>Read Dr. Brennan’s update as of 4:00 p.m. Thursday. Superintendent’s Update Thursday, September 20, 2007 4:00pm To update you on recent events: 1. There has been no bomb threat directed at any Ridgewood public school. We are in constant communication with the Ridgewood Police Department, which is keeping us fully informed.
2. We have an RHS sophomore who has been missing since September 10, 2007. We are working with the Police, the family, and other agencies to locate this student.
3. There is no evidence of any connection between the missing student and the threats made against the communities in Northern Bergen County.
4. We are again implementing heightened security at all buildings tonight. The safety of your children is our primary concern. Thanks for your cooperation and support. If there is any change in this information, we will update you immediately on the website and by e-news. To subscribe to e-news: email [email protected]. In the subject line type: subscribe rps.enews.
>How much more in reduction of services are Village residents going to take? Since the Village Hall building project and other real estate purchases. This Council and administration is bringing living in Ridgewood to new low. Council members and Village Manager should just admit that they were left some serious debt from previous Village Manager and Council decisions and projects. Take the hit, advise residents that they need to raise municiple taxes to getback on track and bring the Village back to the community it once was. There is point where you have stop cutting back on services this Village proudly had. Streets used to be cleaned of snow and leaves ontime. Village owned properties and buildings used to look clean and functional – no more! And now, start charging for medical attention and transport? I think residents will not take any more of this. We will see at election time, won’t we.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 Ridgewood featured on CBN News
“The tide is turning too slowly for parents.” That’s just one pithy comment in Heather Sells’ report for CBN News in a news story that features Ridgewood’s math woes.
Disillusionment with reform math seems to cut across race, religion, political affiliation, and even one’s stance on reform math, as evidenced by a shocking quote from pro-reformist Joe Rosenstein.
The segment airs multiple times throughout today on the 700 Club program, carried on ABC Family Channel cable network, FamilyNet, Trinity Broadcasting Network, and other U.S. television stations
In NYC – CBS Family Channel 14 at 10:00 am – 11:00 am; 11:pm – 12:00 am
Text of the story is reprinted below:
The Math Debate: When Johnny Can’t Count By Heather Sells CBN News September 4, 2007
CBNNews.com – RIDGEWOOD, New Jersey – A new survey shows three out of four high school graduates aren’t ready for college even though they’ve taken the recommended classes. The problem for many students is math.
But math is an issue for teachers too because many educators can’t even agree on the best way to teach it.
Eleven-year old Rebecca Lucas is a modern-day ice princess. After two years of lessons, she can spin and jump. She’s also a talented student. But in the fourth grade last year, she wasn’t even sure how to subtract, let alone multiply.
Her mother, Nicole Lucas, remembers the stress.
“[There was] a lot of crying, arguing,” she recalled. “I was pushing her.”
And there was also the confusion.
Nicole said, “She would get lectures from me ‘Are you paying attention?’ ‘Why aren’t you getting this?’ And then, of course, we find out later it’s because she just didn’t know it.”
Rebecca joins countless students across the country whose lack of basic math skills may hurt their college career.
That’s why one group of fifth-graders is practicing their multiplication. Their immediate reward is a lollipop. But experts like NYU’s Dr. Sylvain Cappell say the long-term benefit is mastering the fundamentals.
“If you can put aside the technical steps and just do the calculations automatically then you can go on to advanced material,” Cappell said.
But how much emphasis should be placed on “the basics” versus lessons that emphasize conceptual thinking and self-discovery?
That question has been the subject of an almost 20-year math debate that began when the National Council of Math Teachers endorsed so-called “reform math.”
It began because of a concern about future competitiveness for tomorrow’s jobs. Reform math emphasizes hands-on learning and real-world situations.
The textbooks are heavy on story problems and light on numbers, equations, and practice sheets for kids.
“They need to become engaged. And if they don’t become engaged they don’t learn, they don’t retain it,” said Dr. Joseph Rosenstein of Rutgers University.
In the last several years, Rosenstein, the council, and others have shifted somewhat, admitting that perhaps schools should focus more on skills such as arithmetic, multiplication, and division.
But in many communities from coast to coast, the tide is turning too slowly for parents.
Those worried that reform math isn’t teaching their kids the basics are waging curriculum battles on their local turf.
