The Obama Effect in educational test scores

January 24, 2009 at 8:01 pm (Education, News & Politics) (, , , , , , )

Apparently, during the height of Obama’s campaigning, many African American students tested similarly to their white counterparts of a similar educational background.  This is not the first I’ve heard of African Americans, especially children and teenagers, being inspired to take their academics and careers more seriously because of Obama’s success, but previously these reports have been largely anecdotal.  Though I hate the amount of testing done in this country, how exciting to see documented evidence of Obama’s positive effect as a role model!

I would argue that he’s not only a role model for African Americans, but also for men in power (or even for women in power, considering that there still seems to be a belief that a woman must be pushy and bitchy to climb the ranks, especially in male-dominated fields).  He’s courteous, patient, reserved, and obtains his influence by inspiring others rather than fear-mongering.  One of the most obnoxious things about many male Republican candidates is their inability to remain polite and reserved while still being influential.  I may not agree with the Republican party, but at least I could respect them more if they acted with a little more decency.  Even though it may be much more difficult to document quantitatively, I wonder if we’ll see an increase in polite, reserved behavior in politics?

However, after reading some of a friend’s blog entries about government officials in South Korea, I’m thinking that maybe Republicans aren’t so bad after all …

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China hearts Obama

November 11, 2008 at 7:09 pm (China & Chinese Culture, Musings, News & Politics) (, , , )

I remember a while ago reading in Jenny Zhu’s blog that China wasn’t all that interested in American politics:

I’m asked asked how the Chinese see the US election. I’d say first of all, the general public gives it the same amount of attention (or slightly over) as the US public would to Chinese politics. While Obamama drew mega crowds in Europe, he would probably be able to enjoy a bit of privacy and travel incognito in China, so would McCain.

At first, I thought this was a bit strange.  I don’t think of myself as an America-centric person, but I also follow the BBC as my major news source, and found there was hardly a major story on U.S. politics I heard about elsewhere that I didn’t first read about on the BBC news website.  I also occasionally scan German news headlines, and found many of these same major stories made it to German headlines, so I guess I was working on the assumption that much of the world followed much of the American presidential elections.  It also made sense considering that since most countries have to deal with us (for better or, more often, worse), they might be interested in seeing what people will be driving our policies and attitudes, at the very least surrounding U.S. diplomatic relations and unofficial wars.

(As a side note, a possible reason for Europe’s focus on U.S. presidential is found in this PhD Comic, in which a European says to an American, “The U.S. is like our younger sibling.  They’re more exciting, yet we love to roll our eyes at them.”)

Recently, however, I’ve seen a lot of articles about a not-so-small population in China being quite excited about following the U.S. presidential election, at least towards the end: its youth, or more specifically, the young people that are learning English and interested in most things American.  (This is a “not-so-small” group of people considering that every undergraduate student in China must take English classes every semester.)  Obama has increased this interest significantly for many of the same reasons he’s popular among young people in the U.S.

I think it’ll be very interesting to be teaching in China during the first year and a half of his presidency.  I’m quite curious to see how much Chinese people follow it and, of course, what the Chinese popular opinion of him will be.

If you’re interested, here’s a page that translates into English comments left on a Youku (Chinese YouTube-type website) video of Obama’s victory speech.  (Interesting enough, the comments overall seem to be of a higher caliber than what I’d expect to find on YouTube, if only slightly.)

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I Offered My Two Cents to Barack Obama

November 6, 2008 at 9:03 pm (Education, News & Politics) (, , , )

On Change.gov (President-Elect Obama’s website), there’s a fabulous place to offer your ideas.  So I offered mine, which I am also putting here for the record (though I put in links where, obviously, I did not in the text box to Obama because they should know their website enough to know what I’m referring to).

You should offer your ideas too.

Here’s what I wrote:

I would like to respond to your America Serves page/initiative ideas.  First of all, it’s so fabulous that these plans is in the works, especially for young people (teenagers and 20-somethings).  As a 22 year old who has recently graduated college and focused in secondary level education as an educational concentration and career path, I’ve witnessed two major issues with young people: one is railroading recent high school graduates into college (who may or may not be ready for college due to education or maturity) without seeing many prospects for alternative experiences before or instead of college.  The other is few opportunities or encouragement for young people to become engaged in their communities.  Society values getting rich quick more than community engagement/service and holistic education.  This is unhealthy both for individuals and for society as a whole, and I think that creating more opportunities and transparent systems for service work will be very beneficial to everyone involved.

However, one thing concerned me: the required number of community service hours for college students.  I personally graduated from a college that had a community service requirement, but there are two things that make this work: the definition of community service and what that opportunity could be for a specific student was left to that student and his/her academic advisor alone to negotiate (which would not be so easily possible in a standard nation-wide requirement), and also there is no set number of required hours.  Furthermore, the community service requirement is something completed sometime over the course of one’s second and third years in college (making the timeline more flexible), and while some students do a significant amount of community service during their time at the school (and probably would do the same without a specific requirement), most students do not do such substantial amounts of community service as 100 hours.

The requirement of 100 hours a year is huge.  If my math is correct, that equates to about a course a semester, in addition to their college or university’s requirements.  While more time outside of the classroom and engaging with the non-academic world would undoubtedly be a positive change for college students and academia, many students are burdened not only with a rigorous academic program, but also jobs of all esteems, both during the academic year and more intensively in the summer.  To imagine they must also tackle a significant community service requirement when they are barely able to fit in time to work so that they may afford the education they are completing — it’s frankly unfair.  As this website indicates on the page about the economy, college tuition is rising, and loans are not only harder to get than previously but also a huge burden on a recently-graduated college student looking for work in a depressed economy.

Please consider revising your proposal by lowering the required number of hours, making the timeframe more flexible (perhaps over the course of one’s undergraduate education rather than within one year), and including scholarship assistance to those needing to fund their college education in addition to a community service requirement.

Also, thank you for providing this system for easily submitting ideas.

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The Drive for Academic Success, a.k.a. Insanity

November 6, 2008 at 7:02 pm (Education, Musings, News & Politics, Personal Life) (, , , , , , )

(originally written June 19, 2008 on Blogger)

I recently found an interesting article (linked from Eduwonkette) about the disadvantages of elite, Ivy-league education, not only for the students of this education, but for the society that bears the consequences of their actions. A particularly poignant paragraph:

The world that produced John Kerry and George Bush is indeed giving us our next generation of leaders. The kid who’s loading up on AP courses junior year or editing three campus publications while double-majoring, the kid whom everyone wants at their college or law school but no one wants in their classroom, the kid who doesn’t have a minute to breathe, let alone think, will soon be running a corporation or an institution or a government. She will have many achievements but little experience, great success but no vision. The disadvantage of an elite education is that it’s given us the elite we have, and the elite we’re going to have.

Well that just fills me with puppies and sunshine. The article definitely strikes a tone with me because, while certainly not of Ivy-league “caliber”, I definitely have spent a lot of time these last five or six years trying to work past my crazy drive to perform well academically, no matter the cost: health, happiness, personality, life, etc. I remember a high school teacher encouraging me to apply to Harvard, just to see if I could get in. I remember feeling particularly adverse to this idea, though the only thing I could pinpoint is the suicide rate at these hyper-elite schools. I now realize what it was: people there didn’t live lives, either literally (morbid, I know) or figuratively. They lived through their number-driven goals of being the traditional stories of success: make lots of money, get lots of esteem. Ugh. Not for me — though I wouldn’t argue against a little more money than I currently have.

My nerves about graduate school have kicked in again, though not as strongly as before. Previously, I was getting some serious anxiety about not doing well, but the blessing of thinking for two weeks that I could just do this a few years from now when I have a greater Chinese ability was that I stopped worrying. I just got comfortable with the idea that I could do things in a non-rushed way. The curse of getting a sweet financial aid package and actually going to this uber-intensive graduate school program this year is that I’m worrying again. The materials are blunt: it is intense, it is difficult, and if you don’t pass with a B- or more in all your classes, you are dropped from the program (because technically, students aren’t candidates for an M.A. until after successfully going through the first summer).

So, like I did when nervously anticipating my acceptance/rejection letter earlier this spring, I’ve started thinking: what if I don’t do well? What if I do my best, I work my ass off, and in the end I don’t pass? Well, I probably won’t die from it. PROBABLY. I don’t think I have to report the “summer of failed graduate school” to anyone, so that’s also a plus. I’d go to China next fall like originally planned. I’d look for teaching jobs. After beginning to teach, I’d probably apply to Middlebury again, along with some other graduate programs, because in MA you have to have a Master’s (or maybe just be enrolled in a Master’s program) within the first five years of teaching to get your license renewed. Would it be that bad? Would I be worse off, other than the cost of gas to drive me to and from?

In the end: no, the world would not end. My life and career would also not end. I’d be okay. I’d certainly receive a lovely jab to my self-esteem, but I would still have improved my Chinese, still would have given it my best, still would have a job, and still would be coming home to my boyfriend and lovely apartment and delicious food.

