I recently posted a discussion about urban education in the United States, and it seems as though I have taken a bit of criticism for being too extreme in my opinions on how to deal with violence in schools. Upon reflection, I agree that perhaps I have been too extreme. However, I don't really see how these schools can be fixed without extreme measures, as everything that we have been trying in the United States, and it seems in other urban setting across the world, has been failing.
Please take a look at this video of one of the worst urban public schools in the United States, and then tell me your ideas on how these schools can be made better, safer places. If the government undertakes to give children education and requires them to attend school, then it is the government's responsibility to make sure that these schools are safe. What can be done to guarantee the safety of everyone at schools? As an educator, I believe that this is one of the most important topics facing us today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9gT_Nc41s4
In the United States, education is seen as a right. This might sound good at first, but many, many people take it for granted. Actually, not only do they take it for granted, they abuse their right to education. Oftentimes, there is not accountability for students and parents in the public education systems, so that bad kids and the bad parents ruin it for everyone else. Teachers are powerless to discipline thier students properly when this happens, because they don't have the legal authority necessary to do so. This is why their is such a big difference between urban public education, suburban public education, rural public education, and private education in the United States. This is also why there is so much violence and failure in these schools.
After teaching in these schools, I have decided that something must be done. Parents and students should share in the responsibility for each child's education, and if they refuse to do so then there should be a way of removing them from the normal schools immediately. This should be the same for any student who ever attempts to commit violence against another student. They should not be allowed back to that school, ever.
What do you think? How can parents and students be held accountable lin education? Should we view education as a privilege that can be lost, or as a right that the state must afford even those that do not want it?
Just ran into this on YouTube, thought it was enjoyable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb4zvZdrMz4
Would it be possible to use something similar to the International Phonetic Alphabet to standardize the spelling of the English language so that each letter could only represent one phoneme (basic sound) of the English language? It seems to me that that would make English much, much easier to learn. With the help of computers, anything someone typed or wrote could be converted to the new spelling system, so people who already know how to spell in English wouldn't have to relearn how to spell right away. I think this would make English much more accessible to the rest of the world. What do you think?
I actually enjoy the show quite a bit. I liked watching Zach and Tori's wedding.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/people-big-world-inside-zach-roloffs-wedding-tori/story?id=33330356
I am sad that the Roloff parents got a divorce. It seems that reality tv is actually kind of hard on the people who get the shows. It seems to bring a lof of benefits, but a lot of hardships as well.
What are your favorite video games for each console that has come out? For instance, when I played a lot of videos games as a teenager, I mostly played Nintendo64. For the N64, the best video games in my opinion were Goldeneye and Super Smash Bros. My friends and I would have sleepovers and play those games well into the night. I know the The Legend of Zelda was also immensely popular, but I never got the change to play it! For the original NES, how could anything top Super Mario Bros 3? For Sega Saturn, I really liked Virtua Fighter. For the oringal Sega, Sonic was great. Of course, Halo was groundbreaking for XBox. How about the more recent consoles? What are some of your favorite games for Wii, Xbox One, Playstation (any generation)?
In the United States, we have a horrendous system for electing a new President - and the process has already started for our next election. It is hard to explain, but here it goes. First off, the nominating or primary election process for each of our two parties (Republican and Democrat) is ridiculous because not all of the states get to vote at the same time, which means that the states who get to vote first (Iowa and New Hampshire, and then a handful to follow) almost always decide for the rest of the country who the nominees for the Republican and Democratic parties are going to be (it is virtually impossible to get a third party option). Also, the press gets involved and tries to say who is going to win according to how each candidate has been fairing in press poles, which is a huge mess and ends up acting as a circular self-fulfilling prophecy.
Then comes the general election and election day, and the system that is used to decide who wins is called the Electoral College. How do you win the Electoral College? Well, each state is given the same amount of Electoral College votes as the number of members of congress that they have. So the bigger states get more votes. And whoever wins the most votes in that state wins all of the state's votes. So, even if one candidate receives just 51% of the vote of the citizens in that state, he receives all of that state's Electoral College votes. This means that is fairly possible for a candidate to receive less than 50% of the votes of the citizens of the entire country, and still be elected President - this was the case for the election of Bill Clinton (1992 - 43% of the popular vote) and for the election of George W. Bush (2000 - 47% of the popular vote), and a few other Presidents in our history.
I think that this should end. Whoever becomes President should have to win 50% or more of the vote of the citizens, or there should be a run-off election between the top two candidates and then whoever wins the Electoral College should be President.
#facepalm
In my opinion, you can't go wrong with cookies and milk, as childish as that might sound :)
I just finished watching the movie Inception in French and in English, and I must say it is one of my favorite movies of all time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM
This time I could understand the French song that is played in it, "Edith Piaf - Non, Je ne regrette rien"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88
It is one of those movies that you have to watch several times, and each time you notice more and more things that you didn't before. I highly recommend the film, though I am sure most of you have seen it already.
One thing about the movie that really bothered me as that the Spanish title given to it is "Origen," or origin. I don't understand why they didn't just name it "Incepcion" because Inception and Origin are not the same thing.
