sundries

[rm]

Last night Patty and I had a lovely dinner at the outdoor restaurant on the West Side. We haven't really formulated specific/definite weekend plans yet, but we have a lot of ideas. Movies? Boats? Hiding out at home which we would like to do more of while awake? (we're both somewhat inexplicably exhausted, but we think the heat is making us sleep less well).

The first of the kidney stone related medical bills as arrived. Over $500 for the ambulance, which is less than I suspected. Apparently I just have to sign some stuff and they will send it to my insurance company, although I'm highly doubtful about how much of this the insurance company is going to pay (although since it was called in for by a doctor at the urgent care I was at, that may help, but there are deductable issues too). Sigh.

The Art of Manliness is, as recently noted, often evil, but they have an installment in their continuing series on wardrobe and its care today.

Lt. Dan Choi was discharged yesterday under DADT.

The ranking of US residents ages 25 - 34 with college degrees has dropped to 12th of 36 developed nations. People are freaking out about the future of US competitiveness. I'm wondering what college degrees matter when they increasingly seem to teach things that should have been learned in high school, or earlier. Luckily, everyone's general sense is that it's all of US education, from K on up, that needs to be improved. Too bad about Texas and those textbooks then, huh?

Despite a long-standing Supreme Court ruling that immigration status/violations cannot be used to deny a child access to our public schools, 1 in 5 school districts in New York are effectively doing just that.

The rooftop bars of Manhattan: more challenging than you'd think.

There's going to be another benefit for Kimlee and her husband Chris this weekend. Chris recently suffered a traumatic brain injury, and the expenses are adding up.

Thanks to the near unending linkage to the SDCC WBC counter-protest, most of the ads on my LJ today about how many college credits you need for ordination from this or that religion-focused educational entity.

Comments

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering what college degrees matter when they increasingly seem to teach things that should have been learned in high school, or earlier.

Yesssss. I think this every semester when my wife has to teach nearly all of her students, whether they are frosh or older students, how to write a basic essay, much less a research paper. And, of course, every semester, there are some lazyass students who think they can get away with cheating, or who claim to not know how to cite sources (despite the fact that she teaches them THAT too). Do they no longer teach the evils of plagiarism in high school? Does no one teach the 5-paragraph essay?

[rm.livejournal.com]

Granted, I went to private school, but I wrote two hour essay examinations in every subject from sixth grade on, SO I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

I went to public school, then managed to get a scholarship to a private school for my last two years, so I got the essay before getting shipped off to college. But it was a near thing.

The students BAFFLE me.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Does no one teach the 5-paragraph essay?

I went to two private schools in New York City.

One was seen as the creme de la creme of such schools, the other a lower-tiered, but still good school.

Guess which school taught that lesson, and which didn't?

Guess whose teachers didn't realize that until it was too late for me to sit in on said lessons? ::facepalm::

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear.