Category: Education

The G I Bill

When I left the US Army in 1971 I wanted to use my GI Bill benefits for my education….the only thing that I ever asked of my country for my service…..I got the education I wanted and think that all service people should have a good GI Bill.

The Trump admin has signed into law a new GI Bill…..

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law an updated veterans’ education bill that marks the largest expansion of college assistance for military veterans in a decade.

The Forever GI Act immediately removed a 15-year time limit on the use of GI benefits. The measure also increases financial assistance for thousands serving in the National Guard and Reserve, building on a 2008 law that guaranteed veterans a full-ride scholarship to any in-state public university, or a similar cash amount to attend private colleges.

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, who joined Trump for the signing, said the new law also provides benefits to Purple Heart recipients whose injuries forced them to leave the service. Benefits can also now be transferred to the eligible dependent of service members who are killed in the line of duty.

Veterans would get additional payments for completing science, technology and engineering courses, part of a broad effort to better prepare veterans for life after active-duty service amid a fast-changing job market. The law also restores benefits if a college closes in the middle of the semester, a protection that was added after thousands of veterans were hurt by the collapse of for-profit college giant ITT Technical Institute and Corinthian Colleges.

“This is expanding our ability to support our veterans in getting education,” Shulkin told reporters at a briefing after Trump signed the measure at his New Jersey golf club upon returning there after two nights at his home at New York’s Trump Tower. Journalists were not permitted to watch Trump sign the bill, as the White House has done for earlier veterans’ legislation he has turned into law. That includes a measure Trump signed at the club Saturday to provide nearly $4 billion in emergency funding for a temporary veterans health care program.

Glad to see that the troops are still foremost on the minds of our government….

It falls short of what I wanted to see…..the first four years of a public college would be free as long as a C+ average was maintained.  I believe that is a small price to pay for what we ask our troops to accomplish.

Meeting Of The Psi Phi Society

First let me wish all the Fathers that follow and read IST a very Happy Father’s Day.  Enjoy your special day.

Yesterday I got to watch the start of 24 hrs du Le Mans……as a sports car racing fan this is a must…..I am pulling for the Ford GT and the Toyota in the “hybrid” category…..had to take a break from the race to attend my meeting…..

To celebrate the race I am preparing a Cassoulet served with a fine white Bordeaux and a baguette….very French…….oui?

The Psi Phi Society has nothing to do with science fiction or the channel on cable (SyFy)……it is just a friendly (mostly) discussion group that meets a couple times a year.

My Sunday begins and I would like to talk about the meeting of the Psi Phi Society…..we have our get together at a local steak house and hold our discussions and debates.

After our meal we settle in with a cocktail and decide what the topic will be for the evening…..the group is me and another professor, a preacher, a scientist (chemist), a nurse, a contractor and a local artist.

As you would imagine with a diverse group there would be diverse opinions on what the discuss….after about an hour of debate my fellow professor, a historian, brought up a topic that we all found interesting….what race were the Greeks and Romans?  (To be honest she picked up the check for all of us as a bribe to discuss her topic)

She brought up a paper that she had read recently on this subject…..to be on equal footing we asked the owner of the steakhouse (a friend) if he would print out the paper so that we could read it and then debate…..

Recent films about ancient Greece such as Troy, Helen of Troy, and 300, have used actors who are of Anglo-Saxon or Celtic ancestry (e.g. Brad Pitt, Gerard Butler). Recent films about ancient Rome, such as Gladiator and HBO’s series Rome, have done the same (e.g. Russell Crowe). Were the directors right, from an historical point of view? Were the ancient Greeks and Romans of North European stock?

Most classical historians today are silent on the subject. For example, Paul Cartledge, a professor of Greek culture at Cambridge, writes about his specialty, Sparta, for educated but non-academic readers, yet nowhere that I can find does he discuss the racial origins of the Spartans. Some years ago I asked several classics professors about the race of the ancient Greeks only to be met with shrugs that suggested that no one knew, and that it was not something worth looking into. Today, an interest in the race of the ancients seems to be taken as an unhealthy sign, and any evidence of their Nordic origins discounted for fear it might give rise to dangerous sentiments.

Source: What Race Were the Greeks and Romans? – The Unz Review

The discussion went into the late evening.

Me?

I came down on the side that the Greeks were of Minoan descent because they were great seafaring people and opened up new lands for colonies and settlements….thus Romans were descendants of these people as well…therefore olive skin with dark hair.

