Commentary on John Stossel's Updated 'Stupid in America'

Mr. Chanman at Buckhorn Road has plenty of comments on Stossel's updated program that finds the stupidity in American education--and savages it. Definitely worth a read.

How The Political Opposition Is *Supposed* To Act In a Time of War

If only this could happen today....

What The Islamo-Fascists *Really* Want

As I said in the comments to this post, the Islamo-fascist terrorists we face in the world today merely use Israel as a convenient foil. If Israel were to disappear tomorrow, there wouldn't be instant peace in the world. Why, you ask? Because the destruction of Israel, something that won't happen, is not what they really want. What they really want is for all of us to convert to Islam. Osama himself told us this in one of his many messages to us from the beautiful highlands in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Classical Values has an exceptionally insightful post on the subject.

Diversity

I was just reading a Thomas Sowell column in the Detroit News, and when I came across this post at Discriminations (see blogroll at left), I decided to juxtapose the two:

Sowell: Can you cite one speck of hard evidence of the benefits of "diversity" that we have heard gushed about for years? Evidence of its harm can be seen -- written in blood -- from Iraq to India, from Serbia to Sudan, from Fiji to the Philippines. It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word.

Discriminations (linking from another commentator): one of the least diverse groups of people you can find in Michigan is the admissions staff at the University of Michigan: 11 women, 1 male (the receptionist), no white males.

I find those comments interesting.

Update: And here's an extremely interesting story out of Britain.

Breakfast--It's The Most Important Meal of the Day

I'm amazed how many of my high school students don't eat breakfast. It could easily be 10% or more. In the last few years I've taken to quizzing people on what they had for breakfast; it's a fun 5 minutes of class, and sometimes we get the most hilarious answers! I've noted, though, that when asked enough, students will switch from "nothing" to "a Pop-Tart". Baby steps, I guess.

Joanne (see blogroll at left) has a link to an NPR story about the importance of breakfast. Not only is it important to have breakfast, but the type of food eaten can be fairly important as well. After reading her excerpts you'll know why I refer to Pop-Tarts as baby steps.

A couple days a week I'll have Pop-Tarts with a big glass of milk. Hot Fudge Sundae Pop-Tarts. If you haven't tried them, you're missing out.

Yet Another Post on Social Justice

The City Journal (Milwaukee) has a great story on a former Weather Underground communist who has since become a teacher in the "social justice" fight:

America’s historical ideal of public schooling as a means of assimilating all children (and particularly the children of new immigrants) into a common civic and democratic culture is already under assault from the multiculturalists and their race- and gender-centered pedagogy. Now Ayers and his social justice movement, by dismissing the civic culture ideal as nothing more than “capitalist hegemony,” subvert the public schools even further—while subsidized by the taxpayers, including the capitalists who supposedly control the schools.

He's going after curriculum, too:

Teaching science for social justice? Let Teachers College professor Angela Calabrese Barton, the volume’s principal author, try to explain: “The marriages between capitalism and education and capitalism and science have created a foundation for science education that emphasizes corporate values at the expense of social justice and human dignity.” The alternative? “Science pedagogy framed around social justice concerns can become a medium to transform individuals, schools, communities, the environment, and science itself, in ways that promote equity and social justice. Creating a science education that is transformative implies not only how science is a political activity but also the ways in which students might see and use science and science education in ways transformative of the institutional and interpersonal power structures that play a role in their lives.” If you still can’t appreciate why it’s necessary for your child’s chemistry teacher to teach for social justice, you are probably hopelessly wedded to reason, empiricism, individual merit, and other capitalist and post-colonialist deformities.

The series doesn’t yet have a text on mathematics, but it’s sure to come, since the pedagogy for teaching social justice through math is even more fully developed than for science. One of the leading lights of the genre is Eric Gutstein, a Marxist colleague of Ayers’s at the University of Illinois and also a full-time Chicago public school math teacher. Gutstein’s new book, Reading and Writing the World with Mathematics: Toward a Pedagogy for Social Justice, combines critical pedagogy theory and real live math lessons that Gutstein piloted with his predominantly minority seventh-grade students.

