WHAT WILL OUR FUTURE BE???

The supposed experts in the school district, and the planners they hire, like to talk a lot about 21st century skills, as if they knew what the future was going to be. That makes you feel kind of ham strung, until you realize that no one knows what the future will be, not even the school district "experts" and hired "experts".

The only thing we really know about the future is that if our country is to remain great, our citizens will need a whole lot of character. My daughter teaches in college and she had some students that didn't turn in their assignments. She told me "These are good students mom, but they got a zero. They know what the rules are in my class and I wouldn't be preparing them for their future in the work world if I didn't teach them the discipline of following rules and meeting deadlines." She's a first year teacher but she gets it. School is not just about the subject you are learning, it's about the character that gets you there.

When I started teaching in 1975, and throughout my career as a student, schools taught the character that is required to succeed. When I was a girl, if you had hot lunch(most kids brought a sack), you got meat, potatoes, fruit, a vegetable, a cookie and a milk. You didn't get to throw food away, the teachers made you eat what you had. What did I learn from this? I learned that I didn't always get what I wanted (like cheese pizza everyday and salad bar like kids get today), I learned to be frugal, you don't waste things. What are kids learning today at school? Just ask any cafeteria worker or teacher, food is thrown away by the bucketfuls, as if it had no value at all.

Everyday we saluted the flag and sang "My Country Tis Of Thee". We had Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday off of school. We made American flags for Washington's birthday and our teachers read us stories about this great man. On Lincoln's birthday we made stove pipe hats and read about this great president. What did I learn from this? I learned to love my country and I learned to respect the character of these great men. I learned what it took to be a great American. What do our kids learn in school today? If they have a good teacher they may learn that Washington refused to be a king when the people asked. They may learn that Lincoln was a poor child that worked hard and taught himself to read. But, too often, these stories are lost. President Washington, our first president, isn't even honored anymore with a holiday, no wonder some kids leave school not even knowing who our first president was!!  The "realists" insist that George Washington didn't cut down a cherry tree and refuse to tell a lie.

Abraham Lincoln, the great president that saved the union, isn't honored by having his birthday remembered either. The mental health advocates are sure Lincoln was mentally ill!! So instead of learning character through these great statesmen, our students are learning the values of special interest advocates. Maybe some of these advocates have a good message, but does it replace the love and respect of national heroes that teach us to be honest, strong and persevering?

At the last planning meeting here in Helena the experts arranged focus group discussions on "the big idea". They invited every special interest group they could think of from Food Share to preschool advocates. Our school plan is not about a "big idea", it's about special interest advocates and meeting their goals in our schools!! The first question, believe it or not, was "What is your mission? What brings you to the table?"This kind of question always seems so ridiculous to me. What would your mission be at school? Wouldn't it be to educate the children? Apparently not. One of the tables blathered on about how school is there to provide food, clothing and shelter!! You might ask " Is this for everyone or just the students?" I believe the answer would be everyone as they advocated for a community breakfast! So, what character are they advocating to teach the children? They want to teach the children that people can not make it on their own. Don't expect to make it on your own or for your parents to take care of you. Turn to the government for every need. They mentioned " children should never feel ashamed to ask for a clothing voucher". Our children come to school well clothed and with coats. They are fortunate to live in a country with a free enterprise system that makes our citizenry the wealthiest in the world. Our poor have more than poor people the world over. So why do we want to teach values that will destroy the entrepreneurial spirit of this nation when our children aren't even in that kind of need? This is a socialist world view that is destroying the character of our people and bankrupting our nation.

Have you noticed that we are starting to see trash just thrown on the ground now? We never had that before. People had responsibility, integrity and pride. Not the kind of pride that you get from a clothing voucher, the pride that comes from self discipline. The self discipline that you learn in school from the stories about the honor and self sacrifice of our national heroes. This is national pride, Americans don't throw garbage. They don't take drugs. They are not sexually promiscuous. They stand for honor, hard work and American know how. They don't borrow irresponsibly either. They are not victims.

If we want a future that is bright with honor, respect and self sacrifice we need to start teaching it to our children again. We need to teach them that they and their families CAN TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES! If they can't afford something maybe they don't need it. Maybe they'll be rich someday if they work hard enough and are careful with what they earn. Poor people in America become rich everyday. Most of us have more than our parents had. Our government needs to set the example by paying off its debts so these kids won't be overburdened with taxes and they'll have a chance to make it. The "big idea" should be to save America from this sorry pit of Socialist despair and debt. The truth is we can determine what our own future will be if we decide to teach character again instead of victimization. I was poor once. No one helped me. I worked, I planned and I dreamed. I had the values and ethics to set goals and endure self sacrifice. I was only 17 years old, but school and  my parents had taught me that I could take care of myself, and I did. I'm not poor anymore. That's what we want for all of our children, that's the big idea. Teach children to be self sufficient. A good education and the values that built a nation will bring them and all of us to a brighter tomorrow. This is a future we know about. We've seen state run economies and socialist countries, THEY DON'T WORK!!! THEY LEAD TO CORRUPTION AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE!! We don't need to guess about  21st century skills if we continue down this socialist road. History clearly tells us where we're heading. The national debt and deficit tell us where we are heading. We don't know what our future will be, but we know how to work toward a good future for all, by teaching our children the values that built the greatest nation on this earth.

BELLY OF THE BEAST

We saw another non-budget budget last night at the board meeting. Oh, they showed a salary amount and a few reductions called programmatic changes, even the projected deficit ( after the levy!) of about $251,000 - but where is the money spent? How many federal grants are being served by our district? How much cost does the district assume for these grants? We see a utility savings of $75,000.00 (warm winter) but how much are we paying in additional utilities for Lincoln and Ray Bjork that house only programs on Federal Grants (PAL, Head Start, PEAK, Special Education preschool)? I've seen budgets down to paper clips with no mention of where the $250,000.00 fee for MOSAIC (the planning firm) came from. Just a vague reference to "Contingency funds" when I asked. Does the board even know where they are spending our money? Do they care? I mentioned that DARE has not reduced drug usage for 30 years and a board member told me- astonishingly- that there's other things to look at than effectiveness.
SERIOUSLY? WHAT WOULD THAT BE ??

I have never seen a budget that shows where all the district dollars are being spent. I have never seen a breakdown in school costs versus program costs. I know all these programs think they're basic academics- BUT THEY ARE NOT!! Sadly I have never seen a grant, the cost of or the effectiveness of it, ever discussed by the board. In fact, I don't think the board is consulted before a grant is applied for. The budget is just up in the air it seems. The board voted for the most expensive option in voting for busses with seat belts, with no discussion of the districts looming deficits. I believe what we are seeing here in Helena is a microcosm of exactly what is going on in our nations capital-THE BELLY OF THE BEAST!! They did have a presentation from PEAK, and asked some questions, but PEAK isn't going anywhere apparently. I don't know about you folks but when we make a big purchase at our house we look at all our costs before deciding to go ahead with it. If we don't have the money we don't make the purchase. The way budgets are presented the board doesn't really know what they can afford. I guess that's why they go for the most expensive options and never question new programs- only praise them.

The schools in Helena are a soft hit for every radical group out there, especially since they passed the "Comprehensive Health" plan and got away with it. Things are so corrupt that the wife of the president of the union is running for the school board- legally!! I have no doubt that she will win and then not recuse herself from the union contract negotiations!! Wow. The democrats are running three candidates for two seats- interesting. Are they trying to get rid of a particular board member who voted against the Comprehensive Health? They are very brazen now- you better be with them on everything or your out!!

THE BELLY OF THE BEAST becomes more corrupt and irresponsible all the time. The name of the game is to go along with and praise every federal program, especially "Comprehensive Health".  Surprise surprise- did you know a Comprehensive Health teacher is getting an award as an outstanding educator?? Yes, if you want to be an outstanding educator just learn how to teach "barriers to oral and anal sex" to 5th graders!!How long have the liberals been playing this awards game? Has anyone besides me woken up to it? The liberals sure hope not- if you wake up to it there goes one big crack in their public relations game.

The board is so bowled over and insecure that they have been talked into believing they can't even run the school district without firms (like we did in the old days when we had more students, more elementary schools, and better scores). They needed a firm to find five people to interview for the superintendents job and to choose one. Now they think they may need that same firm to help them decide how to evaluate the superintendent and to set goals (even though they hired this superintendent because strategic planning was his area of expertise!)Three more expensive workshops- and remember the budget is in a $250,000.00 deficit. The workshops also include costs for travel, lodging and meals for the consultants!Wow- they just spend money as if it just keeps coming from SOMEWHERE.  I guess they don't run out of money as we do in our own household budgets.

Our board members are educated individuals but they don't think they can decide to have their professionals write a good curriculum, choose good curriculum materials, and teach in a challenging, competitive and comprehensive way. Essentially, they think they need a firm to get them on board with NATIONAL objectives. Common Core gives them a ready made curriculum, so I guess the STRATEGIC PLAN is just to get in line with all the FEDERAL PROGRAMS.

THE BELLY OF THE BEAST is an ugly place. It's a place where schools aren't run locally anymore and school board members don't even have control of their budget,much less,know what programs are coming and going in their schools. A place where board members don't dare to evaluate programs and choose the ones they want and the ones they don't want. A place where nepotism, like the board chair advocating for programs that are under his umbrella as state chair of AWARE, or the union president's wife running for the school board, is accepted with a nod and a yawn. I yearn for the day when the public will wake up and limited government,common sense and school vouchers will run a dagger  through the BELLY OF THE BEAST!!

MONKEY BUSINESS...

I don't read liberal comments on my blog much. The commenters have so little to say beyond name calling. I did hear from a friend that a comment about my blog was that I can't write - they were dismayed- a school teacher and I can't write! Hmmmm- and their proof is??? Maybe I'll just bumble along anyway-- do you think I should? If I don't MONKEY BUSINESS wins. MONKEY BUSINESS is the left's attempt to control what you think. For a long time they got away with this- people accepted what they said and didn't demand any proof (including yours truly here). But it must be frustrating for them now because- we're on to their MONKEY BUSINESS!!

Have any of you been to any of the Helena School District planning meetings? The planners are working on a survey- coincidentally called.... THE SURVEY MONKEY!! Well, there's lots of MONKEY BUSINESS on the SURVEY MONKEY and at the planning meetings. Everyone is invited to the meetings and to do the survey. Just go to the Helena School District web site and click on planning- you should find the SURVEY MONKEY there for you to click on and you can take the survey. It's interesting to be in a box that someone else has constructed for you and then to be told that they are collecting your ideas. REALLY?? I remember the life boat scenario from the old "Strategic Plan" fight here in Helena. You see- if someone tells you there are certain people on a life boat and it is sinking so someone has to get out and they ask you who should be thrown over board- they have put you in a box of their world view. Maybe you should have the option of each person swimming for a bit- or floating someone off the back etc.This is all symbolic of course but you get the idea- if someone else makes up the rules and the agenda you aren't really expressing your opinion or your ideas- you're responding to theirs.

Here's how the SURVEY MONKEY goes- would you like a traditional school that impedes learning or an open concept school where all the students are happy and getting a good education? Gee- are you sure all traditional schools like the KIP academy ( which has the best academic achievement in the nation) are impeding academic progress? Are you sure all open schools are wonderful? After all, we built open schools at Rossiter and Four Georgians and we had to put in temporary walls that have been permanent since the schools were built. But, I don't want to be a trouble maker and mention all this. I don't want to appear ignorant so I guess I just better go along with this program. After all, I sure don't want to impede academic progress in Helena. Yeah right.

Here's another one- do you like our schools the way they are today where children and family needs are not met, or schools where there are places for all people in the "community" to meet and get their needs met (think- Federal Grant family resource centers that teach people how to fill out a job application and get gas for their car etc.) Wow- but I thought schools were for children to get an education? Are you duplicating any services here? How will this impact a competitive education that is academically focused? Gee- I guess everybody needs these services and there's no other option to choose here unless I don't want kids needs to be met. But wait a minute- aren't children's needs at school to learn math and reading?

