Wednesday 29 June 2011

PARENT ALERT

I recently did some research regarding a question by one of our Helena School Board Trustees. He wanted to know why we had over crowded classes in our valley schools and were hiring paras rather than teachers because we had no space. I knew that at Rossiter School in our valley we housed Head Start so I went there to investigate the situation.  What I found out was that Rossiter School not only houses Head Start they also house a class for the Intermountain Children's home- all while their classes are over crowded. I was curious about how many other Head Start classes were held in our public schools so I called Head Start.

The young lady I talked to was very cheerful and gave me all the information I needed to know in less than 2 minutes. We have, in addition to the Head Start class at Rossiter, 2 Head Starts at Lincoln School which is closed to our elementary school students here, and 2 Head Start classes at Ray Bjork school which is also closed to our public school students here. East Helena also has 2 Head Start classes at East Gate public School and there are Head Starts in the public schools in Townsend. Clearly if I was interested in statewide or nationwide Head Starts she could have told me that there are public schools across the nation housing them. Why is this? What has happened to the K-12 mission of our public schools?

Then it occurred to me. If school reform is about improving academics it has been a dismal failure here and nationwide, but if it is about advancing socialist principals and ideas it has been a bang up success. In Helena and across the nation due to Federal Grants some schools are giving free food all day long to students , in class, irregardless of how much their parents make. Every school here in Helena now has a daycare program. Children can be taken care of at school from 8 o'clock in the morning until 6 o'lock at night.We house preschool and now in our high schools are getting into vocational training like colleges and vocational education facilities.

Our children in elementary school here are being taught global warming and conservation theories in their new "Health Enhancement" curriculum as if they were facts. They are virtually to be turned into little psychoanalysts as they learn to identify bipolar personalities, schizophrenia and other psychosis in this same program. Clearly in an attempt to structure attitudes they are being taught Indian Education in every subject (including math) and sex education such as knowing barriers to anal and oral sex in 5th grade. The behavior programs are many (Buddy, Bully, Dare etc.) and they are oppressive, striving to take away individuality from students and teachers.

Some of you may agree with using school to change society. You may believe that our schools should be social service centers. Maybe you think you're a citizen of the world too. I don't. I'm a very proud citizen of the United States where we believe in the individuals right to determine their own destiny. This includes determining values at home, raising your own children and the right to your private property which you will use to pursue your own happiness. This is not selfishness, this is FREEDOM.

If you believe in America and the freedoms it offers, if you want to raise your own children, it is time to get involved or get your kids out of public schools. The "Whole Child" concept has a whole other agenda, and it is depriving your child of a good academic education- at the very least!

Thursday 16 June 2011

60's GENERATION AND FREE LOVE

I was raised in the fifties and early sixties when delaying sex until marriage was definitely the expected norm. Some people surely did not stick to the norm but many people did and the STD problem was not what it is today. Our media was more discreet and sex wasn't shown graphically in the media. As I recall it the hippies did not like this situation. They demanded open sexuality and were very rude and vocal about it.

I remember riding home from school with my sister who had become a hippie in 1965. She had a wonderful new acquaintance in the car (he was later arrested for spray painting the whole school with graffiti and ended up in jail). He was a very angry young man and thought he was real smart (weren't all hippies real smart?) all knowing, kind of like the "progressives" of today. Well as it turns out, he did know something I didn't.

I was 15 years old, and he was discussing masturbation in our car. I didn't know what that was and he jumped on me about how I needed to get educated etc. etc. I was mortified. Now I'm 61 and I know who  the smart one was. It certainly wasn't him!

So the hippies introduced all the college students to living together as they slept with whomever in public parks and at raucous concerts. My, weren't they smart?Abortions and STDs went through the roof.

Fast forward to today. Now they are so concerned about this STD problem that they caused that they have come up with a solution. Teach more open sexuality in school without parents approval. Do you think they really are trying to reduce STDs or are they still on the same path for more open sexuality and acceptance of the gay life style as normal- maybe even recruitment?

It's astounding how they argue in the national media that they have the right to do this. I'll bet if you stopped a parent in the parking lot when they dropped their child off for school and asked them why they brought their child to school the answer would not be to learn about sex.

