check out this article on AntiMullah about how we should wake up.
http://noiri.blogspot.com/2006/10/learn-america-learn-and-fast.html
Thanks so much for the ping!!!
Posted on 10/21/2006 10:38:35 PM PDT by SmithL
The dispatches arrived in a bunch and pointed too much to the same conclusion to be coincidence. The conclusion: We're doomed. And it's not al-Qaida doing us in. We're doing it to ourselves.
In what is surely the tip of the social iceberg, a New England grade school has joined schools across the country in prohibiting the kids from playing tag at recess.
Touch football is also banned. The schools are growingly - and legitimately - fearful of lawsuits over playground accidents by litigious parents. Seesaws and jungle gyms have long since disappeared from playgrounds.
But there is probably more at work here than just fear of the courtroom: the kids' feelings. Remember a few years ago when the schools started banning dodge ball? The problem was, dodge ball was exclusionary, the point being to knock people out of the game at great risk to their positive self-image.
The problem of unsupervised games and skinned knees may be self-solving because surveys show recesses are shriveling, with the schools arguing they need that time to prepare their students for the tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.
So how's that working out?
Not so hot, according to a Brookings Institution study. It found that, while American eighth-graders professed enjoyment of math and confidence in their math skills, they didn't perform as well as foreign eighth-graders, who were not so happy and confident.
Summed up one account: "Even the least confident students in Singapore outscored the most confident Americans."
Countries like the United States that teach math by trying to relate it to daily life using real-life examples have the worst scores. There's a two-word explanation for that: binomial theorem. When was the last time you had occasion in daily life to use that basic first step in introductory algebra? The more math you learn, the more remote it is from real life.
The final threads of this tapestry of doom came together when the Associated Press filed a story about an NFL program to help combat the epidemic of childhood obesity, a condition caused in part, the experts say, by a lack of exercise like, oh, say, playing tag or dodge ball.
The program aims to work physical activity into the classroom. Reported the AP:
"New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning dropped by a Manhattan public school this week where he showed eighth-graders how to add some exercise to their math class. He had them perform squats, then count their own heart rates for 15 seconds and multiply by four to calculate their heartbeats per minute."
So here we have eighth-graders - 13-year-olds - being challenged to count into the double digits and then multiply that number by four.
A science lesson would teach the dangers of cholesterol and the importance of healthy hearts by having the kids play - get this - tag. Imagine what it will do to the self-esteem of an eighth-grader who in a classroom game of tag is chosen to be cholesterol, heart-clogging fat.
We will ask ourselves how we got to be so fat and stupid. And the answer will come: Education.
We're doomed.
Indeed, the descendants of the flinty New Englanders who chased the British redcoats from Lexington Green and Concord Bridge back to Boston are prohibited from playing all unsupervised "chasing games."
There is likely some advantage in approaching a difficult task with humility and trepidation, but we do lead the world, however, in instilling self-esteem.
If you're really good, there are only about five other people in the world you can talk to, and none of them, very likely, is a Singaporean eighth-grader.
must read bump
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Personally, I love statistics. Some people hate them. I can understand why. Statistics are an analytical prehensile limb – but how coordinated is the mind that employs them? I would look at tools instead of grades… that’s right, I’d drop the usual infatuation with grades and curriculums and instead look at tool sales. Think about it, who actually uses physics every day? I’m an engineer and enjoy solving high level math and physics problems – but let me tell you a secret – the guy with the tools gets the job done. More often than not, it’s the guy working the machines who offers a new destiny. Afterward, the more politically apt engineers and managers inject the creative genius of their subordinates into the appropriate stream of consciousness. I think that the mechanics of change in society have similarities be they products, law or any other aspect of culture.
Case in point; the apartheid regime of South Africa had to go. That was a required change. Post revolutionary governmental incompetence is an entirely independent issue. The Truth and Reconciliation project was and remains a model for post revolutionary politics. What remains to be resolved in South Africa does not absolve the apartheid regime of its dysfunction.
>>Is it really even possible for a "faggot" to be "pussy whipped"? It seems to me the whole notion of being "pussy whipped" presupposes the condition of having the aforementioned portion of the female anatomy conditionally withheld until some task the aforementioned female wishes one to perform is fulfilled, hence holding no sway over someone who is of the homosexual persuasion.
<<
I was making a reference to th dialog in the movie !
The original cut of DEMOLITION MAN
I know, I just was being a wise-ass. Demolition Man is one of my favorite movies.
>>Case in point; the apartheid regime of South Africa had to go. That was a required change. Post revolutionary governmental incompetence is an entirely independent issue. The Truth and Reconciliation project was and remains a model for post revolutionary politics. What remains to be resolved in South Africa does not absolve the apartheid regime of its dysfunction.<<
Nor should aparthied be used as a scapegoat or source of excuses for all that has gone wrong South Africa since 1995 .
In many ways, South Africa was better off under that old regime, than the current corruption, ineptitude and lawlessnes that marks every and now all Black Majority Ruled African nations .
The fall of aparthied gave that Mugabe in Zimbawe the license to turn his government into another Robber Barron potentate, so typical of all Sub-Saharan countries .
Black Majority Rule = Mob Rule .
Both there and what we've seen in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina .
With smaller families, the kid density in neighborhoods means fewer pick up games. People decry all of the organized sports kids are playing these days, but face it, it's gonna be organized to get enough kids together in one place to play some sports.
During the summer, my young adult sons regularly play pick up games of baseball (hardball) in the city, where they live. Basketball is the game of choice for most city kids these days.
Where are all the kids playing street hockey? I don't see it in my bucolic little corner of the country.
My sons played it some, as well as many other sports, both organized & pick up games.
As to the article, mention of binomial theorem, don't know about the rest of the nation's schools, but I know I had to relearn trinomials to help my sons with their homework. Then again, I had a recent conversation with one of my sons about converting numbers into various numeric bases. During the drive between my house & the store, I taught him how to convert numbers into base three, base eight & then some others which were higher than ten. Learning can & does take place outside of school...
George Thurgood & The Destroyers .
The best engineers are those that can also turn the wrench. A wrench man will know a standard thread pitch, while a non-wrench engineer will read in one of his books what the best pitch should be for an application, even if a bolt has to be specially made to comply with his design.
Yes, I wasn’t suggesting that concrete is more valuable than abstract or even vice versa.
Personally and as a psychologist, I agree with you regarding 'tools' versus 'grades'. I don't think that they teach or put sufficient emphasis on practical or ‘softer’ skills in schools or universities – even in some Western countries. The MBA program, for example, is an exception.
"Tools" or to use a psych term "competencies" such as: influencing skills, leadership, creativity, innovation, initiative, tenacity, etc. are largely abstract and are essential for making things happen; not only in personal/social life but also professionally in many fields.
A balance between abstract and concrete is critical. Concrete gives one a model or a framework, whereas abstract enables one to successfully apply the concrete. I also believe that, unfortnately, concrete subjects (specifically cognitive abilities) are viewed and in most cases are easier taught. The ability to act in more abstract terms is more time consuming and needs to be continuously nurtured from a young age.
Btw - I like statistics too and statistics show that statistics are simply indications – a means to an end, not an end in itself. It is the analysis, interpretation and application of stats that matter the most.
check out this article on AntiMullah about how we should wake up.
http://noiri.blogspot.com/2006/10/learn-america-learn-and-fast.html
Thanks so much for the ping!!!
" They are indoctrinating our children to wait for help rather than learn how to survive on their own in the world. "
How right you are!!
In the coming Depression (and there *will* be one), it will be interesting to see our population separate into two distinct groups: Those who "do", and Those who "have done for them".
Imagine Post-Katrina on a national scale -- millions upon millions (unprepared/unable/unwilling to "do for themselves") helplessly, stubbornly, waiting for - DEMANDING - *somebody* to rescue and take care of them. And dying in their multitudes when the help and care is not forthcoming.
"Dependency" is *not* a survival trait.
Question: How do American home schooled children come out on these world tests?
"No playing tag, and no competition in any sport for that matter. In fact, no competition - PERIOD! We are all winners here. I have ZERO TOLERANCE."
Carolyn
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.