HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Mischa_Sandberg@mindlink.bc.ca (Mischa Sandberg)
Subject: Re: Home Schooling?
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 18:14:35 GMT

> Mischa Sandberg writes:
> > Leonard Toohey writes:
> > 1. What are the reasons for home schooling?
> Many. They tend to fall into three rough groups, depending on personal
> experience, and people tend to cross the lines:
> ...

- (reason 3): religious/moral grounds. Being Fundamental Skeptics,
my wife and I are opposed to any situation that teaches children that
is more important to accept others' opinions, than to work things
out for yourself. The mainstream religious/moral objection is one
concerned with the teaching of non-Christian values, or the teaching
of evolution -- the latter being a logic I disagree with but find
no more offensive than the revisionist history high schools seem
teach (do Americans still not learn about the New York riots in
the Civil War, or about the Canadian side of the War of 1812? ...
but  digress wildly)




--
Mischa Sandberg ... Mischa_Sandberg@mindlink.bc.ca
                 or uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Mischa_Sandberg
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Engineers think equations are an approximation of reality.
Physicists think reality is an approximation of the equations.
Mathematicians never make the connection.
From: curt@ekhadafi.austin.ibm.com (Curt Finch 903 2F021 curt@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com 512-838-2806)
Newsgroups: misc.education
Subject: Re: Clinton's Education Policy (aka reform is dead)
Date: 17 Dec 92 21:58:41 GMT
Organization: IBM AWD, Austin

In article <92351.173810U38026@uicvm.uic.edu> <U38026@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:
>What is the Government Doing About Public Education?

As little as possible.

                    =====  EDUCATION '92  =====

*8   EDUCATION'S DARTH VADER:  TEACHER UNION AND ALLIES
     Election 1992 produced major setbacks for education reform,
Chester Finn writes in a W.S. JOURNAL op-ed.  The Clinton-Gore
victory was not the only disappointment for reformers.  Finn
writes that several state and local initiatives, including the
defeat of a statewide school voucher program in Colo., also were
"blow[s]."
     Finn blames the "education empire," made up of teachers
unions and their allies, for the initiatives' defeat.  The
education establishment had been "plenty vex[ed]" by education
reform's shift in emphasis from resources to results following
the publication of "A Nation At Risk," according to Finn.  And
their ire was further raised by the nation's focus on national
goals, standards and tests, and the emergence of alternative
certification and charter schools.
     These new ideas encourage competition and comparisons, both
of which "alarmed" the education establishment, whose "power base
[is] in local school boards and collective bargaining
agreements," according to Finn.  But he adds that privatization
and school choice pose the "greatest threats" to the
establishment, for whom Finn writes that four more years of the
"George Bush crowd fanning these flames" may have been too much.
     He writes that although Clinton's "school reform instincts
appeared sound ... so heavily is Mr. Clinton in thrall to the
teacher unions that their leaders are boasting of the influence
they'll wield."  The "education empire" plans to:  Stop the
privatization-and-choice movement before it spreads; promote
standards that really aren't; frustrate the creation of serious
means testing; revive the emphasis on resources; and not
seriously analyze liberal proposals for ed reform, while
"dissecting" others.
     Finn predicts that "someday, education's consumers may yet
prevail," because they control the purse strings.  "But the 1992
election was a blow to education reform that will not easily be
parried," he concludes (12/16).


-- 
curt@aixwiz.austin.ibm.com (Curt L. Finch) | AIX NFS/NIS Field Quality 
My views are unrelated to my employer's    |        Austin, TX
 There'll be too many elderly in 30 years for your kids to afford all the FICA.
From: pw@panix.com (Paul Wallich)
Newsgroups: misc.education,alt.discrimination,soc.culture.african.american,soc.women
Subject: Re: "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby"
Date: 14 Dec 92 18:35:26 GMT
Organization: Trivializers R Us

In article <1992Dec13.012844.945@samba.oit.unc.edu> Terry.Parks@launchpad.unc.edu (Terry Parks) writes:
>>BTW, I am STILL waiting for you to produce a list of white
>>and asian students who were "qualified" and have not been
>>able to attend college due to AA. 
>
>I refer you to the famous case where a person was denied access to
>Med school in California solely because he was Caucasian. He had
>to go to court to obtain access.

You mean the Bakke case, which involved an overage applicant (fewer
years of return for society's investment) with marginal grades and
a chip on the shoulder so major that only a fool would want him for
a doctor? He had only higher test scores going for him. But then
of course U Cal was eventually forced to admit him, so he was able
to attent medical school (not college).

Hard cases make bad law
From: leonard@devnull.mpd.tandem.com (Leonard Toohey)
Newsgroups: misc.education
Subject: Home Schooling??
Date: 18 Dec 92 17:54:54 GMT
Reply-To: leonard@devnull.mpd.tandem.com (Leonard Toohey)
Organization: Tandem Computers; Austin TX
Originator: leonard@norma

Greetings,

I have a few questions about home schooling. That is teaching your
school aged children at home as an alternative to public or
parochial schools.  

1. What are the reasons for home schooling?

2. How long do you home school?

3. What are benefits of home schooling? 

4. What are the disadvantages of home schooling?

5. How have home schooled students compared to public schooled 
   students in standardized tests?

6. Any other comments, information, etc.


Thanks,
-- 
| Leonard E. Toohey              PCB Designer                            |
| Tandem Computers Incorporated  Guardian: SMTPGATE@AUSTIN(leonard@tzone)|
| 14231 Tandem Blvd.             Internet: leonard@mpd.tandem.com        |
|_Austin, Texas 78728-6699_______Phone: (512) 244-8427___________________|
Xref: sparky misc.education:5208 alt.discrimination:5282 soc.culture.african.american:12838 soc.women:21431
From: dswartz@redondo.sw.stratus.com (Dan Swartzendruber)
Newsgroups: misc.education,alt.discrimination,soc.culture.african.american,soc.women
Subject: Re: "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby"
Date: 11 Dec 92 20:12:40 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: redondo.sw.stratus.com

In article <1992Dec11.164107.11996@cs.wm.edu> sunny@il.cs.wm.edu (John S. Egbo) writes:
>
>In article <1992Dec10.010630.1914@microsoft.com>, johnhall@microsoft.com
>(John Hall) writes:
>|> It works that way, though.  If you let people in not fully prepared for
>|> the work, they end up leaving in droves (again, summary at the end).
>
>

[apologia for AA deleted]

Tutoring and other helps are all well and good, but they won't make up
for 12 years of substandard education at a crappy inner-city school.

>
>So just what does your statistics say again?

What my statistics say (and those of Berkeley, Harvard, Yale and every
other elite school that practices this form of AA) is that these kind
of special admissions students flunk-out in droves the first year.
Someone's already posted a comparison of the graduation rate of regular
admissions blacks vs special admissions blacks.  I believe the ratio of
about 2:1.

>-Sunny


-- 

#include <std_disclaimer.h>

Dan S.
Xref: sparky misc.education:5330 soc.culture.african.american:12969
From: barothwe@floyd.cca.cr.rockwell.com
Subject: Tax DEDUCTIONS for 1992
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 13:08:35 -0600
X-Received: by usenet.pa.dec.com; id AA11784; Wed, 16 Dec 92 11:09:01 -0800
X-Received: by inet-gw-2.pa.dec.com; id AA16244; Wed, 16 Dec 92 11:09:00 -0800
X-Received: by floyd.cca.cr.rockwell.com (5.57/Ultrix3.0-C)
	id AA27373; Wed, 16 Dec 92 13:08:36 -0600
X-To: misc.education.usenet
X-Mts: smtp


		------======<<<<<<(((((     )))))>>>>>>======------

		  You can get TAX DEDUCTIONS on hardware/software
		        if you donate by the end of 1992

		------======<<<<<<(((((     )))))>>>>>>======------

		 Got hardware and software you don't use anymore?

		------======<<<<<<(((((     )))))>>>>>>======------

		Got enough money that you can afford to be generous
		    with that which others can put to good use?

		------======<<<<<<(((((     )))))>>>>>>======------


        I am co-chairman of the "PTF Education Committee" (PTF is
Parent-Teacher-Fellowship) for a private, non-profit, Christian elementary/
middle school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We have two known-to-be-working Apples
and one IBM PC. We also have an Apple that I have not looked at yet. The
school's name is Isaac Newton Christian Academy. Money is tight, and
the roof needs repair, so usually fund raising tends to be directed towards
things other than computers. :-(

        We are, right now, working on establishing a "Computer Lab", and have
been talking about soliciting donations.

