Those Damn Homophones Are Taking Over

Anyone well-grounded in English knows about certain tricky words that sound alike but have different meanings. An example is ‘lead’ (a mineral) and ‘led’ (the past tense of the verb ‘to lead’).

The worst, for most of us, is the three-fer, there/their/they’re – I know the different uses of these three quite well, thank you, but when I get typing fast, I often insert the wrong one (or at least that’s my alibi whenever I screw up).

These sound-alikes are called ‘homophones‘. Which turned out to be an unfortunate label for a guy who wrote for a certain English as a second language school last year.

Just ask a blogger … named Tim Torkildson. For three months in 2014, Torkildson was a social media specialist and blogger for the Nomen Global Language Center, a Utah-based English-language school for non-English speakers. In July of that year, as part of that job, Torkildson wrote a blog post … for Nomen’s official blog. Titled “Help with Homophones #1,” the missive was hardly a manifesto — it simply instructed readers about a few trap words which sound alike but are spelled differently.  (A screenshot of the post, cached, can be found here, via the Daily Mail.) It seemed entirely appropriate for the job Torkildson was hired to do, and innocuous nonetheless.

His boss didn’t see it that way. As Torkildson recounted on another now-deleted … blog post, the first chapter of his homophones work would be his last:

“I’m letting you go because I can’t trust you” said Clarke Woodger, my boss and the owner of Nomen Global Language Center.  “This blog about homophones was the last straw. Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality.”

Our Society Is Truly Moving Past Racism – Part II

On Friday, I noted that the US, having moved to the point where everything is racist, has obviously also achieved an ideal state in which nothing is racist. Further evidence is provided by Oregon's Gresham-Barlow school district, which each year wastesspends $100k on sending administrators and teachers to a 'White Privilege' re-education camp.

The manual defines this “white culture” with a list of values, such as “promoting independence, self expression, personal choice, individual thinking and achievement,” because apparently those are strictly “white” concepts and not emphasized in black communities.  

The training instructs participants to stop “blaming when students don’t meet standards” and instead start “examining our beliefs and practices when students don’t meet standards.” It advises faculty to avoid “controlling or teaching discipline to students” and to instead think about “changing school practices that alienate students and lead to disruptions.”

The manual also includes a bunch of 'microaggressions' to be avoided – probably mostly the same ones as mentioned Friday. Plus this gem:

The conference materials also include a document explaining the “attitudes and behaviors” that allow participants to become “Anti-Racist White Allies” — the first line of which is: “All white people are racist. I am racist.”

Our Society Is Truly Moving Past Racism

It might seem strange to read a headline like that, given the constant talk about racism, but I think the case can be made. If, after all, we have reached a point where virtually everything one could possibly say is racist, then voila!, nothing is racist – problem solved.

The latest evidence is from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point which has posted a guide to 'Racial Microagressions' on the university website. The following statements are cited as examples of racism:

“America is a melting pot.”
“There is only one race, the human race.”
“I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”

It's also amusing that “Overabundance of liquor stores in communities of color” is an example of racism. I presume owners of liquor stores (or other types of retail) open, close, or re-locate their outlets based on how much business they get. But I guess that's too-free market an idea for academics to deal with.

Drones Don't Like Chinese Cheaters

The government has drones flying over testing centers where college entrance exams are conducted in order to detect 'unusual signals'.

Study re Changing Minds on Gay Marriage Retracted

You may have heard about this – the story has been around for a couple weeks, and I’ve been meaning to mention it.

In what can only be described as a remarkable and swift series of events, one of the authors of a much-ballyhooed Science paper claiming that short conversations could change people’s minds on same-sex marriage is retracting it following revelations that the data were faked by his co-author. 

[3:45 p.m. Eastern, 5/28/15: Please see an update on this story; the study has been retracted.] 

Donald Green, of Columbia, and Michael LaCour, a graduate student at UCLA, published the paper, “When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmission of support for gay equality,” in December 2014. The study received widespread media attention, including from This American Life, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post,  The Los Angeles Times, Science Friday, Vox, and HuffingtonPost, as LaCour’s site notes.

Beyond the subject matter, the story on how the fakery was uncovered is interesting.

Asian-Americans File Suit against Harvard

Upon more careful reading, it isn't a suit, it's a complaint filed with the Departments of Education and Justice. In any case, here's the part quoted at the link.

