Tag Archives: education

Crazy bookstore

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While taking my Sociology class I noticed the strange pricing at the Chaffey College bookstore.
It seems the store is soaking it hard on those who can not afford to be soaked on themselves.
The college bookstore recommended an out of print edition of the text published over five years ago.
Oddly they are asking over eighty dollars for a used copy. I could understand this for the current edition, but the out of print edition it seems silly.
I know the bookstore is operated like an auxiliary organization to help raise money for scholarships and other useful functions, but at least they could be tactful about their pricing. Sell the 2005 edition for forty dollars at least and if there is a gut of the edition after the 2005 version then get those and at least pass the savings for future classes.
If we want students to patronize the bookstore first, the bookstore and the college must adapt to the competition.

Students Should Know the Contributions of LGBT Americans in American History

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There is a new bill that aspires to require state schools to teach about the contributions of gay, lesbian and transgendered Americans in school curriculum. However there is an outcry from traditional values advocates and social conservatives against the proposed bill from State Senator Mark Leno, SB 48.

SB 48 would require that social science texts and other instruction include “a study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Americans to the economic, political and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.This bill also has rules stating that school districts would have the flexibility to decide which age groups received such instruction. So if Bakersfield wanted to discuss these topics in the junior year of high school and San Francisco wants to discuss this in the fifth grade, then that would be the choice of the particular communities of our state.

Maybe the best idea would be is to have it passively mentioned in our social science textbooks, and if a teacher does not want to discuss the subject then that is the right of the educator or the school district. Maybe if people knew some leading LGBT people in American history such as Oliver Sipple, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who saved President Ford’s life during an assassination attempt in California or Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist who helped make the March on Washington possible for Martin Luther King people would have better understanding of LGBT people. I just find it absurd from the mouths of legislators  such as State Senator Bob Huff that “SB 48 will sexualize the training of our children at an early age”, when there are clauses that prevent school districts from being mandated to discuss these subjects in the early grades and just because people know that Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian is not going to convert people to be queer.

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Education: See What Schools send the most to California Colleges

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Thanks to a Sacramento Bee feature, you are able to find out what schools send the most students to California colleges 2 year/ 4 year and private.

The numbers are a bit surprising, but kind of disappointing. Most schools scored near 50%, and many of the schools in the Chaffey district did pretty well compared to others in the county. Only public high school in the county that did exceptional was Ruben Ayala High School in Chino district with 79% of the students heading to college.

Ronald Reagan Centennial

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It has been over one hundred years since Ronald Reagan was born, and the nation will be making a big deal about his birth and life story. I hope the good parts and the bad parts are both shown so we can have an honest portrayal.

I am starting my education journey to hopefully become a history teacher to teach grades 7-12 about history and American government. My inspiration is to make sure I do not become a teacher that tells why America is an evil nation, but I do not want to become a teacher that is just a cheerleader for American exceptionalism. I want to teach students about the big picture so there would be a holistic approach to my lessons.

Ronald Reagan was not perfect, but he was the man for his time. He may of made most of America feel good compared to the four years of the Carter Administration, but he marginalized others due to his connections with evangelicals and their hostility to LGBT people where many people who were alive during the Reagan years do blame the AIDS crisis on his administration where they believe if they were not in power not as many people would of died from the disease.

Can You Carve Away This Stone?

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It seems like there are obstacles in order to attain a goal. Cal Poly Pomona wants prior experience with youth in order to enter a credentialing program, and Western Governors University wants me to finish some more classes before I enter.

For WGU I need to do a 2 class series on World History, 1 more class on US History, a class on Geography, and a class on Sociology.

This is frustrating. But I will be able to overcome the obstacles.

For Cal Poly Pomona, I am bewildered on how I would attain the prior experience with youth when most places want people with experience already.

Riverside Community College has World Civilizations class and a US History class I have not completed yet, so this might be a good start.

I hope I could get the financial aid cleared so I could enroll on time.

The Unfunded Mandate of Public Education

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School projects, the money pit of public education. Ever since teaching standards have changed projects have became more grandiose ever since I left the K-12 system as a student thirteen years ago. Due to the declining state of public education, schools have been demanding more out of the parents when even the parent’s pocket book is just as barren or strained as the school district budget.

When school districts are so strained where they ask parents to bring tissues and toilet paper you know something is wrong. Budgets are so constrained that both parents and teachers are expected to pay what was not funded. I remember back in the mid 80s when I was in first grade that crayons, paper and other needed materials were provided and all we had to do was come as we were to class.

Where is this missing money?

Also, teachers should be required to provide options to parents for school projects so parents do not need to feel compelled to spend forty to one hundred dollars on a school project. Parents are also fiscally strained as the teachers who feel compelled to spend ten percent or more of their salary for the school supplies that students come in unequipped and to furnish their classrooms so they would be welcoming spaces.

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The Trouble Over Harvey Milk Day

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State Senator Mark Leno of San Francisco has proposed legislation to make Harvey Milk’s birthday a day of special significance in California with his bill SB 572. Days of Special significance cost the state of California no money where state employees and school employees do not receive the day off.

The bill was previously vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger because he believed that Harvey Milk should have been commemorated in San Francisco only, but it’s agreeable when Senator Leno said the Milk movie made the struggle of Harvey Milk a national issue.

People do need role models to counter the spite and malice that goes around society. Karen England of Capitol Resource Family Impact says we need to focus on academics not holidays on each special interest group, but due to the bullying in our school house walls it is difficult for these students to even concentrate on academics. Sadly Karen England wants to trivialize the accomplishments of Harvey Milk just because he is a gay man.

Harvey Milk was inspirational to many people because he gave thousands of gay youth a reason to live.  The opposition may not be happy that Harvey Milk was one of the first leaders to defeat one of their measures to discriminate against LGBT people. Traditionalist activists such as Lou Sheldon and Karen England may think if students learn about historical figures such as Harvey Milk, impressionable youth will catch the gay and turn queer. However these individuals don’t realize that being gay is not like catching the N1H1 flu virus.  Harvey Milk gave the LGBT community hope in the quest for equality during his short life.

It seems that ‘pro-family’ organizations just want to keep the fuel of ignorance and prejudice just to make a buck. If bullying of gay and lesbian students ended they would not have new foot soldiers to feed their bank accounts and activist army. It is abhorrent how organizations such as Capitol Resource Family Impact paint themselves as being the victim of hate and intolerance from the gay community when their activism does not paint themselves as perfect angels when children such as Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover at age 11, hung himself because he could not endure any more anti-gay taunts. Children straight, gay and perceived to be gay do not need this abuse.

The conundrum is causing a backlash where parents want to indoctrinate their children with the values they want because children are easily impressionable and they do not want their values to conflict with the messages taught at the public schools they send their children to. Public schools are for all students no matter what their ethnicity, religion or sexuality might be. Students should be taught to treat all students with respect even if you do not personally agree with one’s religion or sexuality.

Harvey Milk was not a perfect individual, however as honest historians we should express the positive as well as the negative with his life story. If we have to purge historical figures because of their unflattering histories, our history books would be more condensed than a Reader’s Digest Condensed Novel. Should we stop using computers because the father of modern computing was a homosexual? Should we stop sending email because a homosexual helped invented the email distribution program sendmail? If we used the same argument from the opponents, would simply sending email be an endorsement of homosexuality?

Ending anti-gay harassment is about academics, all children deserve a quality education no matter what race, and creed or sexuality a child may be. Harvey Milk Day may be a symbolic gesture to show to the people of California the accomplishments of a martyred civil rights activist. Before there was President Obama there was a leader thirty years prior that taught California about hope.

Education

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Recently the California Teachers Association is advocating for more spending for education. However due to this volatile economic climate they are asking for too much at the wrong time. Even if we fed our education spending to be increased 100 percent and became the top spender in public education, it is likely that education will not improve.

The solution for our education problem is to mandate that 70% of our education funds go actually into the classroom or the school the student belongs to. Also, we should tell parents that teachers are not the total end-all for student achievement, but parents are also part of the equation for student success. Teachers can only do so much for student achievement, but a student’s desire for learning is also influential in how a student achieves.

It is cultural fact of life that those demographics that encourage achievement and success will make it to the top. We just have to make it where we can spread the culture to all ethnic groups and income levels.

The Lack of a Civics education

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Recently stories have been published explaining how our public servants have a horrible skill in history, economics and civics according to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. These officials had an average score of 44 percent while average citizens who took this test scored 49 percent.

Compared to Sharon at iepolitics we scored similar scores, I scored 88 percent and she scored 90 percent.

Well, maybe this might explain why people are upset about the review of Proposition 8 and how the proponents are assuming just because people passed the law it should be held without contest. When, there is a process called judicial review that if a law violates the constitution of the jurisdiction or conflicts with a federal law then it could be repealed by the courts. There was a lawsuit to remove Proposition 8 before the election, but the courts never really reject initiatives before they go on the ballot. And there is a big issue in California where the initiatives can amend the constitution, but it can not fundamentally revise the constitution and that is the main charge the No on 8 side has right now.

Maybe with a quality civics education we would have people with more confidence in our political system in California and the nation as a whole.

Our dropouts today, Our future Inmates tomorrow

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The state department of education has released the numbers for dropouts in our public school system and they are not flattering. We have a 24 percent dropout rate for California as a whole, and other school districts in San Bernardino County have much worse statistics such as 54 percent in Victorville and 36 percent in Colton.

School districts are doing their best to reach out to the demographics likely to drop out and end their educations, but no amount of money will make a greater impact than having education taken seriously at the home. Parents should get involved in the education of their children if they not already have done so. We should implement an online system that would list all the homework assignments that students have due, so parents could double check that the homework is done as well.

Also, vocational education should be utilized to reach out those not likely to attend college. Even those who are likely to attend college could also benefit from these classes as well. Maybe with an expanded vocational education program in our public schools, students could find motivation to stay in school and get a good paying job. We should not lead our students to jobs close to minimum wage, but positions that could be close to 15 dollars a hour full time. Carpentry, air conditioner repair, cooking and auto repair to name some potential opportunities.

If we have better policies to prevent dropouts, perhaps we will have less crime and less inmates in our local prisons where it would be a good tradeoff in general.