The de-nutting process is alive and well in America.

I suggest that at the end of each day, take both hands and reach down in there and make sure you still got yours.

If you don't love this country you really should leave. I'll even show you the door.

 

Oh there is no question about it. It's our higher education that is killing America. What gives them the power to do this is government funding.
And now they are just a one party political organization. No debate.....if you don't like it, or if you say something they don't like.......leave.

Liberals......can't discuss policy or issues......all must be turned into a personal argument. That's the way women argue.

 

... I would consider it the parents' responsibility to warn the teacher in advance, at the beginning of the term, of food allergies or whatever special needs the child might have. Inability to eat a cookie falls under the heading of "special need".

Oh, I completely agree.

Paperwork should only be needed when doing something a parent wouldn't anticipate as a normal activity. Learning to put a condom on a banana comes to mind. If paperwork is required, the signature requirement is the only way to ensure the kid gives the paper to the parent.

And in the case where I sent out a notice to parents about candy rewards, I agree that it wasn't strictly necessary. It was not a school requirement that I get permission. Nor was it motivated by personal fear of lawsuits. Honestly, I viewed it as having a preponderance of good manners and caution. I was employed full time as an engineer at a company, and was in the classroom through a corporate program we had at the time that allowed us to volunteer. And I would say that I was still being an engineer about it, asking for permission. My belief is that good engineers will check rather than assume if they are the least bit unsure about something.

 

Oh there is no question about it. It's our higher education that is killing America. What gives them the power to do this is government funding.
And now they are just a one party political organization. No debate.....if you don't like it, or if you say something they don't like.......leave.

Liberals......can't discuss policy or issues......all must be turned into a personal argument. That's the way women argue.

Actually that's the conservative way. Don't argue policy or facts, just de-legitimise your opponent.
Where's your birth certificate ...boy!

 

Well my mamma says your mamma is no good.....there!

 

It's our higher education that is killing America. What gives them the power to do this is government funding.

Thankfully the old system is crushing under its own weight and free market solutions are making inroads. It's our only hope. When the student-school relationship becomes a customer-supplier relationship, many of these absurdities in our schools will evaporate.

When I was a kid it was unthinkable that these changes were possible. For instance I recall that Libertarians were promoting vouchers well before the 70's, when I first encountered the concept. It was utter heresy at that time, but is now at least in the popular discussion. That's progress. And the information age dawned between then and now, potentially changing every aspect of education. This has barely been exploited so far. Oh, and the country has been driven to an absurd level of debt, making it a very real possibility that the state-run schools will not be sustainable. They simply cannot and will not move quickly enough to adapt and keep up.

The latest skirmish over "free" community college is amusing.

 

This is the America everyone loves:

Hope to see it again, some day.

 

Hope to see it again, some day.

Are you kidding? Happened two days ago.

http://www.waaytv.com/space_alabama...cle_e80fa5ca-d315-11e4-90b8-c3266c55326d.html

 

I was sentenced to 13 years in the American public school system in 1955.
That's all it was worth...a jail term. Possibly a baby sitter.
Apparently some people think it should have improved in 60 years.

 

Whilst that is no doubt a fantastic feat of engineering and science, does it really compare to the 'quantum leap' that Apollo achieved not just in cold hard science but also the 'philosophical' side? That is, a man walking on the moon. This was done (scary when you think about it! ) nearly 50 years ago... :|

I guess what I'm saying is.... Where's 'our' moon base/Mars colony?

 

I guess what I'm saying is.... Where's 'our' moon base/Mars colony?

NASA lawyers are still writing the contract the astronauts will have to sign.

 

I was sentenced to 13 years in the American public school system in 1955.
That's all it was worth...a jail term. Possibly a baby sitter.
Apparently some people think it should have improved in 60 years.

I went to school in Michigan, California, and New Jersey. I think I got a pretty good deal, for the taxes my parents paid. I learned to read, write, and calculate. I think it beats the alternative by a few country miles.

 

I went to school in Michigan, California, and New Jersey. I think I got a pretty good deal, for the taxes my parents paid. I learned to read, write, and calculate. I think it beats the alternative by a few country miles.

Exactly! People forget that at their most fundamental level public schools exist to provide everyone, no matter how poor, a tuition-free basic education. That may not matter to folks who have money, but my ancestors were poor as hell -- without free public schooling, my parents (and by extension myself) would have been effectively designated by lottery of birth to be uneducated, semi-literate worker bees. I'm damned grateful I was given an opportunity to prove I could be more than just a morlock, you know?

Are public schools perfect? No, no they're not, and there's a great many things I would fix, starting with paying teachers a competitive wage in order to attract more of the best & brightest (seriously, compare their salaries to those of other professionals with graduate degrees) and overhauling the way undergrad teaching programs are set up (the way they're built now, content courses are gutted to shoehorn in more and more ed courses, so you end up with teachers who can write lesson plans in their sleep but only have a shaky grasp of the subjects they're supposed to teach).

