When I was in California recently I saw an old faded bumper sticker that brought me back to the nineties - it said "Mean People Suck". Gee, what a well thought out and mature statement (not really), but it got me to thinking.
First of all, who uses the word "suck" in a derisive and slang fashion? The answer to that would be immature people without a wide vocabulary. Perhaps these people without a wide vocabulary have some limitations on their ability to think things through thoroughly too. I'm going to help these people think things through a little more thoroughly here. It is apparent that there is a large segment of our society that needs to get educated and to grow up, for the defense of the nation.
I was a MEAN mother many times. I made my kids do their homework, go to bed on time, practice their piano, and often didn't give them everything they wanted. I wanted my children to grow up prepared for the world. I wanted them to have the discipline and education to succeed. I was often a MEAN teacher too. I required that my students did their work, and if they didn't succeed they were in with me at recess doing the redo. You see, I cared about whether they understood their work and were ready for the next lesson. I cared about whether they succeeded and had the education they needed to be successful in the next grade and in life. I taught them to believe in themselves, but I also taught them that they had to have discipline and work hard to succeed. You often hear that the meanest teachers were the best. When people grow up and they look back at their teachers and their parents, they often see that what they thought was mean at the time was really the best thing for them.
Enabling people is not kindness. Rewarding addictions and lack of hard work and discipline is fatal for that person, for our American society, and for our country. If America is to be strong and successful once again we need a population that rewards success. We need schools that get back to the philosophy of personal responsibility and respect for the teacher, the school, and adults in general. Students who are led to believe that they are on the same playing field as their elders are doomed for failure. Not only will they not learn from their elders because they think they know it all, they also will be in schools that have no discipline because the culture of the school is not demanding respect.
Today, in school, our liberal friends think they are being so "kind". They have programs to "fix" everything. They have the teachers running around doing home visits and social workers for all kinds of family interventions. They have the Bully program, the Buddy program and all the Behavior Initiative programs in every state. They have the Dare program and Sex Education programs and daycare and all the food programs. It finally got so bad "we have to have" the Common Core program because, actually, our schools were completely failing the students. Progressives destroy things and then they always have the "answer" to repair them- and that answer is always more government control. At least they are admitting their failures, though certainly Common Core WILL NOT FIX WHAT IS WRONG. In fact, Common Core is on track to DESTROY 200 years of education in this country.
Terrence Moore points out in his book The Story Killers that the most important thing kids learn in life is to be a good person. All the education in the world won't make you succeed if you are a failure as a person. If you don't know right from wrong and you don't have the integrity and discipline to lead an ordered life, you are doomed for failure. Our schools are not teaching discipline and respect, they are teaching victim hood. The Dare program is telling kids they have a choice, not that it is absolutely wrong to do drugs. The Bully program often has the perpetrator as the victim and the student trying to mind his own business as the villain. Our sex education programs sexualize our children young and teach them tolerance for promiscuity. The Buddy program pairs up our at risk students with teenagers, not always the best influence for a young child, and the parents don't get to do the screening.
In class students are taught their opinions have the same value as the teachers and they have the right to suck on water bottles and leave the class for the bathroom all the time. They are taught that curriculum time is really not all that important, after all, it is interrupted constantly by the school itself.
It is not money that is going to fix our schools. It is not programs that are going to fix our society. The answers are not that hard and they go back to the original Ten Commandments that God gave us. Teach discipline and respect for teachers and the school. Show leadership and demand performance. You can't "fix" every family. Get rid of the hyperbole- as I've said so many times- if parents weren't feeding their kids they would be dead before they made it to school age. When the liberals have a program that requires parent input- voila! parents show up. Parents DO care about their children.
There are enduring truths and America needs to get back to them. Give up the programs and the corruption and lobbyists will go away. Turn "kindness" into a demand for respect, leadership, integrity and hard work. MEAN PEOPLE DO NOT SUCK, THEY OFFER THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL MAKE OUR SCHOOLS AND OUR SOCIETY SUCCESSFUL ONCE AGAIN.
Thursday, 1 May 2014
Wednesday, 23 April 2014
TEXTBOOKS
Back in the days when we were making steady progress in our schools we had faith in our TEXTBOOKS. Why did we have faith in our TEXTBOOKS? We had faith in our TEXTBOOKS because we understood that the people who wrote these books were PROFESSIONALS THAT SPENT THEIR DAYS DEVELOPING THE BEST WAY TO TEACH CURRICULUM and that TEXTBOOKS TAUGHT A SUBJECT AT GRADE LEVEL COMPREHENSIVELY AND INCREMENTALLY, AND LOGICALLY BUILT KNOWLEDGE!! Teachers knew that their job was to DELIVER the curriculum, not to write the TEXTBOOK! Lesson planning, where teachers design a LESSON, is entirely different than creating the curriculum everyday.
Teachers worked on committees to write a curriculum and then found the best TEXTBOOKS they could to deliver the best education. They had a scope and sequence as a guide, but THE TEXTBOOK GAVE THE DAY TO DAY STRUCTURE THAT DELIVERED LOGICAL AND COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING. Fast forward to today and you will see superintendents SNEERING at TEXTBOOKS !! Yes, these geniuses have taken up the ultra left Common Core rhetoric of demeaning the use of TEXTBOOKS. The left has been sneering at TEXTBOOKS and trying to get rid of them for as long as I can remember. As I have said on this blog before, their ideas NEVER change. They do not see failure as an obstacle- anymore than the fact that the earth has not gotten warmer in TWENTY YEARS stops the global warming catastrophe crowd. The left just keeps marching on in the same track. The people can stop them with the vote- that's the only thing that will finally stop their failed ideas from marching on and continuing to destroy education in this country.
Teachers at the high schools here are being told they are "isolationists" if they want to teach the comprehensive curriculum. These genius administrators, following Jeb Bush's Common Core, "Just aren't sure the kids need to learn all of that." What do they want the teachers to do instead? They want the Calculus teacher to develop "collaborative units" with the English teacher. This is not a joke. I am dead serious. I heard this first hand. These jokers, who by the way have no research evidence for any of this, are trying to break down 200 years of education in this country. Meanwhile, my daughter who teaches Life Sciences in a college, is finding college students that don't even know what electrons and protons are!! Thirty percent of our Montana graduates have to be remediated in Math!!
Collaborative units are nothing more than little hands on projects, that at best, in a good curriculum, can add reinforcement. Across subject lines they aren't even that. This is the same "whole language" garbage the left has been trying to sell for fifty years. The same whole language idea that NEVER has shown success. And yet, they will take the valuable time of our high school students and spend it experimenting- whiling away days with no real learning progress. Learning is about building a foundation of knowledge in specific curricular areas- whether the left likes it or not. The question is, when will the American people step in and stop this destruction in our public schools?
TEXTBOOKS deliver comprehensive knowledge in a teach, practice, review and test format.TEXTBOOKS build information. TEXTBOOKS require accountability from teachers and students. TEXTBOOKS should be the foundation of classroom learning. They should be sought after competitively so that bad textbook companies, like Common Core's Pearson, are put out of business ,and the best TEXTBOOKS are purchased. There is not enough room here to tell about all the ridiculous wastes of curricular time the left has thought up, and that our even more ridiculous board members are so proud of. It doesn't take a neuroscientist to tell you that kids need on task uninterrupted structured curriculum time to learn, but our school board members, who are so proud of themselves, just can't see it at all. Why, they have programs!! Meanwhile, The Common Core tyrants, get to CHANGE THE TESTS ANY TIME AND IN ANYWAY THEY WANT TO!! How can Common Core fail? They'll just change the test- and voila! the kids can do it now!! What a wonderful world. Make your children's teachers stick to the TEXTBOOKS and make sure they are GOOD TEXTBOOKS!!
Teachers worked on committees to write a curriculum and then found the best TEXTBOOKS they could to deliver the best education. They had a scope and sequence as a guide, but THE TEXTBOOK GAVE THE DAY TO DAY STRUCTURE THAT DELIVERED LOGICAL AND COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING. Fast forward to today and you will see superintendents SNEERING at TEXTBOOKS !! Yes, these geniuses have taken up the ultra left Common Core rhetoric of demeaning the use of TEXTBOOKS. The left has been sneering at TEXTBOOKS and trying to get rid of them for as long as I can remember. As I have said on this blog before, their ideas NEVER change. They do not see failure as an obstacle- anymore than the fact that the earth has not gotten warmer in TWENTY YEARS stops the global warming catastrophe crowd. The left just keeps marching on in the same track. The people can stop them with the vote- that's the only thing that will finally stop their failed ideas from marching on and continuing to destroy education in this country.
Teachers at the high schools here are being told they are "isolationists" if they want to teach the comprehensive curriculum. These genius administrators, following Jeb Bush's Common Core, "Just aren't sure the kids need to learn all of that." What do they want the teachers to do instead? They want the Calculus teacher to develop "collaborative units" with the English teacher. This is not a joke. I am dead serious. I heard this first hand. These jokers, who by the way have no research evidence for any of this, are trying to break down 200 years of education in this country. Meanwhile, my daughter who teaches Life Sciences in a college, is finding college students that don't even know what electrons and protons are!! Thirty percent of our Montana graduates have to be remediated in Math!!
Collaborative units are nothing more than little hands on projects, that at best, in a good curriculum, can add reinforcement. Across subject lines they aren't even that. This is the same "whole language" garbage the left has been trying to sell for fifty years. The same whole language idea that NEVER has shown success. And yet, they will take the valuable time of our high school students and spend it experimenting- whiling away days with no real learning progress. Learning is about building a foundation of knowledge in specific curricular areas- whether the left likes it or not. The question is, when will the American people step in and stop this destruction in our public schools?
TEXTBOOKS deliver comprehensive knowledge in a teach, practice, review and test format.TEXTBOOKS build information. TEXTBOOKS require accountability from teachers and students. TEXTBOOKS should be the foundation of classroom learning. They should be sought after competitively so that bad textbook companies, like Common Core's Pearson, are put out of business ,and the best TEXTBOOKS are purchased. There is not enough room here to tell about all the ridiculous wastes of curricular time the left has thought up, and that our even more ridiculous board members are so proud of. It doesn't take a neuroscientist to tell you that kids need on task uninterrupted structured curriculum time to learn, but our school board members, who are so proud of themselves, just can't see it at all. Why, they have programs!! Meanwhile, The Common Core tyrants, get to CHANGE THE TESTS ANY TIME AND IN ANYWAY THEY WANT TO!! How can Common Core fail? They'll just change the test- and voila! the kids can do it now!! What a wonderful world. Make your children's teachers stick to the TEXTBOOKS and make sure they are GOOD TEXTBOOKS!!
Sunday, 13 April 2014
I D E A S
For more than fifty years now the left has been telling us that ALL OF THEIR IDEAS ARE GOOD and that they are PROGRESSIVE IDEAS, leaving you to believe that they have a lock on what the future is going to be and what is best for all of us. As an educator I can tell you that the left hasn't had any new ideas for the more than the fifty years that I referenced above. Their shrill and didactic messaging has done a good job of drowning out the REAL new and PROGRESSIVE ideas THAT COME FROM THE RIGHT.
I am so tired of Montessori that I could THROW UP!! There is no evidence what so ever that these free school strategies and ideas work. I remember when Montessori classes were first introduced in Helena. The advocates had the gall to say that students coming out of Montessori would be so far superior to all the other students when they got to middle school that everyone would want to be in Montessori!! Ha- Ha- no such thing ever occurred. But, did the school district get rid of Montessori classes? NO!! They got more of them because these so called "progressives" wanted them!! These classes continue but the proof of their success is just not there.
I went to college in the 70's. NOTHING in the free school rhetoric has changed. Common Core promotes "collaborative" learning and the teacher being the "guide by the side". What kind of schooling do you think that is? IT'S THE SAME OLD FREE SCHOOL GARBAGE THAT HAS NEVER WORKED!! Meanwhile we could be moving on to making our education and our nation stronger. Let's explore what COULD be happening if our schools weren't being held captive by tired old failed liberal ideas of the past.
First of all- competition works. America has the strongest economy and is the richest nation because competition works- period. The more we follow Marxist ideas the more we move our economy and our country backwards. I was at the Transportation Museum in Reno recently and the guide there told us that after Henry Ford came out with his assembly line IDEA for making cars,the number of car companies went from 220 to 10!! That's how many bad IDEAS were out there. We try many times before we find the RIGHT IDEA THAT WORKS. Through COMPETITION the car manufacturing industry was able to get the BEST IDEAS and produce GOOD CARS THAT PEOPLE COULD AFFORD. In school we have allowed competition to be smothered and old failing IDEAS to go on and on and be repackaged and renamed and continue to fail. Government control and centralized planning kill innovation and real progress. The unions hate charter schools- but maybe charter schools are just the thing we need in order to try out IDEAS and see what is TRULY SUCCESSFUL.
Second of all - many things that we do in traditional structured learning have had trials and been found to be the most successful. Many IDEAS have withstood the tests of time and are enduring. It is absolutely foolish to think that everything from the past was bad and only what we think of in the present day is RIGHT. Good change comes slowly and incrementally, respecting what works from the past and changing and adding with great care.
Finally, we need to get the Federal Government and all centralized planners out of our schools. Common Core was thought up by bureaucrats behind closed doors. I can't think of a worse scenario for destroying education. Education needs the light of day and control by parents and teachers in the local setting. Parents, teachers and local school boards will decide what works and throw out what doesn't. The IDEA of freedom, and of our country, is the belief in the ABILITY OF THE PEOPLE TO DECIDE.
There are so many good IDEAS to try, like improving teacher training in the colleges to prepare experts at every grade level. IDEAS about controlling bad behaviors or questioning techniques or how to meet the needs of different individual learners. Many of them might be found not to work. We can compete and choose on the local level what is working. Bureaucratic control and top down governance breeds special interests and powerful lobbies for money. All of that will go away when Washington D.C.- the Federal Department of Education, goes away. Let freedom and competition ring throughout our education in America- unstrangle our voices and our IDEAS. Let America and our schools go- let us become what we can be- really strong and really successful with people that REALLY want America to be the greatest country on this earth.
I am so tired of Montessori that I could THROW UP!! There is no evidence what so ever that these free school strategies and ideas work. I remember when Montessori classes were first introduced in Helena. The advocates had the gall to say that students coming out of Montessori would be so far superior to all the other students when they got to middle school that everyone would want to be in Montessori!! Ha- Ha- no such thing ever occurred. But, did the school district get rid of Montessori classes? NO!! They got more of them because these so called "progressives" wanted them!! These classes continue but the proof of their success is just not there.
I went to college in the 70's. NOTHING in the free school rhetoric has changed. Common Core promotes "collaborative" learning and the teacher being the "guide by the side". What kind of schooling do you think that is? IT'S THE SAME OLD FREE SCHOOL GARBAGE THAT HAS NEVER WORKED!! Meanwhile we could be moving on to making our education and our nation stronger. Let's explore what COULD be happening if our schools weren't being held captive by tired old failed liberal ideas of the past.
First of all- competition works. America has the strongest economy and is the richest nation because competition works- period. The more we follow Marxist ideas the more we move our economy and our country backwards. I was at the Transportation Museum in Reno recently and the guide there told us that after Henry Ford came out with his assembly line IDEA for making cars,the number of car companies went from 220 to 10!! That's how many bad IDEAS were out there. We try many times before we find the RIGHT IDEA THAT WORKS. Through COMPETITION the car manufacturing industry was able to get the BEST IDEAS and produce GOOD CARS THAT PEOPLE COULD AFFORD. In school we have allowed competition to be smothered and old failing IDEAS to go on and on and be repackaged and renamed and continue to fail. Government control and centralized planning kill innovation and real progress. The unions hate charter schools- but maybe charter schools are just the thing we need in order to try out IDEAS and see what is TRULY SUCCESSFUL.
