Todd S. Malicoate wrote:After 15 years in the parts business, I do see a trend that lines up with Wade's observations, though...things are getting steadily worse. The value of hard work just for the sake of personal pride seems to have been lost somewhere. The really alarming part of this trend is the casual acceptance of it by society in general.
It's been happening since the beginning of time. If not, there would have never been the story of the grasshopper and the ant. We just notice it more because we are older and wiser as a group. My kids don't see this trend at all.
Pray tell, what is the story of the grasshopper and the ant?
(making a point, yes, but seriously, I can't recall having heard this tale.)
I've got three kids under six, and at times I'm terrified about the world they will be growing up in. I can't change the world, but I'll do everything I can to make sure my kids have their best shot.
On the Pizza Hut issue, I've recently become a fan of ordering online. Puts it all in writing, no one on a phone to garble it up.
In the past few years I have almost exclusively ordered pizza online and have had 0 issues.
Home school vs. public school is really to opposite extremes that each pose their own drawbacks. The way I see it we have a significant problem with schools taking parental authority and/or parents ceding that authority to the school systems. It is not a daycare agency where one can simply turn their kids loose for most of the day. Parents still have to be engaged. With this bastardization of the education system, teachers are now concerning themselves with things they ought not to. Two prime examples involving two of my kids from earlier this year: I sent my daughter, a 4th grader, to school with a no-bake cookie for her snack. She was concerned that she wouldn't be able to have the snack so I emailed the teacher in attempt to circumvent any possible issue. Well, it turns out my daughter was right. The school does not allow homemade snacks because the nutritional value cannot be assessed. Now, in my mind, what business is it of the schools? As it turns out, the cookie in question was better nutritionally than most store bought granola bars. What the heck qualifies a teacher to make this kind of decision and why can't they focus that much energy on actually teaching the kids. Now, the second example involves my 7th grade son. He was given an assignment to write a short essay on how he imagined it would feel to have been present for MLK jr's "I have a dream" speech. He was struggling a bit with the assignment and finally banged out a good essay on why, even if he had the opportunity, he wouldn't be at the speech. I was proud for him choosing to articulate an opposing viewpoint (he wasn't knocking MLK or the civil rights movement at all). That pride was replaced with, truly, anger when he came home upset because his teacher berated him and told him he was wrong to think the way he did. Since when is it ok for a teacher to discourage intelligent expression of opinions? When we get to that point we no longer have a functioning education system.
steve_decker wrote: Since when is it ok for a teacher to discourage intelligent expression of opinions?
Surely, you jest. That whole sort of free thinking, let's calmly debate our opinion stuff doesn't happen until high school (at the earliest, if it happens at all).
steve_decker wrote:When we get to that point we no longer have a functioning education system.
We've been there for years.
Marzan BBb
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the elephant wrote:
The issue here is that we have created a generation of video-gaming, fat slobs who can neither read/write nor reason all that well.
- Don't forget to mention socially maladjusted too. This generation has lost face-to-face communication skills. In my opinion, things like mobile phones have gotten way out of control. The fact that kids today spend so much time communicating via either text messages or 10 cell phone calls per day (this applies to adults too) is quantity over quality IMO. These technologies, wonderful as they are, have dehumanized and memoized communication skills. Consequently, not only have speaking skills suffered but we are raising a new generation that largely uses text memos to communicate.
To wit, my wife had to take a 'personal communication' class in undergrad to teach kids how to talk to each other. This is not the fault of the kids; in my mind, it is a product of society becoming more and more detached from one another due to abuse of remote communication technologies.
Again, my point is that we cannot retain minimum wage jobs now. Even these are going overseas.
Speak it brother!! To underscore the that, think about jobs picking vegetables. Folks like to talk tough on illegal immigration but who do they think picks that lettuce they buy at cheap prices at Wal-Mart? That job void was filled by people who aren't beneath starting at the bottom. Further, are you willing to pay $6/pound for peppers that would support an 'American' wage. I didn't think so. Those jobs were available at that wage for a reason - supply.
Folks have lost that concept of starting at the bottom and work their way up through hard work and determination. When you have been given a cell phone at 12, a new computer in your room with an internet connection at 13, a brain-crack gaming system at 14 (I won't get into video games here...hiss), a TV in the room at 15, and a car at 16, where is the work ethic to strive to get these things? We now presume those things as a given and don't work for them nor see them as non-necessary. My 21 year old sister-in-law is a product of that system and when I'm in to visit, I just want to get a cattle prod to get her up, shut off the TV, and make her get outside and help mom with the garden.
This is coming from a person who WAS given a NEW jeep at 16. Frankly, I wish my well-intentioned folks hadn't done that. There are definitely some cracks appearing in the ceiling!
If you are drumming your fingers on your desk, needing something to read, here are two Daily Telegraph articles on this topic as it is playing out in the UK. Perhaps arriving soon to a school near you?? http://tinyurl.com/9ooscf http://tinyurl.com/6t59t2
Fundamental problem is illegitimacy with multiple social and cultural attitudes driving it.
SplatterTone wrote:
So, in my view, the best response to the decline in education (as well as the general social mess) -- not a "solution", but a response -- is to determine how to minimize the production of bastard kids. If it were up to me, there would be the requirement to have the Depo shot up to date to get government hand outs; there would be free birth control pills and shots, and a free abortion clinic in every Walmart. But that's just me.
I'd like to see a less female-blaming/female-fixing solution. Every bastard kid has a father; how about we take the same philosophy and apply it to men? Have them take the hormone shots, until such time as they are married. After all, one male can impregate a large number of females during one nine-month gestation period of one pregnant female. The responsibilty, culturally, in the US, is always put on the female to avoid conception. It needs to be just as strongly put on the male. But that doesn't fit withour culture, does it? We have the "you go, guy!" reward system for males and the "you Ho, you" for the women. Maybe if we didn't have the attitudes, in general, that we have as a society towards women, they might not feel like the only thing that shows their worth is to have kids.
MaryAnn wrote:I'd like to see a less female-blaming/female-fixing solution. Every bastard kid has a father; how about we take the same philosophy and apply it to men?
There's equality, and there's biology. The biology of the situation forces an inequality. But the point is moot since the social culture where the problem is prevalent is not really known as being altruistic and egalitarian.
Last I heard, pharmaceutical companies are still working on that fix for men. What amounts to a license to print money awaits whoever figures it out.
For my part, I watch very little television and give minimal support to the Mainstream Media. It would actually cheer my day if Jerry Springer were brutally murdered on his show -- certainly not a correct religious attitude; downright sinful in fact; feel good kind of sin; so I keep a sacrificial goat around just in case the occasion arises.
Hold on, there...I went to public school and turned out just fine...It is your opinion, though... I don't know you experiences with public and private schools, but it sounds like they took you for a pretty bad spin.
bloke wrote:
Yes. 100% yes.
For God's sake, those of you who are in your twenties through your thirties and have l'il kids, HOME SCHOOL THEM until they are 18. Do NOT send them to public schools. Do NOT send them to private schools.
I made those mistakes.
IF YOU ARE ALREADY PUTTING THEM (in pre-school years) IN DAY CARE, PUT THEM UP FOR ADOPTION *NOW*.
TURN OFF THE TV. THROW IT IN THE GARBAGE.
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Gronitz PF-125 with Conn Helleberg
eupher61 wrote:All the more reason to buy from a local, small business, momnpop type place.
If you can find such a thing. To my knowledge, there is no locally owned pizza place in my town. I'm generally one who supports the small business owner but the marketplace has really limited their ability to service their customers over the past few years. About 4 years ago, I had separate instances a few months apart in which I needed less common but not yet rare items that could normally be had from a hardware store. After searching the three local hardware stores and encountering blank stares from the associates who had no idea what I was talking about, I went to Home Depot. In each case I was assisted by an employee at HD who knew exactly what I was talking about and walked me right over to the particular item. It was at that point that I realized the Mom&Pop hardware store had died.
