You have to wonder who at the National Science Foundation thought funding a website that makes fake voicemails from the future and games that have people running around looking for fictional fallen “chronofacts” (artistic plastic disks named “chronofalls” that apparently fall out of time) was a good idea? Yes, you can hear voicemails from the future about “Arctic Corn” and “Hurricane Simulator Booths”. Your tax dollars at work.
Eric Worrall writes:
Columbia University’s Climate Center has received $5.7 million from the National Science Foundation for the university’s “PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership,” to “engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.”
The funding was used to create climate change “games”, including fake voicemails from the future, one of which bizarrely warns that in 2035 neo-luddites would kill scientists, anyone who “knows anything”, and other oddities such as advertisements for Tsunami insurance.
http://futurecoast.org/voicemail/93594-38625955/
This cloud has one silver lining – next time anyone you know suggests that the government spends your money wisely, on your behalf, send them a link to the Future Coast project.
================================================================
Note from Anthony.
When I saw this story submitted I thought surely this must be some sort of mistake, but the deeper I went, the more bizarre it got. And it is true, the website is set up by Columbia on a grant from NSF: See http://www.futurevoices.net/the-fine-print/
Strangely, and perhaps illegally (since this is publicly funded), the ownership of the website is secret: http://whois.net/whois/futurecoast.org
Here are some voicemail topics: http://futurecoast.org/voicemail/93594-38625955/
And a video they produced, which looks like a bad version of the “Blair Witch Project”:
Actually, ten of them: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa0iSEwmopVXf2Y8x1NnbSg
And of course, anyone can play. You can call this number and make a “voicemail from the future” about climate. From http://www.futurevoices.net/
Here are the people and rationale behind it, something called “The Polar Hub”, they say:
Mission and Vision
The world’s polar regions are changing rapidly. What implications do these changes have for polar ecosystems and communities? How do they compare to changes of the past? Do changes in the Arctic and Antarctic regions affect life outside of the poles? The Polar Learning and Responding Climate Change Education Partnership (PoLAR CCEP) seeks to inform public understanding of and response to climate change through the creation of novel educational approaches that utilize fascination with shifting polar environments and are geared towards today’s adult learners.
Supported by a five year grant from the National Science Foundation, the PoLAR Partnership is developing a suite of interactive and game-like tools that capitalize on the iconic imagery of the Arctic and Antarctic, areas of the globe that are experiencing the most dramatic shifts in climate. Games and game-like activities are increasingly used to engage diverse participants in problem solving. Focusing on the poles also leads to discussion of broader impacts, especially as the changes taking place in the polar regions are increasingly linked to concerns about rising sea levels and extreme weather around the globe. Adult learners, be they community leaders, the general public, pre- and in-service teachers, or college students, are today’s decision makers and are more likely to make informed decisions if they understand the scientific evidence of climate change and its social, economic, and environmental consequences.
The PoLAR Hub is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DUE-1239783. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
![PoLAR_ProjectMatrix_10-25[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/polar_projectmatrix_10-251.jpg?resize=640%2C409)
http://thepolarhub.org/content/mission-and-vision
The next time somebody complains about a climate skeptic getting a tiny scrap of funding for a study or a project, show them this.
I left a voicemail to them in 2021. It said “You all went to jail for a long time for embezzlement.”
Haven’t tried this yet – but it appears anyone can leave a message “from the future”. I’m going to leave one about how the misallocation of resources for non-existent CAGW results in significant poverty and death.
What message will you leave?
Dave <——– Banging head against wall
Wait up… if, due to Catastrophic CO2-based Anthropogenic Global Warming, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!! …who is leaving these voice mails?
From the information about the ownership of the website, it appears to be registered to an unnamed group in Canada. Why would a NSF grant to a NY based university have a website registration address in Canada?
Their disclaimer “and any person, living, dead or yet unborn,” is strange. Shouldn’t that be “yet born” because wouldn’t ‘yet unborn’ mean a fetus in the future that is aborted and thus unborn? And shouldn’t a major university be able to get a simple thing like that correct?
Also why would they need a disclaimer about future people? Unless someone claims they have psychic powers how would they be able to base a character on a person that doesn’t yet exist?
Maybe Big Brother really did turn up in 1984 cos the madness seems pretty much mainstream now. That’s what’s really scary. The pied piper of eco-loonism stole our children’s minds.
Hopefully, soon there will be someone more responsible in charge at the NSF.
totally outrageous to spend $5 on that… let-alone $5.7 million It’s total BS.
Unless they can tell me who will win the World Series or where my struggling stock portfolio will be 10 years hence, I have no interest in dealing with these swindlers.
Here’s a voicemail: “After the climate turned colder, crops began to fail and climate alarmists were rounded up and put to work ministering to the starving masses they helped cause.” I wanted to say they were summarily executed but I thought that was a bit over the top.
This is a blatant scam. Too bad most of our media is enabling this sort of theft of tax payer money. This would be a great investigative story for a healthy media. But I do think that we should encourage skeptics to have their voices heard from the future. Especially since our climate kook friends seek to silence us so much in the present.
Intolerable. I am going to write my senators and congressmen, hoping for some swift firings.
No surprise here. The NSF has long been turned into a tool of the government to further the agenda. Just like the IRS, Justice Department, Veterans Admin, Treasury, State, etc.
Sorry, but it is settled seance. Time to move on.
I will inform my Congressman that the NSF is apparently over-funded.
Because they are funded by an NSF grant, I wonder if their accounting records are a matter of public record, and subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
With people killing each other in the Middle East, dying of disease and famine in Africa, aggression on the Black Sea, poverty and homelessness in America, collapsing infrastructure, political gridlock and incompetence in Washington, and corruption in the VA hospitals, it’s comforting to see that the National Science Foundation is funding $5.7 million to distract the public by feeding this science fiction entertainment to well-fed middle class facebookers.
ShrNfr says:
May 26, 2014 at 6:39 am
Sorry, but it is settled seance. Time to move on.
============================================
Applause.
What a waste of resources.
This is a lousy read for a Monday morning… more coffee please … eyes are deceiving me again.
I have been writing about the gamification that is a huge part of the actual K-12 classroom implementation of the Common Core. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/students-must-see-themselves-as-active-participants-in-social-change-and-designers-of-social-futures/
We think of NSF as about hard sciences, but increasingly its funding priorities are being dominated by its push of the behavioral sciences and their primacy now in what is viewed as ‘pedagogy’ in education. Changing what the student values, believes, and feels is the whole point. As Willis Harman of the Institute for Noetic Sciences and previously of SRI noted in his 1987 book Global Mind Change , the body and mind do not differentiate from physical experiences and experiences in virtual reality.
Columbia University’s Climate Center has received $5.7 million from the National Science Foundation for the university’s “PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership,” to “engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.”
======================================================================
So their vision of “engaging adult learners” is THIS? “Gamification?” Wow. It is the kind of stuff you get when you hire kiddies who THINK they’re adults. Anybody who needs “gamficiation” is either not an adult or not a “learner”.
Progs really do inhabit a different, magical, world, don’t they?
Don’t worry, it’s only taxpayers money. There’s plenty more waiting to be wasted.
Is it possible to uncover the names of the NSF officials who approved the funding for this propaganda campaign? It would help conservative news reporters and members of Congress expose it.
Jane MacGonigal of the Institute for the Future and a game designer wrote abook published last year called Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World laying out gleefully the ability of video games to change children’s belief and values frameworks at an unconscious levels as they play games that have been created with that very change in mind. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/when-gaming-intends-to-shape-and-distort-our-perceptions-of-everything-around-us-viva-la-revolution/
She was the keynoter last year at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). A big part of the current push for digital learning and laptops and tablets is to allow these manipulative visual images created for the games to become the dominant student view of reality.
Those interested in this should also take a hard look at what the MIT Media Lab is pushing in this area as well as Pearson, which handles the state K-12 assessments in many states and much of the curricula, is creating via the GLASSLab initiative.
Whenever you see this kind of funding you realise there is TOO MUCH money available. Does anyone remember a time in the last 2 years when a climate scientist complained about funding?
Here is what Columbia has on this ‘Cosee’ relationship. It’s good to see they see ‘climate change’ as fun and games.
Below are some of the effects of too much climate change funding.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/04/03/the-big-self-parodying-climate-change-blame-list/
Since the disclaimer says that “Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation,” WUWT should apply for a grant to see if NSF would support an opposite finding of these “leaked emails from the future:” inverted hockey sticks – Gleick doing time – wooly mammoths staging a comeback in the frozen north, etc.
Graft is the personal gain or advantage earned by an individual at the expense of others as a result of the exploitation of the singular status of, or an influential relationship with, another who has a position of public trust or confidence. The advantage or gain is accrued without any exchange of legitimate compensatory services.
Voicemails from the future.
“OMG Pat, just heard about the CO2 leak from the abandoned CCS scheme. Hope you’re ok.”
“I’m fine Sam, just a few headaches. More than can be said for the poor souls who died. They just didn’t wake up. How’s the dredging going?”
“Dredging is going on… and on… and on. Now we’ve got rid of the stupid tidal generator, why won’t the flow of the river go back to its old pattern? It’s like we’re being punished for tinkering with nature.”
See, it’s easy and no money needed to change hands.
OK– assuming for a moment that I leave any semblance of moral principle behind— how do I get in on a racket like this? Voicemails from the future— and you can get money for setting up something like this? Please say you’re kidding!
Newsflash from the future: Mile high Laurentide continental glacier causes flood of illegal American immigrants to cross Mexican border.
Yeah, sure. We are supposed to enjoy fiction coming out of the woodwork to surround us on taxpayers’ money, right? The dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.
To US citizens:You may want to file a Federal Funds Fraud report at the U.S. Government Accountability Office
Robin says: “Jane MacGonigal of the Institute for the Future and a game designer wrote a book published last year called Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World laying out gleefully the ability of video games to change children’s belief and values frameworks at an unconscious levels as they play games that have been created with that very change in mind.”
It was called “brainwashing” when I was a child. I suppose in the 20 teens this is what you do when actual events don’t take place like the computer models predict they will!
They are hiding their registration behind “contactprivacy.com” which, if memory serves, is in Toronto, Canada. You can phone the phone number, and you get a recording from contractprivacy.com referring you to their web site where you can enter the url you want to send a message to, and they relay the message to the real web site owner.
In other words, someone has gone out of their way to set this up without anyone knowing who they are.
For ‘climate science’, the troughs overflow.
For real science, funding is nearly always difficult.
I suppose it must make sense to someone.
Oh wow, I just the video. I made it through the whole thing, but I’m not going to look at the others. How are we going to determine which one is worst?
I was going to ask if there were a good version of the Blair Witch Project, but compared to this clip, the BWP is comes out looking pretty good!
If conservative politicians can’t or won’t stop this, I will STOP voting FOR THEM TOO!!!!!!!
That money should have gone to the homeless and needy in America. What a disgusting farce this is.
‘Future Coast is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between its characters and any person, living, dead, or yet unborn, is a coincidence.’
Huh? Do they realize what they’ve just wrote? Unborn? Really? Resemblance to anybody that doesn’t exist yet is a coincidence? They have to tell us that? Columbia College and the NSF are clearly promoting negative education. What blithering idiot could not possibly know that representations of people in the here and now … oh, chrissake it’s utterly impossible to try and describe how mind numbingly stupid that disclaimer is.
‘FutureCoast does not intend for anyone under the age of 13 to participate.’
Why? What possible scientific explanation for that cutoff age can they justify? Now, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist (keep your comments to yourself) that cutoff age gives me the creeps for the following reasons. Ezekiel Emmanuel (the brother of Obama’s former Chief of Staff, and now Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emmanuel) is Obama’s chief medical advisor and promoter of Obamacare. Ezekiel Emmanuel is a controversial bioethicist who has developed the concept of what he refers to as, ‘Life Years,’ for the distribution of medical interventions that may be in short supply. At first blush it sounds somewhat benign: a younger person would receive the intervention in favor of the older person under the principle that the older person has had more years of life. But, true to form, it gets creepy: You see a definitive cutoff age not to receive a scarce intervention is for anyone under the age of 14 (quite close to the 13 year old cutoff age for FutureCoast, eh?). According to Ezekiel, the reason for denying scarce interventions is because … ready? … society has not yet made the full investments in somebody under 14. (Don’t take my word for this; Google it.) Now, could Columbia, or the NSF, be worried about some tear jerking stories from 10,11, or 12 year olds, with critical conditions, pondering a bright medical future for other kids in similar situations?
Bell Canada reverse lookup says the number 416-538- 5457 is for a company called 9Football Shirt. Category: Sportswear Stores
It’s not useless. It’s designed to indoctrinate/brainwash the young generation. Most of them are too smart to swallow such BS but enough will turn into climate crusaders.
It is information theoretically possible for one to receive a coded message from the future and to decode this message thus gaining incomplete but useful information about the outcomes of the events of the future; in fact, this possibility has been already been realized in the case of mid to long range forecasting of weather outcomes for the far western states of the United States. There is no evidence that reception of a coded message or decoding of this message is happening for global warming climatology, however.
My message, “The NSF just gave a $10 million grant to produce new voice mails from the past to revise history to fit the real world of today. It is an effort to undo the future voice mails produced at the time in order to provide falsified validation of accurate future casting of back dated anticipatory memories for predictatorial instruction. That is all.”
Yes, many want to know the same of this foolishness with our taxes. Through the GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office) should be a proper start if we still have an operational federal ‘government’.
Navy Bob says:
May 26, 2014 at 7:05 am
Is it possible to uncover the names of the NSF officials who approved the funding for this propaganda campaign? It would help conservative news reporters and members of Congress expose it.
——————————————————
I like that.
Personalize and ridicule them and their actions.
cn
“artistic plastic disks named “chronofalls” that apparently fall out of time”
LOL! My first quick read was “CHRONOFAILS”.
I do give them cudos for imaginatively moving beyond the ‘settled science.’
Is there no avenue for protesting this effectively? I guess one can find out who signed off on this grant and then let 300m people know. It seems a worth billboard advert.
Robin says:
May 26, 2014 at 7:08 am
“Jane MacGonigal of the Institute for the Future and a game designer wrote abook published last year called Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World laying out gleefully the ability of video games to change children’s belief and values frameworks at an unconscious levels as they play games that have been created with that very change in mind.”
If your beliefs are false then teaching them as games is a life saver. You do not have to address questions of truth. In addition, the “language,” so to speak, of the classroom becomes further removed from daily life and weakens the influence of parents and peers. All mavericks become irrelevant for the simple reason that they are not playing the game.
Not even Milan Kundera could imagine a socialist hell as final and complete as this.
Oh god, Mike. Turn on the news! The coast guard just arrested Sam and his entire crew for ecosabotage, just because they had a ton of iron sulphate on board. Goddamit, salmon runs have been going up for the last four years and everyone knows it’s because we’ve all been seeding the plankton blooms. Those bastards just want us all to to scuttle our ships and become landsmen.
True, it is $5,655,000.00.
Does anyone happen to know what “Congressional appropriations in FY 2009” is supposed to mean?
By the way, they have already got $1,219,217.00 under Award #1043271 in 2010.
There are other NSF awards under CCEP-II (Climate Change Education Partnership, second phase).
$5,852,000.00 Pacific Islands Climate Change Education Partnership
$4,928,001.00 Making Global Climate Science Local: Implementing an Effective Model to Educate Key Influentials and Community Leaders
$5,882,653.00 Climate and Urban Systems Partnership (CUSP)
$5,630,000.00 MADE-CLEAR – Maryland-Delaware Climate Change Education, Assessment, and Research
$5,506,000.00 National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation
That makes $33,453,654.00 total. I wish I had it. Pretty puhleese?
Chuck Nolan says:
May 26, 2014 at 8:40 am
Navy Bob says:
May 26, 2014 at 7:05 am
Frequently US Govt. agencies produce Request for Proposals (RFPs) and university researchers respond. If this is the case then the idea originated within the NSF, not just the approval of the funding. Also, there are often groups of reviewers that travel to headquarters and read and evaluate the proposals (in great numbers). I have no knowledge of this particular funding but there will be lots of documentation and many guilty.
Man, that was fun, reminded me of the days when I did voice recordings for a friend’s audio newsletter.
Silent voices from the past at Lake Nyos Co2 release calamity.
Bull [cough].
sad, Wallace Broecker and James Hansen are affiliated with this nonsense… well maybe not surprising at all:
http://climate.columbia.edu/about-us/people/
“To contact the gamemasters …”
I think that says it all.
Someone wrote me a check once that was returned NSF. It was for a large amount of money and threw my finances into disarray for months. Even so, I didn’t despise those three letters as much then as I do right now.
I want names. I want to know who signed off on this project and what was the expected result? “Neo-Luddites from Texas” killing scientists? I can just imagine the adolescent giggling when they came up with that one, but do we really need the federal government to underwrite this kind of nonsense?
Pachygrapsus says:
May 26, 2014 at 9:28 am
but do we really need the federal government to underwrite this kind of nonsense?
==============================
If not the federal government, then whom? Nobody else could waste money this prodigiously on such abject foolishness.
