PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG

I had a wonderful Christmas party this holiday season, and as these parties do, it gave me a chance to talk with many informed and delightful friends. As I was talking to one friend about the Common Core push for the usual free school teaching strategies from the sixties "collaboration, projects and open concept", he nodded his head and said yes, "learning to get along with people that are wrong". YES!! THAT'S IT EXACTLY!! These irascible buffoons who are still convinced that they are arbiters of the future, are intent on using our schools to teach children to accept their ideas- their ideas that are totally wrong.

People that are wrong can do a lot of damage. Consider, seventeen trillion dollars in federal debt and a downgraded credit rating. How are we going to get out of this one? What will happen when the real fiscal cliff comes- when we can no longer service the debt and we can't print any more money because our inflation rate makes us Argentina? Consider the state of our society- unwed pregnancies,murdering innocent babies, drugs, dependency- people standing on street corners.When the crash comes, Consider that all the vast wealth of America may be gone and the standard of living of every American lowered drastically- perhaps a healthcare system like Europe where you get on waiting lists and many services are not available to the average person. This is real damage that has been done by these people who are wrong. These egotistical people who are going to TEACH US. These egotistical people who for some reason think they have a corner on what the future will be. Well, maybe not. Maybe they really don't know the future any more than anyone else and they just want to try to control you by convincing YOU that THEY are smarter than you.

Maybe the same people that have destroyed the country want to control the future.Kind of like the Clinton's Goals 2000 program for our schools. What a fiasco that was. It had the same strident claims as Common Core(our new national curriculum), all the students would be college and career ready, drop out rates would go down, children would be higher level critical thinkers. Oh yah, that really happened. Funny, they used the same teaching strategies as Common Core too- remember the teacher would be the "guide by the side", "cooperative learning"? There you have it, collaboration, open concept, project learning. It's no wonder Common Core is the same failed garbage from Goals 2000 that never worked- guess who wrote it? You're right- Michael Coehn, assistant secretary of education under Bill Clinton wrote it. He is the president of Achieve which wrote Common Core. Why do our legislators keep supporting the same failed junk? Why do they keep pouring the money we have so little of, down this rat hole?Why won't they get politics out of our schools by letting teachers, school districts and curriculum companies decide how best to teach our children? Why do they think the GOVERNMENT has to be involved in this?When Republicans go along with PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG they ultimately are held accountable for all the failure and the PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG think of another program with the same tired practices to try to do the same failed ideas.WAKE UP AMERICA.

I hate to listen to people who are wrong but sometimes you just have to aggravate yourself. I wandered into this den of thieves by picking up a TIME magazine (I was amazed at how light it was- more like a pamphlet than a magazine). It had an article by the lowest president on record, the one who admitted lying to the American Public, was impeached and disbarred and had an affair with a twenty-one year old intern, you know the one, the one who is a HERO, of all things, to the American left- Bill Clinton. He had an article about the "Five Ideas That Are Changing The World"- again, being from the left, he thinks he knows the future and he is implementing the change for us.Some parts really made my eyes pop!

Here's one for you-"We have to define the meaning of our lives as something other than our ability to control someone else's." !! And what does Bill Clinton think he and his friends have been up to? The people at the Gold Bar in Helena have to stand outside to smoke a cigarette!! He brags about getting "full calorie carbonated drinks" out of our schools. What's next- adults not being able to drink what they want like in New York? What do these PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG such as Bill Clinton think control is if it's not forcing their ideas into our lives?

Pervert Bill went on to talk about a "global sustainability" conference he went to in Brazil ( these control maniacs want to control the world- sound familiar to you history buffs?).He described the room and it sounded for all the world like our "school planning" meetings in Helena "The delegates sat around small tables speaking to one another with great respect, believing if they could work together,they could find an answer." Oh yah- what version of the left's ideas do you want? It's worked well in the Obama administration foreign policy hasn't it? Well- what's a few nukes in Iran and North Korea, the Middle East going up in flames and a dead ambassador- otherwise he's doing great right?The point is - these little groups around tables- that's COLLABORATION- folks- that's what Common Core is about- it's about world dominance by PEOPLE THAT ARE WRONG- definitely not good education. Do you hear me legislators- The Common Core National Curriculum is not for good teaching practices and it is written by PEOPLE WHO ARE WRONG and also have not taught!!

C O N T R O L

Recently a wild leftist wrote a Your Turn in our newspaper here in Helena, the Independent Record. She was writing in response to a letter to the editor I wrote regarding all the psychotherapy going on in school by individuals who are not psychiatrists. I welcomed the Your Turn. I was very happy to see her admit to all the psychotherapy they were doing in school. I was happy to bring this subject to the light of day so that parents could hopefully become aware that their children were receiving psychotherapy in school without their permission and by unqualified individuals at that. But there was one thing that did bother me- besides the obvious obfuscation and lies that always go with these sorts of things from the rabid left- it was that she kept referring to me as Ms. Rush. I am not Ms. anything. I have been very proudly MRS. RUSH for more than forty years and before that I was very proudly MISS WORTH. Ms. is not a title.It is a made up reference borrowed from the business world which used it when they didn't know whether a woman was married or not.Does it bother you to let the liberal left make up new words and titles all the time and then expect the rest of us to follow like sheep? This is CONTROL. Every time I see those poor workers huddling outside because they want to smoke a cigarette I think of Bill Clinton saying he would make it so people could only smoke at the curb. Well there they are. Do you get tired of this kind of Control?

How much of school time is spent on academics and how much is spent on mind control? The answer to this is hard to say but one thing for sure is that it is becoming more mind control and less learning all the time. Our State Superintendent, Denise Juneau, who happens to be American Indian, has decreed that in the State of Montana Indian Education for all means teaching Indian Education IN EVERY SUBJECT!! Obviously this is mind control academics. I have been told by librarians that she or her people have been harassing the school libraries to take out books like Naya Nuki by Kenneth Tomasma and replace them with books by real American Indians she approves of. This is the real library purging that goes on and it's not the right that does it.This is CONTROL.

As mentioned on this blog before, chlldren are not put in groups to learn because it is best teaching practices. Best teaching practice is direct instruction and everyone in education knows it. The groups are for changing attitudes and supposedly teaching cooperation- the socialist village concept- we're all in this together. In other words, children should be SOCIALISTS when they grow up. They should feel responsible for others and not believe they are independent individuals who have a right to just take care of themselves (the old American idea that left charity to choice).Not only will they GET ALONG with others they will give up their independent thought and COLLABORATE ( which version of the liberals ideas do you want?). It is so inconvenient and frustrating to liberals to have people in their groups with INDEPENDENT THOUGHT. People who DON'T WANT ANY VERSION of leftist ideas. Believe me I've been there - "I'm just so uncooperative!!". These leftist ideologues are so egotistical as to think they REALLY KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR EVERYONE AND THEY ARE IN CHARGE OF CHANGING OUR SOCIETY sic.!!

We're all experiencing this constant liberal control from the assault on football to having to wear a seatbelt. We have to pay more for every service we get from heat to phones to healthcare to "pay for others" or to pay for "green energy" (what a corrupt fiasco green energy is- Solyndra is only the tip of the ice berg there !!).This vast government bureaucracy and media controlled by the socialist left is commanding the American people!!

In school under Common Core Twain is out and Executive Order 13423 for global warming is in (no matter that that the truth is that we haven't had any global warming for the last twelve years and they couldn't prove in a bucket that it has anything to do with hydro carbons from industry.) Another suggested text from these Common Core geniuses is a New Yorker essay on Obama's healthcare program. That's federal CONTROL of curriculum.I wish I could get the Republicans in the state of Montana to understand this.

Meanwhile these two bit counseling organizations that have taken over schools take no responsibility for classrooms but direct teachers on what they "must do" to handle students with various problems. The teacher is charged with controlling the classroom and actually preparing students for the constant testing- they get evaluated on this basis- meanwhile too often these pretenders to the throne are TELLING THE TEACHER WHAT TO DO AND GETTING ADMINISTRATIVE BACK UP!! Teachers are losing morale and giving up in many ways in public schools across the nation. I remember when one of these social workers told me I had to check a student's finger nails every day first thing in the morning as he came in and fill out a chart. I told her I wouldn't do it- I was responsible for 25 students who came in loaded for bear and I needed to be there for them- organizing and teaching not checking fingernails and filling out charts. I went on to class and of course the social worker who had no responsibility and lots of time went DIRECTLY INTO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE !! That's how it goes at school these days.That's CONTROL folks.

From Bullying to Dare to School Nurses, interlopers are in the schools taking over classes and forcing social psycho babble down your children's throats-and if you don't agree with this? Why you just want to "ignore mental illness" or bullying or whatever- just ask MRS. Kathleen Shea who wrote the Your Turn.I suggested psychiatrists in clinical settings- but with the liberal left it is there way or the highway- conservative ideas just don't count!!That's CONTROL . If you don't agree with the socialist left you are ignorant and don't understand the 21st century!! That's CONTROL!! And now if they could just shut people like me up by getting control of the internet as the U.N. just advocated for in Dubai.

LITERACY

What is literacy? Literacy is READING. Well, why are we calling READING literacy? Maybe it's because the liberal left does not want to take responsibility for all their FAILED TEACHING STRATEGIES that have FAILED TO TEACH CHILDREN TO READ!!

Under the new Common Core (which "The Federal Government had nothing to do with"- ho ho ho as Santa would say)"literacy" will be taught in EVERY SUBJECT!!Social studies teachers and Science teachers who always assigned reading and taught the basic subject now have to babysit the students through the reading of the material- apparently because the students they get in their classes can NO LONGER READ ON THEIR OWN!!

Under Common Core- which IS A FEDERAL PROGRAM DIRECT FROM THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION- teachers will be forced to use failed teaching techniques such as collaboration and project learning. They will also be forced to be in "Open Concept" teaching environments in many cases.There is ample evidence that this kind of teaching does not work- just consider that the new Common Core is having to require teachers of every subject to teach reading- kids can't read and don't know the reading vocabulary.

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal this week about open plan offices. As I read the article, I was amazed at how much it sounded like schools these days. People can't focus on their work so the article goes, because of CONSTANT INTERRUPTIONS IN THE OPEN CONCEPT ENVIRONMENT. If adults can't focus and concentrate in this environment how in the world are young CHILDREN supposed to be able to do this??

The truth is open concept environments and collaboration are not being instituted for good teaching practices and learning. They are being instituted by the one worlders who want a compliant populace that "gets along" and will be willing to be taxed to death to "help their neighbor". Their neighbor is the all powerful federal government that bestows goodies to stay in power.

Collaborative teaching is a form of psychological therapy that will supposedly create the perfect citizens for the New World Order. You just can't have "rugged individuals" that want to compete on their own- this just doesn't work under the U.N.'S plans for world government.Just stop all those questions, shut up the internet, and have "low information" voters who are willing to do what you want because everyone else is doing it.

The new Common Core Literacy was written by Achieve whose president is Mike Cohen. Mike left the Federal Department of Education and joined Achieve so he could look independent of the government- which was handing out federal grants to Achieve by the bucket loads.If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, it's a rat alright.Mike realized our schools weren't teaching children to read. Instead of establishing best practices( he has no right to be establishing anything), he promoted very bad practices such as collaborative learning, project learning and open concept
classrooms, for political reasons as described above. His answer to all this bad teaching is to have children of all ages learn to read in every subject. This is literacy.

BEING STRONG

Is there something wrong with being strong? If the immigrants that came to this country,like my grandparents, were not strong could they have succeeded? If the American Pioneers that conquered the west were not strong could they have conquered the land and built the farms and ranches that settled the west?Is there a doctorate student or a great inventor who was not strong- strong enough to keep going no matter what anyone else thought and no matter the hardship?

You'd probably agree with me that being weak is not such a great thing- and yet- what are we teaching our children in school? There was an article in our local newspaper yesterday about suicide prevention education. According to the article the sponsor of this program thinks that anyone who doesn't want to discuss suicide is a "cowboy" who thinks they can make it on their own.I don't think anyone should discuss suicide with a child of any age- if an individual is in such a mental state he/she should be receiving PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING WITH A DOCTOR.Meantime, there are so many testimonials of these programs CAUSING depression and suicidal thoughts where they were not there before- this is the POWER OF SUGGESTION (just think what the DARE program has done to drug usage). Is there something wrong with handling your own problems without government intervention?Is there something wrong with cowboys? We used to admire those straight talking , hardworking INDIVIDUALS who could TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES.I still admire the cowboys and the pioneers and my grandparents- and all the hardworking INDEPENDENT INDIVIDUALS that built this country.

So what do we want the next generation to look like? Do we want them to be victims that can't do anything without a group?People who were raised in collaborative groups that couldn't possibly believe in their own ideas, initiative and LEADERSHIP?People who need a water bottle at their side at all times and look to the government to provide for their every need and to tell them what to think?People who get their security and self esteem by piggy backing on government control initiatives like getting rid of football because "someone might get hurt"? Government initiatives that always seek to regulate and control- initiatives to take away INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND CHOICE.

It's no surprise that the socialist left wants to get rid of football- after all football encompasses all the values that make America strong- competition and individual accomplishment that is rewarded on the basis of merit.Football doesn't need the government-oh my- we must get rid of that!The socialist left wants children raised to be compliant- easier for the government to control. Tell your children's teacher that your child doesn't need a free lunch or a water bottle at his/her side. You want them to work alone and think for themselves not depend on others for success. For one thing, very little learning goes on in those "collaborative" groups. You want a child who is independent and strong and can think for themselves.You want to raise a child that is independent of government thought and propaganda- a child that will lead America to freedom in the midst of all these control mongers and victims that bury their own initiative and talents.America is strong because of strong individuals not because of government. If government could make us strong all the communist regimes in the world would be whopping successes instead of WHOPPING FAILURES!!

PROGRESS??

I was born in 1949- raised in the 50's and 60's. We didn't have people sitting on street corners begging in those days, Meth hadn't been thought of, people who got married generally stayed that way and unwed births were very low.Since the "progressives" have had their way with America we have not moved forward- we have been in major decline- right down to the 17 trillion dollars in debt that we can't pay. Our government has spent every penny of the social security fund they collected from the people- socialist promises gone awry. This is "progressivism". It is time to take the mantle of power away from these so called "progressives" who have moved our country into vast debt and social disarray.

Today 50% of white babies and a whopping 70% of Black babies are born out of wedlock."Sleeping together" without the benefit of marriage is the norm. God is being chased out of every public square and homosexuals want men in women's restrooms and locker rooms. Drugs are being legalized by petition and 49 million people are on food stamps- leading the parade of food share and free food at school people who think they never have enough dependent people. Programs that are redundant- but no one notices as they constantly advertise for more participants to grow their business- THIS IS PROGRESS??Moving America away from freedom and super power status- the hope of the world humbled and nearly destroyed- THIS IS PROGRESS?Public schools are having to close across the country because they are failing-THIS IS PROGRESS?

Today is December 7th, the day that went down in infamy. I wonder how all those boys who lost their lives on Omaha Beach would feel about all this "progress" America has made.America needs to change alright. America needs progress alright-but it's not from the communist left that we need leadership- they've done enough.The American people need to wake up and fight back- send these so called "progressives" packing and save America for real progress that will give our children freedom,prosperity security and a bright future. America can still fight back and it starts in our schools!!

FEARLESS

Have you noticed that some people have no fear? They have no fear of overarching government that may take away their freedoms or their property. No fear of totalitarian government at all. I think it's quite astonishing.

I remember when I taught and the Federal Government was intruding more and more into academic freedom- most of the teachers just went along- some even helped!! They had no fear of government control, overreach or propaganda. WOW. I guess maybe they'd never been to those countries that were "liberated for the people". Those countries have big statues of their "liberators" in the town square.I remember going to these Communist countries and being shocked that these people who lived under total dictatorial rule were being told they had been "liberated".Actually, there are really only two types of government- freedom or dictatorship. All these "do gooders" are really control mongers that will gladly give up freedoms because they think they are smarter, know better than the average Joe, and they will use government power to make things right. Too often even Republicans think they can use government to "make things right"- no matter how many times the same Federal programs fail- they keep thinking "a little more will do ya".Our schools are turning into propaganda centers for political agendas- garnering support for government controls just like they did in the old Soviet Union- and as every dictatorship does.

How blithely and easily the public will give away their freedoms.Instead of being taught how to be free the children in school today are being taught how to be dependent.Have breakfast, lunch and dinner free at school- depend on the school for everything- healthcare, daycare, mental healthcare, evening homework help, food for the weekend. Be weak and dependent- you can't make it through a morning without the water bottle at your side(which requires frequent visits to the bathroom of course) and snacks.Don't believe you can work independently and accomplish things on your own- rely on the collective- which of course tells you what to think too.

People who voted for Obama just put the blinders on and accept that the Federal Government will control their schools, their healthcare, their cities ,counties and states, the food they eat the car they drive and how they raise their children.Even how they sit in their car (seat belts), how much water comes out of their shower and what they will pay for energy. They just give up any idea of controlling their own lives and economies. Of course, the government hasn't started nationalizing property on a massive scale YET.They do force people to sell property they want though.I often wonder how bad it will have to get before some people realize what is happening. The Federal government even controls curbs and streets through their grants.

Have you noticed how in dictatorships the people who support the government become rich elitists? I was amazed to see the multi-million dollar mansions that the Chinese Communists are buying here in America. Yes, the "Peoples Republic" has the actual people working in sweatshops 14 hours a day for almost no money and living in little cubicles at night- while the "liberators" live in multi- million dollar mansions!!Is this like the Obama's living like millionaires with Michelle's multi-thousand dollar outfits and vacations in Martha's Vineyard and the Taj Mahal hotel in India ( we paid for 1,500 guests!!)?How did a community organizer get so rich so fast?

People are the same everywhere- they want power and money.Our founding fathers gave us an ingenious system to protect us from these greedy power mongers- to protect us from becoming "The People's Republic" with elitist dictatorial "liberators". Sometimes fear is a good thing- it means you're awake and facing realities. Let's hope some of us find the fear before it's too late for all of us.

TRUTH

Here's a truth for you. Every program that has sent our country to the brink of insolvency was promoted and propagandized for by the liberal left socialist communists.That's right. Not one of the programs, not some of the programs, ALL OF THEM! Whether it's Medicare or Medicaid or Social Security or Habitat for Humanity or Head Start or Food Stamps or Food Share or The Endowment to the Humanities or the Endowment to the Arts or the Education Department or any other Federal Government imposed socialist program- THE LEFT DID IT.Socialism always goes broke so here we are. A few more taxes on the "middle class" or on the "rich" is not going to fix this.

