"Jeff M" wrote in message
...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
m...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
om...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun rights. If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a problem.

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@giganews. com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun rights. If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teachers resignation letter: €˜My profession €¦ no longer exists

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Deweys famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, Ive used it so very often) that €œEducation is not
preparation for life, education is life itself.€� This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching €œheavy,€�
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and €œdata driven€� education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
€œassessments€�) or grade their own students examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to €œprove up€� our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
€œartifacts€� from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, €œWords Matter€� and
€œIdeas Matter€�. While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I dont feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@giganews .com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@giganew s.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
m...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@gigane ws.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures intended
to hold teachers accountable.

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
om...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@gigan ews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
m...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4ax. com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@giga news.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@giganew s.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

HAHAHAHAhahahoohoho gasp!

Gunner? Read his cut-and-pastes? Is this a joke? d8-)

--
Ed Huntress

On Apr 27, 6:57*am, "ATP" wrote:
"Jeff M" wrote in message

...





On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise of
authority. *I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested. But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I think any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in the
current environment.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Is this shirt any different than those gang colors some kids wear?

TMT

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:25:50 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
om...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4ax .com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@gig anews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

And the result is pretty much what that teacher describes -- robots,
taught to the test.

Did you know they don't teach geography as a subject anymore? It's not
part of the "core curriculum." They slip in a little bit with social
studies.

So the college kid who's working as a substitute in a local school
asks one of the teachers when they put Ohio next to Pennsylvania.

I'll bet he's good at math, though....

--
Ed Huntress

On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:25:50 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
om...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4ax .com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@gig anews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter" and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

Would that be like the ultimate results of the No Child Left Behind
Act?

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...res-violations

http://www.propublica.org/article/am...ating-scandals

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/04/25/i...-how-to-cheat/

"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:25:50 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
m...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:fhhon850r5o93nsp0bq3kfoipv1q23vk6a@4ax. com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4a x.com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@gi ganews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a
National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your
right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at
Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my
freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his
son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or
sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear
to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to
preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to
prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending
his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are
simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service
at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives
that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust
that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute
teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that
I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university
and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television
and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson,
a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have
truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the
day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic
Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided
effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been
both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems
that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has
been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either
refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by
so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than
a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership
at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of
confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to
the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would
strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the
assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been
so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research
and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate
America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged
and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter"
and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education
have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people
who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures
intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

Would that be like the ultimate results of the No Child Left Behind
Act?

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...res-violations

http://www.propublica.org/article/am...ating-scandals

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/04/25/i...-how-to-cheat/


That would be a whole 'nother debate about whether it works or not.

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:25:50 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
m...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:fhhon850r5o93nsp0bq3kfoipv1q23vk6a@4ax. com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4a x.com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@gi ganews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a
National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your
right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at
Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my
freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his
son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or
sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear
to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to
preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to
prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending
his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are
simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service
at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives
that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust
that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute
teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that
I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university
and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television
and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson,
a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have
truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the
day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic
Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided
effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been
both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems
that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has
been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either
refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by
so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than
a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership
at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of
confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to
the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would
strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the
assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been
so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research
and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate
America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged
and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter"
and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education
have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people
who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures
intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

And the result is pretty much what that teacher describes -- robots,
taught to the test.

Did you know they don't teach geography as a subject anymore? It's not
part of the "core curriculum." They slip in a little bit with social
studies.

So the college kid who's working as a substitute in a local school
asks one of the teachers when they put Ohio next to Pennsylvania.

I'll bet he's good at math, though....

--
Ed Huntress

Geography was never particularly stressed in NY while I was in school, it
was always part of social studies.

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
news snippage

ATP
Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

And the result is pretty much what that teacher describes -- robots,
taught to the test.

Did you know they don't teach geography as a subject anymore? It's not
part of the "core curriculum." They slip in a little bit with social
studies.

So the college kid who's working as a substitute in a local school
asks one of the teachers when they put Ohio next to Pennsylvania.

I'll bet he's good at math, though....

--
Ed Huntress

Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

For geography, how NYers see the rest of the country:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...9QEwAw&dur=549

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:03:28 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:25:50 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
om...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:fhhon850r5o93nsp0bq3kfoipv1q23vk6a@4ax .com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4 ax.com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@g iganews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a
National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your
right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at
Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my
freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his
son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or
sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear
to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to
preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to
prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending
his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are
simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service
at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives
that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust
that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute
teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that
I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university
and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television
and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson,
a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have
truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the
day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic
Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided
effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been
both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems
that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has
been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either
refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by
so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than
a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership
at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of
confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to
the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would
strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the
assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been
so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research
and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate
America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged
and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter"
and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education
have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people
who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures
intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

And the result is pretty much what that teacher describes -- robots,
taught to the test.

Did you know they don't teach geography as a subject anymore? It's not
part of the "core curriculum." They slip in a little bit with social
studies.

So the college kid who's working as a substitute in a local school
asks one of the teachers when they put Ohio next to Pennsylvania.

I'll bet he's good at math, though....

--
Ed Huntress

Geography was never particularly stressed in NY while I was in school, it
was always part of social studies.

That has something to do, perhaps, with why most Americans don't even
know where Afghanistan is. Or Ohio. g

I attended school in NY and NJ, so I know what you mean. In contrast,
in Maryland, where I also attended school, it was an important
subject.

Today, it's pathetic. We're producing a generation that knows how to
take a test, but not much about what to do with it.

--
Ed Huntress

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:54:02 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
news snippage

ATP
Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

And the result is pretty much what that teacher describes -- robots,
taught to the test.

Did you know they don't teach geography as a subject anymore? It's not
part of the "core curriculum." They slip in a little bit with social
studies.

So the college kid who's working as a substitute in a local school
asks one of the teachers when they put Ohio next to Pennsylvania.

I'll bet he's good at math, though....

--
Ed Huntress

Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

For geography, how NYers see the rest of the country:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...9QEwAw&dur=549


g This is the one we had framed on our wall in the art dept. at
_American Machinist_, when it was located in Rockefeller Center:

http://tinyurl.com/cyyxu8r

--
Ed Huntress

On Apr 28, 8:54*am, "ATP" wrote:



Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

Teaching to the test has never been a problem. The problem is that
the test shows whether there has been any teaching at all.

Dan

On 4/28/2013 11:25 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:

Geography was never particularly stressed in NY while I was in school, it
was always part of social studies.

That has something to do, perhaps, with why most Americans don't even
know where Afghanistan is. Or Ohio. g

I attended school in NY and NJ, so I know what you mean. In contrast,
in Maryland, where I also attended school, it was an important
subject.

Today, it's pathetic. We're producing a generation that knows how to
take a test, but not much about what to do with it.

My problem with the geography that I learned in grade school in the
early '60's is that very little has the same name any more. South
America is the same. British Honduras is Belize, Burma is Myanmar,
Ceylon is Sri Lanka, and I've long since given up on keeping track of
what is what in most of Africa.

And I still can't find Grand Fenwick or Ruritania on maps.

Although I'm fairly sure that Lilliput is just off the shore of Southern
California.

David

wrote in message
...
On Apr 28, 8:54 am, "ATP" wrote:



Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave
some
children behind.

Teaching to the test has never been a problem. The problem is that
the test shows whether there has been any teaching at all.

Dan

Well, there's always some teaching and somebody learning. But not every kid
is going to be a scholar and every teacher is not going to "Stand and
Deliver" calculus.

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:47:25 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 20:25:50 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:23:21 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
om...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:21:36 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:fhhon850r5o93nsp0bq3kfoipv1q23vk6a@4ax .com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:45:42 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Gunner Asch" wrote in message
news:62don8d99u18pb4agvrpfhaitp8lmppp02@4 ax.com...
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:57:05 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


"Jeff M" wrote in message
news:crCdnZjWSKSyWefMnZ2dnUVZ_qidnZ2d@g iganews.com...
On 4/26/2013 3:16 AM, Comrade Democrat wrote:
A West Virginia eighth-grader student has been charged with
causing a disruption at his middle school after he refused to
remove an NRA T-shirt that he wore.

The teenager was reportedly arrested and suspended last week
after getting into an argument with his teacher about a
National
Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school.

WOWK-TV reports that Jared Marcum faces charges of obstruction
and disturbing the education process for refusing to change the
shirt, which shows a rifle and the slogan, "protect your
right."

Jared told the station the he was punished by officials at
Logan
Middle School after arguing about the shirt with his teacher,
who reportedly objected to the image of the gun on the shirt.

"What they're doing is trying to take away my rights, my
freedom
of speech and my Second Amendment," Jared told the station.

Jared's father, Allen Lardieri, told WOWK-TV he is upset his
son
was briefly jailed for something he believes was blown out of
proportion.

"I don't see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting
rifle and NRA put on a T-shirt, especially when policy doesn't
forbid it," Lardieri told the station.

A Logan County School District official refused a request for
comment from WOWK-TV, but police in Logan confirmed Jared's
arrest last Thursday.

On the first day of Jared's suspension, some of his friends
reportedly wore shirts displaying images of firearms and at
least one was told by an educator to change their attire,
according to the report.

Police charged him with disrupting an educational process and
obstructing an officer, he said.

"The only disturbance was caused by the teacher. He raised his
voice," he said.

A call to the Logan Police Department rang unanswered on Sunday
and an automated message said the voice mail system was full.

Lardieri said Marcum wore the shirt during five class periods
before he was ordered to remove it.

Logan County Schools' dress code, which is posted on the school
system's website, prohibits clothing and accessories that
display profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or
sexually
suggestive phrases. Clothing displaying advertisements for any
alcohol, tobacco, or drug product also is prohibited.

Their lawyer, Ben White, said that the T-shirt did not appear
to
violate any school policy.

"I just don't understand why this teacher reacted the way he
did," said White, who said he asked school officials to
preserve
surveillance video of the cafeteria.

White said he planned to meet Monday with Principal Ernestine
Sutherland.

A message left Sunday at a phone listing for an Ernestine
Sutherland in Logan wasn't immediately returned.

White said schools can place restrictions on students to
prevent
disruptions, but can't take away their First Amendment right to
free speech.

"If a teacher is telling you to do something that's wrong, I
don't think you should follow it. But I also don't think you
need to do it in a disrespectful way," he said, adding that he
does not think Marcum was disrespectful.

White said he also wants to get the criminal charges dropped.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/21...edly-arrested-
suspended-after-argument-over-nra-shirt/?intcmp=trending

This kid is learning a valuable lesson in the arbitrary exercise
of
authority. I hope he keeps standing his ground and defending
his
rights.

I don't know how this got to the point where the kid was arrested.
But
schools are allowed to restrict speech that might be disruptive. I
think
any
shirt with a firearm, pro gun rights or not, would be a problem in
the
current environment.


Not in most of the US it wouldnt. In fact..only in rabidly antigun
places like Chicago etc etc would such a shirt cause problems.

You do know that at least 50% of US schools take off the first day
of
deer season, right?

Gunner

The incident took place in West Virginia. Not exactly Brookline or
Chicago.
Has little to do with the school's attitude toward hunting or gun
rights.
If
the kid went to school with an ax on his shirt that might also be a
problem.


You do know that most schools are operated by the same people that
make up the Hard Left NEA...right?

Think that bit of buffoonery will work in Kansas for example?

It doesnt work in every school..just the Leftwing controlled ones

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/.../t-586495.html


In fact...its quite common for Lefties to hire lefties..and try to
change the population of the area. Marx was big on this...So was
Hitler.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7736588/

http://townhall.com/columnists/todds...039/page/full/

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...fession-2.html



Teacher's resignation letter: 'My profession . no longer exists'

Posted by Valerie Strauss on April 6, 2013 at 4:00 am


i-quitIncreasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms
that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are
simply
quitting because they have had enough.

Here is one resignation letter from a veteran teacher, Gerald J.
Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse,
N.Y.:

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent
Westhill Central School District
400 Walberta Park Road
Syracuse, New York 13219

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members:

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of
this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service
at
Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I
assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives
that
may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust
that
I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute
teacher.

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an
old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my
daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that
I
have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have
been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest
students and educators on the planet.

