<p>Dadguy, meme implantation is the best viral marketing system in the world. When you have a 19 year old confidently opining on the relative numbers of good and bad schools, you know that opinion based on repetition, amplified by squeaky wheels, is at work.
I remember high school back before all the horrible things happened which ruined it. It was boring, most of the teachers taught to a predetermined formula, and the social environment was brutally primitive. Which is to say, as far as I can tell, it was a lot like it is now. My personal opinion is that the main thing that has changed is that more parents are “little league dads” now than before - which is to say, they are all convinced that their kids are “special” and if that doesn’t seem to bear out when they’re teenagers, it must be the school’s fault.</p>
<p>From a review by Katherine Hope on amazon.com:</p>
<p>“One of the reviewers wrote that ‘…altruism is the work of Satan.’ This stuff is priceless! Who else but Annie could draw out this kind of heartfelt response? Annie is a national treasure. Only Annie, and her grand mal rhetorical theatrics, could so vividly illustrate for us all the political primativism of America. She even includes a discussion of creationism for our enjoyment (she’s for it) and an attack on that bastion of liberals: Darwinism. She strums out the full tone of every emotion-packed catch word for our knee-jerk reactionary pleasure. She assaults the castles of reason, of logic, of civility, and tears down their walls. We can only cheer, stripped of all reason, as the last bulwarks of our political traditions are obliterated. And yet, through the genius of her portrayal, she performs a most valuable service - through her audacious satire of support for the mobocracy, she effectively warns us against its excesses. Brilliant!”</p>
<p>This was my (pre-book) review of Coulter way back in March:</p>
<p>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=1879898&postcount=43[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=1879898&postcount=43</a></p>
<p>Kluge, I agree that public school was equally dull and uninspiring way back in the olden days, when I went. Truthfully though, the added mandates have only made it substantially worse. </p>
<p>PS is unquestionably more boring and routinized than it was before teachers were required to teach to a test, or before half of an education budget went to Special Ed or ELL (usually under 20% of the total number of students in a district) while the majority of the children are educated with whatever money is left…That’s what mandates have done to public education, which wasn’t the case when we went to school.</p>
<p>It isn’t just soccer moms or dads concerned about this either.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The following has been edited for intellectual consistency:
</p>
<p>The following has been edited for fuzzy math:
Thats 18 year old to you, gramps.</p>
<p>(for the record, I have lived in two countries and three states since 8th grade…attended not a few schools in the process…oh, and I read on occasion)</p>
<p>Oh, and I of course agree with driver’s post #63. Ms. Coulter is on the cutting edge of cable infotainment in her television persona, not serious conservative thought. Still, such a brouhaha as this only serves to beg the question of any individual within the “stampeding herd of individualists,” videlicet:</p>
<p>“Who’s your daddy?”</p>
<p>.</p>
<p>I am, in mini’s words, humorless on this topic.</p>
<p>Since I spent a couple of days after 9/11 with a victim’s spouse and parent, with my arms around them as they wept almost to the point of convulsions, and kept repeating “it hurts, it hurts so much”, I just fail to see the humor in Coulter’s “satire”. </p>
<p>I suggest that she sit down with one of these people face-to-face, or their children, and repeat what she wrote about them. She’s nothing more than a verbal bully. </p>
<p>So, there I am. No sense of humor at all.</p>
<p>Hayen, I can join you in the humorless crowd (despite my well developed frontal, lobe, Driver).</p>
<p>One of Coulter’s “witches” is a dear friend of mine whose husband was on AA11. To purport that any of Coulter’s hysterical rantings are funny, is nothing short of preposterous. The fact that people are defending her bigotry and hatred speaks volumes.</p>
<p>Since it “speaks volumes,” it shouldn’t be too hard to find a few examples of this supposedly robust defense of Coulter’s bigotry and hatred in this thread. Where are they?</p>
<p>The fact that several of you think her rantings (including the label of “witches”, which I mentioned earlier) are satirical is evidence.</p>
<p>In fact, Driver, you sung Coulter’s praises earlier in the thread, quoting one of your own posts.</p>
<p>I can find plenty of examples of her haterd and bigotry. Let me know if you would like me to post a few samples. Then you can tell me whether or not you find them a great form of “infotainment”.</p>
<p>Since I have exactly 4 posts (now five) in this thread it should be fairly simple for you to locate the one where I “sung Coulter’s praises.” Quote away. I had asked you to back up your assertion that I (or anyone) had done so in this thread. You really had better get that frontal lobe measured.</p>
<p>
Note: not the same as hate size.</p>
<p>
Do you, in fact, find this to be a <em>great</em> form of entertainment? No one but you, AM, has suggested it. That it is infotainment is a fact, as evinced by the ratings; to spin Minis oft repeated diatribe around, my guess is that those who in their hatred of the Madame are riveted to her naked visage are the ones driving her ratings (confessed-liberals)–much as Howard Stern claims that those who hate him drive his ratings, driven by their constant need to prove he is offensive (which he is) and quoting him to that effect, much as the liberals here seem to able to quote Ms Coulter, chapter and verse. They are, I believe, her most devoted audience.</p>
