CURMUDGUCATION: 19 Rules for Life (2021 Edition)

CURMUDGUCATION: 19 Rules for Life (2021 Edition)

19 Rules for Life (2021 Edition)

I first posted this list when I turned 60, and have made it an annual tradition to get it out on my birthday and re-examine it, edit it, and remind myself why I thought such things in the first place. I will keep my original observation-- that this list does not represent any particular signs of wisdom on my part, because I discovered these rules much in the same way that a dim cow discovers an electric fence.

1. Don't be a dick.

There is no excuse for being mean on purpose. Life will provide ample occasions on which you will hurt other people, either through ignorance or just because sometimes life puts us on collision courses with others and people get hurt. There is enough hurt and trouble and disappointment and rejection naturally occurring in the world; there is no reason to deliberately go out of your way to add more. This is doubly in a time like the present, when everyone is already feeling the stress.

2. Do better.

You are not necessarily going to be great. But you can always be better. You can always do a better job today than you did yesterday. Make better choices. Do better. You can always do better.

3. Tell the truth.

Words matter. Do not use them as tools with which to attack the world or attempt to pry prizes out of your fellow humans (see Rule #1). Say what you understand to be true. Life is too short to put your name to a lie. This does not mean that every word out of your mouth is CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: 19 Rules for Life (2021 Edition)

Will States Require Children Get a Coronavirus Vaccination to Return to School? | The Report | US News

Will States Require Children Get a Coronavirus Vaccination to Return to School? | The Report | US News

No Vaccine, No School?

School and public health officials weigh what it will take to reopen schools and some say requiring a coronavirus vaccine may be just a matter of time.

WITH THE FOOD AND DRUG Administration poised to approve the first coronavirus vaccine for use in the U.S. – the start of a major national effort to blunt the spread of a pandemic that’s taken the lives of nearly 300,000 Americans, paralyzed the economy and shuttered schools for millions of children – pediatricians and school and public health officials are bracing themselves for and bristling against the onslaught of questioners asking the one thing they don’t want to talk about. At least not yet, anyway.

Will children be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to school?

"You hear the questions about whether vaccines should be mandatory or not," says Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. "That's not the question to be asking right now."

[ 

READ: 

The Racial Divide in School Reopening Concern ]

"The questions to be asking right now are, 'Is it effective? Is it going to be free? Is it widely accessible?'" she says. "What we're not doing right now – regardless of what I personally think – we're not weighing in on whether a vaccine should be mandatory or not right now because that's not an appropriate question right now."

The caveats of "right now," "yet" and "at this moment" do a lot of heavy lifting in conversations about immunization requirements, and that's because the answer is complicated and not as straightforward as parents would probably like. Not only does it depend on where families live, as different states have different vaccination requirements for schools, but it also depends on drug companies enrolling more children in their trials in order to amass enough data to show – as CONTINUE READING: Will States Require Children Get a Coronavirus Vaccination to Return to School? | The Report | US News

NY State Student Privacy Regulations Summary and Excerpts | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

NY State Student Privacy Regulations Summary and Excerpts | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

NY STATE STUDENT PRIVACY REGULATIONS SUMMARY AND EXCERPTS

As the new school year has started this fall, schools across the country are heavily relying on virtual and blended learning to instruct children. To facilitate this remote learning, many schools are using apps and programs developed and operated by third-parties. New York State regulations create requirements and restrictions for the contracts between school districts and app developers/operators regarding data privacy and usage. Below are a summary and excerpts of these regulations for parents to stay informed on whether school districts are complying and protecting students properly.

NYS-Student-Privacy-Regulations-Summary_v2

NYS-Student-Privacy-Regulations-Excerpts v2

NY State Student Privacy Regulations Summary and Excerpts | Parent Coalition for Student Privacy

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: How To Punish A School Board

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: How To Punish A School Board

FL: How To Punish A School Board

Miami Dade County Public Schools have been having some issues lately, and the public has them on the ropes.

They decided to hand their virtual schooling over to K12, the cyber school giant founded by William Bennett with funding by junk bond king Michael Milken. It's an odd choice, given that a quick Google reveals the many, many problems with the business, from faking enrollment in California to faking teachers in, well, Florida. They've had a long run of disasters. At one point the NCAA said they wouldn't accept a K12 diploma. They are hugely profitable, and built some exuberance under the Trump regime, which helps them throw a big ton of money into lobbying.

In fact, throwing money into things may be the explanation for how they got the Miami-Dade job in the first place. Turns out that they appear to have made a $1.57 million dollar contribution to the Foundation for New Education Initiatives, a nonprofit to help fund programs for the district, and chaired by Alberto Carvalho, the district superintendent.

So K12 got the job, and failed hard. Hard enough that Wired magazine wrote about their "epic series of tech errors."

The rapid pivot to, and even faster pivot away from, K12 amounts to a case study in how not to deploy a massive new software project. It also illustrates how, in a few intense weeks of summer decisionmaking, a charter-school curriculum written by a for-profit company was chosen and installed, with little scrutiny, across one of the largest districts in the country.

It was every kind of disaster, and so the board voted to scrap it-- at 2 AM after  CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: How To Punish A School Board