Inside the Asylum

This shouldn't come as a surprise, but sadly all the developmental trends in both society and in education are working in the opposite direction. A study in Australia concludes that:

An increased reluctance to let children take risks while playing is blocking their development of a wide range of skills.

It should be one of those "well, duh!" things, but it isn't. Give children a bunch of junk, and let them make their own fun.

LET loose with buckets, hay bales, car tyres and cardboard boxes, and the primary school children became significantly more active, social, creative and resilient.

So what's the problem?

a study of five- to seven-year olds also found that teachers worried more about being sued by ''blame-seeking parents'', even though the play items did not cause any increase in injuries

The interesting thing is that despite the so-called "risky" play, there wasn't any increase in injuries.

Professor Bundy said children were missing out on opportunities for physical, intellectual and social development because ''over-zealous risk reduction'' had resulted in boring playgrounds.

Too right. When I was a kid, my primary school had this fantastic playground thing ... it was a big wooden structure, going up three stories high in places. It had a fire-man's pole, lots of places to crawl in and out of, and it was just plain fun. I'd even occasionally go back and climb on it in later years just for nostalgia value until the safety-Nazis knocked it down. A girl fell of it and was badly injured, and that was the end of that. One girl in 20 or more years of childhood fun. Oh, but think of the children! The poor little girl! Well, how about thinking of the thousands of other children. Risk is a necessary thing in childhood development. Yes, very occasionally increased risk does lead to injuries, but does that mean we shouldn't let kids attempt to walk just because they might fall down? I wonder how many injuries are suffered by and to people who suffer developmental problems because they weren't allowed to properly play when they were growing up. Damn safety-Nazis. I still feel sad every time I think about the destruction of the coolest playground I've ever seen.
[Update] I couldn't find a picture of anything comparable to my childhood playground, but this picture gives a sense of it. It was basically made of two of these things, one on edge and one on its side, only slightly larger, with ladders and steps and platforms attached to it. It was so cool.

There's a student at Bei-Da (Beijing University) in China who's a pretty cool cat.

This vagrant "academic campus cat" with a broken tail "enrolled" at Peking University as early as 2004. It often stays in the classrooms and likes to gaze at people for a long time. Its favorite courses are philosophy and art, and it even slightly shook its head when a teacher talked about the transcendentalist view of nature held by Henry David Thoreau.

Can't argue with that.

Now this is an interesting story:

Marina Orlova arrived in the US six years ago from the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod with $50, useful cleavage and a degree in philology.

I think we've found the answer to the widespread problem with sinking performances of males at high schools and universities.

“How else could I attract them to words?” said Orlova, 28. “Everyone knows that sex sells.”

Hot for teacher? Here she is:

Let's all join in adulation of our Dear Leader:

The history of his leadership is an immortal history in which he has strengthened the Democrat party steering the cause, an ever-victorious history in which he has firmly defended the country, the nation and the Health Care cause with his unique politics and a history of great creations and changes in which he has ushered in a brilliant heyday in building a great prosperous and powerful nation with the might of the single-minded unity of all the people. Under his leadership the Democrat Party has grown to have a unitary idea and leadership fully ensured and strong in its organization and discipline, vanguard ranks of unshakable single-minded unity around its leader and an invincible party leading the construction to victory. The time for bickering is over!

Under his leadership, under so difficult conditions the people of the US have carried out in a big way such Stimulus nature-harnessing projects as large-scale land realignment [for the good of the environment], gravity-fed waterway projects [as long as no semi-endangered species are affected] and power station construction [except nuclear or coal power of course, which would be wrong] and built many modern [green] industrial establishments and production bases in different parts of the country. This is a shining fruition of the great patriotic leadership of President Obama. The US's cause of building a thriving nation is sure to triumph thanks to the leadership of Obama who is making a new history of great prosperity with the might of single-minded unity.

The media calls upon all people to dynamically advance under his leadership to open the gate to a thriving nation at an early date and brilliantly adorn with great victory of US-style Health Care Reform, which will usher in a-hundred-year history of the US shining with the new era.

It's actually pretty frightening how few things I had to change from this bit of North Korean propaganda. North Korea News propaganda puff-piece about President Kim Jong Il, American MSM puff-piece about President Barack Obama ... hard to tell the difference. ACORN? What ACORN? You mean the things in trees? Oh, you mean that ACORN. Oh, well, they're only being attacked by right-wing activists. It's a case of "targeting" you see, with smears and such-like. Oh, you mean Obama has some connection to ACORN? Really? Oh, well, it was a long time ago, and anyway, he says he isn't following the story, and didn't know they were getting federal money. See? Nothing to see here. Move along now. After all, we must be unified in the great cause of Health Care Reform. No more bickering; No more lies; Only the agenda of our Dear Leader.

[Original story, at KCNA, June 19 2009, Papers Editorially Observe Anniversary of Kim Jong Il's Start of Work at C.C., WPK]

It's been my experience that US soldiers are on average better informed, better educated, and have a generally better attitude than most other Americans. If given a choice, I would love to teach a class full of troopers. As with any other country, you get a mix of morons and excellent people, but it does seem that USA has greater extremes. Perhaps this is just a product of the large population... but I'm happy to assert that there's a greater probability of encountering the best types among those with military experience. The thing that inspired me to write this was the following profile of one of my regular readers who is currently in Iraq. Here it is:

Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake: Born in West Africa, I grew up in Wisconsin, studied Classics in Minnesota, traveled 'round the world, then ended up in the US Army

I don't know a lot about him, but from comments I know he's studied Arabic. If he's studied Classics, he likely can read classical Greek and Latin. The thing though, that really impresses me, is the word 'round in his little profile. How many of my students would be able to tell me why the apostrophe is there? Very few. How many would/could write a sentence in which they used an apostrophe in this way? None? An "A" student of mine (with combat experience in Iraq) has just been deployed to Afghanistan. He was studying Farsi in preparation, and wanted some suggestions for further reading. This is the kind of soldier USA is sending out into the world. If only the journalists who write snide things about them were as good.

Here's a link to the Snake's blog.

This is really rather cool. I especially enjoyed the way it was so easy to spot my own instrument. I wonder if you could actually get an orchestra to play pieces using this type of thing as their actual score. I suspect, with a bit of refinement and practise, you actually could. I've never played this movement, but I've been in a youth orchestra that played another movement in the same piece, and I tell you, the buzz/chill you get from being in the middle of and part of an orchestra as it belts out a powerful piece is like nothing else. I don't know how to put it into words.

I found this at Mad Minerva. She found it elsewhere. Follow my link to her link if you're interested.

I've just got one comment, and it's this: students should be taught a healthy disrespect of power. You obey rules because they have good reasons, not because they are set up by people with power. Question authority ... wasn't that the hippy generation's call?
And what did Obama accomplish? Well, he created a fire-storm by his inept handling of the build-up, and especially his incredibly stupid "how can you help the president" guidance. He should never have been making a speech like this in the first place, but the only people really harmed are the president and his supporters. First, the kids learn that he's a boring windbag (from their point of view anyone who tells them to be good and work hard in school is an annoying windbag) ... and even more people start to think that "hey, maybe there really is something to all this anti-Obama stuff" and "gee, the media didn't report that very evenly now did they?"
So, summary? Obama sinks in the polls. MSM sinks in public confidence. What was the point? I mean, what exactly was it intended to do?

Yes, the province of Heilongjiang, the most northerly part of China, has passed a law requiring parents to prevent their children from falling in love. They post some comments in reaction to the new law too.

Student's parent, Ms Zhang: It will guarantee children's healthy development.
My child will be 15 years old this year, and I'm quite worried that "young love" will affect his school achievements... Making a law to prevent young love will guarantee children's healthy development, and is a demonstration of love to minors.

Netizen Mo Jinjin: It is completely unnecessary to make a law to prevent young love.
"Even an upright official finds it hard to settle a family quarrel." It is completely unnecessary to make a law to prevent young love. Laws should discipline measurable and detailed acts but not intangible affection, not only because there is no standard to measure this affection, but also because there is no feasible method to enforce such a law.

Whatever next? Personally, I'm in favor of a law against death. Heck, you might as well pass a law to limit climate change ... oh, wait ...

