Showing posts with label Cambridge Public Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambridge Public Schools. Show all posts

June 1, 2016

Charter Schools, Private Schools, Public Schools and Unions




Mr. Hunter ignores private schools in Cambridge. Are they not separate and unequal? In private schools and charter schools teachers unions cannot force teachers to pay union dues. Is that why unions oppose charter schools? Private schools accept taxpayer benefits too. Hunter argues against himself saying "60 percent of Massachusetts charter schools—including the three Cambridge charters—have no parents serving as board trustees.



As a parent, you want the best for your child. But, as a community, we have to decide what is best for all the children." Which is it? Having no parents on the boards is good or bad? Removing unruly students is good for the community bad for the unruly student. One more counter productive argument. Hunter fails to mention education outcome by public school students compared with charter schools. Is that unimportant? 


[My response to comment]
Don't want to deny disruptive students education. Why should they be allowed to prevent educating the rest of the class? Should disruptive students be allowed to threaten and to intimidate teachers without accountability? Why are students with learning disabilities provided extra resources but when hiring diverse populations, e.g., persons with disabilities public schools exclude such persons? Why are politicians and police in Cambridge and elsewhere permitted to ridicule, to humiliate and to harass persons (not just students) with disabilities? In the USA "we" just isolate and exploit such students for business purposes of the human services industrial complex. Free and "equal" education is hallmark? Why do some persons get extra taxpayer resources than others? "Privatizers' have a better record of producing skilled students with abilities, unlike too many high school grads who need remedial education at community colleges. Blame Wall Street, not unions and mendacious politicians. Keep the guilty above scrutiny. Maintain the status quo dumbing down the population. Bring on the idiocracy.  


http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20160601/NEWS/160609475/?Start=1

Guest column: We don't need a dual system of education in Cambridge
By Dan Hunter
Posted Jun. 1, 2016 at 2:02 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

December 27, 2015

Cambridge, MA Teacher Opposes Misguided Priorities



Rose Levine with students

This teacher expresses a rational observation about imposing tests on local schools by government bureaucrats. There is no transparency who decided to limit the choices to two tests, and no option to eliminate them. Recall the scandal in Atlanta where administrators went to prison for altering test results to cover-up poor statistics. No mention of the role of teacher unions in this process. See e.g., award winning teacher John Taylor Gatto's book, Dumbing Us Down.

[From article]
it's all part of the same, failed attempt to measure what cannot be measured using tools that are inaccurate and crude. Schools have not always been this way. Schools need not continue to be this way.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151226/NEWS/151228241/?Start=1

LETTER: Standardized testing is not educationally meaningful
By Rose Levine
Fifth-grade teacher, Graham & Parks School
Posted Dec. 26, 2015 at 8:15 AM
To the editor:
Cambridge Chronicle
Rose Levine, fifth-grade teacher, Graham & Parks School

October 21, 2015

Cambridge, MA Mayor Has a Plan to Improve The Schools






Mayor "introduced an Equity Action Plan for the Cambridge Public Schools that includes a set of 10 goals and accompanying strategies to increase equity in our schools." But he provides no details. Does any part of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 report have a role in his plan? How about the findings of John J. Dilulio, Jr.?



http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151021/NEWS/151028759

Guest Column: All students deserve an equitable education in Cambridge
By Mayor David Maher
Posted Oct. 21, 2015 at 1:37 PM
CAMBRIDGE CHronicle

October 16, 2015

Cambridge, MA School Committee Candidates, No Looking Behind The Curtain




"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you're not allowed to criticize." - Voltaire. The only mention of teacher unions was Mr. Harding's comment he can collaborate with the unions; and Mr. Fantini's admission he was a union treasurer for SEIU, and negotiates for the city with the unions. No discussion of the influence of unions on making school system policy. No questions are raised about which candidates get how much money from union leaders, who live wealthy and influential lives on union dues. In the name of collaboration and including stakeholders, unions leaders interests are seldom revealed or discussed. Fantini's opposition to charter schools is no surprise in view of union antipathy toward them.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151015/NEWS/151017688/?Start=1

