The problem is that all he did was "kick the can" down the road by a generation. So, rather than N number of people in danger of starvation (and Y dying off), there's N*X number in danger of starvation, and Y*X*Z who will die.
Triage is a fact of life when dealing with famine or other consequences of over-population. We have too many people. More than 2 kids? Mandatory sterilization of both parents, termination of any pregnancy, confiscation of all assets as penalties - it'll help prevent future generations from facing even worse choices.
Yes, it's cruel - but would you rather have a 1 child per family limit in 20 years?
And yes, apply this to the whole world, not just the so-called "third world". Share the pain.
(... and for you fundies who will bitch and moan - there's an easy solution - STOP FUCKING! You tell kids that they should practice abstinence, but you and your leaders can't seem to keep your dicks in your pants or your legs closed, never mind the whole "do not commit adultery" bit. F*ing breeders!)
That's bullshit. Nobody drives around speeding 20mph and then hitting the brakes.
Not if they don't intend to destroy their cars, that is.
Do you even have a driver's license? No, I didn't think so. You're an idiot.
There are PLENTY of people who do exactly that all the time. In many areas, the cops don't bother with you unless you're at least 20 mph over the limit, because otherwise they'd be stopping everybody. And no, braking to shave 20mph off your speed doesn't "destroy their cars." If it did, no car would survive a trip with a top speed of 20 mph.
You listed two studies. I'm going to assume that there's probably a few hundred in the area. How in the fuck does 2 studies represent "every study in the area".
You've given me a 2/200 =.5% sample AT BEST.
What a stupid, moronic, and totally spoilt-child response. Must be a fat lazy republican birther/deather.
Do your own fucking research if you're not happy, you lazy slob. You asked a question - I showed you two results that only took a minute to find. So, either stop your whining, or get off you fat ass and provide counter-examples.
What a loser.
Better yet, since YOU'RE the one who brought up (assumed) that there are 200 studies, PROVE IT. Citations needed. Or FOAD.
What I proposed was to fire the bottom 50%. The ones that are also, with their "fuck it, it's just a paycheck" attitude, are sucking the life out of the good teachers AND making the students into a bunch of disruptive little SOBs with their attitude. Cull the bottom 50%, and make a couple of those classes physical activity (not "physical education") to break up the boredom and get their lard butts into shape again, and you're good to go.
but 30 kids in puberty, off (sic) different backgrounds and of varied cognitive abilities in one class is hell, and getting them to follow instructions is nigh impossible.
I wouldn't separate kids based on learning habits and personalities. That's a recipe for teaching "you're a loser" to those who end up in the "loser class." Pair them - and tell the smarter ones that part of their mark is based on how well their partner does. Teach them to help each other rather than act like a bunch of shit-throwing monkeys in a zoo. If we can do it at home ("go help your sister with her math") why can't we do it in school?
There is to much of this "low expectations" junk. Expect kids to do lousy in class, and they'll meet your expectations. Be a teacher who doesn't commit the cardinal sin of being boring, and the other problems tend to solve themselves. Teachers who are boring need to be fired. Or let them become preachers, so that people can do like god intended and sleep during Sunday morning sermons (or better yet, give them another excuse to avoid church entirely:-).
It would take nearly instantaneous acceleration to get from a dead stop to 45 quickly enough to achieve that average speed over 30 seconds. I'm not sure they make cars that accelerate like that.
Totally agree!! I respect the police but they are human and make mistakes too! It is very easy for them to clock the wrong car...much less, there is no proof the radar was even calibrated! Why waste taxpayers money over a $194 ticket!!
At the beginning and ending of every shift, the cops verify the accuracy of the radar gun. They've been down that road before (pun intended).
The judge was right to rule against the GPS. A sample rate of once every 30 seconds ISN'T accurate. It doesn't "prove" anything about his speed when he was clocked by the cops.
You are full of it. Simple math of distance and time will solve the case and prove the GPS tracker to be accurate. Even you could probably figure this out. Just count on your fingers and toes.
Sampling only once every 30 seconds tells you NOTHING about the speed during the intervening time. If you read the other comments, or used common sense, you'd realize that. All the 2 data points will give you is his AVERAGE speed between the 2 points.
The judge was right to rule against the GPS. A sample rate of once every 30 seconds ISN'T accurate. It doesn't "prove" anything about his speed when he was clocked by the cops.
drinking at 18 isn't failry permissive - in most cultures, teenagers get to drink with their parent's supervision while in their mid - teens (some wine at the supper table, maybe a beer or a wine cooler at a babque) and there are plenty of places where the legal drinking age is 18
Funny he managed to pick examples you actually do have an understanding of, but that doesn't make his point less valid. There are bound to be things you have no interest in. You being a hands on guy, I would guess something like.. marketing? management?
Done both. From marketing materials for companies displaying at shows like COMDEX back in the '90s to advising business owners on how to run their business...
Yes, I have high expectations for teachers, because I had a few that were amazing, and they got my attention, and I tended to ignore the rest, since they weren't worth my time. They bored me, so I did the minimum to pass.
On the other hand there are too little teachers to begin with, as shown by there being classes with >20 students.
Come off it - if you can't handle 30 students, you're not fit to teach. You're BORING them to death. You're only there to collect your paycheck, you're doing more harm than good, and you're just a glorified babysitter.
Like I said, fire half the teachers, increase the pay of the other half by 50%, and you STILL come out ahead by 25% on your budget.
"Universities are not intended to provide vocational training."
Why do so many people seem to have forgotten this?
Sure they are. If your vocation is being an MD, wtf else are you supposed to go? If your vocation is being an engineer, wtf else are you supposed to go? If your vocation is being a molecular biologist, or an archaeologist, or a physicist, or a rocket scientist, where the fuck else are you supposed to go? The International Correspondence School of Rocket Science?
"Every serious study to date has shown that the more computers in the school, the less learning going on. "
Nope, you're wrong. Every serious study to date shows that the more computers in the school, the more oranges kids bring to school in their lunchboxes.
See? I can make up nonsense studies and not source my information either!
Don't be a lazy fuckhead. Look for it, and you'll find it.
How technology affects learning has been at the centre of recent debates over educational inputs. In 1994, the Israeli State Lottery sponsored the installation of computers in many elementary and middle schools. This programme provides an opportunity to estimate the impact of computerisation on both the instructional use of computers and pupil achievement. Results from a survey of Israeli school-teachers show that the influx of new computers increased teachers' use of computer-aided instruction (CAI). Although many of the estimates are imprecise, CAI (computer-aided instruction - ed) does not appear to have had educational benefits that translated into higher test scores.
College leaders usually brag about their tech-filled "smart" classrooms, but a dean at Southern Methodist University is proudly removing computers from lecture halls. José A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, has challenged his colleagues to "teach naked"--by which he means, sans machines.
More than any thing else, Mr. Bowen wants to discourage professors from using PowerPoint, because they often lean on the slide-display program as a crutch rather using it as a creative tool. Class time should be reserved for discussion, he contends, especially now that students can download lectures online and find libraries of information on the Web. When students reflect on their college years later in life, they're going to remember challenging debates and talks with their professors. Lively interactions are what teaching is all about, he says, but those give-and-takes are discouraged by preset collections of slides.
He's not the only one raising questions about PowerPoint, which on many campuses is the state of the art in classroom teaching. A study published in the April issue of British Educational Research Journal found that 59 percent of students in a new survey reported that at least half of their lectures were boring, and that PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw. The survey consisted of 211 students at a university in England and was conducted by researchers at the University of Central Lancashire.
Students in the survey gave low marks not just to PowerPoint, but also to all kinds of computer-assisted classroom activities, even interactive exercises in computer labs. "The least boring teaching methods were found to be seminars, practical sessions, and group discussions," said the report. In other words, tech-free classrooms were the most engaging.
So, nothing much changed between the first study (1994) and the latest (2009). 15 years, and computers STILL don't belong in the classroom because they're a crutch for teachers who can't teach. Teachers who are boring should be forced to sit through video recordings of them teaching their own classes. In fact, I recommended that back in the late '70s, and that we record the best teachers and make the recordings available to all students. This way, they won't get stuck failing because their teacher is a stiff. Of course, that would make at least 75% of all teachers redundant, but that's a good thing.
Why don't you go build your own desk and run electrical cable to your office. After all, if you can't be bothered to go read a book on wiring and carpentry, you're probably a lazy fuck who doesn't deserve the job you have.
I've done both.
For electricity - nobody had to teach me how to wire 110 and 220, how to connect to a breaker box, installing new outlets, or anything else. It was simple enough to learn from a book on basic wiring. I just don't let anyone outside the immediate family know, because I *hate* installing ceiling fans, dishwashers, and new electrical outlets.
As for building my own desk, I finally got tired of the desk I was using about a decade ago, and decided to make my own "computer table". Much nicer because now there's more room for my dogs to lie under it. And I've built enough furniture before (custom designed as well - I spent several years building custom fixtures (and doing the rewiring) in Quebec, Ontario, New York, Kansas, New Brunswick and Alberta (to pay expenses and buy new toys while I was teaching myself assembler, c, etc). Having someone who could do computer programming AND cabinetry came in handy in Kansas City... the Point of Sale system had to be patched, there was no modem line in the store (this is back in the days of 1200 baud modems), and the guy who wrote it was half a continent away.
Most programmers I've known have lots of curiosity - they know a lot more than just coding. Maybe we should screen teachers for curiosity, and make sure they don't have a "lazy fuck gee I can't learn this" attitude.
Whatever happened to trial and error? It's a proven way to learn that kids use all the time... but no, adults don't dare do anything so childish. Afraid of making a mistake and looking stupid, they become what they fear - stupid!
And don't blame the manual all the time. Too many people still can't set the clock on their microwave and their dvd player, even though the manual provides step-by-step instructions, with pictures. Good thing HDTV allows for a time sync signal.
In the software world, it's extremely common for source code to be lost when a programmer leaves
Computers are CHEAP. There's no reason not to just unplug, label, and store the whole box for future reference when a programmer leaves.
Get with the program, people (pardon the pun). Any backup isn't really a backup if the original no longer is available.
When I upgrade my box, I keep the old hard drives handy, despite having everything backed up, because you never know... and that's saved me a lot of hunting around on several occasions.
Yes, I paint with a broad brush - because many, if not most, teachers are crap. Why do the majority refuse to accept testing, when that's how they themselves grade students? Because they know they won't measure up, same as kids suddenly feel sick on test day.
So the majority of teachers are hypocrites who KNOW that their skills are lacking. If I paint with a broad brush, it's because they have made themselves an easy target with their actions, confirming the old saying about "Those who can't, teach."
Fire the lower 50% of teachers, give the other 50% a 25% raise, and everyone wins - the skill of the average teacher rises, teacher pay rises by 25%, teacher costs go down 25%. And before you go on about teacher-student ratios - lower ratios are no guarantee of improved learning. Motivated, enthusiastic teachers who actually know their stuff AND know how to communicate it can handle larger classes.
Every serious study to date has shown that the more computers in the school, the less learning going on.
Once in a while these studies even make the papers - but people keep on believing that computers are a magic bullet. There's no such thing as a magic bullet - get over it.
We just keep "dumbing down" the curriculum, grading to the curve instead of absolutes, and hoping for the best, which explains why so many people believe that dinosaurs co-existed with humans. They'd rather not face the facts.
based on my observations, few computer-savvy people are good teachers.
based on my observations, few teachers are good teachers.
Based on the grammar and spelling errors in the notes they send home, they should go back to school themselves. Or burn the school down and find some other alternative method to educate the next generation.
Just because a teacher "specializes" in math or history doesn't give them a "pass" on reading and writing.
Teachers should be tested annually. Those that fail, fire.
If you need "shiny" to teach, you're going about it the wrong way - or you suck.
