Fwd: unc whestle blower rewarded

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 10:20:12 -0700
Subject: unc whestle blower rewarded
To: Blind Democracy Discussion List <blind-democracy@octothorp.org>

While we post many interesting, and even factual articles on this
list, many of them are opinions of writers we agree with. We then
offer up our own opinions to back up what we believe.
Having said that, here's my opinion on the subject of education in our
corporate capitalist Empire.
The Empire has certain needs that must be filled if it is to continue
doing its job of conquering and plundering and expanding. Toward this
end it "educates" its young. Some requirements change with time, but
some are constant with the needs of an expansionist system. For
example, we no longer have a great need for Blacksmiths, or radio and
small appliance repairmen.
But we do need a constant supply of troops. Duties may change with
the advances of technology, but bodies must be always available for
the protection and advancement of the Empire. At one level we need
well trained technicians. But we also must have the "Grunts" to push
the enemies into the Sea. Grunt work requires one sort of
"education", while skilled technical service requires quite a
different sort of training. Who and how the Empire educates its young
determines where they end up in life. The young of the Ruling Class
are able to afford, and are expected to enter, the finest educational
centers. The young of the "grunts" are expected to follow their peers
into the sort of training that will make good workers and soldiers out
of them.
I attended an all white, junior executive grade school, through the
eighth grade. The assumption was that children would all attend
college. The University of Washington was the bottom line school.
These youngsters mostly headed off to Harvard and other Ivy League
schools, following high school graduation.
Knowing that my parents could never send me off to a prestigious
college, I aimed my sights at the University of Washington. But in
1949 we moved to Ballard, a working class area in North Seattle.
Mostly children of fishermen and shingle sawyers. For these families,
the University of Washington was the high water mark. Trade schools
were considered to be a good choice for those wishing to move into
good paying labor jobs. Boys with fathers well positioned in union
trades could often move from high school right into good jobs. A
good education was expected. But you could tell the different focus
between those wealthy children and those of the Blue Collar Workers.
The children who were mostly left out back in the fifties, were the
Lower Class, mostly Black children. Many of these kids left school
prior to completion, in order to assist a struggling family. Around
Yakima, the Mexican youngsters followed their parents into the fields
and on from state to state to work whatever crops were in season. Few
of them went on to college or even trade schools. In the Central Area
of Seattle, the Black youngsters, the Indian children and the young of
the poor uneducated Whites, saw any sort of post high school education
as an unobtainable dream. Some turned to petty crime, some became
drifters, and some enlisted in the military. Usually the Army.
In the Service, some put in their time and went back to their dead end
civilian life. Others simply stayed for 20 or 30 years and took their
pitiful pensions. Some took advantage of training and moved up as
high as enlisted men could advance. A number of them attended college
on the GI Bill and moved away from the dead end life of the Ghettos
and slums.
But in all situations, people understood the need to learn skills of
some sort in order to improve their situation. Even if that skill was
outside the law. Some folks thought that the poor people were poor
because of their lethargy, when in fact the lethargy was actually born
from hopelessness and despair.
I always shake my head when I read of some "do gooder" who has moved
into a rat infested apartment to "learn" what it is to be poor.
Unless they have years of grinding poverty, with no open doors, with
families that have lived in the same poverty for generations, they can
not begin to understand the depth of the problem. "Do Gooder" fixes
are at best, bandages on open wounds. At worst they only drive the
victims into deeper desperation and despair.
We have made a wrong turn on Life's Road, teaching our young to
believe that success is measured by financial status. Success is
actually achieved through self respect. Self respect comes through
having meaning to our lives.
Again, the Empire sets the conditions for how we are educated. The
Empire is outward focused. It depends upon expansion. Notice how our
education teaches us to focus out, rather than in? And we are taught
that success is found in our ability to expand, to increase our wealth
and influence through the domination of others. In fact, we are
merely responding to the Empire's needs. We call it education, but it
is simply a matter of being good servants.

