Template blogger gratis yang banyak tersedia di internet kadang tidak memiliki pilihan untuk menambah widget dibagian atas dibawah header. Hal ini sebenarnya disebabkan ada pembatasan pada perintah XML yang dibuat oleh si pembuat template tersebut. Alasan dibatasi ini mungkin agar tampilan template sesuai dengan keinginan pembuatnya.
Hanya saja kita kadang ingin menambahkan widget dibagian atas, bisa untuk memasang link adsense atau menambah menu model horizontal. Beberapa kawan menanyakan hal ini karena saat ingin memasang menu horizontal yang ada di ateonsoft.com tidak bisa disebabkan hal ini. Bagaimana solusinya? Ganti template?
Dalam belajar ngeblog jangan mudah putus asa, dalam mengatasi masalah ini tidak perlu ganti template, karena mungkin template yang anda gunakan saat ini adalah template kesayangan anda. Untuk menambahkannya hanya memerlukan langkah mudah dibawah ini:
Pada edit HTML, cari kode dibawah ini:
'Sedikit saya jelaskan mengenai perintah XML yang value-nya saya warnai merah diatas.
| maxwidgets | Jumlah maksimal dari widget dibagian "section" tersebut, dalam hal ini adalah section atau bagian header. |
| showaddelement | Pada elemen halaman biasanya pada tiap "section" ada pilihan "tambah widget". Perintah ini untuk mengatur apakah penambahan widget pada section tersebut diperbolehkan atau tidak. |
| locked | Mengatur apakah widget dikunci atau tidak. Jika dikunci maka widget tidak dapat dipindah dengan cara "drag and droup", dan biasanya tampilannya akan lain dengan widget biasa. Jika tidak dikunci maka sebaliknya. |
Saya rasa penjelasannya sudah cukup jelas, dan kembali pada cara menambah widget header, silahkan anda ganti kode diatas sesuai keinginan anda. Misalnya seperti dibawah ini:
'Jumlah maxwidgets bisa anda atur sesuai keinginan, atau jika ingin tanpa pengaturan sama sekali hapus saja perintah pengaturannya seperti dibawah ini:
'
Untuk melihat apakah efek pengubahan kode silahkan menuju elemen halaman dan lihat apakah pada bagian header sudah bisa ditambahkan widget baru.
Semoga bermanfaat .
READ MORE - Cara menambah widget header pada template blogspot
 Despite recent setbacks, the Farc is not a spent force, correspondents say |
Seven Colombian soldiers have been killed and four wounded in an ambush by left-wing rebels in the south-west of the country.
Rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) launched the attack overnight between Saturday and Sunday, a regional official said.
It came just over a week after the Farc killed eight soldiers in the north-east, near the border with Venezuela.
The attacks are seen evidence that the group is not a spent force.
Fabio Trujillo, a top official in Narino region, confirmed the ambush in the rural district of Samaniego.
An explosive device was set off at almost the same time near the police quarters, wounding two officers, he said.
President Alvaro Uribe condemned the attack.
Safe havens
The Farc has suffered a series of reversals recently, including the death of leader and founder Manuel Marulanda last year.
But the BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia says the rebels appear to be regrouping and retaking the initiative after six years on the back foot.
The new leader, Alfonso Cano, has given the Farc a new vision, he says, directing the rebels towards urban centres and launching more rural ambushes.
Both this weekend's attack and the one in the north-east late last month happened near Colombia's borders.
The rebels are using the border areas as safe havens from which to plan and execute attacks, out of reach of the security forces, our correspondent says.
Narino, near Colombia's border with Ecuador, is also home to the densest concentration of drug crops in the country.
The Farc and other armed groups have profited from the drug trade in Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine.
READ MORE - Colombian troops killed in ambush
A top US military commander has announced a review into the American use of air strikes in Afghanistan.
Gen David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, said "tactical actions" should not undermine strategic goals.
His comments came after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said US air strikes that kill civilians were damaging the fight against terrorism.
Washington again expressed regret over recent civilian deaths, but refused to rule out such strikes in the future.
On Sunday, hundreds of university students in the Afghan capital, Kabul, protested against air strikes last week targeting Taleban fighters in the western Farah province.
Afghan sources said nearly 150 had been killed, but that figure has been disputed by the US.
 |  The massacre of civilians by the American forces is a crime that our people will never forget  |
Afghanistan is a top foreign policy priority for US President Barack Obama's administration, with US forces fighting an increasingly violent insurgency by Taleban forces.
The US is sending 21,000 additional troops to the country, to join an existing force of 38,000.
Gen Petraeus, who is responsible for US operations in the region, told Fox News television that he had named a brigadier general "with extensive experience in conventional and special operations" to go to Afghanistan and look at the issue "more broadly".
He said the unnamed military officer would serve to ensure that "our tactical actions don't undermine our strategic goals and objectives".
"That's essentially the conversation that President Karzai and I had yesterday on this particular topic," he added.
Gen Petraeus also said the Taleban bore "enormous blame" for firing on US troops from the protection of houses, and said the militants appeared to have forced civilians to stay in the homes.
'Fed up'
Speaking after talks with the German chancellor in Berlin, Mr Karzai said civilian deaths had to be avoided.
"Civilian casualties, of course, is a very serious matter for the Afghan people, (it) also is a serious matter for our allies," Mr Karzai said at the news conference.
"It's something that the Afghan people want to be addressed effectively and sooner."
In the protest in Kabul, students held up banners including one that called America "the biggest terrorist in the world".
 Students in Kabul called for those responsible to be put on trial |
The protesters also called for those responsible for the deaths to be put on trial.
"Our people are fed up with Taleban beheadings and suicide bombings. On the other hand, the massacre of civilians by the American forces is a crime that our people will never forget," a statement quoted by AFP news agency said.
President Obama's National Security Adviser, Gen James Jones, said the US would "redouble" efforts to limit civilian deaths, but added that it could not hamper its forces in Afghanistan by banning air strikes.
"We can't fight with one hand tied behind our back," General he told ABC television.
