#in fact its a major pillar of my social anxiety i think

[silverislander]

ive been reading a few lesbian books recently (just finished tomboy survival guide, almost done butch is a noun, read sbb last summer) and like. damn. yeah i guess weve always been the same hhuh

[scifigeneration]

Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers

by Esther Jones

Science fiction offers readers a way to rethink social dilemmas. MATJAZ SLANIC/Via Getty Images

Young people who are “hooked” on watching fantasy or reading science fiction may be on to something. Contrary to a common misperception that reading this genre is an unworthy practice, reading science fiction and fantasy may help young people cope, especially with the stress and anxiety of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am a professor with research interests in the social, ethical and political messages in science fiction. In my book “Medicine and Ethics in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction,” I explore the ways science fiction promotes understanding of human differences and ethical thinking.

While many people may not consider science fiction, fantasy or speculative fiction to be “literary,” research shows that all fiction can generate critical thinking skills and emotional intelligence for young readers. Science fiction may have a power all its own.

Literature as a moral mirror

Historically, parents have considered literature “good” for young people if it provides moral guidance that reflects their own values. This belief has been the catalyst for many movements to censor particular books for nearly as long as books have been published.

The controversy of Huck Finn. Hulton Archive via Getty Images

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” published in 1885, was the first book to be banned in the U.S. It was thought to corrupt youth by teaching boys to swear, smoke and run away from home.

In the latter part of the 20th century, the book has come under fire for the Mark Twain’s prolific use of the N-word. Many people are concerned that the original version of the book normalizes an unacceptable racial slur. Who can say the N-word and in what context is an ongoing social and political debate, reflecting wounds in American society that have yet to heal.

The question is, how does literature of any genre – whether popularly perceived as “serious literature” or “escapist nonsense” – perform its educational function. This is central to the conflict between parents and educators about what kids should read, especially as it pertains to “escapist” fiction.

Why science fiction gets a bad rap

Historically, those who read science fiction have been stigmatized as geeks who can’t cope with reality. This perception persists, particularly for those who are unaware of the changes to this genre in the past several decades. A 2016 article in Social and Personality Psychology Compass, a scholarly journal, argues that “connecting to story worlds involves a process of ‘dual empathy,‘ simultaneously engaging in intense personal processing of challenging issues, while ‘feeling through’ characters, both of which produce benefits.”

Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation, an image from the Hubble Space Telescope. AP Images/NASA, ESA

While science fiction has become more mainstream, one study claimed that science fiction makes readers stupid. A subsequent study by the same authors later refuted this claim when the quality of writing was taken into account.

This ongoing ambivalence towards the genre contributes to the stereotype that such works are of little value because they presumably don’t engage real human dilemmas. In actuality, they do. Such stereotypes assume that young people can only learn to cope with human dilemmas by engaging in mirror-image reflections of reality including what they read or watch.

The mental health of reading

Reading science fiction and fantasy can help readers make sense of the world. Rather than limiting readers’ capacity to deal with reality, exposure to outside-the-box creative stories may expand their ability to engage reality based on science.

Fantasy literature opens the door to imaginative worlds. Six_Characters/via Getty Images

A 2015 survey of science fiction and fantasy readers found that these readers were also major consumers of a wide range of other types of books and media. In fact, the study noted a connection between respondents’ consumption of varied literary forms and an ability to understand science.

With increasing rates of anxiety, depression and mental health issues for youth in the past two decades, it may be the case that young people, no different from American society generally, are suffering from reality overload. Young people today have unprecedented access to information about which they may have little power to influence or change.

The powerful world of science fiction

Science fiction and fantasy do not need to provide a mirror image of reality in order to offer compelling stories about serious social and political issues. The fact that the setting or characters are extraordinary may be precisely why they are powerful and where their value lies.

My contribution in the forthcoming essay collection “Raced Bodies, Erased Lives: Race in Young Adult Speculative Fiction” discusses how race, gender and mental health for black girls is portrayed in speculative fiction and fantasy. My essay describes how contemporary writers take an aspect of what is familiar and make it “odd” or “strange” enough to give the reader psychic and emotional distance to understand mental health issues with fresh eyes.

From the “Harry Potter” and “Hunger Games” series to novels like Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower” and “Parable of the Talents” and Nancy Kress’ “Beggars in Spain,” youths see examples of young people grappling with serious social, economic, and political issues that are timely and relevant, but in settings or times that offer critical distance.

This distance gives readers an avenue to grapple with complexity and use their imagination to consider different ways of managing social challenges. What better way to deal with the uncertainty of this time than with forms of fiction that make us comfortable with being uncomfortable, that explore uncertainty and ambiguity, and depict young people as active agents, survivors and shapers of their own destinies?

Let them read science fiction. In it, young people can see themselves – coping, surviving and learning lessons – that may enable them to create their own strategies for resilience. In this time of COVID-19 and physical distancing, we may be reluctant for kids to embrace creative forms that seem to separate them psychologically from reality.

But the critical thinking and agile habits of mind prompted by this type of literature may actually produce resilience and creativity that everyday life and reality typically do not.

About The Author:

Esther Jones is an Associate Professor of English and affiliate with Africana Studies and Women's & Gender Studies at Clark University

This article is republished from our content partners over at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

[yumeka36]

The Frozen fandom has certainly been in an uproar this past week, and of course, since I decided way back to partake in spoilers, I’ve been part of the emotional turmoil too. It’s been very draining, but I felt I needed to make one more post before I lay low for a while. As usual, steer clear if you don’t want major Frozen 2 spoilers...

Ever since the ending leaked about a week ago, I’m not kidding when I say it’s consumed my mind since then. While I’m not one of the people who thinks that, should this ending be as clear cut as the leaked book makes it out to be, is the absolute worst (especially not if it’s handled correctly), I’m not in favor of it either. I’ve been constantly going back and forth in my mind, coming up with scenarios about how it could work or not work, examining the evidence both from official and unofficial sources, trying to put the pieces together. I did have a reprieve this past weekend when Frozen Fan Fest hit - I came up with a new, more positive interpretation of things and really enjoyed myself visiting the different stores and seeing all the new merch. But alas, more leaks happened, which supported a more unfavorable view of the ending we’re trying to come to grips with: Anna becomes queen of Arendelle and Elsa becomes Snow Queen/the fifth spirit - I’m willing to say that this is 95% confirmed since the leaked book and the new leaks from Discord both mention it. However, the new leaks also stated that the supposed final scene of the movie is Anna’s coronation (with Olaf and Kristoff) while elsewhere Elsa is off riding the Nokk. I was willing to work with all the other leaks we’ve gotten should they be true, but I’m definitively not in favor of this being the absolute final scene, one that emphasizes their separation. But again, an obscure word-of-mouth leak that could have come from storyboards that have since been changed, or were misinterpreted to begin with or got misinterpreted while being passed along via telephone tag, are definitely not reliable evidence.

Regardless, I can’t help thinking of the worst scenario for the ending of a movie I’ve been looking forward to for years, and it’s taken its toll: I’m just so tired now - I’ve had a lump in my throat and a knot in my stomach for days. I’ve lost hours of sleep unable to keep my mind from trying to figure how the last 20% of this movie plays out (since The Enchanted Forest and other books pretty clearly describe the first 80%). I guess that’s the price you pay when you love something too much and built up such extreme expectations. It’s so ironic that a movie that has brought me so much excitement and happy thoughts for nearly 6 years is bringing me such dread and anxiety in its last two months before release. I’m not gonna last unless I make a serious effort to put my mind elsewhere, which I’m definitely gonna try to do. But I wanted to give one last theory for the road, again, trying to work with the evidence we have and assuming the leaks are somewhat true: the original leak from the mythology book states that Anna and Elsa must make a sacrifice to fulfill Pabbie’s prophecy (still don’t know what that prophecy is). Maybe the sacrifice Elsa has to make is to keep magic/nature in balance by becoming the fifth spirit, which means she stays in the enchanted lands out of duty, reluctantly accepting her destiny. At least a couple interviews I’ve read said the creators see her as a tragic hero archetype, so it would make sense. As a result, Anna has to become queen of Arendelle. Of course, the movie couldn’t end with both of them being sad about their fate, as that would just beg for a Frozen 3 which we know is not in the works. So maybe the final scene that the leak mentioned isn’t totally final, and in the real epilogue some trigger happens that allows Elsa to return - perhaps the balance between nature/magic and humans is restored now that the Northuldra and Aredellians are at peace. So the real final scene would be the embrace in front of the stone pillars that was leaked from Christophe Beck’s Twitter a while back. Maybe the movie will then leave it up to interpretation as to whether Elsa goes back to Arendelle or not, similar to how the ending of HTTYD3 left it up to interpretation if Toothless and Hiccup end up living together again or just visit each other.

