READING ROOM Day 229 l A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki Day 1 l Dr. Annette Feravich, Teacher

From the front cover: How dangerous can an idea be? In 1925, lawmakers banned an idea they deemed dangerous--evolution--from public school science classrooms in Tennessee. John Scopes, a teacher in the small town of Dayton, agreed to challenge the law, and triggered a gripping circus of a legal battle.

In court, two masterminds faced off in a blistering debate over creationism and natural selection, each armed with the books they believed belonged in schools. The celebrity politician William Jennings Bryan relied on the Bible to make his case, while legal luminary Clarence Darrow defended Charles Darwin's ground-breaking books on the the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. Their clash would go down in history as the Scopes Monkey Trial.

A century later, the nation is still arguing about the books and ideas that belong in classrooms. Award-winning author Debbie Levy delivers an important, insightful and expertly researched account of our history that traces the origins of this fight and illuminates the challenges we face today.

The Reading Room is part of THE CLASSROOM. We meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays @ 9:00 a.m. The full schedule for today is as follows:
9:00 – 9:45: Early Bird Classroom: Equality Day 8. Does God treat everybody equal? The parable of the lost sheep
10:30 –11:30: The Philosophical Classroom: One Tin Soldier – What are you fighting for?
12:00: Reading Room: A Different Mirror for Young People A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki Day 1

It is unfortunate that today, in a democratic country, I see the same kind of corruption we've seen throughout history, but by now, we should know better. Representatives at Oakland University have recently challenged my teaching by accusing me of being mentally unfit without evidence and overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I believe this to be unconscionable. They have taken this course in order to suppress voices that speak out against their unethical data collection by making university data readily available to companies like Amazon and then allowing mischaracterizations of the mental health of a thirteen-year, award winning, veteran teacher for speaking out. I also speak out against university research and development of dangerous drugs they label as medication and continue to use taxpayer dollars to develop pharmaceutical drugs that have a proven reputation of creating extreme health risks including death.

Please support my efforts to speak out against those corporate, university, medical, and law enforcement criminals that continue to support injustice and a healthcare system that has demonstrated it is broken by continuously getting humans more and more mentally and physically ill and addicted.

Dr. Annette Feravich has a Ph.D. in Social, Developmental and Cognitive Psychology with an emphasis on Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology is the science that studies specific behaviors that result in good mental (Cognitive), physical (Developmental) and spiritual (Social) health. I received my Ph.D. in May, 2010 from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. I've been teaching at all levels from kindergarten through college for over 20 years.