I've taught grades 4 to 6, and turned off the "shiny tings" - the computers. Communicated with the kids - so I made sure that any note-taking was only incidental - that they LEARNED what we were talking about (because with me, it's always a 2-way conversation, not "I'm teaching you this and you'll absorb it like good little sponges."
The teachers of the classes before and after mine were always complaining... the ones before, because the kids obviously couldn't wait to get out of their class and into mine, and the ones after, because it took time to "calm the kids down" and get them to "learn properly." The principal, on the other hand, sat in and LOVED what I was doing. I sat in on another teacher's class, and remembered why history was so f*ing boring. Most teachers can't teach!
They don't know their material well enough to teach without the use of a textbook as a crutch;
They don't know their target audience well enough to make a real connection and get them enthused about learning.
They don't give enough of a shit to fix either of the previous problems, and they're too cowardly to admit that they're part of the problem.
Too many people, but especially teachers, have bought into it. "It's not my fault. The class is too big. The textbooks are too old. The kids don't want to learn. They don't respect me."
Translation: "I don't know my subject and my target audience well enough to engage them, or to teach without a textbook, so the kids get bored and instinctively know I'm full of shit."
The best teachers don't need the textbook, know how to stimulate discussion and questioning and LEARNING, and everyone respects them because they know their shit. This applies to all levels of education.
more people run into that kind of problems, get frustrated and give up.
So what you're saying is that if something frustrates you, it's okay to give up on it.
Yes, they're fucktards, every one of them that acts that way, because of their "loser" attitude. Would they accept that as a correct response from a student? "Oh, I couldn't figure out that problem, it pissed me off, so I gave up!"
Want teaching to improve? Make teachers' pay tied to performance. Kids don't learn because you're a crappy teacher? You're fired.
Why is it teachers' unions don't want performance-based pay? Because most of their members can't teach worth shit.
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The problem is that all he did was "kick the can" down the road by a generation. So, rather than N number of people in danger of starvation (and Y dying off), there's N*X number in danger of starvation, and Y*X*Z who will die.
Triage is a fact of life when dealing with famine or other consequences of over-population. We have too many people. More than 2 kids? Mandatory sterilization of both parents, termination of any pregnancy, confiscation of all assets as penalties - it'll help prevent future generations from facing even worse choices.
Yes, it's cruel - but would you rather have a 1 child per family limit in 20 years?
And yes, apply this to the whole world, not just the so-called "third world". Share the pain.
(... and for you fundies who will bitch and moan - there's an easy solution - STOP FUCKING! You tell kids that they should practice abstinence, but you and your leaders can't seem to keep your dicks in your pants or your legs closed, never mind the whole "do not commit adultery" bit. F*ing breeders!)
Do you even have a driver's license? No, I didn't think so. You're an idiot.
There are PLENTY of people who do exactly that all the time. In many areas, the cops don't bother with you unless you're at least 20 mph over the limit, because otherwise they'd be stopping everybody. And no, braking to shave 20mph off your speed doesn't "destroy their cars." If it did, no car would survive a trip with a top speed of 20 mph.
What a stupid, moronic, and totally spoilt-child response. Must be a fat lazy republican birther/deather.
Do your own fucking research if you're not happy, you lazy slob. You asked a question - I showed you two results that only took a minute to find. So, either stop your whining, or get off you fat ass and provide counter-examples.
What a loser.
Better yet, since YOU'RE the one who brought up (assumed) that there are 200 studies, PROVE IT. Citations needed. Or FOAD.
What I proposed was to fire the bottom 50%. The ones that are also, with their "fuck it, it's just a paycheck" attitude, are sucking the life out of the good teachers AND making the students into a bunch of disruptive little SOBs with their attitude. Cull the bottom 50%, and make a couple of those classes physical activity (not "physical education") to break up the boredom and get their lard butts into shape again, and you're good to go.
I wouldn't separate kids based on learning habits and personalities. That's a recipe for teaching "you're a loser" to those who end up in the "loser class." Pair them - and tell the smarter ones that part of their mark is based on how well their partner does. Teach them to help each other rather than act like a bunch of shit-throwing monkeys in a zoo. If we can do it at home ("go help your sister with her math") why can't we do it in school?
There is to much of this "low expectations" junk. Expect kids to do lousy in class, and they'll meet your expectations. Be a teacher who doesn't commit the cardinal sin of being boring, and the other problems tend to solve themselves. Teachers who are boring need to be fired. Or let them become preachers, so that people can do like god intended and sleep during Sunday morning sermons (or better yet, give them another excuse to avoid church entirely :-).
http://www.albeedigital.com/supercoupe/articles/0-60times.html
At the beginning and ending of every shift, the cops verify the accuracy of the radar gun. They've been down that road before (pun intended).
Sampling only once every 30 seconds tells you NOTHING about the speed during the intervening time. If you read the other comments, or used common sense, you'd realize that. All the 2 data points will give you is his AVERAGE speed between the 2 points.
Fucktard.
That's not going to work in a "cut-n-paste email" world.
The judge was right to rule against the GPS. A sample rate of once every 30 seconds ISN'T accurate. It doesn't "prove" anything about his speed when he was clocked by the cops.
"Every 30 seconds": isn't a good enough sample rate, simple as that.
Done both. From marketing materials for companies displaying at shows like COMDEX back in the '90s to advising business owners on how to run their business ...
Yes, I have high expectations for teachers, because I had a few that were amazing, and they got my attention, and I tended to ignore the rest, since they weren't worth my time. They bored me, so I did the minimum to pass.
Come off it - if you can't handle 30 students, you're not fit to teach. You're BORING them to death. You're only there to collect your paycheck, you're doing more harm than good, and you're just a glorified babysitter.
Like I said, fire half the teachers, increase the pay of the other half by 50%, and you STILL come out ahead by 25% on your budget.
Sure they are. If your vocation is being an MD, wtf else are you supposed to go? If your vocation is being an engineer, wtf else are you supposed to go? If your vocation is being a molecular biologist, or an archaeologist, or a physicist, or a rocket scientist, where the fuck else are you supposed to go? The International Correspondence School of Rocket Science?
Don't be a lazy fuckhead. Look for it, and you'll find it.
Here's one example - from 1994: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=347118
Want something more recent - try a couple of months ago: http://chronicle.com/article/Teach-Naked-Effort-Strips/47398/
So, nothing much changed between the first study (1994) and the latest (2009). 15 years, and computers STILL don't belong in the classroom because they're a crutch for teachers who can't teach. Teachers who are boring should be forced to sit through video recordings of them teaching their own classes. In fact, I recommended that back in the late '70s, and that we record the best teachers and make the recordings available to all students. This way, they won't get stuck failing because their teacher is a stiff. Of course, that would make at least 75% of all teachers redundant, but that's a good thing.
I've done both.
For electricity - nobody had to teach me how to wire 110 and 220, how to connect to a breaker box, installing new outlets, or anything else. It was simple enough to learn from a book on basic wiring. I just don't let anyone outside the immediate family know, because I *hate* installing ceiling fans, dishwashers, and new electrical outlets.
As for building my own desk, I finally got tired of the desk I was using about a decade ago, and decided to make my own "computer table". Much nicer because now there's more room for my dogs to lie under it. And I've built enough furniture before (custom designed as well - I spent several years building custom fixtures (and doing the rewiring) in Quebec, Ontario, New York, Kansas, New Brunswick and Alberta (to pay expenses and buy new toys while I was teaching myself assembler, c, etc). Having someone who could do computer programming AND cabinetry came in handy in Kansas City ... the Point of Sale system had to be patched, there was no modem line in the store (this is back in the days of 1200 baud modems), and the guy who wrote it was half a continent away.
Most programmers I've known have lots of curiosity - they know a lot more than just coding. Maybe we should screen teachers for curiosity, and make sure they don't have a "lazy fuck gee I can't learn this" attitude.
Whatever happened to trial and error? It's a proven way to learn that kids use all the time ... but no, adults don't dare do anything so childish. Afraid of making a mistake and looking stupid, they become what they fear - stupid!
And don't blame the manual all the time. Too many people still can't set the clock on their microwave and their dvd player, even though the manual provides step-by-step instructions, with pictures. Good thing HDTV allows for a time sync signal.
Computers are CHEAP. There's no reason not to just unplug, label, and store the whole box for future reference when a programmer leaves.
Get with the program, people (pardon the pun). Any backup isn't really a backup if the original no longer is available.
When I upgrade my box, I keep the old hard drives handy, despite having everything backed up, because you never know ... and that's saved me a lot of hunting around on several occasions.
Yes, I paint with a broad brush - because many, if not most, teachers are crap. Why do the majority refuse to accept testing, when that's how they themselves grade students? Because they know they won't measure up, same as kids suddenly feel sick on test day.
So the majority of teachers are hypocrites who KNOW that their skills are lacking. If I paint with a broad brush, it's because they have made themselves an easy target with their actions, confirming the old saying about "Those who can't, teach."
Fire the lower 50% of teachers, give the other 50% a 25% raise, and everyone wins - the skill of the average teacher rises, teacher pay rises by 25%, teacher costs go down 25%. And before you go on about teacher-student ratios - lower ratios are no guarantee of improved learning. Motivated, enthusiastic teachers who actually know their stuff AND know how to communicate it can handle larger classes.
Every serious study to date has shown that the more computers in the school, the less learning going on.
Once in a while these studies even make the papers - but people keep on believing that computers are a magic bullet. There's no such thing as a magic bullet - get over it.
We just keep "dumbing down" the curriculum, grading to the curve instead of absolutes, and hoping for the best, which explains why so many people believe that dinosaurs co-existed with humans. They'd rather not face the facts.
Urban legend. http://tafkac.org/science/saturn_v_blueprints.html
They're on microfilm at the Marshall Space Flight Center
So what you're saying is that NASA is run by the same people who manage software projects.
Maybe we would be better off if we put them on a rocket and aimed it towards the sun.
Want to go back to the moon? Replace the Aries with an updated Saturn 5. Cheaper, proven tech.
If you need "shiny" to teach, you're going about it the wrong way - or you suck.
I've taught grades 4 to 6, and turned off the "shiny tings" - the computers. Communicated with the kids - so I made sure that any note-taking was only incidental - that they LEARNED what we were talking about (because with me, it's always a 2-way conversation, not "I'm teaching you this and you'll absorb it like good little sponges."
The teachers of the classes before and after mine were always complaining ... the ones before, because the kids obviously couldn't wait to get out of their class and into mine, and the ones after, because it took time to "calm the kids down" and get them to "learn properly." The principal, on the other hand, sat in and LOVED what I was doing. I sat in on another teacher's class, and remembered why history was so f*ing boring. Most teachers can't teach!
They don't know their material well enough to teach without the use of a textbook as a crutch;
They don't know their target audience well enough to make a real connection and get them enthused about learning.
They don't give enough of a shit to fix either of the previous problems, and they're too cowardly to admit that they're part of the problem.
It's called "learned helplessness" for a reason.
Too many people, but especially teachers, have bought into it. "It's not my fault. The class is too big. The textbooks are too old. The kids don't want to learn. They don't respect me."
Translation: "I don't know my subject and my target audience well enough to engage them, or to teach without a textbook, so the kids get bored and instinctively know I'm full of shit."
The best teachers don't need the textbook, know how to stimulate discussion and questioning and LEARNING, and everyone respects them because they know their shit. This applies to all levels of education.
Too many teachers fail all 3.
So what you're saying is that if something frustrates you, it's okay to give up on it.
Yes, they're fucktards, every one of them that acts that way, because of their "loser" attitude. Would they accept that as a correct response from a student? "Oh, I couldn't figure out that problem, it pissed me off, so I gave up!"
Want teaching to improve? Make teachers' pay tied to performance. Kids don't learn because you're a crappy teacher? You're fired.
Why is it teachers' unions don't want performance-based pay? Because most of their members can't teach worth shit.