Category Archives: Education

Hillsdale College Constitution 101 course starts Monday.

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Hillsdale College Campus

Hillsdale College in Michigan is starting up a free basic online course on the Constitution on Monday, February 24. Potential students can per-register now.

These courses are non-credit courses which are based on the curriculum that the resident students must take in order to graduate. These are great extra-study courses for high school students and students of other colleges.

These well-done courses consist of video lectures and downloads from their Constitutional Reader and other sources. The course covers the Constitution in the view of the founders through their words and the government-approved Federalist Papers.

The course is complete with examinations and you even receive a certificate of completion for the courses.

Upon completion, there is a Constitution 201 course available. They also have two history courses and a new economics course.

The course comes in ten weekly sections with a video about 45-minutes long. The reading depends on how much time you devote. If you want a good understanding of the Constitution, this is about the best ten weeks you can spend.

Secret Location of ‘King David’s Castle’ to be Revealed

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A major archaeological find points to a Davidic royal castle in Nahal Refaim. Location was secret, until now.

img472277The location of a major archaeological find that was kept secret until now will be revealed to the public on Friday, next week. The find is being touted as a royal castle that could have belonged to Israel’s most celebrated king – the Bible’s King David.

The find is a decorated carved stone known as “a proto-aeolic capital” that is connected to a column. Only 30 such capitals have been found in Israel so far, and only five of them were found in areas in which Biblical-era kings lived.

Unlike all of the other proto-aeolic capitals found in Israel – this one is not separate from the column but connected to it. The weight of the column and capital are estimated to be about five tons.

“For reasons that are not completely clear,” wrote newspaper Makor Rishon when the find was first announced, “several authorities in Israel have decided to silence the find, which may mark a breakthrough in the perception of the period of King David and his son, Shlomo [Solomon], and of the entire Judean kingdom.”

Read more at Arutz Sheva 7

The Kiss of Life

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by Rocco Morabito

thompson-67This 1967 award-winning photo entitled “Kiss of Life” shows two power linemen, Randall Champion and J. D. Thompson, at the top of a utility pole. They had been performing routine maintenance when Champion brushed one of the high voltage lines at the very top. These are the lines that can be heard “singing” with electricity. Over 4000 volts entered Champion’s body and instantly stopped his heart (an electric chair uses about 2000 volts).

His safety harness prevented a fall, and Thompson, who had been ascending below him, quickly reached him and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was unable to perform CPR given the circumstances, but continued breathing into Champion’s lungs until he felt a slight pulse, then unbuckled his harness and descended with him on his shoulder.

Thompson and another worker administered CPR on the ground, and Champion was moderately revived by the time paramedics arrived. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Thompson is still living.

Rocco Morabito (November 2, 1920 – April 5, 2009) was an American photographer who spent the majority of his career at the Jacksonville Journal.

Morabito won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for “The Kiss of Life”, a Jacksonville Journal photo that showed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation between two workers on a utility pole. Randall G. Champion was unconscious and hanging upside down after contacting a high voltage line; fellow lineman J.D. Thompson revived him while strapped to the pole by the waist. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64; Thompson is still living. The photograph was published in newspapers around the world.

He served in World War II in the Army Air Forces as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17. He returned after the war and worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982. He died on April 5, 2009 while in hospice care.—WikiPedia

SEE ALSO: The Kiss of Life, 40 years later, 10 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photos And Their Stories

Arizona Department of Education barred by judge from taking funding back from charters

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State education officials have been blocked by a judge from taking nearly $5.9 million away from charter schools.

In an order released Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink said the state Department of Education may not demand refunds from charter schools which the state said had been given more state aid than they should have received.

Fink acknowledged the position of education agency that schools should not get money to which they were not entitled. He said that, on some level, it makes sense for the state to be able to get back the excess, no matter how long it takes.

But Fink said it would be unfair to take money from schools years later.

“Under the department’s interpretation, the effect of a shortfall is felt not by those pupils who benefited from the original excess funding, by a new cohort who received no benefit yet much now suffer the detriment,” Fink wrote.

Read more at The East Valley Tribune

Daniel Boone: Trailblazer. Full movie.

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YouTube: Set in 1775, Daniel Boone takes his family far West to build Fort Boone despite the extreme dangers of Indian attacks. Boone explained his courage: “It isn’t how you die, it’s what you live for.”

This old movie probably led a series of television programs hosted by Uncle Walt.

Eventually a six-year television series staring Fess Paker, Patricia Blair and Ed Ames ran from 1964. This show launched the career of many an actor. The show is currently being run on the Memorable Entertainment (ME) television network.

More movies at OldiesGoodiesCinema

Kindergarten teacher accused of removing female student’s shirt

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1-16-14-THOMAS-WALTER-WASHBURN-T045180_030000MESA, Ariz. — A Mesa kindergarten teacher was arrested Wednesday and booked for 25 counts of indecent exposure and one count of child abuse stemming from an incident in his classroom.

Thomas Washburn, 54, teaches kindergarten at Adams Elementary School in Mesa where the incident occurred on Wednesday.

The victim, a 6-year-old female, was in class with 24 classmates.

Washburn was reportedly upset and shouting in the class causing the victim to hide her face in the top of her shirt.

The victim’s mother described her daughter as “developmentally delayed” due to being born prematurely.

Read more and see video at AZFamily

County Superintendent of Schools Recruitment open

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County Board of Supervisors seeking applicants until Jan. 29

FLAGSTAFF—The Coconino County Board of Supervisors has accepted the resignation of County Superintendent of Schools Robert Kelty and has begun the open recruitment.

To ensure a smooth transition in leadership within the Superintendent of Schools Office, Kelty’s resignation is effective when the Board fills the position. Kelty, who was appointed by the Board in August 2010 and was elected to a full term in 2012, is leaving to become Regional Managing Director for Alumni and Diversity Affairs with Teach for America.

According to state statute, the Board is required to appoint a new Superintendent of Schools. The individual selected by the Board will serve until Dec. 31, 2014.

Applications will be accepted Jan. 10 through Jan. 29. The open recruitment process for the position will include an interview with the Board of Supervisors and a public forum, which will be held in early February. The Board hopes to appoint a new superintendent by mid-February.

Those interested in applying must possess a current Arizona teaching certificate and be registered to vote within Coconino County. The Board has also set the following desired qualifications, including:

• Higher level education certificate (education administration).
• An understanding of school finance issues at a global level.
• Ability to interact with the County Treasurer’s Office, Elections Office and other county departments.
• Ability to work well with the County’s school districts, schools, administrators and parents.
• An understanding of alternative teaching methods; juvenile and adult detention programs.
• Strong project management, communication and administrative skills.
• Active with the Arizona Association of Counties (AACo) and understanding of the Arizona State Legislature.
• An understanding of school governing board appointment process.
• Willing to travel and learn about county communities.
• An understanding of the Accommodation School District governing board; monthly meetings.
• An understanding of technology.
• A positive attitude.

For additional information, call Joanne Keene in the County Manager’s Office at 928-679-7134 or visit www.coconino.az.gov to submit a resume and letter of interest to the Board of Supervisors. Material can also be sent to the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, 219 E. Cherry Ave., Flagstaff, AZ 86001.

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamations

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By the President of the United States of America.

Proclamation 118 – Thanksgiving Day, 1864
October 20, 1864

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
The American President Project

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

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Thanksgiving Proclamation

Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go. Washington

The Heritage Foundation