[Texgreen] The US education system
Gene Akins
geneakins@hotmail.com
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:17:19 +0000
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Craig: I have been reading some of your half-baked conjectures for several =
years now. Most of the time I just hit the delete key.But , in the spirit o=
f charity, I thought to give you another chance and see if you were doing o=
r saying anything positive about the "movement". I opened post and you were=
attacking somebody else named Mark(of course, in your friendliest way). I =
beleive you are an agent for the "bosses"; that group or oligarchy if you w=
ill, that never thinks any threat to their rulership is too small to be ove=
rlooked. So they place cats like you to confuse and disrupt any coming toge=
ther of minds that might cause the sheeple to REALLY wake up and get off t=
his reformist crap, get out in the streets (as we did in 10 or 11 cities th=
is last Saturday), start having more Coalition meetings on Real Civil Disob=
edience.instead of listening to jitterbugs like you knocking somebody sayin=
g something meaningful about"education".I am NOT in solidarity with you unl=
ess you change your song or split! Gene (a friend of Red Emma)> To: texgr=
een@lists.gp-us.org> From: loveandrage@ureach.com> Subject: Re: [Texgreen] =
The US education system> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:12:47 -0400> > I think M=
ark is whack! At least bad reporting. The expert is one teacher. > Where is=
the evidence ... statistics. Don't spread your personal fear,> conspiracy,=
and disfunctional issues on us, Mark Morford. It's all hear-say. > Not jou=
rnalism. This is crap. People see what they want to see. This just> says mo=
re about Mark Morford and his so called educator than it does about> societ=
y as a whole. No offense Roger.> > Miller> > > > > ________________________=
________________________> Get your own "800" number> Voicemail, fax, email,=
and a lot more> http://www.ureach.com/reg/tag> > > ---- On Thu, 25 Oct 200=
7, Roger Baker (rcbaker@eden.infohwy.com) wrote:> > > ATTACHMENT 0: image/g=
if> > > > Mark Morford: Kids these days ...> Mark Morford> > Wednesday, Oct=
ober 24, 2007> > I have this ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who =
just so > happens to be a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful=
guy > who's seen generations of teens come and go and who has a delightful=
> poetic sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and family and > belov=
ed teaching career.> > He often writes in response to something I might've =
written about the > youth of today, anything in which I comment on the nefa=
rious factors > shaping their minds and their perspectives and whether, say=
, EMFs and > junk food and cell phones are melting their brains and what ca=
n be done.> > His response: It is not bad at all. It's absolutely horrifyin=
g.> > My friend often summarizes for me what he sees, firsthand, every day =
> and every month, year in and year out, in his classroom. He speaks > not =
merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among > students o=
ver the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy > slackerhood, =
or that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are > short-circuiting=
the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he > says, there is zero d=
oubt.> > Nor does he speak merely of the notion that kids these days are > =
overprotected and wussified and don't spend enough time outdoors and > don'=
t get any real exercise and therefore can't, say, identify basic > plants, =
or handle a tool, or build, well, anything at all. Again, > these things ar=
e a given. Widely reported, tragically ignored, > nothing new.> > No, my fr=
iend takes it all a full step further. It is not only a sad > slide. It is =
not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than > that.> > As far as=
urban public education is concerned, we are essentially at > rock bottom. =
We are at a point where we are churning out ignorant > teens who are becomi=
ng ignorant adults, and society will pay dearly, > very soon, and if you th=
ink the hordes of easily terrified, mindless > fundamentalist evangelical C=
hristian lemmings have been bad for the > soul of this country, just wait.>=
> It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is > =
seriously considering moving out of the country to escape what he > perceiv=
es will be the collapse of functioning American society in the > next handf=
ul of years due to the destruction, the shocking - and > nearly hopeless - =
dumb-ification of the American brain.> > Now, you may think he's merely a c=
urmudgeon, a tired old teacher who > stopped caring long ago. Not true. Tea=
ching is his life. He says he > loves his students, loves education and lea=
rning and watching young > minds awaken. Problem is, he is seeing much less=
of it. It's like the > melting of the polar ice caps. Sure, there's been a=
larmist data about > it for years, but until you see it, the deep visceral =
dread doesn't > really hit home.> > He cites studies, reports, hard data, f=
rom the appalling effects of > television on child brain development (i.e.;=
any TV exposure before > age 6 and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and s=
