It's a sad statement on the state of statistical literacy in this world when no one seems to recognize a useless study for what it is:
Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals...
The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right...[Researcher] Block admits in his paper that liberal Berkeley is not representative of the whole country. But within his sample, he says, the results hold...
So, in other words, Block can give no reason why he feels these results would generalize to the population, meaning every line in this article suggesting that these results do generalize is completely, utterly wrong. I'm not surprise the reporter doesn't realize this. I'm astonished that Block doesn't seem to realize it - else, why would he make such a dumb statement? Of course the results hold within the sample, that's...the sample he used. In the world of research, that's wholly beside the point.
Block's statement reminds me of a particular kind of student in the statistics classes that I've taught - the ones who understood the segments on descriptive statistics, sort of, but hit a brick wall when it came to inferential statistics. They could crunch numbers on a dataset, but never could grasp the concept that we sample data for the purpose of generalizing to the population, and that the representativeness of the sample directly effects the extent to which the results can be generalized.
Instead of failing these students outright, I always took them aside to have a chat - the empathetic, caring, Perhaps A Major That Requires A Course In Statistics Is Not For You talk. They always got the message and dropped the course. Block is obviously made of sterner stuff and persevered despite his utter lack of statistical knowledge. Nice.
(Ace is but one of the whiny conservatives having fun with this article.)
Am I the only one who read the first few lines of this article and thought, "What about those goth sheep who dress all in black?"
Has anyone ever actually seen a rainbow-colored sheep? That's surely what a few British toddlers are asking. Teachers at nursery schools in Oxfordshire, England, have asked children to change the words of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" to "Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep" to avoid the possibility of offending anyone.
Yes, I suppose I was. But at least I was thinking, and I'm not sure that anyone else involved in this silly situation was doing any of that.
One Florida school boards tries to block the release of a video game about bullies:
The Miami-Dade school district in Florida is attempting to become the first major school district to fight against the release of Rockstar's upcoming game, Bully. According to the Miami Herald, School Board member Frank Bolaños proposed a resolution to pressure Rockstar into withholding the release of the action game, which is set in a reform school, asking local merchants not to carry the game and urging parents not to buy the game.''This game is built entirely around bullies and is staged in a school -- it's the antithesis of everything we're trying to promote,'' he said.
Results:
(1) Lots of free publicity for the game - 'nuff said.
(2) Additional glamour surrounding the game - students may assume that anything the school board hates would be fun.
(3) Further eroding of parental responsibility - the school board wants to make the call whether students are mature enough to experience the game. Are they going to demand that R-rated movies be banned next?
The only information that's online from Rockstar are screenshots. It seems this game has been under development for quite some time, but doesn't actually exist yet. How, then, can any school board justify a preemptive call for a ban?
In Delaware, on the other hand, they're at least attacking existing games, although it seems very silly to attack games that are already rated 'M' and are not to be sold to anyone under the age of 18. The Entertainment Software Rating Board, on the other hand, claims that the vast majority of these games that fall into the hands of children are bought by parents. I wonder if they know that such statistics play into the hands of outright bans, such as those suggested by the Miami-Dade school board.
At this point, should it still even be called a "trophy?"
When a youth basketball league in Framingham finishes its season next month, every fifth- and sixth-grader will receive a shiny trophy. Even those on the last-place team. ''We want them to be happy and come back to play the following year," said the Temple Beth Am Brotherhood league's director, Rich Steckloff.In communities across Boston's western suburbs, at the end of long seasons on the soccer pitch, hoop court, or baseball diamond, kids are getting trophies not for winning championships, but for simply participating.
On the one hand, yes, participating is better than not participating, so you do want to recognize that. On the other hand, one of the purposes of youth sports is to teach the valuable lessons of good sportsmanship and how to be a polite, non-trophied loser. Giving everyone a trophy waters down the whole concept behind awarding trophies; the winners may feel less of a sense of accomplishment. (John Hawkins seconds the notion.) Better to give none at all than to give everyone one.
Update: On a not-unrelated note, John Rosenberg wonders why we're so eager to redefine the "gifted student" category to include students for whom there's no traditional evidence of being gifted:
...the reason students are “shut out of” gifted programs are not at all “difficult to pin down.” It’s the same reason so many applicants are “shut out of” Harvard, Stanford, et. al; they don’t score high enough on admission tests. Now, the reasons for that may be difficult to pin down, but opening up gifted programs to students “who might have special abilities but may not have been recognized through traditional screening methods” would not seem the way to provide answers.
I find these two situations analogous because what's happening in both contexts is that adults are trying to redefine the scoring of the "game." They're allegedly doing so for the benefit of the children involved, but I think they're making things worse. In the first situation, trophies are being given out right and left, despite the fact that you can't be a winner unless you score more points than the other team. A trophy and no points will not, in the real world, be worth much.
Being placed in an advanced class after one hasn't demonstrated basic skills as measured on a standardized test might not be worth much to a student, either.
(Via Joanne.)
Update: Dr. Helen sees this all as more support for the homeschooling choice:
Wouldn't the proper way to answer the question of why Blacks and Hispanics are lagging behind Whites and Asians be to conduct research on the factors that may be causing the discrepancies and remedy those rather than setting up a phony group of gifted students whose only gift may be that they have a teacher who holds self-esteem and looking diverse in higher regard than children actually learning anything?With such unscientific inquiry, it is no wonder more and more parents are homeschooling or turning to private schools to educate their children...
Start here with Joanne's comments and read the tale of the student who's flunked algebra six times - and who is being reassured, by the Washington Post, that that's just fine.
Pharyngula puts the hurting on scaredy-cat Richard Cohen: "It's about what you'd expect of a fellow who brags elsewhere in his essay that his best class in high school was typing." The comments are pretty phenomenal, too.
Let me just add my $.02. It should be a criminal offense for a journalist to address this issue (on any school subject) and fail to ask: "Were her teachers any good? Did they offer any tutoring? When she failed once, did they try something different the second time? And how many other students are this frustrated as well? How many of them all have the same teacher?" To add to this lack of any sort of journalistic investigation the insistence that the problem is the math, because it's just a bad old hard subject that adults almost never use in real life, is idiotic as well.
