THE BEST OF TIMES AND THE WORST OF TIMES

THE BEST OF TIMES are when we put our best foot forward, when we believe in ourselves and feel empowered to be the best we can be. THE WORST OF TIMES are when we don't believe in ourselves, when we do not feel empowered and when we turn to excuses and victimhood instead of moving forward and solving our own problems. Which kind of person do the "progressives" encourage? Do they really want you to be able to solve your own problems and get on with your life WITHOUT THEM?? Well, if their programs weren't needed they would lose all their power and disappear. So what do you think they want - THE BEST OF TIMES OR THE WORST OF TIMES?

I would say they want victims. I would say they want millions of very poor people to come into this country illegally from Central and South America because this gives them people that want and need their services. I would say that a strong and independent America is a threat to the "progressives". If you are doing well you don't need "progressives" to change things.

Personally I want a strong, free and independent America. I want people who are self sufficient. I taught students to become strong and independent when I taught school. I taught them to work hard and climb the ladder of success. I taught them that this was possible and that they were by no means victims. This is the rugged individual ethos that "progressives" decry. Why, if it were true, they wouldn't be needed at all!! So they sneer at teaching children that they can be strong and independent and free. Anyone who does not believe all their nonsense has "blinders" on according to them.

But, lets look at the real picture. We hear continually that the earth is warming because of the emissions from our cars and the industrial world. We hear that children are starving in our communities by the thousands. We hear that there is a homeless epidemic in our schools. We hear that there are mental health epidemics everywhere. We hear that the middle class is disappearing. We hear that students must learn about sex in school. We hear that families won't parent. We hear that second hand smoke in open arenas and parks is killing people. Is any of this true? Most of us read this crap in the News Paper and shake our heads and go on to the next story. The propaganda goes on and most of us try to ignore it.

NO, the earth is not warming and nor is their any proof that earth temperature changes are caused by carbon emissions. No, children in America are not starving by the thousands because there is no food available. In fact, exccept for possibly a rare case of child neglect by sick and or drug addicted or alcohol dependent people who should not be allowed to keep their children, children are not starving. As I have said on this blog MANY TIMES- I NEVER CAME ACROSS A STARVING CHILD IN THIRTY YEARS OF TEACHING. NO ONE CAME IN PALE OR CRYING OR PASSED OUT FROM HUNGER!! The left has to propagate these myths to get you to buy in to their ethos. Families do parent, some better than others, as it always has been. There is no proof that second hand smoke kills. Mental health is real and tragic, but except for the new increase in drug dependency brought on by the "progressives" who believe marijuana should be legalized and won't control our borders to keep the drug trafficking out, and the increased breakdown in the family brought about by these same individuals who taught us "free love", mental health is about what it always has been. Actually, children can figure out how to make babies without the "progressives" training them from kindergarten. Teaching about health and how to stay safe does not require teaching about different types of sexuality. Just teach about diseases and that they can be contracted by exchanging fluids. The point is, "progressives" have to lie to try to keep their ethos going. They have to lie and manipulate the public.They have to exaggerate things and contnually keep us in the WORST OF TIMES. And by the way, have any of their solutions worked in 50 years? Has bullying stopped? Has drug abuse even dropped? Has mental health improved? You need look no farther than the Black communities or the Tribal nations to answer this question. NO, "PROGRESSIVE" PROGRAMS HAVE NOT SOLVED ANYTHNG AND THEIR ETHOS HAS MADE THINGS MUCH, MUCH WORSE.

There was a Letter to the Editor in our paper the other day about banning smoking and chewing tobacco in parks. The author rightly expressed that there is no health hazard there. But many people will want to jump up and say, yes!yes!yes! we do need laws to stop tobacco use in parks. Why is this so? Because people like to control. It is a weakness of man to need to feel empowered by controling others. The "progressives" drive a big old truck through this weakness. The whole child concept in school is driven by this. We must, we must, we must- everyone is starving, everyone is under threat, everyone needs, needs, needs. No they don't. From health fads to seatbelts - Americans need to just stop supporting the need to control others. If you want your freedom you need to buck up and feel strong, smart, and powerful just controlling yourself. We really don't need Washington D.C. bureaucrats to write curriculums for our schools (yes- telling what to teach IS A CURRICULUM!! More lies again.) We really can make decisions about our safety and health and that of our children. We really can parent and teach our children. We really can support ourselves. We really can stop listening to lies, and propaganda. We really can stop letting the "progressives" manipulate our lives and our thoughts and ideas. We really can think for ourselves and be a free and strong nation once again. We really can stop the U.N. and the Federal Government from their one world agenda and get them out of our schools and out of our lives. Let's start getting our pride from our strong country and who we are as individuals and as a nation instead of from these continual made up agendas. WE CAN BE OUR BEST SELVES AND HAVE THE BEST OF TIMES!! WE CAN QUIT LIVING IN THIS WORLD OF OUR WORST SELVES- THE WORST OF TIMES!!

PARENTAL RIGHTS

Parental rights are representative government. Parental rights are freedom. Parental rights are what this country is all about. Parental rights are what we need to fight for.

I went to a Montana Board of Public Education meeting the other day and I thought "Anyone viewing this meeting would understand how Hitler got control over Europe, or how Stalin got control over the Soviet empire". We all need jobs and as winter comes on here in Montana we all are apt to feel vulnerable to the elements. We all worry about our security, our home and our food. Losing a job is a terrible thing. Some people are brave and are willing to work harder and to take risks. Some people need to follow, to be sheep, to get that government job and allow the powers at be to control them in any way. They are not going to ask questions or to challenge anything. They are going to go along so that they can get that security that we all crave.

I watched as the one parent there was told to sit down in the middle of her testimony. I watched as one board member told her she was ignorant because she did not realize that Montana had the most freedom in education of any state. Why anyone who wants to can just leave!! We had to sit there and we could not answer back that THESE ARE OUR SCHOOLS!! WE PAY FOR THEM!! WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO LEAVE!! THE SCHOOLS SHOULD SERVE US!! THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD IS OUR SERVANT!! We could say nothing, and I know that this scenario is played out across this country. The government workers are so loyal. They are so bought in. They are furious with anyone who tries to upset their apple cart. The outsiders who question things are just trouble makers!! The board members? They are picked because of their compliant natures. What an honor- I am on the State Schoolboard because I will keep my mouth shut and go along. They have their jobs and their futures to look out for. One board member did mention that maybe they should wait for the legislature to act before they went forward with the mandated preschool curriculum and mandated training requirements for preschool teachers. In the end she voted for everything exactly the way the Office of Public Instruction and the Governor wanted her to. The vote was unanimous as it always is.

I learned something through this whole exercise. I learned that doing your homework- doing the research- is important. It didn't change their vote, that was arranged long before the meeting, but it did in some small way hold them accountable. My testimony will be in the record and the legislators that I correspond with will know these things too. Fortunately, a legislator that I know asked me to go to the state law library and research about how the Montana State Board of Education came to be. So my husband and I did this. The state board was created in our constitution in 1972 to hold the Office of Public Instruction accountable and to protect LOCAL CONTROL!! Our very superior acting ( that's the only thing superior about her I can tell you), state superintendent, Denise Juneau , called on her legal council to show us all how the state board was perfectly within their rights to mandate curriculums. He got out the very book on constitution and commentary that my husband and I had done our research in! He skipped over all the parts about the board being established to protect local control which was stated over and over, and read one little sentence that said the state board had supervisory powers. Then he very pompously took his seat. I'm guessing he was very surprised to find that I had been reading the same book. I used to think that lawyers knew special things. This guy really disillusioned me - he didn't even know as much as I did about the governance of this board. I shared my information with the board and gave them copies from the book with all the statements about the state board protecting local control underlined. I know what I'm dealing with here- but everything has a beginning and at least our superintendent and her legal council didn't get away with just lying this time- for once.

I looked right at Denise and asked her how this board changed from its supervisory role to one of CREATING THE CURRICULUM!! There was no answer of course, that's how these things go. I accused the Montana State Board of Education of being the rubber stamp brigade. Then, something REALLY AMAZING  happened.

One of the board members, Mary Jo Bremmer, stated that she didn't like being called the rubber stamp brigade. After all, they couldn't be expected to know all this and do all this research so they relied on their experts!! Their "experts" are  the people who work for the Office of Public Instruction!! In other words, she sees her role as just voting the way they tell her!! This poor woman doesn't even know that she's supposed to question the Office of Public Instruction and hold them accountable. She really believes the board was created just to rubber stamp!! Do you see what I mean about Hitler and Stalin? It takes true vigilance and courage to keep a nation free.

Meanwhile one of Denise Juneau's lackys brought out her "research". She said that these preschool programs were like almost 100% successful everywhere!! Not one person asked her where she got her research or for a copy of it. The board just had such a lack of curiosity and the audience was only allowed to sit and listen. Shortly after that they voted unanimously to approve the mandates.

Meanwhile, Denise tried to show that what the board was doing was representative of the people by calling on her very supercilious lieutenant to tell us all how many letters of support they had!! So much easier than elections and all that stuff. Just have the supporters of the program (people looking for the paycheck) write letters in support!! See? We really don't need that old OVERWHELMLINGLY REPUBLICAN LEGISLATURE do we?

You know, the funny thing is, and I hope I'm wrong, was that it appeared that the board members hadn't even read the curriculum mandates!! I related to them, from the document, how three year olds would be assessed and how they would be teaching them analytical thinking and algebraic reasoning, and how all of this was so age inappropriate, and it was like talking to a deer in the headlights!! Well, anyway, Denise told us- how dare we criticize, they'd been working on this for two whole years and we could have brought our complaints up earlier, it was too late now!! She knows, really knows, the public had no idea of what she was having her staff cook up (copy from Washington D.C.). You see, I just do things behind your back and then I feign shock when it comes out and you don't like it.

It's a funny thing about these people and PARENTAL RIGHTS. If you read the document they just have so much, respect for PARENTAL RIGHTS, and they just want to include them and collaborate with them and even do home visits in their houses!! They just don't want them to vote or to speak up though. They want the parents to be servile and do as they are told, THEN they'll be their best friend! Just don't make waves, it makes everything so difficult you know. Just give us your children and your tax dollars and WE'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO STUPID TO MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS AND THE TEACHERS ARE TOO STUPID TOO!! WE KNOW EVERYTHING THAT'S BEST FOR EVERYBODY AND YOU HAVE TO JUST SIT DOWN AND LISTEN AND DO AS YOU ARE TOLD!! Did I miss something or is this the definition of Fascism? Stand up for your rights parents. These are your schools paid for by your tax dollars and these are your children. These bureaucrats are there to serve you. Keep America free and don't stop holding these people accountable. PARENTAL RIGHTS ARE FREEDOM.                                  

BUREAUCRACY

I was watching the news this morning and a promo for the next show informed us that the U.N. has come out with a new edict on global warming. According to them, we will need to get down to ZERO emissions within 20 years, to SAVE THE PLANET!! SERIOUSLY?!!! They get to put out this propaganda and GET AWAY WITH IT!! This is BUREAUCRACY gone amuck on warp speed,for one simple reason- THEY ARE NOT HELD ACCOUNTABLE!! If the world finally said- " You are coming out with outlandish statements that you can not back up with fact and we are going to TAKE YOUR MONEY AWAY", they would stop in a heartbeat. After all, there can be no argument that Al Gore's prediction that the ice caps would have melted by the year 2000, was actually  erroneous.

BUREAUCRATS wreak destruction everywhere, AND THEY ARE NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE!! Hillary Clinton's Goals 2000 in our schools has been a TOTAL FAILURE, but no one wants to talk about it. George Bush's No Child Left Behind program was Goals 2000 on warp speed with testing- he passed it with Ted Kennedy. No one wants to talk about it. The attempt at Global Education and all its SOCIAL ENGINEERING comes directly from the U. N. and is now called COMMON CORE. BUREAUCRATS are wreaking havoc and destroying public education in America. No one cares, they collect their paychecks- in the case of Pearson, David Coleman and Microsoft- very big ones- and they go on destroying kids education and competition in the public school publishing markets-  AND THEY GET AWAY WITH IT!! WHO WILL HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE? In free markets if you have a lousy product you go out of business- end of story. What happens to BUREAUCRATS that lie and manipulate and have programs that are total failures? NOTHING HAPPENS!! 

I watch our Helena School Board with disgust and disbelief. They can sit and listen to a program that in some cases works- like the math program Success Maker for Math Recovery classes, which uses a computer program to test where students are failing and the teacher has them practice that skill - and applaud direct instruction. In the next moment they can listen to Amy Yerko from Chicago telling them we need new buildings with wide open forums so that teachers can teach through collaborative projects and they dumbly give the nod to that ! If you confront individuals- like I did Amy Yerko- they kind of get it. Amy asked ME for advice about her sons education at the end of one of our planning sessions in Helena. Amy has a business, she is one of the newly created experts to promote the BUREAUCRATS GARBAGE.  All these experts have to do is to say what they are told.

After the Success Maker presentation I went up to our assistant superintendent and tried to make some sense with him- kids that are struggling will just get lost having their math taught through a month long project on making rockets. HE AGREED WITH ME !! Actually, most of the kids,will learn very little and a great deal of time will be wasted. But nothing will change. Nothing will change until the grants coming from Washington go away. Microsoft will stop when there is no paycheck there. The U.N. will be stopped when their money runs out.

The public needs to begin to REQUIRE ACCOUNTABILITY, AND I DON'T MEAN COMMON CORE TESTING WHICH CAN BE CHANGED AT ANY TIME BY THE TEST CREATORS TO SHOW FAKE ACHIEVEMENT. Accountability is independent and various testing companies showing real growth in real academics (math and reading) nationwide.

Meanwhile, they are using our precious school money to hire LITERACY COACHES. This is Common Core again, trying to force all teachers to be their little robots. This is the part that really makes me sick at my stomach- the new literacy coach at our middle school is a woman who has political ties to the Democrat party because she served on the school board for them. Her experience in literacy? She worked for the Gifted and Talented program for a few years (project learning on steroids, with NO TESTING AND NO PROOF THAT IT IS EFFECTIVE AT ALL). So, this woman who came very late to the education game, and never taught Middle School English in her life, is telling our career English teachers HOW TO TEACH!!!

In just about all industries in America the American public is seeing a loss of freedom and an inablity to get out from under the strangle hold of BUREAUCRACY. We need to get our country back by stopping the BUREAUCRATS. The BUREAUCRATS need to be forced into the private sector where they will actually have to achieve something to make a living. The only way I know to stop the BUREAUCRATS, is to downsize the government. Only school programs that actually PROVE THEIR SUCCESS EVERY YEAR, should be allowed to go forward. Currently we have no proof of success what so ever, and programs like Dare, Head Start, and PEAK, go on and on propagandizing, but do not have to offer proof of their success.

STOP THE BUREAUCRATS AND SAVE AMERICA AND OUR SCHOOLS!!!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE? THAT IS THE QUESTION.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE? THAT IS THE QUESTION. I will borrow this wonderful quote from Shakespeare. Another way to put this question is - what will become of America?

We always think of the Germans as a hardworking and frugal people. People you can depend on. When it looks like Germany might go back into recession the stock market quakes and shivers- if the Germans are going down then what will happen to the rest of us who are not nearly as reliable? THE WORK ETHIC MATTERS!!

Many of us might remember when we were growing up that lying on the couch reading a book was not considered work. I remember my old German grandmother- if you weren't participating in the work- what were you doing? Did these people have failings and hang ups - most certainly. Did they over come them ? Yes, they did. Man has his good side and his bad side. Everything depends on which side you want to nourish and encourage.

