My name is Semiotic Jim.

Introduce Yourself
1

Greetings Center For Inquiry Discussion Forum Members!
I found out about your organization through an acquaintance.
I am very happy to know this space exists for folks who share my enthusiasm for learning.
When I was a little boy I wanted to be a paleontologist. After I found out the fossil record didn’t square with Christian dogma I knew there was something not quite right going on in the World.
Currently I am working on a blog where I can vent my frustrations over the morass that is public education reform. You can view the blog here: http://educationreformillustrated.blogspot.com/
I look forward to future conversations.
Semiotic Jim

2

Welcome, Semiotic Jim. I’m glad to have you here. However, I have to play grammar police in this instance. Given that you are an educator blogging about education reform you should use impeccable grammar, spelling, style and punctuation on your blog. Unfortunately, your lead sentence contains an incorrect word usage. Affect is a verb. You should have used “effect,” which is a noun. Further down, you have a sentence which starts “When 5 and six year old children…”. The proper use of numbers is to spell them out if they are under 100 (APA and MLA style), and you should at least be consistent. Also, the word “state” should not be capitalized.
That said, I agree with your message and hope you stick around and participate here. I’m not nearly as picky with forum posts as I am with blog posts.

3

Welcome Jim:
Watch out for the grammar police. :lol:

4

Welcome Jim, it’s always good to hear from a fellow educator on the forum! As to your contention about education reform, I was involved (unwillingly) in it for over 30 years and have seen a drift away from the classical to an applied curriculum with emphasis on skills training for jobs. Ohio has gone this route by limiting liberal arts subjects e.g. History and government courses and stressing increased applied math and science. The State (capitalized to represent a particular area and not all inclusive) is also mandating a test as a requirement for graduating and tying teacher’s salaries to student performance. So, I agree with your blog points. Good luck and just so you know, this fight has been going on for over a century.
Cap’t Jack

5

Welcome to the forums!
Take care,
Derek

6

Thanks so much Darren. I thank you for your timely response and I appreciate your critique.
I will do more editing on the blog before I click “publish” next time.
How did you like the illustration?

7

Thanks for the warm welcome Gary!

8

Thanks Capt. Jack! I couldn’t agree with you more…contention over ed. reform has been going on for a long time now. The corporate powers, through ALEC, have really succeeded this time around in kneecapping teachers unions and as you noted, are pretty much able to micro manage what goes on in the classroom through standardized testing legislation. I fear a failure of imagination for generations to come. Thanks so much Capt. Jack for sharing your experiences in this volatile realm!

9

Thank you Derek!

10

No problem Jim. I would have passed this off as one of those knotheaded conspiracy theories if I hadn’t seen with my own eyes and watched the curriculum changes over the years. When I was on the State committee to write the social studies curriculum we recommended a four year program, freshman-senior of courses designed to give a broad overview of history, government, geography, economics and sociology. Last year this was cut down to two years with government being taught only one semester. How in the hell can a typical hs student grasp the complexities of American Government in one brief semester? Naturally the spaces left were crowded with applied courses, and BTW all students need to sharpen math and science skills but not at the expense of liberal arts classes such as reading and World History. Sorry about the rant but this is something about which I am very passionate. Ha! I didn’t end my sentence with a preposition!
Cap’t Jack

11
Thanks so much Darren. I thank you for your timely response and I appreciate your critique. I will do more editing on the blog before I click "publish" next time. How did you like the illustration?
I love the illustration as much as I like your message, which is very much. Good start on the blog. I've long opposed standardized testing.