BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A Spanish judge on Tuesday approved a trial for Colombian pop singer Shakira on charges of tax fraud.

Spanish
 prosecutors accused the entertainer in 2018 of failing to pay 14.5 
million euros ($13.9 million) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and
 2014. Prosecutors are seeking an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-sports-soccer-music-5038d7fbe5db2b54404303acabe7bee1">eight-year prison sentence</a> and a hefty fine if she is found guilty of tax evasion.

Shakira,
 45, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and rejected a deal with 
authorities to avoid going to trial. Her public relations firm has said 
that she has already paid all that she owed and an additional 3 million 
euros ($2.8 million) in interest.

The court based in the town of 
Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona said that Shakira will face six 
counts of tax fraud. The date for the trial has yet to be set.

The
 case hinges on where Shakira lived during 2012-14. Prosecutors in 
Barcelona have alleged the Grammy winner spent more than half of that 
period in Spain and should have paid taxes in the country, even though 
her official residence was in the Bahamas.

Shakira, whose full 
name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been linked to Spain since 
she started dating soccer player Gerard Pique. The couple, who have two 
children, used to live together in Barcelona but recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-soccer-sports-colombia-c3f0867176acbeeba3f34946dc228c62">ended their 11-year relationship</a>.

Spain has cracked down on soccer stars like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ad8ec240091a4badaaeeb4c85db4dc8f">Lionel Messi</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/e6c4a935cea1434d8d6027c07e09a416">Cristiano Ronaldo</a>
 over the past decade for not paying their full due in taxes. They were 
found guilty of evasion but both avoided prison time thanks to a 
provision that allows a judge to waive sentences under two years in 
length for first-time offenders.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1664297213957.jpeg" alt="Shakira poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Elvis' at the 75th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. A Spanish judge on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022 approved a trial for Colombian pop singer Shakira on charges of tax fraud. Spanish prosecutors accused the entertainer in 2018 of failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($13.9) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, file)" />
 <figcaption>Shakira poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Elvis' at the 75th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 25, 2022. A Spanish judge on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022 approved a trial for Colombian pop singer Shakira on charges of tax fraud. Spanish prosecutors accused the entertainer in 2018 of failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($13.9) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and 2014. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, file)</figcaption>
 </figure>BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A Spanish judge on Tuesday approved a trial for Colombian pop singer Shakira on charges of tax fraud.Spanish
 prosecutors accused the entertainer in 2018 of failing to pay 14.5 
million euros ($13.9 million) in taxes on income earned between 2012 and
 2014. Prosecutors are seeking an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-sports-soccer-music-5038d7fbe5db2b54404303acabe7bee1">eight-year prison sentence</a> and a hefty fine if she is found guilty of tax evasion.Shakira,
 45, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and rejected a deal with 
authorities to avoid going to trial. Her public relations firm has said 
that she has already paid all that she owed and an additional 3 million 
euros ($2.8 million) in interest.The court based in the town of 
Esplugues de Llobregat near Barcelona said that Shakira will face six 
counts of tax fraud. The date for the trial has yet to be set.The
 case hinges on where Shakira lived during 2012-14. Prosecutors in 
Barcelona have alleged the Grammy winner spent more than half of that 
period in Spain and should have paid taxes in the country, even though 
her official residence was in the Bahamas.Shakira, whose full 
name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been linked to Spain since 
she started dating soccer player Gerard Pique. The couple, who have two 
children, used to live together in Barcelona but recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-soccer-sports-colombia-c3f0867176acbeeba3f34946dc228c62">ended their 11-year relationship</a>.Spain has cracked down on soccer stars like <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ad8ec240091a4badaaeeb4c85db4dc8f">Lionel Messi</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/e6c4a935cea1434d8d6027c07e09a416">Cristiano Ronaldo</a>
 over the past decade for not paying their full due in taxes. They were 
found guilty of evasion but both avoided prison time thanks to a 
provision that allows a judge to waive sentences under two years in 
length for first-time offenders.

Pop singer Shakira to face trial over tax fraud in Spain

By BETH L. FOSSEN <a href="https://theconversation.com/name-calling-in-politics-grabs-headlines-but-voters-dont-like-it-and-it-could-backfire-in-the-2022-midterm-elections-190398">The Conversation</a>

Spending on political advertising is setting records in the midterm 
elections. But evidence shows that negative messages might discourage 
voters from casting ballots altogether. 

As the 2022 midterms get closer, political attacks in campaign advertisements are on the rise. 

In November, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-gosar-trump-ocasio-cortez/2021/11/08/ead37b36-40ca-11ec-9ea7-3eb2406a2e24_story.html">Rep. Paul Gosar shared an anime cartoon video</a> showing him physically attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, and President Joe Biden.

That same month, Rep. Ilhan Omar called her Republican colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1464037767005057024">a buffoon and a bigot</a> on Twitter. Even the official White House Twitter account has gotten in on the politically divisive action, making <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/us/white-house-twitter-ppp-loans.html">recent headlines</a> when it snapped back in August 2022 at several Republican members of Congress who criticized the <a href="https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program">Paycheck Protection Program</a> – after they themselves had their loans forgiven.

Uncivil messages by politicians have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221083811">become more and more common</a> in the last decade. Political attacks are now a regular occurrence in an increasingly polarized political environment, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">encouraging voters to get mad and plan to vote</a> ahead of Election Day in November.

But that doesn’t mean these kinds of advertisements and personal attacks actually work. 

<a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vFCS00oAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">I study political marketing</a>
 and, as a former campaign manager and political consultant, have seen 
politicians use uncivil strategies firsthand with the hopes of getting 
themselves elected. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">My research</a>
 on political advertising suggests that highly polarized communications 
could be losing their persuasive power and can even backfire in the 
upcoming midterms, hurting a candidate’s chances.

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1260">My research</a> shows that political ads and language do indeed put people in a negative mood. Even simply asking voters to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-017-9431-7">think about politics</a> is enough to get them angry. This negativity is amplified if an ad <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/523287">specifically attacks</a> an opposing candidate.

There is also evidence that this anger carries over to voting 
behavior. Data from U.S. elections from 2000 to 2012 shows that negative
 political TV commercials make people less likely to vote for the 
attacked politician, but also make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1079">people less</a> likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4347">vote in general</a>.

Politicians tend to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000696">less negative, polarizing advertising</a>
 on social media compared to their advertising on television, however. 
This might be because social media attracts a smaller, more targeted 
audience, and perhaps candidates fear that these kinds of tactics could 
demobilize supporters.

There are a few factors that help explain why political campaigns and
 attacks on opponents have become more toxic in recent years.

First off, voters are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">more emotional and angrier</a> than ever before. This emotion about politics has been linked to the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/249098/americans-stress-worry-anger-intensified-2018.aspx">normalcy of anger in our day-to-day lives</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">increased political competition</a> – for example, close presidential elections.

Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">interacting less and less</a>. This social polarization comes as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfs038">political identity is more important to voters</a>
 than ever before. Being a Democrat or a Republican is a core part of 
who the voter is and shapes both their political decisions – like whom 
they vote for – as well as their nonpolitical ones, like whom they hang 
out with.

Given these factors, conversations about politics are increasingly happening among people who already agree on political issues.

Politicians like former President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-complete-insult-list.html">Donald Trump</a> and others seem to be leveraging the fact that they are preaching to the choir, so to speak, and are using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221083811">more and more polarized language</a> to attack the other side.

Whether language is polarized or not is a subjective question, but my research and the work of others has focused on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1260">how negative a political message is</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">how extreme the message is</a>.

The declining power of polarized messaging

There is some evidence that voters may be getting tired of negative political communications flooding their screens. 

Using data from the 2016 U.S. presidential election, my collaborators
 and I found that political ad messages that are more polarized <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">hurt candidates in the polls and lead voters to talk less about the candidate</a>.

Specifically, we find that voters prefer more centrist and more 
consistent messaging in political ads, at least in the contexts of 
recent presidential elections. This research used text analysis methods,
 which allowed us to score each ad for how polarized the messaging was 
as well as how consistent the messaging was for the candidate. 

Polarized messages particularly hurt a candidate’s election chances if they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">off-brand for the candidate</a> – that is, for politicians who are typically moderate, and then try to go extreme.

There’s a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-at-stake-2022-midterm-elections/">lot at stake</a>
 in the upcoming midterm elections in November 2022, as every House seat
 and about one-third of the Senate seats are up for grabs. A 
record-setting <a href="https://adimpact.com/2022-political-spending-projections/">US$8.9 billion</a> in political ad spending is expected for this midterm election season.

If the dominant tone of this messaging is toxic, political campaigns run the risk of disengaging more and more voters. 

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">My research</a> 
shows that there are emerging consequences of polarized communications 
that can hurt candidates in the polls. These insights may encourage 
political campaigns to test different ad strategies this midterm, 
perhaps curbing the negativity.

Beth L. Fossen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

By BETH L. FOSSEN <a href="https://theconversation.com/name-calling-in-politics-grabs-headlines-but-voters-dont-like-it-and-it-could-backfire-in-the-2022-midterm-elections-190398">The Conversation</a>Spending on political advertising is setting records in the midterm 
elections. But evidence shows that negative messages might discourage 
voters from casting ballots altogether. As the 2022 midterms get closer, political attacks in campaign advertisements are on the rise. In November, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-gosar-trump-ocasio-cortez/2021/11/08/ead37b36-40ca-11ec-9ea7-3eb2406a2e24_story.html">Rep. Paul Gosar shared an anime cartoon video</a> showing him physically attacking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, and President Joe Biden. That same month, Rep. Ilhan Omar called her Republican colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1464037767005057024">a buffoon and a bigot</a> on Twitter. Even the official White House Twitter account has gotten in on the politically divisive action, making <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/us/white-house-twitter-ppp-loans.html">recent headlines</a> when it snapped back in August 2022 at several Republican members of Congress who criticized the <a href="https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program">Paycheck Protection Program</a> – after they themselves had their loans forgiven. Uncivil messages by politicians have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221083811">become more and more common</a> in the last decade. Political attacks are now a regular occurrence in an increasingly polarized political environment, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">encouraging voters to get mad and plan to vote</a> ahead of Election Day in November. But that doesn’t mean these kinds of advertisements and personal attacks actually work. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vFCS00oAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">I study political marketing</a>
 and, as a former campaign manager and political consultant, have seen 
politicians use uncivil strategies firsthand with the hopes of getting 
themselves elected. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">My research</a>
 on political advertising suggests that highly polarized communications 
could be losing their persuasive power and can even backfire in the 
upcoming midterms, hurting a candidate’s chances.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">This is sick behavior from Rep. Paul Gosar. He tweeted out the video showing him killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez from both his official account and personal account. In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired. <a href="https://t.co/0ygBfE6bEL">pic.twitter.com/0ygBfE6bEL</a>&mdash; Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1457865685464276997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </div><h2>The impacts of political attack ads</h2><a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1260">My research</a> shows that political ads and language do indeed put people in a negative mood. Even simply asking voters to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-017-9431-7">think about politics</a> is enough to get them angry. This negativity is amplified if an ad <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/523287">specifically attacks</a> an opposing candidate. There is also evidence that this anger carries over to voting 
behavior. Data from U.S. elections from 2000 to 2012 shows that negative
 political TV commercials make people less likely to vote for the 
attacked politician, but also make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1079">people less</a> likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4347">vote in general</a>.Politicians tend to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000696">less negative, polarizing advertising</a>
 on social media compared to their advertising on television, however. 
This might be because social media attracts a smaller, more targeted 
audience, and perhaps candidates fear that these kinds of tactics could 
demobilize supporters.<h2>The rise of polarization</h2>There are a few factors that help explain why political campaigns and
 attacks on opponents have become more toxic in recent years.First off, voters are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">more emotional and angrier</a> than ever before. This emotion about politics has been linked to the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/249098/americans-stress-worry-anger-intensified-2018.aspx">normalcy of anger in our day-to-day lives</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">increased political competition</a> – for example, close presidential elections. Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/718979">interacting less and less</a>. This social polarization comes as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfs038">political identity is more important to voters</a>
 than ever before. Being a Democrat or a Republican is a core part of 
who the voter is and shapes both their political decisions – like whom 
they vote for – as well as their nonpolitical ones, like whom they hang 
out with. Given these factors, conversations about politics are increasingly happening among people who already agree on political issues.Politicians like former President <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/19/upshot/trump-complete-insult-list.html">Donald Trump</a> and others seem to be leveraging the fact that they are preaching to the choir, so to speak, and are using <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221083811">more and more polarized language</a> to attack the other side. Whether language is polarized or not is a subjective question, but my research and the work of others has focused on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2020.1260">how negative a political message is</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">how extreme the message is</a>. <h2>The declining power of polarized messaging</h2>There is some evidence that voters may be getting tired of negative political communications flooding their screens. Using data from the 2016 U.S. presidential election, my collaborators
 and I found that political ad messages that are more polarized <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">hurt candidates in the polls and lead voters to talk less about the candidate</a>. Specifically, we find that voters prefer more centrist and more 
consistent messaging in political ads, at least in the contexts of 
recent presidential elections. This research used text analysis methods,
 which allowed us to score each ad for how polarized the messaging was 
as well as how consistent the messaging was for the candidate. Polarized messages particularly hurt a candidate’s election chances if they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">off-brand for the candidate</a> – that is, for politicians who are typically moderate, and then try to go extreme.<h2>Looking ahead to the 2022 midterms</h2>There’s a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-at-stake-2022-midterm-elections/">lot at stake</a>
 in the upcoming midterm elections in November 2022, as every House seat
 and about one-third of the Senate seats are up for grabs. A 
record-setting <a href="https://adimpact.com/2022-political-spending-projections/">US$8.9 billion</a> in political ad spending is expected for this midterm election season. If the dominant tone of this messaging is toxic, political campaigns run the risk of disengaging more and more voters. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11129-021-09246-x">My research</a> 
shows that there are emerging consequences of polarized communications 
that can hurt candidates in the polls. These insights may encourage 
political campaigns to test different ad strategies this midterm, 
perhaps curbing the negativity.Beth L. Fossen is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190398/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

