Sharman Burson Ramsey's Blog, page 24

Use Courts to Create A Sense of Crisis

Court orders can be exceptionally good vehicles for creating a sufficient sense of crisis and an imperative to act so that supporting legislation can be enacted.  It is difficult to overstate the importance of such a vehicle, since the magnitude of change to which this volume is directed is so great that  such change can only be created out of a sense of having no other option..." (Hornbeck, David and Lester M. Salmon, Human Capital and America's Future, 1991, The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp.367-368)

I have referred to this book many times. Edited by David W. Hornbeck, who restyled Kentucky's Education restructuring as demanded by the courts, for our Alabama First document. How do I know it? I saw him in and out of the Superintendent's office where Michele Buck and I sat waiting to speak to the Superintendent of Schools for the state of Alabama. It pretty much laid out the Liberal Agenda that has been successfully implemented in the succeeding twenty-five years that we must now deal with. One of the most critical pronouncements of the book is the quote above.

Do not suffer under the illusion that our courts see their function is to adhere or interpret the law. They now see their function as judicial activists and liberals are ready, willing and able to use those courts to their best advantage.

Conflict Resolution? Or Political and Psychological Manipulation?

Conflict Resolution?


Conflict Resolution:  Teaching Tolerance
Five parents, black and white parents, were granted permission to review the conflict resolution materials.  The film "Fighting Fair:  Dr. Martin Luther King" jolted us all with its violent images.  The words of peacemaking were drowned out by the impact of the graphic images on the screen before us and the conclusion of one child in the video that the passive resistance of Dr. King was futile because "They killed him, didn't they?"  What will individual children take away from that film:  The images and anger, or the "peacemaking" the promoters claim to wish to promote? Your schools are modeling your child's attitudes and beliefs. Is this what you thought you were sending your child to school for?

We object to:

Lessons which divide children into "tribes" within the village (classroom) that would appear to validate gangs and reinforce peer influence.  Activities which promote alternative lifestyles


Violating freedom of religion and the Alabama School Board's policy against by utilizing New Age techniques within a public school classroom.Choosing "totems," Listening to a "referee" one imagines on one's shoulder, and Projecting one's mind into a "strong place" 


Suggested guided imagery for teacher.  Throw eggs at your students...visualization. 


Teach children to visit the Happy Valley.  Guided imagery?  Psychological techniques guided by classroom teacher?  


Politicization of the classroom...#5.  No bias or influence there...???


What do you say when the second grader in the bottom activity asks what these words mean?  Is the second grade an appropriate time for a discussion of sex?  Is it any wonder children cannot read? The assumption here is that more money equals better schools. This early indoctrination has surely taken root if the 2016 riots are any proof.



I think we have seen the consequences of this type of "education" rioting in our nation's streets and demanding "safe spaces" in colleges because they cannot deal with free speech or diverse opinions. they have been successfully programmed for the New World Order.

So, Who Do We Hold Accountable? We Are Told Parents Who Just Don't Care.

"Rightfully disagree with most of what you have written"
Several things I have posted on Facebook and then included in this blog elicited this response from a Friend of mine on Facebook who was a local University President and Chairman of the School Board that implemented these policies. 
I responded: 
Your experience was as a university administrator, president as a matter of fact. Perhaps you were the one who hired the professor, a former kindergarten teacher, who carried the Whole Language Catalog under her arm as she walked the halls of that university. And maybe you also hired the professor who led the hootenanny supporting Whole Language at the board meeting where members of the board and administration refused to meet with the principal who had seen such amazing results in her school. We flew her and John Winston to Dothan to share with our administrators a program that offered our children a better way.
And then, you had experience as a chairman of a board that implemented most of Goals 2000. 
I don't blame you for our poor reading scores. You only have a Ph.D. in Administration.
My experience was in the trenches in a poor county and as a mother who wanted my children to have the best opportunities. 
Were you the board chairman who hired someone to rewrite the by-laws for our school board changing the requirement that learning be sequential in Dothan City Schools? I don't blame you, everyone else was doing it? How would it look if our system did not do so as well?
But, I would love to discuss with you the consequences or your choices.
Our group had no reason other than the good of our children at heart. We spent our own money. We were not supported by taxpayer dollars to implement programs that elevated professionals in the eyes of their colleagues through papers they would write for publication in "scholarly" journals or use our children as guinea pigs for their dissertation. 
I could name names, but I won't. 
Our eyes were on children who could not read and whose futures would be limited because of it. I do not challenge your credentials or your intentions (all of which were high-minded and what you saw as the good of the children/community, I am sure). I do challenge and, as you say, rightfully so, the consequences.
And because I know what a good man you are, that is why I, rightfully, request the opportunity for America's parents to have a choice OUTSIDE the dictates of colleges of education and their failed methods.
Our administrators mean well. But we all know where the road of good intentions can lead. We need to give parents a choice to take a detour around the impediment of administrators with good intentions.
By the way, the Whole Language method of teaching reading has now been thoroughly debunked (once again) and Phonics has made its way back into the classrooms of our country, though reluctantly so by those who brought WL into our classrooms. They still claim an erudite "eclectic" approach. It had been thoroughly debunked when first implemented by all of Dr. Jean Chall of Harvard's research as reported in her book, Reading: the Great Debate way back then.

I read it. Did you?
But who could expect an administrator of a university or a chairman of a school board to do research on a topic? And those administrators hired by the board to do so and professors hired by the university can’t be held accountable because they were only doing as they were taught in the colleges of education that awarded them their diplomas.
And besides, those who should be accountable have by now retired and are receiving a check that remunerates them for the exalted positions they held in the administration and for their implementation of "innovations" in our school system.
Sadly, the children affected by that lunacy are now adults limited by their education. They continue to be the ones who pay the price of those choices in "innovation" and "current wisdom."
So who is accountable? Shall we blame the Voters? Tax base? Newspapers too lazy to do their own research on the effectiveness of programs presented, but become the public relations arm of the school system? The Taxpayers? The Unions? The Department of Education?

Oh, no! Let’s blame the parents for producing such defective children! That works! That works with parents with successful children confirming their belief that they are superior parents. 

All others must realize their children had disabilities. Or parents who just didn’t care.  

So, Who Do We Hold Accountable? Parents Who Just Don't Care.

"Rightfully disagree with most of what you have written"
Several things I have posted on Facebook and then included in this blog elicited this response from a Friend of mine on Facebook who was a local University President and Chairman of the School Board that implemented these policies. 
I responded: 
Your experience was as a university administrator, president as a matter of fact. Perhaps you were the one who hired the professor, a former kindergarten teacher, who carried the Whole Language Catalog under her arm as she walked the halls of that university. And maybe you also hired the professor who led the hootenanny supporting Whole Language at the board meeting where members of the board and administration refused to meet with the principal who had seen such amazing results in her school. We flew her and John Winston to Dothan to share our administrators a program that offered our children a better way.
And then, you had experience as a chairman of a board that implemented most of Goals 2000. 
I don't blame you for our poor reading scores. You only have a Ph.D. in Administration.
My experience was in the trenches in a poor county and as a mother who wanted my children to have the best opportunities. 
Were you the board chairman who hired someone to rewrite the by-laws for our school board changing the requirement that learning be sequential in Dothan City Schools? I don't blame you, everyone else was doing it? How would it look if our system did not do so as well?
But, I would love to discuss with you the consequences or your choices.
Our group had no reason other than the good of our children at heart. We spent our own money. We were not supported by taxpayer dollars to implement programs that elevated professionals in the eyes of their colleagues through papers they would write for publication in "scholarly" journals or use our children as guinea pigs for their dissertation. 
I could name names, but I won't. 
Our eyes were on children who could not read and whose futures would be limited because of it. I do not challenge your credentials or your intentions (all of which were high-minded and what you saw as the good of the children/community, I am sure). I do challenge and, as you say, rightfully so, the consequences.
And because I know what a good man you are, that is why I, rightfully, request the opportunity for America's parents to have a choice OUTSIDE the dictates of colleges of education and their failed methods.
Our administrators mean well. But we all know where the road of good intentions can lead. We need to give parents a choice to take a detour around the impediment of administrators with good intentions.
By the way, the Whole Language method of teaching reading has now been thoroughly debunked (once again) and Phonics has made its way back into the classrooms of our country, though reluctantly so by those who brought WL into our classrooms. They still claim an erudite "eclectic" approach. It had been thoroughly debunked when first implemented by all of Dr. Jean Chall of Harvard's research as reported in her book, Reading: the Great Debate way back then.

I read it. Did you?
But who could expect an administrator of a university or a chairman of a school board to do research on a topic? And those administrators hired by the board to do so and professors hired by the university can’t be held accountable because they were only doing as they were taught in the colleges of education that awarded them their diplomas.
And besides, those who should be accountable have by now retired and are receiving a check that remunerates them for the exalted positions they held in the administration and for their implementation of "innovations" in our school system.
Sadly, the children affected by that lunacy are now adults limited by their education. They continue to be the ones who pay the price of those choices in "innovation" and "current wisdom."
So who is accountable? Shall we blame the Voters? Tax base? Newspapers too lazy to do their own research on the effectiveness of programs presented, but become the public relations arm of the school system? The Taxpayers? The Unions? The Department of Education?

Oh, no! Let’s blame the parents for producing such defective children! That works! That works with parents with successful children confirming their belief that they are superior parents. 

All others must realize their children had disabilities. Or parents who just didn’t care.  

Public Education Should Empower Parents and Students Not Unions and a Leftist Agenda

See these precious little girls? One of them is my granddaughter. This is why I continue to write. There is a world she will inherit from us. We owe her better. 
This challenge brought this response from me. "How does someone head up and shape education when they don't even know what IDEA is? She has had zero experience and is not a proponent of public education." Just thought I would share and encourage you to support Betsy DeVos. Our children deserve expanded opportunities. There is a lot of legislation governing our schools that needs to be rethought. We have a mission to teach children reading, writing and arithmetic, cultural literacy, respect for our country and its institutions, and they are not getting that! Since the late sixties, socialization and one group's version of social justice has been the goal of those in control of our Department of Education and in the colleges of education. I got truly disillusioned as a teacher whose parents spent good money for me to get an education at the University of Alabama. As a teacher in a poor county school system, I encountered students who had A's and B's throughout elementary school who COULD NOT decode words in their secondary textbooks. Their limited little rolodex of words taught by the Whole Language method had also limited their understanding of the world and their ability to acquire higher education. I studied books teaching teachers and found nothing to support Whole Language but reams of studies supporting SIDE (systematic, direct and early) phonics, yet somehow the entire curriculum had been stood on its head by what Dean Kunkel called "current wisdom." I saw more of this with the implementation of the Four Period Day and Block Scheduling. And once again with the Conflict Resolution Curriculum and DARE. No empirical studies were used to determine the effectiveness on a standard parents would approve. Just affective testimonials of how people "felt" about it. How much more of what is sold to teachers as effective in teaching children is only more of "current wisdom"? Many of those children will be unemployable, condemned to welfare and poverty, and I would be complicit in this atrocity if I did not speak up! I can tell you it has cost me. Friends. Jobs. Just be quiet, Sharman. There's nothing you can do, so don't speak out! But my Christian upbringing demanded that I speak out against the injustice of curriculum that actually produces learning disabilities. Look at the effectiveness of Marva Collins' schools in the inner city of Chicago and John Winston's school where with the simple implementation of the Spalding Writing Road to Reading developed by Romalda Spalding who studied under Samuel Orton, founder of the Dyslexia Society, brought a school serving 3 housing projects and a 98% minority population from the 25th percentile to the 80th percentile and dyslexic children from 45 to 3 -- and a decline in disciplinary problems! Winston was given a mandate to do whatever it took so he took his teachers to a seminar to learn the method (a book, a piece of chalk and a good teacher) and they reluctantly complied. By the end of the first semester they were sold. Ask yourself why school systems adopt curriculum that comes with remedial materials and reject cheaper ones that do NOT come with remedial materials -- like the old Open Court readers. I am tired of teachers blaming parents and not enough money. Maybe the problem is with old ideas that didn't work in the first place yet they get reprocessed with another name sold by someone with a clean shirt and a briefcase usually from out of town that costs an arm and leg. Educratese is just another way of intimidating those who want to think outside of the box. What do you mean when you say "public education"? Does that include children, or just the administrators and teachers who want to continue as things are? Don't rock the boat. Politics, profit, promotions, and prestige within the profession and among colleagues too often determine policy. Perhaps "public education" should empower parents who know what their children need. And that is what Betsy Devos wants to do. This is what I saw in action as a teacher in "public" education and a parent who had children in "public" schools.
see also:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnQu8...

Conspiracy Theories in Education: Truth or Lie?

I wrote this in response to one of my Facebook Friends comments:  "I had some contact with the "Eagle Forum" during the years I taught in Shelby County. Talk about conspiracy theories and fear gone wild...

I responded: 
Conspiracy theories? Have you read Human Capital or the Whole Language Catalog written by Ken and Yetta Goodman? You know Ken Goodman wrote "Reading: a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game" and through the support of the International Reading Association (of which he was once President) and publishing through various organizations that support that agenda managed to promote those theories and their own careers.

What is a conspiracy?
"a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event."

Goodman quotes Paulo Freire, a defrocked Marxist priest who once advocated liberation theology in Nicaragua and is now a philosopher of whole language advocating liberation pedagogy, in the Whole Language Catalog.

"Politics is the soul of education" 
* "All instances of education become political acts."

Freire was invited by Harvard to be a visiting scholar. Freire was instrumental in changing the Math curriculum to "radical math." Go to the radical Math website and tell me there's not an agenda. http://www.radicalmath.org/docs/SJMathGuide.pdf

Michael Apple writes:

* WL "self-consciously connects itself to political, economic and cultural issues," it is destined to come into opposition to "the political right of the United States " (Apple, 1991, p. 416).

And I thought we teachers were trying to create educated citizens of our wonderful United States.

Do you think that if parents had known this philosophy was behind the "Progressive" agenda that was imposed top down from the Department of Education it would have been acceptable to the public? The public blindly accepts that those in education are altruistic in their dealings with their children. They believe educational theory is based on research and not just "current wisdom" as Dean Kunkel told me. As a new teacher, I bought everything I was taught hook, line, and sinker and was completely disillusioned through my study of reading research.

Conspiracy theories? 

As Joseph Heller writes: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." These women of the Eagle Forum have done Trojan's work in research. It is a shame our education establishment is controlled by a bunch of radicals and supported by a complacent Army of union members who circle the wagons and refuse to challenge the status quo because they are afraid they will lose their jobs -- a truly valid concern.

No conspiracy? I beg to differ. They simply are not secret about it. Only no one can believe that such a thing could happen here! Read Hillary's accolades to Sol Alinsky in her senior thesis. Follow her later involvement with him. Track the movement through the National Center of Education and the Economy. Read Human Capital and Hillary's letter to Marc Tucker.

I am very happy we can have civil discussions about these things now. But it is time for America to wake up and smell the roses. Those little snowflakes on our college campuses rioting and seeking safe rooms didn't just happen overnight

Stand Against the Evil at the Gate

I find it interesting that the timeout on immigration from seven countries with ISIS strongholds is getting such a reaction. I'll bet these people lock their doors at night to protect their children. I'll bet they check out the parents of their children's friends before allowing their children to go play or spend the night with them. I'll bet they purchase homes in safe neighborhoods in which their children will play and select safe schools for their children. So when our duly elected President decides to secure the doors to our national home and check out those who want to live among us they become irrationally disapproving. I wonder if those unvetted immigrants were coming to their neighborhood would they be so critical of caution. Isn't it logical to admit those who want to assimilate into our country, respect and adhere to our Constitution, rather than those eager to spread Sharia Law throughout the world. The goal of ISIS (acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is to create a unified, Muslim territory in order to enforce its extremist beliefs. ISIS also believes it will play a key role in an impending apocalypse, and its activities largely derive from that belief.As CNN puts it: ISIS makes no secret of its ultimate ambition: A global caliphate secured through a global war. To that end it speaks of "remaining and expanding" its existing hold over much of Iraq and Syria. It aims to replace existing, man-made borders, to overcome what it sees as the Shiite "crescent" that has emerged across the Middle East, to take its war -- Islam's war -- to Europe and America, and ultimately to lead Muslims toward an apocalyptic battle against the "disbelievers."And we are not to defend our country and our babies against this group who has declared WAR UPON US and upon whom we have declared WAR? I wonder where was the outrage when the Christians who were being persecuted within IRAQ and SYRIA and other Muslim countries were not a priority for our past president. The Islamic State’s desecration and destruction of historic sites of religious and cultural heritage is unprecedented in Iraq. In Mosul, ISIS has turned an 800-year-old house of worship into a place of torture. Churches in Mosul are also utilized as a prison and as a weapons storehouse.Religious minorities in Iraq are living on the edge of extinction. (“Edge of Extinction: The Eradication of Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Iraq,” 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, http://www.21wilberforce.org/…/…/edge-of-extinctionfinal.pdf (accessed October 15, 2015)).Fortunately saner heads have prevailed against our precious Snowflakes who lead with their hearts and not their heads. We must be vigilant to protect our grandchildren against the monsters who would pretend to be our friends while plotting our demise. And, yes, we must also defend our friends of the Muslim faith who might find these aliens thrust into their midst, unsettling their lives and indoctrinating their children with radical jihad masquerading (dissembling) as one who adheres to a true faith. Taqiya (Arabic: تقیة‎‎ taqiyyah/taqīyah, literally "prudence, fear, caution")[1][2] is an Islamic term referring to precautionary dissimulation or denial of religious belief and practice in the face of persecution.[3][4][1][5] Another term for this concept, kitmān (lit. "action of covering, dissimulation"), has a more specific meaning of dissimulation by silence or omission.[6][7](Wikipedia) This practice is emphasized in Shia Islam whereby adherents are permitted to conceal their religion when under threat of persecution or compulsion.[3][8] However, it is also permitted in Sunni Islam under certain circumstances.[9][As long as I have breath in my body, I will stand against the evil at the gate and will protect my children and grandchildren. I am glad my president is my ally.

---------------------------This response is from the son of dear friends of mine who works in the State Department. I am very proud of him. That said, I would still rather err on the side of caution. We can now make accommodations and go from here.  

"Sharman, I respect your opinion, but they are not unvetted, especially the refugees. The refugees are more vetted than any other entrant to the United States. The Christian element is also a fallacy. We had GOP officials come to find Christians in Turkey. Most were from Iraq but they had already been resettled in the United States. The executive order is like using a hammer to do a scalpel's job. It should have been run through the inter-agency and it could have been fine tuned without being as disruptive. For example, Yazidi, the very people who suffered the most in Iraq and who are not Muslims were prevented from boarding flights yesterday, despite having completed the full vetting process. it has also prevented Iraqis who provided assistance to our military and diplomatic forces from being admitted to travel. Furthermore, here at home, I know doctors from St. Jude's in Memphis who provide specialized cancer care to children who were unable to return from vacation because of this. How do we explain that to the patients and their parents? Security in our country is vital and Vetting is not 100% effective and never will be. That said, I think solutions can be found that do not overreach and paint everybody with the same brush."

_________

I thanked him for his response and information, commending him on his service. 

He responded: 
"I have heard positive things from initial meetings of my boss with Tillerson. I also have huge respect for General Mattis. Unfortunately, the White House did not run this executive order through the interagency which could have helped avoid some of the headaches. I know folks want to "drain the swamp", but most of us are committed public servants who have worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations and the President could get some valuable input from us which doesn't sacrifice things like the fight against ISIS, etc. Thanks again for the kind words!"

Life That Wants To Live

"True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness: I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live." - Albert Schweitzer
I am NOT A FEMINIST. 

I do not choose sisterhood with the vulgar inanities proclaimed by a group of females claiming to speak for all women.There was a time when the women's vote was expected to elevate morality. Sadly a group of very vocal women seized control of the microphone while the rest of us were home taking care of our children and family. So NOW they proclaim to speak for ALL women.

The lifestyle the stars of the entertainment world who lead this movement exhibit on film and in their personal lives, their vulgar profanities, their discrimination against those of alternative opinions, their condescension for the intelligence of conservative women sicken me. 

Indeed, I pity them because they truly do not understand what they have loosed upon this earth and the harm done to young women who buy the assertion that a fetus is just tissue "ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny." 

This is what science has learned about life. I do not judge or condemn, merely through sad experience affirm that life is a precious gift. 

Though I am not there in person, my spirit is with the March for Life.

On the Women's March

On the Women's March. I wish I had written this. It says EXACTLY what I wish I had written. I would love to know the original source of this post. Please share if you know. I'd like to friend that person. I am not a "disgrace to women" because I don't support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class citizen" because I am a woman. I do not feel my voice is "not heard" because I am a woman. I do not feel I am not provided opportunities in this life or in America because I am a woman. I do not feel that I "don't have control of my body or choices" because I am a woman. I do not feel like I am " not respected or undermined" because I am a woman. 
I AM a woman. 
I can make my own choices. 
I can speak and be heard. 
I can VOTE. 
I can work if I want. 
I control my body. 
I can defend myself. 
I can defend my family. 
There is nothing stopping me to do anything in this world but MYSELF. 
I do not blame my circumstances or problems on anything other than my own choices or even that sometimes in life, we don't always get what we want. I take responsibility for myself. 
I am a mother, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a friend. I am not held back in life but only by the walls I choose to not go over which is a personal choice. 
Quit blaming. 
Take responsibility. 
If you want to speak, do so. But do not expect for me, a woman, to take you seriously wearing a pink va-jay-jay hat on your head and screaming profanities and bashing men. 
If you have beliefs, and speak to me in a kind matter, I will listen. But do not expect for me to change my beliefs to suit yours. Respect goes both ways. 
If you want to impress me, especially in regards to women, then speak on the real injustices and tragedies that affect women in foreign countries that do not that the opportunity or means to have their voices heard. 
Saudi Arabia, women can't drive, no rights and must always be covered. 
China and India, infantcide of baby girls. 
Afghanistan, unequal education rights. 
Democratic Republic of Congo, where rapes are brutal and women are left to die, or HIV infected and left to care for children alone. 
Mali, where women can not escape the torture of genital mutilation. 
Pakistan, in tribal areas where women are gang raped to pay for men's crime. 
Guatemala, the impoverished female underclass of Guatemala faces domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
And that's just a few examples. 
So when women get together in AMERICA and whine they don't have equal rights and march in their clean clothes, after eating a hearty breakfast, and it's like a vacation away that they have paid for to get there...
This WOMAN does not support it.

The Civil War in Education: Why we should loose the bonds of enslavement to the Progressive Agenda and the National Education Association

This is a Power Point I prepared to present to a group of legislators who are accustomed to trusting "professionals." Yet these "professionals" are the ones who have caused the problems and yet we trust them to fix them? This is a history of how we came to the position we are now in.