Tuesday Trivia
Home Thoughts from a Broad
To continue the debate over education, & whether our children (or even some of you, Dear Readers) are getting an adequate one: I have been following the current adventures of Frank the Goat, in Frank the Comic, with interest, eg: here, & for the previous fortnight. The basic storyline is that baby Frank is a picky eater so he goes around the farmyard giving reasons why he doesn't want to eat the other animals' favourite foods. The plot may sound thin (hey, it's a cartoon, folks!) the pictures are brilliant! The whole thing rather put me in mind of the chapter in "The House at Pooh Corner" in which "Tigger comes to the Forest and has Breakfast." Those who don't remember such an event could always hie themselves to the local library & try finding a copy! Yes, it was a book loooooong before Disney bought the rights.
Anyway, I happened to read the "Contradiction" at the front of the book, part of which mentioned that when Christopher Robin was asking when A. A. Milne (his Dad, & the author) was going to write about a certain event & he "happened to say very quickly, 'What about nine times a hundred and seven?' And when we had done that one, we had one about cows going through a gate at two a nimute, and there are three hundred in the field, so how many are left after an hour and a half?" Which I worked out, in my head, after a few minutes cogitation.
Now remember, Christopher Robin at this point is under ten years old. OK so he's from a privileged background, with educated parents who obviously believe in the value of both Literacy (reading and writing) and spending quality time with their children - for all they employed a Nanny when he "Was Very Young"! However would we expect year 4 or 5 children these days to even understand the questions? (Do you Dear Reader?) Let alone be able, albeit with help, to work out the answers*? For the record, when I was in year 5 we were expected to be able to do such sums as 7 x 107 in our heads, by year 6 at least some of us were expected to understand how to go about working out the cow problem, & do it, but then, we knew our times tables, & weights & measures! (The Decimal coinage system didn't come in til I was at secondary school)
Is it any wonder then people in positions of responsibility these days, ie: adults, don't seem to do 'joined up' thinking? For example - people have been generously donating their used PCs to charities (rather than just chucking them), which recondition them and send them to the Third World. Now certain enterprising Third Worlders are being busy. So spot the lack of joined up thinking here. I mean, even I know that if a computer programme/document is 'Deleted' it is still actually physically there on the Hard Disc until such time as the computer gets to overwriting that bit of memory.
The moral of this story is not Don't Donate your Old Computers to Charity, nor Charities Giving Computers to the Third World are Irresponsible - though a bit of overwriting of previous information might not have come amiss, nor yet Nigerians are Evil Identitiy Thieves. The point is - When you Upgrade your Computer - Make Sure You Really Delete All Personal Information &, probably, Most Other Documents You Put On It. If you're getting rid of the thing it's Your responsibility. After all, you don't throw whole bills & other stuff into the (recycling) bin when they have your name, address & other details on them do you? Do you? You DO use a shredder for such sensitive stuff? And then you either bag it up & put it in the recycling bin (labelled "Paper, recyclable"), or compost it. Apparently shredded paper is a great thing to interlayer with grasscuttings! It also makes good rabbit bedding.
Of course, the other moral of the story is that PCs Suck & Your Next Upgrade Should Be to an Apple Mac, or a Decent Operating System, eg: Linux! (*763, 20)
For another example of non-joined up thinking - see here. I've written often enough about how important it is to treat people as people, all people, if you don't you are laying up all sorts of problems for yourself, & others. Now how about the at least some of the resources invested in the "War on Turr" start being reinvested in a Campaign Against Poverty, Injustice & Oppression? Think about it, Dear Reader, preferably in "joined up" thinking.
Y'all have a good, & thoughtful, day now!
To continue the debate over education, & whether our children (or even some of you, Dear Readers) are getting an adequate one: I have been following the current adventures of Frank the Goat, in Frank the Comic, with interest, eg: here, & for the previous fortnight. The basic storyline is that baby Frank is a picky eater so he goes around the farmyard giving reasons why he doesn't want to eat the other animals' favourite foods. The plot may sound thin (hey, it's a cartoon, folks!) the pictures are brilliant! The whole thing rather put me in mind of the chapter in "The House at Pooh Corner" in which "Tigger comes to the Forest and has Breakfast." Those who don't remember such an event could always hie themselves to the local library & try finding a copy! Yes, it was a book loooooong before Disney bought the rights.
Anyway, I happened to read the "Contradiction" at the front of the book, part of which mentioned that when Christopher Robin was asking when A. A. Milne (his Dad, & the author) was going to write about a certain event & he "happened to say very quickly, 'What about nine times a hundred and seven?' And when we had done that one, we had one about cows going through a gate at two a nimute, and there are three hundred in the field, so how many are left after an hour and a half?" Which I worked out, in my head, after a few minutes cogitation.
Now remember, Christopher Robin at this point is under ten years old. OK so he's from a privileged background, with educated parents who obviously believe in the value of both Literacy (reading and writing) and spending quality time with their children - for all they employed a Nanny when he "Was Very Young"! However would we expect year 4 or 5 children these days to even understand the questions? (Do you Dear Reader?) Let alone be able, albeit with help, to work out the answers*? For the record, when I was in year 5 we were expected to be able to do such sums as 7 x 107 in our heads, by year 6 at least some of us were expected to understand how to go about working out the cow problem, & do it, but then, we knew our times tables, & weights & measures! (The Decimal coinage system didn't come in til I was at secondary school)
Is it any wonder then people in positions of responsibility these days, ie: adults, don't seem to do 'joined up' thinking? For example - people have been generously donating their used PCs to charities (rather than just chucking them), which recondition them and send them to the Third World. Now certain enterprising Third Worlders are being busy. So spot the lack of joined up thinking here. I mean, even I know that if a computer programme/document is 'Deleted' it is still actually physically there on the Hard Disc until such time as the computer gets to overwriting that bit of memory.
The moral of this story is not Don't Donate your Old Computers to Charity, nor Charities Giving Computers to the Third World are Irresponsible - though a bit of overwriting of previous information might not have come amiss, nor yet Nigerians are Evil Identitiy Thieves. The point is - When you Upgrade your Computer - Make Sure You Really Delete All Personal Information &, probably, Most Other Documents You Put On It. If you're getting rid of the thing it's Your responsibility. After all, you don't throw whole bills & other stuff into the (recycling) bin when they have your name, address & other details on them do you? Do you? You DO use a shredder for such sensitive stuff? And then you either bag it up & put it in the recycling bin (labelled "Paper, recyclable"), or compost it. Apparently shredded paper is a great thing to interlayer with grasscuttings! It also makes good rabbit bedding.
Of course, the other moral of the story is that PCs Suck & Your Next Upgrade Should Be to an Apple Mac, or a Decent Operating System, eg: Linux! (*763, 20)
For another example of non-joined up thinking - see here. I've written often enough about how important it is to treat people as people, all people, if you don't you are laying up all sorts of problems for yourself, & others. Now how about the at least some of the resources invested in the "War on Turr" start being reinvested in a Campaign Against Poverty, Injustice & Oppression? Think about it, Dear Reader, preferably in "joined up" thinking.
Y'all have a good, & thoughtful, day now!