Friday, August 8, 2014

Don't Renew... Speech to the USOE

BY TRADING NOT EVEN 1/8 of one year's worth of education funding through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Utah got a waiver from a few of No Child Left Behind's most draconian measures while at the same time chaining ourselves to:

1) national standards
2) a national accountability system
3) a national system of teacher and principal grading tied to test scores,
4) a federally funded state wide database built to data mine our students.
All of which has debased curriculum in this state.

Now we're being told that we can't step away from federal bondage because our schools can't go through budgets and find somewhere to save less than ½ of one percent of Utah's education budget.

I often attend the Davis School Board meetings. This week the board voted to spend $760,000 on solar panels for A SINGLE school using bond money. Utahns don't vote for bonding because they think we need solar panels, they vote for bonding because they are told class sizes are too large and teacher pay too small.

So, there's three quarter of a million dollars for something that is pottage compared with our freedom.

Trading money for liberty is not progress. And, it's hurt our children. And, it's hurt their future.


In the Lord of the Rings, Gandalf once said:
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule. [Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), p. 190]

Let us master ourselves. Restore local control.

I would like to present to the board, the signatures of 2,107 Utahns, collected in just the past 24 hours,  who are begging you not to renew this waiver.

SFSF APPLICATION

SFSF ALLOCATION

Deseret News Article


Saturday, August 2, 2014

Compromise or Consensus...

The main stream media is abuzz with finger pointing and shame. The Republicans must compromise or they are doomed. The great Abraham Lincoln was a man of compromise and of course the Founders of this nation were Statesmen, men of compromise. I don't agree.
The Founders were just different men than we have now. They were better. They were men of deep faith, taught to read from the bible on the laps of their mothers. Faith was an integral part of their education. Many of them attended Harvard University. The Harvard of that day was not the bastion of the philosophies of men that it is today, but until 1816 it was a Puritan/Congregationalist divinity school maintained to train men for the ministry.
Men like Jefferson and Adams, were scriptorians who knew and were familiar with the bible in several languages. They knew many of it's passages by heart.
Rather than compromise, they were often able to reach consensus through debate but also talking things out.

http://www.latterdayconservative.com/ezra-taft-benson/the-signers-of-the-declaration-of-independence/

Sunday, July 20, 2014

1 to 1 Computers



1 to 1 computers are about being a "college and career ready", "global citizen", with progressive ideologies, separated from the values of parents and grandparents and ready to become cogs in the great masses of "human capital". You don't need 1 to 1 computers to get a great education.

"When children are referred to as human capital and viewed as workers for the workforce, it’s increasingly apparent to many that this ‘education reform’ is primarily for the venture capitalists and private corporations."

In North Carolina’s poorest county, Indian children get the equivalent of a year’s schooling in three weeks...


READ THIS FANTASTIC ARTICLE 

WSJ ARTICLE

Thursday, July 17, 2014

What Shortages?

"In fact, the nation graduates more than two times as many STEM students each year as find jobs in STEM fields. For the 180,000 or so openings annually, U.S. colleges and universities supply 500,000 graduates."
"Steve Jobs has famously said that Apple, which is among the world’s most highly valued companies, represents the intersection between technology and the humanities. And before him, Edwin Land, a pioneering figure behind Polaroid and a developer of the nation’s first advanced aerial imaging technology, as well as a key adviser in founding NASA, pointed to the importance of 'standing at the intersection of humanities and science.'"
What Shortages? The Real Evidence About the STEM Workforce, Hal Salzman, Issues in Science and Technology

Monday, July 7, 2014

Another Climate Fraudster


Meet John Beale, architect of Obama's global warming plan. Read about him HEREHERE and HERE.

"A former high-ranking 
EPA staffer convicted of stealing nearly $900,000 by pretending to be a CIA spy had virtually no experience, got his job with help from a college buddy, and went on to play a key role in sweeping environmental regulations, according to a report Senate Republicans released Wednesday." Washington Times 3.19.2014

Truth

The world teaches us that there is no truth, only political correctness, opinion and popularity. This is not so. Truth is real and it can be discovered in every area of our concern. Truth is one of the most valuable things we can possess and worth the effort of a lifetime to discover. Often, as Christians, we believe that we can discover the truth of the gospel, but true principles of politics, science, culture and education etc.. are beyond our reach. They are not. My dad likes to say, "all means all".

D&C 88
78 Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;
79 Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms—
80 That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.

