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When a mind is lost where does it go? If you are Alan Cumming at Lincoln Center you venture into the world of William Shakespeare's Macbeth; not the man, the play. In this ostensibly one-man play Mr. Cumming plays all the most vivid and recognizable parts while a patient in an institution. He descends into custody after a criminal event. The play opens to the stirring pantomime of him being undressed by attendants (Ali Craig and Myra McFadyen.) Evidence is collected, gently and cooly from; beneath his nails, inside his wounds and mouth. He is allowed to hold onto one evidence bag. A bag we assume holds the emotional evidence of the crime. The attendants climb the stairs and reach for the door as the first audible lines are spoken; "When shall we three meet again."
So begins the tour de force that is this Macbeth production from the National Theatre of Scotland. It is a Herculean undertaking this play within a play. To convincingly construe a device to deliver a one-man Macbeth is no easy feat. Directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg this stunning production hits the mark with only one or two relatively small hiccups. The creative alchemy of the; storyline, set (Merle Hensel,) sound (Fergus O'Hare,) image (Ian William Galloway,) characterization and staging work to keep the audience mesmerized. Without the excellent staging or performance it would be impossible to follow this play. Mr. Cumming easily transforms himself into (at times dueling) characters. He often achieves this with only his body and voice although there is a prop or two also engaged. We are helped to follow these transitions with real time projections.
What is most remarkable about this Macbeth is not Macbeth. It is a tale, told through Macbeth of a man's descent into insanity. Clever devices such as the attendants appearing to periodically anesthetize Cumming, or the closed circuit cameras (producing the projections) in his locked ward remind us of what we're watching. We are forced outside of Macbeth at the appearance of the Lady's bloody hands. The lady's hallucination becomes the patient's hallucination becomes stigmata as the attendants look fruitlessly for a source for the blood. We are reminded of the ill man on display during more than one emotional collapse. A heart wrenching yet contained Cumming dissolves and curls into himself. One of these devolutions has an attendant carrying him to the bed. This event can only be called a pas des deux. There is much beautiful movement (Christine Devaney) in this production, but it is this particular dance that clutches the heart.
It can be seductive to forget that we are not watching a Macbeth, but a man who is lost in the world of Macbeth. Cumming's portrayal of all the characters is so convincing (and at times very funny.) He manages to capture the sexual chemistry between husband and wife with nothing more than his own body. Toward the end of the play we discover the content of his evidence bag. Our imaginations easily construe countless plausible explanations for this man's psychiatric demise. It is not clear he will ever recover. The last words spoken are; "When shall we three meet again" suggesting we are inside the endless loop that is his mind.


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I've asked around and it feels like there's an epidemic of apathy this holiday season. It doesn't matter what holiday is being celebrated it seems like everyone I talk to is trying to wish the holiday season away as quickly as possible.
All of a sudden Christmas and Hanukkah are days away and I am scrambling and stressed and wondering how the hell it's the end of December already. I blame the mild temperatures in Chicago, where I live, for tricking me into thinking that the usual snowy holidays were months away instead of weeks. Or maybe it was the Chicago Cubs' World Series win that made me feel like the end of the world was fast approaching so why bother with the gift shopping. Or maybe it's just the news.
All I know is that I have a shopping list that needs to be dealt with, a closet full of presents that need to be wrapped, a stack of Holiday cards that need to be addressed and mailed, and absolutely zero motivation to tackle any of it.
What's a girl who usually loves the holidays to do?
I've checked in with other folks who are feeling the madness and asked them how they are putting the "Happy" back in Happy Holidays. Before you go to your room and stay there until January 2 you might want to try some of these ideas first.
- Buy less stuff. In other words, stop shopping now. I need to stop looking at gift lists. Every time I do I find another thing that would be perfect for only $25.00! Do you know how quickly a bunch of useless $25.00 gifts add up? Ridiculous. Just stop.
- If you've already done most of your shopping try a trick that works well when you are preparing for a trip. Travel experts agree that if you lay out all of your clothes when you are packing you can usually put away half of what you thought you would need and still have too much. It's the exact same thing with presents. Right now, put all of your purchases on the floor and return half of them.
- Plan an experience instead of buying more stuff. Fewer boxes, better memories.
- Skip the holiday cards if you haven't made them or bought them already. You could send something to the relatives who never see your kids but do you really need to send one to all of your kids' friends? One friend just posted a picture on social media of the holiday card she is sending to her far-flung family and friends. Another friend is opting for Happy New Year cards instead. If all else fails and you still want to send a card you could pull a Julia Child and send out Valentine's Day card.
- Find time to spend with family that doesn't involve gift giving. Watch a movie, cook together, play a game, go for a walk.
- Volunteer. You've probably heard it before but helping others really helps put the stress and the excesses of the holidays in perspective.
Wishing you all the best for this holiday season!
*This is an actual song made famous by Andy Williams minus the "ugh" part

subset: commoncrawl


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5:15 pm: I hang cute ghost earrings from my ears, turn on the porch light and fling open the door. Let the fun commence.
5:20 pm: I live halfway up a hill, three quarters the way to the cul de sac. My house is the only one on the hill with the international "we have candy" symbols of open doors and burning porch lights. I almost feel like going to the mouth of the street with a sign that says Not Worth Your Time.
5:35 pm: I start calling my dog "Case-per the friendly ghost" in an effort to have some Halloween cheer.
5:40 pm: I decide that my dog may be the only trick or treater I see all year. I give him a miniature peanut butter cup from the treat basket. Hey. Don't judge. He's a really big dog, and there's hardly any chocolate on the thing.
5:41 pm: Dog begins vigil by the table holding the treat basket. I begin folding laundry. At least SOME good will come of this waiting.
5:45 pm: Laundry is folded. (I love dark loads. Few socks, lots of pairs of blue jeans.) Dog still holding PBC vigil in earnest.
5:46 pm: My street is as dark as Kleinheider's heart. Seriously, in about six weeks that guy's gonna strap antlers to his little dog's head and go after all our presents.
5:47 pm: This is the boringest live blog ever. Dog still holding vigil. And I ate one of the 100 grand bars. That's 90 calories I won't get back.
6:02 pm: I look like a tool reading immigration blogs while wearing a Winnie The Pooh T-shirt and ghost earrings. I think the dog is going to come downstairs and eat me if I don't give him another miniature peanut butter cup.
6:07 pm: THREE TRICK OR TREATERS! Healthy young lads dressed as skeletons. Or something. I didn't get a good look at them because the dogs took it as their solemn duty to guard me from the dangers of short people with plastic sacks. I gave each brave lad two candy bars as a reward for having climbed the Hill Of No Hope and being barked at by Two Angry Yet Useless dogs.
6:11 pm: I'm about to give up. Where are the flocks of human young that I remember from my childhood Halloweens? Don't people get how social this evening is? How much of a custom we're losing to fear? They say the terrorists did it, but I think part of it we've done to ourselves. We've scared our kids with urban legends about razor blades and brown acid hidden among innocuous gifts of candy. So now instead of the hail-fellow-well-met of Halloweens past we've got this Trunk Or Treat nonsense.
I think I'm a little too morose.
6:20 pm: Ahhhh. That's better. Fresh new meat. Apparently the entire neighbourhood's worth of children decided to T&T in a pack of jovial princesses, pirates, Titans fans and Harry Potters. I've given away half the candy and I have restored my faith in humanity.
6:30 pm: There's been a steady trickle of children, which does my heart glad. As well as my waistline. Being stuck in a house all week with Nestle Crunch Caramel bars would have been disastrous. In between innocent children I'm arguing with Kleinheider about I.Q. in the military. It's kind of like having my brother (the poopy monkeyhead) around.
6:49 pm: I'm ready to give up. I want my soup and toast. I'm tired of hearing the dogs bark. I'm so fickle.
7:03 pm: I think I'm done. No body has come by for 15 minutes. My soup is calling me. Seriously, the golden butternut squash soup is totally restuaurant-worthy. And it's perfect for Halloween.
7:05 pm: After yammering about the Grinch and terrorists and soup I realised that I totally forgot to write the long poignant piece about my dad's birthday. Part of it was forgetfulness–part of it was realising that I've got a bit of a cold and that really cramps my writing style. My dad's birthday is right now. Happy Birthday, Dad.
9:34 pm: Postscript.
My dad got 68% off his meal at the local Mexican restaurant. Three guesses why. I enjoyed my soup and toast. We had no more trick or treaters after 7:00, bringing our grand total to around 20 or so. 20. Is that even enough for a softball team? I think no small part of me is a bit p.o.'d. I'm an adult, and it's my turn to show off my house and be the nice neighbour with the good candy. Thanks for robbing me of that, you selfish Trunk Or Treating kids!!!!
Oh, and if I'm up all night it's because I'm worried about Joe Dubin's neighbour's dog.


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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Private-sector employment slightly picked up in February but remained slow after unusually poor weather, Automatic Data Processing Inc. reported Wednesday.
Private-sector employers added 139,000 jobs last month, up from a revised 127,000 in January, but down from 205,000 in February 2013, according to ADP. Economists had forecast that private-sector hiring somewhat slowed down last month, with employers adding 160,000 jobs, compared with an originally estimated January increase of 175,000, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.
"February was another soft month for the job market. Employment was weak across a number of industries," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, which prepares the report with ADP's data. "Bad winter weather, especially in mid-month, weighed on payrolls. Job growth is expected to improve with warmer temperatures."
Trends also show weakness: Over the quarter that ended in February, private-sector employers added an average of 153,000 jobs per month, down from 196,000 during the year-earlier period.
U.S. stock futures pared gains after the ADP report.
Although the ADP report is an imperfect signal, economists use the data to get a feeling for the U.S. Labor Department's employment report, which will be released Friday and covers government jobs in addition to the private sector. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the government's report to show that nonfarm employment rose by 143,000 jobs last month, up from a slow gain of 113,000 jobs in January.
The ADP news follows a recent report on manufacturing, which signaled that employment growth was steady last month as overall activity in the sector picked up. Elsewhere Wednesday, grimmer jobs data showed that nonmanufacturers contracted their workforces in February for the first time in more than two years.
Mediocre hiring across the board
So where was the jobs weakness in February? Details of ADP's report show mediocre private-sector hiring across the board. Service providers added 120,000 jobs last month, down from 164,000 a year earlier. Meanwhile, goods producers added 19,000 jobs last month, down from 41,000 a year earlier. By company size, small businesses added 59,000 jobs last month, large businesses added 44,000, and medium businesses added 35,000.
Recent readings on nonfarm payrolls have also been weak, though particularly harsh weather may be at least partly to blame, economists say. In the three-month period that ended in January, nonfarm payroll employment expanded by an average of 154,000 jobs per month, down from 205,000 during the year-earlier period. And even though employers have expanded payrolls each month since late 2010, the economy has about 850,000 fewer positions than it did when the recession started at the end of 2007.
