Romney afraid to face kids

Anybody in show biz will tell you that sharing a spotlight with kids is a dangerous act. They always upstage you with their damned cuteness. In politics, kids ask the toughest questions, so no surprise Romney was afraid to participate in Nickelodeon's program, "Kids Pick the President."

The premise of the show -- kids submit questions to each candidate and based on the answers they make their pick for leader of the free world.

Obama answered the kids' questions, but Romney said he didn't have the time.

Romney would have been forced to explain his educational "reform" scams and no doubt would have been asked why he wants to kill Big Bird. Besides, why would he bother with those little moochers. They can't even vote. [photo via]

Teach your children well

I haven't been following this closely, so I don't know any of the particulars. But one thing I know for certain is, Paul Ryan is lying when he pretends to be concerned with "the children."

“We stand with the children and we stand with the families and the parents of Chicago because education reform, that’s a bipartisan issue,” Ryan continued. “This does not have to divide the two parties. And so, we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former Chief of Staff Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union? On issues like this, we need to speak out and be really clear.”

This much is certainly clear. Even though Rahm is on the wrong side in this fight, education policy is not really bi-partisan. Granted both parties have some ideas about school reform that suck, but when it comes to supporting equal opportunity for higher education, the chasm between the two parties is so wide it can probably never be breached.

In any event, this much is clear. This is about money and not at all about "the children." Thankfully, since I'm less than focused today, Freddie deBoer at Balloon Juice explains the stakes in education policy so perfectly, I'm outsourcing my outrage to him:

The reality is that you can’t be pro-education and anti-educator. Not just in the sense that you shouldn’t be, ethically, although I certainly believe that. I mean the notion that you can say that you care about education while working relentlessly to attack our actual teachers is nonsensical. If you want to attack our teachers as “overpaid,” OK. Go ahead. But you don’t get to pretend that you give a shit about education. If you don’t have a problem with celebrity dog trainers who make 7 figures or personal stylists who make $5,000 a consultation or people who sell artisanal moonshine for $400 a bottle, but you have a problem with teachers working in one of the most difficult teaching environments in the country making $75K a year, hey, alright. But save me the platitudes. Save me your chest-beating and your weeping for the children, the children. Quality health insurance, pensions, job security, a strong union to represent your self-interest: these are the only tools we have to attract people into this profession, when so many other educated professions make so much more. Advocate the end of those benefits and you declare yourself an enemy of education. You make it plain that you don’t actually value it with the only currency we care about in this culture, hard cash. You are saying that you don’t really value what you say you value. Period.

In this capitalist system of ours, what people make is a statement about how much society values what they do. Honey Boo Boo Child will make more this year than most Chicago teachers, and our friends in the media think they make too much. That’s all you need to know. If you think that people should be willing to teach for less, than shut your mouth and go apply to teach in Chicago yourself.

Anyone who doesn't stand with the teachers in the Chicago strike has never taught in a classroom setting. Public school teachers are woefully undervalued in our country. They're so overloaded with mandated testing and unrealistic productivity metrics, their ability to innovate has been completely stifled. The student populations they're left with after private and charter schools have poached the easiest to teach students are difficult to teach in small groups and nearly impossible to even control in too large classrooms.

Surely, our public education system presents a complicated problem, and is in need of some reform, but the solution is most assuredly not less teachers at lower pay.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

You can rely on the old man's money

This is so helpful. Willard Romney tells the young foks how to succeed in life:

If you’re young and you want to start your own business, Mitt Romney’s has some advice from you: Borrow money from your parents. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio today, Mitt Romney told students that, his friend, Jimmy John, started a business by borrowing $20,000 from his parents at a low interest rate. Romney suggested anyone in the audience could do the same:

This kind of devisiveness, this attack of success, is very different than what we’ve seen in our country’s history. We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business.

Or you could, you know, sell the stocks your grandpa left you, or some tough choice like that. Just don't expect big government to force you into the indignity of an affordable student loan.

