Where’s the Outrage?

Democratic Nominee, Barack Obama has urged the press to back off of Governor Sarah Palin and her daughter.

Update: I agree with Obama on this issue. We all know that Palin is talking about personal responsibility on one hand, yet ignoring her own failures on the other hand. Since we need to focus on the important stuff, we need to ignore the rumors. I don’t think that she has had any aliens or alien babies but I do know that she has not idea about when the Pledge of Allegiance was written.

As a side note, Palin is still good buddies with indicted Senator Ted Stevens.

Tags: Education, Election 2008 by ecthompson
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The Houston Chronicle ran an article yesterday about the new president of Houston’s Texas Southern University. His name is Dr. John Rudley.

As the article details, Texas Southern has had some problems in recent years. A former president of the school was involved in scandal and graduation rates at TSU could be somewhat higher.

Dr. Rudley says he can fix these and other issues at this historically black institution.

Black folks and all folks in Houston need a strong Texas Southern. For one thing, life is hard and these kids need to be educated. For another thing, Houston needs as many educated people as possible to help deal with longstanding problems we have here of poverty and pollution.   

I think Dr. Rudley is going to get folks on-board with the program, and that TSU graduates are going to be, as they have been already in many cases, leaders in Houston and across the nation.

The great Congressman Mickey Leland went to TSU.

I’m going to send TSU a $25 donation. That won’t build a new hall on campus, but it might at least buy some pens and paperclips.

I’m also going to include a note with my donation asking that I not be added to any mailing list. Little is more frustrating than making a small donation to a worthy cause, and seeing all the money you sent wasted in the form of newsletters and solicitations for more money.

[Read more →]

Tags: Education by Texas Liberal
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I thought that these social conservatives were supposed to be models of personal responsibility? Abstinence education, which Sarah Palin supports? I’m guessing that didn’t work. It never worked. After throwing millions of dollars into the abstinence education, the rate of teenage pregnancies hasn’t dropped.

Here’s the problem: Whenever you try to keep information away from people, it always backfires. If you give teenagers the information about sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and the like then let their parents give them the moral backbone, things will work out much better.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Education, Election 2008 by ecthompson
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(Ed. I have nothing to add. This is brilliant.)

By Melissa Harris-Lacewell Originally Published on The Root:

Sorry we’ve screwed things up. Now, suck it up and lead.

I know that everyone is saying, “Congratulations.” We say it because we are proud of you and what you have accomplished. I want to say something else; something that others may not say. “I am sorry.”

We have a lot of reasons to apologize.

We have taught you to think of education as a program, formula or code that you can crack. We have valued grades and scores more than learning. We have forgotten to teach you that all understanding begins with wonder and with following unexpected discovery in unknown directions. We have tried to stomp the wonder out of you by getting you to choose a track and stick with it. We have asked you to excel in every endeavor and to avoid anything that might diminish your record of excellence. When we rewarded you only for following all of our rules and not for making any of your own, we did more to close your minds than to open them.

I am sorry that we have taught you to value economic success over passionate engagement with your work. As educated Americans you have choices that many people in the rest of the world do not have. Even with the vast inequalities and deepening economic crisis in our country, your diploma or degree places you among the most privileged in a privileged country. But instead of teaching you to follow your passions and to serve others, we have encouraged you to follow the money.

Most people in the world are poor. Most have inadequate educations. Most will be forced to work jobs that pay the bills and starve their spirits. As you graduate, you may be able to escape this fate, but only if you are brave enough to follow your passions even when the economic rewards are not completely clear.

People like me saw our grandmothers scrub floors and mend other people’s clothes to feed their children in the Jim Crow South. Or we saw our grandfathers worked to an early grave by jobs that they hated. We wanted to save you from that fate. But we forgot that our grandmothers and grandfathers had dreams, just not the choice to follow them. Our advice to measure yourself by a paycheck instead of by the love of your work may mean that, for you, work will still just amount to a way to pay the bills — far bigger bills than our ancestors had. We are sorry for teaching you to trade your soul for a paycheck.

I am sorry that we punished you for making mistakes. We forgot to teach you that mistakes are the path of greatness. If you fall in love, don’t be afraid of the break-up, and if you break-up, wallow in the exquisite agony of heartbreak. If you ask a stupid question in class or on the job, listen to the answer. If you are unwilling to make mistakes, you cannot live your best life, you cannot be humble, or find your passion, or be productive, or be of service. [Read more →]

Tags: Domestic Issues, Education by ecthompson
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Giving a compelling commencement address is very, very difficult. I’ve sat in the audience on more than one occasion. I remember being very bored during most of the commencement addresses while the speaker droned on about something.

But the young people at Wesleyan had a chance to listen to Senator Barack Obama. Man, that must be something. Here’s a portion of Obama’s speech:

At a time when our ice caps are melting and our oceans are rising, we need you to help lead a green revolution. We still have time to avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate change if we get serious about investing in renewable sources of energy, and if we get a generation of volunteers to work on renewable energy projects, and teach folks about conservation, and help clean up polluted areas; if we send talented engineers and scientists abroad to help developing countries promote clean energy.

At a time when a child in Boston must compete with children in Beijing and Bangalore, we need an army of you to become teachers and principals in schools that this nation cannot afford to give up on. I will pay our educators what they deserve, and give them more support, but I will also ask more of them to be mentors to other teachers, and serve in high-need schools and high-need subject areas like math and science.

At a time when there are children in the city of New Orleans who still spend each night in a lonely trailer, we need more of you to take a weekend or a week off from work, and head down South, and help rebuild. If you can’t get the time, volunteer at the local homeless shelter or soup kitchen in your own community. Find an organization that’s fighting poverty, or a candidate who promotes policies you believe in, and find a way to help them.

At a time of war, we need you to work for peace. At a time of inequality, we need you to work for opportunity. At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt, we need you to make us believe again, Class of 2008.

Tags: Education, Election 2008 by ecthompson
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NC House of Representatives - Susan Fisher Update

The Raleigh Report

N. C. House of Representatives
Raleigh, North Carolina 27601
(919) 715-2013

From the Office of Representative Susan C. Fisher
April 8, 2008

Education has long been the focus of the state’s efforts and last year the state budgeted more than $11 billion for our public schools, community colleges and universities. As legislators, we value our youth. Several committees meet during the interim to consider issues that affect our children and school systems.

Thank you for allowing me to share this information with you. Please let me know if I can assist you in any way.

Joint Select Committee on Arts Education

Last week the Joint Select Committee on Arts Education, which I am a member, met for the first time. We heard presentations from Helga Fasciano and Christie Lynch of the state Department of Public Instruction on arts education in North Carolina. Mary Fulton, a policy analyst from the Education Commission of the States also gave a presentation on arts education. The committee will prepare a report in December.

Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation

I serve on the Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation which met for the first time last November. We asked several questions about how North Carolina calculates its dropout rate before learning about several successful local programs. The commission has also conducted a series of dropout hearings throughout the state to get constituent input on ways we can solve the decrease the dropout rate. At the last meeting, We focused on the New Schools Project, barriers that prevent girls from graduating, and Communities in Schools initiatives.

The commission awarded grants to 60 groups out of 307 applicants. Grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000 were awarded to school systems, schools, agencies and nonprofits. The commission will also review research on student success, study major middle and high school reform efforts and how they may influence the dropout rate, review the courses required for graduation, and determine whether changes should be made and determine which strategies best help students remain in school when they are at risk of being retained. [Read more →]

Tags: Education, Rep. Susan Fisher, State and Local Politics by ecthompson
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 Update:  Melissa Harris-Lacewell is here, today!!!

Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University, will speak at noon Thursday, Feb. 21, at UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall. Harris-Lacewell is the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning book, “Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought.” In addition, she has written for a number of newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and New York Newsday. Harris-Lacewell regularly provides commentary on U.S. elections and race, religious and gender issues for leading news outlets across the country. Harris-Lacewell is currently working on a new book, “For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Politics When Being Strong Wasn’t Enough.” Professor Harris-Lacewell has been a guest on the Bill Moyers Journal (here) and The Errington Thompson Show (here and here). The event is free and open to the public.

She will be appearing on the Errington Thompson Show on the 23rd.

Tags: Education, Race by ecthompson
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I’m ashamed to admit that I grew up in Dallas and I know almost nothing about Wylie College. I traveled I-20 between Dallas and Shreveport enough times to be able to tell you about every speed trap but I know squat about Wylie College, which is located in Marshall, Tx off I-20, 21/2 hours east of Dallas on I-20. I even know some graduates of Wylie College but I didn’t know that it was historically Black college. I didn’t know that it was one of the first Black colleges west of the Mississippi. I didn’t know anything of its Methodist tradition (even though I’m a Methodist and went to Emory University a Methodist school).

The history of Wylie College is very interesting.

The story of the great debaters and Professor Melvin Tolson can be found here.

This is one Christmas movie that I’m looking forward to seeing.

 

 The Great Debaters [1:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Education, Race by ecthompson
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My wife just got home from our children’s grade school’s Site-Based Council meeting. I don’t know exactly what a Site-Based Council is, but it seems to be the principal, vice-principal, teachers and other concerned parents discussing and working on school administrative and management issues. But that’s not the important thing.

The important thing is that our grade school just found out that it will not be an “excelling” school this year. Now the average person would hear this and say, “Oh, that school must have a bunch of stoopid people, or lazy teachers, or maybe they just suck. We sure wouldn’t want to have our kids go to that school. Booooo!” But, the devil, as always, is in the details. Well, actually, the devil might be in the White House, but that’s a different story.

Back to the No Child Left Behind Act, as it is playing out in my children’s grade school. The schools that get labelled as non-excelling, or whatever, may get labelled that way because of actual academic shortcomings. Or they may just run afoul of any number of little picky numbers. In our case, one subgroup of fifth graders, who were taking one part of the state exam, ended up having a three of those students, have to have “nonstandard accommodations” for that part of their testing. This might have meant that they had to have part of the test read to them or they might have had to dictate their answers to a scribe. In our case these three students required these “nonstandard accommodations” because it was part of their IEP, or “Individualized Education Plan”. An IEP, for those of you not familiar with current education lingo, is where a school tries to individualize the education plan for a student (complicated, huh), so as to maximize the chances that that student is able to learn to the best of their abilities.

Well, by the rules of the game, these three students having to have “nonstandard accomodations” are automatically counted as having failed, thus putting the subgroup just below the magical, scientifically proven to be important, 95% mark, whereby if you are above that mark, you are the bestest in the world and if you are below that mark, apparently, you suck. A student who has to have “nonstandard accomodations” is counted as having failed the test, whether they actually failed or not.  They are also counted as having not taken the test, even though they actually took the test.  And if fewer than 95% of your students take the test, you have not met the requirements.  Sorry.  Thanks for playing.  Try again.

Schools make IEPs in order to try to “Leave No Child Behind”. But if they make an IEP, that student will automatically be counted as having failed if that IEP is enacted during the testing process. A school will either violate federal special education laws, by not helping those with learning disabilities, or they will violate the federal “No Child Left Behind” laws.

And that, my friends, is a load of crap.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Education by desertbug
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Kinda of a confusing show.  In spite of this, we discuss NCLB and the Scooter Libby verdict.  We dispel many right wing myths. 

 

 The Errington Thompson Show 06-09-07 [49:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Education, Podcasts, Valerie Plame by ecthompson
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Many people are talking about education but only a few are doing something about it.  Now, let me qualify my statement.  I know that tens of thousands of teachers are trying everyday to teach America.  To them I tip my hat.  I’m talking about someone who is trying to do more than teach in the classrooms to make a difference.

 

 Education in America [1:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Education by ecthompson
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OMG, students are being forced to learn stuff they don’t already know.  The horrors.  Will they ever stop.  (I hope not.)

 

 TCR - heated Debate [4:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Education, The Colbert Report by ecthompson
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The failure of the Republican revolution is almost complete. Of course, the R’s pushed themselves on the American public as the party of values. One of their biggest pushes was on abstinence education. Yes, we had great data showing it didn’t work but the R’s aren’t really into data. So, they pushed it down our throats. A 10 year study has just been completed and …wait for it…it doesn’t work. No duh! Just another $1 billion wasted.
——–

From Slate:

In the past decade, the federal government has spent more than $1 billion on programs that promote abstinence as the only healthy choice to make about sex before marriage. Last week, the government’s own long-term evaluation of the initiatives, required by Congress in 1997, showed that these programs seem to accomplish essentially nothing. That’s right: Nada. Students in the programs were no more likely to abstain from sex than their peers. And if they did lose their virginity, they tended to do so at the same average age and have the same number of sexual partners as other students did. As Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., put it, “In short, American taxpayers appear to have paid over 1 billion federal dollars for programs that have no impact.”

