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As India becomes weaker and weaker under the growing ballast of its anti-national, outlandish, constitution, laws, courts and policies and the resultant civil unrest and rebellion, provided China (Communism) does not get there first, Islam (Ghazwa e Hind) will by dint of demographic growth and majoritarianism or violence from within and without (e.g. Pakistan). You must also remember that large portions of India were torn away by Jinnah for Islam in 1947 and Islam has digested the Non Moslems through classic rape, murder, intimidation, loot and so on as per the tenets enshrined in the Quran and Hadith. Many localities, districts and even States of India are under similar threat as I write this.Here is an interesting dissertation written by a friend:An essay on Islam's Indian agenda: "Ghazwa e Hind""Bharat and Saudi Wahabbism.Kindly read the full essay to understand the threat we will face in near future. Humbly requesting to share this post and spread awareness.Ever since the Islamic rulers of the Indian sub-continent lost their power to the British, their protracted movement appears to be to restore their control over this region and keep the people under perpetual challenge as some of the Muslim leaders are still not ready to shed their medieval burden.India & Saudi Arabia:With the Saudi monarchy becoming the custodian of two holiest shrines of Islam in 1924 with an independent kingdom since 1932, it has also emerged as the richest oil-exploring country in the world, taking upon itself to export its version of militant Islam that went by the name of Wahabism. India was one of the target countries.Although, India never had cordial relations with Saudi Arabia, some analysts even thought that the relations between the two countries are set to improve with the visit of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to that country on February 25 last. The point to be noted here is that seeking any help or signing any agreement for joint fight against terrorism with Saudi Arabia will not in any way prevent the frequent Jihadi attacks against India that are perpetrated by the terror syndicates groomed with Saudi money in Pakistan.To understand the Wahhabi design of Saudi Arabia in India, one may like to look into the Islamist’s conquests that began from Arabian Peninsula to the on going terror war against non Muslims. The desert warriors who never tried to understand the rational world view of love, peace and co-existence mistook civilizational evolution to be the history of conflict and cruelty. Accordingly, they never reconciled with the non-Islamic powers anywhere in the world particularly in the land from where Muslim rulers were driven out. This mindset is the key.The emergence of two Islamist reformers of eighteenth century namely Shah Waliullah (1703-1762) in India and Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1787) in Arabian Peninsula re-ignited the medieval fire of Islamism among the Muslims. While studying together in Medina they came up with a considered view that Islam will not survive without political power and suggested an aggressive drive for revival of hard-line conservative Islamism as the only solution to stop the decline of the glory of Islamic power in the Indian sub-continent. Although, the two reformers had some tactical differences over execution of their common goal to achieve Pan-Islamic Arab imperialism in the world, both of them are known as the co-founders of political Islam.The Hanafi School and the Wahaabis:Waliullah, the follower of Hanafi school of. Sunni Islam which is in a majority in this region was upset with the rise of Maratha power and the fading glory of Mogul Empire and therefore, tried to unite the Muslim society by establishing concordance between the conflicting schools of Islamic thought. He also presented an integrated view of the different branches of Islamic schools. His plan was to unite the different Islamist warlords of Indian sub-continent to crush the Hindus particularly the Marathas and Jats who had challenged the Islamic rule in the sub-continent. Since he saw the rise of Hindus as threat to the survival of Muslim power, he invited a Muslim plunderer Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1760 from Afghanistan to launch Jihad against the Hindus.However, contrary to the tactical compromise formula of Waliullah with Shia and other tomb worshiping Muslims, Wahhab being the follower of Hanbali School of Islam and a hard core Sunni cleric treated them to be infidels. His sole objective was to Saudiise the Muslim society by pushing them to the extreme Arabic tradition and to bring them under a single command of a Bedouin Saudi warlord Mohammad ibn Saud with whom he had an agreement in 1744.Since then, the successors of Ibn Saud while pursuing Wahhabism and claiming as the sole upholder of Islam emerged as a force in Arabian Peninsula roughly from the beginning of eighteenth century. While Wahhab in alliance with Mohammad Ibn Saud laid the foundation stone of the Saudi Kingdom, Waliullah mobilized the Muslims in India against the rise of Hindus. The success of the Jihadi concept of political Islam in the defeat of Marathas in 1762 and rise of Saudi-Wahhabi alliance as an independent kingdom left a deep Jihadi dent on the psyche of the Muslim society of the Indian sub-continent.Following the British take over of the Mughal capital of Delhi in 1803, Shah Abdul Aziz (1745-1823) son of Waliullah who was carrying forward the legacy of his father adopted the integrated concept of both his father and Wahhab and declared Hindustan to be a Darul Harab (Domain of enmity). He also appealed to his followers to launch Jihad for restoring Islamic power in the region. One Syed Ahmad Barelvi (1786-1831), who was one of the most trusted disciples of Shah Abdul Aziz mobilised his followers mostly from Bihar and Bengal and launched Jihad against Ranjit Singh, the ruler of Punjab in 1826. Though he was killed in the battle of Balkot in 1831, the Muslim clergies projected him an Islamic martyr and called him Syed Ahmad Shaheed (Martyr). Although, Sayeed Ahmad learnt the Wahhabi interpretation of militant Islam as a disciple of Shah Abdul Aziz, he is credited to have imported Wahhabism into the Indian sub-continent with Patna in Bihar as its centre.After the death of Sayeed Ahmed his staunch followers Wilayat Ali of Patna and his brothers carried forward the Wahhabi legacy of their leader. It is said that the Wahhabi clergies played an important role in igniting the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 against the British. However, after the collapse of the mutiny Wahhabis got a further set back as the British suspected them to be the conspirators and started persecuting them aggressively. In fact Wahhabis became the target of British power due to their Jihadi ideology which they perceived as a threat to their stake in India. The demoralised group of Muslim clergies therefore adopted a tactical line and overtly maintained a distance from Wahhabis to guard themselves against British action but at the same time decided to institutionalise the revival of Islamic movement by educating the Muslim masses through Madrasa education.The Deoband Movement:Accordingly, Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi and Rashid Ahmed Gangohi who were the disciples of Sayyid Nazir Husain, a Wahhabist cleric from Delhi and founder of Ahle Hadith an offshoot of Saudi Wahhabism - founded a Madrasa in Deoband which gradually turned into an umbrella organisation of Sunni Islamists for educating the poor strata of Muslims with an objective to recruit them as foot soldiers of Islam. This small madrasa later emerged as Deoband movement to restore the glorious past of Islamic power.Deobandi Ulema too adopted a tactical line to guard themselves against the British and made it a practice to reject their links with Wahhabism overtly. However, the synthesis of the political thought of Waliullah and Wahhab remained the ideological mascot of their movement. "The theology taught at Deoband was an uncompromising fundamentalism, mirroring that of Wahhabism".Like Wahhabis, Deoband also "denounced the worship of saints, the adorning of tombs, and such activities as music and dancing. It waged a ceaseless war of words against Shias, Hindus, and Christian missionaries It distanced itself from all that was progressive in Indian society; and it retained militant jihad as a central pillar of faith but focused this jihad on the promotion of Islamic revival".(The Hidden Roots of Wahhabism in British India by Allen Charles, Publication- World Policy Journal. Date: July 1, 2005).Apart from Deoband Movement, the feudal section of Muslims under the leadership of Sir Sayed Ahmad, a British loyalist launched a parallel Aligarh Movement with the objective to get superior status of Muslims to the Hindus by accepting the British as their protectors. Subsequently, they founded the All India Muslim League which ultimately succeeded in truncation of the sub-continent and creation of Pakistan as a separate Islamic country.Although, the Muslim leadership was partly satisfied with the creation of Pakistan after the complete loss of power in1857 to the British, a big chunk of leaderless Muslim population who stayed back in a Hindu majority India was in a state of confusion. Taking advantage of the plight of Indian Muslims, the Saudi monarchy began its political game to get their support for legitimisation of its custodianship of the two holiest Islamic Shrines which they had captured from the Hassimite clan of Prophet Mohammad, to protect the monarchy from non-Wahhabi Islamists who are opposed to its trade relation and war pacts with Christian crusaders and also to prepare them for Jihad to restore the lost Islamic power in this country.Its alliance with western powers particularly the USA is also a part of the strategy to keep the monarchy under protection of a world super power. Accordingly, spending huge oil-earned money they have been continuously exporting the Wahhabi concept of Militant Islam to Indian Muslims by buying the Islamic clergies of the region. The ruling party Indian National Congress on the other hand treated the Muslims as its vote bank and continued to remain in power with their support. In due course this virus of vote bank politics affected all the political parties.Islamic Revivalism in India from 70s:Exploiting the weakness of the political class, Islamic clergies revived their dormant movement for Islamic revivalism which got a further boost with heavy increase in Saudi funding of Islamic institutions and organisations in 1970s when there was a global boom in oil price. In fact Saudi Arabia viewed the truncation of its ally Pakistan in 1970 and emergence of a secular Muslim country Bangladesh at the instance of Indian army as a victory of non-Muslim power in South Asia against an Islamic country. Accordingly with a view to strengthen its hold among the Indian Muslims it planned to wahhabise the latter aggressively with hugefunding for repair of their dilapidated mosques, construction of new mosques and for establishment of new madrasas. Using its petro-dollar influence on Islamic institutions and organisations like Deoband , Ahl-i-Hadith, Jamaate Ulema-e- Hind, Jamaate Islami Hind and Tablique Jamaat it started wide propagation of Wahhabism in India. Thus, access of Indian Muslim organisations and institution in Saudi Zakat money not only saw a marked transformation in Muslim society in India but also gave them a new assertive confidence to raise their voice against the government on even rational issues which did not fit in the frame of Islamism. Formation of Student Islamic Movement (SIMI), a front organisation of Jamaat-e- Islami Hind in April 1977 at Aligarh was a new Wahhabi endeavour to mobilise the Muslim youths and students under Saudi influence.Saudis Active Again during Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan:It was during the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, that the Jihadis from various Islamist establishments of the world joined the Saudi financed Jihad with the support of USA and Pakistan. Saudi charities like World Muslim League, International Islamic Relief Fund, World Assembly of Muslim Youth and Muslim Brotherhood were instrumental in opening of huge number of madrasas in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and also sent Jihadi recruits from these madrasas in Soviet-Afghan war which lasted for a decade.In view of their covert link with the Wahhabi ideology of violent Jihad, Islamist organisations/institutions in India maintained stony silence for a couple of decades over security related threat of Wahhabi sponsored terror war from across the country. Deoband, a premiere Islamic institution though organised a conference in April 2008 and condemned terrorism, it did not mention the name of any Islamist organisation like Al Qaeda and its terror outfits like Jaishe Mohammad or Lashkar-e -Tayeba which were responsible for their terror acts in the country. Instead, the speakers criticised the police action against SIMI activists who were accused in terror violence in different parts of the country. Ironically, despite the arrest of many Indian Muslims for their alleged involvement in various terror explosions in the country, no Islamic clergy in India is ready to believe that the