Leaders from the world's emerging economies and G8 countries have agreed to limit global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius

Soleiman Haim lived in Iran all his life until his death in 1970. He was a Persian Jew, and author of Persian-English/English-Persian dictionaries. So what Muslim world?

Why do American academics love Hugo Chavez? I know he's a socialist lefty and all that, but it's not as if he loves them back.

Luis Carbonell, president of the Commission of Human Rights at the Venezuelan Association for the Advancement of Science (ASOVAC), told SciDev.Net that he believes the episode demonstrates Venezuelan scientists' lack of independence. "There is an official disdain towards critical thinking. Science centres are even banning researchers from expressing public opinions or making statements to the media without the official consent," he says. He gives other examples, such as universities restricting Internet access.

Jaime Requena lost this tenured academic job recently.

Requena says his work and his opposition to the government of president Hugo Chávez are the reasons for his dismissal.

Shocking stuff ... a tenured academic can lose his job for criticizing his president? Imagine the empty corridors at pretty much every university in the United States if that had been the case during the Bush years.

In the context of defending Melissa Lee, a National Party candidate for a bi-election, Michael Laws wrote the following:

"Melissa Lee is a racist, apparently. We know this because the collective intelligence that is the Auckland University Students Association has passed a motion to that effect. And who are we to argue with the moral priggishness of undergraduate students? ... The Auckland University Students Association a collection of onanists and lefty liberals (generally the same thing) has spoken."

Quote of the week (perhaps month): "a collection of onanists and lefty liberals (generally the same thing)" and the word is of course "onanist". If you don't happen to know the meaning of the word, then look it up here. You'll probably find that it comes in handy some time soon.

Fear standards could limit rich education

How many possible different meanings could this headline have? New Zealand's journalists are clearly just as skilled with the English language as those in the US. It turns out the story is about this:

The Ministry of Education's draft national standards, released this week, provide benchmark numeracy and literacy achievements for primary and intermediate school children from next year. Schools will be required to report to parents in "plain language" about their child's progress, including how their child is doing against each national standard... Paparoa Street School principal Philip Harding [said] "You will be preparing children for those assessments, as opposed to the rich education children now get," Harding said.

No surprise to this story really. Blogs have more integrity (or at least they should) by always including links to the original stories.

Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote on Wikipedia... The sociology major's obituary-friendly quote – which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hours after the French composer's death on March 28 – flew straight on to dozens of US blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India. They used the fabricated material, Fitzgerald said, even though administrators at the free online encyclopedia twice caught the quote's lack of attribution and removed it. A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets they'd swallowed his baloney whole... So far, The Guardian is the only publication to make a public mea culpa, while others have eliminated or amended their online obituaries without any reference to the original version...

And the fake quote?

"One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack," Fitzgerald's fake Jarre quote read. "Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear."

I don't know about you, but I have a picture in my mind of that kid from the Simpsons going, "Hah Hah".

Yu Dan, is a megastar. Most in the west have never heard her, but she's sold over 10 million books in China (and half of those were even legal versions!) She's riding the new wave of enthusiasm for all things old that is currently sweeping China. They've been revising ancient sacrificial ceremonies and building new cultural edifices faster than I can keep up with. Communism is dead and buried in China. So what made Yu Dan so famous? Basically she likes to talk about the ideas she gets from reading Confucius' Analects, and then she tries to apply it to modern life. That's it. Now her book Confucius from the Heart has been released in an English language version.
One last comment: Confucianism is a very nice political philosophy. I mean really nice. It's an entirely positive development that China is moving away from communist ideology just as fast as she can, straight back into the arms of her much-missed traditional culture. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is purely some government inspired program. From what I can tell, it's more that the government has let it be known that it doesn't mind, and the people themselves have launched this Old Culture Movement.

The senior politician, an avid reader, encouraged citizens to read more ... on World Reading Day, which fell on Thursday. He made the remarks when visiting a branch of the Commercial Press and the National Library in the capital on Thursday. There's no hope for individuals and the nation if citizens do not read, he said. He said he would love to see every passenger holding a book on hand when riding subways. "I always believe that knowledge gives people not only strength, but also security and happiness," he said. He also urged efforts to publish more classical works.

At last a politician who wants a smarter population ... a smarter Chinese population that is: it was Premier Wen Jiabao of China.

In the general population there is a correlation between athletic ability and intelligence. People who are are athletically more capable tend to be smarter as well. But student athletes in US colleges have a reputation for being less intellectually and academically capable. The explanation for this is pretty simple. Athletes benefit from affirmative action. If you are really good at sports then you can get into a much better college than you could on the strength of your academic record alone. The result is that student athletes, whether they are in a top schools, or mediocre schools, are noticeably dimmer than the average student at a given school. Call that the "jock effect". Affirmative action gives athletes an undeserved reputation for being dim witted, because it consistently places them among groups of students who are brighter.

Now one of the arguments for racial affirmative action in college admissions is that it helps to break down racial stereotypes and racial barriers by exposing all students to a diverse array of students from different races and backgrounds. The problem is that the jock effect happens with racial affirmative action as well. Thanks to racial affirmative action in admissions black students can get into better colleges than they would on the strength of their academic records alone. As a result, the black kids that white kids get to meet at college are, on average, significantly dimer and less successful than other kids at the same school. I doubt if that really helps to break down racial stereotypes or racial barriers.

There is a debate going on in the US about whether affirmative action leads to a mismatch effect. The idea is that students who gain entry to better colleges through affirmative action are often made worse off because they struggle to graduate, and struggle to pass professional exams. The claim is made that many of those students would have done better in life if they had attended a college that was a better match for their academic abilities.

A common response to this criticism of affirmative action is that, of course affirmative action students know they will have to work harder than other students to succeed. If they still choose to take up these admissions offers then that shows they think the benefits to be gained are worth the extra struggle, and the extra risk of failure.

A new study based on data from Duke University has just added to this debate. The authors are extremely tentative in all of their conclusions, but there is one obvious feature of the data that will draw a lot of attention. All four of the racial groups examined in the study received lower grades in their first year than they expected at the start of the year, but for the two groups who benefited from affirmative action the gap between expectations and reality was much larger.

In short, affirmative action students didn't just do worse than average, they did much worse than they themselves expected. Which suggests that they did not realise how much harder things were going to be. The authors of the study recommend that admissions letters should include information on grade averages for the racial group that the student belongs to. At least then students will have more realistic expectations when they decide whether to accept an offer.

I think that's a good idea because it will help some students to make better choices. Unfortunately I doubt if it will solve the broader problem. Many US Colleges have de facto racial quotas, and I doubt if Duke is an exception. If current admissions standards are not admitting enough students from a racial group to meet the quota then the standards are lowered. So if the extra information included in admissions letters does turn off some students, the standards will be lowered to make up for it.

Of course, if prospective students were all fully rational, of even equally rational, then lowering admissions standards would not work. Prospective students who just scraped in under the lower standards would look at the information about their prospects in the admissions letters and decline the offers of admission. The problem is that people are not all equally rational. Given the same information some people make better choices than others.

What I think will happen is that colleges who follow the advice of this new study will increasingly wind up trawling for students who are academically weaker and less able to make good life choices.

Via Instapundit and TaxProf.

"He singled me out again. 'Suppose you merely scolded your puppy, never punished him, let him go on making messes in the house ... and occasionally locked him up in an outbuilding but soon let him back into the house with a warning not to do it again. Then one day you notice that he is now a grown dog and still not housebroken - whereupon you whip out a gun and shoot him dead. Comment please?' '
Why ... that's the craziest way to raise a dog I ever heard of!'
'I agree. Or a child. Whose fault would it be?'
'Uh ... why, mine, I guess.'
'Again I agree. But I'm not guessing.'
A girl blurted out, "but why? Why didn't they spank little kids when they needed it and use a good dose of the strap on any older ones who deserved it - the sort of lesson they wouldn't forget! I mean ones who did things really bad. Why not?'
'I don't know,' he answered grimly, 'except that the time-tested method of instilling social virtue and respect for law in the minds of the young did not appeal to a pre-scientific pseudo-professional class who called themselves "social workers" or sometimes "child psychologists." It was too simple for them, apparently, since anybody could do it, using only the patience and firmness needed in training a puppy... The tragic wrongness of what those well-meaning people did, contrasted with what they thought they were doing, goes very deep... The more earnest they were, the farther it led them astray.'
Starship Troopers pp116-117