Are you sure the OTA quality has gone down? In many cases, OTA (digital) is better quality than cable, since the cable companies recompress the signal.
I'm using a ten year old set of rabbit ears hooked up to the digital converter box. The quality will improve when I make a run to Radio Shack...
However, it DID take me over a week of arguing with the satellite company to get it disconnected. (go ahead...ask me about it...please...).
So, how'd disconnecting the satellite go? Was there arguing, and did it take a week?
The satellite dish itself was easy...well placed explosive devices are both fun and educational...;-)
However, apparently, the satellite company has NOT YET TURNED MY SERVICE OFF (I just got another bill today). So I will spend Monday morning with a bottle of whiskey (for my nerves) and coffee (to keep the edge) arguing, again, with Direct TV.
My daughter summed it up best in a tweet to her friends: (paraphrase)
"wow, now the television doesn't tell me what I want to watch, I tell *it* what I want to watch". Unfortunately, she skewed my Netflix preferences so now I have a bunch of 'one-tree-hormoneville' shows suggested to me...
AND my son has his pick of whatever anime he could ever desire.
It takes a little time to adjust (you can't just plop in front of the tv and turn it on for 'whatever'), but everyone I show it to loves it. And I save US$60 a month!
Other than the quality of my OTA channels going down (a problem I had for awhile with DTV as well), I haven't missed my sat/cable stuff.
However, it DID take me over a week of arguing with the satellite company to get it disconnected. (go ahead...ask me about it...please...).
As it is always with politics, what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm guessing there are some deals in the background, and these organisations will get something in return. Which is exactly the kind of thing that made me a secularist.
As much as it pains me to say this in defense (I'm against SOPA as much as anyone else here), the Christian businesses listed are doing so for the same reason the **AA and their ilk are--it cuts into their bottom line (from their perspective) Therefore, it is a business decision, not a religious/theological one.
Please keep in mind that most (if not all) "Christian" businesses are primarily that--a business. Just because it calls itself Christian doesn't make it much different than any other business (as I'm sure anyone who has worked for a "Christian" business will attest).
So don't blame being a secularist on Christian business' decision to follow the business crowd. Believe me, those businesses will get hurt more if SOPA passes than most.
But decided that I had nothing really pertinent to say--ISPs doing evil? That ranks up there with Banks collecting money and M$ collecting technology--happens every day but no one really cares unless it hurts them directly......huh, guess I did have something to say...
Let's see, public school teachers (I was one for 5 years) are expected to spend 50-70 hours a week perfecting their craft and spend 'extra time' tutoring/helping/counseling students. On the plus side, I'm sure thousands of students over the years have been helped by a caring and nurturing teacher; I'm not sure I would've survived high school if it wasn't for a caring English teacher.
However, is it any wonder that teachers feel that the only human contact they get is the children they serve? And when a group of students drag you into their 'drama' (and it happens quite often), it is easy to lose site of your real goal, which is to teach a subject.
Facebook (and other social media, including texts) is just another vehicle to be abused by the side effect of 50+ hours a week with students. Would you, as a teacher, give a student and his/her friends a ride home in the rain? How about some $ for lunch? Advice? What if they call you at home? Of course, there are proper responses to these questions, but the lines get blurred very quickly.
The Missouri law is just a response to this. Popular teachers are often the ones that blur the lines of professional separation. And, in a professional sense, a teacher is often criticized if they are not 'effective'--and popularity is often a side effect of this.
Common sense says a teacher shouldn't friend a student. Professional sense says you should be available to your students. Legal sense says you should steer clear (as I often did). But after 50+ hours a week with teenagers, what time/energy do you have for other nurturing human contact (and often teenagers are very nurturing, sometimes for the wrong reasons admittedly). AND, in many states, getting caught (by photograph but often by a parent) at a bar/party/unpopular political event (including religious) will cost you a fine, a reprimand, your job, and even your license. I like live music--do you know how many times I and my teacher friends had to make sure the club/bar owned did NOT take our pictures for his popularity wall? So where else does a teacher go for 'real world' contact?
(flame shield on)--Obviously, there are things teachers should/could do to get positive relationships. BUT, we are talking about people who, in a general sense, are like you and I: We know what we should do but get away with blurring the lines because we are too tired/angry/desperate to 'follow the rules'-- (flame shield off).
