There’s downside to schoolhouse cops

With school shootings in the news, it’s worth considering how proposed security measures also could lead to results that nobody wants.

All over Texas, many schools provide the children in their care with a welcoming, safe climate that helps students go on to lead more positive lives. Not all schools are like that, though, and for many Texas kids, school acts as a portal into a courtroom or a lock-up.

This phenomenon, where school discipline can lead to justice system involvement, is sometimes called the “school-to-prison pipeline.” And right now elected officials are considering strategies likely to lead even more youth into courtrooms or the juvenile justice system. We need thoughtful dialogue about these unintended consequences.

Research tells us that youths in this pipeline will be more likely to drop out of school and come into contact again with the justice system later in life.

They’ll be disproportionately kids of color, though these children don’t act out more often or act out with more severity than Anglo students. And to a disturbing degree, they also will be those in special education or with mental health concerns.

Already, many schools have police officers to protect students’ safety. When day-to-day life is already peaceful, however, these officers’ time gets filled in other ways.

For classroom discipline, schools rely increasingly on police officers to write citations. Officers have been found to ticket children for offenses as minor as chewing gum, using inappropriate language or being noisy. As our state and schools criminalize youthful misbehavior, we miss opportunities to teach positive behavior in a more constructive way.

With growing academic pressures, teachers and school administrators also have school police and resource officers handle classroom disruptions that educators once managed. But these officers aren’t required to have training. If they did, they would know about things like de-escalation techniques and trauma-informed strategies, because those prove effective in working with kids who have mental health concerns or a history of trauma.

Ticketing by police officers, arrests on campus and discipline practices that remove kids from the classroom instead of keeping them where they learn happen more often with police officers in schools. While there is good data about many school discipline practices in Texas, when police are involved — with ticketing and arrests — schools are not required to collect any information. That means less accountability when it comes to some of the decisions with the most serious consequences.

As policymakers consider adding more police in schools, we need to make sure we’re also being mindful of including critical safeguards like better data collection on ticketing and arrests at school and training for school police so that they have the appropriate skills.

In response to school shootings in the 1990s, schools quickly moved to increase police presence. This time, we know more about the impact. Texas should not only protect children but also put them on course for success.

Lauren Rose is juvenile justice policy associate for Texans Care for Children and facilitator of the Texas Juvenile Justice Roundtable.

Texas teachers, foundations converge on Capitol

AUSTIN (AP) — Hundreds of teachers gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday to urge Texas lawmakers to roll back $5.4 billion in public education cuts imposed two years ago, while nearby a coalition of foundations pushed for reforms without necessarily spending more money.

Members of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association fanned out for a lobbying full-court press, meeting with state senators and representatives for their home districts and explaining how the funding loss has prompted layoffs and wage freezes, larger class sizes and pre-kindergarten cuts. Some teachers said janitorial staff cutbacks have forced them to take out their own classroom garbage, while others complained the loss of aides and librarians has them trying to be two places at once.

“We need to stop putting Band-Aids on things and pretending like that’s enough,” said Janie Baszile, a teacher for 34 years in the Galena Park Independent School District in greater Houston. She led a small group from the area on a trek to see nine lawmakers.

The Texas Legislature, facing a $27 billion budget deficit prompted by a sluggish economy in 2011, voted to slash $5.4 billion from public schools and educational grant programs. The state’s economic outlook is brighter now, but budget drafts in both the House and Senate for 2014-15 failed to restore the cuts.

One of the offices Baszile’s group visited was that of Rep. Craig Eiland, a Texas City Democrat who was not in. Instead, staff member Ann Drescher listened to the group talk about deemphasizing high-stakes standardized testing and improving state classroom discipline mechanisms.

“Is there any talk about funding?” teacher Ruby Tanguma, finally asked. “That really hurt us.” Tanguma is a specialist for students in second- to fifth-grade who need extra instruction in reading and math in the Bay City Independent School District.

Drescher said draft budgets didn’t restore the cuts. “But there’s still time before the final version is passed,” she added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Public Education Committee, appeared at a press conference in another corner of the Capitol with Texans Deserve Great Schools, a new group of policy experts and civic leaders. The coalition said it wants to apply other states’ successful education policy to Texas.

It believes the state is adequately funding schools but should distribute that money better, said Caprice Young, vice president of education for the Houston-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which seeks to “minimize injustice in our society.”

Texans Deserve Great Schools wants to lift the current cap of 215 charter schools licensed to operate statewide and believes public funding should go to cover charter facilities costs. It also wants to increase the number of Texas students who can earn school credit by taking courses online.

Additionally, the group is seeking to strengthen existing “parent trigger” laws so as to allow parents to petition to shut down a failing school after just two years. It further believes parents should have the option to send their children to the best public schools and not be “trapped by their zip code.”

But the coalition stops short of endorsing voucher proposals that would let families use public money allotted for their children on private schools. “We’re really about public schools,” Young said.

Patrick has proposed expanding school vouchers, arguing that families who are wealthy enough buy homes in areas with quality school districts — while their low-income counterparts are trapped in poor-performing districts.

“We must have empowerment and we must have flexibility,” Patrick said Thursday.

Many of the teachers at the Capitol said they oppose vouchers because private schools can turn away students deemed undesirable, meaning struggling kids will be stuck in public schools that will lose funding as their classmates bolt.

Vouchers supporters say they could increase teacher pay because there may be added demand for top educators. But Teresa Koehler, a 30-year teaching veteran in Clear Creek Independent School District, near League City, said “the key word there is ‘may.’”

“In the past, what they say will happen has not happened,” she said.

Copyright Associated Press, Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

ActivBus visits community for demonstration of classroom technology

view slideshow (3 images)

Last week, parents and community members got to participate in a hands-on, interactive demonstration of learning technology that students in Douglas County schools use daily in their classrooms.

The Promethean ActivBus rolled into various locations in the community to allow taxpayers to see firsthand how their E-SPLOST vote is helping students learn.

“If the community had not voted for E-SPLOST,” said Todd Hindmon, executive director of technology for the Douglas County School System, “this would not have been possible.”

As part of the 21st Century Classroom, defined by the school system’s technology committee, this offers students access to devices and interactive technology in every classroom, an interactive slate for every teacher, a document camera, access to a printer, a voice enhancement system and access to other tools, Hindmon explained.

As of December, every classroom in Douglas County Schools has a Promethean board and interactive response devises — all paid through E-SPLOST funding.

Participants with an interactive response unit, which somewhat resembled a TV remote, were able to interact with a teacher using a Promethean board to answer questions and text to the computer answers beyond multiple choice or true-false, said Hindmon.

The Promethean board is light years beyond the rudimentary chalkboard or dry erase.

Research has shown the device improves classroom discipline and student engagement, Hindmon noted.

“It allows teachers to better engage students,” Hindmon said, “as well as immediately determine whether the students have learned the material, or if he should reteach it.”

Hindmon said esteemed educator / researcher Dr. Robert Marzano had discovered that where an interactive board is used appropriately, there was a 17 percent increase in student achievement.

“The big part is student achievement,” said Hindmon. “That’s the power behind it.”

Within the next couple of years, said Hindmon, every classroom will have its own document camera, which can project notes and objects onto a screen — in real time.

He noted that during biology class, the process of dissecting a frog would be able to be projected on a screen with this device.

Teachers no longer have to raise their voices in the classroom, because of voice enhancement technology which offers use of a microphone and speakers in the ceiling, Hindmon explained.

Currently, the school system owns one ActivTable which can be utilized by six students at one time, according to Hindmon.

The interactive table encourages group activities to help develop collaborative and social skills among students.

Bring Your Own Technology is the next step in furthering technology in the schools, said Hindmon.

“BYOT will be on line in every school by the end of the 2012-13 school year upon principal request,” said the technology director.

Texas Teachers & Foundations Gather At Capitol

AUSTIN (AP) - Hundreds of teachers gathered at the state Capitol on Thursday to urge Texas lawmakers to roll back $5.4 billion in public education cuts imposed two years ago, while nearby a coalition of foundations pushed for reforms without necessarily spending more money.

Members of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association fanned out for a lobbying full-court press, meeting with state senators and representatives for their home districts and explaining how the funding loss has prompted layoffs and wage freezes, larger class sizes and pre-kindergarten cuts. Some teachers said janitorial staff cutbacks have forced them to take out their own classroom garbage, while others complained the loss of aides and librarians has them trying to be two places at once.

“We need to stop putting Band-Aids on things and pretending like that’s enough,” said Janie Baszile, a teacher for 34 years in the Galena Park Independent School District in greater Houston. She led a small group from the area on a trek to see nine lawmakers.

The Texas Legislature, facing a $27 billion budget deficit prompted by a sluggish economy in 2011, voted to slash $5.4 billion from public schools and educational grant programs. The state’s economic outlook is brighter now, but budget drafts in both the House and Senate for 2014-15 failed to restore the cuts.

One of the offices Baszile’s group visited was that of Rep. Craig Eiland, a Texas City Democrat who was not in. Instead, staff member Ann Drescher listened to the group talk about deemphasizing high-stakes standardized testing and improving state classroom discipline mechanisms.

“Is there any talk about funding?” teacher Ruby Tanguma, finally asked. “That really hurt us.” Tanguma is a specialist for students in second- to fifth-grade who need extra instruction in reading and math in the Bay City Independent School District.

Drescher said draft budgets didn’t restore the cuts. “But there’s still time before the final version is passed,” she added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Public Education Committee, appeared at a press conference in another corner of the Capitol with Texans Deserve Great Schools, a new group of policy experts and civic leaders. The coalition said it wants to apply other states’ successful education policy to Texas.

It believes the state is adequately funding schools but should distribute that money better, said Caprice Young, vice president of education for the Houston-based Laura and John Arnold Foundation, which seeks to “minimize injustice in our society.”

Texans Deserve Great Schools wants to lift the current cap of 215 charter schools licensed to operate statewide and believes public funding should go to cover charter facilities costs. It also wants to increase the number of Texas students who can earn school credit by taking courses online.

Additionally, the group is seeking to strengthen existing “parent trigger” laws so as to allow parents to petition to shut down a failing school after just two years. It further believes parents should have the option to send their children to the best public schools and not be “trapped by their zip code.”

But the coalition stops short of endorsing voucher proposals that would let families use public money allotted for their children on private schools. “We’re really about public schools,” Young said.

Patrick has proposed expanding school vouchers, arguing that families who are wealthy enough buy homes in areas with quality school districts — while their low-income counterparts are trapped in poor-performing districts.

“We must have empowerment and we must have flexibility,” Patrick said Thursday.

Many of the teachers at the Capitol said they oppose vouchers because private schools can turn away students deemed undesirable, meaning struggling kids will be stuck in public schools that will lose funding as their classmates bolt.

Vouchers supporters say they could increase teacher pay because there may be added demand for top educators. But Teresa Koehler, a 30-year teaching veteran in Clear Creek Independent School District, near League City, said “the key word there is `may.”‘

“In the past, what they say will happen has not happened,” she said.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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PROMETHEAN WORLD PLC : ActivBus visits community for demonstration of … – 4

Last week, parents and community members got to participate in a hands-on, interactive demonstration of learning technology that students in Douglas County schools use daily in their classrooms.

The Promethean ActivBus rolled into various locations in the community to allow taxpayers to see firsthand how their E-SPLOST vote is helping students learn.

“If the community had not voted for E-SPLOST,” said Todd Hindmon, executive director of technology for the Douglas County School System, “this would not have been possible.”

As part of the 21st Century Classroom, defined by the school system’s technology committee, this offers students access to devices and interactive technology in every classroom, an interactive slate for every teacher, a document camera, access to a printer, a voice enhancement system and access to other tools, Hindmon explained.

As of December, every classroom in Douglas County Schools has a Promethean board and interactive response devises – all paid through E-SPLOST funding.

Participants with an interactive response unit, which somewhat resembled a TV remote, were able to interact with a teacher using a Promethean board to answer questions and text to the computer answers beyond multiple choice or true-false, said Hindmon.

The Promethean board is light years beyond the rudimentary chalkboard or dry erase.

Research has shown the device improves classroom discipline and student engagement, Hindmon noted.

“It allows teachers to better engage students,” Hindmon said, “as well as immediately determine whether the students have learned the material, or if he should reteach it.”

