What if we give up on Critical Thinkers?

I am really dismayed to hear people talk, especially
teachers about the government program "No Kids Left
Behind". In our state we have the SOL's that every
student must pass in order to move ahead one grade.
The students today are ruling the roost as they
used to say, and teachers have to work really hard
to teach them and to keep them in line. That is
another blog all together.
Critical Thinking.
If we don't start back to teaching the students
critical thinking, how is this future generation
going to be able to make decisions, and how are they
ever going to be able to run the country?
Most kids that I meet want instant gratification,
have shallow values, and are looking for quick fixes
on everything.
By learning to learn in order to pass the SOL's is
not leaving the teachers any time to teach intellectual
traits, standards or abilities at any time. The students
themselves are self educating themselves at home in
front of the TV or through friends, and trying to
decide how to make sense of the world through the media.
They need to become more intellectually fit.
A well educated person is able to reason quite directly
and deliberately.
We must develop students who reason through what
they are learning so as to grasp the logic of their
reasoning, students who know clearly the difference
between coming to terms with the logic of something
or merely rotely memorizing it.
This is what we are teaching them by remembering
the answer for the test instead of developing
their own thought on how they came up with the answer.
Teachers need to design instructions so that students
take command of the logic of their own thinking while
they are thinking and through that insightful grasp,
they can improve it.
How can we teach our students to begin to recognize
the inferences they are making, the assumptions
they are basing these inferences on, and the point
of view, and the perspective on the world that they
are beginning to form or inherit?
How can we help students to recognize how they are
reasoning about the world?
They need to gain command over their thinking.
They need to build intellectual muscle to overcome
inherent self deceptive tendencies.
They need to cut through the propaganda and learn to
think for themselves.

You can take a simple inference and look at it several ways.
The kids today take the most logical route, what they have
heard or seen and do not tend to think of the different
inferences.

For example:

Situation: A man is sitting on the side of the road
Assumption: only lazy people sit on the side of the road
Inference: That man is lazy.

Situation : A man is sitting on the side of the road
Assumption : anyone sitting on the side of the road could
be in trouble.
Inference : that man may need help.

These are simple. But the students today are given mostly
questions of multiple choice and they are to choose the
most logical answer. This is simple enough but does not
teach them critical thinking about the other possibilities.
Critical Thinking is important to their future and the
world's future. We need a generation of quality thinkers
who think for themselves and make the right decisions
based on clear and perceptive thinking. It just doesn't
seem to me that the kids today are learning this in
school. Only time will prove me wrong....or right.

What if we run out of water ?

Somebody had better wake up and smell the
water. We are slowly running out of water.
Does anyone understand that? We need water
to sustain ourselves. We need water to
irrigate our land to grow our food. Does
anyone understand that? There are three
countries that grow the majority of wheat
that feeds the world. China, India,and
the United States. Ask me where we are
having the largest shortage of water?
I know we need to solve the gas problem.
However, all of you people out there who
are drinking bottled water, can't seem
to put it together exactly what you are
paying for that water. At one dollar each
for a 16 ounce size of water, equates to
$4.00 a gallon. As of today, we are not
even paying that much for a gallon of
gasoline, and yet everyone complains
about the cost of gas, but no one
complains about the cost of water.
Everything I read says that it takes
four quarts of water to make one quart
of water that we buy. Another group is
telling me that most of the social
water that we are buying is coming
straight out of the tap,and companies
are putting fancy labels on them,calling
them a fancy name and charging Joe Customer
big bucks for what they get out of the tap.
If we keep this up we are destined to run
out of water in the future...unless of
course our children learn how to distill
ocean water into usable water. I have an
idea. Let's run a hose from our sink and
bathtub to the commode and recycle our
bath water for flushing. I wonder if I
can patent this idea.
Conserve the water.
We need it to grow up with and so do our
children.


Check out this link
http://www.isecureonline.com/Reports/RHB/WRHBJ316/?o=1456713&u=32434014&l=844652

Tom Bush Eulogy

Tom we shared the best of times and the worst of times.
Today is the worst of times. You have been there for me
for 45 years. Today we are here for you. You have touched
all of our lives in one way or the other. That is what
brought each of us here today. I could fill a book of 300
pages or more about the times we have shared together. I
won't do that today. But I will thank you for your love,
your inspiration, your guidance and especially for your
friendship all of these years. I am sure you know how I
feel because I told you often. I still doubt if it was
ever enough. We knew each other pretty well.
You knew when I was hurting and I knew when you
were hurting. I am hurting now. I am sure you know that.
You were always there for me and you always
showed me that you cared. It was never what
do you want? It was always how can I help?
Late night talks, two hour lunches, going to plays, the
beach at New Years, the mountains, reunion planning, so
many good times shared between two friends. I will miss
you. I will pine for you. I will call your name in the night.
You will be there for me but you won't answer. That is o.k.
I will still know that you are there. These memories will
sustain me till we meet again.
I love you Tom, my buddy.Larry Oldham 1\14\08

Footnote: Tom died 5 years after having Cancer on
January 10th, 2008.

Andrew Olmsted

Andrew Olmsted

Andrew Olmsted was killed in the Iraq War.
This was his last blog. It touched my heart
and I wanted to share it with my friends.
Larry

What if the Economy does not bounce back?

All of my retail friends are complaining about
their slow traffic and business in their stores.
When I ask them what can they do about it , they
all agree that they will just have to wait it out.
My question to them would be, what would happen
if the economy does not bouce back?
Where would we be without business? The economy
is in a negative way today. All of the no sale
situation is in a trickle down mode. Construction
is down, furniture is down, new car sales are down,
transportation is down, food cost are up , gasoline
is up, clothing is up, but business is down. If no
one is doing business and business as we know it
comes to a halt, then what becomes of our world as
we know it. Read history. The great depression of
1929 caused many castrophe's in society. Deaths,
business failures, marriage dissolution, etc.etc.
We are in that same position today. Credit card
debt, high payments, overextended debt, unhappiness
in marriage, business, and life in general.We are
headed in a dangerous direction. Someone must
stop us. Someone must find a solution. Without
answers we are heading into a precarious position
of life that none of ever dreamed of. We are
headed into a world of the unknown. We are headed
into the Time Zone of a past history that is in
danger of repeating itself. No one is going to like
it and everyone is going to be shocked at this new
quality of life or the lack of it. We have been
pampered too long and no one seems to understand
or has the foresight to rescue us. We are coming
up on a destiny of shock that we have never perceived.
There is a danger lurking on the horizon of a life
so poor, and so unforgiving that many of us will
likely go bananas. I could be wrong. The economy
could bounce back, we could pay off our credit
cards, refinance our homes, all buy new cars and
live happily ever after. But I don't think so. I
hate to play what if, but What If ?

What if we didn't celebrate St.Patrick's Day?

Today is Saint Patrick's Day all over the world.
What if we didn't celebrate? No Green Beer, No
lucky cloverleafs, no wearing green to work, and
no speaking like a little green leprechun. I don't
guess people would mind.
We have sort of got use to all the holidays that
people are telling us we should celebrate.
What about Ground Hogs Day. It is not really a
Federal Holiday that we get benefit from, except
to gleam information from the weather pro's. Or
in this case a groundhog, which by the way, gets
it right about as often as those high paid TV
commentators.
Back to St Pat. I probably have Irish friends,and
I don't want to offend them. When is Italian Day?
What day does German Day come? What about Christian
Day? I guess that could count as Christmas. I will
admit I am a little jealous of my black friends. I
mean they have a whole month. February is considered
Black History Month. Maybe March could be considered
Green History Month.
This may catch on . Instead of HOLI-DAYS why don't
we have HOLI-MONTH'S. Then we could have more days
off, celebrate the true spirit of Saint Patrick's Day
by wearing green all month, and drinking green beer
all month. I don't know about you , but it works for me.
What if?

To Be or Not to Be?

Sitting around this morning I decided
to play the what if game. This led me
to more wrestling with myself about
what would happen if I changed directions.
If I went West instead of North. If I
rode my bike instead of driving my car?
The problem though, is that I only have
one choice and if I take the safe one,
I am pretty assured of reaching one
destination. If I choose another choice
only fate can determine what would happen.
The only way I can choose both is...well
I can't choose both really. So I choose
the safe way and end up in the same drivel
that I always do. I am trying to learn to
try another route, choose another scene,
make an effort to make my world a different
world depending on my choices. I take it
one minute at a time . It is my choice.