Honestly River... I have Donkey crap up to the knee of one of my legs and Elephant dung up to the knee of the other. I'm standing on a high place right now and regardless of which direction I try to wade, the depth increases.

Now in regards to my cut 'n' paste that reference; it was merely a girly slap in the direction in which you stand as a response to the same girly slaps that your guys throw all the time. Neither fully credible and each full of distortions.

Now, again I'm asking again.... As a blade of grass, do I vote the goat, the weedeater or the lawnmower? Perhaps I should just become a Marxist and git it over with.... and just drink the Round-Up.

________

"That man was Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard".

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

I just looked at my stocks this AM, and it's all bad. What's the point of diversifying, when everything is trending downward? I can't invest in real estate, since housing prices are still declining. Maybe this summer they will finally bottom out, but I'm not holding my breath. I can't afford a road trip of any magnitude, not at these gas prices. Might as well invest in some beer and a flyswatter for entertainment.

I'm giving serious thought to moving back to Oklahoma and playing grandpa full-time.

Maybe you can explain?
You want to buy real estate or housing, but you can't take a road trip due to gas costing you maybe $20 more per tankful! Bill Gates doesn't eat Pinto beans and cornbread!
Just fly where you want to go for now.
You will have time to buy some stuff cheap soon!
Got a few of those back-yard wells on the Oklahoma reservation, do you?

You are right about flying instead of driving. Flying is actually cheaper for anything over 1000 miles. And yes--I actually could afford the gas, that part was mostly rhetorical. However, I'm sure you are noticing that the high price of gas is impacting everything, not just the cost of a fill-up. So yes, it does impact our vacation plans.

I don't own any oil wells. If I did, I wouldn't be worried about the price of gas. I do own some stock, which I tried to diversify when I bought it. I have some stock in fertilizer, some in healthcare, and some in Mastercard. All were brilliant buys last year, but ALL are down now. So if we don't want to put any more money in the stock market, where do we put it? Not real estate, not now anyway. Not in money-market certificates, which have a pathetic interest rate. So what to do?

Any ideas?

It depends upon your age, but with the total uncertainty of nearly everything right now, I would buy 4-5% stuff such as annuities, government bonds, and maybe 25% index funds.
Either for monthly income if retired or let it ride for investment.

Gambling to get rich is for institutions (with computers) and very rich people who can afford to lose 20-30% of what they have!

how about a Mason jar buried in the back yard? Keep the faith

Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

I vote independent---first one party and then the other.
I did work for a younger Goat the last time he ran, not because he was a republican, but because he was John McCain--An American 100%.
I will vote for him this time.

I wanted to vote for Joe Biden, and might have, except not many thought he was deserving enough. Joe is rough, but honest.

I suspect we will be able to see the long term direction a little clearer for us when the Vice-Presidents are chosen.

I do think now that VPs are chosen as true leaders and someone to follow next time, instead of hoping for some vote advantage from some state or two by the pick. Our current VP is an exception to that rule but no one has ever understood that decision.

Wouldn't it be magnificent if some Vice-president someday votes on a tie vote in the Senate and chooses against his party on that particular vote, due to his principles?

I can respect that. I will vote for John as he is the best of the mix. Can't do the Libertarian Bob Barr thang. He corrupted himself by getting his nose into some shennanigans in Fayette politics nearly twenty years ago.

The Dems can have the house and the senate as long as there is a 'checks and balance' president in place. No way that's going to change during this election cycle. McCain just might surprise us. But, even with with McCain as president the left will gain more than they will lose.

Gosh, I wish the GOP would become Conservative once again. That a way I could make an honest man out of Brother Baz's statements.....

________

"That man was Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard".

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Gosh, I wish the GOP would become Conservative once again.

That would be nice. That is why I initially voted for Ron Paul.

though I am still trying to figure out if I represent the weedeater or the lawnmower. Seriously, the only viable option is to change the way voters look at elections and governing. If you show voters that they are empowered, then the entire house of cards collapses.

A question. Do you think that it is just coincidence that our state social studies test scores are so pitiful? When we truly stress citizenship education, teach students what it means to be an American, how the country was formed and developed over the years, what it means to be "self-governing", then and only then will the system of elections change. When we demand more of our leaders, we will get more from our leaders. Honesty for honesty, ethics for ethics, foresight for foresight. We HAVE to understand that we get the leaders we want, or at least, the leaders we tolerate. Only when we will no longer tolerate the actions we deplore, only then will things change for the better. keep the faith.

Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

That's for sure. The other two are a toss-up. I guess Obama's the weedeater and Clinton is the lawnmower.

As for the test scores, the low scores have little or nothing to do with what you mentioned. The state is in a transition from an "old" curriculum to a new curriculum which is more rigorous. The problem is that there is always some turbulence involved with a major change like that. Hence the 40% failure in the Math CRCT. The 70% failure in the social studies is probably due to the test questions not matching up to what the students were actually taught. (A significant Snafu, in other words) You can't expect middle-school kids (or anybody) to do well answering questions for which they were not prepared. It doesn't mean they didn't learn anything, it just means that what they learned was not what was tested. The teachers taught what they thought they were supposed to teach, but somebody else wrote the test questions, and there was obviously a disconnect.

Parents don't like to hear that their little dear is not perfect in every way, but we need to tighten up the academic standards to keep up with the Europeans and Asians, who are currently kicking our butts academically. Why do you think that when you call computer customer service you always get someone with a foreign accent? Part of it is because they are willing to work for less money than Americans, but part of it is the low standards of our public school system. The private schools aren't much better, but they can afford to weed out the problem children.

The current high failure rates are just temporary turbulence due to the major change in curriculum. However, we have to accept a higher failure rate if we want to raise the bar to where it needs to be.

but they have ALREADY watered down the social studies curriculum after the last round of poor test scores. As I recall, the thinking went something like..."If we teach them less, their scores will get better since they have to remember less". The problem is that we have to make the curriculum MORE rigorous, not less.

Look at the mathematics curriculum. Such a big hoopla was made this year about requiring students to take four years of math. Now that is a nice thought, regardless of whether the students are capable of that much math. As the failure rate will inevitably rise, the pressures will increase to rethink. Doing my Nostradamus-thing, I predict that rather than backpedal the requirements, they will ease up on the course work. While that will help with the failure rate, what will it do to the top level students who NEED the higher level maths? Again, teach them less so that they will score higher. Wrong trend, but it will certainly produce the types of citizens that "those guys" want. Keep the faith.

Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

I teach math, so I'm not really conversant with the changes in social studies, but I like what I've seen of the new math curriculum. It's definitely more challenging, and the failure rate WILL rise. I agree with you that the pressure to rethink it will rise dramatically when the failure rate rises. It's just like some parents act when their kid is on a sports team. They put tremendous pressure on the coaches to play their kid, no matter what. Nobody wants their kid to fail, or not play. Coaches have to fend off this pressure and field the best possible team, putting in the second and third string when they can. I think the same applies to academics. We can't afford to water down the curriculum to suit the bottom third, but that's exactly what we are actually doing at present. Consequently, we are not fielding the best team we could, when each class graduates.

As you say, there's a lot of dead fish going with the flow. That's not good enough.

I teach math

You teach Math in.... in... Alabama! Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. Be careful buddy. One lost career job is too many on here.

Consequently, we are not fielding the best team we could, when each class graduates..

Agreed. We've watered down many of the best minds we have. This is going to cost us in the future big time as we fail as a nation to produce 'cream of the crop' engineers and scientist in the near future. We've got far too many college educated bank tellers, lawyers and real estate hacks as it is.

Thanks for teaching our kids. Just leave the politics to us parents.

________

"That man was Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Scott Ballard".

CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

you and I can run for school board (assuming that you are able to do that) and then we could fix things. You do the math, and I will do the social studies and between us, "We'll lick the platter clean". Keep the faith.

Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

What difference should it make if the test doesn't exactly match the text book? Didn't half of one test pass and third of another? How could they do that if they hadn't been given the answers?
I suppose that is what some want---give them the answers!
What do we do with those half who can't pass by reasoning?
I suggest mason work, welding, farming, computer input, etc.
It is stupid to grade on a sliding scale!
Now, as to how our wonderful school Superintendent had people release a test they were not supposed to release, I'll never understand that! Maybe she couldn't pass the test either?
I don't know what Georgia and Florida and some are going to do to start teaching at Pre-1, in order to stop this.

You never want the test questions to be a big surprise to a student.

Back in the Air Force, we used to use a four-step "Demo-Performance" technique. First, the instructor explained the procedure, then demonstrated it. Then the instructor supervised the student, while they tried the procedure and practiced it. Finally, the student had to perform the procedure for a grade. We use the same basic concept for teaching school kids. When kids are learning a new skill, you want the practice problems to be almost identical to the test problems. Later, you can give them harder problems that don't exactly match the practice ones, and require them to use some reasoning to apply the skills in a new way. But here's the crucial point--you don't want to do that for the first time on a test like the CRCT. There's too much at stake. NONE of the problems on a CRCT should be designed in a way they have never seen before. But since it is a new curriculum, there may have been a mismatch between the way the material was presented and how it was tested, as I said earlier.

I'm not an expert on CRCT, so go to:

http://www.gadoe.org/ci_testing.aspx?PageReq=CI_TESTING_CRCT

and read it for yourself. You'll notice that this was started in the year 2000, and it is being implemented one level at a time. So this year, it was 1st to 8th grade. Next school year, it will include 9th grade. I hope that helps explain what's going on.

In my opinion your kind of teaching is excellent for good "test takers" but not very good to make kids "think."
Test takers do not usually make good innovators.

Oh...let me pick myself up from the floor. I fell out of my seat from all the laughing!! Like that will ever happen. Self-esteem is what drives our public school systems!! Isn't it the basis of most of the law suits against school systems? The student receives an inadequate education and that leads to not getting into the college of choice and so on and who's to blame? Oh, right....the schools!! I could just scream! Next it will be individual teachers that are sued.

You did not get all of my meaning, I think.

The schools must FAIL those who can not pass! Parents aren't going to do that!

That is why many, many quit school at the teenage years when I was a kid. They hated it and couldn't get it. They would be doing the same thing if they had been passed on through high school, working at something they could do. OJT was it then!
At least now there are technical and other special schools to teach those drop-outs something useful. Wasn't much then except the Army, or farming.

Sorting! Do you now understand? Just be sure it is done correctly.

If you're referring to tracking, well, I'm all for it. However, I don't believe that will ever happen (again) because everybody has to do the same thing in school or someone may suffer from self-esteem issues. We're all the same, or have you forgotten? One diploma fits all!! So, yes, I agree with you, we need tech schools, prep schools, no attendance laws and work farms for those that choose to break the law.

No, I meant "sorting."
To separate into groups according to a specified criteria!

It is done in many things. Food, supervisors, pay, military, and on and on.

To be put to doing something one CAN do would seem to me to be a relief.

The only bug in it is, are there people smart and experienced enough and totally impartial who could determine good criteria? Take a lot of searching from what I see available. Certainly not anyone from our education group. No philosophers, Psychologists, feminists, bigots, and such, allowed onto the selectors! No voting them in. No "blue ribbon" panels. People with logic, success, and brilliance would be acceptable.

Sorting, as I understand your definition, implies no options. I'm not for sorting. Tracking, however, provides options. Options are good; sorting is bad.

Out of curiosity, how would you label said categories of students? What would you call it? The school pyramid? The kid pyramid? The people pyramid? Who would be the fats and oils and who would make up the grains? And, once sorted, could one ever switch categories? If so, what would be the criteria for doing so?

What don't you like about sorting?
Do you want clods going to medical school?
You can name it whatever doesn't offend you! It will be the same thing.
How about brains in this corner and dummies in this one?
You know what I'm talking about, and being "nice" all of the time doesn't solve the problem.
I remember knowing who was "smart" and who was not while in school. It didn't bother me that there were "smarter" test takers than I.

As long as "Drag 'em across the line to a passing score" is official school policy, then we will have students more than happy to coast along with a "C" and teachers doing all the dragging. That's just human nature, as I'm sure you are more than aware.

Fear of failure is a powerful motivation. Take that away, and our kids will grow up with an unrealistic expectation that will be rudely yanked away when they step out into the real world.

We are not doing them any favors when we shield them from failure in school. Their self-esteem is artificially pumped up, but not their skills.

If you want to see which schools are actually teaching the content and which are not, go to www.greatschools.net and compare the high schools in fayette county in terms of test scores. Look at the EOCT scores in particular. There's a wide disparity between schools, despite the fact that the schools have similar demographics in their student bodies.

Nobody wants their kid to fail, but better now in school than later in real life. Food for thought.

That's what motivated me!! Fear of failure (and my dad). In college, well, I was paying as I went and greatly feared "paying for nothing!" I'll check out www.greatschool.net this weekend.

Stop stealing my thoughts!!!!
-------------------------------------------
Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

We have an energy crisis. You have an addiction to blogging. I have a solution.

How about if you get a stationary bike, hook it to a generator, and hook the generator to a power source for the laptop. We can also tap some of the excess power generated, and feed it back into the power grid.

That way, you have to keep pedalling in order to stay online. It's a win-win: you will lose some weight, and we will generate some power in the process. If enough cyclists started doing this, it could be like a wind farm, only without all the ugly blades whirling around.

It could work!!

Then, I'm off to the gym. So let me know if your lights brighten up. It might last for an hour.
-------------------------------------------
Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

I had written an answer for you a little while ago, but it vanished.

What I said was that some years ago, I was a judge at a science fair, and one of the students had a stationary bike hooked up to a generator connected to a light bulb. It also had a readout of how many watts were being generated. A reasonably healthy adult could generate about 120 watts for a sustained run. That would be enough for your laptop, with a few watts to spare for the power grid. So it really could work.

If you could keep that up for an hour, then you are in pretty good shape! Keep up the good work, and have a great afternoon.

Top cyclists can produce almost 1/3 horsepower or about 248 watts. Me, I just sweat a lot.

That stationary bicycle hooked up to a generator reminds me of the movie Soylent Green where ole Edward G. Robinson (who died 9 days after completion of the movie) was cranking away to keep the power going during the brown-outs in New York City in 2022.

That was an eerie story. In the movie "Sol" - Edward G - was born the same year I was born. Chilling.
-------------------------------------------
Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

It's scary how close some of those predictions are to coming true. Population overgrowth is our biggest threat, just like that movie predicted. Maybe instead of Soylent Green, its some other product like Jimmy Dean sausage. You never know what might be in that sausage! (Just kidding, if you're a JD fan.)

The movie "1984" is like that as well, only the time frame was a little off.

Speaking of time frames being off, I was watching an old episode of "Twilight Zone" recently. It was the episode "Steel" where Lee Marvin was a boxing manager for a robot boxer which breaks down, so Lee gets into the ring and pretends to be the robot boxer. He loses. The time frame was supposed to be the mid-1970s, about 15 years after the episode was actually filmed. They were way off on their predictions of the development of humanoid robots, but if you think "chess" instead of boxing, then they weren't so far off.

Your Soylent Green posts reminded me that A&E has remade the original 'Andromeda Strain' and it will be shown this Monday and Tuesday night (mini-series).

If you're a fan of the original movie, this remake looks pretty good. Here is the trailer:

ANDROMEDA STRAIN

Those movies that are based on a theme of the future can be interesting. One that comes to mind is HG Wells Things to Come. It was filmed in England in 1936 and foretold of another world war which brought chaos and destruction to the world. (Wow eerie, 3 years later, Sep. 1939 guess what happened) Beyond the big war are the seeds of a new civilization.

OK, I've got to stop this. After that post about Soylent Green my liberal and conservative sides are fighting one another. Denise, Deinse, where the heck are you I need some meds quick!
-------------------------------------------
Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.