There's GOT to be more to this story:
Freshmen at Brooklyn High School were given an unorthodox homework assignment. They were told to do research about porn. The students were asked to research porn on the internet and list eight facts about the porn industry. They were also told to write down their own personal views about pornography and any experience they may have had, good or bad.Three parents called the district to complain so the principal, superintendent and health teacher decided it was best to scrap the assignment.
Which is a shame, because we all know that in order to teach health, high school teachers are required to make sure their students know how to find porn on the web, and that they should be prepared to tell adults about their "personal" views and "experiences" in researching such. Being forced to look at things they might not be prepared to see (and probably downloading about 8700 viruses and spyware bots to boot) and tell an adult what they thought about it is so healthy, you know.
Sounds like the teacher isn't even going to lose his/her job, despite the fact that any other adult who wanted to know about a 14-year-old's "experience" with online porn would probably end up facing sex crime charges.
Okay...um, er - what?
Some parents are scratching their heads after school administrators insisted students call a Christmas tree a "magical tree," the color red was removed from green and red elf hats, and songs from "Jesus Christ Superstar," were pulled from a winter concerts."I can see a religious holiday being offensive to those who don’t celebrate it," said Dale Fingar, whose sixth-grade son brought home 10 red and green elf hats Monday and requested she replace the red fabric with white. "But red and green hats? Come on."
Handfuls of parents said they were upset with the administration’s handling of "a couple" of complaints from parents who were offended by Christian religious themes in the middle school’s holiday programming. Sixth-graders were scheduled to perform portions of several songs from the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," in the holiday concert today. Last week, Middle School Principal Joanne Senier-LaBarre wrote parents a letter explaining those songs had been cut from the performance.
"The philosophy of the middle school is one of acceptance for cultural and religious diversity. The study of Jesus Christ, Superstar was approached from a strictly musical perspective," Senier-LaBarre wrote. "However, in retrospect, we understand that some members of our school family are uncomfortable with what they feel is a musical work that has religious ties. After much discussion, we have decided not to include the rock opera in our performance," the letter continued.
I fail to see how respecting religious diversity requires that we remove references to a religious holiday. This isn't respecting religion, but denying it. One parent makes a very good point:
Paul Danehy was perturbed yesterday morning after leaving his third-grader’s holiday concert at Memorial School. Instead of "We Wish you a Merry Christmas," the students sang, "We Wish you a Swinging Holiday"...He said he was "sent into orbit" after learning students were encouraged to call a Christmas tree a magical tree."I know what a menorah is," Danehy said. "I’m not calling it a candleholder."
This story is so over the top that I'm wondering if it's for real.
Joanne Jacobs wonders why a murderer who doesn't admit to his crimes should be the focus of a teach-in:
A Tookie Teach-In at Oakland's Street Academy High School turned the gang leader and multiple murderer into a martyr, writes Justin Berton in East Bay Express. Tookie Williams has written children's books expressing his regrets at founding the Crips, but hasn't admitted to the four murders for which he's scheduled to be executed Dec. 13.
Joanne notes that the invited speaker doesn't exactly seem to stick to facts on the topic of politics and crime:
Faucher said there's little evidence Williams is guilty. Or O.J. either. She also said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't a U.S. citizen, but wavered when a student asked how he could be governor without being a citizen.
The East Bay Express article also notes that Faucher claimed that black criminals overwhelmingly get the death penalty, while most reliable statistics I've seen suggests that it's the race of the victim, not the criminal, that is related to the likelihood of getting the death penalty. Given that much crime is intra-race, it's not surprising that whites make up the largest percentage of those on Death Row since 1976. Is it a problem that the race of defendents seems to matter? Yes, it is, but that's not what Faucher is arguing.
In fact, the concept of compassion or concern for victims is completely absent from Faucher's statements. The goal of the teach-in was to invite students to write to Gov. Schwarzenegger to ask for Tookie's clemency. Funny how they weren't invited to write letters of condolences to the families of the victims.
I caught this story at the tail end, which was (thankfully) a sane and appropriate conclusion to a sad tale.
Warren County Community College adjunct English professor, John Daly resigned last night before the school’s board of trustees began an emergency meeting to discuss the professor’s fate. On November 13, Daly sent an email to student Rebecca Beach vowing “to expose [her] right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [Rebecca’s] won’t dare show their face on a college campus.” In addition, Daly said that “Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors.”
Beach's "anti-people politics" include being a member of the Young America's Foundation, the purpose of which is to provide American college students with a balanced education. Beach's apparent violation of the campus PC code was to send an email to professors announcing the upcoming speech of decorated war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter and his topic, American accomplishments in Iraq.
This was too much for Professor's Daly's sanity, as evidenced by the reply he sent to Ms. Beach:
...I am asking my students to boycott your event. I am also going to ask others to boycott it. Your literature and signs in the entrance lobby look like fascist propaganda and is extremely offensive...If you want to count the number of deaths based on political systems, you can begin with the more than a million children who have died in Iraq from U.S.-imposed sanctions and war. Or the million African American people who died from lack of access to healthcare in the US over the last 10 years.I will continue to expose your right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like your won't dare show their face on a college campus. Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors...
The college tried to defend Daly's nasty email as "free speech," but it was apparently pointed out to them that it might be a tad hypocritical to censure students who violate campus speech codes, while defending professors who threaten students that "groups like your [sic]" would be removed from campus entirely. Good for Warren County Community College for finally taking the steps to defend students from this kind of professorial misbehavior.
(Via Michelle, and others like SingleMind.Net, who notes that "...Daly is hardly a lone voice in academia.")
On the one hand, any intelligent person should realize that anything they post on the web under their real name could be read by anyone, even those to whom the remarks/arguments were not addressed.
On the other hand, if I made a reasonable and rational set of statements, such as those made by Purdue University grad student Paul Deignan made in a thread about confirming Judge Alito, and the result was that another commenter decided to throw his educational weight around and contact my dissertation advisor with a great deal of defamatory words, I'd be pretty ticked.
You'll need to follow this link to read Paul's statements, because the site on which he posted decided, after nastily calling him names, to delete the whole thread. If that's what bitchPHD considers "trolling", I find it hard to understand how she functions in the real world, unless she's managed to create one where everyone worships her perfect little self. Here's hoping Paul's advisor will be smart enough to call everyone involved in this little brouhaha - except Paul himself - an idiot.
