education
Race to the Top
In selecting winners, the education department used a complicated scoring system that weighted everything from states’ willingness to track student and teacher performance, adopt uniform standards, and turn around or close their worst schools.
“Obviously, when they’re dangling a carrot of half a billion dollars it doesn’t hurt. Especially when we’re scrambling for every penny,” said Jerry Winters, director of government relations for the Tennessee Education Association.Teachers were leery of the proposed reforms, particularly the idea of using the state’s massive data tracking system to evaluate their performance. In the end, Winters said, seven years of trust and cooperation between the union and the governor’s office persuaded them to buy into the reforms.
I’m going to go with the idea that when the federal government gets involved in local education by dangling carrots in front of cash strapped states, it is not totally in the best interests of the children. The ‘Obama reforms’ will have a price.
Leading the Wal-Mart Cheer
Give me a W…give me an A…..
In front, leading the Wal-Mart cheer is Taneka Robertson.
Wal-Mart donates money to teachers to spend on their class
Short Mountain School was visited by Steve Phillips, Taneka Robertson, and Walter Gaskill of the Rutherford Blvd Wal-Mart in Murfreesboro. Wal-mart gave each teacher a $100 gift card to spend toward their class and a $50 gift card to the Art & PE teacher. A total of $1100.00 was awarded. {source – Cannon Wire}
I’m glad that Wal-Mart sometimes decides to give a little money to local schools. It will take a slight load off of parents who are continually hit up for money. Fund raisers are a big thing around here. Just yesterday our local school delivered 360 dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts at $6 a pop to support something or the other for the school.
What struck me in this Wal-Mart give away was that the art and PE teachers only got half of what the others received.
I suppose creativity and physical fitness must not be prerequisites to being a good Wal-Mart shopper.
Wal-Mart is going with the flow. Google ‘art, music and PE funding cuts in schools’ and you’ll see this is the trend all over the country. These ‘unnecessary’ subjects don’t fit in with the federal mandate of “No Child Left Behind.”
“Mommy, can we go to Wal-Mart?”
“Tomorrow dear, that’s when they’ll begin giving the flu vaccine at those ‘everyday low prices.’ Now eat your donuts and go to your room and play video games. I may even let you ride in one of the scooters there. Won’t that be fun?”
One guess…What specific ‘history lessons’ are funded by stimulus money?
Gotta pony up the funds Tennessee. The ADL will be accusing you of a ‘hate crime’ by not teaching the kiddies a one sided account of ‘history.’ They may even call you anti-semitic. Are there any other specific stimulus monies or state taxpayer funds that are used to ‘indoctrinate’ a single aspect of events in the past?
Holocaust lessons are at risk as Tennessee alters funding
Jill Coble never skips the Holocaust in her social studies classes, using the event as a gateway to class discussions about the dangers of propaganda and creating scapegoats.
The Smyrna Middle School teacher is the unofficial coordinator of about 12 teachers trying to help the Tennessee Commission on Holocaust Education fulfill its core mission — making sure Holocaust victims are remembered and the public receives and grasps lessons about hate and human rights.
“Many of my students, they arrive with basically no knowledge of the Holocaust,” Coble said. “But interestingly enough, here in Smyrna and I’m sure in other parts of the state, we have people who have … experienced some type of persecution first hand. So, I think what the Holocaust has to teach us really resonates.”
The 25-year-old group is facing a new challenge this year. It saw its $128,300 in state funding move from the state’s annual spending plan to the “non-recurring” expense column, meaning a fight for the money each year and likely a need for more private donations.
Adding to the agency’s challenges is that the state is steadily losing the small number of Holocaust survivors and military liberators, people whom the commission once frequently connected with schools for living lessons.
This year, a portion of the federal stimulus package is covering the commission’s budget, said Felicia Anchor, commission chairwoman.
“We are kind of on notice that we are either going to have to re-establish ourselves with the state or be looking for our funding elsewhere,” Anchor said. {more – The Tennessean}
Children are never too young to be taught to despise the State
…to distrust its agents, and to avoid cooperating in any way with the mechanism of official plunder, deception, and coercion. Parents should seek to instill such attitudes in their children as soon as possible.
Video exposes ‘all whites are racist’ teachings
In 2007, the University of Delaware’s Office of Residence Life used mandatory activities to coerce students to change their thoughts, values, attitudes, beliefs, and habits to conform to a highly specified social, environmental, and political agenda. Following FIRE’s campaign, which called the attention of the national media and the blogosphere to the Orwellian program, university President Patrick Harker terminated the program, effective immediately. This video explains the program’s invasive thought-reform activities, the horrified reactions of students and the press, and FIRE’s response.
My Comments:
Believe it or not, this Marxist, racist ideology is being taught on campuses all across the United States. No longer are colleges and universities places of learning, but centers of social engineering and mass indoctrination aimed at breaking individuals of their traditional beliefs and instilling the state-mandated beliefs deemed acceptable by the elite. It’s all about getting people to accept a socialist one world government, where the only opinions one will be allowed to have are those deemed “politically correct,” which are pre-approved by the state. It’s a form a training that derives directly from the Soviet system of government. The war that is being waged is, more than anything, being waged against free and individual thought.
-MDJ
Think What We Think…Or Else: Thought Control on the American Campus
Source: Matthew Jarvie
“It seems to me that the nature of the ultimate revolution with which we are now faced is precisely this: That we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques which will enable the controlling oligarchy who have always existed and presumably will always exist to get people to love their servitude.”
— Aldous Huxley (1962 speech at Berkeley)
Eustace Mullins – The Neo Zionist Order
A 10 part interview with Eustace Mullins on Israel, world zionism, the Federal Reserve and more. {source}
A jewish pervert busted in Nashville
We’ll see how good Levine’s ‘connections’ are. He obviously won’t be attending Obama’s Passover seder.
Louis Jay Levine
Murfreesboro, Metro teacher filmed kid’s sex, police say
Child porn cases contain allegations of teen alcohol, drug use dating to ’70s
Teenagers have gone for decades to a science teacher’s Belle Meade-area home to drink and smoke marijuana. Many went to have sex with each other. Few knew they were being videotaped.
Those allegations were detailed in a federal complaint released Tuesday charging Louis Jay Levine, 52, with producing child pornography. Police recovered 400 tapes, many with handwritten labels, at his Alton Road home near Belle Meade.Levine, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s from Belmont, is a first-year teacher with Murfreesboro City Schools. He traveled through the district teaching science and nature classes to elementary and middle school students. He has been a substitute teacher with Metro Nashville Public Schools since 2002, and for many years took snakes and other wildlife to presentations for youth groups and camps.
The police investigation began in late March, when a concerned parent told a Metro detective that her teenage son and other teenagers were given alcohol and marijuana at Levine’s house and allowed to use the bedrooms for sex.Detectives searched the home March 31 and found an “isolation room” — a waterbed covered by a wooden box with an improvised ventilation system, an outbuilding teenagers called the “Little House” where sex and drug use were common, and a monitoring and recording system hooked up to cameras positioned throughout the property.
Police said they’ve spoken with adults who recently acknowledged they took drugs and had sex at Levine’s home in the 1970s and 1980s, when they were teenagers.
A now-adult man told police of a peephole in the outbuilding, audio recordings of sexual encounters, and inappropriate contact between Levine and himself — as well as other teenage boys. Levine has not been charged with sexual assault.
Levine admitted to police that he often picks up a group of boys in Franklin and takes them to his house. One 16-year-old boy told police he suspected he was videotaped having sex with a girl he took there.
That boy also told police he was under the influence of drugs and fell asleep one day at Levine’s house. When he awoke, according to the federal complaint, his pants were off and Levine was touching him.
Levine told detectives he’s “fascinated” with the boy. He told a detective that “society looks at this differently than I do,” according to the federal warrant
Other allegations in the federal complaint describe the “Little House,” where several teenagers reported they were given pornographic videos to watch of other teenagers who’d been to the house.
The home at 133 Alton Road is no stranger to controversy. Levine’s father was Morris Levine, a Metro councilman from 1947 to 1951 and a prominent attorney, who threw lavish Halloween celebrations each year, drawing hundreds of families. In 2000, police were called when a newcomer to the neighborhood was startled to find sexually explicit magazines in the party favor given to her husband. Morris Levine, who died in 2001, referred to them as “daddy bags,” according to a previous newspaper article.
Police took a report but said that no laws were broken because the adult magazines were passed out only to adults. Most neighbors knew of the tradition.
Sandra Griffith knew of it but didn’t condone it. She has lived two houses down from the Levines for 10 years and said she often saw teenagers coming and going. She was not surprised when the younger Levine was arrested.“I knew with all those kids coming and going all hours of the day and night that something had to be going on,” Griffith said.
No family members appeared with Levine during his initial federal court appearance Tuesday.
Levine, smiling, appeared upbeat while talking with his federal marshals and his court-appointed attorney.
Levine chose Hugh Mundy, an assistant federal public defender, to represent him in future proceedings, but Levine might be forced to pay for his own representation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Bryant said Levine had “significant assets.”
Levine had no comment about the charges. He will have a detention hearing and a preliminary hearing at 1 p.m. Friday.
“I think the important thing to remember is these are just allegations in a criminal complaint,” Mundy said. “The allegations come primarily from teenagers.”
{more – The Tennessean}
From the Tennessean comments;
I was the one who called the police Halloween of 2000 and the police would not do anything. I had moved in to the neighborhood and everyone told my husband and I how we needed to take our children over there. I was appalled when we got home and my 4 year old son dumped out the bag and there were 2 women doing unspeakable acts on the front cover. I went back to confront the Levines and had the police come as well. I called the D.A. Tori Johnson who was extremely rude and told me he would do nothing. I knew there was something about that house that just wasn’t right. Funny to me that everyone in the neighborhood shuned me and looked at me like I was a trouble maker. These families who go use this as there one time a year to get there porn and it’s ok. All I can say to all those people is I told you so. I knew there was something going on in that house and none would listen.
BigCoverUp wrote:In fact Kate – before you call – respond on here and confirm or deny the willingness of the Tennessean to report the absolute whole truth (be sure to note the word “whole”). I would bet we won’t see a response either way.
It’s a wee bit ridiculous to think that the Tennessean or ANY media outlet in this town will follow and REPORT the whole story on this or any other case. Kind of funny how all the cases in the media seem to all be connected but our adults of today have forgotten how to play the connect the dots game to draw a really clear picture. Maybe they are capable of connecting them, but it draws such a scary picture that they just can’t print it. The reporters, editors, and news directors in this city are weak and afraid of the truth – if the truth is exposed and those responsible are identified, then tomorrow’s story will only be about the lack of news. Proof to these professional journalists has been handed to them on a silver platter. Kate – the dirty books that Levine handed to the cops are sitting 10 feet from me. One tv station (oh – truth – Channel 2) had access to them last night – video taped them, had the whole story. Didn’t mention it. The Tennessean doesn’t have the balls to do it either because your editors won’t attack the powerful politicians of this town who are ultimately responsible for what is happening to adults and innocent children. It’s called a blind eye to protect the law enforcement officials who are only interested in fabricated numbers to make it look like they are doing such a wonderful job. I’m sure you know who I am Kate. If your editors grow any balls whatsoever and you want the proof to actually print instead of handing it over to the thugs in charge of the city, give me a call.
Is it any surprise to anyone that Chief Serpas and US Attorney Ed Yarbrough failed to mention yesterday that this man has been a part of the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) Youth Camp for MANY years. What makes it even more interesting is that he would show up at the camp – with his father in the years before he died – and bring little sacks of candy and cheap toys for the kids. He would bring his snakes and lizards to show to the children. What a wonderful man! He would also bring individual sacks for the POLICE OFFICERS who were there serving as counselors filled with candy AND numerous pornography magazines! The officers would then step outside and enjoy their PORN (while being paid by the city of Nashville) while Mr. Levine showed the children his lizard. I can’t vouch for the fact that this took place during the girls camps but I know he was there during the boys camps. Even his daddy’s name is on the sign at the entrance to the FOP Youth Camp in appreciation of all of his years of service to the camp. What a better way for a child pervert to enjoy his passion. Befriend and distract the cops with porn! Who wouldn’t love that as a break from 50 little kids!!
Every news station in this town knows about his ties to the FOP camp and about the dirty magazines that he handed out to the officers. Channel 2 even has even seen the magazines, but instead of mentioning what he did there and how the police officers looked at porn while he babysat the kiddies, they simply call the FOP President, mention that they acknowledge he was there and that he was NEVER alone with the kids. No mention of the porn.
Does it make you wonder if Calvin Hullett really does know what goes on at the FOP Camp???? Does it make you wonder why Ronal Serpas didn’t want what Hullett knew out in the public or why he didn’t mention this today??? Because he already knew and has known what goes on at the FOP Camp since 2006 and has refused to do anything about it and has covered up for perverts now and for on duty police officers drinking and assaulting kids! Talk about a fall guy.
Do you wonder what is really on those video’s taken by Hullett that NOBODY has the balls to show? I understand why the local media won’t do it. They will burn their sources for all other media stories and won’t get the tips from inside. Parents of the kids who have been at the FOP Camp should be outraged!!! – but who will they complain to – they ARE the COPS!
Dumbed Down Schools
From the one room schoolhouse of the past to the giant no window prison like schools of today. Progress?
I heard a rumor, although from a good source, that a local school had to throw away an estimated $500 worth of books from their library.
