Get Ready for a Real Barn-Burner

A big issue in metro Atlanta education news is Cobb County's plan to equip all teachers, high school and middle school students with laptops. Bids were put in by several companies, including Dell, HP, IBM and Apple. Apparently, they decided to go with Apple.

Let's not mention that pretty much 95% of the current thousands of computers county-wide are not Mac OS. And neither are software licenses, but I digress.

What I find even more interesting is how I received this little release today that cites a meeting that hasn't even been held yet. Today is Tuesday, the article references a meeting that will be held tomorrow! An excerpt:

The Cobb County Board of Education on Wednesday heard details of an enterprising plan to prepare students to succeed in the 21st Century’s global information-based society, creating the largest one-to-one computer learning initiative in the United States. Superintendent Joseph Redden will begin contract negotiations with Apple to work out details of the Power To Learn program, which calls for the company to provide approximately 63,000 iBook G4 laptops for students and teachers in grades 6-12, plus a comprehensive package of training, technical support and server upgrades. The school board will consider the first phase of the plan in March.
...
Wednesday, February 23
7:00-8:00 PM
Mabry Middle School
2700 Jims Road
Marietta, GA 30066

Emphasis added by me.

I'll see if I can get the PDF of tomorrow's press release posted later this evening.

All I want to know is who got their pocket padded the most?

Kim Jong Illin'

The woes of the North Korean man now extend beyond obtaining essential resources for survival and dodging those Evil Capitalists. Now he has to get a haircut.

The reclusive communist country is waging a hair war, telling its male population to lose the long locks, cut the coiffures and mow the mane to conform to "socialist style" — no longer than two inches.

Apparently, with the exception of that year or so around my wedding, I've been kickin' it "socialist style" for my entire life.

The reason for the move to short "socialist hair"? "Long hair hampers brain activity by taking oxygen away from nerves in the head."

Guess that explains Poison.

Fuel for the Fire

Here's an article from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

It's nothing new, but we're still well behind other industrialized nations in math and science, at least from a general population standpoint. And the problem is probably not that we don't have smart kids that are good in math and science, it's just that our problem students are more pronounced in the average. Perhaps it's due to sampling bias in other countries. I know our school's SAT average would have been 24 points higher last year if they had just been able to drop the 20 lowest scoring seniors (~250 took the test). Add a lot of low achievers to the average and things start to look less and less stellar.

This isn't an advertisement for more standardized testing. God knows we already have more than enough. Rather, I bring the question back around to the issue of what are we trying to achieve in our obviously flawed school system? A one-size-fits-all mentality in the name of "fairness." Seriously, does everyone really need to take Algebra II, especially when they can barely squeeze past Pre-Algebra? I haven't heard anyone saying "Well, math skills not so good? Maybe we can at least teach you to turn a wrench, run a sewing machine, type orders into a computer, deliver a package, frame a house, etc." Why not? It isn't fair! But somehow it is fair to torture both someone who obviously isn't or doesn't want to "get it" and the teacher that has to put up with them. (sorry, "teach" them)

At some point, fair became giving everyone the same opportunity. That definition of opportunity means the same classes, same teachers, same whatever. Maybe they should look up the word opportunity. Merriam-Webster defines opportunity as:

2 : a good chance for advancement or progress

Perhaps "equal opportunity" could start to mean equipping students for individual success. I hope I didn't just say a bad word when I said "individual." That'd go against the collective mentality. Or perhaps not. Even Marx himself had this to say:

"From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!"

What's so wrong with educating individuals? Not as communists, but rather educating for future success as a productive citizen of society. I understand this is totally against contemporary mass-production style education, but if we're going to take matches to perfectly good piles of money perhaps we could at least try something else when it isn't working. We've been so involved in the business of teaching self-esteem instead of knowledge that the students are getting more and more confident about their ignorance.

I'm afraid, along with others, that under the status quo things are going to continue to progress downward until either: A) we hit rock bottom and then finally try something different, or B) we're too stupid as a society to do anything about it.

Site Stats

Interesting search engine hits for this site:
1. #1 for "chemical equations for dummies" on Yahoo!
2. #11 for "illiteracy and television" on Yahoo!

Extreme Makeover: Part 2

I have been thinking about it and I am fully committed to this education reform idea. I've even worked out a few of the kinks, such as what to do with the folks who can't cut it in academia.

As stated before, the main problem with education is that it lacks competition. So, my plan introduces competition to stay in high school, perhaps as early as the ninth grade.

Some would argue that grades are competition. Thanks to those teachers who just can't bear to face the fact that there are a lot of lazy and stupid students out there and those teachers that have standards so low that a dead raccoon could jump them we have grade inflation to ruin that hypothesis. This goes back to the argument about freezing hires except in a situation to replace crummy teachers (hopefully, with better ones). Hey, if it's a competition for the students, it's a competition for everyone else, too.

So, with competition now introduced into the system, we have an issue of what to do with the student cuts. In a furied frenzy to publish, I have to admit that I overlooked that one a bit too hastily. I offered the option of home-schooling, but then I remembered the education level of a lot of parents that I've dealt with (products of the current system failures). I figured the home education would, in many cases, be either how to make crack or how to smoke it. So I had to go back to the drawing boards. I still want those kids to have a chance at making some money, to be real contributors to society, but maybe our current system isn't the answer with its "one size fits all" mentality. I thought about it a bit and I think I might have a solution.

Trade school. We can have a tiered system. Can't hack it in academics? Learn a trade!

"But vocational is a bad word!"
I know, but I don't know how or when it became one. Hell, my buddy didn't even graduate from high school, learned plumbing, and now has his own plumbing business pulling in 6 figures(before the decimal) a year. Compare that to the measly wage I get with a freakin' masters degree. Supposedly, I'm supposed to have some type of spiritual income from "making a difference" but that don't pay the mortgage, sweetheart.

"But what if they suck ass in trade school, too?"
Hell, we'll always need janitors & McDonald's employees. Besides, we ain't miracle-workers.

"But wouldn't a 'second' school system require more teachers and buildings?"
We can use existing facilities, it's just some folks might have to travel a little farther. As for the teacher issue, perhaps. We could always reposition some existing teachers. But hell, if you were looking to hire more in the first place...

This idea is still a work in progress. To be honest, I've only been thinking about it and this is my attempt to bounce a few ideas out there. I'm looking to refine this hypothesis and I welcome your input, perhaps via the comment section (hint hint).

In the meantime, I'll be thinking about it.

Extreme Makeover: School System Edition

For the umpteenth year in a row, we are supposedly facing a severe shortage of school teachers. I have yet to determine whether the intended outcome of these announcements is to scare intelligent people into teaching careers or to advertise to the intellectually challenged that there are abundant job opportunities.

I usually ignore these messages, but an article in The Onion made me laugh and set those gears into motion to identify a solution. After careful consideration, I think that I might actually be on to something.

Forget the idea about having a teacher shortage. It's not a problem. We have plenty of teachers. Instead of hiring more, just spread that money among the teachers we already have and use a little to have independent review boards give each teacher a real review, not the crap observations we currently have. Make the pay a little more competitive and only take new hires to replace the crummy current teachers.

The problem really isn't a teacher shortage. The real problem is student overages. We just have too many unproductive students occupying space and using valuable resources. Maybe it's just me, but I find it incomprehensible for a school to "graduate" an 18 year old that can't read, much less keep his pants up. (hint: that's why they invented belts and different sizes)

School is overcrowded and understaffed, forget about it. Fire a couple of students. Not just any students, the ones at the bottom of the class. Forget about ethnicity, forget about gender, forget about color, odor, mass, size, shape, sexual preference, beverage preference, shoe size. Forget about it all. Which team goes home from the sports tournament? That's right, the losers.

What you have under this system is full-blown, unadulterated competition, something that is completely missing under the current system. No competition among students, none among teachers, among administrators. The fundamental principle that helped our country became one of the world's greatest economic superpowers isn't even being utilized in our school system. What's the deal with that!? We have to get over this idea of an education being a right. It's a privilege, a privilege that the people of this country decided to invest a lot of time, money and resources into that came complete with a rapidly diminishing rate of return.

Some people might cry "indoctrination." I say cry all you want, this is real life, Bucko. Hell, the people that get kicked out just make up the television audience for the reality show they could make from this idea. Some might cry, "but Johnny has a disability!" I say keep on crying, because Johnny's potential boss is going to want to know that Johnny can't cope with it and keep him off the payrolls. Besides, there should be special schools for Johnny in the first place and there's always the home school option, and everyone talks about how great home schooling is.

It's time for some real reform around here. Stop wasting people's hard-earned tax dollars on some schmuck that doesn't want to take the time away from their pick-up basketball game or their X-Box to do a few math problems, read a few chapters in their textbook, write a few paragraphs, or for that matter, learn to write. Stop wasting the valuable time of the students that want to learn and the teachers that want to teach them.

I know this seems severe, maybe a bit extreme, but that's only because you haven't seen it in action yet. If we're going to remain competitive, especially at a time when the job applicant pool is growing wider due to overseas competition, perhaps something severe and extreme is exactly what we need.

An Open Letter to ID Proponents

Dear Intelligent Design Proponent:

I see that it looks like the Intelligent Design (ID) media machine is back in gear, this time with a bass-ackwards enough school system in Pennsylvania adopting your belief system into their science curriculum. I had read about this via a link from the NSTA a week or so ago.

Here's my question to your chiefs over at the ID headquarters. What does your agenda have to do with science education? Not a simple enough question even though you can count to 12 on your fingers? Let me explain.

Evolution is taught in the science classroom for a reason. It's not the reason that you want to think. It's not taught to provide an origin for species on the planet. It's not taught for people to believe in anything. It's not taught to get the students to critically think about science or their religion. It's not taught because scientists are anti-Christian. It's not taught because we teachers want to undermine your Biblical teachings.

Evolution is taught because it works.

What do I mean by it works? Do I mean that it tells us where we all came from and where we'll be going? Absolutely not. Do I mean that it successfully crushes the theological beliefs of our students? Single, double, and triple no.

Evolution works because it provides a model. A model for predicting changes in an organism over time just like the Theory of Gravity tries to explain why objects with mass seem to "pull" on each other. Why is it important to predict changes in an organism? Well, how about the fact that the pharmaceutical industry pretty much depends on it? Whether it's preempting the next outbreak of a mutating pathogen or modifying bacteria to produce artificial insulin, evolution works. How about the fact that it can help to bolster crop production by creating better pesticides to kill pests but not plants or by even creating new crops with more nutrition? How about the fact that most of the advances in developing a cure for AIDS and cancer have been based entirely on evolutionary principles? How about the simple fact that it makes learning biology easier? We want the kids to have good grades, right? What other reasons do you want, because there are a hell of a lot more.

I am sure that the Intelligent Design theory has its merits. I am not asking for a detailed explanation, I understand the basics. But like any theory it has its flaws.

In order to consider including ID in a science curriculum, my sole question to you is this: What has your Intelligent Design theory done for the science community lately?

Sincerely,
Chris N.

Obscure Corporate Bowl Game 2004

Is it just me or is the college bowl situation getting more and more dilute every season? Perhaps it's thanks to the current trend of being "fair" to everyone, everyone gets to participate. I think it draws away from the privilege that bowl games used to seem to afford. It's great for the teams I suppose. A little chump change for the team and a nice trip as long as it's not to East Bumblefuck, Idaho like the Tech bowl game last season. I don't necessarily believe that the current eight consecutive bowl game streak for Tech compares to the six straight in the 50's under Bobby Dodd. Hell, there's even a bowl game sponsored by Vitalis now. I can't even find a website that tells me what the hell Vitalis is. After a few years of whoopin' up on Directional State University, maybe they'll go further down the chain and start letting high school teams into the bowl games.

Anyhow, it seems like Tech has gotten itself into the Champs Sports Bowl, formerly the Carquest Bowl, formerly who the hell knows what? (I'm pretty sure it was the Tangerine Bowl) At least we'll be playing a team from the Big 12 and not Team Congeniality like the last few years. Thank God that Clemson removed themselves from bowl eligibility so we could get an east coast bowl this year.

And talk about some real shit. What the hell is up with Oklahoma being ahead of USC in the BCS computer rankings? Bullshit! I hope to hell that one of those teams loses and Auburn wins this weekend.

I still think that college football needs a bad-ass tournament style championship like basketball has. Start with the top 16 or 32 teams and let them brawl. It's a gambling man's wet dream come true.

How NOT to Make White Cake

A little behind, mostly due to the holiday and a new project.

About two weeks ago, two girls at the middle school directly across the street decided they would bring a cake to school. But this wasn't just any ordinary cake apparently. Unconfirmed analysis says the secret ingredient was bleach.

From a Philadelphia ABC affiliate:

The father said the two girls began playing around in the kitchen the night before the incident after growing bored.

"It was not any kind of malicious intent," he said. "They thought it would be funny. They know it's not funny now."

The father said his daughter was diagnosed this summer with Asperger's syndrome, and that doctors told him the girl should not be in a conventional school setting. Asperger's is an autism-related condition characterized by social and communication deficiencies.

What the hell is wrong with the parents around here? "Oh, shit. My child did something completely and utterly stupid, not to mention harmful to others. It's only because of a disorder!" Here's the disorder. You didn't do your job as a parent. Even if you had her diagnosed with some rare and unlikely syndrome, you didn't follow doctor advice that she not be in a "conventional school setting." Does that mean you didn't believe them or were you just storing that one in the "break in case of emergency" bank when she did something even people with an IQ of less than 60 wouldn't do? "They thought it would be funny." What kind of sick, totally twisted sense of humor does this middle school kid have? Didn't you take a hint that time she stuck a lighter up the cat's ass?

It seems like our excuses for not rearing our children properly have degenerated into searching WebMD for the latest, greatest mental disorder. At least he was slightly original and didn't blame it on ADHD.

Name that school!

In a staff e-mail from yesterday:

Please help make the staff and community aware that several new school-naming committees will begin their work this month. Recommendations for naming Northwest Middle and West Cobb Middles schools are welcome.

As a reminder Rule FDC, which can be accesssed on the CCSD website, governs the naming of schools.

The public is invited to submit names for new schools no later than Friday, December 17, 2004.

Apparently "Directional County" isn't descriptive enough anymore.

Any suggestions?