Little D and the Serfdom

This idea to turn Detroit into an urban core surrounded by "villages" is about the smartest idea I've heard yet about what to do with the city's vast expanse of land. Much of what lies within Detroit city limits is uninhabited anyway, and with the growing push to expand urban agriculture, this plan seems to solve several problems at once. But, it's the D, and nothing is easy. Help me troubleshoot this one. It seems too sensible. Am I missing something? (Aside from the fact that Monica Conyers would find some way to screw it all up, perhaps by declaring herself queen?)

And more (the full editorial on which the video linked above is based), this time with a touch of hope.

Michigan Good, part I

It's always cool when an astronaut is from your home state, but it's even cooler when he started out fixing cars while going to the local community college (see the sidebar on the right of that page--word to Oakland Community College!).

See kids, you don't need to go to Harvard to be successful. Three cheers for higher-quality-than-most-people-think, affordable higher education!

Can you tell I'm a proponent of community colleges?

And how did Cobra Commander even see out of that helmet?

For my money, this joke doesn't get made nearly enough.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Aaaahhh, now that's more like it!

Ha-ha?

Wait a minute, am I supposed to feel better now?

I like it a lot better when Jeffy just says something stupid. Ah, Jeffy...

They will, of course, hate it all

The Onion A.V. Club took on a great question this week, "If you could make a single book, film, or album required material to graduate from high school, what would it be?"

Aside from agreeing with Genevieve Koski's response (good lord, I'm going to miss the newspaper), I would add two replies that don't directly answer the question.

Instead of choosing one piece, I would say that we need to show any film or TV show, but instead of just sitting back and passively watching it (which is far, far, far, far too common in our high schools), we teachers need to teach students about the visual literacy skills being used. We've been teaching kids how to read books for decades (centuries, even), but like it or not, verbal text is not the dominant form of storytelling or communication anymore. To be truly literate today, students need to understand the grammar of lighting, framing, sound, and camera angles in addition to ye olde commas and apostrophes.

If you disagree, then consider the poor quality of the last YouTube video you watched. Exactly.

And then, perhaps even more importantly, we need to teach media literacy, so students can critically deconstruct and analyze all of the above. If you disagree about the need for these skills, see exhibit "Nation Elected G. W. Bush twice."

Quote of the Day

I was talking about student writing with another teacher, who said, "students just shouldn't use semicolons. I didn't use them until I got my master's degree."

Funny.

Well, it certainly explains a lot #3

Here is another article I've been meaning to post a link to, this time about how online literacy might be changing our brains.

It would certainly explain why high school students circa 2008 have such a hard time reading To Kill a Mockingbird (which, incidentally, gets my vote for the Great American Novel).

It's 2008, not 1988

NOT

















I've been meaning to post a link to Mark Phelan's "7 Myths About Detroit Automakers" for awhile. I feel like I've defended the Big 3 in so many conversations at work and every holiday party I attended this year that I should've brought a copy of this column along with me. Drop some science on 'em, Mr. Phelan. Preach it.

Shrinkage

Siiiigh... Michigan is once again one of two states to lose population instead of gain. Us and Rhode Island. Ugh.















I suppose this wouldn't be all bad if I were allowed to choose which people moved out of Michigan, but alas, that doesn't seem to be the case.

At least traffic should get better, right?