The United States Constitution was written to give YOU control over your government- put another way - to stop the Federal government from assuming too much power. Socialists don't understand this, and don't like our constitution. They are comfortable with the government controlling almost all aspects of our lives. They don't have faith in people being able to take care of themselves- they think we all NEED the Federal Government or we would starve to death or not be able to raise and educate our children or not have health care and so on.
Do you want your public school to now take over your child's pre K life? The federal government program Head Start has a stated goal of taking control over your children from the WOMB! Is that O.K. with you? Where does the Federal government bow out and the family, individual and local government take over?
Our government has a separation of powers to stop dictatorial control- decisions are checked and balanced between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the government. But that is not the only way that freedom is maintained. Freedom is maintained by local governments maintaining their own control. School districts providing education as they see fit with state oversight is one way of maintaining freedom. As mentioned on this blog many times- unfortunately our local school districts and state departments of education are now nothing more than puppets which are controlled by Washington D.C. Do you think the bureaucrats in Washington are so much smarter than you and your husband/wife that they SHOULD determine what your children SHOULD be taught and HOW they should be taught? Are they so much smarter than your local school board or school superintendents or teachers? Are they so smart that they should run your city and state too? Are you really so incompetent that you can't provide food, daycare,education, safety, or healthcare without Federal Government involvement?
For two hundred years American Citizens took care of themselves and their families, now they are told they just can't do it without Federal Government control. I know they are wrong and you do to. Get the
Federal Government power mongers out of our lives and homes. One nut case that believes in the "village" idea of Hillary Clinton is sending out letters to trick or treaters tonight warning their parents about the danger of candy! Control freaks everywhere buy into this Federal Government attitude that is being taught- you need their help and advice.
Obama Care is a complete nightmare, destroying the best healthcare in the world. Common Core is no better - with no research or trials it is imploding everywhere and as the president of the union said "may be the end of public education". The twelve people in the Federal Reserve working their "magic" are going to cause us all great destruction and pain. The do gooders have brought our Federal Debt to astronomical proportions. Let's just try to say it one more time- YOU can provide for your children, YOU can choose your healthcare for yourself from free markets, YOU can decide on the best education for your children, and your local school boards and the educators you hire can provide good
education. YOU can feed and clothe your children and find daycare for them and decide how to raise them - ALL WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
THE PEOPLE- can run schools and hospitals and cities WITHOUT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. For two hundred years we ate and lived and learned and raised our children and decided our values without the Federal Government directing us. The people alive today are not so different from those of the past, they are just being made to believe they NEED these worthless bureaucrats in Washington D.C. TAKE YOUR COUNTRY BACK AMERICA- TAKE BACK CONTROL OVER YOUR OWN LIVES- SEND THE FEDS AND ALL THEIR FEDERAL GRANTS PACKING BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS GAINED ALL THE CONTROL, THEY WILL CONTROL YOU WITHOUT THE MONEY. THEY WILL HAVE DESTROYED THE ECONOMY AS IN THE SOVIET BLOC. YOU WILL HAVE LOST ANY POWER TO FIGHT BACK.
AND YOU'VE LOST YOUR POWER TO FIGHT BACK.
Thursday, 31 October 2013
Friday, 25 October 2013
STANDING UP FOR WHAT IS GOOD AND WHAT IS RIGHT
Is change always good? Obviously NOT, and yet many of us feel some how intimidated by the left to think that we must always throw away what we know to be GOOD, and what we know to be RIGHT, to appease them. Some how we are made to feel that if we do not endorse or take a version of their garbage we just aren't smart or aren't with it or just don't understand. This has got to stop.
If something works well we need to keep it. For centuries cultures have respected their elders and respected the knowledge and experience of the past. Fast forward to today and we are told to criticize and disdain anything that was not invented yesterday. Is there anything that has been taken away from you by "progress" that you miss? Every time I go down to the center part of town I admire their wonderful lamp posts. I don't know how this particular neighborhood was able to keep their beautiful lamp posts while the rest of us had to go to these huge telephone poles that have lights that are too bright and obnoxiously turn off and on, but they did manage to keep some of the beauty and grace of the past. Our schools have given way to every piece of nonsense from the left ,and our school superintendents and school boards have become nothing but puppets on strings managed by Washington. What a shame that we have lost the beauty and wisdom of the past just to accommodate the agendas of crass people that are experimenting with our children's education. Maybe we could find the secret of keeping the past, as they did in the old neighborhood downtown, by just standing up and saying NO - our ideas of the past were better than what you are telling us.
