Earth Charter Summit – October 11, 2003
Sep 29, 2003 News
Third Annual Earth Charter Summit October 11, 2003 College of St. Catherine St. Paul, Minnesota
FREE OF CHARGE!
Keynote speaker – Kathryn Sikkink, U of M Professor of Political Science and an international expert in transnational social movements. Panel discussion – How can business support the common good?
Transportation from Northfield to the Summit and return – only $5.00! Reservations required. Bus transport sponsored by Northfield-based Center for Sustainable Living & Northfield Green Party The bus leaves from the Archer House at 7:30 a.m. and leaves the Earth Charter Summit inSt. Paul at 5:15 p.m. Contact Gene Steenhoek by October 1 for reservations: genesteenhoe@hotmail.com or call (507) 645-6414.
Northfield’s Bob Ciernia, (rmc314us@yahoo.com) long devoted to Peace and Justice issues, is promoting the Earth Charter and this Summit. He’s focusing on the big picture, and forwarded information on the upcoming Earth Charter Summit, which is the Saturday after next up in St. Paul. Over 10,000 groups internationally have signed on and they are seeking United Nations endorsement of the Charter.
The purpose of the Earth Charter Summit is to take a careful look at where are we headed, what that means, what options we have, and to consider what choices we will make when the impact of choices and directions is so long lasting, and perhaps disasterous, particularly if we keep on our present course – in essence, to make better and more conscious choices. Earth Charter’s purpose is to move towards the changes that will provide sustainability.
From the Preamble to the Earth Charter:
The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.
For more information, see the Earth Charter website and the Minnesota website or contact them at info@earthcharter-minnesota.org .
Or check out this page on Why have an Earth Charter Summit
Energy
From Power outages to power lines energy is in the news a lot these days. It’s not all negative there are some interesting things happening in the next few weeks:
RIDE WITH THE WIND
Here’s an event for the weekend after next that just came in over the wire – RENew’s ‘Ride With The Wind’ bike ride and windfarm tour: 
Sunday October 12, 2003
* Tour the McNeilus Wind Farm featuring NEG Micon turbines in Dodge Center @ 2:30 p.m.
* Bike to and from the wind farm from Northfield, Claremont, Kenyon or West Concord – preregister online, in person from 10:30 a.m. – 12 noon at Northfield High School.
* Go to wind farm in Dodge Center by Biodiesel-powered bus! Must preregister to take the bus – $10.00 fee
* Leaves Buntrock – St Olaf at 1 p.m.
* Leaves Sayles-Hill – Carleton at 1:15 p.m.
* Returns from Dodge Center approx. 4:15 p.m.
If you want more information about beginning your own wind energy project, a new grant program was was recently forwarded by Michael Taylor.
“Notice of Request for Proposals for Community Wind Energy Projects” was published in today’s edition of the State Register. It describes a Community Wind Rebate that will provide rebates of up to $150,000 to community-based wind projects owned by governmental units and nonprofit organizations. The application deadline is November 13, so if you are interested you should begin planning your proposal soon.
Contact:
Mike Taylor
mike.taylor@state.mn.us
Minnesota Department of Commerce, State Energy Office
85 7th Place East, Suite 500
St. Paul, MN 55101
651-296-6830
651-297-7891 (fax)
And here is an announcement from the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA), I was a copresenter at their energy fair last June 
in Custer Wisconsin:
Announcing an opportunity for you to support a grassroots effort to bring solar energy to St. Paul. The system mentioned in the message below will be installed as a part of a MREA installation workshop in October 14-18. Opportunity to Support Community-Based Solar Energy in Minnesota.
