Archives for category: Courage
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Utah: Charter Association Training Teachers to Fight Active Shooter “with Their Bare Hands”

By dianeravitch
April 17, 2018 //
36

Well, here is a creative alternative to arming teachers, which most teachers oppose.

“The Utah Association of Public Charter Schools recently brought on YouTactical founder, Dave Acosta, to conduct training sessions around the state, centered around a program that teaches educators to, among other things, defend their students from active shooters with their bare hands…

”Friday, roughly two dozen administrators and teachers gathered at Thomas Edison Charter Schools South, in Nibley, to learn from Acosta.

“How many people can a bad guy shoot in 5 minutes if nobody interferes?” Acosta asked the group. “If nobody interferes, it’s a lot of people. Let me just say that.”

“The educators also watched and practiced techniques to disarm would-be active shooters in scenarios that featured handguns and AR-15 rifles.”

 

Categories Courage, Education Reform, Guns, Guns in Schools, Safety, Utah

Mike Klonsky: My Favorite Paul Ryan Moment

By dianeravitch
April 12, 2018 //
8

 

Mike Klonsky is not shedding any tears for Paul Ryan.

He remembers when a Wisconsin social studies  teacher was being honored for his dedication to the humanitarian ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ryan was presenting the award. The teacher refused to accept it from him, because, he said, Ryan was “a lackey for the 1%.” He “told the audience, “I can’t in good conscience accept this award, as a humanitarian, Paul Ryan stands for everything I don’t believe in.”

Categories Courage, Justice

Freeport Teachers Association Urges Parents to Opt Out Their Children Out of Testing

By dianeravitch
April 3, 2018 //
15

Well, here is a breath of fresh air.

The teachers in Freeport, Long Island, New York, issued a statement explaining why parents not only have the right to opt their children out of the state tests, but explain why the tests are pointless.

Some important state and local officials have engaged in tactics meant to intimidate parents—threatening their their children and their school will suffer punishment if they dare to opt out.

The Freeport Teachers Association says these are false threats. Parents have the right to opt out.

The tests are meaningless because they are scored over the summer, and the results are returned when the students have a different teacher, who will learn nothing about individual students from the scores.

The tests continue to have no value for children with disabilities and English language learners.

The FTA goes further to urge parents to opt their children out of the tests because it is the only way to force the state to change to a more useful form of assessment.

Parents, you and you alone have the power to compel change. Use it!

For their courage and professional integrity, I place the Freeport Teachers Association on the Honor Roll of this Blog.

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Categories Courage, Education Reform, Honor Roll, New York, Opt Out, Parents, Standardized Testing, Students

North Carolina: What Kind of Person Challenges the Most Powerful, Most Arrogant Man in the State?

By dianeravitch
March 12, 2018 //
4

 

Jennifer Mangrum, that’s who. Jennifer is running against Phil Berger, the president of the State Senate, who has pulled every string and passed every privatizing bill in his determination to destroy public education, the foundation of our democracy.

Jennifer is an experienced teacher and teacher-educator. Insiders say she doesn’t have a chance. But this is a strange election year, and you never know.

Jennifer was endorsed by the Network for Public Education Action Fund because of her support for public schools. If her Message gets to the parents in Berger’s District, he might be out on his ear.

That would be music to the ears of every public school teacher in the state.

 

Categories Courage, North Carolina

Indiana: CarolMalaysia Writes a Letter to Senator Todd Young About His Support for Guns

By dianeravitch
March 10, 2018 //
6

Reader CarolMalaysia shares a letter she sent to Indiana Senator Todd Young, to be sure he understands that he has blood on his hands.

She writes:

3/10/2018

Corrupt Senator Young, a hero is in the hospital because of your support for assault weapons. He took 5 bullets to save his classmates in Florida

How many more mass killings are necessary before we ban military type assault weapons and criminalize their possession? I hold you responsible for the injury of this brave child of 15 who was shot 5 times and is still in the hospital.

If the point is it’s a great thrill to go to a shooting range and fire an AR-15, make a special permit for the shooting range owners to provide the AR-15, which the visitor uses and leaves at the shooting range.

Here is Anthony Borges’s story: When a 19 year old gunman raged through a high school in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018 a 15-year-old soccer player named Anthony Borges showed extreme courage.

Anthony, who is of Venezuelan descent, apparently was the last of a group of students rushing into a classroom to seek refuge. He shut the door behind him and frantically tried to lock it, but in an instant the gunman appeared on the other side. Instead of running for cover, Anthony blocked the door to keep the shooter out. He held his ground even as the attacker opened fire.

Asked why he would do that, he replied, “What’s so hard to understand about what I did?”

Shot five times in the legs and torso, Anthony phoned his father to say that he had been wounded. He was rushed to a hospital and survived.

Anthony Borges may not yet be able to walk, but tens of thousands of us will be Marching for him, led by his classmates from Parkland, on March 24 in Washington DC and in places all over the country. Hoosiers are going to show that they do not support corrupt politicians like Senator Todd Young who was bought out by the NRA. [$2,896,732] We want meaningful strict gun legislation.

Senator Todd Young, are you going to pay for this young man’s medical bills? You are personally responsible for all the deaths and injury caused by an assault weapon. What about giving Anthony Borges a scholarship? A moral person in your position would accept what he needs to do.

Corrupt Senator Todd Young’s stance:

I believe the “Assault Weapons Ban” of 1994 was bad legislation that needed to be repealed.”

Source: 2010 House campaign website, toddyoungforcongress.com/ , Nov 2, 2010.

Let’s honor Anthony Borges, not just as a counterpoint to corrupt, bought out politicians who leave children in harm’s way, but as a beacon of courage and selflessness for all of us to follow.

Categories Corruption, Courage, Education Reform, Guns, Indiana

Some Good Counsel for the President on Presidents‘ Day

By dianeravitch
February 19, 2018 //
14

 

On February 13, the New York Times published a great full-page ad that consisted of quotes from previous presidents and other eminent people. It was titled “Mr. President, in anticipation of Presidents‘ Day consider the following words of counsel and caution.”

The ad contains  57 quotes. The article was summarized in Forbes, including some of them.

I could not find a link to the ad.

Here are some of the quotes.

1. Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

2. Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may Be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of things. President John Adams

3. Let us not seek the Tepublican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.  Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past, let us accept responsibility for the future. President John F. Kennedy

4. Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

5. The freedom of speech may be taken away—and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. President George Washington

6. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. President Harry S Truman

7. I would rather the man who presents something for my consideration subject me to a Zephyr of truth and a gentle breeze of responsibility rather than blow me down with a curtain of hot wind. President Glover Cleveland

8. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President…is morally treasonous to the American public. President Theodore Roosevelt

9. How can we love our country, and not also love our countrymen. President Ronald Reagan

10. We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant. President Jimmy Carter

11. No person was ever honored for what he earned. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. President Calvin Coolidge

12. He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. Benjamin Franklin

13. Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. President John Quincy Adams

21. Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. President Thomas Jefferson

23. This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in. President Theodore Roosevelt

30. Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. Albert Einstein

36. There is nothing new in the world e  pet the history you do not know. President Harry S Truman

40. It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. President Herbert Hoover

41. When you single out any particular group of citizens for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights. President Jimmy Carter

44. The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

45. A people who values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

50. Leave the matter of religion to the Family altar, the church, and the private school. Keep the church and the state forever separate. President Ulysses S. Grant

52. No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. President Abraham Lincoln

54.You can give a man an Office, but you cannot give him Discretion. Benjamin Franklin

56. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. President Harry S Truman

57. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

 

 

Categories Character, Citizenship, Courage, Democracy

The Very Puzzling Senator Jeff Flake

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2018 //
47

 

No member of the Republican majority in the Senate has been as eloquent in denouncing Trump’s stupidity and arrogance and authoritarianism as Senator Jeff Flake.

He excoriated Trump for his campaign to libel journalists and twist facts and truth. 

“2017 was a year which saw the truth — objective, empirical, evidence-based truth — more battered and abused than any other in the history of our country, at the hands of the most powerful figure in our government. It was a year which saw the White House enshrine “alternative facts” into the American lexicon, as justification for what used to be known simply as good old-fashioned falsehoods. It was the year in which an unrelenting daily assault on the constitutionally-protected free press was launched by that same White House, an assault that is as unprecedented as it is unwarranted. “The enemy of the people,” was what the president of the United States called the free press in 2017.

“Mr. President, it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by Josef Stalin to describe his enemies. It bears noting that so fraught with malice was the phrase “enemy of the people,” that even Nikita Khrushchev forbade its use, telling the Soviet Communist Party that the phrase had been introduced by Stalin for the purpose of “annihilating such individuals” who disagreed with the supreme leader…

”Now, we are told via Twitter that today the president intends to announce his choice for the “most corrupt and dishonest” media awards. It beggars belief that an American president would engage in such a spectacle. But here we are.

“And so, 2018 must be the year in which the truth takes a stand against power that would weaken it. In this effort, the choice is quite simple. And in this effort, the truth needs as many allies as possible. Together, my colleagues, we are powerful. Together, we have it within us to turn back these attacks, right these wrongs, repair this damage, restore reverence for our institutions, and prevent further moral vandalism.

“Together, united in the purpose to do our jobs under the Constitution, without regard to party or party loyalty, let us resolve to be allies of the truth — and not partners in its destruction.

“It is not my purpose here to inventory all of the official untruths of the past year. But a brief survey is in order. Some untruths are trivial – such as the bizarre contention regarding the crowd size at last year’s inaugural.

“But many untruths are not at all trivial – such as the seminal untruth of the president’s political career – the oft-repeated conspiracy about the birthplace of President Obama. Also not trivial are the equally pernicious fantasies about rigged elections and massive voter fraud, which are as destructive as they are inaccurate – to the effort to undermine confidence in the federal courts, federal law enforcement, the intelligence community and the free press, to perhaps the most vexing untruth of all – the supposed “hoax” at the heart of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“To be very clear, to call the Russia matter a “hoax” – as the president has many times – is a falsehood. We know that the attacks orchestrated by the Russian government during the election were real and constitute a grave threat to both American sovereignty and to our national security. It is in the interest of every American to get to the bottom of this matter, wherever the investigation leads.”

