I WAS NEVER TEACHER OF THE YEAR

Why wasn't I ever teacher of the year? Was it because I wasn't a good teacher?NO.I lived my job. I rarely was in the teachers lounge ( one principal criticized me for this!!)I ate lunch with my students- this was a great time to catch up on redoes. No student failed in my class- I never had a "dumb" student. We worked hard all the time and we believed in ourselves.I didn't like the DARE program and when students wanted to talk about drugs and the police I told them you don't need to worry about that 1) Drugs are illegal 2) YOU AREN'T DOING IT!! 3) We have math to do- and THAT you need to do because you are going to college. Not all my kids went to college, but I don't know of any that went to jail either. So what makes a teacher of the year? Not liking the DARE program didn't help me- I didn't like the Buddy program or the Artist in Residency program either- I was just a problem- someone who just cared a lot about kids and knew childhood was short and there was lots to learn. Children need quiet and constancy to focus-they don't learn well in a circus environment.So maybe the Teacher of The Year just plays the game a little better- praises what they are supposed to praise and doesn't criticize what they are supposed to support.That would never be me.

My husband and I just went to a really GREAT movie- it's called WON'T BACK DOWN. I read the reviews before we went, I knew it was a movie about a mother and a teacher that changed a failing school,so when it was bashed as the most AWFUL movie and that it bashed unions and was antilabor,I knew I wanted to see this movie. Viola Davis does an outstanding job playing a mom and a teacher- a real tear jerker! The whole movie was just outstanding. I've been in these wars for a while but even I am somewhat shocked that the press would cannibalize such an outstanding movie- that they really are that blatantly unfair. WOW. This movie was just heart felt about kids in failing schools and parents that don't have the money to make other choices. It doesn't union bash- just shows the truth. The union cares about one thing- teacher salaries ( and their cut of that). They sit in ivory tower offices and KNOW that schools are failing and kids are getting hurt, but they will defend the public school irregardless. Everyone should go and see this movie- it's moving and real and an excellent movie.

So what is really happening in our public schools? They're being taken over (or as Rick Santorum told me- already HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER by the radical left.) Who is the radical left and how is this happening? What will this mean for America and your children? We'll start with the first question. Our schools are being taken over by the Common Core Curriculum which strives to set up regional boards that will control our local districts and will answer to international authorities at the U.N.(global governance). There will be federal tracking of students and a leveling of all schools to one low national standard by redistribution of funds among school districts.David Coleman ( Common Core Architect) has had himself appointed president of the SAT board, giving him control over tests for college, so even home schools and private schools will have to teach his garbage (or at least that's his plan).

So, who is the radical left and how are they trying to make YOUR CHILD a citizen of the new Global Governance? According to Accuracy in Media Linda Darling-Hammond a radical left-wing educator and close colleague of "Bill" Ayers, the former leader of the communist terrorist weather underground and friend of Obama's, is in de facto control of writing the Common Core Standards. Bill Ayer's is on record as being at the White House during the time Common Core was developing. Bill is now retired from his job as professor of education at the University of Illinois but he is showing up as a speaker with Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education) and Martha Canter (U.S. undersecretary of education) at places like the Renaissance Group.Ayers was a major speaker at a conference with Achieve Inc., the project manager of Common Core.Stephen Diamond, a social democrat, calls Ayers a "neo-stalinist" in line with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Ayers spoke across Venezuela on education saying that education was the "motor force of revolution." According to Diamond, Neo-Stalinism is an "authoritarian form of politics which attempts to control and build social institutions to impose state control of the economy,politics,and culture on the general population".

What is in the Common Core Curriculum? In the tradition of John Dewey ( who believed NOTHING in education should be taught for its own subject- everything should be taught to change social attitudes),multiple "perspectives" and "critical thinking" are emphasized over the accumulation of "facts".Common Core advertises itself as promoting "skills" rather than content. The skills though, do not promise to make students more knowledgeable about literature or history, but to make them "critical thinkers" in the tradition of the radical curriculum writers who are selectively critical of the U.S. and the west.Students will not read full text, thereby accommodating slower students, students will have "supplementary opportunities" to read full text. They will read documents like the Declaration of Independence in a manner that downplays their significance. Overall students will be losing a sense of national and cultural heritage as all documents are read in the same detached way.Geometry will be taught by an experimental method that was tested on Soviet math prodigies in the 1950's - and failed. Students will learn in groups so that all outcomes will be about the same. This is not a rigorous curriculum, this is a dumbed down curriculum with a revolutionary social agenda behind it.

I guess I never was chosen as "Teacher of the Year" because I just wasn't going to go along with this agenda. It's not fun being the watch dog, but as long as that is what I have to do I will do it. I love my country and all the children in it, and they are far more important to me than being "Teacher of the Year". I sleep better at night too. Go see that movie.