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Money-back Guarantee for Education?

cheekyredhead — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:22:28 -0700

We have been running on this education treadmill with no end in sight.

I am tired. They are hoping I will give up. I want off the treadmill because it isn't getting me anywhere.

I have been fighting this fight for so long. I know I can't give up--it isn't my personality to give up BUT sometimes it is SO hard.

Just when I think I have made some headway, it is like three steps forward and four steps back...I am treading water and feeling like I am not getting anywhere.

Apparently there are many Americans out there like me.

We all have worked hard, got good grades, and then when transferring to another college the rug gets ripped out from underneath us.

Colleges can play with our credits--toy with us--make us repeat classes we have already taken while greedily taking our money.

They put us on that treadmill and sell us a dream--a paper with the word "degree" on it.

Today I received yet another letter from another college saying ALL my education---ALL the years I went to school--are worthless.

They expect me to repeat every class I have already taken.

I have been here on teamsugar.com ranting and raving- attempting to gather the masses (ALL OF US--that colleges take advantage of every day) and try to foster change.

For every encouraging note I receive, there are three more that say "That is just how it is" and I get more and more angry.

Not at those that say that, but because that is how change never happens. We sit and moan and groan, then do nothing.

When someone wants to do something about it--the reaction is "Well I had to deal with it so now it is your turn."

The really sad reality is that when colleges realized they could get away with denying a single credit here and there, they figured--why take any of them if we can make them repeat it all?

That is how those greedy minds think and we are at their mercy.

We have been sold a way of thinking-- thinking that we cannot succeed without a degree-- a paper that states we meet a "minimal" standard, yet without it our resumes are over-looked and our experience is worthless.

Now when we look at our education system I cannot help but think-I am going to be repeating classes that are already outdated and probably won't transfer...what I have no isn't...so I will be in the same place I am now. Jobless and without what many say is the only valid education one can get in America.

I wonder if my education will even help me get a job. There are literally millions of new grads that cannot get a job and equally there are those like me that have valuable experience but cannot get a foot in the door without that degree.

Adults just like me are flocking to colleges and universities hoping to update our skills to make us more marketable.

Unfortunately we are also being told by recruiters that we are overqualified for the jobs out there.

How can I be both overqualified AND also uneducated?

Headhunters scan resumes for the guidelines for openings and I get tossed in the exit pile. I go to agencies, they look at my resume and qualifications---and then shrug. They don't know what to do with me.

I go to colleges and they say I am an uneducated fool. My military education transcripts are worthless according to them. They also say my 20 years as a medical professional are worthless.

How can 20 years of saving lives, making the quality of life better, helping create life---be worthless?

Our president wants to stimulate the economy and he has lofty goals for rebuilding education--the education he publicly scorned during his campaign--but I am not eligible for any of his new little bundles of bright ideas.

My fight...it is just to have colleges all over America recognize the value of the education and experience that I and many other Americans already have earned, and then allow us to build on that.

Every American is fighting this same fight and it feels like a losing battle, but I cannot give up. We can't give up.

I refuse to accept the alternative.

Americans cannot afford the alternative. We MUST be given the credit we have earned and build upon that.

We cannot afford to "DO-OVER" anymore. We are spending our retirements to try to be "marketable."

I am spending my retirement AND my kid's college fund. How can I help them through school if I am without a job?

More importantly, how can I afford the possibility that this problem we have with education/college/university and their refusal to transfer of credit/units --- when my kids are then faced with it?

Will I be paying for them to repeat courses they have already taken merely on the whim of some college/university that does not have ANY accountablity to our government?

Probably. It may even be worse.

That is a whole new way of looking at "paying it forward" right?

Our government is planning on our children to get educated, work and attempt to pay off all these pet programs---BUT will they be perpetually repeating courses at colleges/universities when their credits/units are denied transfer?

Will we sit aside and watch their frustration, having had the same experience yet failed to step up and foster change?

We are a nation that cannot give up.

We are a nation that cannot afford to repeat education already completed.

We are a nation that should have the highest level of educated individuals, with the American ingenuity we are famous for.

American ingenuity would not accept this current dilemma.

American ingenuity would stomp and push--demand change because we are all about what is FAIR.

We should look to our future--to the future of our children--and demand that we be given the credit we are due.

Are we hamsters running on a treadmill at the mercy of colleges/universities? YES

Are we okay with that? NO. I sure hope you said NO.

I can't afford to be okay with that. Can you?

Have Americans just given up? Have you given up?

Is it okay for our kids to see that it is "OKAY" to just give up?

NO. It is against everything we have ever stood for.

America can't give up.

It can't allow our colleges/universities to dictate our worth.

We can't allow them to take away the American dream...and an education which is valued and validated by every college and university in America.

They simply HAVE to change how colleges/universities view transcripts and each other's credit/units.

They have to end this stupidity and greedy monetary motivated intellectual arrogance.

There simply must be an end to the statement............
"Your previous college credits/units are NO good here!"

Americans can no longer afford that kind of arrogance.

I can't. You can't. Our kids can't.

We are too smart to let colleges/universities get away with this anymore.

We are consumers paying for a service...an education...and if those credit/units don't transfer I want my money back.

We all should demand our money back.

If our education is worthless and not recognized by another college/university then why shouldn't we get our money back?

American colleges and universites...give us our educational credits/units or give us our money back.

You can't have it both ways.

Put up or give us our money back.

Where is an attorney when you need one?

Hot Topic: Education News

cheekyredhead — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:12:38 -0700

Today I was contemplating our education system with all it's problems when I had an epiphany.

How can we demonstrate the level of importance of education for the average person---and then I realized---what "reflects" our interests and concerns the most?

Our media perhaps.

So I did some investigating and found the following:

These media outlets have a "top topic" place which acknowledges an interest in education:

http://www.nytimes.com/ …the Learning Network
http://www.examiner.com/los_angeles/
http://www.sfgate.com/

In contrast, these following media outlets do not have a "place" for education as a "top topic"

http://www.foxnews.com/
http://www.cnn.com/
http://news.yahoo.com/ has a place for “odd news” but no place for “education”
http://abcnews.go.com/ will give you “travel news” but no place for “education”
http://news.aol.com/ reports on “weird news”
http://news.google.com/ “most popular” but no “education”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
http://www.dailynews.com/ has a whole section for obituaries…but not education
http://news.cnet.com/ apparently there is no place for education in technology either
http://www.msn.com you can find a date here….but nothing listed for education
http://www.fox11az.com/news/ has a “very bad movie” category…but nothing for education
http://www.cbsnews.com/ has “puzzles and toons” but nothing for education
http://www.newscorp.com/ here you can check out their “other assets” but No education link

The media listings which do not bother with a category for education---compare/contrast that information to the 3 measly listings which actually feel education is important enough for its own top category---it is obvious the majority needs their priorities to "evolve."

Bill Ayers and the Threat to Education

Eleuthera — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:07:26 -0700

By Mary Grabar
August 3, 2009

Imagine if, as you chat with your child's first-grade teacher and ask about how he decided to embark on a career in education, he told you, "I walked out of jail and into my first teaching job."
Imagine him furthermore telling you that his days in jail and violent protesting were formative to his teaching philosophy.
Most parents would have a serious discussion with the principal, at the minimum.
But the teacher who brags about such beginnings is now a "Distinguished Professor of Education." Despite his specialty as "Professor of Curriculum and Instruction," he trains future teachers to dispense with curricula and discipline, as well as tests and grades.
His many books appear on syllabi in education schools. Regarding classroom management, he advises future teachers to hold on "until the storm" of the "wildest kids in their fullest eruptions" passes. Knowledge of the subject is unimportant; the teacher's willingness to "plunge into the unknown alongside their students" is. So is the teacher's "love."
Yet, as he told the World Education Forum and President Hugo Chavez during one of several trips to Venezuela, education does have a goal: it is "the motor-force of revolution." This education professor also enjoys a lucrative sideline as invited speaker to education conferences, college and high school assemblies, and civic groups, in the United States and Europe, but has been barred from Canada on several occasions.
This, of course, is William Ayers, Ed.D., who came into the news during the presidential campaign for his association with Barack Obama on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.
It was in his 2001 memoir, Fugitive Days, that Ayers bragged about walking into his first teaching job at the alternative Children's Community school in Ann Arbor, "a school that, we hoped, would change the world." His leadership in the Students for a Democratic Society offshoot, the Weather Underground, that bombed government buildings, and the quotation about having "no regrets" for that, appeared in the New York Times on 9/11 and was repeated in 2008.
Ayers and wife Bernardine Dohrn hid from the law for the better part of the 1970s, until 1979 when charges for terroristic activities were dropped, as a result of President Carter's justice department's pursuit of the FBI and accusation of illegal wiretapping. The couple is still being investigated for the 1970 police station bombing that killed Police Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell.
Today, Ayers and Dohrn sit on the board of Movement for a Democratic Society, which has been guiding a resurgent "SDS" of student activists who intimidate conservative speakers on campuses.
Ayers laid low until after the election. But now he and Dohrn enjoy invitations on the speaking circuit, many for their latest book, Race Course Against White Supremacy, whose premise is that as long as the U.S. remains capitalistic it will remain racist.
The wish to overthrow capitalism repeats young Ayers' fantasies of the "red army" marching in to take over amidst the chaos of protests, as he describes in Fugitive Days. Dohrn once laughed about the Charles Manson murders. A professor at Northwestern University School of Law, she now directs the Children and Family Law Justice Center.
Ayers is vice president of the curriculum studies division in the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association.
But declining national test scores and widening racial disparities show a failure of Ayers' "progressive" methods. In spite of upwards of $150 million spent on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge achievement scores were not raised, as Stanley Kurtz has pointed out. As education writer Diane Ravitch, citing parents' complaints about their children's low achievement, notes, it is minority children who are usually the most harmed by the education methods promoted by Ayers.
The trajectory of inmate to teacher to bomb thrower to fugitive to graduate student at Columbia Teachers College, and then to "distinguished professor" at a public university that educates future teachers might seem to be a strange one. But Ayers' influence is felt far and wide. That should make all parents think about the education of their children's teachers.

Validate All Military Education Transcripts

cheekyredhead — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:10:33 -0700

Every day a United States Veteran walks into a college administrative office to have their military education transcripts evaluated and they are offered in return only credit for PE.

Colleges all over America are allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to give a veteran credit for classes taken while serving in our military.

I am here today to pull back the veil of silence which has strangled the ambitions of our veterans that have fought for this country, our freedom, and are merely asking for what they have earned.

I am here to persuade you to stand behind every veteran and help their voice to be heard, forcing colleges to give credit where credit has been earned

There is a misconception that a military education is somehow substandard or perceived as being a limited scope of a subject compared to college education.

Let’s compare the two side by side and determine the value of those educations.

Military Education is not merely focused on how to simply shoot a gun.

Every private civilian sector job has a military equivalent which requires a soldier to accomplish an educational goal. Some examples are nurses, physicians, accountants, scientists, engineers, firefighters and police.

We are all soldiers but we also have specialized education.

Our military education uses top of the line equipment often not seen in the private sector for several years after it is introduced, tested and perfected by the military.

Every emerging technology is fine tuned within our military long before it is introduced to the public. When I was active duty we had an imaging machine that the public sectors had never seen and only dreamed about.

It was almost 5 years before the private sector hospitals had them and even longer before they had someone competent to use them, needless to say our hospitals recognize how valuable a veteran education is---but our colleges DO NOT.

Colleges tell me: “Your education cannot be recognized by the college because we have no idea what guidelines were used.”

That is ridiculous. Do any of you actually think our country would train a force to defend and support it with substandard teaching?

Military textbooks and guidelines are written by the recognized experts in every field, and typically an improvement over what is found in colleges today.

Recently I applied for a job at a college for position which would be assisting ultrasound students in their "practical hands-on" actual scanning experience. They told me I didn't have the proper qualifications to do this.

They told me this while we stood in the middle of their "facility" surrounded by equipment outdated for over 15 years--equipment donated by hospitals that refuse to use such equipment on actual patients.

So I ask, "Are these college students gaining the valuable education they are paying for?" NO. They leave these college programs unprepared to use the equipment actually used in hospitals today, AND colleges are overlooking the quality of training I could have assisted them with.

Colleges award degrees to anyone that can obtain a “minimal” standard while the military will only take those who excel-they choose excellence over mediocrity.

Every soldier is expected to excel in their field or they are either moved to a less technical field, reclassified or simply discharged.

The military does not keep those that can only exhibit a “minimal” standard.

Colleges choose to focus on meeting minimal standards and then refuse to validate a military education which should be viewed as the gold standard.

The civilian job market recognizes this level of achievement by simply choosing a veteran over a new grad student because they know the value of actual working experience and the dedication required to be successful in the military.

Only 66% of college students complete a 4-years degree compared to 100% of military in high-tech fields.

Out of that 66% of college students, only 3.7% move on to complete a Master's Degree. Of those that complete a Master's degree, 20% request a waiver for the required capstone requirement AND actually get one.

Military that go on to a Master's Degree: 100% complete the capstone requirement--NO waivers!

So....colleges are receiving government funding BUT refusing to recognize military education? Yes! Why? Because it is more often than not--better than what they can offer a college student.

This is criminal.
ALL credits/units should be recognized between ALL colleges/universities. No more picking and choosing. No more "your credits are not good here."

Want to do something about it?

This link will take you to a letter to copy and paste to your e-mail, put your information into the bottom, send it to the links at the bottom of the letter.

http://voiceofamerica.sosblog.com/Mr-President-b1/Mr-President-Listen-to...

Spitting in the eye of mainstream education

melizzle — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:38:22 -0700

Spitting in the eye of mainstream education
Three no-frills charter schools in Oakland mock liberal orthodoxy, teach strictly to the test -- and produce some of the state's top scores.
By Mitchell Landsberg
May 31, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter31-2009may31,0,6518091,fu...

Reporting from Oakland -- Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."

That, it turns out, is just the beginning of the ways in which American Indian Public Charter and its two sibling schools spit in the eye of mainstream education. These small, no-frills, independent public schools in the hardscrabble flats of Oakland sometimes seem like creations of television's "Colbert Report." They mock liberal orthodoxy with such zeal that it can seem like a parody.

School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded "self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort," to quote the school's website.

Students, almost all poor, wear uniforms and are subject to disciplinary procedures redolent of military school. One local school district official was horrified to learn that a girl was forced to clean the boys' restroom as punishment.

Conservatives, including columnist George Will, adore the American Indian schools, which they see as models of a "new paternalism" that could close the gap between the haves and have-nots in American education. Not surprisingly, many Bay Area liberals have a hard time embracing an educational philosophy that proudly proclaims that it "does not preach or subscribe to the demagoguery of tolerance."

It would be easy to dismiss American Indian as one of the nuttier offshoots of the fast-growing charter school movement, which allows schools to receive public funding but operate outside of day-to-day district oversight. But the schools command attention for one very simple reason: By standard measures, they are among the very best in California.

The Academic Performance Index, the central measuring tool for California schools, rates schools on a scale from zero to 1,000, based on standardized test scores. The state target is an API of 800. The statewide average for middle and high schools is below 750. For schools with mostly low-income students, it is around 650.

The oldest of the American Indian schools, the middle school known simply as American Indian Public Charter School, has an API of 967. Its two siblings -- American Indian Public Charter School II (also a middle school) and American Indian Public High School -- are not far behind.

Among the thousands of public schools in California, only four middle schools and three high schools score higher. None of them serves mostly underprivileged children.

At American Indian, the largest ethnic group is Asian, followed by Latinos and African Americans. Some of the schools' critics contend that high-scoring Asian Americans are driving the test scores, but blacks and Latinos do roughly as well -- in fact, better on some tests.

That makes American Indian a rarity in American education, defying the axiom that poor black and Latino children will lag behind others in school.

First graduates

On Tuesday, American Indian's high school will graduate its first senior class. All 18 students plan to attend college in the fall, 10 at various UC campuses, one at MIT and one at Cornell.

"They really should be the model for public education in the state of California," said Debra England of the Koret Foundation, a Bay Area group that has given more than $100,000 in grants to American Indian. "What I will never understand is why the world is not beating a path to their door to benchmark them, learn from them and replicate what they are doing."

So what are they doing?

The short answer is that American Indian attracts academically motivated students, relentlessly (and unapologetically) teaches to the test, wrings more seat time out of every school day, hires smart young teachers, demands near-perfect attendance, piles on the homework, refuses to promote struggling students to the next grade and keeps discipline so tight that there are no distractions or disruptions. Summer school is required.

Back to basics, squared.

There is no secret to any of this. Portions of the American Indian model resemble methods used by the KIPP charter schools or, for that matter, urban parochial schools.

"What we're doing is so easy," said Ben Chavis, the man who created the school's success and personifies its ethos, especially in its more outrageous manifestations. (One example: He tends to call all nonwhite students, including African Americans, "darkies.") Although he retired in 2007, Chavis remains a presence at the school.

A Lumbee Indian who grew up poor in North Carolina and later struck it rich in real estate, Chavis took over American Indian in 2000, four years after it was founded with a Native American theme.

He began by firing most of the school's staff and shucking the Native American cultural content ("basket weaving," he scoffed). "You think the Jews and the Chinese are dumb enough to ask the public school to teach them their culture?" he asks -- a typical Chavis question, delivered with eyes wide and voice pitched high in comic outrage. There is no basket weaving at American Indian now -- and little else that won't directly affect standardized test scores. "I don't see it as teaching to the test," said Carey Blakely, a former teacher at the school who is writing a book about it. "I see it as, there are certain skills and knowledge that you're supposed to impart to your students, and the test measures whether your students have acquired those skills and that knowledge."

In Lindsay Zika's eighth-grade classroom, the day begins precisely at 8:30, when, without prompting, her students recite the American Indian credo:

"The Family," they chant. "We are a family at AIPHS."

"The Goal: We are always working for academic and social excellence.

"The Faith: We will prosper by focusing and working toward our goals.

"The Journey: We will go forward, continue working and remember we will always be part of the AIPHS family."

They recite this in a slightly robotic monotone. With barely a pause, they shift to the school's mission statement, which is twice as long and includes the promise that American Indian will develop students to be "productive members in a free market capitalist society."

To the test

Another day begins.

Zika starts with some comments about a recent history project, "Civil War for Dummies," in which the students wrote primers on the Civil War.

"These are very well done," she tells the class. "They're fabulous to read . . . and they show that you guys understand the Civil War incredibly well."

She moves to spelling. The students, seated in old-fashioned lift-top desks in tight rows, pull out work sheets. Zika selects a shy girl, Alexandria Lai, to lead a drill in which she says a word and others spell it.

Zika is dressed in business attire: black glasses, black skirt, black wool overcoat, her blond hair in a ponytail. She is the quintessential American Indian teacher: young (26), well-educated (Notre Dame, Oxford), self-confident, mature. A product of Oakland Catholic schools, she is warm yet reserved, with an underlying sternness. "I think kids want structure," she says. "They want strict teachers."

By eighth grade, discipline is not really an issue. Classes are preternaturally quiet and focused. Visitors may be startled to notice that students do not so much as glance at them. They have been told to keep their attention on their work. They do as they are told.

Students who misbehave in the slightest must stay for an hour after school; if they misbehave again in the same week, they have more after-school detention plus four hours of Saturday detention.

Under Chavis, the school also relied on humiliation to keep students in line, ridiculing miscreants and sometimes forcing them to wear embarrassing signs. When one boy was caught stealing, Chavis shaved his head in front of the entire school. (The boy, Jeremy Shiv, now a straight-A student at American Indian High, considers what Chavis did "pretty cruel.")

A framed poster in a hallway quotes Chavis: "You do outstanding things here and you'll be treated outstanding. You act like a fool and you'll be treated like one."

That concept isn't dead at American Indian, but it has been toned down.

All American Indian students have 90 minutes of English and 90 minutes of math a day.

The grammar lesson today focuses on appositives, nouns that modify other nouns. Student Isa Bey is asked to write an example on the board.

"The extreme abolitionist John Smith was hung after a brutal revolt," he writes.

Zika smiles. "Historically, there's a problem," she says. "Grammatically, it's correct." Chagrined, Isa erases "Smith" and writes "Brown."

"I like that he's connecting it historically," Zika tells the class, "but let's get it correct."

At 10:05 a.m., the students switch to math. The move takes about 10 seconds.

American Indian's administrators believe that one of the secrets to success in middle school is having one instructor teach all subjects except physical education. The goal is to have that teacher stay with the same children all three years -- a policy that seems to be more theory than reality, given high teacher turnover.

Time saver

The idea is that students will form a deep bond with the teacher and gain class time by having no passing periods. "We really see things in terms of minutes," said principal Janet Roberts, who took over from Chavis.

Five minutes per passing period might not sound like much, but over the course of a year, American Indian saves the equivalent of more than a week's worth of instruction.

Math class begins with a warmup exercise to get students thinking numerically. Then the class goes over the previous night's homework and moves to new material.

All students at American Indian take Algebra 1 in eighth grade, and the school prides itself on its math achievement. Last year, every eighth grader scored "proficient" or better on California's state algebra test. Statewide, only half the eighth graders even took algebra and fewer than half of those scored "proficient" or better.

Today's lesson is Chapter 14: probability.

"What is probability?" Zika begins. "Rebecca?"

"The chance you have of getting something," Rebecca says.

"Yeah," Zika says. "This is an important skill in life."

Zika displays a confidence in math that is rare for someone who majored in political science. "I like teaching math the best," she says.

They move on to factorials, and before long, Zika has the students doing rapid-fire exercises in which she gives them a number and they figure out its factorial on a whiteboard and hold it up for her to see. (A factorial is the product of all positive integers less than or equal to a given number.) The students are generally correct and seem enthralled.

One of the most common questions about charter schools is whether they "cherry pick" the best students and most motivated families.

Charters are required to take all applicants -- or, if they have more students than seats, to hold a lottery. American Indian has never done this and was denied a charter to open a new school last fall in part because school district officials said administrators were "unable to describe" the selection process.

Roberts and Chavis say they have never had more applicants than seats, so they never held a lottery. They also say that they attract a representative sample of students from local elementary schools.

But Ron Smith, the principal of nearby Laurel Elementary, who sent both of his own children to American Indian, says that's not the case for students from his school.

Of those who go from Laurel to American Indian, "I'd say 70% are academically strong, and 30% are a cross-section. . . . They have kids who I know could go anyplace in the state and succeed."

The school could not provide its students' elementary school test scores, so it is hard to say if they were above average. Roberts did provide three years of middle school scores for all students who entered American Indian in 2004 (with names removed for privacy), showing their progress in math and English from sixth to eighth grade. Of the 51 students who entered American Indian's middle school that year, only six scored lower than "proficient" in both math and English at the end of sixth grade.

It's impossible to tell whether the students were academically strong at the start of sixth grade or were brought up to grade level by the rigors of a year at American Indian.

Of the six who scored below "proficient," three left the school and the remaining three showed some progress by the end of eighth grade.

It isn't clear why the students left. American Indian insists that it has never expelled a child but says some leave because their families move or decide the school is a poor fit. Of the 51 students who made it through their first year, 39 finished.

"They've had a reputation among the local public schools as being very interested in kind of recruiting kids who are going to do well, and getting rid of kids who won't," said Betty Olson-Jones, president of the Oakland Education Assn., the teachers union. Both Chavis and Roberts strongly deny this and say their method works with all children. "Give me the worst middle school in America and let us run it," said Chavis. "I guarantee it will improve."

When math ends at 11:40, Zika switches to science. With no lab equipment and an emphasis on textbook learning, it is hard to imagine that American Indian will turn out the next Darwin or Edison. The students have brought in paper towel tubes and, after a discussion of the American space program, Zika leads the class outside, where they have about five minutes for a rare experiment: making rockets. It doesn't go well. With so little time, the experiment more or less fizzles, and then it's lunch. Zika admits it was a mistake; the next day, she'll have the students discuss what went wrong and try again.

