Ponder Our Miniature Earth!
Miniature Earth with Music
I am so grateful a friend sent this video to me. It can really help each of us to keep things in perspective.
Have a wonderful weekend, My Friends!
Brennan
USA Schools: Laughing Stock of the Globe?
USA Schools – Laughing-Stock of the Globe?
The field I have chosen to work in on the internet, Education and Education Reform, is probably one of the toughest, and most needed, of all possible areas. During the last year, I have made enormous strides in establishing myself as somewhat knowledgeable (and possibly even expert) in the field of Education and Education Reform.
In fact, I scour newspapers, the internet, and many other resources, to bring current educational news, both good and bad, to my readers. Every parent, teacher and taxpayer can benefit from the information provided for them on Straighten-Out Public Education NOW!.
Most people are not aware of the terrible results of the education turmoil in our public schools. Depending on which international test results you refer to, the USA is ranked from twelfth to twenty-fourth among developed nations. And those are the results even though we send our best and brightest students to compete.
Frankly, USA public schools are the laughing stock of the globe. Yet, our citizens either don’t know, or don’t believe, how badly U.S. education has deteriorated. Even when they become convinced there is a problem, they either believe the situation is hopeless or it’s someone else’s problem, somewhere else. Unfortunately, even our best schools are inferior when compared globally.
American business can not find enough skilled employees in the states, so they must outsource to other countries, especially India, to find the qualified personnel they need. This is true, even when they make formalized attempts to increase the number of U.S. citizens in their workforce, as A.T.T. and other large conglomerates have tried to do.
Why can they not find qualified personnel? Well, when you realize that drop out rates are averaging 50% in many areas, and actually are 75% in some of our largest urban areas, it’s not surprising that we are not producing competent workers. A 25% graduation rate is alarming enough, but even more disturbing is that students who DO graduate often are woefully unprepared to seek gainful employment, with many unable to read, write or compute math adequately.
Our public school system is broke and needs fixing. But think tanks and politicians propose solutions that are not only unworkable, they are prohibitively expensive. Most require a timeline of 15 years or more to improve our schools.
I am attempting to market a book that spells out the problems in public schools from A to Z and also offers a common sense workable solution that could turn ALL schools in the USA around. The author was a Master Teacher over a span of 50 years and specialized in helping problem students from all socioeconomic levels and familial situations excel.
This Master Teacher also has CDs & DVDs of parenting and teaching success training that would be so valuable to students and schools and society. In addition, he successfully marketed a Drug Abuse Prevention Teaching Plan that was implemented by the U.S. Military in it’s schools worldwide in the 80′s. I’ve looked at this teaching plan and, with a little updating and some new graphics, it could be a valuable teaching tool for fighting drug abuse here in our schools NOW!.
EDin08.com, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in conjunction with the Ely Broad Foundation, has spent millions of dollars to attempt to focus the Presidential political debates on the education issue. They have the money but are having minimal-to-no success because they have no plan to improve schools. I have the plan, but no money to publicize it.
Individuals in the know have stated that our public education fiascos are a matter of national security. When three out of every four young persons in our inner cities do not graduate, we see a marked increase in gang violence and other crime. Graduates from our public schools, even when they graduate with honors, are having to take remedial courses just to succeed in basics in college. Institutes of higher education, combined with American businesses, spend billions of dollars on remediation of students who do not have the necessary foundation for college success, or to train personnel who do not have rudimentary work or communication skills.
I am trying to bring the answer to our public education fiasco to the public, which so desperately needs this solution. I may not have discovered a cure for cancer, but I believe I have discovered a cure for the poison that our public schools have become to our society.
I am not an alarmist. I was a successful business woman for years offline. I’ve spoken to groups ranging in size from ten to over a thousand. I enjoy sharing valuable information, especially when I can use humor to deliver the message. But no matter how expert I may have been offline, I am struggling to get the message out online.
People don’t want to hear the truth, preferring to believe that moving a child to a “better” school will make a difference. No matter how well a particular school appears to be functioning (e.g. no 3rd grade students plotting to kill a teacher), our best schools are inferior to our global competition.
People need to wake up and recognize the problems. So, as a grandmother concerned about the educational future of American students, I continue on!
Thank you,
Brennan Kingsland
Thank You For Your Prayers!
To all my readers, I want to thank you for your prayers. Breanna came through her surgery successfully, although it took much longer than originally anticipated.
Now she has two casts from toe to thigh. One is blue and one is pink. Isn’t that adorable? They told her in advance that she would have colored casts, and she was delighted in anticipation.
My hat’s really off to Shriners. Their staff is wonderful with children and parents, and the atmosphere is so happy and optimistic. Many children spend a lot of time there and it is set up to delight youngsters of all ages, including nervous grandmothers! Games and murals and stuffed animals and adult-size climbable animal statues are everywhere. We watched surgeons patting the head of a giant turtle on their way into work.
Most importantly, Shriners really knows how to help children cope with infirmities and pain. As a Critical Care Registered Nurse, I was concerned about the degree of pain Breanna would be in post-operatively. Shriners has that down to a tee and she was so comfortable post-operatively that I salute the staff.
So far, Breanna’s surgery appears to have accomplished it’s goals. She will be in her pink and blue casts until the bones, tendons and ligaments have healed, then she will return to Shriners for an entire week to have the casts off and physical therapy twice daily on an inpatient basis. These folks really know what they are doing and I’m so grateful that Breanna can benefit from their knowledge.
She still has such a long way to go for such a tiny little girl, but we are all optimistic that at the end of her therapy she will be able to walk.
Please keep praying for Breanna and I’ll keep you posted on her progress.
Thank you again,
Grammy Brennan
Pray for Breanna, Please!
Dear Readers,
I will be away from my computer for a couple of days because I have a two-day delay that has occurred unexpectedly.
I am grandmother to 19 grandchildren. One, named for me, has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk. Shriner’s Children’s Hospital had scheduled surgery for her at the end of May. She is to have both of her legs broken and rods placed, plus the ligaments and tendons in her ankles are to be cut and pins and devices added.
We are nervous and excited about her surgery because all of the children who have had this surgery, went through three months of intensive physical therapy and then were able to walk unassisted. We are hoping for the same outcome for Breanna.
We got notice this morning that Shriner’s had a cancellation and Breanna will be admitted to the hospital today for surgery in the morning. I will need to be out-of-town at the hospital with my son and daughter-in-law until tomorrow night, or Wednesday. Since I don’t have a laptop computer, I will be unable to work on my blogs.
Please pray for Breanna and her parents. This will be painful for an 8 year old, but she is a beautiful little girl, extremely intelligent, who has been handicapped by not being able to walk. This surgery may make all the difference to her future. Needless to say, her parents are so nervous they are total wrecks.
Wish us all luck! I’ll be back with more news, starting on Wednesday or Thursday, when I can get back to my desktop.
Thank you for your understanding and have a WONDERFUL DAY!
Brennan
Mark Joyner Views Propaganda
Propagand-o’s (Yummy Newsy Flavor)
If you’ve been around the internet for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Mark Joyner, the creator of Simpleology. Mark was formerly in military intelligence, so he has a unique perspective (some might say hard-nosed or cynical) on life in the United States and the rest of the world.
His Simpleology program is a type of time management and business planning program that’s very popular with people across the internet. I’ve dabbled with it on and off, and I’d probably be a multi-millionaire if I did everything according to the program, but I keep getting distracted by life.
I enjoy his cartoons, especially since they are so thought-provoking and usually ‘right on the money’, as well as being entertaining.
In this cartoon, I really appreciated “We think so you don’t have to” and “Just like the truth but without the bitter aftertaste” slogans. Unfortunately, this is pretty much the way we are being spoonfed information in the U.S.
As Mark Joyner says,
When the mainstream news media is allowed to exclude candidates from debates (both Kucinich and Paul were excluded when candidates with lower poll ratings were included – why?) …
When the mainstream news media can “predict” winners (and thus influence your vote) on statistically irrelevant information …
Has the news become propaganda? Or are there just some really irresponsible decisions being made?
Theories?
Perhaps it’s time to ask ourselves a few questions:
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Are we able to think things through for ourselves, or are we relying on what we are told in the media?
- What are we teaching our children to do?
- Could the media, including MTV and the rest, possibly be influencing the dropout rates and the ‘gangsta’ lifestyle we see increasing across the entire United States?
- Do we just want to follow like sheep, or lead the way?
Perhaps we need to be more concerned about teaching our youngsters how to think critically by choosing to do so ourselves.
Brennan
Garry Conn Blogs the Internet!
Just a couple of weeks ago I shared the news that my friends, Garry Conn and his lovely wife Angie, are expecting their fourth child. Everyone who knows the couple is delighted for them. Garry, also known as the Mad Blogger, not only has over 100 sites that he maintains successfully, but he also helps his fellow bloggers, sharing on his namesake site GarryConn.com all the good tools and tips he learns or develops.
Plus, he broadcasts weekly radio reports with his associate, David Cooley, AKA CyberCoder.
Well, Garry is known for always trying new things and mixing things up frequently. (I think he redesigns his blog themes everytime he has a few spare minutes and is bored. TeeHee!)
While GarryConn.com has been his training site, he has been building other successful blogs across cyberspace on a continuous basis. One of those sites, Blog The Internet has become wildly popular because he tells all about the best deals available online.
Now, to try to make advance preparations and streamline his operations BBB (before baby is born), Garry is gradually transferring his training from GCDC to Blog The Internet. As a soon-to-be-a-daddy-again-stay-at-home-marketer, Garry is going to use his namesake blog as a personal, family-oriented site. Plus, since he’s soon going to have to buy lots of baby diapers, he’s decided to:
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Consolidate on a Flagship site (I told you he was good).
- Have his personal namesake site to write about family stuff.
- Make Blog The Internet an even bigger success.
- Have time left over to help Angie with the new baby
COOL!
If you want to meet a really nice person and find out how to be a smart blogger, subscribe to his newletter or RSS feed at Blog The Internet. Trust me, no matter what your online goals are, you’ll be glad you met him.
Brennan
Mad Blogger and Wife Expecting Fourth Child!
My friend Garry Conn and his lovely wife, Angie, have just announced that they are going to be proud parents, again. This makes the fourth child for the couple and everyone who knows them is really happy for them.
Garry is a Mad Blogger on the internet, with over 100 sites that he maintains. I work with him on a few of them and he is great to work with. His namesake site GarryConn.com is really a labor of love. In addition to all his business ventures, Garry maintains this site to freely dispense advice to wannabe Internet Money Makers. He doesn’t brag, and he doesn’t make wild promises, he just dishes out one piece of practical advice after another, at least once a day and sometimes more. If you are interested in learning how to make money on the internet, you should check out GarryConn.com and subscribe to his valuable info.
Garry is a living example of how being an Infopreneur can give you freedom in your life. Now that the new baby is on the way, Garry and Angie will be able to go through the entire pregnancy together (although Angie will do most of the work) because Garry now gets to be a stay-at-home Dad. See, this internet thing really can work.
Congratulations to both of you!
Brennan
