makmbut ar theur: education

Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Teachers Bonus a Waste of Money

There isn't much doubt that the bonus scheme for teachers will not work. Like the mystique of "time and motion" where the claim is made that human productivity is linear and is an increasing curve, it's a pipe dream! Machinery can only be speeded up so much before parts start flying off in all directions and everything shuts down for maintenance. Furthermore, when task are done too quickly a lot of "non-size" rubbish is produced. While output in some industry can be improved, for paper carriers such as teachers this is virtually impossible.

Some teachers are better than others and for the main part this is innate: it is not learned and never can be. The only measurement is the quality of students that are lucky enough to be taught by them. Even then, tying down the factors that do improve matters is not easy to identify. Usually. students have an affinity with a teacher; thus they are prepared to work harder. It is not the teacher who is putting in more effort - it is the student. Testing students to deduce the performance of their teachers will also drive a wedge between teachers and students. Considering only one in ten teachers will benefit from the bonus scheme it is divisive for teachers themselves. Industrial strife is just down the road.

Overall, it is a silly exercise. Why should the Government, the taxpayer, pay more? Will good teachers be paid more for what they are already doing? It seems so. Why single out one sector of employment for a reward that everyone else doesn't get purely because it is motivated by one person, Julia Gillard? Apparently it has to do with good teachers being virtuous people. It is not much use holding out one group as an example if there is no intention to apply it to the whole workforce. Paying good teacher more will not make lesser beings respectful toward them. It will make the average teacher angry. Let's not go back to pet projects like in the Howard and Rudd eras.

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Education

Teachers Bonus a Waste of Money

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Education

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Marquette Situation, More Commentary: "Not Catholic Enough" When It Practices Discrimination

What I posted yesterday about Ronni Sanlo's report re: the situation for LGBT faculty, staff, and students at Jesuit-owned Marquette University in Milwaukee focused on the disparity between what Jesuit institutions proclaim about themselves--"We do justice!"--and how Marquette actually deals with LGBT members of the campus community, if Sanlo's report is correct. For the epigraph to my posting, I took something from Ranlo's report that she heard from the Marquette community about this disparity:

While inclusion of social justice is a strong Jesuit tenet, LGBT inclusion at Marquette is generally not part of the social justice work

In my commentary on the situation at Marquette, I wanted to suggest that the disparity to which the preceding statement points run through almost all Catholic universities in the U.S.--as, indeed, it runs through almost all Catholic institutions. We who are Catholic like to talk about social justice issues as if those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered somehow do not count when we state that we are committed to upholding the human rights of everyone, and that we are committed to working for justice for the marginalized.

The Wisconsin Gazette summary of Ranlo's report to which I linked yesterday quotes one member of the Marquette campus community who makes these points in a powerful way. In this postscript to what I posted yesterday about the Marquette story, I'd like to highlight her testimony.

Louis Weisberg notes in his Wisconsin Gazette report that Margaret Steele is a grad student in Marquette's philosophy department and an LGBT ally. According to Weisberg, Steele was attracted to Marquette precisely because it offers a "values-based educational environment that promotes the Jesuit tradition of social justice."

But Steele has been disappointed by what she's found at this Jesuit university. Here's her testimony:

But she said she’s been disappointed to find herself engulfed in a culture that seems to elevate “a couple of ambiguous statements about sexuality” over “the hundreds of scriptural injunctions about helping the poor, the sick and the disenfranchised."

“For me, Marquette is not Catholic enough,” Steele said. “They use their Catholic identity as window dressing to attract a certain customer base. But they don’t show a true commitment to Christianity or Catholicism at is best. They talk up Catholicism when they want to defend something they’re doing to appease their conservative customers and donors.

“There’s a lot more the university could do without going in any way against Catholic teaching – just by emphasizing the shared humanity of people. The university could make the campus a more comfortable place for most people by sending the message that we might have different views but there’s nothing in Catholic teaching that says we can’t make people feel comfortable on campus.”