Name-calling in politics grabs headlines, but voters don’t like it – and it could backfire in the 2022 midterm elections

By ROBIN OPSAHL <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/09/22/capitol-rioter-from-iowa-called-leader-of-the-mob-by-police-did-not-testify-in-his-trial/">Iowa Capital Dispatch</a>

Iowan Doug Jensen did not testify
 and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defense as he stands 
trial for his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday and then the federal jury 
in the District of Columbia is expected to begin deliberations after the
 weeklong trial.

U.S. Capitol Police Inspector Thomas Lloyd, who testified at the 
trial this week, described Jensen as “leader of the mob” headed into the
 Capitol during the 2021 riot. Jensen, of Des Moines, became a widely 
recognized figure when video circulated on social media of him, wearing a
 “Q” T-shirt, at the front of a mob pursuing a U.S. Capitol police 
officer up a staircase.

Defense attorney Christopher Davis <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/09/21/january-6-doug-jensen-trial-leader-mob-capitol-riot/8072934001/">said Tuesday in his opening remarks</a>
 that no one is contesting that Jensen participated in the insurrection.
 But Jensen was not violent and did not damage federal property, he 
said.

“This is not a whodunit case,” Davis said. “Literally, the whole case is on video.”

Jurors were shown multiple well-known photos and videos of Jensen’s 
participation in the U.S. Capitol, including footage of him climbing up 
the side of an outside staircase as protesters attempted to break into 
the building. Another video showed him advancing through a cloud of 
spray erupting from a ruptured fire extinguisher. The trial also 
featured two concurrent video recordings of the altercation when Jensen 
was seen running up stairs in pursuit of a Capitol police officer.

That officer, Eugene Goodman, testified at the trial. He <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/capitol-police-officer-eugene-goodman-offers-new-jan-6-details-trial-q-rcna48577">told jurors Wednesday</a>
 about his assignment at the Capitol rotunda that day, which was to 
guard U.S. senators and House members moving between chambers as they 
certified the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Goodman was stationed outside for part of the day, where he was hit 
with bear spray and tear gas deployed by law enforcement, he told 
jurors. He went inside and vomited in a bucket once back-up officers had
 arrived, he said, before returning outside. When the mob broke into the
 Capitol, he went inside to direct politicians, including U.S. Sen. Mitt
 Romney, away from the crowd.

As the rioters approached, Goodman said he was prodded with a 
Confederate flag. By the time of his confrontation with Jensen, he had 
“no out” except going up the stairs, he said.

“I felt like they were going to rush at any time,” Goodman said.

FBI Special Agent Tyler Johnson testified Thursday, describing the 
“Q-Anon” shirt Jensen wore and the 3-inch pocket knife he carried that 
day. As one of the people who interviewed Jensen when he turned himself 
in, Johnson answered questions from the defense saying that Jensen was 
“coherent” during his interview, and was not verbally aggressive.

Jensen was one of the first of many arrested and charged for their 
actions at the U.S. Capitol that day, where supporters of former 
President Donald Trump gathered to contest President Joe Biden’s victory
 in the 2020 election. Many of the participants were followers of the 
“QAnon” conspiracy theory, believing that Trump had plans to reveal and 
punish a child sex trafficking ring among the wealthy and influential.

Nearly 900 people have been charged for federal crimes in relation to
 the riot, and roughly 400 have pleaded guilty. Jensen, one of eight 
Iowans charged in relation to the event, did not yet have any warrants 
out for his arrest when he walked to a police station and turned himself
 in the day after he returned from Washington, D.C. He has been in 
custody for nearly the entire 18 months since his arrest.

Jensen faces charges of civil disorder, resisting or impeding 
officers and obstruction of an official proceeding. None of the 
defendants involved in the insurrection have been acquitted of their 
charges in jury trials.

By ROBIN OPSAHL <a href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/09/22/capitol-rioter-from-iowa-called-leader-of-the-mob-by-police-did-not-testify-in-his-trial/">Iowa Capital Dispatch</a>Iowan Doug Jensen did not testify
 and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his defense as he stands 
trial for his role in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection.Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday and then the federal jury 
in the District of Columbia is expected to begin deliberations after the
 weeklong trial.U.S. Capitol Police Inspector Thomas Lloyd, who testified at the 
trial this week, described Jensen as “leader of the mob” headed into the
 Capitol during the 2021 riot. Jensen, of Des Moines, became a widely 
recognized figure when video circulated on social media of him, wearing a
 “Q” T-shirt, at the front of a mob pursuing a U.S. Capitol police 
officer up a staircase.Defense attorney Christopher Davis <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/09/21/january-6-doug-jensen-trial-leader-mob-capitol-riot/8072934001/">said Tuesday in his opening remarks</a>
 that no one is contesting that Jensen participated in the insurrection.
 But Jensen was not violent and did not damage federal property, he 
said.“This is not a whodunit case,” Davis said. “Literally, the whole case is on video.”Jurors were shown multiple well-known photos and videos of Jensen’s 
participation in the U.S. Capitol, including footage of him climbing up 
the side of an outside staircase as protesters attempted to break into 
the building. Another video showed him advancing through a cloud of 
spray erupting from a ruptured fire extinguisher. The trial also 
featured two concurrent video recordings of the altercation when Jensen 
was seen running up stairs in pursuit of a Capitol police officer.That officer, Eugene Goodman, testified at the trial. He <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/capitol-police-officer-eugene-goodman-offers-new-jan-6-details-trial-q-rcna48577">told jurors Wednesday</a>
 about his assignment at the Capitol rotunda that day, which was to 
guard U.S. senators and House members moving between chambers as they 
certified the results of the 2020 presidential election.Goodman was stationed outside for part of the day, where he was hit 
with bear spray and tear gas deployed by law enforcement, he told 
jurors. He went inside and vomited in a bucket once back-up officers had
 arrived, he said, before returning outside. When the mob broke into the
 Capitol, he went inside to direct politicians, including U.S. Sen. Mitt
 Romney, away from the crowd.As the rioters approached, Goodman said he was prodded with a 
Confederate flag. By the time of his confrontation with Jensen, he had 
“no out” except going up the stairs, he said.“I felt like they were going to rush at any time,” Goodman said.FBI Special Agent Tyler Johnson testified Thursday, describing the 
“Q-Anon” shirt Jensen wore and the 3-inch pocket knife he carried that 
day. As one of the people who interviewed Jensen when he turned himself 
in, Johnson answered questions from the defense saying that Jensen was 
“coherent” during his interview, and was not verbally aggressive.Jensen was one of the first of many arrested and charged for their 
actions at the U.S. Capitol that day, where supporters of former 
President Donald Trump gathered to contest President Joe Biden’s victory
 in the 2020 election. Many of the participants were followers of the 
“QAnon” conspiracy theory, believing that Trump had plans to reveal and 
punish a child sex trafficking ring among the wealthy and influential.Nearly 900 people have been charged for federal crimes in relation to
 the riot, and roughly 400 have pleaded guilty. Jensen, one of eight 
Iowans charged in relation to the event, did not yet have any warrants 
out for his arrest when he walked to a police station and turned himself
 in the day after he returned from Washington, D.C. He has been in 
custody for nearly the entire 18 months since his arrest.Jensen faces charges of civil disorder, resisting or impeding 
officers and obstruction of an official proceeding. None of the 
defendants involved in the insurrection have been acquitted of their 
charges in jury trials.

Capitol rioter called ‘leader of the mob’ did not testify in his trial

By DEEPASRI PRASAD and WILMA BAINBRIDGE <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-study-seeks-to-explain-the-mandela-effect-the-bizarre-phenomenon-of-shared-false-memories-188269">The Conversation</a>

If you pictured the character from the popular board game wearing one, you’d be wrong. In fact, <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_24565_hard-truth-time-monopoly-guy-never-had-monocle.html">he has never worn one</a>.

If you’re surprised by this, you’re not alone. Many people possess 
the same false memory of this character. This phenomenon takes place for
 other characters, logos and quotes, too. For example, Pikachu from 
Pokémon is often thought to have a black tip on his tail, <a href="https://www.cbr.com/pikachu-black-tail-belief-theory/">which he doesn’t have</a>. And <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/comments/99hv43/fruit_of_the_loom_cornucopia/">many people are convinced</a> that the Fruit of the Loom logo includes a cornucopia. It doesn’t.

We call this phenomenon of shared false memories for certain cultural icons the “visual Mandela Effect.”  

People tend to be puzzled when they learn that they share the same 
false memories with other people. That’s partly because they assume that
 what they remember and forget ought to be subjective and based on their
 own personal experiences.

However, research we have conducted shows that people tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.plm.2019.02.001">remember and forget the same images</a> as one another, regardless of the diversity of their individual experiences. Recently, we have shown these similarities in our <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/nzh3s">memories even extend to our false memories</a>.

The term <a href="https://mandelaeffect.com/nelson-mandela-died-in-prison/">“Mandela Effect” was coined by Fiona Broome</a>,
 a self-described paranormal researcher, to describe her false memory of
 former South African president Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 
1980s. She realized that many other people also shared this same false 
memory and wrote an article about her experience on her website. The 
concept of shared false memories spread to other forums and websites, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/">including Reddit</a>.

