Are All Schools The Same ?Marat vs Lavoisier

Evidently there are plenty of people who think so and they are willing to apply the same solutions to every single one of them.

I wonder if that won't cause a problem commensurate with the current situation.

What if a school only needs the equivalent of a new fuse? Remember this is being done in the name of economy. The tools are crudely wielded by citizen zealots as if they were part of the French Revolution.

Thus the title of the essay. Marat denounced Lavoisier several times calling him "the greatest schemer of our times." Lavoisier took positions without pay, yet Marat was certain Lavoisier was taking advantage of the people of France. Can you say paranoid nutcase?

After the Revolution, it was recognized that France had beheaded a great scientist. Joseph Louis Lagrange commented, "It only took them an instant to cut off the head and a hundred years may not produce another like it."

One can visualize elderly ladies rocking and knitting while the heads roll. "Praise the Lord! Another dirty evolutionist!"

Bush lets Dr Strangelove die... like a vampire hit by sunlight

Around 2:14:00 the Senate committee hands off from Bill Nelson to John Kerry. Nelson was being chummy with the NASA guys. They were saying that they would soon have no capacity to do earth observation from space because of a 30% reduction in earth science research in administration budgets.

Kerry goes after the admin's science adviser Dr. Strangelove (Bill Brennan) just after that. Funny because when the guy could have responded with specific documents and timetables he couldn't because they don't exist so he has to respond with stuff like "Ve haff plans for informink der Congress and the Amerikan pipples..." and "Long live der Führer!"

If you are a Dr. Strangelove fan, you know that when he is under stress, the Doctor reverts to his "Nazi Scientist" roots which is pretty similar to what happened in Washington this week.

David Kennedy at Coral Ridge Presbyterian thinks that the science behind natural selection is at fault for causing the bizarre experiments of the Third Reich but he is seriously wrong. Hitler's "Nazi Scientists" were just doing what the boss told them to do and trying to make it *look* like science.

Does that remind you of Administration spokesmen? It should because it is what they do for a living. It should remind you of the guy at NASA who told the Hubble website writers that every time they used the phrase "Big Bang" they had to make sure it was accompanied by a disclaimer saying that it was just a theory. One of many alternate theories of the creation of the universe. You know the others, right? The giant turtle theory, the big tree theory, the pouffy-hair guy pointing his finger theory, the four sacred mountains theory, Mother of the Shining Ones theory, Ometeotl and what-have-you.

Dr. Strangelove is in charge of the "Good Science Theory" propounded by his boss President Bush. The litmus test for evil henchmen consists of a trinity of statements. First, Every Cell is Sacred, second, CO2 makes plants grow and that's all, and third, there is no such thing as natural selection so dinosaurs and people must have lived together.

Dr. Strangelove froze up and reverted to his Nazi roots in a Congressional hearing. There was nothing he could do because the Supreme Leader shot himself in the foot and couldn't run interference. Yes Reverend Kennedy, you, the President, and your friends are closer to being Nazis than angels.

While the Administration's Education supporters run for the hills . . .

The National Review printed a "Run Away, Run Away" article about NCLB and the American Enterprise Institute resurrected Charles Murray (Bell Curve) to begin a measured retreat from the Bush education policy.

So when the entire world says the place is getting warmer, some of the Administration's REAL friends show their true colors in support. Washington is full of fair-weather friends, but with friends like Senator Inhoffe, you really don't need enemies.

Oklahoma Republican senator James Inhofe has been one of the lone bright spots in Washington when it comes to media accountability, specifically on the issue of global warming. He's continuing his hard-hitting approach Wednesday with a congressional hearing examining how the media has been been trying to scare the public into siding with climate change alarmists:

Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican and chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, will hold a full committee hearing tomorrow (First week in December 2006) on "Climate Change and the Media."

