Erskine B. Bowles, a co-founder of Fix the Debt, was paid $345,000 in stock and cash in 2011 as a board member at Morgan Stanley, while Judd Gregg, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire and a co-chairman of Fi
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concert with other spending cuts. Presumably he means these items will be passed as part of one bill—not as separate measures. Once the House passes its bill, Boehner seems to think his job is done—it'll be up to Democrats whether or not to accept his ransom note.
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on Thursday, as the top luminaries within the GOP in his home state of Louisiana have broken out the pointiest of sharp sticks with which to assail their colleague. The latest to call for McAllister's ouster was none
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Media literacyBYLINE: Barry Duncan; GAMLENGTH: 156 wordsDATELINE: Toronto ONT The Globe and Mail is to be commended for the articles on children's viewing habits (Watching Children Watch Television, ec. -- May 14). While the research on the impact of television on children is often contradictory, most people would agree that some kind of critical viewing skills can help to give young people valuable insights into television and its social and commercial implications. In this regard, educators have a key role to play in encouraging such programs in the schools. Fortunately, several schools are now launching critical television viewing programs. The Association for Media Literacy is the only group of teachers in Canada who have a comprehensive approach to television literacy. It is now time for the ministry and school boards to recognize that we live in a world that requires as survival skills the ability to be media literate as well as print literate.Barry Duncan Association for Media Literacy Toronto Find Documents with Similar TopicsHelpBelow are concepts discussed in this document. Select terms of interest and either modify your search or search within the current results setSubjectEDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION EMPLOYEES(86%)LITERACY & ILLITERACY(86%)GeographyMinor TermsCANADA(67%)ONTARIO, CANADA(67%)TORONTO, ON, CANADA(67%)images/ButModifySearchWithSelecti
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Literacy comparisons a tricky thing; OpinionBYLINE: Don Aitkin Don Aitkin is a former vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra.SECTION: EDUCATION; Pg. 34LENGTH: 649 wordsLike more than one or two others, I should think, I was a tad surprised when minister Brendan Nelson Enhanced Coverage LinkingBrendan Nelson -Search using:Biographies Plus NewsNews, Most Recent 60 Dayssaid he was worried about literacy levels and that he wanted to do something about it. Not that I think he's wrong to value high levels of literacy. High literacy standards are the foundation of a civilised society, and the higher they are the better.But one of the more recent OECD studies of literacy and numeracy put contemporary Australian kids at the very top of the tree. We have somewhat poorer scores than other countries in respect of equity (that is, family income and context really do make a difference in Australia to the levels of literacy and numeracy reached), but in Olympic terms we're up with the medal-winners. So has Nelson got it wrong? Well, no, he hasn't really. What we are seeing here is a nice example of something that bedevils political debate in Australia, and not least about education. You could call it Judgements Based on Incomplete Comparisons.Many years ago I came to the view that all judgements were either explicitly or implicitly comparative, and that it was important in argument to be very clear about the comparative basis on which you were making your judgements. Most people, it seems to me, assume that their position must be the right one because they have some good data. But there are other data, and to ignore them is to ignore other possibilities.That is, if Nelson says he thinks Australian literacy levels are too low he must be comparing them with something. And there are three basic possibilities. He could be comparing them with some ideal or technical standard, like an ideal world in which every single Australian is completely literate in every sense, or has passed some recognised external test of literacy.Or he could be comparing them, as I did a moment ago, with other countries like us, and argue that we should be even further ahead (which he may well think).Or he could be comparing them either backward or forwards in time. We actually have lower standards of literacy than we had 50 years ago, not because kids are less able or because teaching standards have slipped but because we have taken into our society many people from other lands who are not literate in English, some of them not even literate in the strict sense in their own preferred languages. So he could be arguing that we should be getting back to the standards of literacy that obtained in, say, 1950.He could be going for some combination of these possibilities, as well, but most people usually rest on one and ignore the others. He seemed to be referring to actual examples of illiteracy he had encountered, or heard of, which had to fall far below any acceptable standard.You can see Incomplete Comparisons in many debates for example, about whether we're devoting the right amount to Business Expenditure on Research and Expenditure. Some critics will say that it's inadequate, whatever it is, which is an example of the Comparison against an Ideal. Others will point to, say, the Netherlands or the US or Japan (all countries, unlike ourselves, with a large manufacturing sector) and say that we need to aim there (Comparison Across Space). Defenders will say that the figure is absolutely or relatively higher than it was last year or five years ago (Comparison over Time). All will wield their statistics triumphantly, as though their data can't be controverted.But of course they may all be right: Australia does spend less than some other countries, but more than it used to spend, and it is unlikely to spend as much as the US, even proportionately, or be the top country in the world in this competition. How does that help anyone make a decision?In Australia we seem to argue frequently in this profitless way, preferring our own statistics and our own perspective to anyone else's, and unwilling to recognise the real complexity of the situation. Find Documents with Similar TopicsHelpBelow are concepts discussed in this document. Select terms of interest and either modify your search or search within the current results setSubject<im
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