Down in the Dumps at Honors Day

With all that I've blogged about in the last two days regarding education I'm thinking to myself if anyone reads this I know that they can't possibly think I could complain more about my children's education. Well to tell you the truth right now I have no other complaints regarding education except I wish my son's teacher would stop allowing other children to check his paper. I have requested this before with a prior teacher who used this practice and she ignored me and since this is something he just started this semester I wish he would stop. However, though I am settled and comforted by both of my children's teachers this part of the year, unfortunately this has not been the case and it came out in an unfortunate outburst last week in the middle of honors day. There is an award that my son's schools gives and it is called the rising star award and what it essentially boils down to in most cases is the "loser" award in the school. This semester my son who is on the honor roll was chosen for the Rising Star Award. I thought to myself oh he's getting the rising star award because the teacher plans on placing him on the Principals list. Well my mother who always comes to the children's awards ceremonies told me to call the teacher and tell my son dd not want the award. I thought is is rising star which means my child will be on the Principals List next semester. So i go to Honor's Day. The first teacher up is a teacher my son began the year with and I found her so unbearable I literally withdrew my child out of the school to avoid her. I speak to the parent next to me and tell her that I literally have to restrain myself from booing because she was such an awful teacher and human being. I also restrain myself from taking her picture so I can put her in the memory book as being that terrible teacher my son has. As I look at her class Notice that all of the girls are in the front and all of the boys are in the back. As she calls the awards I soon realize she has arranged her class in the order of the type of awards they will get. Nobody gets a principals list award in her class and if I am remembering correctly not one boy received an honor roll award. All of the boys if they received an award were given an academic achievement award which means all the boys were given at least one C.

She's gone finally we get to my son's teacher as he goes through the names, he gets to my son gives him his honor roll award and then states Boy when he came to me his grades were in the dumps. I refrained from saying Boo and taking a Dartboard picture of my son's teacher but something in me could not restrain from hollering out well he has six honor roll certificates and he has been on the honor roll in Virginia and Georgia and he is a good student. I could not hel but defend my first born. However when the Principal hollered out I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you disrupt the ceremony. I had to say Ms. Blank, my son's prior teacher had been a terrible teacher and honestly it was not necessary to say his grades had been in the dumps. I then walked out, I later heard that the principal had told my son's current teacher to repeat the statement.

In any event as a parent I want to share the situation my son was in at the beginning of the year. My son started to bring home bad grades, I thought what is happening I suppose I need to work harder in helping him but I thought still these grades did not make sense because they were not weighted; this lady was just adding up a group of papers and getting a grade and that was my major argument she was not using the county mandated scale where class participation was 50% homework was 10% test and quizzes were 30% and a project was 10%. This, when I conferenced with the Principal was going to be my basic argument. Until the Friday before the conference I actually looked at one of the papers and thought "Oh My God" My son has gotten the answers correct. My son is usually an A student in Social Studies and I saw a huge thirty-two on his paper and I looked at it and the two answers that were marked wrong were actually correct. One paper is an error but four and five papers is unforgivable and deliberate. Well when I spoke to the teacher and asked her how she graded her papers she said straight from the book, the principal requested a manual and my son's answers were correct. The principal conceded to the teacher in one case where she said my son had only gotten seventy-five percent of the answer correct so it was therefore wrong. In my heart I strongly disagreed if a child could get seventy-five percent of the answer right he should get 3/4 credit. In any event. The teacher also had a long list of missing grades in socials studies the teacher said were current events, I asked her how could this be considering I sat in front of the computer every Thursday and pointed my son to google news for a current event article. She then told me that she required two current events a week which when I went to parent day did not register in my mind the two book reports did but I never heard two current events. My next question for her was what was going on in science my son had missed one assignment and actually it was my fault because I had pulled it out of his folder for him to do and never given it back to him and he had a low grade where otherwise he would have had a high B. This went with weighting grades and when I cam out of the conference I was under the impression that this teacher did what she wanted to do and ignored the County mandates for weighted grades. I also thought she was lying because I asked why did I see over 12 social studies grades and only 4-6 science grades she explained that the two current events a week covered that which I knew was a blatant lie because my son had had to turn in a current event every week for social studies and it did not stop after three weeks. I do remember her telling me that her class had not started science because she could not find the books but then she and the principal made up a really strange story about three weeks of science and three weeks of social studies that I never understood. In any event the conference was terrible and the teacher was terrible. So I really should apologize to my son's teacher because my son was down in the dumps, he had been placed on probation for Safety Patrol and was really distraught after leaving this women's class. He told me that all she said was really bad stuff to he and the other children and he literally felt like rocks were in his head. He now has a new teacher who he likes very much.

