Disasters
Johnstown, 1889. The Johnstown Dam burst sending a wave of water 125 feet high through East Conemaugh, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. 2,000 to 7,000 people died. The entire city was wiped out. Who rebuilt it? The people of Johnstown did. No Federal help.
Galveston,-September of 1900. A hurricane literally wiped out the city. More than 6 thousand people died (20% of the population). Who rebuilt Galveston? The people of Galveston. No federal money.
Chicago- October 8, 1871., The Great Chicago fire destroyed most of the city and put 100,000 people homeless. 6 months after the fire half of the city had been rebuilt. Who rebuilt it? The people of Chicago did. No Federal help.
San Francisco,-April 18, 1906. The San Francisco Earthquake and fire destroyed 75% of the city and killed about 700 people (not including Chinese which made the total about3,000). Within 5 years the city had been completely rebuilt. Who rebuilt San Francisco? The people of San Francisco. 1 million dollars in federal money.
And we are paying what to rebuild a city that has no rational reason to exist where it is, and may be 3 feet under water in the next 100 years?
Friday, September 29, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
To Whom Do We Teach?
Remember the old saw, "'A' students teach, and 'B' students work for 'C' students"? There is no mention of 'D' or 'F' students. Do you think that the saying is true today? I don't.
I don't think that it holds true because many, if not most, of today's 'C' students are yesterday's 'D' and 'F' students.
There is a lot of public outcry about how our students are not matching up well against foreign competition. Is it possible that we are "falling behind" because we focus 80% of our time and treasure on the LOWEST 10% of our students while our competition focuses 80% of its time and treasure on the HIGHEST 10%?
I know everybody wants to blame 'No Child Left Behind' for that but really NCLB is just the latest in a long list of 'feel good' projects gone bad. Other groups who are guilty of this behavior are the American Academy of Child and Asolescent Psychiatry, the National Association for Retarded Citizens, the National Education Ass., and others.
I don't think that it holds true because many, if not most, of today's 'C' students are yesterday's 'D' and 'F' students.
There is a lot of public outcry about how our students are not matching up well against foreign competition. Is it possible that we are "falling behind" because we focus 80% of our time and treasure on the LOWEST 10% of our students while our competition focuses 80% of its time and treasure on the HIGHEST 10%?
I know everybody wants to blame 'No Child Left Behind' for that but really NCLB is just the latest in a long list of 'feel good' projects gone bad. Other groups who are guilty of this behavior are the American Academy of Child and Asolescent Psychiatry, the National Association for Retarded Citizens, the National Education Ass., and others.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Friday, September 22, 2006
Things you have to do to learn:
1) Show up for the experience
2) Participate in the experience
3) Think about the experience enough to understand it
4) Make a decision to accept or reject the experience.
One thing that mandatory universal education has proven without a doubt is that “showing up” for the experience is much more than just physically being there”.
1) Show up for the experience
2) Participate in the experience
3) Think about the experience enough to understand it
4) Make a decision to accept or reject the experience.
One thing that mandatory universal education has proven without a doubt is that “showing up” for the experience is much more than just physically being there”.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
EDUCATION: A contrarian’s point of view
It always amazes me when people whine about the cost and relative ineffectiveness of public education in America. Our education is not as effective as it might be, not because it we spend too little on it, but because we spend too much on education.
I was watching a news report the other night on the diminishing Christian Church in Britain. Attendance has fallen off by more than 50% and many church buildings have had to be closed and sold. Toward the end of the report one of the Christian clergy was saying that the reason why these churches were failing was that they had made religion “inconvenient”. His example was that on Holy Days congregants were expected to attend services after work which he felt was entirely too much to ask. The report ended with a shot of a construction site that is supposed to be the start of the largest mosque in Europe. Why? Because the Moslem religion is the fastest growing religion in Britain. And of course we all know how liberal and easy going that is. People appreciate what they have to work for.
When the British forbade the Scotts to become educated, thousands of Scottish boys and girls would slip out of their homes and attend “school” at night under the hedgerows. They would learn math, and science, and (Scottish) history. People appreciate what they have to work for.
When our own slaves from Africa were forbidden to learn to read or write – teaching and learning still went on, even when the penalty might have been death. People appreciate what they have to work for.
My father, who really did go to school in a one room school could read and write in Latin and had read some of the classics in Latin. He never finished high school but dropped out and went to work on the cargo ships on the Great Lakes.My mother was the 11th of 12 children, attended high school in a small farming community, Watseka. Ill. Her father owned the local saloon and did a little farming. She attended 2 years of college and read and wrote both Latin and French.
