Comments on: Rightward Ho!

Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen: Court's Conservative Turn Is A Matter Of Math — And Art

[yeshuas_lion]

Again, Mr. Cohen doesn't come close to making a point and bringing forth evidence to support his original thesis statement. (This is just basic freshman English.)

He states that the reason for the Court's conservative shift was two-fold and due entirely to math and art. He touches briefly on math, but doesn't touch on art at all.

This is the core problem of liberalism; no intellectual follow-through

Afterall, art takes a thousand different forms and cuts across just as many boundaries to bring meaning in a creative way to thousands of different creatively thinking minds.

It shouldn't be hard to talk about art because afterall ART IS. It just IS, isn't it?

Much like the Logos of the Universe is art.

[yeshuas_lion]

Unfortunately, Mr. Sam, you have missed the point.

It is not entirely a money issue, it is a spiritual issue, and the fact that the black community is spiritually broken.

At risk boys aren't looking for a Dr. Phil. They are seeking after their fathers. The Black community has become a matriarchal society. It may work in Britian with the Queen, but it does not play out well in an American Harlem.

[samthetvcat]

Just to clarify the economic argument in my previous comment, while that same study found that school attendance DID reduce a child's chances of turning to crime it didn't necessarily find that spending more per child on education would guarantee greater interest in school - so I'll concede that much to you Republicons. At the risk of sounding cliche, it takes a village as Hillary said . . . there's also in many cases the poverty aspect, the parental involvement level, the gang culture. Frustrating issue with no easy solutions - but the first step is to care, and I don't see that in this Supreme Court ruling. So are THEY part of the solution or part of the problem? (Not that I'm sticking up for Andrew Cohen - I didn't want to make an issue of it, but yeah, he does kind of have a tendency to sound powerless and whiny in his writings . . . wasn't sure if it was just me who thought that . . . apparently not . . . )

[samthetvcat]

Supposedly the natural tendency for all of us is to focus on those above and how we're not measuring up (like it's a striving mechanism that motivates us) so people will tend to instead look at all the legacy kids like Bush who take up spots at the elite colleges and then go on to become President and draw inward to compete. I'm optimistic though because when people heard about all the kids displaced by Katrina people really held their hands out to help.

When I was scanning for the Harvard study there was another one that mentioned that in the rich neighborhoods of NYC schools spend $22k per kid while other neighborhoods where many kids end up joining gangs and whatnot spend half that. They also pointed out that if it costs $30k per year to incarcerate an individual, then if education can prevent a child from turning to crime it would actually be more cost-effective to invest the money at the outset.

I've also read stuff about how having class sizes of 20-25 increases performance...don't know whether all schools have managed to achieve that or not. Also, maybe if there's a brain-drain with teachers they need to consider having members of industry come in and teach a class or two. And maybe each school ought to have a resident Dr. Phil to help the at-risk kids rather than relying on teachers who are already overworked and underpaid.

Too bad teachers don't have the lobbying power of the Insurance industry! Grrr

[yeshuas_lion]

Mr. Cohen states with confidence, "Two things are directly responsible for the Court's marked turn to the right this term--math and art."

Mr. Cohen forgot to insert the third and most important reason into his oblique equation,(or shall I say bleak equation)-- himself.

Mr Cohen whines and complains but fails to come up with the winning plan or equation,(afterall with math the answer is either right or wrong), so naturally, like most liberals at this point in time, he is the one put on the defensive for his failed dogmatic philosophies.

"Defensive Moves" look much like mr. mike nifong's illegal, wrongful and malicious prosecution,-there were many accusations thrown about but absolutely no evidence to back them up and when the "light" was finally shined upon the entire sham and debacle the only thing left for him to do was to resign in disgrace.

[incog-nito]

If we want our education system to be equal everywhere, then why don't we spend an equal amount of money on every child? Why is school funding based mainly on local property taxes? This only means that richer neighborhoods will have better schools, and vice-versa. Isn't the goal of public education is to provide equal opportunity for every child. The current system is so obviously, egregiously, idiotically wrong that it's amazing that people put up with it.

[samthetvcat]

"The question is what is the total impact to ALL students? Busing usually means as somebody gets bussed in - somebody else gets bussed out."
jimmyc1955

Another finding from that same study:

"We were astounded to see how great an
influence attending a public school has on minority male%u2019s success in early adulthood. For minority men, going to a public versus a private or magnet school yields a devastating effect on their early adult SES. Net of controls, the odds of being off track in early adulthood, are nearly six times greater for minority men who attended public school as opposed to a private/magnet school in adolescence. The effect of going to a public school has no significant effect on early adult socioeconomic standing for both minority women and whites."

[samthetvcat]

"My reading of the Harvard study is that the prime determinant of academic success isn't how much money we spend but how much follow up is there at home for stressing the homework and study."
jimmyc1955

Do you have a link to that study because the one I found directly contradicts the finding you cited above (http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/inequality/Summer/Summer00/papers/Furstenberg.PDF, "Peer group influence is especially important for understanding the later life achievement of minority youth. Even though studies of adolescent achievement generally point to the family as the single most important influence in the domain of socialization, race differences in achievement are not fully explained as a result of within-family factors. In fact, Steinberg and
Darling found that peers are stronger sources of influence than parents...They also reported that the peers of black students seem to not encourage academic achievement and therefore counterbalance parent encouragement of school success") thx

[walt1944-2009]

I have just learned that the Supreme Court has ruled tht the world isn't round after all; that indeed, it is as flat as your kitchen table. Dismissing tons of evidence submitted by NASA to prove that the earth is round, the Court instead chose to accept evidence as presented in the latest Disney movie "Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End". Chief Justice Roberts, in his written opinion, stated that he believed that pirate Jack Sparrow was better qualified to prove the earth is flat rather than dozens of left-wing NASA scientists. Justice Alito concurred and in his opinion, writing that he believed the "round Earth" theory was a liberal plot designed to influence the minds of promising, young, white, right-wing college students. Justice Thomas refrained from making an opinion as he stated the Bible does not state in what shape God did make the world into!

The Court's next case is "Alberto Gonzalez vs. the chicken". The court will attempt to answer a question which has perplexed Emperor Bush and his court since he took the throne in the Oval Office, that being: Which came first; the chicken of the egg?

SIG HEIL, BUSH!!

[jsilver2th]

Really we have Ralph Nader to thank for this- and he's coming back in 2008 when he should be looking for assisted living for the senile- now even Micheal Moore isn't pure enough for Ralph-