tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86747267515641826402024-03-14T03:49:26.668-05:00Powers That BeatA little bit of everything... from my favorite word to my favorite website. There's something in there for pretty much every mood-- songs to make you cry, videos to make you laugh. Political ads that make you sick and some that will give you chills-- but best of all there are those that give you the courage to say whatever is on your mind... SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT PROUD. I will not be ignored and I will not be forgotten, because that was SO yesterday! 11/20/2007 Thanks For Giving! © 2007-2013Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.comBlogger451125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-11204243814238928332017-10-24T14:57:00.001-05:002017-10-24T14:57:15.169-05:00Policy Advice for Betsy DeVos from a REAL Policy Analyst <div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">The Nashville City Paper featured a front-page story (“Metro School District</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">begins revamp of failing elementary, middle school,” May 21, 2007) that completely sugar-coated the situation in two metro middle schools that have fired (via involuntary transfer) the entire staff and faculty as a result of their failure to meet NCLB benchmarks.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">For the last 5 weeks, I have been working as a substitute teacher at Jere Baxter Middle School and the experience has shaken me to the core. Everything I used to believe about school finance reform has been turned upside down.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">Jere Baxter is a Title I school with access to numerous resources including a math specialist on site full time, district mentors to advise and assist new teachers. They have mental health specialists come into several classrooms on</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">a weekly basis, and it is not uncommon to see caseworkers and prevention specialists from a variety of community agencies on campus.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">However, despite the plethora of enhancement activities and access to resource materials, the majority of the 7th and 8th graders do not know simple math such as long division, subtraction (if they have to carry the one) or their times tables. You could throw a million dollars into this school, and it would not make a bit of difference!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">For the first two weeks, I was assigned to a self-contained classroom. At one point, the Assistant Principal walked in, observed the children, and even acknowledged the small black and white television hidden in the teacher’s aide desk tuned in to the Young and the Restless. She smiled and walked out. Apparently, she did not have a problem with the children watching Tom & Jerry, Sponge Bob and BET music videos from 10 a.m. through dismissal.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">A few days later, I gave a make-up assignment during the students “free time,” (lunch-time through dismissal) and I was told that my expectations were simply too high. That class in particular lost 15 teachers this year alone—16 including myself.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">The children are running the show at Baxter and they know it. The faculty receives little, if any, support from the administration. As a result, the majority of the teachers have simply given up.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">Dealing with disciplinary problems has become the primary focus in the classroom displacing teaching, learning, and cooperation.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">The numerous behavioral disruptions that occur each and every day prompted the administrators to pull the most effective teachers out</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">of the classroom to enforce (or re-enforce) school policy while</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">their classrooms remained empty or were covered by floating substitute teachers.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">The children are completely out of control and simply refuse to do any work. I was told not to give any student a grade below 75--</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">even the one who threw his crumpled up science assignment in my face and walked out of class shouting profanities.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">What the students have learned is that there will be no consequences for inappropriate behavior or actions. The administration treats teachers with complete disrespect: in front of students, teachers, and guests, completely undermining any sense of autonomy, authority or cohesiveness. Even I was embarrassed for them, and I was only there for a few weeks!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">This is a classic example of a top-down policy failure. As a policy analyst, I always advocated for equity in education, and believed on some level that throwing money into poor schools (poor performance and achievement records to disadvantaged students) might help level the playing field for disadvantaged schools, translating into better outcomes for students and the community.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">The City Paper glossed over the magnitude of this desperate situation by calling it a “fresh start.” These teachers have been treated poorly enough by students and administrators, and now we have a number of young professionals who are underpaid, uncertain, and unemployed.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">We all know that teacher pay is ridiculous to</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">begin with, but coupled with the added stress of the re-application process, Metro may lose a large number of educated, motivated, displaced educators to surrounding districts, counties, and states.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">This is simply ridiculous. By cleaning house, Baxter will lose the few experienced, dedicated teachers they have, prompt the younger</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">set to leave the profession all together, and discourage future teachers from applying for jobs in Metro.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">Everything we know about the positive outcomes in neighborhood schools is their strong reliance upon community buy-in and parental involvement. One thing that makes magnet, lottery, charter schools, parochial, and private schools so good is the fact that parents,</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">teachers, students, and administrators fight to get in, and fight to stay there.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">The act of choosing, in effect, leads to an enhanced sense of community and builds a supportive, consistent, and structured environment. Calling this decision a fresh start is ridiculous-- it would be more accurate to call it a very bad ending!</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">In this case, No Child Left Behind is, in effect, leaving No Teachers Left Behind.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">Department of Educational Policy</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">Columbia University, New York, NY</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 20pt; font-weight: bold;">"You may not care how much I know, but you don't know how much I care.”</span></div>
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Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-65717499205556442232017-10-18T05:21:00.001-05:002017-10-18T05:21:42.415-05:00Cyberwhore<h2><span style="font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cyberwhore</span></h2><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cyberwhore</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">by Elyssa Durant, <span class="skimlinks-unlinked" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">voices.yahoo.com</span><br>May 21st 2008</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Background / Introduction:<br>Shortly after I moved back to New York City to complete my graduate degree, I lost all of my personal, physical belongings in a household fire. What wasn’t destroyed was stolen shortly afterwards and I have very few things I created in along the way.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And though the memories surrounding this devastating loss are crystal clear in my head, my journals and my artwork are gone forever. Losing my journals, my books, my photo albums, and all of my school work was even worse than losing my home. I lost a piece of myself in the process. A piece that can never be replaced… If only I had the foresight to back up all of my work– scan in my photos, or find a safe deposit box I could afford, perhaps I could have finished my assignments on time and completed the last few credits necessary for my PhD.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I became obsessed with backing up data and making photocopies of any and every piece of my past I could find — just in case!</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I was eventually diagnosed with OCD and a myriad of other related anxiety disorders. </span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I wrote this letter to my therapist who helped me get through the most challenging time of my life. Not only did he belierve in my talent– he convinced to me to start writing again– even if my skills are a little rusty!</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thanks Dr. T!</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-edd</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">GT:</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Hi Elyssa,</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It’s nice to hear from you, I had just been thinking of you. Is there a reason why you sent me two copies?</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Talk to you soon,”</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">___________________________________</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">EDD:</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now how can you call yourself a qualified therapist and ask me such a stupid question?</span></div><div style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I have at two of everything!</span></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-66417199213491286222016-04-27T00:28:00.001-05:002016-04-27T00:28:01.153-05:00Unemployment Identity Crisis in America<p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">by Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">© 2009-2016</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Guwz9iw0Zkk/VyBN354JnZI/AAAAAAAAUus/UvIIQUjD5PM/s640/blogger-image--1203287043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Guwz9iw0Zkk/VyBN354JnZI/AAAAAAAAUus/UvIIQUjD5PM/s640/blogger-image--1203287043.jpg"></a></div><br><p></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After being rejected from a job that pays $18,000 / year at the women's prison, a job that pays $21,000 teaching Head Start, getting fired from Red Lobster (because apparently, I am just not Red Lobster "material" I decided to go to the Tennessee Career Center to take advantage of their high speed internet, free printer paper, and ink...</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">now would not be the best time to mention my senior thesis-- or my grad school major, or the fact that i spent the better part life as a volunteer and advocate for children at-risk.. working to give them hope and a second chance at life.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">systematically invalidating such bogus, barnum-type feedback that one typically gets from a MBTI type of personality test that is given during high school or in college. i won't bother to mention the standardization of SAT scores to help our country feel better-- or the fact that the stanford-binet was created for military issue only.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">who gives a shit anymore??? if you told a me a fat bearded lady at the circus could decide my fate and tell me what direction i should choose next-- i'd take it! and throw in a fat tip for being smart enough to know that any answer-- no matter how grim, is far better than just wandering aimlessly through life looking back on what might have been-- at THIRTY? at THIRTY-SIX??? How about 40? Or 45? Will I be 50 years old asking the same damn questions? </span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">after receiving five letters of rejection from jobs that require nothing more than a GED or a high school diploma, i decided to go to the tennessee career center hoping to find a job that will allow me to afford the most basic necessities of life. toothpaste, toilet paper, cat food... </span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i got hooked up with a counselor that afternoon. he has two masters degrees-- one in educational career counseling, and a second in counseling psychology. could this be the guidance counselor i have been asking for since.. well... since... i was old enough to know was in need of guidance?</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">surely someone else must have recognized i was in need of guidance, but god knows my parents weren't paying attention, and having good genes just doesn't cut it these days. but now more than ever, i realize that having all the smarts in the world won't get you anywhere if you never learned how to apply them.<br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;"></span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i am the exact same five year old who needed to win the spelling bee. in college, i was the one to set the curve, not just make it. the one to break the rules, and, break them i did, but there is no glory in being second best, second smartest, second brightest, or second anything.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">i wish i could say that after all this time i developed other ego strengths and finally felt okay with who i am, you know.... "just being me," but i am sad to report that my "condition" (diagnosis) was amazingly accurate and predictable. just like all the doctors said! i wonder if they derive joy out of being right-- if they crack open a bottle of aged liquor in my fathers office and say, "see, we told you so. we told you their was nothing you could do." and so nothing they did.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">and by doing nothing, and i do mean nothing-- the illness will just take will its course. and i am now, in fact, nothing. nothing costs nothing (at least to them) and daddy made another fine investment. on the other hand, nothing has drained every hope, fear, security-- every chance-- and every last breath from my body. i might have believed in me. but i know i'm alive because a tear just rolled down the side of my cheek. i am home.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">but i still haven't learned. for some reason with all of my failures i am reminded of in so many ways... me, myself, as i watch them play out every time i shut my eyes or open them. yes- blink.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">sometimes i ask myself, how did i get here? how did this happen? what happened to all of the plans i made for myself? where did they go? where did I go? constantly replayed over and over and over again in my mind. i must be F---ING CRAZY!</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">but at this moment, here, even as i say the words, i am not truly insane, i am merely in pain. what a tragedy that those two words rhyme-- they ruin what could have been a very profound misnomer of the human condition and the labels we hold so dear.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">i am the exact same 5 year old who needed to ACE the spelling bee, set the curve, not just make it; break the rules, and, break them i did. there is no glory in being second best. second smartest, second brightest, or second anything. being second sucks. it sucks every god-damned second of the day.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">so my search for mediocrity continues and i wait for it each and every day hoping it will find me beaten and worn from the storm. all of the storms, but dammit, its still there. i still have questions those damn elyssa questions that made all my professors so proud, damn ideas, damn thoughts, damn hope.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">my mother still calls me everyday to see if i went to get food stamps to feed myself, #EFF her, and her #EFF'n things. #EFF diamonds, couture, and #EFF that life. i was here mom, the whole #EFF'n time. just not pretty enough with out any surgery. not pretty at all, with all those damn scars.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">i hope someone out there still loves me. i do actually believe that i deserve love and kindness despite the obvious fact that i am a royal pain in the ass. i refuse to work in burger king. for right now, at least.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">so goodnight my dear friends. let's all try to have sweet dreams. pepe awaits, as does alanis, and a pack of smokes that i can already taste.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">yes, what could have been, what should have been-- what MIGHT have been if you let me be<br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">m.e.</span></p><p style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;"><i style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;"><b style="outline: transparent solid 0px; -webkit-touch-callout: none;">"When written in chinese, the word Crisis is composed of tvo characters: One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." </b></i>-JFK</span></p>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-91638059349391351992016-03-30T02:01:00.001-05:002016-03-30T02:01:48.238-05:00Unemployment Crisis in America<div id="RIL_header" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h1 style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0.2em 0px 7px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; border-bottom-width: 4px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);"><span style="font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Unemployment Crisis in America</span></h1><cite style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; display: block; font-style: normal;"><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">by <a class="RIL_author" href="http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1714521/unemployment_crisis_in_america.html?cat=9" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold;">Elyssa D. Durant</a> </span></div><span class="RIL_date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">May 4th 2009</div></span></cite></div><div id="RIL_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both;"><div id="RIL_less" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><i nodeindex="191" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After being rejected from a job that pays $18,000 / year at the women's prison, a job that pays $21,000 teaching Head Start, getting fired from Red Lobster (because apparently, I am just not Red Lobster "material" I decided to go to the Tennessee Career Center to take advantage of their high speed internet, free printer paper, and ink...</i></div><p nodeindex="29" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">now would not be the best time to mention my senior thesis-- or my grad school major, or the fact that i spent the better part life as a volunteer and advocate for children at-risk.. working to give them hope and a second chance at life.</span></p><p nodeindex="30" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">systematically invalidating such bogus, barnum-type feedback that one typically gets from a MBTI type of personality test that is given during high school or in college. i won't bother to mention the standardization of SAT scores to help our country feel better-- or the fact that the stanford-binet was created for military issue only.</span></p><p nodeindex="31" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">who gives a shit anymore??? if you told a me a fat bearded lady at the circus could decide my fate and tell me what direction i should choose next-- i'd take it! and throw in a fat tip for being smart enough to know that any answer-- no matter how grim, is far better than just wandering aimlessly through life looking back on what might have been-- at THIRTY? at THIRTY-SIX???</span></p><p nodeindex="32" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">after receiving five letters of rejection from jobs that require nothing more than a GED or a high school diploma, i decided to go to the tennessee career center hoping to find a job that will allow me to afford the most basic necessities of life. toothpaste, toilet paper, cat food... i got hooked up with a counselor that afternoon. he has two masters degrees-- one in educational career counseling, and a second in counseling psychology. could this be the guidance counselor i have been asking for since.. well... since... i was old enough to know was in need of guidance?</span></p><p nodeindex="33" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">surely someone else must have recognized i was in need of guidance, but god knows my parents weren't paying attention, and having good genes just doesn't cut it these days. but now more than ever, i realize that having all the smarts in the world won't get you anywhere if you never learned how to apply them.</span></p><p nodeindex="34" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i am the exact same five year old who needed to win the spelling bee. in college, i was the one to set the curve, not just make it. the one to break the rules, and, break them i did, but there is no glory in being second best, second smartest, second brightest, or second anything.</span></p><p nodeindex="35" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i wish i could say that after all this time i developed other ego strengths and finally felt okay with who i am, you know.... "just being me," but i am sad to report that my "condition" (diagnosis) was amazingly accurate and predictable. just like all the doctors said! i wonder if they derive joy out of being right-- if they crack open a bottle of aged liquor in my fathers office and say, "see, we told you so. we told you their was nothing you could do." and so nothing they did.</span></p><p nodeindex="36" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and by doing nothing, and i do mean nothing-- the illness will just take will its course. and i am now, in fact, nothing. nothing costs nothing (at least to them) and daddy made another fine investment. on the other hand, nothing has drained every hope, fear, security-- every chance-- and every last breath from my body. i might have believed in me. but i know i'm alive because a tear just rolled down the side of my cheek. i am home.</span></p><p nodeindex="37" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">but i still haven't learned. for some reason with all of my failures i am reminded of in so many ways... me, myself, as i watch them play out every time i shut my eyes or open them. yes- blink.</span></p><p nodeindex="38" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">sometimes i ask myself, how did i get here? how did this happen? what happened to all of the plans i made for myself? where did they go? where did I go? constantly replayed over and over and over again in my mind. i must be F---ING CRAZY!</span></p><p nodeindex="39" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">but at this moment, here, even as i say the words, i am not truly insane, i am merely in pain. what a tragedy that those two words rhyme-- they ruin what could have been a very profound misnomer of the human condition and the labels we hold so dear.</span></p><p nodeindex="40" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i am the exact same 5 year old who needed to ACE the spelling bee, set the curve, not just make it; break the rules, and, break them i did. there is no glory in being second best. second smartest, second brightest, or second anything. being second sucks. it sucks every god-damned second of the day.</span></p><p nodeindex="41" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and so my search for mediocrity continues and i wait for it each and every day hoping it will find me beaten and worn from the storm. all of the storms, but dammit, its still there. i still have questions those damn elyssa questions that made all my professors so proud, damn ideas, damn thoughts, damn hope.</span></p><p nodeindex="42" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">my mother still calls me everyday to see if i went to get food stamps to feed myself, #EFF her, and her #EFF'n things. #EFF diamonds, couture, and #EFF that life. i was here mom, the whole #EFF'n time. just not pretty enough with out any surgery. not pretty at all, with all those damn scars.</span></p><p nodeindex="43" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">i hope someone out there still loves me. i do actually believe that i deserve love and kindness despite the obvious fact that i am a royal pain in the ass. i refuse to work in burger king. for right now, at least.</span></p><p nodeindex="44" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">so goodnight my dear friends. let's all try to have sweet dreams. pepe awaits, as does alanis, and a pack of smokes that i can already taste.</span></p><p nodeindex="45" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">yes, what could have been, what should have been-- what MIGHT have been if you let me be</span></p><p nodeindex="46" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">m.e.</span></p><p nodeindex="47" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"When written in chinese, the word Crisis is composed of tvo characters: One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." -JFK</span></p></div></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-66505368321957754282015-11-25T09:05:00.001-06:002017-09-14T20:10:04.919-05:00In God We Trust? School Vouchers for Parochial School?<div style="direction: rtl;"><br></div><div style="direction: rtl;">Elyssa D. Durant</div><div style="direction: rtl;">Social Stratification </div><div style="direction: rtl;">Columbia University </div><div style="direction: rtl;"><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Guiding Questions</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>How can school vouchers reach a balance between serving the public interest and preserving. individual freedoms and rights?</div><div><br></div><div>What additional arguments can be presented for against the use of school vouchers for parochial schools?</div><div><br></div><div>How is the issue of school vouchers for sectarian institutions different or similar from issues surrounding prayer in school?</div><div><br></div><div>What are the common issues relevant to both Charter schools and voucher programs?</div><div><br></div><div>Since I have serious concerns regarding the long term outcomes of school choice and voucher programs, exacerbate the inequality between the rich and the poor. Since I believe that healthcare and education are both social goods, I have serious concerns about letting the free-market run amok during such a critical point in history. I do not feel it is wise to allow for-profit market forces to dictate the any public good when natural rights are at stake. The shortcomings of the Medicaid managed care programs, Medicare supplemental insurance policies, and demonstration projects such as the privatization of prisons provide sufficient evidence of the dangers of profit driven corporations in American culture. Corporate scandals with food and other suppliers contracted by the Board of Education in New York City provides an excellent example of how easy it is to manipulate funds away from the target recipients.</div><div><br></div><div>For example, private managed care companies offered gifts to boost enrollment by enticing desperate Medicaid recipients to join their plans. I find this marketing strategy offensive when we are dealing with a social good albeit healthcare or education. Vulnerable populations are frequently exploited through corporate contracts, and there is little reason to believe that for-profit conglomerates would treat public schools or economically disadvantaged students and families otherwise.</div><div><br></div><div> Arguments on both sides of the school voucher issue are very similar to those presented for and against Charter Schools and free-market school choice. Smrekar (1998) presents four key issues that have been at the center of the school choice debate: (1) economic, (2) political; (3) social justice; and (4) pedagogical.