It’s a movie about Hitler stealing art during World War II. My posts on it here. And here.
National Geographic channel is featuring the story with an interview with the book’s writer, Robert Edsel.
The tale is intriguing…in the days before email and computers, tracking down the artwork had to be through footwork—a phenomenal task. I love good mysteries and good detective work, and so wish I could see the movie as it opens today.
Diane Ravitch has this up on Tennessee teacher Laura Hopson speaking out on what teachers really want–funny thing is they don’t want what the self-appointed education gurus say they want…
What a bombshell…the United States Department of Education is taking dirty money from Bill and Melinda Gates.
For a “collaboration conference” April 2012
Another “collaborative” effort to implement Common Core, December 2013
Note the “shared responsibility” white paper….and the focus is on labor collaboration…nothing about a well-rounded education as a robust part of democracy….the focus is on labor and business.
Note the paper states that the Dept. of Ed. is under “immense pressure” to implement labor-management collaborative…um, yeah, I don’t remember asking for more corporate involvement in public schools, have you…?
This sentence is telling:
To advance this collaborative theory of change the Department has been using both its convening andgrant making powers.
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(I have no idea why the font changed to smaller size…must be the pdf.)
…in other words, the Dept. of Ed. has been coercing schools to adopt the policy through grants and legislation…
n February 2012, the Department
announced the launch of the RESPECT Project.RESPECT stands for Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching.The project’s purpose is to directly engage with teachers across America in a national conversation about transforming the teaching profession bydramatically changing the way teachers are recruited,credentialed, supported, compensated, promoted,and retained in the profession.The near-term aim of the RESPECT Project is to elevate teachers’ voices in shaping federal,state, and local policy, with a long-term goal of making teaching one of America’s most respected professions.
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This is such a joke. Respect means you pay teachers a decent wage that reflects their professional education and their experience. Respect means you do not bash teachers and teacher’s unions.
“…the…aim of RESPECT Project is to elevate teachers’ voices…” Unless, of course, those voices are in passionate disagreement with you:
Finally, I found this wonderful video that takes on “Waiting for Superman” and all the false claims made by the education profiteers and their allies:
I remember hearing of Terry Kath’s death on the radio. He was a soulful vocalist and guitar player for the band Chicago, born January 31, 1946. The news announcer said he was playing “russian roullette” with a gun when it went off. That was not true–he didn’t realize the gun was loaded. What a terrible loss.
Someone put together a pretty decent video of Terry:
He touched so many lives and he lives on…
Want to know a surprising thing? Terry couldn’t read music.
If today’s education gurus were to judge little Terry Kath by his inability to read music, he would be forever labeled “stupid” and put into a black hole, never to realize his potential because some hedge fund manager/education profiteer decided he had no potential because he couldn’t identify musical notes on paper. And we all know how powerful his musical ability was—what a waste that would have been to deny him that by labeling him.
Terry’s daughter, Michelle, is putting together a documentary on her father.
She was on a radio show last night to talk about her dad.
Talented band with creatively written music, eh?
What a stirring, beautiful song. (Now THIS is what I’m talking about when I talk about music stirring the soul!) (hat tip to Global News Canada)
Thank you to Neil Young for making this available. The video is just stunning…how beautiful the untouched Earth is when left alone…and how quickly it is destroyed by thoughtlessness and lack of vision of the future…
Young isn’t asking for any contributions, but I’m sure this song will be available for download. If you’re able, please support him and this effort. We are all connected.
This just makes my morning! Bob Braun’s article here.
The explosion of personal anger occurred at 8:30 pm, two hours after the meeting at First Avenue School got off to a delayed and troubled start. Scores of residents who wanted to attend the meeting were kept outside in single-digit temperatures. Then some were allowed to enter an unheated cafeteria. Police officers, citing fire regulations, said the auditorium in the school was too crowded.
The venue clearly was chosen to keep the size of the crowd down.
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See…you can control the negative speech against you by making it harder for the mounting opposition to even get a space to stand.
Remember what I said in the previous blog about education and how it seemed like they were trying to separate kids from their parents by reducing the amount of time at home?
Well, this statement kind of supports that:
a letter to families that suggested if Newark children were home from school they would get into trouble, make the city “less safe” and cause crime to go up
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Where do I start? The insinuation is that parents don’t know how to raise their kids. That kids are little criminals just waiting for the opportunity to commit a criminal act.
Perhaps art and music instruction would be helpful here in creating and encouraging imaginations so that kids could entertain themselves while out of school, eh?
They could be painting, drawing, learning a new game, playing/practicing an instrument, playing tag outside, making snow sharks 🙂 , or doing something to give back, like shoveling an elderly/disabled person’s sidewalks, or running errands…the list is endless….
I sometimes forget about my “past life”…
I had purchased a crafted zippered “wallet”, for want of a better word, crafted by the women of Afghanistan **, featured on the Feminist Majority’s website many moons ago when I had a job…I wondered if they still had this program going. They do.
So…I hope that some of you can support the women of Afghanistan to gain some independence with a purchase of their handicrafts.
**keep the kleenex handy…for those in pain and those that never made it home, on both sides of the ocean…
(this song was on my mind when I named this blog, fyi 🙂
We were treated to another spectacular cloud rainbow...
…this time, however, I was able to get a little bit of it captured with my cell camera. It was almost directly in line with our front door:
It’s a little hard to distinguish, but the little patch that looks white is actually the splash of rainbow. The sun was not cooperating. I was trying to block the lens from glare, but alas…
Anyway, I think the sun’s rays are pretty spectacular, too.
After once again being subjected to Robin Thicke’s rape song, Blurred Lines, at the Grammys, I feel the need to repost a couple of blogs on the misogyny:
Rape culture in living color. Degrading women as second class starts with media images. The media is a powerful messenger. Fear and Anger and Sex are the major influences in Communications and the media uses them well to influence the public.
Music has been a part of my life since I could remember, and the Grammy’s were one of the shows I used to watch regularly, but last night was a reminder of why I quit watching the awards show…it’s more about promotion of artists than promotion of music as an art. Because I don’t see that Robin Thicke and the others (including women) that sexualize women to promote their songs have a load of talent.
If one has talent, their music speaks for itself.
Good music stirs the soul….speaks to the soul…bad music is just noise to fill the airwaves.
And on a personal note~ I really wish Ringo would have sung “It Don’t Come Easy”…I requested this song for Christmas one year, and my thirty year old son liked it…it could have been a way for Ringo to reach the younger crowd, if he had introduced them to it….
The opening notes as they are played on the recorded version are beautiful and stirring.
**edited to take out video–oops, thought it was official. Apologies.
Eagle 
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