Justice

Not really, but it’s a good start.

Thanks to skinbad.

Back to School Blogging

So, it’s that time of year, kids, and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the back-to-school fun than some random commentary about education.

Tonight’s topic: Teaching to the Test.

I’m for it.

It would be one thing if the teachers made up the test and knew what questions would be asked of the students, but they don’t. It would be one thing if the teachers were making the kids memorize the answers to questions in advance, but they’re not. They know what kinds of questions there will be and they teach accordingly. Oh the horror, my friends on the left cry out, if a teacher knows that the quadratic equation will make an appearance of some sort and then teaches the kids how to apply said equation. Why then, all the kid knows is – um, what they were supposed to know by the end of that class.

Teacher’s union in Texas is whining that the state is requiring that 60% of studens pass in the humanities, 40% in math and a 35% in science. They say that this makes them spend too much time teaching how to answer these questions and not enough time teaching how to apply the problems to daily life.

Ahem.

So…you don’t have enough time to teach the kids what we’re paying you to teach them and to teach them critical thinking skills instead.

Excuse me, I know that a lot of teachers have a crappy lot in life – they don’t get paid much, they get stuck with crappy government insurance and retirement, and they have to deal with runny-nosed, attitude-sporting little cretins all day long. I’m intimately acquainted with that fact. Three months off for summer just doesn’t seem like enough compensation.

But – and you knew there would be one – if the kids can’t pass the tests, then they do not have the requisite knowledge to be applying their “critical thinking” skills. Unless they plan on working for Reuters, they will need to know the facts before running with them. Just the way it is.

Let’s say you teach Texas History and we’re coming up on test time. If you’re pretty sure that your students know that Santa Ana and Ozzy Osbourne didn’t assault the Alamo at the same time and most of the other details they will need to pass, then feel free to discuss the contemporary arguments about state’s rights and the Republic of Texas wackos out in Jeff Davis county. But if you’re not sure about that, then sorry. You will have to focus on making sure they know the material required first, even if your insightful commentary on the War on Terror and the Alien and Sedition Acts gets left out.

Now, I’m not saying the test score is an all-important gauge of a teacher’s merit. There are a lot of variables, the most important of which is the student’s motivation to succeed which the teacher may have nothing to do with. And I know some kids just freak when it’s test day and forget everything they’ve learned until the minute the test is over. Been there. But I’m not talking about a kid or a handful of kids. I’m talking about the 65% of kids who aren’t expected to pass math. If a few students have a bad day on the test or if some kids just never took it seriously and didn’t pass, that’s one thing. But a teacher who has a 60% failure rate? Wow. I really hope those kids are good at that critical thinking.

So, yeah, I understand that a lot of teachers are frustrated by the standards the students are being held to, especially since student performance is how teachers and schools are rated. I know that most of a child’s educational growth is dependant on their motivation to do well and learn, which can be and often is sabotaged by parents, siblings and classmates – all of which is out of the teacher’s hands. I get that. But if teachers want to complain, they should complain about that, not about how hard the test is.

Just saying.

And, for your amusement, here are some sample questions from the storied test.

Ace is out

Much like Spiderman, Ace from Ace of Spades HQ went public today, revealing his face to the world.

Thanks to Allah for the video.

I thought he’d be taller.

Random Thought

I,too, hope Burt Bacharach never gets hit in the rear again.

Ann Coulter on Mel Gibson

There’s a mental picture for you.

Anyway, Allah has the video.

“It’s not like he drove a woman off a bridge and wants to be on the Senate Judiciary Commitee.”

True dat.

Personally, I think he was wrong to say what he said, that he believes it on some level and that being drunk just allowed him to say it. However, his apologies are certainly well-worded and strike me as sincere. But from now on all his films and roles will be thoroughly vetted for any possible anti-semitic content by the media and blogs.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re being arrested and you’re a celebrity – the best thing you can do for yourself is shut up. There’s a right to remain silent and anything a celebrity says can and will be used against them in the court of public opinion. Just saying.

Ace on Wikipedia

Ace has written his first Wikipedia entry. 

Guess who it’s about. If you said Glen Greenwald, hit the back button on your browser. If you said Spurwing Plover, you win.

Not that there’s prizes or anything.

I’ll link to it if they post the entry. Right now, all you’ll find is the actual bird.

Diet Blogging

Enas Yorl of Anomaly Central is giving it the ol’ college try. One tool that helped me was here. They have lots of useful tools and lists of almost every kind of food with nutritional information.

Just counting and controlling calories has been worth 55 lbs for me so far (give or take about 5, I switched scales in the middle). I’m now smack dab in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height/age/gender. It’s not easy, but it works for me.

Also, I’ve been making sure that I get three servings of dairy a day. I think it helps, but being only one person, I don’t really have a control group to point to.

Anyway, 5-7 more lbs and then I hit the gym on a building cycle. I’m already in 33 waist jeans. I get comments daily, mostly because it’s only been 5 months since I started this.

So, good luck Enas. And anyone else out there who’s giving it a shot.

Scientists Test Anti-Obesity Vaccine

n what may be the first published breakthrough of its kind in the global battle against obesity, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have developed an anti-obesity vaccine that significantly slowed weight gain and reduced body fat in animal models.The study is being published in an advanced, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of July 31 to August 4.

In the new study, mature male rats immunized with specific types of the active vaccine ate normally yet gained less weight and had less body fat, indicating that the vaccine directly affects the body’s metabolism and energy use. This finding may be especially important to stop what is commonly known as “yo-yo dieting,” the cycle of repeated loss and regain of weight experienced by many dieters. The new vaccine, which is directed against the hormone ghrelin (pronounced “grell-in”), a naturally occurring hormone that helps regulate energy balance in the body, has shown the potential, in animal models at least, to put an end to that risky and often futile struggle.

Sounds great, right? Here’s the rub: You need ghrelin for more than just gaining weight. Turns out that ghrelin is essential for learning and memory. Want to just decrease your ghrelin so that you’re not quite so hungry? Get enough sleep. That seems to even out the hunger hormone for most people.

Now, this vaccine might be a good idea for people who naturally have an imbalance in ghrelin and leptin. I think we all know someone who could eat all day and never gain an ounce. Likewise, I’m sure there are people who could live on rice cakes and broccoli and stay at 500 lbs. This vaccine would be for them. Still, I’d have to see serious safety studies on this one. Skinny but stupid is no way to go through life, son.

But I could easily see off-label use for this, people who just want to be thinner and lack the will power.

Still, it’s an interesting study. I think the study I linked to previously about the protein AP2 shows more promise, as does this one – another protein found in regulation of cholesterol and lipid (fat) metabolism.

10 Years after Welfare Reform

Is it working?

Robert Samuelson says yes. Ron Haskins at the Wall Street Journal points out how the doomsayers were wrong.

And Kay Hymowitz has plenty to say on the subject over at City Journal.

I think that it was a good first step, but the roots of multi-generational poverty go much deeper than the welfare state. The seemingly permanent underclass is a subculture, reinforced from generation to generation in trailer parks, ghettoes and barrios. It’s the attitude that one must do only what he has to to get by, to not seek a higher class or better position in life, and that above all one must not be judged for one’s actions in relation to sex, drugs or violence. And there’s no government program that will fix that. And no good moral reason for the government to subsidize it.

We need to offer kids a way out of that life, but overcoming what they’ve been taught by their parents is impossible in most cases. Perhaps this generation of poor kids will watch their parents working a couple jobs to get by and decide on their own to do better. But their families will not have given them the directions on how to do this. In older days, the churches might have stepped in to fill the gap but I fear that they will no longer do so for fear of alienating their congregations. Education is the answer, but educators are too concerned with making sure the kids feel good about themselves rather than making sure the kids advance themselves in life. TV and movies are no help. Celebrities might dispense 10 seconds of advice in The More You Know spots, but I’ve never seen any indication that these do anything beside fulfill a legal FCC requirement.

So, no easy answer here and there probably is no “silver bullet” that will fix it all. But, then again, perhaps the pendulum is swinging. Hillary Clinton, in her “American Dream” missive had to use the word “responsibility” an awful lot. The public desire for school choice is growing; that might help. Teenage pregnancy is down – a good thing. The marriage rate is still in the toilet for the lower classes. Perhaps an increase in the EIC for married couples would encourage more matrimony, especially marriage that occurs prior to kids being born. Keeping the current tax cuts could go a long way towards keeping the working poor employed. Resisting the temptation buy votes with a minimum wage hike would too. Enforcing immigration laws, even if it requires raising the number of visas issued every year to accomodate more people in the long line to get here would have a profound benefit – now all those immigrant workers could be paid minimum wage instead of whatever paltry sum they get now for their labor. And fewer immigrant workers in low paying professions could reduce supply of human labor, increasing the wage naturally.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. I think that there are actually a great many things we could be doing to augment the effects of welfare reform, even though we’ll never completely stamp out poverty.

Another sign the world maybe ending…

Oli Stone and the guys that Swift boated John Kerry in bed together, yeah, now I’m scared.

Something I never thought I’d read by Cal Thomas from Townhall, concerning World Trade Center:

I have a long list of favorite patriotic movies, including “Victory at Sea,” “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “Sands of Iwo Jima,” but Oliver Stone’s “World Trade Center” is right up there with the best of them. It is one of the greatest pro-American, pro-family, pro-faith, pro-male, flag-waving, God Bless America films you will ever see.

 

Sorry, Conger

No more cuddling.

via Ace

Cancer killing virus

Cancer. Killing. Virus.

A strain of measles that attacks cancer cells and leaves the rest of the body alone – and works on those hard to reach tumors like gliomas.

Still years away from human trials. Sigh.

But, it’s a step.

Doha collapses

Clive Crook provides the context. Someday historians will wonder why this wasn’t front page news.

Updated blogroll

Too many changes to list, but if you’ll take a look to the right – no, to your right – you’ll find some good stuff.

Castro sick

Bryan at Hot Air reports that Fidel Castro has stepped down temporarily due to a mild case of internal bleeding. Story here.