As we grew up we didn’t hear the word “offend”. We knew if we did something bad we would be punished for it, without using the excuse “I didn’t know any better”. Everyone is afraid of getting sued today. Do this or say this to me and “I’ll sue you”. Give me a break. Political correctness is killing things so much you are afraid to have a label attached to you.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Education got destroyed by John Dewy and his marxist disciples. The system had not yet descended into moral relativism in the '50s. Remember, ‘shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations’.
The youngsters are all screwed. ;)[/quote]
You’re right Headhunter, that John Dewy was a real fuck-up!
[quote]duke6j wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Education got destroyed by John Dewy and his marxist disciples. The system had not yet descended into moral relativism in the '50s. Remember, ‘shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations’.
The youngsters are all screwed. 
You’re right Headhunter, that John Dewy was a real fuck-up!
[/quote]
I just re-read my post and am ashamed with all the spelling errors…wow! Minus points for me!
Seriously, if you look at how the man changed education from fact-based learning to ‘Let’s make Johnny feel valued’, that’s when we went in the toilet. The Koreans, Taiwanese, and so forth, laugh at us.
I hope this doesn’t get too off topic, but here’s something that just doesn’t settle right with me.
Back in the days before the 50’s, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The next day young men were volunteering for the military all over the country. There were stories of people committing suicide if they were rejected from the service!! A few years later, our country was still fully committed to beating back the aggressors, and I’ve never seen one report on war protests from that era. People understood the cost and sacrifice it took to do the right thing against nearly impossible odds.
Fast forward 60 years. Terrorists from the middle east attack the Twin Towers and the Pentagon with four planes. For the next little while military recruiting is up. A few years later, our country is barely committed and all I ever hear about is war protests.
Although I understand there are plenty of differences between the two wars, there are many things fundamentally the same. So help me, as much as I’ve tried to sort this out, I DON’T UNDERSTAND how our nation can be SO DIFFERENT!!
In this respect, it depresses me to know how far our country has come in just a couple generations.
Yo Momma, I wasn’t born in the 50s (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but I was raised pretty much the same way–although I didn’t grow up in the US.
One of the things that has changed the most is the over-sheltering of children nowadays. As most have pointed out here, all of us would get in trouble with our parents if there were problems at school; if a kid was picking on me, my dad would tell me to defend myself, he wouldn’t sue the school; etc, etc.
Another thing that I laugh about now is the germ phobia peoople seem to have. I don’t understand this, it’s the adults that grew up without the phobia, yet turned out healthy and fine, that now buy anti-germ everything so their babies won’t die.
C’mon! Babies and kids need exposure to dirt, germs and microbes so they can build a strong immune system. If I ever have kids, I’m going to have them eating dirt and worms from day 1.
[quote]awesomepossom wrote:
I hope this doesn’t get too off topic, but here’s something that just doesn’t settle right with me.
Back in the days before the 50’s, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The next day young men were volunteering for the military all over the country. There were stories of people committing suicide if they were rejected from the service!! A few years later, our country was still fully committed to beating back the aggressors, and I’ve never seen one report on war protests from that era. People understood the cost and sacrifice it took to do the right thing against nearly impossible odds.
Fast forward 60 years. Terrorists from the middle east attack the Twin Towers and the Pentagon with four planes. For the next little while military recruiting is up. A few years later, our country is barely committed and all I ever hear about is war protests.
Although I understand there are plenty of differences between the two wars, there are many things fundamentally the same. So help me, as much as I’ve tried to sort this out, I DON’T UNDERSTAND how our nation can be SO DIFFERENT!!
In this respect, it depresses me to know how far our country has come in just a couple generations.[/quote]
You can’t be serious. There is a rather large difference between a COUNTRY declaring war on us and some random lunatics from random countries declaring war on us. That isn’t exactly a small difference. Should we just drop a bomb on the entire “Middle East” and get it over with?
[quote]zdrax wrote:
Actually I was born in the 80s and my childhood was pretty much just that.
I think it all just depends on the parents. [/quote]
Amen. I was born in '79 and had a similar childhood.
Liberalism and political correctness ruined it. Not individual parents, but systems. Most notably the schools. They don’t teach, they indoctrinate kids to a socio-political ideology. That what f*cked things up.
bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Funny thread.
Every generation thinks they had it a lot tougher than the previous one. My father used to have to walk 20 miles to school, in the snow, both ways . . . UPHILL.
