The horrendous news from Newtown, Conn. has pierced our hearts. A black-clad man in his 20s armed with two semi-automatic handguns, entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School and made an elementary school for kindergartners through fourth graders the scene of the worst mass shooting in a public school in American history. Twenty children were shot and killed. Six adults were shot and killed. We don’t yet know how many were wounded. We do know dozens of parents are experiencing the worst nightmare any parent could imagine. We do know more than 500 young children in the school are traumatized.

Once again we are faced with unspeakable horror from gun violence and once again we are reminded that there is no safe harbor for our children. How young do the victims have to be and how many children need to die before we stop the proliferation of guns in our nation and the killing of innocents? The most recent statistics reveal 2,694 children and teens were killed by gunfire in 2010 – 1,773 of them were victims of homicide and 67 of these were elementary school-age children. If those children and teens were still alive they would fill 108 classrooms of 25 each. Since 1979 when gun death data were first collected by age, a shocking 119,079 children and teens have been killed by gun violence. That is more child and youth deaths in America than American battle deaths in World War I (53,402) or in Vietnam (47,434) or in the Korean War (33,739) or in the Iraq War (3,517). Where is our anti-war movement to protect children from pervasive gun violence here at home?

This slaughter of innocents happens because we protect guns, before children and other human beings. Our hearts and prayers go out to the parents and teachers and children and the entire Newtown community that has been ripped apart by each bullet shot this morning. We know from past school shootings and the relentless killing of children every day that Newtown families and the community will never be the same. The Newtown families who lost children will never be the same. The families of the teachers who were killed will never be the same. Every child at the Sandy Hook Elementary School this morning will never be the same.

Each of us must do more to stop this intolerable and wanton epidemic of gun violence and demand that our political leaders do more. We can’t just talk about it after every mass shooting and then do nothing until the next mass shooting when we profess shock and talk about it again. The latest terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School is no fluke. It is a result of the senseless, immoral neglect of all of us as a nation to protect children instead of guns and to speak out against the pervasive culture of violence and proliferation of guns in our nation. It is up to us to stop these preventable tragedies.

We have so much work to do to build safe communities for our children and need leaders at all levels of government who will stand up against the NRA and for every child’s right to live and learn free of gun violence. But that will not happen until mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, and neighbors and faith leaders and everybody who believes that children have a right to grow up safely stand up together and make a mighty ruckus as long as necessary to break the gun lobby’s veto on common sense gun policy. Our laws and not the NRA must control who can obtain firearms.

It is way past time to demand enactment of federal gun safety measures, including:

Ending the gun show loophole that allows private dealers to sell guns without a license and avoid required background checks; reinstating the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004; and requiring consumer safety standards for all guns.

Why in the world do we regulate teddy bears and toy guns and not real guns that have snuffed out tens of thousands of child lives? Why are leaders capitulating to the powerful gun lobby over the rights of children and all people to life and safety?

I hope these shocking Connecticut child sacrifices in this holy season will force enough of us at last to stand up, speak out, and organize with urgency and persistence until the president, members of Congress, governors and state legislators put child safety ahead of political expediency. And we must aspire and act together to become the world leader in protecting children against gun violence rather than leading the world in child victims of guns. Every child’s life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect all our children.

Albert Camus, Nobel Laureate, speaking at a Dominican monastery in 1948 said: “Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children.” He described our responsibility as human beings “if not to reduce evil, at least not to add to it” and “to refuse to consent to conditions which torture innocents.” It is time for a critical mass of Americans to refuse to consent to the killing of children by gun violence.

Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information, visit: www.childrensdefense.org.

In a deeply heartfelt essay educator Yvette Jackson offers a remarkably straightforward strategy for increasing academic achievement for African American males: create activities that identify, affirm and build on the strengths of young black boys.

Chief executive officer of the National Urban Alliance (NUA), Dr. Jackson is the former executive director of instruction and professional development for the New York City public schools. Stanford university professor of Education Linda Darling-Hammond, describes the NUA as “a beacon of hope for those who would otherwise have given up on the education of children in our cities.”