arrested Indian Muslims were involved in the terror war against India.Petro Dollar Influence:However, various reports suggest that Saudi Arabia with its petro-dollar influence on these Islamic outfits succeeded in making a visible Wahhabi dent among Indian Muslims. In fact some saner sections of Indian Muslims accept that the on going terror war against India has been launched by Wahhabi terror groups. One Mohammad Hamid from Nagpur said, "The terror that is being inflicted in India is not Islamic terror, but Wahhabi terror" (India Today, July 31, 2008). Similarly, one Shabib Rizvi, a professor at Rizvi College in Mumbai was quoted saying, "From just 28 websites eight years ago, there are over 1000 websites dedicated to spreading Wahhabi ideology" (Ibid.) Except Ahl-i-Hadith which is a carbon copy of Wahhabism , none of the prominent Islamic institutions and organisations like Deoband , Jamaate Ulemae Hind, Jamaate Islami Hind, Tablique Jamaat and Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) has ever accepted their link with Wahhabism. Therefore, it is difficult to pin pointedly identify the Wahhabi groups in India.Although, Deobandi Ulema often deny their link with Wahhabism, the ground reality on the huge growth of Deobandi madrasas suggests that without the heavy financial support from oil rich Arab lands such growth was not possible. Deoband, a well organised Islamic institution has a worldwide influence over educated sections of Muslims. In fact assuming the name of Darul Ulum (Abode of Islamic learning) in 1879 it is now one of the top Islamic institutions in the world second only to Al Aqsa in Cairo. Today number of Deobandi madrasas in different parts of world has increased to over 30000. ( Charles Allen, a renowned historian of British India). With dissemination of Fatwa (Islamic decree) on every issue the Ulema of Deoband gradually inspired the Muslim masses with Wahhabi concept of Islam and sharpened their mind with Islamic duty to defend their faith wherever it was under attack and to support Jihad launched in any corner of the world if it was for extending the frontiers of their religion. This is apparently the reason as to why the Indian Muslims are often found enraged and raise war cry that ‘Islam is in danger’ even when the Indian judiciary passes any judgement which the Wahhabi clergies misinterpret as un-Islamic.Their war cry against Supreme Court verdict in Shahbano case in 1984 which forced the then Congress Government to neutralise the verdict after constitutional amendment was the reflection of Wahhabi influence on Indian Muslims. Deoband has never disclosed its balance sheet including its financial source to the public. Since the Saudi sponsored charities are the main funding agencies operating in India for propagation of Wahhabism, a natural question would be -t how can Deoband afford to run this vast institution which provides free boarding and lodging to its students without entering into the ideological ring of Wahhabism?Similarly, the publication of a book in 1978 entitled Shaikh Muhammad bin ‘Abdul Wahhab Ke Khilaf Propaganda Aur Hindustan Ke ‘Ulama-i Haq Par Uske Asrat (‘The Propaganda Against Shaikh Muhammad bin ‘Abdul Wahhab and its Impact on the True ‘Ulama’) written by the late Manzur Nu'mani (d.1997), one of the leading Indian Deobandi ‘ulema which was widely appreciated by the fellow Deobandis has ‘proved’ that there is actually no ‘difference of principle’ (‘usuli ikhtilaf) between the Deobandis and the ‘Wahhabis’, and that ‘to a very great extent they ‘are united’. The claim of a Deobandi jurist in this context also supports this view - "should it be proved that Osama was the mastermind behind the attacks of September 11, he would not be punished under Islamic law since his actions were the result of an independent, legal opinion issued by top jurists." (The Hidden Roots of Wahhabism in British India by Allen Charles, World Policy Journal, July 1, 2005)SIMI and Rise of other Organisations:SIMI is another organisation which can be regarded as a true Wahhabi group operating in India since its formation in 1977. It was in fact a tactical move of JEIH to float a separate radical outfit dedicated to restore Islamic power in India and guard itself from any confrontation with the government. Although, till1986 all the presidents of SIMI were from JEIH, the latter publicly disowned it same year for tactical reason. Equalising Osama bin Laden and other known leaders of terror outfits as the holy warlords undertaking Jihad on behalf of the Umma also suggests that SIMI is devoted to Wahhabism. Jihad, Muslim community as a consolidated group (Ummah) and Caliphate being the core ideological concept of SIMI also proves its Wahhabi design. Its slogan that ‘Quran is its constitution, Jihad is its path and martyrdom its desire’ is similar to the Egypt born Wahhabi outfit Muslim Brotherhood. Although, it has been banned by Government of India due to its link with Wahhabi sponsored terror war in the country, another outfit called Indian Mujahideen has emerged as a replica of SIMI.Deoband related Tabligh Jamaat is another organisation which is known as Wahhabi. "Yusuf Kandhalavi, son and successor of the founder of the Tablighi Jama‘at, Ilyas Kandhalavi, declared, ‘We are staunch Wahhabis’. Saudi funded new Tablighi mosques in different parts of India also suggest the penetration of Wahhabism among Indian Muslims who are the followers of this Jamaat.Taking advantage of the secular democratic constitution of India and vote banking politics of Indian political parties, these Saudi backed radical Muslim bodies are blackmailing the latter and operating in this country from outside the political mainstream without any fear. The seismic shift towards Islamic conservatism as being seen among the Indian Muslims and their increasing dependence on madrasa educated leaders suggest that Wahhabism pushed them towards the Jihadi spirit of political Islam.The main problem India is facing in fighting against Islamist terrorism is the hidden root of Wahhabism which protect the nursery of sleeping terror cells in various ghettos of the Muslim community. Majority of common Muslims may be against the Jihadi interpretation of Wahhab but they are entrapped in such a whirlpool created by the Mullas in the roll of Saudi charities that they are left with no option but to succumb to their pressure. Unfortunately, even against the backdrop of the historical communal role of Indian Muslims under the instigation of their leaders during freedom movement which truncated the sub-continent, our political leadership continues to ignore the import of Wahhabism which is a strategic threat to its secular democracy.Conclusion:Until and unless our political class irrespective of their party affiliation put a check on Saudi funding to the Islamic institutions and organisations and prevent the Indian Muslims from being entrapped in the militant ideology of political Islam, India which is already encircled in the fire ring of Wahhabi Jihad for which militant Jihadi warriors are regularly produced in Saudi funded madrasas in our neighboring countries, the country will remain vulnerable strategically."-Satish Mylavarappu“some correction:shah walliulllah was himself killed by Ranjit singh and probably his body was burned so that Jihadists would not make a monument out of him, pretty same the US did with Osama. Cairo has Al-Azhar islamic university not Al-Aqsa”—Alok Kumar Singh“This is total distortion of History. Too many errors or deliberate attempt to falsify history.One thing I want to say There was no trace of wahabism in India before 1900. And the war of independence of 1857 was waged by the Sunnis/Sufi under the leadership of Bahadur Shah Zafar who himself was a Sunni. The concept of Jihad(struggle) in Islam is about ending oppression. It is not to spread Islam. The message of Islam was spread accross continents by missionaries/Sufi Saints/Traders. The armed Jihad is taken as a last resort and only to end oppression.”-Junaid AhmedJunaid Ahmed’s version is the official, politically corrected, version championed by Gandhi (who championed the resurrection of the Caliphate at British behest in a vain attempt to bring the Moslems within the ambit of his leadership), Nehru and, post partition, the Indian Rapeublic to appease the Moslems.The real version is that The East India Company ruled in the North by having been given a Firman by the Mughal to collect taxes and military levies to protect him from his own satraps and challengers, just as in in the South, they had received the Firman from the Nawab of Arcot to collect taxes and levies to protect him from Tipu Sultan and the residual Vijayanagar Palegars. The greed of the East India Company and its “Nabobs” who came to India to “shake the Pagoda tree”, and the standing armies it established with these taxes and levies left the Mughal a mere symbol like the present day President of India. The East India Company’s Land Grab movement through the Doctrine of Lapse and their ruthless conversion of land to commercial crops from staples and destruction of the means of production such as looms, led to the conditions for the rebellion. The Bengal Native Infantry’s mutiny (inspired by the Brahmanas) was the spark that set the tinder aflame. Bahadur Shah Zafar was a weak, effete, puppet who was raised as a banner by the Brahmanas to rally the Moslems to their cause who were hitherto subservient to the East India Company on account of the Mughal Firman by which they were levied.As for Wahabism, the Wahab are a tribe who claim consanguinity to the most ruthless of the Caliphs, Uthman, who burnt the original Quran and replaced it with one more suited to his taste, policies and campaigns. They follow the most austere and intolerant form of Islam that upholds all that is vile, sadistic, atavistic and barbaric in present day Islam. Before the British Empire receded, Islam had been shattered, the Mehdi destroyed, the Ottoman Empire dismantled, and Ata Turk’s Turkey marginalized, The Tent of Saud was not acceptable to the Tent of Wahab to rule Saudi Arabia in post World War formation, carved out of Turkish rule by the British. But the British favoured the Tent of Saud. To avoid the impending civil war, the Tent of Saud formed a pact with the Tent of Wahab, to carry out Uthman’s Imperial Islam on the World and ascended the throne with their permission. As Petro Dollars began to pour in thanks to Yamani (who the Tent of Saud later assassinated) and the US post Vietnam weakness coupled with Nixon’s and Kissinger’s machinations and Bush’s personal venality and willingness to found his family fortunes under the Tent of Saud, the Tent of Saud began to pour money into Mosques and Madrassas world wide to generate Students of the Quran (aka Taliban) to carry out Uthman’s Jihad bil Saif (Reformation by the Sword).When the US saw the opportunity to throw out the USSR, the US sold Pakistan the idea of Afghanistan for its “Strategic Depth” and then the CIA and Pakistan created Al Qaeda (The Base) to train and arm Taliban (students of the Quran) to wage asymmetric war against the USSR. This, then, has given birth to myriad regiments of Sunni Taliban going by various names determined to impose the Sharia on the rubble of civilization.Ghazwa e Hind is a project of Islam and not of any one Islamic regiment, whether regular or irregular, covert or overt, within India or without. With a little more hard work, the CIA, the NIA and media may even establish that water is wet and that peanuts grow underground.Too many people know the facts and have suffered at the hands of Islam. They are not as easy to fool or purchase as the politicians and journalists of the World’s “Democracies”.There are SIX DIFFERENT WAYS of deception that are permissible in Islam with the “holy” blessing of Sharia law: 1) taqiyya, 2) kitman, 3) tawriya, 4) taysir, 5) darura, 6) muruna•Taqiyya (Shia) or Muda'rat (Sunni): tactical deceit for the purposes of spreading Islam.•Kitman: deceit by omission.•Tawriya: deceit by ambiguity.•Taysir: deceit through facilitation (not having to observe all the tenets of Sharia).•Darura: deceit through necessity (to engage in something "Haram" or forbidden).•Muruna: the temporary suspension of Sharia to make Muslim migrants (“Hijra”) appear "moderate."Please Read:Suchindranath Aiyer's answer to Do You prefer war or peace? Why everyone supporting war?https://www.quora.com/Is-India-headed-towards-balkanization/answer/Suchindranath-Aiyer?prompt_topic_bio=1What is the core of Islam that destroys all other humans and civilizations?Scary it may be , but what should Hindus expect from a brain dead population who are incessantly taught this in Madarsas @ARanganathan72 ? https://t.co/RSxrhn97yj pic.twitter.com/6fsugWxHf6— निमित्तेकम् ; Nimittekam जय श्री राम (@satyanveshan) July 29, 2019“As of today more than 75% mosques in India are either Deobandi or Wahabi. Deobandi and Wahabi are two sides of the same coin. The proportion of Deobandi and Wahabi mosques as well as their money power is such that in a few years all other sects of Sunni Islam may be extinct.Junaid says there was no Wahabis in India before 1900. Let us assume he is right. However Deobandis who follow ShahWaliullah were very much dominant in India of the 1800s. Sepoy Mutiny was the last chance for these people to get back their lost glory. All these stories of Hindu Muslim bonhomie during that time (1850s) taught to us in school were pure bluff. Almighty God saved the Hindus and Sikhs of India and the Sepoy Mutiny was crushed by Gurkhha and Sikh soldiers fighting for the British. Had the mutineers won in 1857 India would have been back to Islamic rule of Deobandis within a few years and the Hindus and Sikhs would have had to face a situation worse than that under Aurangzeb.”(Sumanta Sen)Since the Uthman the Fourth Caliph, All of Islam including the invasion of India has been carried out with Jihad Bil Saif. Sufism was designed as a compromise of Islam to get skilled artisans and artistes to work for the Moslem Barbarians who conquered and enslaved them. This concession evolved into a form of religion.Please read:Suchindranath Aiyer's answer to Can Pakistan invade India?“Note that Sonia Gandhi and her family are close to Islamic outfits like SIMI which she defended as an MP. Her partyis now opely Islamic as seen during Rahul’s registration in Kerala which was dominated by Islamic flags.”(Navarathna Rajaram)”Muslim rulers lost their reign to Marathas and not to british. We ourselves are not aware of our hindu history.”(Shivam Sharma)You are very mistaken and have been carried away by Maratha Mythology. The British Empire was established in India through ten wars. Four Mysore, Four Maratha and Two Sikh. All these wars were fought by the British as the Agents of the Nawab of Arcot (who even now receives a pension from the Indian Rapeublic) and the Mughals on the basis of firmans by which they levied Soldiers and Taxes to build standing armies.You may find this instructive:Suchindranath Aiyer's answer to Who were the Borgi Marathas? Why were they so cruel?Suchindranath Aiyer's answer to Can you tell me why didn't the British attack a considerable part of South India during their invasion in India?“So the gist is Ghazwa e hind is easily possible if they reach critical mass I.e. 30% of the total population.”(Sankeerth Nedunoori)Far less than 30% when Islam is dealing with a People like Indians or Europeans who have been disarmed and fooled by their own leaders to be kind to Moslems as if they are an endangered species rather than breeding like rabbits!“History of Quran. Mr.Aiyer argument about Third Caliph Uthman is not correct one. History of the Quran - Wikipedia”(Abdu Manaf)Uthman was the Fourth Calipha. I diasgree with Wikipedia. While that may be a Politically Sanitized version which skirts accusations of “Islamophobia” Mine is the correct version.Please read:Suchindranath Aiyer's answer to How many wars India have fought after independence? What were the accurate reasons behind why each war started?The Biggest holocaust in World History, even bigger than the advent of Christianity in the Americas, took place in India:Mughal India ~ The Biggest Holocaust in World History | SikhNetNehru deliberately appointed Gen Habibulla as Commandant of the NDA over Air Cmdre R. Sitaram who had built it while with the JSW as he had caught Nehru inflagrante when attempting to Mobilize IAF during 1962. Habib forced the cadets to listen to Qawalis and Ghazals every week end.Global Islamism, jihadism and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, my defence lawyer - FirstpostUnless Moslems repudiate the Quran and Hadith i.e. become apostates, they are Moslems following the example set by the “perfect man and example”, the mass murdering, genocidal, gang raping, pedophile, Mahomet, “the prophet” such as is described here:An Insight into how “Ghazwa e Hind” is being carried out in contemporay (2020) India:The Millstone of Hindu Tolerance and its Ongoing Civilisational TariffAnd, More:

I am going to speak as a Marine and a former hiring manager. I was once a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps with two Iraq tours and have worked in the retail, real estate, the tech industry start-up and education sectors. In that time, I've hired more than enough people to know that it's one of the hardest decisions you have to regularly make. The choices of who you bring into an organization will either make or break you far quicker than anything you as the individual are capable of. I also know that almost all the decisions you make as a hiring manager happen as the sum result of the generalizations and stereotypes you have attached to the bullet points on their résumé. Don't feel bad. It's important to not follow that instinct that all individuals are fundamentally good and fundamentally the same. That's how you get robbed and your employees drive your company into the ground.The facts are, you rely on those generalizations to give you the best guess of who is going to add value to your company's culture and who isn't going to burn the place to the ground. That said, what happens when you see military experience show up in your inbox? What generalizations do you hold? Do you really not know what it is you're looking at? Would you like to know more? The problem with many hiring managers is that they have no idea what it means when they see a veteran's resume. What qualities should you expect? What flaws? What do they add? How are they different from someone else? I wrote this piece to help communicate what to expect. Hopefully after reading you will be able to make an informed decision. You'll be able to know better if this applicant is not only a good worker for you, but also someone who can grow and drive your company in the future, someone who can grow with you, and maybe even someone who can help you take your operations to the next level.Leadership is Ingrained in VetsWhat many people don't know is that the United States Marine has an average age of only 19. What? Yes, that Marine is incredibly young, but it still needs to be led. Who do you think is doing this? 19 year olds. By the time most people are twenty in the Marines (this goes for the other services, as well) they are already an NCO. This stands for Non-Commissioned-Officer. Don't let the "Non" throw you off. What an NCO means is, "The guy in charge who will make my life Hell if I screw up," or just as often, "the guy whose job it is to make sure I stay alive." By the age of 20 some kids have already become technical experts in a professional field, are teachers to younger service-members and have led small teams in everything from shop operations to combat deployments.By the time I was 22 I was a Sergeant in charge of a team of 13 other Marines. We were all occupying very technical jobs in the computer networking field and responsible for overseeing the maintenance and distribution of over $3 million dollars of Marine Corps property. You probably might think that that was a stupid investment on someone so young, but we pulled it off, with no fanfare I might add, and we did things like that all the time. It wasn't until I received a degree in Business Management at 25, that the civilian world could trust me again with doing the same thing. I suppose, on the outside, people can't be trusted with that kind of responsibility. Every day, though, vets do. The fact is that I could not have done this alone. I had those thirteen Marines who did the work and it was my job to coordinate. I had a very solid framework for leadership that include such gems as the Five Paragraph Order, Six Troop Leading steps, and the Thirteen Leadership Traits. These have become pivotal to my personal growth as a manager, teacher, and how I lead others. The military philosophies on the science of leading aren't something that leave you. The military trains Service Members to lead by example. Skills like motivation and delegation are actually given time to be trained and implemented in the most hostile environments imaginable.The military doesn't just educate their members on the practical ways to manage behavior, such as the discipline and communication methods. Leadership is truly studied on the academic and theoretical level. More so than in other organization, this theoretical and practical leadership are put in practice as a matter of survival.You want another note on leadership? In the military, no one can be fired, not at the bottom tiers at least. That means that you have to get the job done with the idiots God gave you. You are out there for seven to fourteen months with no replacements and just the same team along with all their problems. You have to train them, discipline them, correct them, counsel them and shape them, because you have no other choices. You didn’t even get to hire them. They were just assigned to you, more or less, at random. That is another reason why vets have such strong leadership skills. Could you honestly say that you could run a company the way the Marines do, with their success record, if you couldn't even pick who gets hired and can't even get rid of the ones who suck? You probably couldn't, but the military does. Choosing team members and leaders who have proven they are able to do this means that you are choosing team members who are adaptable and know how to lead others.Vets Understand ResponsibilityIn most veterans you will see a strong vein of personal integrity. It isn't that they are better people than anyone else, far to the point. Many are socially unacceptable misfits by most people's terms. It is that integrity is driven to such a degree that it is presented as a matter of life or death. Ethics and standards of behavior are codified, they're policed, and a part of life to the point that it is a standard which will follow an individual. In the civilian world, that doesn't go away. It creates employees with a proven track record of trustworthiness that are often assets to the organizations they join after they leaving military service.I don't mean to imply that civilians have no integrity. To contrary, there are many who are the most reliable people I have ever met, but in my experience, it can be hit or miss. In one job I had, by the time I had worked there for no more than a month nearly the entire staff had called out sick at least once, people wouldn't show up for work, complained incessantly, and generally, would do anything to avoid work. It wasn't legitimate sickness. It was dishonesty and an inability to be relied upon. The worst part... corporate wouldn't even let me fire them! I know that I said that the Marines and the military in general can't be fired and that makes vets good leaders, but firing people is a tool and needs to be used when you have it. Let's face it, because of lawyers and HR reps afraid of wrongful termination lawsuits, people can get away with murder without being let go far too often. This blows the minds of some vets.In the military there are no sick days. I am not exaggerating. You absolutely must come to work and then must go to Sick Call before they will ever acknowledge that there might be something wrong with you. And if it is a PT day you will run three miles before you get to go.When on deployment we also work every day. Every single day. There are no holidays, no weekends, no birthdays. It is the same thing every day. If you show up late, even by five minutes, or so, you will be running for miles or end up digging a massive fighting hole and 300 sandbags in an effort to make the base more secure. (It's not really about making the base more secure.) So you learn how not to get punished. In the civilian world they don't reward this behavior, but they also don't punish the latter."Why should I reward them for doing their jobs?" some might say."Because you won't punish them for not doing it." I'd reply.People like us show up early, stay late and if you ask them to do something they work hard to see that it is done. In the worst case scenario, they will be responsible enough to tell you when they need help. There is a point I made in the last section that I would like to take the opportunity to repeat for emphasis.By the time I was 22 I was a Sergeant in charge of a team of 13 other Marines. We were all occupying very technical jobs in the computer networking field and responsible for overseeing the maintenance and distribution of over $3 million dollars of Marine Corps property.Most organizations wouldn't consider this type of thing a wise decision, but in the military it is common for very young people to be given a great deal of responsibility, relative to civilian counterparts. You wonder how. This might help. Image you give an 18-year-old a rifle and tell him that it is only thing that will protect his life for next seven months. Follow this up with a few months of proof and little else but living with the constant reminder of this fact and I promise you that rifle will not be lost, broken, damaged and will come back to you polished and good as new. I promise. Military people get responsibility because when they were very young, there were serious consequences to the decisions they made. Civilians don't go through this kind of trial by fire and training and many of them don't make good decisions because of it. The military has given young men and women real life and death responsibility and choices before a regular civilian would have graduated college.Intuition is a skill. It can be learned. The military teaches it.What many people think is that leaders are born. Not in the military. Simply put, many times in the military people are presented with situations where they must make life and death decisions in the blink of an eye. How do you do that given that there are no pie charts to help you make the decision, no data scientists to weigh all the variables and no spreadsheets, journals or time to decide? Intuition. How exactly do you trust that someone will make the right decision when you plan to throw them into that kind of situation? Faith in a system of training which focuses on immediate decision making in response to only the information available at the time, intuition. The Marines and the military train intuition into their culture. You might not even know what intuition really is. Well, here goes.Intuition is the ability to take massive amounts of information and quickly come to a decision from all possible options quickly and correctly. It is the precise execution of understanding gained through experience and study. You don't do it with charts and graphs, you do it by absorbing all the knowledge available to you ahead of time and making it so readily available that the employee can access it at any given moment they wish. This sounds a lot like memory, but there is more than just recalling information. This means using that mental database to its fullest capacity. They are also able to sort through it and glean the right information without all the excessive over analysis that comes with having an abundance of information and options, often labeled “analysis paralysis” that can accompany a lot corporate level thinkers. This is one of the hardest things in the world to do and most people think you are either born with the ability you aren’t. This is a false assumption given to many by a society that worships heroes who magically just know what to do. Intuition, in truth, is a trainable skill and the vets have it already.What they don’t have? They may not have the specific job essential abilities and skills you need. Provide them the training and let it add to their knowledge base. After that, let them use what they know, namely the ability to think, a skill often missing from many fresh college grads. You just have to provide the training and watch them succeed in implementing it.Military people will tell you when something is wrong, even when you don't like it, often.I remember, more than just about anything in the military, life is punctuated with a steady stream of inspections. Almost impossibly high standards are demanded in everything from uniforms to gear. Even after getting out, the habit of a strong sense of standards runs deep. Vets have the wont of maintaining a certain level of acceptability in operations, safety, and professionalism in others. This often is directed downwards, but they also develop built in mechanisms for directing problems that are discovered upwards as well. Many that I know, also have a real problem not accepting that same level excellence in others. If a failure is present, expect the vet to let you know.You need to understand that the military are people who have an incredible amount of responsibility, not only for "company property", but for lives. Many seem to think that you give them an order, they say, "Sir, yes, sir!" and run off to their doom like mindless drones. It actually doesn't work that way, and I'm sorry if that is what you want from a veteran employee. Remember, they've spent years earning respect and a place of distinction as field experts so expecting them to just go to a point of utter subservience to you is both demeaning and ridiculous. It also throws away one of their most valuable assets, their independence and strength of character to be able to tell those they work with when something is wrong without damaging those relationships. This really does go back to the habit of self preservation, in that you don't just do what that young and inexperienced officer says when your experience tells you, it's going to get you killed. National security and all, but you are going to at least offer your opinion before leaping off the cliff like a flock of lemmings.That, however, is what I see in a lot of corporate scenarios I have seen and been a part of... Lemmings. Yes Men. If you all you're looking for is a government sponsored yesman, you should keep looking. Most veterans won't accept a place where their input isn't valued and they shouldn't. They have valuable knowledge, training and skills. That said, they aren't going to disrespect you just to let their opinion be known. A military person knows how to use tact, a word I am learning more and more, doesn't seem to appear in lexicon of most industry professionals. They will try to communicates to you that you may not be making a good choice. That much needs to be expected, so fragile egos need not apply. They are also not so afraid of you as to speak their mind when they have a good idea or think that one of yours could use a second look. They already have self-confidence gained through life experience. This type of mentality is important, but is often squashed by egotistical bosses.Vets can get the job done in an environment where they are trained to succeed in.When you make the choice to hire a veteran, you can know that when you give them a task they will do it, provided they have the means and support to get the job done. If it is safe, sound, and smart, vets will go at the task without the "incentive programs", "rewards", "blue jeans days" and all the other forms of extrinsic motivation that get in the way of doing business with a bunch of self-centered egotists. Veterans know what it means to have something that needs to be done. Vets have gained a sense of urgency and have seen the world through a big picture type mentality. If you ask them to do something they aren't going to complain because it is too tough, too hard or infringes on their break time. When you need someone who is willing to work the long hours, do the hard tasks and the seemingly impossible, remember that in the back of their heads is, "Well at least I'm not getting shot at." They have a strong respect for procedures and accountability. Service members know how policies and procedures enable an organization to be successful and they easily understand their place within an organizational framework. Vets get the obligation that comes with being responsible for the actions of subordinates and they understand how to properly alleviate issues through the proper supervisory channels.Considering that, you may wonder why veterans you have worked with in the past, didn't shape up like what was expected. A good thing to consider is that most hiring managers hire veterans with the wrong idea in mind. Usually, they are hiring lower to mid-level managers of whatever it is they are doing because that is the experience level that most veterans have. The problem is that these individuals often lack much of the tacit knowledge others gain through working their way up through the civilian side of the latter. You might be surprised at some of the things you would think are obvious that a veteran just won't think of at first. It's important to remember that most of their knowledge comes from the military, not civilian side of any industry, which has its own culture, regulations, implications, and priorities. That said, they solve problems in a completely different manner. They will do things completely differently than you have seen in your career. Often, this will be good because of the diversity it brings. Without an understanding of what is good in a civilian industry model, however, their techniques may be harmful. This is why, in the beginning, you should watch your veteran employees more to gear them for the new industry and be patient with these new mid-level employees making mistakes you wouldn't otherwise expect from more junior employees who have worked the civilian side for a while.That said, the important element of this combination is you giving them the instructions. If you don't provide the support they need to do the work, they will fail. If you don't make wise decisions and then ask them to do stupid things, they will fail. If you don't make it possible for them do their job right, they will fail. Given a good vet and good task, however, they will never fail you. That's why it is so important for managers to know that many military people need a great deal of structure in the beginning to survive in many organizations. They need to be trained well and given a solid framework with which to perform. Many hiring managers make the mistake of believing they will simply be able to hire a veteran and then that veteran will be a magic wand which can "get things done" absent any real training or supervision from the manager. This may happen, but just as likely that veteran employee might go off and drive your company or division into some random direction because you didn't adequately direct their energy with training or guidance. Their drive is a useful fuel for the engine of progress in any strong company, but could just as easily have them fixing thousands of problems that either aren't problems or don't need to be fixed right now. They might even cause new issues because the military teaches and encourages movement and drive. If you don't show them where they need to focus and what they need to do, then you have created a thermite mixture; a high energy burn that causes a big flash but usually breaks more than it builds.When given a proper framework and adequate training, your veteran employees can amaze you at how hard they can work and what they can get done. Once that framework is established, many veterans are extremely independent. The thing that so many people seem to think about vets is that they want to have the strict and regimented hierarchy. Think about it, there is a reason they left the military. Most, in my experience, are confident in their abilities and just want to be left alone or to get busy with their team without strong supervision. From that point have flexibility to work strongly in teams or work independently. Military training teaches service members to work as a team by instilling a sense of a responsibility to one's colleagues. In addition, the size and scope of military operations necessitates that service members understand how groups of all sizes relate to each other and support the overarching objective. While military duties stress teamwork and group productivity, they also build individuals who are able to perform independently at a very high level. As I mentioned before, military vets can be extremely independent. There have been numerous reports that show that military vets are more likely to start their own businesses than other demographic groups. They have natural drives to solve complex problems. They think tactically and strategically about problems. If you have given them the training and a framework to work within your organization they will be able to achieve your goals in ways you hadn't considered before. They are resourceful and know how to use what assets they are given rather than look outside for support. This is what makes them entrepreneurial by nature and can help grow your companies from the inside rather than just be another task follower.The Government Pays Them to get Educated, so You Don't Have to.Military vets come equipped with knowledge that isn't comparable to most others. The United States military boasts some of the most educated war fighters in the world, not to mention in the history of warfare. All US service members must have, at the time of their enlistment, a high school diploma or the general equivalency diploma. To be more clear, more than 99% of those enlisted have a high school education comparable to about 60% that you will find in the general population. Also compared to the population of the United States more service members have also attended some college compared to their typical 18 to 24-year-old counterparts. They have all also passed a standardized test on to test for skills in English proficiency, mathematics, science and government. This test also serves as a placement exam for military jobs. Curious about the rigorous qualifications required to be good enough to join the United States Military? United States Military Enlistment Standards. Good luck.To top this, most MOS schools or Military Occupational Specialty schools boast world-class educational training. First, you have to be good enough to get into the school you want, which can have very high scores required to get in. No, we don't have the greatest recreational facilities and the dorms suck. It isn't the Ivy League, but the education level is beyond par. While stationed in 29 Palms California, a hole in the middle of the California desert, I received two years worth of the most rigorous training in Computer Science, Data Network Administration and Information Systems maintenance. I say two-year except that I only had six months to do it. The training is taken very seriously. In 29 Palms I was 19-year-old PFC working on workstations and equipment with a cost of over half a million dollars, a task, by the way, I would be doing in the real world very soon anyway.In your typical civilians education, students are allowed to pass with virtually any grade so long as they beg enough. In the military, every test is a fail if scored under an 80%, and if you fail you can be booted from the program. This is because, in the civilian education world, a school which doesn't pass enough student's isn't viewed as exclusive, it is viewed as too hard. Students then refuse to attend, dropping tuition payments and the courses must be reevaluated