Jonathan Isaac

[Monster]

My view is we have a nation that's very easily swayed by aunt Lilliath's random Facebook posts/reports without doing any fact checking. I'm being funny here but it's also a thing...lol I think we can do a lot better in terms of teaching critical thinking. There is little to no learning when it comes to how our brain actually works. I've seen so many students come to college and they really have no idea how they learn. The school system isn't going to reach every student but what exactly is it doing well? We lag behind many countries in most subjects. Opportunity? If we aren't educating well then we are not really offering a high level of opportunity to both individuals and to drive the countries success. I think we are lagging and can do much better. Can people rise above? Sure but why not make it so it's more likely that more people do so? We can do better. I believe part of the resistance to change is simply because various people do not want to do something different and they think it's pretty much ok the way it is. That happens all the time people are resistant to change.

You bring up a lot of good points. I think the teacher's unions certainly play a huge role and slowing the adoption of advancing education. A good number of teachers are waiting to retire and have no desire to improve the process of teaching and learning. It all can't be put on the teachers though. Students and parents have a huge iinput here too. Like my wife told my stepdaughter. When you go to the gym you need to make the impression that you are there to workhard and are driven. The coaches and gym owner wants to see that. Don't get caught up in the drama of your teammates. You all have the same goals and only a few of you will make it. The little things count.

You are right teachers unions are a big factor...it's not hard to draw a parallel to law enforcement as well In that regard but I don't want to get off topic. We agree it's not all on teachers or the educational system. It's certainly on individuals including parents and the person being educated. It's worth considering if a parent had a poor education in a variety of ways will they just keep up the cycle? Certainly not always but it likely keeps up the problem. One parent, one teacher one mentor, one family member or family friend can make a huge difference positively (or negatively) in the life of a child or even adult. I think we could encourage more of a culture of offering more help and assistance to people around us. Coach Tom Osborn Was a big part of the "Teammates" program here in Nebraska offering a weekly mentor to students that are more at risk. This is a pretty simple program and one that's backed by research that says a kid with this type of added supper is much more likely to do well. I've often wanted to participate but I haven't had a job that allowed me to do so because of scheduling. Typing this out I think the picture for improving the educational system can be broader than just schools. Thanks for helping me flesh that out in a way I hadn't quite grasped before.

Also I want to say as someone without kids by choice I'm always wanting to support people (In this post you specifically) that do have kids in their life. I know enough to understand it's difficult for a myriad of reasons. I know you put forth a lot of effort into it and I want to affirm that.

[Monster]

Easier if I reply to the posts I was going to reply to in one swoop:

-Monsterpile, I don't disagree that Trump throws others under the bus, which would make him tough to work for (directly). I think he's results driven completely (i.e. don't tell me how you got it done, just get it done).
With that said, a LOT of political candidates are nightmares to work for. Kamala Harris had her friend/top campaign manager on a non-disclosure after firing her I believe. Amy Klobuchar had all sorts of people that worked under her coming out with stories about how degrading she was to them (but I'd still vote for her over many alternatives). I also went on a couple dates with a corporate flight attendant a few years ago who used to fly around with Obama. She said Obama was very nice, but that her colleagues that flew Hillary Clinton's plane said that Hillary was extremely insulting and unnecessarily rude. So maybe that's a +1 for Obama, -1 for everyone else?

Q, I think that you're spot on with the identity politicking. I also forgot about the "white nationalist" ..not throwing people under the bus part. I can see it being read that way. I look at it as he won't throw anyone under the bus that will be voting for him unless it's so blatant that he has no choice (or he's perceived slighted by the person/group). Trump did actually denounce racism and white supremacy, but that doesn't get covered in most media. A true racist doesn't promote things like Opportunity Zones, doesn't have personal relationships with those of other races (Herschel Walker used to babysit his kids), doesn't promote opportunity for a minority. I believe Ben Carson is in his cabinet. A true racist wouldn't have put a focus on justice reform and pardoned many minorities based while requesting people make suggestions of people who are in prison unfairly. Can you imagine if he made a comment like Biden suggesting that blacks have no choices but to vote for him? Biden got into hot water with that comment, but it would have been off the charts if Trump said it. Trump said several months ago that people may not like him but they really have no choice because he is producing jobs and had the economy at an all-time high. That is extremely cocky. He's basically telling people he knows they don't like him but he's much better for them than any alternatives that it's still the right choice. Most of us wouldn't make the comment, most of us don't even respect the comment, but he wasn't entirely wrong in the mind of many Americans.

