Re:The Improbability of Improbability
on
The Magicians
·
· Score: 1
I'd have to add Ursula K LeGuin to the list of master's of crafting a world. The Wizard of Earthsea books are the standard for me, equal to Tolkein, of creating a world that was capable of changing over time realistically (even with all the magic). Even the three books she wrote decades after the original trilogy move that world's story forward.
Around 1977 or so on a huge basement-sized mainframe with some computer science major buddies. A great way to waste time and build up some nerdly coolness points. "Beg your pardon, captain?" Shortly afterward some of the predecessors of Zork, Colossal Cave, was it?
Later, Parsec on a TI 99/4a used up a lot of my time. The first few King's Quest games. Lot's of computer and console games since. I'm having to compete for time on Super Mario Galaxy now with my kid. My son's friends (or my wife, either) can't believe that I like to play games now so much, though the real pleasure still is in the puzzle solving.
I've enjoyed the give and take about the relative merits of science knowledge and faith knowledge. Some real thoughtful (and some not so much) comments and insights. One person's approach I've appreciated (especially since I have met him) is Charles Townes, the 1964 Nobel Prize winner in physics for work which led to the laser, and the 2005 Templeton Prize winner. You can read an article he wrote on "The Convergence of Science and Religion" here http://www.templetonprize.org/pdfs/THINK.pdf
One of the key ideas to me is "As in science,our religious ideas cannot be expected to be completely correct; we must not be hesitant to try to advance our religious understanding and even somewhat change our outlook." A point missed by many who profess science and many who profess religion.
That particular location is close to one of the nation's unique cities, Charleston, and is actually a fairly progressive part of the state. Of course, that's "progressive" compared to the rest of the state. (I grew up in another county.) Google will have to decide to get involved in improving the education system if they want long-term growth there, like Toyota has done in my now-home state, Kentucky. Otherwise, they will be importing every employee from elsewhere, and will eventually have trouble drawing top-notch people who have families. Here's hoping that's what they do.
While I wouldn't mind being paid a little extra (and I would qualify under the test score requirements, etc), neither of the Kentucky bills would have addressed the real issues that keep our kids from really learning Math.
One of them only planned to reward the AP teachers. This would mainly reward the teachers who teach the kids that make teaching easy (probably most Slashdotters)and the ones who teach at the "East End" schools with lots of AP classes. Easy money, no changes in teaching ability or strategies.
The other would reward only math ability, not teaching ability. I'm at a high school that has seen at least one too many end-of-career engineers with plenty of math ability who thought that teaching would be an easy, stress-free way to end those last 5-10 years before retirement who wound up burning out, having heart attacks, or becoming laughingstocks to the kids because they couldn't deal with adolescent behavior.
If you're going to have differentiated pay, let it be based on what your students learn from you. Not the standardized tests (otherwise we'd all gravitate to those "rich" schools), but on whether the kids know more Algebra, Geometry, whatever, at the end of the year than at the beginning.
All three of our family computers, the GameCube, the stereo, and the TV are out in the open in a big family room at my house, leading to interesting arguments among the various adults, teens, and preteens who live here over who gets to do what. (Headphones are as critical as negotiation skills.) But we are ensuring that we know what our kids are doing, and they get to see by our actions what's appropriate, kind of like an updated version of the family gathering around the radio for the Grand Olde Opry. We also use the same approach with video games as we do for movies and music--If it's R (or M, or PG-13, or T, depending on which kid and what media) rated or has the Parental Warning sticker for lyrics on it, it's an automatic "no" unless mom or I have actually seen or heard it or have talked to another adult parent we trust and have decided that it is ok for our own children. We also talk out loud about this decision making process in hopes that we're helping build good thinking skills. I am a libertarian at heart and don't want any government agency deciding for me what is ok for my children (mostly because my standards are probably higher). At the same time, though, I teach high schoolers whose parents have absolutely no clue that they're playing GTA all night (and sleeping in class), pirating porn flicks, chatting with pedophiles, etc., etc. So it seems there needs to be some way to protect these children as well, at least to slow down the purchases by kids who aren't mature enough to really know it's not ok to slap a prostitute just because you can. A stronger version of some of the voluntary agreements in existence might be part of the answer.
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I'd have to add Ursula K LeGuin to the list of master's of crafting a world. The Wizard of Earthsea books are the standard for me, equal to Tolkein, of creating a world that was capable of changing over time realistically (even with all the magic). Even the three books she wrote decades after the original trilogy move that world's story forward.
Around 1977 or so on a huge basement-sized mainframe with some computer science major buddies. A great way to waste time and build up some nerdly coolness points. "Beg your pardon, captain?" Shortly afterward some of the predecessors of Zork, Colossal Cave, was it? Later, Parsec on a TI 99/4a used up a lot of my time. The first few King's Quest games. Lot's of computer and console games since. I'm having to compete for time on Super Mario Galaxy now with my kid. My son's friends (or my wife, either) can't believe that I like to play games now so much, though the real pleasure still is in the puzzle solving.
I've enjoyed the give and take about the relative merits of science knowledge and faith knowledge. Some real thoughtful (and some not so much) comments and insights. One person's approach I've appreciated (especially since I have met him) is Charles Townes, the 1964 Nobel Prize winner in physics for work which led to the laser, and the 2005 Templeton Prize winner. You can read an article he wrote on "The Convergence of Science and Religion" here http://www.templetonprize.org/pdfs/THINK.pdf One of the key ideas to me is "As in science,our religious ideas cannot be expected to be completely correct; we must not be hesitant to try to advance our religious understanding and even somewhat change our outlook." A point missed by many who profess science and many who profess religion.
That particular location is close to one of the nation's unique cities, Charleston, and is actually a fairly progressive part of the state. Of course, that's "progressive" compared to the rest of the state. (I grew up in another county.) Google will have to decide to get involved in improving the education system if they want long-term growth there, like Toyota has done in my now-home state, Kentucky. Otherwise, they will be importing every employee from elsewhere, and will eventually have trouble drawing top-notch people who have families. Here's hoping that's what they do.
While I wouldn't mind being paid a little extra (and I would qualify under the test score requirements, etc), neither of the Kentucky bills would have addressed the real issues that keep our kids from really learning Math. One of them only planned to reward the AP teachers. This would mainly reward the teachers who teach the kids that make teaching easy (probably most Slashdotters)and the ones who teach at the "East End" schools with lots of AP classes. Easy money, no changes in teaching ability or strategies. The other would reward only math ability, not teaching ability. I'm at a high school that has seen at least one too many end-of-career engineers with plenty of math ability who thought that teaching would be an easy, stress-free way to end those last 5-10 years before retirement who wound up burning out, having heart attacks, or becoming laughingstocks to the kids because they couldn't deal with adolescent behavior. If you're going to have differentiated pay, let it be based on what your students learn from you. Not the standardized tests (otherwise we'd all gravitate to those "rich" schools), but on whether the kids know more Algebra, Geometry, whatever, at the end of the year than at the beginning.
All three of our family computers, the GameCube, the stereo, and the TV are out in the open in a big family room at my house, leading to interesting arguments among the various adults, teens, and preteens who live here over who gets to do what. (Headphones are as critical as negotiation skills.) But we are ensuring that we know what our kids are doing, and they get to see by our actions what's appropriate, kind of like an updated version of the family gathering around the radio for the Grand Olde Opry. We also use the same approach with video games as we do for movies and music--If it's R (or M, or PG-13, or T, depending on which kid and what media) rated or has the Parental Warning sticker for lyrics on it, it's an automatic "no" unless mom or I have actually seen or heard it or have talked to another adult parent we trust and have decided that it is ok for our own children. We also talk out loud about this decision making process in hopes that we're helping build good thinking skills. I am a libertarian at heart and don't want any government agency deciding for me what is ok for my children (mostly because my standards are probably higher). At the same time, though, I teach high schoolers whose parents have absolutely no clue that they're playing GTA all night (and sleeping in class), pirating porn flicks, chatting with pedophiles, etc., etc. So it seems there needs to be some way to protect these children as well, at least to slow down the purchases by kids who aren't mature enough to really know it's not ok to slap a prostitute just because you can. A stronger version of some of the voluntary agreements in existence might be part of the answer.