Matching Tracksuits

fun in fours

current affairs

Pandemic Education

Thursday 30 April 2009

Teaching eighth grade as a pandemic approaches creates certain challenges, especially when a girl passes out in the bathroom and a local high school closes for disinfection.

Thirty Greenville County School District employees wearing gloves and masks started to clean Mauldin High School from the top down last night and will continue to disinfect desks, lockers, doors and bathrooms throughout the day today after up to 18 of 70 students who had attended a band camp at Disney World last week reported flu-like symptoms which led the district to close the school today. (Greenville Times)

Students come running into the classroom, desperate not to touch anything but the bottles of hand sanitizer that they're most eagerly sharing amongst themselves. They sit down and put their hands in the air as if they're being held up at gun point. They open doors with their feet and they laughingly refuse to touch the copies of Much Ado About Nothing we've been using in class.

A quick look around the room confirms my suspicions: I won't be able to accomplish anything without dealing with this first. A quick review of how viruses are spread. "You can't get it from simply touching a desk, even if an infected person has just touched it," I say. "If you touch that contaminated desk then rub your eyes, pick your nose, and dig something from between your teeth, you might get it."

It truly satisfied few, but at least there was some semblence of calm afterwards.

Start the Presses!

Wednesday 08 April 2009

How to keep dollars local in a global community? It's not quite isolationism, but it's a legitimate concern in these Made-in-China times. During the debate -- such as there was -- about Bush's first stimulus plan, many joked that we were borrowing money from China to buy Chinese products. Now consumers are more interested in keeping the resources local, and communities are helping out:

A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.

Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses. [...]

About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.

Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.
(USATODAY.com)

A few thoughts -- mostly questions -- about this:

First, this shows how utterly arbitrary cash is. BerkShares or Cheers have value because people agree that they do. Dollars, Yen, and Euros, theoretically, work the same way; more people simply agree that they have value. They were willing to agree because currencies represented something tangible: gold, silver, or whatever. Of course the value of gold only arose -- in pre-scientific communities -- because people agreed it's valuable.

This leads to the second question: what backs this money? Indeed, we could ask the same of most world currencies, especially the dollar. Does anything, or is it just a dollar surrogate? Is it just pegged to the dollar? If so, that leads to the final thought.

Third, why do they need to do this? Just to keep the cash in the community? Couldn't they keep the dollars in the community as well -- a well-orchestrated campaign to "Keep the Dollars Here" or some such? Would this be happening if the dollar were actually worth something?

Lastly, what of that 5%? Who covers it? Why are banks willing to sell $100 of BerkShares or Cheers or gls-dollars for $95? (This seems to be hinting at what actually backs these currencies.) Is this debt? Do they get something in return from the business that agree to use these local currencies?

Fred Sanford, Where Are You?

Thursday 02 April 2009

South Carolina would probably be in better hands if governor Mark Sanford handed the reins to another Sanford. They both seem to know about as much about education:

The dispute between Gov. Mark Sanford and state lawmakers over the use of $700 million in economic stimulus money from Washington threatens to become a "constitutional standoff" that can only be resolved in the courts, according to a legal analysis released today by state Attorney General Henry McMaster.

The $700 million is a portion of about $3 billion in cash that various entities in South Carolina, including the state government, are expected to receive under President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus program.

Sanford has threatened to reject the money unless it can be used to pay down state debt, but legislative leaders prefer to use the funds as Washington intended, mostly to maintain education spending. (Greenville Times)

Paying down the state debt is a great idea -- I'd love to pay down our mortgage debt. However, I wouldn't sacrifice L's education to accomplish that, which is exactly what Sanford wants to do.

Sanford says this notion is nonsense, that there would be adequate funding under his budget. Perhaps he's right. But the worrying thing is that he's not accepting stimulus money earmarked (I hesitate to use that term, but that's just what it is) for education. Refuse to accept some other portion of the stimulus money.

Flustered Enraged upon hearing this, I wrote a letter to the governor:

It troubles me that, in this era of waning American international influence, you would consider such drastic cuts in education as would occur if you continue to refuse to use the stimulus money intended for education funding. Our classrooms our crowded; our educational infrastructure is woefully inadequate; our teachers are under-paid -- yet you want to force school systems to cut even deeper: up to 480 positions in Greenville County.

The rest of the Western world has surpassed America in the quality of its education: "average" eleventh-grade students study mathematics topics in America that are taught in the fifth grade in Poland, for instance. A six year lag. (How do I know this? I've been a substitute teacher in an American mathematics classroom and I lived in Poland for seven years -- it's first-hand knowledge.)

What you're proposing would only increase that difference.

Please reconsider. The state unemployment rate is significant enough without adding teachers to the fold, and more importantly, our kids can't afford it.

It seems that South Carolinians are not the only ones concerned, though.

A White House official said Wednesday that only Gov. Mark Sanford can apply for nearly $700 million available in federal stimulus funds, but U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that even if Sanford turns down the money he still plans to seek funding for the state because of the poor condition of South Carolina education.

"To stand on the sideline and say that the status quo is OK there and that the children are well served, it simply defies logic and is not reality," Duncan told reporters.

Asked if he was developing a plan to send the money to the state in the event Sanford didn’t ask for it, Duncan replied he was, then rattled off several facts about education in the state that bothered him.