For me, Marquette isn't Catholic enough. Marquette calls on its Catholic identity selectively when it wants to add some window dressing to its image to appease a certain "customer base."

This is significant testimony. Steele is pointing to the glaring discrepancy between what Catholic institutions proclaim about social justice, and what they actually do in the case of those who are gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgandered.

Decisions of many Catholic institutions to discriminate against LGBT persons are often driven by financial considerations, by the need to add Catholic "window dressing" to their institution which appeals to well-heeled conservative donors who argue that a bona fide Catholic identity requires these institutions to discriminate. If Steele is correct, however, what institutions like Marquette do when they engage in anti-gay discrimination is precisely to betray their Catholic identity.

Institutions that discriminate against LGBT persons are not Catholic enough. Jesuit institutions that profess to be all about social justice, while they ignore the needs of gay and lesbian persons or, even worse, engage in discrimination against these persons, betray the Jesuit tradition.

This is valuable testimony. It's testimony thatt Catholic institutions need to hear, if they care about being authentically Catholic.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Making Things Tic: A Codger's Ruminations on Literacy Today (and What the Lack Thereof Portends for Our Future)

Is Conor Friedersdorf intending to be cute with this coy use of the word "tic"--"What makes you tic, sir?"--or does he really not know how to spell the word "tick" (and that we commonly ask what makes things tick, not tic)? If the latter, then I'm baffled. I'm increasingly baffled by the shaky literacy of graduates of even elite universities these days. I've just read a novel by an English writer who's a graduate of New College, Oxford, and a former Conservative MP, who appears not to know that the case of the pronoun "whoever" is governed by its use in the clause in which it appears, and not by the preposition or verb setting the clause into motion.

So, "He told whomever was in the room his secret" is not correct, while, "He told whoever was in the room his secret" is correct. And when I read sentences like this with increasing and depressing frequency in pieces written by highly educated English speakers these days, I have to wonder what's going on in our schools.

Do teachers no longer teach those basic rules/tricks of grammar that were pounded into the heads of my generation by our junior-high school years? E.g., "If you wonder whether a pronoun should be in the nominative or objective case in this phrase, ask yourself what an educated, literate person would normally say using just the preposition and the pronoun."

And so when I read a sentence in my statewide free paper this week, written by a journalist with a degree from a university in Virginia, which contains the following phrase, I immediately wonder what kind of teachers this professional writer had, if he can write the following phrase and assume it's correct English: "insults traded by he and his date." This in a piece criticizing the quality of another journalist's writing!

Did no one ever teach this college-educated journalist to stop and ask if he'd say "by he," if he were using the preposition and pronoun alone? Would those who glibly talk about "going with Paula and I" say "going with I," if the "Paula and" got stripped from their sentence?

For that matter, does anyone even teach students any longer that there are nominative and objective cases for pronouns? Or that there are pronouns and prepositions? Or that thinking about how we use language is a preliminary to thinking, period--since we can't think carefully when we don't speak or use words carefully? Or that diagramming a sentence helps us to identify the parts of speech and see how they function in a sentence?

Or are these considerations hopelessly out of date? And, if so, should old fogies like me who continue to be moved by them simply find some way to live out our final years in somewhat literate space apart from society at large, surrounding ourselves with classics written by people who used to know how language works, and to care how it's put together--and about the ideas that can result when we think carefully about what we say, about how we use language, and about what words and the ideas they clothe really mean?

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

History Wars Argument Ends With Labor Cutting Educational Curriculum Off at the Knees

In a move to take the politics out of education the Labor Government has literally taken politics out of education. Retired Prime Minister John Howard's attempt to relinquish all blame for all Australians for persecution of Aboriginals has caused this. The Labor Government has hit back in kind, taking out all teaching relevant to the development of Liberalism in Australia.

