MGTutoring.com. A Rational Perspective on Education.

January 30, 2013

Another Reason We Need Better Education

Filed under: Animals,Biology,Culture,Education,Logic,Science — Administrator @ 12:07 pm
In “What’s Behind the Campaign to Condemn Raw Diets for Pets?,” Dr. Becker says:
Following on the heels of the AVMA’s condemnation of raw pet food came a similar position statement by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) that it “does not advocate or endorse feeding pets any raw or dehydrated nonsterilized foods, including treats that are of animal origin.”
…
What the AAHA neglects to mention is the GI tracts of dogs and cats evolved to handle heavy bacterial loads from food. Your pet’s body is well equipped to deal with heavy doses of familiar and strange bacteria because nature built him to catch, kill and immediately consume his prey.
Your dog or cat’s stomach is highly acidic, with a pH range of 1-2.5. Nothing much can survive that acidic environment – it exists to keep your pet safe from potentially contaminated raw meat and other consumables. And in addition to the acid, dogs and cats also naturally produce a tremendous amount of bile. Bile is both anti-parasitic and anti-pathogenic. So if something potentially harmful isn’t entirely neutralized by stomach acid, the bile is a secondary defense. And your pet’s powerful pancreatic enzymes also help break down and digest food.
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
Cats and dogs eat raw in nature — but raw is not recommended? Wow. Unbelievable. They advocate foods that injure and destroy the health and lives of our pets. They advocate feeding foods that have massive recalls because of contamination. They need to learn to reason, to use logic, and to be objective. Thank goodness for people like Dr. Becker!

January 15, 2013

Scientific Analysis

Filed under: Culture,Education,Homeschooling,Logic,Science — Administrator @ 3:00 pm

Here is what we should be learning to do in school. As it is now, unfortunately, students are told pre-digested ideas; they are not informed how the ideas were developed; principles like Newton’s laws of motion are presented as commandments; abstract, complex ideas in biology are, to students learning them, empty words to memorize. Students should be taught how an idea derives from the evidence of the senses and what chain of reasoning was used to develop it. (Teachers should push back (as much as possible; they should not jeopardize their jobs or career or family) on the philosophic ideas and values requiring them to teach Platonically. If we had only private schools, their job would be much easier and their teaching much better.)

A good example of how to think is found in Dr. Becker’s “Study Results Can Sometimes Be Misleading” (December 12, 2012). She writes:

As soon as the University of Illinois study was published, online media outlets picked it up and ran articles with headlines like: “High-protein diet may be unhealthy for kittens,” and “High-protein diet not so good for kitty’s belly. Kittens fed a high protein diet have less beneficial gut bacteria than those who eat a more balanced diet.” 2
…
The biggest factor to consider is that the two diets used in the study were, unfortunately, dry food formulas, which means they were seriously deficient in a nutrient felines MUST get from their diet — moisture. We also know most dry pet foods are cooked twice: once when the protein is rendered (turned into meal), and a second time when the kibbled mixture is extruded to form small, crunchy nuggets. This extreme processing also changes the structure of proteins and destroys vitamin A, vitamin E and the B-group vitamins, at a minimum.

Next we have to wonder about the protein source used in the dry food diets. It was unnamed in the study abstract, so we don’t know whether the food contained animal protein, a less biologically appropriate protein (for example, from a plant), or a combination. Generally speaking, dry pet food made with animal protein contains rendered meat by-products, which are more difficult for pets to digest than human grade meat.

(more…)

January 9, 2013

Grammar Documentary

Filed under: Culture,Education,Language — Administrator @ 12:09 pm

Grammar Revolution: good project!! And they’re so cute!!! Look at those smiling, young, bright, cheerful faces!!

They say:

Most schools today don’t teach grammar, and we are quickly becoming a society that doesn’t understand the structure of its own language. Why?

Why is learning another language the first time most of us are introduced to grammar?
What happened to grammar education?
Is it important to learn grammar?
Does studying grammar help with writing?
Everyone has passionate opinions about grammar. Were judgmental (oops, I mean we’re) and we’re self-conscious. Some of us love the subject. Some of us hate it. Teachers debate whether to teach it and how to teach it. Linguists debate the nature of language change and the nature of grammatical rules. We use grammar every day, so it makes sense that we all seem to regard the subject as important and worthy of debate.

Grammar Revolution will change the way people think about the subject of grammar.

The film’s mood will be positive, and its theme will be simultaneously simple and eye-opening. We’ll explain why grammar is no longer taught in most schools. We’ll show that understanding grammar is important and that learning it can be easy. Along the way, we’ll also correct misconceptions and address the difficult questions at the heart of today’s grammar debates.

January 6, 2013

The Benefits of A Good Teacher or Tutor

Filed under: Culture,Education,Homeschooling,Philosophy — Administrator @ 11:59 pm

In “NBER Report: Great Teachers Are Worth $400,000 A Year” (Huffington Post, 12-22-2010):

How much is a good teacher worth? Some would say they’re priceless, but recent findings in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s The Economic Value of Higher Teacher Quality, is a bit more exact. The report, written by Eric A. Hanushek, suggests that quality teachers with 20 students are worth $400,000 more in the future earnings of their students than an average teacher, annually.

