bitbol

ABC News ran a variation to the previous story, one that varied slightly from the one that I posted two days ago. This article includes some of the details about the school and their response, including this little gem:

"The principal did not list any information other than students' names on her personal call list, and she certainly did not specify the sexual orientation of any student," said Van D. Turner, Jr., associate general counsel of the Memphis City Schools Board of Education, in a statement provided to ABCNEWS.com. "Additionally, the list was never posted publicly anywhere at the school."

Listing the couples together and then claiming that the school never specified sexual orientation is nonsense. Almost no one is stupid enough to not make the decision. Also, the school claims that the list was not publicly posted, however, the ACLU says that it was perfectly in view of anyone in the office.

The response that I have seen from places like Digg is also amusing. Some of the responses are either ignorant, or otherwise blind to the point of the story.

It isn't private when there is PDA in the hallways.

The thing is, there was an influx of response from the rest of the student body, which obviously means that not that many people were aware of it before. Also, the school was seeking out the names of couples, even if there was never an issue of PDA.

They want to be treated as equals, don't they? Then there shouldn't be anything wrong with outing them as well as the other heterosexual couples.

Many of the comments on Digg are about treating the two boys as any of the other students, but they fail to note the consequences that happen as a result of the fact that the school went as far as to contact parents, who were unaware that their child was gay. Ideally, it should matter, but the fact is that parents may freak out a little when they are dealt a considerable piece of news such as "your son is dating another boy." Which leads me to one of the only thoughtful comments that I saw:

Oh right, because gay couples have never been the victims of discrimination and harassment, sure, lets just just throw them to the hateful bigots and blame them for their own fate. Lets just ignore all the cases where homosexual teens have been bullied, killed and committed suicide just so we can sit on our high horses and mock them for wanting to be treated as human beings.

Unfortunately, there are fewer smart people, such as this one, and more intolerant like the two further above. I think the problem lies in the fact that people don't know how to put themselves in the position of someone else. Unfortunately, this is the world we live in.

Labels: America, Gay, Kids, News, People, School, Stupidity

In Memphis, Tennessee, a principal has created a stir after she asked staff to compile a list of couples. The object was to cut back on the public displays of affection in the school. However, in the process, the principal outed two boys who had just started dating. From the article:

She's accused of publicly posting the names of those students, including two boys, Andrew and Nicholas, who had just started dating. The ACLU says that in doing so, Beasley revealed their relationship to other students, teachers and even their parents.

This story has ruffled the feathers of many, regardless of whether or not they support equal rights for gays. On one side is the argument that exposing these two boys has wrecked a significant portion of their high school career, but also the idea that regardless of sexual orientation, the principal sought to compile a list of all of the people who were dating, something many saw as a perverse abuse of authority.

Nicholas says his teachers and other students treat him differently as a result of Principal Beasley's decision and that he and Andrew have both had to deal with verbal assaults. Nicholas was also not allowed to go on a trip to New Orleans to help rebuild homes because, as one of his teacher's explained, he would "embarrass" the school by engaging in gay affection.

First off, I think that the school must be incredibly intolerant if the sheer presence of a gay couple offends anyone. I can understand the intention behind wanting to cut back on displays of affection in the way that students should not be making out in the middle of the hall, but simple hand-holding or likewise is no bid deal and should be ignored.

This principal had very poor foresight to think that publishing a list would accomplishing in the way of stopping displays of affection. For one, those on the list would likely be the ones who are already very public in their relationship. The only surprise may come in the form of who is if they are bring caught having a public display of affection, there obviously isn't a problem, but this principal sought to make it a problem.

Another significant issue to ponder is how the staff came to know about the two boys' relationship in the first place. To me, it almost sounds as though they had sought out a teacher for help given the circumstances, but that teacher turned them over and betrayed their trust (only an educated guess). How many false positives are on that list? In some friendships, their is a very fine line between what would be considered a friendship and what is dating.

These kids are bring taught that having any physical contact with someone, even someone that they care for is a bad thing. These kids are being taught that the only accepted form is one that they dictate. The principal is endorsing intolerance. Teachers are often tolerant of the intolerance in schools. Even when a student makes a racial slur or some other direct attack, teachers often sit back and doing nothing to correct the situation. If nothing else, their involvement is often limited to "don't say that again."

