Interesting. I would think that the tea party would value free speech. The teacher was on his own time. Yet the tea party wants vengeance. The local school board wisely will take no action against the teacher.
I thought the tea party folks were rude and and strident. I found it especially offensive that the teacher was told not to teach liberal ideas. The kids were brought there as children. The Dream Act is for children who have been schooled in the United States and who are good students. It is simply an investment in America. We need good students to fill our work force.
Those kids are here. We can turn them in to productive students or we can send the message that they are trash and should be gang members. Those tea party folks sent the trash message. I support the government teacher 100%. He showed self control. Nazi was mild compared to what he was thinking.
Seriously, should Mr. Govt. Teacher even be teaching if he thinks all his students should be deported? NO.
Fox News is giving its usual propaganda statement.
Here is how the scenario might work down the line. Some politician will put the squeeze on the school board to punish Bryant. They will gave and find fault with his style or lesson. Teaching is an art, after all, not a science. They will find a way to mete out some hurt. I would bet money, however, that it isn’t the end.
In the words of Ming Ming the Wonderpet duck, “This is serwious folks!!! ”
Banana Man has received 10 days suspension from school for running down the sidelines during a football game at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Virginia. This story is a perfect example of schools picking their battles wisely. As it turns out, the Stafford County School System has gotten into a pissing contest with not only their entire student body but also the nation. Banana Man has gone viral.
Additionally, Banana Man has autism. Cutting to the chase, his handicapping condition may very well make him impulsive and therefore, not subject to suspension. Banana Man might have the entire nation taking up a collection for the court challenge of his suspension.
If Stafford County were smart, they would give the kid a job and let him run the field during half time every game. They would be the envy of all the other high schools. Mascot Banana Man. As long as this kid is receiving punishment, the school is the enemy.
If anyone has video of some big Bubba sheriff leading the kid away, please post it. These people deal with kids every day. They should know this is one they will not win. Not in a million years. Banana Man is the hero of the hour.
How does a school system save face after this bad of a screw up?
SAT reading scores for graduating seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades, reflecting a steady decline in performance in that subject on the college admissions test, the College Board reported Wednesday.
In the Washington area, one of the nation’s leading producers of college-bound students, educators were scrambling to understand double-digit drops in test scores in Fairfax and Montgomery counties and elsewhere.
“Once you hit a certain mark, you want to maintain that,” said Frieda Lacey, deputy superintendent for Montgomery schools. “Don’t think the decline didn’t bother us. It really did.”
Nationally, the reading score for the class of 2011 was 497, down three points from the previous year and 33 points from 1972, the earliest year for which comparisons are possible. The average math score was 514, down one point from last year but up five from 1972.
The College Board attributed the lower scores to the growing diversity of test-takers, many of whom are less prepared for college-level work or are learning English as a second language.
Seeing “no clear path” toward reauthorizing the “No Child Left Behind” education law, the Obama administration will unilaterally issue waivers to states, exempting them from some of the law’s regulations.
“Today we’re less than a month from the start of the school year, and…we still believe there is no clear path toward a bipartisan bill to reform “No Child Left Behind,” said White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes in a conference call with reporters, the contents of which were embargoed until Monday.
“Our administration has been working on plans to provide more flexibility. The president has directed us to proceed with those plans.”
Months ago President Obama called on Congress to address the issue of correcting some of the flaws of NCLB that is about a decade old. Congress apparently went off in different directions and produced nothing. The president decided to issue waivers to exempt states from having to comply with many of the laws regulations that were particularly burdensome. Every child, teacher, and administrator is probably collectively cheering the decision. NCLB, while sounding good on paper, created upheaval in schools and required that unachievable goals be reached by students, teachers and schools.
On paper the legislation sounds pretty good. After all, who wants to leave children behind. In practicality is it dreadful. The goals are unrealistic and often unachievable. Schools must go through all sorts of expense and gyrations to document what they are doing to meet the unachievable goals, causing burn out across the board. NCLB is too much bureaucracy into local affairs. It needs a burial at sea so kids can get back to learning.
This is a poorly worded law for sure. It has vague ambiguities. For instance, the law states no contact with former students. That is absurd. For how many years? Does that mean you can’t befriend someone you taught 10 years ago who is now a fellow teacher? Why must lawmakers always demonstrate how little they understand about the arenas their bills impact? Read more…
Gov. McDonnell wants to make some changes to the Virginia educational system. In particular, he has been impressed by what he has seen in Asian schools. According to Newsadvance.com:
Driven by what he’s seen of education programs in Asian countries and other parts of the world, McDonnell said Virginia needs to step up its efforts. Those nations, he said, have “phenomenal education systems training people in math and science and technology.”
“I want to raise the bar,” McDonnell said. “I’d like to have more competition. I’d like to have more charter schools, more college laboratory schools, and more virtual schools. I’d like to find ways to increase our teaching of important life skills, from financial literacy to civics to business, so young people will have a sense of the broader things that are going to make them good citizens,” he said.
More money for K-12 schools isn’t necessarily the way to achieve his goals, he said.
“I am suggesting we may want to look at the ways we allocate that (money for K-12) and put it more directly into instructional programs and less in non-instructional ones,” he said.
Officials at Catholic University say the early response to their plan to phase out coed dorms has been highly favorable, but not every college student is anxious to see the move become a trend.
“I think if my school even attempted to introduce this measure, there would be riots,” said University of Cincinnati graphic-design major Elishia Candelaresi.
Ms. Candelaresi said that although she supports the option of single-sex dorms, she also cherishes her right to choose.
“I feel that it’s important to give people a choice on how they want to live their life and also to realize that you can’t just protect and shelter people their whole lives because then they never learn how to control themselves,” she said.
Are we still having this 40-year old discussion? First off, I am surprised Catholic U has co-ed dorms. Secondly, what is the attraction of co-ed dorms? Don’t young people like privacy any more?
I seriously doubt that co-ed dorms really affect anyone’s morality. However, there is just something sort of comforting about being able to sit around in your shabby old robe or nightgown when you aren’t in class. What is the attraction of co-ed dorms?
A Stonewall Jackson High School attendance officer and girls’ basketball coach was charged Tuesday with having sex with a former student, police said.
The victim told police that she and Nsonji White had performed “sexual acts” when she was a 17-year-old student at the school in 2004 and 2005, Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok said.
Perok said the alleged assaults occurred at different locations within Prince William County – some in the school.
White, 38, of the 10100 block of Woodbury Drive, in the Bannerwood neighborhood near Manassas, was charged with five counts of crimes against nature and five counts of indecent liberties by a custodian, Perok said.
White was held without bond
Yesterday the paper reported that an 18 year old student sexually assaulted a 14 year old in the stairwell.
What is going on? I know this kind of crap didn’t go on to this degree when I was a kid. It was a rarity, not an every day occurrence.
The President has called for NCLB to be replaced. He says reform just can’t wait.
Reform is critical only if NCLB is repealed. Killed off. Done away with. The federal government needs to stay out of education. Leave education up to local government and states. No more unfunded mandates. No more absurd hoops to jump through.
NCLB has almost ruined national education. President Obama calls for reform from the bottom up, not the top down. This is a good direction. Congress needs to start on this endeavor, yesterday. Education is a local issue.
Last year Sean Lanigan was accused of molesting one of his students. After 47 minutes of deliberation, a jury of his peers acquitted him. Not guilty. They felt there was no evidence.
His accuser has been using her patrol position to bully other students. Lanigan corrected her and warned her that she could lose her position. That was it. The patrol decided that Lanigan had to pay. And pay he did. The story of the downfall of this Fairfax PE teacher can be found in the Washington Post. Sean Lanegan was set up. There were missteps made by Fairfax County Schools and by the Fairfax County police.
Once acquitted, Sean Lanigan’s life still hasn’t gone back to normal. He has over $100,000 worth of legal fees and he isn’t in his old school. He works 5 days out of 10 but is paid for 10. Fairfax County still appears to want him removed. By all accounts an excellent teacher, this man has been victimized by a vengeful student. It can happen to anyone.
Reprinted with permission from Susan J. Demas whose guest opinion appeared in the Huffington Post.
Unless you are saving lives on the operating table or vaccinating children in Africa, it takes a certain kind of chutzpah to constantly insult and berate teachers.
Because chances are, your job is nowhere near as important as that of the folks responsible for shaping the young minds of tomorrow. That goes for lawmakers, lobbyists and yes, annoying reporters like myself.
Anyone who has to corral a bunch of sugar-addled kindergartners or try to break through to angry teenagers deserves hazard pay. Because if our kids don’t get the education they need in their early years, they are screwed. That didn’t used to be the case, when the auto industry was fat and happy and doled out jobs as high school graduation gifts.
But nowadays, if kids don’t earn a college degree, they are almost completely shut out of the middle class. Maybe an associate’s degree in a technical field will suffice. But that’s about it.
Teachers are critical to this process. So are parents, but most of them are too busy working 60 hours a week, often at a couple jobs, to teach their kids very much at home. And let’s face it. Once kids start bringing home algebra, most of us are hopelessly lost.
A teacher friend of mind sent this. I thought it needed a special place on the blog.
Next Season on Survivor
Have you heard about the next planned “Survivor” show?
Mayor Bloomberg (NYC), Kathy Black (NYC Schools’ Chancellor), Governor Walker ( Wis ) , Governor Kasich (Ohio) and Governor Christie (NJ) will be dropped in an elementary school classroom for 1 school year. Each of them will be provided with a copy of his/her school district’s curriculum, and a class of 20-25 students.
Each class will have a minimum of five learning-disabled children, three with A.D.H.D., one gifted child, and two who speak limited English. Three students will be labeled with severe behavior problems.
Each of them must complete lesson plans at least 3 days in advance, with annotations for curriculum objectives and modify, organize, or create their materials accordingly. They will be required to teach students, handle misconduct, implement technology, document attendance, write referrals, correct homework, make bulletin boards, compute grades, complete report cards, document benchmarks, communicate with parents, and arrange parent conferences. They must also stand in their doorway between class changes to monitor the hallways.
As VA Tech continues to heal from the worst massacre in US history, they got dealt another blow, this time by the US Department of Education. According to the Washington Post:
The federal government said Tuesday that it plans to issue the maximum possible fine against Virginia Tech — $55,000 — for violations of a campus safety law in connection with the 2007 shooting rampage that left more than 30 students and teachers dead.
A federal official wrote in a letter to Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger that the penalty for failing to provide timely warnings about the threat to the campus on the day of the massacre should be greater.
Three statewide education groups are joining with the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League to urge Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) to veto a bill that requires elementary and middle schools to offer 150 minutes of physical education a week.
Fairfax County Schools have been voicing concern. The three new educational groups urging the governor to veto include:
… the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Education Association and the Virginia School Boards Association have joined with the local government groups to make the same arguments.
Their letter to the governor states the following:
“We recognize that the bill’s intent of fighting childhood obesity is a laudable goal. We ask, however, that you exercise your discretion to veto this bill because of two major concerns: (1) the bill imposes a substantial unfunded mandate on school divisions and localities and (2) due to time constraints and other requirements imposed on the public schools, the bill’s implementation will pose very significant instructional and practical problems,” they write in a letter to McDonnell.
Basically, most buildings don’t have the facilities to comply with what would be the new law. Very few elementary schools have gyms. Scheduling is already difficult at middle schools. Most jurisdictions simply don’t have the money to comply or to retrofit new gym facilities. They certainly don’t have the money to hire new PE teachers.
Parent groups are meanwhile lobbying Gov. McDonnell to sign the bill into law to help curb childhood obesity. No one denies that kids need more exercise. However, Virginia legislators really didn’t look at the reality of how to implement their new law or who was going to pay for it. According the the WaPo, this is the most hotly contested of all of the 1600 bills passed this session. Right now, jurisdictions and school systems are viewing the PE Bill as just another unfunded mandate.
