Tag: Educational Issues

Closing Thought–11Apr24

My next door neighbor, I live in Mississippi, is trying to criminalize librarians….Alabama has a law in consideration that would do just that…..

The Alabama Library Association and other critics on Wednesday called out the state’s Republican policymakers for pushing a new bill that opponents warn will unfairly jail librarians and have a chilling impact on collections.

House Bill 385, introduced Tuesday by state Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-43) and 30 other legislators, says that “under existing law, certain obscenity laws do not apply to public libraries, public school libraries, college libraries, or university libraries, or the employees or agents of any such libraries.”

“This bill would provide that these criminal obscenity laws do not apply to college or university libraries or their employees or agents, but do apply to public libraries, public school libraries, and their employees or agents,” the legislation continues.

H.B. 385 would also add the following language to the definition of sexual conduct: “Any sexual or gender-oriented material that knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alabama-library

So sad that politicians are turning schools and libraries into political battlefields….when they should be more concerned with educating their citizens and not hindering the teachers and librarians.

It is a pathetic day when the destruction of schools take the lead in state politics.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Ignorant Takeover Of Education

As someone who cherish the education that I have been able to get I am appalled at the lack of concern by our Congress and president for the sad condition of the educational system in this country.

I received a public school education and it was a good one that prepared me to face life and especially my college.

I hate to see what my state (run by GOP lackeys) are doing to the system in Mississippi and then there is the national GOP that hates education altogether

The GOP is trying to loot public education to weaken it….the Repubs favor a voucher system and in some states are looting the public arena to fund these voucher schemes….

In North Carolina, the Republican legislature passed a voucher program with no income limit, no accountability and no requirement that children can’t already go to a private school. This radical plan will cost the state $4 billion over the next 10 years, money that could be going to fully fund our public schools. In Kentucky, legislators are trying to amend our constitution to enshrine their efforts to take taxpayer money from public schools and use it for private schools.

Our public schools serve all children. They provide transportation and meals and educate students with disabilities. And they’re accountable to taxpayers with public assessments showing how students and schools are doing and where they need to improve.

But private schools that get this taxpayer money have little to no accountability. They aren’t even required to hire licensed teachers, provide meals, transportation or services for disabled students. They don’t even have to tell the taxpayers what they teach or how their students perform. North Carolina’s voucher system has been described as “the least regulated private school voucher program in the country.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/02/26/republicans-cut-public-schools-for-private-kentucky-north-carolina/72670677007/

This is happening in most Red States and it should be stopped and stopped now!

I am a staunch supporter of public schools….matter of fact I think K-12 should be mandatory and home schooling does not equate.

I have no agreement with my public school education and I think a new standard should be brought forth.

Why do we let the ignorant among us educate our children?

Just asking?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

World’s Shortest IQ Test

What is life without whimsy?

Another Sunday and I would like to change things up a bit….no the blog will not change just the post on this day.

I got this idea after the news that our local schools would be testing the kids next week

Awhile back I saw this article and took the test (I enjoy tests….always have)…..for those interested the test is below….are you a ‘stable genius’?

If you’ve ever wanted to test your intelligence, but can’t be bothered to sit through a lengthy IQ test, we may have the perfect solution for you. The world’s shortest IQ test is made up of just three maths questions and shouldn’t take too long to complete. But be warned – it’s pretty tough!

Called the Cognitive Reflection Test, the quiz isn’t new, but was originally part of a research paper published in 2005 by MIT professor Shane Frederick. This paper has recently resurfaced online, leaving many keen to give it a go. As part of his research, Professor Frederick had more than 3,000 participants from a range of educational backgrounds complete the test – and even those attending top American universities such as Yale and Harvard struggled to work out all the answers. Of all those who took part only 17 percent managed to score three out of three on the test, meaning 83 percent of people failed – how will you fare?

1. A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

2. If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

3. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?

If you take the test leave your answers in the comments and I will give the answers later in the week.

Good luck.

Have a safe and enjoyable Sunday and we will return to our normal posting come Monday.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Assault On Education

I am a firm believer that education is one of the most valuable resource that we can give to our children…..and in the past several decades there has been an assault on the system to reinforce stereo-types, hatred, biases and fear and it has only gotten worse in the past couple of years.

This assault is lead by, surprise, surprise, the GOP….

Over the past two and a half years, Republicans across the United States have introduced nearly 380 bills aimed at establishing a climate of fear among educators, librarians, and other school officials, according to a report released Wednesday by the free expression group PEN America.

Distinct from the outright censorship measures that GOP lawmakers have unveiled in a number of U.S. states in recent years, “educational intimidation” bills “pressure educators to be more timid in the content they teach, pressure librarians to be more restrictive in the books they make available to students, and pressure students to limit their self-expression, without imposing direct prohibitions,” the new report notes.

“Put simply, these ‘educational intimidation’ provisions, as we dub them, empower the use of intimidation tactics to cast a broad chilling effect over K-12 classrooms by mandating new and intrusive forms of inspection or monitoring of schools, as well as new ways for members of the public—including, in some cases, citizens with no direct connection to the schools—to object to whatever they see that they do not like,” the report adds.

Often introduced under the guise of protecting “parental rights,” such bills require students to receive approval from their parents before taking part in any instruction related to gender identity, give parents and other state residents more power to review and protest instructional materials, prohibit school libraries from offering any material not deemed “age-appropriate,” and more.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/republican-education-bills

Then there is the under-taught subject of civics…every good citizen needs a working knowledge of how our government works….today they do not have the faintest idea what the government does….

While the idiots on the Right are worried about bathrooms, sports and ‘porn’ in the libraries….the students are functionally illiterate on the government and its duties.

The teaching of civics should be mandatory in every democracy, especially in universities. In that regard, I agree wholeheartedly with Richard Hass’s point of view. Democracy has become increasingly fragile in recent years, and only through a reemphasis on the education of citizens can this slide be reversed. No country is stronger than its people, who believe they all have an obligation to serve others, the community, the nation, and the world itself. As Kennedy famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. It is a message we still need to hear today.

To sun up….our educational system is dying, our students are ignorant and the GOP is the culprit destroying what is left of our so-called democracy.

Education should be the priority no matter which sleazy party you are a member of at the time.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Education Failing?

For years now the retention skills of American children have been dropping and the latest stats look even more disturbing..

National test scores for 13-year-olds released Wednesday showed setbacks in mastering basic skills, providing evidence that schools and students have not overcome the lost learning caused by the pandemic. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, which conducted the tests last fall, reported major drops of nine points in math scores and four points in reading from three years earlier, before the start of the pandemic, the Washington Post reports. The results sparked serious concern across the education field. “This is more than alarming,” said an educator who’s on the board that sets test policy, adding, “We really need to be concerned about what is happening here.”

The declines in what’s been called the nation’s report card put the average reading score back to where it was in 2004 and the average math score back to the 1990 level. In both subjects, scores dropped the most for students already at the bottom of the scale. Students of all races and ethnicities fell in math. But reading scores varied, with Black, multiracial, and white students posting declines while Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and Alaska Native students pretty much held steady, per the Post. Scores fell 11 points for female students overall and 7 for male students, per CNN. Roughly 8,700 students in 460 schools took the test.

The drop in scores has been pronounced since the pandemic first disrupted schools, but student performance already was in decline, per the New York Times; the questions are designed to spot long-term trends. Action is needed, said a junior high school math teacher from Colorado and member of the governing board. Researchers and policy analysts should help identify the most effective methods for teachers and schools, said Mark Miller, who considers the situation urgent. “It’s like the alarm has gone off,” he said.

History and civics scores are at a record low.

Ignorant students make ignorant voters.

I blame local school boards….they spend more time worrying about bathrooms and what books are acceptable and less time on the quality of the student’s education.

I blame the voters for not caring about their children’s education enough to learn the issues other than some divisive crap.

