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Building Administrators Making a Difference in Public Education in GA - Chris Lindsey     “Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.”  Chris Lindsey heard that from his Dad at least a million times, and has made the biblical saying a key pillar in his beliefs and methods.  Mr. Lindsey has been Principal of George Washington Carver High School in Columbus GA since August 2005.  His Dad, Dr. Eddie T. Lindsey Sr. began his teaching career at Carver in the 1950’s, and in 1975 was appointed as the first black Assistant Superintendent in Muscogee County.  Chris’ Mom taught PE in the District until her retirement, and his older brother Eddie Jr. is Principal at Key Elementary School in Columbus.  Both sons were expected to do well in school, earn a college degree and put their educational achievements to use helping others in the community.  “Dad told us the keys to success began with education and expectations.  He was a role model f

Common Core and the Titanic     Common Core is a standardized national curriculum.  You might debate the difference in standards and curriculum till the cows come home, but when the standards drive textbook production and, in systems starved financially by the cumulative effects of years of austerity cuts, are used by classroom teachers to develop daily lesson plans, the standards become the curriculum.  The debate over whether or not the standards are curriculum is a diversion to distract parents from the real issue of Federal intrusion into what is a state issue.      From an historical context, a centralized school curriculum serves the goals of totalitarian states.  It’s also illegal.  The General Education Provisions Act, the Department of Education Organization Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act all forbid or protect against the USDOE sticking its nose into the curriculum choices of state and local districts.  In spite of this, the USDOE funded the efforts