I think this was an excellent post, and I especially think that a culture of disinterest and a lack of respect for education may be the problem to tackle to see the most results. I also want to bring a counter-point to one thing, may I play devil's advocate? You said,
..because the extra effort and expense... will weed out a lot of the less-devoted students and parents, while keeping...
From a big picture point-of-view, we are still going to have to live in the same society with those who are weeded out. I agree that while the well educated group will become larger and be able to achieve more, at the same time the group of uninterested students may also become larger and achieve less, while the middle ground starts to disappear. At any school made up primarily of kids that don't care, the culture of disinterest will be much stronger and while the public schools would be able to focus on the special needs of these students, it's very possible that reaching these kids might not happen. These people are not going to disappear when they're done going through the school system, and we could end up with more crime, a greater burden of social services, and some serious class tensions. Those enjoying success would have to pay for it in other areas, and everyone might be worse off.
I guess having trade focused programs would help with this though, and there's also a chance that less capable students who might be giving up in our current system would try much harder if there wasn't as large a difference between the smartest kid in the class and them. It's easy to want to give up on something if the guy next to you makes you look like you really suck at it.
Anyways, your post was good stuff.
There's a lot to be said for teaching a brilliant kid how to get along and make friends with lots of (not as bright) people, and more importantly not to take crap from people.
There are lots of really smart kids who don't have to put up with anti-intellectualism because they know this. I wish my parents had taught me those skills from the start, but I had to learn it for myself. Once I did, the problem was solved. Kids don't get bullied for being smart, easy targets get bullied because they're the only ones who put up with it.
It would seem so, except most of the world's population growth comes from poor or developing countries. The populations of developed nations tend to grow at a much slower rate, and some of them are stable or even shrinking.
Being like Christ is supposed to be a goal for christians. You're not automatically made like him when you join the club. It's more or less an unobtainable goal to strive for during one's lifetime.
I'm not a fan of organized religion at all, but I just thought you missed the mark with this one.
Nope, not an advertiser.
Just amused by the idea of naturally occuring typefaces. >
If you look to the left you'll see a flock of Times New Roman. Though indigenous, they are often considered an unsightly nuisance.
To the right you will see a Comic Sans MS, which are less common, although sometimes domesticated and cared for as pets.
Agreed. I've heard micropayments preached as a cure-all for spam, but it could very easily end up being snake oil. It would be fair enough to have a micropayment system to try out, but I'm not at all convinced it would catch on. And I'd be pretty pissed if that was my only option.
A low-tech friend of mine recently got broadband installed. The guy who hooked it up for her was kind enough to install Firefox on her computer and rename the shortcut to *the internet*. She didn't get it when I tried to explain to her why that was so cool.
So, as a musician, have you ever performed live? And if you have, you can't be that much of a musician if you can't entertain an audience for at least 45 minutes.
I'm mildly insulted. Don't assume things about me.
No, you misquote me. I said that you *cannot* appreciate a piece of good music fully until you give it your full attention.
I didn't quote you, other than the words "kill music". I also very much disagree with your rules of music appreciation. Personally, I think the most complete appreciation of music comes from living the lifestyle that follows a genre. But that's an opinion. I respect that your opinion is different, but I don't respect someone telling me that music is real only if I listen to it the right way.
It's about attention span and having enough time to be drawn into the music properly in order to appreciate it.
My only issue with any of the stuff you are saying is that nobody gets to be the boss and decide what music is real, what music is really about, who appreciates it the most... not you, not anybody. Not even Pink Floyd.
The only requirement for music to be *real* is that you can hear it. (And please don't try to get all deep about the semantics of the word "hear", in case you were thinking about it)
I've never cared about albums as a whole. I also spent a good chunk of my life as a musician, but by your logic, I'm not real. And what exactly is *real* music supposed to mean anyways?
That's nice that you have your own personal tastes for enjoying music, but so does everybody else. I guarantee it would *kill* (whatever that means) music if the only *real* way to listen to it was to sit in a chair by yourself.
Last I checked, the concept of music was both entertainment and art form, neither of which are held captive by such silly constraints.
And if you're still convinced that the essence of the music is only contained in a full album, remember that albums were invented as a convenient way to package music for sale, lots of talented musicians are able to do good things with the album format, but the idea of an album is just packaging for distribution.
I find it strange the way race was mentioned in the study itself. It was only mentioned in the chart, and the only races were listed as white, black, unknown, and not white/not black, as if those distinctions were worth making, but not for any other race. What's strange is that no other mention of race was made in the analysis, it just doesn't make sense to me.
Huh? Sounded to me like GPLDAN was just saying that land is very expensive there, and that even for people who can easily afford computers and other consumer products, buying land is just too far out of their reach. If a japanese garden at any time cost more than the entire US, then that seems like a reasonable conclusion.
Granted, this concept would seem to be more of an upper/lower class thing than an east/west thing, I'm sure there's plenty of people here in the US who have a computer but not land.
I would disagree that that qualifies as censorship. To me, censorship involves the intent of blocking specific ideas or messages, and these tactics give me the impression that they're focused on spam and trolls.
Looks like Henrico(Neighboring county) gets better calculators though...
(From a conversation with my younger sister)
***************
(21:50:01) Carl: If that link even works
(21:50:36) craZclukr: it did, and our calculators do that
(21:50:50) Carl: Do you get to keep them?
(21:50:53) craZclukr: yepp
(21:51:00) craZclukr: the button is labeled and all (:
**************
If you don't send it back then you will likely be punished, Virginia is kind of retarded about stuff like this. For example, in the neighboring county of Henrico, students were forced to rent(not buy) Mac laptops, which had been customized(crippled) specifically for use at school. Now I believe they are discontinuing the program and are trying to convince the students to buy the computers that they had already rented. Apparently, you would face harsh punishments if you even changed the wallpaper on your desktop.
Slashdot Mirror
I also want to bring a counter-point to one thing, may I play devil's advocate? You said,
..because the extra effort and expense ... will weed out a lot of the less-devoted students and parents, while keeping...
From a big picture point-of-view, we are still going to have to live in the same society with those who are weeded out. I agree that while the well educated group will become larger and be able to achieve more, at the same time the group of uninterested students may also become larger and achieve less, while the middle ground starts to disappear. At any school made up primarily of kids that don't care, the culture of disinterest will be much stronger and while the public schools would be able to focus on the special needs of these students, it's very possible that reaching these kids might not happen. These people are not going to disappear when they're done going through the school system, and we could end up with more crime, a greater burden of social services, and some serious class tensions. Those enjoying success would have to pay for it in other areas, and everyone might be worse off.I guess having trade focused programs would help with this though, and there's also a chance that less capable students who might be giving up in our current system would try much harder if there wasn't as large a difference between the smartest kid in the class and them. It's easy to want to give up on something if the guy next to you makes you look like you really suck at it.
Anyways, your post was good stuff.
There's a lot to be said for teaching a brilliant kid how to get along and make friends with lots of (not as bright) people, and more importantly not to take crap from people.
There are lots of really smart kids who don't have to put up with anti-intellectualism because they know this. I wish my parents had taught me those skills from the start, but I had to learn it for myself. Once I did, the problem was solved. Kids don't get bullied for being smart, easy targets get bullied because they're the only ones who put up with it.
I can't say I agree with you 100 percent, but regardless, that was a really good post. Mod parent up!
It doesn't show before 1750, but here's some info.
It would seem so, except most of the world's population growth comes from poor or developing countries. The populations of developed nations tend to grow at a much slower rate, and some of them are stable or even shrinking.
Here's a link
AFAIK inovations tend to occur the most frequently in developed countries.
Being like Christ is supposed to be a goal for christians. You're not automatically made like him when you join the club. It's more or less an unobtainable goal to strive for during one's lifetime.
I'm not a fan of organized religion at all, but I just thought you missed the mark with this one.
Yes.
Nope, not an advertiser. Just amused by the idea of naturally occuring typefaces.
>
If you look to the left you'll see a flock of Times New Roman. Though indigenous, they are often considered an unsightly nuisance.
To the right you will see a Comic Sans MS, which are less common, although sometimes domesticated and cared for as pets.
Agreed. I've heard micropayments preached as a cure-all for spam, but it could very easily end up being snake oil. It would be fair enough to have a micropayment system to try out, but I'm not at all convinced it would catch on. And I'd be pretty pissed if that was my only option.
Which fonts are the ones that occur in nature?
A low-tech friend of mine recently got broadband installed. The guy who hooked it up for her was kind enough to install Firefox on her computer and rename the shortcut to *the internet*. She didn't get it when I tried to explain to her why that was so cool.
That was the most intelligent post I've seen on /. all week!
So, as a musician, have you ever performed live? And if you have, you can't be that much of a musician if you can't entertain an audience for at least 45 minutes.
I'm mildly insulted. Don't assume things about me.
No, you misquote me. I said that you *cannot* appreciate a piece of good music fully until you give it your full attention.
I didn't quote you, other than the words "kill music". I also very much disagree with your rules of music appreciation. Personally, I think the most complete appreciation of music comes from living the lifestyle that follows a genre. But that's an opinion. I respect that your opinion is different, but I don't respect someone telling me that music is real only if I listen to it the right way.
It's about attention span and having enough time to be drawn into the music properly in order to appreciate it.
My only issue with any of the stuff you are saying is that nobody gets to be the boss and decide what music is real, what music is really about, who appreciates it the most... not you, not anybody. Not even Pink Floyd.
The only requirement for music to be *real* is that you can hear it.
(And please don't try to get all deep about the semantics of the word "hear", in case you were thinking about it)
I've never cared about albums as a whole. I also spent a good chunk of my life as a musician, but by your logic, I'm not real. And what exactly is *real* music supposed to mean anyways?
That's nice that you have your own personal tastes for enjoying music, but so does everybody else. I guarantee it would *kill* (whatever that means) music if the only *real* way to listen to it was to sit in a chair by yourself.
Last I checked, the concept of music was both entertainment and art form, neither of which are held captive by such silly constraints.
And if you're still convinced that the essence of the music is only contained in a full album, remember that albums were invented as a convenient way to package music for sale, lots of talented musicians are able to do good things with the album format, but the idea of an album is just packaging for distribution.
I find it strange the way race was mentioned in the study itself. It was only mentioned in the chart, and the only races were listed as white, black, unknown, and not white/not black, as if those distinctions were worth making, but not for any other race. What's strange is that no other mention of race was made in the analysis, it just doesn't make sense to me.
BTW, my sig is not related to this post.
LOL @ ...the elder article having the same parent... ...the index of indices... ...Translate into Japanese(written in english)...
And as a bonus it uses Times New Roman, for extra onscreen readability!
Huh? Sounded to me like GPLDAN was just saying that land is very expensive there, and that even for people who can easily afford computers and other consumer products, buying land is just too far out of their reach. If a japanese garden at any time cost more than the entire US, then that seems like a reasonable conclusion.
Granted, this concept would seem to be more of an upper/lower class thing than an east/west thing, I'm sure there's plenty of people here in the US who have a computer but not land.
I would disagree that that qualifies as censorship. To me, censorship involves the intent of blocking specific ideas or messages, and these tactics give me the impression that they're focused on spam and trolls.
Looks like Henrico(Neighboring county) gets better calculators though... (From a conversation with my younger sister) *************** (21:50:01) Carl: If that link even works (21:50:36) craZclukr: it did, and our calculators do that (21:50:50) Carl: Do you get to keep them? (21:50:53) craZclukr: yepp (21:51:00) craZclukr: the button is labeled and all (: **************
If you don't send it back then you will likely be punished, Virginia is kind of retarded about stuff like this. For example, in the neighboring county of Henrico, students were forced to rent(not buy) Mac laptops, which had been customized(crippled) specifically for use at school. Now I believe they are discontinuing the program and are trying to convince the students to buy the computers that they had already rented. Apparently, you would face harsh punishments if you even changed the wallpaper on your desktop.