Great, except that we're talking about Cambridge, MA. Only 10% larger population than 50 years ago. The city/town also has quite a lot of elementary schools -- they're not consolidated into one elementary school.
I understand that in Germany or Switzerland, helichopper parents who drive their kids to school after age 9 or so are given a "talking to" by school authorities about kids needing independence. Much better model than the US hover-parent model.
In states with primarily local control of schools like NJ and NY, many towns have multiple schools within walking distance. If the walk is less than a mile for younger kids, two miles for older, they don't even need to implement busing, legally speaking.
Look at many towns in NJ, and you see kids over 10 or so walking to middle school. Same with urban areas in NY, except that kids take public buses and trains too -- they're given a Metrocard pass by their school for free.
My phone battery often dies -- I'm not good at remembering to charge it (truly don't give a rip, actually). Meanwhile, an analog watch on my wrist will keep tickin' and telling me the time.
Why not continue in the direction of less work, more leisure? Progress should be improvement, not backsliding. 50% of the work done in the US is mindless, unneeded paper-pushing anyway.
Or maybe they're not so jaded that they don't think they can't knock the bloody system to the ground and help to rebuild it. If we get HS kids used to starting school at 9 am, not 7 am, they'll be less likely to want to take crap from a PoS boss down the road. Maybe we'll finally go back to actual 9 to 5 working times rather than having employees bending over backward to accomodate their bosses.
Maybe if we didn't condition kids to accept unnecessary suffering from an early age, they'd push back against asshole bosses who made ridiculous demands of them. Give a generation or two, and we might even end up with a 40-hour average work week in the US again. Would that be so bad?
Traffic is no more dangerous than 30-40 years ago, in fact, it's safer. I don't think a larger % of the population has a proclivity to kidnap and abuse children than before, either.
You sound like part of the problem. In normal places like NYC or parts of Europe, kids walk, bike, or take public transit to school, and parents aren't quaking in their boots in fear.
College students WERE kids more recently than the "grownups" who are under a misguided delusion that suffering (getting up at 6 am for a high school student) somehow builds character.
Kids learn better when they get up at a reasonable hour than at the asscrack of dawn. I don't remember much about my 8 am classes in HS other than a dull desire to punch the teacher who was yammering at me in the nose.
Not every parent has the time or skills to give their kids a good education at home. Not to mention that most homeschool curricula in the US are written by religion/conservative nutbags.
The "poors" are the ones who covet the latest iBaubles. Want to know what the rich are like? Look at Warren Buffet. He lives in the same house he bought in the early 60s, drives a 15 year old car. He doesn't need "bling" to prove how rich he is to others, and he didn't get rich by spending on crap that will be obsolete in 6 months.
Get a low-end Moto smartphone. Unlocked bootloader, so you can install a custom ROM/OS. They also often have (in case of G4 Play, G5, and E4(?)) removable batteries and SD cards, not sealed junk.
Slashdot Mirror
Great, except that we're talking about Cambridge, MA. Only 10% larger population than 50 years ago. The city/town also has quite a lot of elementary schools -- they're not consolidated into one elementary school.
I understand that in Germany or Switzerland, helichopper parents who drive their kids to school after age 9 or so are given a "talking to" by school authorities about kids needing independence. Much better model than the US hover-parent model.
This still exists, believe it or not.
In states with primarily local control of schools like NJ and NY, many towns have multiple schools within walking distance. If the walk is less than a mile for younger kids, two miles for older, they don't even need to implement busing, legally speaking.
Look at many towns in NJ, and you see kids over 10 or so walking to middle school. Same with urban areas in NY, except that kids take public buses and trains too -- they're given a Metrocard pass by their school for free.
My phone battery often dies -- I'm not good at remembering to charge it (truly don't give a rip, actually). Meanwhile, an analog watch on my wrist will keep tickin' and telling me the time.
How about having a smaller phone and having the self-discipline not to check it every 5 seconds? You're not that important!
For those of us who use a phone to talk, you'll feel stupid holding a watch up to your ear if you want any kind of private conversation.
Garmin VivoFit. Battery is a coin cell/watch battery that lasts a year.
Why not continue in the direction of less work, more leisure? Progress should be improvement, not backsliding. 50% of the work done in the US is mindless, unneeded paper-pushing anyway.
Who says anything about tardiness? What's wrong with shifting ACTUAL start times (work or school) to better accomodate human circadian rhythms?
That's when you build footpaths too narrow for cars between the ends of the cul-de-sacs...
9 am ... but yes, you've described Americah in a nutshell..
Or maybe they're not so jaded that they don't think they can't knock the bloody system to the ground and help to rebuild it. If we get HS kids used to starting school at 9 am, not 7 am, they'll be less likely to want to take crap from a PoS boss down the road. Maybe we'll finally go back to actual 9 to 5 working times rather than having employees bending over backward to accomodate their bosses.
Maybe if we didn't condition kids to accept unnecessary suffering from an early age, they'd push back against asshole bosses who made ridiculous demands of them. Give a generation or two, and we might even end up with a 40-hour average work week in the US again. Would that be so bad?
Traffic is no more dangerous than 30-40 years ago, in fact, it's safer. I don't think a larger % of the population has a proclivity to kidnap and abuse children than before, either.
You sound like part of the problem. In normal places like NYC or parts of Europe, kids walk, bike, or take public transit to school, and parents aren't quaking in their boots in fear.
College students WERE kids more recently than the "grownups" who are under a misguided delusion that suffering (getting up at 6 am for a high school student) somehow builds character.
Kids learn better when they get up at a reasonable hour than at the asscrack of dawn. I don't remember much about my 8 am classes in HS other than a dull desire to punch the teacher who was yammering at me in the nose.
Not every parent has the time or skills to give their kids a good education at home. Not to mention that most homeschool curricula in the US are written by religion/conservative nutbags.
They definitely do that in New York, or walk. The kids even get a free Metrocard (bus/train pass) for school use.
Congressworms. FTFY.
The "poors" are the ones who covet the latest iBaubles. Want to know what the rich are like? Look at Warren Buffet. He lives in the same house he bought in the early 60s, drives a 15 year old car. He doesn't need "bling" to prove how rich he is to others, and he didn't get rich by spending on crap that will be obsolete in 6 months.
Get a low-end Moto smartphone. Unlocked bootloader, so you can install a custom ROM/OS. They also often have (in case of G4 Play, G5, and E4(?)) removable batteries and SD cards, not sealed junk.
If Crapple and Scroogle will both spy on you, might as well get the cheaper handset, because ta hell with giving more money to snooping pigs.
It's called planning ahead -- life goes on for women even in areas without 24/7/365 stores.
Open them 1-2 hours later or have morning/afternoon hours, or have two shifts.
I agree: public insurance is good. Cut out the middlemen for basic insurance like Canada, UK, and Australia did decades ago.
What progressive bigotry? Coal was dying long before Obama came into office.