to encourage more revenue. In the military, standards aren't questioned. The service member fails and gets to demoted to a job set he can handle.Add to this, military veterans are virtually the only class of citizens which earns a full ride scholarship to most any higher education they wish. While this is overlooked today, with a society where fresh college graduates are severely overpopulated and under educated, in the future labor will be a much more scarce commodity. Add to this, you have a person who already comes equipped with all the other training they've already endured. Lastly, if you have in your employ a trusted veteran who has not yet used his GI Bill, you have an amazing asset. You, as the employer, can encourage that employee to get their education and work for you during that time. Given a few years, you will have a marvelous manager with years experience and ready to take the reigns you've prepared for them. The best part of this arrangement is that you don't have to pay for this. Many companies offer this as an incentive to join and in the future it will become a more common benefit. You, however, get to save that carrot for a Master's degree.Useful DiversityMany companies hire a large portion of their staff where diversity is the prime differentiator. The theory is that diversity gives a company a large base of ideas with which to draw from for problem solving. This is thought of, normally, as racial or ethnic diversity, but can be applied to different backgrounds and even sub-cultures as well. This form of diversity is important, especially when the discussion of civil rights is a matter at hand. That said, in and of itself, ethnicity should not be considered a quality companies should hire for if the goal is to hire for diversity. What types of diversity are necessary for company success and evolution are those which make an individual useful while being very different from everyone else in the organization. Race and ethnicity, all else equal, rarely does this.There are not ethnicities that provide true, useful diversities any culture, but there are cultures that add unique and predictable experiences that can help companies prosper. These cultures have their quirks, eccentricities, values, specialties, and perspectives which can guide teams in new directions and solve unique problems. For that reason, the real question isn’t if you are finding a HR perfect, color coordinated team page, but if you have a team with real depth based on a broad range of experiences. The better question might be for hiring managers, "Which cultures out there might add value, because they just care a lot about getting things done?" The point of diversity is not just to get different people working together, but also to get many different experience sets working together.Think of it this way. If you build your diversity around different countries of origin, but everyone in the company has an almost identical skillsets, which were gained through almost identical means, how have you actually diversified your experience base? Say you are fortunate enough to have the ability to hire a team of Harvard graduates. Harvard is arguably the best university in the world in most many important fields. It is extremely exclusive and extremely competitive. For that reason, one would assume that success would come from a group such as this. Likely, it will, but the question is, will be it the greatest success? Consider adding in a few people from Stanford. Now you have two cultures of success with with two very different education systems. Different solutions are going to come from these two groups, one all of Harvard and one of a mixed class. Now consider how very different would the solutions formed from a group mixed in with a few graduates of the United States Naval Academy, or even one of self made entrepreneurial millionaires? How vastly different would the solutions to various problems be if such an amalgamation were to exist? The truth of the matter is that sometimes the Harvard group will sometimes create the best solution. Still, many other times, they will miss many things were would have been extremely obvious to everyone else, in spite of their individual and collective brilliance. For that reason, most of the time the greatest solution will come from the highly diversified group. They still have access to all their personal thought processes and their successful cultural quirk, but also now have access to another, the solutions that only become visible when multiple viewpoints are combined. This is a strategic asset and which can't be replicated easily which means that the culture you build will differentiate you from other firms like you.Few people can add as much constructive diversity as a military veteran. Few cultures have been engineered quite like those that military veterans have had memberships within. There are even fewer cultures that focus entirely on mission achievement, cooperation, and personal development. The fact is there is no culture in the world that shapes people in the way the military does. It changes people into something that civilians don't really understand. What is more important is that it gives them options, mentalities, philosophies and a framework that sees opportunities and solves problems that will pass up most civilians. Even more important is that the thoughts going through their minds are centered around finding the problem and fixing it in the fastest and most efficient ways possible.So to achieve useful diversity, it isn't to focus on just bringing in different people, but people who have had experience successful cultures, cultures that somehow add value and are different than the culture already present an organization. That isn't to say that the military is the only good and achieving culture in the world. It is just another one. What you want, to be clear, is an environment where there is a constant collision of successful problem solving systems in which only unique and inventive ideas can be generated. I know that this last section is more a concept of general business theory and not so centric on the military's contribution to hiring a veteran. Well, I did graduated Cum Laude from business school and now run my own publishing firm, so I hope you take the advice regardless.Having said this, when you start to try to diversify you team for success, you're going to need a team which is capable of working with diversity. It isn't built in. I will ask you a series of questions that might make it more clear why I would suggest a few military members be incorporated into such a team. What type of people have experience with extremely diverse teams? What type of group regularly asks its members to uproot and join new units and new teams? What is a group made of people from many different ethnic groups, income brackets, religious backgrounds and still manages to achieve world class results? What type of group regularly takes part in international activities with different cultures in which the fate of the mission revolves around team work? What type of group gives its members a huge amount of international travel and experience living abroad? It's obvious the point I am making here. The military systematically builds individuals with experience that, later on as an unintended benefit, are built to join new groups of highly diverse individuals. More than that, the military is a culture which focuses on achievement, so by adding their processes to your own, you incorporate individuals who are already highly achieved in the arts of teamwork.Adaptability and Global ThinkersI remember when I was a young Marine I thought my only job would be to work on computers. I signed on to be a 0656, Tactical Data Network Specialist, which meant I did the same job of an IT support or network administrator, only I did it in a godforsaken desert or jungle environment with absolutely zero internal or external logistical support and with the possibility that my entire relay could be blown up on any given day. Most people don't even realize the Marines have a computer nerd job specialty, but we do. It's actually quite sophisticated and since my day has evolved to become part of the US' strategy for offensive and defensive cyber operations. By the time I was 19, I was able to do what most people spend years in technical school attempting to be qualified for. It wasn't my only job, though. After my first Iraq tour, the unit had to immediately begin getting ready for the next one. That meant training and most importantly, marksmanship training. One of the slots for coaches fell on my shop and being that all the other computer nerds were horrible shots, I was the only natural choice. So I tacked on an additional occupational specialty. Eventually I would also have under my belt proficiency with a number of weapons systems, not to mention the ability also be communicating in Arabic. All this to say, for all the jokes one has heard about the oxymoron of "military intelligence", the military, and not just myself, are forced to be adaptable to compensate for overwhelming shortcomings in the reality of resources.Consider the veteran's history of technological understanding and consider what it means about their ability to mold themselves to changing technological environments, such as your company may face. Today's military uses the cutting edge technology to maintain our dominance over the enemy in the battlefield. From communications technology to the security of computer networks and hardware, Service Members must stay aware of emerging technologies in the public and private sector. This means that the individual service member is always training and adapting their methodology to stay ahead and insure the greatest level of technological superiority of any fighting force. Add in to this the fact that their main job may not be their only job. The Squadron's First Sergeant may also be the Communications Chief. The training NCO may also be a heavy equipment operator. The A-gunner may also be the one trained in triage medicine. They aren't just adaptable because it looks good on a resume; in the military it is a necessity.Besides needing to adapt to changing technology, they also must adapt to changing teams. Diversity and strong interpersonal skills are another given. That doesn't necessarily mean that a Service member is a pleasant person to be around, but they have interpersonal skills that allow them to work with new and constantly evolving teams. They have learned to work side by side with individuals regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, economic status, and geographic origins as well as those of different mental, physical and attitudinal capabilities. Consider also, that none of us have every had the privilege of choosing who we work for, who we work with, or even who gets assigned to us. Imagine how successful your teams would be if you couldn't even control who you hired. Hired? It's almost impossible to get someone fired from the military, so imagine now your company without these to abilities. Now consider what kind of leadership makes it possible. Many Service members may also have also been deployed or stationed in numerous foreign countries that give them a greater appreciation for the diverse nature of our globalized economy. Many of those, like myself, had to also deal directly those in the foreign nations we worked. You really can't find that sort of malleability in many places.The hands on experience with technology and experiences with extreme diversity combine to give military vets one additional advantage that comes with the collision of these two experiences: A Global Mindset. Few people are knowledgeable of more than one realm of what makes the world tick. Fewer still, have first hand experience with these divergent metrics. Those who do have a unique grasp of geopolitics to the point that they can much more accurately see where the roads lead in their given focus, or at least have developed an eye for it. They look forward much more than those who look at the now. They have practice seeing how technology and culture interact because they have lived it. They care about what is going on in the world because they have been part of writing the history books. I'm not saying that your average Marine could predict how a new innovation in heat exchangers might fundamentally alter the social fabric of South East Asia. What I am saying is that if your business needs someone who is capable of learning a great deal about changing technologies or working internationally, or someone who has spent time thinking about the future of these realms, a military veteran might be a good choice for you to start your search.Esprit de Corps; a culture built for mission accomplishment.There is a French term that most Americans have never heard of. It’s called Esprit de Corps. Literally translated, it means, “the spirit of the group”. What it means is that there is a feeling in the culture of any collection of individuals that is affected by each one and that each is responsible for maintaining. Everyone in the organization comes into it each knowing the high expectations, history, heroes, and legends of the group. Each wishes to uphold the group’s traditions and each wishes not damage the reputation or morale of such an organization. They are motivated by one another and try harder not to let other members of the group