@Corsair, you're not understanding my problem with this. Calling anyone a lunatic, whether it be Bush, Gates, a mod or any other user of these forums, and saying opinionated mischaracterizations that they're out destroy thw world with obvious application to real events and political matters is "bashing" in nature.

From the FAQ of Lancers Reactor:

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Certain topics are not allowed, for example we have a policy that we will not allow topics on politics, religion or race. Further more any postings who are "bashing" in nature, might it be "I hate Microsoft", "I hate (some country here)" and the like will be instantly deleted.

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It's not just that I disagree with you, it's that I am not allowed to respond nor assert any political claim of my own. I am abiding by the rules, as you should be doing too.

Sir S

Edited by - Sir Spectre on 5/22/2004 12:50:31 AM

OK sS, let's just put this behind us.

A good debate-
Is Karl Marx Santa Claus?


EDIT- was my picture too big? Ah well... here's a small one.
I think the evidence speaks for itself.

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Edited by - ~Corsair#01~ on 5/22/2004 5:09:32 AM

How about discussing the decline of literacy rates in wealthy countries, and the reasons and consequences thereof?

Well, immigration (both illegal and legal) from non English speaking countries is probably the main cause.

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Corsair - Immigration? That's the main cause of the decline of literacy? Bah! That's nonsense; the proportions are too big, and the number of countries suffering from this are too diverse for that to be the case.

-and stop being so political! *Starts polishing thwacking stick*.

Edited by - esquilax on 5/22/2004 6:02:55 AM

literacy rates could very well be due to the rise in games, wether PC, X-Box, ect, the TV, ect that distract from sitting down and reading. Schools not putting enough emphases on reading and its importance, nor parents that are busy with work, ect, to encourage more reading and less TV.

Edited by - Finalday on 5/22/2004 6:51:01 AM

cr*p teachers, lack of funding in state schools, contradictory and damaging educational policies, disinterest and lack of input from parents, a decline in reading by children in favour of other pastimes. I'd say that was pretty much it.

immigration? get real, you might have a point in some inner-city slum school where asian kids outnumber caucasian kids, but taken over the country as a whole it doesn't apply. I trained as a teacher (yonks ago) and worked in inner-city slum schools and posh rural schools and I can tell you flat out that the immigrant kids are, generally, more literate and harder working than a lot of the english kids, whose ambitions generally revolve around stealing cars for joyriding and other such community based activities.

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whose ambitions generally revolve around stealing cars for joyriding and other such community based activities.

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LOL LOL LOL

I think that literacy rates are declining because those in charge with defining the curriculum and training the teachers are, while not out of touch, unwilling to change except as may be permitted under the criteria in which they themselves were trained and made good grades to get their Masters and Doctorates. They constantly apply what they "know" as professionals to circumstances that no longer exist.

The teachers themselves see a classroom populated with kids who, while very much the same as the teachers may have been at that age, share little or no "common" interests with them any more as the pace of change today is so much faster than before.

A quick look at what is most popular on tv and on the big screen, as well as games, music, etc., very readily should indicate how young people today concentrate on things and for how long. None of this, of course, seems mean anything to thos professionals who "know better."

What results is a large number of students who just don't have any interest in learning what is being taught and who do not have someone trustworthy showing them the relevance of those lessons to real life experiences.

Edited by - Indy11 on 5/22/2004 8:28:05 AM

(Apologises in advance for politicalness)
Well, the education system effectively has no relevance to real life experiences (well, Primary School and parts of secondary school do).
Also the subject "English" has effectively nothing at all to do with the language, and instead simply makes you read books which the Education Board deems to be educational. These books are invariably NOT educational in the slightest, and even worse, they suck , which discourages people not to read in future, and gives a very one-sided view of literature, which in turn inspires the current youth attitude to literature to be: "Lord of the Rings good, everything else horrible".

Despite that, I still can't understand why, in this modern world where school isn't our only source of education and we have access to the internet and TV, and books are cheaper than ever, illiteracy still remains a problem.

Oh, yeah, and by my above post I didn't mean that immigrants were all thugs who don't work and can't read or write, what I meant was that many of them come from countries where they don't speak English. For instance, there are plenty of immigrants to say, France who speak another language as their 1st language and can barely string 2 words together in French, but still work hard.
But I agree that illiterate immigration is focused normally on a few areas, and not a universal phenomemon.

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While I am enjoying this discussion, it was supposed to be a suggestion to sw for her presentation, and not an invitation to discuss this issue (no offense guys ). That being said, might I propose that we get back on topic? I didn't even post in sw's "Chapter 8" topic, and yet Eraser has made me feel guilty for getting it locked . Hence, I do not wish to drag this one off-topic.

Mustang said,

"Am I as good looking as I think I am? Discuss"

i think this should be changed to,

"Tawakalna is much better looking than Mustang; how should Mustang be punished for presenting himself as a rival in the handsome-ness stakes? Discuss"

some great topic would be

Smoking's great and kids should be encouraged to spark up
Vegetarianism should be banned
Left-wing military dictatorships are ok!
the Vote should only be given to people over 40 with a property qualification
Compulsory military service for 5-16 yr olds
Polygamy is made legal along with major tax concessions for having more than one wife.
Britain and Italy should have a "special relationship" especially at Eastertime, the first 2 weeks of August and the 3rd week in September.



..you shut your mouth, how can you say, I go about things the wrong way..

lol
the prob with the "Taw is better lookin than Mustang", is that nobody knows you
as for the others...

Edited by - sycho_warrior on 5/23/2004 3:52:26 AM