In October 2003, the Sunny Side Solar-Electric Project will install a 1-kW photovoltaic system atop the Old Man River Cafe in South St. Paul, MN. We are citizens committed to renewable energy but hindered by the many hurdles homeowners face trying to achieve this goal alone. We recognize that many houses do not have suitable solar exposures, so we instead have identified an ideal solar location and will accomplish together what is so difficult to realize individually. We also believe that a public setting, such as a small, locally-owned business (a popular coffee house, that will host renewable energy education events throughout the year) will expand public interest in renewable energy and serve as a model for similar projects in other neighborhoods and communities. We have raised 93 percent of the funds needed to complete the project this October. Would you like to join the nearly forty citizens so far that have committed $50 or more to realize this one-of-kind project?
For more information, please contact J. Drake Hamilton at 651-726-7562, or Hamilton@me3.org.
If you are ready to act, make a check out to Sunny Side Project, c/o Old Man River Cafe, 879 Smith Avenue South, West St. Paul, MN 55118, for the contribution you are able to make. Your money will be refunded to you if the project goal is not reached by October 15, 2003.
Tehri Parker, Executive Director
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
7558 Deer Rd. Custer, WI 54423
715-592-6595
tehri@the-mrea.org
Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair
June 18-20,2004
Custer, WI
Minnesota State Standards – Where are we headed?
The new standards in Science and Social studies were recently released by the
Minnesota Department of Education, and the Department is starting to receive reactions from all quarters. The Profile of Learning, though described as “state mandated curriculum,” had nowhere near the specificity of these standards. Even though these standards are telling all teachers what students must know, this has very little to do with what students will know how to do.
At his presentation of the college’s strategic plan, St. Olaf College President Thomforde, said that St. Olaf is taking a major pedagogical step forward and rearranging their Science Department to reflect the direction of modern science, which will result in the College being much more integrated in its approach to science instruction. Will the state’s new content based standards hinder students by leaving them unprepared to deal with the new science study at the college and university level?
Here is what some are saying about the new standards:
Local teachers scrutinize standards
By Jim Sturgeon
Minnesota’s proposed social studies and science standards for K-12 were scrutinized in Fergus Falls Tuesday night, with most local and area teachers showing the greatest concerns in the social studies area.
Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke and a couple of the panel members who put the standards together took testimony on the 87 pages of new standards.Fergus Falls High School Teacher Lisa Nesbitt told the panel that teachers are concerned the social studies standards focus too much on memorization of facts and not enough on broad concepts and ideas.
“Students will not see the relevance of the facts unless they are able to make connections with them,” Nesbitt said. “The focus of teaching social studies should be answering questions like why is this event
significant, why does it matter and who cares, not who, what, where and when.”Fergus Falls teachers using the block schedule have had to move away from lecturing to keep students’ attention during the longer class periods. Nesbitt said teachers are “gravely concerned that we are
headed back to a time when information was delivered by a teacher and then regurgitated on a test at the end of the unit.”She said recent brain research studies have shown that students learn and remember 14 percent of what they hear (lecture) compared to 92 percent of what they learn and teach others through presentations and other methods.
“These standards will result in teachers teaching to the test, which takes the focus off hands-on learning and performance based assessment, which we believe is crucial to academic success,” Nesbitt said.
At the elementary level, teachers were concerned whether their students would be mature enough to understand the concepts they would be expected to master.
Kindergarten teacher Carolyn Rud said many of the proposed standards are not developmentally appropriate for the students she teaches.
She said history especially would be a challenge because of the need to understand time concepts.
“My young children do not really understand time concepts, so certain standards I felt are really beyond what they’re able to grasp, because they’re only five and six years old,” Rud said.
Likewise, the geography expectations of being able to identify things on maps would be asking too much of children that age.
“If it starts to get into things that are too abstract, it’s very difficult for five year olds because they cannot grasp a real abstract idea,” she said.
Rud suggested that making a map of the classroom might be a better way to introduce students to geography.
Reading and math are the concentration areas for students right now. Rud said there are too many benchmarks in the new standards to allow for any concentrated study.
Yecke said the proposed standards are a first draft, a starting point for discussion. She said after public hearings are held around the state, the standards will be modified before going to the legislature. She said the scope of the standards will probably be reduced by one third.
