New column: Tracer Rounds!

Started by bayonetbrant, January 04, 2016, 11:22:55 AM

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bob48

I remember seeing a photo of the supply train for just one corps of the AoP, and it was just columns of wagons that went on for miles. Also, the history of the USMRR is fascinating as well; old Herman Haupt was some character.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

MetalDog

I had no idea you were a Van fan, Brant!  Good on ya'!
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

bayonetbrant

Quote from: MetalDog on March 21, 2016, 07:47:14 PM
I had no idea you were a Van fan, Brant!  Good on ya'!

you've said that the last 3 times I talked about liking Van Morrison ;)
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MetalDog

And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MetalDog

After listening to that song, I can see why The Connells never took over the world.  :P


I was bored as hell in school.  Would have loved to have some instruction in things I was interested in or accelerated teaching keyed to how fast I was grasping concepts.  But the world we live in can't allow that.  Too many people on the lower end of the spectrum to contend with.  And it's better that they have a vague idea of what is going on than trying to keep me engaged in doing schoolwork.
And the One Song to Rule Them All is Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones


"If its a Balrog, I don't think you get an option to not consent......." - bob

bayonetbrant

Quote from: MetalDog on March 28, 2016, 07:48:39 PMAfter listening to that song, I can see why The Connells never took over the world.  :P

socket
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

OJsDad

Great write up Brant.  You're right, it was a little disjointed, but that just shows how complicated of a situation it is.

First, about me.  This may I'll be out of high school 29 years.  Like Brant, I'm a military brat of a 20 year Air Force  NCO.  I was never very interested in school, except for history.  So I was an average student at best.  I've got an associates degree in computer programming.  I spent the first 2 years out of college as a programmer then moved to being a DBA, networking, enterprise backups, workstations, server admin, etc.  I've worked for a law firm, and nursing home company, a manufacturing company, a hospital, and now for General Electrics Healthcare division.  My current position is helping customers get their new cardiovascular IT systems setup.  I no formal education in healthcare or most of the IT hats that I've worn, it's all been picked up on the job. 

I'm also starting my second term on our local school board.  Our school district has less than 600 students, all K-12 in one building.  There is also a pre-school class that is run by the county education service center.  Our special needs kids all go to another county school.  We utilize a city career center for our high school students that want to go that route.

Brant mixed in k-12 and post high school education together, and while some of the issues over lap, I think they really need to be broken into separate issues.  The biggest reason is that we have to decide what we want our k-12 school system to accomplish.  The simple answer is that we want it to be all things to all kids.  We want them to be baby sitters, we want them to teach our kids to read, write, and math.  We want them to make sure every student is ready for college, even though half of them have no interest in going to college or should be going to college.

The first two things that are needed is 1) admit that not everyone should go to college and 2) that not everyone should be allowed to stay in high school after they complete 9 grade as they tend to be nothing but a disruption to those that want to be there and 3) that are schools are there to educate, they're not equipped or funded to be a social welfare program.  You would be surprised at all of the things that politicians and Bureaucrats expect our primary education systems to take care of.   When I talk about the second group, I don't mean to kick kids out if they're not on a college track, but if they're actively disrupting the other students.

After those two issues are resolved, then you can start to fix weaknesses in the k-12 system.  Let me state here, our education system is as bad as the headlines claim.  The vast majority of our schools a doing a great job, but a few, mostly large urban districts, tend to put a shadow over all others.  But they all try to treat kids the same.  Probably after 8th grade, we've got to admit that little Jonny or Suzie aren't going to be a good candidate for college.  The problem isn't the kids agreeing with this, it's the parents.  Parents are many times their kids own worst enemy when it comes to education. 

I will disagree with Brant on minimum stands issues.  In Ohio those standards are moving up.  Some of this is good, some of this isn't so good.  Also, while I agree that we've gone overboard on testing, some of this has been caused by teachers and administrators not being honest on how well their students are really doing.  The politicians are getting the message that they went overboard, and are starting to pull back on some it.  Some of it is good though.  In Ohio, last year is was required that a third grader had to be reading at a third grade level before they could move on to 4th grade.  While this may sound harsh, if a student is reading at an early 3rd grade of late 2nd grade level by the end of 3rd grade, they're going to struggle going forward.  Because of this reading requirement, we've put more resources into getting students to that level.  We also started all day Kindergarten last year.  Still early to see how much that is helping, but we know the kids are getting more than double the time with teachers.

