Critical Factors in a Child's Academic Success

If we want children to succeed academically, we should focus on the most critical factors in a child's environment:

1. Low child poverty rates (as measured by school lunch subsidies).
2. Low divorce rates, i.e. stable homes.
3. Healthy kids (adequate access to health care).
4. Educated adult populations (which usually leads to higher income levels)

(More here.)

None of the above factors has anything to do with teacher salaries, education funding, testing, evaluation methods, or anything else on the teachers' union's agenda. I'm just sayin'.

Bonus: "For more than 40 years, ever since the publication of the Coleman Report, the key variable when it comes to educational achievement is parental involvement; all other factors--money, class size, choice and competition--are peripheral. Over those same forty years, parents have had to work harder to get by--two, three jobs in many cases--as good paying manufacturing jobs vanished. And, over that same period of time, the impact of crap culture--the Jersey Shore-ization of American Society--has increased exponentially." -- Joe Klein, "School Shock," Time magazine, November 9, 2010

Major City Hell?

This blogger sums up the reasons Gen Y has a harder time reaching the "adult" benchmarks of previous generations:

Boyfriend & I have had many discussions about the fact that New York is a short-term place to live. It's for young singles who like to party. It's for businessmen in their 20s who want to drink and bone and work on Wall Street 14 hours a day. It's for liberal women who have sworn off marriage and kids and simply want to make sweet love to their professions. But as you approach your 30s, you may begin to see New York in a different light. Most people start to see the city as an abusive boyfriend: It treats you like sh*t, steals all your money & wears you down to a little nubbin, but you keep running back because you love it and believe it will change.

More here. When houses in average school districts cost 500K+, it's very, very difficult to think about starting a family. Throw in the fact that money woes are the primary cause of breakups, and we have a perfect recipe for delayed childrearing.

Politics (Total Speculation Edition)

Marco Rubio and Robert Gates. Are they the GOP Dream Team for 2012's Presidential Election?

Total speculation, bonus round: I think Hilary Clinton will be running as the 2012 Democratic nominee for President. One deal might be that if she wins, she would nominate President Obama for the Supreme Court.

Review of SCU Broncos v. CSU Maritime (11/5/10)

I saw the SCU basketball team play an exhibition game against CSU Maritime on November 5, 2010. Here is my review/scouting report:

1. #24 (Julian Clarke) can shoot treys very well; however, like most gifted shooters, he seems too trigger-happy. He also needs to move more on offense instead of setting up in the same spot. Once opposing teams learn about him, his usual moves may not be enough to get him open.

2. #12 (Robert Smith) is an excellent PG, and we are lucky to have him. He is clearly the most talented player on the roster.

3. #3 (Chris Cunningham) is a great inside presence, but SCU's style of play is more up-tempo compared to recent years. As a result, the team had difficulty feeding the ball inside. The failure to utilize #3's skill set was very, very disappointing.

4. Unless #13 was injured or sick, the coach should think about reducing his minutes. He didn't seem comfortable on the floor, and #0 (Evan Roquemore) should be getting his minutes.

5. #10 (Ben Dowdell) hustles. His energetic play, including diving out of bounds for loose balls, seemed to turn things around for SCU.

6. #21 (Kevin Foster) will be the x-factor. He is blessed with an excellent wingspan and incredible athleticism, but seems a little raw.

Overall, we have a good chance of beating Gonzaga this year, as long as we learn to feed the ball inside to the big men, especially #3.

My preferred line-up:

PG Smith (sub: #0 Roquemore)
SG Foster (sub: #24 Clarke)
C Cunningham (sub: #25 McArthur)
PF Trasolini (sub: #10 Dowdell)
SF Troy Payne (sub: #44 Atanga)

California Post-Election Summary

The LA Times' Cathleen Decker writes an excellent post-election summary for California. I've been telling everyone that the GOP cannot appear to be anti-Latino and win any presidential election or any other election that counts California votes. Ms. Decker lays out why the GOP is doomed unless it changes its whitebread ways:

California in 1994 was more white and proportionately less Democratic than it is today, thus more similar to the country today. Nationally, non-whites made up only 22% of the Tuesday electorate; in California they made up 38%. Latinos nationally represented 8% of the national electorate, just shy of a third of their power in California. The California and national exit polls were conducted by Edison Research for a consortium of news organizations, including television news networks and the Associated Press.

Tellingly, Latinos in California had a far more negative view of the GOP than other voters — almost 3 in 4 had an unfavorable impression, to 22% favorable. Among all California voters the view of Republicans was negative, but at a closer 61% negative and 32% positive. Latinos had a strongly positive view of Democrats, 58% to 37%, whereas all voters were closely split, 49% to 45%.

The best part? State Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring: "The reality is that Democrats have strong relationships with urban and immigration communities that Republicans have not had, and that must change," he said. "It is not only a matter of politics; it is a matter of mathematics." More here.

Bonus: Ken's take on the elections here. An excerpt:

On Russ Feingold: To paraphrase Homer Simpson, I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my Democrats FLAMING. Democrats ought to distinguish themselves from Republicans by supporting the rights of the accused, opposing military adventurism, and resisting the encroachment of the post-9/11 security state. If they don’t, they are just sh*tty second-rate Republicans with less of a pretense of fiscal responsibility.

On Oklahoma's Sharia Law Stupidity: Oklahomans took a strong stand against having Sharia law imposed upon them. As far as I can figure, the only way you can have Sharia law imposed on you is if at some point you consented contractually to having it imposed on you. Meanwhile, my plaintiff-side clients still routinely get binding arbitration imposed on them, which makes Sharia law look like an appearance before Judge Harry of Night Court. Maybe the idea is you can contract away your right to anything resembling due process only if it’s in front of irritable retired judges in really expensive office suits, not if it involves weird robes and ululating and stuff.

High Unemployment Leads to Pogroms?

"Bear markets of sufficient size appear to bring about a desire to slaughter groups of successful people. In 1793-1794, radical Frenchmen guillotined countless members of high society. In the 1930s, Stalin slaughtered Ukrainians. In the 1940s, Nazis slaughtered Jews. In the 1970s, Communists in Cambodia and China slaughtered the affluent. In 1998, after their country's financial collapse, Indonesians went on a rampage and slaughtered Chinese merchants."

-- Bob Prechter, Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior, p. 270

Do Progressives Believe They are God-Like?

Many modern human beings do not believe in God or disagree with the idea of a higher power who has the ability to change the world. Once someone denies the existence of a higher power, s/he is left to rely on other human beings to implement change. Standing alone, an individual cannot produce wide-ranging, substantial change unless s/he is exceptional (e.g., founders of Google, etc.).

However, most of us are not exceptional. Therefore, most people who do not believe in a higher power rely on groups of people to create change. In practice, groups of people solicit their government to implement change via government programs. In short, modern human beings seem to have replaced God with man-made governments.

The idea of God required humans to be beneath a higher power and to accept certain limitations; in contrast, the idea of government as a change agent places human beings in a similar role as an omniscient or omnipotent God.