The commissioner disagrees that the new standards require students to merely memorize facts and figures and don’t teach them critical thinking skills.
“If you want to teach children to be critical thinkers, you have to be sure they have a solid foundation in facts,” Yecke said.
The science standards seem to be more acceptable to teachers, with minor adjustments rather than wholesale changes suggested.
Another common concern is the cost to school districts for new curriculums, textbooks and teacher training. One teacher called the standards another “unfunded mandate.”
From Rich Cairn, Cairn & Associates:
Friends of Good Science Education – Minnesota currently has one of, if not the strongest science education program in America. Yet the Commissioner of Education is going to throw out our excellent standards based on the National Science Standards (and highly ranked by national reviewers) in favor of ideologically-driven
standards cobbled together from Alabama, California, and Virgina’s.
What can YOU do to preserve the best science education system in America:
1. attend standards hearings and speak up (See below for a schedule)
2. send specific written comments to the Dept. of Ed. (see below)
3. write letters to the editor of local papers across Minnesota saying why enivironmental science matters to our economy and culture
4. call and write state senators (especially) and also representatives to tell them why this is important
5. ask others to do the same Pointers on writing letters on Standards:
- Submit brief and precise comments in writing, especially if you can’t get to hearings. They must be professional and respectful.
- Be specific, include page numbers and exact standard language that should be in- or excluded. (The Commissioner will likely tally a “score” of how many for this or that.)
- Urge parents and other non-teachers to write. The Commissioner ranks these more highly than professional educators, feeling professionals have had their share of input.
What to say:
- That’s up to you. General points include finding places to link human activity to environmental and technological issues. (Soil erosion is the only such example mentioned so far.) Also urge the commissioner to go back to existing standards, or to adopt the national standards. Tell her that as a parent, you believe in these standards. (She argues that parents must actually write the standards for them to be valid.)
- While you’re at it, look at the social studies standards and make specific recommendations there as well.
Thank you.
- Rich Cairn, Cairn & Associates
Here’re some thoughts from a retired Iowa administrator about Bush’s education plan:
No Illusion Left Behind
By Jerry Parks
Sunday, September 21, 2003;
It’s scary when you feel like you’re the only sane person around.
I’m a recently retired Iowa elementary school principal, and I can’t figure out why educators all over the United States aren’t screaming and yelling about the federal No Child Left Behind law.
It’s hard to tell whether this law is more a product of arrogance or ignorance, but either way it’s shaping up to be a spectacular train wreck of a collision between bureaucracy and reality.
To read the rest of the article click here.
You can participate in the discussion by attending the feedback sessions listed on the MDE website:
Public Hearing Schedule Science and Social Studies Draft Standards
Monday September 22nd
St. Paul Central High School
275 North Lexington Parkway
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday September 24th
Willmar Education and Arts Center(District office)
611 5th Street S.W.
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Thursday September 25th
Worthington Senior High School
1211 Clary Street
Location: Cafeteria
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Monday September 29th
Cloquet Senior High School
1000 18th Street
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday September 30th
Princeton Senior High School
807 South 8th Ave
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday October 1st
Hibbing: Lincoln Middle School
1114 East 23rd Street
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Thursday October 2nd
Bemidji Senior High School
2900 Division Street West
Location: Lumberjack Room
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Thursday October 9th
Coon Rapids Senior High School
2340 Northdale Blvd.
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Monday October 13th
Apple Valley: School of Environmental Studies
12155 Johnny Cake Road
Location: Commons Area
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Monday October 20th
Forest Lake Senior High School
6101 Scandia Trail North
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tuesday October 21st
Stewartville Senior High School
500 4th Street S.W.
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday October 22nd
Albert Lea Senior High School
2000 Tiger Lane
Location: Auditorium
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
You may also submit written comments to the Department:
Comments on Science Standards
Comments on Social Studies Standards
Health Care: Is it a right or is health care all wrong?
Sep 23, 2003 News
Most agree, health care is the most critical issue we face and yet few folks want to talk about. 
As Mike “Barry Casper” says in his book, ‘Lost in Washington‘ (2000), recollections of his time as policy advisor to Senator Wellstone.
In all discussions of health care reform, there is general agreement about the major problems in delivery of and payment for medical care that need to be addressed, from spiraling costs which threaten the economy to our virtually unique position among industrialized nations in failing to provide universal health care coverage for our citizens.
Forty million lower income Americans have no health insurance or medical coverage, and many more have only limited or catastrophic coverage. Most industrialized nations regard health care coverage as a right of citizenship, like police and fire protection, but health care and coverage is routinely denied to American citizens.
It is costing us all a great deal of money, 14% of the GDP, according to Casper. He notes that “in 1991 the General Accounting Office concluded that a U.S. single payer system would save nearly $70 billion in administrative costs alone.”
Groups like the Taxpayer’s League have infected the publics thinking so that we are afraid of taxes, even when investing our tax dollars in a single payer plan would save each tax payer a far greater amount than the expenditure in out of pocket costs and protect everyone from the threat of catastrophic health care costs. Why do they make this argument? Because they and can afford to take their health care for granted, and the rest of us be damned.. They don’t want to have to contribute to anyone else’s well being if they don’t have to. So they say, “It’s your money” and encourage us to begrudge every tax dollar, while they’re selling you on employer provided health care which costs you more each year in more expensive health care and lowered take home pay to cover the increased premiums.
It is true that people in our system can always “choose” not to have health coverage, they can always “choose” not to go to the doctor, but that notion of “choice” is as non-sensical as someone’s “choice” to have a root canal. When crisis comes in the form of an accident or catastrophic illness, we all need medical care, and those without coverage are forced into bankruptcy. If they can’t pay who does? All the rest of us pay for the uninsured through increased premiums, as hospitals attempt to recoup loses from ‘cost shifting’.
An article in the Bemidji Pioneer by Brad Swenson, “Health care costs loom as next crisis in Minnesota” cites the changes of the last legislative session:
Among the many changes in the program for families and children, Skoe notes that:
— Pregnant women whose income exceeds 200 percent of poverty ($24,240, single pregnant woman) will not be eligible for Medical Assistance but could be eligible for MinnesotaCare by paying a premium, effective July 1, 2004.– The asset limits for parents in Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare (upon federal approval) will be $10,000 for a household of one and $20,000 for a household of two or more.
– MA eligibility will be limited to children between ages 1 and 18 for families with incomes no greater than 150 percent of poverty ($22,896, three-person household), a decrease from 170 percent of poverty, effective July 1, 2004.
– For newborns of mothers on MA or MinnesotaCare, coverage for the infant’s second year will be through an eligibility review rather than automatic coverage.
“Cuts like these make it harder for families to make ends meet, and will drive up costs in other areas of the health care system,” state Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL – Clearbrook said. “The expected savings to the state budget are not what the governor expected when these other costs are factored in. I wish these issues had been fully considered when the governor held out for these cuts.”
The Governor says he is studying the situation and has appointed a commission headed by former Senator Dave Durenberger, read what one editorial has to say:
Pioneer Editorial: Big job for new health care panel Sunday, September 21, 2003
The Kaiser Family Foundation has some very good data on the condition of health care in Minnesota, it’s worth checking out.
Information about Minnesota’s health care programs can be found on the Minnesota Department of Human Services website , MNCare, and various eligibilty requirements,
Last June the DFL Education Foundation Forum brought together Sen. Linda Berglin, Jim Koppel (Children’s Defense Fund), Paul Ogren (Aristone Corp.), Mark Anderson (health policy consultant), and Erin Murphy ( MN Nurses Assn.) to discuss what to look for in the health plans of the various Presidential candidates.
There was general agreement with some variation on what we should be looking for:
- Cost containment,
- Increasing the numbers of those insured to universal coverage,
- Making sure the health care delivery systems are supported so quality care can be maintained,
- Comprehensive coverage (are participants needs met)
- Is it affordable
- Is it understandable 
Senator Berglin reminded them all that in an effort to reduce the costs of health care insurance, advocates will awaken the resolve of those who benefit from those higher costs to protect their interests. We shouldn’t kid ourselves thinking that making change will be easy.
I find it irksome that private institutions are often exempt from criticisms of wasteful spending when government is always watched closely. It seems to me open hypocrisy for the Chamber of Commerce and Minnesota Business to say government and all its beneficiaries should do “more with less” when their response to shortfalls is to bill the customer. I know in many cases small business owners can’t do this but corporations can and do. They can spend millions on lobbying efforts to protect their interest and when their voice is the only one being heard they shape the policies we end up with.
My parents always told me not to spend beyond my means. I am conservative by nature, drive an older car with over 130,000 miles on it and find it hard to convince myself to drive something newer, buy used whenever possible, from clothes at used clothing stores to anything under the sun at a yard sale, and I buy very few luxuries – obviously my thousands of books are a necessity! But think of your own budget and then look at the office buildings insurance companies build. Look at the country club fees paid by some health care providers. Look at how many lobbyists they retain. We know where they get the money for that — they get it from us.
Yes, of course individuals and governments need to be challenged to eliminate wasteful spending, but what about corporations that have power to eliminate the egregiously wasteful spending that directly drives our costs up but yet do nothing about it other than categorize it as a “cost of doing business.” What about the corporations that rather than act in the public interest as required by their charter instead raise our premiums to cover their losing market investments, protect their inflated salaries,generous stock options and pension funds?
State Attorney General Mike Hatch has been working hard to make changes in how health maintenance organizations do business. Law Enforcement Efforts
This is not easy work and he is to be commended for his efforts to safeguard the public interest.
Valley Grove
Sep 22, 2003 Environment, News
Sunday before last, I took a break from the pressures of a new school year to attend the Valley Grove annual quilt sale and jello contest. 
Yes, a jello contest. It honors that “Norwegian” church tradition, the jello that is an essential element of all church gatherings. You’ve all seen the “recipes” in the church cookbooks, you’ve all seen the real thing carefully laid out on the folding tables in the church basement dining hall. The contest poked fun at the tradition and encourages creativity, such as the ‘Huck Finn on the River Jello’ whose creator said, “I think of jello more as an art form than a food” and another entry replicating an Italian grandmother’s recipe. 
Jonathan Larson, one of the driving forces behind the Valley Grove restoration project also had an entry, a layered green and orange jello mold creation with fruit (mandarin oranges). 
Emcee Karen Winegar introduced the judges, Author John Louis Anderson and Federal Judge Joan Erickson Lancaster, who had great fun drawing upon their experience with Norwegian Lutheran social events
I always enjoy the beautiful scene at the Valley Grove Church, which brings me in my imagination, with pleasure and reverence, a little closer to the boyhood home of Thorstein Veblen,
my favorite economist. I admire his efforts to find a middle ground between Marx and Adam Smith based on his belief in economic policies founded in community. His ideas, no doubt, are extrapolations of the ethics and approach of a successful immigrant farm family, one that understood its place in the grand scheme. He identifies more with the self-sufficient community member more than with the warrior class or the business ethic.
Veblen’s best known book, the “Theory of the Leisure Class,” appeared at the turn of the century at the height of the ‘gilded age’, when a few Americans became extremely rich while many, many others languished in poverty. Veblen was highly critical of their greed and extravagant embelishment of themselves and their property. The age put into motion the progressive movement, which eventually elected Teddy Roosevelt, who used government to curtail the wealthy classes power and influence. Much of what Veblen said then rings true today, as a few of tremendous privilege once again amass great wealth, power and influence.
But my favorite book of Veblen’s is ” The Instinct of Workmanship,” in which he argues for a different view of economic life, not based solely on ‘price’ analysis and business and profit motives. An educator, Veblen was concerned about the big picture and sustainable economies/cultures as opposed to ones that preyed on others until they too were destroyed. He knew that making change, making improvements, often meant changing old habits of thinking and so described tendencies he called instincts that he believed sustain a people.
The first instinct is that of self-preservation, which included all of those behaviors aimed the preservation of the people. Second is the instinct of ‘idle curiosity,’ which included those actions which have no aim but come with interest and awareness of the world and result in all the great discoveries and inventions a people experiences. The third is the instinct of workmanship which is the notion of improving upon ones work, both in the product of work and the efficiency of workmanship. With these ideas he set out to challenge the common economic notion that human beings only work when coerced. He points out that human beings have put forth great effort on work that is of their own making, but find labor irksome when they are directed as a slave by a master. The common notion demeans work. Veblen went on to talk about the importance to a culture of preserving and advancing its technological base. What good are tools if no one knows how to use them?
A beautiful day in a beautiful place what more could anyone ask for. Not only did we see the handiwork of quilts and yes jello, but we were treated to tours of the preservation project lead by Gary Wagenbach, and horse and wagon rides.
Tying things up
Well, it’s been a long week. I am happy to say that after several months the Northfield School District and teachers’ association in Northfield appear to have reached an agreement. Both sides worked hard to do right by their interests yet bend enough toward the other to make it a good agreement. It was not easy in the current political environment for both sides to find the courage to resolve differences so amicably, but we did it! Having represented the teachers’ union in every session as a negotiator and watched the agreement come together, I am very proud of the efforts made by both sides to get where we are today.
The big stickler, which still erases much of the financial increase for teachers at the top of the pay scale, is the 18.4 % increase in health insurance costs. The two sides decided to split the difference, which under the district’s present financial constraints is truly the best they could do.
The rising cost of health care and health insurance has an impact on most of us and is a huge drain on our economy. It is an issue that has been crying out for a solutions for at least 15 years, but little progress has been made because of the tremendous influence insurance and pharmaceutical companies have over policy makers. Things can’t continue as they have because many individuals and employers are paying more than they can afford for very basic coverage. Small business owners are among the worst hit, especially those who have made a commitment to offer their employees reasonably good coverage.
Yesterday I heard an MPR interview with a writer for the Economist, who commented that America’s attempt to have businesses provide what he called ‘social benefits’ was a mistake. Perhaps due to compromises between liberals and conservatives, unlike Europeans who have nationalized health plans, we have opted to have the private sector provide these through employee contracts. He cited the uncertainty of the business world and the fact that most workers no longer stay with the same job as they had historically, in part because many businesses do not survive. He did not provide an answer to providing these benefits in a different way, but suggested that we try to identify those needs that citizens expect and provide those benefits in a much more comprehensive way.
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich argues that health care and health insurance costs are the single biggest drain on our economy. He sees single payer universal health care coverage as the only solution. As a former mayor, he understands home town budgets and how small business owners struggle to make ends meet. No one works harder than the small business owners who try to make their dream a reality, but like family farmers often just get by on a very narrow profit margin or cash flow. The Center for Rural Affairs states, “Availability and cost both contribute to the fact that over 60 percent of the nations’ uninsured are from homes where the head of household is either self-employed or works for a small business…many small businesses, farms and ranches face both economic and health distress.”
As the union and district negotiators shook hands congratulating ourselves on our success at forging our agreement, we made a pledge to work on the cost of health insurance coverage issue for future agreements. But there are limits to what bargaining units and school districts can do, because it’s the insurance companies with the power in this situation.
The current administrations at the State and Federal levels are abandoning efforts to insure those who need protection the most because they have no coverage or have extraordinary needs. They seem as intent on getting Government employees to retreat from protections they bargained long and hard for over the years. That approach certainly won’t help.
Governor Pawlenty has established a commission to study the health care crisis. No one denies it is a problem. But it remains to be seen if the commission will come up with viable solutions, and even if they do, are they partisan solutions, and does this Governor have the will to make them a reality?
