The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

what is one suppose to think?

That maybe we don't make judgments or set preferances based on race. If we are supposed to, please let us know. It's hard to keep up.

Funny political headline of the day, from the Christian Science Monitor, of all places.

I'm not a semiotics guy, but the way the GOP has used things like Reagan's MS speeches, willy horton, and the 'he's a islam' fear mongering may not be racist but it certainly is insensitive and will not draw people fearful of mistreatment to the party.

Perhaps blacks are ignoring the GOP?

They're pretty hard to ignore with all their whining.

baker-
this stemmed from this comment I made earlier, which shows blacks are not ignoring the GOP.

http://tinyurl.com/5m6qmt " target="_blank">This plus this makes me wonder what the hell the GOP really believes in.

Re: "MN Campaign Report: Madia sucked less"

Your attempts at sarcasm suck more, Rich.

I think they just like frenzies.

The ratings were so high during the primaries, they are duty bound to attempt to continue that streak. So you get frenzy followed by swoon to the next frenzy.

I agree with Kevin on his response to the You can't lower taxes and improve schools bullocks.

I bet I differ though when it comes to the particulars. The first step is to go after the teachers' unions. I am not saying we have to dissolve them, but there has to be a mechanism in place where bad teachers can be sacked and good teachers get compensated handsomely for their efforts.

Abolish tenured staff and get rid of these complacent, bitter old teachers who do not add to students' educations. I think we need a system where high schools are set up based on career tracks. Say you want to be a lawyer, you get started on the lawyer track at 16 and then choose a college that can continue that track. I believe they do similar things to this in Europe.

As it stands, people get through high school taking a whole bunch of classes they'll never remember and then get into college/university and have to take the same classes over again, this time for no credit. Then maybe they are unsure of what they want to be when they growup so they switch majors a bunch of times and end up in college as long as Tommy Boy.

but there has to be a mechanism in place where bad teachers can be sacked and good teachers get compensated handsomely for their efforts.

And how exactly do you measure that? Move a teacher from an AP or IB class in Wayzata or Edina into an "average" inner city classroom, and I guarantee, he or she will not get the same results she was getting.

A big problem with career track programs is that minority students, even the best, regularly get shunted into lower skilled programs. Another, is that at 16, few people really know what they want to do. And many of those that do, often find that by the time they reach college, that their interests or skills are better suited for something else. High school shouldn't be a vo-tech or professional prep, and we shouldn't be pushing kid to make a lifetime determining career decision at that age.

Our whole educational system is philosophically so far removed from that of other countries, that we cannot make fair comparisons. The overriding value of American education has been egalitarianism for the past century. We educate everybody, and we are doing a better and better job of keeping kids in school. The downside is that the bottom dwelling students bring down the averages and overall education suffers but upward mobility is still sort of there for the very motivated.

Other countries like Japan, Germany etc. do a great job of weeding out undesirables. In my experience working in Japan the disruptive students were hounded out of the schools and were not legally mandated to go to school after age 13. You can see them hanging around Circle K's late at night with dye jobs and wearing the weird construction worker pants.
In Germany the schools keep the kids down through tests. They decide your fate at a very young age and you then get shunted off to a prep school or a vocational school. Guess whose kids get sent more often to vo-tech?

Also want to add that some teachers and their methods will connect really well with one cohort of students then completely strike out with the next group only to catch on again in succeeding years. The complexity of it all is mind boggling. If this were so easy we would have solved it by now.

Teacher's unions provide the necessary tension in the system. They should always be in conflict with the administration. Both should be forcing each other to be better. I don't always see this though.

I think his caucus can make up its own mind.

no fat chicks.

Right. No dudes and no fat chicks.

I think people like me (generalists and those interested in everything) could benefit from from some focus.

Why? Most jobs need well rounded people, not single minded specialists.

I think of Benjamin Franklin when I think well rounded and people who like everything. Per wikipedia:

Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat. As a scientist he was a major figure in the Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and a musical instrument. He formed both the first public lending library in America and first fire department in Pennsylvania.

Really, if I didn't have 2 years in the middle of college to do internships, who knows what I'd be doing now. I went through at least 4 different career paths before my current job.

Wait, I was wasn't really making a point. What am I right about? Me so confused.

Really, if I didn't have 2 years in the middle of college to do internships, who knows what I'd be doing now.

A baller?

Why not?

There obviously are all sorts of problems with education that aren't worth getting into in this thread, some of which could be changed without costing more. But why do people think we can get something for nothing? In every other aspect of life, you more or less get what you pay for. If you want the Mercedes-Benz of education, you're not going to get it for the price of a Corolla, and for the life of me I can't figure out why people think there's some special exception for education.