My goal for this summer: to stay healthy, sleep enough, exercise enough, laugh enough, and not fall into the trap of going off the deep end in the name of academic success. I will try my best, but not at the expense of my own sense of self worth. Because I don’t want to be the student that all the colleges want to cherish and brag about. I want to be someone interesting, someone valuable, someone content with their existence, and if I have to fail grad school to do it, so be it.

I do NOT want to be George Bush.

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YAY!!!

November 5, 2008 at 10:02 am (News & Politics) (, )

I’ve never been so proud to be an American.

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Dear Red States (a forward)

October 29, 2008 at 7:42 pm (News & Politics) (, )

I found this an funny and intriguing bit of text; not sure about these stats (because stats can always be manipulated or just plain invented, especially in the world of email forwards), but … wow.

Dear Red States:

If you manage to steal this election too we’ve decided we’re leaving.  We
intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue States with
us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon,
Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois  and all the Northeast.
We believe this split will be beneficial to the n! ation, and especially to
the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave
states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of
Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get  Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss.

We get 85% of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay
their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the
Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of
single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war,  and
we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need
people to fight, ask your evangel! icals. They have kids they’re apparently
willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don’t care if you
don’t show pictures of their children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you
success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to
spend our resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the
country’s fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of
the nation’s fresh fruit, 95% of America’s quality wines, 90% of all cheese,
90% of the hig! h tech i ndustry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!),
most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors,
all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88% of
all obese Americans (and their projecte! d healt h care costs), 92% of all U.S.
mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all
Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob
Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually
swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the
war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory,
53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe
you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Finally, we’re taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they
grow in! Mexico

Peace out,

Blue States

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Seven-year-old boy goes on killing rampage at the zoo

October 3, 2008 at 8:53 am (News & Politics) (, , , , , , , , )

It’s time for a disturbing news story! From the BBC:

A seven-year-old boy has been filmed going on the rampage at a popular zoo in Australia, killing rare reptiles and feeding live ones to a crocodile. …

The attack happened on Wednesday morning after the boy entered the zoo by jumping over the security fence and evading sensor alarms.

Over the next half hour, he bludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure. …

Just … wow. I mean teenagers and adults have done worse things, but a seven-year-old kid?!

Also on the BBC, towards the bottom of this article about last night’s VP candidate debate, there’s a word cloud of the words most frequently used by Palin during the debate.  What an interesting way to look at candidate’s jargon and theorize what this means about their priorities, though I’d prefer them also using most commonly used phrases like “Main Street”.  (Did anyone notice that every time Palin said “Wall Street”, she said “Main Street” once or twice within the following sentence or two?

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Is anyone else seriously afraid of Palin becoming VP?

September 14, 2008 at 5:59 pm (News & Politics) (, , , , , , )

I think Matt Damon pretty much sums it up:

You do the actuary tables, you know, there’s a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn’t survive his first term, and it’ll be President Palin. … It’s just, it’s absurd.  It’s totally absurd, and I don’t understand why more people aren’t talking about how absurd it is. …  It’s a really terrifying possibility, the fact that we’ve gotten this far, and we’re that close to this being a reality is crazy.

(Kudos to View from North Britain for the video link.)

Seriously, this is both baffling and terrifying.  To be fair, I thought the fact that Bush was elected for a second term, no matter who his opponent, was also baffling, but this is on a whole new level.  The U.S. as a country and society has raised the bar on ridiculous, baffling, idiotic moves.  Yes, of course it’s the political party members who made this decision, but the fact that we have a society in which a political party supported by a very large percentage of our population is not only allowed to do this, but furthermore is praised for getting everyone excited about politics again.  Shit.

Though I guess all we can do is laugh off our collective stupidity, as per usual: SNL did a humorous skit with Palin (played by Tina Fey, of course) and Clinton, which was mainly humorous because of how idiotic Palin was — the very reason why her present position is actually ridiculous and terrifying.

The following is probably the only heartening news regarding Palin that I’ve heard since she graced the public eye with her presence: from “Alaska Women Reject Palin”:

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage.  The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators).  This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state.  I was absolutely stunned.  The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. …

Then, the infamous Eddie Burke showed up.  He tried to talk to the media, and was instantly surrounded by a group of 20 people who started shouting O-BA-MA so loud he couldn’t be heard.  Then passing cars started honking in a rhythmic pattern of 3, like the Obama chant, while the crowd cheered, hooted and waved their signs high.

So, if you’ve been doing the math…  Yes.  The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage! …

The citizens of Alaska, who know her best, have things to say.

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