Democrat Education Priorities

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional Democrats say when they take the gavel from Republicans next month, they will put money in the pockets of college students and closely examine a law reforming elementary and secondary schools.

How they will pay for their plans isn't clear.

That last part certainly doesn't surprise me.

Democrats haven't spelled out how they'll pay for their promises, which may run head-on into another pledge: to require any new spending to be offset with cuts elsewhere or new taxes to avoid increasing the deficit.

It isn't until the 11th paragraph of the story that we even hear about the No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for reauthorization next year. Of course, the education establishment says more federal money is needed to improve education, and Democrats have never met a federal program they didn't like (unless it supported American military, intelligence, or business interests). I'll ignore the federalism argument.

Democrats say that the feds haven't provided enough money to meet the mandates of the law--"no unfunded mandates" is a siren call from not-so-distant past. But NCLB isn't an unfunded mandate, since no state is required to abide by it. The carrots and sticks involved with this law are that if states want to continue to receive federal dollars, then they must meet NCLB's requirements. That seems eminently reasonable to me--but then again, I'm not a Democrat or a member of the education establishment.

(Democrat Senator Ted) Kennedy and (Democrat Representative George) Miller joined President Bush to push for the law's passage, and they still support it. However, they say Republicans haven't spent the money needed. They say the administration has provided about $50 billion less than Congress called for. Republicans point out that it's common for legislation to be funded at less than the full level Congress authorizes.

Michigan Democratic Rep. Dale Kildee, who is likely to lead the subcommittee with oversight of the No Child Left Behind law, said the federal government has an obligation to boost funding.

"We have mandated to these local districts to achieve or face restructuring," Kildee said. "The schools that have the greatest problems have the fewest resources."

That's not entirely accurate, at least here in California. Other states still fund their schools the way California used to, with local property taxes. In such states, schools in poor areas have poor funding. But here in California, all school funding comes from Sacramento, so funding should be far more equitable. Additionally, schools in poor areas can be designated as Title I schools and they receive federal Title I funds--which are designed to be the "boost" needed to help poor and other underperforming students achieve. It's not the federal government's responsibility to kick in even more money just because some states have an inherently inequitable funding mechanism for schools. The solution to that problem isn't in Washington, DC, it's in Austin, and Jefferson City, and Jackson, and Lansing, and Albany, and in other state capitals.

OK, that's as close to the federalism argument as I'll get here.

Now look at Kildee's comment again. "We have mandated to these local districts to achieve or face restructuring," he said. He almost makes that sound like a bad thing. Mr. Kildee, that's not a bug, that's a feature! While I agree with those who think the penalty aspects of the law could be tinkered with to make them less draconian, I don't think it's a bad thing for Uncle Sam to expect some accomplishment in return for his money. Again, that seems eminently reasonable to me.

Besides money, a point of contention between some of the law's critics and its supporters is an unprecedented requirement that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2013-14, a goal critics say is unrealistic. Spellings says the date should not be moved.

"Politically it's very difficult," said Michael Rebell, an expert in the law at Columbia University's Teachers College. "Nobody wants to be the one to say that I'm going to leave any children behind."

It should be difficult. I'm one who believes that having 100% of all students at proficiency isn't going to happen, but I'm not sure we should set the goal lower. If you're one who accepts that 5% of all students don't have to be proficient, then I ask: who are the children you're willing to leave behind? Your own, perhaps?

This is a situation where California's program could be mimicked at the federal level. California sets a proficiency level for each school and requires that schools improve towards that proficiency level each year. In my opinion, California's bar for improvement is set too low; schools with less than a proficiency score of 800 (on a 0-1000 system) must only improve 5% of the gap each year, an embarrassingly low amount. For example, if a school's score is 700, that school is 100 points away from proficiency; it must improve 5% of that 100 this next school year, or raise its score only to 705, in order to avoid the "underperforming school" label. The next year the school would have to improve its score by 5% of the 95 point gap.

If the federal program were to set 100% proficiency as the target, and merely require schools to improve a certain amount each year towards that goal, I'd consider that a major improvement in the law. That's one of the "tinkerings" I mentioned a few paragraphs ago.

For all the complaining about NCLB, though, I don't think anyone can deny that it's actually compelled schools to help their students improve! It requires that schools not only look at overall data, but also subgrouped data--blacks, Hispanics, poor students, English Learners, and other groups that historically do not do well--and ensure that all subgroups are improving. The draconian part is if only one subgroup doesn't improve, the school is identified as failing. They have to fix stupid things like that. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water; the basics of the law are good. It's doing what it set out to do, which is to force schools to do a better job of teaching all students.

I support this law, and I hope the new Congress will reauthorize it.

What will NEA's/CTA's take on the Democrats be if this law does, in fact, get reauthorized? Inquiring minds can't wait to find out.

Carnival of Education

Find this week's back home at the EdWonks.

Who Teaches The Teachers

Here's the best, most likely explanation I've yet heard for why so many teachers across the country continue to support fuzzy math:

There's a dirty little secret behind fuzzy math. The technique didn't become popular just because it supposedly made math easier to learn. It became popular because it made math easier to teach.

What a disgrace. Anyway, there's much more than that nugget in the linked column.

NEA Salaries

Education Intelligence Agency (see blogroll at left) has 'em. See the 12/11/06 Communique (or search the archives if you're viewing this after 12/17).

I Make As Much As A Sac State Professor?

Granted, I've been teaching for 10 years, but they have masters degrees (at a minimum) and I do not.

Raghuraman Trichur arrived at California State University, Sacramento, in 2002 to teach anthropology courses. The pay was modest -- in fact, low for a major university -- $46,000 for an entry-level professor...

No one has been pinched more than new faculty members like Trichur, who are making around $50,000.

There's strike talk, of course.

Did Democrats Put Congressional Pages At Risk?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The head of the House Democrats' campaign committee, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, had heard of former Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a former male page a year before they became public, a campaign committee aide told CNN.

The Democrats were quick to claim that the Republican leadership was partly to blame if they knew about Foley's conduct and did nothing. Do they think the same about Emanuel now?

I know where the smart money is on this one: "We've won the Congress. Let's just shut up about the Foley thing now."

Warrantless Wiretapping By US of British Citizens

During the Clinton Administration? No, it can't be!

An official British report into the crash, to be published on Thursday, is expected to find that her (Princess Diana's) death was an accident...

Among the report's findings, the newspaper said, was the fact the U.S. Secret Service was bugging Diana's phone on the night of her death without the approval of its British counterpart.

The newspaper said U.S. officials had assured Stevens the secretly recorded conversations shed no new light on her death.

Maybe the Clinton Administration thought Diana was involved in terrorism....

Update, 12/12/06: Actually, she was supposedly involved with a US billionaire who gave beaucoup dinero to the Republican Party. The plot thickens.

Update #2, 15/15/06: The official report has now been released, and according to Instapundit, who quotes Mickey Kaus:

"That official police report on Diana's death appears to be a bust, as far as alleging spying by the Clinton Administration on Republican magnate Ted Forstmann."

Our government has confirmed, though, that is has classified documents in which people refer to the princess.

Reporter Interviews Al-Jazeera Editor-In-Chief

Via Little Green Footballs comes the link to this interview of the Editor-in-Chief of al-Jazeera, the "Arab CNN". This interview shows clearly what I call the "Arab mindset" regarding, among other things, Israel:

Who is responsible for the situation?

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important reasons why these crises and problems continue to simmer. The day when Israel was founded created the basis for our problems. The West should finally come to understand this. Everything would be much calmer if the Palestinians were given their rights.

Do you mean to say that if Israel did not exist, there would suddenly be democracy in Egypt, that the schools in Morocco would be better, that the public clinics in Jordan would function better?

I think so.

If you think this guy is a crackpot, if you think he's not representative of thinking in that part of the world, then you haven't been paying attention.

In the end, is it a matter of feelings of self-esteem?

Exactly. It's because we always lose to Israel. It gnaws at the people in the Middle East that such a small country as Israel, with only about 7 million inhabitants, can defeat the Arab nation with its 350 million. That hurts our collective ego. The Palestinian problem is in the genes of every Arab. The West's problem is that it does not understand this.

As Charles at Little Green Footballs says:

Wrong, Ahmed. The West does understand. In this part of the world, blaming all your problems on a super-powerful fantasy opponent is called “mental illness.”

School Rallies

For reasons I won't go into, today's rally at school was apparently "the worst ever". We hold rallies right before lunch, and untold numbers of students chose to spend rally time in the cafeteria or the library rather than attend the rally. That should give you an idea of a common student attitude towards rallies.

In my day, rallies were fun. They were held at the end of the school day, yet we still attended. We enjoyed them. We participated.

I think that's part of the problem with the rallies at our school. The A-list students participate in the rallies, everyone else watches.

Here's something that happened at a rally when I was in high school. There's no way it could happen today--heads would roll, jobs would be lost, lawsuits would be filed. However, it was considered so harmless and entertaining that pictures of it were published in either our yearbook or our school newspaper (I think it was the yearbook).

A couple of male and female A-listers (sportos, cheerleaders, student council types) were called to the front of the rally for a kissing contest. The girls were blindfolded, and they had to try to figure out which sporto was kissing them. At the last moment, however, after they'd been blindfolded, the sportos were secreted away and replaced by our two male counselors--at the time probably in their 50s. It was they who ended up kissing the girls, and we roared in laughter. You should have seen the looks on the girls' faces after they'd guessed with sporto had kissed them, removed their blindfolds, and saw who it really was! The gym could have collapsed from the cheering and laughing.

To us, that was good, clean fun. I doubt the terms "sexual harassment" ever crossed anyone's mind on that day back in 1982-83. To us it was just funny, funny enough to be recorded for posterity in pictures.

I can't imagine a similar response today. Maybe that's why our rallies suck.

No, that's not true. We've had good rallies in the last couple years. One married couple (a teacher and a counselor) once donned ultra-padded sumo costumes and "wrestled" each other. Riotous! They were so padded up that they waddled more than walked, and when knocked over they needed help up--think about a turtle on its back, and that's what they were. Or some competitions--sitting on a skateboard, propelling yourself with toilet plungers in a class relay.

Things like that make rallies fun.

House Democrats Will Clean Up Corruption

Not this time.

The House voted 330-70 against a bill that would have identified which Congressional members added porkbarrel spending to defense bills.

A reason to miss the GOP majority just a bit less -- though opposition to reform here is, as usual, distressingly bipartisan. Nancy Pelosi, along with many, many Democrats, voted against the bill.

THIS Is How You're *Supposed* To Handle Differing Viewpoints at Universities

I have nothing to add to what Erin wrote.

Truant Kid? Parent Pays the Price

Joanne (see blogroll at left) tells about a Philadelphia program in which parents of habitually truant students first get a talking to by the mayor himself. Further truancy results in worse penalties.

One education commenter refers to this as "anti-poverty paternalism". To a conservative, governmental paternalism is a bad thing--so I don't see this as paternalism. This is holding parents responsible for the actions of their children, something most people, in most instances, probably see as a good thing. After all, if your kid puts a baseball through my window, it's not the kid I'm going to talk to....

I wonder, though--if a parent gets a kid to school, and then the child goes truant, is it 100% reasonable to hold the parent responsible? At that point, isn't the school acting in loco parentis? I can see where both would have some responsibility.

I like the fact that Philly's adding 400 truancy officers. Don't tolerate the problem, and the problem should decrease.

THIS Could Be Interesting

From the St. Petersburg (FL) Times:

Republican Vern Buchanan might be the official winner in a messy Sarasota-area congressional race, but Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean says the Democratic-controlled Congress should not seat Buchanan without another election...

On Wednesday, Democrat Christine Jennings said she will ask the U.S. House to take the extreme measure of conducting its own investigation into the election.

Though Jennings has filed a lawsuit asking for a revote, a little-known provision in the U.S. Constitution gives the House the final decision on who sits in its chamber.

Her decision could set the stage for a volatile political showdown at the start of the new Democrat-led Congress. Though Democratic leaders, include incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, say all options are on the table, others privately say they hope to avoid the partisan warfare.

The issue?

Buchanan led Jennings by a few hundred votes on Election Day and in subsequent recounts. But Jennings is challenging the result because touch screen voting machines in Sarasota County recorded that more than 18,000 people, or 13 percent of all voters, did not vote for either candidate, a rate much higher than in other counties in the district.

Completely missing from this story, though, is the reason they're using electronic voting machines in the first place. The reason? Why, Bush v. Gore in 2000. Hanging chads, anyone? It's the Democrats who wanted these machines in the first place, saying such machines would be the savior of democracy.