	We ask that if you have ANY Apple, Atari ST, Amiga or MS-DOS
hardware/ software items, partial systems, or complete systems, you
would SERIOUSLY consider donating these to our school. Even if it is an
item that needs repair, we'd be happy to accept it IF we know the
repair costs involved before it is
shipped to us.

	Even though we will appreciate any donation, here are some specific
	things we are looking for at this time:

		o  EGA graphics card/monitor for an IBM XT
		o  WordPerfect 4.2 for an IBM PC
		o  Educational software for an IBM PC
		o  Additional IBM PC's
		o  Anything to max out an Apple II+
		o  Color monitor for an Apple II+
		o  Educational software for an Apple II+, IIe or //c
		o  Amiga 500 Systems
		o  Atari ST Systems
		o  Power Supply for the original Commodore C-64

	REMEMBER... this is a BONA FIDE non-profit organization!

Thank you for your consideration and support,

Bruce Rothwell

===============================================================================
  Bruce Rothwell                            \ /~~~~~~\     Opinions expressed
  barothwe@floyd.cca.cr.rockwell.com         X        )    are mine, but they
  Rockwell Int'l - CCA                      / \______/     might be shared by
  Cedar Rapids, IA                                              multitudes !!
===============================================================================




Newsgroups: misc.education,alt.discrimination,soc.culture.african.american,soc.women
From: johnhall@microsoft.com (John Hall)
Subject: Re: "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby"
Date: 13 Dec 92 23:13:12 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corporation
Distribution: usa

In article bd%fluent@dartmouth.EDU writes:
| clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin) writes:
| 
| >then there is nothing that prevents this from being
| >a permanent fixture of higher education.
| 
| Charles, this does not square with my impression.  The people
| who are anti-AA claim that AA is meant to right the wrongs of
| slavery, but in fact it is meant to right wrongs that are much
| more recent (wrongs to the parents of the current generation),
| and wrongs that continue to this day.

First, preferential policies tend to be justified as temporary
but become permanent -- despite original expiration dates and
such.  In the case of Pakistan, the preferential policies for
east Pakistanies are still in place -- despite the fact
that east Pakistan is now Bangledesh.

AA has been justified on a large variety of grounds.  Historical
reparation is a popular one, though more recent defenses have
been based on more contemporary problems.  So it isn't the
'anti-AA' crowd pining this justification on AA.  They just
choose which arguements to counter most forcefully.




-- 
-------------------------
My comments are my own.  They are independent and unrelated to the
views of my company , relatives or elected representatives.
From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Subject: Re: "Reflections of an Affirmative Action Baby"
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 21:16:27 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1gappuINNf0s@bach.crhc.uiuc.edu> guillory@crhc.uiuc.edu (Stanford Guillory) writes:

>         AA has nothing to do with admitting people with
>lower scores than (others). AA has to do with making an effort to
>include minorities into your search process. 

 Just out of curiosity, where do you get this "official" 
 definition of AA?   

 One of the problems with AA is that it's like "feminism":
 it means different things to different people.  There are
 certainly some implementations of AA that DO give hiring
 preference to minorities.   The Boston Fire Department 
 was recently involved in a court case because they allow
 minorities to qualifiy with lower scores on Civil Service
 exams than non-minorities, and two non-minorities were
 accused of trying to pass themselves off as minorities.

 Also a relative of mine is VP of personnel at her company
 (~500 employees).  They have what they consider to be AA
 guidelines they try to meet.  She was thrilled recently when
 she was able to hire a Spanish woman since that gave them
 both a woman and someone they could classify as "Hispanic",
 based on her name (despite the fact that Spanish people
 are as European as Frenchmen or Germans).  She also had 
 a dispute once with another employee because the the company
 wanted to classify her as "Hispanic" based on her name
 despite the fact that it was her *married* name, and by birth
 she was WASPish.



---peter


Newsgroups: misc.education
From: oshea@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (michael oshea)
Subject: Spanish link?
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 22:26:18 GMT

I am interested in contacting Internet users in Spain or Latin
America to explore various topics relating to their respective
countries that I can incorporate into college level Spainsh
level courses I teach.  Access to a news sources in Spanish
like "USA Today" would also be helpful.  If you can provide any
hints as to how I can access this type of information, please
contact me at oshea@poe.acc or oshea@Virginia.edu.  Thank you.
Newsgroups: misc.education
From: "nigel allen" <nigel.allen@canrem.com>
Subject: Teacher Attrition: AFT President Shanker Responds to urvey
Reply-To: "nigel allen" <nigel.allen@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: misc
Date: 12 Dec 92 20:51:40 EST


Here is a press release from the American Federation of Teachers.

