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Posts by Paul Costello1

The Real Rosa Parks Story Is Better Than the Fairy Tale

The way we talk about her covers up uncomfortable truths about American racism.

By Jeanne Theoharis

Dr. Theoharis is a professor of political science and the author of eleven books on the civil rights and Black Power movements including “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” and “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks Young Readers’ Edition,” co-adapted with Brandy Colbert.

  • Feb. 1, 2021 The New York Times (Black History Month)

Mug shot No. 7053 is one of the most iconic images of Rosa Parks. But the photo, often seen in museums and textbooks and on T-shirts and websites, isn’t what it seems. Though it’s regularly misattributed as such, it is not the mug shot taken at the time of Mrs. Parks’s arrest in Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 1, 1955, after she famously refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. It was, in fact, taken when she was arrested in February 1956 after she and 88 other “boycott leaders” were indicted by the city in an attempt to end the boycott. The confusion around the image reveals Americans’ overconfidence in what we think we know about Mrs. Parks and about the civil rights movement.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks dominate the Civil Rights Movement chapters of elementary and high school textbooks and Black History Month celebrations. And yet much of what people learn about Mrs. Parks is narrow, distorted, or just plain wrong. In our collective understanding, she’s trapped in a single moment on a long-ago Montgomery bus, too often cast as meek, tired, quiet and middle class. The boycott is seen as a natural outgrowth of her bus stand. It’s inevitable, respectable and not disruptive.

But that’s not who she was, and it’s not how change actually works. “Over the years, I have been rebelling against second-class citizenship. It didn’t begin when I was arrested,” Mrs. Parks reminded interviewers time and again. Read More

Just Breathe

Blog

A recent video Project CHANGE shared with members to share with their students about the importance of breathing and slowing down.

Exploring the human commons

We live in a time where we quickly put people in boxes. Maybe we have more in common than what we think? Introducing All That We Share.

Why your Inner Story Matters

The story we keep telling ourselves matter more than any story others tell us or the story we tell to others. We are our own most important audience. Watch this video.

https://fb.watch/3g44aj794z/

From @TeacherToolKit Dr. Tim Obrien

At Risk!

Every learner’s inner story is potentially at risk in any mass education system. This is particularly the case if the child experiences difficulties in systems where deficit-focused labels abound. In such systems ‘the problem’ is seen as being located within the child and therefore children who experience difficulties are in danger of being treated as if they are broken washing machines that need fixing. The notion that the adults or the environment should change – in order to enable the child to change – is often absent from the agenda. Read More

Montgomery schools are failing minority students

Opinion by Lavanya Sithanandam Jan. 15, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. EST Washington Post

Lavanya Sithanandam is a pediatrician serving a predominantly low-income and minority population in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.

Montgomery County Public Schools is failing its Black, Latino and disadvantaged minority students, who are falling further and further behind their peers.

Though school closures may have been necessary in the spring, numerous U.S. and international studies demonstrate they are unnecessary now and that school districts that continue to insist on this approach are relying on outdated science. MCPS has shuttered its doors for more than 300 days, and the equity gap that existed before the pandemic has widened substantially. In fact, prolonged school closures are affecting minority students significantly more than the coronavirus itself.

Decades of systemic racism have left minority neighborhoods and their academic support structures already weakened, and virtual learning is worsening the learning loss in students from these communities. First-quarter MCPS grades revealed alarming differences in the failure rates between White and minority students. African American and Hispanic students from low-income families failed classes at rates 5 to 6 times more compared with last year, whereas White students had minimal increases.AD

Minority students often lack access to tutors, pods or expensive learning centers, and they sometimes have to juggle child-care responsibilities, jobs and learning in more challenging home environments. Their parents are more likely to be essential workers who are unable to supervise the day-to-day demands of their children’s education. Some do not have access to quality Internet services. Students report they find distance-learning platforms inherently stressful and have stopped logging on altogether.

In my clinic, we are seeing children who were already having difficulty in school now failing classes, and honors students barely passing. English-language learners are struggling with maintaining language skills because of their lack of daily interaction with native English speakers. One Haitian immigrant teen recently told me that she used to be fluent in English, but “now I only speak Creole at home, so I am forgetting my words.”

