In the movie The Titanic under order to steam full steam through the night in the dark Atlantic sea,  a lookout sees the iceberg approaching in the dark… He sounds the alarm and for a moment indecision takes hold.  Does the crew hold to their orders or do they take evasive action… As the magnitude of the threat makes itself known, orders are overruled and the wheel gets turned hard left….

Sadly it takes a long time to turn a big ship at sea…..

In Sunday’s News Journal one could find a piece on education..Titled Jobs Here, But Skills Have Not Kept Up The Pace. This was different from those in the past, and bears a close scrutiny to show it…  But wisdom appears to have settled in at the News Journal and that also precludes that wisdom has settled in on the captain in his stateroom as well….

The approaching Common Core is a disaster….  Turn the wheel…..

The tell tale sign?  The article sprawled across 3 pages of newsprint and there was zero mention of Common Core.

Zero. Nada, Not one.

Instead the focus was on STEM, jobs needing skilled workers, and the need for mathematical and science improvements within our schools…  This is the type of conversation we need to have…

At issue is how we can elevate students to become more math and scientifically proficient?  The News Journal finally tilted the rudder to steer the educational ship in the right direction… WE NEED MORE MONEY….

This is not new.  When Rodel was founded, and as Steve Newton enumerated, Rodel’s principal purpose, was to insist that more money be spent on education… Ironically, that insistence was pulled as Rodel became embedded with corporate values.   That plank is now not one of their new ideals…

But more money IS needed to achieve the goals that Delaware wants to achieve.  And… that money cannot be further squeezed out of the middle class property tax base… It must come from the 1%….

One example put forth is the $10,000  grant from the Nuclear Plant (PSEG) at artificial island.  $10,000 is a very generous grant from one corporation and all should be grateful.. However is is earmarked for only one item.  Science supplies.   $10,000 is only 0.001 % of one of  the tax bills our most wealthy Delawarean entities pay.

Increasing taxes on the top 1% as enumerated here, and earmarking all that amount towards pushing science and math, would go a long way towards helping our children expand their opportunities…  And as the News Journal begins to hint, that is just the proper way to go….

Why do we have scientists today?  Most of them themselves tend to attribute that to one high school teacher in their past, one teacher who opened their eyes and made them see the fun of science.  We all learn what is fun…  Just showing up in class and doing fun things to teach basic scientific laws and standards, will create far more scientists than making them jump too high for standards they aren’t ready to reach…  What’s their reaction to the latter?  “I hate science” is what they’ll say…. Getting them to say “I love science” has been our problem all along…

This is a dumb idea, but still, it just proves the direction we need to go.  Just paying for every student to go to the 5 different museums on the Mall in DC, would push Delaware forward faster than rigor, testing, and tutoring.  For on that trip, the discovery that science can be fun, is the real reward… Once that discovery is made, then half the battle is won…  Now if that was what a dumb idea can do… imagine what a bright one would render?

Currently Common Core is devoted to opening the top of a child’s head, and pouring someone else’s concoction in…  That is a failing concept…  It’s rather creepy really, to think of Dave Stockman pouring stuff into little children’s heads…  We’ve seen enough evidence to know that concept does not work..

We need money.  We need to let teachers teach.  We need money….  Without any of those three, no matter what gets said in January when the Governor makes his State of the State,  it will only be empty words, and if legislation moves us toward Common Core, despite the News Journal taking a different tact right now, it will only make things worse….