Ahh, bad AC. No doggy biscuit for you. I am not a teacher. I am a software designer who has taught in the past. i love what I do (writing software), and I like (but not love) teaching. I volunteer to help out now, but no longer teach or develop curricula. BTW, since you are obviously literate enough to post here, thank a teacher. You may not realize it, but you them that.
There are many kind of trouble makers. You ever-generalize. Some do it for attention, and those are the ones that normally wind up behaving in class. There are many others for many other reasons. I dare you to go teach for a year.
YOU DO YOUR JOB
Jeez. I do my job, and other peoples as well, and I work with my kids every night and every weekend, and I even help their friends whose parents are not around. Hmmm. Sit back down AC boy.
OMG. I almost fell over laughing when I read your post. I am a father and have been for a long time. I used to do the 1.5 hour one way commute. Six days a week. My wife stayed home. My son entered Kindergarten reading on a fourth grade level, his math was late third grade and his social skills were rather advanced.
Lets see, since you are so interested in my itinerary, I will give to you. I did this for years and then quit to be a better father.
04:00 Awake
04:30 at the gym to work out and swim
06:00 on the road to work
07:30 to 08:00 depending on traffic and how bad the daily bridge accident was, at my desk at work.
17:00 to 19:00 leave work depending on how much work needed to be done that day.
19:00 to 20:30 arrive home for the evening, eat dinner.
20:00 to 22:00 in bed for the next day.
On my days off I did nothing but play and work with our son (one at first, then two). That job was almost a decade ago when I left it. My wife spent 8 to 10 hours per day with our sons. After I left my job, we moved to a much less expensive area, with good schools and I started working for myself and stayed home, took care of the house and the kids while my wife went back to work. I did this for 8 years. I raised our other son. Both have turned out pretty good so far, though our youngest one hates wearing his glasses. 8-)
It is all about choices and priorities. My priority is my family, and most importantly, my children. More important than my career. I make half as much oney now, but I have 5 hours almost every night with my children. I have never seen a check big enough to make me give that up, and I have seen some big 6 digit checks in my life. I have been fortunate to know many wealthy and unhappy families, as well as many relatively poor and happy families. Guess which one is better to live in? I miss making 6 digits. But not enough to forsake my children for it.
A child's education is complicated and its not. Like most things in life, it is easy to let other things get in the way. I have too much experience there. But, in the end, you define what you truly care about by the things you make time for.
Actually, we do make everything from scratch. We hand wash everything except the laundry. It takes about 20 to 25 hours per week on our own, tops. Between all of us, it takes about 1 hour per day. I still spend 3 to 5 hours per day with my kids, work 9 to 10 hours and get the house chores done. My wife handles some of them while I handle others. The children do their part as well. It is called quality time work. My mother did it, her mother did it, our grandparents did it. I have seen it and live it. Not only is it possible, but unless you are lazy and/or seriously disorganized, it is trivial to spend much less time on these chores. A good part of it is habits. Don't make a mess and you don't have on to clean up.
Oh, yeah, I still have two whole days a week off. That is another 18 hours to be parent every week.
I do think there is a need for standardised curriculum and testing across at least some subjects.
I think there is a need for standardized requirements in certain subjects, as in you need to learn to use English/Math/... in this manner. I think a standardized methodology for teaching it is a huge problem. Children quite simply have different learning styles, challenges and motivations. By using the one way works for all approach, you hit a certain middle half to just over half, if you are lucky. The rest either are bored as they are ahead of the class waiting for them to catch up, or they are behind the class struggling, getting frustrated with even being there. Instead of approaching the teaching of children as assembling widgets on an assembly line, children need to approached as unique project builds for custom orders.
Testing is a big hairy mess. The problem with testing is it encourages all teachers to teach for the tests. Teaching for the test is does not provide students with a solid learning base. It teaches regurgitation of facts, not interaction with knowledge. Think of learning as being a set skills. Knowledge recital is definitely one skill (test taking covers this). It is an easily measured skill and one which people have been able to easily point to and segregate others based on. Hell, I missed one point on my PSAT and 10 points on my SAT. My IQ was/is (who knows, who cares) over 150. I ought to be a highly successful business/computer/(fill in the blank) genius. I have been told plenty of times by bosses and coworkers, thats great, but no one here understands what you just said. Theres another skill, communications, and nobody has developed a test for that that truly tests the ability to communicate, only to speak and recognize grammar components. The truth is those only measure a small percent of overall intelligence. Their are also social interaction skills, creativity skills and many more. How do you test for those? How do you structure a standardized anything for skills that are inherently about being non-standard?
Standardized testing is very dangerous. It give you easy false data and a false sense of achievement. You took a test you scored well. That does not mean you are intelligent or that you are at well rounded or anything more than you knew those facts and were able to write something that day that the reviewer liked. Now, if we make testing a small portion of the education, that is okay. The problem is people tend to take the path of least resistance and run with it. With testing, that has proven to be very detrimental to the educational system. The way it works, it is better for a teachers/school admins career to cause the kids to do poorly one year and better the next. It shows improvement in the students in the required time frame. Never mind that you have now started a *lottery* for some kids to do better based on which year in the cycle you are while the other kids get less. This I have gotten from actual teachers and administrators who are trying to figure out how to keep their jobs while teaching students who are preoccupied with the latest fads, drugs and who is having sex with who. All this because the parents are not there in their lives.
Think back many decades to the one room school house. From the people I know and have talked to, that environment had no testing like we are used to today. They did on the other hand learn at their own pace, interact with the children of other ages in the classroom, usually by helping them (thus showing the other children that it was *good* to be *learned*). I myself attended a Montessori school. I accomplished three years of science, two years of math and over a year of the other subjects. 30 years later I remember more about that education than I do of the standard grade school I went to the previous and following years. It was individualized, with nothing more than interactive unit testing to make sure the knowledge was grasped.
I have to go to work. I hope I have communicated effectively my experience and observations on testing and standards. Please respond with any feedback.
lol... Let see, IANAL, IANAP, IANAAP, IANAD, IANA,... Are you new here? yeah, people tend to not read the article. People tend to come up with all kinds of wacko ideas. Yeah, credentials are important, and if you haven't noticed, posting some credentials on a post like my mine is relevant.
It is not whether it would stand or fall on its own. You could tell people here that drinking large quanatities of alcohol will impair their ability to drive. They will not all believe you.
Please forgive any grammar, spelling or other snafus, it is very late, I am very tired, but I think this needs to be said.
This is one of my BIG soap boxes. My parents were teachers (now retired after 30+ years teaching each), I have taught, my brother has taught, we have all coached, taught extra-curricular classes and my parents have received numerous awards for what they have achieved with their students. My father at one time had over half of the high school he taught at (2500+ students) taking physics. My mother, father and I worked with Young Astronauts, Destination Imagination, Flight Club, Math League, Lego Robotics (as an extra-curricular), Athletics, 3rd through 6th grade science and math (my father helped with this while he taught the high school level), and much more. Amongst us, we have Physics Teacher of the year for our state (my father), Teacher of the year multiple times, parental awards for excellence in education (these come from the parents of the students, not other teachers) and plenty of politicians and business leaders who are sick and tired of us and our names. Those are some of our credentials.
Now, the real problem. Parents and our societal emphasis on lack of responsibility and over-emphasis on instant gratification. Nothing about classroom technologies, nothing about administrators, and nothing politicians in general. Though some of them are definite proof of some serious failings in their education from their parents - morality.
Students do not *normally* come to school to learn anymore. They expect to be entertained. They expect to be catered to. They expect to do nothing other than what they want. And honestly, how many kids know what they need? Some, but most do not. There is a pattern to all of this. Not absolute, nor 100% accurate, but routinely, you see this pattern over and over. If the parents of the children emphasize discipline, responsibility, morality, effort and honesty (at least self-honesty), the kids almost always outperform the other children they go to school with. The other kids, well lets just say they do not get as much out of school, and normally (but not always) out of life.
See, the problem starts at home for the vast majority of children. Parents do not spend enough quality time (working, playing, reading, building, cleaning,...) together. Not an hour or two a day, but 3 to 5 hours per day. That may sound like a lot, but, they had this child. Children learn the most by observing. Not listening to your instructions, but observing you carry out (or not) your promises, your rules, your ethics, your respect, your honesty, your...
Then, these kids go to school. Now, they have either learned to respect adults, work, responsibility and such at home, or they have not. Guess which kids do better at first (and normally for the rest of the time as well). Are they doomed then? No. They can learn how to live right. I have seen it. Sometimes by a divorce where one parent suddenly is seen by the child for what that parent really is and the other parent is finally able to provide that good home. Sometimes, the parents go away, through jail or Child Protective Services (I know they are not perfect either) and they wind up in a good home. They learn good habits, just takes them longer and they have to relearn many things. They are still disadvantaged in some ways, but can keep up with and compete in the real world.
Believe it or not, these are the things that most impact a child's education. And the education of the children around that child. Why? Because that child's behavior in class will either impede or propel the education of the children around them. Put one bratty attitude in a classroom, and you can loose a half day of education everyday, and never have a good quality day of education. One Child can ruin the class. You may say the teacher can do something about it. No, they can not in most cases. We the people, as a whole, either through
I checked our blocked list, and yes in fact some of the domains I am blocking look like they are. How about that! I never really gave it any thought. They just fit our profile and into the block list they go. lol
I have made it a habit to block only certain advertising companies content. I have a few rules I use to decide who to block.
Are they serving up any ads with dangerous content?
Malware
Code that crashes browsers.
Adult, gambling, or other subject matter that my children have no business seeing.
Ads from companies that are known to be fraudulent
Are they serving up ads that are meaningless gibberish (punch the monkey for instance).
Can you punch/shoot the monkey.
You are a winner ***.
Congratulations, you are the millionth ***
Any other blatant lie or deception.
Are they tracking me or gathering information on me without my permission?
Are they slow to respond when the page is requested?
Do they have a less than stellar history with legal and moral practices?
I have made it a habit to block these providers at the firewall and redirect there requests to an html snippet that gives a link to an explanation as to why the site is not reachable. I have friends who use my services as well (the firewall settings and filtering). It works well. We keep fraudulent advertisers off of our systems, away from our children and we still browse. Firefox is my browser of choice, and it blocks a few more things that I may not have set up, and allows me to view the ads I want to, but I still have to use IE and some of the group prefer IE. I do view ads that are interesting to me, and have even purchased some after running across an ad (and then doing some homework).
Advertisers should take a hint, provide useful concise and decent content without malware, tracking cookies or other sneaky/illegal devices and you might find us browsing your ad for the information it contains. For the moment, there are few advertisers who publish information I would read anyway. It comes across as nothing but lies and euphemisms. As long as they publish that kind of drivel, I am much more likely to not purchase from them. I figure if they are going to lie or deceive in an ad, how can I trust the product I am buying?
And to those of you hosting content and relying on advertisements to generate revenue, choose the companies you let modify your web pages carefully. I block your sites as well if you keep allowing them to provide these problematic ads. Choose a reputable company that has a history of NOT serving poor advertising. You may have to work harder to make a site that they are interested in, but that is your job if you chose it. For instance, all those squatters who sit on a host name and serve up ads called a *search* list, you are all blocked on my systems. What you do is an abuse of the intention of the internet, and I will not support it. Don't like it, tough. Give me a valid reason to open up that site, a reason that meets my needs and wants. That is called customer service. Learn it.
I have several sites that I make advertising revenue off of. They are not going to make me rich on there own, but together, they add up. I only use a few advertising providers and I make sure the content is what the users want. Some even pay to not have ads. I am creating more every year. Don't ask which sites, they won't survive a slashdotting 8-). but, I know from my experience that with a little due diligence, and some effort into providing good original content, you don't need to rely on the bad advertising services to get a decent revenue.
After working over two decades in development and administration, I think I can shed some light on why everyone's finger is pointing in every other directions.
Systems administration - normally called IT by those who don't know what is involved in real IT - is responsible for keeping the networks, servers, data systems, external connections, email, etc up and running in companies. They are the guys most of you all never talk to until something breaks. They get shoved under the carpet, out the back door, or wherever else they are not in *anybody* else's way. The average IT person never receives a thank you for a job well done or a thank you from any customer for not having to make the call since everything works. I have worked in companies where people did not even know we had an IT dept, as things just worked.