One of the hottest debates might be in suburban Ridgewood, New Jersey. There, a new superintendent is taking over for a math reformer who left after protests from parents.
Opposing a math curriculum may appear straightforward on the surface. But in towns like Ridgewood the debate has become ugly. Parents here who oppose reform math refused to go on camera with us, fearing harassment or even their own personal safety.
Ridgewood police are even investigating threats against one family, the Carolls, which has publicly opposed the new math.
Kathleen Carroll said, “It’s really sad that it’s become a big deal. It’s very divisive.”
But long-time New York City math activist Elizabeth Carson says it’s no surprise that math is such a big deal.
“We’re talking about a huge industry that’s involved in this reform math, so there’s a lot of money at stake, a lot of professional careers on the line,” she said. “There’s a pride of a school system on the line.
In towns like Ridgewood, parents suspect reform math is the reason for booming tutoring businesses.
“Most of these kids are average or above average IQ that are coming to us,” said Lisa Mlinar of Huntington Learning Center. “They don’t tend to get enough of that core skill and drill. They never really master a single subject like multiplication or division before they move on to the next thing.”
Troubles with math are also surfacing on college campuses, as shown in a new survey by the college testing service act.
“Only 16 percent of the kids who took core courses in math are ready for college-level courses,” ACT’s Cyndie Schmeiser said.
Right now, remedial education costs more than a billion dollars a year.
College math professors say high school teachers are trying to cover too many different kinds of math and many students don’t even know their basic skills.
“Many of the students will use calculators in my freshman calculus classes when they really shouldn’t. They will use it to multiply two times three,” Rosenstein said.
With more jobs demanding math and science know-how, the stakes are higher than ever. That’s a main reason some math professors worry about reform math.
“There may be several generations of students who’ve been brought through that kind of curriculum who’ve been told they know math, who’ve played games with it-all of which is fine-but in the end didn’t have the skills they need to advance into the fields that need it,” New York University’s Dr. Charles Newman said.
And that may make reaching for the stars literally impossible.
Schmeiser said, “We owe them the education we promise in K through 12, and that is to be ready to go out into the world when they graduate.
>Any curriculum and school policies that specifically disenfranchise our male students WILL effect male antisocial behavior. Any outsider can look at the K8 curriculum and see how the males in this town are constantly marginalized. The reading materials are unabashedly feminist. Girls are great! Boys are insignificant, at best. The so-called math program is based on lateral “girl” learning patterns while the normal “boy” learns through vertical layered reasoning which is not to be used because it favors boys (and the rest of the world too). Males in Ridgewood are told from day one that the school system is a hostile environment and that they are the reason for everything that is wrong in the world. The State of New Jersey has been using taxpayer’s dollars since the early ninties to fund anti-male curriculums in this State starting with the New Jersey Project run by the misandroids Sheffield and Rothenberg at WPC. That program has been folded this year – thank God! Yet it has morphed into PRISM at Montclair State’ Women’s Studies Department. The deparment is full of third generation man- haters and they have alot of money to “transform” curriculums into female friendly and screw the males while your at it mistresspieces. It’s hard for me to believe that B&I with their connections to MSU and Rutgers and their own educational backgrounds could have been unaware of the origins and intent of TERC/CMP. I’d like to see the statistics from Travell and Orchard broken down by gender. I’d like to see the gender of all of the reportable incidents at the high school broken down by gender. I think those statistics will prove my point.
“Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country,” said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. “All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day…is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation.”
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”
But Peter McGuire’s place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.
The First Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Labor Day Legislation
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
A Nationwide Holiday
The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations” of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.
The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.
The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.
>These are some of the most ridiculous and selfish comments I have read on this blog. I am continually amazed by the arrogance and selfishness of people in Ridgewood, who tout the character of our town and demand the highest standards of service and resources, yet are unwilling to pay for them. Whether a it is a new field, a new service or a new building, how many times have we heard something like, “it wasn’t like that in the 1950’s, so we don’t need it now”.
