The Cat in the Hat look at Education: THESE THINGS WILL NOT BITE YOU! THEY WANT TO HAVE FUN!
I wrote this article about seven years ago during the time I saw the Chamber of Commerce and the Education System once again manipulating public opinion. This time they were setting us up for the great EBOLA EPIDEMIC OF EDUCATION NOW KNOWN AS COMMON CORE.
If there is anything I truly hate it is lies and manipulation. See also the Delphi Technique. Once again they manipulated the young teachers, those fresh out of those colleges of indoctrination (oh, education). Another WHOLE LANGUAGE HOOTENANNY only they were to young and eager to see it. After my letter to the editor, they wrote and took issue with my conclusions.
Sometimes movies make great social commentary. Remember Monty
Python’s "The Life of Brian"?
Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't need to follow me, you
don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves! You're all
individuals!
The Crowd (in unison): Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd (in unison): Yes, we are all different!
Man in Crowd: I'm not.
Another Man: Shhh!
YES WE CAN is a movement of "individuals" proclaiming a
"grassroots movement" to improve our schools.
I have no sign in my yard. I guess "I’m not" an
individual.
"Shhh!"
If we just think happy thoughts and spend more money we can make
our schools "work". And if we just believe hard enough we can also
bring Tinker Bell back to life.
Déjà vu all over again as Yogi Berra would say. We went through
this in 1992 when a "Back to Basics" group of education
traditionalists was steamrollered by those who "had a heart" for
education. What has been the result? Nearly twenty more years of affective
touchy-feely education and now, years later, we are in the same position we
were then only much poorer and with more illiteracy…functional and
cultural.
Systematic, intensive, direct and early phonics instruction makes
eager young students proficient readers. It takes "Bear Bryant like"
teachers, drilling students repetitively in the rules of our language so basic
that if they are not proficient by the third grade then they will be
handicapped for life. Then they must go past the self-indulgent "journaling"
to actually teaching children how to write. Do today’s teachers even know the
meaning of conjugating verbs and diagramming sentences as methods to instruct
students in the basic rules of grammar?
The March 3rd issue of The Dothan Eagle carried
an article describing a middle school "reading coach" dressing her
students as characters from the Dr. Seuss books and taking them out of class to
interrupt an elementary classroom in order to "help younger students learn
to read." The twelve year olds got "jazzed up about being in a
leadership roll." One student said the best part was "dressing
up".
The failure of our schools lies squarely in the Colleges of
Education which have promoted this frivolous masquerade and called it
education. That is why we continue to have "reading coaches" in
middle school when children should be proficient readers by third grade.
Remember the movie The Music Man? Professor Harold
Hill came to town ready to make a buck off the hicks in River City by
convincing them that his "think system" was sufficient for teaching
children to play band instruments. He romanced the librarian who initially saw
through the charlatan and charmed the citizens out of their hard earned dollars
for uniforms and instruments. Then he hummed the tunes to his eager students
and told them to think about the music. All they had to do was "want"
to play those instruments…and then they could play!
Folks, Harold Hill is back in town only this time he comes dressed
as the Cat in the Hat and he tells you that the predictability of the texts
(guess at those words!) and getting kids jazzed about reading (let’s all have
fun!) is going to produce readers.
All you individuals just believe.
But "I’m not" an individual.
Sincerely,
Sharman Ramsey
 |
| https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2015/01/capstone-educator-and-concerns.html |
Whole Language has evolved to become EBOLA IN EDUCATION. It is more than Reading Instruction. It inculcates the entire Progressive Leftist Agenda to quit pretending they are concerned with academics. Their goal is the Social and Emotional development of the child. In plain lay terms, that means they are using behavioral techniques and the therapeutic classroom to change your child's attitudes and beliefs to their radical Social Justice agenda.
Just read their own words! Then check out the textbooks. Are they COMMON CORE aligned? Has your system bought Bill Gates computers for the testing and Pearson's Online books for your child's "education" (a.k.a. indoctrination.) If they are a company owned by Pearson, they are. Bay County has.
Just read their own words! Then check out the textbooks. Are they COMMON CORE aligned? Has your system bought Bill Gates computers for the testing and Pearson's Online books for your child's "education" (a.k.a. indoctrination.) If they are a company owned by Pearson, they are. Bay County has.
 |
| https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/social-studies-and-common-core.html |
"There is no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of generations into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the 'practice of freedom', the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."