I would argue that America is in a mess today because the Democrat party has encouraged the wrong values. A professor from Louisiana provided me with an aha! moment the other night. It was one of those moments when something so obvious, becomes clear to me. He said the Democrat party used to be the party for robust economic growth. TODAY THE DEMOCRAT PARTY IS THE PARTY OF REDISTRIBUTION. Yes! Yes! and Yes! 

Everywhere you look the Democrats are teaching dependency and victimhood. Lawyers use class action suits to get their booty from large corporations. The justice system is just as embroiled in this redistribution ethos as the poorer classes are. Corporations are not seen as magnificent achievements that provide for the benefits of all of us, from low cost goods to jobs to the tax base - they are seen as evil, and everyone has the right to pillage them. Success is not rewarded with honor - it is despised.

In school our children are being carefully taught with free things they really don't need - free coats, when they all have perfectly good ones that they leave on the playground and won't even claim in lost and found- the schools contribute these coats to thrift stores every year, free food all day long when their parents can easily give them a bowl of cereal and a peanut butter sandwich, collecting for Food Share which gives food to people without proof of income status, that everyone is a dependent. The idea of the rugged individual is denigrated while the idea of victimhood reigns supreme. Under the Bully Program you can turn someone in for "Making you feel inferior". Nebulous things that set up a culture of victimhood. Children are not taught that through hard work and personal fortitude they can become anything they want to be because AMERICA IS THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. They are taught about the poor and downtrodden and told that THIS IS ALL THE FAULT OF AMERICA. Any race that has not achieved everything they could and should, gets to blame our country, never themselves.

Government grants and government programs set up corporatism and greed everywhere- from non-profits that work to keep their head count up for grants and care more for their bottom line than what they are contributing to the actual charity, to corporations that set up on K Street in Washington D.C. to farmers that don't plant crops. Everyone's looking for an angle from disabilities to class action suits. BUT WHO IS LOOKING OUT FOR AMERICA? WHO CARES THAT THE CHARACTER OF OUR PEOPLE WILL BRING DOWN OUR NATION?

Man can achieve greatness and man can destroy himself. What will it be for America? Will we stop this insanity and teach our children the values they need to succeed in this world? Will  we teach our children to be proud and resilient or will we continue down this path of dependency that is drowning this country in corruption and debt? TO BE OR NOT TO BE? THAT IS THE QUESTION.

IDEOLOGY OVER EDUCATION

A news caster hit the nail on the head the other night when he said the problem with the Obama administration is that they CHOOSE IDEOLOGY OVER COUNTRY every time. That's right. When it comes to the border Obama chooses letting all the people from Central America come here illegally, and giving them services, to protecting the American people from terror and disease, by CLOSING THE BORDER. Why won't he close the border? The people who elected him think our country isn't diverse enough and that everyone is ENTITLED to be in this country. This is choosing ideology over NATIONAL INTEREST. When it comes to foreign affairs he lets extremely dangerous terrorists out of Gitmo and won't leave boots on the ground in Iraq. The result is ISIS. Why wouldn't he do the prudent thing that his generals recommended in Iraq? Because the ideology of his political base just wanted out of Iraq- the Code Pink ideology, over what was best for the country. Why won't he cut out government waste? Why does he GROW the government exponentially when we are eighteen trillion dollars in debt? Why does he leave our country vulnerable with unsustainable debt? Ideology again - more government is always better - no matter the consequences to our nation,our people, and our national economy. Why won't he stop the flights from West Africa, as the Europeans have done, to protect the American people from Ebola ? Ideology-  everything for Africa - forget the needs and rights of America.

So now let's talk about our schools. Nobody wants to talk about it, but Goals 2000,the Clinton school reform movement, has been a total failure. The Common Core advocates talk about the failure of our schools all the time alright, but they have a REAL MEMORY LOSS, as to where that failure came from. The Federal Government shouldn't be involved in education at all, what they do is IDEOLOGY OVER EDUCATION!! Any time a national government gets involved in education, politics and ideology take over. That's why the founders of our country LEFT EDUCATION UP TO THE STATES!! Why do we have "Walk to School Day"? Is this to read better? Why do we have empathy skills training? Is this to improve math?Why do we have gardens? Is this helping the students learn to write? Is the DARE program teaching Social Studies or Science? How about the Buddy program and the Bully program - what academic skill are THEY teaching? This goes on all day- but let's talk about teaching strategies.

