Charter School Appoints New Principal
By Jennifer Solis
Those of you who listen to KABC in the morning might have been amused to hear the host and his listeners criticize my Tuesday Op-Ed column in the Los Angeles Daily News about Academia Semillias del Pueblo. They have been angry that my editorial pointed out the community support that exists for the school.
Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times lead article confirms what I wrote on Tuesday, but buried the fact that Minnie Ferguson has replaced Marcos Aguilar as "principal." KABC has been attacking Aguilar for the past eight days because of his MEChA background and unique program that he designed in founding ASP six years ago.
As of last Saturday, when I attended the school's community meeting for parents and stakeholders, Aguilar chaired the event, and was the primary spokesperson, although I noticed that on his name badge, it said "staff" when I expected it to read "principal."
The enrollment (presently 253 in K to 5) is almost entirely Spanish speaking and very low income, which typifies low achievement in Academic Achievement Index (API), but Ms. Ferguson stated that her school will immediately focus on raising the score, "without having to teach to the test," or compromise the programs and values which make ASP unique.
Despite the continuing negative attacks by KABC and the conservative blogisphere, I predict that the charter will be renewed by the LAUSD this December.
Those of you who listen to KABC in the morning might have been amused to hear the host and his listeners criticize my Tuesday Op-Ed column in the Los Angeles Daily News about Academia Semillias del Pueblo. They have been angry that my editorial pointed out the community support that exists for the school.
Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times lead article confirms what I wrote on Tuesday, but buried the fact that Minnie Ferguson has replaced Marcos Aguilar as "principal." KABC has been attacking Aguilar for the past eight days because of his MEChA background and unique program that he designed in founding ASP six years ago.
As of last Saturday, when I attended the school's community meeting for parents and stakeholders, Aguilar chaired the event, and was the primary spokesperson, although I noticed that on his name badge, it said "staff" when I expected it to read "principal."
The enrollment (presently 253 in K to 5) is almost entirely Spanish speaking and very low income, which typifies low achievement in Academic Achievement Index (API), but Ms. Ferguson stated that her school will immediately focus on raising the score, "without having to teach to the test," or compromise the programs and values which make ASP unique.
Despite the continuing negative attacks by KABC and the conservative blogisphere, I predict that the charter will be renewed by the LAUSD this December.
Posted by Anonymous @ 6/09/2006 08:03:00 AM
118 Comments:
It's not that amusing to watch someone shoot a fish in a barrel.
On the other hand, it is genuinely amusing that Aguilar is going back under his rock.
Renewal is no problem with spinsters as you.
Spin it girl, spin it. Cover up racism as you see fit and cohort with propaganda.
Jennifer your not the girl I used to know. New influences, friends have changed you.
Thanks Jennifer for bringing the issue up. this is our tax dollars spent on a racist school to brainwash these kids. Now the state is involved and is trying to find out about funding and other things this school has been up to. If people started sending e-mails to the board members at LAUSD I can't see this school being renewed as a charter.
Jennifer,
Community Support that you describe consists of parents and their friends. Your research lacks actual true community members not affiliated with Academia Semillas Pueblo. Consider asking other businesses, not for profit org., schools, and people who live in the area. You will be astonished at comments. Not everyone supports the school. It is freedom of speech, as long as we don't get killed for saying we don't support it.
minnie ferguson is the wife of marcos augilar. Minnie was a class officer at Lincoln High School when i was the student Body President in 1983. Hopefully Minnie will remember that the multi racial make up of our student goverment never slighted any one race. Minnie you need to teach that to your husband.
You teach kids the facts about racist America, and you call it brainwashing. It's amazing what all these white folk fear. Unless you've ever experienced racism, you don't know what you are talking about. I grew up in an inner city neighborhood where I was taught to hold my hands out whenever I got pulled over by the police. This was at five years old, even before I was taught how to put my hands out to catch a baseball. Since then, I've been pulled over by the cops 18 times in my life - and I've never been to jail. Is this brainwashing? No, it is life skills for Mexicans in this country. And I am fourth generation American, my dad received the purple heart in Korea.
McIntyre and you white poster's hate mongering is disgusting. Where's your purple heart McIntyre or Mayor Sam? Mexicans are the most decorated ethnic group in the military. Just look at the casualty lists from Iraq. And you dare question our loyalty because we want to teach our kids a little about their unique and glorious heritage. Shame on you.
Scott Johnson, I bet you don't live in Lincoln Heights anymore. What have you done for the kids of this community. Lincoln Heights went from white/Italian to Mexican to Chinese /Vietnamese in just two decades. Before you mouth off Johnson, let's what you've done. Ferguson and Aguilar have their's out for the world to see and criticize, how many under privileges kids have you helped?
To what ever is your name,
I still reside in Boyle heights. People like you who wish to see people for the color of their skin,should learn not to hate. Further, I serve on the Advisory Board at hazard park trying to inprove the quality of life in the community. Lastly, I invite to come on a tour of my neighborhood, Ramona Gardens, where I grew up. Next time maybe you will use your name.
What amazes me is that Ms Solis supports the school yet can't seem to get the name correct not here nor in her opinion piece for the Daily News. It's semillas not semillias.
The new principal is Aguilar's wife?1? Can anyone spell "nepotism".
I encourage everyone to do a google search on the school. Check out the number of credentialed teachers they employ...very, very few. Check out the test scores...very, very low. Most schools with strong parental support/interest have much higher scores...even if they are low income.
I'm a San Francisco public-school parent and advocate, and a critic of the concept of charter schools, which are a weapon in the right-wing arsenal aimed at attacking and destroying public education.
So it's bemusing to see the anti-immigrant forces of the right attack this particular charter school. I feel very sorry for the kids -- this whole situation is a mess, enabled by the free-market-deregulation setup that allows charter schools. The children will be the ones who suffer in the end.
I did notice that Ms. Solis' gushing op-ed neglected to mention the rock-bottom achievement of this school, though charter backers never neglect to mention low achievement when they attack traditional public schools. And charter backers cut traditional public schools NO slack for demographics.
