Parents of school children might want to write this website, https://mdoe.state.mi.us , in their permanent address books. The 2008 school year has begun. The fourth Wednesday student count has occurred (for financial purposes) and once again classrooms are busy learning the tough new curricula approved by the Michigan Legislature a year ago. Hopefully, parents have gone to their child's school and obtained the full name and certification number of their child's teacher. I have no idea of what school systems outside of Detroit are experiencing. However, Detroit has managed to place uncertified persons, including school service assistants assumed by parents to be substitute teachers, in some classrooms this year while giving pink slips to certified teachers. Are there other districts experiencing this? If you have answers, I would like to hear them at evefor7@sbcglobal.net.
Virginia Cantrell, President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, stated she has gone to the school district and subsequently to the Michigan Education Employment Relations Commission on behalf of students in several Detroit Schools who do not have certified teachers in several schools.
We cannot sit and allow the gate keepers of corrupt tradition to cheat a generation out of an education. Failure to fund the No Child Left Behind Law was bad enough. Could it be that downsizing lavish administrative offices to a refurbished school building, putting money into the classrooms of the students for whom the money is generated, and providing the needed human resource (certified teachers) for our children's classrooms is imperative? I suspect that nothing short of a parent revolution can do what no superintendent or school board has been able to accomplish for several decades.
If you have a child in school or know of someone who has a child in school in Michigan, ask them to check to be sure that their child has a teacher who can be found in the State of Michigan's website to be sure the person is a college graduate. Then, parents must keep up with what their child is doing in school to be sure the teacher is committed to educating their child. The educational system cannot move forward unless everyone is accountable (students, parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, communities, school boards, the legislators, and congresspersons).

Governor Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain contribute nothing of value for the common good between the two of them. What they have are lies, distortions, distractions, divisiveness, exaggerations, and paranoid ideations ("Lipstick on a Pig" remark).
Years ago Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and some activist before him came along and pointed out to African Americans and White Americans that there were powers who benefited from "Jim Crow" while "Jim Crow" held both poor Whites and poor African Americans down. Those at the bottom and in the middle of the economic rung began to work together in the best interest of Americans. They realized that America is the American citizenry.
Today we have a chance to go boldly forward and "Turn America Around" leaving the negatives of the Bush Administration, the fears, and the decades of paralysis from the "isms" which reek of a stench some still fear to shed.
All love to cheer the patriot but few realize themselves as such. It has been not a uniform alone, not a physical or emotional wound alone, not the loss of freedom alone, nor physical pain alone. One's ability to love one's fellowman, with all of one's soul, and do the right thing by one's fellowman is the soldier's sole purpose for putting on a uniform, bearing physical pain and deprivation, and loosing one's freedom if need be.
Once the "patriot" can no longer be loyal/truthful to the citizens at large and to "the least of them", especially, that patriot is but "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal". Let the past patriotic deeds be remembered with praise. However, a change for the people is necessary. The patriot and the needs of the patriot are not greater than those of the people he once served when in uniform.
I am an Obama supporter not because he is young and African American. I want my country to live up to the core democratic values we teach children everyday in school. Telling the truth is one of those major core values. We will not get either from McCain-Palin.   Read More »

As I have listened to Obama, Clinton, and McCain closer than I have ever listened to any politicians, I recognize that fifth century Greece is highly relevant. Fifth century Sophist were responsible for education in the rhetorical arts being taught to anyone who wanted to find ways of "finding all the available means of persuading" others to actions and or beliefs important to the persuasive speaker.

However, Aristotle and Plato must be rotating in their graves as McCain practices the sophistry of Gorgias which had no moral ground, high or low. It has been eye popping to listen to CNN commentators verbalizing a concern that the Democrats are less qualified to present negative ads and speeches than the Republicans. They seem to suggest that the Democrats had better hurry and go negative fast and furious if they plan to win the 2008 election.

As a student of behavioral science and one who comprehends the importance of analyzing one's audience, I cannot help but speculate that if the political news commentators are correct, then a large portion of the American public may complain about gutter behavior but is not able to resist yielding to its influence. I have heard lies, distortions, and misrepresentations passed as good ads. My concern is more for the overall adult voting citizens and students whose social studies teachers need to be gathering and archiving this data for classroom scrutiny. Failure to educate our children so they can make choices with their eyes wide opened could lead to our downfall. Imagine how Hitler got over.
I am an Obama supporter. I empathize with his dilemma. Either he tries to stay on high ground and risk loosing or lowers his standards and joins McCain in the gutter of the Republican Slime Machine. My prayer is that he fine something we have not seen in politics in my life time, a way to raise the public to higher ground. Is this truly the "The Impossible Dream"?

On Thursday, June 19th at 4 p.m. teachers and community residents will rally at Spain Middle School at 3700 Beaubien between Mack and Warren(across from Children's Hospital) to due to 14 areas of concern listed by the Detroit Federation of Teachers in a June 10, 2008 "Union Hot Line" alert. Those 14 issues and a legal decision favoring one DPS teacher have pushed the local into a fight mode. Go to www.detnews.com - Type Conn - click on Judge:DPS Teacher Gets Job Back and read this article. If you are interested in thespecifics of the 14 issues contact me.
Evelyn

Equity in education in America is at risk if parents, educators, or legislators do not address the public's right to know in a realistic manner.

Dr. Harry Wong in his book The First Days of School states that teachers should post their credentials in the classroom so parents know who is working with their children. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards states that, "Teachers should know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to their students". A math teacher in grades 6-12 should be a teacher with a math major. Isn't this only reasonable?

School districts are not requiring teachers to post their credentials. Should they?

Barbers, beauticians, mechanics, doctors, social workers, psychologist, and many of the people who provide services to the public do post their credentials. Why don't the people who take care of our most precious possessions(the minds, spirits, and future of tomorrow)post their credentials? Have we anything to gain or loose by having teachers post their credentials? These are questions desperately in need of answers and action.

Accordng to the(NCLB)No Child Left Behind Law as of June 2006 every classroom was to have a "Highly Qulaified Teacher".

Until this matter is resolved equity and adequacy in educcation will remain at risk. The risk will be greatest among those who are in low income areas.