Friday Funny: Al Gore's new science low – burning dolls

Especially hilarious is her use of a hydrocarbon based fire device to ignite the set.

Is she willing to freeze in the dark to get what she wants?

Unfortunately, environmental advocacy has been inserted into our children’s science education for a couple of decades. When my daughter (now 21) was in fifth grade I went to her school for a parents day, in her science class the teacher had put up a display (from the curriculum) from the “ocean module” they were currently studying. 5 out of 9 subjects of study that were pinned up were environmental concerns. Pollution, over fishing, marine mammal conservation etc. Science has been politicized into environmentalism, and it’s roots are in the text books, classrooms, and science fairs. The video is laugh out loud silly but the underlying politics is sad.

Little kids and useful idiots eat that stuff up!

Just thing about all the petrochemicals that were used for the plastic dolls, the paint, the sealant for the the aquarium tank, the energy used to process the silica and make the glass for it… for her glasses… which are probably actually polycarbonate. The industry that produced her clothings, the plastic in the Fresnel lens…
Yeah, preach on you little brat.

I gotta disagree. I think it’s pernicious and probably somewhat effective. Whether we like it or not, people listen to this.

Where’s the fire marshall?

Burning plastic in a closed room – I wonder what could go wrong there?

I hate it when they use kids to push propaganda.

Hey! You can’t start a fire in the school gymnasium.
This is sending a bad message to children.

Liberalism HAS become a cult. They will push propaganda on the most susceptible members of society, kids included.. Anyone who protests will be branded a denier or a racist or some other buzzword title, and usually sane and intelligent people will tremble in fear lest they be branded.
Society conditions people to crave acceptance from early on, just call them a name and hint that they may not be invited to the next party and they’ll jump right in line.

Oh please will someone put Al Gore and his people out of my misery…

In the pre-Eskimos era (remember the ice is melting so effectively there are no Eskimos now) if a kid drew some people drowning or burning would led the kid to the psychiatrist. Yay kids let’s burn some people while making a video and uploading it to youtube!!!

Well, let’s see – Al Gore supposedly got 16M views over a 24 hour period – or about 666,666 per hour.
A repeat of a 39-year old cartoon “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” got 8.1M for a single hour this year.
Which presentation gave the audience a bigger laugh?
To take it farther, consider this: November 14-15, his presentation started at 7pm (CST) on the 14th, and ended at 6pm (CST) on the 15th.
Taken from here (http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/11/tv-ratings-the-x-factor-and-csi-rise-wednesday-while-abc-comedies-fall.html), we see what people found more interesting:
Nov 14th, 7 p.m. (CST)
CBS: “Survivor: Philippines” (10 million viewers)
FOX: “The X Factor” (8 million)
ABC: “The Middle” (8.7 million)/”The Neighbors” (6.7 million)
NBC: “Whitney” season premiere (4.2 million)/”Guys With Kids” (3.8 million)
The CW: “Arrow” (3.8 million, 2.4/4)
So for that hour alone, 45.2 million Americans found something more interesting.
8 p.m. totals out to 98.7M:
CBS: “Criminal Minds” (12.1 million)
ABC: “Modern Family” (11.9 million)/”Suburgatory” (7.2 million)
FOX: “The X Factor” (8.2 million)
NBC: “Law & Order: SVU” (5.7 million)
The CW: “Supernatural” (2.3 million)
9 p.m., we get another 22.4M
CBS: “CSI” (10.8 million)
ABC: “Nashville” (5.9 million)
NBC: “Chicago Fire” (5.7 million)
Actual, verifiable numbers. Not just a single screenshot showing 16M circled in red. So exactly who in the US was watching during that 3 hour period?

One more comment, related to above:
7 p.m., 15th November:
CBS: “The Big Bang Theory” (17.4 million viewers). And that’s WITHOUT spambots.
Bazinga!

This type of nonsense has been mainstream for decades now. I think there is a huge backlash coming. How much of the cr@p that was pushed at you in school do you beleive now?
Most BA’s now don’t even beleive in arithmetic. Solar is free right?

Yes, we can all see the ‘badness’ in that video – but as can be clearly seen – this was only intended to influence and scare NOT educate.
BTW – what was that shifting summer temps graph about? seemed a bit weird to me, was it a cherry picked single site?, the USA, arctic, what?

Huh, Is that the lowest low there is? How can you beat that, seriously? I was eating when I started to watch this and had to stop. Can´t eat when my mouth is open.

Disgraceful. This little girl will no doubt go on the become someone who earnestly campaigns in the belief she alone has the “truth.” Actually I take leave to doubt she set up that “school science project” unaided …

This girl is a paid actress. I’ve heard her voice (off screen) in another Green Agitprop video, mewing “Global warming is real” — and I have a “photographic” memory for voices (not for faces, though).

“The unpleasant sight of a child thoroughly indoctrinated.”
Actually I think this young lady is a Hollywood actress. Pretty sure I’ve seen her in a movie recently, perhaps alongside Eddie Murphy. If it comes to me which one it is I’ll let you know. Her glasses are fake too. It’s all fake.

Jaycurrie beat me to it, but indeed from the definition of IQ, half the population is below 100.

[snip – a bit over the top -mod]

GeoLurking says:
November 22, 2012 at 9:04 pm
“Just thing about all the petrochemicals that were used for the plastic dolls, the paint, the sealant for the the aquarium tank, the energy used to process the silica and make the glass for it… for her glasses… which are probably actually polycarbonate. The industry that produced her clothings, the plastic in the Fresnel lens
Yeah, preach on you little brat”.
Much as I wish the young lady no harm, it would be ironic if in 20 years time she develops a lung condition that was traced back to breathing in toxic fumes in a confined space whilst performing her little well acted routine, she must have been rehearsing for weeks! She will go far I don’t doubt! I would also like to have had an opportunity to give her the third degree interrogation as to what she actually does know, & compare it to what she has spouted forth! Climate propaganda is the only political propaganda allowed in schools it would seem!

Where do these odnoxious brats come from? More pantomime than science.

This film is an insult to those who have recently lost their lives and had their homes and businesses wrecked by Sandy.
The girl coughs after burning the plastic dolls (or pretends to). Apart from the obvious fact that children should not play with fire, burning plastic dolls releases toxic fumes in the form of dioxins and furans which, if inhaled, may be harmful to human health eg. carcinogenic.

The shift of the mean temperature in Science Girl’s frequency distribution chart of summer temperatures is about 1.5 sd which in most temperate places would be more than 4º Celsius.

I find it objectionable that children are being brainwashed in school to this extent

Wow !!
Great parody !!

Is this what we are going to be seeing after Al gets finished indoctrinated the kids?
Dozens of cars and a few houses were all vandalized by shooters
It reminds me of PETA and the the Animal Liberation Front. Where Peta presents the ‘clean public image’ to sucker people in.

…PETA occupies the niche of — in Newkirk’s own words — “complete press sluts.” …
In the past, PETA has handled the press for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a violent, underground group of fanatics who plant firebombs in restaurants, destroy butcher shops, and torch research labs. The FBI considers ALF among America’s most active and prolific terrorist groups, but PETA compares it to the Underground Railroad and the French Resistance. More than 20 years after its inception, PETA continues to hire convicted ALF militants and funds their legal defense. In at least one case, court records show that Ingrid Newkirk herself was involved in an ALF arson….
http://activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/o/21-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals

Indoctrinated young people can easily turn violent. History is littered with cases and you only have to look to the middle east today to see hatred indoctrination turning into violence today.
Or look at the USA.

John E. Lewis
Deputy Assistant Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee
Washington DC
May 18, 2004
The FBI estimates that the ALF/ELF and related groups have committed more than 1,100 criminal acts in the United States since 1976, resulting in damages conservatively estimated at approximately $110 million….
…The escalation in violent rhetoric is best demonstrated by language that was included in the communiqués claiming responsibility for the detonation of improvised explosive devices in 2003 at two separate northern California companies, which were targeted as a result of their business links to HLS. Following two pipe bomb blasts at the Chiron Life Sciences Center in Emeryville, California on August 28, 2003, an anonymous claim of responsibility was issued which included the statement: “This is the endgame for the animal killers and if you choose to stand with them you will be dealt with accordingly. There will be no quarter given, no half measures taken. You might be able to protect your buildings, but can you protect the homes of every employee?”….
…In addition to the upswing in violent rhetoric and tactics observed from animal rights extremists in recent years, new trends have emerged in the eco-terrorist movement. These trends include a greater frequency of attacks in more populated areas, as seen in Southern California, Michigan and elsewhere, and the increased targeting of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and new construction of homes or commercial properties in previously undeveloped areas by extremists combating what they describe as “urban sprawl.” Eco-terrorists have adopted these new targets due to their perceived negative environmental impact…..
…”Direct action” generally occurs in the form of criminal activity designed to cause economic loss or to destroy the victims’ company operations or property. The extremists’ efforts have broadened to include a multi-national campaign of harassment, intimidation and coercion against animal testing companies and any companies or individuals doing business with those targeted companies. Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) is one such company. The “secondary” or “tertiary” targeting of companies which have business or financial relationships with the target company typically takes the form of fanatical harassment of employees and interference with normal business operations, under the threat of escalating tactics or even violence. The harassment is designed to inflict increasing economic damage until the company is forced to cancel its contracts or business relationship with the original target….
In recent years, the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front have become the most active criminal extremist elements in the United States. Despite the destructive aspects of ALF and ELF’s operations, their stated operational philosophy discourages acts that harm “any animal, human and nonhuman.” In general, the animal rights and environmental extremist movements have adhered to this mandate. Beginning in 2002, however, this operational philosophy has been overshadowed by an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics,…. But even more disturbing is the recent employment of improvised explosive devices against consumer product testing companies, accompanied by threats of more, larger bombings and even potential assassinations of researchers, corporate officers and employees…
http://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/animal-rights-extremism-and-ecoterrorism

Testimony of James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief, Counterterrorism Division, FBI
Before the House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health February 12, 2002
“The Threat of Eco-Terrorism”
…During the past decade we have witnessed dramatic changes in the nature of the terrorist threat….
Disaffected environmentalists, in 1980, formed a radical group called “Earth First!” and engaged in a series of protests and civil disobedience events. In 1984, however, members introduced “tree spiking” (insertion of metal or ceramic spikes in trees in an effort to damage saws) as a tactic to thwart logging. In 1992, the ELF was founded in Brighton, England, by Earth First! members who refused to abandon criminal acts as a tactic when others wished to mainstream Earth First!. In 1993, the ELF was listed for the first time along with the ALF in a communique declaring solidarity in actions between the two groups. This unity continues today with a crossover of leadership and membership. It is not uncommon for the ALF and the ELF to post joint declarations of responsibility for criminal actions on their web-sites. In 1994, founders of the San Francisco branch of Earth First! published in The Earth First! Journal a recommendation that Earth First! mainstream itself in the United States, leaving criminal acts other than unlawful protests to the ELF.
The ELF advocates “monkeywrenching,” a euphemism for acts of sabotage and property destruction against industries and other entities perceived to be damaging to the natural environment. “Monkeywrenching” includes tree spiking, arson, sabotage of logging or construction equipment, and other types of property destruction. Speeches given by Jonathan Paul and Craig Rosebraugh at the 1998 National Animal Rights Conference held at the University of Oregon, promoted the unity of both the ELF and the ALF movements….
http://www.oocities.org/anarcores/fbionalf.html or http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm

The climate crisis manifests itself as a social crisis, not weather.
The crisis consists entirely of how the climate obsessed feel empowered to lie, cheat, steal and abuse.
Let us not forget the infamous 10:10 video

John F. Hultquist says:
November 22, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Burning plastic in a closed room – I wonder what could go wrong there?
____________________________________
PVC is Nasty stuff when heated or burned. It releases HCl gas and other toxins. Barbie dolls are made of PVC (at least the old ones were)
I wonder if they were using an Asbestos mat under the exhibit to prevent the fire from spreading? (snicker)

Now for another child’s investigation of science to cleanse the pallette. video

I note that many responses here are humorous. Unfortunately, you put this in front of most school children and they will believe it completely. Five years later those school children are voters and have not been shown anything to disabuse them of their beliefs. So will applaud madly when told that green energy will be subsidized and ‘dirty’ coal and oil will be taxed and regulated out of existence. This is why these simple propaganda tactics have been and are being used. So you might laugh and think them risible – but the propagandists are the ones that are winning the votes.
Can anyone here show any science education programming that is aimed at educating children to see what is wrong with this example clip? Can anyone here show any materials for teachers that demonstrates a real science approach to these ‘climate catastrophe’ hypotheses? Does anyone know any teachers that are not equally convinced by the warmist anti science propaganda? This is where science is losing, in the schools and in the materials and teaching given there. We face a frightening future because of ‘Nobel Laureates’ like Al Gore – and make no mistake he is winning, or probably has won; not by science but by propaganda to our children. This is not a matter for humor.

[snip – not going there – mod]

What I see is a highly visual appeal to emotion that likely will be effective in it desired goal. Change the mentality of a majority of future voters while they are young and impressionable. Everything I am reading is designed to appeal to the visual part of working memory. That is not hooked up to the part of the brain attuned to abstract conceptualization. That gets kept largely vacant these days anyway. Instead we get hands-on science, gathering data and interpreting it and creating models.
Readers at WUWT with their Axemakers Minds and knowledge of genuine science may be able to recognize that this is propaganda but the new Science Standards being prepared right now under the auspices of Achieve and with Carnegie funding have been deliberately designed to make sure the next generation of students cannot.
Gore is quite aware of what the Clintons’ Outcomes Based Education reforms did to the scientific body of knowledge of too many of today’s Twenty-somethings. He knows what is coming because it is generated through UN and Communitarian profs like Amitai Etzioni. He has produced a commercial to capture kids’ Hearts and Minds. Permanently. In kids habituated by education to rely on emotion, not rational thought.
These are devastating images to the cultivated low accurate info students and Young Adults it is directed at. Fits in perfectly with the plans of manipulation using the social and behavioral sciences the National Research Council has said it will resort to to cut off Climate Skepticism.
I was not being cute when I warned about using BF Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Tactics to Squelch Climate Skepticism via K-12 education globally.

I saw Ian’s comment after I posted.
Most WUWT readers see this Climate Change issue with the kind of rational minds that everything in education policy is designed to make go away. To literally change “the way we think and what we think about” to quote Radical Ecology Prof David Orr. I have jokingly called what is going on Individualism Extraction Devices but I am being snarky and this is no joke.
http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/ridiculing-the-1860s-mind-as-unsuitable-for-the-21st-century-cui-bono/ was a piece I wrote after reading the recent NAS report “Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy” and listening to former NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein pushing making Tablets and visual images the focus of future education.
The kinds of minds and mental processing aspired to will be Molding Clay for a commercial like this.

Very sad. This was set up by ADULTS. This is (of course) not true.
This is a paid ACTRESS.
AND, even as such…it amounts to CHILD ABUSE.
[snip]
Max

Clarification on my previous comment: “This is (of course) not true.” I’m commenting on the concept (and some people WILL make that mistake, probably not most WUWT followers..) that there REALLY is a “little girl” doing this as her “science project”. NADA, NO, not in this universe.

Doug,
That quote was only valid before the modern age of media. The masses no longer have time to reason, they are too busy being programmed.

Just a reminder that Sustainability is to be the major focus of classwork in the new curricula being created in the US to implement what is being called the Common Core State Standards Initiative or CCSSI as I call it. It is interdisciplinary and lends itself to the desired problem-based learning and project-based learning. This was one of the reasons the Literacy/ English Progressions call for a focus on nonfiction.
Gaia may not actually have a temp but little of that info will be getting through to schoolchildren. Moreover college is being restructured to make “envisioning alternative futures” a requirement of coursework. That in turn is premised on having used K-12 to make students Believe that an alternative social, political, and economic vision is a necessity.
Hence the need for such propaganda right now as CCSSI started rolling out in many US classrooms several months ago. By next fall, 2013, it will really be in high gear and with data being collected on each student to determine if they have the desired values, attitudes, and beliefs.
Orwell’s imagination in literature has nothing on the realities of the Data Quality Campaign or the Global Perspectives Inventory (higher ed).
As a book from the early 80s I am reading right now put it, “if we can change the prevailing mentality, we can transform it all.” Let’s remember such scheming when we see such propaganda.
We are not the desired audience.

Textbook publishers cater to the largest ordering entity. States like California used to be that entity. The rest of us on the west coast bought textbooks that were essentially developed for states like CA. All that ends with the new CCSS. However, adoption of new textbooks is hugely expensive. Many states r currently without books. One of my fellow teachers has only 9 books for her class. The same ones one of our younger teachers used when he was in 4th grade.

Ive read thru the standards and have studied them for several years. Sustainability is not a focus at all. Not even a substandard.

I wonder if this is a little girl, looks more like an adult, which would be more in line with the gorons normal behaviour. Seems they could not even convince a real child to spew their propaganda.
This business of heavy handed miss-information/propaganda directed at children is ugly and a sometimes effective short term tactic. Longterm? Where are all the previous users of these techniques, besides in the dustbin of history? Children mostly grow up, untangle the lies and act accordingly, I predict no gain and longterm pain for these charming activists.
Social change advocacy most always overlays an arrogance and belief, that being, I am smarter than everyone else( 75% of canadian motorists believe that they are above average drivers) and that human behaviour is predictable, therefore the nudging of people into acting in the “proper” way will produce the behaviour you desire. This seems to prove that history is not part of the public education anymore.

This is no funny video. It is just disgusting that Gore will go so low as to use kids to enrich his financial portfolio. Then again, he used to be a politician. Bad habits are hard to loose. Gore is as dirty as his dirty weather.

From Gail Combs on November 23, 2012 at 7:10 am:

For example, High School Graduation Requirements for Arizona’s minimum course of study.

Current Requirements:
English 4 credits
Math 2 credits
Science 2 credits
Social Studies 2.5 credits
CTE/Fine Art 1 credits
Electives 8.5 credits
Total 20 cre

I have read of young people getting their GED at 16 and ditching the rest of the high school (indoctrination) experience. For a career, the traditional 4 year degree from a traditional liberal-arts college is now a mass-produced commodity and an expensive joke. There’s a plethora of accredited technical schools who’ll quickly get you in-demand marketable skills and a good income, and they don’t care if you have a HS diploma or a GED. Hell, they don’t even care how many weeks of community service you’ve donated towards protecting/saving the environment by raising awareness of the necessity of curly light bulbs.
If what has become the normal learning experience should fall by the wayside in favor of verified competence in the basics and the acquiring of real-world usable skills, that would not a bad thing.

Ryan says:
November 23, 2012 at 7:22 am
The people that are stupid enough to be the expected audience of such a video are too stupid to care – they are busying themselves watching Jerry Springer. And kids like preachy propaganda films even less than adults do. Anyway, can anyone remember a single thing they saw on TV from this time last year? It’s been proven time and time again that watching TV is so passive that you can’t remember any of it.
—————–
Did you miss our recent election?
cn

Robin says:
November 23, 2012 at 8:31 am
Just a reminder that Sustainability is to be the major focus of classwork in the new curricula being created in the US….
________________________
What I would like to know is who is going to keep civilization running and HOW?
The education now a days is so poor that one in three adult Americans can not read Twenty-five million can not read at all and additional 35 million read at a suboptimal level for today’s society. The largest numbers of illiterate adults are white, native-born Americans. In Boston, Massachusetts, 40 percent of the adult population is illiterate! Worse 10% percent of 10-year-old American boys are on Ritalin or similar drugs often starting in kindergarten and first grade.
That does not even get into the lack of math literacy. Many kids can’t even ADD whole numbers!

The use of children to sell their propaganda is the sign of a sick mind…
Another post modernist false dualism.

Pamela Gray says:
November 23, 2012 at 10:35 am

Here is a sample of the rigour now facing children.
Know multiplication facts thru 12 by the end of 3rd grade.
Count to 100 by ones and 10′s by the end of kgt.
Know subtraction facts 1 thru 5 by the end of kgt.
Know division using 2-digit divisor with remainder by the end of 4th grade.
Go read them for yourself before speaking thru your hat.

Those may be the “rigour” as listed. But how many teachers actually do it and how many students accomplish it? Sounds like there’s a wide gap separating theory, practice, and performance.

Waite! where’s all the exploding children?

http://www.ccsso.org/Documents/2012/11%2012%2012%20Vision%20Statement%20College%20Career%20and%20Civic%20Life%20Framework.pdf is a link to the vision statement I just explained.
All in one relatively short document is the kind of vision I have had to put together piecemeal.

Throughout history people pushing ideologies have recognized the role of controlling education of the very young. St. Ignatius of Loyola understood the permanent impression that the years of childhood make on a person when he said, “Give me the first seven years, and I’ll give you the man.” Adolf Hitler wrote about his objectives for the Hitler Youth program, “My program for educating youth is hard. Weakness must be hammered away. In my castles of the Teutonic Order a youth will grow up before which the world will tremble. I want a brutal, domineering, fearless, cruel youth. Youth must be all that.” Some may consider these as extreme examples of what is happening in our schools. Many others don’t.
I remember when a group of Soviet students visited our university. I asked one what he was studying. He said, “Highway Engineering”. I asked why he chose that subject. He replied “Choose?’

Oops was typing standards from memory. The division one is a 5th grade standard. The 4th grade standard is for single digit divisor.

Lubos Motl says:
November 23, 2012 at 9:24 am
“This clip is a combination of all kinds of political correctness. Not only we hear the politically correct pseudoscience about the dirty weather and the man-made climate but the ultimate “scientist of the future” who explains it just happens to be a black girl. It’s not impossible, just very unlikely, that a black girl would really have the best ideas about the climate, weather, and their relationship among her contemporaries.”
You use black girls/women in the US so you can always play
a) the race card
b) the feminism card
when somebody dares to criticize the black girl/woman. See Susan Rice.

From Pamela Gray on November 23, 2012 at 10:35 am:

Here is a sample of the rigour now facing children.
Know multiplication facts thru 12 by the end of 3rd grade.
Count to 100 by ones and 10′s by the end of kgt.
Know subtraction facts 1 thru 5 by the end of kgt.
Know division using 2-digit divisor with remainder by the end of 4th grade.

Seems like the same “rigor” I faced forty years ago. “Multiplication facts thru 12” was learning multiplication tables. “Subtraction facts” also sounds like rote learning. Why 1 thru 5 instead of simply single-digit subtraction?
However kindergarten still is not mandatory in Pennsylvania, same as in most states, and traditionally is only a half-day anyway, so your standards get bumped to the end of first grade.
These are the minimum expected math skills of adults these days. Well, they should be, when you have pencil and paper handy. In reality adults mainly only have to know how to correctly punch the numbers into a calculator. Which has been a built-in function on cell phones for years so adults can always do needed math. Anyone else remember calculator watches, saving you from having to lug around a bulky pocket calculator?
Plus it’s become expected that math skills will deteriorate, if it is even expected anymore that you will learn the manual methods. Calculators are allowed for the SAT’s. I learned how to calculate square roots with a method resembling long division. Just found out I almost remembered all of how to do it, the internet filled in the last missing bit. How many adults are aware the method exists? Will the kiddies learn that method under these new standards?

The “Science Girl” is perfectly qualified to work for the new non-science NASA. She starts off with a premise of a problem, never bothering to verify if there really is a problem, and uses Main Stream Media and Alinsky style tactics to call for an unnecessary and unverified solution. Yep, no doubt “Science Girl” will make a perfect Space Cadet at the new politically correct NASA.

At Ryan:
Looks like a match to me:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&q=Yara%20Shahidi&biw=1024&bih=574&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yara_Shahidi

I remember quite well when the new math became the new thing. I also remember 4th grade as the division grade and learning facts by 5th grade. These new standards are tougher, earlier, and include problem solving at much earlier grades than ever before in US public school systems. Private schools are now locking onto these standards. Again, read the standards. It is NOT about rote learning. To say so reveals the lack of knowledge about the standards and what they say and dont say.