That is an absurd rationale and illustrates a fundamental lack of understanding and appreciation of civic planning, municipal management and community responsibility.Any rational and thoughtful Ridgewood resident wants a local hospital that can offer the best medical care possible. There may be situations that require patients to seek specialists in NYC or elsewhere. But, that shouldn’t mean we force Valley to make due with antiquated and inappropriate zoning and require all Ridgewood residents to live with the consequences of long-term declining services. I hope my family never needs Valley’s services. But, I want to know that it is there if we need it and I certainly don’t want to “have to go” to Hackensack or NYC to get the best care, if my family has a medical emergency.
I live near RHS and the campus buildings, which overshadow our homes (and from some views have a very “institutional” look) have not diminished our neighborhood. Nor will Valley’s plans diminish the neighborhoods around the hospital compared to today’s appearance. It will certainly not diminish the view from BF field. The eye sore there is the back side of the school, BF’s parking lot, dumpsters and broken fences, not Valley Hospital. In fact, the trees that shield the field from Valley Hospital may be the most attractive view from the field.Like our school system, Valley Hospital is a valuable asset that enhances the quality of life in the community and distinguishes Ridgewood from less desirable neighboring communities. Also like our school system, it requires periodic improvements and upgrades and deserves our support for well planned fiscally responsible change.
>I know this is the wrong place to ask this, but is that above comment correct? Did the town really give this church $10,000 to tear down the house? I called Village Hall today, asked the question, and I got transferred for 20 minutes… engineering, zoning, parks dept, etc. No one would comment.
Not sure of the answer. The word I got was that the Church was paying just over $20K for the job. However, the Church was not obligated to fill in the hole left behind, nor to do other site work in preparation for the property being turned into a park ,perhaps the $10K covers that work; i.e., filling in the hole, leveling the land, and removing the fence.
>I am a teacher of mathematics in a metropolitan school district. I have witnessed over the years the down spiral in quality of curricular resource materials for mathematics. I have found it increasingly necessary to enhance, augment, and compensate (for) the materials with which I have been expected to teach. The politics by which inferior resource materials have been foisted on math teachers (and therby students and parents) is insidious and anti-educational. State, district, school, and corporate administrators (attempt to) pressure, misdirect, and manipulate teachers to buy into the math flavor fad of the day. Teacher input is all but ignored unless (of course) it reinforces what the powers-that-be wish to be heard and/or publicized.
Administrative media access so highly filters the information which is output to the public that the quite intelligent and well-meaning parents, who want only to advocate what is best for their children, are often undertandably confused by the discrepancy between administrative lip-service and academic results (e.g. WASL). Being that the math WASL has been all but diefied (unjustifiably) as an academic measure, parental angst becomes preyed upon by smooth talking demagogues offering a reformist concoction of snake oil and mediocrity to remedy a near-disaster of their creation. The apple of mediocrity will always be mediocrity regardless of how well is polished or spiffed up by the minions of fuzzy mathematics. Each year the number of students arriving to my classroom without basic and essential arithmetic skills in place increases. Many students cannot do simple arithmetic operations without a calculator.
Basic multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, fraction, decimal, exponent, and percent facts are often just not in place… the simple stuff! Often, students are recommended from middle school into high school courses for which they are either less than adequately prepared or for which they are not prepared at all. TERC & CMP exposure and/or induced calculator “dependency” (in elementary and middle school are the usual culprits. Those students who arrive and are indeed ready to advance must then patiently endure the requisite review process in order to bring as many of their classmates up to speed as possible. The math reality… it is insufficient that a student can merely perform calculations on a calculator. Unless an inculcated arithmetic process is operative (consciously or unconsciously) in the student’s reasoning, use of the calculator becomes little better than a crap shoot. It is just as important to have a sense of when an answer is not in the ballpark as when it is. Without a developed sense of knowing the difference, one answer might often be just as well as any other answer.
If I had a Lotto ticket for each time I heard a student remark that an answer was correct because “that’s what the calculator says”, I would have won the lottery long ago.Calculators do not speak. Calculators do not have an opinion. Calculators calculate. (A hammer does not suggest where to place the nail. That is the carpenter’s job.)Good “basic math skills” supply the basis for good mathematical reasoning. Calculators cannot reason. Reasoning is the student’s job. CMP, TERC, IMP, CPM, Core Plus, Everyday Math, etc,… all fail the student. The fundamental cognitive tools of mathematical reasoning (basic skills) are abandoned by these curricula. Rather, these curricula nurture a handicap… a dependence upon the superficial and uninsightful non-reasoning tool, the calculator.Calculators do have their uses. But those uses first need to be tempered by experience… the experience of an acquired comprehensive body of knowledge and interpretive skill. As an educator, I do my best to guide my students through the process of acquiring that mathematical experience. Such experience will surely serve them qualitatively far better (than mere calculator “dependence”) as they progress through their education and, insofar as choices are made, through their lives.
