Ranko's Reality

The U.S. educational system is in trouble. With a 30% or so national dropout rate, with major discipline problems (which are kept hidden by principals and Boards of Education), and with education having nothing to do with the needs of students, but only with the needs of raising standardized test scores, it's no wonder the problems exist. Here is my solution, at least what I've come up with so far. I'm still working on it. My major emphasis is on the lower-level students.

CHANGING THE AGE FOR DROPPING OUT

1. Students are required to attend some form of school through grade 8. After that, they can drop out on their own, without parental permission.

TEST FOR GETTING INTO HIGH SCHOOL

2. Students will take a high-school entrance test towards the end of 8^th grade. What level they will enter high school will be determined by:

a. The results on their test (math, science, English, social studies)

b. Their discipline record. (If a student is a discipline problem in junior high, he or she will probably be a discipline problem in high school).

c. Any teacher/administrator recommendations.

d. Whether they plan to attend college or not.

JUNIOR HIGHS, GRADES 7 AND 8

3. Junior high schools will have some form of educational programs during the summer. They will be both credit and non-credit courses, and will include:

a. Regular academic courses for credit. (Taught by regular teachers)

b. Courses on how to study, how to learn, how to take tests, etc.

c. Courses relating to crafts such as knitting, dancing, singing, etc. These will be primarily for fun.

d. Courses on computers; the most efficient way to do research, how to write term papers, etc. (These three will be taught by volunteers, including parents, teachers, etc. They will be sort of like “community courses” that some colleges run. Also note; c and d will also be available to parents.)

HIGH SCHOOLS AND LEVELS

4. High School will be divided into various levels:

a. Advanced Placement. These will be students who scored very high on the high school entrance examination, and who have had very high grades in both 7^th and 8^th grade. This is a college-oriented level.

b. College Preparatory. This will be for students who score well on the high school entrance exam, and who have decent grades in both 7^th and 8^th grades, and who plan on going to college.

c. Life Sciences level. This is for students who had generally low grades in 7^th and 8^th grades, a generally low score on the high school entrance exam, and who have no desire at all to go to college.

All classes will be oriented towards things needed to know about vocational careers, and regular “everyday” types of things a person needs to know to function in society.

Courses will include:

1. Science

a. Biology: emphasis will be on ecology, human physiology as it relates to health issues, plants and animals as they relate to vocational careers, having pets, etc. Topics such as microbiology will be shortened and relate to human diseases. Topics such as evolution will be dropped. The result will be that the present-day biology textbook will have about a third to a half of its content dropped, and the other, more “practical” topics developed further than they are.

b. Physical Science: this will cover chemistry (with emphasis on how chemistry applies to everyday life, as in cooking), physics, geology, astronomy, and weather, and criminology. Also included will be fictional stories about science, such as an analysis of some science fiction stories and television programs, as to how realistic the science is, and how the science used effects the society on which it is used.

2. Math

a. Basic Math: as it says, basic. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions. Students must pass this level before they can take any other math courses.

b. Business and Household math: home accounts, how to manage checking accounts, how to pay bills, math relating to cooking and home repairs, etc.

c. Higher Math: limited overviews of algebra, trigonometry and geometry. This will be an optional course.

3. English

a. Basic English. How to write complete sentences correctly. How to take notes. How to write reports. How to research information in order to write reports. How to analyze newspaper and TV information as to its accuracy. The difference between fact and fiction. How to get the most out of reading, and how reading can actually be an acceptable pastime. How what is in a book, story, etc. relates to the conditions of the society under which it was written.

b. English II: Early American writers; writings about the Civil War; writings concerning the Great Depression; writings about World War II; writings about the Sixties; modern authors (including young adult novelists).

c. English III: English and the Mass Media. The concept of propaganda and how it is used. Censorship through history. English as used in television programs; the good, the bad, and the totally awful. How to determine what the plot of something is. Analyzing various stories and television shows as to the plot, and what is it trying to tell the person reading or watching? How to write a story. How to write a television script. Analysis of various stories and television programs and the type of English they use.

d. English IV: A more in-depth reading of various books, including some English classics, but emphasis on more modern books, including young-adult books. More in-depth writing by the students through the use of a journal. Students will also write short stories, plays and television scripts. Some independent study will be involved.

4. Social Studies

a. World History: The origin of human civilization. Scientific, literary, mathematical and social accomplishments of early cultures. Arguments and wars between cultures: why? World religions and their effect on their societies. Examine cultures of various countries, including their entertainment and food. Extinctions of cultures- how does that happen and why? Concept of race hatred and how it is caused and what the effects are. The Holocaust, slavery, anti-Oriental prejudice prior to WWII.

b. U. S. History: The life and culture of the Native Americans, good and bad. Why people came to North America. The various cultures that settled North America (Vikings, Spanish, English, French), and how they were alike and different. The American Revolution-what caused it? What were its effects? Class levels develop in the U.S. How they were alike and how they were different. The growth of the merchant class. The Civil War: what caused it, could it have been avoided, and what would have happened if it had ended differently. The Great Depression and its effect on the U.S. U.S. isolationism after WWI. WWII through posters and propaganda films, etc. The Vietnam War and the Sixties revolution. The Iraq wars, and their effect on American politics. The splitting of the nation into Republican and Democratic camps, and the growing intolerance of each for the other. This will also include some material on American geography.

c. Current Events in relation to Society, Culture and History: An analysis of current events, both worldwide, nationwide and local, and how those events have roots in the culture and history of the society in which they occur. Also, how these events impact, or fail to impact, upon the daily lives of the students and their relatives, and what can, if anything, be done about the events. Other topics would include Women's Suffrage, Black Suffrage, and analysis of printed and television ads relating to election campaigns. This will also include some material on world geography.

D. Psychology. An examination of psychology and how people think. Also examined will be the topics of philosophy and logic, and how they can be used in daily life. A study of mental illness through history, it's relation to the witchcraft trials, and how it is handled today. Psychology of inter-personal relationships, especially concentrating on marriage and how to settle disagreements between married and non-married people. Study of the concept of hate, and how hate has effected politics and culture through history, with concentration on Anti-Semitism in relation to the Holocaust, and attitudes towards homosexuality. How the use of ads are based on psychology.

5. Fine Arts

a. Fine Arts I: First part of course will consist of overviews of drawing, singing, performing and other areas of the fine arts. The rest of the course will separate students into groups based on their own interests, and a more in-depth study of whichever art or arts they are most interested in will be done.

b. Fine Arts II: A study of the fine arts found in various countries in the world, including how those arts relate to the history and culture of that country. This will also include television programs from those countries.

Historical Science: The history of natural and physical sciences. Uses and misuses of science. Atomic bomb. Aryan superiority. Evolution vs. Creationism.

This is a very simple bailout plan. Gather up all the CEOs, Boards of Directors, and other fat cats who have profited off on this debacle, an give them a special plane ride!

Take the plane up to about 10,000 feet, open the door, and push them out.

Without a golden parachute.

Without any parachute.

Problem solved. Next group who comes to power will think twice about ripping off the middle class again.

Here is a scenario of what might happen in October.

Around the second week of this coming October there is a day in which there are three or four "terrorist" attacks in the U.S. on widely spaced areas. The number of deaths will not be high, as the attacks will be accompanied by a warning that they were just a demonstration of what the terrorists will do soon. Some of the terrorists will supposedly be U.S. citizens who happen to be gay and/or lesbian.

(These attacks will not be by terrorists, but will be by a select group of people, some from the government, some from big business, and some from the Christian far right), but they will  be made to look like terrorist attacks.)


The Bush administration will declare a state of martial law. The presidential election will be "officially" postponed until "peace and tranquility" are restored in the nation.  There will be a number of executive orders (like Executive Order 9066 from FDR) that will basically "temporarily" suspend most rights. The Christian extremists will begin to declare that the attacks are a "sign from God" that the U.S. must fully embrace Christianity, and purge itself of "disruptive" elements (like gays, lesbians, liberals, etc.) and drive Islam out of the country.

Some elements of the U.S. military will be involved in all of this.