So, is the “take-away” supposed to be that CAGW advocates believe driving or making power with coal will cause the weather to be so hot that people will catch fire, or that arson is the solution to CAGW?
Or is it just more sick, twisted propaganda aimed at children, as usual?

Once again fail. The standards expect students to develope multiple strategies to solve math based problems and expect students to persevere when solving problems. Gone r the days when a math problem gives u all the necessary components. Few real life math problems provide such conveniences. This new struggle focused strategy depends on fluency in basic math algorithms. Students will be asked to plan for and collect the data they need to solve the problem. Once again read the standards. The bulk of the comments r filtered by pet beliefs instead of the knowledge that is only gained by reading thru the entire ccss documents.

4.RIT.8 Language arts standard for grade 4. Read it.

The box they all have to fit in.

…mind pollution. Are there any kids anywhere that actually care or believe in such pathetic mindlessness.??? As long the ipad is holding a charge they could care less about AL GORIAN Dirty Climate or whatever he calls it this week. It would be interesting to poll a group kids her age to watch this video to get a feel for videos legitimacy among them.

Pamela & Robin: I read some of the CCSSI @
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_Math%20Standards.pdf
Being from an “older” class, this appears as if written by math “professors”. I can see where it might apply to students for which advanced science studies are possible. However I would think that the common student would be more in need of the ability to balance a check book, work house hold problems in budgets and know enough to prevent being cheated by a car dealer ship or mortgage company (ah ha, NOW I see WHY all those protective & pesky government regulations are needed to protect these people from themselves). I would think that providing the fundamentals for coping with life’s necessities would be more important, up front, than having to also prove the theory. To me the standards look as if set up for “advanced” students (and please correct me if your experience says this is wrong) and is only going to provide disappointment, confusion and failure for the rest.
I have assisted students (kin) who were having a hard time with algebra using the “new” methods on problems that were very easy to solve with the “old fashioned” methods that I learned. However, my procedures were many times not permitted, I assume for the reasons given by you all.
Too me this does seem a big step backwards, more like the “Philosophy of Mathematics” than plain “Arithmetic” which is what most of us actually need in real life until and unless specializing later in a career choice. If these standards have been broadened to include other areas, then our functional educational future may be even bleaker. It is a shame that the curricula do not provide more useful instruction about real living issues starting with a firm grounding in basic logic.

Pamela, I took you up on your challenge. I found the Pennsylvania Academic Standards, the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts were adopted on July 10,2010 and are to be fully implemented by July 10,2013. They have the links to those standards (pdf) there. I’m working through the Mathematics one.
Your “deep learning” is quite evident. Kindergarten: “Work with numbers 11–19 to gain foundations for place value.” I’ve read up to 5th grade, where it’s “Understand the place value system.”
Dear Lord. Six years to understand Left Side: ones, tens, hundreds, thousands and Right Side: tenths, hundredths, thousandths?
It takes to 5th grade to do division with a two-digit divisor? 12 inches to 1 foot, an inch is 1/12 of a foot, congratulations you’re doing division with a two-digit divisor.
Developing understanding of volume? It takes to 5th grade to understand which makes sense, a cup of milk or an inch of milk?

(3) Students recognize volume as an attribute of three-dimensional space. They understand that volume can be measured by finding the total number of same-size units of volume required to fill the space without gaps or overlaps. They understand that a 1-unit by 1-unit by 1-unit cube is the standard unit for measuring volume.

What 1x1x1 unit cube makes up a quart?
Come on. The major problem with the American education system is the three-month summer break. It’s gone from obsolete to detrimental. If there are farming families that still need the cheap help, let them switch to cyber-schooling or home schooling for the summer.
As summer is used now, it’s a three month stopping of learning. Dead stop. That wrecks the lives of families with two working parents, without any appropriate form of “day care” available, with older kids doing “whatever” during the day when the parents aren’t around. When school starts up again, the kids not only have to relearn up to where they were before, they have to relearn how to learn. Learning needs to be a continuous process, year long. Which then becomes learning throughout life.
We already know what works. Rote and repetition works. When I was cranking out those square roots on paper, I surprised myself by how quickly I did the math. A large part of that was getting those multiplication tables burned into my skull in the third grade.
Linking to real-world examples works. “Understanding” is overrated. Do I have to understand why there are 16 tablespoons to a cup to measure out ingredients for a recipe? I just have to know that fact, and if I also know it’s three teaspoons to a tablespoon then I should be able to calculate it’s 48 teaspoons to a cup, and how many teaspoons to a quarter cup. First establish competency, that the kids can do the work. “Understanding” can come later. First show it does work, that they too can make it work, then get into why it works.
When I was laid off and went to a technical college, I was helping some guys with their math. One day they came to me with an algebra word problem, and I couldn’t help them. Because I automatically did as I was trained, recognized it and set it up as a two-variable two-equation problem, easily solvable. And they were only at one-variable equations. I couldn’t even see it as a single variable except by substituting in the one equation, so I couldn’t give them the answer with the steps that they needed. I had a talk with their instructor, checked if it was okay to show them “advanced” techniques ahead of schedule.
We already know what’s true. With basic skills, “why” doesn’t matter. “How” does matter. Years later, being able to do something will be far more important than knowing why you are doing it. I can do math without knowing why I’m doing it. I no longer know what a “past participle” is, but I know what sounds right and can write good sentences. Because I had good teachers who knew what was important, what works, I’ve retained those basic skills quite well.
Seriously, will math teachers hold off on teaching the equation for the area of a circle, until the kiddies know enough integral calculus to understand the equation and how to derive it for themselves?

I also thought it interesting how one commenter thought them too hard and another thought them to be too easy. We all tend to view our world thru rose colored glasses. We tint facts and data with belief. And we rewrite our own histories in much the same way.

Bottom line I think these standards are achievable even for students with learning problems. Yes they are more rigorous than previous standards at any time in our US schools. But we must raise the bar or continue to lag behind other developed countries in math problem solving ability. This will require high fluency in basic algorithms, handling multidigit numbers with speed and accuracy. It will also require building perseverance. The ability to spend more time working on relevant math problems in order to compete in the global market.

when i was in kindergarten (age 4) we were beginning cursive and rehearsing our multiplication tables to 12*12 out loud.
it was not a special school; it had good teachers.

Memorizing your A B C’s and being able to use that knowledge to alphabetize are two different things. Same for kindergarten students memorizing multiplication facts. That’s one of the things I like about the standards. Application of rotely learned algorithms is the goal, not rote and repetitious work.

@ Reality check & Pamela Gray:
The apparent goal is push complex concepts to earlier grades and this has been occurring for some decades. However the human intelligence spread is overlooked by assuming that almost all can cope adequately. But what is likely to occur is a larger and larger percentage of failures, by the new standards, as things progress. Of course these have to be covered up because an admission of massive failure would be anathema to the unrealistic objectives that have been established. Eventually what will be needed is student separation at some point into technical versus academic career paths as in some other countries, but unfortunately resistance to this in the US will be high.
I also fail to see what this has to do with world competition, as most of the problems here are caused by management near profit decisions, not science design capability. Most of the job loss overseas is because of cheaper labor. GM or Ford could have/can build long lived, high reliability autos, but wouldn’t/won’t, mostly to save a few bucks per vehicle and to garner side profits from dealer repairs (example, I have a 1995 Corolla @ 276,000 miles that still has the original alternator, water pump, power steering pump, electric fuel pump, automatic transmission and engine; I replaced the thermostat and fan temperature switch @ 250,000). State side attitudes are dominated by patent contests and not-invented-here-syndrome where it would do little good to have advanced concepts because most wouldn’t be accepted/put in place. Here corporate gambling with derivatives is more important than making an honest profit producing needed high quality products. In such an environment, a highly educated workforce is mostly wasted.

NotFooled: I would note that the reason companies make cheap crap is because people buy cheap crap. Until we stop buy cheap crap, expect to see that as the norm. But don’t blame the companies.
Pushing learning to a younger age may or may not be a bad thing. I do agree that children will be failing and it may be covered up. This is part of a larger societal push for everyone to be exactly alike. Children who are different are drugged into compliance and we drug them at a younger age now. Which is why the attack on skeptics is so strong. Disagreement and standing up to “authority” is a threat to society as a whole. TV networks may claim to celebrate differences, but they only celebrate the differences they have deemed acceptable. Step outside those rules and you will not be celebrated.

And by the way, this discussion on the common core state standards has been very enjoyable and speaks directly to the issues at hand: mathematically contemplating data, its significance, and its interpretation. It also speaks directly to the ability to discern opinion from verified fact in informational text.
Do you suppose that these new standards might prepare our children to better develop the kind of thinking skills and discerning eye necessary to navigate the multi-media, highly commercialized presentations bombarding us in the world we live in today?
And don’t you think these new standards are better than what we had when learning was all about memorizing “this is this, and this is that”?

I am back and apparently more awake than before. Pamela–I think I did answer your question with my comment “we also had a high school that functioned much like a Montessori school–the students created their own curriculum and learned math, science, etc. based on the ideas they submitted (a semester long problem solving exercise)” and that school closed. Whether or not it is a better teaching method, it was not accepted by the community nor the students.
It appears that perception is entering in here as to schools and effectiveness. Most people seem to perceive their schooling as unpleasant and ineffective. Standardized tests, while they measure retained learning, are greatly criticized. What other way do we measure the effectiveness of school? How do we know if the curriculum is better or worse? Maybe we can’t.

