What Can We Take from Finnish Education?

Finland has "created the highest performing [K-12] education system in the world" (California Teacher, Feb/March, 2012). (See the link to the complete magazine here.) Pasi Sahlberg describes in California Teacher how Finland's system creates such good outcomes. I believe that we can replicate the Finnish model in a number of ways. We can't completely replicate the Finnish model, because the United States has a different history and political philosophy, but we can do the most important things. Here are my reactions to key pieces of the Finnish system. (Please read all the way to the end.)

Overcoming poverty: Finland has less income inequality than the United States, and American income inequality continues to grow. The U.S. has been increasing in inequality for twenty years. Short of draconian measures, the US won't share the pie better any time soon.

Free education for all: Finland has no charter or private schools. All the schools are more or less the same. The United States could  not be more different in attitude toward private education and our history of parochial education, and. again, it is unlikely we will change.

Cradle to university care: Again it is unlikely that the United States will enact universal day care for newborns up to age six. However, Finnish high school has academic and vocational streams. At last, here is something we should and can do. The United States used to do a better job at encouraging youth to take classes in auto shop, woodworking, and metalworking. Vocational education is a part of our history, and we should redouble our efforts training students in technology and the shop classes above. Not everyone has the work ethic and talent to be a doctor, lawyer, or professor, and most computer and software technicians make an upper-middle class livelihood. In fact, it is shortsighted and counterproductive to assume, as is fashionable now, that everyone must go to college. (See Beyond One-Size-Fits-All College Dreams and What message Does College for All Send here.)

Finland also provides 65 percent of students free university tuition. This used to be the case in California as well. My semester tuition to the University of California was around $700 when I graduated in 1982. I paid much more for my Berkeley apartment. (Now tuition is about $13,000.) When the state figures out how to better manage its finances, perhaps we will see near-free tuition some time in the future. See my blogs on California finances here and here.

Personalized education: Finland has no grade-level or national standards. Every child is unique, and every school plans its own curriculum. One third of Finnish students are in special education.

Give schools and communities control over their own curriculum? Imagine that! Standards aren't going away, but putting one third of students in special education; that is, giving more resources to the bottom third would, ironically, increase standardized test scores and lower drop out rates. We should do that.

Creative learning: "Finland has the least number of instructional hours of all countries. We have less time to teach and more time to cooperate with other teachers." Finland is also taking away  time for math and reading and adding time for music, drama and the arts.

We are moving in the opposite direction. However, American schools have improved by using collaborative assessment. Merit pay has shown less promise.

Localized assessment: The Finns don't use nationalized or state-level assessments. The schools and teachers assess instead, and education money is spent on teacher development, not on the equivalent of state testing. We should do the same.

Competition to teach: Only ten percent of applicants to teaching schools are accepted to the primary school program.  All have a masters degree and few leave the profession. Teaching is paid well, comparable to those with similar amounts of education.

Here we have the most important and critical difference, in my opinion, the real secret of Finnish success. Finland takes her best professionals and makes them teachers. America takes her best professionals and makes them doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers. Finland  gets all-star teachers. We get Wall Street. If we want better schooling for our kids we need to select and train better educators. We can imitate the Finnish model by making teachers as respected as bankers (oops) presidents (oops) doctors. Credential programs should accept only those working toward or currently holding a masters degree. Credential programs should accept only the top ten percent of applicants. The resulting shortage of teachers will drive up salaries, reinforcing the demand to get into the profession. American society will better compete in math and science, in the global marketplace, and in the arts because of her world-class teachers.
 
If you are still not convinced, please read McKinsey's How the World's Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top. Examining the success of ten systems including those of Singapore and Finland, McKinsey finds that that the top ten percent of high school and college graduates go into teaching. (See link here.)

Postscript: USC professor emeritus Stephen Krashen indirectly agrees with Sahlberg. In a July 16, 2012  letter to the New York Times, he states

The mediocre performance of American students on international tests seems to show that our schools are doing poorly. But students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in the world on these tests, which means that teaching is not the problem. The problem is poverty. Our overall scores are unspectacular because so many American children live in poverty (23 percent, ranking us 34th out of 35 “economically advanced countries”).

My own anecdotal evidence is not so clear. I teach plenty of middle class kids that do poorly on standardized tests--and not just in history! Teaching strategies must improve and remediation time must increase to help these kids.

Debt Crisis

I recently finished Michael Lewis' Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. The book describes the reversals of the economies of countries, Greece, Ireland, and Germany, states, especially California, and municipalities, San Jose and Vallejo. Citizens of these areas traded prosperity for disaster by taking on too much debt, especially the debt created by foolish decisions by bankers, and overpaying government employees.

Now these problems threaten to bring down or at least change the fabric of the European Union. In the United States many will suffer a lower standard of living as government services are cut back and fees and taxes rise. Lewis blames the problem on groups looking out only for their self-interest; ie., the controversy over public sector salaries and pensions bringing down the entire system as in California; and groups that don't look out enough for their self-interest; ie., national governments such as Ireland's that nationalize the debt of banks instead of allowing the banks to fail.

Lewis hints that Greece and Ireland will be paying off debt for a long time to come and Germany may be brought low by the foolishness of her own bankers. The EU may split into a two-tiered structure with Germany, Austria, France, and the Nordics in the top tier, and Southern Europe in the bottom tier. California's fiscal crisis will be felt primarily by municipal governments.The city of San Jose recently voted to cut pensions to its municipal employees, a way out of their fiscal mess. Stockton, California teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and will cut health benefits to retirees as well as renege on debt.

Link to the book here:

The New York Times review of the book can be found here.

Bringing Back High School Research Papers

Will Fitzhugh, in a thoughtful article, Meaningful Work: How the History Research paper Prepares Students for College and Life (link here), bemoans the lack of serious academic writing by high school students.

Much of the problem is lack of practice. The "focus on standardized tests and superficial writing skills has left educators with little time to teach students how to write serious research papers, and even less time to correct and grade them." The problem is worse in public schools, since those schools are most besieged by standardized testing. Somehow, however, educators must fine the time for academic writing or we set students up "for failure in college and in the workplace."

A greater proportion of students' lack of preparation comes from not doing enough rigorous reading. Teachers, starting in elementary school, must assign texts that allow students to acquire knowledge--that is, reading more serious fiction and nonfiction. (See E.D. Hirsch, Jr's blog on core knowledge here.)

To really teach students how to write, educators must give them examples of good writing found in nonfiction books and require students to read them, not skim them, cover to cover. Reading nonfiction contributes powerfully to the knowledge that students need in order to read more difficult material--the kind they will surely face in college.

Electric Cars Still Strike Out

NYT Picture

In The Battery-Driven Car Just Got a Lot More Normal, Berkeley resident (of course) Bradley Berman writes a glowing New York Times revue (link here)of the Ford Focus Electric. The car is "as handsome as its gasoline-powered siblings," and a "full recharge from empty to full [happens] in a little more than four hours when pulling 240 volts" free at public charging stations. It is very quiet, of course, and powers and handles well.

Marin Clean Energy is now offering 100 percent clean energy, so, in theory, a Marin County (Northern California) driver can go to work without putting any carbon in the atmosphere or buying foreign oil. Gas prices are irrelevant. How nice!

Unfortunately, the original problems of battery-driven cars remain: charge time, range, and price. I rarely have four hours free, and when I do I would not choose to waste this precious time at a charging station. Perhaps I could charge from home while I slept if I lived in a house with an attached garage, but I do not. My owners' association would not approve of a large extension cord traveling from my condo to the garage.

Secondly, the estimated driving range of the car is 76-90 miles. My commute is 16 miles each way, so I could go to work for only two days without needing to include time for a charge. I could not use the car at all for a longer trip, let's say to lake Lake Tahoe, without researching the location of charging stations, necessary every 85 minutes or so of freeway driving. It can be done, but charging stations are not yet as ubiquitous as gas stations. However, a day trip, let's say to Los Angeles, would take at least eight hours longer than a trip using a gas-powered vehicle. So the Ford Focus electric is best used for local trips to the store or for errands. Why bother to use the car? I walk or ride my bike to pick up a few groceries or see the dentist.

Lastly, the Ford Focus Electric is expensive, $30,000 after the federal tax credit and California rebate. That's unaffordable for most middle class drivers. Hybrids are cheaper and don't have range problems.

The European Union is Doomed

The Euro is cheap in response to the inevitable exit of Greece and other poorly-run European governments. Perhaps some Americans will be able to afford a Parisian vacation this year. On the continent itself, people are on the move too. Engineers and other highly-trained workers are leaving southern Europe countries, the high unemployment areas of Spain, Portugal, and Italy, for Germany.

The Germans are getting skilled workers for their industries and, because of the collapse of the Euro, lower prices for exporting. How long, however, will Germans be willing to foot the bill for the above countries lack of fiscal discipline and insolvency? Are European countries, even Germany and some Nordic countries, likely to increase their tax base in the next year or two as manufacturing slows? What will happen when populous and central player of the European unity movement, France, joins the deadbeats?

The European Union is doomed. As Chris Mayer has written in Capital and Crisis, look forward to the garage sale, European assets at fire sale prices. See articles by Chris Mayer and Bill Bonner to capitalize on the opportunities.

Voter ID Laws Make Sense

Virginia has a new voter ID law. This is a good thing. The arguments against voter ID are patently ridiculous and unbelievable. I quote two from Voter ID Laws Pose More Challenges than Solutions by Tova Andrea Wang, posted in the March/April 2012 edition of Social Education.

She claims that 18 percent of Americans over the age of 65 do not have a photo ID. These older Americans must live a very different life than my grandparents. Without photo ID, I assume they reside on an island without the use of banks or airplane travel. I have met only one senior who functioned without photo ID, my great grandmother. Laconic in speech and heavily accented, she, as far as I know, didn't bother getting American citizenship. She died 40 years ago.  I don't think she regretted not being able to vote in American elections as long as the Russian Czar wasn't coming back.

Wang complains that to obtain photo ID, citizens must produce "other documentation and identification, which they are unlikely to have, such as a birth certificate. Such documents cost money to obtain copies" (P.68). No birth certificate? Is it possible that poor people aren't actually born and arrive on this earth by some other means? Where is the birth certificate? If your mama lost it, does that become the state's problem? Don't you need a birth certificate to work as a productive member of society? How can you show that you are an American citizen and get a job without one?

I think we are dealing with a much deeper issue--do people have to be responsible? The answer is, yes. Forcing deadbeats to get a photo ID not only ensures a greater number of voters; it also ensures a greater number of responsible citizens.

August 25, 2012 Postscript: Investment writer and political commentator Richard C. Young argues convincingly for photo identification for voters in Why We Need Voter ID (link here). First of all, leaving your identification at home does not preclude you from voting. In states that have the strictest photo ID laws

Voters who are unable to show ID at the polls are given a provisional ballot. Those provisional ballots are kept separate from the regular ballots. If the voter returns to election officials within a short period of time after the election (generally a few days) and presents acceptable ID, the provisional ballot is counted.

Fraud exists. The Republican National Lawyers Association catalogs voter fraud attempts, and dozens of organized and individual attempts at voter fraud have taken place already this year.Young concludes, "vote fraud, even on a small scale, harms Americans by diluting their most powerful right. It must be prevented."

September 17, 2012 Postscript: Pennsylvania also makes it easier for voters to get their ID together--
"Native Pennsylvanians who need to confirm their birth certificates using the state’s records will soon be able to do so with just one visit to a PennDOT licensing center" See the ink here. The charge that Pennsylvania is suppressing voters just got refuted.
February 9, 2012 Postscript: Voter fraud in the 2012 election was outed in Ohio here.

Move to Marin County--Live Longer

Bay Area Life spans (in years)

                           Men Women
Alameda County     78.6 82.8
Contra Costa Cty   78.5 82.7
Marin County         81.6 85.1
San Francisco Cty  78.5 84.4
San Mateo County 80.4 84.9
Solano County       76.7 81.8
Sonoma County     78.2 82.3
— Source: The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

The Marin IJ's  article, Marin County men have the highest life expectancy in the nation, women rank No. 2 illustrates the benefits of wealth despite scientists arguing otherwise.

Dr. Ali Mokdad who heads the research team that prepared the report, said Marin life expectancy rates are high and getting higher because most residents don't smoke, aren't obese, are physically active and eat a healthy diet.

The wealthy can afford to add more fruits and vegetables in their diet. The rich tend to be better educated, and, as a whole, avoid tobacco and get more checkups (and better health care overall) than the poor. The rich also have more time to exercise and can afford gym memberships. It's true that the warm Northern California sun begs residents to go for a run or a bike ride, but income counts. Mokdad disagrees with me.

"Income has an impact on health but it's not a big player in terms of this variation of life expectancy." Some countries where life expectancy is increasing do not have high incomes.

Life expectancy may increase in middle income areas as word gets out about proper lifestyle changes but there is no substitute for wealth. I find the link between affluence and life expectancy to be quite strong. Look at the chart (Bay Area Life spans) at the top of the page. The top two richest counties, Marin and San Mateo, have the highest lifespans. The poorest, Solano County, has the shortest lifespan average. The difference for males is close to five years. Solano County weather isn't bad--one can run just as many days in Vallejo as in Novato. The difference between the two counties is lifestyle, and that is greatly affected by income.

Why Obama and Netanyahu Don't Get Along

2012 photo/jta-ron kampeas

Douglas Bloomfield's Op/Ed piece, Playing the "Holocaust card" could backfire on Netanyahu, bemoans the lack of warmth between the American and Israeli leaders.

His [Netanyahu's] barely concealed personal antipathy toward the president of the United States was on display throughout his visit to Washington last month. He had high (deserved) praise for Congress and for some select members, and he thanked the president for his speech of support for Israel and the American government’s help for Israel.
But there was not a single kind word personally for the man who has hosted him eight times in the Oval Office. No foreign leader has made as many visits to the White House in this administration, and none has had such a rocky relationship with the president.

 Bloomfield thinks that Netanyahu should be more grateful for American support and should be willing to support US policies as strongly as the US supports Israel's. Bloomfield misses the fact that Netanyahu got along famously with George W. Bush and has a strong relationship with Mitt Romney stretching back to 1976.

Part of the problem is politics.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said Netanyahu is “much more of a Republican than he is a Likudnik.” The PM himself once told an interviewer, “I speak Republican.”

Part of the problem is style.

Former Ambassador Dennis Ross wrote in “The Missing Peace,” his memoir of the Clinton years: “In the meeting with President Clinton, Netanyahu was nearly insufferable, lecturing and telling us how to deal with the Arabs. … After Netanyahu was gone, President Clinton observed, ‘He thinks he is the superpower and we are here to do whatever he requires.’ No one on our side disagreed with that assessment.”

Obama is also known for lecturing people. Put two "lecturers" in a room and no one is a listener. That doesn't make for a good relationship. Obama and Netanyahu have enough combined ego and narcissism to fill Madison Square Garden. Each thinks that the world should just shut up and listen. That doesn't help their relationship either. However, I believe their partnership was poisoned by their very first meeting on May 18, 2009. Obama, hoping to reshape the middle east, demanded that Netanyahu agree to an immediate settlement freeze. I would guess that was not a good opener. Offering Netanyahu a ham sandwich would have worked better! Netanyahu's team, quite upset by this tactic met and decided to go home rather quickly.

Later we had the infamous interchange with the French president.

"I can't stand him. He's a liar," Sarkozy said of Netanyahu, according to the website [Arret Sur Images]. Obama replied, "You're tired of him; what about me? I have to deal with him every day," the site reported.

I'll bet that Netanyahu will be hoping Romney wins in November.

Update: Obama takes the politically-risky move of snubbing Netanyahu in September of an election year. See the Haaretz article here.

Was Bin Laden a Leftist at Heart?

Steve Coll in the New Yorker piece, The Outlaw, writes that Osama bin Laden

issued about half a dozen audiotapes during each of the past two years. Occasionally there were gaps of many months between releases, but he seemed eager to speak about Al Qaeda-related headlines, as well as to promote authors he happened to be reading--these included Noam Chomsky and John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, co-authors of "The Israel Lobby."

These authors are anti-Israel (Mearsheimer and Walt) or anti-Israel and anti-Jewish (Chomsky) so it makes sense that bin Laden was reading their books. Chomsky has gone as far as appearing in Syrian media as supporting Iranian interests over those of America and Israel and writing the forward to Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson's book, Memoire en defense contre ceux qui m'accusent de falsifier l'histoire. 

Osama bin Laden was portrayed as a reactionary that would lead us back to the rule of the Caliphates. Yet the secular section of his book shelf resembled that of a Berkeley radical with a violent streak. Perhaps the thought processes of totalitarians on the far right and far left, like Hitler and Mao, are more or less the same.

What is American Foreign Policy?

If you are trying to understand the Obama administration's foreign policy, you must read The Consequentialist by Ryan Lizza  here. Lizza, no arch-conservative, but rather a supporter of liberal causes as a writer for the New Yorker, explains that Obama had no foreign policy experience before running for Senate. Obama read the right books and hired talented people from previous Democratic administrations to help him craft his policy. His views wavered between "realism," acting when American interests are at stake, and supporting human rights irrespective of America's international interests.

Lizza argues that Obama has no coherent policy and manages by the seat of his pants, following trends rather than leading them. Sometimes he's a realist, staying out of civil strife in African countries, sometimes he's a late supporter of democracies such as elements of the Arab Spring, opposing authoritarian regimes. In sharp contrast to a Truman or a Reagan, no one really knows where he stands, and he makes decisions after the dust has settled and Britain and France have already acted.

Obama's style (or lack of one) makes it difficult for foreign diplomats to know what the United States desires. For example, does Obama wish to increase the tempo of arms control agreements? Certainly, Obama does not want to be limited during disarmament negotiations with the Russians by having to defend his evolving views before an election. Nor does he want to work with a hostile Congress as shown by the recent "hot mic" gaffe (here).

I personally would trust a politician more if I could predict his behavior.

You Must Purchase the History Book, "The Fifties"

David Halberstam's The Fifties was the most entertaining 700-page history book I have ever read. Much of the charm comes from  Halberstam's style. A trained journalist and experienced writer, he glued together the book by writing biographies of the most important political, economic, and cultural figures of the decade.

The book lacks a table of contents, so I will provide one, giving you a taste of the breadth and depth of the book.

One: Robert Taft, The Hiss Case, Dean Acheson, and the 1948 Election
Two: Harry Truman, J Robert Oppenheimer
Three: Joe McCarthy, Mike Hammer
Four: The Korean War
Five: Douglas MacArthur in Korea
Six: Edward Teller and The Hydrogen Bomb
Seven: MacArthur's Downfall, Matthew Ridgway
Eight: Alfred Sloan, Harley Earl, and General Motors
Nine: Bill Levitt
Ten: Eugene Ferkauf
Eleven:. McDonald's
Twelve: Holiday Inn
Thirteen: Radio to TV
Fourteen:. Kefauver
Fifteen: Television
Sixteen: 1952 Campaigns
Seventeen: 1952 Campaign and Advertising
Eighteen: Ike Biography
Nineteen: Brando, Kazan, Williams
Twenty: Alfred Kinsey
Twenty One: The Pill
Twenty Two: The Beats
Twenty Three: Nixon biography
Twenty Four: Oppenheimer and JE Hoover
Twenty Five: Coup in Iran
Twenty Six:  Dulles Brothers and Coup in Guatemala
Twenty Seven: New Look Foreign Policy
Twenty Eight: The Warren Court
Twenty Nine: Civil Rights in Mississippi
Thirty:  Blacks in the South and the Cotton Picker
Thirty One:  Elvis Presley
Thirty Two:  GM
Thirty Three: Advertising
Thirty Four: Television Shows
Thirty Five: C Wright Mills
Thirty Six: Rosa Parks and MLK
Thirty Seven: Marilyn Monroe
Thirty Eight: Paperbacks
Thirty Nine: Postwar Femininity
Forty: The Pill (2)
Forty One:  American Space Program
Forty Two:  Foreign Cars
Forty Three: Quiz Shows
Forty Four: Little Rock
Forty Five: U-2 Flights and Ike's Legacy
Forty Six:  Fidel Castro and 1960 Election

Buy it! You can get a used copy for a little over a dime plus shipping.

How I Trained My Cat

My cat loves to sniff around and mark territory

I have trained my cat to do two things: come when called and go outside on a leash. Here's how.

1. Create a cue.
Most cats will come when they hear the sound of a can opener, since they associate the sound with a reward. I cued this cue with a whistle. I repeat the whistle every time before opening the can. I also use the whistle before giving my cat any special treat. She now associates the whistle with an upcoming reward and comes to me most of the time. Additionally, I want my cat to get rid of bugs that make their way into my house, so I created a different cue for hunting. I call out, "look, look look" in a high voice and the cat immediately goes to where I am and looks for bugs to catch.

2. Use successive approximations for shaping behaviors
Read this article in the New York Times on how to train a cat to walk on a leash. It works. The author first rewarded the cat for putting on the leash. Then the cat was rewarded for traveling a bit inside and then outside. That's what I did. The whole process took a few weeks. I don't lead my cat like one would walk a dog. I just let her sniff around and go where she wants to go. The hardest thing is finding an area free of canines and cars.

Paying for an Education: the University of California, Berkeley

The Campaign for Berkeley sent us alumni a marketing package in hope of obtaining donations.

Yearly tuition and expenses for in-state students living in campus housing is $32,634 (As opposed to the University of California schools, the average annual student budget is $19,700 for a California State University resident undergraduate [Source: Legislative Analyst's Office]).

About 70 percent of students receive financial aid. How could it be any other way, when the average family in California per capita income is around $43,000?

Compare this state of affairs to the cost of a University of California education for me, 1978 to 1982: around $4,000 including campus housing. I paid for my four-year Berkeley undergraduate education easily through savings, summer work, and $5,000 of loans. Why are finances so much more difficult today?

When I was an undergraduate, the state paid 52 percent of UC Berkeley's funding. Today the state pays 10 percent.  The Great Recession, starting in 2008, has crushed the California budget, especially a budget increasingly dependent on capital gains from the very rich. See below.

The Composition of Revenues Has Changed Over Time

• Over the past four decades, personal income tax revenues to the General Fund have increased dramatically—rising from 27 percent to 51 percent of General Fund revenues.
• This growth is due to growth in real incomes, the state’s progressive tax structure, and increased capital gains.
• The reduced share for the sales tax reflects in part the increase in spending on services, which generally are not taxed. Source: Legislative Analyst's Office (link here)

What to do? See my post (here) on whether California can continue on the same path, taxing itself out of austerity and, perhaps, into prosperity.

Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley

Berkeley, California inspires me to write. I spent a lot of my youth there and frequently enjoy traversing the Bay to visit. The New York Times can't quite understand the place. See my last blogs about Berkeley here and here.

However, a recent Times article about the decline of (in)famous Telegraph Avenue was more accurate. See it here.

As a late 1970s and early 1980s college student living two blocks away, Telegraph was the location of head shops, tie dye shirts and hippie culture: Berkeley as an anachronism. The street went through a yuppie-ish renaissance in the 1990s and has recently relapsed. Burned shops and vacant lots have precipitated a decline into a wasteland of homelessness, garbage and vermin at Haste Street and Telegraph, a few blocks from the University.

The Times article interviews stakeholders who want to improve the place. A longstanding bookseller in this area "thinks Berkeley should rebrand Telegraph as the place where the Free Speech Movement happened. The city could erect plaques describing the events of the 1950s and ’60s, which would attract tourists and shoppers." I don't care for this idea. Will Berkeley ever outgrow this piece of history?

The Daily Californian reports that the Berkeley city council is looking into the Telegraph problem. The council "will decide whether to pass on a proposal from the Telegraph Livability coalition to the city manager for cost analysis."

Among the [coalition] suggestions aimed at reducing crime is a proposal to establish Walk the Beat, a program that would have UCPD and Berkeley Police Department officers patrol Telegraph on foot. The recommendation also suggests increasing pedestrian lighting at night to create a safer environment for shoppers.

Other recommendations include demarcating street vendor spaces more clearly, creating a “free speech walk of fame” on the Telegraph sidewalk to commemorate the street’s history and increasing foot traffic by expanding public parking and making transit improvements (The Daily Californian, February 22, 2012).

These solutions are only band-aids. How many people will drive to Berkeley to experience the "free speech walk of fame?" Telegraph can't recover until businesses are built on the location of the vacant lots. The Times reports that the City of Berkeley is suing the owner of the vacant lots, so hopefully, the development will start soon. The University should do its part and develop the fallow "People's Park" located nearby, another magnet for filth, crime, and drugs. Get the homeless out of the mud and in shelters, and start the construction for student housing on this prime location tomorrow!

Clarence Darrow's Defense of Labor

Harvard history professor Jill Lepore has reviewed two biographies on trial lawyer Clarence Darrow, and in doing so, gives us an exciting look at the man's philosophies, paying special attention to his eight-hour closing statement in an important but lesser known trial, the 1898 labor case, Wisconsin v. Kidd. (See the abstract of the May 23, 2011 New Yorker article here).

Working closely with industrialists that opposed strikes, the State of Wisconsin tried to convict union organizer Thomas Kidd, the general secretary of the Amalgamated Woodworkers International. If Kidd was convicted, there was no right to strike. Darrow successfully defended Kidd and the right to strike by appealing to the jurors' sense of importance and social justice. Darrow, in his summing up, stated, "Back of all this prosecution is the effort on the part of  [lumber company owner] George M. Paine to wipe these labor organizations out of existence, and you know it. That's all there is to it."

The Kidd trial "was a landmark in the Gilded Age debate about prosperity and equality" (P.45), a test case of the interests of the workers against wealthy industrialists and their allies in government. Lepore tries to extend this debate to current controversies over public-sector bargaining in Wisconsin. This is a bit of a stretch. Few are against unionization in the private sector. The public sector is altogether different. Public sector unions have been consistently opposed by conservatives throughout the 19th and 20th centuries--Calvin Coolidge's opposition to the Boston Police and Ronald Reagan bust of the overreaching air traffic controllers come to mind. But Franklin Roosevelt also opposed bargaining rights for public sector unions. (See NYT editorial on the subject here.) The public sector union's interests may or may not not align with the taxpayers that support it. Fortunately, the unionization of public school teachers has worked out reasonably well. (See my analysis of public school tenure here.)

Should You Go To College?

University of California, Berkeley

All parents of high school students and prospective college students themselves should read a poignant analysis in the June 6, 2011 New Yorker magazine: Live and Learn: Why We Have College (link here). The author, Louis Menand, sorts the purposes of college into two competing theories and reviews the literature about whether students actually learn anything from the college experience.

Menand states in his Theory I that college acts as a sorting mechanism and a tool for the American meritocracy. Professional schools can trust G.P.A. as a measure of intellectual capacity and productive potential (P. 74). Grades matter more than if the student actually learns anything. On average, adults with college degrees do make more money than those without.

Theory II is the opposite. Grades do not matter as much as what is learned. "College exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing" (ibid.). The trouble with Theory II is many students, especially those pursuing business degrees, don't learn much (as shown by the results on the Collegiate Learning Assessment) after three years of college. Students spend less time studying than they did fifty years ago. Lastly, the process of college is socially inefficient, since students pursuing vocational degrees don't care about classes in the liberal arts, but still have to take them to get a bachelors degree. It gets worse: "half of all Americans who enter college never finish" (P. 78).

So why force vocational students into these classes? Instead, why not track students? This is what many European countries do. Only the elite go to college. The rest go to vocational schools where they will never have to try to understand Nietzsche and Plato. The vocational schools offer work skills, not a B.A. degree. Menand hints that were we to do this, it would mark the end of our liberal arts schools. Perhaps it should be done anyway. I teach a lot of low-level students this year. Out of my 140 students, perhaps 60 will end up graduating from a four-year institution. Yet when I polled them, almost all of them want to go to college and get a bachelors degree.What a waste! Most of my students and more than half of 18-year-old American kids who enter post-secondary studies would be better served with vocational training. Most people don't want to take the time to understand Nietzsche and Plato, and only a motivated elite will get something out of the process.

Six–Year Undergraduate Completion Rates^a

• The systemwide graduation rate for University of California (UC) students is about 80 percent, compared with just under 50 percent at the California State University (CSU). Only about 30 percent of California Community College (CCC) students who endeavor to transfer or graduate with an associate’s degree or certificate actually do so. (Source, California Legislative Analyst's Office http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2011/calfacts/calfacts_010511.aspx)

Is There Really an American Theocracy?

Kevin Phillips must be puzzled. After writing American Theocracy in 2006 (NYT review here) the electorate reacted vociferously. They fainted for "change" and threw the bums out in the 2010 election, rejecting fundamentalist religion and Big Oil in politics and embracing an Obama policy of "halving the national debt."

Phillips, in American Theocracy, examines the hold that Big Oil, fundamentalism, and debt has on American society and politics. Phillips predicted that American society would falter and the country would be overtaken by others, just as the Roman, Spanish, Dutch, and British empires had collapsed when buffeted by religious fundamentalism, a backward energy technology, and an economy immersed in  debt.

How far we have come! Since the Bush years, we have been led by the most secular president in 40 years (if one considers Nixon and Ford more or less non religious), a man more influenced by the liberation theology of Jeremiah Wright than the fervor of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Vice President is a Catholic who mandates anti-Catholic contraceptive policies in Catholic hospitals. The Republican front runner is a Mormon.

Obama gives lip service to green energy policy. He uses the people's money to support companies that produce clean energy, sometimes disastrously (like Solyndra) but has not led the country on a crusade for energy independence or clean energy. Even Jimmy Carter did more. Instead he has opposed the use of mainstream energy workhorses--coal and oil--threatening to make coal too expensive to use and slowing the awarding of licenses for off-shore drilling and stopping the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada. Despite Obama's policies, the nation now exports more energy products than it imports. If we could switch our transportation system to cheap natural gas, we would consider the problem almost solved.

Phillips was most prescient about our national debt, which ballooned under Bush's wars and has exploded at an even faster rate under Obama. Will politicians have the political courage to decrease the debt, supporting some tax increases but mostly imposing draconian spending cuts, especially in Medicare and Defense? That remains to be seen, but it is unlikely under the politicians that exacerbated the problem.

Is China a Political and Economic Model for the World?

China is ruled by its Communist Party elite, but China is not a purely communist country any more. Nor does China allow a free flow of information favored by free market societies. So what type of government rules China? Could China be described as a fascist form of government? The Constitutional Rights Foundation's Bill of Rights in Action (25:4) states that common characteristics of fascism  include the following underlined elements:

Absolute power of the state There is no power that challenges the supremacy of the Chinese central communist party.

Rule by a dictator President Hu Jintao holds the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. The regime, however, is not run by a "indispensable" charismatic leader, a Mao or a Stalin. Hu Jintao does not encourage a cult of personality and develops the image of being an efficient, if somewhat faceless bureaucrat. The Chinese Communist party rules as a police state and does not allow the people to vote for candidates outside their control.

Corporatism (state control of labor and capital) The state encourages a docile workforce but allows plenty of entrepreneurial talent to express itself, especially in manufacturing. The country creates incredible amounts of wealth, perhaps more than has ever been created in such a short time. On the other hand, the Party's command economy orders the construction of dams, ghost cities and assorted monstrous boondoggles to the detriment of the people. These project the economic prowess of its rule and raise reported GDP.

Extreme nationalism Jingoism is encouraged whenever Taiwan makes noises for independence or Japan fails to atone for various WWII atrocities.

Superiority of the nation's people Do Chinese think they are better than everyone else? Yes. But so do the French and Americans. The Chinese are not Nazis.

Militarism and imperialism China's military buildup is quite alarming. It seems that its purpose is to intimidate Taiwan and impress the United States and not to take over India and Russia.

China is an authoritarian, one-party dictatorship. The people have no rights outside of the demands of the Communist party. However, I do not think its government fits the description of fascism.

Is China an economic model worth emulating? China's long-term growth rate of 9.5 percent is unparalleled as underemployed farmers rush to the cities. China has become the workshop of the world. However, the Chinese government is doing the reporting, and the Shanghai stock market has recently dropped 30 percent. (See Richard C Young's Intelligence Report, February, 2012 here.) Chinese theft of American company trade secrets and manipulation of its currency have contributed to the country's success, though few would consider those ethical ways of competing in the global marketplace.

Ted Fishman's book, China Inc. reports on how female workers are exploited in the ubiquitous Chinese textile and electronics factories. "Young women, manufacturers seem to always claim, are better suited to factory jobs that require patience and small motor skills, traits men are said to lack. This enduring piece of nonsense reshapes the workforce wherever it is allowed to take hold" (P.90).

No, this is not 19th-century Manchester. It is 21st-century Shenzhen. The real reason that young women are preferred on the work floor is because they cause less trouble and are more docile than their male or older counterparts.

A communist government looking the other way as masses of workers slave long hard hours for $2 per day is not the only irony of China. While China's 300 million indigent and transient workforce is still looking for factory labor, the wage gap has shrunk. Investment professional Chris Mayer writes:

Wages in China and other overseas markets have gone up a bunch while U.S. wages have stagnated. Cheap fuel has long since expired as a reality. Oil is the big factor and crude oil averaged north of $100 a barrel last year for the first time ever. But natural gas is another lure to come back to the U.S. In China, for example, natural gas prices are twice what they are here.

There is more: The U.S. dollar has lost a quarter of its purchasing power since 2002 against a basket of 20 major currencies. That makes U.S. assets and talent cheaper compared with similar assets and talent overseas.

The raw costs are only part of the equation. There is the soft stuff to consider as well, things like intellectual property risks and the fragility of supply chains. The Japanese tsunami and floods in Thailand caused major disruptions for manufacturers. And the U.S. itself is still the world's largest market. Therefore, the thinking goes, it could be better to make things closer to the customers that buy them.

Researchers at Gartner predict that 20% of the goods made in Asia for the U.S. will shift back to the U.S. by 2014. Surveys of manufacturers show many are considering moving operations back to the U.S. (Capital and Crisis Email, Comeback, USA -- Notes from the Road, Feb10, 2012)

So China, an increasingly powerful economic juggernaut, is not as attractive a lure for overseas manufacturing as it once was. China is neither a good political nor economic model for the United States. Instead, we should take lessons from successful free countries--the Swiss, Germans and Japanese--great exporters with labor and energy costs equal to or greater than our own.

Postscript, July, 2012: Will China's communist rulers be able to maintain their hold on power as their economy descends into a sharp slowdown?

Teaching Freud in One Lesson

High school sophomores are not mature enough to learn Freudian theory without anxiety and joking. Actually, they are rarely mature enough to learn anything without joking about it, but the Oedipal Complex is particularly difficult. Thus, as part of the high school World History curriculum (California Standard 10.64), I recommend simplifying to the following psychodynamic and philosophical concepts:

Structural theory of the mind:. Teach the relative power and functions of the id, superego, and ego, and how pressure on the ego leads to defense mechanisms.Teach what is unconscious and what is not. Don't bother talking much about dreams or free association.

Psychosocial stages: Teach the stages of development, oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital, including the potential for psychopathology when things go wrong in the satisfaction of  different stages. Don't bother going into detail about how the Oedipal drama leads to development of morality.

Determinism: Explain how Freud is a determinist and compare to a humanist such as Carl Rogers (link here) or an existentialist. (See my comparison to existentialist Nietzsche here.)

These concepts can be taught with one lesson. If sophomores understand the above, you have done well!

In order to help you along, here is a two-minute overview video explanation of much of the above. A fun skit is here.

I Speak Coyote

The coyotes are killing and eating the neighborhood cats :-(
on my hillside. It's mating season, and they howl through the night. It's a good thing that I understand their language and can interpret their conversations for you.

Male coyote: Come here, baby. I have Thai food!
Female coyote: Really? Curry with chicken?
Male coyote: No. Siamese cat. We can enjoy it together under the moonlight.
Female coyote: Cat, cat, always cat! Do you eat anything besides cat? This is Marin county! I expect better.
Male coyote: What do you mean, babe?
Female coyote: The coyote on the other side of the hill just got a rat. He said it was special imported food, Norwegian rat, all the rage now in Albuquerque.
Male coyote: All the rats here are Norwegian rats!
Female coyote: Well, I expect better than cat wolfed down in  30 seconds followed by a quick sprint away from the Humane Society guy.
Male coyote: OK, OK.
Female coyote: And another thing. The coyote on the other side of the hill has a nicer territory. He says he has a pool.
Male coyote: The Corte Madera Creek?
Female coyote: Whatever. He says he filled it with game.
Male coyote: It's got geese in it that flew south for the winter.
Female coyote: I take my goose served rare.
Male coyote: You got it or my goose is cooked.