Diogenes 1860 by Jean Leon Gerome 1824-1904 Walters Art Museum (United States)Today's trivia question to prepare you for the “Clash of Civilizations”.
Who was Diogenes of Sinope?
Who was Diogenes of Sinope?
Diogenes "the Cynic", Greek philosopher, was born about 412 BC. Legend says that he would search the streets of Athens in full daylight with a lantern, “searching for an honest man”. Diagenes was the first “performance” artist. See fascinating entry at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope ........
How’s the High School Doing?
For those readers that want a quick summary and don’t want to wade through my sometimes turbid, often turgid, prose, the answer is Crappy!
The word lie (falsehood, fiction, falsity, fib) is so ugly, it is always regretful to use it. To call someone a liar really questions the core of an individual’s integrity. However there is a tendency among administrative educational professionals (especially Superintendents of Schools) to spin the truth to a degree that a plain thinking sort of person might suspect a lie. When nationwide thousands of educational professionals all agree to spin together I guess each individual is no longer considered a liar. So, thank God, I don’t have to call anybody a liar.
For years Knox, Indiana, and US high schools have been systematically fibbing about the graduation rates. The mathematical formula used in prior years was so absurd that it must have been devised for the sole purpose to hide the actual numbers. For example, Knox usually had a 9th grade enrollment of near 200 and a graduating class of 120 or so. It didn’t take a genius to figure that 60% of the students were going somewhere besides the graduation ceremony. Yet Knox routinely has claimed an 85% or even 90% graduation rate. The old way of figuring the dropout rate was so astoundingly bogus that it had become a national scandal. So now the Departments of Education have a new way of figuring the rate and now claim a 72.3% graduation rate at Knox.
So how’s Knox High School doing? Comparatively speaking that is? (That’s the kindest way to look at things.) Compared to the rest of the State of Indiana, we are deep, down and bad. 56% of Indiana high schools had 80% or greater graduation rates compared to our 72% rate. And when it comes to those that do graduate, 45% of Knox graduates pursued a college education (2005-2006) whereas the Indiana state average was 75%. (Caveat: these college education figures are suspect and have not been reformed and revised in the same way the graduation rates have been brought up to date.) But, even given the parenthetic caveat, we seem to be doing quite poorly in the category of sending our kids off to college. Less than 1/3 of our high school 9th graders will pursue a college education. And here’s an ugly little surprise. It isn’t teenage pregnancy that is driving up the dropout rate. The male student graduation rate was 66%, female 79%.
I think this is a disaster. I don’t want to take the space and time here demonstrate how much it costs our society to have so many failures and ignorant citizens coming our of our schools. Our school board blithely continues to worry about cheerleading, band and sports. When an enterprise is failing you can ignore it or you can try to do something about it.
Here is a list of the School Board Members:
Mike Yankauskas Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Jerry Fletcher Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Mary Lynn Ritchie Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Linda Belork Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Gary Dulin Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Richard Masson Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Harold Welter Term Ends: 2008-12-31
The word lie (falsehood, fiction, falsity, fib) is so ugly, it is always regretful to use it. To call someone a liar really questions the core of an individual’s integrity. However there is a tendency among administrative educational professionals (especially Superintendents of Schools) to spin the truth to a degree that a plain thinking sort of person might suspect a lie. When nationwide thousands of educational professionals all agree to spin together I guess each individual is no longer considered a liar. So, thank God, I don’t have to call anybody a liar.
For years Knox, Indiana, and US high schools have been systematically fibbing about the graduation rates. The mathematical formula used in prior years was so absurd that it must have been devised for the sole purpose to hide the actual numbers. For example, Knox usually had a 9th grade enrollment of near 200 and a graduating class of 120 or so. It didn’t take a genius to figure that 60% of the students were going somewhere besides the graduation ceremony. Yet Knox routinely has claimed an 85% or even 90% graduation rate. The old way of figuring the dropout rate was so astoundingly bogus that it had become a national scandal. So now the Departments of Education have a new way of figuring the rate and now claim a 72.3% graduation rate at Knox.
So how’s Knox High School doing? Comparatively speaking that is? (That’s the kindest way to look at things.) Compared to the rest of the State of Indiana, we are deep, down and bad. 56% of Indiana high schools had 80% or greater graduation rates compared to our 72% rate. And when it comes to those that do graduate, 45% of Knox graduates pursued a college education (2005-2006) whereas the Indiana state average was 75%. (Caveat: these college education figures are suspect and have not been reformed and revised in the same way the graduation rates have been brought up to date.) But, even given the parenthetic caveat, we seem to be doing quite poorly in the category of sending our kids off to college. Less than 1/3 of our high school 9th graders will pursue a college education. And here’s an ugly little surprise. It isn’t teenage pregnancy that is driving up the dropout rate. The male student graduation rate was 66%, female 79%.
I think this is a disaster. I don’t want to take the space and time here demonstrate how much it costs our society to have so many failures and ignorant citizens coming our of our schools. Our school board blithely continues to worry about cheerleading, band and sports. When an enterprise is failing you can ignore it or you can try to do something about it.
Here is a list of the School Board Members:
Mike Yankauskas Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Jerry Fletcher Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Mary Lynn Ritchie Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Linda Belork Term Ends: 2010-12-31
Gary Dulin Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Richard Masson Term Ends: 2008-12-31
Harold Welter Term Ends: 2008-12-31
.
.
Some charming examples of Diogenes in contempory culture:
Mudd Memorial Hall of Philosophy, UCLA, 1928 Ralph Carlin Flewelling
Diogenes Lantern (Calochortus amabalis) northern California mountain wildflower
2 comments:
This message was extracted from a comment received today, Posted by Lemuel's Mother:
“Trying my best to raise two sons to be productive, well-rounded, and educated citizens. One is 16 and is taking 10 credit hours at PNC this semester, (calc, chem and freshman engineering. Would have liked to offer him more, but that’s all our finances would allow at this time) and also holds leadership positions in both local and state organizations. And, if it weren't for this dastardly disease I have, I'd love to start a Classical Kids kindergarten. Maybe though with the new distance learning charter school, some Knox students will have a chance at a little bit better education than what is currently offered in Knox.”
I would like to say that I feel that band and sports are very important. I believe it keeps kids out of trouble, and it gives them exercise, because God knows they aren't getting it in Gym class. I was in cheerleading, band and several others. I didn't have time to get into trouble. But, I don't believe it should come before education.
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