Honestly I don’t even believe this theory of mine, but I’m trying to point out that there are still many possibilities: the worst ending for me would be Elsa wanting to stay in the enchanted lands just because she feels she belongs there (not because of duty), Anna is accepting of this, and we’re given no indication they’ll see each other again. But as I said, this is certainly not the only outcome we can get from the leaks and information we have so far, plus there are many things that don’t add up: as I said, the leaked book mentioned a prophecy from Pabbie, yet none of the officially released books mention it. One of the books says that Anna and Olaf return to the forest the same time as Elsa, yet we clearly see scenes in the trailer of Anna making her way through the cave alone. There’s also the whole “Elsa losing herself to magic” thing that Pabbie mentioned in the trailer, and is mentioned in Elsa’s official character description, so where would that fit in with all the leaks/info we have? Then there’s the fact that Disney knows the leaks happened (since they’re taking down posts from Discord) so I’m assuming they know that fans aren’t happy (I also heard people are harassing the creators on social media, which is NOT okay!) But whether the leak ironically results in any change to the ending has yet to be seen.

Even if the ending ends up being the worst case scenario, I’d still want to give it the benefit of the doubt. I’d still want to believe that seeing it described in a couple sentences in online text is a world of difference compared to seeing it within the context of the actual movie, with all the details and nuances of the story flow and character interactions. I want to believe that it’ll make sense to me when I see it for myself and it’s not just following the trend of “a kids movie can only be seen as mature if it ends with a major shock like the main characters separating” - maybe I’ll develop a different appreciation for Anna and Elsa as characters even if it clashes with how I feel about them now. Maybe somehow Jen Lee and team will work their magic and give me an ending I didn’t think I wanted but I end up being satisfied with. Who knows. But in the meantime, we’re still over a month away from the movie and I’m tired. I’m seriously gonna get an ulcer or something if I keep stressing about the end of Frozen 2 like I have this past week. I’ll be getting a copy of Forest of Shadows soon, so I’ll get my Frozen fix reading that, and then I intend to lose myself in one of my more engrossing video games (doing NG+ in Dark Souls 2 is looking good now) to distract me until November 22nd (though I have a feeling we’ll know everything about the movie a week or so before then). I really hope two months from now I can look back at this post and say “I should have had more faith, the movie was great from beginning to end, I could have saved myself so much anxiety.”

I seriously wish I could hibernate until November 22nd.

[neriad13]

Best of the Best - Media Consumed 2018

Books - Fiction

The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

I devoured the entire series in a series of months this year and what I’m about to say holds true for all of them (probably more than for the latter two than the first)...but I have a particular soft spot for the plot twists and humor of the beginning. So, it’s my choice for the year, though it is representing the series as a whole.

This is the series that showed me what inclusive fantasy can be like. It’s a story predominantly about straight white dudes written by a straight white dude (a comfort zone I am struggling to break out of) and yet, it is one that purposefully skirts the tropes of the genre and plays with them in such a way that it makes the world feel welcoming to a reader who is neither straight nor male. There’s lesbian pirates, multiple queer characters, copious well-written women and non-white characters as major players in the narrative. This was a book that gave me hope and help as I struggled to bust out of my old patterns of thinking and writing. And yet, it was familiar enough that it was enough of a comfort zone to retreat to in times when I needed to seek comfort in fiction.

And it’s so much good fun. Half a year later and I’m still cracking up at “Nice bird, asshole.”

Books - Nonfiction

Dictator Style - Peter York

This book was weirdly heart-wrenching. There’s something so melancholy and strange about surveying the living spaces of these paragons of human misery and trying to figure out what they were thinking through medium of their wallpaper choices. That, and the knowledge that even the seemingly all powerful are far more tacky and slipshod than commonly believed, stuck with me.

Fic

Batya - Valya

I didn’t read a whole heck of a lot of fic this year and only counted those that were above a 30k word count. There were plenty of short fics that I loved, but alas, I did not write them down. Goals for next year!

So, Batya, BioShock fic - AU in which Ryan discovers Jack far earlier than intended and decides to adopt him as his son. Once this fic gets going, it’s intense. And sad. And beautiful, all of which apply heavily to the relationship between Jack and Kyle. The final scene between them is pure poetry and had me thinking of them dancing as Rapture fell apart around them for days afterward.

Film

I saw so many hecking good movies this year. I’m just barely able to pare it down to a top three.

Black Panther - Ryan Coogler

This movie was exhilarating. The design, the energy, the acting, the humor, the primal drama of two types of activism duking it out in the bowels of the earth...I walked out of the theater in a daze, hardly believing that I’d seen what I had.

When Marnie Was There - Hiromasa Yonebayashi

This movie contains the most accurate portrayal of social anxiety I have ever seen in fiction, period. It hit especially close to home for me, as this year was the one in which I faced and struggled with my own lifelong anxiety. I watched it wondering how on earth filmmakers half a world away got the details of my own childhood down so precisely on film. When the credits hit and “Fine On the Outside” played, I bawled at my computer screen.

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

This movie was a staggering technological accomplishment. It pushed the boundaries of animation and filmmaking in ways I have flat-out never seen before. It was joyful, it was dramatic, it was tragic, it was gorgeous. It was a celebration of everything animation is capable of. And the fact that a brown kid is at the center of it?

Stunning.

Comics - Webcomics

Alethia - Kristina Stipetic

This is beautiful world in which the characters are forced to make terrible choices, as the main character struggles to find the meaning in such things.

Also, it’s all lesbian robots. The artist drew the comic specifically because she wanted more women in fiction that she could relate to. It’s a fascinating, meditative piece of work.

Comics - Fiction

Akira - Katsuhiro Otomo

This manga is a masterpiece of destruction and resurgence. The art is stunning, the characters are charming and the action is absolutely unbeatable.

But my favorite section was the one which focuses on Chiyoko - an unapologetically masculine woman with an arsenal of heavy weapons - while she’s on desperate rescue mission in hostile territory. My eyes were glued to the page as she blew away her foes and struggled against them in turn, her plight given the gravity and intensity that is so rarely bestowed on female action heroes.

For that alone - best fiction comic of the year.

Comics - Nonfiction

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me - Ellen Forney

I read so many fantastic comic memoirs this year. It was difficult to choose from among them - almost all of them were highlighted as among my favorites of the year. But there’s something about a seasoned artist drawing and talking about her own battles with mental illness after a long (and ongoing) war that stood out to me.

It’s a tale of seemingly endless medication adjustment, therapy and the breaking down of personal stigmas surrounding mental illness and the drugs used to treat it. Though I don’t share the artist’s diagnosis, it was a book that gave me confidence in choices about the treatment of my own mental illness.

Shows

A Series of Unfortunate Events S2 - Barry Sonnenfeld, Bo Welch, Mark Palansky, Allan Arkush, Loni Peristere, Liza Johnson, Jonathan Teplitzky

What can I say about something that is perfect? Every joke hits. Every bit of wordplay makes me burst out laughing. The absurdity and surreality of the situations are a sight to behold. The acting is phenomenal. The writing improves upon the books in every possible way. And in all of this, not an inch of the story’s darkness is ever given up.

Games

This was the year I played the first Fallout (the ending destroyed me), That Dragon, Cancer (very much hit home), 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (can you make a historical game that both teaches, entertains and reveals the human cost of a complex conflict? Yes. Yes, you can.) Pillars of Eternity (A well-written Atheist in my video game? It’s more likely than you think.) and Tales From the Borderlands (the humor! The art! The voice cast! The rock-solid writing!). All of them were top contenders and yet...there was really only one choice for me.

