I saw this on the news the other day and it literally made me feel ill. One of their problems was that the children who built the airport wouldn't allow the children without a lego aeroplane to use the airport. These "social theroists" obviously never took a single class in developmental psychology. The kids aren't doing it to impose some sort of higher social power, they're doing it because they are categorizing objects; planes go with airport, boat goes with dock, car goes witn garage, etc. If anything, these morons are gonna confuse the kids to the point of not being able to group like objects. They won't have any concept of what makes things similar or different. It really is a useful skill to recognize a new obstacle as being similar to one you've encountered in the past and apply a similar solution as the previous experience.
We're raising our children to be a bunch of pussies with thinking like this.
Sometimes, children will have to realize they can't get everything they want, because some douchebag will take it from us. Guess what parents? That shit happens in the real world too. You can't protect your children from it forever. If children are exposed to this, they can learn how to share on their own terms, instead of having sharing forced on them by their teachers. No social learning can result from having these rules forced on you.
As a comparison, Japan is having serious issues with bullying in the school systems; children and young adults are skipping school and even committing suicide because of the resulting social isolation. THAT is a problem. And what do we worry about? FUCKING LEGOS?
Legos are a fantastic way to utilize one's imagination and creativity. I remember when I was a kid, I used to make huge, magnificent spaceships. It would take hours. Then I'd chuck the fucker down the stairs to simulate crashing into a strange, uncharted planet (the front doorway), watching it shatter into a million pieces. I'd spend the entire day rebuilding the ship while my crew would battle monsters, aliens, criminals, and anything else I could think of.
Children should be taught "life skills" instead of facts and figures because they can look up all they need to know on the Internet, teachers' leaders claim today.
A classroom union launched its own blueprint for the school curriculum - with no tests, GCSEs or even subjects.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers said members should be able to decide what pupils learn in lessons instead of the Government as long as "essential skills" are passed on.
One suggestion invited immediate comparisons with Monty Python's infamous Ministry of Silly Walks sketch, where John Cleese plays a civil servant tasked with handing out grants to develop silly walks.
ATL's acting deputy general secretary said youngsters could learn to walk in a variety of ways, including techniques needed for catching trains and exploring cliffs.
Martin Johnson said:
"There's a lot to learn about how to walk. If you were going out for a Sunday afternoon stroll you might walk in one way.
"If you're trying to catch the train you might walk in another way and if you are doing a day's cliff walk you might walk in another way.
"If you are carrying a pack, there's a technique in that.
"We need a nation of people who understand their bodies and can use their bodies effectively.
"Since in a green world people will be walking more than western societies are currently doing, it would be as well that we spent an hour or so of compulsory education in teaching young people how to walk efficiently - and the joy of walking."
He said physical and manual skills should have greater prominence in the school curriculum which should no longer prescribe facts and figures and specific subjects.
Explaining the proposals, shortly to be published in a book, he went on:
"The skills that would be listed in the national curriculum would be obligatory to all and they would be assessed at the age of 16.
"The essential skills of history like the essential skills of other academic subjects would be part of that assessment.
"But so would essential skills in a range of other human activity which is underestimated, for example, manual skills, manual dexterity, the ability to use tools; the ability to cycle, the ability to walk in a variety of styles according to purpose."
Under the proposals, national tests at seven, 11 and 14 would be unnecessary as pupils would be observed as they demonstrate skills.
Teacher assessments would also replace GCSEs, although samples of judgements would be checked to ensure consistency across the country. Sixteen-year-olds would be given portfolios of achievement.
Mr Johnson added:
"For the state to suggest that some knowledge should be privileged over other knowledge is a bit totalitarian in a 21st century environment.
"We are arguing that knowledge which traditionally has got high status should not be privileged over other kinds of knowledge."
He insisted:
"We are not suggesting that some nutty teacher gets up one morning and decides on a curriculum which would be entirely out of kilter with what their colleagues, what most of the pupils in their school or what the community would desire."
ATL's general secretary, Mary Bousted, said "access to the internet and access to 24-hour knowledge" reduced the need for schools to teach subject content.
However critics dismissed the plan as "plain daft" and an attempt to return to the 1970s, when education was described as "secret garden" because schools were largely left to their own devices.
Landmark 1988 legislation established the national curriculum which laid down the minimum educational entitlement for pupils of compulsory school age.
However ATL, a traditionally moderate teaching union whose annual conference is next week, said the curriculum needed to be "rewritten as a simple framework".
This would "not specify required knowledge but instead lists the skills needed by all pupils entering adult life".
But Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, said:
"This is plain daft.
"We have accumulated as human beings important bodies of knowledge and a key function of schools is to pass on those bodies of knowledge to help children make sense of the world.
"Nationally-administered tests are important to check up on what the children have learned and the curriculum is important to guarantee to children a basic entitlement.
"The idea there is a set of skills you need and you can look up everything else is quite false.
I hope that these basic skills training sessions would include Internet usage. If they're expected to look everything up, they'll need to learn how to do it properly.
Funny thing is, I always thought walking was something of common knowledge once one enters the public education system. Or maybe the UK system is just way behind our own.
wow. i'm scared of a nation educated by wikipedia. on the other hand, america could use the friggin' exercise, so teach them to walk by all means. and teach them to not eat at mcdonald's while yur at it.
I hope that these basic skills training sessions would include Internet usage. If they're expected to look everything up, they'll need to learn how to do it properly.
Funny thing is, I always thought walking was something of common knowledge once one enters the public education system. Or maybe the UK system is just way behind our own.
That's why the article is so ridiculous. Kids CAN walk, but apparently you need to learn various methods. Plus you shouldn't run for a train anyway, it's dangerous.
And to the second part I think you're pushing it a bit :P
Wow, just wow. That made me more angry than it probably should have.
I may not have used long division all that much, but I've never needed to know how to explore a cliff on the fly. Why don't they just teach these kids survival skill in the arctic circle or how to street fight? It's like they're just trying to teach them how to exist in society, but there's a whole lot more than that.
I mean, I'm sure that not everybody has to know all the conversion rates for the metric system by heart, but I do, and it's not a worthless skill anyway.
Wait, I'm confused.. was this article an April Fools joke or not? While seeing the whole world be a part of the ministry of silly walks, I don't quite see how it's necessary to make such a big deal of walking.
I think this article is pretty screwy, but the basic philosophy behind it has a good deal of merit. For example, rather than have children memorize facts, you teach them to think. In Math, you will still need to have some equations and metioned commited to episodic (wrote) memory, but you could place a much greater emphasis on problem solving techniques. One approach that ahs already been proven to work very well is with history. Instead of having teh children memorize who did what and when it was done, they had the children discuss the different events in history, think about cause and effect and what could have been done differently. Not only did the children remember way more of the historical facts, but they just gained a tremendous understanding of life in general (a measurable improvement for moral intelligence and understanding human motivation).
He seemed a little mad when he yelled "This wasn't what we rehearsed!" ", but I'd probably be mad too! He went to this kid thing and played songs for FREE, and they thank him by covering him in slime! Effed indeed.
This is true, but it was the kid's choice awards, Justin should have known something like this might happen.
He made the mistake so many of us do, he did not study up on history and make educated deductions about certain possibilities. It shows that he is only a man, just like the rest of us.
Wow thats really touching. Still I think it would be gross to be all covered in nickelodeon slime. I used to have some nickelodoen gak ill bet it feels like that
EVERETT - An Everett woman who posed as a teenage boy was arrested Sunday for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl who believed the older woman was her boyfriend.
Lorelei Josephine Corpuz, 30, lived for more than a year as a 17-year-old boy named "Mark," according to papers filed in Everett District Court.
As "Mark," Corpuz persuaded the girl's family to let "Mark" live in their home as the girl's boyfriend. Corpuz claimed to be an orphan, police alleged.
It wasn't until police arrested Corpuz on Sunday on an unrelated matter that the girl and her family learned that "Mark" was a woman - and almost twice the age they were led to believe, according to court papers.
That's when officers were told that Corpuz allegedly had beaten and sexually assaulted the girl.
"The family was very surprised to learn that this female who had presented herself as a juvenile male was in fact" an adult woman, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said Tuesday.
Police initially arrested Corpuz on a traffic warrant.
On Tuesday, she was being held at the Snohomish County Jail on $150,000 bail for investigation of third-degree child rape. No charges have been filed.
The case may leave lasting emotional scars for the girl and her family, experts said.
"This is an extremely unusual story," said Lucy Berliner, director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Trauma Stress in Seattle. "Female-on-female sexual abuse is the rarest category. It doesn't happen very often at all."
The girl met "Mark" in September 2005 at a shopping mall, Goetz said.
They spoke over the phone and went on a date, according to court papers.
"Mark" told the girl and her parents that his mother died of cancer and his father killed himself, the papers said.
The girl told police the relationship became abusive and that she was hit weekly and twice was bitten on the back.
Corpuz was driving without a license when police stopped her on Sunday and determined she had a traffic warrant from Marysville for driving without a license.
The 14-year-old was in the car at the time and Corpuz was reluctant to let police talk to the girl, Goetz said.
The girl's parents were called and the family was interviewed. English is not their native language, Goetz said.
Corpuz has a criminal history stretching back to 2001. The state's court computer database lists "Mark" as her alias on a theft case in King County six years ago.
Everett and Marysville police recognized her as a woman. She may have been able to pass herself off as a man when stopped by Lynnwood police earlier this year, however.
In February, a person was stopped for driving with a suspended license in Lynnwood and was using Corpuz's "Mark" alias.
That person has the same height, weight, race and eye color as Corpuz, but police on Tuesday couldn't confirm that it was her. The person was given a ticket and released, said Paul Watkins, a Lynnwood police spokesman.
When posing as a man, Corpuz apparently uses her brother's name and identity, Goetz said.
"She was able to get away with it," he said. "Apparently she's good at what she does."
The combination of being abused - then learning her trust was misplaced - may be especially difficult for the girl, Berliner said.
"One is trauma, the other is shocking," she said. "Having both at the same time is very likely to make the effects of the abuse worse."
The girl needs the loving support of family and friends, said Dr. Frank Ochberg, a Michigan psychiatrist and internationally known expert on the effects of trauma.
"In this kind of case it's almost inevitable that there will be a period of time when the victim blames herself and feels embarrassed," he said.
"A lot of what you deal with is self-blame. You'd think the perpetrator would feel shame and embarrassment, but it doesn't work that way. It's the victim who feels that way."
The girl and her family need to be reassured that this is a highly unusual case, Berliner said.
They shouldn't feel bad.
"Why would you suspect it? How often do people go around lying about their gender?" she said. "It's too weird for people to imagine, so why would you imagine it?"
My god, I can't trust any of you anymore either! What if MacJake is really a 40 year old mother of two? What if Mario really is a seven year old girl in love with JT?
Oh my god, it's true, we can't trust each other at all! But the only way we can stop this is to work together and blow up our arctic research station. Someone get Kurt Russel!
NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) - Five Grade 5 students were arrested in Louisiana on Tuesday after an investigation into allegations they had sex in an unsupervised classroom, with other classmates present.
"After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore," Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley said. "But this comes pretty close." The alleged incident took place March 27, at the Spearsville school in rural northern Louisiana.
Four students - two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy - were arrested on charges of obscenity, a felony. An 11-year-old boy who was the alleged lookout was charged with being an accessory after the fact, Buckley said.
The class was left unattended while the teacher attended a meeting, Buckley said.
"It's not clear how long they were left alone but speculation is that it was about 15 minutes," Buckley said.
"When no teacher showed up, the four began to have sex in the classroom with the other elementary students in the classroom with them."
