KET - Kentucky Educational Television
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An educational facility built to commemorate Park Gwang-ok in the late Joseon Dynasty in Seo-gu, Gwangju-city, S.Korea
JfL Elegant beach hat @ Manly Arena
[ ERAUQS ] - Rick T-Shirt / Pants SET @ Man Cave
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DANCE:
Sync'D Motion__Originals - RNP @ Man Cave
Really cool and fresh moves .. work perfectly for female avatars aswell and any kind of music
Sync'D Social Links
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Disclaimer:
Music on the background is used only as educational purposes to show dance moves on the theme of it
ELEPHANT PLAINS: Located in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, neighbouring the Kruger National Park, the Elephant Plains Game Lodge promises a Big Five game viewing experience with high class luxurious and comfortable accommodation facilities. From rondavels to intimate honeymoon suites the lodge provides its guests with a vast range of options to choose from for their accommodation. Elephant Plains Game Lodge is famous for the enthralling Big Five game viewing where guests can avail two game drives a day. With amazing facilities like swimming pool, spa, gym, library, games room and much more; Elephant Plains Game Lodge serves the guests with one of the best accommodation services in South Africa. The lodge can accommodate up to 24 guests at a time and also offer wedding planning services for those who wish to celebrate the wedding in the wilderness of South Africa. www.elephantplains.co.za
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 km2 in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km from north to south and 65 km from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926. To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere"). The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruger_National_Park
SABI SAND: The Sabi Sand Game Reserve is situated in the southwestern corner of the world-renowned Kruger National Park in South Africa and consists of 65000 hectares. It is the most prestigious game reserve in South Africa and is famous for incredible leopard and lion sightings. www.sabisandsgamereserve.com
Eğitici video izleyerek çocuğunuza bir şey öğretmek çok kolay. Bu video da çocuklarınız Keloğlan ile renkleri eğlenerek öğrenecekler...
One of the HOW (Heart of Worcestershire) College buildings in Worcester. I love the confident, brutal look of the place. Many disagree with me though! :)
1. Letter A, 2. Letter B, 3. Letter C, 4. Letter D, 5. Letter E, 6. Letter F
7. Letter G, 8. Letter H, 9. Letter I, 10. Letter J, 11. Letter K, 12. Letter L
13. Letter M, 14. Letter N, 15. Letter O, 16. Letter P, 17. Letter Q, 18. Letter R
19. Letter S, 20. Letter T, 21. Letter U, 22. Letter V, 23. Letter W, 24. Letter X
25. Letter Y, 26. Letter Z, 27. Number 1, 28. Number 2, 29. Number 3 30. Number 4,
31. Number 5, 32. Number 6, 33. Number 7, 34. Number 8, 35. Number 9, 36. Number 0
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
A large tree grows in the middle of the outdoor patio
"High Park is a municipal park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. High Park is a mixed recreational and natural park, with sporting facilities, cultural facilities, educational facilities, gardens, playgrounds and a zoo.
One-third of the park remains in a natural state, with a rare oak savannah ecology. " - Wikipedia
One of our educational ambassador dogs taken yesterday to listen to children reading in a local elementary school. This dog is a rescue, who lost his right eye in an accident. He is just 9 months old and an absolute credit to his handler.
A 410 acre educational working farm on beautiful Whaletail Lake in Minnetrista Minnesota
#threeriversparks
#captureone
#nikonnofilter
#blackrapid
#shotwithhoya
#OnlyinMN
#water #whaletaillake #minnetrista
#exploremn #barn #pine #fence
#nature
#editwithus #nikoncreators #nikkorz #nikonz6
Nikon Z 6 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S
Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgarian: Велико Търново, romanized: Veliko Tǎrnovo, pronounced [vɛˈliko ˈtɤrnovo]; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province.
Often referred as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famously known as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists with its unique architecture. The old part of the town is situated on three hills, Tsarevets, Trapezitsa, and Sveta Gora, rising amidst the meanders of the Yantra. On Tsarevets are the palaces of the Bulgarian emperors and the Patriarchate, the Patriarchal Cathedral, and also a number of administrative and residential edifices surrounded by thick walls.
Trapezitsa is known for its many churches and as the former main residence of the nobility. During the Middle Ages, the town was among the main European centres of culture and gave its name to the architecture of the Tarnovo Artistic School, painting of the Tarnovo Artistic School, and to literature. Veliko Tarnovo is an important administrative, economic, educational, and cultural centre of Northern Bulgaria.
Veliko Tarnovo is one of the oldest settlements in Bulgaria, with a history of more than five millennia. The first traces of human presence, dating from the 3rd millennium BC, were discovered on Trapezitsa Hill.[6]
First Bulgarian state
Tarnovo was a stronghold of the First Bulgarian Empire. A number of coins, specimens and ceramics from the First Bulgarian State were found on the hills on which the capital city of Tarnovgrad stretched. [7] The city was important for the first Bulgarian state. There was an important military garrison in it. In the church of St. Forty Martyrs were found specimens that historians believe are the work of Bulgarians from Volga Bulgaria[requires source].
The Uprising of Asen and Peter began on 26 October 1185, the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, and ended with the restoration of Bulgaria with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruled by the Asen dynasty.
Veliko Tarnovo, originally Tarnovgrad (Търновград), grew quickly to become the strongest Bulgarian fortification and most prosperous city during the second half of the High and the Late Middle Ages and also most important political, economic, cultural and religious centre of the empire. In the 14th century, the city was described by Bulgarian cleric Gregory Tsamblak as "a very large city, handsome and surrounded by walls, with 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants".,[7] the fortress of Tsarevets being the primary fortress and strongest bulwark from 1185 to 1393, housing the royal and the patriarchal palaces.
In the 14th century, as the Byzantine Empire weakened, Tarnovo claimed to be the Third Rome, based on its preeminent cultural influence in Southeastern Europe.
As the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Tarnovo was a quasi-cosmopolitan city, with many foreign merchants and envoys. Tarnovo is known to have had Armenian, Jewish and Roman Catholic ("Frankish") merchant quarters, besides a dominant Bulgarian population. The discovery of three Gothic heads of statuettes indicates there may have also been a Catholic church.
thx to Wikipedia. For more Information on the further history under the Ottoman rule also please see Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veliko_Tarnovo
I was actually surprised to see this Confederate memorial this far west in Texas (Lockhart is near San Antonio).
There are a lot of different ways to define when you are in the "South." Sociologist John Shelton Reed has written extensively about this and has suggested a number of interesting definitions based on, for example, the number of "Dixie" listings in the phone book, where kudzu grows, the percentage of Baptists, and where the subscribers of Southern Living magazine live.
history.sandiego.edu/gen/st2/xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/RE...
By most of these measures, central Texas, like southern Florida, isn't particularly "Southern." Reed concludes that only the far eastern part of Texas should be thought of as "Southern."
And, although it's not one of Reed's Southern "markers," I would think having a Confederate memorial on the courthouse lawn is a pretty good indicator that you're in the South.
So, having pretty much accepted in my mind that central Texas is not really the "South, this monument seemed incongruous to me. Travel is educational.
scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserve/loch-of-the-lowes/
Loch of the Lowes
Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre and Wildlife Reserve covers 98 hectares near Dunkeld. From early April to late August, the star attraction is a pair of breeding ospreys, which nest just 150 metres from our observation hide.
Address: Loch of the Lowes, Dunkeld PH8 0HH
Why visit?
Highlights include:
Getting closer to the ospreys with binoculars, telescopes and live video footage
Spotting red squirrels, woodpeckers and other woodland birds from viewing windows
Interactive displays help bring the story of Loch of the Lowes to life
Education activities and school visits
Regular family events throughout the year
Gift shop stocking a range of wildlife-themed gifts, souvenirs and birdcare products
Hot and cold drinks and light refreshments available
Best time to visit?
Mar – Nov for red squirrels
Apr – Aug for ospreys
May – Aug for beavers
All year round for wildfowl
All year round for bird feeders & deer
Visit for:
birdwatching woodlands wildflowers scenery mammals
Other information
The Fungarth path leads from the historic town of Dunkeld to Loch of Lowes.
VISITING THE RESERVE
How to get there
Directions
The reserve is situated 16 miles north of Perth and 2 miles north east of Dunkeld, just off the A923 Dunkeld to Blairgowrie road (signposted from the A9). The car park is situated at the roadside 120m from the visitor centre, and is linked by a wheelchair friendly path.
Visitors can also walk from Dunkeld using the Fungarth Path, which is about 2 miles in length.
Getting onto the reserve
Follow the access track to the disabled car park and visitor centre.
Access restrictions
Only guide dogs are permitted in the visitor centre and hides.
No fishing is permitted at Loch of the Lowes at any time of year to protect its wildlife and rare underwater flora.
Nearest town
Dunkeld (2 mi / 3.2 km)
OS grid ref
NO041435
Landranger map
52
VISITOR CENTRE
Loch of the Lowes visitor centre
Opening times
Summer: 1 Mar - 31 Oct: open daily from 10am-5pm
Winter: 1 Nov - 28 Feb: open Fri - Sun from 10.30am - 4pm
Closed December 25th & 26th, January 1st & 2nd.