 AFT President Shanker Responds to Metropolitan Life Survey
 To: National Desk, Education and Labor writers
 Contact: Mary Ellen Shearer of the American Federation of Teachers,
          202-879-4596

   WASHINGTON, Dec. 10  -- American Federation of Teachers 
President Albert Shanker issued this statement today upon
the release of the Metropolitan Life survey, "The Second Year: New
Teachers' Expectations and Ideals":

   "This survey reveals that after two years of teaching, nearly half
of teachers are considering leaving their profession.  Until we
address the problem of 'revolving door teachers', we will never reach
our national education goals.
   "There is no other profession where large numbers of people are
thinking of leaving after two years.  Teachers' workloads are
staggering.  They deal with everything from students' standardized
test scores to their family and emotional problems.
   "We know the conditions that cause teachers to leave -- lack of
support and resources, low pay.  Until we provide teachers with the
means to teach their students, American education will never reach
world class standards."

   The AFT represents 796,000 teachers, paraprofessionals and school-
related employees, higher education faculty and staff, nurses and
health professionals, and public sector employees.
 -30-
--
Canada Remote Systems  - Toronto, Ontario
World's Largest PCBOARD System - 416-629-7000/629-7044
Newsgroups: misc.education,soc.culture.african.american,alt.discrimination
From: solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky)
Subject: Re: Racist/Sexist Role Models
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 04:08:06 GMT

In article <NmiyVB2w165w@netlink.cts.com>, galan@netlink.cts.com (Greg Gross) writes:
|> solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky) writes:
|> 
|> > In article <R1XiVB1w165w@netlink.cts.com>, galan@netlink.cts.com (Greg Gross)
|> > |> sethb@fid.morgan.com (Seth Breidbart) writes:
|> > |> Greg: 
|> > |> > How do you define racism?
|> > 
|> > |> Answer: A consistent and systematic attempt by one ethnic group to 
|> > |>         maintain political, social or economic dominance or control
|> > |>         over another within a society.
|> > 
|> > By grouping all members of ethnic groups together and by requiring consitency
|> > you ensure that what some whites do today can not be considered racism. I
|> > suggest you go searching for a new definition.
|> > 
|> > Jason W. Solinsky
|> 
|> Jason:
|> What I need is not a new definition, but an end to the fulfillment of the 
|> existing one.

My point is that the end of the fullfillment of the above definition has
already occured. All we have left is a minority of racists. Despite this,
you are clearly not happy.

Jason W. Solinsky
Newsgroups: misc.education,soc.culture.african.american
From: solman@athena.mit.edu (Jason W Solinsky)
Subject: Re: What A White Person Learned in College About AfAm Culture
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:39:06 GMT

In article <ByzK1F.8s0@quake.sylmar.ca.us>, brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder) writes:

|> The reason blacks have not "melted" into mainstream society since slavery
|> is NOT all their fault (nor that of everyone else).  The proponents of
|> racial separatism, no matter what their race, are to blame.

A quick note. Most of the minorities that were discriminated against
before succeeding benefited from racial seperation. They first became
prosperous by seperating themselves from the other groups. Then they
"melted in". It is quite possible that this lesson does not extend to
1992, but it definitely runs against the idea that racial seperation
and racial prosperity are diametrically opposed.

Jason W. Solinsky
Xref: sparky misc.education:5357 soc.culture.african.american:12999
From: ndanner@kiwi.ucs.indiana.edu (Norman Danner)
Newsgroups: misc.education,sci.math
Subject: Re: The Continuum Hypothesis:  Must it be {True or False}, or Not?
Date: 15 Dec 92 01:36:55 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington

In article <1992Dec14.200024.6435@nas.nasa.gov> asimov@wk223.nas.nasa.gov (Daniel A. Asimov) writes:
>	ASSUME that Fermat's Last Theorem is undecidable from the 
>	usual axioms of arithmetic. 

