For those on Fox News trying to convince us that the idea of separation of church and state is a recent invention, yeah not so much.

As you can see there is no date on the comic to tell us when it was printed, however a quick Google search of the cartoonist Watson Heston tells us that he died in 1905.

So that should provide insight into how long this debate has been raging.

Especially considering the fact that it was not until 1870 that all of the states at that time even had public schools.

If we are to continue to provide our students with a well rounded education job one should be keeping religion as far away from our schools as humanly possible.

Conservatives finally notice that a teacher has been asking his students to recite a rewritten Pledge of Allegiance for the past twenty years. Did you guess they were outraged? Well you were right.

Courtesy of Campus Reform: 

A tenured professor at Metropolitan State University (MSU) in Denver required students pledge their allegiance to a racist, sexist, homophobic America that targets "blacks," and "women who want abortions," in the name of Jesus. 

 Dr. Charles Angeletti, a self-proclaimed atheist and socialist professor of American Civilization at the publicly funded Denver university, required students recite the satirical Pledge of Allegiance during the fall 2014 semester according to a class flier obtained by Campus Reform. 

"I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American and to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you if you don't watch your step.”

Seems accurate to me. 

When asked why he had the students recite this, the professor responded thusly:

“We’re very racist, we’re very repressive, we’re very Christian oriented, we don’t tolerate other kinds of thinking in this country,” Angeletti told Campus Reform. 

“I could go on and on—and do in my classes for hours about things that we need to do to make this a better country.” 

Angeletti, who has taught at MSU since 1967, has a B+ grade on RateMyProfessor.com, but one former student addressed Dr. Angeletti’s liberal bias.

Dr. Angeletti admits he is “biased” and says that he has distributed the pledge for 20 years because it helps people look differently about what goes on in this country. 

“We are scared to death of anything un-American,” Angeletti said. 

During the interview, Angeletti repeatedly affirmed his love for America, his disdain for “family values people,” and his course, clarifying that he supports diversity of thought and allows his students to “say and do anything.”

Of course this freaked out those on the Right, including Greta Van Susteren who used this to further the Fox News agenda of attacking "liberal" education in America.

It should be noted that this is a UNIVERSITY class that is offered as an elective and is not mandatory for graduation.

Personally I think educators who challenge student's perception of their country, their religion, and even themselves are helping to create a generation of rational thinkers and that can only be good for the country.

One New York teacher's resignation letter will break your heart and frighten you for the future of education in America.

Courtesy of Democratic Underground: 

Mr. Casey Barduhn, Superintendent 
Westhill Central School District 
400 Walberta Park Road 
Syracuse, New York 13219 

Dear Mr. Barduhn and Board of Education Members: 

It is with the deepest regret that I must retire at the close of this school year, ending my more than twenty-seven years of service at Westhill on June 30, under the provisions of the 2012-15 contract. I assume that I will be eligible for any local or state incentives that may be offered prior to my date of actual retirement and I trust that I may return to the high school at some point as a substitute teacher. 

As with Lincoln and Springfield, I have grown from a young to an old man here; my brother died while we were both employed here; my daughter was educated here, and I have been touched by and hope that I have touched hundreds of lives in my time here. I know that I have been fortunate to work with a small core of some of the finest students and educators on the planet. 

I came to teaching forty years ago this month and have been lucky enough to work at a small liberal arts college, a major university and this superior secondary school. To me, history has been so very much more than a mere job, it has truly been my life, always driving my travel, guiding all of my reading and even dictating my television and movie viewing. Rarely have I engaged in any of these activities without an eye to my classroom and what I might employ in a lesson, a lecture or a presentation. With regard to my profession, I have truly attempted to live John Dewey’s famous quotation (now likely cliché with me, I’ve used it so very often) that “Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.” This type of total immersion is what I have always referred to as teaching “heavy,” working hard, spending time, researching, attending to details and never feeling satisfied that I knew enough on any topic. I now find that this approach to my profession is not only devalued, but denigrated and perhaps, in some quarters despised. STEM rules the day and “data driven” education seeks only conformity, standardization, testing and a zombie-like adherence to the shallow and generic Common Core, along with a lockstep of oversimplified so-called Essential Learnings. Creativity, academic freedom, teacher autonomy, experimentation and innovation are being stifled in a misguided effort to fix what is not broken in our system of public education and particularly not at Westhill. 

A long train of failures has brought us to this unfortunate pass. In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale. The repercussions of these ill-conceived policies will be telling and shall resound to the detriment of education for years to come. The analogy that this process is like building the airplane while we are flying would strike terror in the heart of anyone should it be applied to an actual airplane flight, a medical procedure, or even a home repair. Why should it be acceptable in our careers and in the education of our children? 

My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic “assessments”) or grade their own students’ examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom. Teacher planning time has also now been so greatly eroded by a constant need to “prove up” our worth to the tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and “artifacts” from our teaching) that there is little time for us to carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America, which seems doubly appropriate to this case. 

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates’ hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered. 

For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, “Words Matter” and “Ideas Matter”. While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don’t feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean. 

Sincerely and with regret, 
Gerald J. Conti 
Social Studies Department Leader 

The conservatives have wanted for years to destroy public education in this country, but I never thought they could pull it off as long as we remained vigilant.

I am sad to see that they are winning. 

Teacher briefly suspended for saying she would kill all black people if she only had 10 days to live. BRIEFLY suspended?

Courtesy of 10 On Your Side:

A teacher at Camden County High School is under investigation for allegedly making racist comments in a classroom. 

“It is very disturbing,” said parent Kimberley Ashcraft. 

Ashcraft told 10 On Your Side the disturbing incident happened a couple weeks ago. Her daughter told her about the conversation with math teacher Cynthia Ramsey. 

“That’s when she conveyed to me that Mrs. Ramsey had indicated that if she only had 10 days to live that she would kill all black people,” Ashcraft told WAVY.com. 

Ashcraft’s daughter was in Ramsey’s classroom eating lunch. Ashcraft said there were several others students around when Ramsey allegedly made the racist remarks. 

“I was completely shocked,” Ashcraft said. “I asked her again, ‘are you sure that was what you heard?’ I could not have imagined a teacher saying that.” 

School officials began an investigation, and even the Camden County Sheriff’s Office was called in to help. The sheriff told 10 On Your Side several of the students told the same story. Ramsey was placed on suspension with pay, and after a couple days was back in the classroom.

Look I usually am all about supporting teachers, but if this is true the teacher not only promoted racist ideas but also murder.

If I was a parent at this school I would instruct my child to stay far away from this teacher, and put quite a lot of time into trying to get her fired. 

Network Marketing Explained

Network Marketing 101

Did you know that Network marketing has become widely popular in the past few years, promising people with a monthly income of at least a few hundred dollars each week, without having to quit their current jobs. 

It\'s a new concept in the information age, and more and more are joining the bandwagon. All you really need is a good working computer and little or zero start up cost. Here are some more tips on how you can maximize the opportunity.

About Network Marketing

Network marketing is also called MLM or multi-level marketing. This is a new marketing strategy, wherein the sales force will be given compensation for a variety of procedures. They can make money through sales of available products, recruitment of more members into the company and through their downline or the people under them as they move through various levels of incentives or compensation.

Classification of Sea Waves

Classification of Sea Waves.

Waves / wave that occurred in the sea can be classified into several types depending on generator power. 

Sea wave generator can be caused by: wind (wind waves), sun-moon gravitational pull-earth (tidal waves), seismic (volcanic or tectonic) on the seabed (the tsunami), or waves caused by movement of the ship.

Waves that occur daily and taken into account in the field of coastal engineering is the wave of wind and tides (tidal).

The findings of the new microbes on the Titanic wreck

Microbes

Microbes that have not ever seen has been discovered in the wreckage of the Titanic.
 
Titanicae Halomonas Bacteria found in the structure of rust or keroposan shaped like icicles formed on the corroded metal. Various bacteria and fungi that grow in the structure-which was first discovered in Titanic-feeding is actually a rusty metal.

Online Education For Kids

Online Education For Kids

Children learn eye hand coordination and mental strategy. Some are even educational and they can learn about history and culture as in the age of empire game. 

Children are blank slates. It is up to us as parents and family to fill them full of knowledge. Children will themselves work to develop their focus and skills as they develop and these learning games will help.

Online Education: an Advanced Education Feature to Stay Long

Online Education

To get successful in life, a good job and sound education are the two most essential requirements. At times one gets stuck up with the work so much that s/he can not dedicate its lion’s share of time to attending the campus classes. 

But now, with induction of online education or e-learning programs, getting quality education beside other assignments have also been possible. Most importantly, online programs are run by highly creditable

Homeschooling

Homeschooling

Homeschooling or home school (also called home education or home learning) is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school. Although prior to the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws, most childhood education occurred within the family or community,

Cartoons From The 80s, 90s

Add caption

Judging from the slew of searches for terms like "cartoon characters from the 80s," "Ren and Stimpy," and "Rugrats," it looks like the Facebook profile trend we wrote about recently has officially exploded.

As we explained, cartoon character profile pictures are going viral on Facebook as users switch their photos to images of their favorite cartoons from their youth.

Education for creative children, pioneered in the womb

Education for creative

STILL a lot of parents are less aware of the importance of developing children intelligence in the womb. Some parents think, that intelligence school affairs.


The task for parents to keep contents secure, give birth safely, and teach good manners before entering kindergarten or playgroup. After that, let the teachers who fill the child's head with intelligence and insight count. This assumption was wrong.

Three Things Fundamental

"Education for creative or intelligent child was pioneered in the womb. For that, there are three things that must be prepared. Namely nutrition, affection, and stimulation. All must be prepared in the womb until the first three years, "explained Dr. Soedjatmiko, SpA (K), MSI found on Eka Hospital, Tangerang, Sunday (14/11). According to him, the first three years is the period of most rapid brain development.

Beware of Dangers of Plastic! Learn Before Too Late.

Already many people are giving warnings, rumors, gossip and even a magazine article about the dangers of plastic. But still only a handful of people who menggubris, care, or to investigate further.
Plastic is one of the ingredients that we can meet at almost every item. Starting from drink bottles, TV, refrigerator, pralon pipe, plastic laminating, dentures, compact disk (CD), polish (nail cleaner), automobiles, machinery, military equipment to pesticides. Therefore, we can almost certainly never use and have items that contain Bisphenol-A. One of the things that wear plastic and contain Bisphenol A is a food and beverage industries as food storage, plastic food cover, mineral water bottles, baby bottles and even now there are baby bottles and food storage that do not contain bisphenol A that is safe for food use . One test proved 95% of people never wear articles containing bisphenol-A.