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Happy Friday, Politi-Kids!
If you type ‘Black History Month’ into your Google browser, you’ll be met with a digital celebration of sorts. Bright yellow, orange and blue banners will float across your screen, carrying the phrase ‘Say it Loud’ mixed in with falling pieces of confetti. Sure, it’s a little cheesy. But it’s also a little reminder that Black History Month is a time for us to celebrate as we learn.
Historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson wanted to combine education with celebration when he founded Black History Month, which was originally “Negro History Week”, in 1926. Woodson chose February because it is the same month that both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass–two influential figures in the movement to emancipate enslaved African Americans–were born. Fifty years later, President Gerald R. Ford extended the weeklong celebration to a month, calling it a moment to “honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Every year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, a research organization that Woodson founded more than a century ago, commemorates Black History Month under a different theme. This year’s theme, Black Health and Wellness, is a celebration of Black healthcare workers, from doctors to doulas. It’s also a recognition of the toll that Covid-19 has taken on Black communities nationwide: Black patients are more likely to be hospitalized or die of covid compared to other racial groups, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
There are countless figures to learn about and celebrate this Black History Month. As a race and politics reporter, I can point to leaders like Lloyd Austin, the first Black Secretary of Defense, and Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman elected vice president, among others. There are also writers like Maya Angelou, scholars like George Washington Carver and civil rights leaders like Fannie Lou Hamer. Their legacies are reminders that Black history is American history. And so many are making it every day!
Wishing you and yours a reflective and enriching Black History Month
Maya King
Maya is a Politics reporter at POLITICO
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A DESK THAT WORKS
Last week, Ali Faruk took a picture of a new desk at Fairfield Area Library, his local library in Richmond, Virginia, and tweeted it out. “A new public library in my area has these workstations for caregivers with babies,” he tweeted. “Maybe these are common in other places but (I’ve) never seen anything like this before.”
At first glance, the desk might look like any other you would see in a workplace. It has a table, chair, and computer — ready to be used by anyone who needs it. However, attached to the workstation is a play area, perfect for toddlers or babies to sit in. This additional space is outfitted with a comfortable pillow, built-in play features, such as a mirror, and little holes for playing peek-a-boo. They offer privacy for the caregiver, but also are physically connected should they need to tend to the child. Though the cluster of these four adult-child desks have been in the library since 2019, they just recently gained national attention following Faruk’s tweet.
A Richmond-based architecture firm designed these parent-child workstations as part of the Fairfield Area Library renovation. The idea came from the director of the library, Barbara Weedman, who had seen the issue of caregivers trying to work at the library but struggling to do so with a baby or toddler in their arms. Weedman worked directly with the designer at the firm to bring her vision to life. The designer reached out to TMC Furniture, located in Michigan, to create the custom desks.
Since Faruk’s tweet, TMC Furniture has received a huge influx of interest in the workstations from around the world — particularly from libraries.
Let us know if you see one at your local library and send us a picture to politikids@politico.com!
(Source: Washington Post)
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WORD OF THE WEEK:
LUNAR NEW YEAR
Lunar New Year, which was celebrated on Tuesday, is considered one of the most important celebrations among East and Southeast Asian cultures, including Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities, among others. The date of the Lunar New Year changes from year to year but always starts on the first day of a new moon.
Lunar New Year festivities have been going on for hundreds of years in Asia, but celebrations have evolved over time and different cultures have their own traditions, foods and rituals. Typically, houses are thoroughly cleaned ahead of the Lunar New Year to bring in good will and good luck. Families gather to celebrate the holiday together and to honor their elders to guarantee a lucky year ahead. Some festivities can last up to two weeks — there are parades, fireworks, dances, lantern festivals and more. Also on the Lunar New Year, families gift children red envelopes with small amounts of money inside as the color red is thought to bring good fortune.
The lunar calendar is made up of a cycle of twelve years, each of them being named after an animal. The 12 zodiac animals are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. 2022 is the year of the Tiger. It is considered a positive sign, often associated with the defeat of evil.
Check out the POLITI-Kids at Home section to find out what your lunar animal is based on the year you were born!
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JOKE OF THE WEEK:
Q: What do you call two birds in love?
A: Tweet-hearts!
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Below is an excerpt from a POLITICO article, along with some questions to help guide your reading.
To read the full article, click here. |
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Omicron has states rethinking 'broken' school Covid testing
By Juan Perez Jr.
January 30, 2022
State leaders and health experts are weighing a counterintuitive school Covid strategy: Less testing and contact tracing.
Utah’s legislature suspended school testing requirements this month after high Covid rates strained the state’s system. Omicron’s quick spread left Vermont officials abandoning their onetime school test-and-trace program, while Massachusetts officials strongly encouraged schools to give up a diagnostics program endorsed by federal officials.
The approaches conflict with White House plans. President Joe Biden’s administration is promoting school “Test To Stay” programs to keep exposed students inside classrooms, and the federal government said it would begin delivering millions of rapid tests to schools this month.