</div><div><br></div><div>The economic argument in favor of school choice points out that our current public education system resembles a monopoly. Proponents argue that the introduction of choice into the educational marketplace will promote competition and force schools with poor performance records to improve or close (Friedman, 1968). </div><div><br></div><div>The political argument is centered on the democratic ideal that the freedom to choose where your child attends school is a fundamental right. The political argument also triggers strong feelings about the role of education in a democratic society. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> There are those who feel that the public school is intended, at least in part, to create a common set of core values that is best served by the public sector. At the core of the political school choice argument is a debate regarding the benefits of providing a common set of experiences in a democracy versus promoting individual choice and liberty (Smrekar, 1998). This issue, while not dead, was challenged in 1925 when the Supreme Court ruled in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (268 U.S. 510 (1925)) in favor of parents who sent their children to private school. This argument continues today and is at the center of both school choice and curriculum debates. </div><div><br></div><div> The social justice argument is a bit more complicated and there is little agreement on any front. Proponents argue that school choice empowers the poor to participate in the education of their children by giving them the same options available to wealthier families in the United States. According to a 1997 poll in USA Today, 47% of parents would send their children to private schools if they had the financial resources (Doyle, 1997).</div><div><br></div><div>Information is an essential component to any school choice program. In order to ensure social equity in school choice programs we need to be sure that the poor are fully informed of their choices and are not taken advantage of in the open market. It is believed that the act of choosing has positive effects on the school environment and promotes parental involvement in their children’s education (Doyle, 1997). Additional components of the social justice argument have focused on the nuts and bolts of choice programs, and point out how there are several different ways that choice programs may (wittingly or unwittingly) promote social inequity (Cookson, 1995). Such arguments focus on transportation problems, admissions policies, the availability of information, and how we define “choice” and implement policies regulating recruitment, enrollment and performance of participating schools, (Cookson, 1995; 1997). </div><div><br></div><div> The pedagogical argument points out that school choice programs are better suited for the individual needs inherent to a pluralistic society. Although some feel there is value in providing core curriculum and a common set of basic skills, there is a current trend towards specialty schools that focus on the arts and sciences, technology, vocational training, etc. Educators look towards successful magnet schools as examples of the pedagogical success that demonstrated the importance of school choice and parental involvement as indicators of educational outcomes. Some educators fear that the introduction of school choice and voucher plans would prompt the best students to leave public schools and that this would have a negative effect on the overall climate of public classrooms.</div><div> </div><div> There are several different types of voucher programs, but the one which raises the most questions are voucher programs that give qualified individuals the choice to attend parochial schools. Traditional arguments against this type of school voucher program have focused on the Constitutionality of using state funds for sectarian institutions.</div><div><br></div><div>Historically, the church had a key role in the education of children in America. During the National Period (1780-1830), churches were used to educate children, and the King James Bible was used as a reader in these classrooms (Smrekar, 1998). Derek Neal (1997) points out that much of the current sentiment against Catholic schools is not a reflection of their excellent performance record, but rather an indication of the anti-Catholic sentiment which swept the country during the late part of the 19th Century (Neal, 1997). Neal argues that until that point, there was no contest to religious education as long as it was Protestant. </div><div><br></div><div>Catholic schools have traditionally served the children of the working class. They were a major socializing force earlier in the century and continue to succeed with children who might otherwise fall through the cracks in public schools. Despite tapering enrollment, Catholic schools remain a viable force in the private sector providing a reasonably priced private education to American children. Neal conducted a study that looked at the graduation rates of minority children attending Catholic schools compared with children attending public schools in the inner cities. Controlling for demographic variables, (parent’s education, parent’s occupation, family structure, and reading materials at home) closer analysis revealed graduation rates for urban minorities are 26% higher in Catholic schools compared with public schools in the same communities. Although Neal found similar benefits for whites and in suburban communities, this effect was most profound for urban minorities.</div><div><br></div><div>Other studies have focused on identifying the qualities that make Catholic schools successful. A number of factors have been identified by Bryk and Lee, including active parental participation and the benefits of school choice in creating an inclusive community which fosters a common set of values and ideals (Bryk & Lee, 1995). Interestingly, the very same variables found to enhance the performance of Catholic school students are remarkably similar to the reported benefits of magnet schools and choice programs. Despite the excellent performance records of Catholic schools, there are currently no voucher programs that allow parochial schools to participate in state funded voucher programs. </div><div><br></div><div>The reason for this is quite simple, but not necessarily correct or in the best interest of our children. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the use of public funds in religious institutions. However, it can also be argued that it is unconstitutional to exclude parochial schools from voucher systems because it violates the student’s free expression of religion. In addition, voucher programs require a conscious decision on the part of the student and the parent. The state does not enforce a blanket endorsement of any one religion. I use Catholic schools as an example because they represent the majority of parochial schools in urban America.</div><div> </div><div>Voucher programs typically undergo strict scrutiny for all four reasons mentioned above, but this issue is especially true of any choice or voucher program that channels funds into Parochial schools. For this reason, Catholic schools and other schools with religious affiliations have been excluded from voucher plans up until this point. It is not politically viable to institute a choice or voucher program at any level (at the district, state or national level) since similar plans have historically presented long-standing, hard-fought, legal challenges to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. </div><div><br></div><div>Since the Supreme Court has not ruled on this issue, most challenges up until this point have taken place in state courts[1]. These state decisions have been split, and while there are a few voucher programs operating in Wisconsin and Ohio, neither permits sectarian schools to participate in their programs. Milwaukee designed a voucher system that included parochial schools in 1995 but later revised their proposal after the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction against expansion into religious schools (Kremerer & King, 1995).</div><div><br></div><div>School choice programs that involve vouchers have not been tested in the Supreme Court, but there is a long history of court cases that challenge the flow of money from the public sector into private, sectarian institutions. The recent pattern of Supreme Court rulings has lead some legal scholars (Kemerer & King, 1995) to conclude that school vouchers would pass constitutional muster under the following circumstances:</div><div><br></div><div>Provides payments in the form of scholarships to parents of school age children</div><div>Allows parents to choose among a variety of public and private sectarian and nonsectarian schools for their children</div><div>Gives no preference to sectarian private institutions</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Voucher programs up until this point have encountered substantial resistance from the legal community and a number of civil rights and political organizations. This becomes more pronounced when the voucher model includes sectarian institutions in the model plan and state court rulings have been inconsistent in decisions surrounding the constitutionality of voucher programs.</div><div><br></div><div> The definitive case regarding school voucher programs is Lemon v. Kurtzman (403 U.S. 602 (1971)). The Court’s ruling in Lemon was based on three components that came to be known as the “Lemon Test”. The Lemon Test applies the following to any Constitutional challenge of the Establishment Clause:</div><div><br></div><div>The government action must have a secular purpose</div><div>The primary effect must neither advance, nor inhibit religion</div><div>It must not result in excessive governmental entanglement with religion</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Since voucher programs do not generally provide support directly to the institution, individual freedom and choice remain intact. Individual families are empowered by educational vouchers since they choose the school and religion appropriate for them. Qualified schools are not determined by religious affiliation and all schools are required to adhere to state and federal regulations which increases accountability. Similar issues came before the courts in Pierce v. Society of Sisters (268 U.S. 510 (1925)) as well, however Lemon v. Kurtzman (403 U.S. 602 (1971)) is considered to be both the landmark and test case currently before the courts.</div><div><br></div><div>The reason for this is quite simple, but not necessarily correct or in the best interest of our children. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the use of public funds in religious institutions. However, it could also be argued that it is unconstitutional to exclude parochial schools from voucher systems because it violates the free expression of religion. In addition, voucher programs require a conscious decision on the part of the student and the parent. The state does not enforce a blanket endorsement of any one religion. I use Catholic schools as an example because they represent the majority of parochial schools in urban America.</div><div> </div><div>Teacher’s unions are resistant to bring in a new system that has the potential to upset their job status and security. It will likely be a number of years before we truly understand the effects of magnet schools and can evaluate the implementation of school choice programs that are already in place. Because we are dealing with such an essential human, social good, it is my recommendation that we do not implement a large scale voucher program until issues of access and equity are resolved on other public fronts. We must ensure real choices for the students and families who are not information savvy and may be limited in their ability to recognize the real value of their options. We must find a way to ensure the equitable distribution of resources so that education truly does will empower the poor.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> Is the time right to apply the Lemon Test to school vouchers? You decide.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>References</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Cookson, P.W., Jr. (1994). School choice: The struggle for the soul of American education. New Haven: Yale University Press.</div><div><br></div><div>Cookson, P.W., Jr. (1995). ERIC Digests: School Choice.</div><div><br></div><div>Doyle, D.P. (1997). Vouchers for religious schools. Public Interest, 127, 88-95.</div><div><br></div><div>Haynes, C.C. (1993). Beyond the culture wars. Educational Leadership, 51(4), 30-34.</div><div><br></div><div>Houston, P.D. (1993). School vouchers: The latest California joke. Phi Delta Kappan, 75(4), 61-64.</div><div> </div><div>Kremerer, F.R. & King, K.L. (1995). Are school vouchers Constitutional? Phi Delta Kappan, 77(1), 307-311.</div><div><br></div><div>Kremerer, F.R. (1995). The Constitutionality of school vouchers. West’s Education Law Reporter, 101 Ed. Law Rep. 17.</div><div><br></div><div>Kremerer, F.R. (1997). State Constitutions and school vouchers. West’s Education Law Reporter, 120 Ed. Law Rep. 1.</div><div><br></div><div>Neal, D. (1997). Measuring Catholic school performance. Public Interest, 127, 81-87.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Page 8 of 8</div><div><br></div><div>[1] Including a decision that was handed down this week regarding a choice plan in Ohio. (12/18/2000)</div><div><br></div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgty96vxRNvS7iF5u7NQPqHF_8CMJye2Dpghb_2yEnpomMim0LXBQjcqkE2N7Bh34UnS4-kjT742nbRRD3OhNhxnU9ic9hCZ2ZIAoZBwGjGryTUpQGspx2kf4wV8YFfY4KyMQbx_A5XtZFU/s640/blogger-image-514883971.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgty96vxRNvS7iF5u7NQPqHF_8CMJye2Dpghb_2yEnpomMim0LXBQjcqkE2N7Bh34UnS4-kjT742nbRRD3OhNhxnU9ic9hCZ2ZIAoZBwGjGryTUpQGspx2kf4wV8YFfY4KyMQbx_A5XtZFU/s640/blogger-image-514883971.jpg"></a></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-24264296518199567122014-07-31T09:07:00.001-05:002014-07-31T09:07:44.413-05:00Obama-Biden Transition Project Healthcare Proposal<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><div class="original-url"><span style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; ">The Obama-Biden Transition Project </span></div><div class="original-url"><font face="Palatino, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif"><span style="line-height: 26px; ">by Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. </span></font></div><div id="article"><div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; "><b><i><br></i></b></div><div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; "><b><i>"We're often asked how we plan to take this unique moment in history - when a grassroots movement for change elected a president - and turn it into a force that can build stronger communities, block by block." -</i><i>The Obama-Biden Transition Project</i></b> <i><a href="http://change.gov"><b>http://change.gov</b></a></i><p></p><p>As I was thinking about how to respond to the numerous requests the Obama Transition Team that has been sending out to community organizers, political activists, advocates and non-profits across the country, I am reminded of the days I spent living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.</p><p>At the time, in the mid to late 1990's, the American Sociological Association (ASA) held its annual conference in New York City. Prior to that meeting, they sent out a fact sheet that may be of interest to ASA members. In this sheet, they too described the same social conditions and asked their members to take note of the changes that occur at 96th Street.</p><p>Oddly enough, the very same area was undergoing rapid transformation and gentrification at the time Mayor Rudolph Giuliani took office. As described by the ASA and other political sociologists, the South Bronx is one of the most severely segregated and poorest Congressional Districts in the United States. The members of this community have been segregated into a hell plagued with sickness, violence and despair. Kozol argues that this strategic placement serves to isolate the rich from the realities they have thrust upon their fellow man. </p><p>New Yorkers do not stroll through the streets of Mott Haven, and taxicabs take no short cuts through Beekman Avenue. Many taxicabs will not even venture past East 96th Street. Out of sight is out of mind.</p><p>There is no excuse for the living conditions of these children and their families. No person should be forced into an apartment that has a higher ratio of cockroaches and rats than to human beings.</p><p>These children are desperately in need of the best schools, yet we give them the worst. They have few libraries, few safe havens, few doctors, and few role models. </p><p>They have every reason to believe that they are throwaway children and we have certainly not shown them anything else. The social services we have provided are a bureaucratic nightmare. People in need are treated as sub-human, and made to feel ashamed of being poor.</p><p>These are among the sickest children in the world. Americans claim to be dedicated to the children and fool ourselves into believing that we are doing them a favor by providing them with medical care, public education, and public housing. Yet, the quality of their neighborhoods speaks volumes of our sentiment and intentions.</p><p>Shortly after the publication of Amazing Grace, managed care rapidly moved onto the New York scene. </p><p>Around the same time, the Mayor announced he would be closing some of the hospitals that served the poorest of the poor because of financial problems associated with payment and large trauma departments.</p><p>Kozol makes the point that people could attempt to gain admissions at a better hospital than Bronx-Lebanon; yet, the privatization of Medicaid made this completely impossible. </p><p>Further restrictions on medical care are inevitable as a direct result of Medicaid managed care plans. The law is not designed to protect the poor, the fragile, and the disenfranchised.</p><p>This was made obvious in a recent conversation I had with a friend who practices emergency medicine on the elite Upper East Side of Manhattan. My friend works as a board certified trauma physician at a private hospital on the Upper East Side. The last black patient he treated at Beth Israel was famed rock singer Michael Jackson.</p><p>This is the reality. The best doctors treat the healthy and wealthy instead of the people who have the greatest need. They give no thought to the equitable distribution of services; they just file insurance claims and billing statements. Doctors should consider who stands to could benefit the most from their skill and experience. Perhaps we should invert the payment schedule so physicians and other health care providers should receive a higher rate of reimbursement for treating the most vulnerable populations.</p><p>Patients with the greatest need get the worst care.</p><p>Great teachers teach great students in great neighborhoods.</p><p><i><b>This makes no sense!</b></i></p><p>And we wonder why the division between the have and the have-nots continues to grow?</p><p>People often ask me why I am so angry about the living conditions of poor urban minorities. My response-Why aren't you? I cannot be the only one who places human kindness, dignity, and integrity above the lure of the almighty dollar!</p><p>We should feel enraged by the way we treat our own citizens. Children who did not ask to be born into poverty and substandard living conditions.</p><p>I have thought for many years that the system is upside down, and I become more and more convinced of that as I grow older.</p><p>To paraphrase the message of the new Windows Vista commercial, The Mayor's of Nashville's winning campaign.... it is all connected....</p><p>Clearly there is a level of inter-connectedness that exists between the various sectors of the American marketplace and economy otherwise Washington would not be at a complete standstill trying to figure out what to tweak, where, and just how much...</p><p>Did it really take a $700 Billion wake up call for our citizens to realize that that all is not well in America. It is time to get real about healthcare. It is time to get real about education. </p><p>It <span style="line-height: 1.4; ">is time to get real about the cost of education. It is time to get real about this god-forsaken war that we are still in! This country is in desperate need of a wake-up call, and we must develop a course of action that embraces a multi-dimensional approach and vast restructuring of the laissez faire way of regulating healthcare in the past.</span></p><p>Similarly, many different things influence the human condition by upsetting the delicate balance between those who can and those who do. We need to focus on improving the lives of those who might... People who can and do amazing things when given the chance. </p><p>People who can excel under the right set of circumstances given the right support, the right guidance, the right tools, and the right opportunities. People who may not have the monetary (financial) resources to invest in themselves, their families, or their communities.</p><p>If we are to find some resolution to the unprecedented, simultaneous collapse of the economy, the market place and/or government and the collapsing housing market in United States, it seems obvious that people, the economy, healthcare, education confidence and faith in the American people it is time to take drastic efforts to strengthen our greatest asset and hope for the future: Our children! </p><p>We must take action on a number of fronts to create some type of stability in our country, our economy, and the international marketplace. We need to start here, now, in our own communities, schools, and invest in ourselves.</p><p>Look at the facts; if we get healthy, they go broke! So let's shake it up a bit, and turn this sad state of affairs upside down!</p><p>I am not for sale, yet my healthcare company pimps me out based upon their ability to negotiate with fat cat for profit healthcare giants like HCA and First Health who are by no means the business to make people well! </p><p>It does not take a rocket scientist to see the perverse incentive to keep people sick and dependent upon costly medications and treatment protocols.</p><p><u><b>Education:</b></u></p><p>Next year, I want Harvard to take in the worst students. Take the worst students who would not have made it past the front door of the admissions office. Take the worst students. Students who did not break a thousand on their SATs and barely made it through watered-down high school curriculum. Let them benefit from a first class education.</p><p>Guess what Harvard? The smart kids don't need you! They are already ahead of the game. </p><p>We can sit them in a corner for a year or two because they do not need the Ivy League to succeed. By definition, they are already streamlined for success and they will no doubt be great with or without you!</p><p>There is no doubt that the prevalence of violence in urban neighborhoods affects the ability of children to perform well in school. There is a large body of empirical evidence that demonstrates the effects of chronic stress on memory and the learning process. </p><p>Rather than taking the children out of these communities, we have constructed prison like buildings for them to attend school. They routinely have gunfire drills reminding them that danger is never far behind.</p><p>Children cannot learn in this environment. This constant stress triggers "hot-memory." Hot memory can be thought of as learning with your heart and not your mind. It is no wonder children perform inadequately in this environment. It is bad enough that children live in such conditions, must we educate in them too. If we want underprivileged children to learn and grow spiritually, we must create an environment that allows their cool memory systems to take over. </p><p>It is only under these conditions that children will permit themselves to learn and develop their intellectual strengths.</p><p>We have failed to create a safe home environment for urban children, but we can give serious thought to creating a school environment outside of the community so they have fewer fear-driven hours each day.</p><p>It is any wonder that these children perform poorly in school. By every measure, these children are destined for failure. Their home life is less than enchanting, and they do not benefit from enriched environments and educated parents. Certainly, there are many dedicated parents who care about their children, but is that enough? </p><p>When I was in school, children frequently asked the teacher, how this would help later in life. As a young girl in a suburban classroom, there was an unequivocal reply, but it could be argued that what children in the South Bronx need to learn cannot be taught in the classroom.</p><p>Studies consistently report lower academic achievement in urban neighborhoods like Mott Haven in the South Bronx. Children growing up in urban neighborhoods have a much higher incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). </p><p>Most researchers believe this to be the direct result of living in stressed communities plagued with street crime and violence. </p><p>The potential impact of chronic stress on academic performance and achievement is not known, but reading scores in neighborhoods like Mott Haven certainly seem to indicate some type of causal relationship. </p><p><span style="line-height: 1.4; ">There is virtually no research on looking at the long-term effects of this inflated incidence of PTSD among urban populations. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.4; ">It is important to develop an understanding of the effects of fear on the academic performance of urban adolescents so we can begin to dismantle the myths regarding school performance and minority children.</span></p><p>Under these conditions, it is not surprising to learn that students also report pervasive feelings of fear and do not feel secure despite the added presence of security personnel on school grounds. </p><p>For these students, school is a mere extension of the violent communities in which they live.</p><p>Since urban communities have many different sources of stress, it is important to examine how school policies contribute to the learning environment in public schools. </p><p>The quick response has been to install weapons detectors and hire school security for urban schools. The presence of school security certainly affects the climate of American public schools and sends a symbolic message to members of the community, the world, and especially the students themselves regarding the role they are expected to play as they mature into adolescents and young adulthood.</p><p>The school rules mimic are not unlike those one might expect to find in a state prison. Students are rewarded for obedience and they are taught to follow the rules rather than to think critically. </p><p>On the back of the No Child Left Behind legislation, we indoctrinate our youngest members of society with "core curriculum" and "Back to Basics." Students across the country are judged on their ability to regurgitate facts on high-stakes standardized tests.</p><p>Lesson plans are filled with repetition exercises and workbook pages rather than student projects or classroom discussion. We teach conformity, rules, and limits. </p><p>We teach kids to be blind followers. The skills we are teaching are better suited for prison rather than the real world. Teachers are teaching the kids to follow rules, to conform, and to reward obedience rather than creativity.</p><p>The secured environment is an indication of the roles students are expected to play later in life. This is a lesson they will not soon forget. </p><p>School rules and core curriculum makes classroom silencing an everyday event in the urban classroom. And as my list of "off-limit" subject matter grows longer each term, the need to bring such things into the dialogue becomes more and more apparent. </p><p>I actually have a printed list of topics that I am forbidden to discuss in the classroom: The election, politics, race, religion, suicide, pregnancy. </p><p>The more topics they add, the more relevant they become. The unspoken truth has becomes louder and louder the more we are silenced. There is a big pink elephant standing in the middle of my classroom! There is a big pink elephant in the middle of our community!</p><p>By focusing on student behavior rather than student skills, knowledge, and achievement, we are showing all members of the school, the community, and the children themselves that we have already given up. </p><p>Together, the urban public school and the community it serves are a constant reminder of the perpetual cycle of poverty and the poor living conditions and social reality that continue to plague urban America.</p><p>Kozol makes it quite clear that there are several exceptional children in this community. There are probably as many exceptional children here as every other community around the country, yet, so few of them will make it out of the South Bronx. <span style="line-height: 1.4; ">Kozol is careful not to dwell on the exceptional cases of children who successfully navigate their way into the main stream of society. Kozol does this so we do not develop a false sense of hope. If we cling to a few exceptional cases, we may come to believe that what we are giving enough to children like Anthony or Anabelle.</span></p><p>Clearly, we can do more. Failure should be the exception-not the rule. Success should be the norm, and until it is, we should not give up hope for these children.</p><p>This is our time to let our voices be heard. Any number of social justice agencies from moveon.org, to Cover the Uninsured, to Families USA, Center for Community Change, Health Care for America Now; have opened the blogosphere so that everyday common folk like you and I can submit our opinions to the Transition Team in Washington.</p><p>They are begging us to participate, to give our opinions, to let our voices be heard. They need our help. Let us make this the country we are proud to call home. Let this be a new beginning for us all, and let us make this a land of real opportunity.</p><p>America claims to be dedicated to equal opportunity, yet equality is not sufficient in a urban communities. These kids need more. We need to think about equity, not equality. It is not enough to hide them away. Be silenced no more!</p><p>SUBMIT YOUR VIEWS ONLINE: The Obama-Biden Transition Project <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://change.gov/">http://change.gov</a></p></div></div></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br><br>Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.<div>DailyDDoSe © 1995-2014<div> </div></div></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-42252549343883760032014-06-10T11:28:00.001-05:002014-06-10T11:28:27.289-05:00Celebrating a Day in the Life<div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Let's face it... my job pretty much sucks: </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">The very nature of being a crisis counselor, therapist, casemanager or any other kind of mental health professional requires that I respond with professionalism to kids who have </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">been abused and basically fucked over for years; first by their families, and then by a system that fails to protect them. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I get calls in the middle of the night from children, adolescents, and even my friends who are in vaiying stages of crises— some are suicidal psychotic, angry, and pretty much just all kinds of fucked up. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But today, TODAY!!!! </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Today, a child rolled up her sleeves to show me that her set finflicted wounds (cutting) were beginning to heal. She threw out her last razor blade from her hidden collection the night </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">before. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Today, I won a small battle. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Today, I saw a life change and the healing begin, Not just for her, but for aii of us. Today, I won a small battle. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">As one of my former clients told me, what I do is important— </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">because even though I may not change hundreds or thousands of lives every day of my fife, I make a difference one life at a time. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">At the time, I couldn't: stop the tears from my eyes now I can't stop the warm feeling that has taken hold of my body and me same instead of the tears.</div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I am so very proud of you. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.</div><div><br></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-59591230400100102722013-12-25T20:43:00.001-06:002013-12-25T20:43:12.031-06:00Most people only realize they're being bullied when they read this page; what is bullying, how to recognise bullies and injury to health<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/why_me.htm">http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/why_me.htm</a><br><br></div><div id="article" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; -webkit-locale: en; "> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">On other pages:</h1> <p>Updated by Tim Field Foundation</p> <p><a href="/workbully/types_of_bullying.htm">Different types of workplace bullying</a><br> <a href="/workbully/bullying_and_harassment.htm">The difference between bullying and harassment</a><br> <a href="http://amibeing.htm">What Is Bullying?</a></p> <h1>Why Me?</h1> <p></p> <p>There are many reasons how and why bullies target others, and the reasons are consistent between different cases. There are many euphamisms used to describe bullying (e.g. firm management") and myths used to justify it (e.g. "victims are weak"). None of these are true. Bullying often repeats because bullies target their victims for the same reasons each time. This page may answer the question, "Why do I keep getting bullied?".</p> <h2><span>Why do people get bullied?</span></h2> <p>Bullies can act because they are jealous of their target's status, talents, abilities, circumstances or possessions. Bullies act without integrity, and despise people who display it. Sometimes they act with no reason other than for the kick they get from realising that something they have done has provoked a reaction in their target. Making people annoyed can be a cheap source of gratification and amusement. But bullies with jobs fear exposure of their perceived shortcomings, such as inadequacy and incompetence, and these people bully not for fun but in order - they think - to survive. Competent colleagues fuel the bully's fear that shortcomings in their capabilities will surface, so they tend to select targets who fulfil some of the criteria below.</p> <ul> <li><b>Being in the wrong place at the wrong time</b> <ul> <li>Bullies are predatory and opportunistic. Irrespective of any other explanation, being in the wrong place at the wrong moment is the <b>main</b> reason.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Being competent:-</b> <ul> <li>being good at their job, often excelling;</li> <li>being willing to go that extra mile and expect others to do the same;</li> <li>being successful, tenacious, determined, courageous, having fortitude;</li> <li>being imaginative, creative, innovative;</li> <li>being able to master new skills;</li> <li>thinking long term and seeing the bigger picture;</li> <li>being helpful, always willing to share knowledge and experience;</li> <li>being diligent and industrious;</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Being Popular:-</b> <ul> <li>with colleagues, customers, clients, pupils, parents, patients, etc;</li> <li>Being regarded as an expert and the person to whom others come for advice, either personal or professional;</li> <li>having a sense of humour, including displays of quick-wittedness</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Having strength of character:-</b> <ul> <li>displaying integrity, honesty, intelligence and intellect;</li> <li>having a well-defined set of values that they are unwilling to compromise;</li> <li>being trustworthy, trusting, conscientious, loyal and dependable;</li> <li>a sense of fairness: willingness to tackle injustice;</li> <li>low propensity to violence and strong forgiving streak</li> <li>refusing to join an established clique;</li> <li>being sensitive (having empathy, concern for others, respect, tolerance etc)</li> <li>being slow to anger</li> <li>showing independence of thought or deed;</li> <li>refusing to become a corporate clone and drone;</li> <li>having high coping skills under stress, especially when the injury to health becomes apparent</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Having a vulnerability:-</b> <ul> <li>The need to earn a living from work;</li> <li>being proud of one's reputation and record;</li> <li>being too old or too expensive;</li> <li>finding it difficult to say no;</li> <li>low assertiveness and a need to feel valued;</li> <li>believing everyone is on the same team and working toward the same goals;</li> <li>being too tolerant;</li> <li>being a perfectionist;</li> <li>low propensity to violence and strong forgiving streak;</li> <li>a tendency to self-deprecation, indecisiveness, deference and approval seeking;</li> <li>high expectations of those in authority and a distaste for those who abuse their power;</li> <li>quick to apologise when accused, even if not guilty</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Having raised concerns</b> <ul> <li>... about bullying, fraud, safety or any matter where the bully feels implicated or at risk as a result.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><b>Revenge</b></p> <p>This list of characteristics apply to "innocent" targets. However, some people respond to bullying with bullying. Sometimes they target their bully, sometimes they pass it down the line to a peer or subordinate. Some see this as a survival technique in an environment where bullying is rife, and it leads to widespread conflict. Revenge bullying does not require the target to have the sort of characteristics listed above, but any perceived weakness will do. Some would argue that bullying in revenge is justifiable, but in absolute terms it is no less unreasonable than the behaviour that provoked it. The perpetrator of revenge bullying loses any moral high ground they might have had at the outset, and ultimately they lose their right to criticise the conduct that they were originally subjected to.</p> <h2><span>Events / characteristics that trigger bullying</span></h2> <p><b>Bullying starts because of one of these things:</b></p> <ul> <li><b>Structural Changes:-</b> <ul> <li>the previous target leaves;</li> <li>there's a reorganisation;</li> <li>a new manager is appointed;</li> <li>Economic forces make the bully's job more difficult than normal - a big order or a downturn;</li> </ul> </li> <li><b>Target's Popularity:-</b> <ul> <li>The target's performance unwittingly highlights, draws attention to, exposes or invites unfavourable comparison with the bully's lack of performance</li> <li>The target unwittingly becomes the focus of legitimate attention, making the bully jealous;</li> <li>The target receives obvious displays of affection, respect or trust from co-workers;</li> <li>gaining recognition for achievements, eg winning an award or being publicly recognised</li> <li>gaining promotion</li> </ul> </li> <li><b>Target's Integrity:-</b> <ul> <li>The target questions or refuses to obey an instruction that would require violation of law, rules, procedures etc</li> <li>The target stands up for a co-worker who is already being bullied. This may result in instant suspension on specious grounds;</li> <li>blowing the whistle on incompetence, malpractice, fraud, illegality, breaches of procedure, breaches of health & safety regulations etc. Again, this can lead to instant suspension on specious grounds;</li> <li>undertaking trade union duties or performing other activities that are protected by law;</li> <li>challenging the status quo, especially unwittingly;</li> </ul> </li> <li><b>Personal Characteristic of the Target:-</b> <ul> <li>suffering illness or injury, whether work related or not</li> <li>Being the wrong race, gender, gender orientation, religion, being disabled etc. While it is unlawful to bully someone for reasons related to such characteristics, a person could be bullied because they have ginger hair, blonde hair, too many spots, too few spots, are too tall, too short etc - in fact, for an infinite number of reasons.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h2><span>A typical sequence of events is:</span></h2> <ul> <li>The target is selected using the criteria above, then bullied for months, perhaps years. Eventually, the target asserts their right not to be bullied, perhaps by filing a complaint with Human Resources.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>It's one word against another with no witnesses and no evidence. Bullies readily lie and manipulate facts and people, so HR accepts the bully's word over the target's.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>HR is further hoodwinked by the bully into getting rid of the target, often on concocted or false conduct or capability grounds that give bystanders the feeling that the dismissal is legitimate.(</li> </ul> <ul> <li> <ul> <li>(The HR manager might be a close ally of the bully, and proceeds without considering any moral or legal issues other than "is this going to come back and bite me?")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li>Once the target is gone, there's a period of between 2-14 days, then a new target is selected and the process starts again. This is because bullying is an obsessive/compulsive behaviour and serial bullies seem unable to survive without having someone onto whom they can project their inadequacies.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Even if the employer realises that they might have sided with the wrong person in the past, they are unlikely to admit it because of fear of legal liabilities. If the target begins legal proceedings, they often end with out-of-court settlements with confidentiality clauses.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Employers often promote serial bullies more readily than others, possibly because they are utterly beguiled by them, or perhaps as a form of appeasement because the manager is frightened of what the bully might do. Promotion after a bullying-related dispute is sometimes granted as if to compensate the bully for all the trouble they have been through.</li> </ul> <hr> <p></p> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span><strong><span>Bullyonline is a project of the Tim Field Foundation and is funded in part by sales of books</span></strong></span></td> <td></td> <td></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Welcome to <a href="../index.htm"><font><small><b>Bully OnLine</b></small></font></a>, web site of the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line where Tim Field shares his unique insight into bullying and its effects on health and profits. Explore the site by clicking the coloured text or mauve buttons at the bottom of each page. If you have question, see the <a href="faq.htm">frequently asked questions page</a>.</p> <hr> <p align="center"><font><b>Where now at Bully OnLine?</b><br> <a href="faq.htm">Frequently asked questions (FAQs) about bullying</a><br> <a href="myths.htm">Overcoming myths, misperceptions and stereotypes</a><br> <a href="standup.htm">The answer to Why don't you stand up for yourself?</a><br> <a href="vulnerab.htm">Bullying and vulnerability</a><br> <a href="bystand.htm">Why have my colleagues deserted me?</a><br> <a href="mobbing.htm">What's the difference between bullying and mobbing?</a><br> <a href="harass.htm">What is harassment and discrimination?</a><br> <a href="grieve.htm">Why grievance procedures are inappropriate for dealing with bullying</a><br> <a href="manage.htm">The difference between bullying and management</a><br> <a href="costs.htm">Facts, figures, surveys, costs of bullying</a> | <a href="costs.htm">Cost of bullying to UK plc</a><br> <a href="worbal.htm">UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line statistics</a><br> <a href="serial_introduction.htm">Profile of the serial bully - who does this describe in your life?</a><br> <a href="nurses.htm">Information for nurses</a> | <a href="voluntary.htm">Information for voluntary sector employees</a><br> <a href="teachers.htm">Information for teachers being bullied</a><br> <a href="teachers.htm">Bullying of lecturers in further education</a><br> <a href="teachers.htm">Bullying of lecturers in higher education</a><br> <a href="social.htm">Bullying in the social services sector</a><br> <a href="public.htm">Bullying in the public sector - the political dimension and<br> why trade unions fail to support their members</a><br> <a href="military.htm">Bullying in the military</a> | <a href="student.htm">Bullying of students</a><br> <a href="conf.htm">Scheduled training and conferences on bullying</a> | <a href="events.htm">Other events about bullying</a><br> <a href="articles.htm">Articles on bullying available online</a><br> <a href="tv.htm">Bullying on TV, radio and in print media</a><br> <a href="surveys.htm">Requests to take part in surveys etc</a> | <a href="issues.htm">Bullying issues needing research</a><br> <a href="quotes.htm">Tim Field's quotes on bullying</a> | <a href="vision.htm">Vision for bullying</a><br> <a href="tstmbol.htm">Feedback about Bully OnLine</a> | <a href="survivor.htm">Survivor testimonies</a><br> <a href="workabus.htm">The Secret Tragedy of Working: Work Abuse - PTSD Chauncey Hare</a><br> <a href="oz.htm">Bullying resources in: Australia</a> | <a href="canada.htm">Canada</a> | <a href="finland.htm">Finland</a> | <a href="france.htm">France</a> | <a href="germany.htm">Germany</a> | <a href="ireland.htm">Ireland</a> | <a href="sweden.htm">Sweden</a> | <a href="usa.htm">USA</a></font></p> <p align="center"><font>Bully OnLine: <a href="../index.htm#Search"> </a><a href="../map.htm">Site map</a> | <a href="../ix.htm">Site index</a> | <span class="converted-anchor">Site search</span><br> <b>Home pages</b><br> <b><a href="index.htm">Bullying at work (this page)</a></b> | <b><a href="../schoolbully/index.htm">School bullying</a></b> | <b><a href="../familybully/index.htm">Family bullying</a></b><br> <a href="../news/index.htm">Bullying news</a> | <a href="../cases/index.htm">Bullying case histories</a><br> <a href="../media/index.htm">Press releases and media centre</a><br> <a href="../action/index.htm">Action to tackle bullying</a> | <a href="../resources/index.htm">Bullying resources</a><br> <a href="../stress/index.htm">Stress, PTSD and psychiatric injury</a> | <a href="../related/index.htm">Related issues</a><br> <b>Related web pages</b><br> <b><a href="http://timfieldfoundation.org" target="_blank">The Tim Field Foundation</a></b><br> <b><a href="index.htm">Bully OnLine Home Page</a></b><br> <a href="../successunlimited/books/index.htm">Books on bullying and psychiatric injury</a><br> <a href="../successunlimited/archive/index.htm">Archive</a></font></p> <hr></div></div></div><div><br><br> edd, edm</div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-3136462686316224422013-12-25T20:40:00.001-06:002013-12-25T20:40:38.973-06:00Most people only realize they're being bullied when they read this page; what is bullying, how to recognise bullies and injury to health<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/amibeing.htm">http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/amibeing.htm</a><br><br></div><div id="article" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; -webkit-locale: en; "> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">What Is Bullying?</h1> <p>Updated by Tim Field Foundation</p> <h2><em>"...A major barrier to organizational efficiency and productivity and a major cost to organizations and to economies as a whole."</em> - <small>Clive R Boddy</small></h2> <div> <div> <h3>On this page:</h3> <p><span class="converted-anchor">Definitions of bullying:</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What's the difference between bullying, harassment and assault?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">Where are people bullied?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What is Workplace Bullying?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">How does it happen in a civilised environment?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">Who is behind workplace bullying?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What triggers bullying?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What does bullying do to health?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What happens when someone complains about bullying?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What a bully might say when held to account</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">Am I Being Bullied?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What can I do if I'm being bullied?</span><br> <span class="converted-anchor">What can you do if one of your employees is accused of bullying?</span></p> <h3>On other pages:</h3> <p><a href="/workbully/types_of_bullying.htm">Different types of workplace bullying</a><br> <a href="/workbully/bullying_and_harassment.htm">The difference between bullying and harassment</a><br> <a href="/workbully/why_me.htm">Why Me?</a></p> </div> <h2><a name="definition_of_bullying">Definitions of bullying</a>:</h2> <blockquote><em><strong>Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating or insulting behaviour, abuse of power, or unfair punishment which upsets, threatens and/or humiliates the recipient(s), undermining their self-confidence, reputation and ability to perform.</strong></em> <small>Derived from "Bullying at work: how to tackle it. A guide for MSF representatives and members: MSF 1995</small></blockquote> <p>When considering the reasonableness of the conduct in question, the perpetrator can be expected to give an innocent reason for their actions. However, their claimed intention does not define the reasonableness of their conduct: The prime consideration must be the effect of the conduct on the recipient.</p> <p>Context is everything. The persistence, the pattern and the effect of incidents which are, in isolation, trivial, creates the context in which those incidents can be regarded as bullying. Examples of the sort of incidents and the patterns are given below.</p> <blockquote><em><strong>Workplace bullying is commonly sustained by denial, ignorance and indifference, often in a climate of fear, with a common result being the premature departure of the target and reward for the perpetrator.</strong></em> <small>Tim Field</small></blockquote> <p>Making a complaint or holding someone to account for substandard conduct, so long as it is done fairly and reasonably in good faith, is not bullying.</p> <p>Others have given differently worded definitions, which essentially mean the same thing:</p> <blockquote><em><strong>Rayner and Hoel provide five categories of bullying behaviour. These are threat to professional status (for example, belittling opinion, public professional humiliation, accusation of lack of effort); threat to personal standing (for example, name calling, insults, teasing); isolation (for example, preventing access to opportunities such as training, withholding information); overwork (for example, undue pressure to produce work, impossible deadlines, unnecessary disruptions); and destabilisation (for example, failure to give credit when due, meaningless tasks, removal of responsibility, shifting of goal posts).</strong></em> <p></p> <small>Source: <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/318/7178/228">Workplace bullying in NHS community trust: staff questionnaire survey</a>, <span>Lyn Quine</span><span>, reader in health psychology</span></small></blockquote> <blockquote><em><strong>Workplace bullying is defined as the repeated unethical and unfavorable treatment of one person by another in the workplace. This includes behavior designed to belittle others via humiliation, sarcasm, rudeness, overworking an employee, threats, and violence.</strong></em> <small> Constance Dierickx, Ph.D</small></blockquote> <h2><a name="difference_bullying_harassment_assault">What's the difference between bullying, harassment and assault?</a></h2> <p>Bullying differs from harassment and assault in that the latter can result from a small number of fairly serious incidents - which everybody recognises as harassment or assault - whereas bullying tends to be an accumulation of many small incidents over a long period of time. Each incident tends to be trivial, and on its own and out of context does not constitute an offence or grounds for disciplinary or grievance action.</p> <h2><a name="where_are_people_bullied">Where are people bullied?</a></h2> <ul> <li>in long term jobs, by managers, co-workers or subordinates, or by clients (bullying, workplace bullying, mobbing, work abuse, harassment, discrimination)</li> <li>in short term jobs such as the performing arts, agriculture or construction, where the engager, gangmaster or supervisor has complete power over workers.(bullying, harassment, discrimination, assault)</li> <li>in the armed forces, religious organisations and the media by "untouchable" characters (bullying, harassment, discrimination, assault, rape)</li> <li>at home by partner, parent, uncle, sibling (bullying, assault, domestic violence, abuse, verbal abuse, rape)</li> <li>at home by landlords, their agents, debt collectors (bullying, harassment)</li> <li>at home by neighbours (bullying, harassment)</li> <li>at school (bullying, harassment, assault)</li> <li>in hospitals, convalescent homes, care homes, residential homes (bullying, harassment, assault)</li> <li>in public by strangers (harassment, stalking, assault, sexual assault, rape, grievous bodily harm, murder)</li> </ul> <p>This is not an exhaustive list and does not include activities readily identifiable as criminal.</p> <h2><a name="what_is_workplace_bullying">What is Workplace Bullying?</a></h2> <p>The purpose of bullying is to hide inadequacy. It has nothing to do with managing: Management is managing; bullying is not managing. Anyone who chooses to bully implicitly admits their inadequacy.</p> <p>Some people project their inadequacy onto others:</p> <ul> <li>to avoid facing up to and doing something about it;</li> <li>to avoid accepting responsibility for their behaviour and the effect it has; and</li> <li>to dilute their fear of being seen as weak, inadequate and possibly incompetent; and</li> <li>to divert attention away from the same: In badly run workplaces, bullying is the way that inadequate, incompetent and aggressive employees keep their jobs and obtain promotion.</li> </ul> <p>Bullying destroys teams, causing disenchantment, demoralisation, demotivation, disaffection, and alienation. Bullies run dysfunctional and inefficient organisations; staff turnover and sickness absence are high whilst morale, productivity and profitability are low. Any perceived efficiency gains from bullying are a short term illusion: Long term prospects are always at serious risk.</p> <p>Bullying behaviours are behind all forms of harassment, discrimination, prejudice, abuse, persecution, terrorism, conflict and violence. Understanding bullying gives a person the opportunity to understand that which underpins almost all forms of reprehensible behavior. Because of that, bullying remains the single most important social issue of today.</p> <p>Workplace Bullying tends to happen in phases that can be called (1) Isolation, (2) Control and Subjugation and (3) Elimination. The terminology in the examples applies to workplaces but has parallels in other situations. Examples are loosely categorised under the "Phase" headings but in reality any of the example behaviours can occur in any phase.</p> <p><strong>Isolation</strong></p> <ul> <li>constant nit-picking, fault-finding and criticism of a trivial nature - the triviality, regularity and frequency betray bullying; often there is a grain of truth (but only a grain) in the criticism to fool the people (including the target) into believing the criticism has validity, which it does not; often, the criticism is based on distortion, misrepresentation or fabrication.</li> <li>simultaneous with the criticism, a persistent refusal to acknowledge the target and his or her contributions and achievements or to recognise their existence and value;</li> <li>constant attempts to undermine the target and his or her position, status, worth, value and potential where the target is in a group (eg at work),</li> <li>being isolated and separated from colleagues, excluded from what's going on, marginalized, overruled, ignored, sidelined, frozen out, "sent to Coventry"</li> <li>The above can be done with or without the cover of a formal disciplinary or capability procedure.</li> </ul> <p><br> <strong>Control and Subjugation</strong></p> <ul> <li>being singled out and treated differently; for instance, everyone else can get away with murder but the moment the target puts a foot wrong - however trivial - action is taken against them;</li> <li>being belittled, demeaned and patronised, especially in front of others;</li> <li>being humiliated, shouted at and threatened, often in front of others being overloaded with work, or having all their work taken away and replaced with either menial tasks (filing, photocopying, minute taking) or with no work at all finding that their work, and the credit for it, is stolen and plagiarised;</li> <li>having responsibility increased but authority removed;</li> <li>having annual leave, sickness leave, and (especially) compassionate leave refused</li> <li>being denied training necessary to fulfill duties</li> <li>having unrealistic goals set, which change as they approach, also deadlines change at short notice, or no notice, and the target only finds out when its too late to do anything about it.