New Normals - II

Think big.  Think bold.   Advocate huge programs.  Pass massive laws.  Demagogue the position.  Do little.  Or do Nothing

Big Laws - No Laws.  We seem to have reached yet another new normal about laws passed by Congress and in the process of development.   This means laws of serious magnitude are passed without any construction of implementation, and consequently delayed in part or in whole, but not rejected.  This implies an entire infrastructure is developed and currently  exists with almost nothing to do.

The New Foreign Policy.  There is now the international situation where serious violations of human rights have been proven, but the adjudication of the sympathetic advocates of said rights have developed a new policy.  It is to create a treaty or agreement with all parties that something should be done.  Something significant.  This "done or significant" clause takes time and takes resources.  It takes negotiations.  It takes high level meetings in comfortable locations. It takes press conferences.  It takes resolute statements.  In the meantime the violations continue.  No real end date is in sight; focus on the patented one-page talking points. 

Redistribution.  When I grew up, years ago in Milwaukee, it was always a given that some folks had wealth and some had not. We always considered this as a part of life.  We did not really resent those with more, even while we wished we has more.  There were the common commentary on those "with."  Can they really be happy?  And stuff like that.  These days, this theme has taken a more vicious tack.  It goes something like, "They have; we do not.  Let us take if from them and then we will have wealth."  This new ethos is not limited to African Americans, but to all without.  The ethos has transcended well beyond race.  Our politicians have convinced us that this (wealth) is a plum ripe for taking. After all, we do have the vote.  Let us just take it.  We can redistribute in an equitable way.  The rich do not work very hard; they simply enjoy the fruits of what they so carefully protect.  In fact, many of the wealthy work like demons to achieve, as though achievement is everything.  The wealth is a mere by-product is this scramble for more.  Many work themselves to death.

To achieve wealth without commitment and work is an illusion.  This new normal will have consequences beyond our imagination. 

However, history has shown us the poor cannot get rich by making the rich get poor. A new class of the privileged will emerge, as it did in Soviet Russia. These are the societal managers, the new dukes and princes of the new and just regime.

Big Laws; Big Programs.  It turns out that you just can't pass a law or make a regulation these days if it is presented with a readable text of manageable length.  Therefore, the new normal is to make the bill or regulation so massive it cannot be understood even by experts.  It takes years to read, to modify, and to regulate such instruments.  So goes the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, and outside the Beltway the Common Core Curriculum.  In the meantime, lower level functionaries interpret and regulate such ventures. All have in common the aspects of massiveness, incomprehensibility, and interpretable results that take many years to unravel.   All have advocates that likewise cannot comprehend what is underway, much less understand long term consequences.

This is another new normal of our age. Too big to undermine; too big to critique; too big to deny!  Forget simplicity. Forget transparency. Forget clarity.  Focus on the talking points - about one page in length. 

Comments X

The new normal.  It turns out that you just can't pass a law or make a regulation these days if it is presented with a readable text of manageable length.  Therefore, the new normal is to make the bill or regulation so massive it cannot be understood even by experts.  It takes years to read, to modify, and to regulate such instruments.  So goes the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, and outside the Beltway the Common Core Curriculum.  In the meantime, lower level functionaries interpret and regulate such ventures. All have in common the aspects of massiveness, incomprehensibility, and interpretable results that take many years to unravel.   All have advocates that likewise cannot comprehend what is underway, much less understand long term consequences.  This is the new normal of our age. Too big to undermine; too big to critique; too big to deny!  Forget simplicity. Forget transparency. Forget clarity.  Focus on the talking points - about one page in length.

An inconvenient paradox.  Constructivism is a modern, almost post modern, theory of education which promotes students' constructing their own knowledge.  We can do away with memorization and rote learning, and replace it by student thinking and learning - is the strong case for constructivism.  The curious paradox here is that constructivists marketing this pedagogy in colleges use the traditional lecture format to do so - and without exception.  It seems constructivist advocates prefer the teacher centered method of knowledge transfer they lecture to deprecate.

Constructivism is the hot pedagogy of the day.  All educators must so advocate it to the exclusion of common sense, history, and results.  All too often, we see "research" papers of college faculty invading K-6 classrooms with their new programs, giving heart and soul to their duties, and achieving remarkable conclusions. Yet,  the teachers cannot dedicate the kind of time it takes to pull off these miracles of educational excellence - nor can they duplicate the treatment.

All this said, it seems that educators cannot constructively construct a method for pre-service teachers to construct their own understanding of constructivism.  

Fuzzy Math.  Is 3 x 4 = 11?  Certainly not.  However, in the newest and currently nearly a national curriculum, the answer is OK, provided the student can give a reasonable explanation, with picture, of why it may be so.  The Common Core Curriculum is totally focused on higher order thinking skills even though conclusions may be incorrect.  See http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/18/obama-math-under-new-common-core-3-x-4-11-video/
There is much to be said about the student trying to reason out an incorrect answer, but the lesson learned seems that giving a plausible but incorrect answer trumps the correct but possibly memorized answer.  There is plenty of time and opportunity to teach students to think and to reason, but it should begin with students having basics for their learning.  You've got to begin with something.  You must have a knowledge base upon which to think.  Moreover, how many teachers have the time or ability to listen to errant explanations?

Problem solving.  Many teachers and the entire educational enterprise stress problem solving.  Yet, most of them only teach problems solving on problems for which they know well the answers.  Few, if any, are active problem solvers on their own.  Few know the perils of problem solving when you don't know the answer before hand.  Few appreciate the convoluted path the mind may take in solving a problem.  Therefore few can really teach a vital skill they do not themselves practice.

Here is an elementary example.  The Fibonacci numbers are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233,..., with the next being the sum of the previous two.  Give an argument that every fourth Fibonacci number is divisible by 3. You can reason this out if you know basics of division, transparently and conveniently.  But if you remain at the doorstep of simple computations, you will be lost.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.   --- Napoleon Bonaparte

Comments IX

Truth is greatest ally of power.  It matters little if the “truth” is actually true.  It is the pronouncement.    And the pronouncement implies justification.  And with the justification in hand, power can exact any remedies it deems correct.

When we say the "truth" is actually true.  This implies truth transcends  the norms of what we all think it to be.  This leads us to the notion of
Political truth.  A proposition, usually in politics, for which there is no supportable evidence, but one that could be true.   It just isn’t, but is supporters are often successful in convincing others of its truth.  Demagoguery is a also close relative of this type of truth.   Another type of political truth involves a governing body simply to declare some proposition to be true; no further examination is required, wanted, and in fact must be discouraged.  For example, the Indiana legislature some many decades ago voted that p should be 3, not the value 3.14159… it actually is.  Stalin decreed the Lysenko rejection Mendelian genetics in favor of the s theories of the heritability of acquired characteristics to be true.  Currently, the current climatic changes so very much studied are the results of anthropogenic causes has been declared true – the science closed.   Governments traditionally endorse political truths owing to the power and simplicity the word “truth” confers upon any proposition. It permits the allocation of resources without restriction or justification, toward their end.


It seems to me that SARA (State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement )  is an effort to create regulatory boards on the basis of a few if not a single anecdote (Missouri). Missouri, it seems, charges a big premium for online courses.  So be it.  Who will take them given a munificence of alternatives.  It seems to be both required and voluntary. Currently, if a student in WI attends a campus on NY, there is no such reciprocity required.  Accreditation certification works nationally.   But somehow, when a student takes a course outside his/her home state BUT remains at home, this requires regulation. All this amounts to a regulatory board created with inherent contradictions and conflicts within the broad scope of higher education.  It is new regulation in anticipation of needed(?) regulation.  Regulations chasing after regulations is a spiral from which recovery may be difficult.

Deeper Beliefs

There are beliefs and even deeper beliefs - far more than you even thought..

Once you sign on to an organization you become their property.  You're call is to support preassigned positions.  Your call is to sustain their positions.  There is no logic, no reasonableness, no mitigation, and no equivocation allowed.  You are in, for good or bad,  and you must obey the spin-masters of the cause. You can amplify or simplify the message.  But above all, you must believe, as in believe a faith. Many practitioners are better than the spinners, and are most proud of their enhanced reasoning,

There are no arguments to convince the true believer of any other course to follow.  Yet, their opponents continue to try.

The only method to change their course of thought is for them to internalize their position as unsupportable on the basis of their even deeper beliefs.  Now here is a situation!!  What is deeper than deep, and how do we know what it might be?

Comments - Part VIII

• There seems to be an agreement between the USA left and the right on Egypt.  Both sides agree there is nothing we can do.  Mubarek yes?  No!  Muslim Brotherhood yes?  No!  Continued military aid yes?  No!  My gosh, we have really tunneled in on this one. What kind of agreement is this?  The only one working! That's what.

• National commentator Bill O'Reilly's latest commentary begins with "What is really dividing America?"  This simple statement accepts the division while begging an answer.  On the one had, it is a confession there is a division. No longer is there a fiction of division.   On the other hand, it confesses the division is a matter of concern, discussion, and hopes for resolution. It begs for a solution. There is none.
  
  You can talk about a division.  We all do this.  But when you cite it as a given, this is yet another proposition.  When you say there is no solution to a division, you are inviting an irresolute situation. This can be divisive; this can be derisive; this can be deadly.  

·        On university professors.  We like to say they are "smart enough to get in the business, but too dumb to get out."  :)

·        Background.  The US has closed multiple embassies throughout the middle east.  The reasons we are given is that internet and phone chatter has risen to unprecedented levels.  Even the phone numbers of significant Al Qaeda players have been exposed as justification.   An attack is imminent, we are told.

As far as I'm concerned all this al Qaeda chatter could be merely a test to determine our reaction.  It is easy to generate online chatter.  They now know and will exploit as needed.  It could also be a diversion for the real target.  Such tactics have been used at least since WWII by the Nazis.

I am astounded at the naivety of our government. Yet, what could the President do?  He is caught in the web of his own spin.

·        We have the unfortunate situation where most trial juries assume almost everything they hear is a lie.  In consequence, defense and prosecution attorneys, alike, cite "trust" as the prime factor in their considerations.  
·         It is one thing to want this right or that, this freedom or that, but have you considered what each of these may cost?  For example, you cannot have total security of life without the serious price of freedom.   Consider the following list.  Each right is admirable while each has a cost.  Many of these we see daily and are now accepted.  Many have a counter-price tag.  Rules.  You may not counter all or part of these by saying they would happen without cost if only people would work together.  They will not.  We have lots of history to prove this - I hope you will agree.

o   Full security rights --- diminished freedom

o   Full education rights --- increased taxation, diminished quality

o   Full healthcare rights --- increased taxation, queuing, regulations

o   Full cultural expression rights --- alienation

o   Full equality rights --- decreased opportunity

o   Full marriage rights --- increased alienation

o   Full healthy environment rights --- increased taxation, regulations

o   Full expression  --- diminished respect, alienation

o   Full right to bear arms --- more violent/domestic crime

o   Full and complete abortion rights --- decreased ethics/morality

·         There can be no utopia (a fair and just world for all), for if there were, someone would use the utopian constructs to marginalize it. Just as, if there is no speed limit, too many would apply it at the expense of all.  For a Utopian world to exist, we would need to change the foundational nature of its inhabitants from what we (homo sapien sapiens) are.  Philosopher-kings (as per Plato) ruling such a world would be completely corruptible, even though with benign intent. It is easy to construct an impossible world.  Religions have been doing this for millennia.

·         You cannot set out to learn something you do not know is there to learn.

·         The fall back of the uneducated, uninterested, and unmotivated student is:  "I will learn it when I need to know it."  However, if the student doesn't know it is there to learn, learning it is moot.

·         Student to professor.  "I don't know fractions, or algebra, or calculus, but I want to take your grad course on celestial mechanics. It sounds cool. I'm a Scorpio; always want to understand astrology better.  Is this OK?  Professor to student.  "Sure.  Please sit in."   Professors need to have a little fun, too. :)

·         When you clean your house, you remove the dust, dirt, and clutter that builds up.  You mind knows nothing of this cleaning.  There the dust, dirt and clutter continue to accumulate. 

·          Sometimes I have a great idea but then forget it before writing it down.   I know it will come back in due time but never know when - but only if the idea is good.   Bad ideas drift through our minds constantly, but thankfully our mind graciously forgets them for us.  

·         Beware of anyone wishing to teach you without asking you about your critical thinking skills.  Such people usual disguise profoundly flawed tenets.  When the teaching begins with "Everyone knows that...,"  or "It is a fact that...," or "I am only the messenger, yet ... ," or "Logic tells us that ... ," be on full alert. 

·         In reading many biographies of successful military and political leaders, it is clear that military leaders are far more cognizant of the historical aspects of military tactics and strategies than political leaders are of the basic theories and practices of politics.  This historical view begins even when the military leader was a student.  Political leaders read the biographies from a (comparative) historical rather than an educational viewpoint.  They prefer to promote their agendas without regard for historical precedent.  I seriously doubt any world leader has read more than a book or two on actual leadership.

·         We see so many school district programs advocating some new plan, hoping for desirable learning results, the brass ring for education.  A program based in Louisiana allows teachers tell stories based on picture books that do not include printed words. This is commendable.  This is wonderful.  However, what is needed is a student coming to class knowing that learning is their key to future success, and wanting to learn more of their world.   This is yet another well designed program that attempts to entrance, seduce, and induce students to want to learn. The desire and importance for learning must begin long before - at home.