Papo and Yo - Vander Caballero

This is a game about the relationship between a boy and his alcoholic father. It is heavily based on the lead developer’s own experiences. It’s a fraught relationship - torn between the sober moments when the hero’s father loves him, protects him, takes care of him, plays with him - and the moments when drinking turns him into a monster of rage.

The hero sets out to find a cure for his father’s addiction and after great trial discovers…

*spoilers, though the answer is probably pretty obvious, though no less painful for its obviousness*

...that no such cure exists and that the only thing he can do is let him go.

I sobbed uncontrollably at the ending of this game and sniffled long after. The message stuck with me months after I’d played it.

All of the hurt, confusion, anger and grief of letting go of my own toxic person - there it had been, on the screen right in front of me. This game helped me come to peace with that decision in my own life and for that, I am astounded and humbled by the simple artistry of this game. If you have your own toxic person in your life - be the problem alcohol, religious fundamentalism, intolerance or any other form of abuse - play this game and know that it’s okay to leave them behind. 

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

The Friday Breeze

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes, who reads everything on health care to compile our daily Morning Briefing, offers the best and most provocative stories for the weekend.

Happy Friday! In news that is technically really good and exciting but is also kind of icky: yarn made from human skin could eventually be used to stitch up surgical wounds as a way to cut down on detrimental reactions from patients. As CNN reports, “The researchers say their ‘human textile,’ which they developed from skin cells, can be used for knitting, sewing and even crochet.” My face has been stuck in the scream emoji since I read this story, so please join me. (Also for those who think neat!, make sure to check out Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, which has a journal bound with human skin and is actually very cool.)

Now on to what you may have missed this week.

It’s that time of year! President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address to Congress, where he declared the nation’s future to be “blazing bright.” During his speech he promised to “never let socialism destroy American health care,” encouraged Congress to send him a bill on drug pricing (to which Democrats began chanting the name of the legislation the House has already passed), and touted his administration’s push for price transparency in health care.

He also said that Democrats were trying to provide health coverage for immigrants who are in the country illegally; called for a ban on abortions that are late in term; promised to always protect Medicare; said more than 7 million people have been shifted off food stamps during his term; and took credit for a drop in health insurance premiums. Various outlets fact checked these statements — which range from completely false to misleading to true — so I’ll link to a collection of them.

Fact Checking State Of The Union: Premiums, Pre-existing Conditions, Price Transparency, And More

The New York Times: Six Takeaways From Trump’s 2020 State Of The Union Speech

Stat: Dems Interrupted The State Of The Union To Chant For Their Drug Pricing Bill

The Friday Breeze

Want a roundup of the must-read stories this week chosen by KHN Newsletter Editor Brianna Labuskes? Sign up for The Friday Breeze today.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

  And now for the coronavirus roundup, where I sifted through hundreds of stories so you don’t have to. Before we dive in, just a reminder that there are still only 12 confirmed cases in the U.S.

— As coronavirus cases in China skyrocket past 30,000 (with 636 deaths), Chinese officials are now performing house-to-house searches in Wuhan, collecting the sick and warehousing them in quarantine centers. In the city, there’s a growing sense that the residents are being sacrificed for the good of the rest of the country. “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever,” said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

The New York Times: China Tightens Wuhan Lockdown In ‘Wartime’ Battle With Coronavirus

— The death of one of the first Chinese doctors to warn about a coronavirus outbreak sent waves of grief and anger through a nation that’s growing more and more frustrated with how its government is handling the outbreak.

The New York Times: A Rare Online Revolt Emerges In China Over Death Of Coronavirus Whistle-Blower

— After a week of cases jumping by double-digit percentages, health officials still say it’s too early to declare that the virus has peaked.

The Wall Street Journal: World Health Authorities Warn Virus Hasn’t Peaked After China’s Deadliest Day

— Hundreds more Americans were evacuated from China and will be quarantined by the U.S. government. But the outrageous fact I learned this week is that those people (and their insurers) are on the hook for any medical costs that arise from being quarantined. For those who are deemed unable to afford health insurance, the government will pick up the tab but it might outsource some of those costs to programs like Medicaid when possible. The evacuees also have to pay for their flight out of China and the cost to get to their final destination when the quarantine is over.

CNN: What It Means To Be Under The Coronavirus Federal Quarantine In The US

— In what seems a bit like the start of a dystopian reality TV show, thousands of cruise passengers are being quarantined on two ships off the coast of Japan and Hong Kong. A third cruise has been turned away from multiple ports.

The Washington Post: Trapped On Coronavirus-Ravaged Cruise Ship, Diamond Princess Passengers Struggle To Keep Spirits Up

— This story is an interesting look at how the first case in the U.S. was discovered, and more broadly showcases local public health officials who are often the ones on the front lines of a new outbreak.

The New York Times: Inside The Race To Contain America’s First Coronavirus Case

— The majority of human diseases, including the coronavirus, are zoonotic, or passed from animals to humans. If you want a brief summary of some notable ones throughout history, check out this piece from WSJ that includes a shout-out to a 5,300 mummified man who, before he died from an arrow, suffered from Lyme disease.

The Wall Street Journal: Plagues From The Animal Kingdom

— Not to be all doom and gloom, it seems to be humans’ lot in life to constantly be at war with pathogens. That means even if we contain the coronavirus, there’s just another deadly pathogen waiting in the wings.

Bloomberg: Man Vs. Microbe: We’re Not Ready For The Next Global Virus Outbreak

Meanwhile, this year’s strain of the flu is hitting children particularly hard. More than half of the positive flu tests from public health labs this season have been in children and adults under the age of 25.

The Wall Street Journal: The Flu Is Hitting Children Especially Hard This Season

It might be hard to focus on anything but the results snafu at the Iowa caucuses, but advocates for disabled voters are also reporting back on how the efforts to expand access played out. The Iowa Democratic Party took strides this year to better help disabled voters participate, and for some the experience was positive. Others, however, said that reality looked a lot different than what the party’s messaging promised.

Stateline: Confusion Reigned In Iowa Caucus — Even Before The Chaotic Results

Stat: Amid Iowa Chaos, Some With Disabilities Got An Accessible Caucus Location

In theory, employers pay their workers less because part of their benefits package includes health insurance. But if the country moved toward a “Medicare for All” model, would workers see their wages increase dollar-by-dollar of what was being spent on coverage? Not necessarily.

The New York Times: Would Your Wages Rise Under ‘Medicare For All’?

Although the Trump administration’s roll-out of the “Healthy Adult Opportunity” program that would encourage states to shift toward a block-grant style of funding drew lots of attention, a little-noticed change that could lead to big cuts flew somewhat under the radar. Governors of both parties, however, are sounding the alarm that an arcane fiscal accountability rule could lead to cuts up to $49 billion a year.

The Associated Press: Trump Rule Could Lead To Big Medicaid Cuts, Governors Warn

As is often the case with bans, teenagers are already finding a way around the e-cigarette flavor restrictions that went into effect this week. The FDA only regulated reusable vaping products, but disposable pods (with flavors like pink lemonade) are widely available at gas stations and the like.

The Associated Press: FDA Crackdown On Vaping Flavors Has Blind Spot: Disposables

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie abruptly fired his undersecretary, James Byrne, this week in what he called a “simple business decision.” Wilkie was forced to defend the decision because Byrne was well-liked by the veterans community, and the loss was just the latest in a long string of turnovers at the top of the troubled agency. Some also questioned if the dismissal had anything to do with the investigation of sexual assault allegations by Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein.

The New York Times: Deputy Secretary Of Veterans Affairs Is Abruptly Dismissed

And in the miscellaneous file for the week:

— Following the recent deaths of 15 inmates, the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system, which seems to be in the grips of a violent crisis.

The New York Times: Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Mississippi Prisons

— Anonymous reporting systems that have been set up to help prevent school shootings have actually been helping combat the epidemic of suicides in teens. Schools and local officials are pouring billions of dollars into preventing the next mass attack, and yet self-harm and suicidal ideation are what students are reporting far more often than any kind of suspicious activity. Public health officials say this should be a wake-up call about the real threat to young people.

NBC News: School Tip Lines Were Meant To Stop Shootings, But Uncovered A Teen Suicide Crisis

— How do you raise kids to prepare them for the projected negative effects of climate change without causing more trauma, anxiety and depression in a generation that’s already struggling to cope with such mental health issues? It’s a fine line to walk, experts say.

The Washington Post: Eco-Anxiety Is Overwhelming Kids. Where’s The Line Between Education And Alarmism?

And that’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[dinafbrownil]

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

The Friday Breeze

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes, who reads everything on health care to compile our daily Morning Briefing, offers the best and most provocative stories for the weekend.

Happy Friday! In news that is technically really good and exciting but is also kind of icky: yarn made from human skin could eventually be used to stitch up surgical wounds as a way to cut down on detrimental reactions from patients. As CNN reports, “The researchers say their ‘human textile,’ which they developed from skin cells, can be used for knitting, sewing and even crochet.” My face has been stuck in the scream emoji since I read this story, so please join me. (Also for those who think neat!, make sure to check out Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, which has a journal bound with human skin and is actually very cool.)

Now on to what you may have missed this week.

It’s that time of year! President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address to Congress, where he declared the nation’s future to be “blazing bright.” During his speech he promised to “never let socialism destroy American health care,” encouraged Congress to send him a bill on drug pricing (to which Democrats began chanting the name of the legislation the House has already passed), and touted his administration’s push for price transparency in health care.

He also said that Democrats were trying to provide health coverage for immigrants who are in the country illegally; called for a ban on abortions that are late in term; promised to always protect Medicare; said more than 7 million people have been shifted off food stamps during his term; and took credit for a drop in health insurance premiums. Various outlets fact checked these statements — which range from completely false to misleading to true — so I’ll link to a collection of them.

Fact Checking State Of The Union: Premiums, Pre-existing Conditions, Price Transparency, And More

The New York Times: Six Takeaways From Trump’s 2020 State Of The Union Speech

Stat: Dems Interrupted The State Of The Union To Chant For Their Drug Pricing Bill

The Friday Breeze

Want a roundup of the must-read stories this week chosen by KHN Newsletter Editor Brianna Labuskes? Sign up for The Friday Breeze today.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

Sign Up

  And now for the coronavirus roundup, where I sifted through hundreds of stories so you don’t have to. Before we dive in, just a reminder that there are still only 12 confirmed cases in the U.S.

— As coronavirus cases in China skyrocket past 30,000 (with 636 deaths), Chinese officials are now performing house-to-house searches in Wuhan, collecting the sick and warehousing them in quarantine centers. In the city, there’s a growing sense that the residents are being sacrificed for the good of the rest of the country. “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever,” said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

The New York Times: China Tightens Wuhan Lockdown In ‘Wartime’ Battle With Coronavirus

— The death of one of the first Chinese doctors to warn about a coronavirus outbreak sent waves of grief and anger through a nation that’s growing more and more frustrated with how its government is handling the outbreak.

The New York Times: A Rare Online Revolt Emerges In China Over Death Of Coronavirus Whistle-Blower

— After a week of cases jumping by double-digit percentages, health officials still say it’s too early to declare that the virus has peaked.

The Wall Street Journal: World Health Authorities Warn Virus Hasn’t Peaked After China’s Deadliest Day

— Hundreds more Americans were evacuated from China and will be quarantined by the U.S. government. But the outrageous fact I learned this week is that those people (and their insurers) are on the hook for any medical costs that arise from being quarantined. For those who are deemed unable to afford health insurance, the government will pick up the tab but it might outsource some of those costs to programs like Medicaid when possible. The evacuees also have to pay for their flight out of China and the cost to get to their final destination when the quarantine is over.

CNN: What It Means To Be Under The Coronavirus Federal Quarantine In The US

— In what seems a bit like the start of a dystopian reality TV show, thousands of cruise passengers are being quarantined on two ships off the coast of Japan and Hong Kong. A third cruise has been turned away from multiple ports.

The Washington Post: Trapped On Coronavirus-Ravaged Cruise Ship, Diamond Princess Passengers Struggle To Keep Spirits Up

— This story is an interesting look at how the first case in the U.S. was discovered, and more broadly showcases local public health officials who are often the ones on the front lines of a new outbreak.

The New York Times: Inside The Race To Contain America’s First Coronavirus Case

— The majority of human diseases, including the coronavirus, are zoonotic, or passed from animals to humans. If you want a brief summary of some notable ones throughout history, check out this piece from WSJ that includes a shout-out to a 5,300 mummified man who, before he died from an arrow, suffered from Lyme disease.

The Wall Street Journal: Plagues From The Animal Kingdom

— Not to be all doom and gloom, it seems to be humans’ lot in life to constantly be at war with pathogens. That means even if we contain the coronavirus, there’s just another deadly pathogen waiting in the wings.

Bloomberg: Man Vs. Microbe: We’re Not Ready For The Next Global Virus Outbreak

Meanwhile, this year’s strain of the flu is hitting children particularly hard. More than half of the positive flu tests from public health labs this season have been in children and adults under the age of 25.

The Wall Street Journal: The Flu Is Hitting Children Especially Hard This Season

It might be hard to focus on anything but the results snafu at the Iowa caucuses, but advocates for disabled voters are also reporting back on how the efforts to expand access played out. The Iowa Democratic Party took strides this year to better help disabled voters participate, and for some the experience was positive. Others, however, said that reality looked a lot different than what the party’s messaging promised.

Stateline: Confusion Reigned In Iowa Caucus — Even Before The Chaotic Results

Stat: Amid Iowa Chaos, Some With Disabilities Got An Accessible Caucus Location

In theory, employers pay their workers less because part of their benefits package includes health insurance. But if the country moved toward a “Medicare for All” model, would workers see their wages increase dollar-by-dollar of what was being spent on coverage? Not necessarily.

The New York Times: Would Your Wages Rise Under ‘Medicare For All’?

Although the Trump administration’s roll-out of the “Healthy Adult Opportunity” program that would encourage states to shift toward a block-grant style of funding drew lots of attention, a little-noticed change that could lead to big cuts flew somewhat under the radar. Governors of both parties, however, are sounding the alarm that an arcane fiscal accountability rule could lead to cuts up to $49 billion a year.

The Associated Press: Trump Rule Could Lead To Big Medicaid Cuts, Governors Warn

As is often the case with bans, teenagers are already finding a way around the e-cigarette flavor restrictions that went into effect this week. The FDA only regulated reusable vaping products, but disposable pods (with flavors like pink lemonade) are widely available at gas stations and the like.

The Associated Press: FDA Crackdown On Vaping Flavors Has Blind Spot: Disposables

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie abruptly fired his undersecretary, James Byrne, this week in what he called a “simple business decision.” Wilkie was forced to defend the decision because Byrne was well-liked by the veterans community, and the loss was just the latest in a long string of turnovers at the top of the troubled agency. Some also questioned if the dismissal had anything to do with the investigation of sexual assault allegations by Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein.

The New York Times: Deputy Secretary Of Veterans Affairs Is Abruptly Dismissed

And in the miscellaneous file for the week:

— Following the recent deaths of 15 inmates, the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system, which seems to be in the grips of a violent crisis.

The New York Times: Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Mississippi Prisons

— Anonymous reporting systems that have been set up to help prevent school shootings have actually been helping combat the epidemic of suicides in teens. Schools and local officials are pouring billions of dollars into preventing the next mass attack, and yet self-harm and suicidal ideation are what students are reporting far more often than any kind of suspicious activity. Public health officials say this should be a wake-up call about the real threat to young people.

NBC News: School Tip Lines Were Meant To Stop Shootings, But Uncovered A Teen Suicide Crisis

— How do you raise kids to prepare them for the projected negative effects of climate change without causing more trauma, anxiety and depression in a generation that’s already struggling to cope with such mental health issues? It’s a fine line to walk, experts say.

The Washington Post: Eco-Anxiety Is Overwhelming Kids. Where’s The Line Between Education And Alarmism?

And that’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/must-reads-of-the-week-from-brianna-labuskes-33/

[stephenmccull]

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

The Friday Breeze

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes, who reads everything on health care to compile our daily Morning Briefing, offers the best and most provocative stories for the weekend.

Happy Friday! In news that is technically really good and exciting but is also kind of icky: yarn made from human skin could eventually be used to stitch up surgical wounds as a way to cut down on detrimental reactions from patients. As CNN reports, “The researchers say their ‘human textile,’ which they developed from skin cells, can be used for knitting, sewing and even crochet.” My face has been stuck in the scream emoji since I read this story, so please join me. (Also for those who think neat!, make sure to check out Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, which has a journal bound with human skin and is actually very cool.)

Now on to what you may have missed this week.

It’s that time of year! President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address to Congress, where he declared the nation’s future to be “blazing bright.” During his speech he promised to “never let socialism destroy American health care,” encouraged Congress to send him a bill on drug pricing (to which Democrats began chanting the name of the legislation the House has already passed), and touted his administration’s push for price transparency in health care.

He also said that Democrats were trying to provide health coverage for immigrants who are in the country illegally; called for a ban on abortions that are late in term; promised to always protect Medicare; said more than 7 million people have been shifted off food stamps during his term; and took credit for a drop in health insurance premiums. Various outlets fact checked these statements — which range from completely false to misleading to true — so I’ll link to a collection of them.

Fact Checking State Of The Union: Premiums, Pre-existing Conditions, Price Transparency, And More

The New York Times: Six Takeaways From Trump’s 2020 State Of The Union Speech

Stat: Dems Interrupted The State Of The Union To Chant For Their Drug Pricing Bill

The Friday Breeze

Want a roundup of the must-read stories this week chosen by KHN Newsletter Editor Brianna Labuskes? Sign up for The Friday Breeze today.

Sign Up

Please confirm your email address below:

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  And now for the coronavirus roundup, where I sifted through hundreds of stories so you don’t have to. Before we dive in, just a reminder that there are still only 12 confirmed cases in the U.S.

— As coronavirus cases in China skyrocket past 30,000 (with 636 deaths), Chinese officials are now performing house-to-house searches in Wuhan, collecting the sick and warehousing them in quarantine centers. In the city, there’s a growing sense that the residents are being sacrificed for the good of the rest of the country. “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever,” said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

The New York Times: China Tightens Wuhan Lockdown In ‘Wartime’ Battle With Coronavirus

— The death of one of the first Chinese doctors to warn about a coronavirus outbreak sent waves of grief and anger through a nation that’s growing more and more frustrated with how its government is handling the outbreak.

The New York Times: A Rare Online Revolt Emerges In China Over Death Of Coronavirus Whistle-Blower

— After a week of cases jumping by double-digit percentages, health officials still say it’s too early to declare that the virus has peaked.

The Wall Street Journal: World Health Authorities Warn Virus Hasn’t Peaked After China’s Deadliest Day

— Hundreds more Americans were evacuated from China and will be quarantined by the U.S. government. But the outrageous fact I learned this week is that those people (and their insurers) are on the hook for any medical costs that arise from being quarantined. For those who are deemed unable to afford health insurance, the government will pick up the tab but it might outsource some of those costs to programs like Medicaid when possible. The evacuees also have to pay for their flight out of China and the cost to get to their final destination when the quarantine is over.

CNN: What It Means To Be Under The Coronavirus Federal Quarantine In The US

— In what seems a bit like the start of a dystopian reality TV show, thousands of cruise passengers are being quarantined on two ships off the coast of Japan and Hong Kong. A third cruise has been turned away from multiple ports.

The Washington Post: Trapped On Coronavirus-Ravaged Cruise Ship, Diamond Princess Passengers Struggle To Keep Spirits Up

— This story is an interesting look at how the first case in the U.S. was discovered, and more broadly showcases local public health officials who are often the ones on the front lines of a new outbreak.

The New York Times: Inside The Race To Contain America’s First Coronavirus Case

— The majority of human diseases, including the coronavirus, are zoonotic, or passed from animals to humans. If you want a brief summary of some notable ones throughout history, check out this piece from WSJ that includes a shout-out to a 5,300 mummified man who, before he died from an arrow, suffered from Lyme disease.

The Wall Street Journal: Plagues From The Animal Kingdom

— Not to be all doom and gloom, it seems to be humans’ lot in life to constantly be at war with pathogens. That means even if we contain the coronavirus, there’s just another deadly pathogen waiting in the wings.

Bloomberg: Man Vs. Microbe: We’re Not Ready For The Next Global Virus Outbreak

Meanwhile, this year’s strain of the flu is hitting children particularly hard. More than half of the positive flu tests from public health labs this season have been in children and adults under the age of 25.

The Wall Street Journal: The Flu Is Hitting Children Especially Hard This Season

It might be hard to focus on anything but the results snafu at the Iowa caucuses, but advocates for disabled voters are also reporting back on how the efforts to expand access played out. The Iowa Democratic Party took strides this year to better help disabled voters participate, and for some the experience was positive. Others, however, said that reality looked a lot different than what the party’s messaging promised.

Stateline: Confusion Reigned In Iowa Caucus — Even Before The Chaotic Results

Stat: Amid Iowa Chaos, Some With Disabilities Got An Accessible Caucus Location

In theory, employers pay their workers less because part of their benefits package includes health insurance. But if the country moved toward a “Medicare for All” model, would workers see their wages increase dollar-by-dollar of what was being spent on coverage? Not necessarily.

The New York Times: Would Your Wages Rise Under ‘Medicare For All’?

Although the Trump administration’s roll-out of the “Healthy Adult Opportunity” program that would encourage states to shift toward a block-grant style of funding drew lots of attention, a little-noticed change that could lead to big cuts flew somewhat under the radar. Governors of both parties, however, are sounding the alarm that an arcane fiscal accountability rule could lead to cuts up to $49 billion a year.

The Associated Press: Trump Rule Could Lead To Big Medicaid Cuts, Governors Warn

As is often the case with bans, teenagers are already finding a way around the e-cigarette flavor restrictions that went into effect this week. The FDA only regulated reusable vaping products, but disposable pods (with flavors like pink lemonade) are widely available at gas stations and the like.

The Associated Press: FDA Crackdown On Vaping Flavors Has Blind Spot: Disposables

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie abruptly fired his undersecretary, James Byrne, this week in what he called a “simple business decision.” Wilkie was forced to defend the decision because Byrne was well-liked by the veterans community, and the loss was just the latest in a long string of turnovers at the top of the troubled agency. Some also questioned if the dismissal had anything to do with the investigation of sexual assault allegations by Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein.

The New York Times: Deputy Secretary Of Veterans Affairs Is Abruptly Dismissed

And in the miscellaneous file for the week:

— Following the recent deaths of 15 inmates, the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system, which seems to be in the grips of a violent crisis.

The New York Times: Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Mississippi Prisons

— Anonymous reporting systems that have been set up to help prevent school shootings have actually been helping combat the epidemic of suicides in teens. Schools and local officials are pouring billions of dollars into preventing the next mass attack, and yet self-harm and suicidal ideation are what students are reporting far more often than any kind of suspicious activity. Public health officials say this should be a wake-up call about the real threat to young people.

NBC News: School Tip Lines Were Meant To Stop Shootings, But Uncovered A Teen Suicide Crisis

— How do you raise kids to prepare them for the projected negative effects of climate change without causing more trauma, anxiety and depression in a generation that’s already struggling to cope with such mental health issues? It’s a fine line to walk, experts say.

The Washington Post: Eco-Anxiety Is Overwhelming Kids. Where’s The Line Between Education And Alarmism?

And that’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[theconservativebrief]

President Donald Trump is trying to fool evangelicals like me. This time, it’s using a false threat of an invasion from a “caravan” of poor people marching through Mexico to seek asylum legally. It should be obvious to everyone. But it isn’t — research shows that evangelicals tend to have strong political opinions when it comes to immigration, so they are distinctly open to this fear-driven message.

I’m a professor, pastor, and writer who serves at the flagship school of institutional evangelicalism, Wheaton College. I’ve spoken and researched the topic of evangelicals and immigration for five years, due to my concern about how this community seems to reject their deeply held values when it comes to welcoming refugees into our country. As I’ve seen the anti-immigration fervor rise among evangelicals, I’ve hosted an evangelical leaders summit and rallied evangelicals to the engage on these issues.

The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, where I currently work, partnered with LifeWay Research in May 2018 to poll 3,000 Americans about their voting in the most recent national election. The purpose was to understand evangelical voting patterns. We found, as other research projects support, that white evangelicals are highly motivated to support President Donald Trump around the issue of immigration. As his rhetoric around the caravan shows, President Trump clearly knows this.

As evangelicals prepare to vote, we need to consider how this messaging has found purchase in our pews and, more importantly, how our faith calls us to respond. It makes little of the depth of God’s love for us in Christ by teaching us that our love for others is conditioned by country, race, or ethnicity. Regardless of political affiliation and positions, evangelicals need to see this culture of fear of others for what it is: un-Christian.

Before I dive into the research, it’s important to explain how we determined the evangelical label in our surveys.

Evangelicalism is one the poorest defined political and religious terms, yet is ubiquitous today. One reason for this is a lack of consensus among pollsters as to how to determine and measure evangelicals. Today, many pollsters rely on combinations of self-identification, belief, denomination, or race as drivers of evangelical identity. The patchwork nature of the label means that many journalists and pundits are often working off different definitions.

In an effort to balance these different approaches, our study surveyed evangelicals by belief and by self-identification. To determine if they fit the profile of evangelical by belief, they had to “strongly agree” with four separate statements:

1. The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.

2. It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

3. Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.

4. Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

On questions of immigration cited below, differences between self-identified evangelicals and evangelicals by belief were statistically negligible. But for simplicity sake, we will use the numbers from evangelicals by belief only. I should also note that this study occurred prior to the conflict over family separation at the border.

Using these constructs, we found that for evangelicals, immigration was a major factor in voting for Donald Trump in 2016. Sixty-two percent of evangelicals who voted for Trump listed immigration as one reason for their vote; 15 percent saying it was the single most important factor.

We then asked these evangelicals what they thought of the Trump administration’s actions on immigration since he took office. We found that two out of three evangelicals said they support the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce illegal immigration, while 63 percent support recent reductions in the number of legal immigrants to the United States.

However, we found the most significant splits within evangelical responses on these questions when we broke it down by race and ethnicity. White evangelicals overwhelmingly back more hardline positions on immigration, with three-fourths wanting a reduction in legal immigration and 82 percent supporting the administration’s efforts on illegal immigration.

But few evangelical people of color agreed. Only one-third of African-American evangelicals and half of Hispanics supported reductions in legal immigration, with slightly smaller percentages supporting the administration’s efforts on illegal immigration — 35 and 47 percent respectively.

It is hard not to conclude that far too many white evangelicals are motivated by racial anxiety and xenophobia compared to evangelicals of color. More research certainly is needed, but undoubtedly white evangelicals would do well to turn off cable news and listen to their sisters and brothers in the increasingly diverse pews of evangelical churches for a different view.

When it comes to immigration, evangelicals tend to be more anti-immigration, supporting reductions in immigration, tightening of borders, and (as other studies show) positions on refugees. How should Christians respond to these numbers and, more importantly, how should Christians think about immigration and refugees?

These numbers tell me is that many evangelicals are not particularly good at loving strangers, aliens, and pilgrims. Yet throughout scripture we find this value is a central pillar of the Christian faith. In what Christians call the Old Testament, God places hospitality and protection of foreigners at the core of Israel’s ethical identity.

In two passages, God gives us the justification for why this is so important. In Leviticus 19:34, “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God,” while in Deuteronomy 10:19, “So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”

Notice this commandment is conditioned by Israel’s history: They were to welcome the foreigner because they too had been foreigners in a strange land. This same conditional theme is picked up in the New Testament, this time in relation to how Christians are supposed to live in light of Christ’s love for us. At its most basic level we are called to love others unconditionally and sacrificially because Christ first loved us in the same way.

Political and media narratives tell you that distrusting, fearing, or even hating immigrants and refugees is a justified feeling. But scripture calls us to see ourselves in the immigrant and to love others as Christ first loved us.

Despite this “loving your neighbor” phrase, people do not naturally love the stranger. They do not naturally open their homes, their dinner tables, their churches, and, yes, their countries to others. We have an instinct to hoard, to protect what we have, and to insist others go find their own security and provisions.

More to the point, it is hard for American Christians to grasp the depth of suffering in the world when the grocery store is fully stocked and the emergency room is just down the road for many of us. This is not to say there are not real challenges and real needs in our country. Yet, within our bubble of American evangelicalism, we often lose sight of how much suffering there is in the world.

But teaching people to love and show hospitality toward immigrants and refugees isn’t just about getting our own house in order — we must fight the counter-narratives at work both in and out of the church.

We live in a culture where many political and religious leaders are teaching believers to fear the stranger. What is clear from the data is that this counter-discipling narrative is winning in the church, particularly among white evangelicals.

One recent infamous example was the Fox News guest who claimed immigrants in the caravan traveling through Mexico was carrying leprosy, smallpox, and tuberculosis and were going to “infect our people in the United States.” Despite having no evidence of this claim — and the fact that the last known case of smallpox was in Somalia in 1977 — this claim was given airtime on a major news network. These kinds of reports are not simply false but designed to provoke animosity, leading audiences in a culture of fear toward these people.

In other words, Christians are being conditioned to see threats where we would otherwise see suffering and a window to preach the gospel; to trade-in our gospel mission for a false sense of personal security.

I have been, along with many other evangelical leaders, a strong proponent of US immigration reform. The system as currently constituted is not working and needs to be addressed. But too often politicians seem more interested in using immigration as a means of galvanizing their base and demonizing their opponents than actually coming up with solutions.

When I and other evangelicals speak up on the importance of opening our arms to refugees and immigrants, I get a flood of complaints about open borders and references to George Soros. In emails and on social media, Christians whose profiles lead with tags such as “sinner redeemed by grace,” unleash anger that often surprises me.

Love for immigrants and refugees does not mean we ignore immigration reform. Rather, it makes demands on the way we structure new immigration policy, the way we treat those who seek refuge and safety, and how we treat those already in our country.

My views — like many evangelical leaders who are part of the Evangelical Immigration Table — have more in common with former President George W. Bush’s views than George Soros’s. But in today’s world, Bush is often painted as an immigration radical by my fellow evangelicals.

Furthermore, Christians need to be careful of those who misuse Romans 13:1-4, a passage that tells Christians to live in a way that is respectful and honoring toward our governing authority, while recognizing that God is sovereign over kings and presidents.

It is not, however, a trump card for letting the government do whatever it wants. The government exists under God’s authority and is subject to God’s moral law and is not entitled to our unquestioned fealty. This passage has long been used to justify immoral, un-Christian policies under the guise of the government protecting its citizens. But it is a misunderstanding of the passage.

In future generations, I think our evangelical heirs will look back in disappointment upon our response to the refugee crisis of our time. How could we have seen the suffering, heard the cries of anguish, and done so little? For evangelicals living today it is easy to look back and say we would have fought slavery or marched along with civil rights leaders. It is altogether harder to actually make those sacrifices today in the face of suffering.

If this is indeed the “election of the caravan,” my prayer is that evangelicals will recognize the opportunity it affords us to speak about how these refugees are made in the image of God. As Christians, we should be driven by compassion for those men, women, and children. And, as Americans, we should value a system that treats them fairly, in accordance with just laws.

I suspect that Christians will wake up this Wednesday morning and the so-called dangerous, filthy caravan of invading barbarian criminals will suddenly be gone from the political coverage. Oh, the asylum seekers will still be there. But the ads, the campaign speeches, and the tweets trying to stoke fears will magically disappear when polls close.

And white evangelical Christians will be able to go back to their lives, safe once again. That is, until politicians need us to be afraid again. There will always be another caravan, another group of marginalized or suffering people.

Our evangelical witness would be in a better place if we were less easily fooled.

Ed Stetzer leads the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. His most recent book is Christians in the Age of Outrage: How to Bring Our Best When the World Is at Its Worst, which addresses how often Christians now are driven by fear, rather than faith.

First Person is Vox’s home for compelling, provocative narrative essays. Do you have a story to share? Read our submission guidelines, and pitch us at firstperson@vox.com.

Original Source -> Fellow evangelicals: stop falling for Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric

via The Conservative Brief

[zipgrowth]

What U.S. Companies Should Know About Asia's Edtech Market

Last summer, when I was working for ThinkCERCA, which helps students develop critical thinking skills through reading and writing, the edtech startup was facing a big decision: should it try and break into the lucrative Chinese market?

On the one hand, China’s private education market is projected to grow 9 percent per year until 2020, reaching a value of $330 billion—an enticing market for many American entrepreneurs. On the other, the uncertainty of the market, and the fact that it looks very different from the U.S. education space, can pose serious challenges to any organization.

After a summer of market research and competitor analysis, the company eventually signed off on a collaboration with a Chinese partner, TAL Education. A year later, this project has grown steadily with over 300 Chinese students enrolled in the joint program. ThinkCERCA is definitely not the first U.S. company that has eyed Asia as the next big market. But their story is not a blueprint that will make sense for every company.

If your product or services can easily pivot to English-teaching or improving students’ readiness for standardized tests, then Asia may provide a big potential market

Back home, I’m a Chicago teacher, but I spend my summers consulting with edtech companies in Asia. Today, as I am drafting this article in the middle of the hustle-and-bustle of Tokyo’s Roppongi crossing—after working on another digital learning project in Japan over the summer—I realized many companies still don’t understand the realities of the Asian market. Between the drastic variations in business culture, social norms and day-to-day education affairs, there are a lot of differences companies should know about (along with a few similarities). Here’s a handy guide for anyone in edtech looking to cross the Pacific.

Boom Times for English-Teaching and Test-Prep

Parents in China and Japan are used to investing their own in money in education outside of school. Almost everyone I met during my time in Tokyo has been enrolled in a juku, or private cram school, at some point in their academic life, and the same goes for Shanghai, where I grew up.

Teacher friends in China tell me it’s now common practice for teachers to connect with parents through group chats on WeChat (a ubiquitous messaging app), so they can keep up with what their kids are learning at school and help supervise at home. Parents in China are deeply involved in their children’s learning and development. As a result, a bigger part of the accountability for a child’s academic performance is shifted to the family, which makes them more committed to providing supervision and resources.

This is good news for educational products with a B2C—or business-to-consumer (or, in this case, parent)—model. The education markets in China and Japan have birthed many prosperous companies. In China, there is New Oriental, VIPKid and TAL Education. In Japan, there is Kumon and Z-Kai. As EdSurge and others have reported, these companies greatly concentrate in B2C English and tutoring services (and sometimes a combination of both).

If your product or services can easily pivot to English-teaching or improving students’ readiness for standardized tests as ThinkCERCA did by redesigning its curriculum to focus on supporting English language learners, then Asia may provide a big potential market.

Why B2B Edtech Is a Harder Sell

Deep down, it is the pervasive exam-focused system that stifles schools’ motivation for upgrading technology

While the Asian education market focuses heavily on test-prep and English tutoring, it can be hard to make sense of why business opportunities are not as lucrative for other subjects, such as STEM education, which is a fast-growing area in the U.S. In my experience, this phenomenon is partly caused by the limited business models that an edtech company can efficiently pursue in the two countries.

Last year when I visited home, I made a stop at my alma mater, Kongjiang High School, a top-ranking school in Shanghai. I was surprised to learn from my former literature teacher how little has changed in more than a decade—both the facilities and the way she teaches. When I asked if she uses any technology in class, I got a blank stare in return. After a while she said, “Oh, the projectors are still there.”

At least I can say my high school has Wi-Fi and does not restrain the use of mobile devices after class. A year ago, I took a group of exchange students from Chicago to Taizhou No.1 High School, a top school in a small, affluent city in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai. There we encountered even harsher restrictions on technology. The school’s Wi-Fi is exclusive to teachers, and any use of mobile devices is banned. You would think that the hype around the use of technology in classrooms in the West would have had some influence on these elite schools in China’s most economically-advanced areas. But the reality is that in most K-12 schools, the infrastructure for edtech adoption simply does not exist.

The situation is similar in Japan. Although the country is perceived as a pioneer in technology innovation, teachers’ mindsets around tech use and facilities in Japanese K-12 schools are no different than in China. I spoke with teachers from five different schools while I was in Japan and found that most schools seem to view the internet as a source of distraction instead of a source of essential information, and so restrict the use of technology in schools.

But the reality is that in most K-12 schools, the infrastructure for edtech adoption simply does not exist

My friend Norbert, who used to teach English in a small town called Minowa, said that his school made news three years ago when they found funding for installing projectors and purchasing 140 iPads for the school’s 775 students. The only school I interviewed that is equipped with high-speed internet and 1:1 tablets is an all-boys private boarding school located in the outskirts of Tokyo. When I asked my friend Jose who teaches there how he uses the tablets, he said he only uses them occasionally to share notes.

Deep down, it is the pervasive exam-focused system that stifles schools’ motivation for upgrading technology, as the purpose of schooling is twisted from preparing students to be ready for life to getting them ready for exams. Edtech projects that try to enhance students’ learning experience without directly targeting test-taking skills—such as gamified learning products and project-based learning platforms—do not appeal to schools whose biggest priority is test-performance. (And you can forget about products that focus on emotional skills or social justice.)

In the U.S., a good number of edtech products, such as Google Classroom and Edmodo, are designed exclusively for in-school use, and cannot survive without a B2B market. Parents alone won’t use them, and schools don’t have the infrastructure for them, making adoption a non-starter.

Sparks for Change in Japan

The craving for a more diverse educational experience in Japan can be felt in many places

Flash back to a humid Saturday afternoon in August, when I was invited to serve as a judge for an English speech competition in Tokyo. After the competition, the parents of one of the contestants, a lovely girl named Asuka, approached me and we exchanged some thoughts on education. They were concerned that Japan’s test-driven approach would hinder their daughter’s development of creative and social skills. “I would love to send her to an international school here or even a school in America in the future,” Asuka’s mom told me.

And she is not alone. The craving for a more diverse educational experience in Japan can be felt in many places. Every day during my two months there, I would pass the Roppongi Hills, an integrated development area with apartments, offices and all sorts of businesses, where I would see parents line up to enroll their children in the summer workshops. These workshops taught everything from Scratch and game design to the culture of Gujo City and 3D printing deer horn necklaces. These innovative educational experiences attracted a big crowd of Japanese parents from this upscale neighborhood.

In response to these needs, some schools, such as the one that my friend taught in Minowa, are starting to change. Japan’s education policy has also been debating whether or not to adopt yutori kyōiku, roughly (and somewhat misleadingly) interpreted as a more relaxed education.

Gearing up for the Olympics in 2020, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has announced major changes for education, including adopting fully online and computer-based testing and requiring college admission to assess a full spectrum of applicants’ credentials, including extracurricular activities. In the U.S., policy changes, such as the implementation of Common Core and online-administered standardized tests helped speed up the shift to digital in schools. The impact of the new education policy remain unclear, but there is a chance that it could have the same effect in Japan.

And in China

Privileged families from China and Japan are becoming pillars of a greater variety of edtech companies’ sales in Asia

In China, the growing need for change in education is fueled by the country’s emergent middle and upper class. These families, who benefited from China’s fast economic growth in the past few decades, now have the financial leeway to offer their children a new choice: a college degree from a foreign institution.

