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South African Journal of Education
versão On-line ISSN 2076-3433
versão impressa ISSN 0256-0100
S. Afr. j. educ. vol.28 no.4 Pretoria Nov. 2008
Spirituality in the workplace: a reality for South African teachers?
Jeanette de Klerk-Luttig
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Policy Studies at the University of Stellenbosch. Her research interests include moral education, spirituality in education, and the role of parents, communities and schools in the instilling of values. E-mail: email@example.com
In this article I identify the concept spirituality as an often neglected dimension of the lives of teachers in South Africa. The concept spirit is elucidated and, from the various definitions, criteria of spirituality are distilled. The spirituality of teachers in South Africa is viewed in the light of these criteria. Thereafter I speculate on the various reasons why a condition of spiritual stuntedness seems to be prevalent among many teachers in South Africa and conclude with suggestions on how to counteract the spiritual stuntedness of teachers, so that their spiritual dimension is acknowledged and developed in the workplace.
Keywords: connectedness; meaning; spirituality; spiritual stuntedness; transcendence; wholeness
In this article I argue for the importance of making a teacher's spirit a legitimate topic in debates on education in South Africa. The language of spirituality is rarely used explicitly in the educational debate in South Africa and I argue that this omission can result in an incomplete, one-sided, technicist view of education, because "intellect, emotion, and spirit depend on one another for wholeness. They are interwoven in the human self and in education at its best" (Palmer, 1998:4). Consequently, the exclusion of the spiritual dimension leads to the spiritual stuntedness of teachers.
Not all scholars are positive about the influence of spirituality on education and some challenge the very notion of spirituality in education. The range of contributions in Spirituality and Ethics in Education (Alexander, 2004) illustrates the tensions in the literature between optimistic and pessimistic approaches to the question of spirituality. The markedly disparate views between, for example, Semetsky (Alexander, 2004:54-64) and Gur-Ze'ev (Alexander, 2004:223-232) can only contribute to healthy scholarship, but it is not the aim in this article to expand on this debate.
Literature relating to spirituality abounds. Spirituality is the new buzzword, not only in theology but also in business science and in business leadership. "The intersection of spirituality with business leadership is currently the most published new topic in business school literature" (Delbecq in Leigh-Taylor, 2000:20). According to Fry (2003:702) there is an emerging and accelerating call for spirituality in the workplace. However, this is not true of the educational debate in South Africa, in spite of Starratt's view (1995:196) that "educational leaders should be most attuned to their own spirituality." Roux (2006:152) concurs that: " In South Africa spirituality is still discussed mainly in the context of theology in general."
In this article the complex and elusive concept of spirit is discussed and categories of spirituality are distilled. These are then used as norms to determine whether the reality of being a teacher in South Africa leaves any scope for spirituality. Possible reasons for the neglect of the teacher's spirit will be debated and finally some suggestions will be made on how to counteract this. I try to understand and explain spirituality as a neglected dimension of teachers' lives within a dynamic web of relations from a hermeneutic, interpretative perspective. The hermeneutic approach is valuable in trying to understand the spirituality of teachers because it implies that there are no preconceived theories of spirituality, but works with different and often competing perspectives on being human. This aligns with constructive postmodernism which accepts that no one meaning is possible and teachers' spirituality is viewed as a construction of meaning, and does not have established, independent status outside the narratives and texts that constitute it. Constructive postmodernism, being one of the major contributing factors to the upsurge of interest in present-day spirituality, does not try to eliminate, but rather to revise modern premises and traditional concepts. In concordance with one of the most significant characteristics of constructive postmodernism I emphasise the interconnectedness of all life (Kourie, 2006:30-31). Arguments are developed within holistic anthropology because spirituality is seen not as an independent aspect of human beings but as an integral part of every human being.
An elucidation of the concept spirituality
The premise of my argument is a belief that human beings are essentially spiritual beings. Dyer (1993:310) strikingly endorses the need for such a departure point, grounded in the perspective on our human condition that: "We have to see ourselves as spiritual beings having a human experience rather than human beings who may be having a spiritual experience." Spirituality is a very elusive concept and although various attempts have been made to offer generic definitions of spirituality, some authors question the validity of these attempts (Alexander, 1980:247-256). Swinton (2001:12) describes spirituality as a "slippery concept" in western culture and Carr (1995: 85) purports that notions of spirituality in an educational context are often no more than a hotchpotch of vaguely connected items of cognition, intuition and feeling, between which it is nearly impossible to discern any coherent conceptual connections.
For the purposes of this article, the term spirituality is used to denote meaning, through language, to a specific dimension of life and experience. Vokey (2003:174) emphasises spirituality as a relational event; it either consists of or leads to experiences of connectedness with our deepest selves, other human and non-human souls, to the natural world and the cosmos beyond and the larger purposes and powers that transcend an ego's limited concerns. This coincides strongly with the emphasis placed by Hay and Nye (2006:21-22) who propose the term "relational consciousness" as being preferable to the term spirituality. Wigglesworth (2006:4) also stresses the relational aspect when defining spiritual intelligence as "the ability to behave with compassion and wisdom while maintaining peace regardless of the circumstances." Authors like O'Murchu (1997) and Elton-Chalcraft (2002) also agree on the relational character of spirituality. Chatterjee (1989:6) adds another dimension by focusing on the importance of community in spirituality, stating that "there can be no spirituality shorn of community." Palmer (1998:5) describes the spiritual as "the diverse ways we answer the heart's longing to be connected with the largeness of life a longing that animates love and work, specially the work called teaching." This article can therefore be placed within the holistic relational theory with authors like MacMurray (1991) and Buber (1958) who also described personal relationships as the heart of spirituality. This philosophical approach has much in common with the care ethics of Noddings (1984) and resonates with the philosophy of ubuntu. A discussion of the indigenous philosophy of ubuntu is beyond the scope of this article; see Swartz (2006) for an excellent explanation of ubuntu and Van der Walt and Valenkamp (2008) for an exposition of the spirituality embodied by ubuntu.
Spirituality also includes a sense of transcendence, a sense of calling or being called and therefore also one of meaning. Calling refers to the experience of making a difference to others through service and, in doing so, finding meaning and purpose in life (Fry, 2003:703). Where the spiritual plays an important role there is a shift from earning a living towards living a meaningful life, because spirituality is not primarily about success, but about significance and meaning. Meaning has to do with turning one's job into a vocation, thereby achieving a sense of personal wholeness, purpose and direction: "Spirituality links with integrity and wholeness" (Louw, 2005:133). The word integrity comes from the noun "integer" which means wholeness or completion (Peck, 1998:58). Spirituality, as an expression of wholeness, is therefore directly linked to the ability to act with integrity. When defining spirit and spirituality, Myers (1997:61) also accentuates aspects of transcendence and meaning: "Spirit is that property of being fully and wholly human that fuels our predisposition to transcend each and every condition in our experience. Spirituality is a construction of meaning meant to inform the human way we engage in that process of transcendence." Spirituality therefore relates intimately to establishing existential meaning, and often invokes questions of meaning: Why am I here? What really matters in life? What is the meaning of my life and how do I help others find meaning in their lives? What is my calling or vocation in life? The answers to these spiritual questions impact profoundly on what a teacher does and on how his/her actions are performed. Indeed, for Frankl (1964:99) "Man's search for meaning is a primary force in his life". Van der Walt and Valenkamp (2008) conclude that spirituality symbolises the human being's quest for meaning, depth and values, and describes how a person relates his or her actions towards the Absolute and towards others and to their own being, core values and practices.
The above dimensions of spirituality, especially connectedness (including membership and having a sense of being understood and appreciated) and a sense of transcendence (a sense of having a calling or being called and the meaning derived from that) are of critical importance for a teacher's spiritual journey.
Spirituality also stresses "the dynamic wholeness of self in which the self is at one with itself and with the whole of creation" (Zohar & Marshall, 2001: 124) and it requires that people regard themselves and others as whole beings. Louw (2005:16) offers a striking expression of this wholeness when he describes a human being as "an embodiment of soul and an ensoulment of body. One does not have a soul; one is one's soul in terms of mind, will, emotions and body. The religious dynamic in this embodiment and ensoulment is spirituality, our directedness towards transcendence (the divine and the ultimate)". Spirituality can therefore also be defined as the way(s) in which people strive to find meaning in their lives in the light of their deepest personal perceptions about the ultimate meaning of life. Waaijman (2002:1) defines spirituality as that which touches the core of human existence, namely, our relation to the absolute.
These criteria for spirituality, namely, the longing for connectedness, meaning and wholeness and the directedness towards ultimate meaning and transcendence, will be used in this article to determine whether teachers' spirituality is acknowledged and nurtured in their workplace.
Teachers' spirituality in the workplace
Teachers as spiritual beings long to experience connectedness and a sense of personal wholeness and meaning in their lives, including their vocational lives. Teachers who incorporate the spiritual dimension in their work are more inclined towards self-reflection; they are attentive to the relationship with their inner self, with others and with a power greater than the self. Their decisions tend to be influenced by virtues such as empathy, humility and love where love is viewed through the lens of Peck's (1997:148) definition as "the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." They are more apt truly to listen to others and to create spaces that release others' creativity and potential. Teachers' inner spiritual quest for connectedness, meaning and transcendence often leads to a reaching out to others, to an acceptance of and regard for their human dignity and to the forming of meaningful relationships (Palmer, 1999a:11; Zohar & Marshall 2001:14-15).
