Teachers on Twitter have been using the hashtags #FergusonSyllabus and #FergusonResources. Credit for the #FergusonSyllabus is given in the compiled resources document itself to @DrMChatelain.
This compilation appears to have been started months ago by “@dankrutka“; most recently passed around in November. Revisit this tweet below after you read the rest of the article. Then ask yourself, Laugh or cry?
Most good teaching is common sense. Explore applicable, stimulating topics. Support & push each other. Be respectful & kind. #edchat — Dan Krutka, PhD (@dankrutka) June 10, 2014
These alleged educators are seeing ‘teachable moments’ in the Ferguson situation. Examples of how to ‘teach’ about Ferguson include ideas and resources like:
“Child-friendly version of the UN Declaration of Human Rights”
“Book : “Our Enemies in Blue” by Kristian Williams”
Documents and films on the Black Panther Party
The YouTube video ‘Hey White People: A Kinda Awkward Note to America by #Ferguson Kids’ by FCKH8.com
A couple of entries comparing Ferguson to the Boston Tea party.
Boiled down — Most of these ‘teachable moments’ are focused on race. Not a single one, as of the publishing of this article, was on how the justice system or Grand Jury system actually works. What is offered instead is a distinctly biased lesson option:
Students will explore their ideas about fairness in the American criminal justice system and the role of race and ethnicity by analyzing the depiction of the Amadou Diallo shooting inBruce Springsteen’s song “American Skin (41 Shots).”
The bulk of the resources collected were themes like ‘white privilege’ and how it brought about Ferguson. Several compared Ferguson’s riots to the Boston Tea Party.
One has to shake their head at any educator who thinks that is in any way, shape or form a valid comparison to make — or even think about making.
Seriously, what planet do you come from when you compare looting, arson and property damage from a Grand Jury decision to protesting taxation without representation by dumping tea in a harbor?
Just to illustrate the absurdity of such a comparison, here is Ferguson vs. Boston, which asked ‘When is rioting justified?’ Be sure to read the whole page.
I wonder how many parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan know the author of this lessons is a “concrete artist turned teacher” who thinks his job is “to create subversive citizens who will question the status quo and bring justice and equality to the world.”?
If I was a parent and this was my kid’s teacher, they’d be homeschooled from then on.
On this Thanksgiving Day, we’re supposed to take stock of how blessed we are. We’re supposed to be thankful for our health, for our families and for what we have. Sadly, some in our nation are ‘thankful’ for what they took from others through an abused definition of ‘justice’.
‘Mostly peaceful’ protests, except for those who were injured or wounded.
This is why we cannot have nice things. These tweets contain a scant few of the images and video captured. Twitter is littered with them.
Burning cars, burning and looting stores, tear gas, rioting. I hope the mainstream media is pleased with themselves. Coverage I watched for a brief time was borderline glee filled.
That sentiment of being pleased with themselves goes double for the shameless media attention seekers like the North Carolina based ‘Moral Monday’. Nice job pulling stunts like at Wal-Mart stores.
What does Wal-mart have to do with this? How is this seeking justice exactly? How is this ‘moral’? It’s not. It’s exploitation of a situation.
How many of the ‘peaceful’ protesters were among those cleaning up the next day?
How many of the media who circled like vultures put down their cameras and picking up brooms?
Take heart. All is not lost, as evidenced by those who did come out the next morning to clean up in Ferguson and elsewhere. Volunteers even came out to the Cake shop from the tweet above and helped the owner get things back in order.
This Thanksgiving, we should be thankful citizens like those cleaning up in Ferguson exist. Perhaps, by cleaning up yet again, they are the ones truly protesting.
If you enjoyed this article, you should really check out other pieces written by Da Tech Guy’s Magnificent Seven writers and maybe hit that tip jar!
A.P. Dillon (Lady Liberty 1885), is a Conservative minded wife and mother living in the Triangle area of North Carolina. A.P. Dillon founded the blog LadyLiberty1885.com in 2009. After the 2012 election, she added an Instapundit style blog called The ConMom Blog. Mrs. Dillon recently participated in Glenn Beck’sWe Will Not Conform. Mrs. Dillon’s writing, in addition to Da Tech Guy’s Magnificent 7, can also be found at StopCommonCoreNC.org, WatchdogWireNC and WizBang. Non-political writing projects include science fiction novellas that are, as of yet, unpublished. Her current writing project is a children’s book series.
“Brat says, Common Core “violates the teacher-pupil relationship, just as Obamacare violated the doctor-patient relationship.” – Daily Caller, Meet the Freshman who Defeated Eric Cantor
“The PARCC test is neither valid nor reliable as a measure. And the reason for that is that it has never been given to a large population. So we’re paying to have a private testing company norm their instrument on the backs of Illinois students. That’s a big problem.” – Washington Post, A damning account of one state’s Common Core testing initiative
“The uptick in homeschooling has become a trend across the nation over the past couple of years, even in states like New York and California,” Wright said. “Americans have rejected the Common Core initiative because they are tired of unaccountable federal bureaucracy, especially when it comes to their child’s education, and because they are seeing first-hand the poor quality and content of the Standards that are meant to prepare children for the workforce instead of giving them a well-rounded, superior education.” -Fox News, Opposition to Common Core spurs jump in homeschooling
In 1995, Director Bryan Singer brought the gritty, twisted, and intelligently devised film The Usual Suspects to the screen, introducing us to the elusive character “Keyser Soze”. Throughout the film, the plot continuously reinforces Soze’s status and identity as legendary, mythical and ruthless. He was portrayed as a villain to some, feared and respected, to others a principled archetypal hero, and to some a made up boogeyman. In the end, with the “reveal” we learn his identity, only to watch Soze fade into the shadows once again. It is a complete dramatic Hollywood style ending. Soze becomes legend, a ghost, but most importantly, he became a great idea.
Today, social media has its own Keyser Soze. He’s not the ruthless brutal murderer from the movie, but the anonymous ghost, feared adversary, and avenger that Soze represented. He is called a criminal by those he targets, a vigilante by some of his peers, has a plethora of imitators, and hundreds of individuals who seem hell-bent on revealing who he really is. One thing is certain; the impact he has made online. His followers and friends who support him number in the tens of thousands and if ever asked who he is to them, many would use the term “inspiration” and “patriot” in their descriptions. Through his anonymity, he typifies the idea of Keyser Soze.
Five years ago, a very real man began a specific mission of taking down and disrupting Jihadist websites. According to his own bio, he is a former soldier from a very specialized U.S. military unit, who served in and around the battle theater of Afghanistan. Using his talent for coding he created a custom-made DOS tool called XerXeS (I don’t understand coding, so for info links on it and all references see links below story). He began ruthlessly pursuing, disrupting, as well as collecting Intel on various Jihadist sites.
Then, on December 19, 2009 describing himself as a Hacktivist for good, “The Jester” on Twitter was born. With his identity not known, nor his persona recognizable, (though I suspect his deep inner circle knows better) he began using the social media site to announce his actions and reasons for his mission. I found an interesting article from January 2010 written by Richard Stiennon that includes one of Jester’s first tweets as well as biographical information provided by Jester himself via email:
Terrorist are utilizing internet technologies to recruit, propagate, and co-ordinate. I exist in shadow to disrupt their online activity.
That was the beginning of Jester’s exploits into the bowels of the internet. Over the next five years he would claim victory or TANGO DOWN over the jihadists online, but they weren’t his only targets. Some other notable characters and groups drawing the interest and ire of this man were as follows:
Julian Assange of Wiki leaks,
Westboro Baptist Church (This one is my personal favorite!)
Edward Snowden
Anonymous, LulzSec, Occupy Wall Street also garnered disruption and DOXING
In return, some of these groups retaliated against him as well. Attempted identity reveals, alleged criminal activity, and DDOS attacks on his Blog. Then there are the TROLLS, who I am sure he has lost count of. If you have followed Jester on Twitter, you’ll recognize the video below he often posts after warning some of these individuals he is on to them:
So, now we get to my part in this story. To begin, let me start by stating this is NOT AN EXPOSE, so to those out there wishing to get some tidbit of info on his identity…Good luck with that! Though there has been five years of articles and questions…such as: Why does he do it? Why do so many follow him, imitate him (notice the name on Twitter is JΞSTΞR ✪ ACTUAL™), hate him and troll him? Who is he? Will he ever be identified? This is not an autobiography. I wont be going into detail regarding Jester. I can only answer one question of my own, and ask one question: Who I see him as, and What’s with this countdown to his 10,000th tweet? But I digress…
I started following Jester on Twitter shortly after BlogCon 2013 in Dallas. I’d over heard a conversation mentioning his name so I asked who he was? The reply was simple: ‘One of the good guys‘. So over the last year or so I’d reply to, or re-tweet what he would place on his timeline. Ultimately he started following me as well. I became one of his 1337 “Tweeps” whom he follows (more on that later). It wasn’t until the horrifying beheading of James Foley that I directly involved myself in Jester’s particular mission of stopping the jihad propaganda machine. (I wrote about it back in August and the link to the story is provided below.) Since then, I have been an active friend and have enjoyed seeing his conversations pop up on my timeline.
So my question…who do I see him as?
Well not as an archetypal hero though some consider him one. It’s more that I see him as a normal person who does unconventional archetypal heroic acts. He does have a skill set that is perfectly honed to this and I appreciate his intelligence. However, I also see him as flawed like all of us which makes him relate-able, fun and sometimes frustrating. If he’s anything like me, there may be crude jokes, possible vices like drinking, smoking, swearing like a sailor (or Marine), the occasional hubris that ultimately will rub people the wrong way. Hey, he has done a lot of things to be touted as pretty cool. I can be arrogant occasionally, and really, who doesn’t act like that sometimes? I don’t want the people I surround myself with to be boring, but I’m not into hero-worship. We all can do great things, and we all can make mistakes in the process. One thing I will admit is I love his tastes in music. They mirror my own as a former 80’s rocker chick. One of his favorite bands to post videos from, AC/DC (Jester would say he “suffers from or prefers the term OC/DC….it’s similar, but it ROCKS!”) gets my attention on a regular basis. Lastly I see him as a patriot. He started his Jester persona as a way to combat terrorism on his terms. He supports America’s military and her allies without compromise. Posting their triumphs often accompanied by the military tribute video Thunder Struck, (yes by AC/DC) on his timeline.
I don’t know who he is. I joked one time with him that he was a reincarnation of Billy the Kid. Considering he has his location on twitter in Lincoln County, I thought it appropriate. After all, William Bonney is buried in Lincoln County, New Mexico (my home state). I do know that to this day, there is only one known video of him out there…and it was done for a most honorable reason: An Ice Bucket Challenge that Jester did for one of his twitter fans. His words:
“Yes it occured. I broke rank & did the #ALSIceBucketChallenge to raise awareness/money for the ALS Assoc.”
*I am sure Julian and Eddie have just been too busy begging for asylum to respond.
So, as I mentioned earlier, I’m one of 1337 followers that Jester has chosen to follow. He may block one from that list, but always seems to add one to keep the same number. (I think I figured out the reason why; Leet-Speak or 1337 is an alternative alphabet for the English language on the internet used by “Elite” hackers. i.e: Jesters handle is th3j35t3r.) Let’s say mystery solved on that one.
So what’s this countdown to his 10,000th tweet and does it have anything to do with the five-year anniversary coming up on December 19, 2014? That’s my question and the reason for the story. Speculation is running a little wild, and some have concluded that Jester is going to retire. I wouldn’t blame him if he did. From my own personal experience during the ISIS Media Black out, in order to alert, flag, and block the videos showing the beheading of James Foley, I had to first watch them. Seeing over and over the depravity, and evil of that act was sickening. I can’t imagine what J has seen over five years hiding in the dark web. What does that do to a person? Even one who is trained and dedicated to their mission? Also, how do you live a life of absolute anonymity? Better question…How do you have a life under that constraint? I can’t answer that.
So, to conclude, I think the answer will be known on December 20th, 2014. What ever he decides I wish him well. He may still be around and tweeting or maybe he’ll announce a new endeavor is coming up. Maybe he decides retirement is what he wants an disappears once his “mission” is completed. Who knows, 30 some odd year’s from now an old man will take to what ever media outlet technology has to offer, and tells a journalist “I was Jester” like in the movie Young Guns II.
Or maybe…on the 20th we will look to our news-feed……..
For those paying attention to the increasing intrusion and overreach by the federal government into education, the following link should really set your hair on fire:
The following quote is pulled from the section entitled, ““Phasing out” State Authority for Special Education”:
The Secretary will amend the regulations governing title I, part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA), to phase out the authority of States to define modified academic achievement standards and develop alternate assessments based on those modified academic achievement standards in order to satisfy ESEA accountability requirements.
The NCLB waivers which lead to ESEA waivers, when boiled down, are being used by the federal government to control the states on education.
I have it on good authority that NC’s Superintendent intends to push for the ‘fast track’ the re-authorization of North Carolina’s ESEA waiver.
The deadline of which is January 2015. With only one State Board of Education meeting between now and then, it looks like Dr. Atkinson hopes to just ram this thing through.
The choice seems to be that NC either gives up the ESEA waiver and be subject to NCLB sanctions or give the state will have to give up our Title One money.
Either way, the Fed is still lording over North Carolina. Either way, say ‘Bye-Bye’ more of our state’s sovereignty.
Two blips for the radar for parents and taxpayers in Wake County this week. 1. The Wake County School Board has rejected any changes to their controversial reassignment plan, despite very vocal opposition from residents and parents. More at News and Observer Ed section. Money quote:
“I’m having problems forcing this change,” said school board member Susan Evans.
Susan Evans said she would prefer to reduce overcrowding by encouraging attendance at under-enrolled schools – such as West Cary Middle, which is in central Cary, and East Cary Middle – by giving them special programs or making them magnet schools.
“Once we get past the 2015-2016 school year, nothing is off the table,” she said. “We’ll be looking at all kinds of things in the future.”
Cary gets what Cary wants.
Apex and Holly Springs? You can just suck it up. It’s only another reassignment on top of the 2013-14 student assignment plan being the third plan in as many years. Remember citizen, don’t you yell at Susan Evans, she has her own agenda to think about:
“We’re not going to stand here tonight and tell you OK because you yell at us – we’re going to change that,” said board member Sue Evans to the crowd of more than 300 parents.
2. Wake County School Board is instituting a new program with regard to technology devices. Just my opinion here, but parents should be asking to see the privacy policy and network security for Wake Public Schools involved before signing on to this.
“The policy needs to become up to date with reality. The policy needs to put in place appropriate security, needs to put in place appropriate responsibility from the student and appropriate guidance for teachers and administration to make sure the use is constructive and not disruptive,” said Dr. Jim Martin, WCPSS chair of policy committee.” – Central NC TWC News
LL1885 
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