It's difficult to dipute Facts!


April 3, 2006
By Arthur G. Purves
President, Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board:

My name is Arthur Purves. I address you as president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance.

For the sixth year in a row, you are poised to raise homeowner real estate taxes by ten percent or more.

You will have doubled the typical homeowner’s real estate tax in seven years, from about $2500 to $5000.

Yes, real estate has appreciated. But to realize that increase, we would have to sell or mortgage our homes.

The real estate tax rate that would offset this year’s average increase in assessments is 83.5 cents.

You have proposed a rate of 93 cents, for an 11 percent tax increase above the 83 cent rate. This increases your revenues by about $200 million.

We respectfully request that you set the rate at 83 cents instead 93 cents, which would keep the budget at $3.1 billion.

Let us consider now consider Fairfax County Public Schools, which will spend half of that $3 billion.

The Fairfax County Public Schools budget over the past three decades has been increasing nine times faster than enrollment. That is after adjusting for inflation. School staff has been increasing four times faster than enrollment, again over three decades.

The school superintendent states that this is the price of excellence, and as evidence cites last year’s record-high SAT score.

However the school system is not publicizing that the percent of seniors taking the SAT has decreased from 89 percent in 1997 to 79 percent two years ago. Last year Fairfax County Public Schools was the only suburban Washington DC school system to not publish the percent of seniors taking the SAT. Is the school system trying to cover up a further decrease in SAT participation?

Fairfax County Public Schools boasts that nearly 90 percent of its graduates go on to either two-year or four-year colleges. However, the school system provides no estimate of what percentage will eventually earn four-year college degrees. This is an issue because of the high rate of attrition among college freshmen.

Based on numbers available from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia, the Taxpayers Alliance estimates that while 90 percent of graduates may go on to college, only about 60 percent will earn four-year degrees.

Coincidentally, nearly sixty percent of Fairfax County adults have four-year college degrees. Are the school system’s successes due to soaring funding or due to favorable demographics?

Fairfax County Public Schools says it is the Education Empire, the best school district in the nation. But is it the best in Virginia?

Schoolmatters.com, a website sponsored by Standard & Poors and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has done a statistical analysis to identify the top school districts in each state. The analysis considers test scores and demographics. For Virginia, Standard and Poors identified 16 top or "outperforming" school districts. Fairfax County was not one of them.

According to the National Assessment of Education Progress, about 65 percent of Virginia students achieve below grade level. (Nationally, 70 percent of students achieve below grade level.)

It turns out that last year the average SAT score Fairfax County seniors was at the 65th percentile. This suggests that half of our seniors are below the 65th percentile and therefore achieve below grade level.

For three decades school staff has been growing four times faster than enrollment and the school budget has been increasing ten times faster than enrollment. If money could fix public schools, they would have been fixed by now.

They’re not fixed.

The SAT achievement gap between Whites and Asians on the one hand and Hispanics and Blacks on the other hand has increased.

The school system reports that nearly 100 percent of second graders read at grade level. The Taxpayers Alliance has asked what percentage of seniors read at grade level. We have received no answer.

We question the effectiveness of the Learning Disabilities (LD) program, which layers an expensive bureaucratic IEP (Individualized Education Plan) process over an ineffective curriculum. We are concerned that many children get the LD label not because they are disabled but because they have not had phonics-based reading instruction.

Our question is what percentage of LD children are successfully remediated. Stated differently, what percentage of LD children test out of the LD program before graduation? Again, we have received no answer. The LD program keeps children in the same curriculum that did not teach them in the first place.

A few years ago, the School Board hired a consultant to evaluate Special Education Centers. The consultant found that even though Special Education Centers had one adult instructor for every three students, in 59 of 62 cases Special Education students scored below the school system average on state tests. The report stated, "many students with emotional disorders are very bright and have great academic potential." This was experience of the well-known Chicago teacher, Marva Collins, whose phonics-based curriculum with intensive drill did succeed with emotionally disturbed children.

Between last year and this, Fairfax County Public Schools enrollment increased by 300 students.

Amazingly, to teach 300 more students, the school system hired 250 more full-time staff.

