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The problem behind Common Core, or as Mike O rightfully calls the misuse of Common Core, is that all we have are rumors. If the rumors are true we have a disaster in the making. Well, the rumors are true and the test that was turned in to a British Paper (excellent move) proves it.
According to the newspaper that has seen the test,
It’s full of long, dense, off-the-wall nonfiction passages on making wind tunnels, soil formation and studying whales. There are two short stories, both set overseas. And there’s a vague selection from a poem about loneliness that students must interpret before choosing among four answers that contain two arguably correct selections.
Students got 90 minutes to complete the 32-page test, which contained 42 questions based on six written passages.
The News asked testing experts, teachers and parents to analyze the test, which state and city education officials have kept under lock and key. Everyone who saw it was left dumbfounded by the killer questions.
“You might as well just put ‘failure to students’ at the top of the exam,” said Tracy Woodall, a stay-at-home mom whose son is a fifth-grader at Public School 1 in the Bronx. “There’s no way they’re going to pass this.”
The questions on the fifth-grade reading test, designed to test comprehension, were enough to stump a city high-school teacher who reviewed it.
“Have these students had an opportunity to build up to that complexity? The answer is no,” said the teacher, who asked for anonymity for fear of getting sacked. “This test is coming at them like an anvil to their face.”
Aaron Pallas, a testing expert at Columbia University, ran the new fifth-grade exam though a computer analysis program and found that it was actually calibrated for the “middle of sixth grade.” Numerous families boycotted the new exams, and the national teachers union boss called for a moratorium on consequences from the high-stakes tests until they’re better-understood.
We are killing education in America by purposefully making the test so they make children fail, and then use that to fire teachers and close schools because their test results are so poor.
Here is what the EPA says….
Keep in mind that any accident, even a tiny small one of a gallon or two, affects the entire Delaware Bay and its unique biodiverse shoreline.
Now Imagine a tanker taking a hole.
Outlined here are the violations Kinder Morgan got hit with…..
A. The illegal mixing of a RCRA hazardous waste with gasoline, and from failing to sample and test gasoline to ensure compliance with CAA emissions standards.
B. Kinder Morgan failed to comply with a number of sampling and testing requirements of the CAA and fuels regulations to ensure the environmental and quality standards of fuel they produced.
C. KMT failed to notify EPA or the State of Pennsylvania prior to storing the cyclohexane mixture, a hazardous waste, at its Indianola Transmix Facility.
D. KMT failed to perform or obtain a general waste analysis upon receiving its first shipment of the cyclohexane mixture as required
E. KMT accepted the hazardous waste cyclohexane mixture at its Indianola Transmix Facility without first obtaining a RCRA Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility Permit, and therefore violated the following federal and state hazardous waste requirement…
F. KMT produced gasoline at the Indianola Transmix Facility that was not “substantially similar” to any fuel utilized in the certification of any motor vehicle or engine sold in the United States,
G. KMT failed to collect and analyze representative samples of conventional gasoline that it produced at the Hartford Transmix Facility, in violation of the anti-dumping regulations…
H. KMT failed to collect and analyze representative samples of conventional gasoline that it produced at its Hartford Transmix Facility for the purpose of determining the sulfur content of these batches of gasoline..
Result of Kinder Morgan’s actions?
Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC (Marathon) reimbursed repair costs to owners of many vehicles that sustained damage. EPA understands that KMT reimbursed Marathon for the costs that it incurred in responding to these consumer complaints.
Obviously Kinder Morgan came up with the idea that they would rid themselves of an expensive waste product by burning it off in the cars that used its gas. It was cheap and untraceable. To accomplish this, they went dark on their self testing until the product had passed through their lines…. It would have worked, and they would have gotten away with their little scheme, except…. the fuel filters clogged with the waste product, and the traces began.
So, is this the epitome of ethics we want in Delaware? Of course ethics like this exists in Texas. That’s where they filmed Dallas. But do we need them here in Delaware?
No doubt, Alan Levin was not privy to this information. He is now.
I feel so bad for the boy. I thought, my, what if that had been my son?
Now as a parent I wonder. What on earth could I possibly do for my son after he’d experienced something like that. How as a parent could I somehow give hope, that even though something hellish and horrific took place, “yeah, son, you can still go on”. “Yeah, son, you can still succeed”. “yeah, son, you can have the best revenge, which is living well…”
Platitudes don’t cut it.
How does one communicate through to someone who has gone through such a tragedy? Here all my words fall short. I don’t know if I can. And that ineffectiveness pains me. I don’t think that of all the good that is in me, that any, none that I could give, could ever fill but the tiniest part of that vast hole which must lurk within…..
I do know that closure is important. Having evil lose, is very important to mankind. It is important to all of us. It will be hard, for those memories are buried deep. When they get exhumed as you go through the trial, which with appeals will take years, those feelings you haven’t felt for years, all come rushing back with the intensity you once experienced them…..
But for closure, justice must be pursued. For the simple reason is, that if justice is not allowed to fulfill it’s proper destiny, than we are all unjust ourselves, because we stood in its way. And that, is not who we are…
People will say you are brave. They will thank you for coming forward. They will interview you for your deepest feelings. Then they will go on with their lives proud of what they did. They will forget you.
That may be good, and that may be hard on you after being in the limelight for so long.
And that is when you anger really begins. You no longer have an outlet to express it. Your friends tell you to get over it. You feel like you are a pariah where ever you go…. Whether you imagine or it is real, whispers of being “that victim” will always haunt you….
