Diane Ravitch reports on a growing movement of parents who are keeping their children home on test day–to opt out of the stupid nonsensical testing of things that can’t be tested…. **edited to add link. Geesh.
In other Ed. news- — Joe Williams, a PR shill for the corporate reformers masquerading as Democrats has been…ahem….schooled.
The facts don’t lie.
More reports of crooks running public education in the ground so they can profit off of it….
From the article on the expose in Maine:
A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.
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And the graphic linked to in the article is just mindboggling. Look at the flow of money!
It still just absolutely stuns me on how the American Legislative Council (ALEC) was able to get away with so much for so long! Just stunning.
Susan Rice was on the tube today trying to sell the war. She tried playing on people’s emotions by saying that she was thinking of her own children as she watched the tapes of the children being gassed.
What about the children in Iraq? Don’t they remind Susan Rice of her children, too? More here.
How many children will be lost if we bomb Syria?
I asked the question “don’t we know how to use diplomacy anymore?” And it appears that John Kerry was an accidental diplomat when he reportedly made an offhanded remark that Syria could turn over chemical weapons to the international community. Now the State Dept. says it was “rhetorical”.
Are you serious?
Kerry apparently wasn’t, but Russia was and is now going to make moves to get Syria to hand over the chemicals. Well, now…didn’t expect that.
Who would have thought that Russia would have more diplomatic skills than the United States State Department?!
Damn….guess Wall St and the Congress warmongers aren’t going to be able to profit off another war. (she says with fingers and toes crossed and saying a prayer…)
Wow. I am continually amazed at what has been going on behind the scenes with the charter school engineers. Truly amazing how they have been able to get away with it.
This report from a teacher who spells out exactly what my fear is of the nonsense testing that really cannot test potential and does not allow for the obstacles to learning for kids in poorer districts….and then blames the public school teacher for things that are out of their control: student engagement and parent involvement. The resident troll, teaching economist, has finally revealed he has no clue about what teachers in k-12 are up against. He teaches lecture courses of 500 students, some of them online. There is no engagement with classes that size–that was my complaint about my classes in college–no class discussion to enrich the learning experience. The guy’s a robot who cannot engage in dialogue.
Advice from a money manager….who actually likes public education.
From a comment:
As a teacher with wealthy connections, I can tell you that most of the rich don’t care much about public education either way. They send their kids to private school on principle. The public schools are for the “unwashed masses”. They use private schools to separate their children from the commoners. The old money saw public schools as giving back to their butler’s kids or their cook’s children, and they weren’t bothered by paying taxes (chump change anyway). The new money see taxes for public schools as irritating, and they want to keep as much money as they can, and don’t care about their cook’s children, city children, etc. The “new money” have no interest in community or helping others.
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Spot on. The wealthy do not care about public education. Period. It has always been for the “rest of us” who cannot or will not put our kids into private schools. The most annoying thing to the wealthy is that public education creates citizens who are….educated. Educated citizens cause all sorts of trouble–like being able to carry on arguments against the destruction of public schools; like asking intelligent questions of politicians; of fighting for civil rights….of fighting against things the wealthy hold dear: greed, selfishness, lack of social conscience…..
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The student who stood up to be heard at the *cough* conversation with teachers has a blog up explaining what went on. What a powerful young woman…this old lady was worried about the future generation, but Hannah gives me hope….
This story covers the non-coverage of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. The question of diet and gluten intolerance and poor immune response popped into my head, naturally…and I have to wonder about it with what is going on with these folks.
Why are the grandmothers okay? That is, why are they healthy while the younger generations becoming ill? It struck me while watching the move “Philadelphia” with Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks that Tom Hanks’ partner in the movie, Antonio Banderas, was not infected with AIDS. Why? Why were some becoming ill and others not? What weakened one’s immune system? What strengthened the others?
I see this over and over with each passing generation. Our DNA is altered by chemicals/toxins in the environment, becoming weaker with each generation.
Here’s a really good piece on AIDS in Africa and all the devastation. It’s an older piece, but lots of good background here. The first video on here is only six minutes, but wow does it pack a lot in. The second video is equally informative about the TB connection.
It is disheartening that vitamins are dismissed in this article. Granted, the person pushing them might have been looking for profits, but without extra vitamins, I would not be recovering. When the body is toxic and the immune system is under attack, the ability to absorb vitamins is seriously impaired, making it imperative for the person to take extra amounts to counteract it. Diet probably has more do to with recovery than any drug. The body performs miracles every day with chemical-free food, chemical-free water, and chemical-free air. To dismiss these factors does a grave disservice to the ill. Drugs alone cannot cure someone. This approach by Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) bothers me in that they are pushing Western medicine which places little importance on diet and promotes vaccination. I also wonder about the genetically modified food in Africa and its impact on the gut and therefore, their health and ability to fight off AIDS.
So…I couldn’t shake the feeling of the stealth push for more drugs from Big Pharma…and I started getting that “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation” feeling…
….so I went searching to see if there was a link….yup.
My first thought was to delete everything I had written…but no, there is good info here, but I just ask my dear readers to keep the drug pushing stuff in perspective.
Here’s a piece by greenpeace on warning the Africans of GMO’s.
There was plenty of non-GM food available including surpluses in other parts of Africa, but the White House ignored appeals by the World Food Programme and the EU to donate cash to African countries to buy surplus food from the region which would have supported local farmers rather than US-based GM multinationals.
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At the time Dr Chuck Benbrook, a leading US agronomist and former Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture for the US National Academy of Sciences said: “There is no shortage of non-GMO foods which could be offered to Zambia by public and private donors. To a large extent, this ‘crisis’ has been manufactured – might I say, ‘engineered’ – by those looking for a new source of traction in the evolving global debate over agricultural biotechnology. To use the needs of Zambians to score ‘political points’ on behalf of biotechnology strikes many as unethical and indeed shameless.”
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As a side note~~I was watching TV recently where they talked about a huge white diamond taken out of Africa, worth I think he said $35 million. I cynically told my sister, “and that money went right back to Africa, didn’t it….?”
….or in other words, everyday farmers versus Monsanto.
It makes no sense whatsoever that farmers who want nothing to do with Monsanto are being charged with patent infringement when their fields become contaminated. If anything, they should be able to sue Monsanto for trespass.
Two topics that might not seem interrelated popped up this morning–the mindless demands that children perform like cogs….and the privatization of Walter Reed. Note that the only ones who truly benefit from this are the profiteers. The children don’t reach their true potential and the most vulnerable–the sick and elderly–don’t get the care we are capable of giving them….
(hat tip Diane Ravitch for Robert Rendo’s comment)
Anytime anyone involves ego in a decision, you can bet it is a bad decision. Going to war over a warped perception of credibility is wrong. And America’s credibility was seriously damaged with going to war in Iraq. We were perceived as bullies and liars. The whole world rejoiced when Barack Obama was elected because the whole world disagreed with our invasion.
But the world’s perception of us didn’t seem to bother Congress before now, eh?
And what exactly does “protect our values” mean?? Because I don’t value war.
Kerry tries to shut up opposing voices by throwing out ” this is not the time for armchair isolationists”….that’s you and me, folks, the American public that speaks out against war. We’re sick of war and we’re sick of millionaire politicians telling us that our opinions don’t matter.
He asks if one would be comfortable if we don’t act and Assad gasses his people. Hello? Are we alone in the world? Israel and Saudi Arabia have a stake in this and they should be expected to bear the brunt of it–skin in the game, as they say…they are both wealthy nations, and we are fast losing our wealth. Well, it’s still there, technically, but in the hands of a few who don’t want to pay taxes….that… fund… wars. So Saudi Arabia and Israel need to ante up.
Note how Kerry asserts that there will be no boots on the ground, but from what I was watching yesterday, he once again flip-flopped and stated that he did not want that put in writing because it may become necessary if things escalate. Mighty suspicious….
Tell me again why Kerry was trying to interfere with U.N. gathering evidence on chemical weapons? And why aren’t we waiting for the U.N. to get the results bacK? The Syria situation is not new–this has been happening for over a year now….so why the rush, rush, rush to bomb?
And tell me why those pictures of the dead keep nagging at me–like I have seen them before…? That they were from a chemical weapons attack, but not the current event with Syria?? I just can’t shake that feeling.
Here’s the view from emptywheel. During the hearing, Kerry was drumming his fingers on the table with impatience that they were questioning him. John McCain was caught playing computer games….on taxpayer’s dime. If those same taxpayers were caught playing computer games during company time, they would be fired.
Another take here on it from the Israelis:
Note the sentiment if the U.S. doesn’t strike, Israel will. Is that supposed to be a threat of some sort?
Lastly, John Kerry’s testimony as a Vietnam veteran before Congress, below. He stated yesterday that no chemicals had been used since WWI…I was stunned that he chose to ignore Agent Orange used in Vietnam. In this video, he acknowledges the horror of them and how we “destroyed villages in order to save them…” Note also the reference to Nixon, who stated he “did not want to be the first president to lose a war…” Doesn’t that sound eerily similar to “we have to go in to Syria to save our credibility…”?? The Communism threat was a lie, btw, as only 25% of the people in Vietnam were Communists. The rest were peaceful Buddhists. Pretty sad, eh?
**Edited to fix stupid link to Kerry’s Vietnam Testimony:
Eagle 
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