Vote for Canright

Mike Friedman for a Tough Job

2011-04-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

I have been in shock for a week after the Plano ISD Board of Trustees voted to saddle the district with a White Elephant. It has been a bad week in Plano. A young lady who worked at the Gleneagles Country Club was kidnapped and murdered. It has been a terrible week.

And it is a terrible thought to realize that our Board of Trustees excels in spending money, not in educating our children. If you double-click on the embedded image, you can see it full size. You will see that Plano spends more per student than our neighbors, who have better test results. You will also see we pay more to our superintendent than the other districts.

I have come to realize that the Old Guard on the school board must excel in what they value: spending money. This is why they felt compelled to buy an office building that has sat empty for years, even though they have no real plans for the building. They do not have a firm plan for the Academy, but they buy a building anyway. The administration had the audacity during the board meeting to suggest this building is essentially free: the bond money was "left over" money from a previous bond issue, and the operational expenses will rain down from rich donors.

Carrolyn Moebius and Marilyn Hinton were a disappoinment. When they were elected I thought they would make a difference, but they joined the Old Guard in rubber stamping the administration's spending plan. Marilyn Hinton explained that she placed her trust in the administration, which is what a rubber stamp does. Their failure on the board makes it imperative we make the right choice for Place 4.

In the race for Place 4 we need a good counter-weight to Missy Bender. Ms Bender took the lead in defending the board's commitment to buy a building before the new board members could be seated. Ms Bender presented herself as a new leader for the board on Tuesday, April 19, but I believe she is out of touch with the educational needs of our children.

Mike Friedman serves on numerous boards and is board president of the Legacy Senior Communities. Mike's wife is a former school teacher, so he is close to the heart beat of our schools. When the campaigns started I had planned to vote for Steve Day and to endorse him. I believe Steve can function well as a board member, but not as President of the Board of Trustees.

I can see Mike Friedman as President of the Plano Board of Trustees, and I believe the Plano ISD needs his leadership on the board. I have spent time talking to both Mike and Steve. I know Paul Kaminsky from the last election. As much as I like Steve Day, I believe that Mike Friedman is a better choice in this election. Next year might be worse than this year because we have a White Elephant in addition to revenue problems. We are not doing anyone a favor by putting him on the board. I believe Mike Friedman is the right man for the tough job ahead.

Please vote for Michael Friedman, Place 4, for the Plano ISD Board of Trustees.

Robert Canright

PS: Here is a definition for White Elephant, "A possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of."

David Stolle for PISD Board

2011-04-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

After the League of Women Voters forum on April 9, 2011, I decided to endorse David Stolle for the Plano ISD Board of Trustees, Place 5.

David's opponent said he was going to defer to the administration because they are professionals. David's opponent explained that he would not want the PISD administration to tell him how to run his law practice, so he is not going to tell the PISD administration how to conduct their business. This is exactly what is wrong with the Old Guard on the board of trustees.

By constantly rubber stamping the administration's decisions, the Old Guard has allowed the quality of Plano schools to slip. See the accompanying chart of last year's TAKS results. Plano has significantly more struggling schools than our neighbors: Allen, Richardson, and Frisco. Plano has significantly fewer Exemplary schools than our neighbors. Frisco and Allen are Exemplary districts while Plano is only a Recognized district.

The quality of Plano schools has slipped because the Old Guard forgot who they served. The Old Guard, by deferring to the administration, serves the administration instead of the community of Plano. The lack of oversight by the board has led to a continuing slip in the quality of our children's education.

The board of trustees does not have to tell the administration how to do their jobs, but the board must say no to the administration when a mistake is being made.

Please vote in the Plano ISD election. Early voting is May 2 - 10. Election Day is Saturday May 14. Please vote for David Stolle for Place 5.

Robert Canright

PS: Double click on the chart and you will see a larger version.

Plano League of Women Voters Candidate Forum

2011-04-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

The League of Women Voters of Plano/Collin County will host a public candidate forum to provide information to voters for the coming May 14 Local Election.

The candidate forum will be Saturday, April 9, 10:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m., at Schimelpfenig Library, 5024 Custer Road, Plano, TX 75023. There will be two sessions, as follows:

* Session 1, 10:30-11:30, for Plano City Council candidates
* Meet & Greet, 11:30-12:00, for all candidates in both sessions
* Session 2, 12:00-12:45, for Plano ISD Trustee candidates

Robert Canright

David Stolle, Michael Friedman, Steve Day Run for PISD Trustee

2011-03-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

I am not running for PISD Trustee this year.

I am not ready to make recommendations yet, but I suggest you follow David Stolle for the Place 5 seat and follow Mike Friedman and Steve Day for the Place 4 seat. We have fresh people running and I am excited about this election.

Here is a link to David Stolle's website.

Here is a link to Michael Friedman's website.

Here is a link to Steve Day's blog.

Robert Canright

Important Message: Your Child's Future

2010-05-04T04:16:00.001-07:00

What is the most important message I can share with you on the last day of early voting? It is this:

Our children need the very best eduction we can give them to help them through the difficult years ahead.

Robert Canright is the only PISD candidate who understands this problem and has a plan to help your children prosper in difficult times.

This chart shows in red and blue the average household expense and income by decade. The difference is the disposable income. The data shows the average American household cannot afford to own a home! There is not enough disposable income to pay for house repairs. When the government and banks pushed loans onto people to buy houses they could not afford, an economic meltdown was predictable.

The real threat is the trend. From the 1980's through the present expenses outpace income. Your children, and mine, will be drowning in red ink. I have read a story of a physician who borrowed $250,000 to become a doctor. After having trouble getting employment, the debt grew to $700,000. The doctor said she would not finish paying off her debt until she is 70 years old and will never be able to buy a house. This is the threat facing your children: that heavy debt from a college education and a lack of jobs for your child will drive your children into crushing debt by the power of compounding interest. There is no relief from college debt by bankruptcy!

Our economy is going insane! College will become a place of economic doom instead of opportunity. Wall Street is becoming an engine for wealth destruction, not wealth creation.

There is no longer one American economy. There are three: the Wall Street economy, the middle-class economy, and the poor-person's economy. Only the Wall Street economy is growing, but it is growing by taking away from the middle-class and the poor.

I am the only candidate with a vision to guide our children to a brighter future: the Texas Ascendant Campaign. We start by fixing the curriculum and spending problems in the PISD. Then we use the vision of Texas Ascendant as a goal for educating our children to succeed in difficult times.

You can see the above chart in larger format on my website. You will also see I have analyzed the spending at PISD and found it out of control.

I am the only candidate who has looked at the money issues. If you believe in fiscal responsibility, if you care about your children, then you should vote for Robert Canright.

27 Years of Failure

2010-05-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

The last chart on my website has this bullet under the column "Reform Education:" 27 years of failure. By this I am referring to the 27 years that have passed since the publication in April 1987 of A Nation At Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. This report was famous for lines such as these:

"... the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people."

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."

"Each generation of Americans has outstripped its parents in education, in literacy, and in economic attainment. For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents."

I have typed these lines from my copy of this report, purchased 27 years ago and saved these many years because I love education and wanted to see how this report would compare to our nation's results after some decades have passed.

After 27 years of failure and mountains of money spent for naught, we should all be very skeptical of the educational establishment that has led us in circles.

It is time we take our schools back. The Board of Trustees in Plano have served as boosters, but have allowed our district to be mismanaged. I can now understand why America cannot fix its schools: because the nation's school boards are full of lap-dogs instead of watch-dogs, and Plano is no different.

Vote for Robert Canright and I will be a watch-dog, alert to problems, and vocal about fixing them.

See me speak at the Conservative Hispanic Society/LULAC Forum.
My watch said I had 30 seconds remaining when they buzzed me, so I didn't finish my last chart.
You can see me talk to that last chart here.

Robert Canright
Candidate for Place 1
Every registered voter can vote for me -- there are no geographic zones for the school board seats.

Robert Canright Runs for PISD Board Because He Cares

2010-03-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

Plano is a great city with great kids. I care about the kids in Plano, which is why I run for the school board, Place 1.

In Round Rock two years ago, after a great Plano Senior High football playoff game, I noticed a car full of teenagers that was not leaving the parking lot. I drove over, with my family, and asked if everything was okay. It turned out they had a flat tire.

The boys said they knew how to change a tire, but I parked the car and asked them to show me. Well, they were missing the crank they needed to jack their car up. I loaned them my crank, and then discovered they did not really know how to change a tire.

I changed their flat tire for them, told them their spare was low on air and they needed to get more air in the spare. I had my daughter get their phone number and check on them to make sure they made it safely to a gas station to get their tire inflated.

I love my children, but I care about all the children of Plano. I want all the children of Plano to get the best education we can provide them so they can live full and prosperous lives.

We do need to make changes in Plano to give our children the best education. I am willing to work to help make those changes just as surely as I am willing to change your child's car tire if needed, but I need your help. You need to vote for me on election day, and call and email your friends to get them to vote on Saturday, May 8.

Thank you,
Robert Canright

PS: I have voiced the opinion elsewhere that I believe continuing the Candy Cane Lawsuit is a waste of time and money, reflecting poorly on the district's reputation. I have caught some flack from some people because I have not gotten into the details of the case and voiced opinions on the details. There are a number of details. However, as seen by one comment, at least one good person has assumed that I have voiced an opinion on one of the details, but I have not.

There is some complexity to the legal issues and I will let the lawyers speak to the details. I simply question whether the Plano ISD should persist down this road.

Professional photography by Alisha Downs from Beyond Exposure

Robert Canright on Plano Math

2010-03-06T12:52:00.000-08:00

I have often heard parents express shock at the deficiencies in Plano's mathematics curriculum for elementary school and middle school. People want to know my opinion of Connected Math.

Just this week I was looking at Connected Math material and feeling sorry for kids having to suffer through this program. The thought crossed my mind this week that Connected Math probably contributes to children dropping out of school. Connected Math is frustrating even for children who are good at math; it must be very discouraging for children who struggle with math.

For your convenience, here are links to articles I've written about math in Plano:
May 2, 2009 The Dumbing Down Disease
April 18, 2009 Dumbing Down and Connected Math
April 16, 2009 Plano's Secret: the Tutoring Industry
April 11, 2009 Elementary School Math Problems
May 6, 2008 Let's Improve Math at Plano ISD

Robert Canright

Why Move PISD Problems to County Level?

2010-02-24T17:29:00.000-08:00

Two PISD Board members stand on their record to run for the Collin County Commissioners’ Court, yet the record of the PISD Board of Trustees leaves much to be desired: (1) the Board has a long record of ignoring the concerns of parents, (2) the Board does not represent the Plano community, and (3) the Board has a long history of making excuses for poor performance.

From the recent frustration over school feeder realignments to the bitter battle ten years ago over Connected Math, the Board of Trustees has only made a pretense of listening to parents. Additionally, the PISD Board and Administration have developed a reputation both here in Plano and across the state for appearing to be anti-Christian. The Plano community is not anti-Christian, so the Board and Administration misrepresent our community. After the PISD lawyers won in Circuit Court in the Candy Cane lawsuit, my daughter called me from Lubbock and asked why people in Lubbock would think she was persecuted for her Christianity in Plano. This lawsuit made us look bad across the state, and we can thank the Board for this.

Last year I demonstrated that our neighbors outperformed us in the TAKS tests at lower cost. The same is true this year.

Furthermore, the TEA data prove that Plano has always done worse than our neighbors.

We see Plano has many more struggling schools than our neighbors: Allen, Frisco, and Richardson. (I define a struggling school as one that is TEA rated Acceptable or Unacceptable.) Plano does have many outstanding students, fine teachers and principals, but problems with our curriculum hurt many students. The Board makes excuses for poor management, which is why the problem has gone on for so long.

Do you citizens of Plano want to take problems of this type and move them to the county level? Do you want to be ignored? Do you want your costs to increase while performance goes down? I do not think so.

I am certain Duncan Webb and John Muns believe they have done a fine job. They were consistently re-elected. However, re-election is not a sign of approval but a lack of interest by the public along with a system of elections designed to maintain control of the Board by a small but well organized group. The at-large system of representation allows a small group of voters from one part of town to dominate the entire town. Geographic districts would allow real representation. That elections are won by a plurality instead of a majority means the winner of an election might be rejected by the majority of voters. For example, in last year’s election Barbara Hinton won after being rejected by 58% of the voters; in 2008 Skip Jenkins won after being rejected by 52% of the voters. No one can say Barbara Hinton or Skip Jenkins represent the citizens of Plano when the majority of voters rejected them. The Board of Trustees does not represent the citizens of Plano, nor does it serve the interests of all the children of Plano. The Board and Administration focus on the cream of the crop, who commendably achieve high SAT scores and impressive numbers of National Merit Scholarships. The average student, however, would be better served by the neighboring ISDs.

I hope this spirited election for the Collin County Commissioners’ Court will bring more interest to the Plano ISD elections. Voters in the past had no way of knowing there were problems within the Plano ISD because newspapers kept silent. The citizens of Plano were lulled into complacency. But the internet now provides us with the free flow of information we need to be informed voters. An informed and active electorate is the backbone of democracy. Let us all do our part and vote in all elections, not just the big ones.

Robert Canright

PS: If you want to see the charts in bigger format, you can go to the Plano Crowd blog. You'll have to join the blog site to see the post. The charts are also available in JPEG format at these links: Chart 1 and Chart 2

On the Resignation of Senator Bayh

2010-02-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

Evan Bayh, a U.S. Senator from Indiana resigned recently. His exact words, from the New York Times, Sunday 2/21/10, are:

"Challenges of historic import threaten America's future. Action on the deficit, economy, energy, health care and much more is imperative, yet our legislative institutions fail to act. Congress must be reformed."

I've been saying for years that we need better leaders for a better future.

