Common Core and The Importance of Developing Critical Thinking Skills

With so much debate and disagreement and ideology involved in the formation of the elementary school curriculum, it is becoming more and more important for children to have access to support in developing effective reading and vocabulary skills from as early as possible, as a greater grasp on the direct meanings of words fosters a more practical, common sense reasoning ability when faced with more abstract concepts and values, and results in a more self-reliant learner who is able to excel within the school curriculum, yet retain their own critical thinking skills.


Critical Thinking: A Necessary Skill in the Age of Spin
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/critical-thinking-necessary-skill-g-randy-kasten

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How will Society as a Whole Benefit from Universal Preschool?

Patty Murray, other lawmakers want to offer universal preschool http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2022245351_universalprekxml.html

Do we need universal preschool, not just in Washington State but in every state? YES!
Why you ask?

The following article on the Huffington Post by Mark Shriver provides some compelling facts to back up the move for universal early education for low and medium income families in Washington.

America Can't Afford to Waitlist Its Children's Future http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kennedy-shriver/america-cant-afford-to-wa_b_4265452.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education

Here are some key excerpts from Mr. Shriver's article to consider:

"...Fifty-three percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in this country are not enrolled in any kind of preschool, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual Kids Count report. That means that more than half of our kids walk into kindergarten unprepared and already behind.

Children without access to quality early education programs start kindergarten with an 18-month disadvantage, and that gap continues to widen. By the time they are in fourth grade, many cannot do math or read at grade level. And the simple reality is that they are unlikely to catch up."

"Investing in a comprehensive national early childhood program could add $2 trillion to the annual gross domestic product within a generation, according to the Brookings Institute, and result in a dramatic decrease to poverty rates." 

"Getting an early start on learning also helps these children improve their chances to graduate from high school, obtain a higher education, purchase a home and contribute to their community. This is an incredible return on investment that would, in the future, help solve many of the problems our nation is struggling with today." 

The bottom line is that it is our responsibility as parents and voters, and stewards of our planet to ensure children are given the tools to succeed in school. The benefit is not just to the individual or the family, but to society as a whole, as better educated children are more likely to go on to get a higher education, earn higher incomes, and become more productive, critically thinking members of society with a greater ability to take responsibility for their world - our world.

Related articles

• Mark Shriver: America Can't Afford to Waitlist Its Children's Future
• Save the Children Hosts U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Early Learning Tour and Town Hall in Rural Kentucky
• Congress Takes Bipartisan Action To Expand Preschool And Childcare
• Why Universal Preschool Is Especially Important For Children Of Color
• The Implications of Universal Preschool
• Seattle's universal preschool plan hits hurdle over union meeting

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Banned TED Talk from Seattle native Nick Hanauer on the Truth about Job Creation

Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g

Via Business Insider: "As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs. The position is controversial — so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. National Journal reports today that TED officials decided not to put Hanauer's March 1 speech up online after deeming his remarks "too politically controversial" for the site..."

Now here is a talk that in a short five or so minutes brings up a very important point about jobs that should be taken into consideration in order to support business the way it should be, and the way it needs to be, in order to keep our economy stable and allow it to flourish. What we have happening currently, is the opposite, where more and more businesses struggle to get by, and more and more fail altogether, pushed out by larger corporations dominating the market which leads to less jobs, and the jobs that are created are lower paying, with the employees being understaffed and overworked.

The result of this is that more and more of the general population who are the bulk of consumers in our nation, are being paid less, and thus have much less to spend into our businesses. And if we as consumers are spending less, businesses are selling less, which means they’re making less profit, and less and less able to stay afloat.

Is this any way to treat our businesses, which are what keep the wheels of our economy turning, and providing us with the necessities of life? Because where will this cycle end? We’re at the point where small businesses just can’t compete with the larger corporations, and even corporations have to constantly compete amongst one another for the cheapest prices, because individuals can afford less and less. And if the company makes less and less profit, they’re going to want to pay their employees less and less. The employees who are our consumers will then be able to afford less and less. How far can this vicious cycle go?

Shouldn’t we take better care of the businesses we depend on? Take for example grocery stores, one of the lowest paying jobs you can get. What would you do without a grocery store? The next time you are on your way to the store with your list of foods and items you are going to purchase just imagine what you would do if the store wasn’t there. Business is important and we must realize that that means that we have to effectively support ourselves as consumers (with proper incomes) so that we can in turn support our businesses, creating a self-sustaining cycle that supports life.

This means we need to embrace the fact that all the parts of what makes a business successful are equally important; that without consumers to purchase goods and services, there is no business. So, as Nick Hanauer pointed out in his talk, there really is no such thing as one person creating jobs, because in an economy ‘no man is an island’, and there is certainly no business, and thus no jobs, without consumers.

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What Can Parents Do To Prevent "Summer Slide" Learning Loss?

The new school year is approaching - is your child prepared?
Many parents are not aware that through the "Summer Slide" phenomenon, children are entering the new school year unprepared, to the degree that teachers are spending up to 6 weeks re-teaching material from the previous year.

It's Known as the Summer Slide: Parents and Students Seek Ways to Stay Academically Engaged Over Vacation
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/7/prweb10967255.htm


This phenomenon is attributed mostly to a lack of intellectually engaging activities during the summer break. What's interesting to consider here though is that if the material from the previous year was actually in fact learned effectively, for example at the level that we know that 1+1=2, then even if the child did not read any books over the summer, or did not do any academic exercises, they should still have the information integrated. I mean, how many of us regularly practice our times tables every day? Lol, probably almost none of us. However, we can see that the things we indeed learned effectively -- we still know and we know we will never forget it.

In Washington we have the 4th largest class sizes in the US. In a classroom of 20, 25, 30 kids obviously children are learning at different speeds and there is not sufficient time and resources available to the teacher to regularly assess and remediate each student to make sure that the material is really sinking in. And obviously parents can only do so much during the summer break because - parents are not trained in the school curriculum and thus are for the most part not equipped to assess and remediate their children sufficiently.

The fact that children do show a natural learning ability which enables them to integrate information effectively, again in the example of the basic times tables and also we can take the example of learning to ride a bike or learning to walk -- goes to show that it is possible to learn at a level where it is not forgotten, even if you're out of practice with riding a bike for instance. And in these cases the effectiveness comes from effective repetition which seems to function in a way where the information / understanding is placed beyond just 'memory', directly into the 'knowing' level.

So it would seem prudent for educators and parents to investigate ways of facilitating additional repetition of the foundational vocabulary and knowledge, in order that it is not forgotten over the summer, which would serve to prepare students more effectively for the next school year.

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SeaTac's $15 / Hour Minimum Wage Initiative: A Multidimensional Issue

SeaTac's minimum-wage initiative is causing quite a stir in the area. The initiative proposes to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, from the current state minimum of $9.50 per hour. This would make SeaTac have a minimum wage that is extremely higher than surrounding areas. There is a lot of criticism toward this initiative. There’s concern that raising the minimum wage in SeaTac is going to make it unappealing to businesses and investors, as who would want to have a business where the labor is going to be more expensive?

This tendency we also see on a large scale in our country and in the world, in the form of out-sourcing, where the tendency is to always look for the cheapest labor possible, in order to maximize profits. Though it can be contended whether that would really be real ‘profits’ when it is not profit that is naturally earned, but is artificially created by not effectively compensating the individuals providing the labor. 

One of the primary arguments against raising the minimum wage, whether at a local level or country-wide, is that this will threaten small businesses and force them to hire less employees or go out of business. Yet, if a job structure can't viably afford to pay employees a proper remuneration, then should that job exist? It’s not a sound business structure is it, if it can’t effectively pay those it would employ? 

The mayor of Seattle Mike McGinn has caused a stir recently by suggesting that a proposed Whole Foods be rejected on the basis that Whole Foods typically does not pay its employees enough. He’s received a lot of criticism for this move, with some saying that this is uncalled for and not appropriate grounds to reject what is a legal business – but this raises some interesting and important points for consideration, namely – should it be legal for jobs to not pay the individuals who provide them with labor, enough to effectively live. And does that even make sense when it’s the laborer who creates the value through their labor that even makes a business possible? 

Mayor Mike McGinn has received some criticism for viewing employee wages and benefits as a point to take into consideration when determining whether a business should be allowed into the community or not. Shouldn’t that be something we take into consideration though, when the companies which we might accept into our neighborhoods are going to affect the very areas in which we live, what kind of jobs are available and thus what level of quality of living is available to us, and for our children who will one day be looking for jobs themselves. What kind of opportunities are we creating that will be available to them in the future? The argument that this should not have any bearing in determining whether to allow a business in the community doesn’t make sense as it has a direct and significant impact on all of our lives, and thus is certainly something to take into consideration.

Yet, there are actually a lot of dimensions to this situation, and it’s not so easy as just implementing a higher minimum wage. We have to consider all aspects of our labor system, to ensure that it remains stable and viable, to effectively support everyone. Which means we should also consider how to ensure the stability of our businesses.

There's probably a lot of individuals out there who would like to operate a business, but don't want to go through the stress involved and the personal risk involved, which means that a lot of individuals are simply not going to take that risk. Meanwhile, those currently operating a small business certainly don't want to be going through that stress and risk themselves either. I don't know why we would want to have such a hostile ‘you’re on your own’ environment for businesses when it's businesses that provide jobs, because that hostile environment then translates directly into the worker experience and situation as well, where workers will have to work in sometimes bordering on slave labor conditions, understaffed, overworked, and underpaid to top it off, for all the labor they're providing.

So it's a two-way street, in essence, the businesses need the laborers, without laborers there is simply no business, there's no value created through labor as goods and services to sell. And laborers need a business structure through which to disperse those goods and services to those who would buy them. Thus, it's in everyone's interest to make sure that all aspects of labor are able to function effectively, as quite literally all of our livelihoods depend on it.

With such consideration in mind, the Political Economy Research Institute conducted a study into how it would affect businesses to raise the minimum wage, where they found that a minimum-wage increase does not necessarily significantly raise employer costs, and are covered by a modest raise of price. And with higher wages, you'd have a more stable and robust economy, as individuals would obviously be more financially stable themselves, and able to spend more and spend more regularly, which would make things more stable for businesses, unlike the situation currently, where many employees of large companies/corporations have to go on food stamps when available work volume is low and employers cut employee’s hours.

Sources:
Most Minimum Wage Earners Can't Afford Necessities of Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Pq_FDIcpw

Editorial: Mike McGinn’s Whole Foods wage campaign out of line

http://seattletimes.com/html/editorials/2021474548_editmcginnwholefoodsxml.html

Mayor’s race ignited as McGinn called out on Whole Foods attack

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021456712_westneat24xml.html

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Orca Whales Off Bainbridge after Liberty Bay Visit

Summer Orca outing near Bainbridge. Sighted earlier feeding in Liberty Bay in Poulsbo.

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Unemployment Up in Kitsap County - A Local Problem or is it Systemic?

Is Unemployment A Local Problem or is it Systemic?

Often there's a tendency to view unemployment as a local issue, meaning that we never really take a step back, to look at the entirety of the system and consider it's functioning as a whole. We look at individual areas and make comparisons between them as to who has made more jobs, who's doing better, who's doing worse. Yet never really seeing the big picture, of how it's all interconnected.

Within this, it's really hard to make heads or tails of the situation - is it getting better? Is it getting worse? For example, the Kitsap Sun reports that unemployment in Kitsap County has risen, with now 444 more individuals unemployed in June than in May. Read the full article here:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/jul/23/unemployment-in-kitsap-county-up-in-june/?partner=RSS#axzz2Zv22Uygu

While another article from the Kitsap Sun, finds that jobs have risen in Washington state overall. See full article here: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/jul/17/wash-gains-9800-jobs-in-june/#axzz2Zv22Uygu

It’s really easy to get lost in the statistics, and forget the simplicity of everyone needs a job, or needs to be supported if they’re not able to find a job. From that perspective, ‘gains’ and ‘losses’ are really irrelevant, because the bottom line is everyone needs to be supported.

Our physical day to day needs don’t wait for us to find a job, our bills don’t wait for us to find a job, our injuries and conditions which require treatment don’t wait for us to get a job. We need a constant and consistent support which just isn’t effectively in place currently, so that if you don’t find a job, it can be a life and death situation, you could lose your home, or have to forgo important healthcare and find ways to live with health conditions that effect one’s quality of living.

Since there is no effective system in place, what happens is a kind of ‘fend for yourself’ ‘each one for his own’ situation, where this exists at the individual level, where it’s ‘on you’ to find a job to support yourself, regardless of whether or not there are actually enough jobs that pay enough to make a dignified living. And we will even take it personally when we can’t find a successful job, which is really a job that pays enough, as if it is something wrong with us as an individual, but when there aren’t enough effective jobs, and everyone doesn’t have the same access to afford an education to get the necessary skills and training and degrees to get placed into the better jobs that are available, it’s really not personal, it’s built into the very system. 

And, as the saying goes, “as above, so below” – we have the same thing happening at the local government level, and the state government level, all the way up to the ‘top’ at the country level – where we will tend to look at the issues we face such as unemployment and will compare one country to another, or one state to another, or one county to another, in how each one is dealing with the situation of, for example, unemployment, but never really taking a step back to look at – but why does unemployment really even exist in the first place? Or why is it such a problem that leads to individuals losing their quality of living, when we have all the resources in the world to ensure that no one has to lose their quality of living. We even have systems in place such as welfare, but it’s not really effective.

So what happens when we focus on things from within a local perspective, is our focus is within our particular area, with its resources and companies and demographics, and we try to solve the problem of unemployment from within that. Yet why this isn’t effective is the economy of a locality is not actually limited to itself. We all actually share the same economy – it’s like a bunch of ‘little economies’ that are all part of one total economy, yet each economy thinking and acting as if it is separate. 

The result of this is that we never actually look at the foundation of our system which is the law structure, as all business conforms to the law. The law is thus what ‘set the stage’ for how we operate, at all levels of government, down to the individual level as well. Which would imply that if we want to really get to the heart of issues, such as unemployment, we’ve got to take a look at the very law system itself, to see what is not effective within it, that it is not directing us to effectively make enough jobs and to provide effective support for those who haven’t found a job, so that when we hear unemployment numbers, you don’t have to think about all the people that means that can’t afford to live properly, as you wouldn’t want to be one of those statistics.

This is also why so many businesses just don’t make it, which results in further job losses, because if people aren’t effectively employed, they can’t buy goods and services, which means that businesses don’t make enough to stay afloat. It’s a vicious cycle. But it’s even easy to miss this when we aren’t considering the bigger picture, if we are in an area that is doing well for instance, we might think everything is ok, for now, but miss the bigger picture of how everywhere overall things aren’t improving, and that since all our economies are interconnected, that does not bode well for anyone, even if their economy is stable for the moment. Because an individual economy doesn’t exist by itself – no man is an island, and even an island isn’t an island, from that perspective – our economies are all intertwined and dependent on each other, and therefore we need to consider the bigger picture and ensuring that all economies are stable and effective. 

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