Trusting the military
Americans have less confidence in religious and political leaders, but trust the military, say pollsters.

. . . in 2002, Americans who expressed a great deal or a lot of confidence in the military rose, to 79 percent from 58 in 1975.

People born in 1952 have the least trust in the military. We turned 16 in 1968, and I do mean we. Baby-boomers’ children and grandchildren show the most trust.

A poll by the Harvard Institute of Politics, based on interviews with 1,200 college undergraduates last month, found that 75 percent said they trusted the military “to do the right thing” either “all of the time” or “most of the time.” Two-thirds of the students said they supported the Iraq war. Hawks outnumbered doves more than 2 to 1.

In contrast, in 1975, 20 percent of people ages 18 to 29 said they had a great deal of confidence in those who ran the military, a Harris Poll found.

One professor says all that stress on teamwork, cooperation and service in school has bred a pro-military generation. I credit Osama bin Laden.

Are teachers underpaid?
Teacher pay has no relationship to effectiveness, nor do teachers earn more for expertise in math, science, special ed and other high-demand specialties. Salaries are tied to college credits past the BA and seniority, neither of which correlates well with teachers’ ability to teach. Two Education Next writers look at whether teachers are underpaid.

In addition, economist Michael Podgursky analyzes union data on what teachers earn: $43,250 for the average teacher in 2000-01, according to the American Federation of Teachers. Including staff training and planning days, most public school teachers work less than 190 days per year, compared to 240 days for other professionals. Teachers report an average of 38 hours a week of on-site work. Like other professionals, teachers do a lot of work at home. The flexibility to work at home is an attractive feature, especially for women with children at home, writes Podgursky.

The combination of a shorter workday and work year means that the annual hours on the job for teachers are much shorter than in comparable professions. . . . By (Bureau of Labor Statistics) calculations, only engineers, architects, and surveyors in private practice and attorneys earn more than teachers on an hourly basis.

The median pay for new teachers — about $29,000 — is only about 10 percent less than the $32,000 median for other college graduates entering the workforce, Podgursky writes. Teachers’ work year is 30 percent shorter and benefits are more generous.

Private school teachers earn less. Of course, the job is considerably easier because private school students come from more advantaged, education-focused families. Podgursky compared private school pay with salaries of public school teachers at low-poverty suburban schools.

Private school teachers now start at salaries that are 76 percent of their public school counterparts. This increases to 87 percent by their 12th year and declines thereafter. These results suggest that compared with the private sector, public schools overreward high levels of experience.

Via Teacher Quality Bulletin, which also links to an article on the correlation between well-educated teachers and well-educated students.

A majority of physical science and history teachers didn’t major or minor in the subjects they’re teaching.

Le poetry de fromage monkey
Dominique de Villepin likes poetry that doesn’t make sense, reports Susannah Herbert in The Telegraph.

Dominique de Villepin, the foreign minister, aristocrat and homme de lettres who has done so much to redefine French diplomacy as the art of inducing frothing fits of rage in your most powerful allies, is a brave man. This Friday, he publishes his magnum opus Eloge des voleurs de feu (“Tribute to the fire-stealers”) — a remarkable 800-page analysis of the poets and the poetry that have shaped his world-view.

. . . Not for him the rueful crumpled wisdom of a W.H. Auden: “Poetry makes nothing happen.” Instead, de Villepin sets himself squarely in the outsider school of the tortured and feverish Promethean rebel, damned by genius to perpetual spiritual agony.

His book “listens to the seed of the terrible voice which cleaves our consciences and feeds our imagination. It affirms its confidence in words, which force open the doors of mystery and give it movement and brightness”. He put the final touches to the manuscript during the negotiations over the second UN resolution on Iraq. There is nothing, note, about the power of words to, er, communicate.

De Villepin’s favorite is Rimbaud, “patron saint of misunderstood adolescents.”

I’m a big Ogden Nash fan myself.

Who’s in charge here?
Good schools are led by good principals, but the system seems to screen out leaders. On Education Gadfly, Chester Finn analyzes one proposed solution: Separate the job of managing the school from the job of educational leader. Business executives could keep the buses running on time, while an educator focuses on teaching and learning.

Higher and higher
Happy (slightly belated) blogiversary to Highered Intelligence.

21st century bigots
Civil rights leaders are suing to block school vouchers in Colorado, relying on a measure in the state constitution passed by 19th century nativist bigots, writes Stuart Buck

In search of discipline
The BBC thinks U.S. schools are being militarized: Military recruiters can contact high school students, enlistees are offered college benefits and poor blacks and Hispanics can escape chaotic schools for disciplined, structured academies.

There’s no doubt that academies and JROTC programs appeal most to kids who’ve grown up in dangerous neighborhoods with lousy schools. Students crave order, a sense of purpose and pride and attention from responsible men. Is it so awful to give that to them?

The BBC quotes a woman who disapproves:

“It’s giving hope to a lot of people that frankly don’t have a lot of other options in our society.”

Apparently, she wishes to take that hope away.

The reporter visits a school, mostly Hispanic, with a history of mob violence. Upstairs is Patton Military Academy.

One floor up from Farragut, the students in this military academy learn the patriotic creed and flag folding in a rigid, disciplined environment.

Actually, they learn normal high school subjects, not just jingoism and flag folding.

The attraction for students is that the military pay their tuition fees for their higher education.

But, in return, students have to join the army, the reserves or the National Guard.

Students who don’t want to join don’t have to.

Bronzeville student Elizabeth Stewart had signed up for the army — but did not understand the extent of her commitment.

Her college bills were paid by the military. But now she and her mother are faced with the realities of National Guard service — she could be sent to the Middle East.

She went through Bronzeville Military Academy and college, but just now figured out that military service sometimes involves being sent to dangerous places? She must be angling for a stupidity discharge.

Angie Schultz, who sent me to the BBC story, suggests reading the comments. BBC’s British listeners seem to have a serious case of the vapors, though a few wish UK students had the military academy option. I have to wonder: The Brits have a military too. Don’t they have military recruiters? Aren’t there poor kids who see the military followed by college as a better choice than joining a street gang?

Ha + ha = math humor
Here’s a rare math teacher joke.

Update: On IMAO, Frank has taken on imaginary numbers.

Alan Forrester from Oxford, England asks:
What is an imaginary number?

Pure crap is the short answer. No number can be squared and remain negative, so some mathematician made up this number i one day, but who gives a rats ass? Other mathematicians, I guess. Other than to those freaks, it’s completely useless.

Frank’s eighth grade math teacher said he couldn’t make up his own imaginary numbers. He’s still bitter.

Nepotistas of the media
Increasingly, elite journalists are a self-perpetuating caste, writes William McGowan in a National Review column. Media legacies — children of the well-connected — have trouble covering working-class Americans, he suggests.

Teachers’ unions are unions
Teachers’ unions exist to serve members’ economic interests, not to improve schools, writes Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe.

Teachers unions, like all unions, want to make money and amass power. Those are the motives behind everything they say and do. They’re not in business ”for the children.” They’re in business for themselves.

No wonder per-student education spending has nearly doubled in 30 years in real dollars. Performance has been flat, despite this claim about declining SAT scores. (More mediocre and marginal students are taking the SATs than in the past.)