Admission
Adults: £4
Concession: £3.50
Members: FREE
Children: 50p
Family: £7.50 (2 adults and up to 2 children)
10% discount for other Wildlife Trust members and groups of 11 or more.
Access to reserve trail is free.
Telephone
01350 727 337
lochofthelowes@scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk
LOCH OF THE LOWES BLOG
November at Loch of the LowesWe are only 5 days into November and yet we have already had temperatures ranging from -3C to +12C with the appropriately stunning autumn views to go with them! I make no apology for finding autumn the best season of the year. Nose tinglingly cold with blue skies and ice sparkling on frozen grasses one day, mild and misty or pouring with rain and blowing a hoolie the next! That’s November in Scotland: everyday is a surprise! As I write,…
Farewell to Loch of the Lowes
27 October 2018
Farewell to Loch of the LowesUnfortunately, it’s coming to the end of my time as a Seasonal Visitor Centre Assistant at Loch of the Lowes. Since April, I have had a wonderful time working with the team and I am sure to miss it for a very long time (possibly forever?). I moved up to Scotland from the West Midlands, following graduating with a degree in Zoology last year. I studied approximately 600 miles from here, near Falmouth in Cornwall at the University of Exeter,…
WILDLIFE
What to look for and when
Osprey
Red Squirrel
Education
If you are interested in organising an educational visit to Loch of the Lowes, please contact the visitor centre on 01350 727 337 for more information.
FURTHER READING
About Loch of the Lowes
Out & about
Nearby reserves
Balnaguard GlenTummel Shingle Islands
Scottish Wildlife Trust
Harbourside House
110 Commercial St
Edinburgh
EH6 6NF
The Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Portuguese: Museu Oscar Niemeyer) is located in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, in Brazil. It was inaugurated in 2002 with the name Novo Museu or New Museum. With the conclusion of remodeling and the construction of a new annex, it was reinaugurated on July 8, 2003, with the current denomination to honor its famous architect who completed this project at 95 years of age. It is also known as Museu do Olho or Museum of the Eye, due to the design of the building.
The museum focuses on the visual arts, architecture and design. For its magnificence, beauty and for the importance of the collection, it represents a cultural institution of international significance. The complex of two buildings, installed in an area of 35 thousand square meters (of which 19 thousand are dedicated to exhibition space), it is a true example of architecture allied with art. The first building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1967, faithful to the style of the time, and conceived as an educational institute. It was remodeled and adapted to function as a museum, for which Niemeyer designed the annex, reminiscent of an eye, imprinting it with a new characteristic identity.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Established as a tribute to the Gold Rush, the Heritage Museum displays artifacts from the 19th century gold mining era and from the Miwoks (the early Native American inhabitants who lived in this area). This wonderful collection includes photos, mining maps, personal articles carried from the "Old Countries" around the world, just to name a few.
The Heritage Museum also features a vast display of natural gold specimens acquired from modern-day prospectors who are still very active in the Sierra Foothills. Visitors to the museum can purchase a wide variety of books and educational materials, as well as artifacts and souvenirs related to the Gold Rush era.
Ironstone's Heritage Museum hosts school children from throughout California and the world, welcoming them as they visit to learn about California's early history. For more information about school tours to the Heritage Museum, phone (209) 728-1251 x47.
Ironstone Winery & Heritage Museum Murphys, California May 2022
Ironstone Vineyards is a winery that is noted for the production of several leading US wine brands, including Obsession Wines, Leaping Horse Vineyards, Christine Andrew, Stone Valley, and Drifting. As of 2004, Ironstone has been listed as the 17th-largest winery (in terms of cases sold) in the United States. Ironstone also sells significant amounts of wine in the international markets including the United Kingdom, Canada, and 40 other countries. Ironstone has used a series of different names and bottle designs including "Kautz Ironstone Vineyards," "Ironstone Vineyards," "IronStone," and, most recently, "Ironstone 4th Generation Family Growers".
Ironstone Heritage Museum
The University of Tampa (UT), is a private, co-educational university situated in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States along the Hillsborough River. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary.
The Henry B. Plant Museum is located in the south wing of Plant Hall on the University of Tampa’s campus, at 401 West Kennedy Boulevard. Plant Hall was formerly known as the Tampa Bay Hotel, which was a 511 room resort hotel opened on February 5, 1891 by Henry B. Plant near the terminus of his rail line. The museum's exhibits focus on Gilded Age tourism, the elite lifestyle of the hotel's guests,and the building's use during the Spanish–American War. It was designed by architect J.A. Wood who also created the old Hillsborough County Courthouse and the Oglethorpe Hotel.
The museum is open to the public every day except Monday and major holidays. During the Christmas holiday season, the museum hosts the annual Victorian Christmas Stroll.
The entire building (under the title of Tampa Bay Hotel) is a U.S. National Historic Landmark, designated as such on December 5, 1972. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
School architecture of a certain age often has some lovely details, but photographing them can be fraught with danger in these times when using a camera in the vicinity excites suspicion and hostility.
Brierley Primary School in Crewe has an array of terracotta ornamentation on the buildings. In addition to the plaques over entrances for boys and girls, the gables have words of encouragement for the pupils. The boys side has 'Obey', 'Hope' and 'Duty', whilst on the girls side the mottos are 'Love', 'Neatness' and 'Order'.
St. Thomas University (STU) is a private Catholic university in Opa-locka North, Miami Gardens, Florida. The university offers 23 undergraduate majors, 24 graduate majors, 4 doctoral programs, and 1 professional law program. As of 2018, the university enrolls 4,223 students, which includes 982 undergraduate students; 977 graduate students; 571 law students; and 1,693 dual enrollment (high school) students. Over the years, the University's students have represented several states across the nation, and more than 70 countries.
St. Thomas University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities (SACS). The school of law is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). The baccalaureate degree program in nursing and master's degree program in nursing are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
St. Thomas University's history can be traced back to 1946 Havana, Cuba, where it was founded as the Universidad Católica de Santo Tomás de Villanueva, named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. In 1961, Fidel Castro's militia confiscated the school's land and expelled the faculty and priests. In turn, the Augustinians fled to Miami and opened a new Catholic men's college – Biscayne College. In 1984, with the establishment of the School of Law and other graduate degree programs, the college, by then co-educational, again became St. Thomas University. The university came under the sponsorship of the Archdiocese of Miami in 1988, conferring upon St. Thomas the distinction of being the only Catholic Archdiocesan sponsored university in the state of Florida.
From 1970 until 1993, St. Thomas University was the training camp home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team.
Biscayne College, now known as St. Thomas University, was also the former spring training home of the Baltimore Orioles.
The university was located in the Opa-locka North census-designated place, in an unincorporated area, until Miami Gardens incorporated as a city on May 13, 2003.
On Wednesday, March 20, 2019, St. Thomas University formally installed David A. Armstrong, J.D. as the University's 10th president,
Credit for the data above is given to the following website:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Thomas_University_(Florida)
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That line, is that of an old Chinese saying, "上有天堂, 下有苏杭" (Shang you tian tang, xia you su hang). Marco Polo, the first Westerner to visit Hangzhou, later wrote that it was the most magnificent and beautiful city in the world. And indeed, it is truly a beautiful place with a beautiful setting.
When I see a photo like this, a sense of calm comes over me. Remembering my visit to West Lake in Hangzhou though, I don't know if calm is the word I would use to describe it. It was, rather pleasant and peaceful to visit though. A number of (primarily Chinese) visitors at the lake that day. Just people wishing to enjoy some of the splendid greenery and water.
It's easy to get wrapped up in the moment, snapping photos and not enjoying the moment for what its worth. Nowadays, I find myself sometimes putting my camera down, and marveling at the scenery and nature for what it is. Something to be imprinted in my mind as a wonderful memory.
Blogged: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/2016/4/8/the-skies-have-heav...
Bain News Service,, publisher.
Educational Convention Delegates
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Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
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Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. For more information, see George Grantham Bain Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/274_bain.html
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Part Of: Bain News Service photograph collection (DLC) 2005682517
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Special NOTE: On Feb. 8, 2012 I attached a comment, readable & easily discoverable on Page 2 of the comments below, that details the vast corporatist scheme, fronted by Jeb Bush, financed in part with hundreds of millions from Rupert Murdoch (FOX nooze), to privatize American public education & reduce it to 'virtual' schools - not to improve anything (as national & international educational research studies clearly show), but rather to become the final recipients of the taxes people pay so that they can skim huge profits off of the top while providing grotesquely inferior services & lots of lying propaganda to keep the public bamboozled. I beg everyone to read the report.
The McGuffey's Ecclectic Spelling Book was published in 1879.
Raymond Cyrus Hoiles (1878-1970) founded Freedom Communications, a newspaper publishing & broadcasting company that has never hesitated to shape the news to fit right wing ideology. When Hoiles was alive & roaring I lived in Orange County, California, home of the equally right wing Walt Disney & Walter Knott, & was frequently compelled to suffer people who agreed with Hoiles' constantly editorialized insistence that public education was a form of theft & communism that must at once be got rid of. Hoiles was motivated by his fundamentalist Christian persuasions, & quite serious. We should restrain our laughter at the abysmal stupidity of his example, because in many ways he & people like him won & are still winning control of public education. - To introduce the article below, I'll say a little about the Christian strategy.
For many years Orange County's teachers worked under a Draconian ruling that forbade the teaching of values. There is no way around the fact, however, that the statement, "Values may not be taught," is itself a value statement belonging to a class of propositions known as Epimenidean Paradoxes. A comparably illustrative sentence would be, "This is not a sentence." Or, a favorite of the best hypnotists, used when addressing a resistant subject, "Do not obey any instruction which I give you."
What, then, was intended by those who created the paradoxical Orange County law? Well, if any teacher dared to say or imply something that would be disagreeable to any person whose beliefs began & ended with church, flag & free-for-all capitalism, then that teacher could be charged with teaching values & be suspended. One family friend, a young man teaching at an elementary school in Anaheim, was charged, hounded, publicly disgraced, threatened with death & discharged from his post, immediately after which he died from a heart attack. The case was depicted in Life Magazine. His only crime was that he was Jewish. His wife, also a teacher, remained bereft & embittered the rest of her long life.
These people became increasingly invisible over time, largely by devising ever more clever ways for gaining control of both education policy & the public dialogue about education.
Ralph Reed, working for Pat Robertson & the Christian Coalition, devised the "stealth agenda" to place fundamentalists in every local school board in America. The plan helped select & fund candidates, who in accord with Reed's instructions never mentioned their religion or religious connections when campaigning for office. In 1983 Reed rigged an election at his university - he got started early, in other words. Recently we learned that Mr. Reed & Jack Abramoff were associate crooks. The revelation forced Reed to abandon his run to become the lieutenant governor of Georgia. Mr. Reed will not disappear, however. He remains a darling of the far Christian right, & owns Century Strategies, a dirty-tricks political consulting & lobbying organization. In 1999 Karl Rove got reed a nice contract with Enron, which was paying Reed $30,000 per month. And guess who recently went to Georgia to try to save poor Reed? Rudy Giuliani, who has the hots to be the next U.S. president & is pandering to the Christians so he can be their new burning Bush.
Stealthiness did not go away when the Christian Coalition folded & Reed went off on his own to rig elections for big bucks. Rather, the stealth moved into policy matters. For instance, all the phony propaganda claiming religious & private education is more successful, creating the excuse to promote vouchers (for which the motives are both religious & racist). Or, most recently, Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which was sought by the Christians not because they believed all the testing of students would lead to improved education, but rather because they wanted teachers to be made too busy preparing students for endless tests about facts to find time to do the great evil thing, which is the teaching of concepts. Teaching concepts leads to teaching logic, scientific & other academic methodologies which by their nature instill respect for critical - read, skeptical - thinking. Dogmatists, advertisers & con men have equal cause to fear skepticism.
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From: Truthdig.com
Taking Back Our Schools--and Fixing Them
Full text with links: www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060425_taking_back_our_sch...
Posted on Apr. 25, 2006
By Wellford Wilms
The recent news reported in The New York Times that schools are throwing out science, social studies and art to make time for drilling students in remedial math and reading is a sign of things gone terribly wrong. Former New York State Commissioner of Education Thomas Sobol told the Times that narrowing education to just math and reading would be akin to restricting violin students to playing scales day after day. “They’d lose their zest for music.” But most schools that serve poor populations, like those in Cuero, Texas, are squeezed to meet federal math and reading standards. Cuero Superintendent Henry Lind told the paper, “When you have so many hours per day and you’re behind in some area that’s being hammered on, you have to work on that.”
But by the looks of things, hammering students for higher test scores isn’t making much of a difference. Most students have already lost their zest for learning. How do we know? In Los Angeles, upwards of 50% of Latino and African American students never finish high school. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve been a professor of education at UCLA for more than 25 years and am convinced that despite the fads that come and go, nothing has put a dent in the public schools’ failure to educate inner-city children. In fact, things are getting worse. But I am also convinced that we’ve been looking in the wrong places for solutions. My own research across a wide array of organizations—corporations, trade unions, public schools, colleges, teacher unions and police agencies—suggests another way of looking at the problem and that solutions will come from a new direction.
This essay is a proposition—one that I hope will spark a lively debate among Truthdig readers and inform policy leaders. Future essays will examine Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign to take over the public schools, analyze whether teacher unions can be a force for productive change, and expose promising ways to rebuild public investment in the schools.
Let’s start with Jonathan Kozol’s new book, “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.” It is a scathing indictment of American social policy that banned racial segregation in public schools in 1955 and then turned a blind eye to its implementation. Today, Kozol says, schools are more segregated than ever. But he fails to explain why resegregation has occurred. Because Kozol overlooks the root causes of the problem, his solutions—spending more money on dysfunctional schools and wishing for a social mandate to desegregate the schools—miss the point.
To be sure the problems are undeniable. Kozol examines the appalling condition of big-city schools. In school after school we see children who are brimming with potential but who are walled off from the larger society and abandoned by the schools. Most middle-class white Americans simply cannot comprehend the horrid schools that Kozol describes. Ceilings fall in, toilets are filthy, libraries, music and arts have been stripped away. Teachers in these schools, who are paid 40% less than teachers in the suburbs, are forced to teach “scripted” lessons that are written for children who are deemed incapable of learning.
It is all part of the latest reform pushed by the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind initiative, a reform aimed at the singular pursuit of increasing test scores. Learning has been stripped of its intrinsic meaning and reduced to simplistic steps—“Authentic Writing,” “Active Listening,” “Accountable Talk”—that hamper teachers in teaching anything but how to take a test. Behind it all is an attempt to impose control, much as mass production techniques were used a century ago, to standardize instruction to fit new immigrants to the system.
Meanwhile, millions of children are failing. In nearly half of the high schools in America’s 100 largest districts, fewer than 50% of students graduate in four years. Most of these students are from poor Latino and African-American families. And from 1993 to 2000 the number of failing schools has mushroomed by 75%. Mayor Villaraigosa calls Los Angeles’ high dropout rates “numbers that should put a chill down your spine.”
The reasons, Kozol argues, are lack of money and racial discrimination that produce inferior and segregated schools. No doubt this is partly true. We have tried to desegregate the schools for a half-century and failed. Middle-class white parents have voted for individual freedom with their feet, enrolling their children in private schools, leaving the public schools more segregated than ever. The same is true for middle-class black families. Gail Foster, an educator who has studied black independent schools, was quoted in 2004 in The New York Times as saying: “Many of the most empowered parents and families are removing their children. What’s left, in even working-class communities, are schools filled with the least empowered families. Families with the least parent involvement to offer, families with the least help with homework to offer. There’s been a continual outflow for at least 10 years, and it isn’t stopping now.”
More money is not the answer either. Kozol points to wide disparities in educational expenditures ranging from $11,700 per student in New York City to $22,000 in suburban Manhasset. Disturbing as that is, study after study shows that equalizing money does not necessarily equalize learning.
In 1966, sociologist James Coleman conducted the most extensive study ever made of desegregating education and found that what mattered most in students’ learning was the economic status of their peers rather than the racial makeup of the school. He also found that school funding was not closely related to students’ achievement—their families’ economic status was far more predictive. Coleman’s findings were controversial and led to a bitter debate, but they have been replicated many times. Daniel Patrick Moynihan summed it up best when he commented shortly after Coleman’s groundbreaking study, “We should begin to see that the underlying reality is not race but social class.”
Since social class matters because money follows privilege, and since desegregation will take generations to eradicate, what can be done now? Are poor children doomed to attend grossly inadequate schools? Surely not. We must find ways to remove the influences that have crippled the schools. Money must be diverted from bloated bureaucracies that snuff out innovation. Instead it must go directly to schools where principals and teachers can influence what is taught and what children learn, and help bring parents back into the fold. Otherwise, it is going down a rat hole.
Parents have a significant role to play in their children’s education, but their voices have been largely silenced. Over the last 40 years, we have witnessed the decline of civic involvement and the growing dominance of self-interest over the greater good, a social deterioration that sociologist Robert Putnam calls “hollowing out” in his 2000 book “Bowling Alone.” One result, as the old saying goes, is that “the rich get richer” and the poor fall ever further behind in crumbling schools.
Over the last 25 years, education in general has been taken from ordinary citizens and teachers by politicians, administrators, union leaders, publishers, test makers, consultants, university professors, hardware and software developers and the media, each playing its part in keeping alive the illusion of reform. All in all, this $1-trillion industry has replaced the common interest, and no one, it seems, can muster the will to rein it in.
Local control is only a dim memory. Decisions now come from the top—from the federal and state governments, school boards and high-level administrators who have little knowledge of what goes on in the classroom. Teachers are left out of these decisions, carrying on the best they can, safe in the assumption that the newest fad, like those before it, will blow over. Parents are all but forgotten.
While command-and-control management may seem to produce results in the short run, it strips schools of the capacity to develop the stable leadership that is necessary to sustain success. Principals are besieged with demands from district offices and from the educational fads that emanate from publishers and university researchers. Many principals know that they put their careers in peril unless they do what their bosses want. One elementary school principal told me, “District directives undermine our own abilities to think for ourselves, to believe in what we see and know.” When schools discover something that works, it is rarely sustained because they lack authority or stable leadership.
In 1969 when I worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, I monitored the schools in impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville in New York City. The local school board hired a charismatic superintendent, who fired incompetent teachers and hired young and idealistic ones. The firings set the local board at odds with the huge teachers’ union, which demanded due process for the fired teachers. The superintendent, Rhody McCoy, was convinced that good teachers had to respect the children they taught. He put it in plain words: “If you’re convinced that this kid is doomed by nature or by something else to lead a shrunken and curtailed life, then you’re basically incompetent to teach that child.” The experiment worked. Observing classrooms left no doubt in my mind that students were learning. Eager first-graders sat attentively on the floor in semicircles shouting out answers to fraction problems and reading aloud. The schools buzzed with excitement as parent helpers streamed in and out of classrooms. But in a bitter power struggle the board seized authority and the experiment ended.
Years later, in 1985, Deborah Meier, a passionate educator who founded Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary School, achieved stunning successes that led the school to be celebrated as a model alternative school in Time magazine. But it could not be sustained beyond Meier’s unique leadership. Today, 10 years after Meier left, a respected children’s advocacy group, Insideschools and Advocates for Children, reports that the Harlem school “…has fallen on hard times in recent years with rapid staff turnover, low staff morale and uneven discipline.”
In risk-averse environments like public schools, few principals will stick out their necks, because they don’t want to buck the bosses downtown. Courageous and visionary principals like Rhody McCoy and Deborah Meier keep coming. But charismatic leadership is no match for heavy-handed district management, which always wins out.
Take Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles, for example. In 1989, Howard Lappin took over a failing middle school. With the help of teachers and an infusion of money, Lappin wrested control from the district and transformed Foshay. The school expanded into a K-12 “learning center” and became largely autonomous of the district’s bureaucratic requirements. Teachers and administrators decided who would be hired and what would be taught. Foshay succeeded, and in 2000 its high school was selected by Newsweek as one of the 100 best in America. But in 2001 Lappin retired, and his unique leadership was lost. Today Foshay is being threatened with sanctions by the district and the county because gains in students’ test scores have stalled. As the school has fallen under the district’s “one-size-fits all” bureaucratic requirements, the impact has been to undermine the once vibrant teacher leadership that made the school so enviable.
The problem with public education is not with the teachers, or with the children, but the way we organize the schools. Probably the greatest casualties are teachers themselves, who are forced to accept decisions by authorities about teaching that they know to be nonsense. One professor interviewed by Kozol said that forcing an absurdity on teachers teaches something: acquiescence. For example, in study after study, teachers report that relying on test scores as sole marks of student achievement and teaching scripted lessons destroy students’ natural love of learning. And such practices also erode teachers’ professional authority, which is fundamental to student learning.
Why is it so hard to foster the only kind of reform that really works, which is right in the schoolhouse? Because politicians, school board members and administrators are under intense pressure to produce immediate results, i.e., higher and higher test scores—a goal that is pursued through directives from districts with little input of principals, teachers and parents. Superintendents serve at the pleasure of school boards, and most board members are elected or appointed and have limited terms of office. As test scores have become the measure of educational quality, everyone is under immense pressure to show fast results or be turned out.
No wonder that school boards hire superintendents who promise to deliver quick results. But few do. Superintendents last on average only three or four years. Many are thwarted by outmoded bureaucracies that were designed a century ago using top-down control practiced in American industry to mass-produce learning. Within these organizations, power has quietly accumulated, making them all but impervious to outside influence. Sid Thompson, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, told me: “Trying to change the district is like trying to change the direction of a fast-moving freight train. You might knock it off course for a moment, but before you know it it’s rattling right down the tracks again.”
Frustration and suspicion about who might emerge from the shadows to sabotage their plans often lead superintendents to jealously guard their power. In 2002, Day Higuchi, then president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the Los Angeles teacher union, had high hopes for working with the school district’s new “can-do” superintendent, Roy Romer. Higuchi hoped that Romer would endorse a new union initiative called Lesson Study, a plan to help teachers work collectively to improve classroom lessons. At a breakfast meeting that I attended, Higuchi presented Romer with an invitation to work with the union to develop and spread Lesson Study across the district. When Higuchi finished, Romer flipped over his paper placemat and with a red felt pen drew a box with an S in it. “That’s me,” he said. Beneath he drew 11 boxes with smaller s’s in them, representing the 11 local superintendents, and below that, a number of small boxes with roofs, representing schools and teachers. Then, pulling his face near to Higuchi’s, he drew bold red arrows pointing downward from the top. Romer jabbed his pen in the air to accentuate each word: “You cannot usurp my authority to manage this district!” It was a dumbfounding moment, one that revealed the true underside of the use of power. Here was a chance for a new superintendent to forge a small but significant step with the union, but Romer, who recently announced his resignation, explained that he was “in a hurry.” He clearly had little time for ideas that were at odds with his own. In the end his refusal to work with the union undermined the possibility of creating a broader base of power that could transcend self-interest.