Hanushek examines how the quality and effectiveness of a good teacher can impact a student’s future success and how this achievement can effect future economic outcomes for the country as a whole.

According to his calculations, it isn’t just that good teachers are worth a lot when considering our economic future as a country; alternatively, bad teachers are costing us trillions. Hanushek says that by exchanging the bottom 5-8 percent of crummy teachers with average teachers, the United States, as a country, could jump up the ranks to top in math and science, generating an astounding $100 trillion in present-day value.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

January 4, 2013

Science Is For Practice

Filed under: Animals,Biology,Culture,Education,Horses,Logic,Science — Administrator @ 12:28 pm

Proper science is integrated and inductive, and it, like thriving and practical success in life, depend on cause-effect, which depends on recognizing and following the law of identity.

In the Q&A “Why Should Horses Be Barefoot,” Louise Bach-Holler said:

The [horse]shoe was invented because poorly conceived boarding conditions made the horses sore-footed and the hooves deteriorate — becoming brittle and weak. It is important to understand that most hoof problems that we see stems from bad boarding conditions (too much confinement, unnatural feeding, too little movement etc.) and not from genetic failure. Anything you nail or glue to the hoof will impede the hoof mechanism and thereby weaken the hooves and the horse’s health in general.

(c) by AANHCP

Convention and bad philosophies of science — that of Kant, Plato, Dewey — are what have brought us poor, non-optimal treatment of horses. But convention and bad philosophies of science are, unfortunately, what are taught in most schools. We need to get back to an Aristotelian approach, the approach of Hippocrates, Galileo, Kepler (the “good Kepler”), Newton, Harvey, Lavoisier, and Darwin.

Picture from Wikipedia.

November 27, 2012

Happy Belated Birthday, Andrew Carnegie!

Filed under: Culture,Economics,History,Holidays & Greetings — Administrator @ 12:17 pm

Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835. In “Carnegie, an Intellectual Capitalist,” Scott Holleran says:

On his first job as a young teenager, Carnegie worked in a factory, and he made an effort to spend part of every Sunday discussing and debating issues with friends. Eventually, he left that job when he was hired as a telegraph messenger—and he wrote that he felt emancipated from manual labor: “From the dark cellar running a steam-engine at two dollars a week, begrimed with coal dirt, without a trace of the elevating influences of life, I was lifted into paradise, yes, heaven, as it seemed to me, with newspapers, pens, pencils, and sunshine about me.”

Carnegie’s eagerness paid off and he earned raise after raise in job after job, cashing in on his enthusiasm for enterprise. Carnegie was fallible, too, losing a payroll package while working as a messenger on the Pennsylvania Railroad. After the parcel tumbled off the train, he recovered the package, with help from workers on the line—who chose not to report the loss to his superiors. Impressed by the camaraderie, Carnegie vowed never to judge a man too harshly for making a mistake.

As he acquired knowledge and experience, Carnegie continued to read, study and learn. He staked out clear positions, speaking out against slavery, becoming a fierce opponent, and, despite the fact that he was too young to vote, hailing the nation’s new anti-slavery Republican Party, which held its first national meeting in Pittsburgh in 1856.

Carnegie became more intellectual, priding himself on making advancements for what he saw as progress—linking ideas to the practicality of business. Noting that he was among the first to employ women as telegraph operators on railroads in the United States, he wrote: “[W]e placed girls in various offices as pupils, taught and then put them in charge of offices as occasion required….Our experience was that young women operators were more to be relied upon than young men.”

…

Carnegie met President Abraham Lincoln, who occasionally visited the communications office where Carnegie worked, during the Civil War. Here, too, he was more impressed by the man’s mind than by his status. Carnegie wrote of Lincoln: “[I]ntellect shone through his eyes and illuminated his face to a degree which I have seldom or never seen in any other.”

© Copyright 2012 Scott Holleran. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without the permission of Scott Holleran.

November 25, 2012

Writing and Debating: Fundamental Issues of Government and Politics

Filed under: Culture,Economics,Education,History,Homeschooling,Logic,Philosophy — Administrator @ 2:28 pm

On WYNC.org, they say “starting March 10, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer will be moderating First Principles, a series of three debates on the moral underpinnings of today’s politics. The event co-sponsored by Demos, The Ayn Rand Institute and It’s A Free Country.”

Describing the event in more detail at First Principles, they say:

First Principles: The Moral Debates that Drive Today’s Politics

After the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath a great political divide emerged among many Americans reexamining the direction of our country. One side says that unleashed free-market policies led to the worst downturn since the Great Depression, and calls for effective government to foster more equitable prosperity. The other side says that government has grown too big and too intrusive, and calls for the country to rediscover the virtues of limited government and free-market capitalism.

