Alternative Educational Strategies

Securing a comprehensive and sound education  is a profound aspect of living anywhere on earth. The capacity to attain a superior and life altering education remains subject to a variety of critical components and influences. 

The intersectional aspects in achieving a life altering education includes the roles of parents, administrators, students, the community and the educators as well as other transformative influences and factors.

Of late in America our Boards of Education are now experiencing a highly volatile and critical pivotal role in the political sphere . The usual topics like selection of books and curriculum are now once again center stage in the cultural wars of race and politics. Academic Freedom is under assault in this latest Era of Education in America .

Black American Activist’s and a few others are now focused  on augmenting the role of parents/community into the framing the complexities of governance and agendas of Boards of Education beginning with their contractual and bargaining negotiations with Teachers Unions 

Parents and as well as taxpayers will be articulating and even demanding to be apart of the collective bargaining process between school boards and teacher’s unions with a series of metrics and guidelines which demonstrate / document accelerated academic achievements outcomes especially in school districts that continue to woefully fail our most vulnerable populations and students.

Parents and Taxpayers have been MIA for too long in this area of education. Parents no longer can rely on Boards of Education, Teachers Unions and Administrators to deliver academic outcomes. The role of accountability has now evolved and so has its evaluators.

Parents of vulnerable children simply can’t rely on the usual suspects to deliver superior educational outcomes. The pandemic and its devastating impact on our students academic performances has shattered the foundations of education in our nation and not just in vulnerable communities 

The politics of Education in America better brace itself for this transformative role of parents and their role in the negotiations and bargaining process of education in America 

Greg Thrasher

BLM

Substitute Teachers Matter(c)

 Substitute Teachers Matter 

America’s educational system has a variety of interdependent components. In the classroom the role of the educator is extremely significant from assisting students in their academic goals to being there for social and emotional growth .

Quite often the role of the substitute teacher is often overlooked and diminished. Far too many parents, administrators and students view our role as insignificant and not that crucial to the education of a student as their primary educator.

For too long the substitute teacher has been marginalized. For many substitute teachers the compensation is meager and our academic expertise is discounted and even ridiculed in some educational venues .

In many school districts substitute teachers are rarely consulted by administrators for opinions on pedagogy ideas. Teacher training programs which seek to enhance the academic credentials and classroom skills of teachers and educators are nonexistent in school systems for substitute teachers.

Many school principals and department heads don’t invite substitutes to training sessions inside and outside the school buildings. Substitute teachers are too often viewed as ‘baby sitters’ from administrators to parents to students and even full time teachers.

When the issues of diversity and staffing are present Black substitute teachers like myself and others are rarely observe in many school buildings across the country.

Recently I experienced with other substitute teachers  a social network threat that targeted schools on the anniversary of a horrific school shooting in America, substitute teachers were not even put on notice nor aware of the threat from school administrators or teachers unions. We were vulnerable and imperil and no one cared from administrators to teacher’s unions.

Substitute teachers are critical assets in any academic and educational equation in both public and private educational institutions in America.

We have transformative academic and educational capital that continues to be underutilized and underdeveloped in our schools.

I proposed this reality has to end in our school systems in America. This is a public service announcement  so do pay attention

BLM Forever

 BLM has been in America since Slavery and I expect it will continue to be a movement as long as America exists

BLM is an unapologetic siren and declaration that our existence has essence . It genius is in its simplicity Every Black human being on this planet has an essence . BLM is a foundation to weather the slings and arrows and misfortunes of life with the knowledge that one’s singular life matters This profound belief has carried Black Americans through unbearable situations and the depths of inhumanity that no words could ever articulate U Matter….. Black people… U always have and U always will Greg/BLM

DEFUND the POLICE

DEFUND the POLICE

The police in America forever have underperformed especially in communities that don’t share the hue of the majority of police in our nation. Defund does not mean eliminate

The police have exaggerated not only their performance but they have also failed in providing basic ‘law and order’ and to ‘protect and serve ‘functions of late they are good at ‘aim and fire’

The politicians who leverage the outsize role of police used them as campaign fodder to buttress their tiresome dogma about law and order. Academia offers up unproven theories that never make it off the campus

The police unions extort taxpayers with threats of strikes and non compliance with basic investigative and forensic best practices

Media platforms provide the public with curated scripted propaganda about crime waves and the increasing violence in America when in fact crime has been down for decades and the overwhelming majority of citizens even in tough urban venues are not criminals nor provide safe harbor for criminals

The police it is true and factual rarely execute citizens without cause but they do engage in endless acts of brutality, intimidation and incivility towards the very people they claim to ‘protect and serve ‘

To observe so many now wage this insane attack on the messaging of police reforms is truly unacceptable and outrageous .

Yes let’s Defund failed police departments unable to harness crime ... Yes let’s Defund police departments that violate our privacy with unlawful surveillance and racial profiling…Yes let’s Defund police departments that are not accountable nor create processes that pursue ‘best employment practices’ .. Yes let’s Defund police departments that recruit’ failures from other police departments

The police in America have failed us and continue to fail Americans…. DEFUNDING the police is just the opening salvo to reform and improving the quality of policing in America

BLM

 

Work 2 Do

 Of late in America there has been endless reporting and media coverage on the emergence of extreme conservatives views advancing in very region of our nation especially in the core  of America and not just in the fringe sectors of our nation. 

Once again it is proving difficult to ignore Race and Class and the impact of both in this era of America, there is no way to avoid, deflect and diminish these legacies of America 

The accounts of this troubling trend include the continued support for Trump to state legislatures and their enactment of draconian election laws which border on voter suppression to reactionary collectives of domestic threats and the like in our country 

For many minorities this pivot to the extreme Right has been alarming for some and others not a surprise. Yet the target bandwidths of this shift in the politics of America compels many minorities to ponder about the endearing legacy of civil rights and its fatigue factor on primary White Americans.

Questions are surfacing about the attitudes and consciousness of young White Americans to concerns about how durable are White Liberals as allies of targeted minorities.

There are also themes of civil rights fatigue in elderly Black Americans and a heightened concern about safety and sincerity in America for those still in peril and held in contempt simply because of the hue of one’s skin.

Is education really a bias buster and path towards parity and equity in the justice and economic pursuits of minorities? Concerns of effectiveness and legitimacy as well are bubbling in the institutions like our religious and special interest organizations which historically challenged disparities in America .

Americans can’t waltz into this Era of America with apathy and anxiety… 

My organization like others are expanding our research on solutions. We have over analyzed all of these perils and shortcomings Americans must now elevate and engage in remedies , situations , and experiences that grow the outcome based ideals and synergies that invite interactive endeavors that advances in real time the best of Americans in America 

BLM

Media Insurgency

Recently in/on our nation’s media platforms their reporting  and journalism operations are similar to the works of political lobbyists. Today’s prominent media players engage in selective curated journalistic ethics at the peril of America’s democracy and humanity.

Far too many major media outlets are dysfunctional machines serving the scripts of corporations, celebrities and politicians. The agenda of our nation’s media platforms operates not to serve the general public but rather to appease and pander to their designated clientele.

The outcome of this media template has become truly a dangerous collaboration which yields a toxic and unproductive outcome for the most vulnerable bandwidth of Americans from minorities to workers and seniors. Reporters are now publicists, investigative journalism is now a clique, editorials are framed by polling and partisan politics rather than seasoned wisdom and intellect.

The prevailing practice now in vogue at these media platforms is to require a subscription to read the latest news but also to post a comment or even read a comment. In fact one of best features of the post industrial media era was the unabridged comment section after a reported news or pundit commentary where the genius and functionality of readers are inspiring, insightful and extremely   informative .

The explosion of alternative news platforms from pod casts to faux news sites on the Internet has made America a collection of media bubbles which generates ‘fake news ‘ and politically scripted curated journalism . Facts, authenticity and reality are all subject to contamination, revision and artificial analysis including misinformation and disinformation.

Right now in America there is no objective baseline to trust and rely on with regards to information, communication and the news. We the people have never been so vulnerable to these forces which in truth have never valued our sovereignty and collective patriotism.

Our daily existence is suffocated with endless exaggerated reporting about crime , partisan politics and the shortcomings of governance. In this media scripted artificial universe of reality nothing works and every texture and essence of existence is suspect, challenged and over analysed.

The role of a free press is profound in our democracy so much so that our constitution acknowledged the press in its most supreme and sacred language of the constitution.

Our press has betrayed its sacred and supreme duty to the stakeholders of America. Our democracy is in peril and at risk and the press within curated journalism is now a empty guardian and protector of America and Americans 

BLM

4th 2022

This is the most important July 4, in our nation’s history given the efforts of the GOP and others that seek to make America a dictatorship 

All of us must become active in defending, defeating and saving America from those within America that seek to violate our individual sovereignties 

From a SCOTUS ruling that takes away a constitutional right of Women to other legal rulings that diminish the ‘inalienable’ rights of not only women but voting rights of minorities and gender freedoms of human beings 

There is a ‘uncivil war’ taking place in America and it requires not only an acknowledgment of this but a collective response by any means necessary 

I am a Black American Patriot that worships loving my family, friends and freedom . I will always and forever live in America enjoying life, liberty of happiness 24/7 

Happy 4th to All  freedom loving Americans 

BLM