Cursive writing revisited

It has been a while since I originally posted my observations concerning the time spent in elementary school learning to write in cursive, and I have to say, regardless of what Mr. Anonymous fifth grade teacher had to say, I still don't see the point. Yes, I understand the reasoning... it teaches fine muscle motor skills, or some such thing as that. There could be a million reasons for teaching it, but is that what really happens? Not in my experience.

As I've said in the past, I am a guardian for two, now, ninth grade kids. They have never actually learned to write in cursive, although they spent a lot of time in class learning to write in cursive. They were told that whatever work they turned in was supposed to be written in cursive, but that was never enforced by the teachers. These kids only complained about how their hands whenever they had to do school work, because they believed, and rightfully so (in school), that complaining would end up meaning less work for them. It really had nothing to do with how hard it was to write in cursive, or how much they actually had written. I've heard similar complaints about headaches... anything that requires thought gives kids a headache, apparently. In the end, all the pain simply vanishes when the work is done, or when the teacher says they've worked hard enough for today.

So, yeah, in my most humble opinion, I believe that kids these days are playing their teachers. I don't know how that will turn out later in life... perhaps they will have learned the skills to play all of the people in positions of authority... but, perhaps not. I just think it's foolish to not acknowledge that that is what is really happening in schools now. It really is a case of the inmates running the asylum.

Headlines

The headline reads: "Study finds no link between brain tumors, cell phones," but that's not what the story says, exactly. Reading a little further, the story appears to be saying "Study finds no link between a particular type of brain tumor and cell phone use." The story goes even further then to say that this particular type of tumor may take decades to develop, and there aren't many people who have used cell phones for decades. So, in the end, what the headline REALLY should say is "Study finds nothing conclusive."

Here's a link, in case you're interested.

I think I've Got It!

For the last four years, I've been told countless times by HR people that I wouldn't fit in very well in their organization, or at least not as well as someone else. It has taken as many years for me to understand exactly what that means.

You see, I actually believe that I am unique, and that given the opportunity, I can make real and positive changes wherever I work. Sadly, though, nobody wants that. Change is bad. It makes us uncomfortable because suddenly, we don't really know what to expect tomorrow, and we would much rather know that tomorrow is going to bring the same mediocre outcomes and yesterday. But we know that we need to strive for improvement, so we convince ourselves that we are making real changes by calling things by different names, but nothing is fundamentally different; and therefore, it's comfortable.

It's sad, really. It means that we are so afraid of failure that there is no real innovation taking place, even as it appears there is, since everything is called by a new name, or changed the packaging, or made some other cosmetic alteration to the same thing. I guess these days, we do judge a book by its cover.