If you're going to post an article about educational adequacies, please try spelling correctly. The disclaimer at the end does not exempt you from using the spell checking abilities of your computer.
As it is, I do believe the U.S. educational system is adequate, (excepting the rather poorly informed persons advocating creationist, a.k.a. "intelligent design," agendas) in most areas, not including fields such as science, math, history, art, physical education, and analytical thought... which leaves welding, underwater basket-weaving, and recess. (end sarcasm)
I am not a believer in many of the home-schooling programs, but I am an intense advocate of helping children learn instead of just passing them on to the next grade because they can play football.
I know there's a lot more to the whole education controversy, but the end results are the same. They're OUR children. They need OUR help, as well as the help of professional educators.
It's a terrible truth of our current society in the U.S. that the children who tend to do well have the serious guidance and involvement of their parents, whereas poorer-performing children tend to lack the same parental involvement.
It's not ALL the parents' fault, but I believe the changes we need to make in society are much more involved than providing arbitrary and unnecessary testing. We need to somehow advocate more parental involvement in their own child's development and not advocate that everyone must work slavishly just to survive (or to purchase that nice boat).
I don't know if this is the best answer, but I do think that the parents are the key. Our society here in the U.S. seems to hamper and peck away at the parental responsibilities rather than provide positive and meaningful support for what we would like to teach and see in successive generations.
I find it very disturbing that we can spend more money on buying Johnny a PS2 and games for Christmas than we do taking him to the museum or purchasing books or buying him the latest fad clothing. Don't get me wrong, I realize there's social development value in some of these things, but we seem to emphasize those things over whether they learn to read (and SPELL) nowadays.
Now, bring on the flames...
P.S. - I seem to have forgotten this is slashdot... obligatory incendiary comment: "Kill all the lawyers!"
They might've worked a long time ago... remember that the Soviet Union failed over a decade ago, and with the emphasis on keeping their respective peoples fed, I'm sure intense maintenance programs for their ICBM stock went by the wayside... Kinda like their security around their nuclear (note: not nukular) stockpiles...
Unfortunately for humanity, you're somewhat correct. The push for the moon is an attempt at political sleight-of-hand by GWB, IMHO.
But even a broken clock is correct twice a day, so I believe for this initiative I'll put my distaste in all things George W. Bush and take advantage of him for a change and push a goal and policy I really care about.
Just calm down. It may be preventable, but you have NO idea what the circumstances are. You don't know if his "kid" is 3 or 18.
And calling him a lazy parent because of one incident is incredibly short-sighted at best, and most likely hypocritical because I have yet to come across any perfect person or parentin my long struggles against personal entropy.
My point is, chill. You're over-reacting. Let the force flow within you. Let go...
The original reason for limiting the speed limits (if anyone here is old enough to remember) was not the "55 saves lives" reason. There was an oil embargo on and congress passed laws to limit the speed to 55 to save gasoline.
However, physics is hard to ignore, and the 20 mph difference between 55 and 75 mph is huge.
KE (in joules) = 1/2 mv^2
As an example:
2003 Toyota Corolla Sportivo weighs about 1224kg
55 mph = 88.51 km/h
75 mph = 120.7 km/h
(55 mph case) KE =.5(1224kg)(88.51 km/h)^2 = 4794420.3012
(75 mph case) KE =.5(1224kg)(120.7 km/h)^2 = 8915915.88
So just increasing the speed 20 mph in this case almost doubles the energy between the cases. This is just base calculation, so no angry physics replies please.
Today's cars are much better engineered than the cars 30 years ago, and things like air bags, mandatory seat belt laws, and crash-engineered cars have lowered fatality rates in automobile accidents.
From what articles I was able to find on the web, for the past decade or two most experts agree that the speed differential between cars is what causes the majority of freeway accidents.
But my point initially was that speed limits weren't set to save lives, rather they were instituted to save gas.
Okay... What I liked was his comment at the end..."But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended."
If that's true, then WHAT THE FARK WAS JAR-JAR BINKS????
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/golgaf rincham.shtml
But then, of course, the leftover useless 1/3 of the population are actually our ancestors...
Every discussion on slashdot needs a bit of Douglas Adams, methinks. :)
If you're going to post an article about educational adequacies, please try spelling correctly. The disclaimer at the end does not exempt you from using the spell checking abilities of your computer.
As it is, I do believe the U.S. educational system is adequate, (excepting the rather poorly informed persons advocating creationist, a.k.a. "intelligent design," agendas) in most areas, not including fields such as science, math, history, art, physical education, and analytical thought... which leaves welding, underwater basket-weaving, and recess. (end sarcasm)
I am not a believer in many of the home-schooling programs, but I am an intense advocate of helping children learn instead of just passing them on to the next grade because they can play football.
I know there's a lot more to the whole education controversy, but the end results are the same. They're OUR children. They need OUR help, as well as the help of professional educators.
It's a terrible truth of our current society in the U.S. that the children who tend to do well have the serious guidance and involvement of their parents, whereas poorer-performing children tend to lack the same parental involvement.
It's not ALL the parents' fault, but I believe the changes we need to make in society are much more involved than providing arbitrary and unnecessary testing. We need to somehow advocate more parental involvement in their own child's development and not advocate that everyone must work slavishly just to survive (or to purchase that nice boat).
I don't know if this is the best answer, but I do think that the parents are the key. Our society here in the U.S. seems to hamper and peck away at the parental responsibilities rather than provide positive and meaningful support for what we would like to teach and see in successive generations.
I find it very disturbing that we can spend more money on buying Johnny a PS2 and games for Christmas than we do taking him to the museum or purchasing books or buying him the latest fad clothing. Don't get me wrong, I realize there's social development value in some of these things, but we seem to emphasize those things over whether they learn to read (and SPELL) nowadays.
Now, bring on the flames...
P.S. - I seem to have forgotten this is slashdot... obligatory incendiary comment: "Kill all the lawyers!"
They had 2 preview showings so far and I was lucky enough to see one of them.
Good solid action/sci-fi flick.
Disappointing event, nonetheless. :(
And Tool is a damn good group...
But even a broken clock is correct twice a day, so I believe for this initiative I'll put my distaste in all things George W. Bush and take advantage of him for a change and push a goal and policy I really care about.
I've got to go vomit now.
BLLLLAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!
And calling him a lazy parent because of one incident is incredibly short-sighted at best, and most likely hypocritical because I have yet to come across any perfect person or parentin my long struggles against personal entropy.
My point is, chill. You're over-reacting. Let the force flow within you. Let go...
Second sign of why you should ignore an overly-judgemental poster: Underwear is too tight to permit blood flow to the brain.
Third sign of why you should ignore an overly-judgemental poster: Making a big deal out of a really small incident.
The original reason for limiting the speed limits (if anyone here is old enough to remember) was not the "55 saves lives" reason. There was an oil embargo on and congress passed laws to limit the speed to 55 to save gasoline. However, physics is hard to ignore, and the 20 mph difference between 55 and 75 mph is huge. KE (in joules) = 1/2 mv^2 As an example: 2003 Toyota Corolla Sportivo weighs about 1224kg 55 mph = 88.51 km/h 75 mph = 120.7 km/h (55 mph case) KE = .5(1224kg)(88.51 km/h)^2 = 4794420.3012
(75 mph case) KE = .5(1224kg)(120.7 km/h)^2 = 8915915.88
So just increasing the speed 20 mph in this case almost doubles the energy between the cases. This is just base calculation, so no angry physics replies please.
Today's cars are much better engineered than the cars 30 years ago, and things like air bags, mandatory seat belt laws, and crash-engineered cars have lowered fatality rates in automobile accidents.
From what articles I was able to find on the web, for the past decade or two most experts agree that the speed differential between cars is what causes the majority of freeway accidents.
But my point initially was that speed limits weren't set to save lives, rather they were instituted to save gas.
Okay... What I liked was his comment at the end..."But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended." If that's true, then WHAT THE FARK WAS JAR-JAR BINKS????