FSTDT Forums
Community => Politics and Government => Topic started by: Osama bin Bambi on January 20, 2012, 11:22:27 pm
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So my dad brought home that book today, so I decided to do some research on it. I found this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZJoCfgAEuE
The "invented spelling" bullcrap never happened to me, probably because I could already read when I entered school. I did have some trouble spelling small words (like "the"), but that was due to farsightedness which was later corrected. Essays and homework assignments will be marked down for incorrectly spelled words.
There is no such thing as "death ed." It sounds like something you'd be taught at Metallica Elementary School.
And it bothers me to no end when people say that all psychiatric medication is bad, or that mental illnesses are just made-up. It makes some parents ignore the possibility of mental illness in children.
More later, after I get out of the angry dome.
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I'm still listening/watching the video, and perhaps I'm just in denial, but some of this sounds like bullshit so far. Up to the part where she goes to the psychologist...
"Perhaps just coincidentally"? "Certain members of the government"? I'm smelling conspiracy theory.
No, more people do not die from the flu shot than the flu... or at least the results are misleading as the number of flu deaths are down significantly because of the vaccines.
Anti-depressants do not cause suicides in this number of students! This video is designed to anger and scare the viewer! Either the "facts" presented in the video are wrong or at least they are skewed in such a way that you don't react rationally... they want you angry, not analyzing the video's content.
Also, I am immediately suspicious of any video that uses ominous music, fade-ins, and deaths of children as heart-string pullers to get you too emotional to react critically.
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There is no such thing as "death ed." It sounds like something you'd be taught at Metallica Elementary School.
;D One exalt for you.
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I watched the first few seconds and rage quit :|
I can't stand fearmongering crap.
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The comments are the real gem.
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Oh god... I just realized you weren't suggesting this video was worth watching in any way... in fact you were posting it specifically for us to mock.
...
(http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/7/21/icantbrainto128611832915786267.jpg)
More accurately, I has a flu. >_< It's fucking with me...
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It seems like the second half of the video is overwhelmingly anti-psychiatry. Like, saying that the "father of psychology" said "ZOMG MAN HAZ NO
CHEEZBURGER SOUL" is obviously an attempt to malign him as an evil godless materialist. The fearmongering is so obvious it's not even funny.
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I got to the "invented spelling" shit and had to stop. It's not that students are getting "dumber" or "smarter," but that they are expected to know different things. Memorizing historical dates has no practical application beyond a history major; rote memorization of spelling words does nothing to teach the pronunciation, spelling, or meaning of new words. Teaching has become about broader concepts and connections, which has its flaws, but then, so did the original system they want to go back to. Otherwise it wouldn't have been changed.
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The most helpful thing I ever learned when it came to reading and writing was Greek and Latin roots. Even if I don't know a word, I can still guess what it means.
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The most helpful thing I ever learned when it came to reading and writing was Greek and Latin roots. Even if I don't know a word, I can still guess what it means.
Learning the roots was helpful, yes. Though I would bet if these people had their way we'd go back to teaching fluency, as they did in the 1900s.
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I got to the "invented spelling" shit and had to stop. It's not that students are getting "dumber" or "smarter," but that they are expected to know different things. Memorizing historical dates has no practical application beyond a history major; rote memorization of spelling words does nothing to teach the pronunciation, spelling, or meaning of new words. Teaching has become about broader concepts and connections, which has its flaws, but then, so did the original system they want to go back to. Otherwise it wouldn't have been changed.
+1
Yes, it is embarrassing if, in a discussion, I have to Google the dates of the Civil War. It makes me look stupid. However, I should point out that being forced to memorize this date doesn't contribute in any way to my understanding of the war in question; I still know quite a bit about it. I just don't remember some number that's tangentally related to it. So I would ask: Which is more helpful to teach American students?
1. The American Civil War was fought between 1861-1865 (I thought it was 1850; I was close!)
2. The Civil War was almost won by the South due to a crippling lack of military strategy by the North's forces; they pulled a British Empire and tried to march straight in, only to be destroyed by Robert E. Lee. In fact, until the Battle of Gettysburg, the South was all set to march on Washington, D.C.
If it seems I'm being unfair by including WAY more info in #2, consider this: I had to Google the dates; I memorized #2.