1)It seems to me things would eventually get better if every grammar school and high school in the country had a basic computer course teaching everyone how to buy a machine, something about the innards, and how to use a machine, including proper computer security, and how to fix the most common problems. I don't know if school systems do that these days, but they should - computer savvy is a basic survival trait these days.
I just took a job doing just that, but not a public school (I'm leaving public school) but teaching computers in a therapeutic day-school (for troubled teenagers and residential foster care) where I'm responsible for the lab and everything I teach. Believe me, basic computer knowledge is a rarity--I know that I will spend more time 'unteaching' kids who think they know everything because they got WoW to work on their mom's computer by doubling the RAM and buying a $200 video card. ( I was once cussed out by my son's friend at midnight because I 'didn't know anything about computers' because I told him that our computer will never get a virus--we run Linux that I've locked down)
Fun part now is finding 'teaching materials' because there isn't a lot that is both accurate and appropriate for my age audience....
I have been teaching over 10 years. Special Education. Behavior students. High School. 2nd Career.
And I'm about to quit.
Paying more money only perpetuates the bureaucracy that puts bad teachers in place. I am tired of working hard only to have more work (and restrictions) put on me because I am able to do it. I am tired of having to dodge lawsuits from parents because I can not prevent their 16 year old from failing or committing felonies. I am tired of other teachers telling me that I work too hard but that they could never do what I do.
And...I am tired of having to defend myself from people who have never spent more than an hour in a classroom telling me that I'm not smart/skilled/politically adept enough to function as a teacher. (I won't bore you with a resume proving I'm smart enough...the ACT score of 30 from 25 years ago should be sufficient).
I know who the bad teachers are. Unfortunately, they are also the most politically/socially adept. They are also the ones who are quick to remind administration that I'm not as good as they are (yet I put in 80 hour work weeks).
We are not rewarded for doing well. We are rewarded for not being a problem. Squeaky wheels get greater scrutiny as does classrooms with children whose parents threaten lawsuits. Those are the teachers who get disciplined.
Want to improve schools and/or teaching? Scrap the system and rebuild from the ground up.
Feel free to continue to blame bad teachers or nurture or poverty or whatever. Reality is that none of it will appreciably change unless enough people realize that the system that served them is no longer serving their children.
Oh, and Microsoft has deep pockets.......oooooo....chaching!
Seriously, I am so tired of these meme. I still have students coming up to me, read my name tag, and ask..."is that really your name?" and giggle incessantly...
The teacher says he is too active and might have ADHD.
Have you seen a counselor about this?
No, we can't afford one!
Well, let's try a round of Adderall...
This might seem oversimplistic, but I teach a high school 'behavior intervention' classroom and deal with parents all the time who have the same concerns/issues. More often than anyone will admit, many of the issues related to behavior have to do with cost/consequences...and parents who will not/can not engage the reality of their children's behavior (It's not their fault! They are just picking on Timmy!).
Often, the teachers are just as guilty making these recommendations as the doctors--it is illegal for a teacher to recommend/suggest that a child has to be medicated to attend school, but it happens. And many 'poor' parents do not have the background/education to question the recommendation. So, they go to the doctor and tell them that Timmy has to have medicine to attend school.
The fun part in all this is watching the merry-go-round of meds that a child will/will not take to modify their behavior. For some kids, it is necessary to function. For most, it is not.
By the time they get to high school, many are dependent on the meds to function.
Exceptional Children *are* Special Needs Children!
on
Failing Our Geniuses
·
· Score: 1
----this will be flame-bait for the un-informed--------
Some have put forth the idea that special education funding be used for exceptional children at *all* points on the learning spectrum...including the exceptionally smart ones.
Did you know that some that qualify as 'genius' also have learning disabilities (a math wiz with verbal deficiencies and such)?
I am a special education teacher who, while growing up, was one of the persecuted 'genius' class. I can now see this issue from both sides. Imagine my surprise when a 17 year old minority student was placed in my class for obvious verbal deficiencies but was a celebrated drug dealer in a nearby city (tho never convicted...).
I asked that he be 're-evaluated' (paid for by special education funding) and I find out, one month before he turns 18 and a day before he is placed in corrections that while he had several difficulties with his verbal comprehension, his non-verbal comprehension was **genius level**. No wonder he was so good at what he did. (he came to visit me a month after his 18th birthday to show off his brand new white pick-up truck that he had purchased with proceeds from his 'contract work'.)