I am also seeing patients who could be the first in their family to attend college decide to forgo their dreams of higher education. Without in-person access to counselors and teachers, they are finding it extremely difficult to navigate the challenging college application process. Maintaining high grades, for which they have worked harder, and in the face of greater head winds than their wealthier peers, has also presented challenges. Inside Higher Ed found that college applications for first-generation students and those eligible for application fee waivers were down 16 percent this year, with many colleges reporting a decrease in Latino and Black college applications.AD

In addition to academic challenges, children and teens are desperate for social interaction. A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed pediatric emergency room visits related to mental health were up 24 percent for children ages 5 to 11 and 31 percent for children ages 12 to 17. In my practice, we have documented a 30 percent increase in mental health referrals since the start of the pandemic for conditions such as depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. Social isolation affects children from all communities, but minority children, who are particularly vulnerable to mental health crises, are at higher risk. Furthermore, there has been a 40 percent decrease in reporting of child neglect and abuse because educators are typically the main source to report. This leads to fewer interventions and worsening outcomes.

We now have convincing data that schools are safe and should be open for in-person learning. Even in minority communities where coronavirus rates may be higher, data has shown that schools are not superspreader locations, and that, with mitigation such as masking and distancing, schools are safe places for students and teachers. The CDCWorld Health OrganizationAmerican Academy of Pediatrics and numerous respected public health leaders acknowledge schools are safe and should remain open.

The harm of prolonged school closure is just too devastating to keep schools closed. And the knowledge from the thousands of schools that safely reopened in the fall demonstrates masking and social-distancing protocols are effective and sufficient.AD

And herein lies the rub. MCPS knows this. But, because of outside pressure, it is keeping school officially closed while providing subsidies for low-income children to attend in-person, privately run “equity hubs” where they can learn remotely, sitting in school alongside other students. Proctors replace teachers. This is a clear recognition that in-person learning is possible despite rising coronavirus rates in the community. But this is an unnecessary, inferior alternative.

Sadly, a county that has typically been at the forefront of addressing inequities is not adequately addressing learning loss and the ever-widening opportunity gap that results from remote learning. Contrary to the false claims that minorities don’t want to return to in-person learning, the presence of minority-filled equity hubs and results from the recent MCPS survey demonstrate that Latino and African American interest for school return is significant. This interest will continue to grow as schools reopen and it becomes clear that the health risks are minimal. In my practice, which is 90 percent minority, there is a universal desperation among students to return to school.

If MCPS is genuinely concerned about equity for its students, particularly students of color, it must reopen to provide desperately needed additional resources that can only be delivered through in-person learning. School failure has been linked to poor lifelong health consequences through decreased employment and earning capacity, higher risk of incarceration and even premature death from substance abuse and preventable diseases.AD

An entire generation between the ages of 5 and 18 has been effectively removed from society at large. They do not have the same ability to vote or speak out, so it is high time for children’s advocates, including teachers and parents, to raise their voices for a return to school.R

Education’s Three Lies

“The schools in this country are one of the biggest reasons we’re all so screwed up. Our educational experience consists of three great lies.

Lie number one is, It’s better to say, ‘I know’ than to say, ‘I don’t know.’

Lie number two: It’s better to answer a question than ask a question.

Lie number three: It’s better to worship at the foot of success than understand the nature of failure.

Those three lies have screwed our society, and it’s by overcoming one at a time–or two at a time or all three –that you can make some breakthroughs in your creative activities.” 

​Richard Saul Wurman​  – Founder of TED Talks

Study: Majority of students’ feelings about high school are negative

Flickr; Jessica Cross

AUTHOR from K-12 Dive

Naaz Modan@NaazModan

PUBLISHED

Feb. 7, 2020

Dive Brief:

  • High school students experience mostly negative emotions toward school, with feeling tired among their biggest complaints, according to a new nationwide study by Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence and Child Study Center.
  • Stress and boredom were also among the top reasons students felt negative toward school, according to the survey of 21,678 U.S. students.  
  • But high school students also commonly experience positive feelings of happiness and excitement, though those were reported in much smaller percentages, and the researchers said neither of those feelings are linked to learning or achievement. 

Dive Insight:

Zorana Ivcevic Pringle, director of Yale’s Creativity and Emotions Lab and an author of the study, said while students being tired was no surprise to her, the pervasiveness of the emotion among students was. “It was overshadowing everything else,” Pringle said. “Close to 60% of the time, students are saying they are feeling tired.” 

And while positive emotions of calmness, happiness and relaxation were also among top emotional experiences, those feelings are “not the kinds that are most valuable for learning and growth.” Emotional experiences most relevant for learning, Pringle said, are interest, curiosity and pride (once achievement occurs) — all of which ranked low. 

Negative feelings were experienced more frequently by female, younger, low-income and minority students as opposed to their male, older, well-off, white counterparts. 

The frequency of negative feelings students experience, the authors write, is “likely to undermine students’ attention, motivation, and ability to learn and thrive.” The authors suggested a cultural shift in schools that emphasizes and supports self-care as something that could benefit students’ learning, health and overall well-being. Pringle suggests a greater emphasis on social-emotional learning as a way to give students tools to better regulate negative emotions. 

Once the “tired” emotion is addressed, Pringle said, the other negative emotions are likely to fall in line. “Once they are feeling more rested, they will be better able to pay attention, they might be more interested, less bored, and less stressed.” 

In an effort to ensure students are well-rested, more districts are implementing later school start times, which Pringle noted as a possible solution. The Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston and Fairfax County (Virginia) districts are among those that have moved some or all of their school start times to allow older students to start later. Whether districts save or lose money from such changes differs on a case-by-case basis. But studies suggest the bell shift has resulted in teens getting more sleep, which has in turn improved grades and attendance. 

And just last year, California became the first state to mandate a later start bell. While there will be logistical challenges — including transportation, adjusted costs and rescheduling after-school activities — other states will likely follow. 

Students and parents have helped drive the movement. In California, for example, parent and journalist Lisa Lewis penned an op-ed on the issue in the local paper. And often the smoothest transitions, experts have noted, come only after consulting key groups including parents, students, teachers and other school staff members impacted. As schools make room for growing student activism and civic engagement, including students in discussion of how they feel about school is one place to start.

Recommended Reading:

  •  SCIENCE DIRECTHigh school students’ feelings: Discoveries from a large national survey and an experience sampling study

The Emotion Revolution: What We Learned from the Young People

From Huffington Post

Student smiling on campus

Co-authored by Marc Brackett, Ph.D, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

On a Saturday in late October, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Born This Way Foundation had the immense pleasure of welcoming almost 200 high school students to the Yale University campus for the Emotion Revolution Summit.

The Emotion Revolution was launched on the basic belief – supported by a growing body of scientific research – that emotions are fundamental to a young person’s decision making, academic achievement, and overall well-being. It was also grounded in a commitment to make young people a part of the conversation about how to better integrate tools and tactics to support emotional wellness into their schools and communities.

That’s why – before the Summit began – we conducted an unprecedented online survey of teens nationwide. Drawing responses from approximately 22,000 high schoolers, we collected data on how young people currently feel and how they want to feel in school, and the possible reasons for these emotions. This research is straightforward but crucial to strengthening our understanding of current school climates and the factors that affect those environments.

The results were clear. When asked how they currently feel in school, approximately 75% of the words the students used were negative. Just 23% were positive. Furthermore, the top three emotions the students reported were tired (used by 39% of the respondents), stressed (29%), and bored (26%). In contrast, the top three emotions students said they want to feel in school are happy, excited, and energized.

We also asked the students about their experiences in school, revealing several notable correlations. For instance, students who said their peers had been mean or cruel to them were more likely to feel negative emotions such as loneliness, fear, and hopelessness. Meanwhile, respondents who said that what they were learning is relevant and meaningful were more likely to feel positive emotions such as interest, respect, and happiness. Similarly, students who reported that their teachers delivered engaging lessons experienced less boredom and greater respect and happiness.

These results clearly demonstrate the need to close the gap between what students are currently feeling in school and how they want to be feeling. We must start by empowering the young people themselves by giving them tangible support, practical tools and tactics, and a voice in the conversation.

The Emotion Revolution Summit was a first step in that process, bringing together young people with teachers and education leaders such as Yale University President Dr. Peter Salovey and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Carmen Fariña, passionate speakers including journalist Soledad O’Brien, Life is Good Co-Founder Bert Jacobs, and poet Azure Antoinette, and advocates like Lady Gaga. This New WorldThe current capitalist system is broken. Get updates on our progress toward building a fairer world.

At the Summit, our partner Facebook unveiled InspirED, a set of online resources for teachers and teens focused on building emotional intelligence in schools. It aims to connect high school students and educators across the country with tools and inspiration in social and emotional learning, so they can work together to create more positive learning environments and lead healthier, more fulfilled lives.

