Writing: An Important Tool for Those Who Value Freedom

From my Education Blog: Set Yourself Apart: Avoid Common Writing Mistakes...: In the age of blogs and social media, bad writing is all too common. Thus, the person who writes well stands out from the crowd.  You can be such a person....

STEM Education as a Path Out of Poverty

Check out this organization which seeks to free people from poverty by educating more girls in developing countries in math and science:



Hog on Ice: Books and Independent Learning: Promoting STEM Education in Developing Nations: I recently became acquainted with the Benignant STEM Innovation Foundation , which promotes education in math and science...

Will Wonders Never Cease? Democrats for Economic Growth?

In line with my previous book review post, looks like some Democrats are trying to save their party from the French Revolution-like "equality" crowd.  Check out James Petohoukis' article.  Apparently there are still Democrats in favor of innovation/wealth creation rather than just wealth redistribution. Is it too much to hope they might prevail over the Marxists in their party? Let us hope not.  I'd like all voters in all parties to have some good choices within their parties.

A More Prosperous Planet

About time somebody wrote about helping people prosper instead of just demonizing success!  It's been a while.  Felipe Tudela offers facts, not politics; math, not mantras.

As a trained engineer, I was hooked as soon as I found this phrase in the introduction: "Reality is always bound to win."  Yes!! I have always said people need to experience the physical sciences and physical work.  Then they know there are some inviolable rules--that reality does not adapt to our feelings or whims.  This is why engineering professors are not the Marxist kooks that liberal arts professors tend to be.  In the real world, those who break the rules cause explosions, fires, bridge collapses.  Marxist theoreticians (like many politicians) need not face the results of their experiments.  They insulate themselves while others suffer.  The entrepreneur, bridge builder, or surgeon, however, must pay the piper if/when he/she screws up.

Tudela seeks to explain the difference between the permanently limited wealth paradigm and the wealth creation paradigm.  The former sets us against each other in a winner-takes-all cage match, while the latter makes a better world for anyone of good will and work ethic.

Libertarians and conservatives should get copies of this book into the hands of as many as possible--particularly young people who have been poorly educated indoctrinated) by "progressive" schools.  Since reality always wins, let's be sure we understand it!

I will gift a copy of this book (Kindle) to the first two readers to comment on this blog post, so hurry!  You can also get a copy right away on Amazon.

Don't be Prey--Protect Yourself from Ravenous Government

I have recommended this organization before, but it seems time to remind my readers as election season is upon us again.  If you are tired of government swallowing your entire life with its laws, rules, whims, and taxes, join the Enlightened Zebra Society.  The website has plenty of informative articles on topics near and dear to lovers of individual liberty: flat tax, government spending, legal reform and much more.

There is work to do if we are to escape the hungry lion of progressive tyranny.  Let's get going!

Preserve Free Speech--Don't Be Silenced!

Is it indeed the End of Discussion?

Mary Katherine Ham and Guy Bensen teamed up to warn us of the dangers of letting the left shut down free speech.--not by passing laws, but through intimidation and personal destruction. Who needs to repeal the first amendment when they can simply sic a Twitter mob on you or make sure you lose your job because your wimpy employer doesn't want to make the evening news? 

Even if we wanted to keep all the left's rules (and believe me, I certainly don't) we couldn't. They change the rules daily and sometimes retroactively. Instead of a lively debate like our founders had in the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers, we, despite our abundance of communication resources, get a society that wants to stifle and filter communication instead of encourage it!

Please just stop!!! Let people speak, using words that have had meaning for generations. Stop thinking everybody has to tiptoe around and look at you right and have the right "tone." Heck, those of us who are engineers/geeks (like me and most of my friends) are lucky we can communicate at all under normal circumstances, let alone follow all the silly rules people with nothing useful to do with their lives keep making up and changing daily. 

Get this book.  And use your God-given right to free speech as often as possible.  Do not be silenced.

The trend of scaring private citizens into silence by making their every word as scrutinized as a public figure's does not bode well for a free society. When we are afraid to speak, argue, debate, and agree to disagree at times, we no longer have a free society.

I received a free review copy of End of Discussion from Blogging for Books.

Problems with Common Core: A Rant

Image from FreeClipArtNow

Common Core is an issue of great importance to parents, even if they do not send their children to state schools. It is so enormous in its reach that it will crowd out much of the innovation now happening in the private education sector.  Common Core is so extensive and complex that, as with the “Affordable Care Act,” it will be years before most citizens understand the many constitutional and pedagogical problems this Washington, D.C. initiative has caused and will cause.  Let’s look at the most important issues.

Why Do Many Citizens Oppose Common Core?

First, Common Core originated not in the states, but in Washington, D.C., where two organizations, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief School Officers, collaborated with the Gates Foundation and other private groups.  This major overhaul of K-12 education was created without input from the elected legislatures of the fifty states.  Governors were bribed by the federal government with threats to deny funds to states not cooperating with Common Core.  This is not a process in which local teachers and parents had any input, nor was their input desired.  This is a top-down initiative from businessmen and education bureaucrats, not teachers.

Given the Constitution of the United States leaves education to the states (see tenth amendment) Common Core is yet another federal encroachment into local issues.  Parents also have concerns about the massive amount of data to be collected under Common Core.  Not only will student information be available to schools, but to private researchers and companies.  The amount and scope of data on America’s children is unprecedented and alarming to parents concerned with privacy and civil liberties.

Parents also have reason to doubt that Common Core standards are indeed preparing students for college.  The fact that Common Core homework is often confusing to parents (one might think deliberately confusing) makes parents justifiably suspicious.  These parents are also concerned about the toll so much high-stakes testing takes on young children—and the instructional time children miss as test preparation and administration become the focus of schools.

Why Do Many Real Teachers and Professors Oppose Common Core?

Despite assurances that Common Core is not a national curriculum, states are required by the federal bureaucracy to assure that 85% of reading and math standards are Common Core compliant.. Thus, only 15% flexibility is allowed.  According to Eagle Forum, retaining cursive writing instruction would of itself take up that entire flexibility for a school.   Excellent teachers will be restricted in their ability to use creative and innovative lesson plans, as they will be chained to the curriculum provided by Pearson (a major textbook publisher and great beneficiary of Common Core.)

Professor R. James Milgram was the only professional mathematician on the Common Core Validation Committee.  He refused to sign off on the math standards.  He has testified that the standards are not rigorous—in fact they are two or more years behind international standards by grade eight and only get worse from there.  Common Core neglects/delays teaching of standard algorithms (i.e. how to calculate the right answer) in favor of group projects and “reform math.”  Engineers and other STEM professionals typically entered college having already taken calculus.  The Common Core generation will be lucky to squeeze in a precalculus course before college.

Who Benefits from Common Core?

Politicians are able, through Common Core, to claim they “did something” about education.  It matters not whether they did the right thing, only something.  Bill Gates made his fortune off computers and, surprisingly, Common Core requires schools to invest heavily in new technology instead of human capital (students and teachers.)  Michael Barber’s Pearson PLC, a British firm, also profits; already holding a large share of the textbook and testing  market, Pearson can all but destroy rivals in with the blessing of America’s federal government.

Be Aware

Read about Common Core.  Get involved with state organizations to monitor student privacy concerns and oppose excessive testing and federal curriculum.  Most of all, do what is best for your own family and community.  One size does not fit all!