Wait, people CAN pay to have their kids go to private schools. I know lots that do. Maybe you want to complain that they'd be paying twice, once with taxes and once in private school tuition. But it's not twice. Their school taxes are probably only about 10% of private school tuition.

So, offer your average parent a $1000 tax savings v. $10K per child tuition bill.

>most private schools are far superior than public education
Provide proof please. Scientific proof. Proof that factors in the student's total learning environment. Proof that controls for the fact that private school kids have parents that value education enough to fork over an extra $10k/yr/kids, and maybe pay attention to their kids. Proof, please, or STFU.

My wife is a teacher and keeps calling me to get the real answers because the IT folk in her school district lacked any real knowledge of any topic and could only fix/implement things by script. (well, that's not really true, but one or two instances lead to easy generalizations, don't they)

If teaching was really so easy and so well paid, then you (yes - YOU) could use your superior skills and abilities to make a real difference in the world and a substantial contribution to society by quitting your bit-twiddling, script-reading, Windoze-hating, printer cartridge-changing job and start teaching. So why don't you?

Teachers are becoming the targets of the new skinheads, with pogroms just around the corner. Wisconsin and Florida are leading the way.

Today we had someone wanting advice on getting his kid to read sci-fi, now someone wanting advice on getting his friends to watch Star Trek. I see what we've become. I'd like some advice on getting my GF to enjoy pron. What websites should we try?

>read ahead
Yeah, we did this too. The kids kept two bookmarks in the books, one for them and one for us to resume reading aloud. Theirs was always ahead, but they always wanted to hear us read from the earlier bookmark.

Reading aloud works for quite awhile. I was a parent at sixth-grade camp a few times. On the first night the kids would be pretty rowdy, not settling down. I just sat and started reading aloud in a normal voice, probably "Hatchet" or "Have Spacesuit" and kids would start shushing each other to listen. On subsequent nights they would settle right in and ask for the story.

I see the redditors are here. We'll have boobs and puppies next.

Just a way for them leets (wouldn't it be cool if there were a special way to spell that?) to feel superior to us under-rock-dwellers who prefer text to choppy video.

>why ask a question you already know the answer to
Now we can't tell him to go do his own research and RTFM

> an argument over the semantics of the word 'semantics'?

Yes, and i'm apparently not making a very good job of it. I thought i said "x", but the reply was "No, "x""
I'm unclear as to the difference between my "semantics is, the proper use of terminology" and "semantics is the matter of examining the underlying substance; what is actually being communicated"

Perhaps Samantha is saying that "the proper use of terminology" is syntax, and i should have said "the proper meaning of terminology"

> not semantics, but rather proper use of terminology
Wait, isn't that exactly what semantics is, the proper use of terminology?

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - - that's all."

But just like in the war on drugs, there will be golden opportunities to scrape off a few bucks as the money goes flying around to build up a bureaucracy, buy more assault rifles and urban tanks, build more jails, and bamboozle the taxpayers. Follow the money.

They may not shoot you, but they'll sure take the opportunity to shoot your pets. And whatever is behind your pets.

It's a training exercise. They get to strap on their military equipment, synchronize their watches, and play WOW in the neighborhood. If they're lucky they get to shoot the family dogs. If they're really lucky the homeowner is holding his morning coffee in a cup that looks like a gun...

Nevil mind, they understood the brilliance in a town like alice, I'm shute.

Dust blows in to replenish the soil? I look at the dust on my bookcase here and believe i could grow oats, peas, beans, and barley. Not lettuce, though. The dust bunnies from under the bed would eat it.

Loki, where did you go? Are you OK? It's been hours with no word from you. What happened to your intellectual honesty?