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All you need to know is that we've always been at war with Eastasia.

What a bizzaro quote to use.

(1) Orwell was all about the evils of fascists like okian - he took a bullet from one of okian's fellow travelers.
(2) That quote refers to state media retcon'ing history, none of these events involves rewriting history, it is about revealing more information as investigators dig deeper and deeper into the conspiracy to defraud the american people.

ANyone ever read Ray Bradburys forward on why he wrote F451?

I suspect that you're referring to the coda, not the foreward. It's available online at

http://rjgeib.com/thoughts/451/451.html

Benjamin Franklin had something to say in the matter:

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/franklin/franklin.html

There's something to be said for the idea that everyone should be given the chance to redeem themselves. In support of this argument I present Bertrand Russell's short story, "Josef Stalin's Nightmare", which describes what can probably be said to be the ideal punishment for Stalin, or any dictator.

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/stalin/stalin-nightmare.html

Oh, man, you're going to be all serious about my dumb post.
But you're bringing up a lot of interesting points.
There is pressure to standardize skillsets, to make them trackable, manageable, and accountable -- which results in what we see where jobs are rearranged so that any (educatable) person can do them, and then people become cogs, just another piece of machinery to be redistributed and reallocated.
(Which, by the way, is hardly a Gen Y feeling: see Charlie Chaplin's film "Modern Times" from WWI, or the Randall Jarell poem The Ball Turret Gunner from WWII.)
This isn't by any means unique to IT -- manufacturing went through this in the '70's, or earlier (the reason there's a high-tech industry in Colorado is because Hewlett Packard outsourced from California to Colorado in 1964 because skilled labor was cheaper and less apt to be nomadic.) Likewise, a major reason doctors now use Caesarian section delivery rather than manually-assisted/forceps-assisted delivery is because the latter takes artistry and skill, while the former can be taught by rote, lowering the skill required.

When a process becomes routine, there's very strong pressure to standardize it, so that the people paying don't have to pay for skilled practitioners. The process and the skilled people lose, while the bean-counters win.

But, yeah, people have been saying the same thing about the next generation since at least Greek times. It's just getting faster. I do wonder what'll happen when technologic advance gets too rapid for people of the learning generation to keep up with. Probably we'll just stop buying as much new stuff.

"...now I am become Death [Shiva], the destroyer of worlds..."
      -- Physicist Robert Oppenheimer
      -- Supervising Scientist Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project

5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part. The Face first grows lank and Wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower parts continuing to the last as plump as ever; so that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old one from a young one. And as in the Dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of Corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal and frequently superior; every Knack being by Practice capable by improvement.

But a teaching credential is different. Basically, a teaching credential means taking some classes on "how to teach," and on subjects like how to deal with the needs of minor students, and the legal obligations of teachers (e.g. reporting knowledge of molestation). The requirements for a teaching credential differ for the age group being taught, in a fairly logical way, at least in California. (See the links, below.)

I have a B.A. degree in journalism, plus a J.D. (law) degree, plus a number of years of respectable work experience. I'm confident that I could probably get a job teaching college classes if I wanted, and for a couple years I even taught a class in the local school district's "adult education" program. But I absolutely believe that I would need special training to be qualified to teach to children.

What is disturbing to me, is that school districts are permitted to hire uncertified teachers, who can continue employment for up to five years while making NO effort toward certification. Until recently, these 'teachers' could be dropped into classrooms without ANY training (some were even permitted to skip orientation sessions), and when they "timed out" in one school district they could simply start the clock again in another school district.

And where did this happen most often? In inner-city schools, where the obstacles are so plentiful that we need the very best-trained teachers.

What is involved in getting a teaching certification? Spend one summer at a local college's intense program, or night school for a couple nights per week for two semesters or three quarters. Read, do the homework, pass the exams.

Nobody pretends that it is difficult to get a teaching certification: the classes can be easy, the exams a breeze. It is only "difficult" for those who want to cut corners and try to teach kids without ever learning "how kids learn" and how to deal with situations that arise in the classroom setting.

I occasionally think that I'd like to teach, but I really don't think I have the energy or stamina. Start my first class at 8am? Teach five 50-minute classes per day, with an average of 35 students per class (175 students!). Deal with career teachers and petty bureaucracy? Survive the intense emotional needs of children? Grade papers and exams while watching TV every night? Maybe I could teach one or two classes per day, or better yet nine to twelve hours per week of classroom teaching time (like a college professor).

Teaching is a very difficult job, and we don't pay teachers very well, hardly even a living wage unless they "play the game" of seeking out a master's degree in education and survive many years in a school district to work up the pay ladder. Yeah, they get 8 to 10 weeks of summer vacation, and maybe they work fewer hours than some of us who've ridden the dot-com roller coaster, but they are doing something we all agree must be done -- and done well -- and it is a job I know that most people couldn't do very well.

Some links:

• Tips for becoming a teacher
• Yahoo:K-12 Education
• Single Subject Teaching Credential (California), program at San Jose State Univ.
• California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, index page
• Education Week article: Teaching as a Profession
• US Dept of Labor summary of typical teaching requirements for K-12
• Becoming a Math or Science Teacher in California
• An Inner City School Teacher's account of the experience

I've actually been quite sucuessfull in persuading a large quantitiy of French people that personal responsibility and personal accountability are the true choice of a Liberty seeking people

Perhaps you succeeded where Montesquieu, Voltaire, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man failed.

Perhaps they were delighted to have an American explain what their true choice should be as a libery-seeking people. After all, the French had only abolished slavery in France a mere 70 years before it was abolished in the U.S.

Perhaps the French had no paragons of personal responsibility and accountability to match Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton and thus were happy to use your humble self as a working example.

Now perhaps some of your fellow Americans could stand some similar enlightenment.

no that was admiral Yamamoto, this is the original battleship Yamato.

Two words: Salman Rushdie.
--
Lord Nimon

Perhaps, then maybe not.