Racist remarks would not be tolerated – so why do some teachers think it is still acceptable to make anti-gay comments?

It was the first month of my job as a newly qualified teacher. “I’d like you to coach girls’ football. You’d be a good role model,” the head of year said. “Why a good role model?” I asked. “Because you’re straight – you’re not one of those fucking dykes.”

I was speechless. This teacher knew nothing about me or my opinions, yet he still felt confident enough to make a series of assumptions: first, about my sexuality; second, that I would not be offended by his words; and third, that it was an appropriate statement to make in a staff room, surrounded by fellow teachers. This third presumption in particular implied a collective failing towards every child and adolescent at the school.

I did not have much experience, but I knew this was not right. I confided in various colleagues and tried to make a complaint. At every turn I was met with a similar response: “Oh I’m sure he was just joking/he’s just being a typical guy/don’t take it so seriously”. Not one person I spoke to recognised the severity of what I had heard. The fact that my colleagues and the institution itself appeared to collude, albeit passively, in this homophobia, made this all the worse.

The real tragedy in this, of course, was not the offence that I felt; it was the fact that this teacher had significant influence over hundreds of teenagers.

A good number of these young people may have been straight, some may have been beginning to question their sexuality, others may have been gay or have had family members and friends who were; but regardless of this, every single one of them needed to learn in an environment where bigotry and intolerance were not welcome.

A YouGov poll, commissioned by Stonewall, discovered that 43% of secondary school teachers have heard homophobic comments from their colleagues. Today no teacher who made racist remarks would escape widespread rebuke; so why is homophobia still tolerated?

A teacher is required to educate, enlighten and inspire yet also to give pastoral support, to help a child navigate through possibly the most challenging and daunting time of his or her life. How can a homophobic teacher deal with the myriad problems young people face, especially incidences of homophobic bullying among the pupils?

For a child, the school setting needs to be a place where all forms of bullying are challenged and steadfastly rejected. Teachers are the key agents in ensuring that this is the case and young people must be sure of equality and acceptance in the eyes of their educators.

The same YouGov poll heard that 90% of teachers have never received any training on homophobic bullying. If schools are not prepared to tackle homophobia and foster a culture where pupils and teachers can confidently report such discrimination, then the government needs to step into the breach. If educators are serious about building a more tolerant, enlightened society, then no form of discrimination from those who have such great influence over young people can go unchallenged.

Since that initial conversation with my overtly homophobic colleague, I have encountered a whole variety of outlooks and opinions that would register on the homophobia spectrum. It still shocks me every time an otherwise friendly member of staff makes a comment about “pansies”, or a respected colleague tells me of his aversion to watching Sean Penn’s Oscar-winning performance in Milk because he “can’t stand that kind of thing”.

Pupils may well be forging ahead in tolerance where teachers are failing to lead. It is my experience that it is often young people who are the most accepting members of a school community, and as a consequence they put many of their teachers to shame. Before the government can credibly begin to talk about tackling homophobic bullying among pupils, it should ensure that educators are not perpetrating this discrimination themselves.

online school degrees

If we don’t change the way ICT is thought about and taught, we’re shutting the door on our children’s futures

So, in the immortal words of Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s technology correspondent, coding (ie computer programming) is “the new Latin”. This was the headline on his blog post about the burgeoning campaign to boost the teaching of computer skills in UK schools.

Dedicated readers will recall that it is also a bee in the bonnet of this particular columnist. The ICT (information and communications technology) curriculum in our secondary schools has been a national disgrace for as long as I can remember. This is because it effectively conflates ICT with “office skills” and generally winds up training them to use Microsoft Office when what they really need is ICT education – that is to say preparation for a world in which Microsoft (and maybe even Google) will be little more than historical curiosities, and PowerPoint presentations will look like Dead Sea scrolls.

Rory Cellan-Jones’s blog post was prompted by signs that the campaign to rethink ICT education is gathering momentum. It was first given a boost by a report written by two elders of the computer games world, Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope, on the need to transform the UK into “the world’s leading talent hub for the video games and visual effects industries”. Their report recommended, among other things, that computer science should become part of the national curriculum.

The campaign was further boosted by the news that a range of technology and media companies – including Google, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Electronic Arts, Activision, Talk Talk and the Guardian Media Group – were backing these recommendations.