Here's another truth- the liberal left has managed to undermine fair elections that people can trust. Cayoga County in Ohio didn't have one vote for Romney in the last election. How could that be? There were counties in Florida and Pennsylvania that came up with the same results. The liberal left motor voter law registers people whether they're a citizen or not. People are registered on the street by untrained volunteers- who knows who's being registered and who is ultimately voting those ballots? Patty Murray from King County Washington, who is now head of the budget committee in the Senate, is another fraud who got her position by cheating- they counted the ballots over and over and kept adding absentee ballots until she came out on top- a lot like Al Franken in Minnesota who took Norm Coleman's seat.I'm not sure what you can do when the vote has been compromised. I guess the people who are compromising the vote will stay in power and continue to control the justice department so that nothing is investigated.

Here's another truth. Little children don't do "higher level thinking skills" and "critical thinking" as the new Common Core curriculum says it is going to teach. Why don't they do this, and why can't they be taught this? BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT LITTLE ADULTS- THEY ARE CHILDREN AND HAVE A CHILD's INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY.I had a rather amusing example of this a few weekends ago while visiting my sister. My little niece ( who read the book Little Women to me in second grade with stunning fluency and expression), set the table for dinner.When we sat down to eat three of us had napkins. We asked her why only three of us had napkins and she said "Well, there were only three napkins in the napkin holder". Of course she could have gotten more out of the package in the cupboard-. I thought about all the critical thinking the little 9 and 10 year olds will supposedly be doing under Common Core and I had to laugh. But it's not funny- what the liberal left will really be doing is propagandizing your children,because as we all know, children mimic and model adult opinions.

The liberal left are very clever at propaganda. It's time for the right to fire back- to get the truth out- to not be cowed by all the lying.

M A R K E T I N G

I've been in California recently visiting relatives. I happened to be telling my cousin's husband about all the unsupportable and ridiculous claims that the Common Core folks say about the program and he said "Yes, Marketing for sales". He is right. The socialists are MARKETING to the American people.Republicans don't market- they just tell the truth and think common sense and truth will win the day. Common sense and truth have a hard road to follow when their competition is devious and masterful with MARKETING.


Who doesn't want children ready for the 21st century? Who doesn't want their child college and career ready? Who doesn't want their child to be creative and a "higher level thinker"? All of this sounds wonderful, like the $19.99 specials you're supposed to call in for on the television. The thing is, like those ads, the Socialists are just selling another social teaching program that will have none of the startling results they are claiming. If they have any trial at all of this program it was the Clinton's program in the 90's that had collaborative learning and was going to bring up graduation rates and teach "higher level thinking". If it worked why do we have a new program with exactly the same claims? I can tell you Goals 2000 DID NOT WORK!! Graduation rates are much worse- they were at 17% of kids dropping out and have gone to 25% of kids dropping out since Goals 2000.

The socialists have been trying to fix schools and society to their liking since the 60's and they are colossal failures from school drop out rates and achievement scores to poverty. As someone pointed out once, the Communists are much better at subterfuge than they are at governing. My cousin's daughter asked me the question we all ask "WHERE IS ALL THIS COMING FROM??"That's the subterfuge part- I told her about the clever idea of socialists to have the National Governors Association and State School Chiefs Councils dictate this- eliminating the need for our actual representatives in the legislatures. BUT WHO PUT THEM UP TO THIS?? Basically it is the Federal Department of Education Bureaucrats working with people like Bill Ayers and the U.N.

If you've seen the movie Agenda you know the communists decided on the slow take over from within approach. They took over the Democrat party and all the media communications from Hollywood and Newspapers to publishing houses. That's why when Katrina hit in Louisiana it was George Bushes fault but when Sandy hit in New York and New Jersey, which is a terrible disaster, it is not Obama's fail at all!! He's a hero!!Do you see how it works? They tell you how it is and enough of the people believe it to keep them in power.How long can they hide the truth? How long can their clever psychological manipulations keep you under control? I don't know- they already have to raise taxes- the people living out the Roman Circus scenario will start to feel THAT. Kruschev said that the soviets would spoon feed socialism to the Americans until one day they would wake up and be Communists without realizing what happened.

The last election was the most disastrous that has ever happened in this country. I don't know if we can find our way back, but I know for sure that America will fail financially- they can only patch the leaking ship with taxes for awhile- THEY ARE OUT OF MONEY.Maybe the clever socialist MARKETING will finally break down at this point and the people will still have enough power left to go back to freedom.

TWO VISIONS

As I have noted on this blog earlier- elections have consequences- and we have a big election facing us tomorrow.The simple truth is that there are two visions- one would enslave us to the government, one would free us and give us responsibility for our own lives. We have lived under the second alternative for most of the years of our republic, but President Obama has worked his parties agenda of change on our country- massive government, massive debt, massive regulations, take over of businesses and health care and schools and children and families.This is the vision that the bureaucratic state- the experts- are the ones that should manage you and your families-because you can't do it for yourself. You NEED daycare at school and food programs at school and health care at school and mental health care at school- you are an incompetent fool that can't solve your own problems or raise your own children. You need home visits and records kept on you and your children too. The "experts" must keep track of their charges.That's the view. And by the way- the leaders of the experts become the elite that hang out at Martha's Vineyard and take trips to India on the public dime (Think Obama) and are oh so proud of being the "rich"- you paid for that.

Common Core is a massive disaster waiting to happen and it will cost tens of billions of dollars nationwide. The "experts" want you to think they know the future and are preparing your children to be "college and career" ready. That's why they made the architect of this disastrous common plan,David Coleman, the president of the Scholastic Achievement Test Board (the one you take to get into college)- now he can determine who is qualified for college!! That's like failing with one teacher and getting a teacher who's easy the next year and becoming an A student! The architect of the plan will decide if he is successful!! The students will definitely not be better prepared but David can just determine who he wants to succeed!!These tests have open ended questions and projects- another words they are assessed subjectively. Common Core does not believe in fill in the dot tests that determine only if you know the facts.

If you vote for the "management" plan, don't think you'll get something for nothing. If you haven't heard the bad news yet, let me break it to you, our country is BROKE!!There are not enough taxes to pay our debts- even if you took ALL the money the rich have- we'd still be broke. We have 16 trillion dollars in debt and this is increasing by 3 billion dollars a day. The end is coming. Europe is a broken state and the American Socialists (Obama) are trying to mimic them- taking a successful nation and turning it to failure chasing the European Socialist fantasy.WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU TAKE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL NATION ON THIS EARTH AND DESTROY IT TRYING TO BE LIKE FAILED SOCIALIST STATES?? I for one do not want to live like the people in Cuba or China or Russia or Venezuela or Europe, so I'm voting for Romney.

Common Core is an attempt to educate our children to live in a world where we're "all in it together"- the old village idea. These children will not have loyalties to the American traditions of freedom and individualism. They will spend their school days doing collaborative projects and then spend their lives never getting out of the collaborative projects as they wait for someone else to do the work and tell them what to do or care for them.This is not a way forward for America and it most definitely is not the way to deliver good education. I hope God still protects the U.S.A because we are in real trouble here. Have you seen the idiotic smiles of those Obama supporters that stand behind him as he speaks? Do you wonder what in the world they are thinking? Are they thinking at all? I wonder if they've seen an unborn child's sonogram lately.We're having our first grandchild in March and at 10 weeks we counted the fingers.Two visions- one believes in killing the unborn and using government to redistribute wealth and manage your life. A vision that rejects our founding fathers and the constitution this wonderful country was founded on.A vision that has a spokesman that is a philandering lying pig that, as president, was impeached (Clinton), that makes aspersions on the most upright decent family man you will find in politics(Romney)- and of course has NOTHING to back those aspersions up. I hope you vote for our country and not their agendas.

THE STARVING CAN AFFORD PARKING TICKET

I go to most of the many many school board meetings here in Helena (sometimes several a week!!). It can get rather depressing after awhile.The picture the board and school administration like to draw is one of massive family disfunction.Everyone has to work two jobs and they can't have dinner with their kids or afford food.Families just won't do homework with their kids or be involved in their schooling.These families don't even have a kitchen table for the kids to do their homework!! Wow. Do you see why it gets depressing? Then comes Halloween.

Remember I taught for 30 years in Helena-nine of them at Bryant our poorest school.The number of youngsters without a costume (in my class) might amount to about one. The kids had fun and their parents provided them with wigs and makeup and all kinds of wonderful costumes.We would have a parade around the school every year. The parents loved sending treats- I tried to divide treat responsibility so we wouldn't have too much but there was always the parent that sent treats even when it wasn't their turn!This is not the world picture that the liberals NEED to continue and expand their programs- they need the dismal world described above. Our assistant superintendent warned us ominously at the last planning meeting that the "world has changed"- when I tried to nail him down to exactly how it has changed I got no answer.Tonight, Halloween, I see all these youngsters in their costumes- many of them elaborate and home made, all of them with their parents in tow- and I wonder- just how much has the world changed- or how much has the story changed so that government can have the excuse to grow and grow and grow and attempt to take over families?

It occurs to me that it is not about healthy families as much as it is about HEALTHY SCHOOLS. As the election nears we see stories in the newspaper about ELEMENTARY children doing mock voting in school. Their teacher proudly asserts that he told the children what the candidates stood for and then took them to vote. Do you think he presented the Republican views fairly? I really doubt it. Should little children have to be dragged into all of this? The reason they are not of voting age is because they are not ready to UNDERSTAND all of these things. Teach patriotism FIRST and they'll vote when the time comes. These children aren't even being given the precious gift of knowing what their country and their constitution stand for, the precious gift of knowing who their forefathers were and the wonderful smart and courageous things they did to build this wonderful country. They are taught contemporary leftist values and then are told to vote- don't worry about understanding anything- just vote for us. I get it.

