American High School Education Has Been Slipping for Decades in a Competitive World and WHAT WE CAN AND MUST DO ABOUT IT

OUR STUDENTS HAVE BEEN FALLING BEHIND FOR DECADES

A Bleak Future For Our Children
Unless We Act NOW!
Started 5/15/08, updated 7/4/10

We are spending as a nation close to a billion dollars to buy helicopters from Russia for Afghanistan and Iraq at exorbitant prices, because they work better than ours at the altitudes and dusty environment. Why do you think that happened? What do you think will happen if we cannot supply critical military equipment THAT WORKS WELL from our own companies? What about all the imports we see? This situation did not exist 40 years ago, and American products were in high demand in other countries because of their superior quality.

This situation is now a national emergency. We are not producing enough scientists and engineers with advanced degrees to maintain our military and economic strength internationally. We have the same problems in all of our industries that produce hardware products as opposed to services. You may want to read this interesting July 2010 article in Time Magazine.

National and state education administrators in our elementary and high schools allowed the course content, the curricula and the tests to become weaker each year for four decades.

Teacher and parental expectations from our children is at an all time low as of August 2010.

Superintendents propose very low goals, with the same low expectations, so that they look good. They are trapped in that position as I explain below.

Some parents fight with teachers instead of working with them to teach the children. All of this is simply not smart. Why? Who will teach your child Algebra and Physics? Therefore, if your child will not be able to get a job in ten years, because you the parent did nothing to assure that he/she works hard to get A's, and you fought with the teachers instead of working with them, YOU caused 50% of the child's poor job readiness as a parent.

Both most parents and school superintendents have been and still are contributing to the dumbing down of our children such, that they will be unemployed most of their life.

This huge problem was identified by the Cato Institute as early as 1995 but no school Board or school system superintendent stood up and kept standing to raise the flag until it became obvious in 2008 that the federal government is going to push for a change starting with the 2009-2010 school year. Please read this report. If you get very angry, it is well justified. About a trillion dollars of our tax money went to the teaching establishment during the last 40 years when this dumbing down occurred. Remember that teachers and principals had nothing to do with this, but their management and the school boards will try to shift the blame on them.

Thank God the diploma requirements are increasing starting with the 2010 school year under the American Diploma Project in order to save our children and country. It cannot happen for your child unless you the parent work together with the teachers and make very sure that your child works much harder than before.

Nothing should take priority over our children getting a good enough education to go on to a university. Read the information below. That is what will be needed in the not too distant future. This is our children's and country's last chance.

We must reverse the dumbing down that has been going on for 40 years, and there are many adults among them. AND THEY VOTE!

"Don't need no Algebra 1, the kid will never use it! Six foot students can't be expected to sit still like short Japanese to study! What's wrong with y'all?! Why don't you people know all that?!" (I actually heard someone say this to the Board of Education in June 2008)

With the education output going down progressively for four decades, we now have parents and Education Board members in increasing numbers who were not performing well in school as the dumbing down progressed to actually show better grades. With very limited education, they remained poor. And the dumbing down keeps progressing to date, although there are promising changes in the wind to reverse it (the American Diploma Project). Illegitimate child births are rising as a percentage, exactly in the demographic area where parents have been dumbed down the most, ensuring that the same attitude toward learning, behavior, and ethics keeps proliferating. Our college and job readiness is worse then ever.

The biggest danger to America is NOT the possibility of a fool president, senator or any elected individual of any party. The big danger is a dumbed down citizenry, capable of entrusting a person like that with the responsibilities of an elected position. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an elected fool than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a dumbed down electorate willing to have such a person for their president or representative at any level.

Hence the vital importance of fixing our education system rapidly -- if we are not too late already.

The Superintendents' Job vs Boards Of Education And Teachers

I read that the average superintendent lasts in his job/position only 2.5-5 years in the USA, including looking for the next job. The phasing in and out of superintendents is eating up half of the 2.5-5 years, making their effectiveness much less. Any high turnover does that in any job. I am finding management issues the biggest issues in education districts today.