My school is just beginning to try to address the issue of racism in a school were the students are very tolerant of race. My school is primarily white, but there are some minorities, which according to our school newspaper, feel as though they are bring alienated. However, the school is addressing the wrong problem. They think that we (as whites) are being intolerant of the minorities when it is the minorities who are backing away from social interaction by choice. Aside from racial minorities, there is nothing being done to create an atmosphere of tolerance. The students are doing a better job than the school; it is the school that gets in the way of everything.

Labels: America, Gay, Kids, News, People, School, Stupidity

I have only been looking forward to this day since... well, the first day of school. Through bad teachers and general nonsense, I managed to pull off all A's and B's this semester. I still don't have a summer job, but right now I am making money working on my neighbors' yards. Then, I'll be off to New York in about week and a half. I'll do my best to stay connected.

Technically, I still have one more day, but I am the only person in my class tomorrow and the teacher has nothing planned. It would simply be a waste of everyone's time for me to go to class. I may be using that time to take a test anyhow, as I need to do it for a Physics class I am planning to take.

I'm thinking, depending on how things pan out, that I may go for a Macbook after I return. I was reading online about how leopard may be out in October, which is a long ways away. I guess my POS laptop may last that long. Until then, I'm saving my pennies in anticipation.

Labels: Life, Rambling, School, Summer

In New York, one school has learned the costly lesson that throwing technology at kids does not work. In an effort to help the students, everyone was given a laptop to use during the school year. It is easy to guess what those computers were used for.

The computers were not only expensive to buy, but also the maintain and repair. Many students used them to look at porn, share info during tests, or just about anything else. The school was also barely capable of handling the network traffic from all of the computers.

In the slashdot discussion, the point was brought up that politician who start these initiatives have their efforts in the wrong spot. We should be wasting money on technology for kids, but spending it on competent teachers. Or, at the very least, get rid of the unions that destroy the school system.

Labels: America, Computer, News, School, Technology

It's no secret that "Dubya" Bush is strongly against stem-cell research, even when it can result in a medical break-through. It should come as no surprise that Bush also plans to veto an upcoming bill that would initiate stem-cell research. This would be one of the three bills that Bush would have vetoed; the stem-cell before, Iraq spending, and again on stem-cell research. Because of Bush's (and the rest of the country's) barbaric standpoint, the United States is falling behind in research.

Bush's brother, Jeb, is causing trouble in Florida because of Jeb's education issue. The Florida University refused to give Jeb Bush an honorary degree because of his damages to the school system (like funding based on standardized tests). In response, the school is being forced to rename to the "Jeb Bush College of Education." I honestly don't believe that "Bush" and "education" belong in the same sentence, unless talking of failure.

Labels: America, News, Politics, School

OpenOffice is the free alternative to Microsoft Office, a is something schools should consider. The author points out that with MS Office, schools pay out between $50 and $100 for the software. Even if the software isn't quite as robust as MS Office, the fact that it is free will help you forget about it. Still, for all intensive purposes, OpenOffice is sufficient for the job.

Even still, purchasing Microsoft Windows for school computers is a significant waste. School can save a considerable amount of money by switching to Linux. Before I get all fanboyish about Linux, I must say that I don't necessarily object to Windows being used, but that school's should not have to pay for the software they use. It is pathetic that schools should waste so much money on software.

Take my school for instance. There are about ~150 computers in the labs alone, not counting the ones that teachers get to use in the classrooms. On top of that, there is one lab where the computers are near-new with dual-monitors and extra software. On each of those computers is AutoCADD software that the teacher claims to be $5000 per computer. None of that even includes buying the operating system. If the software companies would donate to the school, they could invest in computers that will last longer and require less maintenance. But that would make sense.

Labels: Computer, Kids, Linux, Microsoft, School, Technology

As part of a questionable legislation in Michigan, students may be given iPods as "educational materials". The program will cost $38 million to the already financially struggling state. None of this makes any sense at all.

Michigan has already cut millions of dollars from schools in an effort to try to balance the budget. Now, they are making the most ass-backward decision they could possibly make. As much as I like iPods, there is no educational value to it. What stops kids from just putting music on it?

The only option that makes any sense is to provide lectures and such on them, but even then, that could simply be done through the school website. If that were the goal, the lectures should simply be downloadable so that students can access them at home.

Another option for saving money would be to get rid of most of the teachers presently there. Many of the teachers at my school are just waiting until they can retire. Until then, they offer no value to the school, and many are simply a waste of time.

Labels: America, iPod, School, Stupidity

Against any and all logic, a teacher was suspended for two months for allowing a pro-gay article to be published in the schools newspaper. The article in dispute is written by a student who promoted tolerance for gay teens. From the article:

Ten students attended the county’s school board meeting last Tuesday to get the newspaper on the next meeting’s agenda. They were then directed to assistant superintendent Andy Melin, who claimed that the opinion piece was biased.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it alright for bias in an editorial? Isn't editorial opinion? Why does it matter? If you ask me, it is this type of behavior that the student wrote the article for in the first place. Not only are the other students harsh on gay teens, but also the faculty. Gay teens have just as much right to be heard as any other person.

Labels: America, Gay, Kids, News, School

Microsoft has been facing trouble with many schools. Another school has switched to Linux to cut costs. This is one of many times a school has switched. With so many schools switching, that has to be a big hit for the software giant. Schools, just recently, have taken away thousands of potential sales of Windows which translates to millions of dollars. Microsoft is just too expensive for schools to use it. Schools should get free software.

The FAA is considering a move to an OS other than Vista. This is the second government agency, after the USDOT refused to buy it. When agencies with bottomless pockets refuse to use your product, you know things aren't great. This is also a double hit because they are considering using Google's web-based apps.

Labels: America, Linux, Microsoft, News, School

The teacher who was accused of "risk of injury to a minor" is now getting a better lawyer to help clear her name (news posted here: newest, oldest). The whole story is outlined quite well at downloadsquad. Hopefully, the teacher can get a jury that understands computers, and will send her home innocent.

She has also started a blog. The blog currently has post on how to contribute to the cause, to help cover the legal costs. It also lists all the contact information for the people involved: principal, superintendent, prosecutor, judge, detective, etc. The internet is now free to attack the clueless individuals involved. One juror has already been taking the abuse:

For certain, this case has gotten ugly. In some instances, it's even become deeply personal. Fred F. has reportedly been berated by an angry public, and been the subject of ridicule for his former 435 pound plus frame, since the public outing.

I must say that I am intensely interested in how this turns out. Technology and law have never been friends, so I want to know if this all fixes itself with time, or if the legal system will fail (again).

Labels: America, Legal, People, School

Two big name CEOs, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell, team up to bash teachers unions saying that they are the reason that schools are doing poorly. If principals were permitted to fire bad teachers, it would open up space for new teachers who can adequately do the job.

I personally have to deal with this problem every day. I have numerous teachers that I feel should be fired and replaced, but there is nothing that the schools can do to rectify the problem. The worst of these teachers are typically the ones that have been employed by the school for more than twenty years. These teachers most often teach directly out of the book, and have relatively no flexibility in their schedule. These teachers seem to hate their job and seem like the only reason they are there is for the money and are waiting to retire.

Labels: America, News, School

Today has been a long day, and unfortunately it is not yet over. I don't have much time for anything today, so here is a brief story of my day, along with the news:

I am currently buried under a report due tomorrow, and am having difficulty thinking. But, my day has been both good and bad. It started bad with a school-bus driver nearly running over my car. I was in the middle of a turn when the driver lunged out in front of me. If I had more time to think about it, I would have gotten a bus number to report the driver. She nearly caused an accident, and I would very much like to see her disciplined in some way for it. The day did get better when I got to pick up my new car. We don't have the title yet, but we only paid half of the money, with the rest to be paid on receipt of the paperwork.

Todays news in brief:

• Shirts made after bomb scare - Shirts have already started be made reading: "Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the Bomb."
• Installer of "bombs" arrested - Boston has arrested the two men who installed the ads, but ironically, there was another person in town who put in two fake pipe bombs; that person was not arrested.
• Bill Gates claims you could run life support on Vista - The last thing that I would want to do is trust my life to Vista. Right after that, a security whole is found that permits a website to delete files from your computer.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for things.

Labels: America, Car, Legal, Life, Microsoft, School

There is a moderately long clip on YouTube by a weather forecaster who was appalled by the way that she found kids were being taught. I recommend watching this clip if you have: been through such classes, or have kids in such classes. It is honestly ridiculous how they teach math now:

Labels: People, School, Video, YouTube

Slashdot has an interesting article regarding education. While the headline is questionable, discussion is real. The following are excerpts from discussions, along with my own thoughts; pardon the length, but I need to get my words out.

Smart kids need one-on-one education as much as any other "special needs" class. They just need a really different kind - one that can keep them INTERESTED, one that can call in esoteric specialists to help them pick up whatever path they become fascinated with, and can use this to slide in other curriculum elements outside of their specialty.

I agree with this point. I may not know exactly where I want to go in terms of career, but I do know where I don't, and that should be taken into account.

I didn't act up at school because I knew what would happen when I got home. I didn't want to disappoint my parents, and I also knew there would be consequences for my actions. The parenting I had dictated my actions at school. If parents did real parenting, rather than leave it to the schools, you wouldn't see these problems.

From what I see myself, much of the problem with many people is that their parents are completely uninvolved. Kids need parents to take interest in what they are doing, give them a reason to continue toward a goal.

With the (non-funded) requirements put on schools by "No Child Left Behind", Bush has recreated nationally the same mess he made as Governor of Texas. Kids aren't being taught in school, they're being made to memorize, and they're trained to take a specific test, which hasn't even been proven a valid metric.

I never thought about this, but that makes a lot of sense. For example, my statistics teacher is repeatedly saying that the entire purpose of the class is to prepare us for the AP stats test in the spring. Not often is any class relevant to things that you would do in real life, and less often are teacher able to say why we even need to learn it.

And yet, [private schools] routinely got more qualified instructors -- people who were actual experts in their fields -- and graduated students who went on to be more successful. Why is this? I don't have a totally pat answer for you, but I think that most of their success is because of the institutions themselves: people are willing to go and teach there, even though they're not unionized and the pay is lower, because they're good places to work. Class sizes are smaller, teachers get more freedom to plan lessons and curricula, and the perceived 'quality' of the students (interest, motivation, background education) is higher. [...] In my experience, unions and the job security that they offer don't do much to attract the best talent. If anything, they attract the mediocre, who are seeking a job that it's difficult to get fired from.

Half of the problem that I see from my school is the fact that no teachers are ever fired. Teachers work as long as they feel like it, even if they suck at it. Some teachers teach the way they would twenty years ago. Many don't seem to have a firm knowledge of the material they are teaching. Public schools seem to be filled with under-qualified teachers (but I'm not saying all are so).

Labels: America, News, Rambling, School

With a new report assignment comes a new book that I have to read. Last time I was blessed with being able to read a book by Bill Bryson. This time, we got to choose the book that we wanted to read; I chose "Why Gender Matters."

When the librarian went through the selection at our grasps, this was one of the ones that caught my attention. The basic idea that she explained was that he book goes through how even though they teach that both genders should be treated the same, they shouldn't. I only took a quick glance at it, but I think that this could be fairly interesting.

Completely by chance, I opened to the following part of the book:
-"How can a gay guy have sex with a girl?" Paul asked.
-"Easy," I said. "The guy just imagines that he's having sex with another guy."

Although not the entire book is this way, I think that I can come to enjoy this.

Labels: Books, Kids, School

I always have to laugh at the stupidity of these "problems" that people come up with. One thing that seems to have plagued the schools for years is the issue of whether or not schools should teach evolution, and the same for creationism. I only bring this up after the conflict was mentioned in one of my school textbooks.

I am always afraid to put out my opinion as people go crazy about it all. The great thing that annoys me is the people that bring the bible into it. People need to learn to look at things other than the way a book says, as I'm sure in many places you could interpret things differently, thus use it to fit any point of view. The way that I see it closely mirrors that of my biology teacher from two years ago. "Even if you don't believe in evolution, you should still learn about it so that you know what you're not believing in."

Also, the fact that people are quoting things from the bible trying to make their argument about why it should be banned is a poor argument. The school system should be free of religion. People other than christians go to the public school system, and thus the opinions of christians should not be a deciding factor. Where I stand, teach it, and if you think that it is a load of bologna, ignore it.

Labels: Evolution, School

How often do you find yourself wondering how to calculate the frequency based on the period of a wave? My guess, only while in school, or never at all. So much of what they want us to learn in school has little to no effect on our future.

Looking at just the classes that I am taking this year, my junior year, I see the waste. Math, you should know how it works, but I don't really see the necessity of learning everything there is, as you'll probably never use it. Language arts class is sort of a balance. I understand that you should be required to be able to form comprehendable sentences, but beyond that it should be optional. I have no intentions of writing a book, so I shouldn't need to know everything anout the mess that is the english language. Economics, you should understand the concept, but there's no need for a whole course on it, and the same with statistics. I doubt that I'll ever use any physics ever again in my life after this year. Then the foreign language, you shouldn't be pushed into it unless you plan to travel to a foreign country.

What schools really need to do is get people's decisions on what they plan to persue in terms of a career, then teach them what they need for that line of work, anything beyond that should be optional, and encouraged, not required.

Labels: Rants, School

While I was wasting away in school today, there was something that caught my attention. Part of what we are going to do to help with studying spanish is blogging.

I guess what she is trying to do is to allow us to use our skills (or lack of) in spanish in a medium that many people prefer over writing. So far I can see this probably isn't going to work that great because she doesn't really know much of anything about computers or how the internet works. Granted that the blog is hosted on blogspot, it will be interesting to see if it will even be accessible. Additionally, it currently requires you to have a Blogger account; I'm not sure if that will help anything.

Of course, that's not the only part of the school that wants to be in the whole blog thing. The administration has one that is set up. They don't really use it like a blog, but more like a message board to discuss school issues, publicly.

School staff is not capable of understanding technology, and they just need to figure that out.

Labels: School, Technology

In the most recent issue of time magazine, there was an article about how homework, to some extent, does more harm than good when it comes to education; when it comes to ruining your life, it's perfect.

In the article it mentions how so much homework actually hurts your grades more than it helps. Basicly what they get at is that teachers now assign so much homework that you burn out and start to hate learning. They said in the article how nations that score better than the US, like Japan, assign less homework, while others that score lower, assign loads.

To me, homework is wrong for a variety of reasons. For one, there is so much that teachers assign that you burn out to the point that you don't want to do anything. It is also hard to put forth effort when you learn just as much from it as you would have if you just stared at the wall. Then, of course, there's always the fact that doing it does so little in terms of helping your grade.

From all of my classes last year, most everything that I learned came from sitting in class and just soaking in the information, everything beyond that was a waste. The only time that I can think that homework actually did any good was for chemistry while doing stoichiometry, and that was because the only way to really know what you're doing was to do it over and over until it made sense.

Maybe someday people will notice that homework kills your brain and ruins your life. It makes so much more sense to pile on it in class, but you have to leave it there, never take it home.

Labels: News, School

According to the news SAT scores have fallen more than any other year, for who knows how long. Although I do agree with this at any other time, that it is troubling, this particular headline doesn't mean anything to me. There is more to this than what the news is telling you now.

Back in April of this year, there were reports of how The College Board graded 4000+ tests incorrectly. There really isn't any way that you can compare the most recent test to any of the others because of the fact that they messed up on part of the scoring, and you don't know if that happened for the rest of the tests. The other is that they just recently modified the test.

Right now there is talk about how they blame the new writing section for the drop. I think that this could have some effect because I personally don't like to write on a time limit, and that writing is hard to score on because of the fact that there is no definitive right answer, and the way you score greatly depends on the person scoring you test's point of view.

The drop was only a few points, and really I don't see it as any concern. If, however, test scores fall short multiple years in a row, then there may be a reason for concern. People are just making too big of a deal about this.

Labels: School