Our schools have been savaged by these "progressives" and somehow they never get blamed for the damage they have done. One of the first things the "progressives" did was to throw out our consumables so they wouldn't have to spend money on them and they could use the money to bring in the artists in residency and other programs to pay off their constituencies. Consumables are the workbooks and spellers that children could work and write in. The reading workbooks were replaced with "whole language" reading. The children just read whole books and talk about them and answer questions or do little assignments that the teacher makes up. Teachers are not curriculum writers and there is a big difference between the two. Curriculum writers spend their time preparing cohesive structured lessons that teach skills. They structure learning from grade to grade to build learning. Good experienced teachers could be hired to write curriculum but this is a FULL TIME JOB. Our students are not getting good structured developmental reading instruction when their teacher makes up assignments hither and yon while she's trying to teach and grade papers and do the other ten thousand things that teachers must do.
Reading workbooks were hard. You could always tell which students were having reading difficulty by how they did with the workbook. Reading workbooks taught and made children practice all of the reading skills from finding the main idea to determining a sequence of events , predicting an outcome or drawing a conclusion. They taught reading of fiction as well as reading of informational text. Students had to alphabetize and read graphs and charts to ascertain information. This was real skill building. But it all went away one day without any input from the teachers. They were just told that there wouldn't be any more workbooks. Well, that made teaching easier, so much less to correct, but what did it do to reading instruction? Is reading a book silently and then writing a paragraph about it building real reading skill the way workbooks did? I don't think so. It does contribute to the rampant grade inflation that's going on- just write something and your teacher will pass you with a good grade. You don't actually have to know anything. So the question remains, ARE THE PROGRESSIVES THAT DICTATE OUR LIVES REALLY ALL THAT SMART?
So the PROGRESSIVES are now going to fix the schools that they have ruined, with their new program called Common Core. In usual fashion the people that wrote this curriculum were not child development experts and had no idea what they were doing but had a great idea of the agenda they
wanted to push into the schools. They did no trials and have no research to back up any of their grand claims, but they practice public relations and propaganda messages superbly.
In Kindergarten they will have little five year olds, that are just learning to be independent and explore their world, sit in groups and "Speak audibly and clearly and present their thoughts, ideas and feelings clearly." They will also" Build on others thoughts and listen to others with care". They will present a piece of written work and listen intently to their peers "constructive criticism" and then incorporate these ideas into their work. Does this sound like a five year old to you? It sounds like they will be taking our little children and putting their lights under a huge burden of self doubt and stress to me. Child psychologists point out that these skills are completely age inappropriate. Once again we must tell our brethren on the left that children ARE NOT LITTLE ADULTS!! Children are children and they need to work individually and be proud of who they are from what they accomplish themselves.
Western civilization has accomplished so much by building on accomplishments of those that came before us- sky scrapers rise from physics geniuses of the past and cancer cures and heart transplants rise out of the sweat equity of Madame Curie and Louis Pasture. We don't throw out what we know- we embrace it and build on it. Be skeptical of every new thing that the "progressives" come up with. They do not research and they spend most of their time on public relations and propaganda. TAKE BACK YOUR RIGHT TO EMBRACE AND LEARN FROM THE PAST AND BE PROUD OF IT. THESE "PROGRESSIVES" DON'T KNOW EVEN HALF OF WHAT THEY PRETEND TO KNOW AND THEIR IDEAS ARE RIDDLED WITH FAILURE AND DESTRUCTION THAT THEY REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE.
If something works well we need to keep it. For centuries cultures have respected their elders and respected the knowledge and experience of the past. Fast forward to today and we are told to criticize and disdain anything that was not invented yesterday. Is there anything that has been taken away from you by "progress" that you miss? Every time I go down to the center part of town I admire their wonderful lamp posts. I don't know how this particular neighborhood was able to keep their beautiful lamp posts while the rest of us had to go to these huge telephone poles that have lights that are too bright and obnoxiously turn off and on, but they did manage to keep some of the beauty and grace of the past. Our schools have given way to every piece of nonsense from the left ,and our school superintendents and school boards have become nothing but puppets on strings managed by Washington. What a shame that we have lost the beauty and wisdom of the past just to accommodate the agendas of crass people that are experimenting with our children's education. Maybe we could find the secret of keeping the past, as they did in the old neighborhood downtown, by just standing up and saying NO - our ideas of the past were better than what you are telling us.
Our schools have been savaged by these "progressives" and somehow they never get blamed for the damage they have done. One of the first things the "progressives" did was to throw out our consumables so they wouldn't have to spend money on them and they could use the money to bring in the artists in residency and other programs to pay off their constituencies. Consumables are the workbooks and spellers that children could work and write in. The reading workbooks were replaced with "whole language" reading. The children just read whole books and talk about them and answer questions or do little assignments that the teacher makes up. Teachers are not curriculum writers and there is a big difference between the two. Curriculum writers spend their time preparing cohesive structured lessons that teach skills. They structure learning from grade to grade to build learning. Good experienced teachers could be hired to write curriculum but this is a FULL TIME JOB. Our students are not getting good structured developmental reading instruction when their teacher makes up assignments hither and yon while she's trying to teach and grade papers and do the other ten thousand things that teachers must do.
Reading workbooks were hard. You could always tell which students were having reading difficulty by how they did with the workbook. Reading workbooks taught and made children practice all of the reading skills from finding the main idea to determining a sequence of events , predicting an outcome or drawing a conclusion. They taught reading of fiction as well as reading of informational text. Students had to alphabetize and read graphs and charts to ascertain information. This was real skill building. But it all went away one day without any input from the teachers. They were just told that there wouldn't be any more workbooks. Well, that made teaching easier, so much less to correct, but what did it do to reading instruction? Is reading a book silently and then writing a paragraph about it building real reading skill the way workbooks did? I don't think so. It does contribute to the rampant grade inflation that's going on- just write something and your teacher will pass you with a good grade. You don't actually have to know anything. So the question remains, ARE THE PROGRESSIVES THAT DICTATE OUR LIVES REALLY ALL THAT SMART?
So the PROGRESSIVES are now going to fix the schools that they have ruined, with their new program called Common Core. In usual fashion the people that wrote this curriculum were not child development experts and had no idea what they were doing but had a great idea of the agenda they
wanted to push into the schools. They did no trials and have no research to back up any of their grand claims, but they practice public relations and propaganda messages superbly.
In Kindergarten they will have little five year olds, that are just learning to be independent and explore their world, sit in groups and "Speak audibly and clearly and present their thoughts, ideas and feelings clearly." They will also" Build on others thoughts and listen to others with care". They will present a piece of written work and listen intently to their peers "constructive criticism" and then incorporate these ideas into their work. Does this sound like a five year old to you? It sounds like they will be taking our little children and putting their lights under a huge burden of self doubt and stress to me. Child psychologists point out that these skills are completely age inappropriate. Once again we must tell our brethren on the left that children ARE NOT LITTLE ADULTS!! Children are children and they need to work individually and be proud of who they are from what they accomplish themselves.
Western civilization has accomplished so much by building on accomplishments of those that came before us- sky scrapers rise from physics geniuses of the past and cancer cures and heart transplants rise out of the sweat equity of Madame Curie and Louis Pasture. We don't throw out what we know- we embrace it and build on it. Be skeptical of every new thing that the "progressives" come up with. They do not research and they spend most of their time on public relations and propaganda. TAKE BACK YOUR RIGHT TO EMBRACE AND LEARN FROM THE PAST AND BE PROUD OF IT. THESE "PROGRESSIVES" DON'T KNOW EVEN HALF OF WHAT THEY PRETEND TO KNOW AND THEIR IDEAS ARE RIDDLED WITH FAILURE AND DESTRUCTION THAT THEY REFUSE TO RECOGNIZE.
Thursday, 17 October 2013
"NOTHING HAS CHANGED"
"NOTHING HAS CHANGED" is the new mantra of the quisling teachers speaking about the new Common Core National Curriculum from the Federal Government. The last time I heard "NOTHING HAS CHANGED" was when the Nazis were marching into Austria "NOTHING IN AUSTRIA HAS CHANGED"- yeah right- the Austrian government was gone and the Germans had taken over the country but the mantra was "NOTHING IN AUSTRIA HAS CHANGED". They had quislings in Austria too, people who were happy to give up their whole country just to go along with the people who they saw as the winners so they could be winners too. These people have no convictions, integrity, backbone or loyalties, that is why they are called quislings. You get accolades and good jobs and pay raises and an easy road when you just go along. You don't have to face conflict. Just put on the blinders and your life is easy.
At the recent school board meeting in Townsend , Montana, the quislings were out in force saying"NOTHING HAS CHANGED"," They don't even notice Common Core." REALLY? Why are we spending BILLIONS of dollars nationwide if NOTHING HAS CHANGED? Obama is trying to force you to pay 40 cents a month more for your cell phone. He wants the Public Service Commission to add this fee to your phone bill to pay for "technology in the schools". This is Common Core folks- the public schools don't have the infrastructure and computers to put the kids through all the computerized Common Core testing- he has to get the money somewhere. Just imagine- all this money for NOTHING according to these teachers.
You know, not all the teachers are quislings. Teachers are standing up against Common Core across this country. Twelve hundred teachers have organized in Florida to fight. Nine hundred teachers in New York got on line to blast the Common Core testing when it imploded and destroyed their children, making them cry and many other things from great stress. Most teachers do want the best education for their children and they are not in favor of Common Core. Most teachers are afraid to speak out. Since the Federal Government took over the schools in the early nineties even the "Teacher of The Year" has been politicized. Only teachers who would go along with ANYTHING- otherwise known as QUISLINGS- could become teacher of the year. The union manages the nominations and the votes- if you are a trouble maker you won't be one of the chosen. The school districts drag out these quislings every time there's a kick about what they are doing- they count on their QUISLINGS.