The evening ended when I got a call from a friend in Lebanon and had to cut my evening short.

We did decide to have another meeting next month…..

If you read the paper then….what do you think?

Settling in for a good a restful day and in prep for Monday and a new week……after all it is Father’s day….I hope everyone enjoys their special day……plus the race should be ending shortly…..Peace Out……chuq

Nothing Better Than An Education!

Happy Easter…if you celebrate that sort of thing……

First some breaking news….I appears that the much anticipated North Korean missile test this weekend was a …….Failure……yes I said….FAILURE.

Another beautiful Spring Sunday….garden is going nicely, blueberries are about ready to harvest and my granddaughter is playing her flute for me……not a better day to be found.

My regulars know that I am a huge supporter of education…this country can go no further than it has without an educated populace.

I recently posted on something I read about education in Rhode Island……(in case you missed my post)…..

Source: Closing Thought–11Apr17 – In Saner Thought

Well I read another educational piece about the state of New York…..it seems that they are trying to make a 4 year college education free for poor and middle class students……

New York will be the only state in the country to offer universal public college tuition coverage for working- and middle-class residents after the program was included in the budget package approved Sunday night.

The state’s Excelsior Scholarship program will be rolled out in tiers over the next three years, starting with full coverage of four-year college tuition this fall for students whose families make less than $100,000.

Source: New York Becomes Only State to Offer Free Four-Year College – NBC News

A damn capital idea….this should be policy in ALL 50 states…..

Thoughts?

That is my post for the day (you only get one on the weekends)…..I will enjoy family and the beautiful weather…..not long until the 100 degree days return…..enjoy the weather while you can……

Thanx for all your visits in the past week and I look forward to the coming week….so much stuff and so little time……

I will be back in the morrow with more stuff and more thoughts…..peace out….my friends….chuq

Closing Thought–11Apr17

The Future Is Education!

I have been calling for some sort of free college education for our citizens…..I have always believed that education was the key to a great society….shame not many see it that way…..

I recently read a plan in the state of Rhode Island that I approve of and should be the same in all 50 states.

Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo plans today to propose that the state offer two tuition-free years for full-time students in public higher education.

Students at the Community College of Rhode Island would pay no tuition while earning an associate degree. For state residents who start at Rhode Island College or the University of Rhode Island, their junior and senior years would be tuition-free. There is no income limit, although the public system in Rhode Island serves many more low-income students than wealthy students.

Source: Rhode Island governor proposes two free years of public higher education

A capital idea!

Closing Thought–13Jan17

“Seven Days In May”

I finished my course on Terrorism about mid-December….the students were a lot more informed than most give them credit….of course there is always one that wants to challenge everything one says….but that makes the course interesting….I was feeling a bit sad because I would not be lecturing this year….at least for now.

Then I got a bit of good news….a friend read an op-ed that I had written for Ace News Room….he contacted me and said that he thought it would make a good mini course….about 3-4 weeks long.

In case the reader would like to check out the op-ed……

Did you ever see the movie mentioned in the title? It was a movie from the 1960’s (more on that shortly)….with biggies of the day…Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster….an excellent novel and a good movie.

Source: “Seven Days In May” | Ace News Room

My friend and colleague has decide to approach the dean about a course on coup d’etat….we will see if anyone else is interested in the subject.

The course would include and intro to what a coup d’etat is and then a history of the act and then what goes into preparing and executing the coup…..there is more to this subject than just a label.

It would make for interesting course and one that the students could walk away from with more knowledge than they had when they walked in.  It should be a required course of study for anyone majoring in Conflict analysis and management…..

That is all for me today my friends….do as I do….try to enjoy your weekend….there will be time for more of this stuff next week.

Closing Thought–22Dec16

School is out and a visit from my granddaughter….our conversation rolled around to school and education…..she asked a billion question about my time in school and we compared notes…

She then asked me why some people seem to disparage people that are educated…..a damn good question…..

I remember back in my younger days when my mother was determined that I get an education and then a good job and on and on….what we use to call the American Dream.

When I quit college after a year and enlisted in the Army she, my mother, was noticeably disappointed in my choice…..she was concerned that once I returned that I would settle for something less than she thought was best (a typical mother)……or that I would follow in my father’s footsteps and make the military a career.

I made her day when after the service I returned to school and finished my BS degree….sadly she passed before I finished all my studies….but I would like to think she is proud of what I have accomplished.

My hard work got me a good job with good wages, travel and life experience.

