Random Thoughts on the 2016 US Election Results

WTF, America?

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We just gave the power to declare martial law and to start a "police action" to someone who's most supportive aids do not even trust him with a Twitter account.

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Some people wanted someone who was uncorruptable. So they picked a guy who didn't have to be bought because he already believes in everything that decent leaders have to be bribed to do.

They wanted a good businessman so they picked a guy who's gone bankrupt numerous times and can no longer get loans in the US (and has screwed over everyone he's ever worked with).

They wanted someone with family values, so they picked a guy with multiple divorces who thinks sexual harassment is just good fun.

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I do not have an escape plan. Oklahoma City is not looking good. And who wants daily earthquakes anyway? My next countries to read up on are going to be Costa Rica and Uruguay.

Even if I do leave, I can't take everyone with me. I can't fix anything.

Not that we even deserve to be accepted into other countries when we don't even want to take war refugees.

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Me - I'm too self-centered and selfish to change into a different kind of person.

R - What kind of person?

Me - Bitter. Angry. Disgusted. Helpless.

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All of my actions and goals feel pathetic and useless.

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I guess I'm not going to wear black for the next four years. I kind of want to, though.

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I saw five black people on my walk to and from the craft resale shop. I wanted to give my condolences to each of them. But I didn't.

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I'm kind of glad that the next restauranteurs we are going to support are minorities (Hispanic at El Caribe and Vietnamese at Tan My).

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I guess I'm relatively safe myself. I'm white. I'm a citizen.

I am female, so I can be grabbed and raped, but they can't make me have the baby (because I'm post-menopausal), so ha! They could make me go to church, but the one down the street looks kind of fun.

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We have a democratic republic rather than a democracy so that the electoral college can save us from ourselves. Where are they when we need them? I have heard nothing.

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I haven't heard about rioting in the streets and cities burning down, though. So that's good.

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Even if Trump stomps his feet and resigns the first time he doesn't get his way, I still think we're in great danger of rolling back protections for so many people who really need them. I used to think no one was worse than Cruz. But both Trump and Pence are.

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I don't like the Facebook posts that tell me to be cool about losing. We win some, we lose some. Everything's going to be okay.

You know what? Everything's not always okay even with democratically elected officials. Sometimes things change drastically for the worse.

Lyrics from the song "1917" come to mind, especially: "Old World glory, Old World Fame, the old world's gone, gone up in flames. Nothing will ever be the same. And nothing lasts forever." One could argue that France is actually fine (now). But how long did it take?

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In "Idiocracy," they picked the smartest person in the country to be their president. And when a smarter one arrived, they handed over the presidency to him. That would never happen here.

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Here are some things I did like on Facebook:

"Congratulations to Donald Trump, and to my friends who supported him, on your victory. I hope he has a successful presidency.

"All Americans of good faith should support our new president when his actions are constructive, dissent when they are not, and resist if necessary." - Mike McGranaghan (conservative and Republican who voted for Clinton)

"This election is like if your friends pick dinner and 3 vote pizza and 2 vote "kill and eat you". Even if pizza wins, there's a big problem." - Andrew Schvartz (total stranger to me)

"I want to clarify previous posts. We need to fight for CIVIL RIGHTS. Those of minorities- LGBT+, Racial, financial.

"Let Trump burn Washington to the ground- there's no doubt it's corrupt. Rural workers are as deserving of a voice as anyone, and if they think his plan will work for them? Give it a fair shot. Four years won't break our economy.

"But do NOT let him break our spirits. Let the builder see what he can build. Fight tooth and claw for anything he tries to TAKE." - Gwen Sanger (lgbtqia community member)

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I didn't want to spew venom on Facebook. So I wrote this: "To all those who feel like the whole country hates you, let me assure you that it's not true. I stand with the lgbtqia community. I know that Black lives matter. I stand with ethnic and religious minorities and women. I want the poor to have decent food and health care. I stand with refugees and other immigrants. I stand with people who don't want the sea level rising over their cities. I stand with people who want clean air and water.

"And I promise you, I'm not the only one."

But I don't actually know how to stand with people. I vote and I sign petitions while watching bad things happen anyway. I know my Senators don't care what I think, but I make them read a lot of petitions anyway--does that help at all?

When net neutrality disappears, things will get even worse. The country is already gerrymandered to heck--that's not going to get better. The laws have become more and more pro-big-business profits at the expense of competition, creativity, human beings, and the very earth we live on--that's not going to get better either. Companies are still "too big to fail" and we still don't punish serious white collar criminals. Supposedly we can fire people for not doing their jobs (passing a budget, approving a Supreme Court nominee), but we never do.

How do I stand by people in the face of all this? Like a little ant squeaking, "Hey, you shouldn't do that!"

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WTF, America?

Review: Finnish Lessons

I just finished Pasi Sahlberg's Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational change in Finland? (the series on school reform) (2010).

According to some tests (2009 PISA), Finland's students have some of the highest academic achievement among western countries (OECD countries) (only [south] Koreans did better) with some of the smallests differences between schools (only Iceland is better), even though they were quite mediocre in the 1980s.

(US students have slightly above average achievement and significantly below average equality. Korea has pretty good equality; Iceland has slightly above average achievement. Austria and Luxemburg have the worst achievement, and both have below average equity. Belgium has the worst equality?! but better than US achievement. Canada, New Zealand, and Japan are a bit behind Korea and Finland in achievement, with Canada and Japan having very good equality and New Zealand having equality almost as bad as the US. How about my other current favorites? Norway is close to Iceland with a little better achievement but significantly less equality. The Netherlands is just a bit above average on both measures.)

What changed?

1) They made all levels of education accessible to everyone, not just city dwellers.

2) They still don't start school until age 7, but they stay together for nine years rather than four years before splitting into college versus vocational tracks. This means now they all are taught foreign languages. At first there were tracks for lower, medium, and high levels of language learning, but then these were abolished.

3) They changed from the semester system to a 7-week session system. You rarely repeat a whole grade; you just retake the subjects you've failed. In fact, there are no grades 10, 11, or 12, anymore. All students must complete 75 of these 7-week courses including 18 required ones, but they have a lot of choice on what to take and when to take it. Most students study 80 - 90 courses.

4) Career guidance and counseling is mandatory. This helps students pick the best track for them and prepare appropriately.

5) Special education is added as soon as a problem is discovered; about half of all students have special ed at some point during their education, so the stigma is minimal. Usually this is additional instruction in troublesome areas; sometimes this is in separate schools.

6) A masters degree is required for teachers at all levels. This degree also qualifies people for other careers. So teaching has good status--just as good as doctors and lawyers.

7) Teachers are treated as professionals--they write their own curriculum, they teach fewer classes than in the US (4 per day versus 6-7), they are encouraged to help each other out, and there is no standardized testing by which students and teachers are judged. This freedom to do things how they want to (like doctors and lawyers) also makes the job enticing.

8) After the severe recession of the 1990s, the government decided to support diversification into tech and mobile communication (Nokia is a Finnish company) rather than traditional industry such as forestry and metals. So they wanted an educated, thinking populace and started emphasizing experimentation. Also, after the fall of the Soviet Union, they rushed to join the European Union and wanted to improve to European educational standards.

"Surprisingly, Finland, Korea, and Japan--all countries with high-performing and equitable education systems--have had only a modest role in the generation of global change knowledge. Each of the countries has heavily relied on the research and innovation from the United States, England, Australia, and Canada." We do research to discover good teaching methods and then ignore it.

Unfortunately, teachers still only make a slightly above-average salary which implies a low salary for jobs that require a degree just like in the US. But teachers would rather make less than to have less freedom. Not surprisingly, most teachers are women (though the job is considered high-status for men, too). Also, because every school is different there is a lack of consistency between schools; it seems like if you moved a lot like I did, you'd get special education to catch up on the new things at your new school.

For other countries, the author recommends "we should reconsider those education policies that advocate choice [of school, not of subject matter], competition and privatization as the key drivers of sustained educational improvement. None of the best-performing education systems currently rely primarily on them. ... Second, we should reconsider teacher policies by giving teachers government-paid master's degree-level university education, providing better professional support in their work, and making teaching a respected profession. ... Finally, ... The secret of Finnish rapid and sustained educational improvement is due to a smart combination of national tradition and international ideas."

Unfortunately, the global financial crisis of 2008+ hit Finland hard. The government cut expenses by closing down rural schools and temporarily laying off teachers. "Teachers have been sent home without pay for a few days or in some cases, some weeks. While a teacher has been on this forced unpaid leave other teachers have had to take care of her or his classes and students."

The author's recommendation for Finland's future is 1) developing customized learning plans for students, 2) developing more activity-based learning instead of classroom-based learning, to take advantage of technology, 3) developing interpersonal skills and problem solving, and 4) (my personal favorite) focusing on creativity. "If creativity is defined as coming up with original ideas that have value, then creativity should be as important as literacy and treated with the same status."

Other things I learned about Finland: A requirement of high school is that you study two domestic languages and two foreign languages. (Hmm, what languages would I pick?) And what are the domestic languages? Finnish, Swedish, and Sami (the language of the indigenous people). And Finland is the "first country to make a broadband Internet connection a human right for all citizens." Yes, awesome.