We have to realize that much of what is written about North Korea is for popular digestion regarding potential invasion. Let's face it, North Korea is ripe for capitalism, there are millions of potential workers who will work for near nothing. The hope is that the regime will crumble like the Soviet Union and give way to massive investment opportunities.Right.
There is much to complain about South Korea under military rule. But, in case the professor didn't notice, the South Koreans escaped repression and achieved freedom. It turns out that nasty dictator Park Chung-hee (and he was nasty!) followed economic policies which allowed his people to avoid famine and escape poverty. And dictator Chun Doo-hwan responded to mass protests by holding an election. Silly fellow. He was later convicted and originally sentenced to death for his crimes. His successor, a former general and ally named Roh Tae-woo, allowed another election in which former dissident Kim Young-sam was elected. Roh also later was convicted and sentenced to prison.See what I mean?
These guys were amateurs compared to the Kims.
False [about the racial disparities]. There is no difference between socioeconomic status or race and support. The only difference between parents is gumption. Are you willing to have a "teacher" look you in the eye and tell you they are the "expert" when you as the parent spend more time with your child on a daily basis? All the material for a sped [special ed.] parent to be "fully informed" is free, they may represent themselves in court for free, and every state has a parent center just to help due to IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act]. While it has always been the squeaky wheel that gets the oil in local education agency (LEA) terms from PTA to sped, the one factor that explains this disparity is parent literacy. Think about it. A layman (or translator) can do it but it takes concerted effort.
More importantly, however, is not what the (greedy) parents negotiate for but what works best. The aides, o/t, speech, etc. are all irrelevant if the parent is not focused on the student always having access to regular education material, and finding the proper reading methodology at an early age to become proficient by 3rd grade. Otherwise, it is all an academic catch-up game fighting the entrenched school system path of sped student tracking for behaviour modification warehousing to age out of the system.
Also, this is not a matter of more funding. Sure, the teachers union is pleased to build the agenda for more money and staff, and there are, sorry to say, numerous parents happy to delegate their parental rights to self professed "experts" but it is the exact opposite of what any sped student needs to make their time matter just as a typical student's education block time would and graduate, irregardless of diploma or certificate of completion, to independent living. Lofty goal you might say but if that is not the desired path for every typical AND sped student, then someone, at some point in that student's academic career, denied them of the opportunity to further try and achieve learning milestones. (Granted, some students with mental impairment will plateau, but as a parent, don't you want to be in on that decision?) You must ask yourself, is this task a functional life skill? Reading, writing, basic math, following directions, etc. all apply within a curriculum discipline. (Tragically, many a parent and student find this out too late, hence the academic catch-up game, tracking, and excessive dropout rates.)
The one thing that could make all the difference right this moment: parental rights. We all know they don't end at the schoolhouse gate but if schools opened up and allowed parents to be their child's aide it would diminish school retaliation and an informed decision can be met for the academic/behavioural path choice that will have to be faced (with no regrets) for every student. Sadly, teachers are loath to agree to have someone around their classroom who will hold them accountable. After all, the expensive seminars and training the teachers get that the school districts pay for to accommodate sped students can then be their calling card to extra cash on the side for their home based sped "expert" business during the summer months and holiday closures. No double dipping money to be made off parent experts.
Bottom line, if you have an ASD child, homeschool. Focus on proficient reading and giving them the background knowledge to jump into the system in 6th or 7th grade, or even 4th if they are reading proficient by 3rd grade. Homeschooling will eliminate the distraction that socializing brings until they mature. Homeschooling is easy, inexpensive, and fun. I promise. However, if you can not, then I can not stress this enough: You simply MUST shadow your child for the day. You should be able to show up and do it but if the school insists on your making an appointment to do so, then by all means accommodate them, we don't want to start off antagonizing too much above and beyond the initial request, but do insist it be within three days or so. One day the MOTHER, and a separate day the FATHER, must shadow the student for the entire school day. Speak not and take notes. Volunteer to be an aide. Enter the rabbit hole then visit WrightsLaw.com
P.S. Once you have your PhD in IEPs, and you'll know, then volunteer to become an IEP advocate for foster kids. It is not very time consuming, and can make all the difference in smoothing a kids home groove if any problems or concerns with school/sped are able to be delegated with continuity until everyone is up to speed.
P.P.S. Regarding the article, what is to be learned specifically is that the tragedies are of the parents own making. Gissell's parents speak no English but expect their autistic daughter to after being placed in a special education classroom, tracked for behaviour modification with no access to regular education material for 8 years? Her mom doesn't work but never incorporated supplemental homework let alone homeschooled. (If the school is teaching her only Spanish, I would consider it abuse to raise a disabled child in America who speaks no English.)
Jese's mother was content to have him suffer in silence for six years before an ambulance chaser found her through a group of non-English speaking parents with ASD children. (Six years in LA and his mom can't speak English?) Must the school district and PTA do everything in duplicate or triplicate or more to accommodate other languages other than the one in which they do business, English?
