In keeping with the Bill O’Reilly mash mixup that Southern Beale featured earlier, it seems that all the money I’ve been spending supporting educationo by buying lottery tickets is finally paying off. Go watch this video at Coed Magazine.

I saw Ben Stein’s Expelled last night and there’s one question that noone will answer for me . . . do you have to have bad teeth to be a PhD?  But seriously . . .

They’re discussing it (the movie) over at TennesseeFree.com.

The BearCreekLedger has seen the movie, too.

The movie’s thesis is that there are legitimate questions about Darwinism, but scientists are not allowed to ask those questions because some people are threatened by certain potential answers to the questions. Tsk, tsk.

Sean Braisted is relieved to learn that some “Progressives” think it is okay to allow parents to homeschool. Me too.

But Sean’s post–as well as the first comment on his post, raise a couple of issues. First, if Sean thinks that states (certainly Tennessee) currently “supply educational materials and improving online correspondence courses” to homeschooling parents, that’s incorrect. It all comes out of the pocket of homeschoolers, and most of us are probably content with that.

Second, one hesitation that Sean expresses is the idea of “some keeping their kids home to teach them that the Earth is 7K years old and Dinosaur bones were planted by the devil to try and trick believers.” Sorry, but public education is failing to purge the culture of those perspectives (I’m not sure about the devil notion, frankly).

Lastly, an increasing number of non-Christian, non-Right-wing, non-Fundamentalist, etc. people are opting to homeschool, and there is an interesting mix of motivations for homeschooling; among them are a number of “Progressive” values.

As I perceive Sean has concluded, there’s no need to be afraid of homeschooling.

I read (via Volunteer Voters) that Rep. Stacey Campfield had posted some of the “evidence” supporting his legislation to keep Kindergarten (and up through 2nd grade) teachers from instructing children about alternative human couplings (or any human couplings, actually).

It appears the message that various non-heterosexual phenomena are normal is already being covered (or encouraged) for K-2nd teachers . . . so it looks like any bogeyman-mongering accusations are inaccurate.

But I noticed that the PFLAG materials are couched in terms of “making our schools safe” (my words, not theirs). Sorry, but I don’t think it is necessary for public employees to undermine millennia of Western social values to “make schools safe.” Refusing to coddle aggressive or assaultive or intimidating behavior is what will make schools safe. That’s some morality we can all agree on . . . .

Unless the public schools (esp. K-2) are going to allow the teaching of the Judeo-Christian view of sexuality or morality, they shouldn’t be teaching any.

Rats, I just noticed that Comcast–my cable provider, is funding this PFLAG program.

Rob Shearer (and Kay Brooks also here) are reporting on the efforts by Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) to force homeschoolers and private schoolers to pass the public school’s Gateway exams to graduate.

You need to read their posts, but from what I see, Hardaway’s proposal sounds like the age old technique of forcing your way in (or out of) a gate by overwhelming the guard or gatekeeper . . . crashing the gate. Like most legislation, there’s more to this bill than meets the eye.

It sounds like to me that Hardaway is making some pretty nasty sausage.

~Emilie Buchwald~

Something I take entirely for granted is my ability to read. Reading and books have been apart of my life for as long as I can remember. For me, passing on the love of reading to my children has been very natural. There was no, “will I read to my children?” or “if I read to my children”. I just read to them everyday. Sometimes it’s because they’ve requested that I read to them. And there’s always reading time before bed time. I love hearing of other parents who taking reading to their kids seriously, as well.

From Lit(erature) On Fire:

We read to our son every night before bed.

Most nights we finish reading with the book I Love You Goodnight.

Often, I feel compelled to ask my son this one nerdy question before we read I Love You Goodnight. Tonight as we finished reading one of his favorite science books (he wants to be a mad scientist when he grows up), I opened I Love You Goodnight and asked him, “Do you know what this is?” He looked up at me with half a smile and half annoyance and said “Do I have to?”. I shook my head vigorously and he said with little enthusiasm, “A true story…” Yep.

I’m compelled to remind our Music City Bloggers readers about the Governor’s Books From Birth Foundation that supplies children in Tennessee a free, hardcover book each month. Any child age five and under, in Tennessee, is eligible for this program. Go here to find your county’s Imagination Library and the contact for information for signing up for the program.

Also, Nashville Public Library’s website offers a wonderful “kids section“. Children can even get their own library cards. Contact your local branch for details.

He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend,
a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.
By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently
divert and pleasantly entertain himself,
as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.
~ Barrow ~

When I look back, I am so impressed again
with the life-giving power of literature.
If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of
myself in the world, I would do that again by reading,
just as I did when I was young.
~ Maya Angelou ~

If you can read this, thank a teacher.
~ Anonymous Teacher ~

Rob Shearer at TennesseeConserVOLiance lays out the Conservative argument against Governor Bredesen’s spendthrift proposal to expand pre-kindergarten programs in Tennessee. Some people are baffled–baffled I say!, that others aren’t falling all over themselves to get every four year old Tennessean in a public school classroom.

Similarly, Martin Kennedy at TennEconomics challenges Conservatives in the state legislature to stand firm in opposing the proposal.

Elsewhere, the knock-down-drag-out (in the comment section) of a post at Volunteer Voters is instructive.

Let’s have this debate folks.

From Npt:

Martin Kennedy, of the TennEconomics blog, posts briefly about Rep. Beth Harwell’s filing of a “Tim Tebow Law.” As a UT alum, I think she could have left Tebow’s name off of the bill, but as Kennedy writes:

Her proposal would allow homeschoolers to participate in high school extra-curricular activities. Currently homeschooling families, who pay taxes like the rest of us, are not permitted to play sports or be in plays at their zoned high school. . . . Tebow was homeschooled through high school.

The other day, Martin had another post on the subject:

The larger question is why should sports be school based anyway? Why don’t schools limit themselves to the core competency - educating… ostensibly. What does playing sports have to do with learning to read, write, and do arithmetic? How much do they, the myriad sports programs, cost?

I think those are fair questions . . .

In an article at the Tennessean and a post at Hispanic Nashville, they’re discussing the fallout from immigration raids in the Springfield area back in December. They’re discussing the children, most of whom are U.S. citizens because they were born here. Since the raids, truancy is up 11% in Robertson County and the schools are still responsible for boosting the test scores of those children.

Given that their parents may be afraid of being deported, or may have moved to other areas or states if they no longer have jobs, some of those kids may not come back to school and, if their parents were the ones who were caught, they may have gone back to Mexico with their parents. But they’re our citizens, by law, so they can come back any time they want whether they ever got an education or not.

From the Tennessean:

Robertson County and Metro Nashville became the first school districts in Tennessee last year to move into so-called “corrective action” status under the federal No Child Left Behind education law. Both failed to educate groups of students - such as English-language learners and those with special needs - four years in a row. They must demonstrate continued progress on achievement tests, starting this spring, to get off the list.

I am completely and utterly appalled by what I read over at Katie Allison Granju’s place this morning:

Denver mothers who are enrolled in high school are asking for a modest four weeks of approved maternity leave from classes, and all hell is breaking loose over their request. The topic has bloggers and pundits buzzing, with most folks nastily wagging their fingers at the idea that “teen mothers” should get a few weeks to rest their bodies and bond with their babies after giving birth. After all, the reasoning goes, if we “reward” teenage moms with four weeks of no homework, it will surely encourage more 16 year old girls to get knocked up.

Are they NUTS?

No, they are cruel. Evidently, they want to punish those girls much as they possibly can for their mistakes.  God forbid you give them an “excused absence” for giving birth!

Katie wrote a powerful essay entitled “In Defense of the Pregnant Prom Queen” recently, and it ties in to this most recent story, as well.  Read her entire post, as well as the essay here.

Who knew there was a Top 10 List for Vegetarian-Friendly State Prisons?

Well, PETA creates just such a list and their latest assessment says Tennessee ranks 8th in the Top Ten Vegetarian-Friendly State Prisons according to their press release.

