Julian Vasquez Heilig: Who Is Living in an “Alternate Universe”?

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1. Joanna Best says:

   October 5, 2013 at 2:45 pm

   It is a fair question because it exposes the motivations of people. And whether motivated by greed or simply blinded by it, a frame of reference very much depends on experience, dialogue, what a person reads, their economics, their ideology. A true leader can separate themselves from personal baggage and think about the group they are leading.

   I am still wondering about Arne’s universe. Now I know more (from reading this blog today) about the whole Ayn Rand thing. So it’s Ayn Rand and “sleek and shiny syndrome.”

   If you are actually around children every day, you are less likely to dwell in an alternate universe (children other than your own). Children keep you honest.
   All the more reason to have teachers involved in decisions regarding education.

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   • Joanna Best says:

     October 5, 2013 at 2:46 pm

     Julian it should read “look who’s talking” not “whose”

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     • Joanna Best says:

       October 5, 2013 at 2:57 pm

       On the comic strip itself

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     • WT says:

       October 5, 2013 at 5:48 pm

       Julian is wasting his time if he keeps trying to write any dull academic work. Clearly he is more of a force to be reckoned with in comics and photoshopping — hilarious stuff, man!

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     • Joanna Best says:

       October 5, 2013 at 5:57 pm

       Sorry I was a kill joy.
       :). I have a friend who writes sequential art and he always liked it when I had his back on spelling.
       😏

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2. John Young says:

   October 5, 2013 at 4:51 pm

   Oh, the irony:

   Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Transparency & accountability of government is essential. #govDE

   — Gov. Jack Markell (@GovernorMarkell) October 3, 2013

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3. Robert Tellman says:

   October 5, 2013 at 5:47 pm

   When it comes to whose opinion matters, remember we are in the age of David Coleman’s “No one gives a **** what you think”. I truly believe that is the mindset of ALL politicians and power brokers and most others.

   First of all it seems to me we used to refer to those people as our representatives. Nowadays they are politicians. Definition from dictionary.com:

   pol·i·ti·cian [pol-i-tish-uhn]
   noun
   1. a person who is active in party politics.
   2. a seeker or holder of public office, who is more concerned about winning favor or retaining power than about maintaining principles.
   3. a person who holds a political office.
   4. a person skilled in political government or administration; statesman or stateswoman.
   5. an expert in politics or political government.

   No one represents me these days.

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   • Green Party Teacher says:

     October 5, 2013 at 8:50 pm

     Don’t get me started again 🙂

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     • Robert D. Shepherd says:

       October 6, 2013 at 1:48 am

       : )

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4. Chuck says:

   October 5, 2013 at 10:06 pm

   There are alternative universes for sure, and I trust the one my students live in. We were discussing a clip from “Freakonomics” on bribing students for grades when one asked about bribing teachers for higher test scores. There it was, merit pay. So I asked the students-why not pay teachers based on student test scores–or, even release them if scores don’t rise. Paraphrasing, they said it would create terrible incentives (we had been using that term all along), that teachers would “stop caring about our learning.”

   My students are very smart, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what the new system “incentivizes,” and its not anything that is good for students. Of course, they don’t matter to the ones with money and power who want more of both.

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5. Robert D. Shepherd says:

   October 6, 2013 at 1:52 am

   Oh, the irony, indeed! Arne Duncan, who knows as much about education as Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church knows of quantum chromodynamics, speaks of “armchair pundits.” If Mr. Duncan had a clue–if he had any experience at all in the classroom, if he actually talked to teachers instead of listening only to the reverberations of the group think within the bubble he inhabits–then he would know how much these absurd, junk science tests are distorting pedagogy and curricula.

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   • Duane Swacker says:

     October 6, 2013 at 8:11 pm

     “. . . listening only to the reverberations of the group think within the bubble he inhabits. . .”

     The good thing is-is that all bubbles burst!

     Then again I hope I’m not anywhere near around when it does so as to not get splattered with the foul smelling content.

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