Since then, examples of the Mandela Effect have been widely shared on
 the internet. These include names like “the Berenstain Bears,” a 
children’s book series that is falsely remembered as spelled “-ein” 
instead of “-ain,” and characters like Star Wars’ C-3PO, who is falsely 
remembered with two gold legs <a href="https://screencrush.com/c3po-silver-leg/">instead of one gold and one silver leg</a>.

The Mandela Effect became fodder for conspiracists – the false memories so strong and so specific that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12348">some people see them as evidence of an alternate dimension</a>.

Because of that, scientific research has only studied the Mandela 
Effect as an example of how conspiracy theories spread on the internet. 
There has been very little research looking into the Mandela Effect as a
 memory phenomenon. 

But understanding why these icons trigger such specific false 
memories might give us more insight into how false memories form. The 
visual Mandela Effect, which affects icons specifically, was a perfect 
way to study this. 

To see whether the visual Mandela Effect really exists, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nzh3s">we ran an experiment</a>
 in which we presented people with three versions of the same icon. One 
was correct and two were manipulated, and we asked them to select the 
correct one. There were 40 sets of icons, and they included C-3PO from 
the Star Wars franchise, the Fruit of the Loom logo and the Monopoly Man
 from the board game.

In the results, which have been accepted for publication in the 
journal Psychological Sciences, we found that people fared very poorly 
on seven of them, only choosing the correct one around or less than 33% 
of the time. For these seven images, people consistently identified the 
same incorrect version, not just randomly choosing one of the two 
incorrect versions. In addition, participants reported being very 
confident in their choices and having high familiarity with these icons 
despite being wrong.  

Put together, it’s clear evidence of the phenomenon that people on 
the internet have talked about for years: The visual Mandela Effect is a
 real and consistent memory error.

We found that this false memory effect was incredibly strong, across 
multiple different ways of testing memory. Even when people saw the 
correct version of the icon, they still chose the incorrect version just
 a few minutes later.  

And when asked to freely draw the icons from their memory, people also included the same incorrect features.

What causes this shared false memory for specific icons?  

We found that visual features like color and brightness could not 
explain the effect. We also tracked participants’ mouse movements as 
they viewed the images on a computer screen to see if they simply didn’t
 scan over a particular part, such as Pikachu’s tail. But even when 
people directly viewed the correct part of the image, they still chose 
the false version immediately afterward. We also found that for most 
icons, it was unlikely people had seen the false version beforehand and 
were just remembering that version, rather than the correct version.

It may be that there is no one universal cause. Different images may 
elicit the visual Mandela Effect for different reasons. Some could be 
related to prior expectations for an image, some might be related to 
prior visual experience with an image and others could have to do with 
something entirely different than the images themselves. For example, we
 found that, for the most part, people only see C-3PO’s upper body 
depicted in media. The falsely remembered gold leg might be a result of 
them using prior knowledge – bodies are usually only one color – to fill
 in this gap. 

But the fact that we can demonstrate consistencies in false memories 
for certain icons suggests that part of what drives false memories is 
dependent on our environment – and independent of our subjective 
experiences with the world.

Deepasri Prasad is a Ph.D. Student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College. Wilma Bainbridge is an
 Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663945545708.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By DEEPASRI PRASAD and WILMA BAINBRIDGE <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-study-seeks-to-explain-the-mandela-effect-the-bizarre-phenomenon-of-shared-false-memories-188269">The Conversation</a>Imagine the Monopoly Man.Is he wearing a monocle or not?If you pictured the character from the popular board game wearing one, you’d be wrong. In fact, <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_24565_hard-truth-time-monopoly-guy-never-had-monocle.html">he has never worn one</a>.If you’re surprised by this, you’re not alone. Many people possess 
the same false memory of this character. This phenomenon takes place for
 other characters, logos and quotes, too. For example, Pikachu from 
Pokémon is often thought to have a black tip on his tail, <a href="https://www.cbr.com/pikachu-black-tail-belief-theory/">which he doesn’t have</a>. And <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/comments/99hv43/fruit_of_the_loom_cornucopia/">many people are convinced</a> that the Fruit of the Loom logo includes a cornucopia. It doesn’t.We call this phenomenon of shared false memories for certain cultural icons the “visual Mandela Effect.” People tend to be puzzled when they learn that they share the same 
false memories with other people. That’s partly because they assume that
 what they remember and forget ought to be subjective and based on their
 own personal experiences.However, research we have conducted shows that people tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.plm.2019.02.001">remember and forget the same images</a> as one another, regardless of the diversity of their individual experiences. Recently, we have shown these similarities in our <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/nzh3s">memories even extend to our false memories</a>.<h2>What is the Mandela Effect?</h2>The term <a href="https://mandelaeffect.com/nelson-mandela-died-in-prison/">“Mandela Effect” was coined by Fiona Broome</a>,
 a self-described paranormal researcher, to describe her false memory of
 former South African president Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 
1980s. She realized that many other people also shared this same false 
memory and wrote an article about her experience on her website. The 
concept of shared false memories spread to other forums and websites, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/">including Reddit</a>. Since then, examples of the Mandela Effect have been widely shared on
 the internet. These include names like “the Berenstain Bears,” a 
children’s book series that is falsely remembered as spelled “-ein” 
instead of “-ain,” and characters like Star Wars’ C-3PO, who is falsely 
remembered with two gold legs <a href="https://screencrush.com/c3po-silver-leg/">instead of one gold and one silver leg</a>.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663945631338.png" alt=" The Fruit of the Loom logo has never had a cornucopia. Wikimedia Commons " />
 <figcaption> The Fruit of the Loom logo has never had a cornucopia. Wikimedia Commons </figcaption>
 </figure>The Mandela Effect became fodder for conspiracists – the false memories so strong and so specific that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12348">some people see them as evidence of an alternate dimension</a>.Because of that, scientific research has only studied the Mandela 
Effect as an example of how conspiracy theories spread on the internet. 
There has been very little research looking into the Mandela Effect as a
 memory phenomenon. But understanding why these icons trigger such specific false 
memories might give us more insight into how false memories form. The 
visual Mandela Effect, which affects icons specifically, was a perfect 
way to study this. <h2>A robust false memory phenomenon</h2>To see whether the visual Mandela Effect really exists, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/nzh3s">we ran an experiment</a>
 in which we presented people with three versions of the same icon. One 
was correct and two were manipulated, and we asked them to select the 
correct one. There were 40 sets of icons, and they included C-3PO from 
the Star Wars franchise, the Fruit of the Loom logo and the Monopoly Man
 from the board game. In the results, which have been accepted for publication in the 
journal Psychological Sciences, we found that people fared very poorly 
on seven of them, only choosing the correct one around or less than 33% 
of the time. For these seven images, people consistently identified the 
same incorrect version, not just randomly choosing one of the two 
incorrect versions. In addition, participants reported being very 
confident in their choices and having high familiarity with these icons 
despite being wrong. Put together, it’s clear evidence of the phenomenon that people on 
the internet have talked about for years: The visual Mandela Effect is a
 real and consistent memory error.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663945662258.png" alt="&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The correct version of Pikachu is 
the one on the left. Most participants in the study not only chose a 
wrong version of the popular cartoon character, but they also chose the 
same wrong one – the Pikachu with the black tip on its tail.
 Wilma Bainbridge and Deepasri Prasad, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a>" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The correct version of Pikachu is 
the one on the left. Most participants in the study not only chose a 
wrong version of the popular cartoon character, but they also chose the 
same wrong one – the Pikachu with the black tip on its tail.
 Wilma Bainbridge and Deepasri Prasad, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></figcaption>
 </figure>We found that this false memory effect was incredibly strong, across 
multiple different ways of testing memory. Even when people saw the 
correct version of the icon, they still chose the incorrect version just
 a few minutes later. And when asked to freely draw the icons from their memory, people also included the same incorrect features.<h2>No universal cause</h2>What causes this shared false memory for specific icons? We found that visual features like color and brightness could not 
explain the effect. We also tracked participants’ mouse movements as 
they viewed the images on a computer screen to see if they simply didn’t
 scan over a particular part, such as Pikachu’s tail. But even when 
people directly viewed the correct part of the image, they still chose 
the false version immediately afterward. We also found that for most 
icons, it was unlikely people had seen the false version beforehand and 
were just remembering that version, rather than the correct version.It may be that there is no one universal cause. Different images may 
elicit the visual Mandela Effect for different reasons. Some could be 
related to prior expectations for an image, some might be related to 
prior visual experience with an image and others could have to do with 
something entirely different than the images themselves. For example, we
 found that, for the most part, people only see C-3PO’s upper body 
depicted in media. The falsely remembered gold leg might be a result of 
them using prior knowledge – bodies are usually only one color – to fill
 in this gap. But the fact that we can demonstrate consistencies in false memories 
for certain icons suggests that part of what drives false memories is 
dependent on our environment – and independent of our subjective 
experiences with the world.
 
 
 
 Deepasri Prasad is a Ph.D. Student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College. Wilma Bainbridge is an
 Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188269/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade"></iframe></div>

Study seeks to explain the ‘Mandela Effect’ – the bizarre phenomenon of shared false memories

By RAY GLIER <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/09/21/sleepy-coffee-county-wakes-to-national-spotlight-with-2021-voting-machine-breach-videos/">Georgia Recorder</a>

DOUGLAS, Ga. – Sitting at a back table at Ole Times restaurant, Larry Nesmith was putting a cold drink to his lips when his phone jangled. It was his wife calling. They live out near the high school and kids in their trucks can get a little excitable after school. She said one smacked a fence, then sped off. Blue lights from the sheriff’s car zipped by moments later.

“That’s the kind of news we’re used 
to, a kid in a truck,” said Nesmith, a Democrat, and a community 
activist who has run for local office. “This other stuff? Not used to 
that around here.”

“This other stuff” was the breach of 
the Coffee County Elections and Registrations office Jan. 7, 2021. Cathy
 Latham, the chair of the Coffee County Republican party, Misty Hampton,
 the county elections supervisor, and Eric Chaney, a member of the 
county elections board, were involved in opening up the elections office
 on W. Ashley Avenue for cyber sleuths working for the 
conspiracy-spinning attorney Sidney Powell, whose chief client was 
President Donald Trump.&nbsp;

The computer guys copied hard drives 
and peered into the workings of the proprietary software of Dominion 
Voting, which provides the voting technology used by the state. They 
claimed to have scanned every vote, according to court documents. They 
were looking for supposed vulnerabilities in the voting machines that 
could help explain Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. They also wanted 
evidence of election fraud, which seemed cockamamie in an election where
 Trump won 70% of the vote in Coffee County.&nbsp;

Now the Georgia Bureau of 
Investigation and the Fulton County district attorney are investigating 
and so is the office of Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary of State, 
which was first notified by a new
 election director in spring of 2021 that the password no longer worked 
for the server and that he&nbsp; found a notorious Trump supporter’s business
 card near the computer Hampton used at the Coffee elections office. That led to a state official removing the server the following month.

In response to a subpoena filed by the plaintiffs, Coffee County 
attorneys turned over video this week that revealed footage of the 
elections office on January 7, 2021, when the county GOP 
Chairwoman&nbsp;Latham, election board member Eric Chaney and election 
director Misty Hampton were joined by Hall, Paul Maggio, chief operating
 officer of Atlanta-based forensic data firm SullivanStrickler.

The news of an attempted breach in Coffee County became public this 
spring after Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good
 Governance, released a recording of a phone call she had in March 2021 
in which Atlanta bail bondsman Hall claimed he provided a flight for a 
team of people to fly to Coffee County to copy voting records to 
discredit the machines and justify Trump’s efforts to overturn the 
election results.

Raffensperger publicly launched an 
investigation into the Coffee County breach episode last March because 
of pressure from Marks. The spring 2022 revelation of a <a target="_blank" href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/09/07/familiar-cast-of-trump-election-deniers-emerges-with-new-video-showing-coffee-election-breach/">video showing Hampton</a> ushering in a group that copied voting machine records&nbsp;prompted Raffensperger to take a closer look at events that occurred at the county courthouse in January 2021.

As late as April, interim deputy secretary of state Gabriel Sterling denied the breach allegation.
 This summer, however, the secretary of state’s office confirmed that an
 investigation was underway and that the GBI was assisting.

Meanwhile, Coffee County is coping 
with making national news for all the wrong reasons. There is some 
national scorn of the south Georgia town and the county of about 43,000 
because it is seen as a haven of disgruntled, undemocratic losers.&nbsp;

“I’ve talked to all the county 
commissioners, all of them Republican, except one, and they were shocked
 by what happened at the elections office and unhappy about it,” Nesmith
 said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

On Peterson Street, which is the Main
 Street here in Douglas, Jill Cravey, the owner of The Crave Boutique on
 Peterson Avenue, couldn’t contain her disgust.

“I trust none of them now after this,
 Democrats and Republicans,” she said. “I pay all this money in taxes 
for this? It is a big mess.”

Three women eating lunch at Sparky’s 
downtown did not know the details of the attempted breach. Their eyes 
got wide with interest as they heard of local officials helping 
outsiders learn more about the inner workings of Coffee County’s voting 
system.&nbsp;

“Sneaky,” said Jasmine Scott, an IT consultant. “I don’t like it. We don’t like sneaky stuff.”

Others who were stopped and asked 
about the breach on Peterson Street this week just shrugged and said 
they had not really followed the episode.&nbsp;

Latham has moved to Texas. Hampton 
was fired as elections supervisor and is working at the bank. Chaney 
resigned his seat on the elections board and is working on his family’s 
used car lot.

It remains to be seen if this costs Coffee County more than just a black eye.&nbsp;

Marks, who has been challenging the 
security of elections since 2017, said all the election equipment needs 
to be wheeled to the dumpster. The state replaced the Coffee County 
server after the breach, but she said all the election equipment, which 
includes poll pads, have been corrupted.&nbsp;

The state owns the election 
equipment. Is it going to ask Coffee County taxpayers to reimburse it 
for the server, or just let this fade away?

Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for 
Raffensperger, did not return an email request asking about the costs of
 the breach and whether they would be passed on to the county.

Wesley Vickers, the county administrator, told the Georgia Recorder in his office Monday he is not aware of the state billing the county for new election equipment, or the cleanup.&nbsp;

Across the street at the Elections Office, Rachel Ann Roberts, who
 has been the elections supervisor in Coffee County for nine months, 
said there has been no request by the state for money to replace voting 
equipment.

“What about attorney’s fees in 
dealing with Dominion whose software was examined?” Nesmith said. “Do I 
and other taxpayers have to pay for that? What are all the costs to 
taxpayers of Coffee County associated with this breach?”

Robert Preston Jr. runs the local 
online media site DouglasNow. He said he was a neighbor of Hampton, the 
fired elections supervisor, and she is a friend. Preston said the local 
officials “honestly believed something happened statewide” as far as 
election fraud and that is why they opened the elections office to the 
so-called “cyber ninjas” supporting Trump.

President Joe Biden defeated Trump by
 11,779 votes in the state. Trump tried to shake down Raffensperger for 
votes to overturn Biden’s win and one of the avenues was to challenge 
the worthiness of the voting machines.

“They thought that they were going to
 find some type of election fraud in Georgia that caused Trump to lose 
the election,” Preston said. “And that what they found would eventually 
overturn the election. Obviously that hasn’t happened. And I don’t think
 that they thought that they were breaking any laws.”

Preston insists there has been no county-wide condemnation of Latham, Hampton, and Chaney.

“I think the majority of the people 
here in Coffee County feel like the efforts by the individuals who have 
been named in this event were acting in good faith to try to uncover 
potential election fraud,” he said. “And when we’ve posted stories to 
provide some coverage, the comments locally that come in, not all of 
them, but most of the comments locally, seem to support what happened.”

Nesmith disagrees and said many 
people in the county are upset with the trio. What’s more, Republican 
supporters in the county he has talked with are not as vociferous as 
others around the country about Trump being cheated out of the White 
House in 2020.&nbsp;

“I don’t hear it about how Trump really won, I really don’t,” Nesmith said.

Senior Reporter Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663775154577.png" alt="An image from video surveillance recorded Jan. 7, 2021, shows former Coffee County Republican Party Chair Cathy Latham and Election Director Misty Hampton. Screenshot from Coffee County video" />
 <figcaption>An image from video surveillance recorded Jan. 7, 2021, shows former Coffee County Republican Party Chair Cathy Latham and Election Director Misty Hampton. Screenshot from Coffee County video</figcaption>
 </figure>By RAY GLIER <a href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/09/21/sleepy-coffee-county-wakes-to-national-spotlight-with-2021-voting-machine-breach-videos/">Georgia Recorder</a>DOUGLAS, Ga. – Sitting at a back table at Ole Times restaurant, Larry Nesmith was putting a cold drink to his lips when his phone jangled. It was his wife calling. They live out near the high school and kids in their trucks can get a little excitable after school. She said one smacked a fence, then sped off. Blue lights from the sheriff’s car zipped by moments later.“That’s the kind of news we’re used 
to, a kid in a truck,” said Nesmith, a Democrat, and a community 
activist who has run for local office. “This other stuff? Not used to 
that around here.”“This other stuff” was the breach of 
the Coffee County Elections and Registrations office Jan. 7, 2021. Cathy
 Latham, the chair of the Coffee County Republican party, Misty Hampton,
 the county elections supervisor, and Eric Chaney, a member of the 
county elections board, were involved in opening up the elections office
 on W. Ashley Avenue for cyber sleuths working for the 
conspiracy-spinning attorney Sidney Powell, whose chief client was 
President Donald Trump.&nbsp;The computer guys copied hard drives 
and peered into the workings of the proprietary software of Dominion 
Voting, which provides the voting technology used by the state. They 
claimed to have scanned every vote, according to court documents. They 
were looking for supposed vulnerabilities in the voting machines that 
could help explain Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. They also wanted 
evidence of election fraud, which seemed cockamamie in an election where
 Trump won 70% of the vote in Coffee County.&nbsp;Now the Georgia Bureau of 
Investigation and the Fulton County district attorney are investigating 
and so is the office of Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary of State, 
which was first notified by a new
 election director in spring of 2021 that the password no longer worked 
for the server and that he&nbsp; found a notorious Trump supporter’s business
 card near the computer Hampton used at the Coffee elections office. That led to a state official removing the server the following month.In response to a subpoena filed by the plaintiffs, Coffee County 
attorneys turned over video this week that revealed footage of the 
elections office on January 7, 2021, when the county GOP 
Chairwoman&nbsp;Latham, election board member Eric Chaney and election 
director Misty Hampton were joined by Hall, Paul Maggio, chief operating
 officer of Atlanta-based forensic data firm SullivanStrickler.The news of an attempted breach in Coffee County became public this 
spring after Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good
 Governance, released a recording of a phone call she had in March 2021 
in which Atlanta bail bondsman Hall claimed he provided a flight for a 
team of people to fly to Coffee County to copy voting records to 
discredit the machines and justify Trump’s efforts to overturn the 
election results.Raffensperger publicly launched an 
investigation into the Coffee County breach episode last March because 
of pressure from Marks. The spring 2022 revelation of a <a target="_blank" href="https://georgiarecorder.com/2022/09/07/familiar-cast-of-trump-election-deniers-emerges-with-new-video-showing-coffee-election-breach/">video showing Hampton</a> ushering in a group that copied voting machine records&nbsp;prompted Raffensperger to take a closer look at events that occurred at the county courthouse in January 2021.As late as April, interim deputy secretary of state Gabriel Sterling denied the breach allegation.
 This summer, however, the secretary of state’s office confirmed that an
 investigation was underway and that the GBI was assisting.Meanwhile, Coffee County is coping 
with making national news for all the wrong reasons. There is some 
national scorn of the south Georgia town and the county of about 43,000 
because it is seen as a haven of disgruntled, undemocratic losers.&nbsp;“I’ve talked to all the county 
commissioners, all of them Republican, except one, and they were shocked
 by what happened at the elections office and unhappy about it,” Nesmith
 said.&nbsp;&nbsp;On Peterson Street, which is the Main
 Street here in Douglas, Jill Cravey, the owner of The Crave Boutique on
 Peterson Avenue, couldn’t contain her disgust.“I trust none of them now after this,
 Democrats and Republicans,” she said. “I pay all this money in taxes 
for this? It is a big mess.”Three women eating lunch at Sparky’s 
downtown did not know the details of the attempted breach. Their eyes 
got wide with interest as they heard of local officials helping 
outsiders learn more about the inner workings of Coffee County’s voting 
system.&nbsp;“Sneaky,” said Jasmine Scott, an IT consultant. “I don’t like it. We don’t like sneaky stuff.”Others who were stopped and asked 
about the breach on Peterson Street this week just shrugged and said 
they had not really followed the episode.&nbsp;Latham has moved to Texas. Hampton 
was fired as elections supervisor and is working at the bank. Chaney 
resigned his seat on the elections board and is working on his family’s 
used car lot.It remains to be seen if this costs Coffee County more than just a black eye.&nbsp;Marks, who has been challenging the 
security of elections since 2017, said all the election equipment needs 
to be wheeled to the dumpster. The state replaced the Coffee County 
server after the breach, but she said all the election equipment, which 
includes poll pads, have been corrupted.&nbsp;The state owns the election 
equipment. Is it going to ask Coffee County taxpayers to reimburse it 
for the server, or just let this fade away?Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for 
Raffensperger, did not return an email request asking about the costs of
 the breach and whether they would be passed on to the county.Wesley Vickers, the county administrator, told the Georgia Recorder in his office Monday he is not aware of the state billing the county for new election equipment, or the cleanup.&nbsp;Across the street at the Elections Office, Rachel Ann Roberts, who
 has been the elections supervisor in Coffee County for nine months, 
said there has been no request by the state for money to replace voting 
equipment.“What about attorney’s fees in 
dealing with Dominion whose software was examined?” Nesmith said. “Do I 
and other taxpayers have to pay for that? What are all the costs to 
taxpayers of Coffee County associated with this breach?”Robert Preston Jr. runs the local 
online media site DouglasNow. He said he was a neighbor of Hampton, the 
fired elections supervisor, and she is a friend. Preston said the local 
officials “honestly believed something happened statewide” as far as 
election fraud and that is why they opened the elections office to the 
so-called “cyber ninjas” supporting Trump.President Joe Biden defeated Trump by
 11,779 votes in the state. Trump tried to shake down Raffensperger for 
votes to overturn Biden’s win and one of the avenues was to challenge 
the worthiness of the voting machines.“They thought that they were going to
 find some type of election fraud in Georgia that caused Trump to lose 
the election,” Preston said. “And that what they found would eventually 
overturn the election. Obviously that hasn’t happened. And I don’t think
 that they thought that they were breaking any laws.”Preston insists there has been no county-wide condemnation of Latham, Hampton, and Chaney.“I think the majority of the people 
here in Coffee County feel like the efforts by the individuals who have 
been named in this event were acting in good faith to try to uncover 
potential election fraud,” he said. “And when we’ve posted stories to 
provide some coverage, the comments locally that come in, not all of 
them, but most of the comments locally, seem to support what happened.”Nesmith disagrees and said many 
people in the county are upset with the trio. What’s more, Republican 
supporters in the county he has talked with are not as vociferous as 
others around the country about Trump being cheated out of the White 
House in 2020.&nbsp;“I don’t hear it about how Trump really won, I really don’t,” Nesmith said.Senior Reporter Stanley Dunlap contributed to this report.

Sleepy Ga. county wakes to national spotlight with 2021 voting machine breach videos 

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche are making Nathan MacKinnon the highest-paid player in the NHL’s salary cap era.

MacKinnon, who just turned 27 earlier this month, signed an eight-year contract worth $100.8 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the team did not announce terms of the contract.

His new $12.6 million salary cap hit that goes into effect at the start of the 2023-24 season surpasses Connor McDavid’s $12.5 million as the highest in the league. McDavid’s $100 million, eight-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers signed in 2017 was the previous record for the highest annual cap hit since the system went into place in 2005.

“Obviously it’s really cool, for sure,” MacKinnon said of being the highest-paid player in hockey. "Hoping there’s no more pandemics and the cap goes up even more, but, yeah, I think the term was the most important thing. I just wanted to be here for the rest of my career and hopefully I get another deal after this, too.”

The only richer deals than MacKinnon's in NHL history are Alex Ovechkin’s $124 million, 13-year contract with Washington, Shea Weber’s $110 million, 14-year contract with Nashville and Sidney Crosby’s $104.4 million, 12-year contract with Pittsburgh. The collective bargaining agreement has since limited contract lengths to eight years for a players re-signing with his own team and seven for free agents.

MacKinnon agreed to the deal with training camp about to start. It's been a short offseason for MacKinnon and the Avalanche after they captured their first Stanley Cup title since 2001.

“We’re just thrilled that it’s done before the start of training camp, and Nate can focus on hockey,” general manager Chris MacFarland said. “What he does for us is really important, and to have him locked up for nine years is really crucial to the short- and long-term planning for us. It’s a big day.”

The hard-shooting, fast-skating center tied for the league lead with 13 postseason goals. It was second-highest in a single playoff run in franchise history, trailing only Hall of Famer Joe Sakic's 18 goals in 1996 (when Colorado won its first Cup).

“It shows a lot of loyalty,” said Sakic, now Colorado's president of hockey operations. “Nathan wanted to get this done, we wanted to get it done and he’s a franchise player and we’re really excited that he’ll remain here in Colorado for the rest of his career.”

MacKinnon, the top overall pick in the 2013 draft, has been a finalist for the Hart Trophy in three of the last five seasons ('17-18, ‘18-19, ’20-21). He has 242 career goals and 406 assists — the most of anyone from his draft class.

The native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the youngest player in franchise history to make his NHL debut (18 years, 31 days) and went on to win the Calder Trophy that season as the league’s top rookie. He also won the Lady Byng Award for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct in 2020. In addition, he's been named a captain for the Central Division in the last three All-Star Games.

MacKinnon’s last contract, which expires after the upcoming season, was worth $44.1 million over seven years at a cap hit of $6.3 million. Only four players topped the 495 points he put up in the regular season since that deal went into effect, and his 83 in the playoffs are second-most in the NHL since then.

That's why for years, MacKinnon was known as the most underpaid player in hockey — a title he really didn’t care for.

These days, he has another one: Stanley Cup champion.

He's part of a core Avalanche group that also includes defenseman Cale Makar, forward Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog.

MacKinnon is now signed through 2031. Colorado also has versatile forward Valeri Nichushkin signed through 2030, Landeskog through 2029 and Makar, the playoff MVP, through 2027. MacFarland’s task next summer is an extension with Rantanen.

“Denver’s the only place I want to be, for sure,” MacKinnon recently said in Henderson, Nevada, during a preseason player media tour.

McDavid considers being surpassed as the highest-paid player, “good for hockey, I guess, to keep raising the bar."

“But ultimately the salary cap system’s a weird system where the more money you make, the less money someone else can make,” McDavid added. "It’s kind of a weird system that way. There’s always going to be give and take.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663770199731.jpeg" alt="Nathan MacKinnon / AP Photo" />
 <figcaption>Nathan MacKinnon / AP Photo</figcaption>
 </figure>DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche are making Nathan MacKinnon the highest-paid player in the NHL’s salary cap era.MacKinnon, who just turned 27 earlier this month, signed an eight-year contract worth $100.8 million, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the team did not announce terms of the contract.His new $12.6 million salary cap hit that goes into effect at the start of the 2023-24 season surpasses Connor McDavid’s $12.5 million as the highest in the league. McDavid’s $100 million, eight-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers signed in 2017 was the previous record for the highest annual cap hit since the system went into place in 2005.“Obviously it’s really cool, for sure,” MacKinnon said of being the highest-paid player in hockey. "Hoping there’s no more pandemics and the cap goes up even more, but, yeah, I think the term was the most important thing. I just wanted to be here for the rest of my career and hopefully I get another deal after this, too.”The only richer deals than MacKinnon's in NHL history are Alex Ovechkin’s $124 million, 13-year contract with Washington, Shea Weber’s $110 million, 14-year contract with Nashville and Sidney Crosby’s $104.4 million, 12-year contract with Pittsburgh. The collective bargaining agreement has since limited contract lengths to eight years for a players re-signing with his own team and seven for free agents.MacKinnon agreed to the deal with training camp about to start. It's been a short offseason for MacKinnon and the Avalanche after they captured their first Stanley Cup title since 2001.“We’re just thrilled that it’s done before the start of training camp, and Nate can focus on hockey,” general manager Chris MacFarland said. “What he does for us is really important, and to have him locked up for nine years is really crucial to the short- and long-term planning for us. It’s a big day.”The hard-shooting, fast-skating center tied for the league lead with 13 postseason goals. It was second-highest in a single playoff run in franchise history, trailing only Hall of Famer Joe Sakic's 18 goals in 1996 (when Colorado won its first Cup).“It shows a lot of loyalty,” said Sakic, now Colorado's president of hockey operations. “Nathan wanted to get this done, we wanted to get it done and he’s a franchise player and we’re really excited that he’ll remain here in Colorado for the rest of his career.”MacKinnon, the top overall pick in the 2013 draft, has been a finalist for the Hart Trophy in three of the last five seasons ('17-18, ‘18-19, ’20-21). He has 242 career goals and 406 assists — the most of anyone from his draft class.The native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the youngest player in franchise history to make his NHL debut (18 years, 31 days) and went on to win the Calder Trophy that season as the league’s top rookie. He also won the Lady Byng Award for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct in 2020. In addition, he's been named a captain for the Central Division in the last three All-Star Games.MacKinnon’s last contract, which expires after the upcoming season, was worth $44.1 million over seven years at a cap hit of $6.3 million. Only four players topped the 495 points he put up in the regular season since that deal went into effect, and his 83 in the playoffs are second-most in the NHL since then.That's why for years, MacKinnon was known as the most underpaid player in hockey — a title he really didn’t care for.These days, he has another one: Stanley Cup champion.He's part of a core Avalanche group that also includes defenseman Cale Makar, forward Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog.MacKinnon is now signed through 2031. Colorado also has versatile forward Valeri Nichushkin signed through 2030, Landeskog through 2029 and Makar, the playoff MVP, through 2027. MacFarland’s task next summer is an extension with Rantanen.“Denver’s the only place I want to be, for sure,” MacKinnon recently said in Henderson, Nevada, during a preseason player media tour.McDavid considers being surpassed as the highest-paid player, “good for hockey, I guess, to keep raising the bar."“But ultimately the salary cap system’s a weird system where the more money you make, the less money someone else can make,” McDavid added. "It’s kind of a weird system that way. There’s always going to be give and take.”

Avalanche make superstar MacKinnon highest paid NHL player

By PERRY ZURN <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-kids-curious-5-questions-answered-189512">The Conversation</a>

Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment
 can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep 
kids’ curiosity alive? For answers to this question, The Conversation 
U.S. turned to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1fr7ljcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Perry Zurn</a>, a philosophy professor at American University and author of three books on curiosity, including “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/curious-minds/">Curious Minds: The Power of Connection</a>,” which was released in September 2022.

Curiosity is a natural capacity, present in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab080">nonhuman animals</a> as well as in humans from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12629">very young age</a>.
 Beings of all sorts seek information, explore their environments and 
innovate new ways of solving problems. Creatures big and small, from 
elephants to bees, engage in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2017.108">exploratory foraging</a> as they discover new territory and resources, while <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1620739114">monkeys</a> – and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0414">cells and viruses</a> – innovate new behaviors.

Among human beings, most people – scholars and nonscholars alike – 
have a sense that children are especially curious. Psychologist <a href="https://psychology.williams.edu/profile/sengel/">Susan Engel</a> validates this sense in her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">The Hungry Mind</a>.”
 Engel observes children’s curiosity at work in different environments, 
from preschool nature walks and middle school science labs to asking 
questions around the dinner table. Her research confirms that children 
are bursting with curiosity, expressed in the things they touch, the way
 they talk and how they interact with others. But what happens to that 
curiosity as we age?

Some people I meet bemoan the loss of their childlike wonder, while 
others are proud to have maintained or expanded it. What might explain 
the difference?

While research clearly shows children have a high interest in <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442217331/The-Philosophical-Child">asking questions</a>,
 that interest may dull over time, particularly in school settings. One 
study found that preschoolers ask an average of 26 questions an hour at 
home, but <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/young-children-learning/oclc/11114218">less than two per hour at school</a>.
 Another study showed that fifth grade students, on average, expressed 
curiosity – via question asking, directed gazing or object manipulation –
 <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">less than once every two hours</a>. Why?

Many things can dampen curiosity. Internet search engines and 
smartphones that give immediate answers limit children’s ability to sit 
with their questions and stew over their <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Experience-And-Education/John-Dewey/9780684838281">problems</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/">Parenting styles</a> that emphasize the value of questions only as a means to an end – such as correct <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-9781501314162/">answers</a>
 – limit children’s capacity to cultivate questions for their own sake. 
Lastly, when schools train children to ask only specific kinds of 
questions in specific sorts of ways, it can limit their opportunities to
 <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515108/insatiable-curiosity/">innovate</a> by constraining their interest and inquiry into narrow channels.

3. How good are K-12 schools at fostering curiosity?

Since teacher training focuses on conveying content and cultivating basic skills, teachers <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/672957b4-788b-40c5-a747-f66544b641fe#conc">may not know how</a> to facilitate curiosity.

To make matters more complicated, educators are often up against <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/08/26/are-we-at-a-crisis-point-with-the-public-teacher-workforce-education-scholars-share-their-perspectives/">impossible odds</a>
 of growing class sizes, reduced resources and increased pressure to 
achieve generalized, measurable outcomes. As a result, many teachers 
teach “compliance” more than “curiosity,” as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>
 puts it, reflecting on his time as a student in Baltimore schools. In 
his experience, it was more important for students to behave and learn 
the assigned material than for them to explore their interests and go 
out on a limb. This is especially harmful for students whose creative 
intelligence is already less likely to be encouraged, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0120">students of color</a> and students with <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/09913fb6-4df2-4607-9192-cf745c919426#ch08/">learning differences</a>, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia.

As astrophysicist and Black feminist author <a href="https://ceps.unh.edu/person/chanda-prescod-weinstein">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein</a> emphasizes in her recent book, “<a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/">The Disordered Cosmos</a>,”
 not everyone is encouraged to reach for – or understand – the stars. 
She sees Black women as being especially discouraged from their academic
 and scientific aspirations.

4. How can parents protect their children’s curiosity?

Paying attention to each child’s own style of curiosity, and 
instilling in them a sense of pride in that style, will do much to equip
 kids to maintain curiosity. While children are naturally curious, they 
may express and pursue their curiosity in different ways. Research 
indicates there are multiple <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity">dimensions</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/04/busybody-hunter-dancer-curiosity-curious-minds-bassett-zurn">styles</a> of curiosity.

One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00985-7">study I was involved in</a>, for example, led by communications scientist <a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/people/faculty/david-lydon-staley-phd">David Lydon-Staley</a>,
 showed that people who browse Wikipedia have a tendency either to be 
busybodies – clicking on radically different pages; or hunters – 
clicking on closely connected pages. Does your child like to know 
everything about a few things? Or a few things about everything?

For the ancient Greeks, these two styles were best characterized by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739502013/the-fox-and-the-hedgehog-a-story-of-triumphs-and-tragedy">the hedgehog and the fox</a>.
 According to Archilochus, the hedgehog “knows one thing,” but the fox 
“knows many things.” Following that instinct, in my book “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/">Curious Minds</a>,” written with neuroscientist <a href="https://directory.seas.upenn.edu/danielle-s-bassett/">Dani S. Bassett</a>,
 we analyze 18 different creatures, from animals to insects, and 
characterize their unique curiosity styles. Perhaps your child is more 
like an octopus, with inquisitive arms stretched out in every direction,
 or an inchworm, slow and steady.

If people are to have the curiosity and creative imagination 
necessary to address pressing problems the world over, we will have to 
rethink what happens in the college classroom, and what happens <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/beyond-education">beyond it</a>.

Fellow philosopher of curiosity Lani Watson argues that however much 
colleges and universities tout a central commitment to curiosity, they 
continue to rely primarily on “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-5277-6">answers-oriented education</a>.”
 Over and over again, the written exam, the multiple choice test or the 
position paper are the gold standard by which students demonstrate that 
they have learned and what they have learned.

Asking better, more insightful and more creative questions is rarely 
prized in educational settings except as a means to other ends – higher 
grades, more published papers, more discoveries or innovations. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115622777">rising</a> social pressures to work longer hours on classes, jobs and internships, and a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/the-liberal-arts-may-not-survive-the-21st-century/577876/">declining</a>
 investment in a liberal arts education, make questioning itself an 
endangered art. Few students have the time or encouragement to get 
curious for curiosity’s sake.

Perry Zurn is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663613887084.jpg" alt="Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By PERRY ZURN <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-kids-curious-5-questions-answered-189512">The Conversation</a>Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment
 can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep 
kids’ curiosity alive? For answers to this question, The Conversation 
U.S. turned to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1fr7ljcAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">Perry Zurn</a>, a philosophy professor at American University and author of three books on curiosity, including “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/curious-minds/">Curious Minds: The Power of Connection</a>,” which was released in September 2022.<h2>1. Is curiosity abundant at birth?</h2>Curiosity is a natural capacity, present in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab080">nonhuman animals</a> as well as in humans from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12629">very young age</a>.
 Beings of all sorts seek information, explore their environments and 
innovate new ways of solving problems. Creatures big and small, from 
elephants to bees, engage in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2017.108">exploratory foraging</a> as they discover new territory and resources, while <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1620739114">monkeys</a> – and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0414">cells and viruses</a> – innovate new behaviors.Among human beings, most people – scholars and nonscholars alike – 
have a sense that children are especially curious. Psychologist <a href="https://psychology.williams.edu/profile/sengel/">Susan Engel</a> validates this sense in her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">The Hungry Mind</a>.”
 Engel observes children’s curiosity at work in different environments, 
from preschool nature walks and middle school science labs to asking 
questions around the dinner table. Her research confirms that children 
are bursting with curiosity, expressed in the things they touch, the way
 they talk and how they interact with others. But what happens to that 
curiosity as we age?Some people I meet bemoan the loss of their childlike wonder, while 
others are proud to have maintained or expanded it. What might explain 
the difference?<h2>2. What kills kids’ curiosity?</h2>While research clearly shows children have a high interest in <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442217331/The-Philosophical-Child">asking questions</a>,
 that interest may dull over time, particularly in school settings. One 
study found that preschoolers ask an average of 26 questions an hour at 
home, but <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/young-children-learning/oclc/11114218">less than two per hour at school</a>.
 Another study showed that fifth grade students, on average, expressed 
curiosity – via question asking, directed gazing or object manipulation –
 <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">less than once every two hours</a>. Why? Many things can dampen curiosity. Internet search engines and 
smartphones that give immediate answers limit children’s ability to sit 
with their questions and stew over their <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Experience-And-Education/John-Dewey/9780684838281">problems</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/">Parenting styles</a> that emphasize the value of questions only as a means to an end – such as correct <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-9781501314162/">answers</a>
 – limit children’s capacity to cultivate questions for their own sake. 
Lastly, when schools train children to ask only specific kinds of 
questions in specific sorts of ways, it can limit their opportunities to
 <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515108/insatiable-curiosity/">innovate</a> by constraining their interest and inquiry into narrow channels.<h2>3. How good are K-12 schools at fostering curiosity?</h2>Since teacher training focuses on conveying content and cultivating basic skills, teachers <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/672957b4-788b-40c5-a747-f66544b641fe#conc">may not know how</a> to facilitate curiosity.To make matters more complicated, educators are often up against <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/08/26/are-we-at-a-crisis-point-with-the-public-teacher-workforce-education-scholars-share-their-perspectives/">impossible odds</a>
 of growing class sizes, reduced resources and increased pressure to 
achieve generalized, measurable outcomes. As a result, many teachers 
teach “compliance” more than “curiosity,” as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>
 puts it, reflecting on his time as a student in Baltimore schools. In 
his experience, it was more important for students to behave and learn 
the assigned material than for them to explore their interests and go 
out on a limb. This is especially harmful for students whose creative 
intelligence is already less likely to be encouraged, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0120">students of color</a> and students with <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/09913fb6-4df2-4607-9192-cf745c919426#ch08/">learning differences</a>, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia.As astrophysicist and Black feminist author <a href="https://ceps.unh.edu/person/chanda-prescod-weinstein">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein</a> emphasizes in her recent book, “<a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/">The Disordered Cosmos</a>,”
 not everyone is encouraged to reach for – or understand – the stars. 
She sees Black women as being especially discouraged from their academic
 and scientific aspirations. <h2>4. How can parents protect their children’s curiosity?</h2>Paying attention to each child’s own style of curiosity, and 
instilling in them a sense of pride in that style, will do much to equip
 kids to maintain curiosity. While children are naturally curious, they 
may express and pursue their curiosity in different ways. Research 
indicates there are multiple <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity">dimensions</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/04/busybody-hunter-dancer-curiosity-curious-minds-bassett-zurn">styles</a> of curiosity.One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00985-7">study I was involved in</a>, for example, led by communications scientist <a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/people/faculty/david-lydon-staley-phd">David Lydon-Staley</a>,
 showed that people who browse Wikipedia have a tendency either to be 
busybodies – clicking on radically different pages; or hunters – 
clicking on closely connected pages. Does your child like to know 
everything about a few things? Or a few things about everything?For the ancient Greeks, these two styles were best characterized by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739502013/the-fox-and-the-hedgehog-a-story-of-triumphs-and-tragedy">the hedgehog and the fox</a>.
 According to Archilochus, the hedgehog “knows one thing,” but the fox 
“knows many things.” Following that instinct, in my book “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/">Curious Minds</a>,” written with neuroscientist <a href="https://directory.seas.upenn.edu/danielle-s-bassett/">Dani S. Bassett</a>,
 we analyze 18 different creatures, from animals to insects, and 
characterize their unique curiosity styles. Perhaps your child is more 
like an octopus, with inquisitive arms stretched out in every direction,
 or an inchworm, slow and steady. <h2>5. What role can colleges play?</h2>If people are to have the curiosity and creative imagination 
necessary to address pressing problems the world over, we will have to 
rethink what happens in the college classroom, and what happens <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/beyond-education">beyond it</a>. Fellow philosopher of curiosity Lani Watson argues that however much 
colleges and universities tout a central commitment to curiosity, they 
continue to rely primarily on “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-5277-6">answers-oriented education</a>.”
 Over and over again, the written exam, the multiple choice test or the 
position paper are the gold standard by which students demonstrate that 
they have learned and what they have learned.Asking better, more insightful and more creative questions is rarely 
prized in educational settings except as a means to other ends – higher 
grades, more published papers, more discoveries or innovations. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115622777">rising</a> social pressures to work longer hours on classes, jobs and internships, and a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/the-liberal-arts-may-not-survive-the-21st-century/577876/">declining</a>
 investment in a liberal arts education, make questioning itself an 
endangered art. Few students have the time or encouragement to get 
curious for curiosity’s sake.Perry Zurn is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at American University.<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189512/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1"></iframe></div>

ANALYSIS: How to keep kids curious. Five questions answered

By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/17/chinese-wireless-tech-could-put-offutt-air-force-base-and-nebraska-missile-silos-at-risk/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

BELLEVUE, Nebraska — More than 10,000 military members and civilians working at Offutt Air Force Base could be at risk of having cell phone calls, texts and data seen by the Chinese government because at least one cellular service provider installed Chinese equipment on nearby towers.

The U.S. Commerce Department is 
investigating the potential data collection and transmission 
capabilities of equipment from Chinese tech company Huawei that was 
installed on cell towers near U.S. military installations, including 
missile silos in western Nebraska, as Reuters reported.

U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., wrote 
to the Commerce Department this week seeking an update on the 
investigation, which he said he supports. He sought confirmation from 
Commerce about any Huawei tech on cell towers within 20 miles of Offutt 
or other Nebraska military facilities.&nbsp;

Huawei equipment has been found that 
close to Offutt and to nuclear missile silos in Cheyenne County, home to
 Sidney, several sources told the Nebraska Examiner. State and federal 
leaders have not yet discussed specifics publicly.

“I think it’s a slap in the face to every airman that goes to work,” said Flood, whose 1st
 Congressional District includes Offutt. “I want to know where this is 
in Nebraska, what companies are using it and why it hasn’t been 
removed.”&nbsp;

Adm. Charles Richard, commander of 
Offutt’s U.S. Strategic Command, acknowledged during a conference in 
July the reality of nation-states trying to access military information.
 He said U.S. intelligence services and others are working to protect 
key military assets from cyberattack.

Huawei was founded by former members 
of the Chinese military. The company has denied that its equipment is a 
spying threat or that it is working in concert with the Chinese 
government. Tech experts say the Chinese state can force companies in 
China to share users’ information.

Crystal Rhoades, a Democrat who 
represents much of the Omaha area on Nebraska’s Public Service 
Commission, would not discuss the locations of specific cell phone 
towers in Nebraska with Chinese equipment on them, citing national 
security concerns.

But she said nearly every Viaero 
Wireless tower in Nebraska has Huawei equipment on it. She said the 
company has discussed applying for up to $330 million in federal funds 
to rip out and replace Chinese equipment in Nebraska with tech approved 
by the U.S. Department of Defense. The company did not return repeated 
messages seeking comment.

“This is a big deal,” Rhoades said. “It needs to get fixed.”

Flood said he hopes the Commerce 
Department acts with a sense of urgency. He said the United Kingdom 
banned the use of Huawei equipment on its cell towers, and the U.S. 
should be able to act with similar speed. He said the public needs 
answers, and soon.

“China is a real threat,” Flood said.
 “We can’t trust Chinese technology when it comes to protecting our 
national security. … My hope is this should not be drawn out.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663530990213.png" alt="The U.S. Air Force Heartland of America Band performs during the 55th Wing Headquarters Building Dedication in 2021 at Offutt Air Force Base (Courtesy of U.S. Air Force/Josh Plueger)" />
 <figcaption>The U.S. Air Force Heartland of America Band performs during the 55th Wing Headquarters Building Dedication in 2021 at Offutt Air Force Base (Courtesy of U.S. Air Force/Josh Plueger)</figcaption>
 </figure>By AARON SANDERFORD <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/09/17/chinese-wireless-tech-could-put-offutt-air-force-base-and-nebraska-missile-silos-at-risk/">Nebraska Examiner</a>BELLEVUE, Nebraska — More than 10,000 military members and civilians working at Offutt Air Force Base could be at risk of having cell phone calls, texts and data seen by the Chinese government because at least one cellular service provider installed Chinese equipment on nearby towers.The U.S. Commerce Department is 
investigating the potential data collection and transmission 
capabilities of equipment from Chinese tech company Huawei that was 
installed on cell towers near U.S. military installations, including 
missile silos in western Nebraska, as Reuters reported.U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., wrote 
to the Commerce Department this week seeking an update on the 
investigation, which he said he supports. He sought confirmation from 
Commerce about any Huawei tech on cell towers within 20 miles of Offutt 
or other Nebraska military facilities.&nbsp;Huawei equipment has been found that 
close to Offutt and to nuclear missile silos in Cheyenne County, home to
 Sidney, several sources told the Nebraska Examiner. State and federal 
leaders have not yet discussed specifics publicly.“I think it’s a slap in the face to every airman that goes to work,” said Flood, whose 1st
 Congressional District includes Offutt. “I want to know where this is 
in Nebraska, what companies are using it and why it hasn’t been 
removed.”&nbsp;Adm. Charles Richard, commander of 
Offutt’s U.S. Strategic Command, acknowledged during a conference in 
July the reality of nation-states trying to access military information.
 He said U.S. intelligence services and others are working to protect 
key military assets from cyberattack.Huawei was founded by former members 
of the Chinese military. The company has denied that its equipment is a 
spying threat or that it is working in concert with the Chinese 
government. Tech experts say the Chinese state can force companies in 
China to share users’ information.Crystal Rhoades, a Democrat who 
represents much of the Omaha area on Nebraska’s Public Service 
Commission, would not discuss the locations of specific cell phone 
towers in Nebraska with Chinese equipment on them, citing national 
security concerns.But she said nearly every Viaero 
Wireless tower in Nebraska has Huawei equipment on it. She said the 
company has discussed applying for up to $330 million in federal funds 
to rip out and replace Chinese equipment in Nebraska with tech approved 
by the U.S. Department of Defense. The company did not return repeated 
messages seeking comment.“This is a big deal,” Rhoades said. “It needs to get fixed.”Flood said he hopes the Commerce 
Department acts with a sense of urgency. He said the United Kingdom 
banned the use of Huawei equipment on its cell towers, and the U.S. 
should be able to act with similar speed. He said the public needs 
answers, and soon.“China is a real threat,” Flood said.
 “We can’t trust Chinese technology when it comes to protecting our 
national security. … My hope is this should not be drawn out.”

Chinese tech could put Offutt, Nebraska missile silos at risk

The 
Federal Trade Commission has announced enforcement priorities to fight 
for consumers who work in jobs that are part of the gig economy. In a 
new <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/policy-statement-enforcement-related-gig-work">policy statement</a>
 adopted today, the Commission outlined a number of issues facing gig 
workers, including deception about pay and hours, unfair contract terms,
 and anticompetitive wage fixing and coordination between gig economy 
companies.

“No matter how gig companies choose to 
classify them, gig workers are consumers entitled to protection under 
the laws we enforce,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau 
of Consumer Protection. “We are fully committed to coordinating our 
consumer protection and competition enforcement efforts within the FTC 
as well as working with other agencies across the government to ensure 
gig workers are treated fairly.” 

“Technological advances and novel business models are no license to 
commit unfair, deceptive, or anticompetitive practices,” said Elizabeth 
Wilkins, Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning. “We will use 
all our tools to protect gig workers and promote fair and competitive 
market practices in the gig economy.”

The 
statement highlights studies showing that gig work accounts for hundreds
 of billions of dollars in economic activity each year. According to a 
Federal Reserve report cited in the statement, 16 percent of Americans 
report earning money through a gig company, and another report shows 
that more than half of gig workers say the money they earn is essential 
or important for meeting their needs. Additionally, as noted in the 
Commission’s recent Serving Communities of Color report, many gig workers come from communities of color. The
 statement makes clear that, while gig companies may seem novel, 
traditional principles of consumer protection and competition still 
apply to them. &nbsp;

In the statement, the 
Commission notes multiple areas where there is potential for harm to 
workers in the gig economy, including: 

The policy statement makes clear 
that the FTC’s authority to enforce both competition and consumer 
protection laws in the gig economy is not affected by how companies 
choose to classify the consumers who perform gig work. In the statement,
 the Commission names multiple areas where the Commission will aim to 
prevent harm to consumers:

The policy statement notes that companies that fail to follow the laws governing unfair, deceptive, or anticompetitive practices could
 be obligated to pay consumer redress and civil penalties and may be 
ordered to cease unlawful business practices. The Commission also notes 
in the statement that it will partner with other governmental agencies 
to protect gig workers.

The Commission voted 3-2 at an open meeting 
to adopt the policy statement, with Commissioners Noah Joshua Phillips 
and Christine S. Wilson voting in the negative.

Workers who believe that their 
labor rights have been violated can call 1-844-762-6572 for assistance 
filing an unfair labor practice charge. Or they can contact&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/who-we-are/regional-offices">their closest National Labor Relations Board Field Office</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.nlrb.gov/myAccount/#/ChargeAndPetition/TermsConditions">submit a charge on the NLRB’s website</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1619632629588.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>FTCThe 
Federal Trade Commission has announced enforcement priorities to fight 
for consumers who work in jobs that are part of the gig economy. In a 
new <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/policy-statement-enforcement-related-gig-work">policy statement</a>
 adopted today, the Commission outlined a number of issues facing gig 
workers, including deception about pay and hours, unfair contract terms,
 and anticompetitive wage fixing and coordination between gig economy 
companies. “No matter how gig companies choose to 
classify them, gig workers are consumers entitled to protection under 
the laws we enforce,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau 
of Consumer Protection. “We are fully committed to coordinating our 
consumer protection and competition enforcement efforts within the FTC 
as well as working with other agencies across the government to ensure 
gig workers are treated fairly.” “Technological advances and novel business models are no license to 
commit unfair, deceptive, or anticompetitive practices,” said Elizabeth 
Wilkins, Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning. “We will use 
all our tools to protect gig workers and promote fair and competitive 
market practices in the gig economy.”The 
statement highlights studies showing that gig work accounts for hundreds
 of billions of dollars in economic activity each year. According to a 
Federal Reserve report cited in the statement, 16 percent of Americans 
report earning money through a gig company, and another report shows 
that more than half of gig workers say the money they earn is essential 
or important for meeting their needs. Additionally, as noted in the 
Commission’s recent Serving Communities of Color report, many gig workers come from communities of color. The
 statement makes clear that, while gig companies may seem novel, 
traditional principles of consumer protection and competition still 
apply to them. &nbsp;In the statement, the 
Commission notes multiple areas where there is potential for harm to 
workers in the gig economy, including: <ul>
 <li>Misrepresentations about the nature of gig work: While gig companies promote independence to potential workers, in
 practice these firms may tightly prescribe and control their workers’ 
tasks in ways that run counter to the promise of independence and an 
alternative to traditional jobs.</li>
 </ul><ul>
 <li>Diminished bargaining power: Workers
 have little leverage to demand transparency from gig companies, even in
 the face of unclear information about when work will be available, 
where they will have to perform it, or how they will be evaluated.</li>
 </ul><ul>
 <li>Concentrated markets:
 Markets populated by gig companies are often concentrated, resulting in
 reduced choice for workers, customers, and businesses. These companies 
may be more likely to exert their market power in anticompetitive ways 
that harm workers’ wages, job quality, and other aspects of gig work.</li>
 </ul>The policy statement makes clear 
that the FTC’s authority to enforce both competition and consumer 
protection laws in the gig economy is not affected by how companies 
choose to classify the consumers who perform gig work. In the statement,
 the Commission names multiple areas where the Commission will aim to 
prevent harm to consumers:<ul>
 <li>Holding companies accountable for claims and conduct about costs and benefits: Gig
 companies must not be deceptive in their claims to prospective gig 
workers about potential earnings, and they must be transparent and 
truthful about costs borne by workers.</li>
 </ul><ul>
 <li>Combating unlawful practices and constraints imposed on workers: Gig
 companies using artificial intelligence or other advanced technologies 
to govern workers’ pay, performance, and work assignments are still 
required to keep promises they make to workers. Companies must also 
ensure that any restrictive contract terms, including those limiting 
workers from seeking other jobs, do not violate the FTC Act or other 
laws.</li><li>Policing unfair methods of competition that harm gig workers:
 The FTC will investigate evidence of agreements between gig companies 
to illegally fix wages, benefits, or fees for gig workers that should be
 open to competition. The FTC will also investigate exclusionary or 
predatory conduct that could cause harm to customers or reduced compensation or poorer working conditions for gig workers.</li>
 </ul>The policy statement notes that companies that fail to follow the laws governing unfair, deceptive, or anticompetitive practices could
 be obligated to pay consumer redress and civil penalties and may be 
ordered to cease unlawful business practices. The Commission also notes 
in the statement that it will partner with other governmental agencies 
to protect gig workers.The Commission voted 3-2 at an open meeting 
to adopt the policy statement, with Commissioners Noah Joshua Phillips 
and Christine S. Wilson voting in the negative.Workers who believe that their 
labor rights have been violated can call 1-844-762-6572 for assistance 
filing an unfair labor practice charge. Or they can contact&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/who-we-are/regional-offices">their closest National Labor Relations Board Field Office</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.nlrb.gov/myAccount/#/ChargeAndPetition/TermsConditions">submit a charge on the NLRB’s website</a>.

FTC to crack down on companies taking advantage of gig workers

By ANDREW NEWMAN <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-high-school-classics-have-been-taught-for-generations-could-they-be-on-their-way-out-188197">The Conversation</a>

If you went to high school in the United States anytime since the 
1960s, you were likely assigned some of the following books: 
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth”; John 
Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”;
 Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and William Golding’s “The Lord 
of the Flies.”

For many former students, these books and other so-called “classics” 
represent high school English. But despite the efforts of reformers, 
both <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=multicultural+canon&amp;id=ED371401">past</a> and <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">present</a>, the most frequently assigned titles have never represented America’s diverse student body.

Why did these books become classics in the U.S.? How have they 
withstood challenges to their status? And will they continue to dominate
 high school reading lists? Or will they be replaced by a different set 
of books that will become classics for students in the 21st century?

The set of books that is taught again and again, broadly across the 
country, is referred to by literature scholars and English teachers as 
“the canon.” 

The high school canon has been shaped by many factors. Shakespeare’s 
plays, especially “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar,” have been taught 
consistently <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1488191">since the beginning of the 20th century</a>,
 when the curriculum was determined by college entrance requirements. 
Others, like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize 
for fiction, were ushered into the classroom by current events – in the 
case of Lee’s book, <a href="https://time.com/3928162/mockingbird-civil-rights-movement/">the civil rights movement</a>.
 Some books just seem especially suited for classroom teaching: “Of Mice
 and Men” has a straightforward plot, easily identifiable themes and is 
under 100 pages long.

Titles become “traditional” when they are passed down through generations. As the education historian Jonna Perrillo observes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/12/todays-book-bans-might-be-more-dangerous-than-those-past/">parents tend to approve</a> of having their children study the same books that they once did.

The last period of significant change to the canon was during the 
1960s and 1970s, when the largest generation of the 20th century, the 
baby boomers, went to high school. For instance, in 1963, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/810053">a survey of 800 students</a>
 at Evanston Township High School in Illinois revealed that “To Kill a 
Mockingbird,” first published in 1960, was by far the “most enjoyed 
book,” followed by two books that had been published in the 1950s, J.D. 
Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and Golding’s “The Lord of the 
Flies.” None of these books were yet traditional, yet they became so for
 the next generation.