Here's the data on their federal adequate yearly progress: Ths school met 6 of the 13 criteria....the 6 criteria they met all had to do with the number of students tested. In other words: the school tested everyone (allowing them to pass on 6 counts) but none of the students scored high enough to meet the remaining 7 criteria.
I'm hoping this table comes out okay on this blog. If it doesn't I'll post the web address for everyone.
Academia Semillas del Pueblo
Federal Adequate Yearly Progress
California Standards | California Academic Performance Index
District: Los Angeles Unified Criteria Summary
County: Los Angeles - Participation rate: ELA: Yes; Math: Yes
Met all 2005 AYP criteria? No - Percent proficient: ELA: No; Math: No
Met 6 of its 13 criteria - API as additional indicator: No
English-language arts Math
Percent
Proficient Met
Participation Met
Proficiency Percent
Proficient Met
Participation Met
Proficiency
Schoolwide 14.0 17.8
African American -- -- -- -- -- --
American Indian -- -- -- -- -- --
Asian -- -- -- -- -- --
Filipino -- -- -- -- -- --
Hispanic 13.3 18.3
Pacific Islander -- -- -- -- -- --
White -- -- -- -- -- --
Socioeconomically Disadvantaged 9.8 14.3
English Learners 8.6 -- -- 11.4 -- --
Students with Disabilities -- -- -- -- -- --
Met requirement
Did not meet requirement
Its nice to see that nepotism and not necessarily merit prevails at Cesspool del Pueblo in rearranging the deck chairs of staff and principal at public charter school.
Here's the website with the school information.
http://www.latimesinteractive.com/schoolscores1/results.php
If I were the district I wouldn't renew the charter...and not for racism.
Check out this site for more info:
http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/ca/12317
Scott Johnson,
Boy are you in the wrong neighborhood. I bet those gang bangers from Big Hazard really listen to you. How many have you kept out of gangs? This is the most crime ridden neighborhood in Hollenbeck Division. Yeah, you're making and impact. Maybe you'd have more luck if you opened up a Charter School. And my name is Tony. I grew up in Boyle Heights and now livein San Gabriel. But I coach Little League and a 3 traveling basketball teams - all from Boyle Heights. In fact, I've just set up a non-profit because so many Boyle Heights kids were skipping sports because of the league fees and glove, bat or cleat expense on the family.
Maybe we should meet sometime.
Tony,
Thanks for clarifing your idenity. Now that we are on first name basis, lets engage in dialog that can bring about positive, inclusive change to our community. Instead of judging people by the color of their skin, let us welcome people of good hearts and soul who want to help. Education brings on Integration. Racial retoric does not.
What happened to Jennifer? She used to be right on the money. Now, she's an apologist for the reconquista. Did she hook up with Aguilera?
It's obvious that Ms. Solis is an editor's nightmare. She doesn't check her facts. One can only wonder why the Los Angeles Times OR any other widely circulated publication would offer her a venue for her ill thought-out comments. Her racist beliefs are evident. They are not helpful to the cause of bringing people together. Shame, shame, shame on her!
Aguilar has always been listed as a "co-principal" with Ferguson, although he's typically been the spokesperson at public events, and led the drive to find land for them to build a school on.
Is this "news" Ms. Solis, or did you just never really ask the question (and maybe still haven't?) as to who's who and what role they play.
The school has been supported and promoted repeatedly by the LA32 Neighborhood Council, which is the elected advisory board for El Sereno before the City of L.A.
You can quote annecdotal instances of unhappy people in the community (who may or may not have any real facts on this school), but those elected by their peers to speak for this community have been pretty straightforward in their support, and are on record at public meetings in doing so.
I'll take "official" over superficial reviews of "the community" any day -- and so will the City, which is why NCs were created in the first place... to keep every Tomas, Dick, and Harry from claiming they "speak" for their neighborhood.
As predicted here earlier, the principal of the school pointed out to the L.A. Times just what I stated. That when a new school goes in, especially one with voluntary enrollment, the parents who move their kids to the new school are the one's whose kids are at the very bottom of the ladder in academic achievment. You don't move A & B students to new schools.
This RAISES the next year's testing scores for the schools they leave, and puts the new school at the bottom of the list as far as achievement.
REAL school achievment experts look at a new school's LONG TERM trending to see if they've been able to get these kids moving along.
A sampling of one, two, or even three years API scores is ABSOLUTELY useless -- except to demagogues with an agenda.
COMPARING these scores to those of the schools they left (see above), is downright criminal.
You won't hear this analysis from anyone at LAUSD, either, because they don't like people suggesting that improvement at THEIR local, regular schools had something to do with some of the worst-performing students leaving. (The principals of other local schools want to take all credit for their boosts).
I read the LA Times. It does not mention that the Ms. Ferguson is married to Mr. Aguilar. Is this true?
Nice and cozy.
Anyone know what the per-pupil expenditures at this school are and how they compare?
(i won't bring up the topic of the per-pupil expenditures vs. the per-parent taxable income, however, since only the KKK would do that)
Charter schools cost the city considerably less, per pupil. . . not to mention all the six-figure "admins" downtown that LAUSD can't claim to need to "oversee" charters.
What are the facts about "racist" America?
That someone comes across the border, receives a free public education, attends a great public university and founds an Azteca school with public funds that employs him and his wife with little oversight and accountability?
Is this a great country or what?
I'm amazed at how people can just keep blathering here, after facts are presented repeatedly and rationally.
"Don't confuse me with facts, my mind's made up about this 'racist' school" (a school doesn't exclude any race; doesn't promote separatism; isn't underperforming for its area, makeup and grow trajectory; is supported by most local community organizations; is teaching all of the same curriculum as every other LAUSD school -- and then some (and ISN'T teaching that America is EVIL); has teacher credential profiles appropriate for all of the above.
When you stop listening, but keep talking and making pronouncements based on limited facts, the only "poor education" you betray is your own.
9:18
I lived in Lincoln Heights for 22 years. At 5 years of age we were taught not to cross the street alone. I feel sorry for you.
1:50
Try these facts:
Since 1848 128 Mexicans lynched in California.
Until 1888 there was a law in California that granted a bounty for an Indian head.
1924 12 Chinese lynched in Los Angeles
1936 mass deportation of U.S. citizens of Mexican descent.
1942 Japanese internment
1944 Zoot Suit Riots
Until 1964 - segregated swimming pools in L.A., Mexicans got to swim on Tuesdays because the pools were emptied on Wednesdays
Until 1972 - land deeds with racial exclusions
And I didn't even get started with the Blacks and Jews.
This country has a racist past. True progress has been made but only signficant progress can happen when history is accurate.
Again, if it is white it must be right. That is what our kids our beentaught at mainstream schools.
Hey, IRATE conservatives. . . I'm confused. I thought "local control" of public schools was one of the main PILLARS of your educational belief system?
Wasn't that one of the MAIN reasons for wanting to break UP L.A. and LAUSD.
Now here's a school supported overwhelming within it's community (local control?), and all the attacks are coming from MILES away.
Did ANYONE from the Eastside call McIntyre and bash this school during his weeklong marathon of poison?
Nope, ALL the venom was coming from the suburbs and even people OUTSIDE L.A. (2nd generation white-flighters -- Santa Clarita, and SAN FRANCISCO??), screaming about "their taxes" being mispent.
What part of "local control" is this? Or are you folks just afraid all the "little brown people" don't know what's best for their own?
2:01
If you've lived in Lincoln Heights for 22 years, then you must remember that kid who was shot and killed by LAPD, it was right up on Eastlake Avenue. That was less than 10 years ago. You know the official reason he was shot - he was carrying a cell phone! Now you know what I mean by life skills.
9:18 Marcos what did we tell you about posting anonymously?
Na, Na, Na. Don't go there!
9:24 Brainwashing is no help. Trauma is what Aguilar and minnie me ferguson is implementing.
Dear Tony from San Gabriel,
How many kids have you kept off drugs?
Lisa from Boyle Heights
Scott's in the wrong neighborhood. You sound like a thug. Ughhhh! Wouldn't want my kid to learn racist shit like that.
I only know what I have read. I have read the Semillas website. I have read the founder's pronouncements. I have read the test scores published by the State of California.
Since tax dollars are being used to fund this school, a taxpayer should be able to voice an opinion based upon the available facts.
What textbooks and materials are being used?
What assessments are used?
What are the course descriptions?
What is the school's budget? How is it allocated?
The school's administration could easily make that information available to the media for dissemination to the public.
Instead we get a puff-piece in the LA Times.
Damn, we have to train L.A. Times reporters better. Next time you question a community leader, or public official, make sure you ask who they're married to, and if they work the same place you do.
Doh!
"You can quote annecdotal instances of unhappy people in the community (who may or may not have any real facts on this school), but those elected by their peers to speak for this community have been pretty straightforward in their support, and are on record at public meetings in doing so."
ARE YOU TELLING US EVERYONE OF THE NC MEMBERS IN EL SERENO SUPPORT THIS RACIST SCHOOL?
GIVE US NAMES OF EACH SUPPORTER?
You don't move A & B students to new schools.
IF C,D,& F STUDENT HAVE NOT IMPROVED IN THREE YEARS, SEND THEM BACK TO ORIGINAL SCHOOL. WHY DO C,D,F STUDENTS WANT TO ATTEN A SCHOOL THAT HAS NO HOPE FOR THEM IN THE REAL WORLD.
Look up their agendas and minutes at LA32, they're public record, and they represent a community of 50,000 stakeholders.
They've voted to support the school and its efforts to find land for building on several occasions, with minimal opposition.
It would be easier to provide a list of NC board members who DIDN'T vote to support (if any).
2:01 PM MOVE ON ANON. HOLDING GRUDGES ON PAST HISTORY WILL ONLY FUEL HATRED AND FRUSTRATION. WHY DON'T YOU TELL THE WORLD HOW MEXICO HAD SLAVES, KILLED PEOPLE, BURNED HOMES WITH CHILDREN, AND TOOK LAND AWAY FROM PEOPLE.
2:23
You are an "F" student yourself... DAMN!
Year one, you have 80-100 students;
Year two, 120-150;
Year three, 200+
EACH year you get a new burst of students who are either NEW to this country and speaking English, or underachievers at their old school.
API scores are an AVERAGE of all student, new AND old.
The first 100 students could be GREATLY improved by now, their 3rd year at the school, and you would NEVER know by looking at one-year's test scores, because you have an AVERAGE of a different, growing number EACH year.
The AVERAGE of 2 + 2 is 2, and SO is the average of 3 + 2 + 1.
You missed the week they taught "averages" didn't ya!
2:24 PM HOW MANY COMMUNITY MEMBERS ATTEND THE MEETINGS. WHO IS THE PRESIDENT AND WHAT BACKGROUND DO ANY OF THE MEMBERS HAVE?
2:30 ITS CALLED BUSINESS! YOU DON'T KEEP WHAT DOESN'T WORK. THE SCHOOL IS A FAILURE, STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR LACK OF JUDGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE.
AVERAGES AS YOU EXPLAIN ARE CHEAP EXCUSES. IF THIS IS SO PAINFUL FOR YOU, GET OUT OF THE CHARTER BUSINESS OR CHARTER SUPPORTER.
HAVE U MET THIS AGUILAR?
I HAVE.
AGUILAR WILL BE ALLUP ON YOUR ASS IF HE WANTS SOMETHING FROM U. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING FROM HIM FORGET IT. HE HAS AN EGO SO BIG, HE CAN'T GET THROUGH THE SCHOOL'S DOUBLE DOOR MAIN ENTRANCE.
THAT A-HOLE LIVES IN ALHAMBRA AND PREACHES TO KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR LATINO KIDS? THE KIDS WILL FAIL IN SOCIETY, NOT BCUZ OF INTELLIGENCE BUT BCUZ OF GUIDANCE FROM RACIST PRINCIPAL.
Lisa from Boyle Heights,
My parents still live in Boyle Heights and I presently coach 63 kids under the age of 16. All of them are off drugs. How many kids have you kept off drugs?
Tony
2:28
It's amazing that you would term a history lesson as "holding a grudge." I guess the policy of manifest destiny in this country was nothing more than "holding a grudge." And by the way, Mexico abolished their European instituted system of slavery in 1812. More than half a century before the U.S..
Who's holding the grudge here, you or factual history?
2:42
Yeah it takes someone with a huge ego to stoop down and help out some kids. I'm sure Aguilar's ego is responsible for all this bashing, you know what egomaniacs those teacher's are. Next thing you know Aguilar's huge ego will prompt him to post here in nothing but capital letters. Moran, get a life!
According to the following link to the schools cached website, Marcos Aguilar is principal of the school as well as the treasurer on the council of trustees. Minnie Ferguson is listed as principal teacher and secretary on the council. The president of the council of trustees is listed as Maria Martinez. Does anyone know anything about her?
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:ta5moJJGZ20J:www.dignidad.org/english/governance.html+minnie+ferguson&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5
"Minnie Ferguson was born in Mexicali, Baja California Norte, Mexico. She graduated from UCLA in 1991. She received a Master's degree from the School of Urban Planning in 1993 She served as the Women's Unit Coordinator for MEChA UCLA from 1989-1991. As the Women's Unit Coordinator, Minnie organized educational forums, panels, and workshops focusing on Chicana priorities and needs at UCLA and in the community. She has researched women's materials extensively. She participated in the student and community movement for a Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at UCLA since its inception in 1988. Minnie was a peer counselor and a danzante in Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc-West Los Angeles. She took part in the 1993 student take -over of the UCLA faculty lounge and was among those arrested and detained. Later she played a crucial role as a logistical organizer and strategist during the hunger strike which followed. Currently Minnie is a teacher in a local school."
One word: "figurehead."
What do you want to bet his salary is the same now that he's "staff?"
Read the letter from the Mayor just posted on dignidad.org
So Ferguson is an illegal, too? And how much damage was she responsible for during the 1993 temper tantrum at UCLA? Did she pay any of that money back?
Imagine if descendants of southern white victims of the civil war were to set up a charter school to teach their heritage and history as victims of an opressor nation? Man you guys would be calling to close them down. And there can be a case made for some folks down south who were not slaveowners who were harmed by the US government just like the Mexicans or indians.
I know many Latinos born and raised in East LA. WE are college educated and yes did experience racism but you don't see us whining and complaining all the time and using our race as an excuse for not making it. We lived in very poor neighborhoods but made the right choices thanks to good parenting. Many of us adults now don't like the racism that this school teaches because in the real world it will hurt the kids. They won't know how to get along with people of other races and they'll grow up with a chip on their shoulder. Oh and to 2:06pm you sound like you still have a chip on your shoulder. Yes, blame LAPD for something that I'm sure you don't have all the facts. A female cop is paralyzed after being shot protecting and serving South LA from thugs and yet you won't see much of it anywhere. All these radicals always want to blame someone or something because of their failures. Using race is always the easy way out. OJ Simpson is a perfect example of that.
Let’s look at the immigration laws of Mexico:
*Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country. This ban applies, among other things, to participation in demonstrations and the expression of opinions in public about domestic politics.
*Equal employment rights are denied to immigrants, even legal ones, even those with green cards.
*Only citizens may serve in the military as officers, on airline crews , and chiefs of seaports and airports.
*Members of both houses of Congress as well as the Supreme Court must be a citizen by birth.
*Immigrants — even legal ones — may not become members of the clergy.
*Foreigners, legal or illegal, may not own land.
*Any citizen may arrest illegal immigrants and their accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities.
*Foreigners, legal or otherwise, may be expelled for any reason and without due process.
By Kaye Grogan; freelance writer who lives in Virginia
Tony,
I'm not in the same line of work.
And don't expect to be in this little stereotype box conjure up.
If this works for u, great!
My work is intervention for individuals who seek a healthy mind. Single parents, homeless kids, homeless parents, the hungry, the poor, the depressed.
I help too, if that's your concern, but I don't put anyone else's dream down. My question was meaningless, only proved you are using your life as a bar against others. You desire to see others do exactly as you have, or else they are not worthy. So narrow minded.
3:33 PM LOL. MY POSTING IS RESULT OF MY INVOLVEMENT IN MECHA MENTALITY
FYI
LAUSD has a policy that prevents the type of nepotism that is evident at Academia by the spousal relationship between the Principal and principal-teacher.
But then again it is a charter school.
It's a Mecha Academy. Just admit it.
What are complaining about?
Ponder the following if you will:
How long has CD 14 been represented by Latino? How about the State legislature? How many Latinos in the State Democratic power structure? Any Latino Congress people? How about a Latino on the LAUSD School Board? Any Latino Presidents of the School Board? Any Superintendants (District or Region? How about the County Board of Education? How about Professors at Cal State Universities and the University of California system? And what about Villar+raigosa? Any Latino County officials?
Well, what you complaining about?
Lot of ranting -- NO new facts to suggest that the school is "racist" or separatist in any way.
You lose!
Oh yeah, someone doesn't like Aguilar because he's "pushy" and lives in Alhambra.
Better lynch him - those are capital crimes.!
Minnie Ferguson is Marcos Aguilar's wife!
A Title Search on Marcos Aguilar reveals that Marcos Aguilar and Minnie Ferguson and the owners (joint tenants) on TWO homes...one in Alhambra (the mailing addrress for the school); and another one in Los Angeles 90065.
7:43 PM Nah! I'm worried he'll want to lynch me due to the color of my skin---WHITE!
Marcos Aguilar wouldn't be such an emerging cult figure with the uneducated latinoos if he couldn't keep up with whitey.
Getting paid by the taxpayers to run your own school district as a staff member and collecting $2 million a year from the state California for keeping Mexicans ignorant aint' shabby. Educating them would only decrease the wealth potential of a cash cow from his bogus school
Joseph,
I pity your own children, if you limit them in the way you suggest "poor El Sereno" children are so obviously limited. I have to wonder if that desire to limit them is racially based.
If Jaime Escalante taught us anything it's the more you expect from kids, the better they perform.
"Those kids don't need to learn advanced calculus... they can barely keep up with their own studies" -- his own coworkers said. You SHOULD be teaching them to operate a cash register or fix cars.
