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Betsy DeVos: The Midas Touch in Education

In all likelihood, Betsy DeVos will soon be confirmed as U. S. Secretary of Education, meaning she’ll be guiding our nation’s public schools. Typical of most candidates for the job, DeVos never taught a day in her long, privileged life. DeVos never attended public schools and never sent her children to public schools, either. 

We have had clueless Secretaries of Education before, but what separates Ms. DeVos from people like Arne Duncan and Bill Bennett, both singularly clueless, and makes her a million times more dangerous, is her love affair with for-profit charter schools. Consider K12 Inc., a typical for-profit online charter school in which DeVos has invested. K12 operates like any business, a giant pharmaceutical company, a strip mining conglomerate, or a cigarette manufacturer. 

So how does K12 approach the task of helping children? Does the company start by hiring the best teachers! No. The company focuses on hiring the best executives. How does K12 manage to hire the best executives? Call it the pedagogical equivalent of the Midas touch.  K12 pays big. 

In 2016 Nathaniel A. Davis, Executive Chairman of K12, received $6.91 million in compensation. A little digging shows Davis made $5.33 million in 2015. He made $4.25 million in 2014. He made $9.54 million the year before that. Round it off and he piled up a total of $26 million.

Because K12 is a publicly traded company—with a stock price that rises and falls—they are required to publish salaries. Since 2012 top earners include:

Timothy L. Murray $11.67 million (four years of shedding blood, sweat and tears for kids)

Allison B. Cleveland $2.84 million (three)

Harry T. Hawks $2.01 million (two)

Howard D. Polsky $3.83 million (four)

Joseph P. Zorella $2.11 million (two)

James J. Rhyu $9.24 million (four)

Celia M. Stokes $1.82 million (two; why, this poor public servant is barely making minimum wage)

Stuart J. Udell $4,540,698 (all in 2016) Ron J. Packard $12.09 million (three).

That total for Mr. Packard may seem weak, covering only 2012-2014. Going back to 2009, we find he earned $23 million.

Of course, all good businesses cut costs where they must. British Petroleum, health insurance companies, car dealers, this is what they do. It’s that “business efficiency” we hear critics of regular public schools talk so much about. That means teachers at K12 Inc. sacrifice for the good of the cause. In a study done in 2014 it was shown the average Ohio public school teacher earned $56,855 per year.

The average K12 teacher earned $34,333.

In addition, for-profits have “business expenses” ordinary public schools do not. To turn a profit a for-profit must advertise. According to an investigative report by USA Today, K12 spent $21.5 million in taxpayer dollars on advertising in the first eight months of 2012 alone. It also helps to donate millions of taxpayer dollars to campaigns of elected officials, who then keep taxpayer dollars flowing in a virtuous circle.

The only fly in the soup is this: Paying megabucks to executives and donating megabucks to politicians doesn’t help children. In the most detailed study done so far on Ohio E-schools, it was estimated that $1 billion in state funding went to on-line schools between 1999 and 2014, including Ohio Virtual Academy, an offshoot of K12.

What did taxpayers get for that pile of cash? On state report cards, grades for charter schools, generally, were poor.  For E-schools results were grim:

Graduation rates were abysmal. The median statewide four-year graduation rate for high schools was 93.2 percent. Not one of nine statewide E-schools had a graduation rate as high as the lowest school district, Warrensville Heights, at 60.9.

Ohio Connections Academy came in at 55.1. The Buckeye Online School of Success had success with 45% of all students.  Greater Ohio Virtual Academy: 43.5. Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (and classroom for next year for many students since few graduate on time): 38.4. Ohio Virtual Academy, the school that pays executives millions, the school partly owned by Ms. DeVos: 36.6. Four other on-line for-profits in Ohio did worse, graduating 33.1, 26.7, 20.6 and 17.3% of all students in four years.

And we saved the “best news" for last! According to a Stanford University study of Buckeye State E-schools, students lost the equivalent of 72 days of reading learning yearly, compared to students in regular public schools. In math, it was worse: 180 days of math learning lost annually.

You read that right.  If you do the math (and for Ohio E-school students this might be difficult) there are:

   180 days of school per year

  -180 days of math learning lost per year

_____

       0 total days of math learning per year in E-schools.

“There’s still some possibility that there’s positive learning,” Margaret E. Raymond, project director at the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, which completed the study, told a stunned reporter last fall, “but it’s so statistically significantly different from the average, it is literally as if the kid did not go to school for an entire year.”

So there you go. Turning students into gold hasn’t worked so far and probably never will.  Ms. DeVos may have a plan to protect children from grizzlies. Sadly, she shows little interest in protecting them from greedy corporate raiders.

*

To get a good sense of how K12 Inc. works read“Fifteen Months in Virtual Charter Hell.”

Also excellent: “K12 Inc. Tries to Pivot from Virtual School Failures to Profit from ‘Non-Managed’ Schools.”

If you happen to have a masochistic streak, and want to see a list of all the politicians to whom Ms. Devos has donated, check out this link.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Forced to Betray My Mission: What a Real Teacher Fears

If you think high-stakes testing is doing severe damage to U. S. education you are not alone.

I know, when I retired in 2008, after thirty-three years in the classroom, it seemed I might be crazy. High-stakes testing was not improving education. In fact, it appeared to be doing harm.

Eight years later, it seems I wasn’t crazy.

To wrap up 2016 Badass Teachers Association (if you haven’t joined you should) posted the following picture on its Facebook page. It came by way of Ken Previti, an education blogger, himself:

             There were a number of quick comments in support. Cedie Ache, another education blogger, added #6: “The tests make both curricula investors and test-makers RICH, RICH, RICH.”

Then Bobby Lee Reuss weighed in, speaking from the heart—speaking, probably, for millions of educators who work with or have with children every day. He captures, I fear, many of the deepest concerns of front line teachers, principals, psychologists, and counselors, as they try to avoid the yawning pitfalls of “school reform.” Like so many who work with children, Reuss wonders if reforms have been driven by fools at the top. Now he fears the new administration in Washington, D. C. could be even worse. Here’s his (lightly edited) response:

The majority of experienced teachers who actually earned our post-graduate degrees and teaching credentials after having been educated and trained by the Education Departments of real and respected colleges and universities have a justifiably immense trepidation about the nomination of Betsey DeVos and the incoming Trump administration’s orientation and tendencies regarding many aspects of public policy impacting public education. That trepidation is amplified by both his and DeVos’ demonstrated vulnerability to hamartia and hubris in pursuing their goals. 

(I’m going to admit right here, I had to look “hamartia” up. It means “a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.”) 

We fear that both DeVos’ and Trump’s approval of the corporatization of education and the proliferation of charter and/or privatized schools will be incalculably detrimental to traditional public school districts and to the education of America’s present and future generations of students. It could be catastrophically much worse than the generally neo-liberal (i.e. moderately conservative/Rockefeller Republican) stances of the previous Administrations.

(Reuss isn’t just knocking Trump and DeVos. Like many of us he lived through the bleak years of Arne Duncan’s time at the U. S. Department of Education, watched No Child Left Behind implemented, and saw it fail, saw Common Core touted by one set of politicians and demonized by another, not one of whom seemed to have a clue.)

This is very personal for me; I regretfully retired after 33 years as a high school Honors/A.P. teacher (British/World and American Lit & Comp) largely because our budget difficulties in California, combined with the demands and requirements of the Bush-era NCLB and the Obama Administration’s subsequent modifications of it, had resulted in the installation of Broad-trained administrators at our D. O. and at our school sites. Our district pimped itself (proudly) for Broad grants and spent money on whiz-bang tech panaceas du jour while “streamlining” instruction via the new standards and application models.

As a consequential part of the resultant blow-back, our librarian and her aide were removed from their positions while our school library itself had all of its books jettisoned as it was converted into a computer lab (the fourth at our school site). The principal at that time made the observation that the elimination of the library was no great loss because “....nobody reads books anymore.” (I had paid for a subscription to The New Yorker and Smithsonian magazine for the library for a number of years so that my students—and the student body at large—would have access to such fine periodicals and their wide-ranging subject matter). Then our Superintendent, the one responsible for establishing and implementing “the new paradigm,” went to work for the Broad Academy and turned the district over to one of his (Broad-influenced) lackeys (who’d been overseeing, among other things, I.T. at the D.O.)

As a veteran teacher in my field, I felt more and more alienated from my job over the past twelve years by federal, state, and local diktats that hemmed and hedged I and my colleagues in to such a degree that we could not give our kids the sort of education (and the experience of exploration, joy, and creativity) in our subjects that had worked so well for previous classes over the decades. Increasingly, I felt like I was being forced into betraying my mission, my field, my subject, the Humanities in general and my students until I could no longer stomach being a cog in the new system (and forcing my kids to accept their roles as cogs in a corporatist-infected and/or privatized perversion of what public education should be.

If President-Elect Trump’s and Betsey DeVos’ agenda and proposals are in sympathy, concord, and support of the corporatists and their allied privateering privatizers seeking to acquire, absorb, and vampirize public school systems, I (and numberless infinities of my fellows) dread the depredations that may further accrue and become established as public policy in whatever is left of public education during both his and her tenure.

Trump’s and DeVos’ agenda and proposals seem bound to produce catastrophic results of greater breadth and magnitude than we have seen yet, perhaps paralleling the shocking consequences that already have been exposed as results of the privatization and out-sourcing of prisons over the past several years.

Like I said, when I retired in 2008 I thought I must be missing something. I could not fathom what we were gaining by all the reforms, by all the billions spent on testing, by all the laws implemented to punish teachers.

It turns out, I’m not alone. Mr. Reuss is not alone.

I missed this story when it first came out, but millions of teachers are deeply concerned. Perhaps you missed it too, since so many of you would have been busy wrapping up the million year-end tasks that mark the lives of all good teachers. In May 2016, USA Today published a story with this headline:

Survey: Nearly Half of Teachers Would Quit now for Higher-Paying Job

Based on work done by the Center for Education Policy, and interviews with more than 3300 teachers, one of the most frightening details came up in the second paragraph, when reporters noted six in ten teachers were losing enthusiasm for their jobs. That response is chilling, I believe; but we can’t blame teachers. Just under half, 49%, said the stress and disappointments of the job “aren’t really worth it.”

Even worse, it’s not just teachers who suffer—as we hammer children with standardized tests. Jahana Hayes, 2016 National Teacher of the Year, expressed concern: “Every day I see students who are increasingly frustrated because they are excellent students who are productive and active in the school community, yet this may not translate in their standardized test scores,” she wrote in her application for the award.

I decided to check the survey results myself. If you think “school reform” has been a disaster, join the crowd.

(It probably should be a mob!)

First, most real educators realize their voices are ignored at the national level, by arrogant experts:

            Secondly, teachers admit they are devoting significant chunks of instructional time to testing—but don’t believe all that time is justified.

            And third, I might add a little of my own research.              If you think standardized testing hasn’t helped, test scores from the Program for International Student Assessment, from the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and several other measurements show they have not.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Carl Paladino: Worst School Board Member of the Year

December started well for Carl Paladino. A member of the Buffalo, New York school board, co-chair of Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in the state, Paladino metwith the president-elect and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, just before Christmas. He told reporters afterward that the question of “whether he would be interested and/or willing to serve in the administration in some capacity did come up.” By December 21 the presents at the Paladino home were all nicely wrapped and snug under the tree. 

We might even guess there was a “Make America Great Again” hat for Mrs. P. and “Jail Hillary” t-shirts for all the grand kids.

 That same day the Buffalo News reported on Paladino’s formal request, during a school board meeting, that once President Trump took office his picture might be placed prominently in every city school.

“Other board members responded to Paladino’s request,” the News continued, “by noting it is at the discretion of principals to decide what they display in their schools. ‘I think this is problematic,’ said board member Theresa Harris-Tigg. ‘Now we are going to mandate, and force something, when it has been their prerogative.’”

“‘Why do we care?’ Paladino responded. ‘Why do we care what their prerogative is?’”

In the end, a compromise was reached, with board members agreeing to put up posters of all former and current U. S. presidents in the schools. Sadly, there was no mention whether or not Paladino would have liked to see Mr. Obama’s picture crossed out.

We don’t know if he was satisfied with the decision. We do know, two days later, he was up to his knees in feces of his own creation. Trouble began brewing when Artvoice, a local weekly, asked city leaders to answer four questions.  For current purposes only the first two matter:

 1. What would you most like to happen in 2017?

2. What would you like to see go away in 2017?

Most city leaders responded in predictable fashion. Sue Marfino, a businesswoman, answered #1: “A return to shopping in communities and at brick & mortar stores.”

Jeff Mucciarelli, co-owner of 31 Club, offered up a wish with which almost everyone in the world might agree: “ISIS removed from this earth.”

 Mr. Paladino went for what he later insisted was a humorous approach:

#1: Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford. He dies before his trial and is buried in a cow pasture next to Valerie Jarret, who died weeks prior, after being convicted of sedition and treason, when a Jihady cell mate mistook her for being a nice person and decapitated her.

#2: Michelle Obama. I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.

Well, what could be funnier, especially in a school district which serves a majority minority population, than wishing the current First Lady might spend the rest of her days in a cave with a gorilla?

And what kindergartner or fifth grader or high school senior wouldn’t be bent double laughing at images of President Obama having sex with a cow and dying as a result? (Hey, kids, don’t worry! If Carl Paladino has his way, you might have a chance to salute a portrait of President Trump as you goosestep down the hall on the way to your next social studies class.)

Several local leaders calledon Paladino to resign his seat. “These comments harken back to the darkest days of racism in our nation’s history,” said one. By afternoon on December 26 more than 11,000 people had signed an online petition calling for this Trump fan to be removed from office.

Paladino tried but failed to clean the feces off his shoes in a series of bumbling interviews. At one point he explained to the New York Times that he was “not politically correct.” A reporter asked why he wanted to see the first lady live with a gorilla. Paladino paused a long time and then said, “What’s wrong with that?”

Sadly, the clueless Paladino has traveled the racist road before. During an abortive campaign for New York governor in 2009, a trove of his emails came to light. They included a photo of President Obama dressed like a pimp, Michelle Obama as a whore:

Paladino claims to have many black friends. No doubt they would "appreciate" his sharp sense of humor.

Another email in July 2009 showed a photograph of an airplane landing directly behind a group of black men. The caption read: “Holy Sh*t. run ni**ers, run!”

Oh, what scintillating humor!

As a bonus, in September 2009, Paladino forwarded an email entitled: “Easy Steady Big Fella.... XXXX,” including a graphic photograph of a horse and a woman having sex.

(If you’d like to see other examples of Mr. Paladino’s emails, and you have a strong enough stomach, you can click here.)

Paladino, later claimed in a radio interview that he had done nothing wrong, but only managed to step in his own poop again. “It’s only these retarded liberal people that’ll find it necessary to come out and call me names and not really listen to the issues,” he whined. He couldn’t possibly be racist. He had “many, many friends in the black community” and we might guess even a few horses who were good and loyal friends.

He went on to air a string of grievances against President Obama and claimed his answers and emails were all in good fun. “And yes,” he told the interviewer, “it’s about a little deprecating humor which America lost for a long time. Merry Christmas and tough luck if you don’t like my answer.”

Tough luck, indeed.

In honor of both his racism and his clueless stupidity we nominate Carl Paladino “Worst School Member of the Year.”

[ateacherteaching-blog]

School Reform: Fifteen Years of "Diet Plans" That Couldn't Fail

Imagine you wanted to lose a few pounds. (Most of us do; so this might not be too hard to imagine.) Now picture some svelte fitness guru who promises: “Follow my plan and you cannot go wrong. You will lose all the pounds you want.”

You try the plan for six months and gain seven pounds. You waste $1500 dollars on diet supplements, too.

A second weight-loss guru comes your way. “Follow my plan and you cannot go wrong,” she insists. “You will lose all the pounds you want.”

You do as told again, and put on ten pounds. Even your “fat pants” no longer fit. (Not that I would know from bitter experience!) And you wasted another $1200 on diet shakes and motivational videos.

Eventually, you try a third, fourth and fifth diet plan. Every time, the gurus promise you cannot go wrong.

No one plan works as promised. Not even close.

Well, after fifteen years of school reform that’s exactly where we find ourselves, as a nation, today.

You may not recall, but the push to “fix” U. S. education began in earnest in 2001, in large part due to test results from countries round the world, results from a test that had not existed before 2000, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test.

In the spring of that year, 15-year-olds from 32 nations, mostly first-world countries, took the new test. U. S. students finished 15th in reading, with an average score of 504. In math we finished 18th with an average score of 493. In science, America’s teens came in 14th with a score of 499.

Reporters took a quick glance at results and wrote fevered stories about how the United States was falling behind! Talking heads on cable news saw the scores and decided it might make compelling viewing to blame teachers for everything that had gone wrong. School reformers, safely ensconced in think tanks far from the educational front lines, studied and analyzed and promised—if we would only listen to them—that they knew exactly how to get those PISA scores up! Finally, politicians decided they must be involved. Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.

So keep those first PISA scores in mind:

Reading: 504

Math: 493

Science: 499

In 2003 the PISA test was administered again. This time, students from 41 countries were involved. In reading, U. S. scores fell to 495. America’s teens dipped in math to 483. Science scores were down, with the average 15-year-old scoring 491.

After two years of reform scores were down twenty-seven points.

The politicians and reformers were puzzled; but they never doubted their great plans were sure to work in the end. Just keep listening to us, they reassured millions of real educators who were already worried. In 2006 PISA was given again. Unfortunately, U. S. reading scores were thrown out. In math, however, our kids scored 498; in science they averaged 489. In other words, reform was working! Math scores were up five points! Oh, wait, science scores were down ten.

Overall: down five!

In a vain effort to improve test standardized scores of all kinds, schools across the nation cut back time on “non-essential” learning, like music, art and physical education. Reformers promised all these sacrifices would be worth it in the end!

Like the seventeen-year locusts, only appearing far more often, PISA returned in 2009. Reading results for U. S. teens: 500; math: 487; science: 502. Scores were still down a total of seven points.

Scores for U. S. students still looked bad in 2009! They would look even worse in years ahead.

With the years flying by—and scores refusing to rise—more and more changes were forced upon administrators, teachers and students. Charter schools spread like kudzu because charter schools couldn’t fail! Teach for America was sure to work because everyone knew smarter teachers would be a thousand times more effective than the nincompoops in the classrooms we already had. Tens of thousands of teachers and administrators were axed under various state laws when test scores didn’t rise, while others earned fat bonuses when scores did soar. (See: Atlanta cheating scandal.) By 2012 testing was costing states and the federal government $1.7 billion per year.

Surely, by then, reform had to have worked!

Or not.

On the PISA test administered in 2012, U. S. students averaged 498 in reading, 481 in math and 497 in science.

Our teens were now twenty points down.

Twelve years of abject failure still didn’t faze arrogant reformers and politicians. Sure, SAT scores were down too. Sure ACT scores remained flat (that was good news compared to the rest). True, reading and math scores for seniors on the National Assessment for Education Progress hardly budged or fell.

The gurus kept telling everyone how great their plans were. By 2015 No Child Left Behind had morphed into “Race to the Top.” Common Core had come along and after dithering for eight years, Congress phased out NCLB and replaced it with the Every Child Succeeds Act. Finally, we were going to see the end results of a decade-and-a-half of top-down school reform.

For a sixth time the PISA test was administered in 2015.

Now, 15-year-olds from seventy countries and educational systems took the test. How did U. S. students fare?

The envelope please.

In reading U. S. students scored 497. After fifteen years of school reform and tens of billions wasted, reading scores were down seven points.

Fifteen years of listening to blowhard politicians—and U. S. students averaged 470 in math, a depressing 23-point skid.

Science scores averaged 496, still down three points.

The idea of raising PISA scores had been the foundation on which school reform was built; and after fifteen years America’s teens were scoring 33 points worse.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

"Air Raid, Pearl Harbor...This is no Drill!"

President Franklin D. Roosevelt would call the attack on Pearl Harbor, "a day that shall live in infamy."

IT WAS JUST BEFORE EIGHT IN THE MORNING; but bright sunlight sparkled across the surface of Pearl Harbor. Slowly, Sunday, December 7, 1941, the United States Pacific Fleet came to life. Leslie Short was up addressing Christmas cards. Aboard battleship USS Maryland, Felder Crawford lay in his bunk reading the funny papers. Joe Whitt, a crew member on the cruiser San Francisco, was sitting down for his first guitar lesson, having paid a shipmate $5 for lessons. The band on Nevada was gathering to play the National Anthem and raise the flag. YG-17, a ship that sailors jokingly labeled a “honey barge,” was moving across the harbor, preparing to pick up garbage and siphon waste from the great warships moored along “Battleship Row.” 

Here and there, soldiers awoke with splitting heads, reminder of one too many drinks the previous evening. At her nearby home in Honolulu, Geneva Willey laid abed with husband Jim, a young Army officer. Neither felt like getting up on a lazy Sunday morning. Jerry Morton, 13, and brother Don, 11, were already up and dangling fishing lines in the harbor. Mary Ann Ramsey, 16, finished curling her hair and headed out the door for church. A pair of Army pilots was “up” early, too. Or to put it plainly, George Welch and Kenneth Taylor had never been to bed at all. After an all-night poker game they were discussing whether to go for a swim or hit the sack.

Coming in fast from the north, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida of the Japanese Imperial Navy was wide awake. At that moment, had any American looked, Fuchida’s wave of 183 planes, a mix of bombers, fighters and torpedo planes, would have been clearly visible as tiny specks on the horizon.  

*

EVEN NOW, WITH ENEMY PLANES STREAKING THEIR WAY, it was not too late for defenders to awake. Bad luck, mistakes, and poor communication all morning would allow the Japanese to achieve complete surprise.  

In fact, long before dawn, five Japanese midget submarines had tried to sneak into Pearl Harbor. Once inside they had orders to lie low and join the attack only after the first wave of aircraft arrived overhead. At 3:57 a.m., an American mine sweeper spotted a mysterious craft prowling near the harbor mouth. The destroyer Ward came looking, found nothing, and failed to pass on warning to higher command. A report did come in from a patrol plane claiming to have attacked and sunk an unidentified sub. This time there was much calling back and forth and discussion about what it meant.  

Sadly, no one took the report seriously. 

At 6:40 a.m. Ward was on the move again. Spotting what looked like a conning tower poking from the water, gun crews opened fire. Their second shot drilled the enemy sub and she disappeared from view. At 6:53 Ward reported this strange encounter. The message began working its way up the U. S. chain of command. Just after seven the destroyer picked up another sub, moved in, and dropped depth charges. Lookouts spotted a large oil bubble rising to the surface. Once again Ward radioed report. By 7:40 a.m. U. S. commander Admiral Husband E. Kimmel had been alerted. 

“I’ll be right down,” he told worried officers, and began dressing for the drive to headquarters.

Meanwhile, American forces had a second wake-up call. Again they ignored it. Two young radar operators, George Elliott, Jr. and Joseph Lockard, sounded an alert. Radar was new in 1941 and the two had risen early to practice with their sets. At 7:02 they began tracking something they described as “completely out of the ordinary.” A large blip, approaching from the north, seemed to indicate fifty planes or more headed their way.

  Concerned, they telephoned their commander at Fort Shafter. The officer on duty told them not to worry. A flight of U. S. bombers was scheduled in from California that morning. Still unsure what it meant, Elliot and Lockard followed the blip till 7:39 a.m. when it vanished behind nearby mountains.

By 7:53 it no longer mattered.  

*

COMING IN FAST AT THAT MOMENT, Commander Fuchida scanned the harbor for signs the Americans were ready. The blue sky was clear and he could see battleships of the U. S. Pacific Fleet riding quietly at anchor. He felt a moment of stinging disappointment. None of the U. S. aircraft carriers, main target of the Japanese, were in port that morning. Fuchida shook off his disappointment. Then he radioed back to waiting commanders with the Japanese fleet the signal: “Tora! Tora! Tora!” This was the phrase which would indicate that total surprise had been achieved.

Even now, those who did see planes coming assumed it was a drill. Frank Handler, standing on the deck of destroyer Helm, watched aircraft roar past. An enemy pilot glanced his way and waved. Handler waved back. Other defenders noticed red “meatball” symbols on wings and fuselages but the truth dawned slowly. On Ford Island, Commander Logan Ramsey saw a dive bomber coming fast. Thinking it must be a U. S. pilot showboating, he told another officer to get the fool’s number. Seconds later bombs exploded close by.  “Never mind,” Commander Ramsey screamed, “it’s a Jap.” 

All across the island, defenders were caught unprepared. At one hospital Nurse Monica Conter dove for “cover,” holding a garbage can lid over her head. Ensign John Beardall was seen working an anti-aircraft gun in red pajamas. Others fought back with whatever came to hand. A Marine fired a shotgun. Another dueled enemy planes with a .45 pistol. Thomas Donahue was so angry he hurled wrenches at low-flying enemy aircraft as they whizzed past.  

Dale Augerson and wife. Augerson served on the USS West Virginia and survived the attack.

Clare Hetrick, served on the USS Arizona; he also survived the fight.

Dozens of attacking planes swarmed the skies, flattening aircraft hangers, blasting vehicles and machine-gunning men. At Hickam Air Field a 500-pound bomb tore through the roof of a dining hall. The explosion killed thirty-five men sitting at breakfast. Dozens more were injured, including a cook wounded by a flying mayonnaise jar. Corporal Duane W. Shaw watched a line of parked planes burst into flame and jumped in his fire truck to save them. A Japanese fighter roared low and shot out his back tires, putting an end to his run.  At Bellows Air Field, attackers killed a U. S. pilot as he scrambled into his cockpit. Two other planes were knocked down as soon as they left the ground. Sgt. Wilbur Hunt put a machine gun into action, firing from a handy bomb crater. Another blast tore a corner off the guard house. Prisoners came running to help. A third bomb destroyed an ice cream truck. Soldiers dashed from hiding to pick up free treats.  

Caught completely by surprise, the Americans were unable to put up much of a defense. “It was,” said one Japanese pilot later, “more like a practice run than actual combat.”  

Except in practice no one is killed.

*

“BATTLESHIP ROW” WAS SOON A SCENE OF HORROR. R. L. Hooton was lying in his bunk on West Virginia, looking at pictures of his new baby, when the ship rocked from a bomb hit. Ed Jacoby’s personal battle lasted moments. Then a blast sent a metal locker crashing over on his head, knocking him cold. The captain of the ship was mortally wounded when a shell splinter sliced his abdomen.  

Dorie Miller, a hard-nosed black mess steward, helped carry him to cover. The Navy still treated black sailors poorly in those days and most found themselves trapped in lowly, unskilled jobs. Now Miller had a chance to do something besides clean dishes and cook. Without hesitation he grabbed hold of one of the ship’s anti-aircraft guns and opened fire. A white sailor later said it was only the second time he had seen Miller smile, the first being the day he won the ship’s boxing championship. Despite the crew’s best efforts, however, West Virginia was struck again and again. Wrapped in sheets of burning oil, the mighty battleship sank slowly, settling into the muddy harbor bottom.

Dorie Miller was eventually awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions.

Not far away, Oklahoma took an awful beating. Hiejro Abe, a Japanese pilot, let loose his 1,760-pound bomb and saw it tear into the ship. Excitement overwhelmed him and tears came to his eyes. Four torpedoes slammed into the vessel, ripping open her hull. Oklahoma took on water and began to roll over. Below decks a sailor saw two men in the pharmacy hit by a cascade of falling medicine bottles. Slipping and sliding, they fell amid the broken glass. Then they jumped up and ran off. Inside the main gun turrets there were scenes of horror. Huge shells, some weighing more than a ton, broke loose and rolled down the slanting deck, crushing anyone in their path. Other crewmen were more fortunate. A marine managed to walk up the side of the vessel as it rolled over. Then he stepped into a waiting lifeboat, without wetting his feet. Three brothers, Tom, Pat and Terry Armstrong, reached safety without a scratch among them. Three other crewmen, brothers Leroy, Malcolm and Randolph Barber, were not so lucky. 

All three went down with the ship. 

Eight minutes after the first bomb hit, Oklahoma rolled over, her hull sticking out of the water like a giant turtle. Trapped inside, George DeLong and seven others found temporary safety from the water by closing hatches to one room and plugging leaking air vents with mattresses. Still, the sea continued to pour in till it reached their waists. Terrified and unable to understand what had happened, they began pounding out an “S. O. S.” with a wrench. Splashing down a flooded passage, George Murphy entered a room with a strange tile “ceiling.”  Neither he nor any of the sailors gathered there could grasp what had happened. Hundreds were trapped inside a topsy-turvy steel prison.  

USS Oklahoma lies on its side; hundreds of men were trapped inside.

FOR THE JAPANESE, THE ATTACK was indeed “a dream come true.” Lt. Jinichi Goto came in low, released his torpedo, and heard his observer shout, “Atarimashita!” It hit! Juzo Mori zoomed down, fifteen feet above the harbor waters. Black puffs of smoke from American guns filled the sky. His torpedo went streaking for the side of California and exploded in a fountain of water and black smoke. As he pulled up, Mori just missed ramming another attacking plane. A string of American bullets ripped his craft like angry wasps. Yet his luck held.

 He survived.

At almost that same moment bombs slammed into the USS Arizona. One ripped through the battleship’s armored deck, touching off a fire near the ammunition room. Suddenly, a million pounds of explosives blew up like a volcano. Fuchida saw the vessel explode far beneath him. The blast rocked his plane like a toy. A pillar of dark red smoke rose a thousand feet in the air. Other witnesses watched the ship jump fifteen feet out of the water and split in two. 

Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh and 1,176 members of the crew died almost instantly. 

*

SHOCKED, STUNNED, COMPLETELY ENRAGED, defenders did what they could. One sailor came running from a hanger, firing a Browning automatic rifle at a low flying Zero. The pilot, Lt. Fusata Iida, returned fire and the American ducked a stream of bullets. Witnesses saw the enemy plane climb and come round again, leaking gas as Lt. Iida zoomed in for the kill. Both men fired once more. Then to the astonishment of all who witnessed the duel the crippled plane plowed into the ground and disintegrated.  

John Finn grabbed a machinegun from a parked plane, propped it on a pile of lumber, and blazed away. Shrapnel from an exploding bomb tore into his stomach, chest, arms and foot. Ignoring his wounds, Finn kept firing as long as any attackers were in sight. 

As soon as the first bombs hit, pilots Welch and Taylor forgot their discussion about going for a swim or heading for bed. Jumping into their car they raced to a nearby airstrip. Then they roared into the sky. Soon they found themselves engaged in a high-speed battle. One enemy fighter got on Taylor’s tail. Welch shot him loose. Taylor knocked down a Japanese plane and watched it clip the top off a eucalyptus tree before exploding in a ball of flame. Looking for trouble, they found plenty of targets over Ewa Air Field. It was “a picnic,” and they shot down four more Japanese. Taylor was wounded and forced to land. Welch finished the day by downing a seventh Japanese aircraft on his own.

Even heroic effort could not halt the incredible destruction. A second Japanese wave—this time 168 planes—struck hard at the fleet, adding to the horrible toll. Nevada was hit hard and avoided sinking only by running aground. Battleship Pennsylvania, in dry-dock, was badly damaged. George Walters, a civilian worker, did his best to protect the ship, running a tall repair crane back and forth along a rail to block low-flying aircraft. The destroyer Shaw was hit at 9:30 a.m. A huge orange fireball marked the spot where the vessel had been. Bodies, mattresses, and pieces of ship flew high in the air and came crashing back to earth.  

By 10:00 a.m. the skies had cleared. The last Japanese aircraft vanished to the north. The damage they left was vast. Eighteen ships had been sunk or reduced to mangled junk, including most of the U. S. Navy’s powerful battleships. A total of 188 American planes were destroyed, another 159 damaged. Most had been caught on the ground.

Worst was the human toll. All day and into the night Nurse Dorothy Young watched trucks deliver bloody cargo to her hospital. Again and again, she gave injured soldiers and Marines shots of morphine, marking each man’s forehead with an “M.” Burt Amgwert, a pharmacist’s mate at the Naval Hospital, would never forget the aftermath of the attack. That night, in a facility meant to hold 300, he helped care for nearly a thousand men. Bodies piled up in stacks. Mary Ann Ramsey, the teen who had been headed for church, volunteered to help. The sight of burned and mangled sailors filled her with horror. But she swallowed her fear and held cigarettes to the lips of men too badly injured to hold them themselves. The final count showed 2,403 Americans dead. Another 1,178 were wounded.            

*

AT 3:00 P.m. (EASTERN STANDARD TIME) RADIO STATIONS across the United States broadcast the news. Fans attending pro football games and players on the fields fell silent. Families eating Sunday dinners put down forks and stared at loved ones. Little children at play stopped to wonder what it meant. Tens of millions of adults understood all too well. The U. S. was now part of what would be the bloodiest war in human history.

*

JAPANESE LOSSES ON DECEMBER 7 WERE LIGHT. All five midget submarines were sunk, as well as one large sub. 

Twenty-nine planes were downed and 129 men killed.

A survivor visits Pearl Harbor.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Heroes Who Never Fight: U. S. Secretaries of Education (Betsy DeVos Edition)

Back in 2011, when I first started on this blog, I complained about school reformers who talked and talked about leading a battle to fix the nation’s schools but didn’t ever seem to do the actual fighting.

Now, with Betsy DeVos the latest choice to lead the U. S. Department of Education I can almost recycle the whole article. 

(I have also blogged about bicycling across the United States to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.)

It's a beautiful country. Get out there and see it. (Grand Teton National Park.)

Anyway, here’s what I said five years ago. Almost every syllable still applies:

I TAUGHT FOR 33 YEARS, SO I INTEND TO USE MY BLOG to defend good public school teachers whenever possible. 

Still, you’d have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to know there are bad teachers. We used to joke of a colleague at my school that you could replace him with a cardboard cutout and students wouldn’t notice a difference. 

So, yeah, we need to do more to weed the dandelions in the classroom. 

When I started researching for a book about education, however, I was stunned to find how little time our nation’s “leading” reformers have devoted to the classroom. On November 30, 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Shirley Hufstedler first United States Secretary of Education. It was start of a bizarre trend.  

Hufstedler was charged with saving U. S. education. But in 1979, starting my fifth year in a classroom, I had more teaching experience than the Secretary of Education. In fact, I had her beat by four years, two months. Hufstedler never taught a minute. She probably knew as much about teaching as I did about driving a car at the Indianapolis Speedway or playing concert piano with the London Symphony. 

Mr. Carter plucked her from the federal bench. 

Terrel Bell, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, came next. Bell was actually tasked with dismantling the Department of Education, an idea most teachers might now support. Bell, at least, had tried his hand at teaching and had been a principal and superintendent in the Idaho public schools. 

William Bennett, Reagan’s second appointee and third to hold the position of Education Czar was another teaching virgin. Big Bill didn’t come out of any classroom. He came striding out of a think tank and immediately started lecturing teachers about their failings. Later he wrote a thick book about “virtue” for adults. Then he wrote a thinner volume: The Children’s Book of Virtues.  

Later still, he admitted a serious gambling addiction and blowing eight million dollars in Las Vegas. 

Lauro Cavazos Jr. was fourth in line, coming to the Department of Education straight from the university level, having never spent a day in his life working with K-12 level students. He didn’t last long either. Cavazos was forced to resign after an investigation into misuse of frequent flier miles. 

Lamar Alexander was fifth. His first taste of Washington, D. C. life had not come working in a public school—of course not—but as legislative assistant to Senator Howard Baker. Alexander did meet his wife during a softball game for Senate staffers. So that was kind of cool. Later, as governor of Tennessee, he won fame and got his face on a Time magazine cover for “reforming” his state’s schools.

Naturally, none of the reforming was done by his hand. Lamar was just another virgin. Based on “his” success in Tennessee, however, Alexander was elevated to the cabinet post by President George H. W. Bush.  

President Clinton had the next crack at the problem and reached deep down into the classroom …no, no, no, we’re joking! He chose Governor Richard Riley of South Carolina as his U. S. Secretary of Education. Riley’s time in a classroom: 0 years, 0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes. 

0.

George W. Bush had two chances to get it right and blew them both, turning first to Rod Paige and later Margaret Spellings. Paige, at least, taught and coached at the college level; but his real claim to fame was the “Houston Miracle” which supposedly occurred while he was in charge of that city’s public schools...In no time at all, Paige had inner-city high schools whipped into shape and principals were reporting zero dropouts. Clearly, Mr. Paige was a genius and President Bush tapped him to be Secretary of Education. 

Unfortunately, real teachers know that in real classrooms miracles are in short supply; and the “Houston Miracle” turned out to be completely bogus. Reporters discovered that one Houston high school had reduced dropouts to zero simply by classifying all 462 students who left school during the year as “transfers.” 

Where they might have “transferred” to, whether another high school, or a nunnery, or even another planet, was a mystery. 

Meanwhile, Secretary Paige huffed and puffed and couldn’t make No Child Left Behind work. True: states initially reported stunning test-score gains. On closer examination almost all the gains proved to have been achieved through sleight of hand. Most states simply made their standardized tests easier—to insure higher passing rates and avoid penalties under new federal regulations. 

Paige eventually gave way to Margaret Spellings, who came to understand the processes of education not by working in a classroom but by serving on an education reform commission down in Texas. 

Spellings did her fighting for children from the safe distance of the rear. She fought for kids in spirit, you might say. 

By 2009, if you were a real teacher—and by that, I mean a good one—it seemed hard to imagine education policy could get worse. When President Obama took office you could only hope wisdom might prevail. 

Instead, we found ourselves saddled with Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Duncan was the hero who “reformed” the Chicago Public Schools, a man who once taught...no, ha, ha, just joking again…who got his start in education in administration and kept clambering up the bureaucratic ladder.

So you figure he learned everything there was to know about the challenges faced by real teachers.

Back in 2011, I made fun of several other “leaders” in the field of school reform. 

I will skip that part.

This will bring us up to date:

President Obama had a second chance to get it right, selecting John B. King Jr. to serve as tenth Secretary of Education. Mr. King did teach three years, two in a charter school, and did serve as charter school administrator for five more years. So he wasn’t devoid of firsthand knowledge. Sadly, as New York State Education Commissioner he pushed several misguided policies and was politely asked to leave. King wanted to link teacher pay to standardized test scores—ironically, on tests that soon proved so badly flawed they were discontinued—and pushed hard for Common Core despite the fact New York parents by tens of thousands started opting out of testing.

In the meantime, Congress was supposed to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, but failed to do so for eight long years and failed to remedy flaws in the legislation. Secretary Duncan pushed a “Race to the Top”  initiative, but his plan seemed to lead the children nowhere. Front line educators rightly came to suspect that  neither Mr. Duncan nor their representatives in Congress knew what they were doing.

Congress, for various reasons, saw its approval rating fall below 30% in August 2009 and stay there. 

Congress dropped below the 20% mark in December 2011 and remains there to this day. (Look it up if you don’t believe me.)

Eventually, No Child Left Behind was replaced by the Every Child Succeeds Act, which, for all we know, may be replaced by the Make Every Child Great Again Act under President Donald J. Trump.

If Betsy DeVos passes Senate muster, we will be adding a woman with zero teaching experience—with zero experience as a school administrator—who never went to public schools—who never sent her children to public schools—appointed by a man who went to private schools—a man who sent his children to private schools—and Mrs. DeVos will “lead” us all to battle. I suspect she knows about what most men and women who have held the post of U. S. Secretary of Education have known about working with America’s children.  Next to nothing.

What she does understand perfectly is how to collect great wads of cash and then donate same to wily politicians. DeVos knows how to block laws she and her husband don’t want passed by skillful lobbying. She’s rich because her father-in-law founded Amway and her husband runs the company.  In other words, everything in education is going to be great!!  And, if the next set of “school reforms” proves as misguided as the last, or the last before that, or before that, or even before that, maybe this time schools can at least stock up on Amway soaps and cleaning products.

Because DeVos might not know kids; but she really, really knows her Amway.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Heroes Who Don't Fight: America's School Reformers (Betsy DeVos Edition)

Back in 2011, when I first started on this blog, I complained about school reformers who talked and talked about leading a battle to fix the nation’s schools but didn’t ever seem to do the actual fighting.

Now, with Betsy DeVos the latest choice to lead the U. S. Department of Education I can almost recycle the whole article. 

(I have also blogged about bicycling across the United States to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.)

This is a beautiful country; get out there and see it.

Anyway, here’s what I said five years ago. Almost every syllable still applies:

I TAUGHT FOR 33 YEARS, SO I INTEND TO USE MY BLOG to defend good public school teachers whenever possible. 

Still, you’d have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to know there are bad teachers. We used to joke of a colleague at my school that you could replace him with a cardboard cutout and students wouldn’t notice a difference. 

So, yeah, we need to do more to weed the dandelions in the classroom. 

When I started researching for a book about education, however, I was stunned to find how little time our nation’s “leading” reformers have devoted to the classroom. On November 30, 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Shirley Hufstedler first United States Secretary of Education. It was start of a bizarre trend.  

Hufstedler was charged with saving U. S. education. But in 1979, starting my fifth year in a classroom, I had more teaching experience than the Secretary of Education. In fact, I had her beat by four years, two months. Hufstedler never taught a minute. She probably knew as much about teaching as I did about driving a car at the Indianapolis Speedway or playing concert piano with the London Symphony. 

Mr. Carter plucked her from the federal bench. 

Terrel Bell, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, came next. Bell was actually tasked with dismantling the Department of Education, an idea most teachers might now support. Bell, at least, had tried his hand at teaching and had been a principal and superintendent in the Idaho public schools. 

William Bennett, Reagan’s second appointee and third to hold the position of Education Czar was another teaching virgin. Big Bill didn’t come out of any classroom. He came striding out of a think tank and immediately started lecturing teachers about their failings. Later he wrote a thick book about “virtue” for adults. Then he wrote a thinner volume: The Children’s Book of Virtues.  

Later still, he admitted a serious gambling addiction and blowing eight million dollars in Las Vegas. 

Lauro Cavazos Jr. was fourth in line, coming to the Department of Education straight from the university level, having never spent a day in his life working with K-12 level students. He didn’t last long either. Cavazos was forced to resign after an investigation into misuse of frequent flier miles. 

Lamar Alexander was fifth. His first taste of Washington, D. C. life had not come working in a public school—of course not—but as legislative assistant to Senator Howard Baker. Alexander did meet his wife during a softball game for Senate staffers. So that was kind of cool. Later, as governor of Tennessee, he won fame and got his face on a Time magazine cover for “reforming” his state’s schools.

Naturally, none of the reforming was done by his hand. Lamar was just another virgin. Based on “his” success in Tennessee, however, Alexander was elevated to the cabinet post by President George H. W. Bush.  

President Clinton had the next crack at the problem and reached deep down into the classroom …no, no, no, we’re joking! He chose Governor Richard Riley of South Carolina as his U. S. Secretary of Education. Riley’s time in a classroom: 0 years, 0 months, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes. 

0.

George W. Bush had two chances to get it right and blew them both, turning first to Rod Paige and later Margaret Spellings. Paige, at least, taught and coached at the college level; but his real claim to fame was the “Houston Miracle” which supposedly occurred while he was in charge of that city’s public schools...In no time at all, Paige had inner-city high schools whipped into shape and principals were reporting zero dropouts. Clearly, Mr. Paige was a genius and President Bush tapped him to be Secretary of Education. 

Unfortunately, real teachers know that in real classrooms miracles are in short supply; and the “Houston Miracle” turned out to be completely bogus. Reporters discovered that one Houston high school had reduced dropouts to zero simply by classifying all 462 students who left school during the year as “transfers.” 

Where they might have “transferred” to, whether another high school, or a nunnery, or even another planet, was a mystery. 

Meanwhile, Secretary Paige huffed and puffed and couldn’t make No Child Left Behind work. True: states initially reported stunning test-score gains. On closer examination almost all the gains proved to have been achieved through sleight of hand. Most states simply made their standardized tests easier—to insure higher passing rates and avoid penalties under new federal regulations. 

Paige eventually gave way to Margaret Spellings, who came to understand the processes of education not by working in a classroom but by serving on an education reform commission down in Texas. 

Spellings did her fighting for children from the safe distance of the rear. She fought for kids in spirit, you might say. 

By 2009, if you were a real teacher—and by that, I mean a good one—it seemed hard to imagine education policy could get worse. When President Obama took office you could only hope wisdom might prevail. 

Instead, we found ourselves saddled with Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. Duncan was the hero who “reformed” the Chicago Public Schools, a man who once taught...no, ha, ha, just joking again…who got his start in education in administration and kept clambering up the bureaucratic ladder.

So you figure he learned everything there was to know about the challenges faced by real teachers.

Back in 2011, I made fun of several other “leaders” in the field of school reform. 

I will skip that part.

This will bring us up to date:

President Obama had a second chance to get it right, selecting John B. King Jr. to serve as tenth Secretary of Education. Mr. King did teach three years, two in a charter school, and did serve as charter school administrator for five more years. So he wasn’t devoid of firsthand knowledge. Sadly, as New York State Education Commissioner he pushed several misguided policies and was politely asked to leave. King wanted to link teacher pay to standardized test scores—ironically, on tests that soon proved so badly flawed they were discontinued—and pushed hard for Common Core despite the fact New York parents by tens of thousands started opting out of testing.

In the meantime, Congress was supposed to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, but failed to do so for eight long years and failed to remedy flaws in the legislation. Secretary Duncan pushed a “Race to the Top”  initiative, but his plan seemed to lead the children nowhere. Front line educators rightly came to suspect that  neither Mr. Duncan nor their representatives in Congress knew what they were doing.

Congress, for various reasons, saw its approval rating fall below 30% in August 2009 and stay there. 

Congress dropped below the 20% mark in December 2011 and remains there to this day. (Look it up if you don’t believe me.)

Eventually, No Child Left Behind was replaced by the Every Child Succeeds Act, which, for all we know, may be replaced by the Make Every Child Great Again Act under President Donald J. Trump.

If Betsy DeVos passes Senate muster, we will be adding a woman with zero teaching experience—with zero experience as a school administrator—who never went to public schools—who never sent her children to public schools—appointed by a man who went to private schools—a man who sent his children to private schools—and Mrs. DeVos will “lead” us all to battle. I suspect she knows about what most men and women who have held the post of U. S. Secretary of Education have known about working with America’s children.  Next to nothing.

What she does understand perfectly is how to collect great wads of cash and then donate same to wily politicians. DeVos knows how to block laws she and her husband don’t want passed by skillful lobbying. She’s rich because her father-in-law founded Amway and her husband runs the company.  In other words, everything in education is going to be great!!  And, if the next set of “school reforms” proves as misguided as the last, or the last before that, or before that, or even before that, maybe this time schools can at least stock up on Amway soaps and cleaning products.

Because DeVos might not know kids; but she really, really knows her Amway.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Betsy DeVos: The Amway Secretary of Education

I’m a lifelong liberal and a classroom teacher. But I’m beginning to agree when conservatives insist it’s time to do blow up, metaphorically, the U. S. Department of Education. At least then real educators wouldn’t have to take orders from clueless out-of-touch, arrogant school reformers.

Beginning in January the battle to improve the nation’s public schools will be led by Betsy DeVos, wife of a billionaire, a woman who attended private schools when young, who kept tradition alive by sending her children to private schools, who never taught a day in her life, who never spent an hour as a school administrator, who never served a season on a local school board, either. DeVos made a name by touting school vouchers and—more importantly—raising stacks of cash for politicians.

In 2014, for example, DeVos and her husband Dick donated $1.45 million to Michigan lawmakers to defeat a bill that would have increased scrutiny of publicly-funded, for-profit charter schools.

Stephen Henderson, writing for the Detroit Free Press lat June, minced no words in his response. This was nothing less than an effort by a fabulously rich, politically connected family to buy the votes of legislators, regardless of damage that might be done to children. “We really ought to round up the lawmakers who took money to protect and perpetuate the failing charter-school experiment in Detroit,” he fumed, “sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac.”

Sarcastic, yes—but an idea not devoid of merit.

As Forbesmagazine made clear in an article five years ago, the dangers of the for-profit education model are already plain to see. The shady dealings of big for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix fill the headlines and clog the internet. Many for-profits are actually “diploma mills” (one website warns students to steer clear of 300 fake online colleges) offering courses of little merit.[1]Their only goal is keeping students on the books till their last dime and dollar are exhausted. For-profits tricked students into signing high-interest loans,inflated claims of job placement success and preyed on veterans.

And yet, Forbes explained, at the K-12 level: “Four out of five charter schools in Michigan are run by for-profit corporations. Let that sink in a minute. This should be deeply, deeply troubling for anyone thinking about their child’s future education, or the future of this country.”

The question then is why? Why would Mr. and Mrs. DeVos spend a million plus to defeat a bill favored—until the cash explosion—even by most Republican lawmakers?

Faith in unfettered free enterprise, I suppose. Get ready for the Amway model, writ large in education!

(We’re all going to be rich!)

For those who know nothing about Mrs. DeVos, a dose of helpful background. Richard DeVos, her father-in-law, helped found Amway in 1959, a direct sales operation originally specializing in home cleaning products. The company thrived and spread like kudzu. By 2014 Forbes could listRichard as the 83rd richest individual in the world, worth $6 billion. His son, Betsy’s husband, went to work for Amway in 1974, rose steadily through the ranks, and helped spread the brand to fifty countries. In 1993 he was chosen president of the company. Seven years later he led a corporate restructuring that created a new parent company, Alticor.

Now: To be fair, the family has done some excellent charitable work, often going through Christian groups to help the homeless, even providing grants to aid the Grand Rapids Public Schools in cutting student absenteeism. 

Unfortunately, the family has also spent lavishly to buy up politicians.

As an added bonus, in 2004, Besty DeVos insisted that her home state of Michigan was losing jobs because wages were too high. This kind of conservative thinking can be boiled down to two steps, equally harmful to ordinary Americans. 

First, workers in Michigan demand high pay and companies move to low-wage states like Texas. Boo, says Betsy!

Second, workers in Texas demand high pay and companies move to low-wage countries like China.  Oops, says Betsy!

Even worse, if you keep searching, are the countless stories that cast a pall over the entire Amway model. In my case, years ago, my wife and I were approached by friends who urged us to join them in the “Amway family.” We would get rich together they assured us. But listening to their pitch, it sounded like a pyramid scheme. My wife and I would set ourselves up as independent business owners (IBO’s). We would make money selling products directly. And we would make even more, heaping piles of dough, by enlisting family, friends and others to sell more Amway products, earning a percentage of their sales—and a percentage of the sales of those they recruited, and so on to infinity. This is called a multi-level-marketing approach (MLM).

Well, what has happened since that fateful day when my wife and passed on a chance to start stacking up the dollars?

Amway has been forced repeatedly to beat back legal challenges. On narrow grounds the company has stayed alive, and prospered, often with the timely aid of powerful politicians who have been granted fat campaign contributions. But in fundamental ways Amway has been losing all along. In legal actions filed by the State of Wisconsin in 1982, a report by Dr. Jon M. Taylor, an economist, found: “MLM as a business model—with its endless chain of recruitment of participants as primary customers—is flawed, unfair, and deceptive.” Taylor summarized: “less than 1% of MLM participants profit. MLM makes even gambling look like a safe bet in comparison.”

Yet, every year, tens of thousands of fresh recruits fell for the Amway pitch—kept dreaming—kept losing.

All the while, Betsy DeVos continued to raise money for the politicians. Even President George W. Bush noticed. In 2001 he appointed a former Amway lawyer, Timothy Muris, to head the Federal Trade Commission. Eight years later Muris, having returned to private practice, helped convince the FTC not to impose strict disclosure rules on MLM marketers—like Herbalife—and Amway.[2]

Three years passed. NBC aired an undercover expose (by 2004 Amway was operating under the name of Quixtar). A recruiter told an NBC producer, posing as someone interested in becoming an IBO: “If you’re somewhat serious, all I mean by somewhat serious —if you invest maybe, say, 10 to 15 hours a week in your business. This is your own business—you could generate in the next 12 to 18 months, an extra quarter of a million.”

The prospective “IBO” expressed surprise.

True, the recruiter admitted, there were motivational books to buy in order to learn to banish “negativity” and sell, sell, sell—oh, $60 monthly. And there were seminars to attend—um, maybe $50 monthly. And no new IBO would dare miss the “Spring Leadership Weekend” down in Florida. That would mean several hundred dollars more invested. Eventually, reporters found themselves surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of 15,000 attendees at the gathering, each and every one ready to spend 10 or 15 hours weekly in pursuit of his or her extra quarter million dollars.

How many made that kind of money?

NBC found plenty who didn’t. One said he worked day and night to make a success of the Quixtar/Amway model. In his best year he earned $34,000. Even that didn’t last. He ended up “destitute.” Reporters heard the same tale “again and again.” Vicky and Lindy Mack didn’t make an extra quarter million. They lost $35,000. Bo Short did make serious money, recruiting friends and family to join the company, coaxing them to recruit others, selling tapes and motivational books and conference packages. But he quit eventually when “he began to realize he was part of a mass deception.”

How much did the average Quixtar distributor make? It was right there in the fine print.  Approximately $1,400 annually.

So the years rolled by, and new recruits signed up and mostly ended up disappointed. The company changed its name. There was growth around the world. In 2007 Britain shut down Amway, calling it an illegal pyramid scheme, after a judge found 99.7% of 33,000 IBO’s in that country lost money. The company agreed to drastic changes and barely managed to stay legal in Britain.

In 2010, in response to fresh court challenges, Amway admitted 54% of IBO’s who had ever signed up were currently inactive. Gross income for the rest averaged a paltry $202 monthly. One expert estimated that the average IBO lost $1,176 annually. In light of such statistics, the company settled a class action lawsuit, returned $55 million to former distributors and made changes in practices that cost another $100 million.

At the top of the Amway food chain, however, the DeVos family continued to pile up the billions. In 2012, this allowed Mr. DeVos to donate heavily to and lead a successful push to make Michigan a right-to-work state. “Freedom-to-work is pro-workers and pro-Michigan,” he proclaimed. Union leaders were thugs with “an almost pathological obsession with power.”

Besides, wages were too high anyway.

On to Texas!

Then China!

In fact, if you kept digging you turned up shady operators on both sides of Betsy DeVos’ holiday table. Her father, Edgar Prince, co-founded the Family Research Council, an organization opposed to gay rights. That organization, which supports gay-conversion therapy, suffered a serious black eye in 2011 when George Alan Rekers, another co-founder, was shown to have traveled to Europe with a male escort contacted through a website, Rentboy.com. Rekers was a story by himself, with a Ph. D. in psychology, and a creepy interest in spanking children to get the gay out.

Betsy’s brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the security firm which operated as a paramilitary force during some of the deadliest days in the wake of 9/11. Four Blackwater guards were eventually convicted in the murder of seventeen Iraqi civilians. The company has also been accused of defrauding the U. S. government, creating false billings, even passing off the cost of keeping a prostitute on the payroll in Afghanistan.

So, you might be wondering, what’s the final moral of the story?

We all know Mr. Trump has promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington. What few of his supporters could have dreamed was how many crocodiles he planned to hire to do the exciting job of draining. 

According to Open Secrets, Amway has made $21.3 million in political donations since 1990, and since 1998, spent just short of $5 million more on lobbying. The DeVos family in all its permutations has donated tens of millions more to right-wing causes.

And so you see.

These are exactly the kind of leaders we need to stand up in the name of millions and millions of America’s children.

Amway, baby!

Billionaires will save the children! P. S. Remember Trump University!!

John J. Viall is also the author of the critically acclaimed:

Front cover.

Available on Amazon.com

Back cover.

[1] Corinthian College, to cite one of the worst examples, was orderedby the federal courts to pay off $530 million in student loans fraudulently arranged. The fly in the legal ointment is clear. Corinthian has since gone bankrupt. Taxpayers are likely to foot the bill for Corinthian College’s business sins.

[2] In a court settlement in July, Herbalife agreed to restructure its marketing and pay a fine of $200 million.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

The Electoral College and the Right to Own Pets!

In the wake of the contentious presidential election of 2016, many experts and most Americans probably agree, at least on this. Our great nation is deeply divided.  Trump supporters feel liberals—sometimes referred to as “libtards” in their Facebook posts or in memes—want to take away their guns and burn their Bibles for fun.  Trump foes (I happen to be one) wonder if he’ll hold the Second Amendment sacred while trashing the rest. Too many on us (but not me) believe all Trump supporters are racists, or as one Facebook post I saw put it recently: ignorant “knuckle draggers.”

As a liberal and one who taught American history for years, I hope both sides in the current debates are wrong. But I do believe we need to have a solid grasp on our history to make wise judgments in turbulent times. For starters, we need to be realistic about who the Founding Fathers were and clear-eyed in assessing what they did. And a huge percentage of what they did was wonderfully right. Their distrust of concentrated power in any guise, from democratic to oligarchic, led them to strive for a careful balance of power in three equal branches, legislative, judicial and executive.

Speaking of branches, according to a 2014 article in the Washington Post, did you realize only 36% of Americans can namethose three branches.

In any case, if you support Mr. Trump and hate the liberal media, and you believe the Post leans in the direction of Stalin, you might prefer a story from the Washington Times, a paper Sean Hannity might safely read while seated on the can. In 2015 the Times reported that 12% of Americans believed the Bill of Rights guaranteed the right to own pets. Reporters also notedthat 32% of Americans could not name any of the branches of government.

Not one.  Ordinary citizen giving it his or her best try: “The three branches? Uh…chocolate, vanilla and Beyonce?”

Luckily, we’re all safe because of the Founding Fathers. Or so the simplistic argument goes. Conservatives, in particular, make it sound as if the Founders got every comma and clause in the U.S. Constitution just right. And that means any change since 1787 brings us one giant leap nearer tyranny.

Right-wing love for those who wrote the U. S. Constitution has risen to fresh heights again, now that it appears Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote in 2016. Well, not to worry, because if Clinton does it won't matter at all. The Founding Fathers made sure the Electoral College would be there to save us all.

Also our pets!

I can say much for certain. I know some of what I say is only my opinion. On Facebook, however, several conservative friends sent me the same link to a video about how the Electoral College works. I guess they thought I needed to know or it might make me feel somehow better.

