Confederate Memorials are educational

Florida Lawmaker Introduces Bill To PROTECT Confederate Memorials

Mike Hill, the first black state representative elected from the Panhandle since the Civil War, introduced the bill and argues the memorials should be preserved because of their educational value.

According to the Miami News Times, It would become illegal to remove any of those memorials — plus the Confederate flag and other symbols, as well as street and school names honoring Confederate soldiers — under a bill proposed by a Republican state lawmaker from Pensacola.

“It will not change any person’s life today by tearing down a Confederate monument or tearing down a statue or tearing down a cross,” Hill tells New Times. “It will not change any person’s life by doing that. What it will do is prevent someone from learning the history of why it was there in the first place.”

Hills has a point, removing items from the history of our Country makes it much easier to cast doubt on the truth’s of our past, thus opening the door for non factual “stories or accounts” of things that happened good or bad, that changed our Country’s direction.

“Slavery was a part of it,” Hill says. “And we as a nation overcame that; we fought a terrible war — over 600,000 people died — so that we could rid this nation of slavery. I think that is something that we shouldn’t erase or try to run away from. That is something that we should understand, know and be proud of, that we were a nation that did that.”

Hill also noted that “It’s ridiculous to spend money like that because somebody says their feelings were hurt,” he also told the times. “Why should we spend public money to protect someone’s feelings?”

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Teen Graduating from High School and Harvard in the Same Month

A 16-year-old boy from Kansas is set to graduate from both high school and Harvard University in May 2019.

Braxton Moral, a Ulysses High School senior, will graduate from his Kansas school on May 19 and then attend his Harvard graduation ceremony on May 30, The Hutchinson News reported Dec. 20.

Moral could “entertain people” at volleyball games through math when he was three, according to mother Julie Moral, NPR reported Friday. Many also said his vocabulary was beyond his years. But Julie Moral did not realize her son was gifted for some time, NPR reported Friday.

Braxton skipped the fourth grade, according to NPR.

The child’s parents took him to Seward County Community College to get tested, The Hutchinson News reported.

“They thought the machine was broken,” Carlos Moral, the father, told The Hutchinson News. “He was like off the scale, beyond an associate’s degree.”

The Ulysses school district allowed Braxton to take some high school classes while he was in middle school. Braxton also took a class from Fort Hays State University before being admitted into Harvard’s extension program, The Spokesman-Review reported.

“The program (extension) ideally serves these nontraditional, working professionals (ordinarily aged 21 or older) who want to complete their degrees part time, both on campus and online,” Harvard’s extension program website said.

Braxton would take fall and spring semester courses online and started to go to Harvard’s campus during his junior year, according to NPR.

“Because of his age and the fact that he doesn’t have a high school diploma, he couldn’t get regular scholarships or federal aid,” Julie Moral said, NPR reported. “We did get a couple Sallie Mae private loans to help ease the financial burden.”

The total tuition cost for the 2018-2019 academic year was $54,400, Harvard’s extension program website said.

Julie Moral said they make sure his son isn’t too stressed, according to The Spokesman-Review.

“We constantly are monitoring Braxton to make sure he is not too overwhelmed,” Julie Moral told The Spokesman-Review. “No achievement is worth him being unhappy.”

Braxton hopes to attend Harvard Law School upon graduation and become a politician. “Politics is end game for me,” Braxton told The Hutchinson News.

Braxton Moral will be 17 when he graduates from both schools.

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Teachers in America quitting jobs at record rate

With chaotic schools, who can blame them?

Teachers and public education employees in the United States are reportedly quitting their jobs at a record rate.

Public educators — including teachers, schools psychologists, janitors and community college faculty members — quit their jobs at a rate of 83 per 10,000 a month on average in the first 10 months of the year, data from the Labor Department seen by The Wall Street Journal revealed.

According to the newspaper, that rate is the highest on record since the government began collecting such data in 2011.

The rate of departures is also nearly double that of the 48 per 10,000 public education workers who quit their jobs in 2009.

However, the report also points out that teachers are still less likely to leave their positions than other American workers, who reportedly quit their jobs at a rate of 231 per 10,000 this year.

“During the recession, education was a safe place to be,” Julia Pollak, a labor economist at Zip Recruiter, told the publication.

Pollak went on to describe that the field is a “more boring place now” for educators who “see their friends finding exciting opportunities.”

Teachers are leaving their jobs for a variety reasons, the newspaper reported.

Some are reportedly leaving in search for potentially more lucrative positions elsewhere given the current low unemployment rate.

Others are quitting due to frustrations over a lack of resources and little support from communities, an issue brought to light by a wave of teacher protests in recent months.

“Part of it was compensation,” Alice Cain, executive vice president of Teach Plus, a policy organization that works with a network of thousands of teachers, told the Journal.

“But part of this was that their students weren’t valued, and that the public education system in our country isn’t a priority in so many places,” she continued.

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