Over the last two decades, Asian-American applicants to Harvard University and other Ivy League colleges have increasingly experienced discrimination in the admissions process. Many Asian-American students who have almost perfect SAT scores, top 1% GPAs, plus significant awards or leadership positions in various extracurricular activities have been rejected by Harvard University and other Ivy League Colleges while similarly situated applicants of other races have been admitted. Because of this discrimination, it has become especially difficult for high-performing male Asian-American students to gain admission to Harvard University and other Ivy League colleges. 

My guess is that the in the current administration, this will go nowhere. The idea may be to have it in place for the future.

Obama Takes His Customary Hypocrisy to a Whole New Level

From RCP:

This week, at Georgetown University, the president bemoaned the scourge of private schools, driven by “an anti-government ideology that disinvests from those common goods and those things that draw us together.” 

One wonders: Did he feel that way as a teenager while in the bosom of the exclusive Punahou prep school in Honolulu?  The Obama children, of course, attend Sidwell Friends, a private institution that costs $37,750 a year. Before moving to Washington, D.C., Sasha and Malia studied at the University of Chicago’s elite Laboratory School, where middle school tuition runs at $29,328. 

Of course, his statement had nothing to do with private schools -- it was just class-war rhetoric.

The Onion Nails It

Free expression on campus today:

Saying that such a dialogue was essential to the college’s academic mission, Trescott University president Kevin Abrams confirmed Monday that the school encourages a lively exchange of one idea. “As an institution of higher learning, we recognize that it’s inevitable that certain contentious topics will come up from time to time, and when they do, we want to create an atmosphere where both students and faculty feel comfortable voicing a single homogeneous opinion,” said Abrams, adding that no matter the subject, anyone on campus is always welcome to add their support to the accepted consensus. “Whether it’s a discussion of a national political issue or a concern here on campus, an open forum in which one argument is uniformly reinforced is crucial for maintaining the exceptional learning environment we have cultivated here.” Abrams told reporters that counseling resources were available for any student made uncomfortable by the viewpoint.

“As Nearly Free as Possible”

The Arizona Board of Regents (the body that oversees the state's universities) is considering suing the governor and legislature because they're not providing enough funding. (Here's a previous post about amusingly incompetent demonstrators at the State Capitol, demonstrating about the same subject).

The basis of the threatened suit is a clause in Arizona's constitution, which reads:

"The university and all other state educational institutions Shall be open to students of Both sexes, and the instruction furnished Shall be as nearly free as possible."

Putting aside the interesting capitalization, and pausing to note that I was very pleased during my years at both NAU and ASU that they had seen fit to let girls in, we will focus on the last few words: What the @#$% does “... as nearly free as possible” mean?

I hate to disillusion the ABOR, but the issue would seem to be settled (as they no doubt know), since they were on the other side of a suit (Kromko v. Arizona Board of Regents) on the same point several years ago.

When it comes to defining the phrase, students, administrators and experts all seem to disagree. 

“‘As nearly free as possible’ is simply what it says,” ASA chairman Brad Busse said. “It is minimal tuition with a lot of state funding and support, and no tuition increases.” 

But the Arizona Board of Regents and the state attorney general’s office have agreed on a different interpretation — that the cost of tuition and fees at each of the state’s universities must be in the lower third of public institutions nationwide. 

ABOR spokeswoman Andrea Smiley said the lower-third rule is just a ceiling figure that the Board works with, and many factors beyond that are taken into consideration when setting tuition and fees. 

“The Board has long considered, and continues to consider, a wide variety of factors when setting tuition,” Smiley said in an e-mail. 

Other factors ABOR takes into consideration include the amount of financial aid available and the cost of running quality institutions. 

“The lower one-third is but one measure,” Smiley said. “Other measures and analyses by the regents do get at the issue of families’ ability to pay.” 

The Kromko case 

ABOR and the Attorney General’s office used the lower-third rule, however, when a group of UA students brought a lawsuit against them in 2003, in a case known as Kromko v. Arizona Board of Regents. 

The students claimed tuition increases for the 2003-04 academic year were excessive, and thus violated the “nearly free” clause. 

They did not challenge the constitutionality of the Board’s interpretation of the provision, however. 

As a result, the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed the case in 2007, arguing the issue was political, not judicial. 

