Kelly in Kansas

Tightly Wound says it best:

So I haven’t been prolific lately, blogwise.  Not because I don’t have thoughts or fodder, but because lately the entire blogosphere has been ramped up to 11, and most likely I wouldn’t be able to get my volume up enough to be heard.

Oh, wait, there’s one way:  RACISM!!!!ELEVEN!!!

There, that should do it.

Seriously.  This is just ridiculous.  For those of you following along at home, perhaps you’ve noticed the inevitable devolving argument that is fast becoming the predominant narrative:  if you oppose a policy, any policy, from the current administration, you’re obviously an ignorant racist.  Insert bizarre sexual slur here to make your point.

Or, if you aren’t racist, you’re ignorant and SKEERID OF CHANGE!

Insert concern trolling about our “increasingly uncivil discourse” and “ungovernable America” here.

Sigh.  There is a third option, you know, but it doesn’t generate breathless media headlines about how the skinheads are coming for us and how a bunch of middle-aged middle-class protesters standing around the desert are obviously a proto-Kristallnacht writ large for 2010.

. . .


Here’s the thing – it is possible to believe that health care should be reformed, and yet oppose the bill that just passed without being a terrified racist.  It is possible to do this because as a person who lives in the real world you may be a bit skeptical over claims that a bill which increases an entitlement by billions will somehow reduce a deficit, and you’re wondering where, exactly, this money is going to come from seeing as how we’re kind of BROKE and things are just a wee bit unsettled right now, economy-wise.

You may also be skeptical over the whole “We’ll pay for it by taxing people who aren’t YOU, no really, we promise,” line of speaking, partly because the promises kept track record from this administration isn’t all that great, and partly because hearing that makes you hearken back to another president saying, “Read my lips – no new taxes,” and you remember just how well THAT went.

You may also oppose the bill because you’re a bit put off by the manner in which it was written and passed, and you may, in the aftermath of the entire stupid process, feel that the factions in our “ruling class” are so caught up in putting a “W” on the scoreboard that they’ll pass a resolution requiring all males over the age of twelve to get scrotal piercings if they can then cry “VICTORY!” on all the cable news shows.

I could go on, but the larger point I’m making here is that fiscal concern and opposition to mandated scrotal piercings do not make a person a crazy frightened racist.

And as to the “uncivil discourse, ungovernable America” trope, until people start caning each other on the floor of Congress I think we can relax.  We managed to survive plays that called for the assassination of the last President, anarchist raids on every city that hosted a G8 summit, “don’t taze me bro!” stupidity at universities, and people flinging pies, eggs, shoes, and a live freaking GRENADE (it was a dud) at elected officials–and that was during the LAST eight years.  I think we’ll survive the local chapter of the AARP chanting “Kill the Bill.”  And no, pearl clutchers, they aren’t referring to Bill Clinton, our OTHER black president.

All this hysteria makes me wonder who the scared racists really may be, you know?
But that could just be a result of all those Psych courses in college and spending too much time reading about projection.

Labels: health care, politics, Tightly Wound

The debate continues - how to effective implement assessment of student learning. This Chronicle of Higher Ed news item explains explains another "new call" for assessment at the college and university levels. Although outgoing Secretary of Education Spellings (and, apparently maybe sooner rather than later) tried to issue this call, there was enough "movement" from the usual crowds to go around it - at least for now.

Ultimately, the accountability measurements (data, data, data) that was first utilized in the business world will be inside our house and not just on our doorsteps. As I asked our dean earlier this semester, "So, isn't all the data and analysis that is downstairs (we're in the main administration building) in the institutional research office something we can no longer ignore and something we will have to start dealing with more effectively?"

I think it surprised my dean that I was this aware. On the other hand, I'm not sure how many of my colleagues understood what I really meant. More than one has spent a career fighting _against_ anything from outside the department (and sometimes within :-) ).

If you follow the comments on the first Chronicle article above, you'll see the usual back and forth between administrator view and faculty view. The reality is somewhere in the middle. And, as I've believed for over a decade, if we as faculty do not get a handle on this, we will be told what handle to hang on to as we go along for the ride to meet the demands of more accountability to the outside world. Sadly, some of our colleagues at institutions with the resources to actually accomplish this, continue in large part to ignore it given their major emphasis on discipline research and not on the larger world of our responsibility to taxpayers, parents, and students. And, some of what happens in the world of teacher education is workable but not necessarily all of it.

Of course, more thoughts are brewing but it's time to get some grading done.

Labels: administrators, assessment, faculty, politics, student learning