Martha Roby--Is Her Heart In It?--Candidate For US House of Representatives

Audio Link to interview

These days it is hard to meet politicians that means it when they say they want to get the job done.  In an interview with Mrs. Martha Roby who is vying for the seat currently held by Democrat Bobby Bright--I daresay I heard something akin to where the cliche- "where the rubber meets the road" applies.  When asked what was so important that takes her away from her precious children--she said the answer lies in her children and the future they will have.

I believe she truly means it.  Many parents today are waking up to that fact that something has to change in their attitude, in their way of doing things--leaving it to someone else is no longer an acceptable mode. Too much corruption, too much manipulation for personal gain, too much crime, too much loss of jobs and personal freedoms have made many put their feet in the ground toward Washington.  Instead of leaving it to someone else, her family has prayerfully considered the options and they see this as an opportunity to preserve their nation and their children's future.

She is a studious person as we could discern from the notes she was taking--she is also willing to listen and learn.  Perhaps that in itself will be her greatest difference along with many others who hope to win in the November election.  There is a groaning amongst the people--there are businesses perishing and people hurting as joblessness and hopelessness seems to fill the land.

But in the land of the free and home of the brave--there are brave men and women who takes the legacy of this nation seriously.  Venturing to give all they have not for money but for a better future. That is what sets America apart and the likes of Martha Roby who finds the strength to forge ahead in spite of obstacles to keep this nation free and full of hope for their posterity.  The question now is who will America trust--the truth comes after Nov 2nd 2010.  Roby vs Bright--a fight that will be played out all over this nation and yes will determine whether America shines or goes dimmer still...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."  Preamble to the US Constitution

Can you protect the children like these Marines?

This is little-known story from the Pentagon on 09/11/2001:

During a visit with a fellow chaplain, who happened to be assigned to the Pentagon, I had a chance to hear a first-hand account of an incident that happened right after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. The chaplain told me what happened at a daycare center near where the impact occurred. This daycare had many children, including infants who were in heavy cribs. The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could do. There were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants that would need to be taken out with the  cribs.

 There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers. Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they needed. After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, 'well, there we are-on our own.'

 About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac and the Pentagon. Once they got about 3/4 of a  mile  outside the building, the Marines stopped in the park, and then did a fabulous thing - they formed a circle with the cribs, which were quite sturdy and heavy, like the covered wagons in the Old West. Inside this circle of cribs, they put the toddlers, to keep them from wandering off. Outside this circle were the 40 Marines, forming a perimeter around the children and waiting for instructions. There they remained until the parents could be notified and come get their children.

 The chaplain then said, "I don't think any of us saw nor heard of this on any of the news stories of the day. It was an incredible story of our men there. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. The thought of those Marines and what they did and how fast they reacted; could we expect any less from them? It was one of the most touching stories from the Pentagon.

Let us do our part to protect the children--Please help prevent the nationalizing of education.  A vote is set soon for states such as Alabama.  Get informed!!

Alert:   Nationalizing Education--Vote Set Nov 18th--As one mother has said, "our kids are not for sale". 

Last year, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers agreed to sponsor the Common Core State Standards Initiative with help from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Department of Education (USDE).  Goal were to develop common mathematics and English, Language, Arts (ELA) standards that states could supposedly voluntarily adopt.  USDE then included adoption of the standards as part of the application for states to qualify for “Race to the Top” education grants.  Most states agreed to it even before the standards were published in June. 

Here are warnings from Professor Jim Milgram and Professor Sandra who were in the national validation committee forming the standards.  In spite of what is being said by others these two were the experts in Math and ELA and here is what they say:

"How can the State Boards of Education make decisions when they haven't even read the standards? Many state's Board Member had never been initiated into what was in these documents.  What were the policy issues coming out of these documents and whether these analyses were truly were in a sense legitimate academic analysis...These are very serious issues about what self- government means at the state and local government level."--Sandra Stotsky,  professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and holds the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.

"...the requirement to automaticity on their own self- invented algorithms, was one of the political issues that came in at the last moment and it's  absolutely crazy.  And then there was an entire list of similar ones, that equally made no sense whatsoever in terms of the long term development of children's mathematical capacity." --  Dr. R. James Milgram, professor of Mathematics at Stanford University, member of NASA advisory council.

Bottom line is that CCSS is going to open the door wide to more indoctrination as the English is now going to be more about information and with Kevin Jennings in the USDE that is very troubling.   More dumbing down as in the math, children will learn their own way which could be wrong, and then- maybe a couple of years later the right way.  What input parents had by going to their school boards will no longer be there.  You have til Nov to contact Gov Riley (334) 242-7100 and State Board Chairman Dr. Morton (334) 242-9700 and tell them whether or not you want the Common Core States Standards.  The first regional meeting was last Tues in Mobile and only two parents went (most don't know).  

