I love to see the parks fill up with young life each summer...I am joining them for a day lest I grow old before my time.
Macrina Wiederkehr
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
From my window I can see them. They walk in a lively manner. I like to see them. When they get where they're going they do the things they like to do. They are going to the library.
I was invited to visit some people I know for a few days one Christmas. They had three children aged from 6 to 10. Their parents had tried to come up with things for me to do while I was there because they thought I would be bored. But I took to those children immediately, and they took to me, even though I was a gray haired old codger. We played kick ball and board games, went for walks, I bought lemonade, saw a tennis lesson and painted a picture with one of them. One of them helped me make cookies. I admired the way the older ones looked after the younger ones, and all three of them looked after me while I was there. I'm sorry I lost contact with them. They are growing up now, the future of America.
At the supermarket the other day the checkout lady was very hassled because of a faulty credit card machine. When she finally got my purchases bagged she looked up with a smile. I said that I hoped she would have a relaxing evening. She said no because she had two boys at home one 11 and one 5. I asked if the older one took care of the younger one and she said yes they're good friends.
I was coming down the stairs into the library with my cane one step at a time. At the bottom was a very little girl who when she saw me stepped back to let me get down. There was room so I stopped and motioned to her and said "come on." She ran up the stairs and as she passed me she said in her tiny voice "thank you."
If that's the future of America we've got nothing to worry about.
On the other hand I was doing a play for school children in Maryland. It was a comedy and they loved it. There was a discussion afterwards and they were full of questions. When we were finished the Principal raged at us for making them communicate with each other and raged at them for communicating.
Standing in front of the supermarket one day I saw the students from the school across the street coming out to go on some field trip. They marched in double file and were not allowed to talk to each other. One teacher kept saying with a loud voice "We are not talking! We are not talking!"
Now they are warping the history books in some states. If this is American education then we all have a lot to worry about.
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
Osgood Pepper was a multimillionaire investor. He lived in a very large house surrounded by 70 acres or property, some of it gardens but most of it forest. He was 57 years old. His body was discovered at around 10:30 in the morning by the gardener Giovanni Schizzi. It was in the forest. Osgood's throat had been cut.
Giovanni Schizzi was an Italian immigrant who had been Osgood's gardener for about 20 years. He lived in a cabin on the property. He once spent a few hours showing Jane-Ellen Fremont around the place. He was unmarried. Upon discovering the body he went to the house to inform Agnes Pepper, Osgood's much younger wife. Blood was later discovered on Giovanni's boot.
Agnes Pepper married Osgood when she was just getting out of college and Osgood was in his 30's. It was the first and only marriage for each of them. But Agnes was having an extramarital affair. Osgood found out about it but never knew who it was and Agnes would never divulge her lover's name. Osgood was in the process of filing for divorce when he died.
Also in the house was Frances Pepper, Osgood's son. They had become estranged about 15 years ago when Osgood found out that Frances was gay. That resulted in Osgood cutting off all support for Frances who was now usually in desperate straights. Frances had come to plead with his father for reconciliation and financial help which was denied.
Two other visitors had been to the house the day before.
Boris Kleinack, Agnes's lawyer, who was there to help her defend herself against the divorce proceedings. The murder weapon was eventually discovered is Councilor Kleinack's car.
Jane-Ellen Freman was there to discuss property rights. It seems that while Osgood Pepper owned the house outright he only co-owned the property. The other owner, Ms. Freman, was the CEO of a syndicate that built very successful casinos and theme parks. She had stated her intention of taking half of the 70 acres and building another establishment on it. Osgood had sworn to defeat her by buying up the rest of the property just to put a stop to her plans.
It is known that Osgood Pepper made out an ironclad will 25 years ago and had not changed it.
The Coroner determined that death had occurred at approximately 7 p.m. the previous day.
Detective Bret Knudson investigated the murder, looked at all the evidence, interviewed all the witnesses and made an arrest.
Whom did he arrest and why?
The prosecuting attorney awaits your answer.
DB
********************************
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
At The Lie Berry
What is more important in a library than anything else - is the fact that it exists.
Archibald MacLeish
(Thank you Bruce)
********************
One block down the street from me is the public library. As libraries go it isn't very big. It's one floor of a small building but it's chock full of books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs, computers and kids. I can look out my window of an afternoon and see a parade of children on their way to the library and feel a quiet sense of pride that I live in a country where education is available to the young. Opening up the minds of youngsters to the knowledge and wisdom of the world, even if it sometimes means the loss of some degree of innocence, is a precious endeavor and so preferable to some places in the world where education is a luxury, denied to many, and in some cases even punished.
I also feel a bit of satisfaction that I live in a state, Pennsylvania, which determinately provides its students with the right to an open minded approach to learning. It is sad to say that there are some places in this country where that open mindedness is not so graciously provided. Unless all points of view are available to people, of whatever age, there is no freedom of thought, instruction is doctrinaire and education suffers. If the Board of Education in Texas or any other state rewrites its textbooks to conform to a limited and specialized point of view, no one will benefit but the bigots and the children will be deprived.
The purpose of education is to allow people to think for themselves not to teach them what to think. In this local library there are separate rooms where workshops are conducted in all sorts of cultural and educational programs with enthusiastic students under the guidance of adults who care and donate their time. In one of the rooms there is an art exhibit of works by local artists. I have 2 pictures hanging in there. It is open all the time the library is. Anyone can go in and look at the pieces, including the children. No one is telling them what they can or cannot see.
Every time I go in there and need help with something, the librarians are always polite and ready to help me as they are with everyone.
Due to fiscal problems across the land many libraries are cutting back in hours or closing altogether. The demise of the public library is one of the greatest potential dangers to our nation. The ruination would not be seen for years to come but it would be devastating. I may never be exposed to more than .05% or less of what is in my library but imagine what life would be like if all that information was not available to me or to the children who walk down my street.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Weekend Contest
This contest is open for the next 7 days.
3 entries so far.
APRIL FOOLERY
Choose as many numbers as you want and fill in the blanks
Winners will be posted on the evening of April 4.
The decisions of the nasty biased judge are final. Prizes will awarded on the basis of originality and whatever makes me laugh.
On the first day of April my true love gave to me
12______
11______
10______
9_______
8_______
7_______
6_______
5_______
4_______
3_______
2_______
and_______
Good luck
DB
****************
Archibald MacLeish
(Thank you Bruce)
********************
One block down the street from me is the public library. As libraries go it isn't very big. It's one floor of a small building but it's chock full of books, magazines, newspapers, CDs, DVDs, computers and kids. I can look out my window of an afternoon and see a parade of children on their way to the library and feel a quiet sense of pride that I live in a country where education is available to the young. Opening up the minds of youngsters to the knowledge and wisdom of the world, even if it sometimes means the loss of some degree of innocence, is a precious endeavor and so preferable to some places in the world where education is a luxury, denied to many, and in some cases even punished.
I also feel a bit of satisfaction that I live in a state, Pennsylvania, which determinately provides its students with the right to an open minded approach to learning. It is sad to say that there are some places in this country where that open mindedness is not so graciously provided. Unless all points of view are available to people, of whatever age, there is no freedom of thought, instruction is doctrinaire and education suffers. If the Board of Education in Texas or any other state rewrites its textbooks to conform to a limited and specialized point of view, no one will benefit but the bigots and the children will be deprived.
The purpose of education is to allow people to think for themselves not to teach them what to think. In this local library there are separate rooms where workshops are conducted in all sorts of cultural and educational programs with enthusiastic students under the guidance of adults who care and donate their time. In one of the rooms there is an art exhibit of works by local artists. I have 2 pictures hanging in there. It is open all the time the library is. Anyone can go in and look at the pieces, including the children. No one is telling them what they can or cannot see.