I'm reading this to mean FLT is unprovable from the Peano Axioms (PA).

>	Then there is a meta-argument which can now conclude that FLT is in fact
>	true.  For if it were false, then there must exist a counterexample.
>	Now simply doing the arithmetic to show that the counterexample
>	really is one, constitutes a disproof of FLT, contradicting undecidability.  
>	Therefore, undecidability implies that FLT cannot be false, so it is true.

The crux is in "simply doing the arithmetic".  If FLT is unprovable, then
by Godel's Completeness Theorem, there is *some* model of PA in which it is
false.  There is no reason that this model need be the standard model
(i.e., the natural numbers that most of us know and love).  The
counterexample might very well occur in a non-standard model.  For instance,
maybe it's in the model that holds a copy of the usual natural numbers,
plus another set of numbers "generated" by a constant c that is not
0, S(0), S(S(0)),... where S(n) is the successor of n.  Such a model
exists by the Compactness Theorem.  So while you can probably do the
arithmetic in the model that holds the counterexample, you have to figure
out which model it is first.  Like as not, figuring this out isn't
decidable (in fact, I'm not even sure how you would apply the notion
of decidability here).

>	Do people buy this, that FLT must be {true or false}, regardless of
>	whether it is provably true or false (i.e., decidable)?

In any given model of PA, FLT (or any sentence of the language of PA, for that
matter) must either be true or false.  As far as FLT being necessarily
true in the standard model, in one sense it does depend on whether or not
it is provable (if it is provable, then it must be true in the standard
model, as well as all the others), and in another it doesn't (if it isn't
provable, then unless its negation is provable, it can certainly still be
true in the standard model).

-- 
Norman Danner                    | The only difference between mathematicians
The Semantic Nihilist            |  and philosophers is that mathematicians
ndanner@indiana.edu              |      throw away their scratch paper.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xref: sparky misc.education:5355 soc.culture.african.american:12996 alt.discrimination:5358
From: jpark@rwja.umdnj.edu (John Park)
Newsgroups: misc.education,soc.culture.african.american,alt.discrimination
Subject: Re: Racism Defined ...
Date: 17 Dec 92 04:06:59 GMT
Followup-To: misc.education
Organization: Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway NJ

dlhanson@nap.amoco.com (David L. Hanson ) writes:

>In article <1992Dec13.235907.21207@microsoft.com> johnhall@microsoft.com (John Hall) writes:

>>In article root@gnn.org (Michael Mussington) writes:
>>| Another answer: An attempt of an ethnic group or any member thereof to
>>| implement procedures or structures intended to subordinate member of 
>>| another ethnic group, based upon an assertion that differing ethnicity
>>| constitutes qualitative difference.
>>
>>Another answer: An attempt to
>>implement procedures or structures intended to harm or subordinate 
>>member of another ethnic group, based only on their membership 
>>in said group.
>>
>>-- 
>>-------------------------
>>My comments are my own.  They are independent and unrelated to the
>>views of my company , relatives or elected representatives.
>>
>or promote or give special consideration to

>Signature follows:

>"The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.  They are corrupt, they
>have done abominable works, there is non that doeth good."  Psalms 14:1

>=========================================================================
>David L. Hanson       Internet --> dlhanson@nap.amoco.com
>Amoco Corporation     X.400    --> A=attmail,P=amoco,S=Hanson,G=David,I=L
>Any opinions expressed are my own! 

The tendency of the mind to catagorize, applied to groups of people,    
	to the point where the traits ascribed to the catagory of people
	become derisive, fearful, hateful, or dehumanizing etc...
	Ex. Oh x's are this way, x's can't do this..., x's are dangerous
	x's are good for this & these other x's are good for that...

another:
	When meeting, talking to, befriending, or bedding someone, the
	person's race is always most prominent in your mind.
	An example of the thought process: An x person is talking to me,
	Oh this is my x friend, x people should need my guidance and
	generosity since those x people are inherently incapable of it
	themselves,  this is my x girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband
	where x = a differing racial group from one's own
	...where thoughts of the person's race overrides seeing him or
	her as a person, an individual.

"race" is about as real as an IDEA...
We can look for differences or look for similarities.

Well these definitions may be too broad or maybe I defined "stereotype,"
but this is my $0.02 worth.


John S Park at UMDNJ-RWJ Rutgers.