A healthy labor market is key for broader economic growth. For example, weak employment trends can hold back home sales, which, in turn, could hurt jobs growth. Consumers worried about high unemployment and layoffs may be less likely to shop.
Economists say that the jobs numbers may recover from the particularly harsh winter.
"We continue to believe that the underlying momentum in the economy remains favorable, and we look for the pace of employment growth to rebound meaningfully in the coming months with jobs growth in the 200K+ range," said Millan Mulraine, deputy head, U.S. research and strategy, at TD Securities.
Check out these must-read stories:
Is the White House's 3.1% growth forecast still too rosy?


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Apple has come under fire this week with reports that Snow Leopard's next update, OS X 10.6.2, will disable those who are using the OS on a netbook using an Atom chip – commonly known as a Hackintosh.
TechRadar spoke to Chris Phin, Deputy Editor of MacFormat about the news and he was reticent to say that this was a deliberate attempt to block those who are flouting the company's licensing terms, rather something more technical-based.
"Apple has been known, of course, to stop supporting some older processor architectures; think of the move from 68k, or the recent lack of support for PowerPC in Mac OS X 10.6 but if true, this seems like a very different, precision-targeted move," explains Phin.
Out of character
He continued: "It would be out of character of Apple to be so aggressive, however, if indeed it becomes clear that the decision was made specifically to damage the netbook hackintosh movement, such as it is.
"I'd be less surprised to learn that there was a specific technical reason that Atom support, having been dropped from the developer build of 10.6.2, is indeed missing in the final version."
Phin also gives a word of warning to those who have hacked their netbooks to work with Apple's OS, noting: "While Hackintoshing can be both fun and rewarding, especially on small form-factor netbooks that have traditionally used Atom processors, it contravenes the terms of the Mac OS X EULA, so was in any case illegal. Apple has no duty to maintain support for these unsanctioned computers."


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Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33 (NIV))
What do you think of when you hear the word "trouble?" Perhaps it makes more sense to you to use the word "tribulation" instead. Perhaps you like to cut to the chase and you have come to the realization that trouble usually implies suffering and you choose to use the word "suffer" instead of the word "trouble." The following three translations are good examples of word choice, but they all have the same underlying meaning, and that is that while we, as followers of Jesus, are alive and in this world, we will be faced with things because we are followers of Jesus. Though the word choices are different, they also all have the assurance that placing our faith in Jesus is the only way to overcome those troubles.
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33 (NASB))
"I have told you this, so that you might have peace in your hearts because of me. While you are in the world, you will have to suffer. But cheer up! I have defeated the world."
(John 16:33 (CEVDC))
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33 (KJV))
Just as some people will say "Good morning," others will simply say "Mornin'" or even "Hi!" It is the intent, it is the true meaning behind the words that we must understand. With that said, the message in John 16:33 boils down to this. If we rely on our own actions and our own abilities in this world, we will face things that will test our faith. They will test our very peace of mind. Focus on Jesus and let Him deal with the things of this world. Turn over your troubles, your trials, your tribulations and you suffering to the Lord of all creation. He is bigger than any problems that you will face.
Take a good, long look at your life!
Have you turned your troubles over to Jesus?
Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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About Us
Community Connection in Collingwood is the regional 211 Ontario contact centre for Central East Ontario, a population of 1.2 million residents in twelve counties (Bruce, Grey, Dufferin, Perth, Huron, Simcoe, Muskoka, Parry Sound, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough and Northumberland).
Community Connection, a registered charity, has provided information and referral services through a local helpline since 1969. The organization is also a volunteer centre, manages a multi-tenant community resource centre, and also operates Home for Life, a volunteer delivered community support service.
Community Connection maintains relationships with seven data partner organizations located across the Central East Region. The regional data partners support the 211 Ontario resource database ensuring local data is continually updated. The data partners are the United Way Perth Huron, Northumberland United Way, Victoria County Career Services (Lindsay), Contact South Simcoe, Information Barrie, Information Orillia and Community Reach North Simcoe.
Community Connection has deep and expansive partnerships and collaborations across many sectors in the Central East region, with a significant number in Bruce, Grey and Simcoe County and the District of Muskoka. This is due to annual funding and close working relationships with senior staff in the County of Bruce, County of Grey, County of Simcoe, the District of Muskoka and the United Way of Bruce Grey and the United Way of Simcoe Muskoka.
Read about the creation of the original "Contact Centre" in 1969 here.


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A tasty, low-alcohol take on a Dark and Stormy. Here, allspice syrup replaces the spice of Gosling's dark rum. A spicy homemade ginger syrup works best in this recipe to replicate the distinctive burn of alcohol. For a completely booze-free mocktail, leave out the cayenne tincture.
Recipe Details
Light and Drizzly Recipe
- For the spicy ginger syrup:
- 3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- 28 grams vodka (optional)
- 450 grams fresh ginger, peeled
- 475 grams water
- 440 grams sugar (about 2 cups)
- 13 grams citric acid
- For the allspice syrup:
- 50 grams allspice (about 1/2 cup)
- 6 black peppercorns
- 10 whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 a whole nutmeg
- 500 grams water
- 300 grams sugar
- For each drink:
- 30 grams spicy ginger syrup (about 1 ounce)
- 15 grams allspice syrup (about 1/2 ounce)
- 30 grams fresh juice from 1 to 2 limes (about 1 ounce)
- Seltzer, chilled
To make spicy ginger syrup: If you're going to include the alcoholic tincture, combine the cayenne pepper and vodka for 5 minutes. Strain out the cayenne pepper, or just let the solids sink to the bottom of the bowl. Slice peeled ginger in centimeter-long slices and simmer in 475 grams of water for 20 minutes. Strain out the ginger solids. Add sugar and citric acid and stir until dissolved. If you're using the spicy tincture, add 3/4 teaspoon of the tincture to your ginger syrup. Adjust to taste. Store extra syrup sealed in the refrigerator, about 1 week.
