"The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves." -- John Adams

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of any religious or theological institution." -- Indiana Constitution Article 1, Section 6.

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities." – Thomas Jefferson

Saturday, December 1, 2012

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words - Dec.2012

Here are some pictures, graphic images and cartoons from around the net -- plus my own 2 cents worth of comments. Click on any image to see the full sized version.

Higher Level Thinking

Filling in bubbles on a standardized test isn't thinking.
What you know isn't as important as what you do with what you know.
"Intelligence is knowing what to do when you don't know what to do." -- John Holt
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein



Nearly 25% of our children live in poverty

Public schools have a role to play in solving social issues such as racial inequity and poverty. However, schools can't do it alone. Public institutions don't make the society, they reflect the society. The effect poverty has on student learning is not just felt in schools...it's felt up and down the economic structure of the nation. It's in our own best interest as a nation to attack the issue of childhood poverty. 

One day those children will grow up. What then?





Stop Calling it Reform!

Those who call themselves school reformers are wrong. They're not reforming anything. The privatization of America's public schools and the destruction of the teaching profession isn't reform.

For the most part, they have little to no experience in education as practitioners. They seem to think that because they went to school they are experts in education. Arne Duncan needs to take a year off, move back to Chicago, and teach for a year in a public middle school. Then he might be qualified to work in the US Department of Education...under the direction of a real teacher.

...and they need to stop calling it reform.



Priorities

LSU football coach Les Miles has a new 7-year contract which will pay him approximately $4.3 million a year. Full Professors at LSU get a bit over $100,000 a year, and Instructors and Assistant Professors make about the same as public school teachers -- between $40,000 and $60,000 a year.

What's wrong with this picture?



Displaced Anger and Divide and Conquer

What ever happened to the people who brought the economy to its knees? What ever happened to the CEOs of the companies who ripped off the American people?

Tell me again why public sector unions hurt America...



School vs. Life

There's more to school than math and reading.




This is also an illustration of one of the drawbacks of standardized testing. Re-label the top picture "How Standardized Tests Work" and the bottom picture "How Student Learning Works."

Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.




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Stop the Testing Insanity!


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