The War Report on Public Education, June 26, 2016
The War Report on Public Education with James Avington Miller, Jr., Ph.D
Guest, John Sheffield
John has a lengthy employment history in the field of education. Professionally, he has taught for twenty-four years in the public school system mainly in grades six through eight with a focus on mathematics. His experience with public school students has ranged from the typical classroom setting to inclusion situations to special education and co-teaching as well as small group academic intervention.
John was employed in the juvenile justice system as a county probation officer and by the New York State Division for Youth as a teacher of incarcerated youth. Additionally, he has teaching experience at the primary grade levels, BOCES experience, employment in both day care and adult education settings, and a decade of experience teaching summer school. He currently teaches mathematics to special education students in grades six through eight and instructs AIS in mathematics to seventh and eighth grade students.
John's strengths encompass communication, understanding, and compassion. Whether it has been adjusting a lesson on the fly or finding alternative means of communicating a concept or idea, he has always done so in a positive manner. John has publicly addressed boards of education as well as parent and community groups and has always received positive feedback.
John has written essays, papers, and articles and is know for his depth of understanding, historical perspectives, amount of supportive research, and his ability to explain things that may be considered complex in ways that are clear and easily discernible. He is one of “the best” when it comes to establishing relationships with students and their parents.
John is actively involved in the Opt Out movement in New York State and has applied to the Board of Regents.
Guest, Dr Stephen Krashen
Stephen Krashen completed his Ph.D. in Linguistics at UCLA (1972), and is currently an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Krashen is the author of more than 250 articles and books in the fields of bilingual education, neurolinguistics, second language acquisition and literacy. His publications have received numerous awards:
He was the winner of the 1982 Mildenberger Award, given for his book, Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning (Prentice-Hall).
He was co-winner of the Pimsleur Award, given by the American Council of Foreign Language Teachers for the best published article in 1985.
His 1986 paper "Lateralisation, language learning and the critical period" was selected as Citation Class by Current Contents.
In 1993 the Distinguished Presentation related to School Library Media Centers,was awarded by editors of the School Library Media Annual.
The War Report on Public Education
The format of THE WAR REPORT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION explores one of the most important events in our life time - the total takeover of our educational system by corporate interests. This show is about the 'corporate' war on public education and the rising public resistance movement to the war. Dr. James Avington Miller, Jr. invites guests from all over who join the rising public resistance movement against the corporate greed taking on our public school system. He is interested in growing a grass-roots movement here in the United States and in Europe against the 'corporate interests' that are limiting both teachers and students everywhere.
This October 2015 he is taking his show on the road as he embarks on a very special project. His long awaited project ‘The People’s Story' is an effort to reach out to those individuals whose voices are not being heard in educational arenas everywhere. He will be interviewing, filming and collecting stories from parents, teachers, students and community members in the rural and urban areas of the Eastern United States to include Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington D.C. Many lives are being impacted and harmed by the ongoing corporate war on public education that exists today. The consequence of the rapid privatization of our schools is inhumane and devastating to our teachers, schools and most importantly, our children.
His primary mission is to create a documentary/television series for PBS and the Arts & Entertainment Channel that will expose the human cost of man’s inhumanity to man. The objective is to document people’s stories from each state and create a one hour TV Episode for that state evolving into a 30-35 part series. Dr. Miller expects to have the first TV show ready by next summer. This will propel the ‘corporate war on public education’ front and center as a local, state and national campaign issue. Determined to awaken the world on a national level by providing a series of programs that will lead to understanding the whole picture – he hopes to demand an end to the Corporate Elite and their destruction of public education.
Dr. Miller is seeking funding for ‘The People’s Story’ project from friends, family and the public to cover the expenses that this will entail. If you care about the future of education, please support this most important project and be part of history in the making. This has been and will continue to be Dr. Miller's dream to complete and certainly his life's legacy.