</li> <li>being the subject of gossip which has the effect of damaging one's reputation.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Elimination</strong></p> <ul> <li>the target finds that everything they say and do is twisted, distorted and misrepresented;</li> <li>is subjected to disciplinary procedures with verbal or written warnings imposed for trivial or fabricated reasons and without proper investigation, or with a sham investigation;</li> <li>is coerced into leaving through no fault of their own, constructive dismissal, early or ill-health retirement, etc</li> <li>is dismissed following specious allegations of misconduct or incapability which have just a grain of truth, to give superficial legitimacy to the dismissal.</li> </ul> <p>One way to conceal bullying is to have regular or even continuous "reorganisations", where:-</p> <ul> <li>targets can be "organized out" - this applies to anyone whose face doesn't fit, i.e. anyone who has identified, complained about or challenged problems with the status quo;</li> <li>they can have their roles "regraded" or "redefined", if not being organised out.</li> <li>The bully's allies and political pawns can be promoted to positions of influence.</li> </ul> <p>Where a re-organisation seems pointless or counter-productive, or if it involves a disproportionate amount of disruption in relation to the perceived benefit of the change, it could be a smokescreen to conceal (and be a vehicle of) bullying. People are so busy coping with the chaos that bullying goes unnoticed. At the same time, the person responsible can claim to be reorganising in the name of efficiency, thus earning him or her the respect of superiors.</p> <p>Business stakeholders should note that bullying, and these forms of concealment, may be distracting attention from financial fraud, corruption, misappropriation of funds and so on.</p> <h2><a name="how_does_it_happen_in_civilised_environment">How does it happen in a civilised environment?</a></h2> <p>Bullying happens under the noses of those who should care enough to stop it but who don't, either because they simply cannot believe it could happen, or because they fear of the consequences (for them) of doing something about it. Thus, targets of bullying and abuse are often not believed when they do report it.</p> <p>People who bully in adult life tend to be drawn to positions offering them ostensibly legitimate power of some sort, such as jobs that come with administrative or organisational authority over others. It is possible for a sufficiently dishonest person to abuse a position of trust to conceal negligence, incompetence, fraud and more, without ever being held accountable. Subjugation and control by guilt and by threats of worse to come allows abusers to take what they want, and to minimise the risk of being reported, or of such reports being believed by, appropriate authorities. </p> <p>It helps if the bully's superiors and peers are also bullies, or if they are so naive that bullying by this person is literally unthinkable, or they're scared of the consequences of crossing the bully. Whatever the underlying reasons, the legitimate authority that comes with a job works to protect bullies from comeback, because their peers and subordinates, HR & legal departments and other bystanders, more often than not, blindly respect the legitimacy of the "master-servant" relationship. Where there are two contrasting accounts of a situation, the default position is to respect the "master's" opinion. Thus, the perpetrator is often given support while the target is shut out and eventually forced to leave, usually under a cloud, freeing the perpetrator to attend to their next target.</p> <p>There is little to differentiate this cycle of abuse from the situation of child-abusing priests, where children were too frightened to complain, or were not believed, and where the priests were allowed to continue to destroy the lives of children in their "care". The worst that happened to those who were identified as abusers was a move to a different location.</p> <p>Following the death in 2011 of UK TV and radio presenter Jimmy Savile, stories of abuse by started to emerge from hundreds of adults, claiming to have been abused by Savile as children. Much of Savile's career involved working with children and young people, including visiting schools and hospital wards. He spent 20 years presenting BBC's Top of the Pops before a teenage audience, and another 20 years presenting "Jim'll Fix It", in which he helped the wishes of viewers, mainly children, come true. He was renowned for his charitable work. In October 2012, when the police were pursuing 400 separate lines of inquiry relating to Savile, John Cameron of the NSPCC said Savile was "a well-organised prolific sex offender, who's used his power, his authority, his influence to procure children and offend against them." The Savile situation demonstrated the propensity among victims of abuse by a popular figure to remain silent, probably because, among other things, of a fear of not being believed. That fear may well be justified: There were police inquiries while Savile was alive, but none led to any charges being brought, because there was "insufficient evidence".</p> <p>Subordinates bully their bosses too. The power or "advantage" which a bully uses is not restricted to that which comes with position. Power can exist in many forms, including the potential to destroy the boss's reputation with false or unfair accusations, or a threat that someone could make an excessive fuss if they don't get their way, or it could take on the form of spreading malicious rumours, saying things that would never be said to the target's face. In summary, a bully needs to have some form of advantage over the target, and that advantage can take on many forms.</p> <p>Tim Field wrote that in environments where bullying prevails, most people will eventually either become bullies or targets. There are few bystanders, as most people will eventually be sucked in. It's about survival: people either adopt bullying tactics themselves and thus survive by not becoming a target, or they stand up against bullying and refuse to join in, in which case they are at risk of being bullied, harassed, victimized and scapegoated until they have to resign, and/or their health is so severely impaired that they have a stress breakdown, take ill-health retirement or are dismissed on capability grounds, or otherwise find themselves unexpectedly selected for redundancy, or being dismissed on grounds of misconduct.</p> <h2><a name="who_is_behind_workplace_bullying">Who is behind workplace bullying?</a></h2> <p>Most workplace bullying is traceable to a person with several of these traits, some of which might only be evident to those who are being or have been bullied themselves:</p> <p><i>Charismatic</i></p> <ul> <li>May occupy a role that is important in some way;</li> <li>Very self-assured;</li> <li>May be believed to be doing or to have done something selfless or of great value, eg charitable work or turning a failing department or business around;</li> <li>May give off an impression of trustworthiness and reliability.</li> <li>Has an air of untouchability: questioning this person's actions or decisions is taboo especially among peers and superiors.</li> </ul> <p><i>Deceptive</i></p> <ul> <li>compulsive liar: spontaneously makes things up to fit the needs of the moment; routinely embellishes stories for effect;</li> <li>convinces superiors and peers by seeming plausible and convincing, sometimes by copying others' behaviour, words or work;</li> <li>portrays him or herself as kind, caring and compassionate but only behaves this way where it leads to personal gain;</li> <li>doesn't listen, can't sustain a meaningful conversation;</li> <li>hollow, superficial and glib;</li> <li>seems to have an overbearing belief in his or her qualities (especially as a leader or manager);</li> <li>apparently cannot distinguish between leadership, management and bullying; <ul> <li>i.e. cannot distinguish between maturity and immaturity, decisiveness and impulsiveness, assertiveness and aggression, personal objectives and corporate objectives, eloquence and crassness; honesty and deceitfulness;</li> </ul> </li> <li>is oblivious to the difference between how he or she would like to be seen, and how he or she is seen.</li> </ul> <p><i>Manipulative</i></p> <ul> <li>is drawn to positions of power;</li> <li>wants to control everything;</li> <li>has a subjective sense of right and wrong. <ul> <li>"Right" is whatever he or she can get away with, such as falsifying time sheets to inflate income;</li> <li>"Wrong" could be anything done by others, justifying the bully's punishment, threats, control etc, such as refusing to falsify time sheets for the bully or, indeed, falsifying them under duress;</li> </ul> </li> <li>projects his or her own shortcomings onto others;</li> <li>distorts peoples' perceptions of reality through falsehood and gossip;</li> <li>rewrites history to paint a better picture of him or herself and/or a worse picture of someone else;</li> <li>Tells different people different things, causing confusion, disruption, division and conflict;</li> <li>is selectively (un)friendly and (un)cooperative:- <ul> <li>is mean, officious and inappropriately inflexible with some people; but is generous, relaxed and very accommodating with others;</li> <li>may motivate allies with the prospect of reward; but motivates most people with fear and guilt.</li> </ul> </li> <li>threatens dire consequences for people under his or her influence, who think or act for themselves. Threats could be made directly in private, or indirectly in front of witnesses;</li> <li>warns targets that no-one will believe them if they report the bullying;</li> <li>once called to account:- <ul> <li>aggressively denies and refutes any criticism, counter-attacking the critic with fabricated or distorted counter-criticism;</li> <li>claims to have been bullied by the complainant, feigns victimhood, ("poor me"), uses amateur dramatics (bursting into tears etc), to avoid the question and evade accountability,</li> <li>makes others feel guilty for daring to suggest that he or she might have done the slightest thing wrong;</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><i>Jekyll & Hyde nature</i></p> <ul> <li>can be innocent and charming some of the time (typically in the presence of witnesses), but vicious and vindictive at other times (typically where there are no witnesses).</li> </ul> <p><i>Ruthless and unpleasant</i></p> <ul> <li>lacks a conscience, shows no remorse;</li> <li>has a compulsive need to criticise;</li> <li>is often devious, manipulative, spiteful, vengeful;</li> <li>becomes impatient, irritable and aggressive if asked to address the needs and concerns of others;</li> <li>may be emotionally cold, humourless, joyless;</li> <li>may exhibit inappropriate or unusual attitudes to sex, gender, race, disability and other personal characteristics.</li> </ul> <p>Tim Field estimated that one person in thirty has several of these traits, describing them as aggressive but intelligent individuals who express their aggression psychologically (constant criticism etc) rather than physically (assault).</p> <p><a href="/workbully/serial_introduction.htm">(More information on the Serial Bully)</a></p> <h2><a name="what_triggers_bullying">What triggers bullying?</a></h2> <p>Where a person displays some of the above traits, bullying can start simply because the target is there, and does nothing at all to provoke it. Bullying may be unwittingly provoked because the target is competent, popular, successful, has integrity or otherwise characteristics that the bully perceives as a threat to their own status, fearing that the target will - inadvertently or deliberately - expose some negative aspect of their activity. Bullying is a common response to raising concerns about malpractice (eg fraud, health and safety breaches and bullying), sometimes called "whistle-blowing". Where a bully wants an employee dismissed, but there is no legally fair reason, a bully-tolerant employer will apply conduct and capability procedures, inappropriately and unfairly, to superficially justify the employee's elimination from the organisation and thus reduce the prospect of being sued for unfair dismissal. Used in that way, such procedures are themselves vehicles of bullying by the person(s) conducting them.</p> <h2><a name="what_does_bullying_do_to_health">What does bullying do to health?</a></h2> <p>Bullying can cause injury to health and make people ill, with some or all of the symptoms below. Many, if not all of these symptoms are consequences of the <strong>high levels of stress and anxiety</strong> that bullying creates:</p> <ul> <li>shattered self-confidence, low self-worth, low self-esteem, loss of self-love, etc</li> <li>reactive depression, a feeling of woebegoneness, lethargy, hopelessness, anger, futility and more</li> <li>hypersensitivity, fragility, isolation, withdrawal</li> <li>obsession, not being able to stop thinking about the experience in all its detail</li> <li>hypervigilance (feels like but is not paranoia), being constantly on edge</li> <li>uncharacteristic irritability and angry outbursts</li> <li>tearfulness, bursting into tears regularly and over trivial things</li> <li>sweating, trembling, shaking, palpitations, panic attacks</li> <li>bad or intermittently-functioning memory, forgetfulness, especially with trivial day-to-day things</li> <li>poor concentration, can't concentrate on anything for long</li> <li>skin problems such as eczema, psoriasis, athlete's foot, ulcers, shingles, urticaria</li> <li>irritable bowel syndrome</li> <li>flashbacks and replays, obsessiveness, can't get the bullying out of your mind</li> <li>tiredness, exhaustion, constant fatigue sleeplessness, nightmares, waking early, waking up more tired than when you went to bed</li> <li>headaches and migraines</li> <li>aches and pains in the joints and muscles with no obvious cause; also</li> <li>back pain with no obvious cause and which won't go away or respond to treatment</li> <li>frequent illness such as viral infections especially flu and glandular fever, colds, coughs, chest, ear, nose and throat infections (stress plays havoc with the immune system.)</li> </ul> <p>For the full set of symptoms of injury to health caused by prolonged negative stress (such as that caused by bullying, harassment, abuse etc) click <a href="../stress/health.htm">here</a>. For details of the trauma that can result, click <a href="../stress/ptsd.htm">here</a>.</p> <p></p> <h2><a name="what_happens_when_someone_complains">What happens when someone complains about bullying?</a></h2> <p>Given the character traits of a typical workplace bully, they can give very plausible accounts of what has happened so, when the target makes a formal complaint, and if the employer takes any notice, they are often convinced by the bully, dismissing the target's account of things.</p> <p>As mentioned above, if the bully is further up the hierarchy than the target, the bully's peers, HR & legal departments and other bystanders will often believe the bully by default, just because of the office they hold. (The actions they take next also constitute bullying).</p> <p>For the target, the experience of being "swept under the carpet" in such circumstances can be equally or more traumatic than the original bullying, and where the employer is determined not to acknowledge the problem, it can lead to prolonged absence that ends with resignation, ill-health retirement or dismissal of the target on specious grounds of conduct or capability, as well as legal proceedings.</p> <p>Where there have been previous similar complaints about a person's conduct, and where those complaints have been followed by illness and/or untimely departures of the persons making the complaint, one might imagine that any HR officer it would spot the similarities, think "enough is enough", and do something about it. However, the HR officer might be beguiled by or terrified of or dependent upon or be the bully, and find it easier to dispose of new complaints in the same way as before.</p> <p>Where a business opts to protect a bully, the business takes on the task, costs and liabilities associated with resisting and eliminating the target, freeing the bully to focus attention on the next target.</p> <div> <h2><a name="bully_behaviour_when_held_to_account">What a bully might say when held to account</a></h2> <p>This is a real-life text book example of a bully's response to accusations of bullying, when his game was almost up. In May 2013, former TV presenter Stuart Hall pleaded guilty to 14 charges of indecent assault involving 13 victims, over a period of 18 years. Four months earlier, however, Hall spoke to reporters after his initial appearance in court. Hall's words are in italics, with our understanding of what he meant in brackets:</p> <ul> <li><i>"May I just say these allegations are pernicious, callous, cruel and above all spurious.</i> <ul> <li>(TFF inference: "I project the key qualities of my sexual deviancy - perniciousness, callousness, cruelty and spuriousness - onto my victims' allegations.")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"And may I just say I am not guilty and will be defending these accusations.</i> <ul> <li>("I am prepared to waste taxpayers' resources and commit perjury")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"Like a lot of other people in this country today I am wondering why it has taken 30 or 40 years for these allegations to surface.</i> <ul> <li>("I want you to doubt the credibility of my victims")</li> <li>NOTE that Hall inadvertently gave a bit of the game away by using the word "surface", implying that he knew there was substance to the allegations and that it had thus far been hidden beneath the proverbial surface.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"The last two months of my life have been a living nightmare. I have never gone through so much stress in my life and I am finding it difficult to sustain.</i> <ul> <li>("Poor me. Please share the contempt I have for my victims, by focusing on the terrible harm they have done to me")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"Fortunately I have a very loving family and they are very supportive and I think but for their love I might have been constrained to take my own life.</i> <ul> <li>("I need you to associate me with the image of a loving family, which has also been harmed by my victims. Poor family, poor me. What a close shave I am having.")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"They have encouraged me to fight on, to fight the charges and regain my reputation and good name and whatever I have represented to this country down the years.</i> <ul> <li>("I have lied to everyone - those closest to me and the general public - for years. Even my family think I am innocent. Most people have always thought I was wonderful and I need that to continue. Who gives a damn about the children and young women I assaulted.")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"With that I would like to thank everybody who has supported me for their good will which has sustained me through this absolutely horrific ordeal.</i> <ul> <li>("In case I have not already made the point, my victims are audacious and horrible for coming forward. I genuinely hope that you feel sorry for me.")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"As I say I shall be defending myself. I am 83 years old. I was a healthy 83 year old, but I am now incubating a heart complaint and I'll be very lucky to survive another couple of years.</i> <ul> <li>(In case you don't already feel sorry for me, feel sorry for me because I am frail and I've got a heart condition, and it's all my victims' fault. To help me get away with this, I need you to feel really, really sorry for me, and I need you and the general public to share the disdain and contempt I have for my victims.")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>"But I hope to survive those two years and regain my honour and reputation and more than ever, my life."</i> <ul> <li>("My reputation and being untouchable are what let me get away with these crimes for so long. If I can just sustain those things I might reach the end of my life without being punished, like Jimmy Savile. To that end, I intend to continue fooling my family, my lawyers and the courts, you reporters and the whole world, into thinking that I must be innocent.")</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>Stuart Hall's comments to news reporters after his initial court appearance were just what you should expect a bully to say when they are being held to account. Their words are meant to make the listener feel sorry for the accused and contempt for the accuser. In Hall's case, they were intended to manipulate public opinion in his favour because, in his case, having a jovial reputation and the public on his side had been enough to deter his victims from reporting his crimes.</p> </div> <div> <p>If you question an alleged bully, and the response is a "poor me" melodrama, punctuated with expressions of contempt and disdain for the accuser, it could well be an implicit admission of guilt.</p> </div> <h2><a name="am_i_being_bullied">Am I Being Bullied?</a></h2> <p>Some people are bullied for years without actually realising it, and others, who are not being bullied at all, claim that they are victims and seem to revel in the drama. (See the Stuart Hall example and "Who is Behind Workplace Bullying", above.)</p> <div> <p>Anyone thinking they might be being bullied needs to step back from the situation and be as objective as possible. This can be difficult for someone who is being psychologically manipulated. They can feel guilty about things that are not their fault. A person on the receiving end of abuse might have become convinced that it is futile or dangerous to make an accusation about someone who is in fact abusing them. Its a good idea for them to discuss it with a trusted friend or someone who is completely independent.</p> <p>Before you accuse someone of bullying, make sure it is really happening. Think it possible that you may be mistaken. Rule out possible alternative explanations for your experience, such as:-</p> <ul> <li>Some things that feel like bullying are not bullying: for example, if you know you have broken some disciplinary rule, you will know that your employer is allowed to use a fair disciplinary procedure to deal with that. If you have behaved badly yourself, then the way you're treated might be a reaction to that, but, unless you know you have behaved badly, talk about it to a friend before judging yourself.</li> <li>If you don't like the way someone is treating you, have you made allowances for the way they are behaving? They might be having a bad day or week. People can lose their temper under pressure, and it might be a short term issue. They might be being bullied themselves. Has this happened before? Is there a pattern to their behaviour?</li> <li>Does your unhappiness stem from this experience, or from something else?</li> </ul> </div> <p><strong>People who are bullied find that they are:</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Isolated</strong> <ul> <li>isolated and excluded from what's happening;</li> <li>denied information or knowledge necessary for undertaking work and achieving objectives</li> <li>starved of resources, sometimes whilst others often receive more than they need</li> <li>denied support by their manager and thus find themselves working in a management vacuum</li> <li>either overloaded with work (this keeps people busy [with no time to tackle bullying] and makes it harder to achieve targets) or have all their work taken away (which is sometimes replaced with inappropriate menial jobs, eg photocopying, filing, making coffee)</li> <li>have their responsibility increased but their authority removed</li> <li>overruled, ignored, sidelined, marginalised, ostracised</li> <li>given "the silent treatment": the bully refuses to communicate and avoids eye contact (always an indicator of an abusive relationship); often instructions are received only via email, memos, or a succession of yellow stickies or post-it notes</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Controlled and Subjugated</strong> <ul> <li>do not have a clear job description, or have one that is exceedingly long;</li> <li>set unrealistic goals and deadlines which are unachievable or which are changed without notice or reason or whenever they get near achieving them</li> <li>frequently or constantly criticised and subjected to unwarranted, destructive criticism;</li> <li>encouraged to feel guilty, and to believe they're always the one at fault <ul> <li>when they defend themselves, their explanations and proof of achievements are ridiculed, overruled, dismissed or ignored;</li> </ul> </li> <li>frequently subject to nit-picking and trivial fault-finding. The triviality reveals an absence of any serious concern</li> <li>subject to excessive monitoring, supervision, micro-management, recording, snooping etc</li> <li>undermined, especially in front of others. Concerns are raised, or doubts expressed about a person's performance or standard of work, but the concerns lack substance and cannot be quantified, or are simply false;</li> <li>threatened, shouted at and humiliated, especially in front of others</li> <li>taunted and teased where the intention is to embarrass and humiliate</li> <li>singled out and treated differently, e.g. being disciplined for arriving one minute late, when others stroll in late without penalty;</li> <li>belittled, degraded, demeaned, ridiculed, patronised, subject to disparaging remarks</li> <li>regularly the target of offensive language, personal remarks, or inappropriate bad language</li> <li>have their work plagiarised, stolen and copied - the bully then presents their target's work (eg to senior management) as their own</li> <li>the subject of written complaints by other members of staff (who have been coerced into fabricating allegations - the complaints are trivial, often bizarre ["He looked at me in a funny way"] and often bear striking similarity to each other, suggesting a common origin)</li> <li>forced to work long hours, often without remuneration and under threat of dismissal</li> <li>refused requests for leave, or unacceptable and unnecessary conditions are attached</li> <li>denied annual leave, sickness leave, or - especially - compassionate leave</li> <li>when on leave, are harassed by calls at home or on holiday, often at unsocial hours</li> <li>receive unpleasant or threatening calls or are harassed with intimidating memos, notes or emails with no verbal communication, immediately prior to weekends and holidays (eg 4pm Friday or Christmas Eve - often these are hand-delivered)</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Eliminated</strong> <ul> <li>are invited to "informal" meetings which turn out to be disciplinary hearings</li> <li>facing unjustified disciplinary action on trivial or specious or false charges</li> <li>subjected to unwarranted and unjustified verbal or written warnings</li> <li>are denied representation at meetings, often under threat of further disciplinary action; sometimes the bully abuses their position of power to exclude any representative who is competent to deal with bullying</li> <li>dismissed on fabricated charges or flimsy excuses, often using a trivial incident from months or years previously</li> <li>coerced into reluctant resignation, enforced redundancy, early or ill-health retirement</li> <li>denied the right to earn their livelihood including being prevented from getting another job, usually with a bad or misleading reference</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>If you're reading this because you think someone you know is being treated this way, send them a link to the page or print it and give it to them - it might be the best thing you ever do for them. If you're reading this because you're worried about the way you are being treated by someone, Read more of this website to find out what courses of action are open to you.</p> <h2><a name="what_can_i_do_if_im_being_bullied">What can I do if I'm being bullied?</a></h2> <ul> <li><strong>Put your health before anything else</strong> <ul> <li>However strong your personality, no one is immune from mental health problems. Unexpressed anger and fear can lead to depression in "normal" people. If you're reading this in time, take evasive action before it gets that bad.</li> <li>Be aware of and monitor your stress levels. Try not to allow your stress to get so serious that you become bogged down with it, mindful that it is difficult to recognise the extent of the problem yourself. Ask family, friends and doctor to help as appropriate</li> <li>Avoid having one-to-one meetings with the bully if you have already complained about the bullying</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Document everything</strong> <ul> <li>Maintain contemporaneous notes of what you said and did, and what others said and did</li> <li>Keep memos, emails and other documents that are evidential of bullying</li> <li>Especially if you get bullied in private, consider using a pocket voice recorder (smartphone) to obtain a verbatim transcript.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Think and operate strategically</strong> <ul> <li>Remember there are things in life you can control, things you can influence, and things you cannot do anything about. Ultimately, the only thing you can control is you. Attempting to persuade your employer to act responsibly can be pointless and thus painful, but it is in your interests to try not to fret about it if it does not work. Focus your attention on what you can do and are doing.</li> <li>There is a risk that any mistakes you make as a result of being bullied, any sickness absence, and any illness will be used by a bully to discredit you. Most of what a bully throws at you is designed to provoke a response that can be used against you.</li> <li>Understand this and avoid responding directly to such provocations;</li> <li>Always act reasonably and in doing so, a contrast will emerge between your behaviour and the bully's;</li> <li>Accept that this probably is not enough to make it stop;</li> <li>Remember that there is more to you than your job, and try not to take it too seriously;</li> <li>Remember that once you decide to resist the bullying, you may be in for the "long haul";</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>Seek but do not depend on support from other managers or trade union.</strong> <ul> <li>If they give tell-tale signs that they do not believe you or do not support you, do not keep hoping that they will support you.</li> <li>Seek independent support from neutral third parties.</li> <li>Get some help, but think about the interests and personal agendas of the people you hope to trust;</li> <li>Consider who is or might be facilitating the bullying, and avoid confiding in them.</li> </ul> </li> <li><strong>Equip yourself with your employer's policies and procedures, and make sure that YOU follow them, and encourage others to do the same;</strong> <ul> <li>Be 100% fair and reasonable, even when standing your ground;</li> <li>Always maintain your dignity and be polite, even in the face of rudeness;</li> <li>If you can, have a trusted companion with you as a witness in any meeting to discuss bullying. If you don't have a companion you can trust, make sure you have an audio recorder;</li> <li>Remember that everything you write, say and do might one day be discussed in a court or tribunal, so make sure your actions are beyond reproach and justifiable. Don't do or say anything that you would not wish to repeat in public;</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}">Notes of formal and semi formal meetings often contain omissions or note-takers' conflicting perceptions of what was said, leading to disputes over the accuracy of the minutes. Eliminate the possibility of such disputes by making audio recordings of meetings about the bullying, even if there is a note taker present. You do not need permission to make acc<span>urate notes, and it is very telling when someone who hopes to create a record of the meeting they want, rather than the meeting they had, objects to you making an audio recording. If there are objections, record the meeting one way or another.<br> <br> Keep any recordings and notes strictly confidential and use them only for legitimate purposes. A covert recording of a confidential meeting could be perceived by an employer as a breach of trust, leading to disciplinary action A court or tribunal might only consider covert recording as legitimate conduct where the recording discloses a more significant breach of trust by someone else.</span></span></p> <ul> <li><strong>If you have tried the above and it is not working out, seriously consider changing jobs.</strong> <ul> <li>Even though it is unfair that you should have to leave, it is better to do so on your terms, when you choose, with your mental health, disciplinary record and sickness absence record intact, than to stick it out, battling an insuperable force, and being dismissed on some specious misconduct charge after exhausting your entitlement to paid sick leave, suffering from depression.</li> <li>If you are considering leaving, consider your legal options as well - you may have recourse through the legal system <strong>but remember to put your health and wellbeing before any other consideration.</strong></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h2><a name="one_of_my_employees_is_accused_of_bullying">What can you do if one of your employees is accused of bullying?</a></h2> <ul> <li>Do not ignore it</li> <li>It is possible for a complaint to be faked, or for a complainant to be mistaken. It is also possible that they may be right. Therefore, do not presume anything and do not make decisions based on rumours.</li> <li>Be aware of the <i>modus operandi</i> of bullies and their special talents for flattery and for acquiring a following.</li> <li>In a dispute over bullying, the bully is likely to be the one with the most witnesses until enough people decide that it is safe to speak out.</li> <li>Do not try to understand what drives the bully's behaviour. Concentrate on their actions rather than psychological causes.</li> <li>Get support. Use HR professionals and occupational psychologists. Use external specialists if your environment might restrict the freedom of an internal partner to objectively assess the situation</li> <li>Be prepared to dismiss an employee that bullies others. The more influence they have over your results, the more they should behave well. If you tolerate bad behaviour among people who drive your bottom line, you will give the message "We want the results and we don't care what you do to achieve them". This is the worst message you could give when you remember that bullying at work destroys teams, collaboration and willingness to contribute; it increases staff turnover and puts your business at risk of lawsuits, as well as indicating a high potential for fraud and corruption.</li> <li>Leave no doubt in your employees' minds that it is always safe to speak out.</li> <li>The fact of the complaint discloses something serious, so aim to get to the bottom of it as promptly as possible</li> <li>Listen very carefully to the complainant</li> <li>Establish whether the incidents complained of actually occurred</li> <li>If you do not believe the complainant, get some help from an expert</li> <li>Put your employees' health before anything else</li> <li>Think about the interests and agendas of the people who give you evidence</li> <li>Follow policies and procedures</li> <li>Be 100% fair and reasonable</li> <li>If bullying is occurring, do not make excuses for it - it will happen again and be worse next time.</li> </ul> </div> </div></div></div><div><br><br>Elyssa D. Durant © DailyDDoSe™ 2007-2008<div><div><div><a href="http://information4sale.blogspot.com">http://information4sale.blogspot.com</a></div></div></div></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-91898943376000907512013-12-21T21:25:00.000-06:002013-12-21T21:56:31.245-06:00Last Writes: A Letter to Ned Vizzini<div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Times;">Unwritten:: A letter to my first Editor, Ned Vizzini </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">From: “Ned V” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hey, sounds like me! I’m headed towards ruin quick. Hope all is well</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-------------- Original message ---------</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">From: “Ned V”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I’m not good, Elyssa. Very depressed. I was such a different person when I knew you. But maybe I will be different soon. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">From "Elyssa D:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">god ned-- I wish we could talk—based upon what I’ve read (what you’ve posted on line and through your interviews) it seems as though you are going through all the emotions and emotional chaos that I was experiencing the first year we met back in new York.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another friend of mine just checked himself into a psych ward after a suicide attempt and I feel so helpless because I care and respect you both so much.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">it is funny because I always thought that if I could just finish that damn book I was working on ten years ago—or just finished law school, my PhD. or any number of things—everything would be okay.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It confuses me because you finished your book—rob finished law school- I finished nothing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A few weeks ago, I “lost my shit” so to speak, came across your interview, and was completely blown away—I used to be the crazy one—now I have my sanity back but nothing else.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">having been through several crises myself, I came to believe that when you see someone in crisis, they become so overwhelmed and confused that they do not know what to do first—and how to dig out of the hole they have dug for themselves. I decided that rather than asking, I just try to figure it out and give it to them, no questions asked, no thank you necessary.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How many people have told you, “Call if you there is anything I can do” and when you do call—nothing! Nothing but disappointment and regret. So I have decide never to ask somebody what they need—</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mostly because they don’t even know themselves— hen I came to the realization a few weeks ago that my transient existence is so tangential that no one would notice if I never took another breath—I tried to figure out what I needed so that I could give it to myself.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So I started going back through my old journals to see if I could identify the missing element of my life—you know that “thing” that would both make it all go away and make all come together so I could be a whole person again.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That thing is a figment of my imagination. I used to think it was being loved by a man—I had that. Wasn’t it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then I thought it was having money. I had that. But that wasn’t it either.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then I thought it was health insurance—but no, that was not it either.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then I thought it would be having that oh-so-critical Ivy League degree. I have that. That still wasn't it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So obviously, none of those things could have been “it.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The thing I need most, I lost long ago, and that was hope. Perhaps I never really had it at all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So I guess some things just can’t be bought, learned, earned, or acquired. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I think of the long twisted road, and I remember one of my favorite childhood movies, where a girl named Dorothy was so determined to find her way home after a great storm. Disillusioned and distracted, Dorothy would not yield to the many obstacles that had been placed in her way. Determined to meet the great Wizard, she stayed one path. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yes, there were detours, obstacles, and the Wicked Witch of the West. Each of these obstacles may have taken her of course, yet she never once lost sight of the road home. She believed in one thing, the Wizard, and his ability to bring her home. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Having great faith and determination, she never strayed far off the path to righteousness. Dorothy had a clearly defined goal, a means to get there, and a bright yellow brick road to guide her. Through her determination and unyielding faith, Dorothy never once doubted that she was on the right path. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the Wizard of Oz, the yellow brick road may have been the path she was taking, but through her determination and blind faith, she was able to bring others onto the road t enlightenment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The lion found his courage; the tin man got a heart. The scarecrow got some brains—and even Dorothy got what she needed most. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dorothy began her journey looking for one thing. She needed to get back to place she began, and find her way home. Dorothy teaches us a valuable lesson, but she was lucky enough to know what it was she so desperately longed for... home.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If all I had to do was click my heals three times and find my way home, well, sadly I would not even know where home is. Yes, they say home is where the heart is, and perhaps that is part of the problem. But for some of us, out childhood homes were not places of happiness and nostalgia. They are places from which we run, searching endlessly for that magical place and can only hope that we have come across a road that is clearly marked to guide us in our destination. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Of course, we know there will be that take us off course, and it will up to us to find our way back. Unfortunately, there is a certain point when we lose our direction and we lose our faith. As I grew older, I came to realize recognize that my feeling of detachment went far beyond having a dysfunctional childhood a broken family life that even my sister and I never lived in the same house for more than a year or so in the summertime.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So no matter how long I have been in Nashville, in many ways I am, in fact still a stranger. I am a stranger because homeless is a state of mind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In my mind, I like to think a home is a place of acceptance, shelter, and a place you can find forgiveness, comfort and recognition. For most, going home means to reconnect in a way so that you are reminded that you have something, someone, who will always have your back. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So this is my home. I don’t necessarily feel safe here, but I do feel consistent. I do not have to worry that I will be forced to switch schools, neighbors or friends every six months just because my parents could not get it right. What they failed to realize is just how very wrong it really was. Changing schools, changing friends, changing siblings; changing myself just enough each time so that I could fit in. But after 16 years of constant change, I never got the opportunity to find out anything real about myself. Even my name was changed when I moved--- dad called me Liz, and my mother called herself any number of last names as she desperately tried to hold on to her youth, her beauty, and delusional fantasies of entitlement and sacrifice that I think she may actually believe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I have never had plastic surgery, could not afford it anyway, but what do have is a clear memory, vivid nightmares, and a place of my own. What I also realize, is that until I can live free from fear and dependence, I will never truly be able to know what it feels like to be at home. If home is where the heart is, then homelessness is clearly just a state of mind. And today I have some hope that I might someday no longer feel just as homeless at home. So now I know more than ever, that homelessness is a far more than a concrete structure or family property. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I will always feel a little homeless at home. It is knowing that you are the thing that remains constant—regardless of any dreams I may have, I will never have the constant I would need to get bring a child into this world--- as much I would like to. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I envy those who feel they have so much in their lives that they can trust without any reservation that the world is a loving enough place they want to share with a child. Especially a child of their own. No, my mother told me long, long time ago, that I can never have children. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She also told me last year, that I could not have a dog. My own mother does not think I am capable of raising a puppy. Maybe she’s right. She did put her fears into action when she once donated my cat of 14 years to the animal shelter under someone else name so that I truly was left without any ties to the condo I stayed in for a few short months while I tried to come up with a plan to take him and myself far from a place where we could be safe and live free. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I adopted him back from the animal shelter 40 miles out after learning that she had used someone else’s name at the agency so I could not find him on my own.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I will not look elsewhere to find the essentials things healthy children receive that in turn makes them healthy adults. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I will never be “healthy” but I do think I wish I could give more than what I have received. I regret never being the kind of “community member" I think I could have been, and I doubt I will get over the sheer humiliation of having to love this way for so many years when I should have been doing so much more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">in having truly been able to do the great things for society that I believe I could, but I can’t regret not giving no longer need constant reassurance, recognition, or validation, but I will always question whether things could have been different if only one person had taken the time to show me I was worth it. That I deserved more than what I could actually afford and realize that I do give so much in so many other ways. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The ways that people cannot calculate or see just how badly the ones who received them needed those gifts. It was the little things. It was Kody, it was Desiree, but above all else, it was me setting goals, the feelings of that my feeling I would never and was no longer subject to bi-annual custody disputes and shifts and us to realize that homelessness is merely a state of mind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Where would I go? 10 years “down the road” and now, more than ever, I realize I am truly and deeply, “homeless at home.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You see it is not so much that I doubt myself, I just don’t trust that people will not do horrible things even if that means doing nothing at all. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I do have much love to give. Actually too much. So much that it often pours out of me in inappropriate sentimentality. I know when I need to keep to myself, and I know when my anxieties starts to make others a little anxious. I know because as I see you react to me be anxious, it only makes me that much worse. It is one of my worst, but at times sometimes, that sensitivity is also at times a wonderful attribute and god given gift.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But should that prevent me from getting out into the world just because other people think I should be don’t like me … that’s not my job.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I have spent more than half of my life in self-imposed isolation, and the other half wondering how I can be less annoying and high strung so others would want me around. The sad truth is, yes, I am annoying, but also, I am perceptive and very aware. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sometimes I do it purpose. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I should not have to live in isolation because I have nervous tics or sometimes say the wrong thing. But regardless of what people seem to think about welfare recipients being lazy bums guess what—FUCK you right back. I have chosen to keep to myself just in case I really am so horrible to be around and my parents were right. Even my own mother thinks I would be better off dead.</span></span></div>
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<i><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Times;">and the rest is still unwritten... </span></b></i></div>
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<i><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Times;">Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. © 2008-2013</span></b></i></div>
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/clKAdQnwJ7A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-35697747360633594072013-11-21T18:37:00.000-06:002013-11-21T18:41:40.360-06:00UNWRITTEN: ED Phoning Home OUCH<div>ed phoning home ouch</div><div><br></div><div>After being rejected from a job that pays $18,000 / year at the women’s prison, a job that pays $21,000 teaching Head Start, getting fired from Red Lobster (because apparently, I am just not Red Lobster “material” I decided to go to the Tennessee Career Center to take advantage of their high speed internet, free printer paper, and ink…</div><div><br></div><div>I was hooked up with an excellent counselor earlier this afternoon. He has two master’s degrees-- one in Educational I Career Counseling, and a second in counseling psychology. This is the guidance counselor I have been asking for since..., well, since... I was in a school long enough to have a guidance counselor, but I never got.</div><div><br></div><div>Because I simply refuse to take any more of those tests. Not really an issue any more, since they clearly do not fit into my budget anyway! Nope. I will not take ‘em for Vanderbilt, and I will not take ‘em for law school. Not for Harvard, not for Tennessee, and I most definitely will not take ‘em for Dave Cordray (and yes, Dave, you are still in fact, such an asshole!)</div><div><br></div><div>Who gives a shit anymore??? If you told a me a fat bearded lady at the circus could decide my fate and tell me what direction I should choose next-- I would take it! and throw in a fat tip for being smart enough to know that any answer-- no matter how grim, is far better than just wandering aimlessly through life looking back on what might have been-- at THIRTY! AT THIRTY! !</div><div><br></div><div>I wish I could say that after all this time I developed other ego strengths and finally felt okay with whom I am, you know.... “just being me.” but I am sad to report that my “condition” (diagnosis) was amazingly accurate and predictable. just like all the doctors said! I wonder if they derive joy out of being right— if they crack open a bottle of aged liquor in my father’s office and say, “see, we told you so. we told you their was nothing you could do. and so nothing he did. By doing nothing and I do mean nothing-- the illness take will its course, and I am now, in fact, nothing. Nothing costs nothing (at least to him) and daddy made another fine investment, on the other hand, nothing has drained every hope, fear, security— chance-- every last breath from my body. I might have believed in me. And I know I’m alive because a tear just rolled down the side of my cheek. I am home.</div><div><br></div><div>I am the exact same 5 year old who needed to win the spelling bee. In college, I was the one to set the curve, not just make it, break the rules, and, break [them] I did. There is no glory in being second best. Second smartest, second brightest, or second anything.</div><div><br></div><div>But I still have not learned, for some reason with all of my failures, I am reminded of in so many ways. Me, myself watch them play out every time I shut my eyes or open them. Yes- blink, sometimes I ask myself, how did I get here? How did this happen? What happened to all of the plans I made for myself~ where did they go? Where did I go? Constantly replayed over and over and over again in my mind, 1 must be FUCKING CRAZY! But at this moment, here, even as I say the words, I am not truly insane. 1 am merely in pain, what a tragedy that those two words rhyme-- they ruin what could have been a very profound misnomer of the human condition and the labels we hold so dear.</div><div><br></div><div>And so my search for mediocrity continues, and I wait for it each and every day, hoping it will find me beaten and worn from the stoma. All of the storms, but damn-it it is still there. I still have questions those damn elyssa questions that made all my professors so proud, damn ideas, damn thoughts, damn hope.</div><div><br></div><div>My mother still calls me everyday to see if I went down to get food stamps to feed myself, flick her, and her fucking things. Flick diamonds and couture and fuck that life. I was here mom, the whole god-damned time. Just not pretty enough with out any surgery. Not pretty at all with all those damn scars,</div><div><br></div><div>I am the exact same 5 year old who needed to ACE the spelling bee, set the curve, not just make it, break the rules, and, break. them I did. There is no glory in being second best. Second smartest, second brightest, or second anything. Being second sucks. it sucks every goddamned second of the day.</div><div><br></div><div>Goodnight my dear friends, lets all try to have sweet dreams. Pepe awaits, as does Alanis and a pack of smokes that 1 can already taste. I hope you all still love me. I do actually believe that I deserve love and kindness despite the obvious fact that I am a royal pain in the ass. I refuse to work in Burger King.</div><div><br></div><div>What could have been, what should have been-- what might have been if you let me be</div><div><br></div><div>m.e.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>When in Chinese, the word Crisis is composed of two characters: One represents danger and the other represents opportunity...</div><div><br></div><div>JFK</div><div><br></div><div>Elyssa D. Durant © 2003-2013</div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-65390001326233123182013-11-10T23:06:00.004-06:002013-11-10T23:06:49.943-06:00Health Care Reform Requires RegulationI have a serious problem with the most recent health reform effort. Asking or expecting the health industry to reduce costs through self-regulation without accountability is simply ridiculous.
Health care is already completely self-regulated and controlled. A person does not have free choice when choosing a provider. Due to an unholy alliance of provider networks, insurance underwriters, pharmaceutical conglomerates and private for profit hospital corporations such as HCA.
By negotiating with providers and developing one-size-fits-all prescription formularies and treatment protocols, we remove the ability for the consumer to make independent informed decisions about the value of various treatment options.
We rely upon one the ratings of physicians who have self-interest in controlling access and information to accurate information through their reliance upon Certification and Licensing Boards. By limiting access into the profession, health care costs are inflated and it is near impossible for the consumer to determine the fair value of a health care service.
Second, the consumer is far removed from the negotiating process, so we do not have a good sense of the fair, free market value of one particular service in comparison to another. All you need to do is look at any EOB (explanation of benefits) report for your last trip to the hospital.
Billing codes are used and assigned through various service departments and the insurance carrier then decides which services are covered and at what rate. They use the terms like "Reasonable and Customary Rates%u201D and then choose to pay 80% of that. Therefore, by definition, that 20% must be built in to the billing rates to adjust for the actual (and expected) rate of reimbursement.
Such complicated billing procedures and methods are so complicated and technical that the end recipient of services (the consumer) really has no idea if an X-ray costs $90 or $73. Add into that a separate fee for the radiologist, and sometimes a charge just to use the facility, and even smart people find it difficult to understand.
The bills are then processed by an insurance adjuster who must determine primary and secondary (supplemental) plans and determine who is responsible for what, the end cost and intricate design is truly "priceless."
Good luck to those people who actually purchased supplemental plans they saw advertised on TV, you have been duped. Giving people (especially the infirm and the elderly) a false sense of security is unfair and unjust.
Without regulation, intervention and enforcement, many people will continue to believe they are prepared and protected from that ultimate for "just in case" scenario that results in major, catastrophic medical loss.
The administrative cost alone on the part of the "Responsible Party" is probably more costly than the initial service they received at whatever hospital for whatever condition.
You cannot apply basic economic theory and free market principles to health care. Health care is fundamentally different and should be considered a public good.
