Successful Outreach Event Generates Sentinel Hit Piece
The Keene Sentinel was out today covering the Keene Middle School outreach event. I sat and spoke with Josh, a new reporter at the Keene Sentinel for about 20 minutes, and I did my best to explain the reason for reaching out to the middle school kids. There seem to be a few discrepancies in his story vs our discussion, so I’ve marked a few very minor corrections in red:
Free Staters protest Liberty Outreach at Keene Middle School
*
Updated June 4, 9 p.m.
By JOSH STILTS
Sentinel Staff
Published: Friday, June 04, 2010
Police were on hand called by school officials, Friday as about a dozen six members participants of the Free State Project stood outside Keene Middle School at school’s end, holding banners and signs that read “FreeKeene.com” and “School sucks project.”
It was the second time this week the protesters had shown up as students were leaving school.
On Tuesday, Free Keene member blogger Sam E. Miller Dodson stood outside the school on Washington Street by himself, holding a similar sign. He dropped the sign after was attacked when a parent, unable to control his anger, hit his hand holding the sign, Miller Dodson said, and a student ran off with it encouraged by the juvenile behavior of the parent, ran up – snatched the sign from his hand and ran away to rip it in half. Miller Dodson said he needed reinforcements. called for nearby police out of concern that pro-government media sources would use the event to skew the facts and warp reality in support of the state that licenses and feeds them news content.
When Dodson called for Police, several of the 40 or so students watching the encounter started yelling “Snitch!”, just like they do in prisons, which are run by the same organization.
“We want to reach out to the kids and show them what they’re being taught isn’t true, isn’t the only truth out there.” Miller Dodson said. “I don’t think it’s fair that I have to pay for kids to go to a ruined failed school system.”
Miller Dodson said privatizing the education system would create opportunities for children to learn in a way that best suits them as opposed to being forced to learn in just one style.
“The government is letting these kids down,” he said. “Private education based on performance instead of test s results would give students the best chance to learn.”
So far the some students haven’t agreed with the protesters. While others have waved at activists from classrooms and shouted “Free Keene” while waving from departing buses.
“They haven’t been here and don’t know what they’re talking about,” Kelly Choate, a 7th-grade student, said. “Clearly their middle school experience wasn’t a positive one.”
Many of the students simply ignored the group and walked around them, while others accepted fliers, asked questions, and engaged in discussions with activists. Maxwell Cooper, an 8th-grade student, said he didn’t understand them.
One angry parent approached Dodson to return a flier. When Dodson explained he hadn’t handed anything out, she threw it at him and stormed off.
“They’re wasting their time,” Cooper said. “No one’s going to listen to them. They’re not even explaining what they’re talking about.”
Cooper, along with Choate and two other students, Erick Meyarrose, an 8th-grade student, and Mahad Ahmad, a 6th-grader, sat and watched the protesters activists as they waited for rides home.
Whether it has a n short term effect or not, Miller Dodson said nothing is going to stop him and others from trying to make a difference in the education system explaining the reasons government education is a failure and a flawed idea that costs over $16,400 per student/per year.
“We need to take education out of the government’s hands,” he said. “The more money thrown at it, the worse it becomes.”
More protests outreach events are expected, he said.
Josh Stilts can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1433, or jstilts@keenesentinel.com
This, ladies and gentlemen, is why traditional main stream media is dying a slow and painful death.
Comments
30 Comments on Successful Outreach Event Generates Sentinel Hit Piece
Typos: “wave”, not “waive”.
Good job. Never trust the traditional media to give an accurate report.
It’s amazing how changing a few words can send a totally different message. If we can’t trust the government or the press, we’ll have to fall back on our unfallable religious texts.
Typo: “40 or so studients”
That wasn’t a hit piece. Compared to what it could have been, it seemed like a very positive article. Good work Sam.
Well, he tried I guess.
Reporters just aren’t concerned with facts.
“They’re wasting their time,” Cooper said. “No one’s going to listen to them. They’re not even explaining what they’re talking about.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^———- false.
You guys changed my life.
Without video, it didnt happen.
Sorry guys, but if you dont have video of things going down, then people are never going to believe you.
Frankly, I do not think that there is much of a debate about the quality of Public “Education” in America. Whether we characterize it as failed, broken, or room for improvement; there has been a perpetual effort on the part of Public Education and Government Leaders in all Parties to improve it. Obviously, the aforementioned would be hard pressed to identify the improvements.
As a casual observer of the School Sucks Project, I think that it would be helpful if statements like “Private education based on performance instead of test results would give students the best chance to learn” would be explained. In other words, how will you measure performance? In addition, it would be helpful if there were two or three flagship alternatives to Public Education that were working well. As Denzel Washington said, “explain to me as if I were a six year old”.
What if a private shool was “visited” by persons advocating for public schools? Do I have your permission, Sam, to carry a sign outside *YOUR HOUSE*, asking you to send all your kids to *OUR* *”Public Schools”*(superflous quotation marks(sic)). May I stand outside your kids’ school, or your place of work, or residence, and PROTEST YOU???…May I visit your home, at my usual, State appointed time -( O’dark:30 ), and pass out fliers, hold signs, and use a bullhorn – just like Mr. Rich “420″ Paul???…Hey, dude, at least I’m asking permission. If you’re a light sleeper, and you don’t, can’t, or won’t wear earmuffs, you wouldn’t call the cops on me, if I woke you up at O’dark:30???…GOOD!….you’re learnin’, punkass, yur lerning!…NOW, ya’ll done got on da KINGS bad side. Ya’ll done committed an act of (un)armed aggression against *MY* ALMA MATER! I didn’t spend 5 F***ing years attending KMS fer nuttin’ Ask Mr. Pike, or Charles Larracey, or ain’t ya’ll ne’er heard tell of ‘em???…KIDS, you done stepped in it now. You forgot the 1st rule of surviving the jungle of Jumanjiville! DON’T F**K WITH THE NATIVES!…and if you f**k with our *KIDS*…well, if I were you, I’d keep *2* bug-out bags, and spare gas in *MY* car…Fer safety’s sake, doncha’ know???…~tKoK~.AY-YUH!…
For the Public Record: theKINGofKEENE’s “real name” is *FENWICK SNADE*!…stuff *THAT* in your Funk & Wagnalls & smoke it, Mr. Rich “bullshithorn” Paul……..tKoK…
KOK — these people are forced to pay for the school.
If I were to force you to pay for my home, you’d have every right to protest on my lawn. If you were forced to pay for a private school, you’d have every right to protest it too.
If the people running the school wish to be left alone, I suggest they stop paying for it with stolen money.
Love the changes, nice. What are the chances they get printed in the paper, lol. I’m hoping to edit the video from the one curious middle schooler that asked Ian some great questions today.
@Sam: Sounds like it was moderately successful. Great work, and sorry to hear about the bully.
@Doug: I think there are a few examples that the counter-schooling advocates could list that would probably meet most rational standards for schooling, but why not consider what could be done if schooling weren’t largely cartelized by the State?
If we look to the past to see what it might have to offer in the way of suggestion for alternatives to State dominated education, we would see the “dame’s schools” and “common day schools”, what were later termed as ‘working class schools’. These working class schools existed in working class neighborhoods and were organized by working class families and achieved precisely what was needed by the community– the customers, in some sense, because this was all a mutually arranged, often horizontal effort where no one was forced in– basic skills like reading, writing, arithmatic, and a near universal ommission of any sort of religious study, focusing specifically on the needs of the student to succeed in whatever trade, skill, or study they choose. Naturally, as students, parents, and teachers all had a say in what the education being given and received was going to be built around, students were genuinely interested in learning, parents were seeing their children become successful individuals, and teachers weren’t limited to whatever the curricula that might be otherwise forced onto them.
In England, where the only formal study was done on these types of educations, estimates of attendance swing between 130,000 and 575,000. Around a quarter of the children who were elementary school aged attended these working class schools when the Education Act of 1870 was passed. When contrasted with other private schools, its defining characteristics was the calculation of fees, which typically ran for 8-10 pence a week. Aside from being self-financed, they were not subject to the intrusions of the education establishment. The schools always responded to the needs and demands from below, and not the dictate of supply from above. Unforutunately, these educational opportunities were lost to the steady erosion of crowding out effects from taxpayer funded schooling and the general hostility of the educational establishment towards any “unsanctioned” organizations that didn’t preach the official creed.
In a more modern and contemporary setting, the advance of technology and the growth of networked computer technology still now offers opportunities with the availability of endless resources on the Internet. Two strong cases for such educations would be built on what learn and derive from Wikiversity and MIT’s Open Courseware project. In certain subjects, the best texts ever compiled are available online in the public domain, or are widely available on file-sharing and open source textbook projects. If I might add in my own anecdote to this, I have probably learned more from downloading or just outright buying what texts, documentaries, and audiobooks interested me then what I learned in my 16 years of “schooling”. When I was in high school and college, I loathed anything even remotely related to math, the use of symbols (Ampere’s circuital law? I would have shot myself if I had taken anything related to physics in college), and incomprehensible and counter-intuitive jargon, but now I’m pretty well knowledged in most basic physics, driven by my own interest and desire to learn.
Once we discard the dated notion of schools as institutions run by “the professionals,” and of education as an activity that takes place in a building that seems to be a distant cousin of some Stalinist architecture under the supervision of these professionals, the opportunity to link individual learners to sources of knowledge are practically limitless.
Socialist Sleepover:
Regarding your comment, “I think there are a few examples that the counter-schooling advocates could list that would probably meet most rational standards for schooling, but why not consider what could be done if schooling weren’t largely cartelized by the State?”, what is the downside of identifying and sharing the examples.
So that there is no misunderstanding, I am an advocate of the School Sucks Project, however; I think that there would be more advocates if the Project would list a few examples of “counter-schooling” success stories and if comments like “what could be done if schooling weren’t largely cartelized by the State?” would be explained. Again, pretend that I am a six year old. .
typo
When Dodson called for Police, several of the 40 or so studients watching the encounter started yelling “Snitch!”, just like they do in prisons, which are run by the same organization.
studients
What’s amazing is how consistently propagandistic most mainstream news articles (as demonstrated above) *without* forcing all reporters in the country to attend special Orwellian training and participate in a grand conspiracy. It’s as if human beings simply had a survival instinct to please their masters and serve power.
Wow, amazing what a bad job that news agency did on the story. Thanks for the corrections.
Terrible, biased news article.
sucks I missed being out there. I’m surprised you got such a reaction from a parent of all people. I guess they’re scared that some of these kids may break free of the programing. Once I’m back in Keene, I’ll be out for more school outreach.
Did police not come to at least file a report after Sam was assaulted? What sort of example does this parent think he/she is setting for the child? Attack those who have ideas contrary to your own?
Hey-back off-that is the American way! OOPS-that is the problem-never mind! —bil
As someone who lived in the only ’state’(Alaska) to consider dropping No Child Left Behind funding, let me tell the tale of establishing standardized state testing, as a measure of education.
When the act first came to the front, the state moved to a state standard testing system that was both neutral to both rural and urban parts of the state. Understand that some folks in the ‘bush’ don’t know what a computer is so making a math problem ‘John has a computer and spends 2 hours a day on it. He spends 3 days a week on it. How many hours does John use the computer in a week?’, wouldn’t make sense to someone who hasn’t ever seen a computer. The first test run through of tenth graders state wide lead to a 40 percent success rate, the rural schools did better then urban schools on a per student basis.
What did you think the state’s board of education do with these standards? Teach to them? No, instead they dumbed it down. The next year the next group of tenth graders scored 60 percent. Was this good enough? No, we need to do better, lets teach to these standards. Did it happen? No, the test was dumbed down again. The next year the next group of tenth graders were tested. Did you know that statewide 80 percent of them passed? Did the board of education keep these standards? No, of course not, they again dumbed the test down, though this time they caught flack from parents. The next round of test takers scored 90 percent as a whole, and that’s where the standards remain today.
I’m a home schooling parent, my idea of an educated child is much less then most people. It is my idea that once a child can read, write, and do simple math, that he ought to be placed in charge of his own education, he ought to be allowed to pursue what he chooses to pursue, or even to choose not to pursue anything further, because that is a choice as well.
I have taught myself more then any teacher can have claimed to teach me. My education, partly, has come due to market demands. As a electronics salesman, I taught myself more about percentages then any teacher taught me about the subject. Managing money I self taught as well as the market need arose, if you don’t have any money left, you’ll not be able to buy things.
The fact that children are enslaved in indoctrination camps for the better part of 10 years is horrible. Learning facts that aren’t true, such as Columbus discovered the America’s, and then later finding out, no, he didn’t, Lief Erikson did. Learning that the founding fathers were good people, nevermind that Samuel Adams didn’t believe in property rights as much as most did since he destroyed the tea during the Boston Tea party. Learning phonics instead of the older method of sight reading, incidentally, had I know it was so hard to teach kids phonics, I’d probably started with sight reading instead. I could cite more examples of government school problems, but they have enough problems right now.
Just yesterday I heard a group of teachers talking about how this teacher received a second pinkslip and most likely wouldn’t be returning next fall and how all the teachers with seniority were staffing the best schools leaving the worse schools to the less senior teachers. Their concerns on how they would see increases in their class sizes this year. All of this because the group of people who represent them, namely the NEA has raised their pay rate to beyond the means that the people are willing to pay. I can teach my son on less then $3K a year, but they spend $15K to teach other kids the same thing I’m teaching my son.
It is crazy to me to see a starting teacher getting $29K the first year, and $80K the twentieth year for doing the same exact job, you’d almost never see this in the private sector. They reward teachers to stay in the job, no matter the productivity that they do. If you fail to move up you are stuck at the same rate of pay. It is the incentive of more pay to move up that drives employees to better themselves or their work.
The reason you won’t hear a lot about what we would do different is due partly in that most of us don’t want the job of educating our kids, after all we have to work long hours to just keep food on the table and roof over our heads, educating our children is hard work too.
If I was in charge of a private school, and I mostly am as a home-school parent, I’d establish employee standard review. Every month my staff would be appraised based upon their productivity. That is how many students passed the school’s monthly exams. The staff would receive a base pay, and would receive a bonus to their pay, an amount to be paid per child who passed and penalized for each child who didn’t pass. Those who consistently failed to have passing students would be asked to leave or be required to meet some goals that would help them to be better educators on their own dime.
I’d also allow staff to defend themselves against students who were just cruising through school, such students wouldn’t be allowed at my private school, but then again I’d put the cost of education on the student rather then a third party so that only those who wanted to learn would be in my school in the first place. Staff would be able to defend themselves though keeping a record of their attempts to educate a child. My son is difficult to teach sometimes, he may have ADD, as I was or another learning difficultly as my wife has, and I want those who like to educate to educate.
My school would be formed around what works, such as educators specializing in areas, rather then being general educators. Allowing educators to develop their own curriculum, and assisting in establishing testing standards. I’d also involve parents more, or at least give them the option, through the use of technologies that already exist in the marketplace. I’d get rid of mandatory homework, instead making it optional, of course those who needed it would do it since they are after all paying for it, those who didn’t need it wouldn’t have to. I’d also use technology to decrease the amount of time educators spend outside of the classroom. Educating should be done in the classroom and you shouldn’t have to take your job home with you.
Rather poor editing job, fella… Sorry, but thank the lord you don’t write for newpapers…..Imagine slogging through this….The young reporters work further laden with lame wording…activist for protester? … Come-on…If your going to write, be a good wordsmith…Short, concise, accurate…. Really now.
I do like the fact you and yours were called “snitches” by 40 students, a rich fact left out in the Sentinel piece.
Interesting you had to call the city police to protect you from middle schoolers and irate parants…Beware of the Soccer Moms!
If you want to put your views in the Sentinel, please consider their Community Voices column option, but please, make it well-written.
—-Social Democrat
Hello Social Democrat,
Since words are so silly, can you tell me what I was protesting against?
I was there engaging in outreach to share the ideas of Free Keene and School Sucks Project with the kids. To have them question the things they have been told by the school.
As for the Snitch comment, I was happy to hear it at first, but later I was overcome with sadness. I realized small children being forced into an environment where they respond the same way prisoners, is because they are being treated similarly in both environments. Nothing says quality education quite like that.
If you put the bottle down, you may realize I called police because of people like you stretching the truth to fit your wold view. I could have caught the kid, taken back my sign, and left him alone. No telling how the bureaucrats would exaggerate that, so I let the cops handle it.
Now here’s a question, seeing as how this happened in front of the teachers and administrators, on school property, was he disciplined for it? What if he did that to teachers protesting too small of a pay raise?
I didn’t put my views in the Sentinel, the Sentinel did (or at least my comments that supported their viewpoint)
Take a look at the results, not a single comment on their story so far. While here there are over 20 comments, discussing the various issues addressed in the story. Which one was more effective? Which one caused people to examine their own beliefs and share them with others? Which one presented a one sided view?
Social Democrat,
Thanks for reading and posting here.
“Interesting you had to call the city police to protect you from middle schoolers and irate parants…Beware of the Soccer Moms!”
I think Sam did the absolute best thing. Although legally he would have been justified in using force to get his property back (both morally and under state law – see http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LXII/627/627-8.htm) the problem exists that inherently what people like Sam are doing make them targets for retribution from the government.
Sam also is very correct about the similarities between prisons and schools. The design and methods of administration are all about control.
Again, thanks for being here.
- Brad
I just find it ironic the police were there for your protection… And they did protect you… Doesn’t that say something about their role being fulfilled?
Also, you edited the piece, making it read like one of those old communist pamphlets… Very dry reading… I prefer the Sentinel’s version…
You are correct to include the excluded the “snitches” observation… I laud you for that…Not to mention you excercising your free speech.
For your offending the community-at-large, you do contribute to the marketplace of ideas…For that I thank you.
—SD
I must point out the fact that nearly every person I have talked to participating in activism around Keene does not denounce the need for some type of protection service. I believe the problem lies in being pressured into supporting one specific service which accountability is severely lacking..
While out socializing, Sinclair Lewis was once approached by a stranger asking for his signature. Lewis scribbled something down, and the autograph-seeker departed, somewhat red-faced.
The next night, Lewis appeared in the lead role of an adaptation of his novel It Can’t Happen Here. After the performance, an usher handed Lewis a note from a member of the audience. There was the note he had written the night before: “Why can’t you find a hobby that doesn’t annoy other people?”
Otherwise, quoted without comment:
Social Democrat on Sun, 6th Jun 2010 2:06 pm
“Come-on…If your going to write, be a good wordsmith…”
Social Democrat,
We certainly do need protection, to stop those who would harm innocents or their property. This aspect of what police do is a genuine service. The problem is that people are forced to pay for it, whether they want to or not, and not allowed to select alternatives. This reduces accountability.
If you find that the police are acting in a way you believe is immoral — if you believe they are not effective, or not efficient, you should have the right to select an alternative.
Personally, I would like to switch my funding to a police force focused strictly on stopping those who harm persons or property, rather than the enforcement of arbitrary regulations and victimless offences. If I were to choose to do this with my own money, however, they would threaten to send men with guns to take my home away, or otherwise harm me.
This is the behavior of a protection racket, not a legitimate organization.
Social Democrat,
If you are truly here to question the voluntaryists/ancaps’ beliefs, then you should at least understand what those beliefs are. You obviously have very little understanding of voluntaryism and simply hold it to your own worldview with little to no logical consistency. I suggest you youtube the voluntaryist vs socialist debate on youtube if you are truly trying to question/understand the philosophy. However, if you are just here to troll, you are wasting your time. Just saying someone’s beliefs are wrong without any logical/reasonable proof is a waste of everyones time and close-minded. You will convince no one of your ideals, except those who wish to remain oblivious.
Thanks for posting though. It creates discussion and allows us to logically explain our points of view.
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Supporters of
Recent Forum Topics- NH: Gandhi expert warns against in-system activism September 2, 2010
- Video on nonviolence that I liked, fairly fact driven September 1, 2010
- Hi everybody! September 1, 2010
- KPD/Staties to setup checkpoints September 1, 2010
- 5th Live Free Or Die Rally photo's links September 1, 2010
- consciencious objection... August 31, 2010
- Department of Justice Lists Constitutionalists in Extremism Guide August 31, 2010
- The end of silver price manipulation? August 31, 2010
- shire silver mentioned in an article I found August 31, 2010
- hi keene! just a thought. August 30, 2010
- Recent Forum Posts
- Re: Catherine Bleish trial? September 2, 2010
- Re: Catherine Bleish trial? September 2, 2010
- Re: Video on nonviolence that I liked, fairly fact driven September 2, 2010
- Re: Video on nonviolence that I liked, fairly fact driven September 2, 2010
- Video on nonviolence that I liked, fairly fact driven September 1, 2010
- Re: KPD/Staties to setup checkpoints September 1, 2010
- Re: Hi everybody! September 1, 2010
- Re: KPD/Staties to setup checkpoints September 1, 2010
- Re: Hi everybody! September 1, 2010
- Re: Catherine Bleish trial? September 1, 2010