I admit I am guilty of listening to all this nouveau crap, I tried it all. It took me a while to get that these ideas and strategies had an agenda- and it wasn't best teaching practices. I tried putting the kids desks, in a circle, in paired groups, and in pods of four. Guess what happened? What would you do if you were sitting right next to someone and had no space of your own all day- you'd probably talk to your neighbor-and that's what they did!!One day the DARE officer came in and said he needed the desks moved into rows when he was there because in these other arrangements all the kids did was talk! I was stunned- he noticed it too!! I moved my desks permanently back into rows starting on that day in 1989. Is putting students next to each other with no personal space done so that they can pay attention better, focus better, learn better? Is there data somewhere for this? If there is, I have never seen it. This is IDEOLOGY OVER EDUCATION. The real reason for the nouveau seating arrangements is to teach the  "village concept", the "community concept" , connectedness- we're all in this together-Socialism for the 21st century in America. Well, it doesn't teach any of that, but it does destroy many students chances to get a good education, and makes many teachers days very long.

Fifth graders walking down the hall and listening to kindergartners read instead of having their science lesson is for the village concept too. It certainly doesn't teach the kids any academics. At one point all the program people tried to say that programs like the endangered species program were academics!! NO THEY ARE NOT!! That little attempt died like a deflated balloon- no one would believe that!!

Teaching is not rocket science- break down skills and practice. Teach at a good pace, work with all the modalities, and keep the kids on task. Help kids that need help, shorten or add to assignments for students when needed. It doesn't take billions of dollars, millions of programs, and one full time paid job per student. Private schools do it all the time, so do moms. We did it for generations in this country very successfully- even built an industrial complex and went to the moon. Kick the ideology and the Federal Government out of our schools and the private sector will compete with good curriculum materials as they did in the past. Teachers will choose good curriculums that work. Project learning is not for good teaching folks, it's for lessons in "we're all in this together". How many of you ever learned to read in a project? How many of you were in groups and wasted your time? Enough said- Montessori has no data- after all these years- to prove that the "village concept" makes their learning superior. I would argue that it isn't even as good- I had two fourth graders from Montessori once that couldn't read at all. The Montessori teachers finally figured these kids weren't going to choose reading.

Time to kick out the ideology and CHOOSE EDUCATION, CHOOSE A SUCCESSFUL AMERICA!!

SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF OUR TEACHERS

It's interesting how every new program creates experts like leaves falling from the trees in the fall. Common Core, which has only been around for a couple of years, has more superior experts than you can even imagine. I met one today. Unfortunately, she doesn't use a mike and had her face right in the face of the school board- standing right at their name plates ( I wonder who taught her that technique?).

So I only got to hear a small portion of Janel's schtick because the superintendent, once again, changed the printed agenda. I begin to wonder if this disrespect and disservice and violation of the open meeting laws is planned. But, I did get to hear her, though I had to strain to do so, and I did get to talk to this self proclaimed superior teacher trainer. The first thing that impressed me was her total disrespect for and trust of TEACHERS. You see, our teachers are just not good teachers and they don't make kids college and career ready. I questioned her about this. Was not college and career ready always the goal of our schools? Well--- no, she said. I was astonished. Then what would the goal of schools have been? Well-- the teachers just weren't doing it  or couldn't do it- so she- the expert- is making sure they get in Professional Learning Communities so she can MAKE them do it!!

"Any time you have change there will be push back", she said. Here we go again- if you don't think I'm right all the time it's just because you're afraid of change!! I asked her about her "guaranteed and viable" curriculum . How could she guarantee a curriculum and what made it viable? Her curriculum is guaranteed and viable because it matches the test!! I wonder if she has ever heard of "garbage in garbage out"? Well, she said, students were dropping out before, but now everyone will leave school college and career ready, and that will prove the viability of Common Core.

Do you think 100% of students will walk out into this world and be successful under any curriculum? If you do, I have a bridge to Hawaii to sell you. This is nonsense. It makes about as much sense as Obama being able to settle all our foreign affairs problems just by talking to people! It's about as destructive too. She said when these (inferred inferior people afraid of change), come up to her with objections she just says " What can I do for you?". Let me answer that question for all these misused and frustrated teachers-  Lady, you can quit being so damn superior and try working in the trenches yourself!! You can quit wasting our time and let us do the job we know how to do and you don't!! YOU CAN QUIT SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF OUR TEACHERS!!

I went to what I, and many others , call the "dog and pony" show at one of our schools the other day. This is when the school board forces schools to show them their stuff every year. This is an advertisement for school reform-makes the board feel good- even if most of it is wrong, mischaracterized or just plain terrible. The board is told everything is wonderful and THEY FEEL PROUD OF THEMSELVES. They are suckers. This presentation was so bad, I would have cried or laughed, if it just didn't make me so downright mad!! The teachers sat there in a row looking terrified and the principal and one other teacher did the show. This principal, with this very southern accent, that was continually addressing herself  "I said SarahBeth"- you get the idea, was not even in school for at least part of the first week of school!! She was on an airplane going to Texas!! She made sure the kids got their charm for showing up though. Do as I say not as I do. Meanwhile we'll be out 45 minutes early every Monday, but darn it, you take attendance seriously when we are here!!

Meanwhile the students and teachers spent the week doing disaster drills and orientations!! By the way, just to ease your fears about all these starving children, apparently 100% of the kindergarten parents showed up for home visits at school. My, my- they won't feed them but they all show up- hmmm.

But here's the really sad part. I listened to all this crap and I realized why I had to leave that district. I just couldn't be treated like these teachers are being treated. I'm way too much of a self directed proud individual to subvert who I am, humble myself ,and submit to the treatment these teachers are being subjected to. One Common Core video I watched said the teachers had to find their "niche". REALLY? The teachers are just a niche now? I'll show you some of the ways teachers are being put into a little subservient niche.

First of all, this school just got it's vaunted Title I status recently. The superintendent was so proud and he just smiled and practically gave them a medal last year at a board meeting for getting it! Whoopee- the secretary made a mad dash to the phone when she realized that they had over 40% free and reduced lunch -at least for one day!! Remember, they prove income by having the secretary check up on a few, not very exact. So now they are a "poor" school and the teachers are pressured to go to a "book club" !! Yes indeed, they are reading "Framework for Poverty" !! I could get an A+ in that class- we've all done it in college- just tell them what they want to hear folks!! Don't spend your time on your work-like grading papers or doing lesson plans- go to the "book club" so they can tell you what and how to think.Meanwhile one of the board members I really do enjoy, asked if the school had changed now that they are Title. Answer- "no".

Moving right along, the teachers are forced to give up their classes to psychs and social workers teaching "empathy" skills. They used to do this when I taught too- a real barf session. Just teaching the kids what the teachers are supposed to be learning in the "book club". I guess parents can't be trusted to teach their kids not to be sociopaths.

Now, when the teachers do get a little time to teach- that will be directed too. Not only do they have to teach to the test, teach the units in the order proscribed by their "professional learning community" and report, and teach in the manner proscribed by said community, they have to give their teaching over to para professionals who are usually not even college graduates much less credentialed!! That's right, the teachers will work with a student or two who is struggling and the para will take over the teachers" class!! If that isn't bad enough, the school is working on empowering the paras to grab kids out of class if they think they are misbehaving!! The teacher's authority over the classroom is being undermined.

We are all individuals with different teaching styles and different ideas about classroom discipline. Just as we are individuals in our parenting we are different teachers. Teachers are not robots. There is no panacea in this world. Common Core is SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF OUR TEACHERS AND SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF EDUCATION!! This unproven experiment is single handedly DESTROYING EDUCATION in America - just as the teachers union president Randi Weingartner predicted.

I went away from this meeting sad and mad- it appeared to me that every bit of joy in teaching- from personal motivation, personal ingenuity, personal creativity, personal pride, individuality, spontaneity, and originality, was being sucked out of these teachers and the teaching profession. The bureaucrats, who do nothing, have taken over.

And if you want to see how these government programs work out, look no further than the military's RCI program ( we don't have enough forces in the field but we have troops to be nannys to wayward youth). I saw them up close and personal at the skateboard park by the YMCA where I work out. Some were skateboarding, some were making out with their girlfriends, some were smoking, and the military personnel in charge of this mess (soldiers) were in the lobby of the YMCA chatting with the desk clerk. Hey Janel, these are not "guaranteed and viable" curriculums. And one last shout out to the teachers union- what are you getting paid for? Have you ever heard of ACADEMIC FREEDOM?!!

TRUST

Trust, an interesting thought. Whom do you trust? Do you trust your government? Do you trust your school superintendent not to lie to you? Do you trust that your school board is doing what's in the best interest of your child? When you think about it, there's not really a lot of trust out there anymore.

Why can't you trust your superintendent of schools not to lie to you? Maybe it's because this country was FOUNDED on TRUST and the superintendent is trying to pretend that nothing has changed, but it has. This country was FOUNDED TO PUT TRUST IN THE PEOPLE. That is why we have a vote. Many people at the time did not trust that people could govern themselves. If you think about it, liberals, still today, do not believe that people can govern themselves. They TRUST the government, not you. So, your superintendent has to lie to you. He has to tell you that the building programs he is representing are a LOCAL idea. He has to tell you that Common Core does not take away LOCAL CONTROL. You see, our Federal Government is not supposed to be involved in Education at all. They have no mandate to do what they are doing so your superintendent has to lie to you, AND in most cases, to bring the school board along with those lies ( Believe it or not, there actually are many school board members that don't realize they are being directed from the Federal Government).

As the programs go forward the LACK OF TRUST IN THE PUBLIC gets worse and worse. We are told that schools need 100% free and reduced breakfast, lunch and snacks because "People just won't feed their children". Do you believe that, or do you think this is a MANUFACTURED CRISES to get you to support FEDERAL TAKE OVER OF FOOD AT SCHOOL? I can tell you that I went to school in the 50's and no one was starving. I can tell you that I never, not even one time, had a student pass out from hunger at school in all the 30 years that I taught.

We used to TRUST teachers. If the English teachers at a high school gave a student A's in English we believed that that student could write and the colleges accepted that. We believed that our elementary and middle school teachers were able to teach writing without Federal intervention. Today we have Common Core and writing programs and tests because there is no TRUST that the teachers can do this on their own. Under the TRUST system (otherwise known as freedom), we built this great country that people from around the world want to come to and that the "dreamers" from Mexico and Central America enter illegally. We went to the moon and developed an amazing industrial complex. We didn't need a Federal Department of Education to do these things. Freedom actually does work.

Our grand experiment with freedom is being destroyed by people who put their TRUST in the Federal Government and can't believe that we don't need standardized health (government controlled) and standardized curriculums and standardized welfare and standardized child rearing and standardized everything else. These people just can't believe that our states, counties, cities and school boards can operate without the Federal Government controlling them. They can't believe that parents and teachers can do their jobs without the help of the Federal Government. We are on the road to tyranny because we are letting these nonbelievers turn our successful nation into huge bureaucratic interventions that never work and always destroy.

The schools have not improved under Federal Government Reform that started with Goals 2000 in the nineties. Our test scores are flat. In my hometown of Helena our scores have deteriorated. FREEDOM actually does work folks. Put your TRUST back in yourself and your local governance and maybe we can begin believing and respecting our representatives once again. Maybe school boards and school superintendents will begin doing what is right for their local district again, instead of what the Federal Government wants, and they won't have to lie to you. The Federal Government is a wasteland of ineptitude and their march to control you has got to be stopped. STOP THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND YOU CAN STOP THE LIEING. WE CAN START TRUSTING ONE ANOTHER ONCE AGAIN.