Brian,

A respected doctor once told me that I am psychic. I suppose that would be the seeing type. Whatever!

Phyllis

Brian-

You DID have a tent-full of emotional, dedicated teachers yesterday! Afraid for your life were you! :-) It was a great show and thanks to you, Rehema, Tamron and MSNBC for that.

Good luck at the Emmy Awards tonight!

Take care all-

Celine

Brian – A few thoughts I’ve had after watching the kickoff session for Education Nation yesterday, I’m not a parent myself, but I have two aunts who were teachers, one is retired and my other aunt tried to retire about 5 years ago, but they called her back to see if she would be able to help, and she’s been doing so for the last 4 years. She’s an “old school teacher” so I guess these days the school systems don’t have too many of those on the payroll anymore, so that’s probably why they’re so glad they were able to drag her out of her retirement. She’s now teaching the “children of the children” she taught ten plus years ago, she tells me the parents always say to their kids “Mrs. D isn’t one to play and won’t take any mess”, she finds that quite funny, because the parents that always warn their kids about her were “quite playful” themselves when she taught them !

I so admire her dedication, because I don’t think I would’ve put up with a certain incident she related to me, one of the kids in her third grade class was acting up and she asked him to sit down , and his response to her was F*** You, I myself just don’t care for 7or 8 year olds cursing me out. If I got out of my retirement bed every morning and had to put up with that, I would’ve informed them that” my last day is today”! Btw my aunt WOULD NEVER let one of her own grandkids get away with that, trust me on that one, but yet she goes to work everyday and has to hear other peoples kids use such language towards her.

I think we need more people in the education field like the woman in Washington DC, can’t think of her name right now (I think her last name is Rhee) and more “old school teachers” like my aunt, more people like Geoffrey Canada, and many others who realize there is a serious problem going on the schools. Needless to say, it won’t happen overnight, but if the right people realize that a complete overhaul is needed in the education system, slowly but surely, one school at a time or one school district at a time things will progressively improve.

Good Evening Mr.Williams, Hoping this comment will go through. Another great broadcast this evening!If this goes through I will write again. :)

Peace to You and to All!

Lisa

Great show Brian and some interesting information

Celine would know best as education brings the world to a person and helps them continue to grow.  I remember ok it's been a long time ago but my teachers really cared about the students and how we learned. One teacher had so call saturday guess day for students who needed extra help because the school didn't have the money to pay teaches extra.  Parents are the real key and reading at home is part of the answer. Few kids today read because of TV and games.  The young lady was right change is needed and it has to start somewhere.  Now in support of teachers I remember Peaches go so much help from her English teacher they stayed in touch even after her teacher retired.  Kids grow up so fast and we have only a short time to form patterns for them.  With my four kids it was the oldest who dreamed of going to UCLA as each one started saying where they wanted to go to college.  Peaches was the youngest and it was just part of her life the college was the next move after high school.   Teachers are educators but parents are educators to and should continue the pattern at home.  Oh and when I was young many talked about extenting school but notice it never happen, but countries like China have all year school with short breaks.

Books and education take you to places beyond what you could ever imagine and allows you to join in any converations because you just something about almost everything.  I hope this President get's the help from the parents, teachers, law makers and students to make it work this time.

have a great evening all

Hope you get the ratings you want! This is the same old re-hash about Public Education. 27 years ago it was "A Nation At Risk" and what has changed? There was great concern then? as now? Public Schools are a reflection of the society that surrounds them.

Until Public Education get adequate and reliable funding and politicians get out of the way Public Education will continue to stagnate. Why hasn't NBC done some REAL IN DEPTH Reporting on this crisis during the past 27 years?

I started in Education 30 years ago and was excited that something might be done to improve the state of education at that time. I am now ready to retire from the profession weary and disappointed but proud that the students I taught became better people in spite of all the obstacles placed in front of my profession.

Good Evening Mr.Williams, A great broadcast this evening as always! The Town Hall on Education yesterday with You, Tamron Hall and Rehema Ellis was excellent. Good conversation with much needed focus on making the education system better.

With regards to your posting this evening you certainly pay great attention to detail on the show "Mad Men". You as a sensing person as you stated in the posting and you definitely do a wonderful job at making sure things are relevant with regards to the period of the show and other aspects of the filming and editing. Great Job!

Now on to the broadcast. First of all the report by Mr.Holt showed how the Education Nation gathering at Rockefeller Plaza has really opened up some much needed conversation on improving our education system. Hearing President Obama and his Administration, City and State Leaders, and Large Corporations are becoming involved is truly encouraging. A necessary conversation to help children receive a better education.

