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The current number one film in the country, "Coach Carter", tackles an incredibly important topic: the exaltation of sports and athletes. This isn't the most popular topic in a culture that essentially allows their professional athletes to be above the law and morality.

From drug and assault charges, to fights on the basketball court (whether justified or not), today, bad behavior and professional sports go hand in hand. And as if those realities weren't enough, we also have the rapid decline of sportsmanship and class both on and off the field. Recently, Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss's fake mooning of Lambeau field after a touchdown during an NFL playoff game left a bad taste in the mouths of many.

It's simple really. Athletes, paid or unpaid are hot commodities. Nowadays it only seems as though college sports is breeding a pool of reckless, arrogant, and irreverent talent. Professional athletes get paid well to do what they do and they do it quite well. And in return for their services, they also get an adoring fan base that is more interested in the scoreboard than with their rap sheets. "Sports" is the altar at which much of America goes to worship. There every Sunday, they are a faithful crowd.

(See the following photo I took from the airplane on my last flight from Dallas. Seattle's two semi-brand new, multi-million dollar [and severely over-budget] baseball/football stadiums, side-by-side, and erected for two teams that haven't won any sort of championship in who knows how many years.)

"Coach Carter", which stars Samuel L. Jackson, is based on the real-life story of Coach Ken Carter, a no-nonsense disciplinarian who turned an ailing Richmond, California high school basketball team into a powerhouse both on the court and in the classroom. I know I know, "it's been done" right? Some saintly teacher/coach figure waltzes into the classroom and does a number on some rebellious hoodlum types who end up realizing their true potential and living happily ever after. "Dangerous Minds" meets "Remember the Titans" meets "Sister Act 2". The stories all sound the same, but "Coach Carter" promises a twist on the Cinderella story.

The film highlights Coach Carter's strict coaching methods, a few of which include making all players sign a contract requiring them to wear blazers and ties on game days and pass all their classes, among other things. When the team goes undefeated, egos rise and some of the students begin failing their classes. Carter stands firm on the terms of the contracts and locks the gym, not allowing the team to play until grade point averages go up. As a result, they forfeit their undefeated status and the community, parents, and the majority of the school board grows enraged with Carter's decision to bench the entire team.

The notion of the student/athlete and high school sports being a privilege is somewhat foreign to many, especially in the urban centers of America. The film forces us to answer the seemingly simply question of "what is more important than winning basketball games?" In the life of a young person, the answer is simple: "everything is more important". However, the continual exaltation of the great NBA hope and the excuses like "but sports is the only place where he finds affirmation" are severely crippling the athletic demographic that has never had anyone demand excellence from them in the classroom.

Continue reading "Coach Carter and The Sports Epidemic">>>

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One of the books at the top of my reading list is the new release from 20-year-old conservative wunderkind, Ben Shapiro. Love him or hate him, when I heard of his first book, "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth" I was salivating from day-one. This is the first book of its kind to address these issues from the perspective of a young person. Move over crusty curmudgeons, there are new critics on the block.

The fact that American universities generally tend be liberal breeding grounds isn't a new revelation, but you'd be surprised just how-off-the-hook colleges have become. The collective stories told by the younger generation about what really takes place on campus is nauseating.

Call it personal ambition, but this is a topic I've delved into quite a bit. My bookshelf is littered with books on this very topic, most of them written by people who haven't been in college since Ted Koppel had hair. One of my favorite books on this topic is "Imposters in the Temple: The Decline of the American University" a dry read by Senior Hoover Institute fellow Martin Anderson. In his book, Anderson, a Conservative, takes issue with the big-business colleges have become and the corporate-like salaries and perks awarded to tenured professors whose classes are mostly taught by graduate students. What I love is that Anderson is disliked by both Liberals and Conservatives alike. In his book, he doesn't take sides, but he holds both ends of polical philosophy accountable for a morally corrupt college sub-culture.

What may come as fairly shocking news to many is that most of America's top universities (as in the places where we get the so-called "top leaders" of society) are overwhelmingly liberal, including the entire Ivy League. Within his book, Shapiro examines some of the following realities:

• Exit polling data that shows students become more liberal as they progress through their college career.

• 9% of Ivy League professors surveyed voted for Bush.

• After eliminating moral absolutes, professors are free to advocate anything - even murder.

• Student groups, from the Muslim Student Association to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, from the African Student Union to MEChA, receive funding to push perversion and hate.

• Some actual Quotes on campus from Professors regarding September 11: "Anyone who bombs the Pentagon has my vote," "the people who caused 9-11 might fit into Locke's definition of justified resistance".

• Campus sex columns in the student newspaper encouraging casual sex and same-sex experimentation, forays to strip clubs for university credit, pornographic acts for art finals, and the "America as terrorist" theory.

• Actual Classes: Black Marxism, Same Sex Desire in Modern Literature, The Poetics of Palestinian Resistance, The Sexuality of Terrorism, and How to Be Gay: male Homosexuality and Initiation. One university actually offers a Marxist Studies minor.

At my lovely institution, "we" (or rather, "they") had the notorious "C*** Club", a university-funded and supported student group that got together to celebrate female masturbation. There was also a dormitory on campus called "Heathen House" where the witches lived. I have stories upon stories. Far and wide, this is a taste of the nonsense going on in the halls of higher learning. It's not a game. We're talking a rapid decline here folks.

Continue reading "Brainwashed">>>

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It is decidedly so. And it is with a great deal of pride that I admit that I can't even remember the quadratic equation but I've had Robert Frost and Edgar Allen Poe memorized for years. On this topic, I will quote extensively. The New York Times reports (reg req.:

Last week, the United States proved, yet again, that its mathematical literacy is abysmal. In a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematics, far below Finland and South Korea, and about on a par with Portugal.

The survey tested simple, "everyday" skills like estimating the size of Antarctica or footsteps in the sand. Nonetheless, as in past comparisons, American 15-year-olds did rather better than students in Mexico, Indonesia and South Africa, and substantially worse than those in rich countries, especially Asian ones.

But we mustn't forget that in spite of these facts, we are still better. Let's just continue to recite that to ourselves. We're better we're better we're better we're better.

In his post "If A Train Leaves," fellow blogger Avery Tooley noted some reasons why we lack mathematical aptitude:

Here's my take on the reasons behind our lag: we accept mathematical illiteracy. It's not uncommon to hear people say, "I just don't do math" or "I never was any good at that." And I'm not talking about kids here, I'm talking about adults; not them jokers standin' on the corner, either. I'm talmbout college-edumacated; experts in their fields...will tell you that they aren't good at math and don't fool with it on those grounds. And most of us, even if we don't like it, we'll at least accept it. Now if somebody tried to say that about reading, they'd get blasted out of the water. Mathematics is just as fundamental as reading.

Or is it? It's a safe bet to assume that the Egyptian Africans that built the pyramids weren't exactly dummies. They certainly were smarter than I. Then again, nowadays we have Auto-CAD to do architectural renderings on our behalf. The New York Times continues:

These annual humiliations produce two consistent reactions.
One set of experts grouses that the surveys are unfair: average American students are compared to distant elites; Americans play sports and hold jobs; foreign countries impose national standards while America believes in local school boards.

Another set gloomily predicts that math malaise will ultimately gut the economy, frequently citing an estimate that American businesses waste $30 billion a year on remedial training. (In 1990, the elder President Bush announced an expensive plan to have American students lead the world in math by the year 2000.)

But there is also the Peggy Sue school of thought, which asks: So what?

In all but the most arcane specialties (like teaching math), the need for math has atrophied. Electronic scales can price 4.15 pounds of chicken at $3.79 a pound faster than any butcher. Artillerymen in Iraq don't use slide rules as their counterparts on Iwo Jima did. Cars announce how many miles each gallon gets. Some restaurant bills calculate suggested tips of 15, 18 or 20 percent. Architects and accountants now have spreadsheets for everything from wind stress to foreign tax shelters. The new math is plug-and-play.

True, those calculators and spreadsheets and credit card machines need to be programmed. But, in between bouts of visa restrictions, American universities successfully import thousands of math whizzes each year because jobs await them, and the tiny percentage of American-born students who do Ph.D. work equal the world's best.

In math, as in chess, countries that produce the most grandmasters per capita - like Hungary and Iceland - not only don't rule the world, they don't even rule chess.

This conversation seems a bit chicken and eggish. Although I always found theological error in that "which came first?" scenario. Still, it appears that we Americans need to get our collective beehinds in shape. However, I fear that there is absolutely no motivation to do so. I know I never had any. After all, we're the best.

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In what appears to be the relentlessly fraudulent pursuit of relevancy (or whatever), many of our institutions of higher learning have abandoned the curriculum of yore and burdened themselves with the rebellious idea that anything can be turned into a learning experience.

I recall during my first and last year at Wesleyan University, the gates of the inferno manifested in our college curriculum. In that year, a class simply called "Pornography" sought to make some investigative headway into the industry, its literature, and its culture. And surprisingly enough, kids paid $36,000 a year in tuition to do so. I am certain picking up a video rental membership would've spared them a buck or two. The course, which caused a bit of outrage among endowment funding alumni, included elements of video, fiction, and photography. And like all things academic, they even had guest lecturers: porn stars. A Hartford Courant article reported:

"Porn stars now work the college lecture circuit. Performance artist Annie Sprinkle, who packed a Wesleyan auditorium Sunday, extolled the value of prostitution and told students, 'The answer to bad porn is not no porn, but to try to make better porn.'"

It's no wonder our college degrees are failing us with such repugnant refuse being espoused as intelligent. The culmination of the course was a final assignment whereby students were instructed by Professor Hope Weissman to "Just create your own pornography". My beloved school would've been better off just calling the class "Hedonism 101".

I began with this story because in more recent events, Syracuse University has decided to throw its hat in the ring of the battle between reason and stupidity. As much as it pains me to admit it, I think stupidity might be winning.

When you think of rapper Lil' Kim, you don't think of the word "class" (in either meaning of the noun). But according to CNN, Syracuse recently introducted a course titled, "Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B**** 101 -- The Life and Times of Lil' Kim". According to instructor Greg Thomas, the course seeks "to look into things that gender studies have been trying to grapple with" and requires students to read Kim's song lyrics as literary texts and analyze her iconography in videos and performances. Move over Maya Angelou, there's a new poet in town. Kim has even made a guest appearance to speak to the class about her music. A better working title for this course would be "The New Misogyny: how women hate themselves".

Continue reading "College Curriculum Gone Wild">>>

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I know a little something about the educational elite. Hate to say it, but despite my best attempts to resist indoctrination and uppity-ness, "I are one". I spent my entire educational career (preschool through college) in predominately white, private institutions that my parents could not afford. The cost of full-tuition (ha! the notion of that is fairly removed) at my high school was somewhere around $16,000 when I graduated back in 2000. In many instances, $16,000 could cover the entire cost of four years of in-state tuition at a public university. Nevertheless, the perceived value to those who choose to fork over the equivalent of a down payment on a home for the cause of elementary and secondary education is the hope of admittance into the nation's top institutions of higher learning. That is the great educational hope.

When I say we started studying for the SAT in elementary school, I am not being extreme. The elite carefully and strategically calculate the path of their children from birth. For the most part, the academic rigueur of college-prep school served me well. In the end, it paid off big time for my graduating class. Out of a class of approximately 120 students, I wager to say that at least 50% were admitted into Ivy League schools. The rest, opted for equally prestigious and competitive institutions of higher learning such as MIT, Stanford, Duke, and Georgetown. Private schools love this. Their alumni become little pet, money-giving tokens to which they can point at as products of their esteemed intellectual offerings. They pride themselves on high matriculation statistics to show prospective (and anal) parents, as if to say, "See, see, if you send your child here, they too will get into Harvard!" Usually, they are correct. There are undisclosed reasons for this. The upper echelon of higher education has ugly parts. In fact, they are horribly reciprocating, selfish, money-loving, and nepotism-riddled, inner-circle, boy-club parts. The goal is power and influence.

The ultimate hope of an elite education is the promise of a secure future. I don't care how much fluff and PC garbage we add to statistics, in general, people go to elite colleges because eventually, they want to make money. Lots of money. Steaming hot piles of "look at me I'm successful" money-money that will allow them to have power, influence and lots of superfluous "stuff". This is not to say that the desire for these things is bad. It is the motivation that causes the damage. For many years, an elite education was the perceived promise of success and opportunity. So what happens when success doesn't come?

Continue reading "The Great Educational Hope II">>>

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Provoked by an interesting article, The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile:

Of all the things that get me rattled politically and socially, education is my hot issue. The stance I take on where I feel America needs to head educationally is probably my most "controversial". I will probably live my life out as one of those crazy people who screamed "we suck!" in the corner, but oh well, one of these days, my kids will be some smart cookies if I can help it. In a nut shell, I think our entire educational structure from preschool through graduate school stinks.

For hot talk on education, I frequent the edublog of Joanne Jacobs, a former columnist currently writing a book on establishing a charter school. She generally articulates the typical Right-Wing slant on most aspects of education. I agree with her maybe 50% of the time. I only bring this up because a few weeks ago, I dropped some thoughts in her "comment section" that nearly got me strung up on a tree. I said the dreaded words: "Educational Reform". I put forth my opinion that there are other countries whose primary and secondary educational programs outmatch us by a long shot. People weren't happy. (sidenote: if I hadn't already made up my mind about political affiliations, the nasty and foul attitude of certain "Republicans" who when challenged, lash out with profanity-laced and childish belittlement, could have been enough to drive me far, far away).