The advocates and purveyors of fluffy math curricula do not seem to be genuinely concerned with the academic and future well-being of students. Such advocates and purveyors seem only to be concerned with the promotion of their ideological agenda(s). I believe that the next step forward should start with one (or more) step(s) backward. Fluffy math texts (and corporate interference) should be scrapped regardless of administrative or governmental pressures. The true educators (parents and teachers) should take back the educational system and do what is right for the kids. Thank you.
NOTE: My point of view tends to get me into hot water with school and district administrators. It is a small price to pay.
>Friends and neighbors please join us for a Math Chat on Thursday, August 9th at 7:30 P.M. at The Unitarian Society of Ridgewood. Over the past several months, parents have been expressing their concerns over the math programs in our village schools to educational administrators and the Board of Education. This issue is an old one for Travell School. Parents have been voicing their concerns since the inception of TERC Investigations more than 5 years ago. What is new is an organization of parents called VORMATH who are providing an opportunity for parents of school age children and concerned tax- payers to be involved in an open forum discussion. Did you know… · The 6 elementary schools in Ridgewood use 3 different math programs. · Four of the six schools use reform math- also known as fuzzy math, constructivist based math, or standards based math. · These reform math programs have been abandoned by hundreds of school districts across the nation because they fail to prepare our children for math at the high school and college level · Over 200 math professors, 4 Nobel Laureates and 2 Fields Medal winners signed a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education back in 1999 asking the government to remove these reform math programs from their list of exemplary programs · A Stanford mathematician stated that TERC Investigations is the “2nd most mathematically illiterate program” he has ever seen. TERC Investigations is the program currently used at Travell and Orchard Schools. · The district just purchased the newest version of the Investigations program for both Travell and Orchard. · Benjamin Franklin Middle School has averaged a rank of 21 out of over 200 middle schools in mathematics statewide for the past 7 years using traditional math. · CMP2 (another reform math program for middle schools that is controversial) has been implemented for 6th graders last year and will follow them into 7th grade this September; why change a math program that has proven itself a success for the students? There is substantial information available for concerned parents to read. How the math issue affects all taxpayers is simple. Sixty-six percent of every tax dollar feeds into Ridgewood’s $82,000,000 school budget. Are we getting a good return of our investment? Ridgewood’s reputation for excellent schools has kept the value of our homes high. There must be fiscal responsibility and sound choices made for educating all the children in our village. We love Ridgewood and want to keep it the wonderful community that it has been for many generations. There will be a presentation followed by a Q & A period. Hope you can make it and take advantage of the opportunity to share your concerns and thoughts. TOGETHER WE ADD UP!
If the Ridgewood News is being objective and providing serious reporting on issues in the town, does this mean in its next edition the Editor has received from the school administration the detailed purchase information regarding TERC 2 for Travell and Orchard? If the Ridgewood News is really doing its job, it would follow up on that hard hitting question posed to the district officials by its reporter, Keith Hamas. The school officials failed to answer that pertinent question in time for the story, Math Wars: Summer of Discontent.
But surely, by now, the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum has found that purchase order and given a copy to the Ridgewood News. The News would then report all the relevant information such as date of purchase, itemized list of materials purchased, unit cost, total cost, and any associated discounts, date of delivery, and so forth for TERC 2nd edition for Travell and Orchard. The News could even show this information in comparison to the material cost for Scott Foresman Addison Wesley at Willard. I wonder which one cost more?
One would thing curriculum purchase information would be at the finger tips of the head of curriculum. While they are getting that cost information, they may was well look for the same information for the Connected Math Program 2 for both middle schools. And also show the Village residents the cost being spent to train the teachers and if that training is actually aiding the teachers in reaching Highly Qualified Status. So many questions, so much more the Ridgewood News could be reporting.
>Friends and neighbors please join us for a Math Chat on Thursday, August 9th at 7:30 P.M. at The Unitarian Society of Ridgewood. Over the past several months, parents have been expressing their concerns over the math programs in our village schools to educational administrators and the Board of Education. This issue is an old one for Travell School. Parents have been voicing their concerns since the inception of TERC Investigations more than 5 years ago. What is new is an organization of parents called VORMATH who are providing an opportunity for parents of school age children and concerned tax- payers to be involved in an open forum discussion. Did you know… · The 6 elementary schools in Ridgewood use 3 different math programs. · Four of the six schools use reform math- also known as fuzzy math, constructivist based math, or standards based math. · These reform math programs have been abandoned by hundreds of school districts across the nation because they fail to prepare our children for math at the high school and college level · Over 200 math professors, 4 Nobel Laureates and 2 Fields Medal winners signed a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Education back in 1999 asking the government to remove these reform math programs from their list of exemplary programs · A Stanford mathematician stated that TERC Investigations is the “2nd most mathematically illiterate program” he has ever seen. TERC Investigations is the program currently used at Travell and Orchard Schools. · The district just purchased the newest version of the Investigations program for both Travell and Orchard. · Benjamin Franklin Middle School has averaged a rank of 21 out of over 200 middle schools in mathematics statewide for the past 7 years using traditional math. · CMP2 (another reform math program for middle schools that is controversial) has been implemented for 6th graders last year and will follow them into 7th grade this September; why change a math program that has proven itself a success for the students? There is substantial information available for concerned parents to read. How the math issue affects all taxpayers is simple. Sixty-six percent of every tax dollar feeds into Ridgewood’s $82,000,000 school budget. Are we getting a good return of our investment? Ridgewood’s reputation for excellent schools has kept the value of our homes high. There must be fiscal responsibility and sound choices made for educating all the children in our village. We love Ridgewood and want to keep it the wonderful community that it has been for many generations. There will be a presentation followed by a Q & A period. Hope you can make it and take advantage of the opportunity to share your concerns and thoughts. TOGETHER WE ADD UP!
You recently wrote an article entitled, “Local blogs: Free speech forums or battle fields?” In that article, “Sue” (moderator of the “Ridgewood Views” blog) was extensively quoted without The Ridgewood News divulging her or her partner’s (“Andrew”) identity or giving any of their background information. This contrasted sharply with your reporting of James Foytlin and his “The Ridgewood Blog.” Why is that? Hasn’t it always been the policy of The Ridgewood News not to print anonymous statements?
When you compare the following statements made by “Sue” in your article with the comments “Sue” and “Andrew” are allowing to be posted on their blog, you will see that there is plenty of name-calling, nasty names and bashing … hardly a civil debate.
“…So we finally decided we can make our own blog and be fair to everybody. And we don’t have the name-calling because that just got ridiculous.”
“It can be said it was a response to the TERC stuff but I think the TERC stuff really just drove home the fact that this name-calling needed to stop…”
While she admits there are “three sides to every story,” Sue said she and Andrew would like to host an environment where people throw around ideas and not nasty names.
“We’re not trying to bash PJ [Foytlin],” she said. “He may have had the best intentions when he started but it seems to have gone awry. It seems with that blog that there is a lot of whining. Everyone’s got a complaint, but no one has an answer.”
The following mission statement is posted on their “Ridgewood Views” blog:
“In reading the postings on The Ridgewood Blog we came to the conclusion that there needed to be a more civil forum which could provide some balance. Unlike the Ridgewood Blog you will find no advertising here. We are not looking to make money from your participation. Here we encourage a free and open exchange of ideas, questions and opinions based on intelligent discussion and debate. The moderators of this blog will NOT post any comments that, in their opinion, contain personal attacks.”
Under the following heading excerpted from their blog there are eight postings. Sunday, July 22, 2007 No Clear Answers To The Ridgewood Math Debate Anonymous said… Have you seen our friends latest post….he is really insane. July 22, 2007 1:07 PM Anonymous said… it’s obvious he is consumed with the math issue, which is a clear sign of someone who is a fanatic. July 22, 2007 1:36 PM Anonymous said… Why is this guy spending so much time on this issue? does he have a child in one of these programs? July 22, 2007 4:20 PM Anonymous said… Because it gets him and his blog attention and he makes money…its that simple.
