In comments on Wowsers are ever with us, below, blake said "Yeah, the city cares if you're armed, but they have an uncanny ability to detect education and stamp it out of existence." Dallas would appear to be taking a preventive approach. If children are not educated, then when they grow up, they'll have no education that needs stamping. A post by Tolewyn, "E" for effort, inspires a longer one by LawDog, Stop the planet! I want off! on Dallas's new "effort-based grading" system. Found in Jerry Pournelle's mail.
Update: Mickey Kaus, this morning, has Dems rally against unions! OK, teachers' unions. Still … The line in this that most strikingly resonates with the Dallas developments noted above is this:
One panelist--I think it was Peter Groff, president of the Colorado State Senate, got the ball rolling by complaining that when the children's agenda meets the adult agenda, the "adult agenda wins too often."The adult agenda for many who work in the schools seems to be warehousing rather than educating.
Gotta go away again now for a while. I might add to this later.
21 comments:
Actually, some of those ideas are not so bad, it's just when taken together that they guarantee failure.
For example, there's nothing wrong with not recording a non-passing grade--as long as you ensure that the student is forced to repeat the subject until they actually learn it.
Deadlines are another issue, but I confess I thought a lot of the deadlines in school were arbitrary. (Deadlines often are, of course, but I thought there was a fair amount of capriciousness in school deadlines. Not that I ever missed them.)
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common then unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
By gosh, I think that last comment was spam! I am a bit of a Calvin Coolidge fan, but I don't recall mentioning him here (pause to search…) except this once. But the link goes to a site promoting colleges in Australia; and I would not want to discourage anyone from pursuing higher education. Maybe it's benign spam, that can be allowed to remain. Really though, CSmhacky of the unavailable profile, it would have been better form to attribute the quotation.
Furthermore, that quote reminds me of this.
Yes, it's always exciting to get the spam.
I mean, if you don't get spam, can you really be sure you exist?
blake, I thought you were a Southern Californian, not a denizen of Berkeley.
George never heard of spam.
What would Heisenberg say?
Until we receive spam, we both do and do not exist?
Spam, not so tasty. Heisenberg would probably rather have a landjäger and a beer, and right now, so would I. Question your own existence all you like—after all, for all I know, you are just a figment of my fevered imagination—Cosmo Topper's first conception of George Kirby in pixels, as t'were; yet the prospect of sausage and beer serves to collapse my state vector enough for me. The solipsist's take on the observer effect, or as Heinlein said, "I know where I came from—but where did all you zombies come from?"
Oh hell, now I've mentioned zombies. Next I suppose Fido will be whining at the door.
I am not a figment of your imaginaion.
I may, however, be a replicant.
Down strange paths you lead me, maelstrommer. Wikipedia (as of this moment):
"Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) is a self-sufficient combat model for the colonization defence program. (Mental-A) … Roy appears capable of love, guilt, sorrow, and empathy (although these emotions confuse him to a degree). In the end, Roy is something of a Blake-type character in the film, and almost a hero. He even saves Deckard's life, even though Deckard was sent to kill him."
That's nice. Apparently there was a Blake clone, whose fate is unknown. Or maybe it just could not be shown. Some things are not meant to be known.
Such as non-passing grades. DAMN! Didn't mean to get back on topic like that! Just forget I said it. I'll start being serious again tomorrow, or maybe the next day.
Pop quiz hotshot:
Which Thorne Smith novel features a character with my name?
There's a Mrs. Blake Willard in Topper Takes a Trip. Of course, with Google and Amazon's search inside the book, this sort of quiz is just about nugatory. Marie Blake played a Puritan named Purity Sykes in the movie "I Married a Witch," based on The Passionate Witch. So which one did I miss?
Satin and Gloria are both calling for me to come to bed. Hmm, maybe I'll mix up another shaker and light a cigar.
Oh, and, just for laughs, a pangram: Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz. It's … Lovecraftian, no? The mysterious inscriptions, the geologically unlikely place where they were found, the eccentric person who was disturbed by them … some things are not meant to be known by mortal man.
Other things are, though, thank goodness, and they include beer, sausages, and (in case you missed it a hundred comments deep at Althouse) The Charabanc Trip.
There's also a Blake in Turnabout.
It was a lot more common back then. But it's making a comeback now.
The regular vestal virgin furnace tender with the military moustache. Apparently not in the movie.
So much for "just about nugatory." A Three Musketeers would have more nougat in it than I had in that overconfident reply. Ah, Google, thou'rt failed me! For my books are in boxes, and, honestly, I think it's at least 30 years since I re-read Turnabout. I've seen the movie more recently, but that character seems to have been left out of the film.
Turnabout's on line!
I think it's only legal to read in Europe, though, so don't click here if you're in the U.S.A.
Ivor Biggun? Heh.
>>Cwm fjord bank glyphs vext quiz
That's funny. I've been playing this little card game called "Necronomicon" at Kongregate.
But my Welsh ancestors are long dead. How the hell do you pronounce "cwm"?
The English word is "coombe," with a silent "b." So it rhymes with room, or to continue the Lovecraftiness, tomb.
Or doom, or gloom, or whom; but not perfume, or Brit Hume, or exhume.
Those were the lesser known counterparts to the June/moon/spoon songs: The gloom/cwm/doom songs.
Most of them written by Edgar Allen Poe, I believe. Who, if he had had a singing voice, could have been the Jim Morrison of his era, if he had been better looking, and not quite as good a writer.
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