Anyone with a home computer attached to the internet will have antivirus and web security software installed.  This generally does a good job and includes “black listing” features for undesirable web sites, as well as parental control settings.  Until recently, I felt that was enough.

What changed my mind was an unrelated problem about a year ago with my broadband service.  I was getting a lot of failed web address lookups in Firefox.  Trying IE made no difference.  The problem was with the DNS service of my ISP.  Looking around, I found alternative DNS services that could be used, but which one would be reliable?

After some research, I decided to go for OpenDNS.  It’s a widely-used service, with data centres around the world, including one in the Netherlands.

After registering, you get a dashboard on the OpenDNS web site that allows access to your settings and stats.

• Content filtering can be done on a simple level (none <–> high) or customized to allow/disallow more that 50 categories of web site.  In addition, specific web sites may be blocked (black listed) or un-blocked (white listed).
• You can customize the messages and logo that are displayed in a user’s browser by OpenDNS, e.g. when a site is blocked.  I’ve kept the defaults, but this would be ideal for businesses and schools where additional information could be added to help users, such as contact information for queries.
• The stats info is useful for businesses and schools wanting to know how their bandwidth is being used, and whether there have been attempts to access inappropriate web sites.  It could be of similar value in households where there are several computers  competing for bandwidth.
• A recent new OpenDNS feature is something called “SmartCache”.  Originally part of the Premium and Enterprise offerings, OpenDNS have taken the decision to make this available in the Free version.  Free users need to log in and enable the feature in their dashboard’s advanced settings.  (press release)

A little technical info

Typically, domestic internet access is provided with a dynamic IP address (on the WAN), meaning the address may change.  This is transparent to the user in most situations but, for the content filtering and stats features of  OpenDNS, the service needs to know your WAN IP address.  The solution is a small app (Windows and Mac versions) that periodically tells OpenDNS your current WAN IP address.  This app is not required for web access.  For a typical broadband account, the OpenDNS server details are configured in your router.

I have just one minor niggle with OpenDNS: the lack of support for local time reporting in the stats and access info.  All times are UTC-8.  They have this on their list of to-dos.

How much does it cost?

The entry-level service is free and, as a home user, I find this meets all my needs.  There are two levels of paid service: Deluxe and Enterprise.  Deluxe is just US$9.95 per year, with advanced customization.  The Business subs is US$2,000 per year, with advanced protection and admin features.  Here’s a comparison chart.

Closing comment

In a domestic setting, OpenDNS has a lot to offer.  For businesses and schools, too, there are reasons to consider OpenDNS.

I normally don’t even think about the OpenDNS service; it’s just out there doing a great job.

I thought what this man did and what he said was only to my class the one year, but boy was I wrong.  I know through talking to other guys and girls in my class and the two classes ahead of mine that his opening speech to the class was the same every year he taught at Royal Arthur School.  Mr. C wasn’t having a bad year, he was having a bad career.  Teachers, parents, adminstration all stood by as Mr. C,  bullied, strapped and played mind games with his students.  I played in his after school activities sports program.  Here the game of basketball was played with none of the games rules.  It was nick named murder ball.  We got hurt and got up and played some more.  Not to play meant you were ostracised in class and made to feel like you were a sissy.  If you do not believe me ask Gordie Linus or Robin Boyd or Ronald Blake.  These 3 guys were in my grade 7 class and did not pass the Mr. C  man test.  Mr. C didn’t just use the strap as a punishing tool he used it in an effort to break you.  I honestly believe he enjoyed the power of it all.  Mr. C would start with his jacket on and by time he finished he would have his jacket off, his shirt sleeves would be  rolled up and be perspiring heavily.  I always wondered what my life and others in my shoes would have been like if the toss of the coin had put me in Ms. C ’s,  grade 7 class instead of his. There is just too much that he did, so I will just let you read about it from an excerpt in my book.

Grade Seven And Mr. C

 Mr. C was a perfect example of what a teacher should not be.  Mr. C was a man who had wanted to be a professional athlete, but became a teacher because he needed to eat. He was very talented in quite a few sports but not gifted enough to enter into the pro ranks. He took his frustrations out on his students, and he thought he was too good to be stuck in a ghetto school teaching a bunch of backward blacks and poor white trash. The first day of school, the very first class, he set the tone for the school year. This is what he said; “Good morning my name is Mr. C, most of you will never graduate high school so I will be baby-sitting you people and seeing that you don’t cause any problems for the school.” We will concentrate on the things you will need to get by in life and not what the government thinks you need for high school. He also promised that anyone with a sixty-percent average by mid-term would be passed no matter how his or her government exams scored.

This was very demoralizing and gave me the impression that a good education wasn’t important for people like me.  For me a bad habit was in motion. For the first time in my school life I was not expected to do my best at all times. This was not however the worst thing about this man.  His impact on the average male student was large.  Young dumb and full of cum is a saying used at the time that accurately described our state of being at the time.

He made you feel like if you didn’t play rough sports or you didn’t fight you were less than a man.  He was a sadistic bastard who turned the strong against the weak for what seemed solely for the pleasure of watching the latter squirm.  We all vied to be the toughest, we all wanted to be considered men.  No it was more than that; we all needed to be men in Mr. C’s eyes. We were scared of him not physically but more the way he would single you out and get the rest of the class to turn against you. 