I probably shouldn’t mention it here, it’s way too early in the process, but there is a way out. And what goes on outside of you, really has nothing to do with what is on your inside….
And that is to forgive him. Yes. forgive Eric Bodenweiser. I’m not saying to let justice off the hook; its wheels need to grind with regularity. Justice is out of your hands. What is in your hands, is your heart…
Forgiveness has been rated a weakness by our American society. When actually it is very hard to do. It takes a tougher man to forgive, than it does to carry revenge as a motive for the rest of their life. That actually is easy compared to forgiving one who did something so horrible to you.
I don’t know if you are up for it. I think it is far too tough for most people. Christians talk about it, but in your case, I think that would be the wrong example to bring up. I know Martin Luther King did it. I know Gandhi did it. I know Mandela did it. I know Mother Teresa did it.
I really didn’t get why forgiveness is important, until watching Star Wars. But somewhere along one of those episodes, it hit me that my anger was what was keeping me weak. It was the focus of all I did. I couldn’t see life past it. It made me do things other people saw as ugly. It created many problems over which I was always trying to overcome. I often wondered why I always had so many problems compared to others, without understanding that I was the one creating them… Where Yoda says: “let go of the anger. let go of the hurt…” that was the point in my lifetime where I realized forgiveness wasn’t something Christian. It was something human, requiring us to use our minds and talk ourselves through our anger, and accept that what happened, was a part of what we were to become in our future….. and that we had a choice of whether to turn that into good, or continue the evil.
Point is, when you finally let go, you are the beneficiary. Mostly we are taught to think forgiveness is for our foe. No, it really is for us; it is a cathartic experience that yeah, we walked through hell and survived… Only after we have truly forgiven them, can we look at ourselves and say, wow, I’m this really great human being. I’m like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mandela, and Sister Teresa.
I said above, that there was nothing I could do. But perhaps this is it. Perhaps just for years, keep in mind that forgiving Eric Bodenweiser will be what you have to do someday to move beyond this…. It might take years after justice has been served…. Just keep it in mind. … My heart, my soul goes out to you now…
I know you have a tough time headed your way. If you need anything……
I wanted to say a few things…
All this education reform, all this Department of Education stuff, all this race to the top, all this hoopla, of this plan, that plan, this approach, that approach, this evaluation system, that evaluation system… has got to go… Throw it all out the window….
Every new approach is just another person’s idea. One he has to sell; one he gets rich if it gets adopted… And who says each idea will work? Private entities that stand to make lots of money if their idea gets accepted….
And kids know nothing…
They like their teachers… they know nothing.
They like going to school… they know nothing.
They like their friends,… they know nothing…
But with today’s technology, the “nothing” that they know, serves them well; they lead happy, prosperous lives……
It is time we rethink education. It’s time we talk practical.
Be honest: when you make a personal decision at your employment, does what you learned about Harriet Tubman apply? No? Then why are we requiring every Delaware school child to waste a months study every February on Black History?
Be honest: can you name every European Country? You can’t? No? Then why are we wasting a semester on Geography when if someone says Moldavia, we can in less than one second ID it exactly on a Google Map?
Be honest: Do you still remember how to do differentiations and integral calculations? (You were once going to be a scientist; now you call people on a phone). If so, why are we wasting young students time so our state’s school administrators can brag to other states administrators what a tough educational dick they were?
Seriously: you work; you have a job; you do some type of useful service to another… What do you need? What do you need from school to be able to not only do your job to minimum standards, but do it well enough to get ahead?
Seriously: WHAT DO YOU NEED?
I’ll answer for you.
You need to know how to read.
You need to know how to do basic math… Add, subtract, multiply, divide….
You need to know how to communicate so others can understand you….
That is it… Oh, yes, those in the business who prosper from money ill spent, whose livelihood is based on selling the impossible to public and private schools, will argue otherwise… We just need to roll our eyes, and say… “ok, if you are so right, why is it not working? Where are your facts?”
But the rest of us…. we know it’s true, especially if we’ve had children pass through elementary, middle, secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and now, are working a job requiring none of their skills…. we know it’s true…
And you know what’s missing? Especially with all this crap in our schools? And you can see it; just step into any high school?… It is so obvious, yet no one else sees it… …
I’ll leave you to ponder it with a story…
Recently a convention was held with the top vice presidents of manufacturing companies worldwide… The best, of the best, of the best….
The symposium facilitator, stood up, and said, “our first item of business, is to determine exactly what all of you had in common.. what happened in your upbring that would get all of you thirty or forty years later, willing to take a weekend to come out here at 7:30 Saturday morning on your own time, to talk about what’s missing in today’s education?”
After a few minutes of discussion a consensus emerged rather quickly… They all had a Gilbert Chemistry set… not the dumbed down version for safety, but one that could actually make the explosives… and… each of them had a high school teacher, who made chemistry exciting, explosive, and fun…
You see? The fun has been sucked out by the U.S and Delaware Department of Educations.. THAT is what is wrong with education today… It certainly is not fun for Governor Markell (he has to listen to Kilroy); it is not fun for the teachers (they have to undergo so much unnecessary crap); and it’s sure isn’t fun for the students (why are they making us do this stuff from 1960?)….
You want to make America great? Keep education stripped to the basics; keep it simple, and during the rest of time, focus on making it fascinatingly fun!
Now there is new life on Delaware’s blogs.
It is here. It is good. Reading it helps me to think…. as opposed to getting angry…
Civil but Disobedient is it’s name.
kavips 