Moroni 10:5
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of ALL things.
John 8:32
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

No Intelligence Allowed by Ben Stein


...therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime. And thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men, to commit whoredoms-- telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof.
Alma 30:17-18

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Film List about the Science of Intelligent Design

1. Unlocking the Mystery of Life
2. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
3. What You Aren't Being Told About Astronomy Volumes 1&2
3. Evolution: The Grand Experiment Episodes 1&2
4. Icons of Evolution
5. Darwin's Dilemma
6. Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies
7. Flight: The Genius of Birds
8. Programming of Life
9 Privileged Planet

Some of these titles are available through local libraries and Netflix. Most are available for purchase on Amazon.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

They Hate Their Own Blood

Moses 7:33 And unto my brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me their Father; but behold they are without affection and they hate their own blood... 

There are those who would even revoke the right to have children. Read HERE

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Communist Core

Global Warming is an idea whose sole purpose is to limit liberty. It was created for power and control. Eventually when he ran out of other people's money and the Soviet Union collapsed, Mikhail Gobachev came straight way to San Francisco where he founded Green Cross International, one of the three major sponsors of the Earth Charter. Just because you've helped to destroy half the world's economy and liberty doesn't mean you should get out of the business. And, business is booming.

With both feet planted firmly in the school systems of every country in the world, warmists have a captive audience. They can show logging videos to second graders where bunnies become homeless because of cold heartless Capitalists. They can promote the evils of over-population. This accomplishes more than one important communist goal. It degrades human life. It promotes the Cass Sunstein doctrine which gives animal life at least equal footing with human beings. And, it causes guilt, the kind that might help separate someone from their property, or at least someone else's property.

If you can't defeat liberty, raise an indoctrinated generation. Common Core has a multiple choice nature. There is no option to "reject the premise"? When there is no option to argue any and all points, you have indoctrination, not education.


Meanwhile, in a recent column for Bloomberg View, Cass Sunstein, a Harvard legal scholar and sometime Obama adviser, considers this question: "Suppose that an authoritarian government decides to embark on a program of curricular reform, with the explicit goal of indoctrinating the nation's high school students. . . . Will such a government succeed? Or will high school students simply roll their eyes?"

Sunstein looks at a new study of one government that mostly succeeded. "Starting in 2001, China decided to engage in a nationwide reform of its curriculum" aimed at shoring up support for the communist regime. For the most part, it was a success:

Springtime for Warmists by James Taranto WSJ


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Monday, May 19, 2014

Davis School Board & The Common Core


Davis School District Superintendent Brian Bowles sent out a letter telling parents and teachers that Davis School District is using the Davis Desk Standards and not Common Core or Utah Core (same thing exactly) Standards.

That is interesting because it is part of the Utah State Constitution that the State School Board adopt the standards and it is the job of local school boards to see that they are implemented throughout districts.

I wonder how we are receiving state and federal funding if we are not complying with the many agreements that the state has entered us into with the federal government (another post entirely).

It is also interesting to note that the math departments at both Davis High School and Kaysville Junior High fought the implementation of Common Core Standards for two years before I'd even heard of them. It is a tragedy that they didn't raise their concerns with parents who would have been willing to stand with these exceptional educators based on their incredible record with students at Davis High over the past 25+ years.

When the Common Core was adopted in Utah, I personally called the office of the State Board of Education to complain. I was told that Davis High did have an incredible math program, but other schools did not, therefore EVERYONE must conform to the new standards. This is when I learned what "closing the achievement gap" really does. It is meant to slow the growth of excellence even more than raise the abilities of poor performance.

I happened to have a student at this time going into the 9th grade. These students were truly the guinea pigs. If these standards are so wonderful, why not just start with the Kindergartners who know nothing else and allow the other students to finish on the program they have been working through for the past TEN years?

Not allowed. Common Core was shoved down our throats. The above photo is the "math book" my student worked out of until it was such a disaster that we abandoned the math class in favor of home school math. Utah didn't just adopt Common Core math, but chose the worst of four available options to states, Integrated Math adopted by only one other state VERMONT. So much for common standards making mobility easier for families and transitions easier for students. That argument falls apart after five minutes of serious examination. 

For the as long as I can remember the 9th grade year was the year of Geometry. But, with the adoption of Common Core in Davis School District that changed; the idea being that Geometry should be integrated with Algebra. But, this Math Visions Project text has almost no Geometry in the book. How does that prepare a student to take Trigonometry and A.P. Calculus by the senior year?