Truth is, the challenges change. There have always been tough guys and there always will.
Richard (b.1957)
[quote]Professor X wrote:
You can’t be serious. There is a rather large difference between a COUNTRY declaring war on us and some random lunatics from random countries declaring war on us. That isn’t exactly a small difference. Should we just drop a bomb on the entire “Middle East” and get it over with?[/quote]
I said there were plenty of differences in the two wars. Thanks for pointing out one. Back then “Japan” assaulted us and today a people group “Al Quaida” assaulted us. Fundamentally an attack, yet tactically different.
Now you can’t be serious. I don’t think we “just dropped a bomb on the entire ‘European Theater’” in WWII.
And finally, my comments were more about our nation’s collective attitude to the “war problem” (for lack of a much better term) during WWII versus today.
Believe me, I’m not in love with the “war against terror” and I think objectives were much more clear cut during WWII, but some of the things that justified WWII are/were happening in the current war. So why was the country so different then than it is now?
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
On Tuesdays and Fridays, I now end each class with pushups. We count in a different language (Korean in Aug/Sept) so its leaning also. I have to start with 10 for a while, since many of the kids are in PATHETIC shape. I may get fired for doing this but, gd it, someone’s got to turn this around, for our kids.
[/quote]
That made my heart swell!
If I had had a teacher as creative and as interested as you I would have actually paid attention and would have not rejected the school system.
Needless to say I agree with the above poster who mentioned not being taught but being indoctrinated. I experienced the system as self-serving.
As HeadHunter alluded to, he may get fired for actually serving the kids.
[quote]awesomepossom wrote:
Professor X wrote:
You can’t be serious. There is a rather large difference between a COUNTRY declaring war on us and some random lunatics from random countries declaring war on us. That isn’t exactly a small difference. Should we just drop a bomb on the entire “Middle East” and get it over with?
I said there were plenty of differences in the two wars. Thanks for pointing out one. Back then “Japan” assaulted us and today a people group “Al Quaida” assaulted us. Fundamentally an attack, yet tactically different.
Now you can’t be serious. I don’t think we “just dropped a bomb on the entire ‘European Theater’” in WWII.
And finally, my comments were more about our nation’s collective attitude to the “war problem” (for lack of a much better term) during WWII versus today.
Believe me, I’m not in love with the “war against terror” and I think objectives were much more clear cut during WWII, but some of the things that justified WWII are/were happening in the current war. So why was the country so different then than it is now?[/quote]
I think the difference in attitude is as simple as past threats being seen as either single entities or embodiments of “evil”. It was easy to propogandize and promote a simple idea…“those people” hate us and want us dead. There is no singular entity this time. There is no one “whole” of evil.
It is almost the same reason no one seems to really be that afraid of AIDs even though it can kill you. The faces of it happen to be spread out right in front us so there is no “they” to immediately avoid. If you can put a singular face on an enemy, it makes it easier to gain support to fight that threat. If that enemy is spread across the globe, exactly how to you build up the desire to fight…everyone? That could lead us to the Patriot Act but I doubt anyone wants this thread hijacked like that.
[quote]Alpha F wrote:
Thanks for the kind words, AF. Our goal is 20 by next May. I think many here would be shocked to see how out of shape our children are. 10 was actually a Herculean task for a couple.
On an inspirational note: One young lady, now a senior, is in my Calc class and she is an athlete! She thinks we should go right to 20 and add 1 per week until the end of the year (means we’d be doing 55 by then). That might be out of reach for some of these kids. 
That made my heart swell!
If I had had a teacher as creative and as interested as you I would have actually paid attention and would have not rejected the school system.
Needless to say I agree with the above poster who mentioned not being taught but being indoctrinated. I experienced the system as self-serving.
As HeadHunter alluded to, he may get fired for actually serving the kids.
[/quote]
[quote]Professor X wrote:
It is almost the same reason no one seems to really be that afraid of AIDs even though it can kill you. The faces of it happen to be spread out right in front us so there is no “they” to immediately avoid. If you can put a singular face on an enemy, it makes it easier to gain support to fight that threat. If that enemy is spread across the globe, exactly how to you build up the desire to fight…everyone? That could lead us to the Patriot Act but I doubt anyone wants this thread hijacked like that.[/quote]
Could the enemy be the advancement of scientific knowledge and technology without the advancement in social-ideology which has led to the creation of “this system” of things we live in since the 50’s where we have misused our freedom to the detriment of others?
Spreading of AIDS x Sexual Freedom without accountability ?
Terror x Harnessing powerful weapons for mass destruction ?
What has been the role “the system” has played since the 50’s in handling a generation that, as pointed out in the original post, has produced so much innovation?
Innovation is not bad in itself. Degradation is not in itself a corollary of innovation.
Innovation x Degradation
Who really is the enemy?
[quote]Alpha F wrote:
If I had had a teacher as creative and as interested as you I would have actually paid attention and would have not rejected the school system.
Needless to say I agree with the above poster who mentioned not being taught but being indoctrinated. I experienced the system as self-serving.
As HeadHunter alluded to, he may get fired for actually serving the kids.
[/quote]
Can you give an example of a human-maid system or organisation, that isn’t self-serving?
[quote]karva wrote:
Alpha F wrote:
If I had had a teacher as creative and as interested as you I would have actually paid attention and would have not rejected the school system.
Needless to say I agree with the above poster who mentioned not being taught but being indoctrinated. I experienced the system as self-serving.
As HeadHunter alluded to, he may get fired for actually serving the kids.
Can you give an example of a human-maid system or organisation, that isn’t self-serving?[/quote]
No.
If I could I would be a part of it.
I respect the system we are under and I rise above it by seeing it for what it is.
As it stands I travel solo. In that way I expect nothing from my goverment and I only have myself to blame.
[quote]Alpha F wrote:
Could the enemy be the advancement of scientific knowledge and technology without the advancement in social-ideology which has led to the creation of “this system” of things we live in since the 50’s where we have misused our freedom to the detriment of others?
[/quote]
Scientific advancement is a tool to better utilize and understand the world around us. In the hands of a sloth or an idiot, it either becomes a weapon or gains the ability to actually make us weaker. Cars aren’t bad. It isn’t a vehicle’s fault that entire families don’t even walk ANYWHERE anymore. TV’s aren’t bad.
I haven’t watched cable programming in weeks because I just fell out of habit. That means my tv is as good as its technology. Because it exists doesn’t mean I have to use it until I become a couch potato.
To blame technology, science, political stance or even religion for why we become weaker is to continue to act in ways that define the true problem…the inability to take personal responsibility for your actions and the results of them.
No one is 500lbs because someone made them that way. Even with metabolic disorders you can prevent that much weight gain. People are glued to their beds because they did it to themselves. I actually used to feel sorry for some of them until I recently realized just how many seem to actually use fatness as a sexual fetish.
Kids aren’t growing up without personal responsibility because of their school or their teacher. The freaking parents are supposed to be the ones in control. If you keep awarding Johnny for every fart, he will grow to think he is entitled to pay for farts.
That is why skinny fuckers post their pics here and get pissed when praise isn’t thrown at them like rice at a wedding.
Don’t blame Conservatives, don’t blame Liberals. Don’t blame your underpaid kid’s teacher, don’t blame the bully at school
Blame yourselves. Fat? Diet. Stupid? Get an education. Poor? Get a job. Ugly? Shit, there are thousands just like you. Find a match.
Back to the original topic, this forum gives me hope. There are still people from every generation who do a lot more with their spare time than sit in front of the TV with a can of soda in heir hand. Or spend Saturday morning at their computer posting on the internet.
[quote]oaxaca joe wrote:
Back to the original topic, this forum gives me hope. There are still people from every generation who do a lot more with their spare time than sit in front of the TV with a can of soda in heir hand. Or spend Saturday morning at their computer posting on the internet.[/quote]
The conversation didn’t go off topic it just went into depth.
[quote]Alpha F wrote:
karva wrote:
Alpha F wrote:
If I had had a teacher as creative and as interested as you I would have actually paid attention and would have not rejected the school system.
Needless to say I agree with the above poster who mentioned not being taught but being indoctrinated. I experienced the system as self-serving.
As HeadHunter alluded to, he may get fired for actually serving the kids.
Can you give an example of a human-maid system or organisation, that isn’t self-serving?
No.
If I could I would be a part of it.
I respect the system we are under and I rise above it by seeing it for what it is.
As it stands I travel solo. In that way I expect nothing from my goverment and I only have myself to blame.
[/quote]
This is one of, if not THE, most moral statements I’ve ever read on here. An Alpha person stands entirely upon their own judgment and mind. They take responsibility and initiative. They know that their personal integrity is priceless.
AF, your words sound almost Jeffersonian:
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of Man.”
Headhunter