Last week, Mr Karzai urged the US to stop the use of such strikes
The air strike in Farah province overshadowed a summit on Wednesday between the President Barack Obama, Mr Karzai, and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari.
Pakistani forces are currently engaged in fierce fighting with Taleban insurgents in the north-west of the country.
READ MORE - US to review Afghan air strikes
PREPARED Doctors wearing protective gear with a possible flu patient in Mexico City.
By
CARL ZIMMER Evolutionary biology may sometimes seem like an arcane academic pursuit, but just try telling that to Gavin Smith, a virologist at Hong Kong University. For the past week, Dr. Smith and six other experts on influenza in Hong Kong, Arizona, California and Britain have been furiously analyzing the new swine flu to figure out how and when it evolved.
Skip to next paragraph 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
H1N1 An image of the newly identified swine flu virus. Partly because they can mutate very fast and can mix genes, viruses are turning out to be astonishingly diverse.
The first viruses from the outbreak were isolated late last month, but Dr. Smith and his colleagues report on their Web site that the most recent common ancestor of the new viruses existed 6 to 11 months ago. “It could just have been going under the radar,” Dr. Smith said.
The current outbreak shows how complex and mysterious the evolution of viruses is. That complexity and mystery are all the more remarkable because a virus is life reduced to its essentials. A human influenza virus, for example, is a protein shell measuring about five-millionths of an inch across, with 10 genes inside. (We have about 20,000.)
Some viruses use DNA, like we do, to encode their genes. Others, like the influenza virus, use single-strand RNA. But viruses all have one thing in common, said Roland Wolkowicz, a molecular virologist at San Diego State University: they all reproduce by disintegrating and then reforming.
A human flu virus, for example, latches onto a cell in the lining of the nose or throat. It manipulates a receptor on the cell so that the cell engulfs it, whereupon the virus’s genes are released from its protein shell. The host cell begins making genes and proteins that spontaneously assemble into new viruses. “No other entity out there is able to do that,” Dr. Wolkowicz said. “To me, this is what defines a virus.”
The sheer number of viruses on Earth is beyond our ability to imagine. “In a small drop of water there are a billion viruses,” Dr. Wolkowicz said. Virologists have estimated that there are a million trillion trillion viruses in the world’s oceans.
Viruses are also turning out to be astonishingly diverse. Shannon Williamson of the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., has been analyzing the genes of ocean viruses. A tank of 100 to 200 liters of sea water may hold 100,000 genetically distinct viruses. “We’re just scratching the surface of virus diversity,” Dr. Williamson said. “I think we’re going to be continually surprised.”
Viruses are diverse because they can mutate very fast and can mix genes. They sometimes pick up genes from their hosts, and they can swap genes with other viruses. Some viruses, including flu viruses, carry out a kind of mixing known as reassortment. If two different flu viruses infect the same cell, the new copies of their genes get jumbled up as new viruses are assembled.
Viruses were probably infecting the earliest primordial microbes. “I believe viruses have been around forever,” Dr. Wolkowicz said.
As new hosts have evolved, some viruses have adapted to them. Birds, for example, became the main host for influenza viruses. Many birds infected with flu viruses do not get sick. The viruses replicate in the gut and are shed with the birds’ droppings.
A quarter of birds typically carry two or more strains of flu at the same time, allowing the viruses to mix their genes into a genetic blur. “Birds are constantly mixing up the constellation of these viruses,” said David Spiro of the J. Craig Venter Institute.
From birds, flu viruses have moved to animals, including pigs, horses and humans. Other viruses, like H.I.V. and SARS, have also managed to jump into our species, but many others have failed. “It’s a very rare event when a virus creates a new epidemic in another species,” said Colin Parrish of Cornell University. In Southeast Asia, for example, a strain of bird flu has killed hundreds of people in recent years, but it cannot seem to move easily from human to human.
Only a few strains of influenza have managed to become true human viruses in the past century. To make the transition, the viruses have to adapt to their new host. Their gene-building enzymes have evolved to run at top speed at human body temperature, for example, which is a few degrees cooler than a bird’s.
Influenza viruses also moved from bird guts to human airways. That shift also required flu viruses to spread in a new way: in the droplets we release in our coughs and sneezes.
“If the virus settles down on the floor, then it’s gone,” said Peter Palese, chairman of microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Winter is flu season in the United States, probably because dry air enables the virus-laden droplets to float longer.
Up to a fifth of all Americans become infected each flu season, and 36,000 die. During that time, the flu virus continues to evolve. The surface proteins change shape, allowing the viruses to evade the immune systems and resist antiflu drugs.
News Analysis. Microsoft is smartly using April 30's Windows 7 Release Candidate release to MSDN and TechNet to prelaunch the new operating system.
There is just so much about Windows 7 marketing that reminds me of Windows 95. Perhaps most important is product evangelism, which if done right should be easier now than 14 years ago. Way back, enthusiasts gathered on AOL, bulletin boards, CompuServe, IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and Internet newsgroups. Today's communities are bigger and more consolidated than in the mid-1990s.
GOT A TIP OR RUMOR?
Not since Windows 95 have I seen Microsoft push marketing, end-user and partner outreach so aggressively so soon in the development process. Clearly, Microsoft is committed to making Windows 7 a success in all the ways Windows Vista couldn't be. For their marketing and partner value, some resources stand out, such as Web resources "Talking About Windows" and "Ready. Set. 7."
"Talking About Windows" is a new Website that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Windows 7 from the Microsoft engineers who helped build the product as well as showcasing real IT professionals talking candidly about their implementations and experiences in considering a more modern OS. This is done through a series of videos hosted on the Talking About Windows Website. "Ready. Set. 7." showcases Microsoft partner solutions, through videos, for Windows 7.
These and other larger marketing efforts are the air cover. Microsoft's more effective marketing will come from blogs, Twitter and social networking services. But that's a topic I don't have time for in this post. For now: Enthusiasts are the best marketers. Microsoft is right to go for them.
