Eastern Allamakee Blog

At the School Improvement Advisory Meeting (SIAC) we discussed some "area-wide" concerns that were more about Northeast Iowa and economic development than just Eastern Allamakee Community Schools as an isolated entity.  Obviously, we will need to keep our SIAC meetings more centered on the "school events", as this is the major requirement and function of the committee.  However, we decided to start this blog to continue to discuss some of our thoughts about school events at EACS, AND the area-wide whole-ball-of-wax sort-of-thing. 

I did give out some demographic and financial data.  It was a lot in a short amount of time, but hopefully you were able to review this, digest it some, and think about these things. 

At our SIAC meeting we discussed some of our basic programs that we must offer:  ELL, TAG, Multicultural and Global Education, Special Needs, and Dropout Prevention.  We reviewed our test scores, reviewed student surveys, and then discussed the more area-wide concerns.

From my perspective (which may be wrong) some of our conclusions were that our test scores are high, our curriculum is broad-based and solid, we like/love our school and teaching staff, our school is currently financially and functionally sound, good decisions have been made in the past, and our facilities are new.  Basically we rock on all elements! 

AND 

We have had continuous declining enrollment, our K-3 has about 60 kids (or 20 per grade), the enrollment for the future looks bleak, economic development in the area could improve, and we are not alone in Northeast Iowa.   

What are we/should we be doing about this

How do we know what we know?

Do you feel that we learn and perceive reality totally from our senses, or is it from rational assumptions based on prior facts that we already know to be true.

Is it our senses, or is it logic that brings us truth?  If its logic, what is it based on?

2012 Question 3

Note the following two extremes:

1) Hitler had about 6 million Jewish people killed because he wanted to "purify" the race.  What Hitler did to the Jewish people in the 40's is considered "universally" as an "immoral" action.  I think everyone can agree that any attempt to exterminate a race of people is "always" wrong.


2) In the 60's many young men had hair that was very long.  Some people felt that this was "immoral".

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Questions:  Are some things/actions universally immoral or moral?  How many of these things/actions are there, if there are?

I would challenge you to try answering this philosophically "advanced" by connecting to the readings about Kant, and by implementing "maxims" "imperatives" and the conflict between "moral actions" and "prudent actions"...............

2012 Questions

1) For the seniors and anyone else who wants to comment: What was the purpose of the Lemon Exercise?

2) For the juniors and anyone else who wants to comment:  What daily battle between free will vs. determinism do you see going on daily in school and in American society?

2012 First Question

Here's a quote I see often - in fact I found this one in one of my own kid's graduation cards:   "The greatest achievements were at first and for some time dreams".   So what does that mean and does it matter?