patial perceptions > are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that,=
because of all > the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced t=
o > incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, > th=
ere are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland > High. As o=
ne of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf > twice a day, but =
never feeding it."> > But most of all, he simply observes his students, yea=
r to year, > noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities=
when > confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from > unde=
rstanding simple history to working through moderately complex > ideas to e=
ven (in a couple of recent examples that particularly > distressed him) bei=
ng able to define the words "agriculture," or even > "democracy." Not a sin=
gle student could do it.> > It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, o=
f the 6,000 high > school students he estimates he's taught during the span=
of his > career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a > f=
unctioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to > form=
a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. > Recently, after=
giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he > realized that not a=
single student knew how to use a ruler.> > In short, it is, nothing less t=
han a tidal wave of dumb, with once- > passionate, increasingly exasperated=
teachers nearly powerless to > stop it. The worst part: It's not the kids'=
fault. They're only the > victims of a horribly failed educational system.=
> > Then our discussion often turns to the meat of it, the bigger > picture=
, the ugly and unavoidable truism about the lack of need among > the govern=
ment and the power elite in this nation to create a truly > effective educa=
tional system, one that generates intelligent, > thoughtful, articulate cit=
izens.> > Why should they? After all, the dumber the populace, the easier i=
t is > to rule and control and launch unwinnable wars and pass laws > dicta=
ting that sex is bad and TV is good and God knows all, so just > pipe down =
and eat your Taco Bell Double-Supremo burrito and be glad > we don't arrest=
you for posting dirty pictures on your cute little blog.> > This is about =
when I try to offer counterevidence, a bit of optimism. > For one thing, I'=
ve argued generational relativity in this space > before, suggesting maybe =
kids are no scarier or dumber or more > dangerous than they've ever been, a=
nd that maybe some of the problem > is merely the same old awkward generati=
on gap, with every current > generation convinced the subsequent one is ter=
rifically stupid and > malicious and will be the end of society as a whole.=
Just the way it > always seems.> > I also point out how, despite all the e=
vidence of total public- > education meltdown, I keep being surprised, keep=
hearing from/about > teens and youth movements and actions that impress me=
. Damn kids made > the Internet what it is today, fer chrissakes. Revolutio=
nized media. > Broke all the rules.> > Some of the best designers, writers,=
artists, poets, chefs and so on > that I meet are in their early to mid-20=
s. And the nation's top > universities are still managing, despite a factor=
y-churning > mentality, to crank out young minds of astonishing ability and=
> acumen. How did these kids do it? How did they escape the horrible > pub=
lic school system? How did they avoid the great dumbing down of > America? =
Did they never see a TV show until they hit puberty? Were > they all born a=
nd raised elsewhere, in India and Asia and Russia? Did > they all go to Wal=
dorf or Montessori and eat whole-grain breads and > take long walks in wild=
nature? Are these kids flukes? Exceptions? > Just lucky?> > My friend woul=
d say, well, yes, that's precisely what most of them > are. Lucky, wealthy,=
foreign-born, private-schooled ... and > increasingly rare. Most affluent =
parents in America - and many more > who aren't - now put their kids in pri=
vate schools from day one, and > the smart ones give their kids no TV and m=
inimal junk food and no > video games. (Of course, this in no way guarantee=
s a smart, attuned > kid, but compared to the odds of success in the public=
school system, > it sure seems to help). This covers about, what, 3 percen=
t of the > population?> > As for the rest, the evidence seems overwhelming,=
to the point where > it might be no stretch at all to say the biggest thre=
at facing > America is perhaps not global warming, not perpetual warmongeri=
ng, > not garbage food or low-level radiation or way too much Lindsay > Loh=
an, but people far too ignorant to know how to properly manage any > of it,=
much less change it all for the better.> > Too fatalistic? Don't worry. So=
on enough, no one will even know what > the word means.> > > > ____________=
___________________________________> texgreen mailing list> texgreen@lists.=
gp-us.org> http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/listinfo/texgreen
_________________________________________________________________
Climb to the top of the charts!=A0 Play Star Shuffle:=A0 the word scramble =
challenge with star power.
