Common Core = Federalized Standards

Common Core or as I like to refer to it is Communist Core or Commie Core, has no place in our Republic.   Good news coming from Seattle 100% of juniors at Nathan Hale High School opted out of testing, and your children should, too.  The following report appears on the King 5.com website.  

Cathy

No juniors show up to take SBAC at Seattle high school

SEATTLE -- Not a single 11th grade students showed up to take the SBAC test at Nathan Hale High School this week, a Seattle Public Schools spokesperson confirmed.

The news that 100% of the 11th graders opted out of the test was first reported on an education blog.

Earlier this year, teachers at Nathan Hale passed a resolution against in the Common Core Standards test, but SPS Superintendent Larry Nyland threatened teachers with the loss of their teaching licenses if they didn't administer the test, according to the Seattle Education blog.

There are two more days of testing next week, according to SPS spokesperson Stacy Howard. She said the district would address the opt out numbers once testing was finished.

SPS reported that over 100 juniors also declined to take the test at Garfield High School earlier in April, and a number of parents and teachers have spoken out against the exam.
Students who opt out will receive a "0" as their score, which will impact the passing rate for the school.

Washington state public schools are required to give the Smarter Balanced Assessment test to meet the federal requirements of No Child Left Behind."

Visit King 5.com, for more pictures and links.


"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." - George Santayana

Jody Underwood live on WNTK

School Board President, Jody Underwood  was interviewed live on WNTK, yesterday.  Jody discusses school choice with Ben Sarro.

Cathy

Today is Earth Day - If I wanted America to Fail

Granite Grok

Superintendents v. School Boards

Jorge Mesa-Tejada delivers our education update on what an SAU is (School Administrative Unit) and how Superintendents–the administrative leaders of the administrative units–have seized powers reserved to the School Boards

Above is a link to the Granite Grok radio show, please take the time to listen.  What has been pointed out in several meetings, by Jim Peschke, is eloquently explained in this podcast.  The School Board members are in charge not the superintendents.  The state school board association is wrongly informing members.   Please take 13.27 minutes to listen to this show.  This is why school groups and P.T.O. members try to get puppets for the school board.  These groups do not want informed, independent thinkers on school boards.

Cathy

Individual Rights

Founding Principle of the United States of America—Individual Rights

By, Charlotte Cushman

“I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence.  The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully – and 200 years have not been enough for other countries to understand it.” - Ayn Rand

Our country was the first and only country in history that was founded on a brand new idea, the idea that people have rights. These rights are:

• the right to one’s own life (which includes that which one has worked for)

• the right to one’s own liberty (freedom to live the way you want provided you don’t hurt anyone else)

• the right to pursue one’s own happiness (not everyone else’s—yours)

When America was created, there was another new idea -- the idea that the only legitimate purpose of government was to protect these rights, to make sure no person violated the rights of another. Government was not there to tell men what to do, or how to live their lives, or to take by force what each man has earned by his own efforts to give to another. Initiation of force was banned from human relationships. The only proper use of force was in retaliation against those who had initiated force or fraud against another. Force was only used as a means of defending rights through three branches of government: the police, the military and the courts. And that’s it.  The purpose of government was to only do that one thing and nothing else.  It was to protect individual rights.

The implementation of these two ideas created something unseen before on the face of the earth. For the first time men were free from other men. They were no longer subservient to a lord, master or king. They could live their lives and pursue their goals independently yet associate with each other voluntarily instead of by force. With individual rights as a guiding principle, all other freedoms fell into place: economic freedom, religious freedom, social freedom, freedom of association, contractual freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to bear arms and so on.  And look what happened. The United States of America became the happiest, wealthiest, most prosperous, most advanced nation on earth. It was also the most moral country because it recognized individual rights.

But the concept of rights has been corrupted over time.  Now people claim they have a “right” or are entitled to things like an education, medical care, food, housing and so on.  But if people have a “right” to something, it means that somebody has to provide it.  And when someone has to provide something against his will for someone else, there is only one word to describe it—slavery.  Yet if man’s survival is the objective, freedom is imperative.  Since man does not automatically know how to survive, he has to use his mind in order to figure out how to live.  He requires freedom so that he can think and act in accordance with the conclusions of his mind.  Therefore, a moral country provides the conditions necessary for this to happen and there is only one political system that does this--Capitalism. 

Capitalism is a social system based on the concept of property rights.  Without property rights, you have no right to your own life.  If you can’t keep what you have worked for in order to support and enjoy your life, if you have no say in what happens to your property, you have no power over your decisions and actions, which means your rights to your life, your liberty and the pursuit of your happiness have been taken away.  Is this happening here in the United States?  Yes, it is.  Can it be saved?  Only if Americans discover our founding principle of individual rights and eliminate the government programs and laws that don’t protect them.  Here are just a few examples: 

• Re-distribution of wealth doesn’t protect rights.  The man who earns an honest living has his money taken against his will (theft) to be given to someone else.  His right to what he has worked for, that which supports his life, has been violated. 
• Socialized medicine doesn’t protect rights or life.  The doctors become slaves of the state that regulates how they should practice medicine and the patients no longer can choose the best treatments for the best prices.  Their right to use their own minds to decide what to do and to form contractual agreements with each other has been violated. 
• Social Security doesn’t protect rights.  The man who wants to invest for his future the way he chooses can’t, because his money is taken away from him to give to someone else.  His right to his property, to what he has earned, has been violated. 
• Regulations on businesses don’t protect rights. The businessman can’t hire or fire someone without going through a “process” dictated by the government.  His right to use his mind to make decisions regarding voluntary associations has been violated.  When oil companies aren’t allowed to drill for oil,  their property rights are violated.  Companies that have to follow government mandates lose the freedom to be innovative.  The right to think, form conclusions and take action with property has been violated.
• Anti-trust laws don’t protect rights.  The businessman is treated as a criminal no matter what he does.  If his prices are too high, too low or the same as his competitors, he can be prosecuted at the whim of some bureaucrat.  His right to his property (to charge the price he wants in order to sell it) has been violated.
• Bail-outs and subsidies don’t protect rights. The government decides who succeeds and who fails instead of citizens who trade with each other.  Taxpayers pay to support businesses by force through their tax dollars and become poorer because of it.  The right to freedom of association and property has been violated.
• Welfare programs don’t protect rights.  The person who wants to give money to a charity of his choice has his money confiscated for government programs that he may or may not support.  His right to use his property (his money) the way he wants has been violated.
• Bans on consumption of certain foods don’t protect rights.  The right to one’s own body is a property right and this is violated.
• Taxation without representation doesn’t protect rights.  Money is stolen from one group of men to give to another.  Re-distribution of other people’s money is a direct violation of their property rights.

Any violation of our rights completely contradicts the ideas of our Founding Fathers who were very serious about individual freedom.  On February 25, 2011 Yaron Brook gave a rousing speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlxbi5syxCM at the Tea Party Patriots Summit in Arizona where he pointed this out about the Founding Fathers: “They didn’t say, ‘We just want a little bit less taxes, please, King George.’ They didn’t say, ‘Give us some liberty, please, King George.’ They changed the world because they asked a fundamental question. And the question they asked is, ‘Who does your life – does my life – belong to?’ That’s a question that people had never asked, because it was always obvious: your life belongs to the state, to the king, to some emperor, to somebody else – and it’s your job to do his bidding. The Founders of this country said ‘No: sovereignty belongs with the individual. My life is mine. Your life is yours. And nobody can take that away – not a king; but not even a majority!"

If we want to restore freedom to our country, we must re-discover our roots. Our Founding Fathers were so committed to their revolutionary ideas that they were willing to put their lives on the line for the document that laid the moral foundation for the United States of America—the Declaration of Independence.  We need to be willing to do the same.  We need to be willing to stand up and say: “My life belongs to me, not to the government, not to the state, not to King George, not to a welfare program, but…to me!”  We need to believe in that principle and commit to that principle, the principle of individual rights.

The above post is a guest post by Charlotte Cushman, author of the book, 

Montessori: Why It Matters For Your Child's Success And Happiness, available on Amazon.   This article is cross posted on other sites.

Cathy

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing


"Much of the criticism focuses on the sheer number of tests now being
applied in public schools: From pre-kindergarten through grade 12,
students take an average of 113 standardized tests, according to a
survey by the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents large
urban districts.


Of these, only 17 are mandated by the federal
government, but the backlash that began when No Child Left Behind
started to hold teachers, schools and districts strictly accountable for
their students' progress has only grown stronger since "Common Core"
gave the criticism a common rallying cry.


"There is a widespread
sentiment among parents, students, teachers, administrators and local
elected officials that enough is enough, that government mandated
testing has taken over our schools," Schaeffer said."

To read the rest of the article visit the WSBtv.com website.

Cathy

What Were they Thinking?

If anyone pays attention they know that research shows that anti-bullying campaigns actually create bullying.  What a lovely way to teach children vulgarities, encourage bullying, and to waste tax dollars.  I think some educrats are in capable of logical thought.   The following piece appears on the Union Leader in full.   Considering the large numbers of students not performing at grade level on standardized tests maybe these schools should focus more on education, and not political indoctrination and social engineering. 

Cathy

Kids pulled from school over anti-bullying exercise
By DALE VINCENT

New Hampshire Union Leader

MANCHESTER — The father of a Hallsville School fourth-grader wants the principal reprimanded, or fired, for allowing an anti-bullying exercise that asked students to curse in class. 

Keith Katsikis said he and his wife have pulled their three Hallsville students out of the school after they found out about the exercise he believes is inappropriate for children.

Katsikas has started a petition calling for the firing of Hallsville principal Christi Michaud. 

He also sent copies of his letter to the school superintendent, school board members, the mayor, aldermen and the woman who presented the exercise.

“I wanted to make sure everybody saw it,” he said.

School district officials said they are investigating.

Katsikas said he found out about the exercise when he and his wife picked their children up from school Wednesday, as they do every day, and his son told them: “Something really weird happened.”

Katsikas said his son told him that a woman entered the classroom to teach a lesson on bullying. She taped a life-size paper man on the wall and passed out small pieces of paper for students to write vulgarities like several four-letter words and derogatory terms towards certain groups. The word or phrase had to be something that someone has said to them in the past. She collected the papers and mixed them up in a basket and then had children read the word or phrase, so the class could hear them.

Katsikas said the words were vulgarities and his son recalled Evans saying: “Say it like you mean it.” Katsikas said many children protested reading the words, so she allowed them to pick a different word, but they had to participate. She also had them rip a piece off the figure.

When all the children had finished, and only the head of the figure remained, the children had to tape their piece of the figure back in place and apologize.

Katsikas’ son told him Evans said the moral was:

“When you swear at someone, that person can never be put back together again.”
Katsikas said his wife went online and found an exercise on the Education World website, addressing the issue of a new classmate trying to fit in that calls for children to say something “mean” before tearing off a piece of the figure. After the children apologize and tape the pieces back in place, the website says: “But it doesn’t look the same and the message is that ‘scars remain ... chances are they will never go away.’”

Katsikas said: “Even if the lesson was given as described in this plan, it is awful.”

After hearing what had happened in his son’s class, Katsikas said he entered the school and wanted to speak with Michaud. She was busy, so he spoke with assistant principal Patricia Auger and when he explained what had happened, he said: “She was physically sickened.”

Katsikas and his wife have been invited to meet Monday morning with School Superintendent Debra Livingston, Michaud and other parties involved, as well as Ward 7 school board member Ross Terrio.

Katsikas said he wants to make sure principals “are mandated to send home notices when something like this happens.”

Since he’s planning on home schooling his children, he said he’s pursuing the parental notification issue for the benefit of the children who remain in the public schools. His philosophy is: “Let them live and learn at a child’s pace.” Katsikis said his opinion is that the Manchester schools are: “A little too risky for my children.”
dvincent@unionleader.com
- See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150417/NEWS20/150419162#sthash.38oyDxA4.dpuf

Kids pulled from school over anti-bullying exercise

By DALE VINCENT