The story is headlined “State Is Feeding Inmates’ Hunger For Healthy, Non-Violent Meals” and includes the following:

“Prison food has traditionally gotten a bad rap, but you won’t hear many complaints from vegetarians and vegans who are serving time in Tennessee. The vegetarian sweet and sour entrée, vegetarian chili, and veggie burgers have inmates asking for seconds.”

Who knew? Not me.

I’m not a big fan of marketing and elementary school tie-ins. That’s why this post from Lesley made me sit up and take notice.

When I was in school, I remember that some of my friends got rewarded with cash for good grades. When I asked my mom why I wasn’t getting rewarded for my good grades, she just said that my reward was being smarter than other kids. I wasn’t happy, but I continued to get good grades. And I applaud her decision not to bribe me to do what I was supposed to do anyway.

But what happens when your children are presented with “rewards” and it’s beyond your control? In Seminole county, Florida, the school system has allowed McDonald’s to market themselves as rewards to elementary schoolchildren

What do you think? Is it a good idea for schools to give out coupons for Happy Meals as prizes?

Phil Valentine, in his weekly column in the Tennessean, took time out of his busy schedule to scold both Bredesen and parents for the decline in parental responsibility when it comes to early-childhood education. According to “Uncle Phil,” the move towards more pre-K is an “onslaught of the nanny state. Bureaucrats look down their noses at the unwashed masses with an attitude that they’re too stupid to take care of their own kids. Being poor should not be an excuse for being a sorry parent, but we are incrementally making it so.”

Perhaps he is right, but at the same time, just because Phil likes to read bed-time stories to his kids, doesn’t mean that we as a society should abdicate our responsibility in ensuring that every drunken accident has the chance to live a quality life, regardless of how unfit their parents are. Read the rest of this entry »

This cracks me up.

No matter what you try to ban, a black market traffic in the banned substance will spring up as surely as night follows day.

The long and fractuous battle between Belmont and The Tennessee Baptist Convention is over.

Belmont University is pleased to announce that it has reached a mutually agreeable settlement of all disputed claims with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. We believe that this resolution honors the many significant contributions that Tennessee Baptists have made to the University and upholds the teachings of Jesus Christ, whom we all seek to serve by ending litigation.

The settlement concludes a 56-year relationship between Belmont and the TBC and provides gifts by Belmont to Tennessee Baptists of $1,000,000 next year followed by annual payments of $250,000 for the next 40 years. These gifts are an expression of gratitude to Tennessee Baptists for the financial and spiritual support that they have provided to the University over the past five decades. The funds will be added to an endowment at the Tennessee Baptist Foundation to support Tennessee Baptist missions and ministries.

CLC visited his Alma Mater recently and was inspired to thought.

What a waste! By being so academically lazy, I denied myself the opportunity to possibly discover something that really moved me or that I was really good at. Those two “gut” classes in Automotive Technology and Astronomy? They were actually very rigorous courses taught under the auspices of the Engineering and Applied Physics departments, and I enjoyed them immensely. They were also the only two A+’s that I earned during my college career.

But did I pursue them? Did I try to explore areas of academia that were foreign to me or that stimulated me? No. Instead I retreated back to the world of the 15 page paper where if you could write persuasively and stick to your thesis, you could pretty much coast by with an A- in just about every History class without cracking half the books on the reading list.

He’s got quite a lot more to say, and it’s very moving. It touched me in one of my most sensitive emotional spots. I have a lot of regrets about my college years as I look at them in retrospect. Of course, I have a lot I DON’T regret as well. I often wonder, though, if I knew then what I know now if I would have done anything differently.

Our good buddy Roger Abramson at Pith In The Wind:

Anyway, give it a look. Regarding Davidson County, I think the following bits of info are especially worth noting:

1. Average achievement levels in math and reading; below-average achievement in social studies and science.

2. Writing seems to be going well. Too bad no one writes anymore.

3. Value-added scores are OK. Nothing to write home about.

4. There was roughly one suspension for every six students in Metro last year. Seriously: 17.3 percent. But remember: don’t blame crappy parenting for crappy schools. No, no. It’s got to be either 1) the teachers’ union’s fault (for obstructing education reforms) or 2) the taxpayers’ fault (for not wanting to pony up more money for schools). These are the only two things you’re allowed to talk about. Too bad neither of these is the core of our problem.

