Threats are not Crimes

A 16-year-old boy is facing a disorderly conduct charge after making an online threat against Oregon State University. 

The boy, who lives outside Corvallis, was arrested Friday, a day after authorities spotted the threat on a blog, said Oregon State Police. An emergency alert was sent out to the university community and security was temporarily increased on campus. 

No one was hurt and there is no evidence of other further potential threat, police said. The boy's identity and details about the threat have not been released by police.

Source: Oregon State University online threat lands 16-year-old in handcuffs | OregonLive.com

Threats are not crimes. Of all of the reports on this incident, none have cited the blog posting, simply falling back on the police intervention on a non-crime. A crime must have an infringement on the rights of others, meaning there must be a victim. Philip K Dick explored this concept as pre-crime in his story Minority Report, in which "criminals" were charged and convicted before actually committing a real crime. The idea quickly collapses in application.

Education in the Internet Age

Discussing education in tye age of technology and the Internet.

http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesMedia/~5/xiOT7AgtYQA/Higher%20Education%20in%20the%20Internet%20Age.mp3

Stefan Molyneux on the Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan chats with Stefan Molyneux about society, science, war, politics, and more.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/joeroganexp/p396.mp3

Being Productive

Brett from the School Sucks podcast talks with Jake from the Voluntary Life about David Allen's book on getting things done.

http://schoolsucks.podomatic.com/enclosure/2013-09-21T08_21_33-07_00.mp3

The Vital Link of Education and Prosperity

Doesn't give much confidence in the public education system:

"Americans are aware of public education's many failures—the elevated high-school dropout rates, the need for remedial work among entering college students. One metric in particular stands out: Only 32% of U.S. high-school students are proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. When the NAEP results are put on the scale of the Program on International Student Assessment (PISA), the world's best source of information on student achievement, the comparable proficiency rates in math are 45% in Germany, 49% in Canada, and 63% in Singapore, the highest performing independent nation."

http://www.hoover.org/news/daily-report/156361

What is Unschooling?

What is Unschooling?

Self-ownership and Education

Good questions on self-ownership and education:

Libertarians are quick to defend the "rights" of homeschooling parents against violations by the state. I can only half-heartedly get behind such a cause. Yes, the state should get out of the way of parents, but just as important, maybe even more important, is that parents should get out of the way of their children. Contrast Ron Paul's defense of homeschooling, that is parents controlling their children's education, with John Holt's defense of unschooling, or children controlling their own education. The relevant question for libertarians: which is more in line with the principles of self-ownership and non-aggression?

Everything-Voluntary.com: Homeschooling vs. Unschooling

Our daughter is in a charter school. While I recognize that these schools are still reliant upon the state for redistribution of wealth without consent, they do provide some flexibility in the curriculum and choice for parents. Our daughter likes it more than public school, and we know of another opening next year that focuses on the classical method. My preference is decidedly free market; I believe that public schools' existence is immoral (involuntary taxation, forced redistribution of resources), and that private schools are the only real choice in the long run. Parents and students should have the ability to choose from a variety of learning institutions, or to choose to take the autodidactic route, rather than being forced to conform to a system that was designed for a different world, one that even its creator quickly abandoned. 

I'm keen on aspects of both homeschool and unschooling, but I believe that it is more a mix of these ideas than one system over another. The perfect system to me would be dependent on the learner's abilities, and their pace, as well as their interests and passions. The NAP wouldn't support forcing someone to do something that they simply do not agree with, would it? Why should the act of learning be any different?

Google and edX collaborate on Open edX Platform

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Sept. 10, 2013 – EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative, today announced its partnership with Google to jointly develop the edX open source learning platform, Open edX, and expand the availability of the platform and its learning tools to individuals and institutions around the world. In collaboration with Google, edX will build out and operate MOOC.org, a new site for non-xConsortium universities, institutions, businesses, governments and teachers to build and host their courses for a global audience. This site will be powered by the jointly developed Open edX platform.

Full release: mooc.org - Press Release

Allison Benedikt, Private School Hater, Sends her Kids to Private School

By now you've heard about this, I'm sure. Allison Benedikt thinks you and I are terrible if we send our kids to private school. 

I actually do send my kids to private school.

I do have to wonder, though, if Allison Benedikt only thinks this because her husband thinks it. Benedikt's husband is John Cook, the Gawker blogger. Last September John declared that private school should be banned.

In December of 2012, Allison admitted they were tapping out their resources to send their kids to preschool. That's right. They were paying to send their kids to preschool.

In September of 2012, John Cook admits to hating private school. In December of 2012, his wife admits they have stopped contributing to their 401(K)s in order to send their kids to preschool and are looking forward to the kids being in public school because of the financial burden, then in August of 2013 John Cook's wife admits to thinking people are bad if they send their kids to private school.

Is she brainwashed or just stupid? Perhaps we should embrace the healing power of "and." In any event, it seems both John and Allison are more jealous than self-righteous and they hide their jealousy behind contempt for those who can afford to send children to private school.

There is more: http://www.redstate.com/2013/08/30/does-allison-benedikt-think-this-only-because-her-husband-does

Only bad people send their kids to private school

For no good reason, a blogger (I refuse to refer to this drivel as writing) claims that even bad public schools are better than even the best private schools. 

She went full retard. Never go full retard. 

More: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/private_school_vs_public_school_only_bad_people_send_their_kids_to_private.html

Government Schools are Bad for Your Kids

"Once in a while you come across a book that ruptures the dominant narrative of a body politic, that it causes you to reshape your assessment of something.  Government Schools are Bad for Your Kids, by James Ostrowski, is an unapologetic indictment of the contemporary American education system. It's about 20 years ahead of its time, but shouldn't be; its insights and conclusion will seem both obvious and inevitable in retrospect."

More:

http://buffalorising.com/2013/04/book-review-government-schools-are-bad-for-york-kids/