Monday August 12, 2024
– First Quarter Moon Phase – step out, take action, breaking away, expression
– Retrogrades in 2024 –
- Pluto – May 2 – October 12
- Saturn – June 30 – November 15
- Neptune – July 2 – December 7
- Chiron – July 26 – December 29
- Mercury – August 5 – August 28
– Moon in LIBRA – Void of Course 5:45 PM – 8/10 6:34 PM Moving to Scorpio – A Long Void People!
– Persiad Meteor Shower 8/11 – 8/12
– Best Days (from the Farmer’s Almanac) –
Aug – 12th – Hatch Eggs, Mow to Increase Growth, Dig Holes, Cut Firewood, Wax Floors, Cut Hair to Increase Growth
– Planting Calendar (from the Farmer’s Almanac) – August 10th – 12th Plant seedbeds. Plant peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and other aboveground crops in southern Florida, California, and Texas. Extra good for leafy vegetables.
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Year: – 20 ARIES: a young girl feeding birds in winter
– Aspect of the Aeon Sophia: (Wisdom): – Kali – The Destroyer
– Aspect of the Aeon Thelete: (Will/Desire): Kathe, God of the South – Waves and Music
– Sabian Symbol for the Solar-Lunar Month – New Moon in LEO SUN/MOON – 13 LEO: an old sea captain rocking on the porch of his cottage (EARTH – 13 AQUARIUS: a barometer)
SUN – 21 LEO: intoxicated chickens dizzily flap their wings trying to fly
EARTH – 21 AQUARIUS: a woman, disappointed and disillusioned, courageously facing a seemingly empty life
Happy Monday! Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you.
STEELS-ing the Show
On the theme of keeping your eyes open, I came across an email from my kids’ school. The new superintendent no less. She wanted all us parents to know about what will be NEW in this school year.
This year, we remain committed to providing a safe, supportive, and enriching environment where every student can thrive. Whether your child is returning or starting their journey with us, we are dedicated to ensuring they have the best possible experience.
And after the Big Brotheresque boilerplate welcome, the meat of the matter hit us. In addition to a new communications platform, and added Mental Health Support, there is some new curriculum for our budding geniuses. An entire new Science system!!!!!!
Parents, hold on to your ankles and get the vasoline out. Because this one steps up to the plate where Common Core left off.
New Science Curricular Materials: We are introducing new K-8 science materials aligned with the STEELS (Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental Literacy, and Sustainability) Standards. These will help students connect with real-world scientific phenomena and develop problem-solving skills.
Now before I go into my thoughts on STEELS, I would like to add a little background.
Common Core was introduced in 2010. This “NEW” way of educating was created due to the “seriously eroding test scores” in the United States especially in comparison with other countries around the world (China). So educational experts studied these other systems (in China) to see what they were doing “right” so that we could copy it.
The Result was a system that would improve the average education across the country to be more competitive.
Hmmmm. Who really is looking for average in a country where we aim for the best???? And what would they do about the upper end of the Bell Curve?
Their answer was to write into practice the push for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) standards. Obama actually pushed it with his Educate to Innovate initiative in 2009 (right before the Common Core Garbage Barge was launched).
STEM was a keyword among educator types since about 2001, and part of George Bush’s OBE Outcome Based Education. This was an initiative that the teachers unions HATED because it penalized teachers and schools who were not getting the job done. Common Core and Educate to Innovate were the Democrat’s response to OBE after they took complete control of the government in 2009.
Back to Our Overacheiving School in PA
The district we live in was dubbed a Blue Ribbon School and was Nationally ranked in the top 50 odd public schools in the nation (top 3 or so in Pennsylvania). In order to maintain their status, they HAD to adopt Common Core. All the new testing would be based off the new standard. If we did not change, out test scores would drop.
So . . . our tax dollars bought all new text books, our teachers had to endure rigorous training and us parents scratched our heads wondering when we actually agreed to it.
You see, in order to adopt Common Core, all the text book companies had been rewriting the curricula for about 6 years and were ready with books on the shelf for every district across the country to evaluate and buy into. And since there were only about 3 textbook companies out there, the choice was Bad, Worse and Simply Awful).
But there was a further turd in the punchbowl. A whole lot of them in fact. Because all of them were written by the Marxists in the Department of Education. What a great chance to begin changing history. To add critical race theory (The social justice story) and critical climate theory (Bill Nye the Science Guy and An Inconvenient Truth) into every child’s daily life. Change the standard books on the reading list to those more in line with their way of thinking (Substitute Silent Spring for 1984). All of it was strewn throughout the curriculum.
Science and Math at the upper levels could not be taught via Common Core at first. It took a few years to lower the standards. But they caught up.
Our school made a little amendment to the whole STEM thing. They called it STEAM with the A being Arts to promote its very popular music program and because they had all seen Mr. Holland’s Opus one too many times.
Now What are they STEELSing?
The STEELS (Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental Literacy, and Sustainability) Standards, in my estimation, were the goal of Common Core in the STEM/Common Core Universe. They have taken Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Geology (not to mention all the upper level math – Calculus, Statistics, etc.) and rolled it into Environmental Science.
Instead of a turd in the punchbowl, we have a pile of steaming turds.
I saw this letter from the Superintendent and about fell off my chair. I asked my daughter who had matriculated from that cesspool, what she thought of it. Her comment was, “I took AP Environmental Science in high school. This sounds good.” I stopped talking at that point.
For all of you with kids in the school system, realize that you are up against a Wall of VooDoo (or is that Doo Doo?). Ask yourself what you can do to fight it off? Is there ANY way to protect your kids short of homeschooling?
This is why we pay attention. Otherwise, the Wall of VooDoo will be up and you have no chance to scale it in time to save yourself.
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