These are just the most tragic national news team ever

There is some evidence from Europe and Japan that extending school longer than we do here can improve learning. I think for poor and working class parents having publicly sponsored, structured activities for their kids while they work would be the greatest benefit.

News???? On Faux Spews??? Not in this or the next millennium.

Hiya Lisa !

If education can be expanded to include the arts, sports and other programs to build character, then keeping kids in school makes sense. Children with stronger character and a greater appreciation for the arts are well rounded and successful.

…they were too busy discussing how poor families might benefit from it because children of poor families don’t have parents who can help them to learn.

And how did they arrive at this rather prejudicial belief? Jeebus, there’s got to be a few million poor people I’d rather have teaching my children than Fox & Fiends.

Yep, and that’s says a lot for where they were edumacated …

That I agree with. In the US, these programs are not what the Republicans want to fund. Afterall, they want these kids to be the fastfood workers of tomorrow.

I loved when Carrie Prejean guest hosted Fox & Friends…you could see the light shining through her, ear to ear. She makes Gretchen seem like Noam Chomsky. Doesnt speak well of our beauty pageant contestants–OMG RUSH LIMBAUGH is gonna be judging the 2010 Miss America pageant (at least he’s been asked, and he’s polling his readers to see it they can sacrifice listening ot him for the week of judging)…

The Commander-in-Chief has school kids in his crosshairs…
Nice.

kids at school from like 8 to 5

there you have the French system, flawed as it may be with its lack of emphasis on critical thinking.

The Faux “news” tam said that kids in Japan and other Aian countries go to school fewer days than our kids…

Thank God that Saint Ronald Reagan cared about school kids so much he declared that ketchup is a vegetable serving in school lunches.

And now vegetables can be found all over Fox News.

Yeah. Somehow my mother and her siblings managed to survive a dirt poor childhood (Ozark hillbillies) and a father who dropped out of the sixth grade. All of them went to college and both of my uncles got graduate degrees. The younger one got his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cal Tech and retired several years ago as the senior vice president for Hughes Aircraft Company in charge of satellite communications. He was in charge of the team that designed the instrumentation on the Surveyor soft lander. Yep, those poor people can’t help their kids get educated.

Comic intent aside, that’s an interesting observation. These folks would have been in grade school when Raygun was in the Hi-Chair.

Yet another serious issue totally Cluster Foxed by our friends at Fixed “News.”

I had Late school” in elentary schoool (granted private school) where we’d do homework and watch tv until parents picked us up. obama’s plan i think would help working parents…but there needs to be funding for programs and teachers…

I would love to dump NCLB.

I’d love to dump everything that happened in the years 2001-2008, inclusive.

Japanese school years average 240 days compared to 180 in the US. School days are generally 8:30-3:50 with a half day on Saturday. They only get Sunday off.

The Asian kids do spend longer hours in school and they also get extra tutoring after school.

The problem with that is they’re good worker Bees but maladjusted socially … at least the ones I meet.

Extended hours to allow for extra tutoring will help those struggling in Math, Science, etc.

My best fiend’s kid goes to a hippy “new school” run by a commune–and he is excelling at math and science–and they have a college prep high school –all with affordable tuition (very affordable, like less than the family grocery bills each month!); the school’s founders bought lots of property and left it to the school in trust to cover lots of the expenses… amazing.

Speaking as a college professor, I emphatically endorse that view. The teachers “teach to the test” so that the kids get out not knowing anything else, with no analytical or critical skills of any sort.

Howdy folks.

Looks like only dos docs este noche.

Fox LIED!!!??? omg… quick, it’s a drinking game, any time Fox gets a fact wrong..oh nevermind, I’d really be tpyng baldly

Let me second that motion.

You’re at U MT, right?

I am not sure that I can pour and drink that fast.

BCT !

Yeah. That NEA is much too powerful.

Shit. Are these people really this stupid? (OK, that was a rhetorical question. My bad.)

As to the reality of extending school hours? In Southern California, fiscal/budgetary realities are causing schools to actively consider ways to cut the overall number of days, not increase them. Salary cuts for teachers have already been implemented, and more are likely coming.

This is just so stupid on so many levels…

We’d all be dead from alcohol poisoning.

Yep. Anthropology Department.

My wife helps out at the local kindergarten and sees the test teaching all the time.

Just have it mainlined on an IV, eh?

Heya, Petro. I’ve been grading midterms — blerrrgh.

I won’t warn you against/about our Provost, then. She’s a finalist for the President’s gig at MT State.

Oh…and I notice that “The Dim Bulb Action News Team” over there at Fox didn’t mention that “no child left behind” bullshit, which has become the absolute bane of every teacher I’ve talked to. Oh yeah. It was a Duhbyah thing. Wouldn’t want to bring that up in a “fair and balanced” “news” broadcast…

Buncha dumbasses…

In my experience, every “educational improvement” in the past 45 years has managed to make things worse (I still have nightmares about the “New Math” they introduced when I was in junior high).

It would serve them right.

How did NCLB (not)work? Standardized testing and then schools would be penalized if they didn’t meet the standards?

My school already runs from 9AM until 4:30, and people have sports and clubs and tutoring before school and after school. If you required all the students to be there even longer, when would basketball games be? How would anyone work in the evenings? When would people do homework?

Pretty much. Ought to be renamed NCBLUS: No Child’s Behind Left Unsodomized.

Strictly from my knowledge as a yoga/meditation teacher, here’s why I dislike extending school time. I believe that the love and attention that a parent can give a child is far greater than what a teacher can give to 20+ kids. And that love, that care is what is essential to raising a child who has high self esteem and is self motivated.

Some years ago, our schools had stripped away Arts & Music from the school curriculum, to focus on the 3 R’s and raising the next generation of Engineers and Pioneers. Thankfully, my kids get to play music, bake cookies and paint as these have been reinstituted.

I think the argument is less about the length of the school days (except for perhaps more before and after school programs) than it is for a longer school year. Children here have a shorter school year than most industrialized countries.

Stephen Colbert:

Should we delay the vote on health care, or deny it coverage and wait until it dies.

Too late to get Mark Foley as a co-sponsor on that one.

“Late Night: Fox & Friends Have No Clue About Shool Anything”

I like Schuster’s name for ‘em: Clusterfox.

Stephen Colbert:

Should we delay the vote on health care, or deny it coverage and wait until it dies?

Questions require question marks. Maybe I should go back to elementary school…

Hiya Snarky !

You are of course, correct. The problem is that with most families having both parents working that is not the alternative awaiting most school kids, especially from working class families.

I was going into 6th grade when my family moved and I went from a school that did Old Math (Arithmetic, actually) to one that did New Math (which is Mathematics, but it’s bullshit mathematics without any motivation behind it.)

Learn addition and multiplication in Base 12. Never mind that the kids are having trouble with decimal arithmetic.

The point is that number systems are a matter of choice and convenience. But that’s lost on most elementary school teachers, who then can’t explain the why to the kids. And if we’re going to do a different number system, why not something useful like hex or octal? Actually, octal would fit the bill perfectly — no new addition tables to learn.

The whole thing was screwed before it began, because most elementary school teachers weren’t trained in and didn’t appreciate Mathematics.

And don’t get me started on my current generation of calculator junkies.

I just looked at the video. It should be “fewer” breaks and not “less” breaks. Send the fox noise people back to school.

New MAth! I remember that too but not sure if I ever learned it!

OMG “new math” I got placed in Advanced Math in 7th grade (a new school and new math, ugh) because somehow my methods of solving problems durng the placement exam showed unqiue innovative thinking (uh….no I have no skills and had to improvise) and they had us adding flower pots and doing base 2, base 64 and I could barely recall basic sums and stuff. It was HORRIFYING. I flunked the class and got put in remedial math (thank gods) and managed B- s the rest of my school career and just worked to get all As in languages, history etc. So in senior year I didnt have to take math.

Nice catch.

“…it won’t do you a bit of good to read “new math.” It’s so simple, so very simple, that only a child can do it…”

New Math…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXx2VVSWDMo

You will appreciate this. My father was a research engineer and the largest individual computer user at Phillips Petroleum Co. Back in the 60s he taught himself to do calculus in hex because it was easier than constantly translating the Fortran output into decimal and back. According to one of his coworkers I met when I was in high school, he could do it in his head. He was born to be an engineer and those math genes just skipped right on past me.

Self-esteem comes from achievement. I’ve got way too many kids in my classes who have lots of self-esteem, but not much to back it.

That’s the importance of the arts in the schools. It’s a rare child indeed who can make a substantive achievement in most areas of human endeavor. But the arts give many kids their first taste of excellence: putting out something that’s good in its own right, not “good for a 16 year old.”

Once you’ve tasted that, most people will go a long way to taste excellence again.

“Late Night: Fox & Friends Have No Clue About School Anything”

Unfortunately, they have a clue about 2 things:

1) confusing debates over real issues, and

2) generating fake issues to upset the Republican base and give Republican politicians something to “fix.”

True, and also the single parent who is working 2 jobs to make ends meet.

How do you see extending school time to be the most advantageous use of resources ?

Better one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related

That is pretty much how I remember it.

To avoid math, I took science requirements in college, then dropped out, only to learn that now in order to get my BA I need college algebra plus either stats or math for liberal arts majors, and if I want a psych degree, it has ot be stats. I took beginning algebra last year at community college nad barely got a C, taking no other classes. I just can;t read numbers, I loose whole line sof equations and I actually convinced myself that 6×3 is the same as 16+3 when trying ot proof an equation….

You should get Aunt Betsy to help you in math. Are you in Texas?

Actually, I do appreciate, although I was not much more than a B student in math/arithmetic (even on good days) until I got to college.

Doing things symbolically just clicked with me in a way that depending on numbers never did.

You’ll do fine in Statistics. 18 is almost 19…

I do not actually. I do think expanding after school programs (and before school programs in some cases, like Cassie’s school) focused on sports, arts, recreational activities, and the like can be advantageous. Gives the kids structured activities in a safe environment with adult supervision and is state sponsored, saving struggling parents money on childcare. Lengthening the school year from the current average of 180 days to over 200 may improve learning outcomes and year to year retention of knowledge (or so the studies I have seen indicate).

I actually liked stats. It was the first time since New Math that mathematics actually made sense to me.

All it takes is money. Well…the right priorities, actually.

We’re agreeing on the same thing but not the definition of self esteem, which to me is the confidence to be unique. I see lots of kids who appear to have self confidence, but that is only because they wear a fancy label or have the latest MP3 … take those things away and *poof* goes their esteem.

I know people who have achieved many things, yet have low self esteem. In fact, they’re the ones who make up my client base.

Agree with you about the Arts … it allows freedom of expression and is intrinsic to a well rounded individual.

Stats is not bad. The trick is to keep up with the homework. Once the end of the session rolls around, you’re all caught up.

I’m the same way. Never could focus on things that didn’t interest me and higher math didn’t interest me. I lament that… and the multitude of other gaps in my education. Part of the price of being fundamentally alienated from the institutional structures of society.

They want these kid to be part of the permanent republican majority. Non thinkers. Unable to analyze and think. It is the worst educational reform I’ve ever seen, and I’ll bet Ted Kennedy wished he could have done it over.

but No Child Left Behind didn’t really work out so well, and I wonder if longer school cycles are really the answer teaching kids to love learning and the importance of an education.

I can only say that by fourth grade, half the kids already hated school. Drop out rates prove the rest.

That would be )I hope) the goal, supervised homework, with tutors available, arts and athletic programs. But I see how effed up Los Angeles Unified School District is, how overcrowded the classrooms are, how underfunded…

All the teachers are there after school or before school one day each week, except they have meetings on Wednesdays. But if you need help in physics and your teacher doesn’t stay after on Thursdays, there’s probably another physics teacher who does.

Many years ago, a Police Officer up here thought of an idea to curb the rise of Gangs. He started a Midnight Basketball League and it expanded rapidly to other cities, run by off duty Officers.

It’s not everything but it does fall outside the purview of ‘formal education’, yet it addresses a key issue – reaching the kids who fall by the wayside.

Okay, I would call that self-confidence rather than self-esteem.

Dudley Did-Right. “g”

Hopefully this time, they’ll let educators take charge of the reform …

That is the critical problem. We give great lip service to commitment to quality education, but we are fundamentally unwilling to adequately fund it or provide the needed resources. Take teacher pay. Conservatives are always going on about the marvels of the free market and how you get what you pay for. If you want better teachers, pay them enough that it becomes an attractive career. In many parts of the country, teaching pays below the average income for a full time worker.

Hah!

I thought so … what do you define as self esteem ?

NCLB needs to go. NOW.

Kids don’t need more school days as much as they need to spend less time preparing for a test instead of actually learning.

I’ve calculated that my kids spend about 3-4 weeks every year preparing for the under-funded federally mandated NCLB testing.

By the time they graduate from K-12, they will have lost one entire year (more, in terms of school year) to testing instead of learning new material.

And my kids are gifted; they are being restrained by the testing system, the money wasted on them instead being spent on resources to improve the outcomes for kids who aren’t gifted.

Sure hope Obama wises up about this soon.

There also need to be comprehensible textbooks which went out the door under NCLB. They’re crap. CRAP because they need to meet state standards. Check out, for instance, the CA social studies standards for fifth grade.

ALL of these standards have to be in the text, so consequently the texts make no sense. They’ll throw in a standard anywhere it can possibly fit, because by law their text will not be on the state matrix without it. But in the meantime, it makes everything a mumble jumble.

That is, I believe the key issue. We ask Teachers and Nurses to take sub- par wages, yet demand so much of them …

New Math, oh boy, that was a big surprise to me. I went to an inner city DC school for a couple of years right when it got popular, they did old math and when I moved back to the southwest, here was this…crap that I had no idea how to do. ALready math phobic, and that made it worse.

LOL !!!

Were you ever tested for dyslexia, Lisa? It almost sounds like you may have some form of it. It sounds as if you can manage the numbers in your head, but when you read them they become unmanageable.

One of my friends, a single mom, started a great program for schools, creating and managing their eBay auctions. She has raised tens of thousands of dollars for schools that way.

Public and private schools now have to ask parents to “buy script” which basically means buying gift cards form sponsoring stores and restaurants, plus most private school make parents “volunteer” time or get penalized…

If you missed it this afternoon, you can watch Grassley be the ass that he is and watch Schumer and Nelson smack him down on C-SPAN.

Self e’steam.

(I still have nightmares about the “New Math” they introduced when I was in junior high).

Dr. Dick, are you thinking of Modern Math??? To beat the Ruskies? I couldn’t comprehend even part of that.

The other thing we need to do there is professionalize and depoliticize the state boards which decide on textbooks. I am not sure how they do it there in California, but Texas is an absolute freak show and these two states pretty much determine what is available to everyone else in the country.

Called it New Math in my school. All I know is that it made what had been previously comprehensible total gibberish.

I havent been, and it’s only numbers, not letters or words (though those of you who have seen me type my think otherwise, that’s just lack of coordination). But yeah, I see 4s as 7s 5 and 3s as 8s etc…

My tap dancing teacher noticed I had trouble keeping a beat and telling left from right, and asked my mom if I did poorly in math–that he noticed a correlation in his years of teaching dance (oddly I did great in modern dance)

Why did we ever want to beat the russkies in math? Now we won’t even look at the way countries in Europe provide medical care.

Time for me to toddle off. Take care all.

Well, if any data is ever discovered that validates the theory of evolution, I’m certain Texas will revise their textbooks… On a similar note, if they ever realize they executed an innocent person no problem, that person will be resurrected come Judgement Day.

I’m near ready to advocate an open-source curriculum across the country, something like Wikipedia for schools but loaded on reader-devices like inexpensive Kindles.

A curriculum which parents and teachers and students can see is being manipulated constantly, yet all the content is in there and can be discussed even as it’s being changed.

Night.

Heading out too, see y’all.

Looks like many of my teachers …

Add to that the some school districts run ‘minimum days’ two or three times a month. Kids don’t learn much those days.

Also, if a district is going to cut programs, the first ones to go will be art and music, because those are ‘frills’ (never mind the various studies showing that kids in music programs also do better in math). Sports, though, are important, and Must Be Saved, or so they keep telling us. (What are the schools getting out of sports programs, anyway?)

Because the “russkies” as you call them have some serious game.
Hi Cassie.

Right, let’s have bake sales to fund the military and spend our tax money on education.

My dad and step mom, who lived in the northern part of San Diego county worked tirelessly on school board elections and working to keep fundamentalists off of the school boards because of how the fundies wanted to adjust the curriculum and books in the school libraries.

I’ve had fun with conservatives who bitch about the shortage of _______ (teachers, nurses, dentists, etc).

I tell them I know how to solve the shortage. They get interested, and ask how it could be done. I tell them, “Pay nurses $125K/year, and your shortage will be solved in four years.”

They generally sputter something about nurses not being worth $125K/year. I then point out that the people who go into nursing are going into the field for reasons besides money, and they’ll have to tolerate the shortage.

Not in Math per se, but to be ahead of them, intellectually.

As for your second comment, if you keep making so much sense, I really will have to come down there and help out your campaign when you’re good and ready ! *g*

Night Dr!

I’m kinda a little late to the discussion, and if I read all the comments, I’d be later still. I suspect, there might be a few readers who wished that had been. Nevertheless, home from work with a bowl of chili.
I would be okay if kids were in school 8 – 5 if they had language, art or drama or music, at least social skills studies. But, even leaving them there ’til 5, would mean some parents would still have to take advantage of after school resources as some people don’t even get off until 6 or 7.
Lisa, for you especially, since I work three nights at a women’s gym, from 3 – 8, I have met a lot of working women who work out after work. Talked to a swell gal tonight that I’ve kinda known for awhile, ie. weeks, and found out she’s the Principal at the new High School in Hollywood, across from um…oh, gosh, I think she said KTLA, on Sunset. Interesting times is what I’m saying. Gosh, Wally, where’s mom at 8:00 at night?

Night ratfood!

well the future president Cassandra needs to sleep tonight and be awake for English in the morning.

Bye!

Looks like my ex. Not to worry though, she was happiest when she was angry.

Lisa (95) — if you ever get the itch to go back and finish school, I’d seriously consider testing for dyslexia, then. It manifests itself in many different ways; in fact, difficulty with reading and processing numbers is referred to as dyscalculia.

You might even be able to get assistance from a publicly-funded school if you are diagnosed with this after assessment; could be a big help with getting through the program.

Why did we ever want to beat the russkies in math?

Cassie, they had Sputnik and were beating us in the Space Race. Therefore, we all had to take lots of math and science. I’m sure the modern math* I was subjected to made sense to the really smart kids, but most of us were spinning our heads.

I had to take 2 Sesame Street (my kids name for them)remedial math courses at a local college before taking intro to algebra. I got mad at it and beat its ass, got a C. Felt wonderful.

My dad and step mom, who lived in the northern part of San Diego county worked tirelessly on school board elections and working to keep fundamentalists off of the school boards because of how the fundies wanted to adjust the curriculum and books in the school libraries.

OMG, Lisa. You guys lived in Vista, right?

Oh yeah that school is just finished, we have a bunch of new schools in the Hollywood, east Hollywood area and my local high schoool is one pretty highly ranked.

Also, kids getting out of school at 5 or 6 means getting home in the dark..and stuff happens even in the daylight. The safety factor..not all parents can afford school bus service, not can they cope wiht carpools, so that raises additional issues, I see kids walking to and form school a lot….

Night Cassandra.

Terry, no they lived in Carlsbad/Encinitas area

And some of the world’s most noted cosmologists, particle and theoretical physicists and cryptographers.

Check out Alexander Friedman. He gave Einstein a run for his money in imagining the expanding universe.

Game.

I should say that was with a lot a lot of help from study buddies via phone, and a neighbor girl who was in 9th grade and was able to explain and demonstrate problems.

Oh, and btw, that’s an example of one of the problems with NCLB. Every child is supposed have the same outcome, period. That’s what I’ve been told by principals and teachers at my kids’ schools. The principals and teachers hate it, because there is no way to ensure that kids have a uniform experience and outcomes. None.

Because kids are individuals with different learning styles, different gifts, and they need different approaches to learning — let alone different kinds of outcomes so they are happy in their own chosen path. A little Lisa needs to be cultured to work with her own unique set of circumstances rather than forced through the same cookie cutter as other kids with entirely different needs. (Even my own kids, a boy and a girl, are night-and-day different in ways that have little to do with gender; no way could they get the same school outcomes even from the same schools and teachers.)

“FOX and freinds” sounds like 1950’s walt disney “educational” film series with, like, wally woodchuck and sally salamander and willy weasle
“Fox and wally woodchuck know how to duck and cover kids! lets all duck and cover!”

Thnaks, I will look into that. Next year I am taking a certification course in thanatology and possibly spiritual ministry. Very exciting.

They are PAINFUL to look at. And painfully stoopid.

Okay, I didn’t follow those districts as much. What year did you graduate HS?

ROFL !!!

No, they were too busy discussing how poor families might benefit from it because children of poor families don’t have parents who can help them to learn.

You mean do their homework for them? Tell them where to find answers without making the kids look for them which does save time but takes away all the other things you learn while looking for the answer you need.
What of the creativity needed to come up with your own answers?

G’nite, Future Madame President !

Summer school would save money after all for 3 months now the school building is doing nothing.

OMG. He seems like the exact opposite of the blond Lisa put up top!

Why is the GOP worried about schools now?

1979. I went to private school And I thank my mom–RIP–daily for that, amazing education). I live now in the John Marshall High district, basically east of Hollywood.

{{{{{ Margot }}}}}

The GOP is worried about schools because Obama mentioned them.

My son enjoys having the summer off. I know I did. Life’s hard enough.

Breaking: Obama orders steak – beef futures plummet!

Fox does know every immigrant family comes here needing to learn the language, skills etc for jobs, cut education funds and you get an underclass with no social mobility.
In a sense you stop the poor from rising and men like Bush and the NeoCons from falling due to social competition and Merit trumping wealth.
In such a world the Wealthy would look to hook up their dim bulbs with smart women and give the women the power…well as long as they stayed married I see new types of prenups based on years married and how much the family cash rose or fell during a marriage.

{{{ demi }}}

Shouldn’t a certain someone be eating a Fruit Salad, instead of Chili ?!!

Gotta make that Dress Zing, right ?!! *g*

HA! But real estate for pastures rises unexpectedly!

LOL !!! That’s about the size of it.

Every President mentions schools but this reaction is extreme and stupid….I know I know what else do you expect from the GOP?

I think current school schedules were designed around a rural economy, kids would have the summer off to help wiht harvests, at least that’s what my dad who grew up on a farm explained to me (and he also told me when I was 5 and asked about why stores were closed on sundays and you could park for free at parking meters on sundays “It’s because of churches”). And based on readig Little HOuse on the Prairie and all the other books int hat series–I see the point

Yeah, demi. Got pics of your dress???

Hugs.

It was a very small bowl, homemade with turkey, beans, tomatoes and onions.
I had a nice little green salad at work. And, yes, the dressing had a little zing.
Leaving for the wedding in Santa Barbara on Thursday am. Crazy hectic. Needed a little comfort food. PS, now that’s it’s cooled some, can I say I Am Sick Of Salads…just a little.

I love chili, and it has fiber, iron, protein, carbs–a nice filling healthy meal.

Lisa, I realize that the 9 1/2 month school calendar may soon change, but the costs will be very hefty in teacher/other personnel costs. Teachers all across the nation would be getting another month’s pay. I’m not too good at math, but it’s probably 5K per teacher.

Ah but think of the savings of a winter vs summer vacation then heating schools in winter is expensive having large groups of kids infecting each other as cold weather weakens a body’s immune system not a good idea.
Also less snow days for a school to budget for in a bad snow year less school bus snow accidents less need for snow plowing bus routes have to be clear before and after school or school closes.

Thanks for the praise downstairs, Loo Hoo.

I don’t. You’ll have to wait for shots of me wearing my outfit. Not a dress. A long, black clingy jumpsuity type of deal. But, it does have zing!

My attempt at compromise Demi winter vacation

I like salads if they have lots of variety in them–basically LOTS of different chopped and grated veggies and legumes and BEETS! Plus like avocados and almonds of cashews for good fats, and maybe some tuna or chicken or shredded beef. NOM NOM NOM

It never rains snows in California, but Things, don’t they worn ya….. *g*

A long, black clingy jumpsuity type of deal. But, it does have zing!

vavavavoooom!

I was just pulling demi’s leg … she has been working out and getting all sexy- looking for the big day, which is almost upon us.

Have a lot of fun and please give the Bride & Groom extra hugs for me, demi.

(((Petro))))

My BFF and I have just started going to body sculpting classes, light weights, stretching, some aerobics…we LOVE it. It’s brutal though. Demi I salute you wiht my aching soon to be toned triceps

But if we did have summer school we could have 5 or 6 hour classes and maybe run 2 shifts in a school and save the cost of building new schools. I know parents have to work but some do have to work afternoons.
I know most need the kids away for close to 8 hours until they get home a school breakfast or lunch program depending on the shift and extended gym classes could help.
I think many states don’t require high school kids to have gym every year that should change.
More longer gym class less over weight kids lower future health costs.
I think gym class should change their programs to get kids more healthy/lose weight.

It is that, and then it’ll be perfect for flute performing in the future. Har, just didn’t want to have a stupid cocktail dress in my closet that I’d never wear again.

Yoga can give you the same look, without the muscle pain if done correctly. Working out with a friend is great motivation.

Thanks so much, my friend. I will.

I love the light weights for the arms and shoulders. Did you know that hoola hoops are back? Big time. Really gets your heart rate up. We have smaller ones for the arms too. Done correctly, it also tones your torso. Oh, hell, a lot of things done correctly will get you fit. Ha.
(I couldn’t help myself, Petro.)

Whatever could you possible mean ?!! *rolls eyes innocently*

we’re working up to yoga,this class has some yoga in it. I used ot do a lot of yoga, BFF wants to get a little more motivated before yoga..and frnakly if I get forced through one more multiple series of down dog/cobra in what passes as yoga here in LA I’ll scream…some places see yoga as aerobics….

Check the time, guess it’s time to say ta!
Sweet dreams, all.
Thanks Lisa. You surely do throw a nice party. (Even when you show a flick that throws some into fits. Just kidding.)

Hulu hoops are rad. If I was more limber I would take pole dancing classes, but I am sooo clumsy in heels LOL

Triceps are actually 3/4 of your arm, so work them 3 times harder than your Biceps.

And with that, I’ll go add to my as yet unpublished books … G’nite all !

Suzanne’s Late Late Night is upstairs!
Late Late Night FDL: Against The Wind

Thanks for the triceps tip!, Petro and g’night!

Night all and let’s give Suzanne a rousing FDL LLN rally!

It’s the same everywhere, they’ve made yoga into an aerobics class, which is unfortunate.

The idea of yoga is similar to Tai Chi … strength through grace and balance, not aggressive like aerobics.

Well deserved, buddy.

I’m sure it does have zing!

How about winter break up north and summer break in the south I just realized air conditioning costs would be a factor.

Extra *mwaah*

*poof*

Card carrying liberal here. Actually, folks if you read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers,” there is a lot of evidence that eliminating summer vacation results in dramatically increased abilities especially in math and especially with poorer kids who, in fact, do have less adult instruction in off-school hours. That said I’m against ALL this mindless obsession with math and test scores, worldwide. Technological innovation seems to be moving along quite briskly as things are now. Do we really need to rush it even more? I don’t want a world w/out summer vacation. I agree with the person above who said life’s hard enough.

Another one against NCLB, here. Teachers are stressed out trying to cram information into little brains and the kids are stressed out by the demands of the program.

The days are very rigid and scripted. If a child falls behind the rest of the class, that child is then pulled out of class to get remedial help, meanwhile missing out on whatever subject is being taught…and then needs to play catch up or fall behind.

This program forces teachers to teach to the test, NOT according to the child’s needs. It also is heavily towards the left side of the brain (analytical) and the right side (creative) is underdeveloped. Arts and music, which have been shown to improve IQ and reasoning skills, have been downgraded. The ability to *think outside the box* begins with the new idea which comes from the creative side. The analytical side takes over to decide if this new idea is workable.

And I don’t hold out hope that Obama is going to nix this, as he has already stated he thinks it’s a great program. And Arne Duncan’s handling of Chicago Public Schools is evidence that he doesn’t have the slightest idea of how to run a school system.

This program needs to be dumped, ASAP. We’ve already lost one generation of kids. And I’ve seen the results of that.

RE: Math

I have ranged around the B’s in Math throughout the school years. When I decided to go back to school and get my college degree, I took the introductory pre-algebra class. The textbooks were well written by two genius women authors. The concepts were well explained and easy to grasp.

When I switched to a Big 10 school known for technology and engineering, Math once again became a loathsome experience. The texts were not well written and made things more difficult than they necessarily had to be.

When I went to withdraw from the advanced math class, the woman counselor was adamantly against me doing it. She had the idea that I could make it.

I’ve always wondered why this school would deliberately make math so difficult, when it was clear from the other school that math texts could be written in a way to ease understanding?

RE: dyslexia

When one of my children was in first grade and trying to learn to read, the powers that be decided that “whole language” was the way to go. It was a horrible program. My child was having a hard time learning and the teacher didn’t seem inclined to give her the extra help she needed. She had already branded my child as stupid.

I learned to read using Phonics, so I went to the library to see if there were any readers employing phonics. I was delighted to find the exact copy of my phonics book and brought it home to teach my child. We sat down every night sounding out words. She kept getting stuck on “the” and “a”. She couldn’t remember those words from page to page. I went back to the library and found a book on dyslexia that said failure to recognize “the” was a classic symptom of dyslexia, because “the” didn’t represent any one thing–and dyslexics need to see a picture of what the word represents in order to remember it. In helping my daughter, I realized that I, too, was an undiagnosed dyslexic. The best thing I learned was that dyslexics are often branded as lazy and stupid–but the evidence points to higher intelligence and willingness to learn. Dyslexics get frustrated from their impediment because it takes them longer to learn a subject–hence, being dubbed as “lazy”.

Somebody has to speak for the kids.
Going to school longer hours and especially shortening the summer breatk is absolutely crazy.
I took a poll of kids in grades 1 through 8 and 98.5% disapprove of the president’s idea.

yep, let’s keep the kids uneducated and diseducated, the easier it will be to fleece them when they grow up.