And so it goes- these gurus know the future (actually someone in Washington D.C. gave them that secret). They know everything, and if you don't agree you're just backward and ignorant. They now know how to make kids graduation and career ready too, thank goodness, they've done a very poor job up to now. But wait a minute, let's explore some of these ideas. Connectedness-hmmm- sounds kind of like whole language which has been a whole failure for 30 years. Project learning- hmmm- sounds a lot like cooperative learning which never worked and was a fiasco. Oh my- collaboration? See cooperative learning again. You mean this whole thing could be a huge experiment with our education system that becomes a huge failure? Yes, indeed.
                                                      
I'm reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. This is an interesting book if you're interested in French history. It's always eye opening to read history and find that what is happening where you are today is often not new at all, but something that happened the same way many times before. Here's a quote I loved "The counterfeits of the past take assumed names, and are fond of calling themselves the future." Right on Victor!! How COULD you have known the people doing our school planning??

Seriously, beware of all of this. Good change comes incrementally and locally. Common Core Standards are truly another well intentioned fiasco. Our teachers and students have been pulled hither and yon with all this CENTRAL PLANNING. Let's stop all the MONKEY BUSINESS and get back to good, competitive academic education, MONTANA STYLE!!

THE BREAKING POINT

What is the breaking point? I envision it as a boxer in a ring who gets beat on and beat on until he finally just starts punching back and doesn't stop until his opponent is knocked out. I would have thought parents and especially teachers would have reached their breaking point years ago with the top down management of schools. The federal money has brought an overwhelming amount of programs that seek constant change- whether it is needed or not . I reached my breaking point in 2005 and just retired. It was too frustrating to try to teach in this environment where grants, non profits, and programs were more important than learning. Every administrator will tell you that the teacher should be the most important person in the schools because that is where "the rubber meets the road", but in reality, teachers are on the bottom of the pecking order. If you've ever taught you know how overwhelming it is (at least if you're doing the job right). When they started demanding that teachers ,who spend their weekends and evenings correcting papers, do "service" as part of their contract- as if they weren't spending their whole life doing service, and the union agreed because their cut comes from teacher salaries they were able to negotiate, I knew things had gotten way out of whack. Teachers are there now to service grants, non profits and programs, whether it's in there lesson plan or not. It's not as if grants are chosen to solve special problems our district is having. When you ask a teacher who is working how things are going- he/she will generally just say" things are going o.k." but after they retire and you mention the chaos they just nod their head- blow air out between their lips and roll their eyes. Our former superintendent was supposed to be wonderful, it wasn't until he left that teachers started stating in the paper that under the NEW superintendent they were finally really happy. It wasn't until a particular principal left Broadwater school that teachers started referring to "after the wall came down" (meaning when she left) and board members started admitting to the "disarray" at this school that had suppressed student achievement (even though parents had passed petitions TWICE to try to get some relief from the situation). The principal finally retired of her own accord. So where is the breaking point?

Like children whose parents are forced to send their children to public school because they can't afford private school, many teachers (maybe most) just have to keep putting up with whatever comes because they can't afford to retire. I knew when the Superintendent from Butte showed her research and graphs that showed that Helena schools were not doing well- slipping in math and just barely staying even in reading- that she would not be a finalist in her bid to become our new superintendent in Helena. The board doesn't even SEE the punches that are beating down on the teachers and sending them to a breaking point. They believe that every grant and program is good and producing results. They don't track grants and programs, they just wait to be told that everything is wonderful- what else will principals and staff say at these dog and pony shows they are forced to produce for the board each year? Will they say that things are at a breaking point? No, they won't. So, the board hears only good things and that is exactly how they like it.

Will the American public reach a breaking point? They have reached a breaking point many times- but top down management, perpetrated by the all powerful federal government, is hard to effect. Parents and Helena citizens have petitioned and attended meetings in mass all to no avail. That's what happens in dictatorships- the peoples' voices are lost. We live in a bureaucratic nightmare coming down from Washington D.C. and it will get much worse under Common Core Standards.Common Core Standards will inject our local schools with curricula that bureaucrats decide on and no one here will be able to stop whatever they decide they want to teach. This already includes "Comprehensive Health" in case you were wondering.

