Student Essays

I've written previously about college admissions essays (with some disdain), and in this article a teenage reporter has some not-very-flattering things to say about the SAT essay.

Raising Money As Well As Eyebrows

Teenagers are by nature exhibitionists, especially if they have something to exhibit. Was it for a good cause in this case?

I hope to hear from parents, teachers, and students on this one! In fact, commenters should identify which of those categories, if any, would describe themselves.

More on the Library Liar

Young Cameron, a commenter on this post, might find this snippet interesting:

By contrast, the Sacramento Bee attacks the administration by repeating a proven lie:

Then there's the story reported in The Standard-Times newspaper in Massachusetts of a University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, student doing a research paper for a history class on fascism and totalitarianism. He requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's "Little Red Book" through interlibrary loan for a paper on communism. Two agents of the Department of Homeland Security later showed up at his parents' home in New Bedford, Mass., to interrogate him, telling him they were there because the book was on a "watch list" and the student had spent time abroad.

What else is on that "watch list"--Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" or "Das Kapital"? Hitler's "Mein Kampf"? Other staples in the history of political thought courses?

This editorial ran yesterday, three days after the Standard-Times acknowledged it had been snookered by the story, which was never plausible to begin with.

A Couple Things I Don't Like About Airports

What is the deal with curbside check-in? Why should you tip--pay--for curbside checkin when you can just walk an additional 50 feet or so and be at the main ticket counter indoors and out of the weather? Whose idea was this curbside racket, anyway? And why are people willing to give their luggage and money to these people who would quite literally scare them if they walked nearby on a street? Politeness, "customer service", doesn't appear to be a hallmark of that line of work.

And the TSA? Don't get me started! Dang it, you just did, so here I go. The most effective way to prevent terrorists from repeating the September 11th attacks occurred when cockpit doors were armored and locked. How many terrorists has the TSA stopped? Surely they have an estimate! And how much is it costing us to stop freakin' zero terrorists??? Interestingly enough, the inspecting folks I saw at Kansas City were not TSA, but a private company. At least, I saw no TSA markings on any of their uniforms.

And lastly, Southwest Airlines. They do the first-come, first-served seating by organizing passengers into 3 categories: A, B, and C. A boards first, C boards last. So people arrive early so they can be the first in line in their respective categories--but these lines form as far as possible away from the chairs in the waiting area! Why can't they arrange the chairs in some manner so that people don't have to sit on the floor while waiting in line (sometimes for hours) to get the best pick of seats on the plane?

Now, about those seats. They're on the planes and hence don't directly relate to airports, so I won't discuss how my shoulders are broader than the 16" they give my ass to fit into those chairs....

Kevin

The conference was ok. The post-conference activities were far superior, but then you'd expect that on the beach in Florida, wouldn't you? But this post isn't about the conference, it's about Kevin.

My 10-hr odyssey home took me from Tampa Airport to Kansas City to Sacramento. We got to KC 25 minutes early--talk about shaking your booty!--but unfortunately my connecting flight to Sacramento was delayed. The gate crew at KC kept us well informed of the ETA of the aircraft, but I could tell some people were getting a little antsy.

The plane finally arrived and after the new arrivals exited--"deplaned", in the parlance of aviation industry--it was time for us to start boarding. First called for preboarding were those with blue holders, the unaccompanied minors. Kevin was the only one, and he started walking towards the gate; no doubt he was looking forward to seeing mom in Sacramento. Anyway, after he took a few steps towards the gate his dad called out, "Kevin, come give me a hug!" Kevin turned around and went back to hug dad while everyone in the boarding area waited.

Kevin headed back towards the gate. Then his teenage brother called out, "Kevin, what about me?" Kevin rushed back to hug his brother. The gate area erupted, not anger or with "awwwwww" but with "yay!" and cheers.

A teenage boy not afraid to voice such affection for his younger brother. It choked me up.

Comments on Clearwater Beach

Beautiful views here. With the Outback Bowl being played across the bay in Tampa in a few days, the college hotties are out in force! Oh, and the beach is spectacular. The sand is like powdered silk, not gritty at all. I'm bringing some back home :-)

I'll post some pictures when I get home.

One thing I'll say that surprised me--there sure are a lot of Confederate flags for sale on towels, boogie boards, etc here. I don't have a problem with that, just that it surprised me to see that flag so frequently.

Carnival Of Education

This week's wrap-up of the best of the edublogosphere is here.

No More Blogging Today

I'm off to Florida in a few hours to attend a Coins In The Classroom conference put on by the American Numismatic Association. Anyone can use coins to teach history, geography, even language, but algebra and trigonometry? I'm curious :-) Even I have found only two direct applications of Algebra 1 skills to coins, and I've put a lot of thought into this over the years.

Anyone want to know what they are? OK, I'll tell you.

1. Subtracting negative numbers (How old is this coin minted circa 240 BC?)

2. 2-step algebraic equation (What year was this Saudi coin minted, given that they use the 356-day-long year of the AH calendar instead of the AD calendar?)

I'm open to other ideas, and if I learn any at this conference I'll be sure to pass them on.

Math Professor Solves Decades-Old Problem

Interesting article. I wonder if there was a mistake--did he really solve it in only 120 words? My favorite part of the entire article is this quote:

"Philosophically, the reason research in math matters is that by pursuing math ideas that are deep and interesting for their own sake, you will get real-world applications in the future," Hofmann said.

"It is like making investments."

When I decide to indulge my students when they whine, "When are we ever gonna have to use this?", sometimes I point to my "When are we ever gonna have to use this" poster which lists dozens of jobs and the math knowledge necessary for those jobs. Other times I tell them about the laser--a device that had no practical application when it was invented in the 50s but now allows us to correct eyesight and listen to music.

Library Liar Loses Libido

By now you've heard the story.

College students requests a book by Mao. College student reports being visited by agents of the Department of Homeland Security, who tell him that the book is on a watchlist of some sort. Newspapers pick up the story and report it mucho pronto without bothering to check any facts. College student's story has so many holes in it that it falls apart.

When confronted with the evidence, college student admits he made the whole thing up--and cries.

Here are some great articles on the topic:

http://www.ala.org/aaslkcTemplate.cfm?Section=storytellingfest&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=111834
http://instapundit.com/archives/027668.php
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/24/students_tall_tale_revealed/
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=18667_Reality-Based_Community_Falls_for_Hoax (comments 5 and 9 especially)

First there was fake hate crimes on campuses (done in order to draw attention to hate crimes on campuses), and now this. It must really tick off the left that reality doesn't live up to their paranoia.

My Kidnappers Are Not Criminals

This is worse than Stockholm Syndrome.

Another Reason Not To "Appreciate" The UN

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Up to about a third of the $590 million U.N. fund spent for the Indian Ocean tsunami relief may have gone to pay for overhead.

All You Socialists Out There...

Read this about France's titanic debt. This is what you want for America? If not, how do you expect the government (read, the citizens) to pay for all the social programs you want while at the same time avoiding the European problem, as modeled here by France?

Another Collection of Links

This first piece is a lefty whine-fest about not doing enough to take care of the poor: Why won't Americans sacrifice a little for a just society? Well, I don't know. Let's ask the darlings of the left, those sexy socialists of the Champs Elysee, the French?! Oh, given their recent riots, maybe not.

Tying right in, a prominent leftie is tired of living in the bluest of the blue areas of the country, the Bay Area of Northern California. Why? It's too expensive! Go read about the tears being shed for him.

And RealClearPolitics.com gets two links today. The first discusses how 2005 ranks in terms of bad years for Presidents. The second is about the NY transit workers' strike, and the bankruptcy (both moral and financial) of their union. Did you know that the average transit worker in New York makes more money than I do? Granted, New York City is an expensive place to live, but how many of them live in the city anyway? How many of them have college degrees? How many of them do something besides drive around in circles all day? Hmmmm.

I've got plenty of original posts in the pipeline, for those of you who come here to read my, shall we say, unique take on things. But with the son at mom's now and dad's having several dozen quizzes to grade, now isn't the time for writing my own. Enjoy the remainder of your Christmas day!

And thank you for coming here to RightOnTheLeftCoast. I appreciate your visits.

Merry Christmas...

...to all my readers!

CTA Rebate Check

I got my CTA rebate check today along with a letter outlining the percentages of dues refunded to me. These percentages astound; I'll quote the first few lines of the letter:

Enclosed is our check representing the rebate of 2005-06 agency fees not related to collective bargaining and employment conditions.

As noted in our prior letter, the rebate percentages are:

NEA--49%
CTA--34.5%
LOCAL--34.5%

In addition, 100% of the temporary CTA $60 dues increase for 2005-06, (sic) has been included in the rebate. (boldface in original)

So what they're saying is that that NEA spends 49% of its money on expenses not related to collective bargaining and employment conditions, and CTA and my local union each spend over a third of their money on such expenses. Understanding that the union rags (which I will no longer receive) contribute a small part to such expenses, I'm still amazed at how much they're spending on things not directly related to Darren's pay and working conditions.

As it stands right now, there's only one political issue that I can think of that NEA and CTA should be spending money on--and that's because it relates directly to my pay and working conditions. Any efforts they expend on repealing the Windfall Elimination Provision in Social Security law are reasonable to me. But somehow I don't think NEA is spending 49% of its money on that. They're too busy trying to fight the No Child Left Behind Act while simultaneously hiding behind "the children" the law actually helps. I've identified before the odd issues on which the unions have spent money. John Kerry for President, anyone?

You members of those unions, look at the figures above. If you think you're getting your political money's worth from those unions, look how much of *your* money they're spending. Roughly 40% of your dues money is going into the hands of politicians and lobbyists, much of it for things (gay marriage, for example, which I support but don't want my money spent promoting) completely unrelated to your pay and working conditions.

On a related note, I encourage all NEA members to go here and read EIA's report on the NEA. It's well-researched and quite illuminating.

Joe Thomas, are you out there? Can you defend these figures?

Mini Blogger-Con

Met up with a fellow California edublogger today, Polski of Polski3's View From Here. He and his family are in the Capital City visiting relatives and we chatted for a couple hours. His sons played with my sons-well, my son and our dog--and all had an enjoyable time.

It's always nice to put a face to a name. Polski, thanks for coming over! And let's work on that California Edublogger lunch for next summer. Maybe we can get Joanne to pick up the tab, now that she's rolling in riches from her book!

Religious Jokes

I think I mentioned it before, but some of my favorite jokes are religious and racial jokes (Richard Pryor, RIP). That's not because I'm a racist or religionist or any other -ist, but because it's ok to recognize differences, even laugh about them, and not get our panties in a bunch about them.

We opened gifts a little early at my dad's house, and among my gifts was the now-traditional Page-A-Day calendar. I love using those tear-off pages for notes--makes me feel like I'm not wasting paper! Anyway, 2006's is a Jon Stewart calendar (hey Ronnie, isn't it ironic, don't'cha think?). I don't have cable so I seldom get to see Stewart's show, but I know him to be as much a leftie as he is witty! So I turned in the calendar to see what day of the year my birthday falls on (it's Tuesday), and lo and behold the Stewartism for that day is entitled "The Best of Middle East Humor":

A priest, a rabbi, and an imam walk into a bar. All are offended by what they see.

If that doesn't have you on the floor in stitches, well--well, something bad!

For my favorite religious joke of all time, see this post.

AP Courses

Joanne (see blogroll at left) links to a story stating that the College Board will soon expect high school teachers of AP (advanced placement) courses to prove that they are offering college-level work. Apparently there are concerns that too many students are being offered AP courses that are AP in name only--their content has been watered down. According to the article she linked to:

Teachers and administrators will have to perform annual self-audits and submit
materials, including syllabi, to the College Board.

I think filling in a matrix showing how many people take a class, how many take the AP exam, and what scores they get should be sufficient. But at my school, parents have been pushing to "grant greater access" to AP courses. If you have more "not quite AP" students taking the classes you'd expect lower grades on the AP exam. But that could look to the College Board that you're watering down the curriculum.

But self-audits and syllabi? Those seem fairly easy to fudge as well. What's the solution for ensuring that AP courses, for which students can get college credit, are genuinely rigorous?

Of Dress Codes and Kilts

I'm usually a big fan of dress codes. Someone needs to teach students what is and is not appropriate public attire, and unlike, say, character education, enforcing a dress code does not require teachers to teach less math or English in order to teach about appropriate clothing. Just send the kid to the office and on we go with sine curves, or diagramming sentences, or whatever.

Yeah, like they diagram sentences in English class anymore.

Anyway, published standards of dress, in accordance with community standards and equitably enforced, strike me as reasonable. However, this story is one of those that is just over the top. The boy wore a kilt to a dance and got sent home? Why? Honestly, I could see if he wore a skirt--that would most likely violate community standards and would probably be intended to be disrespectful towards the event. But a kilt? He even wore a shirt and tie with it!

The whole "demonstrating disrespect for all Scots" argument against the principal is weak. I'm so sick of this multi-culti crap. Hell, I'm part Scot and if the principal thinks a kilt makes the kid look like a clown, I'm not going to take personal umbrage. The question is not whether the principal thinks a kilt makes a boy look like a clown, it's whether or not he can and should reasonably deny boys the option of wearing a kilt.

At my school we have a club--Caledonian Club, perhaps? I forget the name--and the boys wear kilts on Fridays. It's not as common this year as last, but I still think it's great. Harmless. Fun. Respectful. And yes, I hope they're wearing something under it.

Update, 1/10/06 7:39 pm: situation resolved.