How many people need or use trigonometry today? 1 in a 10 million? The vast majority of the students pushed to learn it never used it again. But being pushed beyond what anyone expected of them -- to learn more than the basic CA curriculum -- brought them self-respect and confidence to take on advanced tasks in other areas.
You would be best served to keep your suspicious limitations at home.
It was sure a good thing for KABC's ratings this past week that the parent who jumped their reporter was raised in REGULAR American schools like the rest of us, or their petty story would have died on day 2.
Can you imagine if he'd been taught what his kid is learning -- the school's philosophy, from their site:
"...live in peace among the people; respect and honor everyone, do not offend them, always be calm, let others say of you what they may, end up however you may – do not claim vengeance."
Yeah, good thing they "censored" (Mayor Sam's word) THAT racist, separatist Web Site. My God, can you imagine what would happen to America (let ALONE talk radio) if this key element of their philosophy got around -- why it sounds goddamn "christian."
Just how "racist" can the guy be, married to someone named "Minnie Ferguson"??
Is someone suggesting he's in the IRA?
I agree with Joseph on limitations. I remember being in high school and being in a geography class. The students were Latinos and they complained that it was too hard and why did we need that class quote "we're never going travel anywhere." Well, I did need that class because years later my work took me to the other side of the world. Sadly, I needed a globe to see before my trip where the country I was traveling to was. I regret not focusing on those classes back then I thought I wouldn't need. The same whining happened in Art Class, Math Class, History Class, all these classes had Latino students complaining "why do we have to learn this stuff, we're never going to need it." Dumb Dumb Dumb
"If Jaime Escalante taught us anything it's the more you expect from kids, the better they perform."
JAIME ESCALANTE believes in assimilation to succeed. You know knothing of Jaime and would want him to voice out his opinion of this school.
"...live in peace among the people; respect and honor everyone, do not offend them, always be calm, let others say of you what they may, end up however you may – do not claim vengeance."
Sure, as long as your not white, black, or Asian! Marcos is racist moron.
Racist? Maybe.
Moron. I think not. Look at what he has accomplished.
The morons are the fools that have made all of this possible.
A Mexican espousing indigenous/Chicano rights plays the race game and beats the system.
Ungrateful maybe.
But not a moron.
Yes, Moron. I repeat Moron. He accomplished to be the one of the worst if not the worst school in El Sereno.
What does Diane Ravitch conclude is wrong with culturally relevant teaching? Cultural pluralism isrecognized as organizing principle, however, clashes among cultural groups can tear societies apart—RAVITCH IS against particularism, a prideful (self-esteem building) study of the students’ own culture.There is a war on Eurocentrism in history.
JAIME ESCALANTE'S OWN WORDS-
"Bilingual Education Isn't
If you immigrate to this country, you are part of the system. You have to integrate yourself into the system. And the integration path is the language. English is needed in the place of work. Instruction comes in only one language, and you must master that language. Otherwise, you are a dead fish.
Secondly, at every age, between 5 and 10 years old, it's the best age to be able to teach, because they assimilate. If you emphasize a language the kid already knows, he's not going to be able to get much English.
A kid coming from Europe or South America, whatever, it takes about three years to become proficient in English. My son came when he was 7 years old. No English. At home, no help. And he had to learn the language. In the classroom, the teacher had only one language. In three years, the kid was swimming.
Bilingual education is negative
to the students. It holds back the language. For example, people coming from Korea are successful in business. Why? They master the language. And they're the ones still working. That's the situation.
At Garfield High School, we eliminated bilingual, and that's why I had so many successes. We eliminated bilingual education, and all the scores started going up. The kids were monolingual. Otherwise, you have the right to be in that bilingual or ESL class forever.
A bilingual teacher should teach in two languages. For example, if I'm going to teach division, I should teach in one language, then repeat the same thing in another language. But here, when the bilingual teacher speaks two languages, he only teaches in one language. That's the weak point."
Darn. Marcos chose elementary charter school and brainwash 5-10 year olds. Best time to assimilate any given material. Pobre Ninos.
IT IS A LONG POST & WORTH READING.
In some public schools today, there is no American flag, there is no Pledge of Allegiance, there are no patriotic or traditional songs.
Bilingual education represents a similar rejection of the assimilative role of the American public schools. This probably explains why overwhelming majorities of the public—including immigrant parents—regularly oppose it in opinion surveys. Nonetheless, bilingual education has passionate advocates. They have resisted any efforts to diminish it, maintaining that non-English-speaking children have a right to learn in their native tongue. Advocates of bilingual education tend to support the practice of “cultural maintenance,” whereby children are shielded from the influence of the common culture in public schools, thus preserving their native cultures. To the extent that they have succeeded, they have left the public schools without a unifying mission. They deny the public schools the right or power to teach a common culture.
In New York, where bilingual education is well established, the courts rejected a legal challenge by poor parents to the state’s power to assign their children to bilingual classes. Children are assigned to bilingual classes if they score poorly on an English test or if someone in their home does not speak English. As if to emphasize its strong commitment to bilingualism, the state of New York now offers its Regents examinations for high-school graduation in Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean, and even Haitian Creole. (The students must also pass the “English language arts” Regents exam.) How such students will be able to attend an American university if they cannot handle subjects like science and mathematics in English has never been explained.
The same antiassimilative, multicultural pressures have led to the establishment of Afrocentric programs in some inner-city public schools. Three years ago, a friend in the textbook industry took me to visit several schools in Brooklyn that were using a certain reading program. In one of these schools, where the population was nearly 100 percent African-American, I was struck by the omnipresence of teaching about Africa. Every classroom that I entered, every lesson I observed, every hall display, every library exhibit, was Africa-centered. When I pointed this out to my friend, she replied that she sees this so often that she doesn’t even notice it anymore. No one in this school was teaching a common American culture.
In some public schools today, there is no American flag, there is no Pledge of Allegiance, there are no patriotic or traditional songs. Children do not learn to sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Their history lessons stress the negative issues in American history, the wrongs committed by the nation’s leaders, the victimized minorities and women who were denied equal treatment. They do not learn about the historic struggles to achieve democratic institutions. The literature lessons either are taken from textbooks, which shun the classics, or favor stories about teenagers.