—Richard Shaull, drawing on Paulo Freire[7]
One need only read the Whole Language Catalog by Ken and Yetta Goodman and Human Capital edited by David Hornbeck to understand that what the Progressives want is a total restructuring of society -- and they are well on their way of achieving it.
 |
| https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/02/teachers-as-liberators-produce-students.html |
Rich Gibson, Associate Professor of Education at San Diego State University writes in Paulo Freire and Revolutionary Pedagogy For Social Justice:
"Could Freire's literacy for critical consciousness answer questions like: what must people know and, equally significant, how they must come to know it, in order to overcome exploitation and alienation? Can human creativity be unleashed in an increasingly undemocratic world? Can consciousness leap past exploitation--or repression? How do we spot lies? Can revolutionary pedagogy foment revolutionary social change, incorporating forms of consciousness that can also overturn the rise of new bosses, so› we do not become what we set out to oppose? What might pedagogy have to do with overturning the subject-object split, the habitual subservience created both by capital and revolutionary organizations, that both Harvey and Freire, and the late George Lukacs, all said was central?
Freire insists, repeatedly, that no system of education is neutral. Bias is inherent in any selection and ordering of facts, the common project of social educators. One's understanding of how the democratic possibilities of citizenship might be achieved depends on a partisan assessment of current conditions, and where one wants to go: a political standpoint. Any appraisal of the prospects of democratic education through literacy, a literacy that reads both the word and the world, must be start from an articulated standpoint, on expressed terrain. Just what is the current situation? What should be done about it?" (http://richgibson.com/freirecriticaledu.htm)
Having already written about my concerns regarding the change in Mathematics education, I found this statement in Wikipedia regarding Freire particularly interesting:
Having already written about my concerns regarding the change in Mathematics education, I found this statement in Wikipedia regarding Freire particularly interesting:
"Freire's work has also influenced the so-called "radical math" movement in the United States, which emphasizes social justice issues and critical pedagogy as components of mathematical curricula."
Mrs. Ramsey, you really should visit any Dothan City School you
like and observe what actually goes on there. After looking at your blog, I
would like to reassure you that “progressive/whole language” instruction, as
you call it, is not what’s going on in Dothan’s schools. Go visit and educate
yourself.
Posted by janna on March
05, 2010 at 10:40 am
I responded:
What DCS releases in publicity blurbs is all I need to see to know
that nothing has changed...except perhaps the labels. If I visit I will
see hardworking teachers (my friends and neighbors) doing the best they can
with the tools they have been given. Yet, as hard as they work, are there
still classes in remedial reading at Wallace Community College. Are
students still dropping out of school because they cannot perform well? How
sad for everyone to be cheerleading a book and reading and still be locked out
of the party because you cannot decode the words!
My argument is with the Colleges of Education and the ideas they
have passed off as effective education. If you step out of the
"circle" of wagons you will be fired. We as teachers are a
rather gullible lot. We want to believe that the tools we have paid good
money to acquire and studied hard to master in order to get our diplomas have
really been proven effective through replicable research and not affective
criteria. I have been disillusioned time and again when I searched for
that replicable research and could not find it.
Oh, yes...don't rock the boat...tenure is mighty comfortable.
Put blinders on, just believe, and count out the days.
It is unfortunate that Mrs. Ramsey’s rant fairly drips with
contempt for her fellow teachers. She should give them the benefit of the
doubt. They’re not stupid and they do truly care about their duty to Dothan’s
children. It was not necessary to insult them this way. It is also not clear if
Mrs. Ramsey’s primary target is the schools or the Yes We Can movement. Given
this ambiguous aim, and the generous use of “scare quotes”, I will assume that
Mrs. Ramsey was upset when she wrote this, and perhaps deserves the benefit of
the doubt herself.
I responded:
Rant? Sweetheart, that was not nearly the depth of my
feeling. Our children do not have time to give this curriculum any
further "benefit of the doubt." Guess what? The schools
are not operated for teachers to have jobs. They operate to educate
children.
"Scare quotes?" Those are directly lifted from the
article.
Upset? Your lack of understanding of the real problem is truly
upsetting.
Don't rock the boat, honey. You've got tenure and a wonderful
retirement ahead. Don't bother your pretty little head about all those
illiterate children that will be standing on the street corners as the result
of your happy talk and the kumbayah-like YES WE CAN movement.
The YES WE CAN movement is led by good-hearted people who really
want the best for our children. Unfortunately, they want to believe in
this newest push of old ideas now called "Education for the 21st
Century" but even if we all believe like we did for Peter Pan when he told
us that if we did we could bring Tinker Bell back to life...it won't make these
foolish ideas for education effective...at least by my standard of effective
and I think that is the standard most parents have for effective schools.
I do not trust the vague fancy talk of that movement.
Just what are the details...have they actually produced what we want
in our schools? What does preparing students to be "globally
prepared for work" mean? I would hope our standards were higher than
those of the Sudan, but maybe not. Do you know?
Perhaps having twelve year olds march through schools dressed as the Cat in the Hat is sufficient for that standard. I just know the year I was twelve I asked for and received: Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Peyton Place, and Lady Chatterley's Lover, and that was after I had read all of the books in my Mother's library (which was extensive). Of course, I do not recommend those books for every twelve year old and certainly not for the schools to endorse. But, as I have said repeatedly, the schools should have a higher standard for the books they use. Censorship at home should be left to a child's parents. I could read. And the world was open to me because of it. I do not want one single child shut out from that wonderful, wonderful opportunity.
Perhaps having twelve year olds march through schools dressed as the Cat in the Hat is sufficient for that standard. I just know the year I was twelve I asked for and received: Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Peyton Place, and Lady Chatterley's Lover, and that was after I had read all of the books in my Mother's library (which was extensive). Of course, I do not recommend those books for every twelve year old and certainly not for the schools to endorse. But, as I have said repeatedly, the schools should have a higher standard for the books they use. Censorship at home should be left to a child's parents. I could read. And the world was open to me because of it. I do not want one single child shut out from that wonderful, wonderful opportunity.
My point is... we Americans once set the highest bar for
excellence. This United Nations movement... Education for the 21st Century
dumbs us down.
I do not think my critical thinking has suffered from not
having been taught critical thinking. And personally, I want my children
and grandchildren to be patriotic Americans, not good global citizens
(especially if that includes buying trees in the rain forest). My
perception of their version of "critical thinking" is merely to
challenge patriotism and established standards of morality, and inculcate a
loyalty to the environment and international institutions above our own.
I'm sure you made friends in high places with the
"courage" of your stand against a white haired (if I didn't dye it) old
war horse (some might say battle axe).
I am nearly sixty years old. Will it bother me if you walk on
the other side of the road because I dared to challenge the wisdom of a system
that continues to fail?
Yes, because I am sure I would really like you...and truth is, you would probably like me.
But I have grown a few callouses since I ran for the school board in 1992 and saw the opponent's campaign run out of the central office. You and I have a difference of opinion...professionals with ideas...that should warrant debate and not the tyranny of the circle the wagons instinct of DCS...if you're not with us...you're against us.
Yes, because I am sure I would really like you...and truth is, you would probably like me.
But I have grown a few callouses since I ran for the school board in 1992 and saw the opponent's campaign run out of the central office. You and I have a difference of opinion...professionals with ideas...that should warrant debate and not the tyranny of the circle the wagons instinct of DCS...if you're not with us...you're against us.
When one's family is a potential client of an institution (and mine
is) and one's tax dollars go to support it (I was born here and will be buried
here) one should be involved and knowledgeable. Selecting the teachers
for our child's education is like selecting a doctor for our child's physical
health. We should have the opportunity for choice and a second opinion as
well when one is unsatisfied with the treatment...like with medicine. The
health and well-being of our children is the most basic concern of a
parent. Unfortunately we cannot inoculate our children against
illiteracy. And that is why I speak.
My grandchildren deserve schools that work. I also
"care" about children. I was motivated to go into education
because of the super teachers I had at Dothan High School where I was a
cheerleader. I want to cheer for our schools! But, I was appalled
at the illiteracy I saw in students I taught when I became a teacher. I
watched my own little brother struggle (12 years younger and the recipient of a
different philosophy of education that came in during the late 60s)...and I
could do nothing to help. That is why I started studying what was going
wrong with education...and why I was so inadequately prepared to deal with
it...with two degrees! I stumbled upon a school that really works in a
private school my children attended with the ABEKA curriculum. Even my
hyperactive son learned to read and write with excellence. I can assure
you his critical thinking did not suffer from Mastery of basic skills
Do I care about children? Enough to stand up for what I
believe in, Honey. And I will tell you it costs.
Children are my inspiration. Eager bright-eyed children with
open faces can be changed to hunched shoulders sagging in discouragement and
dulled, saddened, confused eyes. Hurt feelings don't really matter in the
scheme of things...mine or yours. We truly have the same goal..
So these teachers that advocate for all those changes pushed by Yes We Can have proven how talented and capable they are with the high GPAs they graduated from college with that finally reflect the intelligence their SAT college entrance scores failed to pick up on. With confidence like this they are equipped to make the educational decisions that determine your child's future. Right?
Believe them when they tell you they simply did not test well. And now they are deservedly a PH.D. teaching teachers how to teach. Makes sense to me. That and the track record of those Colleges of Education.
So these teachers that advocate for all those changes pushed by Yes We Can have proven how talented and capable they are with the high GPAs they graduated from college with that finally reflect the intelligence their SAT college entrance scores failed to pick up on. With confidence like this they are equipped to make the educational decisions that determine your child's future. Right?
Believe them when they tell you they simply did not test well. And now they are deservedly a PH.D. teaching teachers how to teach. Makes sense to me. That and the track record of those Colleges of Education.
 |
| https://www.cbsnews.com/news/5-hardest-and-easiest-college-majors-by-gpas/ |
 |
| http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-average-sat-score-for-every-college-major-2014-10 |
 |
| http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-average-sat-score-for-every-college-major-2014-10 |
 |
| http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-average-sat-score-for-every-college-major-2014-10 |
 |
| http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-average-sat-score-for-every-college-major-2014-10 |
Grade 12 only 39 percent of Florida students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress scored at or above Proficient. Those 9th graders who couldn't make it had dropped out by this point, permitting the score to rise to 39 percent of Florida Students taking the National Assessment
Grade 8 only 30 Percent Scored at or above Proficient.
Grade 4
Do you realize that in 2013 only 39 percent of 12th graders, 30 percent of 8th graders and 39 percent of 4th graders read at a Proficient level?
That means 60 Percent were NOT at a Proficient level. Is that good enough for you?
What does that mean for the workforce for the State of Florida? Or more importantly the future of those children?
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/
Information below is from the 2017 Florida Department of Education website.
ONLY 37 percent of U.S. children are proficient in reading at the 12th grade. That bodes well for their future, doesn't it? You could tell they were in for trouble with only 36 percent being proficient in the fourth grade.
But let's have a Hootenanny and proclaim, "Yes We Can!"
And you continue to trust those who brought your children to this point to tell you how to fix it.
But, I challenge you to truly KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SUPPORTING. BECAUSE IN BAY DISTRICT SCHOOLS IT IS FULL BLOWN COMMON CORE.
 |
And, of course, you in Alabama should rest assured now that Dr. Barbara Cooper is your Chief Instructional Officer. Please read the review of the book that guides her Instructional Philosophy. RADICAL POSSIBILITIES: YOUR CHILDREN. Just warms your heart. But that is okay, because you are doing absolutely nothing to make a change. Go to another "Yes We Can" meeting and lift your voice in a cheer. And Tinker Bell will come back to life as well.
Parents have rights Against Intrusive Surveys PROTECTION OF PUPIL RIGHTS AMENDMENT and SEL (Social Emotional Learning)
If I Ruled the Schools
|
FREE OUR CHILDREN FROM THE OPPRESSION OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION. CHICAGO. TWO DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHIES.
Common Core, Sylvia Plath, and Death Education
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/common-core-sylvia-plath-and-death.html
The Truth about Phonics that will Help You Help Your Child! Whole Language: A Fraud Perpetrated upon Our Students. One of Many?
The Tragedy of the Math Mess and Another Way
MATH WARS. ONCE AGAIN INTO THE FRAY
COMMON CORE MATH
The Reality of Bay District Schools. Only Fifty Percent Read Proficiently. Is there hope?
The Four Period Day: Students as Guinea Pigs and Professional advancement for "innovators"
The Tale of Last Hope for Local Control
DEMONIC ROOTS TO COMMON CORE? VISIT YOUR CHILD'S THERAPEUTIC CLASSROOM.
THE GENEALOGY OF COMMON CORE: BILL GATES/UNESCO/ROBERT MULLER//ALICE BAILEY/LUCIS TRUST
THE CHICAGO CONNECTION TO COMMON CORE
does anybody really believe anymore? does anybody really care?https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/does-anybody-really-believe-anymore.html
Sounding the Alarm! Today's Therapeutic Classroom. What are you going to do about it?
Spalding Writing Road to Reading and John Winston of Parks Elementary Natchitoches, Louisiana
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/spalding-writing-road-to-reading-and.html
RETARDING AMERICA THE IMPRISONMENT OF POTENTIAL
NOTE FROM ROBERT SWEET OF THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO READ FOUNDATION
The DARE PROGRAM 20 years later.
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-dare-program-20-years-later-more.html
Merry Christmas! Meet Alliwishus, The Elf Mother Met at the Battle of the Bulge
My Mother. My hero who won a Battle Ribbon at the Battle of the Bulge. December 16, 1944. A SCRAPBOOK LOOK FROM JEAN BRONSON GILLIS BURSON.
LEONARD COHEN HALLELUJAH PROJECT AT BAY HIGH SCHOOL AND ESTABLISHMENT RELIGION, SECULAR HUMANISM, IN OUR SCHOOLS
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/12/leonard-cohen-hallelujah-project-at-bay.html
WHY SHOULD CONSERVATIVES, CHRISTIANS AND THE THE FAITH COMMUNITY BE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS? SUBSCRIBE TO THE PANAMA CITY NEWS HERALD AND GET WASHINGTON POST FREE
PEACE EDUCATION? CONFLICT RESOLUTION? TEACHING TOLERANCE? COMMON CORE
TRADITIONAL OR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION. DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE? HAS POLITICS AFFECTED YOUR CHILD'S MATH EDUCATION?
RETARDING AMERICA THE IMPRISONMENT OF POTENTIAL
NOTE FROM ROBERT SWEET OF THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO READ FOUNDATION
DELPHI TECHNIQUE, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT CONVINCED A GULLIBLE PUBLIC TO BUY INTO COMMON CORE
COMMON CORE: PORNOGRAPHY 101
MIDDLE SCHOOL AGENDA FOR SEXUAL ORIENTATION AS A PART OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
BEHAVIOR MODELS ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS
CULTURE WAR AND COMMON CORE
SOCIAL STUDIES AND COMMON CORE
TEACHERS AS LIBERATORS PRODUCE STUDENTS AS REVOLUTIONARIES: Whole Language Live On!
RADICAL POSSIBILITIES: YOUR CHILDREN
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/radical-possibilities-your-children.html
Response to AL.Com article "Alabama Superintendent Proposal to Raise Academic Standards."
SECULAR HUMANISM IS NOW THE RELIGION OF OUR SCHOOLS
COMMON CORE: THE EMPEROR IS WEARING NO CLOTHES
COMMON CORE=PETRI DISH FOR RADICALS
https://sharmanbursonramsey.blogspot.com/2017/11/common-core-petri-dish-for-radicals.html
REVOLUTIONARY PEDAGOGY
Revolutionary Pedagogy: Or, so you thought reading, writing and calculating were why you sent your child to school?
EDUCATION TODAY:
Politics, Profits, Position, Power, and Prejudice published 1995
CAPSTONE EDUCATION (UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA) AND MY CONCERNS
CONFLICT RESOLUTION OR POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION?
DELPHI TECHNIQUE, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, AND THE EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT CONVINCED THE GULLIBLE NATION TO BUY INTO COMMON CORE
WHO DO WE HOLD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE FAILURE OF OUR SCHOOLS?
PUBLIC EDUCATION SHOULD EMPOWER PARENTS
CONSPIRACY THEORIES IN EDUCATION
THE CIVIL WAR IN EDUCATION
SOLVE THE PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
TAKE A KNEE
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to hear from you!