Wednesday, December 27, 2006
New Years Resolutions
Time once again to put down your new years resolutions. Mine is to paint more. I've really been slacking on that. I want to get into my high school jeans.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
You know where to find me
It's December 26. I'll be upstairs in front of my Ps2 defeating the evil empire.
FF12 bitches!!!
Did you guys get everything you wanted for christmas? Considering I was there when you opened them and said how happy you were I'm going to ignore your answers and go play more video games. ta.
FF12 bitches!!!
Did you guys get everything you wanted for christmas? Considering I was there when you opened them and said how happy you were I'm going to ignore your answers and go play more video games. ta.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Nate Knox Interview!
I interviewed Nate about two months ago. I've been busy since then and I have to say I didn't do a great job of the interview, but here it is.
Good news Everyone!
Well everyone I, Richard Edmont of the clan Edmont, vessel of the holy mind lightning, and Ravager of Squaresoft, have done it again! I was up around 1:30 last night watching Naruto episode 159 on youtube when I suddenly saw in a blinding flash of insight given to me by the great lightning god how to overhaul, revamp, and all around save the american educational system! Oh it's true...
Gather around all and hark! For these words shall be be the stuff of legends.
The Overview
We'll start with preschool. Preschool will for the most part remain unchanged. Kids will still do all the feel good preschool crap like coloring and paper cutouts, but they'll learn numbers and letters more with maybe some basic math thrown in around the end.
In kindergarten the alphabet and addition will be taught, BUT (and here's where the
brillance comes in) you start teaching kids how to learn things on their own. Example, instead of giving kids work sheet homework doing whatever they did in school you send them home with the assignment that they have to learn a fact they didn't know. It can be anything, even something as stupidly simple as their dog is three years old and likes ice cream cones. This will get them into the practice and mind set that learning doesn't have to be something boring or lame that they get only from books or school. It's crucial that you get them at a young age to think of learning as a never ending process that can happen anywhere. This will increase their natural curiousity and make them more interested in the rest of their academic careers.
You also have to assign each incoming class a guidance counselor, to work with the kids through their elementary career. Each child would meet with their counselor twice a month. I'll explain why later.
First grade through third you take their teaching up a notch from how and what they're taught now. Teachers shouldn't be afraid to try to teach thier kids something a little more difficult or go a bit more in depth because they think the kids are too young. I remember a few times over the years kids in my class being actually interested in something and asking a question and the teacher just ignoring them and saying, "You'll learn that later, don't worry about it now." Teachers should try to make things a degree above their students comfortable level, not dumb things down. Also kids only homework should be to learn two things they didn't know, again allowing it to be any stupid thing they like just as long as they learn something.
Fourth grade will be a basic skills year. The students will learn multiplication, division, reading, and writing. History and science won't be taught. Only those four things will be stressed and they'll be stressed all year. Students in this year will have what we would think of as normal homework as well as the learning something homework. By now the learning something new should be second nature to them. At the end of the year they will have a basic skills test in which they will be tested on math, reading, and writing. If they do not achieve a grade of 75% or higher they must either re do the year or take summer classes and retake the test.
Five and six grades will be overview years. Students will be given introductory courses of higher math, science, history, english, vocational, and languages. The purpose of these two years will be to let students see what they like and what they're good at. During these years students will no longer be required to go home and learn something new. They should be doing on their own by now without anyone telling them to. At the end of these two years students and their parents will have a meeting with their assigned guidance counselor to discuss and decide what sort of field of study the student wants to persue during high school. Students will be instructed to go with two, but more or less will be allowed. If a student wants to do simply general studies they can.
High school now becomes more like college. Students in a math or science class are there because they're good at it and they want to be there. Teachers can go more in depth and push their kids because everyone in the class can keep up. During my time in school there were a number of times teachers would put off tests or new material because the class wasn't getting the old material. That wouldn't have to happen. Also if a student is only taking two classes a day (e.i. a math and science) they can cover much more and much faster than anyone could under the present system. Students could reach a level or understanding in their selected field that they wouldn't normally achieve until they're halfway through college! Students who are excellent at math, but are hopeless with grammar and history wouldn't have to waste their and everyone else's time with taking a english or history class. And it wouldn't be that they don't know how to read or write at an acceptable level because they already passed the basic skills exam when they were fourth grade!
Under this system kids could more and faster than they ever possibly could under the present one. Graduating high school would be a matter of accumulating a certain amount of credits in their pre-selected fields. A student could focus on one subject
and concievablly be ready to enter the work force with college level knowledge by the time they were 16 or 17. College as an institution would almost become irrelevant and unnecessary.
The Details
Scheduling and budgeting this system would be...difficult. Teachers on nearly every level would have to be retrained and on the high school level need to be as well read in their area as college professors. Finding the teachers for this and then paying them would be near impossible. An elementary school would need at least seven guidance counselors, more perhaps depending on class size as you would want a ratio of counselor to students that allowed personal interaction meaningful.
Pushing students at an early age could in some cases could simply not work. Some children could respond and adapt to a tougher learning environment and others would need additional years of babying.
One aspect of this that could be done without any additional funding is the elementary level homework of learning something new everyday. This in fact is the most important part of the entire system. If kids can be shown at an early age that learning is discovering things you didn't know by themselves and not memorizing facts for two days so they'll pass the next test they'll be much more likely to suceed later as they never stop learning.
A public school would never go for any of this. Even the ones in Vermont and California. A private school might consider it, but they would have to start with preschoolers and go up to high school and no one would do that even if they wanted to. It would be too costly for them to even dream of making a profit. They could charge an arm and a leg, but not enough people would send their kids to make it worth the investment.
At the high school level teachers would have to not only know their material inside and out to go really into depth, but they'd also have to be interested and interesting enough to keep the students atttetion for long stetches of time. Having students that chose to be in the class would help, but that'd only get them so far. At fifteen I lived and died for Babylon 5, but even after two episodes in a row (which I still refuse to buy on DVD by the way) I was ready to go do something else.
Also, assuming a student wants to go to a private college after high school there could be some trouble if the college has core classes that think the students took classes they may have never took. What if a college required english class assumes a student took high school english classes when the student hasn't taken a english class since they were twelve? Problems could arise.
The Conclusion
As with all my genius ideas (and this one tops the keeper list people!) there are a few bugs to work out. Have no fear however, even as I write this I am coming up with solutions. Ego and joking aside I feel that this type of thinking needs to be done and a change in the american educational system and the very way we teach and learn is long over due. Our understanding and knowledge has increased so dramatically over the last few decades that it seems almost moronic to still be using the same methods we use now that we used then. In the forties and fifties for example, a teacher of biology had significantly less to teach than he or she does now. They could probably teach a single year long course on simply diseases and such and still not be able to fit in everything they wanted to.
Allowing teachers to teach kids that want to learn their given subject and cutting away students who want to not bother could be a practical solution. Students would happier because they're not taking their worst subject and teachers would be happy because they wouldn't have unhappy students. It's win/win people!
Okay, that's enough for me. I'm going downstairs to break out some cookies, open up a milk carton, and get my drink on!
Gather around all and hark! For these words shall be be the stuff of legends.
The Overview
We'll start with preschool. Preschool will for the most part remain unchanged. Kids will still do all the feel good preschool crap like coloring and paper cutouts, but they'll learn numbers and letters more with maybe some basic math thrown in around the end.
In kindergarten the alphabet and addition will be taught, BUT (and here's where the
brillance comes in) you start teaching kids how to learn things on their own. Example, instead of giving kids work sheet homework doing whatever they did in school you send them home with the assignment that they have to learn a fact they didn't know. It can be anything, even something as stupidly simple as their dog is three years old and likes ice cream cones. This will get them into the practice and mind set that learning doesn't have to be something boring or lame that they get only from books or school. It's crucial that you get them at a young age to think of learning as a never ending process that can happen anywhere. This will increase their natural curiousity and make them more interested in the rest of their academic careers.
You also have to assign each incoming class a guidance counselor, to work with the kids through their elementary career. Each child would meet with their counselor twice a month. I'll explain why later.
First grade through third you take their teaching up a notch from how and what they're taught now. Teachers shouldn't be afraid to try to teach thier kids something a little more difficult or go a bit more in depth because they think the kids are too young. I remember a few times over the years kids in my class being actually interested in something and asking a question and the teacher just ignoring them and saying, "You'll learn that later, don't worry about it now." Teachers should try to make things a degree above their students comfortable level, not dumb things down. Also kids only homework should be to learn two things they didn't know, again allowing it to be any stupid thing they like just as long as they learn something.
Fourth grade will be a basic skills year. The students will learn multiplication, division, reading, and writing. History and science won't be taught. Only those four things will be stressed and they'll be stressed all year. Students in this year will have what we would think of as normal homework as well as the learning something homework. By now the learning something new should be second nature to them. At the end of the year they will have a basic skills test in which they will be tested on math, reading, and writing. If they do not achieve a grade of 75% or higher they must either re do the year or take summer classes and retake the test.
Five and six grades will be overview years. Students will be given introductory courses of higher math, science, history, english, vocational, and languages. The purpose of these two years will be to let students see what they like and what they're good at. During these years students will no longer be required to go home and learn something new. They should be doing on their own by now without anyone telling them to. At the end of these two years students and their parents will have a meeting with their assigned guidance counselor to discuss and decide what sort of field of study the student wants to persue during high school. Students will be instructed to go with two, but more or less will be allowed. If a student wants to do simply general studies they can.
