Thursday, September 27, 2007

The "Big Easy" Is...Not So Easy

If we are going to re-build our schools, it will have to be done outside the scope of the NEA, and what has to be re-built first is our understanding of what a family is, and what a family does to stay together. Unless the concept of family survives, as an entity, and as an integral part of our society, what we will get, are already getting, is the situation in New Orleans. Mr Vallas, the savior new superintendent of the schools outlined his position recently in the NYT:

The New York Times
Education Section

By Adam Nossiter
Published: September 24, 2007

A Tamer of Schools Has Plan in New Orleans


His plan is to have the schools be more than schools. They have to be substitute families, an idea that has been tried elsewhere, though rarely to this extent, and which remains a new concept in New Orleans.[em added]

Children are arriving at the schools here hungry, Mr. Vallas said, and they are going to bed hungry. In the summer, children broke into one school to raid a vending machine, they were so hungry. [**not sure that would pass the sniff test of being hungry] More than 90 percent of his 12,000-odd students in the Recovery School District, now run by the state, are in poverty, and the vast majority are being raised by single parents. Many are not being brought up by their biological parents, Mr. Vallas said, and some are not even living with guardians.

Under these circumstances, he said, focusing on the classroom is not enough. “You begin to provide the type of services you would normally expect to be provided at home,” Mr. Vallas said. That means giving the students three meals a day, including hot lunch and dinner. It means providing dental care and eye care.

He intends to tighten up in class as well: a smaller student-teacher ratio, more uniform instruction, new textbooks and technology, partnerships with universities and industry. He has replaced all but one of last year’s high school principals.

"You begin to make the schools community centers,” he said. “The whole objective here is to keep the schools open through the dinner hour, and keep schools open 11 months out of the year.” [em added]

It also means the government has an excellent opportunity to almost entirely replace the role of family in New Orleans, with all of the ramifications of individual psychic breakdown to follow. And it appears to be justified, almost necessary, seeing as how dysfunctional the family unit has become there. This too, is all part of the globalists' plan.

First, break down the family, the moral codes in the community, home discipline - provide welfare, wait for the inevitable slide into confusion and chaos. Extend that lack of focus and discipline into the school system, let the chaos reign for several decades, declare the schools a disaster - then build a school system intent on providing what the families should be able to easily provide for their children.

Make the school system a "sustainable" community center (who needs parents?) with huge gobs of federal money - and you have a mini socialist state - all right in the Big Easy - a hokey term, if I ever heard one. It's big alright, but it ain't easy.

I was born in New Orleans, but I wouldn't recognize it anymore. After decades of neglect on every level, it's become the "big easy" - for socialists who come riding into town on a wave of righteousness. First order of business: get rid of the riff-raff.

Am I being unfair? Following the Katrina disaster, there's been an unprecedented breakdown at the federal, state, parish and city levels. Katrina, by the way, wasn't as hurricanes go, all that bad. But the levee system was allowed to languish in benign neglect, despite repeated warnings, and the poorest section, Ward 9 caught the brunt of it, and residents are not getting support to carry on with their lives.

The powers-that-be are allowing the societal norms and standards to languish under the weight of poverty, ignorance, and hopelessness.

Katrina didn't destroy New Orleans. We did.

Is this simply a case of bureaucratic incompetence? Hardly. This breakdown has been going on in plain sight for decades. Not to worry, though. The federal government will come in, build community centers, and start doing the parent's job of nurturing and providing for their children.

Parents - who needs 'em?

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants an additional $190 billion to continue fighting wars - wars the US government started, but can't finish, because the rules of engagement make it virtually impossible to defeat a virtual enemy.

What's wrong with this picture?