The Dover Test

Couple of days ago, my post here touched on this subject. I found the "Dover Test" to be something I recommend everyone read. It seems to address well a fundamental concept about war that President Bush fails to understand. It is about the clash between an informed public and a visceral desire to limit knowledge for fear of the consequences. It begs to ask the question, Who here really can't handle the truth?

Saturday Night Notes

Just got home from a Percussion Explosion concert at my daughters High School. Talk about some high energy. It was a very enjoyable break from some writing I have been working on this evening. I'm back to do a post here and have my coffee cup ready to help me tackle more writing after this post.


Jilly has exciting news. Actually she's had a fair share of good things happening lately.


With that I'll share the following poem by W.H Auden

The More Loving One

Ted Hughes Collected Poems

Book Review
'Collected Poems': The full spectrum of Ted Hughes - By Sheila Farr

The Cost

From an earlier post last year I wrote...


Blinders
"What you don't see won't hurt you"
I've heard it said before,
And so they've added blinders.
What can the dead do anyway?

© 2003 Michael A. Wells



The following pictures have become available

Pictures Bush did not want you to see

What is Left Behind?

"No Child Left Behind" is a wonderful slogan. As far as slogans go. The images it instills in the mind are positive ones. I think of a house on fire with a parent, neighbor or fireman rushing into a smoke filled room to save a child. Or parents going on a weekend get-away, but being thoughtful enough to think junior is just as deserving of a mini-vacation from the drudgery of the world as they are.

In education, which is where this phrase has been hitched to since President Bush declared this to be a goal of his administration, the concept is laudable. Beyond conceptualization, how is this country doing with respect to the president's goal? Michael Dobbs, a Washington Post Staff Writer has looked at this program and it's impact on education.

While the program has focused on achievement by students and creating a system of accountability within the education system itself, the impact is far reaching in some instances with respect to traditional curriculum. While the stated objective of every student in the country achieving proficiency in reading and math by 2014, it has impacted some schools by causing the elimination for instance of some arts, foreign language and physical education classes.

I recommend reading Michael Dobbs article on this subject.

In Volusia County Florida, the School Board is faced with the loss of $626,145 from their academic budget. See Linda Trimble's article from the Daytona Beach News- Journal about the impact of No Child Left Behind in this district.

Has the President adequately funded No Child Left Behind? See one view here.

This view, by Mary Cohen, U.S. Department of Educations - "American students probably won't reach 100 percent proficiency in core subjects by 2014 as required by the No Child Left Behind Act, but they'll be closer than if the law weren't in place." presented in this Kansas City Star article.

Are we simply leaving behind old ways? Are we better off by focusing on reading and math in early education? What is lost by discarding broader education curriculums and paring back to focus on an objective with a 10 year timeline. One that as Mary Cohen states we probably will not reach.

[untitled]

Gun on a plane
Hysteria in the clip
Gun on front page
Hysteria in ink
Blood blotted newsprint
Soaking into non-fiction pulp
A frenzy feeding hunger, contrary to
Sign at the airport- Please,
Do not feed the frenzy.
Starve it
Let the frenzy die of natural causes
Slow
Of complacency;
Don't upset the animals

Captive Tuesday Morning

Air thick with anticipation of more rain.
Morning offering little
In the way of welcome or hope.
Like a hold over from a rainy night
It just exists without permission,
Without apology and
Allows me no arbitration in the matter.