My point is this: part of the problem is whenever you tell a parent of an exceptionally *smart* child that they will recieve the same services as an exceptionally *not-so-smart* child (IEP, Evaluation and Testing services, legal protections...as well as ABILITY SPECIFIC EDUCATION), the parents are offended and swear that little Johnny will never 'ride the short bus'.
Just spent 2 weeks looking for an encyclopedia for my 8 year old son. Why? Because the software versions were too much like video games (not enough time spent reading the information) and the web versions were way to clutsy for a 56k connection (which is the best I can expect...ever)
When I was eight (snowed in July, walked up-hill to school both ways, etc.), my parents invested (sacrificed) for an encyclopedia that I could sit in my bed at night, before I went to sleep, and **READ**. I would fall asleep to images of bats or lizards or computers or stalin or lincoln or whatever trapped my fancy at that time.
Why can't Brittanica or Encarta or even Google (whose e-encyclopedia I just purchased) come up with a multi-volume product that will capture the hearts and minds and **imagination** of young people while providing updated information on the web?
To this day, I blame my know-it-all knowledge to the fact that I read an encyclopedia from cover to cover when I was bored one summer! And, guess what? I was the first in my family to go to college, get a degree, teach, keep my teeth, yada, yada, yada...
I used to be rather prolific...enjoyed writing and all that. Even when I had to write grant requests and such...
Then WordPerfect went to 6.0. I configured it to look a *lot* like 5.1 -- still lotsa joy.
Then MSWord became the defacto format...which is when I started looking at other OSes because, well, I *hated* MSWord. But WP couldn't keep up. I eventually landed at Linux and had the corresponding version of WP. Then Corel bought it, then MS bought/ran/abused Corel.
I've been switching between gedit/abiword/OOOrg since and haven't been able to get the same...zen...as I used to with WordPerfect.
And, y'know, I think my desire to write has decreased as a result...
Computers, calculators, even simple features like the speed dial on your phone, have contributed to this problem of 'dumbing down' society.
I teach math in a private facility for 'behaviorally challenged' children (aka, discipline problems). About 1/3 of these are classified special education. My biggest surprise over the past couple years has been the complete lack of understanding about basic math concepts. Most, if not all, of the kids I teach have been taught to use a calculator for basic math (+,-,*,/). Problem comes in, though, when most of these defend their answers on a test with 'but I put down what the calculator said!'.
These kids have become so dependant upon the technology, they don't see the problem with a calculator putting out an outlandishly wrong answer (usually due to 'fat finger syndrome'--you punch one or more extraneous keys). Add to this that I am trying to teach many of these kids to solve multi-stepped *arithmetic* problems (figuring their mortgage, car payments, the like), it is disheartening to watch an 11th grader (an 'A' student NOT special ed) go to the board and completely bone a basic arithmetic problem because he never learned basic division concepts when he was in grade/middle/jr. high school. His response? "My teachers told me to always use a calculator for division problems".
Computers are not any better. While administration on down want to look like they are 'technology friendly', computer education is often nothing more than basic 'this is how you turn it on and use windows and explorer' and 'this is a word processor, use it for your papers'. I have decided NOT to use computers because the time it takes to teach decent computer skills takes away from my time to teach basic concepts. I have one in my classroom to use for word processing and personal work with all games wiped off of it.
IT tech would be great if there was a way to integrate it with basic education--but this requires time and money, both things sorely lacking from our educational system.
I just finished a meeting with the speech therapist at my son's elementary school--he was tested because he was having problems in his kindergarten classroom--such as not finishing his work ("though it is done wonderfully" the teacher reports), have problems interacting with his peers (he doesn't like to be touched), and other small things.
During the meeting the teacher leaned over to me and asked if I had considered autism as a possible problem with my son.
Of course I did! I **did** read the article in Wired...and am myself a special education teacher who, by the way, have dealt with *true* aspergers children.
Now, besides the fact that I thought the teacher was a little off her rocker--she means well but her 50+ years of teaching experience might make her a bit long in the tooth--I also have been watching myself as much as my son lately.
During the meeting, my wife pointed out that many of my son's behaviors that would classify him as autistic she has observed in me. Examples:
--> My son doesn't like to interact with his peers: Big surprise--neither do I.
--> My son would rather stay inside at recess and do his homework: again, I will stay after work 3+ hours to finish my paperwork just so I can sleep well that night!
--> My son can't finish his work on time, but while his classmates are still working on the letter K my son is reading Dr. Seuss to his mother before he goes to bed.
--> My son has problems communicating with his teacher: I just had my job review and the only 'black' mark was that I didn't kiss enough arse with the CEO of the company I teach for. Otherwise I was a great teacher (thier words, not mine).
--> My son has to follow the same routine every day or gets very out of sorts and frustrated: guess what--my wife pointed out how much grief I give her if my morning routine is intruded upon.
Bottom line: Many of the things that I dealt with as a child (and even an adult!) are the very things that make my child a frustrating, easily upset, highly intelligent problem solver who will have to travel the same road I did to maturity--dealing with bullies, teachers who weren't as intelligent as yourself, learning how NOT to offend the very people who give you grades/sign your paychecks.
The asbergers that is being talked about here isn't a disease or disability, it is a gift set that can be *very* lucrative in the long run...
I always tell the uninitiated that VTales is the Muppets (the old show--when it was funny) crossed with the old stop-animation of Rudolph--the red nosed reindeer and Santa Clause is coming to Town.
Regardless of the Christian intent, I was always impressed with VTales and how they raised the bar for not only animation in general, but for the Christian Entertainment sub-culture it comes from (which usually puts out sub-standard get-the-message-across-regardless-of-technical-mer its drivel, IMHO).
Compared with TS2, my 3 year old son grins maniacally through a 30 minute VTale as much as he did 90 minutes at TS2--high praise as he usually can't sit still for more than 5 minutes!
Slashdot Mirror
Just. Wow.
I guess that means that I shouldn't listen to what the government tells me to do...I could get sued--or arrested.
Does the fact that I've read and enjoyed the endings of most of the books listed here make me a depressive person?
Oh, wait, I've been married 21 years...
Are you sure the OTA quality has gone down? In many cases, OTA (digital) is better quality than cable, since the cable companies recompress the signal.
I'm using a ten year old set of rabbit ears hooked up to the digital converter box. The quality will improve when I make a run to Radio Shack...
However, it DID take me over a week of arguing with the satellite company to get it disconnected. (go ahead...ask me about it...please...).
So, how'd disconnecting the satellite go? Was there arguing, and did it take a week?
The satellite dish itself was easy...well placed explosive devices are both fun and educational... ;-)
However, apparently, the satellite company has NOT YET TURNED MY SERVICE OFF (I just got another bill today). So I will spend Monday morning with a bottle of whiskey (for my nerves) and coffee (to keep the edge) arguing, again, with Direct TV.
My daughter summed it up best in a tweet to her friends: (paraphrase)
"wow, now the television doesn't tell me what I want to watch, I tell *it* what I want to watch". Unfortunately, she skewed my Netflix preferences so now I have a bunch of 'one-tree-hormoneville' shows suggested to me...
AND my son has his pick of whatever anime he could ever desire.
It takes a little time to adjust (you can't just plop in front of the tv and turn it on for 'whatever'), but everyone I show it to loves it. And I save US$60 a month!
Other than the quality of my OTA channels going down (a problem I had for awhile with DTV as well), I haven't missed my sat/cable stuff.
However, it DID take me over a week of arguing with the satellite company to get it disconnected. (go ahead...ask me about it...please...).
As it is always with politics, what you see is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm guessing there are some deals in the background, and these organisations will get something in return. Which is exactly the kind of thing that made me a secularist.
As much as it pains me to say this in defense (I'm against SOPA as much as anyone else here), the Christian businesses listed are doing so for the same reason the **AA and their ilk are--it cuts into their bottom line (from their perspective) Therefore, it is a business decision, not a religious/theological one.
Please keep in mind that most (if not all) "Christian" businesses are primarily that--a business. Just because it calls itself Christian doesn't make it much different than any other business (as I'm sure anyone who has worked for a "Christian" business will attest).
So don't blame being a secularist on Christian business' decision to follow the business crowd. Believe me, those businesses will get hurt more if SOPA passes than most.
But decided that I had nothing really pertinent to say--ISPs doing evil? That ranks up there with Banks collecting money and M$ collecting technology--happens every day but no one really cares unless it hurts them directly... ...huh, guess I did have something to say...
Let's see, public school teachers (I was one for 5 years) are expected to spend 50-70 hours a week perfecting their craft and spend 'extra time' tutoring/helping/counseling students. On the plus side, I'm sure thousands of students over the years have been helped by a caring and nurturing teacher; I'm not sure I would've survived high school if it wasn't for a caring English teacher.
However, is it any wonder that teachers feel that the only human contact they get is the children they serve? And when a group of students drag you into their 'drama' (and it happens quite often), it is easy to lose site of your real goal, which is to teach a subject.
Facebook (and other social media, including texts) is just another vehicle to be abused by the side effect of 50+ hours a week with students. Would you, as a teacher, give a student and his/her friends a ride home in the rain? How about some $ for lunch? Advice? What if they call you at home? Of course, there are proper responses to these questions, but the lines get blurred very quickly.
The Missouri law is just a response to this. Popular teachers are often the ones that blur the lines of professional separation. And, in a professional sense, a teacher is often criticized if they are not 'effective'--and popularity is often a side effect of this.
Common sense says a teacher shouldn't friend a student. Professional sense says you should be available to your students. Legal sense says you should steer clear (as I often did). But after 50+ hours a week with teenagers, what time/energy do you have for other nurturing human contact (and often teenagers are very nurturing, sometimes for the wrong reasons admittedly). AND, in many states, getting caught (by photograph but often by a parent) at a bar/party/unpopular political event (including religious) will cost you a fine, a reprimand, your job, and even your license. I like live music--do you know how many times I and my teacher friends had to make sure the club/bar owned did NOT take our pictures for his popularity wall? So where else does a teacher go for 'real world' contact?
(flame shield on)--Obviously, there are things teachers should/could do to get positive relationships. BUT, we are talking about people who, in a general sense, are like you and I: We know what we should do but get away with blurring the lines because we are too tired/angry/desperate to 'follow the rules'-- (flame shield off).
1)It seems to me things would eventually get better if every grammar school and high school in the country had a basic computer course teaching everyone how to buy a machine, something about the innards, and how to use a machine, including proper computer security, and how to fix the most common problems. I don't know if school systems do that these days, but they should - computer savvy is a basic survival trait these days.
I just took a job doing just that, but not a public school (I'm leaving public school) but teaching computers in a therapeutic day-school (for troubled teenagers and residential foster care) where I'm responsible for the lab and everything I teach. Believe me, basic computer knowledge is a rarity--I know that I will spend more time 'unteaching' kids who think they know everything because they got WoW to work on their mom's computer by doubling the RAM and buying a $200 video card. ( I was once cussed out by my son's friend at midnight because I 'didn't know anything about computers' because I told him that our computer will never get a virus--we run Linux that I've locked down)
Fun part now is finding 'teaching materials' because there isn't a lot that is both accurate and appropriate for my age audience....
I have been teaching over 10 years. Special Education. Behavior students. High School. 2nd Career.
And I'm about to quit.
Paying more money only perpetuates the bureaucracy that puts bad teachers in place. I am tired of working hard only to have more work (and restrictions) put on me because I am able to do it. I am tired of having to dodge lawsuits from parents because I can not prevent their 16 year old from failing or committing felonies. I am tired of other teachers telling me that I work too hard but that they could never do what I do.
And...I am tired of having to defend myself from people who have never spent more than an hour in a classroom telling me that I'm not smart/skilled/politically adept enough to function as a teacher. (I won't bore you with a resume proving I'm smart enough...the ACT score of 30 from 25 years ago should be sufficient).
I know who the bad teachers are. Unfortunately, they are also the most politically/socially adept. They are also the ones who are quick to remind administration that I'm not as good as they are (yet I put in 80 hour work weeks).
We are not rewarded for doing well. We are rewarded for not being a problem. Squeaky wheels get greater scrutiny as does classrooms with children whose parents threaten lawsuits. Those are the teachers who get disciplined.
Want to improve schools and/or teaching? Scrap the system and rebuild from the ground up.
Feel free to continue to blame bad teachers or nurture or poverty or whatever. Reality is that none of it will appreciably change unless enough people realize that the system that served them is no longer serving their children.
I (and my father) are named Rick Roll!
Oh, and Microsoft has deep pockets... ....oooooo....chaching!
Seriously, I am so tired of these meme. I still have students coming up to me, read my name tag, and ask..."is that really your name?" and giggle incessantly...
Doctor, Timmy is getting in trouble in school.
How does he get in trouble?
The teacher says he is too active and might have ADHD.
Have you seen a counselor about this?
No, we can't afford one!
Well, let's try a round of Adderall...
This might seem oversimplistic, but I teach a high school 'behavior intervention' classroom and deal with parents all the time who have the same concerns/issues. More often than anyone will admit, many of the issues related to behavior have to do with cost/consequences...and parents who will not/can not engage the reality of their children's behavior (It's not their fault! They are just picking on Timmy!).
Often, the teachers are just as guilty making these recommendations as the doctors--it is illegal for a teacher to recommend/suggest that a child has to be medicated to attend school, but it happens. And many 'poor' parents do not have the background/education to question the recommendation. So, they go to the doctor and tell them that Timmy has to have medicine to attend school.
The fun part in all this is watching the merry-go-round of meds that a child will/will not take to modify their behavior. For some kids, it is necessary to function. For most, it is not.
By the time they get to high school, many are dependent on the meds to function.
----this will be flame-bait for the un-informed--------
Some have put forth the idea that special education funding be used for exceptional children at *all* points on the learning spectrum...including the exceptionally smart ones.
Did you know that some that qualify as 'genius' also have learning disabilities (a math wiz with verbal deficiencies and such)?
I am a special education teacher who, while growing up, was one of the persecuted 'genius' class. I can now see this issue from both sides. Imagine my surprise when a 17 year old minority student was placed in my class for obvious verbal deficiencies but was a celebrated drug dealer in a nearby city (tho never convicted...).
I asked that he be 're-evaluated' (paid for by special education funding) and I find out, one month before he turns 18 and a day before he is placed in corrections that while he had several difficulties with his verbal comprehension, his non-verbal comprehension was **genius level**. No wonder he was so good at what he did. (he came to visit me a month after his 18th birthday to show off his brand new white pick-up truck that he had purchased with proceeds from his 'contract work'.)
My point is this: part of the problem is whenever you tell a parent of an exceptionally *smart* child that they will recieve the same services as an exceptionally *not-so-smart* child (IEP, Evaluation and Testing services, legal protections...as well as ABILITY SPECIFIC EDUCATION), the parents are offended and swear that little Johnny will never 'ride the short bus'.
Part of the problem is lack of perspective...
You ever try to juggle a lap-top on your knees while trying to do your business?
And, besides, you can't swat flies with your lap-top either...(well, I guess you could......)
Nope, not satan...
Just a Tool....
Imagine the irony!
Call it the --Revenge of the Geeks--!
Right now, I'm sure they are freaking out...
Just spent 2 weeks looking for an encyclopedia for my 8 year old son. Why? Because the software versions were too much like video games (not enough time spent reading the information) and the web versions were way to clutsy for a 56k connection (which is the best I can expect...ever)
When I was eight (snowed in July, walked up-hill to school both ways, etc.), my parents invested (sacrificed) for an encyclopedia that I could sit in my bed at night, before I went to sleep, and **READ**. I would fall asleep to images of bats or lizards or computers or stalin or lincoln or whatever trapped my fancy at that time.
Why can't Brittanica or Encarta or even Google (whose e-encyclopedia I just purchased) come up with a multi-volume product that will capture the hearts and minds and **imagination** of young people while providing updated information on the web?
To this day, I blame my know-it-all knowledge to the fact that I read an encyclopedia from cover to cover when I was bored one summer! And, guess what? I was the first in my family to go to college, get a degree, teach, keep my teeth, yada, yada, yada...
I used to be rather prolific...enjoyed writing and all that. Even when I had to write grant requests and such...
Then WordPerfect went to 6.0. I configured it to look a *lot* like 5.1 -- still lotsa joy.
Then MSWord became the defacto format...which is when I started looking at other OSes because, well, I *hated* MSWord. But WP couldn't keep up. I eventually landed at Linux and had the corresponding version of WP. Then Corel bought it, then MS bought/ran/abused Corel.
I've been switching between gedit/abiword/OOOrg since and haven't been able to get the same...zen...as I used to with WordPerfect.
And, y'know, I think my desire to write has decreased as a result...
The fact that you were playing on a Windows machine that would crash does NOT count...
All that aside...Doom, definately. Still have occasional nightmares about those 2-legged bull looking things...
Where were you when the Internet started?
--My Daddy says I wasn't even a twinkle yet...
--Suckling at the teat of TV (yea Sesame Street!)
--Programming in assembly on an Apple IIe!
--Punching out cards for my latest programming project in college!
--I was sending messages via ARPnet, you fool!
--Wishing I would meet a dream geek like Cowboy Neal!!!!!
Computers, calculators, even simple features like the speed dial on your phone, have contributed to this problem of 'dumbing down' society.
I teach math in a private facility for 'behaviorally challenged' children (aka, discipline problems). About 1/3 of these are classified special education. My biggest surprise over the past couple years has been the complete lack of understanding about basic math concepts. Most, if not all, of the kids I teach have been taught to use a calculator for basic math (+,-,*,/). Problem comes in, though, when most of these defend their answers on a test with 'but I put down what the calculator said!'.
These kids have become so dependant upon the technology, they don't see the problem with a calculator putting out an outlandishly wrong answer (usually due to 'fat finger syndrome'--you punch one or more extraneous keys). Add to this that I am trying to teach many of these kids to solve multi-stepped *arithmetic* problems (figuring their mortgage, car payments, the like), it is disheartening to watch an 11th grader (an 'A' student NOT special ed) go to the board and completely bone a basic arithmetic problem because he never learned basic division concepts when he was in grade/middle/jr. high school. His response? "My teachers told me to always use a calculator for division problems".
Computers are not any better. While administration on down want to look like they are 'technology friendly', computer education is often nothing more than basic 'this is how you turn it on and use windows and explorer' and 'this is a word processor, use it for your papers'. I have decided NOT to use computers because the time it takes to teach decent computer skills takes away from my time to teach basic concepts. I have one in my classroom to use for word processing and personal work with all games wiped off of it.
IT tech would be great if there was a way to integrate it with basic education--but this requires time and money, both things sorely lacking from our educational system.
I just finished a meeting with the speech therapist at my son's elementary school--he was tested because he was having problems in his kindergarten classroom--such as not finishing his work ("though it is done wonderfully" the teacher reports), have problems interacting with his peers (he doesn't like to be touched), and other small things.
During the meeting the teacher leaned over to me and asked if I had considered autism as a possible problem with my son.
Of course I did! I **did** read the article in Wired...and am myself a special education teacher who, by the way, have dealt with *true* aspergers children.
Now, besides the fact that I thought the teacher was a little off her rocker--she means well but her 50+ years of teaching experience might make her a bit long in the tooth--I also have been watching myself as much as my son lately.
During the meeting, my wife pointed out that many of my son's behaviors that would classify him as autistic she has observed in me. Examples:
--> My son doesn't like to interact with his peers: Big surprise--neither do I.
--> My son would rather stay inside at recess and do his homework: again, I will stay after work 3+ hours to finish my paperwork just so I can sleep well that night!
--> My son can't finish his work on time, but while his classmates are still working on the letter K my son is reading Dr. Seuss to his mother before he goes to bed.
--> My son has problems communicating with his teacher: I just had my job review and the only 'black' mark was that I didn't kiss enough arse with the CEO of the company I teach for. Otherwise I was a great teacher (thier words, not mine).
--> My son has to follow the same routine every day or gets very out of sorts and frustrated: guess what--my wife pointed out how much grief I give her if my morning routine is intruded upon.
Bottom line: Many of the things that I dealt with as a child (and even an adult!) are the very things that make my child a frustrating, easily upset, highly intelligent problem solver who will have to travel the same road I did to maturity--dealing with bullies, teachers who weren't as intelligent as yourself, learning how NOT to offend the very people who give you grades/sign your paychecks.
The asbergers that is being talked about here isn't a disease or disability, it is a gift set that can be *very* lucrative in the long run...
4 words...
Lord...of...the...Flies
I always tell the uninitiated that VTales is the Muppets (the old show--when it was funny) crossed with the old stop-animation of Rudolph--the red nosed reindeer and Santa Clause is coming to Town.
Regardless of the Christian intent, I was always impressed with VTales and how they raised the bar for not only animation in general, but for the Christian Entertainment sub-culture it comes from (which usually puts out sub-standard get-the-message-across-regardless-of-technical-me
Compared with TS2, my 3 year old son grins maniacally through a 30 minute VTale as much as he did 90 minutes at TS2--high praise as he usually can't sit still for more than 5 minutes!