House of Eratosthenes

The GooglGodz are frowning upon my attempts to learn about this through the innerwebz. Perhaps the readers of The Blog That Nobody Reads can step forward with a link or two that lives outside the realm of knowledge of he who writes for it. Wouldn’t be the first time.

But at this point, I am wondering if I heard it right. I’m certain I did; but if the report says what I thought it said, one would have to think there would be intense, widespread concern about such a thing, especially here. It would capture the attention of many. Anyone who’s used Google even casually, knows its search-results page are packed full of things that have captured the attention of not-so-many. I’m surprised this nugget is not to be found anywhere therein.

The search-results problem seems to be one of attrition. Superintendent Jack O’Connell, the one public official I heard quoted in the radio story, is now embroiled in a budget fight with Gov. Schwarzenegger who has offered a proposal to cut the California K-12 school year by five days. The moneyed interests that want that yummy taxpayer money to keep on coming in have bombed Google with their side of the story, especially the news page, so my attempts to find the story by searching on O’Connell’s name have been stonewalled. Yeah, that’s the long and short of it. I get to read the stories about how California’s school system needs more money, to my heart’s content. I’m left sucking air when I try to get hold of the article exploring whether or not it’s doing the job that has been entrusted to it.

But the matter of California placing last out of fifty states, is only the second-most-remarkable subtopic here.

It loses stature on my list of remarkable subtopics here, to something I heard Mr. O’Connell say in a sound bite. I don’t trust sound bites; this is why I want to find that link.

O’Connell was pressed to explain why the state whose K-12 education system he is tasked with administrating, placed dead-last out of the entire country. Quote marks left out, since I’m paraphrasing: It’s because of the diversity — our rich heritage of diversity…languages…blah blah blah.

Something like that. I remember he was blaming diversity, I presume language-diversity and not skin-color-diversity, for this dismal ranking, and then in the very same breath instructing all those within earshot to believe it is good. I remember he had to back up a little bit and throw the adjective “rich” in there, as if he figured out in mid-sentence someone might construe his comments as condemning diversity and come ’round clamoring for his head.

Now that’s a good public servant. It is exactly the kind of personality we have come to demand. We get down to what exactly is causing the problem that is supposed to arouse so much of our concern, and along comes the bureaucrat to instruct us not to think poorly of whatever it is…like shoveling dirt back into a hole in which we’ve spent an entire day or two digging, trying to reach something.

Hey lardass, how come you gained 150 pounds in four months? It’s because of this pudding I eat day and night…which is a good thing. Yummy pudding. Om nom nom nom.

Well, I shouldn’t make fun of Jack O’Connell too much if I can’t find the resource that would give context to his comments. But this really isn’t about Jack O’Connell; he didn’t invent this bureaucratic practice of instructing the masses to believe something is good, even when it can be clinically shown to be damaging to something we’re supposed to care about. Here in California we’re fairly thick in this soup of bromides that there is something wrong with too many people speaking English. It is thought, by some, who are more interested in getting sound bites out there than getting their own names attached to ’em, that this is racist. Well, racist or no, it’s a lot more effective to get some lessons and learning out there in one language than in several. And I don’t know of any schoolteachers anywhere who are hollering for ways they can pour more effort into a school year, with equivalent results. The ones of which I’m aware, complain of being spread thin, and as far as I know, they complain with great merit — their job is one of fitting fifty pounds of potatoes into a ten pound bag. How come we can’t so much as take a peek at the multiple-languages issue? It isn’t P.C.?

California’s illiteracy rate is through the roof; 1 in 4 adults lack the skills required to “read or find information in simple text.”

If a greater emphasis on the English language is doomed to fail as a strategy for improving California’s school performance — if it really is a futile endeavor to try to improve matters, by imposing some change on these school systems that “brag” about seventy languages in popular use — I have two words to offer to anyone who might say so, whether that includes O’Connell or not.

Prove it.

I have a hunch that whenever these reports come out, no matter what state you’re in, your state comes out near the bottom. Because these reports are typically commissioned to justify more money for education in your state. It’s a lot like grant proposal writing. And guess what? They always indicate that your state is far behind all the other states. Huh. Go figure.
- philmon | 01/10/2009 @ 11:52
Yeah that’s a good point; that could have something to do with why there’s such a breathless urgency involved in making sure I hear about it on a Friday morning, and by that evening it’s disappeared like a soap bubble.

What upsets me most of all, is the way an elected official apparently sees nothing wrong with blaming something for a pressing problem specifically, while in the same breath extolling its virtues through vague, generalized platitudes. These people are supposed to be astute in the realm of politics. Wouldn’t political sensitivities persuade the capable mind toward sticking, y’know, a paragraph or two between those?

If he doesn’t need to do this, then I need no further debate on the literacy of Californians or lack thereof. You’re logically illiterate if you can be told to think something is good, with no reason, simultaneous with learning that it’s doing harm to something you’re supposed to care about, with specific reason.
- mkfreeberg | 01/10/2009 @ 12:06
Yeah, I got that, and I agree. I had nothing to add, because you covered it well. I was just adding my two cents on the “we’re horribly behind” reports, because I’ve lived in several states and I’ve noticed the bit I was talking about … it’s anecdotal, but I suspect I’m right.
- philmon | 01/10/2009 @ 12:17
The part you’re talking about is the justification, the “interpretation” of the “results” of the study. Here’s the people in charge saying “we suck”, and they have to find a way to add “but it’s not our fault”. “Give us some more money, and we’ll fix it.”

Of course, the reason will have to be something you can’t, or “shouldn’t” do anything about. “Diversity” is convenient (ahem, “in times like these”). Nobody can argue against it (without getting shouted down as a bigot). “See, we’re doing good by being so diverse. So we need more money so we can educate all these ‘diverse’ people without spoiling the sacred ‘diversity'”.

So diversity is a convenient scape goat. We have a couple of solutions. Make everybody learn and speak English and don’t tolerate thug behavior(*GASP*, NO!!!!), or …. spend more money. The bureaucrat ALWAYS picks “spend more money”.
- philmon | 01/10/2009 @ 12:34
Question – do top education officials in other US border states (read: large minority populations) throw out the same line of bull about language diversity?
- cylarz | 01/11/2009 @ 00:05
Question – do top education officials in other US border states (read: large minority populations) throw out the same line of bull about language diversity?

Good question. I suspect the answer is “yes”, and if it is not, it soon will be.
- philmon | 01/11/2009 @ 00:20
I’m positive you’re right, too. I’ve seen it done in some other states in which I’ve lived. But you know what they say about a busted clock being right twice a day, and tales of California’s literacy problems aren’t entirely invented. They don’t have to be.

As far as where the bullroar about language diversity pops up, I think it’s not so much a function of the border, quite so much as the labor situation. Geography has not been shown to be much of an impediment to the speedy illegal-alien virus as it zips on through the nation’s body — therefore, it isn’t much of a defining agent either. Agricultural industries have a lot to do with where the language barriers start popping up. Also, on the urban side of things, the hospitality industry.

This story, about some person or group of people being victimized in some way, has such an amazing potential for getting us sold some ice cubes in Antarctica, y’know? Take out the oppressed persons, and the question “Is it good to have seventy languages in one school system?” becomes a no-brainer. NO, it isn’t. One language is ideal (unless the point of the education, is foreign languages, which it isn’t). No debate required. Now put the oppressed persons back into the equation, and suddenly everything is debatable…until we settle it…the wrong way.
- mkfreeberg | 01/11/2009 @ 13:45

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Memo For File LXXIXSaturday, January 10th, 2009

Memo For File LXXIX
Saturday, January 10th, 2009