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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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I just read the headlines on my homepage MSN and one of the blurbs says: What High School Kids Want! Cutting Edge PCs !!
As I sit here, typing on my "cutting edge" Dell monster, trying to decide if I want a new desktop, a laptop or a notebook this year, I have to wonder about all those High School Kids out there who WANT new sneakers, food, a place to live, someone to care about them and don't give a rat's ass about the cutting edge computers.
My Trig teacher told us that for easiest work loads this year, he recommended the Texas Instruments TI 83 Graphing Calculator. It's only $99.99. Only !!
I'm being sarcastic, I hope you can tell. What about all the bright kids who have nothing? I can do my Calculus HW in a few minutes and they suffer forever because they don't have that magic calculator??? [I don't have one, by the way...mine's a WalMart special........does just fine $9.99]
Everything seems to be based on what we HAVE, rather than what we ARE. I tutor kids who can't read....17 year old kids who cannot read. Did you know that the newspaper you read is written on a third grade level? Did any of these kids have a $1,249 Dell notebook? It might not have mattered but perhaps it added to their feeling of self-worth.
Some really potentially great people are going to be left out, their futures already in stone because they haven't got the right tools to carve out a different one. I know the old saying: "Lead, follow or get out of the way". It's on a poster in my Math lab. Great sentiment for kids, huh?
just saying~
smith
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Can one person make a difference? Many opinions were posted, some good and others not so good. But one idea came out of that thread that is important. Just one person can make a difference, even if it is only to one other person. Who knows, maybe that person helped will become the next Ghandi or Mother Teresa. No one can predict the future. But this does cause me to get on my soapbox for volunteering.
smith, I know you do a lot in your community and I applaud you. Many others who post at this board also do a lot in their community. But more needs to be done. Much more can be done. For those of you who have siezed the opportunity, taken the chance, exerted the effort (Ispeak from experience) DO IT! The rewards can be tremendous. But as smith so eloquently stated, more is needed. So do a little research. All of you are computer literate so put it to work and research what you can do in your community.
I will use my community as an example. My city is considered one of the top ten most populous cities in the U.S. It has all the problems and opportunities of other large urban areas. Yet only one in 200 people are actually involved in some type of volunteer activity. For instance, in my advocacy training I have learned there are over one thousand children in the state-run foster care system in this region, yet there are less than 150 advocates. That leaves hundreds of children, separated from the parents (and possibly, siblings) with no one person working for them, looking out for their best intersts, pushing the state bureaucracy to move faster to achieve permanency in their case.
So do what smith does. Get out there and help someone any way you can. All of you have some talent that you can share (since you are here you can read and write).
Off my soapbox
Hugs, Charlie
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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It's a sad fact of a capitalist society that the "haves" will always have the advantage over the "have nots." But perhaps that advantage has never been quite so great as now. But don't let this "news article" get you down.
I went to that page after reading your post. This isn't "news." It's an ad. I doubt seriously that any reporter did any survey of high school kids and found that cutting edge computers are what they really want.
One of the reasons I don't make MSN my home page is because many of what appear to be news articles are actually advertisements. The page you are talking about is nothing but ads.
But I do understand that this was not the point of your post. It is difficult for poor kids to compete in today's society and the more technologically advanced we become the tougher it is going to get. A kid whose parents can barely afford the next meal isn't going to be able to afford the latest Dell. He's likely to get left behind academically even if he's smarter than the kid whose parents buy him the news computer every fall.
Like Charlie said, you go out and do what you can to help. Keep tutoring. Hopefully, you can teach them the basics and they will learn enough to get a decent job so their kids won't be in the same position.
That saying sounds kind of harsh, but really isn't. It simply encourages you to get moving. Don't stand still, do something. Even if you just "get out of the way" at least you aren't going to get run down.
Think good thoughts,
e
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warren c. e. austin
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Likes it here |
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 247
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A 20-years ago, Canada was ranked highest in the World, for the literacy skills amongnst it's population - at near 98%. With the promulgation of NAFTA, in 1989, we as a Nation were required to abandon universal "free" access to higher education, with this having been declared an unfair trade advantage under the terms of the agreement.
Prior to this any child, regardless of their's or their parent's financial circumstance were guaranteed, by Parliamentary Statute, entrance to the University of their choice anywhere in the World, provided that they attained a grade-point average sufficent to qualify them for that admission to receive acceptance. This programme was put into place in 1960, at a time when literacy averaged around 60% North America wide, and was just slightly higer in Canada. This policy lead to our having achieved, over the next twenty years, a premier position in several disciplines, notably Communications, Nuclear Medicine, Bio and Aeronautical Engineering and Computer Sciences, with Canadian University graduates being sought after on a mammoth scale creating a significant "brain-drain" within out culture.
The consequences of NAFTA 10-years later, are such that literacy, even accounting for increased immigration, has dropped to below pre-1960 levels throughout large areas of the Dominion, with our society now having assuming many of the attributes (for better or worse) of main-stream America.
Our children now go begging for admission to University, cap in hand to Multi-national Corporations (largely American owned) for a share of grants being doled out as scholarships and patronage. University attendance is at an all-time low, and never before in our history have there been so many vacancies unfilled.
The same situation prevails regarding universal access to "free" health-care, with Hospital and Medical Centre closing at an all time high, and Canadian dying on sidewalks because they don't have a "gold" American Express card to fund their medical costs at previously Publically owned, and now Privately owned facilites.
Thankfully the Canadian Government has decided to respond to this crisis, committing $20 Billion over the next 5-years to re-fund Medicare and Education, but this won't be without hidden costs, as it will in all likelihood force our withdrawal from NAFTA at a most critical time for American Society as most of their jobs flee continental U.S. for points south, just as Candian jobs fled Canada for cheaper labour pools in America.
If you really want a sobering wake-up call to what's really happening in North American, in particular, and much of the World, by extension read a book titled "The Job of Work", published by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1998, and released in 2000. The ramifications of globalization in industy are staggering with it estimated by the U.S. Government that by the year 2020, with a population in excess of 400 Millions, less than 10% of their people will be gainfully employed, most in white-collar avocations, with the balance having little or no literacy-skills and no access to any health-care of any description. It would seem that a large indentured work-force at the beck and call of a super-wealthy elite is desired, and will to be the order of the day.
This is not quite as far fetched as it seems, we in Canada are only just now recovering from the loss of 6 Million jobs to American industry in the past decade, and for the first-time have been able to balance our books. At the height of the job-loss 50% of our work-force was without any employment, and even less hope.
Warren C. E. Austin
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...The industrialized world.
We heard throughout the 90s as a whole we could not 'afford' to fund our schools at the level we were used to. Cutbacks were made, classes increased in size, and now, a decade later we're reaping what was sown then, and with interest on top of that.
Shortages of educated teachers have risen to new all-time highs, as have illiteracy and drop-out rates. What does THIS not cost us NOW, when we could not AFFORD to spend money on our kids in the past?
How much will this hurt our economy now that less people educate themselves and are able to get good jobs in places like advanced research and development in various fields?
How will companies be able to grow and expand within our borders, if they can't hire the skilled workers they need?
Christ, the short-sightedness and incompetence of our politicians is just STAGGERING, yet we CONTINUE to re-elect them time and time again like the stupid sheep that we are!
It's said we get the rulers that we deserve. Once these fools have run our society completely into the ground, maybe we'll be able to rise to our feet again, pick up the pieces, and build something better next time 'round. But I doubt it. People in general are STUPID and easily duped.
Here's a telling example: this survey started today on the site of our biggest evening paper: "Are you ready to pay extra for a better environment?"
Out of 1418 people that has voted so far, a full 37.2% says they do NOT want a better environment if it means they have to pay more money to get it... I'm like, WHAT did you say?!?
Actually, now after refreshing the poll, the result is up to 1455 votes and 37.7% saying no. That's EVEN MORE stupidity, gggaahh!
-Lenny
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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Much of what you say seem to happen all throughout... 
