Political notes and ramblings

Definitions

Politics is how people deal with issues locally, nationally, or other levels. Issues that are social, economic, cultural, legal, religious ... Why is politics often thought of negatively?

Parties for cooperation to achieve something or to do nothing. Are parties best when they are ran by pliticians that know how to run local government, state governments, and national government? In 1968 Parties began to change the nomination process from being controlled by the party and to eing controled by the electorate. The electorate being controled by the billionares, big names, and monarchial families.

George Washington on political parties ...

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

"... sometimes to strengthen democracy you have to restrict it." Fareed Zakaria.

Commons of the Earth needs a return to the idea of the commons. Where half the Earth is reserved for the commons of all nature ... See E. O. Wilson The Half Earth

Topics

Political ideas related to education and what to teach

• All politics is fiction that humans have created and shared. The greater the shared acceptance the stronger the motivation to act on that fiction. Law, culture, education, social conventions, ethics, mythology, religion, beliefs,
• Any body of knowledge can be established as socially acceptable or Truth. Who has the power to define groups and institutionalize their ideas. What is the relationship between power and knowledge? Who benefits from what?
• Schools must teach students how to live together in civic, moral, ethical, respectful, caring communities that respect and work to maintain and improve the rights and lives of their fellow citizens.
• The goal of education to create a complacent middle class was an explicit objective of Harvard President James Conant as stated in his General Education in a Free Society, Conant and his associates argued on behalf of the shared values and “binding experience” of a general education grounded in the humanities and social sciences.
• Bombs make a lot of money education doesn't. Follow the money and it doesn't lead to education, unless it is testing materials, books, or technology.
• Progressive education and Dewey's ideas were fairly common, but not implemented widely at all. Making progressive education a cause of current problems inaccurate.
• Schooling is political as laws are made to control it. Children out of school are fresh for abuse. Their wants and needs are readily available to exploit.

Charter Schools and anti pubic eduation

Ideas related to charter schools ...

• Charter schools relationship to public schools is like bleeding an ill patient to transfuse a healthy patient with the expectations that both will get better.
• It takes public schools best students and puts them in a charter school to make the charter school better and the public school worse.
• Its finding private money to augment the public contribution to the charter school to provide a better education. Resulting in a smaller financial base to fund an already inadaquate money source for public schools.
• Believing a charter will get better because it is a charter.
• Siphoning money from a local community to provide profit for external investors.
• Charters motivate unions and school districts to do better and make sensible economical decisions.

Names associated with Charter Schools and anti pubic eduation

• Chris Cerf founder Global Education Advisers, ed. commissioner NJ, Ed Tech firm (Joel Klein), Superintendent Newark
• Cami Anderson Superintendent Newark SD 2011`
• Rupert Murdoch News Corp. and Simplify (Ed. Tech. division)
• Joel Klein Amplify
• Parthenon Group
• Michelle Rhee Supt. Wash. D.C. 2010
• Wendy Kopp founder Teach for America
• Richard Barth President KIPP Foundation married to Wendy Kopp
• The New Teacher Project
• Chris Christie "I don't think I would be governor if I went to school in Newark."
• Rahm Emanuel mayor Chicago
• John Doerr NewSchools Venture Fund
• Edison Project, Edison Schools Inc., EdisonLearning for profit organizations
• Arne Duncan Secretary of State
• Democrats for Education Reform Booker, Obama, Clintons,

Race, character, giftedness, and mental disabilities retardation

• Race, mental retardation, and giftedness are socially constructed categories that have been used to reinforce privilege positions of powerful groups. Educational systems that sort students into groups, even when they have humanistic goals promote inequality with the contradiction of separate as equal. Suggest the status quo is acceptable. Suggest that appropriate behavior is defined by the mainstream group and not by the culture of the group in which a minority or other different culture individuals function in while growing up.
• Race is an invented category. Classification of people by biological and physical characteristics is highly contested. To continue to do so empowers groups who will redefine race to benefit themselves and disadvantage powerless groups.
• Biracial groups have a long history in the United States. Booker T. Washington, Fredrick Douglass - white father, enslaved mother. Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson.
• Self-identification of race is insufficient to establish race.
• Lazy implies a character flaw.
• Ignorance implies character flaw rather than lack of successful teaching.
• If a group doesn't live up to the American dream, then it is their fault. They supposedly had equal opportunity. Must have made bad choices... Can lead to generalization of negative sterotypes and racism.

Economics & politics

Robert Rich struggle against inequality for all

States with no income tax grow slower than those with income taxes.

When New Jersey passed a millionaires tax there was little or no evidence of millionare flight from the state. Local taxes are not the most important factor for firms finding a location for their business, unless they need uneducated cheap labor. It's the people their education and skill.
Industry is more protected than our children.

• rate of union membershipin acommunity is a significant predictor of economic mobility.
• Regions with greater union denisty had higher mobility for low-income children.
• Having a union parent leads to better educational and health outcomes for children.
• Children born into low income families are more likely to ascend to higher incomes, as adults, if they reside in metropolitan areas wher union membership is higher.

Source Bargaining for the American Dream: What Unions do for Mobility, Center for American Progress.

As the rate of union membership declines so too does middle class income.

Michael Kahn found that the higher the more negative pension plan changes a state makes to its employees, the greater the income inequality increased within the state.

He found one single negative change in a pension plan increases income inequality in the state by 15%.

Michael Kahn also found that hold the line economics increases income inequality. For example: states that reduced compensation to employee's pension funds increased the state's income inequality by about 15 percent.

Homeless rates of students in U.S. public schools reached a record of 1.36 million in 2013 - 2014.

Wealth & poverty

Five factors strongly linked to a low-income child's changes of making it into middle class as an adult.

1. single motherhood is the srongest
2. degree of inequality in the geographic area.
3. high school dropout rate
4. degree of residential segregation
5. the amount of social capital measured by things like voter turnout and participation on community organizations.

Video Inequality for All by Moyers& company

Cheap food is subsidized for poor nutrition.

Jobs

Andrew McAfee discuss job growth since 1980 graphs and more ...see Jobs and Wages in January: Some Growth, Still Plenty of Slack February 10, 2015 on his Blog. Also author of The Second Machine Age.

Citizens and democracy

• Democracy is a journey that must be renewed through constant struggle.
• Anarchy is worse than a dictatorship.
• Biological rights: "We hold these truths to be self evident that all men evolved differently that they are born with certain mutable characteristics and that among these are life and the pusuit of pleasure." Yuval Noah Harari
• Humarabi law
• Sumarian, Babylonians, Syrians, Chin
• Is states rights national anarchy? Does states rights take away rights?
• Who should govern in a democracy? Everyone? Educated? Property owners? Those who speak a common language have the same skin color, religion, or culture?
• What are the requirements to be a responsible citizen? Time to be involved, knowledge to make decisions, mental capacity, logic, critical thinking, being objective, leisure to devote to study politics, motivation to? care for people, desire to make money, ...
• A person's vision of providing people with goods and services will craft different kinds of governments. Factory like supply system to mass produce standard goods for everyone's consumption. Or Rural craft and folk barter and trade supply system with craftsmen and small businesses creating goods and services.
• Democracy requires inefficiencies. How much inefficiency are citizens willing to accept?
• Smooth efficient productivity is more associated with facisim, dictatorships, aristocraties, communism, ...
• A gap between ideals and realities always exits in a democratic society and it is the citizens role to close the gaps. (Banks)
• Citizens in a democracy must serve to contest and deny actions when privileged groups act to victimize or marginalize other groups.
• Major problem of democratic education is how to recognize legitimate differences and construct national identity.
• Leaders exercise legitimate power when followers believe the leaders have the right and authority to rule or influence.
• Unrestrained individualism is inconsistent with democratic values as it will not allow others to achieve their potential. We must openly share responsibilities to achieve the maximum development of all of us. To do so we must realize it is the concern of all members that is essential and recognize that such a goal requires making choices and in determining policies that affect all of us for which there is a collective responsibility.
• Jefferson - self-government is better than good government.
• Winston Churchill - However flawed democratic organizations or institutions are in theory and practice, the alternatives are worse. Self-governance is bound not to turn out well, but governance without it is bound to turn out badly.

Politics and Education

In education it is vary vare that teams of gifted educators and other professionals collaborate in union of trust over extended periods of time to create educational resources and methodologies and use them with students, reflect on the results adjust and teach again.

