Carnival of Education

This week's is at I Want To Teach Forever and includes my post about teaching safe sex and safe drinking in schools.

Colorado Springs

I love that little city. When I go there I feel like I'm home.

Many people assume it's a very conservative place, what with Focus On The Family being headquartered there. Honestly, my guess is that there is a very narrow stripe of people in the country who even know that Focus on the Family exists--they're the ones with the bumper stickers that read Focus On Your Own Family.

But Colorado Springs isn't "conservative", it's rather diverse. When I last visited two summers ago, the downtown area around Acacia Park (in other words, downtown) was festooned with rainbow flags. Commercials and signs on buses told us about "the dog that says 'moo'", about being different. Colorado is an independent, Old West kind of place, where, it always seemed to me, the credo was "live and let live".

But there's a fortress of unabashed liberal fascism in Colorado Springs, just a few blocks from Acacia Park. And wouldn't you know it, it's an institution of higher learning--Colorado College. And they're not very nice to conservatives there.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is criticizing Colorado College for punishing students who distributed a flyer that mocked a flyer distributed by feminist students on the campus. The feminist students’ flyer is called “The Monthly Rag” and the leaflet mocking it is called “The Monthly Bag.” When the latter appeared, with its authors identified only as “the coalition of some dudes,” college officials asked those responsible to come forward. When they did, FIRE asserted, they were ordered to hold a campus forum after being found guilty of violating the student code against violence. FIRE called this inconsistent and unfair. Greg Lukianoff said in a statement: “One flyer that mentions ‘male castration’ is not violence, but a flyer that makes fun of it by mentioning ‘chainsaws’ is prohibited? Both should be protected, but the double standard and lack of respect for freedom of speech in this case is simply staggering.” Richard F. Celeste, Colorado College’s president, said via e-mail: “Colorado College values and fosters freedom of expression, and in discussions with students regarding “The Monthly Bag,” has encouraged further dialogue about freedom of speech issues on campus. The students involved in creating this publication were found to have violated the college community’s standards, but they were not sanctioned or punished. Instead, they were urged to engage the college community in more inclusive dialogue, debate and discussion on freedom of speech, and through a letter to the editor of the student newspaper and other actions, they are doing so.”

FIRE reports that, despite what the school says, the students were sanctioned.

This statement is false. The students were sanctioned and punished. Take a look at their letter of sanction by Dean of Students Mike Edmonds. Having a guilty finding on one's record is a punishment. Having the letter put in each student's file is a punishment. Being required to hold a "forum" is a punishment. Being publicly shamed in a mass e-mail from the president is a punishment.

Here we go again.

What Is So Difficult To Understand About the 1st Amendment?

Public schools cannot have a policy that forbids religious expressions in art class. And giving a student a zero on an assignment because he refused to remove a cross and a "John 3:16" reference from a drawing will not fly.

His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.

Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.

OK, that's not going to fly.

The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students' rights.

And those rights would include the right not to have to know that someone else is religious? It figures this took place in Madison, WI.

This school is so out of line, I genuinely and honestly hope that either
a) the school district goes broke in their losing court battle to defend their stupid policy, or
b) people get fired over a policy so clearly unconstitutional.

Besides The Democratic Party, Does The CTA Have Any Friends?

CTA may have links to the filthy, slimy, Stalinist group International A.N.S.W.E.R., but it's pretty funny when mainstream communists think CTA is pathetic.

The reaction of the California Teachers Association (CTA) and its affiliated local unions to the massive cuts has been predictably pathetic and impotent. The CTA bemoans the projected cuts, offers legal and procedural information and urges Californians to contact the governor and their representatives. A 60-second radio advertisement has been taken out that features a teacher commenting on the hardship the planned cuts will create. None of this will do anything.

The inability and unwillingness of the CTA to lead the mass opposition that exists within the population to Schwarzenegger’s cuts is not unexpected. In 2004, when the state’s ongoing budget crisis resulted in the governor’s carrying out massive budget cuts and rescinding significant amounts of funding for the state’s schools, the CTA accepted the rollbacks as a necessary evil. Although this was in violation of a state law, the teachers’ union leaders told their membership that they had been promised additional funding in subsequent years to make up for that year’s cuts. This money never materialized.

The CTA is unable to launch a genuine struggle in defense of California’s teachers and public education as a whole because of its defense of the profit system and its political ties to the Democratic Party, which is the majority party in the state legislature and has enabled Schwarzenegger to carry out his draconian measures.

Talk about being between Scylla and Charibdis. Seems like the CTA can't please anyone!

To My NEA Visitor

Welcome!