Well: I already knew.  It is true that the Founding Fathers had a healthy distrust for democracy. During the Constitutional Convention, Elbridge Gerry put the problems a new nation faced bluntly: “The ills we experience flow from an excess of democracy. The people do not want [lack] virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.”  Edmund Randolph agreed, noting, “that in tracing these evils to their origin every man [here] had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.” 

So we need an Electoral College. Right?

Let’s stop and think a moment. Let’s look at what the Founding Fathers knew and a bit of what they didn’t. We know they never imagined women voting. According to the latest figures, Mrs. Clinton tookthe women’s vote by 12%. Trump took the men’s vote by a similar margin. In other words, if we had only listened to the Founding Fathers in every respect, women could spend the next four years blaming husbands and brothers and male in-laws for all the problems that occur.

Of course the Founding Fathers didn’t allow African-Americans to vote. (They were more likely to own them.) You may recall, if you had an excellent history teacher, that they agreed to count five African-Americans as three white persons in dividing up seats in the brand new House of Representatives.

Admit it, now. Think how interesting this would have made watching Fox News this past Election Night. Can’t you see Megyn Kelly explaining: “Well, in Florida, Hillary Clinton has a lead among African-American voters of 500,000, but in counting, these equal only 300,000 white votes.”

Don't forget the Founders thought it was a good idea to keep poor white men from voting, as well.

I’m getting to the Electoral College; but first, a little more background. And for this, I do not consult some lame internet source, but turn to Notes on Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 by James Madison, himself.

The Founding Fathers—at least Madison and a handful of others—first met in convention on May 14, 1787. There weren’t enough delegates to open for business. So they voted to delay. No representatives from Rhode Island ever showed up.

Once debate began, the Founding Fathers quickly agreed, “We really, really need  an Electoral College!”

Ha, ha.  Not a chance.

Instead, Roger Sherman, representing Connecticut, wanted an “executive” (that’s the president for those who can’t tell) “to be appointed by and accountable to the Legislature only, which was the depository of the supreme will of Society.”

Randolph, speaking for Virginia, was clear. He didn’t want one executive. He said we should elect three.

James Wilson, from Pennsylvania, noted correctly (and keep this in mind for today) that in all the states executives were elected by the people—and he supported that plan in choosing a national executive. In his opinion, the president should be elected every three years and be eligible to run again.

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, from South Carolina, insisted that the office of president should be filled every seven years. Naturally, he added, a president should not be allowed to stand for reelection.

So it was, on June 1, 1787, that the Founding Fathers, voting by states, approved a seven-year presidential term, with no chance of reelection, by a 5-4-1 vote. (Massachusetts delegates were divided.)

The following day, they agreed again on a method for choosing the executive. Gerry expressed doubts about allowing the legislative branch of any new government to choose the president. Then again, “He was not clear that the people ought to act directly...being too little informed of personal characters in large districts, and liable to deceptions.” It was time for the Founding Fathers to do some founding!

Wilson’s idea, to let the people elect the president directly, was put to a vote. By an 8-2 margin, that idea went down.

Madison’s notes continue: “On the question for electing the Executive by the national Legislature for the term of seven years it was agreed to Massts ay. Cont ay. N. Y. ay. Pena no. Del ay. Maryd no. Va ay. N. C. ay. S. C. ay. Geo ay.” 

Huh?  At first, there was no idea for an Electoral College at all.

This idea, pedaled so furiously now that somehow we must cling to this outdated mechanism, this Electoral College, because the Founding Fathers said so, that we won’t be safe if we don’t, is pure political nonsense.  Oh, democracy is terrible! The people will be duped. Was this true in 1980 or 1984 when Ronald Reagan was elected and reelected by large popular majorities?

Did we need an Electoral College in 1984, when President Reagan turned back a challenge by Walter Mondale, winning 58.8% of the popular vote? (Reagan won 525 electoral votes; poor Mondale 13).

On the Republican side, George W. Bush won the popular vote in 2004. And all was well. Nixon won twice, clobbering George McGovern, 61-38% in 1972. Eisenhower won twice. Hoover won and Coolidge and Harding. 

Abraham Lincoln did too. Ah, but conservatives quickly insist (whenever their side doesn’t win, as in 2000, or now, in all likelihood, in 2016), “Oh, thank god for the Founding Fathers, who, in their wisdom, created an Electoral College!”

You can buy that stupid argument if you like; but it 

doesn’t make it any less stupid to claim that the Founding Fathers always got everything right, or that what made sense to them more than 200 years ago has to make sense now. In any case, I’ve had my say for today and I feel a little better. 

Now, if you’ll pardon me, I’m going to exercise my constitutional rights and take my dog for a nice walk.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Next U. S. Secretary of Education: Michelle Rhee????

Okay. Time to face reality. Mr. Donald J. Trump is going to be the 45th  president of these great United States. 

If nothing else, we know the KKK is happy. “Make American Great Again!” Overturn Roe v. Wade! Also, maybe: overturn Brown v. Board of Education.

Now we hear that Michelle Rhee might be in line to become the next U. S. Secretary of Education. If you have forgotten who Rhee is, or was, a brief refresher course will be offered momentarily.

First, let’s consider two more Trump choices who have said they are not interested. Dr. Ben Carson said no thanks—but would have been a “perfect choice” in a bi-partisan list of “perfect choices” to head the Department of Education. That is: presidents from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush to Barrack Obama have seemed constitutionally obligated to select individuals who lack all experience in education. 

I think Mr. Trump should make me Surgeon General. I mean, I watch a lot of TV shows about doctors and hospitals.

Anyway, it could be worse. I wonder if America’s four million front line educators were really ready for Ms. Eva Moskowitz to head the Department. Moskowitz was also under consideration, but informed the president-elect that she had no interest in the cabinet position. This is true even though Mr. Trump wants to push school choice even farther and even though Moskowitz believes every child should be allowed to attend an elite charter school—unless that child has serious behavior issues or crippling handicaps.

Those kinds of children, if they manage to get through the doors of Success Academy at all, should all return to the regular public schools.

Meanwhile, like so many leading advocates of school reform, who only care about the children, Moskowitz piles up the dough. I can’t find current figures; but she made $567,500 for the 2012-2013 school year, running Success Academy Charter Schools, an operation serving 11,000 students. Not bad, considering school superintendents in  large urban, public school districts with a hundred times as many students make half as much.

Then again, what did anyone expect when American education has been turned into a get-rich-quick, money-making scheme? Didn’t we realize shady operators would focus only on the money?

Exhibit A: Trump University!

Our normally litigious president-elect settled a series of fraud cases this week, aimed at his famous university, first denying fraud had been perpetrated in his name, and then coughing up $25 million to pay the claims of thousands of students who were prepared to argue in court that they had in fact been…um…defrauded. I realize many Trump fans don’t believe anything they read except what can be found on the backs of cereal boxes; but even Fox News couldn’t help reporting the Trump University debacle.

And if you haven’t noticed, you can pretty much shake any for-profit education tree and money-grubbers and even outright crooks will rain down round your ears. I’ve previously highlighted K-12, Inc., another stellar charter operation, where five top executives paid themselves a total of $35.4 million in salary and bonuses for 2013 and 2014. I’ve focused on Corinthian College. There, too, five top college officers took $22 million in salaries and bonuses over a two-year period. Sadly, once the U. S. Department of Education started investigating—citing high pressure recruiting tactics to juice enrollment—the Corinthian enterprise came unraveled and the school went belly up.  

(The moneycontinues to roll in for the top officials at K-12, Inc. This chart shows compensation for Fiscal 2016.)

Too bad students, lacking preparation to do real college-level work, had been tricked into enrolling. 

To bad they had to borrow 86% of all money used to attend Corinthian. 

Too bad they agreed to pay interest rates as high as 17.9% for those very loans, nicely set up for them and payable to...Corinthian.

Good news? 

The profiteers profited. 

Now thousands of young Americans are stuck with those loans—and stuck with college credits from Corinthian of such dubious value that reputable institutions of higher learning won’t accept them for transfer.

And now, speaking of money, we come to the matter at hand: the potential elevation of Michelle Rhee to head up the U. S. Department of Education. 

Perhaps the most famous graduate of Teach for American, Rhee labored three long years in a real classroom, at which point she realized she knew everything there was to know about fixing the nation’s schools. Quickly, she rose through the ranks of educational bureaucracy and took control of the Washington, D. C. Public Schools. As chancellor, Ms. Rhee stressed improving math and reading scores in keeping with dictates of No Child Left Behind.

That law is now defunct; but raising scores in accord with that law was, according to Rhee at the time, really important.

What happened when Rhee pushed administrators and staff to improve test scores? As anyone could have predicted, successful schools raised their scores! If scores didn’t rise, Rhee fired staff and administrators. Typically, she fired one principal while cameras were rolling, filming a documentary about the wonders of Michelle Rhee. In just three years as head of Washington schools, Rhee managed to terminate hundreds of educators because scores on standardized tests mattered—as long as those particular tests were being pedaled by politicians and school reformers.

All the while, Ms. Rhee was making her name in education. She gave speeches and charged colleges $35,000 to impart her wisdom. She wrote books about how to fix education and they sold wonderfully. Even Oprah gave her love on her program. But Rhee’s abrasive style was also rubbing people the wrong way. 

True. There were educators who loved her. Those who raised test scores (and many did so with great gusto) got fat on bonuses. 

Unfortunately, for Rhee, reporters also started digging. 

At one school, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, test score improvements were stunning. In 2006 only 10% of students at Noyes scored “proficient” or “advanced” in math. Two years later 58% did. It was amazing; and Rhee basked in the admiration of the leading school reformers. In 2009, Noyes was one of 264 schools nationwide to win a prestigious National Blue Ribbon School award. Twice, in 2008 and 2010, Ms. Rhee awarded teachers at Noyes (which served preschoolers through eighth grade) $8,000 bonuses. Wayne Ryan, principal at the school, was awarded $10,000 on both occasions. 

Unfortunately, a 2011 report by USA Today revealed that high-performing schools in Rhee’s district had “extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones.” The pattern showed up in 103 schools, more than half of all buildings in the D. C. district. 

In 2009 seventh-graders in one class at Noyes averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures on the reading test.  The average, citywide, was less than 1.  What transpired in the meantime? The D. C. schools won another $75 million in the “Race to the Top” program run by Arne Duncan, then U. S. Secretary of Education, because Duncan also loved standardized testing. Principal Ryan was featured in a series of recruiting advertisements, calling him “one of the shining stars of DCPS” and a man known for his “unapologetic focus on instruction.” 

The Office of State Superintendent of Education also began to notice all the fishy smells and ordered an investigation. Top D. C. school officials dragged their bureaucratic feet. The State Superintendent’s office asked McGraw-Hill to examine test results at 96 D. C. schools, including 8 of 10 buildings which won TEAM awards from Rhee “to recognize, reward and retain high-performing educators and support staff.” Based on rising scores in 2007 and 2008, more than $1.5 million in bonuses had been paid. Now McGraw-Hill found that three award-winning schools had wrong-to-right erasure rates that raised red flags in 85% of classrooms. After 2009, the district hired an outside investigator to examine eight schools, including Noyes. Just like that, test scores plunged in 2010. A second investigation, after tests were completed that year, found 41 schools, including Noyes again, had at least one classroom with unusually high numbers of erasures. 

When Rhee was reached by phone in 2011 she reminded reporters she was no longer chancellor of the D. C. schools and passed on chance to comment. D. C. officials also refused to comment at the time—refused to let reporters visit schools—refused to let them talk to principals, including Adell Cothorne, the new leader at Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus. 

And now we discover that Michelle Rhee might be our next U. S. Secretary of Education.

I can’t say where we’re headed in the future; but I am ready to make one bold prediction. If President Trump selects Rhee—and the Senate confirms her—we can expect one dramatic change in U. S. education. 

Test scores are surely going to rise!

(Eraser sales will also skyrocket.)

[ateacherteaching-blog]

President Trump: Is the Earth Getting Hotter or Is It Just Melania?

Well, America is off to a flying start! You can almost hear the hammers and see a new wall rising along our southern border.

Meanwhile, my Trump-loving friends get mad when I mock the president-elect before he takes office. They say all good Americans should give Trump a chance. I admit I’m slightly inclined. I love this country and hope he aids the average worker—because the average worker truly needs aid. Did you know the average worker in the United States hasn’t gained ground, adjusting for inflation, since 1979?

You know who reported that yesterday? The New York Times. Yeah: the “biased mainstream media.”

I would, however, like to remind my Trump-loving friends, who gloss over all the suspiciously racist birther crap, and also ignore Trump’s response to the election of 2012, how much of a “chance” The Donald gave President Obama. Remember how he called for good people to march on Washington? (I think he was hoping Americans would grab their pitchforks and guns and bazookas, too.)

In any case, I’ve already explained why I fear that President Trump and his GOP pals won’t help the average worker at all.

Today, I’m going to have fun thinking about global warming—which Mr. Trump has calleda Chinese hoax. What should we expect from his presidency where matters of the environment are concerned?

It turns out Myron Ebell, an environmental and energy policy expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute is going to help shape the future. 

We now know Ebell and his kind are going to help determine what the world’s climate is like in twenty-five years, when my granddaughter is 28, and your children are 30 or 40 or 55, and I will likely be gone.

Who is he?  Ebell is part of a group “focused on dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific and risk analysis.” He believes third-, fourth- and fifth-rate scientists have gotten names in the papers by pedaling false alarms. He says kooks like Al Gore “want to turn off the lights all over the world.”

Those dirty, light-bulb tampering rats! 

It’s like when the federal government wanted to take away our Bibles (none taken), and guns (100 million more sold during President Obama’s time in office), and screw with our high-capacity flush toilets (ignore the California drought or the depletion of the Ogallala aquafer), and now this. 

Not to worry! Ebell will save us and we can relax, knowing our lights will stay on and we’ve got our Bibles and guns. But back to global weather! Ebell says that Pope Francis was wrong when he issued an encyclical in 2015, warning about the dangers of climate change. Ebell calls the Pope “morally obtuse.” 

The encyclical was “leftist drivel.”

(This seems to be part of a trend where my right-wing friends say anyone who disagrees with them must be a communist. You like eggs over easy? Real Americans like them scrambled! You are a commie.)

But you know who Ebell does trust? The Murray Energy Corporation, one of the nation’s leading coal producers, which just so happens to donate to Ebell’s research group. (This reminds me of the research funded by cigarette companies, proving that, no, smoking won’t harm you; in fact cigarettes are good for little kids.)

Is there proof global warming is occurring now? Ebell says no.

Senator James Inhofe, another GOP stalwart, agrees. There can’t be global warming because after a heavy snowstorm in 2014 he made a snowball.

So let’s consider what scientists might refer to as compelling evidence. True: you can find stories that show the ice sheet in Antarctic is growing. One of my right-wing friends took the trouble to send me the link; and Ebell would no doubt be quick to point it out. In the same vein, here in Cincinnati, every time we have a cold snap, some fool caller to some right-wing WLW radio talk show opines: “Yeah, I’m freezing my ass off today. Gee, that proves global warming is a hoax!”

Pardon me a moment while I marvel at such ignorance. And let’s start with an incontrovertible fact. A cruise ship, the Serenity, sailed across the Arctic Ocean this past summer,taking a route that—not counting icebreakers or submarines—has never been open to shipping before, not in all the recorded history of man, and probably not in ten thousand years.

That ship, at three football fields long and thirteen stories high, is larger and more permanent—and its voyage is far scarier in its implications, than Senator Inhofe’s snowball or all the snowballs he ever makes will ever be.

Look climate deniers: They call that a ship.

I know. Trump fans believe the mainstream media is out to get Trump. They only report what is bad.  Scientists are lying too. 

The liberals want everyone to rot in the dark.

None of this is true. Indeed, we of a liberal slant are quite fond of electrical lighting and keeping appliances running. We simply distrust Big Corporate interests the way our right-wing friends distrust anything Big Government wants to do. In fact, we often distrust Big Government, ourselves.

(That will be a story for another day.)

We do, however, trust scientists generally and thermometers specifically. What was the hottest month of October—not locally, globally—ever recorded? What was the hottest September? Damn those NASA scientists—the same men and women who reported the Antarctic ice sheet had gained volume! They say it was this October. They say it was this past September! In fact, they have all kinds of evidence to support the theory that global warming is real and a growing threat to our future. Globally, what was the hottest month ever? According to NASA again it was August 2016—which, tied with July 2016 for that dubious honor. In fact, those “liars” keep right on, piling up lying statistics.October 2015 started a frightening streak: hottest October (globally) ever (till 2016), followed by November 2015, hottest November (globally) ever (till 2016), followed by all the months of 2016 in succession.

This means 2016 is certain to be the hottest year (globally) ever—like the Gisele Bundchen of hottest weather.

Gratuitous picture of Gisele Bundchen.

What was the previous hottest year(globally)? Scientists say: 2015. 

And before that? 2014. 

And before that? Damn it NASA! Quit reporting! If you would care to, you can go to the NASA website and read how century’s  old ice in the Arctic is melting, meaning the warming trend is accelerating. You can read how polar bears are screwed. You can read how, in the summer of 2015, most of Alaska experienced temperatures 10° above average,or how the entire Arctic was 7.17° hotter.

You can even read about a thawunder Greenland” giant ice cap, a story that should scare anyone with a fourth-grader’s grasp of basic science.

You can figure all the years since 9/11 are among the hottest twenty recorded and mull the fact that the remaining three were during the 90s.

Or, like Trump, you can figure it’s a hoax.

In twenty-five or fifty years your children and grandchildren may rue the day President Donald J. Trump took the oath of office.

***

P. S. My right-wing friends keep telling me about the NASA study showing Antarctic ice increased by 82 billion tons. In other words: if a story fits their preconceived notions, they believe the scientists at NASA. So see what the scientists actually say. Go to the NASA website and read everything they post. You will start to sweat a little (pun intended) if you care about the future of our planet. Also find the study done by European scientists, using satellite images, that indicates Greenland lost ONE TRILLION tons of ice in just four years. By chance, I just heard a 99-year-old World War II veteran speak about his experiences (he was shot down and a German prisoner for two years). At one point, he and his crew did flight training in Greenland.  He says if you look at pictures he has from Greenland in 1943 and compare with pictures of the same locations today, it takes your breath away.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Trump and the Polls: It's Not Over until the Fat Lady Sings!

This is an updated version of what I first published on October 17.

(Trump’s chances of winning have improved since then.)

These are tough days and nights for Donald J. Trump. Polls indicate his chances of winning the presidency are fading fast. His only consolation and the only consolation of his fans seems to be “knowledge” that the polls are rigged.

(By contrast: the days since the FBI announced it had more Clinton emails, by way of Anthony Weiner of all people, were days of lost sleep and heavy drinking for those of us who can’t stomach Trump; we are happier this morning, however, now that James Comey has basically said: “Never mind! Nothing new here folks. False alarm.”)

If that isn’t enough, Trump and his fans believe Democrats are going to turn out millions of the deceased to cast ballots from the Great Beyond. The election will apparently resemble a bad version of The Walking Dead.

Trump should be winning, as all his supporters know, because Trump says he should and Trump ran a perfect campaign. His fans know he would get 106% of the popular vote, if the media didn’t hate their man. They know he won all six debates, including one involving Abraham Lincoln. Trump has polls (not rigged!) proving he did. And all Republicans jumping ship or refusing to board from the start are part of a nefarious conspiracy.

(Sarah Palin called them rats!)

Four of the last five men to run for president on the GOP ticket say they don’t support Trump. That includes George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney. They are all terrible people.

Paul Ryan is a scumbag too.

Trump would win all fifty-two states if it weren’t for these traitors.

(Meanwhile, the VP candidate on the Libertarian ticket has essentially called on supporters to vote for...Hillary Clinton. Go figure! He says a Trump presidency would introduce a world much like George Orwell feared in 1984.)

Considering all the bitter Trump tears, perhaps we might look at a few miscellaneous facts. The same polls Mr. Trump insists are rigged today once showed, during the GOP primaries, that he was always ahead.

Remember those glory days? Remember how Trump always braggedabout his big, giant poll numbers?

When did the fix come in? Consider a few trends that bode well for Hillary Clinton. For some reason, Hispanic voters (not illegal immigrants—but living, breathing citizens who can and will cast ballots) don’t like Mr. Trump. In Arizona, on September 13, these voters favoredClinton by 68% to 18%.

In Florida the numbers were 53-29%.

(A poll four days ago, on November 3, has Clinton now leading with Florida Hispanics by a 60-30% margin.)

Then again, these numbers were reported by an actual newspaper—the Washington Post—part of a conspiracy to throw the election to Hillary Clinton. Hispanic voters really loved Trump—because Trump claimed they did. (Hispanic voters also went for President Obama in 2012 and did so in even greater numbers.)

Then, there’s more rigging—this time by Pew Research—to show that voters with a college degree or higher favor Clinton over Trump by 53-29%. (Obama won the same group, but narrowly, four years ago.)

Let’s look at more rigging! Fox News—Trump’s safe spot when he needs to cry on Sean Hannity’s shoulder—admitted Trump was unpopular with African Americans. In August Clinton had 85% support among this demographic. Gary Johnson polled 7%.

Trump had 1%.

Again, the rigginghas been “clear” for years. John Kerry, who lost in 2004, won 88% of the African-American vote. In 2012 President Obama sweptMitt Romney aside with 93% of this vote.

Trump does, however, seem to have the KKK vote locked down.

(Even more locked down than before: now that the official newspaper of the KKK has actually endorsed Donald Trump! I mean: you can’t make this stuff up!)

How about women? John Kerry narrowly won with American women, 51-48% in 2004, but lost by a slightly larger margin among men. Obama won the female demographic 56-44% in 2008 and 53-44% in 2012. (Damn rigged voting numbers!) Maybe the GOP could do better if they started supporting equal pay for women, came up with an actual health care plan to replace Obamacare if they do manage to win, and stopped insisting women who are raped have to carry any pregnancy that results to term. Republicans have been losing with women for years—and the Trump “outreach” plan isn’t helping. 

Bragging about grabbing pussy isn’t exactly a strategy to win.

How rigged are the polls? Apparently, very bigly rigged. Last December 59% of American women had an unfavorable opinion of Trump. By March 2016 that number had ballooned to 73%. You could argue loudly—and Donald Trump does—that all these numbers are rigged; but the same sort of polls consistently report Hillary Clinton’s problems. Clinton is the second most-disliked candidate ever to run for president. Rigged poll after rigged poll has shown her with a negative “favorability” rating. Current results average out to 43% favorable, 52% unfavorable. You can look it up. 

This proves something—in the confused thinking of Donald Trump and his fans—that he absolutely has to be winning!

Only the same polls show the tangerine-colored bombast to be the most disliked candidate in American history. His negative favorability marks are even worse. Currently, 35% of Americans view him favorably.

His “unfavorable” mark is 61%.

(Today the numbers still favor Secretary Clinton: but not by much. Clinton sits at -14; Trump has a score of -19. So he has come up!)

Consider the sheer stupidity of this Trumpian position. Polling data from Arizona indicates he holds a narrow 1 point lead over Clinton, as of today. Similar polls showed Mitt Romney would win the state easily four years ago—and he did, 54-44%. The polls that show Trump narrowly leading today show John McCain (not a hero!!!!) up 16 points on his Democratic challenger. The numbers in Ohio are similar, indicating how poorly the polls are rigged by Democrats and the media and left-wing body snatchers.

The most recent poll of Ohioans shows Trump up 1 point, 42-41%. But the trend of the five most recent polls shows Clinton up 1.6.

Senator Rob Portman, a Republican running in the same battleground, is winning with ease. If the election were today, Portman would clobber his opponent, Ted Strickland, by 16 actual mathematical points.

(Today, Trump leads in Ohio by 3.5 points; Portman now leads by 18. In other words, you have the same basic result. And, as a Democrat, let me say to the GOP, “Thanks for not running Governor John Kasich this year.”)

In Florida, “Little Marco” is polling ahead of his opponent. Rubio is up 5. Where Trump is involved, polls go back to being rigged, and he’s down 4.

(Now: Rubio up 3.7; Trump down 0.8.)

The “rigging” is even worse if we turn to FiveThirtyEight, the most highly respected polling website. Here Nate Silver has Trump trailingnationally by 6.8 points. Silver called all fifty states correctly in 2012, whereas the talking heads at Fox News got the election all wrong.

Even more ominously,  for Trump fans—who apparently hate percentages as much as they hate taxes (not that Trump pays), Kenyan Obama and Crooked Hillary—Silver believes polls show Clinton ahead in every one of ten main battleground states.

Rigged polls? As recently as July 30, Silver had Trump slightly ahead (briefly) and hanging close as late as September 26, the day of the first presidential debate, the day Trump turned in his “winning” performance. (This was followed up by Trump spending a week focusing on how fat a former Miss America was.) Trump never admitted he lost the first debate or lost the second. And if he said in this third debate on Wednesday that he planned to torture critics if elected, send political opponents to military trials in Guantanamo, have patriotic supporters beat up any protesters and bragged that he could get away with grabbing Rudy Giuliani’s wife’s crotch…well…loyal fans would still love him.

The problem, however, for Trump fans is that there aren’t enough of them to form a majority in three weeks.

It’s not impossible that Trump can win—because math is math—and it’s never over until the fat lady sings (probably an unfortunate analogy, considering Mr. Trump’s penchant for insulting American women). That doesn’t mean it isn’t highly unlikely. 

If you don’t believe me, check the betting line in Las Vegas today. Odds makers say, 6-1, Hillary comes out ahead.

(Today, Silver gives Trump a much better chance to win; and if you like Trump, I fear you may have real reason to hope. I mean you have reason to hope. I fear he might win. Anyway, as of right now, 10:45 a.m., the day before the election, Silver gives your side a 33.9% chance to win, almost triple what he had three weeks ago. In fact, he believes, when he looks at the polls, that Trump will win both North Carolina and Florida.

And again: Silver called every state in 2012 right.)

We will find out tomorrow if the pollsters are right.

***

P. S. Elections are controlled almost entirely at the state level. Polling places, early voting times and dates, absentee ballot notifications, even whether or not felons can vote (in Ohio they can) are set by the states. In the following battleground states, Republicans would have to do the rigging since they control the government: Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.

And did anyone notice that when Democrats were “stealing” the last two presidential elections, and now plan to steal a third, they proved unable to steal off-year elections in 2010 and 2014 when the GOP took control of both houses of Congress?

If Donald Trump loses this election—and, like Las Vegas bookies, I’m betting he will—he’s going to have no one to blame but himself.

(The betting line today is still 4-1 for Hillary Clinton.)

The Democrats ran a flawed candidate and the Republicans had an excellent shot all along to win. Then Trump started shooting himself in the foot—and the ass—and last and certainly not least, right in the nuts.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Donald Trump's Brilliant, Really Good Tax Plan!

“It’s going to be yuge,” Donald Trump told Sean Hannity’s on Fox News last night. His tax plan, he meant, not his ego. Trump promised as president he would change the United States tax code.

“I have the best plan. The best. I mean, who better to fix the tax code than the guy who pays no taxes whatsoever?”  “Make sense to me,” Hannity agreed, like a fair-and-balanced version of a ventriloquist dummy, only with better hair.

Trump paused a moment before admitting fat Americans would see taxes increase. “Rosie O’Donnell is going to pay. Bigly,” he sneered.

“Can you believe it,” Trump continued. “People believe I called Alicia Machado, that beauty queen, ‘Miss Piggy.’ I don’t insult people. Sniff. Probably, a bunch of Mexican rapists spread that lie. Or reporters, the lowest form of life. Sniff. Or that Gold Star family, who, and I am not saying this, but many people are saying this, the father is a supporter of ISIS. I would never say anything insulting about a beauty queen. Maybe if she had a face like Carly Fiorina, I might insult her.” Sniff.

“I know you don’t insult people, Donald,” Hannity agreed.

“We’re going to make America great again! So great! My face will be on Mount Rushmore,” Trump explained. “Naturally, it will be gold. I am going to create so many jobs, more than any president in history, more than all the other forty-three combined. I have a really good brain. You know who my three top advisers are?”

Hannity looked perplexed.

“Me, myself and I,” The Donald continued. “I don’t count Obama as one of our presidents, of course. He was never really president. He was born in Hawaii. I think that might be the capital of Kenjah.”

Hannity grinned vapidly and ran a hand through his thickly-gelled hair.

“Here’s my plan,” Trump said. “Billionaires and multi-millionaires will pay no taxes! Not a penny. David and Charles Koch? The Walton family? Zero. I will pay zero. Well, I already do, so that’s no yuge change. Sheldon Adelson will pay zero. That way he can keep donating tens of millions of dollars to GOP politicians to make sure they keep passing tax breaks along to make sure people like us never pay taxes. That lady who jacked up the price of the Epipen—needed to save children’s lives—by 700%? Zero taxes! Think of the jobs she created for emergency room nurses!”

“Brilliant, Donald,” Hannity agreed.

“I am a great businessman, the greatest ever, greater than Martin Shkreli, Ken Lay and Bernie Madoff rolled into one. I created bazillions of jobs, at least in years when I’m wasn’t losing $916 million dollars, or years when I wasn’t declaring bankruptcy four times. Have I mentioned how smart I am?”

“I don’t think you have,” Hannity replied.

“Obama!” Trump spit out the name and grimaced like a man having a difficult bowel movement. “We are going to grow the economy by 10% annually. True, restaurants are going to get ridof unattractive women. But those 2’s and 4’s can work in telemarketing, so I won’t have to look at their ugly faces. All women who work in my White House will be 10’s! Did I mention my plan will create 25 million jobs! In a decade! That’s almost ten years! I am going to make America great again.”

Hannity had just seen Bureau of Labor statistics that showed President Obama had been creating jobs at that same exact pace,2.46 million annually since 2011; but he decided not to mention it to Fox News viewers. 

He didn’t want them to have to think.

“I’m going to use other people’s money,” Trump assured his host. “The money of the America people! The art of the deal! Just like when I was stiffingthousands of workers and companies who had done business with me. Just like Trump University which no longer exists. The super-rich won’t pay taxes. Then they can use the money they don’t pay to hire workers, often at minimum wage, and those workers will pay more taxes, and there you go. Federal budget deficit solved!”

“Genius,” Hannity smiled.

“You know who else won’t be paying taxes? Rupert Murdoch! The top twenty-five hedge fund managers who took home a combined$13 billion last year! And John G. Stumpf, who runs Wells Fargo. That guy is a job-creating machine. That’s exactly what we need in America. Business people should run everything, including the schools. As president I will make Stumpf my Secretary of Treasury.”

A good-looking female intern interrupted the telecast briefly and handed Mr. Hannity a memo.

“That’s a ‘10’ there,” Trump leered as she left. “Boy, if Roger Ailes was still here, he’d be hitting that. Great guy, Ailes. Got yuge TV ratings. He’s advising my campaign, helping win the woman vote back.”

Trump continued. “I am going to use the taxes paid by hotel maids—probably illegal immigrants—hair dressers, bus drivers, auto mechanics, secretaries—hopefully really hot ones—farmers and factory workers and make America great again. Do you know we don’t win anymore in this country, Sean? We haven’t won any wars since George Washington beat the redcoats at Gettysburg.” Again, Hannity merely grinned.

“By not paying taxes—well, my plan will be the greatest,” Trump insisted. “Billionaires will use the savings to pay for expensive paintings and fancy cars and and gold-plated sinks. This will create jobs for artists, workers in Ferrari plants and gold-plating workers. And those workers won’t belong to unions, either, because wages in this country are already too high. My three top advisers all say I’m right. When one of us talks the others nod in agreement. ‘That guy is the smartest!’ that’s what we say to ourselves.”

Hannity continued to grin; he was doing his usual job.

“I am really smart,” Trump added. “I have stamina. Stamina that Crooked Hillary could never have. I can stay up till 3:00 a.m., flailing away on Twitter, and looking at sex tapes. I will be the best president ever. Melania says I will. All my children from my three marriages agree. I am going to appoint Ivanka as Secretary of State. I am going to make my sons generals. Even the youngest, who is ten.”

“Won’t people protest?” Hannity finally asked. Hannity prides himself on asking tough questions, after all.

“Not when I am president. I will order guards to punch them in the face. I will create jobs by having more guards. You know who is a strong leader! Vladimir Putin! That guy is better than Obama. He invaded Crimea. His pals shot down a civilian airplane with 298 people aboard, including 80 children. That’s strong leadership there! And my guards will wear brown shirts—creating jobs in the garment industry, even if those jobs are located in Bangladesh. I will create more jobs for torturers because we are going to torture suspects in terrorism cases, including American citizens, especially Muslim American citizens, and make America great again. I have a plan to defeat ISIS. I can’t tell you what it is but it will only take, like, fifteen minutes. Once I am in the Oval Office, we will begin sending American citizens to Guantanamo to stand military trial. We are going to stop and frisk African Americans in every corner of the land, because they want law and order and we have to protect the Second Amendment, but the Fifth, not so much.”

“Aren’t you worried,” Hannity wondered, “that if you don’t pay taxes ordinary Americans might ask why they have to pay themselves?”

“They’ll never know. I’m not releasing my taxes! I have a yuge brain. We let the not-smart people pay. Firefighters can pay taxes to support police, police can pay taxes to support soldiers, soldiers can pay taxes to support teachers, teachers can pay taxes to support police. This is called trickle-down economics and it always works great. Everyone is better off in the end, especially the top 1%.”

“Do you have a name for your plan?” Hannity asked as he brought his nightly show to a merciful end.

Trump said he did.

“I call it the Trump-Chump’s-Pay-Taxes-Tax Plan. And it comes with free Trump hats for all.”

Vote for Trump. You'll pay taxes. Billionaires won't.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Donald Trump and His Magic Wall

I can’t stand it anymore. If not one person reads this post, I still don’t care. I must vent or my head will explode.

  First, let me say I consider Donald J. Trump the most un-American candidate ever put forth by a major political party. Strom Thurmond in 1948 was worse, and George Wallace in 1968, but neither had a remote chance of winning. Trump’s for torture.Trump’s for trying American citizens in military courts. (Combine those ideas and see where it leads!) He called reporters “the lowest form of life,” typical of his repeated dehumanizing comments, and hints at a desire to curtail freedom of the press. He’s for suppressing the right to protest and punching protesters in the face.

So you wonder. If Trump is in favor of the Second Amendment, what about the 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th?

I taught American history for thirty-three years. I understand there are two sides to any argument—or four—or five thousand. I get why white, working-class Americans, without a racist thought in their minds, still support Trump. If my job was in danger of being outsourced to Sri Lanka, I’d be fuming too.

Come to think, I’ve been fuming about what has happened to American workers for three decades and more. That’s why I’ve generally voted Democratic since I was first old enough to vote in 1972. I watched as Republicans crushed labor unions in the 80s. They said union workers were too greedy. Then Big Business folks shifted jobs from Ohio, Michigan and “Rust Belt” states to low-wage states like Tennessee, Texas and Alabama, where GOP politicians were in control. 

Conservative thinkers proclaimed: “This is good. This is free enterprise at work. We are jacking up profits and CEO pay (now 300 times higher than that of their average employee). While you’re at it how about some tax cuts for Big Business folks, so we can create even more jobs!”

No one seemed to notice that no jobs were actually created. Jobs simply shifted from high-wage to low-wage states.

Meanwhile, workers’ wages stagnated and actually went down during the early 80s, when Ronald Reagan was in charge. (See Figure 3; below; and link here.)

Some Americans are doing very well; probably not you.

In fact, since 1979, the only significant gains for workers came during a seven-year stretch, during the presidency of Bill Clinton (1994-2000), when the bottom 90% saw income increase by 14%.

What happened next? 

Naturally, workers in Tennessee and Texas and Alabama began demanding higher pay. So the Big Business folks scratched their heads and consulted their bank accounts and began hiring as many illegal immigrants as they could. Democrats didn’t do this. The Big Business folks, heart and soul of the Republican Party, did. 

Donald J. Trump did.

According to Timemagazine (August 25, 2016), in an article based on thousands of pages of court records, in 1980, when Trump was building his famed tower in New York City, he pulled an “art of the deal” move, and used hundreds of illegal immigrants from Poland to do demolition and prepare the building site. As the Time story makes clear, those illegal workers were willing to put in twelve-hour shifts without overtime pay, to do the job without safety equipment, to hammer and smash at a lower hourly rate, and not protest if contributions to social security or pensions were not made. In fact, when contractors hired by Trump stiffed the Poles, they were in no legal position to complain.

Now: let me say before continuing that I do not believe immigrants ruin America. I do not believe all illegals from Mexico are “rapists.” In fact, you can make a sound argument for a wall on our southern border—and you can make it without sounding like an ignorant bombast, as Trump so regularly does.

And what about that magic wall? 

Let’s say Mexico does pay for the wall, as Trump assures supporters it will. Will it keep American jobs IN? Will it create a fiscal force field of some kind? Where have all the good jobs been going? Who has made them disappear? We know millions have been outsourced to China in the last fifteen years.

President Obama—the guy Trump tried to delegitimize for years—didn’t ship a single job to China.

Big Business folks did. (This is why we should choose a businessman for president, I guess.)

By 2012, for example, Apple had shifted all product assembly work overseas, 700,000 jobs to China. Why? Workers in China can’t unionize. (The GOP salivates over that.) The workers in China put in 100 hours a week and companies gyp them out of overtime pay. (See: Trump Tower, above.) Chinese workers earn only a few dollars per day. (See! No minimum wage! Republicans love that too!)

Indeed, it’s easy to predict that Republicans aren’t going to lift their little fingers to help the average worker, even should Trump win. And even a wall 10,000 feet tall on our southern border won’t keep jobs in. The Big Business folks have been bamboozling white, working-class workers with sham promises for years, while screwing them out of their jobs. “Oh, we will protect you,” they say. “The evil Democrats want to take away your 300 million guns. Oh, the evil Democrats want to force you to attend gay weddings and eat rainbow cake. We, the Big Business folks, even promise you a tax break!”

For decades, hard-working Americans fell for this bait-and-switch. They took their tax cut crumbs, $500 here, $1,000 there.

The jobs still disappeared.

Don’t believe me? Read what the Wall Street Journal, mouthpiece of Big Business folks, once had to say. In 2011 the paper noted that during the 2000s corporations cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States while increasing employment 2.4 million overseas. Who were some of the big names in this leave-American-workers-behind rush: Caterpillar, Microsoft, General Electric and Wal-Mart.

The same sordid tale played out across all states, involving workers in all areas of production. Alcoa outsourced jobs. 

Caterpillar decided to build bulldozers overseas. 

Levi Strauss began producing jeans in Indonesia. Check out their employment website for that country today! 

Oklahoma Joe’s joined the exodus—Boomer Sooner in reverse—and shipped jobs to China. (See below.) 

Should they still call themselves Oklahoma Joe’s?

And those iconic Chuck Taylor tennis shoes I wore when I was a lad—made by workers here in the United States? Those shoes are today produced overseas in Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam.

I follow these stories closely—I’m a Democrat, see. I know Trump’s magic wall won’t keep jobs in; not when Big Business folks ship them out every single day. Yet, I would argue you could produce grills and jeans and Chucks here in the United States, if the Big Business folks actually cared. The Big Business guys don’t care. 

They bleed green, not red, white and blue.

The GOP has favored out-sourcing jobs—first to low-wage states—then overseas—for decades. The Walton family stuffs their Wal-Mart stores with cheap foreign-made goods, while spending tens of millions to elect GOP tools to state and federal offices. They fight incisor and claw to keep employee wages and benefits low, and howl at the thought of any increase in corporate tax. Meanwhile, Jim, Alice and S. Robson Walton watched their wealth grow to a combined $97.8 billion in 2016. Sheldon Adelson had enough cash stashed under his bed ($25.2 billion as of today) to allow him to donate $150 million in 2012 to elect GOP politicians, including Mitt Romney, he of the famed 47% speech.

In that speech Romney talked about the blessings for businesses of investing in China. (That part of the speech was generally missed.)

So here’s my prediction. If Trump is elected, the GOP will continue to push trickle-down policies, like the Bush Tax Cuts (2003), promising pie-in-the-sky, always promising—really, this time we mean it —millions of good jobs will result.

(Maybe: jobs in Bangladesh!)

The super rich will get super richer; even when GOP policies fail, as they surely will, to benefit the average worker.

Here, I think it might be relevant to consider a bit of recent evidence. In 2003, with Republicans in control of the White House, net jobs added for the year (with all those great tax cuts) totaled a measly 113,000.

Over the next four years (2004-2007) an average of 2,163,000 jobs were added annually, good, but not great.

Then the economy, with the GOP and the Big Business folks riding high, went into the tank. During 2008, on into January 2009 (before Obama took office), we saw a net loss of 4,360,000 jobs, meaning that during his last six years in the White House President George W. Bush, despite fat tax cuts for fat cats, produced 3,548,000 jobs. 

In the next eleven months, till the end of 2009, we suffered a net loss of 4,279,000 more jobs.

It may be convenient to blame those losses in 2009 on President Obama; but to do so you have to ignore the laws of physics and know little to nothing about the challenges of climbing out of deep recessions and near-depressions.

You have to be a chump.

You should also remember that many of those jobs weren’t “lost” at all. They were shipped overseas by the people who run Wal-Mart, J. C. Penny and Hanes. According to a report by Harvard University, Big Business motivation was clear. In places like Honduras, desperate workers would take any job no matter how low the pay. 

In fact, many new employees were children. According to the Harvard research team:

The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, sometimes falling down from exhaustion, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, even some all-night, 19-to-20-hour shifts, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 ½ cents an hour. The wages are so wretchedly low that many of the child workers get up at 5:00 a.m. each morning to brush their teeth using just their finger and ashes from the fire, since they cannot afford a toothbrush or toothpaste.

Then, in 2010, a more positive trend developed. During President Obama’s next six years—even with taxes on the richest Americans slightly raised—even with Obamacare in effect—even with Big Business folks still shipping jobs to Mexico or overseas—conditions gradually improved.

In 2010, 1,135,000 jobs were added to the American economy—not great, but a turn of the red fiscal tide.

Over the next five years (2011-2015), 12,306,000 jobs were added to the economy, an average of 2,461,000 annually, better than anything the GOP managed in the halcyon days of George W. Bush.

Indeed, this healthy trend has continued this year, with an additional 1,452,000 jobs added in the first eight months.

Oh, yes. I forgot.

Donald J. Trump says everything is rigged—from unemployment numbers, to thermometers, to polls, (except when he’s winning), to elections(before they’re held), to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he had for lunch (not enough jelly; and by the way, did anyone notice that waitress was fat!). Yet, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we’ve had 71 consecutive months of job growth under Obama. New unemployment claims have been under 300,000 for 81 weeks, the longest stretch since 1970. Consumer confidence today is the highest since before the Great Recession. Oh, and the stock market has more than doubled with a Democrat ensconced in the Oval Office.

Not bad for a guy born in Kenya, right Mr. Trump?

Oh, wait, no.

You said in the recent debate that Hillary Clinton pushed the birther claim in 2008. You didn’t have anything to do with it. You were as innocent as a babe.

She pushed it in 2008. So you can’t be blamed because your lips kept moving for the next five years, saying, even in February 2015, that you didn’t think President Obama’s long-form birth certificate was real. And you didn’t bother to correct the hate speech of a person at one of your September 2015 rallies, when a questioner said: “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.” 

You didn’t respond as any fair-minded American would. You didn’t say, “We don’t have a problem with Muslims. We have a problem with terrorists who are Muslim.” 

You didn’t respond to the man in your audience: “Sir, do you realize that the U. S. Constitution says there shall be no religious test to hold any public office. So, if President Obama is a Muslim, it doesn’t matter.”

You responded: “We need this question.”

You pedaled birther lies until just last month, when you realized it was hurting you in the eyes of fair-minded Americans, who make up by far the great majority of the general electorate. Yes. Mrs. Clinton was wrong about that. She said half your supporters were deplorable. That’s not right.

Still, your slippery bigotry—and the hard line bigotry of a chilling fraction of your core constituents—add to the repellent nature of your candidacy; and that’s another sad story for another sad day.

Who shipped millions of good American jobs overseas? Not President Obama and the Democrats. Big Business did.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

The Limited Efficacy of "School Reform:" Drugs

I don’t know about anyone else; but I often find myself thinking that “school reform” fails for the most basic reason.  It fails because school isn’t the place where many problems in schoolstake root.

(See also: absenteeism.)

Today the focus is drugs, on the catastrophic damage done to hundreds of thousands of children every day in homes.

I learned a bitter lesson back in 1976, as a new teacher. One day, Carolyn (all names changed), a young lady in my second bell class, was missing. I had been working with her, as best I could, but wasn’t having much success. She was chronically absent, exhausted if she made it to school, and repeatedly caused trouble for me and for her peers. On this particular morning she wasn’t in history at all.

During third bell a colleague filled in the outlines of a tragic tale. Carolyn had ingested some illegal substance on the way to school. In first period Language Arts her speech slurred. Her teacher grew alarmed, but before she could act, Carolyn began wobbling in her seat. Suddenly, her bodily functions failed. She soiled herself and toppled from her chair. The school nurse was summoned, then the Life Squad, and a terribly troubled 14-year-old left school strapped to a stretcher.

Carolyn survived that day—only to die four years later—but even then I had to wonder. What could we, as educators, do to help such young people?  Like most educators, I never came up with a satisfactory answer.

Of course, I did everything I could. I gave any student who was doing poorly as many chances as possible to raise their grades. I sacrificed a thousand lunches to talk to teens in dire need of counseling of any kind. I provided my home phone number to parents and students who wanted to call.  After spending a good part of one evening talking to parents I recorded these results in a diary I keep:

Spent 1½ hours on phone tonight with five parents. Bill -----’s mom has him in AA three nights a week and says he’s rated chemically dependent. (Cheryl, his sister, is also in the program on a limited basis.) Bill’s dad started him drinking at six—Bill got into his father’s cocaine. She says Walt and Rick [two other eighth graders] are dealing.

I retired in 2008. But last summer, waiting a turn at the barbershop, I had another one of those flashes when it seemed obvious the foundation of the argument for “school reform” rested in quicksand. A front page story in the Cincinnati Enquirer caught my eye. A pretty young woman, Samantha Gibson, 26, had just had her day in court. Her offense was minor, this time, so Gibson was going home. But she outlined her problems for a reporter. “I can’t get through the day without heroin,” she admitted.

Then, the detail that really hit hard: Gibson was the mother of three young kids.

According to the Enquirer, “more than 13,000 heroin users spent time in Greater Cincinnati jails [in 2014].” Not all were parents, but far too many were. Some had been arrested after leaving their children “alone at home or in cars because they were out trying to buy heroin.” The Enquirerwent on to explain that there were medication-assisted treatment programs available. Unfortunately, all were costly and under optimal conditions only 50% to 65% of users got clean. 

Despite a stunning rise in overdose deaths, county governments in Ohio and other states had been cutting budget since 2008. Treatment was expensive and counties “rarely have millions of dollars available to pay for it.” In-patient programs, most expensive and successful of all, were prohibitively costly. Treatment, one expert told reporters, “is medical first;” but there weren’t enough doctors willing to help. Gibson tried to find care in 2014 but all the programs had long waiting lists.

Now a reporter watched the young mother as she was released. He followed as Gibson left the building—saw her light a cigarette—dig in a purse—pull out $25.

“That’s all I have to my name,” she admitted. She might just as well have added: “So, my poor children are doomed.”

I was fortunate to teach for thirty-three years and loved working with kids. Still, I saw how drugs ruined young lives. I remember asking Joey what his father was like. Joey and I had a good relationship; but he struggled a little in school. “My dad is a useless meth head,” he replied with a smile; and then I understood why Joey might not always focus on history. I remember Sam, too, who turned it around in seventh grade, partly with help from Julie Cohen,a dedicated student teacher. Only Sam didn’t stay turned around. He died three years later of a drug overdose, choking in his own vomit.

Yet, in those same years, Congress was promising every child would be proficient in reading and math. I kept reading stories about “dropout factories” and listening to cable news talk about “failing American schools.”

Across the nation, by 2015, one baby was born every hour, suffering from opiate withdrawal.That’s 8,760 newborns per year, with average cost of a hospital stay $53,400. USA Today referred to children “born into suffering,” but school reformers and politicians never blinked. They kept faulting educators for not undoing the damage done by too many parents, to too many kids, in too many homes.

Time and again, I could only shake my head. I read of a Pennsylvania mother, 22-year-old Sarah Kessler, who died of an overdose in her apartment. Before she was found her 9-month-old son starved to death.

I readabout gang violence in Chicago, tied to the drug trade. I read about Tyshawn Lee, a 9-year-old boy, lured into an alley and gunned down during a battle over turf. I read that dozens of young people in that city were shot and killed every year. 

Then, in January 2016, I read that MaryAnn and Wesley Landers brought an infant daughter to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for care. They left an older child at home. What they didn’t leave was their heroin stash. Shortly after their daughter was operated on mom and dad decided to shoot up in the hospital room. A nurse discovered them sprawled on the linoleum at 11:34 a. m., but by then MaryAnn was dead.

I read these stories and switched on the news and heard experts insist “school reform”  was key to curing our nation’s ills. Listening to experts, I almost imagined educators wielded magic wands. But I taught for years.  I knew they didn’t.

I certainly don’t claim to have the answers. I know what I’d be saying if I were U. S. Secretary of Education, however. I’d be arguing we’d should take the money wasted on standardized tests and pour it into expanded drug counseling and treatment for adult users and kids.

I’d argue that every school should have more counseling and psychological services for parents and children.

I’d make the case that every school should have a nurse practitioner on site and a clinic where young people could get quality care.

I’d urge lawmakers to push for reform and stop jailing non-violent drug offenders. The annual cost of keeping one inmate in federal prison comes to $30.619.85 per year. I’d let non-violent prisoners out.

I’d use the money saved to target problems that effect youth, including the fact 2.7 million kids  have one or both parents behind bars.

I’d tell school reformers to stop blaming society’s ills on educators and schools. I’d make it clear that America’s schools aren’t failing at all. 

Too often they’re overwhelmed.

There's no school reform there there.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Do You Know What the Declaration of Independence Means?

Happy Fourth of July! I don’t know about anyone else, but I am sitting here, mulling over the current state of American political discourse.

I think we can probably agree, it’s not exactly on the same high level as we might have seen in 1776.

(Then again: women can vote. African Americans are free. It’s not as bad as some people seem to believe.)

In any case, when I was teaching, I was a massive fan of the Declaration of Independence. I still am. I love the message the document sends, even if sometimes the messengers who send it are flawed.

Luckily, I taught in the days before all the standardized tests. That meant I could do what I thought was best for kids.

But before we continue, why don’t you take out a piece of paper and write down all you recall about the Townshend Acts?

Done? Sure you are. 

You don’t know squat.

You don’t need to, either; no one cares today; but you might want to think about the fact the people who push all the standardized tests think you should know about the Townshend Acts—and the Proclamation of 1763—and maybe the Sugar Act, too.

But what about the ideals of the Declaration? These ideals on which our nation was founded still matter very much today.  

In my history class, I wanted students to be able to answer the six questions which follow, with the answers to all six to be found in a short section of the document, only 84 words long.

1. Government gets its power from ___.

2. If government does not work we have the right to ___.

3. Governments are set up to ___.

4. If government works as it should everyone will be treated ___.

5. Certain basic rights cannot be taken away from you by ___.

6. Government should leave you alone to enjoy ___.

If it’s been a few years since you had a class in American history you may not recall that the Declaration is several pages long.  Most of that length is filled up by a list of grievances against Parliament and George III. 

But if you are a normal American—and admit it, you think you are—you have forgotten what those grievances were. Whereas you may still remember the lyrics to “Yellow Submarine” and be able to list all the movies in which Blake Lively has starred.

In my class, we began with a few specifics. Courtney could immediately raise a hand and name the main author of the document (Thomas Jefferson, in case you forget); Eric or Renee might know the date and year of the document (July 4, 1776).  Then I liked to add a few relevant details. I pointed out, for example, that Jefferson was a slave owner, hypocrisy never running far below the surface of politics. 

Then I might tell my students: “If you don’t know anything about the Declaration of Independence you shouldn’t be allowed to shoot off fire crackers on the Fourth! You shouldn’t get a hot dog, either,” I added.

“You should have to eat strained peas.”

Joking aside, I was always deadly serious about the Declaration, about imparting critical knowledge. So I required students to memorize the critical section which still matters today, which will always matter in human affairs:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.

To help my seventh and eighth grade students grasp what the Declaration is all about, and aid a bit with memorization, I provided a copy of the section in two forms, one seen above.

In the version below, the words in capitals tended to confuse some or all of my young charges. So we started by defining each of these. Someone like Cheryl or Cathy might realize at once that “self-evident” meant “obvious.”

Blake—not Blake Lively, but a star student in my fourth bell class—might offer, “It means ‘something proves itself.’”

Correct.

So, we’d move along. Few students could ever define “endowed.” I used the same joke every year.

“‘Endowed,” I explained, “means ‘granted at birth, born with.’ Some of us are endowed with great intelligence. Some of us are endowed with good looks.”

I would always fluff my hair at that point. Sometimes my loving students would groan and hiss.

We worked our way through: unalienable = can’t be taken away; secure = protect; consent = permission; abolish = get rid of.

We hold these truths

to be SELF-EVIDENT,                                                 

that all men are created equal;

that they are ENDOWED                                                         

by their Creator

with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS;                                                          

that among these

are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;              

that, to SECURE these rights,                                      

governments are INSTITUTED                                   

among men,

DERIVING their just powers                                       

from the CONSENT of the GOVERNED;                             

that, whenever

any form of government

becomes destructive

of these ENDS,                                                              

it is the right of the people

to ALTER OR ABOLISH it,                                        

and to INSTITUTE                                                        

a new government.

When Kayla fell asleep one day in class, during a typically scintillating discussion on this topic, I woke her gently, and from then on liked to call her “Rip Van Kayla.” (She did fall asleep in class a lot.)

This required a quick aside on the legend of Rip Van Winkle.

As for those six questions—shown again for convenience—the answers to some came quick. Mara and Leslie both raised a hand to answer the first. Mara was quicker, and when called upon, supplied the word “people.” Brad was equally quick to supply an answer for four. “Equally,” he said.

1. Government gets its power from ___.

2. If government does not work we have the right to ___.

3. Governments are set up to ___.

4. If government works as it should everyone will be treated ___.

5. Certain basic rights cannot be taken away from you by ___.

6. Government should leave you alone to enjoy ___.

The answer to #2 also came fairly fast every year, in every class. “Change the government,” Heather said.

Yes.

Then #6: “To enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?” Candace tried with a tinge of doubt.

Correct.

Number three always proved difficult. Eventually someone realized that Jefferson was saying government existed to protect our rights. 

Yes. Yes, YES. That’s a critical point.

But the greatest confusion came when we tried to get an answer for #5. (I’m afraid some politicians couldn’t answer this today.) “The government,” some student would always try first.

Incorrect.

 “The president?” “Jefferson?”  “Congress?” others would try. You always had some poor devil that stuck up a hand and repeated: “The government?” 

No, no, no.

And still no.

Finally, Jodi or Jamie would realize what Jefferson was saying and respond, “Anyone. He means our basic rights can’t be taken away by anyone.” 

I would sometimes reach in my desk and pull out a candy bar from a rather large stash I kept, and toss it to the student who had just answered.

“Very good, that’s right,” I’d say. “Jefferson was saying that God granted us our rights at birth and those rights cannot be taken away, not by anyone, not by government, not by other citizens.”

I don’t know: I think these ideas matter, on this day, July 4, and on every other day of our lives.

If it's good enough for Abraham Lincoln, it's good enough for me, and my students, and all Americans.

 A NOTE TO TEACHERS

You know, if you’ve taught more than five days, that not all students are going to willingly sit down and memorize 84 words of anything; but I expected it to be done, and always put those six key questions on my American Revolution test, on the first semester final, and on the final every year.

I always gave students a week to commit the piece to memory and then on the day of the quiz asked them to take out a sheet of paper and write the section above for a test worth 75 points.

(Some students preferred to come back to my desk and quietly recite it, instead.)

I was a fanatic when it came to learning, I guess. And I was happy every year that a large majority of students earned A’s or B’s on the first try. (I gave those who had C’s or D’s an option to try again later. I wanted everyone to succeed.)

But every year, fifteen or twenty students would complain during the day, “I can’t learn this! It’s too long! Boohoo. Boohoo.”

Too bad, I always replied.

I required all who failed to come in and try again during lunch. Let’s say I had twenty students in a typical year who had to try again. Two or three wouldn’t show up as required. Another might have a hidden, pre-written copy in a book and try to slip it out when I wasn’t looking. (I usually was.) Three or four would fail again. Typically, most earned A’s and B’s with a smattering of C’s. (I always gave kids the higher grade; as I said, I wanted them to succeed.)

I told the three or four who failed again to return again the next day. 

Then I steamed down the hall to the lunchroom to hunt down the two or three who hadn’t shown up. These lucky teens were awarded detention after school and yet another chance to study and get their grades up. 

By that time, I had missed my entire lunch. 

So I bought four fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies from the lunch ladies and wolfed them down as I headed back to my room, wiping the last crumbs from my lips as I began my first class after lunch.

Eventually, all but one or two of those who said they couldn’t learn the Declaration did. All I had to do was miss a few lunches and stay after school once or twice.

MY BOOK, TWO LEGS SUFFICE: LESSONS LEARNED BY TEACHING IS NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

A Few Quotes that Still Matter

As a history teacher I always liked to post good quotes around my room. I thought it might make students think. 

One of my favorite moments came one day when Josh hailed me from far across the lunchroom. “Mr. Viall,” he called loudly, “you are not worth the dust the rude wind blows in your face.”

I was pleased to see the young man was quoting Shakespeare, himself, by way of one of my posted quotes.

Here are a few of my favorites.

(I’ve gathered more than 3400 if anyone would like a copy, including Josh, who is actually one of my Facebook friends today. If you’re interested, Josh, or anyone else, particularly teachers, send me an email ([email protected]) and I will forward my list to you as a document.

Clearly, many still resonate today: 

I wish more political figures kept this in mind.

My teenage students could relate to this one.

Chaucer was talking about war (werre); but I always thought this applied to school reformers, people who never teach.

I always thought this last quote summed up the trials and tribulations that come along during a stretch of any teen’s life.

Two Legs Suffice: Lessons Learned by Teaching is available at Amazon.com.