Category Archives: schools

Rape victim’s house burned to the ground

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Sweet Jesus, what is wrong with you??!

From the Anonymous link:

Two young girls have been raped in the town of Maryville, Missouri. Another high school football star, the grandson of a Missouri state official, has walked free. The people of Maryville turned their backs on these victims and one family has been forced to flee the town. Their house was later burned to the ground.

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On January 8th, a 14-year-old girl named Daisy Coleman and her 13-year-old friend were both raped in Maryville. Evidence of this assault was captured on film. Daisy’s unconscious body was later dumped into her family’s yard, left alone for hours in freezing weather. One of Daisy’s attackers was initially in police custody, where he admitted to having sex with her while she was under the influence. He claimed it was consensual. The hospital states the young girl’s blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit and they discovered three tears inside of her body, 2-4 inches in length. When asked if a crime occurred, the Sheriff told the press, “Hell yes, it occurred… And did these boys need to be punished for it? Absolutely.”

It goes on to say that evidence was captured on film.  Good God, what depraved evil person would not only commit raping a woman, but then take glee in it by filming it?   what the hell is wrong with our society that men hate women so much?

I’m sure she was blamed for drinking…as I posted before, it doesn’t give him the right to rape her.  If she is intoxicated and cannot give her consent with a clear mind, he should take her home.  What is wrong with our society that it is okay to take advantage of the situation?  Why is she blamed and not his violence?

Even more appalling are the girls that participate in the hate:

At a dance competition, Melinda Coleman says, a girl arrived wearing a homemade shirt: Matt 1, Daisy 0.”

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No doubt Daisy was the target of a jealous girl who perhaps wanted to date Barnett.  You can have him, lady.

Lastly, the comments section just left me sad—-especially about the ones on small towns.  Um…Daisy and her family lived in a small town, too, and were products of that small town as well as the Neanderthals.  I was raised in a small town.  I was raised Republican.  After going through my own metamorphosis, I realize some of what I was brought up to believe were not in keeping with my inner feelings and not in keeping with what Jesus taught.  Yet, those comments lump all of us together as if we are all mean and hateful.

And it also ignores that these crimes happen in large towns, as well.    It’s unfair and prejudiced thinking.

It’s not Obamacare….it’s Social Security they’re after

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Center for Media and Democracy has this up on what the Koch Brothers and Pete Petersen and their toady Paul Ryan are really after–what they’ve been after all along—Social Security and other “entitlement” programs.  I still hate that term”entitlement”  as it alludes to a giveaway when folks pay into these programs all their lives.

Here’s the video by Mark Fiore:

 

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Also from CMD–

Profiting off the poor.  With Indiana being All Republican, All the Time in the Legislature, I rather doubt that they have slayed this dragon.  I suspect that privatization will be back…probably by backdoor deals.

Also, Indiana will be dropping ISTEP (Indiana Statewide Testing Educational Progress)next year BY FEDERAL REQUIREMENT.

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…and profiting off of our children-–and ultimately, our Democracy. (Just a refresher of the Charter school scams and hedge fund managers/Wall Street making a profit off of schools.)

From the report:

In recent years, there has been an explosion of full-time “virtual” charter schools paid for by the taxpayer. From 2008 to 2012, 157 bills passed in 39 states and territories (including the District of Columbia) that expand online schooling or modify existing regulations. Many of these bills are attributable to American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) politicians.

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I was thinking about this other day while teaching–online is such a ripoff in that you don’t get human interaction.  Granted, the Wall St. types probably loathe human interaction…but I really wonder if they’re human to begin with….the rest of us,however, actually want to be around other humans.

Anyway, a teacher can often pick up on cues to help a student “get” a subject that a stupid computer could never do.

A teacher can give encouragement when a student wants to give up.  This is especially important for students who are having difficulty–I thought of myself  and my daughter being dyslexic.  If I hadn’t tried to teach my daughter through Phonics and patiently sitting down with her every night to read, she most likely would not have reached her potential.  Again–computers cannot help when there is a learning disability.

Lastly, a teacher is going to lay the hammer down if a student comes in without homework done or starts goofing off during class instead of doing the work they’re supposed to be doing…online courses cannot do that, either.  And a teacher is also a sounding board for a student who may be dealing with issues at home…

As I’ve noted before, there is something lost when the classroom lacks discussion and interchange of ideas or more in-depth on the subject.

And, of course, a computer can’t teach art or music the way that it should be done.

The article makes note that the virtual schools enroll kids that never take courses, never answer emails, and so on, but still take tax dollars for them.  One had to reimburse the state $800k for “ghost” students.  This is a huge red flag in that while the neocons are so very worried about voter ID to “prove” who someone is so they don’t vote twice….well, I don’t see the same concern with these “ghost” students who may or may not even be real persons.  Who is checking on them?

And this just made my heart sing:

Affidavits from former K12 Inc. teachers that were incorporated into the complaint paint a devastating picture of an enrollment-driven, profit-driven corporate culture that leaves kids in the dust. (Note to Wall Street: If you want to exploit children, don’t hire a bunch of teachers who actually care about kids.)

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Sadly, I think Wall St. will actually take that advice and will screen teachers who don’t give a rip.  Or Wall Streeters will make a construct that they “can’t find any good teachers” so they will be “forced” to plead for the ability to hire non-teachers to….teach.

 

 

 

The importance of Education **edited

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If anyone ever doubted the significance of an education, perhaps Malala’s story and her passion can cast all doubt aside that fighting for the United States public education system is worth it.  It’s for the poor. It’s for the middle class.  And, as Malala so aptly points out–an education is what keeps women from being imprisoned (either emotionally or physically).

**edited to put just the clip of Malala on here.  I messed up with putting the entire Daily Show clip.  Sorry for the graphic  — I missed that one.

Stealing from the poor

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This mother in Saskatoon had apples stolen from her trees.  She said in the story that her son cannot digest food easily, so she was planning on making applesauce with them, when someone came and cleaned her out.  Luckily, there were some good hearted people who gave her not only apples, but other food, as well. …one could say that she was made whole.

That’s what Law was originally about–someone does something wrong to another and is made to do something for that person to make up for it–that’s what they called “making one whole” .

Now it seems the Law—looking at the person stealing as a corporation– is saying that the corporation had a right to take everything. 

Or –she was at fault for not having a guard dog protect her assets.

Or –she should have had a hot fence up. 

I’m thinking of corporate anti-union sentiment; of bankers/finance; of insurance (both health and home); of pretty much anything in this country where the less well-connected or less wealthy are not being treated in a just manner.

Our apples have been stolen and we haven’t enough folks with good hearts and enough resources themselves to come and make us whole again.

Education under fire

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It is really hard to read all the news on Education.  It is depressing to no end.

Some of the bad news:

Disability scandal involving a charter school, with a scheme diverting $$$ towards their own pockets.  What is really sad is these mentally challenged children are viewed by these people with $$ in their eyes–just like the medical profession.  These children will receive the minimal of instruction to optimize the profit margin.

The moral and spiritual bankruptcy of corporate reformers.

The magical Michelle Rhee.

Arne Duncan blasts “armchair pundits”….just like John Kerry…a politician that thinks the public’s opinion doesn’t matter.  Duncan degrades the public as no-nothings not worth his time.  He ignores that educators are among the public who are speaking out against corporate profiteering of public schools.

Here’s a post disputing Bill Gates’ *cough* facts.  (hat tip Diane Ravitch)

Does anybody else see the irony of Gates, a college dropout, deliberately being deceptive on the numbers of college graduates in the U.S.?  Not only is he a hypocrite, but a lying one at that….

And again, it bears repeating over and over that a college degree is no guarantee of a job.  And there are those who do not want a degree but still need to be paid a living wage.

Gates’ money torpedoing public education through devious means.  $173 MILLION.   What a creep.

Heckuva job, reformers!

Indianapolis schools ground zero.  Yep.

This is just too, too ridiculous.  We have no toilet paper, but gee whiz, we have a shiny new sports arena!!

Poverty and school performance

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Diane Ravitch mentions a link to Noel Hammitt’s blog on the correlation between poverty and how well a student does in school.  She taught Noel as a student undergrad.

Note:  Noel Hammitt has copyrighted this material, but kindly allows liberal use of it as long as copyright is noted.

The first chart is stunning in how the “F” grade corresponds with the kids in poverty.  Again–they are trying to blame teachers for something that is out of their control–and the biggest factor in how well a child does in school….poverty.

From this chart it appears that there is a powerful pattern in the relationship between the concentrations of poverty in schools and the assigned letter grades for schools. However, we should note that for four years Louisiana put out a report that highlighted High-Poverty High Performing Schools, which suggested that there are, perhaps, many schools that defy this pattern. After carefully examining the lists, which reported higher numbers of schools each succeeding year, with 56 schools in the 2011 release, we noted that many of the schools actually had a lower percentage of students qualifying for free meals than the state average. In addition, most of the schools were magnet schools or schools where Gifted/Talented programs were masking lower test scores for other groups of students in the schools.  Finally, there were schools like Lake Forest Elementary, in New Orleans, that had extensive application and testing procedures that eliminated low-scoring students from the schools.  We also noted that there were no schools that had been on the list every year. Not one school out of over 1300 schools in the state that had overcome the challenges of poverty every year.

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We note that although the private schools seem to have an advantage on the scores, they enroll very few special education students, and they get to select their students.

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NAEP scores can be useful checks against a natural tendency of states, districts, and schools to focus on teaching to the test, because NAEP assessments are much more difficult to game or teach to than state level tests. An example of this can be found in states where 90 percent or more of students receive passing scores in their state at the basic level, when only 20 or 30 percent of their students are passing NAEP at the Basic Level.

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I think this last quote is really important for the non-teacher to understand what is going on with testing.  As we have learned, tests can be manipulated in that the teacher is forced to teach so the children can pass the test so the schools will not be penalized either by closing them or denying them their federal tax dollars through programs such as Race to the Bottom…er, I mean, Top….so the assessment is muddied.  The national assessment appears to circumvent that and gives a true picture of how the children are doing.

Noel notes that a child in poverty can also make high grades–he emphasizes that one should understand this and not have low expectations of these children.  I agree.  The problem isn’t that the child is not capable….but they have so many obstacles to overcome every day that get in the way.

Finally, the biggest point of the paper is that just because a school is called “failing” doesn’t necessarily mean that the kids and teachers are stoopid.  Again, parents and the public need to  ask how that school was assessed, is poverty  a huge problem with the students?