School boards should not be a political position.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

DeSantis War On Education

The mini dictator of Florida has been attacking education at every turn….and his newest attack goes a bit far….well most of the attacks go too far in my opinion….

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his campaign on Monday against what he views as “woke” ideology in the education system. The governor and presumptive 2024 presidential candidate signed into law a measure that prohibits the state’s public colleges and universities from spending money on what are known as DEI initiatives, or diversity, equity, and inclusion, reports the Washington Post. “DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination,” said DeSantis Monday at New College of Florida in Sarasota.

He also banned courses that, in the law’s language, “distort significant historical events,” teach “identity politics,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities,” per the Orlando Sentinel. Under the legislation, Florida colleges will have to review courses and majors offered to students and ditch ones that cover what DeSantis deems “niche” areas such as critical race theory. “Florida is getting out of that game,” DeSantis said. “If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley—go to some of these other places.” Some opposing views rounded up in coverage:

  • “The government has no role in banning or censoring subject matter in higher education,” says Andrew Gothard, head of United Faculty Florida, which represents faculty members across the state.
  • “It’s basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy,” says Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors.
  • “Indoctrination drives the DeSantis agenda not because he is worried educators are indoctrinating students, but because they aren’t indoctrinating them with HIS ideology,” says Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones.

Florida is not alone in this war on education…..almost every Red State has some form of attacks….all of which are a march toward authoritarianism.

There are no commanding visions of public education at work in the United States. These are dark times for education, teachers, librarians, Black youth, trans people, young people and the empowering principles of academic freedom, critical thinking, civic courage, and a shared notion of citizenship. Since the 1950s, and especially since the 1980s with the election of Ronald Reagan as President, there has been an intense struggle both to privatize public schooling and to corporatize higher education.[1] In its updated and expanded version, the current far right extremists in the Republican Party are waging a naked attack “on the very existence of public education.”[2] In the first half of the 20th century, the established conservative common sense operated off the assumption that the central purpose of education was to prepare students at different levels for their station in the workplace or in the larger global corporate order. A growing far right version of the conservative movement increasingly argued that the idea of schooling as a public and common good was anathema. Schools were now disparaged as government schools or even worse, “socialist training camps.”[3]According to these assassins of public education, schools had become a byproduct of a government that used them to enforce a poisonous notion citizenship defined through the values of equity, freedom, justice, and equality.[4]

Public Education as a Domestic Machinery of Indoctrination and Disposability in the Age of Fascist Politics

These attacks are doing nothing to make this a better country.

If anything it is dumbing down our children which makes for more pliable adults….so far it is working like a clock.

We need to be vigilant or we will lose everything we have worked for in the past.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ignorance At A Young Age

May the fourth be with you! (Happy Star Wars Day)

I am a proponent of a total education….especially in history and civics for without a knowledge of these essentials then an educated citizenry will be pliable to the ideas and programs of authoritarianism…..as we see today in our beloved country.

I bring all this up because of something I read the other day about our children and their knowledge…..

For instance…..you know the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware on his way to the successful attack in New Jersey during the Revolutionary War…..a recent study found that many students struggle to identify the standing man in the small boat….(hint:  It was George Washington)

Far too many American students are failing to learn the basics about their country’s history and how their government operates, according to the assessment known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The average history score among eighth-graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dropped five points between 2018 and 2022 to 258, the lowest on record, NPR reports. In 1994, the first year of assessment, the average score was 259. Civics scores also dropped for the first time in the assessment’s history. According to the findings, only 14% percent of American eighth-graders are proficient in US history and 22% are proficient in civics.

 
8th-Graders' History Scores Hit Record Low

Far too many American students are failing to learn the basics about their country’s history and how their government operates, according to the assessment known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” The average history score among eighth-graders on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) dropped five points between 2018 and 2022 to 258, the lowest on record, NPR reports. In 1994, the first year of assessment, the average score was 259. Civics scores also dropped for the first time in the assessment’s history. According to the findings, only 14% percent of American eighth-graders are proficient in US history and 22% are proficient in civics.