The average user the IT professional deals with expects a complicated application to be as easy to use as a simple hand held calculator (one with only +,-,*,/,=) yet be able to turn out financial reports on multiple scenarios for future potentials, find and relate minuscule pieces of rather unrelated data. The average use calls in for help on things like:
"I can't find my application"
(it is in the start menu/on the desktop)
"Why is my computer not working, my phone is?"
The power is off/ the computer is unplugged/...
"My cousin Vinny says that you can do BLAH! You must not know what you are doing."
Their cousin Vinny is an idiot who learned about computers in by reading marketing slicks.
"Your PHB said you can get these done by tonight."
They were told to tell us last month.
"I can't find my documents."
They deleted them.
"The application keeps crashing, why can't you guys get anything to run."
They specified the application, you told them it would not work on this network with this OS and the company that wrote it has a horrible support history
"Why can't you get your work done on time?"
They hired you for 40 to maybe 50 hours per week of work, yet they gave you almost 120 hours and you are doing 90 now.
and so many more...
It is not that most users are not capable of learning how to do their job with their tools, they just assume that anything IT is not their job. The reality is anything you touch is your job to learn about. If I do work for the marketing department as an IT person, it is part of my job to learn about how the dept works and how best to work with the different depts as well as how to use the tools I use to do my job. Same for all the users out there, but most are too lazy or too scared or too *fill in the blank* to do so. Now, do you want to support that mess? Probably not, and you'll find that without rules as to what you can and can not support, you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO support it, as you will never know enough about the intricate inner workings of an application to support it when it breaks down. You don't become intimate with a piece of software or a system in a few months. It takes much more time for anything of complexity
From the programmers perspective, you get tasked to do things that seem easy to do (from a human perspective), so the project owner assumes that it will only take you a few days to figure out how to do it with a very fast idiot machine. Yeah, computers can do many things a heck of a lot faster than a person, but they are horrible at just learning how to do anything! So, the best way to think about writing software is trying to teach an average 3 to 4 year old how to do something. Most kids at that age can do simple tasks, but I dare you to teach an average four year old how to manage an accounting process. And, realizing that the computer never grows up and becomes better at whatever it is they are doing. Things I have heard as a programmer:
"Can't you just copy *company name's* code and use that."
Can we say illegal?
"Isn't there an open source project that does that?"
GPL viral issu
lol. Heck, I have been married going on 17 years and I had to think about that. Too much SQL today.
I actually dated several ladies in the military, and the dorm inspections were always more critical about the cleanliness of the toilettes. Makes sense if you think how much they payed for them;-). Ahhh, the memories, the good, the bad and the downright scary!
My wife used to get very jealous when any of them were around (those I had dated) even though they always made it known they they had no interest in long term relationships (catch and release was a term used). Thanks for the good laugh!
I have seen, or know of incidents that have resulted in various combinations of CEM and jail time. You are correct, committing a crime was involved in the jail time, but mishandling of nuclear materials can be considered a crime depending on the situation. It has happened.
As far as career ending moves, from what I saw in the paper at lunch, unless the paper is mis-reporting, the CEM fallout has already started.
I was in the Air Force as well. So, you can't blow smoke my way. What your job is, what you are exposed to and who you work for/with makes a huge difference in what you experience and just how much of the true inner working you get to see.
As far as what I realize, breaking of an international treaty is only one aspect of what I am referring to. If your clearance is high enough, and you work in the right areas, there are many more facets to this *issue* you ought to be aware of (can't discuss them here) - and if not, you (persons in general) need to learn your job better - they are not trivial and they can have international repercussions. Safeguarding nukes only starts at knowing where every nuke is all the time. There are US laws, international laws, treaties, p/r, political issues et al. Whether the public will ever know or not.. probably not, but, there will be careers ending (or being indefinitely tabled)
BTW, how can you have been in the Air Force for so long and never seen a B52H carrying a weapon payload on a pylon under the wing? This is a pretty good picture of what they are talking about. These things used to drive me nuts while I was trying to sleep in my dorm room during training. And heaven forbid you have to deliver something to someone on the flight line while these babies are taking off. I always felt sorry for the guys working on the flight line all the time. Red line, yellow line.. can get tricky and dangerous. Even saw a guy shot for crossing the red line accidentally. I was working that night. It was during the first gulf war and the security people were edgy. No, he did not die, but yeah, he was in serious trouble.
No matter where they flew them, this was a violation of nuclear handling procedures. I had to deal with these rules many years ago. This kind of screw up is a career ending move.
As much as people like to make fun of the military, there are some things the military does that it takes extremely seriously, and generally has a relatively excellent track record with. Handling nuclear weapons is one of them. Having nuclear weapons somewhere they are not supposed to be scares the military. They could fall into the wrong hands, they could cause an accident (bad publicity not needed), all kinds of issues. Then there are very stringent laws on handling nukes. Stuff you can go to jail for violating.
Maybe there was never any danger of a nuclear explosion, but there was a temporary loss of control of nuclear weapons. Someone caused (by accident, oversight, misinformation, etc.) nuclear weapons to be loaded on a plane and then flown somewhere they are not supposed to be. Each nuclear weapon has a location it is supposed to be in. They may change where from day to day, but by the will of the military they will be in that place. Nukes are not treated the same way as so many other comparatively unimportant items (like toilet seats).
So, whether the potential was there or not for some serious explosion (it was not), there is a very serious breach of handling which in the military will be treated seriously. Yeah, flying over US air space is a big no-no, but the bigger no-no was a temporary misplacement of nuclear weapons. That is huge in military terms.
I am actually thinking about it. Then again, my newest computer is 9 years old. It runs the newest linux and I have no issues. My third newest one runs windows win98 for games, and it is starting to get flaky. If I went with a new MS OS, I would go XP Pro, but I am not sure I will go with a MS OS. I don't see any upside for me. All my family does is email and browse.. The kids play games, but both of them like the linux games just as well. I develop software and I have access to all of the tools I use on linux or the network (netbsd).
The only thing I am worried about with newest hardware are drivers. So, I will probably buy something not so new. I would happily buy MS OS if there were a compelling reason to, but I would not buy Vista unless DRM were ripped out of it (permanently) first.
I just believe that I have a right to do what I want with what I purchase. If MS wants to EULA me to death with restrictions that get in the way of me doing what I want to do (not pirating or anything, but general use), then I won't use it.