Perhaps Americans will finally really reach their breaking point in the 2012 elections and vote for a president that will begin to dismantle this madness. In case you were wondering how our wonderful and unconstitutional Federal Department of Education is effecting student progress,listen to this, From the 1950's to the 1970's our schools were making steady progress , since the department of education was established in 1979 our scores have been FLAT- NO PROGRESS. It was eye opening to me to see how much people have been propagandized, when someone said to me at a board meeting in response to this statistic, that at least the children are being fed. When I mentioned to her that in 30 years of teaching I NEVER,  saw a child pass out from hunger she was surprised!! She was adamant that parents don't feed their children even after I pointed out to her that if parents didn't feed their children they would be dead before they made it to kindergarten. Come on America! Get your heads out of the sand and save our schools and this great nation while you can!! We are not people who can't and won't feed our children- we are proud, strong, independent and perfectly capable of caring for ourselves and our families without an overarching federal government.

As I watched the bagpipers on St. Patricks day I marveled at a culture that could survive so much, and I knew that the American culture would survive too. America has a very proud heritage and culture of freedom. Our founders were magnificent men that fought a revolution to give us our freedom. Don't let anyone tell you that "George Washington really did lie" or "Abraham Lincoln was mentally ill". Be proud of your heritage, your culture (including capitalism, freedom,independence, Judeo-Christian religions and the English Language), and all your traditions right down to country music,blue jeans and the cheeseburger. Don't let anyone back you down, shut you up, or dehumanize you. Don't stand by and let anyone apologize for the greatest nation that has ever been on this earth. Be America proud. Let those that would change this nation know that you have reached your breaking point and that  our American Constitution is staying right where it is, along with healthy schools and healthy families that govern themselves! Amen!

C R E E P Y!!!

The board meeting last night had three components- the delegations (which are always fun because kids are getting awards and their proud parents are there), policy development, and the superintendent search (they narrowed the applicants from 20 to 4 in executive session). I will just note that Community Service appears to have replaced capitalistic principles with DECCA as reported by their advisor, the car wash they did was for COMMUNITY SERVICE,and they had to go bother the third graders at Rossiter once again to give them a course on finance. So the socialist BUDDY PROGRAM and COMMUNITY SERVICE are both alive and well in an organization that was developed to encourage CAPITALISM.

Here's where it gets really CREEPY,did you know we live in a COMMUNITY? Yes, it's a STRONG COMMUNITY, AS A COMMUNITY WE..., WE HAVE COMMUNITY AWARENESS, COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT, WE HAVE A STRONG COMMUNITY, THE COMMUNITY IS AWARE, OUR COMMUNITY...., we all must be involved in COMMUNITY SERVICE, THE COMMUNITY...  .
If the trustees said COMMUNITY one more time I was ready to throw up. I don't know about you, but I live in a city. It's a very nice city, the city of Helena. In fact it's our capital city. I am not part of any COMMUNITY and I have no intention of having anyone manipulate me or coerce me to belong to any COMMUNITY. I am a strong and independent member of my family. I have some very good friends whom I like a lot and many acquaintances. Whom I associate with will be entirely decided by me without any undo influences otherwise- period. Do the socialist pretenders think they can manipulate American's into giving up their strong individual identity to become a part of some NAMBY PAMBY COMMUNITY ? DO  THEY THINK THEY CAN FORCE OR MANIPULATE THE "MASSES" INTO ASSOCIATIONS?


In America, under our constitution, we have the right to FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION. That means, for our Socialist friends edification, that we don't have to do community service or give anything to anyone , or participate in anything for anyone, that we don't want to- period. It also means that we're smart enough to make our own choices and will not be manipulated by all this COMMUNITY GIBBERISH. The scary part is that the people who thought up the COMMUNITY MANIPULATION idea want to change America to be like Europe. That's right- the Europe that is going down. Their socialism and NATIONAL HEALTH CARE have driven them to bankruptcy. They can not go on. The president of the European Union even said that SOCIALISM IS DEAD in Europe. Give it up. Why in the world would people in the United States of America want to manipulate the "masses" to be like Europe for heavens sake?!! How about trying a system that actually works- that would be capitalism. Europe has an effective tax rate of from 51-55 percent and they are drowning in debt. In America, under Obama, we've gone from an effective tax rate of  21% to an effective tax rate of 28%. We are also drowning in debt and the socialists want to take more money out of the economy and give it to the voracious government beast . Our COMMUNITY BLATHERERS would like the masses to get comfortable with higher tax rates and MORE CONTROL from the government.