On the bad side, we're forcing our high school students to tracks to get them ready for college.  In Ohio, you have to complete algebra II to graduate high school.  Why?  I cannot explain to my son, who's in 6th grade and hates school, why he needs to know how to multiply mixed fractions.  My daughter is a freshman.  She wasn't ready to take algebra I this year, so the next three years she has to complete two levels of algebra and geometry without knowing if she'll ever get any use out of it at all when she gets out of school.  I never got through the first month of geometry in high school, but I seem to be getting by quite well without it.  Perhaps there will be parts of geometry or algebra II she'll need, but we can design classes to focus on those needs, not force them to take year long classes to keep someone employed or, better yet, allow them to use freed class time to work with the more advanced students with more advanced math, ie challenge and push them.

I think our k-12 education system does need to started as a general well rounded institution, but by the end of junior high, we should be breaking student out into college bound and career tech tracks. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

bayonetbrant

Quote from: OJsDad on March 28, 2016, 08:49:58 PMBrant mixed in k-12 and post high school education together, and while some of the issues over lap, I think they really need to be broken into separate issues. 

They totally do, but I didn't feel like writing 2 separate columns :D
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

bayonetbrant

Quote from: OJsDad on March 28, 2016, 08:49:58 PMI think our k-12 education system does need to started as a general well rounded institution, but by the end of junior high, we should be breaking student out into college bound and career tech tracks. 

The Germans do that starting around 4th or 5th grade
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

OJsDad

As for college, I had this thought reading your article Brant. 

Perhaps we need a short 2 year track for STEM field jobs.  They won't have that well rounded education (whatever that really means) when they graduated, but they may never really need it.  On the other hand, if they and or their employer decides they need a more rounded education for various career tracks, they can pick up the classes they need later, perhaps on their employers dime.

On the other hand, perhaps those on a more general education track, liberal arts, education, professional grad school tracks, should get the well rounded education from the start. 
'Here at NASA we all pee the same color.'  Al Harrison from the movie Hidden Figures.

bayonetbrant

I'm bummed no one caught onto the gag about the homework in Roman numerals.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MikeGER

Quote from: bayonetbrant on March 30, 2016, 03:25:42 PM
I'm bummed no one caught onto the gag about the homework in Roman numerals.

today ...do to the limited hit-counts of the column on the mystical frontpage "Tracer Rounds" get renamed to "The Duds"   












  ^-^

Emeraldlis

Great read Brant  O0 this one caught my eye straight away as its dealing with education . I home schooled my daughter twice during her school days , and it wasn't a decision I took lightly . The first time she was age 6-7 , the second time she was age 15-17 . 

I don't think you always have to go down the conventional education route , some kids just don't do well within the education system for various reasons . I think some kids can't handle starting school at such a young age , just emotionally they aren't always ready at age 4 to start to deal with responsibilities that they may find daunting and then their  mind just automatically switches off towards learning anyway ! Sometimes I think there would be no harm starting to educate kids at an older age , say around age 7 , which is what happens in Cyprus , and from what I've seen works better .

I have nothing against education , in fact I think it's one of the most important things we do in life , and hopefully we never stop learning throughout  our lives . But education does NOT just happen in a class room setting , and there isn't one correct way to learn or teach , everyone is unique , why should a kid get labelled stupid if they're not keeping up with a system that hasn't taken their needs into account , maybe it's the teachers lack of ability to engage that child ,that's the problem , rather than that kid not being able to learn . Or maybe that kid needs a different teaching approach to learn the same thing as the rest of their class mates . No one is beyond being educated in my opinion , but sadly , "testing" becomes the only means of segregating children into clever or dumb , and from an early age all kids deemed "stupid " are cast aside and left to stumble through school because teachers assume , oh well they aren't going to make that much of themselves anyway . And I've seen this happen in education systems and it makes me furious !

When I went through school I was picked up at quite a young age as being "bright" .....which I think just means quick to catch on to something , but my friend who's "dumb" doesn't learn as fast , and now she has to go through the whole system for years being told she's stupid !!! When all she may have needed was more time/attention and a different approach to help her learn and understand the things that I understood quicker than her .

I'm not having a go at teachers , I think some do an awesome job and genuinely care about their students, those are the ones who feel they have a vocation not just a paying job , and they are the ones we remember , the ones who got excited with us whenever we made progress , and celebrated our successes with us , the ones who held our hands through the journey and cared about us beyond the walls of a class room . They are the unsung heroes of education , and they deserve a system that works just as much as students do :)

This is a complex subject I realise , but those are some of my thoughts :)
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm " winston Churchill 😉
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune , or to take arms against a sea of trouble ,and by opposing end them "  hamlet  🎭

A bad hobbit is hard to break - Staggerwing
Booooo!!!!! Repeat !!!!!!!   - MetalDog

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers