#cedrick carson

[kimmiessimmies]

Winter 08: Dateless - Pt.2 (33/64)

I was so confused... What just happened? Did I say something wrong? Or did he just miss Kurt a lot?

Or... was I appalling to him...? Is there something utterly unlikable about me...? I just don't know...

My confidence is a little bit shaken by this afternoon's events... I contemplated whether I should text him and ask, but... maybe not... I have one more date in The Valley tomorrow, and then I will go back to The Hills.

Gameplay notes: Things didn't go smoothly with Cedric. His loner trait made him reluctant to engage in a lot of interaction with Rachel. She did initiate contact, but he hardly reciprocated. They had fun playing the video game, though, and because of their very decent attraction score, I felt he was definitely worth the effort. He kept on playing the game even when Rachel wanted to talk, so that was slightly awkward. But hey, we'll push through! At least, that was the plan... It didn't work out that way... Because suddenly Cedric just up and left. Ran, even. Maybe it was too crowded at the hangout, or he didn't think Rachel was worthy of staying for after all. In retrospect, I also think *I* may have read Cedric wrong, and this date activity or location was less suited for him than I initially thought. I'm sorry, Lyralei. If there isn't a clear outcome in the end, I'm willing to give Cedrick another chance. Attraction score: 7

Cedrick created by @greenplumbboblover

[afflatusafrica]

Reading For Change 17th Edition_ Book review_Gifted Hands by Ben Carson

By Tom Patrick

It was a beautiful saturday at kigali Public Library when Afflatus Africa, an organization that promotes personal growth and acts as a link between the person you are and a person you dream to be, Hosted reading for change event on its 17th edition. The event started sharp at 2PM with a networking game after successful registration for attendence which estimated around 100 attendees.

After the game, the event MC Mr. Cedrick Mfuranzima introduced the attendees about the event, its organizers and telling about how he reads.

He then introduced Ange Rwanda and Dusi Blaise to do the book review.

Ange started by introducing herself and coming up with a question "how does reading shape lives?" She said that interesting part of story in the book is that a woman encouraged her sons to read two books a week and the sons became successful. one son named Ben Carson is now a famous writer.

Ange also said that she read the book when she was in secondary.

Dusi read the book in 2010 he found that its related to our daily life.

"what's Interesting is a mother of 13 years who raised two sons alone. Impactful thing about the book is education, the mother didn’t go to school but she told her kids to stop watching tv and go to library to read 2 books a week. Telling them you can do it. telling Carson and Curtis not to play until they finish reading books." Dusi continued

"All I am all I hope for I owe it to my mother" Carson quoted Abraham Lincoln

"With the current technological era you don’t have excuses to educate yourself we have everything." said Dusi

"their father cheated to their mother when they were still together. Sonia carson was also had working and she married at the age of 13."said Ange

"people are people It would be an accomplishment to tell my story I should start with my mother. She told her son Ben Carson that you can be a doctor even if he was the last in school." Ange continued

her mother was depressed and later hospitalized but kids didn’t know and she spend 6 weeks there but didn’t let them know because she wanted to not make her kids be the victim.

Later Ben score 9/30 and teacher said he was improving. later they found out that ben couldn’t see . at the time Being a black student was also bad to white teachers.

Some people are ignorant and you have to educate them, if you are nice to people they become nice to you. rascist was a real issue. in the book Ben talked about rascism and categorizing people.

"Am just done" carson blamed himself that he is black he went to library

"The color of your skin is an opportunity. Ben started reading until his mates could shout his name as the first in class." Dusi continued

"He then became a cool kid but it doesn’t matter as long as you are empty inside not good in class people want to look what you have.

Ben carson was under pressure he wanted to be a cool kid to be top in class." Ange mentioned

"What a mind can conceive you can achieve.

the reason why this book called gifted hands is that Ben was good in tennis table and they named the shot he used to make, ben’s shot. He showed an experiment to the doctor and it worked. And also through surgery he used his hands."Dusi said

Ben would treat every people equally.

"Reading gives you a sense of imagination. because of her mother Ben has hope that he will be successful. after, different universities wanted him and he choose Michigan doctor and he said that its his father’s because he has hope that when he studies he will become doctor like his father wanted." Ange said after Dusi

Dusi said that what learned in the book is education. "investigate yourself you will win the tragedies. what matters is what’s inside" he continued

Ange mentioned that the lessons from the book is about "Think key" which combines things a person should focus on like talent,time,hope, be nice to people? be knowledgeable and love God.

In open discussion one said that Carson became a leader nowadays. everybody goes through different changes, life is about change but we can learn more.

The book review closed, Mc thanked the reviewers and introduced Poetess sol solange who recited her beautiful poem "the ear’s say” mainly talking about herself.

[shihtzuman]

'Resistance Means Resisting': Dems Accused of Being Too Soft on Trump

From Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) backing unqualified Housing and Urban Development nominee Ben Carson, to 14 Senate Democrats voting to confirm torture supporter Mike Pompeo as CIA chief, to the looming possibility that any Democrat might support Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, progressives have reason to fear that Democratic opposition to the Trump administration is weaker than it needs to be—even in the face of a fervent and growing resistance movement.

cedrick wilson originally shared:

Soft as a marshmallow.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/27/resistance-means-resisting-dems-accused-being-too-soft-trump

[takebackthedream]

Is the State Takeover of Jackson, MS Schools ‘Better Together’ or a Step Back? by Jeff Bryant

America’s ongoing saga to “reform” public schools is filled with stories of state officials taking over “underperforming” school districts. Recent presidential administrations, including Obama’s, have approved of such takeovers even though, in nearly every instance—New Orleans, Detroit, Newark—takeovers are carried out by white state officials accusing black and brown communities of being unable to care for their children.

This story repeated itself recently in Jackson, Mississippi, where a state audit of the district’s schools gave justification for a series of hearings by the state accreditation board and education department to propose a takeover of Jackson schools. The mostly white state officials presented their cases for takeover in a room limited in seating and closed to the public except for invited guests. I, along with scores of mostly black community leaders and citizens, watched remotely on a video livestream from an auditorium. After each hearing, state officials deliberated behind closed doors while people in the auditorium waited patiently for the takeover decisions to be announced.

“This was a frame job to push an agenda,” Melvin Priester told me. Priester, a native of Jackson who attended Jackson schools before going on to earn an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a law degree from Stanford. He now practices law in his hometown and serves on the city council. “This unfair fight has been building for years,” he said.

Yet, the story of state takeover of Jackson is also different.

When the call for takeover was sent to the Governor Phil Bryant’s desk, he made the unusual decision to eschew takeover outright and agreed with a proposal from Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba to create a joint committee to recommend next steps for the schools. The commission, called “Better Together,” would include city and state officials, Jackson citizens, and representatives from the Kellogg Foundation based in Michigan.

Some are already hailing the approach as a “public-private partnership”, but questions remain. Is Mississippi plowing new ground for genuine partnerships between white political rule and black communities in the Deep South? Or is the state merely continuing centuries-old oppression of black governance under a different guise?

An ‘Agenda’

The fact that Governor Bryant is still holding out the possibility of state takeover prompts many in Jackson to doubt the governor’s sincerity.

The district has continued to close schools in response to state directives, and state monitors with the Mississippi Department of Education have reminded Jackson the district still faces possible takeover.

A number of Jackson Public Schools supporters admitted to me that some problems in the district had indeed not been addressed and that embattled former superintendent Cedrick Gray was likely “in over his head.”

Yet, a careful reading of the audit finds that many of the standards violations cited seem exceedingly bureaucratic—such as failures in record keeping, data reporting, and regulatory compliance—and addressable by means far less drastic than a state takeover. Other citations seem overly general and subjective, such as administrators failing to “implement standards of governance” or teachers failing to follow “tiered instruction.” Other violations can be easily explained by lack of funding for the schools, particularly shortages in school staffing and unaddressed building maintenance issues.

Dorsey Carson, a Jackson native who heads a local law firm, complained to me that his daughter’s elementary school was dinged for having “inattentive students,” because the auditor happened to show up during naptime. The school is the only one in Mississippi to be recognized as a National PTA School of Excellence, according to its website.

Other violations were hotly contested by interim superintendent Freddrick Murray and district special counsel James Keith, who argued that many of the violations—particularly with busing, safety, and security—happened almost a year ago and have since been corrected. But the thick binders Jackson Public Schools staff hastily assembled to counter the auditors’ claims were generally ignored during the proceedings.

“There’s always been a target on Jackson’s back,” Jed Oppenheim explained to me. Oppenheim, a school board member, worked as a senior advocate in Mississippi for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “[The state’s efforts] are about controlling money and power, Oppenheim said. “There’s no awakening or newfound care for black kids.”

A Legacy of White Rule

White rule in Mississippi has long made Jackson schools a target of either malevolent neglect or authoritarian abuse.

From the end of Reconstruction in 1875 to the landmark Supreme Court ruling Brown v Board of Education that ended legal racial segregation of public schools in 1954, the needs of black Mississippi school children were routinely ignored. In retaliation to the Brown ruling, white businessmen across Mississippi formed “Citizens Councils” to devise ways around forced school desegregation. In Jackson, the Council headquarters was located down the street from City Hall, with an office across the street from the governor’s mansion.

In 1964, the all-white Mississippi legislature passed a tuition grant to fund private, non-sectarian schools so white people could send their children to “council schools” using taxpayer dollars. The Citizens’ Council, which ran the private schools, opened its first school in Jackson in the fall of 1964. Governor Bryant himself attended one of the segregationist academies—Council McCluer High School, now called Hillcrest Christian School.

In the early 1960s, Council advocates disseminated “racial facts” to Jackson parents and advocated that white Jackson parents keep their children home rather than attend integrated schools. Mississippi had no compulsory school attendance law at the time. Under white rule in the 1960s, Jackson continued to fund schools for black families significantly less than schools for whites: $106 per black student compared to $149 per each white student.

When the 1969 case Singleton vs. the Jackson Public School District, ended legal segregation, thousands of Jackson’s white families fled the schools virtually overnight. When schools re-opened on February 1, 1970, there were 5,000 fewer students in attendance, most of the missing were white.

Any integration that did occur in Jackson peaked in the 1980s. By then, Jackson Public Schools was 85 percent black. Today the district is 95 percent black, and 99 percent are eligible for free and reduced lunch, a common measure of poverty.

No Chance to Succeed

No one disputes that Jackson’s schools have struggled to serve their students.

According to results of the most recent round of standardized tests in the state, the percent of black students reaching proficiency in English Language arts is 19.8 percent, while the state average is 22.4. In math, black students fare even worse with only 14.8 percent reaching proficiency, also well below the state average of 23.5 percent.

The district was recently downgraded from a “D” rating in Mississippi’s rating system to “F.” but the rating system employed by the state has long been a moving target for schools. Changes in the state testing regime have stabilized baseline results over the last two years, but that hardly constitutes a reliable benchmark.

“The whole accountability process in the state has been wrongheaded to begin with,” Pam Shaw told me. Shaw helps run Our JPS, a parent and citizen-led advocacy group for the local schools. Her criticism reflects widespread views that the rating system is more of a measure of poverty than it is of school performance. “When the schools are chronically underfunded, it’s a recipe for failure,” she argues.

Mississippi has funded schools fully only three times since 1997, shorting students and teachers over a billion dollars over the last four years. One result is a significant teacher shortage due to low salaries and challenging school climates.

“Black districts have been stretching resources since Reconstruction,” wrote Andre Perry in The Hechinger Report. Perry is a fellow at the Brookings Institute, a policy think tank in Washington, DC, and a former New Orleans charter school operator who has become a caustic critic of the charter industry.

“Last academic year, the district had to accommodate a mid-year cut of $1.3 million,” he noted of the Jackson district. “This school year, the district’s yearly allocation is approximately $9.6 million short. . . Children lose when schools don’t have the baseline funding resources they need to educate them.”

“I’ve been to schools in Jackson that didn’t have enough electrical outlets, much less computers with connection to high-speed internet,” Shaw told me.

Numerous studies have shown school districts like Jackson Public Schools with high poverty levels require more funding to help address the considerable education challenges that derive from poverty. Yet, a recent study by the Education Law Center found that poverty levels of Mississippi schools vary considerably, but per public spending does not change much to compensate for needs of high-poverty schools. According to the study, high-poverty districts in the state would need an additional $15,000 in state and local spending per pupil above current levels for students to be able to achieve average outcomes. The report projects Mississippi’s highest poverty districts will need three times their current funding levels or more students to approach national average outcomes

“If [state officials] want to improve the lives of children in Jackson,” Oppenheim told me, “they have a screwy way of going about it—divesting in communities, defunding schools.”

All About ‘Education Politics’

“It’s all about the politics of public education,” Steve Suitts explained to me in a phone call.

Suitts, an Alabama native, led the Southern Regional Council and then worked at the Southern Education Foundation in Atlanta. He now works in a consulting firm.

“There is an enormous hostility in the state to black politics and black control,” Suitts said. He called the choreographed takeover hearings at the Mississippi Department of Education headquarters “a great opportunity for state leadership to prove black folks were unable to lead.”

Suitts named a string of events that have made Jackson “the perfect target for the failure narrative,” including the city’s decaying infrastructure, a school rating system that assures Jackson schools score low, the defeat of a statewide education funding referendum in 2015, and the recent proposal (although eventually defeated) to cut back the amount of guaranteed funding the state is obligated to provide to schools.

Mississippi’s conservative state authorities may also be concerned about the nature of Jackson’s black leadership.

When Chokwe Antar Lumumba ran for Jackson mayor in 2017, he presented himself as an unabashed lefty. After he won a landslide victory, he talked about making Jackson “the most radical city on the planet,” elevating an agenda of social justice, economic democracy, and citizen engagement.

Many have pointed to Lumumba and another newly elected black mayor in the Deep South, Randall Woodfin in Birmingham, Alabama, as signs of a progressive new wave of black political leadership rising in the region.

A Coming Collision with Charter Schools

The rise of black populism in Jackson also raises the potential for a head-on collision with Empower, one of the most potent movers and shakers of education politics in Mississippi.

“Few organizations have more influence on ‘school choice’ policy and lawmakers than Empower Mississippi,” reports the Jackson Free Press.

Backed by big donations from Walmart billionaire Jim Walton and the Mississippi branch of the American Federation for Children, Empower Mississippi—a national “school choice” organization co-founded and formerly led by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars through its PAC to political candidates who supported its agenda for more charter schools and school voucher programs.

In 2015, Empower successfully unseated four incumbent state representatives who were insufficiently supportive of charter schools. Their replacements became instrumental in pushing through new school voucher legislation in the state, with two of the four new representatives serving on the House Education Committee that drafted the bill.

Empower also came out against the failed ballot initiative that sought to force the state legislature to fully fund schools. “Citizens like the path we’re on,” Empower’s founder and president Grant Callen told a national media outlet. “The amount of money is not nearly as important as how the money is being spent.”

There are currently three charter schools in Mississippi, all of them located in Jackson. By August two more will open, one outside of Jackson. And a wave of new applications is in the offing.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education under Secretary DeVos awarded Mississippi with a $15 million grant to subsidize the startup of new charters over the next five years. Most of the new charters are expected to open in Jackson.

Only two of the Jackson charters have been open long enough to have received state evaluations. One is rated “D” and the other “F” according to state rankings. In 2017, Jackson Public Schools lost over 500 students to charter schools, costing the district $1.4 million as the state money followed the students to their transfer schools. Scores of those students eventually returned to Jackson public schools, but the money didn’t. Since charters opened in Jackson in 2015, the district has sent more than $12 million to charters.

Mayor Woodfin, Lumumba’s populist peer in Birmingham, has explicitly called out charter schools as “a separate and unequal” education system.

“A charter school will take away students and subsequently funding from Birmingham city schools,” he said during his mayoral campaign. “This will cause city schools to cut programs such as arts and extracurricular activities.”

“It’s a valid fear that charters will be allowed to take over [Jackson schools],” Shaw told me, given the kind of money and clout charter advocates in Mississippi are building.

What Jackson Needs

As the work of the Better Together Commission proceeds, while the threat of state takeover of Jackson Public Schools looms, what’s in danger of getting lost in the swirl of political forces and issues is the question of what would really help the schools suceede.

“Jackson schools need what all schools need,” Suitts told me. “Community involvement, early childhood education, a reinvigorated teacher workforce, research-supported programs that get kids on track. There’s got to be a systemic approach, and you have to start early.”

“We need schools that serve as hubs of the community,” Shaw added. “Communities should own that space and use it as a launching pad for everything children need.”

The new form of school takeover model rolling out in Jackson could deliver that. “Sometimes arranged marriages work,” Oppenheim shrugged.

If Jackson’s Better Together approach is really going to work, it’s clear it can’t happen through compromising with the state’s racist past, but only by completely overthrowing it.

First published at The Progressive.

[kimmiessimmies]

Winter 08: Dateless - Pt. 2 (32/64)

I thought I was good at this game, but Cedrick was better and won in the end. We had a great game.

At this point, I figured we should maybe have a chat, but Cedrick had trouble letting go of the game...

But when I asked about his cat, Kurt, he put the controller down and started telling me all about him. It was clear he truly adores him, which I absolutely loved. Guys loving animals just melts my heart.

But then, out of nowhere, Cedrick suddenly said, "This was fun, but I have to go," and stood up and ran out...

Cedrick created by @greenplumbboblover

[kimmiessimmies]

Winter 08: Dateless - Pt. 2 (31/64)

9. Cedrick

I just got back from my date with Cedrick. It was another memorable experience...

When Cedric and I mailed back and forth prior to our date, we found out there's a video game we both quite liked to play. I'm not much into video games, and I'm not sure he is either, but somehow this one came up, and I actually really enjoy it. So, rather spontaneously, we decided our date should be at the hangout at the comic shop where this game can be played.

He greeted me with a hand gesture and a "hey, what's up?" I never know what to say when someone says "what's up?"...

We soon began playing rather fanatically, and it was great fun. A whole different kind of date to the one I had with Trey this morning.

Cedrick created by @greenplumbboblover

[kimmiessimmies]

Winter 08: Dateless (Part 2)

Thirteen guys responded to Rachel’s Honeyfinder profile. That’s a lot more than she bargained for! After some convincing, Rachel decides to meet them all. This leads to thirteen very diverse dates. Will Rachel find her match?

This chapter has been posted to Tumblr in parts over the past three weeks. If you want to (re-)read the entire update in one go, you can do so here, on my WordPress blog.

[kimmiessimmies]

With two weeks left to send in your guys, I wanted to reblog this.

A few things to add:

You don't need to use the empty Honeyfinder profile, if you just want to write a little backstory and/or message to Rachel, that's great too.

This is not a Bachelor Competition/ Challenge thing. I didn't even know those existed on Simblr until I suddenly saw a few pop up on my dash after posting this. I just never paid attention to them before and thought I was being very unique with this, haha 😄

This is just "online dating". Rachel will go on a date with each guy who messaged her. No "rounds", though some guys might get a second date where others don't. And no big "winner reveal", but eventually, she will end up with one of the guys.

Meet the guys who applied so far, in alphabetical order! I'm really curious to see who Rachel will click the most with. The way I see it, they all stand a fair chance in their own way.

1. Cedrick by @greenplumbboblover. The only one so far with a cat!

2. Draxton by @sushiikinsss. He has a dog! The animallovers were immediately drawn to Rachel, it seems.

3. Ethan by @nocturnalazure. Ethan may have felt awkward creating an online dating profile, but the fact that he also has a dog will earn him points.

4. Nathan by @nocturnalazure. Ethan's charming younger brother, always stealing his limelight and maybe this girl too?

5. Trey by @sushiikinsss. He's Draxton's cousin and also responded to Rachel, but unlike the brothers mentioned above, there's no bad blood between these two. Trey has a dog too, but also... a daughter... Is Rach ready for (bonus)parenthood yet?

Empty Honeyfinder profile below. It's an image file, so you'll need to add text boxes to type anything.

Help Rachel find her dream man!

Winter 08: Dateless - Pt.1 (12/12)

Rachel is looking for a boyfriend! And this is where you, dear reader of this post, come in. If you have, or wish to create, a young adult male Sim who you think would match with Rachel and you're willing to part with him, please send him my way.

This is the plan:

Send me your Sim before January 18th, 2024.

Once all eligible bachelors are in, Rachel will start dating.

I'm actually going back to good old gameplay for this and will let Rachel herself decide who she feels the most connected to using the attraction system and seeing what wishes come up.

After all is said and done, I'll write "Dateless - Part 2" and we'll all get to see how the dates went and who Rachel ends up with.

Any guy not chosen by Rachel can either "go back" to their creator if you wish him to, or I'll keep him "on the shelf" with your permission to maybe reappear later.

The guy Rachel does pick, stays with us, and will from then on onwards be a part of my story. So you'll need to part with him. 😉

What am I asking for:

Any male YA Sim (TS3) who could pass for 20-28 years old.

Ethnicity and/or appearance doesn't matter.

Traits should somewhat match what Rachel asks for in her profile

CC is welcome, just make sure you send your Sim with all CC packed.

Along with the Sim, please send a little written biography and/or a message they'd write to Rachel responding to her profile. If you wish to create a similar type of profile, you can download an empty one here. Please be aware that this is an image file, so to add text, you'll need to add text boxes. The font I used is BioRhyme.

If you can, tell me a bit about their background, their family and/or their childhood. This makes for nice date conversations. If no family exists or you simply haven't thought them up and don't feel like it, I will conjure up a background myself.

Here's hoping Rachel gets a bit of response!

Reblogs of this post are appreciated!