We are usually told that more staff is needed even during flat enrollment due to increasing numbers of low-income children, Special Education children, and immigrant children needing English instruction.

However, between last year and this, according to the School Superintendent’s own budget, Special Education enrollment increased by only 250 students, and the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals decreased by 1000. The number of immigrant children requiring English-for-Speakers-of-Other-Languages (ESOL) instruction, did increase by six percent, or 1200 students.

According to last year’s proposed Program Budget, the schools were going to hire 20 more ESOL teachers.

According to this year’s Program Budget, the system actually hired two more ESOL teachers.

Of the 250 new hires, 100 were technical specialists and 40 were Instructional Support Teachers. The number of classroom teachers was unchanged. The number of instructional assistants increased by 48. The number of office personnel increased by 24.

Regarding salaries and benefits, it is difficult for County and school employees to afford to live in Fairfax County. It is also difficult for many non-County and non-School employees to afford to live in Fairfax County.

The data we’ve seen suggests that County and school salary increases have been well above the private-sector average, which is generally inflation plus one percent. For a random example, a new teacher hired under a 203-day contract in 2003 would have had by next year average annual raises of over seven percent. The average private sector raise over the same period would have been four percent. Retirees on pensions would have seen less.

In addition, government employees are getting generous pensions, while the private sector is losing theirs.

Is it right to increase homeowner taxes by ten percent or more a year to fund government-employee salary increases that are forty percent higher than private sector salary increases, especially when homeowners may be at risk of losing their pension — if they have one?

It is claimed that teachers are fleeing to neighboring counties that offer higher salaries. However school surveys of teachers leaving the system turned up not one teacher who was going to a neighboring district for higher salaries.

While County salaries are apparently not increasing as fast as school salaries, they too seem to be increasing faster than private-sector salaries and benefits.

One way to determine if salaries are adequate is to compare the number of job openings with the applicants. We have asked the school system for those numbers but have not received an answer. However, a few years ago the school superintendent stated that the school system had had 13,000 applications for 1500 openings.

The County, which did answer our question, reports that each year the County averages about 60,000 applicants for 1000 job openings.

We find that the school system’s claims of academic excellence are not well-founded, and that the Supervisors need to keep public-sector salaries and benefits in line with private-sector salaries and benefits.

We therefore ask you to keep the real estate tax rate at $.83, which is the level that would offset this year’s average increase in assessments. We believe that doubling the real estate tax in seven years denotes a failure to adequately control County spending..

Thank you.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No one on this board is disputing that the real estate tax rate is too high. But this letter is pretty weak. There is way too much speculation and irrelevant data.

For example,

Fairfax County Public Schools boasts that nearly 90 percent of its graduates go on to either two-year or four-year colleges. However, the school system provides no estimate of what percentage will eventually earn four-year college degrees. This is an issue because of the high rate of attrition among college freshmen.

If they were to compare this number to the national average (or even better, the average among similar regions in terms of parental education and the districts' education budgets) then it would be great. However, it is not the school district's responsibility to make sure the graduates complete their college degree.

Plus, where are they getting this data? No citations are given, are these credible sources?

Lots of data equals lots of data, not an argument.

We question the effectiveness of the Learning Disabilities (LD) program, which layers an expensive bureaucratic IEP (Individualized Education Plan) process over an ineffective curriculum. We are concerned that many children get the LD label not because they are disabled but because they have not had phonics-based reading instruction.

Our question is what percentage of LD children are successfully remediated. Stated differently, what percentage of LD children test out of the LD program before graduation? Again, we have received no answer. The LD program keeps children in the same curriculum that did not teach them in the first place.

consider the idea that perhaps that just maybe the LD programs are like they are for a good reason. have you even considered that? seriously, sit back and consider, "gee... why do we have programs for disabled students?" if you dont have a revelation, hit yourself in the head with a brick until you finally understand.

one a side note, i didnt need to learn about the SAME history lessons for six different grade levels. im not kidding, i know all too well about the oregon trail, how we took the nation from the Pre-America Natives, the civil war and out dealings with fighting the british. i played The Oregon Trail a lot, that game was fun, the old version for Apple GS II, not the crappy new version. i shot me some bison and squirel and ma' daughter kept dyin' of measles. :)


