Stranger Things

[bèlla]

This is a thread for oddities. Things that make you go hmm, what or worse. Enjoy!

Millennial Mom Opts Out Of Homework All Year​

She wrote the teacher a letter and informed her they were taking the year off from homework and hoped she’d be okay with it. Who does that??? The mom is in the first portion and the remainder discusses student performance and the numbers are bad and the comments are worse. We’re in trouble.

 

[Reluctant Theologian]

This is a thread for oddities. Things that make you go hmm, what or worse. Enjoy!

Millennial Mom Opts Out Of Homework All Year​

She wrote the teacher a letter and informed her they were taking the year off from homework and hoped she’d be okay with it. Who does that??? The mom is in the first portion and the remainder discusses student performance and the numbers are bad and the comments are worse. We’re in trouble.

Maybe because she mainly did or assisted with the homework? She could go for home schooling and raise the bar for her kids.

 

[bèlla]

Maybe because she mainly did or assisted with the homework? She could go for home schooling and raise the bar for her kids.

She felt it was too much and decided they’d skip it instead. The comments includes parents and educators recounting similar experiences. That’s why they’re sounding the alarm because they’re behind and the gap is increasing. We see similar trends in adult literacy.

~bella

 

[Reluctant Theologian]

What a

She felt it was too much and decided they’d skip it instead. The comments includes parents and educators recounting similar experiences. That’s why they’re sounding the alarm because they’re behind and the gap is increasing. We see similar trends in adult literacy.

~bella

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View attachment 371475

I don't know the USA education system - but what are you thoughts on this downtrend in literacy?

 

[bèlla]

What a

I don't know the USA education system - but what are you thoughts on this downtrend in literacy?

Dumbing down is real. Curriculums aren’t as rigorous, parents are less involved, teachers are quitting in droves and students can’t do the work. There’s a correlation with technology and attention spans are getting shorter every year. Ai will make things worse. Some are pushing against the trend through intentional learning like I shared the other day. They were concerned about brain rot and doom scrolling is common.

I prefer to educate children at home. That’s not a knock against schools but they’ll learn more in that environment and the curriculum can be Christ centered. Something along these lines with tweaks of course. Classical Christian education is rising in popularity.

What's on your mind? Friendship Court edition.

Regular family time? Eating dinner together? No, sorry, that's not the answer. I've already given a hint somewhere in this subforum.

www.christianforums.com

~bella

 

[bèlla]

Tipping Banks: The New Way Billionaires Steal From the Poor

If you look around you tipping is everywhere. Well beyond the usual places like restaurants. We’re witnessing the same with fast food and delivery services of course. If you’ve wondered how we got here have a listen. It’s a global phenomenon affecting our wallets and knowledge is power. And the next time you think of ordering Door Dash remember this.

 

[bèlla]

Oracle, Palantir, and the Coming Social Credit System

You’ve probably heard of Oracle and their founder (Larry Ellison) was in the news recently for his sizable purchases impacting media and entertainment. But Palantir may be less familiar and their ties are numerous especially with the government. Data is their specialty which can make us uncomfortable given the security breaches and privacy concerns.

Social credit is mired in conspiracy theories and separating fact from fiction can be challenging. They have it in China but would it ever come here? What would it look like and are we heading in that direction? He covers that and more and demonstrates the similarities with credit reporting and the latter. They’re not that different just more expansive and that’s the problem.

…….

Billionaire Drools That “Citizens Will Be on Their Best Behavior” Under Constant AI Surveillance

"Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on."

If it were up to Larry Ellison, the exorbitantly rich cofounder of software outfit Oracle, all of us will soon be smiling for the camera — constantly. As Business Insider reports, the tech centibillionaire glibly predicts that the wonders of AI will bring about a new paradigm of supercharged surveillance, guaranteeing that the proles — excuse us, “citizens” — all behave and stay in line. “We’re going to have supervision,” Ellison said this week at an Oracle financial analysts meeting, per BI.

 

[Reluctant Theologian]

Oracle, Palantir, and the Coming Social Credit System

You’ve probably heard of Oracle and their founder (Larry Ellison) was in the news recently for his sizable purchases impacting media and entertainment. But Palantir may be less familiar and their ties are numerous especially with the government. Data is their specialty which can make us uncomfortable given the security breaches and privacy concerns.

Social credit is mired in conspiracy theories and separating fact from fiction can be challenging. They have it in China but would it ever come here? What would it look like and are we heading in that direction? He covers that and more and demonstrates the similarities with credit reporting and the latter. They’re not that different just more expansive and that’s the problem.

…….

Billionaire Drools That “Citizens Will Be on Their Best Behavior” Under Constant AI Surveillance

"Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on."

If it were up to Larry Ellison, the exorbitantly rich cofounder of software outfit Oracle, all of us will soon be smiling for the camera — constantly. As Business Insider reports, the tech centibillionaire glibly predicts that the wonders of AI will bring about a new paradigm of supercharged surveillance, guaranteeing that the proles — excuse us, “citizens” — all behave and stay in line. “We’re going to have supervision,” Ellison said this week at an Oracle financial analysts meeting, per BI.

It's intriguing to realise the Social Credit Score system is invented and broadly applied by China - a system where its leadership doesn't like religion. Yet what the Social Credit Score does is make its secular leadership the gods of their society with an all-seeing eye and the ability to reward and punish as they see fit. It's the literal technological/secular equivalent and replacement of the Biblical framework.

When a society's population doesn't believe in God anymore its leadership might argue the SCS application is even necessary to enforce 'moral' and 'proper' behaviour - all according to leadership standards of course. Maybe indeed other countries are heading in the same direction (I've heard about Australia with its very close ties to China, and already implementing very strong Internet surveillance similar to the UK).

When working in IT avoid Oracle whenever you can ..

 

[Learning always]

Dumbing down is real. Curriculums aren’t as rigorous, parents are less involved, teachers are quitting in droves and students can’t do the work. There’s a correlation with technology and attention spans are getting shorter every year. Ai will make things worse. Some are pushing against the trend through intentional learning like I shared the other day. They were concerned about brain rot and doom scrolling is common.

I prefer to educate children at home. That’s not a knock against schools but they’ll learn more in that environment and the curriculum can be Christ centered. Something along these lines with tweaks of course. Classical Christian education is rising in popularity.

What's on your mind? Friendship Court edition.

Regular family time? Eating dinner together? No, sorry, that's not the answer. I've already given a hint somewhere in this subforum.

www.christianforums.com

~bella

Stephen Hawking did not learn to read until he was eight years old, and he later attributed this delay to the "Progressive Methods". On the other hand, his sister learned to read at four years old with traditional methods.

Today, students in USA and Australia are mostly educated (or dis-educated?) with progressive elements -- most of them can't read properly, can't spell and are poor at maths.

 

[RDKirk]

She felt it was too much and decided they’d skip it instead. The comments includes parents and educators recounting similar experiences. That’s why they’re sounding the alarm because they’re behind and the gap is increasing. We see similar trends in adult literacy.

~bella

Back in the 60s we didn't have nearly as much homework, yet we graduated with a higher level of basic literacy. We took home a couple of worksheets and a book or two. Since the 80s, students have been bending their backs under loads of books. The whole backpack thing emerged in the 80s simply because kids were bringing home so many books.

My grandmother, who was a sharecropper as a child and then a Great Depression farm wife with only an eighth grade education, taught her five children to read before they started school. Then she taught me to read before I started school. To know her, to speak to her, to do business with her, nobody would guess that she had only an eighth-grade education. Maybe she was a prodigy, but I doubt it.

Learning to read is not difficult. It shouldn't take an adult more than a couple of months to learn to read phonetically...unlike young children, they'll already have speaking vocabulary.

I cannot understand how the school system can have a child in a classroom for 12 years and manage not to teach them to read.

 

[bèlla]

It's intriguing to realise the Social Credit Score system is invented and broadly applied by China - a system where its leadership doesn't like religion. Yet what the Social Credit Score does is make its secular leadership the gods of their society with an all-seeing eye and the ability to reward and punish as they see fit. It's the literal technological/secular equivalent and replacement of the Biblical framework.

From what I understand it’s a social experiment and a lot of it is our technology. It was easier to roll out in a country with tughter controls than one like ours. But if you’re paying attention you see changes here and there with greater monitoring. We walk a lot and notice differences with the street lamps and traffic lights. I’ve seen the silver boxes stationed alone that appear nondescript but they’re recording their surroundings.

When a society's population doesn't believe in God anymore its leadership might argue the SCS application is even necessary to enforce 'moral' and 'proper' behaviour - all according to leadership standards of course. Maybe indeed other countries are heading in the same direction (I've heard about Australia with its very close ties to China, and already implementing very strong Internet surveillance similar to the UK).

When working in IT avoid Oracle whenever you can ..

You don’t get to a beast system overnight or one world government or religion. It happens in stages. Much like the following.

Abu Dhabi’s stunning new multi-faith complex is a mosque, synagogue and church

There was a time it would have been difficult to fathom. But here we are. And I know about Ellison. ;-)

~bella

 

[bèlla]

I cannot understand how the school system can have a child in a classroom for 12 years and manage not to teach them to read.

I don’t believe the teachers are wholly to blame. It assumes too much about their home life and most people are on their phone. Look at the activity on social media throughout the day. They’re not all at home. I saw the same before it existed. People used to come online while at work and get back online in the evening before smartphones were created. They were already addicted to the internet. Smart devices increased our access and provided a distraction for kids.

Nevertheless, I decided to check the president‘s initiatives on education from the project 2025 tracker. The biggest hits are slated for low income programs, head start and student loans. He’s requiring all schools that receive federal funding to give students the military entrance test. Will that help them improve?

In light of the above I went to their site and poked around. There’s a piece on the black family you may find interesting. Given the cuts they’ve put through their initiatives this is the probable result they have in mind.

~bella

 

[RDKirk]

He’s requiring all schools that receive federal funding to give students the military entrance test. Will that help them improve?

In basic principle, this could be a good idea. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is essentially a "SAT" to measure a student's readiness for continued technical training. After 12 years of schooling, a student should be able to do well in either the ASVAB or the SAT. Students who don't intend to go to college (kids usually know that by the end of the ninth grade) should be guided into coursework that will give them success in the ASVAB. Those kids would be ready for any advanced technical training after high school graduation.

Schools would not be rated merely on how many of their students do well on the SAT, but also (or even more) on how well their students do on the ASVAB...particularly since 60%+ of students never get bachelor's degrees.

 

[RDKirk]

In light of the above I went to their site and poked around. There’s a piece on the black family you may find interesting. Given the cuts they’ve put through their initiatives this is the probable result they have in mind.

I agree with placing a spotlight on the role of Radical Feminism in the destruction of the black family. The "welfare state" played a minor supporting role, but black women had been receiving welfare for years while still aspiring to be wives. It was Radical Feminism (capitalized because it's a specific feminist ideology) that injected the idea that women were better off without men in their lives ("A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."

This became widely accepted in black communities by the 80s to such obvious extent that the television networks had news specials about it. The vice-president of the US even spoke of it in a news conference in 1989. I was in DC in the latter 80s listening to young women who had good government jobs and were not on welfare saying they didn't need a man to help them raise children.

 

[bèlla]

Schools would not be rated merely on how many of their students do well on the SAT, but also (or even more) on how well their students do on the ASVAB...particularly since 60%+ of students never get bachelor's degrees.

What happens if the scores are poor? Do you think this will also be a tool for recruitment?

~bella

 

[bèlla]

I agree with placing a spotlight on the role of Radical Feminism in the destruction of the black family. The "welfare state" played a minor supporting role, but black women had been receiving welfare for years while still aspiring to be wives. It was Radical Feminism (capitalized because it's a specific feminist ideology) that injected the idea that women were better off without men in their lives ("A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."

There’s a lot of cuts planned for public assistance. Including the programs I mentioned and others related to food, housing and health care. The fallout will be ugly. Not only for minorities but others that fall outside of their ideal.

~bella