But these days to be educated, at least in some circles, makes you an outsider.  Today if you are educated and voice an opinion from a scholarly point of view then you are labeled many derogatory things……like an apologist or a bleeding heart or a socialist or something worse…today I am a “globalist”….(if the users had spent more time in school and less time with their head up their butt then they would know that they are using the term wrongly)

If you are an academic or scholarly or even opinionated then you are the dregs of society…you are a know nothing….and stupid……that is unless you agree with their warped sense of society….then you are a patriot even possibly a saint.

There is a certain sector of our society that cannot tolerate being wrong….that their opinions are the ONLY opinions……they do not want a society of thinkers but a society of head bobbing sheep…..people who will NOT question the reasoning of the day….or the warped reasoning of their minions.

These are the same “people” that wear flag pins, have bumper stickers and use the term patriotic and hero ad nauseum……and will label anyone that will not conform as un-American and a whole array of other labels that make absolutely NO sense.

The direction of the country appears to be one that I am concerned about….it has been coming for a long time but now it is front and center….to be educated in America is a negative……now where have I seen this before? (That is a history question that may require Google for some)

People are worried about a Pres. Trump….I am also….but when I start seeing terms like “traitor” and “cancer” applied to another American then we have a PROBLEM.

Closing Thought–06Dec16

On Homeschooling……

I have been against homeschooling from the get go…..but I have been reconsidering the possibility…..I have seen what “Common Core” is doing to my granddaughter…it is nothing more than tests and evaluations….the students are not learning just prep work for tests.

This is not the way to get a good well rounded education.

But there are some, mostly idiots, that blame all on teachers……the GOP has had a hard on education since the late 1980’s……their accusations are a pure myth……

Until about 1980, America’s public schoolteachers were iconic everyday heroes painted with a kind of Norman Rockwell patina—generally respected because they helped most kids learn to read, write and successfully join society. Such teachers made possible at least the idea of a vibrant democracy.

Since then, what a turnaround: We’re now told, relentlessly, that bad-apple schoolteachers have wrecked K-12 education; that their unions keep legions of incompetent educators in classrooms; that part of the solution is more private charter schools; and that teachers as well as entire schools lack accountability, which can best be remedied by more and more standardized “bubble” tests.

What led to such an ignoble fall for teachers and schools? Did public education really become so irreversibly terrible in three decades? Is there so little that’s redeemable in today’s schoolhouses?

Source: The Myth Behind Public School Failure by Dean Paton — YES! Magazine

And the myths spread by morons will likely get much louder with Trump’s pick for SecEd…….it is a dismal turn……

Betsy DeVos May Complete The Big Money Takeover Of Our Nation’s Schools

…what DeVos represents in a very great sense is how rich people’s grip on the nation’s public education system has reached a choking point. No doubt, education policy led by Trump and DeVos will differ from the previous administration, but what’s staying the same is how wealthy private interests will strongly influence policies. Grasping this essential truth matters a lot in the “nasty” politics of education today, where the real debate is not so much about charters and choice as it is about who is in control.

The concept of education for profit is slinking itself through the system to become the rule of the land……

If the American Dream is still alive – the one that includes a good job and a house with a yard, kids, and a two-car garage – you can see it taking shape in Wake County in the heart of the state of North Carolina. Signs of surging prosperity are everywhere this morning as I make my way to West Lake Middle School in Apex, NC, on the outskirts of Raleigh.

What were once sleepy two-lane country roads are now teaming with impatient commuters, school busses, and mini-vans. New housing developments, shopping centers, and office buildings are transforming the rolling Piedmont landscape

Source: Tar Heel Heist: How the Charter School Industry is Hijacking Public Education | Alternet

If you truly care about your child’s education then I would suggest that you watch these developments closely….you could be next.

I read on……… op-ed written by a homeschooler……

Homeschooling is going mainstream. There are more resources than ever before. If you’ve considered homeschooling, there’s never been a better time to start.

Homeschoolers are a diverse bunch. Our teaching approaches and learning philosophies vary. Our politics run the gamut and our visions of education reform differ greatly. Yet, despite these contrasts, homeschoolers are remarkably similar. I recently asked a large, eclectic group of homeschooling parents why they chose this education option for their children. Key homeschooling features like “freedom,” and “time,” and “flexibility,” and “individualization” were common drivers for all.

Source: It’s a Great Time to Be a Homeschooler | Foundation for Economic Education

If I were younger and this was happening to our educational system then I would have probably homeschooled my daughter….she would have gotten a better education than she would have got from Common Core….I thank the spirit that I did not have to make that decision…..

Thoughts?

Why A Professor Watchlist?

In recent news I have seen a disturbing trend starting…and as usual the MSM sees little entertainment value in covering such news…..

It appears that some of the more autocratic conservatives have started a “professor watchlist”….they are afraid of anyone teaching some liberal views to students.

I think this is a dangerous trend in learning….my students are given both sides of a subject, when acceptable, and they make up their own minds….these rabid d/bags want to teach their brand of history, et al…..

Kinda reminds me of a couple of situations in history….1920’s Italy and 1930’s Germany…to me…it is not a rounded education if only one side or idea is taught.

This is an op-ed by a professor about this invasion of “free thought”…..

From a “critique” of my work on the recently launched website Professor Watchlist, I learned that I’m a threat to my students for contending that we won’t end men’s violence against women “if we do not address the toxic notions about masculinity in patriarchy … rooted in control, conquest, aggression.”

Source: Why Professor Watchlist Gets My Teaching Values Completely Wrong | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

This effort is just plain WRONG!  If you believe in a complete education then you should fight this type of slander tooth and nail….or just sit back and see what this will bring….that was done before and ended badly.

 

How Important Is Education?

To me the answer is…..an absolute necessity.

When I left the service of my country I asked for one thing and one thing only…..an education….and I was fortune enough to get my request.  So education in my book should be free and public from K-12….it should NOT be a money making industry….period.

Pres. trump has made his selection for Sec of Education…..and what do we know about her…yes he chose a woman…..

Education will be set back a 100 years…..once again it will be the wealthy and privileged that get the good education…..

But her best statement….was this……

Now that we know President-elect Donald Trump has tapped right-wing megadonor Betsy DeVos as his pick to lead the Department of Education, now is a good time to examine some of the many shady organizations she’s funded.

One such organization is the Acton Institute, a think tank on whose board DeVos has served, and whose self-described goal is “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.”

And one way to promote a virtuous society, it seems, is to bring back child labor.

Source: Think Tank Funded by Trump’s Education Secretary Pick Advocated Bringing Back Child Labor | Alternet

I do not see the GOP in Congress growing a set of nuts and challenging Trump on much at all….

I was giving Trump some time to make his picks…..but so far I have little confidence that this will be an admin for ALL Americans.

Charter Schools: The Perfect Con

Since the announcement of the great idea for solving the problem of education in the US, the Charter Schools, I have been telling my readers the news that the media will not tell them about this con job on the American public.

The media has taken it upon itself to use the issue to brain wash the public into accepting the perfect con….originally I called it “education by lotto”……thanx to the media the idea of this con had grown into a major solution for public education….the problem is the MSM only reports on the successes that they can isolate and seldom mentions all the failures and snags in the program.

Charter schools pretend to be public and non-profit while pocketing big bucks and paying no taxes.

Charter schools are big business, even when they are run by “non-profits” that pay no taxes on the revenue they receive from public taxes or other sources.

Take KIPP, which describes itself as a “national network of public schools.”

KIPP (an acronym for the phrase “knowledge is power program”) operates like a franchise with the KIPP Foundation as the franchisor and the individual charters as franchisees that are all separate non-profits that describe themselves as “public schools.”

Source: Big Business Charter School Chains Seek Millions in Taxpayer Dollars With No Accountability | Alternet

So they get a states tax revenue to operate?  But these same states cannot find the cash for public education……now are you not glad you voted GOP?

This is the perfect con on the voters…..propaganda and indoctrination works and works well.

Education is too important to allow it to be a profit making enterprise……the US educational system has been suffering for decades thanx to the idiots that slash budgets in an attempt to make it fail so privatization will be the only answer……but will this solve all the problems with education……like why our math scores suck?

For years now, America’s elementary and middle school students have been showing steady gains in test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This has happened even as the underlying demographics of the public school population have shifted to include a larger mix of poor kids, nonwhites, and kids whose parents don’t speak English.

High school test scores, by contrast, stagnated during the early years of this process. But optimists hoped and assumed that when the higher-scoring elementary school kids got older and moved into the high school population, we would start seeing results. It’s now become clear that’s not happening. On the contrary, even as America’s ninth-graders keep doing better and better, its 12th-graders are doing worse and worse.

Source: The biggest mystery in American education, in one chart – Vox

This is just one problem……but turning it into a corporate enterprise is NOT the answer.