How many times are Democrats going to challenge votes that don't go their way? Gore in Florida and Gregoire in Washington State come to mind. If anything subverts democracy, it's attempts like those, and like this one. Fortunately:

The House plans to swear in Buchanan, along with other new members, on Jan. 4, according to House Administration Committee spokeswoman Salley Collins. The House could unseat him later, if it chose.

Let's see what happens.

Media Bias

Here's an interesting article on media bias and a University of Chicago study on the topic. It's not a lengthy article; I'd recommend reading it.

Liberals should not read it. They won't believe any of it anyway. I don't have cable so I don't ever watch FoxNews, but I hear the libs' crying about it all the time. I enjoyed reading this sentence, which jibes with what I've read elsewhere:

I disagree with those who argue that the Fox News Channel just regurgitates talking points from the White House or the Republican Party, but I don't dispute the argument that it is more sympathetic to conservative ideas than any other network.

In other words, Fox may not be biased. It just appears to be so when compared to its compatriots CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and NPR.

But, there is no media bias. Just ask the liberals. Then go read this article (and the actual study, if you're so inclined), and see if you agree with the libs.

What I Saw At School Today

I took this picture from school this morning. It's unfortunate because what I saw isn't what came out in the picture. The moon looked so large, and the sun's peeking over the horizon made the tree in the center seem to glow. Even cropping it didn't help. Bummer; I'd love to be able to share what I saw.

Hot College Degrees

Engineering. Same as it was back when I was in school.

Also: accounting, and physical therapy. Foreign language skills don't hurt, either.

Taliban Rules For Burning Schools and Killing Teachers

I guess these are the ideal representatives of the Religion of Peace:

(Recently), the Taliban has put out a code of conduct for its commanders and fighters -- including when to kill teachers and how to prevent sexual abuse...

This is clear PR, Brachman says. "The Taliban recognizes that it has the reputation of being a band of brutal barbarians interested only in clubbing women back to the Stone Age. This rule sheet reads like an effort to put a kinder, gentler, more moderate and professional face on the movement."

Until you get to rules 24 and 25, which make it clear that the Taliban's current campaign of destroying schools around Afghanistan and terrorizing teachers will continue as long as schools dare teach something other than the Taliban version of Islam.

"It is forbidden to work as a teacher under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels," says rule 24. And if a teacher refuses a warning to give up his job, reads rule 25, "he must be beaten."

"If the teacher still continues to instruct contrary to the principles of Islam, the district commander or a group leader must kill him," it continues.

When schools are burned, the Taliban rules say it is important that religious texts be removed from the buildings first.

Winning hearts and minds, I guess.

Did you notice that the rules assume the teacher is a "he"? Why, of course he is! Women aren't supposed to be working!

The best rules, however, come after those about killing teachers and burning schools. After all, you can't let that be your crescendo, can you?

Along with rules about not smoking cigarettes and not allowing murderers to join the Taliban (there's a joke--Darren), there also is this entry: Taliban "are not allowed to take young boys with no facial hair onto the battlefield or into their private quarters."

Sexual abuse, says Rizvi, has always been a problem for the movement, especially in some of the madrassas (religious schools) that feed recruits to the movement.

I guess it's not just the Catholics. Somehow, though, I don't imagine any Muslim archdiocese is going to be sued any time soon.

From CNN.com.

12-Year-Old Arrested For Early Playing With Christmas Presents

This is just too funny not to post.

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- A fed-up mother had her 12-year-old son arrested for allegedly rummaging through his great-grandmother's things and playing with his Christmas present early.

The mother called police Sunday after learning her son had disobeyed orders and repeatedly taken a Game Boy from its hiding place at his great-grandmother's house next door and played it.

He was arrested on petty larceny charges, taken to the police station in handcuffs and held until his mother picked him up after church.

Lest you think mom overreacted:

"It was only to teach my son a lesson. He's been going through life doing things ... and getting away with it...."

She said he faces an expulsion hearing at his school Wednesday. Rock Hill Police Capt. Mark Bollinger said the boy took a swing at a police officer assigned to the school last month. He has been suspended from school since then.

Mom said she'd rather call the police on her son now, than have someone else call the police on him for even more delinquency later on.

Missing from the entire article--any mention of dad.

This Week's Carnival of Education

You can find it at History Is Elementary.

And barring any change of plans, the Carnival will be hosted in a few few weeks at a blog with which you're all familiar....

Zombietime

I've linked to at least one of Zombietime's photo essays--he's about as good as it gets with respect to citizen photojournalism. Here's an interview with Zombie himself.

Go check out his site. You'll be amazed.

SF State Passes Ban on "Flag Stomping"

Oh, but don't think they're patriots. It's the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah upon which you're not supposed to tread--the American flag remains available for stomping and burning.

It's those darned College Republicans that stomped on the terrorist flags. Why not just kick all of them off campus? It's what you want to do anyway. But if you can't do that:

Moreover, the resolution sets the stage for the College Republicans possibly losing official student group status and or ASi funding.

Good that they're so open-minded. Heck, they're not even ashamed of the hypocrisy and double standards they promote. Amazing.

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

Where The NEA Is Spending Your Money

EIA (see blogroll at left) reports in the December 4th Communique that the NEA gave almost $5 million to (mostly liberal) advocacy groups. Form LM-2 was filed with the Labor Department last Wednesday, but I'm not sure if it deals with the last calendar year or with the last fiscal year (Sept-Aug?). But here's where the NEA is giving a lot of money:

The expenditures range from $1.3 million to Communities for Quality Education (formerly America Learns), an NEA front group created to advance the union's agenda on the No Child Left Behind Act, down to several $5,000 grants to groups such as Rainbow PUSH, GLSEN, and Amnesty International.

