What hideous company we keep -- Oregon should join the civilized world and abolish the death penalty

Death-penalty (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will sponsor a free discussion and showing of the documentary film “Race to Execution,” beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, at Ike Box coffee house, 299 Cottage St., in downtown Salem.
   
    Despite Gov. John Kitzhaber's November moratorium on executions, Oregon taxpayers are still paying over $20 million annually to maintain a flawed death penalty system.  In these times of DNA evidence freeing more and more wrongly convicted inmates of crimes they did not commit and of fiscal austerity, a discussion is long overdue.

    Guest speaker will be Frank Thompson, former superintendent of the Oregon State Prison, who supervised the only executions in the state in the past 50 years.

    Rachel Lyon's film, “Race to Execution,” is an original and compelling exploration of the death penalty and of how race infects the nation's capital justice system. The film reveals potential racial biases of victims and perpetrators alike in the media, particularly as such depictions may bring out any prejudices in jurors' minds.

For details, see the website for Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, www.oadp.org or call (503) 990-7060

More on schools and their willful blindness to the impending changes

http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-04-04/education-post-carbon-world

Imagine the world decades from now, during an era of collapse to a post-carbon world with a new and changing climate, with former fossil-fuel addicts thrashing around trying to find food and water and other stuff, but not understanding who/what caused all this pain and suffering or what to do about it.  That's a world in which the education system has failed miserably to do its most important job:  prepare people for the future based on a factual understanding of the past, combined with tools for the real (not virtual) future.  The author of this article is one of the damn few educators who gets it.
cheers anyway,
Tooj 

Even after bankruptcy, trapped by student debt

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/04/25/4441598/even-after-bankruptcy-trapped.html?source=Patrick.net

This is ultimately going to be what forces schools to change from top to bottom -- that the universities and colleges are producing thousands of people who are not prepared to grapple with any of the significant problems and challenges facing their own society, much less the plight of people in less advantaged places. 

Eventually word gets out, and the market for overpriced degrees collapses, at which point the absurdity of making high-school nothing but a college-test-prep program will be evident for all to see.

.

What if schools were not school? I just got home for the weekend. Last week, I was in Stockholm, speaking at SETT. Monday, I fly to Switzerland to speak at the St. Gallen Symposium. And on Saturday, UnCollege Research Apprentice Marlon Paine will be moving to San Francisco to start working fulltime! We've been working on a lot of exciting new programs and material, which includes the just-launched UnCollege Hackademic Camp: From July 30th to August 3rd we will bring ten of the brightest young minds from around the world together in San Francisco for an intense human accelerator. They will learn from and connect with a network of thought-leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, investors, and successful dropouts. But more importantly, we will work together to create solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems—namely education. This is a chance not only to learn from experts and increase your own knowledge and skills, but also to make an impact—solving issues with those who have the power to make changes. If you think you're a hackademic, we encourage you to join us!  To learn more and apply, click here. ******** What if schools were not schools? Insight Labs, a Chicago-based think tank, recently posed this question. They brought together experts from around the world to discuss the issues with the public education system in America. Their conclusion? What if schools were fundamentally different entities, focusing not on the output of students—i.e. test scores, as schools are currently measured by—and instead on cultivating citizens: what if schools were "the birthplace of the citizen ideal?" But let's backtrack. A recent report from the Center for American Progress illuminated many of the current failures of the education system. Federal spending has increased three fold since 1970, while dropout rates and academic performance have changed insignificantly. America, in comparison to other developed countries, ranks only mediocrely when it comes to education, yet it spends more per student than any other country except Luxembourg. The Center for American Progress suggests several ways to make budgets more effective, but I think the problem is bigger than that. School currently mass-produces students to be competitive, individualistic, and value numbers rather than tangible results. The goal of American schools seems to be to create a population that can compete with other countries and maintain America's economic supremacy. But this often comes at the neglect of the community. What if the emphasis was instead on making the entire world better as a whole? What if the purpose of schools changed from producing the highest test scores to a place where kids learned to be a member of their community—focusing on cooperation, not competition? In the words of GOOD Magazine's Liz Dwyer, who recently wrote an article about this issue, what if school were a place where students "learn to live a life of selfless service on behalf of the community; it's where (students) find the path of virtue, subordinating inner self-interest as individuals to the interests of the community, the good of the whole." What if schools were, essentially, "the birthplace of the citizen ideal?" Imagine the impact of students dedicating over twelve years of their lives not to learning information geared towards a test, but learning about, and working on, the challenges the world currently faces—starting at a community level. The results would be a tangible difference in their own community, not a piece of paper with numbers and letter-grades. What if students had the ability to work on projects that interested them, and worked with teachers to integrate the learning of necessary skills into their projects—learning how to apply them in the real world? This would obviously be a big change: it would take a whole community—educators, businesses, parents, etc.—to work with the school system to solve these problems. But the results would be exponentially greater that the cost: an entire population of students working to better the community. School could be, as stated in Insight Labs School is not School Manifesto, "a dynamic social engine for entire towns and cities that drive every citizen toward a higher, greater good: the public interest." Students discover their interests, how to solve problems, and use this knowledge not just for themselves, but to create a better community. Students work as, and learn to be citizens, not detached individuals. At this point, the entire college question would be irrelevant: by the time a student graduates from high school, they will have experienced the real world, learned their passions, their skills, and put them into action. The ideals of apprenticeships and entrepreneurship would be engrained into students before college applications were due. Students that want to start businesses could turn that into their lesson plan; students that want to be writers could actually write what they want to. And then, inevitably, these students would learn how to describe and explain what they have learned—a skill so valuable, yet completely neglected by traditional schooling. This plan is extremely idealistic—turning the entire education system on its head. But that's what we need. We need drastic changes to the current system so that it works with, and not against, the students. Imagine what the entire population of K-12 students could accomplish for their communities, and themselves, if instead of being stuck in a classroom, their time was spent creating value in their communities. The only thing holding us back are the deep roots of the current system—people are terrified to uproot, or even challenge it. Apprenticeship programs and fellowships are starting to pop up, offering students a valuable alternative to college.  The mainstream is catching on: I'm going to speak with NBC about these opportunities next week. What if these alternative programs became the education system? If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to friends and encourage them to join the movement at uncollege.org! Hack on, -Dale

The Advantage of Self-Education

JohnGearLaw.com  -web      971-266-GEAR  -office & 24-hr message line

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Begin forwarded message:

From: UnCollege <dale@uncollege.org>
Date: February 25, 2012 3:29:03 AM PST
To: John Gear <John@JohnGearLaw.com>
Subject: The Advantage of Self-Education
Reply-To: UnCollege <dale@uncollege.org>

The advantages to self-education Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Are we all capable of learning? When I met filmmaker Astra Taylor in Brooklyn in December, she raised the same question as she did in her speech at the Walker Center: "What makes society so sure most people couldn't handle self-education?"  Astra was unschooled until the age of thirteen, drifted in and out of high school, tried out Brown University but didn't like it, and eventually ended up with a Master's from The New School in New York.    She, like me and many other unschoolers, has often had people say "Unschooling worked for you, but admit it won't work for everyone." In her talk, Astra points out that this is a compliment in disguise.  "On one hand," Astra says, "it implies that my family is gifted. On the other hand, it implies that most people are not gifted, and they need to be guided, molded, tested, and inspected."  I don't think anyone needs to be guided, molded, tested, or inspected.  Over the course of the last seven months working on my book, I've talked to people who have come from every background imaginable to do everything imaginable.  I've talked to individuals who grew up in the slums of Dehli and middle class Londoners who have gone on to do everything from become world-renowned DJs to senior executives at British Petroleum.     Anecdotally, it seems that where you come from, the background of your parents, your socio-economic level, and so on has little to do with your success outside school.  However, all of these factors are a huge determinant upon your success inside school.    There is data to support this thesis.  The first study I want to highlight was done in the United Kingdom in the late 1990's:  Children taught at home significantly outperform their contemporaries who go to school, the first comparative study has found.  It discovered that home-educated children of working-class parents achieved considerably higher marks in tests than the children of professional, middle-class parents and that gender differences in exam results disappear among home-taught children. -The Guardian, August 2000  Homeschool Legal Defense Association provides a nice summary a more recent study they commissioned in 2008 on their website.  Some of the highlights include:  Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter. Certified (i.e., either parent ever certified)—87th percentile Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)—88th percentile Spending on home education made little difference. Spent $600 or more on the student—89th percentile Spent under $600 on the student—86th percentile  To be sure, there is a delta between 86th and 89th percentile.  But that delta is quite small when the national average is the 50th percentile.  ********* I'm writing about this data because I've been reviewing in preparation to debate Vivek Wadhwa next Wednesday at TED in Long Beach.  Vivek and I have debated before, both on TechCrunch and NPR, and we'll have a lively time next week.    Vivek likes to make accusations like home or unschooling only works for the elite.  No, I say.  Everyone is capable of self-education regardless of their socio-economic background, parental education level, gender, or whatever other ways Vivek considers me privileged.  Yes, both my parents have college degree, but they aren't wealthy. Money was tight as a child. I started selling fruit from our backyard to make money when I was 10.  I subsequently delivered flowers and sold photocards to pay for my self-education.    This time when I spar with Vivek I have data to refute his accusations.    If you enjoyed this week's newsletter, please forward it to a friend, post it on Facebook, or Tweet it.   Keeping on hacking, Dale

