>New posters or readers here should keep in mind that there is a small but dedicated cadre of reform math supporters from places far from Ridgewood who take pleasure in masquerading as ‘stakeholders’ in local debates.
True ‘gadflies’, motivated by politics above all else, they are more than willing to interrupt conversations between local debate participants with stink-bomb posts designed to elicit an emotional reaction from you, for which you are then criticized as having somehow demonstrated hypocrisy (read: “check mate”).
I for one find this behavior pathetic. But to each his own. Looking on the bright side, if this is the sum total of all the support the Reform Math movement can muster on a Ridgewood-centric website, it’s probably a good thing. It tends to show that truly local supporters of that curriculum have exhausted their store of potentially persuasive arguments in support of their position, and are now running on fumes, hoping and praying that the tincture of time will relieve them of their current troubles.
>I grew up in Paramus and dated a girl in Midland Park so I am more than qualified to discuss Ridgewood politics even though I live half way across the country. You cannot intimidate me!
>Hey 12:32 … If you grew up in Paramus and dated a girl in Midland Park, why would find Ridgewood politics of any interest?
>with all due respect….if you don’t live here now…..I don’t care to hear what you have to say…..
>How does growing up in Paramus and dating a Midland Park girl qualify you for discussion of Ridgewood politics?
>Just to throw some facts in here about our district…we have spent less than the state average on General Supplies/Textbooks.
From the NJ Report Card…
2005-2006 COST PER PUPIL on in our District Budget was General Supplies/Textbooks was $200.
The State Average number for the same year was $283.
For 2004-2006 PER PUPIL on in our District Actual was General Supplies/Textbooks was $184.
The State Average number for the same year was $290.
For 2003-2004 PER PUPIL on in our District Actual was General Supplies/Textbooks was $145.
The State Average number for the same year was $271.
Does anyone think Ridgewood District is not spending a fair amount of our 82 million dollar budget on textbooks for the kids?
>2:10 – I don’t think Ridgewood is spending much on the kids at all. I haven’t seen a new textbook in years. Parents have to buy all the supplies for the kids, teachers (red pens, white board markers, post-it notes, etc) and classrooms (tissues, disinfecting wipes). We have “Book Gifting” to the school library, buy grocery certificates to pay for field trips, etc. We rent instruments for the kids to play, participate in HSA fundraiser after fundraiser after fundraiser. Parents raising funds for playground equipment and school computers. Where does it end?
It seems to me that there is a lot of “fat” in the budget but it’s certainly not going to the kids.
>It cost us a small fortune having our children attend Ridgewood schools. Like 2:42 we were fundraised to death. We literally spent thousands of dollars giving to the schools. It sickens us to see how the boe wastes money. Glad our kids all graduated out.
>Travell has no textbooks, NOT ONE. None for any academic domain at any grade level. Can we get a tax credit for those dollars allotted for general supplies/textbooks?
>If the Boe respected parents, they would spend our money wisely. They don’t even care enough about instruction to provide textbooks to our elementary school kids.
How much are they saving by cutting textbooks? And why do they want to keep that money for something else.
Maybe the HSA should decide to STOP all fundraising until our kids get textbooks.
>To mike paul gold – what a loser you are!You dated a girl from midland park and so now you can weigh in from across the country on reform math? You must have absolutely no life and no friends – your input has no relevance here whatsoever. Go find a life and a cause in your own neighborhood.
>State averages also include Abbott Districts. Don’t let the self-congratulatory back-patting fool you. Brennan seems to have sharpened his pencil with this blog and responses to it.
>Star Trek had “trekkies”. TERC/CMP has “tercies” That’s Captain Goldman to you! “Beam me up, Regina!”.
>It seems to me that field trips, instruments, new playground equipment, and new computers ARE for the kids. Don’t give if you don’t want to. Many of us are happy to help provide extras for the kids.
>7:20 PM,
Glad to know you are so happy to provide the “extras” for our children ‘s schools.
However, by doing so you are encouraging bad management by the BOE and its administrators.