Senator Evan Bayh is the son of Senator Birch Bayh. He has been around this level of politics for a long time and has seen the Senate deteriorate. Now he's given up, and we need to heed the warning and take action.

We need to educate our children to become the generation of leaders America needs. The plan I call Texas Ascendant is a road map to build a stronger Texas so we can build a stronger America.

If anyone can turn America around, it will be Texans. And the turning point should start here in Plano.

Robert Canright

2010: I Do Plan to Run

2010-02-20T18:46:00.000-08:00

I have been receiving emails asking if I plan to run in the 2010 election for the Plano ISD Board of Trustees. Yes, I do plan to run. I have not yet updated my web site and I have not yet made a choice regarding which place to file for.

If you are not familiar with our system, the seats on the board of trustees are numbered. They are called "places," but "seat" would be more accurate. We have an at-large system so everyone in the city of Plano can vote for any place and I am free to choose whichever place appeals to me. I have not yet made my choice.

Thank you for your interest and encouragement.

Robert Canright

Election Statement

2009-05-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

Election Statement from Robert Canright, 2009 School Board Election.

Our newspapers help cover up the problems in the Plano school district, but those problems do not go away and do not get solved. I demonstrated that the Allen, Frisco, and Richardson school districts are better managed than PISD and provide a better education for the average student than PISD, but the citizens of Plano could not see that proof in most of their newspapers and the PISD censored the data from the taped broadcast of their candidates forum.

More and more parents are voting against the school board. In the year 2000, Susan Sarhady ran against Allan Bird. I received 75% more votes than Ms Sarhady did in 2000. There is a growing discontent in Plano with our school board.

Our curriculum problems continue to fester. Small numbers of perceptive parents continue to discover the truth about our problems, but they usually pull their children from PISD schools. Only 5% of Plano voters participated in the school board election. If the citizens ever learn the truth about our problems, I believe they will finally go vote and we can begin fixing our problems.

I will continue trying to fix the problems in PISD because I love Plano and do not want to give up on it.

We should applaud the local paper, My Crescent, because it was the only newspaper to publish an article about the true performance of the PISD.

My thanks to everyone who voted for me and worked to help my campaign!

Robert Canright

Better Leaders for a Better Future

2009-05-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

My platform is

Better leaders for a better future
Improve elementary school Math
Improve elementary school English Language Arts

I say our economic problems today are not a normal economic downturn. This is not a normal recession. Our problems were created by poor leadership on Wall Street in Washington.

For our children to have a good future, we need to educate them to become tomorrow's leaders. This means they must understand economics, and they must understand history. I have given one example of an improved history course: on the U.S. Constitution. Studying Plato would be better for developing leaders than studying one more year of Math.

I have developed the Texas Ascendant campaign as a road map for prosperous future for our children.

Vote for Robert Canright for the sake of your children's future!

Robert Canright

Plano is Special

2009-05-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

I think Plano is a great city and the schools are almost great. We need to fix some problems before the problems become too big to fix. I want to work to fix those problems and give our kids a great education.

I changed careers in order to stay in Plano and permit my children to grow up here. I have seen our high school seniors holding pinkies and singing their Alma Mater with heart. We have a great spirit.

Plano has been a great town, but we need to keep up the quality of our schools. As the schools slip, so will Plano slip.

Vote for Robert Canright to maintain school quality!

Texas 4x4 Graduation Requirements Part 2

2009-05-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Texas Legislature thinks it can mold the future by forcing more Math and Science upon our students at a time when the study of Economics and History are for more critical for our survival than Math and Science.

The Texas Legislature loves centralized planning, but it does not care that its plans are failures. Once they identified under performing schools with the TAKS test, they could never figure out how to improve those schools. They do not care that their plans are consistent failures, they just love to plot and scheme and shove awful programs down the throats of voters who lack the backbone to go vote them out of office.

The famous economist Friedrich von Hayek, a favorite of Ronald Reagan & Margaret Thatcher, has constructed a compelling argument that centralized planning is always inferior to a free market.

The Texas Legislature needs to dump the 4x4 and let the free market -- parents and students and communities -- choose a 4th year of Math and Science when it fits their needs. Alfred North Whitehead, in "The Aims of Education," said that central governments need to let the schools set their own curriculum to fit their communities.

The Texas Legislature lacks the competence to make detailed policy about education. The advice the Legislature is getting regarding education is bad advice. The Legislature needs to fire its advisers before the voters fire the Legislators.

Robert Canright

Texas 4x4 Graduation Requirements

2009-05-06T19:01:00.000-07:00

I recently spoke with at telecom executive about the Texas 4x4 graduation requirements that will force all the children of Texas to take a fourth year of math and science. This executive has a child in Plano schools who is artistically inclined. This mother feels that a fourth year of math and a fourth year of science will remove courses from her child's schedule that would be good for her child and force her child to take classes she does not need.

Freedom of choice in education has been stripped away from this mother and her child, and that is wrong!

This telecom executive went on to say, "Why more math and science? We don't need more engineers! I've laid off between 600 and 700 engineers. We're sending the work overseas!"

People who say we do need more engineers are misinformed. There might be engineering executives who say there is a shortage, but they are wrong. When Erich Bloch, an ex-IBM vice president was director of the National Science Foundation he made a lot of noise about an engineering shortage in order to bring in many foreign engineers on H1-B visas while companies were laying off American engineers. After Bloch left the National Science Foundation the staffers at the Foundation admitted there was no evidence to support an engineering shortage, that Erich Bloch made up the alleged shortage on his own.

Then there are people who say our students are not all college ready when they graduate because they need remedial work in math. Adding one more year of math to children already far behind in math skills will never make up for a poor elementary school math program.

People concerned about college ready students have the solution backwards. The answer is not in 12th grade, the answer is in elementary school. Fix instruction at the beginning of the pipeline, where the problems are created, not at the end of the pipeline where damage is irreversible.

Some people believe our children will be better employees if they have more math and science. But the Texas Legislature should not seek to subjugate our children to the service of others. What the Texas Legislature should seek is a growing economy with good jobs. We need better employers, not better employees.

A fourth year of math and science is less that worthless for most children, it is an unnecessary burden on the schools and an incentive for marginal students to drop-out.

Here is a quote from a supporter of the 4x4: "I foresee much weeping among students and their parents." Supporters of the 4x4 do not have the best interests of our children in mind.

Our children need a better understanding of history, economics, and finance, not more math and science.

When I saw a U.S. Congressman on C-Span explain why he voted for the bank bailout, the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, he explained that he did not understand economics, so he had to trust the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson. Notice the Congressman did not say he did not understand math, he did not say he did not understand science, he said he did not understand economics.

A lack of knowledge on economics is crippling the U.S. Congress and Senate, but economics is taught in the Social Studies department, so it gets pushed back for math and science.

Our economy is in the toilet because Wall Street CEOs were ignorant of the history of the Great Depression. They repeated the mistakes of the past and you and I are paying the price for their ignorance with our life's savings. History is taught in the Social Sciences department and will get pushed back with the 4x4 requierments.

A number of special interest groups have conspired to push 4x4 down our throats.

The 4x4 graduation requirements are not for the benefit of our children.

As long as voters gripe but do not vote, our legislators will continue serve the special interst groups at the expense of our children and their future.

Our PISD Board of Trustees has sold us out by embracing Senate Bill SB3 to keep the 4x4 and water-down the school accountability system. Of course they want to water-down the accountability system: The TAKS/TEKS system proves the Plano ISD provides a mediocre education for the average student and PISD wants to cover up their failings!

Robert Canright

U.S. Constitution Rediscovered

2009-05-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

I have said repeatedly that the 4x4 law is wrong. An example of an important course that could be pushed off our children's schedules would be a history elective on the U.S. Constitution.

If you think high school teachers could not teach a course on the US Constitution, I say that with the use of a course from the Teaching Company that our teachers could do it. The Teaching Company has a course, The Great Debate, Advocates and Opponents of the American Constitution by Dr. Thomas Pangle of the University of Texas, Austin, that could serve as the foundation of a course on the Constitution.

Supplementing this lecture would be an examination of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. Morton Borden has matched an Anti-Federalist paper against every Federalist Paper so contrasting views on every Federalist paper can be studied. The class or the teacher could pick some of the Federalist papers, read them and their corresponding Anti-Federalist papers and discuss them.

The best way to study the U.S. Constitution is to go beyond reading the words. The best way to study the meaning of the Constitution is to study the both sides of the argument over the ratification of our Constitution.

In addition, the Plano public library has a video on DVD that could be used in a class on the Constitution: "Key Constitutional Concepts", DVD 342.73029 KEY. This DVD has 3 segments. The 1st segment is inane, but segment #2 on "Gideon vs Wainwright" and segment #3 on "Youngstown vs Sawyer" are educational and intellectually stimulating. I believe there are other resources that could help our students understand and value the U.S. Constitution.

Our Constitution is a national treasure. We should all know it better. Our government will not respect the Constitution if we do not know when the Constitution is being violated and then demand it be followed.

The four-by-four law, requiring a 4th year of Math and a 4th year of Science, will push history electives off our children's schedules. History can be more valuable at times that Science or Math.

We need better leaders for a better future. Understanding and valuing the U.S. Constitution will make for better leaders.

Robert Canright

Capitalism Rediscovered

2009-05-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

I have said before that forcing all our children into taking a fourth year of Math and Science is bad. Students that will benefit from a 4th year will already be taking those courses. Most students would benefit from other courses.

Capitalism, for example, would be an elective that could be far more valuable to some students. I have a more detailed description on how Capitalism could be studied at this web page. A course on Capitalism would be an academic course, not part of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses that have been made substitutes for Math and Science in 4x4. This shows how the "compromise" on 4x4 in Senate Bill SB3 is a failure.

The PISD lists Business courses on their excellent web site. A course on Entrepreneurship would be a worthwhile addition to prepare our children to become successful business owners.

We need to prepare our children for leadership, not servitude. Four-by-four prepares our children for servitude and that is wrong.

We need better leaders for a better future. A course on Capitalism would be superior in that regard than courses in Math and Science.

You need a person of vision on the Board of Trustees. Vote for Robert Canright.

Breaking Through the Wall of Humbug

2009-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have offered many reasons why voters should vote for me:

The elementary school Math curriculum is flawed.
The elementary school English Language Arts curriculum is flawed.
The Connected Math curriculum in middle school is dumbing down math.
Our schools are mismanaged when you compare them to our neighbors.
I have demonstrated the Board of Trustees is not providing the oversight they should.
I am better qualified than any member on the board to help fix curriculum problems.
I have identified a Tutoring Divide in Plano that needs to be addressed.
I have a vision for combating cheating with the Pledge to Justice.
I have identified problems with the 4x4 curriculum being pushed by our legislators.
I have identified problems with the "growth model" of grading proposed by the PISD Administration.
I have a vision for goals of education to help guide our district to greatness: the Texas Ascendant Campaign.

But I still get asked this question: "Yes, but why should I vote for you?"

Obviously I think I can work to solve the problems I have identified. So what is it that I am not getting across to some people? Communication is not that easy.

Here is something I have not said yet that some voters might be waiting to hear: You should vote for Robert Canright because I will break down the Wall of Humbug that surrounds the PISD administration.

Here is a link to a description of what happened years ago when Timothy Soh presented his findings to the Board of Trustees that PISD was possibly spending money it did not need to spend: Trustee Gary Base refused to even consider the facts. I have found the same facts true today, years later. The Board has erected a Wall of Humbug to protect the Administration from any need to improve its performance.

After I presented data showing the Allen, Frisco, and Richardson ISDs outperform Plano ISD, the Administration published a very nice article on their website about 42 of the Plano schools receiving high ratings from a group called "Just for the Kids". (If the PISD website does not have the link I referenced, try here at this link.) That sounds great, almost like saying my data is wrong. Well, the TEA data has 47 Plano schools rated Recognized or Exemplary: 47 from the TEA is better than the 42 from Just for the Kids (69% vs. 62%). But Allen ISD has 90% of their schools rated Recognized or Exemplary, and 90% is a lot better that either 69% or 62%. Yes, I understand the Administration feels defensive, but it is still humbug to pretend there are no problems at PISD.

The Board and Administration are not the only ones creating the Wall of Humbug. The local papers also are part of the Wall of Humbug. Here is a link to a good article about the election that you can read in a periodical called My Crescent. Think about it. The Dallas Morning News does not have this article, and neither do the Plano Star Courier nor the Murphy Monitor. But as a testament to the greatness of America we have new source of news in Plano from a man to traveled across the ocean to seek the American dream of starting his own business. This is the true glory of Capitalism: that competition can improve our lives and our society by providing competition in delivering news to our community.

The establishment newspapers are part of the Wall of Humbug, so I am relieved that Capitalism is alive and well in Texas, providing competition for the existing papers.

Vote for Robert Canright and you can have an honest two-way communication with a member of the Board of Trustees instead of running into the Wall of Humbug.

Hear Canright Speak on Video

2009-05-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

One of the candidates forums was video taped, the one hosted by the Plano Mosque. Part of that video, showing Robert Canright's speech, is available for viewing in this on-line article.

The video follows the 2nd chart.

I am impressed to see real independent news media in town. The establishment newspapers suppress the news more often than report it.

Robert

The Dumbing Down Disease

2009-05-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

Plano ISD is infected with the Dumbing Down Disease. Is this a problem? Go to Amazon.com and search for "dumbing down" and you will see many books on the topic. Even Wikipedia has an article about dumbing down.

Connected Math is part of the Dumbing Down Disease. The elementary school math curriculum in PISD has been in trouble for years, but the middle school curriculum used to be okay. The kids received real math instruction in middle school and moved on to a good education in high school and senior high.

Connected Math will make the kids unprepared for high school. Connected Math means instead of providing private tutoring for elementary school, now private tutoring will be necessary all the way throught 8th grade. For those children who have not had private tutoring (which can be done by parents or tutors), PISD will eventually want to dumb down high school math. Then they will dumb down senior high math.

Once the PISD has dumbed down the math curriculum all the way through 12th grade, our private tutoring system will be overwhelmed and the PISD will crumble and fall: Plano will be a little Dallas in the middle of better managed suburban ISDs.

The high school math curriculum is a treasure. We must protect our high school math curriculum. We must get rid of Connected Math from the middle schools before it is too late. If we fix the problems we have had for so many years in the elementary schools, then our administrators will not need to dumb down the middle school curriculum.

SOS: Save our schools! Vote for Robert Canright for Place 7.

How Does One Vote in the School Board Election?

2009-05-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

I believe the majority of the registered voters in Plano have never voted in a school board election. A question I hear often is, "does it matter where I live?" No, the election is at-large. This means that every year you get to vote in a school board election.

The election is always on a Saturday in the first half of May. The candidates file for election 60 days before the election, so by the middle of March you can fish around the PISD website to find the names of the candidates. The PISD Communications office is very well run and has the best website of any district around us.

Find the candidates names and look for their websites and blogs. Newspapers are a very poor way of staying informed.

What about early voting? Every year you can check, early April is good, with the Collin County Elections Department at their website: http://www.co.collin.tx.us/elections/

You can find the early voting calendar and locations at their website.

Voter turn out in Plano is very poor. Last election there was a 4.5% turnout in Plano for the school board while Allen and Frisco had 10% turnouts. Notice that districts with better voter turnout are better managed.

Please vote every year!

Robert Canright

Digital Divide or Tutoring Divide?

2009-04-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

As I have been saying during my campaign, Plano has a Tutoring Divide. Many parents are providing private tutoring for their children to overcome the shortcomings in the PISD elementary school curriculum. Plano ends up with lop-sided results: many National Merit Scholarship winners on one end of the Tutoring Divide and mediocre results for the rest of the district, resulting in an Acceptable rating from the TEA.

What has the district done to remedy this situation? Nothing!

The district is more interested in the Digital Divide: providing internet services to the poor. See this article: Plano school district wants to provide wireless network to poor students, by Matthew Haag. What has this to do with education? Nothing!

Why is the PISD wasting time with issues not related to education? Because the Digital Divide was part of the Clinton-Gore liberal agenda.

Yes, the Clinton legacy is alive and well in the Plano ISD Board of Trustees.

The City Council can spend its money to address the Digital Divide if it wants, but it is an inappropriate use of school resources. You need a board member who is not pursuing partisan politics. You need a board member focused on education to fix the Tutoring Divide. You need new blood on the board.

Vote for Robert Canright

Cronyism Hurting PISD?

2009-04-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

Lecia Medlock is suing the Plano ISD in Federal Court. Ms. Medlock was laid off after complaining of cronyism. She says that district officials derailed her appeal to save her job to stop her accusation of "blatant cronyism" in promotion decisions from public disclosure.

Is cronyism contributing to the poor performance of Plano schools?

Why does the Plano ISD get sued so often? Could it be that this administration and board of trustees runs roughshod over everyone?

It is time to get new blood on the board!

Vote for Robert Canright

Philosophy

2009-04-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

My daughter was surprised to find Plano did not offer an elective in Philosophy. I enjoyed having a class on Philosophy when I was in high school and she hoped to have a similar experience. Talking about this with another parent, I was asked how Philosophy could be taught in high school. That is an excellent question.

One might expect a survey course in Philosophy, like I had, would be best for high school. After thought and research, I think a course on Plato's Republic is very feasible for high school. As I have described elsewhere, combining a commercially available course by a college professor from the Teaching Company with a scripted and unabridged enactment of The Republic available from Agora Publications would bring Plato's Republic within reach of high school students who are ready to stretch their minds.

A course on the Philosophy of Capitalism would be a good elective for seniors. The Teaching Company has a course, "Thinking About Capitalism," that is excellent. This course could be combined with reading books such as "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith or "Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy" by Joseph Schumpeter.

I saw a US Congressman on C-Span say he had no choice but to vote for a bank bailout because he did not understand economics. Notice he did not say he did not understand math or science. It is ignorance of economics that is ruining our economy, hence our students should have a high level course on the theory of Capitalism. What is available now in an economics course in high school is good for what it seeks to do: explain the mechanistic elements of economics. But understanding the philosophy of Capitalism is what is needed to understand big issues like globalization.

I mentioned in another blog post that Scarsdale High School is backing away from Advanced Placement (AP) courses and is offering advanced courses of their own design. We can do the same. A course on Plato's Republic and a course on the Philosophy of Capitalism would prepare our students to excel in a highly competitive world.

Robert Canright

PS: I have prepared a syllabus for a Continuing Education class on Plato's Republic. An interested group of adults can study Plato's Republic. Contact me if you are interested.

Plano Senior High Debaters Take Second in Global Contest

2009-04-27T19:36:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Plano Senior High debaters Crystal Xia, Gursimran Singh, and Javed Laljiani for taking second in a global debating competition held in New York City, at New York University.

Kudos to their coach Cheryl Potts. You can read the details in this press release.

Plano is a great community with talented students, teachers, and coaches.

Our thanks to Bickel & Brewer for making this experience possible for our children.

Robert Canright

Elementary School Reading and Writing

2009-04-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to provide more details on the problems I see in the elementary school English Language Arts program. Here is a list of problems followed by explanations.

Lack of phonics
Lack of vocabulary
Weak on grammar
Weak on writing
No penmanship
Poor attitude towards skills

Lack of phonics: When my daughter was in elementary school I was not surprised that phonics was not taught, so I taught my daughter phonics as best I could. My daughter fought me on phonics because her teacher really wanted the kids to guess words without sounding them out.

Here's a story for you. A friend of a friend has a child who was pronounced dyslexic by PISD. The parent bought phonics material and taught her child to read. Her child continued to have trouble at the PISD school and the mother could not understand how that could be since her child could read at home. Well, it turned out that the teacher was forbidding the child from sounding out the words. The parents sold their house and moved to Allen. The Allen ISD said the child was not dyslexic, but needed extra time to read. I have another friend whose child did have dyslexia and was so disappointed by the way PISD dealt with dyslexia that he pulled his child from PISD and sent his child to a private school.

By the time my second child went to PISD I had discovered a good resource for teaching reading: "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann. My son is successfully reading out loud long Greek names in Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, while I've seen other boys his age halt their reading when they reach an unfamiliar word.

Lack of vocabulary: Teaching spelling is the closest PISD comes to ensuring our children have learned any vocabulary. PISD wants children to guess the meaning of words and move on in their reading. When I was in elementary school I was taught to stop and look up a word I did not know. Furthermore, when I was in fourth grade we had graduated reading assignments specially designed to impart a significant vocabulary. I'll always remember thinking, "conflagration, what on earth is that?" But I dutifully looked it up and I have found a good vocabulary to be a life long blessing.

By the time my daughter was in high school I decided the vocabulary she received from her education was inadequate and I paid for vocabulary drilling. A good vocabulary should be taught in elementary school so children can benefit from it all through their years in PISD.

Weak on grammar: Yes, they teach some grammar, but it is a light weight dip into the subject. When I was in fifth grade I had comprehensive instruction in grammar. We learned to diagram sentences. When you become serious about writing you find grammar indispensable for self-editing. Fifth grade grammar in PISD is pretty weak. I went to Borders and purchased an English Language Arts book for 5th grade and I am using that to teach my son the three basic sentence types: simple, compound, and complex. Once you understand the difference between a compound and complex sentence, you can better understand why a comma or semicolon is used to demarcate sentence clauses.

My son was being taught to learn how to use commas by guessing and then being corrected without being given adequate instruction on the proper use of commas. You might think this is obviously a stupid way to teach because you do not actually teach and instead you make children think grammar is confusing and hard. Yet, PISD is embracing an approach to teaching that avoids teaching. I'll always remember an administrator from PISD saying to teachers that they are supposed to be, "a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage."

Weak on writing: It stands to reason that if instruction on grammar and sentence structure is weak that instruction on writing is going to be weak, and it is. When my daughter took an English composition / rhetoric class at Collin College she was surprised at how her papers were being marked. She asked me to check one of her papers and I had to agree it needed more correction than she expected. So I asked her, "have you ever had a paper in Plano corrected this rigorously?" She said no. She had never had proper proper feedback on her writing.

No penmanship: Plano does not penmanship. If you are not taught good penmanship while young, it is difficult to pick it up as an adult. You can tell at a glance the quality of a person's education by the way that person holds a pen. Good penmanship is a mark of distinction. Some successful businessmen believe personalized thank you notes to customers are an important business practice, but that not cannot have ugly handwriting. My mother has the best penmanship I have seen. She was taught penmanship with the Palmer method when she was a child. It is a shame our district ignores penmanship and makes good penmanship one more burden for the busy parents to provide for their children because the district ignores it.

Poor attitude towards skills: Reading, writing, grammar, and penmanship are all skills and our district follows a trend in education that disregards the value of skills by calling them stultifying and mechanistic, to use John Dewey's own words.

Some progressive educators want to skip teaching skills and focus instead on teaching critical thinking, but that is a short cut that short changes our children.

Our children deserve the best education we can provide.

Vote for Robert Canright.

The Rotary Challenge

2009-04-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

The Rotary International has a nice "Four Way Test of the Things We Think, Say, or Do."

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Here is my 1-minute pitch to the Metro Rotary.

Is it true that the Plano ISD Administration is doing great job? No! My charts that are posted at my website and presented at the Rotary show that Allen ISD is the best managed school district around us and that the Plano ISD, by providing mediocre results at the highest cost, is the worst managed district around us. To compensate for the mediocre education provided for the average student, many parents send their kids to private tutoring, as I have previously mentioned.

Is it fair that Plano children need to have private tutoring to make up for problems in the Plano curriculum? No!

Is it beneficial to the parents to be forced to pay for tutoring? No!

Does driving parents to find tutoring build goodwill? No! Parents have sued the district in court over the problems in the math curriculum, where's the good will in that?

I told the Rotary their own 4-point test demonstrates they should vote for Robert Canright for Place 7 and turn out the incumbent. I asked that everyone there vote for me.

Then I appealed to everyone there who was not yet persuaded to read my website and blog with an open mind and to put the welfare of the children over commitment to a candidate, to put the welfare of the community over commitment to a candidate and to vote for Robert Canright.

Robert Canright

Debate Team Now in New York

2009-04-19T06:31:00.000-07:00

Debaters from Plano Senior High are now in New York City. The Final Four of the National Public Policy Forum is this weekend.

I'm dying to know if they made it to the final! Tell me if you know.

If you are not familiar with the National Public Policy Forum, sponsored by the law firm Bickel & Brewer, read about it at this link.

We have great kids in Plano and they accomplish great things. Imagine the heights they could scale if we fixed the problems in the elementary and middle school curriculum!

Robert Canright

Dumbing Down and Connected Math

2009-04-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

The Plano ISD Administration is dumbing down our children's education. It is a nation wide problem and our administration slavishly follows foolish fads in education, so it is falling into the same quality problems plaguing other school school districts.

But our neighbors are not falling into this trap. The Superintendents at Allen, Frisco, and Richardson seem to think for themselves instead of mindlessly jumping onto the latest bandwagon. The Allen, Frisco, and Richardson ISDs do not use Connected Math, only Plano. Allen, Frisco, and Richardson show better test results than Plano.

When my daughter reached middle-school, I found the curriculum there was solid. I was able to discontinue tutoring and rely upon the schools. The math curriculum at Plano Senior High was awesome.

Now Connected Math is used in middle-school and I see I must tutor my son all the way through middle-school. I hope they do not destroy the math curriculum at the Plano high schools until after he has gone through them. They will surely wreck the high school math curriculum, as the day follows the night. After dumbing down math from grades 1 to 8, many children will be unable to do the quality math currently in our high schools. Instead of admitting they were wrong to dumb down grades 1 through 8, they will dumb down grades 9 through 12 as well. When they complete dumbing down math from grades 1 through 12, the Plano ISD will be totally wrecked.

I do not believe the tutoring industry will be able to replace the high school math program, it is too good and too extensive to be replaced by tutoring. Once the PISD Administration finishes dumbing down math from grades 1 through 12, then you will see the district stumbling and falling.

Connected Math (CM) is a program developed at Michigan State University. The proponents of CM say it, "Develops deep understanding of important ideas." Connected Math sacrifices math skills for what they consider "understanding." What is the point of understanding math if you can only do the simplist math with great difficulty?

Connected Math is part of the dumbing down of America. Google "dumbing down of America" and you will find a lot of hits. Seach Amazon.com for that phrase and you will find very many books. It is a plague upon America and it is very present here in the metroplex, as decribed by Dr. Troy Camplin in this OpEd article in the Dallas Morning News.

Parents have objected vigorously in the past to Connected Math. Click here to see the lawsuit against PISD over Connected Math. Click here to see the disposition of Dr. Jim Wolgehagen, math coordinator, during that lawsuit. The parents felt they had to sue the district because the Administration and Board have turned a deaf ear to the citizens of Plano.

The Plano Board of Trustees does not represent the citizens of Plano; it represents the PISD Administration. The board persists in failing to provide the over sight it should because the citizens of Plano do not vote.

Not only am I better qualified than any Board member to provide the over sight for math and science curriculum, but I will represent the citizens of Plano and provide the over sight that is missing from this Board of Trustees.

Vote for Robert Canright to save our schools!

Plano's Secret: the Tutoring Industry

2009-04-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

I just about choke when I hear a PISD Trustee brag about the great job they do. Many parents break their backs to compensate for the shortcomings in the Plano curriculum so our children can succeed in spite of the problems with the curriculum.

For years I sent my daughter to a Chinese school on Sunday for math. Two of her classmates were at that same Chinese school. There were hundreds of children at this one school, and that is not the only Chinese school around.

There are many Kumon centers, and a large number of different tutoring businesses.

It is a lot of work and pressure on a parent who wants to do the tutoring himself. It is almost overwhelming.

Here is an email I received from a parent:
"The education my child is receiving [in Plano] is not good. If you came to my house, you would think I home school. Our living room has book shelves full of books, workbooks, flash cards, learning games, manipulatives, etc. I shop at all the local teacher stores, have several shelves worth of textbooks, and spend as much time as possible online to learn how to teach him the concepts he is missing out on at school."

Parents, through personally tutoring their own children or by paying for tutoring, are the source of PISD success. The PISD Administration and Board of Trustees has let us down and forced us to tutor our children for the basics.

Karen Dillard's program is outstanding for SAT, ACT, and the PSAT tests. The PSAT tutoring is how Plano gets National Merit Scholarships.

The Plano ISD Administration has fouled up the elementary school curriculum. They are in the process of fouling up the middle-school math curriculum with Connected Math. The tutoring industry has been keeping Plano ISD afloat. But if the Adminstration fouls up the high schools next, the damage might be more that the tutoring industry can float.

I am very worried that Plano ISD is going to sink. We need new blood on the Board of Trustees to halt the decay in our school quality.

Vote for Robert Canright

Measuring Growth?

2009-04-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

Schools across the country have been struggling with performance problems on government mandated standardized tests. One approach administrators around the country are pushing is to change how you report performance. There is a big movement towards "standards-based report cards."

Here is a link to one online article with a rosy view of standards-based report cards. There is some balance in this New York Times article on standards-based report cards: Report Cards Give Up A’s and B’s for 4s and 3s by WINNIE HU, March 24, 2009.

Two points caught my attention in the NYT article. (1) Children were crushed by low marks in the beginning of the year because the report cards measured growth instead of achievement. They were compared to what they were supposed to know by the end of the year, so half way through the year they are scoring 50%, or 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. (2) The article mentioned 39 skills being measured on one report card. The other article mentions a school with 54 skills being measured.

So measuring growth with standards-based report cards can be depressing to children and way too complicated for the teachers to realistically use.

When my daughter was in 2nd grade they gave her a math test on the first day to measure her performance on a test that was going to be administered at the end of the year. They tested her on material she had not been taught. She was depressed and thought she was not good in math. I asked why they did that and was told this was how they decided to measure growth. Boy, was that stupid!

Standards-based report cards are a bureaucrat's fantasy. Beware of efforts to measure growth.

Changing our children's report cards to standards-based report cards will be an expensive, confusing, wasteful mess.

And efforts to change the TAKS test are a waste of time and money. Either the TEA succeeds in discovering a method to raise the scores of under-performing schools, or the State Legislature admits defeat and abandons standardized testing.

Our options with TAKS testing are simple: success or failure.

Efforts to change either the test or the testing measurements are a deception. Remember there are businesses that profit from testing and they don't want testing to ever stop or become stable. They love selling tests. They love being paid to rewrite tests. Testing has become a racket that raids our pockets.

Our Legislators are enslaving us to Pearson.

Plano needs a member on the Board of Trustees that is not going to sell out to big business. Plano needs a a member on the Board who can cut through the baloney and make decisions that will help your child instead of helping big business.

Vote for Robert Canright

Elementary School Math Problems

2009-04-11T19:19:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to describe the problems in the Plano ISD elementary school curriculum. Here are the problems in a nutshell:

Poor attitude
Lack of skills
Watered down problems
Very little homework
Buckshot approach to math
Unprepared for middle school
Tutoring divide

Poor attitude: The curriculum is poisoned from the start by a bad attitude. Some math curriculum writers think elementary school math is hard for children to understand, consequently they make it hard to understand. Elementary school math is not esoteric knowledge; it is a skill to master, like reading.

Lack of skills: The focus of elementary school math in Plano is on understanding math instead of doing math. Math skills have fallen from the curriculum and parents have to teach the math facts and arithmetic skills at home if the parents recognize the importance of math skills. This means parents must pay for tutoring or purchase material and personally teach math skills at home.

Watered down problems: The math problems assigned in elementary school are low quality problems. The goal seems to be teaching to the TAKS instead of teaching skills necessary for competence. This also requires parents to pay for tutoring or purchase material to provide the appropriate level of work.

Very little homework: One learns by doing, but our children do little homework in elementary school. The curriculum is so bad, too little homework is really a blessing. That gives more time for tutoring, but widens the gap between those being tutored and those not being tutored.

Buckshot approach to math: The children see many topics at the same time. There is little focus, so math looks like a confusing hodge-podge of problems. The administration calls this "spiraling", but spiraling could have more focus on individual topics, build from simple to more challenging problems, and then move on and circle back for review later. The buck-shot approach makes math look like a confusing mess.

Unprepared for middle-school: The low level of math skills makes the children unprepared for middle-school math. Math problems should be more challenging in middle-school, but many of our children never master the math skills necessary for middle-school.

Instead of fixing the elementary school math curriculum to eliminate the deficiencies in middle school students, Plano has chosen to water down, or dumb down, middle school math with the Connected Math program (more about this another time).

Tutoring divide: There is a gap now in Plano between those students with private tutoring and those without. This leads to a system where the cream-of-the-crop is highly competitive and gets a truckload of National Merit Scholarships, while many students, especially economically disadvantaged students, fall behind.

The tutoring divide explains why Plano can be a mediocre district with a TEA Acceptable rating while many students get National Merit Scholarships.

Elementary school mathematics is not very complicated. The PISD administration has a poor educational philosophy in regard to math. Plano administrators do not know how to effectively teach math.

For thousands of years, societies around the world have taught the math facts to their children and moved their civilizations forward, charting the stars, sailing the seas, and even made flying possible for mankind.

Dumbing down education by throwing out the math facts and down-playing math skills is putting the average Plano student at a disadvantage.

The problems in elementary school math are not difficult to fix. Getting past a stone-walling Board of Trustees and correcting the problems in the PISD administration is hard. Math is not a problem, politics is a problem.

The first step to fixing the problems in Plano's elementary school curriculum is to vote out the Board of Trustees.

Robert Canright

PS: I can confirm that the districts that out perform Plano -- Allen, Frisco, and Richardson -- do not use Connected Math

Cheating Policy

2009-04-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

The news is that the Plano ISD is planning to make it easier and more rewarding for children to cheat in school. That is what it means when a child does not get a zero for being caught cheating on that assignment.

Here is a link to the article in the Dallas Morning News:
"Plano ISD considers alternative grading policy By MATTHEW HAAG"

For years I have taken a stand against cheating.

On April 28, 2007 I wrote: "We Need to Address Cheating"

On May 4, 2007 I wrote: "Cheating and the PISD's Glass House" where I discussed how the PISD Administration and Board lost their moral authority to admonish cheating when they named a school after a convicted felon.

On February 20, 2008 I wrote: "Good Leaders are Ethical Leaders", where I discussed what I now call "The Pledge to Justice":

The Pledge to Justice
We do not steal, we do not cheat, and we do not hurt other people.
We are people of integrity, competence, and compassion.

Cheating and stealing are closely related. It is a small step from cheating to stealing.

On February 28, 2008 I wrote: "Plano ISD Sends Wrong Message About Theft." The PISD administration interfered with discipline at Plano Senior High and forced some cheerleaders who had been caught shoplifting back onto the cheer squad over the objections of the staff at the school.

Clearly, the PISD Administration and Board of Trustees have been soft on cheating and stealing for years. The message they give to the world is that cheating and stealing are good if you can get away with it, if you have political pull.

If there are no consequences for cheating, then the Administration and Board would be encouraging our children to cheat: there would only be an up-side to cheating, there would be no down-side. Honest children would be the laughing-stock of the cheaters, and that is where I would guess this Board of Trustees is headed.

The district curriculum and budget are clearly mismanaged. If the incumbent in Place 7 and the "establishment candidate" in Place 6 win, then clearly no amount of mismanagement will ever dislodge the board members. I predict that if the board candidates win, that the consequences for cheating will fly out the window after the election and the cheating that is already a problem in Plano will be rampant. That will be one more nail in the coffin for the reputation of the Plano schools.

Here is an appropriate quote from Herbert Spencer:
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools."

The flip side to that quote is that honesty is wise.

I believe honesty is empowering.

On February 22, 2009 I wrote: "The Trust Texas Project" where I suggest a reputation for honesty in finance could be a competitive advantage in strengthening the banking industry in Texas to gain prominence in national and international financial circles.

If you have never voted in a school board election, then this is your time to shine. We stand at the edge of the abyss. If the clique running the school board remains intact, Plano will become a cheaters paradise and our district will fall into an irreversible death spiral.

Please vote for Robert Canright for Place 7 on Saturday May 9.
For Place 6 I recommend Steve Navarre.

Robert Canright

Plano School Quality Slips

2009-03-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

The top chart shows the results of the 2008 TAKS tests. They show 87% of Allen and 87 % of Frisco schools are ranked Exemplary or Recognized by the TEA, while 69% of Plano schools and 66% of McKinney schools are Exemplary or Recognized.

Plano trails both Allen and Frisco in the TEA measure of superior schools. Allen and Frisco ISDs are rated "Recognized" by the TEA. Plano is an "Acceptable" district.

Allen and Frisco have more good schools than Plano.

The second chart shows the percent of schools ranked "Academically Acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency.

Allen has 5%, Frisco 11%, Plano 24%, and McKinney 34% schools ranked "Acceptable."

"Acceptable" is not good, it can mean the school is on the borderline of being "Unacceptable."

According to the TEA measurements, the Plano ISD is more like the McKinney ISD than like the Allen ISD or Frisco ISD.

There is a Plano Spirit. Plano is a great community. We are slipping in some ways, and our schools are definitely slipping, but we can fix that if we face the problems and make good choices.

Wasting money on WiFi wireless internet is a bad choice that not only wastes money that could be spent on teachers, but it wastes the time of the administration and everyone involved. The entire WiFi wireless boondoggle is a mistake because it diverts attention away from education and will drive school quality down even more. Here is a link to an article about the WiFi wireless network that PISD wants to beam into private homes. The PISD administration and board allow themselves to become distracted by non-essential adventures while they neglect their primary duty of educating the children. This misplaced focus of attention contributes to the decline of our schools.

The Board of Trustees and the Plano ISD Administration have taken their eyes off the ball and they are striking out.

If you value the education of our children, if you value the Plano community, if you care about your property values, then put new people on the Board.

You have a clear choice for Place 7: Vote for Canright.

Robert Canright

Canright Cares

2009-03-12T19:54:00.001-07:00

Plano is a great city with great kids. I care about the kids in Plano, which is why I tutor some kids in math for free.

In Round Rock last year, after a great football game, I noticed a car full of teenagers that was not leaving the parking lot. I drove over, with my family, and asked if everything was okay. It turned out they had a flat tire.

The boys said they knew how to change a tire, but I parked the car and asked them to show me. Well, they were missing the crank they needed to jack their car up. I loaned them my crank, and then discovered they did not really know how to change a tire.

I changed their flat tire for them, told them their spare was low on air and they needed to get more air in the spare. I had my daughter get their phone number and check on them to make sure they made it safely to a gas station to get their tire inflated.

I love my children, but I care about all the children of Plano. I could tutor just my children, but I do more than that. And I want all the children of Plano to get the best education we can provide them so they can live full and prosperous lives.

We do need to make changes in Plano to give our children the best education. I am willing to work to help make those changes just as surely as I am willing to change your child's car tire if needed, but I need your help. You need to vote for me on election day, and call and email your friends to get them to vote.

Thank you,
Robert Canright

Professional photography by Alisha Downs from Beyond Exposure

The American Dream

2009-03-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

My view of the American dream is for my children to have a better life than mine. I would like every generation to have a better life than the one before.

I tutor my children because my education was better than the education they are getting in the Plano ISD. I would like all the children of Plano to have a better education, so I run for the school board with the intent of improving education.

I worry the future will be difficult. That's what I meant when I ran 3 years ago and said, "We must prepare our children for a future beyond our imagination." If it was a good future, I would not have had to run for office. I want my children to have a better life than I have had, but I worry that might not happen because all of our children might face a bleak future.

Our children need more than a better education for the challenges of tomorrow, they need a different type of education. Our school leadership is like a group of old generals trying to fight a new war with the old strategy from the last war.

We need a better strategy for the future. We need new blood on the school board. Vote for Canright to give your children hope for a brighter future.

Here is a nice article about the election by Heather Smith at the Plano Star Courier.

Robert Canright

It's Official: My Hat is in the Ring

2009-03-03T06:08:00.001-08:00

I have filed to run for Place 7 in the May 9th PISD election for the Board of Trustees.

I have not yet started my campaign, but my opponent has and she is running hard.

Three years ago I campaigned with a slogan, "We must prepare our children for a future beyond our imagination." I repeated that message in 2007, and now I see my words echoed on my opponent's website. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so I feel flattered.

Remember to vote for the real voice for change, not the echo.

Robert Canright

Articles on the Election

2008-05-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

Here's an article in the Denton Record-Chronicle. (April 27, 2008)

Here's the Dallas Morning News (April 27, 2008, same content as the Denton Record-Chronicle).

The Murphy Monitor,

The Plano Star Courier waited until the day before the election to pretend to cover the election. The Courier ignored everything I said about issues and the proposals I made to improve education. All the Star Courier said was, "Incumbent Brad Shanklin is challenged by Robert Canright for Place 4 on the PISD School Board." By the time the Courier published this single sentence, 60% of the voters had already voted.

I thought you had to go to Putin's Russia to see ideas so thoroughly suppressed. Who would have thought we'd have censorship in Plano, Texas?

