Commentary

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I’m finished with this book before being finished with it. This book is very much the opposite of ‘Waiting for Superman’ but not just in position to charter schools. Diane, in her long career in education policy, never learned that the plural of anecdote isn’t data. Neither did she ever find a statistic she couldn’t cleverly use to support her side of the argument. Conclusions that ‘the average charter school isn’t better than the average public school’ don’t allow you to condemn all charter schools. Her stance on teacher unions is comically pro-union. Writing that unions in southern states are weak and those states don’t have better schools while unions in Massachusetts are strong and look how good those schools are doesn’t count as a critical argument. Correlation is not equal to causation except on Fox News. Earlier she praised the Bay State for having a strong curriculum, are we to forget this during your union cheer-leading chapter?

Surely we must agree that test scores aren’t the only way to judge teachers, but don’t rely solely on peer reviews as an alternative. Other businesses seems to find good ways to evaluate employees without falling back on standardized test scores.

I tried to hang in there, but when read critically many of her arguments fall apart. And when many of your arguments (meaning whole chapters) don’t hold water, maybe I should look harder at the others too.

View all my reviews

Starting a list of things I did wrong on my home renovation. A lot of the issues were caused by making decisions twice. The first time usually well thought out with reason and evidence by my side. The second decision rather rash and made to get the job moving and because the architect forgot the first decision.

When you have meetings with your architect and you decide on something, write down exactly why you came to your decision. Don’t rely on the architect writing it down. Also write down everything he’s promising you for your next meeting so you can check him on it.

Our guest room has a really cool pattern on lights on the dropped ceiling. My original decision was to have a ceiling fan without the dropped ceiling. Wish I’d written that one down. The ceiling fan in our master bedroom has been going for the last year, pretty much nonstop and we love it. Cool light pattern, not so cool, lots of heat, lots of electricity.

Advise on architects: Tom Vail of Vail Architects is bad. He might be good if his job were in sales or something where attention to detail isn’t important. Unfortunately, detail is important in architectural plans. Too many of my second decisions were forced on me because my original decision didn’t fit. Oh it fit on the plans, if only the plans reflected the reality of the space in the apartment. A few inches here and there matter and Tom Vail didn’t pay attention to those details.

Found this in Best of Craigslist. Of all the arguments for gay marriage, this pretty much sums it up:

And what sort of morally deformed person would take pleasure in the bitter disappointment of so many to whom this meant so much? What sort of person gloats in public for nothing more than just the empty momentary and childish pleasure of being agreed with on something that doesn’t affect them in the least?

Gay marriage doesn’t affect you one way or the other. Gay marriage doesn’t change your marriage and it doesn’t change your religion. A million gay people can get married tomorrow and nothing would change for you. Nothing at all. You wouldn’t even notice it but for your obsession about other peoples’ sex lives.

* Britney Spears can still get married while drunk for the 5th, no 6th, no, 7th time in Vegas to someone she just met last week, or even that night.
* You can still get married and divorced in the same day if you wish in several states and in some you can do that several times.
* Two 80 year olds can still get married as long as they are of different genders and even if one or both are afflicted with dementia.
* Two people of different genders can be married without ever meeting one another, even on the day of the wedding.
* Your sister can marry a guy on death row and never consumate the marriage.
* Your grandmother can marry the 20-year-old pool boy.
* Mary K. Latourneau can still marry the schoolboy she raped.

Please don’t tell me that gays are destroying the sanctity of marriage. Heterosexuals are doing a pretty bang up job of that without any help at all from gays.

Remember these when you go to church on Sunday:
# “Leave to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
# “Whatsoever you do to the least of you, you do also to me”