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Other Opiates - What kids know.
National Review Online ^ | September 3, 2002 | Mark Goldblatt

Posted on 09/03/2002 4:43:42 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl

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1 posted on 09/03/2002 4:43:42 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
*Bump*
2 posted on 09/03/2002 4:51:40 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Hey good article, Cowgirl. Read the title and thought it was about gluesniffing or something but wasn't TOO disappointed... ;)
3 posted on 09/03/2002 4:59:02 PM PDT by maxwell
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
And who says public schooling is a failure?

These clowns will be GREAT voters; they're unlikely to suspect a thing!
4 posted on 09/03/2002 5:03:49 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Okay, college professor, Guess What? Kids don't decide what they will learn in the shitty public schools they have to attend. It's really not their fault. They just go along with what they are told to go along with, and they do their damndest to learn the crap that is ladeled on them, Why? Because they trust the shitheads who are in power, that's why. I really get pissed when the higher ups in education denigrate the incoming freshman class. Do something about it if you're so unhappy about it. Okay????
5 posted on 09/03/2002 5:05:21 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Recently I thought about putting a sign on the fridge for the benefit of my two young ones...

MOVE OUT WHILE YOU STILL KNOW EVERYTHING

They are only 6 and 10 but damn do they know everything...LOL

6 posted on 09/03/2002 5:07:22 PM PDT by alisasny
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To: headsonpikes
What CLOWNS? Your kids who have to attend subpar public schools because you either didn't try to make those schools better, or you didn't realize how crappy they were and didn't put aside some income for private school tuition, or because you were just to freaking lazy to homeschool?
7 posted on 09/03/2002 5:18:03 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: ladylib
That is what the man said.

Let me stress that I'm not talking about stupid kids - though yes, as painful as it is to acknowledge, there are in fact stupid kids. But in this case I'm talking about bright kids, talented kids, curious kids - kids who will occasionally concoct ingenious, if wrongheaded, theories to compensate for what they don't know. Several years ago, for instance, a student of mine suggested that a semi-colon got its name because it drew attention to the words around it. She thought the spelling was: "See me colon." Clearly, if she's clever enough to come up with that, she's clever enough to learn the proper use of semi-colons; it's just that no teacher ever bothered to correct her punctuation.

He is not denigrating the kids; he is slamming their teachers. Personally I think that their parents should be smacked as well but that is only my opinion and not to be taken for that of anyone who matters.

a.cricket

8 posted on 09/03/2002 5:22:57 PM PDT by another cricket
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To: ladylib
"because you were TOO freaking lazy to homeschool." Unfortunately,when I'm pissed about something, I forget spelling and grammar rules. So sorry.
9 posted on 09/03/2002 5:23:42 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: another cricket
Please don't blame the kiddies for the shortcomings of their teachers and parents. That's what really annoys me no end. IT'S NOT THE KIDS' FAULT. MOST KIDS DO THE BEST THEY CAN BECAUSE THEY WANT TO PLEASE THEIR PARENTS AND TEACHERS.
10 posted on 09/03/2002 5:26:53 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
bttt
11 posted on 09/03/2002 5:28:14 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: ladylib
Do something about it if you're so unhappy about it. Okay????

And people wonder why some homeschool.

12 posted on 09/03/2002 5:32:06 PM PDT by Centurion2000
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To: Centurion2000
Well, parents who homeschool are usually very knowledgable about the shortcomings of the local public school. More power to them.
13 posted on 09/03/2002 5:36:42 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: alisasny
I hope you homeschool or send your kids to a decent private school. I hope you don't send your kids to the local public school (unless you know it's a great school), because if you do, they'll probably be living with you until they're forty because they "won't know ANYTHING, much less EVERYTHING."
14 posted on 09/03/2002 5:51:14 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Ahh, what's all this higher learning good for anyway? All this fancy education just turns out a bunch of elitist, unproductive snobs. Chairman Mao was right: intellectuals are enemies of the people, and should be sent off to labor camps. Better yet, let's do what Pol Pot did to them....

/sarcasm off

It never ceases to amaze me that even conservatives occasionally chime in their support of leftist anti-intellectualism. Maybe homeschooling will help, though I don't know a lot of Moms who can teach their kids calculus. Oh well...

15 posted on 09/03/2002 6:13:16 PM PDT by HassanBenSobar
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To: ladylib
It's really not their fault.

Oh really?

There are public libraries just about everywhere, filled with books. These books can be checked out for free. If the children read some of those books, they would, practically by osmosis, figure out what a semicolon is and how it's used, among other things. Even if all they read was fiction they'd learn a lot.

I wonder why these children don't read?

16 posted on 09/03/2002 6:31:49 PM PDT by Auntie Mame
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To: HassanBenSobar
Probably can't -- but they can access programs on the web that will teach their children calculus. A new day is dawning in American education. Thank God!
17 posted on 09/03/2002 6:33:15 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Auntie Mame
Probably because they were taught the half-assed whole language method of reading which has been very popular for the last 20 years. Check it out.
18 posted on 09/03/2002 6:35:12 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Auntie Mame
You wonder. I wonder too. Ha, ha.
19 posted on 09/03/2002 6:41:43 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
This is a very sad, very serious, very important article. And it is still current. In the three years since this was written the problem of a vacuum in college freshmen where the basic knowledge ought to be, has only gotten worse.

Competent thinking -- on any subject -- has to be based on facts. Absent that, the grow-up student cannot be a competent mother or father, employee or employer, teacher or student, citizen or leader.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest column: "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Click for latest book: "to Restore Trust in America"

20 posted on 09/03/2002 6:47:30 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
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