NUA’s mission is to substantiate an irrefutable belief in the capacity of all public school children to achieve the high intellectual performances demanded by our ever-changing global community. Our focus is teacher and administrator quality through professional development, which incorporates current research from cognitive neuroscience on learning, teaching and leading.

Dr. Jackson writes in her essay originally published the Washington Post:

I wanted to cry when I read about the recent widely publicized report from the Council of Great City Schools about the underachievement of African-American males in our schools. Its findings bear repeating: African-American boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys; their SAT scores are on average 104 points lower; and black men represented just five percent of college students in 2008.

When I was the executive director of instruction and professional development for the New York City Public Schools, I grew keenly aware of the challenges schools face in educating African-American males. For many reasons, far too many boys don’t get the support at home or in the community they need to thrive as adults. Instead, that job falls almost completely on their schools. And that means it comes down to their teachers.

Driven by the intense focus on accountability, schools and teachers used standardized test scores to help identify and address student weaknesses. Over time, these deficits began to define, far too many students so that all we saw were their deficits – particularly for African-American males. As a result, we began losing sight of these young boys’ gifts and, as a consequence, stifled their talents.

As the report notes, it would be great to create national urgency around this issue and find more mentors for African-American males. But we have an army of educators in schools now who can help black males by doing for them what works for gifted students.

Teachers and schools can create activities that identify, affirm and build on student strengths. This can be done through student surveys, honest conversations and teacher professional development. We need to shift from remediation focused on weaknesses to mediation that develops strengths.

Damaging and pervasive chasms grow between teachers and students when teachers feel unprepared to meet the needs of students of color or economically disadvantaged students. Making cultural connections and strengthening teacher-student relationships are critical to making learning meaningful and relevant to students.

Finally, students must be enabled to be more active in their own education. 

Schools should give students opportunities to participate in teachers’ professional development aimed at enriching curriculum, improving teaching and expanding the range of materials students create.

In this way, student strengths will be illuminated. Teachers will get meaningful feedback on their instruction. Numerous ideas for creative classroom activities will be generated, and new bonds between teachers and students will develop. We must embrace a new approach to African-American males that focuses less on what they aren’t doing and builds on what they can and want to do as the path to improving their academic performance.

This is what a 6th-grade African-American boy from Newark, N.J., said recently when asked how it felt to lead his class in a lesson: “I got a lot of compliments from teachers saying that they think when I grow up I am going to be a very good teacher. I felt proud because it felt like I was doing very good. It was one of the best feelings that I had in life.”

Our schools and our teachers need to help more students grow up capable and confident. Students who don’t believe in themselves or who accept adults’ low expectations are one step closer to dropping out— or worse. Growing up to become a very good teacher is a destiny we can all support.

Jayne Matthews-Hopson is a writer and academic advocate. Education Matters because “only the educated are free.” Your thoughts, comments and suggestions are welcomed at: http://baltimoretimes-online.com.  

This week Morgan State University (MSU) and Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) joined Coppin State University in announcing a leadership shake-up. David J. Wilson and Carolane Williams joined Reginald S. Avery as soon-to-be ex-presidents. What’s going on?

Coppin president Reginald Avery’s announcement in October that he would step down in January 2013 was not entirely unexpected. During his five-year administration, retention rates increased from 62 to 66 percent in two years, but graduation remained below 25 percent and there was no meaningful increase in student enrollment. Over time faculty and staff’s disenchantment continued to grow, culminating in an increase in staff lay-offs and protest from faculty who gave him a vote of no confidence in February 2012.  In his resignation statement, Dr. Avery agreed, “It was …time…to step aside.”

On the other hand, Carolane Williams’ “separation” from Baltimore Community College “came as a surprise” to her. While she has headed BCCC for six years, her administration has been plagued by a drop in student enrollment and a vote of no confidence from the faculty senate in 2010. The “surprise” must have the speed and abruptness of the board’s action, not the action itself.

