Franklin Schargel’s Blog

I have lived through a number of wars- Korean, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan.  In addition, there have been wars against poverty, Congress and the War on Wall Street.  But there has never been a war against children – until now. 

The Republicans and their presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, have shown open hostility toward our nation’s children.  Candidate Romney has vowed to consolidate the Federal Education Department (or at least, to make it “a heck of a lot smaller”).  He has endorsed Representative Paul Ryan’s budget proposal which would eliminate 200,000 children from Head Start, reduce services for 10% of disadvantaged middle-school children and cut Pell grants by more than $1,000  per college education costs.  When asked where the additional funding for college would come from, Romney replied, “Borrow money from your parents.” 

Then there is the recently passed Health Care Bill which Mr. Romney and his Republican colleagues have called “Obama Care”.  Have the Republicans even considered how many children would be hurt if the law would be struck down?  Up to 17 million children would be denied care for a pre-existing condition; 28 million children would not be subjected to lifetime caps on their coverage and 2.5 million children would be removed from their parents health insurance policies.

China and India were able to leapfrog most Western industrialized nations by their laser-like focus on improving education.  Yet this has escaped the view of the Republicans.  They are very aware that children cannot vote and when they become eligible the current Republican governors, state legislators and current presidential candidate will be out of office.

Franklin is writing a new book entitled:  Preventing School Violence:  A Guide for Educators, Parents & Students.  In conjunction with the new book, he has developed a new workshop.

Students, parents and school staff want, need and deserve a safe learning environment and schools are supposed to be places where children are safe and secure.  Yet recent headlines have shown the vulnerability of schools. Upwardly mobile parents had the incorrect belief that they were leaving school violence, drugs, and gangs and bullying behind. School violence had been happening in inner-city schools for a long time.  Some people felt that since school crime and violence were confined to the inner cities and their ethnic populations, it was not their problem.  Obviously, many were wrong.  Imaginary boundary lines delineating the inner city, suburban or rural communities, whether school or societal, do not stop violence, gangs, guns and drugs. As incidents in Columbine, CO and West Paducah, KY indicate violence has occurred in rural as well as suburban communities.  Who could have predicted a violent school incident on an Indian reservation (Red Lake High School in Red Lake Minnesota) or in an Amish community (West Nickel Mines School, a village in Bart Township of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania?  It has taken place in colleges and universities (Virginia Tech, Oikos College, and the Texas Tower shooting).  No community, large or small is immune.  It is even taking place in foreign nations.  School violence takes a variety of forms. This workshop will address school violence issues including bullying, suicide, gangs, gun violence.

School violence takes a variety of forms. This workshop will address school violence issues including bullying, suicide, gangs, gun violence.

From my friend LeRoy Walser:
The Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention invite youth ages 13 to 18 to create 30- to 60-second public service announcements as part of the Stop Bullying Video Challenge. Video submissions should showcase ways the youth are taking action against bullying and promoting kindness and respect within their communities. The grand prize is $2,000 and two runner-ups will each receive $500. The three winning videos will be featured on stopbullying.gov. Entries must be received by 11 p.m. E.T. on October 14, 2012.

Those of you who are regular subscription readers will note that the website has a new look.  After a long and major effort from my webmaster, he has developed new things on the website which we are very excited about.

• A number of you have attended my workshops and asked about obtaining “I am proud to be a teacher” video that I developed.  You will see it listed on the homepage, under “store”.  For a limited time. it is available for $24.99.  If you are interested in purchasing it, you can then download it to your computer.

While most of the focus of the upcoming presidential election is on the economy and jobs, it is interesting to note where the candidates stand on education.  Mr. Romney has released a 35 page white paper describing his position on education and you can read from it or look at Mr. Romney’s previous statements at

https://2012.republican-candidates.org/Romney/Education-.

Here are a number of things that you can learn from his statements and previous positions:

• “Millions of kids are getting a third-world education.  And America’s minority children suffer the most.”  He has stated that he would let low-income and disabled students use federal money to attend public schools, charter schools and some private schools  It is not expected that he were elected that there would be any new federal money for education.
• As governor of Massachusetts, he signed into law a bill which cost 14,500 teachers, librarians, and school police officers their jobs.
• His education policy advisers include former Education Secretary Rod Paige (the “father” of No Child Left Behind) and other people from President George w. Bush’s administration.  Mr. Paige labeled the National Education Association in 2004 a “terrorist organization”.
• Mr. Romney’s position on education has changed in recent years.  He once supported abolishing the Education Department but reversed that position in 2007.  He also changed his position on No Child.  As a presidential candidate in 2007 he supported the law but has generally come out against the policies because of its expansion of the federal government’s role in education.

According to the Inform from Fargo, North Dakota:   In the month of August:

Americans spent $7.7 billion at family clothing stores in August 2011. Only in November and December were sales higher.

“¢ Sales at book stores in August 2011 totaled $2.4 billion, the strongest sales month of the year.

“¢ For back-to-school shopping, choices of retail establishments abound: In 2009, there were 28,520 family clothing stores, 7,092 children and infants clothing stores, 26,651 shoe stores, 8,945 office supply and stationery stores, 21,628 sporting goods stores, 9,390 bookstores and 8,663 department stores.

“¢ About 79 million children and adults were enrolled in schools throughout the country in October 2010 ““ from nursery school to college. They comprised 27 percent of the population age 3 and older.

“¢ About 72 percent of children ages 3 to 6 enrolled in kindergarten attend school all day as of October 2010.

“¢ About 24 percent of elementary through high school students had at least one foreign-born parent in October 2010.

“¢ About 27 percent of students ages 12 to 17 were in a gifted class in 2009.

“¢ Among 6- to 17-year-olds, 70 percent report being highly engaged in school ““ children reported as liking school, being interested in school and working hard in school ““ in 2009.

“¢ About 11.8 million school-age children ““ ages 5 to 17 ““ speak a language other than English at home in 2010. Most of these children, 8.5 million, spoke Spanish at home.

“¢ Sixteen percent of all college students were age 35 or older in October 2010. They made up 34 percent of those attending school part time.

“¢ About 41 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in college in 2010.

“¢  The census said 56 percent of college students were women in 2010. This includes undergraduate and graduate students.

The rewards for staying in school show up on payday, according to a 2009 report on educational attainment in the United States.

“¢ The median earnings of full-time, year-round workers with an advanced degree were $74,000 in 2009.

“¢ Workers whose highest degree was a bachelor’s had median earnings of $56,000.

“¢ Median earnings for full-time, year-round workers with a high school diploma were $33,000.

“¢ Workers with less than high school diploma had $25,000 median earnings.

Jamie Vollmer developed what follows. He has printed it on a high gloss, plasticized sheet.  He has given me permission to publish this copyrighted (2003) material.  He can be reached @ 641/472-1558 or by email at [email protected].  I am indebted to him for his research as well as his generosity.

America’s public schools can be traced back to the year 1640.  The Massachusetts Puritans established schools to:

1. Teach basic reading, some writing and arithmetic skills, and
2. Cultivate values that serve a democratic society (some history and civics implied).

The founders of these schools assumed that families and churches bore the major responsibility for raising a child.  At the beginning of the 20th century, society began to assign additional responsibilities to the schools.  Politicians and business leaders saw the schools as a logical site for both the assimilation of immigrants and the social engineering of citizens of the “Industrial Age.”  The trend of increasing the responsibilities of the public schools has accelerated ever since.

FROM 1900 TO 1910, WE ADDED

• Nutrition
• immunization, and
• Health to the list of school responsibilities.

FROM 1910 TO 1930, WE ADDED

• Physical Education, including organized sports
• The practical arts,
• Vocational education, including home economics and agricultural education, and
• School transportation began to be mandated

IN THE 1940’s, WE ADDED

• Business education
• Art and music
• Speech and drama
• Half day kindergarten, and
• School lunch programs appeared.

IN THE 1950’s, WE ADDED

• Expanded science and math education
• Driver’s education
• Foreign language requirements were strengthened, and
• Sex education was introduced

IN THE 1960’s, WE ADDED

• Advanced Placement programs
• Head Start
• Title I
• Adult education
• Consumer education
• Career education
• Peace, leisure and recreation education

IN THE 1970’s, THE BREAKUP OF THE AMERICAN FAMILY ACCELERATED.  AND WE ADDED

• Special education (mandated by The Federal government)
• Title IX programs (greatly expanded athletic programs for females)
• Drug and alcohol abuse education
• Parent education
• Behavior adjustment classes
• Character education
• Environmental education
• Women’s studies
• African-American heritage education, and
• School breakfast programs appeared.  (Some schools are now feeding children 2/3 of their daily meals.)

IN THE 1980S, THE FLOOD GATES OPENED AND WE ADDED

• Keyboarding and computer education
• Global education
• Ethnic education
• Multicultural/non-sexist education
• English-as-a-second-language, and bilingual education
• Teen pregnancy awareness
• Hispanic heritage education
• Early childhood education
• Jump Start, Early Start, Even Start, and Prime Start
• Full day kindergarten
• Pre-school programs for children at-risk
• After school programs for children of working parents
• Alternative education
• Danger education
• Anti-smoking education
• Sexual abuse prevention education
• Health and psychological services were expanded, and
• Child abuse monitoring became a legal requirement for all teachers

In the 1990s,the school reform movement shifted into high gear and collided with the spread of technology. The World Wide Web was born, and we added:

• Computer Labs and Internet Instruction
• Tech Prep
• School To Work Programs
• Distance Learning
• Homeless Education and its effects on children,
• HIV/AIDS Education
• Death Education
• America 2000 Initiatives (Republican)
• Goals 2000 Initiatives (Democratic)
• Bicycle Safety, Gun Safety, and Water Safety Instruction
• Conflict Resolution Classes
• Service Learning Programs
• Annual CPR Training
• Technical Adequacy Assessment
• Dropout Prevention Programs
• Anti-Gang Initiatives
• Inclusion and Mainstreaming Requirements
• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act greatly expanded the scope of Special Education
• And, in response to horrific acts of violence, we saw unprecedented efforts to ensure school security.

• In the 21st century, driven by the pressures of a rapidly changing society and the emergence of an increasingly literate global workforce, we added:
• No Child Left Behind (Republican)
• Internet Safety
• Bullying Prevention Programs
• Texting and Social Media Etiquette
• Elevator and Escalator Safety Instruction
• Body Mass Index Evaluation (Obesity Monitoring)
• Eating Disorder Counseling
• Suicide Awareness Programs
• Organ Donor Awareness Classes
• Steroid Abuse Prevention Programs
• Media Literacy Training
• Expanded Early Childhood Wrap Around Programs
• Financial Literacy Development
• Intruder Lockdown Training
• Health and Wellness Programs
• Leadership Training
• Contextual Learning and Skill Development
• Entrepreneurial/Innovation Skill Development
• Credit Retrieval Programs
• On-Line Learning Requirements
• Race To The Top (Democratic)
• Common Core Standards, and
• S.T.E.M ProgramsAnd we have not a single minute to the school calendar in six decades!The contract between our communities and our schools has changed. It’s no longer “Help us teach our children.” It’s “raise our kids.” No generation of teachers and administrators in history has had to fulfill this mandate. And each year, the pressure grows.

  Social and economic conditions demand that we unfold the full potential of every child. Our futures are tied to their success a never before. But this is a job for all of us. Our schools cannot do it alone. We must all come together and help our schools remove the obstacles to student success both in and out of schools.

  Copyright 2012, Jamie Vollmer

  To order copies of this poster or Jamie’s book Schools Cannot Do It Alone please visit www.jamievollmer.com

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