I'll bet the parent would expect the school to teach reading, writing and math. Who do these people think they are? Do they think they are some kind of gods that know more than parents and can use the schools for any purpose they want? The only answer to this is for parents to realize how bad this is for their children and to put a stop to it NOW.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

SCHOOL IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS

At the school board meeting tonight I noticed a retired teacher like myself. She got up and talked with passion about funds being redirected from students most immediate needs to new programs. I agreed with her and she and I probably agree on very little of a political nature.

Then again, maybe it's often the ideological lines that separate us and not really very much of our true beliefs. As we talked afterward it seemed that we agreed on many things- like the needs of struggling students and the need for textbooks even in the computer world.

I commend her passion. If this whole community could quit listening to special interests and just find a consensus on what we want in Helena for our schools we could make real changes in our Helena Schools. School truly should not be about politics-it should be about helping every child to read, write and do math.

Speaking of politics. Did you know that our school district spends $30,000.00 dollars on dues to associations that lobby at the legislature ? The School Boards Association and the Montana Quality Education Coalition are two lobbying groups that survive on taxpayer dollars. Their job is to fight for increases in school funding irregardless of the amount of money the state has to spend. Is it fair to force taxpayers to fund organizations that lobby and support candidates they don't support?

Wednesday 8 June 2011

ON PRIDE

What are we teaching our children? I grew up in a time when pride was caring for yourself and your family.  People worked very hard for that pride and feeling of accomplishment. They worked very hard for the freedom and independence that came from caring for yourself. There are still many people, thank goodness, that have that pride. But are there people that are trying to undermine that pride with our children?

I just heard a commercial for Angel Fund which had a fourth grader saying how proud it made her to receive free school supplies and that she hoped to grow up and give to someone else. She's not being taught that there is even the possibility that people could just provide for themselves. She's not being taught the self sacrifice of her parents doing without just to get her a few things for school. She's not being taught that responsibility belongs with the family.

We wonder why our schools are failing and our drop out rates are through the roof. Maybe these new values where no one is responsible for themselves is causing this. You don't work hard and have personal responsibility when you're taught to just take from someone else. Maybe that's why every communist economy has failed and only capitalism brings prosperity.

Charity certainly has its place and helping others is a great gift to the giver in the right circumstances, however this is not a third world country and things like a pack of paper and a few pencils are affordable to parents in Helena, just as a bowl of cereal and a peanut butter sandwich can be bought with food stamps if need be.

Sacrifice and teaching your children that all important pride in personal responsibility I believe is key to building the character in children that will cause them to set goals and work hard to achieve success.

Thursday 2 June 2011

DO PEOPLE REALLY CARE ABOUT THEIR CHILDREN?

Of course people really care about their children. In thirty years of teaching I never had a parent /teacher conference with a parent who didn't truly love their child- whatever other problems they may have had.

Why then do we hear in the news that a school that took their students to HOOTERS - a restaurant with waitresses that could work at the PLAYBOY CLUB- on a field trip, apparently had NO COMPLAINTS from the parents, according to the school district?

It sounds kind of like Helena where the school board has in place a curriculum that CLEARLY STATES that barriers to ORAL AND ANAL SEX will be taught to FIFTH GRADERS is reelected. How many parents have even read that curriculum?

Are parents just too busy in their lives to really police and stand up to school policies that will harm their children? Are they dazzled by cute bulletin boards and friendly teachers? Our schools are no longer a moral authority as they were in the past. Things have changed. Parents can no longer trust that schools will provide a good basic education to their children. Our Helena schools have very low scores as we pointed out over and over in the campaign.

It's up to parents to look beyond the dazzle and find out what's really going on at school. Don't just ask for curriculum materials. Find out who the speakers will be, what films will be shown, and what materials will be used beyond the textbook Volunteer in school and get to know the people who are teaching your children everyday. How much time is spent on academics and how effective are the lessons? Are they teaching the whole textbook?

Follow the district scores and don't accept the excuse that it's the tests- every district in Montana has the same tests. It's great and essential to talk to your children but information to you of what goes on in school beyond their personal friends and feelings will be minimal. They just don't tell you- or even understand things that go on a school that may not be good for them.

Parents are being bombarded with public relations and up to this point it's been somewhat effective. I was a victim of this myself when my children were in school but over time I learned. The DARE program is a good example of a terrible program that has wormed it's way into parents hearts replete with DARE graduates and bumper stickers. What has the DARE program ever done but use up valuable classroom time and watch over increased drug usage in our schools? It's time to start investigating and get your friends involved too.