Here is a list of the recipients of NEA's largesse, with relevant web links:

100% for Great Public Schools - $110,000

AIDS Responsibility Project - $5,000

Alliance for Justice - $10,000

America's Agenda - $50,000

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education - $16,500

Americans United to Protect Social Security - $250,000

Amnesty International - $5,000

Asian American Justice Center - $5,000

Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund - $5,000

Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies - $5,000

ASPIRA - $5,000

Baptist Center for Ethics - $20,000

Campaign for America's Future - $41,000

Center for Community Change - $25,000

Center for Innovative Policy - $125,000

Center for Law and Education - $50,000

Center for Policy Alternatives - $5,000

Center for Teaching Quality - $17,150

Center for Women Policy Studies - $5,000

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association - $52,500

Citizens Who Support Maine's Public Schools - $100,000

Committee for Education Funding - $16,182

Committee for Fair Elections - $100,000

Communities for Quality Education - $1.3 million

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. - $56,800

Consortium for Educational Change - $11,900

Council of State Governments - $10,000

Democratic GAIN - $10,990

Democratic Leadership Council - $25,000

Economic Policy Institute - $208,474

Educational Impact Inc. - $40,000

Educational Testing Service - $42,266

Everybody Wins DC - $8,000

FairTest - $35,000

Faith and Politics Institute - $5,000

Funniest Celebrity in Washington - $20,000

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation - $5,000

Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network - $5,000

Generations United - $30,000

Grassroots Democrats - $7,500

Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice - $250,000

Great Lakes Inter-tribal Council - $9,500

Harvard University Office for Sponsored Research - $50,000

HEROS Inc. - $79,890

Hispanic Press Foundation - $7,500

Home and School Institute - $45,131

Howard University School of Business - $5,000

Human Rights Campaign - $30,000

Institute for Women's Policy Research - $5,000

International Civil Rights Center - $15,000

Iowa Teaching and Learning Center - $17,000

Jobs with Justice - $10,120

Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies - $10,000

Latino Book and Family Festival - $6,000

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights - $13,000

League of United Latin American Citizens - $15,000

Learning First Alliance - $52,890

Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change - $5,000

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund - $10,000

NASA/PSTP - $12,500

National Alliance of Black School Educators - $5,000

National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education - $5,200

National Association for Bilingual Education - $5,000

NAFEA - $5,000

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund - $10,000

National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents - $5,000

National Coalition on Health Care - $25,000

National Conference of Black Mayors - $5,000

National Conference of State Legislatures - $37,000

National Consumers League - $5,000

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education - $320,160

National Council of La Raza - $8,000

National Equity Center - $15,000

National Indian Education Association - $40,800

National Parent Teachers Association - $5,000

NTL Institute - $52,250

National Women's Law Center - $10,000

New Organizing Institute - $25,000

Organizations Concerned About Rural Education - $5,000

Organization of Chinese Americans - $5,000

Partnership for 21^st Century Skills - $45,000

People for the American Way - $160,805

Public Agenda - $32,351

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition - $5,000

Rebuild America's Schools - $10,000

Richard Ingersoll - $12,000

Ripon Society - $12,500

Southeast Center for Teaching Quality - $180,000

Southern Christian Leadership Conference - $11,450

Task Force Foundation - $10,000

United South and Eastern Tribes - $5,000

U.S. Action - $35,000

U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute - $15,000

WAND Education Fund - $12,000

Wellesley College Center for Research on Women - $10,295

It was also a good year to be Robert Chanin, NEA's general counsel. Chanin's firm, Bredhoff & Kaiser, received a total of $557,433 from NEA, while Chanin personally received payments in the sum of $317,750.

Now how much of that relates to teacher pay, benefits, and working conditions? How much of that relates to liberal ideology that has nothing to do with teacher pay, benefits, and working conditions? Round percentages will do.

Desegregation/Integration Argued Before The Supreme Court Today

More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education ended racial segregation in our public schools, the Supreme Court today heard arguments from two school districts (in Seattle and Louisville) that want to assign students to schools based on race. On her own blog, Joanne (see blogroll at left) has a pithy comment for people who try to use Brown to justify such race-based assignments, which often include busing students to schools far from their homes in order to achieve some predetermined racial mix:

I thought Brown was about assigning black kids to their all-white neighborhood school instead of sending them across town because of their race. Silly me.

Hard to argue with that. She even gives an example of a school that works because of its homogenous student body:

My book, Our School, is about a San Jose charter school, Downtown College Prep, that’s 90 percent Mexican-American. The school recruits students who earned D’s and F’s in middle school — ninth graders average fifth-grade reading and math skills — and focuses intently on teaching them the basic and advanced skills they’ll need to succeed in college. The school works because it’s not diverse. Most students share a set of educational challenges, such as a limited English vocabulary. They buy into a single mission: Prepare for college.

Where are the diversityphiles screaming for more "diversity" at DCP? I wonder why they don't. No, actually I don't wonder; I already know why they don't. Think about it for a moment, and you'll know why, too.

And don't think I'm for changing the student body at DCP. I'm not. Joanne's correct that the school works because it's not diverse. I just want to point out that the lefties aren't crying to integrate this particular school, and the reason is telling. I wonder what would happen to a DCP-like school in Seattle or Louisville....

Joanne's on a roll in the post linked above:

In a court-ordered desegregation scheme starting in 1985, Kansas City schools received $2 billion over 12 years to create programs that would lure suburban whites into inner-city schools. Some of the money created a massive and hugely inefficient district bureaucracy, Miller writes. The rest paid for lavish physical facilities, thousands of computers and magnet programs designed with no regard for the interests or needs of urban black students. Teachers weren’t trained to develop courses for the special programs to which they were assigned. When the court ended the plan in 1997, the schools were more segregated than ever and test scores were just as low.

That’s what happens when getting the ideal racial mix becomes a higher priority than educating the students you’ve got.

We've really got to get back to that silly notion from the 60s, that phrase that recurs in the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act--a phrase that was a central tenet of Dr. King's philosophy--"without regard to race". That would lead to a "colorblind society", one where people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I'll sit back and let the lefties try to demonize me for believing what Dr. King actually said, for believing what the laws actually say, and not what the the lefties want Dr. King and the laws to have said.

Update: John at Discriminations (see blogroll at left) has the expected in-depth essay on this topic.

Teachers and 403(b) Plans

First the LA Times informs us that the unions were pushing bad retirement plans on teachers. Now we find out it's not just the unions.

Teachers, do your homework.

Weapons of Math Destruction

This site has great comics:
http://weaponsofmathdestruction.com/thumbnails.cfm

I like this one:
http://weaponsofmathdestruction.com/wmd.cfm?comicID=39

Army Takes High School Drop-outs, With Interesting Results

Via Joanne Jacobs (see blogroll at left) comes this info from Strategypage:

The screening process included having the candidates take, and pass, the GED (high school equivalency test). Last year, the army took in 5,900 screened drop outs, and they had a six-month attrition rate of 6.2 percent. This meant that, for a variety of reasons, 6.2 percent of these recruits left the army within six months. Compare this to 10.3 percent for unscreened dropouts, and 5.6 percent for high school grads.

Interesting. Do those data support the contention that many students drop out just because they have the misfortune of attending bad schools?

Navy Cancels Plans To Commission Ship In San Francisco

Personally, in light of the anti-military attitude on the part of that city and its elected officials, I'd cancel Fleet Week, too.

We'll see if this change of plans survives the politics it's sure to arouse.

Liberals

From a 2000 essay by John Derbyshire, via Right Wing Nation (see blogroll at left):

Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy. Won’t they ever learn? No, their stupidity is impenetrable. They will never learn.

It's as true today as it was in 2000. Go read the whole thing.

Suspended For A Drug Message OFF-Campus But At A School-Sponsored Event

Ken Starr, of Whitewater fame, is representing the school board that suspended a student for unfurling a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner on a public sidewalk near his school as the 2002 Olympic Torch was run by. The catch is, students were let out of class, accompanied by their teachers, to go watch the torch--so it was a school-sponsored event.

Starr, who is now dean of the law school at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, urged the high court in his appeal brief to clear up the "doctrinal fog infecting student speech jurisprudence."

Well wouldn't it be nice if they could finally do that.

The appeal will likely be argued in late February, with a ruling expected by late June.

I'm with the school board on this one. School-sponsored event, school rules apply. No way would I have a student cuss me out on a field trip just because we weren't at school. Same situation, to me. Now, if the Supremes rule that drug references do not impact the learning environment, and hence cannot be regulated at school, I'd consider changing my mind. He would have no right to disrupt a class with his free speech, but if the Supremes say that this type of speech is ok, then it's ok.

Hat tip to the EducationWonks (see blogroll at left).

Critical Thinking in Schools

The problem with the critical thinking approach in practice is that too many of the teachers who employ it don't set aside their biases. We're all the product of our respective experiences, perspectives, perceptions, values, beliefs, ideologies and personal interests. Schoolteachers aren't some kind of detached philosopher-kings. The ones who dominate K-12 (and higher) education are inordinately Democrats, collectivists, liberals, union members, government employees, nannyists, politically correct social engineers, etc. With too few exceptions, I don't trust them to impartially referee exercises in critical thinking for idealistic, impressionable young minds. I believe in the power of ideas. So do activist liberal teachers. I'd just like equal treatment. I wonder if students are ever challenged with questions from the right, not just the left, such as:

• Name fives ways teachers' unions might be obstacles to improving the quality of public education.

• Critique Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and theorize about what motivates American leftists who obsess about their country's shortcomings while downplaying its greatness.

• Explain why the ideology of socialism is in direct conflict with human nature and, consequently, perpetually doomed to failure.

• Read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and give five examples of violations of individual rights in the name of "the common good."

• The mainstream media largely ignore qualified global-warming skeptics. Name five scientists who dispute global-warming theory and explain their arguments.

I invite students, teachers and administrators to contact me with such classroom examples.

Don't hold your breath waiting, Mike. You'll die.

Bad Apples and Public Schools

To make sense of this commentary, you have to read the Townhall.com essay about two page-clicks from the top of the page first, and then read the commentary at the top.

Thoughts? (note to anonymous: the question implies serious, thought-provoking comments, not bile and snippiness that apparently pass for thoughts on left-wing blogs)

School Calendar

Notice anything interesting about this school calendar?



If not, take a look at December 16th and December 25th. Not only is one religious holiday identified and not the other, there's a religious symbol used for one and not the other. I wonder why that is.

Two Recent Stories About Airline Security

To the horror of some lefties, the US government has assigned international travelers--even Americans!--a terrorism risk score.

Virtually every person entering and leaving the United States by air, sea or land is scored by the Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System, or ATS. The scores are based on ATS' analysis of their travel records and other data, including items such as where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered...

Government officials could not say whether ATS has apprehended any terrorists. Based on all the information available to them, federal agents turn back about 45 foreign criminals a day at U.S. borders, according to Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Anthony. He could not say how many were spotted by ATS.

Of course this is just another one of George Bush's attacks on civil liberties, right? Not quite.

ATS was first used to rate the risk posed by travelers in the late 1990s, using personal information about them voluntarily supplied by air and cruise lines. (emphasis mine--Darren)

A post-9/11 law vastly expanded the program, he said. It required airline and cruise companies to begin in 2002 sending the government electronic data in advance on all passengers and crew bound into or out of the country. All these names are put through ATS analysis, Ahern said. In addition, at land border crossings, agents enter license plates and the names of vehicle drivers and passengers, and Amtrak voluntarily supplies passenger data on its trains to and from Canada, he said.

It apparently didn't work too well pre-9/11, and I'm glad the expanded program's being used now. For all those people who were complaining that the pre-9/11 government didn't "connect the dots"--well, these are some of the dots they need to connect.

Then there's this story, about a backscatter x-ray machine that does what we were all promised in those little ads in the back of the comic books as kids: x-ray vision allowing you to see through clothes!

Yep, they're gonna be checking me out, all right. Some privacy specialists are concerned that this will provide fodder for YouTube for years to come. Here are the key points:

But the TSA said the X-rays will be set up so that the image can be viewed only by a security officer in a remote location. Other passengers, and even the agent at the checkpoint, will not have access to the picture.

I'm not sure that's good, for the YouTube reason mentioned above. And then:

In addition, the system will be configured so that the X-ray will be deleted as soon as the individual steps away from the machine. It will not be stored or available for printing or transmitting, agency spokesman Nico Melendez said.

We'll see what happens.

Update, 2/23/07: The X-Ray machine has arrived.

(AP) -- The Phoenix airport on Friday became the first in the United States to test new X-ray technology that can see through people's clothes and show the body's contours with blush-inducing clarity.

Critics have said the high-resolution images created by the "backscatter" technology are too invasive. But the Transportation Security Administration adjusted the equipment so the pictures can be blurred in certain areas while still detecting concealed weapons.

During the testing, the machine will be used only as a back-up screening measure. Passengers who fail the standard screening with a metal detector will be able to choose between the new device or a pat-down search...

