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Coworker said to me all schools need are chalkboards and books

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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:40 PM
Original message
Coworker said to me all schools need are chalkboards and books
:banghead:

not a conservative. has a master's degree! person is in their 30's.

:wtf: needless to say quite a discussion ensued.

if with all this person's education and knowledge they still think this, if they think there is too much spending on schools (in California no less!), ugh.

do we even have a chance?

why is ignorance so widespread, even among those with advanced degrees and lots of education?

just don't get it.
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leftyclimber Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:40 PM
Response to Original message
1. A master's degree in what?
Stupidity?

Yowch.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:43 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. thought there was too much spending in schools because lots of classrooms have TV's in them
:eyes:

we went over the cost of 1 tv over it's lifespan and the cost of 1 teacher per year.

we went over all the educational things that a tv might be used for.

i mentioned that this is 2009 and we had tv's in my classrooms back in the 1980's, computers too!

sometimes i think we don't have a freakin' chance.

do Europeans act like this? do Canadians? the ones i've met...nope.
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SharonAnn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:47 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Umm, we had TVs in the classroom in the 1960's. Mid 60s and later.
We didn't have one in every classroom, but we had several in the school. They were large units with large (for their time) screens, on a rolling stand so that they could be wheeled from room to room.
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leftyclimber Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:48 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. Oh, good lord.
There was a bit of an anti-school movement when I lived in Ontario during the ugly neocon Mike Harris years, but it was pretty small and met with a lot of irritation (I saw very few people move to full-out derision ;)). Of course, the vast majority of Canadians I've encountered are of the "a healthy workforce is a more productive workforce" and so forth philosophy, so our nutty culture may not make a real accurate comparison to theirs.

Some people you just can't reason with. I wish we could round 'em all up and ship 'em to Guam or something. With the Guamanians' blessing, of course.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:54 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. i told her she's free to shortchange these kids all she wants
deprive them of any amount of money.

just to remember that they control how much and how good her retirement income and healthcare will be.

:think:
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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:41 PM
Response to Original message
2. You realize that part of talking down schools is keeping down wages
we are being conditioned to not expect as much in pay since our schools are just so bad

that and union busting
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. i was also told that auto workers made too much money because of unions
eeek.

i just need to vent sometimes.

me, i just quote Sam Seaborn on West Wing: "I think public schools should be palaces."

i would like to see our schools look as nice as the offices of defense contractors.
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Buzz Clik Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:43 PM
Response to Original message
4. What a friggin' genius. Seriously, who needs competent teachers? Or computers?
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nadinbrzezinski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:48 PM
Response to Reply #4
9. Next I know you will ask for good pay and gasp
job protections

I mean I don't need Jimmy to know algebra to work at the factory, if you know what I mean

:sarcasm: <---------yes some folks need this
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NashVegas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:48 PM
Response to Original message
7. They Also Need Cheese Sandwiches
:hide:
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kwassa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:49 PM
Response to Original message
10. Education is the one field where everyone thinks that they are expert
with the solution always being what worked for them, will work for everyone else.

Simple. See?
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doc03 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:50 PM
Response to Original message
11. A friend's wife is a teacher with a Masters
Edited on Fri Feb-27-09 10:51 PM by doc03
and thinks just like that. She can't stand it that the poor kids get free lunches, she figures since they are poor their parents are too lazy to work. Now get this, her husband is an Attorney and she is a teacher, I'm sure sure they take in a couple hundred grand. Oh she is also dead set against Unions when the teachers union has got her a nice income and pension on taxpayers money. Needless to say diehard Republicans.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:56 PM
Response to Reply #11
15. a teacher???
that friendship could get rocky. :eyes:
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doc03 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #15
21. We have kind of drifted apart over the years
they both were raised dirt poor and now they think if someone is poor it's their own fault. They forgot their roots, his father was a dairy farmer and her father a coal miner now they live in a rich Republican neighborhood and look down on that kind of trash.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:07 PM
Response to Reply #21
23. I can see why
so many consider it a badge of honor to espouse ignorance and selfishness.
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Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
12. Stoopid. What good is a chalkboard without chalk?
Anyone who lives here and thinks that there's too much spending in the school is a direct descendant of Scrooge.
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SnoopDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:54 PM
Response to Original message
14. And pencils and paper...
And lab materials.

And computer...

And library books.

And PE equipment.

And proper classrooms.

And parent involvement.

And... And... And... an emphasis on English and Math would be great.


Did you know that, in English, sentences begins with a capital letter?
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. capital letters?
Deukmejian cut school funding when i was a kid. :dunce:
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tnlefty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:56 PM
Response to Original message
16.  My MIL, who is in her 80's said that to me once.
Anyone who has a master's and spouts this shit is beyond me. Sorry, I'm not helping with your quandary.:shrug:
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:01 PM
Response to Reply #16
19. i tell religious people i know that God gave them all that they have
and He didn't give it to them to not spend it on educating, feeding and otherwise caring for children.

that is the one thing that cuts down some of that talk.

this is a good Catholic, to the extent that you can be a good Catholic and think money is wasted on kid's education. but i digress.
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baldguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 10:58 PM
Response to Original message
18. Why do they even need that? Socrates just asked questions; he never wrote anything down.
I don't think he'd be of much use in any modern job, though.
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Ilsa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:02 PM
Response to Original message
20. And what about the kids with special learning needs?
Computer software has done wonders for those kids, including my own. A chalkboard wouldn't have been the same.

In an economy where computers are used for almost everything, someone says that?

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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:09 PM
Response to Reply #20
25. absolutely right
this is a person i can reason with, but what's so disheartening is that with all their education and knowledge, they just hold to these positions as a default. not only that, but for every conversation we've had on the subject, none of the opinions have changed.
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ogneopasno Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:04 PM
Response to Original message
22. And he forgot cheese sandwiches? WTF!
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vanlassie Donating Member (826 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:07 PM
Response to Original message
24. And you have to walk to school uphill both ways too.
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Starry Messenger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-09 11:10 PM
Response to Original message
26. I teach ceramics!
It's hard to create clay projects without clay.



You can show her this pic and tell her it's by a kid who comes to the ceramics room at all hours, otherwise doesn't like school very much and teaches himself new techniques in pottery by watching artists on Youtube. I just stay out of his way! :)
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Touchdown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-28-09 12:13 AM
Response to Original message
27. Yeah. And all the Army needs is rocks and spears.
On second thought...;)
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Feb-28-09 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #27
28. good analogy!
:rofl:
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