¿ question of the day ?

[Stephi_B]

^Ah, this physical fitness test is just the same as our Bundesjugendspiele (federal youth sports day), only that it's not so much for statistics (at least I never heard anything about them being evaluated, published or something - although it has this hyperofficial name) but to embarrass kids who are bad at 100 and 400m sprint, high and long jump, and shotput (yeah it's almost the fukken olympic games!), because everybody gets a certificate - and of course the athletics cracks don't diss the athletics losers... of course not...

[Avalon]

The fitness thing made me laugh hard. My kid won it a few years in a row..and we are talking about a class A, glued to the couch, move as little as possible at home kinda kid. The kind who complained scrubbing the tub or drying the dishes made her too tired to move... the kind of kid who lied, cried, and ditched gym class at every opportunity. Yet, she managed to win that stupid award. What a crock those tests are.

ETA... When I asked her HOW she passed those tests, I found out the school offered a cash prize. ( I wonder if that is/was legal? ) Money, the great motivator. Pfft.
I never would have passed one of those tests ... even if I had hired someone to take it for me...for any amount of money.

[Frieda]

Originally Posted by auntie aubrey

you can't take it as a generalization for all schools, though. i cobbled that list together from failings i've seen or heard of in a range of different schools, in different districts and different states.

for example, my elementary school served vegetables, offered art and music every day, and there was no religious instruction whatsoever. in tennessee there was an emphasis on the civil war that i've seen nowhere else. a creepy fixation, if you ask me. in georgia they've just imposed a law requiring public schools to teach religion, focusing on the bible. which i find highly unconstitutional but georgia is home to a majority of christian fundamentalists. in atlanta specifically i see a lot of junk food but it seems to be an even bigger problem for people i know whose kids attend schools in texas.

so i wouldn't say i've seen a single school fail every item on the list. but i find all of the issues to be failings nonetheless.

oh of course-- just, the fact that schools are serving food is already different from the NLs! here at "lagere school" (age 5-11) you go home at noon and eat at your parents or your friends/grandma/other place. at "middelbare school" (12-16/17/18) you're supposed to bring your stuff in a bread box. and save me on the numerous times that a carton of fruit juice got caught in between my books and exploded all over them. blegh. milk was available from the school counter though. and apples & other fruit from a vending machine.

[brightpearl]

If everyone learned personal finance, birth control, and critical thinking, my country would be a different place. If money's tight, they could just teach critical thinking to make a big dent in the other two with one fell swoop.

Wouldn't hurt if everyone had to take a useful cooking class, like half a semester or something...not what passes for home ec now, which is so often an array of the many things one can make using canned biscuits as a base....

[Marcus Bales]

double teachers' salaries, and require them to flunk the bottom 10% of every class.

[Jack Flanders]

Originally Posted by auntie aubrey

you can't take it as a generalization for all schools. what's absolutely absurd is that gym classes focus on building none of the strength or endurance required to do these exercises, like you will never ever ever ever do a pull-up until the day they introduce you to the fitness test.

and of course gym teachers are frustrated jocks so they belittle and embarrass kids who can't pass the minimum level of achievement. their concern is that the overall fitness of their school's kids is their responsibility so they treat kids who don't pass like failures.

as you may have already guessed, i always always always failed the pull-up test.

me fvcking, too. i ran my ass off and beat most of the boys but the gd pull-up test almost almost spouted blood from my ears.

[trisherina]

Economics. Cosmology. Humility.

[Coffee]

Add: Life skills (economic, cooking, health, relationships), critical thinking, emphasize science education far more than currently, more art, more music, more vocational ed, more money for teachers.

Remove: Team sports (let the fans and parents of the participants in these non-educational games pay for sports and the expensive ball fields and equipment and coaches associated with them, not taxpayers...get sports the hell outa "school" lest Americans continue to think "sports" are a vital part of "education".), 1/2-2/3 of the administrators.

[auntie aubrey]

all right, we're into day 2 on this ¿ question ?

new ¿ question of the day ?

actually in the spirit of jeopardy this will be the ¡ answer of the day ! please answer the following in the form of a ¿ question ?


¡ this is the first song you heard today !

[Stephi_B]

¿ Do I look as if I had no breakfast yet ?

[lukkucairi]

¿what is OH!?

[T.I.P.]

some old rock n roll in brooklyn

[zero]

i know nothing of this jeopardy

.......¿................................................?.......

¿ question of the friday may 2nd ?

if a lion could talk, we could not understand him

i was wondering, what is your interpretetation of this famous saying of philososososopher ludwig wittgenstein?

.......¿...............................................?.......

[YsaPur EsChomuw]

Mmm... because if a lion was talking to me and it said 'food' it would mean... me?

Ok, ok, because being a lion is a totally different experience than being human. And, btw, I often cannot understand a fellow human being, let alone an animal...

[Anna]

silly, lions never talk to monkeys