Schools changing policy to allow just about anybody to get into student records without the notification and consent of their parents is not" NOTHING." Nosy bureaucrats managing your children is not "NOTHING". A program that MAKES TESTS and evaluates your children and their teachers and CAN NOT BE CHANGED is not" NOTHING". This is a huge power grab by the Federal Government. The American people and their families should not be researched and managed by anybody. The American people have the right to their privacy and to their schools.
American children have the right to good schools that do not try to manage their lives and their minds with agendas that put them under stress. Do not listen to the quislings that are trying to manage YOU- SOMETHING HAS CHANGED. Get the feds out of your schools. Teaching is not rocket science. The leftists and all their ridiculous teaching strategies have shown over and over again that they have no idea what they are talking about. Tried and true ideas that do work and do teach should be used and built on to. Good change comes incrementally and locally. Keep what works and build on it. Get political agendas out of school. SAVE OUR CHILDREN AND OUR COUNTRY BY SAVING OUR SCHOOLS- SOMETHING HAS CHANGED AND WE NEED TO REVERSE IT.
At the recent school board meeting in Townsend , Montana, the quislings were out in force saying"NOTHING HAS CHANGED"," They don't even notice Common Core." REALLY? Why are we spending BILLIONS of dollars nationwide if NOTHING HAS CHANGED? Obama is trying to force you to pay 40 cents a month more for your cell phone. He wants the Public Service Commission to add this fee to your phone bill to pay for "technology in the schools". This is Common Core folks- the public schools don't have the infrastructure and computers to put the kids through all the computerized Common Core testing- he has to get the money somewhere. Just imagine- all this money for NOTHING according to these teachers.
You know, not all the teachers are quislings. Teachers are standing up against Common Core across this country. Twelve hundred teachers have organized in Florida to fight. Nine hundred teachers in New York got on line to blast the Common Core testing when it imploded and destroyed their children, making them cry and many other things from great stress. Most teachers do want the best education for their children and they are not in favor of Common Core. Most teachers are afraid to speak out. Since the Federal Government took over the schools in the early nineties even the "Teacher of The Year" has been politicized. Only teachers who would go along with ANYTHING- otherwise known as QUISLINGS- could become teacher of the year. The union manages the nominations and the votes- if you are a trouble maker you won't be one of the chosen. The school districts drag out these quislings every time there's a kick about what they are doing- they count on their QUISLINGS.
Schools changing policy to allow just about anybody to get into student records without the notification and consent of their parents is not" NOTHING." Nosy bureaucrats managing your children is not "NOTHING". A program that MAKES TESTS and evaluates your children and their teachers and CAN NOT BE CHANGED is not" NOTHING". This is a huge power grab by the Federal Government. The American people and their families should not be researched and managed by anybody. The American people have the right to their privacy and to their schools.
American children have the right to good schools that do not try to manage their lives and their minds with agendas that put them under stress. Do not listen to the quislings that are trying to manage YOU- SOMETHING HAS CHANGED. Get the feds out of your schools. Teaching is not rocket science. The leftists and all their ridiculous teaching strategies have shown over and over again that they have no idea what they are talking about. Tried and true ideas that do work and do teach should be used and built on to. Good change comes incrementally and locally. Keep what works and build on it. Get political agendas out of school. SAVE OUR CHILDREN AND OUR COUNTRY BY SAVING OUR SCHOOLS- SOMETHING HAS CHANGED AND WE NEED TO REVERSE IT.
Friday, 11 October 2013
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILURE
Hillary Clinton isn't just a failure in the arena of foreign affairs, having recently been our Secretary of State and over seen the growth of the Iranian nuclear program while dancing her way through Africa, she isn't just a failure in the arena of health care where as the "co-president" she oversaw the illegal behind closed door meetings to develop national healthcare that thankfully failed by one vote, she is also responsible for her education program "Goals 2000" which has destroyed our schools.
Our friends on the left seem to have this huge disease of amnesia, they destroy things and then forget all about it!! They destroy things and then they have the solution to fix it!! Their solution always comes from the Federal Government. This sleepy little southern town built on a swamp (Washington D.C.) now dictates your entire life. It controls your city, your county, your schools, your sidewalks, how you sit in your car, when you can smoke, what kind of car you can drive, how much you pay for cable TV, the internet and your phone, how much water comes out of your shower head, the cost of gas and so much more. They now control your health care and are giving your children "student identifiers" in public schools so they can track them. This is the same thing as the number the soviets made the children sew onto their school sweaters, only Washington D.C. isn't forcing our children to wear their number- YET.
