Ok, OK I have really fallen behind here. To be honest politics are making me feel ill right now. The vapidity and wrangling of both parties are driving me mad. So I took a bit of a “sick leave” from this so I could try to recover. (I might have to race to the bathroom though so please excuse me if I make a run for it in the middle of this.)
I find it interesting though that the Democrats are looking at the tea party and thinking that the republicans are to divided while at the same time the democrat candidates up for reelection are trying to distance themselves from Obama as fast as they can.
I heard a report recently that Mr. Obama went to NYC for a fundraiser. When he was elected there were tons of people who voted for him, but when he showed up for this fundraiser they couldn’t give away the tickets.
This was reported by the Washington post!
The venue would seat 650 people.
Tickets were on sale for $100 (not a thousand or Anything real in cash just one hundred dollars… heck I could have afforded THAT.)
They ended up having to mark them down to FIFTY dollars.
And they still couldn’t sell all the tickets (they fell about 200 people short of their capacity.)
MIND YOU this was so people could sit down to dinner with THE PRESIDENT of the United States of America!
So I have to wonder which party is really ripping apart?
Maybe it is time to replace BOTH parties with politicians who will…
(a) listen to their constituents,
(b) Do what they say they will,
(c ) put the good of the people and this country before their own selfish wants.
That seems to be what every one else in this country wants, and I think it is time for the politicians in office to hear that message.
September 24, 2010
September 13, 2010
SCHOOLING ISSUES:
The other night I heard a debate about schooling stuff. The debate was talking about should we “test” teachers on the job they are doing.
On the one hand they often seem to have their hands tied on the other hand they are tasked with the next generation/s coming up.
The point was made that the elementary students are being given too much homework and are unable to complete it just due to sheer volume.
I think the real problem with that is that they are being told to memorize not think.
My wife went to college to teach elementary age children, And while she was a student teacher in her final year she worked with a wonderful lady named Suzie. Suzie believed the way children ought to be taught is they ought to learn how to THINK, once they have that most of the stuff you try to teach them will be easy because they can figure it out.
Notably, to me, Suzie would approach Math that way. She taught the third grade and usually when a student came into her class that child was struggling with mathematics that a second grader of the 40’s would have found simplistic.
When they left her class the teachers who got these kids were always amazed that the kid/s they received from Suzie’s class were not only better at math then their counterparts from other schools, sometimes they were almost prepared to look at college level courses. BECAUSE THEY COULD THINK THE PROBLEMS THROUGH.
Kids always want to know why, you ever notice that? Just try talking to a two year old for 20 minutes and you will see what I mean. See the thing is “why” is about how things work what processes are involved to reach the point that you are at. If you tell a two year old you need to do something (“feed the fish”) the child will ask “why” you will tell him or her, (If we don’t feed the fish it might get sick and die.”) what does the child ask?… “Why” then you explain the next part, (“because everything living needs to eat so that they can use the food to make them strong and healthy.”) and this will go on and on until the child has logged in his or her head the whole process. Then that child can use THOUGHT to extrapolate other scenarios. (“the fish needs to eat to be strong and healthy and not die, the dog needs to be fed because if it is not then IT might get sick and die.”)
That is what learning is about, it isn’t that the child is taught to memorize though some might think that is the case (“child memorized the fact that living things need to eat.”) right? NO the child took that information and used it to think. If all the child had done was memorized you end up with LOTS of happy, FAT fish… and all the doggies are starving.
We need to teach kids to think, we need to show kids the way to be able to take things like math and figure out how to make it go. There is no “why” being taught because “why” is thinking, NOT memorizing. Sadly I have been a victim of the memorizing process and so to, I think, have most of our teachers.
And if you think about it the way people are taught is usually the way they will teach, so the system is feeding back on itself and the process of rote memorization is getting worse while the ability to think falls further behind.
Here is the “negative example” that proves my point.
I have a math learning disability, and I was further damaged by the public school’s insistence on the memorization form of education.(it never took, I think now that it wasn‘t a math problem it was memorization problems).
Later when I tried taking a college math class I was out of my depth, when I tried to address the problems I had (the teacher was confusing the whole class and couldn‘t put the math in a format that the students could understand, he expected thinking not memorization.) I went to the head of the math department who said, AND I QUOTE, “it is not the teacher’s job to teach it is the student’s job to learn.”
Well the first problem with that approach is that the students, ALL of the students, were taught to memorize NOT THINK, how can the student learn in that environment? In order to learn from experience you have to be able to think it through. You are setting the student/s up to fail.
Second of all if it is not the teacher’s job to teach but the student’s job to learn; Why am I, the student, having to pay out the money? Every other job I have ever had I got paid for doing the work, in school I am paying the teacher through class fees, so, conversely, what are they getting paid for? (if they’re not doing any work.)
Well I am outta here, until next time…
On the one hand they often seem to have their hands tied on the other hand they are tasked with the next generation/s coming up.
The point was made that the elementary students are being given too much homework and are unable to complete it just due to sheer volume.
I think the real problem with that is that they are being told to memorize not think.
My wife went to college to teach elementary age children, And while she was a student teacher in her final year she worked with a wonderful lady named Suzie. Suzie believed the way children ought to be taught is they ought to learn how to THINK, once they have that most of the stuff you try to teach them will be easy because they can figure it out.
Notably, to me, Suzie would approach Math that way. She taught the third grade and usually when a student came into her class that child was struggling with mathematics that a second grader of the 40’s would have found simplistic.
When they left her class the teachers who got these kids were always amazed that the kid/s they received from Suzie’s class were not only better at math then their counterparts from other schools, sometimes they were almost prepared to look at college level courses. BECAUSE THEY COULD THINK THE PROBLEMS THROUGH.
Kids always want to know why, you ever notice that? Just try talking to a two year old for 20 minutes and you will see what I mean. See the thing is “why” is about how things work what processes are involved to reach the point that you are at. If you tell a two year old you need to do something (“feed the fish”) the child will ask “why” you will tell him or her, (If we don’t feed the fish it might get sick and die.”) what does the child ask?… “Why” then you explain the next part, (“because everything living needs to eat so that they can use the food to make them strong and healthy.”) and this will go on and on until the child has logged in his or her head the whole process. Then that child can use THOUGHT to extrapolate other scenarios. (“the fish needs to eat to be strong and healthy and not die, the dog needs to be fed because if it is not then IT might get sick and die.”)
That is what learning is about, it isn’t that the child is taught to memorize though some might think that is the case (“child memorized the fact that living things need to eat.”) right? NO the child took that information and used it to think. If all the child had done was memorized you end up with LOTS of happy, FAT fish… and all the doggies are starving.
We need to teach kids to think, we need to show kids the way to be able to take things like math and figure out how to make it go. There is no “why” being taught because “why” is thinking, NOT memorizing. Sadly I have been a victim of the memorizing process and so to, I think, have most of our teachers.
And if you think about it the way people are taught is usually the way they will teach, so the system is feeding back on itself and the process of rote memorization is getting worse while the ability to think falls further behind.
Here is the “negative example” that proves my point.
I have a math learning disability, and I was further damaged by the public school’s insistence on the memorization form of education.(it never took, I think now that it wasn‘t a math problem it was memorization problems).
Later when I tried taking a college math class I was out of my depth, when I tried to address the problems I had (the teacher was confusing the whole class and couldn‘t put the math in a format that the students could understand, he expected thinking not memorization.) I went to the head of the math department who said, AND I QUOTE, “it is not the teacher’s job to teach it is the student’s job to learn.”
Well the first problem with that approach is that the students, ALL of the students, were taught to memorize NOT THINK, how can the student learn in that environment? In order to learn from experience you have to be able to think it through. You are setting the student/s up to fail.
Second of all if it is not the teacher’s job to teach but the student’s job to learn; Why am I, the student, having to pay out the money? Every other job I have ever had I got paid for doing the work, in school I am paying the teacher through class fees, so, conversely, what are they getting paid for? (if they’re not doing any work.)
Well I am outta here, until next time…
September 05, 2010
IS IT LOVE OR WHAT?:
I know you all have me down as some kind of hatemonger now or whatever but let’s think about the motivation here.
Why do homosexuals want to get married? They already have civil unions, marriage to my way of thinking is a spiritual thing and I do not know of that many religions that condone Homosexuality.
As I said they have civil unions they get partner health care services at work that is as good as or better then what married couples get they have had the Defense of marriage act challenged on their behalf (DOMA) they get all the privileges, rights, support and benefits that go to a married couple. But they still want “marriage” they still want the piece of paper. Why?
I mean let’s face it, as I said before the whole idea of marriage exists purely because of religion, and spiritual beliefs. The religion/s that have this concept do not include or condone The lifestyle so what is the deal here?
I think it is what I call the “give a mouse a cookie” syndrome.
If you have ever read the kids book “if you give a mouse a cookie” you see that it points out that next the mouse wants a glass of milk, then the mouse wants a straw then a napkin and so on until it goes full circle which is when it starts all over again.
But what drives this? Why can’t the homosexuals be satisfied with what they have? Why do they on have to keep taking on the attributes of the things others have?
Why do homosexuals want to get married? They already have civil unions, marriage to my way of thinking is a spiritual thing and I do not know of that many religions that condone Homosexuality.
As I said they have civil unions they get partner health care services at work that is as good as or better then what married couples get they have had the Defense of marriage act challenged on their behalf (DOMA) they get all the privileges, rights, support and benefits that go to a married couple. But they still want “marriage” they still want the piece of paper. Why?
I mean let’s face it, as I said before the whole idea of marriage exists purely because of religion, and spiritual beliefs. The religion/s that have this concept do not include or condone The lifestyle so what is the deal here?
I think it is what I call the “give a mouse a cookie” syndrome.
If you have ever read the kids book “if you give a mouse a cookie” you see that it points out that next the mouse wants a glass of milk, then the mouse wants a straw then a napkin and so on until it goes full circle which is when it starts all over again.
But what drives this? Why can’t the homosexuals be satisfied with what they have? Why do they on have to keep taking on the attributes of the things others have?
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