Another reason to send em to private school

2minkey

bootlicker
sounds stupid... and why even bother with foreign language classes when these days a high school education comes with a 72% chance of illiteracy?
 

catocom

Well-Known Member
and then they want to stop cursive 'writing' except to develop a signature.

The so-called education system went stupid at the turn of the millennium, in earnest,
and just keeps getting worse for the sake of PC.

PC destroying yet another American institution.
 

2minkey

bootlicker
dude cursive writing is an artifact of yesteryear. and don't we have more pressing problems, when we got HS grads that can't do basic algebra or write a coherent paragraph?
 

catocom

Well-Known Member
dude cursive writing is an artifact of yesteryear. and don't we have more pressing problems, when we got HS grads that can't do basic algebra or write a coherent paragraph?

yrp, by the time they get to jHS/middle school.
They should already have the cursive before then.

They used to be able to teach it all, why can't they now?
 

2minkey

bootlicker
they can't 'teach it all' because there's a lot of teachers now that went to school well after our standards began to decline and/or they were schooled in less affluent districts with minimal resources and teachers that served as idiot-attendants rather than instructors.
 

catocom

Well-Known Member
I wonder if it had anything to do with the "NEA-AFT partnership"
In 1998, a tentative agreement to merge was reached between NEA and American Federation of Teachers negotiators, but ratification failed soundly in the NEA's Representative Assembly meeting in New Orleans in early July 1998. [17] However, four NEA state affiliates have merged with their AFT counterparts. Mergers occurred in Florida (the Florida Education Association formed in 1998); Minnesota (Education Minnesota formed in 1998), Montana (MEA-MFT formed in 2000), and New York (New York State United Teachers formed in 2006).

Further, NEA and AFT continue to cooperate and work towards common goals through the "NEAFT Partnership." This Partnership leaves each organization free to differ and to conduct work separately and independently, but enables the two groups to collaborate at every level of each organization.[18]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Education_Association
 

2minkey

bootlicker
well there's no doubt as to the rampant sluggitude of NEA members, though i'm not convinced that it's the NEA so much as it is that the career tends to draw mediocre slackers.

that, and our culture simply does not value education to the extent that it should if we expect to remain economically competitive in the future. why bother with an engineering or medical degree when the school life can teach you all you need?

all you need to freshen up mister hu's coffee, that is...
 

Altron

Well-Known Member
dude cursive writing is an artifact of yesteryear. and don't we have more pressing problems, when we got HS grads that can't do basic algebra or write a coherent paragraph?

It's outdated and serves little purpose. It's another holdover from a time when information was far more difficult to access than it is today, and rote memorization was prized more than comprehension and problem-solving. It makes you seem smart when you can do those squiggly little letters perfectly neat, preparing you for an outdated corporate structure of secretaries and paper correspondence. Fuck that. The only reason I ever used paper in school was when professors were too lazy to read their e-mail and demanded paper submissions, and the only reason I ever used paper at work was to print out a couple of charts that I referenced very often - FAA JASC codes and a bunch of acronyms and jargon. There's no place for cursive writing in schools, or mandatory foreign language. I had to take three years of French or Spanish in middle school. The fuck was up with that? The last time a major world power spoke either of those languages was when Napoleon was in charge. Nobody wants to do business with Spain or France. They want to do business with BRIC. Arabs have some natural resources but they are finite, and there is no manufacturing or any other product than oil. Soon as those wells dry up or oil is no longer relevant, the same will happen to their bank accounts.
 

Winky

Well-Known Member
Soon as those wells dry up or oil is no longer relevant.

That'll be 'bout the same time your great grandchildren are ready to retire.

No one gets much of an education from public schools
and yet contrary to popular propaganda America still
has the finest education systems on earth.

screw them Chicoms!
 

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
It's outdated and serves little purpose. It's another holdover from a time when information was far more difficult to access than it is today, and rote memorization was prized more than comprehension and problem-solving. It makes you seem smart when you can do those squiggly little letters perfectly neat, preparing you for an outdated corporate structure of secretaries and paper correspondence. Fuck that. The only reason I ever used paper in school was when professors were too lazy to read their e-mail and demanded paper submissions, and the only reason I ever used paper at work was to print out a couple of charts that I referenced very often - FAA JASC codes and a bunch of acronyms and jargon. There's no place for cursive writing in schools, or mandatory foreign language. I had to take three years of French or Spanish in middle school. The fuck was up with that? The last time a major world power spoke either of those languages was when Napoleon was in charge. Nobody wants to do business with Spain or France. They want to do business with BRIC. Arabs have some natural resources but they are finite, and there is no manufacturing or any other product than oil. Soon as those wells dry up or oil is no longer relevant, the same will happen to their bank accounts.

Lord help you when the power goes out....nothing to read, and no way of writing anything down. :p
 

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Doctors should be forced to take cursive writing classes again...until what they write is at least 80% legible.
 

Altron

Well-Known Member
Lord help you when the power goes out....nothing to read, and no way of writing anything down. :p

It's called a generator. :p

Clearly, literacy is still a requirement. Knowing how to read and write is a prerequisite for the use of a computer, as well as for paper documents. The letters are the same. I'm not arguing that. I'm saying that placing too much emphasis on the finer points of handwriting is a poor choice, reflecting an outdated curriculum. Cursive handwriting is more difficult for most people to read. Do you see aircraft flight controls labelled in cursive? Nope, they're printed all in capital letters so that they are very easy to read. The only thing still in cursive are wedding invitations. Being literate is a requirement. Being able to print letters is a damn good idea. Being able to write in cursive is useless, unless you want to become a professional wedding invitation writer.
 

Winky

Well-Known Member
Be a fool, stay in school

That's all well and good Sonny
but to us older folks (until we all die off)
people that print instead of write appear
to be 3rd graders that never learned to write.

I suppose in your world no one ever has to commit
pen to paper anymore.

roflcopter
 

2minkey

bootlicker
i do when my laptop runs out of juice on the airplane. although these days i fly first class a lot and there are power outlets in the middle consoles...
 

2minkey

bootlicker
Nobody wants to do business with Spain or France.

you make some good points, but there are plenty of people that want to do business with france. now personally i don't like dealing with those arrogant little poodle dicks but the size of the french economy is nothing to sneeze at.
 

Altron

Well-Known Member
you make some good points, but there are plenty of people that want to do business with france. now personally i don't like dealing with those arrogant little poodle dicks but the size of the french economy is nothing to sneeze at.

Yeah, but most of them speak English, perhaps due to the fact that English-speaking soldiers liberated them from Germany twice in the past century. For someone seriously interested in dealing with foreign relations and international business, learning to speak a major dialect from India or China is far more useful than learning to speak French.
 
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