible. The other four finalists were Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, Jersey City School District in New Jersey, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the New York City Department of Education. They will all receive $125,000.

Boston has been a finalist for five straight years. It won this year’s top honor by posting impressive gains among poor and minority kids when compared with other Massachusetts districts.

“Boston has consistently shown that stable leadership in the school district and the city, as well as data-driven teaching, leads to strong student performance,” said Eli Broad, the philanthropist who created the Broad Foundation in 1999, with his wife, Edythe.

More information is available on this year’s prize winners and those of the previous four years at the Broad Foundation’s website (it’s pronounced “brode,” by the way).

The Broad Prize was started in 2002. The inaugural winner was Houston Independent School District, followed by Long Beach Unified School District in 2003, Garden Grove Unified School District in 2004, and Norfolk Public Schools last year.

There is also a link from the Broad Foundation to the Stand-Up Coalition, a group dedicated to improving public schools and reducing drop outs. The Coalition has an impressive provenance; go see.

Leave a Comment » | Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Education, Education reform, Leadership, Pedagogy, Public education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Ann Richards, you warned us

September 14, 2006

 

Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, and a sample of a Texas barbecue rib. Photo by Elecro-Fish Media (Austin, Texas)

Ann Richards died yesterday. It’s sad for me to think what might have been, had she been able to hold off one more charge by the Texas Republicans, had she defeated George Bush in her second campaign for governor of Texas.

Gov. Richards was a gracious and graceful woman who was simply fun to know — while quietly and forcefully inspiring others to do good deeds. In a former time, a candidate who defeated someone like Richards would have the good sense to keep her in government in some capacity, just for her wisdom and experience. It will be a tribute to Richards when civility is returned to politics.

Ann Richards was a public school teacher, clearly of the highest caliber. We can only hope there are more like her teaching in Texas schools today.

Update, September 17, 2006: Molly Ivins, perhaps America’s best political columnist, was a close friend of Ann Richards. Her column well reflects the special qualities of Richards, why we will miss her so badly, and why we should worry that there are so few like her around today.

 

1 Comment | Heroes, History, Leadership, Politics, Teaching, Texas | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

How to create angry [fill in the blank]

September 2, 2006

Ben Franklin’s satire was top notch.  Witty, engaging, well-written, there was always a barb — and the targets of the barbs had to be complete dullards to miss them.  If a pen can be as powerful as a sword, Franklin showed how words can be used to craft scalpels so sharp they can leave no scars, or stilettoes that cut so deep no healing would be possible. 

Franklin wrote a letter to ministers of a “Great Power,” noting the ways by which they might act in order to reduce the power of their nation over its colonies, “Rules by Which a Great Nation May Be Reduce to a Small One.”

It is in that vein that Mr. Angry, at Angry 365 Days a Year, offers “Top Ten Tips for Creating Angry Employees.”  As he explains [please note:  some entries at that site may be unsuitable for children, or contain strong language]:

This is not intended as a how-to guide for wannabe satanic managers. I did briefly consider that this might be akin to distributing a bomb-making recipe (very dangerous information in the wrong hands) but I actually believe most bad managers aren’t deliberately bad. They are far more likely to be ignorant of how destructive their actions are. As Hanlon’s Razor states: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

So please, anyone in doubt, this is top 10 list of things NOT to do.

Without mention of Herzberg, Likert (see here, too), Argyris, MacGregor, Maslow, nor even resort to Frederick Taylor, Mr. Angry lays it out.  He aims for general offices, and especially automated offices — but these rules apply equally well to college departments and faculty at public and parochial schools.  It’s not Franklin, but it’s useful, for non-evil purposes. 

1 Comment | Business, Business Ethics, Current History, Dissent, Education, Ethics, Freedom - Political, Leadership, School discipline, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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