The result will be that the U.S. will become a theocracy. The Bill of Rights will, effectively, be done away with. Those who wish to protest this in court will find their way blocked by new executive orders banning any such legal maneuvers. No matter how anyone wishes to challenge the new laws or the martial law declaration, they will be unable to do so because they will not be allowed to do any such thing in court.

Muslims will be gathered up and deported to other countries. All evidences of Islamic worship will be purged from the U.S. This will be done first; afterwards, the Christian right will produce "evidence" tying in gays, etc. to the attacks, and the U.S. will begin to establish internment camps for them. Many gays, etc, will go into hiding; some will try to appear as heterosexuals.

The TV will also be heavily censored. Ellen Degeneras (might be spelling that wrong) will be removed from the air, as will any other programs seen as gay friendly. Schools will be required to teach the "evils" of Islam, and to disband all gay,etc. groups, and to make health ed. programs strictly based on abstinence.

Executive orders will nullify everything like legal marriage from same-sex couples. They will also nullify some of the State's rights. Again, anyone who protests will be unable to get their cases heard.

There will be some violent protests which will be exactly what the "new" government wants. They will use such protests to "justify their position" and to crack down on dissidents. The U.S. will, in effect, become a Nazi-like Christian-extremist state, with suspension of almost all personal rights "for the time being."

Bush will remain President, although McCaIn or someone else will be given a sort of co-President position.

There will probably be one or two more "staged" attacks, just to keep up the pressure and the media coverage.

The Internet, at least relating to things originating in the U.S., will become very heavily censored. People will be encouraged to turn in any sites that seem "un-American." Big Business will get even bigger and more powerful, and much of the Internet, in the U.S., will be reserved for them alone. Fewer and fewer "average" people will be able to use the Internet except for shopping, as costs for personal web sites will be increased so much most "average" people will no longer be able to afford to have their own pages.

More and more of the media will be brought under control by government groups and pro-government "interest groups." (Such as what ws done in Japan during World War II to their own media.)

The Democratic party, by various methods, will be isolated and severely reduced in power. Presidential elections will be postponed indefinitely by the government. There will still be a Democratic party present in state and local elections, though, at least for a while.

I've modified my Maude Adams section. The index page had to be redone and various sections put on sub-index pages, as it would have made the main index page far too long.

Also, I've added a system for noting when I update files; I put a date after the title, such as Book X (4/08), meaning I added that file in April of 2008. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than nothing.

I added around 70 new files and maybe a dozen pictures to her section. Next to be added to will be the Fairies section and the Japan section.

"Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before"

I was a student in high school, I think. I was male, but for some reason some kind of agreement had been reached that, at least for that day, I was to be dressed and made up as a girl.

I was sitting at my chair/desk and the other students must have commented on how I looked, they liked it, and some actually applauded.

That was quite a nice dream.

Here's an idea for an anti-Hillary ad.

Scene: Some room in the White House. The phone rings, and a Hillary look-alike picks it up and starts talking.

Suddenly, three beautiful, young, built and sexy women run by, giggling and laughing. A Bill Clinton look-alike appears, wearing a Harpo Marx-type wig with a hand bike horn, honking at the women, smiling, grabing at them and chasing them.

Hillary looks disgusted and hangs up the phone, and then says "Bill, will you STOP that!"

Cut to scene: A Russian-looking man looks at the phone he's holding and has a questioning look on his face, then gets angry.

Back to White House:

A voice-over then says; "Is this what we want in the White House at 3 o'clock in the morning?"

A new slogan for HIllary for the election if she is the nominee: "Hold your nose and vote for Hillary."

We've had a major snowstorm here so, of course, I decided to go out and take some pictures. They are up on my web site and are located here:

http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/photos17.html

I took these around 10 or 11 in the morning. There was almost no traffic on the street. The only people out were some people with kids, a couple of people walking, and one (probably terribly insane) jogger.

Yesterday I finished revising my section on World War II posters, mostly anti-Japanese. The main index is here:

http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/posters.html

The section was only one page originally, but I added a lot of posters so I broke it up into various sections.

I am supporting Barack Obama for the nomination for President. There is no doubt that both candidates have some good ideas, but ideas are not all that is necessary. A sense of hope, a sense of possibility, a sense of the American dream is what is needed, and Barack Obama is the person who can deliver on that.

The last time we had a candidate that was able to bring some hope into the darkness was JFK. People need ideas, but they also need someone who believes in them, who can inspire them to do things they didn't think possible, just as JFK inspired the nation to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

Many people such as myself are tired of all the negativity in politics, and all the negativity in the news media. We look for someone to inspire us, for someone to lead us to do what can be done to help others.

We're also tired of all the hate. Both politics and religion in this country seem to have become consumed by hatred of those seen as different and not-as-good as "ourselves". I believe Barack Obama is the best hope we have to try to reverse this growing sense of hatred and intolerance in the country.

This country cannot survive "business as usual" in politics. We need someone who has not been bought off by the special interest groups, who doesn't owe tons of "political favors" to others, and whose highest concern is the welfare of all the people, not just a select few.

I think Barack Obama can do the things that need to be done to clean up and refresh politics, to restore a sense of hope and possibility to the people of this country, and to heal the damage that has been done to America's reputation in the international community.

Yesterday I finished updating my web site sections on Fairies and Lizze McGuire, adding a bunch of book reviews in each, and various scans to the Fairies section.

Today I'm starting work on updating my section on Japan, which will probably take several days to do. I also have some stuff coming in I got off ebay; over 1500 Army photos from WWII; loads of WWI and WWII posters; and around 24,000 pages of documents covering Japan after the war (CIA files); the planned invasion of Japan; history during WWII of hte Air Force, Army and Marine corps; documents on the occupatin of Japan, and something about Infantry commanding officers narratives.

Next month I'll probably pick up a few more of these things from ebay.

1. Added reviews for Extreme Prejudice and Passing Fancy to Alien Nation section.
2. Added reviews for several Bratz books, and scans of various merchandise and Barbie playing cards.
3. Added reviews of Shomuni 1 to Dorama section.
4. Review of Japanese horror movie Pulse. (Bad movie)

Most people who know anything at all about WWII know we dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Most don't know a third was almost ready, and the target was going to be Tokyo about a week after Nagasaki.

Apparently, there were contingencies for the use of around fifty atomic bombs on Japan. Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, would have seen the use of 9 atomic bombs (if they had been ready in time.) 3 were to be dropped on the beaches that were to be landed on; 3 more were to be dropped behind those beach areas, and 3 were to be held in reserve and used whenever the Japanese tried to bring in concentrated reinforcements.

Oppenheimer, the man who led the atomic bomb project, is one of those who is cited as talking about fifty atomic bombs.

I've been reading a number of young adult and other books about the Salem Witch Trials and find the material quite interesting.

It seems that a whole lot of what happened can be attributed to a certain number of causes:

1. The arguments and bad feeling that were going on between Salem Village, where most of the accusers came from, and Salem Town, where most of the accused were. The town was rich, the village poor. The town was powerful, the village was under its control. There was a lot of bad feeling, and there's no doubt that a lot of the accusations made by adults was related to this.

2. The Puritan religion was incredibly controlling, and children had no outlet for games or play. The entire message they got from their religion and the adults was basically a negative one, as far as self-image goes. The girls that started the accusations in Salem did so partially for the attention that it brought them from the adults.

3. Once accusations were made and some girls began acting as if they were being attacked, other girls acted the same way. This was really a form of mass hysteria.

4. Many of the accusations made by the children were probably influenced by things the adults had said in relationship to bad feelings and arguments between neighbors.

5. There is no doubt there was prejudice on the part of some of the judges against particular individuals, again due to some considered slight or outright feud.

6. Some of the continuing problems were due to the fact that this was a very profitable business. The property of the accused could be confisgated. The witch hunters/judges/etc. got paid. Even some businesses made a profit by providing drink and food to those attending the hearings.

7. The whole thing came to a sharp ending when the wife of the governor of that territory was accused. He stepped in to bring things back under control, and before long the trials and witch panic was over. There were also some instances where people did not take the accusing girls seriously in places other than Salem, and the girls generally began acting more normal until they got back to their homes.

