Sunday, June 2, 2013

Dr. Lorraine Monroe on 60 minutes

DR. LORRAINE MONROE, President and CEO, of The Lorraine Monroe Leadership Institute (LMLI) was the founding principal of the renowned Frederick Douglass Academy, a highly successful middle and high school in Central Harlem. Dr. Monroe translates her extensive experiences in the New York City public schools-as teacher, dean, assistant principal, principal and Deputy Chancellor for Curriculum and Instruction-into the guiding set of principles that define the work of the Lorraine Monroe Leadership Institute. Dr. Monroe's groundbreaking work has been featured on 60 Minutes, Tony Brown's Journal, The McCreary Report with Bill McCreary, the Tom Snyder Show and in national and international print media including The New York Times, Ebony, The Reader's Digest, Fast Company and Parade magazines.

In 1991, Dr. Lorraine Monroe founded the Frederick Douglass Academy, a public school in Harlem, in the belief that caring instructors, a disciplined but creative environment, and a refusal to accept mediocrity could transform the lives of inner-city kids. Her experiment was a huge success. Today the Academy is one of the finest schools in the country, sending graduates to Ivy League colleges and registering the third highest SAT scores in New York City. The key to its success: a unique leadership method Monroe calls the "Monroe Doctrine," which she developed through decades as a teacher and principal in some of America's toughest schools.



Dr. Monroe's moving tribute to the power of education to transform children's lives- Nothing's Impossible: Leadership Lessons from Inside and Outside the Classroom-has been translated into Swedish, Finnish, and Taiwanese. In her book, The Monroe Doctrine: An ABC Guide to What Great Bosses Do, Dr. Monroe draws lessons from her experiences as educator that are applicable for leaders in all walks of life.

Dr. Monroe is a powerful keynote speaker and highly effective consultant who has shared her messages about how to educate all children well with tens of thousands of educators in almost all of the fifty states in the U.S. and also shared her experiences internationally in Jamaica and throughout the West Indies, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Tanzania, Canada, and South America.

Dr. Monroe has earned degrees from Hunter College, Bank Street College of Education, and Columbia University Teachers College . In addition, Dr. Monroe has received six honorary degrees from Trinity College, Hunter College, Mt. Holyoke College, Long Island University, Hofstra University and Brown University.

Sources:mtholyoke.edu, MSU.edu (Michigan State Univ.), Dr. Lorraine-Monroe Leadership Institute

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

3 teen girls forced into prostituition

A 39-year-old man has been criminally charged with sex trafficking after St. Louis County police say he forced three teenage girls into prostitution in north St. Louis County.

Anton Mark Morris has a $100,000 cash-only bond

Anton Morris of the 11600 block of Fox Hall Lane was charged Monday (4/29/2013) with two counts of sexual trafficking of a child and one count of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
Morris lured a 16-year-old girl into prostitution on April 15, and advertised her services on the Internet as a prostitute, according to court documents.

This is a disgrace to African Americans everywhere. There is no excuse for this middle-aged man to be hanging around and being involved with teenagers. Unless an adult is a chaperone there is no need to hang out with girls who are old enough to be his daughter. I am disturbed by this incident because I have an 18-year-old daughter who just went to prom this past April 27, 2013. My daughter did not get picked up by her prom date but instead she and three of her female friends were driven to prom by an adult chaperone and driven back home safely. Now, let's take a look at the Merriam-Webster definition of the word chaperone.

Chaperone -  an older person who accompanies young people at a social gathering to ensure proper behavior; broadly : one delegated to ensure proper behavior.

For the full article (click the link) STLtoday.com

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Drive-thru pranks

This is something to lighten the day because it is not all that serious all the time (well maybe for some people). I think it is OK to get a good laugh in to lighten the mood every now and then.


P.S.
( This guy has a nice hidden camera! )

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A slum in Nairobi, Kenya offers free schooling



In Kibera,  Kenya’s largest slum, residents struggle to afford food, shelter, clean water, proper sanitation and decent schools.  Girls face the additional challenges of gender-based discrimination and violence.  When money for school fees is scarce, parents and guardians usually withdraw their daughters from school before their sons.

The Kibera School for Girls, which offers classes from pre-kindergarten through the fourth grade, aims to help the community understand the value of educating girls.  At this school, parents do not pay fees, but a family member must work at the school five weeks a year, as a way of supporting the child’s education.  Students are selected based on the two criteria of academic potential and greatest financial need.
Helping women and girls carve out better lives for themselves is precisely why Kennedy Odede co-founded the school almost four years ago.

“Growing up in Kibera, we used to go to school [and] you’d find more boys than girls.  And that’s something that I really hated, you know?” Kennedy confided.  In 2004, Kennedy Odede started a grassroots movement that later became Shining Hope for Communities, a community-run organization in Kibera.

A teacher at the Kibera school for girls teaching students in Nairobi, Kenya, March 19, 2013 (J. Craig/VOA)
Jessica Odede, Shining Hope for Communities co-founder and chief operating officer, decided  with Kennedy that the school would need to provide value for everyone, regardless of whether they had a daughter enrolled or not.





Today, Kibera residents can stop by Shining Hope to get subsidized clean water or to use a sanitary toilet.  If they want to learn computer skills, they can sign up for training.  When they’re sick, they can visit the medical clinic.  Women suffering from domestic violence can come here for advice and assistance.

In my humble opinion, America should follow the model for the Kibera School for Girls here in the states and educate the children in low-income high risk communities to reduce crime and violence in those areas. Tuition can be paid by a family member working at the school for 5 or 6 weeks out of the academic year. This a marvelous plan to achieve success not only at the community level but at the national level as well. The unfortunate thing is that America is too concerned about corporate greed, closing schools in low-income areas and the dumbing down of kids and teenagers of all social and economic levels. There is the glorification of violence, non-marital sex, guns, mafia, drugs and gang life bombarding kids and teenagers every second in all media playing non-stop and not just on the TV.

Sources: Associated Press, Voice of America 

Other related stories: Kenyan President-elect promises to improve people's lives