tdaxp

An agile Constitution can be changed, so that the weaknesses can be fixed and not become avenues for anti-democratic forces. This is as true for the constitutions in Classroom Democracies as the constitutions in Federal Republics. Of my classes last semester, one added a Supreme Court, one established a Lebanon-style division of offices, and one abolished the Assembly.

1. The Supreme Court

Classroom Democracy builds rational academic behavior by exposing students to multiple perspectives through peer interaction. Different options, such as whether to spend a day watching a movie or studying for an exam, are considered by the students. Regular elections rewards students who have good study skills to share, and allows them to act as mentors for students who are not so knowledgeable. Democracy is very Vygotskian, as it relies on dialog and zones of proximal development.

However, social interaction can be stressful. It requires students to consciously weight alternatives, which is mentally more taxing than trusting an authority figure. When the teacher is dedicated to democracy, the students cannot revert easily to their role of passive receptacles of knowledge. One class, however, succeeded in doing just that...

"LPS mulls best Native books," by Margaret Reist, Lincoln Journal Star, 3 October 2006, http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2006/10/03/top_story/doc4521bf0c8a4b7965832929.txt.

Recently, my blog friend Adam of The Metropolis Times highlighted Banned Book Weeks. Ironically, the day after Banned Books Weeks Ended, Lincoln Public Schools set to work banning some more

And in addition to seeking out the best Native literature it could find -- 128 new recommended books -- it took the unusual step of recommending school libraries remove 12 books from their shelves.

Here is a list of the books:

• “The Indian in the Cupboard” (1980) and the sequel “The Return of the Indian” (1986) by Lynne Reid Banks

Writes Doris Seale, co-editor of “Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children”

• "Indian School: Teaching the White Man’s Way” (1999) by Michael L. Cooper


• "The Courage of Sarah Noble” (1954) by Alice Dalgliesh


• "The Matchlock Gun” (1941) by Walter D. Edmonds, illustrated by Paul Lantz


• "Brother Eagle, Sister Sky” (1991) by Susan Jeffers


• "Sitting Bull and His World” (2000) by Albert Marrin


• "The Place at the Edge of the Earth” (2002) by Bebe Faas Rice


• "My Heart Is On the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, A Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880” (1999) by Ann Rinaldi (from Scholatics “Dear America” series)


• "Millie Cooper’s Ride: A True Story from History” (2002) by Marc Simmons, illustrated by Ronald Kil


• "The Sign of the Beaver” (1983) by Elizabeth George Speare


• "The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864” (1999) by Ann Turner


• "Wounded Knee” (2001) by Neil Waldman, illustrated by the author

The best justifications are those that are explicitly racist, such as

Misrepresents Lakota spiritual beliefs and cultural practices. Relies too heavily on research by non-Natives.

for Sitting Bull and His World and

Misunderstanding of Navajos’ strong oral storytelling traditions (no child would take notes while an elder told a story). Pathetic attempts at Native humor. “Whitewashing” of Native experiences.

for The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864

"Books to avoid" about Thanksgiving from the same group that inspired this censorship list -- Oyate -- are available below the fold. A shorter version is also available.

"Omaha superintendent fearful of harm to district," Associated Press, 3 September 2006, http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2006/09/03/news/nebraska/7c7e5940d7c7495b862571de000f1aab.txt.

John Mackiel, Omaha's power-hungry and incompetent public schools superintendent, is in the news again. Earlier I reported how Omaha Public Schools' attempts to annex small, neighboring districts led to the break-up of OPS into three smaller districts. But while the tripartition of Omaha Public Schools winds its way through the courts, Mackiel and OPS already see their power vanish in another direction

Omaha Schools Superintendent John Mackiel says his district favors the concept of a Douglas County-Sarpy County "learning community."

But his district opposes the community's official implementation, Mackiel said Friday.

...

Under the new law, council action requires majority vote of the 11 district representatives. Also, at least a third of the total Douglas and Sarpy County enrollment must be represented in the votes for approval.

Critics say the smallest of the districts, Bennington, would have the same voting power as Omaha, the largest.

Mackiel said politics play too big a role in the interdistrict discussions.

Add in South Dakota's mini-Mackiel, and it's clear that superintendents are not the most politically attuned of all professionals...

"Let Them Eat Cake!," by Nathan Shock, Fresh Blue, 30 April 2006, http://www.freshglue.com/fresh_glue/2006/04/let_the_eat_cak.html.

Earlier, tdaxp reported on the insane powergrab of John Mackiel, Superintendent of Omaha Public Schools, that ended with the Nebraska legislature dismembering OPS. Now Pam Homan, Sioux Falls School District superintendent and noted grinch, is seeing what she can achieve.

The first public misstep was to continue defending a hopeless lawsuit from teacher Barbara Wigg, who had sued when Homan's predecessor told Wigg she could not help lead an after-school Christian activity for children at her school. Wigg won, but not before the district appealed multiple times. When the school board finally decided to drop the suit, the Argus Leader savaged them in a Dec. 17, 2004 editorial saying it's "the first smart thing the district has done since this mess started." The school district was also forced to repay Wigg's court costs and their total bill (not covered by insurance) for the suit was $154,000.

...

There have been other smaller miscues (rules were changed to allow Homan to reside outside the district, the football bus scandal, etc.), but the latest public relations blunder takes the cake. It's almost too much to comprehend. The school district is barring two high school seniors, Jake Wampler and Nick Kelly, from participating in graduation ceremonies later this month. Why? Because they failed too many classes? Were caught with illegal substances? Had too many detentions?

Not even close. Kelly is one credit short after missing almost a year of high school due to a battle with leukemia. Wampler, who is five credits short, had his heart stop last year during football practice and he's been undergoing treatment for a brain injury. Sounds like a couple of slackers, huh?

The Awesome: Alexander Franks, genius, has written an article on rule-set evolution that has the world talking. Dr. Von, Jeff Vail, John Robb, Rick Klau, and ZenPundit discuss Understanding Evolved Strategies for System-Wide Coordination on Noisy Environments. Here's a taste:

Since it is harder to determine the majority state for initial conditions with an approximately equal number of 1’s and 0’s, the initial conditions are chosen with some with bias. They are distributed evenly from an initial condition of all 1’s to an initial condition of all 0’s. There are always the same number of initial conditions with a majority of 1’s as there are with a majority of 0’s.

Every time step the rule is tested for convergence by checking the next time step without noise, to see if all units are in the same state. If the system has reached a consensus, and remains so in the next time step, then the updating is halted. If it has converged to the correct state for that initial condition, it is counted as a success. If no consensus is reached after 2N time steps, it is assumed to have failed on that initial condition.

The best part? It was written while Alex was in high school.

Scroll down for a low...

"Poor Teaching Quality Deters Students," by Cyndi White, Daily Nebraskan, 24 April 2006, page 4, http://www.dailynebraskan.com/media/storage/paper857/news/2006/04/24/Opinion/Cyndi.Waite.Tuition.Prices.Do.Not.Always.Match.Quality.Of.Teaching-1866524.shtml?norewrite200604241454&sourcedomain=www.dailynebraskan.com.

This semester, I'm blessed with two extremely good teachers. Because of these class leaders, who teach Creativity, Talent, & Expertise and Scope & Methods, I can academically write and present much better than before. I owe these two individuals a lot.

Indeed, the knowledge of what such great instructors can do leads me to give this extended quote from UNL's student newspaper on the effects of bad teachers:

To be quite blunt, with a few exceptions, my classes this semester are pure crap. My projection or displacement or whatever defense mechanism I was obviously displaying didn't stop there. I began thinking ... which is never good for me.

"Omaha Schools Split Along Race Lines," by Scott Bauer, Associated Press, 13 April 2006, http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1841310 (hat-tip: The Corner).

"Omaha Public Schools," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Apr 2006, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Omaha_Public_Schools&oldid=48371184..

"Winter came to Omaha
It left us looking like a bride
A million perfect snowflakes now
And no two are alike
So it's hard for me imagining
The flaws in this design"

Theme from Pinata, from "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn," by Bright Eyes

"We create a new people.

...

The next stage,
you will see!"

Yasser Arafat, sampled in "Hezbollah Radio Advert," by Muslimgauze

The big news is the end of the Omaha Public School District. The secret news is the triumph of complex adaptive systems.



On June 6, 2005, Omaha Superintendent John Mackiel decide to increase his power by annexing 25 schools currently part of the Elkhorn, Millard, and Ralston public school districts. Using an obscure Nebraska doctrine called "One City, One School district," Dr. Mackiel planned to increase the centralizing influence of the Omaha Public Schools, the Office of the Superintendent, and, least of all, himself.

What he didn't count on was complex adaptive systems.

Curzon's rumination on post-Soviet Ukraine and Belarus and the strange death of Slobodan Milosevic got me thinking about post-Soviet Europe generally. Film can be a good of narrating history, so here are five films that tell the story of Soviet Europe, from its tragicomic end to its terrible birth.

Timeframe: 1940s-1990s

Synopsis: An armed monkey accidentally liberates disoriented Serb WWII vets from a kleptocratic arms smuggler. Corrupt UN peacekeepers and "Nazis" litter the landscape.

Opinion: Hilarious, truly sad, and amazingly symbolic, it originally aired on Serbian TV.

Stand-out Quote:

"Here we built new houses
with red roofs and chimneys where storks will nest.
With wide-open doors for dear guests.
We'll thank the soil for feeding us and the sun for warming us.
And the fields for reminding us of the green grass of home.
with pain, sorrow, and joy, we shall remember our country,
as we well our children stories that start like fairy tales
Once upon a time there was a country..."

a tdaxp Special Report by "Aaron"

Harm de Blij's book, previously shouted out on tdaxp (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) gets a mention on www.kuro5hin.org along with discussion about shortcomings by American students in the area of geography. Read the whole thing.

The brief article did touch off a neuron or two. tdaxp and I frequently argue, over Chinese food naturally, of the utility of public vs private school. So I did some digging. Many conservatives would state that public schools spend too much time teaching hippy ideas and equality and not enough time teaching facts / knowledge. I would argue strongly the other way, that sports, popularity and increasing sexual awareness keep anyone from learning anything in public school. I figured, someone, somewhere has to have dug up some figures. I was right, and they're not that old.

Now, the point here isn't to stir up a new argument. That's actually only secondary. What I want to point out here is that Lutherans outscored Catholics. Since I recently transferred to a private Lutheran college, strictly for the degree, I thought I'd stick it to tdaxp ( and lesser to co-conspirator Catholicgauze) as tdaxp is into Catholicism strictly for the trivia.

Eat hot Eucharist, fascist pig!

"Don't let the forest grow over that path you came there by.
But you will, so...

So hurry up and run to the one that you love. "

Bright Eyes, "Make War"

"The devoted were wearing bracelets
to remind them why they came:
some concrete motivation
when the abstract could not do the same.
But if all that's left is duty, I'm falling on my sword;
at least then i would not serve an unseen distant Lord."

Pedro the Lion, "Secret of the Easy Yoke"

"Stay the way I am today and serve to more disaster...
He could tell a fairy tale that's happy ever after...
Just relax and green of grass will grow here for a change.
Maybe then we'll last a million years or more.. or more.. or more.."

Guster, "All The Way Up To Heaven"

"Have you ever tried to neck with an earwig?
Oh, your body is a home to your friends.
You've a tick for each nipple and a leech for each finger
And a parasitic love that never ends.

Do you have any love left for me?
I'm small, but that's a start.
Eat me up with your love.
Burrow your way to my heart."

Darkest of Hillside Thickets, "Burrow Your Way To My Heart"

Liberal education is a fertile land for ideologies. The Sahara was once fertile, too.