Children As DATA....and Other Failures of Imagination

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Friday December 14, 2012 · 10:50 PM PST

2012/12/14 · 22:50

Affects of standardized educational experience on children.

I am horrified by yesterday's tragedy in Connecticut. This shit is getting to be too common place. What the hell is going on?

When education and learning experiences are micro managed by legislative bullshit like NCLB and RttT, there will be problems.

Just to reiterate. When education policy makers view children as data points instead of young human beings, I question the efficacy of their legislation.

How long will it take before people reject the data driven, mass production of educational experience where policy makers view children as cogs in a machine and the learning process as a simple matter of filling the blank slate?

When will we start carefully educating children as developing human beings individually endowed with unique characteristics and capacities?

semioticjim

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Sunday December 09, 2012 · 10:37 PM PST

2012/12/09 · 22:37

One of SemioticJim's hobbies is making pictures about issues that interest him. Most of his pictures have been hidden away. Like the global warming crisis that is at crisis proportions, education in America is at that stage too. Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in  turning children into corporate drones through their advocacy of high stakes testing, value added measurement, common core standards, authoritarianism in our schools, suppression of local control and children's self expression and perpetuating educational apartheid though legislation that encourages the privatizing of public education.

Education profiteering is Wall Street's next big thing.

This is a short diary. I really hadn't planned on writing it....but when I read something like this, it disturbs me.

Why is U.S. Education policy so friendly to the dictates of Wall Street and corporate foundations?

You got to be kidding! We are using the same mathematical formulas Wall Street derivatives traders used to implode the World economy and now we are using them to evaluate teachers?

So when Common Core architect David Coleman, whose work Secretary Duncan endorses, disregards children's opportunities for self expression and response to educational experience with statements like this: "When you grow up in this world you realize people don't give a shit about what you feel or what you think." I think that's absurd...

semioticjim

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Friday July 20, 2012 · 1:58 PM PDT

2012/07/20 · 13:58

I have some questions for the big wigs who pour billions of dollars into advocating, legislating and implementing the sham that is high stakes test driven standardized education here in the U.S.:

Are their educational, emotional and psychological costs to the children and citizens of the U.S. who endure non-consensual learning experiences, high stakes testing environments and pressurized school climates in public schools across the country?

Poll

73 votes Show Results

Is high stakes testing the magic bullet for American education reform?

73 votes Vote Now!

Is high stakes testing the magic bullet for American education reform?

Yes

2 votes

65 votes

The Theft of Public Education

semioticjim

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Sunday March 11, 2012 · 9:57 PM PDT

2012/03/11 · 21:57

California public education advocate Kathleen Carroll describes the corporate subterfuge and political graft taking place in the halls of government throughout much of the country that is threatening the worlds greatest public education system.

President Obama....who's side are you on?

www.dumpduncan.org

Poll

28 votes Show Results

Should politicians take standardized tests designed by teachers and have their results publicized?

28 votes Vote Now!

Should politicians take standardized tests designed by teachers and have their results publicized?

Yes

26 votes

2 votes

Looking for campaign help again from this teacher? Don't bother...

semioticjim

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 04, 2012 · 1:54 PM PST

2012/03/04 · 13:54

I am a teacher from Indiana with 29 years of classroom experience working with heterogeneous groups of young learners in urban and suburban public school settings. This is a short diary that in no way covers the complex issue of optimizing student learning experience but I am so upset about the corruption, subterfuge and toxic influence corporations have had upon public education since the ill conceived NCLB legislation was mandated upon children and teachers in U.S. public schools I am compelled to write this diary.

Poll

83 votes Show Results

Is American Education Policy under Arne Duncan headed in the wrong direction?

83 votes Vote Now!

Is American Education Policy under Arne Duncan headed in the wrong direction?

Yes

73 votes

10 votes

Why Preserving Fine Arts Programs in Our Schools Matters

semioticjim

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Thursday January 29, 2009 · 10:54 AM PST

2009/01/29 · 10:54

Preserving and sustaining fine arts programs in our schools during this period of economic crisis will be critical for many children across the United States. The economic recession we are experiencing has left state education agencies staring at massive funding deficiencies and has had a catastrophic affect on the support many school districts can provide to their fine arts programs. This has happened in many states and districts across the country and it may get worse. As state education budgets, already cut to the bone, shrink even further, many decision makers responsible for maintaining curricula offerings may be tempted to marginalize or remove funding from existing fine arts programs vital to the creative and imaginative growth of children.

Poll

156 votes Show Results

Should President Obama consider allocating funds from the stimulus package to preserve existing fine arts programs in our public schools?

156 votes Vote Now!

Should President Obama consider allocating funds from the stimulus package to preserve existing fine arts programs in our public schools?

Yes

146 votes

10 votes

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Children As DATA....and Other Failures of Imagination

What's going on in U.S. Ed. Policy?

The Hidden Costs of High Stakes Standardized Education

The Theft of Public Education

Looking for campaign help again from this teacher? Don't bother...

Why Preserving Fine Arts Programs in Our Schools Matters