The first debate was on the proper role of government. This is a debate worth watching if you want to address some fundamental principles of the issue — principles we fail to hear today from our politicians and journalists. You could get some good information for writing essays in school, some good supplementary information to government or history class, or some good information for debates — or some good information so that you understand issues essential to forming the culture in which you act, think, and live, a culture which could frustrate, injure or destroy your life, or which could encourage, aid, and allow for you to make your own life.

September 11, 2012

Today

Filed under: Culture,History,Horses — Administrator @ 10:42 am

A tribute.

July 15, 2011

Food For Kids: Meals Around the World

Filed under: Biology,Child Development,Culture,Education,Exercise, Health & Nutrition,Parenting — Administrator @ 9:10 am

In Colorado daycare workers required to wear burqas, Monica Hughes, PhD, writes:

OK, I exaggerate slightly for the purpose of generating a few hits. But seriously, I can’t really summarize it better than the source itself.

…

But what really gets me worked up is food issues. There are simply few things more fundamental than the right to decide what goes into your body: whether it’s a pill or food or a doctor’s surgical implement.

…
No one should need a doctor’s note to feed their kid in a healthy way — in a way that humans have done since the dawn of time. Period. The American Academy of Pediatrics lost all credibility when they said babies should get lowfat milk and approved statin drugs for 8 year olds. But then they were beyond redemption when they sanctioned female genital mutilation. I should require a pediatrician’s note to feed my kid healthily? If your pediatrician listens to the AAP then their advice is an impediment to health, not the other way around.

It seems that increasingly these days, only in America or the UK can you get away with proposing this type of garbage that regulates common sense out of existence. This is why I’m increasingly embarrassed to even call myself an American. This WAS the greatest country in the world. We have long ago lost that status and it is questionable whether we will ever regain it.

…

And we wonder why kids can’t focus in school. Perhaps this, this, and this lend a clue: it’s the food culture and the culture in general in this country that are the problems. Coupled with idiots in positions of government who have zero scientific background doling out farm subsidies that make seed oils, refined grains, and refined sugars cheap, and who listen to CSPI, and then craft rules about what your kids should be eating. No conflict of interest there: none at all. Move right along, nothing to see here.

Be sure to look at the links Mrs. Hughes has included in her post showing examples of food lunches around the world! Wow! America has sunk to the fetid bottom!

Here are some blog posts that will show you, again, how wrong is the “medical advice” regarding nutrition that you hear now-a-day:  “Nuts!” to the Nutty Diabetes “Expert”,  Stand Up And Say “Nuts!”,  Bad Science Receives Another Spanking. There are plenty more out there; those three I just took the time to read recently.

Oh, and Tom Naughton wrote an interesting post on vegetarianism:  Most Vegetarians Become Ex-Vegetarians?

July 7, 2011

Cheating on Standardized Tests in Public Schools

Filed under: Culture,Education — Administrator @ 10:58 am

In “America’s biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta” (Christian Science Monitor – Tue, Jul 5, 2011), Patrik Jonsson writes:

Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what’s likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.

This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.

The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a “widespread” conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.
…
The Atlanta cheating scandal also offers the first most comprehensive view yet into a growing number of teacher-cheating allegations across the US, reports of which reached a rate of two to three a week in June, says Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which advocates against high-stakes testing.
…
“I think the broadest issue in the [Atlanta scandal] raises is why many school districts and states continue to have high-stakes testing without rigorous auditing or security procedures,” says Brian Jacob, director of the Center on Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan. “In some sense, this is one of the least worrisome problems in public education, because it’s fairly easy to fix. The more difficult and troubling behavior would be teaching to the test, which we think of as a lesser form of test manipulation, but which is much harder to detect, and could warp the education process in ways that we wouldn’t like.”

© The Christian Science Monitor

Copyright © 2011 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Update (7-11-11, 11:45 AM): In  “2009 Report Identified Dozens of Pa. Schools for Possible Cheating” (Education Week, 7-11-11), Benjamin Herold and Dale Mezzacappa say:

Dozens of schools across [Philadelphia and Pennsylvania] were flagged in a study of 2009 state standardized test scores that sought to use statistical analysis to ferret out possible examples of cheating on the PSSA exam.

The analysis, prepared for the Pennsylvania Department of Education in July 2009, highlights roughly 60 schools with suspicious results due to multiple statistical irregularities, including 22 Philadelphia district schools and seven Philadelphia charters.

Among the Philadelphia district schools referenced in the report is Roosevelt Middle School, which has been at the center of a controversy this year involving alleged cheating on the PSSA. In 2009, the analysis reveals, results of both the reading and math PSSA exams taken by Roosevelt’s 7th and 8th graders showed a highly unlikely number of wrong answers that were erased and changed to the correct answer. The results also showed highly improbable increases over the previous year in the percentage of students who scored proficient or advanced.

…

Porter stressed that that statistical analysis alone, without witnesses or confessions, cannot definitively prove that there was cheating. But he added that the report “describes a reasonable approach to identifying schools where there may have been cheating.”

Nevertheless, it appears that the state never followed up with any further investigations.

© 2011 Editorial Projects in Education

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress