[ale] Cobb Laptop Deal

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

On Mon, 15 Aug 2005, Christopher Fowler wrote:

> On Mon, 2005-08-15 at 20:58 -0400, Geoffrey wrote:
> > Please do not try to patronize me.  I know more about this subject
> > then 
> > you could possibly understand.  I do not think that slapping a
> > computer 
> > in front of a child is going to make them read better, anymore then 
> > slapping a book in front of the same child will make them learn math.
> 
> Usually its laziness that causes failure in school.  In 10th grade I got
> 3 Fs on my first report card. One in Biology.   After my dad beat my as*
> with his belt I turned all those grades around and took the prize that
> year for the best grade in Biology.  You can say the leather turned my
> life around.  I did not care about school at the time.  If kids don't
> care then nothing will help them. 

I must disagree with your diagnosis. Lazyness is not the major cause of 
failure in school. I personally doubt that there is a single reason 
ultimately responsible for most failure in school, but frankly don't know 
how to go about testing that suspicion.

I've got a young friend in Atlanta doing computer security who certainly 
never finished high school. At least one of the problems was he was 
certifiably mental. Another was sheer boredom, which we need not get into 
here.

My second daughter is very dyslexic, although it took until high school 
for us to find out (She just graduated from college, FWIW). By the time we 
found out, she had largely self corrected or adapted to her challenge. She 
was home schooled, working at school darn near 12 months of the year to 
cover the material. I personally doubt that she would have succeeded in a 
normal classroom as she was _not_ succeeding in class for the first three 
years of school. She totally snowed her teachers, was in the advanced 
reading sections, and could not read a thing. Two of the teachers had 
excellent reputations, so lets not automatically blame the teacher either.

Back in college, I attended a two month session for underachievers. Most 
of the group, as I recall, were dropouts, some of several years standing. 
Our challenges were remarkably varied, from lousy study skills, to mental 
disorders, to pretty crummy home life. Most of us were self-supporting, so 
I doubt that "lazy" properly applies.



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-- 
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If you think Education is expensive
Try Ignorance
                   Author Unknown
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