The point is that it does not take a multimillion dollar school to turn out well educated people. It does take a desire to learn. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas A. Edison are proofs of that. Desire is enhanced by scarcity or unattainability. So if, as a society, we want more of our children to go to school and to learn something while they are there, we should make schools much harder to get into and much harder to pass.
I was watching a news report the other night on the diminishing Christian Church in Britain. Attendance has fallen off by more than 50% and many church buildings have had to be closed and sold. Toward the end of the report one of the Christian clergy was saying that the reason why these churches were failing was that they had made religion “inconvenient”. His example was that on Holy Days congregants were expected to attend services after work which he felt was entirely too much to ask. The report ended with a shot of a construction site that is supposed to be the start of the largest mosque in Europe. Why? Because the Moslem religion is the fastest growing religion in Britain. And of course we all know how liberal and easy going that is. People appreciate what they have to work for.
When the British forbade the Scotts to become educated, thousands of Scottish boys and girls would slip out of their homes and attend “school” at night under the hedgerows. They would learn math, and science, and (Scottish) history. People appreciate what they have to work for.
When our own slaves from Africa were forbidden to learn to read or write – teaching and learning still went on, even when the penalty might have been death. People appreciate what they have to work for.
My father, who really did go to school in a one room school could read and write in Latin and had read some of the classics in Latin. He never finished high school but dropped out and went to work on the cargo ships on the Great Lakes.My mother was the 11th of 12 children, attended high school in a small farming community, Watseka. Ill. Her father owned the local saloon and did a little farming. She attended 2 years of college and read and wrote both Latin and French.
The point is that it does not take a multimillion dollar school to turn out well educated people. It does take a desire to learn. Abraham Lincoln and Thomas A. Edison are proofs of that. Desire is enhanced by scarcity or unattainability. So if, as a society, we want more of our children to go to school and to learn something while they are there, we should make schools much harder to get into and much harder to pass.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Why I am no longer a Roman Catholic
Well I see that the good Pope Benedict has got himself in to a spot of difficulty. And I see that he is trying to extricate himself with a certain amount of Roman deftness and misdirection by issuing an apology not for what he said but that some people objected to what he said. Of course that's an old trick and most folks are quick enough to see it theses days. But he will slide out from underneath because he is good at misdirection. Look at the way he handled the child sex abuse scandals in the Roman Church.
Remember he was Pope John's enforcer and very little went on in the world wide church that he did not know about (especially if it were scandalous). In America we had numerous priests being moved from one parish to another and even from one diocese to another because their sexual activities with little boys had become known. Imagine that … Essentially the Roman Church was playing “hide the pea” to protect its own pedophile priests!? It takes a big conspiracy to do something like that, because a lot of people know what is going on. The victim and his parents know; the other priests in the Parish know; the parish secretary knows; the Bishop knows; his assistant knows; the Bishop’s secretary knows; The Archbishop and or the Cardinal knows and their assistants and secretaries know; the chief administrative priest of the receiving parish knows; All of the legal staffs at the various administrative levels know and some of their clerical staff knows; the Pope and his intimates know; Of course the Enforcer (now known as Pope Benedict) would know; and with all of this “knowing” going on it is impossible that significant parts of the Roman Curia (all priests themselves) would not know.
What all of this means is that for a large number of years, certainly most of Pope John’s reign, the Roman Catholic Church from top to bottom knew that many priests (world wide) were orally and anally raping little boys, and not one of these hundreds of “men of God” not one of these leaders stood up to put a stop to it.
And it is still going on. Oh, not so much in the Western Democracies but in third world countries. Little black boys, and little brown boys, and little yellow boys are still receiving the “special” attention of their parish priests. And if it becomes a local scandal, why the priests are just moved to a different country. More “hiding the pea.”
One wonders if Benedict’s rush to canonize John XXIII is because he really believes that John is worthy (perhaps John could be the patron saint of hopeless pedophiles) or because Benedict thinks that making John a saint will short circuit future investigations.
In any event, it hardly seems that the Roman part of the catholic church can hold itself out as the ‘one true church’ since the gates of hell have very apparently prevailed against it.
Remember he was Pope John's enforcer and very little went on in the world wide church that he did not know about (especially if it were scandalous). In America we had numerous priests being moved from one parish to another and even from one diocese to another because their sexual activities with little boys had become known. Imagine that … Essentially the Roman Church was playing “hide the pea” to protect its own pedophile priests!? It takes a big conspiracy to do something like that, because a lot of people know what is going on. The victim and his parents know; the other priests in the Parish know; the parish secretary knows; the Bishop knows; his assistant knows; the Bishop’s secretary knows; The Archbishop and or the Cardinal knows and their assistants and secretaries know; the chief administrative priest of the receiving parish knows; All of the legal staffs at the various administrative levels know and some of their clerical staff knows; the Pope and his intimates know; Of course the Enforcer (now known as Pope Benedict) would know; and with all of this “knowing” going on it is impossible that significant parts of the Roman Curia (all priests themselves) would not know.
What all of this means is that for a large number of years, certainly most of Pope John’s reign, the Roman Catholic Church from top to bottom knew that many priests (world wide) were orally and anally raping little boys, and not one of these hundreds of “men of God” not one of these leaders stood up to put a stop to it.
And it is still going on. Oh, not so much in the Western Democracies but in third world countries. Little black boys, and little brown boys, and little yellow boys are still receiving the “special” attention of their parish priests. And if it becomes a local scandal, why the priests are just moved to a different country. More “hiding the pea.”
One wonders if Benedict’s rush to canonize John XXIII is because he really believes that John is worthy (perhaps John could be the patron saint of hopeless pedophiles) or because Benedict thinks that making John a saint will short circuit future investigations.
In any event, it hardly seems that the Roman part of the catholic church can hold itself out as the ‘one true church’ since the gates of hell have very apparently prevailed against it.
Friday, September 15, 2006
INTERROGATION
Has the United State ever fought a war in which the other side actually followed the requirements of the Geneva Convention? Germany? NO; Japan? NO; North Korea? NO; China? NO; North Vietnam? NO; Iraq? NO; Afghanistan? NO; Iraq? NO. Did I miss anybody?
If the idea is that if we treat their people well they will treat our people well, how has that worked out for the last 70+ years? The answer is, of course, not very well. We want people to think well of us? Why? If you are the richest and nicest guy on the block, a few people are going to try to take what you have. If you are the riches meanest guy on the block nobody will mess with you. I prefer to not be messed with.
As far as safeguarding our own people is concerned that certainly has not happened. Even if the enemy cared about his own troops he knows that they will be safe with us so why should he treat our guys better? IN FACT, following the Geneva Conventions when the enemy does not really puts our people at more risk because there is no consequence to their poor behavior.
If the idea is that if we treat their people well they will treat our people well, how has that worked out for the last 70+ years? The answer is, of course, not very well. We want people to think well of us? Why? If you are the richest and nicest guy on the block, a few people are going to try to take what you have. If you are the riches meanest guy on the block nobody will mess with you. I prefer to not be messed with.
As far as safeguarding our own people is concerned that certainly has not happened. Even if the enemy cared about his own troops he knows that they will be safe with us so why should he treat our guys better? IN FACT, following the Geneva Conventions when the enemy does not really puts our people at more risk because there is no consequence to their poor behavior.
FAT, CHUBBY, and TUBBY KIDS
Kids do not get fat at school, they get fat at home. Take a look at how much work it takes to burn 1 calorie.
We are not going to turn fat kids into skinny kids at school.
But if we want to put a little aerobic excercise into their chubby lives it would not be hard. Take out lockers, make sure the back packs all weigh at least 10 lbs., make all of the hall ways one way the same way, and give them only two minutes between classes. All detention, in school suspension, and Saturday school would consist of old time Phys. Ed. (running, jumping jacks, push ups, etc.).
They might not get skinny but they would learn to move their big fat butts pretty good, and no time for snaks.
We are not going to turn fat kids into skinny kids at school.
But if we want to put a little aerobic excercise into their chubby lives it would not be hard. Take out lockers, make sure the back packs all weigh at least 10 lbs., make all of the hall ways one way the same way, and give them only two minutes between classes. All detention, in school suspension, and Saturday school would consist of old time Phys. Ed. (running, jumping jacks, push ups, etc.).
They might not get skinny but they would learn to move their big fat butts pretty good, and no time for snaks.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Telecommuting
It seems to me that there are millions of jobs in America that could be done by telecommuting. Telecommuting would solve traffic jams, pollution, and oil dependence. The vast majority of jobs could be switched in 2 years.
So why don't we do it??
So why don't we do it??
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
A curse on all of their houses
Over at the education wonks is a post about the math folks going back to basics.
All the people who suffered through "New Math" and "Fuzzy Math" ought to be able to sue the people who thought up that crap for emotional, and intellectual distress; for lost job opportunities; and for fraud. The United States should try them for treason. There are some math and social science curriculum developers who should suffer the same fate. A curse on all of their houses.
All the people who suffered through "New Math" and "Fuzzy Math" ought to be able to sue the people who thought up that crap for emotional, and intellectual distress; for lost job opportunities; and for fraud. The United States should try them for treason. There are some math and social science curriculum developers who should suffer the same fate. A curse on all of their houses.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Intro
I'm just an average old guy. This blog is about what I think and do. Maybe you will find it interesting and maybe you won't.
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