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Baby Olivia, The Socials, and Shock Therapy
We have rebranded!
We wanted to create a title that would be more flexible when it comes to the content that we can create, and, of course, still staying true to the mission of this newsletter in delivering education-related news. Also, what is something teachers love that helps us power through the Monday morning slog?
Coffee!
We hope this will be the pre-Monday morning fix, the catalyst, for a good start to your week
Cheers ☕
In today’s newsletter:
Meet Baby Olivia: Iowa pushing bill to require pregnancy video in classrooms
Mirrors 🚫: North Carolina school removes bathroom mirrors ‘cause Tik Tok
Shock “Therapy”: The Judge Rotenberg Center allows shocking disabled individuals
Iowa requiring schools to show pregnancy video
House File 2031 will require schools to show a computer-generated video that details the various stages of pregnancy. The video mentioned in the bill is called 'Meet Baby Olivia' and was created by Live Action, an anti-abortion group.
Within the bill, the anti-abortion leaning rhetoric is evident, as it states
The human growth and development curriculum shall include all of the following:
a. Human biology related to pregnancy.
b. Human development inside the womb.
c. A high-definition ultrasound video, at least three minutes in duration, showing the development of the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development.
And a direct reference to Live Action:
A high-quality, computer-generated rendering or animation, comparable to the meet baby Olivia video developed by live action, showing the process of fertilization and every state of human development inside the uterus, noting significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every signification marker of pregnancy until birth.
The video contains misinformation, such as stating, “At 3 weeks and 1 day… Olivia’s heartbeat can be detected.” In reality, at the earliest, a very faint heartbeat can be heard via ultrasound, and it is not until 8-12 weeks that a more pronounced heartbeat can be reliably detected.
The bill passed and this will be a curriculum requirement for students as early as first grade.
The debate between anti-abortion advocates and pro-abortion advocates has been an issue that has been part of America’s fabric for a long time. Roe vs. Wade was enacted in 1973, and it was an attempt to find the middle ground between the two groups. Prior to this ruling, abortion was banned in most states. The essence of the ruling was that no states can ban a woman’s right to an abortion up until the third trimester, as outlined in its ruling.
In the summer of 2022, a majority conservative Supreme Court reversed Roe vs. Wade, leading states that lean more conservative to enact laws that essentially ban abortion or make it extremely difficult for a woman to receive one.
The sluice gates have been opened, and for teachers who want to focus on the biggest part of their job - teaching - what type of impact will this have on their pedagogy? The last thing most teachers want is to be political, but they often find themselves in the middle of political controversies whether they intend to or not.
The infiltration of social media
In the last 20 years, social media has exploded in fantastic ways. A few of the many social media companies that came into existence in the mid-early 2000s include: Facebook (The Facebook when it launched in 2004), Myspace (which surprisingly still exists today, albeit looking very different), Instagram, Reddit, 4Chan, and the list can go on and on.
The most significant catalyst in shifting the landscape of social media was the advancement of the mobile device. The advent of the iPhone, where Steve Jobs gave one of the most iconic product launch speeches of all time, signaled the direction in which the landscape would be shaped for social media in the next decade by highlighting the functionalities Apple’s iPhone would have. Watch it below.
The advancement from 3G to 4G in the 2010s led to an explosion of apps being created catered toward mobile devices. Social media was no longer limited to your stationary computer, big and clunky as they were, but now became more portable, benefiting many social media companies like Twitter, Instagram, and the behemoth known as TikTok, which came into prominence after the acquisition of a small startup called Musical.ly in 2017 by ByteDance.
Today, we have more access to connect with the internet than most people could have imagined just twenty years ago thanks to the advancement of our smart phones and devices.
Schools have been battling for the attention of students in their classrooms and have led to states such as Florida banning TikTok on school campuses last year. Just recently, a North Carolina middle school removed mirrors in all their bathrooms to curb students from leaving their classes to “go to the bathroom.” Students were going to the bathroom 9 times a day, but since the removal of the mirrors, there has been a drastic decrease in students going to the bathroom.
There have been many conversations within the education community about having kids incorporate 'technology,' such as their phones, as part of their learning. However, with so many distractions, states are taking action to ban the use of student cell phone or banning access to social media sites.
Is this the right thing to do?
Electric shock therapy still allowed at Judge Rotenberg Center
The Judge Rotenberg Center is a school designed to help individuals with developmental disabilities, as well as emotional and behavioral disorders. Residents include school-age kids, adolescents, and adults who continue to receive services for their disabilities. JRC is approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The school was molded around the theory of operant conditioning from the minds of B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov. A visual representation of this theory in action can be seen in Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange.' From testimonials given during a hearing in November of 2023 inside the Massachusetts State House, this comparison might not be too far off. A resident of the school, Msuba, describes her experience as follows:
I was shocked in my sleep for things I did not do, accidental misfires and worst of all, staff abuse of the device…I was shocked for body tics, which I cannot control, and things like waving my hands in front of my face and crying. I was one of those stripped of all my clothes, tied to a restraint board and forcefully scrubbed while male staff watched on the video monitors. I did not consent to any of this treatment….I have had nightmares for 14 years every night. I wake up screaming ‘No, stop!”
You can read the full story here from The Boston Scope.
It is unfathomable that this type of aversive therapy is still allowed, and even more so that in the summer of 2023, the state’s highest court ruled that the school can continue to use electric shock therapies on their patients.
This is the only institute in the U.S. that continues to allow shock therapy on individuals. As a teacher, as an educator, as a human being, it is hard to fathom supporting such an outdated method for individuals who need help the most because this is clearly not helping them. Let’s hope the state of Massachusetts finds a way to rid this barbaric practice once and for all.
Closing Bell
On this day in 2004…
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg. The rest, as they say, is history.
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