This site has been evolving since 1996. It has had many
face-lifts from the original attempt. It has been rearranged, tweaked,
cut, pasted, chopped (and even thrown against the wall several times).
It continues, however, to be a lifeline for me and my students and to
provide them with some means of information, inspiration, and learning,
and I would hope that it has been a useful tool for them. I trust that
you will take a few minutes to become acquainted with ALL that has been
collected since 1997. The site is updated frequently and most dead
links are updated or removed.
Thank you for visiting.
Achievement and performance are not the same thing as learning.
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boardsship without a rudder and compass and never knows where hemay cast. —Leonardo da Vinci
"
When
one possesses an open mind, insight comes even in disagreement." --Thomas Brooks
“Between
1994 and 1999, there were 220 school associated violent events
resulting in 253 deaths - - 74.5% of these involved firearms. Handguns
caused almost 60% of these deaths. (Journal of American Medical
Association, December 2001)
In
1998-99 academic year, 3,523 students were expelled for bringing a
firearm to school. This is a decrease from the 5,724 students expelled
in 1996-97 for bringing a firearm to school. (U.S. Department of Education, October 2000)
According
to the 2002-2003 US Department of Education statistics 2,143 students were
expelled for possession of a firearm. (2007)
Nearly
8% of adolescents in urban junior and senior high schools miss at least
one day of school each month because they are afraid to attend.
(National Mental Health & Education Center for Children &
Families, National Association of School Psychologists 1998)
The National School Boards Association estimates that more than 135,000 guns are brought into U.S. schools each day. (NSBA, 1993).”
"I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum." - Frances Willard
Tell me the incomes of your students’ families and I’ll describe to you your school. --Unknown
“We can't be cautious and extraordinary at the same time.”
—Carlos M. Azcoitia, Spry Community Links High School and National Louis University College of Education
"Character is doing what is right even when no one is looking" --J. C. Watts
TROUBLING HEADLINES: The United States is the only industrialized country in which today's young people are less likely than their parents to have completed high school.
Only 38 percent of U.S. students always feel safe at school and 30 percent rarely or never feel safe.--Wholechild Education.org
"Everyone agrees that the failure of our high schools is tragic. But we act as if it can't be helped. It can be helped. We designed these high schools; we can redesign them."—Melinda Gates
When
one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so
regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has
opened." --Alexander Graham Bell, American inventor
"If A is success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X; Y is play; and Z is keeping your mouth shut." --Albert Einstein, German-born Swiss-American physicist
Today 6,000 talented young people will drop out of school.
Today over 9 million children do not have health insurance.
Today 12 young people will commit suicide.
Today 960 children will be victims of a violent crime.
Today only 11 states require credits in a foreign language for students to graduate.
Today African American students are 14 percent of those in school, but only 7 percent of those taking Advanced Placement exams.
Today two-thirds of high school students will be bored in at least one class.
Today 15 million students who need mentors do not have them.
"Every school day, the equivalent of 171 busloads of childre leaves school in the United States, never to return. That's our daily dropout rate."Schargel, F. (2009). SREB Report on High Schools that Work.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 82% of all prisoners
are school dropouts. Making education less costly than incarceration
which is over $41,000 per year, per prisoner. --Schargel Consulting Group
It is not the strong who survive, but the surviver who is strong!
Fifty percent of the world's population now live in cities as of 2007, the point at which city dwellers have begun to outnumber those living in rural areas for the first time.
Nearly 2.5
billion people live on less than $2 a day. For one person in eight,
hunger is a constant, potentially deadly, companion.
"There is nothing more satisfying than being able to touch the heart and life of a young person. That's what teaching
is all about"--R. NeSmith
Integrity is accepting responsibility when you have made
a mistake.
"A monarchy is the most
expensive of all forms of government, the
regal state requiring a costly parade, and he
who depends on his own power to rule, must
strengthen that power by bribing the active
and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our
people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of
men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the
earth all one’s lifetime.” —Mark Twain, 1857
Did you know that According to the US Census Bureau°,
1.707% of US residents have the first name 'Richard' and
0.0028% have the surname 'Nesmith'.
The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate
there are 143 Americans who go by the name 'Richard Nesmith'.
You can never run a democracy secretively.
Last Updated ( Saturday, 27 February 2010 )
It's Time for a Change
Written by Dr. Richard NeSmith
Friday, 06 July 2007
Our nation experienced its first modern attack on American soil by a foreign enemy on September 11th, 2001. However, since 9-1-1 our nation has experienced a very different, and much more serious attack than that of two planes flying into buildings. We are now being held ransomed by our own politicians. We have all but lost our freedom and liberties guarded by the United States Constitution...and our own politicians (especially the Executive and Legislative Branches, and somewhat by the Judicial Branch, as well) who regulary base decisions for us on their own desire$, wishe$, and expediencie$. We are no longer a nation operating "for the people, by the people." This is far more dangerous than what we witnessed on 9-1-1 for this is so subtle and deceiving that we have become the proverbial "frog in the kettle." I trust that you will make your own evaluation and assessment of our politicians, how propaganda now outranks truth and accuracy, and how the Republicans are no better than the Democrats, and in truth all have become self-serving and actually believe that they know what is be$t for our nation and their bank account$. It is time that we returned to the foundation that our forefathers thought was secure..."life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," which is protected by the Bill of Rights and guarded only when the government is of the people and by the people, and for the people. You and I...we are the "people." Now work to change it back to representation and democracy, not elitism, cronyism, or this prevailing attitude that politicians no longer have to listen to those who elect them.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Libery, and the pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