We "invest" in businesses, but we can't "throw money" at education. We pay for a troop surge to try to do better in Iraq, but we won't pay for a teacher surge to try to do better in education. Money is manpower. Money is materials. Money is facilities. Money is more people teaching, more qualified people teaching. Money is hiring those experts to figure out HOW to fix the system. If you're not going to throw money at it, what the hell else are you going to throw at it? A few platitudes and stupid schemes? You want to fix it, you invest in it. There aren't any shortcuts. Even the cheapest, most selfish among us should be able to see that there's no possible better investment.

jeff already said everything I wanted to in that first post.

To provide an example of what Jeff is saying...

Take an urban school district like Saint Paul. A lot of their buildings are 40+ years old and haven't been refurbished in any meaningful way in 20 years. Because there's no money, some buildings have no A/C, heat that doesn't always work, strange noises, odd smells, distractions, crappy lighting -- things that, in an office setting, would be addressed in order to ensure productivity of the workers. And we expect kids to learn in those settings.

Good point, Rich. If the printer at work stops printing, we have a whole regiment on the case - IT, outside serviceman, etc. They need this sort of attention in the schools.

But it also comes down to parents. My wife used to work in truancy in a suburban school district that saw a lot of kids taking multiple buses from Minneapolis and neighboring burbs to get to her school district. These kids, some as young as 10, would have to get up on their own and even wake their parents up, take two city buses and a school bus, all before they even set foot at school. They were dead tired and with little food in their bellies. They were not prepared. At that point, I will admit, there is little schools can do when the parents are subjugated socioeconomically or just plain irresponsible

My husband's school in DT St. Paul has fielded a number of requests from RNC folks wanting to visit. I would be curious to see what they think of the setting some of these kids deal with in their school.

But it also comes down to parents.

A-fucking-men. I worked in PR for Saint Paul Schools for a year, and I can't count the number of times you'd go to school board meetings and hear parents complaining about how underserved their kids are, and why aren't the schools doing more for them. But when the schools are the de facto source of nutrition for kids, and parents aren't making students do homework, or teaching them how to behave, the schools are set up to fail. Accountability needs to occur at all levels.

But for those NCLB nuts out there -- let's not get into the punitive accountability question. Stripping poorly performing schools of resources was one of the most profoundly ridiculous ideas of all time. Sort of like taxing folks who earn more than 250k at a lower rate than those who earn 60k.

Just sayin'.

The problem with trying to discuss educational policy is that it comes down to a lot of things, and a lot of people try to pin the problems on one thing. It's not possible. It's everything, and trying to figure out the best way to fix it takes effort, and TIME, and a lot of schools and students just don't have enough time to try to get it right - especially under NCLB rules.

Shit Bob. I thought you already knew that ethanol is to blame for every one of the 4 horsemen, plus the stupidity of our nation's youth.

We agree on the final point, rich.

Racism?

Wait, no, that could be true so that cannot be the correct answer.

Boarding schools work for the rich, so why not for the poor?

If that means parenting licences, then so be it!

Please tell me you forgot to attach the sarcasm tag.

Yeah, I did a pg year at a prep school, and really benefited. I felt much better prepared knowing what kind of d-bags I would encounter at the elite liberal arts college I attended. My friends from my primary high school were completely blindsided.

I went to prep school for 13 years and I was still blindsided by the dixinabox I encountered at the liberal arts college I attended.

Yes, but your prep school was midwestern, so you only had experience with the local sub-species.

I'm going to contend that parental involvement is the root of the success of private schools. Which, of course, links to the mastering the material.

Yes, but your prep school was midwestern, so you only had experience with the local sub-species.

And they were precious. Every time I run into them at Brits, I still want to tussle their hair and pinch their cheeks.
And then I wonder why I'm in Brits.

Every time I run into someone from my prep school I consider rolling them... New England prep school kids pheremonally scream for a beat down. It is so strange.

Are you sure they actually rescinded his admission? I find that hard to believe. I can see the school strongly advising the student not to come because they were not wheelchair accessible and it would have been difficult for him to get around.

Every time I run into someone from my prep school I consider rolling them... New England prep school kids pheremonally scream for a beat down. It is so strange.

I did a project at my college where I interviewed students about things and there was a student who went to a new england boarding school who said that the students at his school were nicer than the students at our college.
Exactly.

Are you sure they actually rescinded his admission? I find that hard to believe. I can see the school strongly advising the student not to come because they were not wheelchair accessible and it would have been difficult for him to get around.

Pretty sure. They did have an elevator, they apparently just didn't want to allow a student to use it.

Not sure. Seems like it would be ripe for a lawsuit, but private schools do have a lot of leeway. It's also possible they came to some kind of settlement.

Honestly, I think some people just aren't meant to go to regular schools. I think those that are not mentally incapable but do have behaviorial issues should be completely removed from public schools and put into alternative schools, not just the really bad ones, but the ones that fuck it up for everyone else.

However, the problem with any solution like this is that these problem students go on to be problem adults. If they never learn to get along with other people, then they NEVER get along with other people. That is why we do not just kick the disruptive students out of school. We give them every opportunity we can.

@acalhoun

Can De even have a basement. Y'all were always using our track because, so we were told, it would be difficult to have one due to the water table.