(FYI- I did not write this.  And I usually do not agree with any editorials published by this conservative rag… but I will make a few comments along the way.  Please read it if you care about education.  Ponder…)

“”Gov. Tim Kaine’s recent directive ordering an inquiry into racial disparities in gifted-student programs is fine on the surface — seeking information is hardly ever a bad idea — but it is potentially troubling nonetheless, for two reasons.

An earlier editorial explained the first reason: The racial disparities do not show up only in gifted programs. They appear in a host of education metrics, from dropout rates to SAT scores. Time and again, Asian students outperform the norm; black and Hispanic children lag behind. (And time and again, female students outperform male students.) Suggesting something is wrong with the administration of gifted programs could paper over a much broader issue — and end up penalizing Asian students who have done nothing but study hard and score well. A better solution would involve improving elementary education in primarily minority schools, so pupils wind up at the same starting line in later grades.

The second reason has to do with ideological mischief.

In a recent commentary for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Katherine Kersten exposed a report by something called the Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group at the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development. The task force, part of a “Teacher Education Redesign Initiative,” blames the poor academic performance of minority students on a lack of “cultural competence” among teachers.

To redress this supposed problem, the task force recommended that teachers in training be required to write their “autoethnography,” in which they are supposed to confess their latent racism and sexism. The goal is to make future teachers conversant with their own histories of “white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and internalized oppression.” The report suggests teachers should be able to “explain how institutional racism works in schools,” to learn the history of “white racism, with special focus on current colorblind ideology,” and to recognize the “myth of meritocracy.”

In short, UM’s answer to the problem of poor minority academic performance is not to offer lagging students additional tutoring and intensive remediation — but to blame teachers for not recognizing how racist they are. Instead of educating students, it wants to re-educate educators. That would perpetrate a cruel hoax on both.

By all means, let’s have an examination of the reasons for racial disparities in Virginia’s programs for gifted students. But let’s make sure it’s an honest look — and doesn’t become an excuse to hammer teachers with radical left-wing dogma.”"

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My Grumpy Opinion:  Take it for what it is worth! And consider the source, as always.

In regards to the ending….’Radical left-wing dogma”, I propose a truce.  Get real.  It is not dogma.  It is BS.  Face it. Teaching the gifted is easier than teaching the non-gifted.  Colleges and universities are always looking for data to explain why some students don’t perform well according to the “very important standards of that day”.  Educational trends are very cyclical.  Study the history.  We still haven’t found what works and we still don’t have all the data!  It is an evolving science.  Some students don’t want to learn and can’t be forced to learn.  This fact covers the entire socio-economic strata.  Some parents didn’t learn well in school and have no skills or interest to promote learning at home.  They are in survival mode. Some adults have made poor choices since their parents made poor choices.  The tradition carries on through the generations.  People need to be motivated and find motivation to break self-defeating cycles of poverty and ignorance across all races and geographic locations.  Cetain segments of our diverse society encourage competition and high grades.  Learning is not one size fits all.  Learning styles and home life play large roles in outcomes. 

   How to motivate people to encourage educational interest in their children? 

1. Turn of the ******** TV.    Mute all commercials.

2. Go to the public library on a regular basis to check out books. Include non-fiction.   Skip the DVD’s. Check out cookbooks and health related books and ponder the possibilities.  Include your children in healthy nutritional choices.  Skip the McDonald’s lifestyle.

3. Role model reading to your children.  Read aloud to your children and discuss books, authors and our world.

4. Go outside and have fun in nature.  Respect mother earth and take care of it.  Volunteer when you can.

5. Give teachers a break.  Stop tenure in K-12.  Fire the bad apples.  (They exist and I have met them.) Encourage teachers to be free-thinkers and allow them some creativity.   The teaching profession (K-12) is the most micro-managed group of poorly paid professionals in our society.  They have the hardest jobs and are expected to perform miracles while some people sit in their Ivory Towers of data collection and promulagate new trends and more pointless staff-development crap.  Crap piled on top of crap.

rant-rant-rant!!!!!!!  It is NOT left-wing dogma.  It is eduspeak crap.  Let’s offer lagging students intensive tutoring, remediation, Saturday schools and year round opportunities.  Let’s teach about birth control and prevent teenage pregancies.  Let’s put our money where our mouths are.  End the wars and fund local education!!!! Yes, let’s improve elementary education from the grass roots up.

Here’s The Christmas Pledge I re-read several times each holiday season to keep my perspective in check: It’s from Unplug the Christmas machine:  A Complete Guide to putting Love and Joy Back into the Season by Jo Robinson. 1991

The Christmas Pledge

Believing in the true spirit of Christmas I commit myself to:

Remember those people who truly need my gifts.

Express my love in more direct ways than gifts.

Examine my holiday activities in the light of my deepest values.

Be a peacemaker within my circle of family and friends.

Rededicate myself to my spiritual growth.

I also remind myself to re-read Debt-Proof the Holidays : How to Have an All-Cash Christmas by Mary Hunt .

1. The funniest book I have perused in a while is  I Like You   Hospitality Under The Influence by Amy Sedaris. It is irreverent, quirky and totally funny!  She is the sister of David Sedaris, who is also a comedy writer.  If you want an amusing mix of 50’s recipes, crafts and entertainment ideas plus some downright out there humor; this is the book for you! 

1.  Thanks to the medical know-it-alls at the ACOG, we women now have more dilemna’s than ever.  Thanks for all the so-called unnecessary mammograms and Paps over the years.  It was really fun being squeezed and scraped.

2. Patrick Kennedy can’t take communion in Rhode Island because of his stance on abortion.  It is against the dicoese regulations.  Well, well, well.  It’s OK to fondle young men and women but it is not OK to let women make a very difficult choice about their reproductive life?

3. Global Warming experts and detractors.  E-mails being stolen and used against paranoid scientists?  Oh what a wicked web we weave.

4. Henrico County, VA.  A local public HS allows a free national speaker who promotes abstinence and natural family planning during a school assembly.  What does this have to do with the SOL’s?  And was a speaker invited from Planned Parenthood?  NO.  The Principal wanted this speaker.  Bias?  YES. 

No one knows who or what to believe anymore. Is this a surprise?  Believe in your own intuition and find guidance within.  Seek solace in nature.   Help others.

The number one problem we have with healthcare in this country is unplanned pregnancies.  Go figure. It has the ripple down effect throughout our public school systems and our correctional institutions.

Now that’s a big word!  I heard it recently probably on The Daily Show, but am not sure.  It means: influential media pundits collectively. 

And so, here goes:

I am grateful that Lou Dobbs has resigned from CNN.  His “slant” is annoying.  Please, DO NOT RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE!

I am grateful that editors and fact finders are already finding holes in sarah palin’s new book.  PLEASE DO NOT RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE!

I am grateful for the Daily Show finding discrepancies in FOX news reports and photos of tea party protest numbers and showing the wrong protest march and then apologizing for what I call…”propaganda”.

I am grateful for freedom of speech and freedom of religion. 

I am thankful that I didn’t have to teach anymore bogus info on Christopher Columbus the barbarian and other historical events that have been sanitized.

I am thankful not to have to rely on the pundocrats for my opinions.

Most of all, I am thankful for family, friends, love, sunshine and meaningful employment.

Happy 40th birthday Sesame Street!  I enjoy the way Google features a graphic and you can click on the picture to find out more. Loved this show~~~”back in the day”.

We have recently had fun watching The Daily Show (of course) and laughing at the Fox “News” Wars jokes.  I read that BaBa WaWaa is going to have a 5 interview series with sarah palin concerning her new book and personal life. I’ll probably miss that? On purpose.

The World Series and most recent Vikings vs Packers games were fun while they lasted in snippets.

A favorite educational show is about to be cancelled after 26 years on PBS.  I encourage all to sign the petition to Save Reading Rainbow.  It’s a classic!  http://www.petitiononline.com/srr82809/petition.html

I have  a negative take on products to promote breast cancer awareness.  Who is making money off these items?  Does the money collected actually go to research?   I hope so!  It seems to get more and more “out of hand” each October. 

Here is a cause that I can “support”.  It’s “uplifting”!!!!! I really like the idea of seeing a line of colorful, frilly bras stretching down Broad Street! 

