What People Say?Different people with different perspectives

If President Obama has his way, next summer’s public school vacation may be sharply reduced. The president believes that American kids spend too little time in school, and this puts them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.

He knows only too well that longer school days and school years are not particularly popular ideas in other families as well as his own, as a father of Malia, a sixth-grader, and Sasha, a third-grader. But at the same time, he’s also well aware that the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom now.

The president would like to see schools add time to classes, stay open later, and let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go. “Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. It’s pretty clear that some changes may need to be made regarding the length of the school day and the length of the school year, but there’s not a lot of agreement as to what changes to make.

Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school. “Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Duncan told the AP. “I want to just level the playing field.” While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it’s not true they all spend more time in school.

One girl from a Boston school, Domonique, initially was upset when she first learned that she was going to be part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. The plan added about two hours to each school day. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. “I’ve learned a lot,” she said.

Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?

After all, who runs the schools anyway? Is it the adults or the kids?

It is true that kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).

This seems to be the determining factor here. We need to ask ourselves if our American schools are adequately preparing our students to deal with the demands of math and science in an ever-changing 21st century economy. Nobody wants to find themselves left behind.

A researcher from the Brookings Institution, Tom Loveless, found that math scores rose significantly in countries that added only minutes to the day, rather than more days to the year. “Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don’t forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes,” Loveless said. “Percentage-wise, that’s a pretty healthy increase.”

Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.

In Massachusetts’ expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids. Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendars are pretty much set in stone.

Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks. Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind. Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.

That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.

Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.

“If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it’s hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be,” Alexander said.

Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago’s schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city’s South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.

“Those hours from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock are times of high anxiety for parents,” Duncan said. “They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table.”

He was just following up on his message he delivered a few weeks ago in his address to the nation’s students broadcast live on C-Span on Dish-Network.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/obama-wasnt-kidding-about-being-the-education-president-1647907.html

Our Rashtrapati (President) Ms. Prathibha Patil is of my mother’s age. Hence I have a special regard for her. While my mother remains the titular head of my tharavadu (ancestral home), Ms. Patil is the titular head of a more bigger tharavadu, India ie. Bharat. While my mother’s name is confined to a few areas of my native village Ms. Prathibha Patil’s name crosses boundaries and is known and respected the world over. Not much difference.

My mother is an old seventh standard who is anyhow well-versed in our mother tongue, dropped out of the school though she was studious and the beloved daughter of a primary school headmaster, as was the custom prevailing in the patriarchal system in the community setup of that period she was married off to a young man of the same community. An excellent god-fearing housewife, respectful, loyal and devoted to her husband throughout her life and now remains a loving, caring mother to her four children and grandchildren.

Ms. Patil hailing from a still undeveloped poverty-stricken district named Amaravati of Maharashtra was fortunate enough to go up the ladder through vigorous pursuit of education - she might have had the wherewithal, opportunities and luck - to grow up in a congenial atmosphere, first enrolled as a lawyer and while continuing in that profession plunged into political arena, proved her mettle there also later became the titular head of Rajasthan, one of the Northern States of India the designation being the gubernatorial post. Luck followed her throughout and like any other woman of India got married to Mr.D.S.Shekhavat, became a loving and caring mother to her children.

Luck always came to her unexpectedly like a boon from heaven as a pleasant surprise in the form of an invitation to occupy the highest post of the nation, Rashtrapati (President) of the largest democracy of the world ie. India. With all the support, blessings and prayers of a majority of Indians, on an auspicious day she got enthroned as the President of the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhavan with a number of subordinates and a wide security cover began to lead a royal life of sorts, occasionally visiting foreign nations meeting foreign dignitaries, photo-op with them, monuments and places of historical importance, signing bilateral treaties, even had the rare privilege of staying with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, the only Indian President blessed with the rare opportunity. Moreover twice in a year, ie. Independence Day eve and Republic Day eve addressing the nation messages flash through visual and print media, almost hour long address stressing the progress achieved by the nation so far and also need for achieving more like reduction of poverty, women empowerment, tackling the menace of terrorism, the list abound and winding up the speech with Independence day wishes or Republic day wishes to the people and an inspiring Jai Hind to the top of her voice as is common to all Presidents who occupy the august office from time to time.

So far so good: Remarkable.