The day was also an opportunity to hear from students directly. We were blown away by their bravery in sharing their stories and honesty in discussing the role emotions play in their lives. Here are just a few of their reflections we think are worth remembering:

1. If you are struggling with anxiety, depression, self-doubt, or other negative emotions, it is difficult to be a positive force for change in the world. So before you can help anyone else, you need to be able to help yourself.

2. Regardless of background and personal history, everyone struggles at times with their emotions. Speaking up honestly about those experiences can helps the person doing the sharing but it can also serve as a comfort and inspiration to others navigating their own obstacles.

3. Risking judgement for expressing emotions is far outweighed by the dangers of concealing emotions. Don’t keep everything bottled inside – and be supportive of others who are brave enough to speak up.

4. In order for real change to take place, conversations like this need to have everyone involved – from students and parents to educators and policy makers. Everyone needs to be able to voice their opinions freely so that we can work together to come up with meaningful solutions.

5. Talking about emotional wellness is crucial, but real change will take empowering young people with practical tools and real change. Whether it’s changing policies that affect school climate or online resources like InspirED, building kinder and braver schools will take more than just words.

The Emotion Revolution Summit was the beginning of an important conversation. Now it’s time for everyone to take the lessons from that day and start a dialogue in their own communities. As organization leaders, educators, and parents, we need to give young people – and the adults in their lives – the support they need to create environments where emotions matter.

The Emotion Revolution Summit was hosted in partnership with Facebook and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and was made possible by the generous support of Microsoft, Mattel, Monster High, Life is Good, HopeLab, WWE, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Flawless Foundation, and The Faas Foundation.

Cynthia Germanotta is the co-founder and president of Born This Way Foundation, which she founded with her daughter, Lady Gaga, to “empower youth” and “inspire bravery.”

Marc Brackett, Ph.D. is Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and is on the research advisory board of Born This Way Foundation. He is also a senior research scientist in psychology and faculty fellow in the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. He co-created RULER, and evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning.

Link

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-emotion-revolution-wh_b_8463732

Failing grades double and triple — some rising sixfold — amid pandemic learning

MCPS Details Fall Semester Plans – NBC4 Washington

From the Washington Post

By Donna St. GeorgeDec. 3, 2020 at 4:10 p.m. EST

Failure rates in math and English jumped as much as sixfold for some of the most vulnerable students in Maryland’s largest school system, according to data released as the pandemic’s toll becomes increasingly visible in schools across the country.

In but one stark example, more than 36 percent of ninth-graders from low-income families failed the first marking period in English. That compares with fewer than 6 percent last year, when the same students took English in eighth grade.

“It breaks my heart to see so many of these numbers,” Rebecca Smondrowski, a school board member, said after the numbers were shared at a board meeting Thursday. “We knew that gaps were going to get bigger, but these are huge.”

The data comes as neighboring Fairfax County in Virginia recently reported a sharp increase in failing grades for its students — one of the first systems nationally to detail the fallout of pandemic-driven online education.

In Montgomery, a diverse system of more than 161,000 students, Black and Hispanic students from families at or near the poverty line were among the most severely affected groups, along with English language learners.

Nearly 45 percent of those with limited English proficiency failed the first marking period in ninth-grade math, for instance — a stunning figure given that only 8 percent of the same students failed math in the first marking period last fall.

The data is a grim and vivid reflection of the struggle many students face with remote instruction. Some find the volume of independent work or screen time overwhelming. Some are trying to manage child-care duties, technology glitches, family difficulties or jobs.

Learning in Montgomery County has been all-virtual since March, when public schools across the nation were shuttered as the coronavirus spread. But officials were more forgiving with grades in spring, saying students should not be penalized for disruptions they did not cause as the school system embarked on an unprecedented experiment with online education.

This fall, with classes still online but with greater preparation, Montgomery returned to its traditional grading system. In recent weeks, it has been considering a plan to reopen school buildings in January, but with coronavirus cases surging that remains an open question.

Back in school buildings: One school district’s experience in 10 weeks

The new data on grades points to critical questions about how to measure the performance of students who attend school from home. Some learners have the advantage of oversight and support from parents or siblings. In other families, parents work at jobs outside the home, face language barriers or are less familiar with material being taught.

Montgomery County schools prepare in case coronavirus requires closings |  WTOP

Diego Uriburu, co-founder of the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence, an advocacy group in Montgomery County, described the reaction he was hearing as a mix of anger, disappointment and despair.

“We are angry,” he said. “It’s not that they can change things on a dime, but from our communities’ perspective nothing has changed from before the pandemic. We hoped that the pandemic was going to be a wake-up call and an inflection point.”

He emphasized the importance of placing the most effective teachers and principals in schools most affected by poverty. Long-standing learning losses still need to be addressed, he said, along with issues of cultural competency.

“They work very hard, but their efforts are not reaching our communities,” he said. “This is a catastrophe, a huge catastrophe.”

Maryland school advocates push for equity for Black and Hispanic students

The data Montgomery presented Thursday was limited to students in grades six, nine and 12. It was broken down by race, ethnicity and other characteristics to get at which students were most affected.

Montgomery’s nationally regarded school system was roughly 32 percent Hispanic, 27 percent White, 21 percent Black, 14 percent Asian and 5 percent multiracial in the past school year.

Among sixth-graders taking math, Hispanic students from low-income families fared worst, with last year’s failure rate of 4 percent soaring to nearly 24 percent this fall.

Least affected among the sixth-graders in math was a category that included White and Asian students from families not identified as low-income. Last year, less than 1 percent of that group failed the first marking period, and this year it was slightly more than 1 percent.

In many cases, percentages of A’s and B’s dropped as the share of failing grades increased. In some cases, A’s increased markedly, even as failing grades climbed.

For sixth-grade students in special education taking English, for example, the percentage of A’s shot up from 16 percent last year to 27 percent this fall, even as failing grades doubled, from less than 5 percent to 10 percent.

Overall, students in special education experienced significant spikes in failing grades. In sixth-grade math, fewer than 6 percent of students in special education failed last year — compared with nearly 16 percent this year.

In ninth-grade English, some students in special education who passed last year failed this year; the failure rate jumped from 6 percent to 32 percent.

School officials said they are making changes to grading practices, student supports and instructional guidance — adding flexibility with due dates, for example, and reducing the number of recommended assignments that are graded.

Janet Wilson, chief of teaching, learning and schools, pointed to a learning curve as the district moved into new territory with remote learning. The system is bringing practice more into line with a virtual setting, she said.

“We’ve never done this before,” she said.

Before the school year started, administrators worked with educators, students and parents to create what they thought was strong guidance for the first marking period, said Scott Murphy, director of college and career readiness and districtwide programs.

“What we’ve learned is that for many, many, many students, it was too much — too many assignments, too much work to do, managing it across seven, eight classes,” Murphy said. “We had some grade books for the first marking period that had 20, 30, even more assignments in one class, and the pretty consistent feedback we got was it was too much.”

The issue is directly tied to student anxiety and well-being, he said, and “the stress students have right now, and trying to help them manage the volume of work that they have.”AD

Cynthia Simonson, president of Montgomery’s countywide council of PTAs, said it has been clear that students are struggling, especially those in special education and English language learners.

Match Charter Public School

“That’s probably a very realistic portrayal of what’s happening,” she said. “I think it means we are teaching the content with the same rigor, and I think it’s incredibly sad. This means we are failing to meet the needs of that many students.”

In another sign of academic slippage amid the pandemic, new data from Arlington Public Schools showed slight overall performance drops — in the single digits — on a literacy assessment for kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders, but much steeper declines for students of color and English learners.

The share of Hispanic students meeting the benchmark dropped nearly 15 points, to 60 percent, while the percentage of Black students hitting the mark dropped by roughly 10 points, to 78 percent. The results for English learners in the first and second grades fell even more precipitously, with drops of 26 to 30 points.


Where did National Service Come from?

We often get asked about the idea behind AmeriCorps and the whole concept of service. While we always tell the history of President Clinton’s signature legislation in 1993 and before that, JFK’s idea about the Peace Corps in 1961, what many people don’t realize is an earlier formulation goes way back to America’s first psychologist, William James, and his famous 1906 talk on “The Moral Equivalent of War,” at Stanford University. It’s emphasis on the “male” is a product of its time but the idea spins from James looking for an alternative to the service citizens offer the state at a time of war. Here is the conclusion.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

William James, 1892

This essay, based on a speech delivered at Stanford University in 1906, is the origin of the idea of organized national service. The line of descent runs directly from this address to the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps to the Peace Corps, VISTA, and AmeriCorps. Though some phrases grate upon modern ears, particularly the assumption that only males can perform such service, several racially-biased comments, and the notion that the main form of service should be viewed as a “warfare against nature,” it still sounds a rallying cry for service in the interests of the individual and the nation.

