No deportation if you’re bad!

Sorry if I gnash my teeth a little, but I sometimes get grumpy over actions that officials take at taxpayer expense!

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article today about a group of juvenile drug dealers that have escaped from their group homes in San Bernardino, California, and elsewhere.

See, this was a special group of drug dealers. They were all juveniles and they were all illegal aliens.

San Francisco juvenile probation officials placed them in group homes, far away from the city, to prevent federal authorities from deporting them back to their native Honduras.

I have no idea what the amenities or quality of life was like in these group homes, but the bill per month to taxpayers was $7,000 per offender.

Now they’ve all ‘vamoosed’ and no one in law enforcement knows where they are!

According to the article, written by Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer, authorities frustratedly admitted they have to find and re-arrest them all over again.

One good thing out of all of this, I suppose, is that group homes for illegal drug dealers will no longer be an option. Kinda a “day late, dollar short”, if you ask me.

Now before you think I’m totally hard-nosed, let me explain that I understand COMPLETELY about families and individuals coming to the USA to build a better life - BUT - we don’t need additional criminals here. Heaven knows, we already have an abundance of home-grown ones.

It’s bad enough that our schools are being dumbed-down and overrun by students who don’t, or won’t, speak the language - BUT - to me we are stabbing our own students in the back by allowing preferential treatment to illegal offenders, juvenile or otherwise.

Not to mention, $7,000 per month/per offender, would purchases LOTS of school supplies.

You may not agree with me that this whole fiasco was caused by ‘bleeding hearts’, but if you’re interested in reading the article, just CLICK HERE!

GRRRR!

Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Learning Needs to Stick Like GOO!

Several years ago, I was Director of Staff Development for a large Veteran’s Administration facility. This was a HUGE, BRAND-SPANKING-NEW, state-of-the-art retirement home, designed to provide excellent care for veterans as they aged, or otherwise became unable to care for themselves.

I was fortunate to be involved in the set-up and expansion of the staff, buildings, resident population, and the programs.

My primary responsibility was developing, implementing and documenting training for all personnel (from doctors and nurses, all the way to the custodial and kitchen staff). This training had to ensure that all treatments, personal care, medication administration, and even cleaning or cooking (materials and procedures) were in compliance with all federal and state regulations, including DHEC and OSHA.

I conducted Orientation for all new personnel, as well as ongoing classes and lectures for every employee, to maintain regulatory compliance. I had to assure periodic CPR certification for critical personnel. Plus, I had the privilege to supervise Rehab and Physical Therapy.

Are you bored with my resume yet? Hang on, ’cause I DO have a reason for sharing.

My students came from all age, socioeconomic and intelligence levels, with a wide variety of learning skills.

Every student (doctor, cook or custodian) was able to successfully complete (and master) training, retention and actual job performance with the following education track:

• Tell ‘em what they need to learn using a combination teaching delivery (eg. lecture, audio-visual, written materials, etc.)




• Demonstrate techniques and correct procedures.




• Allow time for, and supervise, Group practice (Peer Teaching).




• Monitor Return Demonstration. (Student performs for teacher.)




• Repeat the above sequence as many times as necessary to achieve learning mastery and retention.




• Administer written test. (NOTE: Only AFTER previous steps were satisfactorily completed.)

In nursing, we learn about the importance of “psychomotor skills”. This involves embedding the learning into the brain AND the body so that the information STICKS! It involves all the senses and, most importantly, it involves practice, peer practice and support, and DOING!

In nursing, mastering skills can be a matter of life or death. In life, mastering skills may mean the difference between success or failure, even death.

The USA needs learning that STICKS!

Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Games Parents Play!

Dear Readers,

As you know, I almost always write my own posts but today I HAVE TO make an exception.

A friend sent me a shout on DIGG (you may have heard of DIGG! TeeHee!) I simply HAD TO share this FABULOUS post on parenting! Kudos to Gomestic.com!

Go read 10 Games Parents Play With Their Children. I guarantee it is worthwhile reading. And while you’re there, DIGG IT UP! This needs wide distribution.

PSSST! Pay special attention to #10 on the list!

I’ll talk to you again tomorrow. Now GO! ENJOY! DIGG!
Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Organizing a movement of parents, teachers and taxpayers to FORCE improvement into our schools is a daunting task. So is gathering and sharing valid information about what works and what doesn’t work to improve education.

Fighting the established “dumbing down” of our schools and students is a big job.

Who am I to think I can help?

I’m just a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who sees an ENORMOUS NEED and a way to fix it.

So, I really want to thank my dear internet friend, AnneMarie (Aine) Callen, for directing me to Celtic Women on YouTube.com

This song, so beautifully sung by Chloe Agnew, helps me to take new courage and realize that, working together, we CAN make a difference.

I especially appreciate:

“Someday,
Life will be fairer,
Need will be rarer,
And greed will not pay . . .”

“Someday,
Our fight will be won then . . .
We’ll stand in the sun then . . .
When we are wiser . . .”

“There are some days dark and bitter
Seems we haven’t got a prayer
But a prayer for something better
Is the one thing we all share”

I wanted to share this inspiring music with you.

