 NO COMMON CORE Massachusetts is waking up! The Tantasqua Regional School District Committee is pushing for state legislation to overturn the state Board of Education’s decision to adopt the National Educational Standards because committee members are concerned about the impact the Common Core (CCS) might have on its students.
In a 8-0 vote July 21, 2010, the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted the Common Core Standards in English language arts and mathematic. To date, 45 states have adopted the Common Core State Standards. This writer feels that decision was made because of the money offered the states to accept the program and by pressure from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices who had not read the CCS.
School committee chairman Michael J. Valanzola of Wales, who testified before the Joint House and Senate Committee on Education on the same issue in 2011, said the CCS lowers the commonwealth’s standards in education (as it will in every state participating) in a time when the state should be raising them.
He continued by saying, “anything that removes control from a local body and gives it to a big government bureaucrat is not something that should happen without discussion,”
“And ladies and gentlemen – that is the Communist way! Congratulations Mr. Valanzola – someone is waking up! This also applies to School Choice/Charter schools or any type of Educational system that has the governing force of over sight and control coming from a NON-ELECTED body or government interference.
 COME MY LITTLE PRETTIES! More and more attention is being given to the horrors that are being perpetrated upon our children. Human trafficing, pedophilia, for profit education, vaccination’s filled with live viruses, steroids in the milk, shootings, fluoride in the water, enforcing racial divide, television programs for dummies, psychiatrists issuing psychotropic drugs, video games which lets our children enter the world of murder, drugs and crime in general with no feelings or consequences.
The move and the want for this country to be brought to her knees is not a new objective. Senator McCarthy was right in everything he charged, but the commies had more power and managed to convince America he didn’t know what he was talking about and that he was on a witch hunt.
Obama does not get to take the honors for the idea of “bringing America to her knees”, just putting the things in place to carry it off by a stroke of his pen and the attitude “what are you going to do about it.”
The recent shootings are also a focused agenda to tear down the 2nd Amendment, using our children as a sideways target, with the left declaring we do not need guns – you can hunt and provide your food in other ways.
What? That is not what the 2nd Amendment is all about and they know it. It is all about the PEOPLE being able to protect themselves from a tyrannical government that is “out of control”.
You need clarification of “out of control”? The FEMA camps all over the country is not a dream of the writer and the propaganda the government puts out about them is to defy the imagination. Can you honestly picture a natural disaster in the U.S. that would require 800+ camps? The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a “mass exodus” of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA.
Since the forming of that program we have learned the Progressive left certainly does not care if there is an influx of illegals since they refuse to close the borders and want all illegals to be legal. Why are they refusing to close the borders – Bush, Clinton, Bush, Jr., and Obama? Because each one of them are New/One World Order “wannabe’s” and with the open borders we would become the North American States eventually.
What role are the children to play in this? Well, we have just had our first graduating class of Obama “brown-shirts” who have spent most of their lives playing kill games and watching kill & horror movies feeling no attachment to the end results. Do you really think they will hesitate to take a gun to their neighbors especially when they are young (18-24), no feelings, paid and made to feel important. Most of them are also very immature.
And the Federal government wants to talk about gun control? What about putting guns in the hands of these children to be used against their fellow Americans? They do not want to arm teachers but will older students! A large population of our children is so messed up they don’t know their right hand from their left. They certainly cannot make change in a store or answer a direct question in detail unless you give them multiple choice answers.
They believe “free” sex means “doing it” whenever you feel like it. The consequences of that mean nothing to them. I recently watched a video of young Americans (age 20-30) being asked about their feeling in regard to abortion and almost 100% asked responded there was absolutely nothing wrong with abortion, sex on demand or that they should be held responsible financially if a child resulted. They are being taught immorality “should” be the norm.
In addition in the same video, most were willing to “kill for hire”! “What the heck, I don’t known’um.”
The schools should not be in the business of teaching or approving of sexual behaviors in students. It might be better for the whole country if they focused on abstaining rather than free condoms, showing them how to use condoms and taking our girls for free abortions without parental permission but at the same time they cannot have aspirin in their purse or backpack.
Our children swear at the drop of a hat! They are rude, arrogant, and dis-respectful and have no idea what they want in their future except for someone else to pay for it. Adding to that you have the Federal government passing legislation in favor of gay & lesbian agendas in the schools even to the point Obama’s first appointment to the office of the Safe School Czar was to a “for many years” homosexual.
I personally have no problem if you want to declare yourself gay or lesbian – I do have a serious problem that they think they have to right behind the backs of parents to present programs to children as young as 10 “that they are probably gay but just do not realize it yet”. To me you are bordering on pedophilia!
The added us of our legislative process to write and pass legislation against “bullying” but in same legislation inferring the only bullying going on is against gays, lesbians and trans genders. So in how many school districts now is it alright for a student to choose on any given day what sexual preference he or she prefers to observe. Your daughter can dress as a boy and us the boys restroom and a boy can go dressed as a girl and use the girls restroom. This is with full support of our president I might add.
Where does this all come from? Mostly it comes from the first paragraph of this article and the rest from a slow, precise indoctrination through their education and the immoral world around them. You say not so! Really you ask? How many stories have you heard over the last year of Union teachers sending home union propaganda and endorsements of Obama in everything he does? Urging the students to convince their parents to vote for Obama – singing songs to his praises in school.
We set up an idol in the office of the president and at the same time tear down the very core of America – God, the Constitution, Flag, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and our Moral Fiber.
A recent reading test given to 3rd grade school children in Florida focused on how much better life is if your parents were part of a Union. It portrayed every aspect of the home life as better if your parents just paid Union dues.
I want to make it clear this writer is not implying ALL children fit into the above descriptions, but those who do not are in the minority. I can tell you my research shows if a child is raised in a Judeo/Christian home (even if unfortunately there is a divorce) with fundamental basics of morality, religion and respect, they see past the indoctrination process and even go home and tell their parents what is happening in their schools.
Beware – private schools are beginning to follow the push for the Charter school pattern of “for-profit”, public private partnerships by making deals with businesses to enforce the Communist “School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (the "School-to-Work Act").
Parents we need to be paying more attention to what is happening to our children through their schools through political legislation without any true interest in what the end results are in regard to our children's futures! . Don’t be fooled by fancy legislation titles and well laid out collateral plans by big business, foundations and money-changers!
 “Reading at a Cost of $6.46” Quote from Dr. Jack Fletcher, U. of Houston neuropsychologist: “…the average cost of the testing for special education eligibility was $800 to $8,000, and the median was $4,000. You can do a really good intervention program for $4,000.” (I have posted Dr. Fletcher’s interesting Q&A article from the Houston Chronicle further on down the page.) I have even better news: If schools would teach Phono-Graphix by Carmen McGuinness, it would cost $6.46 (amazon.com) for an entire classroom of children to learn to read. If schools would teach reading correctly, the $8,000 per child for special education testing and the $4,000 for reading intervention would not be necessary! My husband’s father could not read nor write. My husband struggled with dyslexia problems. Our two sons were diagnosed early-on with learning disabilities. Here came our five grandchildren, the oldest of whom had severe ear infections that delayed his speech abilities. He could not hear the sounds of the English language well enough to emulate them. He was doomed to become a poor reader if he learned to read at all. Fortunately, a neurologist introduced our family to Phono-Graphix (i.e., Reading Reflex) by Carmen McGuinness. Our daughter-in-law who had had no teacher training whatsoever followed the explicit directions given in this book and taught our oldest grandson to read/write/spell. Not only is our oldest grandson (now a high-school senior) an “A” student, but our other four grandchildren (all taught to read using Phono-Graphix) are “A” students also. All five are fluent readers. The key to good reading instruction is to help a child “crack the code” where he hears an English sub-sound (phoneme) and is able to map that sound to a letter. Once that momentous “epiphany” occurs, then Phono-Graphix leads the student through direct, systematic, sound-to-letter acquisition until he is able to read, write, and spell to the automaticity level. The child learns to hear individual phonemes, segment, and then blend them into words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and then text. When a child’s brain is able to respond almost automatically to what the words themselves are, then his brain is freed up enough to concentrate on comprehension. If he is still struggling to figure out what the words are, his brain cannot focus on comprehending the meaning of the text. The reading approach (sound-to-letter) that is used by Phono-Graphix is backed up by a great deal of documented research. The cognitive eye instrumentation research has shown that good readers read almost every single word, going from the part to the whole; this finding completely discredits whole language instruction which moves erroneously from the whole to the part. Research done with MRI’s has tracked the brain and how it reacts when exposed to sound-to-letter reading instruction. One of these research reports was published in Science Daily on 8.5.08 although there are many other reports that confirm the same thing: Remedial Instruction Rewires Dyslexic Brains, Provides Lasting Results, Study Shows – “The most common cause, accounting for more than 70 percent of dyslexia, is a difficulty in relating the visual form of a letter to its sound…” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080805124056.htm When I think of “what might have been” with our familial and genetic problems, I get teary-eyed. This is part of the reason that I have spent so much of my life fighting the “reading wars.” If schools would throw out their discredited whole language approach (e.g., Guided Reading, holistic scoring of essays, invented spelling, etc.) and teach all children to “crack the code” (sound-to-letter acquisition of phonemes), we would see a society that would be able to read proficiently; and this would lead to a prosperous and well-educated America in all areas of our culture. This could cost as little as $6.46 per classroom (a far cry from $8,000 to $4,000 per student for special education testing and intervention). One more thing: Phono-Graphix is non-consumable which means one book could be used year after year! All it takes is for a person to follow the directions in the book, cut apart pieces of paper with phonemes written on them (manipulatives), place them in envelopes in a shoebox, give each child a little writing slate along with a marker, and proceed systematically through the steps in the book. Parent volunteers could be brought in to help individualize the instruction because anyone and everyone can learn how to present the instruction by reading through several chapters at the beginning of the book. This approach would free up the classroom teacher to be able to work with those children who need specialized instruction. As a secondary classroom teacher for 33 years, I myself have used Phono-Graphix to help struggling readers and have shared