Water

An Engineering Student's Notes, Technical, Philosophical and Otherwise by John Richards

JMSmith talks about clams and education and included this from the above book:

“I am beginning to think that water-craft, that is, human craft on the water, is much the same as it is in animals. It is absorbed in an insensible way throughout a term of years, or a lifetime, and is not a specific thing to be learned, like building houses or shoeing horses. A kind of second nature. Put a water-skilled man on a steamer, a ship, in a boat, on a raft, or a life buoy, it is all the same. He knows the traits and trends of the water, and how to keep on the surface of it. Geometry, dynamics, mechanics, or even a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, will do him no more good than a heathen’s talisman, unless he has been trained to the water, on and in the water.” - John Richards, An Engineering Student’s Notes, Technical, Philosophical and Otherwise (San Francisco: Industrial Publishing, 1904), p. 155. 

Education & Discipline

Found this in a story from Willamette Week:

Teachers whom OJP [Oregon Journalism Project] spoke to say there’s a high level of workplace dissatisfaction, despite the funding increase from the Student Success Act. They say inflation consumed much of the increase and classrooms are crowded and often unmanageable because of legislation limiting disciplinary action that may be taken against students.

Most of the story is about politics and money, but this one line was the only mention of trouble in the classroom.

I am all in favor of only allowing students in the classroom who want to be there, and excluding unruly students. What to do with the excluded kids? Put them in the bullpen. Staff the bullpen with guards armed with firehoses.

I wonder just what is legislation limiting disciplinary action that may be taken against students? Google gives us the kind of usual gobble-de-gook. I suspect corporal punishment is right out:

As of 2024, corporal punishment is still legal in private schools in every U.S. state except Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, legal in public schools in 17 states, and practiced in 12 of the states.

 

Gifted vs. Bright

A retired elementary school teacher sent me this. Schopenhauer could have used this.

Gifted vs. Bright: Understanding the Difference

While bright children possess a strong foundation in academic skills and a keen interest in learning, gifted learners exhibit unique traits that extend beyond typical academic achievement.

BRIGHT CHILD	GIFTED LEARNER
Knows the answer	Asks the questions
Is interested	Is highly curious
Is attentive	Is mentally and physically involved
Has good ideas	Has wild and silly ideas
Works hard	Plays around yet tests well
Answers the questions	Discusses in detail, elaborates
Top group	Beyond the group
Listens with interest	Shows strong feelings and opinions
Learns with ease	Already knows
6-8 repetitions for mastery	1-2 repetitions for mastery
Understands	Constructs abstractions
Enjoys peers	Prefers adults
Grasps meanings	Draws inferences
Completes projects	Initiates projects
Is receptive	Is intense
Copies accurately	Creates new designs
Enjoys school	Enjoys learning
Absorbs information	Manipulates information
Technician	Inventor
Good memorizer	Good guesser
Enjoys straightforward, sequential presentations	Thrives on complexity
Is alert	Is keenly observant
Is pleased with own learning	Is highly self-critical

Quote of the Day

Jefferson High School

Portland is talking about what to do about Jefferson High School. Last week's story stirred up people enough to write letters to the editor, which Willamette Week dutifully published. I like this one from Janice Archer:

Way to bury the lede, Oregon Journalism Project [“Schooled by Mississippi,” Dec. 10]! Mississippi fourth grade reading scores are best in the nation because any student not reading at a fourth grade reading level is held back for another year of third grade! (As mentioned in paragraph 24.) If all states did that, wouldn’t we all score 100%? And their eighth grade reading scores aren’t so hot. How do their eighth grade scores compare with ours?

Nothing wrong with phonics. And, by the way, what system, or systems, of reading instruction do Oregon schools use? If we’re going to praise and shame, let’s take a statistics class and compare like to like, not apples to rhinoceroses. 

P. S. Blogger doesn't like 'lede' but Google assures me it's just fine.

Explaining the Obvious

From Europe’s Far-Right Revival: Unpacking the Surge by Zubair Mumtaz

July 9, 2024

The far-right is gaining increasing power across Europe, with several countries now having right-politico parties in government or as major political forces including France and the Netherland are the latest. This trend is driven by a few key factors such as worsening economic conditions and decreasing living standards of the working and middle classes, worsened by neoliberal policies and the Eurozone crisis, which have led to frustration with mainstream parties. Far-right populists have effectively capitalized on this discontent, positioning themselves as advocates for the “common people” against the political establishment.

