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It's normal to complain about the weather, but doubly so, I expect, if you don't understand it to begin with.
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Rainy Weather Forecasts Misunderstood by Many
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To bring an umbrella or not to bring an umbrella? That’s the perennial question on those days where the chance of rain is less than 100 percent.
But only half the population understands what a precipitation forecast means well enough to make a fully informed answer, a new study finds.
If, for example, a forecast calls for a 20 percent chance of rain, many people think it means that it will rain over 20 percent of the area covered by the forecast. Others think it will rain for 20 percent of the time, said Susan Joslyn, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Washington who conducted the study.
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The older I get, the more surprised I am, by the lack of education and lack of basic understanding that adults have. Actually I'm not just surprised, I'm appalled.
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This kinda thing is WHY I'm about to embark on home schooling my 11 y/o grandson. It's scary, but scarier still is letting him continue where he is. He was categorized as a "Title 1" kid this year, which got the school more money, but got him less help somehow. Odd that.
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He doesn't get math, so their answer was to get him a calculator.(?)
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These are the same educators who said he might never be able to read. Now, after home grown pressure from me and his father, he reads voraciously, loves it, reads instead of watching the tube. I think he's trainable, the school just wanted the money though. But when we're done, he'll know whether he needs a jacket, a bumbershoot or a pistol.
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Professor Schteveo
15 comments:
but Steve - if you home school, the kid will turn out to be a conservative!!!
Obama & his minions will never allow that!
Blogger won’t let me post, so I’m just going to OT you all here. Click my link. It appears that Obama’s sycophants claiming that the pirate incident is proof that he will not hesitate to order the trigger get pulled…
http://fightingintheshade.blogspot.com/2009/04/suspicion-confirmed.html
Is utter rubbish, just as I suspected. I thought it was weird when the captain jumped out of the boat, giving the navy a clear shot, and they did not light that boat up like the 4th of July. Now we know why.
Obama wouldn’t let them.
http://fightingintheshade.blogspot.com/2009/04/suspicion-confirmed.html
3 of my kids go to a Title 1 school. Its great. I can't imagine the quality of education being any better at a school in a "rich" neighborhood.
However, I have them transfer to a middle school outside of our area once they get to 7th grade.
Broke ass elementary school - OK
Broke ass middle school - bad (drugs, violence)
But Blue,
they can kiss our collective square butts! Umbrella optional.
Goob,
we get back to wimp status every time a lib is in the WH. Nothing new here.
Stick around kids cause it's all gonna get a whole lot worse before Omoma is done!
And on a related note, ammo is getting "harder and harder" to come by.
Spider,
what kind you looking for? I'll ship p you, no service charge, it might be cheaper here too.
Lemme know. Seriously, I got the time.
Abu,
we musta hit "publish" simultaneously.
The problem we have is that the school in question is NOT a Title 1 school, but he's been categorized as a Title 1 kid.
Since it happened, Nov / Dec, the teacher, the school, the county office have quit talking to my son and daughter-in-law. Can't get a conference, no phone calls or notes answered, it's a mess.
Because of their parent's schedules, the kids are here many afternoons. I had a problem with homework one night. (the metric system) I sent the teacher a note telling him why we didn't get the homework done. (no meter stick) The teacher called me the next morning at 9:45. (dude, who's teaching the 4th grade right now!?) He spent 20 minutes defending himself and the curriculum.
This school sucks.
It used to be a good school, my wife, her siblings and both my kids went there at various times. We love when they tell us "how things are" at the school.
Homeschooling, plus, Poppy's Pistol School with optional Land Survival Enhancements Program commences on September 3rd. This boy will never be a Rhodes Scholar, but he won't starve or be on welfare either.
Steve;
What a great thing for you to do. I'm proud of you for what it's worth.
However, home schooling is a system frought with perils, from my personal experience with a very close friend who was homeschooled, and had the very foudnations of his existence rattled like hell as soon as he moved out on his own, and left the echo chamber that was his home. He was so naiive, socially inept, and completely unprepared for a world where everyone didn't think the same way that he did, even though he was one of the smartest guys that I ever met.
If I can give you any advice, it is that while one person can impart to him the knowledge he will need to succeed, it takes contact with many, many people in order for him to understand a few key concepts, including:
1.) The ability to sort through what other people are telling him, apply logic to the statements, sort through the detritus, and respond intelligently with either an agreement or a counter-argument of his own. Basically, debate, but a bit less formal. He won't be able to get that from you alone.
2.) Socializing with his peers. Nuff said. i'm sure he loves his Poppy, and rightfully so, but you're not an 11 year old boy (or girl, for that matter) and he needs to be around other 11 year old boys (and girls), as well as his Poppy. Make sure homeschooling doesn't make a shut-in out of the guy. Recess is an important part of school. it isn't just play, it is learning social skills in a more loose construct than a classromm setting.
3.) Alternative viewpoints. I know, I know, I sound like a fucking liberal, but hear me out. Living one's life in an echo chamber of ideas can lead to the very foundations of his entire outlook on existence being very rattled once he ships off to college and finds out that everything he knows is true might not be so, (otherwise, why would everyone be saying so?). Present alternative viewpoints to him as best you can, in as unbiased a light as you can, and then tell him why you don't agree, if you must. The point is that he needs to understand that not everyone believes the way that you do, so it doesn't shock him later on when he finds that out.
4.) Don't forget field trips. And by that, i mean to places other than the local rifle range, although that is one skill i wish they would teach in school and they don't. I'm thinking zoos, aquariums, the ocean, etc.
5.) Don't let your personal biases and preferences deny him an opportunity to be educated about things. This is way easier said than done, but a perfect example would be the metric system. You might not use it. You might not think it is important. Regardless, he still needs to learn it, so you have to try and get past your bias on the issue and teach it to him.
5.) Don't skip the health, development, and sex ed stuff, as uncomfortable as it might be. My friend was wholly ignorant of how babies were made at 18 years old, because he'd never had playground chatter to fill him in, or classes to teach him otherwise. That isn't healthy. I don't care what anyone wants to say about it. Give him a book, if absolutely nothing else. It is important. Eleven years after he learned about making babies, my friend is still horribly uncomfortable with women, turns red, cannot speak, and is still a virgin, and will be intot he foreseeable future, because he never learned how to function in society, and never learned about any of the important birds and bees stuff. He is now 30 years old. Most of us have wives, children, and a couple more on the way. He might as well become a monk.
Anyway, just some things from personal experience. You can ignore and tell me to buzz off if you like, I'm just trying to help.
20% chance of rain means if you bring your umbrella, it won't rain. If you leave it home, it will rain. However, if bring your umbrella, and you lose it, it will rain. If you happen to bring your umbrella and it does rain, a gust of wind will shred it and render it useless.
I haop that explains how it works
Oy!
Hillbilly Vasectomy
After their 11th child, an Alabama couple decided that was enough, as they could not afford a larger bed.
So the husband went to his veterinarian and told him that he and his cousin didn't want to have any more children.
The doctor told him that there was a procedure called a vasectomy that could fix the problem but that it was expensive. "A less costly alternative," said the doctor, "is to go home, get a cherry bomb, (fireworks are legal in Alabama) light it, put it in a beer can, then hold the can up to your ear and count to 10."
The Alabamian said to the doctor, "I may not be the smartest tool in the shed, but I don't see how putting a cherry bomb in a beer can next to my ear is going to help me."
"Trust me," said the doctor.
So the man went home, lit a cherry bomb and put it in a beer can. He held the can up to his ear and began to count!
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5..."
At which point he paused, placed the beer can between his legs and continued counting on his other hand.
Goob,
yeah we knew some kids who were raised in a hot house in the early 80's. Near nervous breakdowns when they went to Jr HS.
But the parents involved were TRYING to save the kids from the ravages of drugs, sex, rock music, movies that weren't "G" Rated, foul language, foul water, hip clothing, tattoos, motorcycles, riders of motorcycles, long haired boys, short haired girls, blah, blah, blah.
I have no such delusions.
I'm actually very fortunate in that we're dovetailing with an existing group. They do weekly trips and group studies. They're all working from the same group of books year to year, it's a good system to join.
And finally, we're shooting for getting him BACK mainstreamed in 6th grade, when he'd normally change schools anyway.
By them he won't need a cheat sheet for his multiplication tables or a calculator to do simple math!!
(and he won't be an expert shot, but he'll be as good as I can get him to be)
I appreciate your offer Steve. LMK if you can and i'll send you my address. Also, LMK if you are a PayPal member so i can send you payment ASAP.
HORNADY CRITICAL DEFENSE HANDGUN AMMO / 25 .38 SPCL 110GR CD
Spider,
I don't have your e-mail address so you e-mail me, then, and I'll send you prices / availability in a day or so after making some calls. And I do have a PayPal acct.
discowhale@yahoo.com
Goob, A home school association probably would have saved your friend. There is one here. Organized sports, the whole thing. I paid for my kids to go to a private school and the home schoolers always kicked their butts in sports.
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