Daily Archives: May 1, 2009

Another reason why U.S. ed schools are so awful: the ongoing influence of Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire

Like the more famous Teach for America, the New York Teaching Fellows program provides an alternate route to state certification for about 1,700 new teachers annually. When I met with a group of the fellows taking a required class at a school of education last summer, we began by discussing education reform, but the conversation soon took a turn, with many recounting one horror story after another from their rocky first year: chaotic classrooms, indifferent administrators, veteran teachers who rarely offered a helping hand. You might expect the required readings for these struggling rookies to contain good practical tips on classroom management, say, or sensible advice on teaching reading to disadvantaged students. Instead, the one book that the fellows had to read in full was Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. >>Read Full Article

I have not heard too much of an outrage from the Women’s Movement about the subjugation of women by men in the Islamic Religion. Maybe this might be OK too.

Males of the aptly-named Harpactea sadistica species pierce the abdomen of females, fertilising their eggs directly in the ovaries.

The so-called traumatic insemination gives the first male to inseminate a reproductive advantage by bypassing structures in the females’ genitalia.

The ‘spermatheca’ is the place, in the female, where the male was originaly suppost to deposit his sperm.

However, the spermatheca is a “last in, first out” structure, so that if any further males inseminate a female, the last mate’s sperm is the first in line to fertilise an egg.

There is also video here

Why? Why Not! What is the big story.

According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, 42 percent of the U.S. populace couldn’t fathom why Keefer was heartbroken when Jones failed to hit .400 last season. Twenty-three percent claimed they “did not understand” what they were being told upon hearing that Keefer purposely wears the same brand of cleats and batting gloves as Jones. A further 12 percent said they were “angered” that Keefer made his father take him to a baseball card show in Indianapolis where Jones was signing autographs.

Why?

Maybe this is why.

Scott Wedner, 34, said. “Don’t get me wrong, Chipper Jones is a good ball player, maybe even a Hall of Famer. He led our team to a World Series, and might be one of the top three switch-hitters in the history of the game. But he’s Chipper Jones, you know?”

Oh, and there is one more big problem; he is also White!