Thanks for explaining all that, tint. So here's the question, and I have no motive here except to learn: you're offering the kinds of services I feel should be available to everyone, at no cost, in a school. Could your business be a contractor to a public school system? Should what you offer be offered IN a school at all, or is it better as a separate entity?
Basically, how do we get the individualized services you offer to EVERYONE?
Eeek, Japan sounds scary, though as you say Will sounds like it's overall better than US.
Donna, I'm really glad you asked. Entities such as ours (we are not the only business of our type) have paired with schools before many times, with mixed results. There is a school district directly adjacent to ours that had an in-house center run by an outside contractor and while the results were good, it was expensive, I don't think they do it anymore. There have been many instances locally and across the country where entities like ours come in and train teachers in how to do what we do but the results are very mixed. Too many variables. So it works best as a stand alone entity. Works moderately well as a stand-alone but in-house center in a school, and doesn't work very well to try to get schools and teachers to do it.
So how do kids get access to it? Well I say we fill the gap between education and healthcare because the education system is NOT doing it and the healthcare system is NOT doing it. Sometimes the public schools do pay for us, but they hate it. The parent must be super savvy and even then it takes too long and for a kid that hates school and is fighting everyday, a mess of paperwork and committees takes way too long. Schools are required by law to provide a FAPE (free appropriate education), but are NOT required to provide a specialist with an individualized program, it is just far above and beyond what the schools are willing to do, it costs them money. In a typical school district the speech therapists and occupational therapists that work on staff are completely overwhelmed. It is a structural issue with the way schools work.
Sometimes health insurance pays for us, if it is recommended by a doctor. FSA money can pay for us too. Some of our parents are employed by companies that have to work hard to attract top talent and they offer educational reimbursements as part of their benefits package. Aerospace engineers and astrophysicists have kids too. I wish I could serve my inner city kids. I live in the inner city, work in a wealthy suburb. BTW, my kid might go to the local inner city school. We'll see. I'd love to get her into that IB program.
Another reason why we don't work well in a school is paperwork. There was money in TARP that we could have signed up to get, but we chose not to because we didn't want to change the way we do things. Right now we have very little paperwork. We need to be flexible and creative for it to work. Can't do that in a school. If we worked in a school we would have to work much more rigidly, there are processes and approvals that must take place. Like for example we might have to write a report that said that Jose's reading is too low and we are going to do A, B and C strategies for an hour a day, 3 times a week... yada yada. And then if you wanted to change it, well it is like making changes after a CD set is issued. It is harder, there are that many more people and schedules involved. And when a kids is falling behind, you don't have a month or three to call a meeting with the school to change a plan or report a finding. We spontaneously re-write lesson plans mid-lesson. We respond to the student.
It's really interesting that you frame it as related to healthcare, which it totally is, but I had not thought of it that way. But it really is a public health issue, isn't it?
Sigh. It's all so exhausting. But it's great you're able to do good work for specific people and know you are improving their chances.
bio-psycho sounds so mean. Wonder how long until that is renamed.
I understand on the paperwork side of things. In a public school, I have to deal with too much of it. It definitely gets in the way. And much of it is insulting. You know I have to bring my jury duty summons to school so I can get the day off to attend?! I'm a mature professional, for god's sake!
Sounds like the point is to be flexible not ideological.
I don't mean to give a bad impression of Japanese education. My kids had drums instead of desks in music class and did dance in gym class instead of running laps. Their music teacher composed her own music and the art teacher was awesome. The emphasis was on building mind and body. And access is universal. There are very few shite schools here. The system is very advanced that way. If you want to teach you have to learn how. And that includes being able to play a musical instrument and knowing how to swim. Because life is mind and body not just facts and figures. Teachers all get that, as far as I can tell.
The myth of conformity in Japan has some truth to it but most kids say they want to be professional soccer players or run a nice cream shop. Work at Google and your still a salary man so that trope is just weird. The schools definitely are not teaching to the tests but the kids still have to do well on them in order to get to the high school that will make it easier to get into the university I teach at for example. It's like a parallel world rather than the core of the education. That particular disconnect is what bugs me. If it was just teaching to tests I could manage things. But teaching AND tests is just too much work to figure out. I think its bullshit but on the other hand I want my kids to have opportunity so it becomes necessary to ask them to learn this ridiculous system.
