Opus 2014-266: Hope and Fun, or Is it Fun and Change?

We just had an election at our school and the major theme would make the Democrats proud.

It is all about fun.  The big promise of everyone was that if they were elected they would make this a fun year.  One candidate for sixth grade representative promised field trips to Florida and Hawaii.  It reminded me of the election of 2008 where the winning slogan was “Hope and Change.”

The children are being prepared.  I didn’t really expect them to come up with a speech on health care or the federal deficit.  I did hope for something a little more concrete than “fun dances.” 

I need to remember that most of their parents voted for Barak Obama, twice.  Some might have even voted more than twice.  I need to also remember that the school leaders seem to think that the main goal of the year is to have fun.

I guess we need to remember that Winston Churchill was kicked out by the people of England as soon as the war was won.  I guess he wasn’t enough fun.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-265: Vanishing Cultural Skills

The dumbing down of America takes a lot of hidden steps.

Skills that were once so common we didn’t think about it are disappearing.  Some are just possible cultural changes and are a part of progress.  Others are signs of deterioration and a weaker culture.

One that came up recently in class is the ability to read and write cursive.  I had put something on the screen and used a script-like font.  I wanted the effect of looking hand written.  I succeeded better than I expected.  Many of the students could not read it because it was too close to cursive.  Is this the end of the world?  Probably not.

Other skills are quietly going away.  Many people cannot read analog time.  If it isn’t digital it is just a strange decoration.  Did you ever learn touch typing?  It is no longer necessary in this day of the mouse and function keys.  Most people hunt and peck.  More cut and paste.  Some software makes it possible to just talk to the screen.

Do these changes signal the end of the world?  Probably not.

Other skills are more vital.  You have heard the concerns about reading.  You might be confused because everyone seems to be able to read.  The problem is in comprehension, not pronunciation.  They can read the words but when you ask them what it means you get blank stares.  It is hard to see but insidious.  How can we be a nation of law if people can’t understand simple sentences?

Do you know how to use a dictionary?  Do you know how to look up a word that you don’t know how to spell?  I do.  Young people don’t.  And worse, they don’t care.  Communication is impossible if you cannot agree on what words mean.  It is a greater threat to liberty to be ignorant of dictionaries than not knowing how to text.

Young people are losing the ability to drive.  At a recent Sunday School class I had six young people ranging from 16 to 28 years old.  Not one of them had a driver’s licence or any plans of getting one.  They are being groomed for government control by bus schedule.  Buses eat up your time and put you at the mercy of a faceless bureaucrat. 

That brings up map reading.  With GPS and Google maps, no one needs to be able to read a map any more.  The device will talk you through the steps of getting where you are going.  It will take you the way it is programmed to go, even if it is much further.  One of the big dangers is that unless the controllers of the media program in where you want to go, it doesn’t exist. 

I am sure the list is longer but you get the idea. 

I shudder for the future of the masses.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-264: Blame the Teacher

One of the mantras I keep hearing is about the terrible teachers that are the cause of the ill prepared graduates of our institutions.  I hear a lot about these terrible teachers when people are upset with the results of education.  I am not sure I have met any of them at school.  I would accept that there are people who should not be in the classroom.  I would accept that there are some for whom it is only a job.  I know that many are not bright enough or wise enough to contribute much.

In other words, we are just like the rest of the population.  Millions of people play golf.  Many of those I have seen should never be allowed on the course.  I am so bad I don’t even dream of breaking par.  For me an incredible day would be to break 100.  I can still help someone who is brand new and wants to learn.  I will never be a Tiger Woods, but then he may never be Tiger Woods again and as great as he was I would not want him near my daughter after what he has done.

We blame the teachers.  We blame the parents.  We blame the system.  The one thing that we refuse to blame is the key element in the entire process:  The student.  I have students that will learn and achieve no matter what I do.  I have others that learn nothing no matter what accommodations and adaptions I make.  I like what one teacher said years ago when looking at student test results.  One student has shown awesome gains over the previous year.  He said, “I am not that good of a teacher.”  Another student, in the same class, had taken a nose dive in his test scores.  The teacher said, “I am not that bad a teacher.”

Honestly, I don’t even look at the test scores from the yearly standardized tests unless I am forced to do so in faculty meetings.  Standardized tests are useful if written properly, administered correctly and taken seriously.  None of those conditions apply in public education.  I have seen tests that asked questions the students could not answer because they used different vocabulary than our text books and ask questions about areas of history that we were not supposed to cover.  I have seen questions that ask about a map that was not on the page.  I have seen questions that clearly reflect the political bias of the writer.  I have seen questions with more than one correct answer.

In spite of all these flaws in education, students still learn.  Some come out with the knowledge and skills that are necessary to be successful in life.  Why?  Because the student wanted it that way.  While some graduates of college have no problem finding productive and rewarding work others flip hamburgers.  Of course one chose a hard major and worked their tail off while the other majored in something with “Studies” in the title and partied for many years.  One wanted an education.  One wanted a good time.  Both got what they wanted.

In spite of the school.

In spite of the teachers.

In spite of their parents.

I have said it before, and I will probably say it again, you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, but you might make some great chicharones. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-263: We Need More Truthers

“What is truth?”  Pontius Pilate, John 18:38

If you would capitalize “Truth” then as a Christian I have an answer.  As a Christian I believe there are absolutes and they are found in Jesus who said,

(John 14:6 KJV)  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

If you are dealing with the wider philosophical question of truth, it gets murky.

This comes to mind because as I age and the people around me age I am seeing frequent examples of incongruity or what psychology calls cognitive dissonance.  People relate events that we have in common and what I am hearing does not correspond with what my memory tells me.  An example would be conversations with my wife which lead me to tell my children that either one or both of us is losing it.  But she is not alone.  I would imagine that others feel the same way around me.

So, what is the nature of truth? 

We are all familiar with the chant of the those with Bushpobia, “Bush lied; people died.”  That statement in itself is a lie that led to deaths.  Bush may have been wrong.  He might have been misinformed.  I guess he might have even been living in delusion.  The one option not open was calling him a liar.  He spoke what he believed to be true.  He repeated what he had been told and what even his political opponents endorsed at the time.  That is not lying.

Is it a lie if your best information and memory lead you to say something that does not correspond to the facts?  I would say, “No.”  It might not be true, but it is not lying.  It might even be a lie but the act was not lying.  Lying requires volition.  It requires intent.  Any other definition means that most of us lie frequently every day.

Perhaps that is why the Bible states it the way it does.

(Exodus 20:16 KJV)  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

It does not say be “wrong”.  It says to be “false”.

Our tendency is to label our opponents liars and stand up for our allies when they act the same way.  That in itself can be a form of lying. 

People of good will should accept that we are all human.  We should condemn the politicians and news reporters who deliberately spin, exaggerate, doctor and edit what they say with a deliberate goal of deception.  We should expose and forgive honest mistakes and ignorance.

What we need are more people of good will who want to know the truth.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-262: Headlines: Smarter Than the Average Deer

I was reading an interesting article on the problems that coyotes are causing in our suburban neighborhoods.  I am talking about the four footed kind, not those dealing with smuggling illegal aliens.  It is found in the October 6, 2014 edition of The Washington Times, National Weekly, page 14.  The title was “Suburban Americans fear coyotes preying on their pets.”  I could not find free access to it on-line.

It seems that we have a growing problem of coyotes eating people’s dog and cats.  They are afraid their children will be next.  Most of the examples quoted tended to be in trendy communities that I am sure have lots of environmentalist sympathies.  It seems that the ban on hunting coyotes is paying logical dividends. 

The solution seems obvious to me:  Start shooting coyotes.  I would even go so far as to say we need to allow people to carry weapons to defend themselves against all kinds of predators.  Of course they had someone from a group called “Project Coyote” that claimed killing the killers would not work.  The claim is that the dead animal would be replaced by another one.  My solution to that is shoot the replacement.  Eventually the replacement pool would dry up.

Actually, you probably wouldn’t need to shoot too many coyotes to stop the problem.  Coyotes can’t be any dumber than the average criminal.  We know that when law abiding citizens are armed, the criminals go somewhere else.  We would see the same thing with the coyotes.  I am not a hunter but I have been told that even deer, not known for their intelligence, can tell when the guns come out.  I have heard that the day before hunting season opens the deer are everywhere and fearless.  The next day they disappear.  If deer can figure that out, I think a coyote would get the message. 

To bad that our politicians are not as smart as the deer.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-261: The Anti-Christmas Is Upon Us

You may have noticed that Halloween is coming.

Everywhere I look I see people hanging out effigies of ghosts and caricatures of decay.  Some are as simple as white sheets with eye-holes cut in them.  Others are expensive reproductions from horror movies.  I don’t see people decorating their homes with cute little figures of cowboys and Mickey Mouse.  I do see Freddy Krueger and the Walking Dead. 

I celebrated Halloween as a kid.  I favored things like a musketeer or a continental soldier.  It was a fun time of getting free candy.  Even then the seeds of evil were already planted.  Even then we were worried about adulterated candy and fruit.  Even then we were warned about going into homes.  Even then strange things were going on. 

Today the balance continues to swing away from fun and toward evil.

Think about it.  Most of the decorations involve death, torture and fear.  Skulls, blood, rotten flesh, demons, zombies, and knives are spread around.  Cob webs and chains are considered ambiance.  If you think this is the stuff of innocent fun, you have a strange sense of innocence.  What kind of holiday is it that makes you check the front yard the next morning to see if anything has been destroyed or defaced, that makes you lock your pets up?

Do I want a law banning Halloween?  No.  I am a conservative.  I don’t want the government involved in anything not mentioned in the Constitution.  What I want are for responsible people to show their values and priorities by how they live their lives.  Maybe that is what we are seeing.

Think about it.  You may still chose to celebrate.  I won’t come to your house and demonstrate.  I won’t refuse to talk to you.  I might be careful about turning my back toward you, after all, even I have seen a zombie movie.  One was enough.

Happy All Saints Day Eve

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-260: Spam Back at Work

I had gone several days without posting.  When I got back on line I put out my offering and then checked the stats.  I was awestruck at the number of hits I had received.  I was beginning to think that I was finally getting what I deserved.  When I checked my spam I realized that I was probably right.  I had become a spam magnet.

I can go for days with no spam to delete.  My other blog is spam free.  This time when I check after few days I had 59 pieces of nonsense to get rid of.  It became clear that for some reason the spambots were being attracted to two of my old posts.  It was like flies on my pastry.  There were so many that I didn’t have time to scan them to see if there might be some gold among the dross.

Is it just my turn or have the people who need to get a life been hitting everyone lately?

homo unius libri