Should teachers work to undermine rebellious kids? New research says rebellious kids more likely to succeed

Should oppositional defiant disorder be stamped out by teachers?

Researchers say this disagreeable personality trait displayed by Bill Gates as a kid may predict success in adulthood

Shana Lebowitz
Yahoo Business Insider
Feb. 18, 2016

(CBS/YouTube) Bill Gates as a kid. 

Around age 11, Bill Gates started to become a problem for his parents.

As his intellectual capacity grew, so did his argumentativeness. He refused to do the things his mom asked of him, like cleaning his room and showing up on time to dinner, according to The Wall Street Journal.

It came to a head one night when Gates was about 12 years old. The "tempestuous" know-it-all got into a "nasty" shouting match with his mother, according to The Journal, and his father threw a glass of water in his face. Soon after, Gates told a counselor: "I'm at war with my parents over who is in control."

Gates' adolescent behavior might seem like nothing remarkable — many of us went through similar stages of rebelliousness without growing up to be multibillionaires.

Yet a new study, published in the journal Developmental Psychology and cited by the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that there is in fact a connection between defiance and rule-breaking in adolescence and earning a high income later in life.

Back in 1968, nearly 3,000 sixth-graders living in Luxembourg took intelligence tests and answered questions about their feelings toward school. Their teachers also filled out questionnaires about the students' behavior. At the time, researchers assessed the students' family background as well.

In 2008, researchers revisited this data in order to see which childhood traits predicted career success and income. They were able to get in touch with 745 of the students, who were now about 52 years old.

Some of what the researchers found wasn't especially surprising. For example, more studious kids (as rated by teachers and by the kids themselves) went on to land better jobs.

But the researchers were surprised to find one childhood characteristic — beyond IQ, parents' socioeconomic status, and the amount of education the students attained — that predicted higher adult income: rule-breaking and defiance of parental authority.

At this point, the reason why rule-breaking preteens go on to become high-earning adults is unclear. The researchers say it's possible that people with rule-breaking tendencies are more inclined to stand up for themselves, which could lead to greater financial success.

Meanwhile, other research has yielded similar findings: One study found that agreeable (i.e. nice) adults tend to make less money than disagreeable adults. And Malcolm Gladwell argues in his book "David and Goliath" that entrepreneurs like Apple founder Steve Jobs and IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad were more successful because they were disagreeable, allowing them to take social risks and decline requests that weren't in their best interests... (read more HERE)

Basketball players suspended from game for hand signals popularized by Boehner, Dekker: why are school administrators so dumb?

See John Boehner's hand signal? It means his team scored a three-pointer.


See these hand signals? It means these kids are suspended from their high school game.

Some school administrators do more harm than good. Is their bad behavior a result of just not being very smart? Well, sure, at times, but many of them also have an urge to punish that they simply can't control. I think that frequently the wrong people are suspended.

Wisconsin School District Suspends Black Teenagers for Celebrating While Black
by Grizzard
Daily Kos member
Jan 17, 2014

Certain activities in the United States are lethal or criminal based solely on the racial composition of the person doing them. Driving while black, for instance, prompts suspicion across the country. Walking while black has earned teenagers a death sentence in certain Florida neighborhoods, and seeking out police help while black has proved a dangerous task for former football players in North Carolina.

Now we have a particularly toxic confluence of bad American ideas in a bigger than small Wisconsin community. The over-policing of American high schools often produces results where standard stupidity lands students suspension or worse. And sometimes, when the pre-disposition in a community is toward scrutinizing the scary, inherently suspicious black youths which make up a small percentage of the community's minority base, students have the lives sidetracked for doing basically nothing at all.

That's what's happened in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, where two students from Sheboygan Falls High Schools were suspended after a newspaper article showed them "flashing" what some police chief "confirmed" as "gang signs."

If you knew absolutely nothing about basketball, then you'd still be wrong for thinking that any of these three smiling, innocuous young men should be suspended from school for what took place in that picture. After all, the picture was only discovered when the local newspaper ran a positive public interest piece on the players in que

But I'm a Wisconsin basketball fan, and because of that, I have a slightly different take on this situation. The young man on the left, Jordan Jackson, explained that he was simply throwing up three fingers, a common basketball expression for players who just made a three-point basket. The young man in the middle appears to simply be pointing at the camera, a pose that I made in probably 100 pictures when I was in high school.

There's more to this, though. The Wisconsin Badgers are currently ranked third in the country, and they've lost one basketball game this year. Last season, they made the NCAA basketball tournament. Over the last decade, Wisconsin has been one of the best, most consistently good programs in the country. This is important because, like they did Tuesday night and will do against Saturday night, the Badgers often play on ESPN and other national networks. And if you spent even a few minutes watching Wisconsin basketball this year or last, then you'll quickly recognize the "gang sign" that got Jackson in hot water.

Below, you will see Sam Dekker, the disputed best player for Wisconsin and a graduate of Sheboygan Lutheran High School. Two years ago, he led his high school to the Wisconsin 5A state championship and was unarguably the best high school player in the state. A five-star recruit, he signed with the Badgers and is expected to someday forge a career in the NBA. One could easily imagine young men like Jackson emulating Dekker, and for good reason.