The government’s response to all this is long on talk but short on commitment. HMG, it burbles, “recognises that the current ICT programme is insufficiently rigorous and in need of reform” and is “committed to introducing a slimmed-down, more focused and more rigorous curriculum”. Quite so, minister. But, it goes on: “In the event of ICT not remaining part of the national curriculum, attention would still need to be given to ensure children could acquire computer science skills. The government would work with the sector to find the best way to achieve this.” Translation: “Sorry, techies. ICT is probably going to be dropped (because there’s no room for it in our new slimmed-down curriculum) but we’ll find a way of sweetening the pill.”

What’s missing from both sides of this campaign is any appreciation of the real significance of introducing children to programming. Messrs Livingstone and Hope take an instrumental view of the matter, which is understandable given their industrial backgrounds. They are concerned that UK universities are not producing graduates with the skills that their industry needs now. They see the decline in students applying to Ucas for places on computer science courses from 16,500 in 2003 to 13,600 last year and fret about its impact on their current businesses.

But in a way they’re making the same mistake as those who saw ICT as a way of preparing kids for the world of work by training them to use Microsoft Office – ie designing a curriculum by looking into a rear-view mirror. What we ought to be doing is giving the kids the ability to operate in – and perhaps help to create – industries that nobody has even dreamed of yet.

What governments don’t seem to understand is that software is the nearest thing to magic that we’ve yet invented. It’s pure “thought stuff” – which means that it enables ingenious or gifted people to create wonderful things out of thin air. All you need to change the world is imagination, programming ability and access to a cheap PC. You don’t need capital or material resources or adult permission. Tim Berners-Lee and a tiny group of colleagues created the web out of nothing more than vision and programming skill. A gifted teenager named Shawn Fanning created Napster – and spawned the file-sharing revolution – by sitting in his bedroom for six months and writing code. All Mark Zuckerberg needed in order to launch Facebook was a laptop, his precocious programming skills and a thousand bucks borrowed from a friend. And so on – through Amazon and eBay and Google and Blogger and Twitter and YouTube and countless other world-changing ventures built out of computer programs.

That’s why software is like magic: all you need is ability. And some children, for reasons that are totally and wonderfully mysterious, have an extraordinary aptitude for programming – just as some have a musical, mathematical or artistic gift. If the government excludes computer science from the national curriculum then it will be effectively slamming the door to the future.

online school degrees

online school degrees

Matthew Taylor, who presents a new series about neuroscience on Radio 4, argues we should favour treatment over punishment

Part one of Brain Culture is at 4pm on Tuesday

According to a UK Cabinet Office study published last week, the primary motivation for participation in this summer’s riots was not individual badness or disadvantage so much as the urge to join in.

As any social psychologist knows, peer pressure or simple herd behaviour is a much more important driver of our behaviour than we like to think. Although the science is still tentative, it seems our brains are “hardwired” to imitate, as the famous pictures of babies sticking their tongues out in response to an adult doing the same vividly demonstrate.

Does the suggestion that looters were obeying instinct imply they were less blameworthy? I imagine the general view would be “no”. After all, not everyone joined in and as much as picking up a brick and stealing trainers may involve imitation, it also requires some very bad decisions.

As we learn more about the neurological and social foundations of human behaviour, difficult questions about blame and punishment are bound to get raised. This is one of the themes explored in the first part of Brain Culture, a BBC Radio 4 series exploring the potential impact of neuroscience findings on policy and society.

What about the previously law-abiding 40-year-old family man who suddenly started trying to molest his stepdaughter and was found to have a stash of child pornography? As his behaviour deteriorated, it was only on the hunch of a doctor that his brain was scanned, revealing a tumour growing in the area responsible for our capacity for self-restraint. When the tumour was removed the man went back to being a regular guy, only for the paedophilia to return when the tumour grew back.

Such a case seems clearcut, although as a legal expert on the programme argues, just because someone has depraved desires doesn’t mean they can’t be held responsible for acting on them. But if in this case the jury accepted a defence based on the medical evidence, what about all other wrongdoing? Currently judgements in criminal law rely on what some call the “commonsense philosophy” of cause and effect, action and blame. However, it seems very likely that science will generate many more grounds for the defence of diminished responsibility.

Simple observation tells us that psychopaths, almost by definition, lack the capacity for empathy that is part of most people’s personality. Yet we still tend to blame these individuals for their crimes. Research based on functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) scanning, suggests that the brains of psychopaths have different automatic responses. If the rest of us are shown the faces of frightened people, scans show a visible response in the amygdala, the part of the brain most involved in processing emotional reactions. When shown the same faces, the brains of psychopaths respond much less, if at all.

An American neuroscientist interviewed for the programme estimates that a very high proportion of those incarcerated in US jails suffer from this neurological defect. Society may need to be protected from such people, but shouldn’t our response to their predispositions be treatment not punishment?

Brain science may make us understand a little more and condemn a little less, but its real value may be to help divert people from offending in the first place. Brain Culture opens in a school in the South of England where staff are using the insights of neuroscience to help children who lack empathic reactions.

The headteacher told us that, previously, these children would be repeatedly informed by well-meaning teachers that their behaviour had hurt someone. The problem here is that children with what neuroscientists call “callous and unemotional” syndrome simply don’t care. In fact the more they are told off, the angrier and more frustrated they become.

Now, staff working with these pupils are applying the science and painstakingly teaching them responses that come naturally to other children. In one exercise, a pupil is encouraged to grade reactions like fear or happiness on a numerical scale so he can start to learn how to respond when he sees such emotions.

There is a lot of hype about the impact of neuroscience on criminal justice. Despite claims that brain imaging can help us tell the difference between real and imagined memories, we won’t be seeing the fMRI scanner replacing the witness box any time soon. Nor, except in the most extreme cases, will judges be impressed by the “my brain made me do it” defence.

But step by step, discovery by discovery, new understanding of the brain and behaviour will challenge traditional ideas of culpability. If it can also help damaged children live normal, healthy, crime-free lives, not even the most hard-bitten neurosceptic will be left doubting its value.

Matthew Taylor is chief executive of the RSA and former chief of political strategy for prime minister Tony Blair. Brain Culture: Neuroscience and Society is part of a season of programmes on the Brain on BBC Radio 4

online school degrees

There are many benefits to choosing an online course of study. One of the benefits is convenience. There are no travel expenses to pay for since you don’t have to leave home and you never have to worry about being late to class since you set your own schedule. This allows you greater freedom if you have to work while attending school. Because many colleges are offering this type of program, you can pick one that offers the best courses in your chosen field of study, without any location concerns. You don’t have to worry about not being able to ask the instructors questions, because you can talk to them via email or through the use of the school’s message board system.

Once you have chosen a course of study, you can go online and research the colleges that offer online degrees. Look for the specific colleges that offer courses that specialize in your desired field and then compare the programs. See what their application procedures are as well as the cost of tuition and if they offer any sort of financial aid. It’s really the same process that you would use were you to choose a traditional college. Many online schools have fancy websites, but don’t be lured in by the advertising alone. It’s important to research them carefully. Some institutions may not offer total online training. They may require you to attend in class training as well. It’s also important to check out their accreditation with a reliable accrediting agency. Don’t hesitate to ask the school for references and try to read their message boards to get a feel as to how the other students view the school.

Another thing that is important to remember is that attending an online college is still hard work. You have to demonstrate commitment and perseverance, just like you would in a traditional college. Just because the courses are online doesn’t mean that they will be easier and you will still be required to study and take tests. Because it is not a structured environment, it will take a lot of discipline on your part to keep up with the work and attend the classes. With hard work and a commitment to achieve your education goal, you can earn your degree and enter your chosen field with confidence.

The idea of an online bachelor degree can seem too easy. Because there’s no real classroom and no teacher than you can see necessarily, it sometimes seems like a completely virtual landscape that might not carry the same weight as a traditional university setting. While that might have been the case in earlier years of correspondence classes and courses, the Internet has proven to be the right setting for learning about the global marketplace. You can reach out to distant schools and learning resources without ever leaving your home or stepping on campus. And because the Internet has become so widely used, the idea of being schooled through its technology is also becoming more accepted.

The first thing that’s on your mind is whether or not your next employer is going to look at your online bachelor degree and feel that it is legitimate. After all, you don’t want to spend a lot of your time or your money on something that might be deemed worthless in the place where it matters the most. According to recent studies, businesses hiring professionals are now considering an online degree to be just as acceptable as a university degree. However, it does depend where you get your online degree. For example, choosing a widely known school is the better option than the cheapest Internet educational institution that no one has ever heard of. A good rule to follow is that well known schools are equated with turning out well respected degrees.

There are a vast number of online bachelor degree programs to choose from as well. For example, you might want to take a business degree program or private sector accounting. Others like the option of taking the in demand health services programs. No matter what you might be interested in, there may very well be an online school for you, so thinking that you can’t find what you’re looking for from an online bachelor degree isn’t really a good excuse.

And of course, there’s the question of whether or not the college environment is something that might be necessary for your career in the future. Maybe there really is something to being on campus and interacting with fellow students. With an online bachelor degree, you might actually find it easier to study and focus on your studies because of the lack of social interaction and peer pressure. However, if you feel that you need that sort of stimulation, perhaps an online degree is not a good fit.

Just as with any serious schooling, you will also want to ask yourself about whether you can handle the pressure and the work that goes along with an online bachelor degree. Because the courses are more intense due to the limited interaction with a teacher and a student, you might have trouble motivating yourself to do the coursework on your own. An online bachelor degree program is very much self guided, and that can teach you very quickly about the importance of time management.

The choice to get an online bachelor degree is one that only you can make. However, if you’re looking for a campus that’s always open and that can give you the individualized attention that you crave, going to an online school can be a great way to get a degree.

Imagine being an FBI agent. This profession puts you in position to protect America and its citizens.

Another one is homeland security. This criminal justice career puts you position to fight terrorism and terrorists. You will be doing combat and matching wits with the bad guys that are trying to hurt America and American citizens.

But did you know one of the best ways to equip yourself for the above careers and others in the criminal justice field is to get a bachelors degree in criminal justice? In this article, I will cover why you should get a bachelors degree in criminal justice.

They are as follows:

1. A bachelors degree in criminal justice will help you get hired. Increasingly, the basic educational requirement for a career in many criminal justice professions is this degree. If you don’t have it, you won’t even be considered for a job unless you have years of experience to offset this educational requirement.

And guess what? The experience needed to offset this educational requirement is military or law enforcement experience. So, if you don’t have military or law enforcement experience, I advise you now to start looking into schools that offer bachelors degree in criminal justice. This way your dream of joining some criminal justice professions will not die prematurely.

2. Getting a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice will help you make more money than somebody with an associate degree or high school diploma. A bachelor degree holder makes about $59,000 per year compared to an associate degree holder that makes about $40,000 per year and a high school diploma holder that makes $26,000 per year.

Not that your math is bad, but I can not help but point out that this is a difference of $19,000 per year over an associate degree holder and $33,000 per year over a high school graduate. This kind of salary difference should be motivation enough for somebody to seriously consider getting their bachelors degree in criminal justice.

3. Somebody with a bachelors degree in criminal justice will get better promotion opportunities than an associate degree holder or high school graduate. This is just a fact of life.

Let’s take your typical police department as an example. It is no secret that making detective is one of the career progressions any police officer will desire. But increasingly, a bachelors degree is becoming one of the requirements for attaining the rank of detective. Sure, somebody with high school diploma or associate degree can still get be detective with years of experience, but it is difficult to pass up that police officer with a bachelors degree that wants the position also.

The above are just a few of the reasons you should consider getting bachelors degree in criminal justice. There are other reasons. Covering all of them will be a little too much in this short article. If you want to find more reasons to get a bachelors degree in criminal justice, I will advise you do more research on it. You can do this by visiting websites that deal with the subject in more detail.

Note: You are free to reprint or republish this article. The only condition is that the Resource Box should be included and the links are live links.

Here are five reasons why you should consider getting an online degree.

1. Online degrees can be earned very quickly

Online degree programs go by real fast. You can accelerate the college learning process tremendously by working all by yourself. If you have limited availability, you can stretch out the experience if you want to. Work at your own pace and build a better future for yourself in a fraction of the time it would take to complete a traditional college degree program.

2. Online degree programs are inexpensive

The cost of university tuition is outlandish. If you can’t afford a four-year fleecing, then explore your online options. Online degree programs are very inexpensive, and many online educational institutions will let you pay as you go. This can be a big help to working professionals who want to improve their careers without having to quit their current jobs.

3. Online education is convenient

Online education is the most streamlined way to educate yourself. Period. It’s just you, your computer and your curriculum. For better or worse, all other collegiate distractions are removed from the equation. If you already have a lot on your plate, the convenience of online degree programs will be very appealing.

4. Online degrees will help you make more money

If get an Associates, Bachelors, Masters degree or vocational certificate, you will get paid more money. You will have more marketable jobs skills and a deeper set of tools to utilize in the working world. If you want to increase your salary, while staying at your current job, augment you skills by adding another degree online.

5. Online degrees will help you find a new career

If you wan to explore your career options, online degree programs will help you become qualified for a new profession. Start a new medical career by taking classes online. Learn a foreign language, or an important software program. Becoming an information technology expert or learn about criminal justice. Learn how to be an accountant, a chef, or fashion designer. Discover forensics and new religions. Learn welding, auto repair or psychology. Get your teaching credentials or become an engineer.

Choosing to get an online degree is a decision only you can make. Weigh your options. Consider your commitments, time and money restraints. If you want a convenient way to explore higher education at a fraction of the cost, online degrees really make sense.

However, if you are interested in developing a career in the field of business especially if you have a flair for mathematics then your best is an accounting degree program and for you to get the certification you desire in this field a bachelor degree in accounting online will help out. So why on earth should you consider this option as career?

Accounting as a profession is one of the most marketable courses anyone aiming for the top will ever consider. This is especially if the person in question understands how taxes and a payroll system work. With all these you want to settle for an accounting degree program because studies have shown that accountants earn high salaries and as an added advantage they are constantly in demand by the best organizations in the world.

If you are yet to be convinced as to why you should consider registering for an accounting degree program wait until you read this: The business circle is one of the most competitive arenas where only the best are needed. This happens to be so because they always deal with finance and to work in the industry you will need to be highly efficient. This will not only increase your earning capacity, but also increase your status in life. However, be reminded that there is no way you can enjoy all these without working for it.

Lastly, with accounting degree program you can study at your own time and pace. You will agree with me that this is the most beneficial aspect of online learning considering the fact that you will be able weave your lessons around your daily schedules without losing out on your work. You will earn more and stand a better chance of easily getting employed if your accounting degree is backed with relevant experience. So ensure you work towards gaining lots of on the job experience by working in places that have got something to do with accounting.

Will Durant, the Pulitzer Prize winning philosopher once said “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”  It is this ‘awareness’ of all that you don’t know and the realizing how much limitless knowledge is out there yet to be absorbed that is the greatest gift earning a bachelor’s degree gives you.  Of course there are purely pragmatic reasons to get a college education and earn a bachelor’s degree.  We’ve all read that those with a bachelor’s degree earn on average 40% more than those with just a high school education.  We also know certain jobs require a bachelor’s degree in order to be hired and that this degree is necessary if one want to move up to a Masters or Phd level education.  But it is what it gives to your mind and to your soul that is truly the best part of getting a Bachelor’s Degree.

Life is short.  Each and every one of us has our own unique talents and abilities.  Yet, so many don’t ever fully explore their potential due to a lack of education or the societal limits placed on them because of their lack of a degree.  One thing that is wonderful about going through the experience of attaining your college degree is the exposure it gives you to various different areas of knowledge and establishing a baseline to work off of for any jobs or education that follows.  It is during this process of learning that you can finally recognize what are and are not your strengths.  Perhaps you thought you wanted to pursue something in math, but once in your degree program you find you have a love and affinity for languages.  This revelation might the inspire you to look at different exciting career fields than you ever had thought of and would not have even considered if you didn’t pursue your bachelors.

Another great reason to obtain your bachelors has to do with people.  The truth is that the kinds of people we are exposed to and surround ourselves with is the thing that has the single biggest impact on our lives.  Those that have gone through the discipline and work to achieve at least a Bachelor’s Degree tend to be more motivated, have bigger goals and in general are more ambitious than those that do not take the trouble to pursue higher education.  If you attend college you will meet and form relationships with a whole new world of people that are an entire world away those who stopped at high school.  Similarly, if you obtain your Bachelor’s Degree online, the jobs you will be able to get with the degree will introduce you to a whole new caliber of people, not to mention open up the doors to much higher earnings down the line.

These days with the proliferation of Online Bachelor Degree Programs there really is no longer any excuse why anyone can’t obtain their degree.  There are degrees in just about every subject you can imagine from liberal arts to pre-law and in the sciences, arts, mathematics etc.  While attending an institution of higher learning in person either part or full-time certainly offers a much ‘fuller’ experience and adds the interpersonal relationships that are a great part of the college experience, some of the newer Online Bachelor Degree Programs offer the best of both worlds, allowing interaction with fellow students while offering the ability to do coursework from home.

With the reasonable cost of Online Degree Programs making money almost a non-issue and the ability to work around your own schedule, getting a Bachelor’s Degree is something that everyone should do as an absolute minimum in today’s information society.  It’ll not only grow your paycheck, it’ll also grow your awareness of what other possibilities there are out in the world for you…something that you would never know if you didn’t get your Bachelor’s Degree.  Go to www.BachelorDegree.me for more great articles and information on getting your Bachelor Degree.

Also, check out www.TopTenMBA.com for great information on obtaining an MBA for those ready to move to the next step after a Bachelor’s and really set their career on the fast track.