Abe: I think it's more and more difficult for a President to be a figurehead as the parties get further away from center. Tough to pass meaningful legislation when AOC and a Michelle Bachman are supposed to come to an agreement. This is another reason why moderate candidates are far more effective, representative, and good for our country than idealists.
"*That is if you believe him banging porn stars and then paying them off while married with an infant are actually true... and not more "fake news."" <--I believe this was true, don't really think it's overly relevant to the job itself given he wasn't even in office. I'm more concerned about things like using power for sexual persuasion (Weinstein), or something like a Jeffrey Epstein scandal (whoever is caught in that ring needs to go to prison, whether it's Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, or any actor/etc).

I probably come off as a Republican apologist right now, and if you ask those that know me, I probably came off as an Obama apologist before that. For me it's always about the issues and where this country is leading. If I had to list the thing I dislike most about both parties right now..for Republicans it would be their seemingly uncaring position on the environment. I reject the scare tactics that are being used on the far left, but I think the right isn't doing nearly enough (and if they think they are, they sure aren't explaining themselves well). On the left side, what I dislike the most is identity politics. I think it's divisive and driving the party towards things like socialism and creating problems where they don't actually exist. So for me, it's a combination actually of the issues and the trends of which is more dangerous (unfortunately I think it's a lesser of 2 evils conversation). Names are just the who and the how.

Just because you have black people or others around you doesn't mean you aren't racist. There are black people throughout history that were racist against...black people. I have a lot more to say about this and some of it would include Ben Carson but it would be a super long post an I don't know if I would be able to make clear enough points. It's a serious time commitment but the book by Ibram Kendi "Stamped from the Beginning" lays out a history of racism and breaks down types of racism in a way that makes things more clear. I've even used these in other parts of my life too because the types/perspectives of racism are sort of ways of thinking looking at life that have flaws.

[Monster]

monster, I also agree with you that people tend to not actually research things they read as well. Anything that sounds even remotely out there I will research. Even if I see a Facebook post from a FB friend I will often send them a private message (regardless of position) if they're pushing something that is not in context to make sure they know what they're doing.

In terms of opportunities to learn, assuming I'm understanding your meaning correctly, I think there is a lot of meaningful discussion on the topic. Right now Trump wants to have the option for inner city kids to go to other schools, while many Dems want to pump money into the inner city schools. I think that if a child is going to be moved to another school, it needs to happen at an early age when they're still learning their morals and values. I think that you can't just throw money at inner city school systems and think it will improve education (Detroit tried it and it's failed miserably, for instance). Parenting is incredibly important in child development. That HAS to be part of the discussion, and any conversation that doesn't include that is a proposition that will ultimately fail and that's one opinion that I have that I really don't see myself budging on. People NEED to be better parents, their kids lives depend on it. All the legislation in the world won't make a child successful if they don't have the right view of the world in their base person. If a parent isn't able to get a child to buy-in that education is their key to success then it doesn't matter what schooling is available to them. With that of course is personal influence/persuasion from those they grow up around. If, and only if, that is in place, then schooling is the next most important, especially early childhood education. Get the child understanding things, interested in learning, etc. These are the building blocks. If people really, truly want equality, equality needs to come in the form of allowing people access to the things that can get them out of poverty and into riches, not by affirmative action. Will further changes take generations? Yes, but that's it will take. After all, would you want a brain surgeon to operate on you because we have too few 18 year olds doing brain surgery, or the 50 year old with 20 years experience because they're actually qualified? Going on a further tangent, this is the same reason I think Biden is going the wrong direction by only looking at black, female VP candidates. IF they are the most qualified candidate then by all means select them. But right now he's already limited his choices to that demographic which suggests to me that it's a political reason rather than a qualification reason. Some would argue that makes them uniquely qualified to handle the issues of this time, but we all could shoot a million holes into that argument without so much as a blink in between. When I voted for Obama, I was fully open to the idea of McCain. McCain was likely the better choice on foreign policy, but it felt (for me) that was about all he presented better on. Then, when McCain chose Palin as his running-mate, that sealed it for me. My mom was a hockey mom just like Sarah Palin, and I love my mom, but I wouldn't vote her for President of the US. If Palin wasn't quite so conservative or didn't come across so clueless on the issues that she was routinely asked about (see Bush Doctrine as an example, or being able to see Russia from Alaska as her foreign policy experience), I might have had more of an open mind.

Palin is kinda what I was getting at. i would have been perfectly fine with McCain as the president if Obama hadn't won. Wait did we actually have 2 worthy presidential candidates not THAT long ago? Maybe there is hope. Lol

As for education it's a complicated problem that quite frankly one solution is unlikely to work in all communities. Like I said in my reply to Bleed maybe there is something outside of schools to help us make some real change. Personally I don't think it's as much about money as it is what and how things are taught. My mom has taught elementary school for nearly 50 years. I've seen kids come from one school where they were struggling and come into a different environment and catch up in months. Part of the problem is the need of streamline things, when students are not going to learn the same way or on the same timeline. Meanwhile schools are part of society in that we NEED then to take care of kids while parents are working its sort of a child care thing...like right now that's PART of why schools are starting back up right? Are kids falling behind? Yes some will and it will be a problem. Some it won't matter THAT much. I'm not an expert and I know the projections and I'm not throwing those out the window or anything but I'm not accepting those projections as absolute fact either like some media (damn media!!!!!! Lol) reports it. :)

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

We haven't had this many posts from Hockey in 5 years. Like your passion!

[thedoper]

Socioeconomic Status and Educational outcomes in the USA are clearly linked by every study on this matter. Some isolated communities have found was to buck this general trend. But it is all about money.

[mrhockey89]

monster, I think someone on one of these threads said that everyone has some sort of racism, which is probably a true statement, just as everyone has a personal bias view on anything. With that said, nothing you said on the race issue suggests that he's racist either. You looked at one of my examples in a vacuum rather than looking at the totality of what I was saying, which to me makes it miss the point.

I don't think McCain was a worthy Presidential candidate myself. I thought his domestic policy was heavily lacking. Obama is one of the best public speakers since MLK Jr. and made a lot of promises. I for one was excited at the possibility of him to unite the country. I defended him on many issues, but overall was underwhelmed on actual deliverables.

On schools. I completely understand what you're getting at in terms of school environment matters. Completely agree with that. I think environment is key in all parts of a child's life, and that's what I'm getting at. My uncle who recently passed away was a lawyer in California and very much a conservative. My cousin (his daughter) was a teacher and is extremely liberal. She got away from teaching and went into private tutoring because of how the schools were getting as it pertains to teacher and student communications. She couldn't so much as speak to a parent of a child about the child's actions or action plans, it had to be the principal making those calls. To me that is an embarrassment of a policy, and my cousin is a super sweet woman who would only ever have the best intentions for any of her students.

I think younger kids should probably be back in school since it appears they aren't even high carriers of COVID. They are losing out more in lost learning and are less likely to be able to sit in front of a computer to learn for hours a day than the older kids, and less likely to be able to care for themselves. If older kids carry the virus at a higher rate, then keep them at home/learning online until the vaccine comes. Seems like a reasonable solution to me. I don't even have skin in that game. If teachers are who we're worrying about, why not let teachers decide for themselves if they are willing to come in or if they'll teach online (rather than having a teachers union lump them all together). I'm sure there are plenty of teachers, especially for the younger children, that would be more than okay coming in to teach. Additionally, if the goal is for less of a race gap in education, then we'd want kids back in school. Colleges and things like high school I think there are reasonable reasons to suggest alternative learning options in the short term, while having students come back sometime soon after winter break being the long-term transition.

These are simply my points of view, I hope noone takes offense to anything I say or tries to read too far into my statements beyond what I'm saying directly. People are welcome to disagree.

[mrhockey89]

We haven't had this many posts from Hockey in 5 years. Like your passion!

That's because the Wolves haven't done much in the past 5 years. Even my suggestion of Jonathan Isaac is already poo-poo'd

[Monster]

monster, I think someone on one of these threads said that everyone has some sort of racism, which is probably a true statement, just as everyone has a personal bias view on anything. With that said, nothing you said on the race issue suggests that he's racist either. You looked at one of my examples in a vacuum rather than looking at the totality of what I was saying, which to me makes it miss the point.

I don't think McCain was a worthy Presidential candidate myself. I thought his domestic policy was heavily lacking. Obama is one of the best public speakers since MLK Jr. and made a lot of promises. I for one was excited at the possibility of him to unite the country. I defended him on many issues, but overall was underwhelmed on actual deliverables.

On schools. I completely understand what you're getting at in terms of school environment matters. Completely agree with that. I think environment is key in all parts of a child's life, and that's what I'm getting at. My uncle who recently passed away was a lawyer in California and very much a conservative. My cousin (his daughter) was a teacher and is extremely liberal. She got away from teaching and went into private tutoring because of how the schools were getting as it pertains to teacher and student communications. She couldn't so much as speak to a parent of a child about the child's actions or action plans, it had to be the principal making those calls. To me that is an embarrassment of a policy, and my cousin is a super sweet woman who would only ever have the best intentions for any of her students.

I think younger kids should probably be back in school since it appears they aren't even high carriers of COVID. They are losing out more in lost learning and are less likely to be able to sit in front of a computer to learn for hours a day than the older kids, and less likely to be able to care for themselves. If older kids carry the virus at a higher rate, then keep them at home/learning online until the vaccine comes. Seems like a reasonable solution to me. I don't even have skin in that game. If teachers are who we're worrying about, why not let teachers decide for themselves if they are willing to come in or if they'll teach online (rather than having a teachers union lump them all together). I'm sure there are plenty of teachers, especially for the younger children, that would be more than okay coming in to teach. Additionally, if the goal is for less of a race gap in education, then we'd want kids back in school. Colleges and things like high school I think there are reasonable reasons to suggest alternative learning options in the short term, while having students come back sometime soon after winter break being the long-term transition.

These are simply my points of view, I hope noone takes offense to anything I say or tries to read too far into my statements beyond what I'm saying directly. People are welcome to disagree.

Hockey as I said I didn't explain all I meant about my comments on racism because it would be way too lengthy. I'm sorry I didn't go further than that and therefore made something that seemed like it didn't really go anywhere. If I come across a way to break it down in a reasonable fashion in terms of length I'll do so.

Lots of good stuff in your post. It will be interesting in a few years to look back down the road at Obama's presidency.

One of the functional problems with shutting down schools is...where do the kids go? A couple weeks ago my Cousin's wife posted on facebook how frustrated she was with teachers worried about going to schools when people are still having to go to work what are they supposed to do with their kids? It was a fair question and it was from someone that...isn't exactly living paycheck to paycheck. I see today Omaha delayed going to school for a week to prepare all virtual learning for the first quarter of the year because cases keep going up. I guess its a concerning spot in the nation now. Cases have been going down here...but schools haven't started yet. I'm glad to have a new job that should be more stable in terms of what the virus does. The only stake I had in this was if schools closed I was going to be out of work again. Thats why I started looking and a significant reason I made the move plus it felt like time to do something different or as Ivank Trump said "Find Something New". I said for years my job I said was safe unless society broke down...I guess a pandemic qualifies as that right? I have some friends that are simply keeping their kids at home. They are able to do that because a parent already stays at home or because one or more of the parents are able to keep working from home. Not everyone has that option. All my direct co-workers at my current job had family members that were able to watch their kids while they were at work. Not everyone is that fortunate.

[mrhockey89]

monster, I think my main point in the racism discussion is that people effortlessly throw around words that have real meaning like they're candy, "(Insert name here) is racist", "(insert name here) is sexist", "(insert name here) is homophobic", etc. Heck, even the Smithsonian had a "whiteness" exhibit that suggested hard work, the scientific method, and respect were values of whites. If I was African American (or any other non-white race for that matter) I would be absolutely insulted by that suggestion. I've seen these thrown around so incredibly loosely that I'm not sure if people just don't grasp the weight of what they're saying, or if they should be taken with a grain of salt, or if they're just really bigoted people. None seem like good options to me, but those are the 3 options I see in many of the cases.