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

lol this is funny. just cut all the bs tell the county that it's school system infact sucks ass cause it actually hinders learning in the process of trying to promote it. ( can prove this to anyone who doesnt believe me). it also is so redundant and boring at times (and liberal) that some students including myself tuned out of high school. dont wanna be there in the first place, really dont wanna be there listening to some left wing communist shove red propaganda down my throat about how every minority group is entitled to something. the worst is reading commie books like johnny got a gun and to kill a mockingbird.


you can also tell them that adding 3000000000000000000 more teachers wont do shit because its been proven study after study that learning begins in the home and parents are the ones who do the real teaching.


My favorite part about elementary school was when the teacher in 6th grade made us lay down on the ground side by side and wouldnt let us get up or go to the bathroom for over 20 minutes just so we knew how the slaves felt when they came over here on boats. He almost sent me to the principals office cause I was talking (no talking allowed at all) about going to the bathroom.

my favorite part about high school was when I was gone for three weeks out of geography class cause of skipping and sleeping( I decided not to take AP history).It was a 2 teacher class where they swapped teaching at times, one teacher did the LD kids grades, and one teacher did the regular students grades. After showing up like 20 mins late to class cause I slept in like usual I cruised in class took the test got done first and got an A. After that, I asked teacher what my grade was in the class, a 92. Ok I think, pretty good for not even trying. Should be an A in college, but whatever, I'll take a B+. When my grade report came in, whatd I have but a big fat F for the quarter. Damn sure enuff FUCKING BITCH FAILED ME FOR NON ATTENDANCE. SHE MUST HAVE BEEN MAD BECAUSE I SHOWED UP THE ENTIRE CLASS AND MADE HER LOOK BAD DUH

Another classic moment in high school was when some towel head indian bitch wasnt standing up for the pledge of allegiance and since i was tired that morning (low sleep obviously I was on time for class) I said fuck it i dont wanna get up for that shit. so guess what happens , teacher in the middle of hte pledge calls me a jackass and tells me to stand up or get out. I went to leave the class (loved getting kicked out cause i didnt have to be in class and no one could say shit about it either) and teacher made me stay - physically. I was like yo wtf this other girl didnt stand then im not standing either.

I remember skipping all day instead of going to inschool suspension so theyd add on more days to skip so eventually theyd give me a 1 day out of school suspension. that was fucking awesome cause they actually thought it was some kind of punishment.....funny too cause it all stemmed from from some BS like running away from a security officer who was trying to take my hat or walkman (they took shit including my TI83 calculator and I never got it back.. gay), and just got escalated . The school used to have a pissing match with me all the time. Awesome too because it was a legit reason for me not to go to school. If it happened inline it would be like a week long vacation.

a hair below a 2.0 gpa in high school, pretty good for having 104 days absent senior year ( no bs). NOVA DAME BALLER STATUS : 3.2 BLING and that's with 40+ credits .

Proof in the pooding that high school education aint shit it all starts in the family

ps critique my spelling/writing skills and I will not hesitate to own you

No, nobody here will be ragging on your statement om writing.

We're all sitting shocked that you spelled "critique" right after the mess that dame before it. It could not be more obvious that you skipped school a lot.

Own that, bitch.

I will, Robert Stidman

Geez, everyone on this site knows my name, so as usual you don't own DICK, not even yours.

FCPS HATER Wrote:
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> I will, Robert Stidman

you clearly missed out on the crapflood of Don and Mike bullshit. besides, was the original name RStidman with his profile saying his name was Rob Stidman not enough? pff... retard...


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

You summed up the school system up very well. Additionally, to help our own LD students on this board with bi-polar issues, I will make it simple!

If you don't teach the students in the first place, the county is quick to define them as LD! They fall under a different class and not required to take the SOLs. I could go on, but you wouldn't understand!

Flame,
  dude... having bipolar disorder doesnt automatically put you in the LD classes. i went through all the normal classes. everyone i know like me were all in normal classes. it would seem you are talking out of your ass.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

You guys are serious LD's if you think I am stupid or something because of internet grammar.

there is no such thing as "internet grammar," there is only grammar, smart guy.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

No, I thought you were stupid (still think it) because you have no sense of humor about the piss-poor spelling and grammar in your post, and decided to make just about the weakest threat I've ever seen on the net in a lame attempt to preempt people from making fun of you.

It could not be more obvious that you are a thirteen year-old boy, a latchkey kid, and Mom and Dad forgot to activate the netnanny software to stop you from using the internet.

Why not try just not posting for a while? You suck at it. Come back when you grow the fuck up and get a sense of humor, and have an intelligent comment to make.

Fairfax County schools suck, alright. That's why the dominate every top 100 high school list in the country.

Dumabasses.

Gravis Wrote:
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> there is no such thing as "internet grammar,"
> there is only grammar, smart guy.


Thank you! Grammar might not be fun, but it serves a purpose. I could barely get through FCPS HATER's post because it was so poorly written.

FCPS HATER's deplorable literary skills are quite reminiscent of all the Nigerian royalty that just need a $10,000 loan so they can claim their millions that are stored oevrsea of which they will give a sizable share of it to you for your assistance. oh those poor Nigerian bastards.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Yup that's right, I'm pretty bad at typing when I'm typing fast.

Here's a paper I wrote back in the day.

11-30-04

Death of a Salesman: the American Way

Arthur Miller, who wrote Death of a Salesman in 1949, amongst many others might not have had a true intention or meaning. After reading this tragedy, no single meaning can be derived, as Arthur Miller has said himself, yet the reader or watcher can see numerous possible objectives by analyzing the play. The author poses the question, who is ultimately responsible for the death of Willy Loman? According to Rex Curry “Miller intended the play as anti-capitalist propaganda, but failed”. Curry believes that Arthur Miller wrote this play to demean capitalism, and that Willy himself wasn’t responsible. The author on the other hand, denies this claim, saying that people who read so deep into his literature aren’t understanding the play’s intention. The salesman role of the protagonist, Willy Loman, and the title, show the American Dream causes pain. Willy’s illusionary nature, and the lying and deceit that occurs within the Loman family, could be partially responsible for the outcome, yet can also be seen as results of the system. I feel that the author dislikes America’s capitalist beliefs, and plays on the reader’s emotions in an attempt to sway opinion. I also feel that the author’s intent was to show the immorality and lack of values some people possess. The characters assume an important role in mediation throughout the play.

In the introduction, Willy’s mental condition is immediately introduced. He has lost his mind in the past, and is totally confused as to how to raise a family, how the real world works, or how to succeed in life. His house and yard are small, and crowded by the neighbors, yet he claims he’s a big salesman. Speaking of the company he works for “If old man Wagner was alive I’d a been in charge of New York now! But that boy of his, that Howard, he don’t appreciate. When I went north the first time, the Wagner company didn’t know where New England was!”. Willy means that he would have been the most successful person, had his former boss and friend still been alive, even though he isn’t. He is disillusioned. Willy’s romantisicm with being well liked negatively affects how he raises his children. Willy “loved his sons too indulgently to impose any discipline on them”, according to Ronald Hayman. This is shown during one of Willy’s numerous flashbacks, where Biff and Happy are high schoolers. When his older and admirable son Biff steals a football from his coach and Willy jokes “Coach’ll probably contgratulate you on our initiative!”. Moments later, he tells Biff “It’s because he likes you”, which increases Willy’s self worth since he feels well liked and respected. Unfortunately when Bernard, the young over-achiever who lives next door, informs Willy that Biff is failing school and that Biff needs to study to avoid forfeiting scholarships, Biff imposes little directive. In fact, Willy is so off-beat with reality that he says “Bernard can get the best marks in school, but when he gets out in the business world, you are going to be five times ahead of him.” Willy continues on about the good looks of the kids. Later in Act 1, Willy tells his wife Linda “In the greatest country in the world a young man with such - personal attractiveness gets lost.” Willy refuses to punish or criticize Biff in fears of being not-liked. Willy is so impractical that he is unaware of how he failed to properly guide and father Biff, and ironically, Biff isn’t less successful than his father. Biff learning of Willy’s affair and Willy’s reaction shows immorality. Rather than being responsible and being forthright about his wrong-doing with his wife, Willy eliminates Biff from the environment so that Linda can’t find out. Bernard, who lived next door, is seen later on in the play, and is responsible, well mannered, and moral. Arthur Miller uses Bernard to contrast the values of the Lomans. This is especially apparent when Bernard refers to a Supreme Court case as ‘just a case’. He is very modest individual something the Loman family is not.

He was not an evil person though, and despite having the wrong outlook on life and bad morality, Willy Loman was betrayed. When he was a young child, Willy and his brother Ben were abandoned by their father. They were left with nothing, no money, no support, or family legacy. This could have contributed to Willy’s suicide, as well as his obsession with being well liked. His brother leaving for Alaska and accidentally becoming wealthy definitely adds to Willy’s fear of abandonment. Casey Gray writes “The faith that Willy has in people and has in society brings him down as well. Willy trusts people, and what they say. When Willy goes to Howard and reminds him of the time that he was promised a “New York job” at a Christmas party, Howard for a moment cannot remember. Then he states that he did remember and he could not find anything for him.” Willy Loman was left with commission as his only pay, the company took his salary. People around him, most importantly his favorite child Biff, criticized him for his failures, even though he tried his best. He worked faithfully for a company for more than 30 years and rather than receiving pension, and a retirement check, he was given a pink slip. Howard is a greedy individual, and tells Willy “you gotta admit, business is business." Willy feels betrayed, because he knows that Howard has a maid and just recently purchased a tape player, and that Willy has never asked for a favor before. Even if his work performance had been slipping, and he hadn’t performed as well as others, he should not have been fired. Gray continues “Willy trusts that the insurance company that carries his life insurance will pay his premium is possibly another misplaced trust. We never do find out if Linda, Biff, and Happy receive the full $20,000 that Willy’s thinks his life is worth.”. Judging by the continual lack of failure in the Loman family, it would be safe to guess that the family would not have received the money.

Despite a rough childhood and work situation, Willy Loman was partially responsible for his downfall. One writer put

“But Loman must not be seen as a passive victim of society. First, it must be noticed that he is an active "active collaborator in his own downfall"(Carson,1982:47). He never realizes that all his dreams are part of the base of the system that finally destroys him. Without dreams like those of Willy Loman, a capital system would have never been possible. Second, he had other possibilities than becoming a salesman: He could have accompanied his brother Ben to Alaska. And third, he is given the possibility of another job, offered by Charlie, which he does not accept only because of his pride. In short, Loman is the victim of his own values, which he shares with the society.”

Even though he was taken advantage of and abandoned throughout his lifetime, Willy Loman had some play in his fate. His complete demeanor was not that of a normal person, and even though he meant well, he failed in life. He did have numerous opportunities to other wise prosper in life, but chose not to take them, since he figured success was being a well-liked salesman. Arthur Miller’s true intention is unknown. I think Miller criticizing Capitalist America’s greed and obsession for money. I also believe that the author is trying to relay a message to his readers: no matter how much you are liked or how much money you make, you won’t be successful. Biff thought being successful was being happy with life, and this is one of the messages of this play.




Works Cited



Curry, Rex. http://www.rexcurry.net . Accessed 11/30/04 internet.

Hayman, Ronald. Arthur Miller. New York: Frederick Ungar Publiching Co. (1956); p
55.

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. New York: The Viking Press, 1958.

Unknown Writer-sorry I lost the name

Here's another

Affirmative action is a reference to policies used by colleges, businesses and employers to increase certain “disadvantaged” minorities success rates in order to create diversity. Women, non-whites, foreigners, and poor people are the beneficiaries of these policies because it’s believed that they were badly treated at one point in time. The policies attempt to make up for past wrongs such as slavery and poverty. Some include the use of quotas to produce a numerically proportional population. Other policies give the minority the upper hand when whites have the same credentials. These policies were first put into effect during President Kennedy’s administration. In 1961, he ordered all government agencies and federally funded business’ to use employment policies that took no regard to race, religion, or gender. He then mandated that these organizations make their populace racially mixed. Some groups developed individual policies to ensure equality. Fury over Affirmative Action has slowly built since.

Our country was founded around 1792. During this era, there was a prominent political group called the Anti-Federalists. This group included the author of our Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson, our first secretary of state John Jay, George Mason, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Paine, the author of the pamphlet Common Sense. The Anti-Federalists feared a strong centralized government, so they fought for our modern day Bill of Rights, and for the separation of judicial, legislative and executive branches of the government. They also fought for a free market economy free from government regulations. The great Scottish Philosopher Adam Smith proposed this theory in his book The Wealth of Nations. It described an economy that was based on competition and a “hands off” policy relating to federal control of business.

The Anti-Federalists desired an economy where business was based upon self-interest, profit motive and competition, free from strict laws set forth by the Federal Government. However, Affirmative Action is a strict law that affects business including colleges. Therefore, the government has no right, responsibility, or jurisdiction to dictate how privately owned business’ should conduct their hiring. Many people disagree with this statement. Some will say that the government has the responsibility to help disadvantaged citizens. That makes no sense when related to Affirmative Action because the policies themselves are to make up for past actions. Also, the Federal Government has no right to direct a business on who they can hire. Since when was it wrong do have an all white, all black, all hetero or homo sexual, all men or all woman’s population. Only since John Kennedy stepped out of his boundaries, has it been “illegal” to have a uniform populace. That’s probably why he was killed, because he was changed business practices via abuse of power. There’s not even a federal statute saying Affirmative Action is wrong! However, the Supreme Court has ruled on it many times. That’s the problem. It should have never been brought there. They never had the authority to rule on such a case.

Colleges are business’, whether people realize it or not. Business’s can be not only goods but services as well. The service being provided by universities is the education in the class room. They have employees, directors, a pay-roll and a budget. Adam Smith stated that business’ should be able to set their own prices, and that’s what led to competition and a better economy. However, it makes no sense that they aren’t allowed to set their own admissions and hiring policies because the government has ruled otherwise. I own a small business. Even though I currently don’t have steady employees, I certainly will in time. If I want to hire people strictly by their race, gender, or physical features, then that’s my prerogative. It’s always easy for the government and society as a whole to point fingers, but many times they fail to realize that a business is there to make money. What would happen if a neighborhood boycotted a certain business because they hired homosexuals? The business would lose money and the owner would eventually claim bankruptcy. He was just doing the “politically correct” thing to do. But he lost his means of income, as did the rest of his employees. In many instances, business owners in predominately white communities try to avoid hiring non-whites for service positions dealing with customers because non-whites speak differently. The same goes for business owners in other racially dominant communities. They do this because quite frequently people who are different than customers have the tendency to intimidate and scare customers away. These practices are completely justifiable. The government has no right to hurt business by enacting and enforcing Affirmative Action policies. Our economy isn’t based on that type of control. Our country just wasn’t founded that way.

There's something desparate about all this. Like somebody wishes they had another shot at high school to do it right this time...

He totally exonerated himself... I now think he writes bad ALL the time, not just when he's posting.

May my son use those papers? He needs them for a class.
Thanks

FCPS HATER,
  posting those reports you wrote is not helping your cause. i could give you a literary critique but i believe it would fall on deaf ears. it would serve you well to just cut your losses.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I've not read the longwinded rants posted above, I don't know about the rest of you, but I went K-12 in the FCPS system(Crestwood, Springfield Estates, Mark Twain, Lee), and I think I'm pretty smart. Worked for me, I dont really care about stupid people. Not only that, my mom is a middle school teacher in the system and she does her best with the idiots given to her.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/2006 12:25AM by mad max, JD.

Nobody's ranking on any teachers here. This kid was obviously fucked up by his parents.

Most data show that you could have the greatest schools in the world. If you are getting kids from fucked up households, there's not a lot teachers or schools can do to repair the damage. That's why No Child Left Behind is kind of pointless. If a kid comes home at the end of the day and gets beaten or has to work instead of study or isn't supervised, what's a fucking test going to do to fix that?

well... if this is one of the questions, this could help.

What do you do if a parent is beating you?
A) Slash their throat
B) Jam a pen through their eye
C) Hit them in the back of the head with a metal bat
D) All of the above.

i mean, this question is informative and helpful no matter which answer you pick!


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

You are a genius. Did you graduate from FCPS? That is the answer to all of society's problems!

By the way, FCPS is one of the highest regarded public school systems in the country. What is taught comes from the state standards, which come from the state department of education. No Child Left Behind, the creation of our nation's great leader, creates very strict guidelines as to what teachers need to focus on. Teachers work thier butts off, doing nothing short of everything they can to help the children, and this is the support they get? If you think you can do a better job, go for it.

NM

Teacher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You are a genius. Did you graduate from FCPS? That
> is the answer to all of society's problems!
>
> By the way, FCPS is one of the highest regarded
> public school systems in the country.

ok... now im confused. clearly sarcasm and saying im an idiot from the FCPS system but then saying the FCPS system is really great. either they REALLY support me or they just think the whole nation is even worse then i. umm... however, in my defense, anyone who has a kid and beats them does not deserve to live.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Teacher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You are a genius. Did you graduate from FCPS? That
> is the answer to all of society's problems!
>
> By the way, FCPS is one of the highest regarded
> public school systems in the country. What is
> taught comes from the state standards, which come
> from the state department of education. No Child
> Left Behind, the creation of our nation's great
> leader, creates very strict guidelines as to what
> teachers need to focus on. Teachers work thier
> butts off, doing nothing short of everything they
> can to help the children, and this is the support
> they get? If you think you can do a better job, go
> for it.

hahaha thats so funny the standards huh? U mean the standards of learning? I scored in the 90th percentile all through those. lowest one I ever got was a 87 in math and that's cause I did my class in the principal's office

All I can say is the special education departments at most schools is the biggest department in the building. It costs a fortune to educate one special ed. student. When I was growing up, we had like 10 special ed. kids in our whole school. They were either mentally retarded or in a wheelchair or something. Now special ed. encompasses mostly behavior problems or suburban kids with some made up bogus thing like - ADHD, ODD, bi-polar, etc. It seems like the average kids get the short end of the stick. By the way, I don't see many of those "special ed. " graduates going on to be very successful.

Now special ed. encompasses mostly behavior problems or suburban kids with some made up bogus thing like - ADHD, ODD, bi-polar, etc.

yeah the whole scientific evidence behind mental illness is a bunch of crap. those crazy bipolar people are soooo faking it. depression and mania is just a myth. all those losers have to do is act normal like everyone else and just be positive about life. pff... NIMH is just a HUGE waste of money. like the cruiser says, just think positively, takes some vitimins and exercize. those whining bastards are wasting everyone's time and money!


the cruiser knows psychiatry, YOU DONT!

note to those who dont know me and are about to make a massive post in anger,
  the text above was satire, as i myself have bipolar disorder.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I think it is obvious that there is a lot of over-diagnosis and over-medication of things like ADHD. However, to say that the conditions are bogus? That is crap.

Genevieve Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think it is obvious that there is a lot of
> over-diagnosis and over-medication of things like
> ADHD. However, to say that the conditions are
> bogus? That is crap.

right... so let's just put you in a room of ADHD kids without their medication and see how it turns out. most parents dont turn to doctors and medication unless they do not have a choice. are there some who are misdiagnosed, definately but that is not to say they dont have a serious issue that they are trying to deal with, it's very common that when someone is feeling "normal" again that they think they dont need their medication and stop taking it. this never turns out good. it's rare that someone on medication says "i want more"... it's more of people turning to self-medicating with medication from the dealer on the corner. over/mismedication is an issue that is hard to tackle but it is not something that is intentional, like you make it sound. i have been on both sides of the looking glass on this issue and i understand your prespective and i also understand now that is it an underinformed position.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Gravis,

I have cousins who are perfectly 'normal' people, but at one time during their childhood, when they were at the doctor's office, the doctor told their mom that, if she wanted, he could diagnose them with ADD and prescribe them Ritalin to 'calm them down'.

I believe that ADD/ADHD does exist, but it is a fact that some people just use it as an excuse to sedate their children.

Fortunately, my aunt, who is a teacher's aide for special education, told the doctor that her children did not have ADD, and that was that.

Sharon Bulova hates this man as he exposes many of her lies. He also understands that Fairfax County is being manipulated with school spirit.