Antics Road Show

Failing Science and Math

The recent demonstrations in Wisconsin have revealed to the general public something that many of us have known for years: The education bureaucracy in the US is a fraud, and it's time to dismantle it. 

Picture this:  A large tank has an inlet and an outlet with an adjustable valve.  There are 6 other vessels, each of which have an outlet that feeds the line into the large tank.  If the valve to the large tank is opened to an extent that the outflow is greater than the inflow the tank will eventually be effectively empty.  This process will accelerate if any of the smaller vessels run dry, or are taken out of service.

This simple concept is apparently unfathomable to the teachers in Wisconsin, calling to question their ability to teach at least math and science. 

Now imagine that some of the flow into the larger tank is diverted back into the smaller tanks that feed the larger tank, at the rate required to keep the larger tank from running dry, with the added side effect that the smaller tanks also do not run dry.

Essentially this is the scenario in Wisconsin. the diversion of flow back to the smaller tanks as described above is Exactly analogous to what Governor Scott Walker is proposing: the teachers should contribute more towards their own pensions and put more back into the tank and that they should not have the ability to open the "outflow valve" to the extent that the tank will go dry..

The education bureaucracy now has so many touchy-feely child psychology and child development requirements that today's teachers apparently are devoid of the ability to understand the simplest of concepts, and if they are incapable to the extent they are showing in Wisconsin, how can we have any confidence that they can transfer these simple concepts to our children? (not to mention the undignified and thuggish behavior recently displayed)

What has caused the "me first" attitude of public sector employees?

Dennis Miller on his Friday radio broadcast hit the nail squarely on the head when he said that it's one thing for the teachers to express their dissatisfaction with the governor's proposals on the table, but espousing the tired old bromide that it's "for the children" is an outright lie. The laughable but simultaneously profoundly sad result of the attitude of such professed "altruists" is that they are ultimately not altruistic at all.

Albert Shanker who once headed the American Federation of Teachers said: “When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”

The SEIU, NEA, and the AFSCME are like  panicked non-swimmers floundering in the lake. In their struggle to keep their own head above water, they'll hold their rescuers' heads underwater and sadly take everyone down.

 

 

 

Thanks Marcus

From Piedmont Conservative:   Quoting Darrell Allison, President of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina.

“Today’s filing is the latest in a growing list of major educational reform efforts that will increase school options for North Carolina families that want the best for their children but cannot afford it,” Allison said. “I would like to praise Rep. Marcus Brandon (D-Guilford) for co-sponsoring this important measure. Rep. Brandon has shared with me in our previous conversations the need for parental school choice when black males are finishing high school at a dismal 41.7 percent rate."

I met the personable Marcus Brandon for a brief chat after the Greensboro Partnership's Candidate Forum. Marcus will look you in the eye and speak honestly. I am confident that he will represent the interests of his constituents well, and I applaud him for taking what is widely considered a conservative "family empowerment" stand.

Who's your Daddy?

The unmarried mother statistics just keep getting worse.

From USA Today: "In 2009, 41% of children born in the USA were born to unmarried mothers (up from 5% a half-century ago). That includes 73% of non-Hispanic black children, 53% of Hispanic children and 29% of non-Hispanic white children."

I wonder what the statistics would look like if filtered for "regular church attendance".

Related info for American children in general:

"All told, 75% are in such a poor state that they are ineligible for military service for reasons ranging from health to drugs to criminal records to lack of education. Last month came bad news about the rest: 23% of those who try to enlist fail the basic entrance exam."

 

Ahead of the Meltdown Curve

Teacher Unions are never about the students, and Detroit is the harbinger for the Blue State Meltdown.

Limiting Discourse on Education

Over at Yes!Weekly this week there is an interesting article by Keith Barber titled: "Civitas Institute-sponsored budget seminar for school system generates controversy" 

For starters:

"Given the highly politicized activity of Civitas Action — a spinoff of the Civitas Institute — Jeffers, the president of the Forsyth County Association of Educators, asked why the school board would choose to co-sponsor an education budget seminar with the nonprofit.

“Our school board is a very good school board and well educated in dealing with complicated budget matters,” Jeffers said. “If their intention is to not just train our school board members but skew them in a particular direction, that would be suspect.”

Jeffers said. “I would hope that it would be the school board attempting to influence them on public policy matters. It looks like an opportunity for our school board members to make connections with some of the power brokers in the upcoming legislative session and exert a little influence among the power players in the General Assembly, but it still does raise some concerns.”

Given the fact that Jeffers represent the FCAE that's one of the most disingenuous statements of the new year. From The FCAE website: "FCAE is an affiliate of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) and the National Education Association (NEA)." Given the fact that the NCAE and the NEA have consistently shown their aversion to any legislation that requires more accountability for teachers or any common sense accounting of cost/benefit for new programs, and the fact that these organizations overwhelmingly lobby for candidates of one political party, its no wonder that the mouthpiece of the FCAE would utter such hypocritical nonsense.

Continuing:  

School board member Elisabeth Motsinger described her reaction to the letter as visceral.

“My reaction to the letter was to be very upset because Civitas clearly has a political agenda it is not an agenda that is strongly supportive of public schools,” Motsinger said. “It’s disturbing to me that any group that has stated they don’t support public schools is holding a seminar on budgeting for public schools.”

I wonder if Motsinger has a clue.  The goal of the Civitas Institute is in no way non-supportive of public schools, but rather for greater accountability and better results. That it doesn't fall in line with the agenda of the NEA and those promoting the failed status quo must disturb her.

“Our focus is to provide a good and sound public education to every child,” Motsinger said. “The focus of Civitas is to provide an inexpensive education, not an excellent education.”

Again Motsinger displays her profound ignorance, by equating cost efficiency as not compatible with excellence.  Additionally, if she were to actually read the overwhelming evidence of educational studies, she would know that there is next to no correlation to the amount of money spent on public schools and the achievements of the students. She woefully fails to understand the public wants a better product, and not the self aggrandizing chatter of the professional education class. 

Continuing again:

Fleming El-Amin, chairman of the Forsyth County Democratic Party, also expressed serious concerns about a political organization co-sponsoring a seminar with the school system. El-Amin said the mission of the Civitas Institute appears to center on the devaluing public education.

“To me it’s like an assault on the premise of public education,” El-Amin said. “Their focus is dollars and cents, not producing 21st century citizens.”

El-Amin said if a left-leaning group like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State offered to sponsor a workshop with the school system, there would be a tremendous public outcry.

With the abject failures of most the most expensive public schools in this country, and the failure of these schools to produce competent "21st Century citizens"  (El-Amin's desired result), you would think that El-Amin would welcome a fresh set of ideas, but sadly his party needs to perpetuate the explosive growth of the cost of public education, and the government dependency it creates to preserve their most sacred voting block: Public school teachers and those their policies have disenfranchised. 

 Victor Johnson said he does not plan on attending the education seminar and the Civitas Institute should be up front about its political agenda.

“The people in this community need to know where they’re coming from and who they are,” Johnson said. “I have a real problem with groups trying to persuade people on [public policy].”

Victor Johnson is against the "groups" from influencing public policy. That of course is the "Hugo Chavez" method, the province of the chosen few to dictate policy while the rest of society must accept their lowly status as drones for the ineffectual {pseudo) intellectual elite and their failed policies. 

To summarize: The above folks characterizing the Civitas Institute as not promoting educational excellence is the same as stating:

"My mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts. We haven't succeeded because we haven't spent enough money yet". 

PJ O'Roarke on the other hand would argues for shuttering the public schools, and ending the education elite's gravy train.

 

 

 

Devaluing Educational Currency

Paul Greenberg discusses the University of Arkansas's debasement of the core curriculum, a sadly too often reported trend in American academia. The trend in higher education is to pump out a more specialized graduate, rather than one with a broad knowledge, in essence reducing the university to a training program.  It's no wonder that more young people are attending 2 year colleges and then transferring to 4 year institutions.  As the core requirements are continually rendered less rigorous at traditional 4 year colleges, the perceived and real value of the 4 year institution is declining. Dollar for dollar the accredited 2 year institutions are a far greater value for prepping for the 4 year degree, 

      I was fortunate enough this week to hear a talk by outgoing GTCC President Dr. Donald Cameron in which he offered that GTCC has a greater effect on the lives of the people of Guilford County than any other local higher education institution.    Amen, and thanks for your service Dr. Cameron in building the best community college in the state.

Educational Freefall Chapter 2

        Christopher Lasch was a professor of history at the University of Rochester from 1970 until his death in 1994.  I recently came across a book of his called Plain Style,  A guide to written English.  Originally, Lasch began by jotting down common errors he was finding while grading students' papers, and as the list grew he began to wonder whether a compilation would be beneficial to his department to use as a guide for correcting papers.  Not originally meant for publication, it was first photocopied for departmental use only.

        Distressed at his students' growing inability to write cohesive sentences and support arguments in a logical fashion, he wrote to his father in 1985 "I am grading papers with the usual sense of futility.  I keep simplifying my course in 20th century American history, but the students keep getting dumber faster than I can simplify it.  Every year, the illiteracy gets worse."  (Lasch Papers).

        As an example to his students on how to write a cohesive argument with a beginning, middle, and end, Lasch uses an essay by Ralph Bourne written in 1915 titled The Undergraduate.  I find it ironic that he chose this particular essay in which Bourne decries the "sporting philosophy" of the American undergraduate. I wonder if he was trying to use this essay as an example of his  students' lack of intellectual dedication.  

        Bourne says " Now, sporting philosophy by which the American undergraduate lives, and which he seems to bring with him from his home, may be a very good philosophy for American.  It is of the same stuff with our good-humored contempt for introspection, our dread of the "morbid," our dislike of conflicting issues and insoluble problems.  The sporting attitude is a grateful and easy one.  Issues are decided cleanly.  No irritating fringes are left over.  The game is won or lost.  Analysis and speculation seem superfluous."...... "Yet the college has allowed some of the sporting attitudes to be imposed upon it.  The undergraduates' gladiatorial contests proceed under faculty supervision and patronage.  Alumni contribute their support to screwing up athletic competition to the highest semi-professional pitch."........."The college will not really get the undergraduate........ until it makes college life less like that of an undergraduate country club, and more of an intellectual workshop...."

        This essay was written in 1915, 94 years ago, yet it still has relevance today. We see universities pouring huge amounts of money into their athletic departments to satisfy the egos of alumni.  While it is true that at some universities enough revenue is generated by one or two sports to support the rest of their intercollegiate athletic activities, the fact remains that intercollegiate athletics is overemphasized.  The constant drone of commentators on ESPN and other networks that college athletes should be paid as professionals as a solution to the ever growing problem of recruiting scandals is nothing more than self-serving on the part of the network, whose revenues are derived from promoting these contests.

        The problems of post-secondary education are also in part a function of the failures of K-12 public education in this country:

Former Education Secretary William J Bennet wrote: "In 1992, 72% of fourth grade students could do third grade math (addition, subtraction, and simple problem solving with poll numbers).  20% of eighth-graders could do seventh grade math (fractions, decimals, percent, and elementary concepts in geometry, statistics, and algebra), and only 6% of 12th grade students grasped the reason and problem solving involving geometric relationships, algebra, infractions that prepare them for college-level math." 

Jim Nelson Black in The Freefall of the American University says, "analysis of performance in California's public schools in 2003 show that 26% of that state's elementary school students, 14% of middle school students, and just 7% of high school students scored in the "excellent" range.  The obvious correlation is that the longer students remain in school, the further they fall behind, and the less they benefit from prior knowledge or their own native intelligence."

        Derek Bok in his 1990 book Universities and the Future of America  says, "According to a recent international survey involving students from thirteen advanced or industrializing countries, 17-year-olds in United States ranked 9th in physics, 11th in chemistry, and 13th in biology.  American students also ranked lower than students in almost all other industrialized nations in geometry, algebra, measurement and calculus.".....and he further says, "a recent study comparing hundreds of effective and ineffective schools revealed that the single most important factor explaining the success of better schools was not the amounts of money spent per pupil, for the quality of the facilities, nor even the role played by the principal and teachers, but the degree of involvement by the parents."

    Americans should be outraged that the statistics show that there is no correlation to the amount of money spent to student performance, and a high correlation to the lack of results as we further centralize governmental power over education and curriculum.

The study Bok referred to was "Why the Current Wave of School Reform Will Fail"  JE Chubb 1988

Educational Freefall Chapter 1

A few years ago I was took my youngest son to a campus open house at Western Carolina University for him to “check out” the campus and the program.  Now before I go any further I want to state that I think it is one of the gems of the UNC system, a great place for a young person to continue their post-secondary education.  We sat in on talks about the University’s philosophy, learned about the academic offerings, the social life, and toured the facilities. 

          There was only one drawback, the second faculty member to show us some of the facilities would take us to a lab, comment on the new and updated equipment and tell us to vote in the proper manner in the next election so that his “gravy train could continue” (my words not his).  Now once or twice this would not be much of a big deal but this guy took us through two buildings and spouted the same line at every stop.

            I was getting pretty annoyed and a couple of other parents also rolled their eyes every time he expressed his political opinions.  Now I don’t know how you feel about this but I considered it extremely bad judgment on his part, over the top, and not related to the purpose of the tour. I have been reading the book “Freefall of the American University” by Jim Nelson Black  (copyright 2004) and the theme of the book brought to mind that open house visit.

          It is pretty common knowledge that almost every university faculty in the country is left leaning politically in a big way, and consider themselves the elite of society and the arbiters of the “way life should be”.  They are for “social justice” although many could not adequately define the term. They have an intense dislike for the accomplishments of free enterprise although they have no problem groveling for grants.

          But many people don’t know that the humanities and social sciences faculties at (what are considered) some of the top universities have systematically engaged in indoctrination, stifled dissenting opinions, and degraded the very curriculums they teach.

Black writes:  “Ivy league catalogs are as likely now to offer courses on pop music, pornography, standup comedy, and television sitcoms.  The U of Wisconsin offers a course in soap operas.  Penn offers a course called  Vampires: The Undead”.   

          The list includes courses in witchcraft, lesbianism, fetishes, erotic boundaries, sexual deviance, unnatural acts, and so on.    John Leo’s says   “The junk courses creep in because much of the professorate now believes that nothing can be truly known, so nothing truly matters.  From this it follows that juggling, horror movies, and serious courses all have equal claims on students’ attention.”

Black points out that The National Commission on Excellence in Education wrote in the early 1980’s, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands we have allowed this to happen ourselves………we have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral, educational disarmament.”        

Black continues, “Seven years after that report was published the US Dept. of Education concede that, Large proportions, perhaps more than half, of our elementary, middle, and high-school students are unable to demonstrate competency in challenging subject matter in English, mathematics, science, history, and geography.  Further, even fewer appear to be able to use their minds well”  Albert Shanker the head of the American Federation of Teachers said “Ninety-five percent of the kids who go to college in the US would not be admitted to college anywhere else in the world”

The statistics in my next post continue to reveal the failures of public education.   I would like to direct anyone interested to the take of another blogger on the subject at:

http://triadblogs.com/ccw/9670/The+Real+Achievement+Gap.html

Following is one of his quotes with which I heartily agree,

“Our kid’s education is too important to leave in the hands of the politicians, the school board, and the NEA. “