On my weekend job, I watch new computers with Vista blue screen all the time. HPs, Lenovos, Dells and Toshibas all BlueScreen (or Vista equivalent of Blue Screen) forcing me to reboot the systems every day. Sometimes several times in a day.
I have used all of the manufacturers with XP, 98, 2000 and 2003. I have never (even right after the releases of XP and 2003) seen the multitude of issues I see with Vista. There were issues with those as well, but not like this. Customers see these things happening and refuse to buy anything with Vista. There are those who buy, but we get sooo many returns because of Vista issues.
I wonder if MS subtracts the returns of their OS from the claimed sales? I never though of that before.
What you are spouting off works for a majority of people, not all people. Please go back to studying and learning about how things work in specific instead of using the gross generalizations that organizations like the USDA and the ADA use. Not all people will be at the proper weight without medications or other drastic measures. *NOT* all people are the same. In fact, biologically, no two people are identical, merely very similar.
In a genetically defined system (as each of us are), one minor variation of a gene can cause a person to die from eating peanuts. Another genetic variation can cause your body to store fat while starving to death (the body cannibalizes the other organs first). Another genetic variation causes a person to get drowsy from stimulants, and another causes a person to wake up by taking depressants.
Your kind of ignorance gets people killed. Why? Because it makes its way into mainstream thought and even into the doctors office. It causes people to treat themselves (and other to treat them) for the wrong problem. The reality is what is right for your body's genetics is what you need to do. For some a diet high in healthy carbohydrates is best, for some one low in carbohydrates is best. For others, a diet with no protein is better, and others yet, no nuts (they might be fatal). Anyone who has been in medicine or studying (really studying the research, not just taking classes) bio-research ought to have a firm grasp on that by now. Everyone else who has been around long enough ought to have noticed how different peoples' bodies react so differently to the same foods. Do you think that would be possible if internally we all worked exactly the same? No!
So, forget whatever it is you may have learned that leads you to believe what you have said. It is wrong. It does cause harm. Learn about bio-chemistry and the genetics (and other *uniquifying* aspects) of the human biology. Learn what makes us different, and how that affects us. learn why some people have Seasonal Affect Disorder and others can not sleep at night (not sleep apnia). Then, hopefully, you will realize that most one size fits all solution, rule or concept are rife with peril for some segment of the population. Even the amount of oxygen one person needs is different from another person based upon hemoglobin and myoglobin. All people are born equal is a cool, but entirely incorrect concept.
I'll bite. You are an AC Cave Troll. You are scum.
I have lived past friends who thought they could drink and drive and worse, friends who were the victims of others who thought they could drink and drive. Nothing quite brings this whole issue home like the death of an 8 year old child. He was in the back seat on the way home rom a late visit to his grandparents in northern Indiana. His parents never saw the driver coming. He had his lights off. He hit them at about 60 miles per hour. T-Bone right where their son was sitting. He lasted about a week without ever gaining consciousness before he died.
While in California, I was able to do a drink and drive course. I don't know if they do those anymore, but it was very educational. Alcohol impairs your ability to perform any function. Period. It is not a question of what it does, but how badly it does it. The law allows a few drinks over time. I would allow none.
It is irresponsible, selfish and childish to drink and operate any machinery that could be dangerous. I would like to see much stiffer sentences for drunk and/or impaired driving and tickets for anything that impairs a person's driving. There is no excuse for it. You can argue with me all you want. You can call me names, you can hate me, but none of that brings back my dead friends.
I may be way off base on this, but if I remember correctly, this is starting to sound like free market economics (supply and demand). As demand increases, so does price. In this case, supply for each individual song for practical purposes is infinite, so they will have to use an *adjusting* system to manage price. It solves several problems if done correctly.
It allows new artists to be exposed without the risk to the consumer of buying music they hate. No risk means more consumers will try it.
No DRM means I use the music where and when I want.
The market will be used to determine the price of the music. That may be the sweetest part of this deal.
At the risk of being redundant (on slashdot?), CDs are a dead medium. They are very expensive compared to digital downloads. They force bundling of musics that are not desired by the majority of people. They are fragile (heat, nicks, etc), though better than tape. They require an immense infrastructure (compared to digital files) to distribute. They make as much sense anymore as tape or vinyl did a few years into the age of CDs.
Those in the industry that learn how to grapple with this will survive and thrive. Those who do not, like so many other players in other industries before them, will die.
The concept is not new. It is called engaging the reader.
For most of us on slashdot, we are already engaged by the technology. We have no other need to read the documentation. We want to know how to make this work just to know how to make it work. But, the average user could care less about how a thing works, so long as it does what they want it to without any need to learn if possible. Why do you think tutors and techs have so many jobs? Why do you think so many people have diseased computers? Because they are not engaged in learning about how or why it works.
For those old enough to remember, the old TRS80 manuals were good examples of how to write engaging documentation in their day. We can do much better today, but few have done as well since then. People need an emotional tie when learning to truly remember. Think about those things you actually do remember from decades past. They almost all have an emotional anchor, whether it be tears or laughter or something else (excitement of learning?).
So, creating a set of documentation that meets needs of people who do not get the same excitement/enjoyment out of just learning the tech will go far for helping the others out their learn the tech. And we need them to learn the tech. Or linux and OSS will die on the vine.
You can always claim that as long as people can write software, there will be open source. I counter that until the general public has a vested interest that they are aware of and care about, OSS is always at the mercy of government and business. All it takes is a few laws to be passed and OSS goes away. Some are on the books now and some are talked about often enough here.
The best way to fight for the future of anything is marketing. That includes *good*, solid, easy and friendly documentation. That may be the biggest selling point to the home user in the end. "It just works" is not just a slogan, but an expectation of most people. If whatever it is does not live up to that, then whatever claims to be next will steal their attention.
It boils down to loud words mean nothing. Claims of ours is better means nothing. All that means anything is the average parent/sibling/child can sit down and just use it. If the docs are not fun and easy, then that is very unlikely to happen for most people.
I think most people have a much easier time if you put $neocon or $religious_freak in place of Bush. Then you have your choices from people who say God wants someone assasinated to God told to me to invade to God says "Drink the koolaid." Then, you will find it much easier to find a fitting $person to be blamed.
Making the assumption of course that @religious_freaks are the exception in the group of @religious_people.
InnerWeb
Note to those with an impaired sense of humor.
