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Sunday, April 13, 2014

Happy TJ DAY: Quotations on Education « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Quotations on Education « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello:



Quotations on Education



1782. (Notes on the State of Virginia) "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree."
1785 August 19. (to Peter Carr) "An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second."[1]
1786 August 13. (to George Wythe) "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."[2]
1786 August 27. (to Thomas Mann Randolph) "Knowledge indeed is a desirable, a lovely possession."[3]
1787 December 20. (to James Madison) "Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to ; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty."[4]
1789 January 8. (to Richard Price) "...wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government..."[5]
1810 May 6. (to the Trustees of the Lottery for East Tennessee College) "No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in it's effect towards supporting free & good government."[6]
1816 January 6. (to Charles Yancey) "if a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was & never will be."[7]
1816 April 24. (to Dupont de Nemours) "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day . . . . I believe it [human condition] susceptible of much improvement, and most of all, in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is effected."[8]
1818 January 14. (to Joseph C. Cabell) "Now let us see what the present primary schools cost us, on the supposition that all the children of 10. 11. & 12. years old are, as they ought to be, at school: and, if they are not, so much the work is the system; for they will be untaught, and their ignorance & vices will, in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences, than it would have done, in their correction, by a good education."[9]
1818 January 14. (to Joseph C. Cabell) "A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest, of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest."[10]
1818 August 4. "The objects of this primary eduction determine its character and limits. These objects are To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgement; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed. To instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests and duties, as men and citizens, being then the objects of education in the primary schools, whether privet or public, in them should be taught reading, writing and numerical arithmetic, the elements of mensuration...and the outlines of geography and history."[11]
1820 September 28. (to William C. Jarvis) "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves: and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their controul with a wholsome discretion, the remedy is, not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. this is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."[12]
1822 October 21. (to C.C. Blatchly) "I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man."[13]
1824 March 27. (to Edward Everett) "The qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. They are the result of habit and long training."[14]

FURTHER SOURCES

FOOTNOTES

  • 1.PTJ, 8:406.
  • 2.Ibid., 10:244.
  • 3.Ibid., 10:308.
  • 4.Ibid., 12:442.
  • 5.Ibid., 14:420. Recipient's copy at the Library of Congress.
  • 6.PTJ:RS, 2:365. Polygraph copy at the Library of Congress.
  • 7.PTJ:RS, 9:33.  Polygraph copy at the Library of Congress (see last page of letter).
  • 8.Polygraph copy at the Library of Congress.
  • 9.Ford, 10:98-101.
  • 10.Ibid.
  • 11."Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia", August 4, 1818, in Peterson, Writings, 459.
  • 12.Polygraph copy at the Library of Congress.  Transcription from Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series Digital Archive.
  • 13.L&B, 15:399.
  • 14.Ibid., 16:20-22.

  • The end of democracy...(Quotation)

    Quotation: "The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations."
    Sources consulted:
    1. Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Digital Edition
    2. Thomas Jefferson: Papers collection in Hathi Trust Digital Library
    3. Retirement Papers
    Earliest known appearance in print: 1994[1]
    Earliest known appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: see above
    Status:  This exact quotation has not been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson.  It may be a mistaken amalgamation of the author's comments in the above 1994 reference with a real Jefferson quotation.  Jefferson wrote in 1825 to William Branch Giles of "vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."[2]  Chomsky's 1994 book quotes Jefferson's 1825 letter to Giles and then comments that "[Jefferson] warned that that would be the end of democracy and the defeat of the American revolution."
  • Quotations on Education « Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello:
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Wary feelings on Camp Philos

Wary feelings on Camp Philos:



