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Last August, Hurricane Irene was there through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, causing widespread damage . The Category 3 storm pulled up water levels, generating storm surges with widespread impact on seaside settlements. Many hurricane analysts suggested, based on the wide extent of flooding, that Irene was a “100-year event”: a storm that only comes once in a century.
According to wikipedia
Hurricane Irene was a large and powerful Atlantic hurricane that left extensive flood and wind damage along its path through the Caribbean, the United States East Coast and as far north as Atlantic Canada in 2011. The ninth named storm, first hurricane and first major hurricane of the annual hurricane season, Irene originated from a well-defined Atlantic tropical wave that began showing signs of organization east of the Lesser Antilles. It developed atmospheric convection and a closed cyclonic circulation center, prompting the National Hurricane Center to initiate public advisories late on August 20, 2011. Irene improved in organization as it passed the Leeward Islands, and by August 21, it had moved closer to Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The next day, Irene made landfall at Category 1 hurricane strength in Puerto Rico, where severe flooding resulted in significant property damage and the death of one person.
Researchers from MIT and Princeton University have found that with climate change, such storms could make landfall far more frequently, causing powerful, devastating storm surges every three to 20 years. They found that today’s “500-year floods” could, with climate change, occur once every 25 to 240 years. The researchers published their results in the current issue of Nature Climate Change.
MIT postdoc Ning Lin, lead author of the study, says knowing the frequency of storm surges may help urban and coastal planners design seawalls and other protective structures.
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Philosophy buffs know Epicurus from his influence on Greek thought. Today’s gourmands think of him as that guy who lent his name to tasty, decadent delights. And, to education experts, he stands apart from his Hellenistic contemporaries because his school embraced demographics considered unembraceable — specifically, slaves and women. To many modern audiences, this seems a rather obvious decision, but at the time Epicurus quite scandalized everyone by setting up more equitable classrooms and encouraging the potential of all Greece’s peoples.
Special needs education started with Valentin Hauy and his Paris-based Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, which opened its doors to visually impaired and blind students frequently marginalized (if not outright ignored) by mainstream schools. One such graduate, Louis Braille, devised the ubiquitous system used to allow the blind to read printed materials and landed a position with his alma mater. Between the two of them, they made it possible for promising people who just happened to be disabled to receive the educational opportunities they deserved.
Following America’s jettisoning of the ghastly slavery institution, this game-changing activist proved instrumental in providing emancipated black Americans with equal educational opportunities. Most notably, Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers founders Lewis Adams and George W. Campbell turned to civil rights leader Booker T. Washington when seeking out a devoted leader. Now known as Tuskegee University, the college grew thanks to his generous financial and real estate acquisitions, leaving behind an endowment of more than $1 million after his passing.
All of W.E.B. Du Bois’ accomplishments pushing for the education of African-Americans could fill up this entire article. Seeing as how he co-founded a little organization known as the NAACP, it’s safe to assume that students today feel his influence. The NAACP, among numerous other civil rights initiatives, always has and always will stand as one of the most important figures in black education. Its Youth & College Division hopes to smash stereotypes and the last remaining vestiges of institutionalized racism in the classroom and beyond.
The first woman ever admitted into the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences challenged the nation’s perceptions of what females can do in the research sector. Maria Mitchell’s very career could be considered radical in and of itself because of all the opportunities she unlocked for aspirant lady scientists. In addition, she deserves mention for demanding equal pay from Vassar University — where she served not only as the Observatory’s director, but the very first faculty member — and actually got it. Definitely a bold move benefiting female education pros!
Most audiences these days know little of Helen Keller’s stunning life beyond The Miracle Worker — a shame, as her myriad staggering accomplishments still hold relevance today. The very first Bachelor of Arts recipient who happened to be both blind and deaf didn’t stop advocacy efforts after graduation. While supporting the equality of women and minorities, worker’s rights, anti-war efforts, and other near-and-dear causes, she also worked tirelessly to promote equal education for the disabled in the classroom and beyond. Many individuals and organizations, regardless of whether or not she interacted with them, found her activism positively inspirational.
Although the Montessori method of teaching is often more associated with specialized schools, even teachers in mainstream public institutions often turn to its founder for inspiration. One of the most influential education experts of all time, even after her death, Maria Montessori receives considerable praise for her revolutionary strategies. They intentionally line up with a child’s natural cognitive development, allowing for “discovery” over forced memorization and rigid, inflexible syllabi.
Even individuals who’ve never heard Jean Piaget’s name have more than likely ended up subjected to some of his theories. A psychologist, natural scientist, and philosopher rather than a straight-up teacher, he researched the cognitive differences between children and adults, discovering their unique development structure. Prior to this, many simply believed them to be grown-ups in miniature and treated them as such in the classroom. As a result, education pros ran with his findings in order to draw up more effective lesson plans and strategies.
These days, pretty much everything related to Frederic Wertham online deals with his crusades against comic books and media violence — to the point it overshadows his significant educational accomplishment. Without this controversial psychiatrist and Johns Hopkins professor, American schools might very well have desegregated much later, if at all. His research revealed that educational institutions split along racial lines actually inhibit academic progress in whites and blacks alike.
Similar to the Montessori method, Toru Kumon’s educational strategies emphasize learning at a child’s own unique pace with the earnest belief that every student holds a right fair amount of potential. It’s just a matter of offering them the right materials and training to meet their needs. Merging educational theory with capitalistic opportunities, the Kumon Learning Centers franchise focuses building on math and language through patience and repetition, serving as a sort of hybrid of traditional and Montessori approaches. At least 19 million kids have benefited from Kumon’s schools worldwide since its 1956 founding, and each one tweaks itself to meet specific cultural and linguistic needs.
Remedial and Special Education Journal named Paul Wehman one of the millennium’s 100 most important names in the special education sector. His influence spreads well beyond the classroom, however, as his research proved essential in establishing policies providing employment accommodations to mentally and physically disabled individuals. What piqued the periodical’s praise was how he applied these findings to offering young students opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have. And, of course, he developed valuable strategies for helping them transition from school into the working world with little to no complications.
Virginia Uribe spent more than four decades as a counselor and teacher in Los Angeles-area public schools. This placed her front and center with shifting perspectives of and toward LGBT youth. Founded in 1984, her Project 10 initiative involves students, faculty, staff, parents, and the surrounding community with the goal of creating safe spaces for this oft-marginalized demographic. With LGBT equality at the forefront of today’s civil rights movement, Project 10 is working on more than a quarter century of experience making sure schools properly address bullying, marginalization, and other inequities along sexual and gender orientation and identity lines.
When England and Northern Ireland attempted to forge an uneasy peace, this champion for creative thought proved indispensable in outlining educational programs meant to stimulate peoples and the economy alike. Sir Kenneth Robinson, former Director of the Arts in Schools Project, has racked up a litany of prestigious honors and awards for his unwavering dedication to promoting innovative thought; and considering he believes contemporary schools squash such potential, that means he still has quite a bit of fighting left ahead of him.
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