There's a lot of overlap here with the Rethinking Schools idiots that I've mentioned so many times before.

As for this next paragraph, I believe that NCATE has backed off its "social dispositions" criterion, even if only officially:

One by one, the education schools are lining up behind social justice teaching and enforcing it on their students—especially since they expect aspiring teachers to possess the approved liberal “dispositions,” or individual character traits, that will qualify them to teach in the public schools. The National Council on the Accreditation of Teacher Education, the main accreditor of education schools, now monitors how well the schools comply with their own social justice requirements.

And since lefties truly value control over others (which is why they want the government to run everything), you can clearly see the truth in this paragraph:

How does your average, traditional-minded future teacher cope in an education class taught from a social justice or critical race theory perspective? Such students are well-advised to bite their tongues or risk career-threatening penalties. For all their talk about teaching for “freedom and democracy,” the professors often run their own classes like leftist political indoctrination sessions.

I have a little first-hand experience in this area.

Allow me to be clear: this whole idea of "social justice", while it sounds nice, is nothing more than the usual leftist, Marxist, class-envy claptrap that has failed every time it's been put into practice in the world. Yet, people continue to believe it has value of some kind. And now, the crescendo:

It cannot be repeated often enough: ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have bad consequences. The Freirian theories that carry over to social justice teaching are incapable of “liberating” the children of America’s so-called oppressed. As E. D. Hirsch has exhaustively shown, the scientific evidence about which classroom methods produce the best results for poor children point conclusively to the very methods that the critical pedagogy and social justice theorists denounce as oppressive and racist. By contrast, not one shred of hard evidence suggests that the pedagogy behind teaching for social justice works to lift the academic achievement of poor and minority students.


Social justice teaching is a frivolous waste of precious school hours, grievously harmful to poor children, who start out with a disadvantage. School is the only place where they are likely to obtain the academic knowledge that could make up for the educational deprivation they suffer in their homes. The last thing they need is a wild-eyed experiment in education through social action.

And now for the fireworks to accompany the 1812 Overture:

So why do education professors who claim to care for the poor continue to agitate for instruction that holds back poor children? Either the professors are stupid (possible), or (more likely) they care more about their own anti-American, anticapitalist agendas than they do about the actual education of children. The literature of social justice education is obsessed with the allegedly “dark” side of American political, social, and economic life.

Unfortunately, there's lots of truth there.

Math Wars

A quarter century of US 'maths wars' and political partisanship
David Klein
California State University, Northridge, USA

This article traces the history of the US 'maths wars' from 1980, and discusses the political polarizations that fuelled and resulted from the disagreements.

*******************

Here's another by the same author:

A Brief History of American K-12 Mathematics Education in the 20th Century

by David Klein

Hamas To Deal With Teacher Strike

It's one thing to be a terrorist organization that indiscriminately kills Israelis. It's another to be a terrorist organization that's democratically elected to run a government. Hamas seems to be learning that lesson now as they're dealing with a teacher strike.

Yes, the "state" that exists only because of the generous handouts of foolish governments around the world, including the US, cannot pay its teachers.

Hamas, which took office in March after winning legislative elections, has rejected international calls to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist, despite sanctions by Israel and Western donors that have bankrupted the government.

Unable to pay the government's 165,000 workers, Hamas has sought help from Muslim and Arab allies, literally carrying money into the Gaza Strip in suitcases. But it has raised only a tiny fraction of the money needed to pay back wages.

Of course, it's more important to hate Israel than it is to educate your children. And it's good to get along with your countrymen, too:

In a sign of Hamas' growing frustration, hundreds of gunmen deployed around schools in Gaza, Hamas' stronghold, unsuccessfully trying to persuade teachers and students to hold lessons on Saturday. In the West Bank, activists from the rival Fatah party stood in front of schools to enforce the strike, shooting in the air at times."

