Article #9 in a Series >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

Consequence of Abysmal Education for the Individual >>>>>  An Earthly Sojourn Lived in Abject Ignorance (Part One)

The typical individual lives out her or his one earthly sojourn in abject ignorance.

The beauty and intricacy of mathematics remains a mystery.  With foundations ill-established by math-phobic K-5 teachers, for many people fractions remain perceptibly higher mathematics, decimals are dimly comprehended, percentages are vaguely grasped, and long division is a lost art.  Ill-prepared for advance even to algebra or geometry, the typical  individual never enters the splendor of higher order reasoning developed through experience with advanced statistics, trigonometry, calculus, differential equations, and beyond.  The typical individual makes all manner of ill-considered decisions in the course of a lifetime left ignorant as to mathematical probability and higher order reasoning.

The typical individual has little understanding of biology, chemistry, or physics.  She or he has the barest grasp of human anatomy, physiology, diet, nutrition, and physical training.  The typical individual has little sense of the age of the universe, evolution of life, the nature of the cosmos, the scientific principles that undergird existence.  Such an individual proceeds on the basis of supposition and superstition, a world of ignorant conjecture rather than factual analysis.

An individual going forth from wretched K-12 education has no comprehension of the sequence of world and American events over time;  any detailed knowledge of political theory or practical governance; the geographical fundamentals of the globe on which she or he dwells;    international economic systems, macro and micro economics, monetary and fiscal policy, the Federal Reserve or World Bank or International Monetary Fund;  the psychological principles that predict, determine, and as ongoing reality govern the individual life. 

The typical person reads at a grade 7 level, has little knowledge of musical composition, dim appreciation for musical genres, no ability to play a musical instrument, is bereft of knowledge and appreciation for the  literature, painting, and sculpture produced in magnificent diversity across civilizations.

The individual of most common encounter is inept at manual tasks and the fundamentals of skills practiced in vocational trades, unable even to ask intelligent questions or to follow rudimentary explanations.  

The typical person knows little of any language not of her or his nativity, more likely to resent or fear an unfamiliar language than to assuage her or his ignorance.  

The typical individual is more likely to cling to crude, ego-aggrandizing forms of religion and to live without a consistent moral code than to grasp the transcendent concepts and ethical precepts of world religious and humanistic traditions.   

 ....................................................  

Such an individual lives out her or his one earthly sojourn bereft of knowledge, skill, analytical reasoning, higher culture, and morality.  Such a person is ever susceptible to  manipulation by demagogues and to her or his own irrationality and immorality. 

And because such individuals dominate the earth, we bear the consequences--- despite the presence of counterexample in the lives and achievement of those who have ascended to intellectual and cultural heights---  of the resulting  violence, cruelty, and debased avocations observable across a world in which most people go to their graves never remotely aware of the ascendant potential of the great gift of 

Life.

Article #8 >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

An Opportunity to Recreate Ourselves by Revolutionizing K-12 Education

Designing revolutionized curriculum for knowledge intensity and high ethical content entails deciding who we want to be.

We should decide that we want to live our lives as culturally enriched, civically engaged, professionally satisfied citizens.

Upon that decision, we will then ensure via revolutionized curriculum design that every student, with the exception of the cognitively impaired (for whom we should also have high academic aspirations),

>>>>>  masters mathematics through calculus;

>>>>>  acquires sophisticated knowledge and analytical ability in biology, chemistry, and physics;

>>>>>  accumulates vast knowledge of history, government, economics, geography, and psychology with ability to apply principles to prevailing events;

>>>>>  reads widely in Western classic, world, and ethnic-specific fiction, poetry, and nonfiction;

>>>>>  gathers abundant knowledge of world visual art and music, with opportunity to paint, sculpt, and play a musical instrument;

>>>>>  masters English grammar and usage;

>>>>>  acquires skill in multiple technological and vocational arts;

>>>>>  advances to a high level of mastery with a world language. 

and 

>>>>>  considers, discusses, and analyzes exalted ethical standards from world religious and humanistic traditions.

Graduates who go forth upon the basis of curriculum revolutionized for knowledge intensity and ethical content will live as civically engaged citizens with multiple intellectual interests, artistic appreciation, manual skill, and professional success.  

Such citizens will experience life at a high cultural level, with an organic relationship to the natural world, imbued with respect for all human beings and creatures, and manifesting an inclination to promote the best conditions of life for all humankind.  

