Monday, March 12, 2018

Americans know what is wrong with the public schools, they are underfunded.

Hundreds of Edison students (click here) walk out of class to protest deteriorating culture at school. A negative climate and teacher turnover are cited by students as the reason

March 4, 2018

By Andrea Eger, Curtis Killman and Samuel Hardiman

Teacher turnover (click here) at Tulsa Public Schools spiked the past two years, with an exodus of 1,057, or 35 percent, of all 3,000 school-based certified staff....


The pay rate in Oklahoma is not the reason. Nope. Not the pay.


...Tulsa World data analysis found a significant portion of those former TPS teachers — 295, or 28 percent — are not in higher-paying states but in other Oklahoma school districts with comparable pay....


Teachers take their responsibility seriously. They expect to believe they have won over students and helped them learn and achieve. 


...“If I don’t think something is best for my students, it’s really hard for me to buy in. And I didn’t agree with the curriculum,” said Howard. “It was very scripted....


...combined with inadequate funding for supporting teachers with the extraordinary challenges of teaching in the inner city....


West Virginia has just concluded a teacher strike. Yes, they were given more pay, BUT, don't teachers purchase their own supplies? Teachers in the year 2018 look forward to additional salary because it makes their job easier, not more rewarding in a personal agenda.


...Suburban districts benefited most from all of the turnover, led by Broken Arrow, Jenks and Union, in that order. And a host of Tulsa charter schools also now count former TPS teachers as their own.


In both years, about 14 percent of the 1,057 exits were retirements, for a two-year total of 145 former employees, according to state data.


Counted among those retirees was an East Central High School teacher who said he threw in the towel two years before he had originally planned because of a lack of support with student discipline issues....


I think I mentioned I was teaching. Right? There is a sincere problem with discipline IN THE CLASSROOM. Why? Because students no longer are expelled from school and they are catered to in inventive ways to keep their derriere in the seat. The seat is worth money to support the school and every student is vital to keep the lights on.


The "W" Republican movement that DeVos is a proponent of, has destroyed the public school. The public schools have lost monies, lots of money and each student is valued by the dollar amount they bring with them. This is not about learning anymore. There is curriculum. Definitely. teachers work hard every day to carry out their lifetime of dedication to their students.


There are new paradigms in the public schools, including parents attending school with their troubled child, one on one teaching assistants for students with significant poor behaviors. Poor behavior is best described as dangerous behavior. Children now can get up from their desks and travel anywhere throughout the school as a behavioral disorder. They sometimes are found outside the school grounds because they are clever enough to get to a playground and climb school fences to simply "be mischievous" and provocative. No other reason. They like to be a troublemaker.


This type of paradigm disrupts the learning of students without behavioral problems, because, it is distracting. I was teaching students math one day. I introduced the subject, the concepts behind the math and asked for questions. There was a low level of conversation in the room even after I called for silence. There were no questions. I then stated, "If you are having any trouble with the math, please come to the table at the front of the classroom and I will go over the math individually. 


There is a chair at that table. I took the chair and began to look through the rest of the days cirriculum. All of a sudden there is a student standing next to me. She wanted individual help with her math learning. As I looked up I realize there was a line of students waiting for individual attention to their learning. A line. I mean two thirds of the classroom. 


The noise level increased after I introduced the material. I ignored the noise and proceeded to teach each individual student until they exhibited a correct understanding of the math. Everyone of them "got it." One student came back three times to stand in line and further explore her learning for correctness.


Why the line? Because the ones that really wanted to learn could not because of a culture within the classroom that put up invisible walls that keep them from participating. The wall is chaos. 


I have taught all subjects now from math, English, geography, social studies, chemistry, physics, 
history and social studies at all grade levels. It is all the same. There is chaos in the public schools and it travels with them from grade to grade. When I offer individual help, they finally are rescued from the chaos and learn. Just that simple. I love teaching them one on one and seeing their faces light up when they understand and 'get it' is a real reward for me. You want to know the best part, when they 'get it' they can work well at their desks and complete an assignment.

When students don't understand the material they are taught, they act out as an ego defense from criticism. The chaos is from under achieving. When MY students are given individual attention, they sit at their desks, open a book and carry out their assignments and some even finish homework before they go home. They want to learn, but, the chaos keeps them from it. When they are provided individual attention, they soak up the subject matter like a sponge. They smile and they are happy with themselves and I guarantee you they are also happier at home.


This teaching methodology manifested by itself. I did not anticipate any of the chaos i found in the classrooms. Providing individual attention to any student in the class I am teaching is now my new work ethic.


Charter schools were designed to try new curriculum and new teaching techniques and new concepts. They were not about destroying the public school systems and creating a hostile environment in the classroom.


There is one other paradigm principals and administrators are trying and it called, "Looping." It is where a teacher follows the same students year after year for three years. This is an attempt to minimize the chaos and build learning relationships.


The Charter School phenomena have destroyed the public schools and school systems like Tulsa are trying to find better ways. I am not sure there are better ways. The public schools need their structure back and teach again.


Teachers need good salaries to enhance personal gratification AGAIN. They need not purchase school supplies, that is the responsibility of the school system. 


I am going to keep teaching because I love it. "W" made a mess and no one in education seems to know how to straighten it out because they are oppressed by their own mission and the lack of resources they face. DeVos is not interested in public schools, she wants them to fail and allow every school in the country to be nothing but wall to wall Charter Schools. Americans needs to decide if they want good education for their children or designer learning that MAY teach them something.


It ain't like it used to be and it needs to return to a classroom with order and learning.


"Tulsa World" featured a two-part expose' on the schools in the area, in case anyone is interested in the entire insight it pro
vides.

Republican US House Intelligence Committee; now that is an oxymoron.

They weren't going to find anything from the beginning. There is plenty of information indicating collusion. Maybe Nunes didn't notice, but, Trump's former campaign chairman has two ankle bracelets today he didn't have when the Mueller probe opened. Nunes should be able to duplicate the obvious at the very least. 


March 12, 2018

By Erin Kelley

Washington — Republicans (click here) on the House Intelligence Committee called an end on Monday to their year-long investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election despite protests from Democrats that key documents and testimony have not been obtained.

The GOP majority on the House panel still plans to produce a final report in the next few weeks that is expected to conclude that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russians who interfered in the election. Democrats will write a separate report that will likely conclude there is strong evidence of collusion.

The investigation's abrupt end underscores the bitter partisan divide that has plagued the committee's work. And it increases pressure on the collegial Senate Intelligence Committee to come out with a credible bipartisan report from its own Russia probe....

There have been charges filed against high level Trump campaign staff that later went on to serve in the administration and I suppose Trump is just hard of hearing. There was collusion everywhere. A person would have to be completely obtuse not to realize the degree of collusion there was. I don't see Clinton staffers at any RT events with Vladimir Putin.

March 12, 2018
By Kevin Johnson

Washington — Despite unrelenting criticism (click here) from the White House on the course of the investigation into Russia's election interference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Monday offered unqualified support for special counsel Robert Mueller.

"The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. "I don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel."

Rosenstein's remarks are among the first to address Mueller's status since it was disclosed more than a month ago that President Trump sought to have the special counsel dismissed last summer. The president relented only when White House counsel Donald McGahn threatened to resign if forced to carry out the directive...

How stupid does it get? The day after Comey was fired by Trump, Russians show up in the Oval Office. They weren't trading golf scores. It is easy to tell that Republicans have their own agenda that does not include the truth.

President Putin made the wrong decision. If this is how he decerns what actions to take regarding incoming flying objects, we could all be in nuclear holocaust in minutes.

Most of the free world does not do things this way.

To begin, he never made a phone call to the airline to be sure the facts were accurate. Then when any such emergency exists in the air; the USA scrabbles jets to escort the airliner to an airport. If the airliner does not yield, only then will it be shot down IF it is a danger to people. There is no indication in the reporting that facts were checked and proper channels were open to provide a safe landing for the jet.

This is an astounding revelation by the Russian President. I can't say this is not like him, it tends to be, including the impulsivity of Crimea and Ukraine. World leaders are supposed to be "cool headed." It looks as though that character strength has evaded President Putin.

I am not seeing a flight number or any mention of who was on that plane. Who was on the plane?



12 March 2018

Russia's President Putin (click here) ordered the shooting down of a passenger plane that was reportedly carrying a bomb and targeting the opening of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, he says in a new film.

In the two-hour film, posted online, Mr Putin says he was told a plane from Ukraine to Turkey had been hijacked as the Games were about to start.

It was found to be a false alarm, he says. The plane was not shot down.

The film comes ahead of an election he is expected to win on 18 March.

Mr Putin faces seven challengers but none are expected to attract widespread support and the most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been barred from standing.

"I was told: a plane en route from Ukraine to Istanbul was seized, captors demand landing in Sochi," Mr Putin says in the film, Reuters reported.

The pilots of a Turkish Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800, flying from Kharkiv to Istanbul with 110 people on board, said a passenger had a bomb and had told them to divert the plane to Sochi, reporter Andrey Kondrashov says....

"The value of statistical life."

"Morning Papers"

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

I have been listening to Dan Rather's broadcast as of late. In this film loop, he discusses politics of the day and mentions that the EPA has armed agents. Well, every branch of the Executive Branch of the USA federal system has armed agents. There aren't nearly as many in present day, because, under the "W" administration they were being actively defunded.

But, that is beside the point I am trying to make.

Dan Rather's reference to the armed agents of the EPA caused me to reflect on the definition of what the EPA calls life. I mean it is true the US EPA intervenes in invoking scientifically based standards that improve the quality of life of Americans. What they have to go through in real life scenarios when a governor becomes difficult to deal with or an American is polluting water calls upon to them defend the rulings made that have received public comment; either through courts of US law or with side arms.

What gives the US EPA the right to conduct any of this other than a law? Well, the idea that poisoning in everyday life is immoral is not difficult to understand. The USA, no different than other country records citizen's longevity and for the most part, tries to sustain that life in a way called longevity.

So, how is all that important morality and longevity measured to understand when poisons in our environment are harmful? There is a concept and I do not doubt there will be many offended by the thought, but, each American life is assigned a value. That value quantifies life for the sake of government action. It is called, "The value of statistical life."

There comes a point in a country when it can't defend its own borders due to a lack of population. If a poison were to enter the American environment as they did when "The Clean Air Act" and "Clean Water Act" was first legislated and passed into law; there could be a worse case scenario whereby something of that nature actually happened. There have been severe polluting events, such as the water pollution in recent years in West Virginia, that require vigilance past the event and the institutional measures to stop the event and provide relief. In West Virginia, the relief came in the way of clean water. 

Such a scenario occurred in Flint, Michigan when lead was allowed to exist in the water causing deaths, including unplanned abortions and brain damage to children. If that was allowed to exist in the USA, we would be seeing vast problems in even simple functions of a society. A stark example is the HIV pandemic that struck Africa and wiped out entire adult populations. 

So, in understanding government has an interest in preventing pollution and danger to American's environment, there is a quantity as I mentioned above called, "The value of statistical life." There is a dollar amount applied to it and the basis of such value has been adopted by the US EPA a long time ago.

EPA recommends (click here) that the central estimate of $7.4 million ($2006), updated to the year of the analysis, be used in all benefits analyses that seek to quantify mortality risk reduction benefits regardless of the age, income, or other population characteristics of the affected population until revised guidance becomes available (see "What is the current process for updating the Agency's estimates?” below). This approach was vetted and endorsed by the Agency when the 2000 Guidelines for Preparing Economic Analyses were drafted. Although $7.4 million ($2006) remains EPA's default guidance for valuing mortality risk changes, the Agency has considered and presented others (see "What Values Has EPA Used in the Past?"

By now, I think readers are getting the idea.

The US EPA in fact recommends this value to evalute the impact on Americans. The point to this, is that Dan Rather through his reference of the US EPA and armed agents, caused me to reflect on the value of human life and what causes armed agents to approach an American's home. In other words, "The value of statistical life" weighs heavy when one American is polluting the waters of so many others. Many claim land ownership is absolute, that is not the case if endangering the lives of others.

It is my opinion that Scott Pruitt is not abiding by long-standing measure at the US EPA and is completely incompetent to conduct the work of the USA EPA. I believe strongly he brushes aside "The value of statistical life" as no other director of the US EPA has ever done before. When Christine Todd Whitman was Secretary of the US EPA she stated clearly her administration would be upholding standards that provide Americans with the quality of life, because, the lives effected could be any American and it is not permissible at any level.

Therefore, the defunding of the US EPA is not only gross negligence, it is hostile to the sovereignty of the USA. These practices in the US EPA and other cabinet offices are vital to the well being and future of all Americans. It is time to shut down the Trump administration for breaking the law!

One more important thing, Scott Pruitt is applying his own "God Standard" to the operations of the EPA. That standard is unknown, arbitrary and discriminatory of other faiths. He cannot vow to honor only God. He is sworn to uphold the well being of the American people by the standards laid out for him to do so. He is not only incompetent, he is arrogant and unwilling to conduct those standards to insure the well being of Americans.

"Good Night, Moon"

The waning crescent

24.5 day old moon


26.2 percent lit


“We are stardust
Billion-year-old carbon.
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain.
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden.”
– “Woodstock” 
by Joni Mitchell

March 8, 2018
By Rolf Parker

When I first heard Joni Mitchell (click here) sing this song, accompanying herself with a tremolo-ed Wurlitzer electric piano, I was moved by the idea of being “made of stardust,” without thinking much about whether it was literally true.

While she wasn’t writing a science essay, she was more than half right. We are made of ancient, cosmic dust. Some of that dust originally came from the first explosion, the Big Bang, which released matter into the void in the form of the lightest elements: hydrogen, helium and lithium. (Of those, only hydrogen and lithium are found in human beings.)

The origin of the elements is covered in great detail in an amazing episode of “NOVA,” with the easy to remember title, “The Origin of the Elements.”

“We are all star dust,” says host Neil deGrasse Tyson. “The carbon in our bodies, iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones.”...

This is an article by a teacher to his students. He was moved to write it by another article in "The New York Times" about eating a vegetarian diet.

"Woodstock" was written by a brilliant woman; Joni Mitichell. Her words reflect a beautiful and complex mind, a revolutionary spirit and the morality of the times. I really do like her idea of the gold standard. Our brain trust is still magnificent. Unfortunately, that generation was demonized by a President that valued war and Wall Street as his politics.