Our current educational system is a relic of a bygone era. Rote memorization, a skill valuable in a time when access to information and reference material was far more limited, remains the primary component of learning in today’s classrooms. With the internet, widespread access to information makes finding facts, dates, and other trivium as simple as a Google search and a click. However, this new plethora of information presents its own challenge: the need to think critically and filter information.

A recent report by Project Information Literacy showed that many college students lack basic research skills. This is largely because our education system focuses on memorization of answers instead of how to think critically and find them on their own. While memorizing a monologue or a poem is good for your brain, too much focus is on teaching facts instead of skills:

According to How College Students Evaluate and Use Information in the Digital Age, students engage in “risk-averse” research, in which they “use an information-seeking and research strategy driven by efficiency and predictability for managing and controlling all of the information available to them on college campuses” — a method which, while it may allow students to earn passing grades, goes against the inherently exploratory nature of university level research.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Alison J. Head, a co-principal investigator for the project, said the results suggest that today’s students struggle with a feeling of information overload.

“They feel overwhelmed, and they’re developing a strategy for not drowning in all information out there,” she said. “They’re basically taking how they learned to research in high school with them to college, since it’s worked for them in the past.”

Ms. Head said the findings show that college students approach research as a hunt for the right answer instead of a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation.

Take for example science classes at the university undergraduate level. Students in labs simply follow a recipe of instructions in an attempt to get a result that they already know. It is only at the graduate level that students are put in situations where they must solve a problem on their own and actually apply the scientific method.

These facts that schools have students memorize often fade beyond recollection as soon as the student completes their testing on that information. The skills of critical thinking and research are more likely to remain and serve these students their entire lives. It is a perfect example of the difference between giving a person a fish and teaching them how to fish.

There is a saying within academia that undergraduates believe everything they read, masters students believe nothing they read, and doctoral students learn to decide for themselves. This critical thinking ability needs to be acquired by students earlier than in a doctoral program.

Another skill that is currently being overlooked in our education system is the ability to work with data. A recent article in the Columbia Journalism Review discusses that shortcoming among reporters and its necessity in a data-driven world:

Against this backdrop, the ability to find, manipulate, and analyze data has become increasingly important, not only for teams of investigative journalists, but for beat reporters. It is hard to conceive of a beat that doesn’t generate data—even arts reporters evaluate budgets and have access to nonprofit organizations’ tax returns.

Even when universities have data courses available, the are relatively rare, not required, and primarily only graduate level:

At the same time, making database skills and training a priority can be tough for overburdened reporters and editors. Nor do journalism schools necessarily give such skills pride of place—in fact, many teach them piecemeal, if at all. At the graduate level, New York University requires students in its Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) concentration to obtain a solid grounding in numeracy. In other concentrations, however, these skills play a smaller role. The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism offers a handful of relevant classes, including investigative reporting, a course called Evidence and Inference, and a new addition, Digital Media: Interactive Workshop, which stresses storytelling through data and interactive presentation. But there is no data course that all students must take in order to graduate.

Journalism students are not the only ones who would benefit from these skills. As we progress deeper into the 21st century, more jobs will require the ability to analyze large amounts of data and draw conclusions from it. These skills should be taught much earlier than the university graduate level and to a much wider population of students.

If the United States is serious about educating a population that is ready to thrive in the 21st century economy, it needs to shift its education strategy from memorization of facts to acquisition of skills.

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This post is a review I first published last year which is pertinent to this year’s Blog Action Day topic.

Aqua Shock: The Water Crisis in America by Susan J. Marks provides an analysis of the emerging water crisis in America by looking at its causes, governing structures, and potential solutions.

The United States uses approximately 408 billion gallons of water every day, 345 billion gallons of that usage being freshwater. The largest usage of water in the United States by far — 195.5 billion gallons — is for energy production. When most people think about water they tend to focus solely on drinking water and household usage, yet domestic use ranks a distant third behind agriculture with 46.9 billion gallons per day. Water is used in every aspect of our civilization and is a critical component of every supply chain. Droughts have an enormous economic impact on the country, costing between $6-8 billion annually in losses.

Dr. Peter Gleick sums up the global water crisis:

The easiest way to describe the world water problem is that a billion people don’t have access to safe drinking, and 2.5 billion don’t have access to adequate sanitation services, which leads to 2 million or so preventable deaths every year from water-related diseases.

Most people know that the amount of water on Earth does not change. However, water’s movement, form, purity, and pollution sources are all dynamic. One of the major causes of the change of these qualities is climate change. Increased global temperatures have reduced snowfall in many mountain areas of the United States, with melting snowpack being the main resource for summer water. Climate change also affects storm frequency, intensity, and drought.

According to Joseph Dellapenna of Villanova University “the root of the water crisis historically is not so much population growth but change in the way we use water, change in per-capita water demand.” The Clean Water Act was able to actually decrease the gallons of water used per person per day from 1980-2000 by limiting water discharge for industries and power plants, causing these industries to research and implement new ways to reuse water. The success of the Clean Water Act shows that good legislation and smart planning can go a long way in improving America’s water situation.

Unfortunately, our water infrastructure and urban planning have been contributing to the problem instead of improving our efficiency. Most of the water infrastructure in the United States is antiquated: storm sewers and drainage systems leak large amounts of freshwater, paving large areas in cities and suburbs prevents water from soaking back into the ground to replenish aquifers, and leaky pipes waste 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water every day. Poor planning has caused even areas with high precipitation to have water shortages because of these factors.

Water infrastructure development and maintenance has been at a stand-still since the 1980s. The country has not built a major water storage system since Reagan was President, and our dams, aqueducts, and storage systems were designed for a different climate than we currently experience. Old pipes can allow contaminants into the water supply, and while water treatment facilities are normally able to kill bacteria and parasites, these antiquated systems are not well-enough equipped to deal with modern pollutants: pesticides, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. The NRDC estimates that more than 7 million Americans get sick from contaminated water annually.

People tend to turn to bottled water as an alternative to tap, believing that it makes them safer. Unfortunately this is both not the case and leads to the usage of even more water. Bottled water isn’t safety tested as often as tap water, and most bottled water is from taps and public reservoirs anyway. The real problem is that the amount of water used to make the plastic bottles and in the gasoline fuel to transport those bottles. Instead of demanding we improve our water infrastructure, people purchase bottled water which actually causes greater depletion of our water reserves.

Improving our water infrastructure and urban design would go a long way into securing our water supplies through the 21st century. Porous pavement, water-friendly landscaping, rain gardens, and vegetated swales would help rain water soak into the ground to replenish aquifers. Reducing nonpoint source pollution, which is recognized as the primary threat to American water quality, would prevent fresh water from being ruined. Fixing those leaky pipes and leaching storage systems would prevent the waste of billions of gallons of water.

This has become a problem that we as a country have put off until tomorrow, and today we are faced with expensive repairs that scare politicians. Cost estimates for the replacement of drinking and wastewater infrastructure range from $485 billion to $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years. So far the United States has only allocated $945 million for such projects, which was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year. From any estimate that only covers a sliver of the necessary repair.

According to Marks, “the biggest obstacle to solving the nation’s water problems is refusing to admit they exist.”

Aqua Shock also includes some informative chapters about water laws, the people who control water, the cost of water, and whether our water can be saved. The book definitely does its job in informing the reader about our water problems and water policy, and would be valuable to anyone that is interested in conserving resources and developing our country’s infrastructure for the 21st century.

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In an effort to start a real national push for green jobs, U.S. Senate candidate Rodney Glassman today joined the newly minted EnergizeUS coalition, comprised of candidates running for office across the country — each committed to pursuing policies to expand alternative energy jobs and keep America secure.

The EnergizeUS coalition pledges not just to run on green jobs, but to form a caucus in the U.S. House and Senate to create a push for jobs in a new green economy.

John McCain has taken all sides of this issue but is best remembered for an energy plan reduced to three words: Drill baby, drill. He’s spending millions of Big Oil dollars in an effort to hold onto his seat, despite ignoring Arizona’s needs for 28 years in Washington.

“Arizona is perfectly positioned to cash in on the coming revolution in clean industry and needs a U.S. Senator committed to putting our state on the cutting edge of the new economy,” Glassman said.

Arizona receives fewer federal solar dollars than the city of Portland, Ore., in part because McCain has refused to fight to bring our tax dollars back to our state.

“I’m proud to to be part of this coalition of candidates committed to creating jobs and sending fewer dollars to oil-rich countries that bankroll America’s enemies,” Glassman said. “We should spend less money subsidizing Big Oil and invest more in alternative energy, like solar power, to the benefit of Arizona and America.”

Like the EnergizeUS Coalition on Facebook

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Although the Armed Forces is one of the few institutions in which women receive equal pay for equal work, when women veterans return to civilian life, they face unequal pay and disproportionately high rates of unemployment and homelessness. U.S. Senate candidate Rodney Glassman is calling for the creation of a Veteran Employment Discrimination Prevention (VEDP) office and various training and support programs targeted toward women service members and veterans.

“Women are an increasing segment of our Armed Forces,” said Glassman. “It is unconscionable that we allow them to return to civilian life only to face unfair wages and discrimination.”

“Despite his admirable military service, McCain has repeatedly and vocally opposed expanding health benefits for veterans and the 2008 GI Bill, which provided much-needed educational opportunities for our troops. McCain’s record protecting women’s rights has been hallmarked by his adamant objections to the Fair Pay Act, which advanced women’s rights to take legal action when employers are caught discriminating against women.”

Both men and women veterans face frequent employment discrimination after returning to civilian life, and women earn an average of $10,000 less per year than their male counterparts.

Over the last year, the unemployment rate for women veterans has nearly doubled to about 11 percent, and women veterans are about four times more likely to be homeless than male veterans.

“As a woman and a veteran, I truly appreciate Rodney’s focus on preventing veteran employment discrimination,” said Major Susan Parker-Hotchkiss (USAF, ret.). “This is exactly the type of leadership we need in Washington to ensure our service members have the opportunities they deserve when they return to civilian life.”

As part of a broader effort to address discrimination against all veterans and military service members, the proposed Veteran Employment Discrimination Prevention (VEDP) office would be housed within the Veterans’ Employment and Training Services (VETS) agency of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The VEDP would provide the following services:

• Operate a central hotline for veterans to report and seek information regarding veteran employment discrimination;
• Proactively inform veterans and service members of their legal rights to fair and equitable employment;
• Allow attorneys to register in a database, so veterans and service members can access proper legal resources within their communities; and
• Offer a specialized course on identifying and reporting veteran employment discrimination through the Transition Assistance Program (TAP).

Glassman is also seeking to broaden the range of services provided to service members and veterans by establishing the following:

• Expand counseling and services to veterans and transitioning service members that focus on managing family life while seeking work;
• Provide temporary child support for veterans re-entering the civilian workforce who are single parents; and
• Early outreach to women preparing to leave the service (12-24 months before leaving the service) and longer support after they return to civilian life (12-18 months).

“I’ve been encouraged by the recent progress made in Congress toward supporting our troops’ health and employment opportunities,” said Glassman. “But I hope we can cast a national spotlight on veteran employment discrimination as something we need to immediately address.”

The Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 was recently signed into law and provides a wide range of programs that support veterans’ health, including programs specifically targeted toward women’s health and homeless veterans. A bipartisan Veterans Employment Act of 2010 is currently moving through the Senate and would provide funding for training and small business support for veterans. Neither of these pieces of legislation specifically address veteran employment discrimination.

Learn more at RodneyGlassman.com.

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“Another provision of health insurance reform to give greater health care security to American families is moving forward with guidance released yesterday on the benefit for young adults to stay covered under their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.

“The effective date of this new policy is September 23, 2010, but due to outreach by Democrats to encourage insurance companies to act early, every major insurer has said they will provide continuous coverage for young adults immediately. This means that many students graduating from college this spring will be able to retain coverage as they begin their adult lives and launch their careers.

“So instead of going through their early 20’s crossing their fingers and hoping they stay healthy, young adults will now have an option for affordable health care, and families will have the peace of mind that all their loved ones will be covered.

“This benefit is one of the many that have taken affect in the seven weeks since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law – and one that Republicans would take away if they ever succeeded in repealing reform. Rather than deny Americans benefits that give them more control over their health care, Democrats will continue working to make health care work better for families and small businesses.”

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Arizona Iced Tea is not based in Arizona, and now they sure as hell want you to know that. The passage of SB1070 and the resulting backlash in the form of boycotts and outrage have made it a liability to be a business based in the state of Arizona. While most of the calls for boycotts focus on travel, conventions, and businesses currently based in the state, the real long-term economic damage will be from businesses that choose to avoid locating or expanding to Arizona.

Cities and states are constantly trying to provide economic incentives for businesses to set up shop in their communities because of the long-term economic benefits that these businesses will yield through new jobs and tax revenue. However, Arizona’s brand has suffered a critical blow. Association with the state has negative economic consequences that will cause most businesses to go elsewhere with their economic expansion. The economic consequences will not be solely the short-term revenue losses from relocated conventions, but the accumulated losses of the economic development that could have been.

Governor Jan Brewer and her Republican colleagues in the state legislature have turned the state into economic poison. Even if SB1070 is overturned in the courts and calls for boycotts are withdrawn, the risk that they will do once again something similar remains.

Without a dramatic change in political leadership in the state of Arizona, businesses will be wary of potential fallout from political decisions and avoid development in the state. The Republican leadership has cost Arizona jobs and revenue that will be felt for years to come.

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Here is a set of 59 pictures from today’s rally.

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There have been some requests for the breakdown of the AZ State Senate vote on SB1070.

From ALIS:

YES (17):

Sylvia Allen (R-5)
David Braswell (R-6)
Chuck Gray (R-19)
Jack W. Harper (R-4)
Barbara Leff (R-11)
Al Melvin (R-26)
Russell Pearce (R-18)
Jay Tibshraeny (R-21)
Ed Bunch (R-7)
Linda Gray (R-10)
John Huppenthal (R-20)
Steve Pierce (R-1)
Thayer Verschoor (R-22)
Frank Antenori (R-30)
Ron Gould (R-3)
John Nelson (R-12)
Robert “Bob” Burns (R-9)

NO (11):

Paula Aboud (D-28)
Ken Cheuvront (D-15)
Manuel V. “Manny” Alvarez (D-25)
Jorge Luis Garcia (D-27)
Linda Lopez (D-29)
Richard Miranda (D-13)
Carolyn S. Allen (R-8)
Meg Burton Cahill (D-17)
Leah Landrum Taylor (D-16)
Debbie McCune Davis (D-14)
Rebecca Rios (D-23)

NV (2):

Amanda Aguirre (D-24)
Albert Hale (D-2)

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Yesterday I spent a couple of hours at the Arizona State Capitol for the SB1070 protests. You can see my photos from the event and a video I took embedded below.

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This infographic is from the Office of the House Majority Leader. Young Americans are on the bottom-left.

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