From whence our kids education? 

 

 TL/DR: Schools should be creating citizens, not workers.

I'd like to clarify my position on vo-tech education. I'm for it. If the district has kids who want to learn to weld, then the district should hire a welder to teach a welding class, NOT let a group sprung from the brow of the Chamber decide that this or that business should have a hand in it in order to get the kind of proletariat that fits in their scheme of things.

The state cut most of the money that the district was using to offer vo-tech classes at Metro, AND dictated that there needed to be MORE pathways to careers (read as: labor) that would lead to certification. This was a typical way that the current administration finds ways to support business and capitol at the expense of the sort of education that the constitution of Arkansas declares to be the state's goal: "𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗹𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹, 𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻"

It is true that the above passage from the constitution does not forbid vocational/technical classes, but the priorities should be getting students the tools they need to understand the issues of the day in order to make good decisions at the ballot box. Those tools should include techniques for evaluating public statements to determine if they are propaganda or truth; the mathematical ability to understand that they are not going to win the lottery; enough reading and writing to be able to communicate with people of all class all across the world; and a sense of history that would allow them to know when our constitutional and cultural norms are being attacked. And, if they learn some practical vocational skills along the way, great!

Make no mistake, when the Chamber of Commerce decides that what's keeping Little Rock from booming (and lining their pockets) is our kids not coming out of high school ready to go to work as labor for business, then they are going to try to get some measure of control over what is taught in schools and how it's done. They are no different than the Moms4Liberty deciding for everybody what students should be allowed to read. We should actively oppose these efforts to undermine the education of the students in Little Rock.

Thank you for your time and I hope that this will influence your decision on Election Day, March 3, 2026.

The Math Literacy Gap

Stay with me on this, especially you educators. 

The civil rights icon, Bob Moses -- and if you don't know a lot about him, he was the field secretary for SNCC in Mississippi in the early '60s and is as an important figure to the civil rights movement as MLK, just not so well known. Find a biography and read it -- was awarded a McArthur "Genius Grant" in 1982. He used the money to found the Algebra Project. Moses felt that "Education is still basically Jim Crow as far as the kids who are in the bottom economic strata of the country. No one knows about them, no one cares about them" (NPR's Morning Edition August 1, 2013). 

I trust that I don't have to quote the numbers indicating that not only are black students significantly behind white students nation-wide, state-wide, and LRSD-wide, but the white students aren't doing that great either.

The idea for correcting that math achievement gap -- according the Algebra Project -- is to double up on math courses in high school. And, perhaps most importantly, require all students to take Algebra I in the eighth grade. Don't let counselors (who work hard, I'm not dissing them) assign students to non-algebra math courses based on test scores or "soft expectations." There's more to it, encouraging students to talk about math in class, using ordinary, everyday language. Then, through a process called "5-step circular," teachers work with students to systematically move from observation to symbology. No doubt this requires a great deal of professional development for teachers, but if it works like it has in some schools...

The Algebra Project has a newsletter here: https://algebra.org/newsletter/

If you google "math literacy strategies" you will see too many links to articles that suggest applying the methods used to teach reading to mathematics. I would like to point out that reading scores are on par with math scores. Using the same strategies over and over and expecting something different is a waste of everybody's time.

So, educators, what is your horseback opinion of the viability of such efforts?

Here's some more stuff: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/61afa2b5ded66610900a0b97/6659f1a0beba12df4a468d40_%20BEYOND-ALGEBRA-REPORT_05312024.pdf

Hypocrisy

 I had thought to start off with "You gotta love Republicans," in the sense that they are pathetic and probably need a hug at the end of each long day of hating.  Then I realized that no matter the bitter laughs they provide me with, they are generally ignorant people who, when engaged in culture warfare, don't think any of it through.

The governor of Tennessee dressed in drag for a high school thing back in the 70s. His defense, as you can see, is that was different from those evil, sexual, obscene drag queens coming for our children. For the life of me, the only difference I can see is that it was him and not a gay man.  For the record, I've dressed in drag more than once.  Never for my own gratification, but every time as a form of entertainment for others.

The unintended consequences of their abortion laws is worse.  We don't get to laugh at these kinds of things (behind the Washington Post paywall, which they let you step over for free for a while). It's simply horrific.  And you know damned good and well that they wouldn't let this happen to their wives and daughters.  No matter the cost, they would see that the women close to them got appropriate health care.  But your daughter or mine?  Fuck them.

And there is no need to talk about the debacle that was Kansas under a "eliminate taxes" governor with a compliant legislature a few years ago.  And the hell of it is, that here in Arkansas, we're about to go through the same hell, bankrupting the state by eliminating income taxes and promising vouchers to take kids to private schools.

No, you don't have to love them.  You have to be sickened.  And you have to be afraid.

the coral is dying

Take look at this map.  Those are places where the temperature is high enough that the coral is expelling the algae that lives in it and is, therefore, dying.  Oh, and that's just a one-day snapshot.  Some of those Pacific places are starting to cool off from what they were a few days ago.

Hasn't it reached the point yet where it doesn't matter if it is man-caused or not?

And then these lunatics demonstrate that they are as loud as they are ignorant (Thank you, Prof. Farnsworth!)(The quotes that follow are cribbed from http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41192.html):

Ron Johnson, Republican, is running for the US Senate in Wisconsin and he said that the warming the earth is experiencing is casued by "sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time."  Mr. Johnson's website (http://ronjohnsonforsenate.com/home/meet-ron/) says he's ABD for an MBA.  There's nothing I want more than a business major telling me about something as complicated as climatology.

Sharron Angle, Republican, is running for the US Senate in New Mexico.  She said an effort to limit greenhouse gasses “is based on an unscientific hysteria over the man-caused global warming hoax.”  Ms. Angle has a BA in fine arts (http://sharronangle.com/about).  There's nothing I want more than an artist telling me about something as complicated as climatology.


When Sen. Barbara Boxer warned that climate change was a national security issue, her Republican opponent, Carly Fiorina, said “Terrorism kills — and Barbara Boxer's worried about the weather.”  Though her website doesn't say where she went to school or what she majored in (http://carlyforca.com/about/), it does tell us that she went to graduate school.  And, as Ms. Fiorina was, of course, the CEO of Hewlett Packard, I think we can assume that she majored in business.  Another accountant who thinks she understands geophysics.

Ken Buck, Republican, is running for Senate from Colorado.  He said "I don’t think that causes are the primary factor for global warming."  No, I didn't leave out a word.  He doesn't think that causes are the primary factor for global warming.  I have no idea what that means.  It isn't English.  Mr. Buck Ken attended Princeton University and earned his undergraduate degree in politics in 1981. He received his Juris Doctorate in 1985 from the University of Wyoming School of Law in 1985 (http://buckforcolorado.com/meet-ken).  He's the best educated one so far and he's a lawyer.  I hope he doesn't try to tell a judge that causes don't have anything to do with what happened in any particular case.

It's exhausting fighting this kind of ignorance.  These people are running for the United States Senate -- an entity that ought to contain statesmen.  These people are ignorant yahoos making pronouncements about something that is so far over their heads as to be invisible.  Not one of them can do any real mathematics.  Not one of them knows anything beyond freshman level physics (if they know that much).  They are not well-educated people.  We should not let people who do have education be put in a position where they will flaunt their ignorance and destroy the only planet we've got.