I expected "very critical" postings by teachers' unions and didn't find anything. I found a post where a RWer claimed Edutopia sold out to the unions.

There is a huge problem with the Arne Duncan management of education , but I could not find it here.

Also see this that was posted later: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014290069#post11

this could be a very negative development.

"Charter" Schools

So many of these stories start off sounding great, but may not be so in the end. I wonder why he didn't donate it to the public school system in California. Too much to expect, guess.

Even in the same school, not all are served equally.

Or in the same classroom.

If we judge "equal" by outcome and not by process as a lot of administrators, politicians, and advocates do. It's an intellectually and educationally foolish position, but a politically wise one.

We understand that if you build a house with cheap, rotten lumber; use defective dry wall; have too much sand in the concrete the contractor gets from their vendor; etc., you get a poor outcome. Only an idiot would say that it can all be made up by "quality construction techniques." But we insist that if you have a student who doesn't study or practice their math and reading, has gaps in their knowledge, works too many hours, does drugs, can't be bothered to turn in work, and lacks role models that show a real belief that education matters it can all be made up by "quality instruction."

she will screw things up if the money gets into her hands. Probably use it to build a new basketball Arena for her hubby.

That'd be making it a more level playing field.....Maybe you could find a way to go back in time and do this.


Just in case you didn't know:

USD$4B is the approximate cost of 2 weeks of our current misadventure in Afghanistan/Pipelinistan, with USD$1.6B of that being borrowed money via U.S. T-Bill sales. Oh the humanity! Can't you just hear our money scream?

Between PACs, national parties, and the campaigns itself they're about even in terms of dollars received.

The President spent a lot of cash early on. His opponent didn't. Different strategies lead to different spending patterns.

Hey all you billionaires trying to suppress votes and intimidate voters, dismantle environmental regulations - here is another idea.

Romney has made a lot of money
but he doesn't understand it.

I get a good feeling about this. I know that must mean very little, but from checking out Edutopia, it seems his organization's energies will be vested in professional development and best practices, including project-based and integrated learning (YAY!) and efforts to move toward more authentic forms of assessment. It seems to contrast significantly with Bill Gates and his views for education.

Guess this is the best we can hope for from Big Money educational "reformers" at this point.

that is 80 million per state if he just distributed by state regardless of size. He could have repaired the school system in most states rather than just set himself in some bogus tax shelter.

That's how it's advertised, but it always ends up in a foundation that keeps the money in an endowment (invested how is always a big question) and dispenses grants annually from the yield and remains under the control of the philanthropist or his family for at least a couple of generations.

At least he wasn't a physical robber baron - just a propagandist for junior militarism.

... are you talking about... Stormtroopers?

I mean the use of the hero story (lifted straight from Joseph Campbell) to glorify the transformation from a youth to a warrior. To become his best self, Luke must lose his family and old rooted life, and be introduced into a secret, powerful, magic order. Everything that was past on sleepy Tattooine was illusion, and completely lost to him. He is reborn into a struggle of supernatural good and evil. That is the truth of the galaxy, and it is good. The pain of the family's death doesn't last long in the movie, any more than Princess Leia is upset about the loss of her whole planet with billions of inhabitants for more than a few scenes. It's all worth it, the losses are bearable. Luke's transformation is the emotional core of the story.

The plot and ideological trappings are less important. The empire with its stormtroopers is more like a real army, but no real army recruits volunteers by telling them they will be interchangeable stormtroopers. In fact, military recruitment promises the opposite of military reality: be all you can be, army of one, test yourself, realize your inner hero, be something special as against the cookie-cutter world of the normals, fight for freedom against tyrrany. In the end we'll confirm your heroism by pinning a medal on you in a glorious ceremony, with staging lifted straight from Leni Riefenstahl's film of the Nuremberg party rallies. Never mind that in reality you're one of the empire's soldiers; the message claims the opposite.

Star Wars arrived at the perfect time for this message and was aimed at the 12-year-olds of 1977 (such as myself), a transitional generation in a transitional time. After the 1960s and early 1970s, Vietnam and the end of the draft due to popular disgust with militarism, the offer of Star Wars (just look at that title) was that things could be simple again. There could once again be good and evil, and "we" were the good. This was one of the first and the most successful of wide-release blockbuster movies. Another key one at the time was Rocky I-II: White American underdog who believes in himself almost upsets and then actually defeats an avatar for Muhammad Ali! These two films (among others at the time, but leading the pack) bespeak an ideological turn. I'm not saying the CIA wrote the scripts; they didn't have to, it was in the air, and Lucas was the lucky one who (wittingly or not) managed to hit the zeitgeist best with a juvenile pulp story he had not been able to sell for many years when the zeitgeist was more critical. It was also the beginning of the end for Hollywood's true golden age. The biggest movies since then have not been made for adults, or as explorations of difficult themes, but either to pander totally to the teenage demographic or as spectacular escapes from the ambiguities of adult life.

.

If you think aspiring to be a warrior is a bad thing....


In any case I think you would benefit from a break from the keyboard. Go outside and get some fresh air. Meet a girl...

at least not without evidentiary basis, okay? If you need fresh air or whatever yourself, do go enjoy it. I get plenty.

I don't think children's films should encourage them to be warriors, no. But actually what I presented was not normative (a moral judgement) but a description and analysis of Star Wars as something that encourages warriorism. I don't like that, but whether it's good or bad is a separate question from what it is. I hope you don't think that describing a thing functionally is the same as a value judgement. If you disagree with the description, do try to say why, rather than ascribing attributes to the speaker. Your response was superficial. Thanks once again.

I don't agree with every statement, but overall love the analysis. Our culture's militarism and good vs. evil view are intimately linked. Not at the top, of course, at the top people mostly realize that they're resource wars. But it's the way they sell warmaking to the public. And it runs very very deep in our society: literature, art, film, and of course television.

I raised my son with values that do not honor militarism (except in extremely necessary circumstances that rarely occur), instead teaching him that people are not just good and evil, there is both in everyone, and seeing someone as an evil being that must be destroyed is actually a failure of vision and understanding.

I kept him away from violent programming and anything that would glorify warfare. Finally I gave in on Star Wars, the surrounding family and peer pressures were strongly in favor of allowing it, and I went along with it. I watched over the next few years, as he got way into it, and his views of warfare and good and evil did indeed change. Other similar programming followed. His play reflected these changes. He was constantly shooting and slicing things, looking for new conquests.

Was it the end of the world? No, he's doing ok. It is, however, a cautionary tale and one that others can hopefully benefit from. If I had it to do over again, I'd say no, we don't glorify such things, we don't view the world that way. It is difficult in this society to bring up a child with values not held by the mainstream.

I hope this education money goes to a good cause. I'll read up on Edutopia and see what's it's about. Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful post.

edited to add: I think the real problem with education is poverty.

For your kind words, and for sharing that story. It's hard to insulate children, and debatable. I think basically that if you keep'em away from TV altogether for a few years and equip them with some awareness and skepticism about what they watch when they become autonomous and of course demand it, it's the best you can do. It's ubiquitous and our culture is getting worse with it, always finding new places to thrust the screen at us.

interesting. I hope they could remake Old Yeller with Jar Jar Binks and give it a happy ending.

“George Lucas has expressed his intention, in the event the deal closes, to donate the majority of the proceeds to his philanthropic endeavors.”

Now I'm going to have to admit that the country is better off for JarJar.

That sucks!

...and I blew it all on beer and playin' the ponies!
Kudos to George. Best thing he's done since THX-1138!

students were able to tell their stories from an education that provided them the tools that were based in music, drawing, painting, poetry.... NO more RACE to the top crap....

Then it would go directly into the hands of teachers and their students, not to political organizations and mouthpieces.

Think about it: every single Donors Choose project funded for years. Or just focus on the ones located in low-income schools.

I wonder how many children are going to harmed by this.

Has George Lucas ever given anyone reason to think he is out to "destroy" public education? Why are so many biting at the hand held out to help?

Here's a suggestion: Since, like Andrew Carnegie, he intends to spend the rest of his life and his fortune on philanthropy, why not start sending him actual ideas instead of hostile vibes?

Here's mine: Carnegie founded public libraries across the nation, and I know older people whose families couldn't afford to buy books when they were young whose lives were greatly enhanced by Carnegie libraries. Public libraries are now going through (have gone through) enormous changes in the digital age -- and they are also struggling to just stay open because of lack of state funding. We still need them! Wouldn't it be great if the genius behind Star Wars could uplift public libraries in the 21st century?

Cheers,

Hekate