Spirituality underpins ethical behaviour and encourages social cohesion, but it is often privatised and according to Hay and Nye (2006:30) this privatisation dissipates its potential to change society because it cannot feed easily into public understanding or political legislation. When spirituality is restricted to the private realm of people's lives and teachers are unable to integrate spirit in their lives and classrooms, teaching degenerates into a technical and a de-spirited activity. Teaching, in the sense of experiencing and finding meaning in life, cannot be separated from spirituality.
I want to propose the idea that the emphasis on spirituality in schools equals a non-instrumental view of education whereas the absence of spirituality results in an overwhelmingly technicist approach to education. The material conditions of the South African context cannot be denied. Three out of five children live in poor households and are faced with appalling conditions of child abuse, malnutrition and interrupted schooling and are therefore exposed to the risk of impaired physical and mental development (May, Woolard & Klasten, 2000:33). Education cannot be divorced from solving societal problems, because if the issue of poverty is to be addressed, if export trade is to be increased, if the number of job opportunities is to be increased, and if the country is to grow economically, South Africa will have to produce better educated people. Hence we are confronted by the paramount importance of education for reducing poverty. I would like to propose a complementary view of education where instrumentality for the purpose of securing economic interests is not to be considered independently from putting spirit into education. The call for reinstating spirit in education is therefore not a stance that is in conflict with the important role of education in solving the problems of our society and in teaching learners useful knowledge that is of economic value for them. Incorporating spirituality in education is in fact not contradictory but complementary to solving societal problems, because one of the overarching themes in the literature on spirituality in education is that of connectedness of connection with our deepest selves and an Ultimate Power or Powers, and also with other human and non-human souls. Out of this connection grows compassion and caring and therefore "spirituality in schools has been presented as antidotes to a wide variety of student problems and social ills" (Vokey, 2003:174).
Spiritual stuntedness is in essence a state lacking in spontaneity, where people carry around too much self-consciousness, become overly concerned with form and appearances and shut themselves from what matters deeply (Zohar & Marshall, 2001:181). Teachers' spiritual stuntedness results in the absence of spirituality in teaching and this, in turn, influences all their relationships and every aspect of their work. In his interesting research on workplace spirituality, Pfeffer (2003:29-45) defines four dimensions that people really want their work to have, and all four can be interpreted as spiritual dimensions. They want their work (1) to be interesting and meaningful, allowing them to learn, develop and have a sense of competence and mastery, and (2) to give them some sense of purpose in their lives. They also want (3) to experience a sense of connectedness and positive social relations with co-workers, and (4) to live an integrated life where their work and other roles are integrated into their identity as a human being. The first two aspects are related to calling and the last two to connectedness and membership. Teachers as spiritual beings desire their work to be meaningful and to give them a feeling of purpose and achievement. They want to experience positive social relations with colleagues and learners. They want to live an integrated life where their role as a teacher is part of their identity (Kelchtermans in Vandenberge & Huberman, 1999:184-190).
Is there room for teachers' spirituality in South African schools?
Teachers, especially beginner teachers, frequently experience a sense of isolation. When a young teacher reflected in a personal interview in 2005 on the first three years of teaching, she said: "I have never felt so lonely in my life. I dare not tell anyone in the staffroom about my doubts and fears and feelings of loneliness and exhaustion". This sense of isolation and alienation experienced by teachers and the poor or unsupportive relationships they experience with colleagues and/or superiors are also reflected in the research of Jackson and Rothmann (2006:91-92), Swanepoel and Booyse (2003:98), and Montgomery, Mostert and Jackson (2005:266). Goleman (1995:226) comments as follows on the corrosive consequences of isolation: "Studies done over two decades involving more than 37,000 people show that social isolation the sense that you have nobody with whom you can share your private feelings, have close contact doubles the chances of sickness or death."
The priority list of schools' management teams rarely includes the need to create spaces where teachers can honestly share their stories and talk about personal issues with a direct bearing on their professional lives, such as: "What inspires or inhibits me?" or "When do I experience meaning in my work?" and "When do I experience feelings of worthlessness and isolation?" Instead, teachers often experience the lack of connectedness and painful "dismemberment" that Palmer (1998:20-21) describes as follows:
On the surface, this is the pain of people who thought they were joining a community of scholars but find themselves in distant, competitive, and uncaring relationships with colleagues and students. Deeper down, this pain is more spiritual than sociological: it comes from being disconnected from our own truth, from the passions that took us into teaching, from the heart that is the source of all good work.
Spirituality not only includes connectedness with others, but also connectedness with a power or being higher than the self that influences the way one operates. In South Africa, with its teachers and learners from many different religious, cultural and ethnic traditions, the tendency in schools is to steer away from discussing spirituality and to avoid questions regarding religion, a topic which can become divisive in a multi-religious country. Although the vocabulary of spirituality contains many religious terms, spirituality is viewed by some authors, such as Fry (2003:705), Harris and Morgan (1998) and the Dalai Lama (1999:22) as a much broader and inclusive term than the creed of any single organised religion. Alexander and McLaughlin (2003:359-360) differentiate between religiously "tethered" and "untethered" conceptions of spirituality and concur that "spirituality cannot be confined to the religious domain". Roux (2006:156) also argues for a non-religious spirituality in education in South Africa. Kourie (2006:26) on the other hand suggests viewing spirituality and religion as partners and not rivals, as spirituality can vitalise religion and religion provides a locus which prevents spirituality from becoming rootless and isolated. Schneiders (2003:176) suggests that "religion is the optimal context for spirituality. The great religious traditions of the world are much more adequate matrices for spiritual development and practice than personally constructed amalgams of beliefs and practices". According to Abdool, Van der Walt, Potgieter & Wolhuter (2007:545-546), spirituality seems to form the deep core of religion. I agree with Vokey (2003: 175) when he warns that "the challenges to public education presented by cultural pluralism cannot be avoided simply by declaring spirituality independent of religious or institutional affiliations". At the moment many teachers in South Africa do not feel free to address the deeper issues in their own lives and the lives of their learners in the light of their spiritual connectedness with their ultimate Source(s) of meaning. But as holistic human beings, teachers cannot leave the fruit of their immersion in their own faith traditions at home when they enter the workplace, because their conviction of the ultimate meaning in life will colour the way they handle life's ultimate questions. There is the misconception that the religious dimension of spirituality must only function in the private sphere of teachers' lives and not in the workplace, the public sphere (Hay & Nye, 2006:30-31, Sullivan 2003:128-138). However, the result then is that they are not in a position to respond to other staff members and learners with a sense of wholeness. Therefore, one of the main reasons why spirituality is demeaned or ignored in education is because of this strong tendency to separate the public and private lives of people and to limit spirituality to the private domain of the individual.
In the culture in which we live the good life is seen as a matter of outward appearances in the external world and not as one of inner well-being, meaning and connectedness. "From the moment we begin school we are trained to look outward rather than inward, to focus on facts and practical problems in the external world virtually nothing in western education encourages us to reflect on ourselves, on our inner lives and motives" (Zohar & Marshall, 2001: 285). Because spirituality is not about success but about significance and meaning, it is about going inside oneself, not for the applause of the crowd, but in search of one's own meaning, identity and integrity. In teaching, however, we tend to externalise matters, to put policy and systems in place in order to "fix" problems, because "it is far easier to spend your life manipulating an institution than dealing with your own soul" (Palmer, 1994:29). The overemphasis on the "knowing-and-doing functions" and the neglect or even disregard of the "being functions" is also a result of the beliefs with which we are bombarded by the media, as well as the belief that the external world is all that matters.
Spiritual growth is devalued not only by a materialistic culture aimed at the pursuit of more profit, but also by an academic culture which is increasingly regulated by the language of the market. This language of business, in which teachers have to think in business terms of their work as being made up of factors such as inputs and outputs, value-addedness, performance indicators, quality measurement, value for money for the different stakeholders and cost efficiency, is changing the moral context in which education takes place. Ball (2003:215-228) eloquently highlights the effects of the terrors of "performativity" on the teacher's soul. In an atmosphere where the emphasis is on the performative worth of individuals, on productivity targets, achievement and constant comparison and competition, a profound change creeps into the way teachers think about themselves, about others and about their own work. Teachers experience a kind of "values schizophrenia" (Ball, 2003: 221) when commitment, caring and authenticity are sacrificed for external impression, where effectiveness is given a higher value than honesty and people are no longer expected to care about each other but mainly about performance and excellence. According to Codd (2005:194) this is true in New Zealand. South Africa appears to be experiencing a similar trend towards an overbearing performativity with its accompanying high stress levels (Arnold, 2004; Milner & Khoza, 2008:168-170, Montgomery, Mostert & Jackson, 2005: 266-272) that is terrorizing the inner lives of teachers often preventing or inhibiting their spiritual growth.