On another note the report by Lisa Myers about the Gulf oil spill showed how officials gave inaccurate information about how much oil was spilling into the Gulf. With so much oil still in the Gulf within marshes and along beaches it is definitely frustrating for local government leaders. Much clean up still needs to be happening. Interesting to learn the commissions findings later in the Fall.

Sad to learn of the passing of Gloria Stuart. Living to 100yrs old is incredible. She did an excellent job in the film, "Titanic"

The report by Rehema Ellis about President Obama's program called,"Race to the Top" which awards grants to States with stuggling school systems showed how States like Tennessee are really trying to make sure the money is used in the best way possible to help improve schools. Vested interests in the future of our country.

Thank You for the broadcast Mr.Williams. Best of Luck at the Emmy Awards tonight! NBC is the BEST!

Peace to You and to All!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie,Stephanie,Claudia,Celine,Anna,Lori,Cary and Matt!

Be Well Always!

Stay Extra,Extra Safe and Well Richard!

Take Extra Good Care Richard and Crew!

XOXO

Lisa

Brian: Education Nation is a great network idea! As far as fixing education, it will take many years to accomplish that goal. From pre-k to 12th grade, many problems exist especially in urban schools. Demographics play a large role in local education. A system that works for urban Phiadelphia may not work for a rural area in Nebraska. There are many, many variables involved in steamlining differy curriculums. Education Nation is a good start to get the ball rolling. If I were in New York I woild stop by the plaza to check it out, but for now I will rely on my computer and tv. Keep the the good work and good luck!

Good evening, Brian.

Happy again to see you talking about "Mad Men" this Monday evening. I'm glad that last night's episode is still on my DVR, because I just had to watch that scene again to see what you're talking about. How on earth did you notice that!? I think I am mostly sensing, and only occasionally intuative. I wonder, when you're having a conversation with somone do you point out something small you notice that others may not? I guess you could use that as a superpower to make someone a bit edgy! If only directors or cameramen were a bit more intuative. In any case, one of my favorite moments on last night's "Mad Men" was Sally's excellent scream over those tickets to see The Beatles. Hilarious, and so accurate. I love that show! Also loved the fact that I was eating a Klondike bar, unplanned, when the "Mad Men" style commercial popped up.

Very interesting, excellent article from The Times on the initial idea for the Empire State Building. Even if it didn't work out, how innovative to even think of it. We need more crazy ideas like this to just try, but hoping they'll work out well in the end.

A fantastic broadcast tonight, and absolutely wonderful work with Education Nation. Really enjoyed Rehema Ellis' discussion about the teacher who spoke out for charter schools during the Town Hall. I can see how hosting this important discussion gives you a huge sense of pride, as you should be proud. One network (NBC and MSNBC included) giving so much attention and discussion on the very important topic of education has been fantastic. I'm so glad it's being focused on right now. It's very moving to see the passion from students and teachers! It's making me think about my own education, and what all of us can do to improve. We certainly have a lot of improving to do, all over the country, and I hope this motivates us to change in a positive way.

Thanks for the broadcast. Have a good evening!

-Cary

Indeed we do need to work on improving public schools and education in general, but I found the comment by the young teacher played at the end of tonight's Nightly News unsettling. I taught for 38 years in four different public school systems, and I was completely baffled by, then quite upset at that young teacher's comments. Teachers' unions have many goals and purposes, but I have never been in a school system where the set school hours, say 8-3, were ever the maximum hours teachers worked, nor was I ever in a system where innovative teaching was discouraged. Most of the teachers I worked with helped students before school, during lunch and planning periods, after school, sometimes on the weekends, in addition to their standard classes. Most of these teachers, too, spent a great deal of time on lesson plans, grading and taking classes to enrich their expertise. I taught high school English; most of my work weeks were 70 - 80 hours long, and I was not atypical among the teaching staff. No union ever said I could not work that many hours.

I have many other views on the current state of American education I may share at another time, but for today, I wanted to set the record straight on this one issue. Maybe the teachers' union is different in Brooklyn, but I never found the restrictions that young lady spoke of to be true.

I was very HAPPY to finally have people seriously talking about education and what can be done to make it better for our students. Teachers need the freedom to teach and students need to be nurture to learn by parent/guardian, community, all media, schools, everyone. Schools reflects how our society is really doing, what we value and how we want our future to be. "Garbage in, Garbage out" Does people forgot to think for themselves and stick to what they believe and do the right thing. Are we so fat and happy that we let others make our decisions? The future of this country will depend on how much we really value education and bottom line; Is money, power and greed defined us?. I hope not. We do have many good people that want to do the right thing but politics get on the way, socioeconomics, bureaucracy, etc.

Yet again, Nightly News has disrespected House Majority Whip James Clyburn. Thursday's story about the Republicans' Pledge to America included a response from Rep. Clyburn. In the clip, the caption identified Clyburn only as a Democrat from South Carolina, not as the House Majority Whip. As Majority Whip, Clyburn is the third most powerful person in the House, behind only the Speaker and the Majority Leader. The Nightly News producers routinely identify white members of Congress by their prestigious House leadership posts, but they refuse to do the same for Clyburn, who is African American. (On Sunday's broadcast, a clip from "Fox News Sunday" carried a Nightly News caption identifying Steny Hoyer as the House Majority Leader.) This is at least the third time in the past year that the producers have failed to properly identify Clyburn. Why? I would like the Nightly News producers to explain their actions.

NBC's incessant need for branding its "special" news programming, and promoting it to a nauseating extent, is annoying beyond words. Perhaps it's to cover up the fact that very little of substance is being said, and the corporate mindset is continually stressed. That is to say, teacher's unions, tenure and public schools are BAD, and should be abolished, is the message that most consistently seems to be favored. Brian's amused but seemingly approving introduction of the young teacher who pretty much made that same statement is very telling. Sure, the system isn't perfect, and needs improvement, but painting all teachers and public schools with the same brush is extremely dishonest and unhelpful. Your presentation is simplistic and dumbed down for lowest common denominator consumption. There are many factors that go into the failure of our education system to perform better. You should be more in depth and less superficial in presenting them.

It is outrageous that Nightly News has once again used the premise of a news story as an excuse to feature a product placement for one of their regular sponsors. Friday's story about how American shoppers are relying less on credit cards (and more on debit cards and cash) was little more than a commercial for Cheerios.

The story begins in a Target store as Kristen Welker tells us that, "Every cent counts when Sarah and David Winfrey go shopping." As she says this, the Winfreys are in the cereal aisle in front of a massive wall of Cheerios. By my count there are at least 50 facings of Cheerios cereals. Now, I have been in my share of Targets in my life, but I have never, ever seen one displaying 50 facings of the same brand of cereal. It's obvious what's going on here. The Nightly News producers staged this scene to promote Cheerios. They arranged with (and possibly paid) Target management to clear out other brands of cereal and stock the shelves entirely with Cheerios. This is even more apparent when Sarah takes a box off the shelf, revealing that the boxes are stocked only one or two deep. This is a classic retail trick to make shelves appear more full than they really are. So why would the Nightly News producers rearrange the shelves to have 50 facings of Cheerios? Because Cheerios advertises regularly on Nightly News, sometimes twice a night. And in the past three months, Cheerios has been an in-show sponsor of Nightly News five times, including twice as the broadcast's sole sponsor (the partial sponsor dates were 9/1, 8/4, and 7/20; the sole sponsor dates were 6/24 and 6/21). The producers staged the supermarket scene to thank General Mills for all the ad dollars they have spent with NBC over the years. Or perhaps this is a paid sponsorship. Maybe the Nightly News advertising sales department approached General Mills and said that for a fee, they would prominently include Cheerios in a Nightly News story. Maybe it's part of a package deal that comprises commercials, broadcast sponsorship and inclusion in a news story.

Unfortunately, the placement doesn't end there. Welker continues, "The young parents...are always looking for discounts and learning to live within their means." By saying this (and her previous statement about how "every cent counts"), Welker is reinforcing to the viewers that Cheerios are a good value. After they leave the cereal aisle, we see the Winfreys walking through the store with their box of Cheerios prominently sticking out of their shopping basket. Then, at the checkout, the cashier grabs the Cheerios box first (of course) and holds it at just the right angle for the camera to get a good shot of it. The Winfreys then exit the store with the yellow Cheerios box clearly showing through their Target bag. The first 45 seconds of this story is a non-stop product placement for Cheerios. In fact I wonder: Did the Nightly News producers instruct the Winfreys to buy Cheerios? Are the Winfreys even a real couple, or are they actors hired by the producers for the purpose of advertising Cheerios. And just in case we didn't get the point, the second-to-last shot of the story is an extreme close-up of Sarah feeding Cheerios to her baby. It is mind-boggling that the producers have the audacity to include Cheerios as part of a news story.

