The Liberal View (4/3)
by Pythagoras (Member) - published: April 2, 2005
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The Liberal View (4/3)
By Pythagoras

This week’s edition will focus primarily on comparisons:

Dan Rather and George Bush: Dan Rather reported on a faulty document that predominately contained factual information. George Bush responded to faulty intelligence that predominately contained…well, faulty information.

Rather’s mistake was that he trusted a document because it contained information confirmed to be true by other sources. Bush’s mistake was that he trusted his intelligence because it told him what he wanted to hear.

As a result, Dan Rather and CBS News both lost a great deal of credibility. As a result, George Bush and his republican cohorts lead the nation into war that has cost the US their credibility in the international community.

Rather’s mistake resulted in CBS news losing revenue in advertising dollars. Bush’s mistake has cost 1533 US soldiers, and as many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians, their lives. Further, it has also cost the American taxpayer approximately $1.6 trillion to date.

Rather’s mistake led to his early retirement largely because republican pundits repeatedly screamed for it. Bush's mistake has yet to cost him anything, but I’m certain that Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Hannity will shout just as loudly for Bush’s resignation to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy.

Paul Krugman and Bill O’Reilly: Paul Krugman is a world class economist and a professor at Princeton University. Bill O’ Reilly has hosted the TV tabloid show Inside Edition, has written an erotic thriller, and currently hosts the tabloid political show “The Factor.”

Krugman has repeatedly and accurately pointed out the flaws in Bush’s economic policies from taxes to social security. O’Reilly frequently reports false information such as Iraq having ricin (it didn’t), California’s prison system paying for inmate’s sex changes (it didn’t), and he claimed that France has lost billions in revenue due to his boycott and supported the lie with a non-existent magazine.

In a head to head debate, Krugman made O’Reilly look silly by correcting Bill’s flawed understanding of economics and politics. O’Reilly continues to attack Krugman regularly on the Factor by calling him an “extremist” who goes after anyone who disagrees with him.

Krugman has credibility to spare…O’Reilly can’t by any.

Bush’s Education Policy and Successful Schools Education Policies : Bush’s policy calls for more administrative controls to monitor compliance with No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Successful schools limit administrative controls allowing teachers to adjust to the needs of their students.

Bush’s policy calls for undermining teachers and their unions, which limits the amount of teacher’s pay. Successful school districts lure high quality teachers to their schools with more competitive pay and support.

Bush’s policy relies heavily on standardized testing. Successful school districts limit standardized testing as it harms the educational process. This is because it leads to something referred to as “multiple choice teaching,” which is where teachers, who feel pressured to raise test scores, focus more on the memorization of surface level facts, dates and the usage of basic formulas. On the other hand, successful schools teach higher order thinking skills and strive for deeper student understanding.

Bush’s policy creates school systems that prepare students to work at McDonalds. Successful school policies lead to school systems that prepare students for college and the rest of their lives.

This Week’s Quotes:

Bill O’Reilly on the ACLU: All right, this hour's devoted to the most intense threat to your freedom in the world. It's not Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is not the most intense threat to your freedom -- it's the American Civil Liberties Union. (The ACLU is an independent watch group that defends the constitution of America and the rights and liberties it grants.)

Bill O’Reilly compares himself to Judge Greer who has faced death threats for his stance on the Schiavo case: Well, that's true. So do I, Mr. Krugman. And the reason I need armed bodyguards is because of you and the far left. I gotta have 'em. Okay? So this isn't a one-way street here. (To date, the FBI has yet to capture anyone plotting to kill Bill O'Reilly.)

More Bill O’Reilly on the ACLU: So look, I'm declarin' war on the ACLU. I think they're a terrorist group. They're terrorizin' me and my family. They're terrorizing me. I think they're terrorists. Can I get some lawyers to help me out here? Can we sue 'em? They're puttin' us all in danger. (Evidently, Bill is opposed to civil liberties.)

Bill O’Rielly on the Schiavo situation: "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight -- the battle over Terri Schiavo's life came down pretty much along secular-religious lines. Roman Catholics and other right-to-life-based religions generally wanted Ms. Schiavo to live. And the ACLU and many of the secular organizations saw no reason to prolong the woman's life. (He’s wrong of course on virtually every issue. Polls do not indicate that the country is divided along secular-religious lines as 68 percent of evangelicals felt that congress should have stayed out. Further, 63 percent of Catholics felt the tube should have been removed while only 26 percent opposed it. But if you’re looking for facts, truth or accuracy from O’Reilly you might want to have a CAT scan yourself.)

------
What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

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Comments

The following comments are for "The Liberal View (4/3)"
by Pythagoras

Enjoy
I always enjoy these things. Great work.

Commenting recently on his legal battle with Todd McFarlane, author Neil Gaiman mentioned that Todd was, once again, "distancing himself from the reality-based community". I can't read that passage without thinking of how aptly it refers to Bill O'Reilly, Shrub, and their cadre in general.

It seems so easy for a tyrant to make people believe he's something else by merely proclaiming it. It's similarly easy for a hack tabloid "journalist" to convince people that has a clue and should be listened to.

But . . .

The difference between Shrub and O'Reilly on one side, and Castro and Geraldo Rivera on the other, is that the latter two have damn sexy moustaches. And that's about it.

( Posted by: Viper9 [Member] On: April 2, 2005 )

Liberal View
Yep. Anyone who believes O'Reilly is in fact a journalist is either stupid or insane. Unfortunately, several people in the U.S. are either or both.
I like these. Keep up the good work.

( Posted by: icymatt [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

re:Viper and Icymatt
Thanks for the comments you two, and I'm glad that these are finding an audience. Also, thanks for adding the funny, funny line about the sexy mustaches...you're a hoot viper.

Pythagoras

( Posted by: Pythagoras [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

One more item:
I had originally planned on having the following compare/contrast segment in the article, but I thought two on education would be a bit much. At any rate, here's the other:

American and Asian education: In America, surveys show that our teachers' primary goal is for their students to learn skills. In Asia, their goal is to teach to "understanding."

In America, teachers lecture on a skill, model that skill, and then let their students practice it independently. In Asia, students are given a new kind of problem at the beginning of class, they work on it independently or in groups and after a while the report back to the entire class methods they used to solve the problem. At the end of the class, the teacher summarizes or lectures if needed.

In America, students cover 15 to 30 different skills a week. In Asia, they may work on only 5 total problems.

In America, our students develop a surface level understanding of the skills and mostly just "parrot" back what their teachers have told them. In Asia, students develop a deep understanding as they discover or are exposed to multiple ways to solve a single problem, and their thinking is not limited by teacher's imput.

Lastly, American and Asian students in math and science are about equal up to the 3rd grade. By 8th grade, the Asian student has noticeably pulled away. By graduation, the gap between the Asian and American student is disheartenly significant.

One other thing, Bush's reliance on tests forces teachers to continue to teach in the failing American style as they need to cover as much surface area knowledge as possible.

Further, to teach in the Asian style you need to have a greater command of your subject and you need to have better classroom management skills. Basically, you need better teachers and you cannot get them if there salaries are only competitive with "Walmart" workers instead of other educated professionals. (Currently, about 33% of our educational funding goes to teacher's salaries and another 20% goes to supplies. The remaining near 50% goes to Administrater/Peripheral staff salaries and building and maintenance.)

Pythagoras

( Posted by: Pythagoras [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

Skills
Interesting, but the skills vs understanding comparison doesn't work. The point of learning the skills is to enable understanding -- in particular, to develop the students' ability to understand things on their own, who don't need their hands held. It's a deep level of learning.

The problem is that despite the rhetoric, the model is rarely put into practice in North America. It's the exception rather tham the rule (as you meantion, there's still a lot of lecturing, which is useless for skill development). Most classroom time is still spent on rote learning or not learning at all.

The Asian model that you mention is called "Problem Based Learning," and it was actually created in Canada (I teach it to potential teachers). Much of Asia still doesn't use it (at least, not for most subjects), but I certainly agree that those districts that use it turn out a higher quality student -- especially in math and science.

Yet, a key difference to keep in mind is that the best schools in North America, though still behind Asia in developing deep problem-solving skills in math and acience, are better at developing breadth and depth in other subjects. The Chinese system, for example, focuses exclusively on a few subjects. So the students learn a hell of a lot about a few subjects, and nothing else.

Standardized tests are geared toward lecturing rather than deep learning. The goal is to cram as much superficial crap as possible into the heads of the brighter studnets, which they can regurgitate without understanding at test time, then promptly forget. It is, in many ways, the opposite of effective teaching and learning. But that's government for you. Canada is just as idiotic as the US in this regard.

( Posted by: Viper9 [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

Skills vs. Understanding
Viper,

I see that we are on the same page, Viper, in a lot of areas. I teach mathematics and I also conduct workshops on the use of "problem based learning" for my district. We primarily use Key Curriculum Press's Interactive Math Program or IMP for short.

But I disagree that teaching skills enable understanding. For instance, I can teach someone the Pythagorean theorem, and people can become fairly skilled at using it without any real understanding of the theorem.

As a result, students who are taught skills first are able to apply the skill in situations and environments similiar to those that they learned the skill in. Change the environment slightly, and suddenly the student who has learned the "skill" is lost. However, if the student is taught to "understand" the thereom they will not only develop the skill, but will be able to apply it in various situations AND will recognize what situations require the usage of this theorem.

As for the Problem Based Learning method being developed in Canada, I also disagree since its roots can be traced back at least to Socrates...and Pythagoras of course ;) I assume you mean the latest versions. (That's just me being argumentative.)

As to what percentage of teachers use the "Asian" Model I speak of, I can't say for sure. But I am currently working towards my Masters of Science in Math Education at Drexel University and in the texts and courses we are studying they say that this method is widely used in Asia and Europe.

One text that makes frequent reference to it is "The Right To Learn" by Linda Darling-Hammond. And another course Im taking, called Educational Leadership, we are studing the differences between the two systems...and we are shown footage of Asian, German, and US teachers to compare and contrast the styles... so I'm under the impression that it is more widely used than you suggest.

As far as breadth and depth in other skills goes, this might be true in Canada, but in the US our writing skills are atrocious...So, is our understanding of history for that matter.

As for your last paragraph, I feel you are right on the money.

Thanks for the lively educational theory discussion....educators need to have these more often.

Pythagoras

( Posted by: Pythagoras [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

Pythagoras
I think we agree on most things, and that our disagreement stems from different use of words.

For example, when I say that teaching skills enables understanding, I'm referring to skills like numeracy, information literacy, critical thinking, skepticism, rhetoric, communication, etc. that are transferable to any context and that are necessary precursors to understanding. Without these skills, you can't have understanding - -at least, not in a broad sense. The skills, because they're transferable, enable the student to make sense of situations that don't in any way resemble the classroom.

As for problem-based learning, it certainly has its roots in Socrates, Cicero, et al. Yet it's a different beast. The Socratic method, for example, uses the instructor as a constant foil. It's the instructor who formulates the questions, points out inconsistencies, etc., not the student. PBL forces the student to formulate good questions then find good, evidence-based and well-reasoned answers to them.

Glad to see you're pusruing a master's in math education! We need more people like you! My university has a terrific award-winning math instructor who can help anyone (even mathematical halfwits like me!) understand what's going on. But most teachers, in most disciplines, don't come close to him -- partially, I think, because they've only been trained to use useless methods of education, such as lecturing.

( Posted by: Viper9 [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

Viper and Demeter
Viper, I think we are both saying similiar things, and are only arguing over the details...which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But I do want to be clear about the differences between teaching to skills and to understanding.

Let's say there are 2 teachers who want their class to get from point A to point B. Teacher 1 uses a skills method and tells her class to walk the first 10 yards, hop the next 10 yards and crawl the last 10 yards. She will model this method. Then her students will practice them. At the end of the period all of the students have learned three skills to travel this distance and the learning is quite standardized. In fact, from this point forward every time they are asked to cross a similiar distance they will most likely walk, hop and crawl.

Teacher B teaches to understanding. She enters the room and tells her class to figure out how to get from point A to point B. At first, they will all walk. Then someone will run. Someone else will be inspired to hop. Others will try to out do their peers and some will roll. Some will dance. Some will spin. At the end of the period they will discuss their various methods, and they will understand that there are many, many ways to travel a distance and they will have learned many, many more skills. Further, since they have discovered on their own they will know it better, they will have strenghtened their minds and they will recall it for a longer period of time. Lastly, when they are asked to cross a similiar distance they will know that they have a plethora of options.

As for the differences between the Socratic method and PBL, I agree they are different...I said its roots stretch back to him. In fact, there is not a good PBL teacher who doesn't use the Socratic method...because when students get stuck, you want to guide them with subtle questions. (Yes, you can travel this distance by walking...but are there any other ways could you use? Rather than just telling them to hop.)

Again, I think we're probably on the same page, I'm just searching for clarity.

As for learning math in college, it is my opinion that if you don't have the basics of algebra mastered by the time you're done high school you are going to have a very difficult time learning it in college. Primarily because they material is covered at such a pace that its hard to master the necessary skills...so don't feel bad if its troubling you...trust me, you are not alone.

Demeter...Thanks for your comment. Its as interesting a read as my article...heck, probably more so...I love how you can watch that channel for amusement...it just stresses me out!

The sad thing is, it has twice the viewers of CNN now...How scary is that?

Pythagoras

( Posted by: Pythagoras [Member] On: April 3, 2005 )

truth Rather than lies
Unfortunately the truth of the underlying story was buried beneath the "Rathergate" document debacle.

ACLU defends free speech rights, even the hateful venom and lies of Nazis, bigots, and even Bill O'Reilly. (Is that redundant?)

I enjoyed this week's dose of strong truth.

( Posted by: drsoos [Member] On: April 4, 2005 )

Soos N MacBeth
Soos, I firmly believe that the whole point of Rathergate was to stop people from talking about the truth...that Bush left the Air Nat'l Guard without permission and had you or I done it, we'd have been thrown in jail.

As for the ACLU, I couldn't agree more. Here's an aside, remember when Limbaugh was caught sending his maid to by him prescription drugs illegally...guess who Limbaugh contacted to see if his civil liberties had been violated...yep, the ACLU...the same group he had vilified for years. How funny is that?

Macbeth, right on brother...F...the power!

Pythagoras

( Posted by: Pythagoras [Member] On: April 5, 2005 )

Pyth&macbeth...
Well, be a boring fuck...Egotistical ass! Media,
media, media mop up your shit, for it stinks...
ACLU, hogwash, too! Experience, I have on this
so called, whatever...I don't have time for this crap...Pythagoras, love the intestinal fortitude...Just Robin, living in the US, where, at least, for the time being, we have the right to write...
~Robinbird~

( Posted by: Robinbird [Member] On: April 5, 2005 )

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