Elected Boards without enough management experience and enough education in most cases cannot help the superintendent, other than saying yes/no to him, without fully understanding most problems. To spot and understand management problems one has to have education and management experience in that field. To further complicate things the OPERATIONS management issues in an organization with a $370 million annual budget are very different from one with a $10 million budget. Such people on the Board of Education pick the new superintendent accepting the headhunter's background check (who is selling his services!), and do not pick them based on past experience and achievements in the area needed, that increased education levels (e.g., based on a fundamental indicator of achievement like the ACT), and management experience, but on how comfortable they feel with the person. It is not unlike hiring a chemical engineer without management experience managing the design and construction of the new World Trade Center, because "I like him". If you have a knee that hurts very badly, it could be for a multitude of reasons, but only a doctor and in most cases a specialist doctor will see and understand the specific problem to fix it. For this reason, most of us cannot even tell if our doctor is good or not. My in-laws were a perfect example of this, picking the most incompetent doctors, because he was "our friend". Same with education. Without management experience on a fairly robust level, we cannot identify the management problem. The only thing we can see is that the ACT is not going anywhere. We do not have the management experience to question the reasons given to us. THAT is the biggest problem in our education system in practically all education districts. The experience gap between elected Board member experience and a superintendent is that big. For this position, a 2.5-5-year turnover is very high because the Board ends up defending their choice 18-24 months after no significant progress has taken place. The Boards do not fully understand explanations, and they acquiesce. How can they possibly interview and select the right person? It is impossible. Boards also do not take responsibility for past Board-choices made, so every super's hiring becomes a big celebration with a "this person will save us, but he/she needs time and cannot be judged yet".

So whose fault is the repetitive failure (high turnover) of a superintendent?

The truth is that Board members do not have the management experience and the interviewing education to be able to tell if a candidate is right for the job or not, and we end up with a high turnover and poor performance. Clearly the poor education our children are getting is not the fault of teachers or even superintendents, but the fault of Board members who select the superintendents and try to second guess them without experience.

Consider that if a superintendent has to agree with the majority of the typical Board, he/she will not be able to make radical changes to raise academic results. That makes the job of a superintendent very difficult. They must focus on their career and future job qualification first to survive the judgment of unqualified people instead of improving educational results as much as possible. It is the fault of an antiquated system of education with antiquated management practices. Laws need changing on selection and minimum management experience and educational requirements of Board members first to fix this problem. Some districts hired superintendents from businesses, with good results, but the problem described remains with a Board that has no experience to judge his/her performance. Does anyone understand the severe difficulty of working for and your future depending on a boss or group of bosses who have no understanding of the most important part of your job? It makes the job of a superintendent difficult at best and it does not allow the superintendent to do his/her best to improve the quality of education.

On the staff side of the superintendent, people may not be open with him/her about the proper functioning of their part of the organization. They are in survival mode also, and they may or may not know hoe to do their management job. The reason is because the operating plans for each school or program, do not have a monthly performance achievement goal, that leads to a simple but somewhat aggressive ACT goal at year end, so that one can tell any month during the school year what key progress indicator goals have been achieved in order to meet the annual school and district ACT goals. Without such professional operational and financial planning, all progress indicators come to the superintendent mostly verbally in an unmeasurable and vague fashion. One needs measurable monthly goals, based on not more than three key indicators of educational achievement progress, in order to succeed, or to identify unforeseen challenges quickly enough, in order to replan and rebudget the remaining months, for the achievement of the measurable annual district goal. Both operational and fiscal plans must be "zero-based" to be precise. We do not have this today. Untrained and not sufficiently experienced management at any level, ends up costing much more than his/her annual salary.

Principals and teachers need total freedom and no micro management to do their best, but must be accountable for the actual achievements vs monthly and annual operating plan goals, THAT WERE MUTUALLY AGREED UPON BEFORE THE SCHOOL-YEAR STARTED. We do not have this today.

Any overhead position (one that does not support teachers directly to maximize ACT goal achievement), needs to be converted to line functions (teachers) in order to produce better educational results. We also do not have this today, and appear to be just cutting teachers, who deliver the education to students, and keep a fat central overhead, that makes for slow and many times incorrect decisions. Flat management organizations are more agile and perform better.

