Okay, ever since Barack Hussein Obama took office, we have seen a startling surge forward towards implementation of the Marxist ideals he holds so dear. In case some of you haven't been paying attention, let me point out a couple of pillars of Communism put forth by Karl Marx and his pal Frederich Engels in "The Communist Manifesto":
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
Now, I think all of us agree that what is in store for all of us, based upon the current deficits facing America, that this pillar is just around the corner (hell, we're already there in many cases) - but we have seen new proposals today that Americans be hit with a VAT - it's progressive, for sure.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Umm....has anyone noticed the control that the Federal government has now over the financial institutions of America? Can you say, "stress test" ?
Anyway, just the other day Barack Hussein Obama decided to float the idea that American children should stay in school year round because our children are falling behind others in the world. Obama is saying that America's children aren't putting enough time in at school and since this announcement, many on the Right have come forward to question the control that Obama is trying to wield. Many have tried to analyze what Obama's real motives are here. Well, I decided to join in.
First, look at this quote from the article on Obama's new school year plan from Yahoo News:
Okay, so Obama's Education Secretary is pointing out that in today's society, we just don't have kids needed on the family farm during the late spring, summer and early fall months. Oh really, Mr. Duncan? Hmmm....perhaps Mr. Duncan hasn't spent too much time in the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, North Dakota, etc. I would propose that a good number of students in rural schools in those states and others ARE needed on family farms...but wait....hold on just a second here. What if Obama's plan wasn't even about our kids getting smarter? What if Obama's plan was more sinister?
Let's do a quick review: Obama has seen to it that the Federal government is heavily involved now in the financial/banking markets, the Federal government has ownership in the top manufacturing sectors of America and as for the communications in this Land, I believe we can certainly cede television as nearly state run and the President recently sought power to shut the internet down for governmental purposes if need be. So let's see...what doesn't the government have control of? Hmmm.....hey! Could it be food?
Quick, let's go back and check out what Obama's buddy Karl Marx had to say with another pillar of Communism:
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
Interesting, wouldn't you say? Let me lay this out, plain and simple. America's family farmers are already an endangered species but they still account for a good deal of the food produced in America. If the family farms were to hit yet another huge bump in the road, say...perhaps the children that work on those family farms are forced to stay in school year round and that labor pool is thus taken from those farms, well, it could very well be the straw that broke the camel's back.
With family farms thus falling by the wayside, those farms would be gobbled up by the huge corporate farming operations of America and what we would end up with is a small contingent of corporations controlling upwards of 90% of the food produced in America. So, it would be kind of like three automobile manufacturers producing America's cars and trucks. As shown above, the Federal government used it's leverage and control and power to infiltrate the nation's auto makers and if there are these few agricultural corporations, the same could be easily done in that arena.
My message is simple - Barack Hussein Obama cannot afford the time it would take to wrestle control away from the family farms of America...but he'd be a lot closer to that goal if those family farms went belly up and by forcing kids into school 12 months a year, he will have taken away the labor needed to sustain those farms.
Something to ponder, eh comrades?
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
Now, I think all of us agree that what is in store for all of us, based upon the current deficits facing America, that this pillar is just around the corner (hell, we're already there in many cases) - but we have seen new proposals today that Americans be hit with a VAT - it's progressive, for sure.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
Umm....has anyone noticed the control that the Federal government has now over the financial institutions of America? Can you say, "stress test" ?
Anyway, just the other day Barack Hussein Obama decided to float the idea that American children should stay in school year round because our children are falling behind others in the world. Obama is saying that America's children aren't putting enough time in at school and since this announcement, many on the Right have come forward to question the control that Obama is trying to wield. Many have tried to analyze what Obama's real motives are here. Well, I decided to join in.
First, look at this quote from the article on Obama's new school year plan from Yahoo News:
"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.
Okay, so Obama's Education Secretary is pointing out that in today's society, we just don't have kids needed on the family farm during the late spring, summer and early fall months. Oh really, Mr. Duncan? Hmmm....perhaps Mr. Duncan hasn't spent too much time in the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, North Dakota, etc. I would propose that a good number of students in rural schools in those states and others ARE needed on family farms...but wait....hold on just a second here. What if Obama's plan wasn't even about our kids getting smarter? What if Obama's plan was more sinister?
Let's do a quick review: Obama has seen to it that the Federal government is heavily involved now in the financial/banking markets, the Federal government has ownership in the top manufacturing sectors of America and as for the communications in this Land, I believe we can certainly cede television as nearly state run and the President recently sought power to shut the internet down for governmental purposes if need be. So let's see...what doesn't the government have control of? Hmmm.....hey! Could it be food?
Quick, let's go back and check out what Obama's buddy Karl Marx had to say with another pillar of Communism:
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
Interesting, wouldn't you say? Let me lay this out, plain and simple. America's family farmers are already an endangered species but they still account for a good deal of the food produced in America. If the family farms were to hit yet another huge bump in the road, say...perhaps the children that work on those family farms are forced to stay in school year round and that labor pool is thus taken from those farms, well, it could very well be the straw that broke the camel's back.
With family farms thus falling by the wayside, those farms would be gobbled up by the huge corporate farming operations of America and what we would end up with is a small contingent of corporations controlling upwards of 90% of the food produced in America. So, it would be kind of like three automobile manufacturers producing America's cars and trucks. As shown above, the Federal government used it's leverage and control and power to infiltrate the nation's auto makers and if there are these few agricultural corporations, the same could be easily done in that arena.
My message is simple - Barack Hussein Obama cannot afford the time it would take to wrestle control away from the family farms of America...but he'd be a lot closer to that goal if those family farms went belly up and by forcing kids into school 12 months a year, he will have taken away the labor needed to sustain those farms.
Something to ponder, eh comrades?
More school: Obama would curtail summer vacation
WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to 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.
Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.
But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.
Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."
Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. 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?
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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.
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).
___
Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than 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."
In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.
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 calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.
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.
The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.
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."
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