In My Dreams

On the first day of Spring Break, I woke up this morning from a dream in which I was being punished and ridiculed for not following instructions at an afternoon Professional Training class. Nevermind that I hadn't received the instructions because I had spent the morning class with other Librarians, instead of classroom teachers.

Here is how I would have finished my dream:

After enduring the ridicule of the instructor as she berated me for (literally) missing the directions to use a different browser for the online quiz I walked into, I answered her snarky accusation by saying, "Actually, I spent the morning at a Librarian's meeting, where we learned the finer points of cataloging non-fiction books. Have I got a test for you!"

Upon waking, I realized that this is the nightmare too many kids walk in and out of every day. In my school alone, we have had dozens of students either enroll or withdraw sometime during the school year. Because of the weakened economy, many families are in a perpetual state of transience, looking for work. Their children walk in to the neighborhood school without a clue as to what their classmates have been learning.

No wonder a standardized curriculum like Common Core is so attractive to many.

Unfortunately, this remedy just adds to the problem of educational mediocrity. Because in order for every child to get the same instruction, and mastery thereof, students will have to endure endless repetition as students come and go through the revolving doors of classrooms.

In an effort to satisfy the "high expectations" of legislators and stakeholders, our most recent state standardized tests managed to skip a year of instruction and add meandering paths of exploration for lesson plans. Now, I'm all for meandering paths of exploration in education - that's why I unschooled my daughter. But she didn't have to take or pass standardized tests for matriculation.

Tests only reveal what you don't know - they don't reveal the vast deposits of learning that may not be on the test. What if students were encouraged to meander down paths of subject exploration, then produce methods of sharing that information with others. This system would look more like an Unschool than a School, however, and would not feed the Education Machine (see blog post "Starving the Education Machine").

Standardized tests will continue to point out the failings of our current Compulsory Education system until the tests are reduced to bare minimums and radical assimilation. This is, by necessity, where we are headed.

In my opinion, true education and standardized tests are mutually exclusive. Legislators, parents and administrators can pretend they aren't, but classroom teachers know it's true.

Global Warming is Not About Climate Concern

Here, in Fort Worth, we just woke up to another multi-inch dump of snow overnight. Just a week ago, in late February, we were paralyzed by 3 inches of snow and ice. Must be Global Warming.

As a "Climate Denier", I'm amused by the irony of the deep freeze of Global Warming our nation is experiencing this winter. But I'm also aware of a more serious side to the debate.

What if the vast taxpayer-funded efforts to thwart the myth of Man-Made Global Warming is actually doing more harm than good?

http://www.environmentamerica.org/programs/ame/global-warming-solutions

Besides the fact that many of the Obama administration Clean Energy projects have been money pits, the obsession with reversing the imagined disasters that one or two degrees of heat might cause may be contributing to the "Winter from Hell" many of our states are suffering.

http://dailysignal.com/2012/10/18/president-obamas-taxpayer-backed-green-energy-failures/

What conditions are better for life? In warmer climates, more food can be grown. (Don't be surprised to find much higher prices for food this spring.) In warmer climates, local economies are not literally frozen into paralysis for weeks at a time. And who benefits from "Climate Crises"? Where do states turn when they declare emergencies? The Big Government Machine gets fed at an even faster rate.

Newly-elected President Obama promised that "We are four days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America!"  Considering our failed geopolitics, radical uptick in terror attacks against Americans here and abroad, reduction in economic strength, and blatant disregard for the Constitution by forcing radical EPA rules, promoting IRS abuse of conservative groups before the 2012 election, and lying to pass the doomed ACA law, it should be obvious to all by now that he had a multi-angle plan that would give us what he thinks we deserve.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/359967/obama-transforming-america-victor-davis-hanson

I have to credit Mr. Obama. He has accomplished more to promote Socialism in less than eight years than even I thought possible.

http://jonathanturley.org/2014/03/10/the-constitutional-tipping-point/