My experience is that many people inclined towards a compu-career have been turned off physical exercise, thanks to jocks. Competitive sports have become a religion in many schools, where nothing else matters but a winning team to bring glory. Phys-ed has become a grade factory for jocks, and a source of persecution for non-jocks. Add to that the castes that develop, based on physical size and development.
That means:
Making schools a place for education rather than musculotonic social dominance.
Public school teachers and educators are unable to handle the real issues, so they diagnose (or pressure doctors into diagnosing) such conditions as ADHD, autism, and Aspergers Syndrome. Any child who doesn't fit in to the social straitjacket becomes labelled in some way. The peers use such terms as nerd, geek, dork, dweeb, and fag. (And, in poor black communities, "acting white".) The teachers use labels such as ADHD, ADD, OCD, and AS.
Thus, the educational establishment medicalizes inconvenient personalities, to be labelled with the syndrome of the week. It's their way of stamping someone as inferior, and since it's a medical condition, that person (or his or her parents) isn't to blame. No-fault labelling. Thus, the school ships off the inconvenient kids to other schools, or (often ineffective) Special Education programs.
There is no question that many of these conditions do exist, especially in their more severe forms. The milder forms are the real problem. The lack of objective tests makes it easy for educators and other special interest groups to pressure doctors and psychologists into lowering the bar. A society that has made buck-passing a fine art has no right to be surprised at the rapid increase in reported cases of ADHD and AS.
The educational establishment has been so out of touch with the realities of young people, in favor of their own pet theories. Schools have supposedly become freer, more open, and less restrictive in the last 30 years. That couldn't be further from the truth! School is paradise for jocks, bullies, "good old boys", rich kids with rich parents, and smarmy little political whores. For individualists, and those more interested in learning than socializing, it is hell. The emphasis is on self-esteem (of the in-crowd only), socialization, popularity, populism, the tyranny of the majority, lax (and inconsistent) discipline, and the replacement of morality by the fad of the week.
Look at what modern schools teach children:
Power, wealth, fame, and popularity are everything.
For boys: physical size, muscle, and athletic ability.
For girls: blonde hair and the anorexic model look.
Image is everything.
Rules exist to be broken.
Cheating is OK, getting caught isn't.
Status is a zero-sum game.
The quickest way to build your status is to torment those below you on the Great Ladder of Life.
The purpose of life is to prostitute yourself to various fads and fashions.
Never question anything, just fake it, and bullshit your way through life.
Knowledge, no matter how favored by the teachers, really counts for nothing.
To be "different" means being inferior, and this includes persons who value knowledge, who have little tolerance for fads or bullshit, who may be sexually unorthodox ("screaming faggots"), or those who appear weak (i.e. poor, unpopular, un-macho, sensitive, neurotic).
Given this, I can also see why some kids want to be declared as AS, and why some parents want the same for their kids, to avoid the hell of mainstream public schools!
Perhaps the biggest media bias is anti-high-tech, and therefore anti-nerd and anti-hacker. It's no surprise they don't make this guy into a hero, or even give him as much notice as the Unabomber (who was a romantic terrorist - and mass murderer.) Never mind he opposed big techno-corporations, he's still a nerd hacker. The media can safely ignore him, or make him into a bad guy.
Too bad he wasn't a black Cuban female Maoist baby boomer postmodernist celebrity, making millions from writing books on the evils of "capitalist white male amerika". The media really loves those types. Never mind millions of real Cubans live in tyranny, and millions of Americans of all colors live in poverty due to policies such as those.
I'm a home-office software consultant living in Canada. I typically work about 5-6 hours a day, and this is real work, not coffee/lunch breaks or meetings. This is also under usual conditions, not heavy deadlines or fire-department support.
I could be doing more, but for my health. I have various chronic conditions which make it difficult for me to handle more than about 6 hours, or high stress. Besides, I like my spare time too. The fact that I can choose my own hours and pace is one of the things that made me choose consulting. Very few employers are flexible enough to hire software developers on a part-time basis. At least this was true 6 or so years ago.
Regarding Sean and his school: It sounds like the school itself is biased and corrupt, rotten to the core. It "lies, breaks state laws, and gets rid of bright students". Even if Sean had his case appealed, and won the legal right to attend, that would not change the nature of the school. The administration would likely find another way to get rid of him.
Sean's father had the best solution given the situation, home-schooling. It may not be an elegant solution, but is always an option available to parents as a last resort.
There are many schools, like Dallas's McKinney (or Columbine, Santana, etc.), that are fanatical about image, and the "right crowd". Those jock playgrounds care nothing about justice - only favoring jocks, preppies, bullies, and their vocal parents. The rules and punishments apply only to nerds, never the "good old boys" (and girls).
Good luck finding a good school, committed to education, that actually values creative intellectual talent (and the passion that goes with it), and treats everyone fairly.
Slashdot Mirror
How about dejockifying public education?
My experience is that many people inclined towards a compu-career have been turned off physical exercise, thanks to jocks. Competitive sports have become a religion in many schools, where nothing else matters but a winning team to bring glory. Phys-ed has become a grade factory for jocks, and a source of persecution for non-jocks. Add to that the castes that develop, based on physical size and development.
That means:
Making schools a place for education rather than musculotonic social dominance.
Removing extramural sports.
Emphasizing non-sport activities (e.g. running, swimming, martial arts).
Replacing "team-ism" with individualism.
Teaching students to love and respect their bodies.
Fairness to all students, regardless of physical condition.
Firm and consistent discipline.
Prevention of bullying.
Just imagine, more people having a healthier attitude towards exercise and fitness.
Public school teachers and educators are unable to handle the real issues, so they diagnose (or pressure doctors into diagnosing) such conditions as ADHD, autism, and Aspergers Syndrome. Any child who doesn't fit in to the social straitjacket becomes labelled in some way. The peers use such terms as nerd, geek, dork, dweeb, and fag. (And, in poor black communities, "acting white".) The teachers use labels such as ADHD, ADD, OCD, and AS.
Thus, the educational establishment medicalizes inconvenient personalities, to be labelled with the syndrome of the week. It's their way of stamping someone as inferior, and since it's a medical condition, that person (or his or her parents) isn't to blame. No-fault labelling. Thus, the school ships off the inconvenient kids to other schools, or (often ineffective) Special Education programs.
There is no question that many of these conditions do exist, especially in their more severe forms. The milder forms are the real problem. The lack of objective tests makes it easy for educators and other special interest groups to pressure doctors and psychologists into lowering the bar. A society that has made buck-passing a fine art has no right to be surprised at the rapid increase in reported cases of ADHD and AS.
The educational establishment has been so out of touch with the realities of young people, in favor of their own pet theories. Schools have supposedly become freer, more open, and less restrictive in the last 30 years. That couldn't be further from the truth! School is paradise for jocks, bullies, "good old boys", rich kids with rich parents, and smarmy little political whores. For individualists, and those more interested in learning than socializing, it is hell. The emphasis is on self-esteem (of the in-crowd only), socialization, popularity, populism, the tyranny of the majority, lax (and inconsistent) discipline, and the replacement of morality by the fad of the week.
Look at what modern schools teach children:
Power, wealth, fame, and popularity are everything.
For boys: physical size, muscle, and athletic ability.
For girls: blonde hair and the anorexic model look.
Image is everything.
Rules exist to be broken.
Cheating is OK, getting caught isn't.
Status is a zero-sum game.
The quickest way to build your status is to torment those below you on the Great Ladder of Life.
The purpose of life is to prostitute yourself to various fads and fashions.
Never question anything, just fake it, and bullshit your way through life.
Knowledge, no matter how favored by the teachers, really counts for nothing.
To be "different" means being inferior, and this includes persons who value knowledge, who have little tolerance for fads or bullshit, who may be sexually unorthodox ("screaming faggots"), or those who appear weak (i.e. poor, unpopular, un-macho, sensitive, neurotic).
Given this, I can also see why some kids want to be declared as AS, and why some parents want the same for their kids, to avoid the hell of mainstream public schools!
Perhaps the biggest media bias is anti-high-tech, and therefore anti-nerd and anti-hacker. It's no surprise they don't make this guy into a hero, or even give him as much notice as the Unabomber (who was a romantic terrorist - and mass murderer.) Never mind he opposed big techno-corporations, he's still a nerd hacker. The media can safely ignore him, or make him into a bad guy. Too bad he wasn't a black Cuban female Maoist baby boomer postmodernist celebrity, making millions from writing books on the evils of "capitalist white male amerika". The media really loves those types. Never mind millions of real Cubans live in tyranny, and millions of Americans of all colors live in poverty due to policies such as those.
I'm a home-office software consultant living in Canada. I typically work about 5-6 hours a day, and this is real work, not coffee/lunch breaks or meetings. This is also under usual conditions, not heavy deadlines or fire-department support.
I could be doing more, but for my health. I have various chronic conditions which make it difficult for me to handle more than about 6 hours, or high stress. Besides, I like my spare time too. The fact that I can choose my own hours and pace is one of the things that made me choose consulting. Very few employers are flexible enough to hire software developers on a part-time basis. At least this was true 6 or so years ago.
Regarding Sean and his school: It sounds like the school itself is biased and corrupt, rotten to the core. It "lies, breaks state laws, and gets rid of bright students". Even if Sean had his case appealed, and won the legal right to attend, that would not change the nature of the school. The administration would likely find another way to get rid of him.
Sean's father had the best solution given the situation, home-schooling. It may not be an elegant solution, but is always an option available to parents as a last resort.
There are many schools, like Dallas's McKinney (or Columbine, Santana, etc.), that are fanatical about image, and the "right crowd". Those jock playgrounds care nothing about justice - only favoring jocks, preppies, bullies, and their vocal parents. The rules and punishments apply only to nerds, never the "good old boys" (and girls).
Good luck finding a good school, committed to education, that actually values creative intellectual talent (and the passion that goes with it), and treats everyone fairly.