critical thinking education

part of the reason that fascists come to power is that they do everything possible to limit education, especially history and critical thinking. here's a way to counteract that.

creating the new hitler youth

white nationalism has always had a soft spot for kids. remember the hitler youth?

nowadays, radicalizing children is easier than ever. social media, blogs, targeted email campaigns and ads, podcasts and other media are largely unregulated in the 21st century - or at least unpunished - which makes them fertile ground for extremist recruiters.

conspiracy theory rock

saturday night live once aired a cartoon in the style of abc's old schoolhouse rock clips, a public message series which taught schoolkids about grammar, government, nutrition, and more.

only in this case, conspiracy theory rock aired exactly once - and was shut down for lobvious reasons. you can watch it here.

college debt 'til the day you die

in 2020, 60% of college loans had higher balances than when they started. unless the u.s. government changes this system, the majority of college student loans will never be repaid in the debtors' lifetimes.

this is despite the fact that, at the same time many students saw their incomes drop due to the pandemic, their employers got massive government loans that they will never have to pay back.

how to improve u.s. schools

in case you think that removing books from libraries sounds all too familiar and not any better of an idea now than it ever was, you might wonder if there is something that can be done to have a positive effect on u.s. schools.

turns out there are lots of ideas. and you can find some of them here.

who is funding anti-trans education?

it turns out that the american college of pediatrics took bribes to come out against the abortion drug mifepristone. they have also come out agains trans rights (especially for minors), sex education that mentions any more than 2 genders, abortion, gay marriage, adoption by gay couples, and and and.

the southern poverty law center has designated them as a hate group. most of their 'research' was written by a single individual. 

the american college of pediatriucs has 700 membners, all conservative christians. (for purposes of comparison, the group that represents most pediatricians, the american academy of pediatrics, has 67,000).

all of their legal bills are paid by the alliance defending freedom.

equal education is a lie

one of the things that you learn working for a news wire is that the government always releases the information that they don't want you to see on a friday, since that's the day that you're most likely to miss the news. here's what the department of education released yesterday when they thought you weren't looking:

a report that shows that: minority students are less likely to have access to advanced math and science classes and veteran teachers. black students of any age, even the youngest preschoolers, are more likely to be suspended. students with disabilities are more likely than other students to be tied down or placed alone in a room as a form of discipline.

the report didn't say anything about the reasons behind any of this, but it's not hard to figure out. how can we expect to have black doctors or latino engineers when their schools don't even offer chemistry or algebra ii? especially when you tell the students that these classes are 'not required'. seriously, folks, if we keep setting low expectations, our students are going to keep meeting them.

how to make sure kids know nothing

the california high school exit examination is given to high school seniors prior to graduation. the california board of education has posted some guidelines on their website for things that the test should not contain. like this:

• Violence (including guns, other weapons, and graphic animal violence) 
• Dying, death, disease, hunger, famine 
• War 
• Natural disasters with loss of life 
• Drugs (including prescription drugs), alcohol, tobacco, smoking 
• Junk food 
• Abuse, poverty, running away 
• Divorce 
• Socio-economic advantages (e.g., video games, swimming pools, computers in the home, expensive vacations) 
• Sex 
• Religion 
• Complex discussions of sports 
• Slavery 
• Evolution, prehistoric times, age of solar system, dinosaurs 
• Rap music, rock concerts 
• Extrasensory perception, witchcraft 
• Halloween, religious holidays 
• Anything disrespectful, demeaning, moralistic, chauvinistic 
• Children coping with adult situations or decisions; young people challenging or questioning authority 
• Mention of individuals who may be associated with drug use or with advertising of substances such as cigarettes or alcohol 
• Losing a job, home, or pets 
• Rats, roaches, lice, spiders 
• Dieting, other concerns with self-image 
• Political issues 
• Any topic that is likely to upset students and affect their performance on the rest of the test

american culture

aside from the super bowl, america doesn't have just one culture; every region, state, and town has always had its own. if there is one thing that we have in common, it's that we are a nation of people who tend to do rather than talk, and we aren't very good at listening to anyone else - including other americans.

it's a monkey's paw: on the one hand, we've accomplished a lot because of that bloody-mindedness. on the other, we've reinvented the wheel a thousand times regarding things that other countries have figured out that we still haven't (like education). there are good ideas out there in the world. we used to use those and do them one better. now everyone else seems to be doing the cool stuff while we get laid off, fight over scraps, and insult each other.

other countries are taking our spot, and we don't seem to know what to do about it. it's like when 'japanese' cars started out-selling 'american' cars. remember that? everyone in michigan freaked, and you didn't dare park a 'japanese' car in some neighborhoods. but we figured it out - we have competitive cars again, and more 'japanese' cars are made here than in japan.

the only way things won't go down the toilet is if we stop picking at the things that separate us and focus on what binds us. we taught a lot of the world how to do it, and now they're eating our lunch (as they should, if we've taught them right).

we have to get smarter, and get our eyes back on the ball, or we're going to lose.

are your tax dollars funding creationism?

if you mean are they funding the teaching of creationism in school, the answer is yes. so how do you fight it? well, you might consider helping these folks: http://ncse.com/ and doing everything that you can to debunk the superstitious nonsense pitched by these folks: http://www.icr.org.