Second of all - many things that we do in traditional structured learning have had trials and been found to be the most successful. Many IDEAS have withstood the tests of time and are enduring. It is absolutely foolish to think that everything from the past was bad and only what we think of in the present day is RIGHT. Good change comes slowly and incrementally, respecting what works from the past and changing and adding with great care.
Finally, we need to get the Federal Government and all centralized planners out of our schools. Common Core was thought up by bureaucrats behind closed doors. I can't think of a worse scenario for destroying education. Education needs the light of day and control by parents and teachers in the local setting. Parents, teachers and local school boards will decide what works and throw out what doesn't. The IDEA of freedom, and of our country, is the belief in the ABILITY OF THE PEOPLE TO DECIDE.
There are so many good IDEAS to try, like improving teacher training in the colleges to prepare experts at every grade level. IDEAS about controlling bad behaviors or questioning techniques or how to meet the needs of different individual learners. Many of them might be found not to work. We can compete and choose on the local level what is working. Bureaucratic control and top down governance breeds special interests and powerful lobbies for money. All of that will go away when Washington D.C.- the Federal Department of Education, goes away. Let freedom and competition ring throughout our education in America- unstrangle our voices and our IDEAS. Let America and our schools go- let us become what we can be- really strong and really successful with people that REALLY want America to be the greatest country on this earth.
Friday, 4 April 2014
THE ENABLED SOCIETY
We all see enabling as dysfunctional. I'm not a psychiatrist by any means, but I think it is obvious to all of us that enabling is dysfunctional- and yet- what do we see in our American society? We see enabling everywhere and all the time.
When I was teaching school I would encounter enabling parents. Their child was never responsible for ANYTHING. One time I had a student who was throwing rocks on the playground and his mother defended him " they were only small rocks" WHAT?!! SMALL ROCKS?!! We didn't allow any rock throwing for obvious reasons. When you encountered situations like this you knew the parents were in for real trouble. We might have to deal with the results of this kind of parenting at school, but the parents would deal with the results of this kind of parenting and ENABLING, for the rest of their lives. The child would deal with the consequences of this ENABLING and excuse making in their lives forever, unfortunately.
But what happens when you enable a society? Behavior begins to deteriorate. Why would you work hard if someone will pay your bills? Why would you pay full cost for your own health insurance if someone is going to pay it for you? Why would you behave in school if you've got the teacher over the barrel and you can do anything you want and get away with it? Why would you be careful to buy property that is out of a flood plane when the Federal Government will bale you out if there is a flood? Why would you try to be strong if you can get paid for being weak?
The list goes on and on and on. Politicians milk this enabling for all it is worth- you really are a victim and they will see that you get PAID. Lawyers want the big bucks and advertise to take EVERY drug company or manufacturer that they can to court. They take the big bucks and the suckers get their $14.89 or $7.00 or whatever. Health care costs skyrocket to pay for everybody's windfall in this litigious society. We all pay more for products and more for taxes- but those of us that still will and can pay these bills will always be left holding the bag.
Discipline in school and in the society in general is breaking down. The country's debt continues to mount. The politicians win the elections and look for another dysfunctional cause to champion - you are disabled if you say you are and they will get you your rights - to heck with everybody else- the general population will pay the bill and put up with the inconvenience whatever that may be.
America can break out of this by just saying NO!!! NO, WE WON'T PAY THE TAXES. NO WE WON'T BELIEVE YOU ARE A VICTIM.NO, WE WON'T LET KIDS MISBEHAVE IN SCHOOL. YES, WE WILL MAKE PARENTS MAKE LUNCHES AND REQUIRE KIDS TO FOLLOW SIMPLE DRESS CODE RULES AND SAVE DRINKS UNTIL RECESS.
America can only get healthy again when the ENABLERS are stopped. I've seen it in school. When you have a substitute the kids size him/her up quickly- "what can we get away with here? What will be expected?" Katy bar the door if kids figure out they can run the teacher instead of the other way around. I know of situations where the kids behaved better for the substitute than for their real teacher. I knew one substitute ( guest teacher these days) that changed the furniture arrangement in the room- she was the boss for that day and the kids knew it. America can become the boss again- it is truly amazing how fast things can change when the person in charge just says NO and takes charge. Quit being weak and STOP THE ENABLERS COLD- STOP THEM RIGHT IN THEIR TRACKS- NO MORE ENABLING!!
When I was teaching school I would encounter enabling parents. Their child was never responsible for ANYTHING. One time I had a student who was throwing rocks on the playground and his mother defended him " they were only small rocks" WHAT?!! SMALL ROCKS?!! We didn't allow any rock throwing for obvious reasons. When you encountered situations like this you knew the parents were in for real trouble. We might have to deal with the results of this kind of parenting at school, but the parents would deal with the results of this kind of parenting and ENABLING, for the rest of their lives. The child would deal with the consequences of this ENABLING and excuse making in their lives forever, unfortunately.
But what happens when you enable a society? Behavior begins to deteriorate. Why would you work hard if someone will pay your bills? Why would you pay full cost for your own health insurance if someone is going to pay it for you? Why would you behave in school if you've got the teacher over the barrel and you can do anything you want and get away with it? Why would you be careful to buy property that is out of a flood plane when the Federal Government will bale you out if there is a flood? Why would you try to be strong if you can get paid for being weak?
The list goes on and on and on. Politicians milk this enabling for all it is worth- you really are a victim and they will see that you get PAID. Lawyers want the big bucks and advertise to take EVERY drug company or manufacturer that they can to court. They take the big bucks and the suckers get their $14.89 or $7.00 or whatever. Health care costs skyrocket to pay for everybody's windfall in this litigious society. We all pay more for products and more for taxes- but those of us that still will and can pay these bills will always be left holding the bag.
Discipline in school and in the society in general is breaking down. The country's debt continues to mount. The politicians win the elections and look for another dysfunctional cause to champion - you are disabled if you say you are and they will get you your rights - to heck with everybody else- the general population will pay the bill and put up with the inconvenience whatever that may be.
America can break out of this by just saying NO!!! NO, WE WON'T PAY THE TAXES. NO WE WON'T BELIEVE YOU ARE A VICTIM.NO, WE WON'T LET KIDS MISBEHAVE IN SCHOOL. YES, WE WILL MAKE PARENTS MAKE LUNCHES AND REQUIRE KIDS TO FOLLOW SIMPLE DRESS CODE RULES AND SAVE DRINKS UNTIL RECESS.
America can only get healthy again when the ENABLERS are stopped. I've seen it in school. When you have a substitute the kids size him/her up quickly- "what can we get away with here? What will be expected?" Katy bar the door if kids figure out they can run the teacher instead of the other way around. I know of situations where the kids behaved better for the substitute than for their real teacher. I knew one substitute ( guest teacher these days) that changed the furniture arrangement in the room- she was the boss for that day and the kids knew it. America can become the boss again- it is truly amazing how fast things can change when the person in charge just says NO and takes charge. Quit being weak and STOP THE ENABLERS COLD- STOP THEM RIGHT IN THEIR TRACKS- NO MORE ENABLING!!
Friday, 21 March 2014
Open Letter To Michelle Obama
Dear Michelle,
What in the world are you doing in China?!! Your trip is to discuss EDUCATION!! Do you think we need advice from COMMUNISTS?!! Are you so completely mislead as to believe China is a great place and our schools should be like theirs?!! I know you like to take your girls on a nice tax payer funded vacation every year for spring break- but seriously- what do you know about education?!!Have you ever taught or do you have any degrees in education at all? Are you now moving your career from being my nutritional advisor to an education expert?!! I never noticed you being elected to anything, so why would you be representing me in China?!!
This trip wouldn't have anything to do with all the Chinese doctors and professors that are decrying the value of a national curriculum WOULD IT??? My goodness, I know you love communists but let's look at the situation - are you signing your children up for school in Chinese Public Schools? Maybe you should stop for some healthcare in the hospitals for their average Chinese peasant while you are there. The fact is that Communism (tyranny) doesn't work,nor do their schools. They don't get their test scores by testing Chinese peasant children- they pick the brightest and only those children go on to national testing to be compared with other nations.
But wait a minute- you said Common Core was NOT A NATIONAL CURRICULUM!! Why, just because your buddy Arnie Duncan runs around shoving Common Core down the throat of every township, municipality, school district and spot in the road in America and your husband is doling out Federal Grants like candy to bribe every school district, that doesn't make it a FEDERAL program does it? Oh, or maybe it does Michelle.
You know Michelle, I wouldn't care if the schools in China were just wonderful- I still wouldn't want to live in the world of tyranny that you and your husband are trying to create. Our children and our parents and our teachers don't need you or your husband's advice or interference in their schools. In America our schools are a states right and we want our children to go to school to learn academics, not to be social engineered. We'll eat what we want and teach what we want - we really don't want or need your advice.
While we're here having this little conversation Michelle let's talk about the "21st century global education" you're so enamored with. In the first place, you don't know what the "21st century" will be anymore than Lincoln knew how the Civil War would turn out or our founders knew how this great country they created in the new Constitution would work out - you see- God doesn't give us the power to know the future. But one thing is for sure- a country that builds up its debt to over SEVENTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS has sacrificed its' national security and the financial security of its' children. Allowing Russian expansion will leave America weak and in peril- as will nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. Rampant Moslem radicalism that your husband encourages leaves us unsafe everywhere. Legalized drugs and getting rid of mandatory sentences encourages moral decay and a loss of the integrity and work ethic that makes a strong nation. Destabilizing the Middle East, by threatening and not supporting Israel, encourages radicalism and the loss of Western influence there.
None of us knows the future, but we can spend our money carefully and plan well to try to be strong for whatever may come. Your husband is making America weak and in danger. Your trip to China is a waste of money that we don't have to spend. You don't know education and you don't know the 21st century- bring your girls home and pay for your own vacation this year.
What in the world are you doing in China?!! Your trip is to discuss EDUCATION!! Do you think we need advice from COMMUNISTS?!! Are you so completely mislead as to believe China is a great place and our schools should be like theirs?!! I know you like to take your girls on a nice tax payer funded vacation every year for spring break- but seriously- what do you know about education?!!Have you ever taught or do you have any degrees in education at all? Are you now moving your career from being my nutritional advisor to an education expert?!! I never noticed you being elected to anything, so why would you be representing me in China?!!
This trip wouldn't have anything to do with all the Chinese doctors and professors that are decrying the value of a national curriculum WOULD IT??? My goodness, I know you love communists but let's look at the situation - are you signing your children up for school in Chinese Public Schools? Maybe you should stop for some healthcare in the hospitals for their average Chinese peasant while you are there. The fact is that Communism (tyranny) doesn't work,nor do their schools. They don't get their test scores by testing Chinese peasant children- they pick the brightest and only those children go on to national testing to be compared with other nations.