Now comes MSU president David Wilson. On December 4, 2012 Morgan’s Board of Regents voted 8-7 not to renew his contract in June 2013.

While there has been a spate of upheavals on the campus in recent months which include two shootings, a student being accused of cannibalism, a misdirected e-mail about replacing the school’s football coach and faculty member’s indictment for   receiving grants fraudulently, these incidents cannot be directly placed upon the president’s shoulders. He neither could not nor cannot prevent these types of occurrences.

What has he done? Since becoming Morgan’s 12th president in December 2009, he has worked to increase scholarship money, donating $100,000 of his own; he has seen the university break ground for a $72 million business school and he has started an effort to improve areas around the campus. What’s more, university enrollment is up and graduation rates are steady.

So why is he being fired? Scuttlebutt has it that some regents believe that he will not remain at Morgan for the long haul for the following reasons:

1. He had been a finalist for the University of Albany presidency, but withdrew his name from consideration in July; and 2. Supposedly his name was mentioned about a possible position in the second Obama administration. Are nearly half of the regents saying “We’ll fire you before you can walk away to a bigger, more prestigious job?”

They’re cutting off their noses to spite their faces. He came with glowing praise for work in connecting college campuses with the surrounding urban area; he led off a scholarship drive with $100,000; he withdrew from another job search and, oh yes, President Obama, in 2010, appointed him to his advisory board for black colleges and universities.

Morgan has gotten itself an excellent president. He is supported, in the main by students, faculty and staff and he certainly is well-equipped to guide Morgan’s growth in this century.  

In the last several years there has been a rumbling just under the surface of higher   education in Maryland. Most of the rumors have been centered on the boards of trustees and the presidents of three important institutions— Coppin State University, Morgan State University and Baltimore City Community College.

Recently, much of the whispering has become public. In the cases of Coppin and BCCC, the handwriting had been on the wall for some time. Faculty and student groups had expressed a lack of confidence in Presidents Reginald S. Avery and Carolane Williams and tensions have been evident on the campus. Both schools have suffered from funding and enrollment issues and the frostiness between these two leaders and their governing boards has been obvious for months. 

Avery announced his exit earlier this fall and Williams’ fate was sealed when BCCC’s board terminated her this week. President Avery determined he was in a losing battle but Williams is clear, she is not happy about losing her job. She, rightly so, worries that after making some gains at the school, albeit not quickly enough for some BCCC faculty and leaders, the board has given the impression that she was incompetent. This firing may not end well.

However, the announcement that Morgan’s Dr. David J. Wilson’s contract would not be renewed caught many off guard. Despite recent advances for research and national partnerships under his tenure, the school suffered a public relations nightmare with recent shootings on campus and numerous episodes of nationally reported violence.

Dr. Wilson was also considered somewhat aloof and not as personal and engaging as previous presidents. 

Perhaps it is now time for Maryland’s legislature to exercise some level of oversight in reviewing what appears to be a perception of instability in the administration of these schools.

Although no one wants “Big Brother” government to second-guess the independent power of these boards to operate with a level of autonomy, the reputation of these colleges and the faith of thousands of students, parents and faculty is being impacted.

Ah, teens! Quite the whippersnappers these days, aren’t they?

One such whippersnapper is Gabby Douglas, all of 16 years old and fresh off a gold-medal-winning gymnastics performance at the 2012 Olympic games.

Gabby has been on top of the world since then, and rightly so. Especially now that she’s “got that ‘herr’ did.”

Recently People magazine did a story on Gabby. Not a cover story, mind you. On the cover editors at People decided to put Brad Pitt.

Brad Pitt? BRAD PITT? Did BRAD PITT just win a gold medal at the Olympic games? I don’t think so. Get it together, People editors.

Anyway, back to Gabby: she was sailing along quite well in the story there, when she brought up the subject of how Kirk Douglas— apparently a Gabby fan big time— sent her a handwritten note.

Now most of you reading this column are probably old enough not to have to be reminded of who Kirk Douglas is, or of his place in the pantheon of American film stars.