If he had one saving grace it was the way he taught history.  When he talked of battles you felt like you were on the field.  I loved listening to him talk and would just close my eyes and let my imagination run wild.  We had something in common Mr. C and I, we both didn’t care for Mr. W, to put it mildly. Mr. C would goad Mr. W into helping him with the supervision of after school activities.  We played Stone Age basketball, murder ball and football in the schoolyard. Unlike basketball, volleyball and football in the real world the games we played had no rules and wore no safety equipment. 

With no protective equipment and full contact, were expected to suck up the pain when you got injured.  All males in Mr. C’s class were expected to play in these tournaments of pain. Failure to do so would lead to Mr. C, seeing that you were ostracized. 

One time while Mr. W was captaining a hockey scrum, the other captain being Mr. C, all of the players on Mr. C’s side were ordered to hit Mr. W hard when he went into the boards for the puck. You see Mr. W didn’t skate very well and he really didn’t know how to play hockey. He kept going into the boards with his head down. When Mr. C’s whole team made the hit on him, he didn’t even see it coming. There was a howl and we all watched in shock as Mr. W folded up and fell to the ground. At first everyone laughed quite pleased with themselves, but when Mr. W failed to get up and the extent of his injuries became increasingly obvious, smirks and grins were replaced with nervous looks and chattering. The next day the school gossip was all about the extent of Mr. W’s injuries, how he got them and when and if he would be returning to school. Mr. W did return to school but never helped or played after school activities again.  Mr. W had two casts one on his arm and one on his ankle.

Phillip, a boy in grade six but older than me decided that we would have to fight after school because he needed to have my spot in the group. I hadn’t fought since my manipulation skills had improved a year earlier, and saw no reason to fight now. I tried to reason with Phillip but he would have none of it, he had promised the kids a show and he was going to deliver. Mr. C,  had noticed us jousting for position in after school activities and for a while had been encouraging us to fight and see who was the better man. The day finally came when I had to fight Phillip or lose face and be branded a coward. I walked right up to him in the schoolyard and poked him in the chest saying, “I understand you want to fight me? ” He answered by pushing me as he said, “it’s about time you got up the nerve chicken shit.” 

Up to this day I don’t really know whether I was scared or not but there was no way out. The lookouts would make sure we didn’t try to sneak out one of the side doors to avoid the fight. After school we were pushed and pulled along to the train tracks where the fight would take place. My supporters and his supporters were each screaming their instructions in our ears. The instructions and rules were told to us by one of the biggest guys in the school and we were ordered to fight.  

There comes a time just before the fist punch is thrown when both combatants look into each others eyes and know that they are fighting for something that has nothing to do with them. Too late to turn back the first feeling out punch was thrown by Philip. I circled him waiting for and opening.  I didn’t care about rules made up by students, I knew the real rules of fighting; there were no rules. Phillip moved in with a classical boxing technique and I countered by kicking him in the chest. The crowd screamed their approval of my footwork and Phillip got up off the ground mad. The fight could have ended right there and then but the crowd was demanding a victor.  Phillip threw a fake punch, I kicked out and he caught my foot in his hand making me fall to the ground.  He kicked at me but I blocked it and rolled out of the way. He jumped on top of me using his greater weight to hold me down. Pinning my hands under his knees he asked me, “do you want to quit?” While he was talking I had managed to get my head turned in such away that I could feel his forearm pressing against my mouth. His answer came quickly. I clamped onto that forearm of his and bit down until I could taste his blood in my mouth and feel it trickling down the side of my face and chin. He was screaming in shock and pain trying now only to free his-self from my grip. One of the referees decided to pull us apart so that the fight could go on.  Phillip and I had both lost our desire to fight by now, but we had gone to far to quit now and our audience was awaiting the final out come. We circled each other one more time and then both of us threw what was to be our last punch of the fight.  Phillip threw an overhand right, which landed in my eye.  Never in my life had I felt such pain. My punch never landed and the fight was beginning to take its toll on me. I was exhausted and tired; I just wanted to go home. The question was put to me, “are you done?” and I answered “for now.”

That was it the fight was over and although no one spoke of it, I had just lost my first fight.  For weeks after there were rumors of a rematch but neither Phillip nor myself wanted to put ourselves through that again if we could possibly avoid it, so we became friends instead. Did I say we became friends? Well that isn’t quite true. We tolerated each other, we even went to each other’s house, but we didn’t trust each other and it showed. We were always one glance away from the rematch. Phillip wanted to be the leader of the pack but he just wasn’t smart enough.  He thought all you had to do was make everyone afraid of you and you became his or her boss. He had no concept of loyalty or its value, so as tough as he was, he stayed on the bottom of the pack. Phillip didn’t just vanish though, he sort of stayed on the outskirts of groups like a stallion in exile.

Beginning To Be Too Smart For My Own Good

Now that you know a little better where my head was at, I think it’s time to get on with the school year and the influence Mr. C had on my life. The first term saw my marks at an all time high and things were good. I was very good in sports and I enjoyed playing rough so I went the first months in this mad mans course without incurring his wrath. This would change however in the second term when I decided to take him up on his mid-term offer that I explained earlier. I stopped doing the homework that I didn’t like and when asked in front of the whole class why I said, “why do I have to do all this work if a sixty percent mark is good enough to pass?” He took this response as a direct challenge to his authority.  He nodded his understanding and smiled. I knew right then and there our relationship had changed and I had just become public enemy number one.

My challenge however innocent had been made in public and would be put down quickly and in the same public manner it had been issued. I was too stubborn to give in to him. He in turn unleashed a campaign of tactics designed to humiliate and break me. He was as determined in his resolve as I was in mine. When the tactics he was using failed (don’t forget that the master, my mother, trained me in the art of manipulation.) he decided that in order to bring this problem under control corporal punishment might be in order. I was given fair warning and for a while I allowed him to think he had actually won.

One day he decided to check our desks to see if they were being kept neat. I must admit that mine was a mess, but this had never seemed to bother him before our falling out. Anyway when he looked inside of mine he asked me to stand up and move away from my desk.  What happened next made me so angry inside that he almost won. In front of the whole class he tipped my desk over and called me a pig and said that I probably was doing my homework but just couldn’t find it in the pigsty I called my desk. At the last-minute just before I blew up I realized that he was trying to goad me into saying something bad enough to be given the strap for. (The strap being the approved method of corporal punishment for our school) I simply asked him if he was done and if so, could I please pick up my desk and put my things away? Oh, I’m finished he said with a sharp edge to his voice! Then he made this statement in front of the class, “ If, or should I say when Milton does one more thing out of line, let it be known by all that he will be given ten lashes on each hand with the strap. No questions will be asked because, no explanation will be excepted.”

Not long after I was asked to bring my homework up to his desk. I had done it but for the life of me I couldn’t find it. He smiled and said I really shouldn’t do this but I’ll give you until lunch to find it. I was looking for it in my desk with no luck.  I knew it was in there, but now my nervousness was blinding me.  By chance I looked up and saw him looking at me with a smile on his face, like he was enjoying my stress and fear. I decided at this point to stop looking for the homework and accept my fate with some dignity and like a man. I walked up to his desk, looked him in the eye and told him, “ Do what ever you want. I know I did my homework but I can’t find it. You can give me the strap if you want to, but I won’t let you sit here and laugh at me while I look for it.” Smiling he said he understood and if I was sure that was how I felt the punishment would be meted out just before I went to lunch.

At lunch I was asked to remain behind and we all knew why. Determined not to cry, I stuck my hands out when I was told to. He raised that strap way up in the air and delivered the first blow with such force that the noise  of the leather hitting the palm of my hand sent me into shock. It took my mind a few seconds to realize that I was in pain, but before I could react to the first blow the strap was being delivered in the same fashion to the other palm. I don’t know when I started to cry but tears were running down the side of my face and I was looking in his face feeling violated and helpless. It was at this point his eyes softened and he put down the strap.

He told me to go to lunch and hoped that our relationship could go back to the way it used to be before. I nodded yes and left the class. He had hurt me and made me cry. Things could never be the same between us now and I would hate him until the day I died. After lunch I looked again for my homework and found it.  It had been there all the time.  I was just too nervous to find it.  I made a mental note to never let anything, or anyone make me that nervous again. I would continue my war, only this time he wouldn’t know until it was too late to do anything about it. I did all my assignments and I even handed them in on time. I was polite in class and even cleaned up the inside of my desk and manage to keep it that way, but there were to be no more inspections. I gave that sadistic bastard no further reason to think of me as a problem and in time I think he forgot I was even in his class.

April was drawing closer and it would be time to see what our marks were. When it was my turn to go up to his desk and find out my marks, I was thrilled to find out that I had gotten a seventy-five percent average and would be attending the High School Of Montreal in the fall, no matter how my provincial exams turned out. Armed with that information I smiled and decided to put my plan to get him back into operation. I would simply write the exams I was good at or liked and just sign my name to the ones I didn’t leaving the rest blank. Back then I couldn’t see that the only person I was hurting was myself, whether or not Mr. C set me up would prove to be irrelevant as my life began to take shape. All the rest of my education was affected by that one stupid decision to beat him at all costs. I had only won the battle and if what I suspected about him was true, he had just won the war.

Our school held graduation ceremonies, which included a dance on the last day of the school year.  All of the families of the graduating class were allowed to attend.  My Mother came and my sister who was in grade six was there as well. There was a dance contest and for couples to be judged by the claps of other students.  I danced with my sister because my Mother ordered me to and Jiutane was the best dancer in the school and everybody knew it.  If allowed to I would have probably chosen somebody else because she was also one of the most feared as well as hated girls in the school. We danced and came in second but in my heart I knew we had won.  Mr. C pulled me to the side after the vote and said these words to me; “In some things it is not only being the best at something that counts. Sometimes your personality and whether or not people like you will count for more. In the future pick your partner or partners more carefully.  I thought you and your sister won the contest.”  I wasn’t to talk to Mr. C again until the following year when I would visit my old school as a high school kid, no longer under his control or influence.

Issues raised are two.
One is of racist discrimination and another is of disintegration society because of loss of Family values.In the garb of individual freedom,decency has been given a go by , moral values lost and family as the bedrock of Society is fast losing its grip.Drugs,Gun culture,free sex,living together,single parent, dumping parents in old age homes ,sexual disloyalty, loss of Faith and crass consumerism and materialism are the order of the day Unless this trend is arrested, there is no solution or salvation.Build solid family values, follow moral principles and give freedom of the individual a rest for some time.
Story:
Editor’s note: the following is an excerpt from Henry Giroux’ new book, Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability? (Palgrave MacMillan).

