Learning: Innovators
Teaching About Homosexuality

A new book helps dispel old myths.

Big misconceptions face those who teach about homosexuality, says Arthur Lipkin. Some people believe, for instance, that talking to kids about homosexuality will turn them into homosexuals or that talking about homosexuality means describing sexual practices.

But children do not become homosexual, points out Lipkin, a former English teacher now with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, because someone tells them about homosexuality.

And teachers routinely talk about heterosexual relationships in English and other classes without discussing sex acts, he adds. They can do the same for homosexual relationships.

Several new resources--including Lipkin's book Under-standing Homosexuality, Changing Schools (Westview Press)--are now available to help teachers discuss homosexuality in age-appropriate ways.

Why check these resources? Because, says Lipkin, between 5 percent and 10 percent of students are gay, lesbian, or bisexual and struggling to cope with the world around them.

Impact: Through the Massachusetts Safe Schools program, Lipkin has presented workshops to educators on gay and lesbian issues. When they become aware of how some students are suffering, they respond. "Teachers wouldn't be teachers if they didn't want to help kids," he notes.

For More: Check Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth, published by NEA and nine other organizations (www.nea.org/achievement/gayfacts.pdf). Contact the NEA Gay and Lesbian Caucus at SidBru@aol.com or Figel@aol.com.

After-School Programs Boost Success

Young people who participate in community-based after-school programs achieve more and hold higher academic expectations, says Milbrey McLaughlin, professor of education and public policy at Stanford University. Her report, Community Counts, details a 10-year study of 120 community organizations that offered after-school programs.

What's the link that exists between after-school programs and student achievement?
Kids from stressed environments who participate in these programs on a high level are 26 percent more likely to report recognition for good grades and 20 percent more likely to rate their chances of graduating from high school and going to college as "very high."

How do these programs impact kids?
Whether they take the form of dance troupes, sports teams, leadership programs, or Boys and Girls clubs, after-school programs are activities that help students build skills and confidence. They're places with no questions asked, where attitudes and gang symbols have to be dropped.

And these programs address the many problems kids have in their lives within the context of a very caring, close, family-like community.

What's the difference between "gym and swim" programs and "intentional learning environments"?
Many organizations provide safe places and activities, but not quality content. Kids are the first to notice if they're not getting good sports or arts instruction.

The more meaningful programs, the real learning environments, give youth a voice in the kinds of activities offered and involve them in planning and performance.

Another important aspect is personal attention. In intentional learning environments, there's an adult who knows each student and who can remark on the student's personal growth.

These environments provide examples of adults who are successful and connect students with jobs and futures.

For More: Find Community Counts, published by the Public Education Network, at www.publiceducation.org/pubs/. Contact McLaughlin at milbrey@stanford.edu.

College Credits Take Off

Innovator: Dale Eash

Job: Aircraft mechanics teacher, McGavock High School, Nashville, Tennessee

Bright Idea: Eash is the first teacher to receive Federal Aviation Admin-istration approval for an articulation agreement between a high school and a nearby post-secondary institution, in this case, North Central Institute.

As a result, his students will get college credit and a jump start on mechanics certification in a region where aviation is booming.

"It's almost to the point where licensed mechanics can name their own price," says Eash.

To achieve such a unique standing with the FAA, Eash has demonstrated teaching techniques that have really taken off. His three aviation classes are now working full throttle to build a two-seat, single-engine, canopy-type aircraft from a kit donated by a local pilot.

Aircraft I students learn airplane basics and study shop safety, tools, and blueprint reading. They complete sheet metal projects in McGavock's state-of-the-art mechanic shop.

In Aircraft II and III, students use an engine manufacturer's manual as they disassemble, calibrate, and reassemble aircraft engines and learn about powerplant theory and application.

"To make it an outstanding learning situation, you need to be working on something," says Eash, a licensed pilot and aircraft mechanic who was recently named FAA's Aircraft Mechanic of the Year for Tennessee. "And an airplane is the ultimate thing."

Next Steps: Students may build the plane, but Eash will take the final exam two years from now --a fly-by in the plane at 200-plus miles per hour.

For More: Contact Eash at deash@bellsouth.net.

Science and the Super Bowl

Innovator: Dean Kamen

Job: Founder of FIRST: For Inspiration and Recog-nition of Science and Technology, in Manchester, New Hampshire

Bright Idea: "You get what you celebrate," says Dean Kamen. "Our society celebrates sports, not science, and that's why kids don't pour their time and enthusiasm into science."

Kids get excited about sports, Kamen says, by seeing great athletes compete in events like the Super Bowl, not by viewing a museum exhibit on football.

So Kamen, pictured lower left, at ringside, created FIRST, a competition that combines National Football League sensibilities with Massachusetts Institute of Technology pedagogy.

In FIRST, school teams build robots to compete in specially designed games.

Businesses help by giving engineers paid time off to work with student teams.

"I wanted kids to see that the best scientists and engineers are just as cool and make as much money as sports figures," says Kamen, who runs DEKA Research & Development Corporation, a firm that designs medical equipment.

Kamen has little patience with businesses that try to tell schools how to educate.

"Why do they think they know how to run a school?" he asks. "If Coca-Cola had a marketing problem, would it ask a third grade teacher?"

FIRST, Kamen notes, isn't really about technology. It's more about inspiration and role models.

The program, for instance, features engineers who are women and minorities, as well as engineers who are young and love sports cars.

Impact: Last spring, about 18,000 students in some 400 teams from all over the United States (with one team from Brazil) took part in the FIRST competitions. About 20,000 fans cheered the championship teams in a specially built stadium at Disney World in Florida.

For More: Visit www.usfirst.org for details on how to get involved.

Innovator: Marilyn Nagano Schlief

Job: NEA staffer working to promote quality teacher induction and mentoring

Bright Idea: One of the biggest challenges facing the teaching profession may be retaining more of the new teachers who are enticed into the profession--currently, only about 50 percent of new teachers are choosing to stay beyond the first five years.

"NEA affiliates have been clamoring for programs that welcome, support, and retain our colleagues who are new to the profession," says Marilyn Nagano Schlief, a former teacher and Michigan Education Association staffer who's now part of NEA's Teaching and Learning staff.

Research shows, notes Schlief, that effective teacher mentoring programs can help recruit and retain teachers in the profession.

"That's why NEA's New Teacher Support Initiative is helping local affiliates explore the power of effective mentoring programs," says Schlief.

Chief among the resources offered by the New Teacher Support Initiative is the publication A Better Beginning: Helping New Teachers Survive and Thrive.

This guide for NEA local affiliates interested in creating new teacher support systems focuses on teacher mentoring and provides real-life examples of successful programs.

The guide also provides insights into the challenges new teachers face today, lists the characteristics of an effective mentor, and includes a handy tool kit with sample surveys, sample contract language, and much more.

For More: A copy of A Better Beginning: Helping New Teachers Survive and Thrive was mailed to every local president in the spring of 2000. To view or download a copy, visit the Web at http://conference.nea.org/betbegng.pdf.