No matter what the challenges are, NEVER GIVE UP! We can make a difference!

“One day, Someday SOON!”

Till next time, ENJOY!
Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Inspiring Learning Through Play!

What a WONDERFUL learning experience for those boys! And they have developed skills they can take with them through their entire lives, as well.

What are some of the things they learned?

• How to cooperate for a desired goal
• Measure twice & cut once (or suffer the consequences)
• Building a sturdy foundation
• How many inches in a foot?
• Why being accurate is important
• Work can be fun and rewarding
• And many other lessons about math, lumber, nature, goal-setting and cooperation

I went digging through some photo albums for pictures of some treehouses that my brother, sister and I built (and played in joyfully) years ago. I think you can tell by the photos that, in the first one, we had very little adult assistance, and in the second one we were more concerned with a private play space than an attractive appearance.

Coz mo did not share any pictures of the treehouse that he and his nephews built but I do have pictures of a couple of treehouses built by friends, with lots of adult input.

Slight difference in the results, huh?

What’s the Learning Point Here?

Wouldn’t you have liked to learn more about building a shelter, and normal home maintenance and improvement skills when you were young? Too many grow up not knowing which end of a hammer is the working end. Or, they only learn that it’s a handy weapon. SAD!

Did you ever dream about having the perfect treehouse?

Would you love to be able to express your creativity?

Summer is the perfect time to help children develop those skills.

Talk about creativity:

How about expressing creativity in another medium:

Or creating a perfect Dream World:

Or a total fantasy:

And, who knows, maybe if you get them inspired when they’re young, they’ll grow up and build you your very own Dream Treehouse:

Worth thinking about, isn’t it?

Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

What are our students learning?

K-12 Education in the USA has been deteriorating over the last 40+ years. Now that our primary educational system is the laughing-stock of the globe, is there a plot to dumb down secondary education as well? You betcha!

The latest round in forcing political correctness would abolish requirements for SAT testing as part of the acceptance process in colleges. In the name of “diversity”, several colleges have already made SAT testing “optional”.

Once again, the plan is to lower standards so everyone can feel good about themselves.

It’s time to ask ourselves some hard questions and do some investigating.

• Is it possible that some people or groups WANT our students to be uneducated?




• If there IS a plan to dumb-down American education, who could be behind the plot?
• What purpose is served by deliberately requiring less and less from students, while making them more and more complacent?

I want to ask my fellow parents, grandparents and great-grandparents:

Are you worried about your child’s future?

Over the last several months, as I’ve researched more and more information to bring you, I’ve been learning some things that have me greatly alarmed!

I’ve only touched the ‘tip of the iceburg’ of the problems in American education in my previous posts.

It’s time for parents, teachers and taxpayers to discover what’s happening to public education, and the WHYs behind it.

While I’m gathering together more facts and theories of some of the insider secrets, I’ll reveal all the theories and hypotheses I’ve discovered along the way as well.

In the meantime, I’ll continue next with some of the suggestions my readers have shared about helping youngsters have positive learning experiences during summer vacation.

Be sure to check back daily to discover the latest info.

On the alert!
Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Life-Long Learning & My Hero!

I want to wish everyone a Happy & Safe 4th of July!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank, and give a pat on the back, to a dear friend!

You, my loyal reader, may have noticed that my site disappeared temporarily, then reappeared, then disappeared again.

To say I am not technically-savvy would be an understatement! But I have a good friend who is not only technically-savvy, he’s a genuinely good guy, as well as talented.

David Cooley, AKA CyberCoder, not only straightened-out my site, he upgraded it to the latest platform and cleaned-up all the behind the scenes mess I had. I now have a new hosting site, scads of room for expansion, and the most modern tools at my fingertips. Now, if I can just stay healthy enough to utilize them.

Since I have the latest and greatest hosting upgrade, I have to continue with my Life-Long Learning, and figure-out how to do stats and all that stuff again. But it’s good to keep challenging the brain, no matter how young or old we are.

But more about Cybercoder:

I absolutely adore David! (With the complete understanding of my husband - after all, David’s just a kid compared to us old-timers.) Over the past few months, I’ve had an opportunity to appreciate his humor and his viewpoints.

David is multi-talented and BIG into music, so I thought I’d take an opportunity to thank him for his gracious help and tell you about his sites.

If you want an eclectic blend of tech info and tunes, check out his sites:

Go enjoy the holiday and David’s sites, and I’ll be back after the weekend.

Happy Holiday!
Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Summertime Fun!

Time to utilize a little creativity and find fun projects for them that they don’t suspect are learning activities. Today, we’re going to learn how to make ice cream and pizza. How can that be a learning activity you ask? Well, how about teaching priorities for a start?

Should we start making ice cream first, or pizza? Let’s see, hum. . .

Ice cream takes longer to make ’cause it has to freeze firm. We’ll make the ice cream first, then we can make the pizza while the ice cream is setting-up. See, simple day-to-day activities can be teaching time - in a fun way!

These simple little actions can teach children so many important lessons without having to stand over them with a ruler. Yes, we can learn to use critical thinking skills to prioritize what comes first. But there are other important lessons that can be learned, such as:

It can be fun to have an activity at home with the family (especially if Mom is not too rigid or critical).

Ice cream (especially really yummy ice cream) doesn’t have to be $6 a gallon.

Homemade pizza costs less (and tastes better) than store-bought pizza. And it’s EASY!

It’s easier to stay home in hot weather than get into the sweltering car to go somewhere.

There are, of course, extra lifelong lessons that children can learn from the above project, like:

1) The science of how salt helps the ice cream get colder faster.

2) Why pizza dough needs to be spread-out evenly to cook best.

3) How cleaning-up while the pizza is baking means less work when everybody’s full.

These are such simple things that we adults take for granted, yet, so many children don’t have parents who will take the time to share these important skills and explain the reasoning behind them. Someway, somehow, we are going to have to find ways to teach ALL young people as many skills as possible.

And just because I put some pretty pink images in the picture for this post, doesn’t mean that boys and young men can’t enjoy these learning activities just as much.

Before I get back up on my soapbox, let me just add one lesson we’re going to put into effect here today: playing in the hose can be almost as much fun as getting into the swimming pool.

Grammy Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Summertime Learning!

Before I got so ill, I ran a survey on the site to find out what you, my readers, wanted to know more about.

#1 ANSWER:
How to help kid’s succeed in school!

Well, now that I’m “back with bells on”, I want to help you make the most of summer vacation to help your young-un’s have a fun time while you help them get smarter and smarter.

Most children are extremely resistant to ‘formal learning’ during vacation time. How many kids do you know that absolutely LUV summer school?

So the trick is to get them involved in learning experiences that help them learn new things and keep their minds sharp. This is much mo’ better than the slow brain leak that usually occurs during the lazy, hazy days of summer.

And it prevents that old problem “I’m bored!” So it’s really WIN-WIN!

School news generally slows down during the summer, so we’ll have plenty of time to try some neat learning tricks, to keep kids alert, and, especially NOT BORED!

Because this is an election year, there will probably be lots of education issues for me to share with you during the summer months, but at least two or three times a week, I plan to spell-out fun and learning activity suggestions.

I hope you’ll join me! And please share what works at your house, to keep kids active, learning and involved during vacation time.

Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools

Congratulations on Your Teen Pregnancy?

Here’s a story that will, hopefully, make parents sit up and pay attention.

The New York Times asks the question, “Is There A Teen Pregnancy Pact in Gloucester, Massachusetts?”

Columnist Katy Zezima shares the story of a huge surge in teen pregnancies in the town, with 17 teens now pregnant and many more requesting pregnancy tests.

“At least 17 girls at the public high school in the seaside town of Gloucester, Mass., are expecting babies, and a Time magazine report says nearly half became pregnant after making a pact to do so and raise the children together.”

“Local officials . . . acknowledged that many of the 17 pregnancies — a total four times as many as last school year at the 1,200-student school — had been intentional.”

The story goes on to explain that the social and financial climate in Gloucester has been severely impacted by economic downturns. While I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of sex education and handing out contraceptives to teens in this post, the article does emphasize that those programs had been eliminated due to budget cuts.

Teen Pregnancy Mindset?

Far more important, in my estimation, is the mind set of those girls.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk is quoted as saying:

“It’s the social environment these girls are coming from,” she added. “They think that a baby can give them love or give them status or fill an empty space in their life, and these girls are very, very young. And I think if you talk to any teenage mother who is caring for an infant, the road is not easy.”

Even more frightening is that the article reports many more teenagers coming to the local clinic requesting pregnancy tests.

Teen Pregnancy Not A New Issue

Why should we be concerned about teen pregnancies in one little town? Teen pregnancy is NOT a new issue.

Time Cover December 1985

Over the last several years, there has been a steady decline in the rate of teen pregnancies, but 34% of teen girls still become pregnant annually, with variations among ethnicities.

There are powerful reasons to be concerned about “pregnancy pacts”.

• The emotional neediness of teens who want to deliberately become pregnant is not unique to Gloucester.
• Economic and social upheavals are more and more widespread throughout the country.
• Teens are notorious for copying peer behavior.
• Teenage mothers have many financial and social disadvantages that they do not anticipate
• The children of those teenage mothers suffer from those same disadvantages, including lagging behind in early development.

I don’t want to be an alarmist but, after years of a steadily declining teenage birth rate, this alleged “pregnancy pact” could signal an upsurge in teen pregnancy, and the accompanying negative financial and emotional lifestyles that it leads to.

What Works?

Is this 1999 poster funny?

It is overly-simplistic to say that only growing older (past the teen years) will stop teen pregnancy.

I know that I don’t have all the answers, but we MUST take these social, emotional and financial considerations into account as we work to straighten-out our public schools.

As Don says in The Kingsland Plan we all need to become informed, and aware, and take positive action, to combat these social issues, as well as curriculum problems.

Until next time,

Brennan

The Kingsland Plan

Save Our Schools