Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Education & AP courses. The link below highlights problems associated with the increasing number of students taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses. While the number of students taking AP courses is up, but so, too, are the number of students failing to achieve passing scores. “The exams are graded on a scale of 1 to 5. The College Board considers 3 a passing grade, though fully a third of the universities that grant college credit for AP require a score of 4 or 5. Dartmouth College, questioning the program’s rigor, has announced it will soon stop accepting any AP scores for credit.”

   There are an increasing number of antidotal reports from AP teachers who say they have had to “water down” content to even get their students through their courses. More education funds are available to some states/schools as the number of AP students increases. All this amid continued reports of how poorly American students compare with their overseas peers.

Read more at http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/education-advanced-placement-classes-tests-95723.html

Common Core, revisited. Three items to add. First, an editorial in Friday's, August 23^rd, Denver Post. Link: http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_23921081/common-core-education-standards-long-overdue

Second, thoughts from Jon Manganello, a friend conversant with education and its current challenges which go to trust in our governments – national and state.

How many more generations of ineffectively "prepared" students can we turn out before we are a nation of functional illiterates, with the resulting economic decline?? We cannot even get started until we restore trust in our national government to take the long view and build consensus on the big questions. Truth be told [given the current political climate], there is nowhere to go but downhill until then.

Last, for an alternative viewpoint see, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/common-core-education_b_3794918.html?utm_hp_ref=denver&ir=Denver

The ghost of Alexander Hamilton and the “birther” issue. The link below (animation and the following discussion) recounts how Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, suggested by John Jay and adopted by Constitutional Convention, was intended to have the immediate effect of preventing Alexander Hamilton from ever becoming president. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 calls for the president to be a “natural born citizen,” subsequently interpreted to include anyone born outside the United States with at least one parent who is a natural born citizen. 

   As the discussion noted below makes clear, no person born outside the US has ever come as close to being a feasible candidate as has Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX). Mr. Cruz, a potential Hispanic candidate, has dual citizenship because he was born in Canada of an American mother. The not too distant “birther” storm raised by Donald Trump and others regarding President Obama's status no doubt provided ample reason for Cruz's hurried announcement that he was renouncing the Canadian portion of his dual American – Canadian citizenship. Turns out, though, that renunciation of Canadian citizenship can take up to two years, so stay tuned!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/video/inplay/ted-cruz-i-am-not-a-canadian/2013/08/20/3558f126-09d5-11e3-9941-6711ed662e71_video.html

Beware the Student Loan. Unless you or your parents are wealthy, it is very probable that a student may have to borrow money and will most commonly use a so-called “student loan.” As one now deeply indebted student relates, "I was 19 years old...I didn't understand what was going on, but my mother was there. She had signed, and now it was my turn. So I did." Six years later, she says, "I am nearly $45,000 in debt. . . . If I had known what I was doing, I would never have gone to college." A sad, but perhaps truthful statement – even though forfeiting a college diploma can have lifelong consequences.

“Student-loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious" is how Sen. Elizabeth Warren put it. Collectors can garnish everything from wages to tax returns to Social Security payments to, yes, disability checks. Debtors can also be barred from the military, lose professional licenses and suffer other consequences no private lender could possibly throw at a borrower. So much for President Obama laying out these sad truths.

Read the article http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ripping-off-young-america-the-college-loan-scandal-20130815page=2#ixzz2cpoih6wx

That Old Blue Moon. Turns out there are two different definitions/ways of calculating when a so-called “blue moon” will occur. So, by the “season” definition, the full moon of this past August 20^th was a full moon; by the other monthly method, not so. Your choice. If you are inclined to the arcane, here is the full story.

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/blue-moon-rises-explainer-1308201.htm

Oil, natural gas, and fracking. The environmental impact of fracturing (fracking) is being hotly debated in certain areas of the US, CO and northwestern PA, to name only two. A recent CO legislator has been put in the uncomfortable position of having viewed fracking favorably – until “but not in my backyard” came into play as fracking began near his home and water wells. The oil/gas industry's refusal to disclose what chemicals were being pumped into their wells has brought them no honor – they seem more like shady companies/corporations hiding behind complex patent laws.