And yet the eloquent Senator Flake votes for every stupid bill proposed by his colleagues.

It is a puzzle.

Senator Flake is leaving the Senate. Three awful candidates are vying to replace him.

Why is his spine strong when it comes to talking but weak when it comes to voting?

Categories Courage, Freedom of the Press

Adell Cothorne, an Educator of Courage, Honesty, and Integrity

By dianeravitch
December 31, 2017 //
16

Earlier this year, Adell Cothorne won the Kenneth S. Goodman “In Defense of Good Teaching” Award at the University of Arizona. I was not aware of this honor when it happened but wanted to take this opportunity to salute Adell.

Adell was the whistle-blower in Washington, D.C., who called attention to the cheating that was happening during the regime of Michelle Rhee.

This was the citation:

“Adell Cothorne, teacher, administrator, and teacher educator, is the 2017 winner of the In Defense of Good Teaching award

“The award is given every year, in honor of Dr. Kenneth S. Goodman, to an educator who has stood up for students at great personal and professional risk. Ms. Cothorne blew the whistle on standardized test cheating in one of Michelle Rhee’s “success story” schools in Washington, D.C. because she did not want her students to miss out on access to a high-quality education. This decision ultimately led to loss of her career in K-12 public education, reflecting how much she is willing to fight for her students.”

Cothorne was principal of the Noyes Education Campus from 2010-2011. She discovered cheating, reported it, and was fired by district officials. After she tightened test s3curity, the school’s test scores plummeted. She blew an inconvenient hole in the “miracle” of Adam.C. Success under Rhee. She was featured in John Merrow’s last PBS documentary.

Mercedes Schneider invited Adell Cothorne to tell her story here.

She joins the honor roll of this Blog.

Categories Cheating, Courage, District of Columbia, Education Reform, Honor Roll

A Great Story of Courage And Survival

By dianeravitch
December 24, 2017 //
9

I enjoyed reading this story. I think you will too. It appeared in the National Geographic. It is about a man who fell overboard, was surrounded by sharks and other dangerous creatures, yet managed to survive. What was it? Character. Courage. Hope. Faith. All of the above.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/alone-lost-overboard-brett-archibald/

At first, I wondered, does this have anything to do with education?

Yes, I answered myself. We are swimming in shark-infested waters. The sharks want to destroy our public schools. They want to replace teachers with machines and call it “personalized learning.” They want to test our children until they cry. They want to monetize education and put their investment on the New York Stock Exchange. They want to take the money meant for public schools and distribute it to private schools, religious schools, for-Profit schools, and vendors of schlock. They want the public to pay money to schools that discriminate against children of certain groups, practices that are against our civil rights laws. The sharks don’t care about civil rights laws, although they claim to be the leaders of “the civil rights issue of our time.” They don’t care about children either. Don’t ever believe a shark. They lie.

We will survive. We will not let the sharks devour what matters most to us. We will prevail.

Categories Character, Corporate Reformers, Courage, Education Industry, Privatization

After the Devastating Fires in Wine Country, Schools Are Open!

By dianeravitch
October 17, 2017 //
13

This is a heartening story about the schools in Wine Country in California, which just suffered through horrifying fires.

Educators who lost their own homes were back on the job, to make sure the children had a safe space.

http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Wine-Country-fires-Educators-some-of-whom-lost-12282966.php

This is what educators do.

“Principal Teresa Ruffoni greeted students at Crane Elementary School in Rohnert Park on Monday morning, their first day back in class after a series of deadly fires burned through thousands of homes in neighboring Santa Rosa and in other cities and towns across the region.

“What Ruffoni didn’t tell the children was that a week earlier she had grabbed a few of her most vital belongings and fled from flames that would soon consume her home in Hidden Valley Estates, a hard-hit subdivision in the hills of northern Santa Rosa.

“She was too focused on the students, and navigating an extraordinary period for education in Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties…

“Amid the chaos and uncertainty, district administrators and teachers have been scrambling to get schools back open, knowing it was a critical step to bring a sense of security and normalcy to children traumatized by the destruction.

“That’s why on Friday, Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified Superintendent Robert Haley gathered the entire district staff in a school gym.

“Do you want to try and reopen Monday?” he asked.

“The answer, he said, was a solid yes.

“I looked up, and front and center was a teacher with a smile on her face,” he said. “Her house burned down, but she was ready to help her colleagues get kids back in school.”

“Ruffoni, despite possessing only a hodgepodge of mismatched clothes grabbed in the dark of night, was ready to go, too.

“It felt like the right thing to do, Haley said, to help the whole county move forward.

“For many of our students, the place they feel safest other than at home is school,” Haley said. “The adults they trust more than anyone other than their parents are their teachers. That’s why we’re here today.”

Categories Accountability, California, Character, Courage, Education Reform, Grit, Love, Principals, Teachers
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