At eleven o'clock this morning we saw all the children from our local school going downtown to trick or treat. This is crazy. When I taught we never let the children put on their costumes until after last recess. An hour for parading and eating treats was enough. We actually TAUGHT during the rest of the day. Once the children have those costumes on the academic day is over.WHY GIVE UP ALL THIS TEACHING TIME?? I can tell you why- COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS- another way of saying public relations- getting the business community to buy in so they vote for the right school board members and support all the bonds and levies. COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS are big now- this is taking teaching time away from classrooms. A simple field trip is enrichment- a PARTNERSHIP is intrusive and demanding- this is not teacher choice or curriculum driven- this is REQUIRED by the school administration to pad their friends non- profit pockets and develop connections.

This STORY about how all the kids are starving and must have breakfast,snacks, lunch and dinner along with food sent home for the weekend breaks down at the high school level when they begin assessing fines on the students- fines they apparently can't reverse even if they are in error. One student who parked in an unmarked spot at three o'clock because he was going on the bus to Butte for an activity was fined $10.00 (the standard fine) and it couldn't be reversed- or so the secretary said countermanding the principals order.My, My, we can't afford food but we can pay a weeks worth of breakfasts or lunches made from home to the school when they deem it necessary. Are these HEALTHY SCHOOLS or agenda driven schools that make up the story as it suits them?

The homosexuals in our community are pushing for a non- discrimination ordinance so they can - according to one teacher- TELL STUDENTS ABOUT THEIR SEXUAL PREFERENCES. TEACHERS SHOULD NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TALK TO CHILDREN ABOUT THEIR PRIVATE LIVING ARRANGEMENTS!!DO THEY THINK THESE CHILDREN BELONG TO THEM??

School has become so much about agendas and not school that our gifted and talented program has just gotten a grant for an ORCHARD!! That's right - an ORCHARD!! I asked the gifted and talented administrator to enlighten me as to who would prune the trees and harvest. Is this gifted education- working in the orchards?Our superintendent brushed me off- he didn't want to get "bogged down".

PUBLIC SCHOOLS HAVE LOST THEIR WAY AS THEY TRY TO MEET AGENDAS RATHER THAN CURRICULUM GOALS. You can talk all you want about "collaboration"-and maybe you think picking apples is a lofty academic goal. Maybe you think ALL academic goals should be social. But , the plain truth is that PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE DYING under this tutelage and need to get back to TEACHING THE STUDENTS BASIC INFORMATION AND LOVE OF COUNTRY SO THAT THEY CAN GROW UP WITH LOYALTIES AND KNOWLEDGE THAT WILL ALLOW THEM TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPANTS IN OUR CAPITALIST SOCIETY.

LIBERALISM IN ITS DEATH THROWS

It is said that you should never swim up to someone who is drowning because they will pull you down with them and you will both drown. Watch out for the Liberals as they are drowning and thrashing,specifically, watch out for COMMON CORE STANDARDS.

I could have entitled this blog- COMMON CORE LIES.Here are just a few of the bloopers.Did you know this is a "states initiative"? Yes indeed," Why would you suspect the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WANTS TO CONTROL YOUR CHILD'S EDUCATION?!!!" Give me a break,the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT thought of this whole mess.Not only did they put the Governor's Associations up to this, they offered MONEY and WAIVERS to get school districts to do it!! They are also FUNDING THE TESTS!!NO ONE is this stupid- the Liberals have been pushing for a national curriculum for at least 50 years- now they want us to believe they are hands off!! They are funding the Smarter Balanced tests for Common Core curriculum despite statutes forbidding the feds from determining curriculum. You see, when the Liberals got their department of Education in 1979 they PROMISED(wink, wink and double fingers crossed behind their backs) that they would NEVER write school curriculum, oh no, this was a states rights issue. So it was put into the law, that under no circumstances would the Federal Government write curriculum.Oh, now what are you thinking? Are you thinking that these power mongers have broken their promise and are lying about it? WELL, YOU ARE RIGHT!!It makes me almost pukishly sick to watch the lies and the dance, as all their mouth pieces rush out to say what they are told to say, "The Federal Government is not involved in this!"

Try to get one of these mouth pieces to explain "higher level thinking skills." The most I can get from them is that the kids are going to determine what the author is thinking . You call that author's point of view and it is certainly not a new reading skill!! Another Common Core lie is that they would never PROPAGANDIZE your children. Oh no!! That would NEVER be their intent. Why haven't I found one piece of curriculum or test question yet that was not full of political agendas?? The latest lesson was on baseball in an internment camp!!

Another big Common Core lie is that this program has been researched and had trials. Get someone to tell you when and where and how it came out. I certainly haven't found any. President Obama even said his Common Core curriculum was implemented and doing very well in many places- how would he know that when the tests won't even be completed until 2014??!!

The Liberals' idea that Government can solve all problems is a total failure,and as they flail and lie, they are drowning with bad ideas and 16 trillion dollars in national debt (going up 2 billion dollars a day!!).Don't go up to these drowning Americans just throw them a life preserver called Mitt Romney and save America with the ideas that built this country from the beginning.We need to throw out the Liberals and THROW OUT THEIR IDEAS- they want to get into your charter,private and home schools by controlling the tests too- don't let them. Our wonderful patriots in Indiana are fighting hard and holding these people accountable. Don't let these drowning Liberals take YOUR state's schools with them as they go down either!!Montana needs to fight too- let the trials go on in Massachusetts and California- if they succeed ( which they will not) there's always time to join-in the mean time Montana can save its' schools, its' children's education and FORTY MILLION DOLLARS- by letting the other states and their mouth pieces drown in this mess.

YOUNG PARENTS GIVE ME HOPE!!

I was at the Broadwater School planning meeting- townhall- Tuesday night. I looked at the crowd around me- mostly young and many school teachers from Broadwater and I wondered how things would go. What I found out is that the young parents are not as dumb and easily persuadable as our Superintendent might hope. After his lofty introduction about needing new buildings to "teach 21st century skills" one young father raised his hand and asked what the 21st century skills were!! I was cheering inside and gleefully waited for the Superintendent to squirm out of this one. He explained how all the children need to "collaborate" and do research.I'd like to talk to you about collaboration and research.

This young father did not follow up his question- very few people do educational research or know about the history of educational curriculums- but I think he could feel he was being snowed with this "21st century" stuff. Who determines what 21st century skills are? The 21st century skills are determined by socialists who run our school bureaucracy. The 21st century is what they say it is! As I've mentioned on this blog before- no one knows what the next 100 years will bring- this is a manipulation by the socialists to get what they want and shut you up. They hope you will just trust that they have some crystal ball that they look into and that they are "experts" that know the future. OF COURSE THEY DON'T KNOW ANY MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE THAN YOU DO!! The superintendent actually said that all people now work in situations where they have to "collaborate" and "think outside the box". BALONEY. Many more people are working from home today, thereby requiring more of an ability to be self disciplined and able to work on their own than ever before.

The reality is that the socialists have been trying to prepare your children for a socialist world for 50 years. When I was in college "collaboration and creativity" were called FREE SCHOOL. Then it was called THE OPEN SCHOOL. Then it was called COOPERATIVE LEARNING.Today it is called PROJECT LEARNING AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING.Why do you think they keep changing the name? They change the name because IT NEVER WORKS!!

PROJECT LEARNING in the new national curriculum "Common Core" is a disaster waiting to happen. Projects are fine to REINFORCE LEARNING. They are fun but they take up a lot of time and in no way teach a full curriculum. Self starters will do the work and learn the most- at risk children often learn NOTHING in these projects. What we do know from educational research- and any person who knows curriculum will tell you- DIRECT INSTRUCTION WORKS!! This is the old idea of teachers teaching students with whatever means- power points,white boards, school books etc. EVERYONE LEARNS IN THIS ENVIRONMENT. You teach, you practice and you test. You review, you reinforce, you build upon knowledge. You do redoes with youngsters who need more help and alter practice if that is necessary. EVERYBODY LEARNS!! Christopher Lohsee from the Association of School Chiefs admitted that the KIPP academies that use direct instruction are the most successful in the nation. Teresa Burson, our Helena School District Curriculum director, admitted "Direct Instruction Works". A man named Engleman who developed the Distar series for inner city youth was amazingly successful with his direct instruction curriculums. He was so successful that we later used these curriculums for Developmentally Delayed children. DIRECT INSTRUCTION WORKS.

What the Socialists are now saying to defend their socialist type teaching, that doesn't work- is that students don't need to learn so much knowledge today, and they won't be able to critically think (think outside the box) or " collaborate" with others if they are taught only through direct instruction. I have one name of a movie for them,APOLLO THIRTEEN!! Those astronauts were not taught in the "Project Learning" model- but when an emergency came they had the knowledge and discipline to get the job done- they successfully brought their friends home using a slide rule!!

We do know that there will be ever more technology in our future, but here's the thing-YOU CAN'T DO RESEARCH IF YOU CAN'T READ AND YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND THE RESEARCH IF YOU DON'T HAVE KNOWLEDGE!! I don't know what the 21st century will be anymore than anyone else- but I know this- children raised with personal discipline and morals who are given the opportunity to LEARN THE KNOWLEDGE THEY NEED, will do just fine in the 21st century- whatever that turns out to be. Critical thinking and creativity follow people with the knowledge and personal discipline to work and try- think Edison, Bell,the Wright Brothers,and any other great person who has brought our world forward-they didn't learn in projects. Our founding fathers built a great nation with amazing ideas that still keep us free today- because they had KNOWLEDGE and INTEGRITY.Don't let these jokers fool you.God willing this will never be a socialist nation- and I have some voting advice for all you wonderful young parents- in this next election VOTE FOR THE AMERICANS!!

