"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." -- John Adams

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution." -- Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 6.

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." – Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, July 16, 2015

The Stupid...it Hurts

I focus mostly on public education on this blog, but once in a while I'll diverge into baseball or my own personal history.

Today's topic is the massive ignorance and sheer stupidity of some of the people we send to Washington. Unfortunately, the particular member of congress referred to in this video is not named, but I know of several who might fit.

Jane Lubchenko, a former administrator with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (aka the weather people), was discussing her role in trying to raise funds for weather satellites.

She related a story about a congressperson who didn't want to spend money on weather satellites...
I was on The Hill talking to members of congress about how important these weather satellites were...and one member of congress said to me, "Doctor, I don't need your weather satellites. I've got the Weather Channel."
I worry about the future of this great nation...


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The quote above appears at about 2:15 in the following video.



See the whole article at Climate Deniers Want More Pluto, Less Earth

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The narrow pursuit of test results has sidelined education issues of enduring importance such as poverty, equity in school funding, school segregation, health and physical education, science, the arts, access to early childhood education, class size, and curriculum development. We have witnessed the erosion of teachers’ professional autonomy, a narrowing of curriculum, and classrooms saturated with “test score-raising” instructional practices that betray our understandings of child development and our commitment to educating for artistry and critical thinking. And so now we are faced with “a crisis of pedagogy”–teaching in a system that no longer resembles the democratic ideals or tolerates the critical thinking and critical decision-making that we hope to impart on the students we teach.
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Stop the Testing Insanity!


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