Virginia school temporarily bans 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Huckleberry Finn

"The parent, whose son is biracial, said that her concerns are "not even just a black and white thing."

"I keep hearing, 'This is a classic, This is a classic,' ... I understand this is a literature classic. But at some point, I feel that children will not -- or do not -- truly get the classic part -- the literature part, which I'm not disputing," she said at a Nov. 15 school board meeting. "This is great literature. But there (are so many) racial slurs in there and offensive wording that you can't get past that."

The parent said her son, who was reading "Huckleberry Finn" for a high school assignment, couldn't get past a certain page in that story on which the N-word appeared seven times. 

A racial slur appears 219 times in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and 48 times in "To Kill a Mockingbird.""

http://www.kiro7.com/news/trending-now/virginia-schools-ban-to-kill-a-mockingbird-huckleberry-finn-for-racial-slurs/472065070

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) providing legislative templates for Conservative spending agendas

"Gov. Sam Brownback’s march to zero income taxes, combined with legislation designed to weaken public services and wrest control away from local government, are hollowing out the very aspects of government these committees focus on. Public education certainly seems targeted to be greatly supplemented by, if not outright replaced by, private education.

We see this in other states as well. For some time now, model legislation from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Americans For Prosperity (AFP) and other libertarian / ultraconservative organizations has been used as the template for bills in states with varying levels of ultraconservative control. Such templates have been developed on everything from taxation and fiscal policy, to energy and the environment, to health and human services.

Looking just at education, in 2015 there were 172 measures introduced in 42 states based on ALEC model legislation, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. The general goal being to “… transform public education from a public and accountable institution that serves the public into one that serves private, for-profit interests.” With public education commonly comprising a significant portion of state budgets, this dovetails nicely with ultraconservative legislation focused on drastically shrinking government and reducing taxes.

In Kansas, one of the latest bills taking inspiration from such model legislation is HB 2741, intended to provide the state with a new public school funding formula. The Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) provides a good summary of the bill here. The need for a new formula began during the 2014-2015 legislative session with the repeal of the previous school funding formula and implementation of the temporary two-year block grant funding mechanism, intended to fill the gap while the legislature works on a new formula. I should note that the block grant has also effectively reduced the dollars available to school districts for day to day operations.

http://www.salon.com/2016/04/12/sam_brownback_declares_war_on_kansas_this_is_how_extremists_gut_a_state_and_democracy/

Ben Shapiro: I Spoke at a Public High School...

"The Administration Dismissed The Students to 'Protect' Their Feelings."

Link to story

Sessions Is Right

Overheard at Lem's:

ndspinelli said... 

Dot heads are taking all the chemistry jobs. 

November 10, 2015 at 11:37 PM

There's no need to single out one ethnic group -- Chinese nationals actually dominate foreign enrollment in chemistry graduate programs.

Here's an interesting factual depiction of wages in the chemical field for the last 10 years:

Link to original

As the chart shows, wages and salaries have steadily decreased over the last ten years. There is a strong downward pressure on salaries driven by the unfettered importation of foreign labor. This is basic economics. I suspect that a similar chart exists for IT workers, and data for careers at the "bottom" of the spectrum.  These data are interesting to add to the mix of the discussion of income inequality.

Now, there are strong patrician arguments for why ever-lower wages are good for business -- and ultimately that's what motivates the likes of Mark Zuckerberg.* But why then is there a strong push for STEM education in this country?  What sane student or parent would encourage their child down this pathway except for -- and this is a big except for -- a love or curiosity for science?
_________________________
* I single him out because he is the face of the problem. He is the cheerleader for more of the same.

What should Apple do with its more than $205 billion in cash?

"...Apple should buy a university and rebuild it from the ground up.

Apple is a for-profit corporation not a charity but there are plenty of ways to make money from a non-profit university. Aside from the tax breaks and other deductions, Apple University would be a proving ground for educational technologies that would be sold to every other university in the world. New textbooks built for the iPad and its successors would greatly increase the demand for iPads. Apple-designed courses built using online technologies, a.i. tutors, and virtual reality experimental worlds could become the leading form of education worldwide. Big data analytics from Apple University textbooks and courses would lead to new and better ways of teaching. As a new university, Apple could experiment with new ways of organizing degrees and departments and certifying knowledge. Campuses in Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Berlin, and Sao Paulo could provide opportunities for studying abroad. Apple’s reputation would attract top students, especially, for example, if it started with a design and business school. Top students would lead Apple University to be highly ranked. The more prestigious Apple University became the greater would be the demand for Apple University educational products.

...More than a century ago Stanford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller used their industrial-age fortunes to build some of our best universities. Isn’t it time for another great university built for the information age?"

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/10/apple-should-buy-a-university.html

"Obama Calls for Two Years of Free Community College for All Students"

“I’d like to see the first two years of community college free for everyone who is willing to work for it,” Mr. Obama said in a video posted Thursday on Facebook.

“With no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point than a plan,” said Cory Fritz, press secretary to House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio).

“This will basically make community college like high school in terms of access,” said David Baime, vice president for government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges.

NYT OPed: The Commencement Bigots

Excerpt...

Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to give the 248th anniversary commencement address at Rutgers University this coming Sunday. She canceled after a small knot of protesters pressured the university. It’s no contest who showed more class.

Near as I can tell, the forces of intolerance objected to her role in the Iraq war. O.K. And by shutting her down, the point is ... what? That extremism, whether in the climate-denial echo chamber of Republican Party elites or in the fragile zone of college faculty lounges, is the worst enemy of free speech.

Thanks to the bigots, Smith College graduates will be deprived of the thoughts of Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund. She withdrew this week, under pressure from people who object to the I.M.F.’s role in the “strengthening of imperialist and patriarchal systems.” So, one of the world’s most powerful women will not share insights with one of the nation’s most prominent women’s colleges because of a concern about patriarchy. Evil men — that’ll show ’em.

This was followed by the swift departure of Robert J. Birgeneau, a former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, as a speaker at Haverford College. Yes, you heard that right: The man from Berkeley is not suitable for the sensitive souls of Haverford.

For guidance, these censors could have consulted the Rutgers student mission statement. “We embrace difference by cultivating inclusiveness and respect of both people and points of view.” Diversity of perspective? Thy name should be academia. But of late, too many schools are opting for well-vetted bores. Pursue your dream, live your own life, don’t forget to floss or use sunscreen, and if you’re forced to share a hall with people you don’t like, shout them down and kick them out the door. (read the whole thing)

Masters Degree Requirements, ca 1200 AD

I'm reading this book, which you can purchase from Amazon dot com by clicking on Lem's Amazon portal.

A few chapters describe how universities were formed in Europe in the 11th century.  The first universities issued certificates or licenses for Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts.

A Bachelor of Arts certificate took 4-5 years to earn, and at the end of it the student had to "determine a question", essentially orally defend a question given him by his instructors, using all he had learned.

A Master of Arts certificate took another two years and provided a license to teach in any university in Europe.  Since the only books available were the few that had been laboriously copied by monks, books were "heard" rather than read, that is, a professor would read and explain them to students, encouraging discussion.

Germans look to Islam in hopes of saving themselves.

"For the first time, German public schools are offering classes in Islam to primary school students using state-trained teachers and specially written textbooks, as officials try to better integrate the nation’s large Muslim minority and counter the growing influence of radical religious thinking."

For German authorities, countering the expansion of more radical religious thinking has presented a vexing problem. For now, the domestic intelligence service keeps close watch on a growing number, with 4,500 Salafists under observation in 2011 and 5,500 in 2012, according to an annual government report.

Increasingly, attention has turned to education and ways to nurture greater inclusion for Germany’s approximately four million Muslims, a number that has steadily increased since German industry recruited the first Turks as “guest workers” in the 1960s.

One answer, officials in Hesse hope, is being put in effect in classes where young children are guided by a state-trained teacher working from a state-approved curriculum.

In one class, Timur Kumlu recently asked his 19 6-year-old students each to take a strand from a large wool ball. He then instructed the children — whose parents hailed from Muslim countries as varied as Afghanistan, Albania, Morocco and Turkey — to examine how, like the threads, they, too, were woven together.

It was a simple lesson containing a gentle message filled with symbolism — that they were linked by their Islamic faith and practices of prayer.

“We are now all bound together — you come from different countries, and so do your parents,” said Mr. Kumlu, who reminded the children that while their parents came from Afghanistan or Albania, they were born in Germany. 

“I think it’s clear now that for years we made the mistake of alienating people,” said Nicola Beer, who as education minister in Hesse was one of several politicians, professors and teachers who pushed for the Islamic instruction. Now, she said, Germans recognize that “we are here together, we work together, and we educate our children together.”

It will be interesting to see how this experiment works out. Does prayer in schools lead to children growing up terrorist? Our own US constitution precludes that kind of experimentation here in the US. So, we just get to watch, from afar, hopefully in safety.

NYT