I bet the oft noted 30 minutes a week during school of speech therapy for each student are two 15 minute group sessions a week. Useless. This is the IEP standard operating procedure across the nation for sped. Period. Furthermore, there have been studies showing institutionalized behaviour is learned, and some of the remediated students can make considerable progress. We haven't even touched on restraints. That we allow civil servants this power is shameful.
However, I think you missed the real reason this gem of "racial inequality" was brought forth, Mr. Douglas. The "wealthier parents" are the evil 1%. So much of this article's emphasis is on the fact the white parents are using, and paying for, lawyers to secure services despite the fact (and never mentioned) the IDEA law allows parents to represent themselves at all levels; IEP, hearing officer, mediation, administrative law judge, appeal, etc. For parents, there are no special legal points or advantage in procedure or law background to having a costly education attorney as legal representation. So why do they do it?
Parents rarely win vs. school administration. Look at the DOE stats across the nation and it is systemic bias. In some districts parents never win. Go to the mattresses. Parents have had to bring in the law community heavy hitters to give any grievance oxygen, and then network to force procedural change on civil servants to bring them into compliance with federal law. These white parents are paving the way and literally paying extra for it too boot. The Latinos, blacks, and illegal aliens will now have easier access to sped services upfront, but would it kill anyone to appreciate the financial drain and time sacrificed by the evil wealthier white, English speaking parents?
As a nation, we our $15 trillion in debt. It's not personal. It's business. Let's have the conversation regarding personal responsibility, parental rights, and lack of minority intellectual curiosity.
Paul has disavowed the ranting of the newsletter published under his name (just as he did when the subject came up in 2008) and his spokesman says that Paul didn't write it and "disagrees with it totally." That's comforting. Sort of. It helps distance Paul from these lunatic scribblings, but it fails to answer the question of why he allowed them to be published in the first place. He and his admirers complain bitterly when he's ignored, then protest when he's scrutinized. Paul should answer for these writings.That sounds reasonable.
This week in Washington, the United States is hosting an international conference obliquely titled "Expert Meeting on Implementing the U.N. Human Rights Resolution 16/18." The impenetrable title conceals the disturbing agenda: to establish international standards for, among other things, criminalizing "intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of … religion and belief." The unstated enemy of religion in this conference is free speech, and the Obama administration is facilitating efforts by Muslim countries to "deter" some speech in the name of human rights.Ah ha!
"While the resolution also speaks to combating incitement to violence, the core purpose behind this and previous measures has been to justify the prosecution of those who speak against religion." Although the resolution also speaks to combating incitement to violence, the core purpose behind this and previous measures has been to justify those who speak against religion. The members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, have been pushing for years to gain international legitimacy of their domestic criminal prosecutions of anti-religious speech.
This year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton invited nations to come to implement the resolution and "to build those muscles" needed "to avoid a return to the old patterns of division." Those "old patterns" include instances in which writers and cartoonists became the targets of protests by religious groups. The most famous such incident occurred in 2005 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons mocking the prophet Muhammad. The result were worldwide protests in which Muslims reportedly killed more than 100 people — a curious way to demonstrate religious tolerance. While Western governments reaffirmed the right of people to free speech after the riots, they quietly moved toward greater prosecution of anti-religious speech under laws prohibiting hate speech and discrimination.
The OIC members have long sought to elevate religious dogma over individual rights. In 1990, members adopted the Cairo Declaration, which rejected core provisions of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and affirmed that free speech and other rights must be consistent with "the principles of the sharia," or Islamic law. The biggest victory of the OIC came in 2009 when the Obama administration joined in condemning speech containing "negative racial and religious stereotyping" and asked states to "take effective measures" to combat incidents, including those of "religious intolerance." Then, in March, the U.S. supported Resolution 16/18's call for states to "criminalize incitement to imminent violence based on religion or belief." It also "condemns" statements that advocate "hostility" toward religion. Although the latest resolution refers to "incitement" rather than "defamation" of religion (which appeared in the 2005 resolution), it continues the disingenuous effort to justify crackdowns on religious critics in the name of human rights law.
The OIC has hit on a winning strategy to get Western countries to break away from their commitment to free speech by repackaging blasphemy as hate speech and free speech as the manifestation of "intolerance." Now, orthodoxy is to be protected in the name of pluralism — requiring their own notion of "respect and empathy and tolerance." One has to look only at the OIC member countries, however, to see their vision of empathy and tolerance, as well as their low threshold for anti-religious speech that incites people. In September, a Kuwaiti court jailed a person for tweeting a message deemed derogatory to Shiites. In Pakistan last year, a doctor was arrested for throwing out a business card of a man named Muhammad because he shared the prophet's name.
My name is Paul Derengowski, and I was hired by Tarrant County College in 2008 to teach Great World Religions, Bible History I & II, and Introduction to Philosophy.Continue reading.
On November 8, 2011, I gave the second of a two-part lecture on Islam, as I've been doing Spring, Fall, and sometimes twice in the Summer, dealing with Islamic history and doctrine, and more particularly Muhammad's move to Medina. A question had been raised by two Muslim students in the previous the lecture concerning the sources I used to discuss the raid at Nakhlah. At the start of the second lecture I provided my sources (The Life of Muhammad by Haykal and the Qur'an), which included reading Sura 2:216-217. That is when all hell broke loose.
Both Muslim students, for an hour, berated me, my sources, and my credentials. When other students in the class attempted to ask questions or make comments, then the Muslim students would interrupt them as well. Finally, toward the end of the class period, a student made a comment on how "scary" the person of Muhammad seemed to be. That's when the male Muslim blurted out "you ought to be scared," and then bolted for the door in a fit of outrage. I subsequently filed a campus police report on him out of concern for the safety of students and myself. The female followed suit as well, claiming later in a libelous email she passed around unbeknownst to me—that is, until one of the students forwarded the diatribe to me later—that she was not going to sit there and listen to me slander her religion, even though all I did was quote from Islamic sources.
It was the libelous email that really started the wheels in motion leading up to my resignation. The female Muslim student not only stealthily sent around the email to all the rest of the students in the class to (1) defame me behind my back, but also to (2) try and gather support for her reckless behavior.
Newt will be hammered as the right's public policy Ebenezer Scrooge who's also an epic hypocrite adulterer with the moral backbone of a snail.And barely 24 hours later, here's Charles Blow with an attack on Newt at the New York Times, "Newt’s War on Poor Children":
Newt Gingrich has reached a new low, and that is hard for him to do.I've taken after Charles Blow before for his truly epic mendacity. But I had no idea I'd forecast this idiotic attack so accurately. Ebenzer Scrooge is, of course, the tight-fisted old meany in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. Being Christmas season that's the literary image that first came to me, but a variation of the Scrooge attack is inevitable if Newt manages to win the nomination. At that point I'll of course be putting aside any differences I might have with Gingrich. Indeed, I'll be bending over backwards for his victory over Barack Obama, who he has rightly hammered as "Legitimately and Authentically a Saul Alinsky Radical."
Nearly two weeks after claiming that child labor laws are “truly stupid” and implying that poor children should be put to work as janitors in their schools, he now claims that poor children don’t understand work unless they’re doing something illegal.
On Thursday, at a campaign stop in Iowa, the former House speaker said, “Start with the following two facts: Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.” (His second “fact” was that every first generational person he knew started work early.)
This statement isn’t only cruel and, broadly speaking, incorrect, it’s mind-numbingly tone-deaf at a time when poverty is rising in this country. He comes across as a callous Dickensian character in his attitude toward America’s most vulnerable — our poor children. This is the kind of statement that shines light on the soul of a man and shows how dark it is.
The purest of personally pure candidates will be faulted for being a religious nut and not hip enough to be president, someone from the white bread 1950s. Policies advocating personal responsibility and empowerment will be portrayed as cruel and favoring the rich. Advocacy of treating people according to the content of their characters rather than the colors of their skin will be protrayed as racially insensitive or racist.Exactly.
Bjerke Upper Secondary School in Oslo filled one of the three general studies sets solely with pupils with immigrant parents, after many white Norwegians from last year's intake changed schools.
The controversy over the decision has highlighted the unease in Norway over how to integrate the 420,000 "non-Nordic" citizens who immigrated between 1990 and 2009, and who make up 28 per cent of Oslo's population.
"This is the first time I've heard about this, and it is totally unacceptable," Torge Ødegaard, Oslo education commissioner, said on Friday, before pressuring the school to inform parents that the three classes would now be reorganised. The letter to parents read: "Such a division of the students is not in accordance with the requirements of the Education Act. The school regrets this error."
But Robert Wright, a Christian Democrat politician and former head of the city's schools board, struck back, arguing that the authorities had been wrong to block the move. He also said that other Oslo schools should start to segregate classes to prevent a situation of "white flight" developing.
"I think we have to try this to see how it's functioning," he told The Daily Telegraph. "Bjerke School has come up with a radical solution to a real problem, but the politicians have just said 'no'."
RABAT, Morocco — A moderate Islamist party appeared Saturday to have won the first election under Morocco’s new Constitution, according to partial election returns announced by the government.Right. What a scam.
The Justice and Development Party won a plurality of the vote, requiring the king to choose a prime minister from the party and giving it the right to lead a coalition government.
The new Constitution, drafted by King Mohammed VI in response to pro-democracy protests last spring, still reserves important powers for the king, including over military and religious matters, and remains a far cry from the constitutional monarchy demanded by the protesters. But the government will be Morocco’s first popularly elected one, with the power to appoint ministers and dissolve Parliament.
The vote on Friday also made Morocco the second North African country after the Arab Spring to choose a moderate Islamist government. Tunisians gave a plurality to a similarly inclined party last month.