Punishment and fear have replaced compassion and social responsibility as the most important modalities mediating the relationship of youth to the larger social order. Youth within the last two decades have come to be seen as a source of trouble rather than as a resource for investing in the future, and in the case of poor black and Hispanic youth are increasingly treated as either a disposable population, cannon fodder for barbaric wars abroad, or the source of most of society’s problems. Hence, young people now constitute a crisis that has less to do with improving the future than with denying it. As Larry Grossberg points out, “It has become common to think of kids as a threat to the existing social order and for kids to be blamed for the problems they experience. We slide from kids in trouble, kids have problems, and kids are threatened, to kids as trouble, kids as problems, and kids as threatening.” This was exemplified when the columnist Bob Herbert reported in the New York Times that “parts of New York City are like a police state for young men, women, and children who happen to be black or Hispanic. They are routinely stopped, searched, harassed, intimidated, humiliated and, in many cases, arrested for no good reason.” No longer “viewed as a privileged sign and embodiment of the future,” youth are now increasingly demonized by the popular media and derided by politicians looking for quick-fix solutions to crime and other social ills. While youth have always had to bear the misplaced fear and distrust of adults, how youth are represented, talked about, and treated has changed dramatically in the last two decades.

Under the reign of neoliberal politics with its hyped-up social Darwinism and theater of cruelty, the popular demonization and “dangerousation” of the young now justifies responses to youth that were unthinkable 20 years ago, including criminalization and imprisonment, the prescription of psychotropic drugs, psychiatric confinement, and zero tolerance policies that model schools after prisons. School has become a model for a punishing society in which children who commit a rule violation as minor as a dress code infraction or slightly act out in class can be handcuffed, booked, and put in a jail cell. Racism, inequality, and poverty are on full display in the growing resegregation of public schools in the United States. Now more than ever, many schools either simply warehouse young black males or put them on the fast track to prison incarceration or a future of control under the criminal justice system. All across America, black and brown youth are being suspended or expelled at rates much higher than their white counterparts who commit similar behavioral infractions. For example, as Howard Witt writes in the Chicago Tribune, “In the average New Jersey public school, African-American students are almost 60 times as likely as white students to be expelled for serious disciplinary infractions. In Minnesota, black students are suspended 6 times as often as whites [and ] in Iowa, blacks make up just 5 percent of the statewide public school enrollment but account for 22 percent of the students who get suspended. . . . And on average across the nation, black students are suspended and expelled at nearly three times the rate of white students.” As schools become increasingly militarized, drug-sniffing dogs, metal detectors, and cameras have become common features in schools, and administrators appear more willing if not eager “to criminalize many school infractions, saddling tens of thousands of students with misdemeanor criminal records for offenses such as swearing[,] disrupting class,” or pushing another student. Trust and respect now give way to fear, disdain, and suspicion, creating an environment in which critical pedagogical practices wither, while pedagogies of surveillance and testing flourish. If young people were once defined as part of the vocabulary of innocence and compassion, they are now largely understood through the discourse of fear, guilt, and punishment.

Clearly, there is more at stake under the current regime of neoliberal politics than an attack on children largely characterized by “negative labels and characterizations of youth [that] are falsely totalizing” and punitive laws and public policies. Youth have also become collateral damage for conservatives and neoliberal advocates who want to dismantle the social state and in doing so justify themselves by pointing to an alleged rise of a generation of disorderly and dangerous youth dependent upon government entitlements. Within this discourse, government support for young people is both undermined and inappropriately blamed for creating a generation of kids labeled as psychologically damaged, narcissistic, violent, and out of control. Scapegoating youth as both a generation of suspects and a threat to the social order allows conservatives and neoliberals to further privatize those public spheres that youth need, such as education and health care, while developing policies that move away from social investment to matters of punishment and containment. In this instance, the punishing state combines with the logic of the market to produce priorities and policies that disinvest in the future of children and assert a ruthlessness that largely treats them as reified commodities or disposable populations. Both childhood and the state are now being reimagined in ways that reveal the priorities of a society that has fully embraced the reckless abandon of casino capitalism, where the only rules that matter are made to order by powerful corporations and rich investors. How else to interpret neoliberal-inspired government programs that in the midst of deepening inequality, rising levels of poverty, catastrophic increases in failed mortgages, and growing unemployment invest more in prisons than in public and higher education?

It is more necessary than ever to register youth as a theoretical, moral, and political center of concern, even as it is increasingly evident that youth are one of our lowest national priorities. It is crucial to connect the current crisis in democracy to the war against young people. Doing so will remind adults of their ethical and political responsibility to invest in youth as a symbol for not only securing a democratic future but also keeping alive those elements of civic imagination, culture, and education that subordinate economic principles to democratic values. The category of youth may be one of the most important referents for beginning a critical examination about the pernicious consequences of a society driven by market values, one that not only abstracts young people from the future but shapes the present in a theater of war in which youth become the most innocent victims. Youth provide a powerful touchstone for a critical discussion about the long-term consequences of neoliberal policies, which undermine any viable notion of justice, equality, and freedom, while also gesturing toward those conditions that make a democratic future possible. Many young people are part of social movements that not only address these crucial issues but also provide a politics, modes of resistance, and connective relations that adults should take seriously as part of their own civic and political formation at the beginning of the new millennium.
http://www.alternet.org/politics/143875/american_youth_in_the_21st_century:_pathologized,_criminalized_and_disposable/?page=entire

Dr. Philip Schley, MCSD Chairman of the Board

When I approached the Muscogee County Public Education Center building, Dr. Philip Schley had just walked outside for a little fresh air before he participated in the dedication ceremonies in the lobby.  I looked up at the entrance to the lobby and said, “It doesn’t look like the Taj Mahal to me.”

