Comments on: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation receives racist Obama t-shirt in the mail.

By: SICKOF IT ALL

SICKOF IT ALL — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:21:34 +0000

Where is the white congressional caucus? Owe, thats right we would be racist if we had one of those!!!

By: pete

pete — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:42:23 +0000

I think the major problems are; simple over protectiveness and inability of many parents to teach anything effectively. But, in some states one can call anything a “curriculum” for religious/philosophical reasons. And that’s where lack of training and lack of socializing get compounded by a contempt for “worldly” or “dangerous” knowledge. I really can’t think of a better way to ruin a child’s intellect. And as for “dangerous” knowledge, my dad had a saying that, “knowledge is only dangerous to the dangerously stupid”.

By: dbadass

dbadass — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:31:56 +0000

Home schooling laws vary so much between states. How do we know if any child is being left behind? If I want to dress my kid in sweatshop abstinance garb and wrap them in the world’s largest confederate flag, can I claim it a curriculum?

By: pete

pete — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:45:27 +0000

I couldn’t agree more db.

I was encouraged/pushed to learn “adult stuff” from a very young age. And I received a lot of education in addition to school. (I think I set an unofficial record for cactus spines and received enough assorted stings that I developed serious allergies.) But, there is a very good reason that teaching is a respected, in some eras more than others, profession and children are sent to learn outside the home.

When I ran a restaurant, in a previous life, I had a couple of young home”schooled” gentlemen who worked for me. “Raising” them into functioning members of a staff was probably the most difficult, and rewarding, tasks of my life.

Thank providence their respective overbearing mothers realized it was time to let go. Both those young men went from being literally unable to hold a conversation without panic, to being competent to run the kitchen for my few days off. And they both say I had a lot to do with helping them adjust to life outside the nest. Both went on to college, careers and families; but I don’t know if they would have without mentoring. And I’ve met a few who never, apparently, manage to socialize. As problematic as public schools can be it’s still a pretty good model for preparing young citizens. And there aren’t really good substitutes for a somewhat structured “practice society”.

By: mudsharks buddy

mudsharks buddy — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:22:40 +0000

Can we all just get a bong?
err, I mean , along

By: Zooey

Zooey — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:12:39 +0000

Exit Stage Left Says:
Depends on what you’re doing :)~
June 7th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Very true. ;)

The last three weeks in IL have felt like six years. Lordy…I can think of better things.

By: Exit Stage Left

Exit Stage Left — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:06:39 +0000

Zooey Says:
BTW, six years is a very long time. ;)

Depends on what you’re doing :)~

By: Zooey

Zooey — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:59:57 +0000

That’s hilarious, katy. :-D

BTW, six years is a very long time. ;)

By: katy

katy — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:56:53 +0000

smiling when she talked about herself, and fairly wooden when she talked about Obama

i noticed that too, zooey… i even coached her, “smile, hillary,
c’mon… smile” … as usual, she didn’t listen to me…

i really do feel for her, she did a great thing…

By: katy

katy — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:53:53 +0000

exit, our parents are of another generation, that’s all…
not a good excuse, but that’s what it is…
unfortunately, they sure raised some dysfunctional kids
because of it… and too many, i found out, are passing it on…

didn’t mean to seem to ignore your reply… wanted to post my hillary endorsement comment before having to run…
now that i have the proper tool for my rainbow vac, i’m down to the basement to suck up some water…
lots of rain last night… needed, but not in my basement…

zooey – you’re not THAT much younger, girl! … i KNOW!
heh…

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:41:55 +0000

Actually, Curious George looks more like the present commander in chief than Obama. Always has.

By: Zooey

Zooey — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:28:13 +0000

Lots of self-congratulations in that speech, but every time she said she was supporting Obama there were fewer boos from the crowd.

She couldn’t quite pull off the facial expressions — smiling when she talked about herself, and fairly wooden when she talked about Obama — but she may have convinced many of her supporters.

By: katy

katy — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:23:16 +0000

and, of course,

YES WE CAN!

By: katy

katy — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:21:50 +0000

excellent speech, hillary… thank you!

but, where’s barack? guess that was too much to ask…

oh well… onward!

By: Zooey

Zooey — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:21:22 +0000

Damn, my blogwhoring post didn’t make the cut. :(

TheZoo was liveblogging Hillary’s speech….not that it matters now. **sniff**

By: Exit Stage Left

Exit Stage Left — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:06:55 +0000

endorsement

By: Exit Stage Left

Exit Stage Left — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:05:40 +0000

Off topic, but……So far, Hillary’s speech is way more than I expected. Total and unequivocal endonrsement of Obama. YAY :)

By: dbadass

dbadass — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:03:55 +0000

pete:
Homeschooling done right is so overwhelming that I have seen very few successful incidences. Usually those children are thrown back into the public or private ed system within a year or two, once the parents realize the realities. My mentor holds a phd from Dartmouth and his wife holds well beyond a MA and they both agree that this was the hardest thing they ever did and would not try it again.

By: pete

pete — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:56:50 +0000

Very interesting comments people. I hope this doesn’t go to far off track.

I have been doing some reading about education and according to many theorists, mostly European and Asian, the American education system does it backwards. In brief:

It has been suggested that very young children should be allowed to explore in a less structured setting and encouraged to leave lesson plans. The three R’s should be taught incidentally as tools to explore. This approach allows kids to benefit from their short attention spans (information seeking) and keeps them interested until the discipline of age enables them to concentrate on the niceties (information holding)of math, grammar, science and history.

Of course none of it will work without a fundamental change in how much of society fears intellectualism. The growing Home”school” movement is downright frightening. How a high school grad, or dropout, can believe they are equipped to teach is beyond me. Hopefully with the aging and demise of the Moral Majority generation, we can have a re dedication to learning for learnings sake?

By: Exit Stage Left

Exit Stage Left — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:51:06 +0000

Zooey Says:
I’m SO much younger than you

OK…we can go with that…whatever helps you sleep at night :)~