Slashdot Mirror
Online Learning Becomes Court-Ordered Community Service
An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo Finance reports that convicted criminal offenders can serve their court-ordered community service hours online by taking educational courses through Community Service Help. According to the article, there is a high correlation between criminal activity and lack of education. Who knew? 'About 40 percent of all U.S. prison inmates never finished high school, and nearly 44 percent of jail inmates did not complete high school. More current data shows that hasn't changed. In Washington, D.C., for instance, 44 percent of Department of Corrections inmates are not high school graduates. Less than 2 percent had 16 years or more of schooling.'"
More criminals online. Exactly what we needed.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Correlation != cause. Educating them will just mean smarter criminals. Not everyone can work in banking.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Does that mean educated people are less criminal or just better in hiding their crimes ?
And in the latter case, doe we really want to educate criminals ?
Of course there are many reasons that people don't finish school. Sometimes it's because they're not smart enough. Other times it's because they're bored out of their skulls, or family issues are pulling them away, or a million other reasons. Maybe this should be interpreted as yet another reason that we need to revamp schools so that they do more than just deliver a "one-size-fits-all" education to the middle of the bell curve. Education is expensive, but prison is far more expensive.
So it makes sense to do this. The jails are overcrowded already and it forces people to get educated, which should help them gets jobs. I would image many of people are doing this because a) they are bored, b) need money so they steal or c stupid or d) a combination of a, b, and c.
I don't think they became criminals because they didn't finish high school. Perhaps they didn't finish high school because they were already inclined to become criminals. My logic is as sound as theirs.
33% of statistics are simply repeated. Of cited statistics 67% are not repeated. More recently 33% of statistics were repeated.
"...give me all yo' money, or I'll bust yo' ass like Atahualpa at Cajamarca!"
It could be that there's another underlying cause that tends to make one act criminally and avoid education...
Yeah, but is that her boyfriend? He could beat me up with one hand.
Check out the girl on the main page... Sign me up!
And compare her with the unshaved, tattooed man. I guess they're trying to promote the (educated) bad boy gets the girl stereotype.
The sort of people sufficiently compliant to complete high school are the sort of people sufficiently compliant to think that we must do what we're told.
I have excellent school and university grades (mathematics, not some wishy social science). It was a waste of fucking time. I've stopped respecting the law. I shouldn't have bothered in the first place. Maybe one day I'll end up in jail. Who cares? Most people were quicker than me and learnt this lesson earlier.
And before you wonder, no, most people aren't locked up forever. You do your time, you make a life for yourself in jail, you come out again, do something outside jail, perhaps you get caught again.
All you need is some bear mace. If it can bring down a bear, you know you should be safe, unless they are immune to pepper spray.
Yeah, but is that her boyfriend? He could beat me up with one hand.
He's wearing a Bob Marley Festival tee-shirt. Obviously a non-violent drug offender busted for lighting up to get closer to God.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The obvious solution is to lower the requirements for gradution. Give everyone a sticker star, everyone's special. After all, if you have the right to a public education, why not have the right to a diploma too? Then once everyone has a piece of paper they didn't do any work to get, none of the criminals will have graduated from high school. Problem solved.
There is a correlation between a lack of education and a conviction.
If you're educated enough you can easily avoid jail time.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Interesting that if you actually look at the site (Community Service Help), for a criminal to get involved in this "non-profit" organization, they need a credit card number and a Pay Pal account.
The whole Community Service Help Website reads like a sleazy advertisement. Note the picture of the smiling, big breasted girl showing her cleavage right on the front page of this "charity".
This whole business appears to be a Slash-vertisement. Couldn't Slashdot reference an academic journal instead of some sleaveball Website that seeks to profit off of vulnerable people?
References:
http://www.communityservicehelp.com/
the online learning comprises embedded youtube khanacademy.org videos.. i wonder if they are breaking any copyright laws by using these
Yes, they have a higher chance to get convicted and get longer sentences when committing the same crimes as other races. Just like men get longer sentences compared to women. Turns out getting judged by a jury of your so-called peers sucks in a world of rampant racism and sexism.
It's all about spin. "I sentence you to 30 days of reeducation." How does that sound?