A VERY GOOD DAY

I had a very good day on Sunday when I read Governor Romney's position on education in the Daily Caller. The article related that Governor Romney actually thinks schools are a STATE issue!! Finally someone who has read our Constitution!! It gets better- he will more than likely be the next PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Governor Romney's position sounded like he had read my post "PLEASE RELEASE US LET US GO!" He is AGAINST FEDERALIZED COMMON CORE STANDARDS AND TESTS!! If states want it they will have to FUND it themselves. He said "TO FINANCIALLY REWARD STATES BASED UPON ACCEPTING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS IDEA OF A CURRICULUM , I THINK IS A MISTAKE. AND THE REASON I SAY THAT IS THAT THERE MAY BE A TIME WHEN THE GOVERNMENT HAS AN AGENDA THAT IT WANTS TO PROMOTE." You think??!! Has Governor Romney heard of preparing global citizens for global governance?? I would guess he has- but in any event- the GOOD NEWS- is that he is not supporting Common Core!

The Daily Caller also reports that Romney minced no words when asked about Federal aid to help the 46 Common Core states pay the costs of implementation ( which is estimated to be upwards of SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS!!)He said " They're on their own because education is a state responsibility -and besides, Washington already is SIXTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS in the red and counting."

Governor Romney is for having the money follow the child- what a novel idea- just like in my blog "PLEASE RELEASE US LET US GO!". School choice seems to be the NEW IDEA for America! This is GOOD NEWS!! Now let's see if he follows through or if the subversive left undermines him and is successful in changing his views. They've been so successful at this before- but maybe these times they are a changing and the Socialists won't have the power they have had over previous administrations- maybe- just maybe- we'll be able to thwart their propaganda machine. I'll keep blogging- maybe this GOOD NEWS will be the beginning of LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL in Education- maybe America will take its' place as NUMBER ONE in education in the world-as it has been NUMBER ONE because of its' military might and economy.There's a reason why the whole world is speaking English.

THE SOCIALISTS ARE CRASHING

Socialism in school is crashing and burning as it reaches its' most radical edge. I went to a presentation by our curriculum director Teresa Burson on Monday. This was a presentation for teachers, the students were at home not having any instruction at all. The school district will do this for THREE MORE DAYS this year.Apparently it's only important to be in school if a school nurse keeps you there- at the board meeting Tuesday night the school nurses were presenting to get their numbers up and the reason we need more nurses?- " It's important for children to stay in school with their teacher and school nurses can keep kids from being sent home" OH- I thought instruction time just wasn't so important anymore what with FOUR DAYS off of school for teacher meetings EVERY YEAR, and all the other programs that so blithely take students out of class. BUT- back to Teresa. She had some very interesting news about the TESTS that your students will have to complete while only getting part of their education.

You won't believe this one- but it is true-right from the horses mouth as they say.She gave an example of ONE QUESTION from the Common Core tests, don't confuse this with the test, it is ONE of the questions-it will take at least ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MINUTES to complete!!This is a woman with a masters and she said SHE was overwhelmed with this question! The students will have to read a three page question about a woman who does conservation measures to bring her heating bill down and then finds out that her bill doesn't go down.The students will figure out why her bill didn't go down by doing calculations with given data and then MAKE A PAMPHLET FOR AN ENERGY COMPANY AS AN ADVERTISEMENT EXPLAINING THEIR ANSWER!! Do you think the people that are making these tests, or wrote this curriculum, have traveled throughout the United States to see what children are doing in our schools? How do you think kids in inner cities who don't even have command of the english language will do with this test question? WHAT IS GOING ON?!! I believe the individual who said we are watching the destruction of two hundred years of public education in America is correct.

But why did I say Socialism in school is crashing? Well,for the first one hundred and fifty years or so of public education in America, schools were locally controlled (think the "little red school house").Teachers taught the basic math, reading, spelling and civics and the school board oversaw the process. Gradually, over time, new subjects like music and P.E. and library were added. New teaching techniques and ideas came into being and curriculum companies developed. Then the socialists, starting with John Dewey who thought there shouldn't be anything taught without a social agenda, began to get their claws into the schools. The Federal department of education was a result of that effort. Today, the socialists run our schools, even talk politics like green agendas and voting for Obama, IN SCHOOL.But, as I mentioned and demonstrated above, they are reaching their radical edge, they are crashing and burning.Public schools did well under local control, but today we will have to think of other answers like vouchers or charter schools, because Common Core will not work and our schools have been usurped to the extent of insanity. Let me give you some more examples of Socialist extremism in school.

I was at a cross country meet yesterday. A beautiful fall day and all the parents were enjoying the meet on the green grass of the golf course when students began coming up and asking for MONEY. These students were being used to collect money for a non-profit and their parents were being solicited at a school event.Many non-profits use school children for advertising or collections now IN SCHOOL.I don't think children should have to leave school to work for Food Share. I think charity is a family affair and should never be forced on anyone- certainly not by a government institution that is BEING PAID TO TEACH CHILDREN TO READ.I think this is socialist extremism,but if you don't, here's another example.

I tried to enlighten a school board trustee at the school board retreat about sending home bags of food from Food Share. I told her that parents are reporting to me that their children are coming home with food that they neither need nor want.One mother asked her six year old why she had this food that they did not need.Her child told her that the teacher was picking a different child each week to take the food home.I told the trustee how I remember as a teacher having to find students that needed coats. It was embarrassing. None of the kids needed coats. I went out to the coat rack and tried to find the oldest one. This is socialist extremism- looking for problems that are not there. This is at Bryant school- a Title one school(federally identified as a poverty school). I taught at Bryant for nine years- these children are not starving - just try to get them to finish their lunch!! The response from the trustee was shocking- she held up her hand against me as if fending off an attack and then informed me that I was threatening Marcia Wall's job in her non-profit called Stuff The Bus!! This is a non-profit that provides school supplies- I was confused. What do school supplies have to do with sacks of free food from Food Share? They are both non-profits. Maybe she felt not supporting the idea that children are all in desperate need of financial help to survive would burst the propaganda bubble and threaten ALL non-profits. She went on to tell me that her son knew kids whose parents did drugs and neglected them so they needed the food. SERIOUSLY? A school board trustee who thinks a bag of food is the answer to parental neglect? Not hardly- she should be calling social services immediately.The mind set is mind numbing. If you're still not convinced that socialism in school is crashing and burning I have more for you.

The socialists are now at the extreme of wanting schools to be regional community centers that are open until 8:30 at night and provide dinner as well as homework assistance- schools that take over the role of the family. The stated goal of their early childhood program is to receive children AT BIRTH.They are reaching extremes for the money but also because THEIR PROGRAMS HAVE NEVER WORKED!! Think of the war on poverty in 1965- that's 47 years ago - did it work?

What the attempt to turn America European socialist has done is to make us like them- culturally, morally,and fiscally bankrupt. A once great nation has lost its' way. The socialists are crashing and burning- let's stop them from taking our schools and our kids with them.

Elections Have Consequences

Sitting at the Helena School Board Retreat Tuesday morning I watched as Trustee Cherche Prezeau stated her position that she wants regional community centers that are open until 8:30 at night,instead of the neighborhood schools that we now have in Helena.If Trustee Prezeau was going to pay for these centers herself and then spend her time volunteering there and organizing other volunteers this would still be a very bad idea, but at least you could respect her for being a caring and dedicated person. What is REALLY distasteful is that this individual seems to think of herself as a caring individual while using her position to FORCE YOU TO PAY FOR IT!! Kind of like her oh so righteous position on forcing our School District health plan to accept partners who are not legally married. Trustee Prezeau is not on this horrible health plan and she does not have to pay for it, or suffer the consequences of what she did to the health care and costs of the people on the plan.

The idea behind regional community centers is to turn our school buildings into "one stop shopping" for all social needs, not only of the school children, but also for the community at large. This would be not only for those who are not school age, but also for those who don't even have school age children in the household. HOW DOES THIS PLAY OUT FOR OUR SCHOOLS??

First of all, it takes the primary, and certainly the only reason we build and staff schools, that of EDUCATION FOR OUR SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN,and establishes EDUCATION as only an adjunct to other tasks that will be involved at the location, the former SCHOOL BUILDING.In that transformation it moves the EDUCATION of our children out of the primary role of the location, to a department within the building.To illustrate this concept, think of a building which is made up of different departments, which shares the same resource, the children.In a manner this is already happening. The Helena Education system now allows access to the children by numerous non-profit(and FOR PROFIT) entities. These entities such as Big Brothers Big Sisters or Food Share depend on "head count" for their funding-the schools are a goldmine for them.The students time is shared at the expense of their classroom learning time. As a teacher I remember having to give up students and class time almost constantly. The non-profits took precedence over teachers and teaching.

Now, Trustee Prezeau and others such as Trustee O'Neil (State president of AWARE - a non-profit umbrella organization for Youth Connections and Head Start) want to double down on depleting education time by making the former school, a location where non-profits RESIDE. These non-profits have the authority to come into classrooms and pull individual students or whole classes away from their education, to serve whatever need the non-profit has to enhance their own funding stream.