My story, exactly

When did you first realize that the US lost the Cold War?

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/juan-cole-polish-pm-admits-they-tortu

     This story crystallized something that had been forming in my brain for some time, the sad realization that, contrary to popular image, the US had actually lost the Cold War, not Russia (then operating as the chief gangster in the gangster's USSR).

     Think about it:  since time immemorial, the definition of victory is that you get to impose your will on your defeated enemies in return for cessation of hostilities; they have to adopt your values and become like you, rather than the other way around.

     By that standard, then the US is the clear loser of the post-war period of paranoia and balance of terror called The Cold War, which is popularly misunderstood to have ended with the dissolution of the USSR.  With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the gangsters in charge of the old Soviet Union no longer had to bear the crushing burden of maintaining a military all out of proportion to their needs; rather, they could immediately shrink their military dramatically, with no loss in security, and set about spending on themselves rather than trying to placate a loose confederation of historic tribal enemies and victims of Stalinist repression. 

    So while they don't seem much like the winner, they obviously are when compared to us, because, by the end of the Cold War, the US had adopted every last one of the values of the old Soviet system, from a gigantic secret political police bureau (KGB/CIA) operating without any oversight, from an insanely overmuscled military whose care and feeding required ever greater sacrifice from the proles at home, and finally to the willingness to completely obliterate individuals through torture, all in the name of "homeland security."  Like the Soviets, we insist on being able to listen to phone conversations of the natives, we force the populace to undergo random searches before engaging in internal travels, we greatly fear anyone crossing the borders and subject them to intensely political scrutiny, barring dissidents with strange ideas like "freedom."

Quantum Mitt

Hilarious because true.

Salem's Disastrous Priorities: The Highway Lobby Runs Roughshod Over Librarians

Salem is busily undermining its library system, even as it is squandering the millions being poured into the hands of private contractors to engineer the environmental impact statement for the boondoggle on the Willamette, the third auto bridge that has no rationale other than lining the pockets of the road gang and proving that no amount of data on declining vehicle miles traveled and permanently higher gas prices will penetrate the dense fog of lies being generated to sell this monstrosity. 

Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

A prophet is not without honor but in his own land

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21626-arctic-sea-ice-may-have-passed-crucial-tipping-point.html

I had the privilege to interview Dr. James Hansen for fifty minutes a little while ago. The collapse of ice sheets was his greatest concern if we did not take aggressive action now.
The Arctic ice discussed in that story is not the same, but if we're crossing tipping point for loss of sea ice, how much more likely is it that we are at or near to a similar tipping point for Greenland?



One of the most terrifying parts of my interview was Dr. Hansen reminding me of something that I was completely overlooking but which should be front and center in everyone's thinking:  that we're only seeing about half the annual CO2 output showing up in the atmosphere because so much is being absorbed in the oceans -- not only is that making an enormous change in the oceanic acidity (eating away at the very base of the global food chain) but it means that there is a gigantic reservoir of CO2 being stored away that will immediately act to _maintain_ atmospheric CO2 levels even when we are forced, whether by our consciences or by global economic collapse, to stop pumping so much CO2 into the atmosphere.

In other words, not only have we loaded the dice against ourselves in terms of climate outcomes, but we've put ourselves into a straightjacket that's tied to the craps table, so we can't even walk away from the game, even if we were to suddenly wise up.  If all human CO2 emissions stopped tomorrow, we're still not going to see CO2 levels drop very fast at all.

Here's the talk much like the one he gave at Willamette: