Clusterf*uck Nation, a commrntary on today's world

[Marypoza]

This weekend CN takes on the sorry state if our educational system........

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/left-behind/

Discuss!

[pbrower2a]

(02-11-2017, 09:49 AM)Marypoza Wrote: This weekend CN takes on the sorry state if our educational system........

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/left-behind/

Discuss!

First of all, it is Clusterf*ck Nation, and not an entity that I would have expected as a news source (CNN) which has similar initials (CNN of course has two N's). .

Yes, Betsy DeVos is catastrophically unsuited to be Secretary of Education. I can only imagine what she wants done with the Department of Education -- transforming it into a propaganda tool for the GOP so that children can accept the ideology of the Hard Right without critical thought? Obviously I expect the worst of a President who admires dictators and ignores more legitimate heroes of the Right (like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher).

But this said, our educational system is flawed. To be sure, what kids put into formal education matters more than what governments throw into education. This can reflect cultural differences, typically between fatalistic people who believe that success is nothing more than luck and those who recognize formal education as all that prevents one from having a miserable life in the permanent underclass of a merciless order. This is not an issue of race. Kids from the black middle class have huge advantages over most white kids from the Mountain South.

I expect underfunding of public K-12 education as a norm, with the promotion of overpriced charter schools. I expect the Trump Administration to bring back the awful for-profit vocational schools that the Obama Administration shut down that charge students what private colleges charge for bad vocational education that prepares graduates of such schools for nothing, but leave students deeply in debt.

[Marypoza]

Living in a Brave New World:

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/m...ach-other/

It ain't a red thingy, & it ain't blue thingy.... if anythingy they are both part of the problem

[Ragnarök_62]

(02-13-2017, 02:22 PM)Marypoza Wrote: Living in a Brave New World:

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/m...ach-other/

It ain't a red thingy, & it ain't blue thingy.... if anythingy they are both part of the problem

It's a red pilled   thingy.

[Marypoza]

(02-13-2017, 04:14 PM)Ragnarök_62 Wrote:

(02-13-2017, 02:22 PM)Marypoza Wrote: Living in a Brave New World:

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/m...ach-other/

It ain't a red thingy, & it ain't blue thingy.... if anythingy they are both part of the problem

It's a red pilled   thingy.

-- yeah well too many of these idiots like the blue pill Neo

[Eric the Green]

This guy (and another guy I'm looking for again) has the scoop on education. Kunstler might have some points, from a generally reactionary point of view. But I think another point of view is closer to the truth.

[Eric the Green]

And this guy has a good handle on it:





Henry Giroux

And yes, education is not a red or blue thingy. Obama and folks like him are not on the right track, according to Giroux.

AMY GOODMAN: So let me ask you about the issue of education.

HENRY GIROUX: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: The debate here is around school choice—

HENRY GIROUX: Right, right.

HENRY GIROUX: —of vouchers, charter schools. But you’ve been talking about schools for a long time. What is the role of schools and education in our society?

HENRY GIROUX: Schools should be democratic public spheres. They should be places that educate people to be informed, to learn how to govern rather than be governed, to take justice seriously, to spur the radical imagination, to give them the tools that they need to be able to both relate to themselves and others in the wider world, in a way in which they can imagine that world as a better place. I mean, it seems to me, at the heart of any education that matters, is a central question: How can you imagine a future much different than the present, and a future that basically grounds itself in questions of economic, political and social justice?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And so, how do you see, then—for instance, the Obama administration has been a big promoter of charter schools and these privatization efforts as a school choice model.

HENRY GIROUX: Yeah. The Obama administration is a disgrace on education. The Obama administration basically is an administration that has bought the neoliberal line. It drinks the orange juice. I mean, it doesn’t see schools as a public good. It doesn’t see schools as places where basically we can educate students in a way to take democracy seriously and to be able to fight for it. It sees them as basically kids who should be part of the global workforce. But it does more, because not understanding schools as democratic public spheres means that the only place you can really go is either to acknowledge and not do anything about the fact that many of them are now modeled after prisons, or, secondly, they become places that kill the radical imagination. Teaching for the test is a way to kill the radical imagination. It’s a way to make kids boring, you know? It’s a way to make them ignorant. It’s a way to shut them off from the world in a way in which they can recognize that their agency matters. It matters. You can’t be in an environment and take education seriously, when your education is under—when your agency is under assault. Can’t do it.

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/14/..._result_of

[TeacherinExile]

(02-13-2017, 04:29 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: This guy (and another guy I'm looking for again) has the scoop on education. Kunstler might have some points, from a generally reactionary point of view. But I think another point of view is closer to the truth.

One of my very favorite George Carlin routines.  He was "spot on" about the state of public education then--and now.  I left the field the year after No Child Left Behind was enacted.  Even in my rich school district, the curriculum was being "dumbed-down" to accommodate the standardized testing regime that was about to metastasize.  Of all the cabinet appointments made by Trump, Betsy DeVos was quite simply the worst.  She is an appalling choice for Education Secretary, really, a billionaire with absolutely no connection to public schools on a personal level.  Neither she nor her kids ever attended public schools, and she never taught in a classroom.  Would that have been too much to ask of a nominee?  It's hard not to see her as a "stalking horse," an ideologue seemingly intent on privatizing public schools in the name of "choice."  If she and her ilk get their way, we'll just end up with a bifurcated education system.

[TeacherinExile]

(02-13-2017, 04:31 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: And this guy has a good handle on it:





Henry Giroux

And yes, education is not a red or blue thingy. Obama and folks like him are not on the right track, according to Giroux.

AMY GOODMAN: So let me ask you about the issue of education.

HENRY GIROUX: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: The debate here is around school choice—

HENRY GIROUX: Right, right.

HENRY GIROUX: —of vouchers, charter schools. But you’ve been talking about schools for a long time. What is the role of schools and education in our society?

HENRY GIROUX: Schools should be democratic public spheres. They should be places that educate people to be informed, to learn how to govern rather than be governed, to take justice seriously, to spur the radical imagination, to give them the tools that they need to be able to both relate to themselves and others in the wider world, in a way in which they can imagine that world as a better place. I mean, it seems to me, at the heart of any education that matters, is a central question: How can you imagine a future much different than the present, and a future that basically grounds itself in questions of economic, political and social justice?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And so, how do you see, then—for instance, the Obama administration has been a big promoter of charter schools and these privatization efforts as a school choice model.

HENRY GIROUX: Yeah. The Obama administration is a disgrace on education. The Obama administration basically is an administration that has bought the neoliberal line. It drinks the orange juice. I mean, it doesn’t see schools as a public good. It doesn’t see schools as places where basically we can educate students in a way to take democracy seriously and to be able to fight for it. It sees them as basically kids who should be part of the global workforce. But it does more, because not understanding schools as democratic public spheres means that the only place you can really go is either to acknowledge and not do anything about the fact that many of them are now modeled after prisons, or, secondly, they become places that kill the radical imagination. Teaching for the test is a way to kill the radical imagination. It’s a way to make kids boring, you know? It’s a way to make them ignorant. It’s a way to shut them off from the world in a way in which they can recognize that their agency matters. It matters. You can’t be in an environment and take education seriously, when your education is under—when your agency is under assault. Can’t do it.

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/14/..._result_of

Excellent post, Eric.  I've followed Henry Giroux for some time.  He is far Left, but his comments square with my own--almost cynical--assessment of what neoliberal policy has wrought with respect to public education.  These excerpted sentences from his response especially ring true, and largely explain why I left the teaching profession much earlier than I would have liked:

Teaching for the test is a way to kill the radical imagination. It’s a way to make kids boring, you know? It’s a way to make them ignorant. It’s a way to shut them off from the world in a way in which they can recognize that their agency matters. It matters. You can’t be in an environment and take education seriously, when your education is under—when your agency is under assault. Can’t do it.

The standardized testing regime and the federal laws--No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Common Core--that undergird it have undermined critical thinking in our public schools.  I can personally attest to that.  Couple that with the privatization movement, and someday our society will "reap the whirlwind."   