"Teaching in essence consists of initiating the young into a worthwhile way of seeing the world, of experiencing it, of relating to others in a more human and understanding way" (Pring, 2001:106), and the "product" of this kind of learning cannot be defined in a detailed, outcomes-based curriculum such as the Department of Education's National Curriculum Statement (2003). In trying to find meaning in their learning, learners will not necessarily arrive at neatly predetermined, well-formulated outcomes because in their struggle to make sense, they encounter the messiness of life.
If we are to open up the spiritual dimension of education, we must understand that spiritual questions do not have answers in the way math problems do. When people ask these deep questions, they do not want fixes or formulas but compassion and companionship on the demanding journey called life (Palmer, 1999a:8).
Within the OBE paradigm in South African schools, opportunities ought to be opened for learners to use their imagination, construct meaning, and explore. When a teacher's role is limited to the realm of explanation, verification and specific outcomes he or she seldom reaches the deeper spiritual level of teaching, namely, that of understanding, wisdom and meaning. This can often lead to teachers not experiencing their work in a wider context and to the realisation that they are not true to their calling.
Overload of administration and red tape, overcrowded classrooms and increased workloads are part and parcel of the day-to-day experience of most teachers in South Africa, and are in fact the main reasons why they leave the profession (Human Sciences Research Council and Medical Research Council of South Africa, 2005). Studies by Olivier and Venter (2003:186), Montgomery, Mostert and Jackson (2005:266) and Van Wyk (1998:5) conclude that teachers are constantly functioning under feelings of stress because of a range of factors, such as a lack of discipline in schools, large numbers of unmotivated learners, unfavourable pupil-teacher ratios, demands made by the new educational approach of OBE, the management style of principals, the high crime rate in the country, coping with political change and corruption in state departments in the face of inadequate resources. Research by Swanepoel and Booyse (2003:99) suggests that "the imposed educational changes since 1994 were too ambitious and far-reaching for teachers to cope with". As a result, a significant number of teachers experience burnout that "involves a subtle but progressive erosion of behaviour, attitude, health and spirit that eventually inhibits an individual's ability to function effectively at work" (Berg in Olivier & Venter, 2003:186). Slabbert (2001:304) purports that teachers' successful implementation of the various educational changes in South Africa depends on " an inevitable journey inward". According to Hargraves and Fullan (1998:2) teachers all over the world are feeling beleaguered; even passionate teachers are exhausted in the face of apathy and resistance from those around them.
When people are exhausted they do not ask the spiritual questions such as "Who am I?" and "Does my life have meaning and purpose?" They tend to turn to a survival mode where they exist but do not live with zeal, hope, purpose and meaning. Many teachers feel that they are merely surviving and no longer experience any meaning or purpose in their work. Where teachers experience feelings of vulnerability, disempowerment and isolation, accompanied by a negative mindset, there is little space for spirituality to flourish.
When considering these criteria for spirituality, namely, experiencing connectedness, meaning, including ultimate meaning, and wholeness, one may safely postulate that South African schools are not hospitable environments for teachers' spirituality.
Suggestions for counteracting teachers' spiritual stuntedness
Although I acknowledge the fact that teachers' spiritual stuntedness cannot be rectified by any quick-fix solution, the following suggestions are made for creating spaces so that spirituality can be incorporated into the working lives of teachers.
Teachers should be helped to see and experience the connection between the vision, mission, and values of the school or institution where they work and their own vision, mission, and values. When this happens teaching can be experienced as a vocation or calling, and their work as meaningful.
The school should be an environment where the emphasis falls on "being" functions and on character, where learners and teachers are encouraged to be the best human beings they can be, without constantly being measured, monitored and appraised for their "productivity", their "doing".
The market-orientated language of teaching and learning ought to be restrained, and visible substance given to spiritual concepts such as meaning, vocation, vision, connectedness, and wholeness, so that these concepts and their underlying values are not dismissed as obscure, irrelevant, or insubstantial.
Teachers' professional development should not be viewed as a crash course, where teachers can learn a new skill in a week, but ought to focus on support for teachers' spiritual growth so that they can experience greater meaning in what they do. The focus should not only be on the development of skills to use in the material world but also on the ability to go within and make the spiritual journey. Though this may sound very idealistic, teachers need to find time and ways to nourish their spirit. This can be done by solitude and silence, meditative reading, and walking in the woods, keeping a journal and finding a friend who will listen (Palmer, 1998:31-32), painting, dancing, or immersion in great literature and music. Teachers' work allocation should provide for these activities.
Teachers should be brought together in a safe space, not to talk about curriculum, budgets or policies, but to discuss the deepest questions of their lives. They should have opportunities to share and interpret their own stories in the light of their views on the ultimate meaning of their lives. This emphasises the importance of a "place of rest", for example, a private staff room for teachers. School management should focus on creating a working community of which teachers feel they are truly part and where they feel safe to share their inner journey with colleagues that are willing to listen. This will give them a chance to experience both meaning and membership.
Mindfulness should be developed in teachers so that they can bring greater awareness to everything that happens at school, be more present in the moment and more aware of the dynamics of relationships. Teachers are engaged in the service of others and this dedication to the welfare of others creates a space for spirituality.
There are many questions to be answered and pitfalls to be avoided. When we put spirit on the agenda, we will also have to rethink existing structures and ask the following questions: How does a greater understanding of spirit challenge established structures and practices? Isn't the concern with spirituality irrelevant in a situation where poverty is rife and teachers are struggling to survive? How can spirituality be integrated into schools so that it becomes an integral part of teaching and learning, without it becoming a servant of the performativity master? How can outcomes-based education be used to engender a new, still unimagined approach in classroom pedagogy where spirit is included? The answers to these questions are complex and beyond the scope of this article because the process of searching involves a significant amount of commitment. A responsible articulation of a new world-view, grounded in a post-positivistic metaphysics and epistemology, is needed in which the claims of science and of spirituality are reconciled. (The work of Ken Wilber, 1997, is an example of this kind of integrated worldview.) It will also be necessary for higher education to become a more hospitable environment for the spiritual development of both faculty and pre-service teachers (Vokey, 2003:180); and a new focus is needed where the emphasis is on showing respect to the deepest questions of a teacher's life. To be able to do this, we will have to challenge and even dismantle our own mental habits, preconceived ideas and orthodoxies, but the result will be to discover greater wholeness, authentic relationships, and new meaning.
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Semetsky I 2004. Learning from experience: Dewey, Deleuze and 'becoming child'. In: Alexander HA (ed.). Spirituality and ethics in education. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. [ Links ]
Slabbert JA 2001. Educational change: Is it possible? Educare, 30:289-305. [ Links ]
Starratt RJ 1995. The spirituality of leadership. Planning and Changing, 26:190-197. [ Links ]
Sullivan J 2003. Scholarship and spirituality. In: Carr D & Haldene J (eds). Spirituality, philosophy and education. London: Routledge Falmer. [ Links ]
Swanepoel CH & Booyse JJ 2003. Belewing van gedwonge onderwysverandering deur 'n heterogene groep onderwysers. South African Journal of Education, 23:94-100. [ Links ]
Swartz S 2006. A long walk to citizenship: morality, justice and faith in the aftermath of apartheid. Journal of Moral Education, 35:551-570. [ Links ]
Swinton J 2001. Spirituality and mental health care: rediscovering a 'forgotten' dimension. London: Jessica Kingsley. [ Links ]
Van der Walt JL & Valenkamp M 2008. Ubuntu/Botho: An instrument for combating crime and enhancing quality of life. Paper delivered at the Conference on Education and Spirituality, 14-16 January, Gouda. [ Links ]
Van Wyk J 1998. Stresbelewing by onderwysers. DEd-proefskrif. Port Elizabeth: Universiteit van Port Elizabeth. [ Links ]
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'Why is China Ahead of India? Implications for Europe and the US,' was the topic of a talk yesterday at the World Bank by Nobel winner Amartya Sen which was chaired by Kaushik Basu. In the span of just under two hours, Sen managed to pinpoint India's main Achilles Heel (primarily related to the low overall quality of education, poor health care and skewed energy and other subsidies), while weaving in references to Kido Takayoshi, Mao Zedong, David Hume, Mahatma Gandhi, Adam Smith, Jon Stuart Mill, Milton Friedman, Keynes, Marx and other thinkers and influencers.
Amartya's talk coincided with the publication of a New York Times op ed titled 'Why India Trails China' in which he stressed that one cannot wait to fix health and education only after reaching some modicum of overall prosperity. Indeed, proper health and education, which foster human capabilities, are an essential precondition to sustainable growth and the ability to compete successfully in an integrated world. India still needs to take these East Asian lessons fully on board.
Following the talk, there was a lively question and answer session. Some in the audience had questions related to how to speed development by expanding what Amartya describes in his op ed as 'the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid.' This part of the event was especially helpful, since questions posed were in many cases relevant to the two new goals set recently by Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. Indeed, if we are to get extreme poverty down to 3 percent or lower by 2030 and if we are to improve the wellbeing of the lowest 40 percent of each country's population by the same deadline, we need ambitious solutions for reaching poor people and for ensuring that wealth is spread more widely so that lower middle class people can enjoy the fruits of growth and prosper.