High school now becomes more like college. Students in a math or science class are there because they're good at it and they want to be there. Teachers can go more in depth and push their kids because everyone in the class can keep up. During my time in school there were a number of times teachers would put off tests or new material because the class wasn't getting the old material. That wouldn't have to happen. Also if a student is only taking two classes a day (e.i. a math and science) they can cover much more and much faster than anyone could under the present system. Students could reach a level or understanding in their selected field that they wouldn't normally achieve until they're halfway through college! Students who are excellent at math, but are hopeless with grammar and history wouldn't have to waste their and everyone else's time with taking a english or history class. And it wouldn't be that they don't know how to read or write at an acceptable level because they already passed the basic skills exam when they were fourth grade!
Under this system kids could more and faster than they ever possibly could under the present one. Graduating high school would be a matter of accumulating a certain amount of credits in their pre-selected fields. A student could focus on one subject
and concievablly be ready to enter the work force with college level knowledge by the time they were 16 or 17. College as an institution would almost become irrelevant and unnecessary.
The Details
Scheduling and budgeting this system would be...difficult. Teachers on nearly every level would have to be retrained and on the high school level need to be as well read in their area as college professors. Finding the teachers for this and then paying them would be near impossible. An elementary school would need at least seven guidance counselors, more perhaps depending on class size as you would want a ratio of counselor to students that allowed personal interaction meaningful.
Pushing students at an early age could in some cases could simply not work. Some children could respond and adapt to a tougher learning environment and others would need additional years of babying.
One aspect of this that could be done without any additional funding is the elementary level homework of learning something new everyday. This in fact is the most important part of the entire system. If kids can be shown at an early age that learning is discovering things you didn't know by themselves and not memorizing facts for two days so they'll pass the next test they'll be much more likely to suceed later as they never stop learning.
A public school would never go for any of this. Even the ones in Vermont and California. A private school might consider it, but they would have to start with preschoolers and go up to high school and no one would do that even if they wanted to. It would be too costly for them to even dream of making a profit. They could charge an arm and a leg, but not enough people would send their kids to make it worth the investment.
At the high school level teachers would have to not only know their material inside and out to go really into depth, but they'd also have to be interested and interesting enough to keep the students atttetion for long stetches of time. Having students that chose to be in the class would help, but that'd only get them so far. At fifteen I lived and died for Babylon 5, but even after two episodes in a row (which I still refuse to buy on DVD by the way) I was ready to go do something else.
Also, assuming a student wants to go to a private college after high school there could be some trouble if the college has core classes that think the students took classes they may have never took. What if a college required english class assumes a student took high school english classes when the student hasn't taken a english class since they were twelve? Problems could arise.
The Conclusion
As with all my genius ideas (and this one tops the keeper list people!) there are a few bugs to work out. Have no fear however, even as I write this I am coming up with solutions. Ego and joking aside I feel that this type of thinking needs to be done and a change in the american educational system and the very way we teach and learn is long over due. Our understanding and knowledge has increased so dramatically over the last few decades that it seems almost moronic to still be using the same methods we use now that we used then. In the forties and fifties for example, a teacher of biology had significantly less to teach than he or she does now. They could probably teach a single year long course on simply diseases and such and still not be able to fit in everything they wanted to.
Allowing teachers to teach kids that want to learn their given subject and cutting away students who want to not bother could be a practical solution. Students would happier because they're not taking their worst subject and teachers would be happy because they wouldn't have unhappy students. It's win/win people!
Okay, that's enough for me. I'm going downstairs to break out some cookies, open up a milk carton, and get my drink on!
Monday, December 18, 2006
Count Black Fist
Nate was telling me about this book he saw at his boss' house titled How to be a Supervillian.
Part of the first chapter was choosing a name and motivation. My name I've decided would be
Count Black Fist and I'd be doing it for power. I would employ standard thugs. You?
Part of the first chapter was choosing a name and motivation. My name I've decided would be
Count Black Fist and I'd be doing it for power. I would employ standard thugs. You?
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Spiders
I found an interesting quote while watching videos on youtube. It was a trip like I do amv for Trigun. At the beginging and end it said across the screen, "kill the spiders to save the butterflies"
at the end it added, "It's rational until you realize that by striving for it, you become a spider yourself."
Something I just wanted to share.
at the end it added, "It's rational until you realize that by striving for it, you become a spider yourself."
Something I just wanted to share.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
What happened to victory?
I saw an ad/reminder/service announcement thing saying that when you got the flu to be sure to take anti-viral medication. What the hell?! I know don't for sure if anti-virals make super viruses the way antibotics do, but that's not my issue. My issue is whatever happened to being a man? What happened to getting the flu and eating more meat until you were healthy again?
Friday, December 01, 2006
Business plans
If you had to start a business or simply come up with a business plan, what would your idea be?
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