Students Suspended For Decorating School With American Flags...

They Thought It Was Patriotic, The School Saw It As Suspendable

RED WING, Minn. (WCCO) – Students said they wanted to show their love for their country, but a superintendent believes it went a little too far.

The result? More than a dozen students are suspended for drawing on doors and windows and scattering small American flags outside their high school.

It took place Monday at Red Wing High School as part of Homecoming Week, but it’s a back-and-forth that’s gone on for weeks.

“Red, white, and blue streamers, small American flags and erasable paint,” Bryce Reps said.

He’s a senior and took part in the senior “prank.”

Some seniors covered almost every window, some outside doors, even the skylight with the paint.

“We have to take these things seriously,” Red Wing Schools Superintendent Karsten Anderson said.

There’s a bit more to this red, white, and blue demonstration that dates back to last month.

When the high school didn’t mark the anniversary of 9/11 as it had in years past, Reps said he took it personally.

“I’m planning to go into the Air Force,” Reps said.

Via: CBS MInnesota

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Madison elementary art teacher posts students’ anti-Walker cartoons

MADISON — Some kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders in Madison public schools are apparently preparing for futures in either political cartooning or time on a psychiatrist’s couch.

Kati Walsh, an elementary art teacher at the Madison Metropolitan School Districtin July posted some of her students’ drawings of Gov. Scott Walker  in jail. Walsh suggests her young Rembrandts’ ideas for their sketches popped up out of thin air.

“One student said something to the effect of ‘Scott Walker wants to close all the public schools’… So the rest of the class started drawing their own cartoons and they turned very political. They have very strong feelings about Scott Walker,” the teacher wrote on her blog.

This young student at a Madison, Wis. school drew Gov. Walker behind bars.

This young student at a Madison, Wis. school drew Gov. Scott Walker behind bars.

This student drew Gov. Scott Walker behind bars and, says the student’s teacher, the governor being fitted with an orange  jumpsuit.

“The cartoons started getting a little inappropriate so at this point, we stopped drawing and discussed what a political cartoon was,” she wrote.

If the drawings weren’t appropriate, why did the art teacher publish them on her blog? It turns out these weren’t the inappropriate drawings.

“I did not publish the inappropriate cartoons that depicted any harm coming to Walker,” Walsh told Wisconsin Reporter in an email. “I made them throw them away and we talked about how when you disagree with someone, it’s OK to disagree with them respectfully.”

Walsh said she published the drawings because she thought it was “an amazing teaching moment.”

Via: Wisconsin Reporter

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Fifty Shades of the Common Core: how much porn is too much for high schoolers?

The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a project that attempts to standardize various K-12 curricula around the country. By design, American students subject to the Common Core will experience a reading regime that focuses heavily on nonfiction.

There will be a slice of fiction here and there, though. One such slice for sophomores at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Ariz. is an utterly minor 1992 novel called “Dreaming in Cuban” by Cristina Garcia, reports Eagnews.org.

An unidentified parent claimed in an email to Eagnews that “Dreaming in Cuban” was assigned to everyone in one of her son’s 10th-grade classes. In addition, students read the book out loud during class.

And what a book for high schoolers to read out loud!

“Hugo and Felicia stripped in their room, dissolving easily into one another, and made love against the whitewashed walls. Hugo bit Felicia’s breast and left purplish bands of bruises on her upper thighs. He knelt before her in the tub and massaged black Spanish soap between her legs. He entered her repeatedly from behind.”

That steamy, erotic passage comes from page 80 of “Dreaming,” in a chapter called “The Fire Between Them.” The passage continues:

“Felicia learned what pleased him. She tied his arms above his head with their underclothing and slapped him sharply when he asked.

“‘You’re my bitch,’” Hugo said, groaning.

“In the morning he left, promising to return in the summer.”

A front-cover blurb of a New York Times book review by Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Michiko Kakutani describes the novel as “Dazzling…Remarkable.”

“Dreaming in Cuban” can be found on page 152 among the many recommended texts in a very lengthy Appendix B of the “Common Core Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects.”

What “Dreaming in Cuban” is doing tucked in the midst of various classics such as Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” is perhaps a question only Jeb Bush and Arne Duncan can answer.

Via: Daily Caller

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Common Core and more -- why don't parents get to have a say in their kids' education?

The unforgettable moment of parental bonding in the delivery room deceives many parents. After all, in today’s society, mothers and fathers are encouraged to be there for their children from first breath, cutting the umbilical cord, cheering at soccer matches, and helping in the doctor’s office, where many a queasy parent is asked to assist with something that can make a grown man go weak in the knees.

Most parents diligently work to raise up a generation of strong, confident, intelligent people, who know how to use the potty.

Which leaves many of us incredulous when it comes to the 1950s flashback – like expectant fathers in a hospital waiting room from an episode of “Mad Men” – that occurs when we start to engage in our children’s education, as “experts” in our modern day school system block us at the door to keep our parental cooties outside.

Why is it that when we start to engage in our children’s education, “experts” in our modern day school system block us at the door to keep our parental cooties outside?

Suddenly, parents should be seen and not heard, while we keep the checks coming.

My four children attend public schools in one of US News & World Reports top 50 tiers, after living in the Washington, D.C. area with some of the best of private and public school in the nation.  We’ve been exposed to what is said to be the best in the land in terms of schools.

Via: Fox News

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Schools Sending ‘Fat Letters’ To Parents About Overweight Children

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — Many schools are sending notes home to parents, telling them their children are overweight.

Lauren Schmitt, a registered dietitian, starts the school year by checking out the weight of hundreds of preschoolers in the San Fernando Valley.

“We look at growth charts and percentiles. And when a child is at 95 percent of their…we can look at weight for age or weight for height…that child would be considered obese,” she said.

By October, CBS2’s Suraya Fadel reported that parents will get what is called “healthy or unhealthy” letters. Kids call them “fat letters.”

Schmitt said out of the 900 2 to 5-year-old children she looks at, roughly 200 are listed as obese.

“We let the parents know in a gentle fashion, but we also send out a ton of handouts to try to help that family,” she said.

Experts said 19 states around the country are cracking down on childhood obesity with similar letters.

“Every year there are a few phone calls from parents who are upset,” said Schmitt.

Many districts in Southern California, such as Riverside County, choose to follow state guidelines and instead send test results of the child’s body mass index to their parents.

“It shouldn’t be a stigma. It’s not a way to categorize someone. It’s just showing that this child has increased risk to be obese as an adult, which then could lead to quite a few chronic diseases,” said Schmitt.

The dietitian said the goal is to empower and educate parents with the tools to make healthier lifestyle choices for children.

Via: CBS Los Angeles

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