Or Billy Ayers doesn’t know his arse from his mouth.
“You’re anti-government, but you’re anti-privatization. So, what is your solution?”
h/t David Webb via WZ Shades of a Veena Malik? I think so.
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March 30, 2011
Mcnorman's Weblog
Just because I forget stuff.
March 30, 2011 at 10:05 pm
“Billy Ayers doesn’t know his arse from his mouth.”
Given that excrement has always issued from both his orifices, there is no difference.
March 31, 2011 at 6:13 am
That’s fair.
April 1, 2011 at 2:43 pm
His “END” from a hole in the ground?…as my mother would say……..
March 31, 2011 at 8:40 am
Sorry, but this is bullsh#t.
Charter schools are subsidized by all taxpayers yet are available only to those with enough money to gain entry.
It is only to be expected that charter schools outperform public schools—– even though some public schools may receive a higher per capita funding—– because they have the ability to do other things that the public schools cannot: control for class size, control for the financial status of the student (and yes, rich children outperform poor children on average), control for a socially homogeneous student population (similar backgrounds and values), control against children with behavioral problems, because as a “private” school they can refuse them entry), etc. The issue is not whether or not charter schools get results, but whether or not they get results at the expense of public schools, and it is clear that they do. If parents want to send their children to private schools paid for with their own money, that is one thing, but they should in no instance be sent to private schools with other peoples’ money.
The young lady in the video is full of sh#t. She does not acknowledge that the charter schools are funded with public money and thus are in competition with the public schools for that money. I am in agreement that all races and genders must have equal access to education: but they all should get the same education: that provided by public schools.
Charter schools ought to be outlawed.
”You’re anti-government, but you’re anti-privatization. So, what is your solution?”
Speaking for myself as someone who is both anti-government and anti-privatization, the present solution must be to improve the quality of the public schools (if there is not a baseline of public money supporting education without some alternative structure in place this nation will become a nation of illiterates) so funding to some degree seems necessary. Ideally, government funding and oversight of a basic educational system should be done by a real government, not our present fascist state, but one must start with what one has. Jmo what is needed most for improvement of the present systems is not money, but an improved curriculum. Textbooks do not need to be changed every year, or even every five years, except in the fewest of disciplines where major advances in knowledge occur rapidly. Math is still math; the english language and the spanish language are still the same languages. Schools need to be made bilingual. This is just the way it is, regardless of one’s opinion on the whys and wherefores of it. It is not harmful to learn factual information, such as languages. Textbooks need be of quality, that is to say, free of errors and comprehensive. When I was in school, especially when I was very young, this was the norm. They can go republish the books I had: it will save money. Curricula must be devoid of social interference. It is not a school’s place to lesson students in morality; that is a parent’s job. Schools must enforce discipline (place poorly behaving children in detention; expel children who receive more than a certain number of days in detention and let the parent deal with finding a private school.). Monitor classrooms for sexual and racial harassment to ensure children are treated equally. Give parents unqualified access to the videos of their children: then they will know what their own kids are doing and what the teacher is doing. Allow parents to download video at cost if they wish to pursue complaints. Teachers must be qualified. The multiple layers of bureaucracy need to go. Crap like psychological counseling and school police need to go.
March 31, 2011 at 8:55 am
“Monitor classrooms for sexual and racial harassment to ensure children are treated equally.”
That assumes treated fairly: one does not suggest they be equally harassed, lol. One should also monitor to prevent against discrimination on the basis of performance at schoolwork whether high or low; bullying, etc.
March 31, 2011 at 9:46 am
Nom, how do you do all of this monitoring? What do yo mean by discrimination on the basis of performance of schoolwork? Bullying is something that is learned long before the kid ever gets to school. Peer encourage the behavior or discourage it. If you see it as a teacher, and you correct it…don’t you become the “school police?” The playing field is set at home prior to school. Personally, the school day is FAR too long for children. Basics should be taught. There is nothing wrong with repetition. Those that are further along should always be given ample opportunity to grow. As it stands right now, public schools cannot compliment the kids that excel. In Texas, we no longer can recognize the highest achiever in the graduating class. Why? I think that is wrong.
March 31, 2011 at 9:48 am
It really begins at home Nom. Unfortunately, many parents do not see that their progeny is more than just a DNA copy of themselves.
March 31, 2011 at 10:25 am
I thought I was clear, sorry, videotape them & make it available to the parents for viewing. I am not suggesting an agency of any kind monitor it: parents will be the first to squawk.
This is not nearly as expensive as a nation of morons or policing schools. Video surveillance is ubiquitous & digital storage is already dirt cheap. Keep the videos on a per month basis, then delete them.
and before some yahoo says butwhataboutthepedophileslookinatourkidslady, I have always maintained that pedophiles should be shot summarily: this is another artificially maintained problem.March 31, 2011 at 10:34 am
No, don’t scratch it out. LOL
March 31, 2011 at 10:45 am
what I mean by discrimination on the basis of performance is to watch for teachers mistreating students who perform either better or worse than the teacher wishes they did.
I had work done correctly that was misgraded, and was punished for looking out of a window and reading when I had finished my work: teachers found it unacceptable that I was a better student.
This is not uncommon, one of my sisters has a coworker who describes the same situation with his son of being singled out for punishment due to overperformance.
March 31, 2011 at 11:57 am
Some people should never have become teachers Nom. I pulled my kid out of classes like that. I had every intention of going to the news media with their shenanigans. One year, the computer teacher received 80 brand new Dell computers. They had just received this batch. Four weeks into the class, the kids were still not using them. I found out that the license for software use was up someone’s behind. The teacher said she could have everything online and ready to go, but refused to load them illegally without proper licensing. I didn’t blame her. I made five phone calls to ask why the district refused to hook them up. The last to the superintendent’s office with a note that they should expect the local tv station in a few hours. The computers were hooked up that day and ready to use the next. Someone didn’t feel like doing this before school began.
March 31, 2011 at 12:02 pm
I did ask the teacher when she believed that they would get them hooked up and ready. She said that the estimated time was 6 months. I blew. Unacceptable. You cannot teach someone how to use a computer without having one to work on. At week 4 they were cutting out a keyboard layout and coloring it. This was freaking high school not kinder.
March 31, 2011 at 9:40 am
They are tax payer funded and NO, they should not be outlawed. We no longer have any say in what the schools do. The districts are usually top heavy in administration, and teacher unions keep the teachers from teaching. Teaching is an art. Many are unsuitable for the job. Add to that, teaching is not esteemed in our culture. It is only a job. Public education stinks. As a parent, I fought countless battles to the point where the district decided that it would be better to have me within their reach (committee) than constantly questioning their wisdom. I won’t say it is only the district, but the ridiculousness of teaching to a test which leaves everyone without any useful skills.
I can tell you that some of my best students came from charter schools that had nowhere near the amount of funds that the district had. They were the discarded students that the district had no use for. You will never improve public education as long as you have teachers that a union has given it’s seal of approval to teach a test.
No more bilingual bullshit. I worked as an educator for decades. The SAT and the ACT are given in English. If you want to really screw a kid, let him be master of neither language. He’ll never make it into college. Technical manuals are useless without pictures. Critical thinking is no longer taught in public schools. I think that takes precedent over a second language.
Textbooks do not need to change yearly. Now, try telling that to the teacher who wrote a new book and is married to one of the trustees. (That teacher’s income shot up by how much?) Our district bought software to the tune of millions from a vendor that was related to another trustee. The software has been updated countless times, it’s been ten years. It doesn’t work. Tell me who loses? You cannot legislate decent behavior.
Tell me what would you do with a five year old that runs around the room pulling the girl’s underwear down? Can’t touch him. (Where are the school police when you need them?) The kid can’t be removed from the classroom. If you try and touch him, you will be kicked and bitten because that is what he knows. It’s what his parents know. He watches porn with daddy all weekend long. You think that parent is going to care about watching his kid in class? Take him away from his parents? Where will we put him?
I had a little girl that refused to go potty by herself. She would wet herself in class everyday. Touch her? Hell no. I would never put myself in a situation that could become labeled as abusive. I told her parent that she needed to take the child to the pediatrician if she could not control herself. The other children responded appropriately for their age. Do you think the little girl felt awful having everyone point at her puddle? Psychological counseling would go a long way with the family. She was fine after a few sessions. Psych is not your cup of tea, but do not be so eager to dismiss it. (It’s not my cup of tea, but it worked.) The little girl grew up quite well adjusted and is now a functioning member of society.
March 31, 2011 at 10:36 am
It is obscene to suggest someone fund 2 systems yet have access to only the lesser.
“You cannot legislate decent behavior”.
Neither can you tax people into
it.
As far as much of this goes we seem to be in agreement: the problem with public schools is the corporate interference that promotes nepotism and useless layers of bureaucracy and discourages parental input. So occupy the freaking public schools and demand a change until you get one. Make a change for all the kids, not just the ones who get into the charter schools, who do in fact get an education at the expense of the rest of the students, or else you’ll still have a nation of freaking idiots.
March 31, 2011 at 11:51 am
Nom, if the system has become so perverse, people should have the opportunity to leave. Not all schools are created equally. I will tell you that although there are some here who fill a huge void (these kids would be on the streets), there are others that simply are not doing any better than the public schools. I don’t think that we can change the Dept of Education. A huge waste of money. Like the UN, they are a leech.
March 31, 2011 at 12:09 pm
The fact that charter schools exist should be a good indicator that even politicians know the system is broken beyond repair. Carter’s Dept of Ed is and always will be a joke.
March 31, 2011 at 12:19 pm
If they want to leave and go to private schools for which their parents foot the entire bill, I have no problem with that; I have a real problem when they get to leave and be subsidized by all those they tell to go down with the freaking ship. That’s just not fair.
March 31, 2011 at 10:40 am
“Tell me what would you do with a five year old that runs around the room pulling the girl’s underwear down? Can’t touch him. (Where are the school police when you need them?) The kid can’t be removed from the classroom. If you try and touch him, you will be kicked and bitten because that is what he knows. It’s what his parents know. He watches porn with daddy all weekend long. You think that parent is going to care about watching his kid in class? Take him away from his parents? Where will we put him?”
I did tell you what I would do: put him in detention, after say 10 days of detention, expel him from school: he is then his parent/s problem. In the event some kid harms another person, then arrest him for assault. That’s what police are for, not patrolling the hallways intimidating everyone good and bad alike.
March 31, 2011 at 11:52 am
You can’t put them in detention. They are only 5 yrs old. They must be assimilated into the class regardless of how disruptive they are. It’s not like it used to be anymore.
March 31, 2011 at 12:21 pm
You can put a 5 year old in detention if parents occupy the schools until the rules are changed.
March 31, 2011 at 11:33 am
Not sure what the answer is- but I do know this. When we went to school slower learners were grouped with others of like ability. Same for the brighter among us. Worked out well. Slow kids were not allowed to hold smarter kids back. All the feel good everybody gets a prize bullshit has ruined education.
March 31, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I agree PMM. I don’t think that the smarter kids should be penalized because they can move along faster. Since when is being slow a crime. Some kids read slower because they are processing differently (creative). Slow seems to have gotten a bad rep. Three types of learners: auditory, visual and experience or hands on. We are ALL different. You know PMM, back in the day, we didn’t have all this self esteem bs. It’s almost as if we have given these kids permission to have a disability (lack of self esteem).
March 31, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Certainly we are all at least agreed that what we are doing is not working.
