More Cronyism in Education

Well, I mentioned it last week with Bill Maher's post, and here it is again. Neil Bush's Ignite! Learning, Inc. is under investigation by the Education Department's inspector general. It seems federal education money may be inappropriately spent on the company's products for schools districts to use. It also seems the products don't work very well. Take for instance Ignite's Curriculum on Wheels (also known as the COW), an education software program/projector screen on wheels that costs $3,800 a piece (not including subscription costs). It is apparently an overpriced piece of crap.

Norman Mailer, 1923-2007

The only things I ever really knew about Norman Mailer was that he was a writer, and he was very anti-War. Then I read his obituary in the Washington Post. I never realized what a life this man lived. Some of the highlights that impressed me: he helped create the sexual mystique of John Kennedy before he was elected President, he was married six times, and he punched Gore Vidal in the face. When I have more time, I would like to try and read some of his books.

Keeping up with my posts

When I started this blog a few weeks ago, I said I would try to post every day. For a while, I was able to do about every other day. Than this week came along and really wore me out. I averaged about 4 hours of sleep due to my job, my classes, and the assignments that accompany my classes. This was one of the most stressful weeks I have had in a long time, as a direct result of my new job. Because of it, has been about 5 days since my last post. Needless to say, I have not been posting every day.

The way it is looking, I will probably not be posting every day. My new schedule has me commuting to another city to attend night classes Monday through Thursday, as well as working part or all day nearly every day during the week. I will try and post as often as I can in the next couple of months. Perhaps next semester, I will take a lighter load of courses. There is so much I would like to post and comment on. There is a who world of things on the Internet I would like to explore and share. Please continue to check into my blog from time to time. Thanks for the understanding!

The unneccessary polarization of American

Here is another one: Sushi vs. Steak. What do liberals prefer? What do conservatives prefers? Who gives a shit?

Another parent of a special needs child

Photojournalist Dan Habib has written a guest blog post for the Washington Post website for his new movie, Including Samuel. This is a film about his experiences with his son, Samuel (who has cerebral palsy), and trying to give him "inclusion". This means not only inclusion in school, but in other areas of life. The movie also Chronicles the experiences of other individuals with disabilities. In his post, Mr. Habib notes something very important when it comes to how parents deal with raising kids with disabilities:

"My experience is that parents of children with disabilities face a different balancing act. One big struggle is balancing time spent supporting a child with a disability vs. the family's other child(ren). Others include marshaling the time, energy and financial resources needed to manage a child's medical care and therapy, and the scarce resources left for yourself, your relationship with your spouse, and your work."

I will not be able to see this movie in the theater, because there are no scheduled screenings in the midwest. However, I will try and get a hold of a DVD whenever it is available.

I want my country back!

As Michael Mukasey's nomination goes to the Senate floor for probable confirmation, it makes me think about how this country has really changed since 9/11. I don't know whether to feel angry, sad, or nauseous.

It's not just the brazen amount of nationalism that swept the country . . . or the rush to Iraq without understanding who our real enemy was . . . or the poor quality of intelligence that duped Americans into war . . . or the poor post-war planning . . . or the half-ass job we do treating our veterans . . . or Abu Ghraib . . . or Guantanamo Bay . . . or secret detention . . . or extraordinary rendition . . . or government spying upon it's own citizens . . . or the government's inability to rebuild infrastructure . . . or the government's inability to come to the aid of it's own citizens after a natural disaster . . . or lawless mercenaries becoming rich via American tax dollars . . . or the xenophobic fuss over immigrantion . . . or the homophobic fuss over gay marriage . . . or America's tarnished reputation as "the land of the free" . . . or the opposition party's lack of testicular fortitude . . . or the media's inability to say what really needs to be said about the administration . . . or being the most hated country in the world . . . or many other problems I could continue to list.

I think what saddens me now is how low the bar has been set for the next administration. Take Senator Schumer's comment on why he is caving and supporting Mukasey:

"When an administration so political, so out of touch with the realities of governing and so contemptuous of the rule of law is in charge, we are never left with an ideal choice. Judge Mukasey is not my ideal choice. However, Judge Mukasey, whose integrity and independence is respected even by those who oppose him, is far better than anyone could expect from this administration".

Mukasey may be better than anyone can expect from the Bush administration, but that still doesn't mean he is an acceptable choice. Can anyone doubt that before 9/11, if an Attorney General nominee couldn't say that something isn't torture when it clearly is, he would be put out of the nomination process so quick it would make people's heads spin? Has our country sunk this low? It is times like these when I find myself saying, "I know the weather is cold, but Canada doesn't sound so bad right now".

But I'm not giving up on America. It's my home, I love it, and that is why I am so angry at it. We had a golden opportunity after 9/11. We could have taken the tragic events of that day, and made ourselves a better country. Some say, "everything changed on 9/11". Our country changed, but for the worse. Some say that we are winning the war on terror. While we haven't been attacked again (and, of course, that is a good thing), I would say we are actually loosing that war. Outside of invading Afghanistan (which we have actually screwed up), we reacted in all of the wrong ways after 9/11. We have compromised our values, our reputation, and our general welfare. Sometimes, it feels like our country doesn't know how to do anything except eat, watch TV, bomb countries, torture and scream "kill the terrorists". I love American, but I am very ashamed to be living in it during this time in history.

I know radical change can be a dangerous thing in large doses, but that is exactly what we need when the next administration that takes over. We need more than "well, at least he (or she) is better than Bush". I want the America that not only protects its citizens from foreign attacks and incursions, I want the American that protects it's citizen's from the destruction of disasters. I want the America that not only rebuild things in foreign countries, I want the America who can also rebuild things in its own country. I want the America that remembers what "Give me Liberty, or Give me Death" means. I want the America that the world really looks at as "the land of the free". I want the America I used to remember damnit!

Commenting on "Dropout Factories

Ms. Cornelius at The Shrewdness of Apes raises a couple of good issues in response to the dropout factory article. First, she gives a fresh perspective on just how important GEDs really are. Secondly, she brings up the elephant in the room that all educators/education policy experts must consider when looking at the achievement gap:

"How do you 'make' someone value an education when everything in society denigrates the educated?"

Finally, she is able to relate this comment to the importance of GEDs. Sometimes, you have to live a little before really understanding the importance of a good education. My favorite quote:

"It may be that some people just aren't ready to do the work needed to get a high school diploma. They may need to try to go out into the world and work for a while until they are ready to dedicate themselves. Because, ultimately, you can't give someone an education, all wrapped in a shiny bow-- you can offer them the opportunity for an education, and no matter what, everyone will create an education from the choices they make. "

It should never be too late in life for a good education.

Worst Blog Post Ever

That is the new contest put on by The Washington Monthly, that anyone can vote on. There are several options to choose from. I wasn't able to read all of them because some are too damn long (perhaps partially why they made this list to begin with). The shorter ones I read ranged from insensitive and insulting to intellectually mystifying. There are some real doozies.

There is Michelle Malkin in a cheerleading uniform, doing the Defeatocrat cheer. There is John Derbyshire of the New Republic asking why didn't anyone rush the Virginia Tech shooter. My favorite quote from this one:

"It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake"

There is Hugh Hewitt, sitting in the Empire State Building comparing himself to a reporter sitting in Baghdad. Then there is John Hinderaker of Power Line who opens his post with this:

"It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile."

Apparently, he is being serious. Yikes! I can't say I would pick one post as the winner (or loser, however you want to look at it). I know it seems like I am being indecisive, but honestly, how do you pick out the worst turd from such a large barrel of shit?

What should Universal Preschool look like?

More people, myself included, are becoming proponents of Universal Preschool. Preschool is not only where a child first begins their long journey in school (if they choose to enter preschool), but some say it is the best place to first take on the achievement gap (outside of directly influencing the greater issue of SES and poverty). This piece by NYTimes Op-Ed Contributor Ann Hulbert, addresses: 1)should Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) exist, and 2) if so, what should it look like? While she doesn't come up with any direct answers, Hulbert does a good job at framing the debate.

The article first looks at the issue that an increase in PreK enrollment leads to a decrease in per-child spending (see graphic). But the bigger focus of this article is on whether a UPK would be more child-centered/explorative/creative (as many progressives and high-income families want), or more structured/academic (as many conservatives want, and lower-income children might need). My favorite quote:

"Nobody wants a two-tiered system, which isn’t likely to narrow the achievement gap, or a rigid one-size-fits-all system, either. But the UPK mission is an impetus to notice that at each end of the spectrum there are pedagogical lessons the other end wouldn’t get otherwise and that everyone could benefit from".

Like Hulbert, I am somewhere in the middle, and think that both approaches provide important benefits to children. For the sake of disclosure, my current job is teaching at a private PreK place that a) helps children primarily from more middle to upper class backgrounds, and b) definitely falls under the structured/academic school of thinking. My school wants to prepare kids for the classroom first. Enriching their explorative and creative side is secondary. While I see many of the benefits of the school in how the children behave and perform on academic tasks, I often wonder whether more time should be spent doing "fun stuff".

M-I-Z . . . Z-O-U

I have been following Missouri Tiger football for as long as I can remember, partly because my parents raised me to be a Tiger football fan. We have had some bad years, and some so-so years. Not much else. Historically, the Tigers football team has been average or marginal at best. At the beginning of the season, I know we were supposed to do pretty good. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would see the Tigers beat Nebraska and Colorado (in Boulder) in the same year, let alone be ranked in the top 10. What makes this season even more exciting is that we are competing with Kansas for the Big 12 North. This is a historic year for Mizzou football, and it could possible get better. This could be the season that forever changes Mizzou's football program. It is the season my parents have been dreaming of for many years. GO TIGERS!!!

Cronyism in Education

If there is one columnist/editor/satirist/etc. that I generally end up agreeing with more than anyone else, it would definitely be Bill Maher. I have been a fan of his since his days on ABC, and I try to watch him as much as possible on his HBO show (although it is generally on someone else's TV because I don't get HBO anymore). While we don't agree on everything, we are both very anti-Bush, like the rest of the nation. But we were also both anti-Bush even when he was at the height of his popularity after 9/11 (this shows you how truly excited I am for January 20, 2009).

In this post on Huffington Post, Bill describes another tragic attribute of the Bush administration: cronyism. While politics has always been about "who you know", this administration has taken it to another level. They are always trying their best to help friends and family connections out in most, if not all areas of government. This includes education, as Bill discusses how No Child Left Behind benefits two powerhouse education companies: McGraw-Hill and Neil Bush's company Ignite!. This has always been an issue I've wondered about. Are such companies so popular with school districts nationwide because they provide effective services, or do they have corrupt connections like so many other private companies who currently make money from American taxpayers? From what I can tell, it might be a little bit of the former, but most certainly the latter.

Top US Liberals and Top US Conservatives

Despite my disgust with the British even viewing American politics in a "left v. right" type of way, I have found their list of most influential liberals and conservatives very interesting to look at. I suppose I could deconstruct this entire list, but hell, I don't have that kind of time (there are 100 of them). Instead, I will comment on the top choices on each list. For the liberals, I suppose there is no major surprise in picking Bill Clinton. I would say though that Clinton, most know, was not that liberal of a president when it came to policy. But still, it fits.

I find Rudy Giuliani as the most influential conservative a bit more of a surprise. I know he is "Mr. 9/11, kick-ass and take names, Jack Bauer, etc." guy. But he is also, of course, the "pro-choice, pro-gay, rights, three times married, etc." guy. Despite his popularity in nation-wide polls, Christian Conservatives are threatening to support a third-party candidate if the Republicans nominate him. I think Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, George Will, William Buckley, William Kristol, and a whole host of other individuals would all make better choices in terms of conservative influence.

Oh, Giuliani is also a cross dresser. We can't forget that. Naughty, naughty!

My first video post (sort of) and profanity

OK, I have yet to find out how to post a video from the internet onto blogspot. So until then, I will just link to the websites where you can watch the video yourself. This one I am sure will be the first of many from The Onion. No where on the internet can you find better satire or fake news. This video speaks to one of the many problems that exist with the American political system: unimportant bullshit.

Oh by the way, I will not shy away from using profanity on this blog. I will try not to gratuitous, but do I intend this blog to be for adults. While I feel it is an individual's choice as to what type of language they feel comfortable expressing themselves with, I also believe any rational grown-up can handle ingesting a little grown-up language here and there. If one can't handle a little cursing, how can one handle to cruel realities of the often dark world we live in? Anyways, enjoy the M%@*^#& F#$^%?@ video.

A welcome to the web from SELB

I sent an email to Charles Fox letting him know about my new blog. He replied and said I could post this welcome comment:

"I am so very excited for you and feel kinship since both my wife and I went to [Washington University] in St Louis and feel like an almost Missourian after spending 4 great years there. . . Mr. S. congratulations on your new blog. It is great to see a future teacher with fresh ideas and perspectives to further a frank dialogue on issues effecting children. I look forward to reading your blogs in the future."

Sweet!!!

St. Louis Cardinals

After winning the World Series in 2006 (I still don't know how), my favorite team in all sports had a really rough 2007 season with problems both on and off the field. The off season changes don't have me overly hopeful yet, but I am keeping an open mind. It is too bad we are loosing Eckstein. We have a new GM, which we needed, although I am not sure if it is a good thing he comes from in-house. If there is one bright spot, it is that LaRussa is sticking around. We shall see where this is going.