….There is nothing to make one indignant in the mere fact that life is hard, that men should toil and suffer pain. The planetary conditions once for all are such, and we can stand it. But that so many men, by mere accidents of birth and opportunity, should have a life of nothing else but toil and pain and hardness and inferiority imposed upon them, should have no vacation, while others natively no more deserving never get any taste of this campaigning life at all, — this is capable of arousing indignation in reflective minds.

It may end by seeming shameful to all of us that some of us have nothing but campaigning, and others nothing but unmanly ease. If now — and this is my idea — there were, instead of military conscription, a conscription of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature, the injustice would tend to be evened out, and numerous other goods to the commonwealth would remain blind as the luxurious classes now are blind, to man’s relations to the globe he lives on, and to the permanently sour and hard foundations of his higher life. To coal and iron mines, to freight trains, to fishing fleets in December, to dishwashing, clotheswashing, and windowwashing, to road-building and tunnel-making, to foundries and stoke-holes, and to the frames of skyscrapers, would our gilded youths be drafted off, according to their choice, to get the childishness knocked out of them, and to come back into society with healthier sympathies and soberer ideas. They would have paid their blood-tax, done their own part in the immemorial human warfare against nature; they would tread the earth more proudly, the women would value them more highly, they would be better fathers and teachers of the following generation.

Such a conscription, with the state of public opinion that would have required it, and the many moral fruits it would bear, would preserve in the midst of a pacific civilization the manly virtues which the military party is so afraid of seeing disappear in peace. We should get toughness without callousness, authority with as little criminal cruelty as possible, and painful work done cheerily because the duty is temporary, and threatens not, as now, to degrade the whole remainder of one’s life.

I spoke of the “moral equivalent” of war. So far, war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until and equivalent discipline is organized, I believe that war must have its way. But I have no serious doubt that the ordinary prides and shames of social man, once developed to a certain intensity, are capable of organizing such a moral equivalent as I have sketched, or some other just as effective for preserving manliness of type. It is but a question of time, of skilful propogandism, and of opinion-making men seizing historic opportunities.

The martial type of character can be bred without war. Strenuous honor and disinterestedness abound everywhere. Priests and medical men are in a fashion educated to it, and we should all feel some degree if its imperative if we were conscious of our work as an obligatory service to the state. We should be owned, as soldiers are by the army, and our pride would rise accordingly. We could be poor, then, without humiliation, as army officers now are. The only thing needed henceforward is to inflame the civic temper as part history has inflamed the military temper. H. G. Wells, as usual, sees the centre of the situation. “In many ways,” he says, “military organization is the most peaceful of activities. When the contemporary man steps from the street, of clamorous insincere advertisement, push, adulteration, underselling and intermittent employment into the barrack-yard, he steps on to a higher social plane, into an atmosphere of service and cooperation and of infinitely more honorable emulations. Here at least men are not flung out of employment to degenerate because there is no immediate work for them to do. They are fed a drilled and training for better services. Here at least a man is supposed to win promotion by self-forgetfulness and not by self-seeking. And beside the feeble and irregular endowment of research by commercialism, its little shortsighted snatches at profit by innovation and scientific economy, see how remarkable is the steady and rapid development of method and appliances in naval and military affairs! Nothing is more striking than to compare the progress of civil conveniences which has been left almost entirely to the trader, to the progress in military apparatus during the last few decades. The house-appliances of today, for example, are little better than they were fifty years ago. A house of today is still almost as ill-ventilated, badly heated by wasteful fires, clumsily arranged and furnished as the house of 1858. Houses a couple of hundred years old are still satisfactory places of residence, so little have our standards risen. But the rifle or battleship of fifty years ago was beyond all comparison inferior to those we now possess; in power, in speed, in convenience alike. No one has a use now for such superannuated things.”

Wells adds that he thinks that the conceptions of order and discipline, the tradition of service and devotion, of physical fitness, unstinted exertion, and universal responsibility, which universal military duty is now teaching European nations, will remain a permanent acquisition when the last ammunition has been used in the fireworks that celebrate the final peace. I believe as he does. It would be simply preposterous if the only force that could work ideals of honor and standards of efficiency into English or American natures should be the fear of being killed by the Germans or the Japanese. Great indeed is Fear; but it is not, as our military enthusiasts believe and try to make us believe, the only stimulus known for awakening the higher ranges of men’s spiritual energy….See more on William James here.