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Craig: I have been reading some of your half-baked conjectures for several =
years now. Most of the time I just hit the delete key.But , in the spirit o=
f charity, I thought to give you another chance and see if you were doing o=
r saying anything positive about the "movement". I opened post and you were=
attacking somebody else named Mark(of course, in your friendliest way). I =
beleive you are an agent for the "bosses"; that group or oligarchy if you w=
ill, that never thinks any threat to their rulership is too small to be ove=
rlooked. So they place cats like you to confuse and disrupt any coming toge=
ther of minds that might cause the sheeple to REALLY wake up and get =
off this reformist crap, get out in the streets (as we did in 10 or 11 citi=
es this last Saturday), start having more Coalition meetings on Real Civil =
Disobedience.instead of listening to jitterbugs like you knocking somebody =
saying something meaningful about"education".I am NOT in solidarity with yo=
u unless you change your song or split! Gene (a friend of Red E=
mma)<BR><BR>> To: texgreen@lists.gp-us.org<BR>> From: loveandrage@ure=
ach.com<BR>> Subject: Re: [Texgreen] The US education system<BR>> Dat=
e: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 11:12:47 -0400<BR>> <BR>> I think Mark is whack! =
At least bad reporting. The expert is one teacher. <BR>> Where is the ev=
idence ... statistics. Don't spread your personal fear,<BR>> conspiracy,=
and disfunctional issues on us, Mark Morford. It's all hear-say. <BR>> =
Not journalism. This is crap. People see what they want to see. This just<B=
R>> says more about Mark Morford and his so called educator than it does=
about<BR>> society as a whole. No offense Roger.<BR>> <BR>> Mille=
r<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> _____________________________=
___________________<BR>> Get your own "800" number<BR>> Voicemail, fa=
x, email, and a lot more<BR>> http://www.ureach.com/reg/tag<BR>> <BR>=
> <BR>> ---- On Thu, 25 Oct 2007, Roger Baker (rcbaker@eden.infohwy.c=
om) wrote:<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> ATTACHMENT 0: image/gif<BR>> <BR>&g=
t; <BR>> <BR>> Mark Morford: Kids these days ...<BR>> Mark Morford=
<BR>> <BR>> Wednesday, October 24, 2007<BR>> <BR>> I have this =
ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who just so <BR>> happens to b=
e a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful guy <BR>> who's se=
en generations of teens come and go and who has a delightful <BR>> poeti=
c sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and family and <BR>> belove=
d teaching career.<BR>> <BR>> He often writes in response to somethin=
g I might've written about the <BR>> youth of today, anything in which I=
comment on the nefarious factors <BR>> shaping their minds and their pe=
rspectives and whether, say, EMFs and <BR>> junk food and cell phones ar=
e melting their brains and what can be done.<BR>> <BR>> His response:=
It is not bad at all. It's absolutely horrifying.<BR>> <BR>> My frie=
nd often summarizes for me what he sees, firsthand, every day <BR>> and =
every month, year in and year out, in his classroom. He speaks <BR>> not=
merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among <BR>> st=
udents over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy <BR>>=
; slackerhood, or that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are <BR=
>> short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he <=
BR>> says, there is zero doubt.<BR>> <BR>> Nor does he speak merel=
y of the notion that kids these days are <BR>> overprotected and wussifi=
ed and don't spend enough time outdoors and <BR>> don't get any real exe=
rcise and therefore can't, say, identify basic <BR>> plants, or handle a=
tool, or build, well, anything at all. Again, <BR>> these things are a =
given. Widely reported, tragically ignored, <BR>> nothing new.<BR>> <=
BR>> No, my friend takes it all a full step further. It is not only a sa=
d <BR>> slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier t=
han <BR>> that.<BR>> <BR>> As far as urban public education is con=
cerned, we are essentially at <BR>> rock bottom. We are at a point where=
we are churning out ignorant <BR>> teens who are becoming ignorant adul=
ts, and society will pay dearly, <BR>> very soon, and if you think the h=
ordes of easily terrified, mindless <BR>> fundamentalist evangelical Chr=
istian lemmings have been bad for the <BR>> soul of this country, just w=
ait.<BR>> <BR>> It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retiremen=
t, he says he is <BR>> seriously considering moving out of the country t=
o escape what he <BR>> perceives will be the collapse of functioning Ame=
rican society in the <BR>> next handful of years due to the destruction,=
the shocking - and <BR>> nearly hopeless - dumb-ification of the Americ=
an brain.<BR>> <BR>> Now, you may think he's merely a curmudgeon, a t=
ired old teacher who <BR>> stopped caring long ago. Not true. Teaching i=
s his life. He says he <BR>> loves his students, loves education and lea=
rning and watching young <BR>> minds awaken. Problem is, he is seeing mu=
ch less of it. It's like the <BR>> melting of the polar ice caps. Sure, =
there's been alarmist data about <BR>> it for years, but until you see i=
t, the deep visceral dread doesn't <BR>> really hit home.<BR>> <BR>&g=
t; He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of <BR>=
> television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before <B=
R>> age 6 and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions =
<BR>> are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of =
all <BR>> the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to <BR=
>> incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, <B=
R>> there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland <BR=
>> High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf <BR=
>> twice a day, but never feeding it."<BR>> <BR>> But most of all,=
he simply observes his students, year to year, <BR>> noting all the obv=
ious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when <BR>> confronted with =
even the most basic intellectual tasks, from <BR>> understanding simple =
history to working through moderately complex <BR>> ideas to even (in a =
couple of recent examples that particularly <BR>> distressed him) being =
able to define the words "agriculture," or even <BR>> "democracy." Not a=
single student could do it.<BR>> <BR>> It gets worse. My friend cite=
s the fact that, of the 6,000 high <BR>> school students he estimates he=
's taught during the span of his <BR>> career, only a small fraction now=
make it to his grade with a <BR>> functioning understanding of written =
English. They do not know how to <BR>> form a sentence. They cannot writ=
e an intelligible paragraph. <BR>> Recently, after giving an assignment =
that required drawing lines, he <BR>> realized that not a single student=
knew how to use a ruler.<BR>> <BR>> In short, it is, nothing less th=
an a tidal wave of dumb, with once- <BR>> passionate, increasingly exasp=
erated teachers nearly powerless to <BR>> stop it. The worst part: It's =
not the kids' fault. They're only the <BR>> victims of a horribly failed=
educational system.<BR>> <BR>> Then our discussion often turns to th=
e meat of it, the bigger <BR>> picture, the ugly and unavoidable truism =
about the lack of need among <BR>> the government and the power elite in=
this nation to create a truly <BR>> effective educational system, one t=
hat generates intelligent, <BR>> thoughtful, articulate citizens.<BR>>=
; <BR>> Why should they? After all, the dumber the populace, the easier =
it is <BR>> to rule and control and launch unwinnable wars and pass laws=
<BR>> dictating that sex is bad and TV is good and God knows all, so ju=
st <BR>> pipe down and eat your Taco Bell Double-Supremo burrito and be =
glad <BR>> we don't arrest you for posting dirty pictures on your cute l=
ittle blog.<BR>> <BR>> This is about when I try to offer counterevide=
nce, a bit of optimism. <BR>> For one thing, I've argued generational re=
lativity in this space <BR>> before, suggesting maybe kids are no scarie=
r or dumber or more <BR>> dangerous than they've ever been, and that may=
be some of the problem <BR>> is merely the same old awkward generation g=
ap, with every current <BR>> generation convinced the subsequent one is =
terrifically stupid and <BR>> malicious and will be the end of society a=
s a whole. Just the way it <BR>> always seems.<BR>> <BR>> I also p=
oint out how, despite all the evidence of total public- <BR>> education =
meltdown, I keep being surprised, keep hearing from/about <BR>> teens an=
d youth movements and actions that impress me. Damn kids made <BR>> the =
Internet what it is today, fer chrissakes. Revolutionized media. <BR>> B=
roke all the rules.<BR>> <BR>> Some of the best designers, writers, a=
rtists, poets, chefs and so on <BR>> that I meet are in their early to m=
id-20s. And the nation's top <BR>> universities are still managing, desp=
ite a factory-churning <BR>> mentality, to crank out young minds of asto=
nishing ability and <BR>> acumen. How did these kids do it? How did they=
escape the horrible <BR>> public school system? How did they avoid the =
great dumbing down of <BR>> America? Did they never see a TV show until =
they hit puberty? Were <BR>> they all born and raised elsewhere, in Indi=
a and Asia and Russia? Did <BR>> they all go to Waldorf or Montessori an=
d eat whole-grain breads and <BR>> take long walks in wild nature? Are t=
hese kids flukes? Exceptions? <BR>> Just lucky?<BR>> <BR>> My frie=
nd would say, well, yes, that's precisely what most of them <BR>> are. L=
ucky, wealthy, foreign-born, private-schooled ... and <BR>> increasingly=
rare. Most affluent parents in America - and many more <BR>> who aren't=
- now put their kids in private schools from day one, and <BR>> the sma=
rt ones give their kids no TV and minimal junk food and no <BR>> video g=
ames. (Of course, this in no way guarantees a smart, attuned <BR>> kid, =
but compared to the odds of success in the public school system, <BR>> i=
t sure seems to help). This covers about, what, 3 percent of the <BR>> p=
opulation?<BR>> <BR>> As for the rest, the evidence seems overwhelmin=
g, to the point where <BR>> it might be no stretch at all to say the big=
gest threat facing <BR>> America is perhaps not global warming, not perp=
etual warmongering, <BR>> not garbage food or low-level radiation or way=
too much Lindsay <BR>> Lohan, but people far too ignorant to know how t=
o properly manage any <BR>> of it, much less change it all for the bette=
r.<BR>> <BR>> Too fatalistic? Don't worry. Soon enough, no one will e=
ven know what <BR>> the word means.<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> <BR>> _=
______________________________________________<BR>> texgreen mailing lis=
t<BR>> texgreen@lists.gp-us.org<BR>> http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/l=
istinfo/texgreen<BR><BR><br /><hr />Climb to the top of the charts!=A0 Play=
Star Shuffle:=A0 the word scramble challenge with star power. <a href=3D'h=
ttp://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=3Dstarshuffle_wlmailtextlink_oct=
' target=3D'_new'>Play Now!</a></body>
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