New topic..second attempt.
This is not a joke. Google "galvanic skin response" Gates foundation is investing serious money towards this for teachng tools. It is Orwellian. PPS is mentioned in this education blog.
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1321
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Call BodyMedia, a Pgh firm.
They might be able to make or sell such gizmos.
I'd rather just put the kids in a swim pool with a Speedo suits and goggles -- and perhaps, Heart Rate Monitors.
Nonono, this isn't for the kids' benefit directly. It's to measure "Teacher Effectiveness." If a kid feels relaxed in your class, bad news. Kids with slow heart rates from high levels of fitness might be a teacher's worst nightmare!
They'll have to throw in all sorts of bells and whistles (literal ones would seem to work best) and keep them "excited" -- to get to stay as a teacher. Although I guess pacing around yelling and threatening might keep them anxious/attentive as well.
Makes me think our admin, boardmembers and the heavyweights in education just repeat the Gates soundbites. The term "effective teacher" has jumped the shark. We need a new term because really, my brain is beginning to shut down when I hear those two words. And, while we are at it let's come up with a replacement phrase for the "effective teacher in front of..." cause it is on my last nerve too. Seriously, how many other parents are tired of hearing the message over and over again?
To anyone with a kid out there who has a child who may wish to teach someday, I have to ask you: How could your allow that as a career choice? Teaching IS a rewarding profession, but it has been demonized by both political parties and "entrepreneurs" like Gates are pushing personal agendas by throwing wads of cash at initiatives that again, paint teachers as the problem.
Would you really want a loved one to work in such a stress-filled environment, where pushing kids to realize their potential is one thing, but measuring up to some corporate vision of what makes a teacher effective--hatched not in any school but rather in some board room high within an ivory tower somewhere--is part and parcel THE requirement in keeping one's job.
Amazing times, and interesting that there is absolutely NO voice of reason out there.
Parents should understand this simple idea: thanks to the Bill Gates of the world, we are teaching kids what to think, and not how to think.
Is this education?
Gates views teachers as THE problem in American society. He sought to destroy teachers unions, influenced school districts via multi-million dollar endowments and has already set his sights on the radical destruction of teacher pensions.
The man is a lunatic with an unlimited flow of money, and is more dangerous than any politician.
Is PPS Dr. Jeannine French related to Melinda French Gates by any chance? And wasn't Bill Gates Mom an elementary school teacher?
Bill Gates is our generations Howard Hughes.
A strange man with to much money
Many people speculate that Bill Gates has Aspergers syndrome. Simply google it to find articles about it. It may explain his drone-like teaching model. I am. Ot making excuses, I believe he is destroying public education.
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