Improper behavior

[Bruin Fisher]

Is sniggering anything like snickering? Somehow, it sounds nastier.

C

Brits snigger, yanks snicker. And yes, it's nastier....

[DesDownunder]

Aussies snugger (up to each other...I wish).

[colinian]

When I started high school we were told that a class syllabus, homework assignments, and other information would be posted on the school's Blackboard software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Learning_System). In many classes (math, English, Creative Writing, etc.) homework was submitted using Blackboard. We were expected to either have our own computer or a computer at home that we could use for doing our homework. Students who didn't have access to a computer at home could use the computers in the computer lab. The school system assisted parents who couldn't afford a computer by sending them to sources where refurbished computers were available either free or at minimal cost. Then they would have to pay for internet access. I lived in a affluent area, so the school district also provided loaner computers. They still do, but are switching to iPads instead.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

Where I volunteer it's a middleclass school. Perhaps lower middle, but still middle. But the economic struggles in the school system are very real, and are suffered widely in the area. Most schools are having severe cutbacks. I wonder if even in affluent school systems today, versus five years ago, there aren't shortages now where there was plenty before.

C

[The Pecman]

Cole, I was just doing a little research on private schools (for a story), and discovered there were at least two dozen private high schools in the country that cost parents over $30,000 a year per student. (!!!) Last time I checked, Harvard cost about $55,000 a year, so we're not far behind that.

I would agree that public schools are suffering in terms of cutbacks. I'm very sorry to hear about the reductions in music programs and extra-curricular activities, both of which made middle school and high school barely tolerable for me. Without that, I dunno if I could've made it.

[blue]

When I last checked a couple of years ago, about returning to complete my bachelor's degree, I found two things: One, I'd be the age of the professors, with very few undergrads (about 1 in 100) over 35 or 40. Two, a single semester would cost me the equivalent of a year's salary from what I'd been making before standing down to care for my grandmother. -- I have an associate's degree plus electives and a few courses into two or three different majors, English, languages, or computer science. This was before the advent of the web and web design. -- Now, the cost of a year (or two full semesters) would be around two or more years' worth of salary. I am not sure if I'll do it. In any case, I'd have to make a ton of money and save for a few years to do a full-time semester.

About music, art, journalism, languages, theater, dance: I was an English major, my first run through college, and tried to switch to computer science in the middle of tanking grades (except in French, English, Calculus, and Computer Science, heh.). My mother was a professional artist (oil paintings, but other media too). My dad was an engineer. Many of my friends were in choir, band, or theater arts, English, journalism, or the foreign languages our high school offered. Then there were friends in math and sciences. Hey, I was a geek, OK? :) I had nice geeky friends. I can't imagine what my life or any of theirs would've been without liberal arts courses like those. My dad loved history, along with being an engineer. They both valued liberal arts. Without arts courses, what kind of bleak world are we going to offer kids? Not every kid can make it to an affluent school or a magnet or charter school, or a dedicated arts school. Not every kid can make it to a good suburban public school like I went to. (At the time, the district was among the best in the state.) Where are kids going to learn things that will enrich their lives and help them enjoy? -- And why in blazes isn't art or music or theater or journalism every bit as worthy and important and valuable to study as, say, football and mathematics and science? (I'm not knocking football, either. Kids need exercise and they deserve to have fun playing sports. Team sports teach how to be a teammate and sportsmanship. No quarrel with those. I just suck at sports, is all, lol.)

Looking at it another way -- Those musicians and movie/TV stars (and even writers, ahem) have a hungry audience that sells millions of copies...or at least hundreds or thousands of copies, depending...and the best are paid quite well. (With the exception of most writers.) Our culture idolizes those starring actors and musicians. Everyone on the planet (nearly) has some artwork or clothing or designed item (product, household good, device) that an artist came up with. Given that, why *wouldn't* a school district find it valuable to fund arts courses? Ooh, it boggles the mind!

I just can't imagine what it would be like without arts and music and all the other liberal arts taught in school. Would all those kids have to find charter/magnet schools or dedicated arts schools? How can they do that, when the spaces are so limited?

How terribly short-sighted. -- Who then will win? Why, that's easy. The country that does invest in the fully rounded education of its kids. If America wants to stay on top, then people have to fund education for their kids, including arts, including textbooks and basic supplies, building upgrades, computers, decent salaries for teachers, policies that work to actually teach kids and keep them wanting to learn more. The countries that do that win the technological and artisitc and ideological pie. They win the planet. Simple as that. Will that be Europe? India? Australia? China? Japan? Some other country entirely? -- I don't begrudge those other countries the right to excel. Excellence benefits everyone it touches. But neither do I want that to be a country that denies its people (or large segments) their human rights. And neither do I want my own country's kids to fall behind. They're good, talented, bright kids. Our future as a nation depends on them. If we dumb down and fall down, then the world loses whatever our people could contribute to the world. -- How short-sighted can people be, not to be passionately in favor of a good education, including the arts and all those other factors, for their own kids? Bah! Or perhaps, "baa-baa, baa-baa." I would note the origin of the Greek word, barbaros, barbarian. It came from the sound sheep make, bar-bar, baa-baa. Thus, barbaros, wild, uncivilized, with all that implied to the Greeks or to us.

Baa-baa, baa-baa, baah!

Three bags full.

[Paul_and_Paco]

I am not sure if this is a syllogistic fallacy, or not. I am so confused!