A Friday Challenge

John Waxy, a sadly seldom author here, is a professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin. He's also an owner of a 20 million dollar manufacturing concern there but that's a post for another day (see: intimately familiar with the concerns of business owners in the 21st century even though a few mouth foamers who post here are under the mistaken impression that I am not).

John an I have known each other for 33 years and I count him as my closest friend. We talk at least once a week and, sadly more often than not, he tells me the same story about his Intro To Anthropology class that he teachers every semester and it goes something like this: A few weeks into the quarter, a third of his class will be failing. When I ask him why, he tells me that those failing students all essentially have the same problem.

They don't "believe" in evolution.

In fact, many of these students have told John that they needn't bother learning the required class because "It's all lies."

So when I saw this post  on Kevin Baker's site, The Smallest Minority, I became curious as to what his response would be to such willful ignorance by John's students, given that his protestations fall along his usual line of  "Every School Is Failing Everywhere Because of the Communist Take Over of Schools And Look At How Stupid The Kids Are As A Result of This and The Coddling." Certainly, this does not fit Kevin's (very much fictional) narrative!

Yet, if recollection serves me, there was a post a while back about the Constitution and how it was also being destroyed by liberals, commies, proggies, and the Ladies Auxiliary of New Prague, MN. I hadn't commented in a while but honestly felt it was necessary given how (ahem) off the mark he was in his assessment.

During the course of comments, I got the Sybil-like "You're a chicken"-"Get the Fuck Out of Here" nonsense that I always get so I put it to a vote: Yes, for me to stay...No, for me to go and never comment again. The vote was for the NO's 2-1 with several people abstaining. I will, of course, continue to abide by that decision and since have noticed several commenters (including Kevin once) posting here.

Despite this, Kevin continues to put up posts about education which he clearly does to bait and taunt me, trying to get me to comment. Other commenters mention my name and do the same. Don't they know that I am a man of my word and would not comment unless a new vote is taken and I am voted back on the island?

Of course, my promise does not extend to this site (my own, after all) and that's why today I am commenting on his last post on education. In fact, I'm going to do much more than that. I am officially challenging Kevin and any other commenter from his site or here to an ongoing debate on education. It's come to the point where I simply can't allow such a colossal amount of lying to go on by someone who very clearly has not set foot in a school in a long time. That goes for most of his commenters as well. You want to know why schools are failing? Ask me. I'm a teacher so I am an authority as to what is going on. And then go spend a week in a school (preferably a junior high for the real action) so you can gauge if what I am saying is true.

To put it simply, start learning something, get some actual first-hand experience, and then you can run your mouth. After that, I'm hoping that we can have a substantive discussion about how much our society has changed and how incredibly naive (see: FUBAR) it would be to try to "go back to the old days."

To kick off this challenge, let's get back to that video he put up. First, anyone ever hear of the concept of editing? Obviously, it can make people look at stupid or smart as possible. Jay Leno does it all the time. In this case, it's stupid and, because Kevin eternally embraces confirmation bias (especially when it comes to schools), he believes that all students are this "stupid." I guess I'm wondering what ended up on the cutting room floor and how many answered the questions correctly.

Second, for every school that is "failing," there are schools like this one that are turning around. 

Booker T. Washington High School’s graduation rate went from 55% in 2007 to 81.6% in 2010. The school has taken steps such as establishing separate freshmen academies for boys and girls to help students adjust to the school culture and creating an atmosphere where teachers take personal interest in seeing students take pride in their schoolwork. Students can now take AP classes, learn about engineering through robotics competitions, and earn college credits. 

Every time Kevin puts up something on his site about "failing schools," I'll be putting up a post here about successful ones. I have plenty. This is going to happen even if my challenge is declined or ignored. Because the simple truth is that there are many schools that are doing well already or improving. If he and the others set aside their irrational hatred of  Barack X, they would see that he and Secretary Duncan are pursuing many of the same goals as they are. If they did that and spent some time in a school, then they would see that this remark from the comments of that post

They are not being taught history anymore. It's all part of the Socialist Plan.

is beyond laughable. In fact, I question whether or not it was intended in jest.

So, the challenge has been extended. The gauntlet has been thrown down. This is a chance here (and in future education related threads) to have a dialogue with someone who has been in the education system for the last 9 years (public and private).

If you really care about the future of education in this country and are serious about improving the system, this is an opportunity to do so.