Edu-Porn Brought to You by Freakonomics

The way sex porn works is to convincingly create simulations that have all the mechanical nuances of the real act with the soul missing.  That is how porn workers can finish their shift and then go pick up the kids and take their wives to dinner.

Same principles apply with edu-porn.  It, too, is market inspired and involves convincing simulations, just like the ones offered in the Freakanomics documentary that got shoved my way yesterday in an email.  And edu-porn, too, is looking for the most bang for the buck (never mind the pun, which, by the way, originated with the defense industry).

According to Steven Levitt, describing the plot line for the edu-porn segment of their new documentary, the "goal was to figure out can we cheaply and quickly move the needle at a school--can we get kids to achieve more as quickly as possible and spend very little money."

This, my friend, is edu-porn reform in a nutshell, so to speak.

Have a look at this clip, but I warn you it is XXX rated for sleazy exploitation of poor children, simulated alcohol consumption by minors, gambling promotion, and further destruction of the environmental conscience of minors (winners of the lottery get to ride in a stretch Hummer).  Yeah, that's right, baby. 

The Mismatch Between What Science Knows and What Business Does

With the art and science of pedagogy hijacked by the bean counters from business and management, we are guaranteed that children will become dumber until these interlopers are sent packing back to where their expertise can shine, like in running our economy, right??

Have a look at this TED lecture on motivation by Dan Pink, who never mentions, by the way, teacher performance pay or paying students for test scores. HT to DC:

Gingrich Joins Duncan On the Unending Need to "Incent"

Would you call this pay not to play? From Raw Story:

The man who dubbed Vice President Joe Biden a socialist last September for arguing that paying taxes is "patriotic" appears to have some government redistribution ideas of his own.

Newt Gingrich, often cited as a Republican prospect for president in 2012, says the state should consider paying teenager girls not to get pregnant.

He also says that states should consider paying teenage girls who become pregnant to take prenatal vitamins to forestall paying additional health expenses for neonatal care down the road.

The remarks were made during a tour of Michigan on Wednesday. Gingrich is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, a not-for-profit group advocating the partnership of private and public interests for health care reform.

Along with his remarks about pregnant teenagers, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives also said Wednesday that state legislators should consider paying poor children to read and individuals not to smoke.

"We need to develop a health-based health reform," Gingrich said, according to AP. "Free of the usual bureaucracy." . . . .