Cambridge Education Association holds candidate debate
By Adam Sennott
Cambridge@wickedlocal.com
Posted Oct. 15, 2015 at 8:38 AM
Updated Oct 15, 2015 at 8:54 AM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Cambridge, MA School Superintendent Focuses On Theoretical Professions



CRLS

Doctor Young establishes himself as a bonafide academic elitist. I misread his comment "All good partnerships work both ways, and this attribute is true in the rich array of relationships" thinking he promotes bisexual marriages. Gasp! Dr. Young lists some of the partners for CRLS students (see essay). Are all CRLS students theoretical scientific geniuses, and bankers? Who will fix heating units, plumbing, sell and maintain vehicles, cables, be a policeman, a fireman, a politician (gasp!), and the thousands of non theoretical jobs that are needed to support professional endeavors? Dreams and ambition are good motivators. But not everyone is an astrophysicist. Why are unsexy but essential professions omitted from his list? Do no practical apprenticeships exist in Cambridge?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151015/NEWS/151017683/?Start=1

Guest column: Providing Cambridge students with 'real-world connections'
By Jeffery M. Young
Superintendent of Schools
Posted Oct. 15, 2015 at 2:06 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Editor's note: The following is Dr. Young’s second column in a two-part series discussing the strong partnerships Cambridge Public Schools has with the university and business communities in Cambridge. Click here to read the first one.

October 11, 2015

Cambridge Public School Students Learn Outside of the Classroom








Dr. Jeffrey Young 

Do the many partnerships divert student focus from classroom learning? Who schedules these opportunities? Do teacher unions need to approve them? Are teachers paid extra (taxpayer) monies? Does this essay explain why the nation's students are becoming more dumbed down every year? The Superintendent does not discuss all of the splendid benefits from diversity, especially from the children of asylum seekers who bring their deep and vigorous love for the United States and the Constitution. His essay omits benefits from living on earth and studying nature without being controlled by public school bureaucrats. How many great historical discoveries resulted from conformist regimentation by public schools run by labor unions? Is his argument students in Cambridge have more learning opportunities outside the classroom than New York City students?



[From article]
the two parts of this op-ed piece demonstrate that public schools cannot do it alone. We rely on our generous partners, and they deliver in the most extraordinary ways.
CPS is partnering with MIT and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to develop a graduate-level program for teachers in secondary school math and science (STEM) education as a means of building a pipeline to the profession in this area of critical need. For 20 years, MIT’s KeyPals program has been pairing Cambridge fifth graders with volunteers from MIT, Draper Labs, and IBM to help foster the students’ writing and computer skills.
[. . .]
Some of our Technology Department staff have been working with the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten group around the Family Creative Learning project, which involves providing workshops to families to learn and play together
[. . .]
the Cambridge Science Festival — founded by MIT and co-sponsored by Harvard, the city of Cambridge, and a number of local industries — which brings thousands of residents and visitors to the city to celebrate their curiosity through a week of free workshops and events open to the public.
Every eighth-grade student in CPS participates in the Student Science and Engineering Showcase at Harvard University where they share their learning and engage in rich dialogue with Harvard students
[. . .]
Working in collaborative teams within a virtual world, students use this immersive interface to learn science by exploring and solving problems in realistic environments.
[. . .]
Lesley University and the Kennedy-Longfellow Elementary School have partnered to transform teaching and learning through the use of innovative technologies for students and teachers. With support from Lesley, our students have become “makers” — creative participants in the educational process by using a variety of hardware and software as they engage in authentic learning opportunities driven by personal interest and 21st Century dispositions and skills.
[. . .]
The CPS/Lesley Professional Development School has a history of assigning students to serve as intern student teachers in our schools to the mutual benefit our kids as well as Lesley’s developing professional educators.
[. . .]
Students who complete three summers receive a $3,000 scholarship to the school of their choice. The Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy is funded by Harvard and serves as Cambridge's summer high school program offering remedial and enrichment classes for more than 300 high school students on an annual basis.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151009/NEWS/151005662/?Start=1

Guest column: University partnerships enrich Cambridge students
By Jeffrey M. Young
Superintendent of Schools
Posted Oct. 9, 2015 at 1:39 PM
Updated Oct 9, 2015 at 1:42 PM

Editor’s note: The following is Dr. Young’s (medical doctor? or PhD. doctor?) first column in a two-part series discussing the strong partnerships Cambridge Public Schools has with the university and business communities in Cambridge.

Updated: Purging Memory of Wasting Cambridge, MA Taxpayer Funds, The Spending Other People's Money Society


Posted October 4, 2015 9:02 PM ET; Last updated October 11, 2015 9:35 PM ET



This article was rewritten, and the original one deleted. The new URL and headline is posted below. The new explanation is that the Mayor formed the search committee with the help of the consulting firm. Does that mean they volunteered with no pay? The Mayor did not say. Is this another example of history being rewritten by government to purge inconvenient facts from memory? Is the Memory Hole open and active again in Cambridge? My comment (in red just below this) was deleted along with the original report, press release. Both URLs lead to the new edited, rewritten article

Appears to be a press release from someone. The decision to appoint 19 members of the community to be the search committee sounds questionable. No union leaders? No parents? No teachers? Politicians? Was it necessary to pay a consultant an unknown amount but surely more than $50,000 to come up with this idea? Are school committee members unable to dream up this uncomplicated protocol? City officials have money to hire consultants to advise this common sense structure, but do not have funds to house people without homes. They have taxpayer funds for illegal immigrants who say they are refugees, but not for veterans and American citizens who did no wrong. Who are these officials working for? 

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151004/NEWS/150939683

Cambridge superintendent search committee formed
Posted Oct. 4, 2015 at 1:15 PM
Cambridge Chronicle

* * *
comment on school super search committee deleted?
comparing articles.
press release changed?


http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151011/NEWS/151005747

Cambridge superintendent search committee formed
Posted Oct. 11, 2015 at 11:15 AM


July 15, 2015

Cambridge MA School Committee Hires Consultants To Screen Superintendent Candidates



Cambridge MA School Committee, July 2015

Is this how democracy works? Voters elect school committee members to hire school superintendents, and to make policy. School committee hires consultants to screen candidates to implement policy. Are consultants like political parties who provide candidates for voters? If taxpayer funds spent on consultants were instead used to house persons without homes, or to create affordable housing would the quality of life improve in the city? 

[From article]
In Phase 1, the School Committee will meet with Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates — the firm hired to help conduct the search — to review the top 12-15 resumes received. The board will vet the resumes and submit the top seven to nine candidate resumes to the Interview Committee, which will be made up of community stakeholders.
The 15-member Interview Committee will be formed during Phase 2, and will include three educational representatives; three citywide parent representatives; two nonprofit community partner representatives; two higher education representatives; two business-related representatives; one cabinet representative; a city manager designee; and someone with a strong background in diversity/affirmative action, according to Alanna Mallon, education liaison for the Office of Mayor David Maher.
“The School Committee members will not be part of this initial Interview Committee, although they may observe the process,” Mallon said, adding that the board would issue a press release in the near future requesting letters of intent from community members who wish to join the Interview Committee.
The Interview Committee will meet with applicants and forward the top five candidates to the School Committee as semi-finalists. The School committee will interview semi-finalists and choose three finalists during Phase 3.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150715/NEWS/150718051

Cambridge's superintendent search moves to interview phase
By Sara Feijo
sfeijo (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Jul. 15, 2015 at 1:38 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

April 27, 2014

Acolytes and Useful Idiots





After 43 years of relentless surveillance, harassment, provocations, and testing by police, lawyers, psychologists, psychiatrists and assorted psychopaths, a new group of useful idiots began another round of testing, provocations, harassment and character assassination near the end of April 2014. This was shortly after I attended a meeting allegedly for keeping the public informed about an arrest of a Cambridge middle school teacher for possession of child pornography and for videotaping his students. 


Dr. Jeffrey M. Young, Cambridge MA School Superintendent,
Reassuring a Parent. Notice his fingers spread wide, indicating transparency, and eliminating any hint of impropriety. 

The Cambridge school superintendent, who earns $254,000 this year plus an attractive benefits package openly demonstrated his ignorance of basic local laws at the meeting. He is no different than the multitude of dumbed down Americans who are ignorant of facts they should know, which is not a problem. Ignorance can be fixed by education. That is the man's business. But he like so many misguided young and old alike in and around Cambridge, MA host city of Harvard University and MIT, think they know what they do not. That is what causes many problems in human interaction--not knowing what they do not know. "It's not what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you think you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain  




The Cambridge, MA area is where I lived for the past 25 years. Not under the radar but with 24/7 surveillance, harassment, character assassination, insults, threats and egregious criminal abuses by public officials and crime families working together. There seems to be no dividing line between crime families and public officials in Massachusetts. But these mindless bureaucrats who run the local and state government act as if I were an extra terrestrial being, just arrived on the planet from Alpha Centauri. The superintendent called me a "blogger," while chairing his meeting. Does he think because he earns so much money and is the superintendent of schools that his money and title bring wisdom? Obama thinks credentials are evidence of wisdom, common sense, and integrity. Ahem! 


Employees of the Massachusetts state government unleashed another round of testing, provocations, insults, harassment and surveillance in the last week of April 2014. That was after about a week of Communists from New York rejoining their 40-year-old campaign of harassment, character assassination, insults, provocations, theft of funds, and personal journals, and a thoughtful behavior conditioning campaign to try to make me into a homosexual. They wanted to remind me that the FBI stole money and my personal journals. These were sold to local police and to crime families who used them to ridicule and to humiliate me for 43 years in three states. 


This is taxpayer funded cruel and unusual punishment meted out by government thugs. I was not convicted of any crime. This is punishment without conviction. I did not know there were so many depraved humans in the entire world. One group gets finished and another appears immediately. I am constantly amazed at how many young psychopaths there are in  this country who overtly conduct a brutal criminal campaign without any conscience or shame. The participation of between five and nine crime families is understandable. The FBI alleges that crime families are only concerned with killing. But that is misleading if not complete fabrication. Crime families remain  focused on making money. Government, especially the FBI, has an image of helping people. That belief is as misguided as believing that rain falls up. 





They did not need to remind me. It is as if they are telling themselves what they just discovered.  I learned about it 35 years ago. Do they also know that the FBI used me to fight organized crime for 15 years and did not pay me? That was after government psychiatrists drugged me, see below. Then the FBI coordinated a 22-year campaign to allow the crime families to retaliate? Thoughtful FBI agents employed a woman I dated for three months when I was a student in law school. I learned years later she is a lesbian, works for Obama, and is now married to a black racist homosexual who works for the FBI. He is one of several black homosexual FBI thugs who kept me under surveillance when I was a student in New York. This charming couple was well paid by the FBI to pretend to be my friends for 34 years. When I complained to Massachusetts state agencies about this abuse from a woman I formerly dated and her husband, they demanded of me, "Can you prove you are not mentally ill?" How awfully well trained they are. 



The FBI was busy stirring up racial animosity and police scrutiny because, "He's crazy." "He's a retired drug dealer." "He's a racist." and for man-hating women, "He's a rapist." which feminists say about all men. That is all men who have not been conditioned into becoming feminists. It was just more over kill. This was after sensitive, caring, government psychiatrists drugged me for 80 consecutive days using hallucinogens in 1973 because they thought I was a spy. 





This couple was coming to my rescue. That is a pattern developed by cross dressing, FBI founder, J. Edgar Hoover, who was called the arsonist and the fire chief. He'd create difficulties for civilians he targeted, and then force them to petition the FBI for help. I knew better after trying to get them to stop their informants and employees. I spoke with local chiefs of police telling them, the FBI was lying. Fat chance they believed me. 



FBI Founder J. Edgar Hoover

That was before the abominable abuses of the Boston FBI were exposed in 1995. A frame-up of four white men for a murder the FBI knew they did not commit, and about 60 homicides by a team of FBI informants over 30 years. The four men were sentenced to death. After the death penalty was repealed in Massachusetts two of the men died in prison. Two were released after 30 years. A U.S. court awarded the men and their families, $101 million plus attorneys fees. Taxpayers were charged for the criminal abuses of the FBI. None of the agents were penalized. What a delightful crew abusing power for many years. And today that office remains unchanged, still polluted. Never cleaned, never investigated. Just business as usual. Nothing to see here folks. Move along. 