 BYU Math Professor David Wright has this to say about the Math Visions Project, "Stop supporting curricula that focus entirely on discovery teaching like the Mathematics Vision Project. This project is producing materials for teaching Secondary Math 1, 2 and 3 with almost no math content like definitions, theorems, proofs and examples. It will not prepare students for college level courses. The project expects the teacher to orchestrate student discussion and explorations that will eventually solidify into a body of practices that belong to the students. Too bad if the student doesn't get it some day because there is no way to make sense of the material without a teacher." (What's Wrong with Utah's Math Core Deseret News August 1, 2013)

The Math Visions Project at our school was a total failure. Most parents had no clue that the state had adopted the Common Core and even with the exceptional math faculty at our school most teachers had a waiting list of up to 40 students trying to get OUT of their classes. 

By Christmas, the Math Visions Project was abandoned for something a bit less poorly constructed, but still integrated math and still Common Core/ Utah Core aligned. Where once there were a couple of students staying after class to get a little tutoring from teachers, now large numbers of students crowd around harried teachers after school. Is the math more difficult? No, it isn't but it's written in such a way that parents who have been through Geometry, Trig., Calculus, College Algebra, Business Math and every type of engineering can't discern what the questions are asking for and so the students spend more and more time with teachers and less time doing homework with parents to the frustration of everyone. 

So, Dr. Bowles can name this math whatever he likes, but it doesn't change the fact that while Davis High and it's feeder schools once had a math program that was a working well for parents and students, we now have something that is failing everyone. But, I think it will help to close the achievement gap some. Those students who never had any help with their math from parents should be able to move up a little in the class rankings. 

So what about the ELA standards? What are your children studying? What are their essays about and who is correcting them? My student has been writing essays for something called My Access, in some schools the program is called Utah Writes. Either way it is a 5 paragraph essay corrected by a computer. What does a computer know about awkward word choices or sentence structure? What does a computer know about truth or feeling or compelling writing? Not much. 

It is also pretty clear that Davis School District has adopted the Common Core standard of 50/50 Informational Text to literature. My daughter's last essay for her English class was about recycling. I have heard essays about things like how men prefer smaller women who can be easily dominated and the rape culture of India. The study of poetry seems almost extinct. 

When I contacted the curriculum director about my concern that informational texts would be supplanting classic literature, I was told that informational texts include things like, The Gettysburg Address and Washington's Farewell Address. First of all, don't those things belong in a history class. It took me awhile to figure out that these texts are offered in English classes completely out of context, but simply as a piece of writing to examine. How valuable is the Gettysburg Address without knowing the history and the character of the man who delivered the speech? 

Why is Brian Bowles saying what he's saying? Could it be that Bowles is on the short list for State Superintendent a job that is opening up soon and has Governor Herbert to impress? I don't know. But, I do know that what he says and what is happening in Davis County schools don't match up at all. 

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Indoctrination


Our children are being indoctrinated. Our core literature and history are gone, replaced with garbage. The environment is treated with the utmost fragility, human life is expendable. Prayer is an outrage, pornography is protected speech.
Our sons read Captain Underpants instead of Superman, Diary of a Wimpy Kid instead of Red Badge of Courage. All that is courageous and strong and male is scorned.
Girls never read a single book about the wonder of motherhood. They never see an example of real femininity. It's not acceptable to be soft, to be sweet. They leave the prince standing there scratching his head and run off to see the world.
I wish they would tell these stories from the perspective of 10 years later. The girl is alone and lonely never having the opportunity to have a child. The "wimpy kid" is still playing video games in his parent's basement at 43.
Do our children ever see a book with an intact family; one with a mother and a father and children?
Is this all the fault of Common Core? Yes, if you consider CCSS part of a progressive movement working in our schools for sometime. No, if you believe that CCSS are only what were adopted a few years ago. But, who cares? Honestly, that isn't the argument I want to have. Whatever we label this culture and this education, it simply isn't good enough for sons and daughters of God given to our care
What are we doing to our children? When are we going to act like the adults in the room? When will we say, "NO!"
This culture, this education is NOT ok for children. It's not
#stopcommoncore

Thursday, March 13, 2014

They are NOT in control.






















Our legislators think they are in control. They are not. They think having pre-K monitored by workforce services is their idea and that they can allow all this information to be collected on Utah school children, but it will never be abused. They believe we can use top down, copy-written standards, but they will never be enforced. I believe in a benevolent God, but I have never in my study of all of history encountered a benevolent government. We will only keep the rights we fight to preserve. ~TMH #stopcommoncore   #utleg   #utpo


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Pray for Venezuela. Pray for Ukraine.

Never, ever, EVER give up your guns. Please pray for the people of Venezuela and Ukraine as they try to reclaim their liberty.


