28 September 2016

Political Moderates: Political Problem Solvers

What is a Moderate? A politically moderate person is someone who is a problem-solver because no plan or ideology survives first contact with reality.
- Rob Bittick

19 September 2016

Religiophobia: Acceptable Discrimination?

Just a thought: "Religiophobia" should be understood as both the fear of religious people and the fear of other people's religion. This seems to be an acceptable phobia in the United States. Many secular people seem to fear those of us who are religious, and define us by the worst examples of religious people. Likewise, many religious people fear others who peacefully practice a different religion whether they be Muslims, Evangelical Christians, etc.

This is a fear that should be discouraged. If a particular religions is violent by nature, then it is the violence that should be feared, not the practice of religion. John Locke explained this very well in his A Letter Concerning Toleration written in 1689.

09 September 2016

The only people who do not change their minds

"I have often thought that the only people who do not change their minds are sleeping peacefully in some cemetery or in an institution involuntarily -- and have lost the capacity of changing their minds. So I hope the time will never come when I can't adjust to new circumstances and new conditions, because it is an accelerated world."

- Everett Dirksen, Republican Senator from Illinois. Quoted in Dirksen of Illinois: Senatorial Statesman, by Edward L. Schapsmeier and Frederick H. Schapsmeier, University of Illinois Press, 1985, p. 28.

08 September 2016

Firing Bad Teachers or Creating Good Teachers

The Los Angeles Times ran an excellent Op-Ed article today by Karin Klein entitled, "Why firing bad teachers isn't nearly as important as creating good ones." I highly recommend reading this article.

I wish more of us understood how K-12 teaching is a most challenging profession. This is where the foundation is laid in students for their future careers and for our future society. It is also where learning and other behavioral disabilities in students are often first revealed. The critical professionals in this endeavor are not school administrators or politicians, but teachers. Yet, we overload such teachers with large classes, underpay them, do not provide them the resources they need to do the job, and then blame them when failures occur. And we wonder why there is a teacher shortage!

Some propose a business model to run schools. Yet, no successful business is run the way we run or propose to run schools. Furthermore, whatever the service or good provided by a business, the profit motive must be central. A business will die without eventually making a profit. In contrast, the student is the focus of education, not financial profit. So, while schools must be efficient and accountable with taxpayer's money, financial matters must serve the principle mission of schools: educating students. This means financial profit is not the goal.

In his classic book, The Administrative State (Transaction Publishers), political science and public administration scholar Dwight Waldo noted that the United States' culture is a business culture. This may explain why we hold education and educators in such low esteem. We respect business but belittle education. Solve that attitude and perspective problem, and we will then be able to find reasonable solutions to our education problems.

As a professor in higher education, I see the outcomes of the combined efforts of K-12 teachers in my students. I build on what these teachers and students have accomplished over the years. This is why I sincerely appreciate and value K-12 teachers.