... On the day of the shooting, Foster taught the AP Gov students about special interest groups, like the NAACP, American Medical Association, and the National Rifle Association. His lesson plan that day included a discussion about the Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings, with emphasis on how every politician comes out afterward a tragedy to say the right thing about changing gun regulation. The students learned how the NRA goes to work as soon news reporters and the public move on to the next story.
“That’s not the NRA’s fault, that’s our fault,” Foster says. “We lose attention and that’s why interest groups run the country. If it’s not the NRA then it’s another group.”
Foster teaches AP Government all day: It’s the only subject he teaches. He had taught this particular special interest lesson four times by the time the gunman started shooting.
The following day the students were scheduled to have a test on the special interest chapter. The exam was supposed to include a free response question asking students what techniques the NRA used to be successful. The students were supposed to discuss how the NRA used mass mobilization, campaign contributions, and litigation to push their agenda forward.
“I love [teaching government] because it’s alive, stuff is happening,” Foster says.
Emma González had already taken Foster’s lesson by the time the shooting happened. So did fellow student David Hogg, who has made multiple appearance on cable news networks, inspiring crisis actor conspiracies on YouTube in the days after the shooting....
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, she became a freelance writer, producing over a hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring (1962). Her books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, enabling her to advance her causes.
As a young woman, Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was "a relentless reporter and fearless crusader" for the natural preservation and restoration of South Florida. Her tireless efforts earned her several variations of the nickname "Grande Dame of the Everglades" as well as the hostility of agricultural and business interests looking to benefit from land development in Florida. She received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was inducted into several halls of fame.
Douglas lived to 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, "In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas."
Have you read River of Grass?
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
No, but I've heard about it even if I didn't remember her name.
It's been about forty years since I read it. There is some outdated scientific information, but her description and stories of 1800s and early 1900s Florida frontier should be required reading. And it's a quick read.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
More than three-quarters of North Carolina public school teachers believe that allowing teachers to carry guns in school is a bad idea ...
The Elon Poll found that a majority of N.C. public school teachers said allowing teachers to carry guns on campus and in the classroom would be harmful to the learning environment, would make them feel less safe, and would ultimately lead to an increase in gun-related deaths in American public schools. Most expressed concern that a gun carried by a teacher would fall into the wrong hands.
... Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said it is likely guns carried by teachers would accidentally fall into the wrong hands and slightly more than half (51 percent) said a policy of arming teachers would increase the number of gun-related deaths in schools. That compared to the 22 percent who said arming teachers would decrease the number of gun-related deaths and 19 percent who said it would make no difference....
...
...
... This group of teachers was asked their opinions about a range of eight alternatives that included tighter gun control measures, a focus on mental health issues and other school-level security measures. Here are the favorability percentages for measures other than gun control:
Ensuring background checks on all gun sales – 99 percent
Increased support for mental health funding – 92 percent
Enhanced training for emergency situations – 88 percent
Increasing federal funds for local decisions about school security – 80 percent
Banning sales of semiautomatic high-capacity rifles — 77 percent
Mandating at least two armed officers be present at school — 65 percent
Adding high-security measures in schools, similar to airports — 50 percent
Providing free bulletproof backpacks to students — 31 percent
I can't believe that no one (that I've seen) seems to understand Rick Scott's gun bill scam.
This teabag shit is running for senate and needs to seem reasonable.
He, that woman and the nra came up with a plan that looks like scott is reasonable, but they stuck in a poison pill.
The age limit will be easily struck down in court, the nra gets to put guns in schools and scott gets to shed his teabagginess while lamenting on the courts.
He'll be a bad one - this senator scott.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
"Students in Florida have benefitted from the country’s most successful effort to teach civic knowledge and engagement."