But, as I said, Gabby is only 16. And what, on average, do 16-year-olds know?

Here’s how the People story read, which was in an interview question-and-answer format:

People: Oprah famously tweeted about you— but Kirk Douglas sent you a handwritten fan note! Did you know who he was?

Gabby: I knew Michael Douglas, but I was like “Kirk Douglas. Who’s that?” My mom (couldn’t believe it). So I was like, “Well, who’s One Direction?” And she was like, “I don’t know.” I said, “Exactly!”

And I’m like….APPALLED that Gabby thinks One Direction has had the impact on music that Kirk Douglas has had on film.

First things first: Gabby, you would do well to drop the annoying, idiotic saying “I was like” from your vocabulary.

Now, on to One Direction: Gabby, like your mom, I had no idea who they were. Probably unlike your mom, I didn’t care.

So I had to do a Google search to find out who they were. And guess what, Gabby? Now I care even less than I did before.

Here’s what I learned, Gabby-roo: One Direction is “an English-Irish boy band” (oh, can you hear me gagging already?) “consisting of members Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.”

Their history, Gabby, dates ALL THE WAY BACK TO 2010!

WOW, Gabby! When I read that, I was like, IMPRESSED!

I’m sure you can detect the sound of sarcasm when you hear it, so I’ll stop. My point is this: you can’t compare your mom’s not knowing about a two-year-old boy band with your not knowing about an actor that’s considered an American film legend.

Look, Gabby, we’re talking about One Direction, not the Beatles or the Rolling Stones here. Those boy bands created music 50 years ago that’s still around today. We don’t know if One Direction will still be around 50 days from now, much less 50 years.

Douglas has appeared in films that are now considered classics. Those films are still around today and are still being shown, and scenes from some are even being copied.

Ever heard of Douglas’ film “Ace in the Hole”? The ending shot is considered such a tour de force that directors are copying it to this day.

Spike Lee used the shot in one of the scenes from his movie “Malcolm X.”

If you’ve seen the film “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” you’ll see the same shot in that flick.

Other Douglas films that you should know about— as a matter of being what’s called “culturally literate” —are “Paths of Glory” and “Spartacus.” The first is a quintessential anti-war film; the second is about the man that led a slave revolt against the Roman Empire.

Kirk Douglas isn’t just some actor your mom likes, Gabby; he’s an icon.

One Direction, on the other hand, is simply a boy band that you do happen to like. So far, as of December of 2012, that’s ALL they are. Only time will tell if that’s all they remain.

In the meantime, stop making those apples to hand grenades comparisons. And PLEASE do something about that “I was like” thing.

Dear Mayor Rawlings-Blake:

Or as I prefer to call you, Mayor VROOM! VROOM! Can I call ya that? Sure I can.

All us Balti-morons, by this point, know of your passion for car racing. (Hence the name Mayor VROOM! VROOM!) You brought the car race known as the Baltimore Grand Prix here in 2011. It was a colossal flop.

Undeterred, (not surprising, since your buddy Gov. Martin O’Malley ran for that office on a record of failure, and won) you surged ahead and brought a second Baltimore Grand Prix to the city this year.

That wasn’t much better. But you no doubt will drag the city through a third Baltimore Grand Prix in 2013. But can you get that VROOM! VROOM! sound out of your ears long enough give props to a team that plays a sport that, given your passion for zooming cars, appears to be not to your liking?

The first weekend in December the football team of Dunbar High School won its third consecutive state championship. According to the Baltimore Sun, devoid of copy editors but, I suppose, still a pretty reliable source, the title was the seventh for Dunbar since 2004 and the ninth in the school’s history.

ALL those championships have been won since 1993, when city public schools bolted from the established, venerated Maryland Scholastic Association and joined the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.

Ironically, Dunbar was the only city public school that voted to stay in the MSA. All the others were eager to join the MPSSAA. But it’s been Dunbar that’s hauled in the most MPSSAA championships for the city.

Way back in March, Mayor VROOM! VROOM!, when you still had visions of cars ripping and racing through downtown Baltimore, Dunbar won its 14th state championship in boys’ basketball.

That was the Class 1A title. Patterson High School, led by Aquil “Crimestopper” Carr, (basketball’s next big thing, according to ESPN, even though he stands only 5 feet, 7 inches tall) won the Class 3A championship.

Lake Clifton High School won the Class 2A title. Baltimore had no entry in the Class 4A championship game, but, with the dwindling population of Baltimore’s high schools, the city doesn’t have many, if any, 4A schools left.

So three of four state boys’ basketball championships went to city public schools in March. Add the championship that the Dunbar girls’ basketball team won in Class 1A and you have five of eight state basketball titles being won by city public schools.

Did this stellar record of athletic excellence get any props from the office of one Mayor Stephanie VROOM! VROOM! Rawlings-Blake? It did not.

Has Dunbar’s football team winning its third straight championship, its seventh in nine seasons and ninth overall captured the attention of anyone in the mayor’s office?

It has not. That boy’s basketball championship Dunbar won in March was its 14th, which ties a state record. (And again, I emphasize, that’s 14 championships in the 19-year span from 1993 to 2012.)

Between football and boys’ basketball, we’re talking 23 championships for one school since 1993. Add in the six championships the Dunbar girls’ basketball team has won and we’re talking 29 state titles in 19 years for one school.

That achievement warrants some kind of official recognition, Mayor VROOM! VROOM! No other city public school comes even close to matching Dunbar’s record of 29 state championships.

Yes, I know how, being a Baltimore Democrat, recognizing and rewarding excellence might be problematic for you. Excellence is simply not what Baltimore Democrats do. I understand that.

But try to tear yourself out of VROOM! VROOM! mode long enough to have some kind of ceremony for Dunbar’s athletes— past and present— at City Hall. And make it a bona fide celebration and reception, with vittles. I’m talking serious catering here, with filet mignon and au gratin potatoes and, of course, cake. DON’T leave out the cake!

Get somebody working on this, VROOM! VROOM! Show the youngsters of this city that their leaders and elders appreciate, recognize and reward their achievements.

You’ve got the rest of 2012 and most of 2013 to focus on the third (ho hum) Baltimore Grand Prix.

With the Christmas season in full bloom, I am amazed how such a simple celebration has now become so controversial. How can people find a way to criticize the meaning of Christmas that I grew up with? Christmas has always meant recognizing the birth of the baby Jesus, giving one’s family their time and presence, not presents.

Having Christmas without Christ is like having basketball without the basket, like having Sunday school without Sunday, like having hamburger without meat. In other words, the very name describes the essence of the event or item.

So, this time of year has become one of the most controversial times in our country, even more than our presidential elections. Secular liberals want no mention of Christ in the public square; non-Christians demand equal access to public space for their demonstrations; and atheists want nothing that remotely hints of the existence of a God. By the way, why do atheists spend so much time arguing about something that they claim doesn’t exist?

The underlying issue that this time of the year brings up is: How does America manage its diversity? When I grew up, you would be run out of town if you tried to take the Christ out of Christmas. A retail store would have never thought about using the phrase “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

Now, America is so diverse. We have Muslims, atheists, Agnostics, Secularists, Hindus, Buddhists, among others. Everyone is quick to assert what their rights, are in the public square— and that’s where the controversy begins.

These other groups have a right to celebrate their religions and holidays any way they chose. However, the issue becomes more problematic when everyone is arguing that their view should be given the same status as Christmas. I am leaving all legal arguments out of this discussion so as to not cloud my point.

In Washington, D.C., some Muslims are upset that their school systems are closed during Christmas, but open during their Muslim holidays. Their argument is why should they have to take a day off from work for Christmas when they don’t celebrate that holiday?  Should the school system be open so they can work and only Muslim students attend class? Of course not! Sometimes you simply have to accommodate the majority for practical reasons.