Sadly profiting off of misery is a time honored tradition here in America, hell i wouldn't be surprised if over 75% of the "community service" forced upon people by the state didn't involve kickbacks or bribes. Its just slave labor, getting for free what one normally would have to pay for. Hell look at that judge that was sending kids to boot camp for any old reason he could think of because he was getting a kickback. in case you haven't noticed our courts have become just as corrupt as any banana republic, just sit in on some sessions and be prepared to be horrified. I have watched the rich walk away from some insanely long list of charges because his very expensive lawyer "had a quiet talk with the judge in the back" while some poor Rube with a $20 bag of weed got a year in prison. The only justice is what you can buy, no different than any South American hellhole we USED to make fun of. But power corrupts and money is power so now you have two systems, one for the rich, one for the poor.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
My only question is where the funding for this kind of stuff is coming from? Is it all gonna be taxpayer dollars, or is there going to be a "Serial Murderer" discount at your nearest University of Phoenix?
No. At least, one is not legally required to obtain a high school diploma. I believe most states permit people to drop out of high school at the age of 16, though there may be parental permission required to so so, etc. And, of course, most jobs require a minimum of a high school diploma. But as far as the law is concerned, it's not mandatory.
I'm sorry; I don't know what I was thinking!
Wikipedia's information of the New Century Foundation and the Pioneer Fund lead me to doubt the validity of this website.
Nice theory except it doesn't explain why a white woman is 17 times more likely to get raped by a black man than a black woman is to be raped by a white, or why you are on average 15 times more likely to get robbed by a black than a white. Lets cut the bull folks and speak the truth: 50 years of welfare has been more devastating to the black race than dropping an atomic bomb on them. You went from more than half the households being married to something like 9% now, it gave the lowest of the low an excuse to pop out kids they promptly abandoned or let run wild, and it gave rise to the "thug life!" "culture" which glorifies being the scummiest criminal you can be. Hell look at it, it glorifies the abuse of black women and violence and dope slinging. This when mixed with desegregation turned out to be a disaster because instead of having bankers and lawyers and doctors in the neighborhood to emulate all of those folks got the fuck out and all that was left was dealers and whores.
Lets face it folks, all a half a century of white guilt did was create a permanent "scum class" with a victim mentality and a seething hatred of anything "whitey" like education or even speaking proper English. I've seen it myself many a time, being hired to play "coming home" parties where getting out of prison is celebrated like you just got out of Harvard. Those that live the "thug life!" are treated well and looked up to, those that actually try to better themselves are attacked by the community. Frankly it shocked the hell out of me, because i'd never seen anything like it with ANY other race. in fact the last figures I saw stated that a black straight off the boat from Africa are more than 20 times more likely to become middle class than a black born here. Now you can scream 'racist!" all you want but it ain't whitey that is creating those numbers or forcing them to embrace victim mentality and "thug life!" culture, that's the blacks. I have been in the poor sections of just about every race and culture you can name and have NEVER seen such an attitude from anybody else, never.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The educated criminals go into politics.
Epitaph: At last! Root access!
...at criminal activity and lack of education.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
"You went from more than half the households being married to something like 9% now, it gave the lowest of the low an excuse to pop out kids they promptly abandoned or let run wild, and it gave rise to the "thug life!" "culture" which glorifies being the scummiest criminal you can be. Hell look at it, it glorifies the abuse of black women and violence and dope slinging."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_1_59/ai_110361377/ - the article says 48% (down from 70%). So you're simply lying.
And about 'welfare class' - that's another simply quantifiable lie.
Also, kids that get in a lot of legal trouble tend not to be able to finish a high school diploma. Juvenile detention centers do teach classes, but the credits end up being so fragmented as kids jump between detention and regular school that it's difficult for them to actually fulfill the requirements -- and that assumes they don't just fail their classes anyway.
I have personal experience with this. My daughter is very bright and capable, but suffers from a severe emotional disorder which leads her to make a lot of dumb decisions. Even though she typically does very well in school, her time in treatment centers, trouble with the law, expulsions from schools, etc., mean that she's chronically behind on credits. For example, she completed much of the first semester of Calculus this year (as a junior), but then got in trouble and ended up getting no math credit at all. She's now in a residential treatment center and taking dum-dum math because it's all they offer, but won't get any credit for it because she's already done it.
In her case, because she's so bright, the solution will likely be to take the GED as soon as the state will let her, and she'll pass it handily. Or else I'll pay for summer school classes, or something similar. She's smart enough, and has involved parents, so she has a chance to be able to make it. Kids with similar issues but without similar advantages are really screwed. Of course, if she can't learn to manage her mental illness -- which is very, very hard to do -- she's going to be screwed, too. We try to help every way we can, but we can't live her life for her, and as she becomes an adult the consequences of bad decisions are going to become even more severe.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
> This whole business appears to be a Slash-vertisement.
Yes, because a substantial part of Slashdot's readership gets into trouble and needs to do community service on a regular basis. I can totally identify with the "bad boy" on that front page.
And the education stats quoted in the article, remember the "criminal" population is just a list of those who got caught. Maybe this just means those without higher education are simply more likely to get caught and prosecuted for their endevour. I'm sure if you included politicians in the mix it might lift the stats a little.
Alrighty since we are discussing schooling here and just recently been exchanging emails with a friend who grew up in France, came to US many years ago and recently retired. Below are some of her thoughts:
Computer sciences was my major. It was not taught when I grew up in France, and my minor a French teaching degree so that I could teach French after retirement. My education was completed in France where I obtained a master's degree in Math/English. I completed college here to show that I also had an American Degree. Most firms feel re-assured as they do not know how to recognize foreign degrees, the schooling being very different. For example we start high school at the age of 12!... unheard here. Overall... foreign schooling is FAR! superior to lower level American school. In America education only get very serious at the master/doctorate level... (Of course this is my personal belief).
At 11 years of age children are tested BY THE GOVERNMENT, that is under the supervision of government appointed testers in all fields of primary learning, that includes foreign language too which we start at about 8 years of age. The exam that we take is therefore all comprehensive and it takes 2 days: language arts etc., 1 day, then mathematics and sciences the second day. The results are posted outside on the third day. Children who DO NOT pass this serious exam continue school till the age of 15 then go to trade school. Children who pass this exam are considered for advance studies, "the college" till 15 years old, then the university. This sorting out takes place at the age of 11... I went to a private catholic school. Before the the government test, my teacher gave us exams each week and if we did not make at least 90 points on a 100 WE WERE NOT presented to the state appointed test. That is what system I followed... I am not certain it is entirely the same today, but children DO TAKE their studies seriously knowing they are going to be chosen or "discarded".
Trade schools are much much better than what is done here. For example, there are trade schools for hostelry, therapy, cooking, jewelry cutting, wood working for furniture making, art, fashion design, accounting, etc. One can find a carrier even going to a trade school.
I started school at 3-1/2 (ahah) and started serious school at 5 year of age and foreign languages at 8 (English and Latin). One learns a lot in 6 years (6 to 11)... especially when parents are as pushy as mine. I am so glad though to have had "my" chance at education. In my family "family" and "education" was the focus. The rest was secondary. I played with children in school only... I believe I was allowed to bring one friend for "gouter (afternoon tea) once. I played with my cousins a lot. "outward" direction was only for studies.
A study was done by Harvard Med School recently showing that babies ages 6 months understood a great deal of the meaning of words. Somehow, by showing them objects such as pets, bottles, balls etc.. and following their line of sight (special lighting) it was apparent that the child under study always looked immediately at the object mentioned. My son could understand French and English when I spoke to him as a baby. It made no difference... I would say, for example: Vient ici, and come here please, he followed the order. Fun study!
mfwright@batnet.com
What?
You lost me at "big breasted."
Where do I sign up?
So many horrible ac-trolls... Feel for you
Bob's bitch tits are a poor substitute indeed.
Thanks, I didn't have time to look up the latest figures. Lets cut through the bullshit and the PC garbage that keeps anything from being spoken or discussed anymore. notice how quick the liberals had to hit the flamebait button for me daring to point out that 50 years of white guilt and a victim mentality has been BAD for black people? its not white folks glorifying not being educated and calling those that try to get ahead "Uncle Toms" and "acting Whitey" it is the blacks. notice how they've had to come up with "flash mob" as a nice way of saying 'roving black gangs" and many of the MSM refused to even print what those that were on the scene at the state fair at WI said which was "Its gangs of blacks attacking white people"? Why is that?
Its actually quite simple. 50 years of hand outs instead of hand ups combined with a massively self destructive attitude that has built up around that culture has created an entire class that is filled with seething hatred for what the other races have yet without the foresight to see that it is their own self destructive behavior that is the cause. look up the numbers on African black VS USA black if you don't believe me. Despite language problems and having to acclimate to a completely different culture the African blacks are actually becoming middle class while if anything the USA blacks are getting worse when it comes to poverty, lack of education, and houses filled with unwed mothers and unwanted children. this when combined with white guilt and fear by whites of being called racist, no matter how ridiculous the circumstance, has led to a truly self destructive spiral for the American black.
Sadly i got to witness some of this just myself the other day as Human Services came out for what had to have been the dozenth time to the apt building down the street. there an unwed black mother has been just leaving her 5-8 year old children wandering the streets for hours at a time because she simply doesn't want to deal with them. When I asked the HS lady why in the hell they haven't taken those kids which are obviously being neglected and are in serious danger of getting ran over since that apt is right next to a major roadway filled with Semi trucks? She told me flat footed they were told not to do anything about black mothers unless it was something so shocking like getting the kids high or beating the shit out of them because "they'll just scream racism and its too big a drain to deal with the courts". Now does anyone believe those kids, who have been neglected and turned out no matter how bad the weather because their mother has a revolving door to her bedroom (I know this because that is what got her kicked out of my building) is gonna have a prayer of getting a decent education or becoming anything better than their mother?
In the old days she would have been shunned as the filthy whore she is and that shunning would have either straightened her ass up or she would have left town. Now black culture glorifies truly destructive behavior, unwed mothers, dope dealers and gangbangers, honestly it couldn't be MORE destructive if it was written by the Klan. People can scream racism all they want but until we as a nation actually say "enough is enough" we are literally breeding a criminal class that goes straight from the projects to the prisons and is nothing but a constant drain on society not to mention the human costs in all the rapes, murders, and violence. you have a culture that glorifies gold plated bling yet disdains any legal way of actually earning the gold they covet. Is it any wonder so many blacks are in prisons? by hiding your heads in the sand you are avoiding racism, you are growing it by the day because the "thug life!"ers are growing like a cancer. Every one of those kids popped out by a mother that doesn't give a shit or even know who the "baby's daddy" is (another lovely phrase given to us by black culture because of such a high unwed rate) is MUCH more likely to continue the spiral simply because there is nobody at home that gives a shit whether
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Yeah, I think it's better to turn all white people into slaves, right? After all, as you're telling us white people can work just fine. And if they're slaves and forced to work at gunpoint they'll work even harder!
I'd say it's a win-win solution!
Khan Academy
So many horrible ac-trolls... Feel for you
Thanks. It doesn't bother me much, though. One side effect of dealing regularly with the mentally ill is that you develop a very thick skin. I've had far more vicious things screamed at me by my daughter, and I care about her, so some random troll doesn't faze me.
I do really wonder what motivates a person to spend their time spewing anonymous hate. This particular troll has been stalking me for months now, so he's really invested a great deal of time and effort into it. He rarely resorts to canned resplies, either. I can't even imagine ever wanting to do something like that, and certainly not putting the kind of effort into it that he has.
I mean, I get that some people find the notion of hunting abhorrent (though most think nothing of eating meat that was raised and slaughtered in an industrial operation), and my bio says I like to hunt -- though in fact it's been years since I actually got out. But if the goal is to protest hunting, surely there are more effective outlets for his efforts. And the sort of personal venom he spews will make anyone automatically discount him, in fact he gives his own cause a bad name. I can only conclude that he's dealing with his own serious emotional issues and I'm just a convenient target for his attempts to relieve his own pain.
If that's really what's going on, I suppose spewing profanity at me on-line is better than a lot of other things he could be doing. If he finds it therapeutic, I'm okay with that. I wish there were some way I could help him. I've tried responding, but I knew even before I did that it would just make him even more vicious. I think he really needs professional help, but obviously there's no way I can convince him of that.
So, I just read his posts and shake my head. It's sad.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
"About 40 percent of all U.S. prison inmates never finished high school, and nearly 44 percent of jail inmates did not complete high school"
I am very confused when I read this sentence from the article (and summary) above. What does the difference between "U.S. prison inmates" and "jail inmates"? If "jail inmates" are in the U.S., aren't "prison" and "jail" the same? If so, then what the different between "never finished" and "did not complete"???
Do these offenders have computer access to be able to complete this mandatory requirement? I suppose it is more likely that one might have a computer as opposed to a vehicle. Still, it is not universal.
There's a major flaw in your logic.
The fact that black people live this lifestyle has nothing to do with the fact that they're black and everything to do with the fact that they're poor. You're not describing black people, you're describing poor people. I don't know a single black person who feels the type of us vs. them mentality you describe, and judging by your post I think it's safe to say that I'm much more familiar with black Americans and those who suffer from poverty in general. Blacks just tend to live in poverty because of historical circumstances.
Yes, our education system is so inadequate and so weighted against the poor that we are breeding a criminal class. Yes that correlates to black people because black people tend to live in poverty. But when discussing the problems facing education, poverty, and crime discussing race is counter-intuitive. The white kid in the projects with an unemployed mother and imprisoned father is just as disadvantaged as his black neighbor. The fact of the matter is race matters less and less these days. The problem with that is because it has nothing to do with black upward mobility and everything to do with white downward mobility. Those white families who were blue-collar, middle class a generation or two ago are falling into poverty and becoming a part of the criminal culture.
It seems that we agree that education is the only solution, but I think your tirade about race is misplaced and fruitless. What you seem to think is black culture isn't black culture, it's criminal culture. When you label it as black culture, not only are you being inaccurate, but you're inciting racism by blaming a people. When you label it criminal culture, you're being more accurate and you're condemning a behavior, not a skin tone.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
You spent years masturbating while taking the life of innocent animals
I generally just ignore statements like this, because they typically indicate a completely irrational attitude of a sort which no rational response can enlighten, but since the rest of your post is almost rational, I'll make an exception this time.
Your comment indicates a complete misunderstanding of hunting and hunters -- at least all the hunters I know. There is no joy in killing, and there's certainly no sexual component to it. The joys of hunting are many, and the feeling of success at taking your quarry is a big part of it, but not because it's a kill. In fact, I find that I enjoy hunting just as much with a camera as I do with a bow, and I enjoy both of them much more than I do with a rifle. The truth is that other than taking my son bird hunting, all of my hunting for the last few years has been with a camera.
I enjoy being out in nature. I enjoy watching, tracking and learning about the animals. Being a successful hunter requires a great deal of understanding of the habits, instincts abilities and preferences of wildlife. I enjoy testing my skill against theirs, seeing if I can predict their actions well enough to position myself on their path, and if I can move quickly and silently enough to sneak up on them. I also enjoy eating them. If it weren't for that, I would only hunt with a camera, because getting good photos is even more challenging, and because cleaning, dressing, hauling and butchering is hard work.
I obviously have no problem with killing them; it's the natural order of things and, as I said, I like the meat. But your theory about why hunters hunt and what we get out of it is completely wrong.
It doesn't really take me that long to reply to you. Sometimes I'm taking a break, or waiting for Houdini to fnish a render pass, or whatever.
So you're a HWOPS SRE? FWIW, it's blaze builds that motivate me to read and post on slashdot.
The reason why you bother me is because you feel the need to comment in every goddamned Google story.
I comment on whatever I find interesting. That generally means stories about software development, security, cryptography, some politics (especially anything related to the TSA), and stuff about my current and previous employers. It just happens that there are a lot more stories about Google than the rest... and the comments posted about Google are more wrong than the rest. Yes, I do have the disease.
Like I explained to you already, there is no real internal communication.
Have you ever worked anywhere other than Google? I may have an advantage here, in that I spent 20 years in the industry, working for/with dozens of large corporations (I was a consultant for much of my career). I've seen a lot, and I'll tell you that Google is incomparably better.
There was a long internal debate about the Real Names policy and the Vic Gundotra asshole just ignored it.
You're wrong. Vic didn't ignore it, he explained it. You apparently didn't agree with his rationale, and neither did many others, but that doesn't mean it wasn't provided, nor that the debate wasn't real. I personally agreed with the Real Names policy. I think pseudonymity/anonymity is very important, but it also provides huge potential for abuse which would really lower the value of Google+. I think pseudonymity can be done in a way that works no Google+, but I agree with Vic that it has to be done carefully. It's better not to allow it than to allow it and then screw it up -- and trying to make sure that a pseudonymous account's real identity never leaks, across all of the Google properties, is definitely not trivial.
Ditt
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
It's probably safer than joining the Army (navy, whatever) and trying to shoot foreigners.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"