"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

"There is a growing technology of testing that permits us now to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn't be doing at all." - Dr. Gerald Bracey author of Rotten Apples in Education

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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Bill Clinton wants "new radicalism" at University of Central Missouri. Whatever Could He Mean?


Here is an article on Bill Clinton's recent appearance at University of Central Missouri:

Clinton received several standing ovations and was greeted with applause a half-dozen times, including when he urged the audience to transcend partisan politics and ideological differences to lessen economic inequality.

"This is not a Republican or Democratic argument. This is the new radicalism," he said. "If you don't think we're all in this together, we're toast."

The article describes how quickly tickets were snapped up and the former president was warmly received.

Maybe the attendees would like to know some of what the William J. Clinton Foundation does other than Haitian relief and delivering a message of lessening economic inequality and being one in the fight for not behaving in a partisan manner.

Here is the website for the Foundation. There is one division in the Foundation that is particularly troublesome in terms of its function and its major donor: The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and the involvement of George Soros. This is the what CGI promotes:


CGI America To Be Held in Chicago on June 29 – 30
New York, NY — President Bill Clinton announced today that he will host a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting focused on creating jobs and driving economic growth in the United States. The meeting, CGI America, will be the first CGI event solely dedicated to economic issues impacting the U.S. and will take place in Chicago on June 29 – 30, 2011.


"CGI America will bring together leaders from business, nonprofits, and government to develop new ideas for generating jobs now in the U.S.," President Clinton said. "CGI members have already improved the lives of more than 300 million people around the world by making nearly 2,000 commitments. More than 250 of those commitments, worth $11.6 billion, are addressing challenges in the U.S. At CGI America, we will focus that innovation and urgency to get people working again."


Based on the same model as CGI’s Annual Meeting, the event will convene diverse stakeholders — including CEOs of American companies and international companies with U.S. operations, national and local government officials, and leaders from the nonprofit sector — to identify effective ways to strengthen U.S. industries, unlock capital for innovation and entrepreneurship, advance energy efficiency, build clean energy infrastructure, and train Americans for the 21st-century workforce.


Topics covered during the meeting will include education, green buildings, the healthcare workforce, manufacturing, rural development, service corps, small business growth, smart infrastructure and workforce training.


Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. . These CGI members have made nearly 2,000 commitments, which have already improved the lives of 300 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued in excess of $63 billion. The CGI community also includes CGI University (CGI U), a forum to engage college students in global citizenship, MyCommitment.org, an online portal where anybody can make a Commitment to Action, and CGI Lead, which engages a select group of young CGI members for leadership development and collective commitment-making.


President Clinton is right in step with the global learning goals of Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Cass Sunstein...and George Soros. Soros is a financial contributor to CGI. And what is Soros' vision for the United States?

George Soros, thinks that Obama should be striving to help further the agenda of the New World Order, and surrender the United States’ role of global financial leader to billionaire world financiers at the International Monetary Fund. Here is a video about Soros' recent involvement at the monetary summit in April 2011 at Breton Woods:


So the former president's initiative, CGI, is partially funded by a man who backs the New World Order and wants the United States to surrender its role as global financial leader to the IMF. The former president may not have problems with this as he promotes global citizenship, global problem solving and collective commitment-making. And he wants a piece of educating your children, too.

The university honored Clinton for his commitment to education and philanthropy as well as his service to the country. Should the university be honoring a man who aligns himself with a man seemingly determined to undermine the capitalistic system of the United States? Should the university be wondering exactly what is the "new radicalism" President Clinton referred to in his speech? What does dismantling partisanship mean which he spoke about? Maybe we won't be facing any partisanship battles when we become "one" in the grand scheme of becoming unified as global citizens.

If you believe President Clinton has no meaningful connection to George Soros, think again. Is there any leader the university could have honored who believes in the exceptionalism of the United States rather than one who pals around with an individual who wants to fundamentally transform the United States to the detriment of its existing constitutional structures?


Friday, May 6, 2011

DATA is a Four Letter Word if You Value Your Privacy.


You may have been reading about the ability of Apple and Google to track their users' location and information:

Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal—intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data.

