iamshack

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 10:11 AM) All of the property tax money now gets sent to the state. The state the redistributes based on a per student dollar amount based on the make up of each school system. Systems with higher poverty, and higher special education numbers get a higher amount. Schools with lower populations get less. Last I knew schools in Gary were getting over $10k/yr/kid, while somewhere like Valpo was right about $7k/yr/kid So are the property taxes now all equal? Or are their areas where they still have a high property tax but now their school systems are not getting equivalent funding? How do people in the higher property tax areas feel about this?

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 11:02 AM) There isn't a teacher in my school that doesn't tutor after school. Care to guess how many kids we get to stay for tutoring? We even offer a tutoring bus ride to the front door of their home. We have kids failing, whose parents will sign a statement that they are refusing tutoring and if their child fails he will be retained. Then, of course when the kid fails, they blame th school for not teaching the kid. We pull kids out of their electives on our planning periods and conference times for tutoring and the parents (not all) come and complain that we took their child out of PE or music or whatever. There may be some schools where that is the problem, but not any in my experience. Teachers want to teach. So would you agree then that the cultural changes that have occurred in the last few generations are now affecting the structure of our school systems?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 10:50 AM) And maybe afterschool programs like that for struggling kids may be beneficial, but to make every student go through that seems expensive and actually hurtful. Having programs that force some of these kids to get off the streets and back in the classroom or onto the court/field/etc would be a good idea, imo. The problem is finding the funding to do such a thing, but still, that would be a heck of a lot easier than fighting with teacher unions to increase the number of hours a teacher has to work each week. We are in the top 3 nations in spending, per student, amongst industrialized nations. The money is already there. It just needs to be spent more effectively.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 09:45 AM) He could win the Cy Young with those numbers if he did it up in the Majors. As a reliever?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 09:39 AM) Im going to disagree on this, kids need to still ahve the ability to learn outside of the classroom. In an era where communication is key to getting things done, learning, etc kids need to have the experience of interacting outside of the classroom. Well I am not going to dispute that...but there have been pilot programs where kids who had formerly struggled in school went for longer hours and had more structure, more content, more expected from them actually thrived in that experience. It's certainly not the proof that this will work for everyone, but it's something.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 09:38 AM) How should we regulate parenting tex? I'm open to it. BUt I have a problem with being so dismissive of kids who aren't doing well at 12-16 years old at school. Even if they are doing it to themself at that age, I'm not sure how much weight we should put on that, because at that point the child is not going to achieve anything in life. We've seen the charts of unemployment for those without high school employment. But at 12-16, are they not at crucial ages for learning concepts necessary for high school and college?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 10:19 AM) They are in school for quite a bit of time, compared to everything else. So we should make sure that time is spent with the best teaching methods and culture we have. Longer school time would be great, and many charter schools are trying that, but that also costs money and money needs to be raise thru taxes and taxes and gov't are taking away our guns and so that won't ever happen. This study seems to be a step in the right direction, though I guess we should have stopped them before they did, handed them a Malcolm Gladwell book and said the best way to fix this is to send the kids to the farms to learn a work ethic. It worked for Mao. You can mock all you want...but simply because you can identify the source of the theory it is therefore nonsensical? I certainly didn't claim it was my theory. But of course you are 24 now....and we all know everything in life has been learned by age 24.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:45 AM) This gap really isn't anything new. Your generation sucked too, let's just remember that. Kids are stupid and will drink chocolate milk all day if left alone. They are in school for quite a bit of time, however. So perhaps we should focus the discussion on how we run those schools and less on how terrible it is that kids are soft these days b/c of video games. I think I mentioned "my generation included" in my initial post. Honestly, read what I typed and think about it for a second instead of immediately just lashing out about how ignorant it is. Our kids are in school for quite a bit of time? Public high school kids get out at like noon a lot of the time now, because they have fulfilled their credits or whatever. What is that about? Many inner city children rarely even attend school these days. This seems to be symptomatic of the way children are raised and allowed to behave at home, and then much of this culture has been brought into the public schools and the structure has actually been changed because of it. What needs to happen is children need to be in school more. Longer days. More days a year. More content. Harder content. More focus.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 09:34 AM) There's also a complete lack of explanation for what White kids do with the 4 hours a day less of media that they consume compared to all the other minorities. That's the real missing element. I'll tell you what. White kids are playing club sports that cost money and require a parent without a job to transport them there. White kids are taking music lessons. White kids are learning foreign languages. White kids are doing all sorts of things that cost money.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:29 AM) Hmph, according to that study, the group with the heaviest media consumption per day is the Asian population. So ergo media consumption equals best test scores? Don't you think that is just a little bit of a correlative connection rather than causal one?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:20 AM) So, 3-400 dollar video game consoles, 60 bucks a game, 100+ a month smartphone (plus the cost of the phone) and 20-50+ in premium cable a month, extra tv's for the kids, etc? For people that are in poverty? That's cheap? Really? It's not cheap at all. And the fact that these people are making the decision to buy these goods given their financial situation is symptomatic of the problem in the first place.

I don't dispute the fact that kids, even lower middle class and borderline poverty kids, have access to technology (sometimes the access to this technology is part of the problem itself) which enables them to consume information more readily. But do we really think these children are consuming valuable information? Or is it more like mindless information? When I made the statement regarding a lack of work ethic and video games and the like, I certainly was not discounting the benefits of having access to superior technology. Instead, I was looking more at the lifestyle/work ethic it engenders. However, this is an interesting article about China's superior test scores versus their complete lack of leadership in terms of innovation in the global marketplace.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:07 AM) Eh, I don't hold that you have to get power out of certain positions. If we have bats in the middle of the line up, and a nice complementary cast, I have no problems with not getting power out of somewhere like 3B if we are getting 75/80 type defense Well I don't necessarily subscribe fully to position scarcity, but you have to realize that nearly every team is going to be getting power out of their 1b/DH/corner outfield positions. So we aren't really going to be doing anything anyone else isn't already doing by having a productive middle of the order. That being said, this seems to be a down time for 3b presently. Not a lot of run-producing 3b's in baseball right now outside of Longoria/Wright (who is injured)/Arod/Zimmerman (who is injured)/Beltre/Youkilis...it certainly isn't necessarily the offensive position it has been in the recent past.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 07:42 AM) Ok, that's at best borderline folks...I think it'd behoove everyone if this argument ended here. Well if he wants to dispute my opinion, then dispute it. There are so many different areas that debate can go in. Instead, he chooses the same way everytime...a smartass, I am 24 and know everything approach. I know he is a really intelligent person. Why can't he just argue the issue I brought up? Why this continuous pattern of veiled insults?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:37 AM) Would it make you feel better to know that most people feared that on Monday night too? And then again on Tuesday? And we won both games? We have nothing to fear but Adam Dunn coming up with the game on the line.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 07:27 AM) With PK, TCQ, and AD you should be fine with the middle of the order. Especially if you get anything from Rios, and some of the projected power development from Gordo, plus Alexei's numbers. I was talking about the middle of the field...catcher/middle infield/center field.... As of right now, we are pretty light there with the exception of Alexei, and he isn't exactly Ernie Banks. Assuming we know what Morel is, at least this season, we'll need to have Gordon and whomever plays CF to continue to hit for some power.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 07:06 AM) I don't think he will get into the 30 range, but I can see him being a 35 double, 15 homer guy. That is fine for the 7/8 slots in the line up with his defense. But do we have enough offense at other positions to make up for a corner infielder hitting 7th or 8th? You had better have some above-average power up the middle if you're going to have a corner infielder with a sub .750 OPS.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:19 AM) you know, I know what you are saying probably feels great, but it isn't really constructive at all, nor proven. And while it's probably annoying seeing kids play with video games, their familiarity with technology will be a big asset to them. Our problems are structural. Anyway feel free to suggest repealing 50 years of standard of living so kids can be educated better and achieve a great standard of living. Honestly, do you live to take potshots at me? I included my own generation. Why would it feel great to say that? If you're going to dispute my opinion, at least say something other than your usual snide bs. You are a really smart guy. Why don't you demonstrate that more often and cut out the attitude, because you come off as a monster jerkoff much of the time.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:08 AM) OK that article was pathetic. I know Ozzie says some stupid s***, but that was a Hawk Harrelson, medium fly-ball STRETCH! Ozzie hasn't said a thing of substance yet. Speculating is one thing, but projecting is another. His tweet was pathetic. Keep your mouth shut, Ozzie. He tweets that he is in a s***ty mood on a night that we beat Felix and beat Pineda the night before. If he wants to be upset, fine, but he knew people would know exactly what he was referring to since he tweeted he was pissed on a night we beat the reigning Cy Young winner. He's an attention whore. Well, there is your attention, Ozzie. Grow the hell up, OG.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 07:11 AM) Probably has nothing to do with that or else the nordic countries would be way behind indian and african children that are still grinders. Also, interesting enough, Harvard pumps out top talent every year despite their campus being remarkably wealthy. That's a great analogy. Interestingly enough, Harvard also has how many legacy students that have had access to the best opportunities possible? We're talking more about the average student, who has sat on his ass all day playing nintendo and never been asked to focus for more than 9 minutes at a time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 08:04 AM) WTF? We've been bending over backwards to try and figure out why our test scores are so poor compared to many other industrial nations. We've tried to find new ways to evaluate our teachers, tried tie poor-perfomring classes to their teachers, which has caused their teachers to actually cheat, etc. Now we are basically just encouraging teachers to teach to the standardized tests, instead of an actually effective curriculum that teaches concepts. Maybe it's the students and not so much the teachers or the system? There has been speculation that the reason the Chinese kick our asses in math and science is because their culture has a much stronger work ethic than our own. Generations and generations of laborious farming has engendered a work ethic that lends itself to more focus and hard work put towards subjects like math and science.

Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that the last few generations of American children (mine included), have had a soft, easy lifestyle for the most part due to a higher standard of living than the rest of the world and has failed to develop a work ethic.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 06:54 AM) Yeah, there is a difference between something nagging that long-term is innocuous (just short-term pain) and something that if aggravated can lead to a major injury. Well I guess we can fault him for not being able to distinguish the two. It sounds as though it was a staff decision to let him start the game though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2011 -> 06:38 AM) FWIW, we've been winning at a 63% clip since early may. Yes, I know this. He used a 14 game stretch where we went 8-6 to prognosticate a total of 87 wins. I was merely using his prediction.

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