*****not edited today!!!!

Re: Milton County and Suceeding from the City of Atlanta Fulton County

Today I received a comment from a reader today that I chose not to publish. I regret not publishing the comment because from my perspective the thinking associated with it is just plain wrong and out dated. The printable portions of the comment meaning non derogatory portions of the comment were the whites of the proposed Milton County did not and should not have to use their tax dollars to pay for blacks to attend Public Schools. You know I would like to add that while this may have once been true that Northern Atlanta contributed a significant amount of tax dollars into educating everyone's children. I can honestly say that under the guidance of Mayor Shirley Franklin, this is definitely not true anymore. The core and the center of the wealth in Atlanta will emerge to be Upper Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. Real Estate is expereincing a significant Renaissance in these intown neighborhoods.

While North Atlanta may have very nice homes I really think that the proposed Milton County will lose more from not being in Fulton County Atlanta then it will gain. Mayor Shirley played to win and she has created a jewel of a city which can only go up in prestige and importance. Every piece of Real Estate in this city is valuable. Some people are saying that Urban Atlanta is in the process of building an area to rival the Chicago mile and it will be called the Midtown mile. At this point Atlanta has come into it's own and Milton County will be what it's going to be but it will not be Atlanta and some of it's residences will still be saying they live in Atlanta when they live in Milton County. Let me take the time to say that I do not live in Atlanta I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and can honestly say that while I am not ashamed to say where I live, I don't live in Atlanta and I live in a typical area that takes on the form of all areas that are not in the city, we have a mall, a chain hotel and a gas station in the city and the county I live in. We do not have a zoo, an aquarium, major hotels, a museum, an opera, a major league ball team of any kind, etc. I think I've drawn a big picture for you to see. However if anyone asks I'm from Atlanta, but I'm not. As for the Milton County,Johns Creek Folks when someone asks where are you from? What do you say?

Putting an Issue to Rest

The issue of enrolling in this gifted department at this school has been put to rest in my mind. I still do believe there was an extreme bias in my daughters case but such is life. I am grateful that my daughter reminded me about the Gifted program because she just wanted to be in on the naming of the Panda Bear at the Zoo that her classmate who is in discovery told her about. The classmate entered in Kindergarten and is the daughter of a teacher at the school and the relative of the librarian at the school. I suppose this student is more gifted than my child, she did take home all of the performance awards last year at the Kindergarten graduation. Then again I have no idea what her ITBS scores were. In any event when my son was my daughters age I had a family pass to the zoo. I suppose it's time to get a new family memebership.

I hope that there is no backlash from my blogging about the gifted issue and the school. Last year when I called the school and told them that I could not volunteer for the Book Fair because of another obligation. The school sent me a letter threatening to send me to a social worker for supposedly five unexcused absences. When I called the school and told them that I had sent a letter, they told me that they had needed certified doctors excuses and the absences were unexcused. This year in the school manual it specifically stated that a note from the parent was OK, but who knows with this school. The day before I was to have a conference about, and with my child's teacher and basically her attitude my daughters ballet shoe turned up missing out of her book bag. Several days after I called the principal and told him I would show the non standard and illiterate writings of his teacher if my daughter was not taken out of this woman's class. The counselor called me and told me that my daughter skirt was too short and even after I said OK she kept arguing with me where there was no argument. My daughter has been out of school this year she missed four days close to Christmas for a doctor certified strep throat, and additional days for the flu. When my daughter returned to school I also learned that a classmate had had the strep also. I told the school she had strep throat and the flu. I hope someone does not lie just because I'm expressing my feelings. Living in the South is like living in a place that you've never been before.

Generational Discrimination in Dekalb County Georgia

Today I was informed that my daughter’s score for the gifted program was just not high enough.  The ironic thing is that before I was even told that her score was not high enough.  The gifted coordinator at her school told me that she had not made it in.  I had originally requested that she be tested in Kindergarten because her Kindergarten scores were so high.  The funny thing is that everyone claimed that they did not know how the process worked and when I asked the principal at the beginning of the year to place her in the gifted program he told me they were based on standardized scores, I waited and my daughters standardized scores came back placing her in the 93% percentile combined in the ITBS.  I then went to the principal who refereed me to the vice principal who referred me to the gifted teacher and she told me that my daughters scores were still not high enough and further more a renzulli test a test where the teacher got to ask questions about the child had resulted in an extremely low evaluation by the teacher.   All of this was very interesting considering I had had a particularly checkered past with this school.  I had requested that my child be placed in another room because her teacher did not speak and write standard English and the principal had refused until I told him I would place the improper English on the Internet.  As I write this my daughter has just walked in the door with the results of her test I would like to tell you that the gifted teacher has left off my daughters complete composite score which is 93% and there is a place for the composite score. I suppose I would not be so bothered by the testing but it seems really strange that when I was in the fifth grade and scored in the 98% in reading my mother requested and requested that I be tested for gifted and it was never done.  In addition the result of the test the teacher was supposed to have taken is not on this sheet.  In my suspicious mind I think the teacher lied

My daughter was tested but I believe deeply in my heart that the testing was biased and my daughter probably would have had a better chance in a predominantly white school.  All of my educational years when I did encounter non blacks they were willing to appreciate my intellect whereas blacks were more concerned with initiating their friends in the process of anything good and valuable.  Many people wonder why black children score so law by the time they reach high school and why they don’t make comparable scores to their white counter parts it probably because some black teacher in the south has knocked the truly gifted child out of the way for their friends child.  Unfortunately I have found myself caught up in the black world with all of it’s despair and hopelessness because the truth is in the United States, the blacks that are their for black children are their because of some strange clique situation that eliminates the brightest and the best as soon as they are born.  I hope honestly that I can find some sort of light for my children.  

Finally I suppose I could be a bitter mother but there have been two generations in the Dekalb County Georgia School system and both of us have scored extremely high on nationally normed tests.  However in our black districts we have never been labeled as the so called black gifted.  I suppose I have to repeat what a resource teacher told me in high school when she gave me a test we had a bet that you would score higher than the people in the gifted program and you did .  In any event I just hope my daughter gets a better shake out of life.  In a world where blacks are constantly asking for affirmative action and I have never received it, I suppose its reserved for friends of friends, it is extremely odd that a black district is working overtime to keep qualified individuals out of the gifted program.  While other districts are working overtime to find and identify gifted children.  Here is an article in the Washington Post that discusses the tactics the some districts are using to identify the gifted http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201316.html  .

I will summarize my feelings about black America and the chances for the gifted of this race to succeed while working through black society with one incident I saw on CSpan and another comment made while in a conference with the teacher who did not speak or write standard English.

The first comment was several months ago while I was watching a segment on blacks and public policy a professor from a No less “Georgia College”  went to the podium and said yeah the “lower classes” need to stop feeding  their children orange soda and honey buns for breakfast, that’s why they are not achieving and their test scores are so low.  They need to be like Booker T. Washington and walk from Alabama to West Virginia to get a job.

And the problem with the above comment is that this so called professor said that Booker T. Washington marched from Alabama to West Virginia, this was such  a fallacy Booker T. Washington was from Virginia and West Virginia and did eventually make it to Alabama after walking from his Virginia home to Hampton Institute. Hah maybe this professor had had Hennessey and a Honey Bun for Breakfast.  

Another incident surrounded the non-standard English speaking teacher who said some people just don’t test well but they are still smart.  I agree but it was just the way it was said.  I just believe that blacks really want to tear down other blacks and other people with higher scores just to prove that test scores don’t matter and while they do not this does not give them the right to ignore them and basically destroy the gifted from the cradle on. I suppose what I am saying is that antiintellectualism  is not just confined to the school bully but walks the halls of the highest educational institutions in the country.  As long as these attitudes persist blacks will continue needing educational affirmative action and thus extending  these needs into the work place.    Finally while the county I went to did not recognize or acknowledge me as gifted after I took the PSAT the Secret Service did write me a letter inviting me to join because of my scores, unfortunately I had been so indoctrinated into the poor and the downtrodden and how the government, “the man” took something away from black people I could not join.  However if this offer is ever extended to my daughter she will join as an American.     Help from the SOUTH!!!!!!!  I FEAR FOR MY CHILDREN!!!  

Generationa Discrimination in Dekalb County Schools

Today I was informed that my daughter’s score for the gifted program was just not high enough.  The ironic thing is that before I was even told that her score was not high enough.  The gifted coordinator at her school told me that she had not made it in.  I had originally requested that she be tested in Kindergarten because her Kindergarten scores were so high.  The funny thing is that everyone claimed that they did not know how the process worked and when I asked the principal at the beginning of the year to place her in the gifted program he told me they were based on standardized scores, I waited and my daughters standardized scores came back placing her in the 93% percentile combined in the ITBS.  I then went to the principal who refereed me to the vice principal who referred me to the gifted teacher and she told me that my daughters scores were still not high enough and further more a renzulli test a test where the teacher got to ask questions about the child had resulted in an extremely low evaluation by the teacher.   All of this was very interesting considering I had had a particularly checkered past with this school.  I had requested that my child be placed in another room because her teacher did not speak and write standard English and the principal had refused until I told him I would place the improper English on the Internet.  As I write this my daughter has just walked in the door with the results of her test I would like to tell you that the gifted teacher has left off my daughters complete composite score which is 93% and there is a place for the composite score. I suppose I would not be so bothered by the testing but it seems really strange that when I was in the fifth grade and scored in the 98% in reading my mother requested and requested that I be tested for gifted and it was never done.  In addition the result of the test the teacher was supposed to have taken is not on this sheet.  In my suspicious mind I think the teacher lied

My daughter was tested but I believe deeply in my heart that the testing was biased and my daughter probably would have had a better chance in a predominantly white school.  All of my educational years when I did encounter non blacks they were willing to appreciate my intellect whereas blacks were more concerned with initiating their friends in the process of anything good and valuable.  Many people wonder why black children score so law by the time they reach high school and why they don’t make comparable scores to their white counter parts it probably because some black teacher in the south has knocked the truly gifted child out of the way for their friends child.  Unfortunately I have found myself caught up in the black world with all of it’s despair and hopelessness because the truth is in the United States, the blacks that are their for black children are their because of some strange clique situation that eliminates the brightest and the best as soon as they are born.  I hope honestly that I can find some sort of light for my children.  

Finally I suppose I could be a bitter mother but there have been two generations in the Dekalb County Georgia School system and both of us have scored extremely high on nationally normed tests.  However in our black districts we have never been labeled as the so called black gifted.  I suppose I have to repeat what a resource teacher told me in high school when she gave me a test we had a bet that you would score higher than the people in the gifted program and you did .  In any event I just hope my daughter gets a better shake out of life.  In a world where blacks are constantly asking for affirmative action and I have never received it, I suppose its reserved for friends of friends, it is extremely odd that a black district is working overtime to keep qualified individuals out of the gifted program.  While other districts are working overtime to find and identify gifted children.  Here is an article in the Washington Post that discusses the tactics the some districts are using to identify the gifted http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201316.html  .

I will summarize my feelings about black America and the chances for the gifted of this race to succeed while working through black society with one incident I saw on CSpan and another comment made while in a conference with the teacher who did not speak or write standard English.

The first comment was several months ago while I was watching a segment on blacks and public policy a professor from a No less “Georgia College”  went to the podium and said yeah the “lower classes” need to stop feeding  their children orange soda and honey buns for breakfast, that’s why they are not achieving and their test scores are so low.  They need to be like Booker T. Washington and walk from Alabama to West Virginia to get a job.

And the problem with the above comment is that this so called professor said that Booker T. Washington marched from Alabama to West Virginia, this was such  a fallacy Booker T. Washington was from Virginia and West Virginia and did eventually make it to Alabama after walking from his Virginia home to Hampton Institute. Hah maybe this professor had had Hennessey and a Honey Bun for Breakfast.  

Another incident surrounded the non-standard English speaking teacher who said some people just don’t test well but they are still smart.  I agree but it was just the way it was said.  I just believe that blacks really want to tear down other blacks and other people with higher scores just to prove that test scores don’t matter and while they do not this does not give them the right to ignore them and basically destroy the gifted from the cradle on. I suppose what I am saying is that antiintellectualism  is not just confined to the school bully but walks the halls of the highest educational institutions in the country.  As long as these attitudes persist blacks will continue needing educational affirmative action and thus extending  these needs into the work place.    Finally while the county I went to did not recognize or acknowledge me as gifted after I took the PSAT the Secret Service did write me a letter inviting me to join because of my scores, unfortunately I had been so indoctrinated into the poor and the downtrodden and how the government, “the man” took something away from black people I could not join.  However if this offer is ever extended to my daughter she will join as an American.     Help from the SOUTH!!!!!!!  I FEAR FOR MY CHILDREN!!!  

Gore Leaves Door Ajar for 2008 - washingtonpost.com

Gore Leaves Door Ajar for 2008 - washingtonpost.com

After seeing the Gore documentary I became convinced that I would love to see Gore run for president and win. The Global Warming information presented in the documentary was truly a shocker. I am watching for a sign any sign that he may run for President.

Secession fever: Damn the expenses, north Fulton breakaway speeds ahead: News Briefs: News: Creative Loafing Atlanta

Secession fever: Damn the expenses, north Fulton breakaway speeds ahead: News Briefs: News: Creative Loafing Atlanta

This is an example of the revival of racism is metro Atlanta. Atlanta is having a population boom but a large part of the boom is from people from Alabama Mississippi and Louisiana. An Old Dixie Revival is in the works. Fortunately a large part of Fulton Counties tax base comes from the major corporations that have decided to call Atlanta home or locate major divisions here. Furthermore the growth in the city of Atlanta, midtown, downtown etc is promising. While the residents of North Fulton may want to leave the city, they should take heed that when their children apply to colleges they don't won't their proposed Milton County address to be associated with white racists or supremacist. "Just a thought"

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

This is a link to the biography of Condoleeza Rice on the Department of State website. I found it interesting because it showed that she has won great challenges before such as being a major player in bringing sown the Berlin wall and the fall of the Soviet Union. This is old news but it is particularly interesting to read what her actual job titles and roles were. It also shows that Condoleeza Rice was not made by the current administration and can not be broken by this Administration. She has secured a great place in history for the roles that she has played in United States Politics and Foreign Policy.