Dean's World calls the Professor Hettle "vicious and childish." My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy uses stronger language. Considering how quick Professor Hettle was to resort to insults, I hope he can take them as well. I also hope he's ready for the legal and verbal onslaught that's coming from Paul, who's a student of game theory and doesn't back down easily.
I find it hard to believe that skipping school to protest is all that much fun when you have the permission of the grown-ups to do so. The professional protesters go to a lot of trouble to round up high school students, but - teenagers being teenagers - those who show up look bored and apathetic. Perhaps the real way to rebel these days is to ignore the moonbats and stay in school?
A Canadian high school cafeteria sees sales drop when healthy fare is on the menu. I'm wondering why they sell food at all if they let even the middle-schoolers leave campus at lunchtime.
Carlisle High School (PA) has discovered a magic wand that sniffs BAC from the air and transports students on a magic carpet straight from the dance floor to drug and alcohol counseling. Allegedly there are no "false positives" from this type of gadget, which would make it very different from every other alcohol test on the market.
Fort Lewis College (CO) students are living in the 70's. How long until 8-track tapes and vans with shag carpeting come back?
In the US, students who are caught cheating are often punished. Over in Russia, they get to brag that their innovative implements are now museum pieces. Women's panties with logarithms on them? That sounds less like a cheating tool and more like fetish gear for a lovesick mathematician.
Finally, do NOT miss the chance to see the photo of Victoria University students who reacted in ass-inine ways when university officials raised tuition fees (I love newspapers Down Under). Note to Victoria University council secretary Christine Turner: Hold the meetings in rooms above the first floor from now on. That won't completely stop the mooners, but it'll make it a bit tougher for them to plant their behinds so close to you. As for the students, it's hard to understand what they're getting for all that money if this was the most effective way they could think of to protest.
The celebration of witches and skeletons and ghosts won't happen this year at a Massachusetts elementary school:
When students at Underwood Elementary School walk to their classrooms on Monday, there will be no witches, SpongeBob SquarePants, or Johnny Damons there to greet them.The school's principal said yesterday he acceded to the complaints of a handful of parents who said that because the school's traditional Halloween celebrations offended their religious beliefs, they would not send their children to school if the revelry continued this year.
''Not everyone is going to agree with the decision, and I really understand that," said principal David Castelline, who last year grew a beard and dressed up as Johnny Damon. ''But I felt the goal was really important to make it a respectful and open and welcoming place for all members of our community."
I don't know if he's as calm about the situation as he sounds. Any principal willing to grow a beard for his costume sounds pretty committed to the ideals of Halloween.
But seriously, these sorts of things always amaze me. I'm surprised schools give in when parents threaten to keep children home. If parents are really that concerned about the holiday, then they should be allowed to work out a plan that will allow their child to stay home without falling behind. But to ban a holiday because a few people are offended does seem to open up the door for banning other holidays as well. And it seems very odd - and hypocritical - to me that schools would work so hard, in general, to promote diversity and open-mindedness, and not ask for parents and students to in general be tolerant of activities in which they choose not to participate.
Even school board members admit this is crazy, but they're tired of getting letters from lawyers before the ambulances even arrive:
Andrea Levin is grateful that Broward County schools care about her daughter's safety. But this year when they posted a sign that demanded "no running" on the playground, it seemed like overkill...Broward's "Rules of the Playground" signs, bought from an equipment catalogue and displayed at all 137 elementary schools in the district, are just one of several steps taken to cut down on injuries and the lawsuits they inspire. "It's too tight around the equipment to be running," said Safety Director Jerry Graziose, the Broward County official who ordered the signs. "Our job was to try to control it."
How about swings or those hand-pulled merry-go-rounds?
"Nope. They've got moving parts. Moving parts on equipment is the number one cause of injury on the playgrounds."
Teeter-totters?
"Nope. That's moving too."
Sandboxes?
"Well, I have to be careful about animals" turning them into litter boxes.
Cement crawl tubes?
"Vagrants. The longer they are, the higher possibility that a vagrant could stay in them. We have shorter ones now that are made out of plastic or fiberglass"...
"We could do a lot more if we didn't have to watch our back every single second," said Graziose, who has led a playground safety committee for 17 years. "We sometimes get a letter from the attorney before we even get an accident report from the school."
This is one of the most appalling things I've ever read:
An unnamed Florida Congressman (or more likely their staff) took a letter from Orange County elementary school teacher Jan Hall and turned it over to a Spanish language newspaper. As her letter was filled with anti-immigrant rants from her perspective as a teacher at Sadler Elementary School, it ignited a firestorm which eventually lead to suspension, resignation, and now a lawsuit. You don't have to agree with Hall's opinions to be outraged that a piece of mail to a Congressional office would be deliberately leaked to a news organization solely to draw a massive amount of negative publicity to her private communication. You can read the whole sorted story at WorldNet Daily, or dive back into the history of the story via Google News.
I went to WND site and read quotes from the letter. From what I see, she's guilty of being politically incorrect and nothing more.
...I can truthfully say that Puerto Rican teachers at my school ask me continually for help with math, as they do not get but the equivalent of a fifth grade education in Puerto Rico. They almost always can do no algebra and rely on the system to get by.I find that Haitian children are more aggressive in the classroom and have not been to school regularly. Their poor conduct is yet another real problem...
Please be sure to note an on-the-job injury that didn't stop Hall from teaching before:
The private letter, which apparently was leaked to the Spanish paper by a member of Congress, was roundly criticized, resulting in Hall's suspension without pay by the school district."She has been removed from Sadler Elementary and will not be returning to Sadler Elementary regardless of the outcome of the investigation," Orange County Schools spokesman Frank Kruppenbacher said, according to WKMG-TV in Orlando. "The letter was written by an employee of our district that contained information that does not reflect the views of this school district or its leadership. Nor is it condoned by this leadership."
Hall submitted her resignation on Aug. 30, saying, "I'm tired of fooling with them. I'm sure I can go to work in a private school in another county."
WKMG reported Hall had gotten high marks from principals over the years – she's been a teacher for nearly three decades – but some Hispanics in her classroom have complained about how they were treated. The district offered several options, including teaching homebound students, if she apologized and met with a psychiatrist...