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky
enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university
and
this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much
more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my
travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television
and
movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities
without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson,
a
lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have
truly
attempted to live John Dewey's famous quotation (now likely cliché
with me, I've used it so very often) that "Education is not
preparation for life, education is life itself." This type of total
immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching "heavy,"
working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and
never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find
that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but
denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the
day
and "data driven" education seeks only conformity, standardization,
testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic
Common
Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential
Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy,
experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided
effort
to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and
particularly not at Westhill.

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass.
In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it
is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been
both
uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our
staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems
that
are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has
been
exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either
refusing
to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by
so
constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than
a
conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership
at
every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of
confidence
and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of
these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to
the
detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this
process is like building the airplane while we are flying would
strike
terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual
airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why
should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our
children?

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of
distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and
administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic
"assessments") or grade their own students' examinations. The
development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be
employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a
given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it
smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and
assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the
assembly
line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been
so
greatly eroded by a constant need to "prove up" our worth to the
tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and
"artifacts" from our teaching) that there is little time for us to
carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual
discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research
and
seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become
increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become
our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate
America,
which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my
profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as
though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a
timeout has been called, my teammates' hands have all been tied, the
goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged
and
all of the rules altered.

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the
blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, "Words Matter"
and
"Ideas Matter". While I still believe these simple statements to be
true, I don't feel that those currently driving public education
have
any inkling of what they mean.

Sincerely and with regret,

Gerald J. Conti
Social Studies Department Leader
Cc: Doreen Bronchetti, Lee Roscoe


Gunner

Sounds like that teacher is a left wing union member, not the people
who
run
the schools. Did you actually read his letter?

repeatedly before posting

Its obvious he isnt a Lefty. Now with two signs totally contradictory
to Leftwing sentiment. If he was a Lefty..they would have said
"Feelings Matter" and "Feeling Good Matters"


Gunner

"our legislators have failed
us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson
Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its
membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous
campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle

"

most of the rest of the letter is a rant against various measures
intended
to hold teachers accountable.

Accountble to whom..and to what?

Thats the question..isnt it?

Gunner

Accountable for teaching kids basic competency in Math, English, etc.. The
APPR process he is attacking is a performance review system. This is all
stuff that the gambler William Bennett has been pushing for years.

Would that be like the ultimate results of the No Child Left Behind
Act?

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...res-violations

http://www.propublica.org/article/am...ating-scandals

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/04/25/i...-how-to-cheat/


That would be a whole 'nother debate about whether it works or not.

Not according to that teacher. He..like the articles above..indicate
that they certainly DONT work, when one has teachers willing to game
the system.

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:54:02 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

Thats called the Bell Curve for those of you in Rio Linda

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:01:29 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:54:02 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

Thats called the Bell Curve for those of you in Rio Linda

The "No child left behind." concept has, in reality, turned into the
"All children left behind." And when everyone is taught to the least
common denominator, everyone loses. It's sad as Hell, mon.

--
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
-- Sir Winston Churchill

On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:45:59 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:01:29 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:54:02 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

Thats called the Bell Curve for those of you in Rio Linda

The "No child left behind." concept has, in reality, turned into the
"All children left behind." And when everyone is taught to the least
common denominator, everyone loses. It's sad as Hell, mon.


And its largely because Leftwing supported teachers simply cannot be
trusted to do their jobs properly.

Sadly

Gunner

On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:08:54 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:45:59 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:01:29 -0700, Gunner Asch
wrote:

On Sun, 28 Apr 2013 08:54:02 -0400, "ATP"
wrote:


Teaching to the test was never a problem for teachers of AP courses or
(optional) Regents level classes. The problem now is that every kid has to
take standardized tests- and I think we may be running up against the bell
curve and a variety of home environment factors that are going to leave some
children behind.

Thats called the Bell Curve for those of you in Rio Linda

The "No child left behind." concept has, in reality, turned into the
"All children left behind." And when everyone is taught to the least
common denominator, everyone loses. It's sad as Hell, mon.


And its largely because Leftwing supported teachers simply cannot be
trusted to do their jobs properly.

That and uncaring parents, uncaring kids, falsely caring school
admins...

--
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
-- Sir Winston Churchill