"The roots of this effort go back to 2007, when former Senator Bob Graham (D) and former Congressman Lou Frey (R) realized that adults in the state of Florida scored at or near the bottom of surveys that measure civic health and engagement. The two joined forces and formed the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship to get civics education legislation passed. After a few failed attempts, in 2010 the Florida legislature finally approved, and then-Governor Charlie Christ signed"
The article leaves out an important part. It seems important - at least to me - that it was Jebbers and brother Neal who put us at the bottom. When Neal got the contract to grade tests in our idiotic school testing system, he complained that they couldn't make standardized tests for civics, so Jeb and company made civics voluntary in our schools. After all who need civics - it's soooooo liberal.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
I can't believe that no one (that I've seen) seems to understand Rick Scott's gun bill scam.
This teabag shit is running for senate and needs to seem reasonable.
He, that woman and the nra came up with a plan that looks like scott is reasonable, but they stuck in a poison pill.
The age limit will be easily struck down in court, the nra gets to put guns in schools and scott gets to shed his teabagginess while lamenting on the courts.
"The NRA contends the new law is unconstitutional because it raises the minimum age to buy rifles and puts a blanket ban on the fundamental rights of some law-abiding Florida citizens."
This bs law Medicaid scammer Scott signed will only put guns into schools. That was the intent all along.
He's a bad one, this governor scott
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
... the teacher pay gap—the difference between what teachers earn in weekly wages compared with similarly educated and experienced workers—has widened significantly....
NC is 3rd worst :cussing: , though that may be a little better with the recent increases. FL is in the worst third, SC is middle of the pack.
Ya think?
Can't imagine why Republican legislatures have been trying, and unfortunately with some success, to kill off collective bargaining in the public sector. But even before then, members referred to it as more "collective begging."
I don't doubt Oklahoma's schools are underfunded and all that, but probably a first-grade reader isn't the most compelling example. "Dick and Jane" was used for a long time, and a first-grader could probably still find them an entertaining way to learn reading. I'd be more interested in what they use for science texts in high school, for example.
I don't doubt Oklahoma's schools are underfunded and all that, but probably a first-grade reader isn't the most compelling example. "Dick and Jane" was used for a long time, and a first-grader could probably still find them an entertaining way to learn reading. I'd be more interested in what they use for science texts in high school, for example.
Parker (mom) and her husband are both former teachers, she tells Yahoo Lifestyle she just wants people to understand how bad her home state’s education system is.
... Parker wants to clarify that it’s not the fact that this specific book is 40-years-old but it’s about what it represents: “Outdated supplies, lack of funding for innovative educational tools.”
“The book is considered one of our treasures she says, it’s in good shape but not many others are,” she says.
Shelton’s old book has become another symbol of the lack of funding for new supplies that teachers and students have had to deal with, like a scarce number of broken chairs for students while many are trying to learn while sitting on a classroom floor.
For more than 26 years, Oklahoma’s public education system has been defunded by repeated tax cuts. Teacher salaries are so low, it has sparked an educator mass exodus to other states, like Texas, where teachers earn thousands of more dollars per year. The downside to this has been the increase of students per class, which lowers the quality of student-teacher interaction.
Teachers are now demanding the state boost pay by 20 percent and return to pre-recession funding levels for education....
Leaders in a western North Carolina county plan to hire and assign armed security guards, as opposed to armed volunteers, in every public school.
Henderson County leaders announced Thursday their plan to hire people with law enforcement or military backgrounds to serve as "highly trained" armed personnel at all 23 schools. Officials said they wanted to reassure the community about school safety following the Feb. 14 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida that left 17 people dead.
“Henderson County has always been a sleepy little town," school board chairwoman Amy Lynn Holt said at a news conference. "We’ve not felt like we’re threatened here. Well, we have to start acting like we’re threatened.” ...
No mention of where exactly the money is coming from.
Summary: Privileged whites across the country are throwing a temper tantrum because one elementary school PTA dared to send info. on white privilege to parents.
:cussing: , though that may be a little better with the recent increases. FL is in the worst third, SC is middle of the pack.