Amartya referred in his answers to issues such as the returns from national immunization programs versus efforts to tackle undernourishment. His insights regarding politics, famines, the messiness of democracy, and the fragilities inherent in a nondemocratic system were valuable indeed, especially since such a large share of the developing world's population resides in India and China and the planet's future outlook rests in no small part on the fate of those two great nations.
To watch the full talk as well as the lively question and answer session, click here.
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Good analysis on the part of an internationally renowned economist.
I am not sure about China but one basic issue in India is implementation of Law and Order. If this this is fixed it will reduce corruption and lawlessness which is the root cause of all ills - whether it is Education, Health care or other areas.
I think problem of India is compromise . Everywhere there is compromise - compromise with corruption , compromise with corrupt, compromise with delay , compromise with quality , etc . These compromises lead to indecision and subsequent under achievement in every field.

subset: commoncrawl


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This is a story about a product that I had never heard of before using it. Yes, you can believe it.
In February, I went on a mountain biking road trip to the Big Bend parks in a remote corner of Texas. Before leaving I went to my local bike shop to replenish the Stan's No Tubes Sealant in my tires. This harsh, remote desert locale is notorious for torturing tires and I wanted to be prepared.
Texas Cycle Werks was out of Stan's and suggested something called "Orange Seal" instead. Steve Villegas, master wrench at TCW, told me it was newer technology and worked better than Stan's. I was skeptical as Stan's had performed well for me over many years, but the attractive squirt-type bottle, lower price and the fact that TCW did not have any Stan's convinced me to try it. That it is made in my newly adopted home town of Austin was also a factor, as local pride is foremost in the Lone Star State.
On the first ride of the Chiuahuanan Desert Dirt Festival on Thursday, a rock sliced my rear side wall near the rim. Stopping quickly I could see an ample cut exuding a fine orange mist. The Orange Seal seemed to be trying to seal the slice. The leaking stopped after about 15 - 20 seconds, during which time several of the other riders offered up tubes. I didn't want to put a tube in the tire, just yet, I wanted to see if Orange Seal's "nanotechnology" was for real.
After adding air with my bike in the upright position, it immediately started leaking out. Then I put the wheel down on its side so the Orange Seal would flood the damaged sidewall area. The leak stopped. Pumping again I got the tire up to 30 psi on the gauge on my mini-pump. Unlike a small pin hole which seals immediately, with a rip the product apparently needs time to bind up. That had been my experience with Stan's.
We finally saddled up and took off, but I didn't get far. Air was leaking out when the tire rotated to the bottom where the slice was located. I could feel the tire deflating. I could also feel the other riders thinking, "Why didn't he just put in a tube?" I stopped and refilled the tire. On the remaining few miles to the trail mid-point I stopped once more to add air.
After an extended stop at the summit I pumped it back up to 30 psi. On the almost 10 mile ride back to the Maverick Ranch RV and Camping Park I added air once more. Things were getting better. When I arrived at my tent it was at 16 lbs psi. Using my more accurate floor pump gauge I filled it to 28 psi (my usual ride pressure) and forgot about it until the next morning, thinking I could always put a tube in.
After a night of torrential wind and rains, Friday dawned clear and cool. A wet seat and muddy bike awaited me, but with a remarkable 26 psi still in the rear tire. I decided to add a couple of psi and go for it, not even thinking about putting in a tube now.
As the sun warmed us and dried the muddy trails my tire performed perfectly. After 22 miles of hard riding on the Lajitas Trails the sidewall leak was a history. The Orange Seal worked, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Saturday's weather also looked a little dubious, as we awakened to another damp and chilly day. It had poured again during the night. The good news was that I still had a rear tire full or air! Orange Seal was proving extremely effective. After waiting a couple of hours for the trails to dry I headed out for another ride in Big Bend Ranch State Park.
I hooked up with some folks who wanted to do the Dome Trail but didn't know the way, so I joined them as "guide." On the last climb to the mid-way point something punctured my rear tire. "Oh no, not again," I thought to myself. This time a huge thorn stabbed the tire and broke off in the center of the tread. I had to use my knife to remove broken thorn bits, leaving a ragged hole.
Again, the Orange Seal went to work, but did not seem able to stop it completely. I let it sit awhile and pumped the tire up to 30 psi. As I rode along on the 9 mile return ride with some serious downhill speeds the tire performed well, but obviously air was slowly leaking out. There was about 20 psi in the tire when I got back to the campsite.
The wind, rain and mud had soured me on the whole camping thing. Deciding to leave that night, I loaded up the car with a dirty tent, dirty bike and dirty (but always cute) dog, determined to sleep in a clean bed at the closest motel. I missed the big closing nite party, but had clean sheets, dry clothes and slept indoors! Arriving back inAustinon Sunday I checked the rear tire. It had the same 20 psi from 24 hours ago, meaning the second leak was also sealed.
It's 2 months since the dessert fest and I am still riding the same rear tire – 2 to 3 times per week! I don't even think about the two punctures anymore. Initially there were occasional oozes of orange "juice," but that's stopped. The tire holds air. A slight drop in pressure over a week's time is comparable to tube use.
Orange Seal seals, just like its name. It has performed beyond my expectations. The new technology works. Just remember, while technology is great it's not perfect. That's why I still always carry a tube.
Another upside of Orange Seal I found is that it does not seem to clog the valve. It is always easy to put in air. With Stan's I was frequently cleaning the latex blobs blocking the valve. It also smells a heck of lot better, too.
So, for those skeptics out there who haven't converted to tubeless riding and may have been unsure of what product to use, this one delivers on its promise. With products like Orange Seal, tubeless riding is a "no brainer." I've been convinced of tubeless technology for a long time. To everyone else I would say, "Yes, you can believe in tubeless tires."
PS - I met up with a slew of the Orange Seal people recently at the Mellow Johnny's Classic. They attribute the minor oozing to the fact that I already had the Stan's product in my tire and cross-contaminatization prevented their product from acting perfectly. And, yes, they were sure thrilled to hear my story!


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Chris Hester
Good article, well explained!
I found another neat trick CSS gradients give us. If one of the colours is set to "transparent" then it takes on the colour underneath. So you get a fade between the background colour and the gradient stop colour.
My point though is this: could transparency be used over images? That might give us a way to fade them out at the top of a page, for example.
Food for thought!


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Ankle adidas gazelle mens support is essential on any basketball sneaker. On the Adidas Pornstar 2G the ankle support serves as a soft and easy around the feet. Ankle support is usually a personal preference depending on how you want it, some people like it soft and light (which can be what this basketball shoe is) as well as other people like it corporation and tight. adidas hamburg black It has to be noted that the ankle help on this is just like any other basketball shoes available. The midsole of this basketball shoe features a foam insole, which you might or aren't familiar with. A foam insole is merely there for cushioning purposes as well as helps to give your feet as less stress as possible when landing as sometimes the shock can seep over the base to reach your feet. The outsole rubber will there be for shock absorption and acts as a barrier to stop almost any pressure getting through any affecting you a. The base is as well non marking which helps for anyone who is going to be playing in a great many different conditions with that Adidas Superstar 2G.
Around adidas gazelle sale the story of the Adidas Gazelle, this training shoe has made a massive impact on the footwear industry the world over, while giving a new town named Herzogenaurach, next to Hamburg, Germany, a lots of importance. The shoe was nicknamed as the 'godfather' of training shoes when the Adidas Company was launched within the year 1948. Name of the company was decided on by the cobbler working in Herzogenaurach, known as Adolf Dassler. With the first 3 letters of his surname Dassler he thought to combine his nickname 'Adi' and so the name 'Adidas' has been around since. To make the name jump out from the rivals, he also thought he would use lowercase 'a'. Within the manufacture of athletic gear and sports shoes just like Gazelle, he held above 700 patents! He is immortal as a part o the United states Sporting Goods Industry Lounge of Fame, as the earliest non-American who has actually been honoured. By sponsoring the actual Run DMC for no athletes, Adidas became the best sports brand.
Addition adidas hamburg trainers of the three stripes: The brand have been consistently groundbreaking away from your sports field by a review of shoes to non runners too. To provide extra stability for the foot and to tone the shoe, Adidas added the some stripes to its trainers within the year 1949. It what food was in this year that this trademark which is now being recognised as being the Gazelle had been started. Providing the best likely equipment to every sportsperson was Adolf Dassler's wish. The Adidas Originals, this Adidas Samba, the Adidas Gazelle and a lot of other designs helped in enhancing performances with the athletes.
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Resumé | Carbon Neutral Catering | Pictures & Videos
Headwaters CaféNew Orleans motion picture catering and craft service.
Headwaters Café, founded in 2000, services the motion picture industry and private clients. We do catering and craft service for features, television, and commercials. Planted in New Orleans since 2010 with satellite operations in Portland, OR. in July and August, when it's just too hot to be in our Streamline trailer.
Tune in to see Jason's appearance on Chopped, Sunday January 6th at 8pm/7c and also Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 on the Food Network. My episode, "Leftovers Overload" is season 14, episode 6. Check for times in your area.
Greater New Orleans Newpaper The Times-Picayume article
Photo credit: Chrissie Cowan


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MEDWAY, MA -- First quarter 2006 sales for Cybex International Inc. were up more than $4 million or 17 percent from the same period last year, the company announced. Net sales for the first quarter 2006, which ended April 1, were $28.9 million, compared to $24.76 million for the corresponding 2005 period, an increase of 17 percent. Net income for first quarter 2006 was $667,000, or $0.04 per diluted share, compared to net income for the first quarter 2005 of $119,000, or $0.01 per diluted share.
"Our first quarter results are evidence of our progress and we are confident that the continued sales growth of our existing products and a solid pipeline of new products in 2006 and beyond will continue our positive momentum," said John Aglialoro, chairman and CEO of Cybex. "We were pleased with the reception of the new VR3 and updated Eagle strength lines as well as our new light commercial treadmill at the IHRSA trade show in March."
Gross profit was up to $10.5 million in first quarter 2006 compared to $8.85 million in the first quarter of 2005. Bad debt expense for that period was $75,000 in 2006 while it was $57,000 in 2005. Operating income was $1.29 million in first quarter 2006 compared to $772,000 in the same period of 2005.


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King-Murphy Elementary School was closed Tuesday after a small fire in the boiler room on Monday forced students and teachers to be transported to Clear Creek High/Middle School.
A compressor caught fire, and a maintenance worker at the school put it out with an extinguisher before firefighters arrived about 1:30 p.m., according to Doug Saba, a spokesman for Evergreen Fire/Rescue.
The compressor blew out the school's heating system, and on Tuesday workers were expected to fix the problem. Families were able to get more information Tuesday afternoon on the King-Murphy website and on its Facebook page about whether school would reopen Wednesday.
Saba said high winds caused the building to lose power twice, and when the power returned, it overloaded the compressor, which began to smoke and caught fire.
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Risks of developing Lymphodema
My doctor told me I am at risk to get lymphedema because of them taking out so many lymph nodes in my neck, how can I prevent myself from getting this?
Carolyn Vachani, RN, MSN OncoLink Nurse Educator at Penn Medicine, responds:
Unfortunately, although there are some things that can be done to reduce one's risk, there is no reliable way to prevent lymphedema in the head and neck or to predict who will develop it. Anyone who has had lymph nodes removed from their neck, or who has radiation therapy to their neck, is at risk for developing lymphedema. In general, because the swelling associated with lymphedema accumulates most easily in the fatty tissues of the body, maintaining a healthy weight is a good idea. Inflammation in the skin may put you at increased risk for lymphedema. Take care of your skin with gentle soaps and moisturizers. Avoid scrapes and nicks by using an electric razor. Never let yourself get sunburn in an area where you have had radiation. Avoid tight collars and neckties. Maintaining good posture helps keep the front of your neck in a position which helps edema fluid flow down towards your chest and your back, where the lymphatic system is working normally.
Working with a Certified Lymphedema Therapist (CLT) is a good idea for anyone who has had a head or neck cancer surgery, even if you have not been diagnosed with lymphedema. This can be a Physical or Occupational Therapist (PT, CLT or OT, CLT) who has had extra training in caring for patients with or at risk for lymphedema. It is a good idea to ask ahead of time if your therapist has experience working with head and neck cancer survivors. If needed, your therapist can show you how to use a nighttime compression garment and how to perform a technique called Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) where you learn how to stretch your skin with your hands to move any edema fluid away from your neck.
Lymphedema is not the only concern for head and neck cancer survivors. A PT, CLT or OT, CLT can help you with other problems, such as: neck or shoulder pain, mobility, and function; softening and stretching out your surgical scars; helping with your posture; helping you with increasing how far your mouth can open.
This question and answer was part of the OncoLink Brown Bag Chat Series. View the entire Head and Neck Cancer Q&A Webchat transcript.


text: Telepresence Solutions Gaining Traction In Large Enterprise Space: Lifesize Product Manager Nov 18, 2010 TCMnet | Beecher Tuttle We seem to have interrupted Lifesize inside DOD program sales rep Sean Galligan, left, during an eye exam. But we needed to wire him in via high def video cam to join us and federal VP Paul Cantwell. The Herndon office of the Austin, Texas-based firm is directing the cam into the hands of federal agencies. It recently acquired Mirial, which will push the firm further into video conferencing through mobile devices. Lifesize says its product is one of the few high def video conferencing solutions that uses any network and any device for enterprise communication. Since its '03 launch, the company has attracted NASA, most military branches and the Dept. of Energy.


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EDMONTON, AB – Whitecaps FC kickoff their 2013 Amway Canadian Championship (ACC) campaign when they take on North American Soccer League (NASL) outfit FC Edmonton this Wednesday evening at the Commonwealth Stadium in the first leg of their semifinal series.
Wednesday's match between Whitecaps FC and FC Edmonton kicks off at 6:30 p.m. PT and is live on Sportsnet. 'Caps fans can also listen to Wednesday night's match live on TEAM 1410 radio and teamradio.ca, starting with the pre-game show at 4:30 p.m. PT. TEAM 1410 will also have a two-hour post-game show.
With the opportunity to lift the Voyageurs Cup, as well as represent Canada in the 2013 CONCACAF Champions League, Whitecaps FC will be looking to progress against FC Edmonton. The Alberta outfit were Vancouver's opponents at this stage in 2012 and the 'Caps will hope to emulate their performance on that occasion when they went through 5-1 on aggregate.
Vancouver will want to bounce back from a 2-0 loss at the weekend away to MLS leaders FC Dallas. A goal in each half condemned Whitecaps FC to defeat as a Brad Rusin own goal in the first half and a Blas Perez header after the break sealed the result.
Whitecaps FC will be looking to pick up their first away victory of the season against NASL outfit FC Edmonton. The 'Caps have won their only previous match against the Eddies in Edmonton, as they won 2-0 at Commonwealth Stadium in last season's edition of the ACC.
Martin Rennie may look to rotate his team from Saturday's match in Dallas, especially with Kenny Miller and Corey Hertzog still struggling with injuries and winger Omar Salgado away with the United States U-20 national team.
FC Edmonton are currently winless in 2013 after three matches in the NASL. They drew their opener 1-1 away at Fort Lauderdale Strikers before losing successive road trips at Carolina Railhawks (2-1) and Minnesota United (2-0).
Former Vancouver Whitecaps FC assistant coach Colin Miller took the reins at Edmonton in November and looks to turn around the club's fortunes. Last season, the Eddies had a disappointing season in which the Alberta side finished eighth in the NASL, 10 points outside the playoffs.
Edmonton's roster features several familiar faces. Centre back Carlyle Mitchell recently went on loan from Whitecaps FC but will be ineligble to play the 'Caps during these ACC matches, while defender Wes Knight played in Vancouver from 2009 until 2011, including a substitute appearance and assist in the 'Caps inaugural MLS match against Toronto FC in 2011. Other familiar names include striker Sadi Jalali and defender Antonio Rago, who both took part in the Whitecaps FC Residency program. In terms of personal connections, 'Caps midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker grew up with Edmonton midfielder Chris Nurse in England, while Martin Rennie coached Nurse at Carolina RailHawks.
The Amway Canadian Championship follows a four-team format with Whitecaps FC, Toronto FC, Montreal Impact and FC Edmonton battling it out for both the Voyageurs Cup and the right to represent Canada during the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League.
Teams take part in a two-legged home-and-away semi-final series with the winners repeating the process in the final, meaning that should Vancouver progress they would face either Toronto FC or Montreal Impact for the chance to claim a first ever ACC title for the 'Caps.
Last season's semi-final was the first time that Vancouver Whitecaps FC had taken on FC Edmonton and they came away from the two-legged tie with a 2W-0L-0D record. After an impressive 2-0 win in Edmonton, Whitecaps FC secured their passage through to the final with three late goals in a 3-1 victory at BC Place. Although these were the first matches Whitecaps FC had ever played against the Eddies, Vancouver have previously played teams from the city of Edmonton and from the province of Alberta.
Dating back to 1979, Whitecaps FC played teams from Edmonton 37 times and clubs from Alberta 65 times. This included 11 meetings versus Edmonton Drillers in the old NASL between 1979 and 1982, with the 'Caps registering an 8W-3L record overall and a perfect 5W-0L record versus the Drillers in Vancouver. During the Canadian Soccer League era, Vancouver registered a 19W-1L-1D overall record versus Edmonton Brick Men, including a home record of 10W-0L-1D between 1987 and 1990. In the United Soccer Leagues First Division (USL-1) season of 2004, Whitecaps FC registered a 2W-1L-1D record versus Edmonton Aviators, including a 0W-1L-1D home record that year. In fact, the last time Whitecaps FC hosted a club from Edmonton was in USL-1 on July 4, 2004, as the Aviators defeated Vancouver 3-2 at Swangard Stadium. In all, Whitecaps FC have a 30W-5L-2D all-time record against clubs from Edmonton, including an overall home record of 15W-1L-2D.
Following the first leg of the ACC semi-final against FC Edmonton, Whitecaps FC will take on last weekend's opponents FC Dallas at BC Place. Kickoff for Saturday's match is at 3 p.m. PT.


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My New Blog! some of you may recognise me from such blogs as Pink Munchkins and Rouge Bomadas or the very brief Sea Blue.
- EmLah
- Hornchurch, Essex, United Kingdom
- 26 year old Theatre Person, who hopes to one day become a fully fledged lighting designer. Currently living and working in Hornchurch at the lovely Queens Theatre (yes i know that implies i live at the theatre, it's meant to).I'm a Traveller of many roads including Canada, Germany and Namibia. I love Reading, Dissecting Films, Writing Plays, Angleing Lights, Levelling Sounds, Creating Photographs (when drunk and sober) Playing Guild Wars/Sims 3 and going out with my friends! I have an unrivalled passion for Kimi Raikkonen and motor sports in general.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Murder at Math Camp
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Respect is everything. Join one of the rival gangs – seven, to be exact, including the Yakuza, Scientists, Looneys, Rednecks, Zaibatsu, the Russian Mob and Hare Krishnas. Earn your respect with each gang. Reap the benefits with all manner of shady work-for-hire gigs contracted your way. And climb your way to the top of the criminal pile.
The best 2D game I've ever played.


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Most Medicare beneficiaries can only switch coverage options during the retiree health program's annual fall open-enrollment period. But there's one exception: patients who belong to private "Medicare Advantage" plans have until the end of the day on Thursday, Feb. 14 to "disenroll" and sign up for traditional Medicare.
According to AARP, about 13 million people, or roughly a quarter of Medicare members, belong to Advantage programs. First launched in the late 1990s and reformed and bolstered under President George W. Bush, the plans are administered by private insurers, rather than by the government. The plans often offer lower premiums than traditional Medicare, but like many private managed-care plans, they're also structured around networks of providers—leaving patients facing higher bills if they see outside specialists. Some critics argue that this has had the effect of leaving seniors with more serious or chronic illnesses in the financial lurch; recently published studies by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and a Harvard Medical School research team found evidence that these sicker, higher-cost beneficiaries were the most likely to switch out of Advantage plans and back into traditional Medicare, which doesn't restrict which providers they can see.
Folks considering a switch for themselves or for older family members will also have to decide whether to sign up for a prescription drug plan, also by the Feb. 14 deadline. Resources to navigate the process include the government's Medicare Plan Finder and MedicareInteractive.org, which is run by the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Medicare Rights Center.


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Bill Barr couldn't believe it. It was early last year, and the New York University neuropsychologist had just received an email from National Institutes of Health neurologist Russ Lonser, thanking Barr and other experts for reviewing a series of brain injury research grant proposals for NFL Charities, the National Football League's philanthropic arm.
A few hours later, a second message appeared in Barr's inbox.
Russ: thank you and your reviewers from myself and the entire charities board. Well done!
"It was from Elliot Pellman," Barr says. "I was just surprised, thinking, 'Oh my gosh, he still has himself in there somehow.'"
You're an NFL player. You care about your brain. Do you want your health and safety connected in any way to a man who once wrote that concussions in professional football "are not serious injuries" and that "many [concussed] players can be safely allowed to return to play on the day of injury?" A man who spent nearly a decade downplaying and dismissing the long-term cognitive damage associated with repeated blows to the head, despite ample evidence to the contrary? A man who headed a league-created concussion committee that has been blasted by Congress, discredited by independent researchers and accused of producing dubious, industry-sponsored pro-tobacco pseudo-science that now serves as the smoldering gun for more than 4,000 lawsuits filed by former players against the league, alleging negligence and fraud?
Too bad. You're out of luck. The above man is real. His name is Elliot Pellman. A Long Island-based physician and former team doctor for the New York Jets, Pellman served as the chairman of the NFL's Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee from 1994 until 2007, when he resigned amid criticism. In subsequent years, the league has significantly altered its stance on brain trauma -- admitting that concussions can cause long-term cognitive harm, enacting stricter, standardized return-to-play rules for concussed players, donating money to medical research and even disbanding Pellman's committee, all part of what NFL commissioner Roger Goodell calls a "relentless" focus on health and safety.
So relentless, in fact, that Pellman is still giving the league medical advice.
Oh, and he's still involved with the league's brain-related health and safety efforts, too.
Three years ago, Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Stewart Bradley and quarterback Kevin Kolb both were concussed during the same game and allowed to continue playing before being pulled off the field, a dangerous practice now prohibited by NFL guidelines. During a subsequent league inquiry, Eagles trainers spoke to Pellman. In 2011 Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy was concussed on a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit from Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison. After Browns trainers failed to administer a standard sideline diagnostic test, McCoy reentered the game. To determine how that happened, Browns team president Mike Holmgren later met with medical representatives from the players' union and the league. Including Pellman. Earlier that season, Eagles quarterback Michael Vick suffered a concussion and had to be examined by a neurologist before being cleared to play. Who reportedly helped choose the neurologist? Pellman.
On the same day last January that researchers reported that the brain of former NFL linebacker and suicide victim Junior Seau tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) -- a neurodegenerative disease associated with repetitive head trauma -- former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar held an informal press conference in a Cleveland luxury hotel touting the work of Florida-based anesthesiologist Marvin "Rick" Sponaugle, whose controversial treatment of intravenous fluids and nutritional supplements Kosar credits with helping relieve his brain trauma-related ailments. Despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting Kosar's claims, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed that the retired quarterback had spoken about his treatment with Goodell; moreover, the league reportedly put Sponaugle in touch with -- you guessed it -- Pellman.
Pellman's precise role with the NFL is opaque. During a player health and safety presentation at the league's 2012 spring meetings, NFL executive Jeff Pash referred to him as "our medical director." On the website for his private practice, Pellman calls himself the league's "medical advisor," with duties that include "advising the league on medical and health matters" and "administrating NFL health committees." Contacted by Sports on Earth, Aiello confirmed that Pellman is a medical advisor to the league office, but does not establish policy or assist in the administration of the Head, Neck and Spine Committee, the successor to the now-defunct Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee once headed by Pellman.
Still: You're the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Do you retain Mike Brown for advice and administration? Or send him to gather information from disaster relief sites?
"The NFL can say all they want about all the things they are doing [for player health and safety]," says retired NFL lineman Kyle Turley, one of the plaintiffs in the concussion lawsuits. "But you have to question why they have people like Elliot Pellman still involved with the league to this day. A guy like him is going to give us answers on this problem?"
* * *
Curiously enough, Pellman is not mentioned on the NFL's football safety website, nor in the pages of its first-ever Health and Safety Report, which contains the bold-faced names of dozens of doctors and scientists serving on various committees. Why the omission? Perhaps because people like Barr have called Pellman's continuing involvement with the league the equivalent of having "the fox guard the henhouse." And perhaps because the NFL would rather not talk about its ignominious recent brain trauma past, particularly while being sued over it.
(Speaking of which: The league's new-ish
marketing magic wand wave safety slogan is "forever forward, forever football." As a wise man once put it: If you don't like what is being said, then change the conversation.)
When former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue formed the league's original concussion committee in 1994, he tabbed Pellman to run it. The Jets team doctor was a rheumatologist, specializing in joint and muscle injuries. He was not a neurologist. He later claimed in biographical material that he had a medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook; according to The New York Times, he actually attended medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico. In a mid-1990s interview with Sports Illustrated, Pellman discussed players getting "dinged" and sounded: (a) not particularly scientific; (b) an awful lot like Dr. Nick Riviera:
"Veterans clear more quickly than rookies ... they can unscramble their brains a little faster, maybe because they're not afraid after being dinged. A rookie won't know what's happened to him and will be a little panicky. The veterans almost expect the dings. You have to watch them, though, because vets will try to fool you. They memorize the answers. They'll run off the field staring at the scoreboard."
According to a 2006 ESPN the Magazine article written by Peter Keating, several leading brain scientists were troubled by Pellman's lack of expertise. Neuropsychologists jokingly called him "Mr. Pellman." Another doctor told Keating that, "I would hear [Pellman] say things in speeches like, 'I don't know much about concussions, I learn from my players,' and, 'We as a field don't know much about concussions,' and it used to bother me. We knew what to do about concussions, but he was acting like it was new ground."
Medical research and policy conclusions coming out of the NFL's committee also proved equally disconcerting. Following nine years of academic silence, Pellman and his colleagues published a series of papers in the mid-2000s. They concluded that concussed professional football players, even those knocked unconscious, could be "safely returned to play" on the same day of their injury. That returning to play after a concussion did not involve "significant risk of a second injury either in the same game or during the season." That players with previous concussions had no risk of repeated concussions. That there was "no evidence" that multiple concussions produced "worsening injury or chronic cumulative effects." In a 2006 article, Pellman and co-author David Viano summed up 12 years of the committee's work by writing that concussions in professional football are not serious injuries.
Not surprisingly, independent studies indicated otherwise. Research on the pathology of CTE, known as "punch-drunkenness," dated back to the 1920s; a 1952 study determined that concussive and subconcussive blows to the head caused brain changes and damge in boxers; British studies in the 1970s found CTE in the brains of deceased boxers, steeplechase jockeys and wrestlers, sports that involved enduring repeated blows to the head; in 2005 neuropathologist Bennet Omalu published a paper identifying the disease in the brain of deceased Pittsburgh Steelers lineman Mike Webster. In 1973, researchers first identified Second Impact Syndrome, a rare but often-fatal swelling of the brain that occurs when a concussed individual absorbs a second blow to the head; a decade later, University of Virginia scientists determined that concussed college football players suffered long-term pathological damage, and that players who suffered one concussion were more likely to suffer a second.
Beginning in 1999, a series of University of North Carolina studies found that: (a) concussed football players were three times more likely to suffer a second concussion in the same season; (b) former NFL players who had been concussed during their careers were more likely to have neurological problems than those who had not; (c ) former NFL players faced a 37 percent higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than other males of the same age; (d) a history of repeated concussions and "probably subconcussive contacts to the head may be risk factors for the expression of late-life memory impairment, mild cognitive impairment and earlier expression of Alzheimer's."
Pellman's committee remained unconvinced. Nor did it acknowledge that some NFL general managers seemed to understand that concussions were serious injuries, and that multiple concussions were worse than one. How else to explain Pellman's team, the Jets, restructuring receiver Wayne Chrebet's contract in 2004 to include a "concussion clause" that would slash his salary from $1.5 million to $500,000 if he was placed on injured reserve -- a clause inserted after Chrebet, who previously had suffered at least five concussions, missed the last eight games of the 2003 season with post-concussion syndrome? How else to explain the Carolina Panthers signing linebacker Dan Morgan to a 2007 contract that paid out a $2 million roster bonus on a per-game basis, an unusual arrangement drawn up after Morgan suffered his fifth concussion? Even the league's own retirement board appeared less in denial than the concussion committee: According to a report by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" and PBS' "Frontline," it awarded disability payments during the late 1990s and 2000s to at least three former players after determining that football caused their crippling brain injuries.
Outside scientists criticized the committee's methodology as insular and slipshod, and its findings as both dubious and dangerous. In his ESPN the Magazine article, Keating describes a Pellman-headed committee study comparing the neurocognitive test scores of healthy players, concussed players and players who had suffered multiple concussions:
… a lot was riding on the analysis. The committee had never imposed recommendations on team medical staffs. But this was the first study ever to analyze the brain function of NFL athletes. If it showed that concussions were significantly impairing players, the league might be forced to institute new rules for evaluating and treating head injuries …
According to the article, Pellman and study co-author Mark Lovell failed to collect complete test score data from at least four individual team neuropsychologists, including Barr, and that as a result did not include at least 850 baseline test results in their research -- more than the 655 that ultimately were included in their study. "At best," Keating writes, "their numbers were incomplete. At worst, they were biased." (Lovell later sent a letter to the magazine staying "at no point was there ever an attempt to exclude teams from participating ... to suggest that there was an effort to suppress the collection of data for the study ... is completely baseless.") Published in 2004, the committee's paper concluded -- big surprise -- that NFL players did not show a decline in brain function after suffering concussions. An anonymous scientist who reviewed Pellman's work was apoplectic. "They're basically trying to prepare a defense for when one of these players sues," the scientist told Keating. "They are trying to say that what's done in the NFL is OK because in their studies, it doesn't look like bad things are happening from concussions. But the studies are flawed beyond belief."
"If you look at the papers they published in [the journal] Neurosurgery, they note no conflicts of interest," Barr says. "I thought that was the most hilarious thing."
Pellman defended his work, in part by attacking any scientist that contradicted it. When Omalu published his study of Webster's brain in 2005, Pellman and two of his committee colleagues wrote a letter to Neurosurgery demanding a full retraction -- almost unheard of in the academic world. (Three years later, the NFL finally asked independent neuropathologist Peter Davies to examine Omalu's findings; according to GQ magazine, Davies concluded that Omalu "was absolutely right … I was wrong to be skeptical." The league reportedly declined to make Davies' report public.) According to ESPN the Magazine , North Carolina researcher Kevin Guskiewicz was scheduled to appear on HBO in 2003 to discuss his research showing link between multiple concussions and depression in former NFL players. Before his appearance, he received a phone call from Pellman. "I had never spoken with him before, and he attacked me from the get-go," Guskiewicz told the magainze. "He questioned whether it was in my best interest to do the show. He was a bull in a china shop."
Barr can relate. In the early 2000s he worked with Pellman as a consulting neuropsychologist for the Jets, conducting preseason baseline tests on players and evaluating them again if they suffered concussions. "The boundaries were clearly set between us," Barr says. "I would provide objective cognition information -- cognitive dysfunction or not, detected through the testing -- and Elliot was in charge of all the return-to-play decisions. I felt he listened to my opinion and respected what I had to say. At that time, I had no problem with him."
Things changed in 2004. Also a research scientist, Barr had collaborated with Guskiewicz on a study of concussions in almost 3,000 college athletes. The study found that the best time to conduct neuropsychological tests of concussed players was after their symptoms had completely cleared, between five to 10 days after the injury -- longer than the one or two days that NFL teams preferred.
Barr presented his findings at a brain injury conference in New York City. About a week later, he says, he received a call from Pellman.
"He was angry," Barr says. "The study had received a lot of press. Elliot already had made a comment to me that he didn't really believe the findings. I had told him it was impeccable research design, very carefully done. Now somebody was telling him that I was saying bad things about the NFL. He told me if I was ever to say anything about sports concussions at all, I would have to clear it with him."
Barr was taken aback. I'm an NYU faculty member, he thought. I have more of a research background than you. You can't tell me what I can say about concussions.
"That's not going to happen," Barr recalls saying.
Pellman, Barr says, immediately fired him.
* * *
The committee's danger-denying, dissent-dismissing approach didn't just produce academic fights. It helped inform the NFL's laissez-faire concussion policy, putting players at additional brain trauma risk. In 1952 -- 1952! -- the New England Journal of Medicine recommended that football players leave the sport after suffering three concussions; 40 years later, Jets receiver Al Toon retired after suffering his ninth diagnosed concussion. (According to a 2011 New York Times report, Toon still suffers health effects, though he declined to discuss them publicly.) In 1997, the American Academy of Neurology recommended that concussed athletes knocked unconscious be withheld from play until asymptomatic for at least one week. The NFL rejected the recommendation. Seven years later, an international panel of sports concussion experts recommended that concussed athletes should not return to play the same day, even if they never lost consciousness. The NFL again rejected the recommendation, with Pellman subsequently writing in a paper that linking "concussion symptoms to arbitrary, rigid management decisions" was not "consistent with scientific data" and that team physicians should instead "treat their players on a case-to-case basis."
Among those team physicians? Pellman himself, who managed concussion care and return-to-play decisions for the Jets. In 1995 quarterback Boomer Esiason was concussed and missed four games. He later wrote a letter to The New York Times praising Pellman's handling of his injury. Chrebet's experience was different. During a 2003 game, he was knocked out. Drawing on a New York Daily News report, Keating described what happened next:
… "there's going to be some controversy about you going back to play." Pellman looks Chrebet in the eye in the fourth quarter of a tight game, Jets vs. Giants … a knee to the back of the head knocked Chrebet stone-cold unconscious a quarter earlier, and now the Jets' team doctor is putting the wideout through a series of mental tests. Pellman knows Chrebet has suffered a concussion, but the player is performing adequately on standard memory exercises.
"This is very important for you," the portly physician tells the local hero. "This is very important for your career." Then he asks, "Are you OK?"
When Chrebet replies, "I'm fine," Pellman sends him back in …
Like Toon, Chrebet reportedly still suffers from post-concussive ailments. As does Turley. The former offensive lineman was diagnosed with two concussions during his NFL career. He believes he suffered dozens more. After getting knocked out while playing for St. Louis in 2003, he spent the night in a hospital. He played again the next week.
Today, Turley suffers from vertigo. His eyes can be sensitive to light. He sometimes battles troubling impulses. Suicidal thoughts. He takes psychiatric medication. He has a wife, a 2-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. He's afraid that football has damaged his brain.
"Why couldn't I have sat out a couple of games after getting knocked out?" Turley says. "Players all accept that the game is dangerous. We all accept that there's a high risk factor. But we did not accept or understand at all anything to do with concussions.
The NFL has a standard statement on the concussion lawsuits: Any allegation that the NFL intentionally sought to mislead players or otherwise conceal information from players concerning the risks, treatment or management of concussions is entirely without merit.
Still: You're the publisher of The New York Times : Do you hire Jayson Blair as a fact-checker?
"We did not know before the NFL admitted to this problem," Turley says. "Had that not occurred, only guys like myself who have had difficulties with this and have researched it would have the knowledge. Because guys like Pellman have done everything they can to hide it."
* * *
Eight years ago, Pellman testified before Congress. Jose Canseco was on hand. Mark McGwire, too. The subject was steroids. At the time, Pellman still was leading the NFL's concussion committee, and also was working as Major League Baseball's medical adviser.
(According to MLB spokesman Pat Courtney, Pellman currently has a "continuing relationship with the Commisioner's Office but now is focused on" the league's New York office workers. Sports on Earth is co-owned by USA TODAY Sports and MLB Advanced Media.)
In 2002, Pellman had said that "[baseball] players and the team owners have sold their souls to the devil with steroids, and I know, because I've been treating professional athletes since 1986." Things change. Addressing lawmakers, Pellman still touted his experience, testifying that "unlike some other medical professionals you will hear from today, I have had extensive experience in the area of professional sports." He then defended baseball's steroid policies, calling them as rigorous as those in any other professional league.
Congressional members were unimpressed. Scornfully so. They forced Pellman to admit that he was not aware of a loophole that would allow a player to leave the room for an hour during a drug test, nor of a loophole that would allow a $10,000 fine instead of a 10-day suspension for a first offense. One lawmaker called Pellman "pathetically unpersuasive" and likened him to a tobacco industry executive; another found Pellman "unable to answer even the most basic questions" about baseball's steroid policy.
Does any of this sound familiar?
After Pellman stepped down as the head of the NFL's concussion committee in 2007, Guskiewicz called him "the wrong person to chair the committee from a scientific perspective" and "the right person from the league's perspective." When the NFL shut down the committee three years later and asked neurosurgeons Hunt Batjer and Richard Ellenbogen to create a new Head, Neck and Spine group, the two doctors said they would not use any of the old committee's data or ongoing studies on helmets and retired players' cognitive decline -- all of which had been overseen by Pellman and blasted by Congress as "infected" -- because they didn't want their "professional reputations damaged." They also asked Pellman not to speak at a league-sponsored brain injury conference, with Batjer telling The New York Times that "it's not about Elliot. It's about a complete severance from all prior relationships from that committee."
About those severed prior relationships: Pellman committee member Rick Burkholder, a former Eagles athletic trainer, is now the head trainer of the Kansas City Chiefs. Members Andrew Tucker and Doug Robertson remain team physicians for the Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts, respectively. Members Mark Lovell and Joseph Maroon -- a neuropsychologist and a neurosurgeon -- both reportedly remained NFL advisers as of last year. New York Giants athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes, Colts neurosurgeon Henry Feuer and former Chiefs physician Joe Waeckerle all served under Pellman and remain closely involved with the league's brain health and safety policy, because all three are members of the reconstituted committee.
Like Pellman, they've all managed to keep themselves in there, somehow.
"I hadn't realized that was going on," says Eleanor Perfetto, the widow of former NFL player Ralph Wenzel and a plaintiff in the concussion lawsuits. "I guess I find it surprising since the NFL was claiming to make changes and improve what was going on.
"Say that you're one of these [former players] who is [brain damaged] and struggling. And your family is struggling, because there's a lot of stress from dealing with your illness. How do you feel hearing that Pellman is still involved? This man who was part of the smokescreen of denial?"
Perfetto knows struggle. She watched her husband slowly degenerate from a fit, energetic high school football coach in his early 50s to a dementia ward resident who couldn't walk, write or bathe himself. Who could only eat his favorite apple cinnamon doughnuts if they were first mashed up. When Ralph died last year at age 69, he had dropped from 225 pounds to 140 pounds; a scientist who examined his brain said it had shrunk to the approximate size of a 1-year-old's. He was posthumously diagnosed with CTE and Alzheimer's.
Perfetto is a senior director at Pfizer. She holds a doctorate in public health. She has testified on behalf of former NFL players before Congress. In 2008 she personally confronted Goodell for locking her out of a meeting between the commissioner and a group of former players with health problems. Some things, she says, have changed. Others have not.
"If you say you're going to do away with you old committees, start with a clean slate, get the right people involved to do the right thing, why do we still have these lingering remains of that old negative effort?" she says. "Why would they not completely divest themselves of the committee they had put together that really had done such poor, shoddy work? It's more evidence that the NFL is not as serious about handling this as properly as they say they are."
An optimist might believe that Pellman remains in the league's orbit because he has something positive to contribute. A cynic might suspect that he's kept around because he knows where the bodies are buried. A realist -- and by realist, I mean a couple of smart lawyers I know -- might observe that the NFL has painted itself into a corner, regardless of its intentions, and that the league can neither cut ties with nor fully repudiate Pellman and the committee. At least not now. Not when the league's legal defense largely consists of insisting that nobody ever did anything wrong.
On the other hand: You are an Italian cruise ship company. Do you give Captain Francesco Schettino within 50 nautical miles of the Costa Concordia?
Ten days after Pellman allowed Chrebet back on the field against the Giants in 2003, the receiver was placed on injured reserve. He was sluggish. Exhausted. His head hurt. His season was over. Post-concussion syndrome. Speaking to reporters, Pellman was unapologetic. He said that Chrebet's diagnosis was unrelated to his return to play. That the decision to re-enter the game was based on scientific evaluation. That he was ending Chrebet's season so he -- Pellman, that is -- could sleep well at night.
"Nobody gets second-guessed," Pellman said.
Last week, Goodell delivered a speech at a sports medicine conference in Boston. "We consider the health and safety of our athletes our first priority," he said. "And our second and our third priority." During Super Bowl week, the NFL Players Association released a survey showing that around 90 percent of its members don't trust team medical staffs and are not satisfied with the way their team manages injuries. Can you blame them? Elliot Pellman still works with the NFL. Nobody gets second-guessed.


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The Macomb Police Department now has a prescription medicine drop off box located in the lobby of the Macomb Police Department. The drop off box is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Citizens do not have to wait for a special day to drop off prescription medicine, now they can just come to the Police Department any time and drop off their unused prescription medicine in the box.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.
The box has information on it that tells citizens what they can and cannot dispose of in the box. The Macomb Police Department encourages the community to dispose of prescription medicine responsibly and to use our box to do it.


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Snapheal 2.2 full review
The previous version of Snapheal was all show and no tell so to speak. It claimed to be able to effortlessly remove unwanted background objects with a simple marker pen process. It could also remove pimples and spots from faces – though that's easy enough to do yourself in any photo-editing package with a Clone tool. The problem with the original Snapheal was that only photos with a consistent pattern around the object being removed produced acceptable result and sometimes not even then. You could still have strange patterns and shadows left behind. It was also painfully slow.
So here's the new version and it's twice as fast as before. Now it works at a modest speed, with a few seconds to remove objects. It still isn't what you might call fast though. The RAW file processing has been fixed as there was a bug in the last version, the actual object removal process has been improved and there's new tools for Clarity and Hue.
Using the Twister method of object removal, the app was able to remove two annoying background lights that the previous version failed to tackle.
In practice what Snapheal now offers is a more rounded image-fixing package for a very low price. It has three sections: Erase, Retouch and Adjust. The Retouch section uses brushes and masks to mark specific areas and then can adjust the Exposure, Contrast, Shadows, Highlights, Clarity, Saturation, Hue, RGB channels or sharpen it. Or you could just apply those to the entire image by using much the same controls, plus a Denoise routine, in the Adjust section.
The Erase section is where the main functions are housed. There's a pen and freehand selection tool for marking areas and an eraser for removing the marking. The brush has adjustable diameter control to help make more precise selections. It's a little like using the QuickMask in Photoshop. Once an area has been marked, there are three Erasing Modes. The Twister is best for small objects, the Shapeshift is better for large ones and the Wormhole is the one to use for facial blemishes. Then there's a choice of precision ratings for the process. This can be normal, high or highest with the latter offering the best results but taking correspondingly longer to process. Click on Erase and wait for the app to perform its magic. As mentioned, this is definitely quicker than before, but it isn't fast and the larger the area for removal, the longer it takes. The three different erasing modes also play a significant factor in the quality of the result. What one mode will make a mess of, another may completely fix. What's interesting is that an image it failed to correct when tested previously was able to be fixed with this version. It also does a good job of removing small objects and the Clone tool is obviously a great alternate to the automated process. However, it still requires a simple surround environment to remove large objects and where the object is large and the surrounding is complex or limited in space, the result is usually unusable.
Using a small brush and the Wormhole method is akin to the Healing Brush in Photoshop where the affected areas can be marked and then processed.


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About the Conference
Welcome to the official web site for the 5th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK) Conference! The theme for this year's conference, Scaling Up: Big Data to Big Impact, reflects our growing community of researchers, practitioners, and learners and our success in leveraging the power of "big data" to create substantial impact within higher education and learning at increasingly larger scale. Join us in Poughkeepsie, New York (USA) at Marist College in the historic Hudson Valley as we network, learn and celebrate our accomplishments.
Learning Analytics continues to build recognition within international governments as an important next step in the future of education and retention, reports such as the US Department of Education's Issue Brief and the White Paper written for the Australian Government's Office for Learning and Teaching. LAK15 will keep up the momentum generated in earlier conferences as we continue to define who we are as a community and how our research can impact the important decisions facing education today.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please contact us at email@example.com. We are looking forward to seeing you in Poughkeepsie!