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American Educational System Part II of IV
I'm afraid. We had a very diverse class of students. I went to school in North Hollywood, which, as you might suspect from its name, actually had actors' kids attending. There were a couple of interesting students in my classes now and then. Nobody you'd be likely to know of, but your parents may have seen a couple of their parents in a movie or TV show now and again. And we did have some kids on campus who were kind of dangerous. We had some gang-bangers, some druggies, and some people who just didn't know how to be civilized. We had fights from time to time, but I only ever saw fist fights. I guess they were very careful to do all of the really heavy stuff off campus. I mean, if you're wondering how many Columbines we've got in our country, the answer is probably no more than you've heard about. Naturally, when it happens, it gets a lot of publicity. Of course, once is way too many, and I can think of three off of the top of my head. But it's not something that's happening every day, or happening in every school. Airplane crashes happen far more frequently. Lightening strikes a whole lot more often.
As far as the gang-banger stuff, I heard a few stories, but I never knew if they were true or not. We did have drugs on campus. I saw marijuana, amphetamines, barbiturates, sometimes psychedelic mushrooms. That last, I saw off campus, not on campus. My Jr. and Sr. years, I got in with a crowd that wasn't really the best for me. Not gang-bangers or anything, just a lot more interested in sex and drugs than in studying for exams.
I actually know very little about sports, not having participated much. But I do know that sports programs are a very important investment for schools. A solid sports program means students can get athletic scholarships and get into college, and a huge part of a school's reputation is based on the percentage of its graduates who go to college afterwards, as well as on which schools their graduates are getting into. As a result, sports programs will often get money that really needs to go to computer equipment, to sports programs for women (they never get nearly as much support as the men's sports programs do, and of course, programs like U.S. football and basketball always have far better funding than programs like fencing or volleyball, which are less popular among the public. So there is a lot of political baloney around HS sports programs.
Continued: See Part III of IV
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Language pair: English; English
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Mark S.
April 11, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: April 11, 2005
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American Educational System Part I of IV
Schools. Wow, there's a big subject I could talk about for days. My state of California is an interesting case, because when I was growing up, we had among the finest public schools in the country. In the 70's, when I was in Junior High school, (The Los Angeles School system has a special school for grades 7-9 which we call Jr. High. Other districts have "middle Schools," which work a little differently – I'm not sure which grades – Perhaps our friend Toni from Rhode Island was in a Middle School and can tell us.) there was a taxpayer's rebellion, and the "Jarvis-Gann" amendment was added to our state constitution. This measure drastically cut property taxes and limited the legislature's ability to raise property taxes without the voter's approval by referendum. This was the beginning of my career as a political activist. At fifteen years old, I was going door-to-door begging people to save my education and vote down Proposition thirteen. But the initiative passed, and the state budget for public services was cut by more than half. And guess what? The California schools have gone from number one in the country to number 46. This makes me crazy. It makes me wonder if Democracy is such a good idea. If there were anything on the planet that worked better….
So my brother, thirteen years younger than I, really got ripped off. Charley is this amazing, bright, personable kid. He had his earlier education in Houston TX, which was pretty terrible, I understand. Then, when he was in Middle School, he and our Mom moved back here to California, and he finished his education in the San Francisco Bay area.
In TX, Charley had gotten some attention from his teachers about being very good at math. This so shamed him before his classmates and embarrassed him that he resolved never again to let a teacher know that he was smart.
When he got to California, he was sorted into a curriculum designed for students who will grow up to be laborers. When he graduated from high school, he had only the most rudimentary skills in math and language. I was just appalled.
As to most of your questions, my information is dated. But as a general rule it is safe to assume that my experience was generally a lot better than what students see in the same schools today.
I was an honor student, so I was sorted into the College track, and I took a lot of very interesting classes, such as Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Drama, Computer science, and so on. I was fortunate, in Jr. High, to be able to take Spanish for two years, and that was an invaluable experience I'm convinced every student should be offered. I took seven courses per day, each "hour"' lasting about 50 minutes. We had a fifteen minute recess and a half hour for lunch, so the school day worked out to be about eight hours.
Continued: See Part II of IV
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Language pair: English; English
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Mark S.
April 11, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: April 11, 2005
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Re:The election of a new Pope.
I read of the process in a novel by Dan Brown, Angels and Demons. It was the same guy who wrote the DaVinci code, and this is his earlier book.
The college of Cardinals get together and they discuss the matter. Nobody is allowed to enter or leave the chamber until the process is complete. The Cardinal who presides over this election is the Dean of the College of Cardinals.
When they are ready to vote, each Cardinal writes his vote down on a special piece of paper.
The Dean carefully counts up all of the votes. If the votes are so split that there is no 2/3 majority, the papers are all burned in the fireplace, and black smoke coming out of the chimnney tells everyone watching from outside that a vote has been taken, but no candidate has been selected. When one candidate has a 2/3 of the votes, I forget what it is that changes, but the dean burns the papers and the smoke comes out white and everyone knows that a pope has been chosen.
Of course, this is all from a work of fiction. Dan Brown has a reputation for doing outstanding research, so I expect he's fairly close to the mark. But it wasn't recently that I read this. I look forward to hearing what somebody Catholic who knows what their talking about would have to say.
Mark
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Language pair: French; English
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Mark S.
April 10, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Re:rainbow
Hi Toni
I thought at American Indians, but in general, I like to know about much people/cultures as possible :)
So, if you are a Gold Member you could contact me if you like and we could talk.
Maybe you would like writing/reading in German?
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Language pair: German; All
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Regen b.
April 8, 2005
# Msgs: 5
Latest: July 5, 2005
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Re:Someone to teach me Italian
Have you spoken to your Navy recuiter? There is no way to beat the language training you'll get once you get in. Six months, total immersion; you'll be speaking German or Italian 24/7. I had a number of friends when I was in the Air Force who had been through the Defense Language Institute, and these people were fluent. When I was taking Chinese, I went up against DLI students in the annual speech competition, and there just wasn't any touching them.
Of course, the down side is, The Navy will tell you what language they want you to learn. Even if you go in speaking solid German, they may decide that what they want you to know is, who knows, Korean or Arabic. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but if it isn't what you want to learn to speak, it isn't what you want to learn to speak.
Good luck!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
Reply to message # 49253
Someone to teach me Italian Toni
Hey! I want to join the Navy as a German and Italian translator, so obviously I need to learn German and Italian :P I know some, so if anyone wants to write to me in both Italian and English so I can learn, and also teach me new words, etc, please e-mail me! I am NOT a Gold Member!!
*I am interested in ALL cultures...so if you want to share your culture and language, that's fine!*
~*Toni*~
Language pair: English; Italian
Category: Culture/History/Ethnology
Post date: April 7, 2005
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Language pair: English; Italian
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Mark S.
April 8, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:I need help to learn Arabic
Great to Hear from you, but indeed I am normal user too, I hope you can find any way to communicate.
Ismail from Palestine.
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Language pair: English; All
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Ismail A.
April 5, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Looking for ppl interested in Georgian culture and language
GAMARJOBA EKATERINE.
me var dato sakartveloda. sheni mesigi tsavikitxe ak.amerikashi vapireb chamosvlas 4 tvit, worck&travel programit. didi siamovnebit dagexmarebodi kartulis stsavlebashi shens skolashi.
tu shedzleb gamomexmaure. rustavels kargad vicnob metviton da martali gitxra koveldge vpikrob masze.
gmadlob.
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Language pair: Georgian; Georgian
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georg t.
March 31, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:The American dream! 3 of 3
(Part 3 0f 3)
I’m afraid I’m not nearly as fluent in visual art as I am in literature, but names that stand out in my mind are Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, C.M. Russell, Georgia O’Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Man Ray, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, and Norman Rockwell. I should mention also, our famous Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who had such a huge impact culturally, that he even appears in a famous song by Paul Simon.
Although learn alot about your great cultural figures here in the U.S. I hope you will share with us anyway. It is often surprising to learn how different a country appears from the outside than from the inside. For example, yourJacque Derrida was revolutionary for us, and yet I was shocked to learn that your universities don’t talk about him very much as all.
Thank you for your very interesting topic.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
(Fin)
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
March 24, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: March 24, 2005
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Re:The American dream! 2 of 3
(Part 2 0f 3)
It’s funny, speaking of presidents, that JFK has always been seen as one of our greats. He was fiery and dynamic and had incredible charisma. And while he pulled a great miracle out of his hat during the Cuban Missile crisis, he also laid an egg at the Bay of Pigs. The great tragedy of Kennedy was that he was murdered before he could accomplish his great vision, most of which was finally brought to fruition by his vice president and successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. It was Johnson who established “the Great Society” programs to combat poverty, and who ushered in the age of civil rights in our country. And yet Johnson is rarely remembered as a noteworthy president.
It took us a while to establish our own literary flavor beyond the shadow of the great canon of British Literature. Scholars called the period of Emerson, Whitman, Dickenson, and Thoreau the “American Renaissance,” which I always found Ironic, because it was really more an American Naissance than a Renaissance. We weren’t reborn, we were born. Of course, there is a new great wave of literature between the world wars as the American Expatriates, mostly writing in Paris developed the body of literature we often call the literature of “The Lost Generation” These writers include T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner (who never made it to Paris, but was firmly in the tradition), Archibald MacLeish, and Ernest Hemingway.
Most respected American Authors in the modern age include Saul Bellow, Don Delillo, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, John Updike, Joseph Heller, Marilynn Robinson, And David Lodge.
Of course, I can’t leave out names like Washington Irving, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Ambrose Bierce, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglas, Alex Haley, Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen—And these are just people we hear about in the University. Many of them were discovered after the fact. There work was overlooked as the result of prejudices of the time, and only after we overcame our preconceptions were we able to read their work more objectively, and recognize their value. Kat Chopin is an excellent example of this. She wrote in the nineteenth century and was added to the literary canon only within the last twenty years. There’s no telling who might be recognized later on as our thinking continues to broaden.
(Continued once more)
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
March 24, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: March 24, 2005
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Re:The American dream!
¡Hola Arnaud! ¿Cómo estas?
I agree with most of what everyone is saying about the American Dream. One thing I would add, though, which I think is essential, and which perhaps you may understand, being a Frenchman, is that we should remember the context in which America emerged as a nation. We declared independence from a country where success was determined by having had the good sense to be born into the right family. So when we speak of the American Dream in terms of being able to earn success by honest effort and perseverance, this is against the backdrop of other countries where people are born either into or out of such lifestyles, and their birth determined their destinies. America was the first (and thankfully not the only) country to institute social mobility as a fundamental value, so we can have a guy like Bill Clinton, who grew up in a poor family raised by a single mother, but who nonetheless was able to rise to be President of the United States. This could never have happened for one of the old Kings of England or of France. So the American Dream is a little more than just being able to earn your dreams by the sweat of your brow—it’s having a place to live where your dreams will never be forbidden to you because you were born to the wrong social class.
The American Bald Eagle won the right to represent our nation in a pitched battle in Congress against the Turkey, who had held the place of honor at Thanksgiving, our first national holiday.
Some other great national symbols include the famous Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, a gift to us from your own country, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and the Arch of St. Louis, the Gateway to the West. The Arch marks the point of departure that settlers often used for setting off for California in search of Gold and good fortune. And of course, there’s Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Oddly, most of us, try as we might, can only remember three of the four presidents whose faces were carved into this mountainside: George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln are easy—they are our two greatest presidents by far. The rest of us can usually only remember one or the other of the remaining two, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. I always thought Teddy’s cousin Franklin Delano was a far more impressive president than his predecessor, but FDR was elected in 1933, and Mt. Rushmore was designed to represent our first 150 years of history: 1776 – 1926. Missed it by just a smidge. They should have just stuck him in on general principle.
(To be continued...)
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
March 24, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: March 24, 2005
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