Do Michigan Politicians Really Want To Buy An iPod For Every Child?
from the details-please dept
The Detroit News has an editorial today blasting a proposal from state politicians that would include spending to buy an MP3 player for every school child in Michigan. The editorial is decidedly against the plan (the headline to the newspaper editorial reads: "An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?" and people blame blogs for incendiary headlines?). Of course, the article doesn't bother to explain the details, and the idea that they'd buy an MP3 player (whether or not it's an iPod) certainly does sound pretty ludicrous. I've tried calling both the main number at the Michigan House of Representatives and the phone number for the Speaker of the House's office, but in both cases it went to voicemail. If anyone has any more details about what was actually proposed, let us know. If it's true that they proposed buying an MP3 player for every kid without a good explanation for why, that's just silly. However, it's so far out there that it feels like there must have been something (purposely or not) left out in the translation from proposal to angry editorial.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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New programs that make sense!
When is the blood-for-beer programme going live? It'd be a great plan to have a beer after donating a pint of blood-- It works on so many levels, and is ingenous. But don't copy it, because I've already patented it.
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Re: New programs that make sense!
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Re: New programs that make sense!
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Re: Re: New programs that make sense!
I seriously hope you are joking...
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Re: Re: New programs that make sense!
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POUR 'EM ON ME.
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we'll see
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Re: we'll see
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It's like when 911 happened, in our paper, there was a little square box on the side with it, and the front page was a girl blowing on a freakin' dandelion!! What was the governer's plan last year for our economy? More liquor licensing! Most half of Mich up to the north is all bars and gas stations, no real business! Cigarette tax, now they want to tax food, cut even MORE school funding, tax HAIRCUTS, what the hell is going on????
I also blame residents of Mich for not standing against this, every time I say something, I get mobbed or people ignore it and accept it like it's nothing. Basically Michigan is taking every ounce of money from it's people to supposedly save this state, and they get nothing in return.
Well, good luck Michigan, we are a dying state in mainly the surroundings of larger areas and you may have high energy costs, low paying jobs, high cig tax, no school funding, but hey...at least you will have...
A ^^%&@&%!!!! MP3 PLAYER!!!!
C
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here
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huh....
Everyone Else-
I see two sides:
1) How do we get the children to better utilize current technology for education...
I listen to plenty of books on tape for my continuous education (I'm 29, when does education stop?) while I commute (wait... is that study time?). There are many, many complaints of kids carrying too much weight - from biology, history, literature, and band manuscripts to every other text. This comes to #2.
2) How do we formalise and ensure that these new education tools are utilised effectively and within what goal? If the devices are easily wiped and overwritten with the latest music (or Pink Floyd tunes which this generation is oh so familiar with through 3 second clips from modern DJs) or episodes of Lost.
In my mind, if they are controlled with *LEGITIMATE* educational content (what the textbooks provide), then I am all for distributing and having the devices returned at the end of the year, to be updated over the summer and distributed the next year.
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Leave it alone...
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Er ... wait a second ... are the criminals stealing X-boxes and keeping their guns, or are they stealing the guns specifically to get X-boxes?
You're so enraged by ideas that you oppose, that you can't even get your objections to it straight. Calm a down a little, pal, you might be able to think a bit more clearly next time...
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Re:
While I don't own a gun, with 3 kids in my home, that is my personal decision, however, taking people's guns is not something I agree with at all. Not to get off topic but a few points i'd like to make...
1. kids have been killed by getting their parent's guns and accidents happening. Ok, where are the parents? Why wasn't the gun well hidden or have a lock? Why did the media jump all over these cases and plaster them EVERYWHERE? Parents are far too busy trying to pay billsworking due to our economy, can't afford a baby sitter so kids are left home. Not a parent's choice but to survive it must be done.
2. On the flip side, I personally know parents that just one makes enough money to not worry about funds, more than enough. However, be it the man or woman, they want a career and leave the child to do whatever they want. A child is a career and people seem to forget this.
3. Some parents simply don't care.
4. As stated, criminals will find a way to have guns, they don't get most of their guns from stealing them from local people, they get them in other ways, disarming America is a decision made for control.
You wouldn't think I was a parent who's child was in fact threatened with a gun at school, but I am. The kid simply took the gun out of his parents drawer, no lock, fully loaded. The parent is also a real charm, could care less what the kid does. While I was furious with the child, I blame the parent the most. The parent still doesn't care. We made a police report etc... and the gun was taken from the home. Yet, I still don't agree with disarming everyone, why? A man broke into my home 3 months after buying it, I fought him off at the door and the police came and arrested him. I thought, had I been an older man, disabled, he would have came in or beat past me and did god knows what. I was lucky , he could have had a gun but didn't, however, how would an elder person defend themselves? No, even with all this, I don't or ever will agree. If they take ALL guns away, meaning, from ALL criminals, Police, and everyone else, then I may agree. Until then, not until equalized.
I hear of many death's over a year, lost two friends recently AAMOF, one murdered by her husband, another riding in an Ambulance that colided with a Semi, everyone I know who has died, hasn't been from a gun. Not saying there aren't a lot but when do our states finally try to REALLY clean up our streets and such? Crime is money, they won't do away with it.
C
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One Zune per Teen Project
Look at the news about the cooperation with microsoft, over at the one macbook per child project (http://www.onemacbook.org/)
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MP3 & Michigan
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Ipods and taxes
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070406/NEWS06/704060315/1008
Tax protest
At 11 a.m. April 18, the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and others will hold what they call a tea party on the grounds of the Capitol in Lansing to oppose budget proposals to raise taxes. For more information, call 517-853-9073.
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Will The last person
Will the last person out of Michigan Please put up the for sale sign and turn out the lights.
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Re: Will The last person
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Please spare me.
As for education, we spend far too much on it in this state. You can look across the country and see that the lowest standardized test scores for achievement are found in the locations that spend the most per pupil, like Washington, DC. The highest scores are from the locations that spend the least, like Vermont and New Hampshire. This is the elephant in the living room that no one dares to speak of when we talk about educating our children.
Everything that there is to know about teaching children to read, write, and do arithmetic was known in 1840. Those who doubt me are invited to do an Internet search for the old McGuffey Reader and peruse its contents.
Everything over and above that, and I mean EVERYTHING, whether it's "self-esteem," "New Math," "New New Math," "outcome-based education," "gender studies," "social promotion," "intelligent design," or "an iPod for every child," is a fraud. It is a crock of s*** from top to bottom and end to end, whose sole purpose is to keep the grant money coming and provide cushy do-nothing featherbedded Affirmative Action government jobs for ignorant unproductive drones with Ed. D. after their names.
If we were truly serious about education, we'd cut back the state education budget by around three quarters, and we'd go back to the system that has a proven track record of success: 50+ students per classroom, no calculators, no computers, just the McGuffey Reader and iron discipline. This would also have the highly salutory effect of balancing the budget and freeing up some money to fix Michigan's roads, which are the worst in the Midwest.
But that's not going to happen, because the NEA would howl, and the "public servants" who supposedly work for us are for some reason more afraid of them.
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Re: Please spare me.
We also need electric skillets to teach kids how to make a good, tasty Grilled Cheese Sandwich.
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Edutainment
The point of public education is to educate as many children as possible, right? It's not to reward only those who can learn successfully in a boring, rigid environment, or those whose parents can afford to pay for expensive, high-quality tutoring to supplement the education they get in school.
I don't think that education was EVER how Please Spare Me describes it. Why do you think the alphabet song was created? Before calculators, people used the abacus. Popcorn reading isn't just so the teacher can check as many students' reading abilities as possible in one session, it's also designed to add an element of fun because the kids get to pick the next person to read out loud after they finish their turn.
Making learning fun and easier doesn't necessarily have to be expensive, but I think the research would support the conclusion that it does lead to better results.
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