Public education ... Charters and private education

Some Americans have being persuaded to move their hard earned money, in the form of taxes, from investing in public education to also investing their tax money in private education so those who simply want more money have another source of income through Charters and other forms of Education for Profit.

Article - When Did Public Education Become the Enemy?

Source: The Voice . Ravitch to Nebraska: Stay Independent. March 2016

Elections

• Citizens of the U.S. are so uninterested in elections that networks hype debates with references to them as - fights - boxing matches, WBA, WWE or UFC...
• Are people's vote based on reality or perceptions? Research suggests they are too often or most likely irrational, emotional, perception based.

National security

• John Quincy Adams said the United States won the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 by default. Not because we had a superior Army, Navy, or ... anything else. The Federalist wanted stronger central government, military, national bank, treasury, trade, see history measurement in the U.S. . Those who were afraid of tyranny or simply having what they viewed as against their best interest imposed on them favored states rights. Where control could be managed more in their favor. Particularly as it related to slavery and expansion of slavery, taxation, militia, banking, commerce, ...
• Ronald Reagan watch War Games one week end at Camp David and on Monday asked his security team if that might happen. A week later the answer was yes.

Media

• The media seems to be more concerned with being called liberal than corporate.
• Seem to associate the word politics with a negative connotation.

Health and well-being

• The mortality rate for whites 45 to 54 years old with no more than a high school education increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people from 1999 to 2014.
  Middle-aged blacks have the highest mortality rate — 581 per 100,000,
  Middle-aged whites mortality rate — 415 per 100,00 and closing the gap is closing, and the rate for m
  Middle-aged Hispanics mortality rate is far lower - 262 per 100,000. Source

Religion

• If god is all knowing and can't make mistakes, then every bad thing in the world is sanctioned by god or all bad is good.
• 72 virgin translated about a lush heaven with 72 raisins.
• 666 Translates from Nero (Latin value for each letter added) or 616 (Greek) he was considered the antiChrist for his treatment of Christians. (600 CE)

Words & phrases ...

• Westward expansion can imply that foreign land was a wilderness to be claimed, or void of people, or wild, or used inefficiently by those who lived there, or savages with no legitimate claim...
• At-risk-students suggests that students can be identified as at risk or not at risk. That there are students who are not at risk when all students are at risk in some manner.
• Busing has a racial tone related to it.

Charters and Public Schools now agreee they must operate alongside a community where parents are involved, that medical and mental health services are available, community jobs or services overcome poeverty, trauma, and neglect and students needs and interests are meet.

Raising poverty levels in the name of school reform. Taking money from the community and moving it to corporate America and Wall Street.

School closings

Conspiracy by wealthy profiteers.

Charters are inequity not choice.

Contracts that treat teachers as professional educators

Singular focus on teachers as cause of student growth.

High stakes accountability is self-defeating when it is used singularly to fire teachers and close schools. Needs to be used to investigate causes and implement change.

What are the right variables for measuring change?

When is a school too big to fail?

Single sex schools, school uniforms, ...

Word bank

Standards, Common Core,

Subject integration, Coordination, Sequence, Connected,

Academic orientation

Quality, high quality,

Learning strategies,

Skills, Knowledge, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking,

Mathematics

Aesthetic Appreciation

Creative Studies

Wellness

Natural World

Communication

Assessment, Accountability, Feedback, Feed Forward, Level, Outcome

Reform

Individual differences, developmental differences,

Personally Relevant

Meaningful

Globalism, Nationalism, Citizenship,

Technology

Equity, Human Rights, Responsibility, Caring, Human Relations, Unity, Connections, Race, Culture, Class, Moral, Morality, Feeling Safe, Sexual Orientation, LBGT, Human Values, Values, Citizenship, Responsibility, Character, Humanness

Community,

Structure

Varied

Vague, superficial,

Linear

Programs

Man A Course of Study (MACOS) (1970) introductory course for elementary students, to introduce them to anthropology. Bruner and ... with NSF grants.

Outcomes based education (OBE) Spady 1988. Objections that transformation outcomes infringed on family values and responsibilities.

Quotes

An assessment that attempts to perform too many functions-student diagnosis, curriculum planning, program evaluation, instructional improvement, accountability, certification, public communication,-will inevitably do nothing well. Linn & Herman, 1997

Resources

Rhetoric - sub category - A Brief History of Ancient Greek Rhetoric