Welcome to Call to Decision
WELCOME TO THE CONTINUING COLLAPSE!"Doing the Education Research that Illegal Aliens Won't DoSince 1997"JUNE 2008THIS MONTH'S CONTINUING COLLAPSE POLL QUESTIONS ARE:Should government schooling be declared illegal?Should parents who sent their children to government schools be charged with child endangerment?(Thanks to Parade Magazine for providing the inspiration for the questions)A CONSERVATIVE TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT PROVES THAT "OUR SCHOOLS REALLY ARE DIFFERENT"More evevidence that government schools operate on the "ABC Principle" (Anything But Christianity):Public school students at Friendswood Junior High in the Houston area have been roped into Islamic training by representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations during class time, prompting religious leaders to protest over Principal Robin Lowe's actions....The pastors said in a statement: "According to students who were forced to attend these sessions, these Islamic evangelists taught them:
- Adam, Noah and Jesus are prophets
- There is one god, his name is Allah
- The 5 Pillars of Islam
- How to pray five times a day
- Islamic religious garb"
“This is not out of the ordinary for school districts all over the nation. These things happen.”One of the arguments that the government school establishment is now using against homeschooling is that unless children are under the watchful, benevolent eye of our highly trained education professionals, children will be in great danger of sexual abuse. The truth, of course, is exactly the opposite...Revelations of administrators’ mishandling of sexually abuse committed in the Los Angeles Unified School District have prompted comparisons to the clerical sexual abuse scandal that has afflicted the Catholic Church in recent years. Some are charging that there is a double standard which treats sexual abuse committed by educators less harshly than that committed by clerics.The scandal that has brought the comparison to light is that of former assistant school principal Steve Thomas Rooney, who faces 13 felony sex-related counts. They include charges that he had unlawful sex with two female students ages 13 and 14 while he was assistant principal at a middle school.The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) assigned Rooney to the middle school in August 2007 despite knowing that police had investigated Rooney about an alleged sexual relationship with a student at his previous school. The former high school student has since testified that Rooney impregnated her.Other cases of alleged sexual abuse are pending. KNX 1070 Newsradio reports that “21 teachers and administrators have been pulled from schools in the past year because of allegations of inappropriate sexual contact with kids.” Most of the allegations have been made since January 2008.However, when Superintendent David Brewer was asked about the number of cases since January 2008, he said, "I don't have any data on that, I'll have to get back to you on that."LAUSD Deputy Superindendent Ramon Cortines discussed the scandal with KNBC TV, saying, “This is not out of the ordinary for school districts all over the nation. These things happen.”...THIRD GRADERS "COUNSELED" SO THAT THEY CAN MEET "A BOY NAMED SUE"A parent in this district asked the relevant question: "What if the parents of another boy decides that there’s an animal-lover inside of him trying to get out? Does the school then “counsel” his classmates on bestiality and their need to refrain from unkind remarks?"The answer is that highly trained education professionals won't start doing things like that until the "frog in the pot" is cooked a little more....they'll probably wait another 3-5 years... Less if you live in California or Massachusetts.A Pennsylvania elementary school has confirmed its membership in the “Brave New Liberal Schools” club by holding counseling sessions with 100 3rd-grade students to announce that one of the boys would soon start showing up at school in girls’ clothing and taking a female name.Counselors will ask the 3rd-graders to accept the boy as a girl and not to make childish remarks that may be unkind.The exercise in “social transition” was initiated by the boy’s parents who approached the administration at Chatham Park Elementary School in Haverford Township asking that the school help in having their child’s female identity find acceptance among his peers. After consulting experts on transgender children, the Haverford School District sent letters to parents advising them the school guidance counselor would meet with their children, reported the Philadelphia Inquirer.Some of the parented contacted the principal asking him to excuse their children that day, while others turned to one of the few things that is proved to modify the behavior of brave new educators: mass parental anger....The obvious question is one that educators seldom ask: “Where does it stop?” What if the parents of another boy decides that there’s an animal-lover inside of him trying to get out? Does the school then “counsel” his classmates on bestiality and their need to refrain from unkind remarks?OK, OK, ALREADY. I KNOW THIS ONE IS LONG, BUT...You really need to know the details of how sodomites and their friends use the ruse of "anti-bullying", "diversity", and other programs to propagandize children covertly.The bully is the scourge of the elementary school playground. So who could object to a new anti-bullying curriculum scheduled to be tested in three Minneapolis elementary schools -- Hale, Jefferson and Park View -- and adopted districtwide if successful?But what if that curriculum is really a disguise for a very different agenda brought to