While we are on the topic of education and it's purpose... Creativity is not suppressed here so much as it is unrewarded. That is changing but in general I would say kids are more bored than trod upon. It's ennui that is worrying. In America I think the lack of risk taking is about fear. Here they just don't give a fuck.
To be frank America is much more conformist, and waaay more fascist and controlling, than Japan. The rules here are goal oriented not prescriptive etcetera. Culture is also totally mind-fucking open to whatever anyone can come up with.
What interests me most is that somehow the culture does not use that freedom to create in the way America does. Which is still quite confusing. Maybe USA uses all that nonsense to create the right kind of atmosphere needed to spit out rebels or something ? Here rebellion would be fine, but for what? Egalitarian society and basic affluence leaves not so much to argue about really.
It's the striving that makes cultures move and create. We have crazy awesome people like Sejima and sou fujimoto, both of whom could never have emerged in USA or Europe. But we don't have other leaders somehow. Google's founders could not have come from here. That gap is really fascinating. I am very curious why the lines are drawn that way. Possibly it is education. Or it may be culture. It is definitely not because all Japanese are drones (this is some kind of racist concept or something?) and Americans are all crazy creatives. That's just not the reality in front of us.
Anyway this is fascinating trip for thread central. It makes all the trolls less offensive even.
Interesting, Will. And yes, yesterday was a fun day on the forum, even with the trolls. SneakyPete, you keep popping off good one-liners on the trolls!
Seems the US was *much* more socially conformist in the 50s and 60s when we were doing things like going to the moon and exploring weaponry and making huge infrastructure advances. I think you're right that Americans are afraid of risk due to fear - but we also don't seem to have any safety net in this country any longer. So if you screw up you seriously have nothing.
Although for middle class America these days even if you *don't* take a risk, you do everything right according to the "rules", you can still through no fault of your own end up with nothing.
I've read news articles that Japan seems to be losing interest in having sex lately, too.
I hated the way conformity is enforced in Japanese culture - it's not so much the schools but an overall desire to be 'safe'. I would argue that it is about fear - fear of not belonging, fear of being bullied (suicides due to bullying long predated the internet social media over there), fear of success. My relatives that 'thought outside the box' were constantly being ridiculed by neighbors, bullied in school and never given a chance to work in an environment such as google. The 1st graders didn't care about the work as a salaryman, they just wanted a safe paycheck from a 'normal' job like everyone else; not all kids are like that, but my experiences in Tokyo did point to an underlying problem. I remember getting constantly harassed by neighborhood kids and parents because I went to a 'special school' (international school, b/c I spoke english despite being one them).
The underlying trend reminds me of the de-motivation poster: the grass that grows tallest/quickest gets mowed first. This isn't to say there are successful rebels (art/music/architecture/engineering) but there seems to be less tolerance for individual success - this is a long standing cultural trend, but I do wonder if WWII and post war occupational educational policies affect this. There's an old saying in Japan that when the US president sneezes the Japanese PM catches the cold.
Donna- There was a strata of Japanese males that holed themselves up in their rooms to play video games and couldn't talk to women (unless they were dressed up like video game characters - and hence a subset of cafes that did that). They often married to replace moms, not having sex w/ the wives and the women then had to get that elsewhere... on the other hand there is a rather a large escort/brothel/massage parlor world around major train stations (similar to any large cities in the world) and they only allow natives, so...
I agree with the French point of view of ADHD in that article, Sara. While it can be biological, it is very, very rare. Security is mentioned in that article. That is what we see that causes ADHD, lack of security.
This is a video about conformity they showed in American schools in the 1950's. I love Harvey's walk at 3:20. Reminds me of my dad somehow :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2S3BlEBlg4
that video seemed to primarily stress working together and thinking ahead before you do stuff.
those are good things, right? more can be accomplished if you work together as a team. if you're going to tell your kids they're all special snowflakes, wouldn't you get a bunch of self-absorbed narcissists that expect everyone else to take care of them? "rugged individualism" doesn't really exist. we all rely on help from others. because of that, we kind of need to learn how to think about other people, walk a mile in their shoes so to speak, help them out when we can, and work together.
i guess i'm not sure if you're saying conformity is good or bad with that video.