Wary feelings on Camp Philos

Sunday, April 13, 2014
By Sara Foss (Contact)
Gazette Reporter  




I love summer camp, and I love philosophy.
So when I learned of a weekend-long event in the Adirondacks called Camp Philos, I wondered what it was all about. Would attendees spend their evenings gathered around a campfire, discussing Plato and Aristotle? Would they engage in debates about the nature of reality while canoeing on Lake Placid?
Sadly, no.
The subject of Camp Philos is education reform.
Billed as “a philosopher’s camp” that invites participants to “embark on three spring days of fun, fellowship and strategy with the nation’s thought leaders on education reform,” the event will run from May 4 to 6 at Whiteface Lodge. Sponsored by the nonprofit organization Education Reform Now, Camp Philos is not cheap — for general attendees, the fee is $1,000, and for VIPs it’s $2,500.
Camp Philos is expected to attract elected officials, philanthropists and education activists from throughout the country.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo will serve as the event’s honorary chair; special guests include Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, and film director M. Night Shyamalan, who helmed “The Sixth Sense” and authored the 2013 book “I Got Schooled: The Unlikely Story of How a Moonlighting Movie Maker Learned the Five Keys to Closing America’s Education Gap.”
I’m all for improving the nation’s schools, but I remain skeptical about the education reform movement, with its emphasis on the Common Core curriculum, rigorous standardized tests, teacher evaluations and charter schools. These measures will do little to address the root cause of poor academic performance, which is poverty, and they’re more likely to undermine public schools than strengthen them.
One of my big concerns about the education reform movement is its elite nature.
After all, some of the movement’s biggest supporters and funders include Bill and Melinda Gates and the Walton Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization founded by Wal-Mart founders Sam and Helen Walton, as well as wealthy hedge fund managers such as Daniel Loeb and Carl Icahn. Many of these people have given generously to Cuomo’s campaign. For instance, Icahn gave the governor $25,000 last March, while Ken Langone, a charter school advocate and founder of Home Depot, gave $50,000.
I don’t necessarily doubt the sincerity or good intentions of education reformers, but I’m wary of allowing rich people to set America’s education agenda, which is what appears to be happening. And when I hear that education reformers from around the country are convening at a pricey, secluded retreat in the mountains, well, it doesn’t exactly dispel my suspicions and misgivings.
Unsurprisingly, teachers and public school advocates have also taken a dim view of Camp Philos, particularly Cuomo’s involvement.
“The governor has become the poster child of the corporate education reform movement,” said Billy Easton, executive director of the Albany-based Alliance for Quality Education. He described the movement as one that pushes “Wall Street strategies in education. ... They want to bottom-line schools Wary feelings on Camp Philos:

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How to Criticize “Big Philanthropy” Effectively | Dissent Magazine

How to Criticize “Big Philanthropy” Effectively | Dissent Magazine:



How to Criticize “Big Philanthropy” Effectively

Bill Gates (DFID, 2010, Wikimedia Commons)
By Joanne Barkan - April 9, 2014 
  



Criticizing philanthropy (or philanthropists) of any kind is tricky. To most people, a negative appraisal sounds off-base and churlish—yet another instance of “No good deed goes unpunished.” Criticizing the immense private foundations that finance and shape the market-model “reform” of public education in the United States produces the same incredulity and indignation. “You’re going after Bill Gates?” I’ve been asked many times. “He’s doing good work in Africa. Leave him alone.”
Actually, the Gates Foundation’s work in Africa has some serious critics, but suppose, for the sake of argument, that the foundation does much good there. Suppose that Bloomberg Philanthropies announces tomorrow that it will spend $1 billion over the next five years to promote gun control in the United States. Would those of us who oppose market-model ed reform but support mosquito nets in Africa and gun control here still criticize the mega-foundations? Would we do it in the same way?
There are at least three approaches to evaluating the role of big philanthropy in ed reform. Understanding how they differ makes for a more effective analysis and stronger arguments.
The first approach focuses on the failure of specific policies pushed by the foundations and the harm they do to teaching and learning. For example, a critique of using value-added modeling to measure the effectiveness of individual teachers would deal with the inherent unreliability of the calculations, the nonsensical use of faulty formulas to measure growth in learning, and the negative consequences of rating teachers with such a flawed tool.
The second approach examines how big philanthropy’s ed-reform activity undermines the democratic control of public education, an institution that is central to a functioning How to Criticize “Big Philanthropy” Effectively | Dissent Magazine:
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4-13-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs

With A Brooklyn Accent:











Another Reason Why Public School Teachers are Silenced: They Might Expose the Wounds of Poverty

A disinterested observer, coming from another place or time, would find it odd that the voices of American public school teachers are systematically excluded by those making education policy. No better example of this is the "Education Reform" gathering sponsored by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo- Camp Philus- where the admission fee is $1,000, guaranteed to assure that public school teachers
by Mark Naison / 17min 


4-12-14 With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All Week
With A Brooklyn Accent:With A Brooklyn Accent Go BATs All WeekDon't Underestimate New York City PUBLIC Schools!Today, 30 students from a public middle school called West Side Collaborative came to sit in on an upper level undergraduate course I teach, called "The Worker in American Life,." brought by their teacher, Victoria Thomas-Rahiman, who was once my student. I was concerned that th
by mike simpson / 20min 




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Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 28 in Class: The YouTubes

Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 28 in Class: The YouTubes:



 Week 28 in Class: The YouTubes





 Stage 28
This week’s share will be YouTube videos. YouTube videos can be a great source of short videos on topics that can help illuminate a larger topic your teaching. Here’s how I used them:

Right now we’re finishing up a unit on music (Beyond the Notes in the Open Court reading series). YouTube is a great source of music from almost every style and time period. We’ve studied Beethoven, and Ray Charles as part of this. Here are some videos I’ve used:

two cellos thunderstruck – YouTube  This is an anachronism that works. Two guys on a cello in front of a baroque era audience (Vienna, maybe?) playing…AC/DC’s” Thunderstruck”. I works for a couple reasons. It gives a fresh view of “classical” instruments and also how music may changes but some things stay the same.

ray charles – YouTube
boogie woogie – YouTube Students read a story about Ray Charles, playing boogie-woogie, but few know what that means even though they go to piano lab in school once a week, and many take piano lessons after school. These two videos give a good example of Charles’ early sound, Reflections on Teaching » Blog Archive » Week 28 in Class: The YouTubes:
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Amy Ludwig VanDerwater: Test boycotters are the new revolutionaries - Opinion - The Buffalo News

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater: Test boycotters are the new revolutionaries - Opinion - The Buffalo News:



Amy Ludwig VanDerwater: Test boycotters are the new revolutionaries

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater for My View
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater for My View 
As a writing teacher and children’s author working in schools for the past 15 years, I have had the opportunity to talk with many teachers and administrators about the Common Core, testing in New York State and related issues. Several of these professionals share the concerns of parents who have chosen to opt their children out of state testing in grades 3-8, yet it is a risk for them to publicly say so.
One special education teacher tells of watching a 9-year-old English language learner with special needs take last year’s ELA test. He colored in the circles, “A-B-C-D-C-B-A” until he reached the end.
A fifth-grade teacher tells how her school has instituted “play therapy” for stressed-out kindergarteners. So now, instead of playing, they take tests. Then, they go to therapy. A local middle school has seen a great increase in students who need therapy, students who are worried, afraid about their numbers. Some primary children make “goodie bags” for upper-grade testers.
One Western New York district has decided that first-graders no longer have time to put on class plays. There is too much testing to be done. Goodbye, tradition. Goodbye, arts.
I never know what to say. But I listen. For these teachers and administrators cannot tell everyone their stories. To speak honestly on this issue places a public educator’s job on the line. Free speech has been muzzled.
Therefore, it is parents’ voices we hear: parents who do not wish for their children to spend countless hours preparing for untested tests and untested standards, parents who believe in kindergarten play, in recess, in addressing childhood poverty before focusing on purchasing one-to-one computers (The Gates Foundation has invested millions in the CCSS) for testing.
Some parents may not see or may not mind the educational shift toward data and away from children, may not wish to read about it in the paper or know that this spring, children whose families opt out of tests may be allowed to read books (except in districts with a “sit and stare”   Amy Ludwig VanDerwater: Test boycotters are the new revolutionaries - Opinion - The Buffalo News:

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Protesters Want Gates Foundation To Stop Investing In Private Prisons | PopularResistance.Org

Protesters Want Gates Foundation To Stop Investing In Private Prisons | PopularResistance.Org:



Protesters Want Gates Foundation To Stop Investing In Private Prisons

Protesters outside of Gates Foundation urging divestment from private prisons, from Seattle Times
Immigrant rights activists protested the Gates Foundation for their support of notorious private prison company GEO Group. (Photo: Alex Garland via Presente.org)
RESIST! ,  
By Lornet Turnbull, /seattletimes.com
April 13th, 2014
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Above: Protesters outside of Gates Foundation urging divestment from private prisons, from Seattle Times

Demonstrators protest outside the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday, demanding the philanthropic organization dump its investments in a company that runs private prisons.

On Thursday, about two dozen immigrant-rights advocates and other demonstrators gathered outside the foundation’s offices, demanding it dump its investments in one of the nation’s largest operators of private prisons.
Specifically, they want the Gates Foundation — whose co-chairman, Bill Gates, has been a steadfast supporter of immigration — to divert the $2.2 million that its trust invests in The GEO Group.
The world’s largest operator of private prisons and detention centers, GEO runs 59 facilities across the country, including the 1,500-bed Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

“This isn’t just a moral argument,” said William Winters, senior campaign adviser with the Latino advocacy group Presente.org, which organized the protest.
“If the Gates Foundation wants to have the effect in the world they say they want to have, then investing in private prisons is the antithesis of that.”
Organizers said they staged the demonstration after getting no response to a letter they Protesters Want Gates Foundation To Stop Investing In Private Prisons | PopularResistance.Org:
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The Answer Sheet 4-13-14

The Answer Sheet:







Statisticians slam popular teacher evaluation method
You can be certain that members of the American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, know a thing or two about data and measurement. That makes the statement that the association just issued very important for school reform. The ASA just slammed the high-stakes “value-added method” (VAM) of […]
by Valerie Strauss / 48min 


Where kids get suspended for not sitting up straight
Some school disciplines are lenient. Some are strict. And then there’s the Noble Charter School network in Chicago. At the 14 Noble campuses, kids get suspended for infractions such as not sitting up straight in class, being a minute late and not looking at the teacher when instructed. And until last week, students ordered into […]
3 by Valerie Strauss / 34min hide  //  save
‘We’re real parents in a real crisis’
QUEST, or Quality Education for Every Student, is a volunteer parent group in Massachusetts working to persuade state legislators to adequately fund public education and maintain the current cap on the number of charter schools. Mary Battenfeld, a member of QUEST and a parent of three Boston Public School students, writes in this post why […]
2 by Valerie Strauss / 34min 


All Week @ The Answer Sheet 4-12-14
The Answer Sheet:All Week @ The Answer SheetThe new school reform model: ‘dumping the losers’Since 2011, the state-run Philadelphia public school district has adopted what is called the “portfolio model” of school reform as its “theory of change.”  The model is a move away from the traditional school district, in which a centralized administration controls a set of public schools, to an arrangemen
by mike simpson / 26min 


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4-13-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:








Video: “Let It Go” From “Frozen” — In 25 Languages
by Larry Ferlazzo / 0min 





Guest Post: More On Theory Of Knowledge Oral Presentations
Regular readers know that I teach many different classes, including an International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class, and share many TOK resources here. IB has made many changes this year to the Theory of Knowledge course and, along with writing my own thoughts on them, I’ve invited others to write guest posts, too. Here are some of them: The Best Commentaries On The New IB Theory Of Know
by Larry Ferlazzo / 19min 


The Best Resources For Learning About The Blood Moon
A “Blood Moon” will be occurring tomorrow night, and I thought readers might find this list helpful. You might also be interested in: The Best Sites For Learning About A Lunar Eclipse The Best Images Of The Ring Of Fire Eclipse The Best Resources About The “Supermoon” The Best Resources For “Moon Day” Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About The Blood Moon: Total lunar eclips
by Larry Ferlazzo / 31min 


Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Week… 4-12-14 …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EF
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFLLARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAYLBJ As A Teacher In TexasI knew that Lyndon Baines Johnson had been a teacher, but had never explored it further. I’ve been an admirer of much of LBJ’s work (though, obviously, not of his terrible actions in Vietnam). You can read some of my thoughts about him at This Is A Great Passage For
by mike simpson / 48min 
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4-13-13 Curmudgucation Week

CURMUDGUCATION:








Five Best Positive Posts
Even though this blog is mostly about the spleen ventage, I do make it a point to remember the Good Parts, too. So here, for your Sunday night (or Monday morning or Wednesday afternoon or whenever your Up could use some Pickme), here are the five most positive posts from Curmudgucation (so far). I know that irony is often my stock and trade, but for these posts, I'm not kidding!Why American Public
by Peter Greene / 31min 


From One Reluctant Warrior to Another
Anthony Cody posted A Call to Battle for reluctant Warriors earlier this week, and it got me to really thinking about my own reluctant warrior status, and what I would say to someone else just entering the fray.I'm not a fighter. On those personality tests that measure such things, I usually emerge as a peacemaker. But from day one, teaching have forced me to confront the need, sometimes, to fight
by Peter Greene / 0min 
4-12-13 Curmudgucation Week
4-5-13 Curmudgucation WeekCURMUDGUCATION:Duncan to Rest of US: Shut UpLast week Arne Duncan John King shared a bill at the National Action Network gathering in NYC. King's message was "Blah blah blah standards tests blah." Same old, same old. Duncan, however, field tested a new message that translates basically to, "All youse normals, just shut up."John King's history as NY Hig
by mike simpson / 8min 




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4-13-14 Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week

Jersey Jazzman:







Data Wars, Episode I
Bruce Baker wrote a post yesterday about the appropriate use of data that really should be read by all engaged in education policy debates:My next few blog posts will return to a common theme on this blog – appropriate use of publicly available data sources. I figure it’s time to put some positive, instructive stuff out there. Some guidance for more casual users (and more reckless ones) of public
14 by Duke / 32min 






4-12-14 Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All Week
Jersey Jazzman:Jersey Jazzman Jammin' All WeekWhy Is Michelle Rhee Wrong About Everything?Michelle Rhee is consistently wrong about everything.She was wrong about teaching to the test. She was wrong about her grading of state education policies. She was wrong about truancy. She was wrong about student surveys and VAM. She was wrong about the effectiveness of her "reforms" while leading t
by mike simpson / 5min 
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