A comparison of national surveys conducted in 1963 and 1988 shows how
 several books that were introduced to the classroom when the boomers 
were students had become classics when boomers were teachers.

During the 1960s and 1970s, teachers even reframed “Romeo and Juliet”
 as a contemporary work. Lesson plans from the era referred to its 
adaptations into “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/811316">West Side Story</a>” – a musical that <a href="https://www.westsidestory.com/1957-broadway">initially came out in 1957</a> – and Franco Zefferelli’s <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=zeffirelli+romeo&amp;id=ED026386">risqué 1968 film version</a>
 of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. It became the perfect 
hook for ninth graders in a study of Shakespeare that would conclude in 
12th grade with “Macbeth.”

English education professor <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED309453">Arthur Applebee observed in 1989</a>
 that, since the 1960s, “leaders in the profession of English teaching 
have tried to broaden the curriculum to include more selections by women
 and minority authors.” But in the late 1980s, according to his 
findings, the high school “top ten” still included only one book by a 
woman – Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” – and none by minority authors.

At that time, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/23/opinion/the-mosaic-and-the-melting-pot.html">raging debate</a>
 was underway about whether America was a “melting pot” in which many 
cultures became one, or a colorful “mosaic” in which many cultures 
coexisted. Proponents of the latter view argued for a multicultural 
canon, but they were ultimately unable to establish one. A 2011 survey 
of Southern schools by Joyce Stallworth and Louel C. Gibbons, published 
in “English Leadership Quarterly,” found that the five most frequently 
taught books were all traditional selections: “The Great Gatsby,” “Romeo
 and Juliet,” Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and 
“To Kill a Mockingbird.”

One explanation for this persistence is that the canon is not simply a
 list: It takes form as stacks of copies on shelves in the storage area 
known as the “book room.” Changes to the inventory require time, money 
and effort. Depending on the district, replacing a classic <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/material-selection-ela/">might require approval by the school board</a>. And it would create more work for teachers who are already maxed out.

“Too many teachers, probably myself included, teach from the 
traditional canon,” a teacher told Stallworth and Gibbons. “We are 
overworked and underpaid and struggle to find the time to develop 
quality lessons for new books.” 

Esau McCauley, the author of “Reading While Black,” describes the list of classics by white authors as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/opinion/what-should-high-schoolers-read.html?searchResultPosition=1">pre-integration canon</a>.” At least two factors suggest that its dominance over the curriculum is coming to an end.

First, the battles over which books should be taught have become more
 intense than ever. On the one hand, progressives like the teachers of 
the growing <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">#DisruptTexts movement</a> call for the inclusion of books by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-bipoc.html">Black, Native American and other authors of color</a>
 - and they question the status of the classics. On the other hand, 
conservatives have challenged or successfully banned the teaching of 
many new books that deal with gender and sexuality or race.

PEN America, a nonprofit organization that fights for free expression for writers, reports “<a href="https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/">a profound increase</a>”
 in book bans. The outcome might be a literature curriculum that more 
resembles the political divisions in this country. Much more than in the
 past, students in conservative and progressive districts might read 
very different books.

Second, English Language Arts education itself is changing. State standards, such as those <a href="http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/912elastandardsglance.pdf">adopted by New York in 2017</a>, no longer make the teaching of literature the primary focus of English class. Instead, there is a new emphasis on “<a href="http://www.nysed.gov/curriculum-instruction/teaching-learning-information-literacy">information literacy</a>.” And while preceding generations of teachers voiced concerns about the distractions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42832830">radio</a> and then <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42799566">television</a>, books may have an even smaller share of students’ attention in <a href="https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/impact-of-social-media-on-our-attention-span-and-its-drastic-aftermath/">the age of cellphones, the internet, social media and online gaming</a>.

“We no longer live in a print-dominant, text-only world,” the National Council of Teachers of English proclaims in <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/">a 2022 position statement</a>.
 The group calls for English teachers to put less emphasis on books in 
order to train students to use and analyze a variety of media. 
Accordingly, students across the country may not only have fewer books 
in common, but they also may be reading fewer books altogether.

Over generations, English teachers have voiced many reasons to teach books, and the canon in particular: to instill a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/816405">common culture</a>, foster <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED027289">citizenship</a>, build <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/820324">empathy</a> and cultivate <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4128931">lifelong readers</a>.
 These goals have little to do with the skills emphasized by 
contemporary academic standards. But if literature is going to continue 
to be an important part of American education, it is important to talk 
not only about what books to teach, but the reasons why.

Andrew Newman is Professor and Chair of Stony Brook University (The State University of New York).

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663343729968.jpg" alt="High school students have studied many of the same books for generations. Is it time for a change? Image courtesy of Pixabay" />
 <figcaption>High school students have studied many of the same books for generations. Is it time for a change? Image courtesy of Pixabay</figcaption>
 </figure>By ANDREW NEWMAN <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-high-school-classics-have-been-taught-for-generations-could-they-be-on-their-way-out-188197">The Conversation</a>If you went to high school in the United States anytime since the 
1960s, you were likely assigned some of the following books: 
Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth”; John 
Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”;
 Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and William Golding’s “The Lord 
of the Flies.”For many former students, these books and other so-called “classics” 
represent high school English. But despite the efforts of reformers, 
both <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=multicultural+canon&amp;id=ED371401">past</a> and <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">present</a>, the most frequently assigned titles have never represented America’s diverse student body.Why did these books become classics in the U.S.? How have they 
withstood challenges to their status? And will they continue to dominate
 high school reading lists? Or will they be replaced by a different set 
of books that will become classics for students in the 21st century?<h2>The high school canon</h2>The set of books that is taught again and again, broadly across the 
country, is referred to by literature scholars and English teachers as 
“the canon.” The high school canon has been shaped by many factors. Shakespeare’s 
plays, especially “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar,” have been taught 
consistently <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1488191">since the beginning of the 20th century</a>,
 when the curriculum was determined by college entrance requirements. 
Others, like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize 
for fiction, were ushered into the classroom by current events – in the 
case of Lee’s book, <a href="https://time.com/3928162/mockingbird-civil-rights-movement/">the civil rights movement</a>.
 Some books just seem especially suited for classroom teaching: “Of Mice
 and Men” has a straightforward plot, easily identifiable themes and is 
under 100 pages long.Titles become “traditional” when they are passed down through generations. As the education historian Jonna Perrillo observes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/12/todays-book-bans-might-be-more-dangerous-than-those-past/">parents tend to approve</a> of having their children study the same books that they once did.The last period of significant change to the canon was during the 
1960s and 1970s, when the largest generation of the 20th century, the 
baby boomers, went to high school. For instance, in 1963, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/810053">a survey of 800 students</a>
 at Evanston Township High School in Illinois revealed that “To Kill a 
Mockingbird,” first published in 1960, was by far the “most enjoyed 
book,” followed by two books that had been published in the 1950s, J.D. 
Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and Golding’s “The Lord of the 
Flies.” None of these books were yet traditional, yet they became so for
 the next generation.A comparison of national surveys conducted in 1963 and 1988 shows how
 several books that were introduced to the classroom when the boomers 
were students had become classics when boomers were teachers.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663343804822.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>During the 1960s and 1970s, teachers even reframed “Romeo and Juliet”
 as a contemporary work. Lesson plans from the era referred to its 
adaptations into “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/811316">West Side Story</a>” – a musical that <a href="https://www.westsidestory.com/1957-broadway">initially came out in 1957</a> – and Franco Zefferelli’s <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=zeffirelli+romeo&amp;id=ED026386">risqué 1968 film version</a>
 of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. It became the perfect 
hook for ninth graders in a study of Shakespeare that would conclude in 
12th grade with “Macbeth.”<h2>Efforts to diversify</h2>English education professor <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED309453">Arthur Applebee observed in 1989</a>
 that, since the 1960s, “leaders in the profession of English teaching 
have tried to broaden the curriculum to include more selections by women
 and minority authors.” But in the late 1980s, according to his 
findings, the high school “top ten” still included only one book by a 
woman – Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” – and none by minority authors.At that time, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/23/opinion/the-mosaic-and-the-melting-pot.html">raging debate</a>
 was underway about whether America was a “melting pot” in which many 
cultures became one, or a colorful “mosaic” in which many cultures 
coexisted. Proponents of the latter view argued for a multicultural 
canon, but they were ultimately unable to establish one. A 2011 survey 
of Southern schools by Joyce Stallworth and Louel C. Gibbons, published 
in “English Leadership Quarterly,” found that the five most frequently 
taught books were all traditional selections: “The Great Gatsby,” “Romeo
 and Juliet,” Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and 
“To Kill a Mockingbird.”One explanation for this persistence is that the canon is not simply a
 list: It takes form as stacks of copies on shelves in the storage area 
known as the “book room.” Changes to the inventory require time, money 
and effort. Depending on the district, replacing a classic <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/material-selection-ela/">might require approval by the school board</a>. And it would create more work for teachers who are already maxed out. “Too many teachers, probably myself included, teach from the 
traditional canon,” a teacher told Stallworth and Gibbons. “We are 
overworked and underpaid and struggle to find the time to develop 
quality lessons for new books.” <h2>The end of an era?</h2>Esau McCauley, the author of “Reading While Black,” describes the list of classics by white authors as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/opinion/what-should-high-schoolers-read.html?searchResultPosition=1">pre-integration canon</a>.” At least two factors suggest that its dominance over the curriculum is coming to an end.First, the battles over which books should be taught have become more
 intense than ever. On the one hand, progressives like the teachers of 
the growing <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">#DisruptTexts movement</a> call for the inclusion of books by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-bipoc.html">Black, Native American and other authors of color</a>
 - and they question the status of the classics. On the other hand, 
conservatives have challenged or successfully banned the teaching of 
many new books that deal with gender and sexuality or race.PEN America, a nonprofit organization that fights for free expression for writers, reports “<a href="https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/">a profound increase</a>”
 in book bans. The outcome might be a literature curriculum that more 
resembles the political divisions in this country. Much more than in the
 past, students in conservative and progressive districts might read 
very different books.Second, English Language Arts education itself is changing. State standards, such as those <a href="http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/912elastandardsglance.pdf">adopted by New York in 2017</a>, no longer make the teaching of literature the primary focus of English class. Instead, there is a new emphasis on “<a href="http://www.nysed.gov/curriculum-instruction/teaching-learning-information-literacy">information literacy</a>.” And while preceding generations of teachers voiced concerns about the distractions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42832830">radio</a> and then <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42799566">television</a>, books may have an even smaller share of students’ attention in <a href="https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/impact-of-social-media-on-our-attention-span-and-its-drastic-aftermath/">the age of cellphones, the internet, social media and online gaming</a>.“We no longer live in a print-dominant, text-only world,” the National Council of Teachers of English proclaims in <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/">a 2022 position statement</a>.
 The group calls for English teachers to put less emphasis on books in 
order to train students to use and analyze a variety of media. 
Accordingly, students across the country may not only have fewer books 
in common, but they also may be reading fewer books altogether.<h2>Why teach literature?</h2>Over generations, English teachers have voiced many reasons to teach books, and the canon in particular: to instill a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/816405">common culture</a>, foster <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED027289">citizenship</a>, build <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/820324">empathy</a> and cultivate <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4128931">lifelong readers</a>.
 These goals have little to do with the skills emphasized by 
contemporary academic standards. But if literature is going to continue 
to be an important part of American education, it is important to talk 
not only about what books to teach, but the reasons why.Andrew Newman is Professor and Chair of Stony Brook University (The State University of New York).<div><iframe src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188197/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1" height="1"></iframe></div>

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