God forbid we talk about God.

God forbid we talk about the bible.

God forbid we talk about politics.

God forbid we talk about homosexuals.

God forbid we talk about the war.

God forbid we talk about immigration.

God forbid we talk about pornography.

God forbid we talk about race.

God forbid we talk at all.

That way, we can all slink back into our comfy little corners self-assured that our own opinions are the right opinions and then, when people do not agree with our opinions, we can resort to violence to solve what might have been resolved through dialogue… if only we were willing to, God forbid, talk.

People baffle me.

I just got to Chicago where I am scheduled to speak at the IRA Annual conference with Alfred Tatum, Ingrid Law and Deborah Hopkinson on the power of using books in the classroom.

Awesome, right?

And even more awesome, upon checking into my hotel, the lady behind the front desk counter looked at me and said, “Hello, Mr. Sitomer. Welcome. We have decided to upgrade you.”

Of course, I immediately felt important and valued. I mean who doesn’t want to be upgraded?

When I got to my room it seemed to shine. The bed looked larger, the pillows looked fluffier and the towels in the bathrooms looked soft enough for a newborn prince’s bottom.

I felt good. I was upgraded!

Then later, needing directions, I went back down to the front desk, where I overheard the following.

“Oh, Hello Mrs. Jensen. We have decided to upgrade you.”

I knew my pillows weren’t fluffier. I had a feeling those towels weren’t hand-knit for the rear-end of a royal prince. Do-gone-it, that bed was barely a cot!

Wow, is that hotel using language effectively or what. Words create perception, perception creates meaning and meaning is what makes – and is what we take – from our experiences.

See, this is the value of attending national literacy conferences… you learn stuff everywhere.

Gotta go. It’s time to shower in that pathetic excuse for a bathroom. I mean really, they call that water pressure?

This weekend Stephen Hawking talked aliens… and the world perked up its collective ears.

First off, he finds the probability of the existence of “extraterrestrial life forms” to be highly likely. I’ve felt this way for a long time. With so much “out there” how we can we possibly be all alone in the universe? (Heck, we can’t even define the parameters of our universe much less say for sure no other life forms exist.)

And don’t we disprove almost daily (if you watch the evening news) the idea that human beings are the most intelligent form of life in the galaxy?

I am how pathetic of a galaxy are we living in? Goodness, I am hoping that we’re not the tops because if we are, we are eventually going to encounter some real idiot aliens one day.

Idiot aliens would, of course, be gullible enough to come in peace. Not to be a skeptic, but I really feel that would end badly for either one party or the other.

If aliens really came in peace, we’d end up capturing them and studying them and trying to “learn” something from them and then they’d be sad and bummed out that they ever stopped by our planet, sitting in their little sterilized glass cages while our best and brightest tried to dissect them under the auspices of advancing humanity.

It’d be a regular “break your heart to watch” calamity, like watching baby seals get clubbed or something.

“Stay away, Aliens! Stay away!” I say. When we beamed out that Beatles song asking you to come in peace if you ever were to come what we really wanted was you not to, as Stephen Hawking suggests, colonize and enslave us for your own nefarious aims.

But if you are not going to colonize us and enslave us for your own nefarious aims, then heck, we’re probably gonna do that to you.

Like I said, “Stay away, Aliens! Stay way.”

If you know what’s good for you, I say stay away.

(BTW, if you spend too much time on our planet, we’re gonna make you take bubble tests. Fair warning, dudes.)

Our whole idea of imagery is changing right before our eyes. Look at this new picture snapped by what is being called the new Hubble Telescope for the sun.

For some more amazing sun pics from NASA courtesy of their SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) click here. Just way cool

But pics of the sun aren’t the only images that are shifting under our eyelids as we speak. Fans of the movie Avatar can check themselves out (through an app) as if they were a character in the movie.

Of course, retouching images to eliminate the “average” and convert to “superstar” status has become so commonplace for magazines that virtually no real actor, actress, model and so on have their real shots published without a wee bit of photoshop. Britney Spears, remarkably, just agreed to allow her non-retouched images to be published right along side her retouched images.

Have you seen the latest book cover starring Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter lately?

Now messing with images is nothing new. Stalin routinely zapped people out of pics, as this shot from the 1930′s shows.

Mao did it, too…

So I have no problem with people of faith. However, I do have a problem with extremists who morally get on their high horse and quote the bible in order to defend their point of view as being entirely beyond question or reproach.

The following is a letter I wish I was clever enough to have written. This is a real tickler:

In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant person of deep faith, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and, as such cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a university professor. It’s funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination … End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness – Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I’m confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan.
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia

(It would be a damn shame if we couldn’t own a Canadian

So here’s an article where the doomsday scenario of teacher cuts is illuminated in big, bold print for all the world to see. We are talking about, by some estimates, 100,000 – 300,000 educators losing their jobs (those are Arne Duncan’s words) in the next few months.

In California, we pink-slipped something like 22,000 teachers. And everyone is befuddled as to an answer to help stave off this nightmare scenario.

I blogged about it last week, but let me suggest it again, this time with some math behind it. Let’s just pink slip the tests instead of the professionals.

In the state of California, for example, bubble tests are everywhere. I mean everywhere. Approximately 5 million students will be taking the CST exam for NCLB over the next month.

How much do we pay for each test? (I don’t know, but I wish someone would answer that for all of us.)

I’ll low-ball my guesstimates just to make the bigger point (i.e. of let’s just pink slip the tests instead of the professionals.)

I’ve heard there are over 6 million kids in California schools. Let’s toss out a million of them and posit that we’re only gonna pay ETS for 5 million tests.

How much does each test cost? According to the College Board website, the SAT costs $45 per test.
The College Board charges $86 per test for the AP exams, according to their site.
Being that the CST is for English, Math, History and Science – and being that I want to give the test makers a fair shake, let’s say they only charge 2/3 of the cost of an SAT for a more complex, longer, more broad in scope CST exam.

By that I mean, I’ll do the math at $30 per kid tested. (If AP are $86 per test, I find it hard to imagine that CST’s for NCLB are a 1/3 of the price for something that requires differentiation at every grade level, but like I said, let’s be fair and try to underestimate the fee they charge our schools for testing.)

So I underestimate the amount of kids taking the test at 5,000,000 and I underestimate the cost per test at $30 and that means that when I say that the number is $150,000,000.00 to test our state’s kids — that’s 150 million dollars — I think I am being conservative.

And we test them year after year after year. To put it in perspective,4 years of high school = 600 million dollars in testing.

So let’s say we actually took that $150 million for next year’s tests and put it on the table and asked ourselves, “Where could we get more bang for our buck?”

And by bang for our buck I mean, where will the money best be spent directly helping the kids of the 2010/2011 school year?

Should we spend $150,000,000 on bubble tests for our students or should we spend $150,000,000 on teachers for the students in the classrooms?

The answer to me, well… it seems self evident.

So for those of you who do not know, 420 became a slang term for smoking weed back in the 1970′s. There’s actually a really interesting – and funny – article here for those who want to learn a bit about the “history” of the invention of this name.

Tuesday was April 20th… i.e. 4-20.

Colleges struggle with students showing up at 4:20 p.m. on 4-20 to smoke a blunt and then go back to whatever it is that college kids do at 4:21 when they are stoned out of their minds.

Thousands and thousands of college kids do this, mind you… all across the nation.

But attendance on Tuesday was down in my classes/at my school on Tuesday, April 20th. And why?

When I innocently asked Tuesday, after taking role, “Where is everyone today?” one of my kids said, “Do you know what day it is?”

I do… but I didn’t put it together until then. (It was still early in the morning and I don’t really think like a 420 disciple.)

And being that we are on block schedule, I see my kids every other day. That means that on Thursday I will see the Tuesday absentees… and when I do see them, won’t I also be seeing them in a new light? I mean, I know kids smoke pot – I smell it in the halls quite often. However, ditching school to honor the Gods of Ganja?

For those kids on the fence for grades, don’t I now become all the more less likely to “cut ‘em some slack”?

Of course, I might end up wrongly assuming that Kid X was off getting high on Tuesday when they were home with a sore throat (from too many BONG LOADS!) but the fact is, how can my own assessment lens not be at least slightly tainted by such blatant ditching to go get blazed?

Besides, I took role well before noon. 420 doesn’t begin til 4:20.

Don’t pot smoking teens even know how to tell time anymore? School ends at 3:00 p.m. Why miss a class that ended well before 10:00 a.m.?

I know, I know… 420, Dude.

420

Arrrgghh!

I just left the Apple Store and touched the iPad for the very first time. My take on it?

So the ning business is finally going to morph into a real business and stop allowing people to use their goodies without paying for them.

Wow, brings up a whole host of stuff when it comes to writing in the online world.

Is the sale of ad space really expected to power the entire forward progress of the whole world wide web? I don’t think so. Then again, if ning doesn’t give it away free first and foremost, do they grow into the company they now are? And if they now start to charge, how many nings fold up and think, “Well, it was good while it lasted”?

Is this what the next stage of the internet looks like? People give away items at no charge until they become apparently worth something, and then they start to charge for their services and people fold up their tents and drift off to the next latest and greatest thing. (You know, the one that people can use free of charge until enough people start using it to make these folks see “gold in dem dar hills” whereby the model changes to a fee based-structure… and everyone then flees again… and on and on and on?)

Jim Burke said… People need to wake up to the idea that they cannot expect companies to be non-profits. We have grown increasingly addicted to the idea that everything should be free, that we should have to pay for nothing. That is not sustainable.

Indeed. But as soon as Twitter starts charging me per tweet, I think I am gone.

And I think they know this… which is why they do not charge me for tweeting. Which is why so many millions of folks do tweet.

But charge even one dollar a month and, “Nah, I am not so sure it’s worth it” creeps into my consciousness. I mean there are so many other free things I can do on the web, with mobile technology and so on, that, on second thought, Nah, I just don’t think so.

The fact is, most human beings pretty much do not like paying for things that were once free. We feel ripped off. (Even if they are actually worth the money.)

If once upon a time you charged me, and you raised the price, then hey, I get that. But if was free and now you want money for it… that doesn’t really compute so well. I mean “I think I only wanted it because it was free anyway,” is what I tell myself. Then I move on.

And on the flip side, people tend to more highly value that which actually costs them more. Look at the diamond industry. DeBeers is absolutely brilliant in the way that they make us believe diamonds are precious stones worth X amount of dollars. And by controlling 85% of all the diamonds on the planet (they have vaults and vaults and vaults of them locked away so that they can manage world wide inventory and empower all these diamond dealers to say, “but they are rare and precious”) they create the illusion of high value – and the reality of high price – in the mind of buyers.

And we buy it.

Engagement rings, earrings, and so on. “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

Hook, line and sinker, we drank the Kool-Aid on that one.

But NY Times news? I think the cat is outta the bag on that one. Sure, some will buy it – older folks who grew up indoctrinated into the “fine journalism” being offered will stay the course. (They also have more disposable income.) But now, news and commentary are free… and if the NY Times wants to start charging for what they originally gave away online, heck, I’ll go to the Wash Post or L.A. Times or BBC and so on.

Heck, the Huffington Post will go out and scavenge the free news for me. And they are not alone.

And if they all decide to charge at the same time, they are gambling with their very existence… cause there is no guarantee to say enough people will pay to keep them afloat.

Are they willing to risk bankruptcy? Do they really want to know if they call our bluff and insist on charging us that we are actually going to pony up cash for their goods versus simply seeking another source for our news and bail out on them?

TIME magazine charges. Newsweek doesn’t. Is there enough of a difference that I buy TIME? Right now, not really.

The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety, Hollywood’s Trade Magazines, got it right. They charged for content right away (after giving away small teasers.) People were used to paying for print, they immediately got used to paying for online from the get-go and now, they more or less, seamlessly transitioned to the online journalism world.

Right now, newspapers don’t really have the guts to pull the “free” plug because they know if they do, we might not come back to them and prove them obsolete. (It’s any business’s darkest fear – to recognize that the world can get along just fine without them and have the world recognize that.

Of course, all of the newspapers are hoping Apple and the Kindle will help to save their butts… but ESPN.com does sports for me and the AP wire still provides news and Joe down the block blogs about the tree root situation plaguing the local sidewalks on my street and the idea of one-stop news shopping is something that is already dead to many of us anyway. (Like textbooks providing one-size-fits-all curriculum – that ship has SAILED!)

I get my news from 15 sources, not one and until all 15 charge, I can live with only 14.

So, I won’t get to read Friedman. But if enough people stop reading Friedman, he’s going to try and deliver content to his audience another way… or else he stops being Friedman and someone else’s voice will rise up to replace his. Books still make sense. (I want to read the writing of the folks I want to read: Stephanie Meyers, Stephen King, they could publish on toilet paper and people would read it by the roll.) Newspapers don’t. Magazines… they seem to be on an edge. Can’t call it one way or the other yet.

Ultimately, I am completely at a loss for how this will all work out but I do feel that it sure would be hard to get people to start paying for my blog now that I have been giving it away at no charge for a year and a half.

Most of them would probably say, “Hasta la Vista… it was good while it lasted but I am onto other things.”

Real businesses know customers value what they pay for much more than they value what is free.

Like the dot.com bubble, so is the Free bubble.

The book FREE proposed that free was the way of the business future – at least to get a foot in the door. Actually, I think the real way of the business future is to 1) provide something excellent and 2) charge for it right out of the gate.

People will always pay for quality and if you are giving it away at no charge, how much is it really worth anyway?

Nings seem to have blown it if they want to charge. Someone else is gonna fill their void if they do because most people will not pay for the same thing they used to get at no charge. They will pay for something new, better, enhanced and so on.

Nings aren’t proposing that. There is no Ning II that’s a platinum version they will be selling. Ning just wants money now… and I am not sure how many folks are gonna roll with that.

However, I would chip in a buck to keep this ning alive. And if we all did, maybe the ning folks would let us keep rolling, huh?