down. When a culture such as this exists it’s expected average level of performance is above the normal for others like it. The normal is inferior and, when everyone is on board, you have an outstanding organization. You have a place where others will sacrifice their own time and resources to raise others. Esprit de Corps is the force that drives culture.The Marines have a saying. The Marine Corps is a perfect organization made up of imperfect people. That is the level of respect each individual Marine has for their organization and when you have that level of fanaticism, you start to see each of them drive each other that much harder. If you're that hiring manager, probably work for an imperfect organization and you surely know some imperfect people that work their. Vets aren't perfect, by any means. I’m not saying they are, but they have experienced powerful cultures. Culture is what drives a company, far more so than leaders. Leaders will fail. They will grow and leave. They will become sick. They will make mistakes. They will die. Culture will never stop working for you. That is, it will never stop working for you, or working against you. What you need to do is get people who have experienced a strong working culture, maybe even a few who can lead that culture and get it spread around. It's only when a team, or even a whole company works to the point that the individuals work for reasons other than themselves, for more than themselves, that you see explosive growth. More than that, it's how you ensure long-term organizational success, regardless of leadership, regardless of temporary slumps in the economy, regardless of any storms which the company endures.In summary, vets are a special breed. They have all the mentalities that good companies want. Tenacity, intuition, reliability, capability, responsibility, leadership and are part of a culture built on getting the job done. They are smart and they are serious. Seriously, why are all of our vets having such a hard time finding jobs? Perhaps it’s you.The truth is, and this is why I write so much about fellow vets, many of us are having a hard time. Many civilians don't understand us. People who have served are an enigma for many. They exist in contrast to many American values; an individualist society which champions personal expression, civil liberties, and personal financial, career, and political achievement, but that is built upon the presence of a class of warriors who, themselves enjoy little privilege to express themselves, have forgone many liberties, and have delayed their opportunities for the forms of achievement which society celebrates. In its extreme, we are society which cherishes our freedoms, luxuries, and security, but require, from time-to-time, volunteers who willingly sacrifice themselves in the greatest way imaginable. It's a contradiction that I don't think many have truly explored.What's more, the sheer presence of a veteran is becoming a rarer and rarer thing. Consider many years ago when our parents would tell stories about their fathers who fought in WWII in the Pacific, or their grandfather who battled in Europe. Those were truly different times. According the United States Census Bureau, the number of U.S. armed forces personnel who served in World War II between Dec. 1, 1941, and Dec. 31, 1946 was around 16 million people. For the period since 9/11, the number of US Service members is around 10 million with around 2.5 million actually having served either in Iraq or Afghanistan. These statistics sound comparable until you think about the fact that the War on Terror has gone on for more than twice, nearly three times as long as World War II for the Americans. The 1940 US census calculated a total population of 132,164,569 citizens. Today that number is estimated to be more than 312,000,000. That means that the odds of you running into, or even being a veteran in 1945 was around 12%. Nearly 1 in every 8 people was a veteran. Given also that at that time the entire population was also directed toward the war effort, it's reasonable to say that there was no one without an understanding of the military and a passion for caring for the returning war fighter. Today, however, the story is different. Considering all living veterans today, of any period, you will find a veteran population of about 22 million, that's roughly 7% of the total population of the United States and only 3% having served since 9/11. You also don't see a culture that is wired around service towards ending the war effort. Few work for the defense industry or toward any activity that has a real involvement in the wars. War bonds also aren't a thing. No one ever planted victory gardens in hopes of bringing home the troops. No one is recycling bacon grease or rationing gasoline in hopes that it will help us fight the terrorists. Realistically, nothing has changed much for the average American that one could really say relates to military activities. In truth it's an afterthought or a political stance. Many citizens have opinions, but few have ownership. The truth of the matter, people who have any active role, veterans in particular, are getting rarer and rarer. One the one hand, it's a sign of a peaceful society with few actual problems. One the other hand, its the pattern of a culture that has lost touch with the warrior subculture which shoulders the burden of American security without experiencing many of the rewards of it. This is a pattern which will continue in the future. By 2050, expect that the entire US veteran community will be less than 3% of the total population. Imagine, if you will, what this will mean for veteran benefits in the ballot boxes of the future when they are an even smaller minority of the voting population than they are today.Frankly, people don't associate with veterans that often. It isn't often an intentional discrimination. It's just much rare to find one than you think, as I have shown. Their rarity today is something of a novelty, owing a degree of admiration, a great deal of curiosity, often suspicion and fear, a few times disdain, but otherwise ignored because they are so severely misunderstood. This misunderstanding, in my opinion, comes from that break where no one really knows veterans. When people don't really have any first hand experience with a veteran they fall back on stereotypes. There are many stereotypes which define us. Many of these I focused on because they are positive and help further the image of the United States warrior who has left the service. The truth is, no one perfectly captures all positive qualities of military service, but for the most part, there are so many good qualities which have been imbued into the character of a veteran of the United States. Many, if not most of qualities we have in common, are fundamental assets to employers. The pledge to support veterans is so strong that, for more than a decade thousands of companies have joined in numerous campaigns to hire veterans.Yet you still aren't hiring us. I wrote this post, if not just to show those individuals with hiring capacity some of the benefits that come attached to hiring veterans, but to address the fact that, in spite of so many companies' very public advertising toward campaigns supporting returning troops, vets aren't being hired.Since the slump in 2009 and the massive unemployment that followed, veterans have led in unemployment for reasons I can only guess. I assume much of it is based on unfair biases I have faced since getting out myself. I've often heard things like, "You're so articulate for veteran" or "I don't know, I just sort of expected you be, like, crazy hard core or something." Many people asked if I had been shot at, or even killed someone. I've also been asked in interviews if I had ever been in combat, which I don't know someone at Chase's local bank branch would need to know for a standard sales position, and some have even asked if I have ever had an actual job before. I'm not sure what an actual job constitutes for most people many of the people I interviewed for after college. I guess my experiences running a telecommunications service team of 11 technicians and responsible for more than $3 million dollars in gear and equipment for what amounted to a four hundred person company didn't count as an actual job. In college I even had to correct a professor who threw out the old joke when asked what an oxymoron was. She replied, "Military Intelligence" to the laughter of a roomful of 19 year olds still living in their childhood homes. To say "corrected" is probably not the appropriate term, but everyone in the room knew better than to make such an unfair generalization again.“Ma’am, are you aware of what it takes to re-calculate the trajectory of an object traveling at 3,110 ft/s for a three inch change in elevation at 5 times the length of a standard football field when factoring in for wind speed and direction as well as differences in elevation?” (Marine recruits do in week six of their basic training.)Perhaps people do view that, because one forgoes college as a means to seek higher education, they are uneducated, or lack higher order cognitive processes. Perhaps media portrayal in movies, video games, and TV has simply just watered us down to two conflicting views as either a brave knight running off to do justice and make sacrifice, or of the radical bloodthirsty and murderous barbarian, too stupid to know when they are being used, both of which are completely unfit for the corporate world. Perhaps, as USA today back April of last year, followed by Forbes, have reported, there is more going on.Many, apparently as many as one in three, employers consider the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder to be an impediment to hiring a veteran, according to a survey report by the Society for Human Resource Management. Since it is illegal to ask about mental health status during an interview many just take the safe route and assume there is a problem. Considering that as low as 7% of post-9/11 veterans are estimated to be experiencing PTSD it's a far cry from a necessary precaution. I've read that some of the reasons for this fear are that there is a fear of safety, owing to the fear that a veteran with PTSD might "go postal" and commit an office shooting or other acts of violence. I'm just going to be honest, this is as ignorant as not hiring a black guy because he was probably in a gang.“There’s stigma attached to PTSD and traumatic brain injury and other hidden disabilities that people may assume soldiers have when they’re leaving the military,” says Nancy B. Adams, branch chief at the U.S. Army Warrior Transition Command. “They may always have that at the back of their mind.”Others consider that in the military, everyone is conditioned to follow orders and lack the ability to think for themselves. I hope I've shown this to be a major fallacy as service people are regularly given complex problems with limited resources where their creative thinking and ability to solve unusual problems are showcased. Sadly, the effectiveness of a Marine Corps logistics chief saving her squadron more than three million dollars over the course of a fiscal year, rarely makes the local news real when much more sensationalized media is available.Lastly, there is the fact that you probably have no idea what a tactical data network specialist is or the qualifications and capabilities of Platoon Sergeant. What is the difference between a Major and Chief Petty Officer? Are they the same? Does it matter? What's a DD-214? It's all foreign jargon and no one knows what any of this nonsense means. There are even classes that transitioning veterans must take to communicate their value to hiring managers who don't know how to read the résumé. I don't really blame civilians for this. It isn't really anyone's fault, but just owes to the fact that there are realistically so very few veterans out there, relative to the number of people who know anything about them. That said, the best way to solve this problem might not be for you to learn what all the military lingo is. Perhaps the best thing to do is ask someone on your staff with military experience to decode it and see what kind of diamond lies beneath the rough of a sheet of paper which will determine their fate. Don't have any veterans on staff to help you out with this? Oh... Well thank you for your service. You should probably think about this Veterans Day.So the next time Veterans Day rolls around, I hope you don't just give the ceremonial greeting, "Thank you for your service." Do something for them that they can't do for themselves. Give a résumé or application that runs over your desk a second look, or a third. There is nothing sadder in the world we live in today than seeing someone who gave up four years of their lives of their life for the reward of a handshake and a pat on the back by people who don't honestly respect them enough to want to work with them.Don't worry about me. I'm proud to say that after many employment struggles trying to get noticed after college, I am happily employed doing something I love where I can feel my experience is valued and crucial to the work I am doing. In my spare time, I am fortunate enough to get also get to write and share my experiences and assistance for other veterans for free thanks to patronage from the crowdsourcing platform Patreon. It let's followers and supporters donate to on a recurring basis so that I can continue helping get the good word out about veterans. If you did enjoy this post, please consider pledging your support through the link I've provided at the bottom of this post. If you don't want to go that far, please like, share and comment to get the word out about ways you can help veterans on this Veterans Day.The last section I was going to write about in this series was "Triumph over adversity." I'm not going to write that section though. We all know that the military is made of winners. They haven't lost a battle since Korea. Wars may be lost if the politics are incorrectly managed, but that failure isn't owed to those who fought them. We all know that the military produces people who are capable of overcoming adversity, but once they get out, they are alone. Their adversity is now and the military doesn't prepare them for a society that doesn't understand them, nor value their abilities. They are without the collective network of support one receives in the military. Now they are in the realm where they are judged based, not on their actions, but on current politics and media perception. Frankly, they don't need your thanks. They need your support. They need your connections. They need to be introduced into your networks. They need to be invited to the opportunities extended to others. They need you to give them a job.Thanks for reading!For more answers like this check out The Veteran Perspective by Jon Davis and follow my blog War Elephant for more new content. Everything I write is completely independent research and is supported by fan and follower pledges. Please consider showing your support directly by visiting my Patreon support page here: Jon Davis on Patreon: Help support in writing Military Novels, Articles, and Essays.

What are the best ways to build relationships with students?The research is clear that having positive relationships between students and teachers are critical to the learning process - and that reflects most teachers' experience. I know, for example, that the best classroom management advice I ever read was from Marvin Marshall, who wrote that before we deal with any kind of discipline issue we should reflect on one thing: Will what we plan to do bring us closer together or push us apart? This question, of course, does not mean we have to shy away from hard discussions.This topic will be covered in a seven-part series. With that many contributors, I don't have much to add to the discussion. However, I would encourage readers to explore two resources:Previous posts that have appeared here on this issue can be found at Relationships in Schools.I've collected additional materials, including related research, at The Best Resources On The Importance of Building Positive Relationships With Students.Part One in this series is kicked-off with responses from Adeyemi Stembridge, Candace Hines, Jacki Glasper, Mary Beth Nicklaus, Valentina Gonzalez, and Julie Jee. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Adeyemi, Candace, Jacki and Mary Beth on my BAM! Radio Show. You can find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.Response From Adeyemi StembridgeAdeyemi Stembridge, PhD provides technical assistance for school improvement with a specific focus on equity. He works with districts around the country to identify root causes of achievement gaps and formulate pedagogy- and policy-based efforts to redress the underperformance of vulnerable student populations.Equity can't be said to be possible without the element of connection, and the connection that students feel to teachers and school spaces is an enormously important factor in our efforts to close the racial-/ethnic and class-based performance and achievement gaps that persist in American schools. Relationships matter because when students see themselves as connected to the learning community, they are much more likely to engage and self-regulate appropriately (Caprariello and Reis, 2014) which, by extension, means that they are more likely to feel connected to the content and concepts taught in school. Positive relationships reduce defensiveness toward failure and play a pivotal role in whether students view school as responsive to their needs.Positive relationships are also conduits to identity. Where one is in relationship, one is more likely to feel validated and affirmed through connections to the people in the spaces where these relationships occur. When one feels in connection to the people and spaces, one begins to identify with them in terms of values, ethic, and beliefs. Where one identifies in these ways, one develops a sense of identity themselves, cognitively and emotionally; and where one has a sense of identity, one is most willing to invest themselves, thus maximizing the likelihood for success. As such, the purpose of relationships with students is always a function of a higher cause -and that is ultimately to support each student's authentic relationship with learning. Here I briefly describe three strategies that can be scaled developmentally and also in terms of content.Strategies to Support RelationshipsBeyond merely helping students to improve in the mechanics and conventions of writing, one-to-one and small group Student Conferencing is a profound space for supporting students in finding their voice. To see oneself as a writer is liberating, and the coaching students receive in Student Conferencing can lead to insights that confirm the value of the students' investment in their own growth. The most important thing to remember here is to not try to cover an entire piece in any one conference. Rather, focus in on some paragraph or even a sentence that the student agrees is especially significant in the overall purpose of the piece. Conferencing is less about mechanics and more about meaning. A favorite question of mine to ask in conferencing is: "What do you most want your reader to understand?" And then, "What is a key word(s) (or sentence) that we can build around to best communicate that most-important understanding?"Reflection is an essential component of relationships because it is in the replaying of experiences that we arrive at shared understandings of the significance of our feelings. When students learn to effectively communicate what they are feeling, they gain an agency in their own learning that heightens their sense of academic identity. Their sense of agency makes it clearer how their choices contribute to their learning outcomes. I love these 40 Reflection Questions because they are categorized as backward-looking, forward-looking, inward looking, and outward looking. I've found that some of the richest reflections are uncovered through the use of video. There are several platforms that allow students to upload short reflection videos and share them with their teachers and other students. Many authentic relationships are forged when students have the opportunity to share with their teachers specifically what they were thinking and how they were able to leverage their agency in the interests of their learning; and a palpable sense of community is formed through opportunities to learn together, struggle together, and reflect together.Assessments can also be fantastic opportunities to build relationships. The "Interview You" assessment asks students to document themselves - either in writing or on screen - asking and answering questions about what they have come to understand in the learning process. Both the design of the questions as well as the responses students provide are an exercise in critical thinking. The "Interview You" technique is a fun way to highlight students' voice while determining the breadth and depth of their understandings.With each of these strategies, it is essential to find an opportunity to coordinate a safe space where the teacher and student can think carefully together about the text(s) the student is creating. The best ways to build relationships are through efforts that convey a trustworthy sense of connection and understanding. When students feel validated in caring environments, they are better managers of their own engagement (behavioral, affective, and cognitive) and much more invested in their academic identities. These are necessary to support resilience and the behaviors associated with high performance in school.Response From Candace HinesCandace Hines is an Elementary Educator and a Regional Presenter, training teachers across various districts in Tennessee. She also serves as a Collaborative for Student Success- Teacher Champion Fellow, and a Hope Street GroupTennessee Teacher Fellow; engaging her colleagues in providing classroom feedback to the Tennessee Department of Education on public education policy issues:4 Quick Tips for Building Positive Relationships with StudentsDo we focus enough on teaching new teachers about relationships with students or just instruction? Education specialist, James Comer said, "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship" (lecture, 1995). Staying up late to review curriculum and craft lessons, and then arriving at school early to set up is an equation that can sometimes equal investing less time into strategically fostering quality relationships with students. Consider these tips for improving connections and building positive relationships with students:1. Freely make mistakes"It's okay, grownups make mistakes, too". I will never forget staring into the shocked face of a Kindergartner and hearing her shaky voice reply, "They do?" Almost every student perked up in anticipation of my response. I was appalled by the number of students that were unaware that adults could be wrong. What we fail to consider is that always appearing to be perfect can be detrimental to our young learners. If our students never see us make mistakes; gracefully remaining flexible, they could develop an unhealthy view of success. They may also struggle with self-perception and constructive criticism.2. Listen with your heartWow, I've been wondering what was going on with them! How did you get them to tell you that? These are statements that over the years, regardless of the setting, I have heard from inquiring adults. From parents, to counselors, to my fellow educators, I am often asked how I do it. I know I am not the only adult that knows what it's like to have children randomly open up to you. However, because it has frequently occurred, I have had to ask myself why. After pondering my encounters, I realize that they all have one thing in common. Listening. No matter what is happening - lunch, recess, bus rides, dismissal, restroom breaks - I listen to my students with compassion.The dynamic between my students and I is one based on mutual trust, which helps me reach and teach them.3. Foster intentional connectionsI am very fortunate to have experience teaching in diverse learning environments. No matter the student, each one benefits from having positive relationships with educators and vice versa. Some may say that forming relationships should be organic. I beg to differ. It has been my experience that cultivating relationships should be intentional. As a tool, Trauma Informed PBS suggests that as educators we develop the 3-2-1 formula as a relationship building strategy. To implement this strategy, we must: Find out 3 things about the student, 2 interesting or unique things about the student and 1 question you still have about them.4. Cultivate meaningful greetingsOn the last day of school I was told by the parent of my most challenging student that she appreciated that I always verbalized and practiced, "Every day is a new day". I intentionally greet my students with open arms and a smile each day. When necessary, before students enter the room, I mention to them that no matter what they have done, the previous day is over and "today" is a new start. I was pleasurably surprised when I read Dr. Justin Tarte explaining that his "most memorable teachers took the time to chat ... and gave him a clean slate the next day". This warms my heart and inspires me to continue this practice. When speaking on this issue, fellow educator, Adam Faulkner believes that "Grace cultivates growth, it goes a long way in building trust between the student and teacher".Response From Jacki GlasperJacki Glasper has a 14-year background in education and has spent the majority of that time in the special education field. She has worked in all grade levels and has a passion for inclusive education that provides equitable outcomes for students. She has a Masters of Arts in Education and is currently a training specialist for Social & Emotional Learning in the Sacramento City Unified School District:Culturally Responsive Ways to Build Relationships with StudentsRelationships are the precursor to learning. It is something that I have believed since I began teaching 14 years ago. Initially, I developed relationships with students as part of my classroom management so that students would behave and allow me to teach.As I grew as an educator, I realized that when my students liked and trusted me, they pushed themselves in their learning. In studying the pedagogy of culturally responsive teaching, I have learned that relationships have a direct impact on the brain and that without them learning can be difficult - especially for students that do not represent the dominant culture. By building relationships with students, we can