Can you say white trash, red neck?
Here's the rest of the story - as Paul Harvey would say.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_us/_greatest_dad__charged;_ylt=AqeRupOOgxMPaGAQul0yYI6s0NUE
I’ve always maintained that if I end up in hell when I die, forget about a lake of fire as the Old Testament proclaims or a lake of ice as Dante envisions. My hell will be a combination monster truck rally, WWF wrestling match, and country music concert all inside an endless Walmart!
I guess I better be good!
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History, never seems to rest, does it?
If they can still find such startling stories from WWII, what else hasn’t been discovered - or rather - uncovered yet about other major happenings?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_re_eu/france_nazi_massacre;_ylt=AjYzUZTZy1HvVF1fd9Z._Slw24cA
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If people really want to get serious about getting more science and math majors in college, then the big business players need to get serious about overhauling our culture.
How can big business and their desire for better students compete against brainless TV, The Hills, Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, Real World, and Ugly Better or computer programs that eat so much of young peoples’ time, Facebook and myspace?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_sc/science_campaign;_ylt=AnJ4D9AglwWdlTUKY5_2EvGs0NUE
This really is just the sign that American culture seems willing to watch others take over the lead in the global economy stage.
This is the stance one of my colleagues stands by whenever we discuss this issue. He refers to an interview he read in a British magazine that featured a professor simply saying that America should get used to being second fiddle on the world stage. It happened to Britain when the US surpassed it as a world power. It happened to Spain when England surpassed it as the pre-eminent power in the world. Life goes on.
Another colleague of mine spoke to the school board about the districts declining math scores. He simply said that he can’t make kids care, nor can he consistently motivate them.
I stand by the idea that we have had it so good for so long that many of us are not accustom to working as hard as previous generations. Instead of seeing education as a means of improving one’s life, the recent generations see it as just a hurdle one must go through before getting on with their lives. That’s scary.
Yet another colleague took her class over to the University of MN at Crookston. There they listened to a professor from a Third World country who was amazed at how nice our students had it, yet the professor was saddened by how little they seemed to value learning and knowledge. This professor talked about how he had to walk miles each day just to get an education in his homeland. However, his parents knew it was a way for him to escape the life his parents were leading.
Does this sound familiar? It reminds me of the stories our grandparents used to tell us about walking uphill both ways to and from school. Maybe there was some truth to that after all.
Just look around at our supposedly ‘poor’ students. You’d be hard pressed to find a student - regardless of whether their parents have a part-time job or prey on wellfare - without an mp3 player or cell phone, let alone money to run over to Taco Johns or Arby’s for lunch.
So even those who should work even harder to escape the lives their parents are living, don’t see any need to escape it.
The current book I’m reading, discusses some of the same issues that are at the heart of many American students (and schools) falling behind. And not even knowing it. Or worse, not even caring.
Check here for an overview
http://www.newhorizons.org/future/Creating_the_Future/crfut_healy.html
Or here for reader reviews
http://www.amazon.com/Endangered-Minds-Children-Think-About/dp/0684856204
As worried as I am about my students and their futures, maybe this is all just part of a large pendulum swing. My grandfather likely never attended much schooling at all because he had to work just to help sustain his family.
Then my father’s generation came along. Unlike my grandfather, my father never had to work a part-time job just to help support his family when he was young. He played sports and attended school, though he never graduated because he decided to work full time and support his own family - which he did.
Then game our generation. My siblings and I never had to work to help support our family. We all graduated from high school, and my sister and I went on to post-secondary earn degrees. We all have provided for ourselves and our families.
I hope my children will do the same. However, I see many kids in this generation (I was just talking about one who should be in my class today but misses it because she works late) being part of a pendulum that is swinging back to view their educations as my dad did, just something that got in the way of earning a living.
The only problem is that today not many kids can find a job without a high school diploma that can really sustain them. Not to mention earning a degree that will allow them to do what they really love or even find a job that they will enjoy coming to every day.
When this generation has children, will those kids have to work instead of attending school just to help support their families the way many of our grandparents or great grandparents had to? Will the pendulum swing back or will it break and spiral downward?
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