Our President reached our State of Kerala, a State still blessed with natural beauty, lush green landscape, splashing backwaters with tourists from abroad and other States riding houseboats, enjoying the beautiful surroundings, lines of coconut trees leaning towards the rivers and backwaters, attractive spacious and comfortable tourist resorts, verdant hills with thick greenery covering the valleys like green carpets, monuments and temples of historical importance. These are also one side of the coin.

The other side is absolutely, I say absolutely bleak with daily exposes of terrorists being nabbed the elements out to upset hitherto calm and serene ambience of a State, fake God-men and God-women out to cash in on the tender feelings of the poor and the middle-class, communalism spreading its ugly tentacles, ecological plunder with rivers gradually getting dried up at a moment nations across the Globe in the hot mad pursuit for the tackling of global warming, sky-high prices of essential commodities, black-marketeering and hoarding goons giving nightmares to the city-dwellers the rampant dowry system, and growing propensity of men both young and old towards alcohol and corruption ruling the roost.

President Pratibha Patil was visiting Kerala for the inauguration of two day long annual meeting of All India Women Lawyers Federation (AIWLF) at Le-Meridian Hotel, Cochin.

In her inaugural address she dwelt upon the 51% female population of Kerala, as also 88 percent literacy among women of the State. She was at a loss to find out even with all these plus points to our credit, why this State is tormented with the rising demands for dowry and dowry related torture and murders on that score. The rising curse of alcoholism among the youth of the State has also caught her attention and she is aghast on learning about these negative tendencies in our society. She called upon the women lawyers to get more pro-active for women empowerment and necessary legal remedies. The total overhauling of the legal system might have been in her mind and sought quick steps to provide immediate solutions confronting the women community and suggested various steps to reduce the backlog of cases pending for years in our courts forcing the litigants not to repose faith in the system which is a danger signal.

The day on-which Ms.Patil was stressing the importance of literacy and women empowerment I was aghast to go through a report from Amaravati district, her home district, by The Hindu correspondent of Mumbai Meena Menon about the rampant alcoholism, unemployment among the poor women, budding young children- male and female- who had to drop out of schools due to poverty and to go in search of menial jobs along with their mothers to earn something to satisfy their hunger. These children like any other children of our nation have colourful dreams, ambitions to go up the education ladder and secure respectful employment. Meena Menon had reported elaborately about them after interviewing them, heard their predicaments, hopelessness and helplessness. Even the photographs of these innocent distressed children speak eloquently about their pathetic situation. Leading a nomadic existence and migrating to faraway places leaving their homes, seeking jobs how is it possible for them to proceed with their studies fearing their inebriated fathers and with empty stomachs? On the other side, the industrialists with the connivance of the government are on a land-grabbing spree for building up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) thanks to the Neo-liberal economic policies claiming to be ‘irreversible’ initiated by Narasimha Rao and later his finance minister of the 1990s ManMohan Singh, who is the incumbentant Prime Minster of our nation.   The cries of the poor ones do not reach the deaf ears of our ‘benevolent’ rulers.

I would like to know from Ms.Patil whether she is not aware of the goings on in her home district of Amaravati? I do not think I have taken too much freedom and as an Indian citizen I think I have the right to inquire about it. Perhaps while inaugurating the Women Lawyers Federation Meeting she might have had Amaravati also in her mind. I think so. 

At the very outset,let me introduce myself to you. My name is K.R.Surendran,hailing from a village called Pulluvazhy near Perumbavoor.Five books in Malayalam are there to my credit now,and they are “Pooviriyumkunninte- Santhathikal”(Stories),Gloriyayude Dinarathrangal”(Stories), “Mumbai- Sketchukal”(Novelettes), and “Indiayude Bhoopadam” (Novel).A novel “Pulluvazhy” was published recently.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/a-citizens-message-on-the-eve-of-2010-1645538.html

I read a funny anecdote by accident : the British press has gone in a frenzy over an existential question : what happened to Barack et Carla? In fact, the British newspapers are wondering why the American president and the French First Lady did not kiss each other when they met for the first time.  France is a romantic country, the two person should kiss each other  according to the French tradition, but why they didn’t? What happened? 

And this is all the more surprising as at the same moment, Nicolas did not hesitate to kiss Michelle on her two cheeks. Some American tabloids have spoken about the anecdote tonight, and are going a little further, as New York Daily News, qui va jusqu’à poser la question qui tue : “Did Obama dodge a friendly kiss from French First Lady Carla Bruni ?” 

Forget NATO, world peace or the global recession - it’s a kiss, or the lack of one, that is the talk of Europe. The international incident unfolded Friday morning when Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, met French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his supermodel wife, Carla Bruni, in Strasbourg, France. 

All seemed to be going swimmingly, in a French kind of way. Michelle and Carla shared a warm embrace and a European-style peck on each cheek. President Obama and the prime minister shook hands heartily and even two-stepped through a kind of French man-hug. Sarkozy then planted a double-kiss on Michelle.But when Bruni finally leaned in to kiss President Obama, something happened. Maybe he balked. Maybe she pulled back. Whatever. 

There was no kiss, sending the British press in particular into a spasm of forensic investigation that included a frame-by-frame analysis of the Kiss That Wasn’t. “It is usual in France to greet one another with a kiss,” noted London’s Daily Mail. “But the best Mr. Obama could get out of a suddenly flustered Carla Bruni was a handshake.” 

So, who stepped back ? To refuse a kiss from the French first lady is simply shocking ! 

I am all the more intrigued as the French news magazine l’Express has just revealed that Obama kissed a French student only a few minutes after, encouraged to do so by Sarkozy himself, who apparently did not resent the American president for refusing his wife’s kiss ! 

How do I know if I am a good kisser

Jennifer Garner graces the January 2010

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The federal legislation NO Child Left behind or NCLB was based on the assumption that by establishing measurable goals and setting high standards, the individual outcomes in school education can be improved to a great extent. This Act was against a single national standard for education. Instead, it had individual standards for states.

Test-and-Punish approach of the No Child Left Behind Act was based on the one-size-fits-all concept. No wonder it failed miserably. Reducing education to nothing more than test preparation programs, after all, would do no good to children. Based on irrational concepts, the NCLB could not even get proper funding.

Let us discuss the impractical aspects of No Child Left Behind Act that led to its widespread criticism and much expected failure.

False Assumptions

It was totally foolish to believe that all public schools across the nation would have the same set of issues, and that a single solution would attend to all those issues.

Too much focus on Improving Test Scores

The No Child Left Behind Act was too obsessed with raising the test scores of children across the public schools in the US. NCLB was least concerned with the actual needs of children. Pressure to achieve the expected targets in tests resulted in schools pressurizing children to prepare ‘hard’ for their exams. The NCLB reduced the whole education system to a memorize-and-vomit system. It did not think at all that children do not become responsible citizens by mugging up concepts given in their text books.

Proficiency in Standardized Tests

The Act in question even expected the disabled students and children having limited English proficiency to perform exceptionally well in standardized tests. The No Child Left Behind Act looked for some magical solution to make all the students perform well. Standardized multiple choice questions might be good for post-college entrance exams, but they certainly fail to reason why a child thinks in a particular way. Numerical scores, singlehandedly cannot decide the fate if a student.

As a result of this many schools had to drive out students as they failed to match the baseless expectations set by the Act.

Uneven Transfer of Provisions

While some schools received generous funds to improve the education system, hundreds others were still crying for funds. Moreover, the schools that received generous funds were not always properly equipped to utilize the funds in the right way.

Paucity of Teachers

Many good teachers left schools as they were not happy with the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Responsible teachers were against the test-and-punish approach. They just could not allow their conscience to implement the harsh principles of NCLB to innocent children. As a result, schools had to look out for quality teachers

Education is not all about remembering what is given in text books. Exams surely judge us, but they cannot have the final say in the progress of a child. Education is a lifetime process. Forcing children to get good marks is not the right approach, even scientifically. NCLB actually turned into ACLB (All Children Left Behind). The harm done by NCLB can be treated only with active involvement of parents and teachers. And for God sake, stop making education a political affair.

The Author brings over 6 years of e-learning and online tutoring experience. Having a deep understanding of pedagogy and child psychology, the writer has developed numerous strategies to improve e-learning and online tutoring for Grades K-12 and higher through various techniques that question the conventional ways of instructing.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/nclb-why-it-failed-1639520.html

Nigeria: Let the Terrorist Bear the Name of his Father

Until 1914 Nigeria was a two separate protectorates of the British Government, not the same country as we have today. The Northern Protectorate was a left over of Sokoto Caliphate that spread Islamic religion to all West African Countries which destroyed most of the empires that rooted themselves in African values of respect and good behavior, Southern Protectorate consisted of all the people of lower Niger that were Christians and traditional African religion believers.

The death of the British Colonial Governor of Southern Protectorate made the British government to merge the North and South together under one leadership of Lord Luggard then British Colonial Governor of Northern Protectorate which led to the so called policy of assimilation of Islamic doctrine into the strange land of the South a decision that robbed the new country of purposeful leadership.

The goals and aspirations of the Northern Nigeria was not the same with the Southern Nigeria, the South looks towards western civilization, while the North focuses on the East with Mecca and Islamic fundamental beliefs as everything. The Nation continues to match two steps forwards and three steps back since 1914.

After the 2nd world wars the Nation was divided into three regions, the North remained one and South was divided into two as West and East, since the nation was boarded in the South by the Atlantic Ocean a region in the South was not created. The predominantly Islamic  North despite the  visible development of the South called West and East and attainment due to western Civilization never lost focus on seeing the world through Islamic fundamental belief only and always suspecting that Western world which America leads will always be the enemy.

Today, more than 95 percent of Nigerians in America working and living and contributing positively to America and Western world economy are Nigerians of Southern Protectorate. The distrust of United States of America was so great in the minds of Northern Nigeria that the current President of the country who as a governor of Kastina State in Northern Nigeria introduced Sharia Laws that was anti- western civilization who is presently ill and on intensive Care in Saudi Arabia Hospital would rather remain in Saudi Arabia than been taken for proper care in any America Hospitals since November 23rd. 2009

For over a month, the country has no functional President. The sick president never handed over to his Vice President who comes from the Southern part of the Country. To hand over will amount to transferring power to south instead, the country is currently, through the back door, being administered by the wife of the sick President and the nation is helpless because the National Assembly lack the guts to use the constitution to remove the president without offending the Islamic North.

How does this affect the recent terrorist bomb in Detroit Michigan? Most of the Northerners are treated like princes and princesses in Nigeria body politics, they are not subjected to proper security checks at the airports, and those with private aircrafts just use the aircrafts like taxi cabs at the nation’s airports.  Positions are reserved for half educated, half exposed Islamic leaders, they use slight excuse like Beauty contest to kill Christians in the North, they are very sympathetic to Osama Bin Laden goals, their mosques are used to preach hatred for non Muslims, Sharia laws became the main laws in over ten northern states when the doctrines of Sharia actually run contrarily to what the constitution says on freedom of religion which was not the same as the North will like to interpret it.

The Northern Nigerian Murtalab  the terrorist was a not only a bastard to his country, but also a misguided son of Northern Nigerian Aristocratic linage, a product of failed and associated love of his parent for fundamental beliefs of Yemen  which his father married from. All Nigerians must not be seen in the light of the ugly behavior but to have sympathy for a group of 150 million helpless people group together by British Government in 1914 with no clear cut goals and objectives and which solution may not be in sight until 1914 is revisited just like Zambia as South Rhodesia and Zimbabwe as North Rhodesia were separated.

Until then, Nigerians will always be seen in the eyes of the world as a country of Terrorists, internet scams, 419 and other credit cards crimes, because the country does not have any focus or leadership. The road to civilization and as currently being taken by Nigeria through it constitution written by the Northern Muslim Military leaders in 1997 will be longer than Biblical Israelis journey to the promised land of an egalitarian society. The nation has no functional police system, no social security, no proper identification procedures, no health care system, no records of those employed, no proper taxation system, no proper funding of education, because the Islamic predominantly Islamic religion feels it will  threaten it hold on the Northern peasants.

The Nigeria does not believe in State and City Police even when it is obvious that so called Federal Police is corrupt; the security at the Airport in Lagos and Abuja is the most relaxed in the world. Just slide in some money into the arms of the Customs officials you can get anything to the country, sometimes you wonder if they care at all, not even for the name of the country or what it is to destroy the reputation of their nation. Nigeria is the probably the only country nation on earth which it constitution still has Council of State in which all past Presidents elected and unelected still does  check and balance on the activity of the current President, this makes difficult to move away from the past.

Today, most Nigerians overseas and at home, with honest jobs, who work with the goal of earning honors and respects are chartered by this ugly behavior of the Northern Nigerian Murtalab Terrorist that has by his action cast all Nigerians in bad light and a new development that will embarrass other travelers in and out of Africa. Murtalab must first be recognized as Northerner, a Muslim before being associated as a Nigerian. He must bear the name of his father first, the name of his region, his tribe before the name of his country.

Zents Kunle Sowunmi

 El Paso Texas.

Author “Before the Journey Became Home”

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/nigeria-murtalab-the-terrorist-1634685.html