Saturday's strike was viewed by many as a tactic by Fatah, led by the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to pressure Hamas to join it in a so-called national unity government. Abbas believes the alliance would force Hamas to recognize Israel, helping lift the sanctions and enable him to renew peace talks.

I can think of no better way to create a "national unity government" than to have opposing factions firing weapons outside of schools.

These people are barbarians. Why would anyone think they're capable of governing themselves?

Civil service and health workers unions joined the teachers in Saturday's walkout, putting a total of 80,000 workers on strike. Garbage collectors in Gaza City went on strike earlier this week, and mountains of trash have filled the air with a rancid stench.

But with protests against the government multiplying in recent weeks, the teachers' work stoppage, disrupting the studies for 800,000 schoolchildren, could deal the toughest blow to Hamas, political analyst Hani al-Masri said.

Here's how the article closes:

Students had mixed feelings.

Teachers "have the right to demand good living conditions, but we also want to study," said Fadi al-Asali, 15, a student in Gaza City. "I hope this strike will be over soon because the losers are the Palestinians."

More than 1.1 million children are enrolled in nearly 2,400 Palestinian schools. About 800,000 attend state-run schools, while the remainder study at private or U.N. schools that operated on Saturday.

Teacher Saadiya Abu Saud clutched the hand of a crying first-grader in the yard outside Nablus' Rafidieh school. "It's the first day of school. The children needed someone to greet them. ... I don't support the strike," she said.

"They're driving us crazy, both Fatah and Hamas," Abu Saud said. "They haven't done anything to get the Palestinian people ahead."

I wonder if young Fadi al-Asali, quoted above, would agree with thought process that says that things will get better for the Palestinians when they stop trying to destroy the only country on the planet that's actually given them real estate they can call their own.

I feel for the teachers and students but have nothing but disgust and contempt for their so-called government. It was foolish ever to even consider that the Palestinians could create a viable state, especially when Yasser Arafat was put in charge. Now, a different terrorist organization is in charge. Let them rule. The Palestinians, including the teachers, are reaping what they sow.

May their harvest be abundant.


Update, 9/3/06: Little Green Footballs has the AP/Yahoo story of a boy who was shot by armed, masked men trying to enforce the strike (see my point about the "unity government" above):

This is a great example of how appallingly corrupt the wire services have become in their reporting from Palestinian areas, relying on Palestinian journalists and editors who are doing the bidding of terrorist groups and covering up atrocities.

Associated Press writer Ali Daraghmeh’s story is about a gang of masked terrorists who fired on a crowd of schoolchildren to enforce a “teacher’s strike,” wounding a 12-year old boy.

Think about that. They used live fire against a crowd of children.

But the Associated Press headline for the story by Ali Daraghmeh is deliberately worded to be as innocuous and misleading—in fact, downright confusing—as possible: Palestinian teachers’ strike hurts boy.

Update On My Fight Against Illegal Fees At School

For three years now I've talked to my principal about the illegal fees we charge for classes and activities at my school. While he understands the issue, these fees predate his tenure by many years and currently are not causing any difficulty among the parents, so he focuses his attention on more immediate concerns. Essentially, he doesn't want to spend the enormous "political capital" that would be required for change on this battle that doesn't seem to be important enough.

In late July I learned some amazing news--that the budget for our school's student government is about $120,000 (wow!), about $80,000 of which goes to support our athletic programs. Knowing that Hartzell v. Connell states that athletics and cheerleading are considered part of the school curriculum, and knowing that student body monies aren't supposed to be spend on curricular items that the school would otherwise pay for, I contacted our school district's legal officer to question if this practice was legal. I also mentioned (illegal) fees we charge for classes at school.

She forwarded my email to several people; honestly, I believe this was an attempt to intimidate me. It worked for all of about 5 seconds, when I remembered the old British saying: in for a penny, in for a pound. The Rubicon is crossed, the die is cast, the battle is engaged.

