IMBECILIC VIRGINIA SCHOOL

What makes these weirdos tick? Hatred of kids?

A Norfolk middle school student suspended over a tablet of Tylenol gets to go back to school, but has to attend drug and alcohol counseling. 13-year-old Gabriella Nieves has missed two days of class already over the tablet of Tylenol she says a classmate gave her for a headache. While she's eager to hit the books, she doesn't think she needs counseling.

"I think it's unfair that I have to go to a drug and alcohol counseling, even though it was over an aspirin. I mean, they're making it out like I brought a gun to school," said Gabriella. Gabriella is worried the drug program will mark her future with a giant red flag. "When they look at my record, when I try to apply for college and they see that I went to drug and alcohol counseling, a drug offense in middle school, they're going to reject me," she said.

"She's not going to no drug and alcohol program," remarked Gabriella's mother, Dawn. Her mother wants Gabriella to have a talk about drugs and alcohol with their family doctor, and not a juvenile delinquent counselor. She feels Northside Middle School administrators are making an example out of her daughter for no good reason. "It wasn't a narcotic. It was not a joint. It was not a little small bottle of alcohol. This was an aspirin for a headache," said Settles.

On Monday, May 7th, Gabriella and her mother will find out if she will be able to get counseling from her doctor. Either way, Gabriella, who's an eighth grader, won't be going to high school in Norfolk next year. She and her family are moving to Hampton.

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FRENCH EDUCATION

I dread Tuesdays. It is the day that my daughter Olivia comes home from school with a poem that she has to learn by heart. She normally has until Friday to get it right and so for the intervening days the poem is with us wherever we go. She recites it in the car, at breakfast, at the playground. By Friday her younger siblings can recite it, even the cat purrs along. I think it's a formidable discipline and sure to make her extremely clever in the long run, but if you ask her what the poem is about she'll reply: "I've no idea, I just have to learn it."

If Sarko wants to change the way French people think (and therefore act, in terms of work ethic, claiming benefits, etc) he has to start with the schools. Don't get me wrong, I love the French system, it is one of the reasons we moved there, but it does produce more intransigent and less imaginative adults than we have in the UK. This is partly because children are not taught to think for themselves to the same extent as we are. An 18-year-old half-English boy I met in France told me he was asked to produce a literary criticism of a poem. He told the teacher what he thought of it. "I don't want to know what you thought of it," said the teacher. "I want to know what the critics thought of it."

And although French schools are brilliant at teaching good behaviour and what is right and wrong (to my delight the children all stand up in class when a teacher walks in) there is a somewhat blinkered view that often makes the French less flexible than the Brits. The phrase "c'etait pas prevu" (it was not organised or planned) is a concept that I had never heard before moving to France. Now I hear it a lot, mainly from my child minder.

I could go out every night of the week if I wanted to, as long as I had booked her to babysit at least a week in advance. If I suddenly get a dinner invitation (unlikely, because anyone French will have planned their dinner in advance) and I call her up to see if she can babysit I get the "c'etait pas prevu" response and a sigh of horror on the other end of the phone. Similarly, if I change my plans she gets very edgy.

Another phrase you hear a lot is "c'est pas normal", which loosely translated means it's not right. This is something Sarko will be hearing a lot as he tries to overhaul the French social security system. My children already use it. The other day they had a girlfriend over for lunch. I served a salad. As my children don't eat vinaigrette I didn't put any on. But to the young Clemence this was "not right". She was also astounded to see that on the short school run back after lunch I didn't make the children sit in their allocated car seats. I can imagine she went back home relating the "wild ways" of "les Anglais" on the hill.

Intransigence and an inability to see how something different can be good are going to be Sarko's worst enemies. But if I were him I would begin in the schools. If you put a frog straight into boiling water it will jump out; but if you put it into cold water and slowly heat the water up it won't realise what's going on until it's been cooked. If he wants things to change, he needs to start slowly, so that the French don't notice until it is too late.

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Australian PM to reshape schools

JOHN Howard will today outline a new push to "reshape the nation's education and training landscape" and force public schools to provide more information for parents on bullying and violence in the classroom. In a major speech outlining the Government's agenda if it wins the next election, the Prime Minister will sharpen his attack on Kevin Rudd's "education revolution" with a pledge to deliver a new era of accountability for parents. He will warn that principals need more support to enforce discipline in the nation's schools and parents must be given report cards on violence and disruptive behaviour.

In his speech to the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, he will also touch on the Government's proposals to place new compliance requirements on the next four-year $40 billion schools funding deal for the states. It is the second in a series of speeches titled Australia Rising, the first of which was delivered last month in Brisbane when Mr Howard warned that only the Coalition could be trusted to deliver targets to cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions without wrecking the economy.

The new schools funding deal that is being prepared by federal officials will include demands for greater autonomy for principals to hire and fire teachers and requirements to publish more information for parents on academic performance and attendance rates. The outcome is expected to deliver defacto league tables for parents, ensuring school performance is transparent on a range of measures.

"While the states and territories have primary responsibility for government schools, my Government is determined to lay a platform for high academic standards, good teachers, principals with real power and proper accountability," Mr Howard said. "Like all Australians, I am very concerned at reports of school violence and disorder. Parents would be well- served by more information about school discipline, bullying and disruptive behaviour in the classroom. "Parents are entitled to expect that their child is safe at school and that teachers and principals have the authority to ensure a strong learning environment. We want to provide teachers and principals with the necessary support for their essential work."

Mr Howard ignited a schools values debate before the 2004 election when he blamed "politically correct" teachers for an exodus to private schools. In the latest salvo, he will warn that the rise of violence in schools must be tackled.

Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andrew Blair last night said teachers needed more protection against violent students and parents. "We've got examples of kids bringing knives and weapons to school," he said. "I know of one case where very authentic-looking replica pistols have been brought in. I know of cases when students have got up in class and pointed these replica pistols at teachers. "Teachers are dealing with more young people with serious social and emotional problems who are in some cases arriving at school without any food. It varies from cases of parents coming in and physically attacking teachers and principals. "Unquestionably, there needs to be much greater support given to schools via legislation to give schools more power to remove trespassers and when we have violent parents and violent students."

However, Mr Blair also warned there was a continuing problem with private schools dumping difficult-to-manage students on the public sector. "All schools in this country receive government funding, so in my view there's got to be mutual responsibility for taking students who are troubled," he said.

The reforms Mr Howard will outline today are also expected to require the states to offer teachers performance-based pay and to lift literacy and numeracy standards. "School teachers are an important but undervalued profession. Teachers work hard in the interests of their students and my Government's role is to provide further support in their crucial work shaping the lives of future generations," Mr Howard said. "My Government is dedicated to promoting choice, quality and strong values in Australia's education and training system. "Education is crucial to Australia's future. Quality education will lift workforce participation and productivity, helping to maintain today's prosperity," he said.

In separate reforms, the Howard Government is also planning to unleash the same market reforms embraced by universities to shake up the TAFE sector and ensure training is more responsive to the needs of business. Mr Howard will highlight a range of measures in the budget, including summer schools for teachers, a bonus pool of up to $50,000 for principals to award to teachers and reforms to increase philanthropy and business donations to the nation's universities. "The $5 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund deservedly attracted many of the headlines, but new programs to improve literacy and numeracy, more Australian Technical Colleges, summer schools for teachers and reforms to fast-track apprentices will also enhance the quality and diversity of our education and training," Mr Howard said. "For some years now, my Government has aimed to restore prestige to vocational education. The broad community support for Australian Technical Colleges, dedicated centres of trade excellence with incentive structures, including flexible workplace agreements and links to local industry, indicates we are on the right track."

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

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