Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
1 minute ago, sidis said:

it's obviously a mixed bag on changes in education and that is predictably dependent on community. perhaps you should reevaluate your hostility to westlake. my older kid is in middle school in eanes and we just registered her classes for next year and the options were utterly astounding to me relative to my options in east texas in the mid to late 90's. she is 12 and doing robotics, programming web design, and an engineering and philosophy class. at my high school it was auto tech, woodshop, and ag (also valuable in their own ways obviously) and in middle school, it was p.e. and...nothing. she will take calculus her sophomore year and my high school did not even offer calculus at any grade. that said, eanes, like every other district on the fucking planet, cannot escape the inevitability of having shit-for-brains coaches teaching social studies and history classes which is frustrating. perhaps a contributor to our current predicaments.

Agree with all of that. The offerings are all there for the taking. At least in places like LTISD and Eanes. My perception of the problems with our educational system is that they have in many cases becomes administratively bloated indoctrination camps. Not indoctrination camps into any of the stupid culture war bullshit people focus on, but indoctrination into formulaic thinking and writing processes, memorization and regurgitation exercises that feed the appetite of the standardized testing mafia. Really deeply engaged and independent critical thinking and contextualization of the various data points they cram into their heads is relatively rare. When it does come together it happens because, at least based on what I have seen, there is a unique connection between an exceptionally driven student and an exceptionally compelling individual educator. That's not a swipe at the vast majority of educators, it's a swipe at the system that they are forced to operate in. That's just my take based on what I have seen as a parent. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Haha 1
Posted
20 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Agree with all of that. The offerings are all there for the taking. At least in places like LTISD and Eanes. My perception of the problems with our educational system is that they have in many cases becomes administratively bloated indoctrination camps. Not indoctrination camps into any of the stupid culture war bullshit people focus on, but indoctrination into formulaic thinking and writing processes, memorization and regurgitation exercises that feed the appetite of the standardized testing mafia. Really deeply engaged and independent critical thinking and contextualization of the various data points they cram into their heads is relatively rare. When it does come together it happens because, at least based on what I have seen, there is a unique connection between an exceptionally driven student and an exceptionally compelling individual educator. That's not a swipe at the vast majority of educators, it's a swipe at the system that they are forced to operate in. That's just my take based on what I have seen as a parent. 

I generally agree with the content of what you wrote.  Teachers are generally excellent, in the job for the right reasons, and willing to go beyond their job description for students who show promise or who the system is failing.  When Leander ISD was denying our kids special-ed services to comply with TEA's caps on the number of students receiving special ed, their teachers went far beyond what they were required to do to help our kids as much as they could.  It was the policies from the TEA and implementation under the direction of the school district's administration that failed us.  They are not in it for the right reasons.

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Like 2
Posted
Just now, Nivek said:

I wonder how schools became such victims of political footballs, but I just can't quite place my finger on it.  I mean i vote for people who say we need to defund the schools, break up education, who ignore their own guidelines over class room sizes, who try to break teacher unions, and siphon money from blue districts to feed red districts because no one wants to live there.  I mean I have no fucking clue how this could have happened?   

I think something happened in 1954.

 

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 2
Posted
1 hour ago, bolverk said:

In other Kid Rock news (yes, I know we have a thread about him somewhere but I'm too lazy to look it up):

Kid Rock Throws Tantrum Because No One Clapped for Him During Guest Appearance: ‘F–k Y’all’
The singer appeared during Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan’s birthday celebration in Nashville over the weekend, but didn’t warm to the crowd’s reception

At 54 years old, Kid Rock has not yet outgrown the tantrum-throwing evident in young children who don’t understand that other people’s celebrations aren’t about them. On Saturday evening, the musician stormed offstage at JBJ’s Nashville, where he made a special appearance during Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan’s birthday jam session.

“Fuck them,” Rock said about the audience as he abruptly cut the band off. “If you ain’t gonna clap, we ain’t gonna sing. That’s how it’s gonna go.” The set continued from there, but only for a moment. Rock didn’t seem to be warming to the crowd’s lackluster reception. “You know what, fuck y’all,” he said. “You ain’t gonna clap, I’m gone.”

Bryan continued to play with the rest of the band following Rock’s departure, and the festivities went on as planned.

Rock has rarely shied away from throwing a fit. In fact, he embraces it, particularly when it comes to politics. “I’m part of the problem,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “I’m one of the polarizing people, no question. Sometimes I bitch about other people, then I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, why don’t you shut the fuck up too?’”

When asked if this attitude is a product of a broader impulse-control problem, he replied: “It’s a rich-guy issue. No fucks left. I’m not going to get it right every time, but I know my heart’s right.”

Rock will embark on the traveling festival Rock the Country with Nickelback in 11 cities across America between April and July.

Epitome of an "alpha" male who calls himself an alpha male.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 minute ago, Goredho said:

I generally agree with the content of what you wrote.  Teachers are generally excellent, in the job for the right reasons, and willing to go beyond their job description for students who show promise or who the system is failing.  When Leander ISD was denying our kids special-ed services to comply with TEA's caps on the number of students receiving special ed, their teachers went far beyond what they were required to do to help our kids as much as they could.  It was the policies from the TEA and implementation under the direction of the school district's administration that failed us.  They are not in it for the right reasons.

This can get real complicated really fast.   Not having properly trained staff is one way to fuck around with it.  The schools also get a choice on how to spend the money, and if in the case of HISD, they are doing it outside of the direction of Mike Miles, they get canned.  No matter the performance of the school or the students.   So the old excuse this was about improving education was as always with these clowns, a lie.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
17 minutes ago, Nivek said:

I wonder how schools became such victims of political footballs, but I just can't quite place my finger on it.  I mean i vote for people who say we need to defund the schools, break up education, who ignore their own guidelines over class room sizes, who try to break teacher unions, and siphon money from blue districts to feed red districts because no one wants to live there.  I mean I have no fucking clue how this could have happened?   

Everything is a political football now, by design. They have us fighting over the name of a fucking body of water. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Rage+1 1
Posted
12 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

Tulsi confirmed and this. Putin is laughing his dick off right now

 

Got that Gulf of America thing done though, am I right?

Posted
17 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This is the authoritarian playbook.  Surround yourself with corrupt cronies who can always be arm-twisted and removed for any reason. They will owe you everything and can be cast aside at any moment. You don’t even have to lie. 
 

Putin, Orban, Fico, Aliyev, Karimov.  The admin is following the post-Soviet authoritarian cookbook. 

That was my first thought. Did he actually pardon him or did he just instruct the justice department to stop pursuing it? Because if it’s only the latter, then he can hold that over Adams’ head for as long as needed to ensure absolute loyalty. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, hookem2010 said:

Have we discussed the SAVE Act yet? Not the one Trump nixed to make student loans unaffordable again. The new Chip Roy one that will, among other things, possibly make it difficult for married women who changed their last name to vote.

https://www.newsweek.com/married-women-stopped-voting-save-act-2029325

Feature, not a bug.  A married woman doesn't need to vote - her husband, as the head and master of the household, votes for the household.

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Haha 1
  • Rage+1 2
Posted
3 hours ago, 'stache said:

Hahaha! When you’re too maga for the Governor of Oklahoma you might have over maga’d.

 

IMG_5403.jpeg

To paraphrase: “We were fired for trying to implement Trump’s agenda. The governor wrongly thinks the federal government should be in control of the school board.”

Wat? I still find it amazing that I can be shocked at the pure stupidity of these people. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Drool 1
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, sidis said:

walters is your run of the mill maga dipshit but his dipshittery was actually impacting the school system in oklahoma. he wanted bible verses on the wall of every classroom and he was withholding school security funds and shit like inhalers for the schools that were congressionally directed. he got investigated by the state a.g. and a bunch of congressional committees raked his ass for. the a.g. even called him out for spending $6 million on trump bibles but not actually using the appropriated $250k for inhalers that the legislature directed.

https://kfor.com/news/local/drummond-sends-walters-scathing-letter-criticizing-year-long-delay-in-supplying-schools-life-saving-inhalers/

here's some more:

https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/news/oklahoma-ag-orders-state-superintendent-to-release-school-security-funds/160955/

https://www.okappleseed.org/ryan-walters-gross-misconduct

it is a classic case of these highly charged maga dipshits being placed in roles they have absolutely no business being associated with and incompetently executing not their duties.

he also made a video after the new orleans terror attack on 1/1 saying that public teachers were partially to blame for the attack. he's a lunatic.

 

 

anastasis with the defense of strides made in public education was not on my bingo card this morning. bozo casanova having fucking terrible aesthetic taste in yet another medium (e.g. utter trash tv for simps by taylor sheridan) to go along with everything else he has terrible taste in certainly was.

it's obviously a mixed bag on changes in education and that is predictably dependent on community. perhaps you should reevaluate your hostility to westlake. my older kid is in middle school in eanes and we just registered her classes for next year and the options were utterly astounding to me relative to my options in east texas in the mid to late 90's. she is 12 and doing robotics, programming web design, and an engineering and philosophy class. at my high school it was auto tech, woodshop, and ag (also valuable in their own ways obviously) and in middle school, it was p.e. and...nothing. she will take calculus her sophomore year and my high school did not even offer calculus at any grade. that said, eanes, like every other district on the fucking planet, cannot escape the inevitability of having shit-for-brains coaches teaching social studies and history classes which is frustrating. perhaps a contributor to our current predicaments.

It's weird.  I went to an "elite" public high school.  The course offerings today are much broader than they were in my day, going deep into AP, whereas we had Calculus, Chemistry, Biology and English (and added physics on my way out).  Of course, AP has many more course offerings than it did back then, too.

Nonetheless, my friends who now live in the district say the quality of education has deteriorated from our day.  Seems mostly to do with teachers and their tenure.  They're not as good as they used to be and don't have the years of experience they had back then.

Edited by TwiceHorn
  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted
1 hour ago, sidis said:

walters is your run of the mill maga dipshit but his dipshittery was actually impacting the school system in oklahoma. he wanted bible verses on the wall of every classroom and he was withholding school security funds and shit like inhalers for the schools that were congressionally directed. he got investigated by the state a.g. and a bunch of congressional committees raked his ass for. the a.g. even called him out for spending $6 million on trump bibles but not actually using the appropriated $250k for inhalers that the legislature directed.

https://kfor.com/news/local/drummond-sends-walters-scathing-letter-criticizing-year-long-delay-in-supplying-schools-life-saving-inhalers/

here's some more:

https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/news/oklahoma-ag-orders-state-superintendent-to-release-school-security-funds/160955/

https://www.okappleseed.org/ryan-walters-gross-misconduct

it is a classic case of these highly charged maga dipshits being placed in roles they have absolutely no business being associated with and incompetently executing not their duties.

he also made a video after the new orleans terror attack on 1/1 saying that public teachers were partially to blame for the attack. he's a lunatic.

 

 

anastasis with the defense of strides made in public education was not on my bingo card this morning. bozo casanova having fucking terrible aesthetic taste in yet another medium (e.g. utter trash tv for simps by taylor sheridan) to go along with everything else he has terrible taste in certainly was.

it's obviously a mixed bag on changes in education and that is predictably dependent on community. perhaps you should reevaluate your hostility to westlake. my older kid is in middle school in eanes and we just registered her classes for next year and the options were utterly astounding to me relative to my options in east texas in the mid to late 90's. she is 12 and doing robotics, programming web design, and an engineering and philosophy class. at my high school it was auto tech, woodshop, and ag (also valuable in their own ways obviously) and in middle school, it was p.e. and...nothing. she will take calculus her sophomore year and my high school did not even offer calculus at any grade. that said, eanes, like every other district on the fucking planet, cannot escape the inevitability of having shit-for-brains coaches teaching social studies and history classes which is frustrating. perhaps a contributor to our current predicaments.

thanks for the reply. yeah LT has great options for go getters, the regular classes are terribad though.

Posted
2 hours ago, troph said:

What’s the straight story here? What did they do to warrant the firing?

The shortest version is that everyone hates Ryan Walters and thinks he’s a clown.
Unlike Texas, Oklahoma‘s GOP at the party level is still somewhat controlled by chamber of commerce types and they have managed to keep the base somewhat at bay. 

  • Hook 'Em 3
  • Drool 1
Posted
25 minutes ago, 'stache said:

The right is who made test scores the end all be all.

You can certainly correct me when I am wrong, but was not "Race to the Top" on of the key initiatives driving the linking of standardized test scores to teacher performance evaluations?  I know that some of you think that every bad thing is the world is cause the "right" and every good thing the "left", but with education, as with many other things, both sides should rightly get run. I know, I know. 

