Comments by "upabittoolate" (@upabittoolate) on "There Is Only ONE Issue In America" video.

  1. It's not just pay. It's the fact that money isn't directed at education. That's my point. It's not a conspiracy, per se, but politicians know it's not intuitive to have a well-educated voter. An educated voter is gonna hold his representative member of gov't accountable. Politicians don't want that.
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  2. I guess what I'm trying to say is that teachers often are forced to spend their own money. The average teacher spends >$400/yr. I can attest to that personally. Also, the salary isn't competitive for the costs of licensing & continuing education credits for other careers that require equal education. ie, the best & brightest Americans are tend to gravitate toward engineering, medicine & law. Money is an issue on a larger scale than just access to material.
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  3. Again, these things cost money, my friend. What I didn't tell you about that scenario with my congresswoman is that I sent that email on my own time. I also went to her office on my own bus transfer (no driver's license). That school, incidentally, fucked me out of $1000 too. I blame poor administration but I know it's a symptom of a systemic failure. When this country is run like a profit enterprise (it shouldn't be), there are no incentives for teachers... or students. Therein lay the problem.
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  4. Palin/O'Donnell 2012: They're dumb but they're pleasant to look at.
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  5. Occupy is kinda reactionary but so was the Tea Party & they banded together & got candidates (candidates who don't care about them) into office. Academia is what it is (I hate that cliche but it's useful here). There's nothing wrong with having an intellectual basis as a point of departure... or maybe that's my inner academic talking. As for corporate interest, it's considered & applied but not considerate of the social contract.
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  6. Reading ain't your strong suit?
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  7. So how do we apply your theories? My suggestion (& practice) is grassroots & growth of candidates outside of the 1-party system which is a 2-party illusion. I still don't see any light at the end though. Perhaps I'm too cynical.
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  8. Then why are you whining?
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  9. 500 characters isn't that much to read.
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  10. No. Elected officials are employees. It's just unfortunate that politicians usually end up in elected seats. I'm not saying we can't do it. I'm just saying that it's not likely that legislation against the best interests of the politicians would be passed. So we have to figure out a better way to augment education. ie, we have to set our own bars for our own kids. Social networking, while good for certain purposes, isn't gonna do the trick either.
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  11. They do make civics a requirement. Where I went to school (just outside Chicago), we had to take the Constitution test to get into high school and to graduate high school. And you best believe that if someone isn't well-educated in math, his math is shot too. You're talking about quality & you're very correct. But brian2786 is correct too. Legislation is important. But it'll never get passed because it's not in the legislators' best interest.
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  12. I don't even think it'd take that long. If we can teach our kids to pass goals assessment tests, we can teach them to pass a citizenship test. Within that context, they can actually learn the answer. Irrespective of that fact, it's never going to happen because a smart voter is a shrewd politician's worst enemy.
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  13. You'd think that's the case in representative gov't but it's not. The last time I write my congresswoman, Diana Degette, I got her aide. I was asking for some pocket copies of the Constitution for my graduating students (I taught math & wellness at an alternative, high school). That was my little way of trying to improve education at a grassroots level. I'm not sure what the formula is, though. There's a machine that educates people to vote against their own interests while Washington sit pretty
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  14. The idiotic loser whines about comments being too long. What I did was make an observation. Truth hurts? umadbro?
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  15. Education funding has been cut all the way down to the bone. Therein lay a major problem.
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