If you fed your children cookies all day as extra food, do you then think they would eat a proper and balanced dinner?
No, they would grow fat and lazy with the risk of serious health problems.
Your subsidizing the schools so gladly encourages bad behavior from our public officials.
Hope you are “happy” in the knowledge that your actions have serious negative consequences.
Keep smiling, no need to think too hard about what you do as long as it makes you feel good.
>OK, this nonsense about “fat” in the budget has forced me to write. You obviously have not ever actually LOOKED at the budget line by line. We can’t afford those “extras” because of teacher salaries and benefits, because of special ed (not saying it’s unnecessary, just expensive), and because of expenses mandated by the state (yet not funded). I’m not defending their bizarre curriculum choices, but seriously, just look at the budget. I challenge you to find a significant amount of “fat” that could be cut. It’s just so easy for uninformed bloggers to ramble on about “cutting the fat.” Could you be more specific, perhaps, oh wise ones?
>11:24PM
Is the RPS budget online somewhere?
I mean the detailed budget not the one that goes out in the Newsletter when the RPS want the budget passed.
If you can find that public document and provide it to us that would be great. I’d like to see the Budget and Actual expenses also.
>11:24 – I’ve spent an extensive amount of time with the detailed budget and I firmly believe there is a great deal of fat. Yes, I’m including excessive health benefits in my assessment. Does your employer pay %100 of your healthcare coverage for you AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY???? What about the ridiculous teacher training that some of these dolts take?
7:20 – you think that computers should be donated to the school by parents??? Didn’t your elementary school have playground equipment paid for by the District?? And, my parents never reached into their pockets for field trips or “Class dues” until we were in H.S. and the field trips were truly “trips”. Do you have children in school?
>O.K., I’ll be specific 11:24. There is a huge problem when the boe hires a highly paid superintendent who then has to hire highly paid consultants to help him do his job and to help our school administrators do their jobs. Hire people who know how to do their jobs in the first place.
>9:19…agreed….nobody gets 100% of their healthcare paid for…including families….even the UAW in it’s recent contract have given in to this…it is crazy….paying 100% gives no incentive for working spouses of teachers to use their own health coverage offered by their employers. I have a good plan at work…and I am asked to pay 15% of the cost for myself….and 50% for my family coverage…pretty typical in the real world. and I think it is fair. Every employer looks at themselves relative to their competition…do all districts pay 100% of coverage for their employees and their families?
Would be interesting to find out…
The other perk that is excessive is the fact that teachers are allowed to bring their kids to school here in Ridgewood for free…how many kids is that…can anyone answer this question?
>If our schools are bursting at the seams, then the first thing our boe should do is stop the practice of allowing the children of teachers who live outside of Ridgewood to attend our schools. Grandfather in all the teachers’ kids who are now in the system and then just say “NO” to future hires.
>I’ve been asking the question about the teacher’s kids for a while. Most recently, last week, on this blog when PJ posted tuition rates. Does ANYBODY know how much this cost taxpayers? It seems with decent salaries and excellent benefits, teachers could afford to pay some tuition. I know many live in towns with excellent/good school districts (Wyckoff, Oakland, Franklin Lakes) and still enroll their kids in Ridgewood.
>Let us see a detailed line itemed budget please.
And why all the administrative fat? We are too top heavy in administrators. Look at the recent addition of a crisis counselor, a math consultant to pacify parents, a PR guru etc… the list is long.
As for mandates, has any one ever read them form the state and feds. They are not silly but practical and should be followed. The reason they are mandated is because some BOEs would not do them for except when made to do so.
Know what you are talking about before spouting the party line about unfunded mandates.
>Unfunded mandates amount to “educate the kids.”
The stupid non academic stuff is put onto the schools by ideological educators.
At RHS we have Helen Aslinades listed as someone for “Affirmative Action.”
I mean, please go away with that crap. Ridgewood does not need the evil of affirmative action. No one needs this garbage. Why is it in the schools? Why is culturalalladay in the schools? why is this nonesense in our schools?