Concerns regarding immigration, particularly from Muslim-majority nations, have provided a fertile environment for far-right parties to advance nativist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic agendas. They blame immigrants and minorities as a threat to national identity and security, proposing simplistic solutions and fueling anxieties.

However, the failure of centre-left and left-wing parties to adequately address the economic and social worries of their traditional working-class support base has created a void that far-right populists have filled. The left’s perceived alignment with pro-EU, pro-immigration policies has alienated numerous voters, prompting them to search for alternatives.

Moreover, as mainstream centre-right parties increasingly embrace far-right language and policies, particularly on topics like immigration, it has contributed to the normalization of extremist perspectives. This blending of the lines between the far-right and centre-right makes populist parties seem more acceptable to a wider electorate.

Furthermore, growing dissatisfaction with the perceived absence of accountability and responsiveness of EU institutions to the needs of all member states has fueled Euroscepticism. Far-right parties exploit this sentiment, positioning themselves as protectors of national sovereignty against an overbearing, undemocratic EU bureaucracy.

The author goes on for a bit. Who is he?

Zubair Mumtaz is a Conflict / Security Analyst and an M.Phil. Scholar in Peace & Conflict Studies at National Defence University. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

The are at least three National Defence Universities:

• Washington D. C., U. S. A.
• Islamabad, Pakistan
• Taoyuan City, Taiwan

I'm pretty sure Zubair is from the one in Washington D. C.

Quote of the Day

Joseph Moore is talking about Catholic schools and education. He starts by quoting from a papal letter to bishops in 1890, wherein I found this line:

If in their early years they find within the walls of their homes the rule of an upright life and the discipline of Christian virtues, the future welfare of society will in great measure be guaranteed. - Sapientiae Christianae (1890), article 42

 

Dress Up, You Dog

I found this in Jonathan Clarke's post on City Journal about the way we dress:

Fashion also often operates, however, as a mechanism of inclusion. Put on the prescribed uniform every day—be it coveralls or a pinstriped suit—and you become part of a team. The journey from the place we start to the distant and half-imagined place we hope will be our destination might begin with the purchase of some aspirational piece of clothing. The fashion industry sells this Cinderella dream of transformation, and dollar for dollar, it might deliver better value than higher education.

Via  Execupundit

Social Engineering for Destruction

Michigan High School Reading Proficiency

The Scratching Post is talking about the sad condition of poor black Americans and how all the social engineering programs in the last 60 years have aggravated their situation rather than improving it. If I recall correctly, K T Cat (the author) is Catholic and his post certainly has a Catholic slant. I'm not a big fan of the Catholic church, but I agree with most of their basic principles. 

The more I read about what the Federal government has been doing for the last century, the more I am appalled. The big problem for me is that I don't know what can be done about it. Our country is rich enough that several warlords have been able to establish their own fiefdoms within our country. Oh, they aren't really old timey warlords with swords and shit, they are billionaires with all the clout that money can buy. I can't fault them for throwing their weight around. If you want something done you can't depend on the Feds to take care of it, you are much better off taking care of it yourself.

Problem is that if you haven't been taken up by one of one of these warlords, you are pretty much out in the cold. One of these days it is entirely possible that some demagog is going to gather all the deplorables into a cohesive force and we will have a real life coup and civil war. Or we will have another holocaust. I don't think either of those events are very likely. More likely is that the situation will continue to deteriorate, big cities will become war zones for the drug cartels. The suburbs will be populated by wage slaves loyal to their local virtual warlord, and the countryside outside of the cities will be populated by religious redneck preppers.

About the graph. I looked for the original but I could not find it. The closest thing I found is this one:

Percentage of students at or above the Proficient level in 2013

It took me a while to figure out what the bottom two bars are telling us. We are still looking at the student's reading proficiency, but we are grouping them by their parent's education level.

Burn The Universities

University Hall Burns

Handwaving Freakoutery is not happy with the way the college students have been saddled with debt. He blames all of us for the disaster that has befallen the zillions who got loans to go to college. He's mostly right.

Universities also help maintain Western Civilization, teaching things like art, literature and history, things that are important if you want to maintain your civilization. But those topics are more of a hobby and don't necessarily tie into making a living, which is what the vast majority of college students are interested in, or will be, as soon as their funding runs out.

Is our economy functioning well? It is, mostly. There is a large, and possibly growing, underclass, and things may not be going so well for them. 'A rising tide lifts all boats' is a phrase I have heard on occasion, but it only really helps those who have boats. What we really need is a boat shop that is producing 'rowboats' for everyone, where a 'rowboat' is something that allows you to float on the rising tide of inflation. Problem is, all the talent and all the investment is being directed at building ocean liners and space ships and fancy stuff, fancy stuff that promises to bring ever greater rewards. Building rowboats for the poor is not such an attractive business proposition.

The Model T Ford was such a rowboat, as were mobile homes. Now we have smartphones which almost everyone has and will surely give you a leg up on surviving in this world.

So we are seeing colossal blunders all around us, but we are also seeing phenomenal successes. We have promoters promoting the most ridiculous nonsense, but since the the world seems to be awash with a zillion times as much money as sense, they are finding followers, followers who are contributing / investing in whatever the promoter is promoting. Cowabunga.

P.S. Mizzou, the University of Missouri alumni magazine has a fine story about the fire that destroyed their Academic Hall in 1892 (picture at top). Steam, electric and gas lighting and broken ax handles all play a part.

P.P.S. Just came across this:

Policy Violence

Martin Luther’s Germany and Public Schooling

Martin Luther

Yard Sale of the Mind (Joseph Moore) has a post up about public schooling. He talks about current events, Sparta, and about halfway through he talks about Martin Luther (look for the heading Martin Luther’s Germany). A little history and a some food for thought.

Fuck Heads of the First Order

IOU-niversity by Victor Juhasz

The Trillion-Dollar Lie by Matt Taibbi takes a look at the student loan business. Congress passed a law a few years ago that supposedly meant students could not declare bankruptcy. Turns out that might not be true. His story talks about some of the people fighting against this absurd financial juggernaut. I thought this bit about how the Federal government works was especially clear / repugnant.

The passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 was a classic demonstration of how America works, or doesn’t, depending on your point of view. While we focus on differences between Republicans and Democrats, it’s their uncanny habit of having just a sliver of enough agreement to pass crucial industry-friendly bills that really defines the parties.

Whether it’s NAFTA, the Iraq War authorization, or the Obama stimulus, there are always just enough aisle-crossers to get the job done, and the tally usually tracks with industry money with humorous accuracy. In this law signed by George Bush, sponsored by Republican Chuck Grassley, and greased by millions in donations from entities like Sallie Mae, the crucial votes were cast by a handful of aisle-crossing Democrats, including especially the Delawareans Joe Biden and Tom Carper. 

 

Me, Rambling

Blackboard full of mystical squiggles

The longer I am around, the more I tend to think that mathematical ability is inherited. Not to say that someone whose parents are both of a non-mathematical bent, could not have the ability. Genes combine in new ways and who is to say whether any particular combination could result in a brain with an attachment to math.

So I hear people complaining about math: 'I don't use it', 'it's too hard', 'boring', and I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't force everyone to take math classes. Save us all a lot of grief. But then I got to thinking that by forcing everyone to attend these classes, they are at least being exposed to the terminology, so when someone uses a mathematical term like 'addition', they'll at least know that it's a math term and should be suitably cowed. Assuming they were suitably devastated when they failed that level of mathematical education.

A more lenient version would be that they would simply recognize the math term and allow better communication.

Queen Mary Bridge - Thomas Woolworth

Our world runs on math, but the controllers run on emotion. We have built, at great expense, a giant ocean liner. It's as big as a continent and holds the entire country, and we are cruising at tremendous speed, straight ahead through time. Through the magic of engineering and government contracting, we have a nice gold plated dial to control the direction of the ship. Turn the knob to the left and the ship veers left. Turn the knob to the right and the ship turns right. Easy-peasy.

But which way should we turn the knob? Or should we turn it at all? Or has it been turned so far that we are going backwards? (That's entirely speculation, I don't think it has, but there are any number of conspiracy theories that would support that notion.)

Naturally, everyone has an opinion about which way to turn the knob,  and those who care the most about it are pushing their way to the front so they can put their hand on the knob. 

Whoever actually gets to turn the knob has to be careful that he doesn't turn it too far. Remember, he is in the center of a crowd of people, all hollering at him to turn the knob! If he turns the knob too far in either direction, he is going to piss off a group of people somewhere in the crowd, and they are going to start pushing a lot harder, forcing their way closer to the center, and the guy in the center is going to feel it.

Here it is, two days after the election and we still don't know who won. I think RobertaX says they have nine days to count the ballots. This all seems very weird to me. Seems like when I was a kid, the results of the election were known that night. Of course, it might have been that in all those elections the winner was clear.

So maybe these hotly contested elections are a result of more people pushing in toward the center of control. There must be some reward for getting closer to the center. It could be financial, or it could be moral: you are doing the right thing, those other clowns are immoral goat fuckers. Nothing drives people like anger. Demonizing your opponents enables you to hate them, which will invigorate you and give you the energy you need to push for what you want.

I've been kind of hoping that Trump would win, not that I especially like Trump, it's just there are some Democrat actions that strike me as irresponsible. I suppose what bothers me most is the way some blue states have run up huge debts and are on the hook for huge pensions. Now that I've said that, I'm sure someone is going to point out some red states that have similar, or equally egregious, examples of irresponsible financial shenanigans.

Trump. Boy howdy. I don't know if there is anything to like about him, I've never listened to him. I've seen a few of his tweets, mostly ones that were quoted by someone else. They might be cute little phrases, but they aren't going to really tell you anything of substance. What I do like about him is that a large number of people detest him. Anybody who can make that many people hate him must be doing something right.

You know, Trump might have done some things right. There is the recent peace agreement in the mideast. Whether it will last is debatable. There have been numerous peace agreements there before but they never seem to hold. There may be some other stuff, I haven't noticed.

What I have noticed is COVID-19 lockdown and multi-trillion dollar emergency relief package that the congress passed in reaction to the lockdown. The nationwide lockdown is complete bullshit. Near as I can tell it comes from Dr. Fauci (did I spell that right?) and he reports to Trump. The relief package was aimed at people who should have had enough money in the bank to weather the storm, but did absolutely nothing for the lower class who got slammed into the ground by the lockdown.

Liquid Manure

The powers that be don't give a shit about the lower class. They make lots of mewling little noises about how this program or that is supposed to help poor people, but they are more likely to just throw them under the bus. But maybe that's the nature of politics, you are in a war against your mortal enemies and in a war, you can't always protect everybody from everything. Sometime sacrifices have to be made. I understand that, but do they have to lie all the damn time? It's the unending stream of liquid manure coming down the wire that disgusts me.

Pic of the Day

A School for Boys and Girls - Jan Steen, 1670

About this painting:

This is the largest of several schoolroom scenes by Steen. The composition is loosely based on Raphael’s fresco of ‘The School of Athens’ in the Vatican, depicting the greatest scholars of antiquity. Basing this unruly scene on the famous gathering of greats, Steen made a visual joke, which is also echoed in the incidental detail. The adults seem oblivious to the unruly behaviour of their pupils. At the right is an owl, traditional symbol of wisdom and attribute of the goddess Athena. Here a boy offers it a pair of spectacles alluding to the Dutch proverb ‘What use are glasses or light if the owl does not want to see?’ This could apply to both pupils and teachers.

No Milk Today

Herman's Hermits - No Milk Today (1966)
Beat-Club
Beaverton schools were in lockdown today because some useless twit made a death threat. "Lockdown" mean nobody comes in or out, like the milk delivery man, so the kids got water today instead of milk with their lunch. "Nobody comes in or out" is not exactly true because many parents came and picked up their kids.

Anyway, the business about the milk reminded SWMBO of this tune. They used to play it at the public swimming pool. I don't remember it at all, possibly because in 1966 I didn't have my driver's license yet and so didn't have access to the car radio.

Update April 2022 replaced missing video.

Pic of the Day

1912 Umatilla County, Oregon. Science teacher preparing for class at the Milton Freewater
high school. Behind him on the chalkboard is the name of the next lesson:
Part IV, Radient phenomena and Radiation energies.

Milton-Freewater is in the northeast corner of the state, just down the road from Walla Walla Washington and about 20 miles east of where the Columbia River turns north into Washington. Umatilla County is where we stored our nerve gas when Reagan was getting hard nosed about the Russkies.

Via Posthip Scott

Charter Schools

Sioux City Central High School, also known as the Castle on the Hill
Built back when we knew how to build things.

There was an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal today how charter school students are out-performing public school students (paywall). I prowled around on the net to see if I could find anything that might explain this discrepancy. I found a couple of items. One: "A charter school is an independently run public school granted greater flexibility in its operations, in return for greater accountability for performance." which doesn't really tell us much at all. The other is this video about Eva Moskowitz. I didn't watch the whole thing, it goes on for minutes, I tell you, minutes of people yammering. I ain't got time for that.

Then I thought to check this here blog to see if I had posted anything, and sure enough I posted this. That was back in 2011, six years ago, and apparently nothing has changed. Union busting is tough, and it's even tougher when the union is the biggest one in the most powerful country in the world.

Trump and the Afghan Girls

Afghan teenagers from the Afghanistan Robotic House take pictures at Herat International Airport before embarking for the United States. (Hoshang Hashim/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

This group of girls wanted to attend a robotics competition in the USA, but were denied visas until the Donald intervened. One side of the aisle praises Trump for intervening with the State Department on the girls' behalf, the other side blames him for promoting an anti-muslim attitude. I suspect the State Department of being a rigid, rule-following bureaucracy, but I suppose that is what you want in a Federal Agency. You don't want people making arbitrary and capricious decisions that may later come back to bite us.

The State Department dismissed the girls’ visa requests at least twice, according to media reports, though, citing privacy laws, it did not spell out its reasons. One common reason Afghans are rejected for U.S. entry is the concern that they will overstay their visas and refuse to go back home.
The president became aware of the case and asked officials at the National Security Council to see what they could do. After those officials talked to counterparts at various agencies, the Department of Homeland Security agreed to allow the girls in on a system known as “parole,” which will allow them to stay in the United States for 10 days, though technically not on visas. - Politico

Nicks First Day training at Camp.

Promotional Photo for camp Oopsie

Nick is my nephew, he lives in Iowa. Iaman relays this tale.

Nick hired on as a camp counselor / teenage wrangler at Camp Oopsie [name changed to protect the guilty].
He arrived for training but through a snafu, that wasn't available,  so he went to the kitchen to help out.
The dishes needed washing so he loads the dishwasher with the first load,  and the motor shorts out and burns.
Dealing with small fire,  that he sets to wash the 200 dishes by hands.
Wednesdays are cookout day,  the cooks day off.  except it starts to rain, hard.
Nick having cooked at HyVee, says "I can handle this"  and cooks 200 hamburgers for the starving kids.
They sit, they say their blessing, and......Tornado sirens go off,  drop your burgers and into the shelter, quick.
An hour there and the power goes off.
Then an all clear.
Raining like crazy, another tornado warning, back into the shelter for another hour,
Luckily somebody brought fruit chewy snacks.
Another all clear,  still raining,  the rivers flooding, so Nick goes and pulls the 12 canoes up the hill from the flooded bank.
Kids sheltering in the church building are frantic, there's a bat swooping inside, getting a tennis racket Nick sweeps the critter out into the black blowing night.
Leaving the kids in the care of the staff, Nick drives home at 11 PM through the storm.

Khan

Ricardo Montalban as Khan Noonian Singh in the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan
Because I needed a picture of a Khan, and who is the most memorable Khan? Ricardo, of course.

I'm thinking about getting my own domain name and while I know what name I want, I am not sure what suffix I should choose. Com is the common one and it might be okay, but this isn't really going to be a commercial site, it's just me mucking about. The great committee that decides these things has recently added a whole bunch of new suffixes, so I go take a look, and one of the first ones that jumps out at me is akdn, which belongs to the Aga Khan Development Network. Aga is the model moderate Muslim. Seems to be all about good works and tolerance. Doesn't seem to be Jihadist bone in his body.

That name reminds me of the Khan Academy. Determined daughter is studying chemistry and she finds the YouTube videos from Khan Academy (warning: autoplay video) very helpful. Are these two related? Not as near as I can tell.

Then there was the Opium Khan character in the novel Angelmaker that I just finished reading. He was a real nasty villain. Evil personified describes him well.

We recently watched  the first season of Marco Polo on Netflix, where a young Marco spends a year in Kublai Khan's court. It wasn't the greatest show on Earth, but it had some interesting bits, like using trebuchets against the Chinese, who were armed with primitive guns.

Detroit Steve sent me this link:

So You Want To Learn Physics...

by Susan J. Fowler

She lays out a course of study that you can pursue on your own, mainly through reading and studying the listed books. That's fine, but there was one statement in her introduction that caught me crosswise:

"Remember that anyone can learn physics." 

Not true. Anyone might be able to learn physics if properly motivated, but that's not going to happen to everyone. You also need an ability to engage in logical thought. Aptitude and inclination can make it easier.

There are two kinds of people in this world: people people and things people, by which I mean some people are better at dealing with people and some people are better at dealing with things. Obviously there is some overlap, but I would venture to say that a person who would make a good social justice warrior, or politician, would probably not make a good physicist.