Note we have a Liberal party in Australia that is really a far right conservative party. A touch of welfare, a lot of big business, but essentially no change should occur unless it is to collect more tax from the ordinary taxpayer. Stop the new tax on mining companies and stop the new National Broadband Network Though this hatred of the new NBN is due to Labor doing it not them.

No education system should be without instruction on how the market economy formed. But this argument over the true "facts" of history goes very deep indeed, so Labor puts a red pen through curriculum covering "free" markets just out of spite really.

It is notable that the struggle for individual freedom is included. Only from 1945 though. It is much easier that way, with the UN institutionalizing it in that year. The fight for rights by minorities is emphasized in support, of course, of Labor's side in the history debate. Labor as been so harsh as to remove the word "entrepreneur' totally from the whole syllabus.

It is unfortunate that the actions of one man, a very influential man at that, John Howard, could intervene in a debate among historians and change the course of political history of a nation. People are what they are taught and the baby has surely been thrown out with the bathwater.

~~~~~Politics Education~~~~~

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History Wars Argument Ends With Labor Cutting Educational Curriculum Off at the Knees

~~~~~Politics Education~~~~~

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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The eBerry Computer Is Too Costly for Indian Students

The new computer aimed at "poor" Indian students will not be successful. It is like the current craze for eBooks - why buy a machine that is built mainly for reading copies of the written page when you can buy a normal computer for a little bit more? eBooks and the student computer will end up in the bin in time.

Few students will be able to buy the new eBerry laptop because it is too expensive. It comes with a package of student related software. The manufacturer says it will be fun to use a "virtual classroom". Yes, it can also fun playing games on your computer after doing your homework. Another problem is that the eBerry locks you into homework mode. Only teachers and parents will have the password to access the Internet per se.

At $811 it is an incredibly high price for third world consumers. Openwiis in the Netherlands offers a much cheaper alternative. It provides computers to children in developing countries and it doesn't seek a profit. People buy a computer and another one is given to a needy child.

~~~~~Education~~~~~

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The eBerry Computer Is Too Costly for Indian Students

~~~~~Education~~~~~

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Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Religious Roots of Anti-Gay Attitudes: Two Recent Commentaries

Two noteworthy pieces in the past several days dealing with the significant connection between religion and people’s approach to issues of sexual orientation. At Religion Dispatches, Constance Chellew-Hodge dissects the divine “chain of command” argument that structures many conservative Christians’ approach to homosexuality.

As she notes,

Christianity, especially in its most conservative or fundamentalist form, is obsessed with gender norms, and will tolerate little deviation from them. A 5-year-old boy dressed as a girl offends the senses — and breaks, what Soulforce founder Mel White calls, “God’s chain of command.”

In my book, Bulletproof Faith, I quote White from an interview I did with him on this topic. For conservative Christians, he said, the universe falls apart if this chain of command is broken.

Chellew-Hodge argues that what is particularly threatening to some Christians is the notion of women getting out of control: resistance to gay and lesbian folks (particularly to gay men) flows from a more general intent of conservative Christianity to assure that women remain in their place, underneath men in the divine chain of command, because any lapse in that chain will produce social and cosmic chaos that threatens the divine rule of the world. Chellew-Hodge writes,

Feminist theologian Beverly Harrison has written that the connections between homophobia and misogyny run deep because “the social control of women as a group has totally shaped our deepest and most basic attitudes toward sexuality.” That control is so complete that society expects “compulsory heterosexuality” and its only alternatives are celibacy or asexuality.

This social control then, Harrison posits, is at the heart of not just the inequality of women, but the inequality faced by gays and lesbians.

“We must acknowledge that it is through our socialization to sexuality that we begin to learn ‘fear of equality’ and either to feel ‘strong’ by lording it over others or to feel ‘safe’ by being controlled by them. By conforming rigidly to ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ roles, we learn, at a foundational level, to tolerate inequality.”