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I was never really emphasized on exact dates. Oh, I was taught the dates, but I don't remember any of them.
However, I do more or less remember the order on most of the wars (not all of them, but all but a few of them) and the important thing is that I know these events happened.
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I reckon the video should be renamed to "This Is What Libertarians Actually Believe".
Or even better still, they could add it at the bottom of the screen.
Honestly, if vaccines and iodine are suppressing my ability to follow libertarian doublethink and self-glorification, then I'm all for brainwashing.
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There is no such thing as "death ed." It sounds like something you'd be taught at Metallica Elementary School.
Dunno about you, but it certainly felt that way to me whenever the teacher rolled out the dodgeballs. "Hey look, there's the fat kid, GET HIM!"
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Still...
(http://i.imgur.com/VZA5j.png)
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Here's some important numbers the makers of this little gem of a film should be made aware of:
"The Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-19 killed between 20 and 40 million people worldwide, making it one of the largest and most destructive outbreaks of infectious disease in recorded history."
When millions of people die from the flu vaccine then they can come talk to me about it.
Same with the anti-vax parents. They are too young to have seen the fall out from polio and whooping cough. They need to go look at some old cemeteries and look at the hundreds of tiny tombstones.
"Invented spelling" I do remember from my sons' journals. BUT - it was only for their journals which were not marked. They still had spelling tests and grammar etc. Their daily journals were supposed to be creative - like art class. Results? My older son is an excellent writer & speller. My younger son, not so much. I think this result would have been the same regardless of the methods used.
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I got to the "invented spelling" shit and had to stop. It's not that students are getting "dumber" or "smarter," but that they are expected to know different things. Memorizing historical dates has no practical application beyond a history major; rote memorization of spelling words does nothing to teach the pronunciation, spelling, or meaning of new words. Teaching has become about broader concepts and connections, which has its flaws, but then, so did the original system they want to go back to. Otherwise it wouldn't have been changed.
+1
Yes, it is embarrassing if, in a discussion, I have to Google the dates of the Civil War. It makes me look stupid. However, I should point out that being forced to memorize this date doesn't contribute in any way to my understanding of the war in question; I still know quite a bit about it. I just don't remember some number that's tangentally related to it. So I would ask: Which is more helpful to teach American students?
1. The American Civil War was fought between 1861-1865 (I thought it was 1850; I was close!)
2. The Civil War was almost won by the South due to a crippling lack of military strategy by the North's forces; they pulled a British Empire and tried to march straight in, only to be destroyed by Robert E. Lee. In fact, until the Battle of Gettysburg, the South was all set to march on Washington, D.C.
If it seems I'm being unfair by including WAY more info in #2, consider this: I had to Google the dates; I memorized #2.
The annoying part is, I don't care about the names of the battles of Shiloh, Antietam, et al. nearly so much as I do about the general pattern of Southern aggression at the beginning of the war, Northern retaliation at the end, a general idea of how many casualties there were, how POWs were treated (horribly), and why the war was fought in the first place. Yet middle school history classes ignore all the important stuff in favor of "the battle of Blahblah was fought on such-and-such date." THAT'S NOT THE IMPORTANT PART!
AP Modern European History* was equally annoying. We started with the Hundred Years' War, and an explanation that the English king was a vassal of France. I had absolutely no fucking clue why the English king was beholden to France, and wouldn't find out until I stumbled upon the historical fiction of Susan Penman (mostly set during the lives of Eleanor of Acquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, and John II). I learned mroe about the causes of the Hundred Years' War from fiction than I did from the actual history class.
* The book only went up to the 18th century or thereabouts. There was far more Renaissance/Tudor-era discussion during that class than there was anything in what most of us consider the modern period (roughly 1600-present).
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When I apply for an architect position I'll tell them that I have a good general idea of mathematics, algebra and geometry, but I don't get hung up on specifics.
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I reckon the video should be renamed to "This Is What Libertarians Actually Believe".
Or even better still, they could add it at the bottom of the screen.
Honestly, if vaccines and iodine are suppressing my ability to follow libertarian doublethink and self-glorification, then I'm all for brainwashing.
*coughbullshitcough*
No, it should be called "What Conspiracy Theorists Actually Believe." I'm a libertarian and I obviously don't believe any of this crap.
However, my history teacher has told the class that because 99% of history textbooks in schools are boring, he'll just teach from memory. We don't remember the dates, but we remember the general timeframe, and most importantly, what actually happened. Even if you know the important dates of the American Civil War, it means nothing if you're a neo-Confederate, or if you think Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter.
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AP Modern European History* was equally annoying. We started with the Hundred Years' War, and an explanation that the English king was a vassal of France. I had absolutely no fucking clue why the English king was beholden to France, and wouldn't find out until I stumbled upon the historical fiction of Susan Penman (mostly set during the lives of Eleanor of Acquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, and John II). I learned mroe about the causes of the Hundred Years' War from fiction than I did from the actual history class.
You're going to laugh at this, I'm sure... but I learned a lot more about the Greek pantheon, as well as the stories attached to them, from playing the God of War series of games than I ever did in class. All we ever did in class was go rapidly through a dry listing of Greek gods/goddesses, what they represented, and then moved on to the culture of the civilization itself.
So yeah, I buy that you got more info regarding history from fiction than from class. It's sad, really.
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AP Modern European History* was equally annoying. We started with the Hundred Years' War, and an explanation that the English king was a vassal of France. I had absolutely no fucking clue why the English king was beholden to France, and wouldn't find out until I stumbled upon the historical fiction of Susan Penman (mostly set during the lives of Eleanor of Acquitaine, Richard the Lionheart, and John II). I learned mroe about the causes of the Hundred Years' War from fiction than I did from the actual history class.
You're going to laugh at this, I'm sure... but I learned a lot more about the Greek pantheon, as well as the stories attached to them, from playing the God of War series of games than I ever did in class. All we ever did in class was go rapidly through a dry listing of Greek gods/goddesses, what they represented, and then moved on to the culture of the civilization itself.
So yeah, I buy that you got more info regarding history from fiction than from class. It's sad, really.
I learned it from Age of Mythology. And I learned about biology from Zoo Tycoon.
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This is much more informative and entertaining
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGvOPeKoh3w
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most of us consider the modern period (roughly 1600-present).
Scholarly history regards the modern era as beginning with the French Revolution, and the rise of the modern (large) state). From about 1588-1789 is Early Modern, because government was more systematic, but still largely based on personal relations.
It annoys me that Australian schools repeatedly teach relative irrelevancies (the Exploration of Australia, the Goldrush, Colonisation, ect) while ignoring such important events as all European history before 1914.
It annoys me even further than at my university- a respected university, with a good history department, mind- students cannot take a single subject on any African history, international relations, politics or anything else. Not one.
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That's odd, as a history major I had to take a class on African history in order to get my degree.
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Kinda came off as misanthropic to me.
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I reckon the video should be renamed to "This Is What Libertarians Actually Believe".
Or even better still, they could add it at the bottom of the screen.
Honestly, if vaccines and iodine are suppressing my ability to follow libertarian doublethink and self-glorification, then I'm all for brainwashing.
*coughbullshitcough*
No, it should be called "What Conspiracy Theorists Actually Believe." I'm a libertarian and I obviously don't believe any of this crap.
By "libertarian", I actually meant "stereotypical hardline registered member of the American Libertarian Party". Since "conservative" is often used in a very similar way (i.e the hardcore base of the conservative party, not everyone who ever voted for it), I thought it would be obvious. Still, it was horribly offensive to anyone who call themselves libertarian, and I apologise for this.
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I couldn't watch more than about 2 1/2 minutes. "It's all about creativity and not hurting the childrens' feelings." Bullshit. It's all about teaching to the test these days. Creativity has no place in American public schools. It's being pushed out by filling in the right bubble.
I know I haven't been in public school for almost 14 years (god, am I that old?) but "there is no right or wrong answer" is NOT something I ever experiences.
EDIT because somehow I aced AP calculus but can't do basic subtraction.
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Then you missed the part where the second grader goes apeshit depressed over drugs they're forcing on her which includes fluoride and causes her to hang herself to death.
I envy you.
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By "libertarian", I actually meant "stereotypical hardline registered member of the American Libertarian Party". Since "conservative" is often used in a very similar way (i.e the hardcore base of the conservative party, not everyone who ever voted for it), I thought it would be obvious. Still, it was horribly offensive to anyone who call themselves libertarian, and I apologise for this.
