Dean Earlix, Ph.D. @HalfPolymath

In Portland, I applied to the Ph.D. to STEM high-school track, mentioned my high school teaching experience was teaching Bible to middle- and high-school students, and was told I was not a good match for the program. No reason given. In Denver, I did not list any high school teaching experience, and was admitted based on subject matter expertise in hydroponics, aquaponics, and instructional design.

@stephbjork @mrs_larocque @FixingEducation This was an 11th grade science class with modules on hydroponics, nutrition, and cooking supported by the Healthy Food for Denver Kids approved in 2018. Religion was not in the curriculum I wrote, it was just throwaway to spark a discussion.

Thank you for replying and (I hope) starting a dialog, but I fear that you are not calling bull to anything I said. If I may clarify... In the army, recruitment was kneecapped by targeted minority recruitment; however, in teaching, my belief (which I flagged as unproven), that religious and political viewpoint responses drove me out. For example, I had two meetings with the principal of my school: The first was when I asked students why they thought women lived longer than men. When nobody volunteered an answer, I used a religious answer as an example (men made from dust, women with better starting materials). The second meeting was from the same lesson: I asked the students to look up their life expectancy using annuity tables that included gender. I learned my lesson from those meetings. I kept my mouth shut, walked on eggshells, and quit at the end of that year. THAT is what I suspect is contributing to a shortage of teachers, though I can only prove it happened to one person. Do you think I was a rare case?

Fortunately, my vertigo is better. Unfortunately, now I can see my nearly perfect photo is not level. Oddly, when I took the picture, it looked fine. 😂

This morning I woke up early with vertigo, drove to pick up my son from the airport 12 hours early, then returned home to walk my dog in spite of just wanting to crawl into bed. This unedited sunrise reminded me we have much to be grateful for. I hope it works for you, too.

That's only half the problem. My friend did Army recruitment during the Biden years, but to reach the quota of LGBTQ+, his team had to shift recruitment from southern states to northern cities with much lower interest. THAT required lowering standards. Once the quotas were dropped in 2025, he saw both standards and recruitment rise. I tried teaching in Portland and Denver, but in spite of my doctorate and 17 years of instructional design, I believe (but can't prove) that I was driven away because I was religious and politically moderate. I will bet, if teacher recruitment was not so narrowly biased, both teacher supply and standards would also rise. Just like in the army.

Fixing Education @FixingEducation

14 hours ago

When states address teacher shortages by lowering the bar to become a teacher instead of making teaching a more sustainable and respected profession, we have a HUGE problem.

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@RoadtripC In _Happiness is a Serious Problem_, Dennis Prager argued why gratitude is one of the keys to happiness. Anyone who learns to appreciate life and be grateful is following the path the US founding fathers encouraged: The pursuit (not the attainment) of happiness.

@ItsRobbAllen AAAAAAAAARGH Whoever did this deserves the health complications of overheated teflon.

@japan_nobunaga Most U.S. fire departments are volunteer because Ben Franklin started them that way. It was a civic duty, but also protected against perverse incentives--lighting fires for job security. Look what happened to homelessness when we people helping each other changed to non-profits.

@ItsRobbAllen Vacation is like coffee: It feels great while you're enjoying it, but you'll pay for it later.

@TheBabylonBee I asked my 20-year-old son what he wanted for his birthday. He answered a Panzer tank. I pointed out how hard it would be to parallel park. He just looked at me, smiled, and asked "Why?"

@MikeBales > Have you ever misspelled a word so badly that autocorrect just… taps out? Yes, and it happens more often as I get older, even though spell correction has gotten better. 🤔 I wonder why?

@LakshmiBlsbrmni > Is 'Toughen Up' the most Evolutionarily Mismatched advice of all time? Quite the opposite. When a bone breaks, it heals stronger. When the body is infected, immunity strengthens. And speaking for myself, after facing adversity, the next challenge seems less daunting.

@ItsRobbAllen Alternatively, plant catnip inside a hardware cloth cage next to a bird feeder. When the catnip grows out, it draws cats, but they can't get through the cage. That makes them frustrated, but primed for the first squirrel who approaches the bird feeder.

@TheBabylonBee Regarding a cage match against Elon, I admit Noah Webster and George Merriam both died in the 19th century; but, since they outnumber Elon two-to-one, and probably voted (multiple times) for Democrats, it seems like a fair fight.

@TheBabylonBee The most common self-driving car "accident" is getting rear ended while stopped at stop signs. Either we need to make all cars self-driven (and save millions of lives) or redefine the word "stop." To decide, I propose a cage fight between Elon Musk and Merriam Webster.

@RealMarlonB The maddening part is, many guardians of voter rolls define "retarded" as anyone who disagrees with them, "live" people as those who mailed in votes, and "illegals" as everyone. How can you prove that white is white and black is black to a blind person?

@damianscottart Shades of Roger Dean, but with taste ☺️

@TheBabylonBee When you're a socialist, every day is Labor (holi)day.

@HLPClips @jockowillink @hubermanlab This morning I woke up early with vertigo, worked out anyway, drove to pick up my son from the airport (12 hours early), then returned home to walk my dog in spite of just wanting to crawl into bed. This sunrise reminded me how lucky I was.