Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Humans are judgmental creatures. We have to be. It’s how we navigate the world. We survive by making quick judgments about situations based on our prior experience so we don’t have to deeply process everything single thing we see. We also judge so we can figure out where we fit in and if our behavior is within normal limits.

Our judgments can also steer us wrong. As humans we have an unfortunate habit of attributing others’ behavior to their personalities, assuming that bad behavior is a sign of a character flaw. At the same time, however, we often attribute our own bad behavior to extenuating circumstances and find ways to justify it. It’s not us, it’s the situation that’s at fault.

Earlier this week, I was walking through Target with my mom and thinking about this. Spending time with my mom often puts me in the role of observer. My mom has Alzheimer’s, and while she’s doing great, she’s at that stage where she isn’t able to stop herself from voicing all of her observations. She has also lost her ability to whisper. This can make for some interesting moments. I watch people’s reactions to her and wonder what they’re thinking. Sometimes I can tell exactly what they’re thinking, and it makes me sad.

Overall, I think people are kind, but when Mom comes out with a statement like, “Boy, those are some tight pants!” as we walk behind someone, I find myself feeling like I have to make excuses for her. I’m sure that if people knew that she had Alzheimer’s, they wouldn’t think she was just being a jerk. Spending time with Mom reminds me to think before I judge people.

When we don’t pause to consider our judgments of others, we can find ourselves thinking that the world is full of jerks. Doing this too often leads us to a path of self-righteous, narrow-minded thinking. This is the opposite of what we need in the world right now.

In Brené Brown’s book, “Rising Strong,” she recounts the story of a woman whose actions made her so hurt and angry that she contemplated outing the woman’s bad behavior to her boss. In the course of telling this story to her therapist, whom Brown was hoping would approve of her strategy to take down the frenemy, the therapist wisely says, “Do you think it’s possible that she’s just doing the best she can?” Like Brown, I came to a full stop at this question. Although simple, it was eye-opening.

Ever since reading that phrase in the book, I’ve found myself regarding people differently (not all the time, but I’m working on it). When I’m in a meeting and I start to feel annoyed by someone who doesn’t seem to see things the same way I do, I am more open to thinking about where they are coming from. When I’m talking to one of the many students I work with who is struggling in classes, I try to find out what’s going on with them so that I have a deeper understanding of what they are facing.

This idea of asking oneself, “Do you think that person is doing the best they can?” is a powerful practice. It stops the judgment in its tracks and allows us to see the humanity in others. It makes it easier to open up to people who are as imperfect as we are.

Each of us is dealing with our own challenges and usually keeping them just below the surface. We don’t tend to walk around with all of our doubts and woes on our sleeves. We are going about our days doing the best we can, and that means that sometimes we mess up.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t try to do better, but the reminder to withhold judgment helps us to be compassionate to ourselves and to others.

This practice can change the way we interact in our communities. Practicing compassion is key to creating a kinder world, one that is within our grasp if we just keep doing the best we can.

Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Tuesday, May 15, 2018

If you live in Easthampton, like I do, you are probably sick of hearing about the May 22 vote for a new pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 school.

I’m not going to spend my time trying to convince you that we have to replace the three, 100-plus-year-old, not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act elementary schools. Nor will I spend my time explaining why a 43-year-old middle school that is sinking into the ground and had to close for a few days this winter because the heating system failed, is a bad place for your children to learn math and science. And don’t even get me started on the state of the carpeting in the classrooms.

This stuff is common sense. Kids learn better if they are in agreeable surroundings. Heck, I’d even take decent ones at this point. The truth is, we’ve kicked this can down the road for much longer than we should have and no matter what we do, we will have to pay for new school buildings.

Waiting longer inevitably means that the costs for construction will rise. Trying to work on one building at a time will end up costing the city more in the long run without the benefits that we would get from the new school proposal. The time to do this is now.

That said, I do recognize that an increase in our property taxes will be a challenge for people to bear. Those on fixed incomes will have a difficult time figuring out how to stretch their precious dollars to afford this. This is reality and it will not be easy. Unfortunately, the answer is not to do nothing.

I’ve spoken to a number of people who say they aren’t going to vote for a new school because they don’t have kids in the school system. To me, this is an irrational argument, which I counter with the claim that providing sound, up-to-date, public schools for the community’s children is actually good for us all.

Why do we even care about public schools in the first place?

The United States bills itself as a land of opportunity, where anyone can have a chance to be successful if they apply themselves and work hard. Our public schools are supposed to be the great equalizer and gateway to opportunity, but they are not.

As someone who is tasked with helping first-year students acclimate to college, I experience firsthand that all public school students are not equally prepared to go to college. Public school districts in poor communities typically have lower SAT scores and offer fewer Advanced Placement classes, whereas young people from more wealthy districts have top-of-the-line technology in their classrooms and opportunities to participate in more college preparation activities. Students from poorer districts come to college less prepared to succeed. Those who are not well-prepared for college are likely not well-prepared for life.

This matters for our common future. We will turn to the younger generations as we grow older and need care. They are the future leaders of our country and the world. We are literally relying on them to fix the problems we have created. I know that I want smart, well-educated people in these roles.

Clearly, just voting for a new school in Easthampton is not going to solve all of the problems facing public education. The way that school districts are funded in Massachusetts is fundamentally flawed. The current funding structure for our public schools in Massachusetts, largely based on income generated by property taxes, only serves to reinforce the inequity in the public school system.

In 2015, a legislative commission studied the commonwealth’s school funding formula and determined that districts were expected to pay much more than they should have, resulting in serious opportunity gaps across the state. Nothing has yet been done to remedy this.

On May 22 in Easthampton, we have the opportunity to take the first step toward improving education for our youngest residents. I urge you to vote “yes” for the new pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 school.

For change over the long run, we also have to be willing to elect legislators who are not afraid to take on this system and reform it. Until then, we will be left paying too much of the burden.

Still fighting for justice, 50 years later

Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wednesday, April 17, 2018

This year I will turn 50. I was born in 1968 — the year that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated and the year that then-president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, also known as the Fair Housing Act.

I was born in the middle of the civil rights movement and four years after LBJ declared “War on Poverty.” As I consider all of the political action and conflict of that time, it strikes me that 50 years later, we’re still fighting for justice for all.

Before he was killed, Dr. King started working on the Poor People’s Campaign. He called for poor people to rise up and organize, to create a political movement that would change the system and give everyone a living wage. He described this campaign as a “nonviolent army of the poor, a freedom church of the poor.”

At the time he was shot, Dr. King was in Memphis working with poor sanitation workers, mostly black, to demand better working conditions and a living wage. The Poor People’s Campaign proposed that the government pass an Economic Bill of Rights as way to move people out of poverty and toward economic justice.

The year 1968 actually marked the lowest point of income inequality overall in the U.S. since the Census Bureau started researching the topic in the 1940s. Over the past 50 years, however, there is evidence that we’ve lost ground.

One recent study concluded that the top 5 percent of households in the U.S. had earned incomes that were 13 times higher than households in the bottom 20 percent. For a little perspective, the income for a family of four in the bottom income quintile might be $22,000, while the same-sized family in the top 5 percent earns $286,000.

Economists examine three indicators of wealth: median hourly wage, median household income, and median family net worth or wealth (this includes assets like houses). Income inequality is worse for people of color who, despite earning almost the same as whites in terms of hourly wage, lag far behind in terms of net worth.

The Federal Reserve estimates that black families have acquired only 10 percent of the net worth of their white counterparts and Latinos are in a similar bind. While it’s hard enough to be poor, it’s even more challenging to be poor and not white.

What is going on? Housing discrimination and redlining by lenders meant that people of color weren’t able to purchase homes that would help them build their wealth. Also, beginning with President Ronald Reagan, specific federal policies have exacerbated income inequality by gutting entitlement programs while simultaneously cutting taxes for the rich.

Lowering taxes ensures that programs designed to help the poor are underfunded and therefore harder to provide. Not only that, but also since the 1980s, people living in poverty have been vilified for their circumstances. Consider the myth of the “welfare queen” that Reagan perpetuated for years.

Then-president Bill Clinton in 1996 signed welfare-reform legislation that was part of the GOP “Contract with America” that eliminated Assistance for Families with Dependent Children and replaced it with Temporary Aid to Needy Families. This forced families using aid to find jobs within a specific time limit so they didn’t become “dependent” on the system. This legislation meant that many people who were just at the cusp of making it out of poverty would never be able to get ahead.

Need-based benefits provide people with just enough to barely subsist. Also, once a family earns just a little bit too much at job, they lose benefits that keep their kids fed and housed. It is almost impossible to get out of this never-ending cycle.

Never mind what happens if a person living in poverty gets into an accident or suffers a medical emergency. Living paycheck-to-paycheck with no buffer is terrifying and the stress from living this way often leads to chronic health issues.

The current administration has added a new layer of malevolence to this situation. Our president actively vilifies the poor. Among some of his recent proposals are: drug testing everyone who receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (food stamps), changing the current SNAP program so that families would no longer choose their own food but would be issued a box of rations, cutting the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development so that millions of families would be evicted, defunding Medicaid, and eliminating the subsidy for student loans and removing student loan forgiveness for those who enter public service.

We are living in a time when corporations influence our elections and politicians are encouraged to create policy to ensure that money never trickles down, but rather flows up with no obstructions.

The wealthy and powerful are so out of touch with those who have nothing that they have no understanding of how difficult it is to survive in poverty. The only people with bootstraps were lucky enough to inherit them.

Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Original title: Disengage from screens to solve problems

As an academic dean, I spend a lot of time in the summer talking to new college students. My colleagues and I encourage students to try new things and get out of their “comfort zones.”

This advice has been passed down to generations of college students and it’s still useful. In fact, it turns out that being able to tolerate discomfort is a key to growth and there is science to back this up.

When I suggest that students should get out of their comfort zones, I mean more than just joining a club, trying intramural sports, or taking a class in a subject that is new to them. What I really want them to do is to let themselves get frustrated by the things they are trying to learn and to allow that learning and development to happen.

In my own experience, it took me a long time to see this in action. I spent my 40s working full-time while earning a doctorate in education. There were many times that I thought about quitting the program because I felt stuck.

I’d get frustrated with something I was trying to do and think to myself, “Why am I doing this! I don’t need to finish this degree. I keep struggling with this concept and how it fits with my work. I don’t want to do this anymore!”

Then I’d talk to my adviser or a trusted mentor about quitting and they would encourage me to give it a little more time and sit with the discomfort of not knowing the answer. What would often happen next was that the pieces of the puzzle would come together when I wasn’t thinking about them or anything else.

It was in moments like taking a walk or doing the dishes — when my mind was quiet — that the answers would come. I finally realized that the frustration and discomfort were necessary as my brain worked away on the solution in spite of my more active efforts.

Not long ago, I happened upon a TED talk that addressed these very issues. In it, Manoush Zomorodi talked about the ways that boredom gives the mind space to make connections among various ideas and concepts.

This kind of activity helps us plan for the future, solve problems and spark creativity. When we multitask or are on our smartphones or just staying “busy,” we don’t allow our brains the space to do these higher-level functions.

It seems to me that students, and people in general, are less willing to be uncomfortable. They spend more time interacting with their gadgets as a way to stave off boredom and loneliness. I, too, am guilty of this. In spare moments I end up playing Words with Friends or checking Twitter and Facebook.

This constant need to interact with something interferes with our brains’ natural processes. Similarly, our kids spend much more time in scheduled activities and have less unstructured time than those in my generation did. This means they rarely have to experience boredom.

I see this firsthand with my kids who don’t know what to do with themselves when they don’t have an activity scheduled. They often end up interacting with some kind of screen — a smartphone, iPad or the TV.

I’m pretty sure this is related to a lowered tolerance of frustration, which then results in a struggle to try new things. I know that my kids are not the only ones who hesitate to continue to try a new activity if they find that they are not successful at it right away.

Occasionally, I have this vision of a world reminiscent of the one in the movie “WALL-E,” where all of the people have lost the ability to do things for themselves. They are too fat to walk and they let robots take care of their needs. They’ve unlearned how to be curious and solve their own problems.

I am hopeful that as human beings we won’t lose our ability to persist through difficult times. We have no shortage of big problems that need creative solutions and things are not getting less challenging any time soon.

We have to try to slow down and allow our minds to be less busy so that they can do their business of problem-solving.