“Our prior cases … provide no guidance on how to measure whether tuition at some level above zero is ‘as nearly free as possible,’” the Court’s August 2007 opinion stated. “Nor do our statutes currently provide standards by which a court could measure whether tuition was too high.”

Unless the latest budget cuts have caused tuition to rise out of the lowest third, all the state government will need to do if ABOR sues is quote what ABOR said last time.

A Sign of the Times?

The governor of Arizona has submitted his proposed budget, which includes, among other things, cuts in the amount of funding the state provides to state universities.

This of course is controversial and you will not be surprised to learn that there have been demonstrations, populated heavily by university students, at the State Capitol complex.

Having been mostly out of the state for the past 20+ years and only recently returned, I don't feel fully up to speed on complex state issues, so I'll avoid for the moment taking sides on this one.

However, I came across this picture (via Espressopundit) of a group of protesters with signs. You will note the young woman in the front with a sign saying, "I believe that will win".

There are a couple of possibilities here. Perhaps the 'that' that she believes will win is someone or something lurking nearby. Or, alternatively, she meant to say "I believe that we'll win".

If if is the latter, then I'm not sure whether the sign is a stronger argument than she thinks in favor of increased funding, or perhaps (assuming that she is an ASU student) an argument for tougher admission standards.

I suppose we'll never know.

Why Nobody Respects the NCAA -- II

Over and over, the NCAA demonstrates why it is considered such an absurd organization (and why it needs to just go away).

Just two weeks ago, I posted this, and now they give us another example of their priorities.

Here's the sort of thing they get all worked up about:

Little League star Mo'ne Davis says she's "sad" that Connecticut received a secondary NCAA rules violation for coach Geno Auriemma's congratulatory phone call to her during the Little League World Series. 

Davis said they talked last month about her success in the World Series for Philadelphia's Taney Dragons, and there was no recruiting talk. 

Meanwhile, they continue to completely ignore the allegation that last year's Heisman Trophy winner is a rapist.

I'm pleased that Florida State claims to be investigating it, by the way, but I'm not expecting them to do anything real.

Why Nobody Respects the NCAA

This case illustrates why the NCAA is such a joke.

[An assistant coach] sent numerous texts to recruits during a time in the recruiting calendar when he was only allowed to email and fax them.

Given the rotten state of big-time college athletics, why does anyone pay attention to whether recruiters are sending text messages to high school kids? Really – the NCAA thinks this is worthy of attention?

At roughly the same time as these egregious violations, Florida State was apparently covering up a rape case involving its star player, and the NCAA totally ignored it

I know nothing (and care less) about Georgia Tech's athletic programs. I will venture an uninformed guess that they are about as dirty/clean as most college's programs (by which I mean, rather dirty) on things that matter. This doesn't matter.

Thank You, Phoenix, for the Math Help

Near my sister's place (where I'm living temporarily) is a small city park called Los Olivos (I think this area was once an olive grove before being developed). I often go to the park to walk, run, or do a light workout, as do a fair number of others.

It's a nice park with a pleasant family environment.

There is a sidewalk looping through the central part of the park with markers indicating distances. There's a sign near the starting point (shown at right) with a map of the park and the following helpful information (I've enlarged the central portion of the sign below).

How very kind it is of the City Parks Department to help us with calculating that 3 x 1/3 = 1.

This leaves us wondering, however, whether the people of Phoenix are really that dumb. Or perhaps the problem is with the folks at the Parks Department who think higher-order math of this sort requires explanation (did they bring in consultants to help them with it?)

Don't get me started on the exclamation points.

A Little Bit of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing

This an old saying, and a good rule to be aware of. It is doubly true when it is a little bit of knowledge of a foreign language.

Today I got myself into a bind by thinking I know Spanish better than I do. I won't explain the whole thing because it's too long and involved (and mostly because to do so would be too embarrassing). Just trust me when I say that you should never say 'Si' unless you understand all of what has just been said to you.

You'd think I would have figured that out many years ago, wouldn't you?

I'm lucky if I catch about every third word, because I'm trying to listen and translate simultaneously.

Public Education in the USA

In Los Angeles, a science teacher was suspended for teaching science.

A popular Los Angeles high school science teacher has been suspended after students turned in projects that appeared dangerous to administrators, spurring a campaign calling for his return to the classroom. 

