Maggie's Farm

Obama's sexual harassment policy for campuses:

"... in late June, Arizona senator John McCain penned a letter to the Justice Department, co-sponsor of the blueprint, along with the Education Departments's Office of Civil Rights.  It asked--wholly reasonably--under what authority either the DOJ or the OCR interpreted Title IX as giving them the right to create a "blueprint" to impose campus speech codes. (Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which the OCR apparently doesn't consider a binding precedent any longer, stated that sexual harassment must be "so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim's access to an educational opportunity or benefit.") McCain quoted from a letter critiquing the "blueprint" penned by the AAUP's Committee on Women in the Academic Profession (not exactly a right-wing group) before posing a series of questions of his own.For instance, he wondered to what extent "the broad nature of the new and judicially untested 'unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature' standard [might] increase the risk of a wrongful conviction."

That an influential U.S. senator expressed concern about the OCR's efforts--a rare event, indeed--might have led to more robust public condemnation of the administration's years-long assault on campus due process. Instead, if anything, the reverse has occurred..."

Vedder makes the case: Why Ed Schools are Useless:

 Teachers should earn degrees in academic disciplines, and undergo a modest amount of teacher preparation that at the secondary level is almost exclusively student teaching, working with seasoned high quality professionals, while primary and special education teachers should also receive a small number of courses dealing with the special problems of teaching those with immature minds or physical or mental disabilities. The supply of good teachers will expand, and universities will be free of an albatross that simply has not worked well, either for them or society.

From the article:

"General College students were normally required to take 17 hours a semester to remain enrolled, a tough load during the Vietnam War draft from 1965 to 1972. To matriculate out of General College at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, students had to complete four semesters of science (with lab), two semesters of English and English literature, two semesters of math, four semesters of a foreign language, two semesters of physical education and two semesters of Western Civilization - the course that contributed the most to the failure rate.

The radical scholars recognized Western Civ had to be erased to achieve their goal of destroying the old order and ushering in the new "inclusive" inclusive manifesto. (Remember Jesse Jackson's chant at Stanford? "Hi-ho, hi-ho, Western Civ has to go"). In the process, the General College was abandoned - and with it went the foundation of a proper college education."

Dinosaur that I am, that old style is still "college" to me and it is what I expect from job applicants I interrogate interview.

Our True Founding Principle:

 "To champion the nation's founding principles is to commit to a downsizing of government the likes of which can barely be imagined, in today's climate. Who in America is prepared to handle the whole truth and nothing but . . . or commit to so radical a cause? Who on talk radio would dare hint of mounting a righteous crusade of abolition against the welfare principle, as such? Which Tea Party candidate will run for office pledging to slash his constituents' benefits and put the civil servants in his district or state out to pasture?"

Related, from Judge Napolitano: How can we celebrate the degradation of liberty?

Related:  Seventy-one percent of Americans think the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be disappointed by the way the United States has turned out, a Gallup survey released Thursday shows.

Inside the academy and out, subjectivity is starting to replace the objective search for truth.

One quote:

Perhaps the most aggressive and outlandish attacks against science are attempts to inject value-driven methods into traditional science. Two academics at British universities, Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz, came up with the concept of  “post-normal science,” a decision-making tool for situations when "facts are uncertain, values are in dispute, stakes are high, and decisions are urgent." That is not the realm of science, but of politics. After all, who is to decide whether decisions are so “urgent” that they must be made even when “facts are uncertain?”

Another ruse for promoting political agendas under the guise of using science is the “precautionary principle.” That principle is summarized as “[W]hen an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” On the surface, this almost sounds reasonable, yet it is really just another deception to insert subjective values into the scientific process.

As they say in The Program, "Feelings aren't facts."

Article here.

Traditionally first-timers have accounted for around 40 percent of purchases in the resale market. But in May, according to the National Association of Realtors, they were just 28 percent, down from 29 percent in April and 34 percent a year ago.

Big deal? Yes. If predominantly young, first-time purchasers are not entering the home ownership pipeline at anywhere near their traditional rate, at some point the system begins to choke...

Well, many figure that owning property is just a money pit anyway. Truth be told, my place has been an excellent investment, but I would never sell it. I'll die here. Where else? It's home. And the bank still owns 1/3rd of it anyway.

Even though I am opposed to the mortgage interest tax deduction, I am not retarded. I would never pay off a mortgage unless to get a better one.

The article is here.

It's a strange premise, though. There is little that makes life easier about having kids. Perhaps when you're in your 80s kids can make your life easier, if you're lucky. Having kids is not about your convenience or career. It's about creating family. Life is easy without family.

She begins:

 Even though I'm a product of public schools and my mother just retired after 40 years as a public school teacher, I do not send my children to public schools. Instead, we are huge supporters of classical education, sort of the opposite of the progressive model employed in public schools across the land...

I am opposed to prison time for much non-violent crime. In fact, I don't even want Bernie Madoff in prison, living on my nickel at around $70,000/year. I'd rather see him shamed, shunned, fined unto poverty, and working as a greeter at an Orlando WalMart after spending a few weeks in the stocks on Wall St. or downtown Miami.

He would have made an excellent WalMart greeter.

I am also opposed to prison time for drug possession and, in fact, I am opposed to drug prohibition generally. Drug prohibition causes violence and craziness, makes drugs expensive, and feeds gangs and gang warfare.

This is not an endorsement of meth or heroin or even pot use, just pointing out that prohibition doesn't work and costs society more in the long run. If people mess up their lives and make themselves stupid with abuse and addiction, it should not be my problem. The prohibition is what makes it my problem.

Here's an article: Responsible Prison Reform.

"Legal" does not mean that you have to approve of it.

We recently posted the report that Google is not particularly interested in interviewing American grads with college degrees.

The fact is that the meaning of Higher Ed has changed in the past 100 years in the US. In 1900, around 2% of Americans had BA degrees. That was a meaningful socio-cultural marker, but as the numbers now exceed 35%, and as even the most elite schools do not seem to know what their mission is, it no longer means very much more than a piece of paper required to manage a McDonald's store.

For a couple of decades, as BAs became commonplace, graduate degrees seemed to become more meaningful and popular as markers. Now, however, we are overrun with unemployed and marginally-employed MAs, PhDs, JDs, D. Divs, and MBAs with huge loans and no way to pay them off. And, assuming that MOOCs begin to take off thanks to the internet, there will be far less need for Profs.

Voegli has written a very important essay on the topic: The Higher Education Hustle

One quote:

How do all the other tenured, morally self-congratulatory educators live with the knowledge that many of their students, after having had their narrow certainties and provincial visions broken down, face years of indentured servitude? We can begin to understand by thinking of the 2,774 U.S. institutions that (as of 2010) grant bachelor's degrees as being in the credentials business rather than the education business. The Daily Beast's Megan McArdle, summarizing an interview with economist Bryan Caplan, points out that it's "actually fairly easy to get a Princeton education for free, as long as you don't want the degree: just walk in off the street and sit in on the classes. It's unlikely that a professor will kick you out, or even notice." No one does this, of course, since no matter how much you might have learned auditing courses, your degree-less self will fare no better in the job market than will the next autodidact.

Many students do the opposite, however: earning, or in any case receiving, college degrees after learning as little as possible. After all, writes McArdle, college students "cheer when class is cancelled. This makes no sense if the goal is accumulation of human capital. In no other business are customers excited to get less than they were promised."

Large public universities, where millions of Americans enroll, are especially conducive to the avoidance of intellectual exertion and achievement. As John Merrow, a journalist specializing in education, discovered in 2005 after investigating academic life at the University of Arizona, "learning seems to be optional." Many undergraduates, in the words of one administrator he interviewed, are "‘maze smart'—they have figured out what they have to do to get through: buy the book, find out what's going to be on the exam and stay invisible." Another spoke of the "mutual nonaggression pact," in which the professor gives the students high grades for mediocre work, and the students give the professor generous evaluations for indifferent teaching. As Arizona's dean of students acknowledged, "We have a lot of students whose motivation for coming here is to get a good job. They think, ‘How do I get the grades?' instead of trying to learn."

Like most of us Maggie's Farmers, I get my education now via a pre-MOOC. If you like to learn, that's what you do. It used to be called The Teaching Company, but now it's called Great Courses. Once you're hooked, you will never waste time on TV or movies again.

Books are good, too. Some students give it up after a paper credential, but some use it as a launching pad for a lifetime of curiosity and intellectual pursuits. In my view, the latter are the only ones deserving of a liberal arts education.

Many of us privileged baby boomers were fortunate enough to receive a rigorous classical education while the masses received the fad du jour from the teachers' colleges in the government schools.

A classical education is not dead: Classical schools put Plato over iPad

A somewhat tentative, but good decision. I agree with this: The Supreme Court Comes to Grips with Reality.

Prof. Yoo:

 Will this be bad for Republicans in the South? The Voting Rights Act resulted in an alliance between the NAACP and the Republican Party in the 1980s and 1990s to pack minorities into voting districts. This had the effect of ensuring that minorities would be elected to Congress (to the delight of the NAACP), but diluted minority influence elsewhere by reducing their numbers in all other voting districts (the GOP's end of the bargain). The end of the Voting Rights Act might have the long-term effect of making staunchly Republican congressional seats in the South more competitive and reducing the number of safe seats for members of the Congressional Black Caucus.  I would say that is another victory for the nation wrought by Shelby.

Powerline: Race-based college admissions dodge another bullet

It's disappointing. I can't tell what "race" anybody is anymore. Maybe they will need to reintroduce skin-tone meters and eye-slant meters. It's all too stupid for words. Remember when Sharpton accused Obama of being "too white" to represent black people? I mean, if Obama is "black," then he's "white."

By the way, what does "Hispanic" mean?

A strong claim, but there must be some truth in it:

 Trunk says you should skip college unless you’re really great at school or got accepted into a top ten school. Instead “you should just go to work.”

In her recent article published on LinkedIn, Trunk advises young people to re-think college and focus on internships, saying that anyone can teach themselves the skills needed to be successful. She gives the example of an MIT program that gave iPads to illiterate kids in Ethiopia who then were able to teach themselves how to use it, program it and read it in English without a teacher or curriculum.

Most people don't need one very often, but they are darn handy when you do. Using the magic of leverage combined with the human arm and the ratchet, one can apply remarkable power either vertically as a hoist or horizontally for pulling.

We are using a come-along today to install some new barbed wire in a 50-acre field. Not too tight, not too loose. Most of the posts are solid enough but the wire helps hold them in place and we use trees for the machine. We used to have an electrified fence but the barbed works fine. It's for the cattle, not for the horses.

If you wanted to, you could pull a tree down with one of these, but a chain saw makes better sense. Pictured is a 1.5 ton lever, but they come in varied powers.

Tugit makes good ones. Good, cheap, powerful tool. With a little grease and some pine boards you can easily move your shed, chicken coop, or outhouse with it.

One of my problems with economic analyses of society is that they tend view society, naturally, through an economic lens. Although almost everybody could find some good application of more cash, in my experience most people do not make the pursuit of cash their only goal in life, or even their primary goal, beyond providing decent living conditions for one's family. One must assume that people construct the life they want, or do their best to attempt to.

If people want more money, they can find a second job, or start a business. That's the American Way.

One thing large economic inequality can breed, however is envy and resentment. Envy is bred from an ignorant view of wealth as a zero-sum game. It also happens to be a Deadly Sin.

The problem is this: You create your Marxist materialistically-egalitarian utopia or dystopia or whatever, with only your Dear Leaders getting the limos and caviar and palaces, and then a Steve Jobs or Lebron James or Picasso or Steven King or Spielberg or Bob Dylan or Bill Gross appears, and everybody wants to buy their work. What then? Their work is not a commodity because they have a talent and make the effort to produce unique creations that people want to spend money on, and they expect to be compensated for it.

I want all Americans to be wealthy and Americans are, compared to the rest of the world. I am not in the .01%, or even in the 1%. I am in the 5-10% I suspect, and, while I believe I am especially good at the work I produce, it's basically a commodity. We have a comfortable life, but not so cushioned that I could stop working even if I wanted to. Which I do not.

Harvard Prof. Mankiw has a good essay on the topic: Defending the One Percent

He begins:

When people ask me why I moved from liberal to conservative, I have a one-word answer: Detroit. I grew up there, on a middle-class grid street in northwest Detroit and a curving street in affluent suburban Birmingham, and I got a job as an intern in the office of the mayor in the summer of 1967 when Detroit rioted. I was at the side of Mayor Jerome Cavanagh and occasionally Governor George Romney during the six days and nights in which 43 people, mostly innocent bystanders, died. I listened to the radio in the police commissioner's office as commanders announced, shortly after sundown, that they were abandoning one square mile after another. The riot ended only after federal troops were called in and restored order.

I am not sure why schools of education exist. It seems like an odd concept to me. It would seem to me that an apprenticeship system would work better for the lower grades.

The best private schools do not demand teaching credentials, and do not want to hire education majors. Likewise, college faculties do not need to be taught how to teach.

For what it's worth, Report Sharply Rebukes Universities Nationwide For Shoddy Teacher Prep

When I was a kid, the Good Humor Man came down the street after suppertime, ringing his bell. I was partial to the vanilla thing coated with nuts, and the orange-raspberry popsicles.

How that guy made a living, just in summertime, with those 25 cent treats, is beyond me. Dad would give us each a quarter for them, but not every night. Maybe once a week. You would hear the jingle, and kids would evacuate their houses. Anyway, the union and gas prices put an end to that charming tradition.

Now they have the more urban Mr. Softee. He does not come into our village.

It was better than ours.

She could induce some steady habits. Legs! An Irish gal. Miss USA was Miss Connecticut

 Related, some debutante music. Bird Dog has his hands full today.