Did you notice that Governor Schweitzer says he can create health clinics for state employees without the approval of the legislature? Yes, if you are a state worker you will be forced to get care where they tell you. Nice. My husband goes to Missouri for heart surgery, if he had to stay here he'd be dead.


Back to the school board meeting. The longer you go to school board meetings the more you realize how little control the trustees have over anything. The policy guru was there from Missoula. I have come to realize that this woman is just there to tell our school board all the things they must do-read liberal courts are mandating. Did you know we 're REQUIRED to allow kids who think they're gay (how many of them are unhappy and confused and being unduly influenced?)to form clubs and use the school to propagate the GAY,LESBIAN, TRANSGENDER, BI  agenda? If the schools don't they can't have any clubs at all. At least one school district in Utah chose that option. I can't imagine why people are taking their kids out of public schools-can you?? By the way, did you notice that our school district is $423,000.00 short? Forty kids left our elementary schools in Helena after the district decided to force sex education on them. A loss to the school district of about $280,000. 


What else did the guru have to say? Well, if you have a pet allergy you are not welcome in public school. The Americans with Disabilities says you don't matter- If some kid is on a 504 (adaptations for kids with disabilities) and they decide they need a dog in class, or a pet miniature pony, they can have it. If your child has an allergy to the pet- too bad for you. Of course the idea of class disruption is never an issue- what do you think schools are for anyway-education? The Guru couldn't understand- why ponies? But I could tell her. The horse special interest has been around for awhile. These people want to live on a horse ranch and get a federal paycheck. They have horse riding therapy for the disabled and now they are apparently expanding their business to selling "therapy" miniature horses. I'm sure if it wouldn't be just too ridiculous, they'd want the schools to bring in full size horses and have hitching posts in the classrooms! Guess who's paying for all this? You are. Remember, money is power and power corrupts. We live in a world that has gotten completely out of control with special interests overwhelming the rights and needs of the majority. I remember when our district had a bereaved principal who brought her dog everywhere-even to meetings with parents. As reported by some teachers, it got pretty smelly in those meetings when the dog had flatulence. My,My, as the government gets more and more powerful the needs of the majority become nonexistent- even the right to have meetings and classrooms without animals.


The Guru wasn't finished. Next was dress code. Forget it, the courts have decided that dress is freedom of speech- noting that dress can effect others. A little birdie told me that at Hawthorne school they bring in High Schoolers to teach Sex Education. One of the young ladies showed the 5th graders a picture of a girl in very provocative dress. When it was suggested to her by a fifth grader that dressing like that may encourage unwanted advances she told him"It doesn't matter if she was completely naked!'' Wow, just think of that, a nudist's dream. I wonder how long before the nudist's need for free expression trumps everyone else's right to modesty?


 The control freaks dream- every kid on a school bus with three point seat belts and in car seats, passed without discussion. Well, why not- the district is only $423,000 in debt, who cares if the district pays the most possible for bus transportation, even if kids were safe anyway? As one board member pointed out at an earlier meeting, we have to keep government control consistent so the kids are always used to it- they do it in their car so now school busses will be consistent with their car experience - even if statistics show that kids on busses without seat belts are safer in the bus than outside of it. 


There was a long executive meeting to narrow down the number of superintendent candidates. We had to pay the most for that too, apparently our board was incapable of determining a candidate that would be good at helping all kids get a good education, they hired a very expensive firm to do that. So now they have three local candidates from Helena, Butte and Stevensville and one candidate from Colorado. Somehow I think the same people would have applied and they could have looked at their background and experience themselves - my goodness- with the internet they could have googled them !


So the socialist CREEP (sounds kind of like a dance from the 60's) is getting CREEPIER as our freedoms become less and less and the COMMUNITY GURUS attempt to work their magic on our minds while all the special interests are getting their pay. How long will it be before COMMUNITY SERVICE becomes mandatory as it was in the soviet block? Probably not long as they're already doing it to teachers. ANYBODY READY TO TAKE AMERICA BACK YET??

C H A N G E

Conservatives are often accused by their brethren on the left of being "afraid" of change. Along with this comes the stereotype of backward, ignorant, and rigid. Really? I know a fair amount of conservatives and they are the most educated and well informed people I know. I was just reading an article about David Axelrod, Obama's propaganda artist. He's the one that thought up the "hope and change" thing. He's having a great time and thinks he can pull off this big propaganda bonanza again. You might want to note  that his mother, and his mentor, David Cantor, were communists. He was trained young, not in truth telling, but how you can make people think and do what you want through subversion. While the rest of us were in Sunday School learning to obey the golden rule these guys were learning how to get control. So if you believe these "right winger" stereotypes you might want to realize that what you are doing is bigotry and mind control at its' worst. It has worked well for the left for a long time. Any person running against them just has to be called a "right winger" and they are demonized as the devil. It's been so easy for left wing candidates in Helena to get elected just using this tactic. How long can they get along just demonizing and not knowing anything? How long can they get along just believing every piece of nonsense out of Washington or wherever their gurus are? I have a feeling not for much longer. It certainly won't go on forever. But let's examine change.

If you want to change something, the first thing you must do is really understand the thing you want to change. I never fail to be amazed at how little real knowledge and experience in the classroom our change agents have(the people who hold workshops and present themselves in Helena as the "experts". )The board of trustees is made up of people who have no background, education or experience in educating. Normally this would be O.K. and they would depend on people that should know, like the education administrators and teachers. But,with the inordinate amount of change coming out of Washington in the last 20 years, our trustees have begun to just support anything they are told . Though we have loads of Federal grants operating in our schools , I have never seen our school trustees review any of them. There is too much information to investigate and the administrators don't really know either, their job works best if they don't ask questions. So where does that leave us? That leaves us with lots of change that may be, and probably is, harming our schools. If you look at statistics our schools in Helena are losing ground on national testing and academic ranks. Nationally there has been no improvement in academic standings since the 70's (when we got our federal department of education), and sadly, we had the lowest scores on Scholastic Achievement Tests (SAT) last year that have ever been recorded in the history of the country.

So really, what is all this change in our schools about anyway? If it's about academic achievement it is a dismal failure nation wide. If it was about academic achievement then school districts would be trying to teach more not less. They'd let teacher's teach and expect them to be focussed on academics. They'd expect them to cover all the material, correct all the papers, and show significant progress on academic testing. If something wasn't producing any results, like the whole child concept, they'd discard it. But I think we all know that academic achievement is not their real goal. Their real goal is to change a nation that they do not like.

The nation the left does not like is The United States of America as it was founded. As our founding father Thomas Jefferson said "To take from one... in order to spare to others.... is to violate arbitrarily the 1st principal of association,'to guarantee to everyone a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it'." That is the vision of our founding fathers. Freedom to enjoy the fruits of your labor and to pursue your own happiness. The founding principal of private property that built a free and prosperous nation.If you wanted to share some of what you had with someone else you chose who that person was. The left has another vision that they are bent on teaching the children of this nation and I think we all know that is what all this massive amount of change is really about.

You need go no further than the new "Family Resource Centers" that are being proposed to find the socialist vision. These centers will be open from 3:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon and will do everything from teaching nutrition and parenting to teaching people how to fill out a job application- they want these in the schools. Schools are for mental health counseling and nutrition and sex education and community service. The new Common Core Standards out of Washington and approved by the Montana Board of Education (though most of them are not even written) , will go back to the 60's free school ideas.They tout their four c's (communication, connectivity, creativity and collaboration). The old cooperative learning  model is seen in the collaboration and communication, and whole language in connectivity. You see, this isn't really change at all, this is just the same old tired ideas that have never worked being trotted out once again with new names. The idea is that we all learn to work together and become comfortable with a socialist vision which tries to make utopia.

In order to accommodate the 4c's the curriculum is being dumbed down yet again. Place value will only be taught to the thousands instead of the millions. Funny, with our national debt now in the trillions, students won't even be able to read the numbers! But none of this is really funny. Collaboration is taking away the students right to learn independently and the teachers right to teach independently. Connectivity is and will take away the integrity of curriculum areas. Literature will have to be taught to accommodate History (there goes science fiction and detective adventure) and History to accommodate literature (I guess you can only teach history as fast as kids can read literature about it- you don't really have to cover all of history do you? Just strategically select some history). 

