The dog ate my homework, gimme 50%

To usher in a new wave of stupidity in our children a superintendent has "recommended" a new grading system where even if you fail to turn in your home work or do a test the lowest grade you'll get is 50% You can read the story here. In a nutshell the changes are below







OLD SYSTEM NEW SYSTEM
90 - 100% = A 90 - 100% = A
80 - 89% = B 80 - 89% = B
70 - 79% = C 70 - 79% = C
60 - 69% = D 60 - 69% = D
0 - 59% = F 50 - 59% = F

So the lowest possible grade is 50%. They don't' really specify, but it seems like if you turn in your homework and only get 20% of the answers right, you'll still get 50% the same as if you failed to turn in the homework in the first place. Same with tests.

At this point the grading system is not mandatory just "advised" but what the hell is that teaching our kids? If I stopped coming to work every day would they still pay me 50% of my salary? If I failed to pay for my mortgage would they credit me a 50% payment?

!$%#@ I can't believe this crap!!!

The stated though behind this idiotic decision is that some children rebel the first few weeks of school, and the teachers don't want to send the message that if you fail the first month you're guaranteed to fail the whole semester.

Two problems.

#1) Homework and such are worth much fewer points then tests, in my day a homework assignment was 5 points, quizzes 20, tests 100. If you miss a few homework assignments it's not the end of the world anyway. You can make it up on the test later. If you're failing tests you deserve to fail and should be held back, since you obviously do not understand the material. This brings me to the second reason

#2) They LIE....This is isn't about sending the students a message, this is about staying in compliance with the No Child Left Behind act of 2001 (thanks Bush). The law is long and covers a ton of stuff, but the part that really applies in this case is that this law provides financial penalties for schools that do not improve grades and financial rewards for schools that do. Wikipedia has a section on "Gaming the System"... you tell me if that doesn't sound like exactly what is going on.

The system of incentives and penalties sets up a strong motivation for schools, districts, and states to manipulate test results. For example, schools have been shown to exclude minorities or other groups (to enhance apparent school performance; as many as 2 million students)^[13] and have employed creative reclassification of drop-outs (to reduce unfavorable statistics).^[14]

Critics argue that these and other strategies create an inflated perception of NCLB's successes, particularly in states with high minority populations.^[15]

The incentives for an improvement also may cause states to lower their official standards. Missouri, for example, improved testing scores but openly admitted that they lowered the standards.^[16]

Teaching student's that it's OK to completely cut class and skip assignments by giving them 50% credit anyway to reap the financial benefits (and avoid penalties) of the No Child Left Behind act... NOT AT ALL TOMLAND APPROVED

Today's blog brought to you by the letter C... for Corpse!

I was trolling the CBSnews website when an article jumped out at me. It's titled "Corpse Wheeled To Store to Cash Check" Apparently someone died of natural causes and his "friends" finding him dead, decided to wheel his body to the nearest check cashing place.

Then attempted to cash his social security check by leaving the body in a chair right outside the window and pointing out to the clerk that the guy in the chair is the owner of the check... it didn't work.

In hindsight you'd think these people must be completly idiodic to think this would work. Of course you have to give them credit for coming up with such a "unique" idea in the first place. I'm going with an IQ of 95. Makes me wonder about exactly what the 100 average IQ gets you these days.... The sad thing is that if the guy behind the check cashing window was also at a sub 100 IQ (which is very possible for the low wage these guys can pay) it might have been crazy enough to work. Tomland neutral on this one.

The Primaries are here.. Vote

Hello everyone,

It's that time again, the presidential race is on, and it's wide open. At this point I don't care how you vote as long as you're INFORMED about the candidates. Even worse then not voting is going to the polls and choosing someone who doesn't represent your interests.

With that in mind, I'm posting a link to the best tool out there to help you decide. The Candidate Matrix from MSN. It features:
- Stated positions for the economy, energy, health care, immigration and the Iraq war.
- Youtube videos from candidates on the above topics
- Summaries on all the issues

And best of all, you can run thru each candidate, rate your views against their position and see everything in an easy to read matrix. Do yourself a favor and spend the time to look over this before you vote.

Again that's the Candidate Matrix... Informed Voting, very Tomland Approved!

Not enough gifted minority students? Just lower the standards

I had enough of the word "P.C." (as in Politically Correct) from the first day I heard it, if a guy delivers my mail he's a mailman, not a Postal Carrier, my old College mascot was the Chieftains; how because someone decided they wanted to get offended at that, the new mascot is the redhawk... there is no hawk by that name in nature.

Lately another word has been rubbing me the wrong way "diversity". Everyone is throwing the word around, but precious few seem to know what it means. Here's a coupe official definitions

1) Merriam-Webster = The condition of being diverse
2) Wiktionary (business def) = the business tactic which encourages diversity to better serve a heterogeneous customer base

Ouch folks... OUCH! These definitions are piss poor; you never put the word you're looking for in the definition itself. They try to tip-toe around the real meaning of the word. Let's open up the TOMLAND dictionary and see what it says:

Diversity - Too many white people in the US are getting all the good stuff. We need to find a way to get non-whites a greater slice of the socioeconomic pie. We don't really have a good way to do it, and we can't tell you to "replace" white people with other races so we'll just use the word "diversity" in our policies and hope you understand that we mean EXACTLY that... "replace white people with other races" They've been getting it to good for a long time.

Ah Tom spewing out the racist rhetoric again?... Not at all. In fact I think that given the same IQ level and same environment all races are equal. The problem is that not everyone has the same IQ and not everyone has the same environment.

Let's take a look at today's Seattle PI article entitled "Poor students of Color less likely to be in Seattle's gifted program" As the title suggests, the article says that the makeup of students in the Seattle School district gifted program do not match do not match the racial and economic makeup of the Seattle Public Schools. Here's one of the article examples:

Only 5 percent of students in the Accelerated program are eligible for free or reduced lunch, while nearly 40 percent of the overall district student body qualifies. That measure reflects students in low-income families.

So what is the main way kids get into the gifted program? According to the article:

Families apply from kindergarten through seventh grade and typically test in the 98th and 99th percent on cognitive, reading and mathematics testing.

There you go... score high enough in the standardized tests and you're in. That's about a race neutral as you can get. But instead the school district says this method appears to allow to many privileged white kids in, and not enough minorities.

UGH.... PEOPLE... LISTEN UP! I'm going to break this down for you as simply as possible. The reason "Poor Students of Color" don't get in has precious little to do with color. It's has a lot to do with being "poor".

There are two reasons for this.. one you're going to want to hear, another you are not.

#1) IN GENERAL (not always) Families with less money are not only less able to follow up on learning opportunities that cost additional money, like music lessons, camps, tutoring programs, etc. But also have less time available (or less inclination) to guide their children in their formative years. This is because they're too busy trying to find more money so they can live. They are also more likely to either be socially stigmatized by their more wealthy classmates and/or make friends with others in their own socioeconomic circle which continues the cycle of poverty.

2) ALSO - I submit that as a percentage, the lower the income demographic the lower the overall IQ score for the family becomes......................(OK are you done yelling and cursing at me... now let me explain). You're right, there is no direct line between IQ and $$ but if you look at large demographics of people the more successful aka the ones with more $$ have a higher education and tend to marry around their own level of intelligence. Thus having a higher chance of creating offspring with a higher IQ score. If you look at the lower income demographic people also have children. But the parents of these children may not have finished high school, may have done damage to their children (physically, mentally or environmentally) by not providing a stable home. And the cycle continues.

TOM! That' can't be true , what about people who don't speak English as their native language, what about this guy I know down the street, what about.....

Yes yes, I'm talking in general here, there are always cases (both ways) that are different. As far as immigrants go, sure 1st generation immigrants may be held back by language. But their children will not be and once again it will come down to IQ and environment. Higher IQ will move up the socioeconomic ladder, lower IQ will move down and the cycle continues.

QUIT USING THE WORD "DIVERSITY" TO TRY AND FORCE OUT PEOPLE ALREADY QUALIFIED. WORK ON FIXING THE UNDERLYING ECONOMIC ISSUES AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW... BUT REMEMBER NOT EVERYONE IS "GIFTED"
Whether a child comes from a "better" or "worse" background dosn't matter. If you want to be fair stick with the standardized tests folks. They are truly diverse because they will include anyone regardless of ethnicity as long as the score is high enough.

I'm dressing up ...like vomit

Hello folks,

A little late, but CNN has posted an article about a DHS employee who has been put on leave after he wore a "racially insensitive" costume to an after hours Halloween party (hosted by another employee). You can read about it here

So what was the guy wearing? His Birthday suit perhaps? A cowboy with a real gun he shot in the house?....Nope. He was dressed up as a guy in a prison suit.

Yep a guy in a prison suite...on Halloween... oh the outrage! Oh the AGONY! Give me a break.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he appeared black.


Should that make a difference? I mean blacks outnumber whites in prison by a factor of 8 to 1 according to this site. You could argue he was dressing up as just the average prison inmate.

Let's say you don't agree with that, let's say the guy was just stupid. Let's say you think he's a jackass. That's just fine, everyone's entitled to their opinion. But I'm sure you can agree that getting suspended over an event that did not happen at work or on company property is just silly. Especially when the only "crime" was that some people found the costume offensive.

It's Halloween folks, people will dress up. Don't like it? Don't invite the guy to your party.

Another example of overboard "Political Correctness" NOT TOMLAND APPROVED

Ron Sims - Hang your head in shame.... SHAME!

While I usually like to take on more national issues; today I have to write about something that hits a little closer to home. This fall there is a huge initiative called "Transit Now" it will do much to expand the light rail line that already goes from SeaTac airport to downtown, will increase bus service and fund studies for even further expansion of light rail. Making Seattle much more efficient in terms of public transit.

I think this measure is great because it already builds onto the existing light rail, instead of some competing technology and increases the frequency of buses meaning less time waiting for your bus to arrive.

The funding for this will be a tenth of a percent sales tax increase and (maybe) a $80 per $10,000 vehicle value licence plate tax. That's fine, since the taxes come from a base that is most affected by the improvements.
So why the thumbs down? Why the title? As a co-worker mentioned to me, not all groups are in favor of this (no surprise there), but the surprise is that our King County Executive Ron Sims has withdrawn his support for the project. Ron has traditionally been in favor of mass transit projects and his lack of support is causing people to hesitate on voting in this initative.

Today the Seattle PI tells us WHY. Turns our Ron has drawn up the new 2008 budget for Seattle, and it turns out that Sims wants a TON OF TAX INCREASES including the same tenth of a percent tax increase that the transit now imitative wants. It doesn't stop there though, the list of increases is long:

• Sales Tax Increase = .1 %
• Property Tax Increase = 10 cents per 1,000 of assessed value
• Property Tax Increase (ADDITIONAL) = 5 cents per 1,0000 of assessed value
• Bus fare increase = 25 cents per trip

Of course Ron had to withdraw support for expanding transit service, how could you go before voters and ask for a sales tax increase when in a separate measure you're going to ask for sales, property, and fare increases just to maintain current service?

Clearly Sims was not interested in what's best for the working class of Seattle, this withdraw of the Transit Now initiative was clearly a political move to keep from looking like he's hiking taxes every which way.

The transit now initiative asks for a lot less taxes then Sim's general budget and would help a lot of people in the area., and worse yet, Sims wants to pay for a good chunk of it with more property tax which unfairly punishes homeowners. In fact, the additional $.05 cent increase is for financing of passenger ferries.

Now what does my being successful enough to buy a home have in common with passenger ferries? Why should you, fellow homeowner be punished for your success while you're lazy renting friends get a free ride. Taxes need to be at least somewhat related to the services they pay for.

Mr Sims.... Your ideas of backing off a better version of public transit to further your own budgetary agendas is clearly NOT TOMLAND APPROVED.

Peter, Peter - Promotion Eater

Hello folks,

I read a fascinating article today on howstuffworks.com. Ever work for a boss that you were convinced was an idiot? Have you every been pretty sure that you could do a better job then the person signing your paycheck?

A lot of people have, in fact someone back in 1967 wrote an article about it, it's called "The Peter Principle" and goes something like this:

"As a person continues his path of promotion, he's eventually promoted right out of his field of expertise and into a position where he's utterly and helplessly incompetent....At the point where his level of incompetence is reached, an employee's promotional trajectory usually ends, and he's stuck in a position where he no longer has confidence in his abilities and produces less work for the company than he did in the position in which he excelled. The problems created by this promotion are compounded by the idea that an incompetent manager will make incompetent decisions -- including deciding who to promote. Eventually....the higher levels of a bureaucracy become populated entirely by incompetent people.

Once an employee reaches his level of incompetence, in general, he won't be fired from the position, unless he's what Dr. Peter dubs a "super-incompetent" -- a person who's actually defined by his mistakes. Instead, the promoted employee is usually mediocre in his new position. He's able to cover up his incompetence....Since the bulk of the productivity within the company is generally carried out by the regular employees who form the base of the hierarchical pyramid, companies can operate indefinitely, so long as the incompetence of the higher levels doesn't present itself through catastrophic decisions.

I've been observing this principle almost from the day I started working at 15, but never thought to formalize what I had seen. Certainly I've never thought to put a name to it. But someone sure did... Dr. Laurence J. Peter, my hat goes off to you sir. Putting pen to paper so you can explain a often viewed but perhaps not well understood phenomenon and thus enlightening the masses just a little more; Tomland Approved!