I don’t have any illusions that everyone is going to make it in this world. Kids with poor quality parents have a disadvantage that is hard to overcome. I know, because I had such parents. Many will not make it at all, but will go down a short road of criminality; and more will fall far short of their potential. All I want to see is a level playing field of opportunity. This cannot be achieved by limiting access to quality education for the majority to benefit the few, much less by taxing the majority to benefit the few. Charter schools are fascist by design, and fascism is not an ideology that ought to be tolerated.
The birthrate of US hispanics is sky high as compared with most other demographics. The need for societal cohesion is greater than the need to hold onto to ideologies that will never be implemented (removal of all illegals, lowering the rate of birth of first generation immigrants, legal and not). English-speakers-only have lost this battle and it is time to acknowledge it and move on.
Maybe schools don’t yet know how to teach people 2 languages well simultaneously, but they are going to have to learn, as it is going to be a necessity for those in the workforce in the very near future (and already is in some fields of work, especially lower paying jobs).
Every nonhispanic employee at McDonald’s can speak (at least) a little spanish without any teaching at all. Surely the schools can do better. Learning anything is most dependent upon a desire to learn. There is certainly a place for volunteerism as well, for those already bilingual to volunteer their time to help others learn. Employers could also use this as a means of earning a promotion as well.
The bottom 99% of people in the country need to start thinking about what sort of communities they want and setting realistic goals with which to achieve them, because the top 1% has their own ideas. And to be very blunt, the average illegal alien has a h#ll of a lot better skill set for the oligarchs’ future than the average American-born citizen.
March 31, 2011 at 1:05 pm
That is unrealistic imo. If the home field is bad, the school should not be leveling it. The school should NEVER become the parent. Life is unfair. We come into this world with gifts or burdens. It is what we are dealt with. How does education make up for poor parenting? If you have a child with no stimulation for years, he is going to be sitting in the back regardless.
I know you want a better world for the future, but I don’t buy into bilingualism in school. Teach the kids the basics and everything that follows will be icing.
March 31, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I did not say the school should be leveling it, I think the law should be leveling it: all races and genders must get the same standard of education in the public schools.
No charter school for the more affluent or the few tokens while the rest rot.
We are supposed to be a country of “no taxation without representation”; taxing people for both the school system their kids attend and also for a school system to which their children cannot go is just plain freaking wrong.
If a parent wants better, let them pay for private schooling.
No Charters!
March 31, 2011 at 2:56 pm
We disagree. If you came here, you would see that the charter schools are filled with kids who have barely enough to eat. They are in the schools to get away from the bullies, the peer pressure to have the newest and greatest because they are poor, the ones who want to excel and are made fun of, basically all the misfits. There is no privilege here, so it must be different from what you are seeing.
I say, absolutely we should have charter schools. I don’t want gifted talent to go unskilled because we are going to wait to fix the
education systemtrainwreck. It would take decades to correct the system.Believe Nom, we have many more private schools which parents pay for. I don’t have kids in school, why should I bear the burden of paying for a family that makes a minimum wage earning and continues to have children year after year? That is taxation without representation.
BTW, I paid for my kid’s private tuition by working two to three jobs for twenty years. Where there is a will, there is always a way. I’m tired, real tired now. I gave to my students everything that they could use to continue with. I don’t regret it, but I resent paying for a public system that is crap. I admire what the charters have done here. Those kids that I was telling you about came from abject poverty conditions. Credit goes to those parents that understand that education is their only way out of poverty. If they don’t want them running drugs after school, then they should be where they are safe and learning. I like sports, but why do coaches get paid more than a math or science teacher?
What all of this boils down to is what this country regards as important. Education is supposed to be fun and too many tests make learning boring according to Barack. I want my pharmacist to know how to do math when it comes to compounding. I want the kid who is learning about seedlings to understand how much fertilizer is too much. I want girls to never be afraid of math. Much learning comes from repetition. What does Barack think? His kids go to a very expensive private school.
How about we skip the entertainment, feel good bull and move onto critical thinking skills which can be applied to everyday life? I’ve seen many college graduates not understand how to take 10% off a ticket price. Blows me away. Nom, you more than I know that in a survivalist moment, many would perish.
March 31, 2011 at 5:49 pm
I don’t have any children and am sterilized so I pay for everyone’s children and get nothing directly personally. Nevertheless we live in a nation, and a nation implies some level of society; there is some minimum standard of education that must be maintained if we are to continue to live thusly: I do not object to paying some reasonable fare.
I would not disagree that parents should pay more than those without children and parents of many children might pay more than those with fewer; but I doubt this is actually feasible, so I am willing to suck it up.
Nevertheless: Parents, if you don’t like what you have, then f%^*ing FIX IT.
Stop demanding a safety valve for your child while saying piss on everyone else’s. This is not ethical behavior.
It is precisely the sort of selfish, shortsighted thinking that allows fascist privateers and fascist governments alike to move in in the first place. Both groups are able to do this because you won’t simply step in and occupy the school buildings until system-wide changes are made for everyone’s children: even people’s for whom you don’t care.
Charter schools in NC are the purview of the upper middle class, which we still have in abundance particularly as wealthy out of staters flock here to steal for themselves what we have built (and then complain about what rude hicks we are). Our charter schools are most assuredly not as you describe them in TX, rather they are a way for white people to go to better schools than blacks and hispanics, yet not have to pay the higher cost of private schooling. To say that this displeases me to have my tax dollars allocated in this fashion falls far short of the mark.
March 31, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Nom, I understand your situation. I would be mega angry about supporting free private schools. Private schools have their place, don’t get me wrong. I also believe that home schooling has its place. I wholeheartedly agree that parents should work to nurture that child, not the government. It’s a parental duty imo.
March 31, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Yes, I am also a huge fan of home schooling, I have known families that did this with fantastic results. If I had ever had children this is definitely the route I’d have taken.
March 31, 2011 at 1:43 pm
within another couple of years over half the children entering schools in most states (rather than just a few right now) will speak spanish only.
what you suggest will not be feasible then. it will be easier to change now with some level of gradualism than later, when the problem will be that much worse.
March 31, 2011 at 3:06 pm
That is colonization. I would love to see English spoken as a first language. As I told my students many times Nom, “learn English…your SATs, ACTs, GRE scores will condemn you to a lower place if you don’t have that skill, it is in your best interest to learn English to the best of your ability.” For many, that was the wake up call. Either they rise or they stay imprisoned in a life that is harsher. When I talk to parents, they instantly recognize what I am saying. That barrier is a barrier that Latinos hold unto themselves.
March 31, 2011 at 3:07 pm
When a parent asks me, I ask them why my advice counts. They never believe that English is my second language. They don’t hear an accent. They just know that if I can do it, they can too.
March 31, 2011 at 3:10 pm
And those children will always be left behind. Two languages and a master of neither gets you nowhere. What is that silly saying, “no child left behind” is now ” no school left behind?” What’s next, “no country left behind?”
I am sick of excuses Nom. We need to clean up our act and get down to the matter of educating children.
March 31, 2011 at 6:02 pm
I may be colonization, but it is not the first wave of colonization here and one imagines it won’t be the last.
I do think everyone is best served by learning english at present, but in the future, it may be the other way around, who knows?
It doesn’t hurt to learn. Little kids like facts, they like to learn new things. It takes a real effort to make them uninterested in learning.
I just don’t agree that one who learns 2 languages must be master of neither, rather than master of both. Too many people the world over know multiple languages.
One might start by making fluency in spanish a requirement for educators before they graduate from college. Making their curricula more rigorous will have the added benefit in weeding out some of the morons who would otherwise become teachers.
March 31, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Children that are very young are sponges. I believe inclusion is a great disservice is to children. I understand the premise, but I also believe that it is pc gone very wrong. No one wins.
March 31, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Nom, your expectations are quite high. Most kids have great difficulty comprehending reading material. If they can’t manage one language, how can you expect proficiency in both? If the standardized tests are in English, then that should be the language that one has mastered.
March 31, 2011 at 6:03 pm
sorry, “It may be colonization”…
March 31, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I’m sorry, could you define what you mean by inclusion? I’m not understanding what you are saying.
March 31, 2011 at 6:35 pm
yes, my expectations are high. I believe children can learn far more than is given for them to learn and that it is the improper manner in which information is related to them that keeps them from learning.
jmo before one can think rationally one must know what rationality is, of what it consists. I would teach children grammar and logic before teaching them reading and writing.
March 31, 2011 at 7:09 pm
What would you do with this child?
This is huge, the msm is calling it what it is…a hate crime. As far as I am concerned, the family can go back to Sierra Leone where they can behave like this.
March 31, 2011 at 7:19 pm
or this kid?
March 31, 2011 at 7:20 pm
It’s the parents, the kids come fresh. We cannot legislate behavior.
March 31, 2011 at 7:23 pm
if he is here legally (and he appears to be so) I would put him on trial, the same as any other (accused) violent offender.
if he’s found guilty, I’d give his country of origin the option of taking him back. If they don’t want him, I’d carry out whatever sentence he got.
He seems a disturbed boy, likely conflicted about belonging to a religion that is not well regarded here.
If his acts had been +/- nonviolent (say he had tried to pull off the muslim girl’s hijab, but had not struck her) and he had no prior history of violence, I’d be inclined to more leniency (in the event his parents removed him from the school and enrolled him in a private one), but as it stands, forget it. His parents had their chance to straighten him out.
March 31, 2011 at 7:25 pm
for the second kid, I’d have to say invest in some really good earplugs, lol.
March 31, 2011 at 7:51 pm
You just wait, one of these days I’m going to make you howl. ROFLLMAO
March 31, 2011 at 7:45 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_%28education%29
when in doubt, look it up. I am going to assume this is what you meant.
I am not suggesting that children who only speak english be taught simultaneously with children who only speak spanish: I am saying I think both need to learn both languages. I don’t think there are nearly enough qualified bilingual teachers for that in any event.
I would give the english only kids x hours of spanish a day, and the spanish only x hours of english a day until they learn it.
As I said below, I would teach logic and how languages work before going into reading and writing. One could use the 2 languages as points of comparison to illustrate the structural principles inherent in languages.
I do believe that if one started with grade schoolers, one could have fully integrated bilingual classes by late middle school or high school.
March 31, 2011 at 7:48 pm
What happens to the “fun” stuff Nom?
March 31, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Sorry, inclusion in our district includes all discipline problems as well.
March 31, 2011 at 8:03 pm
But my answer for those not so esoterically inclined is to use fun examples.
March 31, 2011 at 8:16 pm
Don’t feel alone Nom, I like to know how things work too. I am a nerd.
March 31, 2011 at 8:10 pm
well, I will say something incredibly unpc. when I was in grade school, they put mentally handicapped people at the next row of tables during lunch and allowed them on the playground where there were only student patrols chosen from among the upperclassmen to supervise.
In the first case it was absolutely disgusting to the point it was honestly difficult to eat; and in the second case they were dangerous and liked to attack littler kids.
Problem children— whatever the cause of their misbehavior— ought not to be forced upon well behaving children. Their parents must be made to take responsibility.
I understand that schools are often unwilling to do this, but it is still the only feasible solution
March 31, 2011 at 1:06 pm
You nailed it.
March 31, 2011 at 6:22 pm
“What all of this boils down to is what this country regards as important.”
Absolutely this is true.
But I like to think big, mcnorman. I don’t want to merely reform the schools, or the government, or the banks, or our culture: I want it all torn down and done over right.
April 25, 2011 at 11:57 am
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/4/20/232844/831
sister of Blackwater/Xe’s Erik Prince behind school privatization. If that doesn’t give one pause, one cannot imagine what would.