I think there are lots of reasons for crappy schools, and poor parenting is certainly one of them. If you were in charge of the schools, what would you do to fix things? Especially, how would you increase parental involvement?

Meredith had a little blogger get together this morning that I had the pleasure of attending. And what I thought would just be a fun meet & greet kind of thing, led to me learning about a very interesting and compelling organization called, Mothers Acting Up. One of our own Nashville bloggers, Ms. Booty Homemaker, came to the soirée with a couple of her companions in friendship and activism and co-founders of Mothers Acting Up, Beth Osnes and Joellen Raderstorf.

Mothers Acting Up inspires, educates and engages mothers* — a gigantic force to be reckoned with— to prioritize children in our corporate and public policies. MAU believes that when mothers lead, generations of global citizens will follow.

So what I’m here to tell you about is the MAU! Live: Theatre for Empowerment performance tonight called (M)other. Beth performs her own original work that, “explores what it might take for the mothers of one country to care about the mothers and children of another country and reaffirms our interconnectedness in both our challenges and our solutions as a global community”. It’s at 7:30 pm at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Nashville. Admission is $10. (This performance made the Critic’s Pick in the Nashville Scene.) I know it’s short notice but hey, maybe you aren’t already doing something tonight!

There is an Empowering Mother Voices workshop tomorrow from 9 am - 12 noon, also at the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Registration is $25. I also understand that there will be a Girlcott meeting at Bongo Java after the seminar.

I find much inspiration in seeing grass roots efforts such as these. When people find a passion and work hard to see it through, good things happen.

*mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller (from the MAU website)

But you know I won’t. Sadcox on the state of public education:

The political issues aside, I think the biggest problem lies in kids’ attitude toward school in general. Many see school as all of things Taylor mentioned besides learning. Many more view the completion of their 12 year sentence in the public indoctrination education system as the sum of education of their lives. After that, they’ve “finished”.

I agree that the attitude of students is one of the big problems with education. To me, the biggest problem with public education is the fact that they are not generally teaching kids on their level. My first grader reads on a sixth grade level. But because she goes to a school that is Kindergarten and first grade only, she is stuck having to read books for AR that are way under her level. She is growing bored and discontent already, and she’s only in first grade. What will happen when she gets older and grows more and more discontent?

Why are we teaching to the lowest common denominator and leaving the kids who are bright and still interested in school behind?

Around the office, there are signs up declaring October to be Cyber Protection Awareness Month. The signs encourage you to do various things like lock your workstation if you’re going to be away from your desk so someone can’t install a key-tracker or hijack your e-mail and send rude notes to the boss.

As I looked at the sign today, I wondered if Melinda English wishes she’d seen a sign warning her of that and other potential on-line dangers. For those of you may wonder what I’m talking about, English is the elementary school teacher in Knox County who raised eyebrows when it came to light that she’s posted “partially nude” photos of herself on a couple of social networking sites. Read the rest of this entry »

Sadcox has this to say about a teacher who posted sexy pictures of herself on the internet:

The fact is, lots of people have digital cameras, but not many people have common sense. Really, it’s bad enough to let someone else take and have pictures of you in compromising situations, but to post them yourself?

Forget about whether or not it is inappropriate–is this person smart enough to teach kids?

Some people don’t think it’s a big deal, and maybe they are right. But if you are going to be employed by the public (schools) you have expect that they (the public) are going to judge you by the community’s accepted standards–right or wrong doesn’t come into play.

On one hand, he has a point. On the other hand, according to the KNS, she wasn’t exacty nekkid:

“We found these pictures of her at various sites,” Griffin said this morning.

England described herself as a 28-year-old woman, who has a daughter, according to her profile, he said.

One photograph shows England shirtless, her left hand covering her right breast and her left breast is in the crook of her left elbow.

Another picture shows her lying on her stomach, face down, wearing black panties. Her bare back is visible.

Human resources officials are looking into the matter.

I’m kind of torn about this. If you’re an elementary teacher, you ought to know people might go searching for you on the internet and find sexy pictures and be pissed off. On the other hand, what a person does on their off time is really up to them.

Nathan Moore has been spurred to thought by Justice Clarence Thomas.

He touches on a variety of of prickly subjects, to include his views on the real dangers to the black population and his treatment, both ideologically and intellectually, by white liberals. In short, it is his view that progressives are more dangerous to blacks than southern racists, that their demand for ideological segregation is worse than the past policies of physical separation

In his interview with ABC News, Justice Thomas discusses the harmfulness he sees in certain sectors of modern progressivism.

He is adamantly opposed to affirmative action, but for entirely different reasons than white conservatives who drive the debate by arguing it’s unfair to white people. Thomas says affirmative action instead has hurt blacks. It not only sends them into environments in which they are doomed to struggle instead of soar, but it also perpetuates negative stereotypes that whites hold today that all blacks are inferior to them and don’t belong — just as whites in the South assumed 50 years ago.

“These ideologies that claim to be so warm toward minorities actually turn out to be quite pernicious,” Thomas says.

Under affirmative action, Thomas says, whites will forever believe blacks enroll in top schools or hold good jobs only because the institutions lowered their standards to accept them — regardless of whatever qualifications an individual may actually have. The assumption is that blacks, Thomas says, are not and cannot be as good as whites.

I’m no fan of affirmative action. Not because it’s unfair to whites or because it punishes blacks. I just plain don’t like social engineering, period. I think it’s a bad idea that always stems from the arrogance of one individual or group believing they know what’s best for everyone. Of course that being said, I still think Justice Thomas raises some interesting points.

Jason is revisiting one of my favourite topics.

Are American colleges hoarding their endowments and causing undue financial constraints on students? (Perish the thought!). At current rates, some college educations for babies born this year will run a half-million dollars.

He’s over at his place doing some Big Thinking about an article from the Center for College Affordability.

College and university endowment spending practices are stuck in a past when endowments were small, investment gains were marginal, and economic rainy days were frequent. Today higher education endowments are massive and—as we’ve heard today—aggressively invested. Returns often exceed 12% or more year after year. Yet endowment payouts are miserly—averaging just over 4% last year.

(Emphasis mine)

Over the years I’ve had close family members sit on the boards of several private colleges and universities. The funding and operations of higher education have been a frequent topic of conversation throughout my lifetime. From my perch on the sidelines it does indeed seem that America’s higher education system has spent the last two decades carefully crafting a scheme for institutional wealth at the expense of both their underpaid employees and their overcharged students.

Jason seems to agree.

I know of a few graduate students who are getting by on pitifully, horribly small annual stipends (around $1200/month) in exchange for hours of school-mandated teaching. Yes, they’re getting an education, but at the cost of some very valuable employment years.

…
It used to be that the cost of higher education was more than offset by the increased earning potential that a degree conferred throughout your employment life. That tide has shifted recently. I saw one study that stated if you took the average cost of a college education and invested it instead of going to school, at retirement you’d be far better off living off the interest of that seed money than if you’d invested it in a degree.

Several colleges are eliminating the Student Loan portion of their financial aid packages.

Les Jones puts my thoughts about this into some very good words:

I’m of two minds about student loans. On the one hand, they enable students to go attend college who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it. On the other hand, some students wind up saddled with big debts early in life, and often have degrees where the likely career prospects make repaying the loads difficult.

The U.S. government, in trying to help the former, is enabling the latter. Many people would object to Bank of America letting an 18 year old anthropology major take on tens of thousands of dollars a year in debt to finance their personal lives in college, but the government is making it possible for that same student to take on the same debt to pay for tuition. With the student load the interest rate is lower, but you may not be able escape the debt with bankruptcy.

I still think that the student loans I took out were some of the biggest financial mistakes of my life. I’m every day thankful that I didn’t compound the problem by going on to law school.