{"id":14337,"date":"2014-09-07T00:31:22","date_gmt":"2014-09-07T08:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=14337"},"modified":"2014-09-07T07:54:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-07T15:54:07","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-draft-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-draft-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch; For a Community of Free People–not people as beasts of prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back<\/strong><\/span>!<\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yxJ_y4LwOSY<\/a><\/p>\n

The Best Education is school closed by reasoned civil strife and Freedom Schools—the Newark Boycott \u00a0<\/strong>The superintendent of schools in New Jersey\u2019s largest district is defending the changes she is trying to implement and discouraging families from participating in a planned boycott of Thursday\u2019s opening of the school year.<\/p>\n

Cami Anderson, appointed by the state to run Newark\u2019s schools, told The Associated Press in an interview that missing class hurts students. She said she will find other ways to hear concerns from parents over changes in the way students are enrolled and other educational issues.<\/p>\n

Her remarks came as some parents planned to open Freedom Schools and hold their children out of classes in the public school system to protest the direction of the district and issues with a new enrollment system. It is unclear how many students may boycott, or for how long.
\nRead more:\u00a0\u00a0 www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2014\/sep\/4\/newark-superintendent-urges-parents-not-to-boycott<\/a><\/p>\n

– Where are the students going if they’re not in school? <\/strong>To community centers and local churches acting as “Freedom Schools.” One of the centers has the capacity to hold 500 students, Brown said. The students have access to youth development specialists, they’re being taught a culturally relevant curriculum, there’s ample food and school supplies and even space for recess\u00a0\u00a0 www.nj.com\/essex\/index.ssf\/2014\/09\/activists_declare_newark_public_schools_boycott_a_success.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Coppers arrest minimum wage protesters (sullied by SEIU connections) around US<\/strong> Detroit \u2014 Mya Hill watched in dismay as Detroit police handcuffed protesters who blocked traffic on the city\u2019s east side as part of a day of protests throughout the nation to prod fast-food chains to pay their employees at least $15 an hour.<\/p>\n

The protests, which were planned for about 150 cities nationwide throughout Thursday, are part of the \u201cFight for $15\u201d campaign. Since the protests began in late 2012, organizers have switched up their tactics every few months. Before Thursday\u2019s protests, organizers said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to draw more attention to the cause.<\/p>\n

Protesters in Detroit had said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see any resistance or reaction by the people who were arrested,\u201d said Hill, a protester who lives in Lincoln Park. \u201cThey were put into the back of police cars. I was proud of them for being so brave.\u201d \u00a0From The Detroit News: www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20140904\/BIZ\/309040062#ixzz3CPjw8slM<\/a><\/p>\n

\"singer<\/a>Rouge Keynoter Alan Singer on The Beast–Pearson \u00a0<\/strong>disgruntled Pearson employees are starting to lambast the company online at www.glassdoor.com<\/a>, a website that posts company reviews. Many of their complaints stem from a restructuring Pearson starting in May 2013 to focus on digital services and emerging (Third Word) markets. The “restructuring” led to a steep decline in net profits in 2012.<\/p>\n

A former educational specialist at Pearson based in Oregon wrote: “There are still a few decent, intelligent, caring people at Pearson. They’re just few and far between and too scared for their own jobs to call attention to themselves . . . Many, many good people left or were fired and in their place you have lots of managers and executives who have no idea what their jobs entail or what products Pearson sells. It would be comical if it weren’t so sad.” This employee recommended to anyone working at Pearson, “Don’t Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out.”<\/p>\n

A current employee who not surprisingly wanted to remain anonymous wrote: “Too many chiefs and not enough team work . . . No concern with Pearson employees anymore.” A former Senior Sales Representative who left the company wrote: “If you are too fond of your neck, don’t join Pearson.” Still another wrote: “It was a very, very toxic environment to work in. At Pearson, especially in the corporate office levels, there is rampant nepotism and fairly shady insider business dealings.” And a Vice-President from New Jersey wrote: “Let’s not kid ourselves – the Pearson play is about standardized testing at the global level, and that includes in Higher Ed as well as K-12\/Schools. They also want to become the school itself in many parts of the world. So they are riding the wave of privatization, and following the money. But can they survive the negative press they increasingly generate? And their own incompetence?” \u00a0\u00a0 www.huffingtonpost.com\/alan-singer\/pearson-inside-the-belly-_b_5749708.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Marx<\/a>Classroom at the University of Lyon with markings on wall reading “DE L’HISTOIRE KARL MARX,” made during student occupation of parts of the campus as part of the May 1968 events in France. \u00a0\u00a0 platypus1917.org\/2014\/09\/05\/revolutionary-politics-thought-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Ohanian Attacks PDK for Lies About the Common Corpse \u00a0<\/strong>Phi Delta Kappan was once a highly regarded education journal. It offered research by Gerald Bracey every month and strong articles that didn’t shrink from challenging federal and corporate overreach. I’m proud to say I wrote some of those articles.<\/p>\n

I’ve already complained about PDK’s Love letter to the Broad Foundation. Actually, that’s when I gave up my decades-long subscription to PDK and stopped following what they do. But I break my silence with the September 2014 issue, Support the Common Core with the Right Instructional Materials by Rachel Leifer and Dennis Udal. What I object to is PDK offering ink to employees of foundations touting programs their foundations fund. They do mention this:
\nStudent Achievement Partners and many tools, organizations, and efforts mentioned in this article have received funding from the Hewlett Foundation and Helmsley Charitable Trust.)
\nThey leave the “many tools, organizations, and efforts to the reader’s imagination. Roughly, what this means is they pull up praise from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.<\/p>\n

The article starts off by praising EngageNY curriculum materials. See for yourself what EngageNY promotes. In the lower grades they are script from E. D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge. I have described what it’s like to slog through the K12 version of this material exposing the primary grade set to the history of Western Civilization–with Africa and Asia thrown in. Chris Cerrone At the Chalk Face puts the cost for New York to develop this offal in the millions, and that’s just dollars. The psychic cost to kids is incalculable.<\/p>\n

You think I overstate the issue? Take a look at 17 Days on One Short Story. The blogger at Perdido Street School concludes, “You can bet the children of the elites are not stuck reading 20% of Romeo and Juliet or spending a month on one short story.” \u00a0\u00a0 susanohanian.org\/core.php?id=745<\/a><\/p>\n

Freedom Fighter and LA School Boss Deasy (fake degree) pretends Ipads end poverty and racism\u00a0<\/strong>Critics now look back on Deasy’s 2011 video testimonial as early evidence of what they believe was a myopic and headlong rush toward the iPad, one that ended last week with the superintendent suspending the troubled $1.3-billion program. The district originally had intended to supply an iPad, at a cost of $768 apiece, to every student, teacher and campus administrator in Los Angeles’ public schools.<\/p>\n

Deasy once spoke as though tablets would be crucial in saving underprivileged students from an inferior, outdated education. With the huge purchase plan suspended, he has alternated between assertions of his acceptance of the slowdown as a chance to regroup and denunciations of others who he said had politicized the process.<\/p>\n

As Deasy reached for the appropriate response, three school board members and the head of the teachers union called for an investigation into whether district administrators fairly conducted bidding for the unprecedented tech project.l Related<\/p>\n

And several board members said they should have asked tougher questions early on and were too quick to defer to their crusading superintendent and an ongoing mission they believe in \u2014 closing the technological gap between Los Angeles’ poor students and their wealthier peers elsewhere. \u00a0\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/education\/la-me-lausd-deasy-20140904-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DVR<\/a>Good pals: Arne Duncan and Past NEA boss Van Roekel. The New NEA prezzie says he’s an honest man, despite her union’s assembled call for his resignation.<\/p>\n

Mothers Hide your children: Arne and Michelle coming on a bus (hey NEA! Arne still employed!) \u00a0<\/strong>First Lady Michelle Obama will join U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in launching the fifth annual back-to-school bus tour Monday in Atlanta. This year’s “Partners in Progress” trip will include stops in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, highlighting the states’ commitment to encourage reform and innovation and help all students achieve success.<\/p>\n

Duncan’s day will begin at 9:30 a.m. ET with an event at Spelman College where he will host a roundtable with students to spotlight the importance of teacher recruitment. Teachers are needed at all K-12 levels, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). A press availability will follow at 10:50 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

At 1:25 p.m. ET, Mrs. Obama will meet Secretary Duncan at Booker T. Washington High School \u2013 which opened in 1924 as the first public high school for African-Americans in Georgia that includes Dr. Martin L. King Jr. among its graduates. The First Lady will begin her visit to the school with a short tour of a college fair that will be set up for students. The tour will be covered by a pre-determined press pool. \u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>www.ed.gov\/news\/media-advisories\/first-lady-michelle-obama-secretary-duncan-launch-fifth-annual-back-school-bus<\/a><\/p>\n

Whose History WIll Bill Gates Own?\u00a0<\/strong>Beginning with the Carnegies and the Rockefellers, billionaires have long seen the nation\u2019s education as a willing cause for their philanthropy \u2014 and, with it, their own ideas about how students should learn. The latest crop of billionaires, however, has tended to take the line that fixing our broken educational system is the key to unlocking our stagnant economy. Whether it\u2019s hedge-fund managers like Paul Tudor Jones (who has given tens of millions to support charter schools) or industrialists like Eli Broad (who has backed \u201cblended learning\u201d programs that feature enhanced technology), these philanthropists have generally espoused the idea that education should operate more like a business. (The Walton Foundation, backed by the family that founded Walmart, has taken this idea to new heights: It has spent more than $1 billion supporting various charter schools and voucher programs that seek to establish alternatives to the current public-school system.) Often these patrons want to restructure the system to make it more efficient, utilizing the latest technology and management philosophies to turn out a new generation of employable students. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2014\/09\/07\/magazine\/so-bill-gates-has-this-idea-for-a-history-class.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Big History (Gates) Video\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>www.ted.com\/talks\/david_christian_big_history<\/a><\/p>\n

AR15’s Ok For Compton School Coppers (and plenty others) \u00a0A<\/strong>t a quiet July school board meeting, Compton school police chief William Wu matter-of-factly explained that his officers would need AR-15 semiautomatic rifles to adequately protect students and staff from a heavily armed shooter if such a nightmare unfolded on a campus.<\/p>\n

\"ar15\"<\/a>With little fanfare or feedback from parents, the board unanimously approved the chief’s request to allow the rifles on campus. Little more was said until days before school started when news of the policy sparked a torrent of criticism from parents who are worried about having high-powered guns on campus and say the policy would contribute to Compton’s inaccurate reputation as a dangerous, gang-infested city. \u00a0Despite the local outrage, though, the board’s decision to allow semiautomatic rifles on campus isn’t unusual in the wake of high-profile shootings nationwide. In California, at least half a dozen school districts allow campus officers to carry high-powered rifles. School officials argue the guns are needed to prevent potential tragedies. Critics in Compton, though, say that the increased firepower will add fuel to an already volatile relationship between school police and students. \u00a0\u00a0 www.latimes.com\/local\/education\/la-me-compton-school-guns-20140901-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest List of Grant Suckers Taking Gates Dollars to Hustle Common Core (Note our pals at NCSS) \u00a0 <\/strong>susanohanian.org\/core.php?id=748<\/a><\/p>\n

Corruption is Endemic in Capitalist Schools\u00a0<\/strong>Robert Davis, the controversial activist accused of stealing more than $125,000 from the cash-strapped Highland Park schools, pleaded guilty to two federal crimes Tuesday and could get 18 to 24 months in federal prison.<\/p>\n

The development, outlined in a court filing, is a twist for Davis, who spent two years purportedly fighting government corruption and mounted serial lawsuits against the state and attempts to restructure Detroit\u2019s finances. His guilty pleas came, coincidentally, before the start of Detroit\u2019s bankruptcy trial.<\/p>\n

Davis, 34, a Highland Park school board member, could spend two years or more in federal prison after pleading guilty to converting money from the school district for his own use and filing a false tax return, court records indicate. Sentencing is Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

from The Detroit News:\u00a0\u00a0 www.detroitnews.com\/article\/20140902\/METRO01\/309020072#ixzz3CWHL2ymW<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n