[TheForge] test?

[Dan Rathburn]

Mom do we have to?


----- Original Message -----
From: "marilyn traber 011221" <phlip@99main.com>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] test?


> Awright guys, be nice, and chill out. Modern education tends to be lacking
in any number of respects, and the problem is too complex to
> be solved with a few thoughts shot out on a smithing List.
>
> When I went back to OU after being out of school for 20 years, I was
amazed to discover that I had to take and pass very basic reading
> and arithmetic classes, just to be able to take the placement tests, so
the schools, at least the public schools, don't seem to be turning
> out people with basic academic competence. When I was selling insurance,
my company paid highly trained professionals to design and
> write our policies so that an 8th grader could understand them, and I was
still running into people who couldn't read and comprehend what
> they were reading.
>
> And it's just as bad for practical education in the prep schools. I was in
a private girl's boarding school, and got talked to because I had
> been spending time with the black maintenance staff, fixing my bicycle and
skis, and talking with the ladies in the kitchen about preparing
> food. Fortunately, my Headmistress and my Principal had taught my mother,
and knew me well enough to allow me to continue- it paid
> dividends for them when I performed a simple temporary fix on a broken
door lock 15 minutes before an important BoD meeting (it was a
> weekend, and Wilford was off).
>
> There is no simple answer to our educational deficiencies, but at least
we're continuing to try- even the liberal idiots were making an effort,
> no matter how misguided.
>
> But let's at least cut each other a bit of slack, here on the Forge. We're
from many different backgrounds, with many different sets of life
> experience, united in a common goal- to improve and spread the word about
our particular passion, beating iron and steel into
> submission. Save your hammers, verbal and otherwise, for that ;-)
>
> Phlip
>
> Never a horse that cain't be rode,
> And never a rider who cain't be throwed.
>

Dan Rathburn
Elgin, IL USA
Member of UMBA, AARP, ERC, EARS, SARC, FRRL and others