Testing . . .Testing . . .

A middle school principal in Pennsylvania speaks out against testing regimes, and offers some ideas on why they have metastasized in recent years:

When standardized testing was simply a few periods taken out of an entire year, it was not a strain on instructional time and the data were welcomed in helping make curricular and instructional adjustments. As educators, we understand the importance of assessment.

But the beast has been sprouting heads, and everyone can understand at least one of the reasons: profit.

Testing makes a lot of money for education companies. Here in Pennsylvania in 2013 we paid more than $200 million to the company responsible for the development of the Keystone exams — tests aligned with the Common Core curriculum (known as PA Core in Pennsylvania). Our state legislators just approved another five “optional” Keystones in the coming years. Can you imagine the cost to taxpayers.

In talking with my kids' teachers, they seem to support the idea of national education standards, and believe that the common core curriculum is more rigorous than what came before - which they see as a good thing. They have some issues with the speed with which the new standards have been implemented, with no transitional years built in, but they reserve their criticism almost exclusively for the overwhelming amount of standardized assessments they are forced to give, and the way those assessments eat away at instructional time.

The teachers would never say it, but I have to think it also galls them (and it certainly galls me) that our state seems to have unlimited resources to pay for standardized assessments; the grading of assessments; the computers needed to take assessments; the increased bandwidth necessary to use the computers for assessments; not to mention the ongoing upkeep and replacement of this quickly-obsolete technology. All this, while funding for teaching assistants was zeroed out, the pay-bump for earning advanced degrees was eliminated, and spending on "non-essential" items such as music, P.E., art, and libraries is being crowded out.

You know how Conservative politicians complain about government not working, get elected, and then make sure it doesn't work, so they can offer privatization as the solution to all of our problems?  "School Reform" advocates (many with significant financial ties to corporations that stand to make a mint off educational technology and charter schools) seem to be working from the same playbook. Turn public schools into "education factories," decrease instructional time and teacher pay, and then point to charters and vouchers as the solution to our "failing public schools."

Buzz

Finally some help for pollinators:

Program Looks to Give Bees a Leg Up (or Six)

The federal government has announced a new $3 million program to step up support for honeybees in five states in the Upper Midwest. Those five — Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota — have huge numbers of honeybee colonies at various times of the year, perhaps 65 percent of the nation’s total. Beekeepers truck them around the country in the spring to pollinate commercial crops.

Honeybee colony collapse (and a corresponding decline in native pollinators) is a huge problem whose causes are still not completely understood. As I've written about before, I'm a big fan of food. Not to sound too melodramatic, but no pollinators means no food.

Before we despair, one thing scientists do believe can help mitigate this problem is ensuring a plentiful supply of pollen that is rich in nutrition. And here's where I again sing the praises of native plants, which, unsurprisingly, are great sources of nutritious pollen for native pollinators. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (how cool is that?) has plant suggestions divided by geographical region. You can select your region and then click the link for Regional Plant Lists to find appropriate (and beautiful) plants for your yard.

Free $peech

Yet another reminder of the importance of judicial appointments:

Supreme Court Strikes Down Aggregate Limits on Federal Campaign Contributions 

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a major campaign finance decision, striking down some limits on federal campaign contributions for the first time. The ruling, issued near the start of a campaign season, will change and most likely increase the already large role money plays in American politics.

The decision, by a 5-to-4 vote along ideological lines, with the Court’s more conservative justices in the majority, was a sequel of sorts to Citizens United, the 2010 decision that struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions.  

Republicans have done everything in their power to stack the federal judiciary with right-wing, corporatist judges. We continue to see the negative results for ordinary citizens, and the positive results for the rich and connected.

It is vital for Democrats to hold the Senate in 2014 and for the obstructionist tactics employed by Republicans to go the way of all flesh.

Boys to Men

Every time one of my sons wants to use an electronic device connected to the internet, their father or I have to adjust the settings so that they can't easily access the vast variety of porn available at the click of a button. We try to limit their exposure, but I know they have already been exposed to whole lot more than I was at twice their ages.

The only way I know to try to counteract the effects of the worst of it is to talk to them about it. Talk to them about sex in general and porn in particular, and hope they come to see sex as something fun and wonderful for everyone involved, rather than a chance to use a woman as a spit sink.

I am raising two men, and I take that responsibility seriously. The statistics on sexual assault are horrifying - nearly 1 in 5 woman report being a victim of rape or attempted rape at some point in their lives - which means there must be an awful lot of "regular guys" out there assaulting women.

Every girl I know got told over and over again, starting in junior high school and continuing well into adulthood, not to go out at night alone; to hold her keys poking out of her fist when walking to her car; not to accept drinks from strangers; not to dress too provocatively; not to drink too much when you're with a guy, blah, blah, blah. All of this in the vain hope that somehow, by following all of these life-limiting instructions, girls and women can control whether or not they are sexually assaulted. You know who controls who gets sexually assaulted? The asshole sexually assaulting someone.

So why do we continue to have so many conversations with girls and not (it seems to me) with boys? Why aren't boys taught that sex isn't fun if everyone involved isn't an enthusiastic participant? That getting over on a girl who is falling-down drunk isn't sex, it's rape? That when a girl pushes your hand away and you keep forcing it back again and again it isn't a victory, it's assault?

I think mothers and sisters and health teachers can talk about consent until we are blue in the face, but not much is going to change until boys hear from other males in their lives that sex without consent is never, ever acceptable. And I just don't get the sense that these kinds of conversations are all that prevalent among men and boys. Why are so many men who wouldn't dream of assaulting a woman so silent about this problem? Even if they're not moved by the abstract moral question, you'd at least like to think they care enough about their sisters and daughters and nieces and mothers and co-workers and friends to want other men to cut this shit out.

Am I wrong about this? Guys out there - do you call each other out for sexist behavior, like many of you would call each other out for racist behavior? Fathers, do you talk with your sons about what consent looks like? Brothers and uncles, do you talk with young men in your lives about making sure everyone is having fun and receiving pleasure during sex, and not just sex as conquest? If so, how were those conversations received? If not, why not?

Thumb on the Scales

Remember back in February when VW workers in Tennessee voted against unionizing the plant in Chattanooga? Even though VW itself supported the unionization efforts? This was a pretty big deal, because it looked for awhile like the unionization effort would succeed, marking a first for auto-manufacturing in the south.

After the election, however, the United Auto Workers asked the National Labor Relations Board to examine the vote at the plant, arguing that statements made by elected officials in Tennessee amounted  to improper interference in what was supposed to be a neutral election. The UAW argued that Senator Bob Corker and Governor Bill Haslam (among others) had threatened to withdraw state subsidies for the auto maker unless the vote went their way - their way being, of course, a vote not to unionize the plant. Withdrawing the subsidies would make it less likely that VW would expand production at the plant, thus making it less likely workers would keep their jobs, and providing a direct incentive for workers to vote against a union to keep the subsidies in place.

Corker and Haslam denied up and down ever making such a threat.

Turns out those denials were, how to put this delicately? Lies.

The corporation involved was for the formation of a union, based on their positive experience with worker participation in plant governance back in Germany. But the GOP can't let unions get a foothold in the south, lest other workers get ideas. Can't have the working man getting uppity, you know. Ain't profitable for nobody. Or at least, it ain't profitable for certain somebodies.

More Harm than Good

Failed to predict the break-up of the Soviet Union, when monitoring the Soviet Union was job 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . too high to count?  Check.

Illegally spied on U.S. citizens; engaged in illegal kidnapping and assassinations? Check.

Botched (accidentally? On purpose?) the intelligence on Iraq's WMD, leading to the worst foreign policy disaster in generations? Check.

Engaged in illegal torture and domestic spying (again, still), and lied to Congress about it? Check.

Why are we continuing to send hundreds of millions of dollars into this sinkhole of incompetence and illegality? They really must have some good shit in their files to hold over reformers' heads.

The Joy of Eating

I feel really fortunate that I come from a family where food is important. We're from New Orleans, so that probably has something to do with it. If you know the city, you know that food is entertainment, and pleasure, and part of your very identity.

The food culture I grew up in was also one where children were not excluded, not from any aspect of a meal. We would go crabbing and crawfishing as a family, or together with another family, and learn just where all that delicious seafood came from. Both of my parents made sure that I knew how to cook for myself by the time I went off to college, and sent along the family recipes for Red Beans and Rice, Oyster Dressing, and Shrimp-Stuffed Peppers (only the first of which a poor college student could afford to make). Dinner parties weren't exclusively adult affairs, so we children absorbed the notion of the long, lingering meal where you sat and ate and talked and drank (and were released to run around like crazy until your parents drove you home sleeping in the back seat).

I feel that it is part of my job as a parent to pass that legacy on to my own children. So it was a real struggle during the years when the kids went from eating a variety of foods to only a handful. Their doctor told us it was normal, that kids have about twice as many taste buds as we adults do, and to be patient and just keep exposing them to new tastes. And--hallelujah--he was right!

After a handful of years where I prepared two dinners every night (except for the obligatory "tasting bite" they had to eat to win dessert) our kids now eat pretty much everything we do. Crawfish etoufee is their favorite meal; our oldest loves making kale chips; and the day they answered "Sushi!" when we asked which restaurant they wanted to go to, felt like a victory. I feel really lucky my kids are willing to try different foods and that we can share this pleasure together. I hope it will help get us through the sullen teen years (fast approaching). And I am grateful that something as basic as food can provide moments of connection, and creativity, and a measure of grace.