Hall said she rejected the offers because officials did not address her key issue – investigating how a principal at Englewood Elementary handled her complaints when a student battered her in 2002 so badly she underwent reconstructive surgery.
Emphasis mine. Try, if you will, to imagine the public outcry that would erupt if a teacher who had been attacked on the job were fired after she wrote a letter spouting the Cindy Sheehan moonbattery to her Republican congressman and he leaked it to a newspaper. It would be on the news channels 24-7 if it were to happen, which it never will.
Despite all the nonsense I've read over the years about the political brainwashing that takes place in some schools of education, it's hard for me to believe this has happened. Hall has resigned and is suing the school district. Blogger Pat Campbell is asking some blunt questions, and I'll be amazed if he ever gets any answers.
Some very serious charges are raised in this letter including the fact that many teachers are not properly certified. The school district superintendent Ron Blocker refuses to respond when asked if there is any validity to these charges. Also, a crime may have been committed here. Theft of mail is a federal crime punishable by jail time. How did this private letter fall into the public domain.? Why did the newspaper El Nuevo Dia publish it without Jan Hall's permission?Because someone hoped to gain by this. It will be interesting if we ever discover who that was.
Pennsylvania is now offering a useful indicator for parents who happen to be blind:
As they wait for their children's first report card to come home this year, elementary-school parents across Pennsylvania also can expect to receive a separate report on a key indicator of their children's health.In an effort to combat childhood obesity, the state Health Department is requiring school nurses to compute students' body-mass index - or height-to-weight ratio - during annual growth screenings, starting this year with children in kindergarten through fourth grade.
Oh, wait - you mean this isn't just for blind parents? It's for all parents, because the PA Health Department is assuming that parents have no clue how wide their kids are compared to their height? The department is also assuming that parents will receive this report card, smack their foreheads in disbelief, and exclaim, "My God, I never noticed it before, but little Johnny is fat!" They're also assuming parents would never think of taking "little" Johnny to the doctor unless the report card said to do so.
Far be it from me to stop schools from trying to improve the health of students, but what are they going to do if parents ignore these notices? What happens if the kids come back even fatter next year?
Some of you might remember the ridiculous story of The Artist Who Couldn't Spell that was featured here last fall. In short, one California town who hired an artist - who was a former schoolteacher - to paint a mural discovered that while bright colors were included, correct spelling were optional. In fact, the artist in question demanded $6000 more to re-do the mural with the correct spellings of such relative unknowns as Einstein. If you haven't read the full story, I urge you to click on the link above.
Anyway, guess what? She got her six grand:
Make that “Shakespeare.” Miami artist Maria Alquilar, much maligned for 11 misspellings that popped up in the educational mural she designed for the Livermore public library last year, spent today under the hot sun correcting her mistakes. In addition to fixing the bard’s name, she changed “Eistein” to “Einstein,” “Gaugan” to “Gauguin” and more.But Alquilar, who at first claimed artistic license and said she wasn’t going to return to fix the faux pas because people were being too mean about it, was giving no media interviews as she worked under a broad-brimmed straw hat and blue tent. She sliced and diced the tiles with power tools, protected from the public by a barrier.
She wagged her finger at a television cameraman and threatened to throw a rock at a print photographer.
“No pictures of me!” she yelled. “If I’m in it, I’m going to sue you.”
What a lovely person. At the original cost of $46,000, the mural was clearly overpriced, but at least now kids won't be confused about who "Gaugan" was.
A group of British teachers have discovered a way to keep all students from failing:
The word "fail" should be banned from use in classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralising pupils, a group of teachers has proposed. Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labelling children. "We recognise that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said. "But I recognise that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.
You just know they really do want to strike that word from the dictionary, don't you?
This is related to the self-esteem tangent I went on, earlier; these teachers are utterly unable to conceive of children whose self-esteem might lie in non-academic pursuits. They're also unable to comprehend how children might understand that a "fail" grade in a course doesn't mean they're failures overall. These teachers are horrified of the word "fail" because they believe the self-esteem of a student will be - nay, should be - defined by academic labels; they believe that what they say to a student will trump all other sources of self-esteem.
What arrogance.
Update: Joanne, as always, summarizes things perfectly: "Some British teachers want to ban the word "fail" in classrooms, replacing it with 'deferred success'...How, um, deferred do they think their students are?"
That's right up there with the Fark commenter who suggested that being turned down for a job should be called "deferred employment."
The Ebonics debate continues on the web, and Dangerous Dan's post opens with a general discussion of self-esteem:
One of the worst concepts of modern education is that it is the responsibility of schools to maximize their charges’ self-esteem. A youngster’s self-esteem is seen as all-important and so curriculum and policy get centered around it. Receiving an ‘F’ would be too harsh and detrimental to Johnny’s well-being, so he will get an ‘incomplete’ instead. Though Suzy’s work is inadequate and below average, she will get a B. Bobby can’t spell, but the teacher will coo at him about what a good effort he’s putting in, even if he’s putting in no effort at all.Personally, I don’t give a damn about students’ self-esteem. The purpose of school isn’t to make one feel good about himself, it’s to educate him. I suppose self-esteem has a bearing insofar as the student shouldn’t be humiliated or purposely degraded, but no efforts should be made to falsely increase it either...You now have teenagers and young adults entering the work force and they’re shocked at just how little employers care about their individuality or self-perception and how preoccupied said employers are with their knowledge and performance.
I agree wholeheartedly, because this has been my experience teaching college classes. I would see the same phenomenon over and over again - a student would struggle, I would meet them after class, we would work on the material, the student would not improve, and then I would suggest that perhaps they drop the class and try again next year, and I would suggest that if they thought statistics was so hard, perhaps they should switch majors.
And then I would have to console them, because they would act convinced that I thought they were a bad, or stupid person for failing this course. And I always thought, where is this coming from? They don't love stats. They're free to leave, blow off the class, take the F, and switch their major to Art so it wouldn't matter (I basically did the same thing, in reverse). They're young adults who have hundreds of choices. Why do they care what the teacher thinks about them so much?