Next, you'll see the entire Wisconsin bench. When Wisconsin buries a three-point shot - which is often, as the Badgers shoot it from outside more often and more effectively than almost anyone - the Badger bench throws up "confirmed" gang signs.

As you can see in the picture, one of the players is even using three fingers to form a pair of glasses. Those who watch Badger basketball can attest that that particular move will soon turn into three fingers raised high, just as the other players are doing.


While the easy first response is to laugh at police chiefs and school administrators who are so far removed from their own local reality and so pre-disposed against their own students that they don't even recognize basketball players doing something they've seen on television from the most successful basketball team in the state, the more pressing question is why we immediately assume that three otherwise law-abiding and unassuming black children are suspicious while players for the state's flagship basketball team have been throwing up the same signs with impunity for more than a year without prompting the suspicion of, well, anyone.

It's a sad indictment of the reality faced by young black kids in America and especially in American schools. The default setting, it seems, is criminality, and these kids are burdened by an act first, ask questions later mentality that makes them prove that they aren't members of dangerous gangs. It must have been comforting to the many who complained to the school district about the picture to learn that the three teenagers in question were not a part of some Blood sleeper cell operating quietly in 95-percent white Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Those people should take a step back and ask themselves why, when young black kids from their community make these hand motions, they assume the worst, while when Sam Dekker does it, they likely celebrate with a fist pump or excited yell. Young boys of all races should be able to emulate their sports heroes. In fact, Sam Dekker - a guy with a lot of game and seemingly clean record - wouldn't be a bad guy for a kid from Sheboygan to look up to. The reality in America, however, is that young men like Jordan Jackson must look twice before doing most anything, including celebrating a made three-pointer.

Maura Larkins comment: Here's what happened when poor people were given a stipend. The frequency of behavioral problems declined by 40 percent, nearly reaching the risk of children who had never been poor. Can we save middle class kids by saving poor kids?

Alex Rodriquez suspension: Who is the one person who will tell the truth? A disgruntled ex-employee!

"...Fischer started looking more closely into Bosch and Biogenesis. Among the information he turned up was a link between Bosch's father, Pedro, and former Dodgers star Manny Ramirez."

I'm guessing Fischer (and just about everybody else, in any occupation) would not have told the truth to the authorities if he had not become disgruntled. A satisfied employee is likely to lie to protect his or her boss.

What spurred MLB investigation? Disgruntled Biogenesis employee
When Porter Fischer didn't get funds he expected, some of baseball's biggest stars were 'collateral damage' as he provided a paper trail that helped lead to MLB suspensions.
By Lance Pugmire
LA Times
August 5, 2013

An employee deprived of a $4,000 investment — that's what started the chain of events that led to Major League Baseball's suspensions of 13 players, including three-time most valuable player Alex Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, whose career accomplishments would otherwise make him a lock for the Hall of Fame, was suspended Monday for the remainder of this season and all of 2014. That suspension is set to take effect Thursday. Rodriguez has said he will appeal, and he would be allowed to play during that process.

Baseball organizations see the numbers, turn blind eye to drug cheats

The other players, a group that includes All-Stars Nelson Cruz of Texas, Jhonny Peralta of Detroit and Everth Cabrera of San Diego, all agreed to accept 50-game suspensions.

Porter Fischer is the man who provided the flash point for what became the biggest drug-related suspension in sports history. Fischer was a 40-something customer seeking help in bulking up his muscles when he met Tony Bosch, founder of an anti-aging clinic based in Coral Gables, Fla.

Fischer eventually went to work as a marketer for Bosch, and later invested $4,000 in his company with, Fischer says, the promise of a 20% return that would come in weekly payments.

When those payments stopped last year — the clinic, Biogenesis, closed in December — Fischer started looking more closely into Bosch and Biogenesis. Among the information he turned up was a link between Bosch's father, Pedro, and former Dodgers star Manny Ramirez.

Ramirez had received a 50-game suspension from MLB in 2009 when he tested positive for HCG, a female fertility drug — a substance Fischer had used. Fischer also found a connection between Bosch and then-suspended All-Star outfielder Melky Cabrera, who had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

"That's when I started documenting," Fischer told the Village Voice earlier this year. "Look, if [Bosch] doesn't pay me, there's going to be collateral damage."

In January, using records Fischer pulled from Biogenesis, Miami New Times reported that Rodriguez and Cruz were among a large group of athletes whom Bosch had supplied with performance-enhancing substances. Most notably, Fischer provided four notebooks filled with handwritten notes by Bosch that identified clients, drug doses and payments.

The New Times report said Rodriguez was mentioned in Bosch's files from 2009 through 2012, and provided this excerpt: "There, at number seven on the list, is Alex Rodriguez. He paid $3,500, Bosch notes. Below that, he writes, '1.5/1.5 HGH (sports perf.) creams test., glut., MIC, supplement, sports perf. Diet."

HGH is banned in baseball, as are testosterone creams.