Passengers selected for screening by the device are asked to stand in front of the closet-size X-ray unit with the palms of their hands facing out. Then they must turn around for a second screening from behind. The procedure takes about a minute...

The security officer who works with the passenger going through the screening will never see the images the machine produces. The pictures will be viewed by another officer about 50 feet away who will not see the passenger, the TSA said.

The machine cannot store the images or transmit them.

A full minute? Even if only a half a minute per passenger, that's too much time. They've got to fix that.

Aggrieved Native Americans Pitch a Fit At Dartmouth

*sigh*

The Dartmouth Review, an independent conservative student newspaper, is not affiliated with the Ivy League college and has had a sometimes adversarial relationship with minority students.

Students said the paper's latest issue, ridiculing Native American students' complaints about a string of incidents seen as racist, was the trigger for the demonstration, held on the last day of classes before exams.

Honestly, I sometimes think that college students go to these stupid protests because that's what they think college students are supposed to do.

[E]arlier this month, the crew team held a party with a "Cowboys and Indians" theme. Team captains later apologized.

Gads! Not a "Cowboys and Indians" theme! I hope there was no Village People music being played. And the apology? Pathetic. I hope they didn't mean it.

Honestly, is such a party truly "insensitive"? Or is it something that someone with a chip on his/her shoulder says is insensitive, and to prove our sensitivity, we have to support the so-called aggrieved party? What crap. You don't like the theme of a party? Don't go.

The college also apologized for scheduling a December 29 hockey game against the University of North Dakota, whose mascot is the "Fighting Sioux." The university is one of several schools whose use of American Indian imagery has been labeled "hostile and abusive" by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

So the Dartmouth Indians don't like UND's "Fighting Sioux" mascot. Who gives a damn what the Dartmouth Indians think? I'd be slightly more concerned, but not much, about what the Sioux themselves think.

So anyway, here's what one of the bigoted right-wing white racist yadda yadda yadda conservative editorialists said in the dreaded "independent conservative student newspaper":

In an editorial, Linsalata wrote: "While the onus may fall partly on the student body to facilitate an environment more hospitable to Indians, nothing can be done until the Indians themselves lay out measurable goals and steps for how this harmony can be achieved. Patronizing advertisements and excessive use of the race card are antithetical to this goal."

And here's the response it got:

At the rally, Kohn, a member of both the Crow tribe and of the student group Native Americans at Dartmouth, urged administrators to pursue disciplinary action against offenders.

I know Dartmouth isn't a public school and isn't held to 1st Amendment standards, but I'd like to think that as a university, the free and open exchange of ideas would be tolerated. But apparently, speech at Dartmouth is tolerated only if it conforms to certain rigid ideological standards.

I think someone needs to smokem peace pipe.

School Attendance

I had a student today come late to school because he was taking his DMV driving test. Wouldn't have happened with my parents!

I have a student in Hawaii this week. Wouldn't have happened with my parents.

This school gives away a new vehicle for good attendance. Wish it would have happened at my school! No, I probably don't. I doubt it serves as a motivator as much as it does a reward, and a reward contingent on good fortune at that.

I like the remark from the person who described his parents' rule regarding missing school:

"My mom had the three-B rule: There'd better be blood, bone or barf, or I was going to school," (Associate Principal) Stafford said.

The 3-B rule. Gotta remember that one.

Two Degrees of Separation

I have a friend whose longtime best friend (and Naval Academy roommate) will be on next week's shuttle flight. In fact, I think I met her (the astronaut) back in April of 1987, on a whirlwind weekend in Northern Virginia. I recall some dancing in a bar in a hotel in Alexandria, Billy Idol's version of Mony Mony was playing....

Godspeed.

What's Going On With Bjorn Lomborg?

I mentioned Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, in at least three previous posts. Here's a short, recent conversation with Mr. Lomborg.

What Exactly Is A "Girl's Sport"?

Talk about a double standard.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A state appeals court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by a boy who wanted to compete on his high school's girls' gymnastics team.

The District 4 Court of Appeals upheld a judge's dismissal of Keith Michael Bukowski's lawsuit against the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, which has a rule prohibiting boys from competing in girls' sports.

If we rename football "boys' football", does that mean girls can't play any longer?

Courts have previously ruled that letting boys compete on girls' teams jeopardizes opportunities for girls. But Bukowski, who had competed in gymnastics at a local YMCA, argued the case was similar to recent examples of girls who were allowed to compete on boys' teams in football and wrestling.

Like I said, a double standard.

Yet Another Case of Stifling Conservative Viewpoints on Campus

This time, in Boise, Idaho:

Senate Bill number 10, titled “Amendment to Article X ASBSU [Associated Students of Boise State University = the BSU Student Government] Senate Rules of Procedures,” was sent to the Internal Committee of Ways and Means. Sen. Cyndi Blue, Sen. Kayla Davis, Sen. Mark Getecha and Sen. Amy Ortmann sponsor it...

It states that “a senator of ASBSU may not work, intern, or be actively involved in organizations or student newspapers that create an atmosphere where students do not feel represented...”

For more context, see this Boise Weekly article. According to it, the bill's advocates seem to be particularly irate about student senator Jonathon Sawmiller, who heads the campus College Republicans chapter and writes for the Arbiter. He "first made waves in April, when he wrote an editorial ....

Why am I not surprised he's a Republican. Are there any universities left that value the free exchange of ideas?

Cool Articles Related To Science and History

Preserving the 460-year-old Mary Rose
Ancient star catalog found in plain sight
Archeologists find Brazilian Stonehenge
Greek shipwreck from 350 BC found
Parthenon not always bleached white
Scientists figure out how to operate ancient Greek astronomy machine
(click here if that last link no longer works)

Mob Rule on College Campuses

America's college campuses, once thought to be bastions of free speech, have become increasingly intolerant toward the practice. Visiting speakers whose views do not conform to the prevailing left-leaning political mind-set on most campuses are at particular risk of having their free speech rights infringed upon.

And this was published at SFGate.com, online home of the San Francisco Chronicle and SF Examiner.

Update, 12/5/06: Mr. Chanman has a post with a similar point of view.

It happens again and again: leftists talk about how mean-spirited and evil we conservatives are, yet when is the last time you heard of a liberal/leftist speaker on a college campus being pelted with pies (David Horowitz, Ann Coulter), pelted with salad dressing (Pat Buchanan), or being shouted down (Mike Adams) by conservative protestors? Having seen that throwing food doesn't produce the desired effect, these moronic student protestors who are 20 going on 12 have started pulling fire alarms.

I myself haven't heard of conservatives doing such things.

Teens Expelled For The Stupidest Reason On The Planet

Seriously.

Could any normal, reasonable person consider this a threat? I didn't think so, either.

US Paper Money Is "Unfair" To The Blind

Or so says a federal judge, noting that the blind can't tell US bills apart because they're all the same size and all feel the same.

On my first trip to Europe at age 9, I marveled at the Dutch guilder notes--they had raised bumps approximately a quarter-inch in diameter on them, one bump for the smallest bill (either 5 or 10 guilders) and an additional bump for each corresponding higher bill.

Over 30 years later, something like that is being suggested for US currency. I wonder, though--what's this judge going to do if the Treasure Department doesn't comply, lock up the Secretary? Somehow I just don't see it.

Queer Studies, Women's Studies, Fat Studies...

...Drunk Studies.

Maybe the next frontier in the academic battle against all varieties of oppression should be "drunk studies." Why not an academic program championing the idea that "alcohol abuse" is an artificial construct based on the mainstream culture's oppressive notions of what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate consumption of alcohol? "Drunk studies" could tell us that the stigmatization of drunkenness stems from the Western valorization of such dubious values as self-control, rationality, and obedience to social norms, and reflects a pernicious fear of rebellion against inhibitions and authority. Of course, it would also question conventional wisdom -- supposedly based on scientific evidence, but really rooted in anti-drunk bias -- about the deleterious health consequences of alcohol abuse and the dangers of drunk driving. After all, the goal of "drunk studies" would be to empower drunks!

Via Instapundit (see blogroll at left).

Interesting View of America's "Natural" Economic Allies

They're not the continental Europeans.

Parent Unhappy With Math Education

The parent who wrote this op-ed is in Pennsylvania, not California. If you want to understand why I'm such a proponent of California's K-12 math standards, read this parent's concerns about so-called reform math (and its relation to the math being taught at some schools in New Jersey).

If you're a student or parent in California, be thankful that California's standards are as clearly defined and measurable as they are rigorous. As the parent above says, our students deserve nothing less.

So What Exactly Would Be Wrong With Filling Our Universities With Asian-Americans?

I'm not Asian, so it's not like I'm standin' up for my homeboys (or whatever the slang of today would be). But still I ask, what would be wrong with having a university student body that's overwhelmingly Asian-American? The only answers I can come up with are all racist, so if anyone has one I haven't thought of, feel free to leave a comment.

Represent.

Update, 11/28/06: More here. And check out the (racist) quote from Mr. Harvard:

“In the narrow view, some Asians are beneficiaries, and Latinos and blacks are losers; but really, everyone’s a loser,” said Gary Orfield, an education and social policy professor at Harvard. “There may be enough minorities to have one or two kids in a classroom, but not enough to have a rich relationship.”

Note his view of non-Asian minorities--they're there so that others can have the benefit of a "rich relationship" with them. They're there for someone else's benefit. Sound like anything you know of, maybe something that ended in the US in 1865?

Update #2, 11/28/06 9:11 pm: Here are some more thoughts on related issues.

There 's A Reason This Isn't What You Learned In Math

Go read this article out of New Jersey. Seriously, go read it.

Did you catch the superintendent's comment at the end?

"Obviously," she said after the presentation by the students, "the teaching and learning of mathematics have changed over time. This is not what I learned."

There's a reason for that. There's no math at all mentioned in the article. Using a GPS system to find points is not math. Those students are being done a terrible, insidious disservice.

Vaunted British "Single-Payer" Health Care

You can say that this isn't what would happen in the United States if we had a single-payer (read: socialist, government-controlled) health care system, but what would prevent it here? You think this is what the British had in mind when they created their system?

Regarding Grades, Some Students Get It and Some Students Don't

"How can I improve my grade?"

"By doing better on tests and quizzes."

"Is there any extra credit I can do?"

"No."

How often has that dialogue occurred in my class, and how often will it occur in future years?

There seems to be a disconnect between me and some students. They view a grade as the goal, the purpose of taking a class. On the other hand, I view content mastery, partially reflected by the grade, to be the purpose of taking a class. In the view of some of them, I should give as many opportunities as possible to get a higher grade.

They don't understand that tests and weekly quizzes are exactly the opportunities I provide, since those account for 80% of a student's grade in my class.

I don't understand the purpose of extra credit. Sure, I give bonus problems on tests and quizzes, but those relate directly to what I'm teaching. Extra credit--writing a paper about a famous mathematician, or something--exists only to boost a grade artifically.

"But if I have that B+ on my transcript, I won't get into Stanford!"

I guess they don't see that if I give them an unearned grade, I might be contributing to keeping someone else out of Stanford--someone who knew the material better.

And so it goes.

I started writing this after reading a post at Joanne's site (see blogroll at left) in which a high school English teacher has labelled the first three weeks of school in a manner reminiscent of the stages of grief:

The first week is Disbelief and Dismissal Week
The second week is called Haggling and Hating Week
In week 3, Resolution and Restoration....

Preaching in Class

I would say that this teacher definitely crossed a line. Anyone dispute that?

Queer Studies, Women's Studies...

...Fat Studies.

Thai Teachers Killed By Muslim "Insurgents"

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Hundreds of schools in Thailand's restive south will shut their doors in response to increasingly vicious attacks by suspected Muslim insurgents against teachers and schools, an official said Saturday...

In one of the killings, attackers shot a school principal Friday, and then set his body on fire. The principal became the 59th teacher or school official killed in three years of violence, said Bunsom Thongsriprai, president of the Teachers' Association in Pattani...

Teachers have always been occasional targets, seen by insurgents as representatives of the government and easy targets. But recently, teachers and schools have been attacked on an almost daily basis...

Thailand's new military-installed government has pledged to make peace in the south a priority, and reverse the hardline policies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a Sept. 19 coup.

Defense Minister Boonrawd Somtat said Friday that insurgents had stepped up violence to keep residents from accepting new peace overtures from the authorities.

Why?

More than 1,800 people have died from violence in Thailand's three southernmost, Muslim-majority provinces -- Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat -- since an Islamic insurgency flared in January 2004.