As I survey the scene in American public education today, I find myself longing for schools that are willing to teach a better version of the common culture than the one I was taught. Those people who arrive here from other nations usually intend to become Americans. It is the job of the public schools to help them achieve their dream. Part of achieving this dream involves learning the English language, which is the language necessary for success in higher education and in public life. The American story—warts and all, but not warts alone—is a great story, and it should be told. It is a story of many people from many different backgrounds, races, religions, and starting points learning to live together and creating something new in the world. Children should be introduced to great and inspiring literature, not to the scraps compiled in commercial textbooks or the political doggerel of our times.
In short, the public schools should teach a common culture. However, because of the political and social trends of the past generation, they are not doing so. The burden of multiculturalism has virtually eliminated any aspiration to teach a common culture in many, if not most, public schools. The mantra of public education, it sometimes seems, is “celebrate diversity.” Is it possible to teach a common culture while celebrating diversity?
In the current education system, with the public schools committed to multiculturalism, bilingualism, and other forms of particularism, it is difficult to argue that parents should not be able to choose schools that meet their cultural needs. How can one argue that the public schools should meet the special cultural needs of some groups but not of all groups? I find myself open to arguments for choice precisely because I believe in the historical mission of public education. The idea of school choice would be far less compelling if public education were to reclaim its role as the agency responsible for transmitting the best of American culture.
–Diane Ravitch is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (Simon & Schuster, 2000).
What Marcos should have done -
Given one interview to Sandy Wells and answered his question. He could have spouted all the rah-rah raza stuff during it and spun to his heart's content.
Meet in person with Sandy when he came.
Sandy wells not attacked.
It would have been a one day story. McIntyre and his idiots would have ranted on about Marcos for a day or so, but they would have nothing else to say and would have moved on to Iraq or some other topic.
Now, Marcos in trouble.
Ultimately, he will lose his job.
Ultimately, this school will have to be closed.
Its all about the handling.
Marcos blew it.
So if anyone is pissed - be pissed at Marcos and his big ego.
In the late 1990s I visited a public elementary school in New York City where the student body included children from dozens of different countries. The principal assembled members of his staff to demonstrate to visitors how fastidiously the school was attending to the multicultural education of the children, carefully acknowledging distinctive ethnic foods, customs, and clothing. After the presentation, I asked the principal when during the school day did the students learn about becoming Americans. At first, he did not respond. Later, in the hallway, when no one else could overhear him, he told me that children “picked up” what they needed to know about being an American by osmosis.
Diane Ravitch is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (Simon & Schuster, 2000).
Ex Uno Plures
by DIANE RAVITCH
Would school choice undermine our society’s shared culture? For most of those who spend time thinking about the matter, this is a critical, even decisive, issue. Critics of choice warn that it will exacerbate segregation along racial and class lines, as students and families will tend to favor homogeneity over diversity in their choice of schools. They also fear the prospect of public funds’ going to support religious schools, especially those of the more fundamentalist or orthodox sects. The specter of this alone is enough to invalidate school choice in the eyes of many opponents. There is also always the worst-case scenario—schools run by witches or the Ku Klux Klan. To a critic, choice can only lead to the balkanization of American society...
...However, at least one of the debate’s reigning assumptions seems ripe for questioning: the idea that today’s public schools actually teach a “common culture,” a set of values and ideals that makes us uniquely American. Perhaps the current debate poses false alternatives, between public schools that teach the common culture and a choice system in which schools ignore and even disparage the common culture.
The American common school is supposed to offer the same experiences, the same curriculum, and the same opportunities to all students. At its founding, the common school was charged with teaching future American citizens a common language, a code of conduct, shared values, and common ideals. This ideal of the American common school, much prized in the abstract, runs directly counter to the idea of choice, which would tolerate and encourage schools that prize differences.
Ideology
Segregation's Resurgence
6 June 2006 @ 4:22AM >> I generally support the idea of charter schools. They allow educational experimentation, which is usually beneficial in an otherwise bureaucracy-strangled public school system.
The downside to the leniency is that it has a way of devolving into complete lack of oversight. Nothing else would explain how Marcos Aguilar ended up running the taxpayer-funded La Academia Semillas del Pueblo charter school in Los Angeles.
Principal Aguilar, who also founded school, seems proud of his contributions in the field of education. But as far as I can tell, he's using his position to preach the cause of racial separatism:
We don't necessarily want to go to White schools. What we want to do is teach ourselves, teach our children the way we have of teaching. We don't want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts. We don't need a White water fountain. So the whole issue of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all within the box of White culture and White supremacy. We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger. And ultimately the White way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction. And so it isn't about an argument of joining neo liberalism, it's about us being able, as human beings, to surpass the barrier.
Self-sufficiency is admirable, but rejecting every institution that exists in your country just to prove self-sufficiency is childish. Some of our institutions have worked quite well over time: capitalism and democracy, free markets and classical liberal governments; the fact that the United States has consistently been one of the most prosperous patches of land on the planet is no accident. Students might benefit from learning such things. Understanding what leads to success might actually help kids later in life. It's too bad Principal Aguilar's students won't be learning anything like that at his school.
By Evan Coyne Maloney
"We consider this a resistance, a starting point, like a fire in a continuous struggle for our cultural life, for our community and we hope it can influence future struggle," he said. "We hope that it can organize present struggle and that as we organize ourselves and our educational and cultural autonomy, we have the time to establish a foundation with which to continue working and impact the larger system."
WHAT STRUGGLE DOES HE HAVE IN MIND? FUTURE HAMAS LEADERS OF MEXICO IN US SOIL? A BIT EXTREME BUT TELL ME MARCOS, WHAT IS IN THAT BRAIN OF YOURS?
"We hope that it can organize present struggle and that as we organize ourselves and our educational and cultural autonomy..."
Separatism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Separatism involves setting oneself or others apart. All social groupings can be seen as a form of separatism to some extent, as they rely on a social identity that explicitly or implicitly excludes non-members; the modern nation state is one such example. However, while there is no distinction between these phenomena and separatism, the term "separatism" usually implies completely separate societies.
The term separatist movements usually refers to social movements that aspire to autonomy for a particular group of people from a dominant political institution under which they suffer
Ethnic/racial separatism
Ethnic separatism can refer to groups that attempt to separate themselves culturally and economically or racially, though not always seeking political autonomy.
STATES WITH SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS:
Mexico — States of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, the (three border states with Texas) and Chiapas
When are we going to learn that "liberal-minded" whites such as Mr. Johnson working in minority communities are just as hazardous to our education as those racist mongerers on the airwaves and throughout the U.S? "oh these poor kids, you should have seen them at this life-changing field trip." Or "if only they were to see their true potential and not spend time gangbanging or wreaking havoc on our society."
I'd rather they just say that they feel they are superior and move along hand-in-hand with their racist counterparts. After all, they do share the same blood, only difference is that their air of arrogance is not as pungent as the foul-smelling racist pigs.
Report of LEP Consortia Districts 2004-2005
LEA Information Total Students Amount
Lead 19 LOS ANGELES 66 $5,656
Lead 6473361 Acad. Semillas del Pueblo Charter
Marcos Aguilar, Administrator
4736 Huntington Drive South
Los Angeles, CA 90032
phone: (323) 225-4549 x fax: (323) 987-1240
email: principal@dignidad.org
County 19 LOS ANGELES 39 $3,342
2004-05 Title III-LEP Directory
19 LOS ANGELES 647336 Acad. Semillas del Pueblo Charter (Lead)
Contact: Marcos Aguilar, Administrator Phone: (323) 225-4549 x Pupil Count: 207
Address: 4736 Huntington Drive South Fax: (323) 987-1240
City/St/Zip: Los Angeles, CA 90032 Grant Total: $17,740.00
E-Mail: principal@dignidad.org
????? MARIA MARTINEZ, PRESIDENT ACADEMIA SEMILLLLAS PUEBLITO????
WHOS THE PRINCIPAL AND WHOS THE PRESIDENT?
Maria Martinez
Minnie Ferguson
Marcos Aguilar
Secretary Isidro Nuñez
ISIDRO RELATED TO FABIAN NUNEZ?
SGF Projects 2005
Academia Semillas del Pueblo – Southern CA
This school’s mission is to provide urban children from immigrant Native families in k-8th grades an education based on their own language and cultural values to fulfill a commitment to justice, freedom & dignity in education. They strive to provide holistic learning opportunities to overcome barriers faced by immigrant families. The school has become a center of community regeneration, hosting ceremonies and festivities for students and adults forced to leave their homelands.
"Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School is a kindergarten through eighth grade public school dedicated to providing urban children of immigrant native families an excellent education founded upon their own language, cultural values and global realities." 11/26/2003, Education, Charter schools, Alternative Education, , , , , , , , , , , , , Academia Semillas del Pueblo, , , , , , , , ,
This idiot hates whiite people but I bet he likes our jobs...money...cars...TV receivers...telephones...computers...airplanes...none of which was invented by MEXICANS or smartazz MEChA Marxist communist uneducated teachers!
To Mr. Arrogant,
When the "La Potemkin Village" for Aztlan opens. There may be a spot for you as the "Minister of Re-Education" Further maybe you can incoporate the teachings of MLK. Then you can judge the content of your character.
2:01
Your quote indicates the exclusive nature of this school.
For immigrants, about immigrants, but citizens pick up the check.
And don't even ask if the "immigrant Native" (oxymoron?) are legal.
I say pack it up and re-establish it in Mr. Aguilar's hometown and let Mexico pay for it.
Baja California Norte Mexico?
SGF Projects 2005
Academia Semillas del Pueblo
http://www.7genfund.org/proj-support05.html
How did Cortez with a handful of soldiers succeed in conquesting all Mexico? The Aztecs were so repressive that the subjugated feudal tribes rebelled and allied with the Spanish that perceived them less oppresive than the Aztec empire.
Mexico was a failed colony of Spain long before its gained its independence. Few people realize that Mexico had nearly as made rulers than Haiti in its first 100 years of independance. President Polk was prudent despite all his failings of the Mexican War not to attempt a regime change south of the border.
My guess is that by 2013, Iragis will be living under a far more stable and democratic regime that has ever existed in Mexico. Seventy rulers in Mexico in 100 years only illustrates the instability of this nation.
If Mexicans who immigrate to the Unites States really love their homeland they go back home rebel there and set up a more democratic government rather than try to force warped perceptions of Mexican rule here. If they want to become Americans stay here and act as Americans not as the fifth column of saboteurs.
Mexicans unlike the Palestinians have had a national state for more than 180 years. Its time Mexicans colletively get their act together and get rid of the corruption down there than whine how the United States does give them more rights for the most part as illegal aliens.
Funding Results
Title II, Part D, Enhancing Education Through Technology (Formula
CDS Code County Name LEA Name FY 2002-03 Final Grant Award FY 2003-04 Final Grant Award FY 2004-05 Final Grant Award FY 2005-06 Initial Grant Award
19-64733-6119929 Los Angeles Academia Semillas del Pueblo $0 $2,256 $2,492 $1,726
"I add here in case you want to let U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Denny Hastert know what you think about a La Raza, MeCHA, and U.S. taxpayers-supported racist, discriminatory, separatist charter school in California's Los Angeles Unified School District.
In case you don't know, all money bills---budgets, funding, appropriations---originate in the U.S. House of Representatives---which is Hastert's purview as Speaker of the House. Or---put another way---as honcho-in-chief, he be da man. The House Appropriations Committee is probably the most powerful in the House and seats on that Committee are coveted."
DC Address:
The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert United States House of Representatives
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-1314
DC Phone: 202-225-2976 DC
Fax: 202-225-0697
Email Address: http://www.house.gov/hastert/write1.shtml
Website: http://www.house.gov/hastert/
REYNALDO MACIAS
RUDY ACUNA
http://lmri.ucsb.edu/pipermail/aera-hispanic/1998-May.txt
2:15 PM
Thomas Alva Edison, who was born Tomas Edison Alba was born in Mexico in 1847.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006052418151
The concept of zero was also born in Mexico, which is exactly the extent of your knowledge = zero.