I'm pretty sure this is how glibertarians pull themselves up by their own little bootstraps too. [Video at the link]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Down and out in Muncie

Found this Sunday read fascinating. A profile of the societal breakdown of trust in our oldest institutions as viewed through the lens of Muncie, Indiana. It covers a broad spectrum of the town, but I found the saga of the former homeowner the most compelling story.

Here's a guy with old fashioned values. He did everything right. Worked hard, bought a home, took good care of it. Then the Republicans swooped into power with their austerity plan. His wife lost her state job in the first cuts. Eventually they couldn't pay the mortgage but they applied for the Obama administration's loan modification program. Which the bank rescinded after only three months and demanded full and immediate back payment in full for the rescinded discount.

He couldn't pay. His lawyer told him to just stay in the home anyway till they were kicked out, but he's not the kind of guy to play the game under the new rules of morality. He left his home, only to find out later that the bank didn't take title and he's being fined for not keeping up the yard. So now he's mowing the lawn for a house he doesn't actually own, He can't live in it, though he hopes to buy it back someday. Of course, he lost his job too because of the recession, so not clear how he'll accomplish that.

The irony is, he got his local government to rescind the $300 fine. It doesn't say, but guessing the local gov is Republican. So even though it's basically GOP policy that screwed him the first place, he'll probably never make the connection. He'll likely still vote GOP across the board in 2012 because those local guys were the only ones that helped him.

It's a tribal thing in heartland America. Democrats, and especially Obama, are not part of his tribe. Expect he'll be living in that trailer for the rest of his life.

The article is much deeper and more complicated that just this though. A bit depressing, but seriously worth a read in full. Some real food for thought.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Baaa-d example

The slow news cycle breeds odd posts. Think Progress flags this story about a PA school cuts costs by using sheep to cut the grass.

Rather than spend money on cutting grass, the Carlisle School District has brought in 7 Romney sheep to tend the fields. “They’ve done a good job so far,” says Superintendent John Friend.

The sheep come free of charge, since they belong to the principal of the middle school. Friend estimates that they will save the district about $15,000 this year in mowing costs.

The reaction among the so-called "hippie class" has been surprising.

Steve Benen: "You know, nothing says “21st century global superpower” like schools turning to sheep because they can’t afford lawnmowers."

Bob Cesca: "We’re seriously a few more sheep and a Thunderdome away from becoming Bartertown."

My reaction: "But using sheep instead of lawnmowers is good for the environment. Real hippies have been using sheep and goats forever, for that very reason."

The comment sections tell me I'm not the only one who had that thought. Now I understand the reason the school system turned to a green solution is because of horrible budget cuts to education. And yeah, the human being who was being paid to mow with pollution spewing equipment is going to suffer loss of income. But life is a balancing act.

I have empathy for the lawnmower guy, but he's in the wrong business. I'd approve of this strategy even if the schools were fully funded. I mean how can you support addressing climate change without considering this exact solution to lawn maintenance?

And as for the people who wonder what happens to the sheep shit? Well as manure goes, sheep droppings are one of the better manures:

Because sheep make use of ingested sulfur compounds to produce wool, their manure does not have the unpleasant-smelling sulfides found in cow manure. It is also in separate pellets, or in pellets that hold together in a clump [which looks kind of like a pinecone], and thus is less messy in the garden. . . [In the pastures], its pelleted form causes it to fall in the grass instead of lying on top of it where it might smother the vegetation.

Also relatively dry when fresh and dries out quickly in the field. Not really icky to step on and if memory serves, doesn't stick to your shoes like stepping in pile of cow dung, or even dog poop, would.

Assuming most of the critics are city people and don't know this, but surprised Benen didn't see the benefits. I mean, he lives in Vermont. Also, Rachel Maddow, who flagged Benen's post on the twitter. She's from the Happy Valley, one of the few remaining hippie havens in America.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Stupid electorate

You know I hate polls, but this one is worth noting briefly. A huge number of voters are hopelessly misinformed on government spending. They wrongly believe public broadcasting gets $178 billion a year. The real figure? About $420 million. They also have no idea how little goes to foreign aid.

Why would they be so misinformed? Think it has something to do with the establishment media uncritically airing Republican lies and treating faked, criminally edited "sting" videos by far right extremists as legitimate news? Nah, me neither. Must just be a coincidence.

Uneducated, over-informed

Adding to my earlier post on GOP voters, one of my "fans" from Detroit followed me home to complain about my paraphrasing the WaPo description as, "GOP base is uneducated, under-informed, white hicks."

I deleted him for redundancy, but he did remind me of a point I forgot to make. I almost fit that demo. For reasons more complicated and personal than I care to explain, I don't have impressive academic creds. And I'm verging on the knife edge of elderly, enjoy simple pleasures and prefer marginally rural areas of residence. I could be accurately described as a self-educated, over-informed, white hick. Not all that different.

One of reasons I didn't go the academic route is a deep, life-long aversion to institutionalized learning. It may be a path to instant scholastic credibility, but not necessarily a path to knowledge. The system is so easily gamed. [Via John Cole]:



Of course, cheating has been going on since long before I was in school but it appears the number of cheaters have grown. I find it a good sign that for the moment, the technology seems to be finally outpacing them. Thinking it's good for civil society when dishonesty is punished instead of rewarded.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Revolutionary schooling

I've been saying our public education system needs to made relevant for rapidly changing world since the 70s. Of course, rote learning was rapidly losing its utility even before that in a society whose problems demand critical thinking. Kids need to be taught how to learn, to be imbued with the joy of acquiring knowledge. They don't get it in public schools. Now via James Joyner, come Sir Ken Robinson who makes the point with an innovative illustrated lecture.



Exactly the sort of "revolutionary" methodology which would resonate with today's kids but which teachers aren't allowed to use on threats of penalty. Watch it in full size here.

Really Bad Example

This is how they teach math in the south

A Jefferson County teacher picked the wrong example when he used as­sassinating President Bar­ack Obama as a way to teach angles to his geome­try students.

"He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,' " said Joseph Brown, a senior in the geometry class.

He's been interviewed by the Secret Service and deemed not to be a threat to the president. Just another dangerous idiot teaching the children. Kind of explains why most of the tea party crazies come from the south.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

They "disappeared" Thomas Jefferson

Well the crazy fundies on the Texas Board of Education officially rewrote history for their social studies cirriculum. As I noted yesterday, the religious zealots on the board wanted to Christianize the public school textbooks in order to "counter liberal bias" in the schools. One Hispanic board member -- whose own suggestions for including more historic Hispanic references were shot down -- said, “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”

These fundies are clearly insane. "They made dozens of minor changes aimed at calling into question, among other things, concepts like the separation of church and state and the secular nature of the American Revolution." Disbelief in the church/state divide seems to be the latest pet hobby horse for these American Taliban. Hence the reason they cut Jefferson out of the textbooks for using the phrase. An amendment from one of the sane board members suggesting students "study the reasons 'the founding fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others'" was shot down.

In the internet age, this may not be as disastrous nationally as it might have been in the past since reality-based school systems can either refuse to buy these books and use on-line resources, or the textbook companies could issue different editions. But if I was a parent with a kid in the Texas school system, I'd be suing these maniacs for mandating stupidity in the classroom.

Update: John Cole finds the ultimate graphic to go with this story.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Fundamentally Insane

Living in the south you see the blurring of church and state in many ways, but this push by religious zealots to rewrite textbooks for public schools is the most frightening development yet in their war on liberalism. The NYT reports:

Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks.

A look at the particular changes these fundies are demanding to counter "liberal bias" in schools is astounding in its scope and unreality. One amendment states that the civil rights movement "created 'unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes' among minorities. ...The amendments are also intended to emphasize the unalloyed superiority of the 'free-enterprise system' over others and the desirability of limited government. One says publishers should 'describe the effects of increasing government regulation and taxation on economic development and business planning.'"

What's really remarkable about this, besides the fact they want to rewrite history to pretend conservative economic policies worked, is the leader of this effort, Dr. McLeroy, was voted out last week in a primary but he still has 10 months in his term and is clearly determined to do as much damage as possible in the remaining time. If he succeeds, our public school textbooks will be effectively useless for years to come. Kind of makes me wish that Texas secession movement had worked.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Oh (Big) Brother

I've been holding off on this story until more details came out, but it appears to be true that a school system in PA was spying on students via the built-in webcam on their school issued laptops. The feature is said to have been activated 42 times this year, allegedly in response to reports they were lost or missing. However, the lawsuit here was filed after a vice principal confronted a student with a photo taken of him at home via the laptop.

According to the complaint, nobody reported that computer missing and some students admit covering the lens with post-it notes when they notice the activation light came on for the webcam. In the instant case, the kid says he was "eating Mike & Ike candy in his home, but that school officials thought it showed him using drugs." Of course, the real issue is why is the school monitoring what any kid does off campus?

Also, according to the earlier reports, some parents are concerned the school officials were watching students undress, among "other compromising situations." The whole scheme is just chilling. No wonder kids don't respect authority anymore.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

A nation of blithering idiots

If you wonder who the constituency for far right liars is, it is people who think The Flintstones was a documentary cartoon.

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

Even more frightening, the textbook industry is largely based in Texas and it's people who believe this idiotic drivel who are writing them. As long as these lunatics are taken seriously, we really are doomed.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

How does her garden grow?

I'm loving the White House organic garden. It appears to be taking shape nicely with a visit from the children who are participating as a school project having planted herbs this week. Some of my fondest childhood memories center around my Dad's little garden in our own backyard and the love of growing my own food stuck with me all my life.

It's not about saving money. I don't think, if you count the hours spent in tending the plants that you save any, but there's something uniquely satisfying about eating vegetables you raised yourself. And the miracle of so much food springing from tiny seeds planted in the earth never ceases to thrill. It builds an appreciation for the natural world and a connection to the land that you can't get in many other ways.

It's a wonderful White House project but of course, there's always someone ready to criticize. "The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) — which represents agribusinesses like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences, and DuPont Crop Protection — are unhappy that no chemicals are being used on the food." They would like the First Lady to remind us all that their monolithic agribusinesses, which poison the land and destroyed the family farms contribute to feeding the world too.

I suppose that's true enough on some level since they managed to monopolize food production and even now scheme up ways to develop sterile seeds so no one can garden without filling their own corporate coffers with profits. All the more reason to invest in our backyard gardens, and save our own seeds, to keep the food supply out of their complete control. [graphic]

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Father of LSD dies at 102

expatbrian

Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, whose medical discovery inspired millions in the 1960s, has died. He was 102.

The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.

He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a laboratory experiment in 1943.

"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses.

He said his initial experience resulted in "wonderful visions."

LSD or "acid" had a tremendous impact, not only on the behavior of those who took it, but on the music and art of our generation. I liked it, and have always believed it was an important if surreal part of my education.

What we're really teaching our children

by expatbrian

I actually love stories like this because, while rare they are a true testament to what our country, our way life has become. Instead of being coddled and pampered with the absurd promises that everything is going to be ok, Americans need to be bashed over the head with a little horrifying reality.

If it ever dawns on us how truly uncivilized we are becoming, there might be a chance for our society to survive. But if we don't save our kids, we have no chance at all. With what our children are watching on TV, the games they are playing on their computers and Play Stations, and what they actually witness in the streets, its no wonder this kind of shit happens.

A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

It seems the students, 8 and 9 year olds, were upset at their teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing up on a chair. So about nine of them plotted to teach her a lesson. With duct tape, handcuffs and a knife. Sounds like it was going to be a serious lesson.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The obvious question is, what sociological conditions must exist for any group of students, let alone 8-9 year olds, to even imagine doing something like this? What have we as adults allowed them to be exposed to and conditioned by? Will we ever change course so that those conditions no longer exist? If not, what's next?

we don't need no education

by Capt. Fogg

We dont need no education.
We dont need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Teachers, leave those kids alone.

-Pink Floyd-

It's not always necessary to apply Reductio ad absurdum to a situation. Sometimes things start out at the level of absurdity. You may have read that Michael Sheridan, an eighth-grade honors student in New Haven Connecticut was suspended from school, barred from attending an honors dinner and summarily removed as class vice president. Dope? Weapons? peeking into the girls' locker room? No, he was hungry and bought some skittles from a classmate.

That's right, the school has a no-tolerance "wellness" policy; wellness being a euphemism for health which seems, well, so unhealthy and "no-tolerance" means for the most part, brainless. Who wants to introduce cogitation into the school system? that's just too liberal for America. The comfortable binary form of artificial intelligence that passes for thought in conservative utopias has brought us many examples of kids hiving their educational prospects damaged because of aspirin or a nail clipper or items even more trivial. Of course some like to call this sort of thing "politically correct" in their politically correct fashion, or even "liberal" in their self contradictory manner, but I just call it bone headed conservatism. A restriction of rights is not liberal and a judgment as to whether something is allowed under one's political views is ipso facto, politically correct. That's why I avoid falling into the tar pit of those terms whenever I can.

Of course the news got out on CNN last night and the sheepish sheep in New Haven had to give the kid a reprieve, the excuse being ignorance of the commandment "thou shalt eat only what, when and where we tell you to." Lets not talk about no tolerance for ignorance please - my head hurts already.

Michael's "permanent record" will not reflect his sucrose abuse or his illicit candy deals and he will be free to go and not transgress the rules of "wellness" any further. As long as he keeps his boots shiny, pledges to worship god and the flag and avoid high fructose corn syrup, the ridiculous right wing school board of New Haven, Connecticut will allow him some portion of his civil rights and the people who truly love the idea of a country where we all obey the president and think no thoughts against the party and trust in a particular deity will be relieved and will continue to giggle about "liberals."

Cross posted from Human Voices

Harry Potter Once Again Triumphs Over Ignorance

Today a judge in Georgia ruled that the Harry Potter books could stay in the school libraries.

Laura Mallory, who argued the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft, said she still wants the best-selling books removed and may take her case to federal court.

The would be banner of books will probably not be deterred. People who want to subject other people's children to their beliefs usually don't know when to shut up.

Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor's ruling upheld a decision by the Georgia Board of Education, which had supported local school officials.

County school board members have said the books are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination

Indeed, most books give people in school and out of school what they need more of; education.
The close minded mother had an interesting observation.

"I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again," Mallory said. "I think we need him."

I have a dream that education will be welcomed back into our schools. I have a dream that these people will actually get a clue and work on those things that are important in school; reading, mathematics and an honest desire to experience thought and ideas that are outside of their normal experiences. These thoughts and ideas are usually sparked by the contents and messages in those things called books.

I have another dream that these people like Ms. Mallory would not expect public schools to teach their children those things that should be taught at home and in church. If this mother feels so strongly about those things she wishes to shield her children from then perhaps she should find a private school that mirrors her beliefs.

Jim Martin

Historical interest

By Libby

Kevin Drum is right about this. History would be much more relevant and interesting to young people if it was taught backwards.

I remember being bored senseless as a kid in history classes. Absent the context of current events, it was mostly about memorizing dates which I could do the night before exams (and which I promptly forgot a week later), so I basically dozed through classes. Consequently, I didn't develop an interest in the subject until much later in life but I was able to catch up on my knowledge on my own.

Frankly, I think it would be better if we didn't even bother to teach history to young kids if they insist on the archaic cirricula. They would be served better by more art and music classes.

I-pods. Blog in haste, repent at leisure

Libby Spencer

I'm rethinking my position on Michigan's proposal to buy I-pods. I was rather pissed off this afternoon out of irritation over the PR debacle but the truth is, I don't even know what an I-pod does or how it works. I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to electronic gadgets.

It occurs to me now, that replacing hard cover books with some kind of electronic device that could be updated with DVDs or computer downloads actually makes quite a bit of fiscal sense. In the long run it would probably generate a savings and the students could get updated material on a more current basis. Not to mention it would save a bunch of trees and eliminate the need for the students to carry heavy backpacks. I'm now thinking whoever came up with this idea was a forward thinker who couched the idea using an unfortunate choice of words.

It's too bad because on reflection the substance of the proposal is sound, but it will never get a fair hearing now.

[thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link]