keet

Indeed. I installed FreshRSS on my local server and haven’t looked back. Man, did I ever miss the web of the google reader era.

Their theology is as bad as their choice of political candidate. I cannot think of any other politician that embodies the “Seven Deadly Sins” in public/private life moreso than Mr. Trump. I honestly do not get how the same “conservatives” used to crow about character being of the highest importance for an officeholder/candidate during the 90s, can get on this godawful bandwagon. I still am a Christian and live my life rather “conservatively”, but if this is what Christianity and Conservatism has become, it is no wonder the next generation is saying “Count me out…”.

Long-term, shortcuts will still hamper learning. However, there is still a lot to be said about the over-reliance on testing in education in general. It, unfortunately, is a system that even educators must operate in without any real input. You likely will be surprised what you can do with a little guidance in a self-paced situation. What was that Mark Twain quote here - “Don’t let your schooling interfere with your education.”

The “you can’t tell me what to do!” contingent won already. Intelligent people, OTOH, will still mask up when COVID cases rise and they can’t avoid “people-y” situations.

I can completely understand that perspective. However, some students are just not mature enough to handle every type of math thrown at them when it is. One “bad” teacher can ruin any subject. Some students just aren’t “ready” when the curriculum (or other powers that be) decides that they should be.

HS math teacher here. A lot of these problems existed prior to the pandemic. Parents making excuses for kids. Teachers making excuses for kids to keep parents and admin off their backs. Kids too reliant on calculators to develop “number-sense”. Parents perpetuating the myth of the “math gene” they don’t have because they failed at the "new math " of the 1970s, etc. The list goes on and on. The whole thing where ELA/Social Studies/History/etc. teachers are struggling with AI like ChatGPT? We went through that when Photomath and the like were released. The shortcuts you take in math WILL catch up with you.

That being said, maturity plays a HUGE part. A dedicated math student will struggle, but won’t take shortcuts. They are better for it. The only thing that has changed is that shortcuts are much easier to take and are much more readily available. I cannot count how many shortcuts I took as a teenager, only to realize later that I F$#@! up long-term with my learning journey. Just look at any community college. Students that were “bad at math” suddenly have the realization that if they put in the effort, then the intellectual and/or GPA dividends will pay off in spades.

So, they took a page out of Alabama’s “Modern Jim Crow” map. Sigh. I’m afraid we (as I am an Alabamian) will use it to bring to SCOTUS to strike down whats left of the Voting Rights Act. If only the “email lady” had won in 2016, we would have a scotus that would actually DO something about this gerrymandering and VRA shenanigan nonsense.

The best quote for this situation comes from the video game character QBert: “$#@!”.

Add this to the list of reasons why I’m glad I don’t teach in Florida. I just hope my own red state doesn’t follow suit soon.