Americas education?
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Leona Conner
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How true. I work for a company that employs several hundres customer service reps, fortunately I don't do telephones. But if they speak to a merchant the way the enter notes into that merchants history, I'm suprised we don't lose them. I raised my girls to be interested in many things, especailly culture and share my love of history. When we moved here from California, they really had a hard time because the kids they knew had no idea of what they were talking about most of the time. And this city is suppose to have one of the great colleges in the nation, well at least that is what they tell me. Maybe they just mean the football and basketball programs are great.
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Minimalist
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I wouldn't call them "criminals" Dig....just astonishingly unmotivated and disinterested in everything except their immediate need gratification.
Shit....the "criminals" may be the ones who have some balls.
Shit....the "criminals" may be the ones who have some balls.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
-- George Carlin
-- George Carlin
From the good old OED.
Definition #1:
"The process of nourishing or rearing - 1661."
Ahhhh, yes, name me a species which does not do this.
And, sometimes, in truly mysterious ways.
For example, the Monarch butterfly.
Their children, each year, know how to migrate to S. America and back to N. America.....
I'm sure you can think of multiple similar examples of just how knowledge gets passed on in ways we don't understand.
As for the present human species, education barely exists, and when it does, it is by accident.
I will amend this. Education in the third world is far healthier than in the first world.
First world education consists of the number of human units delivered which pass various quality tests (exams and degrees), which have nothing to do with either their ability to think or the ability to retain or pass on knowledge. A widget factory, in short.
The remnants of tribal peoples are so far ahead of us in terms of education that, to use Mark Twain's sobriquet, American education is simply a sarcasm.
john
ps
One last point.
Being "taught" how to manipulate pre-masticated data in order to make a living in post-industrial society can in no way be confused with education or learning. Or actual, wilful, thinking.
j
Definition #1:
"The process of nourishing or rearing - 1661."
Ahhhh, yes, name me a species which does not do this.
And, sometimes, in truly mysterious ways.
For example, the Monarch butterfly.
Their children, each year, know how to migrate to S. America and back to N. America.....
I'm sure you can think of multiple similar examples of just how knowledge gets passed on in ways we don't understand.
As for the present human species, education barely exists, and when it does, it is by accident.
I will amend this. Education in the third world is far healthier than in the first world.
First world education consists of the number of human units delivered which pass various quality tests (exams and degrees), which have nothing to do with either their ability to think or the ability to retain or pass on knowledge. A widget factory, in short.
The remnants of tribal peoples are so far ahead of us in terms of education that, to use Mark Twain's sobriquet, American education is simply a sarcasm.
john
ps
One last point.
Being "taught" how to manipulate pre-masticated data in order to make a living in post-industrial society can in no way be confused with education or learning. Or actual, wilful, thinking.
j
"Man is a marvellous curiosity. When he is at his very, very best he is sort of a low-grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm."
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
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Minimalist
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George Carlin explains the Education System....and other things.
http://media.smays.com/Video/Carlin_edu.wmv
http://media.smays.com/Video/Carlin_edu.wmv
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
-- George Carlin
-- George Carlin
I must admit I was somewhat uninspired and without direction when I left school. Art "education" didn't help a great deal either, and I only drifted into that as I seemed to have some sort of creative aptitude. Childhood wasn't hard, although neither was it easy compared to many, though you don't realise that at the time. It was only the shock of having to work for a living that knocked some sense into me, taught me the value of not just drifting through life and inspired me to actually try learning something. For this very same reason I'm not entirely sure that national service is without some merit - I'm not saying many young people (tsk tsk) today don't have it hard, but society seems set up so that they don't have the impetus to make any tough choices, like the one about not being a complete waste of time and chemical compounds the rest of your life.
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Minimalist
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These kids seem to have no intellectual curiosity at all. They are like peasant farmers....only concerned with making the turnips grow... except they have Game Boys and IPODs for the quiet moments.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
-- George Carlin
-- George Carlin
Just as people have different physical reactions like allergies to dietary deficit and contamination, so also different gene pools have more or less of psychological pathology. http://www.malaise/malaise.html goes into it in more detail, but a couple points in this thread.
Blacks from the Carribean move to the great urban centers, be I havent noticed them engaged in gang warfare, drug abuse, or crime. What's the diff? Part of the reason lay in that the immigrants were commonly raised in obscure rural areas on diets not that different from what their African ancestors had.
I was born on a farm in 1939. We fed the horses oats cause we wanted strong smart horses. But we fed the pigs corn cause we wanted fat pigs, and nobody wants a smart hog. They raised us kids on oatmeal. If what I wanted was fat stupid kids, I'd raise them on soulfood.
I have a subscription to Farmshow Magazine. The current issue has a rap on a piece of machinery which doesnt plow deep, but makes little furrows that it dumps 34% Nitrogen into just before it puts in the seed. This damn thing works 24 rows at once, a swathe of land about 50' wide, moving at 7-9 mph, and processes 50 acres an hour.
I would not call it farming. But it produces 150 bu of corn/acre. If you crunch the numbers you realize this damn thing will make 25,000$ worth of corn per hour its in operation. You just dont wanna eat the corn.
A lotta folks dont know they are eating corn that does not have nearly the nutrition that Native Americans got growing it, and because of that, they grew up so stupid they dont know, and you cant teach them.
The democratic process is not going to solve this problem since the electorate is too fucking stupid to know there is a problem. and they dont know because of not developing properly during childhood. Its too late now to repair the damaged neurology.
Course, some folks are lucky, grow up to be rational sentient beings anyway. When Adlai Stevenson was told that he had the "Thinking Man's vote", the gov smiled and replied:"Yes, but I need a majority".
Blacks from the Carribean move to the great urban centers, be I havent noticed them engaged in gang warfare, drug abuse, or crime. What's the diff? Part of the reason lay in that the immigrants were commonly raised in obscure rural areas on diets not that different from what their African ancestors had.
I was born on a farm in 1939. We fed the horses oats cause we wanted strong smart horses. But we fed the pigs corn cause we wanted fat pigs, and nobody wants a smart hog. They raised us kids on oatmeal. If what I wanted was fat stupid kids, I'd raise them on soulfood.
I have a subscription to Farmshow Magazine. The current issue has a rap on a piece of machinery which doesnt plow deep, but makes little furrows that it dumps 34% Nitrogen into just before it puts in the seed. This damn thing works 24 rows at once, a swathe of land about 50' wide, moving at 7-9 mph, and processes 50 acres an hour.
I would not call it farming. But it produces 150 bu of corn/acre. If you crunch the numbers you realize this damn thing will make 25,000$ worth of corn per hour its in operation. You just dont wanna eat the corn.
A lotta folks dont know they are eating corn that does not have nearly the nutrition that Native Americans got growing it, and because of that, they grew up so stupid they dont know, and you cant teach them.
The democratic process is not going to solve this problem since the electorate is too fucking stupid to know there is a problem. and they dont know because of not developing properly during childhood. Its too late now to repair the damaged neurology.
Course, some folks are lucky, grow up to be rational sentient beings anyway. When Adlai Stevenson was told that he had the "Thinking Man's vote", the gov smiled and replied:"Yes, but I need a majority".
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.
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Minimalist
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I would not call it farming. But it produces 150 bu of corn/acre. If you crunch the numbers you realize this damn thing will make 25,000$ worth of corn per hour its in operation. You just dont wanna eat the corn.
Yeah but can it produce ethanol?
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
-- George Carlin
-- George Carlin
Yes. But that's pay now, or pay later. The cost of the diesel is trivial; the USDA website has the breakdown for you depending on your zip code. But then, you've gotta dry the corn, then sprout the corn, then dry the corn again, and ferment the corn, and then finally, distill the corn.
Solar heat to do that would be real efficient, but they dont do that. they cook it with propane. And when you get done burning all that, you aint gained much.. Then too, if 100% of the corn crop was converted into ethanol, it'd be about 6% of the gasoline consumption.
A problem the Maya had with monoculture is that corn is a heavy feeder, and they wore out the soil. Course, you can keep dumping chemicals on the land to keep up production, but you dont wanna eat anything later grown on that ground, much less feed it to your kids.
Mite wanna take a look at http://www.dc-pc.org/farmath/farmath.html ; there are two lessons there. One is what agriculture was like in IL in 1885. Back then, they expected 21 bu corn/acre. By my time, there were hybrids, so I remember county fair plaques on the wall for 45-50 bu corn/acre still using what we now call "organic" methods. Manure & crop rotation. which you can do indefinately.
If a war with Iran or whatever interferes with oil production, and imports decline, corn production will drop dramatically. Sure, the US does produce anuf of its own oil to keep production up, but that aint gonna happen with urban lawyers in pin stripe suits setting priorities. They dunno jack Shit about farming, and wont allocate the resources till its too late to plant. Its
not the kind of thing that can be held up in a committee meeting.
The other thing about the Farm math book, is that its intended for 8th grade kids. Today, I think most 10th graders would flunk what usta be 8th grade math. Course, if you think about the lifestyle, you can see the kids were more motivated. Like if a 2" ball of yarn makes 1 mitten, what will a 6" ball of yarn make? Potatoes sell for 6 cent/lb, you get 1 bu for every 12 hills. How much money can you make off an acre?
Solar heat to do that would be real efficient, but they dont do that. they cook it with propane. And when you get done burning all that, you aint gained much.. Then too, if 100% of the corn crop was converted into ethanol, it'd be about 6% of the gasoline consumption.
A problem the Maya had with monoculture is that corn is a heavy feeder, and they wore out the soil. Course, you can keep dumping chemicals on the land to keep up production, but you dont wanna eat anything later grown on that ground, much less feed it to your kids.
Mite wanna take a look at http://www.dc-pc.org/farmath/farmath.html ; there are two lessons there. One is what agriculture was like in IL in 1885. Back then, they expected 21 bu corn/acre. By my time, there were hybrids, so I remember county fair plaques on the wall for 45-50 bu corn/acre still using what we now call "organic" methods. Manure & crop rotation. which you can do indefinately.
If a war with Iran or whatever interferes with oil production, and imports decline, corn production will drop dramatically. Sure, the US does produce anuf of its own oil to keep production up, but that aint gonna happen with urban lawyers in pin stripe suits setting priorities. They dunno jack Shit about farming, and wont allocate the resources till its too late to plant. Its
not the kind of thing that can be held up in a committee meeting.
The other thing about the Farm math book, is that its intended for 8th grade kids. Today, I think most 10th graders would flunk what usta be 8th grade math. Course, if you think about the lifestyle, you can see the kids were more motivated. Like if a 2" ball of yarn makes 1 mitten, what will a 6" ball of yarn make? Potatoes sell for 6 cent/lb, you get 1 bu for every 12 hills. How much money can you make off an acre?
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.
Education
I have an ancestor's school literature book written in 1864 in Baltimore while she was 16 years old. The flowing penmanship is flawless and her grammar is almost classical as she was analysing the works of Plato. Of course, there were no spelling errors, it was perfect. Good luck finding that today. Grammar, spelling and Plato are no longer relevant in our school system.The other thing about the Farm math book, is that its intended for 8th grade kids. Today, I think most 10th graders would flunk what usta be 8th grade math. Course, if you think about the lifestyle, you can see the kids were more motivated. Like if a 2" ball of yarn makes 1 mitten, what will a 6" ball of yarn make? Potatoes sell for 6 cent/lb, you get 1 bu for every 12 hills. How much money can you make off an acre?
Natural selection favors the paranoid
Re: Education
> Good luck finding that today. Grammar, spelling and Plato are no longer relevant in our school system.>
No shit. I now feel so lucky to have been given polio for my 7th birthday. They kept me in for 10 months right after I had learned to read, and reading was one of the very few things they let me do.
So, while the other boys were on the ball field, or at best reading the rule books, at 14, I was reading Plato. I frankly didnt get a whole lot about what he had to say, but I did see that he was asking questions that were not in the Bible, much less with answers.
Had it not been for polio, I prolly wouldda been a machinist, or even maybe a tool & die maker. And for sure made a lot more money. It wouldda been an all right life. Maybe next time.
Bouchard's identical twin studies suggest how much education money is wasted on dumb fucks to pander to liberal sensibilities. Diamond mentions going out into the forest with a New Guinea Highlander, and listening to the man expound for hours, drawing on a truly encyclopedic database in his head, on the minutia of every plant and animal.
But back in the village, he cant handle 8th grade math. They thot Diamond was retarded cause he could not remember all the plants & animals. We all evolved in different ecosystems that created different kinds of minds.
No shit. I now feel so lucky to have been given polio for my 7th birthday. They kept me in for 10 months right after I had learned to read, and reading was one of the very few things they let me do.
So, while the other boys were on the ball field, or at best reading the rule books, at 14, I was reading Plato. I frankly didnt get a whole lot about what he had to say, but I did see that he was asking questions that were not in the Bible, much less with answers.
Had it not been for polio, I prolly wouldda been a machinist, or even maybe a tool & die maker. And for sure made a lot more money. It wouldda been an all right life. Maybe next time.
Bouchard's identical twin studies suggest how much education money is wasted on dumb fucks to pander to liberal sensibilities. Diamond mentions going out into the forest with a New Guinea Highlander, and listening to the man expound for hours, drawing on a truly encyclopedic database in his head, on the minutia of every plant and animal.
But back in the village, he cant handle 8th grade math. They thot Diamond was retarded cause he could not remember all the plants & animals. We all evolved in different ecosystems that created different kinds of minds.
Any god watching me hasta be bored, and needs to get a life.