1) Teachers - underpaid, underappreciated, and undertalented. We need to train, pay, and expect the best from teachers, and treat them with the respect and admiration deserving of the people who nurture the minds and interests of the next generation, because they are
Teachers are paid just fine, on an hour by hour basis they start at what a Civil Engineer makes. I have never known a poor teacher they have always been middle class.
2) Parents - underinvolved and unwilling to do their part. It used to be that if you got in trouble at school, it was nothing compared to the trouble that you'd get into when you got home. Conversely, parents used to be much more active and supportive of their children's education, and "active" is not defined by putting pithy stickers on the minivan.
Spot on correct, My friend is a teacher and has had parents flip out she told their kid not to curse. My sister the social worker has clients who dont know the school attended by their kids.
3) Students - "some children left behind." The hardest problem is that we have the mindset that school has a plethora of solutions for children with problems. It doesn't. Those places would be called "juvenile hall" or "psychiatric ward." Some students are going to misbehave, cause trouble, underperform, or fail, and we should let them. Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up, and you don't get increasing results by applying declining standards.
Yup between the parents and teachers school has become daycare for two income families and fun points for social programming by the government..
Wow you mean like reading to your kids, and not trusting the nanny state to raise them.. what a concept..
School should make kids able to read, write, and do math at a 12th grade level thats about it..
I grew up in the NY school system and I can tell you they have *always* taught for the test the difference is its no longer just a state exam or for a regents diploma (what a joke they turned that into).
Social promotion was a serious problem in NY. I had to seek outside tutoring because my teachers kept passing me along despite the fact I could not spell. NCLB is an attempt to end that and to hold accountable the teachers and school boards for the Billions of dollars they are given.
I remember being in Engineering school and having one of my female classmate try to sell me that crap. We need to drive more women into science.
"its just not fair that 90% of the Engineering students are men" (I find this to be more unfair for the men but I am getting off topic) "Someone should do something to encourage more women to be in science". She went on to say this included preferance in admissions..
I pointed out to her my University (SUNY at Buffalo) was 52% Woman and 48% men so if there was a huge discrepency in other departments (in particular Nursing, PT, and Education). And that maybe we shoud "do something" about that.
Thank goodness she corrected me and told me how uninformed I was, it seems thats just because people want to go into those fields at those rates, it has nothing to do with institutional discrimination. When I asked her what specific discrimination she faced she could not give an example but assured me "they were out there"
Good point not not totally true, there is a thing called water which unless you happen to get a good rain youre sol..
Man will learn to "live off the land" on the moon and mars, will it be as easy or as fast? no I have no expectations to see any serious habitation of the moon, its a pity we landed there almost a decade before I was born and never went back..
Very good point, still I like the EC system just think the states shoud do it like ME and NB, if you win a dictrict you get that Elector, and if you win a state you get the two 'senate' electors..
There is a general rule of thumb that with minimal white collar benefits its about a 30-40% increase over your salary, I got mine from a manager who told me under the table..
Better to engineer the best rover you can with the resources you have, and give a conservative estimate of the mission's lifespan. If it exceeds that estimate, bonus! NASA goes back to the budget authorities with a clear win under their belt, another project delivered as promised, and some solid results to show that an addtional budget allocation is justified to continue the mission past the lower time limit and towards the upper end of the lifespan estimate.
Im a cross between an Engineer and a PHB, so if I task someone to do a job and give them a budget and then they turn around and beat it by five times the estimate they have explaining to do! Do I give them what they ask for next time or do I ask them if this is a real estimate or if this is another 300% what I need estimate.
Now I have said *cost justifiable* so if the engineer shows me I got a 300% increase for 10% the cost I give him a raise and whatever he needs for the next project but If it doubled the cost of the mission and could have been done for less I am probably P/O'd and less inclined to have him around for the next mission.
I am not saying the design was bad, maybe I was not clear, but what I am saying is it does not mean its a good design either. Good engineering is efficent and predictable, not a pissing contest. If you can build something for the same price that performs twice as well more power to ya' but if you need two times the money for twice the performance where is the Engineering accomplishment?
You would be surpised, my last job I was making 52K a year, but the cost to my company was on the order of 80K per year (benefits and ss add quite a bit). Now my salary is still well below 100K but my cost to the company is a touch over that.
Yea just like scotty said in tng dont tell them how long it will really take/sarcasm
Thats aweful engineering, it means on of two things the flat out lied or cound not properly budget. They made a rover which will last longer than expected, big whoop they should have known it would last 250 days.
Its good planning and management to buld something to last twice as long as you need it *if* its cost justifiable, its good engineering to build something with a 15% tolerance. Its not good engineering to build something for more money / time (are they any different) than is needed by the requirements.
Yes but aparently not sub zero temperatures that can damage wearable parts **cough** o-ring **cough**. NASA has also had trouble with that whole metric system thing..
NASA has learned from mistakes, so will other companies and organization. This was an experimental flight, would I have called it off? maybe..
No but Airlines *rent* use of airports. as as that is usually a city or county decision anyway its out of the scope of this conversation.
I dont want the government doing healthcare we dont need Canada's mess here. That being said I dont give a rats behind what Colorado does with health care cause I dont live there..
Except that defence happens to *be* one of the governments jobs where as education, healthcare,...,..., (insert green party cause here),...,... are remanded to the states.
Unfortunately, it isn't even that. It's simply a way for the GOP to give more tax money to large, influential corporations such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
And do Lockheed and Boeing employ people or not? I mean I am so sick of people bashing the companies who create jobs as being evil because those that run them (note I said run not own because they are corporations) are rich, of course their rich would you hire a bum off the street to handle your multi milloin dollar company?
WOrking with the government I can tell you that we treat the Fed the same way we treat our private partners, in a way that will make them want to retain us. Are they in it for the money? heck yea but making money means not screwing your customers..
There's a difference in the situation you described of a contractor stealing money from a government agency, and a company being paid by customers to get something into space, competing with other companies offering to do the same thing.
One you can not "steal money" from the government, its not theirs in the first place. When the US Army Corps of Engineers sold off its fleet of equipment and began using contractors to dredge and maintain US waterways there was a significant savings to the tax payer (again its not the Governments money, they have it in trust).
If they are literate they will do fine. Tell you what when 90% of high school grads can read/write on a 12th grade level, then that school should worry about its computing lab.
So our kids in poor schools wont be able to read but at leats they will be able to speetk 1337? I never touched a computer until University (1996) and did nothing to inhibit getting an EE degree with CSE minor..
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Teachers are paid just fine, on an hour by hour basis they start at what a Civil Engineer makes. I have never known a poor teacher they have always been middle class.
2) Parents - underinvolved and unwilling to do their part. It used to be that if you got in trouble at school, it was nothing compared to the trouble that you'd get into when you got home. Conversely, parents used to be much more active and supportive of their children's education, and "active" is not defined by putting pithy stickers on the minivan.
Spot on correct, My friend is a teacher and has had parents flip out she told their kid not to curse. My sister the social worker has clients who dont know the school attended by their kids.
3) Students - "some children left behind." The hardest problem is that we have the mindset that school has a plethora of solutions for children with problems. It doesn't. Those places would be called "juvenile hall" or "psychiatric ward." Some students are going to misbehave, cause trouble, underperform, or fail, and we should let them. Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up, and you don't get increasing results by applying declining standards.
Yup between the parents and teachers school has become daycare for two income families and fun points for social programming by the government..
Wow you mean like reading to your kids, and not trusting the nanny state to raise them.. what a concept.. School should make kids able to read, write, and do math at a 12th grade level thats about it..
I grew up in the NY school system and I can tell you they have *always* taught for the test the difference is its no longer just a state exam or for a regents diploma (what a joke they turned that into). Social promotion was a serious problem in NY. I had to seek outside tutoring because my teachers kept passing me along despite the fact I could not spell. NCLB is an attempt to end that and to hold accountable the teachers and school boards for the Billions of dollars they are given.
There were many teachers who live in my neighborhood and not a single one of them was poor..
"its just not fair that 90% of the Engineering students are men" (I find this to be more unfair for the men but I am getting off topic) "Someone should do something to encourage more women to be in science". She went on to say this included preferance in admissions..
I pointed out to her my University (SUNY at Buffalo) was 52% Woman and 48% men so if there was a huge discrepency in other departments (in particular Nursing, PT, and Education). And that maybe we shoud "do something" about that.
Thank goodness she corrected me and told me how uninformed I was, it seems thats just because people want to go into those fields at those rates, it has nothing to do with institutional discrimination. When I asked her what specific discrimination she faced she could not give an example but assured me "they were out there"
Man will learn to "live off the land" on the moon and mars, will it be as easy or as fast? no I have no expectations to see any serious habitation of the moon, its a pity we landed there almost a decade before I was born and never went back..
The funny thing is in a system where every state did that the 2000 election would have turned out the exact same way (in terms of electoral votes)...
Ahh you must mean the patriot act Jon Kerry voted for...
Very good point, still I like the EC system just think the states shoud do it like ME and NB, if you win a dictrict you get that Elector, and if you win a state you get the two 'senate' electors..
Good point especially as elections in NM, WI, and MO could all have been recounted..
There is a general rule of thumb that with minimal white collar benefits its about a 30-40% increase over your salary, I got mine from a manager who told me under the table..
Im a cross between an Engineer and a PHB, so if I task someone to do a job and give them a budget and then they turn around and beat it by five times the estimate they have explaining to do! Do I give them what they ask for next time or do I ask them if this is a real estimate or if this is another 300% what I need estimate.
Now I have said *cost justifiable* so if the engineer shows me I got a 300% increase for 10% the cost I give him a raise and whatever he needs for the next project but If it doubled the cost of the mission and could have been done for less I am probably P/O'd and less inclined to have him around for the next mission.
I am not saying the design was bad, maybe I was not clear, but what I am saying is it does not mean its a good design either. Good engineering is efficent and predictable, not a pissing contest. If you can build something for the same price that performs twice as well more power to ya' but if you need two times the money for twice the performance where is the Engineering accomplishment?
You would be surpised, my last job I was making 52K a year, but the cost to my company was on the order of 80K per year (benefits and ss add quite a bit). Now my salary is still well below 100K but my cost to the company is a touch over that.
Thats aweful engineering, it means on of two things the flat out lied or cound not properly budget. They made a rover which will last longer than expected, big whoop they should have known it would last 250 days.
Its good planning and management to buld something to last twice as long as you need it *if* its cost justifiable, its good engineering to build something with a 15% tolerance. Its not good engineering to build something for more money / time (are they any different) than is needed by the requirements.
NASA has learned from mistakes, so will other companies and organization. This was an experimental flight, would I have called it off? maybe..
Because the republican believe Business creatres jobs and the democrats are for sale..
You left out the M1 tank, the apache, and other procrams?
Did you actually take the time to look at his record?
Not as funny as if you had read the whole summary (http://bugmenot.com) before posting..
I dont want the government doing healthcare we dont need Canada's mess here. That being said I dont give a rats behind what Colorado does with health care cause I dont live there..
Except that defence happens to *be* one of the governments jobs where as education, healthcare, ..., ..., (insert green party cause here), ..., ... are remanded to the states.
And do Lockheed and Boeing employ people or not? I mean I am so sick of people bashing the companies who create jobs as being evil because those that run them (note I said run not own because they are corporations) are rich, of course their rich would you hire a bum off the street to handle your multi milloin dollar company?
WOrking with the government I can tell you that we treat the Fed the same way we treat our private partners, in a way that will make them want to retain us. Are they in it for the money? heck yea but making money means not screwing your customers..
One you can not "steal money" from the government, its not theirs in the first place. When the US Army Corps of Engineers sold off its fleet of equipment and began using contractors to dredge and maintain US waterways there was a significant savings to the tax payer (again its not the Governments money, they have it in trust).
If they are literate they will do fine. Tell you what when 90% of high school grads can read/write on a 12th grade level, then that school should worry about its computing lab.
So our kids in poor schools wont be able to read but at leats they will be able to speetk 1337? I never touched a computer until University (1996) and did nothing to inhibit getting an EE degree with CSE minor..