WARNING!

Please read WARNING before viewing this website.

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N. Haynes (L) and A. Ramay (R)

Attorney Anderson (Andy) Ramay

Gets Another Decision 

Reversed at State Board Level!

MACE's Legal Department Continues To Flourish!

The students are pampered!
Whats wrong with Middle Schools?
  

 By Dr. John Trotter

What can improve education in the middle schools?  This is the question.  The answer: Some real D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.  The middle school students are coddled and pampered, resulting in the bullies running the schools.  The administrators are afraid to discipline the bullies.  Hence, there is a reign of terror.  Example:  Look at the chaos in Crawford Lewis's DeKalb County School System.  When a teacher does try to discipline a student, so many times the teacher is sent to see State Senator Ronald Ramsey or Robin Goolsby in the Office of Internal Resolutions.  We have had many complaints from teachers how this Office immediately talks down to the teacher and takes a posture that the teacher is guilty.  The administrators are terrified about parents taking complaints to the school board.  Crawford Lewis and his entire adminstration need to go.  If the school board does not get rid of Crawford Lewis, then the voters need to vote out everyone of the  members of the DeKalb County Board of Education!  This is particularly true for Sara Coplin-Wood. 

 

   The whole theory behind the middle school concept which came in vogue in the 1980s was a desire to coddle the little babies in middle school.  It has never worked.  It never accomplished anything in Georgia (or elsewhere) except to bring chaos to the schools.  In fact, the General Assembly a few years ago took away the financial incentives for middle schools in Georgia.  The middle school concept was again another trendy educational fad which proved demonstratively to be a flop.

 

   At MACE, we simply believe that good discipline is the key to good education.  The private schools understand this and hardly venture away from the model of good discipline.  The public schools left this model years ago -- especially school systems like DeKalb County.  At MACE, our mantra is this:  "You cannot have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions."  (c) MACE, July 2, 2009.

Hey Drill Sergeant Heatley: Pointe South Middle Has Some Issues!

Did MACE Picket Spoil Clayton Picnic?

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Bring Back "Board of Education"!
The Acronym Needed:
D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E!

   By Dr. John Trotter

   NCLB, QBE, APEG, ITBS, GTOI, GTEP, et al.  All of it "ain't" worth S-H-_T.  None of the acronyms address D-I-S-C-I-P-L-I-N-E.  The responsibility for leanrning should rest squarely on the shoulders of the students and their parents.  Give the teachers the authority to run his or her classes with the full backing of the administration.  This is how it worked in the old days, and it did indeed work!  Bring back the paddle.  Yes, the good ole "board of education."  Most people over forty (even educators) grew up in schools where paddling was readity available and used.  It was used on my friends, colleagues, and me, and the paddle did not emotionally scar us one bit.  In fact, we laugh about our experiences with the paddle in the schools that we attended.  I was an administrator in Georgia in the 1980s and used the paddle in two school systems.  The discipline was in check, I must say, and the students respected me for the good discipline.  Now, however, the
discipline is out of control.  In fact, a phrase like "DeKalb Discipline" is an oxymoron.  It doesn't matter what program/reform or how much money is thrown at public schooling in Georgia, until the teacher's classroom authority is restored and teachers are treated with respect (meaning defiant students are swiftly removed from the rregular classroom environments), then the educrats are just spitting into against a Category Five hurricane.  Nothing is going to change.  In fact, with people like Crawford Lewis and Alvin Wilbanks in charge of our schools, then things will only get worse.

  You never allow the the teachers to do the paddling because this could become problematic when there are not adult witnesses and the teacher may be very emotional at this point.  The administrator can administer the paddling dispassionately and without the danger of getting carried away, so to speak.  Always have an adult witness.  Only swat the student two or three times.  This makes the point that there are no free trips to the office; there are always consequences for misconduct.  If a parent refuses to give their "blessings" to corporal punishment (by law, it is  not needed), then simply write this on the student's disciplinary card (I doubt that today's administrators even understand this concept) and call the student's parents to come get the student when he or she disrupts the class.  This will get very old for the parents.  Before you know it, this student begins to behave in school.  I have seen this happen so often.  But, the administrators have to be consistent in their support for the classroom educators.  Corporal punishment is no panacea, but simply another tool in the school's disciplinary "arsenal." 

   The Georgia schools are going the way of the Chicago, Detroit, New Jersey, and New York City schools.  Enough said?  Our educrats will no longer dare permit padding but gang-banding is just accepted and swept under the rung.  In their minds, paddling in brutal and barbaric, but these same dimwit educrats benignly overlook the abject bullying which sometimes even leads to tragic deaths.  I heard Newt Gingrich once remark at a forum about school discipline:  "Yes, we no longer allow paddling but we allow drive-by shootings."  For years, the "board of education" was part and parcel with public education.  It was understood.  It worked.  Then came along the Dr. Spock mentality of raising children.  By the way, I am now reading James McBride's The Color of Water.  It was on the NY Times's Best Seller List for two years.  Read it and see how this mother of 12 children raised her children in NY City.  Extremely strong discipline.  All today are very successful
and contributing well to society.  Several of these "childfen" are now living in the Atlanta area.  Without discipline, all of the attempts to "educate" our children will fail -- whether in the home or in the public school setting.  The private schools clearly understand this, and this is why these schools are flourishing.  Enough said.  

   ( Mr. James McBride did admit that his house seemed like organized chaos when he was growing up, but he also talked about how his "white mama" (Jewish too) "beat" them whenever she perceived that they got out of line -- like when Richie (I think) got stage fright and forgot the Bible story he was suppose to recite in front of the whole church.  I thought that this was a bit much!  But, you can't argue with how all 12 of the children turned out!  Occasionally getting it wrong as far as being too strict in the discipline is better than pandering and coddling miscreant children simply because you don't have the intestinal fortitude to discipline them.  This is what is happening in our schools today.  The thugs are running the show and ruining our schools.  The "äverage" students who have not been sequestered into the "gifted" classes have to "survive" in the classes with the thugs.  It is the "average" students who are suffering so much.  The administrators, as I have said in the past, ought to be metaphorically strung up and horse-whipped because of their lack of guts.  Mama Ruth in The Color of Water may have screwed up many times in dealing with her children, but she did not let them run the show.  She ran the show -- to the best of her ability -- and her 12 children and many grandchildren honor her to this day for her dogged determination that they were going to make something out of their lives.
   The world sends its best and brightest to our shores to study in our colleges, universities, graduate schools, and medical schools, but they would cringe at the thougth of sending their children to attend one of our urban schools.  The urban schools in American are completely in shambles, and as soon as we first admit this, then perhaps can we address the matter.  Burying our collective heads in the sand and acting as if thugs are not running the schools will only exasperate the problems and ensure that these schools will continue to be war zones.  Heck, even SACS's Mark Elgart is AFRAID to venture into one of these  war zones.  Hey Markie boy, I am still waiting for your response to debate me concerning the application of SACS's almighty "standards."  Are you too afraid of John Trotter, the big, bad wolf? (c) MACE, June 20,2009.

  

Dr. Trotter Calls Out Mark Elgart!
DeKalb County Tries To Kill Messenger!

By Dr. John Trotter

   I have found that DeKalb County (and it is not the only system, but perhaps the worst) will go to great ends to cover up wrong doing.  In late April, they went to the end of trying to try "ban" me from being on any property in the DeKalb County Schools -- as if they can arbitrarily do this with egregiously trumped-up lies because they do not like my message to them:  They are engaging in corruptiom.  They seem to have the philosophy of killing the messenger if they disagree with the message.  They even had their joke of a legal counsel, Josey Alexander, to threaten me with arrest for "ïllegal pickets." For real!  Lol.  Of course, MACE kept picketing and drawing attention to "systematic cheating" in DeKalb.  Channel 11 (Keith Whitney) even covered one of the many pickets which we staged AFTER Josey Alexander's preposterous threat about "ïllegal pickets."  (Has she ever heard of Category One Free Speech Forums?  What about Content Regulations which, by the
way, are patently illegal?  What about Ronald Ramsey?  Where did these lawyers go to law school?  Were they asleep in the classes when Constitutional Law was taught?)  Yes, Ronald Ramsey summarily and illegally shut down a grievance hearing when a Clarkston High School teacher was about to testify, along with other teacher-witnesses, that there is systematic cheating taking place in the area of grading at DeKalb's Clarkston High School.  Why don't the State's investigators start at Clarkston High School if they REALLY want to uncover what is apparently taking place in a widespread manner thoughout the State of Georgia -- and especially in the more urban areas?  Where is that joke of an educator Mark Elgart?  No standards have been violated, Mark Elgart?  Or, Little Markie, were you only interested in Clayton County because your little friend Ericka Davis called upon you for help?  I challenge Mark Elgart to a public debate about the hypocrisy of how
SACS's so-called "standards" are applied.  It is hit or miss.  They are applied in the most capricious and arbitrary ways.  What about a debate, Mark?  Are you still afraid?  Still want people to treat you like you are a demi-god?  In my book, you and Crawford Lewis and Beverly Hall are three of the biggest educational hypocrites in Georgia.  Hey, Mark Elgart, I am calling you out.  Are you afraid?  My name is John Trotter.  You know how to contact me. (The foregoing was written on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's GetSchooled blog.)

