On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 16:44:19 GMT,
"Steve........................................ ..."
wrote:

,; Here in the Seattle area, we are getting mass transit
,; at $100,000,000 per mile.
,; It will carry 1/2 of one percent of the traffic.
,; It has been calculated that if it is always full of people going to
,; work, it would still be cheaper to send them pay checks, forever, than
,; to build the mass transit.
,;
,; It took but seconds of research to discover gasp that
,; "conservatives" and Sunday Fundies have huge problems with
,; actual numbers. Is this a learned trait or one that just evolved?
,; The result of generations of "home schooling" and genetic
,; effects?
,;
,;Cliff, you are a moron. Clark's statement was an accurate reflection of the
,;truth regarding the proposed light rail project in Seattle. Your "answer"
,;could have just as well have come out your ass.
,;
,;The problem with the project referenced is not that it's publicly funded,
,;but rather that it's a colossal waste of money, does not solve the problem
,;addressed, does not go where people want to go, and instead is designed to
,;line the pockets of rich construction interests, big labor interests, big
,;finance interests, and their purchased politicos. It's billions of dollars
,;wasted that could have paid for, say, treatment for you to overcome your
,;profound mental debility.
,;
,;As for the swipe at home-schoolers, the dark truth that the government
,;education bureaucracy wants to bury is that home-school kids as a group
,;accomplish better measurable educational results in an average three hours
,;per day than government schools accomplish in seven. Of course this is to be
,;expected, given the demonstrated greater personal commitment to the child's
,;education and the lack of wasteful distractions such as simply trying to
,;keep order.

How would you compare the "measurable educational results" of home
schoolers with those who went to a public school and received
comparable attention from the parents?

My point is that if you send your kids to public school for 12+ years
and then look at amazement at what happened you deserve what you got.

I sent mine to public school and monitored the education process as it
took place. I supplemented the stuff dished out by teachers who didn't
quite make it to med school and grabbed a couple educations courses so
they could leave college mad and get a teacher's job and spent their
careers bitching about the lack of pay. I also learned to get out of
the way at the end of the day when the kids were let out and the
teachers blasted out the driveway.

I understood that at least some of the administrators understood that
they had some real ass holes on the staff but couldn't fire them
because they hadn't yet had sexual relations with a student. I learned
to find out who they were and how to avoid having my kids in their
class.

In addition I remember the "hard ass teachers" I disliked at the time
because they kept me after school because I didn't live up to my
potential in class. It was not that I had necessarily misbehaved which
I did occasionally (well rarely as I recall) but she thought I could
do better. School was out at 4 PM and I spent more than a few days up
to 5 PM because that "hard ass" teacher demanded that I read and
understood the science project because she knew I could understand it
but didn't because of various distractions which at the time were far
more important.

I benefited from those teachers but unfortunately they were all dead
before I understood their dedication to their profession and could
express my gratitude for whipping my ass into a rather profitable
profession. What is even more unfortunate is that they couldn't also
appreciate what that "hard ass" attitude did for my kids. My kids went
to public school but their wasn't a day went by that their homework
wasn't monitored, handed in on time, and represented their own work no
matter how many times they had to go back and redo it. My kids learned
that when I reviewed math homework with 50 problems and said "There is
one wrong answer" it was time to check their work. They knew better
than to ask which problem was wrong. Their were disappointments but
they learned to deal with them. This world is not necessarily fair and
there are times when you just have to dig deeper and try harder. Home
schoolers miss much of that.

The school system will never be a forum where you can dump your kids
like it was a baby sitter. As long as there is a tenure system you
will get what you deserve but that does not mean that you can't beat
the system and get your kids through successfully.

Your home schooled kids may get to college and not have ever learned
how to deal with adverse situations. I saw more than a few who went
wild once out from under control of a parent.

,;
,;But of course you can't grasp any of this. Is this a learned trait or just
,;congenital results of being born with your head in your anus?

The above comment is about what I would expect from someone with this
attitude. It does however give a pretty good profile of what I would
describe as the typical "home schooler".