Minneapolis by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based gay and transgender advocacy group? What if its lessons have little to do with bullying, and much to do with ensuring that kids as young as age 5 submit to HRC's orthodoxy on family structure, even if it differs from their own parents' view?What if students who dissent are subjected to teacher-directed peer pressure and negative evaluations?In other words, what if anti-bullying advocates themselves turn out to be the bullies?Welcome to the "Welcoming Schools" curriculum....Welcoming Schools" has three sections. The first, on "family diversity," drums into kids the idea that "traditional families" are outdated. To emphasize this point, kids in grades 3-5 "act out" being members of nontraditional families, including same-gender-headed families.K-3 students study words like "lesbian" and "gay," while fourth- and fifth-graders learn "bisexual," "dyke" and "transgender."In the curriculum's second section -- "Looking at Gender Roles and Stereotyping" -- children learn to "expand their notions of gender-appropriate behavior." They read books such as "Sissy Duckling," which deals with "characters challenging gender norms," and "King and King," in which a prince proposes to and marries another prince...."Welcoming Schools" does not address bullying until its third and final section. It says relatively little about bullies' traditional targets -- kids who are overweight, short or the wrong skin color, for example -- and places heavy emphasis on anti-gay name-calling.To promote its agenda, "Welcoming Schools" employs classic indoctrination techniques.Teachers begin lessons by questioning students to identify their current beliefs. Then they use group exercises, films and books to convince the kids that any traditional attitudes they harbor about family structure and homosexuality are harmful "stereotypes." At the end of a lesson, teachers "evaluate" students to ensure that their views now pass official muster....One fill-in-the-blank phrase that students are to complete during evaluation says it all: "I used to think, but now I know ..."The "Family Diversity Photo Puzzle," a typical lesson for grades 1-3, exemplifies this approach.In the exercise, the teacher instructs students to arrange photos of adults and children to create seven families. But the exercise is rigged, though children don't know it."The packets of photographs selected make it impossible to create seven 'traditional' families: that is, families that include a mother, a father and children," says the curriculum guide. "Students will find that they must create some families with adults of the same gender. ..." and then decide how to label the members.The guide advises teachers to use their authority to encourage the right answer: "[I]t is helpful for students if you use your own set of photos to create a family with two moms and/or two dads."When the lesson is over, the teacher exhorts students to examine their beliefs, confess their errors and commit to reform."Were there types of families you didn't create?" asks the teacher. "Why do you think you didn't create those families?" (In other words, what's wrong with you?) "If you did this activity again, would you do anything differently?" (Hmm, I wonder what the right answer is to that one?)"Welcoming Schools" uses the same strategy in its section on expanding "gender norms." (The guide advises teachers to avoid referring to their class as "boys and girls." "For some children," it explains, "identifying as a boy or girl in order to participate in an activity creates internal dissonance.") Students are evaluated on "whether or not [they] feel comfortable making choices outside gender expectations."At Hale School, some parents are up in arms. While they oppose bullying, they say, this is not the way to address it. They have been explaining their concerns since February, when Principal Bob Brancale announced in an e-mail that "Welcoming Schools" "will be piloted ... regardless of the personal issues or concerns of parents or staff.""It's a direct slap at parents' face," said Hale parent Arbuc Flomo of the newly formed Coalition for Parents' Rights. " 'I used to think, but now I know ...'? It's like a teacher saying to your first-grader, 'what you learned in your seven years before coming to first grade here -- what you learned from your parents -- is wrong.' "Dan Loewenson of the Minneapolis School District says that parents are free to opt their children out of the program.After Hale parents filed formal objections to "Welcoming Schools" in March, district leaders referred the matter to the district's Curriculum and Instruction Committee. On May 28, the committee will deliberate about next steps after hearing from parents and staff.HIGHLY TRAINED EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS FINALLY DISCOVER WAY TO LEAVE NO CHILD BEHINDOf course, this is only the 1.0 version. I understand that the 2.0 version will raise the minimum to 80.In most math problems, zero would never be confused with 50, but a handful of schools nationwide have set off an emotional academic debate by giving minimum scores of 50 for students who fail.Their argument is that other letter grades -- A, B, C and D -- are broken down in increments of 10 from 60 to 100, but there is a 59-point spread between D and F, a gap that can often make it mathematically impossible for some failing students to ever catch up.Schools have taken a variety of approaches to change the system:
- In Hillsboro, Ore., the school district is planning to roll out such a policy slowly. School board member Hugh O'Donnell says he hopes it is implemented within a couple of years "once we educate the teachers."
- The Dallas Independent School District has a policy not to allow semester grades below a 50; one principal's decision to disallow grades below a 70 in certain instances drew protests this spring and was rescinded.
- At Lehn Middle School in Port Byron, N.Y., the teachers turn in numerical averages from zero to 100 for report cards, and a computer program rounds up anything below a 50.
Opponents say the larger gap between D and F exists because passing requires a minimum competency of understanding at least 60 percent of the material. Handing out more credit than a student has earned is grade inflation, says Ed Fields, founder of HotChalk.com, a site for teachers and parents: "I certainly don't want to teach my children that no effort is going to get them half the way there."BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?Yes, the education establishment shamelessly never tires of demanding more money. Now our desperately underfunded highly trained education professionals in Texas are threatening "bankruptcy". Sounds like a good idea to me...go ahead, make our days ;-)AUSTIN — The school funding system approved by Texas lawmakers two years ago provides no new money to cover rising costs — especially for fuel, utilities and health insurance — and officials warn the plan's tax revenue straightjacket will allow inflation to push some school districts into bankruptcy.At-risk districts, generally, will find a way to make it for the next school year, but many face horror situations in a few years unless legislators dramatically change the school funding system again, and soon.Take the Houston-area Spring Branch Independent School District. Its budget projections show the district's current $58 million reserve fund will slide $68 million into the red within four years.Unless a fix is enacted during next year's legislative session, school districts will be faced with difficult choices, including closing campuses and firing teachers, said Mike Falick, president of the Spring Branch school board....Some school districts eventually will face "insolvency, some in a shorter time than others," he said.DETROIT GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS CONTINUE TO DO THE ENROLLMENT "LIMBO" (How low can you go?)Another 12,000 students have hit the exits...financial chaos...threat of second state takeover...(I thought you might like a little good news)DETROIT -- The Detroit Public Schools system is facing a $45 million budget shortfall that, if unresolved, could potentially put the 106,000-student district under state oversight for the second time in a decade.....Despite the ballooning budget shortfall, Calloway announced in March that the district would put on hold plans to close eight school buildings. According to a report assessing the impact of the closures, the school system lost $11.3 million in state funding this year after more than 3,000 students went missing from the 33 schools closed last year. The additional loss of students from more closures, as well as the expense of shuttering the eight schools, would have eroded any expected savings to just $700,000, the report concluded.Detroit Public Schools also suffered a 12,000-student enrollment drop this year, which will amount to a $90 million loss in state aid next year.Ohio Students Get Proof of Their Education by Receiving Diplomas With ["Education"] Misspelled
Our highly trained education professionals again demonstrate that education cannot be left to amateurs..WESTLAKE, Ohio — A Cleveland-area principal says he is embarrassed his students got proof of their "educaiton" on their high school diploma.Westlake High School officials misspelled "education" on the diplomas distributed this weekend. It's been the subject of mockery on local radio.Principal Timothy Freeman says he sent the diplomas back once to correct another error. When the corrected diplomas came back, no one bothered to check the things they thought were right the first time.THE VIDEO CORNERIn the event of an Obama Presidency, this information will be very important:THE AUDIO CORNERREMEMBER:1. Feel free to circulate The Continuing Collapse.2. If you aren't hearing about at least some these government school problems from your pastor, why is he your pastor?3. FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS.“Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm – but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” T.S. Eliot