Were they old, containing lead ink and had to be disposed of according to law.
No.
Was it the result of witch hunting book banners?
No.
They were urinated on or had a used tampon placed in them by students.
I just hope they were the ‘approved’ propaganda textbooks that distort history or push for certain social agendas and not some that the kids could actually learn a little from.
_____________
What has happened to our public schools?
The new administration has apparently figured out what is wrong with our educational system. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the lack of clear goals and objectives in today’s public schools, because we are told that every student is unique and ought to be able to move at their own pace regardless of results. We are not to look at the impact of the lessening of school discipline, because we do not want to hurt or diminish our young children’s self-esteem.
Likewise, do not blame the dumbing-down of what now passes for math, where 2 + 2 only equals 4 if it does not offend anyone; or the new history, where all of our forefathers were hateful men who cared only for their own self-interests.
You see, we the people have been in error about the problems facing our educational system. But do not worry; President Obama has explained it to us. We have been doing all the right things, just not enough of them. The solution, says the president and all the teacher’s unions, is to lengthen the school day, week and year. If what you are doing does not work, do more of it.
According to the president, continuing to teach a social agenda instead of the four R’s is a good thing. We are also to believe that focusing on a child’s sense of worth instead of his achievements is the proper course of action in a world so mean and intolerant. What do parents know about raising their children; it takes a village, right?
Unfortunately, longer school days and attending year round will serve only to widen the chasms that already exist in the modern American family. At a time when we ought to be fostering a stronger home life, the decision has been made to attempt to separate children from their parents even more.
This will not work. The real solution is to change the method and content of our public education system. The better way is to model schools after those that are actually producing proven results. What we should be doing is looking to private, Christian, parochial and home-schooling systems to see what works.
The achievement gap between students attending public and nonpublic schools is large — and growing every year. We have the know-how to teach our children, just not the political will to do so.
Of course, instead of looking to our own successful nonpublic schools as a model of how to properly educate, our president cites South Korea as the pinnacle of educational prominence.
South Korea? Are we now following the rest of the world? What happened to other countries looking to us? I remember when the United States stood as the shining example of achievement. If we were to place our trust in the hands of teachers — not teachers’ unions — it would not be long before this nation once again stood tall as the world leader in educational excellence.
It is time to stop following and start to lead again.
from: Shaun Fink in Millsboro via delmarvanow.com
~~~~~
There are numerous reasons for the breakdown of our school system and most of them are the same as what has caused the breakdown in our society and families.
Some will blame the teachers but the teacher’s hands are tied. Real discipline is lacking in most schools . Ask any teacher for their off the record view of “No Child Left Behind” and you might be surprised.
Instead of teaching the basics to prepare a child for a productive future, there is a social engineering agenda directed by the federal government. The goal, as always, is to create a dumbed down population that doesn’t even realize that they are slaves.
The constitution does not mention or mandate a federal educational system.
The federal Department of Education should be abolished and control returned to the state and local level.
It’s no wonder kids piss on their library books.
Militarization of Public Schools & Outlawing Citizens’ Right to Protest
The Marines would share costs of operating the school, including paying for teacher salaries. DeKalb would pay for benefits.
Will the constitution be taught in these schools?
Despite protests, DeKalb proceeds with Marines school
County plans to open public high school in partnership with U.S. Marine Corps
By Kristina Torres The Atlanta Journal-Constitution March 23, 2009
DeKalb County school officials are forging ahead with plans to open a first-of-its-kind military-style public high school, despite a growing campaign by activists upset at the involvement of the U.S. Marines.
“It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened in Georgia education,” said Michael Burke, a DeKalb resident and spokesman for the Georgia Veterans Alliance, a group that aligns itself with the work of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, among others.
“The whole thing is just a ploy” to help the Marines recruit, Burke said. “We expect to fight it tooth and nail.”
That response irritated DeKalb school system officials. They said it stereotypes the proposed Marine school and students who may be interested in it. The protests — mounted largely through e-mails and letters — have not deterred them, they said.
“This is not a training ground to send kids into the military,” said DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis, whose system, with 99,700 students, is the state’s third-largest. “My job is not to look after a portion of children but all the children. One size does not fit all. For the mom who believes her child is capable of going to college but lacks discipline, this is a choice.”
A DeKalb school spokesman said Monday the system has hired a commandant for the school, which system officials hope to open in August. The commandant was selected from a list of three candidates from the Marines.
A memorandum of understanding with the Marines has not yet been signed, although DeKalb school board members authorized the school’s concept Sept. 9.
The DeKalb Marine Corps Institute will be the first of its kind in Georgia, and joins an expanding network of such schools nationwide. The first public military academy opened in Richmond, Va., in 1980, and more than a dozen now exist in places from New York to Wisconsin. more
Military high schools and possible mandatory ‘volunteering’ for all of our kids. Creating a youth police state, one step at a time.
The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act has been passed by the house and now goes to the Senate. As with all things ‘government’ there are hidden agendas.
GIVE Act outlaws citizens’ right to protest
It is another sound good piece of legislation. H.R. 1388 has a creative title; The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act. 321 representatives of the people voted approval for this legislation which, among many other things, strikes a blow to the rights of people to mount any protests against legislation. Listen closely, it outlaws the right to mount protests against proposed legislation.
This act is being presented as part of Pres. Obama’s goal of establishing a national service program. In his speech delivered in Colorado Springs, CO he wanted “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the the military.” As Rahm Emanuel further explained, “It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.”
The GIVE Act would extend funding, through 2014, for AmeriCorps as well many other organizations that would either be extended or created. Among these are the National Civilian Community Corps, Learn and Serve Programs, the Investment for Quality and Innovation program, Campuses of Service, Innovative Service-Learning Programs and Research, an Education Corps to address unmet educational needs, a Healthy Futures Corps to address unmet health needs, a Clean Energy Corps to address unmet environmental needs, a Veterans Corps to address the unmet needs of veterans and their families. Overall it is the goal to reach at least 250,000 serving in a volunteer basis. Overall, it sounds good to the ears yet 105 representatives voted in opposition to it.
Perhaps one of the key reasons there were so many votes against this supposedly good act was the little amendment buried down as the 12th Amendment to the act. Remember it is the little invasions to our liberties that open cracks for increased federal power and decreased freedom. “Amendment to prohibit organizations from attempting to influence legislation; organize or engage in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes; and assist, promote, or deter union organizing.” Those in support of this legislation will argue this amendment is limited in scope and is not meant to interfere with the rights of citizens to protest, petition, boycott, or strike in resistance to government proposed laws.
However, the people associated through service under the GIVE Act are considered volunteers, still free citizens, yet it will be unlawful for them to take part in any protests against any legislation. This is as close to a sedition act, a violation of 1st Amendment rights, as has been proposed in recent history. A basic right as a part of our natural, inalienable rights, is to resist government. Our founders not only knew it was a right but it was a responsibility. This legislation begins to break that down significantly.
What can you do? Research this legislation and the amendments to see if you feel as outraged as this examiner. Contact your representatives and chastise those who voted for it while sending a note of appreciation to those who stood against it. Keep an eye on your Senators and help defeat any attempt to carry the GIVE Act into law by contacting them and letting them know you oppose this violation of our natural right and responsibility as patriotic Americans.
‘Corporate Prisons’
The GOP’s Formula for More Crime, Declining Education, and Slave Labor
Like many crooked GOP schemes, the fascist corporatization of state prisons makes a slick end run around the Bill of Rights, sets up crony corporations with a guaranteed gravy train at tax payer expense, and —to sweeten the deal –it provides them with slave labor.
It is no accident that under Gov George W. Bush, Texas beat out Mississippi for ‘dead last’ in education. As education declines, crime increases. Increasing crime fuels the corporate prison gravy train. Justice has nothing to do with it. It’s about warehousing and enslaving people for profit. There is nothing in the middle ages half so slick, so cunning, so evil!
Unless the nation wakes up to what happened in Texas, the nation will enter not just an economic depression but a new dark age, perhaps an end to civilization as we know it. In many ways we already share with the middle ages, a careless disregard for every life. In Texas, the crime rate increased as the prison systems –under Bush Jr –went corporate! As a result, one in 100 Texas residents are in prison, many of them ‘corporate’ lock ups in which prisoners have no rights. As Texas took the GOP/fascist prison route, education tanked –a recipe for future unemployment, poverty and increased crime.
I see a pattern. Declining education is a recipe for guaranteed unemployment, poverty, and crime. It also represents a guaranteed, risk free income to the evil corporations who run the state’s corporate gulag often with no-bid contracts! As long as the quality of public education declines, two groups will benefit: the corporate owned prisons and expensive private schools affordable only to the very, very rich and/or privileged. The GOP runs states like Bush ran the war of aggression against Iraq. State prisons are just another money making opportunity, as Iraq was for the likes of Dick Cheney’s Halliburton and professional thugs like Blackwater.
Read the rest: http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2008/11/corporate-prisons-gops-formula-for-more.html
kenny's sideshow 