Education: Too Many Tests, Not Enough Critical Thinking

Jon Stewart Embarrasses Bill O'Reilly...AGAIN!

Teacher: Legislators Sold Kids Out

Tweet of the Day: March 4, 2013

Are America's Schools Failing? Maybe Not...

You can read the article from The Atlantic, to which the commentator is referring, HERE.

Fox Fail: Algebra Is A Liberal Conspiracy

From AlterNet:

Fox News host Eric Bolling on Wednesday accused some schools of “pushing the liberal agenda” for teaching an algebra lesson about the distributive property.

…

“But even worse is the way some textbooks are pushing the liberal agenda,” the Fox News host explained, pointing to an algebra worksheet that Scholastic says gives students “[i]nsight into the distributive property as it applies to multiplication.”

“Distribute the wealth!” Bolling exclaimed, reading the worksheet. “Distribute the wealth with the lovely rich girl with a big ole bag of money, handing some money out.”

Co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle explained that the algebra worksheet had put her on “high alert” for the liberal agenda in her 6-year-old son’s curriculum.

Wait. These clowns don’t understand the distributive property in elementary arithmetic, and they confuse it with some kind of Communist plot? I think we’re done here. Where’s the hook? Can someone just yank these idjits off the stage?

Coming up with all of these conspiracies must be tiring. I hope they aren't straining the few brain cells that they have there at Fox.

Americans Becoming More Like Europeans

Queers Don't Exist At Patrick Henry College

From the Loudon Times:

Queer at Patrick Henry College’s intent is to be a “safe online space for closeted students and alumni to share thoughts about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) issues, without the risk of school punishment,” according to one of the blog’s founders, who goes by the nom de plume Kate Kane.

“Currently there are three contributors, though we are in contact with other students and graduates who are LGBTQ or identify as straight allies,” Kane said.

Kane and co-founder Alan Scott told the Times-Mirror the reasons for anonymity range from not yet “coming out” to friends and family to professional connections to the school.
The pseudonyms were not chosen by accident. Katherine Kane is the name of “Batwoman” in DC Comics. Kane’s character has received attention for being arguably the most prominent LGBT superhero. Alan Scott is the fictional name of DC Comics’ Golden Age “Green Lantern,” who was recently reintroduced in the series as a gay superhero. The third regular blogger at Queer at Patrick Henry, Captain Jack, takes the name of Jack Harkness, a character from the BBC’s “Doctor Who” and its spinoff “Torchwood.” Harkness is the first non-heterosexual character in televised “Doctor Who.” 

Dr. Farris is not a fan. On Dec. 1 the chancellor sent a message to Queer at Patrick Henry through Facebook...

Gender Segregation in Alabama

My Decision 2012: Education

Education

Undoubtedly, education is the investment that we make in the next generation. When we cut that investment, we cut the return. As it stands, American children are falling behind in education compared to many of their foreign counterparts, especially in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. In light of this, one would think that we as a nation would focus on education more than ever before. Instead, Mitt Romney and the GOP want to slash education spending to the bone.

There seems to be any overall animus that the Republican Party has towards education. During a debate in the primary season, when asked what cabinet departments they would abolish, most (if not all) of the candidates included the Department of Education. The Ryan budget, which was endorsed by Mitt Romney calls for large cuts in Pell Grants and other forms of financial aid. There are thousands upon thousands of students who are up to the task of attending university but need help with funding their education.

America is supposed to be the land of opportunity. Many of the opportunities that people have are the result of education. Mitt Romney and the GOP want to cut those opportunities for millions. President Obama wants to preserve these opportunities for students to attain an education that will make them competitive in the global labor market, for which he was called a snob by former Senator/presidential candidate Rick Santorum (R-PA) to the sound of Republican agreement. This really shows the anti-intellectual sentiment in the GOP, and shows why they are unfit to lead. President Obama wants to ensure that the investments that we make in the future are maintained so that it will be brighter for the next generation.

Some MS. Schools Rethink Abstinence-Only Education

From The Sacramento Bee:

...With Abstinence Plus, students are still encouraged to abstain from sex but are taught the dangers of having unprotected sex from a health standpoint.

Dr. Martha Liddell, superintendent for the Columbus Municipal School District, said the school district chose to teach Abstinence Plus after consulting with educators, parents, school nurses and a representative from the Mississippi Department of Health.

"We heard statistics that would blow your mind," Liddell said. "There are a lot of children involved in sexual relationships."

Liddell said that during that initial meeting, both she and fellow educators were "floored" to learn that girls as young as nine years old were being diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

"This is an issue for our nation and an issue for our state," Liddell said. "We chose Abstinence Plus to teach students how making the wrong decision can affect your health."

