Archive for the ‘Our declining culture’ tag
High School or Day Care?
The front page story in today’s Washington Post is about the Fairhaven School, which sounds more like a work of fiction than an actual school.
Fairhaven is a school without structure. There is no curriculum, no compulsory class attendance. Students are required to attend class at least five hours out of the day, or face a “50 cent fine.” There are no grades. Naturally, there is also no accreditation.
Reading this account, this school seems to take the approach that the best person to teach the child is the child himself. I, for one, don’t believe this to be the case. The article note that at least some of the children will eventually come to want to learn about something. However, the children are not necessarily “learning” in the practical sense of the word. How adapted will these children be to functioning generally in society, especially those children who do not want to study any mathematics because it is “too hard” or because they simply do not want to work? Will they be able to calculate a tip? Balance a checkbook? Where are the children really learning?
Goths ‘more likely to self-harm’
Cleaning up the big dogs
The Bush Administration is proposing changes to impose stricter fuel economy standards to SUVs between 8,500 and 10,000 pounds.
Are you *expletive deleted* kidding me? Five tons? Who in the world needs a vehicle that big in the first place? For comparison, my Honda Accord weighs about 2500 pounds. My in-laws pickup truck weighs somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 pounds. 10,000 pounds? To drive little Suzie and little Bobby to soccer practice (who am I kidding, little Suzie and little Bobby aren’t playing anything these days).
Let’s not forget the fact that the average consumer of these massive SUVs is probably the least qualified to operate it. Women who can barely see over the dashboard of a Ford Festiva should not be operating the largest general-use vehicle on the planet. Sure she and little Suzie are going to be safe in the event she hits someone on the road while applying her mascara, but what about the driver in that Festiva? Toast. Power mommy probably won’t notice that she’s been dragging the wreckage of that Ford until the lease on her Ford Leviathan is up, and the dealer charges her for an unauthorized modification to the vehicle.
I realize that all this is harsh, but I’m renewing my opposition to vehicles that weigh as much as the house at which they are parked. Click on the NPR link above. Look at the woman in the photo. She needs 10,000 pounds of vehicle because it’s the only one that will support her astronomical girth.