I offer another example. A Jewish student wants to join a fraternity and according to their bylaws, all pledges must cook a midnight meal on the Friday of their pledge week for the leaders of the fraternity. This would be in direct conflict with the Jewish student’s religion that he cannot do anything from Friday evening until Saturday morning. Should that disqualify him from being able to join the fraternity? If so, is it discriminatory? If not, is it fair to the other pledges who followed all the rules for joining?

My point is that these issues are not always black and white. I grew up celebrating a Christ-centered Christmas and I am not willing to give it up simply to make others feel good. I will not allow these same people to force me to give up my beliefs to prove to them that I am not against theirs.

Why should a Muslim woman be allowed to refuse me service at the grocery store because I have pork in my basket? Why should one atheist be allowed to prevent an opening prayer at a school graduation? Why should a Muslim taxi driver be allowed to refuse me a ride because I have a bottle of wine with me?

We are a Christian nation founded upon Christian principles. Why should I have to deny my beliefs in order for you to have yours?

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm. He can be reached through his website: www.raynardjackson.com.

A recent study gives parents another good reason to prepare and serve their babies healthy foods. While it’s understood that the first two years of life are a “critical growth period for a baby's brain development, the development of a child’s intelligence may be lowered by a poor diet,” according to University of Adelaide researchers. 

Their study looked into the data of a child’s early eating habits at six months, 15 months, and two years of age. It then conducted a follow-up IQ test at the age of 8 that found there is a correlation between a child’s diet and their IQ.

A standard IQ test is designed to measure a person’s performance relative to their peers, most commonly, their age group.

"Diet supplies the nutrients needed for the development of brain tissues in the first two years of life and the aim of this study was to look at what impact diet would have on children’s IQs,” said Dr. Lisa Smithers, study author and researcher.

More than 7,000 children participated in the study, which compared a range of dietary patterns, including traditional and contemporary home-prepared food, ready-prepared baby foods, breastfeeding and ‘discretionary’ or junk foods.

Researchers found babies who were breast-fed and ate nutritious foods during their first two years measured one to two points higher on IQ tests at age eight than did babies who may have been fed less nutritious foods, such as chips, sweets and soda.

"While the differences in IQ are not huge, this study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that dietary patterns from six to 24 months have a small but significant effect on IQ at eight years of age," public health researcher Lisa Smithers said in a university news release. “It is important that we consider the longer-term impact of the foods we feed our children.”

While this study seems to reinforce what we already know— that our bodies and brains need healthy food to grow and develop— it offers some interesting notes about the impact of certain foods on babies' brain development, writes Julie Rasicot, author of the blog “The Early Years.” 

“For example, babies who were breast-fed at six months and ate foods such as herbs, legumes, cheese, raw fruit and vegetables at 15 to 24 months exhibited a one- to two-point higher IQ at age eight. But while a diet of homemade meat, cooked vegetables and desserts at six months was positively associated with higher IQ scores, there was no association with similar patterns at 15 or 24 months."

Dr. Smithers’ team also found some negative impact on IQ from ready-prepared baby foods given at six months, but some positive associations when given at 24 months. “We found that children who were breastfed at six months and had a healthy diet regularly including foods such as legumes, cheese, fruit and vegetables at 15 and 24 months had an IQ up to two points higher by age eight.”

A Harvard study suggests that the IQ boosting power of a healthy diet begins before birth. Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that expectant moms who ate the most fish— more than three servings a week— were 30 percent more likely to have children with higher developmental scores at 18 months of age compared with those whose mothers ate less than a serving a week.

The Harvard researchers also found that “babies who were breast-fed for 10 months or longer had higher developmental scores at 18 months. Those great fats found in fish also pass into breast milk. While baby formulas are now fortified with these fats, there may be other still-unrecognized substances in breast milk that help with babies' brain development.”

Jayne Matthews-Hopson is a writer and academic advocate. Education Matters because “only the educated are free.” Your thoughts, comments and suggestions are welcomed at: http://baltimoretimes-online.com.