85 people own half the world

conservatives in the u.s. constantly point to the 99% movement and say that they are trying to start a class war. but when the 85 wealthiest people literally own as much as the 3.5 billion poorest people (yes, that's billion with a 'b'), it's clear that the war is already well under way. the real question is, how do you turn it around so that the deck isn't stacked against those who don't have access to drafting their own legislation, health care, lawyers, members of the supreme court, members of congress, the media, and on and on?

especially when you have 1 percenters like this fellow who think it's just great?

some suggestions:
1. update the tax code for individuals and corporations to better reflect their ability to pay.
2. don't let companies sell products in the u.s. if they don't pay taxes here for those sales.
3. don't let companies bid for government contracts if they don't pay taxes for income earned as a result of that work.
4. bar all lobbyists from making contributions to members of congress, judges on the supreme court, or any regulatory agency members, including meals, trips, fund-raisers, etc., directly or through pacs or tax-exempt fronts.
5. do not allow any member of congress to take a job with any company that they regulated while in congress for a period of at least 15 years.
6. evenly distribute public education funds across the country, including locally collected taxes.
7. institute a national curriculum and national testing for all public schools.
8. fire any teachers whose students do not meet minimum standards.
9. increase individual teacher pay based on student outcomes.
10. set national standards for executive pay based on a company's size and earnings.
11. make every media outlet and journalist cite their sources for every story. especially television personalities.
12. raise the minimum wage. the wealthiest people on the planet complaining about making sure that their employees can eat is monstrous.

it's not everything, but it's a start. what would you change?

ready to have your mind blown?

remember that world map we had in school? it used to bother me that greenland was so big when, if you read the actual size data for that land mass, it didn't add up. now i know why: everything we know about the actual size of continents and countries is wrong. (example: did you know that the u.s. only takes up 1.9% of the earth?)

making education relevant

kids these days have a lot more to learn than when your humble elsewhen staff was in school. unfortunately, much of what is taught today is dross, the education that you receive varies hugely from state to state (the main reason no one wants nationwide standardized testing), and much of what will be truly useful in life is missing altogether.

we've often thought that a class or two on managing a household budget, wise use of credit, and basic retirement investments should be a requirement for all high schoolers.

politics & the secrets of social interaction - how to read body language, negotiation vs. fighting, salesmanship, avoiding drug use (including alcohol, gambling, and other dependencies) - would also all be useful in the real world.

and rhode island beat everyone else to the punch on our #3: they recently went beyond simple sex education and made learning about violence in dating a requirement.

we don't know about your high school/college years, but ours were rife with young women in destructive relationships from which they seemed unwilling or unable to escape. nice work, rhode island! now we just need to get every other state on board.

teachers forced to be nurses

here's a bit of utter bullshit: because of inadequate funding, school nurses have been forced out of school districts across the country, and classroom teachers are being made to assume their duties.

wtf?!

education is the single most important task that we give our government. in our opinion, it ranks above national defense. teachers get paid little enough. it is ridiculous to make them take on a role that they are not trained for, and that has nothing to do with teaching - which is what we pay them for.

if you have kids in school, contact your local school district and finds out if they still employ school nurses. if they do, ask how many schools each nurse is responsible for. share this information with your neighbors and at pta/ptsa and school board meetings. this is a bit of crap that we shouldn't let anyone sweep under the rug.

u.s. schools suck

at least, that appears to how parents feel, according to a recent poll. their suggestion: more math. they also had mixed feelings about standardized tests.

having worked for a company that published test prep software for several states, not only do we believe that standardized tests are the best way to gauge teacher effectiveness, but we'd also like to see them standardized on a national basis. (because some states' 12th grade questions were 7th grade questions on other states' tests. but hey - maybe your state really needs more gas station attendants.)

if educators in your state start talking about how your curriculum has to be different because of this, that, or the other thing, take it from us: they're blowing smoke up your backside in the mistaken impression that you're a beehive.

how to know when you're being snowed

after the jump you'll find an excellent article on how to objectively assess when you're being snowed, whether by a politician, corporation, non-profit organization - or your pals here at elsewhen.

(we only wish this were a required class in high school and college. along with a class on how to handle money and create and stick to a budget. come to think of it, that one should be required on an annual basis for anyone in public office, don't you think?)

just one more way that elsewhen fights the monkey mind.