Please, do one or more of the following:
Stop drinking, it only dulls *your* senses
Stop forgetting your medication or get your doc to write you a script, it really is *good* for you.
Develop a sense of humor, that thing called laughter is scientifically *proven* to be good for you.
Lighten up, it is better to laugh with than to only be laughed at.
Slashdot Mirror
Ahh, bad AC. No doggy biscuit for you. I am not a teacher. I am a software designer who has taught in the past. i love what I do (writing software), and I like (but not love) teaching. I volunteer to help out now, but no longer teach or develop curricula. BTW, since you are obviously literate enough to post here, thank a teacher. You may not realize it, but you them that.
There are many kind of trouble makers. You ever-generalize. Some do it for attention, and those are the ones that normally wind up behaving in class. There are many others for many other reasons. I dare you to go teach for a year.
YOU DO YOUR JOB
Jeez. I do my job, and other peoples as well, and I work with my kids every night and every weekend, and I even help their friends whose parents are not around. Hmmm. Sit back down AC boy.
InnerWeb
Did you mean this in humor, or did you simply mis-read the post? He actualy gave credit to the banker for having it right all along. How funny.
InnerWeb
OMG. I almost fell over laughing when I read your post. I am a father and have been for a long time. I used to do the 1.5 hour one way commute. Six days a week. My wife stayed home. My son entered Kindergarten reading on a fourth grade level, his math was late third grade and his social skills were rather advanced.
Lets see, since you are so interested in my itinerary, I will give to you. I did this for years and then quit to be a better father.
On my days off I did nothing but play and work with our son (one at first, then two). That job was almost a decade ago when I left it. My wife spent 8 to 10 hours per day with our sons. After I left my job, we moved to a much less expensive area, with good schools and I started working for myself and stayed home, took care of the house and the kids while my wife went back to work. I did this for 8 years. I raised our other son. Both have turned out pretty good so far, though our youngest one hates wearing his glasses. 8-)
It is all about choices and priorities. My priority is my family, and most importantly, my children. More important than my career. I make half as much oney now, but I have 5 hours almost every night with my children. I have never seen a check big enough to make me give that up, and I have seen some big 6 digit checks in my life. I have been fortunate to know many wealthy and unhappy families, as well as many relatively poor and happy families. Guess which one is better to live in? I miss making 6 digits. But not enough to forsake my children for it.
A child's education is complicated and its not. Like most things in life, it is easy to let other things get in the way. I have too much experience there. But, in the end, you define what you truly care about by the things you make time for.
InnerWeb
Actually, we do make everything from scratch. We hand wash everything except the laundry. It takes about 20 to 25 hours per week on our own, tops. Between all of us, it takes about 1 hour per day. I still spend 3 to 5 hours per day with my kids, work 9 to 10 hours and get the house chores done. My wife handles some of them while I handle others. The children do their part as well. It is called quality time work. My mother did it, her mother did it, our grandparents did it. I have seen it and live it. Not only is it possible, but unless you are lazy and/or seriously disorganized, it is trivial to spend much less time on these chores. A good part of it is habits. Don't make a mess and you don't have on to clean up.
Oh, yeah, I still have two whole days a week off. That is another 18 hours to be parent every week.
InnerWeb
I do think there is a need for standardised curriculum and testing across at least some subjects.
I think there is a need for standardized requirements in certain subjects, as in you need to learn to use English/Math/... in this manner. I think a standardized methodology for teaching it is a huge problem. Children quite simply have different learning styles, challenges and motivations. By using the one way works for all approach, you hit a certain middle half to just over half, if you are lucky. The rest either are bored as they are ahead of the class waiting for them to catch up, or they are behind the class struggling, getting frustrated with even being there. Instead of approaching the teaching of children as assembling widgets on an assembly line, children need to approached as unique project builds for custom orders.
Testing is a big hairy mess. The problem with testing is it encourages all teachers to teach for the tests. Teaching for the test is does not provide students with a solid learning base. It teaches regurgitation of facts, not interaction with knowledge. Think of learning as being a set skills. Knowledge recital is definitely one skill (test taking covers this). It is an easily measured skill and one which people have been able to easily point to and segregate others based on. Hell, I missed one point on my PSAT and 10 points on my SAT. My IQ was/is (who knows, who cares) over 150. I ought to be a highly successful business/computer/(fill in the blank) genius. I have been told plenty of times by bosses and coworkers, thats great, but no one here understands what you just said. Theres another skill, communications, and nobody has developed a test for that that truly tests the ability to communicate, only to speak and recognize grammar components. The truth is those only measure a small percent of overall intelligence. Their are also social interaction skills, creativity skills and many more. How do you test for those? How do you structure a standardized anything for skills that are inherently about being non-standard?
Standardized testing is very dangerous. It give you easy false data and a false sense of achievement. You took a test you scored well. That does not mean you are intelligent or that you are at well rounded or anything more than you knew those facts and were able to write something that day that the reviewer liked. Now, if we make testing a small portion of the education, that is okay. The problem is people tend to take the path of least resistance and run with it. With testing, that has proven to be very detrimental to the educational system. The way it works, it is better for a teachers/school admins career to cause the kids to do poorly one year and better the next. It shows improvement in the students in the required time frame. Never mind that you have now started a *lottery* for some kids to do better based on which year in the cycle you are while the other kids get less. This I have gotten from actual teachers and administrators who are trying to figure out how to keep their jobs while teaching students who are preoccupied with the latest fads, drugs and who is having sex with who. All this because the parents are not there in their lives.
Think back many decades to the one room school house. From the people I know and have talked to, that environment had no testing like we are used to today. They did on the other hand learn at their own pace, interact with the children of other ages in the classroom, usually by helping them (thus showing the other children that it was *good* to be *learned*). I myself attended a Montessori school. I accomplished three years of science, two years of math and over a year of the other subjects. 30 years later I remember more about that education than I do of the standard grade school I went to the previous and following years. It was individualized, with nothing more than interactive unit testing to make sure the knowledge was grasped.
I have to go to work. I hope I have communicated effectively my experience and observations on testing and standards. Please respond with any feedback.
InnerWeb
lol... Let see, IANAL, IANAP, IANAAP, IANAD, IANA, ... Are you new here? yeah, people tend to not read the article. People tend to come up with all kinds of wacko ideas. Yeah, credentials are important, and if you haven't noticed, posting some credentials on a post like my mine is relevant.