Of course, this isn't the first time that Nightly News has promoted Cheerios in this way. On 5/12/09, they did an entire story on Cheerios. The premise of the story was to refute some FDA accusations regarding health claims General Mills made about Cheerios. In fact, Nightly News used this as an excuse to run an entire story praising Cheerios. Here's how Robert Bazell began the story: "It is one of America's iconic products--Cheerios." We are then shown 20 seconds of vintage Cheerios commercials while Bazell tells us that, "Soluble oat fiber--a key component--can help reduce cholesterol." In other words, Bazell makes a claim that the FDA has expressly forbidden General Mills from making. As Bazell says this, he is sitting at a table with a bowl of Cheerios in front of him, and at least six boxes of Cheerios neatly stacked next to him. He looks like he's in a Cheerios commercial. Bazell continues, "In a statement, General Mills said, 'The science is not in question and we look forward to discussing this with the FDA and reaching a resolution.'" Bazell does not question the General Mills statement--he simply accepts it as fact. The General Mills statement also appears on-screen alongside a pleasing graphic of a breakfast table with a bowl of Cheerios, a box of Cheerios and a glass of orange juice. We then see a close-up of milk being poured into a bowl of Cheerios. Bazell then tells us that, "Food industry experts say there is no question that Cheerios is a healthy product but the FDA seems to be paying more attention to the claims that companies make." Bazell's commercial--I mean news story--ends with boxes of Cheerios going by on a conveyor belt, a slow pan down a box of Cheerios, and a mother pouring some Cheerios for her toddler. That is unbelievable. The actual point of the story--the FDA's reprimand of General Mills--is completely dwarfed by the positive images and Bazell's unabashed praise of Cheerios. In fact, there are so many positive images of Cheerios in this story that a viewer could not be blamed for missing the point that General Mills has been reprimanded by the FDA for misleading consumers. Bazell treats General Mills' violation as if it were nothing more than a minor paperwork error, while relentlessly championing the positive aspects of the product. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that General Mills collaborated with the Nightly News producers on that story. Nightly News also featured Cheerios in a 3/3/09 "We The People" story about Spanish-language advertising, during which they showed 15 seconds of a Cheerios commercial.

Nightly News certainly likes to promote their favorite sponsors in news stories. But they also like to protect their sponsors from negative publicity. On the 11/3/09 broadcast, Tom Costello reported on harmful BPA levels in plastic bottles and canned food liners. Costello told us that the chemical was present in "brand name foods from vegetable soup to tuna fish, green beans to corn and chili." But the accompanying graphic showed only generic cans labeled "chili", "vegetable soup", "green beans" and "tuna". Where are the name brands? There were none--the producers obscured them all. Meanwhile, ABC's World News reported the same story on the same night. The ABC story showed canned goods from Del Monte, Progresso, Campbell's, Hormel, Hunt's, Bush's and Chef Boyardee. Clearly, Nightly News refrained from showing brand names as a favor to the many food companies that advertise on NBC shows. Over the years, Nightly News's sponsors have included Bush's Beans, Progresso, Swanson and Chef Boyardee. And any regular Nightly News viewer knows that Campbell's is a heavy advertiser.

How many more times are the Nightly News producers going to feature Cheerios (or Chrysler, McDonald's, United Airlines, Aleve, Boniva, Requip, Microsoft, etc.) in news stories before they understand that it is completely inappropriate to do so? This practice clearly crosses an ethical line and should stop immediately. In fact, I think the Nightly News producers owe the viewers an apology for intentionally bombarding us with advertising images in news stories.

YOU GO GIRL !!!!!

In life we will need a lawyer, a priest and a teacher and that's a fact.

Celine your experiece and advice is needed because you and other teachers are part of how our kids develop as adults.  Everyone as at lease one teacher who had a deep impression on their life and one they will remember forever.   Thanks Celine and all the teachers who work from their hearts.

Brian: I see you're a stickler for detail. I'm into details also; for instance, if a woman I know changes her hair style from the day before, I notice the change. The same holds true for makeup and lipstick. If a store has removed a certain item, I'll know that paticular item is missing. I am also very intuitive, probably due to psycholgy and philosophy courses I have taken. These attributes however can get one in trouble. I know because I've been there.

I hope that "Education Nation" with all its displays, can become a traveling enterprize visiting other locations throughout the nation.

I'll catch you on tonight's broadcast.

Good ratings move Brian!

3 young attractive FEMALE teachers. Tom B Love it (silly math comment and all) I bet those teachers marry a professional male who makes three times their salary and quit education ASAP! Do a follow up in a few years and see if they are still teaching, when, once again , the media will report "the Crisis of Education". Why now anyway? A political year? Ratings need lifting? Could it be a true concern for Education. If that were the reason this should have been done 27 years ago! OOPS! it was!! "A Nation at Risk" remember???

Vision; seeing: What you see is what you get, a quote from a page on Scripture.

FOR THE HEARING IMPARED: "I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but

I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." SIR WALTER SCOTT. IT got my

attention because of a misunderstanding between a friend of my husband's and me. I love the quote,

so funny. And the truth.