The “framing text” is a section from Simone de Beauvior’s 1947 book The Ethics of Ambiguity, “The Antinomies of Action”. Indented, intrusive text is Errant and clearly labeled. *** As we have seen, if the oppressor were aware of the demands of his own freedom, he himself should have to denounce oppression. But he is dishonest; in the name of the serious or of his…
Some “Instructors” Are Indeed Overpaid: Jay’s Endowed Aggression
So, the representative of the worst among us (academic class), Jay P. Greene, has a “friend” post on an Heritage Institute report that public school teachers are overpaid which is titled “Are Public School Teachers Underpaid?” This “friend” (Lyndsey M. Burke–they love their middle initials!) begins this way, My colleague at Heritage, Jason Richwine, along with co-author Andrew Biggs of AEI, has just published a groundbreaking…
The Railroad Rides Upon Us: On the Pursuit of Uneventfulness
We embody a type of greatness. We are of capacity. We are of potential. And yet we are nearly entirely imbecilic in body and mind. Of what, on what, in what do we spend our days? Nothing…or rather, it might be contended that our days are spent without consent. Is this a new order mode of being? Possibly. It is difficult to look beyond the…
“Stick ’em Up!” US and IMF Policies Explained
I just started reading David Graeber’s new book, Debt: The First 5000 Years and I’d like to keep you apprised as I go. I heard Graeber via a podcast and then saw an interview with him on Charlie Rose from 2006. And recently there was this piece in the Guardian, “Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination.” Here’s a taste of it: What we’ve learned…
Accumulation by Dispossession: Land Theft Masquerading as “Empowering Parents”
Just read these two pieces and see if you need much more to understand the reality of what “loosing” the beast upon the prey that is your public schools, and by very near and dear extension, your children, OUR children, OUR communities. First, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch an editorial (full of real facts and so obviously not by a corporatist, “Editorial: Children deserve better…
“Imagine” Trouble: Charter School Operator Places Top Admin on Leave
From today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch (h/t Tammy) comes news of (more) trouble in the “Imagine(d)” paradise. In their report, Imagine Schools places top executive on leave, the paper notes Findings about Imagine’s St Oral medication king of the blood in the corpora cavernosa of the penis, which swell, provocan-elective in impotence from Sildenafil Is completely buy cialis usa. Sildenafil was well tolerated at relevant dose…
Making Room for a Finnish Education in America
I shared yesterday’s Brief about Finland’s success in international testing standards (success that flies in the face of “teaching testing”) with a local message board that is a space of community conjunction between the municipality and the university: BloomingtonOnline.net. The moderator, as a moderator should do, responded with: How would you implement this model into our local schools? Here is how I responded: Obviously this…
Lessons From Finland: Against “Capital” Values for Education Systems
Finland’s secret to educational success? Do exactly the opposite of the US. While that might not be written anywhere, that is literally the case. Finland’s Teacher-Student ratio in secondary school? About 12-1. We keep pushing for the “system” to “educate” our kids earlier and earlier–trying to push day-care and head start programs to kids almost from birth. Finland starts primary school education at age 7….
How to Blind Justice
Greenwald’s new book (With Liberty and Justice for Some) arrived yesterday. As is my, er, usual practice, I repaired to the water closet for a prefatory inspection. I will offer the full amount of the text I read before I solved all the problems of our legal system: Introduction As a litigator who practiced for more than a decade in federal and state courts across…
The Barbaric Heart of the Market and Its Acolytes
If you’re an Errant reader (thanks!) then you’re aware of my visceral negative reaction to the blog by Walmart scholar Jay Greene called, imaginatively, “Jay P. Greene’s Blog” (do you think he meant the “P” as a joke?). He is, as I’ve said many times, a paid proponent of the Friedmanian Theology of “Market as God”, Education Sect Acolyte. [See below for some B-town Errant…