“A Few Good Kids?”

As the kids return to school, a couple of interesting articles dealing with the subject of military recruiting on campus:
A Few Good Kids?
(Mother Jones) Sept/Oct 2009 – John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked [...]

Hate goes back to school.

You can tell it’s time for the kids to head back to school.  You can tell by the amount of stupid the parents are sending out there…

“Devil” shirts send kids home
GAINESVILLE, Fl (Gainesville.com) 26 August – More children from the Dove World Outreach Center arrived Tuesday at area public schools with shirts bearing the message [...]

This week on Planet Autism, 8/26/09.

CHICAGO (AP) 25 August – Kaleb Drew went to first grade on Tuesday tethered to his Labrador retriever, over the school’s objections, but his family is optimistic they’ll win a court battle to keep the dog in class.
Chewey the Lab, trained to help the autistic boy deal with his disabilities, did “just as he’s supposed [...]

Little victories, cont.

North Carolina activist can coax students away from military
RALEIGH, NC (AP) August 12 - A rural North Carolina school district with a proud military tradition is allowing a Quaker peace activist a chance to coax high school students away from careers in the armed forces, attorneys said Wednesday.
For years, Sally Ferrell had been asking permission [...]

Passing the hat for education?

Curious as to your responses to this:
Parents pass the hat to make up for school cuts
SEATTLE (AP) July 24 – Rachael Bouma calculated the cost of keeping rambunctious kindergartners under control at her son’s school at exactly $227.

That was the amount she and other parents in the Tacoma district figured every family with kids in [...]

“Youth of Color Resist Military Recruiting.”

(Dollars & Sense)  In 2006, high school senior Stephanie Hoang started working with Better Alternatives for Youth—Peace (BAYPeace), educating her peers about the potential risks of joining the military and helping to build alternative education and employment opportunities. For Hoang, her truth-in-recruitment work is more than just an internship. “It’s my peers being affected. [Recruiters] [...]

“When In Doubt, Blame a Labor Union”

by David Macaray
(counterpunch) July 7 - Someone once described 53-year old Bill Maher, the comedian and host of his own HBO show, as “America’s most brilliant teenager.”  Considering Maher’s tastes, his predilections, his likes and dislikes—the way his nimble, post-adolescent mind works—that seems a fairly apt description. 
Maher likes sex, drugs, nature, animals, and pornography, but [...]

Go, girl.

WASHINGTON, DC (Courier Post) July 9 – Physically and emotionally bullied as a fourth-grader, Jackie Andrews is fighting back.
She’s doing so not with taunts or fists but with an anti-bullying campaign the 16-year-old high school junior is developing with her sister Josie, 14, that might soon get a national audience.
Wednesday, the Andrews sisters, from Haddon [...]

Here we go again. Again.

Sheriff: La. 8th grader planned school shooting
LAROSE, La. (AP) May 18 – A Louisiana middle school student who stormed into a classroom Monday and fired a gunshot over a teacher’s head, then shot himself in a bathroom had detailed plans for a rampage in a journal and suicide note, authorities said.
The 15-year-old student, whose name [...]

Proof that fear is bad for your brain.

It stops you from thinking clearly, for one thing.  It also makes you jump to really offensive conclusions…
Utah school forces student to change out of kilt
WEST HAVEN, Utah (AP) May 17 – The principal of a Utah middle school has been asked to apologize for forcing a kilt-wearing student to change his clothes.
Weber School [...]

Duh.

You can always tell it’s prom season: the adults are being dopey again.
Pennsylvania high school orders shot glasses as prom favors
LITITZ, Pa. (AP) May 9 – A Pennsylvania high school ordered more than 450 shot glasses for its prom, a move the assistant principal now says sent the wrong message.  [Ya think?]
As the Warwick High [...]

Dear teachers:

Having a bad day?
Had a rough year?
Tired of being disrespected?
Watch this.

Feel better?
(Thanks to Suzy.)

On silence.

I’m for it, by the way. 
Mostly.
Silence, Prayer, and Other Activities by Christopher Brauchli
(CommonDreams) May 2 -

“All I want out of you is silence, and damn little of that.”
— A Whaler’s captain addressing a crew member. Zephaniah W. Pease, The History of New Bedford
It is time for an update on silence. It’s back. A quiet [...]

More on “The Army Experience.”

Seven Arrested at Philadelphia Mall Over Military Recruiting Practices

PHILADELPHIA, Pa (CommonDreams) May 2 - Several hundred demonstrators from a coalition of 30 national and regional veteran, youth and peace groups, including the Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action, Student Peace Action Network, protested what they claimed were unethical military [...]

Back to work.

So, at about, oh…10:45 this morning, my students will finish another round of the total waste of time  known as  state-mandated standardized testing.  Here in the Garden State, we call that the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge, also known as the ASK8.  About two hours a day (one day, for math, is two [...]

I got your “accountability” right here…

So last week, a visitor to my little corner of the cyber-sandbox engaged me in an email conversation on issues related to some of the posting about education that I’ve been doing here lately.  Yeah, there has been a lot of that.  My little borough is about to experience a perfect storm of education-related chaos: our teachers’ [...]

“The Global Teachers’ Anthem.”

by Jesse Hagopian
(CommonDreams) April 3 – “Raise the threat level to a code red,” they cry out.     
From Baghdad to D.C., a growing chorus of a-tonal anti-union executives around the world (the only choir that may be left after all the public school budget cuts) are asserting that the teacher union menace must be neutralized. [...]

“Schools are not businesses.”

by Wayne Au, Bill Bigelow, & David Levine
(The Progressive) March 31 – We should stop treating our schools as businesses.
Since the early 20th century, prominent business leaders have acted on the belief that since they are good at making money, they are the most qualified people to decide how to best educate the country’s young.
Entranced [...]

Autism links updated.

Please see the sidebar to your right.
I went to a school district sponsored workshop on working with autistic and Aspy kids the other day: great stuff.  The new links are c/o our super presenters.
Peruse at your leisure.  And send me any others you’ve used and found helpful.
April is Autism Awareness Month. 
Today is World Autism [...]

Spread the word to end the word.

We’re all friends here, right?
We respect each other?  We listen to each other?  We can speak honestly, in trust and love?
Cool.
So.
Do me a big favor.
It’s not that big a deal, but it means a lot to me and to a lot of other people.
STOP USING “-TARD.”  As in “retard.”  “F#&ktard.”  “Whatevertard.”
On your blogs, on your [...]