The new study, rigorously conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. on behalf of the government, should be the death knell for abstinence-only programs, which have also drawn criticism for perpetuating gender stereotypes, spreading medical inaccuracies, and ignoring the separation of church and state. While the Bush administration shows few signs of rethinking this pet project, a growing number of states have begun to wise up, rejecting millions in federal funding because they come with abstinence strings attached. The problem is that even larger sums of federal money now bypass state governments and flow directly to community abstinence groups, often in the form of multiyear grants, with little or no oversight. It’s up to Congress to stanch this ooze.

Tags: Education by ecthompson
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After these types of tragedies we are always left wondering why. Why has schools provided more security? Because these types of shootings don’t happened everyday.

——

From CNN.com:

At least 33 people, including a gunman, were killed Monday during shootings in a dorm and a classroom building at Virginia Tech, university officials said.

Two people were killed at a dormitory about 7:15 a.m., while another 30 people were killed about two hours later at Norris Hall — the engineering science and mechanics building — university officials said.

 

 Virginia Tech Shooting [5:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Education, Terrorism by ecthompson
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The first segment was okay but now we get the meat of the issue.  Are you moving too fast?  Are your followers communists?  The communist thing is a diversion.  It is like what the Republicans do today when they ask if you support the troops.  MLK answers the move too fast question very skillfully.  After waiting over 300 years, no we aren’t moving too fast.  This is an excellent segment.

The questions reflect the fear of the White Community in my opinion.

 

 MTP - Wilkins and King, part 2 [7:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Economy, Education, Race by ecthompson
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I have only recently gotten into Carlos Mencia.  He is fall on the floor laughing funny.  This is his “rap” song Dee, Dee, Dee.  Funny and true!

 

 Mencia - Dee, Dee, Dee [3:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Education, Fun, Music by ecthompson
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I guess you could put this under the category of - they don’t make Republicans like they used to. 

From CNN.com:

Former Vermont Sen. Robert Stafford, a staunch environmentalist and champion of education whose name is familiar to countless college students through a loan program named for him, died Saturday. He was 93.

Stafford was surrounded by family at a Rutland nursing home when he died at 9:30 a.m., said Neal Houston, his former chief of staff.

Stafford served two years as governor, 11 years in the House and 17 in the Senate before retiring in early 1989.

As ranking Republican on the Senate’s environment committee, Stafford repeatedly defended the Superfund program to clean up contaminated sites and shepherded bills combating acid rain and automobile pollution.  more …

Tags: Education, Other Political Thoughts, Senate by ecthompson
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This is simply sickening.  We have to come up with some method to secure our schools.  Gunmen should not be able to hold our society hostage by picking off our children.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Education by ecthompson
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Earlier this week there was a school shooting in Colorado.  This time it is in Wisconsin.  Again, we have the typical reporting of a student who just walks into a school and starts shooting.  When are we going to get some security for schools?  According to earlier reports, the student walked in school with both a pistol and a rifle.  Shouldn’t we have a way to detect people who are walking in to schools with firearms?

There are a ton of problems in our schools today.  We have overcrowding.  We have teachers are overworked and underpaid.  Teachers are expected to be mothers and fathers as well as educators for some kids.  Oh, and I shouldn’t forget, teachers are asked to be police officers also.  They’re asked to rid our schools of drugs.  The schools themselves are underfunded.  Our whole educational system needs to be overhauled.  There hasn’t been a significant change in our schools and the way we deliver information to students for over a hundred years.  If education is important, and it should be, we have to do better.

Tags: Education by ecthompson
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What is the purpose of government?  I have discussed this topic with liberals and conservatives.  It is my opinion, that the government is to help those people who need a little help.  A little help.  The government should also keep us safe.  That’s about it. 

The Center for American Progress unveiled new ideas to move America forward.  Their 3 main points

• Opportunity for all
• Promoting a Just and Secure World
• Building Strong Communities

Tags: Domestic Issues, Economy, Education, Election 2006, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Healthcare, Living wage by ecthompson
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