>PJBlogger,
You might be interested to know that Michael Paul Goldberger, who says “You cannot intimidate me!” above, has just posted a most intimidating, personal attack on Barry Garelick, a non-educator who had the audacity to explore the arguments between math traditionalists and reformers. It’s ironic, I think.
Here’s the link to Barry’s article (it’s the first in a 3-part series) in EdNews.org:
https://ednews.org/articles/19316/1/It-Works-for-Me–An-Exploration-of-Traditional-Math-Part-1/Page1.html
And here’s Goldenberg’s angry, personal response:
https://rationalmathed.blogspot.com/2007/11/games-ideologues-play.html
I’m not a right-wing ideologue or a math professor…. I’m just a parent trying to figure out what’s best for my kids. I know that mean-spirited diatribes aren’t going to help me find the answers.
Thanks. Take care.
>MPG is a nasty kook…ignore him.
>Original poster here.
Half-a-country-away MPG is precisely the individual this post was designed to tease out.
The shoe fit so well, he couldn’t help but wear it. Spending nearly every waking hour scanning cyberspace for reform math critics with the guts to speak up against this abomination, he found my comment almost instantly, and just had to pipe up.
I find his retort particularly amusing, for multiple reasons. First, his comment clearly demonstrates that he has no personal interest in the outcome of this debate. Second, he appears to think that by being so refreshingly forthright, he gains intellectual ‘brownie points’. And third, his use of the word ‘intimidate’ reveals his juvenile approach to engaging other adults on the important issues of the day.
Hats off to you, MPG, for so willingly demonstrating both the truth and the salience of the main point of my post. I must say I owe you one.
>Thanks, 2:57, for providing the links to Mr. Garelic’s article and Mr. Goldberg’s response. Still more timely evidence of the main point of this post.
It helps to know that many others in this country are faithfully struggling against the proselytizing reform math proponents, including enduring all the slings and arrows that come their way for having the temerity to measure the true extent of the Emporer’s wardrobe.
>MPG and Ahmadinejad, perfect together. Clearly he wants to wipe anti-reformists off the map.
Charlie Reilly of the flog is one of his supporters in Ridgewood. hmmmmm?
>”Why is cultural alladay in the schools?” You’re kidding, right? Where are we, backwards Appalachia? Maybe you could put down your banjo and take a few steps off your rotting porch to see that there is a world of other cultures out there beyond them hills — and our children’s futures (and the world’s future) will benefit from them being exposed to it.
And I can tell you from personal experience that the crisis counselors that we have in our district are NECESSARY and VALUABLE. There are Ridgewood kids cutting themselves, starving themselves, middle school kids in rehab, kids running away from home…you might wish these problems could be “dealt with” at home, but we are all in this together, my backwoods friend, and caring for our children’s mental health would be a bargain at twice the price!
>FYI – Ridgewood teachers who choose to have their own children attend Ridgewood schools do have to pay a tuition and cover the costs for textbooks and supplies.
>5:12 – Are you sure? A while back I saw a sliding % scale depending upon your position in the District. Teachers paid 0% while janitorial staff paid 50% or something like that. Again, this was a while back. It strikes me as odd that a teacher living in Oakland, Paramus, Franklin Lakes or Wyckoff would pay $12,000 just to bring their kids to Ridgewood. One teacher I know who lives in a nice nearby town has 3 kids enrolled — $36,000. Seems a bit steep to make any sense.
>5:31 – that’s nice…let’s make the lowest paid employees pay 50% or whatever you remember while those who make more money pay nothing. What a deal!I’ve never seen the sliding scale you’re remembering but it wouldn’t surprise me. As far back as I can remember (30 years I’ve been here)teachers never paid for anything to have their kids go to school in Ridgewood.
>As a Ridgewood teacher from out of district, with my children enrolled here, I can assure you that YES I pay for them to attend. Of course it’s not $12,000 per child. Who in their right mind would pay that when you could just instead purchase a home here and pay that in porperty taxes? So 10:51, please be assured that we do pay for our out of district children to attend and don’t make the small group of us at fault for why the budget has gone the way it has.
>Ridgewood teachers who live outside of Ridgewood and have their children in the Ridgewood schools DEFINATELY pay tuition. Most teachers with children who live outside the district do not send their children to Ridgewood schools and those who due are the minority.
>6:44 – it’s 5:31 here. I was attempting to point out the absurdity of it. Teachers pay nothing while janitors get slammed with a tuition bill. I thought the same thing when I saw it — how unfair that those who make the most pay the least. In my company, those at the top contribute more to their medical benefits, disability benefits than lower paid employees. It’s a good system.
>Isn’t Mike Paul Gold [geesh … he sounds like a 12-year-old actor using 3 names] that guy who teaches at the University of Michigan satellite campus in Flint, Michigan? Flint — an urban area with lots of problems. He should immerse himself in Flint politics instead of pretending he is qualified to discuss Ridgewood politices because he grew up in Paramus and dated a Midland Park girl. L-O-S-E-R
>Leave the teachers alone.
They would put their kids in this school system when they know that it is heading downhill so their kids are close by after work. They probably would like to see a better school system also.
>4:11 PM culturalalladay is a sop to political correctness. It tries to impress on impressionable children the dangerous untruth that “all cultures are equal.” They are not. The culture of freedom that is at the heart of Western society is not equal to the culture of slavery that imbues many Middle Eastern & Arab cultures and others on the African continent. The culture of mashismo causes the death of many women in Latin American countries and many cultures are downright nasty to children, especially girls. So take your anti-intellectual culturallady and stuff it. Keep it away from my children.
>Why “leave the teachers alone?” Why are they off limits when everyone else is on limits? It’s a fair question about tuition.
Would any of the teachers posting here be kind enough to provide us with the tuition amount you actually are asked to pay? It will better inform this discussion.
Thank you.
>Look, 10:48, you small-minded, xenophobic, probably racist, too… Cultural Alladay does not place values on different cultures…you are misinformed. Cultural Alladay was proposed by STUDENTS in 1992 to honor the diversity of cultures on this earth. It helps kids learn about their own heritage and culture while learning from and respecting the heritages and cultures of others. You may not agree with all aspects of a “foreign” culture, but the mindset that allows you to thereby write off complete cultures is what leads to conflicts and wars. Honestly, if other cultures use your standards — and only judge us by the way we treat women (non-equal pay, skimpy maternity leave, etc.) or by our problems with handguns or drugs, or the lack of healthcare for the poor — would you blame them for writing us off? The “culture of freedom”? HAAAAAA you gotta be kidding. Cultural Alladay celebrates the ARTS of different cultures and the use of art to encourage peace and understanding. Your immature, selfish injection of politics into something simple and peaceful is gross.
>Look, 10:48, you small-minded, xenophobic, probably racist, too… Cultural Alladay does not place values on different cultures…you are misinformed. Cultural Alladay was proposed by STUDENTS in 1992 to honor the diversity of cultures on this earth. It helps kids learn about their own heritage and culture while learning from and respecting the heritages and cultures of others. You may not agree with all aspects of a “foreign” culture, but the mindset that allows you to thereby write off complete cultures is what leads to conflicts and wars. Honestly, if other cultures use your standards — and only judge us by the way we treat women (non-equal pay, skimpy maternity leave, etc.) or by our problems with handguns or drugs, or the lack of healthcare for the poor — would you blame them for writing us off? The “culture of freedom”? HAAAAAA you gotta be kidding. Cultural Alladay celebrates the ARTS of different cultures and the use of art to encourage peace and understanding. Your immature, selfish injection of politics into something simple and peaceful is gross.
perhaps you should visit Iran women are property ,guns are illegal and there is no health care
>Look, 10:48, you small-minded, xenophobic, probably racist, too… Cultural Alladay does not place values on different cultures…you are misinformed. Cultural Alladay …snore your response proves the posters point to the tee
>123 you have proved your self a bigoted fool america hater and this is what this day is all about…hate america day thanks for clearing that up
>Pj it is so funny these people show their true colors heheheheheheheeheeheheeh..
how about down with america day ? instead of hate america day …
more current dont you think?
