Kids Speaking Up: Expectations Rise Along with Obama

» Ethel Thomas-Resolitzsky on 01.08.09 @ 07:39 AM

Bravo!  Justin Morris, a freshman at Dos Pueblos High, just posted a call to re-establish the ideological legitimacy of the United States.

Kids Speaking Up! represents a student-driven reform movement in democratic education. 

Since our children will grow up to inherit our world, I pose the question, “How do we get our dysfunctional society to listen to them?” 

That begs the question, “How do we unstop the deaf ears of adults and get them to hear?”

Children in parent-cooperative schools are supported to speak up and speak out. There are “a hundred languages of children, and our present educational system steals all but one.” (Loris Malaguzzi, Reggio Emilia Education).

As adults, we must speak up for our children’s rights, and speak out for Truth, Justice, and The American Way.  Truly democratic citizens have a love of life-long learning and a loathing of abuse of power.

Sadly, as Justin points out, our world is unraveling.  Let us turn to the children to re-weave the fabric of our society.  They “think outside” our old ways and work wonders in new ways of their own. 

Please tell me the protocol for copying your post to another website (http://www.sbschooltalk.ning.com) and send this to Obama.  Just because you can’t vote, doesn’t mean you can’t be his pundit, policy-maker, and part of his platform for reform.

Yes, you ARE.

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» Here We Go! on 01.08.09 @ 09:46 PM

Clay Nelson wrote some suggestions for “being the change:”

http://www.noozhawk.com/columnists/article/clay_nelson_life_balance_have_a_hand_in_changing_the_world

Seek and ye shall find! 

What a world!

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» Lehlthomres@gmail.com on 01.09.09 @ 08:25 PM

Define your terms, surfthe805, and then make your points and arguments. 

Just because Justin has a Democratic tone does not make his article an indoctrination any more than a body’s muscle tone makes it an athlete.

Just as I challenged Broadly Informed, state the “misinformation” and correct it with substantive arguments rather than self-righteous indignation.

Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can blog—-but it takes a combination of critical-thinking skills and language arts abilities to write commentary.

That you would judge the piece to be without merit because it does not promote your ideological perspective is the problem in our society today. 

We are confronted by an ethical imperative.  Our government is dysfunctional and corrupt—- our society is financially bankrupt because of a moral and civil meltdown.

We have lost the ability to communicate—-to dialogue and debate, to relate and resolve conflict, to respect and respond respectfully.  In short, we’re in deep doo-doo.

We express without concern or common sense, we speak sans compassion, sans empathy, sans positive regard.

We stand at school board podiums with proverbial stone-age props, slinging proverbial “sticks and stones” at each other in an attempt to make our adversaries, nay enemies, conform to our archaic, Old West Ways while our children communicate honestly—-with their real names and faces—-online in a social network that we old farts cannot fathom let alone join.

That their eyes envision a better future, that their minds think beyond our petty, greedy, vindictive, arrogant, brutish, and stupid beings, that their hearts are open to new ideas and different people, that they can hope, dream, express, and admire within the reality that our society bequeaths them is an absolute miracle.

That there is a divide between the young and old is nothing new; that the old will now turn to the young—-anyone under thirty—-to re-boot humanity, re-establish democracy, return to nature, and re-invent community—-that’s the greatest story ever told, and it will be in words, deed, and action—-not insults, spins, and spewing.

Both you and Broadly Informed miss the fact that this is an opinion piece and whereas you have equal rights to your opinions, your comments are wrong-headed.

Until bloggers are willing to use real names and argue points rather than criticize personalities, online interaction will be pointless and putrid. 

(Obviously, I am venting, smarting from other dumb threads.)

Justin Morris, go to the head of the class! 

Surfthe805 and Broadly Informed: inertia is nauseating; post an opposing piece or go lament like Miniver Cheevey—- but let the young get on with business of re-building a bridge to peaceful world without jeers from the generations who blew it up.

There’s a parent-teacher uprising and a student-driven education reform movement, Justin.  Please join us on http://www.sbschooltalk.ning.com

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» Lehl on 01.12.09 @ 04:44 PM

Dear Surf,

I’m getting dizzy from your spin! Here’s what you wrote:

“Do you go through life trying to make everyone like you? If so how do you know who you really are?”

Here’s my creed:  “Be who you are and say what you feel, for those who mind, don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”  Dr. Seuss

Surf wrote: “We are America. We have a unique culture, we do things the American way and if the world doesn’t like it they can stuff it. We show more restraint that any county in history given the power we possess.”

Yes, we are the greatest country in the world, founded on divine principles of democracy by a bunch of enterprising people who happened-upon a great expanse of land inhabited by primitive people. 

That the “American Way” has included genocide, slavery, and 100 years of segregation does not make me unhappy or miserable, it’s just that I realize arrogance, ignorance, and abuse of power are constants in the world and I loathe that our heritage has somehow lodged in our society’s minds and hearts. Your inferences and illogic are insufferable.

You write, “We give more aid to the world in than any country on the planet and what thanks do we get?” A country with our wealth and power can afford to be magnanimous—-are you looking for thanks from the poor and starving people of the third world who, by the way, do give thanks for their daily bread, which is often all that they see of our charity?

I have a sense of humor and your “opposing view” and “arguments” had me ROTFLWTPLME.  That you would be “bullied” by bloggers and take umbrage to my words makes me wonder just which one of us you were referring to when you said, “Don’t let your bitterness consume you dearie.”  Eat your heart out.

School corruption is rapidly rising to our nation’s consciousness, and my words of support and encouragement were for a young man whose generation will soon inherit a godawful mess.

My heart is hopeful, glad, and loving and I can be found on sbschooltalk, working for a new school paradigm.

Your quantum leap from “muscle tone” to Michael Moore is astounding; Michael Moore wrestles only with his conscience, which is something you might want to exercise yourself.

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