FREE WHITEWATER

Poll

Friday Poll: Pony in a Hatchback

by  • 


150805-pony-in-trunk-jpo-525a_bdffbb399d3ad70aa796ec638ebe25b3.nbcnews-fp-1200-800

Should a motorist be allowed to transport a Shetland pony in a small hatchback?

Officers in the German town of Bad Oeynhausen stopped a motorist with a Shetland pony in her Fiat Panda hatchback:

“Despite the fact the so-called Shetland pony is not bigger than some dogs, the officers quickly determined that the handling was not species-appropriate,” police spokesman Ralf Steinmeyer told NBC News.

The driver of the Fiat Panda explained to police that she was transporting the animal to the neighboring Czech Republic. The motorist was due to be met halfway by the pony’s owner, who was going to bring a horse trailer.

“It was very hot that day and the woman had already traveled more than 60 miles with the pony,” Steinmeyer said.

See, Shetland Pony Found in Hatchback of Fiat Panda by German Police @ NBC News.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.4.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty-four. Sunrise is 6:23 and sunset 7:23, for 13 hours of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 60% of its visible disk illuminated.

There will be public meetings in the city today on Tax Incremental Districts 5 and 6, at 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM, respectively.

On this day in 476, the western Roman Empire falls:

Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer, a German barbarian who proclaims himself king of Italy.

Odoacer was a mercenary leader in the Roman imperial army when he launched his mutiny against the young emperor. At Piacenza, he defeated Roman General Orestes, the emperor’s powerful father, and then took Ravenna, the capital of the Western empire since 402. Although Roman rule continued in the East, the crowning of Odoacer marked the end of the original Roman Empire, which centered in Italy.

Friday brings with final game in Puzzability‘s Sound Bites series:

This Week’s Game — August 31-September 4
Sound Bites
We’ve gone to pieces over this one. For each day this week, we started with two rhyming one-syllable words. The day’s clue gives, for each of those words, a shorter word that appears as a chunk within it. Please note that for the two words to rhyme, every sound from the first vowel sound onward must be identical, as the “-ime” sound in the example below.
Example:
LIMB, THY
Answer:
Climb, thyme
What to Submit:
Submit both words, in the same order as the clue (as “Climb, thyme” in the example) for your answer.
Friday, September 4
SKI, HER

Education, School District

Whitewater’s ACT Scores

by  • 

Yesterday, I posted on the below-average ACT participation rate for Whitewater.  As with last year, the Whitewater Schools want to tout a high average ACT score, but only while concealing a low participation rate.  See, Whitewater’s ACT Participation Rate Near the Bottom of Area Schools.

A few remarks on the latest results.

Competency on the ACT is Valuable for College-Bound and Non-College-Bound Students.  A facility in the underlying subjects that the ACT measures is useful in life for many fields, and not simply college-bound students.  That facility is far more than cramming for the test, or teaching to the test: a student should have a sound understanding of the substantive fields that the test measures, and as a consequence of that prior, independent understanding, have a good chance to do well at test time.

That’s not only my opinion – it’s also the view of Whitewater High School’s principal:

Parker said that the Whitewater district wants to give its students the best opportunity to succeed on the ACT because that score not only translates into college admission but also to future earnings.

“One ACT guru once said that the best job a high school student can get is to study for the ACT,” Parker said. “They can make more by getting two points higher on the ACT than they can at a minimum wage job for a whole year.”

Parker said that even outside the core focus, the Whitewater schools have focused on reading strategies, comprehension and critical thinking.

“Even technical reading in our career and technical area has really helped kids be able to critically think and problem-solve from texts,” he said. “That has translated well onto the ACT, (and), hopefully, that will transfer into work and career skills.”

Doug Parker, Whitewater High School Principal, quoted in Daily Union last fall, http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_e645bd54-32b3-11e4-8d6f-001a4bcf6878.html.  

I would not have put the matter so awkwardly, and I do not know what an ACT guru is (and don’t need to know), but the point about the subject matter of the ACT being career-enhancing as well as preparatory for college is sound.  

What’s Wrong Now?  Too few Whitewater students are taking the test when compared to nearby schools.  If the substantive fields the test measures are important – and they are – why not measure a greater number of students to assess over understanding of key fields?

There is no compelling reason that Whitewater should have fewer ACT takers than Parkview, Williams Bay, Beloit Turner, Evansville, Milton, Brodhead, Clinton, Janesville, Big Foot, Edgerton, Lake Geneva Badger, and the state average.

This is a fundamental error: the policy of this district should be to encourage inclusion, and the measurement of key, substantive understanding among all students.  One may not reach all, but half is simply inadequate.

One knows that it’s inadequate because so many schools elsewhere can and are more inclusive in this regard.  

The state is moving to more comprehensive testing, but Whitewater should need a regulatory prodding. Whitewater should have been near the top of the participation rankings this year.  

Lower participation has the consequence of concealing how a wider number of students would fare on an understanding of substantive fields useful for college or non-college vocations.   

The business lobby last year undoubtedly thought that pushing scores from a narrower pool over broad-based performance would advance their collective members’ interests in improving business conditions.  (If they didn’t think this, then they’ve the wrong tax designation as 501(c)(6) business league.)

A sound educational environment isn’t the same as the business ambitions of a few.  

There’s a second problem with that approach: honest to goodness, these gentlemen have no chance whatever of winning over competitive newcomers with their smarmy, stale rhetoric and grandiose claims.  
How to Present Disappointing Results Competently.  Hiding the truth of results (lower-than-average participation) isn’t a competent or honest presentation: it’s a superficial one.  

Here’s how to present the results:

Whitewater’s students taking the last ACT exam received an average score of 23.5.  That’s above the state average score.  We’re proud of the hard work of students taking the test, their teachers, and their families.  Half the students who might have taken the test did so this time, and we won’t rest until that number also exceeds the state average.

Simple, direct, humble. 

How to Fix Low Participation Rates.  Although simply giving the test to more students will solve the participation problem (that’s the regulatory approach), it won’t produce a good average score.  

The subjects that the ACT emphasizes need to be advanced more confidently for all students.  If they are not, in an environment of high-participation statewide, Whitewater will (significantly) lag peer schools.  We will be perpetually at the bottom without an expectation that all students will perform well on key  substantive fields.

The college-bound, non-college-bound distinction in fundamental subjects will not serve this district; it will consign Whitewater to the bottom quartile of performance.  

What’s our demographic?  It should be all students, in a few substantive fields equally (so much as one can, which is far more than we are doing now). 

This brings us to the curriculum: our current approach will not serve this district.  This is the discussion that I wanted to have months ago, and yet will in the months ahead.  

Know this, though: half a population will not be enough for anyone.  Even those now taking and doing well on the ACT will benefit only partially from a district that wants broad acclaim for a too-narrow foundation.  A school run that way will look worse and perform so, press releases notwithstanding.

This community funds a full building, a full district, and deserves a full commitment.  

Some will complain this is too hard; it will be harder if our schools yield before those complaints.  

This is a great moment to re-think all that we are doing, before the weight of the wrong approach takes an irreversible toll.  

Pride stands in the way of this re-consideration, but nothing will stand in the way of a misguided approach’s educational consequences. 

  

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.3.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty-six. Sunrise is 6;22 and sunset 7:25, for 13h 03m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 71.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.

On this day in 1783, the Revolutionary War comes to a formal end:

The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. This treaty, along with the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause: France, Spain and the Dutch Republic, are known collectively as the Peace of Paris.[2][3] Its territorial provisions were “exceedingly generous” to the United States in terms of enlarged boundaries.[4] ….

  1. Acknowledging the United States (viz. the Colonies) to be free, sovereign and independent states, and that the British Crown and all heirs and successors relinquish claims to the Government, property, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof;
  2. Establishing the boundaries between the United States and British North America;
  3. Granting fishing rights to United States fishermen in the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence;
  4. Recognizing the lawful contracted debts to be paid to creditors on either side;
  5. The Congress of the Confederation will “earnestly recommend” to state legislatures to recognize the rightful owners of all confiscated lands and “provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects” (Loyalists);
  6. United States will prevent future confiscations of the property of Loyalists;
  7. Prisoners of war on both sides are to be released; all property of the British army (including slaves) now in the United States is to remain and be forfeited;
  8. Great Britain and the United States are each to be given perpetual access to the Mississippi River;
  9. Territories captured by Americans subsequent to the treaty will be returned without compensation;
  10. Ratification of the treaty is to occur within six months from its signing.

Here’s the Thursday game in Puzzability‘s Sound Bites series:

This Week’s Game — August 31-September 4
Sound Bites
We’ve gone to pieces over this one. For each day this week, we started with two rhyming one-syllable words. The day’s clue gives, for each of those words, a shorter word that appears as a chunk within it. Please note that for the two words to rhyme, every sound from the first vowel sound onward must be identical, as the “-ime” sound in the example below.
Example:
LIMB, THY
Answer:
Climb, thyme
What to Submit:
Submit both words, in the same order as the clue (as “Climb, thyme” in the example) for your answer.
Thursday, September 3
UP, ROUGH

Education, School District

Whitewater’s ACT Participation Rate Near the Bottom of Area Schools

by  • 

actparticipation2015

The latest ACT scores for area schools are out, and when one looks at the data with care, one sees that Whitewater yet again lags area schools in the proportion of students taking that test.  

Relying only on the scores, without thought to the participation level, would be a superficial gloss on a result that deserves genuine consideration.  I’ll not follow a shallow lead – there’s already more than one place where one can find the superficial.

No doubt, a waning group will cry that one should only accentuate the positive.  

They don’t know the half of it – although these participation numbers should be disappointing and embarrassing to any well-read person, there are genuine opportunities even now.

Tomorrow, I’ll consider in greater detail (1) what’s wrong, (2) why it’s likely this way, (3) how to present bad results competently and effectively, and (4) how Whitewater can make strides to catch up with other communities and the state average (regardless of state participation requirements in the future).

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.2.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty-eight.  Sunrise is 6:21 and sunset 7:27, for 13h 06m 01s of daytime.  The moon is a waning gibbous with 80.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1945, after years of war across the Pacific, Japan formally surrenders:

Aboard The U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Sunday, Sept. 2–Japan surrendered formally and unconditionally to the Allies today in a twenty-minute ceremony which ended just as the sun burst through low-hanging clouds as a shining symbol to a ravaged world now done with war.

[A United Press dispatch said the leading Japanese delegate signed the articles at 9:03 A.M. Sunday, Tokyo time, and that General MacArthur signed them at 9:07 A.M.]

Twelve signatures, requiring only a few minutes to inscribe on the articles of surrender, ended the bloody Pacific conflict.

On behalf of Emperor Hirohito, Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed for the Government and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu for the Imperial General Staff.

MacArthur Voices Peace Hope

Gen. Douglas MacArthur then accepted in behalf of the United Nations, declaring:

“It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past.”

These generations later, Japan is a valued ally, to the great advantage of that country and ours.

On 9.2.1862, a panic grips Wisconsin:

On this evening, Manitowoc settlers were awakened to the cry of “Indians are coming.” Messengers on horseback arrived from the Rapids, Branch, Kellnersville, and other nearby communities, announcing that Indians were burning everything in their path, starting what was known as the “Indian Scare of 1862.”Fire and church bells gave warning to frightened residents. Over the next few days, people from the surrounding areas fled to Manitowoc and other city centers. Ox carts were loaded with women and children carrying their most valuable belongings. Men arrived with guns, axes, and pitchforks, anything with which to defend themselves and their community. A company of recruits from the Wisconsin 26th Regiment formed themselves into two scouting units, both of which returned to report that there was no threat of an Indian attack. Even after the excitement had subsided, many frightened farm families could not be persuaded to return home. [Source: Manitowoc County, Wisconsin Genealogy]

Here’s the Wednesday game in Puzzability‘s Sound Bites series:

This Week’s Game — August 31-September 4
Sound Bites
We’ve gone to pieces over this one. For each day this week, we started with two rhyming one-syllable words. The day’s clue gives, for each of those words, a shorter word that appears as a chunk within it. Please note that for the two words to rhyme, every sound from the first vowel sound onward must be identical, as the “-ime” sound in the example below.
Example:
LIMB, THY
Answer:
Climb, thyme
What to Submit:
Submit both words, in the same order as the clue (as “Climb, thyme” in the example) for your answer.
Wednesday, September 2
TON, YOU

China, Economics, Economy, Foreign Affairs

The Limits of China Under Communism

by  • 

A single paragraph from Jacob Soll puts China in perspective: 

There is no historical example of a closed imperial economy facing large capital-driven, open states and sustainably competing over a long term. That is not to say that China isn’t an economic powerhouse and a remarkable site of energy and potential. It is certainly both. But we also know Chinese debt — as secret as the state likes to keep it — is enormous, and that its financial system is like any other bubble. It is predicated on inflated earnings reports and expectations.

The great “Beijing Consensus,” China’s absolute commitment to showing 8% growth every year, is unsustainable, at least through legitimate means. And without it, China is beginning to look like an enormous totalitarian ponzi scheme — a phenomenon common enough in world history, but extremely dangerous to be near in the long run.

Via China: The new Spanish Empire?

Economics, Economy, Free Markets, Immigration, Labor, Restaurant

Film: From Dishwasher to Award-Winning Restaurateur

by  • 

I suppose that if I wanted to curry favor with others, I’d talk about the need for immigration restrictions, or at the least I’d avoid taking a contrary view (a restrictive position being so popular these days). That would seem to me a timid way to face the world, unfit for robust Americans. One should be direct in one’s views.

So, I’ll say what I do believe — in the ethical and practical value of free markets in capital, goods, and labor.

A major party that once embraced these views has turned away from them. We who are libertarian will not do the same. We are confident that an economic philosophy of free markets was right yesterday, is right today, and will be right tomorrow.

Hugo Ortega crossed over the Mexican border and arrived in Houston, Texas, without documents and without knowing any English. Over the next few years, he would become a citizen through President Reagan’s amnesty program and go from washing dishes to owning multiple restaurants. Now, he and his wife, Tracy Vaught—whom he met while working as a dishwasher in her restaurant in the 80’s—are the “reigning powerhouse couple of Houston’s competitive restaurant scene.”

In this documentary produced by Katherine Wells for The Atlantic‘s American Dreams series, Ortega reflects on his journey within the industry. “I have a great responsibility to represent the Mexican cuisine in a proper way,” he says. “It’s a magnificent cuisine.”

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.1.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday will be warm, with partly cloudy skies and a high of eighty-nine. Sunrise is 6:20 and sunset 7:29, for 13h 08m 48s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 89.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

0901_big
On this day in 1939, Germany’s invasion of Poland sparks another world war. In a statement to the German people, Hitler exhorted violent nationalism:

German defense forces will carry on the battle for the honor of the living rights of the re-awakened German people with firm determination.

I expect every German soldier, in view of the great tradition of eternal German soldiery, to do his duty until the end.

Remember always in all situations you are the representatives of National Socialist Greater Germany!

Long live our people and our Reich!

Berlin, Sept. 1, 1939.
Adolf Hitler

In fewer than six years, although at the cost of tens of millions of lives, the thousand-year Reich would surrender unconditionally.

It’s the birthday of famed author Edgar Rice Burroughs:

1875 – Edgar Rice Burroughs Born
On this date the author of the Tarzan book series was born in Chicago, Ill. Burroughs was educated all around the Midwest. His mid-west ties are seen often in his books. In chapter 27 of “Tarzan of the Apes”, Burroughs depicts Tarzan saving Jane from a forest fire in Wisconsin. [Source: Literature.org]

Here’s the Tuesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — August 31-September 4
Sound Bites
We’ve gone to pieces over this one. For each day this week, we started with two rhyming one-syllable words. The day’s clue gives, for each of those words, a shorter word that appears as a chunk within it. Please note that for the two words to rhyme, every sound from the first vowel sound onward must be identical, as the “-ime” sound in the example below.
Example:
LIMB, THY
Answer:
Climb, thyme
What to Submit:
Submit both words, in the same order as the clue (as “Climb, thyme” in the example) for your answer.
Tuesday, September 1
HAD, SUE