Duncan said that only 15 percent of African-American children in the state are proficient at math and 12 percent at reading. He said the state has the nation’s fourth worst graduate rate for freshman.

"Those are heartbreaking results," he said. "Those are children that if we don’t do something dramatically different for them will never have a chance to compete in today’s economy." (Greenville Times)

A Greenville Times editorial summed it up succinctly:

Most Republicans in Congress opposed the excessive stimulus bill that greatly expands the reach of the federal government. So did this newspaper in several editorials. But the bill was passed, the fiscally conservative argument did not prevail, and every penny of those hundreds of billions of borrowed money will be spent.

So, as U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying, the "question is do we use it or lose it?" (Greenville Times)

This leaves us wondering why Sanford is so staunch in his refusal. His name was bantered about as a potential running mate for McCain in 2008; there have been rumors of a planned presidential campaign in 2012. Could this be political posturing? Could this be Sanford's no-thank-you-to-a-bridge-to-nowhere?

Inauguration Among 13-year-olds

Tuesday 20 January 2009

At 11:45, we're in fourth period. A young man, who is often, quite honestly, extremely disruptive, sits silently at the back of a bunch of desks crowded in front of the television. The invocation begins and the young man bows his head. He is soon wiping tears from his eyes. Other students look at him, smiles on their faces, but they say nothing. As the pastor begins reciting the Lord's Prayer, the young man joins in. He says his "amen," smiles at those around him, puts his head down on his hands, watches, and waits.

Fourth Period watches
Fourth period watches

As Obama begins to take the oath, the African American boys -- and they are a majority in that class -- sit rapt in attention. I don't think I would be exaggerating to say that I see a certain spark of hope and self-confidence in their face as they watch someone who could look like an uncle or older cousin become the most powerful man on the planet.

While the speech, in their view, drags on (in my view: one of the most nuaunced speeches about our nation I've ever heard), the old habits return: the silliness, the talking, the 13-year-old-ness. In short, all the behaviors that make several of them "at risk" students, students who are "underachievers."

Still, for that moment, it seemed they saw in themselves what I see: potential.

Today was a great day to be a teacher.

Want some tragic amusement?

Saturday 15 November 2008

Listen to David Duke on the Obama election.

Obama is really going to advance radically the Zionist neocon agenda.

You probably won’t make it through more than the first six, seven minutes — I couldn’t, anyway.

A lot of zeros…

Monday 29 September 2008

What is to blame for not  getting the rescue plan through? Republican ideals or Democratic politicizing?

Representative Adam Putnam of Florida, the No. 3 House Republican, said Pelosi's "speech cost us votes" because it set a "partisan tone," a reference to her comment before the vote blaming Bush administration policies for the crisis.

Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation, while just 65 Republicans backed the bill and 133 opposed it. Bloomberg.com

If so, what did that look like?

"Bush's policies got us into this mess."

Joe Blow Republican replies, "That's a personal and party insult! I'm voting 'no'!"

I'm not sure whether the bailout is a great idea, but I'm a little nervous about the alternative. On the other hand, I've a feeling that this is only a plan to get us through November 2008. With banks failing throughout Europe, this crisis is taking on a semi-global dimension, so I'm not sure buying bad debt in America will do much good at all in a globalized economy.

Besides, I'm not sure that $700 billion is really a significantly large number:

The Dow Jones-Wilshire 5000 folks say the stock market lost $1.2 trillion in value today. Year-to-date, the figure is $4.2 trillion. [...]

If the stock market closes tomorrow unchanged, this will be the third-worst month for the S.&P. 500 since World War II. The two months that were worst marked panicky lows, so perhaps there is hope. (NYT)

Bets for tomorrow? I'm thinking we'll see another significant drop. Maybe the index will drop a cool 1k in a day?

German Economics Experts

Tuesday 23 September 2008

The German perspective on the bailout:

It’s not a call for assistance; it’s a scream for help. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is asking other countries to help buy up bad US debt. The US government is putting up $700 billion in taxpayer money in the hopes that the measure might restore stability in the financial system. Some countries are planning to help. But the German government has answered this call quickly and clearly: no.

Economics experts think that’s the right response. As they see it, in the long run, those responsible for the crisis — who have been cashed out with high salaries and bonuses for years — will not be penalized for billions “but will be let off the hook like everyone else,” says Carsten Meier of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy IfW. According to Meier, by injecting capital into the market, the US government is putting everyone who speculated and lost back on their feet and thereby standing in the way of a market cleanup.(Spiegel Online)

I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone in the States formulate it quite that bluntly.

The Rescuers

Thursday 18 September 2008

The cavalry is coming!

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after meeting members of Congress that legislation would be required to help rid US banks of their bad assets.

He said this was at the heart of the rescue plan, which will be worked out over the weekend.

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | US pledges financial rescue plan

It’s taken years of mismanagement and lack of oversight and regulation to create this problem and our noble leaders are planning on solving it over the weekend?!

Anyone who wasn’t worried before this announcement should be now.

Playground Politics

Friday 12 September 2008

With the recent "pig" nonsense, the endless ad hominem attacks, and the little "gimmicks" like Coulter's continual reference to the Democratic candidate as "B. Hussein Obama," I find myself often wondering whether we're in an election cycle or in a second-grade playground, and I have to ask myself, "How stupid do Republicans think the American people are if they think this kind of name-calling, na-nanny-boo-boo nonsense is anything more than immature?"