THE PLENTIFUL DIRT PSALM The earth is my dump ground; I shall not want. It lets me litter in green pastures; it lets me befoul the clear waters. It empties my hands. It shows me clean places for wastefulness for my own sake. Yea, while I walk through the valley full of garbage & filth I fear no retrieval, for my country is free. Your roads and your paths are for me; you have provided terrain for me with the absence of authorities; you cover my junk with snow. My can overflows. Surely rodents & insects will follow me all the days of my life, and I dwell in the trash of the world forever.
LIBERTY GRAFFITI Give me your beat, your poor, Your multitudes dying for money, The miserable rejects of your swarming shore. Send these, the needy, the ignorant to me. I start a line of credit at the open door!
I pledge allegiance to the dollar of the corporations of the world and to the plutocracy for which it stands one world under mammon indebted with freedom and favoritism for a few.
REVISED PREAMBLE
I believe in the United States of Armorica as a nation of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich; whose pompous powers are devised from the credulity of the governed; a plutocracy in a disrepublic; a suffering nation of many suffering states; a simulated union multiple and divisible; established upon the principles of greed, inequality, injustice, and vanity for which the American faithful have lost their savings and their lives. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to sack it, to re-interpret its Constitution, to abuse its laws, to capitalize on its flag, and to let others defend it against all my enemies. So help me God.
THE SERMON IN THE BANK
Deprivation is another test to find out if one has the wherewithal to rise above the commonplace and stand among the best. Poverty is not an evil in itself as are the poor who will not find a way to make the wealth that proves a good man from a bad but just the crucible that separates the gold from filthy ore in which concealed. Be thankful for a desk where you can work; although, it teeters on legs uneven. Be thankful that you have the light to see what you are supposed to do provided that the tubes and wires are operative. God knows we need a brightened world in which we can enlighten our minds even though illumination filters through filthy glass and seeps from dirty lamps. But most of all be grateful for the teacher who stands before you with so little honor and reward. Forget that sometimes he bores you to sleep with long monotonous lectures on obscure and occult facts of ancient history or that perhaps she inundates you with exercises which fill the hours in class and out. Forgive him when he seems to care nothing for your concerns but pursuing partial pay for part-time work dashes off from school to school. At least you have a teacher for the course unless you are turned away for lack of space and personnel because the wealthy ones in power refuse to share their excess with institutions as insignificant as education for the commonweal. If you should be fortunate to endure the years of memorizing names and dates places and events theories and facts and definitions only to be tested to forget along the way to graduation and if you should choose the right subject for the best career then money and prestige will honor you for following the rules. But do not be so foolish as to think that school is to awaken and enrich the mind or to ennoble heart and soul for life. No, the schools are training camps to make the young competitors of industry so their captains can dominate the world. But take the test. It is worth a try to be touted as the best that market based society can reproduce today. What have you got to lose? Your ignorance will be intact and if you pass you can pretend you are among the national elite for having got a college degree. Then your earning power will be excellent if you decide to join an industry recognized as invaluable to the rich and powerful such as high technology marketable science and art persuasive communications fossil fuel development and sales of weaponry for war to every third rate country in the world that has the cash to pay. You see you have a lot to gain by going on through school: feeling full of self-importance fat as your wallet and a usefulness to your employers happy as long as you are able to produce.
Remember, dogs are eating dogs out there and cats are eating birds. Try to fly to high alone and you wind up a turd guttered to the sea along with all the waste expelled from rectal pipes that jut from this consummate industriage. Getting to the top counts for most of what you learn. Winners are the ones who receive the adulation of the crowd; losers are left alone to die. Intelligence means the most to score or make a profit but do not try to learn too much or think creatively for intellectualism is a stamp of heresy assigned to renegades who would dare to change the world. Things are fine the way they are. Worry not a beat. What you know not hurts you not. Do not give another thought but look for only personal gain as everything that matters anyway. Everyone knows we are on this Earth to enjoy ourselves. So get whatever you can before the clock winds down and tally up the fun you have and all the things you have collected from your winnings in this global game of life. Thus, serious education is a waste of time and no one listens to eggheads anyway. So simply pass the tests offered by all the powers that we let control us solely for their benefit. And if you are fortunate to be selected to perform a mediocre task that pays you well then you shall find your happiness; you shall find your reason for being. That is all you know and all you need to know. MONEY MEANS POWER Congress in its inimitable wisdom passed a law today that requires all candidates for public office to pass a financial means test. Their rationale for such a revolutionary piece of legislation is that the wealthy are the only citizens suitable to be the elected officials of a superior nation like the United States of America. The author of the bill, Representative Quentin Argant, Republican of Texas, explained that since the rich are often corporate executives or because they otherwise hobnob with the moguls of corporate power, they are best able to channel the nation's financial resources to where they can be most useful. Their benefactors would be those who finance and manufacture the goods to keep consumers buying their way into debt, to keep third-world workers properly indentured all day every day, and to keep the war machine fully armed in its endless conflict with disagreeably different people everywhere. According to Representative Argant, the means test for financial superiority should be a simple affair. Individuals who own fleets of expensive vehicles, adorn themselves with the latest fashions, alternately reside in multiple mansions worldwide, and demonstrate their abundance as ostentatiously as possible should be the only ones seriously considered as the representative leaders of this grand country.
The Golden Rule has turned into a brazen caliper befitting every situation planned and built for obsolescence. Neighbors are not worth the love we ourselves deserve. Jesus has to be a god for no man on Earth can show such charity towards his fellows without something in return. No Pythiases for Damons now. The virtues of today are calumny, privacy, supremacy, and gain. Ask not what I can do for you but what you can do for me. Life has become a game of success at any cost where only strength survives. We play to win regardless of the weak. Number one the goal we seek beyond kind or kin. A castle on a hill, a darkened limousine, power to create or destroy life, and wealth unlimited by governments or gods--all one needs to find the peace of mind in solitude. A man alone is a wonder to behold. Other people merely stepping stones to dominate the mystical pyramid that towers through the ozone where no vulgarmass of humanity blocks the privileged view. Halleluya to the sole Colossus of the World! Start the music and step in time. Do not chose a partner to lead or follow. We dance solo. Duets are as passé as families at home. There is an intoxicating freedom in a pirouette that spins to make the independence we all seek from parent, spouse, priest, and president. Divided we stand taller than the next; united we fall into commonplace equality that hinders dominance.
Step to the beat, O Masters of the Earth, and make it quake with temblors of our own storm and stress and singularity of form. We were created for dominion by a God existing in our own image. No better proof of singular force can ever be found than in this reflection of personal devotion embracing itself to do the solitary dance of man alone.
Since the United States government has invaded and conquered Iraq, despite the protests of backward people around the world that it was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation, that action has set a precedent for further preemptive strikes for the sake of peace and freedom and not a little power. Let's see. Who's next? We have to decide which group to challenge, intimidate, or just plain attack--but so many delectable choices. And what do we need with the righteous sanction of the United Nations to help us choose when we can so easily muster the self-righteous justification for war without international consequence? God! Ain't it wonderful! The good old U S of A is the mightiest nation on Earth! Hell! She's greatest nation ever known on Earth. Our destiny is as manifest and manifold as our huge Department of Defense. We have an opportunity--damn it, a duty to take this glorious experiment in government to the crumbling steps of every capitol in every independent state on the globe. Indeed, we shall and should make over the world into our image, the same as God created us in His image. Ah, yes! The United Nations of America. The grand phrase makes ones shudder. Think of it! The U.N.A. Absolutely. A worldwide meganation under a rippling twenty-foot flag. Picture it: a vast field of navy blue sparkling with a pure white pentagram for every entity we have freed from quaint but misguided notions of self-determination. Eat your hearts out Alexander, Caesar, Khan, Napoleon, Hirohito, and Hitler. Real power has finally come to pass.
Now is the time. With the threat of that tyrant, Saddam Hussein, neutralized so effectively by our mighty military machine, we are poised for further victory. Again, I ask--who is next? Syria? Iran? North Korea? Cuba? Our semi-elected leader, George W. Bush, has already identified most of these rogue states as part of an evil axis, reminiscent of the fascist nations we almost singlehandedly fought and defeated in World War II. Since we have taken the first step in striking evil before it can strike us, whether or not it actually intends to do so, we should not wait for either congressional or multinational approval to continue our holy crusade. But this must not be confused with the Moslem holy war. Unlike other countries in the world, America knows what she is doing. She always know. Whatever we as Americans do is right, even if the means to get there arouse the outraged moral indignation of marginal people everywhere. We know this, because our president tells us so.
March! March! March into every nation that pretends a threat to our security, our sovereignty, our God-blessed superiority. With the greatest military-industrial force the world has ever known we are unstoppable. Invincible. And as our combat boots stomp foreign flags into the dirt, we will sing in celebration and thanksgiving. Our national anthem shall resound across deserts, travel oceans, and ring off mountaintops. We will paint our brave new world red, white, and blue. We will channel all of the planetary resources tens of thousands of miles to supply the insatiable appetites of our glorious fatherland. Every fish in the sea, every fossil fuel, every mineral, every tree, every product of fertile land, every bird in the sky will gravitate to the first true center of civilization--the United States of Earth.
When our flag is flying on all the capitols of this great orb, when our plutocratic ideals are as common as the air people breathe, when our sacred nation becomes the first truly paradise for the rich and powerful, then we will set our sights on the stars. After we have scoured our own solar system for any resources it may bear to enhance further our exalted empire, we will take flight for neighboring galaxies. We will search out and destroy other civilizations, other axes of evil. And just as we have found every rationale imaginable for dominating and decimating any sub-cultures on our own planet for the holy aggrandizement of our own nation, we will conquer other planets. The new, grand United States will be more than the terror of the world but the horror of the universe.
Furthermore, assessment quantifies information about performance in a system that includes a norm-referenced or a criterion-referenced system, an alternative-assessment system, and multifarious classroom assessments. A norm-referenced assessment compares student performances to those of a norm group. A criterion-referenced assessment compares individual performance to a specific learning objective or performance standard. An alternative-assessment system requires students to generate responses to prompts or tasks rather than choose from a set of provided responses. Portfolios are examples of the assessment alternatives we think of when we use the term "alternative assessment". Classroom assessments are developed, administered, and scored by teachers to evaluate student performance on various topics. A classroom assessment may be directly aligned into the other assessment systems, culminating in the on-demand assessment.
These assessments are scored in one or two ways: analytically or holistically. Analytic scoring evaluates student work across multiple dimensions of performance; holistic scoring evaluates student work across an overall impression of student work. To accomplish this evaluation, after benchmarks or scales have been described for expected student performance at particular ages, grades, or development levels, raters use anchors to acquaint themselves with criteria and rubrics that include content, organization, style, mechanics, usage, grammar, and spelling.
In this way, standardization is validated and ensured, students have an opportunity to learn and be appropriately evaluated. Most of all, equity is reliably established for all students with or without disabilities or limited language proficiency. It could not be simpler.