If you'd like to learn more about the California Teachers Empowerment Network, please click on the CTEN label at the end of this post or visit the CTEN web site at ctenhome.org. If you'd like to read and respond to some of the issues I have with the NEA, please click on the NEA label at the end of this post.

Snarky PS: Are the communists still meeting in the NEA cafeteria?

No Ice Cream At This D-Q

Out in the fields of Yolo County is a collection of buildings that used to house Deganawidah Quetzalcoatl University, known locally as D-Q. I drove by it once several years ago--you'd never tell by looking that it was a two-year accredited "university". Part trailer park, part ghetto; I saw no cause for optimism there.

In 1971, Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University, named for a prominent Iroquois and an Aztec prophet, opened its doors. Its mission was to united indigenous people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. Local law enforcement and the FBI called the place “terrorist tech.” While that threat never materialized, neither did much education.

Courses were highly politicized, such as Environmental Issues 301, about uranium mining on reservations, and Social Science 242, an Indian interpretation of early U.S. history. The reading list was a politically correct litany of militants. There were plenty of those in the 1970s, including Dennis Banks of AIM, the American Indian Movement. He fled South Dakota after a gun battle in a courthouse and California governor Jerry Brown granted him asylum. Though not known as a scholar or administrator, Dennis Banks duly became chancellor of Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University in 1975.

During the early 1980s, federal auditors cited DQU for various violations, failing to enroll enough students and leasing land to farmers. The audit recommended that the land be returned to the government. Management and financial problems continued to plague DQU, subject to a U.S. Department of Education investigation about mishandled financial aid. The Bureau of Indian Affairs also withdrew $300,000 in aid because of declining Indian enrollment.

The school lost its accreditation about 4 years ago.

Things aren't quiet yet out there:

Eighteen people were arrested Monday at D-Q University on misdemeanor charges of trespassing, the Yolo County Sheriff's Department said...

At the request of the D-Q board of trustees, the Yolo County Sheriff's Department had to break down the doors to the old dorms to get those people out.

Call me insensitive, but perhaps the board of trustees of the school would do better to turn the place into a Dairy Queen.

Cesar Chavez Day

Here in California, the birthday of United Farmworkers Union founder Cesar Chavez is a state holiday. Our school district was in session, though, as was the Sac City District, from which these students walked out of class.

Some students made their way to Cesar Chavez Plaza in downtown Sacramento, where police were waiting to cite them. Some of the students were taken to a truancy center.

Chavez' grandson encouraged the students to stay in school:

However, Chavez's grandson, Anthony Chavez, said students should spend the day in class talking about history of labor and sharing that information with others.

My guess is that most of these students can't tell you anything that Chavez did or anything he stood for--such as the fact that he didn't approve of illegal immigration, correctly determining that it would undercut wages for legal farmworkers. My guess is that some, perhaps many, of these students walked out of class today because they had what they considered a good excuse.

If they value their education so little, the only jobs they'll eventually be capable of performing will be--well, you get the idea.

There's certainly nothing wrong with hard, honest work, but it would be nice if these students weren't forced into manual labor because it was the only option available to them.

This Is Progress

After 4 years of giving it the ole college try, local Sacramento station AM 1240 is giving up on its "Progressive Talk" format. The station manager, interviewed on Channel 3 Reports, seemed bitter--she's a so-called progressive herself--but admits that the format wasn't making the station any money. So what format is she switching to?

Hip-hop gospel.

Update: When I first posted this I couldn't find a link to the Channel 3 story. Longtime friend and loyal reader MikeAT found it for me!

Earth Hour

Another form-over-substance event. Regular readers already know what I think of this event and its antecedent, anthropogenic global warming; newbies can click the first label at the end of this post.

How much electricity did San Francisco save buy turning off the lights on the west end of the Bay Bridge? Enough to power Al Gore's Tennessee house for 13 minutes.

West Point Screws Up

I've written before about how disappointed I am that West Point and the army have started down the road to letting graduated cadets play pro sports instead of serving in the army--especially during wartime!

Let's read that entire post linked above:

We West Pointers howled when Napoleon McCallum got to play for the Raiders while still serving in the Navy, and when David Robinson was released early from his service commitment to play basketball. We saw honor when Chad Hennings served his time in the air force and then played for the Dallas Cowboys. How superior we felt to Navy.

Until now.

Is West Point to become just another farm team for the pros, with recruiting being the excuse given?

It just got worse.

Army is offering its top athletes a side door to professional sports. West Point has implemented an alternative service option program that allows cadets to turn pro – and play – right away.

Cadets accepted into the program "will owe two years of active service in the Army, during which time they will be allowed to play their sport in the player-development systems of their respective organizations and be assigned to recruiting stations. If they remain in professional sports following those two years, they will be provided the option of buying out the remaining three years of their active-duty commitment in exchange for six years of reserve time."

The Air Force Academy and Naval Academy do not offer such a program. Both academies require two years of active service upon graduation before presenting the option of swapping the final three years of active time for six years in the reserves.

Recruiting duty is important, but please don't insult my intelligence by saying that these men (and potentially women) are performing a service to the army--especially one worth 6 figures, the cost of a West Point education--by playing pro sports. And those 6 figures don't include the incalculable opportunity cost of the loss of a potential highly trained officer who couldn't serve the army and the country because a future professional athlete got that slot at West Point.

From West Point's web site, here's the school's mission. Every plebe is required to memorize it:

USMA mission

"To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army."

Why memorize it when we don't uphold it? This program doesn't even uphold the values of Duty, Honor, Country.

It's a disgrace and an affront to everything I was taught there.

Update, 7/27/08: First the Army screwed up by telling this lieutenant he could play pro football. Then it compounded that screw-up by pulling the rug out from under him in full view of the sports-watching public:

The Army had initially said Campbell, a football standout who played for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, could fulfill his military obligation by serving two years as a recruiter in his spare time. Academy graduates are usually required to serve five years...

But after a much publicized difference in policy between the Army and other services, Campbell's NFL dreams have been put on hold. The wartime exception for Campbell -- essentially his ticket out of joining the fight in Iraq -- rubbed many in the military the wrong way.

On Wednesday, the Army sent a letter to the Detroit Lions informing them that a change in Army policy means Campbell would have to cease getting ready to play for the football team.

Could they have screwed this up any worse?

Civil Rights, Then and Now

Long time readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of the civil rights movement, especially that of the 1950s and 60s. I've written about my adoration of Rosa Parks' bravery, my belief that Roosevelt should be removed from the dime and replaced with Dr. King, and my admiration for the execution of Operation Arkansas and for the moral clarity of President Eisenhower and the mayor of Little Rock. The reason I'm such an ardent supporter of civil rights is easy--I'm an American, and I believe in fairness.

Sadly, that herculean effort, which culminated (right about the time I was born) with the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, has now rotted. These words strike me as true:

Longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer once wrote that all great movements eventually become a business, then degenerate into a racket.

That is certainly true of the civil rights movement. Begun with just demands for an end to state-mandated discrimination based on race, it ends with unjust demands for state-mandated preferences, based on race. (boldface mine--Darren)

Good job, race hustlers of today's so-called civil rights movement. You've got me agreeing with Pat Buchanan here.

Responsible Drinking, Among Other Things

In a very thoughtful post, TigerHawk links to a NYT article claiming that the best way to ensure that young people don't go overboard with alcohol is to model and explain the appropriate societal expectations--that alcohol is to be enjoyed but not abused. That view seems reasonable to me.

But it got me thinking. Regarding alcohol, in our schools we we teach the equivalent of abstinence. Alcohol is bad and is to be avoided at all costs. Why do we teach abstinence for alcohol, but, often in the very same health course, teach not sexual abstinence but so-called safe sex?

I'm not suggesting that schools teach "safe drinking" =) What I am suggesting is that schools should be teaching abstinence in both arenas, and parents should decide whether or not they want to teach "safe drinking" or "safe sex" to their children.

Reasonable?

Graphing Calculators and Tanks, Redux

Statcounter tells me that every few days, someone gets referred to this post from a year and a half ago. I just reread it, along with all the comments; it's still one of my favorites, so if you're new to RotLC, go take a read! Comment as you see fit.

Tasering Students

I was kidding about the electric shock collars for students, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction:

Donna Hudepohl, a school resource officer called to remove the troubled girl from the classroom, was allegedly pushed and punched in the face during a struggle to restrain her.

Hudepohl responded by tasering the girl.

The student was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, disrupting a school function as well as resisting with violence and is being held at the juvenile detention center.

Hudepohl was treated for a possible broken nose.

This is one of the problems undisciplined children have--they don't understand that while their parents and teachers may be helpless, physically or legally, to physically restrain them, police officers are not. You will follow the instructions of police officers; if you do not, the penalty will be much more stringent than "time out" or a lunch detention.

Zap!

Paying For Submitting Grades Late

I'll bet the registrar at my school would like a system like this:

As Barber explained to a somewhat incredulous audience Wednesday: Florida State is what she believes to be the only institution in the country that fines its professors when they turn grades in late at semester’s end. The tab: $10 per grade.

“We charge for every grade for every student that is not turned in by our deadline,” Barber said, adding, slowly for emphasis: “I’ll say that again: Every grade for every student that is not turned in by our deadline.”

Hat tip to Instapundit.

The Socialist Workers' Paradise That Is Cuba

Raul is betting that giving a few scraps to the peons will satisfy them.

First microwaves, now cell phones. Is this the new Cuba? Raul Castro is revolutionizing his brother's island in small but significant ways — the latest in a decree Friday allowing ordinary Cubans to have cell phone service, a luxury previously reserved for the select few. The new president could be betting greater access to such modern gadgets will quell demand for deeper change.

Clearly, Raul is a Dear Leader when compared to his older brother's Imperious Leader, right? But of course.

Let's read further.

Could cellular phones in dissidents' hands give state security forces an edge in monitoring their conversations or tracking their movements by satellite? Perhaps, but government opponents — including the few who have cell phones — already assume someone's always listening.

If you really thought that George Bush was listening on your phone calls, you'd watch what you say. But you know he's not, so you don't. Cubans don't have that luxury. But they're just brown-skinned people living in a tropical paradise, right? What use do they have for bourgeois concepts like freedom and privacy? Heck, they probably like the thought of being thrown into prison. Maybe it's part of their culture.

Come on, lefties, defend Castro's record. Do it. I want you to.

There are two more statements from one man in the article, statements that will put the lie to any defense you offer.

The new program could put phones in the hands of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, especially those with relatives abroad who send them hard currency. But they will remain out of reach for most on the island because minutes are billed in convertible pesos — which cost Cubans 24 times the regular pesos they are paid in.

"I'd love one!" said Juan Quiala, a retiree living on a $10 monthly pension. "But how am I going to pay for it?"

The government controls over 90 percent of the economy, and while the communist system ensures most Cubans have free housing, education and health care and receive ration cards that cover basic food needs, the average monthly state salary is less than $20...

But some said the latest measure was less than revolutionary.

"Suddenly, there will be a lot more people talking on the phone," said Quiala, the retiree. "But not much else will change."

We can debate the success of the Cuban housing, education, health care, dual currency, and food distribution programs, but it's kind of difficult to dispute Sr. Quiala's points.

All humans yearn to breathe free.

Want To Read An Interesting Liberal vs. Conservative Debate/Argument?

Inside Higher Ed reports on a study that says that despite the overwhelming left-leaning faculty at most colleges, students aren't necessarily undergoing indoctrination because their political views don't seem to change too much between their freshman and senior years. The doubling of the number of students who identify themselves as far left is seemingly "statistically insignificant", although the report explains why that may happen besides indoctrination.

There are some interesting counterpoints, though. My favorite was this, from a comment at the URL above:

‘The student body is white and asian- who cares?’

Double standard, at 6:50 am EDT on March 27, 2008

How true. Diversity only matters when it comes to skin color.

I read another comment on this topic somewhere else (but I can't remember where). That commenter remarked that perhaps the reason students' political leanings don't change so much in college is because the professors there are just continuing the indoctrination that already occurred in the K-12 arena. Food for thought.

I'll close with this statement from the article, which really spoke to me:

“Even if it were true that students totally took a Bart Simpson attitude toward their college professors and were completely uninfluenced by them, I still think it would be a tragedy that during those four years, they were not getting the good stuff,” Klein said. There is an “opportunity cost” when students graduate in four years and haven’t been exposed (or have only been exposed to negative ideas about) Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Klein said. Too many students graduate with a “complete zero” in those and other people worth knowing, Klein said. So political leanings matter, he added, even without the assumption of indoctrination.

It's not about indoctrination, it's about diversity. It's about being with people like yourself. It's about feeling comfortable, knowing that your culture, views, values, and experiences will be validated and valued. Isn't that what diversity is all about?

When you metaphorically hold a mirror up to lefties by speaking their own words back to them, it's amazing how they'll twist and spin to avoid them.

The comments after the article certainly run a gamut of opinion.

I Hope They're Smart Enough To Deal Cards

Las Vegas does everything big. Big hotels, big casinos, big name stars performing, big sporting contests.

Their schools fail big, too.

Clark County School District students tested in January on their grasp of first semester material in high school algebra and geometry didn't just fall short of the mark.

The preliminary report on end of semester exams shows they missed it in a spectacular way.

Across the valley, 90.5 percent of 17,586 students who took the new end of semester exams for Algebra 1 failed, scoring at 59 percent or lower.

In Geometry, 87.8 percent of 18,792 students earned the equivalent of an F.

The 10,032 students in Algebra 2 also made a dismal showing, with 86.6 percent unable to achieve a passing grade.

The preliminary numbers jolted Superintendent Walt Rulffes, who said Wednesday that district staff are analyzing the test, its implementation and the scores to identify why students made such a poor showing.

"Maybe this is the shock we need to get the system fixed," Rulffes said.

Are you kidding me??? If this guy knew the system was this broke and did nothing, and now hopes that a large number of failing students will shock him into fixing it, he needs to be led to the county line at gunpoint and "invited" never to return. If he didn't know that his schools were performing so miserably, then the statement above was just stupid.

I was prepared to give those schools a break--after all, I'm sure there are a lot of non-English-speakers in those schools, students from lower income families, two categories that typically don't perform as well as we'd like. Why do I think there are many of those kids in the schools? Because their parents are the labor force for the hospitality industry in that city. So I was prepared to cut them a little slack on the horrific performance, until I saw the sample questions at the end of the article:

SAMPLE QUESTIONS
(answers below)

The following questions are from practice exams in algebra and geometry developed for the Clark County School District. The practice tests reflect the material on end of semester exams, which the vast majority of students failed in January.

What is the value of w in the equation 82 = 9w +10?
A. 2
B. 8
C. 63
D. 101

Amelia ran a total of 60 miles in the first three months of her new running program. She ran equal distances in the first and second months, but ran twice that distance in the third month. How far did she run in the third month?
A. 15 miles
B. 20 miles
C. 30 miles
D. 40 miles

Which of the following equations is equivalent to 2(5m+4) = 7m - m ?
A. 10m + 4 = 6m
B. 10m + 8 = 6m
C. 10m + 4 = 7
D. 10m + 8 = 7

What statement is true about all right triangles?
A. A right triangle has 3 equal sides.
B. A right triangle has 3 obtuse angles.
C. A right triangle has no parallel sides.
D. A right triangle has 2 pairs of parallel sides.

Given two lines that intersect, which of the descriptions MUST be true?
A. The two lines are coplanar.
B. The two lines are coincident.
C. The two lines are concurrent.
D. The two lines are corresponding.


ANSWERS
B, C, B, C, A

The article hinted at possible reasons students did so poorly: some schools' scores weren't counted correctly, some teachers aren't teaching all the required material, algebra and geometry classes have upwards of 40 students. If any of these things are true, and accurate test results were in fact somewhat higher than reported, this district still has some serious problems in leadership and management.

I'm glad I'm not working there.

Another Campus Witch Hunt

When will these state schools learn?

North Dakota State University is investigating complaints about a campus skit in which a white student in blackface portrayed Barack Obama receiving a lap dance.

The same skit, part of a charity fundraiser held at a campus theater, also featured a depiction of cowboys having sex with each other, witnesses told The Forum newspaper, which first reported the backlash Friday.

“We’re trying to find out the right approaches for accountability, but at the same time try to heal wounds that have occurred and allow the campus to move ahead,” Janna Stoskopf, NDSU’s dean of students, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Let me assist you with finding the "right approaches for accountability", Dean Stoskopf.

The events that were described in the article were in extremely poor taste by today's standards, there's no doubt about it. However, poor taste is protected under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. You can make whatever public statements you want, distance yourself and the school community from this 30-second skit segment, even publicly chastise the students for not meeting NDSU's high standards of decorum, or some crap like that.

But the moment you try to punish those students, or impose some "accountability" on them, you're making a constitution-level error. I have no doubt that FIRE would take this case, and even the ACLU might, and you'd end up losing.

Huff and puff, Dean Stoskopf, but don't try to blow down anyone's house. It's all about tolerance, tolerating even those views you find particularly offensive.

I don't know the political bent of that particular university, but I wonder how an anti-conservative, or perhaps anti-Christian, skit would have been received by Dean Stoskopf and the student government.

Update, 3/29/08: The CNN version of this story has the Dean being a little more circumspect:

"One of the issues here is how do we balance what our policies and expectations about behavior are with the issue of freedom of speech," Stoskopf said. "Where does all of that get us?"

It's get you in court if you try to deal with it with a heavy hand.

They'd have been much better off putting out a statement that they're mortified and saddened by the lack of good character displayed by the students involved. The end. But an investigation that's going to take a month and a half? Stupid and wasteful--and doesn't reflect well on NDSU, either.

Homeschoolers In California "Not Dead Yet"

Hope you got the Monty Python joke there.

Anyway, a state appeals court is going to try again:

The 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed Tuesday to schedule another hearing in the case of a Southern California couple it ordered to send their children to a conventional school. The children were educated at home by their mother, who is not a credentialed teacher.

I'm always surprised how clueless reporters must be, because I haven't seen a related story yet that mentions that private school teachers don't have to be credentialed.