Searching for Expertise

Next installment of my weekly podcast series. The idea for this podcast was inspired by Professor Michael Flamm's presentation to the Social Studies Department at Morristown High School.

As a bonus I added a commercial used by Nixon during his 1968 campaign for the presidency. Chilling....

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Accidental Hero

I felt compelled to write after reading John Ed Bradley's piece in the latest volume of Sports Illustrated (CP3 Cover). Bradley wrote about Beryl Shipley the former men's basketball coach at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now known as The University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Shipley coached at the University for 12 years. He took over a program that in his first year only had 12 games scheduled and some of those against the likes of Houma Air Station and Evangeline Motors. Shipley turned the program around during his tenure; securing multiple top ten finishes, twice guiding the Ragin' Cajuns to the Sweet Sixteen and recruiting players such as Dwight (Bo) Lamar who would lead the country in scoring in 1972 with an average of 36.6 points per game.

Shipley left the program amidst a contract dispute with university officials and under intense scrutiny from the NCAA for a litany of violations. Shipley was accused of paying players, conducting illegal practices and overseeing a program that turned a blind eye to academic concessions made for basketball players. After he resigned, the basketball program received the "Death Penalty" from the NCAA. Shipley succumb to cancer on April 15th at the age of 84. Till the day he died, Shipley defended himself against the NCAA and fought to contradict the portrayl of himself as a rule-breaking coach.

Above all, Shipley should be remembered as the first coach to integrate a major sports team at a large public university in the Deep South. As far as college basketball is concerned and for that matter any historical study of sports in this country, attention is directed towards the 1966 national basketball championship played at Cole Field House on the University of Maryland campus. Don Haskins led his all-black Texas Western starting five to beat the legendary Adolph Rupp and his all white starting five. Haskins has been viewed as a civil rights hero and the game has come to mark a change in collegiate athletics. As Bradley points out, El Paso, the home of Texas Western, was a long way from the Deep South. In a region governed by the likes of George Wallace, Shipley invited black recruits over to his house and openly defied the Louisiana State Board of Regents by not cutting black players.

Shipley was not attempting to make a statement, but rather wanted to win games. Shipley and his assistants realized that widening their recruiting base to connect with black athletes was a necessity. However, his willingness to recruit black athletes would mean much more than just winning games. Shipley's players saw him as a hero who believed he was unfairly punished for going against segregationists policies. Marvin Winkler, among the first of Shipley's black recruits, was quoted in the article as saying, "coach Shipley gave his life for us... they went after him because he was the forefather- the first to walk through the door."

Before reading the article I was not familiar with Beryl Shipley. I had read articles and books about the 1966 national championship and other transcending moments in sports such as the "Turning of the Tide" when an integrated University of Southern California football team demolished Bear Bryant's Crimson Tide. However, I think these lesser known more personal stories are a better way to build an understanding of history. While unintentional, Shipley demonstrated the courage to take a stand and do what was just.

Shipley's story also presents an intriguing case for students to study. His admitted to committing NCAA rules violations. The Ragin' Cajuns endured severe sanctions after his resignation. How do we view Shipley? Bradley wrote the following in his article:

For those who dismiss him, Shipley will always be the rule-breaking renegade whose outsized ambition wrecked a university's basketball program. For the rest of us, he's the flawed, doomed disciple of change ruined by those who did not want to change. He might have done wrong, but the wrong, I've always argued, was at the service of a greater good.

Is Shipley a hero? Where his actions justified considering the times? It would be interesting to engage students in a discussion about Shipley's tenure as basketball coach and how to view his legacy.

Finland's Visual Arts Curriculum

Came across Finland's Visual Arts Curriculum on Ian Chia's Learning to Nurture Ideas blog. The post expressed how Finland privileges the arts in schools.

"Finland has a long term approach to arts in education. Rather than valuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) over the arts like many Western countries, Finland considers the arts to be vital and weaves it through their entire education system."

The Finnish education system has received praise in large part because of student scores on the PISA exams. Contrasts have been made between the American system and the one supported by Finland. As we struggle in this country to rethink education and strive to reach consensus on what needs to be valued in our classrooms, I would recommend examining the Finnish Arts curriculum. It was a reminder of experiences I think we all hope to foster in our schools.

I shared some excerpts from the Arts curriculum below. What do you think about Finland's emphasis on the Arts? Unfortunately, in times of financial despair, it seems as if the arts if compromised. For someone who grew up in an arts rich household and attended schools that valued a renaissance approach to learning, it would be impossible to think of an educational experience that is devoid of the arts. As always your thoughts are appreciated.

Teaching according to the in-depth syllabus should give pupils an opportunity to work in the long run according to their talents and interests and create the conditions for a lifelong interest in visual representation and for further studies

Teaching should be based on an idea of a human being, where the individual has ethical and moral ability to choose and actively shape their lives and recognize the importance of beauty in it. Education shall support students’ spiritual growth and personal integrity and help him to develop into a thinking person with discernment.

The goal of education is that student by expressing themselves with art, learn to evaluate and assess himself and his environment and to build and develop their worldview based on both personal experience and heritage. Teaching should help students to become aware on what for him is important in life and to express this by visual means.
Education must develop students’ capacity for creative problem solving. Pupils should learn to express themselves and to master materials and technology. He will receive guidance in assessing and appreciating the quality of the visual environment.

The need for artistic expression is to be based on the student’s own motivation and the student must have an active role in studying and learning
Important approaches are creative problem solving, student’s own artistic expression and construction

New Culture of Learning

I wanted to share an excerpt from Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown's, A New Culture of Learning. I read through this section of the text several times before setting my iPad down to think about ways to foster schools that honor recommendations offered by Thomas and Brown.

When we think about what a new educational environment might look like in the twenty-first century, we can imagine a number of things. Imagine an environment that is constantly changing. Imagine an environment where the participants are building, creating, and participating in a massive network of dozens of databases, hundreds of wikis and websites, and thousands of message forums, literally creating a large-scale knowledge economy. Imagine an environment where participants are constantly measuring and evaluating their own performances, even if that requires them to build new tools to do it. Imagine an environment where evaluation is based on after-action reviews not to determine rewards but to continually enhance performance.- New Culture of Learning

What particularly resonated was the concept of constant change. Academic institutions are shaped by the unique perspectives of students, teachers, members of the community and through connections made with individuals scattered throughout the world. Each year the dynamic shifts as new connections are made, class make-ups are altered and opinions evolve. Participants are driven by inquiry and possibility and learning is the result of open conversations between committed stakeholders.

Commentary about the meaning of evaluation triggered critical reflection as well. Unfortunately, our assessment system is built on reward in the form of a grade (for students) or measurement (for teachers). What is lost is the concept of nurturing growth. How many of us are finished products? Skills can always be developed, knowledge deepened and talents honed. Evaluations should not be used to determine a final statement, but instead foster reflection and stimulate further inquiry and action.

We can all imagine a different environment. I guess the real question is how do we get there?

MHS Graduate Profile

Wordle addition of the MHS Graduate Profile. Posted as a follow-up to The Great American Teach In podcast. One can look at the Graduate Profile as a manifesto of what a group of passionate educators believe is important.

The Great American Teach In

Thoughts about The Great American Teach In scheduled for May 10th. What are your thoughts about the event and are you going to participate?

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Think Different

I came across this video over the weekend. It was embedded into a post by Wes Fryer on his blog Moving at the Speed of Creativity. What does it mean to think different as the video suggests? Moreover, as an educator, how can we examine school through a different lens and rethink experiences crafted for students?

In your opinion, what does it mean to "Think Different" about school? Curious to hear what you have to say.