>>>Sure, that makes sense for businesses, but since when is primary education a business?
Since forever. Education is the product/service and the student is the customer. BTW you made a strawman argument since I never said parents should be allowed to send their 14-yr-old kids to work, instead of school.
What *I* said is that parents who send their kids to private school should be exempt from paying school tax for that 1 year. Maybe if the government school starts losing students to nearby schools, the government school will make an attempt to improve the quality of their product, instead of rolling-around in money (as monopolies tend to do).
>>>And what exactly can you do if your [state delegate] doesn't listen?
Walk about a mile down the street & toilet paper his house.;-) Or more likely just give him a piece of my mind. Try that with a national representative in Congress; I don't even know where he lives and my emails to him never get any kind of response. (He probably doesn't read them.)
>>>You can't really boycott both the cable company and the phone company without losing Internet access entirely,
I don't have a problem with Verizon. The DSL rarely goes down, the phone never does, and the price is cheap ($15). BUT if I had a problem I would attend the county government meeting & ask them to repeal the monopoly given to Comcast or Verizon, and explain to the politicians how Choice is better for the customer.
>>>Not really. The only ones he is accountable to is the majority of the school board election voters.
???. The Delegate of the State House is responsible to his corner of this county. About 1,000 people. His ear is more-likely to hear my voice, then the guy in Congress who represents ~1 million people, and that's why the State government is a better form of democracy than the national government. (Same applies to how the UK or French or ____ government is more-responsive to the people than the EU parliament.)
>>>The people on the Mayflower would be turned back if they made that trip today.
And America would still be controlled by the Indians. Lax immigration policy is never a good idea, because the people you greet as friends, will then go all-out war against you in the 1800s, and force you into reservations.
"Many have the desire but few have the skill." - Albert Einsteain. Yes science requires a lot of math..... if you're no good at math, science is not the proper choice, no matter how much you enjoyed reading Astronomy or Asimov magazines as a kid. (shrug)
The "better" system this guy proposes wouldn't work any better. How would you know which student learned, and which did not, if you do not have testing? What would happen is that a few students do all the work, while the other students slackoff and do nada. (Been there; experienced it)
How do you eliminate bad teachers like the joker I had who wasted 40 minutes of every class talking about his karate lessons and/or last weekend at the bar? You need testing to see if the teacher is really teaching, or not.
>>>Either that or I'm going to wait another week for Firefox 16
If you're still using the LTS version, then you are still on Firefox 10 and won't have to worry about upgrading until Firefox 17 (about one year of constancy).
You're right about the adblock, but wrong about the tabs which were part of Opera since the early 2000s (or possibly as early as the 90s... I'm not certain).
And Opera's speeddial can be adjusted to show most-frequent websites, rather than a fixed list. Chrome copied the idea. (And then Firefox copied Chrome.) Please note I'm not saying anything's wrong with copying; more competition is always better.
>>>considering private school tuition runs around 15-20 k$
Wow. The average private tuition is only $6700. I am a believer that the more competition a business receives, the better it is for the customer (versus a monopoly or near-monopoly). Even is only SOME poor or middle income students can afford to escape the government school, that's better than none.
-1 Troll. Gee thanks. I say, "Democratic Republics work best when the power is only a few miles away from the People [in the Legislature] rather than ~1500 miles away" and get called a troll. No it's called an OPINION. If you don't like the opinion click the reply button and respond with some reasons, instead of abusing your moderator power.
>>>Grades should be based on participation, and how 'far' a student move forward in the subject. A kids trying hes damndest and getting a B is better then a kid getting an easy A.
Not in the real world. The B kid would get fired cause the product he produced doesn't work (he left out 15% of the parts). And the A kid would replace him. I think people forget school is not just about teaching, but also about preparing people for the hard reality they must face as adults. That means strict grading just like adults have to deal with on the job.
First they complained because of "suburb flight" where affluent persons moved to the suburbs and left-behind a poor base in the city.
Now they are complaining that the affluent people are moving back in. I wish they'd make up their mind. Do they want the upper/middle incomes to leave the city, or stay in the city? Either way, it appears they will wine about it.
>>>Our education is great for the 1% who can afford private school, private tutors, and so forth
This could be improved (not fixed) if poor or middle income parents were exempted from paying school tax for each year they send their kids to a private school. Let them keep their ~$3000 and spend it on a better place to get that better education.
The grandparent poster misspoke. He meant to say close the ONE Department of Education in the Congress. The other 50 Departments of Education would remain open, at the state level, where they are close to the parents/students being served and therefore more accountable to their demands. Democratic Republics work best when the power is only a few miles away from the People and their participation, rather than ~1500 miles away and the people's voice does not get heard.
The "worthless" metrics you cite show that the U.S. rose from 33 in 1964 to 16th most recently. How is this not worth noting? And it appears President Clinton's No Child Left Behind, which requires frequent testing to measure if students are really learning, is working. Science scores are going UP not down.
The "why" is in the article: "In 1964, the first time an international standardized test was given, American kids were next to last. In the most recent assessment, in 2009, the U.S. scored 17th in science out of 34 countries.
"So, why do Americans believe that science education is in a downward spiral when the empirical evidence shows the opposite? Because officials keep telling us that education is abysmal. Also, they seem to hold a grudge against No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which holds teachers accountable and could be responsible for the increase in test scores..... Be wary of education lobbyists who downplay our long track record of scientific success while simultaneously asking for more money. At $91,700 per pupil from kindergarten through twelfth grade, the U.S. is outspent only by Switzerland in the education arena. Cash is not a problem."
In other words we are told things are bad by UNIONS so they can demand more pay raises & more expensive toys in the classroom. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. EVERYBODY has a bias..... it's just a matter of digging to discover it.
I tried reading while on the treadmill. It works. Until the blood flows out of my head, and into my muscles, and I can no longer think. So I gave-up on that idea. The body is not really meant to oxygenate both muscles & brain at the same time. Easier to cut meals in half, if I want to lose weight.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>Sure, that makes sense for businesses, but since when is primary education a business?
Since forever. Education is the product/service and the student is the customer. BTW you made a strawman argument since I never said parents should be allowed to send their 14-yr-old kids to work, instead of school.
What *I* said is that parents who send their kids to private school should be exempt from paying school tax for that 1 year. Maybe if the government school starts losing students to nearby schools, the government school will make an attempt to improve the quality of their product, instead of rolling-around in money (as monopolies tend to do).
>>>And what exactly can you do if your [state delegate] doesn't listen?
Walk about a mile down the street & toilet paper his house. ;-) Or more likely just give him a piece of my mind. Try that with a national representative in Congress; I don't even know where he lives and my emails to him never get any kind of response. (He probably doesn't read them.)
>>>You can't really boycott both the cable company and the phone company without losing Internet access entirely,
I don't have a problem with Verizon. The DSL rarely goes down, the phone never does, and the price is cheap ($15). BUT if I had a problem I would attend the county government meeting & ask them to repeal the monopoly given to Comcast or Verizon, and explain to the politicians how Choice is better for the customer.
>>>Not really. The only ones he is accountable to is the majority of the school board election voters.
???.
The Delegate of the State House is responsible to his corner of this county. About 1,000 people. His ear is more-likely to hear my voice, then the guy in Congress who represents ~1 million people, and that's why the State government is a better form of democracy than the national government. (Same applies to how the UK or French or ____ government is more-responsive to the people than the EU parliament.)
What house? :-/
>>>The people on the Mayflower would be turned back if they made that trip today.
And America would still be controlled by the Indians. Lax immigration policy is never a good idea, because the people you greet as friends, will then go all-out war against you in the 1800s, and force you into reservations.
Pont him here too: My love of science started with magazines, because of the potential to learn new things.
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/prior/
http://sciencenews.com/
http://astronomy.com/
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ (formerly NatGeo World)
"Many have the desire but few have the skill." - Albert Einsteain. Yes science requires a lot of math..... if you're no good at math, science is not the proper choice, no matter how much you enjoyed reading Astronomy or Asimov magazines as a kid. (shrug)
Because my local politician lives in the same neighborhood as me, and is therefore accountable to keep me (and my student) happy.
The "better" system this guy proposes wouldn't work any better. How would you know which student learned, and which did not, if you do not have testing? What would happen is that a few students do all the work, while the other students slackoff and do nada. (Been there; experienced it)
How do you eliminate bad teachers like the joker I had who wasted 40 minutes of every class talking about his karate lessons and/or last weekend at the bar? You need testing to see if the teacher is really teaching, or not.
Can't I just boycott all of them? .....
Goodbye to:
- Lodsys
- Oracle
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Google (except youtube)
- GM
- Toyota
- Comcast
- Syfy
-
Awww. I'm using Mozilla Seamonkey 2.1..... (whimpers)
>>>In fact, a commit was made to Mozilla a few months before Opera 5 was released that added tab support.
So you're saying Opera 5 was first.
>>>Either that or I'm going to wait another week for Firefox 16
If you're still using the LTS version, then you are still on Firefox 10 and won't have to worry about upgrading until Firefox 17 (about one year of constancy).
You're right about the adblock, but wrong about the tabs which were part of Opera since the early 2000s (or possibly as early as the 90s... I'm not certain).
And Opera's speeddial can be adjusted to show most-frequent websites, rather than a fixed list. Chrome copied the idea. (And then Firefox copied Chrome.) Please note I'm not saying anything's wrong with copying; more competition is always better.
>>>considering private school tuition runs around 15-20 k$
Wow. The average private tuition is only $6700. I am a believer that the more competition a business receives, the better it is for the customer (versus a monopoly or near-monopoly). Even is only SOME poor or middle income students can afford to escape the government school, that's better than none.
-1 Troll. Gee thanks. I say, "Democratic Republics work best when the power is only a few miles away from the People [in the Legislature] rather than ~1500 miles away" and get called a troll. No it's called an OPINION. If you don't like the opinion click the reply button and respond with some reasons, instead of abusing your moderator power.
Who usually does the complaining about "the poor". Bleeding-heart liberals. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
>>>Grades should be based on participation, and how 'far' a student move forward in the subject. A kids trying hes damndest and getting a B is better then a kid getting an easy A.
Not in the real world.
The B kid would get fired cause the product he produced doesn't work (he left out 15% of the parts). And the A kid would replace him. I think people forget school is not just about teaching, but also about preparing people for the hard reality they must face as adults. That means strict grading just like adults have to deal with on the job.
First they complained because of "suburb flight" where affluent persons moved to the suburbs and left-behind a poor base in the city.
Now they are complaining that the affluent people are moving back in.
I wish they'd make up their mind.
Do they want the upper/middle incomes to leave the city, or stay in the city? Either way, it appears they will wine about it.
>>>Our education is great for the 1% who can afford private school, private tutors, and so forth
This could be improved (not fixed) if poor or middle income parents were exempted from paying school tax for each year they send their kids to a private school. Let them keep their ~$3000 and spend it on a better place to get that better education.
The grandparent poster misspoke.
He meant to say close the ONE Department of Education in the Congress. The other 50 Departments of Education would remain open, at the state level, where they are close to the parents/students being served and therefore more accountable to their demands. Democratic Republics work best when the power is only a few miles away from the People and their participation, rather than ~1500 miles away and the people's voice does not get heard.
The "worthless" metrics you cite show that the U.S. rose from 33 in 1964 to 16th most recently. How is this not worth noting? And it appears President Clinton's No Child Left Behind, which requires frequent testing to measure if students are really learning, is working. Science scores are going UP not down.
The "why" is in the article: "In 1964, the first time an international standardized test was given, American kids were next to last. In the most recent assessment, in 2009, the U.S. scored 17th in science out of 34 countries.
"So, why do Americans believe that science education is in a downward spiral when the empirical evidence shows the opposite? Because officials keep telling us that education is abysmal. Also, they seem to hold a grudge against No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which holds teachers accountable and could be responsible for the increase in test scores..... Be wary of education lobbyists who downplay our long track record of scientific success while simultaneously asking for more money. At $91,700 per pupil from kindergarten through twelfth grade, the U.S. is outspent only by Switzerland in the education arena. Cash is not a problem."
In other words we are told things are bad by UNIONS so they can demand more pay raises & more expensive toys in the classroom. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. EVERYBODY has a bias..... it's just a matter of digging to discover it.
I tried reading while on the treadmill. It works.
Until the blood flows out of my head, and into my muscles, and I can no longer think. So I gave-up on that idea. The body is not really meant to oxygenate both muscles & brain at the same time.
Easier to cut meals in half,
if I want to lose weight.