Of course, it doesn’t matter that it’s patronizing and condescending and thus will have no effect whatsoever. It’s the transfer of money from the taxpayers to self-seeking climate-alarm opportunists that’s the main point.
It has come to this, so much money has been thrown at the warmists they have run out of even semi-intelligent things to waste money on.
“PoLiAR Climate Change Education Partnership,” … there fixed it for you
mjmsprt40 says:
May 26, 2014 at 7:34 am
OK– assuming for a moment that I leave any semblance of moral principle behind— how do I get in on a racket like this? Voicemails from the future— and you can get money for setting up something like this? Please say you’re kidding!
==================
It’s pretty simple: pay to play. Make big donations to important Democrats via a cadre of expensive “lobbyists” and line up at the trough. They don’t even try to hide it anymore.
What in all the gods’ names is an ‘authentic fiction’?? Is that another version of ‘fake but accurate’? Also known as ‘we made it all up to sell you a bill of goods’?
Didn’t they used to just call that snake oil?
Orion
The propaganda is just a side-benefit: the point is to waste as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, to cause the collapse of society. See Greece.
This makes me physically ill….. undisguised propaganda funded from the public trough.
I must set this aside, for today.
On this Memorial Day, I ask each visitor to WUWT to remember the generations before us that fought to establish and preserve our freedoms. Reflect on their sacrifices, in the service of Liberty. Say a prayer for the fallen and another for those who serve.
And remember: “We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
Columbia University’s Climate Center has received $5.7 million from the National Science Foundation for the university’s “PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership,” to “engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.”
====================
Good luck teaching this old dog new tricks, whether it be by engagement, or any other form of enticement.
It is no longer a matter of failed communication, so much as a failure in results.
Where are the rewards ?
Skeptics are lavishly funded by Big Oil, activists by meager taxpayer’s money.
Patrick B. says:
Haven’t tried this yet – but it appears anyone can leave a message “from the future”
How about one concerning failing to win a Hugo?
It should have been, “yet to be born” or “unborn as yet.”
REPLY: And in the scope of the larger train wreck and squandering of public funds, I don’t anybody but you cares about the pedantry sir. – Anthony
Located above Tom’s Olde Tea Shoppe?
Truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense (Xiphias)
We might have to update this.
My correction wasn’t pedantic. Columbia’s statement was an oxymoron (a ludicrously self-contradictory statement). I wasn’t “overly concerned with minute details or formalisms” or “making a big display of knowing obscure facts and details,” which is how a couple of dictionaries define pedantry.
And I wasn’t attempting to divert the discussion from its focus on important things with my one-line “aside.” If you want to get upset at someone, turn your ire on the person who raised the topic with the sentence I quoted, ddpalmer at May 26, 2014 at 5:47 am, who wrote seven lines about its absurdity.
Wow! I just got one of these! It fell right down my chimney! I had no idea what it was until seeing this article.
So I got in contact privately with Contact Privacy Inc. in Toronto and they decoded it for me. It appears to be from an Imam of the Coptic Church in Nigeria in 2035 who needs $1,000 in 2014 dollars so he can transfer $5.7 million to my account in 2036 dollars……………………….
/sarc off
Talk about Pretzel Logic. If everyone who believes in AGW would hold their CO2 laced breath for just 10 minutes, this lunacy would be over.
I think this will backfire on the warmists when taxpayers see what their money is being spent for.
Don’t laugh this is the serious business of diverting hard science money to political or artistic groups. Columbia/Lamont are clearly on the warmist/alarmist side (I once gave money and am on their development list) but a lot of the motivation is to extract funds from the trust fund babies of NYC. They do some real basic science. This also checks off some NSF boxes for “Native Alaskans”, science ‘outreach’, and global stuff. These guys get money sluffed off from every physical science program.
“Honest Graft” as it used to be called by Tammany Hall.
Berényi Péter says:
May 26, 2014 at 9:03 am
That makes $33,453,654.00 total. I wish I had it. Pretty puhleese?’
I wish I had a tenth of it,
And Ralph (11.36) since when has the “taxpayer” ever had any success protesting this s.it?
Fraud. Criminal misappropriation of public funds. Columbia University is no longer an institution of higher education, it’s a kangaroo court for burning skeptics at the stake, like witches.
The CUSP award Berenyi linked to not only includes working with community organizers in Philly, Pittsburgh, NYC, but also includes working with the Learning Research Development Corporation. LRDC was heavily involved with what was called the New Standards Project in the 1990s and is called the Common Core now.
The gaming for those of you who have not read those posts gets held up as ‘relevant’ and ‘engaging’ by educators justifying making this the classroom focus. It is also held up as a means of increasing the graduation rate. Worthless credentials of course create expectations without genuine knowledge or skills to see that those expectations can be fulfilled.
The gaming is intended to be a huge part of the Social Studies C3 Framework and the Next Generation Science Standards in the K-12 classroom. Edutopia, funded with Lucas’ haul from selling the Star Wars franchise to Disney, has a great deal of material on the gaming push in the classroom. Strategies used by players also throw off a great deal of useful Big Data and metadata.
Overviews from data will allow planners to know which schools and districts have True Believers on CAGW and which are in need of reeducation curricula from the new Learning Registry. Honestly, if this topic were really understood it would diminish everyone’s sense of what a Memorial Day observance is really protecting anymore.
When I speak and am trying to get people to appreciate just how radical the intended changes are, it is usually gaming that is the lightbulb moment.
Below is a link to the NSF FY 2013 financial report.
They spent 6.9 billion dollars in this period and there are numerous complaints that this amount was less due to the sequester.
I’ll bet there are a lot more of the same useful programs covered under the grants.
There are 1922 Universities, colleges on the dole, 10,800 grants supporting 299,000 people. Does anyone think “they” would do anything but do the Governments bidding for their agenda?
Why do I think they are bought and paid for?
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14002/pdf/nsf14002.pdf
Here are the results for a typical search on chrono facts
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/simpleSearchResult?queryText=chrono%20facts
This is the problem with so many new fake science journals doing peer review – they can get hundreds of new papers stamped peer reviewed [without base dataset or methods so they can be verified or debunked] – it is then qualified to apply for GRANT MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT [AKA TAXPAYERS].
Robin says, “The gaming is intended to be a huge part of the Social Studies C3 Framework and the Next Generation Science Standards in the K-12 classroom.” aka Common Core
Thank you for your broad reading and for taking the time to write and post. I suspected this was meant for children in public schools. The clue is that it says it is meant for “adults,” but this means ages 13 and up. In my opinion, all talk of using Gaming in education is part of the push to make year-round school palatable to American children and parents. That is Arne Duncan’s goal.
The only hope for some children to be literate is to take them out of public schools, which are implementing Common Core.
$5.7 million, and one video has only 16 views. Is this perhaps the least successful project of all human history?
How about spending some money to research plans like this>
A BOLD NEW ENERGY POLICY TO SAVE THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE!!!
We put millions of skilled workers on manufacturing jobs building 500 to 1,000 Nuclear power plant of a low cost standard design. This will provide all the energy to accomplish a full restoration of our industrial base. How will this happen you ask?
First we “MINE” the oceans for gold, silver, copper, uranium, methane, manganese and other valuable minerals and metals. It has been estimated that it will be profitable to mine gold from the seas at around $ 3,000 per ounce. Second we use cheap nuclear power to extract these metals which could make a profit to pay off the national debt. Third we use the byproduct “WATER” to farm the huge vacant dry south west feeding the entire planet with low cost food.
Finally we use the cheap nuclear power to build factories to manufacture everything the entire planet needs and we return to zero unemployment and can pay good wages because we have free energy that makes a profit in it’s creation.The money generated can payoff all debts, build nuclear reprocessing plants, research and develop a system to render nuclear waste harmless.
Just think, full employment, no energy crisis ever, gold to make money valuable, make the dollar the strongest currency on earth, end inflation, end government debt. Just imagine “AMERICA REBORN AND THE DREAM FULFILLED!!!
Where’s Senator William Proxmire when you need him? He’d have a field day with this and his Golden Fleece award.
NSF = Nationalized Science Fiction
Doing a google search including the grant number, I found http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1239782 which says, in part:
This doesn’t sound much like the site at hand, I wonder if they’re up to multiple mischiefs on one grant.
-Ric
“If conservative politicians can’t or won’t stop this, I will STOP voting FOR THEM TOO!!!!!!!”
Pamela,
I understand your frustration but find it difficult to blame the House for it’s inability to throttle the wasteful ;spending and crazy subsidies promoted by the Democrats, especially when it purpose is to get the recipient of subsidies in bed with dear leader and Harry Reid. Harry has piles of good Bills on his desk that do not see the light of day, like the Keystone Pipeline, which many democrats support (only because they are up for election and they are cowards to deny their vote for the pipeline)..Instead their priority is to change the name of the Redskins!
Dirty Harry has turned the Senate from a democratic organization that debates issues to a personal dictatorship that does not even allow amendments to come to the floor, especially if the vote on them would embarrass his colleagues.
Remember the MSM always demagogues the Republicans when ever they try to throttle wasteful spending or offer an alternative (not that they are all angels). (PS I am a registered Democrat).
“$5.7 million, and one video has only 16 views. Is this perhaps the least successful project of all human history?”
Probably successful because it funnels taxpayer dollars to those who support the agenda and buys their vote with tax dollars.
It is worse than we thought.
Zeke says:
May 26, 2014 at 12:41 pm
“The only hope for some children to be literate is to take them out of public schools, which are implementing Common Core.”
Literate children are highly likely to become educated and productive adults. A literate child can read a book of reasonable length, enjoy it, relate the contents of the book, and then criticize the book as satisfying the child’s interests or not. Such a child GRASPS the book.
Producing literate children is difficult, but there was a time when we did it well and did it consistently. The last bulwark against illiteracy in secondary education was the large network of Catholic Schools. College students from Catholic Schools are literate. (I did not attend such a school and am not Catholic.)
Common Core teaches that books are not different from government tracts. In other words, that curriculum does not recognize what a good book is. And its designers are not interested in learning what a good book is. Only bureaucrats could design such a monstrosity.
Jimbo May 26, 2014 at 9:18 am
Yes, that was the event that I was thinking of. We need to be careful that solutions don’t spawn more hazards than they solve. CO2 as a tiny fraction of the atmosphere is not toxic but extract it and put it all in a big store under pressure… Mistakes are most likely to be made if we rush into things and CAGW theory is all about ‘now, now we must act now!’
I wonder if “Jane MacGonigal of the Institute for the Future and a game designer” who is quite happy to use games to indoctrinate children is also one of those who says that violent video games don’t de-sensitize children to violence?
5.7 million for scifi, and we get that?
I want Klingons and Romulans and Cardassians for that kind of dough.
Theo that is utter nonsense and you know it. The Common Core is not a curriculum. It is a list of standards that if met by the senior year in high school, colleges and technical schools will no longer have to provide extensive remedial classes in reading, writing, and math in order to prepare incoming freshman to pass required entry level but standard college freshman courses.
I take it you prefer dumb students who can’t read, write, or figure beyond a 5th grade level.
See link for all included links:
“FireHost” is a cipher, this site has no info.
It includes pic of futurecoast logo, which is not currently used on site’s homepage (has “2013” in it).
http://images.thumbshots.com/image.aspx?cid=2319&v=1&w=200&url=futurecoast.org&xurl=CVAnrdTvMD%2BLCoXoaIoBUQ%3D%3D
Feeding the saved image itself to Google (URL alone didn’t work) yielded it’s part of a stock photo, “many young people meeting sunset on sky background”. “Futurecoast” cropped the bottom so it doesn’t show the people are standing on a pier or walkway, above the water. Looks like they’re already prepared for the inevitable six feet of sea level rise.
Google found FireHost.com, another startup “managed” cloud storage company. But the Google result and the homepage has a quirk. It is prominently featured they have “HIPAA Compliant Hosting” (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). That’s showcasing credentials for medical record storage, in the cloud.
The suspicious among you may note that since Obamacare is the law, even if illegally implemented, and has onerous provisions for record standards and other items that will lead to essentially-mandated centrally-stored online comprehensive medical records, accessible by any provider of medical services or national security, it sure looks like FireHost wants a piece of that action, which will likely include government funding, direct or otherwise, especially as it leads to locked-in contracts for government services as we devolve into single-payer. And look, here FireHost is already accepting indirect government funding to provide services for CAGW-hyping, another predilection of the Occupant in Chief.
From the commoncore.org website confirmed by myself after many, many hours studying and closely reading the standards:
“Because the standards are the roadmap for successful classrooms, and recognizing that teachers, school districts, and states need to decide on the journey to the destination, they intentionally do not include a required reading list. Instead, they include numerous sample texts to help teachers prepare for the school year and allow parents and students to know what to expect during the year.
The standards include certain critical types of content for all students, including classic myths and stories from around the world, foundational U.S. documents, seminal works of American literature, and the writings of Shakespeare. The standards appropriately defer the majority of decisions about what and how to teach to states, districts, schools, and teachers.”
I’ld say there are some pretty good books on my shelf that would work quite well in fulfilling these standards. And as a teacher, I am able to choose from that rich selection. I was privileged to spend time in a high school classroom as they worked through “The Crucible” in one class, and “Romeo and Juliet” in another. The Crucible is an especially riveting story based on actual events with many parallels to today’s mob rule hysteria prone society.
The gaming issue has nothing to do with Common Core. To say that it does makes me wonder at a person’s true ability to preach to anyone about the perils of propaganda.
Let me offer one of the largest free History and Constitutional libraries on the web . . free eboooks, links and video libraries for kids and adults . . give it a try it is free, no tracking, no email needed, no cookies – just free information . .
http://articlevprojecttorestoreliberty.com/the-basic-library.html
Climate voicemails from the future is jumping the gun.
I for one would be satisfied if I could get all those embarrassing climate emails from the present and the past into the public domain.
They are going to take the phone calls, your numbers, plot them and do a research paper that shows that 97% of the phone numbers have been turned over to the IRS to …
Theo Goodwin says:
May 26, 2014 at 2:19 pm
“Literate children are highly likely to become educated and productive adults. A literate child can read a book of reasonable length, enjoy it, relate the contents of the book, and then criticize the book as satisfying the child’s interests or not. Such a child GRASPS the book. ”
============================
I usually just read for the fun of it.
Some of it sunk in, some didn’t.
I’m not ready to make any profound statements, but it did lead me here.
My research reveals that Common Core is in fact nationalized, copyrighted content, and includes a national student tracking database system.
From HSLDA: “Common Core proponents offer upbeat descriptions of utopian educational goals along with detailed practical lists of what students should know and be able to do in grades K–12 in mathematics and English language arts. But those goals and standards are just two facets of the conglomeration of federal funding, preschool–workforce invasive student tracking, and one-size-fits-all computer-based learning that has become the Common Core.”
More: http://www.hslda.org/commoncore/Analysis.aspx#FAQ
Educational freedom as practiced in our country and supported by court decisions has already conclusively demonstrated the ability of home, charter, and private schools to do far more with far less than these teachers’ unions.
The nationalization of standards will and does mean the nationalization of content. As it stands, every one is outperforming the state schools. Educational freedom is what is at stake here. Nationalizing education is an attack on state, local and parental freedom.
Theo says, “Literate children are highly likely to become educated and productive adults. A literate child can read a book of reasonable length, enjoy it, relate the contents of the book, and then criticize the book as satisfying the child’s interests or not. Such a child GRASPS the book.”
Absolutely. If you as a parent impart to your children an affection for reading, they will find and read books on their own. My own kids read text books already on subjects that interest them. One is teaching himself Latin and reading German history, and one has read many serious scientific books about wolves. What people fail to understand is that education does indeed become a self-motivated and self-organized activity as they mature. You have to see it to believe it. Sometimes I wish they did like the same subjects as I do, but still I facilitate and get them whatever materials they need, while providing the basics.
Zeke, you are wrong. In every solid piece of published research on student outcome between charter, private, and public schools, none are better than the others. The link below focuses on low income students. You would think that private and charter schools would be better able to improve educations outcomes for these kids, given all the rhetoric.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFYQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edline.com%2Fuploads%2Fpdf%2FPrivateSchoolsReport.pdf&ei=INiDU5C8I4isyAS9-IGYDQ&usg=AFQjCNGuaBW9sosoYNo4zbXE9WDucGRwxA&sig2=h2uSgfsQ1MGEML2F7Ywlnw&bvm=bv.67720277,d.aWw
I wonder how many private, charter, and home school kids are now, as watermelon adults, feeding us with global warming hysterical propaganda. Hey! If you can engage in rhetoric, I guess I get a turn at it too! But I hope you see that what I just alluded to is nonsense.
“Drawing from 15 independent testing services, the Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics included 11,739 homeschooled students from all 50 states who took three well-known tests—California Achievement Test, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and Stanford Achievement Test for the 2007–08 academic year. The Progress Report is the most comprehensive homeschool academic study ever completed.”
“Overall the study showed significant advances in homeschool academic achievement as well as revealing that issues such as student gender, parents’ education level, and family income had little bearing on the results of homeschooled students.
National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest Homeschool Public School
Reading 89 50
Language 84 50
Math 84 50
Science 86 50
Social Studies 84 50
Core a 88 50
Composite b 86 50
a. Core is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math.
b. Composite is a combination of all subtests that the student took on the test.”
Not to mention that public schools spend @$9,000 per year per student and the rest spend far less while achieving better results – when not regulated and managed, as smaller competitors, by the teachers’ unions. Graph of public school spend vs. results:
http://www.cato.org/blog/public-school-spending-theres-chart
Common Core, good for giving non-privileged non-whites the best education possible. While privileged whites need something better to become something better. And that’s equal opportunity.
Go read the piece, lots of links to supporting items. Also lists these recent Common Core news stories, with links:
“REPLY: And in the scope of the larger train wreck and squandering of public funds, I don’t anybody but you cares about the pedantry sir. – Anthony”
I take your point, but truthfully there is a worthwhile correlation to note here. To quote the self-admittedly “scurrilous” Fred Reed concerning an equally ludicrous topic, “… it may seem that I am being pointlessly snotty about the infelicity of language. No. I am being pointfully snotty. There appears to be a direct correlation between the rise of political hobbyism and the decline of careful literacy, and for that matter of genuine scholarship, in our academic theme-parks.”
Sad to see that the usually sensible Pamela Gray has bought into the Common Core indoctrination package. Nothing good has ever come from the federal government being involved with education — and nothing good will come from this uncommonly stupid initiative.
Nope. You are mixing apples and oranges. Once demographic variables are controlled for (remember I was referring to solid research), public schools do as good and with some groups better than charter and private schools. Homeschooled students are in a class by themselves and difficult to include in large studies. Because it is a much more monogamous group, one would have to clearly tighten the study design in order to properly compare across subjects.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncspe.org%2Fpublications_files%2FOP111.pdf&ei=_-SDU6vXBYmRyASz6YLICQ&usg=AFQjCNHJW5IR4kYXDu_rt3joUWa-92b3MA&sig2=IdQz-TY3T3515wS3HNsk0w
Once again, I would have to declare that I see little relevance between this gaming thread and public school boogiemen.
I think what you don’t realize is the the NSF is really really into “outreach”. Every single grant has a section where the lab writing the proposal explains how they are interacting with the public, and if you don’t do it, you don’t get funded. (For us, we have HS students and their teachers in the lab once a year in the summer; sort of lame, but they like it. I mean, the NSF likes it…)
But I haf to admit, I have never reviewed a grant for them that was completely outreach. Sort of interesting…
Americans need to understand that in our law it is the right and duty of the parents to raise and educate their children. And each state has agreed on subjects to be taught, hours of instruction, and testing. The laws are to be interpreted broadly, and as you know there are many successful ways of teaching children. There is absolutely no reason on God’s green earth to homogenize children in this way.
And I notice that the states that seek to regulate homeschoolers the most have the worst performing schools.
kadaka, poetry is one of the standards so I hardly see it being removed. If you had read the standards you would have known it is a specific standard mentioned several times. So it is painfully obvious you are telling us about something you do not know much about other than what you read at propaganda sites. So much for championing the cause of unbiased research Kadaka. You have bought into rhetoric and haven’t even studied both sides of the issue!
There is precious little connection between public school and the likes of Mann and his ilk. You lash out at a favorite target without doing the ground work necessary to prevent yourself from being propagandized.
My voicemail? “Watts was right. Pump more methane, the glacier is almost in Miami.”
noloctd, have you read them? Front to back? Have you compared them with a variety of other state standards they have replaced? There is not one ounce of connection between climate warming issues and these standards. However, there is a major standard that states students will be able to read informational text with a critical eye, discerning reasonable evidence from non-reasonable evidence, and the essential differences between fact, opinion, and conclusion. They must also learn the technique of clearly stating their source when discussing issues gleaned from the text. There are many here who could use that training.
Pamela Gray says:
May 26, 2014 at 6:34 pm
there is a major standard that states students will be able to read informational text with a critical eye, discerning reasonable evidence from non-reasonable evidence, and the essential differences between fact, opinion, and conclusion. They must also learn the technique of clearly stating their source when discussing issues gleaned from the text.
===============================
Ms. Gray,
Do you believe that, without the CC standards this won’t happen? If it isn’t happening now, is that failure due to lack of standards or perhaps something else?
NASA looking down instead of up:
27 May: WaPo: Brian Palmer: This summer, NASA will begin keeping an eye on your garden
When you’re working in the yard this summer, take a look up: Using a satellite, NASA scientists are paying attention to how healthy your lawn and garden are.
Next month, the agency plans to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. Its primary aim is to create a global map of carbon sources and carbon sinks…
A detailed map of photosynthetic activity and carbon absorption will better inform conservation efforts…
Managing a garden from space sounds a bit futuristic, but horticulture is about to enter the space age. From now on, you’re not just trying to impress the neighbors with your green thumb.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/this-summer-nasa-will-begin-keeping-an-eye-on-your-garden/2014/05/23/8bc1f4de-df79-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html
Farmers have been doing that for years. Tractors are now driven via satellite. Fields are canvassed for issues related to plant disease and soil condition. And drones are being used for hunting purposes! Now I like that!
Science standards in Common Core will drop other sciences to cover evolution and climate change more fully:
“Educators unveiled new guidelines on Tuesday that call for sweeping changes in the way science is taught in the United States — including, for the first time, a recommendation that climate change be taught as early as middle school.”
“The guidelines, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, are the first broad national recommendations for science instruction since 1996. They were developed by a consortium of 26 state governments and several groups representing scientists and teachers.”
“Educators involved in drawing them up said the guidelines were intended to combat widespread scientific ignorance, to standardize teaching among states, and to raise the number of high school graduates who choose scientific and technical majors in college, a critical issue for the country’s economic future.
The focus would be helping students become more intelligent science consumers by learning how scientific work is done: how ideas are developed and tested, what counts as strong or weak evidence, and how insights from many disciplines fit together into a coherent picture of the world.
Leaders of the effort said that teachers may well wind up covering fewer subjects, but digging more deeply into the ones they do cover. In some cases, traditional classes like biology and chemistry may disappear entirely from high schools, replaced by courses that use a case-study method to teach science in a more holistic way.”
And so on and so forth. Under these guidelines, climate change is the measuring rod of scientific literacy and is used for the purpose of “learning how scientific work is done.” ref: New Guidelines Call for Broad Changes in Science Education, NY Slimes
““Educators unveiled new guidelines on Tuesday that call for sweeping changes in the way science is taught in the United States — including, for the first time, a recommendation that climate change be taught as early as middle school.”
It sounds as though the government is about to represent pseudoscientific climatological research to be scientific. It’s time to change the government!
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2004/11/01/where-do-public-school-teachers-send-their-kids-school
Public school teachers send their children to private schools at almost twice the rate of the national average, but it is as high as 44% in many large cities. Notice the Hollywood activists for public schools also send their children to private schools, as do the Congresscritters. They all have waivers from the nationalized healthcare system as well. Do you see a pattern of the progressive urge to ghettoize people and stratify society? That is how they roll.
You conflate the two organizations. Science standards are not a part of the Common Core State Standards. These standards are specific to language arts and math. There is no common core state standard in them outlining the science standards you speak of. It is a separate organization. States are free to adopt them or not just as with the CCSS. Oregon has a good set of science standards we will likely continue to use. I have lots of issues with the Next Generation Science Standards. But they are unrelated to CCSS. Conflating the two seems purposeful on your part. Why? I can’t believe you do not know the difference between the two.
Robin’s research and field work shows the parallels and similarities between the developers and the funding of these nationalized programs.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/26/5-7-million-nsf-grant-to-columbia-university-for-climate-voice-mails-from-the-future/#comment-1646442
Arne Duncan, Sec of Education, outlining how schools will expand the hours of school to 12 or more hours per day, seven days a week, all year, and many have “health clinics and are the centers of community.” Duration 45 sec.
Americans need to snap out of it. There is a longer version if you like, just search Arne Duncan on Charlie Rose.
“I have lots of issues with the Next Generation Science Standards. But they are unrelated to CCSS. Conflating the two seems purposeful on your part. Why? I can’t believe you do not know the difference between the two.” ~Pamela Gray
Thank you, I did not address your point. As the article points out, “In many respects, the [Science] standards are meant to do for science what a separate set of guidelines known as the Common Core is supposed to do for English and mathematics: impose and raise standards, with a focus on critical thinking and primary investigation. To date, 45 states and Washington have adopted the Common Core standards.”
