Journal Captain Splendid's Journal: Obama says something not completely stupid 34
Granted, he doesn't want to legalize pot, but he does think kids have it far too easy:
He said the current school system--with three months off at midyear--was designed for an agriculture society centuries ago.
Fuck yeah! Number one: Summer holidays, as freaking awesome as we all remember them being, are just horribly handicapping. Going from that straight to 2 weeks a year off in the job market (if you're lucky) is like hitting the handbrake when you're going 100MPH.
Second, we get rid of the teachers whose main criteria for working in education is the time off.
So, uh, go team Obama! But seriously, legal dope soon, eh? Fuck the fundies.
He said the current school system--with three months off at midyear--was designed for an agriculture society centuries ago.
Fuck yeah! Number one: Summer holidays, as freaking awesome as we all remember them being, are just horribly handicapping. Going from that straight to 2 weeks a year off in the job market (if you're lucky) is like hitting the handbrake when you're going 100MPH.
Second, we get rid of the teachers whose main criteria for working in education is the time off.
So, uh, go team Obama! But seriously, legal dope soon, eh? Fuck the fundies.
Though... (Score:2)
How would you like dealing with a room full of rowdy kids without any kind of break to recuperate?
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Also, I have no problem with 3 months/year total. 3 months consecutive, though, is stupid.
The great part about this idea is that parents will vote for it in large amounts. Not having to deal with kids/pay for summer camp? Awesome!
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I agree with the consecutive part; actually having that many months off seriously impacts student retention of things they have learned, so breaking it up into breaks throughout the year makes sense.
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I was in favour ... but then I thought a bit more ...
Younger kids NEED that time off, to become socialized outside a school environment. They also need to get out of the house|school|basement|whatever - not enough sun can have long-term consequences, even though it may not be apparent immediately. Biking, walking, fishing (though I think fishing is cruel - but that's just me), reading something because they WANT to read it instead of it being required reading material ...
Older kids can use the time to
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Younger kids NEED that time off, to become socialized outside a school environment.
I've explain why socializing is negative to you, and others, many times already. Seems like people don't like to believe me.
Older kids can use the time to get a summer job - not just to make some money, but to get some practical "real-life" experience so they appreciate what their parents go through a bit more.
Unless they can get a job training seals, programming for Google, or something interesting like that then "real world" experience is probably more of a negative than a positive. My parents were shot at and had bombs dropped on them from the sky when they were kids; I don't think sending kids to Somalia or Sudan for the summer will benefit them in any way.
... not enough sun can have long-term consequences, even though it may not be apparent immediately.
Nonsense. Sun is highly over-
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Ditto for parents who don't live close to their kids. If you have a job, and the custodial parent moves away with the kids, it's not a case of "This could be solved by just getting a job closer to the kids. If the paren
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When couples staying together are the exception, and not the rule, it's easy to predict who will not stay together ... pick "FAIL" all the time, and you end up with a 75% success rate without even seeing them.
The average marriage doesn't last that long any more. The average "relationship" is just as fleeting.
However, what you and Gottman are looking at is the outward signs - not the underlying causes. Ask yourself this - how come friendships can last a lot longer than marriages, given the same circums
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So it seems like I was wrong when I've always stated (or implied) that people defend their arguments and interpret reality through their own dogmas and beliefs instead of through logic. Smitty was right all this time. Socialization is good. I will save my money so that I can move to Israel where I can live on a Kibbutz and learn to socialize.
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Nothing is black and white. Part of socialization is learning that, and developing enough flexibility and resilience that other people don't *have* to be perfect. BTW - socialization has NOTHING to do with socialism - socialization is the process of learning how to interact appropriately with others under less than optimal conditions. A good example would be with dogs - dogs that are properly socialized are friendly. Dogs that aren't, are fearful of others, and tend to growl, nip, bark, and attack without
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fishing (though I think fishing is cruel - but that's just me),
Fishing is cruel for children. They're not allowed to drink beer.
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That's why we had to stick to the home-made wine. True - when I was 9 - 10years old, my father would take me fishing, oneof the fishermen would have a jug or two of homemade wine. We all drank it. I thought it was fancy grape juice - sort of like Welches with a punch. I *like* grape juice :-)
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How would you like dealing with a room full of rowdy kids without any kind of break to recuperate?
Many teachers (most?) just teach summer school for the extra money. So they choose not to relax from the hell-hole of teaching children.
The rowdy-kids problem I keep hearing about seems to occur with the lower class kids. So if we get rid of the lower class, then we can get rid of the rowdy-kids problem. (I'm not suggesting getting rid of poverty like count Vlad III [wikipedia.org] did).
teachers (Score:2)
teachers whose main criteria for working in education is the time off
I don't doubt that there are some teachers out there who indeed chose that job for the time off. However, how many do you know personally who subscribe to that philosophy? My wife knows several grade-school teachers personally, and while they do like to have the summers off, they also miss the money that they don't earn by not working.
I suspect if you actually surveyed current teachers you'll find that at least as large of a portion of teachers support year-round school as do people in the general publi
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I'm not sure why you're arguing quantity when I posited none in my JE.
That is why I asked you how many teachers you know that fit the description you provided. It leaves me to wonder how much of a difference you think it would make if we got rid of the teachers that fit your description.