   A guest commentary in the “Perspective” section in this past Sunday's Denver Post notes that more than a few human endeavors can/do have negative environmental impacts. We have all seen pictures of days when we have been happy to not be living or visiting in Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai, even Denver, for that matter. The authors note that it makes no sense to propose closing down the interstate highway system simply because of the mayhem on those roads; neither, they suggest, does the outright banning of fracking by state/local governments.      At least one CO county and municipality are considering such bans. The oil/gas industry finds itself the center of controversy, in part due to their inability/unwillingness to propose reasonable, easily understood suggestions for regulation, their equivalents to seat belts and child restraints laws.

Area 51. Conspiracy theorists may be disheartened, but to date it seems there are no preserved aliens or space ships there, the entertaining movie “Independence Day” not withstanding. What happened near Roswell, NM, on July 7, 1947, will no doubt continue to be hotly debated. Perhaps it was just my time in the Air Force, but it has always puzzled me that so many people were “in the dark” about whatever was happening at that piece of real estate near Groom Lake, NV. In “CIA-speak, it was officially called the “Nevada Test and Training Range” or simply “Groom Lake.” 

   It was an open secret that over the years nearby Edwards and Nellis AFBs were test sites for more than a few unusual aircraft. Military and civilian test pilots flying into/around/over the area, as well as the locals, were fully  aware of the strange goings on, but, patriotically, tried to keep “strangers” largely in the dark. A quick check of back issues of Aviation Week and Space Technology will find more than a few references to the area.

   According to reporter Jonathan Turley, the more human “cover-up” may lie in the government's unwillingness to own up to the fact that some of its actions resulted in the sickening and death of noncombatant workers due to poisoning resulting from improper waste disposal. The Yossarian-like Catch 22: the government said, in effect, the area is so secret that it could not disclose what was disposed of, ergo the patients's doctors got no information and had no way of knowing how to treat their sick patients. (Turley, Los Angeles Times)

   Sorry, no little green men or futuristic flying machines – just a bunch of still unknown chemical symbols. However, there is always the possibility that the NSA may have information to the contrary. Perhaps the water coolers in Area 51 were/are bugged! Here's a link to Sunday's Denver Post cartoon on the subject, which ties nicely to my next item.

http://blogs.denverpost.com/opinion/wp-content/blogs.dir/85/files/2013/08/area-51-cartoon-heller-495x344.jpg

Immigration. Ruben Navarrette, Jr., in his recent column “Selective outrage on immigration,” notes the unevenness of the current immigration debate. American history is replete with fervent, uneven discussion and public immigration/citizenship debates which on more than a few occasions turned violent: Hay Market (Chicago, 1886) and Ludlow (Colorado, 1914) to name but two. Labor disputes and economic upheavals have long been laid at the feet of the foreign-born “unwashed masses.” Though one might wish for better, the current debate seems not much more enlightened as those of the past. (Navarrette, “Perspective” section, Denver Post, August 25, 2013.)

What the government cannot do. Read Andrew Bacevich's op-ed column in Sunday's NYT, “The Ugly American Telegram” (of the Vietnam era) regarding what officials in Washington have not yet learned about their relative inability to steer far off events. He concludes,

In Washington, the conviction that removing obstreperous leaders, whether adversaries like Saddam Hussein or “friends” like Hosni Mubarak, facilitates Washington’s ability to steer events remains the most persistent — and dangerous — of illusions. Yet time and again, the effect has been to let loose the forces of anarchy.

   A headline in Sunday's Christian Science Monitor reads, “Obama pressured to intervene in Syria. New poll show most Americans say 'no' ”. The story line continues, “A senior official said Sunday there is 'very little doubt' that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons against civilians.” Yet again, the president seems caught between his own heart felt/politically motivated “red line” pronouncements and a restive public. Though it should be pointed out that at least retried military expert on chemical weapons noted that none in of the pictures/videos are the health care responders wearing any type of garb usually associated with protection when in a CW environment.  As Alice said, things are getting “curiouser and curiouser.”

Feeling powerless? You are not alone. In today's Washington Post column, Richard Cohen recommends an insightful book, The End of Power by Moises Naim.

Your “bucket list” If yours includes seeing the giant sequoias, you might want to pray for rain in/around Yosemite NP.

Enjoy the week. Thanks for reading.