Thursday, November 21, 2013

The hats conundrum

From an absurdist educator's point of view the issue of hats in school is perfect since it is ultimately insoluble and just won't go away. Recently in a meeting I heard a new no hats rebuttal to my hats position which is all or nothing. Usually I hear about gang affiliation worries or of individuals trying to hide their identity in the crowded hallways as the reasons to ban hats in middle school. But yesterday something new and unexpected presented itself and that was the concern with hygiene, specifically, head lice. Yes, the little devils just love to nestle in those head bands and breed away. The odd thing was the presenter of this view point was a Muslim woman., who admitted that for her to wear her head scarf she needed to be extremely clean. All the while I was thinking, "Hey, I wanna be able to wear a hat like she's doing".

Groups, families and tribes of people find ways to identify each other in the vast swirl of humanity. This is as true of religious groups as it is of gangs. Quite frankly I don't see any difference between hijab, yarmulke or dew-rag, police hats or baseball caps. Identity, self-image, group image. Respect or lack thereof? Oh, and as for the hooded identity hiders, "come on now", you should know your kids!

This hygiene thing really got to me. Hygiene? So isn't her distinction just another double standard? This basic dichotomy or false dichotomy creates the conundrum. Hats are styling, startling and warm. They express culture and identity. Why the push/pull? Well, mine is more right than yours.

No, I don't think so.

Monday, November 11, 2013

The thing about data mining

I'm daily confronted with the problem of trying to help some student get their homework off the cloud using school computers. Those things are heavily filtered understand, so there is a lot of normal seeming stuff that just doesn't work at school, the other universe. The reason commonly given by IT for why students can't use google+ to transfer their files is that Google data mines. I find this rather ironic coming from the school district.

It seems to me that the district pays millions to for-profit companies for the service of data generating assessment tools, more commonly known as standardized tests. The district is paying good money for data that is no better than what Google would gather for free while providing a more useful service than what we are forced to buy because of Federal restrictions for content management systems bearing allegedly confidential information. What it really is is exclusive information. Isn't that where the real value is in data? Or are we supposed to buy the notion that having the data can really help us improve the achievement of the students in our charge?