By William Fisher
Last week, this reporter did a story in this blog about the scandal that arose in the mid-1990s at the FBI criminal laboratory when it was revealed that results of forensic tests on as many as 10,000 cases had been falsified or otherwise presented to juries in ways that were scientifically unfounded and virtually guaranteed to produce guilty verdicts.
Until last Friday, that is.
That was the day the Washington Post announced that the DOJ would now perform analyses of an undetermined number of the cases that were tried during this period and resulted in guilty verdicts. Those convicted are scattered throughout prisons all of the US. Some have completed their sentences and have been released.
And today, Prism learned that when Freeh was running the task force investigating sloppy forensic testing he was encouraging FBI personnel to do exactly the opposite of what he did while investigating the Penn State pedophile scandal.
“He did everything in his power to cover them up,” referring to the many mistakes made by FBI forensic specialists in their analyses, particularly their analyses of hair. The protocol used in the analysis was found to be seriously flawed and unprofessionally applied. The outcome was that many were convicted and sentenced to long imprisonments on the strength of unreliable testing.
These remarks came from C. Fred Whitehurst, the former FBI Special Agent, the whistleblower whose revelations created a firestorm of criticism of the FBI lab which, until then, had been regarded as the gold standard of forensic analysis.
Whitehurst charged that, “In light of the most recent revelations about FBI lab failures requiring 10,000 more cases to be reviewed we should read of this pot calling the pan black.”
In a report released this morning, former FBI Director Louis Freeh writes that "the most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who [former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry] Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest."
But Whitehurst says that “While I was reporting issues at the FBI crime lab, FBI Director Louis Freeh was doing every thing he could to shut me down including coming at me with proposed criminal charges, referrals for fitness for duty (psych evals), destroying my career, moving me around the lab like a rag doll, ruining my wife's career. This man has no conscience and he is accusing Penn State managers of not taking any steps. He ought to be ashamed. Before the lab scandal is over you will find that Freeh was right in the middle of it. He did EXACTLY what the Penn State folks did.”
The task force remained operational for years, but is generally thought to have done virtually nothing to identify or alleviate the conditions of thousands sent to prison on the basis of faulty forensics.
Until last Friday, that is.
That was the day the Washington Post announced that the DOJ would now perform analyses of an undetermined number of the cases that were tried during this period and resulted in guilty verdicts. Those convicted are scattered throughout prisons all of the US. Some have completed their sentences and have been released.
And today, Prism learned that when Freeh was running the task force investigating sloppy forensic testing he was encouraging FBI personnel to do exactly the opposite of what he did while investigating the Penn State pedophile scandal.
“He did everything in his power to cover them up,” referring to the many mistakes made by FBI forensic specialists in their analyses, particularly their analyses of hair. The protocol used in the analysis was found to be seriously flawed and unprofessionally applied. The outcome was that many were convicted and sentenced to long imprisonments on the strength of unreliable testing.
These remarks came from C. Fred Whitehurst, the former FBI Special Agent, the whistleblower whose revelations created a firestorm of criticism of the FBI lab which, until then, had been regarded as the gold standard of forensic analysis.
Whitehurst charged that, “In light of the most recent revelations about FBI lab failures requiring 10,000 more cases to be reviewed we should read of this pot calling the pan black.”
In a report released this morning, former FBI Director Louis Freeh writes that "the most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who [former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry] Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest."
But Whitehurst says that “While I was reporting issues at the FBI crime lab, FBI Director Louis Freeh was doing every thing he could to shut me down including coming at me with proposed criminal charges, referrals for fitness for duty (psych evals), destroying my career, moving me around the lab like a rag doll, ruining my wife's career. This man has no conscience and he is accusing Penn State managers of not taking any steps. He ought to be ashamed. Before the lab scandal is over you will find that Freeh was right in the middle of it. He did EXACTLY what the Penn State folks did.”
The task force remained operational for years, but is generally thought to have done virtually nothing to identify or alleviate the conditions of thousands sent to prison on the basis of faulty forensics.
The article above appeared on the pages of Prism Magazine
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Penn State / Louis Freeh (Continued)
By William Fisher
When former FBI Director Louis Freeh was running the task force investigating sloppy forensic testing by the FBI lab some 20 years ago and mistakenly sending thousands to prison, Freeh was encouraging FBI personnel to do exactly the opposite of what he did while investigating the Penn State pedophile scandal.
“He did everything in his power to cover them up,” referring to the many mistakes made by FBI forensic specialists in their analyses, particularly their analyses of hair. The protocol used in the analysis was found to be seriously flawed and unprofessionally applied. The outcome was that many were convicted and sentenced to long imprisonments on the strength of unreliable testing.
These remarks came from C. Fred Whitehurst, the former FBI Special Agent, the whistleblower whose revelations created a firestorm of criticism of the FBI lab which, until then, had been regarded as the gold standard of forensic analysis.
Whitehurst charged that, “In light of the most recent revelations about FBI lab failures requiring 10,000 more cases to be reviewed we should read of this pot calling the pan black.”
In a report released this morning, former FBI Director Louis Freeh writes that "the most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who [former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry] Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest."
But Whitehurst says that “While I was reporting issues at the FBI crime lab, FBI Director Louis Freeh was doing every thing he could to shut me down including coming at me with proposed criminal charges, referrals for fitness for duty (psych evals), destroying my career, moving me around the lab like a rag doll, ruining my wife's career. This man has no conscience and he is accusing Penn State managers of not taking any steps. He ought to be ashamed. Before the lab scandal is over you will find that Freeh was right in the middle of it. He did EXACTLY what the Penn State folks did.”
The task force remained operational for years, but is generally thought to have done virtually nothing to identify or alleviate the conditions of thousands sent to prison on the basis of faulty forensics.
Prosecutors were notified by the FBI, but judges and defense counsel were not.
The article above appeared in the pages of Prism Magazine.
When former FBI Director Louis Freeh was running the task force investigating sloppy forensic testing by the FBI lab some 20 years ago and mistakenly sending thousands to prison, Freeh was encouraging FBI personnel to do exactly the opposite of what he did while investigating the Penn State pedophile scandal.
“He did everything in his power to cover them up,” referring to the many mistakes made by FBI forensic specialists in their analyses, particularly their analyses of hair. The protocol used in the analysis was found to be seriously flawed and unprofessionally applied. The outcome was that many were convicted and sentenced to long imprisonments on the strength of unreliable testing.
These remarks came from C. Fred Whitehurst, the former FBI Special Agent, the whistleblower whose revelations created a firestorm of criticism of the FBI lab which, until then, had been regarded as the gold standard of forensic analysis.
Whitehurst charged that, “In light of the most recent revelations about FBI lab failures requiring 10,000 more cases to be reviewed we should read of this pot calling the pan black.”
In a report released this morning, former FBI Director Louis Freeh writes that "the most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who [former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry] Sandusky victimized. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky’s victims until after Sandusky’s arrest."
But Whitehurst says that “While I was reporting issues at the FBI crime lab, FBI Director Louis Freeh was doing every thing he could to shut me down including coming at me with proposed criminal charges, referrals for fitness for duty (psych evals), destroying my career, moving me around the lab like a rag doll, ruining my wife's career. This man has no conscience and he is accusing Penn State managers of not taking any steps. He ought to be ashamed. Before the lab scandal is over you will find that Freeh was right in the middle of it. He did EXACTLY what the Penn State folks did.”
The task force remained operational for years, but is generally thought to have done virtually nothing to identify or alleviate the conditions of thousands sent to prison on the basis of faulty forensics.
Prosecutors were notified by the FBI, but judges and defense counsel were not.
The article above appeared in the pages of Prism Magazine.
Capitalism
This essay on Capitalism was written by Prof. Lawrence Davidson, who teaches history at West Chester University.
Pope John Paul II once remarked that "pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one." Whatever else you might think of this Pontiff, he makes a good point here–and one applicable to the U.S.A. American politicians never tire of telling us that ours is the greatest nation on earth and, for the world’s sake, we must aggressively (often by war) expand our freedoms, as well as our general culture, to the ends of the earth. Actually, this is a message that has been repeated for two hundred years and "its dominion" here in the "land of the free" is manifest. For many citizens, this assumption is one of the primary reasons we invaded Iraq, are hanging on in Afghanistan, and swear eternal loyalty to the Israelis. It is probably the cas e that American political and civic leaders invoke God and national manifest destiny more than those of any other nationality.
Capitalism
This is the world’s prevalent economic system. It is based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods and services for profit. Wage labor is an important element on the cost side of the capitalist ledger. So are things like safe working conditions and worker benefits. The capitalist impulse is to minimize costs in order to maximize profit. Left to themselves, capitalists will pay workers (white collar or otherwise) the lowest possible wages and deny or minimize other benefits. They will ignore worker safety and deny any responsibility for worker health. The only reason these important aspects of the work place prevail is because of the pressure put upon the capitalist system by unions on the one hand, and government regulatory agencies on the other. If you want to maximize the probability of economic breakdown, just destroy all effective government regulation of the economy and outlaw uni ons.
Part II - Ideologies at odds
Nationalism and capitalism are quite different ideologies, yet somehow Americans have conflated them. Take a list of what are considered the best things
about Capitalism: equality, achievement, freedom, growth and even happiness, and then compare them to a list of things considered the best about America: equality, opportunity for personal growth, freedom, a longer and fuller life. What do you know! They’re almost the same. This is odd and not a little illogical. Why so? Well, consider the fact that these ideologies operate in opposition one to another. And do so right out in the open.
Here is a good example. On 11 July 2012, Fred Grimm, a columnist for the Miami Herald wrote a piece entitled "This column was made in the U.S.A." In it he notes that "last year the Wall Street Journal surveyed employment data from a number of the nation’s heftier corporations...and found that while they were cutting their domestic workforces by 2.9 million over a decade, they had hired 2.4 million people overseas." What sort of jobs are being exported by American corporate executives with, one assumes, the approval of their largely American stockholders? It turns out that they are not just your mundane factory floor jobs. They also include the work of: accountants, radiologists, architects, mortgage banking officers, computer technicians, and journalists (outsourcing the writing of local news st ories to underpaid reporters in places like the Philippine).
As the Wall Street Journal noted, this has been going on for a while now. Back in a 12 January 2004 edition of the Harvard Business School’s online publication, Working Knowledge, James Heskett told us that "arguments based on accepted [those accepting are not named] macroeconomic theory generally come down in support of the free exportation of jobs." But then Heskett quoted Brad Leach’s observation that "the real question is how to deal with the disproportionality of this impact: the broad, shallow, positive impact on product prices versus the narrow [sic], deep, negative impact on individuals."
In other words, American capitalism has been sticking it to American nationalism, at least to the extent of destroying a minimum of 2.9 million jobs over the past decade. Is this an example of capitalism promoting achievement, or growth, or happiness? Certainly not for those 2.9 million American ex-employees. So just how could American corporations, the executives and stock holders of which are, one assumes, loyal and patriotic Americans, do such a thing?
Part III - Capitalism Wins
Well, it would seem that nationalism has met its match. It has been overwhelmed by that which lies at the heart of capitalism: profit. Thus, consider a hypothetical American corporation A which makes socks in town X and has done so for a hundred years. At some point corporation A finds itself confronted with competition from cheaper socks made abroad and allowed into the U.S. by the millions of pairs because of laws placed on the books by free-market American Senators and Congresspersons. These foreign socks are being willingly purchased, instead of A’s more expensive domestic brand, by red blooded American consumers. So the executives of corporation A face a serious problem. It does not take them long to figure out that if they move out of town X, where the labor costs are relatively high, and relocate to some foreign country with no unions or government regulations, their labor costs will go down and their competitiveness and profitability will go up. But to do so wi ll destroy the economic basis of town X and the lives of its patriotic citizens who have loyally served corporation A for generations. So what do you do? Well, just ask the residents of all the defunct textile towns on the U.S. east coast from New England to the Carolinas.
Very few entrepreneurs or their customers are going to admit that such issues as cost, profit and price are more important than every one of those things listed as the best of capitalism and nationalism. No, they will just ignore the distinctly second place status of equality, freedom, doing your best, growth and happiness, etc., and they will pretend that the economic destruction of workers’ lives is an unavoidable consequence of commonsense business. Blame it on the natural laws of macroeconomics if you must. When the time comes for Mexican or Chinese or Indian workers to organize and achieve regulation of their industries so as to obtain decent wages and benefits, their lives in turn will be ruined as their employers run away to other places with lower labor costs, fewer required benefits and lower corporate taxes. For when it comes to the so-called commonsense demands of business, profits are more important than life itself (though not the financial well-being of th e investors).
Part IV - Coping Mechanisms
I think that a growing number of Americans, witnessing the long running exportation of their livelihoods, do sense that the ground is moving under their feet. A 19 November 2011 New York Times op-ed by Charles Blow entitled "Decline of American Exceptionalism" reports that a Pew Research Center poll found that just 49% of Americans agreed with the statement "our people are not perfect but our culture is superior to others." That was down from 60% in the year 2002.
It is hard to see your culture as superior when so many jobs are being shipped abroad. Yet, if we can extrapolate out from the Pew poll, nearly half the nation still seems to manage it. How do they do it? Here are some suggestions:
1. Displacing a sense of powerlessness. Whether you are the victim or it is your neighbor, one just doesn’t know what to do about the situation. But it helps to believe that, even though jobless, you live in a great country, the power and traditions of which assure that you are better off than some worker in an Indonesian sweatshop turning out upscale Nikes. Holding on to that thought, many of the displaced buck up and start looking for other, usually less lucrative, work. Some of them may also take to beating up their kids or spouses when frustrations of the job search run high.
2. Dealing with cognitive dissonance. One has two contradictory concepts in one’s head at once (the U.S. is the greatest show on earth vs. too many of our jobs are being exported, contributing to the fact that a lot of us are getting poorer) and it is uncomfortable. So one naturally tries to reconcile the problem. For instance, you can tell yourself that the dichotomy is temporary and will disappear after a period of economic adjustment. Or, this is a great opportunity to get retrained for a position better than the one you just lost (ignoring the fact that the effectiveness of retraining programs is now being called into question).
3. The phenomenon of volunteering. For those who have lost their jobs but retain enough of a pension or savings to live on (usually an older crowd approaching retirement age) they can take solace in the world of volunteers. Actually, this is a pattern of work which allows a lot of non-profit, and some for-profit businesses as well, to get free labor. So the worker ends up doing for free what he or she should rightly be paid for–particularly in an avidly capitalist society like ours. It is a cockeyed sort of situation, but it does allow many older, displaced workers, to salvage some self-esteem even while they are exploited.
Part V - Conclusion
Most often our lives are too narrowly focused to allow us to understand the larger economic and political forces impacting us. We know our local area, we know the work we do (or did), and we know what those in leadership positions tell us. But all of this knowledge turns out to be inadequate when we are hit by debilitating social change. Then, most of us feel helpless and passively resign ourselves to what we consider fate, or perhaps God’s will.
We are trained from childhood to behave like this. Remember temper tantrums? When our children throw them they soon learn that it doesn’t work. As adults we seem to have carried over the lesson. Relatively small numbers of us do occasionally loudly protest our situation, but with rare exceptions what do we learn? It doesn’t work. Perhaps we should try harder.
The ideals of capitalism, so ardently believed in, turn out to be false except for (as the current saying goes) the fortunate 1%. And those of nationalism? They too are drilled into our heads from childhood. But, alas, they cannot substitute for one’s supper.
Pope John Paul II once remarked that "pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one." Whatever else you might think of this Pontiff, he makes a good point here–and one applicable to the U.S.A. American politicians never tire of telling us that ours is the greatest nation on earth and, for the world’s sake, we must aggressively (often by war) expand our freedoms, as well as our general culture, to the ends of the earth. Actually, this is a message that has been repeated for two hundred years and "its dominion" here in the "land of the free" is manifest. For many citizens, this assumption is one of the primary reasons we invaded Iraq, are hanging on in Afghanistan, and swear eternal loyalty to the Israelis. It is probably the cas e that American political and civic leaders invoke God and national manifest destiny more than those of any other nationality.
Capitalism
This is the world’s prevalent economic system. It is based on private ownership of the means of production and the creation of goods and services for profit. Wage labor is an important element on the cost side of the capitalist ledger. So are things like safe working conditions and worker benefits. The capitalist impulse is to minimize costs in order to maximize profit. Left to themselves, capitalists will pay workers (white collar or otherwise) the lowest possible wages and deny or minimize other benefits. They will ignore worker safety and deny any responsibility for worker health. The only reason these important aspects of the work place prevail is because of the pressure put upon the capitalist system by unions on the one hand, and government regulatory agencies on the other. If you want to maximize the probability of economic breakdown, just destroy all effective government regulation of the economy and outlaw uni ons.
Part II - Ideologies at odds
Nationalism and capitalism are quite different ideologies, yet somehow Americans have conflated them. Take a list of what are considered the best things
about Capitalism: equality, achievement, freedom, growth and even happiness, and then compare them to a list of things considered the best about America: equality, opportunity for personal growth, freedom, a longer and fuller life. What do you know! They’re almost the same. This is odd and not a little illogical. Why so? Well, consider the fact that these ideologies operate in opposition one to another. And do so right out in the open.
Here is a good example. On 11 July 2012, Fred Grimm, a columnist for the Miami Herald wrote a piece entitled "This column was made in the U.S.A." In it he notes that "last year the Wall Street Journal surveyed employment data from a number of the nation’s heftier corporations...and found that while they were cutting their domestic workforces by 2.9 million over a decade, they had hired 2.4 million people overseas." What sort of jobs are being exported by American corporate executives with, one assumes, the approval of their largely American stockholders? It turns out that they are not just your mundane factory floor jobs. They also include the work of: accountants, radiologists, architects, mortgage banking officers, computer technicians, and journalists (outsourcing the writing of local news st ories to underpaid reporters in places like the Philippine).
As the Wall Street Journal noted, this has been going on for a while now. Back in a 12 January 2004 edition of the Harvard Business School’s online publication, Working Knowledge, James Heskett told us that "arguments based on accepted [those accepting are not named] macroeconomic theory generally come down in support of the free exportation of jobs." But then Heskett quoted Brad Leach’s observation that "the real question is how to deal with the disproportionality of this impact: the broad, shallow, positive impact on product prices versus the narrow [sic], deep, negative impact on individuals."
In other words, American capitalism has been sticking it to American nationalism, at least to the extent of destroying a minimum of 2.9 million jobs over the past decade. Is this an example of capitalism promoting achievement, or growth, or happiness? Certainly not for those 2.9 million American ex-employees. So just how could American corporations, the executives and stock holders of which are, one assumes, loyal and patriotic Americans, do such a thing?
Part III - Capitalism Wins
Well, it would seem that nationalism has met its match. It has been overwhelmed by that which lies at the heart of capitalism: profit. Thus, consider a hypothetical American corporation A which makes socks in town X and has done so for a hundred years. At some point corporation A finds itself confronted with competition from cheaper socks made abroad and allowed into the U.S. by the millions of pairs because of laws placed on the books by free-market American Senators and Congresspersons. These foreign socks are being willingly purchased, instead of A’s more expensive domestic brand, by red blooded American consumers. So the executives of corporation A face a serious problem. It does not take them long to figure out that if they move out of town X, where the labor costs are relatively high, and relocate to some foreign country with no unions or government regulations, their labor costs will go down and their competitiveness and profitability will go up. But to do so wi ll destroy the economic basis of town X and the lives of its patriotic citizens who have loyally served corporation A for generations. So what do you do? Well, just ask the residents of all the defunct textile towns on the U.S. east coast from New England to the Carolinas.
Very few entrepreneurs or their customers are going to admit that such issues as cost, profit and price are more important than every one of those things listed as the best of capitalism and nationalism. No, they will just ignore the distinctly second place status of equality, freedom, doing your best, growth and happiness, etc., and they will pretend that the economic destruction of workers’ lives is an unavoidable consequence of commonsense business. Blame it on the natural laws of macroeconomics if you must. When the time comes for Mexican or Chinese or Indian workers to organize and achieve regulation of their industries so as to obtain decent wages and benefits, their lives in turn will be ruined as their employers run away to other places with lower labor costs, fewer required benefits and lower corporate taxes. For when it comes to the so-called commonsense demands of business, profits are more important than life itself (though not the financial well-being of th e investors).
Part IV - Coping Mechanisms
I think that a growing number of Americans, witnessing the long running exportation of their livelihoods, do sense that the ground is moving under their feet. A 19 November 2011 New York Times op-ed by Charles Blow entitled "Decline of American Exceptionalism" reports that a Pew Research Center poll found that just 49% of Americans agreed with the statement "our people are not perfect but our culture is superior to others." That was down from 60% in the year 2002.
It is hard to see your culture as superior when so many jobs are being shipped abroad. Yet, if we can extrapolate out from the Pew poll, nearly half the nation still seems to manage it. How do they do it? Here are some suggestions:
1. Displacing a sense of powerlessness. Whether you are the victim or it is your neighbor, one just doesn’t know what to do about the situation. But it helps to believe that, even though jobless, you live in a great country, the power and traditions of which assure that you are better off than some worker in an Indonesian sweatshop turning out upscale Nikes. Holding on to that thought, many of the displaced buck up and start looking for other, usually less lucrative, work. Some of them may also take to beating up their kids or spouses when frustrations of the job search run high.
2. Dealing with cognitive dissonance. One has two contradictory concepts in one’s head at once (the U.S. is the greatest show on earth vs. too many of our jobs are being exported, contributing to the fact that a lot of us are getting poorer) and it is uncomfortable. So one naturally tries to reconcile the problem. For instance, you can tell yourself that the dichotomy is temporary and will disappear after a period of economic adjustment. Or, this is a great opportunity to get retrained for a position better than the one you just lost (ignoring the fact that the effectiveness of retraining programs is now being called into question).
3. The phenomenon of volunteering. For those who have lost their jobs but retain enough of a pension or savings to live on (usually an older crowd approaching retirement age) they can take solace in the world of volunteers. Actually, this is a pattern of work which allows a lot of non-profit, and some for-profit businesses as well, to get free labor. So the worker ends up doing for free what he or she should rightly be paid for–particularly in an avidly capitalist society like ours. It is a cockeyed sort of situation, but it does allow many older, displaced workers, to salvage some self-esteem even while they are exploited.
Part V - Conclusion
Most often our lives are too narrowly focused to allow us to understand the larger economic and political forces impacting us. We know our local area, we know the work we do (or did), and we know what those in leadership positions tell us. But all of this knowledge turns out to be inadequate when we are hit by debilitating social change. Then, most of us feel helpless and passively resign ourselves to what we consider fate, or perhaps God’s will.
We are trained from childhood to behave like this. Remember temper tantrums? When our children throw them they soon learn that it doesn’t work. As adults we seem to have carried over the lesson. Relatively small numbers of us do occasionally loudly protest our situation, but with rare exceptions what do we learn? It doesn’t work. Perhaps we should try harder.
The ideals of capitalism, so ardently believed in, turn out to be false except for (as the current saying goes) the fortunate 1%. And those of nationalism? They too are drilled into our heads from childhood. But, alas, they cannot substitute for one’s supper.
Corporate Social What? Redux.
By Guy Gravenson
My cousin Guy, who lives in Mexico, decided to get into our little debating gig about whether anything good is likely to come from trying to teach corporate responsibility to some of the most irresponsible executives on earth. Here’s his take:
What is missing in all this back and forth, Bill, is the question of education, K-12. Educating the young. You suddenly don't come to a new set of ethics or morals as a grown person. You learn that in your formative years. And if you haven't learned it by high school, you get some standin to take your test or a crib sheet or hidden cell phone to slide you the answers. Corruption starts as soon as the teacher's back is turned.
A solution? Leave K-6 pretty much as it is now, a time to learn basic skills, to socialize and get into sports, and keep the brats out of the house for half a day for the parents to recover. At middle-school time, give all kids a FREE tablet (Kindle or iPad, whatever).
The tablet has no phone, no internet, so social networking sites. Just lessons, a library to get the answers -- and a connection to an adult mentor from the school. Kids work on their own or with peers to complete the lessons, whether programmed learning, multiple choice or composition. This is basic middle school stuff ... English, Math, Social Studies, Science, Civics (ethic lessons here), Second language...etc. Tests are taken back at the school, supervised, serious. If you fail a course you have to repeat it over the summer to graduate middle school. Then you hand back your tablet in exchange for a cap and gown.
Graduates go on to virtual High School. There can be a real high school in the neighborhood, of course, but students need only to check in to meet with teachers one-to-one and to do group assignments, social stuff. There are no class hours, except appointment times. The High School becomes a study hall. Again, all lessons are on individual FREE tablets, but these are not interchangable. They have a fingerprint match entry and other safeguards against theft/plagiarism. You carry it with you for 4 years. How fast you get through HS is up to you. You work at your own speed ... you take pop quizzes for your own edification. You just have to pass Government Regent tests -- standardized national tests (not State tests) on your climb out of high school. You have to pass 5 core subjects, and 5 elective subjects in each of those 4 years. Core manditory subjects: English composition, Math (algebra, geometry, trig,) Science (biology, chemistry, physics) Second Language, and American History. 5 elective subjects can be anything from logic to computer literacy, to theatre, to basic business administration, -- or anything teachable that interests the young person. So you need 40 credits to graduate High School -- and an optional 10 additional points in a particular field of interest or out-of-school volunteer/intern work that will go a long way to get you into college. After you pass your 40 credits, you have to take a day's worth of tests on everything you've learned (a comprehensive, like an S.A.T.) and an interview before a body of educators who will try to give you insight on where they think you should go next. Even help exceptional students to get to the college of their choice.
Of course, you can drop out whenever you want -- and clean off tables at Wendy's.
My cousin Guy, who lives in Mexico, decided to get into our little debating gig about whether anything good is likely to come from trying to teach corporate responsibility to some of the most irresponsible executives on earth. Here’s his take:
What is missing in all this back and forth, Bill, is the question of education, K-12. Educating the young. You suddenly don't come to a new set of ethics or morals as a grown person. You learn that in your formative years. And if you haven't learned it by high school, you get some standin to take your test or a crib sheet or hidden cell phone to slide you the answers. Corruption starts as soon as the teacher's back is turned.
A solution? Leave K-6 pretty much as it is now, a time to learn basic skills, to socialize and get into sports, and keep the brats out of the house for half a day for the parents to recover. At middle-school time, give all kids a FREE tablet (Kindle or iPad, whatever).
The tablet has no phone, no internet, so social networking sites. Just lessons, a library to get the answers -- and a connection to an adult mentor from the school. Kids work on their own or with peers to complete the lessons, whether programmed learning, multiple choice or composition. This is basic middle school stuff ... English, Math, Social Studies, Science, Civics (ethic lessons here), Second language...etc. Tests are taken back at the school, supervised, serious. If you fail a course you have to repeat it over the summer to graduate middle school. Then you hand back your tablet in exchange for a cap and gown.
Graduates go on to virtual High School. There can be a real high school in the neighborhood, of course, but students need only to check in to meet with teachers one-to-one and to do group assignments, social stuff. There are no class hours, except appointment times. The High School becomes a study hall. Again, all lessons are on individual FREE tablets, but these are not interchangable. They have a fingerprint match entry and other safeguards against theft/plagiarism. You carry it with you for 4 years. How fast you get through HS is up to you. You work at your own speed ... you take pop quizzes for your own edification. You just have to pass Government Regent tests -- standardized national tests (not State tests) on your climb out of high school. You have to pass 5 core subjects, and 5 elective subjects in each of those 4 years. Core manditory subjects: English composition, Math (algebra, geometry, trig,) Science (biology, chemistry, physics) Second Language, and American History. 5 elective subjects can be anything from logic to computer literacy, to theatre, to basic business administration, -- or anything teachable that interests the young person. So you need 40 credits to graduate High School -- and an optional 10 additional points in a particular field of interest or out-of-school volunteer/intern work that will go a long way to get you into college. After you pass your 40 credits, you have to take a day's worth of tests on everything you've learned (a comprehensive, like an S.A.T.) and an interview before a body of educators who will try to give you insight on where they think you should go next. Even help exceptional students to get to the college of their choice.
Of course, you can drop out whenever you want -- and clean off tables at Wendy's.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