I noticed that Rep. Ray Cox is inviting folks to join him on Thurs. Sept. 25th, 10:00am, at Northfield’s Senior Center, located at 1651 Jefferson Parkway, to talk about health care, the news had it on Wed so you may want to call ahead to make sure 664-3700. I hope those of you who can, will attend, that you will let him know your concerns and your ideas about solutions to this growing problem.
Education – What matters (fourth in a series)
In a recent Harper’s article, award winning teacher John Taylor Gatto, addresses his concerns about the negative effects of schools on children. He paints a picture of a strategy planned by the rich and powerful to produce a mass of consumers who will be obedient and content workers. Although the notion of an intentional conspiracy is far-fetched, I find he makes a convincing argument about what kinds of students our schools turn out – the result is all too apparent. Our society is too complacent and apathetic. Rather than a grand conspiracy, it probably has more to do with the set of beliefs educators go along with and support. Those are the notions of efficiency, mechanism, industrialization, and rationality. 
In light of the immense technological and economic changes our society is experiencing, I amfollowing what he is saying about this. Even if one argued that we once needed an educational system that dumbed down students and perpetuates a condition of boredom
to prepare them for mind numbing work, technology demands that that need would now be questioned. He observes:
Class may frame the proposition as when Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University said in 1909, ‘We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forgo the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific manual tasks.’ But the motives behind the disgusting decisions that bring about these ends need not be class-based at all. They can stem purely from fear, or from the by now familiar belief that ‘efficiency’ is the paramount virtue, rather than love, liberty, laughter or hope. Above all, then can stem from simple greed. There were vast fortunes to be made, after all, in an economy based on mass production and organized to favor the large corporation rather than the small business or the family farm.
Gatto argues that the reason for this focus is to create a populace that is willing to consume beyond its ability to pay. He observes that it is obvious that only two types of people will engage in this fervor of consumption — addicts and children,hence the need to transform all citizens into children willing to charge their charge cards to the limit with debt they will never be able to pay, so they can live like the rich they are taught to worship and emulate. These arguments are difficult to dismiss.
The cause of the dumbing down of children is compulsory education, he argues. Forcing children to go to school six hours a day, five days a week, for 13 years makes no sense to him. Gatto cites familiar examples of past American historical and literary figures who have gone on to great success and done just fine, thank you very much, with out mandatory education. He begins the article with a litany of complaints from students and teachers about how insanely boring schooling has become, comments I have heard as well. School is that way for a reason, he argues, to build the stamina and stomach for that grinding mind numbing factory work and which makes them unable to take them selves seriously or do serious work. One of the most refreshing aspects of my career in working with students who have left the traditional system, unable or unwilling to tolerate it, is that they take themselves, education, and life more seriously, because in many cases life forces the seriousness on them.
Gatto recounts the story of how his grandfather cured him of boredom by admonishing him to never use the word in his presence because if he was bored it was no one’s fault but his own and that people who didn’t know that were childish and should be avoided.
He concludes by advising that we should let young people manage themselves, and offers in example the names of David Farragut,
who took command of a ship as a preteen, Thomas Edison, who published a broadsheet at twelve, Ben Franklin who apprenticed himself to a printer at the same age. “Genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius because we can’t figure out how to manage a population of educated men and women.” 
I agree with Gatto in his charge that many policies and systems that favor the privileged and that corporate interests deny freedom and opportunity to others. A fair economic and education system would foster opportunity at all levels not just protect those interests that have power and influence now. But fostering that opportunity demands that we look beyond what will be good just for me. We can’t just think, “I got mine, let others struggle.” We have to continue to create opportunities that made it possible to succeed by investing in education, and preserving the safety net that provides for the basic needs of children and families. We won’t all end up in the same place but we need to make more of an effort to see that we all get a fair start.
Education – What matters (third in a series)
Here comes the school year, and here come the students from poor families, and there stand too many teachers insisting the students cannot be taught, that so high a mountain cannot be climbed. Given that attitude, the students are virtually done for. Their prospects for learning are dim.
It’s unfair to say the teachers who preach hopelessness have nothing on which to base the sermon. They have sometimes done their best and been beaten back, and if they suffer under incompetent principals or labor in a school district where the bureaucracy is unrelentingly burdensome, their chances for success are thin.
But defeatism, as we all know, breeds defeat; if we assume in advance we cannot make it to the mountain’s summit, we don’t exhaust ourselves and take risks trying. A bit of analysis tells you the assumption in this case is wrong – and then there is the evidence, the exceptional schools and teachers that disprove the supposed rule.
The analysis starts with the simple observation that no two students are exactly alike. There may be one who is malnourished and never gets enough sleep and is beaten and unloved and has a TV as his only babysitter. That child will have a very, very difficult time in the classroom. But imagine another child living next door. While similarly poor, he has a caring mother and a grandmother who visits on weekends and encourages him to make good grades. This child will likely have a far less difficult time.
There are just too many variables and differences among individuals to make judgments based on any group identity, and a child who comes from even horrid circumstances may have something flammable somewhere in his mind, something that can be ignited and shine bright and beautiful if someone finds the right spark.
So says Jay Ambrose, Scripps News Service, a writer whose work rarely contains much I agree with. However, in this first half of his opinion piece, instead I find little to argue with. It is the rest of his piece at issue, but it provides what could be a good starting point to address the question I am often pondering: How is it conservatives and progressives can look at the same world and come up with such different interpretations? Steven Pinker in his new book, ‘The Blank Slate‘ touches on the complexity of this issue explaining that so much depends on one’s view of human nature and society. He compares two world views, one tragic and one utopian, as a means to look at how conservatives and liberals see priorities and solutions. As seen in the struggle to balance economic freedom with economic fairness.
Either way, Ambrose is right we do need to find those sparks. He focuses on individuals, and how on the one hand maverick principals, who buck the system make a difference, and on the other hand, how students need to be given the chance to opt out of a system with a voucher. Progressives look at the larger picture of groups and systems, and wonder how to make them more responsive. They look at the struggling students and the crumbling neighborhoods and wonder how we can engage them to make their lives better; how can we make the systems more responsive to individuals. Smaller schools is one thougth and using the political systems to redirect some of the resources going to those who have the political clout to grab it all, toward these groups. Most agree we have to individualize and pay attention to the particular needs of students. But ignoring the larger problems and assuming the problem can be solved by letting some students use a voucher to escape seems limited.
Many of the problems Ambrose describes can be dealt with in ways that strengthen a commitment to public education rather than abandon it, as he advocates. 
Deborah Meier, and
Alfie Kohn,
are both advocates of public education, but in a different way. They both have books on the subject and advocate for smaller more humane democratic schools. 
A good resource for this kind of approach, I’ve found is Wisconsin’s 
. They have published several booklets on the problems with school vouchers.
Howard Fuller has argued on the other side, that if a voucher is the only choice an urban school family has to encourage change in schools, he is for it.
Don Glines, founder of the Wilson School in Mankato, advocated for public schools, that could offer a true choice to parents. His feeling is not that public schools are bad but that we need different kinds of public schools, because students and parents have different needs.
Check out the website of the International Association for Learning Alternatives if you want to read more about this subject.
More for a Few and Less for You!! #8
Sep 12, 2003 News
The people know what’s really harsh:
Minnesota Poll: Economy takes its toll on Bush
Daniel Schorr: Deregulation is not the Promised Land
Legislators see people feel pain of no new tax increases. (Anoka/editorial):
Taxes on the rise: Cities look for new revenue as state cuts aid. (White Bear Lake)
Blazer-Mn Chamber: City balances higher rates and more taxes. (Austin)
Have taxes become more regressive? Here’s a report from the Center on Policy and Budget Priorities. 
