What's the deal with textbooks?

Editor's note:
Here at Markham's Behavioral Health we are interested in education, how people learn, the function of education in society, how it constributes to human development etc.

In 1986, my ex wife, Angela, and I started homeschooling four of our nine children. One of the big things I learned was the great variability in textbooks, how they are chosen by school districts, how teachers use them in their classrooms etc. I learned that some textbooks are very helpful in learning about a subject and some are garbage, yes, I wrote "garbage."

After the first year of homeschooling, I no longer used the text books used by the school district because of their inadequacies. Choosing curriculum materials back in 1986 is a completely different activity with the expansion of the ecology of curriculum materials now available with the internet.

If you are a parent, or a student yourself, the first very illuminating activity is to compare curriculum materials you can choose to study any given subject. The power to choose curriculum materials seems to me to be a major professional responsibility of teachers which, for the most part, is denied them by school boards, state ed departments, etc.

If students are to take responsibility for their own learning, the first step is choosing their curriculum materials wisely.

NPR - How teens feel about guns in America

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 Editor's note:

 Besides the Opioid epidemic, drunk driving injuries and deaths, there is no greater public health threat to the safety and well being of Americans that the prevalence and incidence of gun violence. These public health problems are directly related to the mental health of Americans.

78% of Americans support immigration of highly skilled people

Click on image to enlarge

Editor's note:
For all the scare mongering the Trumpists do about immigration, most Americans support, 78% support immigration of highly skilled people. Thank goodness! The endodontist who did my last root canal told me he was from Libya. The surgeon who removed my malignant melanoma told me he was from Lebanon. The urological resident I just saw for my prostrate related UTI told me he was from Syria. When he told me he and his family was from Syria I started to weep and told him "I'm sorry." He thanked me and continued very professionally with our consultation.

7 common questions about workplace romance

Editor's note:
These questions often come up in counseling and, in general, workplace romance is always a bad idea. If it develops, at least one of the partners has to decide what's more important: the romantic relationship or the job? One has to go. Except in very exceptional circumstances both are not sustainable.

As a manager in human service agencies, romantic relationships contaminate the team morale and contribute to staff splitting. The milieu quickly becomes toxic and it is a paramount supervisory responsibility to deal with the situation directly, explicitly, and firmly. Many human service agencies have "fraternization policies"  and even consensual romantic relationships among staff are verbotten.

What is trauma informed care?

Join the movement for bail reform

Are school lock down drills a good idea

On January 30, 2019, MBH reported some of the data about school lockdowns.

Here's an interesting video from PBS about this phenomenon: