The Curmudgeon Speaks

I have probably mentioned before that things cost a lot in Kauai. I had pretty much assumed that this was the way it was going to be with the exception of COSTCO – a foot long hot dog on a soft bun and a soda for $1.50. I have learned that products you are known for are often overpriced. I have no idea what the going price is for coconuts, but I do know coffee. I have consumed coffee pretty much everywhere they speak English and a few places they don’t.

My wife knows the prices of things she buys at grocery stores and can recognize good deals even at expensive groceries. I know the price of brewed coffee. The coffee at one of my favorite coffee spots (Fresh Start Coffee Roasters) is $1.75 for a medium (25 cents for a self-poured refill). The Sparrow, one of the two coffee shops I can find on my own in Minneapolis, is $2.50 and I have always been afraid to ask for a refill because they will likely charge me the same for the second cup.

I understand that they grow coffee here and all that. They are probably very proud of their crops and status as the #1 coffee producer in the U.S. Where else would you grow coffee in the U.S.? Anyway, I pay $4 or so for coffee (straight) and since the price of a latte is about the same, I usually have a latte.

The exception is the Koala Mill Ice Cream and Coffee shop. This shop has what they describe as “Aloha Coffee Pricing”.

There would probably come a time if I spent enough months in Kauai that I cease to be fascinated by the physical beauty I can see and photograph just walking around. Here are a couple of examples from today’s trek back from the coffee shop.

This is the flower of the plumeria. I associate it with the flower leis most probably think of when thinking of Hawaii. I took almost this identical picture this morning with my phone and then came back this afternoon with my camera because I wanted an image with more pixels I might have printed. There were several trees just starting to flower and this one flower caught my attention because of the yellowish cast. It was a tough shot. I had to hold my camera over my head as far up as I could and shoot blind.

Here is the interesting thing to me about this plant. My understanding of trees and the various parts of trees suggest that in a given year, a tree opens leaves that generate the food (sugars) the tree needs through the process of photosynthesis. This sugar is used to accomplish the things a tree needs to accomplish – sustain existing structures, grow, and produce seeds of some type. The plumeria seems to accomplish all of these things, but in the wrong order. I guess this is considered winter here and the plumeria when we first arrived looked dead (for a region where everything else was green). Then a couple of leaves emerged and now the flowers. I assume the full foliage will emerge eventually. The work the tree is doing now all must be accomplished with the energy stored last season. I have no idea why this tree needs to make things so difficult.

Example 2 – note the strange coloration on this tree trunk – greens and oranges.

What is not really visible in this image is the more traditional bark that used to cover this trunk and still covers most of the rest of the tree. The tree seems to molt. I tend to think of a tree losing the bark in a complete circle of the circumference of the tree as fatal (girdling) because it exposes the cambium. This must not be what is happening in this case. This is a common tree along my path, but I have no idea what it is. It was the unusual colors that caught my attention.

Much of my time is spent exploring the intersection of education, technology, and society. Trying to explain how academics do such things is probably not that interesting to most. However, the consequences of this intersection should be. Here is an interview on one of the podcasts I follow with Andrew Keen. He predicted the potential downside of the open Internet back in 2007 (Cult of the Amateur) and I must admit many of his predictions proved accurate. He has a new book, the focus of the interview I have linked, that describes what he believes has happened since and what might be done to seek more productive outcomes. I think the interview is well done and worth watching.

https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/335

I am not a political scientist, but I do appreciate their collection of data. With all of the weird claims being made by politicians, I look for data and ignore pronouncements to understand what I observe.

This Mother Jones article summarizes a study from a research group at Oxford. Just to be clear, the source for the data are the Oxford researchers and not the Mother. Jones writers.

The researchers identified right and left-oriented individuals posting to Twitter and Facebook and then counted the frequency of watch list, junk news, and mainstream news articles promoted by both groups. Conservatives accounted for much more of the watch list and junk news references and liberals more of the mainstream news stories. Of course, conservatives assume the mainstream news sources are biased and so rely on “no spin” propaganda .

Ok, that list sentence was more opinion than data, but you can read the original content for yourself and see if you. Moe to a different conclusion.

I need someone to blame. I want to talk about important political policy issues and there is so much attention being paid to personalities and appropriate behavior. Since the Republicans are in power and Pres. Trump does so many inappropriate things I blame them. They control the conversation and seem accepting of the present focus. I guess if you can set the agenda you can get away with this. However, this is a terrible long-term strategy and voting them out could well be the end result of this strategy.  

I would rather comment on:

• The involvement of Russian actors in our political process, how they are influencing U.S. citizens, and yes, whether Republican actors played any role during the run-up to the election.
• The budget and how the budget will likely influence the present level of income inequality. In addition, how the budget will influence the national debt and how this increased debt will be addressed.
• Immigration. What is a reasonable commitment to the national interest (the best and the brightest) and what is the obligation of this country in responding to various crises around the world.
• Healthcare. Why does this country with all of its assets do such a poor job when it comes to healthcare? What can be done to address the healthcare needs of those who truly need assistance?
• Net neutrality. My personal interests are heavily invested in technology and Internet issues. Why is our Internet service so inferior to other countries and what can be done to provide an online environment to encourage economic growth, educational opportunity, and to provide a voice for all?

More and more educators and pundits (a term I use to describe those who comment with or without relevant experience) have questioned the value of college. In part, this seems related to the cost of tuition and other college-related costs (e.g., textbooks, living expenses). To me, the cost issue is very different from the position taken by others that college is not the best preparation for a successful career. I purposefully differentiate career here from a successful life, because I have not reviewed the position of anyone that argues against this larger goal. [An example of this second type of analysis.]

I assume that the k12 educators who raise this issue are not claiming that the k12 experience is adequate preparation for either a vocation or life. This I reject without further comment because such a position seems ridiculous. To be clear, I do not differentiate what some might describe as “trade schools” from other forms of higher education although I do recognize that these institutions do offer a more vocational focus than most college majors. I am guessing that the alternative most have in mind is some type of self-organized set of experiences often including mentoring of some type.

I spent my entire working life as a college professor so it probably comes as no surprise that I would defend the college experience. Included among my responsibilities was frequent responsibility for the introductory course in Psychology – a course a very large proportion of college students take early in their college careers. From these teaching experiences, I recognized that many students are not ready for college as a function of their motivation or independent learning skill. These are different issues which I assume require different solutions. More students should probably work for a time before committing to college. More students need additional assistance improving their reading skills and general academic backgrounds before taking on college courses. These are different issues from the perspective that college does not adequately prepare students for the world we now face.

Are students really aware of professions they are suited for?

Is the focus on a specific profession even a good long-term idea?

Does college provide a reasonable way to develop relevant skills and knowledge?

Let me state again that these are narrow goals and there is much to be said for a breadth of knowledge and skills and the awareness of culture and people that can inform vocational performance, but more importantly offer much more in term of life satisfaction.

To argue against for the present secondary students being ready for much of anything Twenge argues that this generation is maturing less quickly than previous cohorts. In her book, Jean Twenge describes the characteristics of the iGeneration – individuals from the U.S. born after the introduction of the iPhone (2007). She makes the effort to argue it was the cell phone and not other significant issues associated with this date (.e.g, the market crash of 2008)

My story

I think we are all prone to use anecdotal instances to interpret the world. Twenge does this is her book as she uses interviews she has conducted to give voice to the statistics from the large survey studies she cites. Researchers described this as a mixed-methods approach. Among the anecdotes we use to interpret life experiences is our own story. Here is mine.

I went to a state college as an 18-year old just of the farm. The 180 or so mile drive to the campus was the furthest I had been away from home at that time of my life. I had visited the campus previously and there were some unique aspects to my relationship with this particular institution. My parents were both graduates and I had visited the lab of my uncle who was also a graduate and a professor at the institution during my youth. Ironically, I eventually received my Ph.D. from this institution and was housed in the same building as a graduate student I had visited as a youth. My uncle was a botanist and I am an educational psychologist. The building was called “Old Botany” when I studied there.

I went to college to become a high school biology teacher and coach. This was what my life experiences at the time allowed me to imagine. When I tell my story, I include the following anecdote to explain how my world before college shaped what followed. Before I made a visit to the Iowa State University campus during the summer before my freshman year, I asked my high school guidance counselor for help in making contact with the appropriate campus department. He took the Iowa State catalog of his shelf and looked up biology. Iowa State had no biology department at the time, but did have a program in Biochemistry and Biophysics. So I booked an appointment with the biochemistry/biophysics department chair to set up my program of study. When I told the chair I wanted to become a high biology teacher, he said that they had met no one else with this goal. He sign me up for advanced chemistry, calculus, English composition, Introduction to Psychology, and a seminar in lipid metabolism. The quarter nearly did me in. I did meet my wife when we both switched out of our advanced chemistry course to move into the Intro to Chemistry course taken by most students. I don’t recall much about lipid metabolism, but I loved the Psychology course. It turned out that future biology teachers took a combination of courses from Zoology, Botany, Entomology, and Microbiology. By the time I graduated there was a biology department and the chair of this department became acquaintances and we published together when I was in graduate school.

As I took courses in a variety of areas through my sophomore year, I decided I was interested in educational research and intended to focus on psychology as a way to pursue this goal. My parents had no idea where this would lead and rather than talk me out of my ambition convinced me to add a biology major and a teaching certificate to my intended psychology major. They committed the money to cover a couple of extra summer sessions to make this combination workable. I really loved being a college student so year-round college was perfect for me. I did marry the woman I met as an advanced chemistry reject during this time and this also worked out very well.

There were so many things I could not have predicted as a high school senior that would not have happened should my life experiences at that time been the basis for my decisions. I would not have pursued what became an interest in educational research. I would not have focused on working in higher education rather than secondary education. I would not have taken a course in technical writing which more than my high school or college composition courses convinced me that I could write. I would not have taken the breadth of psychology courses that broadened my professional interests beyond teaching and continue to influence my professional interests to this day. I would not have met the people I met including my wife who shaped my present personal and vocational interests.

I don’t think my story is unique. I may reflect on my experiences including so many important education-based events I have not shared here more than most, but it is easy for me to see how my life course built on these early experiences. In no way, could I or would I have ended up in the same place making my own decisions early on. I needed the breadth of experiences I had and I needed to interact with the people that came at me without my solicitation.

Whether focused on vocation or life, college offers a great deal young people on their own are unable to appreciate or are likely to seek out. This may not be the case for those from wealthy families, but for the average kid with academic potential from a family with average means this seems certain to me. This situation (the wealthy have so many unrecognized advantages) seems so unfortunate as those without resources would benefit the most from the college experience.

In response to the scary alert that was erroneously posted in Hawaii, I am reposting this post from 2012. I am in no way implying these events are equivalent or that the event in Hawaii had the potential to generate more negative consequences.

——-Weeks go by when there is nothing interesting to blog about and then there is a day like today.

In rejecting the existing net neutrality policy, the FCC argued that getting rid of the government protections would improve innovation. It takes some creativity and a narrow view to take this position, but the Republican members of the FCC were willing to try.

An important pro-neutrality argument was that online access cannot be considered a traditional business subject to market pressures because there is so little actual competition. Hence, users do not really have the opportunity to reject the policies of a given provider if no or few realistic competitors are available.

It appears that the FCC has found a way to address this concern. The FCC is moving to lower the definition of broadband access. In a world where U.S. internet opportunities already lag behind other developed countries, the government here is now lowering rather than raising standards. If you struggle to watch Netflix on your existing broadband, just wait until you try with the new standards.

I have written about the logic of this adjustment previously and it relies upon the idea that much online access uses cell phones. The bandwidth you can access with your phone does not come close to the bandwidth you can likely use with your cable or phone company provider (usually at least 25 Mpbs down and most providers are already pushing more expensive higher bandwidth plans as more useful). Also neglected in this position is the reality that data plans are expensive and most “all you can eat” data plans do not allow using the phone as a wifi hotspot.