Common Core is having states set up data bases to collect student data and school districts are passing policies, as the Helena School district has, to allow student records to be available to researchers-actual wording- THE DISTRICT MAY GRANT ACCESS TO OR RELEASE OF INFORMATION FROM STUDENT RECORDS WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT OR NOTIFICATION TO ANY PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH, STATISTICAL REPORTING, OR PLANNING, PROVIDED THAT NO STUDENT OR PARENT CAN BE IDENTIFIED FROM THE INFORMATION RELEASED... . This information has the child's birth date and medical information as well as academic and behavioral information- plus the student identifier. With the student identifier people will know where you move if you put your child in public school. Women fleeing abusive husbands should beware- the school and the State Office of Public Instruction will know where you were in school before and where you went.
Our government is controlling and managing you because, as the communists always promise, they are creating the great panacea where there will be no unemployment or hunger or mental illness or abuse etc.- the perfect world. So far they have bankrupted our government and our culture. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILURES are ignored- they appear not to even remember that THE FEDERAL PROGRAM GOALS 2000 HAS DESTROYED OUR SCHOOLS.
Rush Limbaugh points out that the liberal left doesn't care if these programs like Obama Care fail- they've got what they want- MORE CONTROL.Only the American people can send these communists packing and make Washington D.C. back into the sleepy little town that no one pays much attention to. Only the American people can take back their city, county and school districts. Only the American people can move the Federal Government out of our houses and cars and showers and away from our families. STOP THE AMNESIA!! THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GOALS 2000 AND STANDARDS MOVEMENT HAS DESTROYED OUR SCHOOLS!! THE SCHOOLS DID BETTER WITH THE STATES IN CHARGE!! GET THE FEDS OUT!! TAKE BACK YOUR CONSTITUTION AMERICA!!
Our friends on the left seem to have this huge disease of amnesia, they destroy things and then forget all about it!! They destroy things and then they have the solution to fix it!! Their solution always comes from the Federal Government. This sleepy little southern town built on a swamp (Washington D.C.) now dictates your entire life. It controls your city, your county, your schools, your sidewalks, how you sit in your car, when you can smoke, what kind of car you can drive, how much you pay for cable TV, the internet and your phone, how much water comes out of your shower head, the cost of gas and so much more. They now control your health care and are giving your children "student identifiers" in public schools so they can track them. This is the same thing as the number the soviets made the children sew onto their school sweaters, only Washington D.C. isn't forcing our children to wear their number- YET.
Common Core is having states set up data bases to collect student data and school districts are passing policies, as the Helena School district has, to allow student records to be available to researchers-actual wording- THE DISTRICT MAY GRANT ACCESS TO OR RELEASE OF INFORMATION FROM STUDENT RECORDS WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT OR NOTIFICATION TO ANY PERSON, FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH, STATISTICAL REPORTING, OR PLANNING, PROVIDED THAT NO STUDENT OR PARENT CAN BE IDENTIFIED FROM THE INFORMATION RELEASED... . This information has the child's birth date and medical information as well as academic and behavioral information- plus the student identifier. With the student identifier people will know where you move if you put your child in public school. Women fleeing abusive husbands should beware- the school and the State Office of Public Instruction will know where you were in school before and where you went.
Our government is controlling and managing you because, as the communists always promise, they are creating the great panacea where there will be no unemployment or hunger or mental illness or abuse etc.- the perfect world. So far they have bankrupted our government and our culture. The FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FAILURES are ignored- they appear not to even remember that THE FEDERAL PROGRAM GOALS 2000 HAS DESTROYED OUR SCHOOLS.
Rush Limbaugh points out that the liberal left doesn't care if these programs like Obama Care fail- they've got what they want- MORE CONTROL.Only the American people can send these communists packing and make Washington D.C. back into the sleepy little town that no one pays much attention to. Only the American people can take back their city, county and school districts. Only the American people can move the Federal Government out of our houses and cars and showers and away from our families. STOP THE AMNESIA!! THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GOALS 2000 AND STANDARDS MOVEMENT HAS DESTROYED OUR SCHOOLS!! THE SCHOOLS DID BETTER WITH THE STATES IN CHARGE!! GET THE FEDS OUT!! TAKE BACK YOUR CONSTITUTION AMERICA!!
Thursday, 3 October 2013
SHORT SIGHTED
If someone came up to you with a product that was completely untested and claimed that it would prepare your children for the 21st century and that they would be college and career ready if they used it ,would you buy it without asking any questions? Would you be willing to throw out all your tried and tested products and replace them with the new product even if you knew you had to sign a contract promising not to make any changes to the new product no matter what? I'll bet you would have some questions and would be leery of making whole sale replacements with things you had no power to change. Well, guess what? Mike Huckabee thinks you're SHORT SIGHTED!! Yes, it's not the Common Core hucksters and frauds that are shortsighted, it is you. I like Mike and agree with him on many things, but come on Mike, think a little. What do you really know about education or the program at issue here? Maybe you should get some information before you call those people trying to save America "SHORT SIGHTED".
