Link Love: What We’re Reading & Loving Right Now
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Posts tagged ‘government’
Jun 12
Moms Matter: Support Critical Care
Maternal mortality is nothing short of a global epidemic. Nearly every minute of every day, a woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. The world has the resources, technology and knowledge to prevent most of these deaths- sign CARE’s petition to help.
Do It Like Da Vinci: Learning & Living Like Leonardo
You don’t have to be a genius to think like one. Michael J. Gelb introduces the Seven Da Vincian Principles–seven essential elements of genius, named in Da Vinci’s native Italian, that any of us can develop on our own.
Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System
by Chris Hedges
Published on Monday, April 11, 2011 by TruthDig.com
A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.
Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers—those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential—and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point. The "No Child Left Behind" program, modeled on the “Texas Miracle,” is a fraud. It worked no better than our deregulated financial system. But when you shut out debate these dead ideas are self-perpetuating.
Passing bubble tests celebrates and rewards a peculiar form of analytical intelligence. This kind of intelligence is prized by money managers and corporations. They don’t want employees to ask uncomfortable questions or examine existing structures and assumptions. They want them to serve the system. These tests produce men and women who are just literate and numerate enough to perform basic functions and service jobs. The tests elevate those with the financial means to prepare for them. They reward those who obey the rules, memorize the formulas and pay deference to authority. Rebels, artists, independent thinkers, eccentrics and iconoclasts—those who march to the beat of their own drum—are weeded out.
An Update on the Planned Parenthood Controversy: Letter from My Congress Member
In response to the Planned Parenthood controversy, I had written a letter to my Congress member, Gary L. Ackerman, to thank him for voting to continue support to Planned Parenthood. (How quick are we to comment on bad service or protest something not to our liking? We should be even quicker to commend that which we find positive!)
On April 15, 2011 I received a response via email from Congress member Ackerman. Read more
Victory for Planned Parenthood
On February 18, 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from all federal funding for birth control, cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care. Yet Planned Parenthood is the singular largest provider of of sex and reproductive health care services, providing HIV testing, cancer screening, breast exams, birth control and even blood & cholesterol screenings to low income men, women, and teenagers...