The fly Swatter July 22, 2007 4:50 PM Anonymous said… If he is such a good Investment Advisor why is he wasting his time running a blog? I would think he would have better ways to spend his time. July 22, 2007 5:31 PM watching the lunatic fringe said… The Math Moms mean well and have legitimate issues with respect to TERC. They were represented well in the Ridgewood News article by Keith Hamas.
Unfortunately, their side has been hijacked by the Lunatic Fringe, i.e. a small group of people in the village who have starred in such episodes as: — suing the BOE over a high school survey, claiming that their privacy had been violated, — getting forcefully removed from Orchard School grounds because they were upset about the school’s building expansion, — threatening to sue Ridgewood Basketball Association to let a girl play in the boys league — constantly writing letters to the editor of the Ridgewood News about some perceived outrage or injustice.
There are rational adults on both sides of the math debate in the village…and there are irrational cranks with problems that go way, way beyond mathematics. July 22, 2007 8:00 PM Anonymous said… To watching the lunatic fring
Some people have a problem with everything and everyone in their lives. They go out of their way to make trouble for everyone around them. These people usually are very unhappy and angry at the world. July 22, 2007 9:27 PM watching the lunatic fringe said… 9:27 — Agreed. Unfortunately, even though they’re a small part of the population (5%? 2%? 1%?), their actions can cause problems for the rest of us, such as — wasting taxpayer money & civil servant time by launching frivolous lawsuits — causing a highly-qualified school leader to change his mind and not become superintendent of our schools — polluting the public debate about what’s best for our children when it comes to math education
As the old saying goes: just a few rotten apples can spoil a whole barrel. July 22, 2007 9:48 PM
Keith, would it be possible for you to write a follow-up article on “The Ridgewood Views” blog divulging the names of the moderators and giving their background information? I don’t understand why The Ridgewood News allows “Sue” and “Andrew” to remain anonymous while being extensively quoted in your article. Do you allow them to remain anonymous because they have chosen to remain anonymous? Over the years, there were many times while being interviewed by reporters for The Ridgewood News that I would have preferred to remain anonymous but was not afforded that opportunity. Does The Ridgewood News have a double standard?
By the way, Keith, I have corresponded with both “Andrew” and “Sue” using “Sue’s” e-mail address, [email protected]. In response to my questions to them, “Sue” e-mailed the following background information: How old are you? Andrew is 53 and I am 31 Are you married? Both Andrew and I are Married (but not to each other)Do you have children in the system? Andrew had two children who graduated from Ridgewood High School. My son is not old enough to attend school yet. Did you go through the school system? Andrew and I both Graduated from Ridgewood High School. > > > > Susan As you can see from the following heading from an e-mail I received from “Andrew” (for some reason he e-mails me through “Sue’s” e-mail address) he openly cc’d “vbombace.” —– Original Message —–From Susan Roxbury Date Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:24:57 +0000 To [email protected] Cc [email protected] Subject Ridgewood Views When I questioned Andrew as to who “vombace” was he responded that she is a relative of Mark and Maria Bombace. I think Andrew meant to bcc V. Bombace but mistakenly cc’d her. It turns out that V. Bombace is Vicki Bombace who resides on Midwood Road with James Bombace (husband and wife?). Isn’t James Bombace our chief of the fire department? There is a Vicki Bombace, age 31 (same age as Susan) who graduated from RHS in 1994 and resides on Midwood Road. Mother/Daughter? Why create an anonymous platform? James Foytlin takes ownership of his blog and is very open to the public with who he is, what he does for a living, and even provides a picture of himself. Are “Andrew” and “Sue” hiding behind a group of people in this town (some who hold exalted titles such as fire chief and president of the boe)? Keith, I think it would be revealing to your readers if you did a follow-up article addressing “Andrew” and “Sue’s” forced anonymity and their relationship with leaders in our town (who already have a public platform for their views) versus the openness of James Foytlin’s Ridgewood Blog. I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Carole Nunn
>A Claremont Road resident last night blasted Village Council members for even considering a vendor requested $125 fee for emergency towing service. If approved, $125 would be the minimum charge applicable for passenger cars needing to be towed from accident scenes or breakdowns within Ridgewood. There are currently two vendors under contract with Ridgewood PD to provide such services; they are called in on a “rotating schedule” basis.
Claiming the proposed $125 fee would be much higher than those charged in other small communities, the resident implored Council members to consider charges comparable to those in municipalities adjacent to Ridgewood, not in cities such as Paterson or Passaic. A towing company representative countered the resident’s remarks by citing expensive rises in insurance rates, salaries, and equipment costs as bonafide reasons for requesting the steep fee increase.
The same resident also criticized Council members for not taking any action with respect to increasing daytime & evening parking capacity at Village Hall. “Too many Village owned cars and Village employees’ private vehicles parked” was his claim. Mayor David T. Pfund directed Village Manager James M. Ten Hoeve to review the current parking space allocation plan and offer Council members with options for a reconfiguration that would increase the availability of spaces for public use.
Citing the right to free speech, Ridgewood officials have reversed a ban on lawn signs that say “Stop The Valley Hospital Expansion.”
Residents who had posted the yellow signs on their front lawns had received letters from the village ordering them to remove the signs. They were told the signs violated a village zoning ordinance.
But Anthony Merlino, Ridgewood’s construction official and zoning officer, said he changed his mind after he received “many sincere inquiries” and consulted with the village attorney.
“The village will not take any action to have the signs removed,” he wrote in a letter to residents.
A spokeswoman for the hospital declined to comment on Friday.
Many neighbors of The Valley Hospital have protested its proposed $750-million plans to add a one-story parking deck on Linwood Avenue, and to tear down two older buildings and replace them with three new structures up to 80 feet tall. The hospital campus is surrounded by homes and a middle school.
Residents who received notices to remove their signs were only further frustrated with the village. While Valley has presented its plans to town officials several times, opponents were told they must wait until September to argue their case against hospital expansion.
“I’m very upset about the letters,” said Patricia Ciliberti, who lives near the hospital. “They were attacking my free speech. I’m from the protest generation. I’m still upset.”
Despite being told to remove her sign, she never took it down.
Valley was “a small community hospital” when she bought her home in 1991, she said. “I don’t want them to get any bigger,” she said.
Jim Blinn, who lives directly across from the hospital, said he was relieved his sign could stay.
“I thought they had overstepped their bounds,” Blinn said. “I was taken aback. I thought it was intrusive.
“We left our sign up the entire time, to make other members of the village aware of this massive, mind-boggling project,” he said.
The “Stop Valley” signs are protected under non-commercial speech because they address a public issue, said Matthew Rogers, the village attorney. The same laws protect political campaign signs and placards promoting issues such as a local effort to remind residents to “Drive 25,” Rogers said.
“The courts, and a litany of case law on regulating signs in residential areas, have found that non-commercial speech is more protected than commercial speech, [such as] signs talking about a carwash going on,” Rogers said.
The “Stop Valley” signs can remain in place only if they meet certain criteria set by the village, Merlino said. They must not be larger than 18 inches by 24 inches in size, and they are limited to one sign per property, to prevent “visual clutter” in residential neighborhoods, he said.
The signs may not be placed on village property, or in public rights of way, including sidewalks or curb areas, and they must not obstruct the vision of pedestrians or drivers, Merlino said.
Otherwise, “we have to allow them if they’re on private property, and they’re for a cause, like ‘Save the Whales,’ ” he said.
We see our curriculum as a vehicle for teacher development. The actual curriculum is not what we envision and write down, but what happens between students and teachers in the moment of teaching and learning. So while part of our responsibility is to provide the material, the actual investigations, in which students will participate-and this in itself is no easy matter-the other, equally critical part of our responsibility is to open up that material to teachers, to invite them in both to the mathematics and to children’s mathematical thinking.
The audience, therefore, for our materials, is teachers, not students. Our units are written to the teachers with many digressions about mathematics and about children’s learning of mathematics. The responsibility is absolutely on the teachers to make this material work. If they fail, the material fails. On the other hand, by not making teachers partners in the past, we have made a grievous error. By not inviting teachers in to mathematics, by attempting to make materials “teacher proof” because educators or mathematicians believed that classroom teachers were not smart enough about mathematics to teach it, not only have we denied the students a good mathematical education, but we have denied generations of elementary teachers-largely women-access to mathematics.
It could be me, but if I were a teacher, I’d be insulted.
*”Mishugona” is Yiddish for crazy, the fly is trying to appeal to a more ethnic audience
