Category Archives: Uncategorized

College for All?

In election season, politicians love to attribute unfortunate quotes to opposing politicians, either out of context or just plain contrary to fact. The following comes from an article in Tampa Bay Times Politifact *, a column syndicated in the Cleveland … Continue reading

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First Person Plural, Present Tense

I seem to be having a grammar problem. Or perhaps it is an identity problem. I keep lapsing into first person plural as if I were part of the NHS Language Arts department, as I was for some 28 years. … Continue reading

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Bonehead

Reformists din their lament that America’s public schools turn out so few graduates who are ready for higher education, witness the number (presumably unprecedentedly higher) of students who must take some sort of remedial (bonehead) classes. Academic standards are in … Continue reading

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Cipher in the Snow

When I saw the mendacious Waiting for Superman, I told myself I had never seen anything quite like it before, a purely political attack, financed by “the billionaire boy’s club,” on teachers and their unions in particular and on American … Continue reading

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McLuhan Revisited-revisited

On May 25, I posted McLuhan Revisited, inspired by this link, a lecture by Eli Paliser. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s&feature=channel_video_title A friend, James R. Johnson, forwarded the link to his son, Richard Johnson, who replied to him, and it then came back to … Continue reading

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What’s Happened in America…

I try to avoid cut-and-paste, and I am pretty good about that, mostly. But I couldn’t have said this better myself. “Often thought, but ne’er so well expressed.” A bogus campaign of blame and propaganda Here’s a synopsis of what’s … Continue reading

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Computers for Students

An original provision of Idaho Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna’s Students First initiative as expressed in SB 1113 was that every student in Idaho would be issued a laptop computer as a 9th grader. He would keep the computer throughout … Continue reading

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…And the Unlovely Poor

Today I was looking for reviews of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and found this blog post that focuses more on the poverty of the Lacks family, then and now, than on the bio-ethical issues attendant upon the HeLa … Continue reading

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You Can’t Solve a Problem by Throwing Computers at It

It seems that every session of the Idaho Legislature, when the education budget comes up, we are reminded that “You can’t solve a problem by throwing money at it.” And, if all you do is throw money, with no thought … Continue reading

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Does Size Matter?

Idaho State Superintendent of Schools proposes reducing the number of teachers in Idaho by some 700+, which will mean larger average class sizes:  the number of students divided by the number of teachers. Average class size will go from 18.2 … Continue reading

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