Apparently, Washington DC Marriage Bureau Is Bad At Geography

This man, Gavin Clarkson, is from New Mexico.
A depressingly large number of people
apparently don't know New Mexico is
part of the United States. 

You might not be surprised, but a lot of people who should know better are remarkably bad at geography.

This is a story that is more than a month old, but it's still worth looking at, because it's an illustration of how bad we are at it.

According to the Las Cruces (NM) Sun News, a guy named Gavin Clarkson of Las Cruces, New Mexico went with his then-finance to Washington DC, because they wanted to get married there.  On November 20 they went to the DC Courts Marriage Bureau to apply for a marriage license.

This is something that should have been a mere formality.

Clarkson was required to show his driver's license as proof of his identity. Here's where it gets weird: The clerk at the DC Courts Marriage Bureau said that Clarkson ws a foreign citizen and that he would need to provide an international passport to get his marriage license, reports the Sun News.

Last I checked, New Mexico was one of the 50 states. It is clearly part of the United States of America, right?  It's also not breaking news. New Mexico has been a state since 1912.

The DC Courts Marriage Bureau apparently does not know that. The clerk summoned her supervisor, who confirmed that yep, Clarkson is a foreign citizen who needed his passport. Nobody in this office seemed aware that New Mexico is part of the United States.

Says the Las Cruces Sun News:

"'She thought New Mexico was a foreign country,' he said of the clerk. 'All the couples behind us waiting in line were laughing.'"

I guess the fact that those couples were laughing reassures us that some people know New Mexico is part of the United States.

Clarkson has lived in the United States all is life and English has always been his language. The clerk at the marriage bureau still just had to remark about how well Clarkson spoke English, considering that he is from a "foreign country."

His now-wife, Marina was confused by that, as you might expect. She is a U.S. citizen, but is originally from Argentina and speaks English with a slight accent.

The couple tried going to the marriage bureau the next day and luckily, found a clerk that knew New Mexico was in the United States. The marriage was on!

Apparently, people not knowing New Mexico is a state is a thing. New Mexico magazine reports on many people who encounter New Mexicans in other states who think the state is part of a foreign nation.

New Mexicans bring up things and places like Alburquerque, Santa Fe, Roswell and Los Alamos to prove the New Mexico is in the United States.

But there's one reference that always seems to convince doubters that New Mexico is a state. Just mention either Walter White, who was the lead character in "Breaking Bad" or the show itself.

"Breaking Bad" was set in New Mexico.

There is a lot of confusion across America about all kinds of places. I live in Vermont. Once, when I was in South Carolina, somebody asked, "Where you from, boy?"

"Vermont," I replied.

"VER-mont!! Ain't that part of Killington?"

To make it easy on everyone, I just said, "Yes."  At least the guy had heard of Killington, the ski area.

A lot of people when I'm traveling ask if Vermont is part of Canada. No, but I'm so far north in Vermont that I can see Canada from my house (true!). Does that count?

When I visiting another state in July in August, people sometimes ask me how much snow is on the ground back home in Vermont. As if the Green Mountain State is at the North Pole or something.

Clearly, it's going to take more than a few episodes of "Breaking Bad" to get Americans caught up on their geography, though.

Trump IS Running America Like A Business

Trump got into the Oval Office in part because people wanted
to have the government run like a business. Trump, and many
of the people who voted for him, are discovering why this
method isn't such a good idea.

Frustrated with high taxes and government waste, a lot of people tell us they're sick of the way Washington is run. 

Why can't the government be run more like a business?

That's why a lot of people voted for Donald Trump and the Republicans.

Well, I'm pleased displeased to report that the United States government is being run exactly like a business.  Not a very well run business, mind you, but a business.

I hope you're happy

Traditionally, western democracies are run in such a way that everyone is in this together. You have rights - voting, free speech, government services, etc - and you have responsibilities.  You vote, pay your taxes, don't violate the laws and you contribute to society.

A business is different. If you're running a business, you try to maximize profits. And you shed the parts of your business that are not making money. Everything is dispensible. Including people. It's cold, dispassionate decision making.

So let's look at how things are going in our government, which really does seem to be running like a business now that Trump, Mr. "Art of the Deal" is running the show.

The process has been a mess, with deals and counterdeals and doubts and recriminations. This Washington DC "corporate board room" is admittably pretty dysfunctional.