This is why management experience is needed as a qualification for Boards of Education members TODAY, in addition to a graduate degree instead of just a high school diploma only, and why the appropriate level (e.g., 5,500 people management experience, and $370 million dollar budget management experience in Knox County, TN) of OPERATIONS management experience is vital to have for a superintendent. The high school diploma only was adequate perhaps 60-70 years ago. The world is much more complex for a very expensive district budget and performance to be guided by high school graduates only. It will get even more complex by 2050. This situation grows exponentially. The job is so important, that hiring someone who does not have such experience, and is therefore a trainee, will not create the desired result.

Until that happens, we need to have two-year terms and term limits for Board of education members, instead of four-year terms and no term limits.

Because of the above, a continuing turnover of superintendents will only cost a lot of money and no improvement. Therefore, the Board of Education must report to the County Commission for oversight, as it is done in many other states.

Also because of the above, School Board members can be nothing more than water carriers at best for the public. At times a reported problem gets solved, but not the root cause of the problem goes unsolved, and the volume of public questions cannot drop, and the questions from the public about operational details or things that do not make sense, do not get answered. A few are so arrogant on the School Board that they tell you that they will not answer anything further about the question when they are caught in a lie. We pay for them, with our money. but we neither get good results, nor answers to questions. In addition the Board of Education does not have a single measurable goal, it does its own performance reviews, it is accountable "to the people" which is absolutely meaningless. THIS IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE SITUATION THAT SHOULD CONTINUE. Please see the area under "Proposed Solutions" at www.usaedustat.com .

Schools no longer can take the position of "this is the parents' responsibility". Like the winning countries, they need to teach children ethics, behavior standards, and do a much better job motivating them. We need to have higher expectations and that means some real recourse for those who are behaving or performing below expectations.

This is an emergency situation for our country, and it starts with every single county. There is no such thing as "impossible" unless we are lazy or have been dumbed down so far that we fail to comprehend the urgency of this situation. It is not a Republican or Democrat problem. It is an American problem, the like of which we never experienced before.

Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The way education is being delivered to children has not changed. Our education-related costs are rising (4th in the world), but our quality of high school graduates went down (34th in the world in math).

The US Chamber's opinion about our poor state of education gives excellent pointers about what needs serious fixing. The challenge is to get education districts to depart from their current lethargic and outdated practices, that is their comfort zone. No one is saying yet that "You must do this now, or you will be fired". School Boards are ineffective in traditional public schools. Old habits are difficult to change.

What Happened To Our International Leadership In High School Education

An interesting insight is presented by charts below. Just think about what they mean. Let's look at how well students are educated by country in the world first. OECD PISA tests measure this, and you can read the PISA 2009 methodology right here. These are the PISA 2006 results with methodology descriptions. We did not do well: 34th in math and 29th in science. I will post the 2009 results as soon as they are published. The PISA 2006 science and math results are below. The US Department of Education agrees with these results.

We have been waiting for several decades now.
Talking a lot...but we are still waiting...instead of hustling.

“Things may come to those who wait...but only the things left by those who hustle.”
(Abraham Lincoln)

Our State-By-State Performance In The USA

The following shows US performance by state using the national ACT. Not 100% of the kids are taking this test. Unless 100% take it, these results are better than if all children took it, especially if participation is lower than 80%. Remember about how we lost ground in international performance. That means that the top US state's ACT result in 2009 is not enough yet for raising our ability to compete internationally with our products.

The 2009 ACT scores are below. Tennessee moved to the 39th spot from 40th! However, the consolidated average ACT score did not go up.

Dismal College And Job Readiness In Our Country

Job requirements are becoming more and more technical. That means that job readiness in 2010 is almost the same as college readiness. The two are expected to merge within a few years.

The 2009 college readiness of THOSE high school graduates who took the ACT is below. When you consider that we graduate with a regular diploma much less than 100%, and only a portion of those may have taken the ACT, the real college readiness figure is lower than below. In addition, job readiness is almost the same as college readiness. That means that our high schools' academic achievement is worse than ever. This is a great tragedy that hurts us. Tennessee's college readiness is 42nd in the nation at 18% of those high school graduates who took the ACT. This is an awful result showing both a weak curriculum and weak performance.

International And USA Cost Of Education Per Student Per Year

Let's look at how much the primary and secondary education costs in each US state and in various countries, per student per year. The international comparison is older, but the same year for all, including the USA. The US was the 4th biggest spender in 2007, the latest comparison I could find internationally. We should be able to get much better results for this level spending of our tax dollars.

Notice on the above that Tennessee's funding per student is 46th in the nation, and the ACT performance (on another chart) is 40th. One may think that funding is our problem. However, looking at the international performers, Finland is the best performer. But their funding is much lower per student than Tennessee's. There is no cost of living difference here, and they have an excellent special education program as well. What that says is that their educational system is better than ours. They improve the best system in the world annually. We could learn from them, but we don't. Other nations did and they passed us. THAT is the problem.

The cost of US education increased greatly, but our children ended up with less knowledge. More money invested in education, looking at different districts, does not have much to do with the results. The system management tools and training needs updating, with a much more open dialog between Boards of Education and members of the public who ask questions. Our Central education district organizations are large, and that investment takes away from teachers doing the best they can. The laws and restrictions put on the teachers requirements about how to teach, exactly what to teach, the same in every school. The result is low performance and wide ranges of performance school-to-school. We became 34th in math in the world, when we used to be the best 40 years ago.

The Best Education Systems In The World

Let's look at the best performer in the world at the high school level for a decade -- Finland. They had a very poor system more than 30 years ago. They developed an improving system that took 20 years to finalize. Could we learn from the best, instead of trying to find a solution within the country that is 34th? Sure. But we are not doing it. This is a very informative and short article by a distinguished Professor of Education from Stanford University comparing the US and Finnish primary and secondary systems. And here is another from Great Schools. Their focus is on making teachers more effective (double master's degrees, one in the subject they are teaching and the other in education at gov't expense), giving them a free hand, and eliminating any centralized rules and laws so that the teachers have a free hand. Good enough to create excellent results at any school, without restrictions upon them. The teachers are unionized to boot! I am absolutely amazed by the results. The other nations on top are Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, who borrowed a thing or two from the Finns. So did some of our charter schools, like the Harlem Success Academy. All Charter Schools are not successful. It depends on their charter, the objectives, operating plan and budget of the founders. To start a good one, copy what the existing good ones are doing and have done to start their ventures. Finland is considering "exporting" their successful schools with English speaking teachers from Finland, to compete with IB (International Baccalaureate) schools, that are outstanding performers in the USA and elsewhere.

NOTE A CONTRAST IN THE COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE COMPETE:

Professors and teachers are the most respected professions in the top thirty countries, followed by medical doctors.

All parents support the teachers without questions because they know that their child's future depends on them.

Disrespectful behavior toward professors or teachers is not tolerated by parents or the schools, and it results in expulsion from the schools.

Our respect for teachers dropped dramatically during the past four decades, by both parents and students. Are those parents, who behave this way today and support their children against any teacher, are they themselves dumbed down?

Absolutely. 99% of such parents could not teach their children as well as the poorest teacher. We need to be smart. It is much better to back and support any teacher in front of your child, and work like a team with that teacher to ensure that your child gets a good education. Children have been known to lie to a parent if they got into trouble in school or anywhere.

This is not a cultural difference, as some apologists would say. They changed for the better, as we changed for the worse. We should be able to do the same.

Why Not Look At Growth Of Educational Achievement Per Dollar - A Return On Our Investment?

Why not look at education in terms of return on investment? It IS a huge investment, and we expect good results for it. WE, the fourth largest education spender in the world, sank to 34th in math and 29th in science! We were leaders forty years ago.

Since the ACT is an excellent "end of pipeline" measurement showing what students learned from grade one to twelve, we use the ACT to compare school performance and college or job readiness. This is a Knoxville, TN example. The Board of Education's response to my example below was "This is not appropriate for schools. We are not making gadgets (I.K., 6/09)." I disagree. Education costs going up, while our educational achievement took a dive relative other nations is absolutely unacceptable. We certainly could show a ratio of ACT scores related to how much we spend per student. What kind of money are we spending per ACT point achieved is a valid question for each high school. Why it is not going up is a very important concern.

The dumbing down of our children is turning out to be a national phenomenon for four decades. The word "change" and the phrase "New world order" seems to be popping up more and more often during this four decade period. What do they mean? Some very smart people are noticing it. "Change" can be good or bad. "Change" without explaining what it is in detail, is a danger sign. Just listen to the video below. Minds can be molded and changed. Especially young minds. We are now into the second generation of our kids being dumbed down. Some of them are on school boards that require only a dumbed down high school diploma. Just keep this in the back of your mind. Something bad is going on in our public schools in my opinion. Is it for our benefit as a nation? I don't think so. Just think and you decide.

The way to counter this situation is to confront it by making very sure that our children study hard, with focus on the highest level math, science and languages, getting A's. These courses increase neuronal interconnections among brain cells the most. That is how intelligence and a life time of success is created in children everywhere. The ACT that measures what students have learned between grades one and twelve needs to go from the current 21.8 (Tennessee, USA and Knox County, TN where we live.) consolidated average to 25 within three years. I would be very concerned about any Board of Education that says that it is impossible for us to do that. These Boards routinely do not answer any operational details about our education system, and approve huge annual budgets without a sound operating plan and a single, easy-to-understand ACT goal. I am describing our public education system in Knox County, TN. There are better ones in the US and there are those that are worse performers.

We should be very concerned about this situation.

Healthy children are born with almost all brain cells they will ever need during their life. What makes the brain work very well are the interconnections that are formed between the brain cells after birth. That depends on the mothers's behavior starting from three months prior to becoming pregnant (poor nutrition, tobacco, alcohol, drug, mercury exposure damage the brain, as well as inherited genetic abnormalities), and also the experiences of a new born child, like abuse, bad people, how the child is brought up, what he/she will learn and the grades he/she will get in school and so on will form a promising child brain or one that is totally disabled. Even after six years of age, any lower school performance, drug use and behavior problems will not only slow the development of these brain cell interconnections, but unused interconnections will disappear. This is how personality, mental capacity and the ability to solve problems are developed in the brain. This is why the harder courses are important in school, even if the child will not use the information learned on a job. This is a dynamically changing situation during life, but it starts slowing down after age 6. It is a fact that "If you don't use it (your brain), you lose it.". You can regain it as you get older, but the process gets slower with age and learning becomes more difficult. If you have a normal child, that is how you can correct the dumbing down effect that we see in our public schools.

A GREAT CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
STARTING IN 2010
- GOD WILLING -

A group of states (35 in 2009) are raising their high school curriculum somewhat to begin closing the gap between the USA and those countries that passed us. This is called the American Diploma Project, started by Achieve, Inc. (www.achieve.org) in 2005. Tennessee was a late joiner. We are close to the bottom of the pack now. Well, they would have a revolt of parents on their hand if they didn’t, now that some people are speaking up. As before, nothing anticipatory of significance was done (the ACT score went nowhere) by the local Board of Education to start increasing the requirements earlier, when this upcoming change became known a few years ago. For this reason, the public can expect lower state test scores and graduation rates for our lower-performing children at first, and lower state report card results as we remedy the current problem and adjust the system to a higher standard of performance. More increases will be required in performance than the coming increase during the 2010 school year to reach our international competitors, but this is a good start. In the end, our children will rise to the higher expectations we have of them, just like adults rise to higher expectations. That is if parents and teachers alike indeed increase their expectations that were disgracefully allowed to decline over decades by the educational system, as we were paying many billions of dollars for it with our hard earned taxes.

There are two major outstanding developments that are required by the Tennessee Department of Education:

1. The most important end of high school achievement measurement will be the A.C.T.

2. The most important 4th and 8th grade achievement measurement will be the NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, or state tests like the TCAPs in TN made as rigorous as the NAEP. That is an American Diploma Project requirement.

In my opinion, the local Boards of Education, state and federal departments of education have been making a mistake by not explaining to the public how our children have been "dumbed down" for decades, and the fact that in order to raise our competitiveness as a country, we must face this bad result and must reverse the down trend aggressively. Therefore, the children will have to work harder like those of us who got a high school diploma 40 years ago. This is absolutely vital to enable our children who work hard in school to have a bright future with good jobs.

The majority of parents heard only great news about school performance to date. The great majority thinks that everything is all right. The school Boards and superintendents will have a revolution on their hands if we do not level with the public nationwide and tell them the truth, before they see the upcoming bad results.

The good news is that the children will know more, their A.C.T. scores will start climbing if all goes according to plan. Higher A.C.T. scores will help on the job or entering a university. THERE WILL BE AN IMMEDIATE BENEFIT. Some children will complain more, causing more parents to complain, but if you want your children to be successful, support the teachers. Just think about why it is vital for your child that you the parent support his/her teachers, whatever they do. Too many parents do not do this today. Life will be getting much harder for the less educated in the future, in more technology-dependent times. Most of us parents do not know the subjects that our child must learn. Our children depend almost entirely on the teachers to learn. Support the teachers in front of your child if you want your child to become a successful adult. Discuss anything else in private with a teacher. This would be the smart way to go.

Today we are dealing also with loser morals, worse behavior, and lack of a “go-getter” attitude in many of our children (lack of motivation), as well as lack of respect for adults and teachers. Not like we adults had it 30 or more years ago. It is the parents who must teach them about this part along with our teachers. If you love them and you want them to grow up to be successful adults, you will get tough right now. Schools must teach this also, because there are too many parents who were born during the past 40 years and possibly have been dumbed down by the education system who simply do not care or have no time for their children.

There is no gain without pain during these school years -- or during life. Older adults know that. The world is changing fast. Forget how the world used to be when you were young. That’s gone forever.

Knowledge is vital for the future -- especially math, science and engineering. We must help push and encourage our children to do more school work than required. That is the only way to a good life for them.

PARENTS AND CHILDREN HAVE A CHOICE TO MAKE:

1. Either work hard for 12-16 years in school getting As or Bs in every course, AND HAVE A GREAT LIFE FOR 60-70 YEARS having a lot of fun, a financially problem free family, a nice home, a nice car, great vacations and enough money for it all, or...

2. Just have fun for 12 years, getting C's and lower grades, because fun (including bad behavior: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D94PDMAO4&show_article=1) is more important than hard work at a young age. "I just want my kids to be happy all the time". Barely get a high school diploma, and have the lowest paying jobs with a lot of unemployment, poverty and a bad life for 60-70 years.

A CHILD’S LIFE COULD BE VERY SUCCESSFUL, OR COULD BE MUCH WORSE THAN ANY OF US CAN IMAGINE TODAY. IT DEPENDS ON YOU, THE PARENT AND TEACHER, WHICH PATH OF THE TWO YOUR CHILD TAKES.

"I am doing yoga exercises now. In China even I had to take calculus in High School, and I can get a job without knowing anything. Because I am so incredibly cute. You people are not as cute as I am so you better study hard and become a scientist or engineer or something.
Look into my eyes when I am talking to you!"
The point is that very few children have a talent that may ensure a good financial future just by itself. Today they can depend only on their education for income.

"Take it easy! Take it easy!"

"If we can get good grades in all those math and science courses, than so can you! Unless we have a higher IQ than you. And that is possible."

"Looking from this angle, you people don't look so smart. You certainly couldn't even pass a pandametry class!"

"Speaking of passing anything...I think I am getting diarrhea...don't eat any dry bamboo...I am trying to remember that..."

"What is this?! Look into my eyes when I am speaking to you!!"

"You wanna know a secret? Don't mess with the teachers. The other day I threw a bunch of bamboo spikes at the teacher's behind. Did she jump and yell!! It was so funny! And looked like a porcupine from behind!"

"The next day I was expulsed...(that's how we say it!)"

"Look me in the eye when I am talking to you!"

"You people just stand around and keep looking at us with those shifty round eyes."

"This is the final exam in pandametry class. The panda who cannot be pushed off the top for ten minutes, wins. We have to use a lot of Algebra, and Trigonometry, Physics and Calculus to survive this game. We calculate every critical move and have to do it fast in the head!!"

"What's wrong with you people! Look me in the eye when I am talking to you!! What do you mean which one is me?! I am the one in the bottom right who fell on his bottom! From the top in 9 minutes 50 seconds!! I am sooo mad!! And I will have a sore bottom for a week now."

"Come closer! I want to whisper something to you! And look into my eyes!"

"Could you please take Algebra 2, Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and English Composition? They are all very important so that you can become anything you want."

"And study hard so that you get A's. If you do that, your university education will be free! FREE! FREE!"

Vic Spencer
Farragut, TN
vicspencer@gmail.com

Copyright(c) 2008-2010 V. Spencer
This is a work in progress.