As a former educator and newly designated rubber room detainee, I would like to bring to your attention for your reading pleasure and peace of mind, a new work by a renowned psychologist specializing in trauma treatment who has been on the staff of Harvard Medical School for over twenty-five years. Martha Stout Ph.D. has written a new book titled: The Paranoia Switch . This monumental work goes a long way in explaining how ruthless demagogues exploit the fear and paranoia of a traumatized population in order to control the "paranoia switches" that result in human paralysis, fear and ultimately the triumph of evil by those without a conscience. In essence, traumatic events like terrorism overload the limbic system. The heightened response in that part of our brain called the amygdala which registers the emotional significance of the event, leads to decreased functioning in the hippocampus which usually prioritizes information and allows the higher brain to create coherent memories. So traumatic events do not get integrated by the higher brain, but instead leave us with nonintegrated fragments of memory: isolated images and sensations. These memories can then be "triggered" by similar images and experiences. In this way, ruthless and conscienceless leaders, administrators, CEO's, principals, chancellors, politicians, etc. can keep us in a state of vulnerable paranoia. Using this model of human brain functioning and conditioning, consider the witch hunts which followed certain historical traumatic events like the formation of the KKK following the end of slavery, the illegal internment of over 100,000 loyal Japanese citizens during WWII , the McCarthy witch trials following WWII , the axis of evil that was created after 9/11, etc. and how these were used by fear mongers to create scapegoats that allowed power hungry leaders with visions of a "new society" to push the buttons on the "paranoia switches" that were installed into our brains during times of national crisis. Professor Stout goes on to explain that entire populations are victimized and held captive by fear, paralysis and paranoia in much the same way the "battered wife syndrome" works. Individuals are targeted for harassment, abuse and humiliation by someone in a position of power and made to feel that their well-being and survival depends on their getting along with that same person --while they are shunned, isolated and ostracized by their peers and colleagues and made to feel powerless and hopeless. The abuse never ends, just gets more insufferable, intolerable and unbearable, until the victim finally becomes "uncooperative and insubordinate". Ring a bell?! And after you are humiliated and removed from your school by the functional illiterate former special ed students masquerading as the keystone cops (aka: OSI), who will believe you? With all due respect, did Randi believe Lenny Brown before he ingloriously subjected himself to a humiliating lie detector exam? Does the only decent and honest member on the PEP panel with noticeable integrity have a clue as to the realpolotik of rubber room policy? Does this phenomenon ring a bell with anyone? The first thing Klein did after taking over was remove principal tenure by creating fear and paranoia that any principal can be fired at a moment's notice, at will. This fear and paranoia worked splendidly and resulted in absolute loyalty and obedience. Next, the former gym teachers and shop teachers who became appointed as principals by forming meretricious liaisons with strange bedfellows, were brainwashed into believing they were newly anointed corporate CEO's. This was the vestment equivalent of boots and uniforms. So here we are eight years later. The best and the brightest teachers with proven track records will continue to flood the rubber rooms. The most incompetent principals and despicable human beings will continue to follow orders and use the "How To Get Rid of Tenured Teachers" manuals in furtherance of the agenda at Tweed. The most dysfunctional behavior disordered students are openly boasting: they can get any teacher fired any time. And they're right!!! Did the workshop model result in improved literacy or classroom discipline? Have student academic performances honestly improved one iota? (On stat sheets it's "Alice Through The Looking Glass".) The Teaching Fellows are more dehumanized and demoralized than ever and quitting in droves. Did the geniuses at Tweed really think they knew something new? What do the teachers, students, parents and administrators in the best performing school systems on the planet (Scandinavia and Asia) know that we don't know? WITHOUT RESPECT FOR TEACHERS, NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS. TEACHERS DON'T NEED TO BE BULLIED OR THREATENED. THEY NEED TO BE RESPECTED. THAT'S WHEN STUDENTS LEARN

Arthur Miller , JD