University of Ann Arbor goes all "Alice in Wonderland"

Alice: If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see? 

For a very brief period, sanity prevailed in the education industry. The leading thinkers claimed that test-scores were much better at measuring the teachers' performance than a measure of an individual student's ability.

The logic was that a single test score was a snap-shot of a single student at an instant of time. Did he need to visit the restroom (anxiety)? Was there a big fight with his dad the night before. Did the girl he was interested in disrespect him just before the test? Maybe he had been up all night writing plug-ins for Call-of-Duty or software that compressed video in real-time. A single test score is a single number with very little context.

However, if a teacher is teaching three sections of freshman algebra, then there are seventy-five data points. It becomes crystal clear if a teacher skipped over some material that the students were responsible for because nearly all of the students will bomb the questions that measure that skill. If the scores of the classes are segregated with the earliest (in the day) class scoring poorly and the latest class scoring best, it indicates that the teacher failed to prepare for the class the night before and was "winging it". Or, if all of the students struggled with story-problems, it indicates that the teacher needs to do more story-problems on the chalk-board in front of the class, even if she absolutely hates story problems.

As you can imagine, this insight was extremely unpopular with teachers and they quickly buried it.

Which brings us to the University of Michigan 

University of Michigan will not issue grades to some freshmen students.

This is an admission of stunning failures of multiple systems within the education industry.

It is a failure of the admissions process. If the students are not ready to start their freshmen year at U-of-M, then why were they admitted? They can enroll at a community college, beef up their skills and then transfer to U-of-M.

It is a failure of the high schools feeding U-of-M. They were giving inflated grades to students who then hit-the-wall when presented with college-level work. There are multiple examples of valedictorians with +4.0 GPAs requiring remedial math classes as freshmen.

It is a failure of the high school academic advisors who "encourage" students with puffery rather than calibrating their expectations with reality.

It is a failure of a higher education system that prints reams of 4-year diplomas with zero market value, thereby requiring students to seek Master's degrees. In turn, the need to get into a Master's program puts pressure on students to generate high GPAs during their worthless 4-year program.

It is a failure of the U-of-M College of Education which has an enrollment of over 50,000 students. They are churning out teachers and administrators who cannot produce a "product" that is acceptable to the down-line customer, be it industry or higher education. Universities are trapped in the jaws of conflicting interest. They require better incoming students even as they churn out teachers who cannot teach and administrators who cannot "improve" the inadequacies of those teachers or discipline the students with criminal behaviors.

Consequently, they must dilute the value of their primary product, diplomas. Like Rome adding lead to their silver coins, it is a one-way street.  Home schooling is looking better by the day to the normal people.

The only question is whether the education industry dies a slow, tortuous death by starvation or whether they are catastrophically defeated like the Spanish Armada which sailed top-heavy ships into the storm. 

 P.S. Parents and grandparents, self-esteem should be EARNED. Proper self-esteem is based on reality and is an unshakable foundation. It is a source of confidence and is the basis for a robust outlook on life. The false-esteem shilled by the education industry is a fragile, over-inflated balloon and grossly INCREASES the student's fragility.

Don't be scared off if you kid calls you "a dream killer". Better they should grapple with reality while they can make adjustments then to get trapped by debt for a worthless degree that they cannot repay. 

Doublemint girls

Yesterday was a lifting day. I didn't hit my usual time-slot and got to the gym at about 2:15 PM.

One of the people at the desk noticed my hospital socks and very gently and very professionally informed me that they were not allowed. He also added that he understood why I want to wear them. He also explained that they get a lot of high school kids who want to work-out in shower-slide. Shower slides have unstable soles and no side-stability; they are accidents waiting to happen when lifting. Ergo, only lace-up athletic shoes are allowed in the weight-room.

I think he was surprised when I didn't give him any push-back. "I used to be a supervisor. I understand that you represent the organization and that you have to enforce rules. Thank-you for telling me."

I went back to the locker room and put on my regular socks and my street shoes (which are athletic shoes) and went back and started lifting.

As I was recovering between my second-to-last set and my last-set, two young women started using the hamstring machine behind the dead-lift platform. That is where they lay on a table on their belly and hook a padded bar with their heels and lift it by flexing their knees.

I could go into great deal describing them physically, but it is enough to call them "The Doublemint Twins". You will get the picture.

I finished my five minute recovery and got on the dead-lift platform and squatted/bend down to grip the bar...and I felt their eyes on me. A quick glance around confirmed that the eyes of the girl on the machine had her eyes locked on me.

Six repetitions takes me sixty seconds. That feeling never departed.

It was a what-the-hell minute. Are they checking out my gluteus maximus? I wear baggy clothing when lifting but the fabric gets stretched tight down there when lifting. 

The feeling was so novel and disquieting that I completed the last three reps with my eyes closed. It is entirely possible that I lost count of the number of reps and done more than six.

I immediately started breaking down the set-up after the last rep, pulling off the plates and she maintained her intense stare the entire time.

When I left the platform to get the sanitary wipe to wipe-down the bar, I noticed that the girl on the hamstring machine kept her eyes locked on where I had been....which was between her and the mirror on the wall.

Mystery solved.

Frankly, I am very relieved. I am wearing enough hats already and don't have time to do all of them well. I don't need to add teen "heart-throb" to the list. 

Today's work-tickets

Pick up the yard.

Mow the grass.

Go for a run. 

Weed in the garden for an hour. 

Stretch target: clean out the bed of the truck 

Spinach, Hibiscus blossoms, Tortoises and Goat Festivals

 

The last of the spinach seeds for the variety trial were planted today. When I realized that I was going to be rained-out the other evening, I put the cv. "Red Tabby" seeds in water to soak over-night. Then I drained them, put them in a snap-top, plastic container and put the into the refrigerator.