He laughed and replied, “No. There is not a foot of marble in this building.”

Muscogee County Public Education Center, Columbus, GA

He’s a retired urologist – he still holds his license and does some pro bono medical work -and the chairman of the Muscogee County School Board.   Public education in Columbus is his passion.

“Why is the building sitting so close to the road?” I asked.

“You can blame me for that. I wanted it on the road so people would see it.”  He wanted them to see it and think about the school system when they rode by on Macon Road. He added, “And I got a lot of grief for it.”

He is in a controversial position.  All school board members are. It goes with the territory. Tax dollars are involved, a lot of them.  It cost a little more than $15 million to build MCPEC.  Add furniture, etc. and it tops $22 million. That’s just about half of what those opposed to the building projected it would cost, he told me.

Northside High School Singers

Also, the future of this area is involved. What can be more important to the future of Columbus than its public education system?  It is a system that now has about 32,000 students, and that is about to increase as BRAC brings more troops, support personnel and their families to Columbus.

Fort Middle School Ballet

School Board member, and supporter of building MCPEC, John Wells said, “This is the face of public education in Columbus, and it will be for at least the next fifty years.”

All of the former living superintendents were there for the dedication, and they were all enthusiastic and pleased with the new building.  Guy Simms pointed out that it makes it easier for the public because now all administrative services are in one building and not spread out over different areas of the city.

Along with others on hand for the open house, I checked out some of the building. It’s nice, but certainly not opulent.  I asked former Superintendent John Phillips, a big player in getting the building built, where the tomb of the third wife of the Shah was located, referring to the complaints that Columbus didn’t need a Taj Mahal.  He smiled and said, “And where are the gold faucets?”  Opponents had warned that the building would be furnished that opulently.   It’s not.

Superintendent Dr. Susan Andrews' Office

The building does have some architectural style.  Dr. Schley and Dr. Susan Andrews both remarked that some people think it looks like a building in Washington, D.C. , and they were both pleased at that comparison.

“Government tweets, but few care”

http://journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091129/LOCAL/311299911

Fort Wayne’s Journal Gazette recently reported that local government in Fort Wayne has done what many have already–joined social networking sites to reach audiences and publics.

But the article seems to come to the conclusion that not many of those social networks are very big, or very influential. To piggy back on the last post, to be successful with social media, an organization must interact with its audience and with the public.

For example, Fort Wayne Community Schools had 141 people following it on Twitter and 679 on Facebook as of Wednesday. The district serves more than 30,000 students. Allen County government had 418 followers on Twitter and 159 on Facebook despite serving a population of more than 340,000 people. The Journal Gazette had 439 followers on Twitter and 516 on Facebook.

The numbers look abysmal. Some may wonder why the organizations even bother to talk to such an insignificant percent of their overall public. The Journal Gazette only really touches on three reasons why the audiences may be so small: competition, niche markets, and a city not on twitter.

But one of the most significant reasons for audience growth is interaction. Has FWCS been searching its mentions and following those who comment on the school system, or education in general? Has Allen County government reached out to similar organizations to share best practices? Does the Journal Gazette only serve the public by blasting out updates?

Social networks–twitter and facebook–exist because there are conversations. Traditional media is floundering because the method of telling the story is just not all the people want anymore. They are used to interacting and creating–and sustaining–a relationship with someone else. Twitter and FAcebook are dynamic. Content changes, unlike information set out in the newspaper, the school newsletter, or a press release.

Organizations can’t just be present. They can’t just tweet a lot. They have to make sure they connect to the audience, and create a reason for the audience to want to get information from them and have a conversation with them.

When public schools first began, they were built around Christian values.   The students had Bibles to take to class and that is what they studied.  Children read the Bible because there were hardly any other books to read.  Prayers were said each day to begin class.  You won’t find much of that in any public schools today.  Teachers can not hardly mention God, especially if it is not part of a lesson.  And God is not part of many public school lessons!

The government is the group that changed everything.  They took God out of school.  My mom told me that they used to say the Lord’s Prayer at school and remembers the Ten Commandments being posted in her classroom.  I don’t ever remember seeing any of that in any public classroom that I was in. 

My mom teaches science and sometimes she said that she had to explain the scientific explanation of how the world began.  But she also always talked about the Biblical explanation too.  She said that she just couldn’t tell one side without the other. 

I think that if the government had not taken God out of schools, then there would not be so many private schools and Christian schools.  I am glad to be in a Christian school and to know that all of my teachers are Christians.  But I am also glad to know that there are Christian teachers working in public schools, because they need them more than anyone!  The behavior and language of middle school was so bad.  I know that some of those students would not last a day at Village!

I believe that since America is suppose to have freedom of speech and religion, then we should be able to have it in schools and well as anywhere else.

Bowman County
Inhabited as of 5-07

Haley, ND is a South Dakota border town in Bowman County, southwest of Bismarck.

We met the residents of Haley. There are two of them. Recounting as best we can from memory, the story goes something like: the last resident died, passed the property on to a daughter, who in turn recently passed it on to her son and soon-to-be daughter in law. They just recently moved to the townsite, and Haley once again has a full-time year round population. Two.

The town is very much off the beaten path, and access from Highway 12 is very much a sketchy proposition. We’re not sure if the road from the East (Haley Road) is any better.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Bowman County
Uninhabited as of 5-07

Griffin, ND is a true ghost town. Although there is some working farmland in the area, there’s barely a town any more and no apparent residents.

Griffin is about fifteen minutes west of Bowman on Highway 12.

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Gascoyne, ND is along Highway 12 in Southwestern North Dakota about 15 minutes east of Bowman. It’s a Milwaukee Road Railroad townsite orginally called Fischbein. The town was founded in 1907.

Peak population was about 97 in 1930. There appear to be 10 to 15 people in Gascoyne today. Primarily elderly and farm families.

If you’re driving Highway 12 in southwestern North Dakota, be prepared for some prime ghost towns. Highway 12 region is littered with them.

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St John Featherby, from Worth school invited some representatives from Love and Share to speak to the school about the hostel. Each house was to choose a charity to raise funds for through the coming year.
Mary & Peter Zoller with Maria Maddocks went down to the school and did a presentation about the hostel, for the students.
St John wrote this week and said, “We have made the final decision and have chosen your charity for our house to raise money for this year. I believe you have sparked a solidarity among the boys to help these children in India.”

We are most grateful to these wonderful young people.

The theme for the evening was water and sanitation –  or more precisely the lack of water and functional toilets in millions of children’s lives. The event was titled “Turning Social Chatter into Water.” On October 27, Boston’s Tantric India Bistro was a lively venue where people wanting to help the world’s most needy children, chatted, sampled Indian hors d’oeuvres, and heard the compelling story of Water Centric’s work in Delhi, India.

A selection of short videos were shown showing children washing hands and lunch dishes in a decrepit water station; little boys and girls packed like sardines in a tiny classroom, without a single chair, desk, or sink and in some cases without any functional toilets;  young school girls wearing colorful scarves, singing about washing their hands!

CEO and Founder, Lotika Paintal, shared firsthand accounts from the world’s most needy children, and answered questions about what Water Centric is doing to help them. Clean water, functional toilets and hygiene education are critical to stopping the cycle of poverty. Find out how you, too, can be part of solving this critical world challenge by hosting a Water Centric reception and presentation. Visit www.watercentric.org to find out more.

Walter L. Parks Middle School students are currently participating in a Community History Project titled “Sankofa.” This is an educational collaboration between the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. This creative project will train the Parks students on how to research, document, and record via digital/video camera the Pittsburgh community. Students through using the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture will locate newspaper articles and artifacts to be included in the final documentary piece. Through Parks students participating in the Sankofa project students will also be afforded with the opportunity to make generational connections through listening to the life stories and experiences of the Pittsburgh elders.  

Parks students have been participating in biweekly workshop and training with Auburn Avenue Research Library program directors Morris Gardner and Amani Robinson. The two directors have aided the students with information on how to collect and research data, interviewing techniques, computer programming, and basic camera training. Additionally, Parks teacher Jocelyn Johnson has been assisting the students with journal writing, gathering artifacts and creating a family tree.

Through participating in this wonderful community research project, Parks students are able to make both personal and historical connections to the Pittsburgh community. Additionally, they are taking pride in learning about the Pittsburgh community through honing their technical and data skills thus, honoring and preserving the community historical history.

The final documentary project will be inclusive of a short video document that features individuals who reside in the Pittsburgh community sharing their community experience thought candid interviews and storytelling. Both Parks and the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture will host an early spring viewing of the video documentary for the community viewing.

Stay tuned!

Four schools in Newcastle get the go-ahead for new buildings and eco-friendly facilities, to benefit 6,500 pupils…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: belize city. The blog is also related to: city college.

Four schools in Newcastle get the go-ahead for new buildings and eco-friendly facilities, to benefit 6,500 pupils…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: tuition. The blog is also related to: primary education.

 What Is It In Man

What is it in man?

That begs forgiveness, but forgives not.

That begs to be heard, but hears not.

That begs to be loved, but loves not.

What is it in man?

What is it in man?

That wants to be praised, but praises not.

That wants to be touched, but touches not.

That wants to be cherished, but cherishes not.

What is it in man?

What is it in man?

That wants to be trusted, but is incapable of trusting.

That wants to be respected, but is incapable of respecting.

That wants to live in peace, but is incapable of peaceful living.

What is it in man?

What is it in man?

Man is inhumane; he will draw strength, even success off another mans pain.

Man is greedy; he will make his gains from the needy.

Man respects nothing, not the birds or the bees; he will cut down the trees, pollute the sky and the seas.

Man will hunt the wild creatures to the point of extinction; to the earth that he needs he will make little if any distinction.

This is man and if he persists; man will simply cease to exist.

It is the same for love, respect and trust; in a relationship they are a must.

No matter the reason; you may be right, or you may be wrong.

Without these key elements; it will not last too long.

The moral of the story is: It does not matter who started the pollution, if you go a long with it, profit from it, or contribute to it; you are just as responsible as the person who started it and will suffer as much as they. No one is exempt of responsibility for their life and the lives of others a round them, or the air and land they use.    Milton

Kidder County
Status: Inhabited as of 5/05

Crystal Springs is a town with perhaps 8 to 10 inhabited homes and/or farms, but this school and church are no longer in use (there is another church in Crystal Springs which appears to be used regularly).

The white church pictured right is partially covered in a new coat of white paint, so maybe a restoration is underway.

The town was built in 1873 and the Post Office opened in 1884. Crystal Springs was a popular roadside stopping point for years, until it’s access was cut off by Interstate 94.

Crystal Springs might be the most easily accessible ghost “town” in the state, sitting directly off I-94 about halfway between Bismarck and Fargo. As a matter of fact, Crystal Springs would probably make a great location for a “frontier-town” type tourist attraction, due to it’s proximity and visibility from the interstate.

by pupils from North Harringay Primary School, London and Buccoo Primary School, Tobago 

On Friday 27th November, nine year 6 pupils from North Harringay Primary School in London ’met’ their Global School partners from Buccoo Primary School in Tobago via a video link-up. The event was part of  a state visit to Trinidad and Tobago by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and HM The Queen.  

These are some of their personal blog posts -

North Harringay Primary School

 
Okeroghene and Jordan of North Harringay Primary School

Okeroghene -
It was fun video conferencing. They’re on the other side of the world and we’re in England….We’ve learnt that the people there and the people here aren’t really different. We just speak in a different way.

Jordan -
It was just amazing video conferencing. They are in Tobago in a hotel. We’re lucky to talk to them.  I feel so happy. I didn’t say much really, I just said my name and hello. It would be fantastic to go on a school trip there and they could give us a guided tour. I’ve learnt that it is very hot. 

 
Lucy, Doris and Nina showing the children in Tobago some dancing London -style while they wait for the Prince Phillip to arrive

Doris -
It was very interesting to video conference with the children because we got to know what they are doing in Tobago. We do our thing, they do their thing, so it’s special knowing what they do. It’s more special than comparing ourselves with another local school because they are in a different part of the world. I’ve learnt that Tobago is a very beautiful country. I’ve learnt how much they take care of stuff.

Ava - 
We sang to the children because we couldn’t get the video link to begin with. At first I didn’t want to do it because I felt embarrassed but we all did it and it was great. Amazing, I never knew we would do something like video conferencing . Tobago, when it rains it rains hot water! Mr Duke, the head teacher from Buccoo Primary School, had never heard of a jumper before.

Mayes -
It’s amazing how we can speak to people in another country. It’s fun to find out about people we don’t know. I told Kent from the British Council I liked his tie. It’s extremely nice to have a partnership with another school so far away because you can find out a lot of information about hotter countries.  You can also find out about the people in the countries who are different from us. Tobago is a much hotter country than ours. It’s a few hours behind us. They try to keep their beaches clean. It was very tense as we waited to see Prince Philip.

Buccoo Government Primary School, Tobago

Nalini Stewart, 11, wearing a carnival costume to represent the traditional industries that have been created in Buccoo tells the Prince about her school’s hopes for the future of their local area

Nalini -
It was frightening meeting the Duke but he is a good man. He made me feel very calm. I want to be like him when I grow up. When we spoke to the students in London I learned that they wear different uniforms and that they are different from us. I learned that you can become friends with anyone. Please tell them I say “Hello”.   

 
Pupils at Buccoo School, Tobago, head out to research the reef for their Global Schools project

Sol Joanni - 
I spoke to him  [The Duke of Edinburgh], about Buccoo’s beauty and about preserving its environment. It was fun talking to the children and meeting people of a different culture. If we talked again, I would tell them about the beauty of Tobago.

Sean-Daniel Budding - 
I was nervous and excited at the same time. The Duke [of Edinburgh] was very patient; he is a nice person. He asked about our school and who made the model. When we talked to North Harringay, we introduced ourselves to each other. If we talk again, I want to know more about their school.

View more photos from the two schools video-link up at Flickr

Oh My Nonexistent God! It’s the end of the world!

The district’s decree ordered that only selections such as “Winter Wonderland” and “Frosty the Snowman” would be allowed, with a complete ban on tunes about Jesus and even Santa Claus.

Holy crap! Save Santa! How can Santa be taken away from everyone’s secular enjoyment of a gift giving celebration? Santa brings so much joy to all the little kiddies who believe in him! He’s forever putting up with smelly breath and sticky fingers and wet spots on his trousers when he willingly sits for hours in a mall to be there for the children! Oh it’s a travesty!

Bring back “Up on the Rooftop!” This is a major disaster! What on earth will kids do at their schools’ winter concerts if Santa isn’t allowed to be a part of them!? No Santa should mean no reindeer games either, but weirdly enough, the school approved “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” for some reason. Santa is out, but a song that’s all about the Santafied traditions of this festive Giftmas season is allowed? And he’s even named in the song. I smell an even bigger scandal.

The law firm says the school’s ban was specifically aimed at preventing Christmas music, including simple instrumentals without words, during holiday concerts. As WND reported, the district had allowed the performance of traditional Christmas music for more than 60 years but in 2004 suddenly banned it.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Michael Stratechuk and his children in the district. The ban deprived the Stratechuk children the right to receive information and ideas, the suit asserts, an inherent corollary of their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and academic freedom.

Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise indicated the case is not over. Muise said he will ask the Third Circuit to rehear it on both substantive and procedural errors. If denied, the Law Center indicated it will most likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I wonder what that family has against Santa for why the kids of a whole school district are now stuck listening to the songs at home on their own time instead of during a concert intended for everyone, whether they believe in Santa or not. What a thing, and so close to Giftsmas.

They’re stuck singing about winder wonderlands and snow and cold weather, and it’s probably not even snowy or cold there. In the wintertime. Imagine that. And sleigh rides, too, I suppose – even though few kids will ever ride in one. Why are those still sung anyway? Oh right, tradition.

Ah well, whatever. If they want a winter concert without any reference to traditional holiday stuff, so be it. It’s not like they can’t get all that music at home anyway.

To finish, a cute winter poem I wish I wrote.

I made myself a snowball
Just as perfect as could be.
I thought I’d keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me
I gave it some pajamas
And a pillow for its head.
Then, last night it ran away,
But first . . . .it wet the bed!

In storytelling workshops with teachers, I regularly ask them to tell a story about a teacher that had an influence on them. This leads to a discussion about what makes a good teacher, and opens up the door for them to talk about their work in a narrative way. It also emphasizes a notion I mentioned in an earlier blog – the “structure” of teaching is not a political one, but rather an unbroken line through centuries of teachers who influenced people who then became teachers themselves.

What comes out of those teacher stories in the exercise is always interesting. It is usually a story about some kindness offered, or some revealing act on the part of the teacher – something that shows them as a person.

I was doing this exercise last month for a school district in California. When we got back together I asked, “How many of your memories with those teachers had to do with the curriculum?” I looked around. No one spoke, no one raised their hand.

Finally, one of the older teachers said, “It never has anything to do with the curriculum.”

Everyone in the room nodded.

I’ve heard this response before and it makes my point in the workshop that it’s the culture of a classroom or a school that really encourages learning to take place. A kindness given to a student, or a story told, gives them courage to take a chance on learning something, knowing they’ll be supported. It may even encourage them to become a teacher. (Aaagh! Not that!) Without that culture, the best curriculum in the world is going to have problems. Some kids will learn under almost any conditions, but many others, especially ones at risk, are never going to get anywhere without those moments of kindness.

I have in my mind a thought about this. “Love is in between.” It’s not the part you notice, or the time curriculum developers think about. But kindness or openness really acts like mortar in a brick building. You have all these bricks you’re using to construct the building, but something needs to hold them together. We don’t notice the mortar, we notice the bricks. But it’s the mortar, the binding agent, in between the bricks tht helps the bricks to their job.

Okay enough metaphor. You get my point, I hope. The kindness, the stories, and the building of community seem like small things, and they certainly are in a formal evaluation of what was learned.

But no mortar, no building.

Australia Student Market Down, Word of Mouth Internet Regions

Growth in Charter Schools Leads to Tensions Over Space

By SEWELL CHAN

morning buzz

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has made charter schools one of his third-term priorities, and that means that in New York, battles and resentment over space — already a way of life — will become even more common. He and his schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, have allowed nearly two-thirds of the city’s 99 charter schools to move into public school buildings, officials expect two dozen charter schools to open next fall, and the mayor has said he will push the Legislature to allow him to add 100 more in the next four years.

Charter schools, privately run but publicly financed, are generally nonunion, freeing them from labor restrictions. They have gained traction with their promise of innovative teaching methods and more flexible work rules for teachers. Arne Duncan, President Obama’s education secretary, has told states that they must remove impediments to charter schools as a condition of winning so-called Race to the Top grants.

In New York, as in most states, charter schools receive no money for construction, forcing them to raise millions on their own — or find a willing host. In other cities, where charters are only begrudgingly accepted by public school officials, tensions between public and charter schools sharing a building would be unheard of, because the charters are forced to find their own homes. But Mr. Bloomberg has embraced them.

via Growth in Charter Schools Leads to Tensions Over Space – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com.

We’ll be returning to regular articles next week! In the interim, this is a wonderful discussion of how a volunteer project/organization can grow. Watch the video, or read the short writeup below. The video is 25 minutes, but highly entertaining and informative.

Synopsis:
Dave Eggers, a writer, heard a lot about the challenges of teaching in city schools from his teaching family and friends. In particular, they stressed the need for one-on-one attention to help students with their English and writing skills.

Eggers and his colleagues came together to create a unique tutoring center in San Francisco – located in a pirate supply store and connected to a magazine editing office – that offers free one-on-one tutoring. The project has grown to help thousands of kids each week, host daily writing field trips, run an in-school writing lab, and guide students in writing and publishing books. The tutoring center model has been replicated in Brooklyn, L.A., and other cities in the U.S.

The volunteer core has likewise grown, starting with 12 and quickly growing to 1,400.

This project has led to a website, Once Upon A School, which challenges and guides individuals and groups in to engage with their local public schools and create positive change.

“It can be fun. That’s the point of this talk – it needn’t be sterile. It needn’t be bureaucratically untenable. You can do and use the skills that you have. The schools need you. The teachers need you. Students and parents need you. They need your actual person. Your physical personhood and your open minds and open ears and boundless compassion. Sitting next to them, listening and nodding and asking questions… Some of these kids just don’t plain know how good they are. How smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them one human interaction at a time. So we hope you’ll join us.”

For more information on projects to support your local public school, check out: http://onceuponaschool.org/

For more TEDtalks, check out: http://www.ted.com/index.php

Know a great volunteer or volunteer organization? Leave me a comment or email me through this link to let me know!