And along comes a new group of Communists. These from Massachusetts doing the same things. First is an intense campaign of harassment, sleep disturbances, insults, and computer tampering trying to provoke violence. When that fails they use young women as bait trying to provoke violence. They always use man-hating women, feminists, and lesbians, often recent immigrants (illegal and legal) from Central America who are well versed in the discrimination laws of the U.S. This team was led by a Chinese American employed by the MA state police, working with a Central American woman with garishly painted nails. Let's see for the past 20 years I complained repeatedly to various and numerous taxpayer funded human protection agencies about criminal abuses. They consistently ignored my complaints. Now new state employees arrive to test me to see if I am dangerous? Is this the idiocracy in action or what?

Here is taxpayer funded "Blame the victim." not just once but for 25 years. Never mind that I first came to Cambridge 43 years ago to go to law school. That is forgotten and omitted from their files. They began with, "He's crazy." "He's a retired drug dealer." "He's a homosexual." "He's a racist." "He is 70, and white. Must be a racist, a rapist, and a hater." Nothing works like stereotyping. And when all that fails, they add, "He's homeless and a high school dropout." That is how these useful idiots think.



But what is most laughable is that they say, "They don't trust you." After 43 years of relentless, intense, surveillance, testing by psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers employed by crime families, the FBI, the CIA, local police, Harvard University campus police and criminal faculty members, "they don't trust me." That says more about them than it does about me. They attribute some of the most depraved acts to me which I would never even think of, but are omnipresent in their minds. 





One that I find most appalling is, the homosexuals who run the Massachusetts state government used toddlers as bait. Toddlers. It shows how depraved the homosexuals in this state really are. It shows how misguided they are. They were unable to identify two openly American-hating brothers from Dagestan and Cambridge who placed two bombs at the finish line of the Boston marathon. That was after Russian security forces alerted the FBI about the brothers. But they repeatedly test me. For 43 years.




The omniscient Cambridge school superintendent and his elite staff of acolytes failed to notice that one of their middle school teachers liked child pornography. But these misguided legends in their own minds, deranged public officials continue an abusive criminal operation targeting me after 43 years of abuses of power first by the CIA, then the FBI, then the Communists, then local police and then crime families. The bottom feeders I thought were the Harvard University campus police. But clearly the bottom-ist of the bottom feeders are the educators of the state who are more clueless than even the Harvard University campus cops. Can they be properly called the beneath-the-bottom feeders?




Harvard University Campus Police Displaying Their Vehicles

[Immediately after posting this essay, the Massachusetts Communist left his surveillance perch. He was quickly replaced by the charming and always delightful young lady graduate student in psychology from Harvard University Medical School who works for, . . . well she works for whoever is paying her that day. On this day it was the Kennedy Cult, that efficient political organization that adopted me then abused me for 43 years in three states. Other times it is the Midwestern Outfit, the California Syndicate, or any of the remaining crime families operating in Cambridge on property owned and operated by The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Whoever and whatever is her pleasure.]

April 11, 2014

Union Allows School Committee Members To Participate in Making School Policy



[From article]
"We share a responsibility and a commitment to foster an organizational culture of respect and accountability at all levels of the CPS," read the preamble. "We therefore commit ourselves to an ongoing value-driven review of the contractual structures and committees that currently exist to ensure that they are serving the interest of the partners at both the district and school levels to educate all students to their highest capacities."
Now, more than ever, Colbath-Hess said it’s critical that teachers and the district work in close collaboration with each other. With a new federal testing system being piloted this year and a new statewide teacher evaluation system, the pressures on the district are growing, she said.
"Things that used to be decided only at the local level are now being decided one and two steps away from where they are actually being implemented," Colbath-Hess said. "Because the locus of control has shifted so much, that’s why it’s so important now that the people who have to actually operationalize these policies work together to figure out the best way to do it,

Union president did not explain his willingness to share power with school committee officials, to help his union make policy. Will the teachers be required to pay increased dues? Will psychologists be required to pay unions dues? Will elected officials get higher campaign contributions from the Union?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140409/NEWS/140406036 

Cambridge teacher contract preamble focuses on shared responsibility
By Erin Baldassari
cambridge@wickedlocal.com
Posted Apr. 9, 2014 @ 3:19 pm
Cambridge Chronicle

December 19, 2013

Proposed Reforms of School Committee Ignore Union Influence




[From article]
But having a City Councilor chair the School Committee is a mistake. City councilors do not run for School Committee. For weeks and months in advance of each election, they speak to residents about issues of zoning, planning, housing, small business development, etc., and hardly ever about schools.
School Committee elections revolve around the schools, and the candidates spend time learning voters’ views on school issues and publicizing their own plans and ideas. Over time, incumbent councilors and School Committee members develop very different areas of expertise. School Committee members become knowledgeable about all of the schools in the system. They learn the school budget process and get to know the strengths and weaknesses of various administrative leaders. They spend a large amount of time becoming well versed about school issues. A number of School Committee members bring institutional knowledge from year to year and have developed long-term expertise about school issues and about parents. They also have an in depth knowledge about teacher and administrator personalities.

Curious that this reform proposal and most all of the election rhetoric omitted any discussion of the role of the eight unions making school policy. Why is that not a matter for concern by voters and elected officials?

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1039480697/COLUMN-Let-Cambridge-School-Committee-choose-its-own-chair

COLUMN: Let Cambridge School Committee choose its own chair
By Janneke House and Avi Green
GUEST COMMENTARY
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Dec 19, 2013 @ 10:09 AM

November 15, 2013

Cambridge School Committee Increases Bureaucracy To Imporve Education?



Cambridge, MA School Committee, 2011-13

[From article]
The plans cover myriad topics such as student achievement, professional development and family engagement.
[. . .]
Not that every school should be the same, but that the general overarching goals should be coherent and consistent across the district.”
[. . .]
Young said the district hired Lyle Kirtman, an education consultant and president of Future Management Systems, several weeks ago to train staff in crafting the SIP. Similar training sessions will be held with each school council – comprised primarily of parents, teachers and other city staff.
[. . .]
Young said Kirtman will provide advice about how to develop SIPs that “really develop student achievement.”

It is business as usual with the school committee hiring more consultants, increasing the bureaucracy in the name of improving education. During the 2013 campaign incumbents boasted of how great the Cambridge schools are. Graduating students who went to to college and graduate schools. So why is there a need to improve the schools if they are operating so well? One element seldom discussed during the campaign is the influence of the teachers unions in setting policies, which often hinder education in the name of protecting the bureaucracy. John Taylor Gatto received awards for being the best teacher in New York City and then for being the best teacher in New York State. In essays and speeches in his book, Dumbing Us Down, he recommends less school. Instead the Cambridge School Committee promotes more schooling and more efforts to get parents involved. 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1565410357/Cambridge-School-Improvement-Plan-to-be-released-this-month

Cambridge School Improvement Plan to be released this month
By Erin Baldassari/ebaldassari (at) wickedlocal.com
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Nov 14, 2013 @ 03:48 PM

July 9, 2013

Facts Differ From Perception in Cambridge MA





[From article]
what makes that story all the more incredible is that for their formative teenage years, the brothers grew up where they did, in possibly the least plausible breeding ground for anti-American resentment.
[. . .]
 Dzhokhar wrestled on the school team for three years and was captain for two. His coach called him “one of the most well-adjusted kids on the team,” getting along with all the different subgroups.
[. . .]
White kids make up about a third of the student body, and blacks slightly more.

This brief article raises several questions. The author says Cambridge is "the least plausible breeding ground for anti-American resentment." What? Cambridge breeds hating America, white male conservatives, and Republicans. The author adds, "[Dzhokhar's] coach called him 'one of the most well-adjusted kids on the team[.]' What does that say about being well-adjusted? And who determines what well-adjusted means? In American public schools it means conforming. In Cambridge it mans conforming to liberalism. Finally if it is true that "White kids make up about a third of the [CRLS] student body, and blacks slightly more." It undermines the local politicians constant demands for more special treatment for [black] minorities. Blacks appear to be the majority in the Cambridge public schools.

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/cambridge-rindge-and-latin-school-2013-4/

Cambridge?
Rindge and Latin, in a daze.
By Robert Kolker
Published Apr 20, 2013
New York Magazine

May 22, 2013

Another Misguided Cambridge Voter






Talk about misinformed voters, this letter is obviously written by a misguided taxpayer. Peter Wilson seems to think that public schools exist to educate students, to teach them skills. Silly man is living in the past. Today's modern World Class Schools are focused on increasing union dues so that union leaders can improve their living standards, give more money to politicians so that they can get even more taxpayer funds next year. More union-dues-paying psychologists are needed in the schools so that they can eliminate bullying, and teach students to sit in place or get drugged until they do so. Councilor and State Rep. Decker fights for this priority with School Committee Members Marc McGovern and Richard Harding. Cambridge is number one in spending taxpayer funds and that is all that matters. First priority is that Cambridge students learn to hate America. Second and third are what diversity and multiculturalism mean to a civil society. Fourth is obedience to authority. When Councilor Decker, the conscience of the City, is upset it is not right. Wake up Wilson. You sound like a bitter white man who is clinging to his guns and religion. Get with it. Join the Unions.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1039445833/LETTER-A-Cambridge-budget-spurned#axzz2U2WX1RqW

LETTER: A Cambridge budget spurned
Wicked Local Cambridge
Posted May 21, 2013 @ 04:03 PM
Peter Wilson, Huron Avenue

May 18, 2013

Not Just Cambridge MA Schools Teach Hating America








In a very recent (May 2013) letter to the local Cambridge MA newspaper responding to comments by city officials regarding the school budget, I made some of the same complaints about Cambridge public schools where the two bombing suspects graduated from high school. Needless to say the local paper did not publish the letter. The reporters and editors are young and underpaid. But I also believe they are part of the group of two generations of public school students and university graduates who have been indoctrinated by the school system to hate America. In addition to the mindless and spineless politicians in Massachusetts and Cambridge I'm told that the Cambridge Police Commissioner has joined in the harassment I experience every day.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williamns051513.php3#.UZeGXd00i6Y

Jewish World Review May 15, 2013/ 6 Sivan 5773
Hating America
By Walter Williams

May 13, 2013

Misguided School Policymakers




Marc McGovern, School Committee Member


Richard Harding, School Committee Member

Why a person casts a vote has to do with their motive. How does Marc McGovern and Richard Harding know the motives of the councilors who voted against their wishes? It appears that these two whining elected officials have had their way for too long without any opposition. Perhaps they should retire to the dreaded private sector where they will not have their actions questioned.

Never has there been any discussion of the role of the teachers unions in making policy and misappropriation of taxpayer funds. The two alarmists admit that what the City Council lawfully did may "potentially damage contract negotiations." Contract negotiations created the crisis in public education in this country. The stranglehold that teachers unions have on public schools has disastrous effects on the dumbing down of two generations of public school students. The unions allow indoctrination in the name of education. Students cannot read, write or do basic math. But they know about diversity, hating America, and multiculturalism. They are taught by psychologists who are seldom more than control freaks dictating their thoughts on political correctness. Psychologists curb protected speech and behavior because the psychologists do not like or do not understand what American children say and do. It is shameful that the school committee members cry wolf when they are upset, but remain obedient to their union masters. What is the rational reason for having psychologists in the public schools? Have schools become clinics for evaluation, treatment and behavior conditioning? The two misguided school officials are clueless about how wrongheaded their policies are, but they question the City Council? How very amusing.

[From letter]
Let us be very clear, the political maneuvering that was carried out at this meeting will do absolutely nothing to help address these concerns. The councilors have done nothing to help bring us together as city leaders. What they did do, is drive a wedge between the school community and the city community. What they did do was potentially damage contract negotiations. What they did do was show that making a political statement was more important than insulting, disrespecting and undermining several months of work by parents, teachers, principals and school administrators. If that is not bad enough, they did it all without any communication, warning or chance for the superintendent or School Committee to be prepared. This was a complete and utter blindside to all who worked so hard.
[. . .]
They voted down adding additional school psychologists, inclusion specialists, athletic trainers, and additional staffing for our new upper schools. They voted down adding an additional Special Start classroom and funding the Wrap Around Zone at the Fletcher Maynard Academy modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1039441380/COLUMN-Councilors-budget-actions-were-more-damaging-than-helpful#axzz2TE8IYCUE

COLUMN: Councilors’ budget actions were more damaging than helpful
By Marc McGovern and Richard Harding/GUEST COMMENTARY
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted May 13, 2013 @ 12:06 PM

October 14, 2012

Cambridge Public Schools Integrated, Harvard Housing Segregated

Irene Kolonas laments past segregation of Cambridge Public Schools celebrating the integration that exists today. Alongside of the public schools in Cambridge, Harvard University now enforces an agreement with the City government a housing segregation policy. Only Harvard affiliates may apply to live in Harvard owned residences. 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1851398761/Letter-Finally-a-multi-cultural-public-school#axzz26rEjPvjH

Letter: Finally, a multi-cultural public school
Cambridge Chronicle
osted Sep 18, 2012 @ 02:20 PM
Irene Koronas

October 12, 2012

Remarkable Nonsense

[This letter was published in the print edition of The Cambridge Chronicle on Thursday October 11, 2012, Page A10.]
In his remarkable letter to the Cambridge MA community, the superintendent of schools quotes a remarkable claim that "good teaching comes from the identity of the teacher." Is he serious? Or is he pandering to the liberal dogma in Cambridge that identity politics rule? The same principle was argued in a recent front page story in the Cambridge Chronicle urging more diversity claiming there were not 50 percent of women in the legislature. If women make up more than 50 percent of the population how is that a minority? Why don't they run for office and vote only for women? If they do should men vote only for men? Should White voters vote only for White candidates? No thought goes into what words mean in this city. They are after all just words as the Kennedy politicians used to tell me. There are more persons with disabilities in both the Cambridge and the Massachusetts population than there are either homosexuals or Black people. How many persons with disabilities are employed, no less teaching under this diversity-identity standard in the Cambridge schools? What is remarkable about arguments that make no sense is that the writers make them with a straight face acting more like politicians. How much longer can these destructive policies be employed in this misguided city and state? Here's my idea. Let the students teach themselves. They reflect more closely the school population than any imposed distribution by administrators. 

[From article]
In his remarkable book, The Courage to Teach, Parker J. Palmer writes, “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.” Good citizens of Cambridge, today I ask you to join me in recognizing the extraordinary human beings who populate the teaching profession in general, and more specifically the women and men who educate your children, here in the Cambridge Public Schools. 

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x541588268/Guest-commentary-An-open-letter-to-the-Cambridge-community?zc_p=0

Guest commentary: An open letter to the Cambridge community
By Jeffrey M. Young
Cambridge Chronicle
GateHouse News Service
Posted Oct 04, 2012 @ 08:00 AM

September 25, 2012

Child Psychiatrist, Nancy Rappaport, Discusses New Book

Child Psychiatrist Nancy Rappaport (Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School) spoke at the Cambridge Public Library on Monday September 24, 2012.



 http://nancyrappaport.com/

She discussed her new book, The Behavior Code: Practical Strategies for Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students. Rappaport described elaborate schemes to compensate for disruptive behavior in the classroom. She suggested ways for teachers to understand what students may lack and what causes problematic behavior. One parent explained that her child came to US schools from another culture and was thought to be unintelligent because of language and cultural differences. Is there a need for psychiatry to correct this? Another told of a young person new to this country who urinated in the classroom because she did not know how to ask to go to the bathroom. Again, is this a psychiatric issue?



Some questions include, "If teachers are focused on remedying what students lack, e.g., knowing how to behave in class, how can they teach traditional subjects to these students?" "What are psychiatrists doing in schools?" "If students are unable to behave properly how is that a matter for teachers to correct?" They spend too much time on discipline and not enough teaching basics.



"Does the focus on psychiatry in classrooms explain why US schools fail to educate students?" "Does the acceptability of pervasive failure indicate that the ruling class does not care if public school students learn anything?" "Do teachers unions' accumulation of power work contrary to teaching and learning?" Employers and colleges provide extensive remedial classes teaching young people what they failed to learn in secondary schools. Special education is a large profitable taxpayer funded business for the psychiatric industry. Is this an example of what passes for improving schools? More psychiatrists in public schools will only do more harm to the primary function of public schools. Psychiatry has its place but it is not in public schools.