NAEP carries out the assessment on a nationally representative group of students from more than 400 public and private schools every four years. Results released last year showed steep drops in reading and math scores. Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, called the history and civics results a “national concern,” the Washington Post reports. Too many students, she said, are struggling to “understand and explain the importance of civic participation, how American government works and the historical significance of events.”

The NAEP found that around 68% of eighth-graders are taking classes focused on US history, down from 72% in 2018, AP reports. Around half were taking classes focused on civics or government. In a statement, US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the report “further affirms the profound impact the pandemic had on student learning in subjects beyond math and reading,” though the Post notes that the decline in history scores began in 2014. Cardona added: “Banning history books and censoring educators from teaching these important subjects does our students a disservice and will move America in the wrong direction.”

This says it all and the best example of how destructive moronic programs that limit education have become.

Students are no longer teach what it means to be American…..a good education is a unifying characteristic which teaches students that we are all in this together…..nit the crap they are forced to teach these days.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

15,000 And Counting

That is the total amount of books that have been pulled from the shelves of libraries in the first part of 2023.

GOP led states is rushing to ban books and limit the excess to us mere peons.

New laws imposed by right-wing state legislatures have been a driving force behind a rise in book bans since the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, a national free expression group reported Thursday.

PEN America’s new report, Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools, reveals that 874 unique titles were pulled from public school library shelves from July-December 2022, the result of 1,477 individual book bans.

That represents a 28% rise from the first half of 2022, and the group said the escalation is largely due to state-level “stringent policies that schools must abide by when reviewing existing library collections.”

The states that have banned the most books include Texas and Florida—where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed legislation to restrict teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ issues in classrooms and where some schools were directed to empty or cover bookshelves in order to comply with the new laws.

Just seven districts in Texas were behind 438 individual book bans and 13 school districts in Florida were responsible for 357 bans.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-book-bans-schools

I find this intolerable….I mean my mother never told me what I could read so why should the Nanny State GOP governments?

I mean she found my Playboy when I was 14 or 15….after looking through the pages she had one question….are those tits fir real?  Tossed the Playboy onto my bed and nothing more was ever said.

I had a very cool mother.

How far will these demented toads go?

I really do not want to find out…..do you?

All this makes me think of a term from the not so distant past….Nanny State (warning:  post will be forthcoming)

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

To Capture The Hearts And Minds

The whole country has fallen prey to the warmongering tools of the M-IC….it has wormed it’s way into Congress and even into our higher education….

I can attest to the power that the War Department has over higher education….I was head hunted in college to work for a think tank that was majorly funded by the War Department….I chose another route for my education….as an antiwar person I refused their offer for I would not work for a group that justified war of any type.

But the M-IC is heavily involved with higher education…..

Throughout history, most academics have been the witting or unwitting servants of power. Socrates was accused of failing to honor the gods of Athens and corrupting the youth with his ideas. He was canceled in the ultimate way: sentenced to die. Aristotle, by contrast, tutored the young Alexander the Great, future King of Macedonia, which at the time was occupying Athens. During the rebellion, Aristotle fled to save his skin.

Today, some academics refusing to toe the line are also threatened with death. Chicago University’s John Mearsheimer was placed on the US-funded Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation’s blacklist, where he and others, including myself, were accused of committing “informational terrorism” by expressing fact-based opinions about the war with Russia. At the same time that Ukrainian fascists were placing me on their list, a cabal of liberal staff at my military-funded institution, the University of Plymouth (UK), terminated my position without warning or right of reply.

If we look at the US imperial apparatus, we see that higher education plays a major role.

The Military-Intelligentsia Complex: How Higher Education Enables US Militarism

Then there is the fact that the M-IC wholly owns our do-nothing Congress (do nothing in the sense that the country goes to Hell while they enable war and denies help to the people of the country)

It’s important to note that the $842 billion proposed price tag for the Pentagon next year will only be the beginning of what taxpayers will be asked to shell out in the name of “defense.” If you add in nuclear weapons work at the Department of Energy and small amounts of military spending spread across other agencies, you’re already at a total military budget of $886 billion. And if last year is any guide, Congress will add tens of billions of dollars extra to that sum, while yet more billions will go for emergency aid to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s brutal invasion. In short, we’re talking about possible total spending of well over $950 billion on war and preparations for more of it — within striking distance, in other words, of the $1 trillion mark that hawkish officials and pundits could only dream about a few short years ago.

The ultimate driver of that enormous spending spree is a seldom-commented-upon strategy of global military overreach, including 750 U.S. military bases scattered on every continent except Antarctica, 170,000 troops stationed overseas, and counterterror operations in at least 85 — no, that is not a typo — countries (a count offered by Brown University’s Costs of War Project). Worse yet, the Biden administration only seems to be preparing for more of the same. Its National Defense Strategy, released late last year, manages to find the potential for conflict virtually everywhere on the planet and calls for preparations to win a war with Russia and/or China, fight Iran and North Korea, and continue to wage a global war on terror, which, in recent times, has been redubbed “countering violent extremism.” Think of such a strategic view of the world as the exact opposite of the “diplomacy first” approach touted by President Joe Biden and his team during his early months in office. Worse yet, it’s more likely to serve as a recipe for conflict than a blueprint for peace and security.

Congress Has Been Captured by the Arms Industry

All this just proves my point that Congress and the White House are owned by the defense industry….and that does not bode well for the poor or the needy in this country.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

What Happened To Civics Education?

I have been bitching here on IST about the ignorance the American people have on the subject of civics.

Everyday the news is packed full of incidences that illustrate the extent of the ignorance we have on the subject.

This article touches on this problem and some possible solutions.

The week of March 6 is Civic Learning Week, spearheaded by the civic-education network iCivics and marked by a gathering of civics educators and organizations in Washington, D.C. Not only is civics education a worthy cause — it is a critical one. Our nation depends on thoughtful and active citizenship for its very existence.

In a time when so much of our public discourse focuses on what divides us, it is worth remembering that we are all a part of the American political tradition. Left, right, and center — we would all do well to reflect on the tradition that makes us shareholders in a great, diverse, and idealistic nation, and why we should each do our part to keep this tradition alive through civic education. As a self-governing people, we must promulgate and reinforce the central ideas of America at every level of education and in every community.

Yet we have neglected civic education for a generation or more.

First, the progressive movement of the early 20th century challenged traditional American concepts of self-government. Instead, progressives celebrated the administrative state as a solution to the increasing complexity of society’s problems. Rather than solving problems through representative democracy, progressive leaders delegated problems to bureaucracies, and so there arose a professional expert class of civil servants. The knowledge of governing increasingly became a matter for specialized expertise.

Second, in the wake of these progressive innovations, schools lumped much of what was once known as civics and history under the heading of “social studies.” In the classroom, current events and issues often became more important than a deep understanding of our institutions, history, and national creed.

And third, in our haste to make students economically competent, we often overlooked the need for competence in the work of citizenship. In recent years, science, technology, engineering, and math have crowded out other subjects, including civics and history.

How We Lost Our Civics Education — and How We Can Get It Back

I feel without a knowledge of civics our whole system of government is doomed….but that is just me.

30 years ago the stage was set in stone for this wave of stupid…..

“There is a religious war going on in this country,” declared Pat Buchanan at the Republican National Convention in August 1993.   In the impassioned, game-changing speech he added, “It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as was the Cold War itself, for this war is for the soul of America.”

With that speech, Buchanan launched the current round of the culture wars three decades ago. Today, white Christian conservatism has matured into a unified religious, political and social movement exercising power at both the federal and state levels.

And “the soul of America”?  This question is, once again, being fought over.  Among those battling over the definition of America in the 21st century is those who can best identified as the new Last Ditchers.

The New “Last Ditchers”

We need to be very vigil or our beloved system will become as the dodo….and without a good knowledge of civics can save us from ourselves.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”