Government and Schools Taking Authority Over Parents

I am sure you have heard of a preschool child’s lunch replaced by a state inspector with a government chicken nugget lunch in the state of North Carolina. The child’s parents received a bill for the replacement. The child’s lunch consist of a turkey and cheese sandwich, juice drink, banana and potato chips. This lunch did not meet USDA nutritional guidelines. Most reports put emphasis on the fried chicken nugget replacement, questioning its nutritional value against the turkey and cheese sandwich, but I did read online that the reason for the lunch replacement was due to no vegetable being present and the inclusion of junk food potato chips.  The mother said the child was finicky about vegetables, so she encouraged vegetable eating when eating meals at home.

Now really, is it necessary for a government official to step in and change the child’s lunch? Who says the child is going to eat the government lunch that included a vegetable anyway? That poor child was also given the message that his/her mother did wrong with the turkey and cheese sandwich lunch. I feel the government and schools are going out of their way to plant “your parents do not know what they are doing” seeds in children’s minds these days. The effort to erode parental authority has already shifted into high gear.

If you do not feel the lunch thing is so bad, how about government backing of schools providing free condoms to students even in elementary school regardless of how parents feel? This is coming from the progressive leftist side of things. Can you even count on 1 hand any conservative promoting anyone policing school lunches and giving out any kind of free contraceptives to minor school students?

A Great Education Discussion

I watched a previous discussion on public education on C-SPAN that took place in Arkansas as a part of the Clinton School speaker series. When it comes to education, I think many Democrats and Republicans come to the same page. Some conservatives were angry with Newt Gingrich for teaming up with  leftist liberal, Al Sharpton to rally for education at different schools around the country solely because of Al Sharpton, but more understood. The teaming was not about the conservative Republican/liberal Democrat debate over throwing money at schools.

It was about dealing with the disparity of graduation rates and education of minorities through driving the importance of learning, not disrespecting teachers in the classroom and taking going to school seriously throughout life. I cannot fault Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Sharpton for doing that. Hey, non graduation rates for black males is the highest in Detroit. See the Education section in Tale of Two Cities. I am in no way excluding parental blame, because there is some to go around, but this concentration is on the school/educator side.

On C-SPAN Mayor Kevin Johnson (Democrat and formerly of the NBA) of Sacramento, California and his fiancée, the former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system in Washington, D. C., Michelle Rhee  discussed  the “State of Education.” I was on Ms. Rhee’s side during her embattled time as the D. C. schools chancellor.  Mayor Johnson’s past education building efforts led to a low-income area majority black student school out performing suburban majority white schools in test scores.

I restrain my partisan being when it comes to education.  Please at least listen to a portion of the entire discussion in the video here. You will hear Mayor Johnson talk about the school that out performed suburban schools among other great things.

 

Mandated Arabic Culture Almost Happened in Texas

The schools in Mansfield Texas are pulling back on infusing the curriculum with many aspects of the Arabic culture . As soon as Mansfield parents found out, they went ballistic. The curriculum was a requirement and not a choice. Now I do not have a problem with offering the Arabic language as a choice along with other foreign languages. There is a need for people who can speak and translate the Arabic language in government agencies. But to mandate this culture throughout all the subject areas is a bit much. I wonder about teaching of Sharia Law in that curriculum! Hear a parent explain his objections in the video.

Read more and see another video here.

 

A School Tech Requirement Has Me Thinking Of Times Past

In Knoxville, Tennessee, the Webb School requires their students to own or lease (from the school) an iPad (Children in the photo are not a Webb School Student). The students will have most of their textbooks downloaded  on the iPad. Well, at least it alleviates those book filled back-breaking back packs. Seriously, the requirement is to be expected in this technology driven culture.

I know people today who still hold the attitude that the Internet connected computer in the home is frivolous. I remember a co-worker  who thought so too, until she realized, she could avoid escorting her daughter on trips to the library in the deep cold January and February evenings  to  complete homework and contributions to school group assignments by getting that same information at home on an Internet connected computer.

In a previous post, I blogged about my love for the Internet. I took 2 online colleges courses dealing with the Internet  and early (html) website design before there was an Internet connected computer in my household in 1997-98 . I spent evenings and weekends at Temple University in their computer labs completing assignments and loved every bit of it. I remember when a local university, Drexel U.  started requiring students to have a personal PC with Internet connection to take a class. Today, a laptop is a good thing to carry around with you in college.

I finally had computer with Internet at home when my sister who I lived with (and still do) bought a new computer packaged with AOL Internet connection back around 1999. She wanted her then preschool age twin daughters to be tech savvy.  I still remember my late father marveling over one of my nieces at 5 years old  maneuvering the computer mouse as she brought up a young children’s website. You may not think this is a big deal, but my elderly mother whose  computer savvy was late 1980s word processing  currently marvels at my youngest grammar school niece taking pictures from her cell phones and uploading them on to the Internet.

I am all for technology driven schools. If I were a public school student today, I would desire to be in a technology centered charter school whether online or at a brick and mortar school. Of course, parental preference would be for the latter. This iPad technology at the Webb School is the tech wave crest of school instruction and student application.

 

Get Rid of Those Rehired Central Falls High School Teachers

Okay, what is with Rhode Island’s Central Falls High school? If you recall, the school district fired ill performing teachers. They legally fought their firings and won. They returned to their jobs. One would think that these teachers would be grateful for the outcome. How many people are you personally aware of being fired and then have the termination revoked and return to work? In these downed economic times when people are being laid off regardless of how well they perform their job duties, getting a chance to return to work after being fired is very rare. One would think the teachers would return to work with a mind for success. So why are many of rehired  Central Falls High School teachers playing the game of call out? Most importantly, why are they hurting their students’ education?

To be rehired, the teachers agreed to work a longer school day, undergo more rigorous evaluations and provide more after-school tutoring, but they are calling out instead. They sure do not care about their personal integrity and being viewed as liars. These selfish teachers are getting back at those who fired them and saying to H#!! with the students. There is a prevailing negative attitude about the teaching profession, such as seen in TV programing i.e. teachers being the butt of jokes on comedy shows. There is also the proverbial saying, “Those who can, can, but those who can’t teach.”

I have the highest regard for school teachers. What these Central Falls High School teachers are doing is furthering negative attitudes of classroom teaching and doing great damage to their students’ education. That school district needs Gov. Chris Christie and Michelle Rhee. Shame on those Falls High Teachers. Since they are not doing what they agreed to do to be rehired, they need to be fired for good this time and not just from teaching in that highs school but from the teaching profession. Read more about it here.

Getting Urkeled!

If you remember the Steve Urkel character from the old TV show, Family Matters, you remember his held up high watered pants. At the Westside Middle School in Memphis, Tennessee, the principle,  Bobby White instituted a policy of school staff cinching the baggy sagging below the waist pants on the ground worn by students with a plastic zip tie that leaves the student with their pants in a  high watered position like the Steve Urkel character. It is working.  The school is seeing an 80% drop in the dropped down pants  on the ground wear.

Will being Urkeled continue to work or will  it evolve from an embarrassment into being  a cool thing as suggested by a columnist, Paul Shepard?  Could parents and/or student rights’ groups  find some legal way to stop it? I do not like that thuggish sagging below the waist look. Principal White says the sagging pants give off a negative image and will not lead to success in our society. I agree.  Some people feel, the sagging pants on the ground is just a phase of growing up. I disagree, because I see and know men in their 30s wearing the sagging below the waist pants. It looks awful.