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While falling case counts are starting to bring East Coast states relief from the testing strain, schools elsewhere are still struggling with the Omicron surge. Curtailing school testing, cutting back contact tracing or rationing resources are now in play to free up staff and concentrate on the actively sick.
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A promising idea
Test-to-stay programs try to limit student quarantines with frequent tests and contact tracing. Children exposed to infected classmates can remain at school, typically as long as they're asymptomatic, wear masks and regularly test negative. The concept was taking hold before the CDC embraced the practice in mid-December.
It was a promising idea. The Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, concluded such testing programs could help schools stay open if they planned to avoid supply shortages and logistical problems. Then Omicron’s surge exposed problems.
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New guidance from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia notes many schools are overburdened with unfeasible and unsustainable contact tracing and testing programs, and suggests schools halt required weekly testing for students and school workers who aren’t showing symptoms.
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In Massachusetts, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration wants schools to abandon a “test and stay” program the state helped pioneer last summer in favor of a new plan to scrap contact tracing and concentrate on finding symptomatic people with help from rapid tests taken at home instead of school. Vermont is taking a similar approach with a “test at home” effort that scales back the use of sweeping, laboratory-based virus tests.
Meanwhile, the CDC said it’s evaluating whether tests done at home can play a role in Test to Stay programs — to determine if and how K-12 schools should monitor at-home test results.
High demand persists
School testing is still in high demand. More than 25 states peppered the CDC with requests for supplies and information about the White House plan to dedicate a combined 10 million lab-based PCR and rapid antigen tests to the nation’s K-12 schools each month, barely a week after the administration first unveiled the program.
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The CDC acknowledges testing programs’ sheer demand on resources means the idea might not work for every school. At a minimum, the agency recommends schools that are testing concentrate on unvaccinated teachers and staff — and on students who aren’t fully vaccinated when community transmission of the virus is at moderate, substantial or high levels.
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For now, schools will likely have to double down on virus-busting measures known to help limit outbreaks and stretch whatever testing resources they have on hand to comply with White House demands to remain open.
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GUIDED ARTICLE QUESTIONS:
1. What is a "test to stay" program?
2. How did the Omicron surge impact schools?
3. Why are some schools abandoning "test to stay" programs?
4. What are the pros and cons of a "test to stay" program?
5. How do Covid-19 test shortages impact these "test to stay" programs?
6. How can rapid tests taken at home help schools?
7. What are the pros and cons of establishing at-home rapid tests as part of the "test to stay" program?
8. Does your school use a "test to stay" program?
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NOTABLE NEWS THIS WEEK
Use the guided reading questions in blue italics to help gain a deeper comprehension of this week's notable news.
New rules and restrictions across the United States are limiting what schools and universities can teach about Black history. Since last year, 14 states have imposed restrictions through legislation, executive actions or commission votes to regulate how teachers can discuss racism, sexism and issues of inequality in the classroom, and an additional 35 states have introduced bills to do the same. The restrictions have now led to book bans in some states, with parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers targeting books about race, gender and sexuality. And although banning books is not a new concept, the rate at which books are being challenged has not been seen in decades. How do these restrictions impact students? What happens when we don't learn about history?
Pfizer announced Tuesday they're asking the Food and Drug Administration to authorize the first two doses of a planned three-dose Covid-19 vaccine regimen for children under 5. The FDA said it would convene its independent panel of vaccine experts on Feb. 15 to consider the data and make a recommendation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisers could quickly follow suit should the FDA grant the request, meaning these children could receive their first vaccines later this month. In an unusual move, the FDA requested Pfizer and its partner BioNTech apply for authorization of the first two doses while they continue to collect data on a third shot administered at least eight weeks after the second. That data will be submitted for review later this spring. Children under 5 represent 3 percent of total U.S. Covid cases, but that age group has seen higher hospitalization rates for the virus compared to older children, according to CDC data, especially as Omicron surged in January. Why do you think Pfizer is requesting authorization of the first two doses before finishing the pediatric trial of the third dose? Are there benefits or disadvantages to doing this?
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced last week that he plans to retire after more than four decades on the bench, giving President Joe Biden the highly coveted opportunity to nominate a member to the nation's top court. Biden said that he intends to nominate Breyer's replacement by the end of February. Breyer, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, stated that he intends to step down from the bench during the high court’s summer recess — “typically late June or early July” — if a new justice is in place by that time. The move will give Biden an opportunity to install the first Black woman to the Supreme Court — fulfilling a campaign promise that the White House reaffirmed Wednesday — and replace the court’s oldest member with someone decades younger. What qualities do you think Biden should be looking for in a new Supreme Court judge?
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PAW-LITICO OF THE WEEK: WILLOW
Meet Willow Biden, the much-anticipated feline first-family member. The gray shorthair tabby cat arrived at the White House last week and stole the hearts of animal lovers everywhere. The Biden's first met Willow in 2020, during President Biden's campaign, when she interrupted a speech Dr. Jill Biden was giving on a farm in Pennsylvania. They immediately bonded, and the owner of the farm knew that Willow belonged with Dr. Biden. The cat is named after Dr. Biden's hometown of Willow, Pennsylvania, and she has adjusted to her new life in the White House purrrrr-fectly.
(Source: NPR)
Do you want your pet to be next Paw-litico of the week?
Send us a photo and a bio to politikids@politico.com
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RECIPE OF THE WEEK:
SLOW COOKER RED BEANS AND RICE
Adapted from Chef Chris Williams
Chef Chris Williams is the head chef of Lucilles in Houston, Texas. Chef Williams’ named his restaurant after his great-grandmother, Lucille Bishop Smith, who was an educator, culinary innovator and successful entrepreneur. Chef Williams is also a member of the Southern Food Ways Alliance, an organization that documents, studies, and explores the diverse food cultures of the changing American South.
Ingredients:
– 1 lb. dried beans, soaked overnight
– 1 lb. chicken sausage, sliced into rounds
– 1 green bell pepper, chopped
– 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
– 1 sweet onion, chopped
– 8 cloves garlic, chopped
– 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
– 1 teaspoon Creole seasoning (or to taste)
– 10 cups water
– 4 cups cooked rice
Directions:
1. Place the beans and water into a slow cooker.
2. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and brown the sausage in the skillet.
3. Once browned, remove sausage from the skillet with a slotted spoon and transfer to the slow cooker. Reserve drippings.
4. Add onion, green pepper, jalapeño and garlic to the drippings; cook and stir until tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer everything from the skillet to the slow cooker.
5. Season the mixture with pepper and Creole seasoning.
6. Cover and cook on low for about 8 hours, or until beans are tender. If the bean mixture seems too watery, take the lid off the slow cooker and set heat to High to cook until it reaches a creamy texture.
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CRAFT OF THE WEEK:
VALENTINES GLASSES
Adapted from Lovely Indeed
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Supplies:
– White cardstock or patterned cardstock
– Scissors
– Clear tape
– Pink or red cellophane wrap
– Markers, crayons or anything else you would like to decorate your glasses.
Instructions for Acorn:
1. Download the Heart Glasses Template here.
2. Print, and cut out all three pieces. You’ll probably find it easiest to use a pair of scissors for the outer edges and a craft knife for the inner parts of the sunglasses.
3. Fold in the small tabs on either side of the heart glasses. Try to fold them so that they create a nice, straight crease and they’re folded at a 90 degree angle.
4. Use a small piece of clear tape to attach the arms to the tabs on either side of the glasses.
5. Wrap the tape around the arm and the tab, holding them carefully together and smoothing down the tape.
If you like them just like that, you’re done! But if you want to make your glasses rose-colored, continue on to Step 6.
6. Cut a small piece of cellophane wrap into a heart shape that fits behind the opening of the sunglasses with a little room to spare on all sides (a margin of about 1/4″ – 1/2″ should be plenty).
7. Affix the cellophane wrap to the back of the glasses with small pieces of tape. We used about 4 small pieces of tape for each piece of cellophane, spreading them evenly around the edge of the cellophane. Do this for both sides of the sunglasses.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the following POLITICO's, POLITI-Kids and celebrities. Is your birthday coming up? Let us know by submitting your name and date of birth here!
February 4: Annie Rees, Mike Soraghan, Rosa Parks
February 5: Glenn Mazza, Cristiano Ronaldo
February 6: Alina Strileckis, Collins Chinyanta, Julie Williams, Kenia Zelaya, Tinashe, Babe Ruth, President Ronald Reagan, Aaron Burr
February 7: Laura Barrón-López, Patricia Iscaro, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock, Bea Miller
February 8: Nicola Velickovich, Lindsey Forte, Anderson Paak, Cecily Strong
February 9: Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hiddleston
February 10: Greg Mott, Kaitlyn Tibbetts, Margy Slattery, Selby Schnobrich, Emma Roberts, Chloë Grace Moretz, Yara Shahidi, Elizabeth Banks, Stephanie Beatriz, Laura Dern, Uzo Aduba
February 11: Rachel Kosberg, Evan Lehmann, Jennifer Aniston, Khalid, Taylor Lautner, Kelly Rowland, Brandy, Thomas Edison
February 12: Eugene Daniels, Kristen East, Maya King, Chris Suellentrop, President Abraham Lincoln
February 13: Daniel Payne, Jamelia Watson, Stockard Channing
February 14: Charlie Mullikin, Kat McKibben, Oriana Pawlyk, Frederick Douglass
February 15: Jonathan Miller, Megan Thee Stallion, Amber Riley, Galileo Galilei, Susan B. Anthony
February 16: Cate Hansberry, The Weeknd, Elizabeth Olsen, Sen. Jon Ossoff
February 17: Kelsey Tamborrino, Baker Landon, Michael Jordan, Ed Sheeran, Paris Hilton, Bonnie Wright, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
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