Apology accepted. I don't like what's been done to my party, either. :(
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I couldn't watch more than about 2 1/2 minutes. "It's all about creativity and not hurting the childrens' feelings." Bullshit. It's all about teaching to the test these days. Creativity has no place in American public schools. It's being pushed out by filling in the right bubble.
JohnE for the win please!
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I reckon the video should be renamed to "This Is What Libertarians Actually Believe".
Or even better still, they could add it at the bottom of the screen.
Honestly, if vaccines and iodine are suppressing my ability to follow libertarian doublethink and self-glorification, then I'm all for brainwashing.
*coughbullshitcough*
No, it should be called "What Conspiracy Theorists Actually Believe." I'm a libertarian and I obviously don't believe any of this crap.
By "libertarian", I actually meant "stereotypical hardline registered member of the American Libertarian Party". Since "conservative" is often used in a very similar way (i.e the hardcore base of the conservative party, not everyone who ever voted for it), I thought it would be obvious. Still, it was horribly offensive to anyone who call themselves libertarian, and I apologise for this.
Trust me, I know the assholes you're talking about. At this point voting for a Libertarian Party candidate is just like throwing your vote away. The fact that people think Ron mothafuckin' Paul is a "libertarian" confounds me.
Apology accepted. ;D Besides, that's a topic for another thread...
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This video is much better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jZHNjc4Xk0
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I barely got past the two minute mark where they were talking about the spelling. Seriously wtf? I only graduated high school like 5 years ago, and I don't remember even that young teachers not correcting my spelling.
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I got all the way thru the fucker...I had a feeling it was conspiracy bullshit from the beginning, but twas confirmed when they mentioned "fluoridation." Any video or...fucking anything that mentions fluoridation in the context of being a bad thing is likely conspiracy bullshit.
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You're going to laugh at this, I'm sure... but I learned a lot more about the Greek pantheon, as well as the stories attached to them, from playing the God of War series of games than I ever did in class. All we ever did in class was go rapidly through a dry listing of Greek gods/goddesses, what they represented, and then moved on to the culture of the civilization itself.
I don't see anything wrong with this... Greek mythology is a fascinating subject, sure, but it's not exactly vital information. Schools cannot cover every piece of fiction that had some measure of influence on modern culture. They can tell you that it exists, but if you want to really know about it you have to look it up on your own.
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You're going to laugh at this, I'm sure... but I learned a lot more about the Greek pantheon, as well as the stories attached to them, from playing the God of War series of games than I ever did in class. All we ever did in class was go rapidly through a dry listing of Greek gods/goddesses, what they represented, and then moved on to the culture of the civilization itself.
I don't see anything wrong with this... Greek mythology is a fascinating subject, sure, but it's not exactly vital information. Schools cannot cover every piece of fiction that had some measure of influence on modern culture. They can tell you that it exists, but if you want to really know about it you have to look it up on your own.
The high school I went to offered Mythology classes as part of the elective courses. They were a lot of fun but predominantly attended by female students because the teacher who got the classes in in the first place, and taught them, was a feminist and fairly liberal. She had a giant poster on her door that proclaimed "HERstory" and depictions of strong women in literature.
While it was never part of the actual course work it wasn't uncommon to end up with a lecture on homosexuality's depiction then and now when talking The Epic of Gilgamesh. Or discussing the culture of rape when we learned about Medusa. Hell, she's the first person I ever heard discuss how Medea's children might have lost their citizenship and been sold as slaves if Jason divorced her and how it could be viewed as more a mother not wanting her children to suffer than petty revenge.
Oooh, Or the teacher who taught Gothic Lit and who would just smile, shake her head, and ask us to keep the discussions about necrophilia to a minimum.
There are some great teachers out there but they often get bushwhacked. The cool mythology teacher? A guy who graduated two years after I did told me she was fired. The Gothic Lit teacher who encouraged us to view Frankenstein without our initial prejudices to better understand the "monster's" plight? She would often be heard telling people that all teachers become either jaded or crazy within seven years because of what the system does to them. And when she said that she was normally referring to the first year science teacher who ran fundraisers so his top scoring class could go on a field trip to see the dissection labs at a college in the state capital. He believed that as long as a class was getting done and performing well we should be given the freedom to work in the manner that suited us best, i.e. sometimes visitors would walk in and find Ben sprawled out across the floor on his stomach because he claimed lying down was more conducive to his studies than sitting. Ben had the best marks in class, so he might have been on to something. But, yeah, do you think the students appreciated him for what he did? Nope. A good portion of the male students gave him as hard a time as they could because he was most likely gay. Who bloody cares about that? Teachers that don't slap you into detention for calling them Tony the Tiger get a free pass.
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That...went somewhere. Not sure where but it went somewhere.
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That...went somewhere. Not sure where but it went somewhere.
tl;dr version for Ibby. Cool teachers who actually want to help their students get a rounded education and not just teach the text get punished. End result? Morons like this try to take over.
And, yeah, sorry. This is one of my ramble-y subjects because those three teachers were gold and they all either got punished or had to fly under the radar. Pushed a button.
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There is no such thing as "death ed." It sounds like something you'd be taught at Metallica Elementary School.
Why didn't they have that when I was in school?
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The spelling thing is bullshit. I remember spelling color "colour" once and it was still marked wrong.
Two of the major reasons why education in this nation is bad is because kids are taught what's on the test and because we try to cram 25+ kids into one classroom.
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The spelling thing is bullshit. I remember spelling color "colour" once and it was still marked wrong.
"Favourite" for me.
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There is no such thing as "death ed." It sounds like something you'd be taught at Metallica Elementary School.
Why didn't they have that when I was in school?
In Kindergarten I was taught that the chicks and hamsters in our classroom would die, just like us.
I don't see the problem, it's just a fact of life.
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There is no such thing as "death ed." It sounds like something you'd be taught at Metallica Elementary School.
Why didn't they have that when I was in school?
In Kindergarten I was taught that the chicks and hamsters in our classroom would die, just like us.
I don't see the problem, it's just a fact of life.
Because we might destroy children's innocent, fragile minds!
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The spelling thing is bullshit. I remember spelling color "colour" once and it was still marked wrong.
"Favourite" for me.
It's funny; I was raised in America, taught to spell American English, but I've been on the Internet so long I use color, colour, favorite, favourite, check, cheque, etc all interchangeably now.
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It's funny; I was raised in America, taught to spell American English, but I've been on the Internet so long I use color, colour, favorite, favourite, check, cheque, etc all interchangeably now.
I was also raised in the US and taught American English, but for some reason over the last several years my spelling has been switching over to UK English. I've not really been using "tyre" and "cheque" yet, but even my vocabulary has been switching too (like calling my apartment a flat).
Growing up I used to be terrible at spelling. It took me a year to spell "of" correctly, as I kept trying to have it similar to "oven". In 11th grade I took a semester of French (college course, through post secondary enrolment option), and my English spelling drastically improved, so that come 12th grade a lot of people were asking me how to spell words in class.
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So much crazy.
The "invented (http://www.greatschools.org/students/academic-skills/384-invented-spelling.gs) spelling (http://www.readingrockets.org/article/267/)" approach has been used for at least 20 years now, and we haven't raised a generation of lolcats, so it must be working ok.
O noes, students are learning history is more than a bunch of random dates to memorize!!
What the fuck is "death ed"? Now you're just pulling shit out of your ass.
Psychiatry is evil. Yeah, never heard that one before. Are we channeling Xenu now?
Oh fuck me, I can't watch any more of this.
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In regards to "Death Ed" (which I assume is talking about "Sex Ed")
It's strange how we're such a hypersexualized country that also really hates sex.
Gee, I wonder if there's a connection there 9_9
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We can love sex and nudity and all sorts of horny luv luv things like that... but we must remain mindful to self-flagellate afterwards. It's what all 'decent' people do.
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In regards to "Death Ed" (which I assume is talking about "Sex Ed")
It's strange how we're such a hypersexualized country that also really hates sex.
Gee, I wonder if there's a connection there 9_9
The places that search for sex most on the Internet are some of the most conservative places.
I kind of want to do a study of how people rate their sex lives and their conservatism about sex. Like, do sex positive people have better sex? Are they better informed? Things like that.