Rick Raw: Firing Teachers will Not Solve Poor Educational Results–Quality Education Starts at Home

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

The shocking firing of 241 teachers in the Washington D.C. region by dragon lady, Chancellor Michelle Rhee exposed a lack of understanding of what really goes on in today’s classrooms by the chancellors of the school districts, many of whom have never taught in a classroom.

The truth is: In affluent school districts, test scores are traditionally high because the students come from families who encourage intellectual achievement .Conversely, in poverty stricken districts, test scores are always much lower because the students lack support from their dysfunctional families with so many problems, they are divided into subgroups.

Indeed, all social ills come from poverty, including unmotivated students, which is the real educational plague, not poor teachers. Any teacher who has worked in lower income neighborhoods will tell you the same story. There is no intellectual encouragement in their students’ homes.

Making teachers the scapegoats for underachieving schools will not solve the growing drop in educational achievement. For too long teachers have been forced to resign or been fired for poor performance, when, in fact, it’s not their fault.

The underlying problem is students who come from dysfunctional families where there is no intellectual encouragement, and the students are not motivated to do well in school.

During my wife’s long career as a teacher (she is now retired) in lower income neighborhoods, she worked hard to motivate her students. However, they received no support from their families, who lived on the edge of poverty.

Many of her students were emotionally troubled by the high stress environment in which they lived. Some of her students came form single parent homes where the mother was an alcoholic and the father was in jail. They had no incentive to learn. Just surviving the daily horror show at home took up all their energy.

I remember many times she would come home discouraged by working so hard to motivate her students and not getting any results. She had disturbed kids who refused to do anything but act-out, disrupting the class with their antics.

This was a daily occurrence for her 21 years of teaching. Most days, she would come home exhausted from dealing with behavior issues and unmotivated students instead of actually teaching.

All these high and mighty administrators like Rhee have no idea of the reality of today’s classrooms. She’s just trying to make a name for herself by ruining 241 teachers’ lives. Come on, they all can’t be bad teachers. But, teachers have always taken the heat for poor test scores and underachieving schools.

Teachers’ unions fight this unfair propaganda daily by trying to save teachers’ jobs. But, for parents who do nothing to encourage their kids to do well in school, blaming teachers is a convenient scapegoat. They don’t dare take a hard look at their own fractured lifestyles and uncaring attitude as the real reason their kid is failing.. These are the same lowlife parents who complain to the principal that their kids’ teacher is not performing up to standards.

This unmitigated teacher bashing is reaching a crescendo as she-devils like Rhee preach that incompetent teachers are to blame for poor performance. It’s complete bullshit.
George Parker, president of the Washington Teacher’s Union said that the union will appeal the firings. He has vowed to overturn Rhee’s edict.

Exposing the truth about why schools in poverty stricken neighborhoods underachieve is politically sensitive. These administrators don’t want the blowback from low-income parents by saying their poverty and dysfunctional family is causing their kids to fail. That would be admitting that our whole economic system has failed a large portion of the population that happens to be black. So they blame the teachers.

Frankly, I was thrilled when my wife retired from teaching. The stress of dealing with unmotivated and emotionally disturbed students every day was killing her. It took her a couple of years to unwind from that 21 years of high stress.
When she looks back on her career of teaching, she doesn’t know how she lasted all those years.

It was a thankless, unrelentingly frustrating job of dealing with unmotivated kids. Occasionally, she would have a bright kid who overcame his or her home life by doing well in school. But that was the exception rather than the rule.

Rick Raw: Muslin Center Near Ground Zero a Bad Idea

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

The fact that the Cordoba Initiative to build an Islamic center two blocks from ground zero expresses one of our fundamental rights to freedom of religion, it’s a bad idea. Of all the property that the Muslims could have used, why choose a location so close to ground zero? It’s an insenitive choice.

Being a Muslim is light-years away from being a radical Jihadist. However, the radicalization of Muslims happens from mosques across the country. Although the radical Jihadists recruit from the mosque’s congregation, it’s not condoned by the thousands of Muslims who denounce the radicals.

The center is not actually a mosque but a center that serves a wider community. Still, it’s where Muslims gather which is a fertile ground for Jihadists to recruit radicals.

The truth is: Radicalization begins with young disenfranchised Muslims who are drawn to the radical philosophy and attend the mosques. All they need is a push from clever recruiters who know how to nurture the young Muslims’ budding radical beliefs.

These potential recruits attend Muslim mosques and centers. The recruiters meet them at social gathering and their pitch is subtle at first. Then they try to isolate the young recruits so they can be brain washed into the radical Jihadist mind set.

Before long, the Jihadist newbies are dreaming of 72 virgins and strapping explosives to their bodies for suicide missions. That doesn’t mean that this new Cordoba center near ground zero will be a radical Jihadist recruiting bastion. But it will be a grim reminder of the radical Muslims who used airliners as missiles and killed over 3,000 innocent people in the 9/11 attacks.

Just having a Muslim center near ground zero was ill-advised at best and essentially a bonehead move by the Muslim community. The truth is: The proliferation of Mosques in the United States is a windfall for radical Islamic recruiters. This new center rubs salt into the deep psychological wounds of the 9/11 victims’ loved ones who continue to suffer from grief and PTSD.

Despite the anti-Muslim backlash from many people of all religiions and walks of life, there is a growing population of Muslims in the United States, which sparked the new construction of masques across the country, including the Cordoba center near ground zero.

Most rational Americans realize that radical Jihadists and normal Muslims are worlds apart. Yet, there is a growing anti-Muslim sentiment among a large majority of people who blame the mainstream Muslims for tolerating radicals in their midst. However, the Muslim religion is growing exponentially, eclipsing Christians and other religions.

In some states, politicians have led the crusade to oppose the new construction of mosques. In June of 2010, Lou Ann Zelenik, a Tennessee Republican candidate opposed the Muslim proposal to build a mosque in Murfreesboro. Of course she was playing to the right wing factions that associate all Muslims with Jihadists. Well, they’re Bible belt Republican dunderheads

The proposed construction of the Cordoba center has been a lightning rod for protest at city council meetings. Muslim bashing is rampant in NYC. In contrast, a more moderate faction is willing to live and let live with the new Muslim center. No matter what happens, those who proposed this center so close to ground zero were blind to the widespread prejudice against all Muslims, whose religion is so foreign to American Christians and Jews.

The uproar over the proposed Muslim center exposed the prejudices against Islam that, up until now, were kept to private thoughts. Now, the religious bigotry against Muslims is out in the open.

The fact is: Radical Jihadists recruit their suicide bombers from mosques, not the local mall. So, there is justification for not building any more mosques, although it flies in the face of our constitutional right of freedom of religion.

Rick Raw: Recovery Running on Empty–Again Obama Shows Lack of Leadership

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

When Congress ran off on vacation after failing to pass the Job’s Bill, which includes extension of unemployment benefits, President Obama went out and made a speech on immigration! This left millions of unemployed facing a grim future with no more jobless benefits. What was he thinking?

Again, Obama showed a lack of leadership by not making sure this bill got passed. He is the President of the United States and could have brought his office’s power to persuade the Republican block-heads that this bill was a priority. He could have made quid pro quo deals and twisted arms. Alas, he did none of that.

In fact Obama said "that the recovery is headed in the right direction but not as fast enough for a lot of Americans." Well, yeah, dummy. When you’re out in the cold with no job and no prospects of getting a job, of course gaining an extension in jobless benefits is not fast enough! What planet is Obama living on to make such a dumb comment.

The truth is: The recovery is running out of gas and will stop without a rapid infusion of new jobs. But, just the opposite is happening. Companies are still laying off thousands of workers as their budgets collapse. Of course, the enemy is the GOP’s lame excuse of passing the Jobs Bill will raise the deficit. As always, the GOP is doing everything they can to sabotage President Obama’s administration.

The Republican dunderheads didn’t care about the deficit when they authorized 700 billion dollars of the tax payers money to bail out Wall Street and the Banks. Not a peep. "Yeah, give it to them" the GOP leadership said.

Now the recovery is waning. Funny, economists advise stimulus spending over concerns about the deficit. However in their lust for power, Republicans will block Democrats from claiming any legislative accomplishments. Of course, Obama knows this to be true. However, he has options to use his office to influence the Republican backlash. Come on Obama, show some backbone. Fight for what is right.

The companies that are not laying off workers have frozen salaries and hiring. "The Wall Street Journal" said "that employers see the destructive impact of higher taxes, trade restriction, and more regulation." In the same "WSJ" piece, they said "Obama claims that even more government action will finally jump-start the economy." Yeah right, and all my hair will grow back and turn from gray to brown.

We already know that Obama’s stimulus efforts did not revive hiring. What’s worse, the Obama administration has all but ignored the fractured jobs market, thinking that it would revive itself with the massive stimulus spending.

Wrong! The states’ austere budgets reflect the dark cloud over the jobs revival. The states are enacting an "anti-stimulus program" that will greatly set-back any advantage in jobs growth that the stimulus was supposed to fix.

And remember Obama’s green energy campaign that was touted as the hail-mary for jobs growth. Well, it hasn’t panned out. Yeah, some new jobs were created in solar and wind power generation. But, it was a small and insignificant jobs’ stimulus.

The truth is: Lawmakers on the Hill are not hawking jobs growth. They’re getting geared up for the November elections, including the Obama administration. The Prez and his advisors are already holding strategy meeting on the elections instead of making sure the stimulus is working.

Meanwhile, there are still millions of long term unemployed who are still pounding the pavement or given up and living in their vans. Yes, this is serious, and unless the Obama administration wants to see bread lines in Washington D.C., then they better address this problem.

I know people who have lost their homes and cars and are living in poverty when, not so long ago, they were middle class. Yet, Obama doesn’t seem to get it. People are beyond disgusted. They are livid and Obama will pay the price this November and in 2012.

Rick Raw: Flying Car Follow Up–MIT Grad Students Launch Terrafugia Company

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Six months ago, I wrote a piece on the development of a viable flying car. Soon the Terrafugia Company based in Woburn, Mass is launching their flying car to the aviation market.

At $194,000 a pop, this ungainly looking rear pusher-propeller flying machine is more of an airplane than a car. The problem of marketing a flying car has always been the compromises in road-worthiness versus airworthiness, rendering the flying car a mediocre car and not a very advanced airplane.

In other words, to make an airplane street legal as a car, and able to drive on American roads, takes away from its airworthiness. Adding a drive train and suspension adds weight to the airplane, which is part of this unlikely fusion machine.

Still, aeronautical engineers have dreamed of this fusion vehicle since airplanes were invented in 1903. Attempts to build and market such a contraption have failed to ignite public interest. It’s apples and oranges–you buy an airplane to get as much for your money as possible.

You drive your car to the hanger and park it to fly your plane. There are some aviation styled communities such as the one where John Travolta lives outside of Orlando that accommodate his planes next to his house and he can taxi out to the runway and takeoff.

The new model by Terrafugia called the Transition will take flight in 2011.The company claims it has 70 advanced orders. It was certified by the FAA and granted a special weight limit exemption for the car-plane. Of all the car-planes throughout the history of the airplane, this is the most technologically advanced model.

The wings fold-up or unfold like carrier aircraft in less than a minute. However, you have to take off from a certified airport runway. However, you can drive your car-plane from your house to the airport, unfold the wings, and take-off.

The Transition has a "glass cockpit"–meaning its displays and gauges are all computerized digital screens. As a car, it gets 30 mpg, but don’t expect it to drive like a BMW. You have the propeller in the rear and a rear end collision would be catastrophic and expensive.

Not surprisingly, the Transition is being marketed more as an airplane than a car. It now meets all NTSB safety standards. However, you need a single engine pilots’ licence to fly this car-plane.

The real advantage to the Transition is, you can drive it to and from the airport without expensive hanger fees. With the wings folded you can fit the Transition in most any car garage.

Figure the cost at more than 200 grand when you add an aviation radio, transponder, GPS, and a full plane parachute, which is a last chance life saver. The name of the company, Terrafugia is Latin for "escape from the land." The company was founded in 2006 by five MIT grad students who were also pilots.

The airplane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. Its takeoff weight is 1,430 pounds, including fuel and passengers. The company touts its 10,000 ceiling as an advantage? It allows pilots to fly under bad weather. For private aircraft that’s a very low ceiling.

Other car-plane configurations will soon be available. There is a tri-wheeled vehicle that will transition into a helicopter, which makes more sense that the car-plane.

Its like a tri-wheeled motorcycle that you stop on the side of the road and unfold the rotors and lift off.

The ultimate flying car design is the Moller Skycar. The prototype has been around for at least 20 years. Moller’s design is way ahead of its time. It features four nacelle encased engines.

The nacelles rotate 180 degrees for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) Its navigation system depends on future air-lanes for these skycars in which once locked in, the vehicle stays in that lane until you reach your destination. The Skycar’s avionics are very advanced computerized fly by wire.

The Moller Skycar can reach 275 mph cruising speed with a top speed of 375 mph. Of course, since the Moller Skycar is VTOL, it will not drive on roads, but takeoff from the owner’s backyard.

For years, Moller has been soliciting venture capitalists so he can mass manufacture his invention. So far, the prototype is the only Moller Skycar in existence.

All these car-planes show promise. The question is: Is there a viable market for the Transition. The Terrafugia Company is confident that this aardvark aircraft will find a niche in the aviation market.

I’ll be updating this story in the future.

Rick Raw: Stem Cells Restore the Sight of Ocular Burned Patients–This Advance Substantiates The Miracle of Stem Cells

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Most people remember the outcry from then president Bush Jr. (W) when the late Christopher Reeves sided with the scientists using embryos to harvest stem cells. The religious right had a hissy-fit. W pushed through a bill to outlaw using embryos to harvest stem cells.

Nitwit W and his ultra conservative dunderheads envisioned mothers selling their embryos for research. But at the time, stem cells were considered the next miracle of medicine. Reeves envisioned stem cells repairing his severed spinal cord. That day will come, I’m sure, but it’s too late to help Reeves.

Since then, the research has advanced exponentially. Scientists no longer use embryos to harvest stem cells. They discovered they can take stem cells from the organ that needs to be repaired and inject these cells into it and achieve astounding results.

So what is a stem cell exactly? It’s a cell that has the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body-- say (in the future) a new liver, pancreas, or heart. More significantly, they serve as an internal repair system, dividing without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person is still alive.

In a real case scenario, a man’s heart is failing. The surgeons injected stem cells from his heart into his ailing heart, and he made a remarkable recovery.
Exactly the mechanism of how the stem cells repaired his damaged heart is still being studied. But it was a true life miracle.

Now, in another real case scenario, people who were blinded by burns or corrosive liquids can have their sight restored using stem cells taken from one of their eyes. The caveat is: Treatment only works for patients who have at least a fragment of viable gimbal cells left in one of their eyes.

This story interested me because I have a damaged cornea on my left eye and glaucoma, which is pressure on the optic nerve which left untreated can cause blindness.
Of course, this stem cell treatment would not help me, but if the sight in my right eye goes, my doctor can give me a cornea transplant in the left eye to save my sight. It’s a hail-mary solution. I take eye medication to reduce the symptoms of glaucoma.

Under certain experimental conditions, stem cells can be induced to become tissue-or organ-specific cells with special functions. In some organs, such as the gut and bone marrow, stem cells regularly divide to repair and replace worn out or damaged tissues. It’s still not possible to rebuild a liver or heart–yet!

However, that day will come in the near future. Now, stem cells can be injected into a damaged heart and in an unknown method, these cells repair the damage. So, it doesn’t take much visionary thinking to predict that stem cell therapy will help burn patients, since the skin is an organ.

This breakthrough of stem cells repairing damaged corneas is a quantum leap in stem cell research. It’s a giant step in getting to better and simpler ways to successfully transplant tissue from living and deceased donors for patients whose eyes are too damaged to provide culture material.

These remarkable advances in medical science get very little press or hoopla. But stem cell research is finding new and miraculous ways to regenerate tissue and eventually replace damaged organs. If this subject bores you, then you’re like W–a dummy.