It seems many Americans are hostile to the notion that we don't have the best educational system in the world. America has a problem admitting that they're not the best in virtually everything. Seems to me some three years ago tomorrow, in our shock that we didn't have fortitude, that got us in a lot of trouble.

I beg to differ on a lot of things, but I demand to differ on this subject. We graduate most 12th graders speaking only one language (and not too well if you ask me). We graduate most college students without the ability to intelligently and thoroughly reason.

Usually, when I start attacking America's educational system, people get all bent (vernacular translation: offended), and start pointing to Harvard and Yale, the other Ivy League gods, and all the wonderful historians, and theologians, and philosophers, and scientists and powerful people our fabulous nation has produced. To be honest, with all the opportunity available in America, we should really be pushing out three times as many "fabulously smart and wonderful" contributing members of society. In America, the average 13-year-old probably can't engage you in a discussion on foreign policy (heck, even I can't). Meanwhile, little 12-year-old Taiwanese kids are breezing through calculus during lunchtime.

*Claps hands* Get a grip America, we don't have it all together. As arrogant as Americans are, I can't believe we have the nerve to talk bad about the French (who happen to cook much better than we do in my opinion). Americans INVENTED the word "arrogant". The problem is, as a country, we do a really bad job of teaching young people how to "think". Too many people are book-smart (and even that's on the decline) or fact-smart or hearsay-smart. Few are independently smart.

Call me crazy, but I refuse to remain stuck worshipping a past era of dead "greats" and "genuniuses". This is the 21st-century and I think we have more to offer. Where are the modern-day inventors? Watching television that's where. Working on their "timestables", that's where. Slowly drudging their way through what should be "easy math" because we don't teach kids how to use their brains as calculators.

A few months ago, when I wrote on the use of hip-hop in education, I got a bit of opposition. A reader suggested that he didn't think any type of "genius" would ever emerge from a culture like hip-hop. I think I just got my dissertation topic.

Is it really that blasphemous to suggest that our stale, Greek method of teaching may not be the most effective? I don't think we've even come close to nailing it.

More on this later...

(Nyk points to: Bijan Bayne for the link)

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I came across an interesting article by way of TownHall.com called "A For Effort, Not Achievement" about the recent decision of Benedict College (a historically black school) President, Dr. David H. Swinton to start the "Success Equals Effort" program or "SEE" which bases most of the freshman classes grades on effort rather than test scores and research papers. According to the article, many have said Dr. Swinton merely made official what many academic institutions have been doing for quite some time.

Being that TownHall.com is a conservative news service, I'm sure you can guess what they think of this. Why of course, it's "blasphemous" right? Well, no.

According to Dr. Michael Boatwright, who serves as the school's Director of Assessment & Research (see, we really can make up our own titles), this method of grading has "always happened", he states,

"When we went to school, we got part of our grade from class participation, part of it from attendance and part of it from homework."

I would concur.

The program has its opponents who say that decisions such as this pass students who lack basic rudimentary skills. Are we now in need of a "No Young Adult Left Behind" program too? Not quite sure. Although I'm not against "SEE" type grading, I can't say I agree with the rationale of Dr. Swinton who when asked what students would benefit from the program, answered,

"It would be a student who just never developed the work ethic and study habits and routines that's required to be successful in college."

Lofty and unfortunate rationale. Seems to me, these type of students in fact would NEED some discipline. I would however, argue that it benefits students who aren't great test-takers. Understand, I don't think grading for effort is appropriate in standardized fields of study. Dental school for example, would not be the place to grade on effort.

I've stated it ever so subtly in the past, but I'm not shouting from the stands in favor of standardized testing. The one major test I think needs to be done away with in part is the SAT. But that's another conversation.

Is it coincidental that a historically black college was used as the subject in this article? Probably not. I'll just go on record as saying there are quite a few predominately white schools that have been doing this for years. We'll see where this goes.

Posted in Education | Permanent Link

 

I'm a big proponent of year-round schooling and this is why.

With most students around the country heading back to school this week or next, gripes are already surfacing about assigned summer homework. And get this, the parents are complaining too! The AP reports,

Summer homework has increasingly become a popular tool used by teachers to bridge the gap between the end of one school year and the start of another. But some parents worry that the workload is making summer fun slip away.

"I don't know what good this really does," said Sheryl Preiss, a Baltimore, Maryland, mother parent of twin 13-year-old girls entering high school this year. "Life isn't always about a test. I think it's important for children to be children, to be well-rounded.

When I was in sixth grade, I recall reading Tolkein's The Hobbit in one day. It was the day before we had to return from summer vacation, and it was the lone book we were assigned over the summer. I of course, being the procrastinator-perfectionist that I am, waited until the very last day to read it. I hated summer assignments. The summer was for vacations, swimming, and stealing from the ice cream man. In my mind, summer vacation was purely established to be the polar opposite of everything that took place from September-June. There was to be absolutely NO thinking during the summer. None whatsoever.

For me, school meant life in the homework inferno. Private schools have absolutely no mercy when it comes to piling it on. By the time I got to high school, I easily had five hours worth of homework every night. There was almost never a time when we came from under the burden of repetitive assignments. I still have gripes about the intensity of private school workload, but for what it's worth, it gave me a great work ethic and the summer was indeed a welcomed break.

Unfortunately, these days the worse lot of public schools don't give nearly enough homework if you ask me. I know many parents who actually supplement their children's workload with additional materials just to fill in some of the holes the educational system leaves.

The summer is a prime opportunity to go brain-dead. As I got older, I started realizing how much I forgot over the summer. In math classes for example, we generally spent the first two months strictly re-learning everything we'd flushed away via our summer lack of scholastic aptitude.

Continue reading "Conservative Homework-Pushers">>>

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Yesterday, when I emailed Glenn Reynolds (who gets hundreds of emails daily) to thank him for randomly linking an obscure little black Christian girl on 'net, he emailed me back in about two minutes. TWO MINUTES! This puts me to wretched shame as I still have emails from 2001 I've yet to respond to (blog readers however are a bit more important to me).

My mail bag's been picking up a bit lately. This is both good and bad as I enjoy correspondence with readers. The "bad" is entirely relative since I haven't received too much of the "I can't stand your guts and you're ugly" type of feedback yet which solidifies my position as an LMNOPQ-list writer (a place I'm quite happy with by the way).

The "form" emails I most frequently get are the ones telling me I need to get my butt back in college and get a degree because it is surely the only thing that will make me viable in the job market, help me make lots of money, complete my biggest dreams, fulfill my purpose, keep me "regular", and most importantly, forgive my sins and save my soul from the pit of hell. I don't mind these so much, however, emails that don't fit this norm always stand out more to me. Today was no different. I'm going to excerpt an email I received today from an individual who made some really good points I thought I'd share...

Continue reading "Mail Bag">>>

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I don't often use the word "hate". It's a strong and pointed word I prefer to reserve for when it's truly necessary. Today's topic seems fitting. Plainly stated, I hate PETA. I can say this with a good deal of certainty since "PETA" is just an organization that stands for some principles that oppose my entire worldview. The people within the organization I suppose I can learn to love (I don't really have much of a choice). Essentially, I have zero respect for their principles, but even less respect for the manner in which they choose to propagate their lies.

A recent report published by the Center for Consumer Freedom called PETA Wants Your Kids" exposed some unsettling realities about the downright trifling nature of PETA. Targeting children as early as elementary school with violent and often graphic propaganda, PETA has been strategic in tapping into the greatest market of potential animal-worshipping religion builders: your children. The report expounds,

"Sidestepping parents and school authorities, PETA lures young and impressionable children into radical activism with a coordinated effort including the use of graphic comic books, grotesque toys, schoolyard demonstrations, e-mail alerts sent directly to 65,000 children, and even a classroom lecturer with a felony rap sheet."

Here locally in Seattle, we've had a number of run-ins with PETA pushers. Just this past year, they showed up on a local inner-city middle school campus, handing out pens made to looks like syringes with animal blood in them. The attached message, "Eating Meat is Like Doing Drugs". Sounds like PETA may need a little diversity sensitivity training. HA! I recall another time where they handed out literature and graphic comic books to elementary school students alleging, "Your Mommy is a Murderer" right along with a picture of a cartoon June-Cleaveresque mother holding a knife killer-style over a horrifed and bloody rabbit. PETA is fortunate to not have come across any crazy over-protective, tell-it-like-it-is mothers like my own. One can imagine if the wrong child came home with that particular pamphlet, it would be a sure word of prophecy -- only this time, animals wouldn't be the victims. PETA has done more over the last couple of years to solidify themselves as a full-fledged cult in my book. Don't believe me? Check out this quote from a PETA Vice-President

"Our campaigns are always geared towards children and always will be." - PETA VP Dan Matthews, Fox News channel, (December 19, 2003)

Intersting, this is the same business principle that has kept McDonald's successful. They foster early relationships with children and form life-long customers.

If we allow these wicked agencies to have their way with our children, in 40 years, we will be looking at an even more licentious and perilous America. Thankfully, sane citizens bent on raising havoc in the world won't have it that way.

Note: You can download the entire report published by the Center for Consumer Freedom here in pdf format. Read it when you get the chance, the findings are shocking.

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