[AGL] X-box? Soap box

[Wayne Johnson]

No. You were right on both counts.

The average K1-12 teacher makes less than a good auto mechanic or journeyman 
electrician.  This country/society does not value "education" only 
"celebrity success".  If Adoph Hitler were alive today, he would have a 
successful Talk Show on FoxTV.  Our capacity for brainless indulgence knows 
no lower boundries and most State Curricula aren't worth the paper they are 
written on.

Other than no one  wants to pay higher taxes just so that kids can read and 
write when they graduate from high school,  the whole "mission" of education 
has been set aside.  It is not about educating the children anymore or 
helping become useful (read: critically thinking) members of our (limited) 
Democracy, it is about "succeeding within the beuracracy (sp?)" "metrics for 
success....as an institutionalised teaching-zombie."   We don't care if they 
understand the REASONS for the Civil War, we just want them to remember the 
DATES so that we (the teachers) will "look good."   We don't care about 
Slavery as an American Institution for over three hundred years....because 
it makes us uncomfortable and we don't want to talk about it, anymore than 
murdering all the buffalo as an indirect means of "ridding the West of the 
Indian problem".  We don't care if our elected officials are there to slop 
up as much graft as they can as long as the look good and pretend to Piety.

Of fifty states, no two have the same approach to teaching. On "national 
level" almost all states (esp. Texas) look wretched....worse than the 
Belgian Congo or Pago Pago or Bulgaria.  Shit, much worse than most former 
Eastern Bloc countries.  Americans don't want to pay taxes and they don't 
care about what their kids like are going to be like after then next Super 
Bowl.

On another topic entirely,

Has anyone noticed the absolute fury, hatred, scorn and revulsion on the 
face of Cheney lately?  How dare "HE" be questioned or challenged.  He makes 
Martin Borman look like Mother Theresa.

wgJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harry Edwards" <laughingwolf at ev1.net>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s" 
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: [AGL] X-box? Soap box


> oops, interesting slip. I meant to say "in this country."        td
>
> On Nov 23, 2005, at 4:49 PM, Harry Edwards wrote:
>
>> spoken like one who has never taught before. Teaching is the most 
>> honorable and the most thankless profession there is in this  company. It 
>> is also one of the most difficult. I know there were times when I was 
>> bored silly in the classrooms of excellent teachers. Not the teachers' 
>> faults. We need fundamental change in this society.          twisty
>>
>> On Nov 23, 2005, at 4:39 PM, Frances Morey wrote:
>>
>>> "...lot of students bored silly by classroom instruction...," Jon wrote.
>>>
>>> That is such a sad posture for someone whose career has been spent 
>>> teaching. If the students are bored it's because their teacher has 
>>> neglected to create a schedule of learning that challenges their 
>>> individual young minds. If learning isn't fun, the teacher has been 
>>> reduced to an attendance taking roboton. Someone once noted that if a 
>>> young person has one admirable teacher out of eight, their attitudes 
>>> towards learning may be salvaged.
>>>
>>> There is a presumption of kids being bored, and a presumptuousness, 
>>> because the kids have trained themselves to act like they know-it-all 
>>> and have nothing left to learn.
>>> They are only in the classroom to ogle the opposite sex (or the same 
>>> sex) and see how little effort they can put-in to pass from one grade to 
>>> the next, like little spoiled (negle cted?) kid-brats. They are there 
>>> because the law says that they must be, and the teachers are there to 
>>> take home a paycheck, being reduced to prison guards.
>>>
>>> Video games are a great babysitter. With enough time devoted to playing 
>>> them they often become an obsession, eating up scads of precious time to 
>>> the detriment of all other aspects of the adolescence's development. 
>>> Such people will become parents who wish as little involvement with 
>>> children as possible, such people probably learned it from their own 
>>> parents who might have treated them as though they were a nuisance and a 
>>> burden. Lots of prof's kids suffered from this.
>>>
>>> Nothing personal, Jon. This is just my educational philosophy. It is the 
>>> teacher's job to make it exciting, so the students don't turn out to be 
>>> intelligent design creationists, for Christ's sakes, or automaton 
>>> know-nothings who w ouldn't question authority if it bit them on the 
>>> butt.
>>>
>>> Happy Thanksgiving, y'all,
>>> Frances
>>>
>>>
>>> Wayne Johnson <cadaobh at shentel.net> wrote:
>>>> Naturally, Jon manages to miss the point even while he makes his point.
>>>>
>>>> Of course, "education" is boring, no "Spam, Blat" No bigggg boobs, 
>>>> nothing
>>>> to Kill" Can't expect American kids to keep on their determined
>>>> Entertainment first, Education last approach to life if they are 
>>>> required
>>>> "think" instead of "react". Action now, rhetoric...critical
>>>> thinking...language usage...later...if at all. Learn everything about 
>>>> the
>>>> world by seeing it on a 6x6 box as determined by Japanese programmers. 
>>>> So
>>>> much easier than "listening". Who needs dialectic or literacy or theory 
>>>> of
>>>> numbers or phenomenology when one can spend ho urs fantasizing murder 
>>>> and
>>>> rape? Why bother with dissection when one can simulate NASCAR? Why 
>>>> bother
>>>> with learning "complicated" things like physics, chemistry or
>>>> ....gasp...biology, when one can just play with a "black box" or 
>>>> believe in
>>>> one?
>>>>
>>>> "Ooooh, Mommy. That mean old scientist makes my brain hurt!"
>>>> "Don't worry, Muffy, we will be safely back in Kansas tomorrow."
>>>>
>>>> But then such subtleties bypass some people who must constantly tell
>>>> themselves (and others) that "they" are the "most hip" while others 
>>>> cocoon
>>>> themselves in what some might call "elitist literary snobbery". 
>>>> Interesting
>>>> concatentation. Gee, if only the two could be mixed.
>>>>
>>>> "Fight the Texas War of Revolution! On the Mexican Side! At home! With
>>>> Game Person X"
>>>> "Thrill to the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking!" Who? Nan King? Oh,
>>>> cool, dude."
>>>> "Learn how Real Christians fight Apostasy, play "Inquisition!"
>>>> "Play the New Tunnel Rat!"
>>>> "Win points on Enol a Gay over the Medici."
>>>> "Vanquish the Green Knight with Madonna!"
>>>> "Pokemon vs Shakespeare".
>>>>
>>>> the mind boggles....or "bobbles" for some.
>>>>
>>>> wgJ
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Jon Ford"
>>>> To:
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2005 11:51 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: [AGL] X-box?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> >
>>>> > Mike, your quip is right on the money! Unlike Harry Potter films
>>>> and
>>>> > high school classes, the new media are interactive, leaving a lot
>>>> of
>>>> > students bored silly by classroom instruction. A book on video
>>>> games
>>>> > people should read, which gives us some insights into learning and
>>>> gaming
>>>> > is James Gee's
>>>> > "What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy"
>>>> (Palgrave
>>>> > MacMillan).
>>>> >
>>>> > >
>>>> > Talk about decorticating the brain.>
>>>> >
>>>> > Mike
>>>> >
>>>> > ----- Original Message ----  - From: "Wayne Johnson"
>>>> > To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
>>>> >
>>>> > Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 11:33 AM
>>>> > Subject: Re: [AGL] X-box?
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Honor and I talked with a local teacher whilst standing in line
>>>> the other
>>>> > night for Harry Potter. Part of this (sad) conversation was the
>>>> > revelation that his (high school level) kids....can not take
>>>> notes, can
>>>> > not follow an "oral" argument and can only take notes if they are
>>>> > "bulletized" a la Power Point. He assigns this horrid situation to
>>>> a
>>>> > (young) lifetime of ......game playing.
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>
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