I think the Thai government should talk to these murderers--I mean, insurgents. Learn about their feeeeeeeelings. Get to the "root causes" of their anger. Try to understand them, perhaps even walk a mile in their shoes. You know, a group hug might be all that's called for here.

Via CNN.com, with a hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

California's Gold Country

State Highway 49 runs along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, and is so named because it runs through what's known as the Gold Country. All along this road are towns that were, or are, a part of California's Gold Rush history. It's called Highway 49 for a reason, you know....

A friend of mine and I decided to take a little drive today. We went first through Placerville (Hangtown, as it was known in the Gold Rush days), county seat of El Dorado County, to Apple Hill--had to get some snackies. Then we drove to Coloma, site of James Marshall's gold discovery in the tailrace of Sutter's Mill in 1848--the event that started the Gold Rush of '49. I didn't take pictures of the recreated mill or of the buildings along the main street; instead, I took some pictures showing the bucolic nature of this former boom town.


The American River








Site of the original mill



What's left of a jail
























After leaving Coloma we continued on Highway 49, driving through Pilot Hill and Cool (only in California!) and down to the bottom of the American River canyon, easily crossed by the highest bridge in the state.











Shortly we reached Auburn, the Placer County seat. The courthouse, completed in 1898, sits atop a rather steep hill, and even today is an imposing presence.







After that we came home. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday.

Not Tolerating Mike Adams' Intolerance at UMass

I always find it interesting when protesters claim, while protesting someone's (usually a conservative's) appearance, that they're very tolerant people--but they can't tolerate this person's intolerance!

In other words, they're as hypocritical as one can get.

Sure, I support their right to protest. I support their right to disagree. But allow me to be blunt--when you disrupt events, when you shout down speakers with whom you disagree, when you act like a mob, you're going far beyond reasonable and reasoned action; rather, you're trying to prohibit someone else's free speech. You're hiding behind the very First Amendment you claim to support.

I'd say you're not acting like adults when you do that, but regrettably entirely too many adults do act that way today. Instead, I have to say you're not acting like reasonable, reasoned, polite Americans.

In fact, you're acting like the very fascists that you are.

DNA Testing

Every time I read about a DNA test that exonerates someone behind bars, I wonder how many people have been locked up for crimes they didn't commit. Sure, they may be bad guys anyway, but how many were locked up solely because they were bad guys and not because of pretty good evidence in the specific case before the jury?

I can't imagine how I'd react if I were unjustly locked up, convicted of a crime I didn't commit. As a teenager I'd sometimes lie to my mother, but I'd get furious when she called me a liar when I was telling the truth. Odd how she would believe my lies, but not believe me when I told the truth. But in those circumstances I had only to stew in my anger, not suffer the loss of my freedom for years on end.

Bad cops, overzealous prosecutors, plain bad luck--there's just too big a possibility that a person innocent of a particular crime (but not necessarily an innocent person, as I said above) could get convicted of that crime. How many people have been wrongly convicted? How many wrongly convicted people have been executed? I shudder just at the thought. DNA evidence should be used whenever it's possible to do so, unlike in the story linked above. And prisoners who have always professed their innocence, but were convicted in the pre-DNA days--I've read about some of them being released after recent DNA tests confirmed their innocence. It angers me, and I'm not even the one who was wronged. They never should have been locked up in the first place.

Freedom is just too important. We have to be sure. And I think DNA testing, when it can be used, is a good step to getting us there.

"I'm A Bad Test-taker"

Right Wing Nation has a fantastic post on the whole "bad test-taker" scenario. He sums up my attitude on the topic thusly:

I suspect that more than anything, the "good v. bad test taker" effect is an excuse, for students, parents, and bad teachers. But since I have collected and analyzed the data, from significant sample sizes semester after semester after semester, the burden of proof rests on the shoulders of anyone who claims that the "good v. bad test taker" effect is significant — particularly since no research exists to support it, one way or another.

He agrees that some people may be better test-takers than others (duh!), but that the effect is minimal. Here are some other points I think merit mention here (but you should go read the whole thing):

Think about it: Are some people better at certain types of tasks — like taking standardized tests — than others? Of course. However, I think the actual "good v. bad test taker" effect is exaggerated, and I have speculative, anecdotal, and empirical reasons to support my stance.

and

I suspect that if I had a magic wand and could wave it over my bad test taker student's head before he took the test, his score would not significantly improve, even though now, he is a good test taker.

The post merits a thorough reading.

Scholarship For Whites Only

To me, this is as valid a form of protest as is an affirmative action bake sale. Personally, I think it's pretty funny.

And the executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party is a puss.

Update: John at Discriminations (see blogroll at left) has an interesting post on the topic.

Update #2, 11/24/06: EdTrust, via Joanne (see blogroll at left), reports that flagship universities are directing more financial aid to higher-income students and less to low- and middle-income students. I'm all for giving financial assistance to those who need it, regardless of their skin color.

No Harm, No Foul

From Florida:

Cops stood with guns and rifles drawn, Wednesday, as teenager after teenager filed out of a Kissimmee home. The kids, with no school and too much time on their hands, caused some tense moments in the neighborhood.

Kissimmee police said they got a 911 call from someone who saw a person being stuffed into the trunk of a grey car. Officers climbed rooftops and peered over fences to surround a home on Peridot Circle, before bringing almost a dozen teenagers out, one by one, at gunpoint...

It turned out, Rosa's 15-year-old son had invited a bunch of friends over. One thing led to another and one of the kids wound up in the trunk. It was a teenage prank witnessed by a passerby who called 911 and set the whole thing in motion.

Go read the whole thing. Hat tip: Edwonks (see blogroll at left).

One Heck Of A Science Project In The Basement

A Michigan teen becomes the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear fusion.

What Journalists Have To Be Thankful For

From Michelle Malkin.

Seattle, San Francisco--Both Pretty, Crowded Cities By The Water

One school system gets rid of something wholesome, the other just sucks in general.

Testing/Quizzing

My former high school counselor and principal--both former math teachers--suggested to me several years ago that I needed to give either a test or a quiz each week. Since then I've done so, and apparently there's a good reason for doing so:

Testing improves recall of information, concludes a Washington University at St. Louis study. Scientific American quotes researcher Jason Chan: “Frequent testing, not restudying, is the key to long-term retention.”