The Most Overrated Books Showing 2,251-2,300 of 5,680

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is diabolical. "

What about Nancy Reagan and her astrologer? W..."

I liked her Just say No anti-drug slogan.
I can't think of anyone who, once addicted or having a genetic vulnerability for addiction, was able to just say no.

[Leslie]

Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is diabolical. "

What about Nancy Reagan and he..."

Considering the civil rights implications of incarcerating tens...hundreds...of thousands of minorities and marginalized poor under the "veil" of a war on drugs, that incarcerated overwhelmingly for possession not for sales/distribution (which is statistically equal in the white demographic but overwhelmingly unbalanced in the representative prison population), and it isn't about addiction as much as it is about oppression. Some even go as far as to suggest that the "crack epidemic" was an orchestrated effort to addict and then incarcerate the targeted demographic.

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is diabolical. "

What about Nancy..."

I don't believe the crack epidemic was orchestrated, but ofcourse the poorer the population the more deadly the addiction permeates those areas and there is less opportunity for help, and prison certainly is not help. In more affluent places, addicts get better treatment, so I think we are talking about the same thing.

[Leslie]

Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is diabolical. "

W..."

It is difficult to believe, I agree.

http://www.davidhilfiker.com/index.ph...

(excerpt) "...the connection between a political strategy and our high rates of incarceration of black men, to say nothing of a “new Jim Crow.”

No, that connection didn’t become obvious until President Reagan declared the War on Drugs, breaking open the floodgates and washing large numbers of African Americans into prison. Declaring the War on Drugs was a conscious political strategy to procure white votes.

Now, wait a minute! There was a drug epidemic going on; crack cocaine was flooding the streets of the cities. Surely something had to be done!

Well, that’s the mythology, but it’s simply not true. When the War on Drugs was declared in 1982, polls showed that only 2% of Americans considered drugs the most important problem facing the country. Crack cocaine, in fact, didn’t surface until 1984. The first newspaper reference to crack in American cities was a New York Times article in late 1985. The reports of a “crack epidemic” didn’t begin showing up until early 1986. The War on Drugs was declared well before crack was an issue and at a time when drugs were neither more prevalent nor of greater concern than previously.

But the Reagan administration faced two other problems in its War on Drugs. The first was that responsibility for enforcing drug laws belonged to the states, not to the federal government. The second was the reluctance of local law enforcement to buy in.

Yeah, I was just going to ask you. I’m sure states and local police departments had other, more important things to do. If crack wasn’t a problem, then why were they so willing to spend money and scarce police resources fighting drugs?

Good question! Initially local law enforcement didn’t pay much attention to the War on Drugs. Some resisted it for just the reasons you mentioned. Others thought it was none of the federal government’s business. But for the political reasons I’ve mentioned, prosecuting the War on Drugs was very important to the Reagan Administration. So (as hard as it was for me to believe before reading The New Jim Crow) the federal government essentially bribed local law enforcement to participate.

First, federal laws were passed that gave state and local police departments money and equipment if they put their energy into the drug war. In some cases the allocation of federal money offered was even on a per person basis; in Wisconsin it was $153 per arrest. No extra money was offered for other kinds of arrests, even for violent crime.

Second, other laws were passed giving law enforcement the power to confiscate 80-100% of the value ofany items that were arguably involved in the drug transactions, even if the person owning those items was ignorant of the transaction. If an older child living at home purchased drugs on the street near his house, for instance, her parent’s home could be confiscated and sold because it had been “involved” in a crime. One man’s home was confiscated because his visiting nurses’ aide was arrested for drug possession … elsewhere. Once something was confiscated, the burden of proof was on the owner to get it back … even if the person arrested was ultimately released without conviction. You could appeal, but if you were unable to afford a lawyer or were afraid to confront the police or if the amount confiscated was less than what it would cost to get it back, most people just let it go, and the police kept the proceeds.

It didn’t take long for law enforcement agencies to be convinced of the importance of the drug war. Federally funded SWAT teams were used just to serve routine drug warrants.

Still, with all the other serious issues facing Americans, why was the electorate so willing to go along? Everyone now seems agreed that drugs are a major problem. Where did that agreement come from?

Anticipating this problem, the Reagan administration waged a very conscious media campaign to sensationalize the “crack epidemic” and its “terrible” consequences. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent that Reagan placed in charge of the media program later commented, “The media were only too willing to cooperate, because as far as the New York media was concerned, crack was the hottest combat reporting story to come along since the end of the Vietnam War.”[3] Thousands of articles and images flooded the media, reporting on the “drug crisis.” By 1989, 64% of people polled believed that drugs were the most important problem in the country (compared to 2% in 1982) and crack the most dangerous of them all. (Most assertions used to publicize crack’s danger—for instance that people became addicted to crack after one use or that crack caused more violent behavior than powder cocaine—were later disproved, but the damage in public opinion was done.) “Rampant urban drug use” and all the violence that supposedly came with it now “threatened the nation.”

Yeah, but those laws applied to whites and blacks equally.

Technically that’s true. But while race was never mentioned, it was ever-present. For example, before crack, white use of powder cocaine was frequently referred to as “experimentation,” emphasizing a rehabilitative rather than punitive response; a few years later, the images chosen to represent the crack epidemic were overwhelmingly black (even though there are more white crack users than black) and the response was overwhelmingly punitive. Think of all the true-crime shows: Most of the criminals are black. A perfect example came only a few years ago, after Hurricane Katrina. Showing residents taking food from shuttered supermarkets, the media famously labeled African Americans “looters” while whites were “foragers.”

Important book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is di..."

Some of this I remember, and didn't pay much attention to it. I have a sense that this is not just republican bashing and this interview from the website does mention that both political parties were at fault-that adds credibility; I am suspicious of partisan politic bashing on either side. I would like to think, therefore, that this author has done her homework and is unbiased. It is true that no one is doing anything about the incarcerations and most people don't think about it unless they are directly affected. My focus for the past four years has been the unjust incarceration of the mentally ill as a result of the lack of support services and the closing of psychiatric facilities (my son is in one that has remained open in my state). And I am sure in this incarcerated population of mostly young black men, there is a significant population of mentally ill.

[Cosmic]

Leslie wrote: "the connection between a political strategy and our high rates of incarceration of black men, to say nothing of a “new Jim Crow.”..."

If you watched Easy RiderEasy Rider you will see another class of citizens that would also become the target of "the war on drugs". War seems to always wound freedom.

[Leslie]

Cosmic wrote: "Leslie wrote: "the connection between a political strategy and our high rates of incarceration of black men, to say nothing of a “new Jim Crow.”..."

If you watched Easy Rider[book:Easy Rider|11900..."

Don't start thinkin outside the box, Cosmic, you'll have the NSA bangin on our doors ;)

[Michael]

Yes, as the bumper sticker reads: At least we're winning the war of the environment!

[Leslie]

Michael wrote: "Yes, as the bumper sticker reads: At least we're winning the war of the environment!"

Well we always shoot for "the least" in my house. Ha!

[Geoffrey]

Leslie wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "Leslie
Hunh?"

Math...figures..."go figure"...it's kind of a pun."

Thanks, Leslie, I got it. I`m a little slow at times, my brain melting under 105 degree weather.

[Leslie]

Geoffrey wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "Leslie
Hunh?"

Math...figures..."go figure"...it's kind of a pun."

Thanks, Leslie, I got it. I`m a little slow at times, my brain melting under 105 degree weather."

Yikes! I start to melt at 75. You are excused from higher brain function for the duration of your roast.

[Geoffrey]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is di..."

Actually Reagan responded so heartily to the War on Drugs because Tip O`Neil, Democratic Speaker of the House at the time, pushed him on that account. The prez toked enough times in Hollywood back in the 40`s that it made him a hypocrite. Same for Obama

[Cosmic]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is diabolical. "

What about Nancy..."
I also thought the war on drugs was to insure that the new pharmaceutical drugs would become the drugs of choice among the working class. Look at all the health benefits with marijuana? Anti-inflammatory, helps with appetite, migraines, PTSD etc. Look at the side effects compared to the pharmaceuticals? They made incarceration one of those effects.

[Leslie]

Cosmic wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is diabolical. "

W..."

It is a hugely multi-faceted web that affects so many issues, and big-pharma sure is one of them. I'm currently reading the fictional "The Constant Gardener" with a plot revolving around big-pharma corruption in Africa, and the non-fiction "The New Jim Crowe" that links the drug war to megawatt civil rights oppression. It's a head-spinner.

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of the tsar. It is d..."

Are there any ideas/solutions in The New Jim Crow, or haven't you finished it yet.

[Leslie]

Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in the fall of th..."

I haven't finished it yet. It's one of those books that isn't long but it's overwhelmingly exhausting. This sort of thing gets to me at a "people are shitty to each other and the world" level I have low tolerance for.

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Monty J wrote: "Cosmic wrote: "...I have been reading Nicholas and Alexandra. Rasputin played a huge role in ..."

Yep! It's different than meeting good individuals. Politics can really suck.

[Leslie]

There are some solutions addressed towards the end of this PDF: http://tiny.cc/uzwhix

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "There are some solutions addressed towards the end of this PDF: http://tiny.cc/uzwhix"

Oh thanks- I will read that after I watch Catch 22, need to laugh.

[Leslie]

Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "There are some solutions addressed towards the end of this PDF: http://tiny.cc/uzwhix"

Oh thanks- I will read that after I watch Catch 22, need to laugh."

You want to laugh at Catch-22, listen to the audiobook version - it is one of my favorites! The narrator is a genius.

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "There are some solutions addressed towards the end of this PDF: http://tiny.cc/uzwhix"

Oh thanks- I will read that after I watch Catch 22, need to laugh."

You want to..."

I loved the movie of it I just watched, I love Alan Arkin. I don't know how true the movie is to the book though.

[Kallie]

Cosmic wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "The factors of any person´s intelligence are multiple, some can draw but not read, ot..."

I agree with you, and so would De Gourmont. He actually talks about multiple intelligenc..."

Then you ought to be able to entertain the notion that some people, maybe more than you are willing to admit, get 'quality learning' from education; it really is, to some extent, up to how far the individual is willing to go past the basics that school provides. And you still offer no alternatives to children going to school, just a lot of philosophizing that remains abstract, to me. What is your actual plan for enabling multiple 'intelligences' to realize their potential?

[Petergiaquinta]

Agreed. Our system of public education has many flaws, but one thing it does have going for itself is that it's relatively cost effective and equitable. Back off: I said "relatively."

Thirty students in a room is too many, but it works. And for the most part, students get the basic education to provide for the furtherance of society, which is the goal of public education. The public, with what little tax they already pay, has no desire to pay any more, and thus we are not likely to see any utopian visions of public schooling put into effect any time soon.

There are social and financial realities that demand consideration in these discussions of school reform.

[Karen]

And to add to that,many students enjoy school, I see it every day. They see their friends, are proud of their grades, and join clubs and sports teams. And I have the pleasure of getting to know them and try to help them as much as I can.

[Anne Hawn]

Up until the Federal Government got heavily involved in education our schools did an admirable job with teaching our children. Some states and some schools were much better than others, but people could always move to a better school district. My parents did because it was important. If parents couldn't move then they helped their children at home and helped the schools through the PTA.

Once the Federal Government got involved bussing our kids from the outer border of the city to the outer border of the next county, separating neighborhoods, a sense of belonging and interfering in anything they wanted to, our educational system began to disintegrate. There were any number of ways to ensure that all schools were good, but the combination of urban renewal and cross city bussing was a disaster.

The schools we have are doing the best job they can. Teachers are bending over backwards to help their students and local agencies like Boys & Girls Clubs and local churches are trying to supervise homework and give children extra help.

In Florida, there are Magnet schools and they do a wonderful job. They give parents and students a real choice so no one is stuck with a bad school without having options. The system works with most children and that is all we can ask for. There are ways we can make things better, but those ideas are best coming from the actual school districts and not the Federal Government.

[Mrs Tupac]

the catcher in the rye was definitely an overrated book I don''t see why this book was a must read by my teachers in high school !

[Stephen]

Gina wrote: "THe Catcher in the Rye is so overrated. Ridiculous."

Maybe..but doesn't it depend on the age you read it? I read it in my 40's and didn't like it. If I had read it at 17 then it would have been a different experience.

[Cosmic]

Sherrall wrote: "the catcher in the rye was definitely an overrated book I don''t see why this book was a must read by my teachers in high school !"

I wonder if your teacher played the song "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" when discussing the carousel?

[Cosmic]

Stephen wrote: "Gina wrote: "THe Catcher in the Rye is so overrated. Ridiculous."

Maybe..but doesn't it depend on the age you read it? I read it in my 40's and didn't like it. If I had read it at 17 then it woul..."

More likely you should be older. I say this because the text is full of references, movies, books songs, singers, that were popular before 1951, when the book was written. These intertextual references give greater meaning than can be gotten just as a straight read through, imo.

Just to give you a clue, you read that Holden doesn't think much of the movies on page 2 but he takes his sister to see The Thirty Nine Steps an Alfred Hitchcock film. This was one of Salinger's favorite movies. Did you watch it?

Did you understand what Holden's obsession with where the ducks in Central park go was all about?

There is a clue in chapter 6 when he talks about going to the Natural History Museum with AIG-letting-her.

I think that looking at The Catcher In The Rye as an allegory is more meaningful to me. I think that Salinger was trying to write about WW2 without losing all his writing contracts. This is just what i have gleaned from reading it 6 times.

I would definitely read it again if I were you.

[Mark]

Drugs?

[Cosmic]

Kallie wrote: "What is your actual plan for enabling multiple 'intelligences' to realize their potential? ..."


I am not sure that I am suppose to have a definitive plan just so I can say the system is flawed. But ideally I would get rid of the idea that teachers were there to stuff children with facts and make sure they keep it down with test.

Instead I would focus on each child coming out of school being on "their path". The teacher would be a facilitator. The teacher would not be looked on as having the answers or even the knowledge that you need to know, but rather they would help you like a reference librarian find the answers to your questions and pursuits.

It is true that not everyone would come out of school having sampled everything there is and thus getting indigestion of the brain. But he would already have working skills and may not have to pursue college. Perhaps learning how to live more with less technology even.

The problem with school is that it makes children stay immature for too long. It makes them proficient in few areas and even those areas there is not any applicable way to apply it to real life, till one graduates from College. Basically the way we teach locks up knowledge.

"Knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing."

Since there is very little doing in school, related to living in the real world, all the testing loses its meaning.

Money doesn't have as much to do with this as much as a different paradigm about what education really is.

It would mean changing your goals of stuffing geese to feeding chickens on demand. They would dictate to you what they wanted to learn, if anything at all(not every day should be a learning day. Some days should be just playing around with Lego or art). There would be rooms set up in the school for different types of subjects. Rather than segregating children according to age they would be segregated according to interest. This way older children would learn to help the younger ones and everyone would inspire each other.

If you got rid of test and textbooks, children would bring to school what they were working on. Mentors would be found in the community. It seems like this would be a great school to learn in.

Might be a huge problem getting children to learn this way, because children that entered your schools with curiosity about the world, have learned to play dumb. They look for teachers to "tell" them what to do. This is why they are "bored" so much of the time. Find a boring two year old? They don't exist.

Also teachers will have to become more curious about learning and less interested in measuring it.

And parents will have to be reprogrammed to believe in their child more than in an institution.

Then you will respect the different intelligences that children are born with.

You can start by never saying to your class/ students "stop bothering that workman. Stop asking him questions." You should invite your students to ask questions. Why should questions be seen as a botheration to teachers? They do it all the time.

[Mark]

Did someone say "drugs"?

[Petergiaquinta]

Welcome back, Mark! You been in jail or something?!?

[Geoffrey]

Anne Hawn wrote: "Up until the Federal Government got heavily involved in education our schools did an admirable job with teaching our children. Some states and some schools were much better than others, but people ..."

Why are you off topic?

[Geoffrey]

Cosmic
Sounds like the Montessori method to me.Inspired by Rousseau.
No, I don´t like that plan at all. Too unstructured for my taste.
Students currently have all that you describe, it´s just that they also have clases that teach them the names of animals, fruits, simple arithmentic, language skills, etc.
From nursery school throughout until about 4th grade schools do have playtime, art, music, etc. to exercise the multiple intelligences. Then in later years when the child´s IQ almost levels off at the age of 13, they are introduced to more formal learning, ie. algebra, physical and biological sciences, world and US history, etc.

[Leslie]

Drugs

[Kallie]

Geoffrey wrote: "Anne Hawn wrote: "Up until the Federal Government got heavily involved in education our schools did an admirable job with teaching our children. Some states and some schools were much better than o..."

We were discussing education and the value or lack thereof and Anne contributed to that discussion, don't you think?

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Drugs"

There is a drug for everything.

[Leslie]

Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Drugs"

There is a drug for everything."

Today I wish there was a drug for yard work...damn it's too hot to be lugging around cherry tree parts (neighbor's fell my house last week and they left the logs all over the yard). Definitely a "drug" for after yard work, hello Margarita!

[Karen]

Leslie wrote: "Karen wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Drugs"

There is a drug for everything."

Today I wish there was a drug for yard work...damn it's too hot to be lugging around cherry tree parts (neighbor's fell my hou..."

Oh I don't have that luxury! I have coffee and nicotine gum though.

[Danielle]

I agree with skipping The Catcher in the Rye. I could not stand it and I forced myself through it.

I don't understand why The Great Gatsby is on this list. It is actually one of my favorite books.

As for the others I see why they are on the list. Especially Twilight, but really isn't it more important that these books might catch someone's attention and that they read. I really am not all about judging what another person has read. We've all read something that someone else will consider trash and not worth reading. The important thing is that we find what motivates us as readers and stick with it. I wouldn't tell everyone to go out and read these books, but I wouldn't automatically tell them to skip them either. They all have their value (Twilight not so much).

Read what you want.

[Paul Martin]

Monty J wrote: but I bet that changes when my book is published.

When will that be, Monty?

[Karen]

Paul Martin wrote: "Monty J wrote: but I bet that changes when my book is published.

When will that be, Monty?"

I was going to ask this also.

[Cosmic]

Geoffrey wrote: "Cosmic
Sounds like the Montessori method to me.Inspired by Rousseau. ..."

Well I looked up Montessori and here were a list of famous alumni:
List of prominent Montessori alumni:

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com (pre-school)[28]
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.com (grade school)[28]
Julia Child, famous chef (pre-school)[28]
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Laureate in Literature (pre-school and 1st grade)[29]
Larry Page, co-founder of Google.com (grade school)[28]
Alan Rickman, actor (elementary school) [30]
Jimbo Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia (grade school in a Montessori-inspired environment)[28][31]
Will Wright, computer game designer and co-founder of Maxis (grade school)[32]
Jason Silva, television personality, filmmaker, and performance philosopher[33]
Roger Federer, tennis player (Pre-School at Zurich)

I am sure there are more but I found this on Wiki and it was impressive enough.

But I wasn't really thinking about Montessori when I wrote my idea. I was thinking about what John Taylor Gatto said he did in a public school in NYC. He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991.

The things that your idea of schooling promotes is outlined by John Taylor Gatto in his book Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

"What does the school do to children? Gatto asserts the following in "Dumbing Us Down":

It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, it fills almost all the "free" time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
It makes them indifferent.
It makes them emotionally dependent.
It makes them intellectually dependent.
It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.[13]
He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with the former being healthy, and schools being examples of the latter; in the United States, networks have become an unhealthy substitute for community."

[Kallie]

Cosmic wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "Cosmic
Sounds like the Montessori method to me.Inspired by Rousseau. ..."

Well I looked up Montessori and here were a list of famous alumni:
List of prominent Montessori alumni:


..."

Yes, we all entirely conform to the Gatto formula. We're just a lot of weak sisters; you might as well drown us in utter dystopian hopelessness. I love when people oversimplify; makes life so much easier. Thanks, Cosmic!!!!!

[Renee E]

I find myself angered at the disregard — even disparagement — in which liberal arts education is held today. "Education" is becoming more geared to training for specific tasks, away from opening our minds and teaching us to question, seek answers and think for ourselves.

Employers advertise that they want employees who "think outside the box," which is total BS as rarely do they want anything other than obedience to the assigned task, and why would you want anyone stupid enough to get in the damned box in the first place?

[Kallie]

Cosmic wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "Cosmic
Sounds like the Montessori method to me.Inspired by Rousseau. ..."

Well I looked up Montessori and here were a list of famous alumni:
List of prominent Montessori alumni:

A lot of this pisses me off because I TA in college courses where youngsters who grew up in the countryside and are great at hunting, building, mechanics etc. (all very ill-paid here) don't know how to read, can't make a good living using their rural skills, and would like to find some alternatives to hard labor that now pays shit. You want people out of boxes? That they are; they are eccentric as can be; but the rural world their folks lived in is gone, and they struggle like hell to make a living in the contemporary world. If not for a more communal social structure than most of us know, they'd be sol. And there are a lot of problems with drinking, drugging, violence. It's too easy to romantically criticize education that has been available to you, but not so available to others. Do you really think they can afford Montessori schools as an alternative. BwaHaHaHa.

..."

[Karen]

I'm glad alot of my students thank me.

[Kallie]

Karen wrote: "I'm glad alot of my students thank me."

Mine thanked me too. I felt like crying sometimes because we couldn't pass them and they tried so hard.

[Cosmic]

Kallie wrote: "Karen wrote: "I'm glad alot of my students thank me."

Mine thanked me too. I felt like crying sometimes because we couldn't pass them and they tried so hard."

Kallie, the way I see it the system put you in an awful place. A place where you were going to "grade" this young life and that record would follow him/her wherever they went. How at such a young age are they suppose to rise above this grading? I have more problems with this....and this was the point of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values.

I am sorry for the children that have no technical skills and no way of getting ahead except to work on memorizing "fact, facts , facts nothing but the facts." Hard Times Charles Dickens also had a problem with mass education.


It is easy to criticize me as too simplistic. I remember when Berkeley was complaining about the standardized test ACT/SAT, because they were filtering out some of the more creative students: the ones that could think outside the box because the box was too confining and didn't work FOR them. They were thinking about doing away with them. I don't know that they did though. There are a lot of reasons we keep the status quo.

Sorry I ruffled your feathers.

Have you read Hard Times

Or

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values