Suddenly, the outstanding standardized test performance of those renowned traditional Chinese schools has become irrelevant to these families. Paired with the anxiety to maintain their children’s social status in the consolidating social stratification process, they are eagerly looking for more personalized and humanistic ways of schooling. From 2010 to 2017, the number of international schools almost doubled in China to answer the growing need. Privileged families from China and Japan are becoming pillars of a greater variety of edtech companies’ sales in Asia. My friend, Eddy Zhong, founded his own summer camp, LeanGap, for high school entrepreneurs, which focuses on creativity and problem-solving. He now receives tons of applications from across Asia to attend his $6,000 summer program.

In that respect, privileged schools and parents in both China and Japan may be opening up a lucrative niche for the U.S. edtech companies. But institutional change takes time. Will these sparks ignite a shift to a new, tech-driven era in Asian education? It’s possible. Just don’t count out the power of the all-mighty test quite yet.

What U.S. Companies Should Know About Asia's Edtech Market published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

The Friday Breeze

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes, who reads everything on health care to compile our daily Morning Briefing, offers the best and most provocative stories for the weekend.

Happy Friday! In news that is technically really good and exciting but is also kind of icky: yarn made from human skin could eventually be used to stitch up surgical wounds as a way to cut down on detrimental reactions from patients. As CNN reports, “The researchers say their ‘human textile,’ which they developed from skin cells, can be used for knitting, sewing and even crochet.” My face has been stuck in the scream emoji since I read this story, so please join me. (Also for those who think neat!, make sure to check out Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, which has a journal bound with human skin and is actually very cool.)

Now on to what you may have missed this week.

It’s that time of year! President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address to Congress, where he declared the nation’s future to be “blazing bright.” During his speech he promised to “never let socialism destroy American health care,” encouraged Congress to send him a bill on drug pricing (to which Democrats began chanting the name of the legislation the House has already passed), and touted his administration’s push for price transparency in health care.

He also said that Democrats were trying to provide health coverage for immigrants who are in the country illegally; called for a ban on abortions that are late in term; promised to always protect Medicare; said more than 7 million people have been shifted off food stamps during his term; and took credit for a drop in health insurance premiums. Various outlets fact checked these statements — which range from completely false to misleading to true — so I’ll link to a collection of them.

Fact Checking State Of The Union: Premiums, Pre-existing Conditions, Price Transparency, And More

The New York Times: Six Takeaways From Trump’s 2020 State Of The Union Speech

Stat: Dems Interrupted The State Of The Union To Chant For Their Drug Pricing Bill

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  And now for the coronavirus roundup, where I sifted through hundreds of stories so you don’t have to. Before we dive in, just a reminder that there are still only 12 confirmed cases in the U.S.

— As coronavirus cases in China skyrocket past 30,000 (with 636 deaths), Chinese officials are now performing house-to-house searches in Wuhan, collecting the sick and warehousing them in quarantine centers. In the city, there’s a growing sense that the residents are being sacrificed for the good of the rest of the country. “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever,” said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

The New York Times: China Tightens Wuhan Lockdown In ‘Wartime’ Battle With Coronavirus

— The death of one of the first Chinese doctors to warn about a coronavirus outbreak sent waves of grief and anger through a nation that’s growing more and more frustrated with how its government is handling the outbreak.

The New York Times: A Rare Online Revolt Emerges In China Over Death Of Coronavirus Whistle-Blower

— After a week of cases jumping by double-digit percentages, health officials still say it’s too early to declare that the virus has peaked.

The Wall Street Journal: World Health Authorities Warn Virus Hasn’t Peaked After China’s Deadliest Day

— Hundreds more Americans were evacuated from China and will be quarantined by the U.S. government. But the outrageous fact I learned this week is that those people (and their insurers) are on the hook for any medical costs that arise from being quarantined. For those who are deemed unable to afford health insurance, the government will pick up the tab but it might outsource some of those costs to programs like Medicaid when possible. The evacuees also have to pay for their flight out of China and the cost to get to their final destination when the quarantine is over.

CNN: What It Means To Be Under The Coronavirus Federal Quarantine In The US

— In what seems a bit like the start of a dystopian reality TV show, thousands of cruise passengers are being quarantined on two ships off the coast of Japan and Hong Kong. A third cruise has been turned away from multiple ports.

The Washington Post: Trapped On Coronavirus-Ravaged Cruise Ship, Diamond Princess Passengers Struggle To Keep Spirits Up

— This story is an interesting look at how the first case in the U.S. was discovered, and more broadly showcases local public health officials who are often the ones on the front lines of a new outbreak.

The New York Times: Inside The Race To Contain America’s First Coronavirus Case

— The majority of human diseases, including the coronavirus, are zoonotic, or passed from animals to humans. If you want a brief summary of some notable ones throughout history, check out this piece from WSJ that includes a shout-out to a 5,300 mummified man who, before he died from an arrow, suffered from Lyme disease.

The Wall Street Journal: Plagues From The Animal Kingdom

— Not to be all doom and gloom, it seems to be humans’ lot in life to constantly be at war with pathogens. That means even if we contain the coronavirus, there’s just another deadly pathogen waiting in the wings.

Bloomberg: Man Vs. Microbe: We’re Not Ready For The Next Global Virus Outbreak

Meanwhile, this year’s strain of the flu is hitting children particularly hard. More than half of the positive flu tests from public health labs this season have been in children and adults under the age of 25.

The Wall Street Journal: The Flu Is Hitting Children Especially Hard This Season

It might be hard to focus on anything but the results snafu at the Iowa caucuses, but advocates for disabled voters are also reporting back on how the efforts to expand access played out. The Iowa Democratic Party took strides this year to better help disabled voters participate, and for some the experience was positive. Others, however, said that reality looked a lot different than what the party’s messaging promised.

Stateline: Confusion Reigned In Iowa Caucus — Even Before The Chaotic Results

Stat: Amid Iowa Chaos, Some With Disabilities Got An Accessible Caucus Location

In theory, employers pay their workers less because part of their benefits package includes health insurance. But if the country moved toward a “Medicare for All” model, would workers see their wages increase dollar-by-dollar of what was being spent on coverage? Not necessarily.

The New York Times: Would Your Wages Rise Under ‘Medicare For All’?

Although the Trump administration’s roll-out of the “Healthy Adult Opportunity” program that would encourage states to shift toward a block-grant style of funding drew lots of attention, a little-noticed change that could lead to big cuts flew somewhat under the radar. Governors of both parties, however, are sounding the alarm that an arcane fiscal accountability rule could lead to cuts up to $49 billion a year.

The Associated Press: Trump Rule Could Lead To Big Medicaid Cuts, Governors Warn

As is often the case with bans, teenagers are already finding a way around the e-cigarette flavor restrictions that went into effect this week. The FDA only regulated reusable vaping products, but disposable pods (with flavors like pink lemonade) are widely available at gas stations and the like.

The Associated Press: FDA Crackdown On Vaping Flavors Has Blind Spot: Disposables

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie abruptly fired his undersecretary, James Byrne, this week in what he called a “simple business decision.” Wilkie was forced to defend the decision because Byrne was well-liked by the veterans community, and the loss was just the latest in a long string of turnovers at the top of the troubled agency. Some also questioned if the dismissal had anything to do with the investigation of sexual assault allegations by Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein.

The New York Times: Deputy Secretary Of Veterans Affairs Is Abruptly Dismissed

And in the miscellaneous file for the week:

— Following the recent deaths of 15 inmates, the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system, which seems to be in the grips of a violent crisis.

The New York Times: Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Mississippi Prisons

— Anonymous reporting systems that have been set up to help prevent school shootings have actually been helping combat the epidemic of suicides in teens. Schools and local officials are pouring billions of dollars into preventing the next mass attack, and yet self-harm and suicidal ideation are what students are reporting far more often than any kind of suspicious activity. Public health officials say this should be a wake-up call about the real threat to young people.

NBC News: School Tip Lines Were Meant To Stop Shootings, But Uncovered A Teen Suicide Crisis

— How do you raise kids to prepare them for the projected negative effects of climate change without causing more trauma, anxiety and depression in a generation that’s already struggling to cope with such mental health issues? It’s a fine line to walk, experts say.

The Washington Post: Eco-Anxiety Is Overwhelming Kids. Where’s The Line Between Education And Alarmism?

And that’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/