8. The one man who died was pressed to death, but not because he had been found to be a witch. He was brought before the judges and asked to plead guilty or not, but he refused to plead either way. A board was placed on his body and heavy rocks added in order to force him to make a plea, but the weight proved too much for his eighty-year-pld body, and he died.

9. Tituba, the slave woman who was one of the first accused, admitted being a witch and, by that admission, avoided being hung, although she stayed in prison. Her master had beaten her while she was in his service, and this also may have had a part in her pleading guilty, thus getting away from him.

10. The youngest person put in prison for being a witch was less than five years old.

I saw the program Life after People on the history channel. One thing to keep in mind is that I have clinical depression, and, to me, that show was totally depressing. It was interesting only from the standpoint of pure academic intellectual interest and the graphics (which were damaged by repeating the same graphic cgi over and over and over).

There was no reason given for why there were no more humans, and all the bodies of the humans had apparently disappeared. Otherwise, the entire message of the program seemed to be that the existence of humans is irrelevant, and after humans are gone no trace will remain (given, say, 10,000 years.)

They even came up with a reason why no other form of life would evolve that would have sentience like humans do (and thus, be able to build a new civilization of some kind. )

It also sort of bothered me that, when a lot of the experts were talking about what would happen, they were smiling or laughing, and I don't think it was nervous laughter.

Spent a good part of today watching a bunch of episodes of One Step Beyond. Also ordered a bunch of books from the library, some on the Salem Witch Trials, and most of ther others on Japan. They will be children's/young adult books, and I want to see how they handle the information.

One of the dreams I had last night was a pretty typical one involving UFOs. I was in a city, and in the distance could see that the aliens had nuked another city; the mushroom cloud was quite visible.

Where I was, people were panicking and trying to get away. There was an alien spaceship above the city; it was long, formed of yellowish cubes with some black striping on it. Apparently, it was firing on people when it could see them, so I was trying to find a place in a building where I wouldn't be visible from outside.

I made a list today of lesbian novels from the forties through sixties (mostly), based on the titles of paperback covers. I decided to find out how many had negative word associations. (The list is a sample list only; I know there were lots more books than this group that were made.)

The words below are from the covers, or are variations of the words on the cover (for example; pervert = pervert, perverted, perversions, etc.)

Sin = 25; Strange = 25; Twisted = 9; Perverted = 7; Forbidden = 4; Shame = 4;
Unnatural = 4; Bitter = 3; Evil = 3; Warped = 3; Abnormal = 2; Deviate = 2;
Odd = 2; Tormented = 2; Abnormal = 1; Bizarre = 1; Damned = 1; Depraved =1; Degraded = 1; Doomed = 1; Jaded = 1

The list had 853 books. Of the sample group, about 12% had names with negative connotations in them, which actually is fewer than I expected.

Yesterday I added two neckaces I made to my beading section.

I also added a number of books to my reviews of books about fairies.

In addition, I added more reviews to my reviews of young adult novels.

I won an auction on ebay for an old lesbian novel called Strange Breed. That means I'll end up with four or five novels of that kind. I also now have four of the original regular-sized pulp magazines, science-fiction in nature.

My copy of Spring Fire came in today. It's a 1958 lesbian pulp novel that looks like its one that uses the "horrible things happen to lesbian" type of endings.

I'm currently reading Thunderbird Falls, A Wizard Abroad, and Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America.

I added a few book reviews about fairies to my site today, and added some more photos to my photo section.

I managed to get a couple of old lesbian paperbacks to add to my beginning collection. I got both City of Women and A Lesson in Love; I already have Spring Fire coming in. They are all, I think, books from the 1950's. The book Strange Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction 1949-1969, talks about the societal influences and controls of books of the time, such as the stories were supposedly to end badly for the lesbian.

I'm fascinated by culture and the mass media, and have already done soem reading about World War II propaganda, both Japanese and American, and how that was done and what effects is had.

I started reading Claimed by Shadow today; it's a Cassandra Palmer book, the second one in the series.