tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post4626554071399511574..comments2024-03-28T02:21:17.452-07:00Comments on Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates Versus Duncan - Who's the Bigger Ed Reform Problem? (and their Competition)Melissa Westbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17179994245880629080noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-14169929659824876822013-11-23T16:09:58.633-08:002013-11-23T16:09:58.633-08:00Thanks for the golf ad spam, oDesk! I'm sure y...Thanks for the golf ad spam, oDesk! I'm sure your iOver (ball) app will help as many people as ol' Bill's biometric bracelets. Did you copy their ad? They sound similar: "My students use the BioBand (in many appealing colors!) to monitor their own engagement, and adjust accordingly. The BioBand keeps their mind on the ball, and when they daydream and their engagement falters, this data is quickly sent to inBloom Tech Support via Blu-Tooth, and a gentle yet mobilizing electric current is sent back to the student via the BioBand Battery Booster app. THEN they pay attention! After just one session, legislators watching for data output to use to justify funding their edu-business contibutors are so satisfied they order more BioBands for schools AND the newest, more powerful Booster Battery 5000watt. BioBand: Boosting the engagement of brains through gentle electric shock since 2011"seattle citizenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16724175257161649500noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-63773862549482346752013-11-23T12:58:11.616-08:002013-11-23T12:58:11.616-08:00" The idea supposedly was that children would..." The idea supposedly was that children would wear these biometric bracelets in classrooms to measure their engagement. What made this grant even more polarizing was the notion that the bracelets were in fact tools that would evaluate teachers’ effectiveness."<br /><br />Engagement in what? I'm wondering if Gates ever had a crush on the kid sitting next to him...;)<br />Just Sayingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28765366.post-72277182784081150082013-11-23T11:44:54.029-08:002013-11-23T11:44:54.029-08:00"Public education appears to be on its way ou..."Public education appears to be on its way out in the US, for the Neo-Lib reason of prostrating all before their market god as DSW points out and because it is an “outdated” model. From declining percentages of budgets that come from tax dollars, to attacks on teachers’ unions, to the abomination of NCLB, the US owning class (and millions of its lower-classed idolators) have decided they no longer need it.<br /><br />Public education in the US has been from its inception a creation of the owning class designed for social reproduction and the “education” of citizens in ways that best fit the needs of the nation, as the owning class defines those needs. A financed-based economy does not require the same sort of public education as a manufacturing-based one. As the US has evolved to the former, its owning class sees little reason to fund the system designed for manufacturing. They can now always get the necessary number of technicians from those segments of society that can afford private school, and they don’t need domestically-educated machinists, drafters, white-collar cubicle workers, etc. in anywhere near the numbers they did a couple of generations ago. Their old system of public education simply no longer serves their purposes, and they are taking it apart.<br /><br />Their efforts now are to kill two birds with one stone: Convince a critical mass of the citizenry that the old, manufacturing-based, public form of education has to go; and turn the new system into a source for the extraction of excess profit. Arne Duncan, as he has been paid by these folks to do, is doing his best to achieve these goals."<br /><br />Comment #32 from:<br /><br /><a href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2013/11/21/arne-duncan-doubles-down-on-white-suburban-moms-comment-promotes-economic-ignorance/" rel="nofollow">Arne Dincan Doubles Down on Suburban Moms Comment<br /></a><br /><br />Truth?<br /><br />Ann DAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com