My school at least has no interest in those above average, because hey - they're already passsing the standarized tests.
Just so you know, they also have no interest in those below average, unless the student counts as disabled and so is entitled to services by law.
I knew a woman who was doing her student teaching (about to graduate with her education BA, then enter a master's program to specialize in gifted ed). During her first week of student teaching, her mentor teaching told her: "As soon as you have a good feel for your students, make a list and split your class into three groups. The ones who WILL pass the test, the ones who WON'T pass the test, and the ones who MIGHT pass the test. Ignore the first two groups and spend all your energy on turning the MAYBEs into YESses."
Just unbelievable. Apparently 2/3 of students don't deserve to learn anything in school just because either it won't be enough to pass the test, or they already know enough to pass the test. Truly, truly ridiculous. And this advice being passed on to new teachers!
Actually, many states (so, so far from all though) do mandate providing services for gifted kids. The problem is, there's little enforcement or evaluation of these programs. So often as long as a school has something called an honors or AP class it's following the law, even if that class is nowhere near the necessary level of rigor for these kids. But either way, if the state mandates it parents would have a hard time suing the school for providing the mandated services.
Now, whether parents of gifted kids should be suing for lack of services is another question... But like I said, often the definiton of "services" is so very broad that it's easy for a school to squirm out of it.
I was taught fractions in middle school. Fractions! The same stuff that I learned in the 4th grade!
Heh. I just got a master's in gifted ed, and one of the classes was on curriculum design. We had an expert on math education come in to talk to us about math curriculum. She showed us standard middle school math curricula - it's pretty much the same thing repeated over and over from 5th-8th grade, very literally. You look at a chart of what concepts are covered, and almost every concept is covered in at least 2 or 3 grades in a row, if not all of them. Which is fine for the slower kids who need that repetition to grasp it, but for pete's sake let the other kids *gasp* LEARN something when they go to school each day!
Of course, by high school in most Asian countries the smart kids are no longer in school with the burnouts and dumb bullies. They have strict tracking with little room for movement between tracks in a lot of cases. Whether that's a good or bad thing, it does reduce the number of nerds getting beat up.
Of course, they also have a very hard time keeping their gifted students in their country once the students grow up. We have to import our scientists, but that only works so well because they're so willing to be exported. Countries like South Korea and Singapore are looking to the US to figure out how to keep their gifted scientists there.
Eh, I've seen plenty of off-topic trolling posts. Like, say, a random goatse link. It's pretty much up to the moderator whether they want to call it as a troll or call it as off-topic, either could apply. And if two people moderate it at about the same time (with one calling troll and the other OT) and don't see each other's moderations first, neither was abusing the system. But whoever is meta-modded unfair will be punished by possibly getting mod points less often. I guess maybe everyone should reload the post immediately before modding just to make sure no one else has modded it since they saw it, but it still won't always make a difference. Since these are the posts most likely to easily grab a mod's attention anyhow, even if they haven't read the other posts in the thread.
OT: I'm confused by your sig. Why is moderating someone troll or offtopic automatically abusing the system? Why would those options be there if no one should use them? (Or does your sig mean something else? It's a little unclear.)
Unfortunately, the right to privacy isn't actually in the constitution. We only have some bits of it now because the supreme court has, over the years, made decisions that are further and further from the actual text of the constitution that say that this right is implied there - which means that a new supreme court could come along at any time and overturn those decisions because the right to privacy is NOT, strictly speaking, actually mentioned. Period.
Which is why we need an amendment guaranteeing the right to privacy.
The problem I've heard mentioned is that with any biological marker, as soon as someone figures out how to fake it you're screwed. You can't change your fingerprint, cornea, DNA, etc like you can an ID number. Not that they are likely to change someone's SSN even if it's known that an imposter is out there using it, but at least it's a possibility. Credit card numbers are certainly changed all the time for this reason.
I'm not saying I believe this argument automatically means it's a bad idea. It's just one argument I've heard tossed around that makes some level of sense. Though DNA is presumably currently hard enough to fake that it wouldn't be an issue. But I guess someone could potentially apply for a job with a hair they plucked of your coat on the bus or something?
Simple selective breeding was having enormous effects on domestic plant species long before we could go right into their DNA. Creating things that could never evolve in a humanless wild environment, and could not survive outside of domesticity today. There's little evidence that this is an inherently bad thing - in fact, I'm currently reading a book that posits that domestication of plant and animal species was actually an evolutionary step to symbiosis that benefitted the plants and animals more than the humans initially, though now it benefits both equally. And certainly, domesticated species seem to have a huge evolutionary advantage over their rapidly-dwindling wild relatives thanks to their symbiotic relationship with humans.
Most of the arguments I've heard against GM are based on the idea that it's just a creepy and icky thing to think about. Personally, I also think that eating bugs is creepy and icky to think about, but people do that all over the world.
Actually, you do get one ad, I just tried it. And it's not for the editor Cringely talks about. I wonder if the creators of Rapid-Pi have had the same keyword problems that the creator of Equations! has had.
I did, and I must have missed the part where soy lecithin is toxic to anyone who's not allergic to soy. Could you point it out? It talks a lot about the benefits of it, but I didn't notice anything about toxicity.
And the article about high fructose corn syrup only damned the fructose itself, not the HFCS. (Quote: Fruit juices should be strictly avoided--they are very high in fructose--but so should anything with HFCS.) Unless you are against genetically modified foods (which I've yet to be convinced that they are categorically unhealthy) or don't like the idea of something having to be fermented with fungus growing on top during production (bye bye cheese!), which the article seems to be trying to present as a gross-out.
Man, I hate what google shows about me. Namely, a horrible webpage I created in high school (nearly a decade ago) and lost the password to a couple years later. I apparently used fake address etc info, because Tripod won't let me into it or delete it for me, and the email address it's registered under no longer exists. I can't believe Tripod is still wasting server space on a page that hasn't been touched in at least 7-8 years. *sigh*
At least now that I'm married and I've added my married name to my maiden name, it's less likely anyone will google just for my maiden name. But if they do, I'm screwed, as this old page is the 3rd hit for my name.
And how is this not being done as is. For anyone who goes into a library, records of what books you check out are kept since you have to submit your library card. Most public libaries are known/thought to share this information with government as it stands.
Actually, many libraries are no longer keeping this information specifically so that they can never be forced to give it to the government.
I recently found about $30 in a book - the library had no way of telling me who the last person to check the book out was so that the money could be returned.
*shrug* People boycott Kraft because the company that owns them also owns cigarrette brands. It's not really that odd to punish a whole corporation for one subsidiary's bad deeds.
So, if people weren't allowed to resell their items (or even give them away used, as that would be like handing your movie ticket to someone else to free to reuse), what then? Every item everywhere winds up in the trash after the first owner gets tired of it? That sounds like an absolutely horrible idea to me - like we don't have enough crap in our landfills already.
I (repeat the name) solemnly swear that I will do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in court;
How does a lawyer get around this if they know for a fact that their client is guilty? Do they never actually state in court that their client didn't commit the crime?
You know, if you don't like the games articles, you can set preferences as to which sections you see on the front page.
And if you want articles on eating healthy or exercising or something along those lines, you can... I dunno... Go to a website about those things? This is like saying "Hey, this is the BBC site, everything here is about England! Why can't I get my hometown news from the middle of Nebraska here?"
I played the Sims for a few weeks at my mom's house (I don't allow myself to buy games on my computer - I've got enough distractions already!). When one of my sims burst into flames out of nowhere and there was nothing I could do to save him, it was surprisingly distressing. (I'm sure it didn't help that I modelled them after me and my husband - seeing a little avatar version of my husband burn to death? Disturbing.)
I've experienced the same thing with Furbys. You can swing them around and make them get "dizzy" and "nauseous" or do things to make them "scared" - and then I feel really guilty afterward. I have to comfort them until they get back to normal.
I'm planning to get a GBA player for my GC so I can play all the great 2D games for it - on a screen that my husband and I can actually both watch at once, since we usually play games together. However, it sucks that there's no way to translate the DS games to the big screen. They need a way to hook up a DS so that you can still use the stylus pad in your hands, but use your TV for the upper screen.
Okay, you've all proven you can do pretty 3D graphics. Can we have our 2D platformers (on the big screen) back now?
My favorite GameCube games are essentially 2D - things like Animal Crossing, Zelda four swords, and Paper Mario. 3D games with ever-changing cameras confuse the hell out of me at best, and make me dizzy and nauseous at worst. Give me a fixed camera any day. I want a GBA player for my GC so I can play more of these - too bad DS games need the stylus!
I was about to note the same thing. Talk about restraint and respect for your competitor - even if it's feigned respect. (If more people at least feigned respect in their daily lives, think about what a nicer place the world would be.)
Wouldn't phones be a lot nicer if they were just plain and simple?
Mine is quite nice as it is. No color display, no MP3 player, no camera, heck I'm not even sure I can download ringtones to it. I've had it for nearly three years and it works just great for exactly what I need it for - making phone calls.
When my husband got his first cel phone last year, he was annoyed that the most basic free one they'd give him was a flip-phone with a color display. He wanted one as simple as mine.
I think that offering a one-time fee in addition is probably a good idea. I'm just saying that not *that* many people can (or want to) commit that chunk of money up front to a game, so I can see why subscription services are there. Personally, I can't imagine paying a monthly fee for a game either... But then, I rarely pay more than $25 for a game anyhow. *shrug* Assuming that these online games cost the producers much more than a normal game to continue to support, giving subscription options makes sense.
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Just so you know, they also have no interest in those below average, unless the student counts as disabled and so is entitled to services by law.
I knew a woman who was doing her student teaching (about to graduate with her education BA, then enter a master's program to specialize in gifted ed). During her first week of student teaching, her mentor teaching told her: "As soon as you have a good feel for your students, make a list and split your class into three groups. The ones who WILL pass the test, the ones who WON'T pass the test, and the ones who MIGHT pass the test. Ignore the first two groups and spend all your energy on turning the MAYBEs into YESses."
Just unbelievable. Apparently 2/3 of students don't deserve to learn anything in school just because either it won't be enough to pass the test, or they already know enough to pass the test. Truly, truly ridiculous. And this advice being passed on to new teachers!
Now, whether parents of gifted kids should be suing for lack of services is another question... But like I said, often the definiton of "services" is so very broad that it's easy for a school to squirm out of it.
Heh. I just got a master's in gifted ed, and one of the classes was on curriculum design. We had an expert on math education come in to talk to us about math curriculum. She showed us standard middle school math curricula - it's pretty much the same thing repeated over and over from 5th-8th grade, very literally. You look at a chart of what concepts are covered, and almost every concept is covered in at least 2 or 3 grades in a row, if not all of them. Which is fine for the slower kids who need that repetition to grasp it, but for pete's sake let the other kids *gasp* LEARN something when they go to school each day!
Of course, they also have a very hard time keeping their gifted students in their country once the students grow up. We have to import our scientists, but that only works so well because they're so willing to be exported. Countries like South Korea and Singapore are looking to the US to figure out how to keep their gifted scientists there.
Eh, I've seen plenty of off-topic trolling posts. Like, say, a random goatse link. It's pretty much up to the moderator whether they want to call it as a troll or call it as off-topic, either could apply. And if two people moderate it at about the same time (with one calling troll and the other OT) and don't see each other's moderations first, neither was abusing the system. But whoever is meta-modded unfair will be punished by possibly getting mod points less often. I guess maybe everyone should reload the post immediately before modding just to make sure no one else has modded it since they saw it, but it still won't always make a difference. Since these are the posts most likely to easily grab a mod's attention anyhow, even if they haven't read the other posts in the thread.
OT: I'm confused by your sig. Why is moderating someone troll or offtopic automatically abusing the system? Why would those options be there if no one should use them? (Or does your sig mean something else? It's a little unclear.)
Which is why we need an amendment guaranteeing the right to privacy.
I'm not saying I believe this argument automatically means it's a bad idea. It's just one argument I've heard tossed around that makes some level of sense. Though DNA is presumably currently hard enough to fake that it wouldn't be an issue. But I guess someone could potentially apply for a job with a hair they plucked of your coat on the bus or something?
Most of the arguments I've heard against GM are based on the idea that it's just a creepy and icky thing to think about. Personally, I also think that eating bugs is creepy and icky to think about, but people do that all over the world.
Actually, you do get one ad, I just tried it. And it's not for the editor Cringely talks about. I wonder if the creators of Rapid-Pi have had the same keyword problems that the creator of Equations! has had.
I did, and I must have missed the part where soy lecithin is toxic to anyone who's not allergic to soy. Could you point it out? It talks a lot about the benefits of it, but I didn't notice anything about toxicity.
And the article about high fructose corn syrup only damned the fructose itself, not the HFCS. (Quote: Fruit juices should be strictly avoided--they are very high in fructose--but so should anything with HFCS.) Unless you are against genetically modified foods (which I've yet to be convinced that they are categorically unhealthy) or don't like the idea of something having to be fermented with fungus growing on top during production (bye bye cheese!), which the article seems to be trying to present as a gross-out.
What if you started a fabric/clothing company by that name, named after the "ultra-soft microfibers" you were using?
At least now that I'm married and I've added my married name to my maiden name, it's less likely anyone will google just for my maiden name. But if they do, I'm screwed, as this old page is the 3rd hit for my name.
Actually, many libraries are no longer keeping this information specifically so that they can never be forced to give it to the government.
I recently found about $30 in a book - the library had no way of telling me who the last person to check the book out was so that the money could be returned.
*shrug* People boycott Kraft because the company that owns them also owns cigarrette brands. It's not really that odd to punish a whole corporation for one subsidiary's bad deeds.
So, if people weren't allowed to resell their items (or even give them away used, as that would be like handing your movie ticket to someone else to free to reuse), what then? Every item everywhere winds up in the trash after the first owner gets tired of it? That sounds like an absolutely horrible idea to me - like we don't have enough crap in our landfills already.
I (repeat the name) solemnly swear that I will do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in court;
How does a lawyer get around this if they know for a fact that their client is guilty? Do they never actually state in court that their client didn't commit the crime?
And if you want articles on eating healthy or exercising or something along those lines, you can... I dunno... Go to a website about those things? This is like saying "Hey, this is the BBC site, everything here is about England! Why can't I get my hometown news from the middle of Nebraska here?"
I've experienced the same thing with Furbys. You can swing them around and make them get "dizzy" and "nauseous" or do things to make them "scared" - and then I feel really guilty afterward. I have to comfort them until they get back to normal.
I'm planning to get a GBA player for my GC so I can play all the great 2D games for it - on a screen that my husband and I can actually both watch at once, since we usually play games together. However, it sucks that there's no way to translate the DS games to the big screen. They need a way to hook up a DS so that you can still use the stylus pad in your hands, but use your TV for the upper screen.
Ok, *that* makes me squee like crazy. Not sure how I missed it in all the E3 coverage. (Though I still want NSMB on a console.)
My favorite GameCube games are essentially 2D - things like Animal Crossing, Zelda four swords, and Paper Mario. 3D games with ever-changing cameras confuse the hell out of me at best, and make me dizzy and nauseous at worst. Give me a fixed camera any day. I want a GBA player for my GC so I can play more of these - too bad DS games need the stylus!
I was about to note the same thing. Talk about restraint and respect for your competitor - even if it's feigned respect. (If more people at least feigned respect in their daily lives, think about what a nicer place the world would be.)
Mine is quite nice as it is. No color display, no MP3 player, no camera, heck I'm not even sure I can download ringtones to it. I've had it for nearly three years and it works just great for exactly what I need it for - making phone calls.
When my husband got his first cel phone last year, he was annoyed that the most basic free one they'd give him was a flip-phone with a color display. He wanted one as simple as mine.
I think that offering a one-time fee in addition is probably a good idea. I'm just saying that not *that* many people can (or want to) commit that chunk of money up front to a game, so I can see why subscription services are there. Personally, I can't imagine paying a monthly fee for a game either... But then, I rarely pay more than $25 for a game anyhow. *shrug* Assuming that these online games cost the producers much more than a normal game to continue to support, giving subscription options makes sense.