Category

Schools

• 10.31.08
  How to see through 501(c)(3)
  Schools, electoral politics (0)

  The College of St. Catherine bans Bay Buchanan from speaking on campus. The reason? Because as a 501(c)(3) organization it has to avoid any appearance of partisanship. (Buchanan is not running for office or campaigning for anyone, so that isn't really the reason, but you know what they mean.  If not, see below.) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the other hand, goes into a fourth grade classroom and tells the kids that in Lincoln's time, "Republicans used to be the good guys." One mother was not amused, but Kennedy says it's OK, "since ...
  
  
• 05.07.08
  Spacing effect
  Languages, Schools (1)

  Here are a couple of items that need reticulating. The first is this article at Wired Magazine about Piotr Wozniak and how to remember things. No, it's not all in the wrist. Instead, as with stand-up comedy, it's about timing. The second is this web site about block scheduling, one of the latest fads that's ruining our secondary schools. Actually, the fad started some time ago. We had a big battle about it in our own school district several years ago, back when I still had a kid in high school. But the ...
  
  
• 04.12.08
  Speed Gibson
  Schools (0)

  I've added a new blog to my list: "Speed Gibson: of the International Secret Police". I noticed him over at SCSU Scholars when he made a remark about responsibility, pointing out that it's not a standalone word. It means one has to be responsible to someone. Well, that's the way I've been saying it for the last 30 years. Here is the way Speed Gibson said it: Reworking Thomas Sowell's thought on "social justice," what forms of "Responsibility" are there that are not social? Can someone be said to be irresponsible if alone on a desert ...
  
  
• 09.30.07
  Infiltrated
  Bash the Messenger, Dissent, Schools (0)

  When I first saw this Yahoo news article, I figured there had to be more to the story: A Spencer, N.Y., student was sent home from school last week for wearing a T-shirt that denounces homophobia. Heathyre Farnham, 16, said she was not trying to be inflammatory by wearing the shirt that says, "Gay? Fine By Me." Contrary to what the lead sentence says, there's nothing in that message about homophobia. (What would have been really interesting would have been a T-shirt that said, "Gay? Fine By Me. Homophobic? Fine By Me.") It turns out there are news articles ...
  
  
• 09.29.07
  Inconvenient youths
  Environment, School decentralization, Schools (0)

  This photo is dredged up from what once was a web site of mine, circa 1995. I got it to go with an article in the Weekend Edition of the WSJ, titled "Inconvenient Youths." Here are samples: In households across the country, kids are going after their parents for environmental offenses, from using plastic cups to serving non-grass-fed beef at the dinner table. Many of these kids are getting more explicit messages about becoming eco-warriors at school and from popular books and movies. and Some parents object to what they see as proselytizing by their kids' schools. Mark D. Hill, ...
  
  
• 09.21.07
  Slippery Slope Eudemon
  Brave New World, Schools, Social controls (0)

  The Daily Eudemon talks about the slippery slope: New hero: A 72-year-old man with a wine purchase refuses to produce proof that he’s 21 years old. I understand the policy: “If we don’t card everyone, we end up on a slippery slope. Do we not card the 40-year-old? The 30-year-old? Eventually, we’ll end up making judgment calls and offending people. We might even discriminate!” Well, deal with it in a rational manner. What the slippery slope chanters don’t realize is, everything is a slippery slope: Anything not reigned in with moderation can go too far. What the haters of discrimination don’t realize ...
  
  
• 08.06.07
  Doomed to spend $100 million on history
  School decentralization, Schools (0)

  It's not often that there is anything good to say about Julie Mack's articles in the Kalamazoo Gazette, but here's an opportunity: Those who study history are doomed to spend $100 million. She raises some good questions, and does it in a gracious manner, too. It's good that school superintendents are making waves over this sort of thing. And it's interesting to hear that Sen. Robert Byrd got us a federal law requiring schools to teach about the Constitution on September 17. He seems to have an interesting notion of what the Constitution is about. Maybe we ...
  
  
• 06.13.07
  …but acknowledged…
  Bash the Messenger, Schools (1)

  Time to pick on the Kalamazoo Gazette and Julie Mack some more. Bureaucracy or efficiency? Granholm would expand role of intermediate districts; critics say they are a waste. One reason given for ISDs is that they do things that school districts themselves cannot easily manage. And to some extent, that's true. It's hard for smaller school districts to run specialized facilities and hire highly specialized workers who serve only a few students. That doesn't mean ISDs are the best way to deal with it, though. A couple of  paragraphs from the article: Olson, the education analyst for the Mackinac Center, ...
  
  
• 11.08.06
  School bus crashes
  Schools (0)

  Google news recently served up a lot of headlines about a study on school bus injuries by one Jennifer McGeehan. The most amusing headline was the one in Forbes: "School Bus Injuries More Common than Thought". Well, it wouldn't take much to be more common than that. Continue Reading...