It was my attempt to not excessively penalize the Red Tabby seeds by having them start later. They were fully hydrated and spinach seeds will germinate when it is quite cold, so the seeds were producing enzymes even though they were refrigerated.

The seed bar had issues. Some of the shallow divots were fuzzy with wood fibers and that was enough to keep the seeds from falling out even when it was inverted 180 degrees. I can fix the fuzzy holes by drilling them a tad deeper and then sanding. I am not sure it is worth the effort.

Hardy Hibiscus

I got scammed by a seller on Etsy who was selling heirloom tomato varieties.

I got lucky by a seller on Ebay who was selling "Luna, assorted" hardy hibiscus seeds. Germination was only 50%. I did not expect them to flower the first year because they are perennials, but some of them have. The flowers are absolutely stunning!

My hand is the same distance from the camera as the flower. It REALLY is that big.

This was the first to bloom. This is the 5th blossom.

Fun fact, tortoises (turtles) adore hibiscus blossoms. Rose of Sharon is also a hibiscus. Hibiscus petals make striking "garnishes" and are much more memorable than sprigs of parsley.

A Goat Festival

I was invited to a goat festival. My readers who are fluent in earthier language can make substitutions as desired.

A neighbor was sending her goats to auction. The trucker showed up. The goats escaped. We were able to (finally) get most of them into the trailer. 

The trucker was a professional. As the sweating woman was paying him and apologizing, he said "I've seen worse. Just last week I had to capture an escaped bull. He was in heavy brush and the plot was cut by deep gullies."

I need to start running again. Goat festivals can be extremely aerobic. 

Bonus video

HERE. This link ports you into the "bottom line". 

Your brain at 101 year-of-age can look like a junk-yard and it is not inevitable that you will have the symptoms of Alzheimer's. 

Presented without comment

 

Proof

 

Mrs ERJ left me the last two cinnamon rolls

Proof that she still loves me!

Fine Art Tuesday

A hunter flirting with a girl who seems a bit uncertain about his intentions. You can see that the hunter's weapon is a muzzle-loader, still in use in the 1880s and beyond.

Emil Rau was born in 1885 in Dresden, Germany and died in 1937 in Munich.

He is best know for his paintings of everyday life in rural Germany. 

Mountains are HARD places from which to grow enough food to survive the year. Multiple types of livestock were the norm.

A rare image of Old NFO from the 1880s.

Scythman enjoying a break with a pretty girl. He is smoking a pipe. The knee of his pants are patched and the toe of his right boot has been repaired.

Unlike the Hudson River School that shrank the human elements in the frame, Rau amplified them. The house and man on the right side of the frame are much larger than the perspective and distance warrant.

Probably hunters. A long-arm is leaning against the bench on the left side of the frame. Chamois horns on left side of frame by window.

Open fire beneath a trivet on far right side of frame. Black ceiling might be soot, it ends at the top of the window in the background.

Clothing (socks?) drying beneath the eves of the roof

William Lawrence: Restoring the Rule of Law

 

Restore the rule of law. DC politicians are letting billionaires, bullies, and corrupt politicians get away with violating our constitutional rights and engaging in criminal behavior. Lawrence will fight to:

• Prosecute the Epstein class for human trafficking & tax evasion
• Hold ICE accountable for unconstitutional conduct
• Ban stock trading by members of Congress & the executive branch   (Source)

Prosecute the Epstein class for human trafficking & tax evasion

This bullet seems like a no-brainer, and it is except for one word: the word "...class..." 

The Marxist/Communist zealot recasts all conflict into a story of class-conflict. Lysenko is famous for saying that common grass seed will produce full crops of wheat if it was treated with all of the advantages that seeds of wheat were afforded.

The deepest danger of class-warfare is that it operates on the basis of guilt-by-similarity. If Jeffery Epstein was rich and born in the 1950s and has a surname typical of Jewish ancestry, then guilt-by-similarity means that all "wealthy" people and/or all people who were born in the 1950s (who typically have greater net assets than people born in the 1990s) and/or all people with surnames that are associated with Jewish ancestors will be prosecuted.

The characteristics used as the basis to determine "class" are flexible and quickly rearranged to create the desired outcome. 

This is probably a good time to point out it is a matter of public record that that William Lawrence's father was a "visiting scholar" in Beijing, China from February, 2005 to July, 2005 when William was an impressionable fifteen year-old. I think the electorate has a right to ask if William Lawrence formed uncritically favorable opinions of Communist China at that time and remains highly influenced by the experience.

Hold ICE accountable for unconstitutional conduct

Lawrence went on record Feb 13, 2026 as saying "They (ICE agents) murdered people in the streets..." That statement presumes guilt and violates the "presumption of innocence" implied by the 5th and 14th Amendments.

He also favors disbanding ICE and closing down the facilities needed to efficiently deport illegal aliens.

From FBI Top Ten Most Wanted criminals, August 10. You can click on the pictures to embiggen them.

In spite of the Progressive rhetoric, not all illegal aliens are peace-loving and productive. In fact, if you look at the names and faces of the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted, you might come to the conclusion that illegal aliens are over-represented in the tier of the most violent and most dangerous of criminals.

The fact that Lawrence will protect illegal aliens (who broke laws to be here) before protecting citizens who are struggling with the burdens of the crimes committed by those aliens suggests that he has no intention of restoring the Rule-of-Law. Rather, he is using the talking point to promote the same WOKE agenda that normal people always seem to end up on the losing side of.

Ban stock trading by members of Congress & the executive branch

I agree with this position. I have no problems with it...It should also include trading by their family members and other obvious loop-holes.