Clipmarks | Education Clips

Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:14:15 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The students with the motivation to improve themselves are usually too poor to stay at school, those who can stay have to cope with peer pressure and the children of the rich aim to be celebrities. The overall outcome of the deliberate neglect of education will be to decimate the middle class.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they are rarely identified in the United States. A major reason, according to the study, is that American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, for that matter — from excelling in the field. The study will be published Friday in Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

“We’re living in a culture that is telling girls you can’t do math — that’s telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,” said the study’s lead author, Janet E. Mertz,

For social reasons they’re not even trying.”

Tags: education

Is Sarah Palin a Feminist?

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:05:06 GMT

clipped by: birdie-brain
clipper's remarks: Women, including teenagers, need the knowledge and the tools to make responsible and moral decisions about such events that will certainly have such an impact on their lives.

Third, anyone who believes that abstinence education can avoid these adverse effects is living in la-la land. A significant percentage of our society will continue to have sex outside of marriage. Young women still report a stigma for using contraception, and so then sometimes have unprotected sex. Contraception itself is not foolproof. Epidemic proportions of women and girls continue to suffer from rape. If 11 year old Erin Maxwell, who was recently raped and murdered in our community, had survived her rape and become pregnant, Sarah Palin would favor forcing her to carry the child to term. Forcible childbirth and coerced parenthood is bad for children, for families, for communities, and for schools.

Clip Source: www.alcoff.com

you can't make a chauvinist pig any less so by adding lipstick on the ticket

supports the war and supports Republican economic policies while opposing universal health coverage will harm millions of women in this country if elected

Women bear the brunt of economic slumps since we are still routinely paid less and we more often have sole childcare responsibilities

We often work in sectors of the labor market that are less likely to have health benefits

A spike in domestic violence has been a fallout of the war because soldiers are coming home with insufficient mental health benefits

opposes reproductive freedom and responsible sexual education will disrupt and harm women's lives

When contraception is not available

it is women who bear the brunt not only in pregnancy but in greater vulnerability to serious STD's and HIV infection

Women in fact do not have a choice, as men do, whether or not to be involved in the pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing that their sexual activity may result in

Politifact: McCain's "pants on fire" about Ayers

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:21:59 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" award won by McCain

Clip Source: www.politifact.com

John McCain

"(Bill) Ayers and Obama ran a radical education foundation together."

Not a radical group, and Ayers didn't run it

Barack Obama

Tags: mccain, ayers, obama, lies

The Years He Won’t Discuss May Explain The Ayers Tie He Denies

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 05:53:15 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: transparent whitewashing of the Obama/Ayers tie, the paper claimed that the pair first met earlier in 1995, “at a lunchtime meeting about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper[.]” That storyline is preposterous too, but it is also a marked revision of the paper’s prior account (which, naturally, reporter Scott Shane fails to mention).

Why the change? The tacit concession was forced by Stanley Kurtz and Steve Diamond — whom the Times chooses not to acknowledge but who hover over Shane’s sunny narrative like a dark cloud.

Despite all manner of stonewalling by Obama, Ayers and their allies, these commentators have doggedly pursued information about the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. That’s the $150+ million “education reform” piggy bank substantially controlled in the nineties by Ayers and Obama, who doled out tens of millions of dollars to Leftist radicals — radicals who, like their patrons, understood that control over our institutions, and especially our schools, . . . .

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

Why Won’t Obama Talk About Columbia?

Barack Obama does not want to talk about Columbia. Not even to his good friends at the New York Times, who’ve so reliably helped him bleach away his past — a past neck-deep in the hard Left radicalism he has gussied up but never abandoned.

Why? I suspect it is because Columbia would shred his thin post-partisan camouflage.

Mr. Obama was introduced to the couple in 1995 at a meet-and-greet they held for him at their home, aides said.

Now look, anyone who gave five seconds of thought to that passage smelled a rat. Ayers and Dohrn are passionate radical activists who lived as fugitives for a decade. There’s no way they held a political coming-out party for someone who was unknown to them. Obviously, they already knew him well enough by then to feel very comfortable. They might have been sympathetic to a relative stranger, but sponsoring such a gathering in one’s living room is a strong endorsement.

And now, even the Times now knows it’s been had.

Tags: obama, ayers/dohrn, scott shane/nytimes, columbia, $150+ million “education reform”, chicago annenberg challenge, stanley kurtz and steve diamond

Battle Hymn of the New Socialist Party

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:26:42 GMT

clipped by: davboz
clipper's remarks: The Chicago New Party - 1996

Clip Source: sniff.numachi.com

The cloth cap and the working class, as images are dated. For we are Labour's avante-garde, and we were educated. By tax adjustments we have planned to institute the Promised Land And just to show we're still sincere, we sing The Red Flag once a year

It's one step forward, one step back. Our dance is devilish daring A leftward shuffle, a rightward tack, then pause to take our bearings. We'll reform the country bit by bit, so nobody will notice it Then ever after, never fear, we'll sing The Red Flag once a year

So vote for us, and not for them, we're just as true to NATO, And we'll be calm and British when we steer the ship of state-O

Clip Source: www.chicagodsa.org

And if we abandon public education, that is what will happen. Public schooling is the one institution left to us all that we own together and whose future will create our shared future.

The New Party

Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration

Well-Paid Teachers? I’m on Board

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:16:05 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: I agree. We should be paying our teachers, police, fireman, EMT/Medics, etc. more money. These are the people who make a difference in our communities and countries. The money these greedy CEO's make should be used toward teachers. Granted - there needs to be metrics and performance criteria put on the teachers, but they def. do not get paid what they should.

Clip Source: lessonplans.blogs.nytimes.com

Well-Paid Teachers? I’m on Board

When I recently saw an ad for a $125,000-a-year teaching job at a New York City charter school, my first thought was that it must be some sort of phishing scam. Everyone knows teachers don’t make $125,000. My second thought was, “Why shouldn’t we?” After visiting the school’s Web site and reading a New York Times article about the school, I realized it was not only legit, but potentially revolutionary in terms of education reform. So this school year, in addition to my regular special education teaching job, I’ve decided to get involved in the creation of this new school.

Tags: teachers, salaries, income, teaching, money

Obama Ayers smear ends here

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:39:05 GMT

clipped by: deb2012

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Walter Annenberg, a lifelong Republican and former ambassador who was appointed by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, funded an ambitious program to reform urban education in many cities in the mid 1990s. Ayers was an important member of the group that developed and wrote the grant proposal to the Annenberg Foundation.

But no one on the board or on the Annenberg Challenge staff remembers Obama being any closer to Ayers than to any other member of the board. The Annenberg board also included several civic, business and education leaders, many of them Republicans.

"It's ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It's nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It's so silly."

said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years.

this attack

"a smear campaign. It's a political diatribe that has no basis in fact. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was an extremely positive initiative.

Tags: politics

Vets Report Card: McCain=D; Obama=B

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:31:00 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Not what McCain would have you think

Clip Source: iava.www.capwiz.com

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

(3 out of 9 votes with IAVA Action, not a Post-9/11 GI Bill cosponsor)

Visit Official Website

Visit Sen. John McCain's candidate bio page.

Residence: Phoenix

Marital Status: Married (Cindy Lou)

Prev. Occupation: Naval Officer

Prev. Political Exp.: US House, 1982-86; US Senate, 1986-present

Military: USN, 1958-81

Education: BS United States Naval Academy, 1958

Birthdate: 08/29/1936

Birthplace: Panama Canal Zone

Religion: Episcopal

Clip Source: iava.www.capwiz.com

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)

(5 out of 9 votes with IAVA Action, plus 2 points for Post-9/11 GI Bill cosponsorship)

Visit Official Website

Visit Sen. Barack Obama's candidate bio page.

Residence: Chicago

Marital Status: Married (Michelle)

Prev. Occupation: Attorney, Lecturer

Prev. Political Exp.: IL Senate, 1996-2004; US Senate, 2004-present

Education: BA Columbia University, 1983; JD Harvard University, 1991

Birthdate: 08/04/1961

Birthplace: Honolulu, HI

Religion: United Church of Christ

Tags: veterans, mccain, obama

Obama and Ayers Have a Socialist Agenda

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:35:35 GMT

clipped by: Cezanne777

Clip Source: www.ibdeditorials.com

Obama's Real Problem With Ayers

Election '08: At an education forum in Venezuela, Bill Ayers showed the real issue is not his terrorist past. It's the socialist revolutionary agenda that he and Barack Obama want to impose on the nation's schools.

"School reformer" is how Brokaw identified the co-founder of the Weather Underground, the radical organization that, among other activities, bombed government buildings, banks, police departments and military bases in the early 1970s.

Yeah, right: Ayers is a school reformer in the same sense, as City Journal's Sol Stern put it, as Joe Stalin was an agricultural reformer.

Tags: obama, ayers, education, bill ayers, terrorist, socialist, revolutionary, schools

McCain Fails to Understand, Sneeringly Misrepresents Sky Theater As "Overhead Projector"

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:10:26 GMT

clipped by: gingembre
clipper's remarks: Andrey Kravtsov continues: "I find it appalling that Sen. McCain would call a science education tool for public (largely children) for
a historic planetarium with millions of visitors a year a wasteful earmark. The planetarium's focus, as stated on their website (http://adlerplanetarium.org) is "on inspiring young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in science." Is an investment in such public facility at the time when US
competitiveness in math and sciences is a constant source of alarm a waste?"

No, it is not a waste. Senator McCain's failure to understand and/or appreciate the importance of science education is indeed appalling, as is his sneering, sniveling misrepresentation of this equipment as an unnecessary, overpriced "overhead projector".

Clip Source: community.nytimes.com

I am an Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Chicago (the University that today has added yet another Nobel Prize winner in the sciences for the US). I would like to comment on Sen. McCain's statement during the today's debate that Sen. Obama has earmarked "$3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Ill. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?"

The way Sen. McCain has phrased it suggests that Sen. Obama approved spending $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment (overhead projector).

The 3 million is actually for an upgrade of the SkyTheater - a full dome projection system, which is probably the main attraction of the Adler Planetarium and is quite sophisticated and impressive piece of equipment.

I find it appalling that Sen. McCain would call a science education tool for public (largely children) for
a historic planetarium with millions of visitors a year a wasteful earmark.

Tags: 2008 election, science, mccain fails to understand, misrepresents

A White Guy Reflects on White Anti-Intellectualism

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:54:11 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks:

What else but a deep contempt for education (or book learnin' as we sometimes jokingly refer to it in the South) could explain why Barack Obama's Harvard Law School education can be mocked as elitist and out of touch, while John McCain's bottom-feeder academic record and Sarah Palin's four colleges in six years and degree from the University of Idaho, makes them ready to lead, and more like "normal people?" (And please, don't tell me how it isn't his education that poses the problem, but rather his comments about rural folks clinging to God and guns when times are tight, since a week after he made that comment, Dick Cheney implied that West Virginians were all a bunch of inbreds, and rural whites didn't seem to care, since at least he isn't an uppity black guy).

Clip Source: www.redroom.com

what I have always found interesting about the anti-intellectualism charge coming from whites and pointed at persons in the black community, is how readily it emanates from a group of people (white adults) who seem to actually revel in anti-intellectualism, as evidenced by our voting behavior and political sensibilities

What else but a deep contempt for education could explain the free pass given to George W. Bush for bragging at a Yale commencement a few years ago that he had been a C student, but that was OK, because even with a mediocre academic record you could go on to be president

the white love of anti-intellectualism in politics goes back quite a ways further than that

when Ronald Reagan decided to skip out on a policy briefing during an important overseas trip, all so he could watch The Sound of Music on television

most white folks still loved him and considered him a great leader. Perhaps it was because he had a ranch, liked to wear cowboy hats, and had that folksy aw-shucks grin

Has Slippery Sarah ever answered a question?

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:40:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: When Biden points out an historic weakness of the McCain approach, slippery Sarah dodges accountability with gab; we don't yet know if she knows anything! Comments by Bob Herbert.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

“Say it ain’t so, Joe! There you go pointing backwards again ... Now, doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?”

if something terrible happened, the country could be left with little more than an exclamation point as president

Where is the evidence that Governor Palin even understands these

challenging problems?

credit markets are frozen. Our top general in Afghanistan is dialing 911. Americans are losing jobs by the scores of thousands. And Sarah Palin is making sure we know that the chant is “drill, baby, drill!” not “drill, drill, drill.”

Maybe Senator McCain has reason to believe that it would not be the most colossal of errors to put Ms. Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency.

He’s got just four weeks to share that insight with the rest of us.

Tags: palin, biden

Palin's Alternate Universe

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:58:35 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: “Say it ain’t so, Joe! There you go pointing backwards again ... Now, doggone it, let’s look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education, and I’m glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right?

Aw-shucks, darn-right, I’m-just-a-hockey-mom governor of Alaska mouthing something completely devoid of meaning?

If Governor Palin didn’t like a question, or didn’t know the answer, she responded as though some other question had been asked. She made no bones about this, saying early in the debate: “I may not answer the questions the way that either the moderator or you want to hear.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Sarah Palin is the perfect exclamation point to the Bush years.

We’ve lived through nearly two terms of an administration that believed it could create its own reality:

“Deficits don’t matter.” “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” “Those weapons of mass destruction must be somewhere.”

Now comes Ms. Palin, a smiling, bubbly vice-presidential candidate who travels in an alternate language universe.

After Ms. Palin had woven one of her particularly impenetrable linguistic webs, Joe Biden turned to the debate’s moderator, Gwen Ifill, and said: “Gwen, I don’t know where to start.”

Of course he didn’t know where to start because Ms. Palin’s words don’t mean anything. She’s all punctuation.

NYT: Obama "not close" to Ayers

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:21:56 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Hokum alert: Despite new smear ad, which fails to mention that Obama was 8 yrs old when Ayers was illegal, that Ayers is a trusted advisor on education to the City of Chicago, and that Ayers wrote "My memoir is from start to finish a condemnation of terrorism, of the indiscriminate murder of human beings."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

in 1969, Bill Ayers helped found the radical Weathermen

Twenty-six years later, at a lunchtime meeting about school reform in a Chicago skyscraper, Barack Obama met Mr. Ayers, by then an education professor. Their paths have crossed sporadically since then, at a coffee Mr. Ayers hosted for Mr. Obama’s first run for office, on the schools project and a charitable board, and in casual encounters as Hyde Park neighbors

a new advertisement that was broadcast on Friday, juxtapose Mr. Obama’s face with the young Mr. Ayers or grainy shots of the bombings

the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”

“a guy who lives in my neighborhood”

“He’s done a lot of good in this city and nationally,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said

“This is 2008,” Mr. Daley said. “People make mistakes. You judge a person by his whole life.”

Tags: ayers

Questioning Someone Else's Debt

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:35:53 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern
clipper's remarks: I almost wish dulios had not told me about the snarky comments on Clipmarks related to my indebtedness.

It's called student loans. Since when are they supposed to be embarrassing? Just because my parents could not pay for me to go to college, I am supposed to be ashamed?

And of course, without child support or any contributions, I raised my two youngest siblings for seven years. Sometimes I had to borrow more money in student loans to support them. I was 25 and in graduate school with custody of my 13 year old sister, and the next year getting custody of my 12 year old brother. Where else was I supposed to get money? My story is in the clipped book as Chapter 7.

Clip Source: www.temple.edu

Reclaiming Class

Women, Poverty, and the Promise of Higher Education in America

"Reclaiming Class is truly first-rate. An extremely thoughtful, illuminating analysis of the role class plays in American society, particularly the perception of poverty, the stigma of poverty on those who are or who have ever been poor and the role of higher education in the survival of poor women. What is perhaps most valuable about the book is the combination of the personal with the theoretical and the analytic. The writing is vivid, immediate and compelling; the volume has an intensity that I believe will capture readers' attention and involve them in the debates and dilemmas poor women face."
—Ruth Sidel, PhD, Professor of Sociology, Hunter College and author of Keeping Women and Children Last

Clip Source: www.temple.edu

edited by Vivyan C. Adair and Sandra L. Dahlberg

The double-edged impact of policy and education in the lives of poor women

Tags: how dare they?, debt, jerks