Diane Ravitch recently wrote about the state of Louisiana public education and the threats it is facing from Governor Jindal's policies.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/2012/03/bobby_jindal_vs_public_educati.html
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
TV Post - The Walking Dead: It's not Carl's fault
Ok, maybe it is Carl's fault for being a complete and utter moron. If he hadn't stolen Daryl's gun, and wandered off into the woods and woken a walker that followed him back and killed a cow and then killed Dale, then maybe Dale would still be alive...but come on, who's fault is it really? Lori and Rick should be responsible for their idiot child who wanders off in a zombie infested world on his own with no repercussions. At the very least someone should have said "Carl, where the hell have you been? Why are your pants so muddy? Don't you know it's dangerous out there?" but no, everyone acts like it's totally normal for the small child to be unaccounted for hours at a time. I don't know if it's shitty parenting/survival tactics, or just lazy writing (leaning on the latter) but this has got to stop.
The only person responsible for Dale's death is Dale for wandering off on a dark and misty night through the fields. That's a nono. If you want to patrol the grounds, do it in a group. If you want to get away from the group to blow off some steam...don't. There are ZOMBIES out there! Frankly, I'm glad to see Dale get killed because this episode he was really getting on my nerves. Yes, it would be great to latch onto our humanity and have a fully functioning judicial code in a post-apocalyptic-zombie world...but it's a god damn post-apocalyptic-zombie world! The important thing is to survive. Everything else comes second.
The only person responsible for Dale's death is Dale for wandering off on a dark and misty night through the fields. That's a nono. If you want to patrol the grounds, do it in a group. If you want to get away from the group to blow off some steam...don't. There are ZOMBIES out there! Frankly, I'm glad to see Dale get killed because this episode he was really getting on my nerves. Yes, it would be great to latch onto our humanity and have a fully functioning judicial code in a post-apocalyptic-zombie world...but it's a god damn post-apocalyptic-zombie world! The important thing is to survive. Everything else comes second.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Racist Judge apologizes for people finding out he is a racist
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| TRIBUNE PHOTO/ RION SANDERS with text added |
Bottom line: U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull is a racist.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Education Inequality
Today I was helping a friend out with a math problem, some algebra, and I hit a thick patch of rust in my brain. After scratching my head a bit and then working through the problem, I decided to consult with my personal math expert, my dad. Despite having been taught most of the math he ever learned before 1964, my father has amazingly retained all of that knowledge and is happy to share it with anyone who bothers to ask for help. So after a quick call home, some description of the exponents in the equations and a little jotting down in my notebook, he had explained everything I in turn hoped to explain to my friend.
After hanging up the phone, I realized that this is one of the big inequalities that exist in our current educational system. It doesn't matter how much value-added-effectiveness my teachers in school were shown to have by complex and inaccurate algorithms. It's irrelevant how much test-prep a teacher might have run us through before an important exam. I and many others, who are fortunate enough to have a parent who can teach and explain the things that are taught in school, learned the concepts we did, and got the grades we did because of the knowledge that our parents were able to share with us.
I had great teachers growing up. Most of them would probably score very well on the myriad teacher evaluation schemes springing up around America. Most of them taught a lot of students who, like me, had parents with significant education, and would end up doing well on tests. But it doesn't matter how great those teachers were because however much time I spent sitting in my 9th grade math class with Mr. Bell, I spent a lot more time learning from my dad. I learned what math I know from sitting at the kitchen table doing homework with my dad within shouting distance if I got stuck on a problem I didn't understand.
Obviously, there will always be disparities in how much every child's parents know about a particular subject, and that will always be an advantage that the children of educated parents, who take the time to help them, will have over their peers. That's fine, there's nothing (sensible) that can be done about that, but it is quite another thing to ignore that fact and judge teachers solely on the successes, or failures, of their students.
After hanging up the phone, I realized that this is one of the big inequalities that exist in our current educational system. It doesn't matter how much value-added-effectiveness my teachers in school were shown to have by complex and inaccurate algorithms. It's irrelevant how much test-prep a teacher might have run us through before an important exam. I and many others, who are fortunate enough to have a parent who can teach and explain the things that are taught in school, learned the concepts we did, and got the grades we did because of the knowledge that our parents were able to share with us.
