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School Bells….er, Beeps…

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Tuesday, 20 August 2024

Written by Margaret Dickson

Across North Carolina, students are gathering their school supplies for the coming school year. Teachers are organizing their classrooms, and families are trying to squeeze out a last long weekend at the beach or the mountains. Excitement rules and both students and teachers look forward to seeing each other after a summer break, and—like it or not—socializing is a big part of being in school.
Decades later, I still remember the embarrassment of being reprimanded by a teacher for passing a note to a friend. I have not heard of that happening in years. Today’s students text each other, even if they sit across from each other in class. They are fully digitized and likely cannot imagine passing a contraband note.
School systems have noticed all the chirping and pinging, eyes glued to cell phones in laps and online bullying, and many are beginning to regulate various digital tools in classrooms. The New York Times reports that at least 8 states now limit cell phones in school. In North Carolina, Winston Salem and Forsyth County schools recently banned cell phone use during the school day, allowing use by high school students only during their lunch break.
Such policies sound both practical and reasonable so why not implement them in all school systems, including Cumberland County?
Like everything else in the digital era, it is complicated.
First, technology moves faster than school boards or legislators can make policy, and sometimes even understand what the new technologies are and what they do. Students are on to the next technology, such as artificial intelligence or AI, before many adults even know it exists, much less how it works and how to deal with it.
Secondly, we as a nation have mixed feelings about all digital communications, including cell phones. We love the convenience of them, so much so that most of us, including this writer, no longer have a landline, only a cell phone. Parents and students want, and sometimes actually need, to communicate with each other during the school day, and cell phones make that easy and private. In addition, some students do not have access to tools such as tablets and laptops and use their cell phones for schoolwork. And, in this era in which Americans have apparently decided that it is OK for even teenagers to possess military-style assault weapons, some argue that student use of cell phones can be a safety measure.
At the same time, digital communications of all sorts can have serious negative effects on mental health, especially for young people who are digitally bullied or those who have been abused by others through AI technology. Such digital behavior has resulted in youth suicides, and no one wants that.
So, what to do about this very 21st-century problem?
Increasingly, there are calls for developers of these complex digital devices and social media and AI platforms to build in “stoppers” of some sort to prevent misuse of technologies that did not exist on a commercial scale even a few years ago. Calls are also coming for both educators and students to learn not only about the capabilities of powerful technologies but about their very real dangers and how to use them responsibly.
The best description of all this I have read comes from the New York Times Education Reporter Natasha Singer, who described this complex school situation this way.
“Essentially, some say, we should follow the model of another program that has for many decades taught young people how to handle powerful machines without harming themselves or others: It’s called drivers’ ed.”

Letter to the Editor: Response to "It's all about the kiddos"

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Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Written by Dr. Nikki Fynn

The public school systems are collapsing or have collapsed in many ways. Most of which is due to outdated education methodologies and curricula as well as an inability to meet students where they are at in many cases. Here's a couple problems:
Mental health is educational. They are interconnected, not siloed topics.
While there have been many mental health and educational issues before, those were amplified due to COVID-19. Families, students, and teachers, etc. are still facing COVID re-entry issues. Many students who are falling through the cracks are those with almost invisible intellectual disabilities such as ADHD and PTSD. Students in domestic abuse situations and coercive control situations are also not being served which leads to further traumatization by school staff who do not know how to recognize the symptoms and understand how to intervene appropriately. This increases youth mental health problems.
Parent-School Staff Relationships due to lack of inclusive education for students with disabilities
Many parents who advocate for children in public education are excluded or isolated from important decisions regarding their child's education. Schools have been excused from enforcing individualized education plans (IEPs), which breaks federal law.
As someone who has worked in and with public schools, I help students with disabilities and those that get in trouble frequently. I would say 9 out of 10 times a child gets in trouble it's because of a disability that school staff don't know how to handle. So, children are getting shamed and excluded from school classrooms just for being who they are. It's unacceptable. It also breaks parent trust in school officials. That hurts the child.
Moving forward
To my knowledge, Cumberland County Schools is making social-emotional learning a larger part of their strategic plan for this upcoming school as well as restorative education. This is a move in the right direction, however I fear it is too late for many of the families of whom public education has left a bad taste in their mouth.
If we really want a more inclusive, quality educational system, the structure of the school day and related policies must be reconsidered. What counts as the "normal school day" doesn't serve families with parents whose schedule doesn't coincide with the school day.
Some solution oriented questions:
What if a tiered education day could be adopted, with teachers coming to work in shifts? What if some teachers did direct teaching from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and had planning time until 3 p.m. and other teachers did formal education from noon to 4 p.m. and then did planning until 7 p.m.?
What if afterschool programs filled in the time gaps by starting earlier in the day and operating longer hours to retain after school staff?
What if high school seniors could be substitute teachers for grades K-5 as part of their education and in preparation for job readiness?
What if schools can be used as community hubs where DSS, food banks, and other community based non-profits can deliver services to increase accessibility for parents who struggle with transportation, etc.?
May peace be with you,
Nikki Fynn, Ed.D. MPH
(Doctorate of Education Leadership, Master of Public Health)
Graduate of 71st High School, Class of 1994

Publisher's Pen: Unity Reception welcomes civil rights activist Clarence Henderson

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Tuesday, 20 August 2024

Written by Bill Bowman

The Unity Reception is the brainchild of Semone Pemberton, a local community activist and currently a senatorial candidate for North Carolina District 19.
According to her, bi-partisan community events play a crucial role in developing healthy communities while providing an effective platform for local community leaders and potential community leaders to meet and listen to the citizens while enhancing relationships essential for transparency, trust, and support. Pemberton's motivation for the event is rooted in her belief in the power of unity.
We agree and applaud Pemberton's initiative as the near-perfect example of how proactive community involvement and events of this type can have the potential to galvanize relationships between all citizens, civic leaders, and elected officials regardless of race, religion, gender identification, or political affiliation.
Pemberton's Unity Reception will host special guest Clarence Henderson, a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement, who brings a legacy of fighting for transparency, justice, and equality, topics that resonate deeply with all Americans.
Now in his 70s, Henderson leads the Frederick Douglass Foundation of NC with relentless and unwavering resolve. The Frederick Douglass Foundation's mission is to make a difference in the world by empowering individuals. They believe that every person has the potential to create positive change.
Following the tenets of Frederick Douglass, Henderson and the Foundation work to expand individual freedoms, promote education and self-sufficiency, and build strong families.
Henderson is an electrifying speaker, captivating audiences with riveting tales from the Civil Rights movement with a message intended to ignite their ambition with a bold call for entrepreneurship and business opportunities, which he believes are the ultimate game-changers.
The Unity Reception will also feature NC Senator Dave Craven, the youngest serving State Senator in North Carolina and Vice President of Business Development at The Fidelity Bank. Also speaking is lawyer Senator Amy Galey from Alamance County.
The Unity Reception is a ticketed event open to the public, allowing involved Fayetteville and Cumberland County community residents to listen to these dynamic speakers' unifying messages over heavy hors d'oeuvres and beverages.
It will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 27, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Kress Building, 229 Hay Street in Downtown Historic Fayetteville. To purchase tickets or to get more information, contact heather@fayforward.com or call 910-745-0501.
Closing note: Regardless of race, religion, gender identification, or political affiliation, this event is about "unity." With unity, nothing else matters! Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

(Top Photo: Clarence Henderson, far right, was part of the Greensboro sit-in, a civil rights protest in the 1960s that helped push the conversation regarding segregation in the United States. Henderson will be speaking at the Unity Reception, Aug. 27. Bottom Photo: Henderson gives a talk during an event. Photos courtesy of public domain)

Rowan Resolves: Push for liberty began in Rowan

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Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Written by John Hood

If you look at North Carolina’s state flag, you’ll see two dates: May 20, 1775 and April 12, 1776. Each signifies a moment when North Carolinians played a key role in the emerging American Revolution. Each strengthens the claim that our state was, in this context, “First in Freedom.”
On the former date, the leaders of Mecklenburg County either created a new county government or formally declared independence from Britain (depending on which account you accept). On the latter date, the North Carolina Provincial Congress, meeting in Halifax, instructed their delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to vote for independence.
While very important, neither the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence nor the Halifax Resolves constitutes the first formal act by North Carolinians against British tyranny. That distinction belongs to the Rowan County Committee of Safety. Angered by Parliament’s high-handed legislation and the conduct of royal governors and garrisons in Boston and other American cities, some two dozen Rowan leaders met in Salisbury on August 8, 1774, to draft a response.
Their handiwork, issued 250 years ago, is called the Rowan Resolves. While proclaiming their continuing loyalty to King George III, the signers condemned Parliament for enacting what they considered to be illegal levies and regulations.
“The right to impose taxes or duties, to be paid by the inhabitants within this Province, for any purpose whatsoever, is peculiar and essential to the General Assembly, in whom the legislative authority of the colony is vested,” the Rowan leaders wrote. “Every attempt to impose such taxes or duties by any other authority is an arbitrary exertion of power, and an infringement of the constitutional rights and liberties of the colony.”
They were certainly talking about the reviled tax on tea — the target of the protest, staged eight months earlier, that came to be called the Boston Tea Party. But they were making a broader point. To tax Americans without allowing them representation in Parliament was “an act of power without right.” It was a dangerous precedent.
The leaders named three delegates to represent Salisbury and Rowan County, urging other communities to do the same. They further suggested that all North Carolina delegates convene later in the month to discuss the crisis and propose a Continental Congress to “agree upon a firm and indissoluble union and association for preserving, by the best and most proper means, their common rights and liberties.”
Interestingly, the Rowan Resolves also stated that “the African slave trade is injurious to this colony, obstructs the population of it by free men, prevents manufacturers and other useful immigrants from Europe from settling among us, and occasions an annual increase of the balance of trade against the colonies.”
While hardly a full-throated condemnation of chattel slavery, this section does reflect the stirrings of anti-slavery sentiment on the frontier — and mirrors the language Thomas Jefferson tried to insert in the American Declaration of Independence
two years later.
Among the members of the Rowan Committee of Safety were Matthew Locke and William Lee Davidson. A former treasury commissioner for North Carolina, Locke would later sign the Halifax Resolves and serve as a brigadier general during the subsequent Revolutionary War. After many years in the state legislature, Matthew Locke served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
As for William Lee Davidson, he would also serve in the war as a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Line and brigadier general of the Salisbury District militia. On February 1, 1781, the army of General Charles Cornwallis began to cross the Catawba River at Cowan’s Ford, just north of Charlotte, in pursuit of the main American army under General Nathaniel Greene. With 800 Patriots, Davidson attacked the British — delaying their crossing, but at the cost of his own life. Decades later, the founders of a nearby Presbyterian college named it in Davidson’s honor.
Such was the mettle of our Founders. They backed their inspiring words with courageous deeds. So should we all.

Editor’s note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com).