Bullying

Now here is a real I don't get it.  There is an article in today's Free Press about the need for Michigan to pass an anti-bullying law.  This law would require all Michigan school districts to have an anti-bullying policy and to spell out what is appropriate student behavior and how bullying will be handled.  Opponents like Gary Glenn, the leader of American Family Association-Michigan say the bill as it is written "promotes a homosexual agenda by creating a special protection for gays and lesbians.  Here is how the bill, which failed the first time it was introduced, defines bullying; "As any act based on a pupil's actual or perceived religion, race, color, national origin, age,sex, sexual orientation, disability, height, weight, gender identity, socioeconomic status, or any other distinguishing characteristic, or is based on association with another person who has or is perceived to have any of these characteristics."  I don't get how Glenn thinks this will create a special protection for gays and lesbians.  I think it offers gays and lesbians the same protection as every other group the bill's writers have tried to cover.  Doesn't Glenn think gays and lesbians should have the same protection against being bullied as any other group of students?  He says, as does the senate floor leader Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, that this is enumerating and the bill should just state, "no bullying," because anyone whose enumerated would be treated differently.  What?  Here's what I think.  Gary Glenn is hoping that by stating that the bill will "promote a homosexual agenda by creating a special protection for gays and lesbians," his followers will blindly believe this and continue to hate homosexuals.  He, and those who think like him, don't care that all of our young people need to be protected from bullies, especially bullies who have reached adulthood.
Rosemary

Since it is Halloween time I thought I would post a very scary thought, courtesy of Todd Spencer of the Detroit Free Press.  "Every Republican running has campaigned against the Democrat's health care bill and promised to repeal it.  But with the Senate likely to remain in Democratic hands, that's not really an option.  A GOP House would try to pass budgets starving the funding and personnel needed to put the measures in place."  Why?  So the failure can be blamed on President Obama and the Democrats and that won't be the case at all, however, it will go down in history that way, and that is mighty scary because it won't be the truth.  What has happened to that?  The truth I mean.  We have become so immersed in the political game that we don't know what the truth is anymore, let alone who speaks it.  You know what is even scarier?  When we hear the truth, we simply refuse to believe it.  Please do not respond with specifics of the health care bill, I am sure there are pieces of it that need tweaking, so why not tweak as opposed to dumping a well meaning initiative?  My point is not the health care bill, my point is that I believe we live in a very scary time because there are two distinct parties and one land, and any way I look at that, it's frightening.  Yes, there are two sides to every story, but the two side should be working towards the same ending, our sides our not.  They both want to win and the truth of that is we are all going to lose. 
Rosemary

Revisiting the Detroit blog

 I feel the need to revisit my Detroit blog because rereading it, I don't like the way it sounds.  I am not apologizing for the message because I still believe what I wrote has merit, but I didn't deliver it very eloquently.  I did say that Detroit is a city filled with uneducated, drug dependent, unsupervised adolescents. Perhaps I should have said that Detroit is filled with young people with potential, but because the leaders are so ineffective they are left without the proper tools to become knowledgeable.  The parents of many of the children in the city are themselves addicted to drugs, so where is the hope for the children of Detroit?  They are left to fend for themselves, and drugs are easy to find and make you feel good for a time.  Unfortunately they are also expensive, so now the addicted children need to find a way to pay for the drugs so they turn to a life of crime.  I also said that the people of Detroit are killing each other daily.  Perhaps I should have said that there is real fear among many people who live in the city because guns are so easy to come by and there is little protection for the innocent citizens trying to just get by and stay alive.  I said the school system was the reason the entire state of Michigan has to answer to the Legislature for poor performance.  Perhaps I should have said that the Detroit Public School System has needed an overhaul for a long time and a lot of money has been spent trying to do just that but the school board simply doesn't care about the children of Detroit, nor does the City Counsel.




I know that's old, but what's changed?

I said that there are no jobs in Detroit because there are too many people who don't want to work as their welfare checks pay for the things they need.  Perhaps I should have said there are not jobs in Detroit because the city has yet to embrace a climate of professionalism, intelligence and  a basic feeling of being safe and feeling welcomed.





I am not quite sure what this even means, but I don't see how it presents a good image of the city of Detroit.  If I was a visitor from a foreign land wanting to check out Detroit and saw this video,  I would run like hell in the opposite direction.

The blog I am re-blogging on came about because I read an article that quoted Mayor Bing as saying he wanted to be part of the renaissance of the city of Detroit, and that statement simply made me mad.  A renaissance is a rebirth, a revival, according to the good old dictionary.  It is the revival of classical art, literature, and learning.  Too many leaders for too long have been talking about being part of the renaissance of Detroit.  Why?  Because it sounds good, but what exactly do they mean by it?  For me, there is only one group of people that need to be targeted to make Detroit the city that will rise from the ashes, THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE!  Help them and you help Detroit.

And I do need to respond to my own mention of the Jalen Rose Academy that was mentioned in a response to a response to my blog.  If Detroit wants to entice its young people to set their sights high, why, why, why name a charter school after a basketball player who along with his fellow "fab five" teammates "became pioneers in bringing "hip hop flavor" to the game with their trash talk, long baggy shorts, shaved heads, black shoes, and black socks^?"  I mean come on, aren't there black teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, authors, entrepreneurs, military officers, carpenters, electricians, financial advisers, presidents or other educated professionals who are deserving of being named as a person to aspire to?  And if there aren't then maybe it's because for too long the children of Detroit thought the only thing they could become was a basketball player.

So my point was and is, if we don't start talking about the big 'ol elephant in the room, nothing is going to change in the city of Detroit.

Rosemary

Detroit

"I love this city.  I love its people,...I want to be part of the renaissance of this city." Mayor Dave Bing in a speech to the Economic club as reported in the Free Press.  This make me sick.  The city of Detroit sucks.  Stop pretending that Detroit can be major city of business or pleasure, contributing economically to the state of Michigan until we admit that it is a poor city filled with uneducated, drug dependent, unsupervised adolescents, criminal elements and welfare recipients who have no intention of changing.  Because until those in power admit it, it won't change!  People in Detroit kill each other daily.  The school system is so bad the entire state of Michigan is suffering for it.  There is no business section, no industry, no retail or manufacturing because no one wants to actually go to work because they can get their booze and dope without a paycheck.  Detroit is dominated by a culture that needs to change form within.  Bill Cosby has said it, but the leaders of Detroit still insist that if they were given more they could do more.  STOP IT!  And stop allowing the very people who should be caring about the welfare of this city to drag into the depths of Hell.  Admit that there is so much to be done, so much that needs to change, that no one man or woman can do it.  It will take a village so you better start rounding up neighborhood leaders and empowering them.  Anyone in Detroit who is ready to blame anyone but themselves, get rid of them, because you know what?  They don't care about Detroit, they care only about themselves and they are killing this city.

IMAGINE

"...and no religion to."  I never missed these words in the song, but I never quite understood what John Lennon meant.  I do now.  Money is not the root of all evil, religion is.  I am not talking about faith, believing and loving your God, I am talking about using your religion to condone your hate.  You are wrong if you cause others to break or to harm themselves.  You are wrong if you think you are superior to another human being or that God or Jesus loves you more than another of his creatures.  You are wrong if you tell your children that others are not as worthy as they are.  You are wrong if in the name of God you tell another they cannot be who they are.  You are wrong if you think that you belong to the one true faith and that believers of other doctrines are condemned to never see the face of God.  Religion is the reason for most wars, and God is peaceful, so how does that make any sense?  Religion is the reason for acts of torture and murder,  and God is accepting and forgiving, so how does that make any sense?  So many  people today walk around and talk about knowing Jesus and being a Christian, and then they deliver their message, "If you are not just like me, you are not acceptable in God's eyes and I can hurt you."  I don't get it.  Oh and for anyone who doesn't know what precipitated this blog; there is nothing wrong with being Gay, but there is something very wrong with those who think they can cause a person who is gay any pain.  So may I suggest that you get closer to your God and to Jesus, pray for the forgiveness that he will give you if you change your intolerant, hateful, and very non-Christian ways.
Rosemary

The Pre-K Gap

Also in Neatoday, I read an article titled The Pre-K Gap - Our lack of quality schools for small children has big consequences.  A quote from the article; "Developed countries differ markedly in the way they care for and educate young children, and in the extent of government support.  These national policies have a significant impact on children's later success in school."
In this article I read some interesting facts based on data  from Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMMS), like increased government spending for preschool pays off in higher fourth grade test scores in math and science (who would have thought?).  In another study it was found that as preschool participation moves toward being universal, middle school test scores go up and inequality in test scores goes down.
The article states that high quality early care and education can improve children's long-term cognitive development and school success, but that here in the good ol' U. S. of A. one year in a part-time program (referring to Head Start), staffed by inadequately paid teachers with widely varying qualifications has little permanent impact on children's learning.  I want to know why we had to do a "study" to find this out, I could have told them!
Here in America we do not do any of the fabulous things for our little ones, that so many other countries do.  We don't provide universal preschool beginning at age 3 and support quality childcare for children under three as France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands do.  We don't provide an unconditional right to full-day, full-year childcare from the end of paid parental leave through entry to elementary schools, as they do in Finland.  We talk a lot here in America about this subject but we do very little, because nothing has changed.  According to the article; the federal Head Start program was a wonderful idea in 1965, but it needs to be revamped.  The teachers are underpaid, and there aren't enough really good ones (maybe because they are paid so little to do so much). 
If our political leaders want our students to achieve like students in other developed countries are achieving, why don't they take a look at how these countries are taking care of and educating their children?  And instead of cutting funds to schools and programs that take care of our children, why don't they get that quality costs, it just does.
Rosemary

They're Number One

In Neatoday I read that Finland is now number one in student achievement.  It is important to note a few things before I go on, Finland was not succeeding educationally in the 1970's, so they have come from behind and it didn't  happen overnight, it took a few decades for the country to get where they are today in the educational arena.  I mention this because here in America, the legislature as well as the public want change to occur now so we fix everything.  Instead, we need to slow down, step back and with real vision, plan a course for success, oh and here's an idea; incude teachers in the planning process.  Finland did a remarkable thing, they spent money on education.  They didn't cut funds, they SPENT MONEY  to create a better educational system for the children of their country and this includes immigrants from such places as Afghanistan, Bosnia, India, Iran, Iraq, Serbia, Somalia, Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam.  Here are some interesting ideas from Finland:

• teachers receive three years of high-quality graduate preparation completely at the expense of the state
• a major overhaul of the curriculum and assessment system designed to ensure access to a thinking curriculum
• highly trained TEACHERS design curriculum around the very lean national standards   

Here is an interesting quote from the article; "The Finns have worked systematically over 35 years to make sure that competent professionals (teachers), who can craft the best learning conditions for all students are in all schools, rather than thinking that standardized instruction and related testing can be brought in at the last minute to improve student learning and turn around failing schools" (well DUH).

Here is what Finland has not adopted; standardization of curriculum enforced by frequent external tests, adoption of educational ideas from external sources, (like politicians!), and adoption of high-stakes accountability  policies.  Instead Finland has created a culture of diversity, trust and respect within their society and within the educational system. 

Here are a few more differences that you might think are important: Finnish schools are generally small, fewer than 300 pupils with class sizes in the 20s and are uniformly well equipped!  The notion of caring for students educationally and personally is a central principle in the schools.  All students receive a free meal daily, as well as free health care. 

All I hear our politicians say is "It's about the kids."  Bullshit, it's about them getting reelected.  Our leaders make educational decisions based on how they can save money but still make it look like they know what is best for kids, and they make decisions based on something someone else says that they then take completely out of context and run with.  Here in America there is no plan!  There is no vision and there is no caring about the kids!  You really have to start understanding this, politicians today want one thing, to have a job and they will say anything to ensure that you will let them stay. 

My next blog will continue this reality that in America, those in charge, really do not care about our young people. 

Rosemary