❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
Sunday, January 6, 2013
YOUR GLOW ♫ A TRIBUTE TO THOSE AFFECTED BY SANDY HOOK MASSACRE
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013, the bus
drivers, the surviving Sandy Hook Elementary School children and staff went
back to another building to resume their school year.
The song ~ Your Glow ~ is a tribute for those affected by Sandy Hook Elementary School
Massacre. I wrote the music December 14 on the day it happened. I wrote lyrics
to the music later on December 26 & 27. Yesterday, I used Garage Band to improvise a flute and bass part along with the keyboard. It is not a polished version, only put together in a few hours.
Your Glow
by Sandra Hammel
Verse 1
Breath is no more, your bright light shines on. Oh the pain seeps so deep, grace come to me to free.
Oh our hearts entwined for eternity, Oh touch me now…fly…… Oh, angel. Love never die
Surround me now, for now, I hold you sweetly within, lighting up my way. Going on for you.
I lift my eyes to you, Wanting all the world to see your star.
Verse 2
Breathe life in me, oh, bright star that shines on. Where to go when overcome, estranged from peace and calm.
Oh our hearts entwined for eternity, Oh touch me now…fly…… Oh, angel. Love live on.
Surround me now, for now, I hold you sweetly within, lighting up my way. You left behind your glow.
I lift my eyes for you, Knowing your tender soul remains in mine.
♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫♫
When
I was still teaching in the schools, I taught 5 to 10 year olds. I was
the music teacher. So, when I picture these children and the staff, I
can picture it in my mind very personally. I think it is the wrong thing to do to arm teachers. I wrote about it here.
The second amendment has outlived its relevancy. When it was written, guns had a single bullet capacity and it took considerable time to reload it.
IF ARMING TEACHERS IS THE ANSWER - WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GOAL?
The gun used at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
This is the advertisement for the Sandy Hook massacre gun.
Do we want educators or good shots? Do we want to require you have to be a gun carrying, good shot and NRA member to be teachers of our nation's students? A member of the NRA, but not a member of a teachers union? Teacher unions are under attack, the misnamed "right to work" raison d'etre (reason to be) is to kill the unions, teacher pensions are under attack, in many communities, the teachers have not been respected for decades. And yet, expectations for the education system has soared in more than the areas of subjects that once were the conventional things that we held our schools responsible for teaching our children.
Teachers carry a gun? Where in the classroom would the
teacher store her gun? Would she have impunity if a child got access to it?
Have you heard that the solution is that the Principal at
Sandy Hook Elementary School should have had a gun in her office?That all teachers should have guns. If
you are or have ever been a teacher in elementary school, middle school or high
school, or even on a college campus, you can picture what I am about to
explain.
Rep. Louie Gohmert argued that if the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary
School had a gun she could have stopped the shooter from killing 20
children and five other school teachers. Gohmert has spoken out publicly
in favor of increased gun accessibility in the wake of the Friday attack.
I was an elementary school music teacher.My first year as a teacher, I had 950
students. There are times you are the lone adult in a room or playground with
hundreds of children.Would you
carry your gun there?And if you
needed to use it, and accidentally killed one or more of the hundreds of
children under your care, because you are not a good enough shot, had an off
day as a good shot, got nervous or the chaos of a situation made it impossible
to only target an armed intruder or an armed student, would you have legal
impunity for killing one or more of your students? Or if you only have the gun
in your classroom somewhere, presumably locked away for safety that no child
under your care would get access to it, what good would the gun be if you were
doing duty in the cafeteria, school assembly, walking down the hall with the
class to a music, art or physical education class.
I am picturing my college years where I was supposedly
getting my education in my subject area.It was a liberal arts school, so though I was loaded with music courses,
I also took biology, English literature, French, Philosophy.If teachers were required to carry
guns, we would have to have courses in guns, knowing how to shop for the gun
allowed, because surely there would be laws restricting a teacher’s gun, the
kind of gun, the kind of bullets, how to handle a gun, keeping them in good
repair, insuring them, how to keep them out of the hands of students who might
use them as a play thing or the real thing, when it is and isn’t appropriate to
use the gun.Will there be “stand
your ground” laws for teachers? Will self-defense mean we must see a gun being
used on a student first before we can shoot?Do we need witnesses to prove we used the gun properly?Will we be police officers or teachers?If I would have been mandated to carry
a gun as a teacher and not given the same rights as police officers, there
would be major problems.If that doesn’t’
make sense, then the major problem begins with your critical thinking weaknesses.
