In the current issue of Monthly Review, Peter McLaren and Ramin Farahmandpur place the standards-based educational reform movement, and particularly the No Child Left Behind law, in the context of neoliberal social and economic policies that are undermine public services world wide.
Social studies teacher burns US flags in class…
…as part of a lesson on freedom of speech.
Jefferson County Public Schools then removes him from the classroom. Seems to me students probably learned more about “freedom of speech” than intended.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Stuart Middle School teacher burns U.S. flags in class—Lesson causes uproar
By Chris Kenning
The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
A Stuart Middle School teacher has been removed from the classroom after he burned two American flags in class during a lesson on freedom of speech, Jefferson County Public Schools officials said.
Dan Holden, who teaches seventh-grade social studies, burned small flags in two different classes Friday and asked students to write an opinion paper about it, district spokeswoman Lauren Roberts said.
A teacher in the school district since 1979, Holden has been temporarily reassigned to non-instructional duties pending a district investigation. The district also alerted city fire officials, who are conducting their own investigation.
“Certainly we’re concerned about the safety aspect,” Roberts said, along with “the judgment of using that type of demonstration in a class.”
Pat Summers, whose daughter was in Holden’s class, said he was among more than 20 parents upset about the incident at school yesterday. Holden apparently told the students to ask their parents what they thought about the lesson, he said.
“She said, ‘Our teacher burned a flag.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ ” Summers said. “When I was (at the school) at 8 a.m., the lobby was filled with probably 25 or 30 parents” who were upset, he said.
Holden could not be reached yesterday for comment.
Roberts said the flag burning did not appear to be politically motivated, based on an interview with Holden.
Summers said no advance notice had been given to parents, nor were school administrators aware of Holden’s plans, Roberts said.
Stuart sixth-grader Kelsey Adwell, 11, said students were abuzz about the incident yesterday.
“They just can’t believe that a teacher would do that — burn two American flags in front of the class,” she said. “A teacher shouldn’t do that, even though it was an example.”
Kentucky has a statute last amended in 1992 making desecration of a national or state flag in a public place a misdemeanor, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that flag desecration is protected speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky said the federal ruling would trump the state statute.
Congress has tried unsuccessfully to prohibit flag burning with a constitutional amendment. The latest attempt failed in the Senate this year.
Beth Wilson, director of Kentucky’s ACLU, said the district is allowed to decide what’s instructionally appropriate.
But “if a school is masking their objections to flag burning under the guise of safety, it raises questions about freedom of speech and academic freedom,” she said. She said her group would monitor the case but did not plan to get involved at this point.
Regardless, school board member Pat O’Leary said the flag burning was unnecessary and could have offended some students, including those in military families.
“A teacher doesn’t do that,” he said. “It’s just disrespectful.”
Rebecca Creech, a Stuart sixth-grader, said she also thought it was “wrong.”
Ginny Adwell, Kelsey’s mother and the school’s PTA president, said some parents who called for Holden to be fired were “going a little bit overboard” and should remember that the teacher was trying to provoke thought.
Brent McKim, president of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, said Holden has “been teaching for many years, and has by all accounts a good teaching record. It was not a political statement and was meant to illustrate a controversial issue. To fire someone because of that would be inappropriate,” he said. “It wasn’t like he was taking one side or another.”
McKim said he was gathering facts that would determine whether the district was justified in removing Holden from the classroom.
In 2001, a teacher in Sacramento, Calif., faced suspension for using a lighter to singe a corner of an American flag in class.
The teacher later was fired, but district officials cited numerous acts of poor judgment and disregard for superiors.
Rouge Forum Update: Focus on Oaxaca (August 21, 2006)
The Rouge Forum web page is updated at www.rougeforum.org. Note in particular the ongoing work of Robert Fisk.
We are working on a Spring Rouge Forum in beautiful downtown Detroit, and RF members will be at NCSS and AERA this year.
Here are two recent portrayals of the struggles going on in Oaxaca now.
This is from the NYTimes/Reuters Mexico Teachers Grab Oaxaca Radio Stations, Shot At
And, this is from the BBC Mexico teachers extend protests
Here’s a note from Lois Meyer at UNM regarding the situation in Oaxaca and how to support the teachers there.
From: “Lois M Meyer”
For those who might wishto contribute to the support of the Oaxacan teachers,
here’s the contribution form. Many thanks!
Lois
Oaxaca Teachers and Popular Movement Contribution
Name__________________________________________________________
Address__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Email________________________
Telephones_______________________________
There are THREE OPTIONS described here for contributing to the Oaxacan teachers and popular movement. In the first option, you mail a check yourself to Food Not Bombs here in the U.S. The other two options involve sending your money by check to me. The options are explained below:
#1: Food Not Bombs
has been called by the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) to organize people’s kitchens and provide meals for the teachers and other strikers and for the community. Food Not Bombs is an all-volunteer movement and has little to no overhead so your donation will go directly to the work of the popular kitchens. Checks should be made out to Food Not Bombs, and the Memo line should read “Comer para Oaxaca”, which means Food for Oaxaca.
Send your donation to:
Food Not Bombs
P.O. Box 424
Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
Contact person: Keith McHenry, Cofounder of the Food Not
Bombs movement
(1-800-884-1136)
Food Not Bombs is not a charity and does not have nonprofit tax exempt status. If you are interested in a tax deduction for contributions over $1000 please call them at 1-800-884-1136 or email them at
donations@foodnotbombs.net.
Please mark with an X which of the following two options you prefer. For these options, your check should be made out to Lois Meyer, and the Memo line should read either CMPIO or Oaxacan speaking tour. Please send your check to:
Lois Meyer
343 Nara Visa Ct. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107.
Email: loismeyer@msn.com
Please enclose with your check a copy of this form with your option choice and information recorded.
_______ #2: Coalition of Indigenous Teachers and Promoters of Oaxaca (Coalición de Maestros y Promotores Indígenas de Oaxaca): The Coalition, or CMPIO, is made up of over 1000 indigenous teachers who serve rural Oaxacan communities. CMPIO has just celebrated its 30th anniversary of struggle alongside its communities to jointly construct quality, community-based bilingual education programs in rural schools, as well as to defend and demand other basic rights and services. CMPIO is a vital and respected component of the Sección XXII Oaxacan teachers union and provides leadership on many levels to the union and to the strike. Money donated to CMPIO will be used to defray the huge costs to the teachers of sustaining this lengthy and dangerous strike.
_______ #3: Speaking tour of Sección XXII or CMPIO representatives in the U.S.: In an effort to combat the media silence in the U.S. and to learn about and from the Oaxacan teacherscourageous struggle, we are trying to arrange a speaking tour in the U.S. by representatives of either Sección XXII and/or the CMPIO. Your contributions would help defray transportation costs to bring the teachers to the U.S. and to permit their travel to various places in the country where they will speak. Any funds remaining at the end of the tour the teachers will take with them to Oaxaca. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN PARTICIPATING IN THE TOUR ITSELF, ESPECIALLY ARRANGING FOR THE TEACHERS TO SPEAK LOCALLY IN YOUR AREA, PLEASE LET US KNOW.
¡Muchísimas gracias! Many, many thanks!
¡Ese apoyo sí se ve! Your help is appreciated!
Lois M. Meyer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Language, Literacy & Sociocultural Studies
College of Education
Hokona 267
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Tel: 505/277-7244
Bush Contemplates Rebirth of Dictatorship for Iraq
In The Progressive, Matthew Rothschild picks up on the latest Bush administration propaganda line to appear in The New York Time: “senior administration officials . . . are considering alternatives other than democracy…”
hmm, let’s see what are the alternatives…Monarch? Dictatorship?
August 19, 2006
Bush Says Iraq and Lebanon Fragile Democracies
By REUTERS
Filed at 11:22 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Iraq and Lebanon remain fragile democracies, and security in the United States depends on democracy taking hold in the Middle East, President Bush said on Saturday
With U.S. public doubts rising over the Iraq war in a congressional-election year and his Middle East strategy challenged by 34 days of Israeli-Hizbollah fighting in Lebanon, Bush conferred this week with his national-security and counterterrorism teams and received an update from U.S. commanders in Iraq.
U.S. officials have said sectarian violence in Iraq could lead to civil war.
The New York Times this week quoted an unnamed military- affairs expert who was briefed at the White House last month as saying senior administration officials acknowledged that they are “considering alternatives other than democracy” in Iraq, which the White House denied.
“These young democracies are still fragile, and the forces of terror are seeking to stop liberty’s advance and steer newly free nations to the path of radicalism,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.
“The way forward will be difficult, and it will require sacrifice and resolve,” he said. “But America’s security depends on liberty’s advance in this troubled region, and we can be confident of the outcome because we know the unstoppable power of freedom.”
More than 2,600 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Bush has vowed not to withdraw prematurely, despite pressure from Democrats to begin bringing troops home this year and switch the effort to counterterrorism and supporting Iraqi forces.
Pennsylvania congressional candidate Joe Sestak delivered the Democratic radio address as the party seeks to recapture Congress from the president’s Republicans. Sestak, a former career Navy officer, said Bush’s Iraq policies undermined U.S. security.
“We must begin a phased redeployment of our forces so that we are prepared to face the security challenges we have worldwide,” Sestak said.
“The fact is, we are fostering a culture of dependence in Iraq. Iraqi leaders must be responsible for their own country. They must make the difficult political compromises that will stop the civil war and bring about stability. We cannot do this work for them,” said Sestak, who is running against Republican Rep. Curt Weldon.
In Lebanon, the United States has ruled out offering troops to help enforce a cease-fire along the border with Israel after fighting there with Hizbollah guerrillas, but instead has pledged financial and other support.
The United Nations hopes to send 3,500 troops within two weeks to oversee the truce and withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after more than a month of fighting that erupted after Hizbollah crossed the border and captured two Israeli soldiers.
“This force will help Lebanon’s legitimate armed forces restore the sovereignty of its democratic government over all Lebanese territory and stop Hizbollah from acting as a state within a state,” Bush said.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd.
On Jonathan Kozol’s manifesto to education activists
Rich Gibson has written a provocative and challenging critique of Jonathan Kozol’s recent manifesto to education activists, which was circulated in June.
(You can read Kozol’s manifesto here and see what “Education Gadfly” Checker Finn thinks about it on Susan Ohanian’s website.)
Gibson’s argues that Kozol is likely to lead people into a cul-de-sac, a dead end, if we are to take the last 25 years of his work as a guide.
Reebee Garofalo’s “Geneology of Pop Music”
Here’s a very cool version of Reebee Garofalo‘s “Geneology of Pop Music Chart, which was originally published in 1977 as part of Steve Chapple and Garofalo’s book Rock and Roll is Here to Pay (an analysis of why and how rock’n’roll developed within the context of U.S. capitalism).
Covering the time period from 1955 to 1978, more than 700 artists and 30 styles of music are mapped in currents flowing from left-to-right. For each performer, the length of time that he/she remained a major hit maker is provided. The overlapping streams allow you to compare the longevity and influence of multiple artists for the same time period. The birth and genealogy of each stylistic category is presented, along with an estimation of its share of total record sales.
Genealogy of Pop/Rock Music is referenced in Edward Tufte‘s, Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative (Graphics Press):
“With intense richness of detail, this nostalgic and engaging chart fascinates many viewers … Also the illustration presents a somewhat divergent perspective on popular music: songs are not merely singles — unique, one-time, de novo happenings — rather, music and music-makers share a pattern, a context, a history.”
You can buy high quality prints of the chart at HistoryShots.
Oaxaca alert (from “Literacy For All” list)
Sender: LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com
Colleagues and friends,
As the situation in Oaxaca descends into armed
violence against the striking teachers and the
popular movement, I am writing to ask your advice.
What can and should we, as U.S. educators and
concerned human beings, do NOW to support the Oaxacan
teachers and the broader popular movement for social,
educational and governmental reform they have sparked?
Can we join together immediately in some way to
collectively and publicly express outrage at the armed
and violent repression being unleashed on the Oaxacan
teachers and the popular movement at this moment?
BRIEF UPDATE: Federal police have now moved into
Oaxaca to augment state police, some of whom refuse any
longer to take up arms against the masses of people
who have risen up to demand the removal of the
governor and a complete overhaul of the governmental
institutions that have repressed them for decades.
In the last few days there have been several teachers
killed, wounded, and disappeared. The Teachers Union
and the popular movement hold the state and the
federal government responsible for these violent
acts. According to teachers in Oaxaca, the federal and
state governments are united in their determination
to put down the popular movement and break the teachers’
strike with an iron fist. They are employing covert,
“dirty war” tactics.
ACTIONS: Teachers in a few cities (e.g. New York, San
Francisco, Seattle) had demonstrations outside Mexican
consulates earlier in the summer when the situation was
not yet so widespread and violent. These public displays of
support were reported to the movement in Oaxaca and left a
big impact. A network of activist teachers in LA is now
planning a press conference in support of the teachers in
front of the Mexican consulate. The LA group is also
planning more demonstrations, and they have
attempted to conduct live telephone interviews on public
radio with Oaxacan teacher leaders. Both national
teachers unions (AFT and NEA) passed resolutions in
support of the Oaxacan teachers and promised some resources. Some
of us have tried to interest mainstream English- and
Spanish-language media in reporting the Oaxaca happenings
and the excalating violence, with only minimal success.
In New Mexico, there are plans developing for information/
discussion sessions this fall, and hopefully a speaking
tour by Oaxacan strike leaders, in November if possible.
URGENT NEED NOW: Actions in support of the movement, and
denunciations against the government violence, are
urgently needed IMMEDIATELY. Seccion XXII (the teachers union in
Oaxaca) and the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO)
who together lead the movement, are calling for emergency
support from all Mexican and international unions and workers,
especially teachers.
Can we think together and act together FAST in support
of our Oaxacan colleagues? What could our action or
actions be? Should we draft and circulate a petition to send to
Mexican federal and Oaxacan state leaders? Should the pressure be on our
own Congressional delegations, to investigate the Oaxaca
happenings and to speak out against this repression in neighboring (and
NAFTA partner) Mexico? Are local demonstrations and press
conferences at Mexican consulates the most powerful route? Are we
willing to come out for such demonstrations? How do we “crack” the
media silence? Are there more, and more powerful, ideas?
Before I went to Oaxaca in June, I spoke with many of you
about possible future collaborations with my indigenous
colleagues there. Many of you expressed interest. There is no question that
the collaboration Oaxacan teachers need from us right now
is active, vocal and immediate support for their lengthy and
increasingly dangerous struggle. Lois
Lois M. Meyer
University of New Mexico
UK terror plot, more propaganda than plot?
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, is skeptical about the plot to blow up multiple airplanes.
…We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why? I think the answer to that is plain. Both in desperate domestic political trouble, they longed for “Another 9/11”. The intelligence from Pakistan, however dodgy, gave them a new 9/11 they could sell to the media. The media has bought, wholesale, all the rubbish they have been shovelled.
We then have the appalling political propaganda of John Reid, Home Secretary, making a speech warning us all of the dreadful evil threatening us and complaining that “Some people don’t get” the need to abandon all our traditional liberties. He then went on, according to his own propaganda machine, to stay up all night and minutely direct the arrests. There could be no clearer evidence that our Police are now just a political tool. Like all the best nasty regimes, the knock on the door came in the middle of the night, at 2.30am. Those arrested included a mother with a six week old baby. …
We will now never know if any of those arrested would have gone on to make a bomb or buy a plane ticket. Most of them do not fit the “Loner” profile you would expect – a tiny percentage of suicide bombers have happy marriages and young children. As they were all under surveillance, and certainly would have been on airport watch lists, there could have been little danger in letting them proceed closer to maturity – that is certainly what we would have done with the IRA.
In all of this, the one thing of which I am certain is that the timing is deeply political. This is more propaganda than plot. Of the over one thousand British Muslims arrested under anti-terrorist legislation, only twelve per cent are ever charged with anything. That is simply harrassment of Muslims on an appalling scale. Of those charged, 80% are acquitted. Most of the very few – just over two per cent of arrests – who are convicted, are not convicted of anything to do terrorism, but of some minor offence the Police happened upon while trawling through the wreck of the lives they had shattered.
Be sceptical. Be very, very sceptical.
Atlanta Braves disinvite Focus on the Family from “Faith Day” events
As noted previously—here and here—the Atlanta Braves became the first major league team to sponsor a so-called “faith day” event. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described the event as a “blend of big-tent evangelism and the national pastime.”
But as David Zirin pointed out in The Nation last month the events were to be cosponsored by right-wing group Focus on the Family, which, according to their press release, used the event to distribute promotional materials about a website they run called TroubledWith.com, which features virulently anti-gay content:
Male homosexuality is a developmental problem that is almost always the result of problems in family relations, particularly between father and son. [Link]
The following factors can also contribute to the homosexual orientation: pornography; spousal abuse in the home; molestation and pedophilia… [Link]
‘Mom…I’m Gay’: The story of one woman who heard these devastating words. [Link]
While the Braves have not cancelled the remaining “Faith Day” events at Turner Field they have given the boot to Focus on the Family. The Associated Press reports today that:
Focus on the Family, a group founded by James Dobson, was barred from participating in Sunday’s postgame activities after sponsoring the first such event at Turner Field last month.
While the team wouldn’t provide a reason for its decision, several gay rights groups on the Web bristled with speculation that Focus on the Family was given the boot for promoting its belief that homosexuality is a social problem comparable to alcoholism, gambling or depression.
The Braves remain under the curse of the FSM for their collaboration with Focus on the Family and are currently mired in 4th place in the National League East, 17 games behind the evil New York Mets.
Louisville Courier-Journal calls out real motives behind NCLB
In a July 31 editorial, the Courier-Journal responds to US Education Secretary Margaret Spellings “With No Child Left Behind, it’s all or nothing” stance by arguing that the
“recent escalation in the administration’s tough talk coincides with two other events: first, the release of a federally commissioned study that embarrassed the administration by finding that private schools are no more successful than public ones, and, second, the introduction, nevertheless, of a national school voucher plan by congressional Republicans.
Taken together, it all adds up to more evidence that NCLB is less about improving public schools than about finding excuses to discredit and abandon them, in favor of their unaccountable private and religious counterparts.
I’m glad to see the C-J is coming around on NCLB, even though the paper still puts too much faith in test scores as a measure of school quality.courier-journal.com (Louisville, KY)
Monday, July 31, 2006
Right on cue, NCLB produces more failure
The great majority of states, including Kentucky, have failed to meet another set of deadlines of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and so have evoked from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings yet more ominous threats, including the punishment of slashing their federal funding.
“I want the states to know that Congress and the President mean business on the law,” she said.
For a time, Secretary Spellings seemed fairly sympathetic to states’ struggles to comply with NCLB’s many demands. Matter of fact, she said, “Last year it was, ‘We’re marching together toward the deadline,’ but now it’s time for, ‘Your homework is due.’ ”
Of course, it’s an election season, and the heat is on.
It’s coming no doubt from within the Bush administration, eager to look competent at something, and from worried congressional conservatives, seeking to show their base that they are still bravely crusading against “godless,” and, thus, failing public schools.
The good news is that Kentucky, which got serious about accountability long before Washington did, isn’t meekly accepting the arbitrary declarations of failure. “We are challenging that designation of not being in compliance, and we have provided … more evidence that we either are in compliance or will be soon,” Kentucky Education Department spokesperson Lisa Gross said. “Our concern throughout the implementation period of No Child Left Behind is the inconsistency of the decisions” by federal education officials.
For example, they rejected Kentucky’s proposals for meeting certain NCLB requirements but then turned around and approved the same or very similar proposals from other states.
Indeed, Nebraska’s education officials have gone so far as to accuse Secretary Spellings and her underlings of being “mean-spirited, arbitrary and heavy-handed.”
States, districts and schools are now being declared failures because their ways of testing don’t match Washington’s, because their teachers’ credentials aren’t uniformly good enough and because the scores of certain subgroups of students, while improving, aren’t improving fast enough.
As Ms. Gross put it, “With No Child Left Behind, it’s all or nothing.”
The recent escalation in the administration’s tough talk coincides with two other events: first, the release of a federally commissioned study that embarrassed the administration by finding that private schools are no more successful than public ones, and, second, the introduction, nevertheless, of a national school voucher plan by congressional Republicans.
Taken together, it all adds up to more evidence that NCLB is less about improving public schools than about finding excuses to discredit and abandon them, in favor of their unaccountable private and religious counterparts.