School Daze

Count Me Out

School has started up again in my area, as it has in most parts of the country, which means we're in the midst of the usual back-to-school deluge of "what's wrong with our schools" analysis from people who mostly don't have the slightest idea what they're talking about. It also means teachers all over the country will be burdened with trying to implement (or continue implementing) some faddish "initiative" promoted by "education experts" that will enable the school's administrators to make a great show of fostering "school improvement," even though there isn't any evidence that such fads do anything at all to make a child's education any better. If those "experts" knew as much about educating children as they do about marketing (at which they most certainly are expert), they might actually be worth listening to.

Created on the wonderful Pulp-O-Mizer website.

So, to whom do I turn when I need a reminder of what education (and the teaching profession) should be?

Jacques Barzun

I find that whenever I'm feeling especially pessimistic about the future of the teaching profession, I can always find inspiration to Jacques Barzun's classic Teacher in America.

Our schools and teachers are at their best when they adhere most closely to the principles Barzun lays out in this book. The best "reform" for what ails our schools and our teachers would be to re-embrace those principles.

I'll never live to see it, of course. The nitwits and numbskulls who think they have it all figured out are in charge, and they are likely to stay in charge for the foreseeable future.

Alfie Kohn

A big part of what is ailing our K-12 education system these days is the pervasive belief that an "education" must primarily be something that can be counted, measured, quantified, and graded.

No one is a more tireless warrior against our mania for viewing standardized test results as the alpha and omega of education than my hero Alfie Kohn.

Reading anything at all by Dr. Kohn is well worth your time, but here's a brief article that everyone who cares about literacy should take to heart.

Thomas Sowell

 One of the traits I most admire in writers and thinkers is bluntness. The best minds don't feel any need to cloak their thoughts in bland, equivocal language designed to avoid agitating the reader.

Thomas Sowell is a beacon for this sort of rhetorical honesty. His book Inside American Education pulls no punches, and is even more true now (sadly) than when it first appeared over a decade ago.

You can read a short sample of Dr. Sowell's bracing analysis here.

"Don't sugar-coat it, Shu, tell us how you really feel."

This is obviously a subject near and dear to me, and I shall return to it often. In the meantime, I pray for every kid in every school in this country, public or private, and for their teachers. I pray that, together, they can achieve real education this school year despite the best efforts of those intent on thwarting that outcome...

Things That Make Me Happy: New Kid Edition

Last night my beloved Kansas City Royals were back at Kauffman Stadium to begin a short four-game homestand, all four games being against the Baltimore Orioles, the team the Royals swept 4-0 in the American League Championship Series last year to advance to the World Series.

Kris Medlen made his first start as a member of the Royals after a handful of relief appearances. It was also his first start in the major leagues since his second Tommy John surgery in 2013. Kris struggled in the first inning, giving up a two-run home run to CF Adam Jones. But he only gave up one more run in the next five innings, recording a Quality Start and earning the win in the 8-3 Royals victory. Kris is now 2-0 with a 3.10 ERA on the season.

It was an odd game for the Royals offensively. With two out in the bottom of the 6th, Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez had held the Royals to a single run on five hits. But with a runner on second, All-Star 3B Mike Moustakas hit a 427-foot home run (his 14th) to tie the game 3-3. Jimenez never got that third out, and the Royals wound up scoring 7 runs in the inning. The hitting star was 2B Omar Infante, who drove in the winning runs with a two-run triple, and scored himself on a throwing error. Omar hit a second triple in the 8th inning.

"Let a player PLAY!"

The Royals' third straight win was also the Orioles fifth loss in a row, their longest losing streak of the season. Game 2 of the series tonight matches Danny Duffy (6-6, 4.18 ERA) against the Orioles' Miguel Gonzalez (9-9, 4.73).

Chess Throwdown

At chess tournaments featuring the world's strongest players, it is not unusual for most of the games to end in draws, but that's not what is happening so far at the Sinquefield Cup, currently under way at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. The world's top six players are competing, along with four others who are all in the world's top fifteen. This is one of the strongest round-robin tournaments ever held.

In Round 1, all five games were decisive, which is almost unheard of for an event of this kind. The highlights were World No. 3 Grandmaster (GM) Veselin Topalov defeating World No. 1 (and current World Champion) GM Magnus Carlsen, and World No. 4 (and top-ranked U.S. player) GM Hikaru Nakamura defeating World No. 2 (and former World Champion) GM Viswanathan Anand.

Three of the five games in Round 2 were decisive as well, which means the assembled grandmasters are not playing it cautiously. With his victory over GM Nakamura, GM Topalov is alone in first place after two rounds. How tough a tournament is this? After two rounds, GM Anand and World No. 5 GM Fabiano Caruana are tied for last place!

GM Hikaru Nakamura poses next to the wall honoring World Chess Champions at the CCSCSL.

Round 3 begins today at 1:00 PM CDT, and if you're interested you can follow the action in real time here, as I plan to.

My Interest Level in Your "Gender Identity"

Design available at the indispensable Snorgtees.

And, frankly, your constant mentioning of the subject is a particularly egregious brand of narcissism. Just sayin'...

Until Next Time...

In the spring of 1965, the Ramsey Lewis Trio recorded a live instrumental version of Dobie Gray's hit single "The 'In' Crowd" at the famous Bohemian Caverns nightclub in Washington, D.C. Gray's version had made it to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, but Ramsey's bouncy, jazz-inflected version made it all the way to No. 5, exactly 50 years ago this month. I was just starting to listen to Top 40 radio as my 7th grade year began, and this song was my first real taste of this style of jazz. Twenty years later, I had the opportunity to see Ramsey and his then-latest trio live, in a hotel ballroom in Casper, Wyoming. And "The 'In' Crowd" was still a real crowd-pleaser!

Today's send-off is one of those still-photograph slideshows paired with the music. The producer did a fine job of selecting images that give a good flavor of urban life in the mid-'60s. Enjoy...