The "Undue Weight"

For the past 10 years I've immersed myself in the details of one of the most famous events in American labor history, the Haymarket riot and trial of 1886. Along the way I've written two books and a couple of articles about the episode. In some circles that affords me a presumption of expertise on the subject. Not, however, on Wikipedia.

The bomb thrown during an anarchist rally in Chicago sparked America's first Red Scare, a high-profile show trial, and a worldwide clemency movement for the seven condemned men. Today the martyrs' graves are a national historic site, the location of the bombing is marked by a public sculpture, and the event is recounted in most American history textbooks. Its Wikipedia entry is detailed and elaborate.

A couple of years ago, on a slow day at the office, I decided to experiment with editing one particularly misleading assertion chiseled into the Wikipedia article. The description of the trial stated, "The prosecution, led by Julius Grinnell, did not offer evidence connecting any of the defendants with the bombing. ... "

Coincidentally, that is the claim that initially hooked me on the topic. In 2001 I was teaching a labor-history course, and our textbook contained nearly the same wording that appeared on Wikipedia. One of my students raised her hand: "If the trial went on for six weeks and no evidence was presented, what did they talk about all those days?" I've been working to answer her question ever since.

I have not resolved all the mysteries that surround the bombing, but I have dug deeply enough to be sure that the claim that the trial was bereft of evidence is flatly wrong. One hundred and eighteen witnesses were called to testify, many of them unindicted co-conspirators who detailed secret meetings where plans to attack police stations were mapped out, coded messages were placed in radical newspapers, and bombs were assembled in one of the defendants' rooms.

In what was one of the first uses of forensic chemistry in an American courtroom, the city's foremost chemists showed that the metallurgical profile of a bomb found in one of the anarchists' homes was unlike any commercial metal but was similar in composition to a piece of shrapnel cut from the body of a slain police officer. So overwhelming was the evidence against one of the defendants that his lawyers even admitted that their client spent the afternoon before the Haymarket rally building bombs, arguing that he was acting in self-defense.

So I removed the line about there being "no evidence" and provided a full explanation in Wikipedia's behind-the-scenes editing log. Within minutes my changes were reversed. The explanation: "You must provide reliable sources for your assertions to make changes along these lines to the article."

That was curious, as I had cited the documents that proved my point, including verbatim testimony from the trial published online by the Library of Congress. I also noted one of my own peer-reviewed articles. One of the people who had assumed the role of keeper of this bit of history for Wikipedia quoted the Web site's "undue weight" policy, which states that "articles should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views." He then scolded me. "You should not delete information supported by the majority of sources to replace it with a minority view."

The "undue weight" policy posed a problem. Scholars have been publishing the same ideas about the Haymarket case for more than a century. The last published bibliography of titles on the subject has 1,530 entries.

"Explain to me, then, how a 'minority' source with facts on its side would ever appear against a wrong 'majority' one?" I asked the Wiki-gatekeeper. He responded, "You're more than welcome to discuss reliable sources here, that's what the talk page is for. However, you might want to have a quick look at Wikipedia's civility policy."

I tried to edit the page again. Within 10 seconds I was informed that my citations to the primary documents were insufficient, as Wikipedia requires its contributors to rely on secondary sources, or, as my critic informed me, "published books." Another editor cheerfully tutored me in what this means: "Wikipedia is not 'truth,' Wikipedia is 'verifiability' of reliable sources. Hence, if most secondary sources which are taken as reliable happen to repeat a flawed account or description of something, Wikipedia will echo that."

Tempted to win simply through sheer tenacity, I edited the page again. My triumph was even more fleeting than before. Within seconds the page was changed back. The reason: "reverting possible vandalism." Fearing that I would forever have to wear the scarlet letter of Wikipedia vandal, I relented but noted with some consolation that in the wake of my protest, the editors made a slight gesture of reconciliation—they added the word "credible" so that it now read, "The prosecution, led by Julius Grinnell, did not offer credible evidence connecting any of the defendants with the bombing. ... " Though that was still inaccurate, I decided not to attempt to correct the entry again until I could clear the hurdles my anonymous interlocutors had set before me.