Two of the people she forwarded my message to were my principal and his boss. My boss' boss tried to explain how we have Board Policies that allow what we're doing, that there's nothing wrong--nothing to see here, please move along.

I've researched this topic for several years now. I've discussed the topic with people who initiated and won lawsuits against school districts for such fees. I've received very clear information from the state Department of Education on the topic. I know of which I speak. And there is something to see here, and I will not move along. I don't know for sure whether the student government spending is legal or not, but I do know that the fees we charge for classes and activities are not. That is now the battle.

It was requested that I send specific information about illegal fees we charge. I said I'd rather discuss these face-to-face, and offered to meet in person.

Silence. For almost a month. Not only did I feel ignored, I felt dismissed. And I'm not one to be dismissed easily.

Last week I emailed our superintendent. He's been on the job a year and I haven't heard a negative thing about him yet. The one time he spoke to our staff he seemed to impress everyone--he certainly impressed me. I thought I'd give it a chance. Last Sunday I received an email from the superintendent. The tone was very calm and reasonable. He said he'd forward my email along to the legal counsel and my boss' boss, and that he himself would meet with me if I couldn't resolve the issue.

A couple days later (this past week) I received from the legal counsel an email I can only describe as "snippy". Again, she stated that she can do nothing because I haven't given her any specifics. I told her that I don't want to address this as a problem solely at my school, dealing only with the fees that I know about--this is a systemic issue, district-wide, and we should discuss the macro issue in person. During the course of that conversation, of course, the micro issues would arise. I'm waiting to hear back from her.

My principal is obviously not pleased with me. No one likes it when the boat is rocked. In my email communications I've bent over backwards to point out that this isn't an issue he's created--these fees have been in place for years, all across the district. I'm doing everything I can to keep this problem from being directed only at our school. That's apparently not enough. You know when you're in someone's dog house, and I'm smelling the Alpo right now.

But what can I do? My training at West Point taught me to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. Everything I know about leadership says that we adults must set the example for the students, and not ask the students to do anything we're not willing to do ourselves. We expect them to follow our rules, but don't follow the law ourselves. We expect them to rat their friends out (grafitti, vandalism, etc.) but we stand by while the law is broken. We expect them to respect us, yet act in ways that don't merit respect. This is something I have to do if I'm to be able to look myself in the mirror each day.

I'll endeavor to limit the damage. I'll treat this as an opportunity to improve our district, not trash it. I'm acting within the system--I haven't gone to the press, or to the school board, or to any anti-public school organizations, or to any legal foundations that specialize in fights like this one (and yes, I know who they are). I hope we can all resolve this without having to get down in the mud.

I'll keep you posted.

Democrat Canvassers Walk Off The Job Because They Don't Even Make Minimum Wage

How many times must I point out the hypocrisy of the Democrats? How. Many. Times? From the Captain's Quarters blog comes a link to this story out of Wisconsin:

A group that raises money for Democratic Congressional candidates uses a canvassing company that pays some workers submimium wage, in apparent violation of Wisconsin state law, to talk about the need to raise the federal minimum wage, Isthmus newspaper has learned. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), based in Washington, D.C., has hired Grassroots Campaigns, a Boston-based for-profit company with operations in 18 U.S. cities, to conduct canvassing on its behalf. The DCCC's "New Direction for American" agenda, which provides the talking points canvassers are taught to use to solicit contributions, includes a call to "Raise the minimum wage." (emphasis mine--Darren)

Does it get any more priceless than that? Kinda reminds me about the update I added to this post from last year, about people paid $6/hr without benefits to picket outside a Wal*Mart in 104 degree heat. My link in that post came from EIA (see blogroll at left), which said:

Yes, the UFCW is outsourcing its picketing to non-union workers, at a sub-standard pay rate with no benefits, in unsafe conditions, with no transportation or means to leave the premises, in order to protest the poor jobs inside Wal-Mart, where workers make twice as much.

What is it about the left that people find so appealing? I'm not seeing job security (hello, United Auto Workers), I'm not seeing high pay (see above), I'm not seeing compassion (see above). Honestly, what is it about the left? Where is this support for the working man that I always hear about? Are people just stupid?

Back to the Wisconsin story.

Maybe some people are stupid. Here's one kid who was stupid; maybe he's a little smarter now.

Alex Scherer-Jones began working for Grassroots Campaigns to fight the Bush administration and elevate the fortunes of the Democratic Party. The 21-year-old MATC student left feeling exploited and sour: "I went in there being very idealistic and it kind of ruined my idealism."

There's a home for you in the Republican Party, Alex, if you continue to see the light. And unlike what you've been told by the people who just walked all over you, we actually want you to do the best that you can for yourself. See, when everyone does that, everyone improves. Everyone earns what they're entitled to, they don't get handouts.

Several other workers are mentioned in the story, but you get the idea. Go read the whole thing. It's a hoot.

When Is Political Speech Protected At Schools?

The answer should be "always", but I'm afraid I have to agree with John Ray in this post--if the student had been wearing an anti-homosexual (or anti-Islamist, or anti-illegal immigration) shirt, the verdict might well have been different.

Dems Back Draft

Remember, back during the 2004 election, the Democratic scare tactic of spreading rumors that a 2nd Bush Administration would reinstate the draft? Hasn't happened, has it?

Who is recommending a draft of sorts? Why, Democrats, of course.

Strip Club Raises Money for Las Vegas School District

I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but isn't there something a bit too "close to home" about this?

Via Newsalert (see blogroll at left), quoting from an AP story:

Scores (a strip club) raised the funds at an Aug. 23 back-to-school event called "Detention" that featured strippers dressed as teachers, schoolgirls and librarians.

Like I said, I'd still take the money, though.

US Education Secretary on NCLB

From this piece from CNN.com, US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has given the anti-testing crowd two more pieces of ammunition:

1. She just can't be wearing those glasses (see the picture) in 2006, and
2. She can't be serious in saying the law is "99.9% pure...there's not much needed in the way of change.

I've written about the No Child Left Behind Act several times on this blog; any long-time reader knows that I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the law. But let's be honest and say that there's plenty that could be improved about the law. I don't mean major, "let's get rid of it" changes, but I'll agree that the way schools can be labeled as "failing", for instance, is silly and downright counterproductive.

I would rather have this slightly imperfect (but nowhere close to 99.9% pure) law than to go back to where we were before it passed, though. Back then it was too easy to ignore kids who failed; they just failed, that's the way things are, we tried, not our problem any more. Kid doesn't learn English? Keep him in bilingual classes for 12 years, not our problem. Teacher not credentialed to teach the class before her? Not a problem. NCLB has shined the light on major, glaring deficiencies in our country's schools, and states are starting to react. In California, a full 50% of our state budget ($50-60 billion a year) goes to education. I've heard that the feds account for about 7% of California's education spending, or almost $4 billion; isn't it a good thing that Uncle Sam is asking for some accountability for how he spends his money? Is wanting results a bad thing?

In a meeting after school today we were handed a Newsweek article by Anna Quindlen. In it she states that testing doesn't help learning anymore than repeatedly weighing a fat person causes weight loss. Can anything more stupid be written? The point of testing isn't to teach the students, it's to see if they've been taught. Using Quindlen's pathetic example, no one should get his/her cholesterol checked because checking it doesn't lower the cholesterol level (BTW, mine's 117--beat that!).

Obviously I support testing, I support NCLB, and I support Secretary Spellings. But Spellings sure made it more difficult for me with the dumb comment quoted on CNN.

Update, 9/2/06: Here's another fan of NCLB, one with a rather interesting perspective on the law.

Wal*Mart Is (Still) Evil--Even Despite This!

I'm sure that's what the anti-Wal*Mart crowd will say. They may even find a way to spin this as yet another danger that behemoth Wal*Mart poses. What is the Devil Incarnate trying to do? Why, it wants to sell more compact fluorescent lightbulbs, 100 million in all, to start a reduction in America's dependence on fossil fuels.

