At least ONE of the 3892 crew has a good-looking daughter.

[k4kyv]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII&feature=related   

[WA1GFZ]

and so well spoken. I bet she sounds just as smart without the carrier and upper sideband

[KB2WIG]

Children are our future.


klc

[Ralph W3GL]

         I'm cornfussed,  what's aw mapp?

[WA1GFZ]

A map you use to wipe your a$$ with

[K1JJ]

In this material-whirl society, as a young woman:

If you look like that, you don't need to be smart. Some rich disco-duck jock will sweep you up.

If you don't look like that, then you'd better be smart.

If you don't look like that and you're a dummy, it's gonna be tough sledding...

T

[W4EWH]

I hate to say it, but I feel the need to ask "Why should we care"?

Our children are so constantly overstimulated these days  that they're literally incapable of critical thought: with every electronic device around them screaming "BUY! BUY!!", they're not able to absorb a times-table, let alone a great-circle route. Asking why children can't find the U.S. on a map of the world is like asking why they can't find square roots without a calculator: the answer is that it's not a skill which affects their everyday lives, and they no longer have the mental space needed to store non-essential information. In fact, it's a trick question, designed to reassure the older viewers (who make the majority of buying decisions) that they're still superior to the next generation.

The fact is that finding a country on a map is a skill now useful only to navigators and missileers, and they use the Mercator projection which has been all-but-forgotten in the face of politically correct sensitivity to the "right" shape of third-world countries and/or continents.

The (admittedly sad) fact is that we (the old buzzards of the world) were taught how to navigate because our fathers had just fought a world war, and so there were a lot of free maps available for schools to hang on their walls in the 50's, and great interest in teaching us how to use them so that we could go home between duck-and-cover drills and make our dads feel important.

What we see on TV is never the truth. The truth is that if that beautiful young girl were honest, she would have said "It doesn't matter because jet aircraft and GPS have made maps obsolete". The truth is that beauty "contests" are hypocritical displays of virgin-meat-on-the-hoof, created to sell soap to the housewives of America, who crave an image of the child - innocent in all senses of the word - that they so recently left behind.

Bill, W1AC, who is taking bets on whether this post will be deleted.

[N3DRB The Derb]

she would have said "It doesn't matter because jet aircraft and GPS have made maps obsolete".

I'm sure such a statement would have never occurred to her.

Besides, she's not that happening anyway. she looks like a airbrushed cartoon woman.

[WBear2GCR]

Wonderful!!

What a great example to all other young people!

Especially the young women of where is that?... North Carolina!

One can only hope that she is actually a sweet nice person and not a b**ch in real life.

I know from personal experience that an awful lot of the schools today are not teaching very much, and are teaching some rather bizzare things compared to the "traditional" education that most of us got. BUT, keep in mind that even back then, and before our time, there were scads of people who were ignorant, some not very smart, but they were segregated *out* of the classes that most of us were placed into... remember "trade schools"?

Today "trade schools" would train for what? Wallyworld, McBurger??

Keep in mind that ignorant people are more easily led.

Could that be a plan??

               _-_-bear

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Schools are more interested now in indoctrination and behavior modification than education. 

Used to be you learned, were tested, and if you failed you did it again till you got it right.

Now, there's no child left behind, and none that can read write or do simple math in their head.  Too much "Special Education" and not enough "REAL" Education.

Of course, it's really hard to teach when 60% of the popluation is either on meds for the latest Psych-du-jour explaination of why little Johnny just won't listen or they have "Issues" which get them a get out of detention free card.

The Parents are to blame, along with the educational system designed by '60s era psychologists where are more interested in forwarding their world or medical view than in whats good for Kids & the country (which is the SAME THING). 

He controls destiny who controls the children (sound familiar???)

[flintstone mop]

GAWD that was awful. "such as" and really not that pretty either......sorry
How did she gete that far in the 'test?

Fred

[ka3zlr]

Aw have some real fun got to a PTA meeting and sit with the rest of the Dads shaking their heads in decision..LOL

Pulled mine out of Public Schools and have been happier since a little more broke but much better response from jr.


73
Jack.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

This clip is a year or two old. It's been beat to death long ago. I saw the women on TV after she made the comment. She took her lumps and actually sounded a little more intelligent.



But let's get serious here. It's a beauty contest - did anyone expect an intelligent answer? The whole concept of these pagaents is absurd. They ask these women, who are there because they look good, to comment on or answer questions that people who are far smarter, and get paid to think about such things, can't answer or comment on intelligently. WTF?

Why be pissed that some beauty queen speaks like this? We have so called teachers, politicians and leaders who sound dumber than her.


"It is wonderful to be back in Oregon. Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."

[k4kyv]

The video didn't piss me off.  I thought it was funny, and that it would be amusing for poking a little fun at No Balls & Co.

Actually, the poor girl probably just hit a mental blank under the pressure of the situation.  I have had the same thing happen myself, for example when I suddenly can't think of the name of a person I have known for years the very moment I am introducing them to a stranger, or when I can't think of a key word I need to express a thought, even though that word is one I use every day.

Here is a follow up to the original video.  No way to tell whether or not she was coached before her appearance on the Today Show or if she ad-libbed the response, but she seems to be more at ease and display normal intelligence in the second clip.

No doubt she got plenty of public exposure, with almost 9 million views on just that one YouTube clip (several others were posted), plus 3.5 million views on the follow-up.  Not to mention all the people who saw the follow-up on TV. I hope the whole thing opened some positive doors to her future.  A few people, who are permanently at least as air-headed as she appeared to be at the pageant, have made it big time in show-biz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQKNvPn3V-8&feature=related


I must admit that I didn't know much about the world map and could have cared even less until about grade 5 or 6 when I began to listen to broadcasts on short wave and became curious about the countries I was hearing on the radio.  My parents bought me a set of Britannicas about that same time, and I used to enjoy browsing through them at my leisure even though using them for school work seemed more like drudgery.

I could have never set down and drawn a map of the US from memory, even though I had passed all my geography, history and social studios classes throughout my school years, until I got my novice licence and started working hams in other states.  Then I began to pay attention to where various states and Canadian provinces were located and before long, I could point them out from memory.

The only way to learn  something and have it stick with you, is for you to have a reason to want to retain the information.  Otherwise, the brain automatically purges its memory banks of useless data.

That's why so many kids retain so little of what is taught in school.  When teachers are assigned the task of teaching to standardised state tests to make the school and "Bored" of education look good to the state and fed governments that hold the purse strings, most of what kids learn is going to be taken as useless information, purged from the memory shortly after the final test.

Believe me, I know.  I taught in secondary education for 22 years.

[W1RKW]

It's a small glimpse in time.  I'm sure she feels like crap when reviewing the video. I'm sure nerves got the best of her. Considering she's standing up with the least bit of experience in front of a large audience, probably feels self conscious big time, does enough to make the best of it, stutters and flubs up.  I know the feeling.  Been there.  It's a confidence thing. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she is much smarter than she sounds in this clip. Not all teens appear this way. Granted there are those who do. But I wouldn't lump them all together.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

That's why so many kids retain so little of what is taught in school.  When teachers are assigned the task of teaching to standardised state tests to make the school and "Bored" of education look good to the state and fed governments that hold the purse strings, most of what kids learn is going to be taken as useless information, purged from the memory shortly after the final test.

Now you are on to something. Get the Federal government out of education. Let the money come from the locals and let them administer it locally.

I had one teacher who taught geography in a way that I found more interesting. He started out locally, with the local town and townships, their history, points of interest etc. Then he moved to the county level, then the state and so on. It helped put things in context and also showed how these various municipalities interacted were tied together, so it was more than just geography.

[WA1GFZ]

Locals in our town are sucking the system big time 1/2 of them need to find a real job.

[k4kyv]

Get the Federal government out of education. Let the money come from the locals and let them administer it locally.

N.C.L.B. = No Teacher Left Standing

One problem is that so many resources are  spent trying to keep the dregs from falling through the cracks at the bottom, that there is little left for tending to the brim.

Gobs of money are thrown at Special Education.  That has to be the no. 1 priority in funding.  Programs for the gifted are a small afterthought, if they exist at all.

The school system goes to all extremes to keep kids who are totally disruptive and don't want to be there, "in school", with mandatory attendance now up to age 18. They use things like the driving licence, which has nothing to do with school, as a social tool to keep kids from dropping out, for example by suspending or cancelling their driving privileges if their attendance or marks are not up to par.

I recall when my son was in high school, there was another kid in one of his classes who was later arrested and charged with rape and murder.  He forced a woman in his car and took her to some secluded location, where her body was discovered a couple of years later, and he was eventually traced via images recorded on a surveillance video at a gas station.

It turned out the kid had already been in jail for assault, but was released when he was 17 because the judge insisted that he needed to be "in school".  He was one of those 17-year-olds permanently in Grade 9 who was failing every class and disrupting the teachers every way he could.  He committed the rape/murder shortly after his release. 

My son said that in that class he was a PITA and constantly kept the teacher off task having to deal with him, but the worst he ever got was a couple of days of suspension from time to time. He finally reached age 18 and dropped out a year or so before the arrest.

I really felt pissed off because a woman ended up losing her life so that they could allow that loser to disrupt my kid's class.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

They would if the funds were administered locally. You would actually have some say so in how the money is spent. As it is now, the bogus Defartment of (Mis)Education in Washington is messing everything up.

Yep, Don, the system is set up to drag the performers down to the level of the non-performers.