And thus via the cultivation of individuals of immense knowledge and high ethical standards in revolutionized K-12 curriculum do we create a realized vision of who we want to be.

Article #7 in a Series >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

Degraded Condition of Life in the USA and the World Will Continue Until We Revolutionize Public Education

Humankind currently exists in the degraded condition that should be expected for a species dwelling as infant born in just 200,000 BCE in a universe 13.8 billion and on a planet 4.5 billion years old.

>>>>>  All but a few nations have GDP per capita below $15,000 per annum, and there are many populaces living in grinding poverty at less than $3,000 per capita GDP.

>>>>>  The dominant forms of governance follow historical trends in which ruling elites have such vacuous lives and so little cultural mettle that they can think of little more creative to do than to seek territorial expansion and personal material gain at the expense of abused citizens.

>>>>>  And those citizens have such low information bases pertinent to history, government, and economics;  and such little sense of personal power;  that they are ever at the mercy of such low-life power-holders.  

>>>>>  Further, the populace even in putatively advanced nations dwells in such ignorance and cultural degradation that the beauty of life in quality literature, musical genius, visual art, and Nature's splendor is missed as people

>>>>>  kill themselves with opioids;

>>>>>  leave people hungry and dirty on the streets;  

>>>>>  murder each other on urban pavements out of desperation, in the context of lives without meaning;  

>>>>>  barricade themselves in gated communities in retreat from the urban horrors that they have created;  

>>>>> eat carelessly, live unhealthily, and die young due to reckless living; 

 >>>>>  abuse the bestowal of Nature's bounty so badly that the life of the planet and therefore their own resides at the brink;  

>>>>> and dwell in such ignorance and moral vacuity that they think that this is life as life must be.

But this is not life as life must be, nor Life as Life can be when we muster the courage to revolutionize K-12 education for knowledge-intensity and ethical content after deep introspection and prescient consideration as to who we want to be and what we want to recall as valuable and meaningful at that point at which we shall die.

Article #6 >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

Revolutionizing K-12 Education Will Transform Human Intellect, Morality, and Culture

Human intellect, morality, and culture are entirely produced by the interaction between biogenetic inheritance and environment.  A person's genetic inheritance at birth, neural development over the first five years of life, and experiences thereafter determine who she or he shall be.

Since this is the case, the human predicament is even more daunting than existentialists Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Csmus conceptualized >>>>>

Women and men are positioned to forge individual and collective destinies, but via decisions rather than choices. 

Choice implies free will, which does not exist.  

Decision-making involves selection from biogenetically and environmentally detetermined possibilities likely to produce the most positively rewarding outcomes.  

Only decision-making is in accord with psychological reality.  

Hence, women and men do not freely determine their own destinies, as Sartre and Camus maintained.  Rather, their destinies are determined by the behavioral options exercised in the context of biogenetic and environmental determinants.

Via curriculum design that imparts to our precious young people a wealth of knowledge and moral values drawn from the world's great belief systems, with both curricular knowledge and ethics serving as the basis for vigorous analysis and discussion, we will create an informed and astute citizenry.  Such a citizenry will be positioned to create individual and collective lives of cultural enrichment, civic engagement, and professional satisfaction. 

In the absence of a broad and deep information base and ethical instruction, individual lives tend toward ignorance and immorality.  But upon a shared body of knowledge and ethics, generated and perpetually evaluated in discussions with their fellows, women and men are positioned to think clearly and behave so as to maximize the common and, as a result tbe individual, good.

This is the power of K-12 education revolutionized for knowledge intensity and elevated ethical content.

Article #5 in a Series >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

Ethical Values to Be Imparted in Public Schools Overhauled for Curricular Excellence

School represents, along with family, religious institutions, social organizations, and other life experience a determinative force as a person's genetic and biological constitution interacts with environment.

To produce an informed citizenry in the generations to come, to replace the abysmally ignorant national populace extant today, we must overhaul education for knowledge intensity and elevated ethical content.

At their best, the world's major belief systems offer values to be incorporated into a consensual ethical value system >>>>>  

>>>>>  from Judaism, the relentless aspiration to discover and live according to supreme justice and righteousness; 

>>>>> from Hinduism, the non-egotistical commitment to >dharma< (moral law) in the pursuit of spiritual liberation;  

>>>>>  from Confucianism. the commitment to practical daily behavior for betterment of family and society,  

>>>>> from Daoism, an appreciation for nature and flexible response to both aversive and joyful events;  

>>>>>  from Christianity, universal love for all humankind;  

>>>>> from Buddhism, deep compassion for all beings in lives of firm mental and moral discipline;  

>>>>>  from Islam, steadfast and undistracted devotion to supreme truth and disciplined personal behavior.  

In our classrooms, we must conduct vigorous discussions focused on these  exalted moral values, with a commitment to go forth in the world with love for all human beings, deep appreciation for nature, and a commitment to the best life for all on this one earthly sojourn.

 

Article #4 in a Series >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

Knowledge Sets to Be Imparted in Systems of Public Education

Schools in systems of public education function along with family. religious organizations, and social and political assemblages as the key institutions influential in determining human behavior.   When a person's genetic inheritance and biological development during the first five years of life interact with one's environment as determined by these institutions and by life experiences, a person becomes all that she or he is and shall be.  

Because people between the ages of five and eighteen spend so much time in school, the knowledge and values acquired in the school setting determine much of the individual's information base and ethical values. Greatest care must be taken, therefore, as to the knowledge and values transmitted.

As to knowledge, each student should  be given the foundation to pursue any profession that she or he selects.  At K-5, curriculum should emphasize mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government, economics, psychology, American and world literature, English usage, the visual arts, and music.  

These subjects should continue to determine curriculum, with increasing experiences also with world languages and the vocational and technological arts from middle school through high school.  Most students should upon such a firm foundation then be prepared to take Advanced Placement courses and to opt for electives according to their driving interests, academic aspirations, and professional goals. 

Such a public education will produce citizens positioned to dwell as culturally enriched, civically engaged, professionally satisfied human beings living maximally for self and society on this one earthly sojourn.

Article #3 >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

The Adult Responsibility to Specify Knowledge and Ethical Values for Transmission to Youth

K-12 public education has for four decades now proceeded ideologically on the basis of a degraded approach first generated by William Heard Kilpatrick at Teachers College/Columbia University during the 1920s---  and eventually embraced by education professors at colleges, schools, and departments of education throughout the United States.  The anti-knowledge creed did not gain acceptance until the 1960s but from that time forward came to be increasingly, pervasively dominant in the public schools.  

The essential approach devalues specified knowledge sets in favor of curriculum left to student and teacher whim.  

For those in our locally centralized school districts with curricular decision-making responsibility, this approach constitutes a reprehensible abdication of adult responsibility---  as if those stories had not been told around campfires, wisdom of the elders had not been passed on to youth, and societal knowledge had not been specified for transmission throughout the generations.

We must jettison this anti-knowledge creed and embrace the adult responsibility of deciding the knowledge sets and the ethical values to be passed on to our youth.

 

Article #2 in a Series >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

The Paramount Importance of Public Education in the Context of the Psychological Determinants of Human Behavior

Behavior is entirely a function of  biology and environment.  Each individual develops in the context of genetic inheritance and biological constitution evolved during the first five years of life, then thereafter in the circumstances of environment:

There is no such phenomenon as free will.

People become who they are, then, according to their parentage, siblings, other family, friends, and antagonists;  and in the way that their physical and intellectual characteristics interact with all manner if experiences---  those provided by religious institutions, social organizations, and all other aspects of life in which the person develops from infant to toddler, child, adolescent, young adult, middle aged adult, through the elder stage.

From the preK through grade 12 years, a large percentage of the human life is spent in school, typically seven hours a day, 35 hours per week.

Experiences provided at school, along with those at home and out and about in society, determine who a person is, who she or he becomes.

Our schools, then, are instrumental in creating the national citizenry.  That citizenry is at present mired in ignorance, superstition, subjective supposition, and illogic.

But the good news is that via the overhaul of K-12 education we possess the power to create culturally enriched, civically engaged, and professionally satisfied citizens---  and to redirect human experience toward that elevation of knowledge and ethics promotive of the best Life possible on this one earthly sojourn.

Article #1 in a Series >>>>> Concise Observations on Existence and Education

Public Education as the Embodiment of the Knowledge and Values to Be Transmitted to Youth

Education represents the knowledge and values that a society passes on to youth.  Prehistorically and historically, peoples have told stories around campfires, practiced seasonal rituals, and marked life passages so as to convey messages pertinent to universe, Earth, and life origins;  the nature of birth and death;  roles according to gender, age, and class;  and key mores as to how to treat people according to those roles, within the family, the general society, the other, the outsider.

In USA 2021, our key institutions for knowledge and values transmission are the family, religious organizations, social and political assemblages, and schools.  Public schools are, should be, and will be the educational institutions that represent our broadest assertion of what we want our youth to know and value.  

If we continue to fail to provide well-identified and properly sequenced knowledge sets and to conduct vigorous discussions as to the human values that we embrace in common, we will continue to provide desultory education that produces a citizenry largely mired in ignorance, with slim prospects for Life in this one earthly sojourn replete with cultural enrichment, civic responsibility, and professional satisfaction.

 

Front Matter and Contents >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VIII, Number 2, August 2021

 

Front Matter and Contents >>>>>  >Journal of the K-12 Revolution:  Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota Volume VIII<, No. 1, July 2021

 

Volume VIII, No. 2                                         

August 2021

 

Journal of the K-12 Revolution:

Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota        

 

A Publication of the New Salem Educational Initiative

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Editor

               

               

Open Letters to >Star Tribune< Reporters Anthony Lonetree, Erin Golden, and Mara Klecker Concerning the Moral Abhorrence of Their Cowardly Journalism

A Five-Article Series         

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph. D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

 

New Salem Educational Initiativ

Minneapolis, Minnesota

 

Open Letters to >Star Tribune< Reporters Anthony Lonetree, Erin Golden, and Mara Klecker Concerning the Moral Abhorrence of Their Cowardly Journalism

A Five-Article Series         

 

Copyright © 2021

Gary Marvin Davison

New Salem Educational Initiative

 

Contents

 

Introductory Comments

Article #1

An Open Letter to >Star Tribune< Reporter Anthony Lonetree Concerning the Moral Abhorrence of His Cowardly Journalism and That Of Fellow Culprits Erin Golden and Mara Klecker

Article #2        

An Open Letter to Star Tribune Minnesota Education Beat Reporter Erin Golden 

 

Article #3

An Open Letter to >Star Tribune< Reporter Anthony Lonetree Regarding the First of Two Articles Written on Saturday, 23 July 2021  >>>>>  “2 St. Paul School Board Candidates Come Up Short of DFL Endorsement”

Article #4

An Analysis of >Star Tribune< Staff Writer Anthony Lonetree’s Expletive Punctuated Reply to My Incisive Email of 24 July 2021

Article #5

An Open Letter to Erin Golden, Star Tribune State of Minnesota Education Beat Reporter, Regarding Her Sunday, 25 July 2021, article, “School Boards See Mass Exit”

Introductory Comments >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VIII, Number 2, August 2021

Introductory Comments to a Series of Open Letters to >Star Tribune< Reporters Anthony Lonetree, Erin Golden, and Mara Klecker Concerning the Moral Abhorrence of Their Cowardly Journalism

…………………………………………………………………….

The Intellectually Corrupt Context in Which Systems of PreK-12 of Education Function 

…………………………………………………………………….

Cowardly journalism exhibited by Star Tribune staff writers Anthony Lonetree, Erin Golden, and Mara Klecker in their coverage respectively of the St. Paul Public Schools, state of Minnesota education issues, and the Minneapolis Public Schools contributes powerfully to the intellectually corrupt context in which our preK-12 locally centralized school systems and---  generally even worse that the main line schools---  charter schools function to academically abuse the students to whom they deny a knowledge-intensive, skill-replete, well-taught curriculum.

The most vexing dilemma in K-12 education is abominable teacher and administrator training, delivered by those campus intellectual lightweights dubbed education professors.  United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Minnesota Commissioner of Education Heather Mueller have both received the entirety of their training from such philosophically corrupt campus embarrassments;  neither Cardona nor Mueller has even an undergraduate degree in a legitimate academic discipline.

This is true, too, of Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Superintendent Ed Graff and MPS Interim Senior Academic Officer Aimee Fearing; and no one among the 27 member staff of the MPS Department of Teaching and Learning, nor among Associate Superintendents Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner, and Brian Zambreno has an advanced degree in a legitimate academic area (mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, history, government, economics, literature, or the fine arts).

Thus are our schools subject to academic decision-making by those who have woeful academic training.  The system is intellectually corrupt from the United States Department of Education, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), right on through the preK-12 local bureaucracy.

As Malcolm X would say, with understated irony, looking straight into the camera as if were going to beak it,

“As you can see---  we have a problem here.” 

Most of the gadflies who come and go, making noise about education reform and then fading away, have no staying power >>>>>

>>>>>     R. T. Rybak, who left Generation Next for a more lucrative post at the Minneapolis Foundation;

>>>>>     A predecessor at the Minneapolis Foundation, Sandy Vargas, who had vowed to Reset Education but departed with the task tragi-comically unfulfilled;

>>>>>     Former Michelle Rhee (she who herself failed to achieve education change or to reveal even an understanding of the key issues on the national level) and Students First Minnesota point person Kathy Saltzman faded away after the Minnesota chapter was terminated;

>>>>>     Former MPS Board of Education member Don Samuels made and continues to make many noises about education but was an embarrassment during his four-year tenure, prone to boisterous statements, lassitudinous, ineffective.

And so it goes. 

Many make waves and then fade from the scene.  Few indicate that they even understand the most vexing issues pertinent to knowledge-deficient curriculum, poor teacher quality at the median, and intellectually insubstantial academic decision-makers. 

These matters are given considerable coverage in my book, Understanding the Minneapolis Pubic Schools:  Current Condition, Future Prospect---  and will be updated as the work moves toward commercial publication.

And, to be sure, the cowardly journalism displayed by Anthony Lonetree, Erin Golden, and Mara Klecker is given considerable coverage and will be updated in the manner of other topics covered in this groundbreaking, seminal book.

Article #1 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VIII, Number 2, August 2021

 Article #1

An Open Letter to >Star Tribune< Reporter Anthony Lonetree Concerning the Moral Abhorrence of His Cowardly Journalism and That Of Fellow Culprits Erin Golden and Mara Klecker

July 21, 2021                                                                                                      

Anthony---

Yours and Mara's and Erin's articles belie the most abysmal naivete;  the public school establishment wags you like a dog its tale---

Neither MPS nor Saint Paul Public Schools has the curriculum or teacher quality to deliver a well-rounded education.  Even those students who manage to graduate walk across the stage to receive a diploma in name only.

The three of you should be ashamed of cowardly journalism that perpetuates a system that sends so many young people living at the urban core to desperate lives on mean streets leading to early death or incarceration---

With 50 years of teaching and research experience,

Gary

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph.D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com

Article #2 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VIII, Number 2, August 2021

Article #2        

An Open Letter to Star Tribune Minnesota Education Beat Reporter Erin Golden 

>>>>> 

 

Covid a Serious Public Health Issue That Conveniently Allows MDE and Local District Incompetents to Mire Academic Abuse of Students in the Muck of Distraction

 

<<<<< 

 

July 23, 2021

 

Erin---

 

Your online under lingering Covid conditions article is serviceable but cowardly, as always avoiding the most vexatious issues in public education.  Perpetual distractions 

obscure the academically important issues that would follow as streams from the thematic river of your article >>>>>

 

>>>>>  Heather Mueller is an intellectual lightweight with not a single degree in a major subject area;

 

>>>>>  Ed Graff and MPS curriculum decision makers have similarly slim credentials;

 

>>>>>  Students have not suffered academically under Covid online conditions because the standard education received is knowledge-deficient and skill-deplete;

 

 >>>>>  Deferring to local districts on Covid matters at this point jibes with abiding preK-12 conditions in which national and state policy always gives way to locally centralized reality, which undermines putative reforms, most of which are pretenses anyway;

 

>>>>>  Under these actualities, public education produces ignorant citizens, maintains degraded conditions at the urban core, induces violence born of frustration, and sends potential societal jewels to prison.

 

And you and Anthony and Mara persist in your cowardice and abominable ignorance to merely parrot the utterances of those who academically abuse our precious young people every day their feet hit the ground---

 

Conveyed with the power of 50 years teaching young people of central cities---

 

Gary

 

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph.D.

Director, New Salem Educational Initiative

http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com

Article #4 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VIII, Number 2, August 2021

Article #4

An Analysis of >Star Tribune< Staff Writer Anthony Lonetree’s Expletive Punctuated Reply to My Incisive Email of 24 July 2021  >>>>>

The Ego-Based Nature of His Reply as Evidence That This Education Beat Writer Cares Nothing About Education or Young People

 ...........................................................................................................

