Bush = Obama = Duncan and the Sunday Education Weekly Reader 06.03.12

Jeb Bush (R) loves Obama's (D) & Duncan's (D) education plan.

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for 06.03.12.  The elections are quickly approaching.  Will Republicans change the tide (either on the state or national level) and stop the centralization of education?

It looks doubtful, according to these tweets:

• Delaware Republicans failing to make the grade on education issues http://wp.me/pz20Z-59J

•  Can Romney dismantle Dept of Education http://j.mp/La3qXZ <-No, he supports RTTT & CCSS. Romney & Obama like collecting kids' data. #FERPA 

•  Truth in American Ed ‏@TruthinAmEd  Our latest post: Floridians Critique Jebucation http://ow.ly/1k7B8f

What's the best option for education?  It is the antithesis of the current educational reform:

• Sir Ken Robinson ‏@SirKenRobinson Why Alternative Education Should Become Mainstream: http://bit.ly/n9XppU

Instead of the current buzz words of data driven, educational equity, school choice, common.....how about school districts (not the DOEd or consortia) adopt the goals of providing:

• Individualism
• Personal relationships
• Engaging teaching and learning
• Quality instruction and curriculum
• Excellence...instead of making all students the same

Aren't the goals listed by Sir Ken Robinson what taxpayers/parents/students want and deserve from tax dollars?  So why is the trio of Bush, Obama and Duncan pushing something vastly different?

"Thinking outside the box may solve problems in the real world."

Worldwide Hippies Blog:  Don't follow the political Pied Pipers of Education

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader 05.27.2012.  From the twitter world:

• More like cubic zirconium...."Race to the Top" was described in the Washington Post as "the crown jewel of the Obama adm's education reform agenda http://bit.ly/LzsRAt

•  Perhaps this headmaster needs to choose his words a bit more carefully or enroll in a writing class....Headteacher claims school had 'overcome accidents of birth' to produce ...: The head has previously been honoure... http://bit.ly/LlNeVT 

•  Does Team Obama even know what it and Arne Duncan want in education?  A big stumble....You know, when you have TPM pushing back on Democratic rhetoric, then you have a problem: http://bit.ly/LnHUhh

• Worldwide Hippies call both Republican and Democratic view of education for what it is: spin.  "Where the campaigns tried to score on each other was in the sacred realm of DC policy, where terms like “choice, accountability, and reform” are inflated with mythic technocratic significance by the Very Serious People. And left totally out of the melee was whether either candidate can come close to telling the truth."  Gotta love hippies.... Romney, Obama Vie For Who Can Hurt Education The Worst http://bit.ly/K0b5vs

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Educational conundrum for the week: 

Where are headed with the common core?  Students able to think outside the box...or just a cog in the workforce machinery?  Can Cory Booker give us a peek into how thinking/speaking/learning alike is the end result of education reform applied in the workforce?

From Ann Althouse:

"Thinking outside the box may solve problems in the real world."

"But in the political realm, creative noodling will get you cast into the outer darkness. No matter which way you lean, The Machinery requires cogs, not cognizance."

Kathleen Parker, talking about Cory Booker.

Let's Make a Common Core Video featuring Herrings and Doves! The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 04.01.12

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for April Fool's Day 2012!  We're really not doing a video for Common Core standards as so many teachers have, but if we did do a video, we'd probably sing about how they are:

• unproven
• untested
• underfunded
• unconstitutional

Today is April Fool's Day and two explanations of this minor holiday are appropriate when thinking about the "reforms" trotted out by Arne Duncan.  Think of the DOEd as the agency playing sinister April fool jokes on the American public.  We have been the fools kicked hard by expensive and overreaching mandates and regulations, resulting in a centralized agency controlling all educational decisions and programs:

• When someone has been fooled in Sweden, to disclose that it was a joke, the fooler says the rhyme "April April din dumma sill, jag kan lura dig vart jag vill" (April, April, you stupid herring, I can fool you to wherever I want") for April 1st jokes
•  In Spain and Ibero-America, an equivalent date is December 28.  After somebody plays a joke or a prank on somebody else, the joker usually cries out, in some regions of Ibero-America: "Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar" ("You innocent little dove that let yourself be fooled")

In the spirit of April Fool's Day, and as the American taxpayers, parents, students, teachers and administrators have been reduced to herrings and doves, here is a tongue in cheek blog about the common core and the general state of education reform.

Just put this video to song and it would put to shame any video singing the praises of the ed reform mantra.  Be sure to watch the youtube video at the end.  The dialogue is PERFECT.  Do these soundbites sound like the ed reformer scripts you hear when you talk to legislators and read about in various articles on DOEd sites?

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From Jay P. Greene's blog "Why I Now Support Common Core":

I don’t know how I could have been so foolish for so long.  It just struck me today that I really should support Common Core national standards.  Here are the reasons I’ve changed my mind:

1) I learned from Diane Ravitch and Sol Stern that dramatic reversals in views generate a lot of attention.  For some reason my new support for Common Core will have credibility and influence no matter how weak my reasoning for switching is.

2) If I play my cards right, there may be big money to be made with my new support for Common Core.  In addition to book royalties and lecture fees, I see a big grant from the Gates Foundation in my future.  Evil pays better than good.

3) I won’t get blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Education for opposing their favored policy positions.  Yippee! I’ll get a piece of a big evaluation whose findings they can delay or distort.

4) Standards probably don’t matter anyway, so little harm can come from supporting mediocre standards being imposed on all states.

5) Did I say imposed?  Darn, I have to get used to saying it’s voluntary.

6) Being bothered by the empty and manipulative language used to support Common Core has driven me to drink.  Switching my view on Common Core will give my liver a much needed break.

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The Sunday Education Weekly Reader Visual Soundbites 03.11.12

Welcome to the  Sunday Education Weekly Reader Visual Soundbites from twitter. Tidbits from the week include tweets about the abolishment of the DOEd, lack of due diligence while instituting expensive (and taxpayer funded) early childhood programs, data sets picking winners and losers and another expert comes out against common core curriculum...err, standards.

• Could it be states regain control of education?  These senators have a plan for that to happen.....Conservative Plan to Eliminate Education, Energy, Housing, Commerce Depts. http://shar.es/gSGN3

•  Another early childhood program shown to have limited to no positive effect....Studies find few to no benefits for Tools of the Mind, an #earlychildhood #education curriculum: http://bit.ly/wza8NI 

•  Sounds like Kirkwood School District in MO...instituting early childhood program (all day kindergarten) without performing research if early childhood education makes a difference.  But why worry? It's all "free".  And it's all about "equity".  Sounds more like government provided childcare.....Blog: Is Early-Childhood Education Worth Spending Public Money? http://bit.ly/ymQfl8 #earlychildhood

•  Satire...but maybe not? Data sets will pick the lucky 50 in the future?...All education dollars now directed to 50 children who can actually make a difference #OnionReview http://onion.com/zbV3AI 

•  Common Core = national curriculum = failure....so says British professor.......Common Core? Inevitable harm: schoolsmatter.info/2012/03/ccss-a…

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Education tweet for the week...oddly enough, from an expert in the field of digital identity whose livelihood centers around digitized information...his tweet looks like a tweet that could have come from a teacher:

Just been to a self-consciously paperless technology demo. All iPads, plasmas, formica. Oddly sterile. Not where I'd like to work

The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 02.26.12

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for o2.26.12.  The visual soundbites from Twitter:

• One of THE BEST articles explaining how common core will empty out taxpayers' pockets via higher property taxes.  Why aren't you hearing how these underfunded mandates will be paid for by state legislators?  Obama Education scheme will hit local property taxes. http://p.ost.im/p/exEF7u

• Following up on the last tweet, governors are delusional about Federal control of education and the expense.  And snarky, too.  Catch the comment from the Connecticut governor.  The taxpayer is paying for it financially and constitutionally for this misguided way of thinking. Blog: Governors Talk Funding, Federal Role in Education http://bit.ly/Aszmxx  

• Add the United States to the list. Is this the method to hook us into an international curriculum?....It's not just the UK that is having a crisis in maths education. Japan is too. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120225003501.htm

• If you're a teacher, just be sure you teach the gifted kids....Teachers divided over validity of scorecards: “If you're saying that my students are successful, that's good eno... http://bit.ly/xirkMJ 

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Today's "educational thought for the week" concerns tragedy and the human spirit.  Do you wonder how the human spirit will be measured on a data set?  Maybe US schools aren't concerned about wisdom, it's "just the facts", ma'am.

Trauma sometimes opens way to growth / Scientists examine traditional idea that wisdom can come from hardship and loss

The Sunday Education Weekly Reader: Visual Soundbites for 02.05.2012

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for 02.05.2012.  The visual soundbites from Twitter for the week:
 

• Federal Officials breaking the law affecting public education students.   Is the Department of Education thumbing its nose at American taxpayers and parents?....Department of Education, So what if we break the law goo.gl/fb/6x9Ss

• Is your child late to school?  In Loudoun, VA, expect a deputy to appear on your doorstep.  “It’s not just trying to meddle in someone’s affairs or dictate how someone raises their child,” said Wayde Byard, spokesman for Loudoun County Public Schools. “It’s a child welfare issue, basically.”  Nanny state gone wild?....VA Parents summoned to court b/c their kids were a few minutes late to school Washington Post - http://goo.gl/vLdob

• If schools adopted these rules from 1898, would we have better schools that wouldn't cost billions of dollars in "reform"?.....Just found this "Good Manners" chart, supplied to schools in 1898 (It's a PDF): http://bit.ly/kPFP7h

• WSJ article on French children vs American children.  Is this what is missing in American education and much of American parenting the key to raising more successful American children?  Maybe if children had more of "this", it wouldn't require billion of dollars in education "reform" either....Why French Parents Are Superior http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577196931457473816.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

 

 

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Educational thought of the week picked up from twitter encapsulating what's wrong with public education.  

 

Are schools day care facilities or academies of intellectual pursuit?  Is the reason children are sent to school to give a break to the parents?  Maybe the parents need to read the aforementioned WSJ article.

 

Starting to suspect that the reason why kids have to go to school isn't that they need an education. It's that parents need a break. 

The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 01.29.2012

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for 01.29.2012.  

Interesting tweets of the week in education:

• Here's a way to solve the dilemma in paying for college....Obama tells University of Michigan rich should pay more http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/27/obama-tells-university-of-michigan-rich-should-pay-more/ Class warfare at its finest.

• Note to Benjamin Braddock in "The Graduate".  It's not "plastics".  It's "education"....
  Education industry accounted for an estimated $10 billion in mergers & acquisitions last year: bit.ly/xFSrFs 

• Oops...Potty-mouthed science teacher resigns after allegedly having raunchy convos with kids http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/potty-mouthed-science-teacher-resigns-allegedly-raunchy-convos-kids-article-1.1013341

• This might be difficult given our $16 Trillion national debt and states facing budget shortfalls....Obama Education Secretary: Teachers Should Be Paid Six-Figure Salaries http://bit.ly/yIPyEm

• The Department of Education employees need to take accounting and citizenship courses to become good role models instead of following Timothy Giethner's example...Dept of Education and Housing/Urban Development employees OWE MOST BACK TAXES! http://is.gd/puNmMP 

Educational thought for the week:

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year. --John Foster Dulles

The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 01.22.2012

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for January 22, 2012.  

This week we thought we'd pass on some interesting tweets pertaining to Education for you to review.

• Sit down with a cup of coffee and read about the meaning of "choice".  Do these opinions on education and what determines a good education remind you of "what IS the meaning of IS?"..... Charter schools. Vouchers. Choice. That's all good, right? Or maybe not... http://bit.ly/zHKDVR 

• Oh my goodness, are students now going to be held accountable for their success....or failure?  We thought that was reserved only for the teachers.... Aren't students also responsible for their own education, former teacher Walt Gardner asks? http://bit.ly/z7rols 

•  This won't adapt well to Common Core Standards because, well, it's not "common"....A Group Of Schools In Sweden Is Abandoning Classrooms Entirely http://zite.to/xZulYR 

•  Not hi-tech and students are loving it.  Imagine that......An old fashioned tactile activity making a comeback in school. http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/powell-middle-school-teacher-steps-back-in-time-starts-sewing-club/1211217 

•  Arne Duncan just can't keep his mandates to the states, now the Federal Government wants to micromanage local school districts.  Can you define "smother"?.....What's next for #RaceToTheTop? @ArneDuncan says it's time for a district-level competition: http://bit.ly/Ag02PU    

Educational thought for the week from Cary Grant:

My first great chance came in 1936, when I was borrowed by RKO for Sylvia Scarlett playing opposite Katherine Hepburn.  This picture did nothing to endear its female lead to the public but it helped me to success.  For once, the audiences and the critics did not see me as a nice young man, with regular features and a heart of gold.  After this picture I made one after another, probably too many.

I know I'm sticking my neck in saying this, and the ill-fortuned won't agree with me.  


But I do believe people can do practically anything they set out to do--if they apply themselves diligently, and learn.  Few people recognize opportunity because it comes disguised as hard work and application.


Too often people are afraid of disappointment--or of making the mistakes that lead to disappointment?  How else can you grow?