Category: Education

The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.

By Bruce E. Levine / AlterNet / July 31, 2011 |

Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it.

There are many reasons thousands of teachers traveled across the country to protest in front of the White House on Saturday — including to oppose charter schools, to fight for equal funding for poor schools, and to have more say in public education policies.

But at a noisy rally starting at noon under soaring temperatures, their message boiled down to one point, which was summed up by the sound check before the first speaker took the stage:

Tap. Tap. “No testing, no testing, 1-2-3.”

By Tom Lemmon / SignOnSanDiego / July 28, 2011

When I was a kid growing up in the South Bay, I remember bringing my progress reports home to share with my parents. Just like many teachers before them and since, my teachers would set goals for me and assess my performance, and my parents would push me to do better. They would identify ways I could work harder to improve my performance, with hopes that my final report card would bring better grades.

Working to counter military recruiting and demilitarize our schools

I was asked to see if I could rekindle (and I can barely keep a campfire going) energy around leafleting our high schools with information to help students understand and deal with the attempts at militarizing them they’ll find in their schools and in their communities and beyond, as anyone can see in commercials, video games, and every form of media.

Well, it should be obvious that there’s a tremendous need for us, especially those of us who dare to refer to ourselves as “community activists.” We look out for our children when Uncle Sam comes after them with his zest for war, even though some of the organizations and activities that counter the militarization of young people are shrinking nationwide.

High School Foreign Exchange Student program

By Beth Driscoll

I am a Local Coordinator for a High School Foreign Exchange Student program, and I am proud to be part of something that I feel truly makes a difference in how America is becoming a more diverse, accepting society. The Council on International Educational Exchange gives people the opportunity to show America through our eyes.

An initiative that would have asked voters to approve adding four appointed members to the five-member San Diego school board failed to gather enough valid signatures to put the measure on the ballot, San Diego officials said Monday.

San Diegans 4 Great Schools, a group supporting the proposed ballot measure, had submitted more than 133,000 signatures in April as they sought to qualify the measure for a future election.

However, the county Registrar of Voters found an insufficient number of valid signatures had been collected.

There’s a series of reports by Voice of San Diego reporter Emily Alpert published over the weekend that states that schools within the San Diego Unified system – including Point Loma High and Dana Middle School – misspent federal monies earmarked for disadvantaged students.

Yes, it is true. Baseball great David Wells has been hired as a pitching coach for Point Loma High School and its baseball team. The former Padre and Yankee player, PLHS Class of 1982, was a big star while at our local high school, and named as the CIF Player of the Year.

Today’s graduates face miserable job prospects, and experts say the student loan crisis could be worse than the credit card or housing bubbles.

It’s the beginning of summer: warmer weather, longer days, the end of the school year. And that means graduation for thousands of young people across the U.S.; graduation with more student debt than ever before, and into a job market that is anything but promising.

Young people between the ages of 16 and 24 face an unemployment rate nearly twice that of the rest of the population,…

The Chicano Legacy 40 Años mural, which covered the east wall of Peterson Hall on the campus of the University of California, San Diego for two years, has been installed as a permanent mosaic. The 17-by-54 feet mural, made up of thousands of pieces of colored glass, will be unveiled at noon, May 25, in a free event open to the campus and San Diego community.

Protesters, many from San Diego City College, interrupted an education funding discussion hosted by state assemblyman Nathan Fletcher outside his Miramar office on May 13.

Fletcher, a Republican, started the event by saying he hoped for “a calm conversation” about education and the budget plan presented a day earlier by GOP leaders in Sacramento.

Within 10 minutes, however, about 30 protesters began a competing conversation on a sidewalk adjacent to the meeting area.

Since Andy Cohen covered the meat and potatoes of the teachers’ “State of Emergency” rally already, I wanted to share some other thoughts about the event and display a sampling of the numerous photos I took yesterday, Friday the 13th while at the Embarcadero in downtown San Diego.

When I heard that the rally was going to be at the Embarcadero, I told Patty that parking would be horrendous downtown and next to impossible, so we agreed to take the trolley from Lemon Grove. She wrapped up our banner, we gathered our camera and notepad, and we hopped the 3:44 pm trolley (although by time it got to us, it was 3:50). After grabbing our seats, we looked around and saw several women wearing red T-shirts that spelled out “STOP” – Students and Teachers Our Priority. And during the ride downtown, we heard several guys who were standing up having quiet an intellectual conversation – even hearing the name “Chomsky” come bouncing out. Are these teachers? we wondered on their way to the rally.