About

Joel Ramsey, Brooke Ramsey and Sharman Ramsey

Sharman Burson Ramsey is a novelist, webmaster of Southern-style.com, and former teacher. She is a native of THE SOUTH, born in Dothan, Alabama. She attended Dothan public schools and the University of Alabama where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. There she earned a BSE in Education and History and later acquired a MSE at Troy University in Dothan.

Author of historical fiction The Creek Indian Family Saga,  One Step Away from Forever a re-publication of Swimming with Serpents, Find Me If You Can, a re-publication of In Pursuit, and The Chase Is On, once published as On to Angola, Ramsey also writes family history/cookbooks, and cozy mysteries, the Mint Julep series. She has served as adjunct professor of History; enjoys genealogy; is a Master Gardener, webmaster (Southern-style.com); and as an advisor on Southern Etiquette and Manners. Sharman Burson Ramsey, lives in Dothan, Alabama, now widowed, she lives with her standard poodle Gigi and her Shih Poo Lola.  

The historical novels were inspired by her love of History and the discovery of her Native American heritage. 

Mint Juleps and Murder is a mystery series that Michael Morris calls "The Ya Ya Sisterhood Meets Murder She Wrote." This cozy mystery is written with humor, set on a plantation with a pair of newly widowed, formerly estranged sisters with an award winning cooking show on the Dishing It Network. Ramsey's sister, cardiologist Dr. Sylvia Burson Rushing, now owns the plantation home of their grandparents that inspired Waverly in Mint Juleps and Murder. At the time of the writing of the Mint Julep Mysteries, their husbands still lived though contemplation of their demise inspired the Mint Julep Mysteries series.

With grandchildren in school, Ramsey has returned to her Education Roots.  After the Goals 2000/Outcome Based Education battle, she retreated to her garden. But now with grandchildren involved, Common Core brought her back into the fray.

BUT HOW DID YOU BECOME AN EDUCATION ACTIVIST?

It was the illiteracy of the students in my classrooms that caused me to turn away from the efforts to continually remediate the flood of children who had not learned to read by middle school to find out who had thrown them in. According to their records, many of my students who were having trouble reading had made As and Bs in elementary school. And yet they could not read their secondary textbooks. So I went to the local college of education library and did research on the books teaching teachers to teach reading. My own children attended a private school using the ABEKA curriculum and were reading in four year old Kindergarten using Phonics. Yet those books teaching teachers had few mentions of Phonics.

But how does an individual stand up to a well-funded, circle the wagons educational establishment? The professors in the colleges of education have careers built upon the methods taught in those hallowed halls. Administrators then use children in our schools as guinea pigs for these methods to advance their own careers. Money from the federal government is tied to certain curriculum despite the fact that that curriculum promotes a political agenda and not academic excellence.

With a story to tell about what I saw in my classrooms, I answered a call by the Alabama legislature to address a Committee that claimed to be interested in grassroots voices speaking on what works in education. The legislators could barely keep their eyes open and got up and walked around or rudely turned and whispered to their aides while citizens spoke. Regardless of the many voices that came to speak, the Alabama First plan promoting Outcome Based Education in our schools became the official document. It was written by David Hornbeck who wrote Human Capital (something I have written on in other posts). http://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/use-court-to-create-sense-of-crisis.html

So much for grass roots. We were merely processed under the pretense that public input was wanted. (The Delphi Technique)

How do I know Hornbeck wrote the document? While we were in Montgomery participating in that supposed "grassroots meeting," Michele Buck who came with me to Montgomery, said, why not go try to speak to the Superintendent of Education and tell him what I was seeing in my classrooms? Naive as we were, we thought he might simply not be aware of something that was so obvious to those of us brave enough to come and speak. Apparently many others saw the same thing because they also testified at that hearing. I must say I was discouraged.

Though discouraged, we went to seek out the Superintendent of Education. Unfortunately, he was out of town, but the Assistant Superintendent of Education spoke to us. He pointed out a man he identified as David Hornbeck who walked in and out of the Superintendent's office. He was waiting for something to come in over a fax machine. It was no doubt the plan that got promoted as our "grassroots" education plan. I think it was actually the Kentucky Plan rewritten for Alabama coming in over that fax machine.

But, at that meeting, I met Eunie Smith, who later became the president of the National Eagle Forum. She came up to me after I spoke and invited me to share what I had said at a meeting of an organization with which I was unfamiliar. There I was introduced to other women who shared my concern about education. This group of women constituted the Eagle Forum of Alabama. They were an impressive group of extremely intelligent, college educated who kept continually educated, women who actually did research to find out what really works in education and just why it isn't making its way into our schools.

But there were so many more issues. These dedicated woman spent hours doing research at their own cost to track the source and consequences of curriculum choices, social, governmental and cultural issues. Thus armed, these women (and many men, as well) travel to legislatures throughout the country to lobby our representatives. They are not paid lobbyists. They pay their own expenses. They are patriots who love our country. They are Christians who love our God.

Progressive education has fallen prey to the bigotry of low expectations. But, even more, the schools are now hotbeds of demagoguery promoting radical ideology.

Who will stand for the children? Who will write? Who will call? Who will persist until our legislators listen?

A group I truly admire.

The Eagle Forum.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength 

They shall mount up with wings of eagles 

They shall run and not be weary 

They shall walk and not faint. 

 

Sharman continued in the battle through her blog. 

The wife of attorney Joel Wardlaw Ramsey for 51 years, now widowed, she lives in Dothan, Alabama, with her standard poodle, Gigi, and her Shih-poo, Lola. She pursues her love of gardening, writing, reading, quilting and grandchildren. She has two daughters, a son and five grandchildren that keep her life busy and motivate her to do what she can to preserve America. Ramsey is a dedicated Christian and member of First Baptist Church of Dothan, Alabama.