But you don't have to talk quantity (even in vague relative terms) if you don't want to. You don't even have to reply to my comments if you don't want to. You're free to not respond if you feel that better serves you.
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Even if it's only one, it's already a good start. You want to be a slacker, be a slacker (like me). If you want to teach, teach. This should be obvious.
But you don't have to talk quantity (even in vague relative terms) if you don't want to. You don't even have to reply to my comments if you don't want to. You're free to not respond if you feel that better serves you.
C
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want to be a slacker, be a slacker (like me). If you want to teach, teach. This should be obvious
And what if someone wants to teach and they like having the summer off? After all, the current crop of teachers had summers off when they were schoolchildren (at least if they went to school in the US).
I am not convinced that teaching and enjoying summers off have to be mutually exclusive sets.
But you don't have to talk quantity (even in vague relative terms) if you don't want to. You don't even have to reply to my comments if you don't want to. You're free to not respond if you feel that better serves you.
Christ almighty you are a major bummer, you know that?
I don't see where you are going with that. Your previous reply to my comment was a bit on the snide side, I thought I would reiterate your options. You are free to dislike me and take whatever actions on slashd
Watched some of the Virtual Town Hall live (Score:1)
And this to me is more of an argument for killing Daylight Savings Time.
But ... I can see only having say six to eight week summer vacations, which gives you enough time to take an accelerated refresher course, provided any teachers or professors are contractually permitted to take up to four months for continuing education courses.
This will severely impact summer camp counselors though.
Obama didn't say it (Score:1)
But at least Hillary is admitting [guardian.co.uk] what none of her goddamn predecessors would. The thing is that prohibition and its effects are such a large part of the whole world's economies, I don't see a peaceful way to end it.
School isn't the only place to learn (Score:2)
The summer vacation is also a learning experience, as valuable as school itself. Kids should have time to be kids, and summer vacation is perfect for it.
The main argument (that nobody actually says) is that in times past, Mom was there during the summer, and now she has to pay a child care worker. I'd like to see salaries go back up to the point that a parent, whether Mom or Dad, could stay home with the kids during the summer.
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Two prominent things wrong with that
1) Long summer vacations disadvantage poorer kids who can't afford the enrichment programs that middle and upper class families can afford
2) Long summers (2 months) are very, very wasteful in the learning process because substantial amounts of materials are forgotten. Exercising the brain is analogous to exercising the muscles; you get the most benefit if the exercises are consistent without very large breaks in between.
Now I'm off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard
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Who said anything about enrichment programs? Playing baseball is a learning experience. The kid learns about cooperation, teamwork, learns eye-had coordination, etc. I never had enrichment programs; there were no such things back in the '60s. Hell, we didn't even have kindergarten, let alone preschool.
But I spent the summers playing ball, riding my bike, hiking through the woods (lots to learn in the woods), reading, etc. Sometimes in a kid's learning experience, adults just get in the way.
I'm not so sure t
Wait a minute! You got it backwards. (Score:1)
We're supposed to be demanding 3 months paid vacation. Two weeks is criminal, and I can't figure why anybody puts up with it. Failure to organize, I guess. I suppose all the union haters out there think that two weeks and the now mythical 40 hour work week came out of the corporations' good heart.
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Well, yeah, I'm with you on that one, but I'm also a realist.
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Persistence... It took us over a year, but we finally got a four day(10 hour day) week out of my former employer. And that was before we unionized. More time off will help more people get jobs to fill in the holes, too. It's a good fight. Worth whatever it takes. Just gotta convince people that it's "god's will" or something like that. Work every angle.
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The seniority system can take care of that. Or draw from a hat. I used all my time at once because two weeks just didn't do it for me. I would travel too far to be able to enjoy such a short time. But we gotta get more time off. I won't work full time anymore because of the present system. And I started going south at first frost, and come back in the spring and work through the summer. Repeat, rinse... Only this time(well, a few years ago) I never went back. I wonder if they miss me yet...
Depends on what you do in the summer (Score:1)
I learned more valuable life skills during my summer breaks than I did in my twelve years of mandated public schooling. I taught myself to read before I entered kindergarten (enough to read and at least partially understand my local daily newspaper), and my mom taught me basic simple mathematics. My own interests taught me what I know about science in general, and also practical engineering. My father was there to answer technical questions (heavy geek, radar, radio, TV, mainframes) and to instruct me in na
Centuries? (Score:2)
Try under 4 generations. In 1910, agriculture was still 31% of the labor force, and most farming families *NEEDED* summer break to have labor to help with the harvest.
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No, that would have been "Century" singular. "Centuries" to me would have been 1810 or earlier, but we had a *significant* portion of the population still in agriculture right up to the 1950s- and most farmers I know of Berry fields were still busing city kids out for harvest time right up to the mid 1980s, when the illegal immigrants took over that job.
So maybe, at best, the current "summer vacation" as a time for farm work has been outdated for 20-25 years, certainly NOT "Centuries".
It's not the "summers off" (Score:2)
Fortunately, I do better than 95% of the population at anything I attempt, so it doesn't really matter *what* my motivation is. They're just lucky to have me.