Global warming, according to Senator Inhoffe, is bogus garbage foisted off on the public by a bunch of envronmentalists whose motivation stems from their mistaking the planet for GOD. The benefit they will derive from their interference in our lives? Some kind of stuff. Ahem. Well, something at the very least.

You can't simply say that the the people he quotes are all on the payroll of Exxon-Mobil and that simple fact makes them unreliable. I mean really! Look at those environmentalists, they are religious fanatics! That should be sufficient reason to doubt them. Just look at them. All nasty and healthy. Probably a bunch of lousy vegans.

By the way, you lousy vegans, his friend Pat Robertson is muttering about God and plagues.

Bush's glass wastebsket

Kristen Hellmer, of the Council on Environmental Quality, part of the Executive Office of the US President, said the CEQ had been cooperating with Congress. When asked about allegations of political interference in scientific documents, she said: "We do have in place a very transparent system in science reporting."

Full article.

As to the force applied on people who speak out on global warming:

"After that speech and the release of data by Dr Hansen on December 15 showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in at least a century, officials at the headquarters of the space agency repeatedly phoned public affairs officers, who relayed the warning to Dr Hansen that there would be 'dire consequences' if such statements continued, those officers and Dr Hansen said in interviews," the Times reported.

Full article Hansen works at NASA. You know, the place you can't say "Big Bang" without adding, "It's just a *theory*, you know."

Granted, New Scientist is not the source I would like it to be, but the articles are properly linked out to their sources.

Believe in Magic: "I did not alter that scientific report!"

"Snicker, snicker."
Last Friday night we went to see Frank Caliendo at the Palm Beach Improv. He does an awesome impression of the Decider.

Today Senator Waxman said the White House has documents that prove they have been deliberately altering documents that deal with scientists' professional judgments surrounding global warming.

"We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger," Waxman said.

CNN

What's going on here? Didn't we find out about this back in June of 2005? Don't you remember the whistle blower who ratted on Philip A. Cooney, chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality for altering a report? The whole thing came out in the news and is well documented.

Maybe we believed the scientist Myron Ebell from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who defended the editing as necessary for "consistency." Ebell tried to offer a dodge saying that the report was cleared by several governmental agencies. Unfortunately a "whistleblower who resigned in March from the government office that coordinates federal climate change programs, made the documents — showing handwritten edits by Cooney — available to the Project on Government Accountability and, in turn, to news media."


Or maybe we believed the White House representative when she said, "He's not a cleared spokesman..."

Cooney was hired by Exxon within a week.

So what does this have to do with today?
This:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

The NYT

Need I say more? What's next? A government news agency called The Newserator.

Expulsion Improves School Scores

A story at the Independent Online in Britain says some schools are allowed to get rid of troublesome students in order to improve their annual evaluation (like NCLB):

Ministers privately support the exclusion of large numbers of "challenging" pupils by Tony Blair's flagship academies, a senior government official has revealed.

Story here.

Of course we knew it was being done to us at my workplace. But nobody has ever acknowledged it or done anything about it. It seems Britain has a similar situation.

Why do I think it is happening? The signs? How about a December influx of new students with police records? We really didn't need to wait until report cards were printed to know we were being hustled again.

We may not be the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, but it is possible the advances our students made would be recognized by the community. The kids work hard and deserve a pat on the back.

More Magical thinking

Not true, of course but it's like the Frito Bandito kind of magic. Presto! I make your research into my research!

In the Bush Administration's latest sally into reality, they have purloined stem cell research, rewritten it, and relabeled it _Advancing Stem Cell Science Without Destroying Human Life_. Touting recent research as "..creating potential alternative sources for pluripotent ES-like cells.." the report cites the January issue of Nature Biotechnology that stem cells found in human amniotic fluid have many of the same qualities as ES cells (Science, 12 January, p. 170).

Unfortunately, it is not the case.

The researchers who authored the journal articles have objected to the Administration's characterization of their findings calling it a "..clear misrepresentation of our work."