In returning to school, I still say little kids should return unless there are new statistics that I'm not aware of that suggests little kids are heavy carriers. If we are protecting the .001% of kids that might be affected, then we might as well just never bring school back, because there are other viruses that affect kids even more. As you mentioned, you're out of work. I'm not 100% convinced that the reason there's such a push to keep kids from going back despite the data on kids isn't a political move. Prior to COVID it was talked about even on CNN and the like that it was very likely Trump would win reelection unless the economy tanked in 2020. Several democrats (and you can look this up) came out and openly stated we should consider having the economy tank to get Trump out of office. Given that, it's tough for me to believe this is purely out of health risk that there's such a concern about getting the kids back in school, at least the younger ones, now that we actually do have data on this virus (where as we didn't prior to the initial stay at home orders).

I'm not an anti-masker, I'm not a 'who cares' person in this pandemic. I have skipped my vacations, went from going to the gym literally every day except once in January/February to not going at all since April, the people I limit myself to are mostly high risk category people, and I fully agreed with the original shut downs. I just think we know enough about this virus now, as well as realizing that it's costing our country trillions upon trillions, as well as jobs galore. There are things we can do to get back to work in many industries, and the damage that is done to kids outside of getting schooling is starting to outweigh the risks for the kids. Teachers are a different story, but there are many options to handle that aspect and make it safe for the teachers, so I really don't see why that would be a sticking point either.

[Monster]

monster, I think my main point in the racism discussion is that people effortlessly throw around words that have real meaning like they're candy, "(Insert name here) is racist", "(insert name here) is sexist", "(insert name here) is homophobic", etc. Heck, even the Smithsonian had a "whiteness" exhibit that suggested hard work, the scientific method, and respect were values of whites. If I was African American (or any other non-white race for that matter) I would be absolutely insulted by that suggestion. I've seen these thrown around so incredibly loosely that I'm not sure if people just don't grasp the weight of what they're saying, or if they should be taken with a grain of salt, or if they're just really bigoted people. None seem like good options to me, but those are the 3 options I see in many of the cases.

In returning to school, I still say little kids should return unless there are new statistics that I'm not aware of that suggests little kids are heavy carriers. If we are protecting the .001% of kids that might be affected, then we might as well just never bring school back, because there are other viruses that affect kids even more. As you mentioned, you're out of work. I'm not 100% convinced that the reason there's such a push to keep kids from going back despite the data on kids isn't a political move. Prior to COVID it was talked about even on CNN and the like that it was very likely Trump would win reelection unless the economy tanked in 2020. Several democrats (and you can look this up) came out and openly stated we should consider having the economy tank to get Trump out of office. Given that, it's tough for me to believe this is purely out of health risk that there's such a concern about getting the kids back in school, at least the younger ones, now that we actually do have data on this virus (where as we didn't prior to the initial stay at home orders).

I'm not an anti-masker, I'm not a 'who cares' person in this pandemic. I have skipped my vacations, went from going to the gym literally every day except once in January/February to not going at all since April, the people I limit myself to are mostly high risk category people, and I fully agreed with the original shut downs. I just think we know enough about this virus now, as well as realizing that it's costing our country trillions upon trillions, as well as jobs galore. There are things we can do to get back to work in many industries, and the damage that is done to kids outside of getting schooling is starting to outweigh the risks for the kids. Teachers are a different story, but there are many options to handle that aspect and make it safe for the teachers, so I really don't see why that would be a sticking point either.

I get where you are coming from it can be too easy to throw a label on people based on a somewhat limited amount of knowledge we have of someone. My wife and I have some tension at times because I feel she is too quick to judge in this way...but at times I need to listen to what she is really saying because sometimes these judgments are based on her personal feeling of hurt for what the person said did even if its not directly towards her and so I need to acknowledge that in the moment and maybe revisit the conversation later. On the other hand I think there are times if there is a certain knowledge base some things can seem pretty obvious. It might be worthwhile to say that...say Kermit the Frog said "whatever he said" and to me that came across as racist or homophobic for x y and z reasons. I personally don't think yelling at people for being a racist etc is going to solve anything most of the time. I'll also add that the throwing around of the terms like Liberal or Conservative (and the derogatory terms associated with either) reduce people down to a simple construct which someone can can easily dismiss. Is that what you are getting at to a certain extent? Huh...you know what that's an interesting thought.