Texas counties want control over juvenile system

        I found a post from Grits For Breakfast titled Counties pushing for more control over juvenile system from Thursday October 18th, 2012 discussing an article from the Austin American Statesman (Counties push to bypass state youth lockups by Mike Ward). The article in the Statesman is about Texas counties potentially being allowed to incarcerate their teenage lawbreakers locally instead of sending them to state-run lockups. Travis County is one of the many counties pushing for the change. If adopted, the plan would follow California's lead in downsizing state-run programs in favor of community-based programs. This change has been shown to reduce repeat offending of criminals. Officials are considering a changed in state law to allow the 16 largest counties in Texas, including Travis and Williamson, to handle all corrections for their youth offenders. State-run lockups cost just over $400 a day, while the cost in counties is about $118 a day (Travis county).

      Some questions I have regarding this issue is who pays for the day-to-day costs and what sort of rehabilitating programs will be in the facility to prevent youth from becoming repeat offenders? A decrease in cost always sounds like a good thing, but will county control be beneficial? I was curious to see someone’s view on this issue and see if they had the same questions and could help answer them, but Grits for Breakfast does not seem to have a stance on this issue. They just explain what the article says as I have done. If I wanted to read the Statesman article word for word, I would just read the Statesman, as I did. The only thing Grits says in their own words is “It sounds like a lot of the key opinion leaders are generally, on board, though that’s a long way from passing a functional reform bill.” From just this statement I do not know if Grits is for or against the change of the state law. I heard that Grits for Breakfast was a good Texas blog. I was disappointed and I was hoping it contained more opinion than just regurgitating the Statesman. 

How lectures prevent students from learning

            On October 4, 2012, Amil Malik argued that lecturing makes learning difficult for students in his article how lectures prevent you from learning from The Daily Texan. Malik does a great job of relating to his audience of fellow college students. He is credible to write on this issue because like many of us, he sits through lectures everyday. He states that not all students learn using the same learning styles and that “variety is the key to understanding.” I agree with this idea and believe, as Malik does, that professors should alter the way they teach so that all learning styles are covered to benefit all students.
            Malik uses a recent study from the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology to support his idea. The study showed that by using different forms of learning, the students studied scored 37 percent better than their counterparts. Malik also receives alternate teaching styles from University of Texas English professor Elizabeth Richmond-Garza who uses multiple media outlets to enhance her students’ understanding (a class of up to 400), as well as Special Education Adjunct Professor James Patton who offers three different test methods and video summaries of the day’s main points (a class of about 100).

            Malik does well in providing a defense from Patton to those that do not support the alternative methods used over conventional lecturing. Those who oppose feel professors who use such methods are setting the students up for failure, but Patton disagrees and says he is helping the students master the material with their intended individual learning styles.