Change is always happening in this world and some of it is bad and some of it is good, just please don't tell me I'm backward and ignorant because I believe education is for good academic teaching and I love  my country the way it is - freedom and the right of every person to pursue their own happiness with their own private property.

WHERE'S THE MONEY??!

I was really very saddened to hear our Helena School District Superintendent inform us the other night that all maintenance funds for our schools are levied. That means they are being paid for out of bond money not out of the general fund. In other words, the school district spends so irresponsibly that they have no money left for a maintenance fund. Our school monies are being spent so irresponsibly that they don't even put money aside for basic maintenance like roofs and boilers. Money has to be borrowed to cover those things.

This was a steering committee meeting for the new bond they are planning for. One of the steering committee members brought up a good point. His point was that with all the growth in the valley our school budgets have doubled so why can't they even plan for maintenance? I did not hear an answer to this question, but I started thinking about some of the huge new budget items the district has taken on since I started teaching in 1975. Before I get into that I would like to note that in spite of the growth in our valley our schools have been experiencing declines in enrollment especially at the elementary level. Data from the Dodge report that said school enrollment would explode in 2011 never materialized. Our superintendent thinks this is because the economy is so poor that people are leaving Helena. Can you believe that our school district is taking on a big new bond project and paying a firm $250,000.00 of borrowed money, while the enrollment is dropping due to people having to leave town to find work?Where is the concern for the taxpayer here?

But on to all the new expense. When I started with the school district in 1975 we had 13 elementary schools not 11. If you needed a bus for a field trip you had to apply and you didn't always get it. Our district now busses children almost constantly and has just put in a very expensive bid for new busses with seat belts, when our busses are perfectly safe without them. Where are the children bussed? Well, high school kids are bussed EVERY week to EVERY elementary school so they can eat lunch with elementary kids (Big Brother Big Sister program). I don't know if Big Brothers Big Sisters picks up any of this cost. Then there's all the buddy programs. Middle school kids get bussed to elementary schools and elementary kids come back and this goes on with the high schools too. Peak kids get bussed to and from Peak every week (gifted and talented teachers used to come to the schools). This doesn't even approach all the Head Start bussing that goes on (this is door to door). Two of our elementary schools are now used for special programs. Lincoln has PAL (the alternative high school). This program which uses a school and has its own administrator, plus teachers, was supposed to help with drop out rates. But drop out rates have increased not decreased. They were 25% at Helena High last year ( before PAL they were about %17). Ray Bjork is filled with PEAK , Head Start, and the Special Ed. Preschool. Another building with teachers and an administrator that houses programs. We also have Head Start housed at Rossiter and Bryant. Who pays for all of this?

This list goes on. We are now housing Youth Connections as well and they had 4 new guidance counselors last year. Who pays for that? They also have counselors in kindergarten classrooms modifying behaviors. Their grant runs out in 2013 and they hope to be fully integrated into the schools by then. Do you think it's a conflict of interest that our board chair is state director of the umbrella organization for Youth Connections and Head Start? I do. How much of the daycare business and food business do our schools pick up? Every kid at Bryant gets free breakfast, lunch and snacks. I know the district picks up the tab for the kids that don't qualify for free food at the end of the year. All kids in the district are getting free breakfast on CRT testing days now.  Sack lunches from Food Share are sent home on the weekends too. In the summer all kids under 18 get free lunch.  Daycares bring their kids to the park to take advantage of free lunches . This is not because kids are starving, it's because it's free. All these programs have not moved student achievement one inch since the 70's. In other words, when I came to the district in 1975 we were doing as good, or in some cases a better job, and we didn't have all these programs. Does anyone want to address this fact?!!

A school board trustee told me last night that maybe I just didn't like change. Well I'd like some change from this fiasco that's for sure! Let's start with leaving kids in class and letting teachers teach. Next let's get the Federal Government out of our schools so that teaching can happen instead of federally supported programs. Let's just try it and then see what happens to our scores. I'll bet we'd find  our money and be able to fix a roof without using borrowed money too!