The students, who were not identified because of their age, were released to their parents after their arrests because the parish has no juvenile holding facility, Buckley said.
"I'm sure they're like everybody else up here, shocked that children that age would be indulging in sex acts, especially with witnesses," Buckley said.
"Children now are subjected to sex in music and movies these days. They are certainly are a lot more knowledgeable now."
Buckley said it was unclear what a juvenile would face in penalties. For adults, conviction on obscenity in the presence of someone under 17 carries a US$10,000 fine and from two to five years in prison.
Wow, that didn't take long. Blame the media! Don't blame the kids' upbringing, or their parents, or (heaven forbid) the kids themselves!
This wouldn't have ever happened if they listened to a little more Justin Timberlake.
I grew up with MTv. It practically shares my birthday. There were tons of sexually themed videos. There wasn't any internet, but porn was still easy to find if you wanted it and I never had sex in front of my classmates at school. Unless these kids are watching movies about fifth graders having sex in front of their classmates, I don't see how you can even try to blame it on the media.
Comments
Sometimes, children will have to realize they can't get everything they want, because some douchebag will take it from us. Guess what parents? That shit happens in the real world too. You can't protect your children from it forever. If children are exposed to this, they can learn how to share on their own terms, instead of having sharing forced on them by their teachers. No social learning can result from having these rules forced on you.
As a comparison, Japan is having serious issues with bullying in the school systems; children and young adults are skipping school and even committing suicide because of the resulting social isolation. THAT is a problem. And what do we worry about? FUCKING LEGOS?
Legos are a fantastic way to utilize one's imagination and creativity. I remember when I was a kid, I used to make huge, magnificent spaceships. It would take hours. Then I'd chuck the fucker down the stairs to simulate crashing into a strange, uncharted planet (the front doorway), watching it shatter into a million pieces. I'd spend the entire day rebuilding the ship while my crew would battle monsters, aliens, criminals, and anything else I could think of.
Funny thing is, I always thought walking was something of common knowledge once one enters the public education system. Or maybe the UK system is just way behind our own.
That's why the article is so ridiculous. Kids CAN walk, but apparently you need to learn various methods. Plus you shouldn't run for a train anyway, it's dangerous.
And to the second part I think you're pushing it a bit :P
I may not have used long division all that much, but I've never needed to know how to explore a cliff on the fly. Why don't they just teach these kids survival skill in the arctic circle or how to street fight? It's like they're just trying to teach them how to exist in society, but there's a whole lot more than that.
I mean, I'm sure that not everybody has to know all the conversion rates for the metric system by heart, but I do, and it's not a worthless skill anyway.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263047,00.html
He seemed a little mad when he yelled "This wasn't what we rehearsed!" ", but I'd probably be mad too! He went to this kid thing and played songs for FREE, and they thank him by covering him in slime! Effed indeed.
He made the mistake so many of us do, he did not study up on history and make educated deductions about certain possibilities. It shows that he is only a man, just like the rest of us.
I feel closer to him.
My god, I can't trust any of you anymore either! What if MacJake is really a 40 year old mother of two? What if Mario really is a seven year old girl in love with JT?
Stay back... all of you.
...*cough*
Wow, that didn't take long. Blame the media! Don't blame the kids' upbringing, or their parents, or (heaven forbid) the kids themselves!
This wouldn't have ever happened if they listened to a little more Justin Timberlake.
15 minutes? Kids these days need more stamina.
And now someone can point out that while the teacher may have been gone for 15 minutes it doesn't say that the children finished up that quickly.
I'd like to know what the conversation leading up to the sex was like.
"Yeah. Let's have sex."
*teh sex.*
I grew up with MTv. It practically shares my birthday. There were tons of sexually themed videos. There wasn't any internet, but porn was still easy to find if you wanted it and I never had sex in front of my classmates at school. Unless these kids are watching movies about fifth graders having sex in front of their classmates, I don't see how you can even try to blame it on the media.