How many college gun course hours would be required for my
teacher certification?How many
hours of target shooting would I have to have to get my teacher
certificate?Would I have to take
shooting range practice throughout my teaching career until retirement (now age
67 years in Rhode Island)?What if
I am not able to hold a gun due to illness of any kind, for example I am
disabled?When we hire new
teachers, do we have them illustrate their shooting abilities with range
shooting with moving targets as a part of the interview?
Definition: Limiting: Any process by which a specified
characteristic of the output of a device is
prevented from exceeding a predetermined value.
I saw PBS' Independent Lens show entitled Precious Knowledge on TV today. And just when I read the text that follows, which is included in the show: "While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of
high school, Tucson High’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a
national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled
students, on average, graduating from high school, and 85 percent going
on to attend college,"- the show then went into an unbelievable direction. That direction was how people, how politicians in the USA state of Arizona outlawed this educational course.
The program
taught Mexican and American history, as well as Central and South
American literature and culture.
Ignorance. Fear. Unaware of racist thinking. This is what I see when I hear those who disapprove of this wonderfully successful educational course of study of a culture. But what I understand as blatant racists and racism as in this case, the racists are clueless to their bigoted thinking. Which if it didn't harm others, would be okay. But it isn't harmless. It is harmful.
These courses didn't teach racism. Denying the right to teach them is racism.
For years, our educational systems have taught white history is the only history. Disregarding the history, for example of the native, indigenous peoples who were here before the European immigrants came here and then "dominated" over the indigenous peoples. So when the politician is saying there are "other ways" in the first video below, he means that the white way is THE way. And OTHER ways must be denied. Outlawed. Just like we did to the native indigenous people, denying them their own cultures, their hair style, their native language use, their children living with their families and being sent off to boarding schools to learn the white man's ways in order to assimilate. Which is just another way to end, exterminate a culture, a history of a people. Only people who feel weak, mandate others to absorb their ways as their own and give up their own ways.
................................................................................. Watch online at PBS Video
................................................................................
Precious Knowledge portrays the one of the final years
of the highly successful but controversial Mexican American Studies
Program at Tucson High School.
The program was a national model of educational success — 93 percent
of its enrolled students graduating from high school and 85 percent
going on to attend college, bucking a statewide trend that saw only 48
percent of Latino students graduating at all. The program taught
Mexican and American history, as well as Central and South American
literature and culture.
But the political tide shifted in Arizona in the 2000s. The state
passed extremely controversial immigration laws, which some civil
libertarians equated to racial profiling. Legislative sessions in the
state became heated and rife with recriminations. And when lawmakers
turned their attention to Tucson High’s ethnic studies program, it
became a lightning rod in the public conversation about race. Opponents
of the program launched a campaign to convince the public that ethnic
studies teach everything from communism to terrorism to “reverse
racism.”
Students and their teachers fight hard to preserve their program,
marching to the statehouse, holding vigils, and testifying before
lawmakers. They invite their legislators to visit their classrooms, and
all but one refuse. When he does visit, he criticizes the poster of Che
Guevara on the wall, and suggests that a poster of Benjamin Franklin
would be more appropriate.
At the center of the debate was Paulo Freire’s textbook, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed,
which the school’s instructors used for the ethnic studies classes. The
book is a famous example of critical race theory, which looks at and
acknowledges the influence of institutional racism in America on
non-dominant groups. The theory has been criticized as Marxist.
In 2011 Arizona lawmakers passed a bill giving unilateral power to
the state superintendent of schools to abolish ethnic studies classes.
The fight to restore ethnic studies continues in Arizona and in other
states, as education continues to adapt to a changing population.
The Filmmakers
Ari Luis Palos and Eren Isabel McGinnis of Dos Vatos
Productions began working together in the green tobacco fields of
Kentucky during the production of POV’s Tobacco Blues.
While living in Oaxaca, México, they selected the work of virtuoso
guitarists and chanteuse Lila Downs for the soundtrack of their Global Voices and True Stories PBS series hit show Beyond the Border.
Developing their continued interest in documenting civil rights
battles, they recorded the voices of some of the finest opera singers in
the world while creating The Spirituals.
Above: Crystal leads demonstrations to save the ethnic studies classes in front of Tucson High.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
By
"Precious Knowledge"
reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in
public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American
studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the
stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes.
While 48 percent of Mexican American students currently drop out of
high school, Tucson High’s Mexican American Studies Program has become a
national model of educational success, with 93 percent of enrolled
students, on average, graduating from high school, and 85 percent going
on to attend college.
The filmmakers spent an entire year in the classroom filming this
innovative curriculum, documenting the transformative impact on students
who became engaged, informed, and active in their communities.
As the nation turns its focus toward a wave of anti-immigration
legislation in Arizona, the issue of ethnic chauvinism becomes a
double-edged weapon in a simmering battle, making front page news coast
to coast.
Above: Arizona State Superintendent Tom Horne calls for the banning of ethnic studies classes in Tucson.
Talkback
Do you think that teaching the history of specific ethnicities
promotes a sense among students of their own ethnic superiority? Do you
think it is important to dedicate class time to the history of minority
groups? Share your thoughts
When Arizona lawmakers pass a bill giving unilateral power to the
State Superintendent to abolish ethnic studies classes, teachers and
student leaders fight to save the program using texts, Facebook, optimism and a megaphone.
Lawmakers and politicians respond with a public relations campaign to
discredit the students, claiming that a textbook used in the classes, Paulo Freire’s "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed" teaches victimization and sedition. Officials ask that the classroom’s Che Guevara posters be replaced with portraits of founding father Benjamin Franklin.
Meanwhile, the students answer back by fighting for what they believe
is the future of public education for the entire nation, especially as
the Latino demographic continues to grow.
Independent Lens is on Facebook, and you can follow @IndependentLens on Twitter.'
On 10.10.10, that is October 10, 2010, people from all over the world who had access to a video camera and a way to upload it to ONE DAY ON EARTH (at Vimeo's video website) - uploaded their videos shot on that one day for a DVD project to illustrate the diversity of what went on ONE DAY ON EARTH. At this time you can go to Archive at One Day On Earth Videos and pick any one of the videos that were posted and watch them. I am including one of several here that I just watched. All were nice or great, but this one stood out to me.
.................................................... 16 YEAR OLD ETHIOPIAN MEBRAHTE BERAU ~ PLANS TO BE FIRST FEMALE PRIME MINISTER OF HER COUNTRY
The text with the video by the poster, Jered Love ~
One Day on Earth ~ One Day in the Life of Mebrahte Berau
Imagine1day is a growing global community of people making passionate contributions to ensure every child in Ethiopia receives a quality primary education by 2020. On 10.10.10., the imagine1day team filmed a day in the life of Mebrahte Berau, a 16-year-old girl from Wazza, a remote rural community in the region of Tigray, in Northern Ethiopia. Mebrahte is a student of imagine1day's Wazza Primary School She is in Grade 8 and is the first out of eight children in her family to attend school. You'll see in one day an incredible story unfold as she goes about her chores and works hard to be able to attend school.
Leilani Munter traveled to Taiji, Japan to bear witness to the needless slaughter of dolphins that occurs annually from September till March. These dolphins are rounded up to be sold to dolphinariums around the world and the dolphins that are not sold are killed and sold for meat. The meat that is gotten from these dolphins is toxic. These dolphins have high levels of mercury in them and poison those who eat the meat. We invite the viewer to travel to Taiji, Japan to also bear witness to this murder and to tell the world about what they've seen thru blogs, alerting the media and talking about it everywhere they go to raise awareness and stop this brutal and senseless killing of the dolphins and poisoning of the Japanese people.