Thursday, January 30, 2014

Why I Believe School Data Collection is Wrong



Knowing what I know now, I would never have allowed my daughter to stay in her third grade class. I would have brought her home. It was horrible. We were blessed the next year, when our daughter had Mrs. G, one of the most talented teachers I've ever met.
My daughter was cowering in her 4th grade classroom, unwilling to participate and frequently bursting into tears. Instead of becoming impatient and frustrated with her, Mrs. G sent a note home that read something like this, "______________ is having a difficult time beginning this school year. She needs a soft friend to come from home each day to give her a little courage." So, my daughter took her favorite stuffed dog to school everyday. The teacher's constant kindness and soft way made her feel safe and I no longer had to drag her out of bed each day. Pretty soon she was loving school again and excelling in her studies.
There was a boy in the class that had been in many of my daughter's other classes, a troublemaker and none too bright. He was loud, inappropriate and obstinate, but when I went to help in Mrs. G's class one day, this troublemaker opened my door and greeted me with a friendly "hello" and a big smile. He followed directions.
After school I stayed to visit and I just had to ask about this boy. What are you doing to help this boy? He is a different boy altogether. Tears came into this wonderful teacher's eyes and she told me this, "I forgive all mistakes made the previous day. Every student gets a fresh start every single day." Mrs. G's students knew that everyday was a chance to do better.
Kids wake up ALL THE TIME. Some do well in school from the beginning. It takes some until college before they understand the importance of education.
Data collection does not forgive. It does not give you the benefit of the doubt or give you a fresh start and a chance to excel each day. Instead, data collection makes certain that all your mistakes follow you forever.
High stakes tests and data collection do not benefit students. They do not benefit parents or tax payers. They don't allow talented teachers the time or the freedom to excel. So, why do we have them? Why are we allowing them in our schools? Where is the pressure coming from?
Education has become a multi-billion dollar business for the sake of business. Please, if you don't understand that tests and data collection are a huge part of Common Core, do your homework. This is here. It's not good for our children and needs to be stopped.
#stopcommoncore #utpol

Learn more about testing, data collection and school to work HERE... & Here...

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

A brilliant thinker...

The government is not the source of anything.. the most it can hope to do is preserve the rights of individuals and coordinate their efforts.

~C. Hess

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Critical Right of Privacy

"Do people even read Orwell these days? I mean, really. 1984 should be required reading for all adults. Not recommended for kids-- too sad, too violent and nightmarish, and no happy ending. But the whole point of that book-- the whole tragic life of the main character was based on the fact that he had no privacy from the government. There were no private rights. There was no room for anything sacred, or secret, or personal or individual. That made it nearly impossible to even think outside of the government's box. I don't think people realize what a necessary right privacy is. People say, "Oh, I don't have anything to hide, so I don't care that they're spying on me and my children." Think again. When you have no personal space, no privacy rights, you can be labeled, analyzed, and controlled according to the value system of anyone but you. Freedom is very much tied to privacy rights." ~Christel Lane Swasey

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Open Letter to the UEA

I've posted this article before and I'm posting it again because I have become convinced that this is accurate. I believe that the Common Core School Reform Package which includes standards, testing, curriculum AND school grading is meant to destroy the public school system and turn the whole thing over to corporate interests.

Yesterday, at a School Grading press conference, I entered the room with a sign that said, "NO Common Core Testing tied to School Grading!" I got a friendly nod and a silent "thank you" from Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh the current president of Utah's UEA. If only she knew how I LOATHE the teacher's union.


The teacher's union is of course opposed to the destruction of public schools but, the union has brought this mess on themselves. Just a personal experience... for the most part our school has really great teachers. There are two that are complete train wrecks. The school went through whatever hellish process it is to get these teachers removed from their posts (one of them has been teaching at the school for nearly 30 years and he's been a disaster the entire time). Then, the UEA sent their attorney's in and those teachers were re-instated. The same garbage happens in every district in the country.


Why then, would Utahns and parents across the country not favor school choice, especially when the UEA does not represent excellence and hold their own accountable? As long as they don't value the views of parents, especially where teachers are concerned, and when they continue to allow the curriculum to reflect values very different from those held by parents, the UEA is going to lose. Unfortunately for parents, the Bill Gates/Jeb Bush/George Soros/Barack Obama/Pearson/McGraw Hill Common Core-Reform-Package is something I believe will be an even bigger disaster for families and especially for the students they are supposed to serve. 


So Sharon, you seem like a nice lady, are you going to continue to support Common Core while blaming the state legislature for things like school grading and the loss of public schools to corporate interests? It is YOUR organization's corruption that has forced the state to act. Clean house or lose all influence. You have about two seconds.

Please Read:

Common Core Is Meant To Destroy and Replace Public School Education