According to The Wall Street Journal, presidential aides are drafting a possible executive order favoring alternative sources. Perhaps the President could get his friend the Supreme Being to take time out of His busy schedule and alter His work to suit the Executive Order.

The report did not state specifically that the Administration's representatives scuttled back into Fantasy Land with their prize, but it's a good bet they did.

National Review: "Let's distance ourselves . . ."

Michael Petrilli's article "Leaving My Lapel Pin Behind Is No Child Left Behind’s birthday worth celebrating?" is a moving farewell, but he can't let it go. He says that supporting NCLB is a statement of belief in the "subtext" of the law as a "belief system." Perhaps I exaggerate somewhat, but that's how I read it.

I can't think of anything that gives me more satisfaction. Unless it would be a statement affirming the actual subtext as handed down by the Moses of privatization, William Bennett. He who would have denied internet access to public school students. A statement that public schools have as their goal preparing students as minimally qualified workers for the jobs of yesterday would be nice.

Petrilli cites a list of "powerful" ideas that embody 1990s education reform.
First, that every child has the capacity to achieve a minimal level of proficiency by 18 (not 22.)
Second, that school systems need threats in order to work.
Third, education bureaucracies and licensing rules impede good teaching.
Fourth, creating commercial alternatives to public school education has "all kinds" of benefits. (I can't THINK of anything funnier to say that that.)
Fifth, the federal government NEEDS to be involved in education in your community.

No, I don't think you can distance yourself from NCLB and still "embrace" the core values of a destructive subtext. It reminds me of people who say that Adolph Hitler never told his minions "... exterminate all of the Jewish people you can find." Who cares which words he used or how he used them? His people understood what he wanted them to do and they did it.

A final observation. When you discover your strategy and tactic has failed, you don't position more of your resources there. Reauthorizing the dysfunctional values represented by NCLB would be that kind of "surge."

James Brown, Rest in Peace

James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) passed in an Atlanta hospital after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia.

The Godfather of Soul and the hardest working man in the entertainment industry. What esle can you say? We will remember you every time we hear one of the songs you made us love.

Connected Thinking and Learning

Some mid-term exams and some final exams just happened in my classroom. The one I had fun with was a question that used the NYT and BBC reports on the Holocaust Deniers' Love Fest in Tehran.

How could you go wrong with targets like David Duke, the Neturei Karta (or as they are known, the Unorthodox Jews), and the ever popular President Ahmadinejad headlining along with French and German jailbirds who just can't understand why their governments don't want them to spread falsehood world wide.

I asked the kids to identify the semantic tactics used and the errors of thinking, then explain them.

So far, so good. Taking a photo of dead people who were killed with bullets, gas, and starvation and saying they died of typhus. Unsubstantiated, but plausible. So if they want to deny the eye witness accounts and go with something merely plausible they can do it. (Just keep it to yourself and don't express it aloud.)

Expressing it aloud is stupid. It is not "ignorant" because they know there are first hand witnesses and affidavits. It is deliberate distortion of fact in the service of some other lie they are attached to. Generally these are lies that the perpetrators think will benefit them in some way.

And this is the real purpose of the essay assignment. To get my students to make the connection between the Holocaust Deniers and people who deny other facts.

Facts like the predictable decay of radioactive isotopes proving the age of minerals and fossils.

Facts like the relationship of increase of CO2 in the atmosphere to increasing temperature.

These people really have only two choices. North Korea or outer space. Life on another planet is a lot like life in North Korea. No news. Nothing unapproved gets in. Nothing. Nothing at all, just like the world they want. Ignorant and circumscribed by the rest of the universe.

I really liked the story last week of the young lady who had lived on a large farm with her extended family. She was doing some research and found a description of how religious cults work. She read a bit and thought "Hmm...that sounds a lot like my life." After reading a lot and talking to people, she realized that everybody's granddaddy didn't diddle them like hers did. She got pissed off and called the cops.

Too bad the citizens of North Korea can't call the cops.