🚀 go-pugleaf

"Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgroups@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:FJKSj.76905$Uf4.67909@en-nntp-08.dc1.easynews.com...
> "Paul E. Schoen" <pstech@smart.net> wrote in message 
> news:481b7137$0$19807$ecde5a14@news.coretel.net...
>> http://www.kennethkuhn.com/hpmuseum/hp_tour.htm
>
> That man has a lot of cats.

He needs them to keep mice out of the equipment. My second house is full of 
electronic equipment, surplus parts, tools, books, and other "junk", so his 
place looks familiar. And I no longer have a cat, and I have found mouse 
nests in some of my stuff.


> Oh, and HP equipment too.
>
> I enjoyed his writing about his teaching experiences, e.g., 
> http://www.kennethkuhn.com/writings/commentaries/the%20quality%20of%20students%20today.htm .

Yes, I tend to agree. I saw an early example of this even at Johns Hopkins 
University, where I attended from 1966 to 1970. For one thing, I had 
problems with advanced calculus, and I really did not understand much. I 
would get scores of 15 or 25 out of 100. Yet they were graded on the curve, 
and I actually passed! I took the course over again, with an instructor who 
spoke real English and did not write in Sanscrit, and I learned a little 
more, but this time I passed with a "C" for test scores well under 50%.

In a class on Games and Artificial Intelligence, I worked hard on a 
programming project and turned in a pretty good assignment, and I was 
appalled when it was returned with a note saying that the professor had 
learned that there was a lot of cheating going on, although he did not 
specifically blame me. I'm sure things have deteriorated since then.

It seems that the PC thing to do, these days, is to reward laziness and 
poor learning habits, at the expense of those who take the time and effort 
to learn and do independent research and make efforts above and beyond what 
is demanded. The "no child left behind" program pushes students through the 
system with little or no absolute requirements for graduation, and are 
often rewarded just for not engaging in criminal activity (which is also 
tolerated). Maybe this should be replaced with a program of "No child's 
behind left unspanked"!

This attitude, poor character, and lack of responsibility also appears as 
poor decision making in real life, as evidenced by many of those who are 
now losing their homes in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Many of these 
people were duped into getting themselves into unrealistic situations 
because they did not get a good education, which was freely offered to 
them, and had the expectation that things would be just given to them 
because they were somehow entitled to it. They kept their poor spending 
habits and accumulated more debt, until their house of plastic cards fell 
down on them. But now they expect the government to step in and save them 
from their own irresponsibility.

I was challenged on this when I brought it up and discussed it on 
rec.pets.dogs.behavior, where most people thought I was being heartless and 
uncaring about these poor people. I realize there are some cases where good 
people had bad things happen to them through no fault of their own, and 
they deserve some sympathy and assistance, but most probably were lazy 
students with poor character.

Paul