leverage oxytocin in their brains to help them get into a relaxed and receptive state. This helps students access their prefrontal cortex and do higher order thinking and learning. Below are a few ways that you can be intentionally culturally responsive while developing relationships with students:Be Reflective of Your Mindset. Mindset is deeply influenced by our own cultural upbringings and directly impacts the engagement and learning of students because it influences the relationships that we are able to build with students. Reflect on how your cultural upbringing and experiences have influenced the way that you have designed your classroom and the expectations that you have set for students of varying cultural backgrounds. What was the neighborhood like that you grew up in? How did you feel growing up there? Do your instructional practices reflect your own cultural upbringing and make you feel safe or do they reflect your students and make them feel safe? What types of behaviors trigger you to have negative or positive responses?Intentionally Build Trust. Many students of culturally diverse backgrounds have had negative experiences in school and may be hesitant to engage in the classroom. Zaretta Hammond says that "... building trust is designed to help dependent learners avoid the stress and anxiety that comes with feeling lost and unsupported at school." To be culturally responsive, we need to consistently build trust with students. We can do this by taking as little as two minutes out of our day to connect with a student on a personal level. Simply listening, remembering, and asking about key things in a student's life can make a huge difference. Building trust is critical because brain science tells us the brain feels safest and relaxed when connected to others we trust to treat us well. Without trust, students may be unwilling to take risks with new learning.Make is Social. By organizing learning so that students rely on each other, we not only help to develop and maintain a safe and trusting learning environment, but we also build on diverse students' communal orientation. The brain is a social organ that works and learns best when it has the opportunity to connect and interact with others. Creating social interactions in learning increases a student's level of attention and engagement. Learning can be made more social by playing games or having community circles. Another great strategy is the 30/10/90 Process and Connect strategy - every 30 minutes, create opportunities for students to move at least 10 feet, and take 90 seconds to verbally process the learning with a peer.James Comer could not have said it better when he said, "No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship." Building relationships is as important, if not more important, than the content that we teach. We should not underestimate the power of relationships in education.Much of the inspiration for this article comes from Zaretta Hammond's book, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain.Response From Mary Beth NicklausMary Beth Nicklaus enjoys inspiring vulnerable teens to become enthusiastic life-long readers, writers and learners. She is currently a secondary level school teacher and literacy specialist with Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin:Relationships with students occur inside and outside of your classroom. They grow from planned moments where you are engaged with your students in projects and activities. They blossom when you are observing and making mental notes of what is important to individual students and using it later to connect with them. Building relationships opens pathways to learning in our classroom mainly because it strengthens levels of trust.Here are four ways to invest in student relationships:1. Begin before students even get through the door. Stationing yourself outside the room instead of at the doorway creates all kinds of opportunities for interactions. You can observe students' social lives as they navigate the halls and you can learn who their friends are and what they're about in their social circles. Learning who students' friends are and acknowledging their friends can be powerful. Greeting them as they pass your room to go to other classes or conversing with them as they are coming into your class is yet another deposit in the relationship account.2. Consider using conferencing in your classroom. Use this as a time to ask students questions regarding how they feel about their progress in your class. Check in on how they are doing with their projects or assignments. Ask them about themselves and their opinions and record their answers. Take inventory on the different ways you can use one on one with students throughout the month in order to strengthen the teacher/student bond.3. Create contact outside of the classroom. During one of your lunch periods, or lunch duty, greet or compliment students in front of their friends in the cafeteria. (Be sensitive about those who may be embarrassed by the attention.) Attend games or band, choral, or drama performances. If you can't attend pay attention to the announcements or ask about scores and other information that you may be able to comment on during class. Show students you are interested in their lives outside of the classroom.4. Read or tell stories. Students love to hear that you are a real live person outside of the classroom. They like to hear stories about your children, spouse or pets and other interests. They even like to hear about the meals you make for supper. They especially enjoy it if you ask them to talk or write about a time when... Reading stories or pieces of articles relevant to what you are teaching can have a similar effect in building students' relationships with you.Remember that every time you show students you like them and care about them, you foster communication and self-efficacy in their lives in and out of your classroom. Students will also form stronger relationships with each other. As they feel strengthened and respected in your interactions with them, they are likely to grow in respect for their peers, as well. A classroom where students care about each other is fertile ground for learning in all areas.Response From Valentina GonzalezValentina Gonzalez is currently a Professional Development Specialist for ELLs in Texas. She works with teachers of English learners to support language and literacy instruction. In addition to presenting, she writes a monthly blog for MiddleWeb focused on supporting ELs.Relationships are the cornerstone of all that we do with the people we interact with. The relationship we have with one another can make or break the outcome we are trying to reach. If our goal is to take our students from where they are academically and grow them at least a year, then the relationship we have with each one of them plays a critical role in the outcome of that reality. Will we be able to achieve success? Will they grow?If we want success, investing in a relationship will have to come first. And it's not hard, it just takes effort.Getting to know each student individually as a person helps more than we will ever be able to measure. This type of knowledge of our students goes beyond the permanent record folder. When kids know that we are interested in them as people, they begin to care about the work that we do in school. There are a few specific times during the school day that are conducive to one on one student to teacher conversation.Greet students at the doorOne way very easy and simple way to show we care is by greeting students at the door. This time together is super important because it sets the tone for the class period. A smile and, "Hello, how are you?" goes a long way. Kind eyes and, "Are you okay?" can mean a lot to a child who's had a rough morning. For some of our kids, our classrooms and schools are the happiest places or safest places they come to each day. We don't know what they are carrying in with them from the morning, but we do know that our first contact with them as they walk in can change the trajectory of the day. Saying their name, making a positive comment to them, greeting them at the door and acknowledging their presence can be the catalyst that changes the way they perceive the instruction for the remainder of the class period.Know their nameNames are part of our identity. Taking the time to know how our students want to be called and pronouncing names correctly let's students know that we value their identity. That may mean asking students what their name is and asking them multiple times how to pronounce it. I like to write the pronunciation next to their name on my roll call that way I can practice saying it correctly. I tell students in advance that I'm learning, so please tell me if I say it wrong. I never want a student to feel like they have to change their name for my sake. Their name was given to them by their parents and has meaning. I work hard to value that.Build a communityOne of the most basic needs is to feel valued and a part of something. Students want to feel like they are part of the classroom community. Creating a safe environment that fosters individuality while at the same time building a cohesive community is key to the success of an academically rich classroom. When students feel valued for who they are but also feel included as part of the group, greater gains are made in growth and learning. Some teachers have achieved this by including students in creating the "rules" for the classroom, having daily or weekly class meetings, practicing daily teacher lead read alouds, and grouping seating so that students are not in rows.Confer with studentsAnother perfect opportunity to build relationships with students one on one is when kids are reading, writing or working independently. This actually kills two birds with one stone. We build relationships and we can support the content instruction. Conferring with students can send students the message that we care about them, their success and growth, and that we won't give up on them. While conferring I've found that it's best to listen more than I talk. I ask open ended questions and not just academic but also related to their personal lives. This is when I find out about their passions, goals, family lives and much more.At the beginning of the year, conferences with students are very casual. Sitting down beside each student while the others are reading or writing and just holding a conversation. Each conversation is different. I might need to ask a student how they would like to be called or how to pronounce their name. With other students, I may want to learn more about their hobbies or what their day looks like when they leave school. As the year progresses, the conferences become more and more academically inclined.This time together solidifies our relationship and builds a common goal towards achievement, growth and success for each student. It's a quick. Sometimes only five minutes per child, but it's powerful.Watch your nonverbalsOften times it's what we aren't saying or our body language that speaks volumes to our students. They pick up on a lot more than we think. They crave our presence and attention and they deserve it. A smile and eye contact go a long way. A listening ear and a nod can change a heart.If they think for a minute that we don't value their time, they won't value ours. This is even more true as kids get older in secondary school. Teaching is hard work. But it's important work and our kids deserve the best. That's why we do this, right?Building relationships with students takes time and effort and can happen anywhere! Even in the halls of the building or at recess and lunch break. These time frames are usually more casual and allow for a lower anxiety atmosphere for students. We can use these opportunities to walk around and visit with our students. If they only see us as hallway monitors, disciplinarians, and lecturers, they will not be able to achieve maximum learning potential. It's just not possible. We have to create an environment where they feel comfortable enough to take risks, spread their creative thoughts, and want to learn. In my mind I see this like a garden. If we provide the rich soil, enough sun light, bountiful water, and plenty of space, our plants and flowers will grow to maximum capacities. But if we forget to add the nutrients, the environment is too dark, it lacks water, and we crowd them then we could stifle their growth.Response From Julie JeeJulie Jee has been an English teacher at Arlington High School since 2001. She teaches 12 AP English Literature and Composition and sophomore English at the Regents level. Julie loves to read, run, take photos and spend time with her husband and three children:Whether it's through having conversations about sports, reflecting their identities in the literature they read, or starting discussions about future goals and dreams, getting to know your students and having ongoing dialogues with them is so important. Students care about many things, but they don't often have the opportunity to share. Shifting the focus to students is vital. That builds community. Each student feels noticed. Think about what makes you, you. Personally, I see myself as a teacher, but also as a mother, a wife, a runner, a photographer, a reader and so much more. They live rich lives outside of your classroom. Bring that into your classroom.