I received the following communication and think it will appeal to some readers of this blog.

Your move.

Dr. Ravitch – Dr. Mark Naison began a Facebook page as a “joke” a few weeks ago of Teachers he felt were “badasses” in fighting corporate reform.  He invited me to join right away  I did.  When I joined we had 70 Badass Teachers.  We did a recruiting day beginning on Sunday as a joke for Badass Teacher of the Month.  We conducted the recruiting for 1 hour on Sunday beginning at 4.  We went from 200 members at 2:00 to 1000 members at 8:30.  We now have over 3000 members on our Facebook page called the Badass Teachers Association.  It is a page filled with teachers from all over the nation and some from other corners of the world.  We are Badass because we are not going to bow to the corporate takeover of our schools.  We are beginning agendas on educating the masses and rising up to stop all of this.  Anyhow, we had our first induction into the Badass Teachers Association Hall of Fame.  To be inducted you had to show that you are/were fighting Corporate Deform.  I am happy to report that not only were you inducted but you were inducted along with Karen Lewis  of the CTU and Shaun Johnson and Tim Skelar of TheChalkFace. We would love for you to join our FB group and come give an acceptance speech. Here is our URL

https://www.facebook.com/groups/140244172840677/?hc_location=stream

by Edgar Guest

My father knows the proper way
The nation should be run;
He tells us children every day
Just what should now be done.
He knows the way to fix the trusts,
He has a simple plan;
But if the furnace needs repairs,
We have to hire a man.

My father, in a day or two
Could land big thieves in jail;
There’s nothing that he cannot do,
He knows no word like “fail.”
“Our confidence” he would restore,
Of that there is no doubt;
But if there is a chair to mend,
We have to send it out.

All public questions that arise,
He settles on the spot;
He waits not till the tumult dies,
But grabs it while it’s hot.
In matters of finance he can
Tell Congress what to do;
But, O, he finds it hard to meet
His bills as they fall due.

It almost makes him sick to read
The things law-makers say;
Why, father’s just the man they need,
He never goes astray.
All wars he’d very quickly end,
As fast as I can write it;
But when a neighbor starts a fuss,
‘Tis mother has to fight it.

In conversation father can
Do many wondrous things;
He’s built upon a wiser plan
Than presidents or kings.
He knows the ins and outs of each
And every deep transaction;
We look to him for theories,
But look to ma for action.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20860#sthash.oIJqejbn.dpuf

There are far better ways to celebrate Father’s Day, but here is one to make you smile.

FATHER WILLIAM

by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

“OU are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head–
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father William replied to his son,
“I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door–
Pray, what is the reason of that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
“I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment — one shilling the box –
Allow me to sell you a couple?”

“You are old,” said the youth, “and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak–
Pray, how did you manage to do it?”

“In my youth,” said his father, “I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life.”

“You are old,” said the youth, “one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose–
What made you so awfully clever?”

“I have answered three questions, and that is enough,”
Said his father; “don’t give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I’ll kick you down-stairs!”
“Father William” is reprinted from The Hunting of the Snark and Other Poems and Verses. Lewis Carroll. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1903.

The Public Interest Center of Philadelphia analyzed Governor Corbett’s budget cuts. It should be no surprise to learn that the cuts fall most heavily on the neediest children, the children who are low-income and children of color. Their communities are not Governor Corbett’s political base. Even so, most public schools across the state have suffered because of the cuts.

The report found:

“In 2011 Governor Tom Corbett cut $1 billion in public school funding. As a result of these cuts 70 percent of school districts have increased class sizes, 44 percent slashed extracurricular activities and 35 percent eliminated tutoring programs. He has maintained this cut for the past two budgets and now proposes to increase public school funding by a mere $90 million. This still leaves a massive funding gap that 75 percent of public schools must account for by continuing to lay off teachers and staff this coming year. Because of this gap, Philadelphia school district is $300 million short of the budget needed to maintain its current minimal programs, forcing it to lay off 3,800 persons and strip its schools of all except mandated teachers and a principal; allowing no counselors, aides, or even a secretary to answer the phone.”