It is not whether it would stand or fall on its own. You could tell people here that drinking large quanatities of alcohol will impair their ability to drive. They will not all believe you.
InnerWeb
Right on!
Please forgive any grammar, spelling or other snafus, it is very late, I am very tired, but I think this needs to be said.
This is one of my BIG soap boxes. My parents were teachers (now retired after 30+ years teaching each), I have taught, my brother has taught, we have all coached, taught extra-curricular classes and my parents have received numerous awards for what they have achieved with their students. My father at one time had over half of the high school he taught at (2500+ students) taking physics. My mother, father and I worked with Young Astronauts, Destination Imagination, Flight Club, Math League, Lego Robotics (as an extra-curricular), Athletics, 3rd through 6th grade science and math (my father helped with this while he taught the high school level), and much more. Amongst us, we have Physics Teacher of the year for our state (my father), Teacher of the year multiple times, parental awards for excellence in education (these come from the parents of the students, not other teachers) and plenty of politicians and business leaders who are sick and tired of us and our names. Those are some of our credentials.
Now, the real problem. Parents and our societal emphasis on lack of responsibility and over-emphasis on instant gratification. Nothing about classroom technologies, nothing about administrators, and nothing politicians in general. Though some of them are definite proof of some serious failings in their education from their parents - morality.
Students do not *normally* come to school to learn anymore. They expect to be entertained. They expect to be catered to. They expect to do nothing other than what they want. And honestly, how many kids know what they need? Some, but most do not. There is a pattern to all of this. Not absolute, nor 100% accurate, but routinely, you see this pattern over and over. If the parents of the children emphasize discipline, responsibility, morality, effort and honesty (at least self-honesty), the kids almost always outperform the other children they go to school with. The other kids, well lets just say they do not get as much out of school, and normally (but not always) out of life.
See, the problem starts at home for the vast majority of children. Parents do not spend enough quality time (working, playing, reading, building, cleaning, ...) together. Not an hour or two a day, but 3 to 5 hours per day. That may sound like a lot, but, they had this child. Children learn the most by observing. Not listening to your instructions, but observing you carry out (or not) your promises, your rules, your ethics, your respect, your honesty, your ...
Then, these kids go to school. Now, they have either learned to respect adults, work, responsibility and such at home, or they have not. Guess which kids do better at first (and normally for the rest of the time as well). Are they doomed then? No. They can learn how to live right. I have seen it. Sometimes by a divorce where one parent suddenly is seen by the child for what that parent really is and the other parent is finally able to provide that good home. Sometimes, the parents go away, through jail or Child Protective Services (I know they are not perfect either) and they wind up in a good home. They learn good habits, just takes them longer and they have to relearn many things. They are still disadvantaged in some ways, but can keep up with and compete in the real world.
Believe it or not, these are the things that most impact a child's education. And the education of the children around that child. Why? Because that child's behavior in class will either impede or propel the education of the children around them. Put one bratty attitude in a classroom, and you can loose a half day of education everyday, and never have a good quality day of education. One Child can ruin the class. You may say the teacher can do something about it. No, they can not in most cases. We the people, as a whole, either through
I checked our blocked list, and yes in fact some of the domains I am blocking look like they are. How about that! I never really gave it any thought. They just fit our profile and into the block list they go. lol
And, no, we are not unblocking them.
InnerWeb
I have made it a habit to block only certain advertising companies content. I have a few rules I use to decide who to block.
I have made it a habit to block these providers at the firewall and redirect there requests to an html snippet that gives a link to an explanation as to why the site is not reachable. I have friends who use my services as well (the firewall settings and filtering). It works well. We keep fraudulent advertisers off of our systems, away from our children and we still browse. Firefox is my browser of choice, and it blocks a few more things that I may not have set up, and allows me to view the ads I want to, but I still have to use IE and some of the group prefer IE. I do view ads that are interesting to me, and have even purchased some after running across an ad (and then doing some homework).
Advertisers should take a hint, provide useful concise and decent content without malware, tracking cookies or other sneaky/illegal devices and you might find us browsing your ad for the information it contains. For the moment, there are few advertisers who publish information I would read anyway. It comes across as nothing but lies and euphemisms. As long as they publish that kind of drivel, I am much more likely to not purchase from them. I figure if they are going to lie or deceive in an ad, how can I trust the product I am buying?
And to those of you hosting content and relying on advertisements to generate revenue, choose the companies you let modify your web pages carefully. I block your sites as well if you keep allowing them to provide these problematic ads. Choose a reputable company that has a history of NOT serving poor advertising. You may have to work harder to make a site that they are interested in, but that is your job if you chose it. For instance, all those squatters who sit on a host name and serve up ads called a *search* list, you are all blocked on my systems. What you do is an abuse of the intention of the internet, and I will not support it. Don't like it, tough. Give me a valid reason to open up that site, a reason that meets my needs and wants. That is called customer service. Learn it.
I have several sites that I make advertising revenue off of. They are not going to make me rich on there own, but together, they add up. I only use a few advertising providers and I make sure the content is what the users want. Some even pay to not have ads. I am creating more every year. Don't ask which sites, they won't survive a slashdotting 8-). but, I know from my experience that with a little due diligence, and some effort into providing good original content, you don't need to rely on the bad advertising services to get a decent revenue.
InnerWeb
After working over two decades in development and administration, I think I can shed some light on why everyone's finger is pointing in every other directions.
Systems administration - normally called IT by those who don't know what is involved in real IT - is responsible for keeping the networks, servers, data systems, external connections, email, etc up and running in companies. They are the guys most of you all never talk to until something breaks. They get shoved under the carpet, out the back door, or wherever else they are not in *anybody* else's way. The average IT person never receives a thank you for a job well done or a thank you from any customer for not having to make the call since everything works. I have worked in companies where people did not even know we had an IT dept, as things just worked.
The average user the IT professional deals with expects a complicated application to be as easy to use as a simple hand held calculator (one with only +,-,*,/,=) yet be able to turn out financial reports on multiple scenarios for future potentials, find and relate minuscule pieces of rather unrelated data. The average use calls in for help on things like:
(it is in the start menu/on the desktop)
The power is off/ the computer is unplugged/...
Their cousin Vinny is an idiot who learned about computers in by reading marketing slicks.
They were told to tell us last month.
They deleted them.
They specified the application, you told them it would not work on this network with this OS and the company that wrote it has a horrible support history
They hired you for 40 to maybe 50 hours per week of work, yet they gave you almost 120 hours and you are doing 90 now.
It is not that most users are not capable of learning how to do their job with their tools, they just assume that anything IT is not their job. The reality is anything you touch is your job to learn about. If I do work for the marketing department as an IT person, it is part of my job to learn about how the dept works and how best to work with the different depts as well as how to use the tools I use to do my job. Same for all the users out there, but most are too lazy or too scared or too *fill in the blank* to do so. Now, do you want to support that mess? Probably not, and you'll find that without rules as to what you can and can not support, you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO support it, as you will never know enough about the intricate inner workings of an application to support it when it breaks down. You don't become intimate with a piece of software or a system in a few months. It takes much more time for anything of complexity
From the programmers perspective, you get tasked to do things that seem easy to do (from a human perspective), so the project owner assumes that it will only take you a few days to figure out how to do it with a very fast idiot machine. Yeah, computers can do many things a heck of a lot faster than a person, but they are horrible at just learning how to do anything! So, the best way to think about writing software is trying to teach an average 3 to 4 year old how to do something. Most kids at that age can do simple tasks, but I dare you to teach an average four year old how to manage an accounting process. And, realizing that the computer never grows up and becomes better at whatever it is they are doing. Things I have heard as a programmer:
Can we say illegal?
GPL viral issu
Well, that would explain the rash of issues with certain operating systems and applications.
InnerWeb
lol. Heck, I have been married going on 17 years and I had to think about that. Too much SQL today.
I actually dated several ladies in the military, and the dorm inspections were always more critical about the cleanliness of the toilettes. Makes sense if you think how much they payed for them ;-). Ahhh, the memories, the good, the bad and the downright scary!
My wife used to get very jealous when any of them were around (those I had dated) even though they always made it known they they had no interest in long term relationships (catch and release was a term used). Thanks for the good laugh!
-InnerWebI have seen, or know of incidents that have resulted in various combinations of CEM and jail time. You are correct, committing a crime was involved in the jail time, but mishandling of nuclear materials can be considered a crime depending on the situation. It has happened.
As far as career ending moves, from what I saw in the paper at lunch, unless the paper is mis-reporting, the CEM fallout has already started.
I was in the Air Force as well. So, you can't blow smoke my way. What your job is, what you are exposed to and who you work for/with makes a huge difference in what you experience and just how much of the true inner working you get to see.
As far as what I realize, breaking of an international treaty is only one aspect of what I am referring to. If your clearance is high enough, and you work in the right areas, there are many more facets to this *issue* you ought to be aware of (can't discuss them here) - and if not, you (persons in general) need to learn your job better - they are not trivial and they can have international repercussions. Safeguarding nukes only starts at knowing where every nuke is all the time. There are US laws, international laws, treaties, p/r, political issues et al. Whether the public will ever know or not.. probably not, but, there will be careers ending (or being indefinitely tabled)
BTW, how can you have been in the Air Force for so long and never seen a B52H carrying a weapon payload on a pylon under the wing? This is a pretty good picture of what they are talking about. These things used to drive me nuts while I was trying to sleep in my dorm room during training. And heaven forbid you have to deliver something to someone on the flight line while these babies are taking off. I always felt sorry for the guys working on the flight line all the time. Red line, yellow line.. can get tricky and dangerous. Even saw a guy shot for crossing the red line accidentally. I was working that night. It was during the first gulf war and the security people were edgy. No, he did not die, but yeah, he was in serious trouble.
No matter where they flew them, this was a violation of nuclear handling procedures. I had to deal with these rules many years ago. This kind of screw up is a career ending move.
As much as people like to make fun of the military, there are some things the military does that it takes extremely seriously, and generally has a relatively excellent track record with. Handling nuclear weapons is one of them. Having nuclear weapons somewhere they are not supposed to be scares the military. They could fall into the wrong hands, they could cause an accident (bad publicity not needed), all kinds of issues. Then there are very stringent laws on handling nukes. Stuff you can go to jail for violating.
Maybe there was never any danger of a nuclear explosion, but there was a temporary loss of control of nuclear weapons. Someone caused (by accident, oversight, misinformation, etc.) nuclear weapons to be loaded on a plane and then flown somewhere they are not supposed to be. Each nuclear weapon has a location it is supposed to be in. They may change where from day to day, but by the will of the military they will be in that place. Nukes are not treated the same way as so many other comparatively unimportant items (like toilet seats).
So, whether the potential was there or not for some serious explosion (it was not), there is a very serious breach of handling which in the military will be treated seriously. Yeah, flying over US air space is a big no-no, but the bigger no-no was a temporary misplacement of nuclear weapons. That is huge in military terms.
InnerWeb
I am actually thinking about it. Then again, my newest computer is 9 years old. It runs the newest linux and I have no issues. My third newest one runs windows win98 for games, and it is starting to get flaky. If I went with a new MS OS, I would go XP Pro, but I am not sure I will go with a MS OS. I don't see any upside for me. All my family does is email and browse.. The kids play games, but both of them like the linux games just as well. I develop software and I have access to all of the tools I use on linux or the network (netbsd).
The only thing I am worried about with newest hardware are drivers. So, I will probably buy something not so new. I would happily buy MS OS if there were a compelling reason to, but I would not buy Vista unless DRM were ripped out of it (permanently) first.
I just believe that I have a right to do what I want with what I purchase. If MS wants to EULA me to death with restrictions that get in the way of me doing what I want to do (not pirating or anything, but general use), then I won't use it.
On my weekend job, I watch new computers with Vista blue screen all the time. HPs, Lenovos, Dells and Toshibas all BlueScreen (or Vista equivalent of Blue Screen) forcing me to reboot the systems every day. Sometimes several times in a day.
I have used all of the manufacturers with XP, 98, 2000 and 2003. I have never (even right after the releases of XP and 2003) seen the multitude of issues I see with Vista. There were issues with those as well, but not like this. Customers see these things happening and refuse to buy anything with Vista. There are those who buy, but we get sooo many returns because of Vista issues.
I wonder if MS subtracts the returns of their OS from the claimed sales? I never though of that before.
Oh, well, enough blathering for tonight.
InnerWeb
Maybe Diebold is running an unsecured wirelss AP
Given the history they have with their voting machines, having a huge security hole on their own corporate network is rather easy to believe.
InnerWeb
Yes, this is humor, in a sad sick twisted way.
To quote Rod Stewart,
Oh no, not again, infatuation...
InnerWeb
Clue Stick Time!!!
What you are spouting off works for a majority of people, not all people. Please go back to studying and learning about how things work in specific instead of using the gross generalizations that organizations like the USDA and the ADA use. Not all people will be at the proper weight without medications or other drastic measures. *NOT* all people are the same. In fact, biologically, no two people are identical, merely very similar.
In a genetically defined system (as each of us are), one minor variation of a gene can cause a person to die from eating peanuts. Another genetic variation can cause your body to store fat while starving to death (the body cannibalizes the other organs first). Another genetic variation causes a person to get drowsy from stimulants, and another causes a person to wake up by taking depressants.
Your kind of ignorance gets people killed. Why? Because it makes its way into mainstream thought and even into the doctors office. It causes people to treat themselves (and other to treat them) for the wrong problem. The reality is what is right for your body's genetics is what you need to do. For some a diet high in healthy carbohydrates is best, for some one low in carbohydrates is best. For others, a diet with no protein is better, and others yet, no nuts (they might be fatal). Anyone who has been in medicine or studying (really studying the research, not just taking classes) bio-research ought to have a firm grasp on that by now. Everyone else who has been around long enough ought to have noticed how different peoples' bodies react so differently to the same foods. Do you think that would be possible if internally we all worked exactly the same? No!
So, forget whatever it is you may have learned that leads you to believe what you have said. It is wrong. It does cause harm. Learn about bio-chemistry and the genetics (and other *uniquifying* aspects) of the human biology. Learn what makes us different, and how that affects us. learn why some people have Seasonal Affect Disorder and others can not sleep at night (not sleep apnia). Then, hopefully, you will realize that most one size fits all solution, rule or concept are rife with peril for some segment of the population. Even the amount of oxygen one person needs is different from another person based upon hemoglobin and myoglobin. All people are born equal is a cool, but entirely incorrect concept.
InnerWeb
Not nonsense. My friends. Their child. Teary eyed, yep. But that is what is all about. If people did not get hurt, why would it matter?
InnerWeb
I'll bite. You are an AC Cave Troll. You are scum.
I have lived past friends who thought they could drink and drive and worse, friends who were the victims of others who thought they could drink and drive. Nothing quite brings this whole issue home like the death of an 8 year old child. He was in the back seat on the way home rom a late visit to his grandparents in northern Indiana. His parents never saw the driver coming. He had his lights off. He hit them at about 60 miles per hour. T-Bone right where their son was sitting. He lasted about a week without ever gaining consciousness before he died.
While in California, I was able to do a drink and drive course. I don't know if they do those anymore, but it was very educational. Alcohol impairs your ability to perform any function. Period. It is not a question of what it does, but how badly it does it. The law allows a few drinks over time. I would allow none.
It is irresponsible, selfish and childish to drink and operate any machinery that could be dangerous. I would like to see much stiffer sentences for drunk and/or impaired driving and tickets for anything that impairs a person's driving. There is no excuse for it. You can argue with me all you want. You can call me names, you can hate me, but none of that brings back my dead friends.
InnerWeb
I may be way off base on this, but if I remember correctly, this is starting to sound like free market economics (supply and demand). As demand increases, so does price. In this case, supply for each individual song for practical purposes is infinite, so they will have to use an *adjusting* system to manage price. It solves several problems if done correctly.
At the risk of being redundant (on slashdot?), CDs are a dead medium. They are very expensive compared to digital downloads. They force bundling of musics that are not desired by the majority of people. They are fragile (heat, nicks, etc), though better than tape. They require an immense infrastructure (compared to digital files) to distribute. They make as much sense anymore as tape or vinyl did a few years into the age of CDs.
Those in the industry that learn how to grapple with this will survive and thrive. Those who do not, like so many other players in other industries before them, will die.
InnerWeb
The concept is not new. It is called engaging the reader.
For most of us on slashdot, we are already engaged by the technology. We have no other need to read the documentation. We want to know how to make this work just to know how to make it work. But, the average user could care less about how a thing works, so long as it does what they want it to without any need to learn if possible. Why do you think tutors and techs have so many jobs? Why do you think so many people have diseased computers? Because they are not engaged in learning about how or why it works.
For those old enough to remember, the old TRS80 manuals were good examples of how to write engaging documentation in their day. We can do much better today, but few have done as well since then. People need an emotional tie when learning to truly remember. Think about those things you actually do remember from decades past. They almost all have an emotional anchor, whether it be tears or laughter or something else (excitement of learning?).
So, creating a set of documentation that meets needs of people who do not get the same excitement/enjoyment out of just learning the tech will go far for helping the others out their learn the tech. And we need them to learn the tech. Or linux and OSS will die on the vine.
You can always claim that as long as people can write software, there will be open source. I counter that until the general public has a vested interest that they are aware of and care about, OSS is always at the mercy of government and business. All it takes is a few laws to be passed and OSS goes away. Some are on the books now and some are talked about often enough here.
The best way to fight for the future of anything is marketing. That includes *good*, solid, easy and friendly documentation. That may be the biggest selling point to the home user in the end. "It just works" is not just a slogan, but an expectation of most people. If whatever it is does not live up to that, then whatever claims to be next will steal their attention.
It boils down to loud words mean nothing. Claims of ours is better means nothing. All that means anything is the average parent/sibling/child can sit down and just use it. If the docs are not fun and easy, then that is very unlikely to happen for most people.
InnerWeb
Only if God tells him to.
But, seriously, I thought my friends were kidding about the new WOW special forces team.
InnerWeb
95% of 50 year old women...
That means one of three things to me. The numbers are wrong, there is a transmission medium beyond sex, or that 70s show was way to tame.
InnerWeb
I think most people have a much easier time if you put $neocon or $religious_freak in place of Bush. Then you have your choices from people who say God wants someone assasinated to God told to me to invade to God says "Drink the koolaid." Then, you will find it much easier to find a fitting $person to be blamed.
Making the assumption of course that @religious_freaks are the exception in the group of @religious_people.
InnerWeb
Note to those with an impaired sense of humor.
Please, do one or more of the following: