We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
It sounds to me like the "soft bigotry of low expectations."
As an average caucasian person, I never understood math until I was 18. Then it all clicked in and became obvious to me. Lots of white kids do not get beyond arithmetic, perhaps because they avoid it. I never got beyond Calc ll, but in life I never needed it. Many careers do need it, though, and many very bright people just love it.
New Englanders have lived intimately with the sea since the earliest days of exploration and settlement. The rich legacy of three and a half centuries is recounted by three noted scholars of New England history, and handsomely illustrated with 125 images selected from maritime archives throughout the region.
The story of a seafaring land, but it is not so much anymore.
That evil, if true, quote comes from a Quilette post on The Narrative and Its Discontents. Who constructs our realities? Scott Adams likes to talk about how we are all hypnotized, and there is some truth in that. The awareness of that might be the way out of it.
I first heard Rush Limbaugh years ago when I had long commutes. I thought "Who the heck is this guy."
He was articulating, humorously, thoughts and doubts that had been bubbling in me just below the surface. At the time, I was a normal uncritical Liberal thinking the same way I had been since age 17. I would not term it a conversion, but my mind did open to a kind of "critical thinking" that I was not getting from the news. As somebody put it, "awakening from a mindless political slumber."
Today, math is challenging for many and so is reading Shakespeare. It's not exactly a different language, but it sort-of is. His plots are not too difficult to suss out and his characters are usually interesting and colorful, but his language is the thing for me.
It is not for kids.
I wonder whether the teachers just want to avoid things that are challenging to deal with.
I suppose it would be possible to come up with a better plan to destroy black academic performance than by telling black students not to worry about getting the right answer to a math problem, but I can’t think what it would be.
Many people have trouble getting their minds into the logic and language of math at different levels. It takes focus and concentration, like learning a language.
I am back on that topic, which is always a fun and semi-controversial one here at Maggie's. Our list, from the past, includes everything from dining manners to weights to firearms, but we'll try the topic again sometime.
How many knots should a 16 year-old American know how to tie?
A good winter activity with kids, besides Monopoly, checkers, and Chess, is practicing the basic knots with eyes closed. Bowline knot is essential, among the others. What are parents for except for things like these?