Some conformity is good. I like that video. Maybe I can elaborate on what I mean by conformity. Stop lights are good. We need them so that everyone can get around safely. But when we walk down a crowded sidewalk, we don't need a super-coordinator. It would be a disaster to externally coordinate that movement, the individuals can spontaneously coordinate not running others over. The unuseful kinds of conformity is rampant in schools. Like when Sarah has to turn in her jury summons. That doesn't serve anyone or anything but the paperwork.
I have a classroom full of narcissistic snowflakes.
Have you guys seen where some elementary schools are bringing infants into classrooms to teach/instill empathy? It's fascinating. Apparently, we connect with the needs of an infant better than those of people our own age, and the schools that have this program have fewer reports of bullying, ect. Here's the link.
lol. bring in an infant as a pet? i've heard of school hamsters, where kids can take it home for a weekend or stuff like that, but i would not be comfortable bringing an infant into a classroom as a pet. that just sort of seems unethical. i would suggest getting a fish instead. did you see in tint's video where big brother taught little brother how to drop fish flakes in the bowl? hopefully he also taught his kid brother how the nitrogen cycle works.
I don't think we should be teaching teenagers that babies are cute and giggly and adorable and pliable. Now if the infant-pet is all screams and burp-ups and diaper blowouts, that's a good lesson.
I take my baby to work and to a nearby school where I have students. Not often, kids love it but it can be distracting. But I think that babies teaching empathy is a cool idea. I surmise it is because babies are non-verbal, you have to know what they need or are thinking by looking at non-verbal cues like behavior, facial expression and body language. When you engage with that kind of stimulus, your brain mimics all of it in order to understand it. Hence, building empathy.
Our teaching is multi-sensory. Since learning is through the senses, when you teach that way it makes more of an impact. Some of our kids are deficient in auditory processing, they HAVE to learn by sight, movement and touch. How did Hellen Keller learn?
Jeezus, what the hell is going on wiht radiation in Indianapolis, why are we at DEFCON 3?!?!? I'm dealing with an imminent 100 year flood zone panic right now, I can't face radioactive fallout too!
they are going to start removing some of the fuel rods next month. if it goes bad, like worst case scenario, which i think means they drop the building (or a structural collapse since it's already damaged, or another earthquake), it could result in billions of deaths. the current round of removing rods should take about a year. they are planning on about 40 years to get them all.
On a related note, I just sent a series of emails to a surveying firm I've hired that I'm sure have been printed out and posted on the office bulletin board with a big red sign saying "ALL ARCHITECTS ARE CRAZY AND HERE'S PROOF!!". The surveyor double-reiterated to me that he does not believe I need to be present while they do the survey - I'm sure he's scared to meet me in person in case the crazy rubs off. I'm somewhat proud.
Yeah, the news from Fukushima is bad. Really bad. The "decommissioning" of the spent fuel pool is beyond difficult, it will take a series of absolute miracles to pull off. The estimates I've read are > Chernobyl x85 if they drop a rod, the cooling fails, the structure fails, if there's more seismic damage, if someone sneezes, etc., etc. Which doesn't even consider the difficulty of working in a area where a fatal dose of radiation can be received within a few hours.
Another source says that is less problematic (if you can imagine anything less problematic than that) than the vast quantities of water streaming straight into the pacific after passing through the 3 (count 'em, three) still fissioning 100-ton core meltdowns.
That this isn't front page, top headline news in every media outlet around the world is a impossible to understand. Even Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers can't hide from radiation.
I haven't trusted a survey in several years. It is all smoke and mirrors. Let me tell you how it all started on the East Coast.... Corner of property Large Oak Tree (died over a hundred years ago) to large stone ( there are a lot of frickiing large stones in New England). to adjoining property monument (which was removed cause he hated neighbor). I can go on and on but this is my general feeling about surveys. I have on several occasions tried to close old surveys on properties and have found them to be missing closure by over ten feet. On of my recent project was in the other direction Topographic data was all wrong. Oh well... we scratched our heads a lot and our butts... and finally got everything worked out. The solution was not in accord with either the survey or the Civil Engineers design. Just a bunch of contractors and myself saying, water has to flow this way....so hold that elevation and that elevation...
reported 1,168,354 homeless students as enrolled in school, a 10 percent increase from SY 2010-11 (1,065,794), and a 24 percent increase over the three-year period SY 2009-10 (939,903) to SY 2011-12
Donna, my experience is that the engineers know their business. But of course, if something looks out of wack to you, as an architect, it probably is. I'm always amazed that the number of dumb questions that pop into my head, that when I ask the engineers, it turns out that I'm right. For example - hey Mr. Electrical engineer, did you, by any chance, take the time to contact the utility company and find out if they can actually supply the power to that mo-fikkin monster transformer you designed for our building? Cuz you've been working on this design for 6 months and it'd be a real drag if the utility company wanted to charge some massive fee to run new wire some 10s of miles to our site. Oh, you haven't contacted the utility company yet? You might want to.