Every time I go in there and need help with something, the librarians are always polite and ready to help me as they are with everyone.
Due to fiscal problems across the land many libraries are cutting back in hours or closing altogether. The demise of the public library is one of the greatest potential dangers to our nation. The ruination would not be seen for years to come but it would be devastating. I may never be exposed to more than .05% or less of what is in my library but imagine what life would be like if all that information was not available to me or to the children who walk down my street.
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Weekend Contest
This contest is open for the next 7 days.
3 entries so far.
APRIL FOOLERY
Choose as many numbers as you want and fill in the blanks
Winners will be posted on the evening of April 4.
The decisions of the nasty biased judge are final. Prizes will awarded on the basis of originality and whatever makes me laugh.
On the first day of April my true love gave to me
12______
11______
10______
9_______
8_______
7_______
6_______
5_______
4_______
3_______
2_______
and_______
Good luck
DB
****************
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Retardanr Reasoning 6/14/09
It is for want of application, rather than of means, that men fail to succeed.
Rochfoucauld
******************
THE WEEKEND PUZZLE
Below is a list of 13 (your lucky number) 13 elements. Your mission is to tell me how many of them are phony names and which ones they are. Cheat if you have to, and then live with the shame.
7 guessers so far.
2 winners.
1. Americium
2. Californium
3. Canadium
4. Einsteinium
5. Europium
6. Hafnium
7. Lawrencium
8. Newtonium
9. Nobelium
10. Palladium
11. Roentgenium
12. Ruthenium
13. Seaborgium
Good luckium.
Results will be posted at 9 pm EST Sunday evening.
----------------------
"There's place and means for every man alive" wrote Shakespeare.
I was speaking with a woman this week who told me that her grandson was diagnosed by his teacher as probably having Attention Deficit Disorder. The boy is in second grade at the local elementary school. His mother knows that it isn't true because when he is home and has a project he applies himself to it with great interest, patience and rigor. The mother explained that to the teacher. The teacher was unimpressed. She just maintained that boy was fidgety and disruptive. When? asked the mother. Whenever a test is given. Does he finish the test? Yes, he finishes it quickly and then after a while he acts up and disturbs the other students. Are the other students still taking the test? Yes. Does my son always finish the test before the others? Yes. Well, then he gets bored. Give him more to do.
So the teacher prepared some material to occupy the boy along with the test. Behold. No more attention deficit.
The boy is obviously brighter than the other students. Why should he have to sit around waiting for them to catch up?
This cookie cutter idea of education, that all students are alike and should be treated that way, especially on the elementary school level, is a waste and an injustice. It goes without saying that there isn't enough money spent on education in this country, or, at least it isn't always spent wisely. And as a result adaptations have to be made. And it's also true that most kids survive and go on the get educated. But is that an excuse for maintaining a system of categorizing children and not being sensitive to their special needs?
I don't consider myself more intelligent than any one else, but I resent to this day some of things I had to suffer during my elementary school years. I was different, not odd, not strange, just different. I didn't fit the mould. I was laughed at by my 4th grade teacher for some of my likes and ideas. I was called ridiculous by my 5th grade teacher because I said I wanted to go to the moon. And I was called a liar in front of the whole class by my 6th grade teacher because I said I liked to watch the UN on TV. I didn't fit into the cookie cutter and there were a few other kids in my class that didn't either. Wounds were made and scars remain.
We must help those who are behind without holding back those who are ahead. Nobody said it was easy. But the means are there, they just have to be applied.
The teacher of the boy mentioned had the means as it turned out, but she took the easy route of categorizing him as deficient. Why? Because he didn't fit in the mould. It's probably not the teacher's fault.
What education means in this country needs to be rethought. The value of a nation is not in money. It's measured in cultural and intellectual worth. A nation, like this one, which produces more lawyers than scientists, is heading in the wrong direction.
It can always be better. There is always something more to do.
Vagabond Journeys
**********************
As you travel on through life
Whatever be your goal
Keep you eye upon the donut
And not upon the hole.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist that.)
**************************
Rochfoucauld
******************
THE WEEKEND PUZZLE
Below is a list of 13 (your lucky number) 13 elements. Your mission is to tell me how many of them are phony names and which ones they are. Cheat if you have to, and then live with the shame.
7 guessers so far.
2 winners.
1. Americium
2. Californium
3. Canadium
4. Einsteinium
5. Europium
6. Hafnium
7. Lawrencium
8. Newtonium
9. Nobelium
10. Palladium
11. Roentgenium
12. Ruthenium
13. Seaborgium
Good luckium.
Results will be posted at 9 pm EST Sunday evening.
----------------------
"There's place and means for every man alive" wrote Shakespeare.
I was speaking with a woman this week who told me that her grandson was diagnosed by his teacher as probably having Attention Deficit Disorder. The boy is in second grade at the local elementary school. His mother knows that it isn't true because when he is home and has a project he applies himself to it with great interest, patience and rigor. The mother explained that to the teacher. The teacher was unimpressed. She just maintained that boy was fidgety and disruptive. When? asked the mother. Whenever a test is given. Does he finish the test? Yes, he finishes it quickly and then after a while he acts up and disturbs the other students. Are the other students still taking the test? Yes. Does my son always finish the test before the others? Yes. Well, then he gets bored. Give him more to do.
So the teacher prepared some material to occupy the boy along with the test. Behold. No more attention deficit.
The boy is obviously brighter than the other students. Why should he have to sit around waiting for them to catch up?
This cookie cutter idea of education, that all students are alike and should be treated that way, especially on the elementary school level, is a waste and an injustice. It goes without saying that there isn't enough money spent on education in this country, or, at least it isn't always spent wisely. And as a result adaptations have to be made. And it's also true that most kids survive and go on the get educated. But is that an excuse for maintaining a system of categorizing children and not being sensitive to their special needs?
I don't consider myself more intelligent than any one else, but I resent to this day some of things I had to suffer during my elementary school years. I was different, not odd, not strange, just different. I didn't fit the mould. I was laughed at by my 4th grade teacher for some of my likes and ideas. I was called ridiculous by my 5th grade teacher because I said I wanted to go to the moon. And I was called a liar in front of the whole class by my 6th grade teacher because I said I liked to watch the UN on TV. I didn't fit into the cookie cutter and there were a few other kids in my class that didn't either. Wounds were made and scars remain.
We must help those who are behind without holding back those who are ahead. Nobody said it was easy. But the means are there, they just have to be applied.
The teacher of the boy mentioned had the means as it turned out, but she took the easy route of categorizing him as deficient. Why? Because he didn't fit in the mould. It's probably not the teacher's fault.
What education means in this country needs to be rethought. The value of a nation is not in money. It's measured in cultural and intellectual worth. A nation, like this one, which produces more lawyers than scientists, is heading in the wrong direction.
It can always be better. There is always something more to do.
Vagabond Journeys
**********************
As you travel on through life
Whatever be your goal
Keep you eye upon the donut
And not upon the hole.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist that.)
**************************
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Fertilized Freedom 5/02/09
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
Malcolm Forbes
****************
Good day to you.
---------------------
One of the strangest and most dangerous human aberrations is the inability to listen to an idea outside of one's prejudice without becoming enraged. Unfortunately we have seen a lot of that lately on the public political scene. I have also seen it in my private life.
When I was in high school we were told which textbooks to buy for the various classes, as was normal. Being a good student I carefully studied those books, on government, history and literature, believing I was reading a legitimate, unbiased account of those topics. As a grew up, got out into the world and heard and read other points of view, my mind broadened to accept the possibility of different ideas. Decades went by and one day I came across some of those high school texts that had somehow ended up in my sister's library. I read through them again and was stunned to find how one sided much of the writing was and how viciously the authors attacked the ideas they didn't agree with, some of which I had come to accept. The editorial content of the textbooks simply expressed the prejudices of my teachers. I went back further to consider what I had carried over from my sub-standard elementary school, remembering the scornful remarks of some of those teachers about certain ideas. It seems that my education was narrow minded, not open minded. My thinking had been closed up in a box, and I didn't know it. Fortunately I survived it, I hope. Some don't.
For over a year I have been making daily observations in this journal about ideas, events and human life. If I express my own opinion, I say so. Last year a friend of mine, an actor who I had worked with a few times and who I thought was a good guy, asked if he could be included on my list of those who receive my daily dollops of delight. So I did. But immediately he began responding to them in a very rude and scornful manner. He simply did not want to read anything that didn't conform to his vew of the world nor what he was convinced was the only truth. He finally said "Don't send me this crap." So I stopped.
The purpose of my journal has been all along to allow myself and others to think about things, to ponder and consider with an open, active mind the ideas that come across my desk. My motive has been out of respect and appreciation for the infinite and fascinating complexities of the universe of human thought. The reason for reading anything written by a thinking person (and I humbly consider myself one of those) is to provide nourishment for the heart, mind and soul. To disagree is healthy provided it comes from careful thinking and articulated with respect. But to a priori slam the door in the face of an opposing idea no matter how clear and thoughtful it is makes one a dangerous fool, in my opinion.
DB The Vagabond
________________
Suddenly it's June. Imagine that.
*****************************
Malcolm Forbes
****************
Good day to you.
---------------------
One of the strangest and most dangerous human aberrations is the inability to listen to an idea outside of one's prejudice without becoming enraged. Unfortunately we have seen a lot of that lately on the public political scene. I have also seen it in my private life.
When I was in high school we were told which textbooks to buy for the various classes, as was normal. Being a good student I carefully studied those books, on government, history and literature, believing I was reading a legitimate, unbiased account of those topics. As a grew up, got out into the world and heard and read other points of view, my mind broadened to accept the possibility of different ideas. Decades went by and one day I came across some of those high school texts that had somehow ended up in my sister's library. I read through them again and was stunned to find how one sided much of the writing was and how viciously the authors attacked the ideas they didn't agree with, some of which I had come to accept. The editorial content of the textbooks simply expressed the prejudices of my teachers. I went back further to consider what I had carried over from my sub-standard elementary school, remembering the scornful remarks of some of those teachers about certain ideas. It seems that my education was narrow minded, not open minded. My thinking had been closed up in a box, and I didn't know it. Fortunately I survived it, I hope. Some don't.
For over a year I have been making daily observations in this journal about ideas, events and human life. If I express my own opinion, I say so. Last year a friend of mine, an actor who I had worked with a few times and who I thought was a good guy, asked if he could be included on my list of those who receive my daily dollops of delight. So I did. But immediately he began responding to them in a very rude and scornful manner. He simply did not want to read anything that didn't conform to his vew of the world nor what he was convinced was the only truth. He finally said "Don't send me this crap." So I stopped.
The purpose of my journal has been all along to allow myself and others to think about things, to ponder and consider with an open, active mind the ideas that come across my desk. My motive has been out of respect and appreciation for the infinite and fascinating complexities of the universe of human thought. The reason for reading anything written by a thinking person (and I humbly consider myself one of those) is to provide nourishment for the heart, mind and soul. To disagree is healthy provided it comes from careful thinking and articulated with respect. But to a priori slam the door in the face of an opposing idea no matter how clear and thoughtful it is makes one a dangerous fool, in my opinion.
DB The Vagabond
________________
Suddenly it's June. Imagine that.
*****************************
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Wired Wastes 10/15/08
I am fond of them,
of the inferior beings of the abyss,
of those who are full of longing.
Richard Wagner
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
One of the major flaws of politics is that governments are run by the "haves" and never by the "have nots" as President Lyndon Johnson described them.
It is vitally important to the haves that they keep the have nots under control. This is done by economic means, and through carefully designed dissemination of information. That is why in a dictatorship the government will own the banks and the media There is freedom of the press only in so far as the facts are available to it. Meanwhile the have nots go on working through their desperate lives, rich in longings.
Times come, however, when the have nots line up behind a leader or a committee of leaders and topple the haves. The rebellion is usually violent and the haves are killed by having the heads chapped off (France), being lined up against a wall and shot (Russia and Rumania), being hung from lamp posts (Philadelphia) or other heinous acts of cruelty.
The clever haves who know what's coming will get out of town, hop on a plane to Brazil, Spain or Dubai, and live off of their numbered Swiss bank accounts, money "legally" siphoned off from the top The others will ignominiously meet their various fates.
Then, out of the abyss will come crawling the have nots, those whose lives have been wasted under the boots of some oppressive group of haves, ready to take revenge and rewrite the rules. It has happened in the US once before, and will happen again.
I can only hope it will be nonviolent and intelligently done. History doesn't give much hope of that.
The problem then is that the have nots then become the haves, after a while the Leviathan crawls up out of the sea and the whole cycle starts all over again.
I'm not a pessimist, nor a nihilist, and my rebellion has been of the personal, benign anti-social type, hardly noticeable from the outside. I believe in education. But I think education in my country is in a sorry shape. Students are taught to be very proficient in a number of technical things, but severely lacking in knowledge and awareness of history and civic affairs. I notice a profound ignorance in our political leaders, from our President on down, of how civilization operates. Congresspeople must stand up and speak about and vote on things that they know very little about. We have accepted "learning" to be what we have made it and no one challenges that concept.
Times change, people change, things change, changes change. It's an ever revolving world and I don't suppose it will ever be any different on this plane of existence. There will always be the have nots. But, advice to the haves, beware of them.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
of the inferior beings of the abyss,
of those who are full of longing.
Richard Wagner
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
One of the major flaws of politics is that governments are run by the "haves" and never by the "have nots" as President Lyndon Johnson described them.
It is vitally important to the haves that they keep the have nots under control. This is done by economic means, and through carefully designed dissemination of information. That is why in a dictatorship the government will own the banks and the media There is freedom of the press only in so far as the facts are available to it. Meanwhile the have nots go on working through their desperate lives, rich in longings.
Times come, however, when the have nots line up behind a leader or a committee of leaders and topple the haves. The rebellion is usually violent and the haves are killed by having the heads chapped off (France), being lined up against a wall and shot (Russia and Rumania), being hung from lamp posts (Philadelphia) or other heinous acts of cruelty.
The clever haves who know what's coming will get out of town, hop on a plane to Brazil, Spain or Dubai, and live off of their numbered Swiss bank accounts, money "legally" siphoned off from the top The others will ignominiously meet their various fates.
Then, out of the abyss will come crawling the have nots, those whose lives have been wasted under the boots of some oppressive group of haves, ready to take revenge and rewrite the rules. It has happened in the US once before, and will happen again.
I can only hope it will be nonviolent and intelligently done. History doesn't give much hope of that.
The problem then is that the have nots then become the haves, after a while the Leviathan crawls up out of the sea and the whole cycle starts all over again.
I'm not a pessimist, nor a nihilist, and my rebellion has been of the personal, benign anti-social type, hardly noticeable from the outside. I believe in education. But I think education in my country is in a sorry shape. Students are taught to be very proficient in a number of technical things, but severely lacking in knowledge and awareness of history and civic affairs. I notice a profound ignorance in our political leaders, from our President on down, of how civilization operates. Congresspeople must stand up and speak about and vote on things that they know very little about. We have accepted "learning" to be what we have made it and no one challenges that concept.
Times change, people change, things change, changes change. It's an ever revolving world and I don't suppose it will ever be any different on this plane of existence. There will always be the have nots. But, advice to the haves, beware of them.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
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