Lead and "failing" schools

Public school critics blame "failing" schools on the teachers, but consider what the teachers may have to work with, especially with large classes.  Not only are there the cultural issues of not being interested in school, peer pressure not to perform, and homes where books are few or non-existent, but there is also the problem of too much lead in the environment.

"Too much lead can harm developing brains and can mean a lower IQ."

"Lower levels can reduce intelligence, impair hearing and behavior and cause other problems." "Lower levels" meaning lower than those leading to "coma, convulsions, and death".

And higher concentrations of lead are found in older or dilapidated houses.  And there are higher concentrations of older or dilapidated houses around "failing" schools.

See "More than half a million young children have lead poisoning under revised standard", Associated Press, 2013-04-04, published in the Washington Post and others.

If CEOs get incentive pay to turn a company around, why not give teachers incentive pay to turn schools around?

Why Read?

Fact: Reading can make you a better conversationalist.

Fact: Neighbors will never complain that your book is too loud.

Fact: Knowledge by osmosis has not yet been perfected. You'd better read.

Fact: Books have stopped bullets - reading might save your life.

Fact: Dinosaurs didn't read. Look what happened to them.

From an email from ABE Books.

"Liberals" should stop playing nice

See "The right's stupidity spreads, enabled by a too-polite left: Conservatism may be the refuge of the dim. But the room for rightwing ideas is made by those too timid to properly object", by George Monblot, Guardian, 2012-02-06.

As expected, this article generated lots of comments, some justified, some not. However, the point remains that Obama and company try to "compromise" and the Republicans keep demanding more. The party with a selective reading of Adam Smith and a selective reading of the Bible is not countered by anybody in power who has a wider understanding of either the "Wealth of Nations" or the Bible. Could it be that Democrats also don't have a wider understanding of either. If so, there goes our Republic.

A couple of interesting quotes

The first is from the panel, appointed by and funded by Toyota to look into its safety problems.  The Star Tribune, 2011-05-24, Business quoted the panel that Toyota noted its success in saving over $100 million by negotiating a limited recall of all-weather floor mats".  The Strib wrote this as "an example of what the independent panel called the automaker's view of regulation as an 'adversarial process' that considers blocked regulations to be 'wins.'"

Gosh, too bad more complainers of government overregulation aren't caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

The second is some words of wisdom in Sheri S. Tepper's "The Visitor", a post apocalypse science-fantasy: "You asked for wisdom?  Hear these words.  Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality."

The problem is what is reality: we are spending too much or we are not investing enough?

The End of Ignorance

I've long thought that all of us, myself included, don't learn all that we could as well as we could. Today I did have the importance of one learning tool reinforced - serendipity!

I was wandering around the web and decided to visit The Huffington Post, and I stumbled on a sidebar item, "Math is not hard: A Simple Method…" whose full title is "Math Is Not Hard: A Simple Method That is Changing The World", by Julia Moulden.

It is about John Mighton, a man who had his own struggles with learning. Mighton was a playwright who supplemented his income as a tutor. That led to his deciding to be a mathematician. But his struggles with the subject almost made him give up. Remembering some of his tutoring experiences, he broke things down into small increments and went on to get a Ph.D.

He started a not-for-profit organization to promote a different way of teaching math - http://jumpmath.org.

He has written two books whose title alone should lead us to rethink teaching and our own learning - "The End of Ignorance" and "The Myth of Ability".

If you read Julia Moulden's article, be sure to follow as many links as you can, including the one to Thomas Friedman's article, "The New Untouchables", New York Times, 2009-10-21. I was going to write a blog about Friedman's article but as usual didn't find a round tuit. Ah, that's the secret of learning, finding round tuits:)

Math Is Not Hard: A Simple Method That Is Changing The World

The following is my comment to Julia Moulden's column of the same title. The above picture was added by the Huffington Post when I checked that I wanted my comment posted on my blog.

I've long thought that most of us can learn more than we do. Years ago I heard a radio interview where the speaker had a boy tell him, "I'm dumb" and the man replied, "Who told you that." Most of us have had people tell us that they were never any good in math, foreign languages, music, or whatever. The true answer is that they didn't have enough interest to invest some time in the subject.

I have proven it with my own increased singing ability. I once was told that I was hopeless. After years of my taking voice lessons, that same person is delighted with my ability. No, nobody is going to pay me to sing, but I have been asked back to sing solos.

I wrote about some of this experience in "Men Can Sing", http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree/men_can_sing_2005-02-03.html

If you are interested in a subject, start somewhere. Read about it, get lessons on it, just do something. And be willing to change and correct yourself.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Some people get hyperbolic about hyperbolic humor

My wife was on the phone with our daughter and mentioned her wisdom teeth surgery tomorrow. I blurted out, "She's going to lose what little brains she has."

My wife laughed and repeated it. She knew I didn't mean it because she knows I know it's not true. In fact, in some ways she's "smarter" than I am, and in other ways I'm "smarter" than she is. Vive la difference!

Unfortunately, there are people who take way too much way too seriously. I remember in graduate school when three of us who worked in the computer lab were discussing something or other with the assistant director about access to each other's desk. I remarked that one fellow kept his desk locked. I blurted out as a joke, "I don't know why he locks his desk, none of his programs work."

Later on, he berated me about insulting him in front of our boss. He just couldn't see that it was hyperbole about his locking his desk. It took me decades later to realize that I should have asked him, "You mean your programs really don't work?"

Bill Maher on our fellow citizen's intelligence

With a mix of fact and off-the-wall humor, Bill Maher held forth on how intelligence we are as a country, or rather how we are not, in "Smart President ≠ Smart Country".

That reminds me, someone at coffee said he would send me a name the state map game. He did not send it yet. The basis of his offer was a discussion on how many people can't place states on a map.

In that conversation, I mentioned the tale I heard about a Congressman who asked if he could drive to Hawaii. Which shows you how stories can take on a life of their own. The gullible would believe this story; the skeptical would not or would at least check. Without looking into every search item I found, I would say that "driving to Hawaii" is used as an example of an impossibility.

Tests won't improve education

I've long felt that academic achievement is more a function of culture than of genetics. Nicholas Kristof wrote an interesting op-ed on this, "Rising Above I.Q.", New York Times, 2009-06-07. He points out that Asians, Jews, and West Indian Blacks often have success more than other groups. Each has a culture of valuing learning. He writes that "success depends less on intellectual endowment than on perseverance and drive."

Mark Dayton put his finger on the problem with testing as a means to improve schools, "Who benefits from our test obsession?" Star Tribune, 2009-06-04. Teachers and students don't receive results until months after standardized tests are given. How does the really give feedback on what students have learned? He says, as I've long thought, "Mostly the point is to criticize schools."