So I waited two years, until my book on the trial was published. "Now, at last, I have a proper Wikipedia leg to stand on," I thought as I opened the page and found at least a dozen statements that were factual errors, including some that contradicted their own cited sources. I found myself hesitant to write, eerily aware that the self-deputized protectors of the page were reading over my shoulder, itching to revert my edits and tutor me in Wiki-decorum. I made a small edit, testing the waters.

My improvement lasted five minutes before a Wiki-cop scolded me, "I hope you will familiarize yourself with some of Wikipedia's policies, such as verifiability and undue weight. If all historians save one say that the sky was green in 1888, our policies require that we write 'Most historians write that the sky was green, but one says the sky was blue.' ... As individual editors, we're not in the business of weighing claims, just reporting what reliable sources write."

I guess this gives me a glimmer of hope that someday, perhaps before another century goes by, enough of my fellow scholars will adopt my views that I can change that Wikipedia entry. Until then I will have to continue to shout that the sky was blue.

Timothy Messer-Kruse is a professor in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at Bowling Green State University. He is author of The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists: Terrorism and Justice in the Gilded Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and The Haymarket Conspiracy: Transatlantic Anarchist Networks, to be published later this year by the University of Illinois Press.

International Conference on Educational Leadership

Speakers: Prof. Dr. Deanne Magnusson, Dr. Maria Bamforth, Dr. Pushpanadham Karanam

Organised by: Faculty of Education, ABAC, Bangkok

Date: 25-26 November 2005

Location: ABAC Bangna Campus, Bangkok

1. Leadership for Student-Centered Learning in a Culture of Educational Change

Prof. Dr. Deanne Magnusson, University of Minnesota, USA

Dr. Magnusson’s message started of by stating that school managers should become leaders to guide transition into the future, instead of just maintain their schools the way they are.

Her experience in the USA is that the nature of teaching
and learning are changing; students are actively participating in the learning process, construct their own knowledge and are working on challenging and authentic learning tasks. The role of teacher has become facilitator.

New US high standards for teaching and learning comprise ‘No child left behind’ and accountability for teaching and learning. The goal is to reduce the diverse learner achievement gap. Schools should improve continuously to facilitate new ways of teaching and learning.

She followed up with recommendations for Thai education reform, which reflect the student-centered ways of teaching and learning, although she realises that local values should always be taken into account (‘One size does not fit all’).

She went on to discuss the important role of leadership for successful school cultures. A key element of effective schools is distributive leadership, in which responsibilities for success are distributed to all parties involved (‘Collective responsibility creates ownership’).

Continuous assessment, feedback and authentic tasks are parts of successful instruction. Instruction should be differentiated to cater for individual differences between students. Students should work in flexible groups based on skills, interests and / or similar learning patterns, be assessed continuously and feedback should lead to improved instruction.

The last part of her presentation went too fast and she skipped most of the slides. She touched quickly on the new professional development paradigm; student-centered learning requires a new professional development design as a continuous process with the educators involved instead of one-off workshops by experts. Developing school personnel is the key.

Her conclusion is that we should recognise differences in individual students and ends with W. Yeats ‘Is education a bucket to be filled or a fire to be kindled’?, with which I assume she wants to stress the ‘new’ role of educators as facilitators.

2. Building Leadership through Effective Communication - 1

Dr. Maria Bamforth, University of Huddersfield, England

Dr. Bamforth’s distinguished external and internal leadership skills. Components like vision, flexibility, humility, charisma, integrity, motivation, accessibility and communications skills are important assets for a leader.

With regards to communication skills she advised leaders to be assertive. Assertiveness combines the good points of aggressiveness (like stand up for your rights, state your views) with the good points of non-aggressiveness (express feelings, humility).

Assertiveness should be practiced with integrity, directness, honesty and respect for others. Leaders should develop assertiveness as one of their personality traits.

