Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
RIF Now-Pay Later
This video was created by the students and staff at Roy Romer Middles School in Los Angeles to oppose the 25% reduction in staffing caused by budget cuts. In the video you can see the talents of the students and teachers as well as the unity and quality of the relationships that exists between them.
Illinois State Senator Shares Her Experience with Stand for Children
In this short video, Illinois State Senator Kimberly Lightford shares her experience with the political advocacy group Stand for Children. Her comments are then followed by excerpts of one of Stand for Children's Co-Founders, Jonah Edelman, explaining the group's work in Illinois.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Do We Support Oppression and the Destruction of Our Environment Without Even Knowing It?
The Atlantic Monthly recently published an article raising the provocative possibility that our cell phones are fueling a brutal civil in the Congo. It is relatively easy in the United States to avoid thinking about such issues and hope "the market" will take care of such issues. Specifically, thinking that if this is a problem some advocacy group will take up the issue and do something about it. But as consumers we are an important actor in the market. If consumers purchase items at a given price, the producers assume that consumers are satisfied with the product as is. There is no reason for concern or financial incentive for the producer to change its behavior.
In the past, consumers could plead ignorance and argue that there was no way for them to be aware of all of the implications of the production processes used to provide the products that we consume. But now with ubiquity of the Internet it is much more possible to be aware of these issues.
The American market is such a large market that the decisions that American consumers make producer ripple effects and unintended consequences around the globe. I fear that many of the products that we thoughtlessly consume in America support the degradation of the environment, diminish sustainable development, supply profits to human traffickers and lead to the oppression of people around the world. Once consumers become aware of such issues through media such as the movie "Blood Diamond," which brought attention to the issue of "conflict diamonds," they seem to care about the problem and want to do something about it. Unfortunately, our commitment to changing our behavior from what is convenient is not always very strong. And we do not often put in the effort necessary to try to educate ourselves about the unintended political, economic and social consequences of our decisions as consumers. I fear that many of us are unintentionally providing tacit and implicit support for groups and actions that we do not want to support.
We cannot expect every consumer to be omniscient and aware of the source of all inputs and labor practices used to create the products we enjoy. But with the power of the Internet and social media, we can all try to do a better job of educating ourselves about the labor conditions and the impact of production methods on the environment around the world.
Read the article from the Atlantic Monthly:
"Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo?"
In the past, consumers could plead ignorance and argue that there was no way for them to be aware of all of the implications of the production processes used to provide the products that we consume. But now with ubiquity of the Internet it is much more possible to be aware of these issues.
The American market is such a large market that the decisions that American consumers make producer ripple effects and unintended consequences around the globe. I fear that many of the products that we thoughtlessly consume in America support the degradation of the environment, diminish sustainable development, supply profits to human traffickers and lead to the oppression of people around the world. Once consumers become aware of such issues through media such as the movie "Blood Diamond," which brought attention to the issue of "conflict diamonds," they seem to care about the problem and want to do something about it. Unfortunately, our commitment to changing our behavior from what is convenient is not always very strong. And we do not often put in the effort necessary to try to educate ourselves about the unintended political, economic and social consequences of our decisions as consumers. I fear that many of us are unintentionally providing tacit and implicit support for groups and actions that we do not want to support.
We cannot expect every consumer to be omniscient and aware of the source of all inputs and labor practices used to create the products we enjoy. But with the power of the Internet and social media, we can all try to do a better job of educating ourselves about the labor conditions and the impact of production methods on the environment around the world.
Read the article from the Atlantic Monthly:
"Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo?"
Saturday, July 9, 2011
"Reformer" Explains How Teachers' Unions in Illinois Were Taken Down
Jonah Edelman Co-founder of Stand for Children talks in detail about how they came to Illinois with the express purpose to take down the teachers unions. He revels in the fact that the general public was unsuspecting of the tactics being used against the teachers of Illinois and if they had it would have been unpalatable . He talks about how he worked to divide and conquer the teachers' and how the Illinois teachers association president went to work for Arne Duncan at the U.S. Dept of Ed. shortly after the talks were settled.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Why US Education Deserves Our Praise and Funding
John T. Harvey, an Economics professor at Texas Christian University, recently posted an excellent post to his Pragmatic Economics blog from Forbes. Here is an excerpt from that post:
"My immediate motivation for addressing this issue is the fact that over July 15-16, my wife, Melanie, and I will be attending the Save Our Schools conference in Austin. She has been a 4th grade teacher in Everman, Texas for 18 years, and I don’t know anyone who works harder than she does. I always tell people that she is the one with the real job. She gets up at 5:30am every morning, leaves the house about the time the kids and I are rising, goes in early to work to get things ready for the day, spends the school hours teaching lessons about mathematics, literature, science, civics, citizenship, friendship, achievement, disappointment, dedication, right, wrong, pride, humility, and more, and stays late to organize materials and set up special projects. During any given day, she may serve as instructor, mentor, counselor, intermediary, motivator, nurse, and disciplinarian. When she finally comes home around 5:30pm or 6:00pm, there are often papers to grade, parent calls to make, lesson plans to write, or other required (if not always important) tasks. To those looking for a cushy 9:00 to 3:00 job, this ain’t it. If it weren’t for the summers, when she finally gets to recharge her batteries and spend some quality time with the rest of the family, I would have begged her to quit years ago. Incidentally, she used to be a very successful (record-setting, in fact) office manager in the private sector. So much for, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.”
Melanie’s experience does not appear to be unique. Data from 2008 indicate that hours spent by teachers on instruction is higher in the US than in any other OECD country. And Christiana Stoddard and Peter Kuhn (2008) found that, since 1983, teacher on-the-job hours have increased by roughly one hour per week, while after school time devoted to work has jumped by 34%. It is also common for teachers to spend a not insignificant amount of their own money on materials for their students and there are at least a few training sessions they are expected to attend during the summers (on their own time).
One might interject here that there are plenty of jobs where the employees work long hours. Quite right. But teachers aren’t asking for our pity, only our respect. And this is something they sorely lack."
Continue Reading:
http://blogs.forbes.com/johntharvey/2011/07/08/save-our-schools/
"My immediate motivation for addressing this issue is the fact that over July 15-16, my wife, Melanie, and I will be attending the Save Our Schools conference in Austin. She has been a 4th grade teacher in Everman, Texas for 18 years, and I don’t know anyone who works harder than she does. I always tell people that she is the one with the real job. She gets up at 5:30am every morning, leaves the house about the time the kids and I are rising, goes in early to work to get things ready for the day, spends the school hours teaching lessons about mathematics, literature, science, civics, citizenship, friendship, achievement, disappointment, dedication, right, wrong, pride, humility, and more, and stays late to organize materials and set up special projects. During any given day, she may serve as instructor, mentor, counselor, intermediary, motivator, nurse, and disciplinarian. When she finally comes home around 5:30pm or 6:00pm, there are often papers to grade, parent calls to make, lesson plans to write, or other required (if not always important) tasks. To those looking for a cushy 9:00 to 3:00 job, this ain’t it. If it weren’t for the summers, when she finally gets to recharge her batteries and spend some quality time with the rest of the family, I would have begged her to quit years ago. Incidentally, she used to be a very successful (record-setting, in fact) office manager in the private sector. So much for, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.”
Melanie’s experience does not appear to be unique. Data from 2008 indicate that hours spent by teachers on instruction is higher in the US than in any other OECD country. And Christiana Stoddard and Peter Kuhn (2008) found that, since 1983, teacher on-the-job hours have increased by roughly one hour per week, while after school time devoted to work has jumped by 34%. It is also common for teachers to spend a not insignificant amount of their own money on materials for their students and there are at least a few training sessions they are expected to attend during the summers (on their own time).
One might interject here that there are plenty of jobs where the employees work long hours. Quite right. But teachers aren’t asking for our pity, only our respect. And this is something they sorely lack."
Continue Reading:
http://blogs.forbes.com/johntharvey/2011/07/08/save-our-schools/
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