The Sunday Education Weekly Reader: 11.06.11

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for 11.06.11. This week we will delve into:

• The explanation of the ups and down in twinkles of OWSers via Stephen Colbert
• Why local control is being swallowed up by the consortia
• The continuing debacle of the student loan industry
• What "is" the meaning of "is" revisited in education

*********************************************

Stephen Colbert asks two young OWS participants to explain the movement and the twinkles from the fingers. You might also want to watch to understand that a "female bodied person" is not necessarily a woman.

It's quite an education.

*****************************************

Read Arne Duncan's educational proposals and the "reforms". It's all global. We're told again and again Americans are not global enough in our competitiveness and preparation. International standards are being sought and states are becoming irrelevant in their existence except to fund the federal government's wish to nationalize curriculum.

This editorial from nj.com wants us to give money to the continuing call for global education, even as America's school district budgets are cut. Be sure to read the two readers' comments.

****************************************

Not only are student loans and the high cost of higher education crippling students, the new regulations for loaning money to these same students are creating unemployment as the federal government once again monopolizes a private industry.

****************************************

Here is a tweet from the mayor of St. Louis regarding the failing Kansas City Schools.

Doesn't this sound like the failed busing experiment in the 1970's? Did that "fix" education? Is this tweet just another attempt at busing? Why does he think it will work 40 years later?

****************************************
Are we are giving the message below to students today as we hurdle toward a nationalized curriculum? The federal government is providing no voice in our local schools from parents, school boards and taxpayers. Will a student's data driven education supersede his/her decisions to a workforce committee?

Educational thought for the week:

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And you are the guy
Who'll decide where you go." -- Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!

"And you are the guy
Who'll decide where you go".

Maybe not.