The Courier provided better coverage after the election was over: link.

This goes to show that if you read one newspaper, you need to read at least a second paper for balance. I do think that newspapers are dying because people get better information from the internet than from newspapers.

Robert

The TAKS Test is Trouble

2008-05-09T03:59:00.000-07:00

I've spoken out against the TAKS test at meetings. This link shows the answer I gave at one meeting.

If you want change, vote for me. Remember, I endorse David Hall for Place 5.

Robert

Plano Can Rock the World

2008-05-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

We are more interconnected in this world than we realize. Wall Street financiers develop a really bad idea and the Northern Rock Bank in England fails.

Enron fails in Houston and British Bankers go to jail.

I say that if bad things in Texas can ripple around the world, then good things in Texas can ripple around the world. Good things in Plano can ripple around the world.

The education of our children is the greatest trust placed upon us parents. And I believe the education we give our children is not just important for them, it is important for Plano, for Texas, and even for the world.

I encourage you to believe the education of your child is more important than we can understand. We cannot predict where, or when, or for whom some special nugget of wisdom will make a huge difference in the course of events. Education is not just about getting into the best college and chasing a high paying job. Education is about moving society forward. Education is about making a difference.

Here is the poem,
"The Arrow and the Song"
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

Let's believe that a great education from Plano can rock the world!

Robert

Voting and Yard Signs

2008-05-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

I encourage everyone to vote. Pericles, according to Lord Acton, said that, "...every Athenian who neglected to take his part in the public business inflicted an injury on the commonwealth."

I believe money corrupts politics. Considering the national election going on now, I believe we can be better informed about elections by using the internet than by watching TV advertisements. Think about the compromises politicians make to get money to buy advertisements. Television ads are the main driving force for political corruption. If we ignored political advertisements then politicians would not need to compromise their ethics to get campaign contributions.

We can best take part in the political process by being informed voters, ignoring paid advertisements, and voting on issues. If you call or email your friends about an election, then that increases the strength of our political process. Professional political operatives become wealthy, and I'm talking about millions of dollars, by convincing politicians that voters can be manipulated.

Now let us return our attention to the local election: People volunteer to put up my yard signs, but I don't use yard signs because we should be able to do without them. I know politics can be fun and that yard signs are part of the election tradition, like ornaments on a Christmas tree, but it is important that we find ways to reduce the cost of elections and increase genuine communication about real issues.

The Plano ISD elections have had better quality recently. We are beginning to see real discussion of issues.

Please vote and remind your friends to vote!
Here is a link to polling places.

Robert

Let's Improve Math at Plano ISD

2008-05-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned that we need to make improvements in elementary school mathematics. I will share a few ideas here.

One step is to change the attitude towards math. The attitude conveyed is that math is confusing and hard to understand. My son got honest-to-goodness Algebra problems in 2nd grade homework. One problem was to solve two simultaneous equations in two unknowns. Most children cannot do that in 8th grade, and there I am at the kitchen table showing my son how to solve 2 equations in 2 unknowns. That was absurd. Of course children will think math is confusing and hard to understand when they do not get age-appropriate problems.

The elementary school curriculum is disjointed. The home work problems in 2nd grade were too hard. Then the home work problems in 3rd grade are too easy. The over-all math curriculum in elementary school is a hodge-podge and needs more coordination.

We need to convey the attitude to elementary school students that doing math is easy if you listen in class and practice at home. Math is like putting money in the bank: you make regular deposits and you end up with a good account. The student invests efforts regularly and ends up with good math skills: it is predictable and guaranteed.

The buck-shot approach taken in elementary school makes math seem confusing. They do not master a skill before moving on, they hop around frequently so the children are always being reminded they did not master the material the last time they saw it or they discover they have forgotten what they learned.

The key to elementary school math is to focus on doing math and mastering the key skills.

The State of Texas has given us a curriculum: the TEKS. We need to implement it and here is a simple set of guidelines for success in math:
1.) Master addition in 1st grade
2.) Master subtraction in 2nd grade
3.) Master multiplication in 3rd grade
4.) Master division in 4th grade
There is no emphasis on mastering these skills. Children must learn their math facts.

I have a friend who graduated from UT Austin with a Masters in Computer Science who told me he went to college not knowing his multiplication facts. He eventually learned his multiplication facts in college because he needed them.

Something else the district can improve is teacher training. Too much teacher training in math is directed towards teaching games the teachers can use in the classroom. It is my observation that some of the math teachers can benefit from improving their own math skills. From elementary school all the way up to high school I have seen certified math teachers who cannot solve some of the math problems they are trying to teach the students. Young math teachers have not had enough practice in college doing the math they are expected to teach. Young teachers who need help should get that help.

Plano students can reap large rewards from improving elementary school mathematics, which are the foundation for all mathematics. The changes I suggest are not expensive and not difficult.

Robert

A Personal Question I Get Asked

2008-05-05T20:32:00.000-07:00

I am surprised by how often I am asked if I am a Christian. I am a student of philosophy and I believe in borrowing good ideas from smart people. Because I borrow from philosophers and moral teachers that are not commonly studied, I can understand that people wonder how my faith compares with their faith.

I was reared as a Catholic. I looked to study the Bible with people who knew the Bible well and could answer my questions. I was satisfied with the answers I received and I was baptized for the forgiveness of my sins. Yes, I am a Christian.

I have friends of every religious persuasion that I can think of. I believe in tolerance and respect for people of all faiths. I am grateful to live in a country with religious freedom.

I have been asked if Confucianism is a religion. Confucius was a teacher. In our culture we would call him a philosopher. He is comparable, in some regards, to the American philosopher John Dewey. Dewey has followers today who are pretty zealous, but neither John Dewey nor Confucius started a religion.

I am glad people ask questions. People are really looking and thinking during this election, and that is great!

Robert Canright

Let's Improve Reading at Plano ISD

2008-05-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

My daughter is a Junior in high school now. Since she entered PISD in elementary school, the district has told the children to guess the meaning of words instead of telling them to look up the words in a dictionary.

Her elementary school teachers told her to guess the meaning of words. When she was in Jasper High School her English teacher was giving her advice on guessing the meaning of words. My son is in elementary school now and PISD still does not give vocabulary the attention it deserves.

The Plano school district needs to change its ways and help our kids develop a better vocabulary. We should not have to pay for Kumon. I respect Kumon, but it should not be a substitute for a weak PISD program. Kumon should be used to help children needing help, not to help a school district overcome its problems.

I did use the DISTAR system to teach my son to read. I knew not to rely on the schools for something that important, but teaching vocabulary is not as complicated as teaching reading. PISD really can succeed in setting vocabulary standards for the different grades. You and I should not have to figure out what vocabulary our children need to master every year. Why do we pay administrators to work on curriculum if we parents have to do their job for them?

In addition to improving vocabulary, the school district needs to set higher standards for the reading material it puts in front of our children. The material given our children to read can be more challenging. When my daughter was in 10th grade I told her English teacher the newspaper article our children were given to analyze from the Dallas Morning News was too poorly written to give to our students. I suggested the New York Times as a source for better articles. She said the Dallas Morning News was written at an 8th grade level and the New York Times was written at a 12th grade level. I think that is exactly the point. We should not give a 10th grader something written at an 8th grade level.

Our children can do better. The Plano administrators tell the teachers what to teach. The Board of Trustees needs to tell the PISD administration to improve the caliber of the reading program, starting with elementary school and rolling the improvement all the way up to high school.

Our students will be more successful in school as their reading skills improve. They will get higher SAT scores in reading, and their improved reading skills will make them more successful in college.

Robert Canright

A Successful Life Built Upon Good Character

2008-05-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

The purpose of education is to help our children have a great life. That means education imparts practical skills. Some skills do not seem practical to some young people, like Algebra. Some skills might not seem practical to some adults, like character development.

For thousands of years successful civilizations have have taught math skills and character development to their youth.

When success is obtained by underhanded ways, that success is fleeting. We want our children's success to be a lasting success. When other people strive for success, we do not want their success to be at the expense of our children's future.

We need to emphasize that your success does not need to be at someone else's expense. A wise man said,

"To advance, help others to advance. If you desire success for yourself, then desire success for others." (Analect 6.28)

The Bible says, "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)

Notice that Paul says "whatever." It is my belief, and I can quote a supporting scripture for this, that all true wisdom comes from God. There are many wise lessons from history and historical sources that are are unaffiliated with religion and therefore are appropriate for use in public education.

As I have mentioned earlier, Abraham Maslow has said, "Education must be seen as at least partially an effort to produce the good human being, to foster the good life and the good society."

I want to improve math and reading in the elementary schools, but we must include character education to foster the good life and the good society.

The early years, K-3, are the foundation for everything. We cannot stand on a 2 legged stool. We need 3 legs on our stool to stand upon it firmly and reach for greater heights:
1.) Better math
2.) Better reading
3.) Character development

Robert Canright

Our Children's Future: 4x4 and the Koreans

2008-05-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

The State Legislature has reduced the electives our children can take in high school to achieve a well-rounded education. They have legislated 4 years of math and 4 years of science to graduate. This requirement is called 4x4. (Here is one link about it, here is another.)

Let's consider the path our legislators have put us on: the path of competing scholastically with the Asians. There is an excellent article in the Sunday April 27, 2008 New York Times, "Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Ties," by Sam Dillon.

Mr. Dillon describes a life of constant study: every waking moment is study, study, study. Is this how one develops leadership skills? I don't think so! I believe in scholarship and I study regularly, but the degree of commitment described in the article is madness. By making their children slave relentlessly to enter Harvard, these Korean parents are preparing their children for a life of slavery. We should want to prepare our children for a life of liberty.

More math and science is the path to servitude. We should instead take the path to leadership, which would include the lessons of history for leadership instead of more science. The corporations are sending all the math and science jobs to Asia, so the path to success for our children is where they start their own businesses and hire these hard working Korean students to do the work.

Let's think about what the Texas State Legislature has done:

1.) They have stolen a billion dollars from Plano.

2.) TAKS testing has warped education. It has diminished education at good schools and done nothing to improve unsuccessful schools.

3.) A fourth year of science is a waste of time and money because science jobs are being outsourced.

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

Our state legislators are misguided and they are diminishing our children's education and future.

You need a Board of Trustees who will speak up and work to undo the damage the state legislators are inflicting on your children's education.

Robert

Freedom

2008-04-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

At the "Meet the Candidates" meeting at the Islamic Association of Collin County there was a question asked about education for those not planning to go to college. First, let me point out that the Plano senior high schools do offer "career" classes.

Mr. David Hall, running for Place 5 on the school board, mentioned that teaching the fundamentals of starting a business is an opportunity for improvement. I supported Mr. Hall's suggestion and said we need to emphasize to students that if they do not want to get a college education, they should plan to the the boss of their own business because uneducated workers are not going to be valued in the long run.

One of the men spoke with me after the meeting and told me a story they use in Morocco:

A teacher asks the children in his class what they want to be when they grow up. One says, "a truck driver." One says, "an engineer." Another says, "a construction worker." Then one child says, "I want to be free!"

"What to you mean," the teacher says? "You are not a slave, so how can you say you want to be free when you grow up?"

The boy says, "No one who works for another is free!"

Wow! That is great!

We do need to prepare our children to be free: financially free and politically free.

We do not want our children impoverished nor disenfranchised. We must educate our children to be free!

If we do not value our liberties we will lose them, financially as well as politically.

Vote for Robert Canright (Place 4) and I will work to safeguard your child's future!

Robert

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

2008-04-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

I have spoken of incorporating Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans within the PISD curriculum. My son is in 4th grade and I think the level of writing in Plutarch is a bit much for a 4th grader, but I decided to buy a set for him anyway. I will go through the life of Alexander the Great with him now and I'll save the rest for later.

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are within his reading skills and I've ordered a copy for him. They are pithy and wise. I would caution you to take care if you buy a copy of the Meditations for your child. Not all translations are created equal. I've seen some awful translations. I can recommend the translation by Maxwell Staniforth. The book is out of print but available from Amazon.com, you just have to do an author search on Maxwell Staniforth instead of a title search. Here's a link to what you will find: LINK.

If the citizens of Plano go out and vote and choose to seat me on the Board of Trustees, then I will to my best to ensure all our children get a great education.

Robert

Love of Learning

2008-04-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned elsewhere that we need a love of learning. Here are the words of the wise man:

Sit and hear the importance of a love of learning.

Loving goodness without loving learning leads to foolishness.

Loving knowledge without loving learning leads to confusion.

Loving trustworthiness without loving learning leads to harmful actions.

Loving virtue without loving learning leads to harshness.

Loving courage without loving learning leads to rebellion.

Loving inner strength without loving learning leads to stubbornness.

Wow! What great words. The love of learning is part of the path to wisdom!

You normally do not hear about the love of learning. The schools use the Six Pillars of Character: (1) Trustworthiness, (2)Respect, (3) Responsibility, (4) Fairness, (5) Caring, and (6) Citizenship.

The Character First organization uses a list of 49 character traits. It is a great list, but the love of learning is not on the list.

The love of learning is an important key to removing the barriers to success that plague unsuccessful schools. It has been 25 years since the Bell Report, A Nation at Risk, came out. We've seen twenty-five years of sweat, tears, and frustration, twenty-five years of money into failing programs, and we have not improved the failing schools because no one has talked about the love of learning.

We must break with the status quo. We need a better vision to advance education. Vote for Robert Canright (place 4) and David Hall (place 5) if you value education.

Robert Canright

PS: the NY Times has an excellent OP-ED piece, "A Nation at a Loss" by Edward B. Fiske, Friday, April 25, 2008.

Texas Renaissance

2008-04-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

I started talking last year about a Texas Renaissance. I believe we should be expecting a benefit from better education.

I believe Texas can have a renaissance in business and the arts. Better educated citizens will see more opportunities for creating business or art. We need to be alert to this flowering of creativity and help it blossom.

Music, movies, computer games, video games, and magazine and book publishing come to mind as the confluence of business and the arts. When these types of endeavors start in Plano or neighboring communities, we need to be alert and be supportive. This is our future. A lot of people hope to go to a successful company and ask for a high paying job, but how does a small business become successful without support?

There was a small book publisher in Allen, Texas, Timberwolf Press. They published a book by a child here in Plano or Frisco. I bought a copy and incorporated the book into my young child's bedtime reading. It was a nice book, but how many people in Plano bought the book when you see the company website is off-line? They appear to be out of business. We need local businesses to succeed!

The South-by-Southwest music festival has lasted 20 years and is now very successful. That is good for Texas, but it is in Austin. We had a South-by-So-What music festival here. Great! But we need to help them succeed.

Texas and North Texas is on the verge of greatness, but we have to be alert to the opportunities and be supportive of those who are striving to create successful enterprises in business and the arts.

If we want our children to be successful, we need to give them a great education and then give them an environment where that great education can flourish.

Let's move forward together. Let's embrace a vision of greatness.

Robert Canright

We Are All in the Same Boat

2008-04-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

I was at a "meet the candidates" meeting, hosted by the Islamic Association of Collin County, when a question was asked about maintaining Plano as a 1st class community.

I found myself talking about maintaining America as a 1st class country, and I told this story:

Imagine we are in a boat. Our feet are getting wet, and we see the boat is leaking. The captain is on the upper deck drinking champagne with the millionaires and doesn't want to be disturbed. So we have to plug the hole and bail out the water ourselves, without help from those running the boat.

This is why I say we need better leaders for a better future: we cannot count on Wall Street or Washington to fix America's problems. We have to be prepared to roll up our sleeves, plug the holes, and bail out the boat because we are in the same boat together and we cannot count on others.

I commend the members of the Islamic Association of Collin County for their involvement and their good questions. Our democracy is strengthened when citizens care enough to ask questions and be involved.

Robert Canright

Leadership: Morality and the Mundane

2008-04-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

I believe good leaders are moral leaders. I've said, "morality is the root of education." What do I mean by that? Abraham Maslow is a famous pyschologist, whose hierarchy of needs is studied by teachers. Maslow said, "Education must be seen as at least partially an effort to produce the good human being, to foster the good life and the good society."

One can define morality many ways, but I think, "being a good human," is simple and direct.

We should educate our children as though a future President of the United States will come from our schools. We can develop the best leaders in America right here in Plano.

Besides morality, there are mundane aspects to preparing for leadership. Good speaking skills, good speech writing skills, and good debating skills are important for leadership. Plano students have done well in speech and debate contests.

The Roman historian Tacitus, in his "Dialogue on Oratory," expressed a belief in a connection between good oratory and liberty. Speech seems mundane, but it is not. Writing a good speech is difficult.

I believe there is room for a course in Advanced Speech, where great speeches are studied, where the careers and work of presidential speech writers are studied. Have you noticed that if you become a presidential speech writer then you are set for life?

One thing we can do immediately is to pay more attention to the success our children have in speech and debate contests. I think we packed our side of Texas Stadium for our football game against Trinity Euless, but who knows when Plano last won a speech or debate contest? We need to care more about the non-athletic activities. And our children deserve good publicity whenever they succeed.

But to return to the mundane, we have to remember that connections are very important in politics. We should have a committee in Plano that understands what it takes to become a Rhodes Scholar and start grooming students while they are in high school to compete for this honor. A Marshall Scholarship is also available. The Fullbright Scholarship/Grant is not just to being foreign students here, it also sends U.S. students overseas. These are all for post-graduate study, but it can help to understand these programs when you start college so you can aim for them.

We can establish Plano networks for local grads to connect with grads from every college anyone in Plano has attended. Connections are important, we should foster more connectivity.

Sending a Plano grad to the White House is not pie-in-the-sky. We really can do it by developing leaders with good character, with a profound understanding of history, with good speaking and writing skills, and with the best connections we can help them foster.

Let's work together for a great future for our children.

Robert Canright

Education is More than a Piece of Paper

2008-04-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people act as though an education is just a diploma. With a diploma you are ready to get a job, right? And we talk about having our graduates "workplace ready," right?

Education is more than a piece of paper. Education is more than preparation for a job.

With education we explain what we know to our children about our humanity, our civilization, our society, and the world.

Our children must know who we are and how we got here so they can cope with the world they have inherited.

Our children need the best skills we can give them to survive and flourish.

Education is the foundation for our children's future.

Robert Canright

Top Ten Percent Rule

2008-04-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

I would like to see the next Texan in the White House be from Plano. I believe we can develop the best leaders in the world right here in Plano, Texas. And I would like to see our next Texan in the White House be a graduate of a Texas university instead of graduating from Harvard or Yale.

America needs to free itself from the strangle-hold of Harvard and Yale. We have many fine universities here in Texas. When I worked in Research and Development at a Fortune 500 company I checked out the credentials of a rising executive who crossed my path. This executive got an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M and a doctorate from Cal Tech. So I was in Florida reading about a successful Texas Aggie.

The University of Texas has crossed my path a few times recently. When Dr. John Wheeler, the physicist who coined the term "black hole," died I saw in his obituary that he taught at the University of Texas. A friend of mine told me that Edsger Dijkstra, a very famous computer scientist, worked at UT and that UT has an online repository of his papers. The New York Times Book Review recently had good things to say about a new book by Philip Bobbitt, and mentioned he taught at UT.

It's great to read good things about UT or Texas A&M, but we do not read that a President of the US graduated from either of them. We need our best students to go to school in Texas, and we need to offer them the best education in America so they do need to go to Harvard or Yale. But then Texas Bill 588 sends the top 10 percent of the worst schools in Texas to UT and Texas A&M.

Think of it: a child can graduate from an academically unacceptable school, be unprepared to go to any college, have absurdly low SAT scores, and still be guaranteed a seat at UT or Texas A&M. After all the years that these schools have worked to build their national and international reputations, then the Texas Legislature stabs them in the back. And the work to raise Texas up the ladder of power in America goes down the drain along with the average SAT scores at our formerly top schools.

What the Texas State Legislature is saying to children trapped in failed schools is, "don't worry that you are getting a substandard education, here's a pass to enter UT or TAMU." That's awful! The Legislature should be trying to fix bad schools, not deceiving those communities into thinking that it's okay to go to bad school because there are no consequences for a bad education!

The top-ten-percent fiasco is part of our failed accountability system. Neither the Legislature nor the TEA know how to turn an unsuccessful school into a successful school. This is the ghost that haunts the TAKS system: the TEA can identify unsuccessful schools, but cannot make them successful.

Consider the absurdity of our TAKS system. (1) We already know which schools and districts are in trouble, but we keep testing them even though we don't know how to improve them. (2) We make going to unsuccessful schools an advantage for getting into UT and TAMU, so why would anyone want to fix those schools?

I'm sure we are sending more of our best students to Arkansas and Oklahoma, but that does not do Texas any good. We need to build up our own universities. We should not be working hard to send our good students to Oklahoma and Arkansas, we should keep them here. And the hope is gone of replacing Harvard and Yale with UT and TAMU in the hearts of our best students.

The citizens of Texas deserve better than what we are getting from our legislature. The ISD boards across the state need to rally their communities against the mistakes coming out of Austin.

Robert

The PSAT Test and PISD

2008-04-13T16:10:00.001-07:00

Staci Hupp wrote this nice article, "Some Students Getting a Boost in Crucial College Entance Test," in the Saturday 4/12/2008 Dallas Morning News.

The article describes how some school districts help their children prepare for the PSAT test in pursuit of National Merit Scholarships. It's always a good idea to help our kids and I'm glad Ms. Hupp wrote the article. All schools should at least inform their students that the PSAT can lead to a National Merit Scholarship.

Ms. Hupp wrote that some districts spend public money to purchase special tutoring for their children. Spending public money is not necessary, but communication with the parents and students is important.

It is commendable that PISD has a PSAT coaching program that is self-supporting, according to the article by Ms. Hupp.

The best approach in education is to aim for excellence from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade.

We should focus on what's important, and not focus exclusively on the TAKS test.

We should strive to excel in everything we do.

Robert

Practical Applications of Morality

2008-04-13T12:39:00.000-07:00

The economist Milton Friedman has been very influential in America. A recent article about him in the New York Times, "A Fresh Look at the Apostle of Free Markets," by Peter S. Goodman discusses his shortcomings.

Here is a particularly telling criticism: Mr. De Soto faulted Mr. Friedman for failing to temper his admonitions with an understanding of poverty and income inequality.

“The problem with Milton Friedman and his fellow libertarians is they never took into consideration the importance of class,” Mr. De Soto said. “They ignored the way elites were able to distort the policies they prescribed for their own benefit."

Teaching our young to care about the poor is a moral lesson. Chapter 31 of Proverbs has lessons given to King Lemuel by his mother. Here are verses 8 & 9 of Proverb 31:

Open your mouth for the speechless, for the rights of all the unfortunate.
Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

Milton Friedman, as famous as he was, failed ultimately because he did not understand that leaders should care about the unfortunate, the afflicted, and the needy.

If we are to rear up a generation of great leaders here in Plano, then we parents have to be like King Lemuel's mother: providing moral lessons that will help our children become great leaders.

Great character is the foundation for great leadership, and moral lessons must come from the parents and be echoed by the schools and the rest of the community.

We parents of Plano can develop the best leaders America has seen since the birth of our country. Let's do it for our children, our community, and our country.

Robert Canright

Amazing !!!

2008-04-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

I was walking out of Starbucks one day and I witnessed an interesting encounter.

A couple of high school boys were doing tricks with their skate boards on the sidewalk. One of the boys said, "Isn't that amazing?"

A man sitting outside asked the boy if he knew what "amazing" meant. The boy replied that amazing meant amazing. The man asked the boy to give a definition of the word, and the boy said he could not.

The man then asked the boy if he looked up words in the dictionary and the boy said no. The boy then expressed dislike for the conversation and said he was leaving.

I thought the high school boy handled himself well and was polite. After the boy and his friend left, I stopped and spoke to the adult.

I told him:
"You cannot blame the boys for their poor vocabulary skills.

The schools here teach the children to guess the meaning of a word and move on, not to stop and look up the word in a dictionary. The school district does this from elementary school up through high school.

And the schools do not ensure a good vocabulary. I was taught most of my adult vocabulary in fourth grade when my daily reading assignments required me to look up many words in the dictionary every day.

The schools here do not do that, so we cannot blame the kids."

We forget the foundations for success in the SAT test, used for college admissions, are in elementary school. Reading and vocabulary skills start in elementary school, as do math skills. When the foundations are weak, the rest of the edifice is weak. In a race, it is hard to overcome a weak start.

A person's character is also largely shaped in the early years, and person's character might be the most important factor in long term success.

We forget how important the early years are in education. The foundations for success are in elementary school.

Vote for me and I will work to improve the foundations of our children's education.

Robert

Oh, the definition of "amazing" is "causing amazement, great wonder, or surprise"

Facing Problems

2008-04-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Dallas Morning News, Saturday April 12, 2008, ran this article by Laurie Fox: "Carroll ISD Principal is Faulted in TAKS Investigation." The article describes how the Carroll ISD investigated a problem with one of its principals. The Carroll ISD did find a problem with the principal's actions regarding TAKS and special ed students, protected the staff from retribution and took action against the principal.

The same day's newspaper had another article, by Kent Fischer: "Skyline Assistant Principal Retaliated Against Teacher, Dallas ISD Finds." This article describes how an assistant principal changed the grades of some students. A teacher reported his actions to the UIL, meaning athletes were involved. Principals are not permitted to change the grades of athletes, and principals know that.

The assistant principal at Skyline fired the teacher. The Dallas ISD investigated, found the assistant principal acted inappropriately and re-hired the teacher, although the teacher did not get his original job back. The Dallas ISD took no action against the assistant principal, the Dallas Morning News reports.

There is a lesson here.

Successful school districts face their problems. Successful school districts protect the innocent and take action against the guilty. Unsuccessful school districts do the opposite. Unsuccessful school districts try to avoid facing their problems and do as little as possible to correct their problems.

Plano is a successful school district. If problems should arise, then the district needs to face them head on, and the parents need to support the district when it does the right thing.

Robert

In Defence of Liberty

2008-04-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

One day after 9/11 I was driving to Greenville, Texas, where I was teaching Math. There is a stretch of road where the rail-road is very close to the highway. A train rolled by this morning loaded with military gear. I've seen military hardware on trains in the past and it has always been trucks or cargo. I had never in all my days seen a tank on a train. This morning I saw an entire train-load full of the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank. It was tank after tank after tank as far as the eye could see. The hairs on my arm stood up and I was stunned to my core. I was seeing a war time deployment before we announced we were going over. When I got to Greenville I asked my students if anyone had relatives in the military. I heard some some say yes, so I asked for a show of hands and half the class raised their hands.

After 9/11, I drove to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne, to see my niece marry a paratrooper. There were a lot of guards at the front entrance carrying machine-guns. The gun toting guard who inspected my driver's license said, "You're from Texas, Mr. Canright. I am too. I'm from Brownsville, Texas." There are a lot of Texans in the military.

But it takes more than guns to protect our freedom. Our military can only protect us from external threats. There is always the threat that a democracy can slip into despotism. That happens frequently in the Third World and it could happen here if we cease to care about our freedoms or we forget how democracies fail.

Lord Acton is most famous for saying, "All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." But we forget that he was a great scholar of democracy. It takes more than a voting booth to create a democracy. To understand democracy, how it works and how it fails, everyone should read Lord Acton's famous speech, The History of Freedom in Antiquity, given in 1877.

I have quoted Ronald Reagan saying, “…freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection. So, we've got to teach history ….” The history Lord Acton studied was the same history our Founding Fathers studied. George Washington had a play, Cato by Joseph Addison, performed at Valley Forge to boost the morale of his troops. Cato was one of George Washington's favorite plays. The final lines of Patrick Henry's famous speech in 1775 ("but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!") and Nathan Hale's final words before being hanged by the British ("I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country") are based on speeches in Cato.

Our children in the 21st century do not know the history of freedom as well as the Founding Fathers did in the 18th century. We need to fix that flaw in their education. Have you ever wondered why do not have leaders today as great as our Founding Fathers? Perhaps it is because the Founding Fathers knew more history than we know today! We need to fix that.

Our children deserve and need the best education we can give them. Please vote for me and I'll do the best I can to persuade the rest of the Trustees that we can improve our children's education.

Robert Canright

By the way, Dr. J. Rufus Fears, University of Okahoma, has courses on audio CD on "The History of Liberty" and "Famous Romans" that are great.
And you might find some videos on You Tube about the M1 Abrams tank interesting.

He Wants to Be President

2008-04-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

I was chatting with a mom at soccer practice. I mentioned to her how I think we should educate our children so they will be fit to be President.

She said her youngest boy has told her he wants to be President.

I told her she should tell her son he can be President, and we should educate him so he will succeed as President.

Our children who don't want to be President will be prepared to lead any enterprise.

If our children are going to have bright, prosperous futures, they will have to become tomorrow's leaders and create that bright, prosperous future.

Let's give our children the best education we can.

Robert

Springboard for a Better Future

2008-03-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a five minute talk I have given on the subject of educating our children to be tomorrow's leaders. It is entitled, Springboard for a Better Future.

Robert

A Pact Showing Commitment to Education Can Be Valuable

2008-03-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

There was a great story in the New York Times, March 26, 2008, by Samuel Freedman: A Do-It-Yourself SAT Class, With No Whining, or Parents, Allowed. The story described a group of students who made a pact, a.k.a. a compact, to study together for the SAT test. The decided how often to meet. They committed to attend the scheduled meetings. And they agreed, in writing, not to whine or complain. They set a goal of scoring 700 on each part of the test.

Working together is a great way to accomplishment. One of the founding documents of our country is the Mayflower Compact, signed in 1620.

Not everyone in Plano is committed to education, even though the community has good schools. If we had more commitment, our schools would be even better. If Plano developed a community compact, or pact, expressing a commitment to education and steps parents could take to improve their children's education, it could be a big help to some segments of our community.

Additionally, when other districts try to improve their performance by copying our curriculum implementation, they don't get what makes Plano schools successful: supportive parents that value education. If other districts want to improve performance they need to copy more than lesson plans, they have to copy attitude. It would be good if we spelled out our attitude. If we could get more people here to value education, then we could offer an example for other districts to emulate. Showing under-performing districts how to improve community commitment to education would help them far more than the money the state legislature rips off from us.

A community compact on education would help Plano and the state of Texas.

Robert

Is this Really 4th Grade Math?

2008-03-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a problem my 4th grade boy had to work in school. Tell me if you think this is a problem 4th graders should be able to do:

Miguel planted 4 different kinds of plants in his vegetable garden. The garden contains a total of 72 plants. Of the plants, 15 are tomato and 12 are squash. The remaining plants are either lettuce or cucumbers. The number of lettuce plants is twice the number of cucumber plants. How many lettuce plants are in Miguel's garden?

If you are comfortable with algebra, you can solve this in your head without pencil and paper. So, how many lettuce plants are there? Be the first to post the answer, but tell us if you used paper and pencil or if you are an engineer or mathematician!

How many 4th graders in a class of 20 do you think can solve this?

The children were given nine different strategies to try and guess the answer, but the glory of math is that you can be taught to solve problems and not have to guess.

One reason America ranks low in math when compared to the industrialized world is that we have flawed teaching strategies. Many ninth graders have trouble solving a problem like this at the beginning of the year, so the strategy is to show algebra to kids at earlier grades. No matter how early they shove this in the curriculum, the kids who have trouble with this in 8th and 9th grade still have trouble with it in 8th and 9th grade. Eventually this ends up in 4th, 3rd, and 2nd grade. Yes, I remember showing my son how to do algebra problems in 2nd grade. Why? He still doesn't know algebra in 4th grade. Grades 3 through 5 are too early to do algebra. It is a waste of classroom time and reinforces in some kids the idea that math is too hard for them.

The idea of pushing algebraic concepts into grades 3 through 5 is part of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, but not full-blown algebra problems. The problem I shared with you here is not like the example in the NCTM website for grades 3 - 5. PISD has mis-applied the concept.

There is a lot we can do to improve mathematics education in the elementary schools. Vote for me and let's work together to improve our children's education.

Robert

Plano for the Presidency

2008-03-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

You've heard me say earlier that Plano can and should develop good leaders for America.

Our current president came from Midland, Texas. Why can't a future president come from Plano, Texas?

As we educate our children, we should consider that one of our own could be President of the United States. I say we should bear that in mind as we teach our children. They need to know more than Algebra. They need the wisdom of History. President Harry Truman claimed his first source of political wisdom came from Plutarch, read to him by his father.

Studying Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans is how Truman's father helped shape Harry's character. History is a great way to teach character lessons, put in the context of real events. Good character is vital for good leaders. Heraclitus said, "A man's character is his fate," in his work On the Universe. This is often shortened to: Character is destiny.

David Hall is a candidate for the PISD Board, for Place 5. He talks about character education on his blog.

President Reagan said, "we've got to teach history," in his farewell address to the nation.

Truman said it. Reagan said it. I echo their wisdom. Let's educate our children as though one of them will lead America. Let's give America our very best.

Robert Canright

Karen Dillard and Student Scores

2008-03-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

The College Board had threatened to cancel student scores, which was irresponsible talk. I had heard rumors the College Board was taking action against our children, but now it seems those rumors were unfounded.

Karen Dillard posted a copy of a court order on her company website that says, "The College Board hereby states that it will not ... make public statements about individual test takers...."

Parents and the school district should be concerned about our children's test scores.

Robert

Plano ISD Sends Wrong Message About Theft

2008-02-28T19:58:00.000-08:00

We need to rear up a new generation of leaders who will be better able to deal with the complexities of the world. Today's leaders are failing at every level: the local level, the state level, and the national level. Many failings are ethical failings, so we need to ensure our children are well grounded in good ethics.

But the Plano ISD is sending the wrong message to our children. The message the Plano ISD sends is that it is okay to steal if you have influential friends.

The Plano ISD named McCall Elementary after David McCall, even though he was a convicted felon.

On February 9 & 10, 2008, Channel 8, WFAA, reported that Plano ISD Assistant Superintendent Roxanne Burleson interfered with school discipline at Plano Senior High. The story run by Channel 8 can be found on their website when you search for "shoplifting cheerleaders." The school put the four JV cheerleaders off the squad and the PISD Administration put them back on the team. This constitutes a Moral Hazard for these cheerleaders. The Administration did not do them a favor by excusing their crime, it may have done them harm, according to the concept of Moral Hazard.

It is one thing for an Assistant Superintendent to make a mistake. People make mistakes. It's another thing for the Deputy Superintendent and Superintendent to both let the mistake stand. This means there is a systemic problem at the PISD Administration, and the Board of Trustees is responsible for systemic problems within the PISD Administration.

Back in June 2007 McKinney had their cheerleader scandal. There it was the school principals who interfered with discipline and it cost the McKinney North High School principal her job. Now that scandal is becoming immortalized in a TV movie about the scandal.

If we want our children to have the best future possible, they need firm grounding in good ethics. They should not be told by the PISD that stealing is okay if you have influential friends. We should vote out the incumbents on the Board of Trustees and set higher standards for the PISD Administration.

Robert

Shocked by Don Williams

2008-02-24T16:22:00.000-08:00

The Dallas Morning News ran an Op Ed piece today by Bruce Katz and Don Williams, "We Need Washington." I am shocked to hear a Texan say "we need Washington."

Bruce Katz is with the Brookings Institute and Don Williams is the retired Chairman of Trammell Crow. I can understand the Brookings Institute wanting to spend our taxpayer dollars, but I would expect a Texan to have more faith in Texans than in Washington wonks.

Like all propaganda, the Op Ed piece mixes in some truth with a lot of baloney. Government is more often the source of problems rather than of solutions. Do you want another helping of No Child Left Behind? Would you like Washington to compound the sub-prime mortgage mess they created by not doing the regulation they were supposed to do?

For years my daily prayers for my children included requests that God protect my children from evil people, from fools, and from our government.

That Don Williams signed his name to this Op Ed piece is proof that Dallas leadership feels powerless to solve the problems it faces. I agree. That is why I am running for the Plano school board.

Our leaders cannot solve today's problems. Don Williams admits it. What we need to do is to rear up a new generation of leaders that is better educated and better grounded than today's leaders.

America used to have good leaders: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln. Plano can produce a new generation of leaders if we adjust the education we give our children.

The citizens of Plano need to take back our school board. To save our children's future we must resume control of their education. We can begin by voting out the incumbents.

Vote in the May 10th election.

Robert

America Needs Good Leaders and Plano Can Deliver Them

2008-02-23T17:41:00.000-08:00

All the newspapers and TV news shows reported recently about the government shooting down a failed spy satellite. What was not so widely reported was how the government bungled an earlier spy satellite project.

Back in November 11, 2007, Phillip Taubman reported in the New York Times an article describing how the government and Boeing bungled the development of a new spy satellite in the article, "Failure to Launch." We tax payers lost over $4 Billion when this flawed contract got canceled.

Bad leadership costs us billions of dollars. Don't get me started on the sub-prime mortgage swindle! But we also have local problems. Dallas lost the Lynacre Academy charter school due to management problems. See the Dallas Morning News article, "Former Dallas Charter School Leader Denies Theft," by Karen Ayres Smith.

America needs good leaders and Plano, Texas, can deliver them. We are a great middle class community and we are as capable of developing America's leaders as any community in America. I think it is our patriotic duty to do so.

Our children get a good education, but we can step it up a notch. There is room for improvement in the elementary school curriculum. And we must emphasize that good leadership is ethical leadership.

We cannot rely on other communities in America to develop leaders that can protect our children's future. It is not happening. The three failures I mentioned earlier in this post are just part of the daily onslaught of leadership failures. We can succeed in this task as well as anybody.

Let's do it! Let's work together to give our children the best future possible by helping them take charge of their future: better leaders for a better future!

Robert

Karen Dillard and SAT Prep

2008-02-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

There have been stories in the local press and the national press about the lawsuit the College Board has filed against Karen Dillard.

I heard a report about this lawsuit on Channel 5 news, which made it sound awful that Karen Dillard had the PSAT test.

There are hundreds of copies of the PSAT test floating around Plano. I have two copies of the test, along with the answers! If you are not familiar with the test, you might not know that the students get their test booklets and the answers to the test.

I recommend every parent look over the test, work the math problems their child got wrong, and coach your child on how to get past the trickery of the College Board. And if you cannot solve all the problems your child got wrong on math, how can you help your child? Why, you have to go to a school like Karen Dillard's.

The benefits of Karen Dillard's program go beyond the preparation material she uses. I believe the advice she gives on how to look at the test results and how to handle the complexities of the college application process is good advice.

We are lucky to have her in Plano. And I believe we are lucky to have Michael Novotny as Principal of Jasper High School.

As I read the articles in the newspapers I was reminded of an article in the Wall Street Journal, Wed. Feb. 20, 2008, "Big Retail Chains Dun Mere Suspects in Theft," by Ann Zimmerman. This article gave an account of how Glenn Rudge was accused by Home Depot of stealing an $8 set of drill bits. The store would not listen to him when he said he had a receipt. The prosecutor dropped the charges when Mr. Rudge showed his receipt for the drill bits, but Home Depot still gave his name to a collection agency that tried to shake him down for over $6,000.

Can you believe this? Home Depot and their collection agency wanted $6,000 payment in a dispute over a $8 set of drill bits. Eventually the handy man had to get a lawyer and sue Home Depot. Just because a big business wants money, that does not mean it is entitled to that money. I hope the College Board is mistaken in their lawsuit.

This does give us all an opportunity to talk to our children about intellectual property rights.

The PSAT/SAT/ACT tests are an important part of our kids' high school experience. The story is a good reminder that parents should stay involved with their children's education, including helping them prepare for the SAT, which is tricky.

The story is also a reminder that we can improve the Plano ISD curriculum to better prepare our children for the SAT. For example, the district policy of telling kids to guess the meaning of words instead of looking them up in a dictionary is bad for our children. This policy reduces their vocabulary and reduces their SAT verbal scores.

Robert

Good Leaders are Ethical Leaders

2008-02-20T20:10:00.001-08:00

When asked last year to explain my educational philosophy, one point I made was that "morality is the root of education."

If we want good leaders, we should expect and insist they be ethical leaders. I believe good ethics are a core competency for effective leadership.

I believe the Plano schools should take a short list of moral imperatives and stress them from kindergarten to 12th grade:
Don't steal
Don't cheat
Don't hurt

I think everyone can agree on this short list. If we expect tomorrow's leaders to be honorable, trustworthy people, then we need to give our children a firm foundation.

If a school principal needs to discipline children who might have stolen, or cheated, or hurt others, then the central administration should support the school staff.

If our children are trying to walk the straight and narrow, if they try to do the right thing, then they should perceive the Plano ISD as sharing their commitment to ethical behavior.

Let's work together to give our children the best possible future. Please vote for me for the PISD Board of Trustees in the May 10, 2008 election.

Robert

America Laughs at Texas Leadership

2008-02-17T19:20:00.000-08:00

The New York Times ran an article on the front page, Wed. Feb. 13, 2008, "Alice Journal: Tale of Dead Texas Dog Bites Mayor Who Told It," by Ralph Blumenthal. The article describes how Mayor Grace Saenz-Lopez was accused of stealing a neighbor's dog, then lying about it.

It's a pretty sad story. The author also reminded America that Alice, Texas, stuffed Ballot Box 13 long ago to help LBJ win a primary election. I remember seeing a documentary that described how LBJ cheated his way into politics. The documentary showed a photo of LBJ with buddies posing with the famous ballot box, grinning broadly.

The New York Times is read widely across America. It is probably read world-wide, and Texas was made a laughing stock on the front page because of poor leadership in Alice, Texas.

Texas needs better leaders. We cannot drive to Alice, Texas, and teach them how to develop better leaders. We can, however, develop good leaders here in Plano. We can describe a program for developing leadership in our schools that other communities can copy.

Texas needs better leaders, and we ought to develop those leaders here in Plano schools.

Robert

America (and Dallas) Needs Better Leaders

2008-02-16T05:46:00.000-08:00

We need to prepare our children to become tomorrow's leaders. Besides the core lessons in Math and Language Arts, our children must be able to choose right over wrong.

America has problems with poor leadership from top to bottom. In Dallas recently, the DART Chairwoman resigned in disgrace. She was booked this week on a Class A misdemeanor: tampering with a government record. The details are in the Dallas Morning News, "Ex-DART Board Chairwoman is Booked" by Jennifer Emily, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008. Click HERE to see the article.

You are now building your child's future. Let's work together to give your child the best future possible.

Vote for Robert Canright on Saturday May 10, 2008 for the Plano ISD Board of Trustees.

Robert

Robin Hood is a Disaster

2008-02-11T16:45:00.000-08:00

The Monday, January 28, 2008 issue of the Dallas Morning News had an article describing the dire circumstances at Wimberley, Texas.

The district has been tagged "rich" by the State Legislature and Robin Hood is killing the district. They have to use space heaters because they cannot afford the bill for central heating. That's awful. Click HERE to read the article.

Texas is suffering from a Leadership Crisis. Texas desperately needs better leaders. We need better education to develop better leaders for tomorrow.

Robert

We Can Do Better

2007-05-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Our children get a decent education, but we can to better.

The legislature is trying to give the children of Texas a better education, but the legislature can do better.

One thing we can all do better is to expect more benefits from education, as I explain here.

Another thing we can all do is to vote!

Robert

Vote, Don't Sue

2007-05-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

Parents in Plano have sued the school district.

If there is something you don't like within the district, vote against the incumbents!

Robert

Parents Must See Tests to Help Their Children

2007-05-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

You cannot coach your child on Math or Science or English if you cannot see what mistakes they make. I am very competent in Math, Science, and English, but I cannot help my daughter if I do not know what she gets wrong on tests.

Other parents have also been frustrated enough that they got the Board to vote on the matter. Result? The parents, and the kids, lost. Read about it here.

The administration is not perfect. They make mistakes. But do not give up, go vote against an incumbent!

Robert

Cheating and the PISD's Glass House

2007-05-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

I had mentioned in an earlier posting that the PISD should tackle cheating head-on. I had in mind involving parents to give a firm message to our children: "I do not cheat at work and I expect you to not cheat at school."

I did not get that explict in the previous post for brevity, but I did wonder how many parents in Plano do cheat at work, and maybe steal also. I wondered what can of worms might be here in Plano.

Then a Plano citizen told me something I did not know: that the Plano Board of Trustees named a Plano elementary school after a convicted felon.

I was surprised. I've lived in Plano for 14 years and had not heard that. I googled the man's name plus the keyword "felon" and I found multiple hits on the internet that this man was a convicted felon and got a pardon from President George W. Bush in February 2004. The school was dedicated on September 29, 2005. The Board knew what it was doing.

How can the Plano Board of Trustees tell students not to cheat on tests when they honor a man who was sent to prison for cheating in business?

You've heard the expression, if you live in a glass house, don't throw stones. Has the Board built a glass house?

Can the Board talk to students about integrity with this shadow hanging over them?

Robert

Student Tests and Parental Rights

2007-05-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in one meeting how difficult it is to help your high school students when you cannot see what they get wrong on their tests. A parent later expressed the same frustration to me.

If you want to see what your child gets wrong on a test in high school, you must make an appointment to visit the school and look at the test there. That means parents rarely get to see what their children get wrong and the parents cannot help their chilren.

Yes, Plano has a cheating problem, just like all high schools in Texas. But with holding the tests prevents us from helping our kids learn.

Plano should address the cheating problem directly and not hold the tests hostage in an effort to reduce cheating. The kids are cheating anyway, so locking up the tests does little good.

I viewed this as just one more mistake made by the administration. Another parent told me he viewed it as a parental rights issue.

What do you think?

Robert

Our Children are Tomorrow's Leaders

2007-05-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

I have said that we are in a leadership crisis. We must prepare our children to be better leaders than the men and women leading America today.

The key to better leadership is in better education.

My Winding Spring Process of Education is designed to develop better leaders.

A vote for Canright on May 12 is a vote for your children's future.

Robert

We Need to Address Cheating

2007-04-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

I have said that morality is the root of education. Cheating is widespread in American high schools, including Plano. The solution now is to not let the children take tests home and to give different copies of the exams in class.

When I taught math in high school I had to have 4 versions of a test within a single class. Even kids with high grades cheat to get higher grades. Then they go to college and cheat there. When I taught college I found students cheating there.

How can we bring morality into the schools? Talking about cheating is one way. How can we get more parental involvement? Maybe including parents in a discussion of cheating would be helpful.

Yes, people are flawed and we might never get rid if cheating, but we should not be so complacent about it.

Robert

Morality and Education

2007-04-22T15:30:00.002-07:00

Chu Hsi wrote that moral priniciple is the root of learning.

Chu Hsi, was a great Chinese scholar. We need to take heed and discuss how we can maintain the teaching of moral principle within public schools.

It is possible to teach morality without teaching religion, but first the community must agree on its importance.

Robert

Will Dropping the TAKS Improve Education?

2007-04-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

I was chatting with someone recently. She said if Plano did not have to spend time with practice TAKS tests then instruction would improve.

I told her that since the educational philosophy at Plano ISD is flawed, more flawed instruction would not lead to more education. The fundamental flaw in Plano is that the administrators do not believe in teaching knowledge. You will notice this when you hear an administrator say, "A teacher is a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage."

Yes, I heard a Plano administrator say that.

Our children are getting short changed because the administrators do not believe in knowledge. You have heard me talk about math, now let me mention reading. Instead of emphasizing looking words up in a dictionary and increasing their vocabulary when reading, the Plano ISD emphasizes guessing the meaning of words. Plano teaches guessing strategies from elementary all the way up to high school.

Parents must provide personal tutoring or pay for tutoring if they want to ensure their children get grounded in the knowledge they need to succeed. Many parents in Plano send their children for extra instruction or tutoring, but it should not be necessary. The schools could and should do more.

Robert

The Best of East and West

2007-04-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

The New York Times Magazine had an article on Sunday, April 1, 2007, saying China is changing its education system to adopt the best practices from American liberal arts education.

The Winding Spring Process of Education is how we can adopt the best educational ideas from China.

China is working hard to compete against us. We also must adapt to compete.

Robert

More on Math (Part 2)

2007-04-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a quote from the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) for 3rd grade: "...the primary focal points at Grade 3 are multiplying and dividing whole numbers...."

Put what does this mean? I believe it means the children should leave 3rd grade knowing their multiplication and division facts. This is not, however, what Plano ISD does. If you want your children to know their math facts, you have to teach them yourself. Has anyone ever told you that?

The Plano ISD is so wrapped up with critical thinking, understanding concepts, and integrated curriculum that they neglect imparting basic facts. Some parents take up the slack themselves. Some send their children for tutoring. But what about those kids in Plano whose parents don't have college degrees or money for tutoring? A gap develops in their math skills that is never overcome.

We need to improve elementary school mathematics for the sake of all the children.

Robert

Moral Principle is the Root of Education

2007-03-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

This link is to another blog describing how a major Dallas law firm was forced out if business because of its weak moral principles.

This yahoo link discusses the importance of moral principle in education.

We should find a way to bring morality back into the school curriculum. The Winding Spring Process of Education works towards this end by helping children work towards a sincere heart.

Robert

New TAKS Ratings Blow Smoke

2007-03-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

An iteresting article in the Dallas Morning News by Joshua Benton says there is a plan to replace the relative simple system of ratings with a more complicated system.

We now have 4 ratings: exemplary, recognized, acceptable, and unacceptable. The TEA is considering adding 3 more ratings: exemplary-commended, recognized-commended, and acceptable-commended.

Huh? So is recognized-commended better or worse than commended? This is nonsense. This seems to be an effort to make the ratings so nonsensical that people quit paying attention to them.

Have you heard the expression, "If you cannot dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS" ? They are trying to baffle us with BS.

Instead of focusing on fixing broken schools, the efforts now are to throw out the test results by making the results obsolete, either by replacing them with new test scores or by replacing the ratings with BS.

Failing districts are squirming like worms on hooks. They are going to the State Legislature and the TEA and doing everything they can think of to avoid fixing their problems.

Plano is stuck with testing because many districts do not educate their children. As long as these districts are allowed to continue failing, we will be stuck taking the same tests they take. If they would fix their problems so all districts provided a decent education, then testing would become either unnecessary or trivial.

We must be vigilant in stopping the failing districts from getting off the hook.

Elementary School Math is Important

2007-03-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Math skills build upon each other, year after year. Once a child falls behind in math during elementary school, that child can fall farther and farther behind. Go to the Texas Education Agency (T.E.A) website and look up the TAKS scores. You will see there are weak schools. You will see patterns of weak schools. Why worry about a weak elementary school math program? Look at the ratings and your will see weak elementary schools lead to weak middle schools, which lead to a weak high schools, which lead to a weak senior high. Yes, one of our senior high schools is not doing well.

I am going to be focusing on third grade math, but first and second grade are also weak. Third grade is where a significant gap occurs in math skills. If a child falls behind in third grade and cannot catch up during 4th and 5th, that child will have trouble in middle school because the math program takes a step up in middle school. It is too late to catch up in middle school and high school compounds the problem. I'll say more later.

Go here, click on "District Name", type in "Plano", click on continue and see how many of our schools are only acceptable.

More later.

Robert

End of Course Exams

2007-03-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

I've learned that voters need to go beyond newspapers to understand issues. I was interviewed recently by a local newpaper and I was misquoted twice.

Here's what I said: "I know the TAKS test intimately because I've administered them and and looked at them." The newspaper said I "... looked at time."

I believe many people who are against the TAKS tests have never looked at them. Most of the complaints I have heard about the TAKS tests are inaccurate or untrue. For a middle class suburb like Plano the TAKS test is no big deal. It's a given that the pass rate in most schools is close to 100 percent. The TAKS tests do not diminish our children's education.

The TAKS tests are good for Plano because they are objective measures demonstrating achievement. We like to achieve. If your kids are in sports you know they want to win and do not want to lose. Even when the children are very young and there are no official scores, the children keep score. There is absolutely no good reason for parents in Plano to have a negative attitude towards the TAKS tests.

When you hear your principal say "100 percent of your kids passed, 70 percent were commended, and 40 percent had perfect scores," that gives you a good feeling.

It is the parents and administrators in failing districts who have a legitimate reason to eliminate the test, but to replace the TAKS with yet another state mandated test is absurd. New tests only postpone dealing with failure.

There is nothing wrong with the TAKS tests. They are doing what they are supposed to be doing, measuring the progess schools make in teaching the TEKS, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which are the state mandated curriculum.

There is much wrong, however, with spending excessive time and resources preparing teachers and children to well on the TAKS tests because the TAKS are a measure of failure, not a measure of success. There is much wrong with thinking good TAKS scores indicate a good education. There is much wrong with reducing cultural content in education, like Shakespeare or Roman history, to make more time for TAKS preparation.

The TAKS test in itself is not bad, but its impact on education is likely to be bad or ineffective, ineffective because the State of Texas has no idea how to fix schools that consistently fail the TAKS test.

If Texas cannot fix the problems associated with the TAKS test, changing to "end of course" exams will change the test, put money into the pockets of testing companies, but will bring along all the unsolved problems from TAKS testing to end of course exam testing -- a futile waste of money.

Did you know that when the British company Pearson purchased an American testing company they paid billions of dollars? Companies are getting rich writing tests. The only purpose to replace the TAKS with yet another test is to further enrich the test writing companies.

Consider our history of testing. First we had end of course exams. They were considered inadequate. Next came the TAAS tests. They were considered too easy. Next came the TAKS test. I have not heard any complaint against them that sounds accurate. The state legislature wants to return to end of course exams. That's going full circle!!!!

Have you heard of the myth of Sisyphus? As soon as he seems done with a chore, everything becomes undone and he has to do it again, in an unending cycle of futile labor. If we replace the TAKS with yet another test, that is what we are signing up for: unending cycle of futile testing.

I say, "Keep the TAKS or get the testing off our backs!"

If you want to get rid of the TAKS, then get rid of state mandated testing!!

I believe we should keep the TAKS and focus on efforts to help failing schools. We should also look forward to a new Texas rennaissance fueled by better education. Education is not only about measuring and punishing failure.

The newspaper misquoted me on this, saying "We should stick with the TAKS or change the broken schools." Does this misquote convey my views? No. This is why voters need to go beyond newspapers to understand what's going on around them.

Robert

I am Running for Plano ISD Trustee

2007-03-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

I am Robert Canright and I am running for Plano ISD Trustee.

I hope to communicate with the people of Plano through this blog.
Please contribute comments (you have to have a free Blogger account).

Robert