Gates Foundation Explains the Galvanic Skin Response Monitor
An enlightening article by Stephanie Simon of Reuters was just posted. Simon interviewed Gates’ officials and others, and her article fills in the Gates’ rationale that has until now been missing. The article says: The biometric bracelets, produced by a Massachusetts startup company, Affectiva Inc, send a small current across the skin and then measure [...]
“Technies Gone Wild”
I take the title of this blog from a comment just received in response to the galvanic thingie (I have trouble remembering if it is a GSR or a GRS, a galvanic skin response monitor or a galvanic response skin monitor). The title seemed appropriate for an article sent by another reader. This one describes [...]
How Rhee Cons the Innocent
A reader submitted this post: http://backburner-nkk.blogspot.com/2011/08/ive-been-conned.html It tells the now-familiar story of how an unwary person was conned by Michelle Rhee’s Students First. The reader was going through her email, and along came a “puppies-and-kittens” petition from Change.org, and “Click!” Too late: “And suddenly, there it was…the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the Trojan horse of all [...]
New Information on the Galvanic Skin Response Bracelet
The Gates Foundation now says that its grants for the galvanic skin response monitor had no connection with teacher evaluation, even though the statement on its web site says the purpose of the grant is to “determine the feasibility and utility of using such devices regularly in schools with students and teachers” and says that [...]
The Chicago Story: Karen Lewis 1, Jonah Edelman 0
A few days ago, the Chicago Teachers Union voted overwhelmingly to strike. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Just a year ago, Jonah Edelman of Stand for Children boasted at the Aspen Ideas Festival how he had outsmarted the teachers’ union. He described how he had shaped legislation not only to cut back teachers’ job protections but [...]
The Question of the Day
Responding to a third-grade teacher who despaired of complying with all the demands pressing on her, this reader asks the best question of all: why is this hard-working, dedicated, conscientious teacher compelled to satisfy Bill and Melinda Gates? Frankly, the same question occurred to me but this reader asked it better than I. How did [...]
Mr. and Mrs Gates, Please Read This
I received the following comment from a third-grade teacher. She is trying her best but federal and state officials keep interfering with her ability to teach. You will note that she writes acronym after acronym of big programs, big ideas that officials keep dumping on her. As I read her comment, my heart went out [...]
How Students First Recruits New Members
A friend told me she signed an online petition on Change.org for some cause to make the world a better place, and promptly received an email from Michelle Rhee of Students First thanking her for joining. She was astonished to discover that she was a member of Students First, because she never signed anything that [...]