The missing piece is the process by which these standards are adopted. The Federal Gov’t provided states with over 4 billion dollars in “Race to the Top” funding; when they signed up for the funding they were also agreeing to adopt new standards. Now several years later, two things are happening: 1. Now that states are seeing Common Core, some are attempting to drop it and losing their funding; and 2. The public opposition to Common Core is so stiff, that many states which adopted it are simply changing the name.
So I appreciate your point but the fix is in; the federal funding and the Gates funding is behind “voluntary adoption” of standards, and not as many as you would hope are saying “no” to the golden hand cuffs.
Make a copy of this website, it is going to disappear very quickly.
Not that I think taxpayers should have to foot the bill but in one regard it is a step in the right direction – at least they admit that it’s fiction.
Kate, states dictate standards and districts are obliged to teach to those standards using appropriate district determined curriculum and teaching methods. Teachers are evaluated based on their knowledge of state standards and how they teach to them in the classroom. If those state standards do not specifically state a standard dealing with whatever, that “whatever” will not be addressed to the degree that the specific standards are addressed. This is nailed home by state tests that are based on state standards.
That procedure has not changed simply because a state has switched to another set of standards. From my investigation, the CCSS are more rigorous and include new standards not addressed by the vast majority of previous varieties of individual state standards.
There is only about 6 hours a day of academic instruction in public and charter schools. They can’t fit in the standards plus their own additions to any degree that would be fruitful.
“No Child Left Behind supports standards-based education reform based on the premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual outcomes in education.”
And yet, raising standards was found “burdensome,” and many of the states signed up for “Race to the Top” partly to receive waivers from NCLB. It is clear that raising standards does not improve education in public schools. Common Core is nationalized education with curricula and a tracking database.
I just sent a note to one of my Senators telling them about this absurd waste of money. I am convinced that up to 50% of the money our government spends is spent on crap like this that is unproductive and unnecessary.
Who in their right mind would take out a loan to pay for this? That’s what the government has done.
I actually came here to put up the link to using gaming to teach empathy. http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/05/how-do-you-teach-empathy-harvard-pilots-game-simulation/
I suppose Pamela will be insisting ASCD’s Whole Child Common Core Initiative has nothing to do with the standards. Pamela, as an attorney, one of the things I do is examine who has binding authority on the classroom and what they are requiring. Under both Federal civil rights law and disabilities law as this Justice Dept is interpreting it and under the accreditation standards and under the incorporated Universal Design of Learning, most of the actual Common Core implementation is gaming and new values and a Discourse classroom and social and emotional programs to change attitudes.
It is also not appropriate to tell readers that there is no connection between CCSSI and the Next Generation Science Standards when both come from massive amounts of Gates Foundation funding to pay for curricula and assessments and the ELA Standards call for science and history and social studies to be embedded in ELA’s concept of what is Literacy.
The Next Generation Science Standards use precisely the same type of ‘Learning Rubric’ with the same language as what has been created for ELA and Math. NCTM has also released a very alarming Principles to Action that also applies to science. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/learning-to-walk-naked-into-the-land-of-uncertainty-while-calling-it-math-science-or-lit-class/
NCTM ‘practices’ are explicitly incorporated by reference into CCSSI. Makes it binding without popular outcry for the most part. Consistent with the cybernetic theory of behavior and research conducted by Piotr Galperin in the USSR in the 50s and 60s, the actual CC classroom implementation in all areas, math, English science, and social studies, puts the focus on “Core disciplinary ideas. The idea is these become ‘lenses’ to guide student perceptions.
Finally, I don’t know Pamela’s age, but lucky me still has children in K-12 so I go to actual school meetings. At those classwork is integrated [now] throughout as either STEM or Humanities. Common Core is pushing away from any concept of disciplinary coursework. Ultimately it is all to be transdisciplinary ‘real world problems’ group projects apart from all that gaming.
Wait a minute. So growing corn above the Arctic Circle is a … bad thing? So all these “Buy Locally” types don’t want to extend that option to the Inuit? What a bunch of racists. /sarc
We purchase work books on all the subjects at a local school curricula store. It may be merely anecdotal evidence, but recently many of the books disappeared from the store. The text and work book publishers may have been given incentives to remake their books to conform to Common Core, whether they were going to be used in public schools or not. More research is needed to see if this is the case. But we have saved all of the books we used in order to archive the good old 3 Rs as they were taught.
The science books do have a large dose of renewables discussions, and environmental messaging. I tell my kids to answer the question from the text, as an exercise in reading comprehension and retention, not a matter of agreement or disagreement. I think that will prepare them for a lot of situations. Or we just skip the lesson.
We should not be surprised at the grotesque waste given how much the federal and several state governments have totally wasted trying to get ObamaCare(tm) web sites running.
One of the main roots of such utter foolishness is the ease with which government can create almost unlimited amounts of money out of thin air. Near-infinite money buys near-infinite government, and a bureaucracy that is generously can entertain its fantasy dreams about how it can expand its power and control over its realm.
Every day more people are coming to the judgment that a carefully organized effort to repair the constitution via the States’ power to propose and ratify amendments has less risk to our liberty and prosperity than the present trajectory of the federal government and especially the federal bureaucracy.
The first order of business must be to limit government’s ability to spend and create near-infinite amounts of money.
Attorney, you had best do some reading, especially on acronyms.
inre: Robin
Our Science books for Grade 4 say, “#1 Teacher Recommended for Common Core State Standards.” This seems to indicate that Common Core (by any other name) has already begun to usurp the science standards. One has to wonder why the nationalized program Common Core went to the trouble to appear to revise only math and lit.
Why do people assume that because it is adopted by so many states sight unseen and without trial that it will work? Why should it be centralized, nationalized, and amenable to change by its developers and funders at any time?
The Common Core States Standards Initiative has done its job. The standards developed under the initiative sponsored by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officer (CCSSO), are licensed by those two organizations to the states that adopt them. The Race to the Top grant did not specify CCSS as a necessary part of winning a grant or getting the waiver from No Child Left Behind, but states were given extra points towards winning a grant if they adopted CCSS by 2010. That was a no brainer since no other state standards at that point in time were internationally linked and set to world class standards. To receive federal money for federally mandated programs a state must adopt internationally set standards. That means that some will keep their own standards with adjustments to their content and rigor and will be fine in terms of federal program money.
It should be noted that throughout the development of both the standards and the separate organization developing assessments that are linked to the standards, college and business associations are pushing mighty hard for better standards in order to solve a very big problem: incoming freshman were not able to handle standard freshman classes in language arts or math, or in classes that depended on adequate skills in these areas. That included trade school leaders from the like of farming and repair trade schools, beauty and barber schools, medical trade schools, and advanced computer repair trade schools.
Take it or leave it. But at least read it. Then kick the standards to the curb and go back to the old ones if you like low performing US students. Or kick your state’s butt to work harder if you prefer your students compete head to head on a world class basis. The rest is just scare tactics and propaganda that has fallen to the level of global warming catastrophists. Which is quite embarrassing to see it here, really. And especially when it is linked to global warming issues. Utter stupidity and rank scare tactics with no basis in fact. Shame.
Zeke, do you think the publisher of that science book is stating a fact, opinion, or a conclusion and on what evidence? Good evidence or the other kind? To go through that process is an ELA standard. Based on your writing so far, you do not meet the standard at the 11th grade level. Sounds to me like you should go back to school now that we have better standards. And maybe your kids should get another teacher.
“Thanks for the laughs- it is amazing just how gullible and foolish you oldsters became with your CO2 obsession.”
Pam,
here is free education for you in factual history and how America was formed and from what information . . no charge from the Patriots of Article V.
Please enjoy and share . .
http://articlevprojecttorestoreliberty.com/the-basic-library.html
When you have read it all [I have more than once] then come back and we can debate ; > )
“The good news is that these new standards are still in the beginning stages. The National Sexuality Education Standards remain in draft form, and the Next Generation Science Standards have been adopted by only 11 states plus the District of Columbia. There is still time to take action before these reforms reach your state. HSLDA urges you to contact your local and state representatives, as well as the representatives on the House Education and Labor Committee, and tell them to resist nationalized standards and curricula.”
And in Tennessee:
“Senate Bill 1682: Prohibits Adopting Common Core-Aligned Standards for Social Studies or Science
Sponsors:
Senator Gresham
Summary: This is a companion bill to House Bill 2253. It would prohibit the State Board of Education from joining a consortium or initiative that requires the adoption of common core standards in social studies or science.
HSLDA’s Position:
Support.”
Well maybe only time will tell if the goal of Common Core is a total, comprehensive, nationalized curriculum including science, social studies and national sex ed standards, and not limited to math and English. Pamela Gray seems confident enough that it does not include the Science standards to tell me that I am an eleventh grader in understanding and analysis, and to share her professional, teachers’ union opinion that I should let the experts raise my kids for me. I think she has not thought through what the nationalized/centralized/global standards really represent for our country.
Next up: “If you like your kids, you can keep your kids.”
Debate what? I am a staunchly fiscal conservative and property rights advocate. But I believe the topic was about issues with CCSS having anything to do with globull warming and the nonsense game funded by tax payers?
Pam,
You miss the fact that the Constitution Article I section 8 enumerated powers does not permit a Federal Department of Education, it does not authorize the NSF, nor the DOE and not even the funding of any item not specifically authorized, All current funding for welfare, school lunches, GRANT RESEARCH [except for defense] is just prohibited.
I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. – Annals of Congress (1794-01-10) James Madison
And he wrote most of the document.
profitup10 says:
May 27, 2014 at 2:07 pm
Pam,
You miss the fact that the Constitution Article I section 8 enumerated powers does not permit a Federal Department of Education, it does not authorize the NSF, nor the DOE and not even the funding of any item not specifically authorized, All current funding for welfare, school lunches, GRANT RESEARCH [except for defense] is just prohibited.
=======================
It seems to me this is the nub of it.
The abuse of the “commerce clause” has been taken so far that it has usurped the intent of the constitution — imagine giving the federal government the authority to tax us for NOT buying something. By that, there is no limit to what the federal government can do — strictly not the design that powered the USA to the wealthiest, most powerful nation ever.
It seems to me very hard to understand the imperative of running education from the federal level. It has been a disaster for decades, and I think it a big leap of faith to think that some supposed “standards” are going to make a huge difference.
I’d be willing to accept “common core” if it was apparent that, through it, we were going to cut the cost by 75% for the same crappy outcome we’ve been getting for years. What I think is inevitable is that the price of “education” is going to continue to rise and the quality will stagnate or drop into more precipitous decline.
Where has “common core” been successful? On what scale? At what cost? What alternatives were considered? Why were they rejected?
NB: I don’t think the status quo is acceptable. Taxpayers and their children are getting the shaft in a very discouraging way. Common Core is lipstick on the vicious, voracious pig that the whole “education” industry has become. It doesn’t address the problem, it just distracts attention from it.
The real problem with education in America is the snuffing out of innovation (and no, Central Committee-developed “common core” isn’t innovation, but distinctly the opposite) and the ascent of mediocrity through unionization.
I say abolish the D of Ed, not because I am anti-education, but because I am pro-education and it’s clear the D of Ed. isn’t delivering; not because I am “anti-children” but because I want children to have the best education possible. The D of Ed. has been tragically retrogressive, but the cost of it keeps going up. It is a failed experiment. Terminate it forthwith.
Kate and Pam,
The LIMITS of the constitution are not modified by CLAUSES as clauses go to the limits of Article I section 8. The Use of the Commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause were usurpation created by Chief Justice Marshall – first in the Marbury V Madison case and then when the court used power without a foundation in the Constitution therefore it is null void [there is not Constitutional item called IMPLIED POWERS]. Then the same court used a dicta as precedent in the Case of McCulloch V Maryland to introduce Hamilton’s paper on Manufacturing to create IMPLIED POWERS as Necessary and proper.
In both cases the court had no Constitutional foundation to make such a decision = see article III and share with us the authorization. NO the Federal government was not given these powers in the Constitution.
*The Constitution is a LIMITING DOCUMENT.
It does not pass any rights to anyone!
* Rights are from the CREATOR.
All unstated rights go to the States and to the people.
So, we are all citizens of our Home State – I was born in (edit), but I am a citizen of (edit).
Keep in mind that all case law precedent on the Federal Level are usurped as Article III does not allow British case law theory nor does it allow for Judicial review.
(1807-1815) The Writings of Thomas Jefferson_Part 1 Beginning on Pg 53.
“DEAR SIR, While Burr’s case is depending before the court, I will trouble you, from time to time, with what occurs to me. I observe that the case of Marbury v. Madison has been cited, and I think it material to stop at the threshold the citing that case as authority, and to have it denied to be law.”
“I have long wished for a proper occasion to have the gratuitous opinion in Marbury v. Madison brought before the public, & denounced as not law; &: I think the present a fortunate one. because it occupies such a place in the public attention. I should be glad therefore. if, in noticing that case.you could take occasion to express the determination of the executive, that the doctrines of that case were given extra judicially & against law, and that their reverse will be the rule of action with the executive.”
USURPED POWERS AND HAMILTON
Now maybe all will understand the importance of restoring the ORIGINAL Constitution and it’s intents and meanings as of the time it was adopted. None of the laws passed or the Precedent case law created using the usurped powers has any effect in law. They by the nature of the usurpation are null and viod because the usurpers did not have Constitutional power to change alter or create new rights or find new meaning to the various sections, clauses and amendments.
Any violation of oath of office by way of usurpation of power is the gravest of civic offenses. It is “treasonable usurpation upon the power and majesty of the people,” as Alexander Hamilton correctly characterized any flouting of the people’s fundamental law. (“letters of Phocion,” 1784: regarding violation of the New York Constitution.)
Any usurpation “is criminal and odious” as declared by President John Quincy Adams in his first annual Message to Congress 1825. Such condemnation of usurpation-either by misusing granted power, or by grasping power which has not been granted – is in keeping with the Federalist’s denunciation of this most heinous offense by any public official as a defaulting public trustee, including especially any and ever Judge because especially charged with the particular duty of enforcing respect in practice of this basic law. (all from a book by Hamilton Abert Long).
Pam-I don’t really appreciate your telling me I need to read some more and get to know acronyms. Excuse me? I give very specific info with cites and documents and your answer is to simply call me attorney?
I am not quite sure why you are so determined to spread either misinformation or irrelevant info on this topic, but it is not helpful to childrens’ futures. People broadsided by the complete lack of content in their children’s classes will not thank you, especially if they could have lined up a tutor depending on the age of their child.
Do you even know what STEM actually refers to? It’s not science, technology, engineering and math as content work. It’s the idea of real world problem solving. The term was created by Judith Ramalay when she was at NSF around 2001 to cover up the determined shift away from content knowledge that the Common Core has taken into overdrive.
I am not speculating on any of this apart from my book with 381 footnotes and more than 2 years of posts on my blog that are completely independent of the book. Because I was familiar with Common Core back before there was a controversy I was able to get on all sorts of insider distribution lists laying out the intentions. I also have a copy of the report prepared for the 2012 AERA conference laying out, with their cooperation, the story of how former NC governor Jim Hunt and former WV governor Bob Wise, decided to bring back what was called Outcomes based education and School to Work in the 90s and use the state trade groups to give cover from the previous outcry over federalizing education.
Under your theory if documents are created that are not binding and ones are created that are, we must still only pay attention to the PR con job even if we can prove it is a con job. Interesting view of being a property rights conservative.
The Department of Education’s official mission: to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
Its authority comes from the Article 1, section 8, clause 3 dealing with interstate commerce. It also comes from the last clause in that section:
“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
Early in our history, it became apparent that lack of consistency in educational standards from state to state was harming our ability to compete globally. Our students were not prepared for a rapidly changing and industrialized competitive global market. So eventually the cabinet level department of education (ED) was established to ensure our workforce would be competitive. My great-grandmother came out West to help rural schools develop the standard graded system of education (k-8). She was one of the first Principals of a Wallowa County High School in 1900.
While I agree that a federal department of education has at times been less than helpful, without it we would likely still be in the dark ages in terms of equal access to rigorous primary and secondary education as a nation, and thus not in the running in terms of being a top player on the world’s commerce stage.
With all that said, I continue to state that there is a lack of causality between the above stupid gaming site and CCSS content and adoption. Having read the standards, helped a school district implement them, and taught them myself, teaching via gaming is just not in there folks. And no standard can even be partly realized by sitting in front of a computer playing a game.
You said you were an attorney, yes? If you are one, and I have no reason to doubt that, I don’t think you have a very good case. Do you plan on suing the federal government to end the Department of Ed? Or maybe go after the nonprofit associations that license the CCSS? Maybe you should go after the state you are in for adopting a set of standards they themselves did not develop. If you are I don’t think you are prepared as well as you think. Especially if you see connections around every corner. State your case strongly by stating it simply. Your convoluted tome is diluting the power of your pen in my opinion.
Oregon put together their own standards years ago. If you do a comparison of Oregon’s old standards with international standards (such as those in the CCSS) in equally developed countries, our own standards don’t stack up very well.
As for the issue with content knowledge, the CCSS are filled with them so I have no idea where that is coming from, unless people here just haven’t read the standards for themselves. And really, is it enough to memorize multiplication tables? Really? Good grief you know that is not enough. Hell, the 1912 8th grade exit exam has story problems in it that many high school students would not be able to pass. Why? They haven’t been taught how to work on a real life problem that takes a few days to figure out and solve.
But back to the issue. Again, I have yet to see a well-reasoned robust connection between this silly game and CCSS.
Yet again, none of the commenters in opposition to my initial issue, have yet to tell me in a defensible way why the CCSS is connected to this silly game. However, as I wait for that seminal offering I will say this:
We have a Republic, not a Democratic constitution. And no individual state who is a member of the Union can pass a law or act in such a way that prevents an individual US citizen from exercising his/her right, within the state they live in, to individual freedom in the pursuit of their constitutional rights. In the past, the highly discriminatory behavior of state education systems were in many ways violating our constitution. Shall we reverse to that time? Are some of you saying it is all right to reinstitute discrimination in terms of who gets and who does not get a decent globally relevant education? And would you not agree that such a hodge podge mix of educational discriminatory opportunities harms our ability as a United States organization to compete on the global stage?
You’re arguing against a point not made. I didn’t read any opposition to public education: that’s a straw man of the type commonly deployed by progressives: “If you’re against my proposal, you’re against the children”. Really?
Where is the evidence that “common core” is an improvement for every (or even any) student? What evidence is there that another policy imposed by a so-far disastrous D of Ed. will do anything but accelerate the race to the bottom? Under the D of Ed, school segregation is increasing, if you want to talk “discrimination” — if you want to argue that the D of Ed stands strong against discrimination, then chalk up yet another failure. How does common core address that? In fact, how does it address any so-called “discrimination”? There’s no evidence it does, that it can, or that it will, so it’s not clear why you bring up “discrimination” other than to try to play the “race card”.
Even if the apparently unproven educational principles of the one-size-fits-all, dreamed-up-by-academics, common core have some value, it’s hardly a credible proposition that they won’t be corrupted and used as a channel of propaganda by a captive federal apparatus. That’s the link to this nonsense NSF website, and that of which the founding fathers were acutely aware: centralization leads to capture and abuse. We owe our existence as a nation to that insight.
There’s no structural mechanism in “common core” to prevent it being perverted into a vector of all kinds of twisted, perverted messaging (even if it is arguably not now so), for the only mechanism that can defeat propagandization and act as a bulwark against systematic corruption and vulgar looting is decentralization. Now, before the straw-man that “decentralization doesn’t guarantee no corruption” raises his hideous face, let me state explicitly that’s not what I said or implied. But devolution of power and the money that flows around it to authorities closer to the PEOPLE, rather than concentration of it in some remote capitol, make wholesale capture much, much more difficult, and empowers the people blighted by localized corruption to disinfect their institutions The founding fathers saw that. So do I, among many, many others.
This is likely to start a fire storm, but I have read many biographies of our founding fathers. Few were against public education. And for good reason. John Adams was one of the most fervent advocates of a public education. These folks were hot after world trade. And to get there they knew that without an educated citizenry, world domination in terms of trade would not happen.
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED503799.pdf
Everyone seems to be assuming (That AGW is real and we’re all doomed anyway) there will be some power source to connect all the devices together so that one can hear a voice mail (I am assuming digital PSTN). It’s clear these people haven’t thought it through properly. We’d be better off making a recording on a wax/metal tube and then played back on a suitable mechanical device driven by hand. Put it all in a sealed box and burying it in the ground like a time capsule.
Discrimination comes in many forms. And has had to be taken to court to rectify, so stubborn has its defendants been. Race is just the one most people think of. It was not the one that came to my mind. Gender and disability discrimination still finds its way into review boards and courts. But even more so, the wholesale discrimination of low standards states interfering with US efforts to compete with other countries on the world’s market pulls all of us down, regardless of what state you live in. If it is okay with you that your state, or any other state, is churning out ill-prepared students because they passed a low bar test to get their diploma then say so. And then tell me how that won’t interfere with interstate and international commerce and is not the business of our constitution.
When the constitution was fashioned, competing for global markets was a HUGE concern under the umbrella of the United States, which was why it was penned into its constitution. A prepared workforce is a national concern and is tied directly to commerce. If you think you have a case against that, that there is no connection between state education standards leading to a prepared workforce and international commerce, be my guest to bring suit in a court of law in order to strike down this national interest and constitutional authority to be involved in education. As I said earlier, I don’t think you have a case strong enough to make it through.
Pamela,
You have viewed and presented a false narrative on the Constitution and individual rights. Please re read my post above – THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT GRANT RIGHTS TO INDIVIDUAL OR STATES – IT IS A LIMIT ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S POWERS. no, the Federal central government is not SUPREME except in those powers granted in Article I section 8 – the use of clauses has no foundation in the original limits or permits of the Constitution. As, you Lawyers all know – no foundation then the argument is a false premise and must fail.
See the tenth amendment –
Amendment 10 – Powers of the States and People
<>
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Notes for this amendment:
Proposed 9/25/1789
Ratified 12/15/1791
I hate to butt in, but…
>> And has had to be taken to court to rectify, so stubborn has its defendants been.
Not always, and, in fact, where the locals have been left to sort it out themselves, the result can often be much better than any court could impose. I know this from personal experience. You have such a jaded view of people, which, in my opinion, is unjustified in the general case.
>>And then tell me how that won’t interfere with interstate and international commerce and is not the business of our constitution.
I don’t think you have a firm grasp of the purpose of the “Commerce Clause” ; it arguably wasn’t intended to allow the federal government to do anything it wanted in the name of *furthering* commerce (general police power in the words of one Supreme), it was to *regulate* commerce.
>>the wholesale discrimination of low standards states
You seem to be making Ms. Forney’s case that centralization, even at the state level, fails.
Still, while we may agree that education standards are a good thing, you don’t seem to make the case that it is a good idea to leave it in the hands of an agency whose hallmark is very expensive failure. How long until hundreds of millions have to be spent on “messaging” the common core because it’s the “messaging” that’s blamed for its failure, not incompetence? How long until billions have to be spent on “consultants” to force it down the throats of school districts that don’t want it? Does the federal government have a good track record of dircting such funds to politically disintrested parties (see the NSF website example, above)?
If it’s so good, school districts will adopt it voluntarily, and there’s no need for them to be coerced through laws or bribes, wouldn’t you agree? Even if some number don’t, if the common core is that good, that shouldn’t matter, as it’s the aggregate that counts, right?
In general, you seem to be missing the point of the objections, and arguing something else. I used to employ salesmen. That’s how they fail.
So Wayne it seems you have agreed with me that if its good, it will be adopted (don’t ya hate it when people respond to something you said in opposition that way?). States were and are within their rights to adopt whatever standards they choose. A few are upgrading their own (not an inexpensive task) and changing the way they assess (again not an inexpensive task). Why? Because their own businesses are demanding a better product at graduation and their own colleges are bemoaning the issue of having to provide remedial college classes. Most states decided not to reinvent the wheel and adopted the CCSS. Had they worked on their own, their own internationalized standards would have looked very similar.
Look folks, my original issue had to do with the CCSS and its non-connection with that stupid game. Others brought up the constitutional issue of federal interests in education, as well as ascribing scary components to the CCSS just are not there. Whether you think it right or wrong, a case against the ED constitutionality or the CCSS boogyman will be very hard to prove. At least as hard as demonstrating a robust connection between the CCSS and that silly game.
Pamela Gray says:
May 28, 2014 at 8:25 am
So Wayne it seems you have agreed with me that if its good, it will be adopted (don’t ya hate it when people respond to something you said in opposition that way?).
=========================
I didn’t say I either supported it or opposed it — I don’t know why you’re so defensive.
What I did say is that you seemed to be failing to answer the objections raised by Ms. Forney and others, and I still maintain that you have not demonstrated, or even provided evidence that: a) these standards will be an improvement ; b) we can trust the D of Ed to implement them without turning them into an expensive boondoggle; c) that centralization of authority in the hands of a small cabal of academics in what is for most people a far-away place (both geographically and culturally) is better than what those folks can do locally (i.e. at the individual school-district level) and d) there can be no perversion of the “standards” by political parties intent on advancing certain agendas that are not wanted by parents of the students.
NB: “Opinion”, no matter whose it is, doesn’t rise to the level of “evidence”.
I’m not saying you CAN’T demonstrate those things, only that you HAVE NOT YET. You argue against points not raised, and it’s difficult to understand why you do that unless you have no rational answer to the objections that were raised. In my experience, people see through that, and so by doing it, you damage your own credibility (again, my observation from years of managing sales people, both good and bad). You can accept that or not; I have no dog in that particular hunt, as they say.