Post #12

Child's Play

It is mind-numbing to believe the widespread negative ramifications caused by a simple legislative act. The public school system in the United States(US) has been reeling since 2001, when President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act(NCLB) into effect. I believe the act to be counterproductive because a premium has been placed on standardized testing, upon which the results determine a school's budget. NCLB has reeked havoc on teachers' curriculum by monopolizing the priority list and jeopardizing time slots normally devoted to lesser activities, such as physical education. These types of time budget manipulations are all but forced  compensations in order to adequately prepare for test taking. Most importantly NCLB has exposed the American public, and its symbiotic public school system! Why exactly are students unprepared for standardized tests? From my experience, the cycle begins with the students and the parents, not the teachers, nor the standardized tests. Unfortunately too many Americans live in a bubble. In 2010, the United States ranked 48th out 133 developed nations in math and science standardized testing. Unfortunately, the situation will have to get much worse in order for it to improve. Multiple social factors actively contribute to the continual renewing of this disingenuous and distorted reality. Fixing the situation will not be as easy as child's play!

Post #11

 Election Results

The presidential election that took place on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 was a landslide. President Obama won seven out of eight swing states, those being: FL, OH, VA, CO, NV, IA, NH and amassed a total of 332 electoral college votes to his opponent's 206 votes. He also won the popular vote by more than 3 million votes. One particular statistician, Nate Silver , a neutral and well respected analyst, made an early prediction based on polling, and was practically 100% accurate. Also, TYT host and founder Cenk Uygur, made a prediction in September 2012 that practically mirrored the election outcome. To me, the most entertaining part of the election is not that President Obama was re-elected, for which I am thankful and commend him for, but the continual internal bickering and seemingly eternal finger pointing of the Grand Old Party (GOP). Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris of the Fox News Channel say that conservatives have lost the country.Carl Rove, the Grand Poobah the GOP, and perhaps the person suffering most from bubble vision ,was the most distraught over the election results.The GOP is spiraling out of control, and are out of touch on issues most important to their constituents. I sincerely hope they remain entrenched in their bubble, and continue to adhere to 19th century conservatism.