The bastards!

UN: Self-defense Is *Not* A Right

That's one interpretation of a UN report.

It would make sense, though, since the UN--like every other socialist (controlling) government--wants to remove private ownership of firearms from citizens.

How Much Blogging Would An Edu-blogger Blog....

Recognize any blogs you've read on this list?

OK, so I'm relatively prolific. I hope that doesn't mean that I'm pumping out quantity at the expense of quality. Recognizing that some of my posts are little more than links to some interesting post or article somewhere else, even I didn't realize I was posting so much compared to some other edu-bloggers--many of whom I read daily!

I find plenty of time to blog, but then again, my social calendar isn't as full as some people's--a fact that no doubt comes as a surprise to many of you =)

I'm A Shoo-in For This Job

Not that I really want to work in the Bay Area, but I think I'd do a bang-up job in this position. What do you think?

More For The Global Warming Crowd

The Boston Globe recently ran a story about "MIT's Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology Richard Lindzen", who doesn't toe the party line when it comes to global warming.

Lindzen acknowledges that global warming is real, and he acknowledges that increased carbon emissions might be causing the warming -- but they also might not.

``We do not understand the natural internal variability of climate change" is one of Lindzen's many heresies, along with such zingers as ``the Arctic was as warm or warmer in 1940," ``the evidence so far suggests that the Greenland ice sheet is actually growing on average," and ``Alpine glaciers have been retreating since the early 19th century, and were advancing for several centuries before that. Since about 1970, many of the glaciers have stopped retreating and some are now advancing again. And, frankly, we don't know why."

This isn't what the environmentalist zealots want to hear, especially from an MIT meteorology professor. And I like the Globe reporter's comment about stifling opposing viewpoints:

He's smart. He's an effective debater. No wonder the Steve Schneiders and Al Gores of the world don't want you to hear from him. It's easier to call someone a shill and accuse him of corruption than to debate him on the merits.

I've said several times on this blog with regards to global warming--the climate has changed several times in recorded history and several more times in pre-history, which we only know about through scientific research. I'm not yet convinced that man is responsible for this current change, or that we can do anything about it other than adapt to it.

If you want me to believe, you must convince me, not call me names until I believe.

Update, 9/3/06: He he:

Climate statistics show that, with all the "global warming" hysteria today, our temperatures are still not as high as they were back in medieval times. Those medieval folks must have been driving a lot of cars and SUVs.

Principal Suspends 128 For Dress Code Violations

I've read about this story on a couple of edu-blogs, and since it touches on a topic near and dear to my heart, I'll address it here too.

Bracing for the attack of all the peace, love, and tie-dye folks, I'll state categorically:

1. No, high school is not the place for you to demonstrate your individuality. It's the place for you to demonstrate your intellect and conformance to societal norms.

2. Yes, having me see your cleavage (girls) or boxers (boys) is sexual harassment, at least according to my district's sexual harassment policy. Don't tell me not to look--don't show it in the first place.

3. If a school isn't going to enforce the dress code it has, it needs to get rid of it. Mr. Chanman of Buckhorn Road (see blogroll at left) likened this to Giuliani's "broken window" theory--if bad guys see broken windows, they'll know that crime is tolerated in the area, and it goes downhill from there. If you have rules you don't enforce, that breeds contempt for all rules--which ones can I get away with breaking, and why those rules but not these? Enforce all of them, as the principal did in the linked story.

4. I don't care if you like the policy or not. I don't like having to drive 40 mph down Auburn Blvd. when it can easily handle traffic at 55 mph, but I don't have much of an argument if I were to get pulled over. Having the discipline to deal with things you don't like to deal with is a sign of maturity.

I think that's enough points. You get my point, and that was the point of writing this pointed post.

Update: Thanks to commenter mrc for pointing out what may have been a Freudian slip in typing!