this book with numerous grandparents who have been worried about their grandchildren’s lack of reading acquisition. Not long ago a proud grandmother with whom I had shared this book some years ago told me what a difference Phono-Graphix had made in her grandson’s life. Several years ago, a middle-school English teacher told me that she used Phono-Graphix with all her students, taking them back to the point where she made sure they had learned how to “crack the code” before proceeding to teach them more sophisticated reading selections. I know of various tutors and private coaches (some in the prison system where poor readers are rampant) who are making a living teaching poor readers to take that all-important leap “to crack the code.” Professional athletes who are non-readers have been taught to read through programs such as Phono-Graphix. A local tutoring company that uses Phono-Graphix is continuously hiring more employees to handle the growing number of students who are coming to them to learn to read. A friend of mine teaches in a private school during the day where he teaches sound-to-letter and “cracking the code” but works at a second job where he tutors poor readers from the public schools who are reading failures. Invariably, these children are products of whole language and Guided Reading strategies that are still being utilized by misguided public school teachers. Once that leap of “cracking the code” is accomplished, the whole world of reading will unfold before students; and doors of opportunity will open. Good reading leads to good writing and good spelling. Throw in a healthy dose of grammar and correct usage, and the student is on his way to academic success that extends to his other classes. Outside of helping a child to grow spiritually, I cannot think of a greater gift that a person could give a student than to help him to learn to read, write, and spell well. Donna Garner Wgarner1@hot.rr.com ========================= http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Q-A-UH-expert-stresses-early-intervention-for-3676263.php
 Sadly, education today is not about the children. It is about control, for profit schools and the push for agenda's that will not only affect the lives of our children for years, but help to bring about the ruination of America if we cannot turn it around.
As far back as the 1800's, John Dewey, a strong Marxist, was implementing his ideas as to how education should be presented to our children and how. Today, we have our Secretary of Education, President and those on the left following Progressivism, Socialism or whatever you want to call it, implementing education programs under the guise of "making it better"; "improving our education system"; holding our teachers accountable and "better preparing our children for their futures".
Not so even your teachers will tell you! I have no problem holding our teachers accountable to a point. How can you expect teachers to teach your children and gain success when they continue changing the rules of the game? They change the standards, curriculum's and fail to include the teachers in the discussions or educate them in the "new" ways.
Around 1996 we would see political will began to focus around some key issue for education, specifically, what sort of student should emerge from a high school education. Important to some, but few knew what was actually happening, large corporation heads began to become involved in education - people like Bill Gates and Louis Gerstner. The formed Achieve, Inc. which was formed by the nation's governors and business leaders as a bipartisan, non-profit organization to help states raise academic standards, improve assessments and strengthen accountability to prepare all young people for post-secondary education, work and citizenship.
This idea might have worked if they had not lowered the standards, changed how they were grading and continued to focus on the tests that were to be taken rather than the actual education of the children. This was the fore runner in Florida for the "No Child Left Behind" program and a total focus on the "FCAT", Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Tests. Teachers would spend more time teaching the children how to pass the FCAT for a particular year, rather than being able to focus on everything. Accountable! I think not!
Now they give us the "Common Core Standards" - written by David Coleman and Susan Pimentel (more about them in another posting). There are two really important reasons why this program is not good. They are not educators nor have they ever been.
One, there is no scope or sequence which is an important aspect of curriculum requirements. When a student is sitting in a classroom and going from one grade level to the next, it is vitally important that the curriculum requirements be tightly linked from one grade level to the next or else huge chasms will occur of which the child will fall into. In other words, if a student has not learned in one grade level how to use a preposition they will certainly not know in the next grade level not to put one at the end of a sentence. If they did not learn in one grade level what a participle is then certainly they will not know in the next grade level what a dangling participle is.
Unless the standards used increase the depth and complexity in a smooth transition from one grade to another, holes in the children’s cognitive progression will occur. These holes represent the lack of prior knowledge. It is the lack of prior knowledge that keeps students from proceeding successfully to the next concept. This is particularly true in the area of grammar and usage which are competency based. Some would say how this is important when they have fallen into a world of “texting”. Have you paid attention to the result of how your children and grandchildren talk as a result of a life of texting?
Two, another concern about the new standards is that they are only for Math and English. The emphasis on those subjects in No Child Left Behind's assessment scheme led to a dangerous narrowing of curriculum in public schools; the arts disappeared in many systems, science and history and physical education took a back seat too. However, the test scores reveal our students are graduating without knowing how to read. In Florida, over 50% of our students are required to take remedial classes in their Freshman year of college.
I do not know about anyone else, but holding the teachers totally accountable for the progress of our children and the level of their ability does not seem quite fair to me when you have people who have never worked in education nor have they been trained in education, making changes and choices when they should stick to what they know best.
There is much, much more to this story and it will continue - - -
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