Creating Relevancy in Learning

Most of the people in my life know how much I love teaching...almost as much as I love learning.  At UCF I have the great pleasure each fall to share space with some amazing students.  These students are a part of our Lead Scholars' Program.  In the fall each year I try to take 25-30 students, most with little understanding of social justice, oppression theory, liberation theories, the roles of institutions in sustaining systems of oppression or the slightest idea of how to plan and facilitate the kinds of solutions required to bring about social change.


This semester, I had the amazing fortune to share space with some of the most brilliant and thoughtful students, who willing signed up for my class and remained through out the whole semester.  These student leaders, most of whom are beginning their sophomore year, not only hung in there, but they challenged each other as well as their selves.  Each class I had to bring my "A" game and they returned in kind.  Their papers were filled with deep reflections and thoughtfulness.  They proposed solutions, grounded in an understanding of social membership and the access that provides, across our many different identities.  I challenged them to learn how to problem solve and to think critically, not to memorize disconnected facts they wouldn't remember when they returned to complete their last semester as Lead Scholars.

So, the final for this class had to be something that would evaluate their understanding of what's required for effective leadership in a socially unjust society where institutional secrets made it possible systems of privilege and internalized oppression to survive, most often at the expense of innocent victims who are likely to require a lifetime of support and assistance in their life long battle with the PTSD and other mental health issues caused through their victimization.


So here is their final...the first part, which is not included here asked them to reflect on their semester and share what they're greatest learning was or what did they have to unlearn?

Your Social Justice Class final exam will consist of a final paper addressing your understanding of social justice.

Papers are to be double spaced, 12 pt, no funky hard to read font and please don't print on both sides. Citations are not necessary.

Section I: "Social Justice and Managing Everyone Else's Madness"

You are a student leader at Southern Texas Federated University, or STFU for short, in the "We-B-Right Leadership Program" which attempts to connect student leaders to real leadership opportunities. A recent scandal has rocked STFU. You have been asked to assemble a team to address allegations relating to the alleged sexual abuse of a number of young boys at the hands of one of the university's assistant football coaches. These allegations and fall out from the scandal have brought great shame on a nationally ranked and outstanding football program, which also resulted in the dismissal of STFU's beloved coach along with other university officials.

Two groups of students have demanded a meeting with several of the remaining university officers as well as Board of Trustee members. You and your team will facilitate the discussion and attempt to not let it get out of hand. The two groups of students are demanding answers to the following:

Group I wants answers as to why their beloved football coach was fired by the Board of Trustee's along with two other university officials. They have demanded the board of trustee's rehire their coach and the university officials, claiming STFU has discriminated against Coach Dudley Doo-Right, based upon his age.

Group II wants answers on how this behavior could have gone on, allegedly for years, without something being done by the football coaching staff, university administration, campus police, alumni, and community partners.

Because the students mistrust university officials, they have demanded student facilitation in answering their questions and helping them in determining what is next for them and STFU!

Utilizing the Penn State scandal as a reference (since this story was taken from their recent calamity) and the work we've done this semester in the following areas: 1) theory of oppression, 2) privilege and power, 3) institutional oppression, 4) conflict resolution across different cultures, and other valuable learning, address the following:

1. Who would be a part of your facilitation team? Justify your rationale and discuss specific roles, if any, members of your team should play. Would you approach be the same for both groups? Why or why not?

2. Identify one or two goals or outcomes from your sessions?

3. Describe your process for meeting the goals of the session, (i.e.how will you ensure you are successful and what could happen to not make this a successful experience for each group?). Hint: Look at what each group is demanding and think about what could get in the way and what could be some compromise or reality check?

4. Other considerations: In addressing the concerns by each student group, respond to the following:

   1. How might the concept of "power and privilege" explain some of the questions being asked by each group?

   2. How different might this whole case be had the victims been girls instead of boys?

   3. How different might this whole case be had the perpetrator been a Black man instead of a while man?

   4. How different might this whole case be had the incident taken place outside "the walls of athletics" and perhaps in another area of the university?

5. What are your thoughts on why and how this type of behavior and cover-up existed so long?

6. What suggestions would you have in helping to move the university from this place of deep shame and guilt and move on? What would be your priorities?

PLEASE NOTE: I am NOT looking for an exhaustive plan and detailed rationale in questions 1-3. Provide enough information and justification so you can demonstrate you understand the complexity of this problem. Most of your time should be spent on questions, 4-6. Hint: You may find it helpful to get your own personal feelings out of the way and instead think about our topics and how we addressed them.