I had great teachers growing up. Most of them would probably score very well on the myriad teacher evaluation schemes springing up around America. Most of them taught a lot of students who, like me, had parents with significant education, and would end up doing well on tests. But it doesn't matter how great those teachers were because however much time I spent sitting in my 9th grade math class with Mr. Bell, I spent a lot more time learning from my dad. I learned what math I know from sitting at the kitchen table doing homework with my dad within shouting distance if I got stuck on a problem I didn't understand.
Obviously, there will always be disparities in how much every child's parents know about a particular subject, and that will always be an advantage that the children of educated parents, who take the time to help them, will have over their peers. That's fine, there's nothing (sensible) that can be done about that, but it is quite another thing to ignore that fact and judge teachers solely on the successes, or failures, of their students.
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Return
Things have been really quiet over here at Putrid Pundits...too quiet really. Now that the primary campaigns are firing on all cylinders it seems like a good time to get back into the swing of things. Check back soon for some political commentaries on the ugliness that is today's politics.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
If we can understand this slide...we can win in Afghanistan
Unfortunately, no one understands this slide.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
How Weinergate differs from GOP Sex Scandals
Since Anthony Weiner's televised confession yesterday that he had in fact tweeted a picture of his "member of congress" and that his account was not hacked, as he had first alleged, many have called on the New York congressman to resign for the impropriety. Cable news pundits have been referencing the likes of Larry Craig, John Ensign, and the previous represenative of New York's 26th district, Chris Lee as they denounce Anthony Weiner and demand his resignation, but he is none of those people.
Larry Craig's political career came to a screeching halt when he was caught, by an undercover police officer, soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. Prior to his arrest, Larry Craig was known as a socially conservative member of the Senate who supported legislation designed to oppress homosexuals. Therefore it is not the fact that he was soliciting sex from men in a public bathroom that inspired people to call for his resignation, but the hypocrisy of making life harder for homosexuals while simultaneously engaging in the aforementioned activity.
Nevada's John Ensign was in similar hot water after it was revealed that he had carried on an affair with the wife of one of his closest staffers. Beyond the simple "you're having an affair with the wife of a very close friend/colleague" Senator Ensign had been an outspoken critic of President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky fiasco. In calling for the President Clinton to resign, he said the behavior was an embarrassment to the country.
The key difference here, besides the lack of extramarital sex on Congressman Weiner's part, is that Anthony Weiner has not built his career by attacking adulterers or as some self-righteous social conservative. Unlike Eliot Spitzer who was cracking down on prostitution rings while sleeping with prostitutes, Anthony Weiner doesn't have any public history of targeting lewd tweeters.
That being said it is extraordinarily upsetting, as a progressive, to see yet another politician on the left, who was fighting the good fight, allow his selfishness and his hubris to distract him from the job he was sent to Washington to do. I don't care what anyone tweets, emails, writes on facebook, or sends through ICQ (remember ICQ?) but politicians need to realize that this kind of crap will become public, and it will derail the important work they are doing.
Larry Craig's political career came to a screeching halt when he was caught, by an undercover police officer, soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. Prior to his arrest, Larry Craig was known as a socially conservative member of the Senate who supported legislation designed to oppress homosexuals. Therefore it is not the fact that he was soliciting sex from men in a public bathroom that inspired people to call for his resignation, but the hypocrisy of making life harder for homosexuals while simultaneously engaging in the aforementioned activity.
Nevada's John Ensign was in similar hot water after it was revealed that he had carried on an affair with the wife of one of his closest staffers. Beyond the simple "you're having an affair with the wife of a very close friend/colleague" Senator Ensign had been an outspoken critic of President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky fiasco. In calling for the President Clinton to resign, he said the behavior was an embarrassment to the country.
The key difference here, besides the lack of extramarital sex on Congressman Weiner's part, is that Anthony Weiner has not built his career by attacking adulterers or as some self-righteous social conservative. Unlike Eliot Spitzer who was cracking down on prostitution rings while sleeping with prostitutes, Anthony Weiner doesn't have any public history of targeting lewd tweeters.
That being said it is extraordinarily upsetting, as a progressive, to see yet another politician on the left, who was fighting the good fight, allow his selfishness and his hubris to distract him from the job he was sent to Washington to do. I don't care what anyone tweets, emails, writes on facebook, or sends through ICQ (remember ICQ?) but politicians need to realize that this kind of crap will become public, and it will derail the important work they are doing.
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