National #SchoolChoice Week - Jan. 26 to Feb 1, 2014 - Is Almost Here!
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| "I Support School Choice," Dr. Bill Smith |
Bill Smith, Ph.D., Editor supports School Choice and so should every concerned citizen. Beginning this Saturday, Jan 26, 2013, millions of Americans will voice their support for educational opportunity during the fourth-annual National School Choice Week.School Choice Week will include an unprecedented 5,500 events across all 50 states, with a goal of increasing public awareness of the importance of empowering parents with the freedom to choose the best educational environments for their children.
National School Choice Week events will be independently-planned and independently-funded by schools, organizations, individuals and coalitions. Events — which include rallies, roundtable discussions, school fairs, parent information sessions, movie screenings, and more — will focus on a variety of school choice issues important to families in local communities, including open enrollment policies in traditional public schools, public charter and magnet schools, private school choice programs, online learning, and homeschooling.
"During National School Choice Week, millions of Americans will hear the uplifting and transformational stories of students, parents, teachers, and school leaders who are benefiting from a variety of different school choice programs and policies across America," said Andrew Campanella, president of National School Choice Week. "Our hope is that by letting more people know about the successes of school choice where it exists, more parents will become aware of the educational opportunities available to their families."
Organizers said that National School Choice Week also provides a platform for families to demand greater educational options for their children in areas that don't provide enough educational choices to families.
"During the Week, Americans from all backgrounds and ideologies will celebrate school choice where it exists and demand it where it does not," Campanella said. "National School Choice Week will be the nation's largest-ever series of education-related events, which is testament to the incredible levels of support that exist for educational opportunity in America."
National School Choice Week is nonpartisan and nonpolitical.
During the Week, a positive spotlight will shine on all types of education options – from traditional public schools, to public magnet and charter schools, to private schools, to virtual schools, to home schooling. The nonpolitical, nonpartisan effort will bring students, parents, educators, community leaders, and elected officials together to cheer for school choice where it exists and demand it where it does not.
As supporters prepare to celebrate the Week, more American families are actively choosing educational environments for their children than ever before:
- 30 states allow intra-district open enrollment in traditional public schools; 44 allow inter-district open enrollment
- 42 states allow the creation of independent public charter schools
- 42 states have public magnet schools
- 29 states have full-time virtual schools
- 23 states offer private school choice programs, such as opportunity scholarships
- All US states permit parents to homeschool their children
In support of independently-planned events, yesterday (Jan 22, 2014), a cross-country whistle-stop train and motor coach tour kicked off. It was designed to galvanize greater public support for all types of educational choice. The tour began in Newark, NJ. The tour will cover 3,800 miles and feature special events in cities from Newark to San Francisco. Modeled after pioneering whistle-stop tours in American history, the events will call attention to the benefits of and need for greater educational opportunity for children and families.
National School Choice Week began in 2011 as an independent, grassroots-led effort. The movement has grown from 150 events in 2011 to a confirmed 5,500 events planned for 2014.
Tags: National School Choice Week, school choice, NSCW, supporting parents, helping children, quality education To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 8:14 AM - Post Link
6 Comments:
Thank you Bill Smith, & if Common Core is the agenda please remove your child & home school!
This is one area, education, that we conservatives are going to have to get serious about. Our public schools are really messed up. It's gonna hurt though, it's will cause many of us to challenge our long held beliefs. In my opinion, what is going on in our schools is not education at all and that is why I homeschool.
... "Horace Mann, credited as the father of the American public school system, studied a wide variety of educational models before implementing the Prussian system designed by Fredrick the Great. King Frederick created a system that was engineered to teach obedience and solidify his control. Focusing on following directions, basic skills, and conformity, he sought to indoctrinate the nation from an early age. Isolating students in rows and teachers in individual classrooms fashioned a strict hierarchy—intentionally fostering fear and loneliness.
"Mann chose the Prussian model, with its depersonalized learning and strict hierarchy of power, because it was the cheapest and easiest way to teach literacy on a large scale.
"This system was perpetuated throughout the early twentieth century by social efficiency theorists who sought to industrialize the educational process. Led by educators such as Ellwood P. Cubberley, they used education as a tool for social engineering:
"“Our schools are, in a sense, factories in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life.” (Cubberley, 1917)
"Building upon the depersonalized uniformity and rigid hierarchy of the Prussian system, they constructed an industrial schooling model designed to produce millions of workers for America's factories.
"Believing that most of America’s students were destined for a life of menial, industrial labor, these theorists created a multi-track educational system meant to sort students from an early age. While the best and brightest were carefully groomed for leadership positions, the majority was relegated to a monotonous education of rote learning and task completion.
"Consequently, our schooling system is still locked into the Prussian-industrial framework of fear, isolation, and monotony. For both students and teachers, procedure is emphasized over innovation, uniformity over individual expression, and control over empowerment. It is, therefore, not surprising that the majority of America's classrooms have changed little in over one hundred years."
http://www.thenewamericanacademy.org/.../the-prussian...
The Prussian citizen cannot be free to do and act for himself; that the Prussian is to a large measure enslaved through the medium of his school; that his learning instead of making him his own master forges the chain by which he is held in servitude; that the
whole scheme of the Prussian elementary school education is shaped with the express purpose of making ninety -
nine out of every one hundred citizens subservient . . . The elementary schools of Prussia have been fashioned so as to make spiritual and intellectual slaves of the lower classes (Preface, n.p.)
THE PRUSSIAN-INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING
© Yehudi Meshchaninov 2012
3
producing, a spirit of blind acquiescence to arbitrary power, in things spiritual as well as temporal –
as being in fine, a system of education adapted to enslave, and not to enfranchise, the human mind. (as quoted in Cubberley, 1920, p. 488)
Thanks so much, Bill! I love it!
It will be interesting to see what Huckabee does. He was the ONLY GOP candidate for president who opposed school choice.
My son's school, ANH Montessori in Rogers, is having an event on Wednesday morning (1/29) to support School Choice week. Time for everyone to break out their yellow scarves!
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