And I know charter schools are a popular idea at the moment, but so is not vaccinating your kids -- charter schools are a terrible, ridiculous fix for what ails the public school system (and yes, I know that a few decent charter schools exist, but even a broken clock is right twice a day). What they do in practice is pull even more funding away from public schools, thereby compounding their financially-caused problems (which are both numerous and crippling), and they are not subject to nearly as much oversight as regular public schools. Among other things, that means they don't have the same state testing requirements, they don't have to run background checks on their staff, they can push religious instruction in the classroom, and there are no qualification requirements for hiring teachers.

 

I was sentenced to 13 years in the American public school system in 1955.
That's all it was worth...a jail term. Possibly a baby sitter.
Apparently some people think it should have improved in 60 years.

Sorry to hear that. There's apparently tremendous variation in quality between public schools. I was fortunate to go to great public schools in Hawaii. My high school had a digital logic lab in 1973, so I well prepared for EE by the time I reached college.

 

Exactly! People forget that at their most fundamental level public schools exist to provide everyone, no matter how poor, a tuition-free basic education. That may not matter to folks who have money, but my ancestors were poor as hell -- without free public schooling, my parents (and by extension myself) would have been effectively designated by lottery of birth to be uneducated, semi-literate worker bees. I'm damned grateful I was given an opportunity to prove I could be more than just a morlock, you know?

Are public schools perfect? No, no they're not, and there's a great many things I would fix, starting with paying teachers a competitive wage in order to attract more of the best & brightest (seriously, compare their salaries to those of other professionals with graduate degrees) and overhauling the way undergrad teaching programs are set up (the way they're built now, content courses are gutted to shoehorn in more and more ed courses, so you end up with teachers who can write lesson plans in their sleep but only have a shaky grasp of the subjects they're supposed to teach).

And I know charter schools are a popular idea at the moment, but so is not vaccinating your kids -- charter schools are a terrible, ridiculous fix for what ails the public school system (and yes, I know that a few decent charter schools exist, but even a broken clock is right twice a day). What they do in practice is pull even more funding away from public schools, thereby compounding their financially-caused problems (which are both numerous and crippling), and they are not subject to nearly as much oversight as regular public schools. Among other things, that means they don't have the same state testing requirements, they don't have to run background checks on their staff, they can push religious instruction in the classroom, and there are no qualification requirements for hiring teachers.

If we are going to pay teachers more, then we also have to make their positions as permanent as any professional position in an industrial/commercial setting. Clear out the bottom 10% each year and bring in new talent. There is nothing like competition to and solid KPIs to spur improvement. Or, for the bottom half, nothing like compeition to spur on "crap-on-your-coworkers achievements" smear campaigns or to encourage cheating on standardized exams.

 

quick someone
sing me some apolitical blues.

 

If we are going to pay teachers more, then we also have to make their positions as permanent as any professional position in an industrial/commercial setting. Clear out the bottom 10% each year and bring in new talent. There is nothing like competition to and solid KPIs to spur improvement. Or, for the bottom half, nothing like compeition to spur on "crap-on-your-coworkers achievements" smear campaigns or to encourage cheating on standardized exams.

There's a lot of clearing out already built into the system -- last I checked, the average new teacher burns out after about 4-5 years in the classroom.

 

There's a lot of clearing out already built into the system -- last I checked, the average new teacher burns out after about 4-5 years in the classroom.

Your statistic doesn't seem to help though, does it? People who are driven and rewarded for their drive do not get burned out. Those who would like to get shit done but are not rewarded and see their co-workers surviving while doing nothing get burned out. They leave teaching (like I did) and move on to other things. Therefore, the 4-5 year churn is the good ones leaving, not the bad ones - the bad ones stick around forever.

 

quick someone
sing me some apolitical blues.

Post 35 is one of the few conservative opinions I have.

 

If you don't love this country you really should leave. I'll even show you the door.

What a silly comment, Papabravo.

IMHO, there are a lot of things going wrong in the good ol' USA these days, and to acknowledge them is not the same as professing dislike for the country itself, or its founding principles. In fact, those you so summarily dismiss as unpatriotic are most likely driven by love of this country and for what it could be -- not disdain for it.

No matter how bad things have gotten, there is still no better country on Earth -- the primary reason why so many from other countries wish to live and work here. As dissatisfied -- distressed, actually -- as I may have become with our political situation, there is no where else I'd wish to be. Yet, daily I do my best to change things -- locally, state-wide, and federally -- to the way I think they should be.

Your preference, obviously, is that those who think like me should just shut up and move to the back of the bus -- and let you drive.