News and Happenings

Are America’s Classrooms profit centers for the Mental Health Industry?

Classroom Teacher, Communication, News and Happenings, Parenting, Social Media, Social Media, Teaching /
author of “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up”

I periodically listen to interviews conducted by Marissa Streit, a former classroom teacher. The title of this one caught my eye so I listened. As I did, I noted down some near quotes that I hear. These are not polished…. but give you an idea of the discussion. I didn’t agree with everything said, in particular, the parts about allowing children to walk home alone from school (or have I been affected by the hype?)…. But she kinda answers a thought I’ve had….. Why did we not have these problems, at least as pronounced, when we were kids? I don’t ever remember ‘mental health, PTSD and therapy being nearly as prominent as they seem today. I don’t intend to read the book, but parents of young children my gain from hearing this interview.Before you attack one of the comment/notes, listen to that part of the podcast and think critically about why you want to say what you want to say….and thank you for that.

from the podcast….. Listen/watch the podcast HERE

Have America’s Classrooms Become Profit Centers for the Mental Health Industry?

Why does every child talk about having anxiety?

Why are our children swimming in mental health therapy?

1 in 4 young people identifying as trans. (Girls 7th grade).

Everybody needs therapy.

Everyone is broken.

A generation that is in profound distress.

The largest patient pool for mental health therapy are from the public schools. (CA)

Trams-informed care.

Every child has emotional damaged.

Instead of sending kids to the principal, they are now sent to the counselor.

Schools as a mental health ward.

SEL Social Emotional Learning  Trojan house.  Teachers are not therapists.

How are you feeling? Think of a time when (pain).

Trauma informed care.

Being born black means you’ve been traumatized.

Break the family

Over medicate children

If you wanted to break them down, there would be no better way than what is currently being taught in schools under the heading of mental health.

But… we have to keep them from suicide. How to find the line.

…the child who has never thought about it is forced to think about it.

…the child who HAS thought about it….

Does your child have a serious problem you cannot fix by changing their environment? If you cannot stabilize them that way, then yes. Therapist….but research the therapist the way you would research a surgeon.

Reset the default. Step 1 should not always be therapy and medication.

Some will need it and they should get it, but we are overreacting every child  creating mental disorder.

Hardship can be good for you. Certain kinds of adversity is really good for kids. Tell them the truth…that resilience is the story of the human condition. Most kids will emerge resilient. Tell them their parents went through hard things. Their grandparents went through hard things. Most will recover….a small percentage will really need professional help.

We don’t teach history so much as we’re teaching victim-hood. We don’t even teach them their own history. We need to connect them to their grandparents…what they went through. What their family, their ancestors went through.

You can get through it…because the vast majority will.

Feelings are always front and center. Being crushed under the weight of their own feelings.

PTSD traumatizing.

There are people who need help.

Kids need authority, community, independence. I can walk home from school… or to the store…or cook dinner.

I’m not shy. I have social depravity.

I’m not worried….i have anxiety.

Once you have anxiety, you need an expert to help you and you need a drug.

“You can’t say that. “

Disagreeable personality.

Don’t let someone diagnose them unless they really have a problem.

Terminology

SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Everything is a psychological program and requires  group (classroom) therapy.

Memory poker (as in the game). Group setting, kids trying to “1 up” each other. Exaggerating and talking yourself into the idea that you have been traumatized.

And all this is happening instead of academics.

Parentify. Parental abuse. Why do immigrant kids do so much better? Strong parenting. Chores and helping family and community are expected. Immigrant kids running toward adulthood and American kids staying home on mamas couch because they’ve been traumatized. The world is against them.

Trauma. There are traumatized kids, but we apply it to everyone.

There is a reason why we didn’t hear these terms as children.

Trust “Parenting expert”….only if he/she raised good kids to adulthood. Not a book learned only. Books by parenting experts who have never had children. (I remember thinking this way about the college professors in the Education School who had never been away from the college campus telling us how to teach.

…and more.

Are America’s Classrooms profit centers for the Mental Health Industry? Read More »

Commitment: Cheerleader to Percussion and back

Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Repost, Respect, Throw Back Thursday /
Cheer for first half, band for halftime, back to cheer for 2nd half

One of my all time favorites because it shows commitment and dedication. This girl is a cheerleader during the first half of the game, then, while the other cheerleaders have a break, she runs to the band, grabs her drum and marches halftime…..and then back to cheer for the rest of the game.

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Carefully consider your financial support

Communication, Fundraising, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Social Media, Social Media /

donationsDonations

I made two very small political donations to out-of-my-district candidates I couldn’t vote for, but whose positions I liked. Two complaints.

First, they make the $10-$20 donation process difficult as all the ‘defaults’ during the process are for a higher amount that automatically repeats monthly or quarterly. Ohhhhh, the lists those donations put me on. 

I also donated to PragerU, a cause and operation I support, even though I don’t benefit directly from all their children’s books and programming. I have watched and learned from several of their 5-minute videos on various topics and enjoy some of the interviews and programming shows they provide. I will probably donate to them again. But wow….do they ever have me on their list(s) now. Opportunities to support this cause or that one, to have my donation doubled or tripled (but only today)….. And they even use the USPS. 

Of course, we all know that if you click on something in Y-ville or F-whatchamacallit… that you are doomed for an almost never-ending onslaught of similar things to watch, read or support. 

The only entity I support significantly and regularly is my church and some of the specially targeted mission programs it supports. I won’t get into the thousands of missionaries or of the emergency services and help in times of disaster and for people in need — because that is not my main focus of this post. 

Just today (so far) and it is not even noon yet…. I have been asked to support, via email, text, and the tentacles of social media:

  • both presidential candidates (one just wants $1, yeah right). But today, not tomorrow.
  • both vice presidential candidates “if I can afford it”
  • a senator, who “for less than a cup of Joe – just $5” will make the senate his political color
  • PragerU
  • Daily Wire
  • Israel

Not today (yet), but I periodically hear from:

  • my university (I do enjoy the student callers)…
  • my university’s school of music – I even sent postcards to prospects on their behalf
  • My university’s philanthropic dept
  • several candidates (both major parties)

Newsmax (and others) want me to ‘vote’ or participate in a poll, but I’m confident those will lead to a donation opportunity. 

Recently, I received a letter with the return address of President Donald J. Trump. I was going to post it on Facebook (denied) on Instagram (denied) and X (denied). Maybe there really was something wrong with the way I took the pic….but that is why I did not include it in this post.

Most who offer audio or video podcasts advertise and also offer a subscription for a variety of benefits. There was one I really liked, but she stopped all “free” and went subscription only. I didn’t follow. But NOW… she’s back. 

I use Unroll Me app to reduce emails….somewhat successfully.

Sending “STOP” on texts is a joke. That just confirms the number and adds me to to other lists. 

If you donate everything away, will the government replace it? 

What’s your story? How do you avoid/reduce them? Or can you? Advice appreciated. Attackers not.

 

Carefully consider your financial support Read More »

Happy Birthday, David

Family, News and Happenings /

Happy Birthday, Dr. David. There is a link at the end of this post to visit the ongoing post that I have been updating each birthday.

You’ve had an impressive last few years. After completing your first seven years as an Instructor, Cluster Dean and Asst Boys Swim Coach at Philips Academy. you earned a year’s Sabbatical, which you spent as a long-term sub in a large Texas public high school. That was supposed to be a short-term fix when the school lost a teacher right before the start of the school year. When you complained (sort of) that they wouldn’t replace you, my take was….

Why should they replace you? They have a PhD English teacher from a top-tier Boarding School on the East Coast — on sub pay. You’re quite a deal. You’re not under contract and can walk away at any time.

But you stayed for the year.

Somewhere during all that time, you made a trip to Italy.

Upon your return to Andover, you moved into a new apartment and accepted a promotion as Asst Dean of Students with the primary responsibilities of organizing, updating and enforcing the school’s rules book. In other words, you are the point of the spear in discipline. You are back on the pool deck with the school’s championship Boys Swimming and Diving Team.

 

We were thrilled that you were able to be with us to celebrate our 47th Anniversary and your mother’s uh-humm-th birthday.

Hope you’re having a great day.

Link to previous post with additional bio history.

Happy Birthday, David Read More »

Hillbilly Elegy and How We Did It

College Prep, Communication, Family, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Respect /
all quoted from a collegiate presentation called, “How We Did It” that I made to parents several times when I was teaching. All text is from “Hillbilly Elegy”.

Years ago, my son gifted me a book, “Hillbilly Elegy” by J.D. Vance. His was a more extensive experience of poverty than mine. I grew up in northern Kentucky while his Appalachian upbringing was a little over 100 miles away….from an area with a genuine Kentucky hillbilly life. I’m glad I didn’t have a foul-mouthed grandmother or drug-user family members in my family … but there were aspects of his young life that had recognizable similarities to mine.

How you can go from that to graduating Ohio State in 2 yrs and Yale is an impressive success story.
I’ve seen attack media describe his book as mediocre and that he maligned poor people — WRONG… he was describing his reality. And the book was made into a movie. (I liked the book better)
I used quotes from one page of his book in my “How We Did It” Collegiate presentation I gave to students/parents while I was teaching, because I totally agree with, and experienced via my younger son, the fact that you don’t have to be rich to get into a top-tier university.
With our younger son getting into a top-tier undergrad school and then an Ivy League grad school, our experience was in the same universe as Vance’s, hence my use of this quote from his book.

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Secret Service Encounters

News and Happenings, Personal experience, Respect /

With all the attention on the Secret Service at the Trump rally in Butler, I thought I’d organize some recollections and experiences the few times I’ve been around the Secret Service, including when VP Bush came to announce his running mate, when VP Quayle came to our local parade….and more. I am writing this shortly after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

When VP Bush came to announce/introduce his running mate

When Vice President George H.W. Bush chose Dan Quayle to be his running mate, they made the announcement in Huntington. The Secret Service started showing up several days in advance. They were noticed walking around the Courthouse and in/out of the businesses close by.

I was in the small Christian bookstore just across the street from the courthouse a day or so before the visit and commented to the shop owner that she would have a great view. No. The SS had told her to be closed and away from the window several hours prior.

Joan and I joined the huge crowd at the courthouse, including on the railroad tracks (trains all stopped, of course). We could see people on top of buildings with binoculars. Noticing a couple sitting in their apartment building window across the tracks from the courthouse, shortly after I commented about them – they were gone. There must have been SS agents on or in that building.

There were pairs of agents at every corner of the Courthouse roof with their extra large binoculars.

Before they came to the courthouse, the band students and their instruments were searched. A helicopter started flying and hovering as it was announced the VP was about 30 minutes out.

When VP Quayle was in the local parade

They won the election and Quayle announced he would participate in the local parade. Joan and I were on the curb, video camera in hand. About 2-3 times, a pair of Secret Service agents would walk down the edge of the street. A block ahead of the VP was a flatbed truck of photographers followed by the armored car with guys holding the doors open. In between was the VP and his wife.

In front of that, where there had been a single SS agent on each side of the street, there were about a half a dozen, walking in single file along the edge of the street. The SS agent was repeating, “Do NOT step into the street.” A local policeman behind him would then echo with,

“And he means it.”

When VP Quayle visited his parents

These visits were not announced and were not public events. A friend of mine, who lives a moderately short distance from the Quayle home, was on his roof using a nail gun to affix shingles when a SS helicopter hovered over him while agents with binoculars checked out what he was doing.

When VP Biden spoke at our son’s commencement

Our son was receiving his PhD in a commencement ceremony that included over 5,000 undergrads. VP Biden was the keynote speaker. The instructions we received included that we should arrive about three hours early and be in our seats two hours prior. It was in a football stadium, with numerous entrances, all with electronic machines and several SS agents checking purses, bags, and bodies. Since we were in our hot, sunny seats two hours early, there was plenty of time to check out some of the SS preparations, such as:

  • In the Press Box. We were directly across from the press box and could see periodic movement through several windows.
  • On top of the Press Box.
  • At the scoreboard.
  • Several places around the field perimeter and locations throughout the stands.
  • On the platform, in front and behind it. What impressed me most was that all the time we were there, a solitary agent stood watch at the podium on the platform.
  • On buildings adjacent to the stadium.
  • …and probably several places we couldn’t see.

When the procession entered the stadium (University officials, VP Biden, Professors, etc) the SS agents were but a few paces away…enough to escape the pictures, but close enough if needed.

I may add these to my “Stories Through My Ages” memoir…

Secret Service Encounters Read More »

Hostage release button pushers

News and Happenings /

The reporting on the recent hostage rescue is maddening. Some of the button pushers for me:

CNN reports about hostages “released”. NO! They weren’t RELEASED, they were RESCUED.

A BBC reporter asks an Israeli government representative if the IDF should have given prior warning before the raid. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

All mentioning civilian casualties. These hostages were jailed in RESIDENCES in HIGH DENSITY areas. Noa was in the home of a DOCTOR, where wife, daughter, grandkids were all living. They talk about the doctor  “executed” in front of his grandchildren, and that other female adults in the house were “executed” or, at least shot. They weren’t EXECUTED, they were ELIMINATED.

They talk about the high number of Palestinians killed in the operation. There was a fierce firefight as the IDF rescuers tried to leave. Where did all these peaceful people get those weapons? Of course the IDF uses overwhelming force. You cannot say the casualties were innocents. Were there innocents among them. Probably….as per Hamas strategy.

Want a cease fire? It is easy. 1) Release the hostages. 2) Surrender. The fighting will stop immediately…and Israel will become as involved in rebuilding Gaza as allowed, and similar to the way the USA was involved in rebuilding Germany and Japan after we destroyed and defeated them.

Hostage release button pushers Read More »

Riley Gaines podcast with Middle School Athletes

News and Happenings, Respect /

GainesJust listened to a podcast interview https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gaines-for-girls-with-riley-gaines/id1696360492?i=1000657133794 with four of the five middle school (M.I.D.D.L.E. S.C.H.O.O.L.) girls who stepped out rather than compete against a boy in their track meet’s shot put. The girls were punished and not allowed to compete at (at least) their next meet. The parents have taken the school board to court (in progress). The girls have subsequently been permitted to compete.

The boy has since been accused of sexual harassment. I’m not even going to quote the accusation of what he was going to do to a girl with his non girl body part. If you want to see, here is a link and article… https://x.com/ReduxxMag/status/1789013744812515708

Girls should not have to compete against boys in sports where sex matters. (Compete in band. That is ok.) They should not have to worry about boys in their restrooms and locker rooms. They should not have to endure what these girls described and to be scared in what should be safe spaces.

Why do middle school girls have to be the adults to try to protect themselves and their sport?

Riley Gaines podcast with Middle School Athletes Read More »

Eden Golan Hurricane and October Rain

News and Happenings /

I have never followed Eurovision or Israel singer, Eden Golan. The reason it popped on my radar this year was because Eden Golan’s song, “Hurricane” faced opposition and succeeded while representing herself and her country admirably.

 

 

 

 

 

They forced her to change some of the words, and even the title. She renamed “October Rain” to “Hurricane”. Here is her performance at Eurovision. Through all the protests and jeers, when she performed, she captured the world.

They forced her to change some of the words, and even the title. She renamed “October Rain” to “Hurricane”. Here is the first-ever public performance of October Rain… See the comparison of the words below.

She had to deal with protesters (over 20,000 outside her hotel room) jeering and even childish acts from other contestants during a press conference for the finalists. The person next to her has head covered … and at the other end of the table is someone pretending to be bored.

In the press conference, you can see the head covered contestant next to her as she is asked,

Have you ever thought that by being here, you bring risk and danger for other participants and public?

She responded with class and grace.

Not only are there judges at the event, but participating countries can vote. Note that these countries had contestants participating, and they still supported Israel.

Israel had the #2 highest votes from around the world … and ended up 5th place overall.

After a heroine’s reception in her return to Israel, Eden sang the original song, “October Rain” before a huge crowd at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square.

https://youtu.be/5TEtoEhrAQg?si=bS6JmBDlMo-6bAvs

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