Nor are the unions exempt from self-interest. A few years ago I helped establish a national group of union presidents called TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network) who were dedicated to remaking their unions as forces to improve education. One way was to cooperate with administrators and encourage teachers to use their classroom know-how to redesign teaching at the schoolhouse. But hostility and mistrust run deep. The union leaders became nervous, fearing that fellow unionists would attack them for “collaborating” with the enemy and that if the effort to collaborate failed they would share the blame. Don Watley, president of the New Mexico Federation of Educational Employees, commented: “It’s like the Normandy landing. We’ve got the best troops in the world. We’ve got the best officers in the world. And we’ve got the best equipment in the world. But at 0800 when we hit the beach half of us are going to get killed!” Sadly, in the years to come, the ingrained mistrust, and the unpredictable dance of union politics, prevented these unionists from becoming a positive force in educational reform. Instead, they have been reduced to stockpiling power, much as the Soviets and Americans stockpiled nuclear weapons during the Cold War, to oppose any hostile moves the other side might make.
So what can be done to break the standoff between teacher unions and districts? How can teachers’ professional authority be restored? How can parents be awakened and brought back into the fold? Experience shows that it can be done. Schools such as Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary, Los Angeles’ Foshay Learning Center, those in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, and many others attest to the fact that schools can be made into safe places where children learn. Sustaining them is the hard part.
There is little doubt that trying to build good schools with command-and-control management doesn’t work. School boards, superintendents and union officials need to clear the obstacles—unnecessary bureaucratic requirements and outmoded work rules—to make innovation at the schoolhouse possible. These top-level educational leaders also must make resources available to support new ways of teaching. Jonathan Kozol has it right. Teaching is the only reform that counts and it can be done only at the schoolhouse by teachers, principals, parents and students working together.
Turning school districts upside down will also mean turning a century of top-down management on its head. But where is such bold leadership to be found? One promising place is among big-city mayors. But they must resist trying to take over the schools, as they did in New York, Chicago and Boston with mixed results at best. Instead, popular mayors could use their influence and visibility to tell the truth about the condition of education and to build a popular consensus about how change must occur.
In the next essay I am going to examine what mayors can do. Waiting for the schools to be saved by someone else is nonsense. Only concerted local action offers a chance. Doubters should recall Margaret Mead’s observation: “Never doubt that a small group of concerned people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2006 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
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© Alex Masi
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Caption:
Aadite, 9, a boy suffering from a severe neurological disorder and malnutrition, is watching cartoons while lying on a bed inside his home in Kabit Pura, near the abandoned Union Carbide (now DOW Chemical) industrial complex in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, central India, site of the infamous 1984 gas tragedy. The poisonous cloud that enveloped Bhopal left everlasting consequences that today continue to consume people's lives. Aadite's father, Raju, a 1984 gas survivor, died in March 2013 at the age of 32, due to lungs failure. Aadite now lives in a small room with his mother, Lakshmi, 29, who works six days a week as a cleaner, his two sisters Mayuri, 12, Mahag, 7, and his younger brother Anuj, 5. None of the siblings in this family is attending school or any kind of practical education.
Bhopal, India. 2013
2015 model TransTech SST - formerly TransTech's left side door "CityStar" demo. The left side door has been removed.
VIN: 1GB6G5BG9D1165563
www.flickr.com/photos/144996861@N04/38558947834/in/photol...
Another tourist visit today was to MUCHO Museo del Chocolate at C. Milan 45 in Colonia Juárez.
MUCHO Mundo Chocolate is the name of the brand of chocolate confections made at the museum.
The small museum, set in a house built in 1909 is dedicated to chocolate, as Cacao is native to Mexico and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica.
The museum is a blend of history with contemporary culture. There are educational displays on the Mayan people and their respect for cacao as a sacred crop.
The museum has a gift shop and cafe where you can enjoy and purchase chocolate treats.
This wall on the museums second floor was decorated with chocolate wafers.
Educational Bird
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Published in Matanuska Telephone's 1st calendar 2008
A few minutes spent doodling what was on the desk next me. I volunteer to listen to children read aloud in the junior school where my wife works. Sometimes the children get a few minutes break while I am there so I while away the time sketching until they come back. This collection of resources caught my eye on a recent break. It is special equipment for a young man that is partially sighted and includes a Braille machine to help him learn to read as his sight is likely to deteriorate further has he ages.