zeitgeist (nov 2008)
personal zeitgeist, late fall 2008
- the economy is really bad right now. none of the schools i work at are willing to schedule spring classes until they know more about the CA state budget cuts. we usually know our classes by the 2nd week of september, and have already cut the spring schedule by about 25%. right now it looks like another 30% might be cut. everybody keeps saying if the money is not there, then its not there.
- another warning sign about the economy on last week’s left, right, and center podcast i heard very intelligent
mature adults sound scared for the first time in my life. when all three of them agree, it cannot be good. - Do we really know who the real Obama is? I get the feeling he has been gaming the system (in a positive way) to get himself elected and will hopefully be much more liberal and progressive then he has let on. my guess is that he has had the best poker face ever for the last two years.
- the la times discontinued its homicide blog. this is wrong for so many reasons, but it was probably one of the only things the LA times could do to help this city save its soul (and any other large homicide enclave) by bearing witness to the many minority homicides that happen every day and go unreported because they do not affect the middle or upper class. just as i was getting a handle on how many years that we have ignored this problem, the paper pulls the plug. of course this doesn’t change my plans, it only doubles my effort
- charter schools might be the only way to save public education. this semester has been less monkey business and more teaching than any secondary school i have taught. most of the success goes to the small school community, its small enough were everybody feels responsible for their actions. the obvious problem to this reform is that you cannot turn all schools into charters. also the la times highlights a report stating that charter schools are leading the pack in improving achievement scores in poor children.
- baby mozart was a scam! via new yorker “As children explore their environment by themselves—making decisions, taking chances, coping with any attendant anxiety or frustration—their neurological equipment becomes increasingly sophisticated, Marano says. “Dendrites sprout. Synapses form.” If, on the other hand, children are protected from such trial-and-error learning, their nervous systems “literally shrink.”
- meme for alex shapiro coming soon…
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