Abstinence Plus will be taught at every age level from sixth grade to 12th grade as part of health classes. The students will be separated by gender, and the course will span a six-week period...

Statistics show that places that teach abstinence only education have far higher rates of teen pregnancy and STD's then places that have a more comprehensive approach. More conservative locations are still insisting that the abstinence-only illusion be maintained as a viable education method. This will only happen at the detriment of children, who will end up having children of their own WAY before they thought they would. I'm really glad that these schools, especially given that they are in the very socially conservative deep South, are bucking the trend of other conservative places and embracing the fact that in order for people to make the best possible decision, they need as much information as possible.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/13/4910033/sex-education-in-mississippi-classrooms.html#storylink=cpy

Arkansas GOP'ers: Slavery Was "A Blessing" (& more)

Santorum: We'll Never Have Smart People On Our Side

FYI, this was at the so-called Value Voters Summit which is a gathering of socially conservative and conservative groups.

Election 2012: Obama vs. Romney on Values

The Gay Recruitment Myth

Guncle Sam wants YOU...?

One of the many false claims that social conservatives lay on those fighting for LGBT equality is the allegation that gay people seek to recruit others into the “gay lifestyle.” Forgetting the fact that these people have no genuine concept of what this so-called “gay lifestyle” actually is, there are two main problems with this recruitment assertion that I want to address.

First, and foremost, it is categorically false.

In order to recruit someone into being gay, being gay would have to be a choice…which it certainly is not. Even if it were, who in their right mind would choose to be subject to the amount of discrimination to which the LGBT community is subject? It makes zero sense, and it is something that has never been adequately answered by the very people who repeatedly claim sexual orientation is a choice.

All of the empirical evidence that exists points to an as yet undetermined biological influence on sexuality. What other explanation would there be? What other commonality do all gay people share? It isn’t geography. People from all over the world - liberal places, conservative places, places that are more gay-friendly, places that are extremely homophobic - end up gay. It isn’t family. Again, people from single parent homes end up gay, people with a mom and a dad in their lives end up gay. It isn’t the Devil either. There are many devoutly religious people of various faiths that end up being gay. Every explanation for homosexuality that conservatives have attempted to pose has been soundly thrown down by simple logic, a concept that seems foreign to them.

***

Second, it is categorically hypocritical on at least two fronts.

First, there are lots of private conservative educational institutions that seek to indoctrinate people into believing that all gay people have earned a one-way ticket to Hell just by being gay. One of them, Liberty University, is in my hometown (imagine my pride in that). It is not just their institutions of higher learning, there are also their private (mainly religious) grade schools. It was reported late last year that a Christian Academy in Tennessee will kick you out of school just for being gay. Part of this particular school’s policy reads:

"A staff member or student who promotes, engages in, or identifies himself/herself with such activity through any word or action shall be in violation of this policy. Should the administration determine a violation of this policy, the person involved will be subject to disciplinary action with the possibility of permanent dismissal. Any applicant who is not in compliance with this policy will not be admitted."

By that reading, even being openly gay-friendly may get you kicked out as a student or fired as a teacher, let alone being a gay student or teacher will get you booted. Freedom of speech, which social conservatives claim they are being robbed of, ceases to exist in these institutions because you would not be able to voice your support for a gay family member or friend. Since the institutions that have such policies are predominantly private, there is no recourse and the homophobic indoctrination which occurs there goes on unchecked.

Marcus & Michelle Bachmann

Second, while these people accuse the LGBT community of recruiting people into homosexuality, it is they who are trying to recruit gay people into heterosexuality. They prey on people who are conflicted about themselves at an exceedingly difficult time in their lives and make the promise that they can pray the gay away…which is simply untrue. Again, we come to the notion of choice which, in the case of sexual orientation, does not exist as has been said already. Former Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus have a "Christian counseling center" that has been exposed as an organization which practices so-called "reparative" therapy, which is actually not reparative or therapeutic. Such organizations are at best incredibly ignorant about sexual orientation. At worst, they are complete scams that have been shown to be utterly ineffective. Their efforts to recruit people from one sexual orientation to another are unbelievably hypocritical...not to mention complete failures.

Our sexual orientation is what it is, and one can not be “recruited” into another sexual orientation. Whether you are heterosexual, homosexual, or wherever in between, that is who you are. Embrace it and do NOT let others make you ashamed of who you are.

GOP is Anti-Education

From Think Progress:

Republicans have been internally debating just how much to cut federal spending on education, but their platform unveiled this week at their convention in Tampa Bay does little to clarify their vision beyond referencing that no new investments will be made. While the Romney campaign works out the details of the education funding conundrum (or simply figures out the PR spin), Tea Party conservatives are loudly voicing their opinions to end federal spending on education entirely.

~

A new report shows that other nations like China and India have out-invested the U.S. in their education systems as strategies to become more competitive internationally. While U.S. 15-year-old students rank 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math, governments in China and India have expanded to make major investments in early childhood learning, expanded primary and secondary school public education systems, and post-secondary degree programs that produce career-ready workers.

It's unfathomable how anti-education and anti-intellectual the Republican party has become. Education spending is the investment that we put in the next generation. Nations with whom we compete are doubling down on their investment while the GOP wants to gut it. Apparently some want to eliminate it wholesale. This would leave the American labour market utterly uncompetitive compared to their foreign counterparts. We can afford NOT to spend on educating our children.

La. School Boots Pregnant Teens

From Think Progress:

One Louisiana school is dealing with the state’s high rates of teen pregnancy by taking an “out of sight, out of mind” approach. No pregnant students are welcome at Delhi Charter School in Delhi, Louisiana — a policy that the institution enforces by requiring students who are “suspected” of being pregnant to submit to a mandatory pregnancy test. 

If students are pregnant, they are no longer allowed to attend classes on the school’s campus and will be forced to either switch to another school or begin a home school program. If a student refuses to take the test, she is “treated as a pregnant student” and also kicked out of Delhi Charter School, according to the student handbook...

The ACLU is on the case since this is blatantly wrong on multiple Constitutional grounds (not to mention moral grounds). Of course the best way to address teen pregnancy is by instating comprehensive sex-education. It will come as no shock that Louisiana is one the states that have abstinence-only "education." When will these people realize that abstinence-only "education" is an oxymoron?

Conservative Wonder-Boy Steps Leftward

 From Politico:

Jonathan Krohn took the political world by storm at 2009’s Conservative Political Action Conference when, at just 13 years old, he delivered an impromptu rallying cry for conservatism that became a viral hit and had some pegging him as a future star of the Republican Party.

Now 17, Krohn — who went on to write a book, “Defining Conservatism,” that was blurbed by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bill Bennett — still watches that speech from time to time, but it mostly makes him cringe because, well, he’s not a conservative anymore.

“I think it was naive,” Krohn now says of the speech. “It’s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time.… I live in Georgia. We’re inundated with conservative talk in Georgia.… The speech was something that a 13-year-old does. You haven’t formed all your opinions. You’re really defeating yourself if you think you have all of your ideas in your head when you were 12 or 13. It’s impossible. You haven’t done enough.”

~ 

“I started reflecting on a lot of what I wrote, just thinking about what I had said and what I had done and started reading a lot of other stuff, and not just political stuff,” Krohn said. “I started getting into philosophy — Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Kant and lots of other German philosophers. And then into present philosophers — Saul Kripke, David Chalmers. It was really reading philosophy that didn’t have anything to do with politics that gave me a breather and made me realize that a lot of what I said was ideological blather that really wasn’t meaningful. It wasn’t me thinking. It was just me saying things I had heard so long from people I thought were interesting and just came to believe for some reason, without really understanding it. I understood it enough to talk about it but not really enough to have a conversation about it.”

You live and you learn. Luckily, that is what Krohn has done so far. What is heartening about this story to me is not that he went from being a staunch conservative to being...not so conservative, it's that he made the effort to expand his mind. He read, he educated himself, and in so doing, it changed his outlook on not just politics specifically, but humanity and life in general. Would that more people in this country (and the world at large) took it upon themselves to do the same.

 

Make sure you read the whole piece, it's a truly good read.

 

The Wrap-Up: July 3, 2012

CNN is having all kinds of problems (besides the whole Supreme Court debacle that is).

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who pretty much insulted the memory of Matthew Shepard virtually to the face of his mother, went on a tear against "Obamacare" on Twitter.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) talks about her experience with sexism in politics.

Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thinks repealing the Affordable Care Act is an uphill battle. I'm sure that won't stop the GOP from trying.

What may the future hold for Evangelical churches as the next generation sees growing support for LGBT equality?

Despite touting his education initiatives as Governor, Romney's impact has been dubbed "inconsequential."

The founders of Microsoft have each given $100,000 to support Washington state's recognition of marriage equality. Sounds like time for "One Million" Moms to get angry...again.

And lastly, another Latino civil rights organization has announced its support of marriage equality.

Oh, and apparently some news guy came out yesterday...or whatever.

One Awesome High School Project