education

Just how bad of a "problem" is immigration?

From the AP today comes news that:

"Nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language at home other than English. California led the nation in immigrants, at 27 percent of the state's population, and in people who spoke a foreign language at home, at 43 percent. West Virginia had the smallest shares of both: 1.2 percent of immigrants and 2.3 percent of people who speak a foreign language at home."

Hmmm. Let's compare California and West Virginia.

In median family income, California ranks 6th highest in the nation at $37.019. West Virginia ranks last in the nation at $25,758.

In percentage with college degrees or higher, California ranks 15th in the nation at 29 percent. West Virginia ranks last in the nation at 16.5 percent.

In percentage living below poverty , California ranks 15th at 13 percent. West Virginia ranks fifth in the nation for poverty at 17.3 percent.

The Census doesn't rank states based on moral turpitude, but consider this news item from West Virginia that also appeared today:

"Six whites, including two mothers and their adult children, have been charged in the week-long kidnapping, torture and rape of a 20-year-old black woman in West Virginia."

Maybe immigration isn't such a problem after all.

All you teachers going broke buying supplies for your classroom: Does BORDERS have a deal for you!!!

From a press release just received (and soon to be recycled):

According to a national survey on educator buying trends, on average, two thirds of educators teaching kindergarten through twelfth grade spend $400 a year of their own money on books, puzzles, and other supplies for their classrooms**. Borders can help make these purchases more affordable and provide our local educators with the opportunity to enjoy special events and savings throughout the entire event.
**Source: “Educator Buying Trends: A National Survey,” Market Data Retrieval

Excuse me, but when is it OK for national bookstore chains to exploit our seriously flawed and underfunded public school system in special publicity promotions?

This event is open to current and retired PreK-12 teachers, librarians, principals, homeschoolers, professors, student teachers, religious educators, school support staff and other educators. Educators please bring a current Classroom Discount card, school ID or pay stub to be eligible to receive the special discounts.

What about parents who are homeschooling their children? Can they get Classroom Discount cards, too? I sure hope so.

And get this.
Educators will receive a 25% discount on regularly priced books, CDs, DVDs, gifts & stationary and cafe* – for classroom and personal use.
For personal use?

We acknowledge the benevolent gesture, BORDERS, but please, in the future have some fucking tact!

To the surprise of almost no one who reads any local news, The New York Times is reporting that the UO, among other public universities, is under-supported by the state, and as a result it's adding considerable fees on top of tuition:

All told, fees add up to $1,542, or nearly an additional 40 percent on top of tuition of $3,984. That does not even count additional fees charged for taking certain courses.

Later in the story comes this:

“There’s a particular appeal for the students who pay it, because they see it and they see the benefit,' said Dave Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon.

But earlier in the story, the student interviewed, student body president Emily McLain, says, "“Students want more transparency."

Whichever of those viewpoints you're inclined to agree with, I'd like to give the NYT a hug: I tire of hearing about sports vs. academics when what I really want to hear about is why the UO is so underfunded by the state. Why not take the question to the next level? Just for a little while, can we stop asking why sports gets more money and attention from donors, and ask instead why this public institution doesn't get more attention and money from the state?

Jonathan Kozol, you're my hero.

I fell for Jonathan Kozol a long time ago, reading Savage Inequalities at the behest of Stuart Palonsky, who was in the fall of 1991 the new director of the Honors College at the University of Missouri.

Kozol came to speak (and read from a book) at the U of Iowa in 1998.

One of my students, a sweet young guy, went to the reading and was so excited to finally understand a song that his favorite band, The Broadways, sang. The song is called "Jonathan Kozol was right," and the student made me a tape of it. The lyrics are here, but let me quote some:

read a book the other day about public schools in our nation
an indictment of our prevailing caste system
it semes so many things i've taken for granted others cant access at all
i ditched computer class while others had no books
i learned to hate my halls, there's holes in walls in schools right in my town

That's about exactly how Savage Inequalities struck me. Not that I ditched computer classes, of course, but the book was a hammer blow. And have things gotten better? No, they've gotten worse. But Kozol keeps going, keeps writing the books, keeps getting to know the teachers and parents and kids and principals and systems, keeps testifying before Congress. He's truly, truly a hero.

So in honor of JK's new book, a short education newsroll:

1. NCLB screws up teachers and students. But Our Hero encourages teachers to use their creativity and keep their individuality anyway.

2. Please can we change this horrific legislation? Are you sensing a theme here? Maybe we can.

3. The dream is dying. Why? Find out from The Civil Rights Project. (You can get the PDF of the report here.)

4. Not that students go to class anyway. Why not? They might not know school is in session.

5. Please, please, PLEASE change this legislation! Even the parents who like their kids' schools know the tests are screwing over their kids' lives and learning.

But things aren't all horrific.

Jonathan Kozol:
I love the unpredictable. I love the whimsical in children. I love it when a child asks me what you might think is a funny question, like, "Do you feel sad because you're old?" Or, "Is it lonesome to write?" It's a wonderful question, don't you think?

I love how he loves children. Me, I love teaching first-year college students, and I also love teaching engaged older college students. But I love that he cares so much about K-12 that he makes me care about it too.