Nicholas Negroponte

Nicholas Negroponte is founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child, a non-profit organization that is working to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, connected laptop with content and software  designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.  He is currently on leave from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology.  A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966.  He is also author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages.  In the private sector, Negroponte serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc.  He is also a general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment.  Negroponte has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.

According to four local educators, there seems to be one sure-fire way to help lower the number of former inmates returning to prison. The solution? Promoting literacy behind bars.

On April 8, Suffolk University and the Boston Athenæum hosted a panel discussion,  “Prison Literacy,” at the Athenæum as the fourth installment of the 2010 Civic Discourse Series, Literacy and Democracy. The discussion featured presentations by poet Jill McDonough, professors Steven Spitzer (Suffolk University), and Robert Waxler (UMass Dartmouth) and was moderated by Jack Gantos, a Newbury Honor award-winning children’s book author, and author of Hole in My Life – a memoir on his time spent in prison.

Panel moderator Jack Gantos

Waxler, co-founder of the Changing Lives Through Literature program that provides literature seminars for inmates, discussed his efforts teaching literacy skills in prison settings. According to Waxler, those in his literacy program had a significantly higher chance of not returning to prison upon being released.

“I’m convinced that literature can save lives,” Waxler said. “This type of program can mitigate violence. Some people have no other way to express themselves other than with hitting. From this type of program, we all benefit.”

McDonough, a celebrated poet who has taught at Boston University’s Prison Education program since 1999, shared examples of her students’ work while discussing the positive effect exposure to literacy has on many of the inmates she has taught in the past years.

“Taking away books doesn’t make punishment any better,” McDonough said.

Spitzer, a sociology professor at Suffolk who is finishing a book based on his work behind bars, concluded the panel, discussing the importance of literary skills in helping prisoners reflect on their lives.

“Some of the most powerful writing comes from people in prison,” said Spitzer, who is also the founder of the Jericho Circle Project, which helps incarcerated men turn their lives around. “(Literacy) gives people the opportunity to open up and reflect. It gives men a mirror to look into.”

Following the presentations, panel members took questions from the audience ranging from the attitudes of prisoners toward learning to how prison administrators are responding to literacy programs for inmates.

Additional Information

The final installment of the Literacy and Democracy series, “A Mission, Not a Market: One Laptop per Child” featuring Nicholas Negroponte, will take place on Tuesday, April 27 at 6 p.m. at the Boston Athenæum (10 1/2 Beacon Street). Reservations can be made at 617-720-7600 starting April 14th.

The panel will feature Jill McDonough, poet; Steven Spitzer, professor of Sociology, Suffolk University; Robert Waxler, professor of English, UMass Dartmouth; moderated by Jack Gantos, author.

JILL MCDONOUGH’s first book of poems, Habeas Corpus, was published by Salt Publishing in 2008.  She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fine Arts Work Center, New Yori Public Library, and Stanford’s Stegner program.  McDonough has taught incarcerated college students through Boston University’s Prison Education program since 1999.  Her work appears in Slate and the Threepenny Review.

STEVEN SPITZER, Ph.D., professor of Sociology at Suffolk University in Boston, has served as an educator, researcher, and author in the fields of sociology and criminal justice for almost 40 years.  In the last decade, he has focused on thedevelopment of emotional literacy programs for men in county, state, and federal prisons.  He is founder of the Jericho Circle Project (JCP), a non-profit organization that helps incarcerated men “flip the script” and “rewrite” their lives.  Currently, he is completing a book on his work behind bars titled The Accidental Crucible: Healing Men in the Belly of the Beast.

ROBERT WAXLER, Ph.D.,  co-founded Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL), a nationally recognized alternative sentencing program for criminal offenders that provides a series pf literature seminars.  He has served as Dean of the Division of Continuing Education, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Chairperson of the English Department at the University of Massachussetts Dartmouth.  In addition to several books, he has co-authored Success Stories: Life Skills Through Literature, published by the U.S. Department of Education, and co-edited Changing LIves Through Literature, an anthology from Notre Dame Press.

JACK GANTOS is the author of over forty books for young readers.  His books range from the “Rotten Ralph” picture book series, to the National Book Award and Newbury Honor Award winning “Joey Pigza” series, to his prison memoir, Hole in My LIfe, which received a Printz and Seibert Honor for outstanding young adult literature.  He taught Literature and Creative Writing at Emerson College for twenty years before resigning his position to become a frequent visitor of the Boston Athenaeum.

For reservations, please call 617-720-7600.

VIOLA VAUGHN is the founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Health Education and Prevention Strategies Alliance (WHEPSA) and 10,000 Girls in Kaolack, Senegal, West Africa. She founded WHEPSA in 2001, to develop new strategies for offering health and educational services to girls in rural Senegal.

Vaughn graduated with an Ed.D. from Columbia University’s renowned Teacher’s College in New York, she acquired considerable administrative and teaching experience in health care and education, in both the U.S. (mainly in her native Michigan) and 6 different African countries, including Senegal. In 2000 Viola and her husband, Jazz musician Sam Sanders, made the decision to emigrate to Senegal with their family, to provide their five grandchildren with an international, multilingual and multicultural education.

Her personal experience home-schooling her grandchildren led to some local curiosity in their community in Koalack. One day a 9-year-old girl asked Viola to help her finish third grade. And so 10,000 girls began, with Viola partnering with the girls to tackle the huge challenge of appropriate education for village girls in Senegal.

Viola’s vision led her to work with the girls and to together create WHEPSA’s 10,000 girls innovative approach–an approach that integrates education and employment for girls in a self-sustaining program. In less than 5 years, this program has grown to serve about 1500 girls. Its two main components are:
1. education for girls at risk of failure or dropping out of school; and
2. employment and training for girls who have failed at school or never attended, in Viola’s successful entrepreneurial ventures.

With help from volunteers and early sponsors, Viola and the girls started Celebration Baked Goods (pastry shop, catering) and Sewing Workshop (producing handmade quilts, dolls, and gift baskets for export) as successful businesses to provide hands-on work experience and skills for the girls. The income is used both for salaries for the participants, and to support the education program (textbooks, tutoring, space for study).

Though many strides have been made in providing educational opportunities for adults, adult illiteracy still remains a major issue in this country, according to three prominent local educational figures.

The Boston Athenaeum

On March 11, the Boston Athenæum hosted a panel discussion featuring Wick Sloane,  Joanne Appleton Arnaud, and Linda Nathan, entitled, “Adult Literacy in the Digital Age,” the second program in the 2010 Civic Discourse series, Literacy and Democracy, presented by the College of Arts & Sciences at Suffolk University and the Boston Athenæum.

The discussion was moderated by James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing Academy and former visiting fellow in the Department of History at Yale University.

Each panelist offered a 10-minute presentation that discussed contemporary literacy issues and possible solutions, as well as personal experiences in aiding these problems. The presentations were followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Wick Sloane

Sloane, a professor of expository writing at Bunker Hill Community College and author of the pamphlet Common Sense, which discusses the obsolete nature of the four-year bachelors degree, shared with the audience many examples of literary achievements from his students, including a letter written to Sen. Kerry, showing the possibilities that can be produced when students are given opportunities in a classroom setting.

“Kids need time and opportunity,” Sloane said, while offering ideas to help fix the problems of illiteracy, such as allocating tax benefits to colleges to fund programming.

“I have a vision that people would make sure that a child is read to for 15 minutes each day. Then the child would eventually be unstoppable,” Sloane said.

Arnaud, co-founder of the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Minnesota and current executive director of First Literacy, a Boston-based organization that helps provide adults with educational opportunities, stated that many adults are currently seeking help in

Joanne Arnaud

becoming literate. However, the scarcity of programs has left many people out in the cold. Arnaud stated that last year 6,972 adults were on waiting lists for local literacy programs and some people wait as long as three years before receiving help.

According to Arnaud, 43 million American adults read at a basic level and an estimated 45 percent of the adult population is in need of literacy skills. Arnaud lauded the effects of distance learning programs, such as online courses, which she feels can help with an issue that not much attention is given to.

“It’s very rare that people talk about adult literacy. It’s one of the few social problems that can be cured. (The issue) just needs money,” said Arnaud.

Linda Nathan

Unlike Sloane and Arnaud, Linda Nathan, founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy and author of The Hardest Questions Aren’t on the Test: Lessons from an Innovative Urban School, mainly discussed the literacy struggles amongst the younger population of America.

Nathan expressed her beliefs that many of today’s literacy problems are caused by the design of today’s education system and its emphasis on teaching purely to improve standardized test performances, rather than encouraging students to read for pleasure. At the Arts Academy, Nathan established mandatory blocks of time to focus on literacy skills and created a program called “Lunchtime Lit,” which allows students and teachers to share the spoken word as a means to improve literacy.

James Tracy

“For students to be critical readers, I think a goal needs to be set to read 20 books a year. Our students need to see where books can lead them,” Nathan said.

In his closing remarks, Tracy echoed the sentiments of the three panelists, adding that the current digital era has worked to create learning opportunities that may improve literacy.

“As an educator, I am very optimistic,” Tracy said. “We are living in an era where accessibility is not a challenge anymore.”

Additional Information

The next event in the Literacy and Democracy series, Teaching Literacy in Senegal, will be held on Monday, March 22 at 6 p.m. at the C. Walsh Theatre with Viola Vaughn, founder and executive director of the Women’s Health Education and Prevention Strategies Alliance as the featured speaker. All events in the series are free and open to the public through reservations. Please call 617-720-7600 to reserve seats.

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Joanne Appleton Arnaud,Ph.D., has taught political science at several colleges and universities, and was co-founder of the Women’s Studies Department at the University of Minnesota.  Arnaud’s work in continuing education and community development led her to become Executive Director of First Literacy, in 1989.  She has written about participatory education in From the Community to the Community and “Building on Community Strengths: A Model for Training Literacy Instructors.”

Linda Nathan, Ph.D., is the founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy, the city’s first and only public high school for the visual and performing arts.  She has won numerous awards including the Nadia Boulange Educator’s Award, the Inspire the Future Award, and was named a 2007 Barr Foundation Fellow.  Her articles have appeared in Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, Horace and many other publications.  Linda is a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and has recently written a book about teaching and leadership in public schools, The Hardest Questions Aren’t On the Test.

Wick Sloane is a professor of expository writing at Bunker Hill Community College, in Boston.  Outside the classroom, he takes on odd jobs to investigate higher education from the perspective of financially disadvantaged students.  He received a fellowship from the Hechinger Institute at Columbia University to research finance and equity in the community college system.  Professor Sloane has written a pamphlet, Common Sense, declaring that the four-year bachelor’s degree is obsolete.

James Tracy, Ph.D., is headmaster of Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts.  He served as headmaster at Boston University Academy and on the faculty of the Hotchkiss School. Tracy was also a visiting fellow in the Department of History at Yale University.  He has been a leader in the independent school community and has written extensively on educational issues.

It may be over 50 years since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision ended segregation within public schools, but according to renowned educator and writer Jonathan Kozol, this country still has miles to go to achieve equality within the education system.

Jonathan Kozol

Kozol, a former Rhodes Scholar and Harvard graduate, began his career as a teacher in 1964 teaching low-income students in Roxbury. Three years later, he published the National Book Award-winning Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. As a life-long teacher and advocate for educating all children, he was a natural choice to serve as the inaugural speaker for the 2010 Civic Discourse Series, Literacy and Democracy.

At the series kick-off event on Feb. 23, Joy and Justice: A Challenge to the Young to Serve the Children of the Poor, Kozol spoke to a sold-out crowd at the C. Walsh Theatre about the crisis of injustice currently facing school-aged children.

Discriminating against the poor

According to Kozol, great inequalities continue to exist in our country’s schools, as evidenced by statistics showing that the average black and Latino 12^th grader nationwide reads at the same level as a white 7^th grader. Other statistics show an alarmingly high dropout rate for black and Latino males. These numbers, when combined with the disparity of school spending between poor and affluent districts, show widespread racial isolation and a public school system that is leaving behind the children of the poorest communities.

“In Pennsylvania, I saw a district where a pitiful $9,000 was spent yearly on students compared to $19,000 being spent in the Swarthmore district,” Kozol said. “You see the same thing here in Massachusetts. There is a great difference on what is being spent on students in places like Lawrence and Holyoke compared to Lincoln and Sudbury.”

With a national education system that relies on local property taxes to fund schools, variations in quality are inevitable, as communities with high property values can typically generate more money for schools than economically struggling communities. Kozol proposes shifting to state or national funding sources to create a more unified and just public school system.