Carl Jarvis



On 3/18/15, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@aol.com> wrote:
> Expectations and wants are not the same thing. It is the capitalist
> system that keeps poor people from getting education above a certain
> level. Basically, it is the bosses who do not want the children of the
> poor to be educated beyond what is necessary to make them good workers
> who will continue to create profits. Unfortunately for the capitalists,
> though, the amount of education that is required to keep up the
> productive capacity that the capitalists want keeps increasing too. If
> there are any attitudes among the poor that prevents the achievement of
> an educational level above a certain point it is two such attitudes. It
> is peer pressure among the school age population itself and it is a lack
> of expectations. It is often commented on, for example, that among poor
> Black communities that if a student tries to apply himself to his
> studies he is ostracized and ridiculed for acting white. If they really
> think they are acting white, though, they haven't looked very closely at
> poor white people. Studiousness can cause ostracism in that population
> too. I tend to suspect that this phenomenon is an aspect of the low
> expectations. When you live in surroundings where no one goes on to be
> educated you really do not expect your children to do so either. I could
> give numerous examples and a better analysis of this. I do think I have
> some explanations and I can even give some examples from my own life. I
> assure you that my own interest in education did lead to social
> ostracism and my mother told me flat out that I was not going to go to
> college and then I completely surprised her by applying and securing the
> necessary scholarships on my own. But right now I have had a fairly busy
> day and just now getting to my email and I don't have time to go into
> detail. Still though. Poor people. Do. Not. Want. Their. Children. To.
> Not. Be. educated. I know that from being surrounded by poor people all
> my life. It is a flat out right-wing lie.
>
> On 3/17/2015 7:20 PM, ted chittenden wrote:
>> Miriam:
>> Actually, it is my opinion based on conversations I had with people while
>> working for Arizona State University who came from small rural communities
>> (Parkersburg, WV, and Omak, WA) and some conversations I had with David
>> about his experiences with some Protestant faiths (he tested out several
>> Christian denominations before leaving religion for good). In the first
>> case, people from both communities I cited who did get college degrees and
>> worked assisting the disabled at ASU told me that it was expected in each
>> of the places they came from that the children would get at least part of
>> a high school education, marry (before or after impregnation actually
>> didn't matter), and going to work for the local factory until one retired.
>> In the latter case, David told me that he had heard ministers specifically
>> instructing their flocks that if any member should go out and try to get a
>> college education, they would no longer be considered members of their
>> flocks.
>>
>> The whole truth is that while both of us spent at least part of our lives
>> in liberal urban environments (I lived the first 9 years of my life in Los
>> Angeles), I have lived, since 1972, in a city that is very white and very
>> conservative. In addition, I have spent a lot of time speaking with, and
>> listening to, people who do not view the world the same way as I do,
>> whether it be in the past (when I was a Ronald Reagan conservative) or the
>> present (where I am, at least by the lights of where I reside, very
>> liberal).
>> --
>> Ted Chittenden
>>
>> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
>> ---- Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>> Ted,
>> Your statement,
>> more importantly, those in the poorer classes do not wish their children
>> to
>> be educated, because that education might up-end the beliefs they were
>> raised with
>> is solely your opinion, based, I assume, on assumption rather than
>> interactions with numbers of poor people or reading on the subject. I
>> think
>> it is an unfair description of people, based on their financial
>> situation.
>> I've read a good deal about education. However, just in terms of my
>> personal
>> experience in the PTA in Westbury, I was acquainted with lots of poor
>> people
>> who were very concerned about the education of their children. They
>> wanted
>> their children to learn the skills that would help them do well in the
>> world.
>>
>> Miriam
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Blind-Democracy [mailto:blind-democracy-bounces@octothorp.org] On
>> Behalf Of ted chittenden
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 4:14 PM
>> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
>> Subject: Re: unc whestle blower rewarded
>>
>> I think one of the greatest tragedies in the U.S. is the failure to
>> educate
>> its children. Wealthy people no longer want to pay for such education
>> with
>> their taxes; more importantly, those in the poorer classes do not wish
>> their
>> children to be educated, because that education might up-end the beliefs
>> they were raised with at home.
>>
>> I bring this up as a response to this story, because the story clearly
>> demonstrates how we have placed successful college athletes ahead of
>> education.
>> --
>> Ted Chittenden
>>
>> Every story has at least two sides if not more.
>> ---- joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@comcast.net> wrote:
>> University of North Carolina to pay $335,000 to - Flash Player
>> Installation
>>
>> The University of North Carolina will pay a $335,000 settlement to Mary
>> Willingham, the former learning specialist who was the whistleblower in
>> the
>> school's
>>
>> academic fraud case.
>>
>>
>>
>> Willingham filed suit against the school with claims she was retaliated
>> against and demoted for drawing attention to the nearly two-decade fraud.
>>
>>
>>
>> The Raleigh News & Observer
>>
>> received a copy of the signed settlement from Heydt Philbeck,
>> Willimgham's
>> attorney, on Monday.
>>
>> The case has been settled
>>
>> and closed.
>>
>>
>>
>> Block quote start
>>
>> "
>>
>>
>>
>> It gets me out far enough that I will be able to get a job.
>>
>>
>>
>> "- UNC whistleblower Mary Willingham
>>
>> Block quote end
>>
>>
>>
>> "We believe the settlement is in the best interest of the university and
>> allows us to move forward and fully focus on other important issues," UNC
>> spokesman
>>
>> Rick White said in a statement to the paper.
>>
>>
>>
>> According to the report, Willingham, who made about $60,000 in annual
>> salary, said she will receive the equivalent of three years' salary after
>> legal fees
>>
>> are paid.
>>
>>
>>
>> "It gets me out far enough that I will be able to get a job," Willingham
>> said, according to The News & Observer.
>>
>>
>>
>> Willingham initially raised her concerns about the low reading levels of
>> student-athletes, with research that showed a majority of the 180
>> athletes
>> tested
>>
>> could not read at a high school level. The eventual investigation led to
>> awareness of "paper classes" that never met and earned students high
>> grades
>> for
>>
>> papers, regardless of their quality.
>>
>>
>>
>> Willingham resigned amid the scandal. She sued UNC in 2014, with claims of
>> a
>> hostile work environment and retaliation. She sought her job back in her
>> suit,
>>
>> but that was not part of the settlement.
>>
>>
>>
>> In addition to Willingham's suit, the university faces two lawsuits from
>> athletes, problems with accreditation and an NCAA academic misconduct
>> investigation.
>>
>> The fraud is reported to have run from 1993 to 2011 and included more
>> than
>> 3,100 students, roughly half athletes.
>>
>>
>>
>> Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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