links

[mindstalk]

analysis of Mississippi Republicans supporting interracial marriage ban
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/04/can-46-of-mississippi-republicans-favor-banning-interracial-marriage/
comments good, for talking about why "liberal" Republicans seem more

Wikipedia in trouble
http://cloggie.org/wissewords2/2011/03/28/wikipedia-finally-notices-its-in-troub
le/

LJ and Russia
http://synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/459929.html

Finnish education miracle
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2062419,00.html
well-filtered, high paid and filtered teachers
no streaming, equity society at high average
short hours, little testing

France demanding online information like passwords
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12983734

US execution drug shortage continues
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/07/135218834/indian-firm-halts-sales-of-execution-drug-to-u-s?ft=1&f=1001

Monbiot says radiation fears not well-supported
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/05/anti-nuclear-lobby-misled-world

Walker nepotism
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_03926452-5f09-11e0-9454-001cc4c002e0.html
http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/119159584.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/04/scott-walker-hires-dropout/

Comments

[mlc23.livejournal.com]

I missed the Finland education article when you posted it before.

I think the article is unfair in its characterization of Asian schools. Drill and long hours - yes, but Asian math at least is taught very very conceptually without a lot of 'rote'. The Singapore Math program which is popular with homeschoolers is actually pretty light on drill, very fun looking, and really digs into underlying concepts. Liping Ma's book _Knowing and Teaching Elementary Math_ also does a very indepth comparison of American "procedural" math teaching vs. Chinese "conceptual" math teaching. Basically, American schools just teach algorithms and Asian schools teach foundational ideas. Very eye opening book.

I believe in short school days/lessons but with a focus on "deliberate practice" instead of volume. That is - give me one or two good sentences instead of a page of crap.

Of course its impossible to ignore the ethnic homogeneity of Finland and Asian countries. A public school near me is closing because of test performance. I guess no on really considered that its not just a "bad" school but the school in our district with the highest percentage of non-English speaking Hispanics.

[mlc23.livejournal.com]

I mean, more accurately, students who have English as a second language rather than non-English speaking.