To make the allspice syrup: Combine allspice, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 500 grams water in blender and blend on low speed for five minutes. Strain through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Combine with sugar and let rest to create the syrup. Store extra syrup sealed in the refrigerator, about 1 week.
For each cocktail: Add ginger syrup, allspice syrup, and lime juice to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well-chilled, about 10 seconds. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Top with seltzer water.
Special equipment
blender, cocktail shaker


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Store planned for former Country Market site
Muskegon-based Family Farm & Home plans to open a retail store in the building formerly occupied by Country Market at 1392 S. Main St. in the Crossroads Plaza Shopping Center in Adrian.
The Adrian Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to grant the store a zoning exception permit so it can store and display merchandise outside.
In an interview Thursday, Family Farm & Home founder and owner Al Fansler said he hopes the store can open in June, but that there is construction to do first, including installing new lighting and new heating and cooling.
Family Farm & Home sells farm supplies such as livestock feed, horse tack and three-point equipment; lawn and garden supplies; pet food and pet accessories; automotive products; tools; clothing and footwear; sporting goods; and heating stoves and accessories.
There are a little more than 30,000 square feet in the former grocery store building, Fansler said. Country Market closed its store at the location about a year ago.
The Family Farm & Home store probably will have 16 employees to start, Fansler said.
A rural customer base that includes part-time or hobby farmers attracted the company to Adrian, Fansler said.
"It's just a wonderful market," he said.
Fansler founded the first Family Farm & Home store in 2002 in Coldwater. Today the company has 28 stores, all but two in Michigan, Fansler said. Two of the stores are in Indiana, he said.
Family Farm & Home is in direct competition with Tractor Supply Co., Fansler said. Tractor Supply Co. has a store in Adrian at 1260 W. U.S. 223.


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Police are investigating how a loaded gun wound up among children's toys at a Target store in South Carolina.
According to a police report, an employee at the Myrtle Beach store reported May 30 that he was investigating a possible theft when he noticed a black handgun on top of a superhero toy box.
The employee told officers he had seen a man repeatedly walking around that section of the store, but authorities said they didn't know if that man had put the gun among the toys.
Authorities said the 9-mm handgun had not been reported stolen and had eight bullets inside. Officers said they would review security camera footage to try to determine who left the gun in the store.
The discovery comes as Target and other retailers face pressure to prohibit customers from carrying guns into their stores. On Wednesday, the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America launched a petition asking the company to prevent customers from carrying firearms in Target stores. The petition is unrelated to the discovery of the gun in South Carolina.
A spokeswoman for Target said the safety of its employees and customers are its top priority. Store employees are working with law enforcement in Myrtle Beach to help track down the person who left the gun, spokeswoman Molly Snyder said.


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Over the weekend I finished writing the first draft of Heirs of Grace, my twenty-something-th novel. (It's probably the 21st novel I've written that's going to actually be published. Or maybe the 20th, as my forthcoming The Deep Woods is right around 40,000 words, and could be considered a novella or a novel depending on which definition you use. I tend to think of it as a short novel. Which makes Heirs of Grace the 25th novel I've actually finished, since I have four trunk books that are complete but not really publishable. A perusal of my bibliography won't allow you to come up with the same numbers I have here, since I've done a couple of pseudonymous work-for-hire books that aren't listed there. Well. You see the confusion.)
I like this book a lot. It's a contemporary fantasy standalone with some romantic elements — arguably what I do best, and certainly what I like doing most. I think it has some of my best writing, and jokes, and character stuff, and weird magic. I put everything I've got into this one. I hope when the time comes to read it in a few months, you'll find it worthwhile.
Do people care about metrics? I find it interesting, to understand my own working habits, which are irregular and not really a model anyone should follow. I'm not sure why anyone should care about how anyone else works, though. It just seems to invite pointless comparisons. Most readers likely don't care how you wrote a book — they just care about how the book turned out in the end.
But Heirs of Grace was a weird book for me, in many ways. I sold it as a serial to 47North, to be published in five novelette-sized chunks over successive weeks, then collected in a complete edition. So it's a novel, but there are little mini-arcs to each individual section, too. Structuring it that way was fascinating, and gave a solid shape to what had been a somewhat messy book in my mind.
The deadlines were interesting, too. The first chapter was due at the end of September, and after that, I pretty much had a deadline every two weeks, so I was writing 15-20,000 words every couple of weeks — and revising them, so they were fairly polished when I turned them in. I blew one deadline because I got sick and needed a week-long extension, but managed to get the installment after that one done on time, so as a whole I hit my markers. I ended up writing 90,000 words or so over a span of about 50 days — not that I worked on it every day. I've always been a binge writer by preference. I like to take many hours at a stretch and produce many words, when time allows.
I stuck pretty close to my outline until this past week, when I realized my planned ending was stupid, morally reprehensible, and — worst of all — boring. I tried to think of a better ending, one that was earned and powerful. I talked out the implications of changing things with a friend at a cafe on Saturday, and I think I came up with something that works.
Those rolling deadlines and the tight time-frame — and the fact that this book is quite important to me, one of the most personal novels I've written since Briarpatch — gave my life a peculiar rhythm these past couple of months, and made me identify quite intensely with my characters. I find myself really missing them this morning. I'll get to spend a few more weeks with them as I work with my editor on final revisions, but soon it will be time to move on to the next book.
I'm feeling happy and accomplished and bittersweet and melancholy today. So, you know. Like a human.


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Two kindergarteners at Cherokee Point Elementary School in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood get into a fight on the playground. Their teacher sends them to the principal's office.
Instead of suspending or expelling the six-year-olds, as happens in many schools, Principal Godwin Higa ushers them to his side of the desk. He sits down so that he can talk with them eye-to-eye and quietly asks: "What happened?" He points to one of the boys. "You go first."
In this school, a fight turns into a teachable moment on how to resolve conflict. Higa walks them through the process:
Establish what happened. "He grabbed my shirt," says Boy No. 1. "He pushed me down," says Boy No. 2. They fidget. Their faces pinched into frowns, they can barely look at each other.
Have them accept responsibility. "Did you grab his shirt?" Higa asks Boy No. 2. Higa's tone is quiet, conversational, his demeanor non-threatening. "Did you push him down?" he asks Boy No. 1. It takes a few back-and-forths before the boys nod, eyes downcast.
Have them tell each other how they felt about having their shirt grabbed and being pushed down. Neither boy liked it. They acknowledge that they could have seriously hurt each other.
Have them apologize and agree that they won't do it again. Both boys nod, curl their fingers in front of their mouths and murmur into their fists, "I'm sorry". They don't really mean it. And they still can't look at each other. Heads hanging, they think this is over and slowly turn to leave.
Higa keeps talking. "What if it happens again? What will you do?" The boys stop, turn and stare wide-eyed at him. They don't expect these questions. "You have to solve this," says Higa. "You can talk to each other, help each other." They look at each other in a slight panic as performance anxiety replaces their discomfort with each other. They think, confer, and then tell Higa that each would ask the other not to continue. Or they would ask a teacher for help.
"Congratulations!" smiles Higa. "You figured this out." The boys beam with unexpected pride.
"And what do you do when you've worked something out?" They look at him for guidance. "You shake hands!" They grin and shake hands. "Can you give each other a hug?"
They wrap their arms around each other and squeeze tight. Higa laughs and sends them to lunch.
Fifteen minutes later, they knock on his door and peek in, all smiles. "Mr. Higa, we're friends now," chirps Boy No. 2.
"Yes," says Boy No. 1. "He asked me to be his friend and I said, 'Yes!'"
They grip each other in another hug to demonstrate and run off to their classroom. Instead of returning to class with brains clogged with anger and revenge, they're happy, open and ready to learn.
Higa chuckles as he watches them go. "The fifth-graders only shake hands," he muses. "They don't like to hug."
If fixing school discipline were a political campaign, the slogan would be "It's the Adults, Stupid!"
A sea change is coursing slowly but resolutely through this nation's K-12 education system. More than 23,000 schools out of 132,000 nationwide have or are discarding a highly punitive approach to school discipline in favor of supportive, compassionate, and solution-oriented methods. Those that take the slow-but-steady road can see a 20% to 40% drop in suspensions in their first year of transformation. A few — where the principal, all teachers and staff embrace an immediate overhaul — experience higher rates, as much as an 85% drop in suspensions and a 40% drop in expulsions. Bullying, truancy, and tardiness are waning. Graduation rates, test scores and grades are trending up.
The formula is simple, really: Instead of waiting for kids to behave badly and then punishing them, schools are creating environments in which kids can succeed. "We have to be much more thoughtful about how we teach our kids to behave, and how our staff behaves in those environments that we create," says Mike Hanson, superintendent of Fresno (CA) Unified School District, which began a district-wide overhaul of all of its 92 schools in 2008.
This isn't a single program or a short-term trend or a five-year plan that will disappear as soon as the funding runs out. Where it's taken hold, it's a don't-look-back, got-the-bit-in-the-teeth, I-can't-belieeeeeve-we-used-to-do-it-the-old-way type of shift.
The secret to success doesn't involve the kids so much as it does the adults: Focus on altering the behavior of teachers and administrators, and, almost like magic, the kids stop fighting and acting out in class. They're more interested in school, they're happier and feel safer.
"We're changing the behavior of the adults on campuses, changing how they respond to poor behavior on kids' part," says Mary Ann Carousso, head of student services for Kings Canyon Unified School District in Central California, which launched a five-year plan in 2010 to revamp the district's 20 schools.
This movement began about a dozen years ago, and has gained momentum in the last five years. The first schools to yank themselves free of the knee-jerk punitive response to bad behavior did so based on two unrelated developments.
First, suspensions and expulsions soared to ridiculous levels. By 2007, a stunning one-quarter of all public high school students had been suspended at least once during their school careers, according to a National Center for Education Statistics 2011 report. The numbers were worse for boys of color. One-third of Hispanic boys and 57% of black boys had been kicked out of school at least once.
Further, the report noted that more than three million kids are suspended or expelled each year — in 2006 that number was 3,430,830. In California, 464,050 children were kicked out of school that year, many more than once, for a total of more than 800,000 suspensions and expulsions.
The acceleration began with the adoption of broad zero-tolerance policies that spread like a prairie fire across the United States in 1995, just one year after the U.S. Congress passed the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994. Once "zero tolerance" was locked in, teachers and principals warped it, some say, by the pressure to perform well on tests. Kick the troublemakers out, and there's less disruption and interruption in class. With those underperforming kids gone, test scores look better.
Here's the absurd part: Only five percent of these suspensions or expulsions were for weapons or drugs. The other 95 percent? "Disruptive behavior" and "other". This includes cell phone use, violation of dress code, talking back to a teacher, bringing scissors to class for an art project, giving Midol to a classmate, and, in at least one case, farting.
But punishment doesn't change behavior; it just drops hundreds of thousands of flailing kids into a school to prison pipeline. The ka-ching to us taxpayers is $292,000 per dropout over his or her lifetime due to costs for more police, courts, and prisons, plus loss of income and taxes into our civic treasuries.
"Suspensions and expulsions don't work," says Javier Martinez, principal of Le Grand High School, Le Grand, CA. His approach is: "How do I help student overcome a problem so that it doesn't happen again?"
"You can't punish a behavior out of a kid," says Jen Caldwell, a social worker at El Dorado Elementary School in San Francisco, CA. "The old-school model of discipline comes from people who think kids intentionally behave badly."
Joseph Arruda, learning director at Reedley High School in Reedley, CA, shakes his head: "Suspending, expelling….that's the old way."
"It's hard on them and on the parents," says Andre Griggs, after-school program coordinator at Le Grand High School. "It doesn't help the overall education of student."
The second driver for change crept in sideways from educators who were teaching children with behavior disorders, from programs created to help kids deal with violence (particularly shootings) in and around their schools, and from restorative justice practices developed for the criminal justice system. Teachers and principals who saw the harm of zero tolerance finally had some alternatives to kicking kids out of class. All the methods focused the social and emotional lives of children, such as teaching children respect, empathy, and coping skills. Equipped with their own conflict resolution skills, teachers could defuse most situations in their classrooms instead of sending disruptive kids to the principal's office.
The methods now have names such as PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support), Safe & Civil Schools, CBITS (Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools), restorative justice, trauma-sensitive schools, and HEARTS (Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools). They all focus first on changing what teachers and administrators do. Once that's done, most children's behavior begins to fall into place.
PBIS is now in more than 18,000 schools nationwide, 500 in California. Safe & Civil Schools is in 5,000 schools nationwide, including several hundred in California. All public schools in Los Angeles use CBITS, San Francisco Unified School District has collaborated with HEARTS to train all of their schools' mental health coordinators in trauma-sensitive practices, and dozens of schools up and down the state use restorative justice practices. In schools that use the programs, words like "de-escalate", "solidify a relationship", "develop trust", and "teachable moments" slide off the tongues of teachers and administrators as they help students recognize, understand, and regulate their behavior, as well as ask for help.
In some schools, principals, teachers and staff embrace the changes wholeheartedly, and reserve expulsions and suspensions for carrying weapons and selling drugs, required by law. But some schools tiptoe into the change, and still enforce an automatic suspension or expulsion on kids who fight or are caught using drugs, including alcohol. In other schools, with teachers or principals who don't believe in a compassionate approach and who still think that a heavy hand works best, little changes.
Overall, U.S. schools still lose millions of children that needn't be lost. In California, for example, although suspensions and expulsions have dropped 12% — more than 100,000 — between 2006 and 2011, there were still more than 700,000 suspensions and expulsions during the 2010-2011 school year.
"Bad behavior" is the way a child says "I've been traumatized"
PBIS, Safe & Civil Schools, restorative justice, CBITS, HEARTS…..they're not just good ideas. According to a perfect storm of research that's beginning to revolutionize practices in the areas of mental health, substance abuse, social services, youth services, pediatrics and juvenile justice systems and is creeping into education, they're absolutely essential if educators want to create a school system where all children can feel safe enough to learn and succeed academically. This research also pokes big, ragged holes in the long-held belief that if a child who's failing just works harder, she or he will achieve success.
A little background to show why that's the case:
Brain science shows that toxic stress damages children's developing brains. This is the kind of stress that comes from living day-in and day-out for months or years with a screaming alcoholic father or a severely depressed and neglectful mother or a parent who takes out all of life's frustrations by whipping a belt across a child's body. In these circumstances, kids need the stress hormones — a normal survival response — to remain hyper-vigilant in their terrifying and dangerous world. When they're triggered, their survival brain takes over and literally shuts down their decision-making and learning brain. The slightest provocation — a teacher's raised voice or another child's accidentally bumping into them — may trigger them into fight, flight or freeze mode. They lash out with a punch, bite, throw chairs, run away or withdraw into a near-catatonic state.
"Think of the 'learning brain' as the rider, and the 'survival brain' as the horse," says Joyce Dorado, director of HEARTS and associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. "When a student is triggered into survival mode by a trauma reminder, the 'learning brain' largely goes offline. The rider's off the horse, and you're just dealing with a really terrified horse." In this state, a child is neurobiologically unable to learn. No amount of working harder will change things. The child's behavior is a normal response to toxic stress; it is not "willful" or intentionally directed against a teacher. The good news is that the brain is plastic, and if toxic stress stops and is replaced by practices that build resilience, the brain can slowly repair much of the damage.
So, let's go back to Boy No. 1 and Boy No. 2, the tykes from the beginning of this story. Let's say there was a different ending. Let's say they were yelled by their teacher, they were yelled at by their principal, and, stuck in fight mode, continued to snipe and swipe at each other the rest of the school day. Knowing that they're experiencing toxic stress at home or in their neighborhoods, how much learning do you think they would have done the rest of that afternoon? Zero would be the right answer.
But, you might ask….how do you know that they're experiencing significant adversity in their lives away from school? Because they fight at the drop of a hat in school. Kids whose brains are calm and healthy — i.e., they have no severe and chronic stress in their lives — don't do that. They're happy and engaged in learning, especially if they're in a school where they feel safe. And here's where another important piece of research comes in — it isn't just a few children who are experiencing toxic stress. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's groundbreaking Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) showed that childhood trauma is as common as salt.
Of the 17,000 middle-class, college-educated, mostly white employed people with great health care who participated in the study, most had experienced at least one out of the 10 types of severe and chronic childhood maltreatment that were measured. And most of those who had one type of trauma had experienced two or more. In other words, a child living with an alcoholic parent is also likely to be experiencing some type of abuse or neglect and witnessing a mother being battered. Child sex abuse, for example, rarely happens in isolation. Other types of abuses or family dysfunctions are usually present.
People with high ACE scores are more likely to be violent or to be a victim of violence, to have more marriages, more broken bones, more drug prescriptions, more depression, more auto-immune diseases, more work absences, more obesity, more teenage pregnancies and more unwanted pregnancies. Compared with people who had none, people with four types of ACEs were twice as likely to be smokers, 12 times more likely to have attempted suicide, seven times more likely to be alcoholic, and 10 times more likely to have injected street drugs.
Eighteen other states have done ACE surveys, as have pediatricians, social services, and the World Health Organization. In similar populations, all have found similar results to the CDC's ACE Study. In specific groups, teens or young adults who are clients of services for troubled youth or who attend an alternative high school, for example, childhood adversity is heartbreakingly high.
"We've hit the tipping point and crossed over," says Natalie Turner, assistant director of Washington State University's Area Health Education Center. "In study after study after study, we know that ACEs are pervasive and the issue of adversity is epidemic."
The research from epigenetics — the study of how social (and other) environments turn our genes on and off — surprises many people who believe that the DNA we're born with doesn't change and programs all that we are during our entire lifetime. Here's the reality: toxic stress can alter genes and cause long-term changes in all parts of our bodies, brains and otherwise. This 30-minute overview from Dr. Moshe Szyf, a professor at the McGill Faculty of Medicine and a leader in the field of epigenetics, explains this in great detail.
Biomedical research shows that toxic stress releases inflammatory chemicals that do long-term damage to our systems — gastrointestinal system, immune system, cardiac, respiratory, etc. The relationship of the biomedical piece to the CDC's ACE Study is that the more types of childhood trauma a person experiences, the higher the risk of skin cancer, heart disease, cancer, fibromyalgia, arthritis. Compared with people with zero ACEs, for example, those with four types of ACEs had a 240 percent greater risk of hepatitis, were 390 percent more likely to have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema or chronic bronchitis), and a 240 percent higher risk of a sexually-transmitted disease.
You could say that this is the human version of climate change. Climate change is difficult to grasp, because its causes (tons of carbon dioxide gases) are invisible, and there aren't sudden changes. But there are clear indicators — Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, the Midwest drought — that the Earth is suffering. Climate change is already affecting all of us economically. And, if we act quickly enough, we can avoid world-wide catastrophe that will drastically affect our lives and especially the lives of our children.
Childhood adversity is invisible — it usually takes place behind closed doors or within the impenetrable family bubble. But skyrocketing chronic health problems, prison populations, mental illness, high school discipline and dropout rates show clearly that most humans are suffering the short- and long-term effects of toxic stress. Even those without ACEs are affected by health costs, prison costs, workplace costs and increasing poverty. This is an epidemic. It affects us all. The good news is that we can do something about it.
Schools can't do it alone….or, it really does take a village
In Spokane, WA, the second-largest school district in the state, a remarkable inquiry involving the city's elementary school students reveals a stark truth: existing approaches to address school discipline issues, such as PBIS and Safe & Civil Schools, aren't going far enough, and they can't go it alone and expect to succeed.
Dr. Chris Blodgett directs Washington State University's Area Health Education Center. After years of studying brain science, and ACE Study research, he wanted to know the answers to two questions:
1. How common are adverse childhood experiences in schoolchildren?
2. How does childhood adversity affect kids' academic performance and health in school?
Last year, he asked 179 teachers in 10 elementary schools (K-6) to look at the records of 2,101 randomly-selected children. The records were set up so that the children could not be identified. Administrators provided another set of eyes on the data. In this group of five to 12-year-olds, 78 percent are white and 55 percent were eligible for free and reduced lunch (a poverty indicator).
Blodgett used the CDC's ACE Study as a model. In that study, the ten types of childhood adversity are:
- physical, sexual, verbal abuse
- physical and emotional neglect
- a parent who's an alcoholic (or addicted to other drugs) or diagnosed with a mental illness
- witnessing a mother who experiences abuse
- losing a parent to abandonment or divorce
- a family member in jail
But, since the Spokane teachers couldn't identify the specific abuses or neglect from school records, Blodgett replaced the five types of abuse and neglect with one — any type of involvement with child protective services — and added four other types of adversity. The list of 10 childhood adverse experiences then became:
- CPS referral or placement
- homeless or moving frequently
- parents' divorce or separation
- death of a primary caregiver
- a family member in jail, with a physical disability, mental illness or substance abuse
- witnessing domestic violence, or violence in their neighborhood
The results are grim: Even at their young age, 45% of the students had experienced one or more of these ten severe and chronic types of adversity; 12% had three or more. And, just like the CDC's ACE Study, the more types of adverse experiences children had, the more their academics suffered. They had worse grades, worse attendance, and worse behavior that interfered with learning. There were more self-reports of poor health.
Blodgett found that the level of ACE exposure was the principal predictor of a child's attendance and behavior problems. Even figuring in other risk factors, ACE exposure was the second most powerful predictor of a child's academic failure. The first: if the child was in special education classes.
Compared with children with no adverse childhood experiences, kids with three or more ACEs were
- 3 times more likely to fail
- 5 times more likely to have severe attendance problems
- 6 times more likely to have severe behavior problems
- 4 times more likely to have self-reports of poor health
The main take-aways are, says Blodgett:
- Childhood adversity is "pervasive at very high levels almost everywhere we look," even in public schools attended by middle-class kids.
- Because so many children with adversities attend schools, schools themselves are affected. Schools may even be one of the major contributors to childhood trauma, especially if they create environments where fighting and bullying are common.
In other words, the fundamental mechanism underlying a child's ability to learn is exposure to childhood adversity. And systematic change — how a school, a family, and a community recognizes that adversity and builds resilience in and around that child — determines if the child can overcome the adversity.
So, exactly what does this mean? The entire educational system needs to change, say Blodgett and Turner so that it:
- stops traumatizing already traumatized children;
- reaches out not only to traumatized students who express their trauma by acting out, but also to those who withdraw;
- and creates safe environments where all traumatized children can begin healing.
"We're at the point in taking what we already know and have replicated," says Turner, "and are now saying: 'How do we get systematic change to impact these children in a different way?'"
"Systematic change" means more than schools alone. Blodgett and Turner believe that understanding the effects of adversity and implementing resilience and prevention need to be integrated into all systems — schools, clinics, youth clubs, hospitals, physicians, families, communities, etc. — that touch children and families. They believe this approach needs to become as normal as electricity or cars or the Internet or GPS — so integrated into the systems we live with that its use becomes automatic, nearly invisible, and we only notice it when it's not there.
Part of encouraging system change is about "normalizing the experience," says Turner. That means constantly reminding people that severe and chronic trauma happens to most of us, not just to a few of us.
And it means using different words. "Trauma. Trauma. Trauma. Trauma," Turner spouted at one point in our conversation. "There's so much stigma in that word that we began talking about adversity and resilience. Adversity and resilience. There needs to be balance on both sides of the equation. You can't have conversation about ACEs without talking about resilience."
One school district in Massachusetts has taken this holistic approach. In 2007, equipped with the data from the CDC's ACE Study and guidance from the book Helping Traumatized Children Learn, Sal Terrasi, director of pupil personnel services for the Brockton Public Schools, called a community-wide meeting. Each of the district's 23 schools sent a four-member team. Representatives from the district attorney's office showed up. So did local police, as well as the departments of children and families, youth services, mental health and local counseling agencies. They spent a whole day working with experts from Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI) at Harvard Law School and Massachusetts Advocates for Children to talk about adverse childhood experiences and learning.
The entire community has become involved in moving from a blame-shame-punishment approach to one of creating a safe environment in which children can learn.
- All of the district's 23 schools are developing trauma-informed improvement plans, and some have begun integrating them with programs such as PBIS and Collaborative Problem Solving. Suspensions and expulsions are plummeting. Arnone Elementary, for example, which has 826 students from kindergarten through 5th grade, 86% of which are minorities, has seen a 40% drop in suspensions.
- Three hundred of the district's 1400 teachers have taken a course about teaching traumatized children that TLPI developed with the district and educators at Lesley University.
- The attention to child trauma doesn't stop at the schoolyard fence. Local police alert school personnel when officers visit or make an arrest at an address. Counselors identify children who live at that address so that, "at the very least, the school is aware that a second- or third-grader is carrying something around that is a big deal," says Terrasi.
So many schools in Massachusetts are interested in adopting a trauma-informed approach that the state legislature is considering a bill – Senate Bill 210 — requiring schools to develop an action plan to develop "safe and supportive schools".
But the very first step in changing a school, a school district and a state educational system is changing the belief system of every teacher and administrator. "Some people still want to keep the punitive approach in place," says Donna Alley, superintendent of Le Grand High School District in Le Grand, CA. In other words, this transition isn't without its challenges.
If changing a school means driving people who believe in a punitive approach out of education, so be it, says Godwin Higa, principal of Cherokee Point Elementary in San Diego, CA. "We have some mean-spirited teachers who should not be in the classroom. I consider myself a nice person. But when it comes to protecting kids, I'm ruthless. When a teacher is mean, I'm going to go after them."
"Belief systems are the key, how people think about kids, " says Principal Ed Gomes, who began instituting a school-wide change three years ago at Yosemite Middle School in Fresno, CA. "Some people believe that through punishment you gain student behavior changes. During the first year, it was very difficult. Some teachers told me that this is not going to work with these kids. They told me that these kids need massive discipline. Even when suspensions and expulsions dropped, the numbers themselves wouldn't convince them." Some teachers left.
"The kids are very easy," says Gomes. "The adults are a different story."
This is the first of a series of articles about how schools in California are moving from a punitive to a supportive, compassionate approach to school discipline. Schools in Le Grand, Reedley, Fresno, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Vallejo and Concord will be profiled, as will school systems in Spokane, WA, and Brockton, MA. Also included will be a review of the types of interventions that schools use, plus a roadmap of must-haves for a successful transition derived from the most successful schools. The series is funded by the California Endowment.