People think I'm stupid, but I'm smarter than most people." - Paris HiltonI read Virginia Centrist nearly every day. They have an extremely well written blog, with a lot of insight and information. We agree on a lot of things, and more importantly, disagree on many things with mutual respect.
Sometimes however, the zeal for a free lunch trumps reason. I just had to call out "nova_middle_man" on this one.
First it was the AAA bond crisis. Result: tax increases
Now its the transportation crisis. Likely result: tax increases
What's next, the education crisis?Um, I don't feel like I'm in a crisis. Am I missing something here?
I know this was just a point in passing, but it's a point so poorly taken that it deserves a bit of attention.
To the intended point: Ahem... Yes there most certainly IS a Transportation crisis in Virginia. All you need to do is sit in traffic from DC to Fairfax for 2 solid hours on I-66 and you'll get that point.
The thing that really caught my attention, however, was the denial of an "Education Crisis". I have to tell you, nova_middle_man, there is one.
A study from the Pew Charitable Trusts published yesterday, says that the majority of college students can't do the math to tip a waiter, can't understand the issues in a newspaper, and can't comprehend the differences between competing sales offers well enough to make an informed decision.
The good news?
Overall, the average literacy of college students is significantly higher than that of adults across the nation.
That's right, that's the good news.
Translation: America can't balance a checkbook, can't read a newspaper, and can't make an informed decision.
Naaa... there ain't no edjamacation crisis.
Now, consider America's prospects in the 21st century. Corporatist trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA have essentially eviscerated our manufacturing base. So if you ain't literate, you don't get a job. Meanwhile, those jobs requiring an education have absolutely no protections against foreign nations that actually understand and adequately address education. Americans now compete with BILLIONS of well-educated, English-speaking Chinese and Indian workers, among others.
Meanwhile, there are those Americans who have essentially given up on American excellence and just want to outsource all potential economic activity to the emerging economic powers of the east. (ahem...)
Where does that leave America in the 21st century? Working at Starbucks, making coffee for our new Chinese bosses... until the computers go down.
Friedman quotes Bill Gates on the subject:
When I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow. In math and science, our fourth graders are among the top students in the world. By eighth grade, they're in the middle of the pack. By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all industrialized nations. . . . The percentage of a population with a college degree is important, but so are sheer numbers. In 2001, India graduated almost a million more students from college than the United States did. China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S., and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering. In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of knowledge workers, America is falling behind.
And then there's Friedman's classic line about the dumbing down of America: "In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears -- and that is our problem."
So, what are we going to be, a nation of Bill Gates' or a nation of Britney Spears? Gee, duh, I dunno...
"I would be willing to have and open and honest debate ..."
MUSIC TO MY EARS! How I'd love to teach the world to sing that very same song. Well, we do what we can.
1. A "crisis of education" theme is often grasped by religious fundimentalists as an excuse to introduce religious doctrine into schools. That's certainly an effect we've seen for over 20 maybe 30 years.
2. Here's a quote I dug up:
Eighth grader Ashley St. Pierre in the Bronx , New York, writes, "City schools are really in bad shape. If we need more, how come we get less?"
Investing in education is the best investment we can possibly make for the future of America. A recent study showed that for every dollar spent investing in Pre-k education, governments save nearly $20 in social services over the lifetimes of those students.
3. In the face of increased globalization, increased wage and wealth disparity, the definition of "normal and productive" will undergo radical change in the next few decades. Change is opportunity, if we don't step up and get it right others will.
4. "The American economy keeps going". But who benefits? Even during the best economic boom in recent memory under Bill Clinton, wages for less educated workers only made minimal gains. Under Bush, we've witnessed a hallow "war-boom" economy, largely based on goverment infusions of capital. The vast majority of the benefit of this economy has gone to the best educated, the best employed, top-level managers and institutional investors. The Republican elites are profiteering off of war, leaving the vast majority of Americans languishing and leaving massive debts for future generations.
With all the massive cash infusions this government has made, tax cuts, war contracts to corporate interests, low interest rates, a healthy economy should have been able to capitalize on more industries than housing and war to better spread the wealth.
Ultimately the problem is the ideology of the 1%. Our priority is to empower the very very few, while it should be to empower the very very many. We need a 100% economy again, and education is the key.
5. It comes down priorities. Right now, America loves stupid. We want to replace science with theology in schools. We want our political leaders dumber than ourselves. We want to abdicate virtue, unity and the common good to the principles of supply and demand, "free" trade, and darwinism by which rats and roaches are ruled.
When America realizes that Smart is Sexy, a bright future will open to us. When moralization is replaced with acutal virtue in the book of popular American ethics we may actually claim to lead the world again.
I hope it happens soon, and I hope it's not too late.
1. I don't remember the exact year I think it was in the 1980s there was a report that said the education system was in crisis. (I think the last 20 years have proved that theory wrong and I see no reason why the next 20 years will be terrible)
2. Throwing money at a problem does not fix it
3. Most of the people I know went to public school and are leading normal productive lives
4. Going along with number one there have been countless studies over the years showing students do not know basic concepts but the American economy keeps on going
5. Granted our education system is not perfect. I would be willing to have an open honest debate about how to improve it :)
Haven't read it.
Newton and Rheimann invented calculus simultaneously and independently on nearly the same day.
Was it coincidence, destiny, or an idea who's time had come?
Religious education at the expense of science is possibly the greatest cultural mistake possible in the modern world.
Why?
Look at Saudi Arabia. The Saudi school system indoctrinates children in a culture of extreme fundimentalism that is almost too extreme to even be considered Islam. That same school system neglects math, science and technology education to such an extent that the Saudi Oil industry imports the majority of it's skilled labor.
As a result Saudi Arabia is, tragically, the world's leading exporter of violent religious extremists. Don't forget that Osama bin missin' is a Saudi, as were 15 of the 9/11 hijackers.
When you believe God's on your side, and you can't make a living, what else is there to do but get mad?
1. I have friend who is a microbioligist. She works in a medical lab.
2. This is a science field which, because it works with doctors and their patients, has very real effect of peoples lives and health.
3. According to her (and to other folks elsewhere), newly hired college and university graduates, who have degrees and - as NVMM says - are leading normal and productive lives, and helping keep the American Economy going - cannot use what they were taught to deal with things that they were not taught.
This correlates to the part of the Pew Study that says students couldn't judge between credit card offers.
These new hires are very qualified to run tests and look for things that they were taught in school. They've learned the recipe to add sample a to agent b and perhaps catalyst c, and to look for result d or e.
If you vary the recipe, they can't deal with it, because all they know is the recipe. You can get by with this in some situations (say, a cookbook used by a bachelor - he doesn't have to know how flour sugar and eggs combine to become edible) but these people are scientists - they have degress - they have jobs where knowledge and more importantly, knowing how to use and adapt that knowledge to situations has an effect on peoples' health and their course of treatment.
This is only one area where 'ojt' should not include critical thinking skills.
To once again repeat my favourite Virginia Education adage: Teach a child the SOLs, and she can pass the SOLs. Teach a child to think, and she has a chance at life.
Here's a nice little study from the New Republic that shows a frightening result:
Reagan's Legacy: A generation of really stupid boys.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/1/23/15814/5976
The fucktard generation.
It was laughable in some moments though. Tomorrow is the REAL deal.
When Americans vote out of anger and fear, America dies a little more every day.
The "Culture of Life" was coined by Pope John Paul II to incorporate an overall worldview that strove to reduce abortion, war, death penalties, environmental degredation, and end of life decisions, and assisted suicide.
Reactionaries have taken the term and now cherry pick their favorite issues, sure they want to stop abortion, end of life deicisons, and assisted suicide, but work against war? slow envirnomental degradiations? end the death penalty?
Fugeddaboutdit!
Once an ideology leaves is moral underpinnings it can be used for anything. Fundamentalist moralizing drift reaches its zenith in the Haleigh Poutre case.
Orwellian in its irony, the "Culture of Life" is now used to defend murderers.
Jesus wept.
The "Culture of Life" meme is frequently used as shorthand for anti-abortion activism. Jerry Kilgore must have said: "I support a culture of life" 500 times in the 3 debates with Tim Kaine.
slimeball
Davis' D(Josh - 4/4/2006 11:31:31 PM)
Davis' District is the only Democratic/Republican (50%) district and i can
promise you that they will fix that in 2010.
Not if we take back the US House this year and the VA House by 2009.
Will the pendulum swing back fast enough? All we can do is help it along.
Ouch! Too much thinking... brain hurts.
;)