Meetings set for:

10/05/2010 Birmingham/Spain Park High School 5:30 p.m.
10/12/2010 Montgomery/Carver High School 5:30 p.m.
10/19/2010 Decatur/Austin High School 5:30 p.m.

See interviews on the podsite with these two professors

Waiting For Superman--The Other Side Voicing Concern Against CCSSI

Emergency Alert(as one mother has said-Our Kids Are Not For Sale Not Even In This Drastic Economy. ) Many states signed on in hopes of getting education dollars.  It is time to see the truth--this common standards or national standards--will take away parental input at the local shool boards!!!

There is a need for better schools--without a question--but getting our governors to go along with the common core standards is not the way to go as Waiting For Superman closes with that suggestion.

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)  with Achieve, ACT and the College Board partnered (with a jump start from Bill Gates) for the Common Core Standards States Initiative or CCSSI.

It is supposed to get our kids college and career ready which is a wonderful goal but there are strings attached which should not be there--one very glaring is the fact that many parents will lost their voice through their local school boards as to what will be taught their children--as the common core standards will be set nationally.

Here are some info and links from the other side with valid concerns (most specially the right of parents).

Most prominent are the perspective from Professor Jim Milgram and Professor Sandra Stotsky who were in the national validation committee of the common core standards.  Most states agreed to these standards as part of their application for "race to the top" grants--even before the standards were published in June.

"How can the State Boards of Education make decisions when they haven't even read the standards? Many state's Board Member had never been initiated into what was in these documents.  What were the policy issues coming out of these documents and whether these analyses were truly were in a sense legitimate academic analysis-- a really serious issue of uninformed Boards of Education in this country which they would never do on most other issues.  These are very serious issues about what self- government means at the state and local government level."--Sandra Stotsky,  professor in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and holds the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.

"There are two separate automacity requirements for all of the algorithms--one is their own construction and then the other is the standard algorithm.  Standard Algorithm always come a year or two later and so these students are going to learn their own way of doing things many of which are incorrect and then they're going to learn the standard algorithm and they're going to get totally confused.  The net effect in terms of learning is that they know neither approach verywell.  The second set of things-- the requirement to automaticity on their own self- invented algorithms was one of the political issues that came in at the last moment and it's  absolutely crazy.  And then there was an entire list of similar ones, that equally made no sense whatsoever in terms of the long term development of children's mathematical capacity." --  Dr. R. James Milgram, professor of mathematics at Stanford University.

Since they were on the inside and have such impeccable outstanding background--their knowledge is truly worth listening to and these are their interviews for you to hear them yourself.

Part I-- with Betty Peters

Part II--with Betty Peters, Penny Wolcott, Donna Garner and Beth Schultz

Part III --with Dawn Wildman of the California Tea Party and Wayne Wood, retired teacher

More Interviews to give you more perspectives:

Part IV--with Betty Peters, Beth Schultz, Audrey Buffington, and Anne Marie Banfield 

Part V--with Donna Garner, Sue Neuwein, Margaret Dobbs, Wanda McDonald and Pastor Mary Shellnut

More links worth reading (we will keep posting more daily):

Common Sense on Common Core

Anne Marie Banfield

Beth Schultz

Jamie Gass

Waiting For Superman--Exposed

Everywhere they are looking for a way to fix education.  The new movie Waiting For Superman hopes to give America the answer.  It addresses the problem of teachers who performs so badly and who can not be removed from their positions.  Some would have us to opt for a new kind of schools --Charter schools.  

The annual cost for inmate is more than double what is spent on a student in public schcol.  Congress passed the  No Child Left Behind act, and eight years later 70 percent of eighth graders could not read at grade level.  So Hollywood in its wonderful ability to play on our mind is going to convince us that the CCSSI-Common Core States Standards Initiative that the Gates Foundation started--(which will nationalize education) is the way to do it.  It will save our children.

I hope and pray parents will listen to interviews with Professors Jim Milgram and Sandra Stotsky (both with impeccable backgrounds as experts in education) both on National Validation Committee on the common core standards and who tells us what happens when the best intentions is married with politics and other motives.  Professor Jim Milgram, Math Professor from Stanford cites in this interview:

• He sees problems with fluency or automaticity(you want to learn a technique for adding, subtracting to multiply and dividing so well lthat you don't have time to think about it.)  There are two different fluency standards at each grade level in these new core standards.
• One is what they call self-constructed algorithms which could be anything including wrong and other is for the standard algorithms.  My first objection was that I can't imagine the degree of confusion that students are going to have having to learn to complete fluency (they're often non-sensical algorithms) and then a year or so later having to learn the fluency of the standard algorithms.  Inconsistent, there's a bunch of that in there-both in algorithms for ordinary arithmetic and equally as bad for fractions.  If you can't have fractions you can't develop Algebra. Algebra really depends on what kids learn in fractions.  When they move from ordinary arithmetic to arithemtic of fractions--everythings they see there is duplicated as basically the same in the Algebra.  So if they get the fractions right the Algebra should be very simple if they don't get fractions right the Algebra may be in fact be impossible.
• There has been research done and we know it in math committee itself we understand better what most of these things mean that we did 100 years ago when the original designs were developed.  It is possible to take that knowledge and improve instruction but that is something that is done in high achieving countries such as the east Asian countries in particular but is something that is intensely resisted by the education committee in this country.

In light of just that can we really expect this to save America's children?  Food for thought-the CCSSI 

-hear complete interview--click on this link--click on the POD icon in gray at beginning of description.

Also hear more interviews and share before America is brainwashed and the truth hidden when Hollywood covers the issues as they truly can with so much glimmer and glitz.  Hope adults can see through it more than our kids can.

America doesn't have to wait--the answer is here (click on link).  It worked so well that one of Europe's social scientist remarked "... and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth."

Best Schools In America--Where Are They?

 Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of his travels through America in the early 19th Century and he observed:

• "Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.
• The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.
• There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equaled by their ignorance and their debasement, while in America one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world fulfills all the outward duties of religion with fervor."

The above reminds us where the best schools were in America.  It is time America studied its history and go back to the ways that worked.  Let us learn:

• We have tried making so many rules for our children--yet we have raised generations who care not about laws.  
• We have tried spending more money for better bigger schools--yet the majority of these schools are failling and drop out rates are increasing.  
• We have tried to make them learn in more modern, technological ways yet we are falling  behind as a nation.  
• What could be wrong?  Well the answer is what was the key to America when Alexader de Tocquiville came and what he found was the same mindset that raised a great nation.  

America was one of the most literate nations then?  What are we now.  The freedoms we were given-paid for with blood, sweat and tears have been squandered like pearls in the troth for pigs.  We no longer look at the responsibility that comes with that freedom (we even think the Founders equate that with the right to burn our Flag.)  Have we gotten so smart that we have lost our common sense too!

Observation then and now to better schools:

• First thing should be the fear or awe of the Lord--it is the beginning of wisdom.  
• The Founders knew that and no national standards, school system, administrator, educator can ever truly lead this nation to the right path without that right foundation.  
• Study the formula the Founders had which started with God--why not do it again, after all that was their intent for their posterity "One nation under God".

Link for perspectives from people in the know of what's wrong with the common core standards being set for today's children.

May God bless America and may God help America with true leaders that know where our help comes from for great is the nation who fears the Lord.  The opposite will be what was in John Winthrop's warning when America is no longer a "city on a hill."  

The Military--Where Does The Warrior's Help Come From

Hear an update from John Bernard on the war on terror. We can not appreciate our military families enough and his family is one who gave their best and so should all of us. There is no excuse for not being informed--we owe it as part of our duty as co-laborers in the fight to keep this nation truly free from tyranny.  Pastor Matt Smith of Barabbas Road Church joins him as they help the warrior with the battles they and their families face.  Men of valor throughout history had to face to find the truth to survive---so can you.  Hear some moving perspectives that gives hope to mankind and unites people like Mosab Hassan Yousef (son of a Hamas founder) with the Joshua Bernards of this world.  Click on picture to hear interview.  Go to podsite link on right if you wish to pass it on to friends with smartphones and there is an app for this on itunes.

Parental Rights--Who will Defend it when parents are too tired to know they are in trouble?

Listen to the above latest interview on the shaping of America's future.  Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. --Ben Franklin
 

Today most parents are in the dark about two attacks on their rights to raise their children.  They are so busy  just trying to make it through their day what with work, chores and the additional ball games, dance classes and other activities on their almost full plate.  Many expect the news they see on 6 o'clock to tell them everything they need.  But alas, they should know by now-mainstream media doesn't tell them everything they need to know especially on the Common Core States Standards (CCSS) or Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSI).

Here's the scoop parents--there are two merging actions that without you to stop it--will be taking away your parental rights.  One is what is touted as the Common Core States Standards supposedly to help train your students to become college and career ready.  And after all shouldn't a child in all states have equal access to that kind of education?  

The other is called the UN Treaty on the Rights of a Child.  Children should have rights to good things like food, care etc.  Sounds good at the top but what's underneath it stinks--like the right of a child to take you to court over your decisions he or she disagrees.  Sounds preposterous but unfortunately it's already happening in Europe.

These things will make this already confused world worse and parents can't run to home-schooling as the UN Treaty on the Rights of a Child will take that option away.  The clock is ticking and as you can tell this administration is working fast and furiously before the Nov election.  

Please pray and open your eyes.  Hear the truth from experts.  Of course there are those who would rather you remain asleep--it works better for their agenda that way.

Link to Article by Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum

Link from Missouri Education Watchdog

Here are the links to the Common Core Standards Initiative or Common Core States Standards:

 Part I     Part II   

Watch 5 min video from State Board of Ed Member Warning

Here is the link to the UN Treaty On The Rights of a Child

If you want to do something--pick up some ideas here

For great in-depth look check out this link--to find Common Sense on Common Core

Great video about the money behind it.