Links to the Penn State scandal:

• The Penn State scandal:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/penn-state-scandal
• The Penn State Scandal: http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-400_162-1332.html
• The Penn State Scandal - 7 Facts About Child Sexual Abuse: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/11/22/the-penn-state-scandal-7-facts-about-child-sex-abuse.html
• The World Joe Pa Made: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111118142421347141.html
• Penn State Abuse Scandal-Guide and Timeline: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/142111804/penn-state-abuse-scandal-a-guide-and-timeline
• No Easy Answers for Mike McQueary: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7237700/in-penn-state-child-sexual-abuse-scandal-there-no-easy-answers-assistant-mike-mcqueary
• Bob Costa’s Interview with Jerry Sandusky: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xy0L8MUsOE 

If you have an interest, here is the grand jury testimony leading up to the arrest of Jerry Sandusky. WARNING: It is graphic in detail and leaves little to the imagination. It is NOT necessary for you to read this to complete your assignment. I've included it as background information, only.

 Sandusky Grand Jury Testimony.pdf 

 

 

 

Youth Transgender Support Group

The Fight for and the Right to Independence

We have just concluded another 4th of July celebrating the independence of our great country.  It seems quite ironic that for many in this country this fight for independence and freedom, for which many have fought and died carries conditions.  I'm reminded almost daily that for many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender U.S. Americans, independence is still not possible...but we must not give up the fight for equality for everyone of our citizens.

I am honored and happy to share with you this amazing piece composed by friend and colleague, Dr. Warren Blumenfeld.  I hope you will let him know how much you appreciate the great work he continues to do in the fight for equality and freedom.  "None of us are free, until all of us are free."


Why Do You Call Me Faggot?
An Editorial in Verse by Warren J. Blumenfeld

As you drive down the boulevard
Why do you call me “faggot”?

Alone or with your fellows
You shriek menacing refrains
Bellowing in mocking intonations

You blast your horn
Or slow your pace
Or circle back to reprise your taunts

What fuels this need inside?
Who gives permission and cover?

Where does this entitlement stem?
Who offers tacit approval?

When I express gender traditionally
Why do you call me “faggot”?

When I gender non-conform
Why do you call me “faggot”?

When I walk alone or in company
Why do you call me “faggot”?

For I am a person, like you, making my way in the world

I am a professor at your university
I am a neighbor in your town
I shop where you shop
And I breathe the air you breathe

Sunlight shines on me as on you
Rain and snow wash over me as over you

Like the Eastern Goldfinch, the Cardinal, and the Dove
Heartland winds tug and lift me
Do they lift you too?

And I am comfortable in my skin
Are you comfortable in yours?

So why do you call me “faggot”?

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld, Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. He is co-editor of Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States, Editor of Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price, and co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice.

Permission granted to forward, post, or publish this essay. wblumen@iastate.edu

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Associate Professor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
Office 515-294-5931
Home 515-232-8230
Email: wblumen@iastate.edu
Blog: http://www.warrenblumenfeld.com

Counter Protesting is Counterproductive with the Westboro Baptist Church

One of the great pleasures of working at UCF is being surrounded by amazing and talented students.

The purpose of my blog has always been to provide a voice and a point of view on subjects that require discussion and action.


Westboro Baptist Church, for me, has always been a group of people, that evoke powerful emotions through their images and actions.  That is their purpose.  They have decided to again to pay a visit to our community at the end of this month.  According to their press release, "WBC will picket the fag-infested pervert run Dr. Phillips High School" on April 29, 2011 from 6:50-7:30am.  For every one of their visits, a lot of energy is spent in deciding, how should we, as a community, respond.  Do we counter protest, displaying support for their targeted organization, but giving WBC the kind of attention they really seek?  Or do we just ignore them because by doing so, we say, "we don't see your actions as significant or even worth our time?"

Sarah Nowak, a graduate student at UCF, did some research on the organization to better understand how it operated and the most appropriate response to their upcoming visit to Orlando.  I invited her to contribute her great work to my blog.  Congratulations Sarah...this is good!!

Counter Protesting is Counterproductive with the Westboro Baptist Church

In The Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors VI  “Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores,” Lisa Simpson said that Springfield must stop paying attention to the giant advertising gimmicks; attention is what keeps them motivated. I wish this was the way it worked with the Wetsboro Baptist Church— just ignore them and they will go away. Maybe it’s not as simple as denying the WBC attention (although that is part of it), but there is even more to this tactic that seems to work when we take a look at how the WBC continues to fund their church.

Let me be clear, if the Westboro Baptist Church is “normal” then I’m glad I’m not normal. I’m proud to be queer. If they called me a fag I might just say thank you because it means I’m not like them. Their hateful speech pollutes my air until I suffocate. So, when I found out they were coming to Orlando, I started doing a little research for a clever sign at the counter protest. What I found changed the picture of the WBC as I knew it.  I then enlisted my mom to help me with the research (yea, I know, she’s awesome).  What I learned made me question whether a counter protest was the right approach with the WBC. Here is a summary of what I found, but read the first hand sources yourself and make up your own mind.

The WBC has been called “the most hated family in America” as the members are almost all relatives of Fred Phelps.  The church only claims 100 members, despite the large media presence of the WBC. The funeral protests (military and civilian alike) gained notoriety after Matthew Shepard’s funeral in 1998. Four of Phelps thirteen children are estranged but the rest live in Kansas (most in a WBC compound) with the family and most practice law. In fact, the Phelps Chartered law firm has such a successful reputation, that even those in Kansas who do not like the family utilize their legal services. The law firm’s success helps support the WBC including travel expenses to protests. The Phelps’ do not have any outside contributors to the church, states Shirley Phelps-Roper, the WBC spokesperson.  The church is a 501(3)c which means it has tax exempt status. They do not have to pay taxes they use the protests to find law suits that ultimately contribute to their income: “they know their first amendment rights very well and they have been very good at defending them” says Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Their hate speech can get counter protesters so angry they might do something that violates the Phelps’s first amendment rights and the WBC will not hesitate to sue them. When the WBC sues, they generally win tens of thousands of dollars, most of which goes to legal fees. But, as they represent themselves, the legal fees go directly to help support the church.  

Also, I found comments stating that when nobody shows up to counter protest the media doesn’t show up. And when the media doesn’t show up the WBC protestors leave within a few minutes. Maybe the WBC is more like 50-Foot cartoon advertisements than I thought.  By the way, I’ve read that only four of them are supposed to show up for the protest in Orlando at Dr. Phillips High School. The Anti-Defamation League says their primary goal is garnering publicity for the church and its message, and every mention of the WBC is considered a victory.  Interestingly then, the picket schedule they posted online looks more like a band’s tour schedule especially when we consider 1,800+ counter protestors signed up on Facebook. Imagine if they charged admission…

The more I read about their legal history, the more I believed the online comments that the church was only a litigation scam.   I would have been relieved if I knew they didn’t really believe all of this crap but just used this vitriolic rhetoric for monetary gain. Unfortunately, I found reliable sources providing sufficient evidence that the WBC is not a scam. Nevertheless, the WBC does use the courts as a weapon to fund their church and further their message.  All this information was enough for me to agree with the late comedian Mitch Hedberg: “I’m against picketing but I don’t know how to show it.” The Phelps family is good at riling people up with their flag stomping, anti- military, anti- gay, anti-everything rhetoric. In other words, if I participated in a counter protest, there is a good chance I would get so mad that I might say or do something that would give them a reason to sue me. Besides giving me the headache and expense of a lawsuit, they would get more of the publicity they crave and, if they won money from me, I would actually be supporting the very cause I set out to protest.  They recycle the money back into the church and then they have more fuel to continue spreading the same violent rhetoric they have been spouting since 1955. The way to make the WBC shut up is to first do it ourselves. I’ll be protesting the WBC by staying home and keeping my money, my sanity, and my serenity. Ask yourself what you want to accomplish by counter protesting the WBC. Do your own research and then think for yourself.

Sara Nowak is a graduate student at the University of Central Florida pursuing an advanced degree in Non-Profit Management.  She graduated in 2010 from UCF majoring in Multicultural Humanities with a Women's Studies Minor.

If you would like to "disturb the universe," send me an email; disturbuniverse@gmail.com.

Central Florida Global Economic Forum Theme: “Redefining Competition in the 21st Century”

Attention Students:  
Here is an amazing opportunity to hear global thinkers and experts regarding "Global Economies of the Future!"

Tuesday, April 12, 2011  9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon

Student Union, Key West Ballroom

Speakers

Parag Khanna, author of “How to Run The World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance.” He is a leading geo-strategist, world traveler and author. Presently a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, he is author of the international best-sellers "How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance" (2011) and "The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order" (2008). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and one of fifteen individuals featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” Parag served in the foreign policy advisory group to the Barack Obama for President campaign. During 2007, he was a senior geopolitical advisor to United States Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2002-5, he was the Global Governance Fellow at the Brookings Institution; from 2000-2002 he worked at the World Economic Forum in Geneva; and from 1999-2000, he was a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Alex Counts, President and CEO of Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on enabling the poor to escape poverty, using microfinance and technology. Counts founded Grameen Foundation and became its CEO in 1997, after working in microfinance and poverty reduction for 10 years. A Cornell University graduate, Counts’ commitment to poverty eradication deepened as a Fulbright scholar in Bangladesh, where he witnessed innovative poverty solutions being developed by Grameen Bank. He trained under Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, and co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Counts has propelled Grameen Foundation’s philosophy through his writings: "Small Loans, Big Dreams: How Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus and Microfinance Are Changing the World." Counts also has been published in the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Miami Herald, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere. Counts chairs Project Enterprise’s board and is vice-chair of the Fonkoze USA board. He sits on the Advisory Council of the Center for Financial Inclusion and Co-Chairs the Microenterprise Coalition. Counts previously served as the legislative director of RESULTS, as a regional project manager for CARE-Bangladesh and speaks Bengali.