For Apple, the days of reckoning will be many, and they start today. Macs had a good market-share run in 2007 and 2008. Apple's "Get a Mac" ads effectively marketed its computers during a time when Microsoft didn't advertise Windows and there was so much grassroots countermarketing against Vista. Today, Microsoft has got effective marketing, the sizzling hot (my fingers are burning on the keyboard) Windows 7 and a community of grassroots supporters. I predict that Microsoft will own holiday 2009. Sorry, Apple.
But evangelism doesn't just happen. Nurturing is needed, and that's what Microsoft so effectively has done since Windows 7 Beta 1 was released on Jan. 9, almost five months ago. But the coordinated effort going on now is simply breathtaking for its scope—and, I predict, its effectiveness.
Apple will lose the PC market-share war, as the marching Windows 7 horde overruns the Mac camp. The question: Will Windows 7 be Microsoft's last campaign? Windows 7 represents the PC, which is computing's past. The mobile phone, where Apple has the increasingly popular App Store, is the future. But that's another topic I don't have time for today.
Running Windows 7 Release Candidate
None of this evangelism could be effective without a good product, and Windows 7 is just that. There has never been a better Windows operating system, and Windows 7 is sure to give Mac OS X a deserved kick in the butt. I ran Beta 1 since early January until Tuesday, April 28, when I moved to the release candidate. On April 6, I blogged about how, in part because of Windows 7, I switched to a Sony Vaio from a MacBook.
Here, I want to give some first impressions of the release candidate. I would write more, but I'm unusually rushed today. I'll explain why in the post that follows this one.
My initial reaction to the release candidate isn't as good as to the beta, although I'm more satisfied today than on Tuesday. My upgrade took about 4.5 hours. I wanted to upgrade from Windows Vista Business, which meant backing up my data, restoring the laptop to factory settings and upgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate. A clean install would likely have taken about 30 minutes.
I installed Seven on a Sony Vaio VGN-Z590, with 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 13.1-inch LED backlit display with 1600-by-900 resolution, 256MB Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics, 3GB of DDR3 (double data rate 3) memory, 320GB hard drive, DVD burner, fingerprint reader, Wi-Fi and Sprint 3G modem. The computer had a Windows Experience Index of 4.4 before and after the upgrade, but some component ratings changed, possibly because of hardware drivers. The 2.4GHz processor rating went up to 5.8 from 5.3, while memory dropped from 5.9 to 5.5.
The upgrade portion took about 2.5 hours, which is much longer than I expected. Suspected reason: updates. Early on in the process, the upgrade moved back to Windows Business Service Pack 1 to download and apply 45 updates. This surprised me. I suspect that a fully updated Vista installation would upgrade much faster.
I got some unexpected surprises when Windows 7 booted up for the first time. The system performance wasn't nearly as snappy as it had been running Beta 1. Maybe there was search indexing or other optimization features running. I will say that System Idle Process is much more active now than with the beta. What's going on with the kernel? Disk activity is increased, and the laptop's fan runs more frequently. I haven't looked at logs or done any real tests to see what's going on in the background. Perhaps some drivers need updating.
Performance is much better today than two days ago, but there are hesitations in the user interface that are Vista ghosts in the machine. The Beta 1 UI was snappy and applications switched smoothly. There are little annoyances that are just that, and they're decreasing. I would still recommend Windows 7 over Vista or even Mac OS X Leopard.
Windows 7 features some surprising desktop backgrounds that can only be described as charming, comic or colorful. The provided Aero Themes, desktop backgrounds and user control over translucency don't just allow for personalization. Other Windows versions have had garish personalization. Windows 7 creates a pleasant working environment, and the UI looks better the higher the screen resolution. The 13 new audio themes sound delightful. Microsoft made personalization one of the design priorities for the UI, but done tastefully for the first time in any Windows version.
Overall, my initial reaction to the RC is quite good. It's in some ways unfair to compare the release candidate with the beta. I'm as committed as ever to running Windows 7 as my primary operating system. Later today, my daughter will switch from a MacBook to Sony Vaio VGN-CR290. That laptop requires 64-bit Windows 7, which I don't yet have.
Windows XP Mode Security
This morning, eWEEK published my news analysis about Windows 7 RC availability. Yesterday, April 29, another story highlighted 10 things to expect from Windows 7.
The first story includes some detail about Windows XP Mode, which deserves further consideration. Yesterday I spoke with Jeff Price, senior director for the Windows ecosystem team, about the new feature, which for compatibility purposes provides a virtualized Windows XP environment for running older applications.
XPM comprises "both the underlying virtualization layer that has been updated for Windows 7 as well as a pre-built [version] of Windows XP SP3," Jeff said. He asserted that XPM "sets us up for a smoother migration experience for customers, because it allows them to carry forward compatibility with some older XP apps that provides a good transition experience as they're moving to Windows 7."
Microsoft is releasing Windows XP Mode concurrently alongside the release candidate but not as part of Windows 7. XPM will come as a beta, for now. In concept, once installed, XPM looks to the end user like any other application. "We will populate that to the Windows 7 Start Menu," Jeff said. "You as an end user might not know anything about virtualization or how this was set up for you by your IT pro. You'll just start Quicken 2004 from your Start Menu, and in the background we will start up the XP virtual machine and surface that application into a window."
I was really curious about security. Earlier in the week, eWEEK colleague Larry Seltzer raised legitimate questions about XPM and security protection. So I asked Jeff and got the answer I dreaded.
"We recommend that you secure it just as if you were running it on a physical PC -- meaning you should use anti-virus software and all the security practices that you would within the VM as you would on a Windows XP PC," Jeff responded. I asked if this would mean running two security software products, He replied: "Yes. Yes. Suspenders and a belt." Cute.
In concept, I think XPM is a great idea. Microsoft should have done something like this years ago. But I wonder how enterprises will deal with the licensing and management logistics.
Anyway, to close, this is a big day for Microsoft. From a marketing perspective, it's perhaps more important than Windows 7's launch.
We continue to receive official statements from sports and political figures, remembering the life of former Buffalo Bill and longtime Western New York Congressman, Jack Kemp.
You can read them, in their entireties, here.
The Buffalo Bills:
"We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Kemp. Jack remains a legendary figure in our team's history, having led our 1964 and '65 teams to the American Football League Championship titles. His many outstanding unique qualities made him the exemplary role model of leadership for our team and later for our country. While today's news brings us much sadness, we cherish the many fond memories of Jack the loving husband and father, Jack the quarterback and Jack the congressman and we celebrate his life well lived. We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Joanne and their entire family."
Former President George W. Bush:
"[Kemp] will be remembered for his significant contributions to the Reagan revolution and his steadfast dedication to conservative principles."
New York State Senator Charles Schumer:
"Jack Kemp was a fine and good person in every way. He was a great athlete, an honorable and hard working elected official who had a profound effect on Buffalo and the country, and a good friend. I join the millions of people who mourn his loss."
Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele:
"For over three decades Jack Kemp was a standard-bearer for economic conservatism and lower taxes within the Republican Party. From his 18 years spent representing upstate New York in the United States House of Representatives, to his four years as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H. W. Bush, to his work with Empower America, to his selection as the 1996 Republican vice-presidential nominee, Mr. Kemp was a tireless proponent of America's entrepreneurial and political spirit.
On a personal note, Jack was a dear friend and mentor. He would often remind me what it meant to be a 'Lincoln Republican.' Through his words and deeds, he inspired a new generation of republican activists. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his wife Joanne and their children, Jeffrey, Jennifer, Judith and Jimmy and the entire Kemp family as we thank them for sharing the life of Jack Kemp, with the American people."
New York State Assembly Minority Leader Brian M. Kolb:
"The passing of Congressman Jack Kemp is a tragic loss for his family, our state and the entire nation. From the courageous leadership he regularly displayed on the gridiron, to the bold vision he possessed as a Member of Congress, Jack Kemp was a 'New York original' in every sense of the word. He was a great Republican who had a genuine compassion for the less fortunate. Jack Kemp understood that public policies fostering job creation, a stronger economy and real tax relief were about more than just dollars and cents - they were about empowering people so they could realize their dreams and achieve a better quality of life. Jack Kemp had a passionate, committed work ethic that any Buffalo Bills fan would be proud of. Our Assembly Republican Conference offers its condolences and prayers to his immediate family, his extended Western New York family, the great State of New York, and a grateful nation."
New York State (26th Dist.) Congressman Chris Lee:
"I was saddened to hear of the passing of Jack Kemp, and I know the thoughts and prayers of all Western New Yorkers are with his loved ones at this difficult hour.
Jack's standing as one of the great Buffalo Bills of all time is often mentioned after his work as a reformer and great statesman. That is a testament to his prolific accomplishments and the incredible legacy of service to our nation he leaves behind."
Erie County Republican Chairman Jim Domagalski:
"I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of a great American, former Congressman, HUD Secretary and Vice Presidential Candidate Jack Kemp.
Jack Kemp was a passionate conservative Republican who staunchly believed in the free market system and empowering individuals to realize the American dream. He was a tireless advocate for Buffalo and Western New York acting as the standard bearer for his successors in Congress, Bill Paxon, Tom Reynolds and Chris Lee.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Kemp family during their time off loss. Jack Kemp's leadership, love of his country and activism will be sorely missed."
New York State Governor David Paterson:
"Last night, we learned of the passing of Jack Kemp, who dedicated his life to public service, including nine terms representing Western New York in Congress.
Whether it was quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills to two American Football League Championships in the mid-sixties, serving as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H.W. Bush, or running for vice president in 1996, Mr. Kemp was a leader who passionately participated in our national debate. He epitomized Theodore Roosevelt's 'Man in the Arena,' providing ideas and taking action on issues important to the Buffalo area, New York State and nation.
On behalf of all New Yorkers, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Jack Kemp. Mr. Kemp will be forever linked to Western New York and we will remember his many years of dedicated service."
President Barack Obama:
"Jack Kemp's commitment to public service and his passion for politics influenced not only the direction of his party, but his country. From his tenure as a Buffalo congressman to his ascent in national politics, Jack Kemp was a man who could fiercely advocate his own beliefs and principles while also remembering the lessons he learned years earlier on the football field: that bitter divisiveness between race and class and station only stood in the way of the 'common aim of a team to win.' Michelle and I extend our prayers and deepest condolences to the entire Kemp family."
Conservative Party of NYS Chairman, Michael R. Long:
"The best way to honor the memory of Congressman Jack Kemp would be to emulate his life. Congressman Kemp, was a good friend of the Conservative Party.
From his football years, winning two AFL Championships, to his personal life, Jack Kemp lived by the values he brought to Congress. While there, Kemp was a pro-life, pro-school-prayer, pro-civil-rights, enthusiastic supporter of supply-side economics; the theory that believes in allowing people to keep more of what they earned by cutting tax rates, thereby fueling the growth of economy.
History has proved him right."
WGRZ-TV / wgrz.com
Where do you draw the line between helpful American assistance to Pakistan in fighting the Taliban insurgency and counter-productive American meddling? Obama administration officials are weighing that balance as they prepare for a crucial visit to Washington this week by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
The administration is finalizing an ambitious package of aid measures, ranging from urgent financial assistance to counter-insurgency training for Pakistani troops at a U.S. base in Kuwait.
To relieve political pressure on Zardari, the administration has even discussed the possibility of joint U.S.-Pakistani oversight of the CIA's secret program of Predator strikes on Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal areas. But administration officials appear to have decided against any changes in the current approach, in which the Pakistani government privately okays the attacks but publicly criticizes them. Explained one official familiar with the program: "'Jointness' has been tried and it hasn't worked. These operations are designed to save American lives, and who wants to gamble at that table?"
As Washington frets about Zardari's political weakness, and debates a greater role for the opposition, his allies are pushing back--warning that American attempts to meddle in their country's internal politics may backfire.
"The more Americans get in the weeds of Pakistani politics, the less they will accomplish," warned a senior Pakistani official who supports Zardari. He described the growing U.S. pressure against Zardari as an example of "the Diem phenomenon," a reference to the U.S.-supported coup in 1963 against its former darling, South Vietnam's President Ngo Dinh Diem. That coup began a series of ultimately disastrous American attempts to steer Saigon politics and suppress the communist insurgency.
Zardari became Pakistan's president last year, with strong U.S. support, after the assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto. Since then, despite Zardari's pro-American policies, U.S. enthusiasm for him has waned, to the point that administration officials have urged a greater role for his political rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
"There's too much discussion of who can fix the problem, rather than what should be done," complained the pro-Zardari senior Pakistani official.
The sensitivity in the Zardari camp to U.S. criticism illustrates a broader phenomenon in Pakistani politics. Politicians of every stripe are wary of offending Pakistani national pride by appearing too close to Washington--even when they know they need U.S. help. A cartoon on one anti-American website in Pakistan last week showed Zardari talking with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, another former American favorite who now gets low marks. The Afghan is telling his Pakistani counterpart: "The Americans used and ditched me. Now it's your turn to get screwed!"
To show that it's serious about supporting Pakistan, the administration is preparing a series of initiatives for this week's trilateral summit with Karzai and Zardari. According to knowledgeable sources, the list includes:
--quick delivery of $953 million in promised U.S. aid for Pakistan that has been delayed in the pipeline.
--a new Pakistani counter-terrorism strategy, drafted by Zardari's government and the Pakistani military after consultation with counter-insurgency experts on the staff of Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus.
--training for two battalions of Pakistani soldiers a month at a U.S. base in Kuwait that was used to ready American forces for combat in Iraq.
--an expanding Pakistani offensive against the Taliban, including a joint U.S.-Pakistani effort to suppress Taliban radio stations that have been operating in the tribal areas.
--a new agreement on third-country trade that transits Pakistan to Afghanistan. This "transit-trade" agreement would open the way for more shipments to and from India.
--a new framework for sharing information between the Pakistani and Afghan militaries and intelligence services.
--additional joint border posts for monitoring the Afghan-Pakistan frontier.
"We have a plan. We have the will. We are negotiating on getting the means," said Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador here and one of the architects of the Islamabad-Washington alliance.
Haqqani argued that if Washington really wants the Pakistani army to move troops from the Indian border to the tribal areas, as U.S. officials often say, then it should get the Indians to reduce their military forces.
"It's time for Obama to put in a call to the Indians telling them, 'If you move some of your troops, they'll move theirs," Haqqani said. According to sources, Pakistani chief of staff Ashfaq Kiyani made just that promise in a recent meeting with U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke.
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By SELCAN HACAOGLU
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Masked assailants with grenades and automatic weapons attacked a wedding ceremony in southeast Turkey on Monday, killing 45 people and wounding 20 others. Two girls survived after the bodies of slain friends fell on top of them during the onslaught.
NTV television quoted Deputy Gov. Ferhat Ozen of Mardin province as saying the nighttime attack occurred in Bilge village near the city of Mardin. Some media outlets reported that a "blood feud" among families had led to the killings in a region where tribal ties and rivalries sometimes eclipse the power of the state.
Citing Ozen, NTV said the motive could be an old feud between rival groups of pro-government village guards who fight alongside Turkish troops against Kurdish rebels in the region. If that is the case, the government would come under renewed pressure to rein in the militiamen, some of whom have been linked to drug smuggling and other crimes.
Mehmet Besir Ayanoglu, the mayor of Mardin, told Turkey's Channel 24 that he spoke to two survivors, both girls, who said at least two masked men stormed a house where the wedding took place. Other reports put the number of assailants at four.
"'They raided the house, we were in two rooms, they opened fire on everyone, they were wearing masks,'" Ayanoglu quoted the girls as saying. The girls said they lay underneath the bodies of friends until the attack was over.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay said 45 people were killed and six others were wounded. Anatolia news agency said the lasted 15 minutes.
One survivor, a 19-year-old woman, said the assailants ordered people to huddle in one room and opened fire, NTV reported. Another report said the attack occurred when people were praying at the house. Some guards responded to the attack but the assailants fled, NTV said.
Ahmet Can, a relative who took the body of his nephew to a hospital, said the site of the attack was horrifying.
"You could not believe your eyes, it is unbelievable," he told Channel 24.
The attack occurred during the wedding of the daughter of Cemil Celebi, a former village official who was among the wounded.
An Islamic cleric who was presiding over the marriage died at a hospital, NTV said. The fate of the bride and groom was not immediately known. The attack killed an entire family, including the parents and their six children, aged between three and 12.
Ambulances took at least 17 bodies to the morgue of a hospital in Mardin, said Aytac Akgul, a local official. Hundreds of relatives of the victims gathered there, wailing. Several people offered to donate blood.
State television said soldiers surrounded the village and cut off all roads leading to it. It said there was no power there, and the village could not be reached by telephone. Journalists were barred from traveling to Bilge.
For years, Turkey has struggled over how to trim the 70,000-strong village guard force without releasing masses of trained fighters onto the streets of the southeast, where unemployment in some areas reaches 50 percent. The system is one of the few lucrative sources of employment in the region.
The military has purged thousands of village guards suspected of favoring Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in the southeast. Several hundred guards have also faced criminal charges that include drug and weapons smuggling.
Many rebels and guardsmen are from the same villages or clans. Most guardsmen are poor villagers, and local residents and activists say some were forced to join against their will. Others were signed up by politically powerful clan leaders allied with the state.
The conflict between Kurdish guerrillas and government forces has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984.
AKHMAJI, Georgia – At a military checkpoint between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia, the word "Russia" is hand-painted in pink on a concrete security barrier.
"It will be Russia," said a Russian army lieutenant as the Ossetian soldiers under his command nodded.
"And Georgia used to be Russian, too," said the young freckle-faced lieutenant, who would give only his first name, Sergei. Three armored personnel carriers and a tank were dug in around the checkpoint.
Russia has troops just 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Georgian capital, in violation of the European Union-brokered cease-fire that ended last year's brief war. And in recent weeks, it has put even more soldiers and armored vehicles within striking distance of the city ahead of street protests against Georgia's president.
The protests, which began April 9, drew about 10,000 people Tuesday, and opposition leaders said they would continue daily until President Mikhail Saakashvili resigned.
The demonstrations have been fed by public anger over Georgia's humiliating defeat in the August war, which left Russian troops on previously Georgian-controlled territory and drove tens of thousands of Georgians from their homes.
By reinforcing its military presence at a time of potential political instability, Russia appears determined to maintain pressure on Saakashvili, whom Moscow has openly said must be replaced before relations can be repaired.
Georgia's Western-leaning government accuses the Kremlin of hoping to capitalize on political unrest to restore its influence over the former Soviet republic, which for almost 200 years was ruled by Moscow.
The presence of the Russian troops poses a dilemma for Washington as it aims to improve relations with Moscow. Georgia worries the Obama administration will be reluctant to pressure Russia to comply with the cease-fire while seeking its cooperation on priority issues like the war in Afghanistan and North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Tensions over Georgia also complicate efforts to restore ties between Russia and NATO, which broke off contacts following the war. Russia has strongly objected to NATO military exercises scheduled to begin May 6 in Georgia and has warned the U.S. against helping Georgia rebuild its army.
The military checkpoint near Akhmaji enforces a new boundary between Georgia and South Ossetia, the Russian-supported region that was at the center of the fighting. After routing the Georgian army, Russian troops took over entire districts of South Ossetia that had long been under Georgian control.
Russian forces also occupied a new swath of territory in a second breakaway republic, Abkhazia, along the Black Sea coast.
The European Union and United States consider Russia in violation of the cease-fire signed by President Dmitry Medvedev, which called for troops to pull back to positions held before the war began.
Russia says the cease-fire has been superseded by separate agreements it signed with South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow now recognizes as independent states.
The actions by Russia reflect both its military strength and its willingness to challenge the West to reclaim a dominant role in Georgia and elsewhere in its former sphere of influence.
Georgia's government sees Russia as determined to prevent the West from considering Georgia a reliable transit country for oil and natural gas, contending that was Russia's main objective in the war.
The pipelines that cross Georgian territory are among the few that bypass Russia in supplying Europe with energy from the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. During the war, Russia bombed areas near the pipelines.
"Russia wants to be the monopoly supplier," said political analyst Shalva Pichkhadze.
Russia's Foreign Ministry confirmed the Kremlin has sent reinforcements to the boundary lines. It was responding to fears the Georgian government would provoke clashes to distract from the opposition protests, ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.
Georgia's Interior Ministry said Russia has 15,000 soldiers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which would be far more than in past months. Since the beginning of April, Russia has moved 130 armored vehicles toward the boundary line from elsewhere in South Ossetia and 70 more have entered South Ossetia from Russia, ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.
Russia's Defense Ministry refused to comment on the composition of its forces, and Georgia's claims could not be independently verified. European monitors who patrol the boundary lines are not allowed into South Ossetia or Abkhazia, and journalists also are stopped at Russian checkpoints.
Peter Semneby, the EU special representative for the South Caucasus, said the Russian military presence is clearly "significantly larger" than it was.
From a Georgian police checkpoint just 100 yards (meters) from a Russian roadblock controlling access to the village of Akhmaji, a half dozen Russian tanks and other armored vehicles can be seen in the valley.
Local police chief Timur Burduli said the vehicles appeared during the first week of April and are the Russian forces closest to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. "A tank needs only 40 minutes," he said.
Along the highway to Tbilisi, a freshly dug anti-tank trench stretches across a long field. Steve Bird, spokesman for the EU monitors, said the Georgians have been building such defenses in recent weeks.
WASHINGTON – Calling on Americans to volunteer, President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college. "What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs," said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago.
"It creates opportunities to serve for students, seniors and everyone in between," he said. "And it is just the beginning of a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to involve our greatest resource — our citizens — in the work of remaking this nation."
Joining Obama was Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has been battling brain cancer. Kennedy championed the legislation with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and the bill was named in honor of the Massachusetts Democrat.
Kennedy told the audience that included former President Bill Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former first lady Rosalyn Carter that Obama's efforts echoed those of his late brother, President John F. Kennedy.
"Today, another young president has challenged another generation to give back to their nation," Kennedy said, citing his brother's advocacy for the Peace Corps.
The service law expands ways for students and seniors to earn money for college through their volunteer work. It aims to foster and fulfill people's desire to make a difference, such as by mentoring children, cleaning up parks or buildings and weatherizing homes for the poor.
"I'm asking you to help change history's course, put your shoulder up against the wheel," Obama said. "And if you do, I promise you your life will be richer, our country will be stronger, and someday, years from now, you may remember it as the moment when your own story and the American story converged, when they came together, and we met the challenges of our new century."
Bolstering voluntary public service programs has been a priority of Obama, who credits his work as a community organizer in his early 20s for giving him direction in life. The president cited his work in Chicago as an example of how one person can make a difference.
"All that's required on your part is a willingness to make a difference," Obama said. "And that is, after all, the beauty of service: Anybody can do it."
Obama visited the SEED School of Washington, a public boarding school that serves inner-city students facing problems in both the classroom and at home, for the signing ceremony.
Afterward, Obama and first lady Michelle Obama joined Clinton to plant trees at a national park site along the Anacostia River in northeast Washington. At the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, Obama rolled up his sleeves with volunteers from the Student Conservation Association and local public high schools.
"Somebody forgot my boots," Obama joked to the students.
Obama on Tuesday also nominated Nike Inc. vice president Maria Eitel to lead the federal agency that oversees the country's national service programs.
Eitel, who's also president of the Nike Foundation, would have to be confirmed by the Senate to become CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Congress passed the bill last month with largely bipartisan support and Obama is seeking $1.1 billion to fund it next year. Some Republicans complain it is too costly and is an unnecessary intrusion by government into something Americans already do eagerly and in great numbers — helping their neighbors and communities.
The legislation provides for gradually increasing the size of the Clinton-era AmeriCorps to 250,000 enrollees from its current 75,000. It outlines five broad categories where people can direct their service: helping the poor, improving education, encouraging energy efficiency, strengthening access to health care and assisting veterans.
AmeriCorps offers a range of volunteer opportunities including housing construction, youth outreach, disaster response and caring for the elderly. Most receive an annual stipend of slightly less than $12,000 for working 10 months to a year.
AmeriCorps has seen a recent surge in applications, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees the program.
In March, the organization received 17,038 online AmeriCorps applications, nearly double those received in the previous month and nearly triple the 6,770 received last March.
Alan Solomont, who chairs AmeriCorps' board, said former President John F. Kennedy's call to service inspired more people to help others than just those who joined the Peace Corps. He said this national service legislation could produce the same effect.
"It is not unlike the moment in 1960 when President Kennedy asked Americans, you know, to serve, but it is certainly going to engage millions more today," Solomont said in a conference call arranged by the White House.
The bill also ties volunteer work to money for college.
People 55 and older could earn $1,000 education awards by getting involved in public service. Those awards can be transferred to a child, grandchild or even someone they mentored.
Students from sixth grade through senior year of high school could earn a $500 education award for helping in their neighborhoods during a new summer program.
HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.
"The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.
An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."
Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.
Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."
Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.
He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.
Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a "large and deep" ocean.
"It is the first serious 'water-world' candidate," Udry said.
Mayor's main planet-hunting competitor, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, praised the find of Gliese 581 e as "the most exciting discovery" so far of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.
"This discovery is absolutely extraordinary," Marcy told The Associated Press by e-mail, calling the discoveries a significant step in the search for Earth-like planets.
While Gliese 581 e is too hot for life "it shows that nature makes such small planets, probably in large numbers," Marcy commented. "Surely the galaxy contains tens of billions of planets like the small, Earth-mass one announced here."
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — For nearly a day after a car slammed into bicyclist Kris Gulden, sending her flying over its hood, her hospital chart referred to her as "Delta Doe." She had not been carrying an ID, and all she could tell doctors and nurses was that her name was Kris and that she had a headache.
She knows this only because someone told her about it later. She has no memory of the time between when she filled up water bottles for her bike ride and when she awoke from surgery five days later to discover that her own body "felt like a foreign place to me."
On a sunny May afternoon in 1998, she had suffered a spinal cord injury that left her a paraplegic. Gulden, now 42, is one of 5.6 million Americans living with some degree of paralysis, according to a just-released survey commissioned by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
In some ways, though, Gulden is far from typical.
Teaching criminal justice
The former police officer in Alexandria (a handcuffs key on the keychain tucked beneath her bicycle seat led to her sergeant identifying her) and triathlete teaches criminal justice full time at Alexandria's sprawling T.C. Williams High School — featured in the 2000 film Remember the Titans.
She retired from the police department on disability in 2000 and, for a time, "traveled and fooled around. In some ways, living was a full-time job." When a new REI store opened near her home in Arlington, Va., she took a job as a saleswoman, figuring "I'll meet like-minded people."
Police department friends told her about the opening for a criminal justice teacher at T.C. Williams. "I had come to realize that I really like kids," Gulden says, so she applied for the job.
Although she taught three years at the police academy, this is her first year teaching high school. One day last week, she asked her students what they liked most about a recent field trip to see the Alexandria jail and courthouse. Said one girl: "The best part for me was how Miss Gulden knew everybody."
Relatively few Americans with spinal cord injuries are employed, the new survey suggests. It found that 42% have an annual household income of less than $15,000, while that's true for only 13% of the general population. More could work, says Joe Canose of the Reeve Foundation, but they'd lose Medicare coverage if they earned too much.
An eloquent "ambassador" for the Reeve Foundation, Gulden has testified on Capitol Hill about the need for stem cell research.
Last month, she was among the invited guests at the White House when President Obama announced he was reversing the Bush administration's limits on federal financing of embryonic stem cell research.
She presented the president with a pair of Superman dog tags from the Reeve Foundation for his daughters. Pretty heady stuff for a Northumberland, Pa., native who credits actress Angie Dickinson in the 1970s TV show Police Woman for her interest in law enforcement.
'It doesn't get easier'
But if Gulden seems upbeat when you first meet, do not tell her that she seems to have adjusted well to life in a wheelchair.
"I may just be having a good day," says Gulden, who was injured while training for a 330-mile ride to raise money for AIDS. "It doesn't get easier. It just gets different."
Not surprisingly, people living with paralysis have an increased risk of depression, says Edwin Trevathan, director of the Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Being in a wheelchair also raises their risk of obesity and related diseases, such as diabetes, Trevathan says, as well as bladder and kidney problems.
Pressure sores also are a problem. To reduce her risk, several times an hour Gulden grasps the top of her chair's wheels and pushes straight down, raising her bottom off the seat for a second or two.
Nearly 11 years after her accident, living still is nearly a full-time job for Gulden.
She awakes at 4 a.m., because it takes her an hour and a half to get ready, much of that time in the bathroom. And this is a woman with very close-cropped dark hair who doesn't wear makeup.
She drives her station wagon to T.C. Williams, where she arrives a little after 6 a.m. "There's just so much to do, I can't get it all done between 8 and 8:30," when her first class begins. She returns home at 4:45 p.m. Every other day, after letting her yellow Lab outside to do his business, she starts her "bowel program." That requires sitting on the toilet for an hour and a half.
"Who spends 2½ hours a day in the bathroom?" Gulden says.
At least she can get into her bathroom. When she visits her brother in California, she must stay in a hotel because his bathroom doorways aren't wide enough for her wheelchair. When visiting friends close to home, she has to keep her stay short for the same reason.
Other barriers are attitudinal.
Despite her many accomplishments, Gulden says, "there's still an attitude that because I'm in a wheelchair, I can't do anything."
When her faculty mentor introduced her last summer to another teacher at T.C. Williams, that teacher addressed questions about her to the mentor instead of Gulden.
Says Gulden: "We're all a bunch of 'Delta Does.' "
What is heart? Passion, desire, and drive combined to form an intense intrinsic motivation to act. This is the foremost quality of a good teacher and the first thing I look for in a teacher on my staff.
As I conducted countless professional development sessions, created numerous growth plans, and counseled teachers in coaching sessions, it became apparent that the heart of a teacher is what matters—everything else can be taught. For some reason— maybe the seemingly short workday, frequent vacations, or job stability—professionals flock to the field of education. These newcomers to teaching are from all professions such as accounting, business, engineering, and some are even new graduates from college. Not all of these transitions are willing; some are desperate in light of harsh economic times and they feel, “Since I have a degree, I can teach”.
Unfortunately, the salary of a teacher hardly makes the job worth it. Therefore, in the schools we see apathy, burnout, and despair in teachers who really did not want to be in the classroom in the first place. Yet, we are stuck with them. Despite advanced degrees and certifications, no amount of professional development and coaching could make these teachers better because their heart is not in it, though they keep teaching year after year.
On the other hand, take a new teacher, one who has always wanted to help children and teach, yet has little or no experience and may not even be certified. Who would you rather on campus? Many would choose the veteran who has experience, but at what cost? In this age of society, education is continually changing, evolving, moving steadily towards putting (and keeping) the student first, and campuses need teachers who are willing to do the same, teachers with heart.
This “heart” that good teachers possess moves them to continually put students first. This naturally leads these teachers to attend whatever professional developments, listen to whatever advice, and employ whatever strategies necessary for the benefit of their students. This motivation to adapt and evolve cannot be taught and does not automatically accompany a certificate of certification.
Teachers who possess heart take heed to counsel and advice. They embrace new teaching models, such as co-teaching and technology in the classroom. They self-evaluate, study, research, observe, and adjust, all without prodding from department heads and administration. They are thirsty for information and seek to not only hone their skills, but to share them with others. Students cannot help but benefit from these teachers who are open, resourceful, and ready to learn.
Where do you find teachers like this, ones who possess the heart of a teacher? They are probably already on your campus, waiting for an ignition to their fire by supportive administration and staff or are already taking the lead in producing student achievement and simply making good things happen. Otherwise, they are fresh out of school or working an unfulfilling job in another industry, seeking to get onto your campus as soon as possible. Keep your eye out for teachers like these because only this kind of teacher, a teacher with heart, will ultimately bring about student achievement and success.
I’ve been writing about education more than 25 years. It’s been a fascinating but puzzling journey. So much in education is counterintuitive. We would expect that there are quicker, more pleasant ways to do any task; conversely, there must be slow, inefficient and unsuccessful ways to do everything. It’s the second kind that our elite educators (the ones who run the system) gravitate toward. How can we explain this? It’s almost as if our educators merely pretend to believe in universal education. What they seen more deeply committed to is universal mediocrity.
When you consider all the studies, statistics, reports, and books, you realize that they all paint the same bleak and depressing picture. We spend more and billions every year but SAT scores fall. Our better students do not compete well with the better students from other countries. The general public seems to know barely enough to read a daily newspaper. Can most Americans find Idaho on a map? Never mind Japan? And then there’s the really big mystery: 50 million functional illiterates. How could this happen?
To answer all these puzzles, I researched further and further back in history. I tried to understand how the early educators, a century ago, looked at life, at their country, at children, and at this new field they had created. You want to know what’s really funny? These people in fact were not primarily interested in education as most of us understand that term. They were obsessed with ideology, psychological breakthroughs, and cultural transformations. They saw the school as a tool. Education was the factory in which they intended to build a new society. Note that nobody asked them to do this; they arrogantly appointed themselves our saviors. They didn’t do us any favors.
At this point I have more than 120 articles on the web trying to explain how and why our educators got off track. I’ve been especially fascinated by the reading war, which is far and away our biggest, dumbest scandal and a blazing paradigm for everything else. As I understood the damage caused by bogus reading methods, I began to have a clearer sense of what we need to do across the board: simply enough, get rid of all the failed ideas.
Oddly enough, we are engaged in a war with our own educators. I want to persuade people that this is an intellectual war; and we must fight the bad ideas with good ideas. So I’ve collected my 50 favorite articles in a book titled THE EDUCATION ENIGMA (What Happened To American Education). Partly it’s a history book. It’s also a guidebook to the toxic nonsense in American schools. Most importantly, it’s a map to a better future. It’s also entertaining. What other book talks about Pavlov, Mick Jagger, the Tao, John Dewey and robots?
My thesis is that we have no hope of improvement unless we understand exactly what happened to American education: our schools were made dumb by design. Then we have to identify and deconstruct all the gimmicks that have been smuggled into the system. Throwing more billions of dollars at the problem won’t help. Writing more glowing policy recommendations won’t help. Giving money to so-called best practice won’t help. Our educators are set in their ways; they often seem addicted to worst practice. We need an intervention.
So our first job is simply this: we have to grasp that our house is dirty and then clean it. We have to get rid of the overhyped “progressive” innovations that turn out in practice to be destructive and regressive. For example, Whole Word, Reform Math, Constructivism, Self Esteem, Cooperative Learning, Fuzzy Anything, and much more. We need to restore basics and academics to their proper prominence.
Many people are comforted by the idea that our educators are clumsy, inept, or befuddled by fads. No, I’m afraid you really have a much better sense of what happened to us if you imagine a bunch of guys like John Dewey gathered around a table discussing their philosophical goals, devising strategies, and trying to figure out how to keep the public from interfering. I know people who shy away from the word conspiracy. But let’s be realistic. This track record goes back nearly a century. Let’s show respect for those 50 million functional illiterates who spent their lives in a twilight zone thanks to John Dewey and his pals. You can’t create this kind of disaster in a few years or by accident. No, the perpetrators have to keep plugging away, decade after decade.
I should mention by the way that I never criticize teachers. I’m concerned only with the top educators, people with Ph.D.’s at Teachers College and such. These people are responsible for what happens in American education. Teachers are as much their victims as children are.