Students and parents have rallied around Greg Schiller after his suspension in February from the downtown Cortines School of Visual & Performing Arts. Supporters have organized a rally on his behalf at the campus for Thursday, gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition calling for his reinstatement and set up a social media page.
Schiller was ordered to report daily to a district administrative office pending an investigation after two students turned in science-fair projects that were designed to shoot small projectiles. 

One project used compressed air to propel a small object but it was not connected to a source of air pressure, so it could not have been fired. (In 2012, President Obama tried out a more powerful air-pressure device at a White House Science Fair that could launch a marshmallow 175 feet.) 

Another project used the power from an AA battery to charge a tube surrounded by a coil. When the ninth-grader proposed it, Schiller told him to be more scientific, to construct and test different coils and to draw graphs and conduct additional analysis, said his parents, who also are Los Angeles teachers. 

A school employee saw the air-pressure project and raised concerns about what looked to her like a weapon, according to the teachers union and supporters. Schiller, who said he never saw the completed projects except in photos, was summoned and sent home. 

Both projects were confiscated as "evidence," said Susan Ferguson, whose son did the coil project.

This reminds me of the recent case in New York where a Spanish teacher was (alledgedly) not just suspended but fired for teaching Spanish. She used the word 'negro', which of course means 'black' in Spanish and would seem to be a word worth knowing to someone who wants to speak Spanish. But one of her students said the word was offensive, and God forbid a student should be offended, so the teacher was fired.

New Ranking Service for Colleges

Mitch Daniels, who should have been the Republican nominee for president in 2012, is now the president of Purdue University, where he has already started introducing the same sort of innovations he was noted for as governor of Indiana (most notably, a freeze on tuition rates).

This one is really interesting to me. He has formed a partnership between Purdue and Gallup to create a new system for ranking colleges, to replace U. S. News & World Report. It will be based in large part on how well the schools' graduates do in their careers.

Purdue University is working with polling company Gallup to develop a new college rating system. 

Right now US News and World Report publishes the most closely-watched list of top schools. But Purdue President Mitch Daniels has criticized that system. He says what students really need is a measure of how a college’s graduates do in the workforce.  

Daniels says Gallup’s decades of public-opinion research give the company the ability to quantify subjective questions such as whether graduates feel productive on the job or whether their work is important. He says research shows a correlation between workers who feel engaged on the job and the profits they generate for their employers. 

The Gallup-Purdue Index will combine those measurements with data on how many of a school‘s graduates are employed and how much they earn. The new rankings will debut in the spring.

A Lesson on Writing Clear Directions

How cool is this?

This test paper was turned in by an autistic second grader -- did he get it right?

A Positive View of Declining SAT Scores (Because a Positive Attitude is All-Important)

SAT scores sucked last year. Again.

Of the 1.66 million high school students in the class of 2013 who took the SAT, only 43 percent were academically prepared for college-level work, according to this year’s SAT Report on College & Career Readiness. For the fifth year in a row, fewer than half of SAT-takers received scores that qualified them as “college-ready.”

So fewer than half of the students who think they’re ready for college (since those who know they aren’t presumably don’t even bother to take the test), actually are.

There’s no doubt though that the students have better mastery than the tests indicate of the skills US schools are primarily devoted to teaching. For example, their self-esteem is probably top-notch, having always won some sort of prize in any competition they entered; and they know that avoiding hurting anybody’s feelings is far more important than stating facts.

Against these impressive accomplishments of our educational system, how important can it be that there has been a bit of slippage in the students’ understanding of math, science, English, and other such secondary considerations?

I would imagine that it is only a matter of time before there are calls to restructure the SATs to more properly reflect the real goals of our schools. That will be much better, because then nobody will be hurt by getting a low score on the test.

What Counts in College Sports

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

The University of Wisconsin football team left Thursday for the trip to Arizona State, heading out of town a day earlier than usual for a road game in part to get acclimated to the expected hot weather for the non-conference matchup on Saturday night.

I presume this means that none of the 'student-athletes' on the Wisconsin team have any Friday classes, since we know that all these schools put academics first.

Africa Is Really, Really Big

I have long been aware that Africa is bigger than it appears on most maps (the same is true of South America). And, no, I don't think this is because of racism.

But anyway, it is bigger, much bigger. How much bigger, you ask? This much, which really surprised me.