Locals in our town are sucking the system big time 1/2 of them need to find a real job.

[K1ZJH]

 One can only hope that she is actually a sweet nice person and not a b**ch in real life.
 
               _-_-bear

looks like she is going to be high maintenance to me...
She don't need no stinking education, her looks will land
her a rich hubby, at least for the next several years

Pete

[Ed/KB1HYS]

That's why so many kids retain so little of what is taught in school.  When teachers are assigned the task of teaching to standardised state tests to make the school and "Bored" of education look good to the state and fed governments that hold the purse strings, most of what kids learn is going to be taken as useless information, purged from the memory shortly after the final test.

Believe me, I know.  I taught in secondary education for 22 years.

Well, I do not have your experience in teaching Don, but What is wrong with testing what students have learned? 

Teaching here at least would be equivalent to my factory having a 60% product yield, and Me getting a raise every year. That' Ridiculous!  In this state at least, teaching is the only job that you can do piss poor at and not worry about being fired, because no one who cares actually honestly evaluates performance.

Of course in order to be fair to the teachers, we'd have to let them have enough authority to get rid of the disciplinary problems, and keep the kids who can't meet the standards back until they do.

This promoting kids who haven't earned the grades thing is the second greatest downfall of our educational system.

The first is idiot parents with more money than brains bringing in Lawyers to sue the school system into allowing their misbegotten hell-spawn to attend a school full of children who may actually learn something.  I feel sorry for a lot of teachers and what they have to deal with in todays class room, especially since they are mostly powerless to do anything about it.

[WQ9E]

Ed,

Well a 60% production yield might be good in some cases given the variation in of "raw" material coming in.

I am fortunate at the university to only teach seniors and grad students so "culling" and coarse quality control have occurred long before they make it to my course level and of course the truly "defective" generally don't make it out of high school with a diploma.  Over the years I have visited two high schools when asked to participate in a career day type of program.  I had a very good experience in our local geographically large but largely rural district.  I met a large number of students who were polite, obviously interested and motivated.  I ended up spending almost 3 hours answering questions and talking with students instead of the 20 minute presentation I thought I was providing.  Fresh off this experience, I agreed to be part of a similar program at a pretty good high school in a very large city in our state.  Never, ever again.  I would rather recap an SX-28 blindfolded while surrounded by hogs with dysentery.

As to the public schools, everybody does deserve a chance at a good education but in modern speak the interpretation is that "every loser must be accommodated to the detriment of the rest" which is far different than providing opportunity for all.  This sort of view is an expense we cannot afford in a competitive global environment.  I have a feeling what is happening in many districts is that the advanced placement kids may still receive a high quality and competitive education but the general program is often watered down, regressed to an ever dropping mean, or devolving; your choice of undesirable descriptors.

There was an interesting documentary that came out around 15 years ago and one of the conclusions was that many U.S. schools were doing a pretty good job for the top students but the general population would in no way be competitive with their counterparts from other highly developed nations.   Much of this was blamed on the need to "pretend" that all of the students were sufficiently capable and motivated to perform at a reasonable level.

Some of our global competitors have students competing to get into the best high schools (and even middle schools in some cases).  Others, like Germany, have excellent internship programs that produce plant workers who receive an excellent education along with specific career training.  The comparison with our typical high school vo tech programs was pretty ugly.

I have a lot of respect for people like Don who spent many years in the classroom.  I don't think I would last a month in that environment.

Rodger WQ9E

[Ed/KB1HYS]

I guess I did come off a bit tough there.   I  DO respect teachers, I wouldn't want their job in the environment they have to work in.   

I get frustrated with the school system here at times. Like when my oldest came home from High School and told me that his science teacher told the class that the Apollo landings were faked. 

I get testy about it, because a Good education is important and seems hard to get.  More people here are pulling their kids and home schooling.  The home schoolers are passing the tests, and the school house kids aren't.

I do think that schools should be externally evaluated. Kids should know certain things by a certain time, and if they don't then something is broken.

[W3SLK]

Ed said:

I get frustrated with the school system here at times. Like when my oldest came home from High School and told me that his science teacher told the class that the Apollo landings were faked.

I agree with you, Ed. What really tweaks me is when school districts will 're-write' history in the name of political correctness. That seems to be more the trend these days.

[k4kyv]

Ed said:

I get frustrated with the school system here at times. Like when my oldest came home from High School and told me that his science teacher told the class that the Apollo landings were faked.

I agree with you, Ed. What really tweaks me is when school districts will 're-write' history in the name of political correctness.

That one sounds more like a case of personal agenda than political correctness.

I never so much observed deliberate misinformation, as deliberate omission of information.

I can recall when sometimes significant current or historical events would somehow come up during a class discussion, and absolutely no-one in the entire class would have ever heard of it.  It had been completely glossed over in history, social studies, government and literature classes.