Isn't it just alarming that the left can come up with just any sort of nonsense and get credit for being progressive? How many fads have your seen come and go in your life time? The very people that are burning our forests down and trying to stop the fracking that will give us energy independence get credit for being "progressive". What are the rest of us that want tried and tested good education for our students that we have control over? Are we all SHORT SIGHTED?
Just maybe, people that make stupid comments and don't know the facts are the people who are SHORT SIGHTED. I taught for thirty years and I tried all the project learning. It doesn't work. Kids spend a lot of time on a limited amount of information and there is no real way to know who learned anything from the experience. This country was built on direct instruction- including the astronauts who sent us to the moon and brought home Apollo Thirteen. Higher level thinking skills always sounds good - but any fool knows you need to have some information first- and young students need an ocean of foundational information before they can even begin to read and write effectively. Wake up Mike- I think you are being dangerously SHORT SIGHTED here.
The "progressives" have brought us fiscal disaster and cultural implode, how in the world can you expect that what they're now making billions of dollars on, without any trials or tests to prove it works, will improve our schools? Let's start looking at what will really help our students learn the best and the things that will really make this country great. We know direct instruction works. We know we need better teacher training- like making teachers experts at their grade level. We know free market capitalism works and preparing students to be responsible hard workers will give them the opportunities that free markets and freedom itself offers. We know states can do their own education as they always have. We know we're doing better than Russia, France, Singapore- pick a country- we hardly need to look to these countries to tell us how to educate our children.
Save America and save our schools by giving the progressive traitors the boot. We will not do better in our schools until we really want hard working individuals to strengthen our free market capitalist system. When we really want our children to find success in our free markets we will prepare them for that.
Isn't it just alarming that the left can come up with just any sort of nonsense and get credit for being progressive? How many fads have your seen come and go in your life time? The very people that are burning our forests down and trying to stop the fracking that will give us energy independence get credit for being "progressive". What are the rest of us that want tried and tested good education for our students that we have control over? Are we all SHORT SIGHTED?
Just maybe, people that make stupid comments and don't know the facts are the people who are SHORT SIGHTED. I taught for thirty years and I tried all the project learning. It doesn't work. Kids spend a lot of time on a limited amount of information and there is no real way to know who learned anything from the experience. This country was built on direct instruction- including the astronauts who sent us to the moon and brought home Apollo Thirteen. Higher level thinking skills always sounds good - but any fool knows you need to have some information first- and young students need an ocean of foundational information before they can even begin to read and write effectively. Wake up Mike- I think you are being dangerously SHORT SIGHTED here.
The "progressives" have brought us fiscal disaster and cultural implode, how in the world can you expect that what they're now making billions of dollars on, without any trials or tests to prove it works, will improve our schools? Let's start looking at what will really help our students learn the best and the things that will really make this country great. We know direct instruction works. We know we need better teacher training- like making teachers experts at their grade level. We know free market capitalism works and preparing students to be responsible hard workers will give them the opportunities that free markets and freedom itself offers. We know states can do their own education as they always have. We know we're doing better than Russia, France, Singapore- pick a country- we hardly need to look to these countries to tell us how to educate our children.
Save America and save our schools by giving the progressive traitors the boot. We will not do better in our schools until we really want hard working individuals to strengthen our free market capitalist system. When we really want our children to find success in our free markets we will prepare them for that.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
PRAISE FOR FAILURE
When I was young and innocent- not so many years ago it seems- I thought if you failed at something you would lose your job or people would shun your program or you would be required to do a redo or SOMETHING. It certainly never occurred to me that failure would bring PRAISE upon you, or that you would PRAISE YOURSELF AND PAT YOURSELF ON THE BACK, or that you would get to double down on what you were doing even while admitting you were a failure !
Back in the days of my innocence and naivete, when the federal government grabbed control of the schools under the guise of "school reform" and called their program "Goals 2000", I was very distraught, but I thought, well, this can't succeed, and twenty years from now I will be proved right and all of this will go away because it will FAIL. Wrong again my dear. I sat, almost gaping in astonishment, through an education interim committee on Common Core as the SAME EXACT PEOPLE who had advocated for Goals 2000, praised themselves over and over in their testimony (27 years in the field of education, teacher of the year- yada yada yada- you get the idea), advocated for Common Core BECAUSE OUR STUDENTS ARE AT A SIXTY PERCENT REMEDIATION RATE WHEN THEY REACH COLLEGE!! That's right, because of their failed programs our Montana schools are now sending students to college who NEED TO BE REMEDIATED at a SIXTY PERCENT RATE!!
Do these people get chastised for bringing our Montana schools to this disastrous state? Why no, they are praised as experts and given the floor to advocate for another top down program with the same goals!!
I knew dancing through math (this is a real program-not made up) and gardening and whiling away our days with artists in residency would bring us to this disastrous state, BUT I NEVER DREAMED THEY WOULD JUST KEEP ON DOING IT!! The only thing that has saved our schools even a little bit is the dreaded NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT. At least the schools have to do SOME actual teaching and be accountable on tests. BUT WAIT A MINUTE- THE NEW COMMON CORE TESTS WILL LET KIDS WORK IN GROUPS TO PASS TESTS, AND HAVE FORTY PERCENT OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS. Good bye to accountability, and much more tragically, David Coleman ( the Common Core "architect") has gotten himself appointed president of the SAT board with the express purpose of changing college entrance exams to the Common Core way of doing things.
I don't know what the end of this tragedy will be. Kids are sucking on water bottles in class and eating snacks all day, twenty-five percent of them are not graduating, schools are being turned into mental health centers, day care centers and restaurants, as mentioned above colleges are having to remediate the kids that do graduate. How can the federal government expect success when they are doing the same things that continue to cause failure? I knew when they moved the home for unwed mothers next to the high school so all the pregnant girls could go to high school that we were on a real down hill slide- but how can these people PRAISE THEMSELVES AND KEEP RIGHT ON GOING DOWN THE SAME PATH? When will the American public stand up and take back our schools? REMEMBER THE TENTH AMENDMENT TO OUR CONSTITUTION? SCHOOLS ARE A STATES RIGHT!!!
Back in the days of my innocence and naivete, when the federal government grabbed control of the schools under the guise of "school reform" and called their program "Goals 2000", I was very distraught, but I thought, well, this can't succeed, and twenty years from now I will be proved right and all of this will go away because it will FAIL. Wrong again my dear. I sat, almost gaping in astonishment, through an education interim committee on Common Core as the SAME EXACT PEOPLE who had advocated for Goals 2000, praised themselves over and over in their testimony (27 years in the field of education, teacher of the year- yada yada yada- you get the idea), advocated for Common Core BECAUSE OUR STUDENTS ARE AT A SIXTY PERCENT REMEDIATION RATE WHEN THEY REACH COLLEGE!! That's right, because of their failed programs our Montana schools are now sending students to college who NEED TO BE REMEDIATED at a SIXTY PERCENT RATE!!
Do these people get chastised for bringing our Montana schools to this disastrous state? Why no, they are praised as experts and given the floor to advocate for another top down program with the same goals!!
I knew dancing through math (this is a real program-not made up) and gardening and whiling away our days with artists in residency would bring us to this disastrous state, BUT I NEVER DREAMED THEY WOULD JUST KEEP ON DOING IT!! The only thing that has saved our schools even a little bit is the dreaded NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT. At least the schools have to do SOME actual teaching and be accountable on tests. BUT WAIT A MINUTE- THE NEW COMMON CORE TESTS WILL LET KIDS WORK IN GROUPS TO PASS TESTS, AND HAVE FORTY PERCENT OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS. Good bye to accountability, and much more tragically, David Coleman ( the Common Core "architect") has gotten himself appointed president of the SAT board with the express purpose of changing college entrance exams to the Common Core way of doing things.
I don't know what the end of this tragedy will be. Kids are sucking on water bottles in class and eating snacks all day, twenty-five percent of them are not graduating, schools are being turned into mental health centers, day care centers and restaurants, as mentioned above colleges are having to remediate the kids that do graduate. How can the federal government expect success when they are doing the same things that continue to cause failure? I knew when they moved the home for unwed mothers next to the high school so all the pregnant girls could go to high school that we were on a real down hill slide- but how can these people PRAISE THEMSELVES AND KEEP RIGHT ON GOING DOWN THE SAME PATH? When will the American public stand up and take back our schools? REMEMBER THE TENTH AMENDMENT TO OUR CONSTITUTION? SCHOOLS ARE A STATES RIGHT!!!
Friday, 20 September 2013
EDUCATION ROBOTS
I read a lot of material on Common Core and inevitably the writer will feel compelled to report the comments of some education experts such as the state superintendent of public instruction or the school superintendent of public instruction.THEY ALWAYS SAY THE SAME THINGS!! When you go to the doctor or to a lawyer or a contractor or an accountant or any other number of experts you expect expert advice. You go to these people because they are EXPERTS and should know more about the subject than you do. If you get legal advice or medical advice the expert giving you this advice will explain exactly what the problem is and if there is a solution. Do you think these education experts have even read the volumes of Common Core Standards? I highly doubt that most of them have read any of it.Why do they always come out for it and why are they all saying the same things?
It's very sad to say but I would venture to guess that if the Federal Government came up with a new ethos that all children will get the best education by rolling around on the floor, and put out propaganda statements for superintendents to use to back this up- the superintendents would use these statements stridently and vociferously in the press and at every opportunity. They are ROBOTS who do what they are told to do. Let's look at a few of their statements and see if these EDUCATION ROBOTS have any idea what they are talking about.