Here is an idea of some of the information that can be tracked:

For almost two years, Alex Pentland at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has tracked 60 families living in campus quarters via sensors and software on their smartphones—recording their movements, relationships, moods, health, calling habits and spending. In this wealth of intimate detail, he is finding patterns of human behavior that could reveal how millions of people interact at home, work and play.

It doesn't stop at Google and Apple, however, your use of Facebook also compromises your privacy. This 2010 article on the founder is quite enlightening on the vanishing idea of individual privacy:

Zuckerberg imagines Facebook as, eventually, a layer underneath almost every electronic device. You’ll turn on your TV, and you’ll see that fourteen of your Facebook friends are watching “Entourage,” and that your parents taped “60 Minutes” for you. You’ll buy a brand-new phone, and you’ll just enter your credentials. All your friends—and perhaps directions to all the places you and they have visited recently—will be right there.

For this plan to work optimally, people have to be willing to give up more and more personal information to Facebook and its partners. Perhaps to accelerate the process, in December, 2009, Facebook made changes to its privacy policies. Unless you wrestled with a set of complicated settings, vastly more of your information—possibly including your name, your gender, your photograph, your list of friends—would be made public by default. The following month, Zuckerberg declared that privacy was an evolving “social norm.”

The backlash came swiftly. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center cried foul. Users revolted, claiming that Facebook had violated the social compact upon which the company is based. What followed was a tug-of-war about what it means to be a private person with a public identity. In the spring, Zuckerberg announced a simplified version of the privacy settings.(emphasis added)

Here is one of the latest articles about Facebook's use of data mining information:

...privacy watchdogs say Facebook's unique ability to mine data and sell advertising based on what its members voluntarily share amounts to electronic eavesdropping on personal updates, posts and messages that many users intended to share only with friends.

"Facebook has perfected a stealth digital surveillance apparatus that tracks, analyzes and then acts on your information, including what you tell your friends," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "Facebook users should be cautious about whether the social networking giant ultimately has their best interests at heart."

You can deduce from these various scenarios with Apple, Google and Facebook, the idea of privacy is becoming quite antiquated. It seems as if the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) push by this administration is for naught: money is not made by creating and producing products; CEOs will become millionaires by selling other people's information. And let's package it by declaring privacy is an "evolving social norm". It's the ultimate nudge to give away our individuality for some company's or government's usage.


We'll be writing this week about this push for your data and your student's data while in public school and quite possibly, private and home school settings as well. Data mining is rampant in private businesses, so I suppose the government decided it might as well get what it could to drive the workforce and manipulate education services based on data.

It's been done in Europe for quite some time and we'll be writing about England's experience with tracking its citizens and what they do with this data. Since we're now copying their health system, the Federal Government probably thought it might as well utilize their data experiences too. It's all connected: health data leads into education data leads into workforce data. Stay tuned.






Thursday, May 5, 2011

What Does The Global Citizen Think About

In life, it's important to ask questions. But even more important than that, it’s critical to ask the right questions, because if you don't ask the right question, the answer you get may be meaningless. This is especially true considering the subject of teacher accountability. The question currently being asked is, “Are teachers teaching students well enough to meet some standard?” In order to answer this question, Race To The Top has proposed a daunting series of assessments of student performance and plans to use those assessments as a measuring tool of teacher performance. Almost any study designer worth their weight will tell you that it is dangerous to use an associative value to determine another parameter’s actual value. Whether a child is learning the material is only partially attributable to how well the teacher is teaching it, but RTTP places an almost 1:1 correlation between the two.

Certainly, we all want to make sure our children are learning and don't want to discover when they graduate from public school that they have not learned anything that will either get them a job or into college. But there are very few parents out there who are lamenting, “My eighth grader can’t do a quadratic equation. What are they teaching at that school?” Yet that is lament RTTP is designed to answer.

The accountability parents are often looking for is; Is that teacher available before the big test in order to help answer my child's questions? Does that teacher belittle my child in front of the classroom? Does a teacher share his or her personal political beliefs with the class instead of teaching the subject material? Does the teacher lie to the students or bully them? Does the teacher refer to her students as parasites? Does the teacher play power games by telling students that their grade will be determined by whether the teacher likes the questions they ask, rather than by the actual work they do? Does the teacher require the students to participate in his/her pet projects as a part of their grade?

This type of accountability is almost never addressed and we therefore have teachers like the one at Parkway West Middle School who put this poster on her classroom door (it's been there for two years so far) without challenge, approval or explanation. A friend, who is also a teacher, passed this on to me because it bothered her so much. She was afraid to say anything at school since no one else had said anything, giving the impression of tacit approval.

How To Build A Global Community

Think of no one as "them"
Don't confuse your comfort with your safety
Talk to strangers
Imagine other cultures through their poetry and novels
Listen to music, you don't understand -- dance to it
Act locally
Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
Question consumption
Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
Look for fair trade and union labels
Help build economies from the bottom up
Acquire few needs
Learn a second (or third) language
Visit people, places, and cultures -- not tourist attractions
Learn people's history -- redefine progress
Know physical and political geography
Play games from other cultures -- watch films with subtitles
Know your heritage
Honor everyone's holidays
Look at the moon and imagine someone else somewhere else looking at it too
Read the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Understand the global economy in terms of people, land, and water
Know where your bank banks
Never believe you have the right to anyone else's resources
Refuse to wear corporate logos: define corporate domination
Question military/corporate connections
Don't confuse money with wealth, or time with money
Have a pen/e-mail pal -- honor indigenous cultures
Judge governance by how well it meets all peoples’ needs
Be skeptical about what you read
Eat adventurously -- enjoy vegetables, beans and grains in your diet
Choose curiosity over certainty
Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go
Pledge allegiance to the earth; question nationalism
Think South, Central, and North -- there are many Americans
Assume that many others share your dreams
Know that no one is silent, but many are not heard
Work to change this

By Syracuse Cultural Workers Community, 2002. Bringing you their message since 1982. You really must visit their website. They have so much to offer. As opposed as they seem to be to corporate money grubbing, they are more than happy to take yours for all their products. This gem is available in bookmark and postcard form. Also available for purchase is the book We Want Freedom, a collection of memories of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Philadelphia Black Panther who shot a police officer point blank and is currently serving a life sentence. The book gives the history of black liberation struggles. But then again, this teacher may merely be lending her support to fellow California union teachers who recently passed a resolution reaffirming their support for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Where is this teacher’s accountability for posting this tripe on her door? I keep asking this every time I meet a school board candidate, an education reformer or a school administrator. When will teachers be held accountable for this type of propagandizing? So far I have only been met with blank stares.

There are so many pearls of wisdom in this poster I can hardly pick my favorite one. Maybe you can share your favorite one in the comment section.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

More Proof That Our Children Are Being Used

It is becoming clearer every day that children are being used in the education system by adults with an agenda. From Dr. Marvin Berkowitz who wants schools to use children to lobby their parents to vote for school issues, to the Let's Move program that used kids in a publicity stunt dancing to promote the HHS health care agenda , our children are considered only so much human capital to be used by those who claim to want to help them. And now there is this from the Tucson School Board Protest. Citizen journalist Mike Shaw developed this video in his blog that provides a little background on who is behind the Tucson protests. He was smart enough to find two people with strong liberal and even union ties who are willing to speak out against this type of abuse of the education system.

Former Alaska Teachers Union President Richard Kronberg noted, after looking at the final test in the AZ Mexican-American studies class, that the course teaches children that they are victims and sets them up to fight back against their supposed oppressor.

Both he and the other interviewee see a strong push coming from the University level to promote a progressive agenda. Events at U of MO labor studies institute demonstrate the what is happening in Arizona is not an isolated incident. Miguel Rodriguez of U of AZ was seen directing children to protest, and infact, berating them for being late. Mr. Kronberg believes this is a form of child abuse, and I can't help but agree.

Lori Hunnicutt, former community organizer and liberal democrat, went further and said that children are targeted to be used by the education elite. They look for those who are most vulnerable and open to suggestion and most in need of group membership. It isn't just the kids who are targets for abuse. Progressive also practice intimidation of teachers and staff who oppose their agenda.

Things seem to be reaching a tipping point. Glenn Beck is planning a show this Friday which will feature teachers who have had enough and are starting to stand up against those pushing education reform and this new agenda.

Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies Problem : MikeShaw.tv

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Government will Provide 11 Year Old Children Condoms Through the Mail.