[url=https://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/14/is_trumps_rise_a_result_of][/url]

[pbrower2a]

With the recognition that President Trump and those around him would never go so far as to promote an ethnic Apartheid, he could certainly promote an economic Apartheid in education with the effect of ensuring that education exists to enforce social status. Education for the children of the rich will be intended to prepare them to be masters of society. Education for the middle class will be designed to make clerks, technicians and skilled laborers. Education for the poor will be designed to make servants and toilers. For the first group education will be incredibly rich in its offerings. For the middle it will have narrow objectives. For the poor it will be a farce.

Education reflects the long-term vision of those who make the big decisions. In Trump's America some are to be the cleaners  and servers; some are to be the clerks and craftsmen; and a tiny number are to be the rulers. You can predict how the rewards are to go. Perhaps more people will be trained to be clerks and technicians than is necessary so that those who run afoul of the political reality in which 95% are to suffer for 2% or so are to truly suffer among the poor. The poor will be taught athleticism on the job; the rich will reach for the stars.  The middle will be expected to accept dubious privileges in return for being exploited and demeaned  a little less severely.

 

Quote:‘I just want to remind the Honourable Members of Parliament that if the native in South Africa is being taught to expect that he will lead his adult life under the policy of equal rights, he is making a big mistake. The native must not be subject to a school system which draws him away from his own community, and misleads him by showing him the green pastures of European society in which he is not allowed to graze.’

With these notorious words, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd introduced Bantu Education to Parliament in 1953. This began the era of apartheid education. In 1959 universities were segregated. In 1963 a separate education system was set up for the ‘coloureds.’ Indian education followed in 1964. And an Education Act for whites was passed in 1967 …

The 37 million people who live in South Africa [in 1990, just before the end of Apartheid] … are … officially divided into four ‘population groups’: ‘African’ (about 75%—of whom some 45% are under the age of 15), ‘Whites’ (13%), ‘Coloureds’ (9%) and ‘Indians’ (3%). Apart from a few ‘mixed’ ‘private’ schools, there are separate schools for the four ‘population groups’; it is illegal for a person to attend a state school designated for a ‘population group’ other than that to which she has officially been assigned, or for a school to admit as a pupil someone from the ‘wrong population group’.

Along almost any dimension of comparison, there have been, and are glaring inequalities between the four schooling systems in South Africa. This applies to teacher qualifications, teacher-pupil ratios, per capita funding, buildings, equipment, facilities, books, stationery … and also to ‘results’ measured in terms of the proportions and levels of certificates awarded. Along these dimensions, “White’ schools are far better off than any of the others, and ‘Indian’ and ‘Coloured’ schools are better off than those for ‘Africans’. Schooling is compulsory for ‘Whites’, ‘Indians’ and ‘Coloureds’ but not for ‘Africans'.

http://newlearningonline.com/new-learnin...-education

[Marypoza]

Well @ least sombody's talking sense about this whole Russia thing:

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/t...u-ordered/

[Marypoza]

Today from CN- is the sky really falling?

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/f...-collapse/

Discuss!

[Marypoza]

Ok y'all, this wkend we're talking sex......

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/r...met-pizza/

[Ragnarök_62]

(02-24-2017, 02:46 PM)Marypoza Wrote: Ok y'all, this wkend we're talking sex......

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/r...met-pizza/

Sex:  Method of fast tracking DNA recombinations   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libido

[Marypoza]

Today's offering, the appropriately titled hole in the head

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/a...-the-head/

[Ragnarök_62]

(02-27-2017, 11:45 AM)Marypoza Wrote: Today's offering, the appropriately titled hole in the head

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/a...-the-head/

Republicans:

Democrats:

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

[Eric the Green]

Chelsea's not going to be elected president, so don't worry, and no need compare her to The Donald

[Eric the Green]

(02-27-2017, 11:45 AM)Marypoza Wrote: Today's offering, the appropriately titled hole in the head

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/a...-the-head/

Democrats are for the national interest; Republicans are not.

[Marypoza]

(02-27-2017, 11:01 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(02-27-2017, 11:45 AM)Marypoza Wrote: Today's offering, the appropriately titled hole in the head

http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/a...-the-head/

Democrats are for the national interest; Republicans are not.

-- once upon a time l actually believed that

[Eric the Green]

Say, Democrats are for the national interest about 65% of the time. Republicans? ZERO percent of the time.