Trip to Canton, anyone?
In approximately forty eight hours, it will be the midterm elections.
I don’t remember the 2002 midterm elections very well, but that’s not the point.
I encourage all to vote.
If you want a domestic-issue reason, go because of No Child Left Behind. It’s a piece of legislation, which is theory provides some good ideas, like accountability, but has an awful way of implementing it and just doesn’t understand how education works. I’ll tell you that standardized testing is now starting at Head Start and beyond. Most elementary students now have Friday as “testing day” for hours at a time. I am all for accountability and trust me I would love for every kid by first grade to be the best goddamn reader, but taking standardized tests, especially at such a young age, is a farce. These standards that they also want to implement are MEDIOCRE at very best. Also, everyone with special needs must be mainstreamed (put into regular classrooms and this means teachers who have 25 kids in her class could have anywhere from 1 to 10 kids with special needs, and according to law there are 15 different types of special needs ranging from autism to emotional distress to mental retardation to deaf to gifted) LRE (Least Restrictive Environments- basically how long they can chill with other students and still meet all their educational, emotional, physical and mental needs) can be a good thing (especially emotionally for mentally challenged students), but it is often taken too far (and the educational and/or other needs suffer) or in the case of gifted children- not far enough (and giving the smart kids more worksheets to do doesn’t count and also gifted children often need a lot of emotional support.)
My solution for the education system is to simply have more teachers and small class sizes (like 10:1 ratio). You would solve a lot of behavioral issues and teachers could gain a closer relationship with the students. Just obnoxiously testing and saying the tests determines whether or not someone is a good teacher is asinine. Oh yeah, and kids who are foreign exchange students (most come primarily to practice their English) and ELL students (who struggle if they don’t get any special attention) also must take these tests. The policy is so out of touch. Having highly qualified teachers and accountability IS a great thing, but if you don’t give the schools the resources (which includes not only money but bodies) it’s just stressful and creates an awful learning environment.
If you want a foreign policy reason, just look at Iraq.
David Letterman said it best:
”We felt like we wanted to do something, because something terrible had been done to us. We did not understand exactly why, all we knew was something terrible, something heinous, something obscene had been done to us. So, while it didn't necessarily make as much sense to go in to Iraq as it did perhaps to go into Afghanistan, I like most everybody else felt like, yes, we need to do something. We need to do something. And as the weeks turned into months, turned into years, and one death became a dozen deaths became a hundred deaths became a thousand deaths, then we began to realize, you know what, maybe we're causing more trouble over there than the whole effort has been worth.”
Iraq is a disaster fuck. I don’t what is worse, honestly, just leave now or continue to stay. I say if we decide the latter, we inevitably need more troops, less war-profiteering, more sacrifice and more influence and help from other countries. It is a civil war. Sectarian violence means civil war. No one wants Iraq to break up. Especially those countries in the Middle East. If the Kurds want their own autonomous government and sovereign nation called “Kurdistan” and they split from Iraqi, areas in Turkey and other nearby countries will split as well, creating more widespread tension and animosity than already exists.
The solution to Iraq all lies in economy. If people had manual labor work they could create decent, stable environments. Men wouldn’t have to go to militias to get money. People can be bought. Everyone has a price. Militia might give you money, but also may provide you with death. A stable job that provides intrinsic and extrinsic rewards creates self-purpose and one feels like they have contributed and created an identity in which they share with others. The desire to be apart of a militia and risk death is severely weakened. It would take awhile but over time, it could possibly work.
The war has been so grossly mismanaged I am sure you can just google all you need to know.
The list of reasons to vote is long and quite extensive. Pork barrel legislation, Military Commissions Act of 2006 (so long sweet habeus corpus), torture, lack of accountability, lack of any concern for the country, slacking off on the job, lying, etc. the list goes on. This current Congress is a big piece of shit and we all know it. I can’t guarantee that Democrats or Independents will be better, but I have reason to believe whoever comes in next can’t possibly fuck it up more.
And if for some reason every election goes Republican, let’s start a riot.
And for some reason or another, I still have a couple ounces of faith in the American people. If I didn’t, I would have left by now and I wouldn’t even bother wanting to become a social studies teacher. I still think there is good stuffed somewhere in-between fraud and negligence. I think as long as I or anyone else can talk amongst ourselves freely and know of the Constitution, then our democratic republic still works. Don’t get me wrong, I do think things are in dire need of rebuilding and core beliefs of our forefathers mysteriously disappear. I am cynical and Die Bold scares the shit out of me.
But if I go on assuming everyone is an asshole and I mean nothing in democracy, then yes it has completely failed and we can all just go home now. If things get difficult, that is not a good enough god damn reason to stop fucking trying.
I hope things work out in the next 60 or so hours.
But I won’t lie to you- I’m a little frightened.
Espcially after watching "Hacking Democracy".
Ah, well good night and good luck (yay cliche.)
I don’t remember the 2002 midterm elections very well, but that’s not the point.
I encourage all to vote.
If you want a domestic-issue reason, go because of No Child Left Behind. It’s a piece of legislation, which is theory provides some good ideas, like accountability, but has an awful way of implementing it and just doesn’t understand how education works. I’ll tell you that standardized testing is now starting at Head Start and beyond. Most elementary students now have Friday as “testing day” for hours at a time. I am all for accountability and trust me I would love for every kid by first grade to be the best goddamn reader, but taking standardized tests, especially at such a young age, is a farce. These standards that they also want to implement are MEDIOCRE at very best. Also, everyone with special needs must be mainstreamed (put into regular classrooms and this means teachers who have 25 kids in her class could have anywhere from 1 to 10 kids with special needs, and according to law there are 15 different types of special needs ranging from autism to emotional distress to mental retardation to deaf to gifted) LRE (Least Restrictive Environments- basically how long they can chill with other students and still meet all their educational, emotional, physical and mental needs) can be a good thing (especially emotionally for mentally challenged students), but it is often taken too far (and the educational and/or other needs suffer) or in the case of gifted children- not far enough (and giving the smart kids more worksheets to do doesn’t count and also gifted children often need a lot of emotional support.)
My solution for the education system is to simply have more teachers and small class sizes (like 10:1 ratio). You would solve a lot of behavioral issues and teachers could gain a closer relationship with the students. Just obnoxiously testing and saying the tests determines whether or not someone is a good teacher is asinine. Oh yeah, and kids who are foreign exchange students (most come primarily to practice their English) and ELL students (who struggle if they don’t get any special attention) also must take these tests. The policy is so out of touch. Having highly qualified teachers and accountability IS a great thing, but if you don’t give the schools the resources (which includes not only money but bodies) it’s just stressful and creates an awful learning environment.
If you want a foreign policy reason, just look at Iraq.
David Letterman said it best:
”We felt like we wanted to do something, because something terrible had been done to us. We did not understand exactly why, all we knew was something terrible, something heinous, something obscene had been done to us. So, while it didn't necessarily make as much sense to go in to Iraq as it did perhaps to go into Afghanistan, I like most everybody else felt like, yes, we need to do something. We need to do something. And as the weeks turned into months, turned into years, and one death became a dozen deaths became a hundred deaths became a thousand deaths, then we began to realize, you know what, maybe we're causing more trouble over there than the whole effort has been worth.”
Iraq is a disaster fuck. I don’t what is worse, honestly, just leave now or continue to stay. I say if we decide the latter, we inevitably need more troops, less war-profiteering, more sacrifice and more influence and help from other countries. It is a civil war. Sectarian violence means civil war. No one wants Iraq to break up. Especially those countries in the Middle East. If the Kurds want their own autonomous government and sovereign nation called “Kurdistan” and they split from Iraqi, areas in Turkey and other nearby countries will split as well, creating more widespread tension and animosity than already exists.
The solution to Iraq all lies in economy. If people had manual labor work they could create decent, stable environments. Men wouldn’t have to go to militias to get money. People can be bought. Everyone has a price. Militia might give you money, but also may provide you with death. A stable job that provides intrinsic and extrinsic rewards creates self-purpose and one feels like they have contributed and created an identity in which they share with others. The desire to be apart of a militia and risk death is severely weakened. It would take awhile but over time, it could possibly work.
The war has been so grossly mismanaged I am sure you can just google all you need to know.
The list of reasons to vote is long and quite extensive. Pork barrel legislation, Military Commissions Act of 2006 (so long sweet habeus corpus), torture, lack of accountability, lack of any concern for the country, slacking off on the job, lying, etc. the list goes on. This current Congress is a big piece of shit and we all know it. I can’t guarantee that Democrats or Independents will be better, but I have reason to believe whoever comes in next can’t possibly fuck it up more.
And if for some reason every election goes Republican, let’s start a riot.
And for some reason or another, I still have a couple ounces of faith in the American people. If I didn’t, I would have left by now and I wouldn’t even bother wanting to become a social studies teacher. I still think there is good stuffed somewhere in-between fraud and negligence. I think as long as I or anyone else can talk amongst ourselves freely and know of the Constitution, then our democratic republic still works. Don’t get me wrong, I do think things are in dire need of rebuilding and core beliefs of our forefathers mysteriously disappear. I am cynical and Die Bold scares the shit out of me.
But if I go on assuming everyone is an asshole and I mean nothing in democracy, then yes it has completely failed and we can all just go home now. If things get difficult, that is not a good enough god damn reason to stop fucking trying.
I hope things work out in the next 60 or so hours.
But I won’t lie to you- I’m a little frightened.
Espcially after watching "Hacking Democracy".
Ah, well good night and good luck (yay cliche.)