Growing Up In Oregon

I don't know if you've ever read O'Neill. But it seems to me that we're still waiting for the Ah, Wilderness! moment.

So, let's take a look at Oregon's "Adequate Yearly Progress" reports. We'll start with the largest of the area's school districts, Astoria.

Male students in the 3-8 and 10th grade that did not meet state standards:

In English, 30.4 percent, or, three out of ten students.

In Math, 34.7 percent, or, almost three and a half out of ten students.

In Science, 42.4 percent, or, more than four out of ten students.

Remember, that the goal of education in Astoria is

"Students of the Astoria School District will achieve their individual potentials through academic excellence and the use of critical and creative thinking. Students will be citizens of the earth, embracing responsibility for self, family, community, and democracy."

I still hope that some day, the school board will lose the members who believe that being a "citizen of the earth" is somehow more valuable for an American than being a citizen of America.

By the way, the school board members are Brad Pope, Marin Dursse and Shawn Helligso. You can get their e-mail addresses here.

The numbers for girls are even worse in science; 44.2 percent, almost 4-1/2 out of 10 girls did not meet the state standards.

What happened in Seaside?

In math, more than two in ten males failed. In science, more than three in ten males failed. The sad thing is, more than four out of ten females failed.

Imagine, if you were making hubcaps, and four out of 10 hubcaps were unusable. How long would you stay in business?

Warrenton?

Not good but better. In math, males who failed to meet standards was lower than three out of ten. Women in science performed even better, with 29.2 percent failing to meet the standard.

That is, if you owned a hubcap factory, only three of the ten hubcaps you produce would be unable to be sold. A thirty percent loss of potential return, against the same cost as a successfully produced hubcap.

And then, there's Knappa.

The boys in Knappa outperform any other school district in the county in science, and the girls underperform any other school in the county. To be fair, in English and math, Knappa has a higher success rate than any other school district in Clatsop county. And, they teach basketball well, too.




The fact is, our school districts are approaching a half-way mark of failure. Is 44 percent that much different than 50 percent? Four and a half out of ten, or five of ten?

If you ran a hubcap factory, you wouldn't be surprised to find out that you were out of a job, if you could only successfully produce a marketable product fifty percent of the time. In education, you get a raise. Only in government does failure equal success.

Why are our kids unable to figure out, that if you want health insurance, then, you buy it? Why are our kids unable to figure out, that if you want a high paying job, you earn it? Why are our kids unable to figure out, that if you want to be successful, you need to devote yourself to hard work, suffer loss and privation, be earnest and honest with those around you, and strive to overcome the obstacles that arise in your path as you work toward your own goal? I grant you, it is easier to believe that innovation comes from government, when you have no sense of personal innovation. I grant you, that it is easier to believe that success comes from government, when you have no history of personal success. I grant you, that the road to serfdom comes easily when your life relies upon others to supply you with the means of survival, rather than carve from the rough rock of life, your own path.

"Students will be citizens of the earth, embracing responsibility for self, family, community, and democracy."

It's all wrong. Students will be responsible for their own lives, their own choices, their own families. But what the hell is "citizen of the earth"? Who the &*(%^ cares about being a citizen of the earth? What country offers "earth citizenship"? Why would I teach a child he needs to take care of his "community"? What the hell does that mean?

We do not want a teaching community in Oregon that requires our kids to grow up. That's clear. If we did, we wouldn't allow schoolboards to have such flaky statements of purpose as does the Astoria School District. That is clear, when we allow boys and girls to go through school more concerned about the social aspects of fitting in, than the tedious work of learning the fundamentals of English, math and science.

Boys who don't want to learn about math and science is an indicator of failure. You can tell a kid, all day long, that he has a lot of self-esteem. But if he can't succeed after twelve years of public schooling, he knows it's all a lie.

Sure, he'll get food stamps. But he'll never know the joy of work and success.

The Socialist

Stolen from Lumberjack, who stole it from Ben Howe.

Theft, of course, is the highest form of flattery. Ergo, socialism.

Good News for the Housing Market!

Fingernails On A Chalkboard

Yeah. I'm a moron.

LauraW posted this up over at Ace's place.



This is a well-educated man, who hasn't a clue as to the process of starting and running a business. There seem to be a lot of well-educated people working for our state's government who are similiarly clueless. For them, I assume, it's a feature rather than a bug.

Bawney Fwank

I've embedded this video at least a couple of times.



What I never expected was this.

Palin Strong

Interesting post over at "Mitt Romney Central."

Sarah is doing well.

She's not even runnning, and somebody at RMC is trying to chump her.

Hmm.

A Thread In Search of an Argument

I looked at the comment thread twice. I still have no idea what's going on over here.

Education's Broken Promise

The rise of teachers' unions in the 1960's was the signal event in the death of what had previously been known as the "teaching profession."



(Graph from Powerline, "Futility." Click pic for full size.)

The teachers' union's mantra was, "it's for the kids." We need to spend more money on education in order to remain competitive. We need to spend more money in order to attract better teachers. Give us what we want and we'll do a better job.

The following has been copied from "Appendix G--Requirements for OAKS Writing Performance Administration," (.pdf).

• Computer/word processor:

o Word processing applications used during testing should be those used
during instruction so they are familiar to the students.

o Automatic grammar checks must be disabled.

o New for 2010-11: students may use an automatic spell check feature

The promise of more money for education is reduced to this simple fact; they can't even teach students how to spell the words they write. So, enable "spell check."

I'm not surprised that our state government is so out of whack it makes ones head spin. When the Governor announces the expenditure of $700-thousand dollars to help build eight electric vehicle charging stations on I-5, isn't there at least one critic out there who can ask the simple question, "what electric cars?"

What company would purchase electric vehicles that would require hours of roadside hours standing idly by while an electric car's batteries are being recharged? What man or woman, whose time is valued as a scarce commodity, would agree to standing around idly, while gas and diesel vehicles race by on their way to their destinations? What idiot would begin a trip of hundreds of miles with a vehicle that measures success in tens of miles?

The promise of education.

The next generation of the best and brightest.

In a section of the Oregon Stater, not included in the on-line version, sorry, are the words of CLA Dean Larry Rodgers, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. English:

"CLA takes its foundational teaching role very seriously. Every student in the university takes our classes. But if you take a more specific area like climate change, you find that while scientists have strong, data-based research validating disturbing planetary trends, the move to public action has been a tough sell. Why? I would say that we haven't yet found a persuasive public narrative that translates solid science into policy and policy into action. How to achieve buy-in is where CLA needs to be a world-changer. We teach our students how to communicate, how to think deeply and ehtically about tough issues, about the responsibilities of citizenship. I strongly believe that our ability to address an issue like climate change lies in how well we use these kinds of skills."

I would suggest Dean Rodgers assemble his kit of logical thinking tools and read the latest from the Royal Society (.pdf). For a full discussion, see Watts Up With That?

More disturbing is perhaps the ways found to "communicate." This is a disturbing video produced by the 10:10 campaign.




Why would you want Dean Rodgers to have access to your kids? He has stated his agenda. And he is trading on a young person's eagerness to please, to succeed. Determining what knowledge is, and whether or not it can be perceived is a lesser concern for Dean Rodgers. It's an agenda that counts.

Best and brightest? I think not. Intellectual thuggery is still thuggery.