PLEASE DO click on the post title and go to the world map and click on any marker to watch any video that was uploaded to participate in this project. Eventually, the team at ONE DAY ON EARTH will pick the best videos in their opinion and make a culminating DVD. You can order that DVD at the website.
.................................................... I found this wonderful video by Jered Love who is the same poster of the video above. He has wonderful videos at his Vimeo account ~ Jered Love ~ regarding Ethiopia.
Yesteryear 1988 Melville Elementary School Ms. Hammel, Music Teacher Providing an evening music workshop to parents with their children to let the parents experience being a music student along side their children
This Year I attended a meeting tonight, June 9, 2010, to bring attention to the cut in the Portsmouth Public Schools budget by 1.2 million dollars for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year. This will be a disastrous cut for our community, for our children and education. And the other reason for the meeting was to organize so that we can make an impact on the Portsmouth (Rhode Island) Town Council hearing to be held next Tuesday, June 15, at 7:00 p.m in the Portsmouth Town Hall chamber.
The state of Rhode Island is cutting educational aid funding to communities and if we don't pick up the slack, the children's education will be greatly diminished. This is nothing new. I have seen this happen starting when I was in college and the administration decided to eliminate the thriving music department. Then at the contractual March 1st deadline to send out "pick slips" (termination of employment) in my second year of teaching, I received my pink slip. And this, then, began a career-long effort to keep music in our schools.
June 2, 2010 Budget workshop at which the Town Council voted to tentatively cut $1.2 Million from the Portsmouth Public School proposed budget. Councilor Karen Gleason speaks to Superintendent of Schools Susan Lusi when she is asked to speak about the budget.
SCREAM NOW OR SCREAM LATER NOW, WILL BE THE EASIER SCREAM If parents don't "scream" every time this "slash and burn the education" is in the cards, the whole education system will fail. And when we have practices of firing entire teaching staffs as was the case in one Rhode Island town this year, because of low performances of the students, I would like to ask what we expect to happen when we can't get a grip of civility and find funding for the students of today?
Town Council Members of Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Town Council email addresses: pmcintyre@portsmouthri.com, hlittle@portsmouthri.com, kgleason@portsmouthri.com, khamilton@portsmouthri.com, jplumb@portsmouthri.com, dcanario@portsmouthri.com, jseveney@portsmouthri.com
Contractually all pink slips had to go out in March, so legally cutting more teachers isn't going to work. And the state mandates that the students get the arts, so what they will get is a "spit in the eye" of music, art and physical education most likely. It is hard to water down music in a schedule, for example, that has traditionally only taught music to elementary students once a week for less than an hour. You try teaching something or learning something that you have for 45 minutes or less a week. And the other cut likely is sports. As Ms. Leveque said at the meeting at the Portsmouth Middle School June 9th, it isn't like we can cut second grade.
................................................................ Uploaded by jmcdaid
Melville Peter Deffet as a 3rd Grader
Parents forming an excellent train for the song Little Black Train
My letter sent to the Portsmouth Town Council and copied to the Portsmouth School Committee:
June 9, 2010
Dear Member of the Portsmouth Town Council,
My name is Sandra Hammel, live in Portsmouth, taught music in the Portsmouth Public Schools starting in October 1973 and left after 29 years. All those years I stood up to keep music in our community's schools, attending many School Committee and Town Council meetings and going out on a limb to preserve the minimum of giving the students a weekly music class at the elementary level. Minimum. Music classes should be every day. Music skills are those very skills that the very young benefit from because they develop and nurture the readiness skills needed to learn to read - auditory processing skills, such as auditory awareness, auditory memory, auditory figure ground, auditory discrimination, etc.
A quick google search brought this up:http://www.succeedtoread.com/auditoryskills.html "A common weakness is in auditory discrimination skills. For example, many poor readers do not 'hear' differences in letter sounds. To them, the five short vowels sound almost exactly alike." Music lessons develop the abilities of the child to better discriminate differences of sound and therefore helps the child be more successful not only in the music classroom, but in the reading lessons. This is not "new" news, but well accepted for multiple years. However, many even who should know these things, don't. Oftentimes, teenagers who drop out of high school, do so because they have struggled with their reading skills which affect so many of the subjects required in high school. So if we are serious about keeping our students in school until they graduate this should be on our radar screen of what is a priority.
And rationalizing of the inclusion of music in our schools using this argument isn't the only reason for music's existence in our community's schools. Because this doesn't begin to express what is so advantageous from the standpoint of music's benefits itself. Music can stand on its own as reason enough to be part of the basics of education, although most people may not realize those reasons. But when tied to other subjects it seems to enable people to say, "Hey, well, maybe it is justifiable to include in the discourse of what should be included in the experience of our children's lives."
All the years I taught in Portsmouth Schools, I had no children going to the Portsmouth Public Schools because I had no children. That changed late in my teaching career because a young boy entered Hathaway Elementary School in the second grade who was in foster care. That boy has been my son since his fourth grade year and now is an exceptional engineering student at Northeastern University. I have no students in the Portsmouth Schools at this time. So, I speak now as a taxpayer who pays for others' children to have what they need. I care about the community. I care about the children in our community and the education that we as a community provide for the children.
I speak about music here. But, the Portsmouth Town Council members who voted to cut the Portsmouth Public School budget over a million dollars will necessitate cutting more than music from the schools. I say "You are wrong to do this". I am well aware how these things go. And I know that those who feel brave enough to cut the Portsmouth School budget have their supporters.
Even some of those who feel emboldened to cut, can step back, reconsider and make a braver decision and fund our schools. There will never be a day that this problem goes away. We just need to get smarter about how we are going to get through this immediate year's budget problem, but then get really smart and figure out ways to get ourselves a long range solution in action to thwart future years' similar dilemma. If we care.
There is no better investment that we can give ourselves as a community, than the education that we provide for our community's children. They are our future leaders. They are their future. Sincerely,
or Portsmouth will be the Pits regarding Education .................................................
................................................. Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools June 2, 2010 Portsmouth RI School Department Budget Meeting Part 1
First video of last week's town council/school committee budget workshop. There are 13 separate videos. The 1st one starts out discussing the open space/recreation bonds, but ends with Dr. Lusi presenting the FY 2011 budget.
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................................................. Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools June 2, 2010 Portsmouth RI School Department Budget Meeting Part 2 .................................................
................................................. Arguing Part 11 Motion to "Level Fund" Uploaded by PortsmouthSchools
Tribute to influential teachers ............................................. .............................................
The North Central College Choir that I sang in Uploaded by ilovemylifesblog
In honor of Paul Warren Allen, who was the head of the North Central College Music Department and Conductor of the North Central College Choir recorded here in 1968. Three years later the college eliminated the music department.
THE COMPLEXITIES OF HOW SOCIETY SETS UP SCHOOLS TO FAIL
Click to enlarge The Newport Daily News opinion article of February 25, 2010
Dear President Obama,
When I was volunteering for your campaign during the primary season in New Hampshire, you said that you expected and wanted citizens to tell you when you were off track or wrong, if you were elected President. I have been doing that for a year now, regarding Darfur and genocide. This letter however focuses on the issue of what makes our schools successful. What are the ingredients that make a school one that provides a quality education? It is an uneducated thought that results in believing high school students dropping out or doing poorly because of current teachers in a high school are the isolated rationale for the failures.
The comment that you said today: "... a school that fails its students year after year. That's what happened in Rhode Island," is simply the wrong choice of words and the lack of understanding is so sad to me. You are the President, you bear the responsibility to be more thoughtful and have a better grasp of what is going on about our schools.
I think you know this: schools are a microcosm of the larger society. The teachers are a very important part of the school system, but year after year what teachers are expected to be in order to fix the society's ills and the children that are immersed in that society is simply astonishingly overwhelming.
I taught in the Sturbridge, Massachusetts public school system my first year and had 950 students. Yes, 950. My second year through my 29th year, I taught in the Portsmouth Public Schools in Rhode Island and only had 700 students originally, which at the lowest number I had only 450 students. After that I retired, only to teach again, but in a private school, so that I could send my son to a private Quaker upper school, high school. He was a student of mine that I met in his second grade class. When I met him, he could not read, not because he wasn't bright, because he is extremely bright, but because of the hell that he lived in as a child with his birth mother. She was the reason his life was a hell. She was also poor.
I offered to be his mentor in school, gave him free piano lessons, took pictures of him, put them in a little photo album and wrote long captions on the backs of each picture to encourage him to teach himself to read. He loved that photo book. He didn't have photos of himself and he couldn't thank me enough the afternoon that I gave him the album. Long story short ~ eventually, I adopted him. But he moved in when was 10 years old. The groundwork had been set for him to fail. He had moved from foster home to foster home. And he had already experienced one failed adoption placement. Detachment disorder, PTSD, abuse and the worst, neglect, were all contenders for his wholeness to be splintered.
The reason I wanted him to be accepted to go to a private high school was many, but centrally because he had so many disadvantages in his childhood and I wanted him to have some advantages to help him be the best that he could be. I wanted him to have an excellent education. I didn't want him to lose his natural love of learning, which was evident when I first met him when he was 8. Here I was a public school teacher most of my life and I was choosing to send him to an expensive private school that had a high standard of excellence. But, then I had a high standard of excellence in my public school music classroom all the years I taught.
Here is my point of bringing up my son's situation. It wasn't the schools that failed him as much as it was his family, the adults in his life that should have provided a safe environment, but provided an environment that should have cemented a life of failure and depression for him. And it did for his older brother who never had the benefit of having someone tuck him in at night or read him a bedtime story or care that he have a good education. And it was the terrible mistakes of the foster care program which I would love to expose for the tragic and unspeakable handling of my son's life and his brothers'. Simply wrong - what they did time after time.
Although I live in Rhode Island, I don't know much about Central Falls, the town you slammed the teachers in the high school for the poor record of education. But I googled it and found it is a very poor town. The median income in 2000 was $22,628. Granted that is 10 years ago, but Rhode Island unemployment is very high, so I will assume the median isn't relatively any better today. It also has a high per centage of people who don't speak English.
This means that these are poor families, at best. Many families have no father. If there is child humiliation, abuse, neglect, abandonment, then also being poor is pretty much going to be a life of extremely difficult barriers to overcome for a chld. Furthermore, drugs may be an issue with at least a fair number of the adults in this town. Drugs were with my son's mother. And as he said, she was better when she was on the drugs, than when she wasn't. People who are addicted can be nastier when they need a fix, than when they are on their high. But regardless, neglect is the result of a parent on drugs.
Here is the last line of this section, highlighted for you: About 25.9% of families and 29.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.8% of those under age 18 and 29.3% of those age 65 or over.
As of the census[1] of 2000, there were 18,928 people, 6,696 households, and 4,359 families residing in the city. The population density was 15,652.0 people per square meli (6,039.8/km²). There were 7,270 housing units at an average density of 6,011.7/sq mi (2,319.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 57.16% White, 5.82% African American, 0.57% Native American, 0.68% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 28.35% from other races, and 7.38% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 47.77% of the population.
There were 6,696 households out of which 38.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.4% were married couples living together, 21.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.9% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.38.
In the city the population was spread out with 29.2% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 15.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 98.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $22,628, and the median income for a family was $26,844. Males had a median income of $23,854 versus $18,544 for females. The per capita income for the city was $10,825. About 25.9% of families and 29.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 40.8% of those under age 18 and 29.3% of those age 65 or over.
1) Central Falls - this is a high school that the whole staff was fired. And anyone knows, with any sense at all, that failure in our educational systems happens way before high school. So, to fire the high school staff, blaming that staff for the sins of the entire society, is ridiculous.
2) I would wager that many of these children in Central Falls go to school hungry and go to bed hungry.
3) Keep in mind that children who don't have a stable home life, cannot concentrate in school. No matter how excellent a teacher is.
When I was a teacher, it wasn't as bad as it is now. The paper work is overwhelming for teachers today. Teachers serve as more than just teachers. We are to solve all of society's ills. We are to take a child who is tired from lack of sleep, from extreme neglect, hunger, abuse, anxiety from a strident home life and bring up their test scores to compete with our mind's model. And don't think just because a child comes from a home that has the money to provide is simply better off and ready to learn. Oftentimes, that child is overindulged, has too much given to them without thought or merit and this child suffers from unengaged parents many times. I even saw this in the private school that I taught in. I can't remember where I heard this, but an overindulged child has been given a major disservice.
The private Quaker high school that my son graduated from has an excellent success rate, as I am sure your daughters' school has. But the enrollments at these schools are handpicked. The public school staff that you reprimanded and yet praised the superintendent for firing the teachers and principals didn't handpick the enrollment. And public school's "hands" are limited in dealing with behavior and what can be required by the parents and the students. Unlike a private school that has much more room to make its own rules.
We have children in the USA who are supposed to come to school ready to learn, yet they have multiple distractions in their lives that I didn't have when I was growing up. When I was a child, we had television, but much of the time there wasn't even a show on the two or three channels we had. And we had phones, but all the technology that is available to shorten our attention spans today wasn't present to cause us to have too many choices to soak up our abilities to concentrate.
We are asking a lot of our teachers and we give so little support to their effort. When I was a teacher, I never heard a parent say to me, "expect more of my child". Quite the contrary.
So, in the end the solution is not to fire the teachers and expect a different outcome. From the day the child is born, we as a society and the society within the child's family life, set the expectations, show our examples, and raise the child in an environment that sets him or her up to be ready to receive what the teacher can build upon.
So, we better begin way before high school to change what needs to be done to offer our children their optimal chance at learning. If a child can't read in the second grade, then he is not as likely to reach his potential in high school. And we failed that child way before high school. I found as a teacher of 5 to 10 year olds most of my career, that by second grade, children were set in their thinking as to their potential. Whether it be like my son who had been beaten, told he was worthless and stupid in an on-going routine before he moved out of his mother's reach or that a child feels worthless sitting in a classroom when he thinks everyone else gets "it" but him - it isn't just the teachers' jobs to make our education for our children the best. It is our job, too. The adults outside and inside the school system.
And yes, teachers aren't all excellent. As in all professions, some are excellent and some are mediocre and some are bad at what they do. But, then our government is also a microcosm for our society. It has been failing us, too. For a long time.
The four options given to "failing" schools are wide open for criticism. The teachers do have a contract. And I am certain this will be a court case. Your statement today, I found off base, full of some misguided arrogance. And not helpful. I wonder how many of these teachers would have glowing evaluations if they were teaching in the private school that your daughter have the fortune to attend. We as teachers have to work with the students in front of us. I imagine teachers are not too fond of you right now. And I am quite certain the teachers unions all recommended voting for you.
What now?
The turnaround you are assuming will happen because the entire staff at Central Falls public high school was fired will be a bit more complex than you dream of.
Just like the Darfur issue is a bit more complex than General Gration and you seem to think it is and warrants some serious thinking.
Not too happy with you.
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Click on post title for Portsmouth website.
Census 2000 Data
A summary profile for all Rhode Island towns from the Census 2000 characteristics is available from the RI Office of Statewide Planning at: http://www.planning.ri.gov/census/citytown.htm
My son is proof that hard work, parental involvement (though late for a child's development) and a good school environment can work wonders for a student. But, I maintain it takes all three, at a minimum. He is one of the most exceptional students in the engineering school he attends - so much so, that his university in Boston offered him the opportunity to double up his undergraduate courses with graduate courses, earning both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in the amount of time it takes a student to earn only their Bachelor's.
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Visit this website... Don't be silent when using your voice is so vital and so easy:
sudansham2010.org See 50 days of actions running up to the Sudan April 11, 2010 Elections
Sandra Hammel Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI Leading Rhode Island, Day 6, Feb 25, 2010 in Sudan Sham 2010 campaign
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the "Sandra Hammel" currently with the Red, White and Blue Sudan Sham Election 2010 avatar
Tweet this button to read: @JimLangevin Call for a Intelligence Committee special hearing re: #Sudan policy review and demand pressures and consequences #SudanSham "The Most Important Office is That of Private Citizen" Louis D. Brandeis
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
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Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
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RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
Double Click on Videos to Enlarge
Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
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Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
