Global warming and your garden

[Charlie]

Good post, Tom. Thanks.

Viva la Revolución Jardín Charlie

[Billy]

Actually, education has followed the complexity of weaponry. The more complex the weapon, the smarter the soldier must be to use it. Come the day that soldiers need to be able to solve for "x", everybody will be taught algebra.

I'll put in a word for the Waldorf schools. A guy that I used to do tae-kwon-do with taught in a Waldorf school. He had a class of about 10 students. He would have them from 1st grade through 8th. Because he knew each student's abilities he didn't need to test. Unfortunately, Waldorf is expensive.

[enigma]

Bill wrote in news: [e-mail] news.net:

John Holt, maybe?

lee

[enigma]

Billy wrote in news: [e-mail] ct.net.au:

team sports are fine for colleges, but we're talking public school, k-12th grades. not much of my taxes go to the land grant university compared to what the grade schools suck up & i'm far more willing to fund music, art & non-competative PE than i am funding sports that use a lot of money & benefit so very few. lee

[Bill]

YES

Grateful Bill

[enigma]

Billy wrote in news: [e-mail] ct.net.au:

but weaonry is being made for use by lowest common denominator... so how does that work?

not any more than any other private school, really. Boo's in Montessori because the closest Waldorf school is halfway across the state. i also disagree with one facet of their philosophy, which is that children should not read until age

1. while some kids aren't ready to read until then, forbidding reading seems wrongheaded. OTOH, i'm all for the forbidding of TV, but not so much forbidding recorded music... i really like Waldorf's focus on nature & fantasy... but i don't think it would have suited Boo's analytical nature nearly as well as Montessori does. lee

[Bill]

Yet Holt may not be the guy I was remembering. It is those 35 years old insights that can occur and get me scratch my brow. One of those many themes that come to mind. Holt BTW is right on. He is buried about here somewhere.

Wet cold 50 F day.

Bill who thinks Charlie knows :))

[Charlie]

I've probably mentioned this before, but we had a '76 Datsun B210 that got 42 mpg. Billy's old Datsoon pickup likely does, or did, pretty well.

Funny thing, ain't it?

Along the same lines, in the last month the scooter population has greatly increased and there are now tons of bicycles on the streets. In the past hardly anyone rode either. Several of the local businesses, including WalFart, have put up bike parking racks.

Heh heh, lots of boats and suvs and trucks with "Fer Sale" signs also.

Personally, it's way past time that we give up, as Kunstler puts it, "Happy Motoring". Increasing fuel mileage is not the solution. Many fewer cars and many fewer miles driven, that is a good start. I think that is going to happen, no matter what.

The world is maybe getting larger again. I hope.

Charlie

[Charlie]

John Holt, writing in TMEN, in the mid seventies, was the catalyst that propelled us into home schooling our sons. One of the better things we ever did. They are aproaching thirty and IMO have their heads on properly.

Charlie

[J. Clarke]

Not only that but a good deal of what they teach is just plain _wrong_. The only thing they really teach people how to do is go to school, which in the real world is about as useless a skill as one can imagine.

The thing that is frightening is that so many people, having gone through that, then willingly subject their own kids to it.

[Charlie]

It was 1980 that I read this interview, not the mid-seventies.

Here is the article that led so many places....

bought all John's books that were then available. Unfortunately we made the mistake of loaning them to someone and it was the last we ever saw of them. We no longer loan books to anyone, other than our children.

The books led us to Urie Bronfenbrenner and others that I cannot remember now.

Here is wiki's article on John

quote in the wiki article is one that influenced us greatly, John's philosophy summed up...."... the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it."

Lee and Billy spoke of this.

Thanks for the memories, Bill. :-)

Charlie

[Bill]

Just like the cheap seats I can look about stored papers and find gold.

John Gatto !! Check the Youtube for sure

[Billy]

Nah, the '80 Datoon is a gas guzzer at 20 mpg, think about it is that it thrives on abuse and rarely needs repairs. The '91 Sentra though, that beautiful puppy got 40 mpg avg., and about 45 mpg on the road.

[Billy]

LCD has to be raised.

Complete agreement.

I agree again.

It seems that it all boils down to the teacher, which is critical if your going to have the same one for the next eight years. Teachers are like books and movies, they are good for some audiences and not others. Coloribus gustibus non disputatum as someone like to say;-)

[Persephone]

[...]

Willingly? I dunno...lots of parents would love to send their children to good private schools but can't even begin to think about paying those prices. And I mean parents who are willing to sacrifice, big-time! The only places that still teach the 3Rs are the religious schools, because they get teachers on the cheap.

[Billy]

Sounds horrible. I can't imagine a teacher doing that. You sound like the student that all teachers are looking for. My experience has been that a third of the students don't need the teacher's help if the information is presented in an intelligent way that bridges from the known to what is to be learned. Probably, another third need a little help, and another third that needs support. And then there is that 5% or so that defy you to teach them. I think most of them are just afraid of failing, so they don't try.

Today's classes are too large, 20 students should be a max. And not all students have a textbook that they can take home. Some classes are taught from surplus magazines. Not enough money they say.

Teachers have become the dumping grounds for societies problems. You can't hug a kid. If you see a bruise, should you report it? Parents don't know about sex, so it becomes the teachers role to explain it. Drug education is pure propaganda. Explaining the health consequences of smoking marijuana when everyone knows that no one has ever died or gotten cancer from a cannabinol overdose and that beer and tobacco are legal and can kill you. Knowing this, the kids don't listen when you try to tell them how bad methamphetamine and heroine is.

[Billy]

250C and sulfuric acid rain? Maybe the cockroaches should check with Steven Hawking, so that they can line up their boats:o)

[Charlie]

I misunderstood the assumption and question. I remember John Gatto

*now* that you mention him.

"My brain is like a sieve" ~~Thomas Dolby

Charlie. winamp - "Aliens Ate My Buick" - Ability to Swing - 4:30 - Thomas Dolby

[Jangchub]

No, but maybe people who can't afford them should consider how costly it is to raise a child in this world and have fewer. Maybe priorities would also change. There is home schooling as a viable option and since I don't have children, I can't truly say, but I'm fairly certain I would chose that option. Again, I have no children so my opinion on this aspect is not valid in the broad sense.

I mow my own lawn, weed my own garden when I can and I never haggle the price when I have my very old live oaks pruned. Actually, I always give more than asked and this last time I had the trees pruned I gave a brand new McCulloch chain saw to the owner of the service who didn't speak a word of English. I'm not heartless. Nowhere near.

[Jangchub]

Well, they have been trying like hell to build a TWO MILLION dollar football stadium. The part is not the placement of funds, but on the other side of the coin the average out of pocket spent by teachers in order for their "room" to have what it needs to inspire is $700.00. Not to mention salary. I think the average teacher in our district is approximately $30k. I don't have to tell anyone the more educated a person is in this academic climate in Texas is not, NOT attracted to teach. Teach to the test. Thanks dubbya.