I am uncertain of the statistics on graduation, but I am going with that prior to 1950, the dropout rate was around 50% (statistics are fascinating in that they are not black and white and a minor change can shift the argument from one side of the fence to the other). At that time, I am uncertain as to that being a bad thing. Technology, etc, were not that advanced and people without diplomas did find work. Prior to that, 8th grade was sufficient. Now, society demands a diploma. It is not clear why comparing 1950 to 2010 is valid for graduation rates.
What is an example of a “criterion-based” test? I don’t have any idea what you are speaking of. Why is it better than knowing the child can perform math at an average level? Or speak English on an advanced level? Wouldn’t the criterion-based test just apply to that specific criteria? I don’t get it.

I am curious how one would teach to both rote learning and for “today’s” society, or if you think there is another way. Letting students just develop their own learning seems to be marginally effective and today’s students may lack the drive to think outside of the box. Home schooling is quite effective if the parents remember the “schooling” part (I know several families that home schooled and not one child ever bothered to get a GED or finish high school–they were simply allowed to run wild and free and they called it schooling) and the child interacts with other children so as to develop social skills. While children are taught not to challenge the teacher, with the internet and hopefully parents who care about learning, the child can look things up and form his own opinions. It comes in handy when their boss wants them to do something mindless later on. Allowing children to challenge the teacher always sounds good, but with only 6 hours a day, 9 months a year, how much questioning will teachers and students have time for? Perhaps teaching real logic and scientific methods would be a start.
Getting past the AGW consensus beliefs and the group think will be even more difficult. High school is all about conformity and I fear we are not far enough removed from the days when we needed conformity to survive to extinguish that trait. Teachers often are taught they must be “in charge”, or worse yet, as in the case of my science fair experience, that they must reward all answers, even wrong ones. This is a difficult thing to change. We can try.

David, you clearly have an ax to grind. When one’s opposition has such an ax, debate isn’t about informing one another, it is about getting your point across. I have not responded to you because I don’t think you want me to inform you of anything. I think you have engaged in this discussion to simply get your beliefs stated in some form of contrast with mine. What I find interesting is that actually, your belief is closer to the new standards than you think.
Comprehension used to be about regurgitating details, main idea, inferences, conclusions, and predictions. In the old multiple choice format, there was only one right answer, even for inference and prediction questions.
The new standards focus less on the “right answer”, and more on understanding how an author presents his/her ideas (be it fictional or informative). We call that craft and structure. To figure that out, we are asking kids to engage in “close” reading and responsive writing. When that becomes the focus, the search isn’t for the “right” answer but for what the author’s purpose for writing might have been and what his/her point of view might be. No where do the new standards tell us to tell children that this or that purpose or point of view is the “right” one.
Are we not closer than you think in our comments?

I am now very confused by this education stuff. Yes, I have seen papers written by university students and they are appalling. However, if I understand the argument here, it’s that method is more important that the right answer. Isn’t that how we got AGW? The method’s good, the people doing it are scientists and the right answer does not seem as important as the method. I don’t understand how concentrating on method over right answers helps in any way.

Reality Check, the AGW “method” is not good. Why? The supporting details are weak and do not support the AGW leap to conclusions warmers make. Teaching students to discern good method from bad and strong supporting details from poor supporting details is a very important skill and one that is thoroughly supported in the new standards. Let us hope we never tell our students which position is right or wrong. Let us hope we teach students to critique informative papers, in WUWT style, regardless of which side of the debate we are “debating”.

@Reality check who says:
November 26, 2012 at 7:14 pm
“”I do not see how you can avoid teaching a position is right or wrong.”””
Please define your terms, what to you actually mean by right or wrong? Not everyone would define it as; correct or incorrect! And then to really muck up the works, there is correct but inaccurate or not factual.

If what you mean by correct versus incorrect has to do with a proposed hypothesis versus the null hypothesis, I believe the AGW hypothesis is based on thin evidence and in any event, is not significant (the data and gold standard analysis demonstrates this). So let’s use a version of right/wrong. Does CO2 have a significant affect on the global average temperature outside of natural variation? No. Or at least not yet. In order for the CO2 hypothesis to take precedence over the “no affect” null hypothesis, it needs to get a lot hotter.
Is that right/wrong enough for you? It probably is but how did I get to that conclusion? Did someone tell me and I simply hung on their every word? No. It was from a close reading of research and an armchair weather nerd’s supply of graduate level statistics and methods critique coursework.

Here is a sample of the rigour now facing children.
Know multiplication facts thru 12 by the end of 3rd grade.
Count to 100 by ones and 10′s by the end of kgt.
Know subtraction facts 1 thru 5 by the end of kgt.
Know division using 2-digit divisor with remainder by the end of 4th grade.
Heh. I knew all of these before kindergarten and could read as well. My grandparents taught them to me, who had 6th and 8th grade ‘educations’ obtained in the very end of the 19th and very early part of the 20th Centuries (born 1893 and 1895). Both of them knew more and had better educations (from the real world) than many PhD holders do today.