I would write more, but unfortunately, I just realized that I have some forms I forgot to file an authorized statement regarding the assignment of benefits form. It only seems fair that the appropriate party is paid for providing services in good faith despite TennCare's history of delayed payment.
Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. © 2007-2014Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-81600286186239395632013-11-10T22:04:00.000-06:002014-09-04T04:32:41.220-05:00In God We Trust: The Lemon Test and Public Funds for Parochial Schools<div style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.09375px;"><span style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: large;">In God We Trust: </span></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.09375px;">The Lemon Test </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.09375px;">and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: large; line-height: 23.09375px;">Public Funds for Parochial Schools</span></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;">Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. </span></h3><br /><u style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.09375px;"><br /></u> <u style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23.09375px;"><br /></u> <u style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px;">Guiding Questions</u><br /><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />1. How can school vouchers reach a balance between serving the public interest and preserving individual freedoms and rights?</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />2. What additional arguments can be presented for against the use of school vouchers for parochial schools?</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />3. How is the issue of school vouchers for sectarian institutions different or similar from issues surrounding prayer in school?</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />4. What are the common issues relevant to both charter schools and voucher programs?</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />This article will address concerns regarding the long-term outcomes of school choice and voucher programs. Specifically: do school vouchers exacerbate the inequality between the rich and the poor?</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Since I believe that health care and education are both social goods, I have some reservations about letting the free-market run amok during such a critical point in history. Is it wise to allow for-profit market forces to dictate public goods when natural rights are at stake? The shortcomings of the Medicaid managed care programs, Medicare supplemental insurance policies, and demonstration projects such as the privatization of prisons provide sufficient evidence of the dangers of profit driven corporations in American culture. Corporate scandals with food and other suppliers contracted by the Board of Education in New York City in the late 1990's provide excellent examples of how easy it is for private companies to manipulate funds away from the target recipients.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />It was not too long ago that private managed care companies offered gifts to boost enrollment by enticing desperate Medicaid recipients to join their plans. This marketing strategy is simply offensive when we are dealing with a social good albeit health care or education. Vulnerable populations are frequently exploited through corporate contracts and there is little reason to believe that for-profit conglomerates would treat public schools or economically disadvantaged students and families otherwise.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Arguments on both sides of the school voucher issue are very similar to those presented for and against charter schools and free-market school choice. Smrekar (1998) presents four key issues that have been at the center of the school choice debate: (1) economic, (2) political; (3) social justice; and (4) pedagogical.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The economic argument in favor of school choice points out that our current public education system resembles a monopoly. Proponents argue that the introduction of choice into the educational marketplace will promote competition and force schools with poor performance records to improve or close (Friedman, 1968).</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The political argument is centered on the democratic ideal that the freedom to choose where your child attends school is a fundamental right. The political argument also triggers strong feelings about the role of education in a democratic society. There are those who feel that the public school is intended, at least in part, to create a common set of core values that is best served by the public sector. At the core of the political school choice argument is a debate regarding the benefits of providing a common set of experiences in a democracy versus promoting individual choice and liberty (Smrekar, 1998). This issue, while not dead, was challenged in 1925 when the Supreme Court ruled in <i>Pierce v. Society of Sisters</i> (268 U.S. 510 (1925)) in favor of parents who sent their children to private school. This argument continues today and is at the center of both school choice and curriculum debates.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The social justice argument is a bit more complicated and there is little agreement on any front. Proponents argue that school choice empowers the poor to participate in the education of their children by giving them the same options available to wealthier families in the United States. According to a 1997 poll in <i>USA Today,</i> 47% of parents would send their children to private schools if they had the financial resources (Doyle, 1997).</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Information is an essential component to any school choice program. In order to ensure social equity in school choice programs we need to be sure that the "poor" are fully informed of their choices and are not taken advantage of in the open market. Research has shown that the act of "choosing" has positive effects on the school environment and promotes parental involvement in their children's education (Doyle, 1997). Additional components of the social justice argument have focused on the nuts and bolts of choice programs, and point out how there are several different ways that choice programs may (wittingly or unwittingly) promote social inequity (Cookson, 1995). Such arguments focus on transportation problems, admissions policies, the availability of information, and how we define "choice" and implement policies regulating recruitment, enrollment and performance of participating schools, (Cookson, 1995; 1997).</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The pedagogical argument points out that school choice programs are better suited for the individual needs inherent to a pluralistic society. Although some feel there is value in providing core curriculum and a common set of basic skills, there is a current trend towards specialty schools that focus on the arts and sciences, technology, vocational training, etc. Educators look towards successful magnet schools as examples of the pedagogical success that demonstrated the importance of school choice and parental involvement as indicators of educational outcomes. Some educators fear that the introduction of school choice and voucher plans would prompt the best students to leave public schools and that this would have a negative effect on the overall climate of public classrooms.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Among the various school voucher programs, there is considerable controversy surrounding the program design that gives qualified individuals the choice to attend parochial schools using public funds. Traditional arguments against this type of school voucher program have focused on the constitutionality of using state funds for sectarian institutions. In theory, public schools are believed to be completely independent of religious institutions and provide a place where young adults can join together and develop a core set of "American" values and "democratic" principles. Just this year, states such as Tennessee have modified the curriculum to include Bible class in publicly funded classrooms. It is not yet known how this will be implemented given the number of students who did not meet the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) benchmarks. They are just now trying designing the course content and have not yet selecting the text to be used next fall (2008).</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Historically, the church had a key role in the education of children in America. During the National Period (1780-1830), churches were used to educate children, and the <i>King James Bible</i> was used as a reader in these classrooms (Smrekar, 1998). Derek Neal (1997) points out that much of the current sentiment against Catholic schools is not a reflection of their excellent performance record, but rather an indication of the anti-Catholic sentiment which swept the country during the late part of the 19<sup>th</sup> Century (Neal, 1997). Neal argues that until that point, there was no contest to religious education as long as it was Protestant.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Catholic schools have traditionally served the children of the working class. They were a major socializing force earlier in the century and continue to succeed with children who might otherwise fall through the cracks in public schools. Despite tapering enrollment, Catholic schools remain a viable force in the private sector providing a reasonably priced private education to American children. Neal conducted a study that looked at the graduation rates of minority children attending Catholic schools compared with children attending public schools in the inner cities. Controlling for demographic variables, (parent's education, parent's occupation, family structure, and reading materials at home) closer analysis revealed graduation rates for urban minorities are 26% higher in Catholic schools compared with public schools in the same communities. Although Neal found similar benefits for whites and in suburban communities, this effect was most profound for urban minorities.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Other studies have focused on identifying the qualities that make Catholic schools successful. A number of factors have been identified by Bryk and Lee, including active parental participation and the benefits of school choice in creating an inclusive community that fosters a common set of values and ideals (Bryk & Lee, 1995). Interestingly, the very same variables found to enhance the performance of Catholic school students are remarkably similar to the reported benefits of magnet schools and choice programs. Despite the excellent performance records of Catholic schools, there are currently no voucher programs that allow parochial schools to participate in state funded voucher programs.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The reason for this is quite simple, but not necessarily correct or in the best interest of our children. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the use of public funds in religious institutions. However, it can also be argued that it is unconstitutional to exclude parochial schools from voucher systems because it violates the student's free expression of religion. In addition, voucher programs require a conscious decision on the part of the student and the parent. The state does not enforce a blanket endorsement of any one religion. I use Catholic schools as an example because they represent the majority of parochial schools in urban America.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Voucher programs typically undergo strict scrutiny for all four reasons mentioned above, but this issue is especially true of any choice or voucher program that channels funds into Parochial schools. For this reason, Catholic schools and other schools with religious affiliations have been excluded from voucher plans up until this point. It is not politically viable to institute a choice or voucher program at any level (at the district, state or national level) since similar plans have historically presented long-standing, hard-fought, legal challenges to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Since the Supreme Court has not ruled on this issue, most challenges up until this point have taken place in state courts<a data-rapid_p="1" href="http://voices.yahoo.com/#_ftn1" style="color: #8a8a8a;">[1]</a>. These state decisions have been split, and while there are a few voucher programs operating in Wisconsin and Ohio, neither permits sectarian schools to participate in their programs. <a class="link interlink" data-rapid_p="2" href="http://voices.yahoo.com/theme/1630/milwaukee.html" rel="&content_type=theme&content_type_id=1630" style="color: #8a8a8a;" title="Milwaukee">Milwaukee</a> designed a voucher system that included parochial schools in 1995 but later revised their proposal after the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction against expansion into religious schools (Kremerer & King, 1995).</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />School choice programs that involve vouchers have not been tested in the Supreme Court, but there is a long history of court cases that challenge the flow of money from the public sector into private, sectarian institutions. The recent pattern of Supreme Court rulings has lead some legal scholars (Kremerer & King, 1995) to conclude that school vouchers would pass constitutional muster under the following circumstances:</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />1. Provides payments in the form of scholarships to parents of school age children</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />2. Allows parents to choose among a variety of public and private sectarian and nonsectarian schools for their children</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />3. Gives no preference to sectarian private institutions</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Voucher programs up until this point have encountered substantial resistance from the legal community and a number of civil rights and political organizations. This becomes more pronounced when the voucher model includes sectarian institutions in the model plan and state court rulings have been inconsistent in decisions surrounding the constitutionality of voucher programs.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The definitive case regarding school voucher programs is <i>Lemon v. Kurtzman</i> (403 U.S. 602 (1971)). The Court's ruling in <i>Lemon</i> was based on three components that came to be known as the "Lemon Test." The Lemon Test applies the following to any Constitutional challenge of the Establishment Clause:</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />1. The government action must have a secular purpose</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />2. The primary effect must neither advance, nor inhibit religion</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />3. It must not result in excessive governmental entanglement with religion</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Since voucher programs do not generally provide support directly to the institution, individual freedom and choice remain intact. Individual families are empowered by educational vouchers since they choose the school and religion appropriate for them. Qualified schools are not determined by religious affiliation and all schools are required to adhere to state and federal regulations that increase accountability. Similar issues came before the courts in <i>Pierce v. Society of Sisters</i> (268 U.S. 510 (1925)) as well, however <i>Lemon v. Kurtzman</i> (403 U.S. 602 (1971)) is considered to be both the landmark and test case currently before the courts.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />The reason for this is quite simple, but not necessarily correct or in the best interest of our children. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the use of public funds in religious institutions. However, it could also be argued that it is unconstitutional to exclude parochial schools from voucher systems because it violates the free expression of religion. In addition, voucher programs require a conscious decision on the part of the student and the parent. The state does not enforce a blanket endorsement of any one religion. I use Catholic schools as an example because they represent the majority of parochial schools in urban America.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Teacher's unions are resistant to bring in a new system that has the potential to upset their job status and security. It will likely be a number of years before we truly understand the effects of magnet schools and can evaluate the implementation of school choice programs that are already in place. Because we are dealing with such an essential human, social good, it is my recommendation that we do not implement a large-scale voucher program until issues of access and equity are resolved on other public fronts. We must ensure real choices for the students and families who are not information savvy and may be limited in their ability to recognize the real value of their options. We must find a way to ensure the equitable distribution of resources so that education truly does will empower the poor.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Is it time to apply the Lemon Test to school vouchers? </div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />You decide.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /><u>References</u></div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Cookson, P.W., Jr. (1994). <u>School choice: The struggle for the soul of American education.</u> New Haven: Yale University Press.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Cookson, P.W., Jr. (1995). ERIC Digests: School Choice.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Doyle, D.P. (1997). Vouchers for religious schools. <u>Public Interest, 127,</u> 88-95.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Haynes, C.C. (1993). Beyond the culture wars. <u>Educational Leadership, 51</u>(4), 30-34.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Houston, P.D. (1993). School vouchers: The latest California joke. <u>Phi Delta Kappan, 75</u>(4), 61-64.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Kremerer, F.R. & King, K.L. (1995). Are school vouchers Constitutional? <u>Phi Delta Kappan, 77</u>(1), 307-311.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Kremerer, F.R. (1995). The Constitutionality of school vouchers. <u>West's Education Law Reporter,</u>101 Ed. Law Rep. 17.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Kremerer, F.R. (1997). State Constitutions and school vouchers. <u>West's Education Law Reporter</u>, 120 Ed. Law Rep. 1.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br />Neal, D. (1997). Measuring Catholic school performance. <u>Public Interest, 127,</u> 81-87.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br /><a data-rapid_p="3" href="http://voices.yahoo.com/#_ftnref1" style="color: #8a8a8a;">[1]</a> Including a decision that was handed down regarding a choice plan in Ohio. (12/18/2000)</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><br /><div style="font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;"><br /><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 20.796875px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Elyssa D. Durant © 2007-2014</span></b></div><br /><br />Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-53294855791570780332013-11-10T21:33:00.002-06:002013-11-10T21:33:52.975-06:00Rest in Peace My Angel... <div style="text-align: left;">
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.09375px;"><i>My Worst Nightmare... </i></span></span></h2>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px;">I am standing in a sea of unfamiliar faces. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px;">There is violence everywhere. Red. Broken. Bleeding.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
I am holding Pepe, and he is broken. Bleeding. Clinging to me, clinging to life.<br />
<br />
I rush through the crowd looking for safety. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
There is no way out. Just angry faces in a sea of violence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
In the distance, I see two police officers. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
I run to them believing they will help me find a way out of the madness. Believing they will bring me to safety.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
A safe haven. Shelter from the storm. <br />
<br />
Free from the madness. Free from the violence. Free from this sea of unfamiliar faces so I can get my bleeding, broken, suffering companion the help he needs to make him well.<br />
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The help we need to be whole again.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
When I reach the podium, the men were facing the crowd.<br />
<br />
They were standing there, backs to me; they just stood there to face to the crowd banging their black, wooden nightsticks while on just standing there. Beating their nightsticks against their fat sweaty palms. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
I call out but no one hears me. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
No one can hear me above the roar of the crowd. I tap them on the shoulder, holding Pepe close to my heart-- hoping they will instinctively see the love and fear in his yellow gold eyes. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
Of course, they would rescue us. Yes, they would rescue us and bring us to safety. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
Free from the violence, free from the madness. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
Free from this hell and take us somewhere safe. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
Somewhere far, far away from here. And then they turn. In unison, they turn around to face me, and I look at them.<br />
<br />
I am horrified. I am horrified because these are not police officers at all.<br />
<br />
They are clowns. Literally, figuratively, in every way they are simply clowns. Clowns in uniform. In unison. In unanimity. Inhumanity. My worst nightmare. The cops were clowns.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
Pepe was "only" a cat, but I made him a promise that I intended to keep. I would give him everything I longed for: keep him safe, keep him fed, make him well, I would give him love. Lots and lots of love.<br />
<br />
Unconditional love. Always. Until the day my perfect little angel would return to heaven. And I did. And he did. And we did.<br />
<br />
Alone, together, Pepe gave me strength when I was too weak to care for myself. He could not talk, but he sure tried!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
After seventeen years, Pepe died the other day, and my worst nightmare did not come true. I loved him until the very end. Even then, he gave me the most perfect and fitting gift.<br />
<br />
He gave me freedom.<br />
<br />
He gave me comfort.<br />
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He gave me hope and he gave me peace.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
I know that I can love. I am capable of complete, total, unconditional love.<br />
<br />
He was like a child.<br />
<br />
Pure, innocent and completely, totally, unconditionally loved. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 23.09375px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
<i>Yes, I am capable of love. I am capable of complete, total, and unconditional love. </i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Pepe, my precious angel, may you rest in peace... </b></span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: transparent;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is a better place for you now. There always was.</span></b></i></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.796875px;">Elyssa D. Durant © 2007-2014</span></h3>
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Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-66095668826928192762013-10-24T12:27:00.000-05:002013-10-24T12:27:06.977-05:00Who is Elyssa Durant? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYD5A4_ClrVTtNILE6mjTTwJsbHPp1LBxCeSv-rBuJBSh9EvTL_QckO37vfq4KmPgAo5w4GJGhX7p7TcNnmseWmEo0LDOLkQ_k-5P-sDlb-pyly12iQJj3JMs1wwPRlysoegQv6oo3zUM/s1600/elyssashirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYD5A4_ClrVTtNILE6mjTTwJsbHPp1LBxCeSv-rBuJBSh9EvTL_QckO37vfq4KmPgAo5w4GJGhX7p7TcNnmseWmEo0LDOLkQ_k-5P-sDlb-pyly12iQJj3JMs1wwPRlysoegQv6oo3zUM/s320/elyssashirt.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
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I started a private site after my name, ID, medical and financial info was stolen, made public in Pastebin, and sold on T-shirts at the DefCon hackers conference. I took down this blog.<br />
<br />
I never got one penny for the T-shirts and apparel sold and was never reimbursed for the damage done to my computer equipment and mobile devices as a result of HARD CORE hackers. <br />
<br />
I was promised the T-shirts and promo ads would be pulled from the event and the black hat hackers known as Lulz, AntiSec, (Sabu and Co.) would take them down and refrain from using my likeness for promotional purposes.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
They were not. <br />
<br />
They used my name, my likeness, my photos, my social security number, my ID, my address and more to create a slew of fake social media accounts to post insane bullshit across a variety of platforms. <br />
<br />
They even socially engineered my closest friends and family members in various forums to reinforce the charade. <br />
<br />
They claimed the T-shirts were for charity and that $1.00 would be donated for every ELyssaD garment sold. <br />
<br />
Not only did I not receive any such monies, I am quite certain these fuckwits have no idea how serious it is to impersonate a 501(c)3.<br />
<br />
So not only did they make a profit from exploiting every aspect of my life, they harassed my friends, impersonated an ex-cop who has been one of most trusted allies and confidant; threatened friends who dare to speak up on my behalf by calling them on the phone and identifying themselves as law enforcement. ANOTHER felony.<br />
<br />
They made a profit. They offered a reward for tittie pics, had podcasts, comic books and sold a line of women's apparel to promote their podcasts, show and of course, make money. <br />
<br />
They created multiple fake identities on various social media platforms. They pwned my website, social media accounts, linked in, private forums, etc... harassed my friends and posted my fathers home address on the Internet. <br />
<br />
They altered personal documents they stole from my private files, altered them, and had the nerve to put the FAKE documents back in to my web albums and made them public.<br />
<br />
ONE LOGIN = ONE FELONY <br />
<br />
Destruction of evidence (especially records that pertain to employee benefits is a whole other class of crimes) <br />
<br />
These individuals are clearly guilty, and have no problem advertising their skills across the hacker community.<br />
<br />
They destroyed my professional credibility with disinformation writing posting ridiculous website entries that present my professional certifications as a practicing therapist to make them appear as if I was the patient not the provider.<br />
<br />
65 "people" impersonating me on social media platforms?<br />
<br />
My friends, sister, brothers, my mother, and even "Agent Daddy" became targets as well. <br />
<br />
I started this site hoping for a do-over. My name is ELyssa. ELyssaD™ and, for he record I've never done midget porn!<br />
<br /></div>
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Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-80569260865964006692013-10-24T07:19:00.001-05:002013-10-24T07:19:11.730-05:00Unwritten: Rant Page ONEThe "Neighborhood Watch" Monitor called me on my private number minutes after my post went up. <p>The same day the restraining order and statute of limitations to file charges for stalking, assault, theft and fraud expired. <p>I was advised by my (omitted) to file police report yesterday morning but my mother managed to completely fuck some more shit up and my Internet has been magically disconnected since she did not put security on the account when she transferred into my name (without telling me)<p>To receive that call was so disturbing that it took hours to calm myself enough to call the OIG. <p>They were closed. I will file a report in person when I receive a copy of the police report and restraining order from those corrupt mother fuckers in Nashville. <p>That the DailyDDoSe™ July 26, 2013 ©<p>Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.<br>Research & Policy Analyst<p>Working proposal for Ed Law Thesis<br>AND book proposal "Unwritten"<p>A collection of unwritten / abandoned works that I was too afraid to send, post, publish or share. <p>Morning Manifesto d'Jour<p><br>From: E<br>Date: April 25, 2013, 10:05:37 AM EDT<br>Subject: Re: Jude & Jaded<p>Morning manifesto<br>April 26, 2013<br>CyberCrimes, Law, Aspergers, Ethics<p>DRAFT on me iPhone 10:05am<p>I do believe that if "we" can prove CyberBullying is a crime and that is the only reason I subject myself to the vile messages and images that make me physically ill and nightmares 5 years after it happened. <p>If child commits suicide, people get outraged. If aspie gets upset or develops new symptoms or is afraid to seek treatment than it is because we "misread signals" or "have higher rate of depression, anxiety and suicide?" <p>I call bullshit. It makes all the more reprehensible. It is criminal negligence if people do not report this kind of behavior. Especially when it is done by people who have a legal "duty to report"<p>Furthermore, if this causes damage to their ability to use public domain is both illegal under the Federal Communication laws, ADA and 18 USC 1027. <p>I lost everything. <p>The last 72 hours I regressed into a 22 year old who was willing to risk going blind in one eye than listen to all the morons who tried to bully me into a dangerous situation that is still volatile because it kept me from focusing on what needs to be done and my inability to stop pacing in circles until I wear myself out and fall asleep for few hours. <p>I realize and act like a total freak and can hear people whisper or make me feel uncomfortable stimming of repeating phrases to myself to calm prevent winding up in the hospital because I can't handle the noise or bc I don't have comfortable clothes to wear, but I had to go with my gut and realize that if I don't speak up and try to make people understand how much has been lost in that time, they. Win. <p>And after so many years, people see posts from five years ago and use it as justification to harass me now. <p>I walk a fine line every second of every day. <p>Yes, I would rather people see all of the wonderful articles I have written, but instead they see all of the fake d0x and embarrassing letters from my mother doing what Leah is doing to you. <p>I know this is long winded and hope you are following the logic, but, as a 40 year old woman with multiple degrees form the Ivy League and a pretty decent résumé my mother claimed me as a dependent on her taxes when I was living on my own for 16 years. She claimed adult dependent child and refused to amend so I could get my benefits reinstated. <p>Six months ago she nearly killed me in her 60,000 car and WATCHED as her new (6 foot plus militant new husband) stood over my bed and broke my only lifeline because he did not like my music or the sound of my voice. <p>My mother stood in corner and watched and after he leaves tells me, "I'll slap you in the fucking head if I lose my home because of you." <p>Then she leaves and I call two NTs in nearby and ask if I can crash for a few days at a hotel to stay safe. <p>"'MY SON HAS AUTISM. I CAN'T AFFORD TO blah blah blah" <p>In the next breath he posts my name on his website AurismAid.org so he could exploit my work and appear legitimate resource for ASD when they did nothing to help me find resources or job since that would keep me from the brilliant work I did for charity event that never even took place. <p>Then, I actually donated $25 to their pseudo charity (anonymous donation but I have receipt) only to find out they are exploiting others with ASD and have no 501c3, business license or accreditation to train people on anything other than how to be a shady, creepy parent who solicits donations on FaceBook for his son who is unable to speak or use toilet at 15 years old. <p>I was outraged. I could not believe they were taking advantage of this horrible situation to gain knout and more Leah's to keep tell me that I am the bully when I expose the scam and refuse to approve a PR stunt to gain what he *thinks" is creds and respect for being a hero dad on GMA. <p>Well, I don't think that makes a hero or a man if he needs to prey on the weak and the sails using MY words with Obama's face in a PSA. <p>I was good enough to;<p>do the work (for free) <p>Get them tons of web traffic to trend on google<p>Looked good on paper with letters after my name <p>had access to people with deep pockets and good PR<p>Gave them the appearance of "hiring" people with ASD so they could appeal to anti AutismSpeaks crowd<p>BUT, I wasn't deemed good enough to step in when Obama and Jenny McCarthy declined to make a statement to public about Autism ?? <p>When i saw the statement that I made without permission, citation, or credit, I hit the fucking roof. I quit immediately. <p>Then I get flood of DMs offering everything money if I went along with the charade promising followers on twitter? <p>HELLO? Wake the fuck up. I don't give fuck if you have 10,000 or 200,000 followers who are willing to post bullshit and lies all over the web. <p>In fact, the idea that these people are SO pathetic that they need to exert their "influence" using these tactics is so much MORE pathetic, opportunistic, offensive and sad. <p>It is totally defeats the purpose because they use that influence to silence anyone who is either brave or stupid enough to stand refuse to comply. <p>This is Nazi science 101. <p>(Hope You are following thus far because my arms really hurt)<p>So, I start tweeting (thinking out loud) the way I do when I need to hear click of keyboard and heat my own voice say the words out loud as I pace until they come out sounding just right. <p>Gonna have to take break because I have been writing these words and concepts for years and will eventually put the pieces all together if I ever get a computer I can figure out how to use)<p>I waited, and waited and waited for years to see if anyone would ever see the pain and the logic of this ridiculous role I have taken on and uncover the message I am trying to put out there for future generations when they attempt to make sense out such a "virtual" reality that will either kill me or save me if I can get off this rock (or at times make it through the day without wishing I will find something to make this life worth living again. <p>Many people have told me that the world would be better off if I had nerve been born or I would just kill myself since they feel I am less than human and don't deserve to eat or have Internet or medical care since I am apparently THAT much of a financial burden on society. <p>Yes can be impulsive, compulsive, and self righteous BUT my logic is flawless given the right tools and opportunity to make my petty existence tolerable on the off chance that future generations or alien life forms will realize that I am different and "crazy" but one hell of a friend when the shit hits the fan. <p>I gotta go. I haven't slept more than 4-6 hours since my mother showed up and tried to take me to the ER so she could show off her parenting skills and have one more reason to gain sympathy and jeers from her friends or hit pay dirt and convince doctors or herself that I am causing her problems and try to stick me in a facility like Credemore so she can collect the insurance she took out on me the day before I moved in. <p>Better off dead? Maybe. <p>Willing to pull the trigger? Not on your fucking life. I would not give then the satisfaction. <p>And for every person who does not stand with me or will use this as more "proof" that I don't deserve to breathe or use the Internet to distract, numb, or inspire others by refusing to just disappear doesn't appreciate what I giving back to anyone who wants to know why I do what I do. <p>Over. And over. And over again. Until somebody listens. Or I find another way to entertain myself!!<p>Yes. I have video. And it ain't pretty after walking home from the hospital in 80 weather wearing black pants and the only sweater that fits. <p> Maybe I'll get online and order myself a pink Tank top off JadedExposure<p>You would think the bastard would give me one for free. But oh no. Can't have the real Elyssa on the air. It would ruin the show if they actually aired my response and statement when I answered the phone and duh. They did not even use block on caller ID.<p>Those bitches need to die. <p><br>That is the DailyDDoSe June 26, 2013<p><br>Just me,<p>e <br>@ELyssaD™<p><a href="http://elyssadurant.com">http://elyssadurant.com</a><br><a href="http://powersthatbeat.com">http://powersthatbeat.com</a><p>^ed <p>On Apr 25, 2013, at 7:35 AM, AK wrote:<p>Yes, it should all be addressed legally. Leah, Heather, Ariane, Ib and others should have criminal records too. Leah should not be allowed to be a teacher running classrooms of kids. But the authorities will never get involved in blog wars and online bullying unless it turns to violent crime. I'd like to make some kind of Internet self-policing system, but I don't know how it would work. I've been so stressed from thinking about all of this that it is hard to concentrate on anything anymore. It is affecting my ability to survive, and they will never be brought to justice.<p><br>On 04/24/2013 11:24 PM, Elyssa wrote:<p><br>Just me,<p>e <br>@ELyssaD™<p><a href="http://elyssadurant.com">http://elyssadurant.com</a><br><a href="http://powersthatbeat.com">http://powersthatbeat.com</a><p>^ed <p>Begin forwarded message:<p>From: [omitted]<br>Date: April 25, 2013, 1:14:47 AM EDT<br>To: Elyssa <br>Subject: Re: Jude & Jaded<p>Dear ^ed,<p>Yeah, I've seen jaded's crap before. So sorry but this is a form of cyberbullying that should be addressed via legal channels. Ugh! <p>Ad hominem attacks are common amongst the idiot set. Hope all is well in your mental universe. These people are nowhere. ;) Be of good cheer?<br>Luv ya...<p>Your friends,<p>Vax & Krewe<p>PS: Sorry about the belated response. Haven't been to email for many a day.<p><br>On 4/22/13, Elyssa wrote:<br>JadedSecurity » Who is Elyssa Durant??<p><a href="http://jadedsecurity.net/2011/06/20/who-is-elyssa-durant/">http://jadedsecurity.net/2011/06/20/who-is-elyssa-durant/</a><p><br>Just me,<br>e <br>@ELyssaD™<br><a href="http://elyssadurant.com">http://elyssadurant.com</a><br><a href="http://powersthatbeat.com">http://powersthatbeat.com</a><br>^ed<p>-- <br>"…a statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in<br>terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess<br>at its meaning and differ as to its application violates the first<br>essential of due process of law." United States Supreme Court,<br>Connally v. General Const. Co,. 269 U.S. 385 (1926)<p>Schwartz, Heather E. Cyberbullying. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2013. Save to EasyBib<p>Brown, Tracy. Cyberbullying: Online Safety. Save to EasyBib<p>Parks, Peggy J. Cyberbullying. San Diego, CA: ReferencePoint Press, 2013. Save to EasyBib<p>Kowalski, Robin M., Sue Limber, and Patricia Agatston W. Cyberbullying: Bullying in the Digital Age. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying--: Are You Switched On? [Scotland]: Respectme, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying--: Are You Switched On? [Scotland]: Respectme, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Breguet, Teri. Cyberbullying. NY: Rosen, 2007. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying Development, Consequences, Risk and Protective Factors. Psychology Pr, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying Development, Consequences, Risk and Protective Factors. Psychology Pr, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Raatma, Lucia. Cyberbullying. Danbury, CT: Children's Press, 2013. Save to EasyBib<p>Scherer, Lauri S. Cyberbullying. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Save to EasyBib<p>Raatma, Lucia. Cyberbullying. Danbury, CT: Children's Press, 2013. Save to EasyBib<p>Bauman, Sheri. Cyberbullying: What Counselors Need to Know. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association, 2011. Save to EasyBib<p>Gerdes, Louise I. Cyberbullying. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Gerdes, Louise I. Cyberbullying. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Kowalski, Robin M. Cyberbullying. Chicester: WILEY-BLACKWELL (AN IMPRINT OF JOHN WILE, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Kowalski, Robin M. Cyberbullying. Chicester: WILEY-BLACKWELL (AN IMPRINT OF JOHN WILE, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Campbell, Marilyn, and Marilyn Campbell. Cyberbullying: Legal Implications for Schools. East Melbourne, Vic.: Centre for Strategic Education, 2010. Save to EasyBib<p>MacEachern, Robyn, and Geraldine Charette. Cyberbullying: Deal with It and Ctrl Alt Delete It. Toronto: J. Lorimer &, 2008. Save to EasyBib<p>MacEachern, Robyn, and Geraldine Charette. Cyberbullying: Deal with It and Ctrl Alt Delete It. Toronto: J. Lorimer &, 2008. Save to EasyBib<p>Smith, Peter K. Cyberbullying: Abusive Relationships in Cyberspace. Toronto: Hogrefe, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Smith, Peter K. Cyberbullying: Abusive Relationships in Cyberspace. Toronto: Hogrefe, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying: Supporting School Staff. [Annesley]: DCSF Publications, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying: Supporting School Staff. [Annesley]: DCSF Publications, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Roleff, Tamara L. Cyberbullying. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Roleff, Tamara L. Cyberbullying. Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Mora-Merchán, Joaquín, and Thomas Jäger. Cyberbullying a Cross-national Comparison. Landau: Verl. Empirische Pädagogik, 2010. Save to EasyBib<p>Rogers, Vanessa. Cyberbullying: Activities to Help Children and Teens to Stay Safe in a Texting, Twittering, Social Networking World. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2010. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberbullying: A Cross-national Comparison. [S.l.]: Verlag Empirische, 2011. Save to EasyBib<p>Cyberstalking: A New Challenge for Law Enforcement and Industry : A Report. [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1999. Save to EasyBib<p>Belik, Cornelia. Cyberstalking: Stalking Im Internet, Foren, Newsgroups, Chats, per EMail ; Ergebnisse Einer Online-Befragung Von Opfern, TäterInnen Und Indirekt Betroffenen. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2007. Save to EasyBib<p>Belik, Cornelia. Cyberstalking: Stalking Im Internet, Foren, Newsgroups, Chats, per EMail ; Ergebnisse Einer Online-Befragung Von Opfern, TäterInnen Und Indirekt Betroffenen. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2007. Save to EasyBib<p>Casey, Eoghan. Digital Evidence and Computer Crime: Forensic Science, Computers and the Internet. San Diego, CA: Academic, 2000. Save to EasyBib<p>Lebo, Laura E. Cyberstalking: An Existing Problem Ignited by Advancing Technology. 2006. Save to EasyBib<p>Lucks, Bonnie D. Cyberstalking: Identifying and Examining Electronic Crime in Cyberspace. 2004. Save to EasyBib<p>Ogilvie, Emma. Cyberstalking. Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2000. Save to EasyBib<p>Hiller, Janine, and Ronnie Cohen. Internet Law & Policy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002. Save to EasyBib<p>Rose, Veronica. Cyberstalking. Hartford: Connecticut General Assembly, Office of Legislative Research, 2009. Save to EasyBib<p>Bocij, Paul. Cyberstalking: Harassment in the Internet Age and How to Protect Your Family. Westport, Conn [u.a.: Praeger, 2004. Save to EasyBib<p>Anders, Anne, and Christine Gallas. Cyberstalking: Prävalenz, Risikofaktoren Und Auswirkungen Auf Die Betroffenen. S.l.: S.n., 2010. Save to EasyBib<p>Port, Verena. Cyberstalking. Berlin: Logos Verl., 2012. Save to EasyBib<p>Hess, Kären M., and Henry Wrobleski M. Police Operations: Theory and Practice. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2006. Save to EasyBib<p>Port, Verena. Cyberstalking. Berlin: Logos-Verl., 2011. Save to EasyBib<p>Jarurattananon, Kannika. Cyberstalking: Analysis of Legal Response and Solutions in the UK, with Reference to Other Jurisdicions. 2008. Save to EasyBib<p>Bocij, Paul. Cyberstalking: Harassment in the Internet Age and How to Protect Yo
<br>Sent from my BlackBerry® RIM JobElyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-20720403895753739682013-10-24T07:06:00.001-05:002013-10-24T07:06:53.977-05:00Unwritten: Holding CellHere we go again. My cell is hacked. Again.
<br>
<br>CUIT closed incident report and no one responded from Public Safety as I was told by the help-LESS desk every time I report security breach.
<br>
<br>I filed multiple reports with all my ISPs that were compromised using a sophisticated hacking tools combined with social engineering techniques making it near impossible to explain to 99% of the human race who simply can not understand why I can't just fix it by changing my password.
<br>
<br>I have been dealing with this ridiculous situation for so long that I am all too familiar with ignorant and judgmental InfoSec elitist and law enforcement who seem to think a stolen cellphone does not warrant a police report or follow up call to Computer Crimes and the Fraud Unit.
<br>
<br>CyberSecurity has become a pretty hot topic for *most* informed people. The police searched my cell and deleted evidence. They came to my home. Without a warrant. No official complaint.
<br>
<br>Clearly I must be either stupid, paranoid or crazy to believe the police report got "lost" in the mail.
<br>
<br>I am now escalating my complaint to whomever I need to in order to have this resolved one way of another.
<br>
<br>I have to hack (back) into my own cellphone because the OIG requested as that I provide as much detail as possible. Kinda hard when the evidence keeps getting deleted or corrupted in transfer.
<br>
<br>You want detains? Good. That happens to be one of my strong suits.
<br>
<br>Annoying? Yes.
<br>
<br>Loquacious and verbose? Absolutely.
<br>
<br>Thorough and an eye for details and specifics? Absolutely.
<br>
<br>Love to hate me? Don't worry, you are in good company.
<br>
<br>I am reposting a few KEY documents that went through CUIT since no one took this seriously three years ago.
<br>
<br>That is all. For now.
<br>
<br>Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
<br>Research & Policy Analyst
<br>
<br>Sent from my BlackBerry® RIM JobElyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-38933375089336291552013-09-29T02:05:00.001-05:002013-09-29T02:05:49.416-05:00Unwritten: March 26, 2002, 7:10:26 AM EST Date: March 26, 2002, 7:10:26 AM EST
<br>To: dr T
<br>Subject: uncensored.
<br>
<br>naked. raw and exposed.... i'm sorry to be me. i am ashamed and
<br>embarrassed and yet I am strangely in control...
<br>
<br>
<br>******
<br>and such are my insecurities-- for whatever it is worth, and that may
<br>be quite a bit, this was the original message I wrote you-- but I
<br>sent it to myself and sent you an abbreviated version.
<br>
<br>i think the uncensored version was better. i try to be articulate.
<br>i try to intersting. i try to be normal.
<br>
<br>i need someone to hear what I'm not saying-- sometimes-- I don't like
<br>talking in riddles all the time. I don't like onsessions and
<br>ruminations. i don't like explaining the obvious-- I don't
<br>understand why it must be so complicated. i have one task. I have
<br>no idea how to complete my task so I must keep searching.
<br>
<br>I developed new skills last night-- my car is still having problems
<br>and then my phone locked up. i was completely lost on Sunrise
<br>Highway and could not find my way home (though I wasn't quite sure
<br>where my final destination would. I finally realized that I needed
<br>to pull over every 20 minutes to plan a short term traffic route.
<br>
<br>Forcing myself to stop for about 40 minutes each time I got lost
<br>allowed me to get through the emotions of the whole thing. You see I
<br>pulled over at a diner in Longbeach and they were able to reconnect
<br>my phone so I could call someone for directions or support or
<br>whatever! As I sat on the phone with tech support for over an hour,I
<br>started noticing that there were people sleeping in parked cars in
<br>the same lot. I couldn't tell if the couple that just emerged from
<br>the car 2 spots to the left were conducting an underage indiscretion
<br>or committing a felony in the back seat... as I noticed others
<br>around me, I settled in to my home for the night. I did not feel so
<br>paranoid anyomre about shuffling about in my saomewhat respectable
<br>Honda Civic. I almost forgot for a while that I was lost. So I took
<br>a baby step to the next place-- and what an experience. I was still
<br>lost but closer to my destination-- and again, settled into another
<br>brightly lit parking lot by a "execu-stay" type of hotel/motel. This
<br>was working, so why rush. Why so frantic. Even with the phone, the
<br>car situation did not improve because I simply had no one to casll.
<br>Even if someone had come to get me-- where would I go? Where would I
<br>put my things?
<br>
<br>So I finally made it over to the closed Starbucks on the perimeters
<br>of the Hofstra campus. I was the only car in the lot-- and I boldly
<br>parked facing forward and watched the police race by me wihtout
<br>notice. I became very sad for this world just around then. They
<br>were racing around and it tooks about 30-35 minutes before a cop car
<br>drove up to me in the parking lot.
<br>
<br>Saddened by the reality that my suspicious activity was did not invite
<br>further inquiry, I had already decided to tell them the truth even
<br>before the car pulled up next to me in the lot. I did not even
<br>bother to park in a space-- I boldly parked horizontally taking up
<br>two or three spaces up front placing myself in an obvious and
<br>precarious situation. Do you think they knew it wasn't the first
<br>time? Do you think they saw through my decidedly in-your-face stance
<br>and tactics and saw this as a thinly disguised effort to feign
<br>temporary homelessness. Or would they be back tomorrow night?
<br>
<br>To be continued.
<br>
<br>this is me. uncensored. please don't be scared. if you don't want
<br>to read anymore-- I won't send anymore.
<br>
<br>I'm tired. Time to go to sleep. But I have no Pepe. I have no
<br>home.
<br>
<br>-edd
<br>
<br>
<br>i want to be normal. i want to be normal. i wish I understood the
<br>conventional traditions the family unit. i am strangely unfamiliar
<br>to any culture. I want to be part of your world. Would they know I
<br>am an imposter. This just got painful. I'm out--
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>----- Forwarded message from Elyssa Durant <----
<br>Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 02:12:16 -0500 (EST)
<br>From: Elyssa Durant
<br>Reply-To: Elyssa Durant
<br>Subject: testing 1, 2, 3
<br>To: me
<br>
<br>What else did you think I might be doing on a Saturday night?
<br>
<br>A welcome evening at home with Tori, Alanis, and the information
<br>superhighway.
<br>
<br>I had a computer virus (I think I mentioned it) "Nimda" and it
<br>completely erased all of my "registry data" and I have to start from
<br>scratch-- I should only be so lucky to lose all of my memory
<br>especially that "RAM."
<br>
<br>I'm kind of scared to send you an e-mail-- free-range ranting and
<br>writing helps me to color outside the lines a bit-- I get lost "in
<br>the moment" and some people think it brings out the worst (but some
<br>times the best, too)
<br>
<br>This is the dreaded editing that occurs when I lose myself somewhere
<br>between brilliance and madness.
<br>
<br>All of my journal entries for the past 2 years will be wiped clean
<br>from my computer-- my mother has expressed her satisfaction with the
<br>situation-- as if getting rid of the journals could ever set me
<br>free...
<br>___________________________________________________
<br>Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.
<br>
<br>
<br>Those who say it can not be done should not interrupt the person
<br>doing it ~~ Chinese Proverb
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>----- End forwarded message -----
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br> AdminElyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-50735518798596348062013-09-25T01:31:00.000-05:002013-09-25T01:31:02.911-05:00Trapped<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0.25em 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Have you ever been trapped?</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I am not talking about your every day run-of-the-mill subway congestion or an elevator that is filled beyond capacity. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Trapped.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
No way out.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Paralyzed.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Frightened, frustrated, angry and desperate.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Like any ordinary "normal" person, you are going about your daily activities and the next moment you are drowning in unfamiliarity. In reality, little has changed. Sadly, nothing has changed. Minutes, hours, years have passed... but nothing has changed.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Despite evidence to the contrary, your actions seem to have no consequence. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
This is how I feel. Not as often as I used to, but more often than I care to admit and more often then I would like. It leaves me paralyzed-- much like a deer frozen by the illuminating light of oncoming traffic.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
It is a short journey from the trigger back to the beginning. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I wonder what I may do if my task was completed. It is my greatest hope to find a place where I can end this debilitating madness. Just break the cycle. Free.<br />
<br />
Free from the need to provide objective verification of my physical existence and a rational basis for a seemingly bizarre obsession.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I know these things. I organize my life in a sequential, numerical, historical, logical order where everything has a designated beginning, middle and end.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
There must be a place where reason and purpose replace obsessions and insanity. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Can anyone understand this madness? Why can't you see how simple everything is for me?</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I <i><b>need</b></i> things to be simple.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
My patterns seem so obvious. Pay attention! What seems like chaos to you serves as my salvation. Don't you see how resourceful I am?<br />
<br />
I know my methods are rigid but they are clearly consistent with my "mission" in life. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Few can be bothered with the elegant simplicity of my rituals. My behaviors <i>are</i> rational! They protect my delicate foundation. I do not have far to fall.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I need an out!</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Why question my methods? </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
By collecting physical evidence of my experiences and transient existence, I can <i>be</i> someone. Someone with a past, a present, maybe even a future.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<i>I collect, therefore I am.</i></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Look! I have proof! History. References.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<i></i></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I want to be part of your world. Really I do. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I want roots, consistency and foundations. I want high school reunions and a hometown.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
My task must be finished! It is destroying my relationship with my future self. My soul is withering away beneath this desperate facade. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Please give me a moments consideration and see me. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I am not cruel. I am not evil. Nevertheless, I am so alone and isolated. I am here and I am ready. I am ready to end this endless search for home. But how?</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I need you. I need you to help me find a place where I can feel comfortable ending this vicious cycle. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I am looking to you... the collective you of humanity to help me through this time of need and uncertainty. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
All I seek is compassion, empathy, and understanding. I continue my search hoping I am not completely alone in my quest.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black;">Restoring order dominates my very existence. Keeping me trapped in the past; invading the present; dictating my actions through repetition, ruminations, anxiety and fear inhibiting my growth and progress.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://darknightdurant.blogspot.com/2013/02/trapped.html" style="color: black; display: block; text-decoration: none;"></a><br />
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
I do not have it in me to climb out of another depression. </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Don't you see how this life is breaking me?</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
If only I had the same resignation and grace of that lone Buck crossing a quiet country road, I would cherish the instant where I am faced with certain death or total salvation.<br />
<br />
I would search for a sanctuary where forgiveness replaces damnation.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
For one instant, I would welcome the challenge to live freely in this brave new world... to explore and run free on a distant, winding path.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
I would stand proud, defiant, and free.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
Really, truly, trapped. </div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DpwEhR2tgdU" width="560"></iframe>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<div style="font-weight: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. © 2002-2013</div>
</h3>
Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-59392598061098214562013-09-25T00:08:00.003-05:002013-09-25T00:08:55.316-05:00Unwritten: A Letter from my mom<div style="text-align: justify;">
I just watched both "Secret Garden" videos again.<br />
<br />
They are absolutely my favorite ones ever.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Your focus is definitely more positive and I hope that it is indicative that you are moving towards being in a better place emotionally.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I want you to be be happy and believe in your self worth.<br />
<br />
I told you earlier today that I believe that you have a purpose in life and are a very special person.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You have the ability to enlighten others. I felt happier after viewing your videos.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you for sharing them with me.</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
</div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/F67OWSgl-Ok" width="420"></iframe>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-18313425771230700172013-08-30T12:14:00.000-05:002013-08-30T12:16:43.039-05:00Unwritten: Independence Day <div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">IIt seems painfully obvious to me now that the only way out was through... </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If had known then what I know now, I would not have wasted so much precious tiine searching for the source of my profound </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">sadness. </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I can no longer allow myself to be drawn into this circle madness.</div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I have spent far too long asking myself, how did I get here? </div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">I think it is time to reframe the question. Rather than ask myself how I got here, I need to ask myself, how do I get out?</div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. © 2009</div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></div><div style="font-family: '.Helvetica NeueUI'; font-size: 17px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><div><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NsjBiUUvWYU/UiDTeUhBy2I/AAAAAAAAJfc/hfFF9QEBLP0/I/photo_799384.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><br> <br></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-47233787895320784542013-08-29T03:32:00.000-05:002013-08-29T03:34:56.669-05:00Book Review: Examinations: Comparative and International Studies <p><i><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Times">Book Review </font></b></i><i><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Times">by Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.</font></b></i></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Eckstein, M. A., & Noah, H. J. (1992). <i>Examinations: Comparative and international studies</i>. Oxford: Pergamon Press. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Chapters 8 and 9 by Philip J. Foster</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In this chapter, Foster discusses the certainty of examinations as something which exists not as a social phenomenon independent of their place in education. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Like previous commentators, Foster also points out the discrepancy in the views educators hold regarding examinations: those who argue examinations are necessary to maintain educational standards; and those who believe such exaniinations undermine the mission and philosophy of American education. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Foster believes both of these views to be lacking a critical historical and social perspective necessary to understand the role and function oftesting in American society. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Foster believes his role as a sociologist is different than that an educator or a psychometrician, and bases his discussion "legitimacy" and "content". </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Foster discusses the rapidly changing economy whereby Third World Countries are beginning to resemble their Western counterparts in the transformation from a subsistence economy to a monetary economy. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This is making social status structurally different by changing the social roles from ascribed to achievement based. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This new found social organization is heavily reliant upon academic achievement. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Foster states that in Third World Countries, examinations are far more determinant of social mobility and status than in Industrialized Nations. He goes on to state that despite the deleterious effect examinations have on pedagogical practice, they remam a better option than other methods of social mobility since they remain the only "universalistic" means of performance appraisal. He refers back to Heyneman & Ransom's paper which points out that public perception and opinion of evaluation measures are critical to effective policy implementation and reform. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In conclusion, Foster argues that examinations need not propel the rote perpetuation of a fixed body of knowledge, but can serve as a an instrument of cumcula change. He states that the Heyneman & Ransom proposed role of examination agencies may be a good one for financial reasons it may be an impossibility. </span></font></p><p><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Foster suggests that an external world organization provides financial aid and personnel training to help subsidize educational testmg agencies whereby the investment could yield long-term gains. </span></font></p><p><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Times">Submitted for course credit in doctoral studies for the Advanced Seminar in Ed Policy and the Sociology of Evaluation. CRN TF6525. TC, Columbia University.</font></i></p><p><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font face="Times">Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M. © 1995-2013 </font></i></p>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-88884378211421252832013-08-28T18:34:00.000-05:002013-08-28T19:00:34.367-05:00What the Fuck is an EFF-bot? <div>I have to say that I think there have been several Twitterbots created just for me. Such as the @effbot or the @Swear_Bot and let is not forget the cute and lovable #twensored duck. </div><div><br></div><div>I could swear the effbot was so hot on my trail, that within 15 minutes of sneaking in a different hashtag to outsmart the effbot; it added that code as well (#EFF) and started hijacking those tweets as well. </div><div><br></div><div>Yes, I do believe I am being followed by a bot. Does that make me grandiose or paranoid?</div><div><br></div><div>So much so, that I in a couple of friends to test the Bot – to see just how much human supervision a Bot needs in order to function and evolve. </div><div><br></div><div>We learned very quickly that the effbot had somehow singled me out. I wrote the effbot a letter and asked him to give me the “F” word back, but the effbot did not reply. </div><div><br></div><div>I took it upon myself to say #EFF the #EFF'n effbot! </div><div><br></div><div>I don't know when the effbot was created (of course I am writing while the Twitter is down so I have no way of checking) but about three weeks ago I woke to find a whole bunch of tweets with the hashtag #EFF. </div><div><br></div><div>At first I assumed that it was just a polite way of sneaking in the word "fuck" into a tweet. So I used it everywhere. I would say #EFF you, or #EFF that. And before long people started asking what the #EFF does #EFF mean? </div><div><br></div><div>I got replies listing everything from “Early Follow Friday” to the “Electronic Foundation Frontier” So I spent about 48-72 hours trying to figure out what the #EFF is #EFF. </div><div><br></div><div>All this for an eff’n Bot? </div><div><br></div><div>You see at first the effbot only picked up tweets that used "eff" in sequence. For example, "I am so eff'n late for work" or, "Twitter really needs to fix the eff'n problem with @replies."</div><div><br></div><div>So my initial response was to hit retweet and I typed into my mini QWERTY keys on the TwackBerry and wrote, #EFF=FUCK.</div><div><br></div><div>Well this confused some people why was I saying the f-word in response to an innocent tweet. Well I don't remember anything about that tweet except that someone had asked "what is #EFF?" </div><div><br></div><div>Well of course, being barely awake and reading the miniature font on the screen of my BlackBerry, I was eager to jump in to the conversation and screen there some confusion over the meaning of what I now know to be a is called a hashtag) of the "hashtag" #EFF.</div><div><br></div><div>Realizing that people were confused that I was assigning a "superlative" to a hashtag, I decided to go on a mission to uncover the significance of #EFF. </div><div><br></div><div>So I took it a step further, and responded with some = from the Spanish Inquisition: Forbidden Use of Carnal Knowledge.</div><div><br></div><div>Alternatively, from England where one (well, I suppose two) people had to get permission to engage in sexual relations; warranting a notice that read, "Fornication Under Consent of the King."</div><div><br></div><div>So I woke up one morning and saw one of my favorite twitterbuds latest tweet #EFF. Now bear in mind that I was brand new to twitter, had never heard the word hashtag and was determined to figure out what the damn EFFbot was. </div><div><br></div><div>Turns out it was used by one of two groups of people: pussies who are too PC to use the F word and those who support internet freedom and the Electronic Freedom Foundation or eff.org</div><div><br></div><div>It took me a while to figure it out, but I'll never forget the flood of eff'n tweets that got me through one of the darkest times of my entire life. </div><div><br></div><div>Bring on the EFF-bot. How I loved thee. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div>Elyssa D'Educrat © 2009-2013</div><div><br></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiGapjrsZSkRhdkR5mtTyWE8fSag1g4j4xVmcjkeTpsDm1vH-njRvKIURm4itXkQ0gMq4vMwEJtyAMrf5eSPqvtEZdxMxS7ATa1tgF-zxlwmaYhs7h3cdDOUUg1iLCJQv84fkEzX8L5jsz/I/photo_409994.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><br> <br><br> <br></div><div><br></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-88889646523515490822013-08-28T08:00:00.000-05:002013-08-28T16:43:09.950-05:00DailyDDoSe™ Amazon, Blogger and iCloud Hack <div id="RIL_container" style="margin: 25px 20px 30px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; "><div id="RIL_header" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><h1 style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0.2em 0px 7px; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; border-bottom-width: 4px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); "><font face="Times" size="3"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Amazon Wish List Hack</span></font></h1><cite style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; display: block; font-style: normal; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">by <a class="RIL_author" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-wish-list-hack-2013-8?utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=bufferfb66a" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; ">Dylan Love</a>, <a href="http://businessinsider.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; ">businessinsider.com</a></span></font></div><span class="RIL_date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><font face="Times">August 27th 2013 10:57 AM</font></div></span></cite></div><div id="RIL_body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; "><div id="RIL_less" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><div lang="en" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><div class="post-top" nodeindex="351" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "></div><div class="clear-both" nodeindex="393" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><div class="KonaBody post-content" nodeindex="394" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" nodeindex="396" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><div class="image" nodeindex="397" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "><div id="RIL_IMG_1" class="RIL_IMG hasCaption loaded " style="margin: 0px auto 18px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); visibility: visible; width: 280px; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a id="RIL_IMG_A_1" href="isril:IMG||1" class="noLinkStyle" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; height: 209px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Times"><img src="file:///var/mobile/Applications/98CF3D76-C54E-4039-8B94-7BB07887A881/Library/Application%20Support/offline/cache1/RIL_assets/static5.businessinsider.com/image/51e99e82eab8ea3e46000028-960/home-alone-surprised-face_280-0.jpg" width="280" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px !important; "></font></a></div><div class="ril_caption" style="margin: 0px; padding: 9px; text-align: left; "><cite style="text-align: -webkit-auto;margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: block; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Photo by: Screengrab</span></font></cite></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A <a href="https://twitter.com/ErikStolhanske" nodeindex="819" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; ">comedian named Erik Stolhanske</a> let Brandan Geise, a cybersecurity expert at a security firm called SecureState, go after him and try to hack his online identity, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57600158/amazon-wish-list-is-gateway-to-epic-social-engineering-hack/" nodeindex="820" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none; ">reports CBS News</a>.</span></font></div><p nodeindex="399" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Going through a site that aggregates people's personal information, Spokeo, Geise found the comedian's Amazon account, his email address, and his house address. Using the email address, Geise found his Amazon Wish List.</span></font></p><p nodeindex="399" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "></p><div><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Oo1r9JIWiKA/Uh5u23_nwCI/AAAAAAAAJbQ/ABQRT16I48Y/I/photo_64511.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><div><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4JRUyg839Xo/Uh5u4jTgaaI/AAAAAAAAJbU/jp-UYqN3mWg/I/photo_733544.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><br> <font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font><p></p><p nodeindex="400" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Here's where the weaknesses start to show, of course – at the human level. The security expert calls up Amazon customer service (on the phone!) and adds a credit card to Stolhanske's account, which only requires his name, email address, and billing address, thanks to some loopholes and social engineering based on all the data he'd collected, is able to fully take over Stolhanske's Amazon account.</span></font></p><p nodeindex="400" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "></p><div><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vFqC1eV-BjA/Uh5u4wFpU2I/AAAAAAAAJbY/JD6oEriNLKQ/I/photo_934612.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><br> <font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font><p></p><p nodeindex="401" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As the dominos begin to fall, Geise manages to take over Stolhanske's AOL account, Apple ID, and main email accounts. He started by <span nodeindex="821" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">calling Amazon back 30 minutes later saying he had lost his backup email address. </span><span nodeindex="822" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">He "confirmed" his identity with the last four digits of the credit card he just added to Stolhanske's account.</span></span></font></p><p nodeindex="402" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span nodeindex="823" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "></span><span nodeindex="824" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">The final step was to guess an item Stolhanske had bought from Amazon recently. </span><span nodeindex="825" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">Geise already knew that he was a fan of Game of Thrones, so he said his wife had "recently bought a Game of Thrones book or DVD." </span><span nodeindex="826" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">He was allowed to change the reset the account, changing the password and email address it was associated with.</span></span></font></p><div><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-44wazRMDnfc/Uh5u5ZlAT6I/AAAAAAAAJbg/2a7T91YytNo/I/photo_484345.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><br> <p nodeindex="403" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span nodeindex="827" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; "></span><span nodeindex="828" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; ">With access to more credit card info stored in the Amazon account, Geise used one card's last four digits to illegitimately verify his identity again and take over Stolhanske's AOL account, which he also found on Spokeo. The newly-compromised AOL email address was the backup email for his Apple ID, so it was a piece of cake to reset that as well. (This was also Stolhanske's main email address, so Geise now had access to his everyday email.)</span></span></font></p><p class="tagline" nodeindex="404" style="text-align: -webkit-auto; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; "><font face="Times"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</span></font></p><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><div><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-QnVplRmCa7M/Uh5u5_4PmCI/AAAAAAAAJbw/GKaxZhCgYq4/I/photo_29327.jpg" border="0" class="bloggoimg"></div><br><br> <br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8674726751564182640.post-69771755679190949212013-08-27T16:11:00.000-05:002013-08-27T16:11:31.938-05:00UNWRITTEN: An Open Letter to My Father <div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">
July 23, 2013</div>
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Dear Dad,</div>
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I apologize for not getting back to you sooner but I had to process my thoughts before responding. </div>
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Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from the course and defer admissions since I was about $950 short and was unable to borrow the money from Karen since she told me that she could not afford to lend me the money. </div>
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I was devastated and felt she was being dishonest with me since she just sold the condo my grandmother gave her for over $750,000. </div>
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It wasn't worth fighting over since we both know that it may have resulted in a drawn out battle like the one she had with her brother when Grandpa Al died. </div>
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I was in a deep depression when I saw the deed to the house since Karen promised that she would leave the property to Lauren and I to return the favor. Instead, she threw out all of our things and I collected photographs you had taken of us when we were little girls. </div>
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<img border="0" class="bloggoimg" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-0_wvHXa2pqTRyjp7-LaDYmSZx1orzCivGNr2l862ox7i6VU_qAlRR0wuwMqIj5mghay5HfmumthRo8IUKbmQ4p3D-YQvUK6RLg4feeIj1R4qcgqXwKxMqb1LUwHvKNWn1XoJFQK3cnI/I/photo_462270.jpg" width="243" /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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On a side note, she also wants us to reimburse her for the ObGyn bill when I was born! </div>
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I can't tell you how disappointed I am since I would only need one more class after that for my degree and I was really looking forward to a visit with you since it has been a while and I have some things I want to tell you. </div>
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I finally get it. </div>
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I just wish I could have "gotten it" earlier in life so I could have made better choices and decisions. </div>
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Now that I am growing older, I see a lot of myself in you. </div>
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<img border="0" class="bloggoimg" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXa3EIZ-AGAQvCShu6j7D72x2ApQjMFK3e0a2aIs1WAvXus_gpmCGIaotyh_IMykQQb7gNzUjXQ4LAsoAGSBsJySp-JO4M17yrTKYgnVayBZwAQ-T0F24hwvrIHJrwS23Pv3md1IvqVVA/I/photo_503984.jpg" /></div>
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I have always respected you. Your amazing focus, work ethic, and self discipline. </div>
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Hate to break it to you, but even though I don't have to, I actually kinda of like you!</div>
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I used to make fun of you for buying three pairs of the same jeans and cutting them at the ankles. </div>
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Guess what? I do it now too! I buy three of everything too because I have to come to value comfort more than fashion. </div>
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My ears are sensitive like yours and I go apeshit when I hear noisy teenagers on a train. And if I had a badge? You bet your ass I would flash it too!</div>
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I have zero tolerance for histrionics and manipulative behavior and I would rather be told the most awful truth than a well constructed lie. </div>
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I make good eye contact and often find myself speaking in monotone, repeating the same words until they come out just right or are understood. </div>
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I don't know if these traits are from your strict upbringing or if they are a genetic predisposition since I have come to learn that they are common for people with Aspergers Syndrome. Echolalia, sensory overload, a need for consistency. </div>
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Like you, I can be extremely focused and have special interests that have allowed me to become one of the "top four policy analysts to graduate from Columbia's program in the last 40 years" and "the only person [Congressman Cooper] knows in the state of Tennessee capable of understanding the complexities of the relevant health care law and policy issues."</div>
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Things haven't worked out the way I hoped and planned but you never told me life was fair or that everything would be okay.</div>
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I resigned from my job with the state because I couldn't tell my clients (juvenile offenders or victims of horrific abuse and neglect) that things "would get better" when I knew in my heart that they were in for a cruel, unjust ride through a corrupt welfare system and had little to no chance of surviving in this society if they expected to rely upon the "system" to meet their basic needs. </div>
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The system is designed to keep people locked into a dependence and learned helplessness with little chance of ever breaking free. </div>
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</div>
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Having lived on under $17/day for more years than I care to admit.</div>
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I simply could not be a party to encouraging children and young adults to subscribe to that mindset and tell them their lives would improve; that the system would help them achieve independence when I knew damn well that I was fostering false hopes by encouraging a lifestyle of dependence that would likely continue into adulthood. </div>
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It broke my heart. It broke my spirit and it broke my faith in the system. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I no longer want to save the world. Quite frankly, I have given far too much of myself and my time working with charities and volunteering with non-profit agencies that paid me far less than I deserved because I let them. </div>
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I am paying for that now. But maybe someday, I will feel confident enough to demand a real salary and maybe even collect royalties on my publications and the book I wrote that sold 62,000 copies without paying me a dime. </div>
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I hope you will read it someday if you haven't already and know that I finally learned to speak and write the way you taught me to... </div>
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I do hope you know that despite my past and residual anger, I love you and hope that you love me too. </div>
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Love, </div>
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<br /></div>
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Liz</div>
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<img border="0" class="bloggoimg" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW07vOhbyBFXZRto2SaF9kWx7ZIWkxdVL2MccuRXTQ0lWEbUT9aPShbIP_QnrjhKfPa8SQldDQFOn0nq44qjLXjCyCb6qkSTzgiReKdQY9H0RyCvUxq5RBzvwGhAy1i9XoBMV1MuGfIUU-/I/photo_579582.jpg" width="200" /></div>
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Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.</div>
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Research & Policy Analyst</div>
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On Jul 23, 2013, at 7:39 AM, Marc Durant </div>
<mdurant durantlaw.com=""><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">
wrote:<br /></div>
</mdurant><div style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">
Did you ever make it to Columbia and NYC?</div>
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__________________</div>
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Marc Durant</div>
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Durant & Durant LLP</div>
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325 Chestnut Street</div>
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Suite 1116</div>
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Philadelphia, PA 19106-2611</div>
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www.durantlaw.com</div>
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________________________________________</div>
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From: Elyssa Durant </div>
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Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 7:19 AM</div>
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To: Marc Durant; Schuessler George; Rick; Stu; Social Justice; Vaxen; Joel; Elyssa Danielle Durant</div>
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Subject: Yahoo's Very Bad Idea to Release Email Addresses | Threat Level | Wired.com</div>
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Holy mother of God!!</div>
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<a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/yahoos-very-bad-idea/">http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/06/yahoos-very-bad-idea/</a></div>
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Elyssa D. Durant, Ed.M.</div>
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Research & Policy Analyst</div>
Elyssa D'Educrathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919707967706524925noreply@blogger.com0