"Congratulations to HTES and LMES for receiving their Confucius in the Classroom Grants. Each school will receive $10,000 for materials."
The problem is that these materials come from the Chinese government itself. Many schools and universities have rejected these materials as soft propaganda put out by the Chinese government to, "win the world's hearts and minds, not just its economic markets, as a means of cementing power".
What we would really like to know is if Hanban (a direct Chinese government group that runs the Confucius Institutes) is paying for these the teachers who are coming to our district. Should we have Communists directly teaching our students? We don't think so.
But frankly we could care less. We see nothing wrong with our students learning about other cultures and languages, but again this shows what is wrong with our leadership and direction.
- Just because someone is offering you money for your programs, doesn't mean you take it. First you do the research to see if it is effective, if fits in with the current program, and meets the students academic needs. We see no evidence that this meets our students academic needs, fits in with other offerings, or is effective.
- Focus like a laser. Spinning your wheels on this is not focus. We know its tired but "reading, writing, arithmetic."
- Where is\was the governing board and public input? Not a peep of this outside of the a small group at HTES until it was fully unveiled in the Arizona Republic. Will the public have a chance to review these text books and materials. Where is the required text book adoption and public review?
- This will be a PR nightmare. Given the conservative leanings of our community, when they get ahold of it, it will haunt the district for years.
Next week's Sonoran News headline, "CCUSD to teach Communism to kindergartners".
Are you making something out of nothing?
ReplyDeleteHas anyone seen the next board meeting agenda? What's this about public comment relative to moving part of grid number 40 from LMES boundary to BMES? Why??
Report this to the Arizona Department of Education. Look at how they addressed the La Raza studies. House Bill 2281 states that schools cannot teach classes that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government."
ReplyDeleteJust look at BMES, switching to Core Knowledge, did not go to the parents to get a say on this. Well,other than feeling forced to vote yes at the PTO level because they thought the teachers were ok with it. What a mess.
ReplyDeleteThis is Jana Miller and Deb Burdicks vision...Ellie Gaines was hired to further their aganda..the fact that she is gifting her consultant fees to the district ensures her position...as for the parents who have been the backbone of this school...they are no longer needed especially if they don't share in this "idea"...Core Knowledge was a plan in motion and the teachers (if they wanted a job )had no other option than to agree...
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that they don't want our input. Why should a first year teacher get a vote on a curriculum or program that will affect our students and community for years, yet us parents do not have a say? This isn't necessarily a CCUSD problem but a problem nonetheless. And what are the chances that we will even have the same principals, administrators, or superintendent in 3 years. Very small given the history in CCUSD.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a review of your link to DVUSD would shed some light around this topic. That district is also teaching Chinese and received the same grants as CCUSD.
ReplyDeleteDVUSD is also losing kids to charter and home schooling even with excelling ratings, high AIMS scores etc.
Funding is at the heart of most of this... Education is changing dramatically. Parents are willing to pay to play. Think of it has "club school" instead of "club sports"--a looming paradigm shift. Business wants to shape the workforce and is willing to pay to see that it is done. "Public" money is drying up--(no bonds, taxes) or comes with tremendous constraints.
STEM is a perfect example. DVUSD just received a huge grant from Motorola for participation in that endeavor. Not much different from the Chinese government encouraging the US to learn their language. In fact, imagine... STEM students who speak Chinese?(LMES) What recruiter wouldn't be thrilled with that resume?
We are heading in two directions. CCUSD is caught in the middle. They are too small to provide everything that is out there, like a PVUSD, SUSD, or DVUSD and to big to focus like a one location charter. So where are parents turning? Either to a "one-room school house" (Bella Vista, Foothills) or a larger-resourced district (PV/Scottsdale).
Therein lies the vision and leadership challenge.
If this is true, our board and the administration should do what is best for our children and our community...start the process to merge with another district...they have already begun the blending of CCUSD with the one room (private expensive) school house on their public school property
ReplyDeleteAugust 13, 2010 6:21am, you hit the nail on the head..we are trying to play "with the big boys" and the "one room school house" , but in the mix we have lost what we were doing really well. CCUSD has lost its identity chasing it's tail. What really stinks is because of the lack of leadership in the District Adminstration, School Board and Principals we have lost more students than "normal". We would not have left if there was clear decise decisions with the best interest of my child. We sold our soul to the devil and not sure CCUSD can buy it back.
ReplyDeleteBelow is a link that has a great video about learning Chinese. It is well worth watching.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?entry_id=65297