Another document from the files, a loose sheet with a header from the 19th annual World Congress on Anti-Aging and Aesthetic Medicine, lays out a full regimen of treatment for Rodriguez under the name Cacique: "Test. cream... troches prior to workout ... and GHRP... IGF-1... pink cream."

IGF-1 is a banned substance in baseball that stimulates insulin production and muscle growth. Elsewhere in his notebooks, Bosch revealed that his "troches" — a type of drug lozenge — included 15% testosterone. Pink cream, he wrote, is a complex formula that also includes testosterone. GHRP is a substance that releases growth hormones.

In March, MLB filed a civil suit against Bosch and three others from the clinic.

Then, in April, the New York Times reported that MLB investigators probing Biogenesis believed that Rodriguez had people purchase other documents from clinic associates in an attempt to shield incriminating evidence from MLB view.

In the end, that increased the length of Rodriguez's suspension. MLB announced in a prepared statement Monday that Rodriguez was being disciplined "based on his use and possession of numerous forms of prohibited performance-enhancing substances, including Testosterone and human Growth Hormone, over the course of multiple years …" And, it continued, "for attempting to cover up his violations of the program by engaging in a course of conduct intended to obstruct and frustrate the … commissioner's investigation."

The depth of MLB's case against Rodriguez and others, including Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun, increased June 4 when it was reported Bosch had opted to cooperate with the MLB probe. In exchange, MLB agreed to drop litigation against Bosch.

Although it's likely Rodriguez's appeal will question Bosch's credibility, the information and records Bosch has turned over to MLB — believed to include shipment records, emails, text messages and receipts — helped persuade Braun to accept a season-ending 65-game suspension and for the dozen others Monday to accept their 50-game bans without appeal.

Rodriguez met with MLB officials July 12 and ultimately declined to accept any suspension longer than Braun's. (Rodriguez has noted that a first violation of MLB's drug agreement should result in a 50-game penalty.)

As for Bosch, he was fined $5,000 by the Florida Department of Health this year for practicing medicine without a license. But more trouble looms. The Miami Herald reported last week that the U.S. attorney's office in Miami is probing Biogenesis based on Fischer's claims that other, lesser-known athletes received steroids at the clinic too.

60 percent of students in Texas study were suspended or expelled

Peg Myers, the president of Chula Vista Eductors, and former teacher at my school, Castle Park Elementary, would come in to the teachers lounge in the first week of school and identify several new students as troublemakers. Here's the problem. She complained about those same kids for the entire school year! I don't think she realized the implications of her unchanging complaints: she was implicitly admitting that she was not able to help a single one of those children improve their behavior. This also seems to be the case in Texas:


How do school discipline tactics affect children?
Florence Shapiro and John Whitmire
Statesman.com
July 18, 2011

..."Breaking Schools' Rules: A Statewide Study of How School Discipline Relates to Students' Success and Juvenile Justice Involvement" found that 60 percent of students studied were suspended or expelled based on an examination of records of nearly a million public secondary school students, spanning their six years of middle and high school. About 15 percent of students studied were disciplined 11 or more http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftimes; nearly half of those students were involved at some point in the juvenile justice system...



This isn't "No Tolerance." It's More Like " Mo Ignorance!"
Half of Texas' Students Suspended, Study Finds
By Nirvi Shah
Edited by I, Praetorian; MA, PPS, PVC, ATM
Disenfranchised-Educators
July 20, 2011

...“We hope other states will follow Texas’ lead and put their systems under similar scrutiny,” said Michael D. Thompson, director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Justice Center. He raised a key question he said state education leaders should ask themselves: “Is our state’s school discipline system getting the desired results?”
The study found that the average number of days on which students missed at least some class time due to a disciplinary incident was two days for out-of-school suspension, 27 days for a placement at an alternative school, and 73 days if they were placed in a juvenile justice program.

While the numbers gleaned from analyzing student discipline in Texas may be shocking, the state’s rate of expulsions and out-of-school suspensions, at 6.9 percent, is lower than that of some other states, including California, at about 13 percent, and Florida, at about 9 percent.

Repeat Offenders

One statistic uncovered by the analysis of Texas discipline and juvenile justice records was that 15 percent of students were punished by suspension or expulsion 11 or more times. Those repeat actions make the effectiveness of those types of punishments questionable, Mr. Thompson said...

Gay, Lesbian Bisexual Youths Punished More Severely For Same Offense

Gay, Lesbian Bisexual Youths Punished More Severely For Same Offense
by Christian Nordqvist
Medical News Today
Dec. 6, 2010

A gay, lesbian or bisexual adolescent is punished more severely at school and by the criminal-justice system compared to heterosexual people of the same age for the same offenses, researchers from Yale University report in the medical journal Pediatrics. The authors say the disproportionate punishments cannot be explained by worse illegal activities or behaviors. They add that in order to achieve equality among heterosexual and non-heterosexual youth, it is important first to understand what causes these disparities in school expulsions, arrests, imprisonments, and then to address them.

Non-heterosexual young people are already at a higher risk of being bullied, abused within their families and succumbing to addiction, the researchers explain. Kathryn E. W. Himmelstein, BA, and Hannah Brückner, PhD set out to find out whether they were also victims of unfair criminal-justice and school sanctions...