There are numerous books out on breast health.   I bought this particular book for my daughters and have found it helpful and also amusing.  It is called Boobs   A Guide to Your Girls by Elizabeth Squires. (2007) She has created a web site with lots of helpful information including video clips on how to perform a self-exam. http://www.booksonboobs.com/

RICHMOND – October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and WRVQ Q94 is partnering up with the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation for the 3rd Annual Q94 Bras On Broad! Q94, along with our participating sponsors, is collecting bras for the month of October and for every bra collected, $1 will be donated to the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation. Last year, Q94 raised over $3,000.00 and stretched the bras 2.5 miles down Broad Street and we hope to beat that goal this year! Richmond residents can drop off their bras at Saxon Shoes, Halloween Express (Willow Lawn), Taboo, Kid to Kid (West End), ColorTyme, and Precision Auto Works.

On Friday, October 23rd, please join Melissa Chase from 2-7p as she broadcasts live from Saxon Shoes in Short Pump where Q94 staff and volunteers will be holding the Link of Love by stretching the bras donated down Broad Street. Q94 invites you to join us on this very special day!

Thanks Q94.  Wish I could have been there.

I just finished reading the new autobiography by Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) entitled: Highest Duty  My Search for What Really Matters. (2009)   I could hardly put this book down.  It was the right message for me at the right moment.  I highly recommend it!

Yesterday I took a long walk down to the empty neighborhood soccer field that is now a meadow; a labyrinth of mowed twirling paths .  The sun was shining and the birds were busy.  Colorful leaves were surrounding me as I took time to look up and watch the clouds and appreciate the quiet peacefulness of those moments of solitude.

As Jewel says in her song…”In the end only kindness matters.”

As we were watching our favorite “The Daily Show”  last night, there were a series of off-color commercials for pistachios.  Levi Johnston (baby daddy in AK) was featured.  There is a contest too.  I choose not to eat pistachios or drink the bottled water from the company Fiji.  If you are interested in this topic: go to Mother Jones or You Tube.  I don’t really want to promote it, but it shows how low we continue to sink to advertise a product.  (But we already knew that, didn’t we?)

Of course, I giggled at the inappropriateness of the commercial.  It was shocking and funny.

“Friends,

Last night my wife asked me if I thought I was a little too hard on Obama in my letter yesterday congratulating him on his Nobel Prize. “No, I don’t think so,” I replied. I thought it was important to remind him he’s now conducting the two wars he’s inherited. “Yeah,” she said, “but to tell him, ‘Now earn it!’? Give the guy a break — this is a great day for him and for all of us.”

I went back and re-read what I had written. And I listened for far too long yesterday to the right wing hate machine who did what they could to crap all over Barack’s big day. Did I — and others on the left — do the same?

We are weary, weary of war. The trillions that will have gone to these two wars have helped to bankrupt us as a nation — financially and morally. To think of all the good we could have done with all that money! Two months of the War in Iraq would pay for all the wells that need to be dug in the Third World for drinking water! Obama is moving too slow for most of us — but he needs to know we are with him and we stand beside him as he attempts to turn eight years of sheer madness around. Who could do that in nine months? Superman? Thor? Mitch McConnell?

Instead of waiting to see what the president is going to do, we all need to be pro-active and push the agenda that we want to see enacted. What keeps us from forming the same local groups we put together to get out the vote last November? C’mon! We’re the majority now — the majority by a significant margin! We call the shots — and we need to tell this wimpy Congress to get busy and do what we say — or else.

All I ask of those who voted for Obama is to not pile on him too quickly. Yes, make your voice heard (his phone number is 202-456-1414). But don’t abandon the best hope we’ve had in our lifetime for change. And for God’s sake, don’t head to bummerville if he says or does something we don’t like. Do you ever see Republicans behave that way? I mean, the Right had 20 years of Republican presidents and they still couldn’t get prayer in the public schools, or outlaw abortion, or initiate a flat tax or put our Social Security into the stock market. They did a lot of damage, no doubt about that, but on the key issues that the Christian Right fought for, they came up nearly empty handed. No wonder they’ve been driven crazy lately. They’ll never have it as good again as they’ve had it since Reagan took office.

But — do you ever see them looking all gloomy and defeated? No! They keep on fighting! Every day. Our side? At the first sign of wavering, we just pack up our toys and go home.

So, at least for this weekend, let us celebrate what people elsewhere are celebrating — that America now has a sane and smart man in the White House, a man who truly wants a world at peace for his two daughters.

Many, for the past couple days (yes, myself included), have grumbled, “What has he done to earn this prize?” How ’bout this:

The simple fact that he was elected was reason enough for him to be the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Because on that day the murderous actions of the Bush/Cheney years were totally and thoroughly rebuked. One man — a man who opposed the War in Iraq from the beginning — offered to end the insanity. The world has stood by in utter horror for the past eight years as they watched the descendants of Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson light the fuse of our own self-destruction. We flipped off the nations on this planet by abandoning Kyoto and then proceeded to melt eight more years worth of the polar ice caps. We invaded two nations that didn’t attack us, failed to find the real terrorists and, in effect, ignited our own wave of terror. People all over the world wondered if we had gone mad.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the outgoing Joker presided over the worst global financial collapse since the Great Depression.

So, yeah, at precisely 11:00pm ET on November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. And the 66 million people who voted for him won it, too. By the time he took the stage at midnight ET in the Grant Park Historic Hippie Battlefield in downtown Chicago, billions of people around the globe were already breathing a huge sigh of relief. It was as if, in that instant, one man did bring the promise of peace to the world — and most were ready to go wherever he wanted to go to achieve that end. Never before had the election of one man made every other nation feel like they had won, too. When you’ve got billions of people ready, willing and able to join a cause like this, well, a prize in Oslo is the least that you deserve.

One other thought. The Peace Prize historically has been given to those who have worked to throw off the yoke of racial discrimination and segregation (Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu). I think the Nobel committee, in awarding Obama the prize, was also rewarding the fact that something profound had happened in a nation that was founded on racial genocide, built on racist slavery, and held back for a hundred-plus years by vestiges of hateful bigotry (which can still be found on display at teabagger rallies and daily talk radio).

The fact that this one man could cause this seismic historical event to occur — and to do so with such grace and humility, never succumbing to the bait, but still not backing down (yes, he asked to be sworn in as “Barack Hussein Obama”!) — is more than reason enough he should be in Oslo to meet the King on December 10. Maybe he could take us along with him. ‘Cause I also suspect the Nobel committee was tipping its hat to all of us — we, the American people, had conquered some of our racism and did the truly unexpected. After seeing searing images of our black fellow citizens left to drown in New Orleans — and poor whites seeing their own treated no better than the black man they had been raised to hate — we had all seen enough. It was time for change.

Thank you, Barack Obama, for giving us the opportunity to redeem ourselves. Now for the tasks ahead. We need you to do all that you promised to do. We need it. The world needs it.

My prediction for the future? You become the first *two-time* winner of the Nobel Peace Prize! Yeah!

Fred (that’s Norwegian for “Peace”),
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/get-off-obamas-back-secon_b_316480.html    “

( I am proud to be an American and be allowed freedom of speech.  Thanks, Michael aka Fred, for sharing your thoughts.  I can’t wait to see the movie Capitalism. A Love Affair.  Fred keeps us on our toes and I thank him for making me think outside the box.  Two of my favorite lines… “right wing hate machine and bummerville“)

For some reason Gilda Radnor’s voice is in my head these days and what I am hearing is:  “It’s Always Something.”

From the David Letterman ~revelations~ to other news worthy events in the world, plus getting adjusted to working in a new setting, to the sadness of having a death in the family, I am on overload.  Not sleeping too well and yet carrying on.

I am looking forward to some diversions such as the new Michael Moore movie: Capitalism, the Chris Rock movie: Good Hair and of course the kid flick Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.

Here’s my opinion on:

 David Letterman~~~I never liked him or watched him anyway.  What a scumbag!

Sarah Palin’s~~~~ new book Going Rogue coming out in November. Are you f***ing kidding me?  I won’t be reading that piece of toilet paper roll.

Congressional cheats and tax evaders~~~~Get Out , shut up and go away forever. Role models~~~NO WAY!  And go without health insurance while you are at it.

To end my rant, I must share this e-mail I received by mistake the other night. I give the golden plunger award to: a former administrator who shall remain nameless.