Teaching to the test

Kozol raised another issue facing the current education system: the troubling tendency for some school districts to eschew personal methods of teaching in lieu of teaching children solely for the purpose of elevating their standardized test scores, as score results are directly tied to federal funding incentives and penalties.

Kozol signs copies of his books, including The Shame of the Nation, after the lecture

“We see across the country a tendency for children to be treated as economic units rather than as children,” Kozol said.

“I’m not opposed to testing when it is useful and diagnostic and can show where weaknesses are,” Kozol said. “But I oppose rigid, standardized, authoritarian techniques that rob children.”

In contrast, Kozol offered the example of Francesca, a Boston-based elementary school teacher and the subject of his most recent book, Letters to a Young Teacher, who refused to drill standardized testing methods and instead “filled the room with jubilation” by teaching her students how to enjoy what they read, causing her first-graders to fall in love with school.

Kozol explained that teachers like Francesca are all too rare, as most educators are compelled to teach to the standards and have little time for personalization and creativity.

“You see teachers who teach for the purpose of pumping up scores,” Kozol said.

“They are teachers who stick to the minutes they have been allocated to teach each specific skill. They are teaching like they are being watched by a curriculum cop.”

Additional information

Kozol continues his work on these and other public school issues as the founder of Education Action, a non-profit dedicated to the grassroots organizing of teachers across the country.

The next event in the Literacy and Democracy series, Adult Literacy in the Digital Age, will be held on Thurs., March 11 at 6 p.m. at the Boston Athenæum, with Joanne Appleton Arnaud, executive director of First Literacy; Wick Sloane, professor at Bunker Hill Community College; and James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing Academy. All events in the series are free and open to the public by advance registration. Please call 617-720-7600 to reserve seats.

The Civic Discourse Series is an annual series of presentations devoted to a topic of national significance, sponsored jointly by the Boston Athenæum and the College of Arts and Sciences at Suffolk University.

Inaugural Lecture to 2010 Literacy & Democracy Series, Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 6:00 p.m., Suffolk University C. Walsh Theatre, 55 Temple Street

Jonathan Kozol’s first book, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools, won the National Book Award, and has sold over two million copies. His other books have given a voice to some of America’s most pressing issues: Illiterate America, Rachel and Her Children, Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, and Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope. Kozol’s most recent book The Shame of the Nation, was his strongest work to date – a powerful piece exposing dramatic racial isolation in over 60 inner-city schools. Kozol is the founder of Education Action, a non-profit dedicated to grassroots organizing of teachers across the country who wish to help create a unified system of American public schools.

Note: Event is sold out.

The media these days speak in so many forked and foreign tongues — film, book, video game, broadcast, blog — that without a dictionary or a concordance it’s hard to know who is saying what to whom. Over the last fifty years it has come to pass that on an examination paper at the end of a year’s course in the history of western civilization a sophomore at a high-end New England university can give as his answer: “The Greeks invented three kinds of columns — Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth.”

How does a writer tell a straight story to readers who think in circles? Maybe by sending smoke signals.

LEWIS LAPHAM is the editor of Lapham’s Quarterly, the national correspondent for Harper’s Magazine, and the author of thirteen books, among them Money and Class in America, The Wish for Kings, Theater of War and, most recently, Pretensions to Empire. For Bloomberg Radio he hosts a weekly program, “The World in Time.”

A reception will follow this lecture. Reservations will be accepted starting April 16 at 617-720-7600.

Broadcast Journalists have been praised for breaking important news stories and criticized for breaking political candidates. Is the role of television news in our democracy to present politically neutral information or to provide informed opinion? 

Charles Kravitz, President of NECN, has had a distinguished career as a television news director at several stations in Boston. 

Dana Rosengard is assistant professor of Broadcast Journalism in the department of Communication and Journalism at Suffolk University.  Prior to his academic career, Dana was a producer for WCVB news. 

Robert Rosenthal is chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism at Suffolk University. He is an international consultant specializing in strategic communication, with a core emphasis on institutions subject to government regulation. A specialist in the field of political communication, Rosenthal is a frequent guest on radio talk shows and television newscasts. 

Reservations will be accepted starting March 20 at 617-720-7600.