Posted
44 minutes ago, sidis said:

i have a lot of thoughts on this as the son of a public school teacher and a private school principal, along with the husband to an public school elementary school reading specialist for kids with learning disabilities or dyslexia. i am not going to do a "Surly Hijack™®" on the Trump's America thread with a full exploration, i'll just quickly note that while there is obviously nothing objectionable about your post in concept, it ignores both the reality of what primary education's mission capabilities are in terms of arming as wide a swath of children as possible with fundamental building blocks to begin the process of critical thinking (arithmetic, fundamental science concepts, reading, etc...), as well as the unfortunate reality of what would happen if one attempted to impose the school of athens on the wider population of children and not self-segregated smaller communities of predisposed children that have both the contextual privilege (economically, family) and the innate desire to be exceptionally driven.

it is, of course, what we all want and strive for but it betrays a lack of experience in both sides of the primary education machinations to believe that the reason "the system" is not ideal has nothing to do with being forced to integrate accommodation for an extreme breadth of circumstances in the human condition including the fact that not all students are exceptional and some students are there and the school is simply trying to ensure their literal survival...and everything in between. the system has evolved to what it is as a reflection of the human condition because we made a decision as a society some time back that all kids need to be educated...not just the ones that are privileged enough to be economically positioned to or that are elevated thinkers. it is easy to run the school of athens when your pupils are plato, aristotle, thomas aquinas, kant, copernicus, galileo, hume, newton, tesla, lao tzu, and descartes. the system (and unfortunately the outcomes) is going to be impacted by having to also deal with the broader spectrum. (hence the disingenuous nature of the state's voucher bullshit/welfare for the upper middle class)

i don't share any hostility towards your thoughts here and i don't disagree that we have unfortunate consequences of having to force a more normally distributed system on a non-normally distributed population in primary education but it is a bit fantastical to espouse these idealized learning proposals without acknowledging the vast array of realities that undermine their effectuation and prospect of broader success.

and of course, none of that is to say anything about the hostility towards public education and the lack of valuing teachers altogether in a way that inspires more exceptional people to take that path. imagine being a high quality teacher in oklahoma and the superintendent of schools shoots a dumbass phone video in his car in which he ties the new orleans terrorist attack to you.

great post. Appreciate the points made. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
1 minute ago, The Dog said:

 

If that were to somehow get through, we would experience a complete collapse of  every county hospital in the country without big tax increases at a county level to further subsidize the losses.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 2
Posted
If that were to somehow get through, we would experience a complete collapse of  every county hospital in the country without big tax increases at a county level to further subsidize the losses.

Did ya see the bit on nursing homes? Have you been in one lately? Eating their own faces, indeed.
Posted
2 hours ago, Michael Knight said:

Trump Humiliated in the ‘Most Powerless Image Ever’ of a U.S. President: O’Donnell

3A3ORIHIIVDAHHL53MAHL25AF4.jpg?smart=tru

 

finger.thumb.jpg.1f10e6d8e96a146e1418615eca02a024.jpg

 

Even the kid knows....

Posted

just read that the Moscow Mitch was the lone 'no' on the Nazi side of the vote for Gabbard and now I am fully convinced someone gave the simulation a sense of humor or at least an inkling regarding irony.

Posted
34 minutes ago, royiv said:

If that were to somehow get through, we would experience a complete collapse of  every county hospital in the country without big tax increases at a county level to further subsidize the losses.

Let it happen. The country needs to collapse in order for everyone to see the leopards for what they are. 

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
1 minute ago, Dahobbs said:

Let it happen. The country needs to collapse in order for everyone to see the leopards for what they are. 

Unless you can afford your own private security force, you probably don't want that to happen.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted
15 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Unless you can afford your own private security force, you probably don't want that to happen.

What I want is irrelevant. 

  • Hook 'Em 4
Posted
28 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

just read that the Moscow Mitch was the lone 'no' on the Nazi side of the vote for Gabbard and now I am fully convinced someone gave the simulation a sense of humor or at least an inkling regarding irony.

I would kill for a Dick Cheney/Mitch republican ticket in charge right now. Go back in time and imagine thinking that 10 years ago.

  • Hook 'Em 5
Posted
16 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

We have always been at war with eastasia

 

 

But it's the republicans who like really really hate language policing, right? 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted
49 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

None of us every wanted it to be that way (except for Anastasis).  We're just acknowledging "that's how it be."

Maybe I was just ahead of the curve acknowledging "that's how it be." 

Posted
1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

Maybe I was just ahead of the curve acknowledging "that's how it be." 

Naaah, your active rooting for suffering far pre-dating the leopards face buffet is not exactly a secret.

  • Hook 'Em 5
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Posted
7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

He singlehandedly had the power to stop this, all of it, if he would have whipped for impeachment after January 6.

While the blood may be on Trump's hands, Mitch gave him the knife.

made worse by the reality that Trump had already delivered the judges he needed to rig the system. what a fucking coward. I hope he rots in hell and dies an ugly painful death.

  • Hook 'Em 2


×
×
  • Create New...