The bottom line is they were looking at repealing Obamacare and replacing it with....something else.

This something else would mean that people who are poor, elderly, sick, don't work are denied health coverage.

Oh, I know the GOP will tell you that the free market will take care of these people, that they'll get insurance one way or another.

That's just PR - another important part of running a business.

But we have to deal with reality. Let's face it: The poor, elderly, sick, disabled, etc. are not profitable.

They don't really have much in the way of incomes. Which means there's no money they can be cheated out of . They're expensive, what with all those health issues. Why put up with such a losing part of the corporaton?

So cut them off. Without health insurance and any other social net kind of protection, they'll die off earlier. They'll go away. They won't be a burden on the bottom line. Write 'em off!

Of course you'll never hear the likes of Paul Ryan put things in those terms. Bad PR. (See above) Most people don't have this cold, calculating attitude. But some of the most successful corporate people do, and if some people die in the process that's just business. Gotta make a profit!

When you're running a business you've got to protect yourself from competition. You don't want some frisky upstart to screw up your business model.

That's probably a good share of why the EPA is so anti-environmental, why the EPA chief denies climate change, and the Secretary of State is an oil executive.

There's all those entrenched oil companies making oodles of money, and that could be threatened by those damn climate change activists and alternative energy upstart companies.

What if somehow, the products made by the clean energy companies become wildly popular, inexpensive and easy to use?

Those oil companies would be stuck with little income and tons of oil sitting "uselessly" in the ground.

With Trump being friendly and cooperative, and probably an investor in oil, why not use the White House as a business model to make sure those upstart competitors don't siphon profits away?

Secretiveness is a hallmark of running a business. You don't want competitors or regulators finding out what you're doing. If they do, they'll take advantage.ll

Speaking of regulations, rulemaking is why government shouldn't be run like a business.

Most of the time, businesses are regulated by laws and regulation that prevent, say, cheating customers, polluting the atmosphere, swindling stockholders, that kind of thing.

Regulations cost money. That's why the Republicans are (seriously!) talking about getting rid of things like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education.

Sure, that's politicians giving a hand to their business constitutents, but it benefits them, too. (See: campaign contributions.)

Plus, the Trump administration is full of people from industries and business, including Trump himself, who will personally financially benefit from fewer regulations.

Abolishing the Education Department would really be a win for the Corporate White House. Uneducated people, which is what they want, tend not to ask critical questions, or even know which questions to ask.

Again, if some of the rest of us suffer because of pollution problems, lack of education or some other anti-regulation effect, too bad. We should just shut up and allow these corporate titans to make their billions.

Us 99 percenters are dispensable, apparently.

It's turning out to be hard, though to run the United States government like a business. We saw that with the imploded attempt to get rid of Obamacare, which, as noted above, would have made it impossible for millions of us to get health insurance.

Activist stockholders can be annoying to the Corporate Titans, but voters in a democracy are even "worse."

As Congressional Republicans worked to abolish Obamacare, voters screamed and hollored and lobbied and harassed the politicans who would do them harm in the name of personal profits.

Betray voters like this and a politician might find himself or herself eventually out of a job. Plus that pesky judicial system occasionally stymies the corporate profit making machine in government by pointing out that some of what they're doing is unconstitutional.

I guess the Constitution is a hinderance to unbridled profit taking in government.

Oh well.

The health care "overhaul" turned into an embarrasing disaster for the "businesslike" GOP that should have known better.

Corporate chiefs like Trump and his minions are used to barking orders and getting what they want.

Trump isn't as powerful as he thinks he is. We all know his thin skin and snowflake like insecurity makes him weak.

And, we hope, he's beginning to prove he's no match for a constitutional Republic.

I Immediately Liked Julia, Sesame Street's New Character. Here's Why

Julia, a muppet with autism, will join the cast of
"Sesame Street" on April 10. Welcome, Julia!

Ever since I can remember, I knew I was a little lot different.

When I was three, four, five years ago, I didn't understand it. What kid at that age would?

As I got older, I understood why I was different. I'm gay and have ADHD. 

None of that is really a problem. Only an ignoramous would care, or criticize me for being gay. Having ADHD is just a part of me. It's both a strength and a weakness, or maybe neither.  It's just there.

Everybody is different, but if you're too different, that could be a problem. At least for a few people.

Little kids -toddlers, the pre-school crowd, - really aren't worried at all about who's different and why.

