My thanks to reader Greg Brozeit, who pointed out on Twitter that today is the anniversary of the execution of the founders of the White Rose Society, a group of university students who defied Hitler’s monstrous criminal regime
Hans and Sophie Scholl and their colleagues were executed by the Nazis on February 22, 1943.
These young people knew that the regime was committing horrendous crimes. They organized resistance among other young people. They knew that the penalty for their resistance was certain death. They were arrested in late January, given a fast trial, and beheaded on this date.
When I think of the Nazis, I will always remember the courage of these young people. I pray that their legacy of hope, fearlessness, and idealism will outlive the memory of the butchers and brutes whose crimes they fought.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have always honored the memory of the White Rose Society. I learned about their heroism, when I lived in Germany.
Thank you for sharing this moving tribute to these courageous young men and women.
Those young people are true heroes. I wish many more knew about them.
No one needs to know anything because Google. Just teach skills.
Funny.
No one needs to know anything because of Google.
And what do we do when there is no Google, no internet?
The internet is a fragile system that a hacker in Russia or North Korea or a teenager in the U.S. could crash and that isn’t even mentioning the fact that a massive solar flare could bring down the entire system and civilization with it because if a solar flare takes out the worldwide grid and internet, it could take years to rebuild.
To survive as a civilization and not end up back in the stone age, our children must be taught how to think critically, solve problems of all kinds with their own brains, and how to write with a pen or pencil on paper.
Imagine what will happen to all those automated factories when their machines and computers crash due to a hacker or a solar flare.
Then there is global warming and climate change. For instance, one flood in Southeast Asia took out one of the largest factories in the world that produced a vital element in the production of plastics. When that factory was flooded and stopped producing, no one knew if the plastics industry would collapse or not. And that was just one factory.
Lloyd Lofthouse: Cursive writing is optional in Indiana. I remember reading about a kid who couldn’t sign his name and the mother worked to teach him how to do that. I wonder about the intelligence/common sense level of politicians in this state. If you can’t write cursive, you also most likely can’t read it. It is a valuable skill.
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New Indiana law ensures schools may teach cursive writing
POSTED 1:41 PM, APRIL 2, 2018, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, UPDATED AT 01:44PM, APRIL 2, 2018
This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
INDIANAPOLIS — A new state law ensures Indiana schools can teach cursive writing if local officials wish to do so.
The provision was approved during the recently concluded state legislative session. A proposal mandating the teaching of cursive failed again, but the new law codifies cursive writing, alongside religions of the world, as an optional subject for schools.
The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that state education officials made cursive lessons optional in 2011. A state Education Department survey last year found about 20 percent of schools were teaching cursive even without a law explicitly authorizing it.
Republican Sen. Jean Leising of Oldenburg has pushed the past seven years to require cursive instruction. She says the new law is a minimal step forward in teaching what she calls an “important skill.”
At least someone realizes that what we write on (acid-free) paper might be around a few centuries from now, but everything that is stored in the Cloud (that isn’t a cloud) in a computer program language could be gone in an instant and never found again.
And entire civilization that stores all of its history and books on computers could easily vanish in an instant and lose everything that isn’t printed on a hard copy — ink on paper.
I wouldn’t say, they get lost in the cloud, but enter the matrix, and get a dangerous life on its own.
LOL
The Matrix is worse than the Cloud. I like that better … well, I don’t really like it, but as a way to describe the “puke splatter” behind the end of everything public, I think it fits.
They are still alive. When I light candles in the dark, I see them. They are the the hue of brightness.
SO beautifully put! Thank you!
My head exploded (almost literally) as I considered this solemn anniversary juxtaposed with this pathetic exhibition by Sen. Feinstein as she dismissed and denigrated young children and their teacher in their advocacy for a Green New Deal. Children and their committed teachers are what we need now more than ever. Feinstein ought to be kicked out, not only because she’s an irresponsible public servant, but because she’s an arrogant example of what is wrong with this country and the Democratic Party. She does not have the common decency to treat these children and their teacher with a modicum of respect. I hope to learn the identity of this teacher to encourage her to run for the Senate. If AOC could do it, she can too with our support. Feinstein should resign tomorrow and go home to her inherited wealth. Bless you, young children, you have an authenticity Sen. Feinstein could never buy with her money and inflated, undeserved “stature.”
Thanks, GregB. Senator Feinstein shows so very clearly, here, who she is.
I love the kid who says, “By that time there’s going to be a big problem.” So much wiser–at the age of, what, six?–than the self-important, do-nothing, visionless older person.
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”
yes. wonderful
Oh come on now. Dianne Feinstein has done a lot of good, and votes my way on issues most of the time. All this shows about “who she is” is 85y.o. and cranky– no longer flexible & patient enough to deal with high-spirited, interrupting youngsters. That crabby attitude serves her well in the Senate.
So much to write, so little time. Feinstein’s career has benefitted immensely from a lack of scrutiny, a pile of money, and being from a media-driven state that ignores actual interaction with constituents. And she’s not the brightest bulb. I had two opportunities to vote for her while living in California and left the ballot blank both times.
Perhaps. But the arrogance Feinstein displayed in this situation is appalling. She is not representing well at this point. If she is too cranky to deal with young constituents, she probably shouldn’t be in office any longer.
Wow. Read the comments. People are slamming down the kids and the teachers. We liberals are now ‘fucktards’.
I put on a comment of my own.
Her main argument: she is old, and has been doing this for 30 years. Love the kids and their teacher. Wow!
Maybe Antifa is the White Rose Society of today.
Today and yesterday. Antifascist Action was around in the 30’s. In Germany.
Dear Diane,
DC has closed over 40 public schools since 2007 when the city was placed under mayoral control and the schools under the mis-leadership of Michelle Rhee. The trend of starving the lowest performing schools of resources, punishing them with a high stakes test to justify closing them to pave the way for more charters has been and continues to be the systematic plan for privatizing public education. Charter operators have bought a lot of influence in DC and across the US, but the schools are not living up to their promises.
Two of the four Cesar Chavez charter schools in DC are closing after hiring top gun charter managers Ten Square and paying them $5. 8 million for a four year contract to improve student achievement.
*Ten Square/Cesar Chavez Schools Fact Sheet*
[image: *] Cesar Chavez Public Schools is a private non-profit charter school organization in Washington DC. Chavez operates four schools in DC including two high schools and two middle schools. Chavez has operated in DC since 1998.
[image: *] In 2017, the D.C. Public Charter School Board said that it would close Chavez if they didn’t improve their academic performance. Shortly after, Chavez signed a $5.8 million contract with a company called TenSquare.
[image: *] TenSquare is a national educational management organization (EMO) that receives millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars to save failing charters and manage charter real estate projects. TenSquare’s current or planned operations are in the following locations: Alabama, District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia.
[image: *] While all charter schools in DC are subject to transparency and accountability standards, TenSquare is exempt because of an EMO loophole written into the Public Charter School Fiscal Transparency Amendment Act passed by the DC City Council in 2015. Specifically, the Act exempts “temporary management services recommended by the eligible chartering authority to improve the performance of a public charter school.”
In 2017, teachers at Chavez Prep Middle School in the Columbia Heights neighborhood began organizing to improve their working conditions. Teachers were upset about understaffing, high turnover, and the amount of funds going towards TenSquare consultants rather than investments in the school.
[image: *] In June 2017, the teachers won their union election, voting in the DC Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (DC ACTS), affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
[image: *] The AFT represents approximately 234 charter schools nationwide but Chavez Prep Middle School is currently the first and only unionized charter school in DC.
The teachers immediately requested to bargain with Chavez Schools. TenSquare brought in a notorious union busting lawyer from New York to bargain on behalf of
My request to the council was to pressure the PCS Board to make Chavez’s Board accountable for its actions and support the chancellor in taking over the two schools like it has done for several other DC charters that closed for corruption, misappropriation of funds and failure to provide appropriate services to the children enrolled.
In my letter to below, I have also reached out to the President of the Cesar Chavez Foundation to make an appeal to the Chavez Schools Executive Board to do the right thing for the students, their families and staff at Cesar Chavez.
In solidarity,
Elizabeth
Paul F. Chavez, President
Cesar Chavez Foundation
P.O. Box 62
Keene, California 93531
pfchavez@chavezfoundation.org
Dear Mr. Chavez,
Last year, a brave group of charter school teachers and support staff, inspired by the legacy of Cesar Chavez, won a union election at their school in Washington DC—making them the first unionized charter school in the city of Washington. Their school is called Chavez Prep Middle School and it is part of a regional private charter school organization called Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy (“Chavez Schools”). The workers chose 1927, the year of Cesar Chavez’s birth, as their union’s local number.
These workers fought for over a year for a fair contract only to have the Chavez Schools Board of Trustees announce last month that they will close the school at the end of this school year. Before the announcement, Chavez Schools had brought in an expensive lawyer from New York to drag out the negotiations—refusing to agree to basic standards like just cause protection and fair compensation for staff that is severely underpaid compared to their public school counterparts. As a result of their conduct during bargaining, Chavez Schools is currently under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board for violating federal labor law’s requirement that it bargain in good faith.
Chavez Schools’ decision to close Chavez Prep was made in secret and without the input of teachers, students, or parents. The staff at Chavez Prep Middle School found out that their school would close when they received a phone call from a reporter at the Washington Post. Parents found out through an email later that evening that many of them had only ten days to secure new schools for their kids for next year. Chavez Schools not only failed to give the union notice of their intention to close and bargain over their decision, but also continues to refuse to do so. At the bargaining table, they have refused to provide information about what will happen to the school property next year, including refusing to provide a copy of their lease. They recently countered the union’s proposal on effects of the closure, which included severance pay for staff and support for students, with a proposal that they won’t oppose unemployment.
We believe that the conduct of Chavez Schools is undermining the legacy of Cesar Chavez. We write to ask you to help us hold the school accountable. Please let me know if I can provide you with any additional information about this situation. We express our sincere gratitude to you for all of the work that you’ve done and continue to do and we are hopeful that you might be able to help us in this fight.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Davis, President
Washington Teachers’ Union AFT Local6 AFL-CIO
On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 7:45 PM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: ” My thanks to reader Greg Brozeit, who pointed out > on Twitter that today is the anniversary of the execution of the founders > of the White Rose Society, a group of university students who defied > Hitler’s monstrous criminal regime Hans and Sophi” >