The issue is we are - from what I can tell - very, very close to being right at the Base Flood Elevation for the flood zone we are in. If we are below the BFE, even by 1/10 of a foot (that's the accuracy they require), we get bumped to a significantly higher flood insurance cost. So my questions all revolved around exactly what the definitions of deck, grade, etc. mean, since we have a patio slab that sits 2" below the house slab and the garage sits 8" below. Also our garage is either attached or detached depending on the one piece of flashing that wraps from the roof of the porch to the garage - the structures are totally separate - so that 18 inch long 1/16" thick piece of aluminum with two screws in it *could* cost me $6k per year if not handled right.
I'm not trying to break any rules, but I think architects can easily see creative ways to make sure we *fit* the rules as required, where engineers (especially civil engineers) tend to not think about creative ways to handle situations that aren't black and white.
Miles, serious question: that statistic *is* a national disgrace, one among thousands. How do you stay positive and not just give up in the face of this kind of crap? It seriously seems like nothing is going right these days, either on a national scale, locally, or personally. Outside of having an amazing child and husband and family and friends, I just don't see anything good in the world. Which might be depression, might be menopause, or might be accurate.
Donna, the only thing I can see to do is make an example in your own life and try to create the world you want to live in. For each of us that is different but in general reduce tax liability (easy for an architect) so as not to support a corrupt government and war for corporate profit, vote with your wallet (it's the only vote that actually counts, imagine what would happen if nobody bought health insurance or tuna fish or Verizon service), use alternative medicine, etc. Beyond that it means being active in your own community, recognizing that enlightened self-interest (where we all take care of each other) is the only alternative to the psychotic behavior of personal self-interest most accurately described as greed.
I don't know you guys feel about Russell Brand, but I thought this interview that's making the rounds was rather exciting. I'm not willing to suggest that he's the right person to be relaying the message, but I found myself nodding quite intensely at times.
OK that interview was hilarious. And yes, pretty much everything Brand says is true. Except that I *do* vote, and advocate for voting, because there is such thing as lesser of two evils.
I guess my first move needs to be to cancel my PayPal account, because that PayPal founder guy is a little libertarian conservative prick.
I vote with my wallet every day. Repeatedly. Preferably locally and organically.
I used to vote *against* they guy I thought was worse. That never seemed to pan out because either the guy I voted against won (I didn't vote "for" anyone) or the guy who got my vote turned out to be as much of or an even bigger crook / stooge / asshole than the politician he replaced (i.e. Obama). Now I either vote FOR someone (actually for the ideals they represent, like Jill Stein) or I write in candidates (like Adolf Schicklgruber or Mickey Mouse).
I was reading just earlier this week about a place where it was common to not vote at all if you were dissatisfied with the candidates and then they would redo the elections with new candidates. You didn't have to pick between the lessor of two evils, you could vote none of the above. Maybe it was fictional. I can't remember where I saw it.
Thread Central
Wonder what the education is like in Santa Marta.
Thanks for explaining all that, tint. So here's the question, and I have no motive here except to learn: you're offering the kinds of services I feel should be available to everyone, at no cost, in a school. Could your business be a contractor to a public school system? Should what you offer be offered IN a school at all, or is it better as a separate entity?
Basically, how do we get the individualized services you offer to EVERYONE?
Eeek, Japan sounds scary, though as you say Will sounds like it's overall better than US.
Welcome Pete!
haha LOL Sarah! Flag that spam, everyone, please.
In Japan, social conformity is a cultural principle.
In capitalist society you are entitled to the best education you can afford.
Donna, I'm really glad you asked. Entities such as ours (we are not the only business of our type) have paired with schools before many times, with mixed results. There is a school district directly adjacent to ours that had an in-house center run by an outside contractor and while the results were good, it was expensive, I don't think they do it anymore. There have been many instances locally and across the country where entities like ours come in and train teachers in how to do what we do but the results are very mixed. Too many variables. So it works best as a stand alone entity. Works moderately well as a stand-alone but in-house center in a school, and doesn't work very well to try to get schools and teachers to do it.
So how do kids get access to it? Well I say we fill the gap between education and healthcare because the education system is NOT doing it and the healthcare system is NOT doing it. Sometimes the public schools do pay for us, but they hate it. The parent must be super savvy and even then it takes too long and for a kid that hates school and is fighting everyday, a mess of paperwork and committees takes way too long. Schools are required by law to provide a FAPE (free appropriate education), but are NOT required to provide a specialist with an individualized program, it is just far above and beyond what the schools are willing to do, it costs them money. In a typical school district the speech therapists and occupational therapists that work on staff are completely overwhelmed. It is a structural issue with the way schools work.
Sometimes health insurance pays for us, if it is recommended by a doctor. FSA money can pay for us too. Some of our parents are employed by companies that have to work hard to attract top talent and they offer educational reimbursements as part of their benefits package. Aerospace engineers and astrophysicists have kids too. I wish I could serve my inner city kids. I live in the inner city, work in a wealthy suburb. BTW, my kid might go to the local inner city school. We'll see. I'd love to get her into that IB program.
Another reason why we don't work well in a school is paperwork. There was money in TARP that we could have signed up to get, but we chose not to because we didn't want to change the way we do things. Right now we have very little paperwork. We need to be flexible and creative for it to work. Can't do that in a school. If we worked in a school we would have to work much more rigidly, there are processes and approvals that must take place. Like for example we might have to write a report that said that Jose's reading is too low and we are going to do A, B and C strategies for an hour a day, 3 times a week... yada yada. And then if you wanted to change it, well it is like making changes after a CD set is issued. It is harder, there are that many more people and schedules involved. And when a kids is falling behind, you don't have a month or three to call a meeting with the school to change a plan or report a finding. We spontaneously re-write lesson plans mid-lesson. We respond to the student.
It's really interesting that you frame it as related to healthcare, which it totally is, but I had not thought of it that way. But it really is a public health issue, isn't it?
Sigh. It's all so exhausting. But it's great you're able to do good work for specific people and know you are improving their chances.
Yes, it is SOCIAL issue too.
We look at a student's bio-psycho-social profile when designing a program for them. Bio-psycho-social is language from addiction therapy.
bio-psycho sounds so mean. Wonder how long until that is renamed.
I understand on the paperwork side of things. In a public school, I have to deal with too much of it. It definitely gets in the way. And much of it is insulting. You know I have to bring my jury duty summons to school so I can get the day off to attend?! I'm a mature professional, for god's sake!
^ conformity
I guess we don't say the word bio-psycho-social it is weird, but that is our model.
I don't mean to give a bad impression of Japanese education. My kids had drums instead of desks in music class and did dance in gym class instead of running laps. Their music teacher composed her own music and the art teacher was awesome. The emphasis was on building mind and body. And access is universal. There are very few shite schools here. The system is very advanced that way. If you want to teach you have to learn how. And that includes being able to play a musical instrument and knowing how to swim. Because life is mind and body not just facts and figures. Teachers all get that, as far as I can tell.
The myth of conformity in Japan has some truth to it but most kids say they want to be professional soccer players or run a nice cream shop. Work at Google and your still a salary man so that trope is just weird. The schools definitely are not teaching to the tests but the kids still have to do well on them in order to get to the high school that will make it easier to get into the university I teach at for example. It's like a parallel world rather than the core of the education. That particular disconnect is what bugs me. If it was just teaching to tests I could manage things. But teaching AND tests is just too much work to figure out. I think its bullshit but on the other hand I want my kids to have opportunity so it becomes necessary to ask them to learn this ridiculous system.
While we are on the topic of education and it's purpose... Creativity is not suppressed here so much as it is unrewarded. That is changing but in general I would say kids are more bored than trod upon. It's ennui that is worrying. In America I think the lack of risk taking is about fear. Here they just don't give a fuck.
To be frank America is much more conformist, and waaay more fascist and controlling, than Japan. The rules here are goal oriented not prescriptive etcetera. Culture is also totally mind-fucking open to whatever anyone can come up with.
What interests me most is that somehow the culture does not use that freedom to create in the way America does. Which is still quite confusing. Maybe USA uses all that nonsense to create the right kind of atmosphere needed to spit out rebels or something ? Here rebellion would be fine, but for what? Egalitarian society and basic affluence leaves not so much to argue about really.
It's the striving that makes cultures move and create. We have crazy awesome people like Sejima and sou fujimoto, both of whom could never have emerged in USA or Europe. But we don't have other leaders somehow. Google's founders could not have come from here. That gap is really fascinating. I am very curious why the lines are drawn that way. Possibly it is education. Or it may be culture. It is definitely not because all Japanese are drones (this is some kind of racist concept or something?) and Americans are all crazy creatives. That's just not the reality in front of us.
Anyway this is fascinating trip for thread central. It makes all the trolls less offensive even.
Interesting, Will. And yes, yesterday was a fun day on the forum, even with the trolls. SneakyPete, you keep popping off good one-liners on the trolls!
Seems the US was *much* more socially conformist in the 50s and 60s when we were doing things like going to the moon and exploring weaponry and making huge infrastructure advances. I think you're right that Americans are afraid of risk due to fear - but we also don't seem to have any safety net in this country any longer. So if you screw up you seriously have nothing.
Although for middle class America these days even if you *don't* take a risk, you do everything right according to the "rules", you can still through no fault of your own end up with nothing.
I've read news articles that Japan seems to be losing interest in having sex lately, too.
What a world.
http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd
Still, it reminded me of all the puppy training manuals I've been reading lately.
I'm pretty good at snark. It's during the serious discussions that I tend to say things that are incoherent.
Should've made your name SnarkyPete.
Dang, I guess I'm not as good at being clever as I thought.
I hated the way conformity is enforced in Japanese culture - it's not so much the schools but an overall desire to be 'safe'. I would argue that it is about fear - fear of not belonging, fear of being bullied (suicides due to bullying long predated the internet social media over there), fear of success. My relatives that 'thought outside the box' were constantly being ridiculed by neighbors, bullied in school and never given a chance to work in an environment such as google. The 1st graders didn't care about the work as a salaryman, they just wanted a safe paycheck from a 'normal' job like everyone else; not all kids are like that, but my experiences in Tokyo did point to an underlying problem. I remember getting constantly harassed by neighborhood kids and parents because I went to a 'special school' (international school, b/c I spoke english despite being one them).
The underlying trend reminds me of the de-motivation poster: the grass that grows tallest/quickest gets mowed first. This isn't to say there are successful rebels (art/music/architecture/engineering) but there seems to be less tolerance for individual success - this is a long standing cultural trend, but I do wonder if WWII and post war occupational educational policies affect this. There's an old saying in Japan that when the US president sneezes the Japanese PM catches the cold.
Donna- There was a strata of Japanese males that holed themselves up in their rooms to play video games and couldn't talk to women (unless they were dressed up like video game characters - and hence a subset of cafes that did that). They often married to replace moms, not having sex w/ the wives and the women then had to get that elsewhere... on the other hand there is a rather a large escort/brothel/massage parlor world around major train stations (similar to any large cities in the world) and they only allow natives, so...
I agree with the French point of view of ADHD in that article, Sara. While it can be biological, it is very, very rare. Security is mentioned in that article. That is what we see that causes ADHD, lack of security.
This is a video about conformity they showed in American schools in the 1950's. I love Harvey's walk at 3:20. Reminds me of my dad somehow :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2S3BlEBlg4
that video seemed to primarily stress working together and thinking ahead before you do stuff.
those are good things, right? more can be accomplished if you work together as a team. if you're going to tell your kids they're all special snowflakes, wouldn't you get a bunch of self-absorbed narcissists that expect everyone else to take care of them? "rugged individualism" doesn't really exist. we all rely on help from others. because of that, we kind of need to learn how to think about other people, walk a mile in their shoes so to speak, help them out when we can, and work together.
i guess i'm not sure if you're saying conformity is good or bad with that video.
Some conformity is good. I like that video. Maybe I can elaborate on what I mean by conformity. Stop lights are good. We need them so that everyone can get around safely. But when we walk down a crowded sidewalk, we don't need a super-coordinator. It would be a disaster to externally coordinate that movement, the individuals can spontaneously coordinate not running others over. The unuseful kinds of conformity is rampant in schools. Like when Sarah has to turn in her jury summons. That doesn't serve anyone or anything but the paperwork.
I have a classroom full of narcissistic snowflakes.
Have you guys seen where some elementary schools are bringing infants into classrooms to teach/instill empathy? It's fascinating. Apparently, we connect with the needs of an infant better than those of people our own age, and the schools that have this program have fewer reports of bullying, ect. Here's the link.
lol. bring in an infant as a pet? i've heard of school hamsters, where kids can take it home for a weekend or stuff like that, but i would not be comfortable bringing an infant into a classroom as a pet. that just sort of seems unethical. i would suggest getting a fish instead. did you see in tint's video where big brother taught little brother how to drop fish flakes in the bowl? hopefully he also taught his kid brother how the nitrogen cycle works.
Curt, the parents come in with the child, and then take the baby home with them.
Dr. Gabor Mate on attachment, ADHD, bullying, and brain development. I think he has it right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKES1nyitAg
I don't think we should be teaching teenagers that babies are cute and giggly and adorable and pliable. Now if the infant-pet is all screams and burp-ups and diaper blowouts, that's a good lesson.
Donna, they do this in Elementary schools, like Kindergarten through 2nd grade. High schoolers have enough babies as it is.
I take my baby to work and to a nearby school where I have students. Not often, kids love it but it can be distracting. But I think that babies teaching empathy is a cool idea. I surmise it is because babies are non-verbal, you have to know what they need or are thinking by looking at non-verbal cues like behavior, facial expression and body language. When you engage with that kind of stimulus, your brain mimics all of it in order to understand it. Hence, building empathy.
Our teaching is multi-sensory. Since learning is through the senses, when you teach that way it makes more of an impact. Some of our kids are deficient in auditory processing, they HAVE to learn by sight, movement and touch. How did Hellen Keller learn?
Radioactivity is here!!
http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/fukushima-28-signs-that-the-west-coast-is-being-absolutely-fried-with-nuclear-radiation/
Jeezus, what the hell is going on wiht radiation in Indianapolis, why are we at DEFCON 3?!?!? I'm dealing with an imminent 100 year flood zone panic right now, I can't face radioactive fallout too!
yay!
wait, that's not something to cheer is it?
they are going to start removing some of the fuel rods next month. if it goes bad, like worst case scenario, which i think means they drop the building (or a structural collapse since it's already damaged, or another earthquake), it could result in billions of deaths. the current round of removing rods should take about a year. they are planning on about 40 years to get them all.
might be a good time to join valut-tec.
indy is fine. that dot was for cleveland. you can zoom in on the map here:
http://www.netc.com/
OMG curt thank you for finding that.
Now as long as I don't have to drive past a Buca di Beppo on the way home* I should be fine.
*That's a reference you can find on my Where'd You Go, Bernadette thread here. I find it a helpful gauge of my frustration-with-life level.
What the hell is wrong with San Antone? I mean, Houston I get.
There's an archinect book club?!?!
No, tint, I'm trying to start one. I want EVERY architect to read Where'd You Go, Bernadette.
On a related note, I just sent a series of emails to a surveying firm I've hired that I'm sure have been printed out and posted on the office bulletin board with a big red sign saying "ALL ARCHITECTS ARE CRAZY AND HERE'S PROOF!!". The surveyor double-reiterated to me that he does not believe I need to be present while they do the survey - I'm sure he's scared to meet me in person in case the crazy rubs off. I'm somewhat proud.
Yeah, the news from Fukushima is bad. Really bad. The "decommissioning" of the spent fuel pool is beyond difficult, it will take a series of absolute miracles to pull off. The estimates I've read are > Chernobyl x85 if they drop a rod, the cooling fails, the structure fails, if there's more seismic damage, if someone sneezes, etc., etc. Which doesn't even consider the difficulty of working in a area where a fatal dose of radiation can be received within a few hours.
Another source says that is less problematic (if you can imagine anything less problematic than that) than the vast quantities of water streaming straight into the pacific after passing through the 3 (count 'em, three) still fissioning 100-ton core meltdowns.
That this isn't front page, top headline news in every media outlet around the world is a impossible to understand. Even Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers can't hide from radiation.
Get you radiation-proof underwear here.
I haven't trusted a survey in several years. It is all smoke and mirrors. Let me tell you how it all started on the East Coast.... Corner of property Large Oak Tree (died over a hundred years ago) to large stone ( there are a lot of frickiing large stones in New England). to adjoining property monument (which was removed cause he hated neighbor). I can go on and on but this is my general feeling about surveys. I have on several occasions tried to close old surveys on properties and have found them to be missing closure by over ten feet. On of my recent project was in the other direction Topographic data was all wrong. Oh well... we scratched our heads a lot and our butts... and finally got everything worked out. The solution was not in accord with either the survey or the Civil Engineers design. Just a bunch of contractors and myself saying, water has to flow this way....so hold that elevation and that elevation...
I have my iodine..under the pillow miles.
On the subject of school (K-12):
reported 1,168,354 homeless students as enrolled in school, a 10 percent increase from SY 2010-11 (1,065,794), and a 24 percent increase over the three-year period SY 2009-10 (939,903) to SY 2011-12
http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/data-comp-0910-1112.pdf
A national disgrace. One of far, far too many. It's time to tear the system down.
Donna, my experience is that the engineers know their business. But of course, if something looks out of wack to you, as an architect, it probably is. I'm always amazed that the number of dumb questions that pop into my head, that when I ask the engineers, it turns out that I'm right. For example - hey Mr. Electrical engineer, did you, by any chance, take the time to contact the utility company and find out if they can actually supply the power to that mo-fikkin monster transformer you designed for our building? Cuz you've been working on this design for 6 months and it'd be a real drag if the utility company wanted to charge some massive fee to run new wire some 10s of miles to our site. Oh, you haven't contacted the utility company yet? You might want to.
So, you're not crazy.
The issue is we are - from what I can tell - very, very close to being right at the Base Flood Elevation for the flood zone we are in. If we are below the BFE, even by 1/10 of a foot (that's the accuracy they require), we get bumped to a significantly higher flood insurance cost. So my questions all revolved around exactly what the definitions of deck, grade, etc. mean, since we have a patio slab that sits 2" below the house slab and the garage sits 8" below. Also our garage is either attached or detached depending on the one piece of flashing that wraps from the roof of the porch to the garage - the structures are totally separate - so that 18 inch long 1/16" thick piece of aluminum with two screws in it *could* cost me $6k per year if not handled right.
I'm not trying to break any rules, but I think architects can easily see creative ways to make sure we *fit* the rules as required, where engineers (especially civil engineers) tend to not think about creative ways to handle situations that aren't black and white.
Miles, serious question: that statistic *is* a national disgrace, one among thousands. How do you stay positive and not just give up in the face of this kind of crap? It seriously seems like nothing is going right these days, either on a national scale, locally, or personally. Outside of having an amazing child and husband and family and friends, I just don't see anything good in the world. Which might be depression, might be menopause, or might be accurate.
Donna, the only thing I can see to do is make an example in your own life and try to create the world you want to live in. For each of us that is different but in general reduce tax liability (easy for an architect) so as not to support a corrupt government and war for corporate profit, vote with your wallet (it's the only vote that actually counts, imagine what would happen if nobody bought health insurance or tuna fish or Verizon service), use alternative medicine, etc. Beyond that it means being active in your own community, recognizing that enlightened self-interest (where we all take care of each other) is the only alternative to the psychotic behavior of personal self-interest most accurately described as greed.
I don't know you guys feel about Russell Brand, but I thought this interview that's making the rounds was rather exciting. I'm not willing to suggest that he's the right person to be relaying the message, but I found myself nodding quite intensely at times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3YR4CseY9pk
^ Excellent.
OK that interview was hilarious. And yes, pretty much everything Brand says is true. Except that I *do* vote, and advocate for voting, because there is such thing as lesser of two evils.
I guess my first move needs to be to cancel my PayPal account, because that PayPal founder guy is a little libertarian conservative prick.
I vote with my wallet every day. Repeatedly. Preferably locally and organically.
I used to vote *against* they guy I thought was worse. That never seemed to pan out because either the guy I voted against won (I didn't vote "for" anyone) or the guy who got my vote turned out to be as much of or an even bigger crook / stooge / asshole than the politician he replaced (i.e. Obama). Now I either vote FOR someone (actually for the ideals they represent, like Jill Stein) or I write in candidates (like Adolf Schicklgruber or Mickey Mouse).
I was reading just earlier this week about a place where it was common to not vote at all if you were dissatisfied with the candidates and then they would redo the elections with new candidates. You didn't have to pick between the lessor of two evils, you could vote none of the above. Maybe it was fictional. I can't remember where I saw it.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.