NC Teachers Have To Do A Good Job

[djAdvocate]

Aug 3, 2013 10:14:22 GMT -5 workpublic said:

afghanistan innocent? they welcomed UBL and AQ.

the US welcomed a whole pantheon of dictators, including Saddam, and a whole pantheon of paramilitary cretins, like the Contras.  you know- the kind of folks that drag babies over barbed wire in front of their mothers, and in the same breath are compared to Jefferson and Madison?

Irag? they kill their own. next you'll be telling me pakistan is innocent. how about north korea? angels?

Iraq killed their own with our assistance, and without a word of reprimand until it was almost all said and done.  Pakistan is also a US ally.  but you are conflating the term innocent to mean "angelic".  i already articulated the narrow sense in which i meant it.  however, if it is our job to "clean up the world" and rid it of evil, we have a lot of work to do, including about half our allies.  no thanks.  we should focus strictly on cleaning up our own evil, and those who do evil against us.  in the unlikely event that does not keep us busy enough, we can discuss what to do next when the time comes.

yes we're not perfect but we are still the best shot the world has.

yeah, we are very good at shooting people.  i will grant that.

and i believe that our leaders/movers and shakers/power brokers  are mostly evil.

i don't.  but that is the great thing about the first Amendment, you can believe whatever you like.

[djAdvocate]

note to the board: i would have been happy to let this go at "the US does a lot of good in the world, but a lot of evil, as well".  but apparently there are some here that think we are incapable of doing any wrong.  i can't abide that.

[djAdvocate]

Aug 3, 2013 11:17:53 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

Aug 3, 2013 10:05:56 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

Finland solved this problem by requiring Masters degrees of teachers, and paying for them to get them.  so many people applied, that they were able to choose the most qualified persons to get them.  it made for a very robust teaching corp.  it also made it a very prestigious profession overnight.

The problem I see is not in how qualified a teacher is, although that is important, but rather how able he or she is in being able to teach, day in and day out, with the same enthusiasm and dedication they started with. Who here can do that for years and years?

Finland solved that problem by setting Federal guidelines that were qualitative, and then ceding control of implementation of those goals first to regional councils, and then to the schools themselves.  we have done just the opposite.  the further control of education gets from the educator, the worse the results have been, imo.

[djAdvocate]

here is the long and short of it for ME: there are recipes for success in public schools out there.  what we are doing in the US is about as far from them as is practicable.

[Virgil Showlion]

Aug 3, 2013 10:24:08 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Aug 3, 2013 10:14:22 GMT -5 workpublic said:

... we are still the best shot the world has.
...

The United States government is "the best shot for the world" in what way?

He means the drone strikes ordered by the US government kill 15% fewer schoolkids than drone strikes by those "other guys". Scientific fact, jack.

For minimizing collateral damage while blowing people up for no reason, nobody beats Uncle Sam. Ask to speak to your Sam certified sales representative today.

[djAdvocate]

Aug 3, 2013 19:00:38 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Aug 3, 2013 10:24:08 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

The United States government is "the best shot for the world" in what way?

He means the drone strikes ordered by the US government kill 15% fewer schoolkids than drone strikes by those "other guys". Scientific fact, jack.

For minimizing collateral damage while blowing people up for no reason, nobody beats Uncle Sam. Ask to speak to your Sam certified sales representative today.

my vote for second best post of the week.  i already gave the top prize to Dark.

[workpublic]

i don't think the us can do no harm, I know better. but i don't blame the us first on every issue(cause that crowd believes everyone is a victim of US evil. and they should know better to think that too). that's the difference between us. I also am not so smug to think everything I think is right and anyone who disagrees with does so because they are stupid. I'm a tad bit enlightened, not totally perfect yet.

The United States government is "the best shot for the world" in what way?

development, humanitarian aid, govt type, protection

if you had to choose, which govt's help would you choose? russia? china? india?

i left canada out because they don't have the juice to do anything on the world stage.

[billisonboard]

Aug 5, 2013 9:09:43 GMT -5 workpublic said:

...

if you had to choose, which govt's help would you choose? russia? china? india?
...

No foreign government.

[djAdvocate]

Aug 5, 2013 9:09:43 GMT -5 workpublic said:

i don't think the us can do no harm, I know better. but i don't blame the us first on every issue(cause that crowd believes everyone is a victim of US evil. and they should know better to think that too). that's the difference between us.

that makes no sense at all.  in this thread i specifically said, THREE TIMES NOW, that the US does as much good in this world as it does evil.  that is not "blaming the US", or "saying the US is evil".  edit: i should say, however, that i don't view evil and good as a dichotomy.  i think that every person is both good and evil, and that there is a constant battle waged inside each of us between those two poles.  nations are similar.  it is my observation, and that of many others, that the amount of wrong a nation can do is roughly equivalent to the power it has to do so. 

so, i would have to say that you are making up differences between us, or failing to recognize what we have in common: a shared love of nation and the good it does.

I also am not so smug to think everything I think is right and anyone who disagrees with does so because they are stupid. I'm a tad bit enlightened, not totally perfect yet.

yet you are smug enough to think that you know the minds of others.  i have often stated that i am as dumb as a bag of hammers and respect the intelligence of everyone here.  if you don't believe that, then you are mistaking questioning for criticism.  i am here to learn, just like you.

The United States government is "the best shot for the world" in what way?

development, humanitarian aid, govt type, protection

i think this is pretty arrogant.  we trail in pretty much every one of these categories.  does that make us contemptable?  of course not.  but there is TONS of room for improvement.  i will grant you the protection one, however.  we are the most defensible nation on Earth, imo.

if you had to choose, which govt's help would you choose? russia? china? india?

your choices lack imagination.

i left canada out because they don't have the juice to do anything on the world stage.

it would be nice if we actually led somewhere productive.  but i will be the first to admit: as the last global superpower, we have that opportunity.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Aug 3, 2013 10:14:22 GMT -5 workpublic said:

afghanistan innocent? they welcomed UBL and AQ. Irag? they kill their own. next you'll be telling me pakistan is innocent. how about north korea? angels?

yes we're not perfect but we are still the best shot the world has.

and i believe that our leaders/movers and shakers/power brokers  are mostly evil.

The government run school argument is lost I see.  

[billisonboard]

Aug 5, 2013 16:07:22 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Aug 3, 2013 10:14:22 GMT -5 workpublic said:

afghanistan innocent? they welcomed UBL and AQ. Irag? they kill their own. next you'll be telling me pakistan is innocent. how about north korea? angels?

yes we're not perfect but we are still the best shot the world has.

and i believe that our leaders/movers and shakers/power brokers  are mostly evil.

The government run school argument is lost I see.  

The lens on your glasses have an interesting effect on your vision.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Aug 5, 2013 16:18:26 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Aug 5, 2013 16:07:22 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

The government run school argument is lost I see.  

The lens on your glasses have an interesting effect on your vision.

I don't wear glasses.  I just noticed we were way off topic- which is what usually happens when I'm right, and nobody here wants to acknowledge it. 

[billisonboard]

Aug 5, 2013 16:43:05 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Aug 5, 2013 16:18:26 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

The lens on your glasses have an interesting effect on your vision.

I don't wear glasses.  I just noticed we were way off topic- which is what usually happens when I'm right, and nobody here wants to acknowledge it. 

Not sure exactly what you are claiming to be "right" about here.

[djAdvocate]

Aug 5, 2013 16:07:22 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Aug 3, 2013 10:14:22 GMT -5 workpublic said:

afghanistan innocent? they welcomed UBL and AQ. Irag? they kill their own. next you'll be telling me pakistan is innocent. how about north korea? angels?

yes we're not perfect but we are still the best shot the world has.

and i believe that our leaders/movers and shakers/power brokers  are mostly evil.

The government run school argument is lost I see.  

not entirely.  the little fragment that is left is the jingoism expressed in the quoted post, which is the greatest enemy of the sort of continual self improvement we need as a nation to keep from smothering under the weight of our own self congratulatory largesse.