Yet Another School Disrtict Being Investigated for Civil Rights Violations

I have posted before about school districts being investigated by the Office of Civil Rights. This time we have a school district being investigated after a NAACP complaint was filed against the board for eliminating racial diversity through reassignments and disproportional suspension of minority students.

Wake School Board Under Probe
By T. Keung Hui, Thomas Goldsmith, and Mandy Locke, The News & Observer, N.C. (MCT)

Wake County school leaders will have to defend their student assignment and discipline policies to federal civil rights investigators responding to complaints filed by the NAACP.
The Office of Civil Rights investigates a third of the 6,900 complaints it receives each year, according to Jim Bradshaw, a spokesman of the U.S. Department of Education. Wake was notified about the investigation in a letter dated Nov. 5. Bradshaw said they typically try to complete investigations within six months.
If the school system is declared in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Wake could lose about $80 million a year in federal funding.
Word of the Wake review comes near the end of a tumultuous year for the elected leaders of the 143,000-student system. Having discarded socioeconomic diversity as a factor in school assignment, as newly elected board members promised voters last fall, the school board now faces not only the federal investigation, but also a review by a national accrediting body.
The state and national NAACP alleged in complaints filed in September that the board engaged in racial bias by eliminating diversity in the assignment policy, through student reassignments made this year and in the way minority students are disproportionately suspended.

Read the entire article here.
 
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Related articles

• Federal government to probe claims of racism against Wake schools - Source: News & Observer (curmilus.wordpress.com)
• Department of Education investigates civil rights complaints against CMS (charlotte.news14.com)
• Several School Districts Violating Civil Rights of English Language Learners (no2religion.blogspot.com)

Should God Be Edited Out Of History?

Image by sroemerm via FlickrI was reading an opinion column by Nolan Finley in the Detroit News about whether editing God out of history distorts truth. I am not convinced that editing out God necessarily distorts the truth unless the event was specifically centered around God. 

Nolan uses the example of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving to make his point. Specifically, he asks, "Ask any grade school kid who the Pilgrims were giving thanks to on the first Thanksgiving and I'll lay you three-to-one odds that the answer you get is, "the Indians."" While this is only partially true, I am not sure it really distorts the meaning or historical relevancy of Thanksgiving. 

I asked my daughter how she understood Thanksgiving and she said it is for giving thanks to the Indians and God for the bountiful harvest. I would accept my daughter's answer as historically correct. Note that my daughter is now a junior in high school and hasn't studied the Pilgrims since 2nd or 3rd grade.

Personally, I do not think God should be edited out of history in any way. Even though God does not likely exist, God has played direct and indirect roles throughout history. To remove God would potentially doom us to repeat the same mistakes as those who have used God to make history.

However, what I do have an issue with is teaching the glory of God or that our country and our world history were shaped by God. Our history was shaped by people who believed they were doing God's work not people chosen by God.
 
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Related articles

• Did pilgrims celebrate every year for thanksgiving (wiki.answers.com)
• Thanksgiving Without God (friendlyatheist.com)

Latest in Atheist Camping Cookware

Baby Pouch Cooks Babies Alive. Sorry, Keeps Them Alive [Beds]

via Gizmodo by Kat Hannaford on 11/16/10

This low-cost sleeping-bag keeps infants warm for between four to six hours, and once it cools down it can be plugged in or submerged in water for 20 minutes to heat up again. Not while the baby's still inside, mind. More »

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The War on Thanksgiving

Repost from Thanksgiving Past:

I am a traditional Pilgrimist. I can trace my family's roots back to early colonial days. As a Thanksgiving Pilgrimist or TP'er I always celebrate Thanksgiving by having a traditional turkey, traditional stuffing, traditional cranberry sauce and traditional pumpkin pie. I watch the traditional Macy's parade and the traditional Lions and Packers football game.

However, the last few years I have seen a constant assault on Thanksgiving. First we have people having pasta or sushi and not turkey. Now we have people calling Thanksgiving, Turkey Day, Gobble Day or Gobble Gobble Day. Then there is the advertising, "Gobble up Savings", "Don't be a Turkey and Pay Too Much".  And of course there is the Black Friday sales and if that were not enough we now have Pre-Thanksgiving or Pre-Turkey Day sales.

When will it end?!

As a TP'er I demand that we take Thanksgiving back. Show your support for a traditional Thanksgiving and become a TP'er by leaving a comment of support.

Turkey Time at Trader Joe's!

Local TJ's does the Turkey Wrap. It is much better live. My wife and I saw it yesterday with just the two guys. Today they had the whole crew.

 
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