One of their favorite propaganda statements is that Common Core will be more "rigorous". Many states, including Massachusetts, have researched and found that in fact the Common Core standards do not compare favorably to the state standards they have now. What if you asked these EDUCATION ROBOTS to explain where in the Common Core document there is more rigor? They wouldn't know because they haven't read it and they don't really care- they see their future and their paycheck as being dependent on GOING ALONG- SAYING WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO!! So they would come up with this statement "Common Core is teaching higher level thinking skills". If you probed much further ( which you inevitably would be stopped from doing) and asked what the higher level thinking skills were and how they are being taught and how young children with NO INFORMATION could do higher level thinking in any case, they would not have an answer. We might expect our "free press" to ask these questions- to hold the education officials accountable- but one would die of lack of oxygen holding your breath waiting for that to happen. One young teacher thought taking children to a holocaust museum after they read a book about bullying was teaching higher level thinking skills! WHAT? I'm sure the holocaust museum must be very prescient but it is there with a point of view- they aren't there to have children question whether abusing others is a good idea- they are there to teach the consequences. They are there to teach one point of view only. Guiding children morally is a good idea, I advocate for it on this blog, but it is not higher level thinking skills, it is adult GUIDANCE.The EDUCATION ROBOTS that are advocating for Common Core don't even know the definition of what they are supposedly talking about.
In Montana ,where I live, we have a state superintendent who is Native American. She thinks putting Indian Education in every subject proves that Montana is independent!! So we teach math and reading with the materials Common Core tells us to use and we teach in the project learning style and open ended questions and tests and all the other dictates from Common Core, but we are independent because we throw in a little Indian Education? Seriously??
The EDUCATION ROBOTS should be ashamed of themselves. They aren't experts at all. They have no integrity and no backbone. They don't use HIGHER LEVEL THINKING SKILLS themselves in their own profession, they just do what they are told.Shame on all of them. Our children will have a chance at GOOD EDUCATION when we have EXPERTS that are really experts- people who will research and think for themselves instead of FOLLOWING AND SAYING WHAT THEY ARE TOLD TO SAY!! The American public that pays 67% of their property taxes and the lions share of their state income taxes for public schools deserves better representation from the "education experts" that they are paying for.
It's very sad to say but I would venture to guess that if the Federal Government came up with a new ethos that all children will get the best education by rolling around on the floor, and put out propaganda statements for superintendents to use to back this up- the superintendents would use these statements stridently and vociferously in the press and at every opportunity. They are ROBOTS who do what they are told to do. Let's look at a few of their statements and see if these EDUCATION ROBOTS have any idea what they are talking about.
One of their favorite propaganda statements is that Common Core will be more "rigorous". Many states, including Massachusetts, have researched and found that in fact the Common Core standards do not compare favorably to the state standards they have now. What if you asked these EDUCATION ROBOTS to explain where in the Common Core document there is more rigor? They wouldn't know because they haven't read it and they don't really care- they see their future and their paycheck as being dependent on GOING ALONG- SAYING WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO!! So they would come up with this statement "Common Core is teaching higher level thinking skills". If you probed much further ( which you inevitably would be stopped from doing) and asked what the higher level thinking skills were and how they are being taught and how young children with NO INFORMATION could do higher level thinking in any case, they would not have an answer. We might expect our "free press" to ask these questions- to hold the education officials accountable- but one would die of lack of oxygen holding your breath waiting for that to happen. One young teacher thought taking children to a holocaust museum after they read a book about bullying was teaching higher level thinking skills! WHAT? I'm sure the holocaust museum must be very prescient but it is there with a point of view- they aren't there to have children question whether abusing others is a good idea- they are there to teach the consequences. They are there to teach one point of view only. Guiding children morally is a good idea, I advocate for it on this blog, but it is not higher level thinking skills, it is adult GUIDANCE.The EDUCATION ROBOTS that are advocating for Common Core don't even know the definition of what they are supposedly talking about.
In Montana ,where I live, we have a state superintendent who is Native American. She thinks putting Indian Education in every subject proves that Montana is independent!! So we teach math and reading with the materials Common Core tells us to use and we teach in the project learning style and open ended questions and tests and all the other dictates from Common Core, but we are independent because we throw in a little Indian Education? Seriously??
The EDUCATION ROBOTS should be ashamed of themselves. They aren't experts at all. They have no integrity and no backbone. They don't use HIGHER LEVEL THINKING SKILLS themselves in their own profession, they just do what they are told.Shame on all of them. Our children will have a chance at GOOD EDUCATION when we have EXPERTS that are really experts- people who will research and think for themselves instead of FOLLOWING AND SAYING WHAT THEY ARE TOLD TO SAY!! The American public that pays 67% of their property taxes and the lions share of their state income taxes for public schools deserves better representation from the "education experts" that they are paying for.
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