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And A Little On Clayton & Hancock Too
DeKalb County, Systematic Cheating, Robert Moseley, Race, Mark Elgart, Etc.  

    By Dr. John Trotter

  Yes, at least DeKalb’s Central Office Administrator Bob Moseley admitted to the cheating at Atherton Elementary School in DeKalb County.  This is a bit refreshing.  I know Bob, and I have found him to be even-handed.  He probably is the most qualified administrator in DeKalb to be the superintendent in DeKalb.  Did you hear this, DeKalb County School Board?  Oops!  He doesn't qualify after all.  He's the wrong color.  Robert Moseley is white.  This is another little dirty secret which I will let out of the bag...predominantly black school systems, like predominantly white school systems, are also racist in their approaches about who receives which appointments, if any.  Jobs in public schools are made based on racial considerations.  This is simply a given.  Tokens (be they black tokens or white tokens) are thrown in the mix to create some deniability, but nevertheless my assertion here is true.  Public school systems' decisions (eminating from the elected board members) invariably are race-based -- despite the hollow and empty protestations to the contrary.  This is unfortunate that promotions are not based on merit but on racism, cronyism, nepotism, sororityism, fraternityism, churchism, clubism, and, of course, who's-sleeping-with-whomism.  Sorry, Bob, but you are simply the wrong color in "Premier" DeKalb.  The citizens of DeKalb will just have to suffer under the clownism of Crawford Lewis.  Your colleagues did not want to face the music, and you were given this onerous task of facing the media about the egregious cheating.  You were a "stand-up" guy.  We at MACE have known about the serious allegations of systematic cheating in DeKalb for quite some time now.  We have written about it and filed grievances about it but, of course, the good senator's, Ron Ramsey's, office just shuts down a grievance which "Premier" DeKalb apparently does not want to hear for fear of more sordid exposure.  So, we have also picketed on several occasions about this systematic cheating.

    The DeKalb County School System is a corrupt school system.  Pure and simple.  A corrupt school system.  At MACE, we call DeKalb a "gangsta" school system.  I believe that the DeKalb County School System has possibly exceeded the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) in its corruption -- and this is saying something.  DeKalb County School System...possibly the most corrupt school system in Georgia.  DeKalb County will never improve under the un-leadership of Crawford Lewis, Frankie Callaway, Ronald Ramsey, Attorney Josie Alexander, and school board members like Sarah Coplin-Wood and Gene Walker.  The Clayton County School System looks clean as a whistle compared to the DeKalb County School System.   But, SAC's Mark Elgart is certainly not interested in taking on this educational cesspool.  After all, they did not fire his buddy, Dan Colwell, as superintendent.  But, if Ericka Davis would move to DeKalb and get elected to the school board there and find out that she couldn't get her way all the time and subsequently called Mark Elgart to help her out politically, then, yes, then Mark Elgart would leave his castle in Alpharetta and unleash his private company (SACS) against DeKalb, but he had better be concerned.  Those people in DeKalb County might not be as nice as those people in Clayton County.  Oh yes, Mark Elgart, have you ever heard of Hancock County, Georgia?  I don't think that the officials in Hancock County even think that they are located in Georgia and are subject to the Georgia laws.  Is it Hancock County, North Korea?  Are you afraid to go there also, Mr. Mark Elgart?  Crawford Lewis, Beverly Hall, Mark Elgart.  Perhaps the three biggest educational phonies in Georgia. © MACE, 2009, June 12, 2009.