All things being equal, Pancho Villa & Emiliano Zapata would have ran circles around all of the generals that have led the U.S. in its history.
And that is precisely the thing that you feel threatened by, which is knowing that if we are given the resources and if we ever get to play on an "even playing field" with you, we would run circles around you as well and YOU would become second-class citizens. We will outwit you and certainly outwork you. This is why you hold on to that ace-in-the-hole card by controlling the communication mediums and why you continously spread images of us being lazy, dangerous, and hot-blooded. Say it enough times and people start to believe it, particularly to ignorant people.
We are here and YOU, my friends, must accept that reality.
IF you are so concerned with your tax dollars being spent, why aren't you concerned with all of the following abuses of taxes that dwarf the monies given to this tiny, puny school you are so adamantly concerned with? It just comes down to your innate racist and hateful tendencies and insecurities. Grandma Muffy and Grandpa Jethro would be proud.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg1840.cfm
Not worried about tax money. Worried about racist pigs like you.
There is a rumor that Edison was actually born in Mexico, based on his middle name Alva. However, Alva was the name of a family friend, Captain Bradley.
Doesn't look too Aztec to me.
Zapata and Villa would have been able to accomplish much more than they did if the former hadn't been offed by a bunch of moron bounty hunters and the latter hadn't been taking a siesta in his car when someone decided to put a bullet in him.
We can but dream of those unrealized glories.
About the history of the concept of zero, anonymous 6:01 PM seems to have left a few pertinent details out.
Speaking of Fabian Nunez, here he is publically showing contempt for the U.S. flag and National Anthem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgbCB8QlQWw
Porfavor Gil,
If California was Mexico, oh pleeaaassseee.
Chicklets anyone?
6:01pm
check your facts you idiot
the reporter is too dumb to even get the name of the street right. there is no "Huntington Avenue". the school is on "Huntington DRIVE"... Huntington Drive South, a frontage street, to be exact.
Shut the school down! Property values will go down! No racist school allowed!
Oh please! We have so many different diverse types of schools in the United States, Muslim, Asian, ect... and so many religious organizations, some private some publicly funded. Why make such a big deal out of this one. I heard on the news the other day aabout Muslim Schools possibly teaching children to hate the U.S.A. in our own Country, the U.S.A. Why isn't that KABC guy also upset about that, why is he not pursuing that agenda. I am not for any racist school I don't believe they should exist in this century. However, it seems as though people complaining to loudly about "the Mexican School" may need to visit "the Museum of Tolerance", if it still exits. It may be a long lost idea tha tdid not work.
ANON. YOU'RE RIGHT. LET'S NOT COMPLAIN. ALL MR. AGUILAR DID WAS SAY THIS-----------
"We don't necessarily want to go to White schools. What we want to do is teach ourselves, teach our children the way we have of teaching. We don't want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts. We don't need a White water fountain. So the whole issue of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all within the box of White culture and White supremacy. We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger. And ultimately the White way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction. And so it isn't about an argument of joining neo liberalism, it's about us being able, as human beings, to surpass the barrier."
WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL. HE HATES Q-TIPS. SO WHAT!
"Scott Johnson, I bet you don't live in Lincoln Heights anymore."
Marcos Aguilar, I bet you NEVER lived in Lincoln Heights, oh wait, you live in Alhambra.
Yuppie Town.
Alhambra, of course!
Don't want to live on one of those Pampers strewn streets decorated with the local placas.
Will the myth of the Noble Savage ever be put to rest?
Peace and harmony with the Earth and all living things. Right.
My ancestors came from northern Mexico. The stories have been passed down from my great-grandfather's time of the Apaches and their raids. According to the oral history, it was preferable to have been killed than to be taken captive by the Apache.
No disrespect intended to the present day Native Americans.
Goober,
As of Mar. 2005, the school's own web site listed Marcos Aguilar as Principal and Minnie Ferguson as "Principal Teacher." The school's attempt at covering its tracks hasn't worked out that well, has it?
TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charter school not racist!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a proud parent and staff member of Academia Semillas del Pueblo, I urge you to check on your facts before running articles regarding things about which you have no clue.
As I am reading your article on our school with information provided by Doug McIntyre, the facts are simply not correct! For one, I am American, and a person's race should have nothing to do with their right to a decent education. I have two children here, and I am an employee here as well. Teaching a person about his or her culture has nothing to do with racism. The only racist I see in this situation is KABC!
Parents have a choice to bring their children here as we are a public charter school, and there is no recruitment process based on race or cultural beliefs. If you are a parent who cares about your child's education, then you are welcome here, plain and simple.
Beverly E. Pancake
http://worldnetdaily.com/letters.asp
Beverly,
As a parent you are free to choose your child's school, even if it has lower test scores than the neighboring schools. You have a right to choose to have them learn their "indigenous Native" culture, language,and history.
What most people are objecting to is a taxpayer supported school that espouses a separatist credo that is evident in the founder's words, and in the subtext on the school's website. In my curiosity, I visited the website. I read the indigenous myth that was posted on the website about how "Eagles Learned to Fly." It was a clearly teaching that to "fly" you must be with your own kind. I was astounded that this fable would be taught to children in an "inclusive" school.
Supporters of this school are upset that it has come under scrutiny, but if this charter were to substitute "White" or "Christian" for "indigenous Native", then how would the public,the media and elected officials react? Instead, the critics of a failing institution are labelled "racists."
Similarly, people are choosing to overlook or downplay the significance of the social/political movement behind this school. It's all about "La Raza."The Race" in English. Or "La Raza de Bronze"The Bronze Race."
This politcal mindset results in the following motto:
"Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada."
It's really not too difficult to understand why citizens would be concerned in this case.
Beverly Pancake is staff member at Semillas? Orale!
Beverly get back to work pronto porfavor! Start your chant.
"Marcos is my God, Marcos the Eagle, Marcos is my God, Marcos the Eagle"
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