“Discovery learning” is inappropriate when people die
Cath Lugg's continuing discussion of LGBT students' suicides reminds us that civilization is a thin veneer. It may be ideal from one standpoint to socialize children so that they're shocked to realize there is inequality in the world, but that's a luxury that's equivalent to "discovery" preferences of some educators. When she was five years old, my […]
The deficit and empirical game-theory research
I've had my three-hour meeting for the day (yes, on Sunday), so I'm rewarding myself with a small square of spicy chocolate and a blog entry on politics. The Commission for Very Serious Person Theater is missing a huge chunk of government spending by focusing only on the federal budget deficit and ignoring state spending […]
More “serious people” theater
And in this version, Kevin Huffman even uses the term "serious people" which would make me feel better except the ideas in the Bowles-Simpson proposals are not very serious on the whole.
Fiscal theater
As Ezra Klein pointed out, the fiscal commission has not made any recommendations. Instead, what we have are a set of sometimes-serious, sometimes-blowhard recommendations from the commission's co-chairs. Sensible (or maybe obviously discrediting if otherwise): no call for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which has medical cost-control measures that limits the otherwise-disastrous deficits in […]
The eulogies of Joel Klein are a bit premature
Something about the commentary surrounding Joel Klein's chancellorship of NYC schools struck me as closer to a memorial than a "thank you for the hard work" type of message anyone could expect, especially the overblown claims of dramatic improvements in achievement during the Klein Era. Folks, Klein is quite alive, so you don't need to […]