>if other cultures use your standards — and only judge us by the way we treat women (non-equal pay, skimpy maternity leave, etc.) or by our problems with handguns or drugs, or the lack of healthcare for the poor — would you blame them for writing us off?
…clearly a CNN watcher ,nice to see your readers quote Bin Lauden …this just gives it away ,yep I agree rename the day Down With America Day …LOL
>Im the original Alladay poster and I resent your stupid comment. A) I don’t watch CNN. Sorry. But I do read the New York Times. B) I’m not quoting Bin Laden (and how are you so familiar with his quotes anyway?), just callin it like I see it; C) totally perplexed by the “Down with America” comment. Just doing my patriotic duty…and my citizen-of-the-world duty. Are you being purposely obtuse? It’s people like you who make a Cultural Alladay necessary. God help us if you’re a parent…your kids need it more than most!
>”…if other cultures use your standards — and only judge us by the way we treat women (non-equal pay, skimpy maternity leave, etc.) or by our problems with handguns or drugs, or the lack of healthcare for the poor — would you blame them for writing us off?”
Phew… that about says it all. It certainly tells us where you are coming from. I mean your examples are right out of a Michael Moore screed.
Geography, if it were still taught, is the study of land, its people and customs. But of course we don’t teach that subject in our grade schools anymore. Instead we have some stupid made up thing, once a year, called Cultural Allady.
Just another example of misguided social engineering and the deconstruction of our education system by the left.
>Honestly, if other cultures use your standards — and only judge us by the way we treat women (non-equal pay, skimpy maternity leave, etc.) or by our problems with handguns or drugs, or the lack of healthcare for the poor — would you blame them for writing us off? The “culture of freedom”? HAAAAAA you gotta be kidding. Cultural Alladay celebrates the ARTS of different cultures and the use of art to encourage peace and understanding. Your immature, selfish injection of politics into something simple and peaceful is gross.
You’re such an anti-intellectual. The original poster was right on target. The day is an insult to this nation and has no business in our schools. Don’t care that it was started by a few students. They weren’t adults so that’s their excuse. What’s yours? You must think these non life enhancing cultures need you to give them some kind of acceptance. But that, my poor soul, is the essence of bigotry. You liberals do it to blacks all the time. You want them to wallow in their inner city culture, even if you see daily how it destroys any future they could have. Shameful and despicable of you.
>4:51 PM
And these are the same folks who oppose vouchers for inner city children, denying them an escape from the dangerous schools that are ill prepared to provide a quality education.
They do so in lock step with the NJEA, all the while crying for more money to be spent.
They are the true bigots and racists. I am so sick and tired of their self-righteous BS.
Once upon a time these same types of people stood in front of the school house door, denying children entrance. Now, they stand there denying them the opportunity to leave for a better education.
The circle is complete.
>A few observations:
“we” do not treat women in America as second class citizens. Have you seen the college enrollment percentages by sex lately? Have you ever heard of the gender equity (meaning females only) act of 1999. Unequal pay was a fact of life because of the life choices that women voluntarily made until the fat cats lied to them that the could “have it all” by forgoing marriage and staying in the work force longer to gain parity in senority with their male competitors thereby eliminating most eligible marriage partners to boot. “Skimpy maternity leave”? In America, we all have skimpy vacation time compared with the rest of the world. Men have less maternity leave than women. Hand guns become a problem when only the bad guys have them. Australia just decided to disarm law abiding citizens and the crime rate has skyrocketed. “Drugs” watch TV for five minutes and you’ll see where our fascination with drugs comes from. Mostly, drugs are a money maker for crime sydicates and pharmaceutical companies. And, “lack of health care for poor people” The SHIP program in NJ has millions of men, women and children in it. Hospitals are required by law to treat indigent patients. Illegal immigrants qualify for health care. I’m afraid to say that some people on this blog are way, way out of touch with the real world.