Edumacation

So the New Yorker magazine does an article about the recent Atlanta school system standardized test cheating conspiracy:  Wrong Answer.  This used to be the thing that would inspire hours of research and writing to create an überpost, but I’m going to resist that.  Instead, I’m just going to quote this little excerpt:

“Without even reading the question, I could tell you just by the shape of the graph, ‘Oh, my kids know that,’ ” (Damany Lewis, a math teacher at Parks Middle School, in Atlanta) told me. He put the test in his fireplace once he’d confirmed that he had taught the necessary concepts. But he worried that his students would struggle with questions that were delivered in paragraph form. Some of his seventh-grade students were still reading by sounding out the letters. It seemed unfair that the concepts were “buried in words.”

Seventh grade.  They’re 12-13 years old, assuming none had been previously held back.

And some can barely read.

But the tests are at fault.

Quote of the Day – Billy Beck Edition (Paraphrased)

It is training and doctrine that have stripped people of the power to reason to a moral conclusion on their own powers. They are forbidden to think, this is why they now exist on the same moral plane as abject animals.

From a Facebook comment to this story about police shooting dogs, but it’s applicable pretty much to all “Zero Tolerance” and other “RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!” B.S. foisted on us by our “Civil Masters.”  The Book says “Do X,” so that’s what they do.  They can’t get in trouble for doing what the book says, and it’s easier than thinking.

60 Years

Happy Independence Day!

But that’s not the point of this post.  Today is the 60th wedding anniversary of my parents:

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Here’s wishing you and yours as much happiness as they have had.