Education

So an article came to my attention recently.

Teacher fired

So let me get this straight, a teacher has been fired, for teaching kids about how the real world works.

In what reality does that make sense?

It would have been a bit better if the person behind the firing wasn't the school's principal. The man who wrote a letter to the Edmonton School Board saying that Mr. Dorval had shown “obvious neglect of duty as a professional teacher, his repeated insubordination and his continued refusal to obey lawful orders.”

I'll give your brain a moment to process the irony in that statement.

All done? Good.

So apparently, letting students not complete work and give them "behavioural codes" when they didn't fix that problem is okay while giving them a flat out ZERO for the missed assignment and potentially alienating their feelings is a no-no.

Let me be very clear. People fail. That is how nature works. Someone is always going to be left behind, alienated and outright fail. Deal with it. Does a heard of Zebras running from some Lions stop and wait for the slowest to catch up so that everyone is on equal pace?

HELL NO.

They all run as fast as they can. The slowest get eaten. By not giving students zeros we're letting the system eat everyone up. Sure kids who do good work still excel, but why should they? They're going to pass the class whether they do the work or not. Most kids hate schoolwork. This gives them a free excuse to not do anything.

I skipped on some homework when I was in high school. What happened? I had a C average. I didn't put much effort into my grade 12 Spanish homework. What happened? I FAILED (only by a percentage point, mind you and I still got my diploma, but that was five years ago).

The principal of Ross Shepard high school has even gone so far to say: “I am here to tell you that you did nothing wrong,” Ron Bradley says. “Everything you did with regards to student achievement and high school completion was the right thing.”

He also was quoted as saying that the news media’s take on the policy is “narrow” and oversimplified.
“In my opinion, the culture of the media deteriorated to the quality of pulp fiction and talk radio,”


Dude, get your head out of your ass. You are encouraging kids to be lazy, unproductive slackers. With this kind of policy in effect, the crop of kids who graduate in a few years is going to be so warped that they won't have any idea how the real world actually works!


Now why is this happening? My theory is pretty simple, money.

Public schools are funded by governments. To the best of my knowledge, (this might not actually be the case, I will do some further checking, so don't quote me on this) the higher the grade averages, the more money they get. Zeros look pretty bad and the more of them that happen, the lower the average is so the less money they get. The no Zero policy means that the grade average stays high, since "behavioural codes" don't imfluence the grade average. But that's just my theory.

I just got an official reply from Alberta Ministry of Education and as far as money coming from them, the above is not the case. Each school board sends money as it chooses.

Teachers have spent the last couple decades teaching kids to "feel good about themselves" and "imagine how the world can be". The problem with that is that it doesn't really do anything useful for the students and all it does is breed lazy hippies.

Now if you've read the rest of this blog, you'll know that I am fairly left wing in both politics and beliefs. I always tell people to dream big and if you believe hard enough, you'll have a hard time letting yourself fail. That said, I hate this. It's encouraging kids to not do anything. After all, if they think that no matter what, they can't fail, then get out into the real world and fail constantly, won't that destroy their self esteem and self worth faster than getting an F on a homework assignment? What does that lead to? I'd rather not think about it. Failure builds experience. After all, Thomas Edison did find 2000 ways NOT to make a lightbulb. If we don't fail, then we never have the chance to stand back up, dust ourselves off and look at a problem from a different angle.

That's just my theory.

Ubisoft

I love how Ubisoft tries to justify their use of over the top DRM (Digital Rights Management) software. They say that it "protects their product from pirates". They say other things too, but it all goes back to that.

Amazing how simple a lie, eh?

Ubisoft has come under much fire from gamers and the gaming community for it's paranoid and OCD use of DRM software. Quite a few of their games are so controlled that the gamer must maintain a constant internet connection in order to be allowed to play the game, so that Ubisoft servers can validate the software that it is authentic and legally purchased.

it is a load of bull crap.

Aside from a few mentions, most of the people I know pirate Ubisoft games for this reason. The company then goes out and says that "It's their fault! Look they pirated it and we have to protect our money, I mean games" When they don't understand that by putting in such DRM software and making it so much of a headfuck to actually play the game, that they drive people away from wanting the games themselves and that people will gladly pirate a copy to avoid having to jump through the 353 or so hoops just to be able to play their legally purchased copy. Frankly, I do not blame them.

Now, on the one hand, I'm not really supportive of piracy. I believe that if a developer takes the time to make a great game, that they should not have to stand their product being stolen and used with no reward for such a good title.

On the other hand, I support piracy, especially with Ubisoft games, because if a company is going to go OUT OF THEIR WAY to make it hard for and basically say "fuck you" to it's loyal customers, just so they hope to discourage a few piraters and make a few extra bucks, then I say, Pirate away, maties.

As I've said time and time again, the best way to combat piracy is to lower the prices on the games and not make it so that the gamer has to jump through endlessly frustrating hoops to enjoy a game. By the time they get to the game, it's not fun from all the frustration.

STEAM does DRM very well. They don't fuck people over and they respect their customers. Ubisoft does not. I say boycott them. Maybe when none of their games sell, they will finally learn.

Free Speech and Children

An article recently came to light that was the inspiration for the this post. A blog post done by a teacher in the States that criticized her students for being "lazy whiners". She was suspended from her job when a student from her school stumbled onto the posting and began to spread it. It, of course, eventually found it's way into the hands of school administrators, who were quick to suspend her, pending an investigation.

(now, I realize it was a while ago, but I've been too busy and tired to do any writing. So I'm getting to it now)

Now, she has received much support from all corners, especially other teachers, who praise her for finally saying something about the type of students they all have to deal with on a daily basis. She has, however, received much criticism from parents about bad mouthing their kids and how she should be "fired and barred from teaching until she can keep her mouth shut"

okay, seriously?

Now, this is a delicate issue. On the one hand, is she justified under the freedom of speech or is she using the internet for direct slander? You will not find a certain answer, so here is my opinion.

While I grant that Mrs. Munroe may have been a bit over the top in her comments, she in no way infringed on free speech. She was well within her rights to post such an article. If she had named specific students, that would been a different story. It is remarkable that in this day and age, students can speak back, insult and curse at their teachers and educators and receive no punishment, but when a teacher who is well within her rights to speak out at students everywhere, sparks a media frenzy and could end up loosing her job. I am no supporter of internet slander, but in this case, it is a necessity.

The real problem lies with the student's parents. They send their children to school and are unwilling to listen when the teacher tells them that their child is not doing well and is behaving in a manner unsuited to a civilized person. Sure, you can shuff it aside and say "It's just a thing that kids today do" but I don't believe that. It is time that students learn that if you speak out in such a manner against a person of authority that there are consquences. Mostly, parents don't want to hear that their "darling angel of a child" is capable of wrong doing and being an insenstive BRAT. But they need to hear it. And they need to start taking action.  Now, I know I am not qualified to give parental advice or anything along that subject, so I will refrain from giving that advice, but I think that if people started properly communicating more and understanding how it all works, we may be able to improve the system.

What do you think? Was she justified under the articles of free speech in making a statement about schools and students today? OR was she making a angry slander against innocent children?

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The Usefulness (or lack thereof) of Post Secondary Education

Now, I'm not saying College or University is a BAD thing, but just not completely necessary.

A recent study that was released said that just under half of University students don't improve as far as critical thinking, reasoning and writing skills. Young adults spend thousands of dollars, borrow hundreds more from their parents and then take out risky loans for thousands of more dollars to gamble at the chance that it will lead to a better future and a successful career. For many, it doesn't and that's the main reason I myself have not attended a post-secondary institution. Many students find out half way through that they are no longer interested in what they originally picked and decide to change courses, leading to more financial woes and even longer before they get out into the workforce. And all that time they are devoting a lot of time to their studies and not working much and ergo not earning much to pay off their debts. Socializing takes up a lot of time and students spend a lot of study time being with their friends.

Now, I'm speaking on average here, not every student turns out like this, many go on to be successful in their lives. But for many it doesn't work and those people end up paying the price for the rest of their lives, spending the rest of their lives in mediocracy trying to pay their debts.

Further studies have shown that people who go from school into the workforce may not earn more per hour in their jobs, but they end up having more spending money while those who attend Univ are spending all their money paying down school debts. Again, not always the case, but not uncommon either.


The simple fact is that we need to lift this illusion that going to College or University is the only way to be successful in life. I mean if you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or work in government then yea, you should go to PS. Otherwise, it's not terribly neccesary.

Video Game studies

There seems to be a fairly obvious pattern when it comes to video game studies and how they effect people, mainly kids and teens. It seems to me that a new one will come out every month or two and will be basically the opposite of the last one. One comes out that says something to the extent of "Oh, video games don't have many downside effects to them at all. Our study proved that" and then the next one will come out saying "Video games have serious health effects and children should be banned from using them or they will become braindead morons and fail at life completely" and then after that another one will be released saying "Well, despite some minor effects like insomia and mild headaches, there are very few issues to be had with playing video games and none of them are of real consequence"


Okay, first, seriously? I mean, it's like there is a organization of people who do all these studies and rebrand them every month or so. It's sending mixed messages and it's going to leave people with more questions then answers and really won't get to the issue. Then again, if you ask me, the issue itself is a media manipulation to control people more. It's sad and not giving truth to anyone. What kicks it is that the people who are the focuses of the studies are at both ends of the extremes. Either exteremely addicted gamers who spend every waking second playing or casual gamers who rarely play, but are playing more just for the sake of the "studies"

This needs to stop.

The issue with ISPs

I read an article today that was talking about the fact that Canadian internet rates are going to be increasing over the next year.
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Frankly, it proves my point about everything that is wrong with Capitalism. About how those with resources that are being needed for many points of modern life are being horded by those who have absolute power and people who cannot afford, yet are needing it, have to basically sell their bodies to pay for it. What it is, is greed at it's worst and more ways to try and control the internet as a whole. By charging as much as they can they are going to drive customers away and end up loosing money in the long run. It shows a not surprising lack of intelligence among Corporate CEOs who apparently need more money for their solid gold whores and diamond encrusted mansions.

It is going to hurt people more than it would do any amount of good, and they can't see it so they will continue to exploit the working class, most of whom can't even make ends meet. Internet usage will be the first service people get rid of and all that money will vanish. Another reason that a revolution needs to happen and capitalism needs to be abandoned. Then maybe people can start actually caring about each other and about the world around them then just about money and personal greed.

One of the issues with Rogers and Bell and Shaw and Telus is that they use their size to prevent any small companies from starting up and those that do are muscled out by outrageous fees and charges which they have no choice but to pass on to the customer. It is a cycle, but a cycle that can be broken.

People need to stand up to these big bullies we have named "corporations" and only then will they realize that they can't walk over everyone and get away with it and the best ones to start with are internet providers because even though they only make up a small part of captalist corruption, their fall will serve as a warning to the larger corporations as to what will happen if you fall out of public favour.

annonimity and the internet

I've been reading some articles that have been saying that the times of anonymous posting on the internet is basically over. And I'm relieved. Soon the days where every 13 year old will be able to wander into an internet forum and start flaming everyone with no one knowing who he is.

The Koreans have the right idea,creating a 6-15 digit PIN number that everyone is issued. Probably from the day they are born. This pin would be linked to the Department of Justice (or it's counterparts in other countries) and would allow internet police (or whatever they are) to enforce spam laws on users. The PIN would be like an online profile, having your data about where you posted, when and what was in the post. Simply put, it would be like a credit card number, and most people protect those with their lives.

Now, there will be privacy groups who will cry foul and say that this would invade a person's rights and freedoms. I can see how that could be seen, but there is a solution: have it so that the PIN doesn't contain any actual information. But it links to the CRA or IRS or whatever. They are required to keep tabs on people, so their information would be up to date and accurate. Therefore, no actual important information is used with the PIN. It would only link to the account at the DoJ and come up as a number, and if there was a problem, then the CRA would look up the number in their system and say "Okay, that's so and so and they live at this address".  If the PIN was email linked to send a message to the PIN owners email account, then any slanderous use of the PIN would be quickly and easily reported.

Simply put, it would be a new credit card like system, but without any important data kept with it.

Might sound kind of harsh, but if it gets rid of all these "FIRST" and "LOL FAIL" comments on sites everywhere, then it's worth it.



/b/ would, of course, be exempt from this system. Because let's face it, that's basically the whole site anyway.