But wait a minute- you said Common Core was NOT A NATIONAL CURRICULUM!! Why, just because your buddy Arnie Duncan runs around shoving Common Core down the throat of every township, municipality, school district and spot in the road in America and your husband is doling out Federal Grants like candy to bribe every school district, that doesn't make it a FEDERAL program does it? Oh, or maybe it does Michelle.
You know Michelle, I wouldn't care if the schools in China were just wonderful- I still wouldn't want to live in the world of tyranny that you and your husband are trying to create. Our children and our parents and our teachers don't need you or your husband's advice or interference in their schools. In America our schools are a states right and we want our children to go to school to learn academics, not to be social engineered. We'll eat what we want and teach what we want - we really don't want or need your advice.
While we're here having this little conversation Michelle let's talk about the "21st century global education" you're so enamored with. In the first place, you don't know what the "21st century" will be anymore than Lincoln knew how the Civil War would turn out or our founders knew how this great country they created in the new Constitution would work out - you see- God doesn't give us the power to know the future. But one thing is for sure- a country that builds up its debt to over SEVENTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS has sacrificed its' national security and the financial security of its' children. Allowing Russian expansion will leave America weak and in peril- as will nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. Rampant Moslem radicalism that your husband encourages leaves us unsafe everywhere. Legalized drugs and getting rid of mandatory sentences encourages moral decay and a loss of the integrity and work ethic that makes a strong nation. Destabilizing the Middle East, by threatening and not supporting Israel, encourages radicalism and the loss of Western influence there.
None of us knows the future, but we can spend our money carefully and plan well to try to be strong for whatever may come. Your husband is making America weak and in danger. Your trip to China is a waste of money that we don't have to spend. You don't know education and you don't know the 21st century- bring your girls home and pay for your own vacation this year.
Friday, 14 March 2014
DRIVING THE FREEWAYS
I just listened to a video lecture by Diana West who wrote the book American Betrayal. I came across this video completely by accident- I was reading a Google Alert on Common Core and there it was in the margin. I was stunned to see that her research of Soviet archives had brought her to the same conclusion that I talked about in my last post- America is not living on the truth- America is living on lies that are told to us for ideological purposes. The ideological purpose is to destroy capitalism and the American Constitution.
Diana points out that espionage is not always as it is portrayed in the movies- a secret agent trying to get documents and give them over. Espionage can also be trying to frame the debate. Diana has information that shows that our government began to be infiltrated by soviet agents in the thirties.
This is certainly not the first time I have heard about soviet infiltration- we all know about Alger Hiss- and a few days before President Kennedy died he gave a speech in which he said he would be investigating communist infiltration of the government. No thinking person could deny this influence and penetration into our government.
The question is- do we want to believe it? Of course anyone who says the obvious is called a fascist or a red bater or something, to either intimidate them into shutting up or to discredit anything they have to say,but what does America choose to do? America is very sick, some would say on life support- the question is not whether she can get well again- the question is whether the American people WILL make her well again.
My first degree is in social science. I learned there that societies are like families. Dysfunctional families will protect liars. Why do they protect liars? I'm not a psychologist but I guess it is for preservation- preserving a front or a person from exposure. It's easier to protect the lie. You can get love and advantages from protecting the lie. It takes great courage to stand up and take the wrath by exposing the lies. America is like that dysfunctional family. Some people can see the lie and don't want to say anything- it might hurt their job or their social standing or lose them friends. Some people can't see the lie- they've invested their whole life in the lie- maybe they've given up their religion or caused harm to their family- giving up now would leave them without anything in their life- they aren't going to admit the lies even to themselves. Others see the lies but they don't feel like they can do anything about it- they don't think they have a choice, so they go along. One fact does remain however, America must choose to stop the liars, or choose to keep being sick.
We had to go to Washington state this week and as we drove down the highway I watched all these thousands and thousands of cars driving in the right lanes, getting off at the right exits, getting onto and off of ramps, changing lanes - and THERE WERE NO ACCIDENTS!! How could that be if the majority of American people are not smart enough or decent enough to even feed their children? Maybe Americans are actually able to be independent and free. Maybe the American people can not only feed their own children but find them healthcare and daycare as they always have. Maybe they can provide for themselves and their families without a large intrusive government. Maybe they can decide on the best education for their children without the Federal government having any say at all. Maybe the vast majority of Americans don't need the Federal Government for anything but what it was intended for in our Constitution. Maybe the Federal Government doesn't need to collect personal data on our children in school so that they can manage us and raise our children because we are too incompetent to do so. Maybe we don't need unemployment insurance or health insurance from the Federal Government. Maybe we really are smart enough to be free and independent.
If you think Common Core is "Just standards" you obviously are unwilling to see or admit the truth. As I've said on this blog a thousand times, and I never should have even had to say it, if you are telling teachers how to teach, aligning the textbooks and providing tests- you haven't just suggested a standard- you have written a curriculum. America will not get on the road to good health until the majority of its citizens will stand up and quit listening to ridiculous and preposterous lies. The lies are all around us- as easy to pick off as ripe cherries from a tree. There is no end of material for this blog- but my heart aches- please America- start FIGHTING BACK!! Have the courage to fight back, just admit the truth and start the healing. Untelling the lies will take time- and for some it will require great courage and personal sacrifice, but we will all be so much better off when we have a country that is on the right path, a country that has a government we can respect again, a country we will be proud to leave to our children.
Diana points out that espionage is not always as it is portrayed in the movies- a secret agent trying to get documents and give them over. Espionage can also be trying to frame the debate. Diana has information that shows that our government began to be infiltrated by soviet agents in the thirties.
This is certainly not the first time I have heard about soviet infiltration- we all know about Alger Hiss- and a few days before President Kennedy died he gave a speech in which he said he would be investigating communist infiltration of the government. No thinking person could deny this influence and penetration into our government.
The question is- do we want to believe it? Of course anyone who says the obvious is called a fascist or a red bater or something, to either intimidate them into shutting up or to discredit anything they have to say,but what does America choose to do? America is very sick, some would say on life support- the question is not whether she can get well again- the question is whether the American people WILL make her well again.
My first degree is in social science. I learned there that societies are like families. Dysfunctional families will protect liars. Why do they protect liars? I'm not a psychologist but I guess it is for preservation- preserving a front or a person from exposure. It's easier to protect the lie. You can get love and advantages from protecting the lie. It takes great courage to stand up and take the wrath by exposing the lies. America is like that dysfunctional family. Some people can see the lie and don't want to say anything- it might hurt their job or their social standing or lose them friends. Some people can't see the lie- they've invested their whole life in the lie- maybe they've given up their religion or caused harm to their family- giving up now would leave them without anything in their life- they aren't going to admit the lies even to themselves. Others see the lies but they don't feel like they can do anything about it- they don't think they have a choice, so they go along. One fact does remain however, America must choose to stop the liars, or choose to keep being sick.
We had to go to Washington state this week and as we drove down the highway I watched all these thousands and thousands of cars driving in the right lanes, getting off at the right exits, getting onto and off of ramps, changing lanes - and THERE WERE NO ACCIDENTS!! How could that be if the majority of American people are not smart enough or decent enough to even feed their children? Maybe Americans are actually able to be independent and free. Maybe the American people can not only feed their own children but find them healthcare and daycare as they always have. Maybe they can provide for themselves and their families without a large intrusive government. Maybe they can decide on the best education for their children without the Federal government having any say at all. Maybe the vast majority of Americans don't need the Federal Government for anything but what it was intended for in our Constitution. Maybe the Federal Government doesn't need to collect personal data on our children in school so that they can manage us and raise our children because we are too incompetent to do so. Maybe we don't need unemployment insurance or health insurance from the Federal Government. Maybe we really are smart enough to be free and independent.
If you think Common Core is "Just standards" you obviously are unwilling to see or admit the truth. As I've said on this blog a thousand times, and I never should have even had to say it, if you are telling teachers how to teach, aligning the textbooks and providing tests- you haven't just suggested a standard- you have written a curriculum. America will not get on the road to good health until the majority of its citizens will stand up and quit listening to ridiculous and preposterous lies. The lies are all around us- as easy to pick off as ripe cherries from a tree. There is no end of material for this blog- but my heart aches- please America- start FIGHTING BACK!! Have the courage to fight back, just admit the truth and start the healing. Untelling the lies will take time- and for some it will require great courage and personal sacrifice, but we will all be so much better off when we have a country that is on the right path, a country that has a government we can respect again, a country we will be proud to leave to our children.
Thursday, 6 March 2014
FALSIFYING DATA
I have learned many things on the journey to my daughter becoming a microbiologist. One of the things I learned is that YOU NEVER FALSIFY DATA!! This is taken VERY SERIOUSLY in the microbiology world. Why is it taken so seriously? It's taken so seriously because SCIENCE DEPENDS ON VALID DATA!! THERE IS NO SCIENCE IF THE DATA IS NOT VALID- THE STORY YOU ARE TELLING IS JUST A MADE UP STORY OF FICTION IF THE DATA IS NOT VALID.
So what is happening in our world today? The left is FALSIFYING DATA!! They have been doing this for a very long time. Do you remember Rachel Carson? She created the DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) hysteria. DDT's usefulness in combatting malaria and other insect-borne diseases was unprecedented. Millions and millions of lives were saved from typhus, malaria and other diseases because of DDT. But suddenly, one woman in a fit of hysteria changed all that. In her book Silent Spring she cited cases of cancer in children and came to the unproven conclusion that the cancer was caused by DDT. She didn't even have to put in the long years of study to prove her theory- she just gave epidemiological evidence- percentages of cancer- to come to her conclusions. Oh my, the fact that more children were dying of cancer than other diseases was because THE OTHER DISEASES LIKE PLAGUE AND MALARIA THAT HAD KILLED CHILDREN PREVIOUSLY WERE WIPED OUT LEAVING THE PERCENTAGE THAT DIED OF CANCER HIGHER SINCE THERE WERE LESS OVERALL DEATHS!! She just hadn't considered that. Now, after millions of unnecessary deaths, the World Health Organization is backing off of its ban on DDT. If the World Health Organization and the press had REQUIRED ACTUAL PROOF OF THE LINK BETWEEN DDT AND CANCER instead of epidemiology - which doesn't prove a connection- millions of lives would have been saved. Do you remember the saccharine hysteria? We all had to quit having saccharine in our drinks because mice that were given saccharine got cancer. Oh my, we later found out that they were giving more saccharine to the mice than their body weight practically!! No proof of connection- how would any body act with that much foreign substance in their body?
And so on it goes- wild fires are wonderful- let it burn!! Oh, and when Yellow Stone Park gets destroyed just put up a museum right away to propagandize the public about all the wonderful wild flowers they now have!! Don't let anyone think about what the runoff will do to the streams or all the wildlife habitat that has been destroyed- propagandize and cover for all the BAD SCIENCE OR NO SCIENCE AT ALL. We all have to have lightbulbs with mercury now for the junk science that says carbons are causing global warming- only theory- no hard science to prove the relationship.
There is really not enough space here to put down all the lies and distortions of leftist "science", but this blog is about the schools, do you really think these people should be writing your child's textbooks? Does anyone think these distortion artists should be given the power to determine what KNOWLEDGE the children of America will learn? Will our children learn ANY VALID KNOWLEDGE when these people are responsible for the National Curriculum called Common Core?
You know it's not just in science that they lie and distort. We see broken lives everyday of people who listened to liberal class warfare garbage. Thank goodness the Senate rejected the nomination of Debo Adegebile to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights division.He worked to commute the sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal who killed a policeman. I think Al Sharpton and the NAACP are just as responsible. These groups distort and teach children hatred. I remember when the Black Panthers came up with the name "pig" for policeman. I remember when Al Sharpton accused a bunch of Hockey Players of being rapists and the whole thing was found to be completely false. People learn hatreds and attitudes based on false information. The left has tried to rewrite our history, telling us that Abraham Lincoln had mental illness or President Eisenhower was biracial. I'm sure I couldn't cover all the lies and distortions here, but America will never be free and righteous again until we stop the lies and require proof.
Our children need to get excellent educations in school. They need to learn the crime of FALSIFYING DATA. They need to have REAL BEST TEACHING PRACTICES AND REAL DATA TO BACK UP THE INFORMATION THEY ARE BEING TAUGHT. We can start by holding all of these liberals accountable for everything they try to dump on us. Question, question, question and NEVER accept anything they say without the PROOF!!
So what is happening in our world today? The left is FALSIFYING DATA!! They have been doing this for a very long time. Do you remember Rachel Carson? She created the DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) hysteria. DDT's usefulness in combatting malaria and other insect-borne diseases was unprecedented. Millions and millions of lives were saved from typhus, malaria and other diseases because of DDT. But suddenly, one woman in a fit of hysteria changed all that. In her book Silent Spring she cited cases of cancer in children and came to the unproven conclusion that the cancer was caused by DDT. She didn't even have to put in the long years of study to prove her theory- she just gave epidemiological evidence- percentages of cancer- to come to her conclusions. Oh my, the fact that more children were dying of cancer than other diseases was because THE OTHER DISEASES LIKE PLAGUE AND MALARIA THAT HAD KILLED CHILDREN PREVIOUSLY WERE WIPED OUT LEAVING THE PERCENTAGE THAT DIED OF CANCER HIGHER SINCE THERE WERE LESS OVERALL DEATHS!! She just hadn't considered that. Now, after millions of unnecessary deaths, the World Health Organization is backing off of its ban on DDT. If the World Health Organization and the press had REQUIRED ACTUAL PROOF OF THE LINK BETWEEN DDT AND CANCER instead of epidemiology - which doesn't prove a connection- millions of lives would have been saved. Do you remember the saccharine hysteria? We all had to quit having saccharine in our drinks because mice that were given saccharine got cancer. Oh my, we later found out that they were giving more saccharine to the mice than their body weight practically!! No proof of connection- how would any body act with that much foreign substance in their body?
And so on it goes- wild fires are wonderful- let it burn!! Oh, and when Yellow Stone Park gets destroyed just put up a museum right away to propagandize the public about all the wonderful wild flowers they now have!! Don't let anyone think about what the runoff will do to the streams or all the wildlife habitat that has been destroyed- propagandize and cover for all the BAD SCIENCE OR NO SCIENCE AT ALL. We all have to have lightbulbs with mercury now for the junk science that says carbons are causing global warming- only theory- no hard science to prove the relationship.
There is really not enough space here to put down all the lies and distortions of leftist "science", but this blog is about the schools, do you really think these people should be writing your child's textbooks? Does anyone think these distortion artists should be given the power to determine what KNOWLEDGE the children of America will learn? Will our children learn ANY VALID KNOWLEDGE when these people are responsible for the National Curriculum called Common Core?
You know it's not just in science that they lie and distort. We see broken lives everyday of people who listened to liberal class warfare garbage. Thank goodness the Senate rejected the nomination of Debo Adegebile to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights division.He worked to commute the sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal who killed a policeman. I think Al Sharpton and the NAACP are just as responsible. These groups distort and teach children hatred. I remember when the Black Panthers came up with the name "pig" for policeman. I remember when Al Sharpton accused a bunch of Hockey Players of being rapists and the whole thing was found to be completely false. People learn hatreds and attitudes based on false information. The left has tried to rewrite our history, telling us that Abraham Lincoln had mental illness or President Eisenhower was biracial. I'm sure I couldn't cover all the lies and distortions here, but America will never be free and righteous again until we stop the lies and require proof.
Our children need to get excellent educations in school. They need to learn the crime of FALSIFYING DATA. They need to have REAL BEST TEACHING PRACTICES AND REAL DATA TO BACK UP THE INFORMATION THEY ARE BEING TAUGHT. We can start by holding all of these liberals accountable for everything they try to dump on us. Question, question, question and NEVER accept anything they say without the PROOF!!
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