Do you remember this post questioning why the Department of Health would be interested in an education blog? Apparently the department is very interested in students, particularly those under the age of 18. There are charters specifically for unwed teenage mothers and schools in DC with these services:

Education just isn't about writing, reading and arithmetic; it's also about teaching teenagers how to parent and possibly providing them with other services; under the "Health and Wellness" section of the DC website:

New Heights Teen Parent Program

Pregnant and parenting students have the right to remain in their schools and participate in all school programs. Our New Heights Teen Parent Program provides pregnant and parenting DCPS students with the assistance, support and guidance they need to handle the responsibilities of raising a child and graduating from high school.

New Heights participants may be eligible for educational, employment, housing, support services and information about community resources until their 20th birthday. Contact the Anacostia SHS office at 202-645-4040, or the Cardozo SHS office at 202-671-1995.

This is listed under the Health and Wellness section under the teen parent program information:

Wrap MC Condom Availability Program

We have adopted DOH’s Wrap MC Condom program in all high schools, where trained school staff provide condoms to students as part of a comprehensive health education program for students in grades 9–12. Condoms are also available through the school nurse.

Visit the Department of Health for more information.


The Philadelphia Department of Health is way ahead of the DC program. Students in that city don't even need to go to school for their condoms! They can visit a clinic specifically geared for minors; maybe this is the new way students in Philadelphia can learn map study skills in Social Studies to learn how to obtain needed condoms. If the student cannot find his/her way to the clinic for the condoms, they can visit this website from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health informing the student it will MAIL them for future use:

CONDOM MAP

Need condoms? Use this map to find out where to get free condoms near you.

The STD Control Program provides free condoms at over 100 sites across the city. These sites have condoms available for free, for anyone that needs them.

All of the sites on this map are teen-friendly, and the ones in yellow are sites that are specific to teens.

Find a site near you, walk in, and ask for condoms. It's that easy!

This condom program is available to students as young as 11 years old:

MAIL ME CONDOMS

You know you need to use condoms each and every time you have sexual contact with someone. You know how to use a condom correctly. But there is one more important step: do you know where to find condoms?

There are many, many, many places in Philadelphia where you can buy condoms. There are lots of places where you can get condoms for free! Click here for a full list of sites so you can find one near you.

Playing it safe just got easier. If you live in Philadelphia and are between the ages of 11 and 19 you can now have condoms mailed directly to you for FREE.

Maybe it's difficult for you to stop by one of our sites to pick up condoms. Or maybe you're just shy or feeling weird about picking up condoms.

We understand this. That's why Philadelphia Department of Public Health is starting a new program: sending male condoms through the mail! If you live in Philadelphia and you are between the ages of 11 and 19, all you have to do is fill out the form below and we'll put together a package for you.

If you are looking for female condoms, you can get them for free at Health Centers 1 or 5.

Why aren't they making condoms available to students younger than 11 years old? If the government is encouraging sexual behavior for minors, why set the age limit at 11 years old? If it broadcasts the message that children (that's right, c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n) can have sex as young as 11 and it will provide the condoms to make it as "safe" as possible without any counseling about the emotional aspects of having sex at such an early age, the department might as well do away with the age requirement.

Do you think it just MIGHT be a responsible message to inform children they should at least know the name of their partners?:

Our staff is trained for months so they can talk your partners in person with understanding, sensitivity, and a human touch. Once your partners are told, the staff person will then help them find a doctor that can give them a test at low or no cost. If they have something, they will get them treatment.

Even if you only have very little information about your partners - like a screen name, nickname, or physical description and hangout location - our staff can usually find them.

The Nanny State is here full force. Parental authority and wishes are secondary to the services the Department of Health will provide children. Should parents even be using their time and effort in trying to instill values in their children? Our government is here to provide the means necessary to assist with any urges your child may experience. Why should your student learn to understand the consequences of his/her actions? Your child will be taken care of by the government, no worries, mom and dad:

Have needs beyond the web?

Come to our free and confidential clinics at Health Centers 1 and 5. They provide exams, diagnosis, and treatment for a variety of STDs to all people over the age of 12. All services are free of charge. You don't even need an appointment. It's as easy as walking in after school.




Monday, May 2, 2011

Smurfs' Communism and the University of Missouri Institute Labor Studies Class

The University of Missouri offers an online course on Labor Studies through The Institute of Labor Studies at the Kansas City and St. Louis campuses. At least two of its lecturers have ties to the Communist Party in the USA (CPUSA) so perhaps this youtube selection could be added to its online curriculum.

"Smurfs' Communism" explains the smurf economic and social systems, and division of labor. As the lecturers have communist political leanings, this would be an excellent choice for them to show and explain to these University of Missouri students how communism and labor unions are connected in terms of wages and expectations.



Sunday, May 1, 2011

Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Brainwashed.

Here is a recording of "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys" by the Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferon):




With all due respect to these fine musicians and songwriters, I have an idea of changing the song to "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Brainwashed". With the discovery of Communists lecturing in Labor class through University of Missouri advocating violence and civil disobedience as a means to an end, parents need to be aware of what their children are learning in schools.

But don't think this is contained at the university level:

On Tuesday, across the state of Pennsylvania, unions and other Left-wing organizations will be boarding buses and heading to the state capitol in Harrisburg to engage in a mass rally to fight for economic and social justice and against budget cuts. n Lancaster, PA, concerned parents contacted the local newspaper with their concerns, which caused one school to cancel the “field trip”:

Plans to have Wickersham Elementary School students participate next week in a rally opposing cuts in the state education budget have been canceled in the wake of complaints from parents.

The school Wednesday sent home a permission slip asking parents to allow their children in grades three to five to attend the Rally for a Responsible Budget in Harrisburg Tuesday.

The fact that they’re taking kids and teachers out of school to attend this rally is just plain wrong,” said Julie Zug, whose son is a fourth-grader at Wickersham.

“I have no idea how many schools or districts in Pennsylvania are participating, but it sounds like an awful expense to prop up the teachers’ union.

How many parents are unaware their kids are being used in this manner?”

The rally is being sponsored by the Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenues, a group that includes the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers and several other public-service unions that are planning to bus hundreds of members to Harrisburg.

In a letter to parents accompanying the permission slip, James said the trip would provide an opportunity to “model the role of good citizenship, free expression, fairness and thoughtful deliberation.”

“Please join us as we … travel to Harrisburg to let our voice be heard for a responsible budget for public education,” he urged parents in the letter.

In addition to the permission slip, the school sent home a sample letter for parents to send to lawmakers opposing education funding cuts, as well as a sample script for parents to read when calling their legislators, according to parents.

It’s unknown how many parents will be having their children be used as a government-union prop. What is also unknown, as referenced above, is the number of parents who may not know that their children are being used as government-union props next Tuesday.

Schools recently celebrated "Earth Day" and a rap song was sung at one school extolling people to save the world and not use plastics (which, by the way, is a legal product and is recyclable). We previously blogged about this brainwashing as "One Word: Plastics. The Gentle Art of Seduction".

As Youtube removed the video, here are the words as recorded. You get the gist:

"The sky is high and the ocean is deep,
But we can't treat the planet like a garbage heap,
Don't wreck it, protect it, keep part of it wild,
And think about the future of your great-grandchild.
Recycle, bicycle, don't you drive by yourself,
Don't buy those plastic products on the supermarket shelf.
Boycott, petition, let the big business know,
That is, we mess it up here, there's nowhere else we can go.
Don't shrug your shoulders, say "what can I do"?
Only one person can do it, and that person is you!"


What do these two instances of a field trip to support unions and a skit at school have in common?
  • Your children are being led to believe an important aspect of education is to learn how to boycott and petition.
  • Your children are being taught to demand based on their desires.
What happened to teaching children how to be proud of their country, make positive contributions because they are proud of their country and become a good citizen? If the definition of a good citizen today is to petition, boycott, and demand "rights due them" ....heaven help this country.

This is the entitlement society and Nanny State on steroids. This is the government instilling personal values into your children. This is the government deciding appropriate behavior and moral judgments for children, usurping parental authority. Academia isn't waiting until college to snag your kids...it's starting in elementary school now...or earlier.

Parents, don't let your babies grow up to be brainwashed. You have your work cut out for you. I'd much rather our children grow up to be cowboys and cowgirls; they are individuals who are self-sufficient and don't need to boycott or petition or follow someone else's agenda. I propose children SHOULD grow up to be cowboys and cowgirls. THIS should be the primary educational goal for students in Arne Duncan's "Blueprint for America": Children growing up espousing individual liberty and responsibility...imagine that.
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