Category Archives: community

More bullying by public officials

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Fred Klonsky has this up on Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s threatening letter to parents who wish to opt-out of the testing, testing, testing of their children.

Again, it seeks to usurp parents’ ultimate responsibility towards the welfare of their children.

I would put it back in her lap– show us that these tests are provable measures of one’s intelligence.  They can’t.  Because they’re not.  There is no test that can measure potential.  And the kinds of questions being asked–whether a first grader knows the Code of Hammurabi shows a complete lack of understanding of child development.

Newark parents fighting back

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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….

Sherman and Crabtree

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I’m not a big football fan, but have caught the controversy surrounding Richard Sherman and his opponent, Michael Crabtree.

I think the whole thing has been blown waaaay out of proportion.  Sherman wasn’t threatening Crabtree with physical violence.   Should he have toned it down a bit?  Yes, in my opinion.  But it’s not on the level of being a thug, as some have referred to him.

Ed Schultz was talking about it, and Sherman has questioned whether “thug” is the new word for the n-word.  I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

I do find it interesting that the media, which framed this message in a way that almost guaranteed Sherman would be flamed for what happened.  The video is cut off to *just* Sherman’s rant….instead of showing the entire context with Crabtree pushing Sherman away after Sherman offered to shake hands.  That is why Sherman went off.  Again, it wasn’t the wisest thing, but yeah, not a crime, either.

~~As a side note, MSNBC, via Ed Schultz, is once again trying to push Hillary Clinton for president with yet another talking head declaring that “everybody” wants Clinton for candidate.  Bullshit.

I find it ironic that Ed is blasting the new super secret trade agreement, TPP, while promoting Hillary Clinton for president.  She is in the back pocket of Wall Street, and Big Oil, and the war profiteers.  Her husband signed NAFTA into law which drove our economy into the toilet…and here Schultz was promoting her.  Unreal.

Teacher’s experience in Gulen Charter school

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Diane Ravitch has an account of a teacher’s experience in a Gulen charter school.  Unreal.

No books.  And teachers with 100 students limited to 25 copies per day.  Money missing from their paychecks unaccounted for.  Seriously?

All of this is flying under the radar because the mainstream media is not only not covering the Newark 5, they’re not covering the criminal and unethical activities of people running charter schools.

…but they’ll be more than happy to run story after story of bad teachers in public schools…

 

 

Autistic Child found in New York

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NBC News has this posted.  The remains of the autistic child that disappeared from school have been found.

I was re-reading my blog on school colocation that had mentioned an autistic child had gone missing because the school was so overcrowded, he slipped out without being noticed.  I wonder if this is the school…and if so, why aren’t the networks mentioning this?  (I had seen the news on CNN before NBC website)

Wanna bet they won’t mention that school overcrowding via colocation with charters is responsible for this death?

Yeah, just like they’re *all over* the Newark school principal firings…er I mean indefinite layoffs (yeah, they were fired…)…haven’t heard a peep about it, but judging by the visitors to my blog on it, this is a hot issue.

The Law and Louisiana Teachers

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This is why I love the law….if it is working properly (i.e., judges apply it fairly), then the “little guy” wins out even when being bullied by those bigger with $$ bank accounts.  Woot.

The Octopus of inBloom…

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Mercedes Schneider has an excellent blog up on all the twists and turns of school profiteering–who is involved, who’s making the $$ off of our kids.  It’s an in-depth blog well worth the time of the read.

The comments are intelligent, as well.  One of them links to this article.  Bill and Melinda Gates are freaking insane.  How detached from the real world does one have to be to think this is okay??  It’s not a true measurement of engagement in the lesson–it only measures arousal.  The student could be thinking of something else, as one comment in the article illustrates, not what is being taught.  Creepy doesn’t *begin* to describe this electronic gadget.

Note the very last paragraph where National Council on Teacher Quality, which receives funding from the Gates Foundation promotes this insanity.  Remember, folks, Gates is now part of the Billionaires Media Message….gotta keep that in mind when reading anything positive on Gates, et al., because they’ve probably written it themselves or had any number of people they support financially do their dirty work for them.

Also, in the link Mercedes provided for her former post on this, is this gem:

First of all, it was Gates money that funded the inBloom data “cloud.”

Next, the sponsor of the webinar, EWA, has taken $2.7 million in Gates money since 2003.

Third, the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has taken $13.5 million in Gates money. (In November 2013, I wrote this post on Aimee Guidera and DQC. Enlightening reading.)

Fourth, USDOE Assistant Secretary for Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton used to work for Gates as the Gates Foundation director of its education division. Shelton is also a partner with the charter-market-creating New Schools Venture Fund (a connection to Education Undersecretary nominee Ted Mitchell) AND was a senior management consultant for McKinsey and Company (former employer of Common Core “lead architect” David Coleman).

Fifth, Fordham University professor Joel Reidenberg and others conducted a study on privacy issues and “cloud computing”… funded by Microsoft.

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Yep, it’s the revolving door with Jim Shelton…like the FDA.  Anyone wanna bet Shelton will go back to Gates once his work to destroy public education is done?

Finally, another person posted this link of a group of Carbondale, Colorado parents getting together to fight for our public schools.

 

Young: Tar Sands are Canada’s Hiroshima **edited

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Neil Young is finishing up his “Honor the Treaties” concerts in Canada.  He compared what is happening to Hiroshima, which irked a few people.

He is being compared to Jenny McCarthy, whom has spoken out on vaccines causing autism.

McCarthy, a former model/actress, vehemently claims childhood vaccinations cause autism and other disabilities, despite those claims having been disproven by rigorous scientific research.

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…disproven by rigorous scientific research….

bwahahahahahahahaha *snort*

Well, as I posted recently, scientific research has a few flaws in it that the vaccine apologists, as Dr. Cutler refers to them, choose to ignore.

I hope that Neil Young considers being compared to Jenny McCarthy a compliment, because I do….much as I do when I’m called a bitch for speaking up for myself or others…

People who diminish others have little facts to back their claims up…that’s why they attack the person instead of the person’s arguments.  Ad hominem.

**edited to add:  I just wanted to say that Global News pushes vaccines.  They had article after article on scaring people into getting vaccination, and that the flu season was horrible, and that they were running out of vaccines.  Very lopsided reporting.

Newark Principals fired for protesting school closings

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Diane Ravitch has this up on the latest in taxation without representation and punishing an American citizen for exercising their right to Freedom of Speech.

One of the links was so compelling I want to put it here.  So much for inept educators being disciplined for non-performance…you’re punished even if you’re doing well, apparently.  Good Grief, what a nazi!!

Gov. Christie must have a “Bully’s Playbook” that all in his inner circle go by…

And Michele Brown and the Economic Development Authority should be investigated, also, while they’re at it…