DoubleSix Dice

Nefaro · February 03, 2016, 02:59:50 PM

Quote from: mirth on February 03, 2016, 09:33:48 AM
The current teaching methods for math are abysmal. My kids struggle with math because the questions and methods are utterly ridiculous. This shit has been going on for decades. Revamp the curriculum to use the latest whackadoo teaching methods and theories, watch it fail miserably over 5-10 years, blame it on lack of funding, scrap the whole thing and go on to the next bullshit thing. It keeps a lot of people employed, but it does little to educate students.

It's not just math right now.

There is stuff left out. For instance, they don't teach Roman numerals or how to read hands on a clock, here, anymore. That's just the tip.

Also.. English started solely being taught as visual word recognition. No phonics ("sounding" it out) or associative interpretation. I've begun seeing quite a few kids who are borderline illiterate, and teens who can't read a sentence aloud without calling at least one word something completely different. Sometimes they catch it, fairly often not, but it's obvious the curriculum has had quite a few detrimental shortcuts added since my school days.

The brain tends to recognize the overall shape of the word, rather than the specific spelling, when reading quickly. Solely teaching word recognition makes them just plug in what is the likeliest, or first, word to come to mind which is shaped similarly. It's painful to watch them read something aloud.

Doesn't lend much faith in where our public education is heading. "Dumbed down" and "cutting corners" describes it well.

mirth · February 03, 2016, 03:03:46 PM

Quote from: LongBlade on February 03, 2016, 12:14:08 PM
Quote from: mirth on February 03, 2016, 11:02:33 AM
Can you put all this into an eye-catching graph?

That is fabulous O0

BanzaiCat · February 03, 2016, 04:44:15 PM

School districts are much more worried about bad publicity and being sued than they are about quality education. That's my experience, anyway, having been married to an educator that's been in the business for almost 30 years now.

Nefaro · February 03, 2016, 05:46:50 PM

Would make me wanna draw knives & guns on my notebooks.

:))

BanzaiCat · February 03, 2016, 06:36:20 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on February 03, 2016, 05:46:50 PM
Would make me wanna draw knives & guns on my notebooks.

I shudder when I think of some of the things I wrote in my textbooks. I was an artist and loved defacing them, but not with silly things. That was far too easy, to write "KKK" or some other ridiculously offensive thing. I usually changed portraits to look like other people...I remember I made MLK look like Stevie Wonder in one book. In another, I made someone look like Phil Collins (can't remember who it was originally, offhand). I was rather proud of that. (This was long, long before this would have been something to have me expelled.) This got to a point to where word of my talents in my history books got to my senior-year history teacher, whom I recall physically checking my book page for page before giving it to me to ensure none of the portraits had "artistic impressions made to any of them." I had arrived, I guess.

Fortunately, I was never directly caught being an idiot kid, at least not in that regard. But goodness knows once in a while I drew some dumb shit too. One in particular, I just had a flashback with. It wasn't one of my more "proud" moments of defacing school books. We were studying MacBeth in 10th grade and the books had several of the woodcut pictures in them. This one in particular:

I CLEARLY remember drawing a speech bubble for the guy on the horse, with him saying, "YOUNG VARLETS...GIVETH ME A ROYAL BLOWJOB."

Whether or not I also drew a 6' cock on him too to highlight his demand for servicing the royal shaft, or perhaps just an overwhelming interest in fellatio in general, from a nebulously female trio or not, is somewhat cloudy.

I recall very clearly too that for some odd reason (probably Munchhausen Syndrome), I brought the book to my teacher's attention saying, "Look what someone drew in my book! I need a different one." She was speechless and proceeded to give the class a good lecture, because she had previously found another copy of MacBeth with swastikas written in it (and some other offensive crap, and NO, that was something she had in her desk) and used both of them to highlight her little speech. That poor woman. I remember seeing her when I was in line waiting for my degree at the ceremony and she looked 20 years older.

BanzaiCat · February 03, 2016, 06:36:51 PM

And boy oh boy, we went from 12-sided d6s to woodgrain pornographic defacings. I love Grogheads.

LongBlade · February 03, 2016, 08:50:09 PM

With a quick stop at Pie Chart Gardens!

MetalDog · February 04, 2016, 09:51:47 PM

Sorry I missed the humor, LB. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes.

bbmike · February 08, 2016, 05:41:25 PM

Back on topic...these arrived today! Very nice dice. Can't wait to try them out with either Traveller, Star Fleet Battles, Federation Space, Fleet Commander Nimitz, GURPS Prime Directive...

Nefaro · February 08, 2016, 07:27:44 PM

Quote from: bbmike on February 08, 2016, 05:41:25 PM
Back on topic...these arrived today! Very nice dice. Can't wait to try them out with either Traveller, Star Fleet Battles, Federation Space, Fleet Commander Nimitz, GURPS Prime Directive...

There are so many that use d6s.

I'm fine with big d6 dice pools, when you roll a big handful of them. They bounce around off each other pretty well. But when I roll 1d6 for some life-or-death event check... UGH!

First test will be with Silent Victory. Definitely some 1d6/2d6 life-or-death rolls there which will feel like they actually rolled my death. :)) But there are plenty more games that will get them substituted.

Goddamn OCD. ;)