Gov. Perdue "honored and privileged" to award Rev. Barber

You forgot these guys on your list: 

Jane Fonda

Timothy McVeigh

Bill Ayers

.......

Just because you believe in your cause doesn't make it RIGHT!  

I would not call what has been done here anything close to the coveted "civil disobedience" of the 1950s.  Every weekend I drive by the monument in Greensboro where Woolworths used to be.  I cannot even imagine the bravery and just plain "guts" it took for those young men and women to sit at that counter.  It would not take a rocket scientist to see that what was happening needed to be stopped.  Lynchings in which parents took their YOUNG children and looked into the camera and smiled as a young black man swung from the end of a rope.  Disgusting and perverse.  Civil rights thrown to the wolves.

Shindler knew of the camps and the gasing of human beings.  He took steps to stop something that was already underway.  The same was true of Anne Frank and her family and friends.  People knew what was happening.  Also, Mandela was keenly aware (as most were) that humans were being killed because of their race.

I do hope that this board is not being comapred to the Nazis, lynchers and others who have perpetrated hate and evil among their fellow man.  To do that is alarmist, (as some have shown on these strands) such as saying the board is being drug into court.  There has never been, to my knowledge, anything like that mentioned.  I will say that there is a great danger in this case being dragged to court to have it end up at the Supreme Court.  There is no way that ends well.  If the board's postion wins people who want resegregation will see that and use it to fill their very own agenda.  At that point Brown v BOE will be on a slippery slope and close to coming to an end.  If the anti-neighborhood schools win students may be moved from school to school year after year to ensure a Federal Mandate is fulfilled to create "social balance."  We know that social balance is not supported as an answer by any conclusive evidence.  I'm not sure I like either of those scenarios.

The democratic process has worked here.  NO ONE can predict the outcome of these inititives since NO research exists to support either one.  This notwithstanding the fact that these initiatives have yet to be implemented.  A large segment of Wake County became tired of the status quo.  I do not believe that they wish their children avoid going to school with this child or that child.  Do those people exist?  Yes, of course they do, but I do not think that this vote was compiled by those people.  Apparently many parents were tired of their children being transferred so often to balance a population.

Can anyone thinking clearly see the possibility that the WCPSS has routinely moved large numbers of students?  I think so.  Has this been done to improve grades in lower performing schools?  Certainly it has.  To deny this would be to simply ignore that as a fact.  Can a person thinking clearly see that moving a large group of students away from one school and another group into that school does NOT solve the problem that the school (one of them) is not being improved upon?  I hope so.

Recent research seems to show that there is a greater disparity WITHIN these two schools (between which children are being moved) as to effective teachers than there is between the two schools themselves.  So should we not find out which school is effective BEFORE we move a large number of students?  Hmmmmmm, what if the lower performing students are moved to a school where the disparity is greater thus improving the chances that each of these children may get that "bad teacher" for more than 2 years consecutively?

This LA Times thing has really thrown a glitch into this whole thing.  I have posted in many of these strands that.....IT BOILS DOWN TO THE CLASSROOM AND THE TEACHER!  I think this study the LA Times has done shows that, too.

So where are we now?  Well, we have one group that says that there are REEMS of research that shows this mixing thing works.  Well, I have been at the same school for now my third year.  I have taken a group of students who are diverse, F&R, low SES etc etc and gone from 36% passing the science EOG to 65% in a single year.  (I was not working at the school when the 36% hit).  Last year my students passed at almost 80%.  In 2 years, in a very one sided population, one in which many here are saying it can't be done, I helped my students increase scores from 36% to almost 80% in 2 years.  I had 11 students get 4s 2 years ago and last year 33 got 4s on the science EOG.  Now, of course, the posters will say that testing proves nothing.  YES......it does.

In 8th grade science I can take from 90 to 100 students at the beginning of the school year....many who cannot read or write and move them VERY far.  I work very hard to teach them to read and write.  I teach them to think for themsleves.  I teach them to do research and to trust themselves.  I teach them how to learn vocabulary.  I teach them how to do this by themselves......without me.  I actually USE THE TEXTBOOK unlike some idiot teachers who praise themselves that they NEVER use a textbook.  Hey, if you attended college and took Biology you know that this skill is much needed.....USE THE BOOK D----MIT.  At the end of the year my students have been exposed to an entire year of material......and they remember it.  So....what is wrong with testing.  If you are a good teacher......you teach the curriculum........and the test is written based on the curriculum.....what are you affraid of?  I have proven, many times, that my (ANY) students CAN do it AND THEY CAN DO IT ANY SCHOOL.  Contrary to any and all predictions.

Education is so full of BS these days.  I do not believe in most of the crap they tell teachers to do.  I paid a heavy price for this from an assitant principal and a principal at Holly Ridge Middle School in 2004.  I was accused OF "CRAP" and raked over the coals.  I was offered by the WCPSS attorney to leave and keep my mouth shut.  My response:  "Screw that, I want to see what you have."  OK, so I said that to MY attorney.  I fought and won.  I was reinstated.  I was sent back TO THE SAME SCHOOL from where I was "accused."  My principal was not finished.  He made further accusations and was caught dead in a LIE.  He lied to me and to MAurice Boswell, Asst Superintendent HR.  I produced letters and emails to this fact.  The WCPSS promoted this idiot.  THAT is what happens to successful teachers who know their s--t.  NO ONE wants to hear that the fads and feel good techniques are useless and most of what educators believe is NOT true.

You would actually compare Barber with these people?  Really?  Tell you what, if Bev is so convinced that Barber is right and we should just reload the old busing program, then she should make it happen.  Her party controls the state legislature, and Wake County is at their mercy.  Go ahead, call a special session and force Wake County to go back to busing.  If she admires Barber for "standing up for what he believes in" then she should do the same -- and live with the repercussions.  And since this is so important to her, she should have her party mandate socio-economic busing in all state school districts, not just Wake County.  That cause is no more just in our school system than any other.

Why don't Donte Strobino and his FIST buddies get Longleafs too?  They stood up for their beliefs and worked just as well with the school board.

BTW, I won't list them all here, but there are many more Americans who brought about significant positive reforms while working within the law and the democratic process.

Sorry, but this just reeks of pandering for votes, and of an attempt at diverting attention away from her own problems with Highway Patrol corruption, campaign finance, SBI mismanagement, etc.
 

If Mr. Barber railed against the injustice of the use of EI, and how it resulted in keeping minority children out of 8Th grade algebra and ultimately the college track, I would respect that. However, he fights for the very system that is not helping ED children. I'd love to follow the money. In my opinion, Mr. Barber cannot be mentioned in the same breath with your list. He is all about self-promotion,unlike every person there.

HereWeGo.... !! Yep... great list and great response.