And so, Chellew-Hodge concludes, there is no way effectively to address issues like the bullying of gender-transgressive or gay teens without confronting the religious roots from which hostility to gay and lesbian people grows:

You don’t break the chain of this violence by simply punishing the bully, or his parent, but by working for deeper change within both church and society to end the misogyny — and the homophobia and fear of any gendered “otherness” that arises from it.

Chellew-Hodge’s conclusion closely parallels the conclusion of another significant study released this week by Faith in America, a report entitled “Addressing Religious Arguments to Achieve LGBT Equality.” As Steve Hillebrand writes in this report’s foreword, the primary reason it has proven so difficult even for a pro-equal rights President and a Democratic-controlled Congress to pass legislation forbidding workplace discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or to abolish the discrimination represented by DADT is “because there is an air of acceptability in America to be against LGBT people based on one’s religious beliefs.”

Hillebrand and Faith in America maintain that,

For faster, significant change, the mood has to change.

We should keep trying to change laws, but until we deal with core issues causing discrimination, progress will continue to be slow. Religion, morals, harm, bigotry, science, fear, understanding – these are core issues we need to confront head-on if we want to reduce discrimination toward gay people.

Hillebrand notes that “the biggest barrier to achieving LGBT equality is religion-based bigotry, coupled with the failure of the gay community to confront religious arguments.” Hence Faith in America’s report, which seeks to provide those confronting religious-based bigotry against gay and lesbian persons with a set of “core messages” to use in this educational process, as well as guidelines for dealing with people of faith.

“Addressing Religious Arguments to Achieve LGBT Equality” frames its core messages by noting that “[r]esearch has confirmed that most anti-gay prejudice and discrimination are based on religion. ” The report proposes three core messages for those dealing with religion-based anti-gay bigotry to seek to communicate in discussions with people of faith:

1.    Religion-based bigotry causes enormous harm to LGBT people, especially young, vulnerable teens.

2.    Sexual orientation is a natural part of a human being, whether it be heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual. Same-sex orientation is not a choice to go against God’s will. It is a normal, natural and healthy expression of human sexuality that is innate for some people.

3.    Religion-based bigotry against LGBT people is wrong ... just as it was wrong to use religious teachings to justify discrimination against Native Americans, African Americans, minority religious groups, women and interracial couples.

Sound guidelines for dealing with the objections that many people of faith continue to raise to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in church and society, and to the eradication of discrimination against people on grounds of sexual orientation. But, unfortunately, the attitudes of religious communities are not going to change significantly until members of those communities themselves undertake the task of educating their constituents--though I very much applaud Faith in America for continuing to try to educate, and I recommend this report.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Gevernment Funding of Private Schools Should Be Reduced

Why should ordinary people support private schools? Taxes are taken from everyone so parents who choose to send their children to private schools should pay the full cost. Children are sent to private schools because funding is redirected to support these schools. Take the money away and let all children have an education on a level playing field.

A review of school funding is about to begin. The fat coffers of private schools need to be curtailed. One time head of the NSW Education Department says that the support of private schools is a misplaced belief in "neo-Darwin free-market forces". He goes on to say that the system panders to "an exclusive clientele identified by religion, ethnicity or some other dimension". He is correct in claiming that this gives some an "exclusive education". Income of private schools must be taken into account before money is allocated. The books should be reviewed and openly published by the Government. A school that has money coming out of its ears should certainly be penalized.

The current practise means public schools are starved of funds while many private school do it easy. Money per student in a government school is $12,639 while a student in private school receives $ 6,606. It is incorrect to say that every student being educated in a private school saves the taxpayer 6,033. Wealthy parents would continue to send their children to private schools if no funding was available. The fall in money to the non-government sector since 2003 of 0.6 percent is trivial. It needs to be so much more. Barriers also exist. Public schools have to take a student. Apply for entry to a Catholic school and admit that you are Protestant. You will not hear from that school again.

There is no doubt that the present system of gaining a tertiary education favors the wealthy. The young person from a high-income family can certainly find a place in a university somewhere in the country even if minimum entry academic achievement is not met.

Disadvantage lies in the public school sector so rationally this is where funding should go.

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Gevernment Funding of Private Schools Should Be Reduced

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Sunday, May 9, 2010

Literacy and Numeracy Skills Are Low in Australia

You would think that with the Internet communication skill would be better than ever. This is clearly not the case. Forty six percent of Australians don't have adequate numeracy and literary skills in order to cope with modern society. Australian industry has called for a literacy entitlement to improve the skills of those in vocational study. Employers aren't getting sufficient numbers of new workers who can read and write to a "normal" level.

Despite Australia's fifth ranking among other countries for education, this problem persists and is getting worse. Even though Australia is developed it appears children are "falling through the cracks" in education. Oddly, a 2009 UN paper put Australia's literacy rate at 99 percent. This is just plain wrong.

A test was developed that covered people's interaction with newspapers, consumer information articles, finance graphs, medicine labels and so on. Calculating interest on a loan or understanding a workplace agreement, for example, was way beyond the ability of the majority. People are very skilled in covering up their shortcomings in numeracy and literacy skills. Many, in fact, become highly skilled orators, while they rely on friends and family to organize the filling out of forms. The main difference, usually, between those who can read and write well and those who cannot is income. Though there are a few illiterate millionaires. Most of those in financial trouble do not understand why.

A Canadian study showed that spending more money on raising the skill levels of people at the bottom of the scale significantly reduced the amount spent on welfare and improved employment. It is not children of immigrants who have problems it is the children of third and fourth generation Australians whose parents have had financial or social problems. Teachers cannot do it alone. They need help from government and the community.

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Literacy and Numeracy Skills Are Low in Australia

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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Universities Want "Automatic" Visas for Post-Graduates

Universities are suggesting that post-graduates from other countries who qualified in Australia be given Australian visas in order to secure permanent residency - all of them! Talk about setting up rules to benefit one section of society, namely, universities. Even with the new skill-based points system for immigration it is doubtful if everyone with a post-graduate degree will be accepted. If post-graduates are given visas that easily what about ordinary graduates. Surely they must have the same right.

Let's face it post-graduates in history may have something to contribute but their services are not in demand. Masters and doctorates in science and engineering could prove useful. What about MBAs? They are two-a-penny anywhere in the world.

The Government is listening. Though it appears consideration is to be given to post-graduates in certain fields. The reality is Australia doesn't train enough people to fill all university positions - teaching is an "innate"skill. This is not a great problem, however. It is common practice for universities to secure the services of people trained in other countries. It gives an "international" feel to campuses. A staff with many overseas trained people allows for differences in opinion in teaching. This is good for students. It gives them a "rounded" education.

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Universities Want "Automatic" Visas for Post-Graduates

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Too Many Curriculum Changes Are Destroyng Western Education

Peter Freebody advisor on the national English curriculum is completely wrong when he says we shouldn't be looking back to a golden age of literacy when everyone could read. He says look at the over sixties and see that most cannot read and write. What absolute rubbish. The baby boomer generation is this golden generation that could read and just as importantly - add up. Few over sixties cannot competently write a letter and this is what they were taught to do. Unfortunately, the current generation is not taught to do such mundane things. They are taught to do "an in depth analysis of modern literacy as it relates to the widespread phenomena of the Internet" or some such gobbledygook which is foisted upon them by so-called experts in academia.

It is university educated advisors that have ruined prospects for a literate society. Get back to basics and start teaching rote again, because that is where the mistake is being made - the absence of rote learning. Ask a youngster today to reel off the arithmetic tables and he/she cannot do it. Children don't learn to add up correctly by messing around with pieces of wood of different colors and lengths. Teaching children to sort things into sets will not get them anywhere in real life.

