Obama and Bush Joker Poster

"Obama Joker Poster Stirs Outrage, Bush Joker Poster Not So Much", was writen by Noel Sheppard, in which he expresses the inconsistent standard of dealing with mean political posters.  The incident he writes about is when a poster of Obama transformed into a joker image apeared in LA.  The joker refers to the Dark Night movie in which one character, the joker, has an evil murderous personality.  The democratic view is that the Obama poster was  "mean and dangerous."  The idea that Noel Sheppard expresses is that when similar pictures of George W. Bush apeared it was aceptable, but now that Obama's picture is being defaced, it is not.  There were even more pictures of Bush, such as a vampire picture.  In this, Bush has blood running down his mouth, and the Lady Liberty is in his arms with pierced skin and blood running out.  This is a far more scary picture, yet it is not publicized about how wrong it is, but rather how great it is.  I think that both pictures are rude, and that we should deal with both the same way.  The response should be consistent, whether you are Democrat or Republican.  It is mean regardless of who it portrays, and I think that it was wrong to do in Bush's term and that it is wrong in Obama's.  Making posters like that merely distracts from the real political issues.  There is no reason to insult.  However humerous these posters may be they don't persuade.  We all need to stop this behavior and express ouselves in a civil and persuasive manner.        

New Skills Needed to Face the World?

In Tony Wagner’s article,”Rigor Redefined”, he talks about how he thinks kids are not learning the skills they need to succeed in twenty first century careers. He thinks we need to start teaching new skills. I agree with him on most points. He says, “It’s time to hold ourselves and all of our students to new and higher standards.” I similarly blogged about the same thing two weeks ago. Tony Wagner suggests many different skills that we need for these twenty first century careers. He says that these are new and different skills, but I disagree. I think that we need skills such as problem solving, flexibility, and verbal teamwork skills, but I don’t think that any of these skills are new. All of these skills are useful and needed, but these are skills that have always been needed. People still had to problem solve in older times, but for completely different issues. The only difference between now and then is that we have different problems to solve. We can still use the same skills that we have always used, just apply them to a new and different situation. In general I like Tony Wagner’s article because it reinforces the skills that we need to learn, but I think that students are being educated in a standard way. We need to raise standards on everything, but we don’t need to change our skills. The simple solution is to raise standards on our skills and make sure everybody is learning them. The problem is that we are not learning them. These skills are not new. These skills are old, and have stopped being taught. All we need to do is start teaching them again and at higher standards.

How Taste is Affected With Old Age

I read the article, "Does Taste Decrease With Old Age?" by Fred Cicetti.  This article was prompted by a question a reader asked.  It talks about how taste is affected by old age.  The reader asked, "I have a bet with a friend that you start losing your sense of taste as you get older. She says that her taste is as strong as ever and thinks I’m wrong. Who wins the bet?"  The author responds as neutral to who wins the bet because there are so may factors.  In the article he says,"In general, sensitivity to taste gradually decreases with age. But there are some whose taste isn’t affected by getting older...While taste is important, we recognize flavors largely through our sense of smell."  This was very interesting to me because I thought it was only taste that made us know different foods.  My friend has no sense of smell because of a medical condition and it makes me wonder if we taste the same thing?  How does she preceve different foods?  Do we all perceive foods the same? 

In this article he also talks about how sometimes people can lose their sense of taste.  He says that sometimes you can lose your sense of taste in only one area such as the area of your tongue that preceves sweet foods.  Does that mean that things that would be sweet would taste bitter or does it mean they would have no taste at all?  Do things with multiple taste come out like only the things you can taste?  This article made me question alot of things and wonder alot about the scientific reasons behind this.

Obama Wants to Add More Time In School: Quantity vs. Quality?

I read the an article, "More School? Obama could trim summer break..." from msnbc.com.  This article is about how Obama feels like many people, that we need to spend more time in school.  The article states,"Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe." I think this is partially true.  I agree that time is an essentialy ingredient to learning, however, high standards and effective strategies are needed to make that time valuble.  I think that we need to improve our standards, so that students can focus on acomplishing more.  We do need to learn more because we are competing for jobs around the globe, but I think the solution is to take the time we do have and make it more meaningful.  By improving standards you set a higher goal for the kid to reach. To help us reach that goal we need to improve stategies.  When we start using these different strategies, then we can reach and exceed our standards.   I think its not the amount of time you spend doing something it is the quality of effort and work you do during that time.  I think we spend enough time in school.  We spend six hours a day at school and we have homework after that too.  I think adding more time in school will take away from other things that are valuable.  The United States has a large obesity problem, so it makes you wonder if we spend more time in school not being active will those numbers go even higher? Obama has good intention when he talks about extending time in school, but I think he needs to become more open to other strategies. 

Reading Time

Brian wrote the blog, "Reading More to Better Read... What a Concept!." He talks about his class and how he gives his students more time to read. He thinks that giving them enough time to read helps them pick topics they are interested in, and makes them have enough time to take notes and such. I think he is right because when kids get to read what they want and have enough time to read it they can write more in depth and better. This also helps in my opinion because students start to learn how to think for themselves. In my English class we are blogging to learn how to think more in depth and for ourselves. Brians class is too, and they will definitely benefit from this when they get older and need to write more. They will have already had the skills to suceed. Brian also talks about how much the kids read. I think the more you read the more you are exposed to this world and the more you can connect with it. Later on in life we will have jobs and things so we need to start our connection now.

TV. and the Recession

Alessandra Stanley wrote an interesting article called, "New Fall TV Seasons Tackle Hard Economic Times", that takes an interesting view of how tv in some ways echoes the mood right now. I think she is right, for people usually watch something they can relate to. Even if in the slightest way, they can relate. I think the new shows this fall have more conflicts that the characters have to deal with. In some ways I wonder, do we make shows like that so in comparison to our life they are worse? Are we trying to deny something? The mood though is really echoed through our shows because that is what people care about right now. They can relate to the characters conflicts and feelings. What will hapen if we pull out of this ressesion? Will what we watch suddenly change? Is tv an insight to how people are feeling?

Flu vs. School

  As many of us aready know, many people are getting sick.  This makes it really inconvenient for school and learning.   Brian, wrote on how to sove this issue.  His post is called, "So How Could I Still Teach My Students If School Was Cancelled?"  He brings up some excelent points on how to conect learning with the Internet.  He thinks we could use tools like wiki, blogs, and moodle.  I see his points and the benifits with all these kids missing school now, but don't really believe that is a foolproof solution.  I think the Internet is a great tool, and that it would be most helpful if our school was shut down for the flu or something.  However, I think the Internet takes away lots of true learning.  When I say true learning I mean that the kids fully understand what they need to understand.  On the Internet we have so many tools that lots of times there is no need to do any work at all.  Spark Notes are a great example.  There is no need to read the actual book if you use Spark Notes because they give you summaries and quotes.  Where are our standards?  If we become competely dependent on the Internet, then how will we measure actual academic progress?
        
Now this doesn't necessarily aply to sickness, but the Internet and the tools on there are by nature inpersonal.  There is no face to face contact.  Many kids need face to face contact and kinetic activities to thoroughly learn something.  The Internet does not meet those needs.  When he says that we would use things that our kids already know how to use, that is not completely true.  Many, includuing myself, do not know how to use some of the modern Internet technologies.  The Internet would indeed be useful when you are sick to find out assignments and class learnings, but blogs and wiki spaces I think take everything over the top and do not always help our learning.