A-ha. They care because all this focus on self-esteem in schools may have created students who only think well of themselves when their teacher approves of what they do, and they're stunned when they meet one who is blunt and doesn't coddle them. Admittedly, my evidence is anecdotal, but it seems reasonable to assume that if the teacher spends all day saying nice things solely to boost self-esteem, then when that stream of compliments goes away, the shaky sense of self-worth might, too.
As the UC system drops the PSAT/NMSQT like a hot potato, due to the performance of minority students, the San Bernardino school district floats the idea that the self-esteem of black children is dependent not on their academic achievements, but on their cultural identity, which means schools should affirm Ebonics. You may remember this controversy from 1997; now, it's back.
Incorporating Ebonics into a new school policy that targets black students, the lowest-achieving group in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, may provide students a more well-rounded curriculum, said a local sociologist.The goal of the district's policy is to improve black students' academic performance by keeping them interested in school. Compared with other racial groups in the district, black students go to college the least and have the most dropouts and suspensions...
Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, commended the San Bernardino Board of Education for approving the policy in June. Texeira suggested that including Ebonics in the program would be beneficial for students. Ebonics, a dialect of American English that is spoken by many blacks throughout the country, was recognized as a separate language in 1996 by the Oakland school board.
If Ebonics is all that's keeping them interested, what's going to happen when they enter the real world, where Ebonics won't be the accepted form of communication?
Len Cooper, who is coordinating the pilot program at the two city schools, said San Bernardino district officials do not plan to incorporate Ebonics into the program. "Because Ebonics can have a negative stigma, we're not focusing on that,' Cooper said. "We are affirming and recognizing Ebonics through supplemental reading books (for students).'
Emphasis mine. Imagine, if you will, any other controversial program or movement, for which a coordinator can say that negative stigma can be "ignored," while the idea that generates such stigma still deserves to be "affirmed." Scientology, neo-Nazism, flat-earth "science" - all of those things have a negative stigma, too, and no reporter with half a brain would let a coordinator get away with a "but we're avoiding the stigma by bringing it in through the back door" attitude. They shouldn't be doing so here, either.
As for the sociologist quoted in the article, she reveals herself to be veritable font of lunacy:
Texeira urged people not be quick to judge the new program as socially exclusive. She said people need to be open to the program. "Everybody has prejudices, but we must all learn to control that behavior,' Texeira said. She said a child's self confidence is tied to his or her cultural identity.She compared the low performance of black students to starvation. "How can you be angry when you feed a family of starving children?'
1. If my self-esteem is tied to my cultural identity, don't I have to immerse myself in that culture? Won't I be thinking highly of myself because of my culture? Wouldn't it necessarily follow that I don't think as highly of other cultures? And won't my self-esteem be threatened by people who are not of that culture, or don't value that culture? This is a recipe for prejudice.
2. Any sociologist who dares refer to the problem of underfed children in the US at the same time that she is defending Ebonics as a path to self-esteem and educational achievement for black children should be laughed out of town, if not tarred and feathered first.
If you think my response is rough, you should see some of the other posts out there. That one's a satire, but it's ugly nonetheless - and you know that others along the same lines won't be meant to be funny. Bear To The Right comments, while ReidBlog notes that this program's only chance of actually being useful is if it is teaching educators to help children switch from Ebonics to English, as though they are second language learners. I found other research online that defends the acceptance of Ebonics in schools, but the gist of it seems to be, "Well, teaching them English won't solve all their problems anyway." True, but it doesn't follow from this that insisting English be spoken in schools will hurt minority children. An attitude such as "Why worry about Ebonics when schools don't have enough textbooks?" is missing the point.
Regardless, while the optimism about Ebonics merely being considered a second language is nice, I think bloggers like Reidblog should reread all that hooha quoted above about self-esteem and cultural identity. That doesn't sound like motivation for immersing children into English classes and away from Ebonics as soon as possible. Joanne notes this as well:
Ebonics is back in San Bernardino County, which is trying to raise the achievement of black students by...Well, it's not clear from the story what they're doing, but it seems to come down to the same old esteem boosting that's done nothing to help students in the past...You'd think that would mean teaching English to these foreign language speakers, but apparently not...
Instead, Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment Initiative (sankofa is a Ghanaian word that means remembering the past) will celebrate students' racial identity. The role of Ebonics is murky...An example would come in handy.
Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, teachers will receive training on black culture and customs. District curriculum will now include information on the historical, cultural and social impact of blacks in society. Although the program is aimed at black students, other students can choose to participate.So the role of blacks in American society is going to be taught as a separate course, not an integral part of American history.Remembering the past is all very well. Why not remember the failure rate of race-conscious school programs?
A good question.
Update: LaShawn Barber is not impressed. Ramblings Journal sounds beside himself. Resurrection Song believes this is a way to make black students feel like they're not really part of America. And Michelle predicts a Bill Cosby meltdown.
Quick, what's the scariest monster you can think of? A vampire? A zombie? A werewolf?
Me, I think of over-earnest old hippies writing drippy songs for little kids who get picked on in school:
New York City...seems to prefer, in these post-Giuliani years, to be an avatar of positive reinforcement...Over the course of the next year, the Department of Education will introduce into all of its elementary and middle schools “Operation Respect: Don’t Laugh at Me,” an intensive curriculum in character development. The program, which is the brainchild and heart’s desire of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary, aims to combat bullying by emphasizing the moral lessons of folk music.“Don’t Laugh at Me” (or dlam) was born when Yarrow—a veteran of the civil-rights, gender-equality, nucleardisarmament, peace, and Amtrak-subsidization movements—heard a country ballad of that name at the Kerrville Folk Festival, in the summer of 1999. Moved to tears by its swelling harmonies and first-person testaments to the effects of ridicule—“I’m a little boy with glasses, the one they call a geek / A little girl who never smiles ’cause I’ve got braces on my teeth”—he decided to incorporate the tune into Peter, Paul & Mary’s repertoire.
At a gig with the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the group played the song. “The principals gave a tremendous response to it, and said, ‘We need this in our schools,’ ” Chic Dambach, Operation Respect’s president and C.E.O., said the other day. “And Peter, being the activist and the organizer that he is, said, ‘You won’t just have a song but a whole program.’ ” dlam is now used in at least twelve thousand American schools and camps.
Be sure to check out the assignments, as we learn how Magic Markers are useful for teaching people to “explore creating agreements around behaviors." Oh, if there are any parents of 14-year-old daughters among my Devoted Readers - be sure to let me know how you'd feel knowing that a man who was convicted of this in 1970 was designing these sorts of "educational" programs.
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades.)
The Education Intelligence Agency tweaks the self-important twits of the Berkeley Unified School District:
On June 22, the school board of the Berkeley Unified School District will vote on whether to change the name of Jefferson Elementary School to Sequoia Elementary. "Debate over the name of the school has continued for more than two years after several teachers, including an African American mother of three former Jefferson students, said Jefferson's name offended them," reported the San Francisco Chronicle...The people most involved with the school should be able to name it whatever they want, and it is on this basis that the school board will probably approve the name change. What is more disturbing is how uninformed the "people's collective sorrow" is – and I don't mean about Thomas Jefferson.
For a group so grimly determined to be outraged, one wonders why they chose to live in a city named Berkeley. The city was named after the philosopher and Anglican bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753), who purchased and worked slaves on his Rhode Island plantation.
Read on - it gets better. Human Events Online was on this story months ago; it would interesting to see if anyone voting in favor of the name change could list any of Jefferson's accomplishments mentioned by HEOnline. If this craze for doing away with names in such a knee-jerk, uninformed manner catches on anywhere outside Berzerkeley, the students of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA, had better watch out.
First schools harass kids who pass up test items, now they're banning certain hairstyles on test days:
The parents of a Norton fifth-grader demanded an apology after a school principal forced the 10-year-old boy to remove cornrow braids he'd put in his hair to copy his favorite Boston Red Sox pitcher. Zach Schwieger arrived at school Monday sporting a hairstyle modeled on that of Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo, said his stepfather, Robert Alves. Arroyo no longer sports the braids but they were his trademark during last year's season when the Red Sox won the World Series. Principal Janice Pomerleau demanded that he go to the bathroom immediately and remove his braids, saying it would disrupt classmates as they prepared to take a standardized test. "It if wasn't test day, he would have kept it,'' Pomerleau said. Zach's parents said Norton's Henri A. Yelle School has no written policy banning specific hairstyles and that they would take the matter to court unless Pomerleau admits her mistake.
I don't think this is something worth going to court over - but neither do I think a funky hairstyle interferes with concentration. The hairstyle is butt-ugly, as far as I'm concerned, but I have a hard time believing that chaos would reign and test scores would plummet had the boy been allowed to keep his hair like this.
The RightWingNuthouse has a lovely round-up of links relating to the dumbing down of science education in the name of multiculturalism and fundamentalism:
What is going on here? While the goals of the moonbats and idiotarians are different, the motivations behind the meddling in science curricula are similar; to bend science to fit a specific worldview. While it’s pretty easy to make fun of “monkey trials” and attempts to equate tribal shamans with medical doctors, the sad fact is that by fiddling with the way science is taught, our children are the ones who suffer the consequences.
RWN quotes liberally from the appalling Weekly Standard article, "A Textbook Case of Junk Science." There are misrepresentations, omissions, and disproportionate chunks of text...
Affirmative action for women and minorities is similarly pervasive in science textbooks, to absurd effect. Al Roker, the affable black NBC weatherman, is hailed as a great scientist in one book in the Discovery Works series. It is common to find Marie Curie given a picture and half a page of text, but her husband, Pierre, who shared a Nobel Prize with her, relegated to the role of supportive spouse. In the same series, Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, is shown next to black scientist Lewis Latimer, who improved the light bulb by adding a carbon filament. Edison's picture is smaller.Jews have been awarded 22 percent of all Nobel Prizes in science, but readers of Houghton Mifflin's fifth-grade textbooks won't get wind of that. Navajo physicist Fred Begay, however, merits half a page for his study of Navajo medicine. Albert Einstein isn't mentioned. Biologist Clifton Poodry has made no noteworthy scientific discoveries, but he was born on the Tonawanda Seneca Indian reservation, so his picture is shown in Glenco/McGraw-Hill's Life Science (2002), a middle-school biology textbook. The head of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins, and Nobel Laureates James Watson, Maurice H.F. Wilkins, and Francis Crick aren't named.
...and then there are downright ludicrous falsities:
Several centuries ago, some "very light-skinned" people were shipwrecked on a tropical island. After "many years under the tropical sun," this light-skinned population became "dark-skinned," says Biology: The Study of Life, a high-school textbook published in 1998 by Prentice Hall, an imprint of Pearson Education."Downright bizarre," says Nina Jablonski, who holds the Irvine chair of anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences. Jablonski, an expert in the evolution of skin color, says it takes at least 15,000 years for skin color to evolve from black to white or vice versa. That sure is "many years." The suggestion that skin color can change in a few generations has no basis in science.
I'm not sure if I agree with RWN's Godwinizing of the argument, in which he suggests that, for example, purging the names of the three men who unlocked the secrets of DNA is remiscent of the Nazi drive to remove Jewish scientists from textbooks (and the world, for that matter). On the other hand, it's hard to understand what possibly could be the motive for leaving the names of those three men out of a biology textbook.
The WS article doesn't mention if the topic of DNA is avoided altogether, which seems impossible, or if the textbook merely jumps into the discussion of DNA without naming the men who made all the work in that area possible, which seems more likely. The textbook writers may have been determined to avoid spending too much time featuring "dead white males," but in the process they'll have helped create a cohort of culturally-illiterate students who will give blank stares when the name Francis Crick is mentioned.
The Telegraph is reporting on the new, better science that British youths will be required to study:
The science that all pupils study from the age of 14 is to focus more on "lifestyles", general knowledge and opinion and less on chemistry, biology and physics, says the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. It published a "revised programme of study" that will govern the content of GCSE from 2006, to "ensure increased choice and flexibility for pupils so that they can study science relevant to the 21st century".Instead of learning science, pupils will "learn about the way science and scientists work within society". They will "develop their ability to relate their understanding of science to their own and others' decisions about lifestyles", the QCA said...
Science content of the curriculum will be kept "lite".
Ken Boston, the QCA chief executive, said: "It is essential that the curriculum keeps pace with the changing world."
If the changing world is one that is scientifically illiterate, I'd say this'll work. I have to say, though, that unlike Ken Boston, I haven't been kept up nights obsessed with the thought that the UK was going down the tubes because its young citizens were too scientific, and not concerned enough with the softer sides of science.
What do you know? Some actual scientists have a problem with this new curriculum:
Rosemary Davies, from Save British Science, welcomed the fact that "communication issues and ethics" were on the curriculum but said: "It could well be seen as a soft option or a waste of time." Pupils might think that "all they have to do for homework is read a newspaper". She said ethical issues might be better taught in personal and social education classes than science lessons.
There's that proper British restraint for you. The Save British Science website is more blunt:
Fed up with low-paid, short-term contracts? Tired by the media portraying scientists as the baddies? Disappointed with the quality of science education? Annoyed by the government expecting more and more, while failing to provide the necessary resources?WE ARE!
And we're campaigning to change it all.
In Maryland, the Montgomery County Public Schools attempted to pilot a sex-ed program that barred parents from the classroom. It seems they've now reversed course on that controversial decision:
A Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman said yesterday that the district will not bar parents from sitting in on a sex-ed course that begins this week, and that they never intended to. "Parents of kids in those classes will be allowed [in]," said spokesman Brian Edwards, contradicting statements he made days before to The Washington Times. In a phone interview Friday, Mr. Edwards, who has been with the school district since November, said "no" when asked whether parents would be allowed to audit the sex-ed classes."When you're talking about a sensitive topic like this, and you're relying on the trust you've built up with your students, it's probably not advisable" to have parents in the class, he told The Times. Yesterday, however, the district's public relations chief reversed field, telling The Times and other local news organizations that parents would be barred only if their behavior was disruptive or disturbing to school operations...
The pilot class begins Thursday at Springbrook, Seneca Valley and Bethesda Chevy-Chase high schools, and White Oak Middle School. The course will begin testing at Tilden and Martin Luther King middle schools later this month. In November, the county school board voted unanimously to approve a tryout of the new curriculum.
The curriculum, which was slightly revised last month, defines one's sexual identity as including sex identity, which is "a person's internal sense of knowing whether he or she is male or female." The instruction also says, "Most experts in the field have concluded that sexual orientation is not a choice."
Also, households with same-sex parents are identified among nine types of families. Next to that listing, a new phrase has been inserted as instruction to teachers -- not students. It reads in parentheses: "This should not be interpreted as same-sex marriage."
Leaving aside the topics taught for a moment, why on earth would the school have thought they could get away with barring parents from auditing a sex-ed course, especially considering that the school district's official policy encourages classroom visits?
(Via Powerline.)
Reporter Linda Seebach sends this one along for the "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" file:
Seventh-grader Bailey Pierce, hand pressed against her heart, was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance when the voice over the intercom said something that stopped her cold. "One nation, under 'your belief system.' "Bailey said that guidance counselor Margo Lucero substituted the phrase for "under God" while leading the morning pledge at Everitt Middle School on Wednesday...
"It was completely inappropriate," Jefferson County School District Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said. "We completely believe any teacher or student has the right to follow their individual conscience, however, when leading children, you adhere to the Pledge of Allegiance."
Lucero said she didn't intend to be offensive but rather wanted to mark the sixth anniversary of the Columbine High School slayings by evoking a sense of tolerance.
What about tolerance for the Pledge as it was originally written? Or about teaching children that, in the US, the "with liberty and justice for all" spirit applies even to those who leave out the "under God" part, so that the Pledge itself doesn't need to be changed to be more "tolerant"?
Update: I stand corrected (so stop filling up my comment section in correcting me, y'all). As originally written, the Pledge did not include the words, "under God." So I fall back on my second argument, that the liberty and justice for all part is still the most important, and introduce a third argument, which is that "your belief system" is just a goofy phrase.
Another school district misses the point of the First Amendment:
A New Britain High School drum major has enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut after he was disciplined for posting a profanity-laced entry in an online journal. Daniel Gostin, 18, a senior, was stripped of his drum major position, given an in-school suspension and barred from participating in music-related extracurricular activities and performances for the remainder of the year.Lori Rifkin, an ACLU lawyer who represents Gostin, says the school's actions violate his free-speech rights. In a letter to schools Superintendent Doris Kurtz on Wednesday, she asked that Gostin be reinstated as drum major, his disciplinary record be expunged and that he resume participating in musical activities. The posting "contained no threats nor did it contain any other statements which would interfere with the ability of school administrators to maintain order and discipline at the school," Rifkin wrote.
A teenager rants on a personal webpage about aggravations with the school, and gets punished for it two months after the fact. Unbelievable.
(Via Fark.com.)
I have to agree with Lee on this one - a school that wants to make sure that only certain student groups can wear political/sexual t-shirts is a school that is mightily confused about free speech:
A student-led effort to oppose homophobia at Homewood-Flossmoor High School may have backfired Tuesday when hundreds of students donned shirts with Christian and anti-gay slogans. Student activists who wore shirts emblazoned with the words "gay? fine by me" said they were outnumbered by peers wearing hateful messages and were targeted for harassment...Students estimated more than 100 students wore anti-homophobia shirts, and more than 200 students wore shirts that listed "Crimes committed against God." The crimes included the elimination of school prayer and separation of church and state, but did not include anything about homosexuality.
Other male students wrote slogans on white T-shirts such as "I hate gay people" and "Gay? Not fine by me (unless you're a lesbian)" and "Gay? More chicks for me," students said.
The school's reaction? Three guesses, and the first two don't count:
Students...claimed teachers were reprimanded for distributing shirts with Christian messages...The event's organizers got permission Tuesday from the student council to recognize the school's gay support group as a club. Club status will allow the group to hold the T-shirt day next year without opposition, Norby said.
Everyone at school needs a lesson on the First Amendment (as it applies to freedom of speech and freedom of religion). Then the school should decide whether to honor everyone's right to their opinion (on a t-shirt), or no one's.
Oh, and they need to assign Animal Farm as required reading, too.
Illuminaria is appalled, and with good reason:
ROME, Georgia (AP) -- A high school is looking for a few good snitches. Using revenue from its candy and soda sales, Model High School plans to pay up to $100 for information about thefts and drug or gun possession on campus."It's not that we feel there are any problems here," said Principal Glenn White. "It's a proactive move for getting information that will help deter any sort of illegal activity." Under the new policy, a student would receive $10 for information about a theft on campus, $25 or $50 for information about drug possession, and $100 for information about gun possession or other serious felonies.
So let me get this straight. The school currently doesn't have a problem with guns, drugs, violence, etc. And yet the best way it can think of to spend the money from the soda machine is to encourage students to rat out other students who might have strayed? Illuminaria brings up two very real problems with this scenario:
Have you ever heard of a more awful idea? Police informants undertake a terrible risk of backlash. Is there any reason to think that there would not be any similar risk in setting up an informant program at a school? What happens when some kid gets put in the hospital for informing on some character? It’s not like the kid who gets informed on is necessarily going to jail, they’d still be able to easily retaliate.In addition, there would most likely be a spate of false allegations that would take up the valuable time and effort of both administrators and students. What does the informant have to lose by making false allegations for revenge or profit?
There's yet another wrinkle to consider. When I was in high school, I would have considered myself honor-bound to report a serious crime. Drug possession I would have (and did) let slide, but I would have told a teacher if someone had had a gun. I would have drawn the line at a situation in which people could hurt someone other than themselves; I would have considered tattle-telling to be on one side of the line, but civic duty to be on the other, and I would have ratted out the kid with the gun out of a sense of responsibility and morality, not a sense of greed.
Adding money to the equation here is sending the message that monetary desire should drive these sorts of decisions, when it absolutely should not, and it also leaves the impression that kids who tell are doing so just to make some extra cash. I would have been furious back in the day had anyone suggested that I made the tough decision to tell on another student for money, and students should be just as furious about the suggestion now.
Update: Linked to Wizbang's 10 Spot trackbacks.
UC Santa Cruz junior Jonathan Perez dressed in a suit and tie Tuesday, hoping to impress company recruiters at the campus job fair. But more than 200 student anti-war protesters got there first, storming the Stevenson Event Center, shouting and banging on windows and demanding that military recruiters in the corner of the room leave.The noisy sit-in ended after an hour of chaos and tension when military representatives vacated their posts. Student protesters hugged each other happily after administrators allowed them to hand out information on alternatives to military careers and agreed to a meeting to discuss future job fairs.
They're college students, and yet they're thrilled that they were able to deny others the opportunity to learn about military careers by hooting and hollering like a bunch of children. I take this as a tacit admission by them that these students aren't capable of arguing intelligently against the military or the war. This laughable, pretentious letter by a bunch of members of Students Against War doesn't convince me otherwise, because their message boils down to, "We don't care that we inconvenienced people or disrupted the job fair, because our concerns about the military are much more important than the needs or wants of the unlightened masses."
Know-nothing elitism at its finest, folks.
Update: Illuminaria's Voice has much, much more (and a spiffy new design for the site). You have to love a blogger who starts by saying, "I simply cannot express how absolutely disgusting I find this behavior," and then continues on for another good two paragraphs. She also invites readers to email the planners of this ridiculous stunt.
Oh Lord, this silly theory is making the rounds again (I've addressed it previously). Will we ever be free of the ridiculous "educational" idea that the color of an "A" or an "F" matters more than the learning behind them?
At Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Conn., teachers are no longer grading papers in red ink. Parents complained that students get stressed out by red ink. Blue and other colors are now being used. Red has become so symbolic of negativity that some principals and teachers across the country are not touching it.Joseph Foriska, the principal of Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pa., has instructed his teachers to grade with colors with more "pleasant-feeling tones" so that their instructional messages do not come across as derogatory or demeaning.
Yet the one teacher interviewed at the end of the article says that she uses different colors because her kids are so used to red that they tune it out. So we're supposed to believe that red ink is both horribly traumatic and completely ignorable. Mm-hmm.
For the record, teachers should use whatever ink color they please. Principals should stay out of it. And there's a whole lot of psychic energy being wasted here by educators who should be worrying about much more important topics.
Good sense on campus in Louisiana? Or a violation of the Fourth Amendment?
Saturday night is Erath High's school prom, something many students have been looking forward to. But before they enter the gymnasium where the celebration is being held, they must pass a very important test, a breathalyzer. And while the theme of the prom is a surprise, the test is not.
School officials will insist that they will just be calling parents, not the police. That's some consolation, I guess, but I'm curious as to what the "drunk/not drunk" standard will be.
As much as teachers complain about tests like the PRAXIS, I can't imagine what they'll say about this kind of assessment:
A state lawmaker has suggested Hawaii's public schoolteachers be forced to weigh in as part of the fight against obesity in students, KITV in Honolulu reported. [Hawai'i] State Rep. Rida Cabanilla introduced a resolution in the house requesting that the Board of Education establish an obesity database among public schoolteachers."You cannot keep a kid to a certain standard that you yourself is not willing to keep," Cabanilla said...The resolution calls for all public schoolteachers to weigh in every six months.
Not surprisingly, the union has already spoken:
The teachers union said it agrees that teachers are at the front line when it comes to the education and health of children, but it says the resolution is misguided. "I think at this point and time, the focus really needs to be on putting highly-qualified teachers in the classroom," Hawaii State Teachers Association President Roger Takabayashi said.
New catchphrase for the HSTA - "Highly-qualified teachers come in all sizes!"
Would you be upset if your child's elementary school was named after a former president who also owned slaves?
Parents, students and teachers at Berkeley's Thomas Jefferson Elementary School will soon vote on whether to rename their school because the nation's third president was a slave owner. The question of whether to rename the school has been debated for more than two years -- since several teachers, including an African American mother of three former Jefferson students, said Jefferson's moniker offended them and suggested a name change.
Found via Joanne, who also notes that California's graduation rate is at a low 71%, with only "about half of California's African American and Latino ninth-grade boys graduat[ing] from high school within four years." Doesn't that suggest that debating a school's name change for two years was a bit of waste of time and energy?
And I can't even deal with this - it makes my head hurt. I guess it's okay to be "imperfect" as long as you're PC about it.
At West Seattle High School, the organization Operation Support Our Troops provided three pro-military speakers for what they were told would be a balanced presentation of issues surrounding the war. Instead, they walked into the most moonbattish spectacle you could imagine:
Three invited pro-military speakers were shocked last Friday when they arri