E Wayne Ross – Page 75 – Critical Theories in Education

Baseball picks 2008 (Hey it’s still April)

The Canucks tanked and didn’t make the Stanley Cup playoffs; the Tar Heels blew it in the Final Four; and classes are over now, so I can turn my undivided attention to baseball. Please note I have not read anything about the season to this point so as to protect against unfair bias in my picks 😉

Here goes, Senior Circuit first cause it’s the most important:

N. L. East
Atlanta Braves (no bias here)
Philadelphia Phillies*
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
Florida Marlins

N.L. Central
Milwaukee Brewers
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Houston Astros
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Pirates

N.L. West
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants

A.L. East
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays*
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles

A.L. Central
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins

A.L. West
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics

2008 World Series
Boston Red Sox over the Atlanta Braves

Cy Young Winners
AL: Josh Beckett (Red Sox)
NL: Carols Zambrano (Cubs)

MVPs:
AL: Alex Rodriguez (Yanquis)
NL: Mark Teixeira (Atlanta)

I’m sure Guy Debord is rolling over in his grave just now

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that the widow of Guy Debord is demanding that Alexander R. Galloway, an associate professor of culture and communication at New York University, cease and desist from distributing his online war game, claiming that the game infringes on the copyright of Debord’s estate.

Debord—the Marxist/anarchist French philosopher who died in 1994—was a founder of the Situationist International, a group of avant garde artists and academics closely connected to the May 1968 Paris uprising.

“SI promoted a revolutionary program that included the elimination of all forms of representation: the undermining of all authority, the destruction of all symbols of power, the elimination of art and all other forms of cultural spectacle, the regaining of the reality of life that had been expropriated by a society of consumption and commodities—in short, the struggle against late capitalist dispossession.”

So, ahem, it’s not surprising that “ABOLISH COPYRIGHTS” was one the Situationist inspired graffiti messages scrawled on university walls during May 1968.

Galloway’s game, Kriegspiel, is a “two-person computer game he developed based on Debord’s board game, the Game of War. Debord, who was an avid student of war strategy, released a few handcrafted copies of the board game in 1978. The goal of the game, which resembles chess, is to corner and destroy the opponents’ pieces.” The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/free/2008/04/2499n.htm

Today’s News

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Defending the Property of an Anti-Property Marxist Scholar

By ANDREA L. FOSTER

Guy Debord, the Marxist and French philosopher who died in 1994, may be rolling over in his grave.

A lawyer representing his widow has threatened Alexander R. Galloway, an associate professor of culture and communication at New York University, with legal action. Mr. Galloway said the lawyer sent him a letter demanding that he cease and desist from distributing his online war game, claiming it infringes on the copyright of the Debord estate. The philosopher had created a similar war game.

But copyrights and intellectual property were anathema to Debord, said Mr. Galloway. The Situationist International movement that Debord founded in 1957 is a mix of anarchism and Marxism. Its followers scrawled, “Abolish copyright” on building walls during the May 1968 student uprisings in Paris.

The irony of defending the property rights of Debord, a Marxist, has not been lost on scholars, who have publicized the case on their blogs.

Mr. Galloway does not deny that the two-person computer game he developed is based on Debord’s board game, the Game of War. Debord, who was an avid student of war strategy, released a few handcrafted copies of the board game in 1978. The goal of the game, which resembles chess, is to corner and destroy the opponents’ pieces. Debord wrote a book about the game, with his wife, that was translated into English last year.

One of Debord’s games, cast in silver and copper, is on display at Columbia University’s Buell Center for the Study of Architecture, alongside Mr. Galloway’s online version, called Kriegspiel. The goal of Kriegspiel, German for a generic 18th-century war game, is the same as Debord’s game.

A computer programmer, Mr. Galloway said he spent about a year designing the digital game, which can be downloaded from the Web for free.”It’s part of my scholarly research into how antagonism is simulated in war games and computer games,” he said. “It’s also part of my research into the work of Debord.”

Despite the similarities between his creation and Debord’s, Mr. Galloway disputed that he was breaking the law. “I don’t think I’m infringing on anyone’s copyright in the creation of this game,” he said. He declined to discuss his legal quagmire further.

John Beckman, a spokesman for New York University, said the university received a similar cease-and-desist letter. The university responded to it, he said, but he declined to elaborate.

Wendy M. Seltzer, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society who is familiar with Mr. Galloway’s case, believes the Debord estate is overreaching in accusing Mr. Galloway of copyright infringement.

The idea for a game is not copyrightable, she said, only the expression of a game. Mr. Galloway’s game used the idea of Debord’s game, she added, but it did not duplicate the artistry and detail of Debord’s board game.

Ms. Seltzer, who is also a visiting assistant professor at Northeastern University School of Law, sees similarities between Mr. Galloway’s case and one involving the Facebook word game, Scrabulous. In the latter case, the owners of the board game, Scrabble, have accused the developers of Scrabulous of infringing on their copyright. Ms. Seltzer believes that infringement claim is without merit as well.
Copyright © 2008 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

Rouge Forum Update

Dear Friends,

There are actions running up to Mayday in communities all over the US and around the world, many of them in response to cutbacks in education, health care, and jobs demanded by ruling elites. When they say “Cutback,” or “Get Back,” we should say, “Fightback.”

Here is the call for Mayday actions from the Rouge Forum http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/CutbackFightbackFlyer.pdf

and an original Mayday flyer (takes a minute to come up as it has graphics)
http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/mayday.pdf

and the traditional Rouge Forum Mayday flyer http://www.richgibson.com/mayday.htm

and a Mayday song, en espanol http://calacapress.com/gigantedespierto/mp3/PrimeroDeMayo.mp3

Mayday is an international workers’ holiday. Rouge Forum members have celebrated Mayday for eleven years with parties, demonstrations, book talks, film (like “This Land is Mine,” or “Salt of the Earth,”) and discussion groups. However, until the massive general strike initiated by immigrant workers in 2006, most people in the US thought that Mayday, was “Law Day,” a day set aside to celebrate obedience and loyalty to laws designed to protect property, not people, promoting the ethics of slaves. http://www.abanet.org/publiced/lawday/2008/home.shtml

In the face of real promises for perpetual war from all the actors in the hothouse for witless patriotism that is US capitalist democracy we should do all we can to shut down schools, the military, and workplaces on Mayday, marching in the streets against the empires’ wars, against the nationalism that makes them possible, and against further cuts into the lives of poor and working people—and against the failed system of capital itself—toward a world where people can live more or less equitably, creatively, in freedom and community. Surely we can see the choice is equality or barbarism. Where we can, we should conduct freedom schools about the history of Mayday and why it is we must fight again.

Here is Chalmers Johnson writing in Le Monde on Why the US is Really Broke
but oil profits and CEO pay are higher than ever. The degree of the cuts, or the gains made by working people, will depend on the level of resistance, and its wisdom, that we are able to mount. The coffers are not empty.

Nominations for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee close at midnight Monday. So far we have 25 people nominated though we need to confirm their desire to serve. The SC will guide the Rouge Forum between yearly conferences with online and phone discussions and meet once a year, in the fall. Nominate yourself or someone else.

We note with considerable sadness the death of Ira Gollobin, author of “Dialectical Materialism,” one of the best texts on why things are as they are, and what to do. Ira was an inspiration to many of us, always ready to add his considerable wisdom and good humor. Ira was a lead attorney in the battle against HUAC years ago. We hope to join others in seeing that his book is re-published and gets the attention it deserves.

In addition, Abe Osheroff died last week. Abe was a lifelong radical and veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade whose stance was nicely summed up in his New York Times obit, “If you need a victory, you aren’t a fighter,” he said in 2000, “you’re an opportunist.”

As an indicator of the current state of the US trade unions, we condemn the leadership of the Service Employees International Union who used violence this weekend to attack leaders of the California Nurses Association at the Labor Notes Conference in Michigan. SEIU President Andy Stern’s SEIU’s fascist thugs assaulted CNA’s leaders who are, now, among the last unionists in the US who understand that workers and employers have contradictory interests.

Thanks to Erin, Amber, Alan, Wayne, Adam, Sherry, Joe, Doug, Candace, Barb G, Kimmie, Victoria, Matt, Marty, Greg, Katie, Bill (congrats, dad, again), Patrick, Billy, Tom, Bob, TC and Kathryn, Kelly, Chalmers, Larry, MrJ the teacher, Marty, and Glenn. But what has come of the Tigers?

all the best,

“A Nation at Risk” Twenty-Five Years Later

In a report for the libertarian Cato Institute, former New York Times education columnist Richard Rothstein, takes the 25th anniversary of the Reagan Administration’s A Nation At Risk report to analyze its flaws; how it perpetuated the lie that public schools were collapsing; and how warped the public’s view of the relationship between schools and the economy.

Rothstein illustrates three fundamental flaws in the arguments presented in A Nation At Risk. First, the report wrongly concluded that student achievement was declining. Second, it placed the blame on schools for national economic problems over which schools have relatively little influence. Third, it ignored the responsibility of the nation’s other social and economic institutions for learning.

Rothstein concludes:

A Nation at Risk was well-intentioned, but based on flawed analyses, at least some of which should have been known to the Commission that authored it. The report burned into Americans’ consciousness a conviction that, evidence notwithstanding, our schools are failures, and a warped view of the relationship between schools and economic well-being. It distracted education policymakers from insisting that our political, economic, and social institutions also have a responsibility to prepare children to be ready to learn when they attend school.

There are many reasons to improve American schools, but declining achievement and international competition are not good arguments for doing so. Asking schools to improve dramatically without support from other social and economic institutions is bound to fail, as a quarter-century of experience since A Nation at Risk has demonstrated.

Rouge Forum Update

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum web page is only partially updated with material from our recent Rouge Forum conference in Louisville because we are in the midst of a three week long fight with our service provider. Those who are looking for papers, videos, powerpoints, and other material from the conference–well, we believe they will be up in one week. Here is what we have so far, with apologies to others:
http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/reformorrevollution.htm

We have 19 people already nominated for the Rouge Forum Steering Committee. We will close nominations one week from today, at midnight. The Steering Committee will guide Rouge Forum actions between conferences and will meet once a year, probably in the fall. Other meetings will be online or on conference calls. Nominate yourself or someone else! Email rgibson@pipeline.com

About 250 people attended the Chavez Conference in Fresno, California, hearing presentations from education resisters from all over the US. Susan Harman, of Calcare, made the case for test boycotts. We’re hoping to see districts, large and small, walking away from test frenzy–and taking up Freedom Schooling where kids learn things that matter. 96 California districts are already sanctioned under NCLB. People in those districts have nothing whatsoever to lose.

What are school superintendents doing about the sanctions? In one district, the superintendent announced he would “shuffle the cards,” that is, he is going to transfer every middle and high school teacher and most elementary teachers. Those who are waiting for another shoe to drop, as with a substantive plan for curriculum and instruction or a remedy for class size, will have a long wait. The shuffle is his entire plan.

The test boycotts could merge with, or build, the Mayday marches planned for this year. School workers, parents, kids, marching together on Mayday to protest the wars, the attacks on education and health care, xenophobia, and booming racist inequality, will learn far more by voting with their feet, in the streets, than in school on that historical day.

Here is the decade-old, and timeless, Rouge Forum May Day Flyer.

Nearly 130 people signed on to our Rouge Forum updates in the last month bringing our list to 4640, a new high. Welcome to all our new friends.

*a piece from CounterPunch of the Schools-to-War Collision

*An informative, free, video on the build-up for the Iraq invasion

*And a classic short piece, a cannot miss, demonstrating the old slogan, “Don’t mourn, Organize!”

And to close, a piece of “The People, Yes” by Carl Sandburg:

“Get off this estate.”
“What for?”
“Because it’s mine.”
“Where did you get it?”
“From my father.”
“Where did he get it?”
“From his father.”
“And where did he get it?”
“He fought for it.”
“Well, I’ll fight you for it.”
— Carl Sandburg

Thanks to Adam, Gina, Amber, Wayne, Joe, Roger, Bill B (for the reminder on the poem) Elaine, George, Susan O and H, Paul and Mary, BigM, Tommie, Bob, Marie, Sharon, Sean, Molly, P, Dan H and Jennifer, Christine, Christina, TC, Erin, and Sneaky Pete.

All the best, r

Call for Papers: Universities and Corporatization

New Proposals
http://newproposals.blogspot.com/
http://www.newproposals.ca

Call for Papers for Volume 2, Issue 1.

The Editorial Collective invites submissions for Volume 2 of New Proposals.
We encourage the submission of papers that take a politically engaged
stance. We are interested in full length articles (3,000 to 5,000 words) as
well as shorter commentaries (up to 2,500 words).

Papers should be no more than 3,000 – 5,000 words. References and citations
are to be kept to the minimum required to advance your argument. Articles
can be based in original research, synthetic reviews, or theoretical
engagements. We look forward to -in fact expect- a diversity of
perspectives and approaches that, while they may disagree on the
particulars, they will share with the Editorial Collective a commitment to
an engaged scholarship that prioritizes social justice.

New Proposals is a transnational peer-reviewed journal hosted at The
University of British Columbia in collaboration with the UBC Library
Journal Project.

Call For Papers, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Fall 2008)

Universities and Corporatization

What is the role of the university and the meaning of education at the
beginning of the twenty first century? How are corporate money, influence
and ideology shaping the face of the university? How do crushing debt loads
constrain student choices and shape the kind of education they seek and
receive?

Over the past few decades, people in many countries have experienced a
steady corporatization of their universities. University administrations
are increasingly structured on a corporate model and academic success is
defined by profit. For this upcoming special issue of New Proposals, we are
interested in articles and commentaries that analyze this situation in
different countries and regions. We welcome contributions that ask the
following kinds of questions: How is the privatization of the university
expressed and experienced in diverse settings? How do ‘audit culture’
governance systems exacerbate bureaucracy and influence the allocation of
resources? Has the debate about this issue been framed differently in the
case of public versus private universities? To what extent have faculty,
staff, and student unions and organizations intervened? How have public
intellectuals responded to this issue in different countries in the past
and present? Have various countries and different systems of education been
more or less successful in resisting this corporate model?

For this special issue, we welcome shorter commentaries (up to 2,500 words)
as well as full length articles. In particular, we are interested in essays
that develop a comparative perspective.
________________________________________________________________________
New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry
http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/newproposals

Texas principal threatens to kill teachers if test scores don’t improve

The collective idiocy of the high-stakes testing regime seems to have reached its apogee as a Texas middle school principal threatened to kill a group of science teachers if their students did not improve their standardized test scores.

Principal John Burks made the threat in a Jan. 21 meeting with eighth-grade science teachers.

Veteran teacher Anita White told the Houston Chronicle that Burks said “if the TAKS scores were not as expected he would kill the teachers.” White said “He said ‘I will kill you all and kill myself.’ He finished the meeting that way and we were in shock. Obviously, we talked about it among ourselves. He just threatened our lives. After he threatened to kill us, he said, ‘You don’t know how ruthless I can be.’ “We walked out of the meeting just totally dumbfounded because it was not a joke.”