If you want your child's education to be a "department" within the "building" that will be haunted by non-profits trolling for headcount, then you want the "regional community center" concept.If you want "schools" which take children in the early morning hours and keep them until bedtime, completely replacing the family, with education being a "catch as catch can" proposition,"schools" that share building space and children with "favored" non-profits, then regional community centers are for you. If you want your "schools" to have to bulk up security for 14-16 hours of the day, because with the presence of the non-profits you get people wandering in looking for "services", then this is your program.

However, if you want EDUCATION to be the reason you have a "school" building, and the reason these buildings have earned the position as the number one item on your property tax bill, then you need to ask the school board you voted for why they want millions more DOLLARS to construct new larger buildings to house offices and activities that rob our children of their EDUCATION.

Elections have consequences. Get involved, get people elected to your school board that have common sense and the interests of you and your children's EDUCATION at heart, instead of socialist ideological agendas that support outside interests and their money chasing goals.

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.

WHOSE MONEY IS IT ANYWAY?

I was at the debate for Superintendent of PUBLIC INSTRUCTION last night. Our current Superintendent, Democrat Denise Juneau,and her challenger Republican Sandy Welch, talked about school funding as if the money belonged to the state or the state bureaucracy, or money to be coveted and controlled and spent by the "alphabet soup"- all the school funding lobbyists, MTSBA (Montana school boards association), MASBA (Montana Association of State Business Associates),MREA (Montana Rural Educators Association),MEAFT ( Montana Education Association and Federation of Teachers)- I'm sure I missed someone- all these organizations think school funding belongs to THEM!!What happened to the kids this money is for? This money is not for jobs- it's for INSTRUCTION!! It does not belong to the state or any other organization, it belongs to the PUBLIC for the INSTRUCTION OF THEIR STUDENTS!! OPI is NOT the office of public schools Denise!! OPI is the office of public INSTRUCTION!!

Even our Republican candidate said that vouchers would be a "Free for all"- seriously? People controlling their own money for their own students is a "Free for all"? Maybe the operative word here is FREE- FREE from bureaucrats, FREE from unions and associations, FREE from power players. FREE as in FREEDOM. Think of the money that would be saved and the waste that would not happen. Money direct to schools of the parents CHOICE. Competition and accountability that would be driven by parent choice without going through the hands of thousands of programs and red tape from Washington.Can you explain to me why FREEDOM is a bad idea?

The polite way of saying someone lied is to say they were mendacious- well then, our Montana Superintendent of Public INSTRUCTION (not public schools!!),Denise Juneau, is being mendacious when she slanders all charter schools saying they are all failures. She didn't do the research and she didn't care- her idea of school choice is public school Montessori and the public school Project for Alternative Learning where they spend their days playing Mahjong!! Even one of her "alphabet soup" organizations CSSC (Council of State School Chiefs)admits that the KIPP Academies- charter schools across the nation- are the highest academic achieving schools out there. This is according to Christopher Lohse from that organization speaking to the HEF (Helena Education Foundation).Thank goodness for the internet- just being "mendacious" doesn't cut it anymore Denise- we are paying attention!!

The answer to my question in the title of this blog is that the money belongs to YOU and if you have children in school- the children belong to YOU also.YOU need to tell the EXPERTS (expert at spending your money and raking a little- or more likely- a lot off for themselves) that this public money is YOUR money and it is for YOUR children's education and YOU will decide what education YOU think is best for YOUR child. Thanks for your help guys but this game is over- we'll take our money and you can go home and do whatever it is you do when you're not chasing money.

THE SOCIALIST ADDICTION

We all know what a gambling addiction is. The person just keeps playing thinking that THIS TIME they will be a winner!! I've been involved in education my whole life and what I have seen from the socialist left takeover of our schools is TOTAL FAILURE, but they won't give up. The Socialists have been trying to improve our schools with their socialist vision long before they got their Federal Department of Education in 1979. Our schools which were improving steadily in the fifties and sixties HAVE SHOWN NO IMPROVEMENT IN ACADEMIC SCORES SINCE THE SEVENTIES.Total failure.You mean Head Start doesn't work? EXACTLY. You mean we've spent billions of dollars from the federal government and it didn't improve our schools?!! EXACTLY.Now the people who can't run schools want to run lives.The school lunch program was going to improve schools. The Head Start program was going to improve schools. Goals 2000 was going to improve schools. Full day kindergarten and after school programs was going to improve schools. All of this has been a total failure and now they have a new idea with even more socialism!

The new idea is COMMUNITY CENTERS. These are already operating in places like South Park, Pennsylvania. Schools are kept open from 3:30 to 5:30, or later, students receive help with their homework and "dinner is provided". Why go home? Just bring in a cot and they're good for tomorrow.The South Park school has received an award as a "National Champion"! Socialists are so good at giving awards to themselves!Whatever happened to the idea that families that eat dinner together keep kids off drugs, as the old ads used to say?

The socialists that have destroyed our culture and our schools, now want to double down. They can't run a school but now they want to run everyone's family. They want to add meals and mental health care to their bag of failures. The country is broke but these people think they can continue on like this. Just get "entitlement" spending under control and all will be solved! NO, it's not just entitlement spending. It's socialists that want to run families.If you eliminated the whole department of education no one would miss it except the people that work there- that would save us billions! Public schools might have a chance to succeed if our socialist friends and their FEDERAL BENEFACTORS would be given their pink slip.

The socialists see the federal cuts coming so they are trying to find a place to hide in your local school budgets.BE AWARE AND DON'T LET THEM IN. Local communities can not afford to be the family for everyone (even if that possibly could work) any more than the Federal Government can afford this largesse. The only way to stop the gambling addiction is to remove the person from the machine and take the money away. Remove these addicted socialists from our schools and let parents, families, and educators begin the long recovery process of restoring our schools to effectiveness that we had before these addicted people took over.

THE CASINO

"Government is the great fiction,through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."- Frederic Bastiat

What drives your vote? Or put another way- how do you choose whom to vote for?You may not believe this if you are young- but we used to vote for the person we thought would be the best leader for our country. It wasn't about our economic interests. It wasn't about who would bring home the bacon for our district or if we could keep the grants rolling in. The above quote was from a Frenchman who lived in the 1800's.His France had become a socialist cesspool, and now, America has joined.Is this what you want our country to be? We are on the path to ruin.When the money is gone- and we are just about there- what will be left is the control. You can think about "social justice" as the "good of all" that the soviets set up in the soviet block countries. It doesn't end pretty.When we walk into a casino we are hoping someone else will lose and we will WIN- is the government a basket of goodies to be handed out, and are we all just hoping to "get ours"? Every time I go to a city council meeting the people in line pleading for their money make my stomach turn.Is this what government is about-handing out money?!!! Our leftist friends have turned our once great nation that was handed down to us from our forefathers into a casino.

In order to vote in your nations best interests you would need to know what those were, and you would need to love what those were. Is Common Core going to teach our children to love their country? Will they be taught why this country is great and worth saving? Worth fighting for? Will they give a rip about anything besides the lies from the environmental movement (which will be taught to them as truth), the civil rights movement, and "social justice" i.e. "the good of all". Will the children even have the knowledge and understandings to know they are being used and lied to?

Common Core is supposedly going to teach "deeper meaning" and "analytic thinking skills". Here's one of the MANY problems with that- these children are being taught they can perform "deeply analytic cognitive thinking skills" without reading the whole text and without knowledge! As I've discussed on this blog before, and as every teacher who will admit it knows ( as well as anyone with common sense) young children are not in a cognitive place ( think brain maturity) to do higher level deeply analytic cognitive thinking.Some students in high school can ask some good questions- even small children can ask a good question- but they are not in a place to do higher level deeply analytic critical thinking- especially about things they have not read or studied in depth.These students are being set up to think they have deep understandings that they do not have. They are being set up to be propagandized and used.Foundational learning comes first, then maturity, then research and in depth reading, then analytic thinking.What will the future of America be with individuals who don't know anything and have no loyalties to our country as it was founded, but think they are cognitive deep thinking analytic thinkers?

Perhaps these individuals, who are self centered and over indulged,will grow up thinking they know everything and buying into every new propaganda item out there, while having no foundational principles, and voting as if they were in a casino- what's in it for me?

The new Common Core standards have no scope and sequence ( the plan we supposedly didn't have when the Federal Government took over our schools). So, as one great science teacher from our school district put it, the students will learn a little of this and a little of that ( he told me that, and then hung up and retired in disgust.)High school students will learn 70% non-fictional material in English class. That leaves out learning fictional literature in an historical sequence.What will this non-fictional material be? Martin Luther's LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL, without the historical facts and framework to make sense of it,Lincoln's THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, without having studied the civil war,slavery,the new republican party and all the deep historical background to this address,and "perhaps" one of the Federalist Papers- again without having the rigorous historical background and understanding of our founding fathers to know what this is about.Since they are not taught in any historical sequence there will be no foundation or connection that makes any sense.

Young children will be taught grammar without a scope and sequence. Scope and sequence are important because foundational knowledge builds on itself, and each new step allows the student to connect with what he learned before. For example, a student should first learn what a good sentence is before learning how to construct and punctuate a compound sentence.A student should know how to write a sentence before writing a paragraph and so on.Common Core learning is just like the casino, roll the dice and see what you get. No connection, no purpose, no meaning,no organization, just a little of this and a little of that. Make up your values as you go along.

I remember when Princess Di hit the news in the early eighties. I had small children and wasn't involved much but she sure seemed like an airhead to me. I recognized the European model of giggling girls that weren't expected to do much but get married. Not all Europeans are like that, but they obviously had a system that sent some on to higher learning and others to languish in the world of giggles and People Magazine.America was never like that. Everyone was educated fully and was expected to have opinions and to make sense with them.You didn't have to go to college- you were taught American History in high school. I'm afraid that in this new Common Core world with Career Pathways, the days of Americans really knowing things, is going away, and the voting world of the CASINO- WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME? will be our new future.Common Core is the European- Chinese model- and just think what the government of China is.

GOVERNMENT CORPORATE GREED

What do corporations do? They make money. Our brethren on the left hate corporations because they MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY- THEY SHOULD SHARE IT. What do non-profit corporations do? They make money. How do corporations make money? They grow their business. How do non-profit corporations make their money? They grow their business. There are a few differences though. For profit companies have to invest their own money- non-profit corporations spend your money. For profit corporations PAY TAXES. Non-profit corporations DO NOT PAY TAXES.


Perhaps there is someone reading this that is naive enough to think that non-profit corporations do not want to grow their business. I remember when habitat for humanity was a little volunteer organization to help elderly people repair their homes,now they compete unfairly with the construction industry so much in California that there have been articles about the corruption. I remember when Head Start was an early childhood program for the poor. Now your income can be four hundred percent over poverty- who knows how much that is- but it's a lot since poverty is over twenty thousand a year. Head Start in Helena has grown from one small school to serving 336 children in Helena, and they want to serve more. Their mission is BIRTH to eight years old!! They have moved into our public schools and they are not paying rent. That means that the tax payers are footing the bill, probably without their knowledge, and without the rule of law. Monies legislated for K-12 education, monies from families property taxes and state income taxes, are now going to the non-profit corporation Head Start.Some non-profit corporations are now trying to find a home in our school district budgets so they don't have to depend on grants. It will be so convenient just to be permanently into the school district budget and get an income stream from the unwary tax payers.



Here's the kicker," BUT NON-PROFITS HELP PEOPLE!!" Gee- do drug companies help people- maybe save lives and relieve pain? Do oil companies allow you to drive your car- maybe opened the world to people to travel and get where they need to go? Does the construction industry build homes that keep us warm in the winter and give us a place to sleep and raise our families? I could go on all day about this, but you get the idea- for profit companies give us jobs, built the nation, and have brought us every modern convenience and life saving mechanism out there. Has government contributed to research? Sure, but they didn't build anything. The point is, non-profit corporations may help people ,but so do for profit corporations that pay taxes.


"But non-profit corporations don't make a profit!" Sure they do- it's called SALARY AND BENEFITS!! Many non-profit CEO's make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Their lobbyists in washington line up at the trough to keep this money pot going.Though not all non-profits are bad, and many do helpful things, the whole system has become corrupted to the point that, in many cases, they are doing more harm than good.


How are they doing harm? Where shall I start? How about truth in advertising? Do you really think 350,000 kids in Chicago were going to starve because the teachers went on strike and the schools were closed? It was on the news- they HAD to serve breakfast and lunch at the schools even though there was NO SCHOOL because otherwise the children would STARVE!! This is nonsense- not true. There is WELFARE, there is FOOD STAMPS, there is FOOD SHARE. Kids aren't starving, but the non-profit food service corporation was going to continue to make money even if the teachers were on strike.Food service in school is another non-profit corporation that started with just lunch for the poor and now serves kids of all incomes and serves breakfast,lunch, snacks, and in some cases dinner! They've started summer programs now too.For profit companies advertise- and they may fudge the truth a bit- but they do not become politically corrupt incestuous lies that destroy the public dialogue,culture and character.


How about the cost? Our Helena Superintendent told me that though he really didn't know exactly what one of the non-profit corporations in our schools did entirely- Youth Connections- they were"passionate about meeting the needs of children". I informed him that we all have needs. Yes, taxpayers that are old and living on a fixed income and want to stay in their homes have needs. Young families trying to pay their bills and having to deal with a mortgage that goes up all the time have needs. Maybe families can't meet the needs of their own children because of the exorbitant multiple taxes they have to pay. What about their needs? Do their needs count? What about the countries debt and national security? Can a nation SIXTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT DEFEND ITSELF IF IT WAS ATTACKED? WHAT HAPPENS IF CHINA WON'T LEND US ANY MORE MONEY? Liberals think that conservatives have their heads in the sand and don't care about people's problems, I think the liberals have THEIR heads in the sand and don't care about the nation- which is the future for all of us and perhaps the world.


For profit businesses continually come up with needs to fill- that new product or service that will sell. If they are right, their investment and risk pays off, if not, they go out of business and lose money. In the non-profit world they make up needs and propagandize the public to build their own "wedge product". It's rather easy- Who's against helping "mentally ill" children? Who's against helping children with "autism". Who doesn't want to feed the poor? And so on it goes.I know the new non-profit that will push it's way into our schools very shortly here - they start with advertising - did you know we have a suicide problem?Yes- the world is full of problems and these non-profits encourage more problems for their own self interest. THAT'S THE TRUTH.And they get to stay in business because they NEVER SOLVE A PROBLEM!


A once proud nation that loved itself and believed in itself has become humbled and afraid. A nation that had a big heart succumbed to the rhetoric of the left until they didn't even believe in their own rugged individualism any more- that they could take care of themselves and their families. Their schools have been taken over by non-profits that are now more important than the TEACHERS!!When I taught teachers wanting to teach took a back seat to non-profit programs of all stripes. The teacher who was once the Queen or King of the classroom has been humbled to all the programs and education has suffered as that spirit and pride has died.


Something much worse even than this has happened though. Our freedom has slipped away. Washington runs everything now, schools, cities,counties, states. families, individuals.People are bowed to the Federal Government whomever they are and where ever they are. The only thing that will change this is to discontinue the federal grants, let people and families once again solve some of their own problems,let the employees of the non-profit corporations find real work in the private sector, and let this nation begin the long journey of starting to balance the federal budget, begin to pay back all this debt to China,and begin to be a proud and strong nation once again.

PLEASE RELEASE US LET US GO!!

I watched the Republican convention tonight and it was inspiring- all about all the freedom we needed in our economy and in our lives. How AMERICAN PEOPLE build businesses and follow their dreams. But when it gets to education they just don't get it. I could see myself standing outside with a group of my compatriots in these education wars singing "ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE FREEDOM A CHANCE!!" I found myself yelling at the television as Jeb Bush gave his speech- so obviously his job application for Secretary of Education. Here's the thing Jeb- THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NO BUSINESS HAVING A SECRETARY OF EDUCATION- OR A DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION- AT ALL!!!

PLEASE RELEASE US LET US GO!! This is OUR country. These are OUR children! We are not a bunch of incompetent fools that need to be MANAGED by the Federal government. Our children are not YOUR children to be shaped for your global economy. They don't live to work for you.FREEDOM works in schools, look at the KIPP academy and so many others-why won't they let us go!! BREAK THESE CHAINS GOVERNOR ROMNEY!!! School choice is no school choice at all when you have a Common Core Curriculum and federally funded tests!!!

There is no freedom at all when David Coleman, the architect of Common Core, is appointed president of the Scholastic Achievement Test board,so that he can make the tests for college entrance compatible to his Common Core that he developed behind closed doors!

This country is screaming for its' freedom and the schools are being left out of the equation! We don't want you to do anything about schools Mr. Romney, it's not your business or your job. Like in the economy- get out of the way and let freedom work. Give the states back their money to use for vouchers and CLOSE THE ILLEGAL FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION!!

I envision a world where schools are thriving in a world of competition and freedom. A world where all schools are free to be successful like the KIPP academy. Schools of all kinds and stripes from Montessori to e-learning and everything in between. Those that thrive will continue and lead, those that do not will close because they won't have enough students- just as in the business world. Colleges will compete for education students by providing training for the competitive school systems that demand only the best. Curriculum companies will respond to the needs of these schools and their parents and teachers.

WHY CAN'T YOU GET THIS MR.ROMNEY?? SCHOOLS NEED FREEDOM TO WORK AND THRIVE JUST LIKE BUSINESSES DO. PLEASE DISAPPOINT MR JEB BUSH WHO KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT EDUCATION AND ELIMINATE THE JOB HE IS APPLYING FOR. LET OUR SCHOOLS GO!!!

CAREER PATHWAYS

Career Pathways is the old "School to Work". I guess they must have poll tested Career Pathways and found it to be more palatable to the public than "school to work". In Europe students are sent on "Career Pathways" at age 14 based on how well they test. Essentially the government decides whether you're college material or not, if not you're sent on a vocational track to become a mechanic or a hairdresser or something. Actually, from what my husband and I have experienced at the post offices in Scotland ( that's where they get their welfare checks), many young ladies deemed not to be "college track material" seem to choose the single motherhood track at an early age which sends them right out of school and on to welfare!


So, the globalists want our wonderful country to model our education system after Europe and "Near East Asia" (think China). I remember when the radicals did a little "study", that they drummed up, and decided America was a "Nation At Risk". I was in college at the time studying Early Childhood Education and I was engulfed with all the propaganda about how our schools were failing, a terrible disaster, HELP!! We needed the Federal Government to create a Department of Education and save us!! So in 1979 congress established the Department of Education. Has it saved us? Hardly. It's destroyed education in America.


I went back to the high school I graduated from in California a few years ago and I was stunned. The students had chopped down the huge Oak Tree we had on our quad. They had kicked in lockers and graffitied the school. There was a nursery for students' babies on campus! I'm not alone in this experience. I've talked to others who have gone back to their high schools and found them turned into slums. So now, to clean up the mess they have made with public education, the Federal Government, which has no business in education in the first place, has decided our education system will model itself after Europe and China !!


I don't know about you but I am thoroughly sick of talking about the Federal Government. I took some classes at Hillsdale College in Michigan a few years ago (every minute was stunningly brilliant), they told us that when you are talking about the government all the time it's TOO BIG!! Yes indeed, IT'S TOO BIG. They talked about the government in Romania all the time, HOW TO ESCAPE FROM THEIR COUNTRY!! We're still free to leave, but where would we go? When freedom is gone in America there will be no freedom. But back to euro/chinese American schools. The Savannah Morning Post reports that students entering high school must "Select a Career Pathway". In other words, at age 15 they must choose what they will do for the rest of their lives!! What if they choose vocational and then decide on college later? Will they have taken the courses necessary to gain college admittance? I think not. In Georgia the kids can choose everything from sports medicine to administration/
information support (secretary), but should children in high school be wasting their time taking career courses? What if they take administration/ information support and then decide after graduation that they really wanted to do sports medicine? This is crazy. Ann Romney was just on the television and , at least from what the commentator reported, she doesn't get it. She wants to make equine therapy available to everybody. Is she paying for this herself or does she think she can use her husbands presidency to make all of us pay for this? Where is Equine therapy in the constitution? Why doesn't the Federal Government just BUTT OUT!! Everything can sound good, but get this, the Federal Government is SIXTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT AND BORROWING FORTY CENTS OF EVERY DOLLAR THEY SPEND!! STOP!! Perhaps Ann will just get PRIVATE CHARITY to support equine therapy- one can only hope.


The American public has become so used to the Federal Government doing everything that presidential candidates seem to think they need an education plan. This is ridiculous. They need to GET OUT!! If you want to improve education in America get the Federal Government and the Globalists out!! Free markets will work with schools the same way they work with economies. Let the schools compete and the parents will choose the best schools for their children. Give the power back to the parents- they are not all incompetent neglectful fools. Parents are competent and they love their children. In a free country the power is given to the people.


Under Common Core, as under Goals 2000, the proponents claim they are making a "paradigm shift". Yes, once again these "experts" from the federal government have a corner on the what the future will be and are corralling all of us fools into a paradigm shift to create amazing things in our schools!!All they have to do is give our teachers some workshops and suddenly these teachers will be in the new world of the paradigm shift. This is more than highly unlikely. Teachers need to be prepared well in college. Colleges will provide good programs when schools demand it. We do need to improve rigor in school and you can start by getting rid of all the programs and letting the teachers teach. Get rid of the "whole child" concept, the parents will take care of that. Schools need to teach,not to cook, babysit, health care and mental health care, community service , clothe and collect school supplies. Send all these interlopers home and leave the teacher, the students, and the curriculum ( basic academics), to get the job done. Give the parents the choice to leave schools that don't work and the schools the choice to discipline students and send students home that won't cooperate with school rules. School research science should be a continuous effort in colleges and private curriculum companies as it is in the private economy. How many times can I say,THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN NOT RUN SCHOOLS ANY BETTER THAN THEY CAN RUN ECONOMIES. FREEDOM WORKS!!

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

I started my long and winding road in Berkeley, California. Yes, the home of the hippies and where the destruction of America, for all intensive purposes, began. I had graduated from High School in 1967, not far from Berkeley, and the hippies were in the streets singing "give peace a chance". Our parents told us the Communists were behind all this, and they were, but we didn't believe it at the time. Unbelievably, later, when the communist radicals got ahold of the democratic party, our parents failed to see this and voted with them!

I had gone to California colleges and I was the first in my family to graduate from college, a story you hear often. So, I was educated, I thought. I thought those socialist profs were real smart, certainly smarter than my parents. They taught me that the church was a palliative for the masses and I believed that, until one day I realized that allowing the hippies to be God wasn't working out that well. My real education began when my husband and I drove our little rental car over the border, behind the iron curtain, into Yugoslavia (it was a country then), and through Bulgaria and into Romania. The first thing I noticed was the stark change to somberness and grey, next I noticed the police with machine guns on the corners. These people meant business. I was frightened. It occurred to me that the American State Department would send a letter on my behalf if I disappeared but I doubted they would send an army. I COULD JUST DISAPPEAR- THESE GOVERNMENTS WERE THAT POWERFUL.

In Berkeley we had heard some of these stories, but we did not believe it. We wanted to see for ourselves. We did. We drove for a very long time over roads that had pot holes you could bury a horse in. We had to change the rims on this new car's tires many times. When we finally reached my cousin's apartment she began to tell us all the sad stories- quietly, if anyone heard they could report you and the government just might make you disappear. The sadness wasn't that they were poor, though they WERE poor, my cousin who was a language professor at the college, and her husband who was an engineer, lived in a tiny apartment and had rationed food as everyone else did- about a pound of pork a month, no beef. The rich people, as in America today, were the government officials, although at least in America this is not exclusive yet. But why do government officials like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama become millionaires while in public office? You got what the government said you could have. No, the sadness was not that you were poor, or even that my cousin's brother had died because the free health care was essentially no health care, the sadness was because the only thing free, as she told me, was the little flower she had growing on her windowsill. Try to imagine what it would be like not to matter. You are no one. The only thing that mattered there was the "good of all". The ALL POWERFUL government decided what that was. There would be this wonderful panacea somewhere in the future. She told me that when she bought clothes they asked her size and gave her the first item on the rack. You were treated rudely, remember, you didn't matter at all, no one had to please you. She so much wanted to learn and to travel but this was impossible. Even to travel in Soviet States took layers of bureaucracy. You could take very little money with you and you had to be strip searched. One day my cousin did disappear. The police picked her up and didn't even notify anyone. They picked her up because she had a friend that got engaged to an American. They thought it was her fault. Eventually they let her go. Would you like to live like that? Would you like that to be the future for your children and grandchildren? Once the government gets that much control you can not change it. You WILL live the way the government tells you.


Ho, ho, ho,- but that could never happen here!! YES IT COULD. The only thing that makes America special is that wonderful constitution that will protect our rights if we respect it. But tragically, our government is moving away from our constitution at a warp speed pace now, and our supreme court will not even protect us. The government can now make you buy anything they want, "it's a tax". Just think of that. Another way that we used to be free in America was in our schools and cities and counties and states. But do you think our cities, counties, schools and states are free now from federal control? Have you been to any of those meetings where nothing makes any sense and the people stand up in mass protest? What happens? Nothing happens, the school board or city commission or county commission, just do what they were going to do anyway. They do exactly what the Federal Government wants them to do. Do you think it was the city of Helena that thought up "Urban Foresters" or "Complete Streets"(bicycle paths) , or disability parking and new annoyingly red curbs everywhere, or a "non-discrimination ordinance", or history signs in front of houses? No indeed- this is all from the policy wonks in Washington. These all powerful people run your life whether you like it or
 not. How about the smoking ordinance- was that because the people of Helena wanted it? NO! What about our little city recreation programs that have now all been taken over by the Rocky Mountain Development Council, it's all Federal grants. All Federal now.

What about the schools, they're still free aren't they? NO INDEED!! They haven't been locally controlled for a long time. Even before the new National Curriculum called Common Core they were taken over by the Federal Government. Do you think the Helena School Board came up with the Comprehensive Health Plan that teaches little children about anal sex? Not any more than they came up with the Bully program, the Buddy program, the Dare program, the Artists in Residency program, the Community Garden program, Head Start, Youth Connections, Intermountain in the schools, how the disabled will be taught or Common Core, to name a few.

I just learned this fact, and it's a stunner- 66% of the funding for the Office of Public Instruction comes from - guess who?- yes, you're right- once again- THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! And who accredits our schools? The Office of Public Instruction! The Communists are wrong and they are dangerous- but they are clever. By controlling the office of public instruction they control education in the state! Who goes to the legislature with Federal Programs? The Office of Public Instruction. Who goes to the Montana State School Board for mandates to the schools? The Office of Public Instruction.The Federal government provides only 7% of the funding for our schools but controls them almost completely.

Behind the iron curtain you could not get good information- everything was propaganda- the government controlled the press. But the government doesn't control the press in America does it? Yes, it does a lot, especially in Helena. Did you know that the Helena School District is proposing to close FOUR schools in the city? Yes, that's the proposed long range plan and the Independent record never even reported it to the people!! Now, why is that? Do you suppose the superintendent and school board members asked them to soft soap the story to manipulate the public? Is this propaganda? Yes, it is. The Helena School District plans to build 2 schools in the valley- an enlarged Jim Darcy and a new middle school and they propose to close Hawthorne, Bryant, Central and Broadwater. They want the elementary students to be in huge schools of from 450-500 students. If you think this is a local plan you are wrong. Once again, everything from the plan to how they control the public, is being managed nationally. If you don't believe this you better wake up. Amy Yurko from Chicago doesn't get her ideas from Helena. Why do they want huge elementary schools and small middle schools ( 500 for elementary and only 700 for middle schools), my guess is that too many small schools have too much freedom. Big schools will enforce compliance with collaboration- this will be the new "academic freedom".

It's a long and winding road and those of us that are not complete idiots or self serving anti-patriots learn things along the way. Every path is different,but I am hoping that there are enough of you, my fellow Americans, to get in the fight and save what that flag of stars and stripes really stands for, OUR FREEDOM. If you think you're selling your freedom for some security- think again. What are you paying and what are you getting? What is the Federal Government doing for you that your local governments and schools couldn't do better on their own? I hope you'll think again, because there will come a time, if we continue down the road we're on, that your opinion will matter less than it does today, and then it will be too late. When the government gets the kind of power and control they had in Romania, you don't change that.