3. Building Leadership through Effective Communication - 2

Dr. Pushpanadham Karanam, Assumption University

Summary

Dr. Pushpanadham continued the subject of effective communication.

He claims that leadership should be a partnership that can be achieved through quality communication. Body language makes up 93 % of a communication, the actual words only 7 %, so it is important to be positive if you want to achieve something.

Another important aspect of quality communication is to be credible, which means one should be dynamic, competent and trustworthy.

Reflections

I was surprised to see that body language plays such a more important role than the actual words spoken; the percentage seems extremely high.

I did some research on the Internet with regards to this percentage. The 93 % apparently originates from psychologist Albert Mehrabian (Chapman), who did extensive research on non-verbal communication from the sixties.

Body language comprises facial expressions, gaze, gestures, postures, tones of voice, but also grooming habits and body positioning in space etc. Biologists distinguish factors that are innate (e.g. facial flush), learned (e.g. thumbs up) or mixed (e.g. laughing). (Givens) This means that it is possible to influence your body language and make it more positive as Dr. Pushpanadham stated. This will be most difficult or maybe impossible for some of the innate factors (How can you stop someone from blushing?), although factors like blinking your eyes too quickly can be controlled. Learned and mixed factors can probably be influenced if you work on it.

Entrepreneurial Development Framework for Institutions of Higher Education

Problem statement
The research question under discussion is formulated as What minimum requirements should be set in an entrepreneurial and innovation framework in order to support entrepreneurial and innovation knowledge creation at institutions of higher education?This article attempts to develop a framework to encourage entrepreneurial thinking within a higher education environment, taking into account consideration policy and infrastructural requirements, knowledge creation fundamentals and institutional arrangements.
Policy intervention
Policy initiatives within higher education institutions are essential to establish guidance for entrepreneurs, funding agencies, industry, labour in general and for students and institutions of higher education in particular.Government policies.The higher education institution policies:The higher education institution must provide a working atmosphere in which entrepreneurship can thrive. Technology licensing offices (TLOs) must be established at the higher education institutions. An investment in patent rights by the higher education institutions will ensure future capital investments into the institution. Policies, procedures and network contacts to capture venture capital must be established.Research and Development policies in entrepreneurship must be refined and focused. Currently, the focus of entrepreneurial research at Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa falls within the three niche areas of business clustering, business development and management of innovation. Parties contributing to such a knowledge node might include industrial partners, specialists from industry, relevant government agencies, foreign investors, community forums, labour unions, academic specialists, research foundations, funding agencies, students and potential entrepreneurs. An information network connecting entrepreneurs to venture capitalists should be established within this knowledge node.Gregorio and Shane (2003:212) also emphasize the need for the higher education institution to demonstrate intellectual eminence. To ensure an intellectual eminence of their outputs, higher education institutions should select students carefully.The higher education institution should also encourage the development of incubators, either close to the institution or close to the involved industry. Information networks connecting entrepreneurs to venture capitalists should be established within the higher education institution.
Strategy to develop an entrepreneurial innovative culture
When training entrepreneurs two realms of knowledge should be recognized, "tacit" and "explicit". The engineer is a man of action developing mental skills but seldom having the opportunity to develop manual skills. Lin, et al. (2004:4) recognize the need for formal and informal funding relationships within the business environment. Lin, et al. (2004:6) thus regard social capital as "entrepreneurial social infrastructure". External triggers that encourage entrepreneurship arise from developments in the external environment. Ireland, et al. (2006:12). Markman and Baron (2003:288) regard self-efficacy as an important success factor in developing entrepreneurs. Policy initiatives from within the higher education institution should establish the knowledge node which should include academic specialists, research foundations, relevant government officials, industrial partners, specialists from industry, foreign investors, community forums, labour unions, funding agencies, students and potential entrepreneurs. Information networks connecting entrepreneurs to venture capitalists should be established within this knowledge node. Intellectual Property policies should be developed by the business development niche area to ensure that possible TLO start-ups within the higher education institution are protected and that patenting, marketing or other up-front costs are paid by the higher education institution or associated enterprises. The higher education institution could liaise with the Innovation Hub established in conjunction with the CSIR. A teaching strategy should be developed to foster tacit knowledge development. Group work, problem solving, idea generation, innovating, designing and face to face communication should be extensively used.

An Inside Look at the Special Education Profession

Special education professionals work to promote students' overall behavioral, social and academic growth. Special education professionals aide students in developing socially appropriate behavior within their family, school and community. Teachers of special education help students become more confident in their social interactions. Special education professionals administer activities that build students' life skills.Below is a breakdown of the short and long-term responsibilities of a special education teacher.First and foremost, special education teachers focus on the development and academic needs of children with disabilities. Special education teachers work alone or with general education teachers to individualize lessons, develop problem-solving techniques and integrate children into group projects with other students. Furthermore, special education teachers are responsible for ensuring that the needs of disabled children are met during assessment periods.The types of disabilities a special education teacher might encounter are difficult to predict. Knowledge of the most recent education modules, medical research and behavioral practices Knowledge of the latest medical technology relevant to special educationDue to the specialization of the field, special education teachers in all 50 states must receive licensure before employment. Licensures are approved by each state's board of education, and the requirements for certification differ between states. In many cases, hopeful special education professionals do not meet the requirements of special education licensure due to their prior completion of degree programs outside of the field of education. The hope of these programs is to attract new special education professionals and fill the growing need for teachers. After several years, some special education teachers look for new opportunities within their field. Experienced teachers of special needs students have also moved up to serve as mentors to incoming special education teachers.Due to the new emphasis on education and training in legislature, special education professionals will become even more valued.
Can I Make a Living as a Special Education Teacher?
As mentioned previously, the special education job market is on the rise. In 2004, the BLS reported 441,000 employed special education teachers in the nation. In rare cases, special education professionals were involved in home or hospital care.
Source by ezinearticles.com

Educational History of the Nation

Elementary education
In the medieval Islamic world, an elementary school was known as a maktab, which dates back to at least the 10th century. Like madrasahs (which referred to higher education), a maktab was often attached to an endowed mosque. In the 11th century, the famous Persian Islamic philosopher and teacher Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna in the West), in one of his books, wrote a chapter about the maktab entitled "The Role of the Teacher in the Training and Upbringing of Children", as a guide to teachers working at maktab schools. He wrote that children can learn better if taught in classes instead of individual tuition from private tutors, and he gave a number of reasons for why this is the case, citing the value of competition and emulation among pupils as well as the usefulness of group discussions and debates. Ibn Sina described the curriculum of a maktab school in some detail, describing the curricula for two stages of education in a maktab school.
Primary education
Ibn Sina wrote that children should be sent to a maktab school from the age of 6 and be taught primary education until they reach the age of 14. During which time, he wrote that they should be taught the Qur'an, Islamic metaphysics, language, literature, Islamic ethics, and manual skills (which could refer to a variety of practical skills).
Secondary education
Ibn Sina refers to the secondary education stage of maktab schooling as a period of specialization when pupils should begin to acquire manual skills, regardless of their social status. He writes that children after the age of 14 should be allowed to choose and specialize in subjects they have an interest in, whether it was reading, manual skills, literature, preaching, medicine, geometry, trade and commerce, craftsmanship, or any other subject or profession they would be interested in pursuing for a future career. He wrote that this was a transitional stage and that there needs to be flexibility regarding the age in which pupils graduate, as the student's emotional development and chosen subjects need to be taken into account.
Higher education
During its formative period, the term 'madrasah' referred to a higher education institution, whose curriculumphilosophy and the secular sciences were often excluded. The curriculum slowly began to diversify, with many later madrasahs teaching both the religious and the "secular sciences", such as logic, mathematics and philosophy. Some madrasahs further extended their curriculum to history, politics, ethics, music, metaphysics, medicine, astronomy and chemistry. The curriculum of a madrasah was usually set by its founder, but most generally taught both the religious sciences and the physical sciences. Madrasahs were established throughout the Islamic world, the most famous being the 10th century al-Azhar University and the 11th century Nizamiyyah, as well as 75 madrasahs in Cairo, 51 in Damascus and up to 44 in Aleppo between 1155 and 1260. Many more were also established in the Andalusian cities of Córdoba, Seville, Toledo, Granada (Madrasah of Granada), Murcia, Almería, ValenciaCádiz during the Caliphate of Córdoba.and initially included only the "religious sciences", whilst
In the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, "Madrasahs were divided into lower and specialized levels, which reveals that there was a sense of elevation in school. Students who studied in the specialized schools after completing courses in the lower levels became known as daniÅŸmends."
College
The origins of the college lie in the medieval Islamic world. While "madrasah" can now refer to any type of school, the term "madrasah" was originally used to refer more specifically to a medieval Islamic college, mainly teaching Islamic law and theology, usually affiliated with a mosque, and funded by an early charitable trustwaqf. It has been argued that the internal organization of the first European colleges was borrowed from the earlier madrasahs, like the system of fellows and scholars, with the Latin term for fellow, socius, being a direct translation of the Arabic term for fellow, ṣāḥib. known as
The funding for madrasahs came primarily from waqf instititions, which were similar to the charitable trusts that later funded the first European colleges. Syed Farid Alatas writes:

    "The madrasah was established as a charitable trust (waqf) founded by individual Muslims, which legally bounded the founder to run it as a madrasah. It had the legal status of an institution but was not a state institution. According to Makdisi, there are two arguments in favour of the idea of the Islamic origins of the college. One is the waqf or charitable trust and the other the internal organization of the college."

The evolution of a human rights convention

The creation of a human rights convention involves the collaborative efforts of many individuals and institutions. The starting point is always a perceived need, a human rights problem that needs to be addressed by the international community. It may be a general need to codify basic rights, such as those in the Covenants, or a specific global concern, such as the proliferation of land mines or the trafficking of persons.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides an example of the process by which a human rights convention evolves and the role of NGOs in its creation.

1. Identification of a problem:

Efforts to protect children from abuse and exploitation date back to the nineteenth century, when children were generally regarded as the property of their parents until they reached the age of maturity, generally twenty-one. Reformers focused on child labour and abuse of homeless or orphaned children. In 1923 Eglantine Jebb drafted The Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924.

However, neither the UDHR nor the conventions that evolved as the UN human rights framework made any specific notice of the rights of children. These documents tacitly generalised that like every human being, children had human rights, but they failed to recognize children as rights-bearing individuals.

2. A statement of general principles:

The first step toward the Children’s Convention was the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child. In 1959 a working group drafted ten principles setting forth the basic rights to which all children should be entitled. However, as a declaration, these principles were not legally binding on governments.

3. The drafting process:

These principles then needed to be codified in a convention. The formal drafting process for the Children’s Convention lasted nine years, during which representatives of governments, intergovernmental agencies, such as UNICEF and UNESCO, and nongovernmental organisations large (e.g. Save the Children, the International Red Cross, Oxfam) and small (e.g. national organisations working on specific issues such as child labour, health, education or sports) worked together to create consensus on the language of the convention.

4. Adoption:

The Children’s Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989.

5. Ratification:

The Children’s Convention was immediately signed and ratified by more nations in a shorter period of time than any other UN convention.

6. Entry into force:

As a result of its rapid ratification, the Children’s Convention entered into force as international law in 1990, only a few months after its adoption. Furthermore, the total number of member states that have ratified the Children’s Convention has surpassed that of all other conventions. So far only two member states have not ratified it: Somalia and the United States.

7. Implementation, Monitoring and Advocacy:

As with all human rights conventions, the Children’s Convention provides individuals, NGOs and international organisations with a legal basis for their advocacy on behalf of children. They can motivate a government to ratify a treaty and monitor how they keep their treaty obligations. When a government fails to meet these commitments and violates the rights of children, NGOs can call them to account. In cases of systematic abuse, individuals and NGOs can bring a case before the Committee on the Rights of the Child.