On Sunday, 24 July, I received the following coarse reply to an email that I had sent him earlier that day  >>>>>

 

Received from Star Tribune Staff Writer Anthony Lonetree, 24 July, 2021

Don't give me your bull[expletive].  I held back the first time. I seriously don't need to hear from you.

Tony

Anthony Lonetree

Staff Writer

612-673-4109 (office)

612-875-0041 (cell)

 

Follow now this analysis of the correspondence that engendered the email from Anthony Lonetree. 

I include here the complete text of my email, interspersed with comments indicating the important aspects of a correspondence that constituted a compact presentation of the issues serving as the greatest impediments to the design of an excellent system of preK-12 education  >>>>>

The Email from Me That Engendered Anthony’s Reply---  with Comments as to the Vital Impediments to K-12 Excellent That Were of No Apparent Interest to This Star Tribune St.Paul Public Schools Education Beat Writer

 

Text of Email

 

July 24, 2021

 

Anthony---

 

Your article, “2 St. Paul School Board Candidates Come Up Short of DFL Endorsement,” in yesterday’s 23 July 2021 edition of the Star Tribune is another serviceable mediocrity, informational but requiring no courage to write.

 

With regard to school boards, remember that occupants are overwhelmingly agents of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party/Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) cohort that will always oppose the necessary overhaul to

design and implement knowledge-intensive curriculum and elevate teacher quality.

 

…………………………………………………………………………..

 

My Comment

 

Was this observation what Anthony considered “bull[expletive]?

 

If that be the case he fails to realize, or does not care, that the DFL/Education Minnesota (including the union affiliates Minneapolis Federation of Teachers [MFT] and St. Paul Federation of Teacher [SPFT]) cohort is among the greatest impediments to public school excellence.  DFLers can always be counted on to provide more funding than Republicans but DFL party members will never challenge the system that they are funding in ways that will improve K-12 education.  Democratic-Farmer-Labor funding initiatives for early childhood education and for free community college tution are worthy, but ignoring the structural impediments to excellence of education at grades kindergarten through 12, which involve knowledge-deficient curriculum and poor teacher quality at the median belies ignorance, denial, or political cowardice.

 

……………………………………………………………………………

 

Text of Email

 

Even rare independent candidates fail to comprehend the needed changes.

 

And that is what an effective member of any school board should do:  advocate for the the needed overhaul in curriculum and teacher quality, upon an understanding that in doing so they will have to oust many central office administrators.  This means ousting current central office leadership consisting of the superintendent and all academic program decision-makers.

Such assertive action will require an understanding of the needed changes, the depth of incompetence of central administrators, the intellectual insubstantiality of all academic decision-makers, the courage to serve as agents of change, and the political independence of the MFT to challenge the inept education establishment.

 

…………………………………………………………………………..

 

My Comment

 

Was this also an observation what Anthony considered “bull[expletive]?

 

Low quality of school board members is another major vexation of K-12 education.  Overwhelmingly, candidates backed by the DFL/MFT cohort dominate school boards such as the Minneapolis Public Schools Board of Education and the St. Paul Public Schools Board of Education.  This means, similar to the variously ignorant, in denial, or politically purchased Minnesota state legislators, school board members will never act to make those structural changes necessary to achieve educational excellence.

 

Very likely, Anthony Lonetree is not willing to pursue this matter, depending as he does for his stories on these and other members of the education establishment.

 

……………………………………………………………………………

Text of Email

 

Understand, then, that the DFL nominating process, which those of us on the left will have to tolerate for positions such as mayor and legislators, is corrupt with regard to public education issues:  Members of the DFL are controlled by Education Minnesota and local union affiliates.  Teacher unions will always oppose the installation of knowledge-intensive curriculum that teachers at the median do not have the academic training to impart, and they will oppose the needed teacher training to prepare teachers able to deliver substantive knowledge and skill sets.

In this situation, the DFL-endorsed candidacies of Halla Henderson, Uriah Ward, and Clayton Howatt should be viewed with suspicion;  and those of Jim Vue and James Farnsworth considered more favorably, since if they are elected they will not bear the moral weight of DFL/St. Paul Federation of Teacher sycophancy.

 

…………………………………………………………………………..

 

My Comment

 

Was this yet another observation what Anthony considered “bull[expletive]?

 

The sort of journalism that Anthony Lonetee (and that of his colleagues, Mara Klecker [Minneapolis Pubic Schools beat] and Erin Golden [State of Minnesota education beat] conduct is merely reportorial.  The above information provided by Anthony is useful to the immediate purpose of notifying those few readers who really care about school board elections as to the candidates who are running, endorsed or unendorsed.  But these writers also frequently write feel-good articles that highlight teachers and schools in some noble putative endeavor, while the dominant reality is that our wretched public schools send those student who manage to graduate across the stage to claim a piece of paper that is a diploma in name only---  and create citizens of such low knowledge bases that a Donald Trump becomes president and a Covid-19 pandemic that should have been terminated by now is prolonged because of science-denying, abominable behavior on the part of citizens.

 

Thus do those who fail to investigate the impediments to excellence in an educational system that produces such phenomena abet the prolongation and sustenance of that system.

 

But Anthony Lonetree must regard these truths as my “bull[expletive.”

 

As with so many others who sustain a corrupt system, Lonetree is variously ignorant, in denial, or intellectually corrupt;  and, whatever the mix in his personal character that those qualities constitute, Lonetree  is likely just trying to cling to his meager little job.

 

……………………………………………………………………………

 

Text of Email

 

You should at the very least be aware of the subtext of your articles for anyone who comprehends the most vexatious issues of public education.

And some day you should gather the courage to shed your cover as a journalistic mediocrity and challenge the curriculum, teacher quality, and institutional corruption that shortchanges our precious young people in the public schools every day they go forth to another day of academic abuse to which they are subjected by administrators and teachers.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………

 

My Comment

 

Was this also among the accumulating observations that constitute what Anthony considered “bull[expletive]?

 

This in all likelihood was one of those sections of my email that most offended Antony Lonetree’s ego.  But in that very sentence I offered in the phrase, “curriculum, teacher quality, and institutional corruption that shortchanges our precious young people in the public schools,” a capsule reminder of the major impediments to public school excellence.

 

Consistent, though, with the other observations about which Lonetree demonstrates lack of concern, he makes his reply to me with no reference to these truly vital matters, instead reacting strictly from the posture of a wounded ego.

 

……………………………………………………………………………

 

Text of Email

 

I signed off at the completion of my email of 24 July 2021 to Anthony Lonetree as follows >>>>>

 

With the comprehension that comes with 50 years of teaching students at the urban core---

Gary

Gary Marvin Davison, Ph.D.

Director, New Salem Education Initiative

http://www.newsalemeducation.blogspot.com

 

My Comment

A person truly interested in education and young people might find such experience a matter of considerable note.

But Anthony Lonetree and such journalistic mediocrities who prevail on the education beat are typically not truly interested in education.

They are variously ignorant, in denial, or cowardly cooperative. 

 

Anthony Lonetree, Mara Klecker, and Erin Golden collect a meager paycheck while acting as agents of an education establishment that denies our precious young people the knowledge and skills that they need to go forth to lives of cultural enrichment, civic participation, and professional satisfaction.

Article #3 >>>>> >Journal of the K-12 Revolution: Essays and Research from Minneapolis, Minnesota< >>>>> Volume VIII, Number 2, August 2021

 Article #3

An Open Letter to >Star Tribune< Reporter Anthony Lonetree Regarding the First of Two Articles Written on Saturday, 23 July 2021  >>>>>  “2 St. Paul School Board Candidates Come Up Short of DFL Endorsement”

>>>>>            An Initial Very Big Biog Hint to My Readers

With regard to school boards, remember that the Minneapolis Public Schools edition features seven hopeless members and two that seem likely to prove disappointing. 

Jenny Arneson (District 1), Siad Ali (District 3), Nelson Inz (District 5), Ira Jourdain (District 6), Josh Pauly (At-large) and Kim Ellison (At-Large) are all agents of the Democratic-Farmer-Labot (DFL)/Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) cohort that will always oppose the necessary overhaul to desing and implement knowledge-intensive curriculum and elevated teacher quality. 

Ariana Cerrillo (District 4) will continue to be an improvement over former occupant Bob Walser and Sharon El Amin (District 2) much better than KerryJo Felder but neither of these members who were elected in November 2020 seems poised to advocate for the needed changes.

And that is what an effective member of any school board should do:  advocate for the needed overhaul in curriculum and teacher quality, upon an understanding that in doing so they will have to oust many central officer administrators.  At the Minneapolis Pubic Schools (MPS), this would mean facilitating the exit of MPS Superintendent Ed Graff;  Interim Senior Academic Offficer Aimee Fearing;  Associate Superintendents Shawn Harris-Berry, LaShawn Ray, Ron Wagner, and Brian Zambreno;  and the entire 27-member MPS Department of Teaching and Learning.

Such assertive action will require an understanding of the needed changes, the depth of incompetence of central administrators, the intellectual insubstantiality of all academic decision-makers, the courage to serve as agents of change, and the political independence of the MFT to challenge the inept education establishment.

With that very big hint in view, now read Anthony Lonetree’s shorter of two  articles in the Saturday, 23 2021 edition of the Star Tribune >>>>>

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“2 St. Paul School Board Candidates Come Up Short of DFL Endorsement”

(Anthony Lonetree, Star Tribune, 23 July 2021)

 

St. Paul’s all- virtual DFL city convention wrapped up Friday with no endorsement being given to two candidates seeking a four-year school board seat.

 

Jim Vue, the board’s vice-chairman, and James Farnsworth, a member  of the Unversity of Minnesota Board of Regents, fell short of the 60% delegate support needed for the party nod.

 

Earlier, DFLers endorsed three school board candidates, leaving Vue and Farnsworth to compete for support in the second round of balloting that ended Thursday.  The field tally had Vue at 58.7%, Farnsworth at 35.6%, and “no endorsement” at 5.7%.

 

The filing period for the city’s mayoral and school board elections opens Tuesday.

 

The final slate of DFL-endorsed candidates includes Mayor Melvin Carter, who is seeking a second term in office;  Halla Henderson and Uriah Wood, who aim to fill two fo the three four-year school board seats up for election;  and Clayton Howatt, who wants to complete the remaining two years of the seat vacated by former member Steve Marchese.

                

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>>>>>            A Moment for Readers to Ruminate

 

Readers now take a moment to think about the subtext of the Lonetree article, the actual issues of importance versus the surface issues always covered by the cowardly reporers of the Star Tribune.

 

Then read my opn letter to Anthony Lonetree pertinent to the article of

note  >>>>>

 

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July 24, 2021

 

Anthony---

 

You article, “2 St. Paul School Board Candidates Come Up Short of DFL Endorsement,” in yesterday’s 23 July 2021 edition of the Star Tribune is another serviceable mediocrity, informational but requiring no courage

to write.

 

With regard to school boards, remember that occupants are overwhelmingly agents of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party/Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) cohort that will always oppose the necessary overhaul to

design and implement knowledge-intensive curriculum and elevate teacher quality.  Even rare independent candidates fail to comprehend the needed changes.

 

And that is what an effective member of any school board should do:  advocate for the the needed overhaul in curriculum and teacher quality, upon an understanding that in doing so they will have to oust many central officer administrators.  This means ousting current central office leadership consisting of the superintendent and all academic program decision-makers

Such assertive action will require an understanding of the needed changes, the depth of incompetence of central administrators, the intellectual insubstantiality of all academic decision-makers, the courage to serve as agents of change, and the political independence of the MFT to challenge the inept education establishment.

Understand, then, that the DFL nominating process, which those of us on the left will have to tolerate for positions such as mayor and legislators, is corrupt with regard to public education issues:  Members of the DFL are controlled by Education Minnesota and local union affiliates.  Teacher unions will always oppose the installation of knowledge-intensive curriculum that teachers at the median do not have the academic training to impart, and they will oppose the needed teacher training to prepare teachers able to deliver substantive knowledge and skill sets.

In this situation, the DFL-endorsed candidacies of Halla Henderson, Uriah Ward, and Clayton Howatt should be viewed with suspicion;  and those of Jim Vue and James Farnsworth considered more favorably, since if they are elected they will not bear the moral weight of DFL/St. Paul Federation of Teacher sycophancy.

You should at the very least be aware of the subtext of your articles for anone who comprehends the most vexatious issues of public education.

And some day you should gather the courage to shed your cover as a journalistic mediocrity and challenge the curriculum, teacher quality, and institutional corruption that shortchanges our precious young people in the public schools every day they go forth to another day of academic abuse to which they are subjected by administrators and teachers.

With the comprehension that comes with 50 years of teaching students at the urban core---

Gary