Headlines of the Week (Or Whatever)

When Men on the Left Refuse to See Their Sexism

White Hot Rage

On Thin Privilege

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance

The Thing Is, I’m Undocumented

What qualities make a perfect student?

From an in-class writing exercise during a teaching demonstration with an English Education professor candidate:

What qualities make a perfect student?

If perfect  means 'easy' or 'utilitarian', then I think that a perfect student would be bright, or at least neurotypical, from a relatively privileged household, with adequate elementary education. If the student is a person of color, then a higher socioeconomic status would be preferred. The student would be obedient and eager to please or impress.

In reality...

The above was my answer during the teaching demo, because I was trying to answer from a universal perspective. However, I very much enjoy my challenging students and find that they bring a perspective and a sparkle to my classes. I can't imagine a class full of obedient students with cookie cutter experiences, and don't think that I would want to.

YRE Lesson Plans for April and May

YRE Lesson Plans for April and May

On Education and Language

From my Honors Colloquium II mid-term exam:

“The teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students’ thinking. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thoughts on them.”

–Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed: The Banking Concept of Education

On Multiple Intelligences

From my weekly comments for Honors Colloquium:
 

“If I know you're very good in music, I can predict with just about zero accuracy whether you're going to be good or bad in other things.” –Howard Gardner

This week, we touched upon Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Howard Gardner was a developmental psychologist who proposed that we differentiate intelligence by modalities, rather than by primarily linguistic standards. This idea was very interesting to me, and I took several Multiple Intelligence quizzes to see how I fared.

I completed three different versions of the Multiple Intelligence assessment and came up with different answers every time. (See the chart for my results.) In theory, the assessment should identify one to three categories in which I would be the strongest; where my talents would lie, essentially. In practice, no category was a clear ‘winner’, nor was there a single ‘loser’ category. I’m either pretty alright at everything, or this theory needs some work.

While his theory is very interesting, it doesn’t seem like it has very solid criteria. One of the problems that jumped out at me, aside from my mixed results, is that, based on my understanding of the brain, logical thought and mathematical thought shouldn’t be paired. Although the fact that they are paired might serve to explain the contradictory scores that I received in that category. In the end, this theory was interesting an worthwhile to read about, right alongside phrenology.

Honors Composition Essay #3: Argument

“Does Harvard make the man or does the man make Harvard?”

There exists a popular myth regarding Oklahoma’s charter schools. This myth states that charter schools take the most motivated parents away from traditional schools, and that these parents are the cause for the success of Oklahoma’s proliferate charter schools. This idea also implies that this action, if true, is detrimental to traditional schools. Children with motivated parents, charter school opponents say, will succeed no matter what school they attend. To follow this line of thought, if all of the motivated parents from three local schools moved to a single charter school, the community would be left with one successful charter school and three failing traditional schools. This myth states that rather than the school making the student, the parent makes the student, which in turn makes the school. This is fairly illogical.

Honors Econ Research Proposal

Unemployment & the Labor Force; Definitions Thereof

We currently define the unemployment rate as the percentage of workers without jobs in our labor force. We currently define our labor force as workers who are actively looking for jobs. However, those definitions are both simplistic and problematic, excluding complicated factors and variables that keep us from arriving at a more precise unemployment rate.

Mario Batali Is Fucking Starving

Jesus said: Feed the poor.
They said: Sorry, Jesus!
We spent $40 million on hate and fear.

“I’m [expletive deleted] starving.”

— Celebrity chef Mario Batali, while discussing his 'Food Stamp' diet, where he and his family are eating on a 'food stamp' budget (an average of $1.48 per meal, or $31 per week) in protest of potential cuts to the federal nutrition assistance program.

Unlike most people on food stamps, Mario Batali has access to a large variety of foods and has both the equipment and education to make the best use of it. This is something we should think about the next time that we're auditing what poor people eat, or their grocery purchases. I mean, this guy prepares food for a living - with every kind of equipment known to man - and he still cannot manage to do this without feeling like he’s going hungry.

On Welfare Queens

What!? No. That's asinine.

I keep seeing all of these hate graphics about poor people. They usually invoke the fantasy world wherein welfare queens receive free rent, free food, and can afford luxury items with the cash that they receive from the jobs that they don't have. It's pretty illogical, but the myth persists.

Personally, I'm really curious as to how people can tell when people are using food stamps, since it's a plastic card that looks and works exactly like the average debit card. How can you tell the difference between my brown CNB bankcard and someone else's brown SNAP card? How close are you folks getting to the people in front of you? Usually, I'm still unloading my cart while the person in front of me is checking out, and I can't really see what their card looks like, so all I can see is if they're using a check, a card, or cash.

So the next time you see a graphic like that, you should ask the poster, "Exactly how close are y'all getting, and why?".

Photo of the Day

Pioneer children!

So we spent most of Sunday at the Museum of the Great Plains. We're working on early America, so they had alot of good information and exhibits related to our current unit and then I let them loose in the science area. (The space set aside for the traveling, interactive area.)

The Internet is for... Kids.

I was recently involved in a discussion regarding how we allow our children to use the Internet. I was surprised to see so many negative responses, especially concerning viruses and pornography. Many parents cited protective reasons to severely restrict their children’s Internet usage, and made with clear (with their terminology, concerns, etc.) that they, themselves, were not strong Internet users. This attitude strikes me as ridiculously short-sighted. Just like with other boring or worrisome topics, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves about Internet usage so that we can educate our children.

Myth: Charter schools take money from traditional schools.

So this is how it works.

Schools have two sources for funds. The first is local, which means a portion of your property taxes, any bond issues or sales taxes that you vote to go to schools, and any local fundraising efforts. (Think Box Tops for Kids and similar programs.) The second is state, which means both state and federal funds. These funds go through the State Department of Education and are dispensed to schools based on a complicated bit of math called ‘State Aid’ formula. In a nutshell, each student has x amount of money attached to them. X is determined by taking a base amount and ‘weighting’ those funds for students whom are lower-income, have disabilities, or a variety of other needs-based factors.

Charter schools don’t get to dip from both funds. Charter schools only receive state funds, meaning no local taxes, no bond issues, etc. For instance, we live in Lawton, so our property taxes go to Lawton Public Schools. Our children attend Epic Charter School, so our State Aid funds go to Epic Charter School. The take-away is that our charter schools receive less money than our traditional brick-and-mortar schools, not more, as some critics would have you believe.

Do charter schools take money from traditional schools? Yes, when they take students. However, the traditional school no longer has to pay for that child, and gets to keep the local funds. So not only do they not lose money on state funds, but they are able to spread those local funds among fewer students. A win-win for traditional schools, which is why almost all Oklahoma charter schools are run by traditional school districts. You might notice that these districts are happy with their own schools. It’s the other schools that are villainous.

Photo of the Day

So the tablet is a hit amongst all of the kiddos. It's reading Kipling's 'The Elephant's Child' to Ike right now. :)

Photo of the Day

After a long discussion of Veterans Day, the kiddos (including Melissa's two) are writing thank you letters to veterans.

Banned Book Week

Remember, folks, read a banned book for Banned Book Week! We picked up And Tango Makes Three, with no problems. Also, here's a funny article about a few banned books.

Random Thoughts

"The Fukushima situation has exposed a grave danger to our world. But the danger isn't radiation, it's the poor state of science education."

and

An Austrian atheist will be allowed to wear a colander on his head in his driver's license photo after successfully arguing that it counts as "religious headgear" for Pastafarians.

As a contrast, more people are upset about the Austrian atheist than the sad state of American education.

About the Pledge of Allegience

I originally wrote this on Friday, October 15, 2010.  I am posting it here with minor edits, mainly for grammar.

Kevin is publicly shamed for his refusal to take an oath.

Yeah, that cartoon is cute. It shows someone who simply doesn't care in contrast to someone who cares so much that they gave their health, and was willing to give their life. It makes a point, and makes us feel good about being better than the lazy guy. It makes us feel proud of our veterans. (Although that pride doesn't seem to extend to caring for them, but that's a an entirely different post...) and it makes us feel patriotic. Yay!

The Darndest Things

Mike is telling his dad about what he learned today in science, specifically, about the 'Food Chamber', where minnows eat seaweed & everything else eats minnows. Except bears. They eat mammals, especially us.