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Earl Aagaard’s opinions about everything that interests him. Og also enjoys gardening, travel, reading, woodbutchery, and lots of other stuff.
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Education
Sunday, November 26, 2006
BRITAIN IS FIGHTING BACK…...
Scores of officials from the government fan out across the country to check on what parents are teaching their children…..what can Tony Blair’s minions be worried about? Hatred for the pigs and dogs that are the Jews and infidels? The culture of alcohol that produces England’s “yobs” and embarrasses every decent Briton at most soccer matches? The “tart-culture” and fatherlessness that ravages English society’s family life?
No, no…..it’s all about the nursery rhymes, don’t you see? You think I’m kidding, don’t you? You think that someone in England started a rival to The Onion…
I wish…..
LATEST SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE…..
“10 is the new 15” is the headline.
...child development experts say that physical and behavioral changes that would have been typical of teenagers decades ago are now common among “tweens” - kids ages 8 to 12.
I can believe the behavioral changes, but I need to see actual data for the physical - it reads a bit like an attempt by the adults to avoid responsibility for depriving their kids of their childhood.
Some of them are going on “dates” and talking on their own cell phones. They listen to sexually charged pop music, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace. And more girls are wearing makeup and clothing that some consider beyond their years.
Family Matters • Miscellany • Education • SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE • Comments •
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
IF YOU’RE A PARENT WITH A KID GOING TO COLLEGE, *THIS* IS GOING TO HURT….
And if you’re a parent with a kid that is someday going to go to college, you’re involved, too…...
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has a report out…..and the news isn’t good.
The average amount of study time is roughly half the amount that professors think is necessary for adequate progress. Students find that college is a fun environment and most of them decide that they don’t want class preparation to get in the way of other activities….the NSSE figures show that many college students get little practice in writing….the NSSE data appear to show that large numbers of students are only marginally interested in their coursework since they say that they only “sometimes” or never discuss it….All in all, NSSE gives a picture of American college students that tells us that many appear to coast through their courses without putting in a great deal of effort. This view is entirely consistent with the data in the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (which I wrote about here) showing low and declining levels of literacy among college graduates.
Monday, September 18, 2006
HOW ARE PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGES AND STOCK QUOTES ALIKE?
Well, they’re pretty much equivalent in the Milwaukee public school system, apparently.
An arbitration board, ruling on a teacher’s appeal of his firing after he was caught viewing a porn site on his school computer one Sunday, said it wasn’t legitimate to fire him because another teacher, who had been looking at stock quotes on a school computer, was only reprimanded.
Don’t believe it? Read the NEWSPAPER STORY
Then you can read the actual DECISION OF THE ARBITRATORS, and retch.
These days, in a lot of places, sending your children to public schools is a form of child abuse.
Hat Tip: My brother Victor
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
DO “COMPUTERS IN THE CLASSROOM” REALLY HELP CHILDREN LEARN?
If you’re a certified “technophobe”, then this is going to seem like overwhelming reinforcement of your prejudice. For most of us, who love technology, but may have been a bit suspicious of the “educratic” suggestion that Johnnie’s problem with reading could be solved by spending mega-bucks wiring every classroom to the World Wide Web, it comes as a confirmation of basic common sense.
“at the elementary school level and below, there is little evidence of lasting gains and much evidence of harm from hours spent in front of screens,” be they television, video game, or computer screens.
Duh….. READ the whole thing…..
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
NO MORE DOCTORATES IN “EDUCATION”!!
Honestly, I can’t say it any better than this:
University programs that prepare people for leadership posts in elementary and secondary education range from “inadequate to appalling,” and the Ed.D. degree that many of them receive should be eliminated, according to a report issued on Monday by Arthur E. Levine, president of Columbia University’s Teachers College.
Who would know better than the man who runs the Teachers College? READ the whole thing….
Monday, March 07, 2005
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION SHOWS HARVARD THE WAY…......
Remember that LAWRENCE SUMMERS, the President of Harvard University, got into trouble for suggesting, in some INFORMAL REMARKS at an academic conference, that there might be factors other than discrimination that explained why there are so many more men than women in Math and Engineering professorships. SOME FOLKS thought that this kind of “stirring the pot” was healthy at an academic institution…..that vigorous debate on the subject might bring us all a little closer to the truth about the situation.
OTHERS, of course, just wanted him to shut up, so they wouldn’t have to deal with ideas so uncongenial to their current opinions…...
Now, the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION has stepped up to demonstrate to the academics in Boston how scientific questions can be debated, and perhaps even solved, by a free exchange of views among secure individuals who seek out the data and actually incorporate it into their arguments.
The article resists “sound-biting”, so you’re going to have to read it yourself if you are interested. But, it’s not overly long, and VERY interesting—I recognized a number of things from my own childhood, and from watching my kids…...
The long and the short of it is that we don’t know the answer to the questions addressed by Lawrence Summers—what we DO know is that he’s correct that there is something more going on than simple discrimination against girls. In today’s world, that dog won’t hunt!
Reading
- BlogsForDummies :)
Web resources
- Arts & Letters Daily
- Ravi Zacharias
- Southern Adventist University
- The SAU Biology Deptartment - where I work with a bunch of very neat people.
- Venezuelan news—FROM Venezuela