As kids get older, they learn from adults, some of whom aren't as emotionally intelligent as young children. Some  people "learn" that gay people are perverts. People with ADHD are lazy, undisciplined, selfish, say some people. They're wrong of course, but you  have to deal with them.

However, everybody who's different and has watched "Sesame Street" gets an early education on why it's important to celebrate our differences, and see them as strengths, as long as you're strong enough to understand that as you get older.

A few people will not like you as you get older if you are "different."  But Sesame Street gives you the foundation to resist that.

Even at my advanced age - 54 - the welcoming, inclusive vibe of Sesame Street, which I watched religiously as a little kid, helps me out. In my weak, low self-confident moments, I  remember that friendly, gentle cast of characters, both humans and muppets, and my mental balance rights itself.

All this is why I love the fact that "Sesame Street" is introducing a new muppet, a little four year old girl named Julia.

Julia is a bright girl with, autism. Any youngster who has questions about why Julia is like she is, thinks like she does, is because she is indeed different.

Different here doesn't mean bad, or lesser, or weak.

Here's how NPR describes Julia:

"She's a shy and winsome four-year-old, with striking red hair and green eyes. Julia likes to paint and pick flowers. When Julia speaks, she often echoes what she's just heard her friends Abby and Elmo say..

It can be hard to get Julia's attention. Big Bird has to repeat himself to get her to listen, for example. And she sees things where other's don't. 'That's just Julia being Julia,' Abby said."

Julia began last year as a character in Sesame's books and digital offerings, NPR said. She was part of a campaign called "See Amazing In All Children,'" which gives children with autism and their families Julia - somebody to identify with. Julia also helps people without autism to understand people who do have it.

More from NPR:

"Sherrie Westin, an executive vice-president at Sesame Workshop who oversaw the initiative, said the campaign quickly struck a chord.

'One of my favorite stories is a mother who said that she used the book to explain to her child that she had autism like Julia,' Westin said, shaking her head slightly as she teared up. 'this became the tool for her to have a conversation with her five-year-old daughter.

And you'll love this: At the end her daughter said, 'So I'm amazing too, right''"

You betcha!

It's so nice to see the cast of Sesame Street grow like this. We're all different and not enough people celebrate that fact.

Maybe it's time for me to start watching the show again. Hell, the way things are going these days, maybe everybody should be watching "Sesame Street."

It might do us all good. 

Students Can't Figure Out What's Fake News

For a democracy to survive, you need a well-informed citizenry that knows how to get accurate information.

As many of you know, things are going so well in that department in the US of A.

Much has been written about fake news on social media that misled voters, and fired them up to vote for Donald Trump, or make other election decisions based on false info.  

The upcoming generation of young voters might not do any better, if a new Stanford University study is any indication.

Says The Verge, via the Wall Street Journal: 

"According to the study, 82 percent of students could not distinguish between a sponsored post and an actual  news article on the same website. Nearly 70 percent of middle schoolers thought they had no reason to distrust a sponsored finance article written by the CEO of a bank, and many students evaluated the trustworthiness of tweets based on their level of detail and the size of the photos..."

Stanford researchers recommend students learn to cross check the accuracy of websites and articles using other sources, and not to think a high Google search ranking means the site is more accurate.

Schools are increasingly trying to teach students to better evaluate what they see on line, but obviously, a lot more needs to be done.

Because of the uproar over the recent U.S. elections, Facebook has said it's working on ways to filter out fake news sites, and Google will ban fake news sites from its ad network.

But there will always be bad information on the web.

You'd think everyone would know by now you can't believe something is true just because it's on the internet, but clearly not.

This Three Year Old Is Way Smarter Than You

This little girl can recite the whole Periodic Table. She's 3.

OK, kiddies! Recite the entire Periodic Table to me!

Hello? Anyone? Nobody?

Well, we have three year old girl named Brielle to the rescue. She recently appeared on Ellen DeGeneres' show to demonstrate her prowess with the Periodic Table. Yep, this little kid knows all the elements.

She also knows all the state capitols, all the countries in Europe and Africa, and the names of all U.S. Presidents.

No, I can't do that, either.  Brielle explains herself by saying, "My little brain just remembers!"

Here's the charming video:

Muslim "Clock Kid" Gets Encouragement From Everybody Except His School

Ahmed Mohamed, 14, being arrested at his school
for bringing a homemade clock into the building.
Because anything a Muslim builds is a bomb,
if you want to believe the morons running the school.  

UPDATE:

Well, the school doesn't like him, and his town's police department isn't thrilled with him, either, but Ahmed Mohamed seems to be rocking the rest of the world.

Police dropped the idea of charging Mohamed with bringing a "hoax bomb" to school, when it was onl a clock he made that he wanted to show off.

I guess Irving, Texas police and the community's school district are not afraid of bullying a 14 year old kid because he's Muslim and likes to tinker, but are deathly afraid of bad pubicity, which they got big time.

President Obama doesn't seem too afraid of Mohamed and his clock, inviting him to the White House to show it off. Hilary Clinton Tweeted her support.

Huffington Post reported that Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn carried a clock around Capitol Hill Wednesday in support of Mohamed. Ellison is the first Muslim member of Congress.

And, while Mohamed was being interviewed by MSNBC's Hayes, another guest appeared on the show. It was MIT astrophysicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who told Mohamed that he was exactly the "kind of student we want at places like MIT and Harvard."

By the way, the more news that comes out about how the school and police treated this kid, the worse it gets. The Daily Beast said Mohamed was denied access to his parents while being questioned, which violates Texas law.

School officials, including the principal, tried to coerce Mohamed into signing a statement that would easily have led to terrorism charges had he complied. He ended up writing. "I built a clock. The police think it's a bomb." Smart kid for writing his statement exactly that way.

So, the Irving School District really isn't into encouraging kids to succeed, especially if they're not white, most of the rest of the world is ahead of the game and does encourage bright young kids like Mohamed, who we are sure to need desperately in the future.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

A 14 year old kid in Irving, Texas likes to tinker and build things, and was proud of one little invention. It was a digital clock he made by himself.

For his ambition and effort, the kid was arrested. The leading theory as to why he was arrested is his name: Ahmed Mohamed.

Because as you know, anytime a kid with an Arabic name brings anything to school, especially if it's unusual, it' a bomb.  Because all Arabs and Muslims want to launch terrorist attacks on this great nation, don't you know.

Mohamed said he showed a couple teachers his clock, and later in the day was brought into the principal's office.

There, he said, police officers interrogated him, and said he could not call his father until they finished questioning him.

Says the Dallas Morning News:

"So the 14-year-old missed the student council meeting and took a trip in handcuffs to juvenile detention. His clock now sits in an evidence room. Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb - though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it's a clock."

That's the incredible part right there: He told everyone his device is a clock. Anyone who looks at it can see it's a clock. But they still might charge him with making a "hoax bomb"

And he's been suspended from school for three days. All because he was proud of learning something. What a way to encourage a kid, huh?

Sorry, but if this were a white kid, this would have completely gone away by now.

Yes, I get it. Schools, and everyone else need to be careful. It wouldnt' have been a problem at all if somebody at the school asked to see Mohamed's clock to make sure it wasn't anything weird. Even get a cop to look at it.

The clock isn't elaborate to begin with. Mohamed threw it together in 20 minutes. It's a circuit board wired to a digital display, all inside a case with a tiger hologram in the front, Dallas Morning News reports. 

But the fact this is dragging on, and it seems the school and police aren't acknowledging they made a mistake, means something more is going than just caution.

The Dallas Morning News says there's more than a whiff of anti-Islamic sentiment in Irving, Texas anyway. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne fueled rumors in speeches that Muslims are plotting to usurp American laws,

This whole thing has become a cause celebre now.

Mohamed has got a fast rising number of suppoers. The hashtag #StandWithAhmed was a top trending topic on Twitter this morning.

Rallies are planned at the school.

Still, this is yet another example of an American school system that, instead of encouraging a smart kid to do great things, makes sure instead that he is reluctant to achieve.

And you wonder why America is falling behind in achievement and scientific advancement?

Jerk Of The Week Slams 4th Graders' Bird Legislation Because Abortion

Fourth graders in New Hampshire wanted to
make the red tailed hawk the state raptor....

As part of a civics lesson, a group of fourth graders in New Hampshire asked the state's legislature to make the red-tailed hawk the state raptor.

Lawmakers shot down the idea, and complained that the legislation was a waste of time when they had more pressing matters with which to contend.

You can debate whether the lawmakers were right in saying the fourth graders were wasting their time, or whether they were shutting down a civics lesson, and turning the kids off from democracy

But, then, enter Republican Warren Groen who just had to make things worse by somehow tying the hawk to abortion:

"The (red-tailed hawk) mostly likes field mice and small rodents. It grasps them with its talons and then uses its razor sharp beak to rip its victims to shreds and then basically tear it apart, limb from limb. And I guess the shame about making this the state bird is it would make a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood."

Way go go Warren! Tying everything to abortion. You must be a real hit at cocktail parties.

Not surprisingly, parents whose kids were in the New Hampshire Statehouse listening to this jerk were not pleased.

According to the Huffington Post, Jodi Linnehan Kriner, the mother of one of the students, wrote a letter to lawmakers saying she was ashamed they are state representatives.

"If any rep can tell me how I should answer a question that was asked to me last nigth by my 10 year old son, Andrew, please let me know. He asked, 'Mom, what does Planned Parenthood have to do with red-tailed hawk tearing apart is prey, and why should it be the mascot,' she wrote.

Instead, the fourth grades got this
moron prattling on about abortion instead.  

Well, Andrew, good question! One I surely don't have an answer to. Neither does Groen, apparently, but he did double down on his comment in a phone interview with the Huffington Post. 

"The selective outrage about this I find quite curious....Every week in Manchester, the fourth grade class from 2025 is killed out.  Babies that would be 10 years old and in fourth grade 10 years from now are aborted in Manchester, and there's no outrage."

Even fellow Republicans are pretty fed up with Groen and his abortion stuff. He's kind of like a weird, sick version of Jan on the Brady Bunch always complaining about Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.   

Lawmakers say they are going to ask Groen during the next legislative session this week to apologize. He probably won't, because maybe he thinks anyone who believes he was out of line is an abortionist?

Florida Lawmaker Somehow Concluded New Common Core Education Standards Will Make Your Kids Gay

The U.S. Education Department is pushing new standards for our kiddies called "Common Core" 

Florida Rep. Charles Van Zant says Common Core
education standards will turn all the kids gay. EEK!  

It's been the cause of a lot of debate, pro and con, and I won't bore you with the details of that argument here.

Except for one novel objection raised by Florida State Rep. Charles Van Zant, who said Common Core will turn all our kids gay, according to Think Progress.

Van Zant says Common Core will "attract every one of your children to become as homosexual as they possibly can."

He doesn't explain exactly how Common Core will do that, but if Van Zant says it will, who are we to argue?

I took a cursory tour of the U.S. Department of Education's Web site on Common Core and didn't see any enticements for children to become gay, but maybe it's all in code that only children can understand, and Van Zant has sleuthed it out.

Van Zant has a lot of things figured out anyway. As Gawker noted, people who are worried about the world running out of gas and oil supplies are stupid, because God will give us an ample supply.

 "If we ran out, I certainly believe he could make some more," Van Zant said. Maybe Exxon/Mobil should hire God to run their oil and gas exploration unit.

Stupid "Zero Tolerance" Snags Two More Youths, Despite Waning Popularity Of Practice

There's still way too many adults in positions of authority, like at schools who have zero understanding of nuance and circumstances, so they cling to zero tolerance policies because they can't think for themselves.

If a kid doesn't realize his father left a knife
in his car, and his son drives the car to school not
knowing the knife is there, should we consider the
kid a criminal?  

The first in is Clarksville, Tenn., where David Duren-Sanner, 18, drove his father's car to school, and didn't realize a knife his father used was in there.

The school decided to randomly search the car and found it.  Sanner got in trouble.

And it would have been fine if he got in a little trouble. After all, he could have looked through the car to see if anything not allowed on school property was there.

Maybe give him a half hour of detention after school and a stern lecture, something like that, since he really didn't mean any harm.

But oh, no.  School district officials can't think for themselves, so they gave him a 10-day suspension, 90 days in so-called "alternative" school, and had police charge him with criminal possession of a prohibited weapon.

All that would probably have screwed up his chances for college, and by extention a good job and a successful life.

Because it's always important to ruin a kid's life for a minor, inconsequential infraction.  It would have been too much work to investigate and ask questions, to see whether this was a major school threat that warranted extreme action to protect students, or what turned out to be reality in this case, a very minor, dumb (maybe) mistake by an 18-year old.

I guess since the school administrators are as far as perfect as a human can possibly be, they expect the kids to be absolutely perfect, as sort of a counterweight.

Trying to demonstrate they do understand nuance, the school, in the face of an appeal and really bad local publicity, they reduced his time in alternative school to 30 days. Oh how big of them!

I've seen news stories in Google searches of backlashes to this kind of zero tolerance policy going back to at least the year 2000. But the practice remains entrenched in many school districts.

Many other school districts have plenty of smart, dedicated administrators and teachers who want the students to succeed. To me, the ones that cling to zero tolerance policies are just lazy, dumb and don't give a damn about the students. Which really sucks.

In another really stupid case, a 13 year old boy in the Chicago area is facing a felony charge of battery to a police officer.

If a 13-year old kid throws a snowball and it hits
 a cop in the arm, but doesn't injure him,
should that kid be considered a felon?  

So what did he do? Hit the officer? Try to grab his gun? Kick him?

Worse, at least in the eyes of police and the local school district. The kid threw a snowball, which hit the arm of a police officer who was sitting in a cruiser with an open window, according to the Chicago Tribune. 

Yes, yes, of course it's wrong to throw snowballs at police. The kid deserved a good talking to, and maybe some other in-school punishment?  But a felony?

A few people support this. One area resident was quoted as saying that if the kid got away with the snowball at age 13, he's shoot somebody with a gun at age 16 or 17.

If (the boy) had gotten away with it, who's to say what they'd do next," DNAinfo.com quoted local resident and educator Ray Fields.

Um, that's why you punish the kid now at a level that fits the crime. And if for some reason that didn't sink, punish him worse the next time he does something wrong.

If you wreck a kid's life at the very first, modest infraction, why would he stop doing worse things? If you take away his future, what's the point of following the rules and going for success using that route? He might as well just be a criminal,  as you labeled him when he was 13.

I'm sure society will thank you for that, Mr. Fields.

And you have to look at the kid's history. The boy supposedly had never gotten in trouble for anything until this.

Here's a message to Mr. Fields and any other educator who regards kids as a dangerous enemy, deserving to be locked up: You're harming this country and its future every bit as much as criminals who do use guns.

You'll Cry And Cheer As You Watch Mushy Find His Voice

There's a great kid in Britain named Musharaf Asghar, known to his many friends as Mushy.

Musharref "Mushy" Asghar prepares to give
his successful oral presentation in his final exam.  

Mushy has the same problem as the King George VI in the movie The King's Speech. 

He stammers like crazy, which was a particular problem because he has to take something called the British matriculation exam to go on to college.

Twenty percent of the grade is an oral exam, and that would really screw him up.

However, his teacher, a Mr. Burton, had seen The King's Speech and saw that it helped to have him listen to music while speaking in front of a crowd.  Mr. Burton said, basically, what the hell, let's try it on Mushy and see what happens.

It worked! He wasn't perfect, but good enough. He got a C in the oral part of the exam.  He's nowin college and doing quite well, according to news reports from Britain.

Mushy's "King's Speech" was caught on video because it was part of a documentary show in Britain called Educating Yorkshire.

Mushy, writing in the Guardian, said he was glad his struggles and success were on television, and his speech continues to get better. He does add, however, that he won't try to get a job at a call center.

It's a sweet little video, because it kind of makes you cheer and cry at the same time, a lot like that Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock video I told you about yesterday.

So, for another dose of inspiration, let's watch Mushy give his brief talk.

World's Stupidest High School Principal Really Steps In It.

Almost every time I meet an educator, I'm in awe of how much of their lives they dedicate to ensure kids are well educated and prepared to face the world as adults.

Which makes the really bad educators really stand out.

Looks like Katelyn Campbell is still
going to Wellesly in the fall, despite alleged
threats from her h.s. principal

Which, if reporting in the Charleston, West Virginia Gazette is true, we can nominate local high school principal George Aulenbacher as among the worst, and most tone deaf.

This started when Aulenbacher and/or other school administrators invited one Pam Stenzel speak at the school, George Washington High School

According to the Gazette, Stenzel's YouTube videos, anyway, has her saying some rather interesting things about birth control. According to the Gazette:


"In her YouTube videos, Stenzel shouts and says things such as women who take birth control are "10 times more likely to contract a disease . . . or end up sterile or dead." She allegedly told GW and Riverside students, "If your mom gives you birth control, she probably hates you.""

It turns out student Katelyn Campbell, 17, had some concerns about Stenzel's visit.

Aulenbacher "knowingly psychologically abused students" by allowing the assembly, where Stenzel used scare tactics that left some students crying and wanting to leave, Campbell said, as reported by the Charleston Gazette.

OK, Campbell was being pretty blunt. Kids these days, right?

According to the Gazette, here's what happened between Campbell and Aulenbacher at school

Aulenbacher called Campbell to the principal's office after she contacted media outlets about the assembly and said, "I am disappointed in you" and "How could you go to the press without telling me?" according to the complaint.

He then allegedly threatened to call Wellesley College, where Campbell has been accepted, and tell them about her actions. "How would you feel if I called your college and told them what bad character you have and what a backstabber you are?" he said, according to the complaint

As expecting, things are backfiring badly on Aulenbacher.  Wellesley got wind of this problem and tweeted this: "Katelyn Campbell #Wellesley is excited to welcome you this fall."

Well, what did Aulenbacher expect?  Wellesley isn't exactly averse to smart, outspoken women.

And Campbell wants the principal ousted, apparently. We'll see how that goes.

In other bad teacher news, a Texas educator at a private school has been accused of molesting a young student, but never fear. The teacher, Irene Stokes,  assures the public she is innocent.  She can prove it.  The student in question is black. The teacher is white. The teacher says she is a racist who hates black people, so surely she would not touch a black kid, according to television station KHOU.

Boy are we relieved!

Of course, the girl's mother questions why a white racist is teaching at a predominantly black school, which is a pretty good question.

But we should use the past tense. The school said  Stokes no longer works there, according to KHOU.

I guess every profession has its bad apples. At least they get weeded out.

Texas Republicans: Thinking is Bad?

I don't usually spend a lot of time reading the Democratic or Republican party platforms in states across the Great US of A, but the Texas Republican platform is getting a lot of attention this week.

The education plank in particular is inspiring a lot of critical thinking. That's because the plank calls for a ban on critical thinking in public school education.

Sometimes, politicians have
um, interesting educational ideas.  

Some updates coming through indicate this is all a mistake, that the Texas Republicans didn't actually want the ban on critical thinking on their platform. It got there by accident, according to Talking Points Memo.  I'm not sure how you accidentally do something like that, but these things do happen. And the fact that some people hate critical thinking is really worrisome.

Here's what the platform said:

"Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."


Maybe I'm misunderstanding it all here, but isn't critical thinking part of life? We don't go through life by rote, just doing exactly what we always have, because the situation always changes. Taken to its logical extreme, if I avoided critical thinking, I wouldn't put a coat on during a December cold wave because I didn't wear one in July. 


Why make a decision based on changing conditions?


I see the people who wrote this thing worry that critical thinking would challenge the students fixed beliefs.  In some cases, shouldn't some, but not all of people's fixed beliefs change? 


Again, taken to its logical, weird conclusion, a kid who believes in the Easter Bunny at age three should continue to do so throughout life? Our beliefs inevitably change when we're confronted with new evidence. Should students not be exposed to any new evidence about anything, anywhere?


I wonder if the Republicans who wrote this are conflating critical thinking with rebellion. Critical thinking to me means you examine what you believe, and if it makes sense, it reinforces, not diminishes your beliefs.


And if it doesn't make sense, you make some adjustments.


True, nobody wants kids demanding WHY???  to every simple instruction.  But to stay competitive in the world, don't we want people to think through things, to figure out how problems develop and how to fix them.


A sure path to failure is to say, "But that's the way we've always done things."


Or do we want a society that has everybody just working menial jobs?  Because anything that takes skill means whoever's doing the task has to think critically.

The Texas education platform isn't the only oddball educational ideae floating out there. Politicians are always offering up novel solutions to education shortcomings.

A doozy came out of New Hampshire recently. According to the Laconia Daily Sun, a state legislator named Bob Kingsbury said a relatively high crime rate in Laconia is because they've instituted kindergarten, which takes kids away from their mothers too soon. 

Kingsbury said the crime rate would further be reduced if gun ownership went up and schools offered boxing classes and organized boxing as a school sport.

Also, some private schools, especially those run by Christian fundamentalists, say evolution is a myth. They cite the Loch Ness Monster as "proof" that dinosaurs coexist with us, so therefore, there was no evolution. 

It all makes you want to go home and put on a dunce cap.