Comments on reads 8/17

Caroline Glick: Who lost Egypt?

But as is clear from the US's denial of the significance of Morsy's rapid completion of Egypt's Islamic transformation; its blindness to the dangers of Syrian chemical and biological weapons; and its complacency toward Iran's nuclear weapons program, by the time the US foreign policy establishment realizes it lost Egypt, the question it will be asking is not who lost Egypt. It will be asking who lost the Middle East.

FP: They should be asking it now already. And the answer is clear.

 

Liad Porat: Egypt: Who is really pulling the strings?

Anyone who takes the deployment of Egyptian tanks and helicopters in Sinai too lightly, regarding it as merely necessary at this point in time, may soon get slapped in the face by reality. If you think that Egypt's deployment in Sinai is intended merely to take care of Israel's Sinai terror problem, you may have to think again. Egypt is deploying (permanently, it seems) armed forces in Sinai at such an extent that not only is it a violation of the peace treaty with Israel, but it could pose a serious challenge for Israel should the relations between the two countries deteriorate. This deterioration will not just be a product of global jihad terror, it will first and foremost be sparked by any renewed confrontation between Israel and Hamas. Hamas, as we all know, was created in the Brotherhood's image. It was Morsi who urged Hamas to relocate its politburo to Cairo.

FP: Israel is playing ostrich as usual.

 

William Jacobson: One week later, Fareed Zakaria’s one-month plagiarism suspension revoked

Fareed Zakaria, the Time columnist and host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, who was exposed plagiarizing his column and suspended on August 10, has suffered long enough, apparently.

Exactly one week after news broke of the plagiarism, Time announced that they will be revoking their previously publicized one-month suspension of Zakaria, and that his column will be printed in the upcoming September 7 issue:

We have completed a thorough review of each of Fareed Zakaria’s columns for Time and we are entirely satisfied that the language in question in his recent column was an unintentional error and an isolated incident for which he has apologized. We look forward to having Fareed’s thoughtful and important voice back in the magazine with his next column in the issue that comes out on Sept 7.

CNN followed up with an announcement that they will allow Zakaria back on-air on August 26:

CNN has completed its internal review of Fareed Zakaria’s work for CNN, including a look back at his Sunday programs, documentaries, and CNN.com blogs. The process was rigorous.  We found nothing that merited continuing the suspension.

Zakaria has apologized for a journalistic lapse. CNN and Zakaria will work together to strengthen further the procedures for his show and blog.

Fareed Zakaria’s quality journalism, insightful mind and thoughtful voice meaningfully contribute to the dialogue on global and political issues. His public affairs program GPS will return on Sunday, August 26 at 10am ET on CNN/US and 8am ET on CNN/International.

Fareed Zakaria’s “mistake” of lifting content from New Yorker writer Jill Lepore has thus established a precedent of less than a month suspension for plagiarism in the mainstream media.

FP: As if the mainstream media has had no problems of blatant bias, ignorance, shalowness and even anti-Semitism, now plagiarism is getting condoned. And you thought there is a bottom, right? Imagine in how much trouble Time and CNN must be if they cannot afford to lose Zakaria for plagiarism, whom they present as insightful, thoughtful and important. I guess they were referring to Lepore.

 

Bill Katz: OUR EDUCATIONAL DECLINE

I have no illusions about the Washington Post.  It's a liberal paper, and can sometimes be infuriating.  But its editorial page is the best liberal editorial page in the country, and often defies the trendies and conformists. 

The Post has run a troubling editorial on a new report about our educational system, and its treatment of quality teachers.  Well worth reading:

A COMPREHENSIVE study three years ago by the New Teacher Project showed how U.S. schools generally fail to recognize teacher quality, instead treating all teachers the same. Now comes an even more devastating finding from the group: Even when schools know the difference between good and bad teachers, they make no special effort to retain the good ones. Just as the previous report spurred improvements in teacher evaluation systems, this study should prompt changes in how teachers are treated.

The aptly named report, “The Irreplaceables,” concludes that the real teacher retention crisis in urban schools is not about the number of teachers who are leaving but the loss of really good ones. The two-year study identified the top 20 percent of teachers whose students consistently make the most progress on state exams. Not only do these teachers on average help students learn two to three additional months’ worth of math and reading compared to the average teacher (and five to six months more compared to low-performing teachers), but they also get high marks from students.

Yet the researchers found little effort by districts to hold on to these top performers. Only 47 percent of these high-performing teachers said they ever got praised for their work, and only 26 percent were encouraged to take leadership roles. Particularly shocking was the finding that two-thirds of the best teachers were never asked to stay when they told principals of their plans to depart. “Our findings suggest that Irreplaceables usually leave for reasons that their school could have controlled,” the report says.

COMMENT:  I'm not shocked.  Too many schools, especially in the politely termed "inner cities," are patronage mills and political headquarters, rather than educational institutions.  Too many are part of what could correctly be called the education industry, one of the nation's largest businesses. 

In the mid-sixties, New York City had an ugly, raw debate over demands by black leaders for "community control of schools," insisting that only if blacks controlled their schools would education improve.  Anyone with minimal intelligence (and integrity) could see through the demands.  They were really demands by local pols for control of budgets and jobs.  But the trendies got their way, and community control of schools was adopted.  Forty years later it was judged a complete, total, absolute failure.  There had been no progress.  The schools had replaced competent teachers with hacks, and became nothing more than power centers for local interests. 

We know how to educate students.  Good schools do it routinely.  The question is whether the political class wants good schools, or just schools that help their political careers.

FP: Nothing that you have not heard here from me. In fact I have been deploring this for years at my technical site dbdebunk.com.