"Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World"

Catherine has encouraged me to post an announcement of my book's release:




Here (edited slightly) is what I wrote to Catherine yesterday:

Though it's not the general critique of education that I initially intended to write, I'm hoping its focus on the special needs of a specific kind of child ("left-brainers," in the vernacular sense of the term) will help it bypass some of the political polarization out there and reach a broader spectrum of educators. And allow me, ultimately, to publish my general critique.

I am happy that one of the chapter titles (chosen by my editor) is "Hindered by Reform Math and Other Trends in K-12 education," and I do make a more general case against those trends in the penultimate chapter.

I'm concerned that some of what I write may suggest that I subscribe to "learning styles" theory--about which I'm generally skeptical (but I'm still trying to find out whether there's any empirical research on differences in "cognitive bandwidth"--i.e., individual differences in "linear"/one-thing-at-a-time thinking and learning vs. "big picture"/holistic thinking and learning).

My main thesis, however, is based not on learning styles theory but on all the testimonials I've collected, and it is that:

Children who are the least socially skilled and most analytically inclined are among the most shortchanged by the current system--both in terms of the quality of their classroom experiences, and in terms of the grades they earn.

These children include, of course, many on the autistic spectrum.

KTM has been a wonderful resource for my book. I quote Catherine (anonymously) in a couple of places (on choosing "Hogwarts"; on whether writers collaborate in groups); I also quote Allison on how American-educated vs. foreign educated fare at MIT.

Math Competitions

Does anyone have any comments about K-8 and high school math competitions? I was asked last year if I wanted to form a MathCounts team at our middle school. Has anyone done this competition? How about other competitions? I'm reconsidering doing this as a way to help kids and to focus attention on the needs of K-6 math. Are there other competitions that would be better? Actually, I've always hated the idea of math as a speed competition. However, it could be a way to help many more students than just the math brains. Are some competitions better for more kids or does it just matter how you set it up? For example, the Science Olympiad and the First Lego League are full-day events where all kids go and have a great time.

stop the madness

here is redkudu, writing on the Core Knowledge blog:

I am thankful some attention is being focused on the unreasonable expectations placed on teachers: that there is some acknowledgment that it cannot ALL be done. This is especially true when you look at what teachers should be able to expect – that because a student is in a certain grade they have passed certain benchmarks which are designated by the state to assure us the students have the minimum skills necessary to accomplish grade-level work. Unfortunately, this is often not the case.

As a high school teacher, I’ve been expected to conduct Socratic Seminars, but never trained in how to do so. I found and purchased a book on such, read up, developed a lesson plan, and presented it. I received poor marks on an evaluation for that, because the method I’d read and produced was not the same method (a modified version) that the school preferred.

Ditto Marzano’s 9, by which we are formally evaluated at my new school. No training, no available materials (his books) in case I want to read up on them. Ditto small group learning, the student portfolio, PBL’s, and a whole host of other programs brought in via 20 minute PowerPoint at staff training without any supporting texts or ongoing training. And I should be able to demonstrate these methods and techniques in a classroom with learning disparities ranging from semi-literate to college level in 90 minutes on Mondays, 70 minutes on Wednesdays, and 45 minutes on Fridays. (Actually, our school has 9 different schedules, which also impact Tuesdays and Thursdays, early release Wednesdays, pep rally days, testing days, Homeroom days (once a 6 weeks – I’m expected to provide a meal for 25 students to enhance our “bonding”), actual homerooms (once a day), and other events.) Band-aids for gaping wounds and all that. I’d love to have a classroom in which levels were as simple as below expected, at expected, and above expected. I’d like to able to say the only thing I do in the summers is relax.

still here - (sort of)

I'm sorry for the long absence - my brain is fried. Some of you probably remember that my mom fell and fractured her pelvis in mid-August (August 12, to be exact); we've been dealing with the "sequelae" ever since:

Evanston ER
Evanston ICU
Evanston CCC
Brentwood Skilled Nursing Facility
Highland Hospital ER
Highland Hospital ICU
Highland Hospital whatever-is-below-ICU (she moved today)

A friend said yesterday that we are under siege, and that's the way it feels.

Nevertheless, I've checked back into Irvington doings (links below) - & will get back here soon.


Forum discussion of new hire

board member Robyne Camp re: hiring of temporary assistant superintendent
David K response
me: put content specialists in charge of content
board member John Dawson responds
David K response
Ed B response
David K
Adele F
5 assistant superintendents in 8 years?

Everyday Math Bleg

Can someone point me to or send me a copy of the scope and sequence charts for 4th and 5th grade Everyday Math. I'd especially like to see how the topics line up to the chapters in each text. In particualr, I really want to know what is taught in chapters 10-12 in the 4th grade text.

Background: My son's school is starting a pilot math program for advanced 4th graders. The school currently uses Everyday Math in heterogeneously grouped classrooms. (In contrast, in reading, the students are broken up into small homogeneous groups.) Apparently, there's been some pushback by the parents of the more advanced students who are bored with the glacial pace of the previous three years of Everyday Math (blissfully unaware of the horror show that awaits them in the upper levels). This has led to an increasing number of accomodations being made for the gifted students in math with more than a few students doing ALEKS on their own. So this summer, the school apparently came to the realization that providing a homogensous class for the advanced students would limit the amount of students doing their own thing in math.

Typically, teachers are expected to cover chapters 1-9 in a school year. The thought is that the advanced math class will be able to proceed at a faster pace, compacting and skipping known sections. The extra time will be spent covering chapters 10-12 and then the class will move to the fifth level. Although no commitmenst are being made at this point, it is thought that three years of math will be able to be covered in two years of class time. A problem will arise next year in that the class will likely move into a sixth grade curriculum --this will mean moving into the sixth level of Everyday Math (which the school doesn't use in regular classrooms) or moving into the sixth level of CMP (which the district does use in the middle school) which I understand is largely a review of what students should have learned in elementary school but typically haven't (which shouldn't be a problem for advanced students).

(It's all academic for my son, I do Connecting Math Concepts with him at home and he'll complete the sixth level by next year sometime; he uses Everyday Math to practice in school what he already knows. This has another fortunate side-effect of minimizing the risk that he learns something incorrectly from Everyday Math. And, even if he learns nothing from Everyday math, it really doesn't matter. Though I am curious as to what the class is store for.)

Are You Smarter Than a Fourth-Grader?

I came across this site that gives sample 4th and 8th grade test questions from the NAEP test. An educational journalist once told me that the NAEP test was the "gold standard".

Mathematics Report Card.


Take the tests and look at how many students didn't get the correct answers. Next, break into (mixed ability) groups and try to discover what goes on in grades K-3 math.

Rules for Radicals

Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals has been in the news quite a bit of late. Here is a pop quiz. Do you know the rules? Even though schools, their districts, their ed schools and the rest of the ed establishment is in power, the tactics are still being used. Substitute the word "enemy" below with the word "parent". How many of these use have been used against you?

RULE 1: "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have." Power is derived from 2 main sources - money and people. "Have-Nots" must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)


RULE 2: "Never go outside the expertise of your people." It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don't address the "real" issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)


RULE 3: "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy." Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)


RULE 4: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)


RULE 5: "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon." There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

RULE 6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy." They'll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They're doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid "un-fun" activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)


RULE 7: "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag." Don't become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)


RULE 8: "Keep the pressure on. Never let up." Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)


RULE 9: "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself." Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists' minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)


RULE 10: "If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management's wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)


RULE 11: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative." Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)


RULE 12: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Draft standards released by Common Core State Standards Initiative

The draft standards by CCSSI have been released for public comment. Located here.


The press release states that "The NGA Center and CCSSO are encouraging those interested in the standards to provide feedback, which must be supported by research and evidence, by October 21 at www.corestandards.org."

So feedback must be supported by "research and evidence". Whatever that means.

Dawn weighs in on terminology

I think you guys need to stop calling it after-schooling. What you're doing IS homeschooling, it's just that the homeschooling gets interrupted by 6 hours of crafts and confusion.

This reminds me of the time I sat next to a former head of JPL. He said he'd gone many rounds with his school district. Once he went to a school board meeting & said something along the lines of: "You have the kids sequestered here 6 hours a day and you can't teach them anything in that time?"

I remember being tickled by the word sequestered.

ESL teacher on electronic vs. paper dictionaries

I see a huge difference in my ESL students who use electronic dictionaries versus traditional dictionaries. The electronic ones are fast, but they don’t see as many words. They don’t see variations on a root word.

With a paper dictionary, students browse. Sometimes, instead of reading their novel during silent reading, they want to read the dictionary.

E-books and computers have a place in education and daily living, but they cannot replace paper books.

— Carol

Democratic Group's Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle

If I had to bet, I would bet this teacher is right. I do lots of reading on screen (which produces eye strain, a problem Kindle technology is intended to solve), I do some reading on an iTouch, and I expect to do lots of reading on my factory-refurbished Kindle.

But I don't expect to see books disappear -- especially not textbooks.

a student compares Kindles to laptops in the classroom

I dislike that suggestion of many posters to provide netbooks to students instead [of Kindles]. I came from a high school with a laptop program. All students had an IBM thinkpad; because they were bought en-mass by the school there was a significant discount and students with financial discrepencies were subsidized. This was the largest mistake made in the school districts history. The laptops were misused and a distraction to the classroom. Even under our secured servor and protected internet connection, we as the student knew how to override the barriers. The focus left from using computers as a learning tool to a competition between students and faculty to maintain restrictions.

Keep it simple. Kindle is wise technology, with just the right amont of access for a classroom setting.

— Kelly

Democratic Group's Proposal: Give Every Student a Kindle

Simple is good.

No access to internet is good.

e.g., see: laptopsmackdown: What Are Your Students Really Doing?

"Computer Programmer" on Kindles & books

None of the books I’ve read ever required a battery.

I’ve never had to worry about dropping a book and having it break in such a way that I couldn’t read any more books.

If I lose or otherwise misplace a book, I can still read other books.

None of my books on my shelves have any sort of physical copy protection on them.

If any of my books get wet, they are easily dried off. Some of the pages may wrinkle. But the books are still usable.

None of the books I’ve read had a “screen” that gets scratched or broken. That’s because none of them has a screen.

Some of the books on my shelf, including college books, are decades old. There are no compatibility problems getting them to “work”.

It is very easy to open a book so that items on facing pages are both viewed at the same time. This is very handy with maps and other graphics. Not sure if that can be done on a small “kindle-ish” device.

Am I a Luddite? Maybe, but after almost 30 years in MIS / IS / IT and automation, I know a little bit about “not-always-appropriate” technology. (Electronic voting is, at the moment, only one prominent example. Anyone out there trying to read computer files written with Wordstar on 5.25″ floppy disks?)

I agree that the cost of college textbooks is insane. However, a good textbook that lasts decades can provide the owner with benefits that far outweigh the original cost.

— Computer Programmer

Democratic Group's Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle

Kindles for math

from the Comments section:

I have a kindle on which I read articles, fiction and light non-fiction all the time. I would not want to use it for text books. It simple doesn’t display tables well. And when you have to go back and forth, as is often the case in math and science textbooks to understand formulas etc, it is cumbersome and one can get easily lost.

Whoever recommended that should actually spend time with a Kindle.

— Octavian

Democratic Group’s Proposal: Give Each Student a Kindle

Vicky S on starting afterschooling early

I have a close friend whose kids are several years behind mine, and I bent her ear continually about this stuff. She took my advice and began afterschooling with Singapore from day 1 of first grade (and now wishes she'd done English, too, by the way). So it was just what they did from the start, and the kids thought it was normal, so there's been much less friction.

Without a jumpstart like this board or a friend with older children, it can take years for the insanity of elementary education to sink in. I started smelling a rat when my kids were around grades 3-5 but figured it out too late to do anything but remediate and try to fill in the gaps.

With math I was lucky; it was touch and go and at least one of my boys has emerged from the other end of afterschooling and interschooling (middle school at home) both good at, and liking, math. But I'm sad to say that it was too late for writing--they were too resistant. It breaks my heart because writing is so important.

For many kids, when you catch it at middle school, I think despite a parent's best efforts it may be too late.

A couple of things I've learned as a parent are:

1. If your elementary age child is hiding under the bed every morning refusing to go to school, it's more likely that there is something wrong with the school, not the kid, no matter what the school tells you. Ditch the school, pronto.

2. If your elementary age child is crying while trying to do math homework and/or if you do not understand your child's math homework, your school is probably using a constructivist curriculum and if you don't do something about it, soon, your child will probably end up hating math for good and the world may have lost yet another chemical engineer, thanks to the NCTM.

3. If most or all of your child's writing exercises have to do with connections, personal reflections, autobiographies, feelings, favorite this or that, past experiences, family, community, and hopes and dreams, your child will end up with a monumental case of writer's block, won't know how to write even if he does ever break through it, and the world may have lost yet another lawyer or diplomat, thanks to Lucy Calkins.

refurbished Kindles - $219

I've escaped the black hole of hospital-land (my mom's been in and out of the hospital since August 12) just long enough to:

a) discover that Amazon is selling refurbished Kindles for $219

b) put up a post telling you so

The Agitator loves his Kindle.....

I ordered a refurbished Kindle yesterday, apparently because $219 is my 'price point' for a reading toy. I'd been wanting a Kindle since they first came out, but since Kindles don't have things I need (folders to sort pdf files into) and do have things I don't want (can't transfer Kindle books to your computer), and since they cost $359, I'd been waiting for something better to come along. At $219, Kindle is something better.

Of course, maybe that's because I read somebody somewhere saying $200 is the price point that turns a Kindle into an iPhone.

I don't have an iPhone, but come Monday I will have a Kindle.


I suppose this was inevitable

A proposal to put a Kindle into the hands of every K-12 student in the country, which will cost $9 billion more than the country currently spends putting textbooks in the hands of every student in the country:

Of course, such an upfront government outlay in these economic times seems unlikely. Mr. Freedman acknowledges that, but believes the federal government should act, particularly since e-books will inevitably migrate into students’ hands anyway.

“There are two crucial questions. Will this improve the educational experience for children, and is this budget neutral, does it cost money or save money?” he said.

answers: no and no.

e.g., see: The Computer Delusion by Todd Oppenheimer

If I were going to launch a program to put Kindles in the hands of every member of a dependent group, I'd put them in hospitals and nursing homes. Assuming they're as easy to use as I hope, that is.

Speaking of user-friendly, the flat-screen TVs in Evanston Hospital aren't getting much use in the CCC unit, I fear. Any TV that requires a person hospitalized with advanced heart failure to navigate a menu needs to be rethought.

Same deal with whole classrooms of high school kids negotiating portals.


we are doomed, part 2

Here we go: a 175-page report on "Technology in Schools" from the National Center for Education Statistics (pdf file) that has nothing whatsoever to say on the subject of student achievement:

The guide’s indicators of technology availability and use can be paired with locally determined measures of student achievement, operational efficiency, or other outcomes, so as to assess the relation between technology inputs and desired results.* This handbook does not directly address student or management outcomes, beyond evidence of deployment and utilization of technology in the K–12 setting. Outcome measurements (not themselves technology indicators) are beyond the scope of this document.

This handbook also does not directly address measurement issues, such as the reliability and validity of the data elements listed. Measurements are, to varying degrees, reproducible over time and across inquirers and forms of inquiry; and they are, to varying degrees, also accurate reflections of the concepts they purport to measure (as determined by a consensus of stakeholders, or other means). These issues matter, and much is written about them, but their proper consideration exceeds both the space available and the competence of our panel. The purpose of this document is to allow decision makers to make choices about the various kinds of information they need, to select some questions that are truly “key,” and to focus and organize data collection and information management to produce useful information, so as to make better decisions.

"Better decisions" begin and end with the student.

Period.

Teach Them All to Read by Elaine McEwan
High Tech Heretic by Clifford Stoll

Open House - Grade 8

Well, last night was open house. I've become quite passive and docile. I didn't even grimace when they went on and on about our two rubric grading system, one for academics and one for effort. I didn't bat an eye when they talked about getting in our form detailing our child's learning styles. I won't send it in. They don't care. My son still has to do art work for learning.

Once again, they will not take advantage of 21st century tools and make sure the latest homework assignments are posted on their web site. They say that it's the responsibility of the child to make sure they have the homework assignment. What it really means is that the school doesn't want to force all teachers to do this.

In one room, a teacher was showing how a SmartBoard works - sort of, even though he has had it for over a year. We signed up (already) for our student-led portfolio review in December, where we get to listen to our son tell us how he is going to be a better student. Never mind the fact that the contents of the portfolio should have come home long ago. That way we could respond to issues sooner. We were told about weekly teacher comments (with rubric numbers or checks) that will come home in our son's planner. They are completely out of context because all of the work is stored in the portfolio. We have to sign this meaningless form or else our son will get a detention.

We got a big talk about the National Junior Honor Society (they decided to do this again) and all of the requirements. It sounded like there were too many non-academic requirements. They say that they want to recognize academics as much as sports, but in sports, students don't have to do a lot of volunteer work and be the perfect young adult. The rules seem way too manipulative. The teachers know you want the award and are watching your every step. Maybe they should have rubrics to decide who wins in sports.

Oh well, back to after-schooling.

Everyday Math Frustration

My kids started Everyday Math this year:

My 4th graders Everyday Math homework worksheet:

Find examples of numbers--all kinds of numbers. Look in newspapers and magazines. Look in books. Look on food packages. Ask people for examples.

Write your numbers below. If an adult says you may, cut out the numbers and tape them onto the back of this page.

Be sure to write what your numbers means.

I am sure glad they didn't have her waste time doing multiplication or something.

p.s. thank you for letting me vent.

NYT writer: just sit those kids next to kids who CAN graduate college!

Public universities are damaging the American economy and failing their students, says New York Times writer David Leonhardt. Only half of those who enroll complete a Bachelor's Degree in 6 years. "Failure Factories" are the norm, he says.

The United States does a good job enrolling teenagers in college, but only half of students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree. Among rich countries, only Italy is worse. That’s a big reason inequality has soared, and productivity growth has slowed. Economic growth in this decade was on pace to be slower than in any decade since World War II — even before the financial crisis started.

So identifying the causes of the college dropout crisis matters enormously, and a new book tries to do precisely that.

Yes, what could possibly be the source of the dropout crisis?

Yes, inadequate precollege education is a problem. But high schools still produce many students who have the skills to complete college and yet fail to do so. Turning them into college graduates should be a lot less difficult than fixing all of American education.

“We could be doing a lot better with college completion just by working on our colleges,” as Robert Shireman, an Education Department official who has read an early version of the book, says.

So what problems are there that schools could solve?

The first problem that Mr. Bowen, Mr. McPherson and the book’s third author, Matthew Chingos, a doctoral candidate, diagnose is something they call under-matching. It refers to students who choose not to attend the best college they can get into. They instead go to a less selective one, perhaps one that’s closer to home or, given the torturous financial aid process, less expensive.

Let's see if I have this right: a student goes to a less rigorous school than he could have, and a student doesn't mortgage her future to the hilt! These are the sources of dropouts?

In effect, well-off students — many of whom will graduate no matter where they go — attend the colleges that do the best job of producing graduates. These are the places where many students live on campus (which raises graduation rates) and graduation is the norm. Meanwhile, lower-income students — even when they are better qualified — often go to colleges that excel in producing dropouts.

“It’s really a waste,” Mr. Bowen says, “and a big problem for the country.”

This is as close as the author gets to an answer to why undermatching is bad: attending an under performing school, as defined by low graduation rates, because those schools produce more dropouts!

Of course, he implies something more: if the student just went to a college that does a GOOD job of producing graduates, why, they would be more likely to graduate. Culture is king, no?

But such an argument is just the college version of the old busing argument: black kid can't read? Sit her next to a white kid who can! That'll teach her!

Is that what the authors meant? Don't look to the article to clarify.

The article does mention one other source of high dropout rate: a lack of incentive by students to bother to graduate.

Failure has become acceptable. Students see no need to graduate in four years. Doing so, as one told the book’s authors, is “like leaving the party at 10:30 p.m.” Graduation delayed often becomes graduation denied.

Actually, this is a point against the interest of the authors'. does it really mean graduation is denied? Or is it a statistical quirk caused by counting only 6 years after entrance? A useful data point would be the distinction between students still in school after 6 years and those no longer working on a degree. Likewise, what are the incomes of the students at the point of departure from school?

But the original premise that students who have the skills to complete college are not doing so remains unsupported. Is it true, or is it just that we will think and do anything to avoid confronting the disaster that is K-12?

We are doomed

Crimson Wife said:

Conservatives do tend to oppose constructivism- but so do plenty of liberals. My parents are die-hard Democrats but are in favor of teaching phonics, traditional math, and the Great Books.

Until March 2009, I had not seen a single exception to this rule.

Behold:

Indiana's governor aims to transform high schools with technology
ASCD SmartBrief | 03/13/2009

Indiana's 350 public high schools could get a high-tech makeover if Gov. Mitch Daniels wins support to replace many classroom lectures with group learning. "No one knows what the ideal or perfect model for helping our kids achieve more is, but here we have something that works," said Daniels of the model that has been introduced to six Indiana high schools. "It's a huge step beyond what we have been doing. It's affordable, and it can be moved into schools very quickly." Indianapolis Star, The (03/10

Mitch Daniels went to Princeton with Ed, I think. He knows what a liberal arts education is.

Once you've got Reaganite fiscal conservatives who are not trapped in 1980s nostalgia plumping for group learning, it's all over.

Reactionary politics at Kitchentablemath?

In a recent comment on Out In Left Field, someone mentioned having "reactionary politics shoved in my face" here at kitchentablemath.com. As recent examples, the commenter in question cited this and this.

For my part, I've added the commenter's reaction to my growing list of associations between general political ideologies on the one hand, and, on the other hand, specific opinions/observations about the Powers that Be, status quo, and prevailing fashions, in grade school education.

My list also includes Barry Garelick's discussion of how Lynne Cheney's criticisms of Reform Math made democrats not want to touch it; rants at Rational Math Ed; the political branding of Mathematically Correct members and, of course, teacher's unions and the legacy of Progressive Education.

I'd love to write a longer piece about this political branding, because I think it, combined with what seems to me an unprecedented polarization in this country of political "debate," is one of the biggest obstacles to improving public education, I'd hoping at some point to write a longer piece about this.

So, if you have other examples of this, or thoughts about them, please share them here! Along with your thoughts, in particular, about reactionary politics at kitchentablemath.

If I had to guess, I'd guess that many of us here are politically moderate or eclectic, pragmatist, suspicious of big bureaucracies and big government (because of what these have done to education), and sympathetic to free markets (e.g., school choice). As for whether we tend to be hawks or doves, religious or agnostic, pro choice or anti-abortion, or for or against curbside recycling, I doubt that there's much here at ktm on which to base any firm conclusions.