Hindmon said esteemed educator / researcher Dr. Robert Marzano had discovered that where an interactive board is used appropriately, there was a 17 percent increase in student achievement.

“The big part is student achievement,” said Hindmon. “That’s the power behind it.”

Within the next couple of years, said Hindmon, every classroom will have its own document camera, which can project notes and objects onto a screen – in real time.

He noted that during biology class, the process of dissecting a frog would be able to be projected on a screen with this device.

Teachers no longer have to raise their voices in the classroom, because of voice enhancement technology which offers use of a microphone and speakers in the ceiling, Hindmon explained.

Currently, the school system owns one ActivTable which can be utilized by six students at one time, according to Hindmon.

The interactive table encourages group activities to help develop collaborative and social skills among students.

Bring Your Own Technology is the next step in furthering technology in the schools, said Hindmon.

“BYOT will be on line in every school by the end of the 2012-13 school year upon principal request,” said the technology director.

The Downside of Cops in Schools

The goal of stationing uniformed police officers in K-12 schools is to deter or prevent violence. One wonders, however, if the presence of armed police in the schools might lead to the exacerbation of disciplinary problems, as turning to the police will increasingly become an option of first rather than last resort among school administrators faced with disobedient students. School discipline is an extremely difficult issue that is not accorded the attention it deserves, and I’m far from an expert. But Jamelle Bouie of The American Prospect gives us reason to worry about the “school-to-prison” pipeline.

My only word of caution is that while there are real concerns about the fairness and the efficacy of school discipline policies, there are K-12 schools in which the threat of violence is real and, in a few instances, pervasive. Bouie is absolutely right to be concerned about the unintended consequences of excessively punitive strategies. But I hope that policymakers give more thought to less punitive strategies that might be more effective at reducing the threat of violence, e.g., applying some of Mark Kleiman’s insights to improving classroom discipline. 

Why all high school courses should be elective

(by Sarah L. Voisin / The Washington Post)

The rise of the Common Core State Standards has fueled a long national debate about what courses students should be required to take and when. Here’s an unconventional look on the subject, from Marion Brady, a classroom teacher for years who has written history and world culture textbooks (Prentice-Hall),  professional books, numerous  nationally distributed columns (many are available here), and courses of study. His 2011 book, “What’s Worth Learning,” asks and answer this question: What knowledge is absolutely essential for every learner? His course of study for secondary-level students, called Connections: Investigating Reality, is free for downloading here. Brady’s website is www.marionbrady.com.

By Marion Brady

Both my late mother’s and my father’s right foot tended to be heavy when in contact with car accelerators. Their brothers and sisters shared the tendency, suggesting some sort of genetic propensity — which I, unfortunately, seem to have inherited.

The last time it got me in trouble I was given a choice. I could either have the evidence of my bad behavior recorded on the back of my driver’s license, or I could spend four hours on a Saturday morning in a highway safety class.

Looking ahead, I chose the latter.

The class started at 8 a.m. and continued until noon, with one 15-minute break. To his credit, the instructor did his best to liven up his presentation, mixing humor, props, videos, and body language. Notwithstanding all that, it was four of the longest hours of my adult life.

Now, when I visit classes (mostly at the high school level) in an effort to keep in touch with reality as it manifests itself in American education, it’s a rare experience that doesn’t trigger two vivid memories—one of my sitting in that Saturday morning class trying to pay attention, the other of a scene in the film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,”  when the camera pans slowly across the faces of students as the teacher “covers the material” in a history class.

I’d like to be able to say that student boredom and mental disengagement are the exception rather than the rule in America’s classrooms, but decades of firsthand observation, student surveys, research on attention span, statistics on truancy and drop-outs, and the near-universal problem of classroom discipline tell me they’re not. A recent Gallup poll of a half-million students in 37 states says that the longer kids stay in school, the less engaged they become.

That’s the reverse of what ought to be happening.

It’s impossible to quantify the problem with precision, but if educational efficiency is indicated not by standardized test scores but by adult recall and use of what was once taught, I’d estimate the high school average when I graduated in the 1940s at no more than about 15%, decreasing slowly until about 1990, then more rapidly when the current standards and testing fad kicked in. Now, I’d put average institutional efficiency as something less than 10%.

Very few of us could pass the subject matter tests we once took, or would agree that being unable to do so significantly handicaps us. How can we ignore the implications of that fact?

I don’t blame teachers. What we have is a fundamental system problem, and it can’t be solved by following the advice of business leaders and politicians and merely doing longer, harder, and with greater precision, what we’ve always done.

In a November 12, 2012 “The Answer Sheet” blog, I suggested addressing the problem with project learning, but project learning with a twist—moving beyond textbook and lecture abstractions and putting school subjects to meaningful, real-world work. The school and its site model the larger world in every important respect. If teachers treated it as a hands-on laboratory and had kids use math, science, language arts, and social studies to describe, analyze, and improve the school, disengagement would either end completely or be radically reduced. The core subjects would be better taught, and learners would take with them a comprehensive sense-making template they’d use for the rest of their lives.

I have another, more unorthodox proposal for attacking the problem of disengagement. Most readers will consider it unthinkable, and some will write me off as a danger to the republic, but decades of working with kids tell me it would eventually trigger a performance explosion.

That proposal: Make every required course at the high school level elective. And if, say, five or more students submit a request for a class not offered, work with them to design and offer it. Take seriously the contention usually attributed to Albert Einstein that, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

I stand against this idea expressed by Marc Tucker in a January 15 Answer Sheet blog post: “There is no substitute for spelling out what we think students everywhere should know and be able to do.”

I don’t reject the notion that there are ideas so important every kid should understand them. The titles of two of my books—”What’s Worth Teaching?” and “What’s Worth Learning?”—make clear what I think kids need to know. I’m convinced, for example, that a thorough understanding of the sense-making process radically improves student performance in every field of study.

Not far behind in importance I put an understanding of the unexamined societal assumptions that shape our thoughts, actions, and identities. At a less abstract level I have kids look at the familiar until it becomes “strange enough to see,” raising their awareness of how built environments manipulate them in subtle, freedom-depriving ways, and I help them develop a skill obviously lacking at the highest levels of American policymaking—the ability to imagine unintended consequences of well-intended actions (just to start a list of matters the Common Core State Standards ignore).

Yes, I have strong feelings about what kids should learn, which is why I’d put them in charge of their own educations. Experience assures me they’ll get where they need to go, and do so more efficiently than will otherwise be possible. Experience also tells me that won’t happen as long as they’re fenced in by a random mix of courses required because they’ve always been required, by courses based on elitist conceits, by courses shaped by unexamined assumptions. The core’s boundaries are far too narrow to accommodate the collective genius of adolescents.

Kids bring to the curriculum vast differences—differences in gender, maturity, personality, interests, hopes, dreams, abilities, life experiences, situation, family, peers, language, ethnicity, social class, culture, probable and possible futures, and certain indefinable qualities, all combined in dynamic, continuously evolving ways so complex they lie beyond ordinary understanding.

Today’s reformers seem unable or unwilling to grasp the instructional implications of those differences and that complexity. They treat kids as a given, undifferentiated except by grade level, with the core curriculum the lone operative variable. Just standardize and fine-tune the core, they insist, and all will be well.

That’s magical thinking, and it’s dumping genius on the street.

Don’t tell me I’m naïve, that high school kids can’t be trusted with that much responsibility, or that they’re too dumb to know what to do with it. Would it take them awhile to get used to unaccustomed autonomy? Sure. Would they suspect that the respect being shown them was faked and test it out? Of course. Would they at first opt for what they thought was Easy Street? You can count on it.

Eventually, however, their natural curiosity and the desire to make better sense of experience would get the better of them, and they’d discover that Easy Street connected directly to all other streets, and that following it was taking them places they had no intention of going, or even knew existed.

I know this because I’ve been there with them.

Sunday’s Sound Off

Hey Obama, it’s bad enough you messed up this country but when you get in the line of my Price Is Right, that’s going too far. If you want to jibber jabber, do it later in the afternoon please.

Here’s a news items that many people aren’t aware of and if they are, it’s not talked about much. To me it’s unbelievable – 295 Americans died in Afghanistan last year. Last year among active military troops of the U.S., 349 people died from suicide – almost one a day in our military. I think there’s something majorly wrong in this world.

Once we were proud to be independent, self sufficient, self reliant and family oriented. Now we take pride in how much free stuff we can get from the government, how little work we have to do to survive and how many children we father with how many different women. Is this progress? I didn’t vote for President Obama the first time because I thought he was not the best man for the job, nor the second time because he proved me right the first time.

Concerning ambulance billing, I must have gotten a real deal from Royersford Ambulance. I was only charged $806.

You can do something about the dogs barking. I took my neighbor to court with animal control and they ended up having to try a few things and then had to get rid of the dog. They didn’t feed him, left him out 24/7 and we had to feed him. So you can do something.

ANIMAL LOVER
To Gil Spencer in The Mercury on Tuesday, I was not aware of the practices of Steven Ward and Eddie Savitz. Were you aware of them and if so, what did you do to stop them? Let the accountability start now for pedophiles and let Penn State and Tom Corbett be held to this high standard of accountability. Two wrongs do not make a right.

On the back page of Tuesday’s Mercury Obama demands quick action to raise the debt limit. Remember these words? “In five days we will fundamentally transform this country. My plan is to increase fuel costs and we have to redistribute the wealth.” It’s really a shame what this man is doing to this country and I don’t mean for the good of the country.

Mississippi Schools Best In Nation At Sending Kids To Jail

Bolstered by a recent report from a coalition of civil rights organizations, Mississippi continues to excel in attracting those re-locators balancing the need for quality public schools with the desire to live near an unofficially segregated Waffle House. One of only 19 states that permits paddling in schools, Mississippi has long been a haven for parents looking to outsource the beating of their children to skilled public educators, and with the nation’s highest rate of students beaten by school staff, parents are assured the draconian laws so instrumental to their children’s success are and will continue to be applied liberally and lovingly.

The report highlights some of the unique methods utilized by Mississippi schools in recent years to rehabilitate students who engage in inappropriate behavior:

In 2000, what began with a few students playfully throwing peanuts at one another on a school bus ended in five Black male high school students being arrested for felony assault, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. When one of the peanuts accidentally hit the white female bus driver, the bus driver immediately pulled over to call the police, who diverted the bus to the courthouse where the students were questioned.
The Sheriff commented to one newspaper, “[T]his time it was peanuts, but if we don’t get a handle on it, the next time it could be bodies.”

More recently, in 2009 in Southaven, DeSoto County, armed police officers responded to an argument between three students on a school bus by reportedly arresting a half dozen Black students, choking and tackling one Black female student, and threatening to shoot the other students on the bus between their eyes.

In 2010, in Jackson Public School District, until a lawsuit was filed, staff at one school regularly handcuffed students to metal railings in the school gymnasium and left them there for hours if they were caught not wearing a belt, among other minor infractions. For example, one 14-year-old boy was reportedly handcuffed to the railing when he wore a stocking cap to class, threw his papers on the ground, and refused to do his school work.

Parents supportive of proposed measures to increase armed security in schools should consider the benefits of cutting out the middleman. Any private guard or police officer will require a salary, whereas the increased school arrests coupled with punishments typically reserved for prisoners seems to put more weapons directly into the hands of students – a formula that results in safer schools and BIG savings for Mississippi tax payers. According to testimony given by a juvenile judge from Georgia, a state that uses police intervention for minor school infractions in a similar manner:

The number of serious weapons brought to campus increased during this period of police arrests including guns, knives, box cutter knives, and straight edge razors.

Compare that to some crackpot Montessori school, where the only threat-deterrent regularly carried by students on campus is a book that’s maybe a little heavier than other books.

Innovative punishment structures aren’t the only attractive features of Mississippi’s Public School system. Those who demand that traditional racial disparity play a prominent role in classroom discipline should be comforted by the fact that students of color receive out-of-school suspensions at three times the rate as their white peers. With an extensively proven record, Mississippi has shown itself capable of providing a nurturing educational environment where black students are disproportionately removed from classrooms for minor offenses and school safety is maximized by an ever increasing presence of lethal weapons on school campuses.

In the realm of absurdly illogical educational reform methods, Yr. Wonkette isn’t sure how even a lunatic’s lunatic could follow that act!

[Think Progress]

The Readers’ Writers: Educator, author and professor Siegfried Engelmann – Smyrna