" AS IT ART IN HEAVEN "

Just about all of us know the universal prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, the" Our Father". In that prayer we promise to do what God wants us to do, to act on earth as it is in heaven. As the Socialists have torn our culture and society apart, leaving character destruction and dependency in their path, I believe people really still do know what "As it art in Heaven" means.

If you are a young lady who has gotten pregnant and are not married and are living on government benefits, you know you are wrong to do this, no matter what your social worker tells you. If you are a parent, who would rather make the payment on your expensive new car than to pay for your children's lunches or their healthcare, you know you are wrong to do this, no matter what the popular culture is saying. If you have a Head Start child or a disabled child, and you would rather have the bus come TO YOUR HOUSE than to get out of bed and take the child to school yourself, you know you are lazy and should take the responsibility of transporting your child. If you are using your money for drugs and alcohol or gambling, and using Food Share for your food, you know you are doing wrong.

In the end not all that much has changed, the "Our Father" is still there, and no matter what propaganda and excuses are out there, people know what they are supposed to do. In the end, we are all responsible for ourselves and our children when they are small, and we know this. We know what it means to be honest, we know what it means to be lazy, we know what "As it art in Heaven" means. Kindness and charity are important IN THEIR PLACE, but the character trait of RESPONSIBILITY means responsibility FOR YOURSELF not responsibility to a group, no matter what they are teaching in school.

I was reminded yesterday of the little girl from Bryant School here in Helena who told her mother she could never be successful at piano because all children at Bryant were failures!! I taught at Bryant school. Bryant School is in a working class neighborhood- SO WHAT?!! Almost all of us grew up in working class neighborhoods! I taught my students to climb the ladder of success, and most of the students I still know from Bryant school are no longer in working class neighborhoods. The socialist left salivates over these schools. Ho Ho- an opportunity to work their craft of dependency and victimhood. I left Bryant in disgust. If any of my students are reading this blog- hear this- you are not a victim and you will be successful- don't ever let anyone tell you different.

We all know what our responsibilities are and how to achieve success through hard work . No excuse ever put anyone on the path to a happy and successful future. Some things never change and we know it, decency is decency. We know "As it art in Heaven", and we can do it. America is like Pinnochio. Many of us have been carried adrift, but I believe America will make it back to Japetto, and we will rise again, knowing who we are and doing what we are supposed to do"As it art in Heaven"- Amen!!

WHAT TO KEEP AND WHAT TO THROW AWAY

We all come across this dilemma almost daily- shall I KEEP THIS or shall I THROW THIS AWAY? Maybe it's just an old sweater or maybe it's as serious as a relationship- but we have to make these decisions.

When progressives want change they are asking you to throw things away. Unfortunately, they don't want you to use careful reason- they just want you to make the change- period. Many techniques are used to convince you to just throw things away without regard for what you are losing. One of the techniques is name calling, they make you feel ignorant or afraid or narrow minded or racist if you won't just jump on their bandwagon.

A whole room of young professionals was told by the school board the other night that the only reason they didn't want to close several schools and replace them with 500 student institutions was because they "needed to be educated" and that they were "afraid"!! My goodness, the young professionals were not ignorant of the situation. They know exactly what is being asked of them. They are being asked to throw away more than a hundred years of educational tradition. They are being asked to throw away the neighborhood school concept for an untried and untested experiment that very well may not work.To say that they are "afraid" is really insulting. In other words, people must accept all change or they are just afraid. All change is good. Excuse me, not all change is good.

Those people that take the time to consider what they are losing and what their alternatives are, are the smart ones. They are the patriots that will save, not just our schools and neighborhoods, but this country. Personally, change is why I love capitalism so much. New products come out all the time that are duds. The market quickly discards these things and comes up with new things that do work. The Swiffer mops have turned out to be pretty bad- they push dirt around,but the new steam mops really work. Voila- people purchase what works and the market responds.

America is rich and powerful- the place where all the people from Central America want to come to find their "dreams" apparently. It is not bureaucracy that created this wonderful place where dreams come true, it is capitalism. People striving to do better and to create more are what built this country, not irresponsible change perpetrated by bureaucrats.

Every time you listen to these change agents you are throwing something away. If it's gay marriage then you are being asked to throw away the sanctity of traditional marriage between a man and a woman. You are opening marriage to any possibility, from two wives or two husbands or more, to someone being married to both a man and a woman. The bedrock of the society, the family, could very well be destroyed in this chaos. If it's legalizing Marijuana and Cocaine, you will be throwing away strictures that keep the society somewhat sober, with brains that are not damaged by these substances. If it is Common Core you are being asked to accept you are throwing away the control of local school boards over curriculum and the right to change curriculum and teaching methods over time as the market dictates, instead of what bureaucrats from Washington dictate.

Change requires loss, and those people who understand the dangers and destruction that big change with no accountability or research of outcomes can cause, are the wise ones. All change is definitely not good and tried and true practices should never be turned over lightly.Be careful what you KEEP and what you THROW AWAY and don't let the change agents intimidate you with their name calling!!

THE HEART OF THE IDEOLOGY

Do you think the resignation of Eric Shinseki will fix the Veterans Administration? I don't want to disappoint anyone, but his resignation is unlikely to do a thing. The HEART OF THE IDEOLOGY is that government can do all things and fix all things- but here's a not very well kept secret for you- IT CAN'T!! It was interesting to hear the pundits on the stock shows today "The only thing government can do is throw money at it!!". Well, the Federal Government has been throwing a whole lot of money- and oh my- look where we are now!!

Nancy Pelosi whipped through the news with her pathetic hesitant voice "You see, more people have healthcare now with this beautiful healthcare bill". Hmm- seriously, do you think this congresswoman, who has made herself a MULTIMILLIONAIRE while serving, and used a GOVERNMENT JET TO GO HOME TO SAN FRANCISCO WITH HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVERY WEEK WHEN SHE WAS SPEAKER, really gives a tinkers damn about how many people have healthcare? She certainly wasn't crying a river about all the people who have LOST THEIR HEALTHCARE BECAUSE OF OBAMA CARE, or all the people WHO HAVE TO PAY MORE FOR HEALTHCARE BECAUSE OF OBAMA CARE, or all the people WHO HAVE HAD THEIR RELIGIOUS RIGHTS VIOLATED BECAUSE OF OBAMA CARE, etc. Nancy Pelosi and her compatriots want control, and they want the power and money that comes to them with that control, that's what they want , and as long as we give them that power, we are the suckers that will pay for it.

Someone said that big government works for bureaucracy, not for the people they are supposed to be serving. Well, of course bureaucrats work to serve themselves. Here in Helena we have a superintendent who is trying to take away our neighborhood schools. Helena is a beautiful little town with tree lined streets, and the children walk to school. He has moved here from out of town and is looking to move again- why would he give a rip about our little town? He's looking for his next promotion like the last superintendent did. Colorado here he comes.! Get your 4/3 schools (500 student institutions) with all the federally pushed wide hallways, foyers and hexagonal classrooms, and voila! you are a success and to hell with the destruction you leave behind you.

Bureaucrats work for their salaries and their bonuses and just hope the scandals don't break out on their watch! Private markets compete for market share and only succeed when they serve the public well.

The larger the government gets the less accountability you have and the more corruption you have. Hmm- let me think- how many scandals has Obama known "nothing" about?He was briefed about the Veterans Administration right after he took office- even campaigned about how veterans shouldn't have  waiting lists- but when the scandal hit he said the government was just too big for him to know about these things. The government is just too big for him to know what the NSA and the IRS and the Foreign Affairs (Benghazi) and the Justice Department are doing either.

Can we get this straight for once - THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS JUST TOO DARN BIG!! The other day a student refused to take an entree at lunch "I'm on the special program so it doesn't matter" i.e. her lunch was free so no one was paying for it!! Then she threw her uneaten apple and milk in the trash too, right in front of the teachers and called home for her mother to bring her food, which her mother did about an hour later. That's one of the bad results of  THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GONE WILD!! Now they want to put preschool into the public schools- all the little private preschools will go out of business and the TAXPAYERS WILL BE PAYING FOR DAYCARE FOREVER MORE!! Do you think they will stop with four year olds? No, they will never stop. Nothing is enough. Head Start's written agenda is to service children FROM THE WOMB!!

The only thing that is going to stop all this madness is to change THE HEART OF THE IDEOLOGY. Government can not do and fix all things. Big government has very bad consequences- including debt, failed economies, social destruction and corruption.LET'S CHANGE THE HEART OF THE IDEOLOGY TO FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM BEFORE ALL THE NANCY PELOSI'S OF THE WORLD HAVE ALL THE MONEY AND ALL THE CONTROL AND WE THE PEOPLE ARE LEFT COMPLETELY HELPLESS.

THIS GREAT COUNTRY

Do you ever get tired of seeing your country bashed by our friends on the left? I sure do. The most recent extravaganza into America bashing is the teacher "training" conference where teachers are told that "America is a racist nation FROM ITS INCEPTION!" My, my,- I guess no other culture or country has practiced slavery FROM ITS INCEPTION. But then again, maybe almost all countries and cultures have practiced slavery at one time.

Then again, what nation has practiced freedom and risen to the heights of affluence and success that America has? Oh, that's right- America did that by "taking advantage" of others. Yeah, taking advantage by giving them jobs where they had none before. Kind of like Cuba- supposedly all the Americans that used to vacation their were "taking advantage" of all those waiters, waitresses, hotel maids and trinket sellers. Now the left trumpets tourism as a "clean industry". Go figure- the arguments change daily to meet whatever agenda they are selling at the time.

In Helena, and I presume across the nation, the schools are running into their own arguments at warp speed now. Every year they celebrate "Walk to School Day" for the benefit of some nonprofit in Washington- these people have jobs just to promote "Walk to School Day". Now the new push is for 500 students in a school which will put most of the kids in Helena on the bus. Oh well, " We didn't really mean it- now we want the kids to be bussed."Hmmm. Then there's the home visits. You see we need home visits so that students and their parents can feel"comfortable" at their school. Whoops- we're closing your school, putting your child on a bus, and sending him/her across town away from their family and neighborhood to participate in a 500 student institution. Well, that's comfortable for the student right? You see, it doesn't matter if what we say makes sense. Just do it. We are always right.

In THIS GREAT COUNTRY we used to believe in FREEDOM. We used to believe in the INDIVIDUAL. We used to believe that children belonged to THEIR FAMILY. We used to believe that people could decide for THEMSELVES what was best for them. We used to believe in FREE SPEECH. We used to believe in the FREE MARKET SYSTEM where competition brought the good of all- not "angels" in government as Thomas Jefferson would say. Thomas Jefferson had this to say about self governance ,"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?"There are many on the left who will not believe in individuals and families. Do they think they or their government are these "angels"? By the way, families actually can and do feed their children!! Could it be that these large 500 student schools that are supposedly "Centers of Community" are actually taking our students away from their homes, making their community the Government? Is "community" really just a code word to mean consensus for government agendas?

Is everything perfect in the world of freedom? No, not at all. There will always be poor people and rich people, responsible people and some who are not as responsible. But the argument is that PEOPLE CAN GOVERN THEMSELVES AND TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN FAMILIES. FREEDOM AND FREE MARKETS ARE THE BEST WAY TO ACHIEVE THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. FREE MARKETS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES A SUCCESS. LARGE GOVERNMENTS HAVE PROVEN THAT THEY BECOME CORRUPT AND BANKRUPT AND ULTIMATELY FAIL.

Today we see our government failing everywhere, from Obama Care to the Veterans Administration,from the IRS scandal to the national debt. We can not continue on this way. Federal programs have not improved our schools, our society, our economy, our poverty rates or our families.The idea of the rugged individual taught perseverance, hard work, and personal responsibility. These things are often scoffed at by the people on the left, but the truth is, we were doing better under these principals.

In many ways, believe it or not, the left and the right are not that far apart. We care for our future and that of our children. Like government unions, the ideas of Marxism have become corrupt and destructive. It's time for our friends on the left to take a long hard look at what they have done and admit their failures. It's time for our friends on the left to quit listening to hype and realize what a great nation we have and how much we stand to lose.

Let's go back to local control of our schools and paying wages that we can afford, not wages that unions demand and pay for with corrupt donations to the democrats that get them that largesse (remember unions get a percentage of every salary increase). Our children are losing their schools because the unions have been paid off. Our veterans are not getting care because THREE HUNDRED employees, paid by the taxpayer, are doing nothing but union work. Let's go back to freedom and local control. Let's go back to truth instead of obfuscation and lies that change arguments like clock work. Let's go back to the belief in OURSELVES instead of the government in this GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS. Oh, and yes, let's go back to believing in our national heroes like GEORGE WASHINGTON, who taught us about freedom. He really is more important to our nation than Elvis Presley or Tecumseh (American Heroes books being taught to our children). These people have their place, but they are not the heroes that built this nation, and our children need to start learning that.

F A I T H

FAITH , generally speaking, is a good thing. It's important to have FAITH in yourself, it gets you through the hardest times and brings you to the greatest pinnacles of success. FAITH in your family and friends, sometimes, gets down to loyalty. FAITH in your religion is paramount, it brings you the comfort of knowing that God loves you and that everything is not about the here and now. But, FAITH  MISAPPLIED WILL BRING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND THIS COUNTRY TO DISASTER.

You often hear that liberalism is a religion. I believe that it is. The "liberals" believe in global warming like others might believe in God. But, God is not of this world. God does not have to be proven in this world. In this country you can believe what you want. No one is going to tax or regulate your business based on your belief in God. "Liberals" have found however, that they can control you in every moment of your life - BY LAW- using their own religious ideologies like global warming (recently changed to "climate change"!). They can control how you do your business and how much you pay in taxes. They can control what kind of car you drive and how much you pay for gas. They can control how much you pay to heat your house. They can control whether there are jobs available and how much the energy company can pay - after the energy company pays the government for the privilege of doing business on their own land. The list goes on- but the point is- this is FAITH- not fact. The computer models that were set up to determine global warming have been complete failures. The earth hasn't gotten warmer in 20 years. The ice caps that were supposed to be melted by 2013 are still there. But the religion of global climate change goes on and doubles down "this is settled science", "There can be no questioning. The discussion is over" !! The Federal government can control the states. Private property rights can be altered or taken away. All based on FAITH.

School reform is based on this same FAITH. SCHOOL REFORM HAS NOT WORKED AT ALL AND YET WE ARE DOUBLING DOWN ON IT!! In Helena things have gotten so bad that ,based on statewide testing, this educated and affluent town of government largesse is TENTH out of thirteen AA districts!! Our Helena High does even worse- they're TWELFTH in math. One of the ladies who advocated for the school reform "Goals 2000", twenty years ago, is now blaming our neighborhood schools for the failure!! Yes indeed, the schools would do better if they "had more money" and they could "have more money" if there were less schools!! It takes your breath away.

We had enough money in Helena, and we had better scores, before Hillary Clinton's Goal 2000 school reform movement. Now, the proposal is to close half of our elementary schools and put kids on busses all over town. Big 500 student institutions are now supposedly the answer to better schools. Unfortunately for those of us who live in Helena, this is a liberal town and voting is not based on FACTS, it is based on FAITH. No matter how bad the schools get, the majority will vote for more money and allow their neighborhood schools to be closed. Our poor students in the sixth ward will now have no school at all. They will be bussed hither and yon to spread their treasured free lunch status. You see, the Federal Government doles out money for programs based on Free and reduced lunch. Fifty percent free and reduced lunch makes you eligible. Why, if you break those kids up, instead of having one school with 100% free and reduced lunch, you can have more schools with the sought after 50%!!

Though the "liberals" can see clearly, by the statistics, that the answer to success is not government programs, they will not let go of their FAITH that government programs are the answer. They have tried every government program under the sun for twenty years and our schools have fallen to their lowest academic ratings ever- but this does not for a minute diminish their FAITH!!

FAITH has its place, but a husband who comes home drunk every night should eventually convince his wife that he needs help. In this world of Caesar, we need proof, we need facts, to lead our way to success. People should not be able to cover up and lie and obfuscate to control the people. Failed ideas like free school should be in the trash bin of history right along with failed theories like man made global warming. This is why big government doesn't work. In the free market failed ideas fail. In government failed ideas have advocates and sources of money. Lies, coverup, and blindness to truth keep the failed ideas going and going.

Some people have said that the American people get the government they deserve. FAITH has its place but it isn't in our government. As long as we continue to allow these leftists to control us with their FAITH, we will continue to fail in our schools, in our economy,  in our society, and everywhere that they practice FAITH INSTEAD OF FACTS!!

MEAN PEOPLE

When I was in California recently I saw an old faded bumper sticker that brought me back to the nineties - it said "Mean People Suck". Gee, what a well thought out and mature statement (not really), but it got me to thinking.

First of all, who uses the word "suck" in a derisive and slang fashion? The answer to that would be immature people without a wide vocabulary. Perhaps these people without a wide vocabulary have some limitations on their ability to think things through thoroughly too. I'm going to help these people think things through a little more thoroughly here. It is apparent that there is a large segment of our society that needs to get educated and to grow up, for the defense of the nation.

I was a MEAN mother many times. I made my kids do their homework, go to bed on time, practice their piano, and often didn't give them everything they wanted. I wanted my children to grow up prepared for the world. I wanted them to have the discipline and education to succeed. I was often a MEAN teacher too. I required that my students did their work, and if they didn't succeed they were in with me at recess doing the redo. You see, I cared about whether they understood their work and were ready for the next lesson. I cared about whether they succeeded and had the education they needed to be successful in the next grade and in life. I taught them to believe in themselves, but I also taught them that they had to have discipline and work hard to succeed. You often hear that the meanest teachers were the best. When people grow up and they look back at their teachers and their parents, they often see that what they thought was mean at the time was really the best thing for them.

Enabling people is not kindness. Rewarding addictions and lack of hard work and discipline is fatal for that person, for our American society, and for our country. If America is to be strong and successful once again we need a population that rewards success. We need schools that get back to the philosophy of  personal responsibility and respect for the teacher, the school, and adults in general. Students who are led to believe that they are on the same playing field as their elders are doomed for failure. Not only will they not learn from their elders because they think they know it all, they also will be in schools that have no discipline because the culture of the school is not demanding respect.

Today, in school, our liberal friends think they are being so "kind". They have programs to "fix" everything. They have the teachers running around doing home visits and social workers for all kinds of family interventions. They have the Bully program, the Buddy program and all the Behavior Initiative programs in every state. They have the Dare program and Sex Education programs and daycare and all the food programs. It finally got so bad "we have to have" the Common Core program because, actually, our schools were completely failing the students. Progressives destroy things and then they always have the "answer" to repair them- and that answer is always more government control. At least they are admitting their failures, though certainly Common Core WILL NOT FIX WHAT IS WRONG. In fact, Common Core is on track to DESTROY 200 years of education in this country.

Terrence Moore points out in his book The Story Killers that the most important thing kids learn in life is to be a good person. All the education in the world won't make you succeed if you are a failure as a person. If you don't know right from wrong and you don't have the integrity and discipline to lead an ordered life, you are doomed for failure. Our schools are not teaching discipline and respect, they are teaching victim hood. The Dare program is telling kids they have a choice, not that it is absolutely wrong to do drugs. The Bully program often has the perpetrator as the victim and the student trying to mind his own business as the villain. Our sex education programs sexualize our children young and teach them tolerance for promiscuity. The Buddy program pairs up our at risk students with teenagers, not always the best influence for a young child, and the parents don't get to do the screening.

In class students are taught their opinions have the same value as the teachers and they have the right to suck on water bottles and leave the class for the bathroom all the time. They are taught that curriculum time is really not all that important, after all, it is interrupted constantly by the school itself.

It is not money that is going to fix our schools. It is not programs that are going to fix our society. The answers are not that hard and they go back to the original Ten Commandments that God gave us. Teach discipline and respect for teachers and the school. Show leadership and demand performance. You can't "fix" every family. Get rid of the hyperbole- as I've said so many times- if parents weren't feeding their kids they would be dead before they made it to school age. When the liberals have a program that requires parent input- voila! parents show up. Parents DO care about their children.

There are enduring truths and America needs to get back to them. Give up the programs and the corruption and lobbyists will go away. Turn "kindness" into a demand for respect, leadership, integrity and hard work. MEAN PEOPLE DO NOT SUCK, THEY OFFER THE LEADERSHIP THAT WILL MAKE OUR SCHOOLS AND OUR SOCIETY SUCCESSFUL ONCE AGAIN.

TEXTBOOKS

Back in the days when we were making steady progress in our schools we had faith in our TEXTBOOKS. Why did we have faith in our TEXTBOOKS? We had faith in our TEXTBOOKS because we understood that the people who wrote these books were PROFESSIONALS THAT SPENT THEIR DAYS DEVELOPING THE BEST WAY TO TEACH CURRICULUM  and that TEXTBOOKS TAUGHT A SUBJECT AT GRADE LEVEL COMPREHENSIVELY AND INCREMENTALLY, AND LOGICALLY BUILT KNOWLEDGE!! Teachers knew that their job was to DELIVER the curriculum, not to write the TEXTBOOK! Lesson planning, where teachers design a LESSON, is entirely different than creating the curriculum everyday.

Teachers worked on committees to write a curriculum and then found the best TEXTBOOKS they could to deliver the best education. They had a scope and sequence as a guide, but THE TEXTBOOK GAVE THE DAY TO DAY STRUCTURE THAT DELIVERED LOGICAL AND COMPREHENSIVE LEARNING. Fast forward to today and you will see superintendents SNEERING at TEXTBOOKS !! Yes, these geniuses have taken up the ultra left Common Core rhetoric of demeaning the use of TEXTBOOKS. The left has been sneering at TEXTBOOKS and trying to get rid of them for as long as I can remember. As I have said on this blog before, their ideas NEVER change. They do not see failure as an obstacle- anymore than the fact that the earth has not gotten warmer in TWENTY YEARS stops the global warming catastrophe crowd. The left just keeps marching on in the same track. The people can stop them with the vote- that's the only thing that will finally stop their failed ideas from marching on and continuing to destroy education in this country.

Teachers at the high schools here are being told they are "isolationists" if they want to teach the comprehensive curriculum. These genius administrators, following Jeb Bush's Common Core, "Just aren't sure the kids need to learn all of that." What do they want the teachers to do instead? They want the Calculus teacher to develop "collaborative units" with the English teacher. This is not a joke. I am dead serious. I heard this first hand. These jokers, who by the way have no research evidence for any of this, are trying to break down 200 years of education in this country. Meanwhile, my daughter who teaches Life Sciences in a college, is finding college students that don't even know what electrons and protons are!! Thirty percent of our Montana graduates have to be remediated in Math!!

Collaborative units are nothing more than little hands on projects, that at best, in a good curriculum, can add reinforcement. Across subject lines they aren't even that. This is the same "whole language" garbage the left has been trying to sell for fifty years. The same whole language idea that NEVER has shown success. And yet, they will take the valuable time of our high school students and spend it experimenting- whiling away days with no real learning progress. Learning is about building a foundation of knowledge in specific curricular areas- whether the left likes it or not. The question is, when will the American people step in and stop this destruction in our public schools?

TEXTBOOKS deliver comprehensive knowledge in a teach, practice, review and test format.TEXTBOOKS build information. TEXTBOOKS require accountability from teachers and students. TEXTBOOKS should be the foundation of classroom learning. They should be sought after competitively so that bad textbook companies, like Common Core's Pearson, are put out of business ,and the best TEXTBOOKS are purchased. There is not enough room here to tell about all the ridiculous wastes of curricular time the left has thought up, and that our even more ridiculous board members are so proud of. It doesn't take a neuroscientist to tell you that kids need on task uninterrupted structured curriculum time to learn, but our school board members, who are so proud of themselves, just can't see it at all. Why, they have programs!! Meanwhile, The Common Core tyrants, get to CHANGE THE TESTS ANY TIME AND IN ANYWAY THEY WANT TO!! How can Common Core fail? They'll just change the test- and voila! the kids can do it now!! What a wonderful world. Make your children's teachers stick to the TEXTBOOKS and make sure they are GOOD TEXTBOOKS!!