After lunch, it's history (Reconstruction and its legacy), and then preparation for a philosophical debate. "Isa, how do you know you're really sitting here? How do you know you're not a brain in a dish hooked up to a machine?" Zika asks.

"I am because I think I am," pipes up Terae Collins, paraphrasing Descartes.

This is as fun as it gets.

At 2:10, the students have P.E. -- running and calisthenics. No games.

The class returns at 2:50 for some last-minute homework instructions. School ends at 3. Most stay and do homework until 4 -- just because they can.

A face appears at the door. It is De-Zhon Grace, a boy who was in Zika's class until Barack Obama was inaugurated as president.

Until then, De-Zhon and his mother had been fairly happy with American Indian. "I'm a single mom, and I'm trying to raise an African American young man, and I'm very serious about his education," said Chaka Grace.

But on Jan. 20, De-Zhon stayed home to watch the inauguration with his extended family. And that crossed a line for Roberts, who believes that nothing -- absolutely nothing -- should get in the way of class. According to De-Zhon's mother, Roberts said the boy would receive extra work as punishment and that she might rescind his recommendation to a private high school.

That, said Grace, "took it to another level for me. . . . I felt that was evil." She pulled her son out of the school.

De-Zhon, a neatly dressed, well-spoken boy who came back for a visit, conceded that he misses American Indian.

"I miss my class; I miss my teacher," he said.

There are no televisions at American Indian -- no computers in the classrooms, either -- so there was no way for students to watch the inauguration. But Roberts wants to be clear: They wouldn't have been allowed to watch it anyway.

"It's not part of our curriculum," she said.

Love it or hate it, it's the American Indian way.

Why won't the Department of Education stand up for D.C. school vouchers?

Grandpa — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:57:34 -0700

The Fundamental Dishonesty of Arne Duncan
Why won't the Department of Education stand up for D.C. school vouchers?
David Harsanyi (Denver Post)
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan argues that we have an obligation to disregard politics to do whatever is "good for the kids."

Well then, one wonders, why did his Department of Education bury a politically inconvenient study regarding education reform? And why, now that the evidence is public, does the administration continue to ignore it and allow reform to be killed?

When Congress effectively shut down the Washington, D.C., voucher program last month, snatching $7,500 Opportunity Scholarship vouchers from disadvantaged kids, it failed to conduct substantive debate (as is rapidly becoming tradition).

Then The Wall Street Journal's editorial board reported that the Department of Education had buried a study that illustrated unquestionable and pervasive improvement among kids who won vouchers, compared with the kids who didn't. The Department of Education not only disregarded the report but also issued a gag order on any discussion about it.

Is this what Duncan meant by following the evidence?

When I had the chance to ask Duncan-at a meeting of The Denver Post's editorial board Tuesday-whether he was alerted to this study before Congress eradicated the D.C. program, he offered an unequivocal "no." He then called the Journal editorial "fundamentally dishonest" and maintained that no one had even tried to contact him-despite the newspaper's contention that it did, repeatedly.

When I called The Wall Street Journal, I discovered a different-that is, meticulously sourced and exceedingly convincing-story, including documented e-mail conversations between the author and higher-ups at his office.

The voucher study, which showed progress compounding yearly, had been around since November, and its existence is mandated by law. So at best, Duncan was willfully ignorant.

But the most "fundamentally dishonest" aspect of the affair was Duncan's feeble argument against the program.

First, he strongly intimated that because only 1 percent of children were able to "escape" (and boy, that's some admission) from D.C. public schools through this program, it was not worth saving.

So, you may ask, why not allow the 1 percent to turn into 2 percent or 10 percent instead of scrapping the program? After all, only moments later, Duncan claimed that there was no magic reform bullet and that it would take a multitude of innovations to fix education.

Then Duncan, after trashing the scholarship program and study, emphasized that he was opposed to "pulling kids out of a program" in which they were "learning." Jeez. If they're learning in this program, why kill it? And if the program was insignificant, as Duncan claimed, why keep these kids in it? Are these students worse off? Or are they just inconveniencing the rich kids?

Duncan can't be honest, of course. Not when it's about politics and payback to unions who are about as interested in reforming education as teenagers are in calculus.

Politicians say a lot of things, but to glean any insight, we need only examine the decisions they make in their own lives.

President Barack Obama sent his children to a private school in Chicago rather than entrust their education to then-CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Arne Duncan. He's not alone.

And this is just another example of how the Democrats who killed this scholarship program, specifically designed for disadvantaged kids, are so deeply hypocritical and dishonest. Ask the two kids who attend Sidwell Friends School, home to Obama's children, on vouchers. Their escape from failing schools is about to be cut off by a complicit administration.

"A lot of folks will give you a million reasons to why things can't change," claims the secretary of education.

It's true. And one of the leading disseminators of pitiable excuses is Arne Duncan.

Connecting the dots...for those who are open minded and want to educate themselves

BeachBarbie — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:55:41 -0700

NSFW - The video is not appropriate for children. It shows violence and nudity. (I'm sorry I should have said this when I first posted this blog.)

I first saw a DVD documentary about The Weather Underground, long before hearing the name Obama; it’s an interesting part of history, that apparently hasn't died...they have only taken on a more ‘stealth’ approach. On to the point of this blog...the DVD I rented from Blockbuster a few years ago, I found the same video on Google. I want to pass on the link to you for educational purposes. I also urge you to step away from the TV, and do some of your own research. This group alone is loaded with facts, so feel free to look around.

Our country is in trouble, and if you turn a blind eye to it, refuse to educate yourselves to the facts...you'll be part of the problem. Complacency is only adding to the problem, and we have already had way, way too much. It's a big part of the reason we are in the situation we are, at this present moment. (I know some of you don't even realize our country is in a detrimental situation). Just remember, being complacent...is much like being an accessory to a crime. Please think about your future, your children's future, and the generations to come. Don't we owe that to them...as our forefathers' fought wars to make sure they gave us a free country to live. Well, it's time to for us to take a stand, and get information/facts out there, so our forefather's did not fight or die in vain for freedom.

Before you watch this video, please keep in mind, it almost sheds The Weathermen, in a righteous light...DON”T fall prey. The Weathermen made up the terrorist group The Weather Underground…and let’s not forget Bill Ayers was a founding member of The Weather Underground, as you’ll see in this documentary. Also, let’s not forget that The Weather Underground bombed the Capital of the United States and the Pentagon. To possibly understand, The Weathermen a little better, they admire dictators like, Hugo Chavez, Che Guevara, Castro, Mao Tse Tung, Lenin, etc. (One other thing…we touched on Bill Ayers in the IBD series, The Audacity of Socialism, which is posted in this group.)

Obama adopted the ideals of other radicals like, Saul Alinsky who wrote “Rules for Radicals” (we also touched on this in the IBD series), who Obama studied, and taught his radical views as a "Community Organizer" in Chicago. You will get a better idea of what a community organizer does...by viewing this documentary.

It will also give you a picture into the minds of these people (admitted communists), and the people like them that indoctrinated Obama from birth on...and subsequently brought him up through the ranks of politics, in South Chicago. Ayers and Obama live in the same neighborhood, were on the same leftist board of directors, and they are friends to date. Bill Ayers said, on 9/11/2002, yes 9/11; paraphrasing, 'they (the weather underground) didn't do enough'. This makes me wonder was he actually admiring Bin Ladens' techniques!? Btw., Obama's political career was launched in Ayers home...and there is so much more to these radicals' stories.

If, you’re going to watch it, I suggest you do it soon. I first found this documentary broken up into parts on youtube…and guess what? It’s been removed.

Well, I found it again. Here is the LINK and the SOURCE: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6078589535743610981

Health Bulletin: NYC Health Department Launches Calorie Education Campaign: Limit Calories to 2000 per day

tdsollog — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:19:46 -0700

Health Bulletin - Limit Calories to 2000 per day

NYC Health Department Launches Calorie Education Campaign

To maintain a healthy weight, most adults need no more than 2,000 calories a day

October 6, 2008 – "Read 'em before you eat 'em," the Health Department advises in a new campaign launched today to help New Yorkers make the most of the city's calorie-posting rules. Under the New York City Health Code, chain restaurants are now required to post calorie counts for food items on menus and menu boards. The rule took effect this summer, after a federal court upheld it and an appellate court refused to delay enforcement while the industry tries again to overturn it. The new campaign – five ads appearing in 1,000 New York City Subway cars for the next three months – is designed to help New
Yorkers see how quickly fast-food calories add up. Many are unaware that a typical adult needs only 2,000 calories a day to maintain a steady weight. Even fewer know how easy it is to overshoot that goal while eating on the go.

The campaign shows how deceptive appearances can be. One poster shows an apple raisin muffin that looks harmless but carries a stout 470 calories – nearly a quarter of an adult's daily allowance. "If you're eating it as a snack," said Cathy Nonas, director of the Health Department's Physical Activity and Nutrition program, "you may want to split it with a friend." Nonas, a registered dietician, will host a blog on calorie counting later this week at nyc.gov/health.

"Many people end up overweight just by going with the flow," said Nonas. "Now that this information is available in chain restaurants, it's easy to make healthier choices. Once you set a daily calorie budget, there are lots of ways to live within it."

As the new ads make clear, you don't have to give up all indulgences to eat fewer calories. By ordering a diet soda and a small order of fries with your cheeseburger, for example, you can cut the caloric impact by half – from 1,250 to 670.

The Health Impact of Calorie Listing in Chain Restaurants Obesity is a leading cause of preventable death in NYC. Eating too
many calories causes weight gain – which can lead to diabetes, heart disease, and other serious health problems.

New Yorkers eat more than a third of their calories away from home. To help them make healthier choices in restaurants, the New York City Board of Health passed a regulation requiring chains to post calorie information on their menus and menu boards.

When people have access to calorie information, they use it. Health Department surveys have shown that when restaurant patrons use calorie information in deciding what to order, they average nearly 100 fewer calories in each meal purchased. The Health Department estimates that posting calories on menu boards and menus will reduce the number of people who suffer from obesity by 150,000 over the next five years, preventing more than 30,000 cases of diabetes.

To learn more about a healthy diet, physical activity or how to lose weight, please visit nyc.gov/health.

###
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release # 066-08
Monday, October 6, 2008

CONTACT: (212) 788-5290
Jessica Scaperotti/Sara Markt, PressOffice@health.nyc.gov

New Movie Role for Orlando: An Education

justingirl1989 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:08:38 -0800

Orlando Bloom has apparently joined the cast of new movie An Education. The Lord Of The Rings star will join Rosamund Pike, Emma Thompson and Peter Sarsgaard in the coming-of-age movie set in 60s London.
The film is based on British journalist Lynn Barber’s memoir and the screenplay has been written by Nick Hornby, author of hit novels High Fidelity and About A Boy, both of which have been made into successful movies.

The story centres around Jenny (played by rising British star Carey Mulligan), a clever and beautiful 17-year-old who is introduced to a glamorous new life in London and lead astray by the older and unsuitable David, played by Jarhead star Peter Sarsgaard. Orlando will play his charming business partner Danny, and former Bond girl Rosamund will play his girlfriend Helen.

source: thisisnorthscotland.co.uk

Obama helped fund 'Alinsky Academy'

Eleuthera — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:44:15 -0700

Teaches tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation

By Aaron Klein
March 18, 2010

A Chicago nonprofit on which President Obama served as paid director provided startup capital and later funding to Midwest Academy, an activist organization described as teaching tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation, WND has learned.

Also, in 1998, Obama participated on a panel discussion alongside Midwest Academy founder Heather Booth, an extremist organizer and dedicated disciple of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky.

The Woods Fund, a nonprofit on which Obama served as paid director from 1999 to December 2002, provided startup funding and later capital to the Midwest Academy. WND first reported Obama sat on the Woods Fund board alongside William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization.

Midwest was co-founded by Booth's husband, Paul Booth, a founder and the former national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, the radical 1960s anti-war movement from which Ayers' Weathermen splintered.

In 1999, Booth's Midwest Academy received $75,000 from the Woods Fund. In 2002, with Obama still serving on the Woods Fund, Midwest received another $23,500 for its Young Organizers Development Program.

Midwest describes itself as "one of the nation's oldest and best-known schools for community organizations, citizen organizations and individuals committed to progressive social change."

It later morphed into a national organizing institute for an emerging network of organizations known as Citizen Action. Midwest teaches Alinsky tactics of community organizing.

Discover the Networks describes Midwest as "teach[ing] tactics of direct action, confrontation, and intimidation."

In August 1998, Obama participated in a panel discussion following the opening performance in Chicago of the play "The Love Song of Saul Alinsky," a work described by the Chicago Sun-Times as "bringing to life one of America's greatest community organizers."

Obama participated in the discussion alongside other Alinskyites, including Booth, political analyst Aaron Freeman, Don Turner of the Chicago Federation of Labor and Northwestern University history professor Charles Paine.

"Alinsky had so much fire burning within," stated local actor Gary Houston, who portrayed Alinsky in the play. "There was a lot of complexity to him. Yet he was a really cool character."

Booth herself is a notorious radical community activist and self-described dedicated disciple of Alinsky, of whom she says: "Alinsky is to community-organizing as Freud is to psychoanalysis."

Booth's vision of uniting various left-leaning organizations and factions has also been the subject of her two books: "Toward a Radical Movement and Citizen Action" and "The New American Populism."

Former 1960s radical and FrontPageMagazine Editor David Horowitz describes Alinsky as the "communist/Marxist fellow-traveler who helped establish the dual political tactics of confrontation and infiltration that characterized the 1960s and have remained central to all subsequent revolutionary movements in the United States."

Horowitz writes in his 2009 pamphlet "Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution. The Alinsky Model":

"The strategy of working within the system until you can accumulate enough power to destroy it was what sixties radicals called 'boring from within.' .... Like termites, they set about to eat away at the foundations of the building in expectation that one day they could cause it to collapse."
As WND reported, Obama approached Northwestern University professor John L. McKnight – a loyal student of Alinsky's radical tactics – to pen a letter of recommendation for him when he applied to Harvard Law School. Under the tutelage of McKnight and other hardcore students of Alinsky, Obama said he got the "best education I ever had, better than anything I got at Harvard Law School."

In a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, Alinsky's son praised Obama for stirring up the masses at the 2008 Democratic National Convention "Saul Alinsky style," saying, "Obama learned his lesson well."

The letter, signed L. David Alinsky, closed with, "I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully."

With research by Brenda J. Elliott

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=129361