Dr. Mae's Blog

The thought of attending a community colleges can be given short shrift by those parents who threaten their children with ending up there if they do not keep their grades up in high school. From my own perspective, community colleges measure up and can provide the same education as an elite institution. Lawrence Cremin, president of Columbia University Teachers College, where I earned my doctorate, never forgot his roots at City College of New York in Harlem. He was eager to avoid making judgments based on where a person went to school: it was what they did with their education that mattered. As evidence, he would tell us to find out where Columbia's professors had done their undergraduate work. One would soon see many an esteemed professor began their higher education at either a local or state-funded college. Teaching at Bucks County Community College during the spring semester was so much fun I was sorry when the classes ended. Inclement weather and unruly behavior did not empty...

A uniformed doorman guided me through the canopied entrance of a Manhattan apartment building at 92nd Street and Park Avenue. The lobby exuded the luxury and good taste one would expect in such a stately building.  Plush wingback chairs were covered in subtle floral prints, which were offset by ornate mahogany end tables. The elevator was in another section of the lobby and manually operated by a congenial attendant. It stopped on every floor allowing tenants to enter floor-wide apartments.  Some residents had lived in these rent-controlled apartments for decades. They raised children in a European-style luxury, who, then, often came back to raise their own families when parents moved or passed on. The atmosphere in these buildings was too tasteful to be considered pretentious. To me, they seemed womb-like and comforting in the pre-World War II elegance.  I was to spend several years working as a college advisor to families that lived in the building, often going from flo...

She sauntered into the room wearing the tightest hip-hugger jeans and a tee shirt cut above the navel to reveal a shinny ersatz diamond. Her skin was streaked with some kind of instant tanner; her hair was layered and frosted to a golden blond to complement the bottle-born tan. A cell phone dangled precariously from her ear: She spoke loudly to the person at the other end, giving all of us insight into what seemed a floundering love affair. In her other hand she carried a soft drink and some fluffy pink concoction covered with spiked coconut. This was not a spa or hair salon: rather, it was 8:15 am and my Future Teachers class had begun fifteen minutes earlier. Coming late was not new to this student or others of the unmotivated variety. This type of student literally has no idea of how privileged she is to receive an education.  The beauty queen had lost her way to the classroom earlier in the semester. After missing far more than the three permitted absences and receiving an Unsa...

The extraordinary things young people accomplish here in the United States and throughout the world continually amaze me. And, yes, I mean the world. While in the past, children went off to college and then came home to find work, this is oftentimes not the case today. The distance separating families has grown to encompass continents and cross oceans. Dealing with this kind of separation requires adjustments to the limited amount of time families are able to spend together. Distance can be a very difficult challenge unless all involved make necessary accommodations.  News filters back to me about the whereabouts of former students when I meet up with their parents, when they stop by on a visit, call for a reference or seek consultations on career planning or potential graduate school programs. An example of a student living far from home is a boy in my first high school prep class in the early 1980s. As a teenager, he was charismatic and popular with his classmates. I was always p...

New Year’s resolutions have always confused me. Some years they never get further than a passing thought, and at other times they serve as productive earmarks for the year ahead. This year I have decided to conscientiously focus on a thought for the day as a point of reflection. Some time back, a friend introduced me to a site that, every morning delivers an inspiring and thought-provoking ecumenical quote —www.gratefulness.org. This international nonprofit organization’s mission statement is to provide “the gentle power of gratefulness, which restores courage, reconciles relationships, and heals our Earth.” A pleasure to receive, these quotes reinforce a notion I have long held about education: the words we give to students and are mirrored in behavior help build character and can be life-changing. This is one reason almost all religions and philosophies rely on words as teaching tools. Valuable lessons are imparted through using such great works as the parables of Jesus, the Book of ...

Students often turn away from the study of history, thinking that memorizing fact after fact has little relevance to their lives. To some, however, myself included, learning about the past and how civilizations grew and subsequently declined is utterly fascinating. I still remember the day when the "Columbia Encyclopedia" arrived at our home, and I played teacher to my brothers with the promise that we would read everything from A to Z. Especially intriguing was to randomly open a page and read about far-off countries with exotic names, then daydream of crossing the Khyber Pass, climbing the Himalayans or taking a flat boat on the Amazon River. My thirst for knowledge was whet in high school with a wonderful history teacher who had been teaching for years and remembered every student she had ever taught. I vividly recall how on Veterans Day she would cry as we read the names of those that had given there lives for our country in the World Wars. One of her classes was called F...

Every so often, I receive an alumni newsletter from Columbia University Teachers College where I completed my doctorate. This month brought sad news: my department chair, dissertation advisor, mentor and friend — Dr. Leslie R. Williams — had died at the age of 63 from colon cancer.  Leslie was a remarkable woman; one who changed the course of my own life and many others as well. She saw potential, had the highest expectations and demanded rigor. Her will to provide the highest standards for every child was unshakable.  Leslie was devoted to advancing the importance of early childhood education in general and specifically multicultural education. The author of 15 books, many articles, even an encyclopedia, this woman was a tireless advocate for children. Her influence extended well beyond these United States, especially with educators dedicated to establishing early childhood programs, including those for indigenous peoples. Coming from a large family of limited means, she fina...

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to assembly, and it has consistently been challenged by special interests.  Among issues directly impacting the education of children is the question of literary censorship: what material is considered appropriate reading material in schools?  A book can be banned when a group of individuals ask that it be removed from a library shelf or not included in a school's curriculum. Of late, there has been an increase in requests that more titles be added to an already cumbersome list of banned materials.  It is a troubling trend. More books are being banned in school districts and at local libraries than at any time since 1980. According to the American Library Association, 547 books were disputed last year, which was an increase of 100 titles from 2003.  This increasing demand for censorship can be traced to the publication of the Harry Potter series in the 1990s, books that are set in a ...

Children have confided to me they hate reading, leading me to wonder, how can you hate reading? It must be something else, something more particular, you hate. Perhaps you feel frustrated because learning how to read was difficult for you. After all, learning how to read is different from reading.  Once you understand just a few rules, such as how to use the six types of syllables, you will be ready to begin enjoying books. When a student takes up this challenge and successfully breaks the code of literacy, many become voracious readers. Brent Staples wrote a provocative editorial on this topic in the New York Times on June 19, titled, "How Schools Pay a (Very High) Price for Failing to Teach Reading Properly." He was speaking of the Washington, D.C., school district, but the information in his article is applicable throughout this country.  Mr. Staples lamented, "The instructional techniques for helping children is well documented in federally backed research and have b...

Selecting the right preschool used to be a much easier job. One simply picked up the phone book and called the school that was convenient and close to home.  The primary expectations were that the classroom environment would be warm, safe, and secure. With the current knowledge of how much young children are capable of learning and the increased emphasis on academics, this has all changed. Now parents rush to find a spot in what is perceived as a prestigious institution and an important gateway to further opportunities for their children. What should parents look for in a school and how should they organize themselves before that first visit? First, take a deep breath, relax and be prepared to resist the anxiety that often accompanies the first real separation between parent and child. Finding the right school takes planning, seeing what is available in your community, and taking a crash course in the variety of early childhood programs out there.  A good place to start is sor...

 Dauntless women have long traversed the globe in search of adventure, love and freedom from the constraints of patriarchal societies. They often give little thought to the following day even during difficult times although perhaps they are struck by a yearning to take a lighter road. An avid reader of biographies, I have always loved reading about such women and their exploits. Biographies of Colette, George Sand and Isadora Duncan are cherished possessions in books now yellowed with age. Just as fascinating for the reading are tales of women seeking spiritual enlightenment in far-off corners of the world. For a while, I read all I could find about the Russian Jewess Isabelle Eberhardt who converted to Islam and disguised herself as a Bedouin traveling through the North African Algerian Sahara. Residents of the walled city of Damascus revered Lady Jane Digby el Mazrab, the much-married English aristocrat who ended her days with a man 20 years younger, writing vivid journals of her...

The thought of writing a personal statement of 250 to 500 words as part of a college application process sends chills down many students' spines. They shudder at the thought of being judged on such a little piece of writing. Some spend restless nights thinking about what Magnus Opus lies buried in the depths of their unconscious. How can their story, most often that of a generally unscathed 17-year-old, be told in a way that is unique, putting them over the top with the admissions committee? The tension over what should go into an essay rises beyond all appropriate proportions. Why so much pressure on a simple essay? There is an extensive amount of attention paid to this singular task. Books have been published on successful college essays, articles have been written about topics that work, and candidates themselves pontificate about how to succeed in getting into the college of their choice. An inquiring student wonders, "Should I send chocolate chip cookies to the admissions...