<p>Posted by Driver:</p>
<p>“I think she’s smarter, funnier, less genuinely bitter, and much thinner.”</p>
<p>So, you do think she is smart and funny. That’s singing her praises, in my book, since I wouldn’t offer such positive descriptors.</p>
<p>And in case you think I am interested in a tit for tat, I’m disengaging now.</p>
<p>You are entitled to think that Ann Coulter is bright and witty and funny.</p>
<p>I am just as entitled to think she is a close minded bigoted hate monger.</p>
<p>Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes figured this out years ago. A bombastic bravado mixed in with some conservative “truth” makes for a very lucrative broadcasting empire. Ailes was/is a brilliant businessman. Ann Coulter is just the latest - and perhaps most extreme or tasteless - example of this conservatainment programming trend. Go back and watch the old movie “Network” and think O’Reilly when Roger Beale loses his mind. I watch/listen to Rush, Ann, O’Reilly and laugh, albeit a sad laugh. They are nothing more than greedy entertainers who deliberately and cynically use conservative politics to build an audience. But this is not a new trend. Think also of Orson Wells as Hearst starting the Spanish American War to sell newspapers.</p>
<p>BTW: Faye Dunaway would have made a great Ann Coulter.</p>
<p>PS is unquestionably more boring and routinized than it was before teachers were required to teach to a test, or before half of an education budget went to Special Ed or ELL (usually under 20% of the total number of students in a district) while the majority of the children are educated with whatever money is left…That’s what mandates have done to public education, which wasn’t the case when we went to school.</p>
<p>Then it is up to the community to demand and support more
My school days in the Lake Washington school district, were classes out of a text book and the quiz at the end of each chapter.
My daughter had gone to Hawaii to do field research- to Washington DC and NYC to see where history was made with her own eyes as well as rigourous and relevant assignments closer to home.
Its true that districts did not feel obligated to teach children who fell out side the narrowly confined dictates of the norm- what happened to those kids? If they were like myself- they dropped out of school- feeling like their learning challenges were their fault and are still trying to find their place in life.
Money that goes to special education students is earmarked for them. IT is legally required to supply the services they need to get a basic education.</p>
<p>BUt if the school where I was on teh budget committee was any indication- that federal and state money goes * first* to the school budget- with the principal rationalizing that they will benefit from anything that benefits the endite school, so back up your statements with more than unsubstansiated comments please.</p>
<p>Learning challenges are a reality, but school systems are funding out of district placements at the tune of $100K a year, while the rest of the kids are scrambling for pencil or paper $$. </p>
<p>OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not toooooo much of one.</p>
<p>These views aren’t unsubstantiated…at least in my state. Can’t speak for every other one, however.</p>
<p>AllMusic said:
Well, you have a very thin book, then. I also said of Coulter:</p>
<p>that she has an “obnoxious brat/Cruella DeVille persona”
that she is “basically doing schtick.”
that she has “placed herself outside the realm of the serious”
that “Her exchanges with students when she speaks on campus are a case of dropping to their level of poor form”
that “she is basically spoiling for a pie-fight”
that “she chooses outrageous petulance”
that she is “not likely to have lasting effect”</p>
<p>The comparison to Franken was also not meant as a compliment.
If you think that’s singing someone’s praises, then it’s time to turn in your plastic-laminated Mensa membership card.</p>
<p>“What happened to those kids? If they were like myself, they dropped out of school.”</p>
<p>They still are. From yesterday’s CS Monitor:</p>
<p>"Spring is a time of pride and joy for families of the 3 million high school students who will graduate American high schools this year. As a nation, however, this number should embarrass us. That is because nearly 1/3 of students who began as freshman 4 years ago dropped out of high school and will not receive traditional diplomas.</p>
<p>The situation in our urban districts is bleaker still. Accordng to a Manhattan Institute analysis of government data from 2003, at least 40% of students failed to graduate from the nation’s 10 largest public districts. Results are even more distressing for minority students, especially boys. Less than 1/2 of black and Hispanic males will earn a high school diploma at the current graduation rate."</p>
<p>oh I know the numbers are awful
They are even worse than that I suspect because our state ( district?) doesn’t count a student as a dropout unless they call up the school and tell them they are dropping.
ya right
so those that drop out before they even get to high school aren’t even tracked-
I agree that we don’t do a good job educating the next generation-
personally- I unlike many liberals would advocate for charter schools-
I think communities including parents and teachers should have more control over their local offerings</p>