Opus 2013-345: CCC: Poor Children

It tends to shock me the way kids react when I say, “You poor child.”  I am reflecting on their general lack of common sense or preparation.  I am not making a statement about their financial situation and yet invariably that is the way they take it.  Part of this is simply immaturity.  Children tend to think in concrete terms.  They are not capable of abstract thinking or associations.  Educators tend to forget this.  Part of the push for the coming Common Core Curriculum is based on ignoring this reality.  They want to push Collaboration, Creative Thinking, and......... but they forget the simple lessons we all learned in Psychology of Education 101.  Piaget showed that your cognitive ability must reach a certain development before you can think certain ways.  At middle school very few children are ready for this.  The sad truth is that many will never be ready. 

The second reason is that the students have a very limited vocabulary.  This can be related to many causes:  TV, texting, parents, rap music and such.  The only one I have any control over as a teacher is the education part.  In education we keep talking about rigor and high standards and then order the text books dumbed down.  We complain about low test scores and the answer is to change the test.  We say they can achieve their dreams and lower the bar.  I will do what I can in my room to fight that trend but it is a losing battle and the dinosaurs are on their way out.  We will be replaced by the warm fuzzy mammals.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-344: Plow and Crown: Energy Serfs and Water Peasants

My friendly neighborhood philanthropist was excited recently.  He had been at a meeting with people who were concerned about alternative energy and water conservation.  They were planning to bring lessons on this to our public schools.  They were developing a curriculum and planning a strategy.  He was really excited about this.

Being the curmudgeon that I am I began to list all of the important knowledge and skills that the kids don’t have:  They can’t read and understand, they can’t do simple math, they have no sense of history, they cannot write complete sentences, they have vocabularies that are anorexic.  I could have gone on but I could tell by his face that it was not what he wanted to hear.

I also pointed out that all of the solutions being brought forth involved cutting down and cutting back.  Everything proposed meant lowering our standard of living and stifling expectations.  It was a philosophy of defeat and retreat instead of “Can do.”

The elites want to steal our American birthright from us.  We were a nation that met the future as a challenge and reached down inside to find solutions that lead to a better life not compromises that kept us stagnant.  We had a faith in the future based on a faith in God and the reality of His blessings. 

Now we are becoming a nanny state that requires the wise leadership of the anointed few.  We are becoming a nation of serfs and peasants.

My solution to the energy and water problems is to get the government out of the way and allow the genius and entrepreneur mentality of the American people to emerge again and find answers that will move us forward not lock us in.  If we are running short of energy then it might make sense to drill for more oil instead of making it illegal.  It might mean building new power plants and refineries instead of increased regulation and taxes on what we have.

Of course if we move forward and have opportunities the masses might be reminded that they are responsible for their own lives and futures.  That would mean they don’t need the Progressives (Democrats, socialists, communists, elites) to guide them with their awesome wisdom.

More energy not more recycling.  More water not more unwashed bodies.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-343: Headlines: The Problem Is not Sebelius

As I walked through the bedroom Sunday morning my wife had the news on.  The topic of discussion was the snafu of the Obamcare website.  A guest talking head was saying something and underneath her face was an ID line and the question “Should Sebelius resign?”

The simple answer is, “No.” 

The problem we should be concerned about is not Sebelius.  The problem is not a dysfunctional website.  These are just symptoms.  If we focus too much on these things we will forget the real problem.  Remove Sebelius and you still have socialized medicine.  Fix the website and you still have socialized medicine.  Give everyone free health care and make them happy.  You will still have socialized medicine.

When a magician wants to fool you on the right side he will distract you on the left.  When a pickpocket wants to take your wallet he will get you worried about your head.  When a socialist wants to take away your freedom and substitute government mandates they get you mad at a figurehead. 

Sebelius is just a disposable, interchangeable stooge for the Obama-Reid-Polosi power grab.  Remove her and they will get someone else with a different hairdo and a different wardrobe but with the same masters. 

Socialism believes that a small elite of experts can make your decisions for you.  It believes your life needs to be controlled and managed by them.  It is for your own good.  Who knows better what you need in life but Ivy League graduates. 

Don’t lose your focus for a bit of slight of hand.  While we are yelling about a web site our health infrastructure is being dismantled and destroyed. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-342: Key Scriptures: Creation vs Chance

One of the declarations of the Bible is that God has revealed Himself through His creation.  A key verse on this is at the beginning of Romans.

(Romans 1:20 KJV)  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Alistair Begg had an observation on this.  It has been a long time since I wrote it down so I don’t know if it is word-for-word but it went something like this:  “There is not enough in nature to convert you but there is enough to condemn you.”

The point we can make from nature is that it isn’t that you can’t see.  It is that you won’t see.  In listening to podcasts by William Lane Craig I hear frequent reference to the fine tuning of the universe.  Evidently this is well accepted.  There are a multitude of scientific measurements that are very precise in producing the universe we know.  If any one of them had been even slightly different then life would not be possible.  It speaks of a designer.  The data is there. 

Many scientists will acknowledge this fine tuning but refuse to accept that it indicates the existence of a god of any kind.  This forces them to come up with many creative theories to explain the existence of the universe and the existence of life.  Some of this creative thought is true inquiry, seeking for answers that can be measured and judged.  Some of it is simply a refusal to accept the simplest conclusion. 

In the end believing a multi-verse or an eternal universe with no beginning does not seem to be backed by any scientific data.  There is no evidence for one and the other has been proven impossible.  Yet they are still proposed and defended.  They are taken on faith.  Just like creation but without the moral requirements.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is still a theory.  Believe it if you like but don’t try to pretend it is based on hard science.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-341: Nanny State: They’re Coming to Take Them Away

The well intentioned are again looking out for your welfare and the welfare of your children.

Sometime in the middle of the night a magazine showed up on my chair.  It was not there when I went to bed.  It was there when I got up.  If I did not know my wife’s habits I would suspect gremlins or some conspiracy.  It’s title is California Educator and it is published by the California Teachers’ Association.  I think it ended up on my chair because my wife is a bad shot.  The trash can was three feet to the left.  Maybe she just missed. 

On the cover was a picture of a man in a football helmet.  He was not a player because he was wearing a polo shirt.  Guess what the educators of California are concerned about protecting you from now?  The title in the corner was “Changing the Concussion Discussion.”  They now want to protect us from competitive sports.

I generally don’t read these propaganda tools.  I glance through to see what their latest avenues of foolishness are and throw them away.  When I opened the cover I was greeted by a picture taking up a quarter of a page showing a women in a shirt labeled “Chico State Women’s Soccer” bouncing a soccer ball off of her head.  Do you sense where this is going?

Let me give you the short description of the article given in the Table of Contents.

“Repeat concussions are now linked to long-term brain damage.  Concussion rates skyrocketed in the last decade, especially in girls’ sports.  CTA members...are promoting new policies and procedures to protect students making the ‘winning at all costs’ concept second to athletes’ health.” p. 1

Notice the little phrase they slipped in, “especially in girls’ sports.”  I think an honest reporter would say that the skyrocketing is because of the increase in women’s sports.  And who was a big advocate of an increase in women’s sports?  Liberal, left wing, progressive educators.  Now in typical, “don’t let a crisis go to waste,” fashion these concerned citizens are going to go after team sports.

Education hates competition.  Competition is masculine.  Cooperation is feminine.  Education is run by women and feminine men. 

These helpful, concerned citizens want to make you safe.  Think seat belt laws, bicycle helmet laws, gun control, length-of-blade knife laws, nutrition information laws, etc.  Ultimately the safest way to live is without any freedom or chance of risk.  They will make the decisions for you including the sedative you will be issued or the prison you will be sent to.

Remember that teachers work from the government and they are here to help you.

California Educator.  October 2013.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-340: New Terms: Five Year Plan and Collaborator

Does the phrase “Five Year Plan” mean anything to you?  If someone accused you of being a “collaborator” would that be a good or bad thing?

Educators seem to have forgotten their history if they ever knew it.  Or perhaps it is just part of the plan of the America hating socialists to “fundamentally change America” as one leading socialist put it.

The five year plan was the standard building block of the Communist state.  Stalin and Mao were big on these.  They announced them regularly and they usually meant greater oppression, more hunger and a lot of death.  Our school superintendent proudly announced his five year plan this year.  He seemed oblivious to the history of the term.  Or maybe he has a hidden agenda.

A collaborator was a French citizen who cooperated with the occupying Nazi’s before and during World War II.  The term means traitor and turncoat.  It means one who betrays fellow countrymen for personal security and profit.  Why would educators pick this term to signify the process of working in groups when they already had the perfectly serviceable term, “cooperative learning”?

We should be learning from history, not ignoring it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-339: Social Dementia

No I don’t want to forget what happened.  I am a history teacher.  The past is supposed to teach.

Every time educators come up with something new they actually think that it is new.  When I tell them we tried this before and it didn’t work they say something like, “Don’t be so negative.  Stop living in the past.  Let’s focus on the future.”  It is like our culture has developed a serious case of dementia.

When I first started writing this I was thinking in terms of Alzheimer disease.  That didn’t work.  My understanding of Alzheimer is that you can’t remember what happened today but remember clearly what happened forty years ago.  When my mother in law was going through dementia she not only could not remember earlier conversations but she could not remember what her daughter looked like.  She always remembered though when I made a date to take her to dinner.

So I think our society has dementia.  It only remembers what will bring it immediate gratification.  All else is forgotten.  This is why we continue to raise taxes when the clear evidence shows that it lowers tax revenue.  That is why in education they keep pushing the same things that have been pushed since I started teaching twenty five years ago.  They didn’t work then.  They have never worked.  They will not work now.  But they want us to forget that and look to the future.

Every country that has tried socialism has imploded and experienced great suffering.  Those with a solid free market foundation go down slower than others but the fall comes.  Ignore that.  Let us bring in more central planning and five year plans.  Let the elites make the decisions for us.  After all our modern socialists are really smarter than the older socialists.

Or we are just dumber.

Let’s try something new.  Let’s vote the suckers out.  All of them.

homo unius libri