Head still firmly planted where sun don’t shine.

Is she really that clueless, or is it she just has an uncontrollable need to get here name in the news?

Yesterday Utah, and 4 other states, received a NCLB (No Child Left Behind) waiver from the Federal Government.  That means we now get to come up with our own process for school accountability and no longer have to meet the unreasonable (and impossible) AYP requirement that 100% of our students graduate at grade level by 2014.

Gayle Nazicka was quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune saying “This waiver is one of the most disastrous things that has happened to education in Utah since the history of federal involvement in education.”

Why does she believe that?  Because, according to her, this waiver binds Utah to the new Common Core.  That federally mandated, socialist conglomeration of propaganda that is going to force our Utah students to do math word problems filled with the homosexual agenda.  At least that’s the way the Feeble Forum sees it.

First, that’s all a load of horse manure.  Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, said “That is just simply an absolute myth.”  In fact, one of the states that just received the waiver, Virginia, has not signed onto the Common Core.

You would think that as someone who so hates the involvement of the federal government in our education system, that she would be happy about this waiver.  After all, this means less federal involvement.

But reality doesn’t concern her.  She doesn’t care that the Common Core came about by states working together, completely absent of federal influence.  It’s irrelevant that the State of Utah voluntarily adopted the Common Core, and therefore can  un-adopt them if they prove to not fit our needs.

Nope, Gayle and her Forum just like to bitch about things and, putting all that is irrational aside, do what it takes to keep their names in the news.

Good job.  Seems to be working.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

Now, I’m not saying that the Teabagger Party has an unusual number of idiots subscribing to their platform, but if the Foo shits…

Now, I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I did pay enough attention in my secondary school classes to know that the whole purpose of the U.S. Supreme Court is to define what is and what isn’t constitutional.  Everyone is welcome to argue their interpretation, but legally, if the court says it’s constitutional, it is.

But that’s not going to stop all these morons from coming out and saying stupid things like that Senator did.

So, now the question begs to be asked – Since the court recently gave corporations some of the same constitutional rights as human beings, does that mean they are going to have to have health insurance too?

Prophecy, in retrospect.

Emmanuel Saez is a Professor of Economics at the University of California in Berkeley.  In 2003 he published an article on the income inequality in the US, and updated it in 2007.  This chart comes from the data in his study:

Interesting correlation between income inequality and economic meltdowns in an industrial economy, and another piece of information that reinforces my belief that Obama inherited an economy as bad as the Great Depression.

Propaganda

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prop·a·gan·da/ˌpräpəˈgandə/
Noun:

1. Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
2. The dissemination of such information as a political strategy.

From: Google.

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I saw this on Facebook and couldn’t resist commenting on it there, and now find myself compelled to bring it to the blogosphere too.

Lying.  That's what it really is.  “This one prohibits reading of the bible within it’s walls” is a flat out lie.  Public schools are not allowed to require or in any way promote the reading of any religious text, but we are also not allowed to prohibit a student from reading the Bible (or any other religious writings) during their free time.  I’ve had students that brought a Bible or the Book of Mormon to class and read it during our free reading time and some of our students carry it with them to lunch.  Nobody tells them to put it away, hide it in their locker or not bring it to school.  This is one thing some people have a hard time understanding (or intentionally misrepresent) – there is a huge difference between prohibition and not promoting.

They also leave out the fact that schools deal with children and prisons deal with adults.  Also consider the fact that public schools are institutes of academic education and prisons are supposed to be rehabilitative organizations.  Religious instruction strictly falls under the responsibility of parents and is completely different than encouraging adults to seek spiritual guidance as a form of rehabilitation.

Public schools need to be out of the religion business, neither promoting nor discouraging a parent and child’s spirituality at times it does not disrupt the educational goals (student’s cannot start quoting scriptures in the middle of math class, but I’ve also had to stop them from reading “Twilight” while I’m trying to teach).

Book banning alive and well in Utah

Ok, so this is not directly related to my buddy Gayle and her Eagle Forum storm troopers, but I reserve the right to comment on any Gaylesque news.

An elementary school librarian in Davis County put a copy of the book In Our Mothers’ House on the shelf when she realized that one of her students had two female parents.  She thought that it would help the other students understand the student’s home life better and hopefully relieve some of the bullying.

A parent complained, the district voted 6-1 (the one dissenting vote was the district’s library specialist) to remove the book from the shelves.  Students can still check it out, but only if they present a parent permission slip.

But it doesn’t stop there.  The district also removed the book “Totally Joe”, a book, written specifically for elementary aged kids, that deals with the bullying of students that are perceived to be gay.

And it doesn’t even stop there.  The district has all librarians scouring their books for any that contain gay themes or any gay characters.  Remove them all.

You can’t really blame the Davis School District, state law prohibits curriculum from showing homosexuality in any positive light.

You also can’t blame the librarians, who are trying to get a ruling that they are not constrained by the curriculum rules.  They argue that they do not provide just curriculum related reading, that part of their mission is to also provide recreational reading.

DEAR PARENTS,  You may not like it, but your child is going to meet students who are being raised by two mothers, two fathers, a single parent, their grandparents and even a sibling.  As they grow older they will be interacting with these students, and ones that are gay themselves.  At school, and later at their jobs, they are going to have to deal with people who fall into all those categories and also atheists, agnostics, communists, socialists, anarchists, liberals, conservatives and even the occasional intellectual.  Their job, their relationships, their happiness, may depend on knowing how to get along to all kinds of people, not everyone they are going to have to interact with is going to have the same beliefs and values.  Teach them your beliefs, instill in them your values, let them know that you don’t agree with all these different alternative lifestyles.  But don’t hide them from it, they need to know how to interact with differences.  You’re not protecting them, you’re hurting them.

I don’t suppose you actually SAW it?

Paul Rolly’s article, “Eagle Forum trying hard to be disgusted”, in the Tribune this morning goes to show exactly how far Gayle and the Eagle Nazi’s will go to wield their power.

Apparently they are offended by Bingham High School doing the play “Dead Man Walking”.

Her Heinie-ness was taken aback by the following three things:

1. Foul language – even though most of the foul language was taken out, with the permission of the author, for school productions.
2. Racial slurs – although the main character, a condemned killer, is a white supremacist, most of the harsh racial language was removed.  Just enough to retain authenticity remained.
3. Students acting out smoking cigarettes – the only cigarette on stage was a fake one tucked behind the main character’s ear.

I agree with Rolly’s comment that it’s like she didn’t even see the play.  There are a couple of other things that are funny (and not in the funny-ha-ha way) about this latest crusade.

Instead of meeting with administrators, after one of her cronies called the school district and they suggested a meeting instead of immediately groveling for their forgiveness, Gayle goes straight to the press, with five (unsigned) letters she claims are from Bingham High parents.  I guess she was smart enough to figure out that without names, no one could prove the letters were bullshit.

The school district’s Communication Director told Rolly that only one complaint was made to the district about the play, whereas they received over 700 positive comments from parents and patrons.

Yup, after losing the Sex-Ed and Common Core battles, seems these weary folk are desperately grasping at straws in an attempt to regain some semblance of control over education here in Utah.

May their efforts continue to be in vain.