A video for Sunday II

Just found this video on PZ Myer's blog.  The band They Might Be Giants sings a song about something obvious: science is real.



If I were a Science teacher, I would show this to my class.

A Video for Sunday

An amazing time-lapse video of earth via NASA and the International Space Station.  Absolutely breathtaking!

"Absurd" Education Proposal by Newt

 Picture from Polk County GOP

Newt Gingrich has a history of saying stupid things.  Here is a new one that I found on a NYT blog post generously titled "From Gingrich, and Unconventional View on Education".

In poverty stricken K-12 districts, Mr. Gingrich said that schools should enlist students as young as 9 to14 to mop hallways and bathrooms, and pay them a wage. Currently child-labor laws and unions keep poor students from bootstrapping their way into middle class, Mr. Gingrich said.

“This is something that no liberal wants to deal with,” he told an audience at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard on Friday, according to Politico.

“You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine,” Mr. Gingrich said. “You’re totally poor. You’re in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I’ve tried for years to have a very simple model. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”

 AFT President Randi Weingarten puts it very simply:

“Who in their right mind would lay off janitors and replace them with disadvantaged children — who should be in school, and not cleaning schools,” Ms. Weingarten said. “And who would start backtracking on laws designed to halt the exploitation of children?”

UPDATE:

Newt apparently had some other things to say about children working outside of school as well:

He added, "You go out and talk to people, as I do, you go out and talk to people who are really successful in one generation. They all started their first job between nine and 14 years of age. They all were either selling newspapers, going door to door, they were doing something, they were washing cars."

"They all learned how to make money at a very early age," he said. "What do we say to poor kids in poor neighborhoods? Don't do it. Remember all that stuff about don't get a hamburger flipping job? The worst possible advice you could give to poor children. Get any job that teaches you to show up on Monday. Get any job that teaches you to stay all day even if you are in a fight with your girlfriend. The whole process of making work worthwhile is central."

The former House Speaker acknowledged that it was an unconventional pitch, saying, "You're going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America and give people a chance to rise very rapidly."

To be fair, there is something to be said about young people getting jobs that helps to instills a sense of hard work, and appreciate what they earn.  Even if that means working for lower-wages, and doing more physically laborious tasks.  That are what jobs for younger people (who are being primary supported by parents and guardians) are supposed to be like. 

I hope that some of the ideas Mr. Gingrich is proposing, however, doesn't mean he wants to alter child-labor laws, as some are suggesting.   I also hope that Mr. Gingrich isn't simply suggesting that working as a child means that one will automatically rise out of poverty.  The primary causes of poverty are numerous and complex, and it is going to take a lot more than kids learning the meaning of hard work to combat it.

Work Update

Great news since the last time I wrote about work. The student I am working with has made a few adjustments in his medication, which in turn has changed the way he behaves as school.  He is now going to all of his classes, and on an everyday.  In addition, he is getting all of his work done (with very few modifications), and he doesn't take naps anymore.  He also seems to be fitting in well in all his classes.  He participates in an appropriate manner, and most of his peers seems to be treating him with respect and trying to incorporate him into the lessons.   We did have one incident where he was being bullied, but this was promptly dealt with, and hasn't reoccurred since.  He still goes home and deals with his own issues of misbehavior there, but even that has greatly improved from where he was.

We have, however, started running into one major problem regarding peer interactions.  Since my student has began to really find his comfort level in his classes, he is trying harder than ever to fit in with some of the "cool kids".  This includes mimicking the inappropriate language and topics of conversation that he hears.  Such misbehavior is normal in just about any secondary education setting, but it is especially prevalent in programs for students with behavior disorders.  When we confront him about this behavior, his response is that he feels other students are allowed to get away with it, so why shouldn't he?  We try to explain to him that those other students do not get away with it, even though we might not go up to them and tell them to stop it immediately the way we do to him.
 
I suppose mimicking such behavior wouldn't be such a big deal if the student I was working with could stop himself like other students.  But one of the disabilities he has are Torrette-like-symptoms, and one he starts speaking inappropriately, it is hard for him to stop.  This has become a very frustrating problem for everyone involved (especially him).  We are starting to look for other students in the program that he can be around that will set a better example for him (easier said than done given the type of students in the program).

Despite this setback, he is doing a lot better than he was when he first entered our program.  He is a wonderful kid, and I am so proud of him! 

Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan

Bullying is bad . . . Unless It's Done For Religious Rerrasons

Absolutely amazing:

Michigan Republicans turned what was supposed to be a new law protecting victims of bullying into a law pretty much declaring open season on them, thanks to a last-minute clause exempting anyone who can provide a moral or religious reason for their harassment.

"Matt's School Safe Law," which just passed in the state Senate and is now moving on to the House of Representatives, is named after Matt Epling, a gay teenager who committed suicide as a result of bullying. However, the president of the American Family Association of Michigan explained that the bill had to include the "religious motivations" loophole to prevent it from becoming "a Trojan Horse for the homosexual agenda."

I expect this kind of thing to happen in the South, or even where I live in Kansas. Not Michigan. So disappointing.

A Video for Sunday

Here is another beautiful nature, time-lapse video. Absolutely breathtaking: