February 2021

I don’t know about your upbringing, but I spent enough time in church to hear the story of Joseph’s many coat of colors many times and how his brothers sold him into slavery. Never, though, have I seen this story through the lens that Jospeh may have been Autistic until now. This exploration shows how disabilities and diversity can chemically react with the heat of adversity to create the powerful energy that saved two ancient adversarial cultures from starvation and famine.

These are some of the requests that came in this week for sets of our fifty-one parenting tips bumper stickers. None were printed and none were shipped because we haven't the funding. This is a colossal lost opportunity to prevent the aces associated with unsupportive and harmful parenting! Good afternoon Mr. Dooley, I would like to request a set of bumper stickers for our foster parents please. My mailing address is: Noot Dant/Apelah, Inc. 304 Highland Park Cove Ridgeland, MS 39157 Thank...

Breath holding. Heart pounding. Anxious for nothing. Body on alert. Mind goes to scary places. Hyper vigilant for nothing. Car accident. Arrested. Shamed. Waiting for something to happen. But nothing ever does. I don’t know who I am. So many limiting beliefs. No where to turn. Always in the past. Missing the present moment. Nothing I can do about it. Where has my life gone? Surviving. Breathing in acceptance. Heart full of compassion. Graced with self-love. Body glimmering. Mind calm.

High blood pressure. In your third trimester of pregnancy, you do not want to hear these three words, especially if you are planning to have a home birth. My blood pressure nearly caused me to have an induction for my first birth and transfer to a hospital birth for my second birth. I wish I had known of the ACEs test so I wouldn't have felt so lost and guilty. For my first birth I was clueless. I did not understand why this was happening to me because I ate a healthy diet, went to boxing...

The heart of medicine is healing. Ultimately, the goal of working with patients (and their families) is to support, encourage and move toward healing, together. Just as in all professions, as we become more aware of new information we have to adapt, continuing to keep the larger mission at the forefront of practice. “A consensus of scientific research demonstrates that cumulative adversity, especially when experienced during critical and sensitive periods of development, is a root cause to...

MICHAEL SANDLER is host of the Inspire Nation Show, a top-rated spiritual & self-help podcast and YouTube channel, unlike any other with over 20 million downloads, and over 145K YouTube viewers and growing. He’s also a best-selling author, speaker, entrepreneur and co-creator of Inspire Nation University and the Automatic Writing Experience online course and has over 25 years experience as an Open Hearted Warrior life coach.

By Clint Smith, The Atlantic, March 2021 On a rainy thursday afternoon in November, I stepped inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture , in Washington, D.C. On past visits, I’d always encountered crowds of tourists and school groups, a space bursting with movement and sound. But on this day, the museum was nearly empty. It seemed to echo with all the people who had been there but were no longer. For the few of us inside, social distancing was dictated by blue...

By Jerry Almendarez, EdSource, February 17, 2021 When we began classes in Santa Ana Unified School District in the fall, we knew that in addition to varying degrees of learning loss, students would be returning to class having experienced isolation and a high potential for emotional trauma. We also knew that the information that we educators and administrators typically rely on, like the Smarter Balanced tests, would be unavailable this year because the state suspended administering them...

By Dave Davies, National Public Radio, February 17, 2021 DAVE DAVIES, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies in today for Terry Gross. Our guest today, Heather McGhee, has a new book about the importance of recognizing and fighting racism in America. But it isn't just an argument that racial discrimination is morally wrong and unfair, even deadly to people of color. The heart of McGhee's case is that racism is harmful to everyone, and thus we all have an interest in fighting it. Drawing on...

By Erica L. Green, The New York Times, February 18, 2021 When Di’Zhon Chase’s teacher told her that she might be able to enroll in a Harvard University class, she was skeptical — and not just because the Ivy League school was more than 2,000 miles from her hometown, Gallup, N.M. “Harvard isn’t part of the conversation — you don’t even hear that word in Gallup,” Ms. Chase said. “It isn’t something that adults expect out of us. I don’t think it’s because they don’t believe in us; it’s just so...

It's hard to be a leader without accepting the responsibility that leadership is about serving and empowering others – not yourself. Leadership is about relationships and relationships require trust. Daniel Goleman wrote in his Harvard Business Review article, “The Focused Leader,” that leaders who focus on others are people “who find common ground, whose opinions carry the most weight, and with whom other people want to work.”

I am delighted to share that, with three other educators (Ed Wang, Sakina McGruder and Pat Neal), we are launching a pilot Virtual Teachers Lounge. The first of four facilitated conversations with educators will begin on March 13. If you are an educator or know an educator in the K -- 12 pipeline anywhere in the US who wants to join in this effort to connect with other educators, compile strategies to ameliorate classroom hurdles and vent, please complete or share the link below. The...