Windmills & Giants

Do I get ticketed for posting here? Erm, is it legal?

Brief highlights:
- "I don't know of anyone [concerned about the economy]... etc."
Why is China's economy more solid than ours? Oh, right! They have a bunch of embryos and Lolitas making second-rate, lead-tastin' toys for us to buy at Wal-Mart! Now, what was that about a knowledgeable and skilled workforce?
- "top students from one of the best high schools in the U.S. are... watching Grey's Anatomy"
And thank God for it! I'm not the biggest fan, but if the alternatives are Bollywood flicks, then I'm all for Grey's Anatomy.
- "Two million minutes" has a ring to it, but even with 190 eight hour days a year the tab only reaches something more like 365,000 minutes. Granted, that's time spent in school, but this doc is aimed toward government policy, it seems. Frankly, if these ninnies think that the "omg i wana parteee at da sorority" masses that they typecast in this movie are going to change their after-school behaviors or be enlightened by this movie then... then... w-w-well, I guess they'd be ninnies, just like I said. Hmmph!
- Summary: Strikes me as sensationalist hooey, and —honestly, now— can you doubt my lack of faith in the American education system?

Hope everything is going well on that end. Study hard and all that business. Best of luck to everybody!

Hey man, it's good to hear from you.

A few thoughts:
I'll get to the economy thing further down.
Regarding the Grey's Anatomy quote, I think you make a good point. I think America's focus on entertainment and individual creativity (watched any Chinese TV lately? It's less creative than Jerry Springer, but more hypnotic) has become our best quality, while making us as individuals ever-weaker in the global economy. The focus is not so much on what the students are watching, but the fact that students from other countries are not. I can't say for certain that American students can no longer afford to spend all (or even most) of their time watching television (even high-quality TV), but with the outsourcing trend in the production industry going strong, American college dropouts cannot assume they will to find a job that won't be replaced in ten years by a prodigy from China willing to work for a bowl of food a day.
Regarding China's economy/embryos, what worries me most is not that their economy is so solid, it's that ours is so enticing. I'm hesitant to present an either/or scenario, but it seems that students in China and India are either going to devote themselves entirely to school in order to get into University and find a fair paying job (often in the US), or remain disaffected and become a cog in a process cranking out choking hazards. It must be more complicated than that, but when you're a student in China competing against over 300 million other people under the age of 14, the stakes are exponentially higher than in the US. The problem arises when we realize that US jobs are not reserved for the good ol' Stars and Stripes wavin' captain of the local football team, but for those willing to work most efficiently for the least pay.
I don't enjoy imagining a future that does not allow for personal growth, etc, but when I look at the number of students unable to read critically or do simple math problems when they leave high school, the future seems dim. There's a quote (among many) on the art room wall that proclaims: Understand the rules before you break them. Creativity begins with understanding, and if our American students don't understand the rules, they're only breaking themselves.
[Insert your own segue]
All that said, I think TSAS is on the right path, and ahead of the game in many aspects, but we must strive for higher standards in order to compete with other countries where the stakes are much higher.

FINALLY. Thank God. I've been saying this for about three years now, and doing everything I can to be outside of the Western education system. It's embarrassing. For some reason our school is going to shut down while the schools that have attendance from girls like that blonde chick who almost has a 4.0 but "tries on sunglasses in her spare time" and "can't wait to join a sorority" thrive? REALLY?

I think this show will be a big reality check for the entitled wave of my generation, and the way they think they can be handed everything and not work for the simple fact they're Americans. EVERYWHERE ELSE it is MANDATORY to learn English in school. What school here is it mandatory to learn Madarin Chinese, or French?

Ridiculous. One more reason I wanted this IB program so bad. This show looks great.

I'd like to see more of this.

Check out the links if you haven't. The edin08.com site has an interactive map.

You've probably read it, Stallings, but if anybody else is interested:
http://hometown.aol.com/tma68/7lesson.htm
That essay blew me away. Been meaning to buy the book for a while now.

To move along, though, I agree that Americans are artistically creative at the cost of bread-winning. Hell, that's an essay in itself, though, so I'll stop myself here.

There is no guarantee that Americans will have jobs, because the truth is that there are people who work just as well for less of a reward. We've already seen the hysteria that Mexican immigration causes for that exact reason and it's only going to get worse with outsourcing.

Before this turns into a big rant: It's been a long time coming. We've over-extended ourselves for the past century and it's been slowly catching up to us for the past 20 years. We love to make money, and now we're about to see the nasty old underside of capitalism once again. "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose" and all that business. Same old, same old, it seems. People never learn etctectetc blahblah cynicism

Actually, I hadn't read that one. I think Gatto's story is interesting--from teacher of the year to pedagogical pariah--and many of his ideas have been moved (successfully and not) into my own style. The article mentions his book, Dumbing Us Down. I'm not sure if they got their facts wrong or if he's since written more, but "Dumbing Us Down" is a chapter in his book The Underground History of American Education. You can find it in full here http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
underground/toc1.htm
if you're interested. I found it to be a good read, even though I don't agree with all of his points. You must read his tracing of the American education system from Sparta through the Cold War.

Hope you're feeling better, brah. Go to the doc. Get rest. Eat noodle soup, and shit. Not eat shit, but you know.

Lots of love rolled into little honey bunch kisses stuffed inside of raisins and hot oatmeal cookies.

Wow.