February 27, 2008
Barack Obama came to Duncanville today. Bill Clinton was two miles away, at Mountain View Community College, yesterday. Texas hasn’t seen this level of attention from presidential candidates since we’ve been in the state (since 1987).
I had tickets to see Obama, but we had a called faculty meeting that ran long; they gave away my seat!
We’ll have to await reports from younger son James, who will be voting for his first time in the primary.
Older son Kenny, and Kathryn, caught Obama downtown, last week.
I think I’m the only one in the family who hasn’t committed to Obama. It’s a phenomenal campaign. More observations later tonight, I hope — off to symphony rehearsal.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 24, 2008
Image: Battle of Vera Cruz, artist unknown by me.
U.S. Rep. Abraham Lincoln, Whig-Ill., speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, January 12, 1848:
If the prossecution of the war has, in expenses, already equalled the better half of the country, how long it’s future prosecution, will be in equalling, the less valuable half, is not a speculative, but a practical question, pressing closely upon us. And yet it is a question which the President seems to never have thought of. As to the mode of terminating the war, and securing peace, the President is equally wandering and indefinite. First, it is to be done by a more vigorous prossecution of the war in the vital parts of the enemies country; and, after apparently, talking himself tired, on this point, the President drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us that “with a people distracted and divided by contending factions, and a government subject to constant changes, by successive revolutions, the continued success of our arms may fail to secure a satisfactory peace[.]” Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the Mexican people to desert the counsels of their own leaders, and trusting in our protection, to set up a government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace; telling us, that “this may become the only mode of obtaining such a peace.” But soon he falls into doubt of this too; and then drops back on to the already half abandoned ground of “more vigorous prossecution.[“] All this shows that the President is, in no wise, satisfied with his own positions. First he takes up one, and in attempting to argue us into it, he argues himself out of it; then seizes another, and goes through the same process; and then, confused at being able to think of nothing new, he snatches up the old one again, which he has some time before cast off. His mind, tasked beyond it’s power, is running hither and thither, like some tortured creature, on a burning surface, finding no position, on which it can settle down, and be at ease.
Again, it is a singular omission in this message, that it, no where intimates when the President expects the war to terminate. At it’s beginning, Genl. Scott was, by this same President, driven into disfavor, if not disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be conquered in less than three or four months. But now, at the end of about twenty months, during which time our arms have given us the most splendid successes–every department, and every part, land and water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever before been thought men could not do,–after all this, this same President gives us a long message, without showing us, that, as to the end, he himself, has, even an imaginary conception. As I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show, there is not something about his conscious, more painful than all his mental perplexity!
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | DBQ sources, Famous quotes, Historic documents, History, Mexican War, Politics, Quotes, War | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Quotes, U.S.-Mexican War, War | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 23, 2008
I was one of Bae’s kids, too.
Sad note from the Hinckley Institute of Politics (note the funeral is today, for those in Salt Lake City):
The former, present, and future interns, staff, faculty, and family of the Hinckley Institute of Politics mourn the passing of former Hinckley Institute Assistant Director, Bae B. Gardner. I first walked in the door of the Hinckley Institute in the fall of 1988. It immediately felt like a second home and the main reason was Bae. I am proudly one of “Bae’s kids.” Unless you share that distinction, it is impossible to fully convey the loss we feel today with Bae’s passing. Bae was not just an administrator to her “kids.” She was a mother, friend, cheerleader, mentor, and confidant. Indeed, she supported and sustained me from that first day as an inquiring student through the present as the Hinckley Institute’s director. Bae had the unique talent of making students feel that they had unlimited potential and the tireless ability to provide them with life-changing opportunities. The Hinckley Institute and I will forever be grateful for the legacy she established and the love she exhibited during her incredible years of service at the Hinckley Institute.
Kirk L. Jowers
Director, Hinckley Institute of Politics
Viewing and Funeral Service
Saturday, February 23rd
Viewing: 11:00 am. Service: 1:00 pm.
Foothill LDS 7th Ward Chapel
2215 E. Roosevelt Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
In lieu of flowers, the Gardner family has suggested that donations may be made to the Bae B. Gardner Internship in Public Policy scholarship fund administered by the Hinckley Institute of Politics. Donations can be made online or by calling the University of Utah Development Office at 801.581.6825. Donations can also be mailed to the Hinckley Institute at 260 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm. 253. Salt Lake City, UT 84112. For more information call the Hinckley Institute of Politics at 801.581.8501.
I had applied for an internship with the National Wildlife Federation. Bae thought I had a chance at a different internship, so she copied the form and sent it to the Secretary of the Senate. I lost the NWF internship on a .01 gradepoint difference. I got the internship at the Senate, and it changed my life.
Of course, I was on the road debating when the word came through that they wanted me in Washington. Bae called me late at night at home, minutes before my acceptance would have been overdue. Four days later I was working in the Capitol. Whenever I meet with other Hinckley Interns, I learn she did more for everyone else.
My first real office was a few feet from the Senate Chamber, with a view down the mall to the Washington Monument, and a chandalier 8 feet across. I got floor privileges to the Senate, and with Mike Mansfield’s name on my ID card, I had access to the White House and almost any other government building in town.
That sort of education is priceless. Thanks to Bae Gardner.
Bae should be remembered as a hero for education, a champion for college kids, and one who played a role in more good public policy decisions than few others in history, by promoting good kids to good experience that they applied later in public service.
I wish the service were streamed on the web somewhere. I’ll bet it’ll be something to see and hear.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Heroes, Personal, Politics | Tagged: Heroes, Higher education, Personal, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 19, 2008
Here’s a video from the guys at Fast Draw, about economic stimulation, offered first on CBS Sunday Morning on February 17. Great stuff for a high school economics course.
Will CBS make this available for teachers?
There is a commercial you gotta view for 15 seconds prior to the video — my apologies.
Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.cbsnews.com posted with vodpod
*
Write or call CBS Sunday Morning to plead for released copies:
ADDRESS:
CBS News Sunday Morning
Box O (for Osgood)
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com
TAPES: Log on to the CBS Store or call 1-800-542-5621.
TRANSCRIPTS: 1-800-777-TEXT
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Classroom technology, Economics, History, Technology in the classroom, Video and film | Tagged: Business, classroom video, Economics, Education, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 18, 2008
I love irony.
Henry VIII devised a novel way to save money. He ordered coins be minted containing silver, as during the reign of Henry VII, but he ordered that the purity of the silver be reduced. Edward VI continued the policy so that, by the time of the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, royal advisor and financier Sir Thomas Gresham observed that most of the old, high-silver content coins were out of circulation, hoarded by people against future inflation, allowing the lesser-valued money to circulate. Gresham told Elizabeth the bad money drove out the good money.
Sir Thomas Gresham (c. 1519 – 21 November 1579), British financier and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I and earlier regents. Portrait c. 1554 by Anthonis Mor.
The principle had been observed earlier by Aristophanes and others. It is known in modern economics as Gresham’s Law, since 1858 when British economist Henry Dunning McLeod decided to honor Gresham by naming the rule after him.
The bad drives out the good, the cheap drives out the more expensive, gossip drives out good information — the principle is widely observed in areas beyond economics.
And so it is that with regard to DDT, the good information about the dangers of DDT and the benefits of restricting use of the chemical has been driven out of the marketplace by bad information claiming DDT is safe, and ignoring the significant benefits reaped when massive use of DDT was stopped.
And here’s the irony: DDT-happy critics of good environmental policy now claim to be the good information driven out by the “bad” information of DDT’s harms. No kidding. A columnist named Natalie Sirkin, in a column delivering almost nothing but bad, vile information, says bad information drives out the good, never once noting the irony.
The defense of DDT was, from the beginning, a lost cause. A few of us vainly hoped that science would prevail. We soon found that Gresham ’s Law, which states that bad currency drives out good currency, applies to science as well as to economics.
No kidding it applies. Do a Google search for “DDT” today and you’ll find all over the internet the disinformation of Gordon Edwards’ ghost and junk science purveyor Steven Milloy. You will have a difficult time finding any solid study showing how DDT nearly killed off the American bald eagle, however, and you’ll have to do a targeted search to learn of any dangers of DDT — information on human toxicity is almost impossible to find, though it’s easy to find many recountings of Gordon Edwards’ bold drinking of a teaspoon of DDT before lectures.
(Natalie and Gerald Sirkin write for the American Spectator; at this writing, Google features warnings on all of their material at the time of this writing, saying the site host may try to insert “malicious software” on your computer — so I have not linked there. This problem should sort itself out, I hope.)
(The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works to get a history of the agency up on the ‘net; a lot from the DDT ban era is now available at the EPA site for scholars; Milloy will not be happy to have factual rebuttal officially and easily available.)
Below the fold, I’ll offer a point-by-point rebuttal of the bizarre claims in favor of DDT and against the noble public officials who worked to restrict its use.
Read the rest of this entry »
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8 Comments | Accuracy, DDT, Economics, Environmental protection, Geography - Physical, History, Junk science, Public health, Rachel Carson, Research, Science, War on Science | Tagged: DDT, eagles, Environmental protection, Junk science, Politics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 17, 2008
I always loved school carnivals. The elementary school versions always featured silly games and activities to appeal to kids of third grade mentality — right up my alley! Then I joined the PTA board at our kids’ elementary, and saw the numbers. The annual carnival took in several tens of thousands of dollars. A lot of that money bought new library books, some bought new science programs, all of it went for better education.
I really like a well-run carnival now. Here are a few well-run carnival events.
Carnival of the Liberals #58 flew to England, at Liberal England. Double the posts, ten from England, ten from the Americas. Geography and history teachers might be particularly interested in a post at Pickled Politics on whether Australia’s government will follow up with real action following their official apology to the continent’s aboriginals, for past mistreatment.
Will I ever catch up with the Carnival of Education? Teachers ought to browse this weekly — I haven’t looked at it weekly in the past month. Let’s go back to #155: Bluebird’s Classroom has a post about a teachable moment, involving her unit on weather, and the tornado warning that popped up during class. Pay particular attention to her use of the LCD projector and live television link. Odds are that your classroom can’t support such teaching, as mine cannot right now.
The rest of Carnival of Education #155 plays out at Median Sib. But I’m much farther behind. #156 resides at Creating Lifelong Learners. #157 can be found at Colossus of Rhodey. #158 moves in at Instructify. That one features this post (from Creating Lifelong Learners) about using your iPod in class to high purpose. I’ll wager there is not a school of education in the U.S. that teaches iPod use as a tool of classroom control and educational excellence. This is why we need to read these on-line collections. (“Hot 4 Teacher” graphic borrowed from Instructify.)
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Anthropology, Education, Education blogs, Education quality, History, Justice, Politics, Teaching, Technology in the classroom, War on Education, Weblogs | Tagged: Education, Edumacation, Politics, Technology | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 15, 2008
Depression presents a serious occupational hazard, moving back and forth between the classroom and business, classroom and internet. When do administrators and legislators get serious about catching up education?
Microsoft plans a product announcement at the end of this month. Rumors claim it’s a new version of Photosynth. Photosynth mades “3D” touring by computer possible for almost any destination.
I’ll wager not a single classroom in the nation is ready to make this work. If you disagree, I’d love to hear about the class that can make use of it.
System requirements for Photosynth won’t tax the computers that most high school gamers use, but they are beyond most of the classroom computers I’ve seen in the last five years.
Probably more to the point, curriculum designers in public schools don’t even have Google Earth on their horizons. Photosynth? I’ll wager it’s not even on the radar screens of GIS users in the nation’s Council of Governments (COGS).
Geography is an exploding discipline. GIS and computerized map programs make cell phone companies go, not to mention oil and gas exploration, coal mining, air pollution monitoring (for building new power plants, for example), and road building. GPS helps drive express shipping, and all other shipping. RFI and GPS together are revolutionizing retail.
You must know how to read a map just to get a job delivering pizza.
But 9th grade geography classes? The exciting stuff is absent today.
At the Texas Education Agency (TEA), officials fret about how to stop science from being taught in science classes, for fear the facts will skew the religious beliefs of their children. They need to worry about their children not even getting hired by the pizza delivery company for being ignorant of nature and science, and the maps that show them. In a competitive, technologically savvy world, inaction, dithering and damaging action by the TEA mean our kids won’t even have a prayer.
Relevant posts:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Classroom technology, Economics, Education, Education quality, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: Business, Education, Education reform, geography, Politics, Technology, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 13, 2008
The Waco Tribune published an opinion piece three weeks ago that I should have noted earlier. Trib columnist John Young noted that creationism isn’t science, and that generally creationists are not friends of science education (or any other education, sadly, not even Bible education).
Conditions surrounding Texas science standards, and education standards in general, have deteriorated very rapidly, with the chairman of the State Board of Education going on the warpath against mathematics, English and science teaching. For quick destruction to get the foolishness out of the way, one might hope he’ll go on the warpath against football and cheerleading. I’ve not had time to pass along all the sad details.
But then, not all crazies are stupid.
Earlier:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
111 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, Evolution, TEKS, Texas | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Politics, Religion, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 13, 2008
Southern Methodist University’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies will host a high-powered symposium in April, “Indians and Energy: Exploitation and Opportunity in the American Southwest.”
The symposium is set for Saturday, April 12, 2008, at McCord Auditorium in SMU’s Dallas Hall, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Teachers and community college professors may earn up to 7 hours CEU credits. Registration is available on-line. The $20.00 fee includes a luncheon; conference-only registration is an amazingly inexpensive $5.00.
Conference organizers are looking at a second wave of energy resource development in the Four Corners region, especially, following on earlier development of uranium ore extraction, and coal-fired power generation.
The symposium and the resulting book of essays will provide an historical context for energy development on Native American lands and put forth ideas that may guide future public policy formation. Collectively, the presentations will make the case that the American Southwest is particularly well-suited for exploring how people have transformed the region’s resources into fuel supplies for human consumption. Not only do Native Americans possess a large percentage of the region’s total acreage, but on their lands reside much of the nation’s oil, coal, and uranium resources. Regional weather patterns have also enabled native people to take advantage of solar and wind power as effective sources of energy. Although presentations will document histories of resource extraction and energy development as episodes of exploitation, paternalism, and dependency, others will show how energy development in particular has enabled many Indians to break from these patterns and facilitated their social, economic, and political empowerment.
My second job out of high school, and through much of my undergraduate days, took me to Farmington, New Mexico, and far around the area for the Air Pollution Laboratory at the University of Utah’s Engineering Experiment Station, to measure air quality and effects of air pollution resulting from the Four Corners Power Plant, as the San Juan Generating Station was under construction.
I’m planning to attend the symposium.
Especially after last Saturday’s sessions for history teachers at SMU (the Stanton Sharp Symposium), I highly recommend these programs for their ability to charge up high school teachers to better classroom work. This is history, and economics, at its best, looking to improve public policy and help people.
Planned presentations are listed below the fold, copying the information from the website for the symposium.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Economics, Environmental protection, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Native Americans, Natural history, Natural resources, Teaching | Tagged: air pollution, coal, Economics, Glen Canyon, History, Native Americans, Navajo Tribe, Politics, teacher training | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 13, 2008
Not exactly a cynical Quaker, but a cynical veteran working with Quakers for peace.
What if George Bush were to deliver something like the Gettysburg Address today? The Quaker’s Colonel has the text. It’s not as funny as it might be, but the topic isn’t funny at all. It’s every bit as thought provoking as it should be.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Panorama of the Mountains.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Economics, History, Iraq, War | Tagged: Business, economy, Iraq, oil prices, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 11, 2008
It was easy to miss it in most Texas churches yesterday, but it was Evolution Sunday. Darwin’s birthday, February 12, comes this week.
Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow offered an explanation that deserves reading outside of Dallas. I think he’s a little optimistic, saying “hundreds” of preachers participate — in Texas? Really?
Blow writes:
“Evolution Sunday offers an opportunity to educate our congregations that science is a gift,” said the Rev. Timothy McLemore, senior pastor at Kessler Park United Methodist Church in Oak Cliff.
“If we believe God is truth, we don’t need to shrink from truth in whatever way it presents itself. We don’t have to be threatened.”
The State Board of Education is set to review and revise science curriculum standards in Texas. And Dr. McLemore said he is “deeply concerned” about attempts to inject religion-based “intelligent design” theories into science classes.
“It seems profoundly unhealthy,” he said. “Do we really want the government deciding what religious beliefs and viewpoints are taught in school? It’s our job to promote our understanding of faith, not the government’s job.”
Even in Texas. We can hope government officials in Texas are listening.
Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Charles Darwin, Creationism, Evolution, Religion, Science, Separation of church and state, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas Freedom Network | Tagged: Education, Evolution, Politics, Religion, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 10, 2008
Living through history: Independence for Kosovo looks more likely; residents work to pick a flag for the new nation. Several serious hurdles remain; Russia promises to block UN action to support Kosovo independence from Serbia, in the Security Council.
That flag chart on your wall could be obsolete in the near future. What do your geography and world history students know about the new nation of Kosovo?
- Image: One proposal for the new flag of Kosovo, with no national symbols, no Albanian red, no double-headed eagle; image from New Kosova Report
Resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Capturing history, Flag etiquette, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, International law, World history | Tagged: flags, History, international affairs, Kosovo, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 9, 2008
3 Comments | Bell Ringers, Climate change, Current History, Economics, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, Global warming, Globalization, War, Warm-up exercises | Tagged: 2008, Economics, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 8, 2008
Everyone who knows him thinks highly of him. When the rest of the teachers in the department need help, they turn to him. The school is struggling to achieve the state’s testing standards, and much hope rides on this guy.
So, yesterday in the staff meeting, when he complained the news media were aiming specifically at him, the generally noisy teachers fell suddenly silent.
Studies may be generally accurate, but they are, by nature and design, generalizations. Across Texas yesterday, good teachers in struggling schools took a hit they don’t deserve.
I’m sure that’s not what the authors intended.
See this story in the Dallas Morning News. Check it out in the Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
Look at the report, from the Education Trust, here.
So far, I can’t tell if the study said anything about improving conditions for teachers to encourage the good ones to stay in the profession and take the tougher assignments. Conservatives will see this as a call to fire more teachers, I’m sure. Reaction will start any moment now.
Tip of the scrub brush to Aunt Betsy.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
4 Comments | Education, Education quality, Teacher Pay, Teaching, Technology in the classroom, Texas | Tagged: Education, Education quality, Politics, Teacher Pay | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 