Another thing Mr Freebody goes on about is lack of access to education, but children from all social strata can find a school to go to. It is the methods used that are wrong. For example, teaching trigonometry at high school is putting something in the curriculum that should not be there. This belongs at college level and above.

The problem is in making schools too academic. Teach children how to do arithmetic not mathematics. When you build a table you don't need maths. You must measure and cut to length. That is arithmetic. Three levels of mathematics are offered at high school when most pupils have not mastered arithmetic. You cannot run until you can walk. All schooling must return to English, Arithmetic and History and these must be compulsory. Concentrate on these three and leave the rest for college and university.

Curriculum, curriculum, we must change the curriculum - that is all you hear decade after decade. Too much change has sorely damaged Western education systems. Peter Freebody's statistics are wrong. He says people have never been more literate. Just ask an employer and he will tell you how literate! People cannot add up a list of numbers correctly, nor read written instructions. It went down hill when calculators were allowed into schools. It is like saying give all Australian children a computer and they won't need books. What rubbish. The Internet is no good for doing assignments because everything is brought down to a page, a paragraph, a sentence then a word. Go to Encyclopedia Britannica and look up "Australian History". A paragraph gives the whole history of a nation. Search for "Ned Kelly" and all the sites give the same paragraph.

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Too Many Curriculum Changes Are Destroyng Western Education

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Australia Will Only Let Professionals Stay

Australia is planning to introduce new laws that will discriminate against skilled people in "ordinary" occupations such as motor mechanics and school teachers. It will favor those with high academic degrees like university professors and architects. It is not that Australia really needs these people. The country is finding a way of keeping immigrants out.

In the past there have been drives to get more doctors to work in rural areas. But what do they do when they have been here a few years? They move to the cities. Engineers are in short supply worldwide, so there is no opportunity of attracting them. Education systems in most countries have stopped students learning engineering due to wrong public policies. Societies are overloaded with people trying to work in finance.

The Australian Government has had several high level complaints about the changes to immigration. People have spent a lot of money and have been patient waiting in line to be accepted. "The new policies will favour applicants who score highly in an English language test" and it will give people "who are eligible to migrate a better chance of gaining employment." This has been said about past schemes.

If you are a blue collar worker Australia doesn't want you, full stop. This is despite the mining industry crying out for welders.

Cherry Louise Thurgill from England said Australia was an easy place to get into. Now all that has changed. She believes Australia is doing the right thing putting forward the case of England as being an example of leaving the door open too wide for too long. New people from overseas push wage rates down. Things are good for employers but not for paid workers.

Australia claims that people already with jobs in other countries will be attracted, not just those with recent qualifications. This is absolute rubbish. There is no evidence to support this view. Why would a person leave a good job as a doctor in a major hospital overseas to work in the bush where life is tough, dull and expensive.

There is a solution - pay people higher wage rates for working in the bush. Rural mechanics for example already charge more for their services than city mechanics. Competition in cities drives the price down. Many country towns have one car repair shop. Either pay or walk. Surely medical people should expect more, as well.

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Australia Will Only Let Professionals Stay

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Saturday, February 6, 2010

Australia Fails Tests to Meet Demands of the Modern World

A majority of Australians lack the minimum reading, writing and problem-solving skills to cope with life in the modern world. Just under half of Australians struggle to understand the meaning of newspaper and magazine articles or documentation such as maps and payslips. Over half failed the minimum numeracy and problem solving tests. The US rated much worse when the tests were applied to Americans. Switzerland and Norway did better. In Australia, women were stronger at understanding written material than men, but males were better at understanding documents such as maps and dealing with problems of numeracy.

The Australian government has not improved the education system over the last decade to meet changes in societal demands. It is an opportunity missed. If you don't make relevant public education interesting, exciting and a way to get into the modern world, you will slip back - and that's what's happening to Australia. We will look back over the last 10 years and realise with some horror how much we overemphasised the value of the individual and overlooked the common denominators in our society.

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