Our definition of a "good teacher" from the LaLa Land that is American education.

The expectations of the federal government and many parents regarding teachers: a good teacher is one who will always sacrifice her personal life to put in more than 40 hours a week,
a good teacher never rises up to challenge authority,
a good teacher will spend his own money to by supplies that in any other industry would be the companies' responsibilities to provide,
a good teacher will go into debt to the tune of 2 or 3 years pay to have the privilege of making less money than any professional class in the US,
a good teacher never loses her temper in any situation,
a good teacher can fix the social ills impinging upon the student - they can overcome poverty and ignorant parents to bring any child up to the same level of education as comfortably- situated kids who grew up hearing the language of love, acceptance, and college-level vocabulary,
a good teacher will attend training sessions even if she knows more about teaching than all those assholes who leave the classroom to ride the gravy train of federal and state one-size-fits-all mandates,
a good teacher stops fights even at the risk of his own life,
a good teacher will teach from a script, if told, engaging students in a call-and-response litany worthy of Nazi Germany,
a good teacher will not join a real union (the American Federation of Teachers),
a good teacher, frankly will not join an "organization" either (the NEA),
a good teacher will bully children into saying the Pledge of allegiance,
a good teacher will glorify the history of the US to the point of teaching the lies of the Tea Party,
a good teacher puckers up and plants a big kiss squarely on the asshole of every person who has more power in her district - counsellors, Ass. Principals (oops, Asst.), Principals, Superintendents and all their lackeys, and custodians.

Bad school administrators, from counsellors on up, are NOT being identified.

This week I listened on NPR to a glowing account of a "new" teaching method. The story presented this teacher as one who embraced the "Common Core." Gee, I'd like some Brownie points for having used this technique in my classes (I retired in 2008). I hate it that so many teachers who had classroom skills way ahead of imposed "changes" are not credited with being good teachers. In my short 17-year career I saw teachers whose skills and subject knowledge were superb and I saw teachers who couldn't have passed the Freshman Composition class I took at Amarillo College (Amarillo, Texas). I once went to the teacher, the head of the math teachers in my school, for some help in understanding a graph in my social studies book. She hadn't a clue. As I left, the head custodian came up and said, "I kept sweeping outside her classroom listening to you too. Let me see the graph." She then proceeded to explain it to me.
I saw nothing in my 17 years that changed the opinion I formed within the first year I taught - the main problems with American education all point to lousy, lazy administrators. I NEVER received a thorough teacher evaluation, except from fellow teachers in Career Ladder. I never heard of a teacher fired for incompetence even though I must say that the overall competence I saw in action was a distant second to the Amarillo radio where I worked for 5 years - KGNC. The entire staff of that station (in the eighties) was smarter, more efficient, and better managed than any other place I worked in my life.
During my teaching years I saw things involving misuse of funds and mismanagement that appalled me. I discussed these things with teachers I met from many parts of the US and they always nodded and said, "Oh, yes. These things happen in my school and district, too."
Only once for about three years did we have a counsellor who had all student schedules ready for teacher use before the student's first day. We would often give pre-tests to students, as ordered, and then lost these students as schedules were finalized. The counsellor/s would not change the pre-test information. At the end of the year I was accountable for the progress or lack thereof even though I did not teach those students!
If a teacher smiled, jollied the administration along, and never raised a fuss no matter how outrageous a situation, they were a good teacher. If a teacher complained, they were not a good teacher. If a teacher in good favor incorporated ideas from the latest inservice training, they were praised. If a teacher was in bad favor with the administrators, no one noticed that their students were learning.
A teacher who was a former lawyer sued the district for not following requirements of English As A Second Language students, and in my district a huge percentage were in that category. The district lawyer fought that battle to a standstill with her superior skills. It took years because the teacher was correct. He lost on technicalities. Who paid her? You did, American taxpayer, because my district was funded by federal dollars. This woman was paid her hourly rate while she drove to board meetings, too - a 3 hour drive each way! You paid for that.
When the state changed curriculum around I went from teaching American history to World history. The school provided NO textbooks. I wrangled some old high school books, way above my 8th graders reading level. We used the graphics mostly.
When the district ended the practice of providing materials through the warehouse we bought our own. I hated it when they took my chalkboard away and I had to buy those expensive dry erase markers instead of chalk.
After several years of 2-hour blocks for "language arts" and after a loss of a couple of teachers (not to be replaced), the district permitted the principal to change back to 1 hour of language arts. Test scores dropped. These lower test scores were cited as one reason the middle school was failing and the district came within a hair's breadth of dissolving the school and putting kindergarten through 8th grade all together in three locations. I asked, "How will you handle sports?" Oh, each school will have it's own team. I responded, "We only had 12 eligible football players by the end of this season. You won't be able to field a team." Idiots. In my district, hell anywhere in the US, students and parents would come out in force if the kids couldn't compete in sports.
Once I pestered the state auditors until they provided me with the information I knew was true based upon statements from retired and nearly-retired districts. The district, almost every year, failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars into our Social Security. They deducted it all right, and then, of course they spent that money.
I sat at a board meeting where money was being allotted to tear down old buildings. One board member asked about a particular old, stand-alone gymnasium which was still much-used. "Oh, we're not tearing that down yet." They just wanted the money allotted to use for God-knows-what.
I could go on, believe me. But my point is that we are following a ridiculous pathway with education. We are federalizing what is Constitutionally a state matter. States were already failing to oversee schools adequately and now they are following federal laws and mandates that have NOTHING in them to reform the problems. The problems are called Superintendents, Financial Officers, Principals (thank God many schools still have good ones, no thanks to the federal reforms), auditors, and the concept of federal mandates.
There is a reason why Republicans and many others want to focus on teachers as the bad seeds of education - all they want is to provide their corporate friends with a non-unionized, kiss-ass workforce for the next growth industry - privatized education.

Inside jobs and the violence that keeps secrets

If 9/11 was an inside job, as I believe, who is keeping the lid on those who know what really happened? Or individual aspects of what happened that prove the Towers collapsed in a controlled demolition?
How were the top people in the CIA, et al, kept silent - those who knew the truth of the assassinations of the American Dream that were the murders of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy?
Would it not take powerful and violent threats to life and limb, not only made to those people, but also to their families and descendants? Wouldn't someone in high places have possibly wanted to come clean - but didn't/couldn't?
I submit three entities, and don't claim to be the first to suggest this. In the matters of the 60s assassination of Kennedy - the man who threatened to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds" - the CIA and the Mafia. Duh. Same with Martin and Bobby, I think.
In the matter of 9/11 - the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex (read CIA, et al) and Saudi Arabia, both known anti-Democracy forces perfectly willing to torture and kill.
If you believe or harbor the fear of a 9/11 betrayal, you need to go here to the 9/11 Truth Film Festival page and see detail after detail pointing towards the big lie we are asked, and threatened, into believing.
For more on the Saudi/Bush family alliance and the questions it raises, try Lawrence Wright's New Yorker article, here. You know, do you not, that they behead people in Saudi Arabia? That they played a key role in the drastic rise of oil prices that helped bring down Jimmy Carter? That they are a key US ally, as was Pakistan? (bull....)
A neat summary of that article is on AlterNet, James Ridgeway's article, here.

Independence from the new world corporate order - Free Scotland!

         As the European Union, England, and the corporate giants who are more powerful than countries warn Scotland  to remain in the game, I hope they will vote yes, and become independent. The world needs a major country that is nationalistic for real. Straightaway after WWII the Bretton Woods system began the cascade of treaties that have brought us today to this insane and failing state of capitalism. All the conservatives and fascists who argue that there is any free market stuff going on are full of it. Everything is regulated and the markets are as rigged as a casino - for the benefit of a tiny minority. Wiser countries tax the corporations more than the US and so their majority populations have a few “nice things – “ like public transportation and health care.

         The network of “free trade” and economic stability is exactly what the corporations say is threatened. Think of it this way, if you will:  After decades of consolidation of economic power into fewer and fewer hands, after every step of the way we were assured that the reforms would benefit us, we are now to believe that the system is too fragile to allow one small (only in square kilometers, not in influence) country to drop out and renegotiate it’s economy as its own people decide.

         

The 9/11 Truth Film Festival is available live and, later, on demand

Here's the link to the website. And here is the link to so you can see the movie trailers and make a donation to have 30 days to watch the 10 hour event including movies.
Do you absolutely believe that the 9/11 tragedy had zero involvement by agencies of the US government? Then this is not for you.
Do you think our government either let us down or was actually involved at some level? Then check out the links. 

My response to a petition from the Communication Workers of America

I would be more likely to sign if you had shown the actual amendment! Furthermore, I am tired of half measures. There is no Constitutional reason why there should be ANY donated money in politics. The airwaves, and thus the electromagnetic spectrum, belong to We The People and they should be required to deliver a reasonable amount of airtime for debates and information on candidates. The rest should be done with a small (by current standards) set-aside of tax dollars. Unions should not tacitly endorse ANY money as the equivalent of speech. Money doesn't talk, it swears." (Dylan)
 Here is the body of the CWA email:
"Are you one of the 73% of Americans who support getting big money out of politics? If so, there's still time to sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of the Democracy for All amendment, which would restore the ability to set common-sense limits on campaign spending. The United States Senate will vote on this amendment next week. Click here to sign the petition in support of the amendment today. With common-sense limits in place, candidates would spend more time interacting with voters and elected officials would spend time addressing issues important to you and me, not begging for checks and catering to the wealthiest donors. We will deliver our petition signatures to the Senate before the vote. By adding your name you'll help the amendment gain majority support and our movement build even more momentum. Click here to become a citizen co-sponsor of SJ Res. 19, a constitutional amendment to strengthen our democracy."
Here is the link to sign the petition: http://action.cwa-union.org/c/1372/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8983&tag=email:%28moneyinpolitics%29ask-allied-203437/8983&utm_medium=email&utm_source=allied&utm_campaign=8983
Really now, weren't we fed up with the money in politics before Citizens United?
Another half step when we'd better RUN back to Democracy in the USA.

An Immodest proposal to reinstate the draft and pay for war as we go

The biggest threat to the USA is not ISIS or Russia. It is the gullibility of the American voter in the face of a union among the media and the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex. General Electric and its subsidiary NBC are prominent examples. Norman Solomon is well informed on this and you can read one of his articles on the Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting website here:  http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/the-military-industrial-media-complex/

We The People are in the dark and so are most reporters. We just don’t know what the secret institutions of our government are up to. I argue that, in our imposed ignorance, we must use our minds, our hearts, and our guts in a kind of three-branch exercise of reaching conclusions. I believe that our government either utterly failed us in the months before 9/11 or that components of our government were involved. Either way they were nothing short of criminal and incompetent. Their answer was to spend trillions of dollars on war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the creation of a new bureaucracy, Homeland Security that does more to add to the national debt and militarize our police forces than it does to protect us. The CIA, et al, failed us so let’s create a new agency to add to the confused and deadly menace. Jeez. The military incursions have been proven through the hands of ISIS and the Taliban to be more deadly than helpful. Our troops were pawns in the hands of the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison complex. The fact that they died and were maimed in numbers far less than in the Viet Nam War results in fewer and smaller protests, though the wars were equally dismal failures.

I hear Vice-President Joe Biden say we will follow ISIS to “the gates of hell.” The upcoming Presidential campaign will pit two main candidates against each other in a bid to outdo each other in hawkish rhetoric. Voices of peace will be called traitorous and weak – un-American. President Obama will be trashed by both Republicans and Democrats. In short, Mr. Biden, we are more likely to follow our terrorist enemies to the halls of bankruptcy and ruin than to the gates of hell. We will spent a trillion here and a trillion there and end up with more terrorists than we started with.

Our willingness to be bled dry leads us to give terrorists their cheapest weapon. We are more than willing to bleed money. And terrorism, like education, is such a handy issue to spout off about in campaigns while never admitting that our actions don’t fix anything in the long run.

 I have an idea that would work, I think.

 Let’s reinstate the draft with new provisions. One provision is to draft every single able-bodied young man and woman of average and above-average intelligence into service. Conscious Objectors, in my plan, would be defined in the same way they were during Viet Nam. As I remember, and know from a Mennonite friend from those days, one needed a family history of belonging to a pacifist sect. You can’t become a pacifist at age 16 or 17 and have it recognized by the government. The way to prove you are a  pacifist will be to accept non-combatant service in and near the most dangerous places or to go to jail for the length of mandated military service. No college exemptions. No mental health exemptions. They can be weeded out and placed in treatment facilities in which the living conditions are no better than field conditions for the fighting private. No deferments. No cushy jobs for the kids of the rich. Come to think of it, since we are so gung-ho about privatization, let’s no longer allow cushy, but necessary, jobs to be military positions. Privatize those jobs, no deferments. Congress must prove its patriotism by passing a law that all non-pacifist children of Congressmen/women currently serving or out of office be put on the battlefield or in the most dangerous locations. We must, I’m afraid, exempt the Congressmen and women or we will never have young people eligible to run and hold office.

In addition to the draft law, there will be funding/tax laws. No more credit card warfare. When Congress (or the president or any damn thing public or private) wishes violence to be done in the name of We The People, we will have an immediate flat tax imposed to pay for it. As costs increase, so will the tax rate.

There. In a short, but impolitic phrase,  Americans must feel the pain of what we do in the world. It’s done in our name. We must share the burden or not pick up the load at all! Oh wait! If we are sharing the burden, why the hell do we allow General Electric, et al, to profit? It’s more insane than my proposed laws.