MACE Is Vindicated On The Cheating!
   
By Dr. John Trotter
Sometimes I don't get the latest educational news until a day or two late.  So, I have to tune into some of educational blogs (some of which are linked at the bottom of  TheTeachersAdvocate.Com).   I saw on the AJC.Com’s educational blog that "Nemo Black" was talking about MACE being right on the cheating.  Yes, I am afraid that this little "discovery" at these four elementary schools is only the tip of a huge cheating iceberg.   Teachers are afraid for their jobs.  When a teacher was going to testify about systematic cheating in grading at DeKalb's Clarkston High School in a grievance hearing, State Senator Ronald Ramsey (who is in charge of grievance hearings in the DeKalb County School System) summarily shut down the grievance hearing.  I am quite confident that Mr. Ramsey is getting his marching orders from that Clown of a Superintendent in DeKalb, Crawford Lewis.  Crawford Lewis's administration is apparently afraid to hold grievance hearings as mandated by State Statute (OCGA 20-2-989.5 et seq.).  Therefore, MACE tends to call Mr. Crawford Lewis a "Candy Ass Superintendent."  I presume that DeKalb is afraid of the truth.  Dr. King stated:  "A lie can't live forever."    No, I don't think that the State of Georgia wants to launch a REAL investigation on the widespread and systematic cheating which in apparently taking place in the public schools of Georgia.  It would undoubtedly be embarrassing for the State to be ridiculed throughout the country.  MACE has indeed been the lonely wolf howling in the wilderness, but it was easier for the Georgia Educational Establishment to cast aspersions toward MACE, to kill the messenger (so to speak) than to hear the message.   Now, if the State and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution would also turn its attention to the abysmal non-existent discipline in so many of Georgia’s public schools, this would be refreshing.  I know that the task could be quite overwhelming, but until we finally just openly give up on any true schooling taking place in the urban settings, then we need quit pontificating about "school reform."  © MACE, 2009, June 11, 2009.

MACE:  Administrators Are Ruining Our Schools!

By Dr. John Trotter

    At MACE we have never ceased to be amazed at the abject dishonesty which permeates the "Public Educational-Industrial Complex," if President Eisenhower will forgive my b_stardizing of his "Military Industrial Complex" phrase.  (Come to think of it, that phrase might have been “Industrial Military Complex.”)  Education has the biggest budget in the State.  Too many well-paid educrats are living too high off the hog and off the fat of the lamb to jeopardize their standings.  Their philosophy is to raise the test scores "by any means necessary."  It is one big game, but the public is just beginning to see through this deceiving mirage.  I am afraid that before any genuine improvement can take place in our public schooling process in Georgia, the educational "house of cards" (first started by the Quality Basic Education Act in the mid-1980s) in Georgia will first have to completely collapse.  Kathy Cox and ones of her educational ilk can only dumb-down the tests so much.  Eventually the cheating administrators might even run out of erasers.  The schools need to be returned to men and women of integrity and compassion.  Now, most of the administrators in Georgia are mean-spirited rubes.  This is a nasty combination.  Let me speak this next sentence with candor and with a clarion voice, a voice not left for any misunderstanding.  At MACE, we truly believe that administrators are ruining our public schools in Georgia.  It's not the teachers; it's the administrators.  Metaphorically speaking, most of the administrators need to be taken out back and horse-whipped.  They are not worth a plugged nickel.  Saint Paul once wrote to the Galatians:  "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?"  No wonder the administrators don't like me or MACE.  My feelings are not hurt one bit.  My dog Graci adores me.   © MACE, 2009, June 9, 2009.

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Free Lunch Count Can Predict Standardized Test Scores!

 

By Dr. John Trotter

 

   Here's the dirty little secret that most educrats and politicians will never touch:  Standardized test scores almost invariably correlate one-to-one with socio-economic scores.   The legendary Carvin L. Brown, while serving as a professor for years at UGA, conducted studies on the correlation of test scores to free lunch counts at various schools.  If a school has a high free lunch count among its student population, this count is very predictive of the student population’s collective standardized test scores.  If the Walton High School teachers began teaching at Crim High School, and the Crim teachers began teaching at Walton, the scores would stay essentially the same.  The only substantial difference?  The new Crim teachers would think that they had died and had been sent to hell, and the new Walton teacher would think that they had been sent somewhere at least in Purgatorial realm and not pure hell.  The Law of the Large Numbers is just that...a "law" -- a principal of action which holds true, even so much that polls of four hundred representative voters nationwide can eerily predict national elections.  There are always, of course, exceptions to the rule.  Students from stable, two-parent homes with the parents being very well-educated themselves have students who score significantly higher on standardized tests than students who hail from single-parent homes surrounded by a drug-infested and crime-ridden neighborhood.  If children do not perceive that they come from a reading culture where books are plentiful in the home, then these children are not going to place a high value on reading.  If a child brings to school little or no motivation to learn to read (and very little readiness skills), then the reality of this child becoming an effective reader is very slim despite the very effective teaching which may take place in the classroom.  The key to learning is the motivation to learn.  We have heard the metaphor that "you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make the horse drink it" is ever so true in the schooling process.  The educrats and the politicians do not want to accept this.  This is, however, a reality just like the Law of Gravity is a reality.  Wishing a phenomenon not to exist cannot make the phenomenon go away.

    I will quote my eccentric and brilliant professor from UGA from years ago, Dr. Eugene Boyce, on this subject:  "The motivation to learn is a social phenomenon."  Schools have to be examined sociologically and structured in such a fashion that recognizes this reality.  Until the dimwit educrats and policymakers do so, trying to put bandaids on the abject failure of our schools (urban schools in particular) is like spittin' against a tsunami.  The anti-academic and academically debilitating culture has to be mitigated and not allowed into the school’s culture.  The school should be learning institution, not social experience.  Playing cops and robbers with students is unconscionable.  The misreant students should simply be removed from the regular school setting.  (There are many ways to accomplish this, but I don't have the time to go into details now.)  You cannot allow the non-academically motivated students who are really hell-bent on materially and substantially disrupting the learning processes of the students who want to learn to engage in this infantile conduct with impunity.  The other students will quickly get the message and fall in line with the academic mission of the schools.  Today's school boards and superintendents simply do not have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing or they are simply dumbas_ses.  In either scenario, they should be metaphorically horse-whipped.  They are contributing to the delinquency of the students which will probably lead to a life of crime and anguish for not only these "students" themselves but for innocents who come in contact with them.  School boards like the City of Atlanta and DeKalb County and superintendents like Beverly Hall and Crawford Lewis are contributors to the problem, not the saviors. (c)  MACE, 2009, June 9, 2009.

 Treating Teachers Like Sh_t!
   It will be up to the teachers to say finally and collectively, "We're not going to take this sh_t any longer!"  The politicians are clueless and gutless.  They will not help the downtrodden and beleaguered teachers.  The teachers will simply have to stand up.  Treating teachers like sh_t violates all theories of effective human interaction, be it Lewin's, Maslow's, or Rogers's.  You simply cannot scare the h_ll out of a teacher, stress out the teacher concerning job security, expect the teacher to take constant sh_t from the students and their crazy-a_s parents, demand that the teacher turn in reams of inane and useless "lesson plans," and expect the teacher to be effective in the classroom.  No one could be effective under these circumstances -- not Albert Einstein, Mother Theresa, nor the almighty Harry Wong!  Treating Teachers Like Sh_t Doesn't Increase Student Achievement.  Have I used the word "sh_t" enough?  What is worse -- saying the word or treating fellow human beings like [sh]it? (c) MACE, June 5, 2009.

Superintendents Bonuses Tied To Testing! The Tests Become The Curricula!

Why Do Teachers Leave The Teaching Profession? A Lack Of Respect From Students, Parents, & Administrators!

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Dr. John Trotter, MACE Chairman.

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Jeff Cox, Membership Director.

   

"Crawford Lewis must think that he is dealing with GAE or PAGE. Unlike these other organizations, MACE doesn't leave teachers hanging. Our Motto: No Teacher Left Behind!"-- Dr. John Trotter

Click Here To Start Reading The First Few Phases Of The Treatise.

MACE Pickets At DeKalb's

Bethune Middle!

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The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same

Read Article by Norreese Haynes in The Lion's Den

MACE's Mix & Mingle

A Great Success!

One Thousand Dollars Given Away!

Click Here For More Photos

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Clayton teacher wins $500.00!

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Dr. Jose Helena won $300.00!

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The atmosphere was festive!

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"The Board" meets after the "Mix & Mingle."

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Crawford Lewis: 

DeKalb County's

Superintendent Clown!

This Joke-of-a-Superintendent Must Go!

     I have not had time to read this so-called "independent report."  (None of this of type of reports is truly "independent" no more than the "hearings" before the school boards are "independent" -- the superintendent is trying to fire a teacher and "the judge and jury" team is the very school board which hired the superintendent.)  This "conclusion" does not surprise me ONE BIT.  I think that the DeKalb School System under the UNleadership of their clown for a superintendent, Crawford Lewis, will never improve.  DeKalb Discipline will continue to be an oxymoron.  The administrators will continue to sweep disciplinary problems under the proverbial rug and throw them back into the teachers' faces.  Teachers Beware:  When you try to teach in DeKalb County, you have to "deal with" certain thugs and bullies in the classroom (who not only "bully" other students but will "bully" you on a regular basis).  You will very, very seldom receive any support by the administration for this malaise of discipline.  Oh, by the way, you will be expected to not count off of the student's grade if you catch him or her red-handed cheating on an exam, etc.  Don't worry.  Just give the students' their grades (without any rigor or expectation that the students have to perform a any genuine standard), and you will be liked by the administrators.  That's why DeKalb has so many students who "make good grades" in their classes but cannot pass the end of the year standardized exams.  And, about 60% of these students who have been coddled and passed along under the "Premier" administration of Crawford (The Superintendent Clown) Lewis will have to take remedial classes when they reach the Georgia public colleges.  Hey, I have an idea, why don't The Superintendent Clown and I engage in formal debates with formal propositions with a live audience (and even televised) about whether bullying occurs on a fairly regular basis in "Premier" DeKalb?  That would be fun.  I issue this invitation to Crawford Lewis.  Do you think that he will accept the challenge?   "He's scared.  He's scared.  He's scared to shoot dat ball!" (c)MACE,2009.

The False God of Standardized Testing!

We Need An Elijah To Bring Down This Educational Idolatry!

The "GAP" Team Leading Clayton School Board Further Down The Road of Destruction? 

Bringing In New Supe from "Hotel California"

State-run Voucher Schools 

Educrats Still Looking For Faddish Panaceas.

"Crawford Lewis must think that he is dealing with GAE or PAGE. Unlike these other organizations, MACE doesn't leave teachers hanging. Our Motto: No Teacher Left Behind!"-- Dr. John Trotter

Hey, Crawford Lewis, Do Something About Flat Rock Elementary School.

Principal Shelton Wright Must Go!
 

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Dekalb's Superintendent Crawford Lewis Afraid to Process Grievances?

"Candy Ass" Picket Three Days in A Row!

Channel 11 Comes to the Picket

Click Here To Read Article on 11Alive.com!

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Ah...Surely not "Premier" DeKalb!

Superintendent "Candy Ass" Crawford Lewis Must Go!

Characteristics of an Effective Principal.

by Daniel D. Trotter, Sr.

 

       Editor’s Note:  This article originally appeared in The Teacher’s Advocate! magazine.  The author is the father of Dr. John Trotter, and he serves on the MACE Board of Directors.  Mr. Trotter is a retired Georgia school principal.

 

The following is a list of characteristics that I would suggest to any principal who cares to be respected and admired by both students and teachers:

 

       1. Always be completely open to teachers.  Be willing to discuss any policy that you have and give the background as to why you instilled the policy.

                2.  It is important that you always speak pleasantly to your teachers and never put them down in the presence of others.  All constructive criticism should be done in private.  Never raise your voice when you have a need to correct a teacher.  Never strip your teachers of their dignity.

                3.  Be generous with praise and cautious with criticism.  Be quick to give credit to others when it is due to them.  Make it a policy to commend your teachers often.  Look for reasons to commend them and you will see that they will work harder for you.

                 4. Always tell the truth – even when it hurts.  No one respects a person whom they can’t depend on to tell the truth.  As the saying goes, “Tell it like it is.”

                5.  Be easily approachable.  Encourage teachers to ask you for help, if needed.

                6.  Be seen!  A principal should be in the school halls when students are in the halls.  You should be in and out of the cafeteria during lunch.  You should go into the classrooms often, if only for a few minutes.  You should be visible in order to be a leader.

                7.  Make discipline your number one concern.  Without discipline, little teaching or learning can take place.  You are the key to any school’s discipline.  You must have a firm policy and be sure that both teachers and students fully understand it.  Be willing to take a stand and then stand.

                8.  Never accept an accusation against a teacher until you first speak with that teacher.  Be a friend to your teachers and support them as much as possible.  When they make mistakes, let them down easily.

                9.  Be open to teachers’ suggestions and, if you disagree, be pleasant in your discussion.  You have no need to be threatened, if you are open and honest.

            10.  The last characteristic is a summary of the other nine.  When you deal with teachers, remember two things:  Tell the truth and treat others like you would want to be treated.

What Teachers Say About MACE!

Testimonials About MACE!

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Glad Obiago

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Derra Smith (L)

   

MACE’s Eleven Simple Statements (MESS) 

By Dr. John Trotter and Norreese Haynes

 

   We often see such ludicrous actions or lack of actions taken by public school systems that we are dumbfounded at the school systems lack of ability to subscribe to simple precepts.  When a school system simply refuses to acknowledge simple realities relative to the public schooling processes, the results are disastrous.  From our combined experiences as a teacher, administrator, and/or representative of teachers over the years, we have compiled some simple realities that most superintendents, school boards, policy-makers, and politicians ignore when dealing with the public schooling processes.  Below are eleven simple statements which, in our opinion, are irrefutable and intractable.  To ignore these simple statements will imperil any school system.

 
  1. All children can learn but not all children want to learn but rather some children even refuse to learn.
  2. Unmotivated and disengaged students often disrupt the learning environments of those students who want to learn.
  3. You cannot have orderly learning taking place in the classroom without order first being established in the classroom, and the chronically-misbehaving and disorderly students must be removed from the regular classroom.
  4. You cannot have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions.
  5. Creative teaching is effective teaching, and states and school systems need to free up teachers to be more creative and therefore more effective.
  6. A smothered, suffocating, beat-down, and beleaguered teacher is an ineffective teacher.
  7. A top-down, heavy-handed approach to teacher supervision kills a teacher’s spirit and creativity and works counter to effective teaching and student learning.
  8. A teacher can only teach the student, not learn the student, just like a physician can only treat the patient, not heal the patient, and a lawyer can only defend the accused, not acquit the accused.
  9. Ultimately, the student is responsible for appropriately engaging or not engaging in the learning processes, and the onus for learning must be put on the student, not the teacher.
  10. If the student refuses to appropriately engage in the learning processes and therefore refuses to learn, there is nothing that the teacher can do to make the student learn, and the teacher should not be held responsible for the student’s refusal to learn.
  11. The artificial and manipulative inflating of standardized test scores is no true indication that students are learning but that a superintendent is trying to financially bolster his or her professional resume at the students’expense.
  

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Trotter: Doesn't Suffer Administrative Fools.

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Haynes: An Able Right Hand Man.

   

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Making'em an offer they can't refuse...

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...and if they refuse the offer...

Monster Picket at Atlanta's Mays High: "Tyronne Smith Must Go!"

 

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Tyronne Smith Must Go!

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Blue feelings at Mays High.

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Buses galore on Benjamin Mays Drive.

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"Hey Berverly Hall, do something about Mays High!"

News, Notes, Quips, & Quotes

View MACE'S Latest Newsletter!

Jeff Cox...A Man of Patience & Integrity.

MACE Is Not For Everyone!

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Tom (Thug) Berry

MACE Successfully Intervenes For Columbus Teacher!

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MACE's Attorney Anderson Ramay Scores Legal Victories For Members!

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Meeting with a few MACE members at Douglas County High School.

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Keith Murwin was MACE's first member in Douglas County in 1996.

Are Our Educrats Nuts or What?

Are Our Educrats Nuts or What?

MACE Mission.
Since 1995

MACE has a teacher's agenda, a focused mission, and a clear vision. MACE is about the empowerment and protection of classroom educators. MACE is forthright in its goals -- teachers securing control of their profession and teachers being treated as professionals (and not being micro-managed like "day laborers"). MACE is tired of seeing teachers treated like tall children. MACE is tired of teachers being mistreated. MACE is unapologetic in its mission. MACE will not vacillate, will not equivocate, and will not back off a single inch from its mission -- liberating teachers so that teachers can do what teachers were called to do, viz., teach the children.

If you are tired of the I gotcha approach to supervision; if you are tired of being snoopervised by petty and myopic administrators who seem to enjoy any contrived opportunity to "write you up"; if you are tired of having your teaching micro-managed and having your professional knowledge, wisdom, and judgment ignored; if you are tired of being treated like a "day laborer" and dealt with in a heavy-handed fashion; if you are tired of having little or no input into your teaching environment; if you are tired of having to put up with an inept top-down management style that's been proven to be ineffective in business, industry, and education; and, if you are just plain tired of all this mess, then join the Metro Association of Classroom Educators (MACE).

 

MACE Membership.
Only for Teachers

 

MACE started in the Fall of 1995, and within its first week of soliciting members, it had already enrolled two former presidents of GAE locals (Fulton and Cobb), a former president of the Atlanta Federation of Teachers (AFT), and other leaders of other educational organizations. These teachers joined MACE because they knew that MACE was totally committed to the protection and empowerment of classroom educators. The message of MACE resonates with Georgia’s teachers. The good news of MACE continues to spread throughout Georgia, and MACE now represents teachers in over forty school systems in Georgia.

 

MACE does not allow administrators to join. Why should MACE? Administrators have their own organizations (like GAEL, GSSA, GAESP, etc.); however, administrators continue to flood the membership ranks of GAE and PAGE. This is one of the main reasons that GAE and PAGE cannot speak forthrightly for classroom educators. Sometimes, to advocate for teachers, you have to be critical of the misconduct of administrators. Sometimes, you even have to call names. But what happens at GAE and PAGE when there is a conflict between a teacher and a principal and both are members of the same organization?  You know! It’s a classic case of conflict-of-interest. Furthermore, the assistant superintendent and/or the superintendent may also be a member of that organization. What will GAE or PAGE do? Nothing, probably. And, that’s what often happens – nothing. The teacher’s interests do not get served. Frustration and a sense of impotence set in. Not so at MACE! MACE knows that the administrator is not a member of MACE. MACE knows that there’s no conflict. MACE knows whom we serve and for whom MACE advocates; therefore, keep spreading the good news that there is a union for teachers, a union which does not apologize in advocating for teachers. Keep encouraging other teachers to join the growing union that packs a powerful punch. When you say “MACE,” administrators listen.

 

MACE Protects Teachers,
One Member at a Time!

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Dr. Trotter driving home a point before the Atlanta Board of Education.

Raising Heck
on Behalf
of
Classroom
Educators!

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Dr. Trotter finds MACE Lion in Brazil.

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Georgia Teachers Speak Out!     

"I teach special ed in a small system in South Georgia. A student pulled out his thing and pissed all over my desk. I wrote him up and sent the incident report to the office, and the principal wrote me back and said she needed more details. She also asked if I had contacted the parents first and if I had looked at his IEP to see if that pissing on my desk was part of his handicapping condition. Is this insane or what? Like MACE says, it’s a motivational breakdown, not a mental or technical breakdown. Any person knows that it is not O. K. to piss on the teacher’s desk, although I remember when I was in junior high and some of my friends pissed in the referee’s car after he tried to steal the football game from us." - Nemo

Visit the Georgia Teaches Speak Out! Blog Here

Visit the Georgia Chatboard at Teachers.Net Here

Visit the AJC Get Schooled Blog Here

Visit The Georgia Citizen Blog Here

Visit the AJC Political Insider Blog Here

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