Oh my... Just do a search for

a person familiar with the matter

and look at all the different stories and where they come from. Wow.

Look at how often "a person familiar with the matter" is used in reporting.

In a 1998 speech to international journalists, Lehrer offered one reason why he thought the industry's credibility was in question, alongside lawyers and politicians: "Journalism, as practiced by some, has become akin to professional wrestling"something to watch rather than to believe," he said.

He cited techniques like "talk show shouting and violence" and "no-source reporting" that harmed the audience's trust in reporters, but he added that there was a so-called "new arrogance" among some of his peers.

I was mocked by the WW2 and Korean vets for participating in an embarrassing war.

#25 | POSTED BY JOHN47 AT 2020-01-27 12:28 PM

Did you find a similar experience at the American Legion?

"Earlier today, while reporting on the tragic news of Kobe Bryant's passing, I unfortunately stuttered on air, combining the names of the Knicks and the Lakers to say Nakers,'" Morris tweeted later on Sunday. "Please know I did not & would NEVER use a racist term. I apologize for the confusion this caused."

R.I.P.

Just like police dogs, these rats are trained to detect harmful substances with their sensitive noses and in countries like Cambodia, Angola and Zimbabwe...Whether it's landmines or disease, the rats are saving lives and changing perceptions, beginning to be seen as the intelligent, compassionate creatures they are.

Unlike other search methods, which include metal detectors and careful digging over the course of five days, the rats can clear land the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes. While it may seem dangerous, the rats are far too light to detonate any of the explosives.

[Rats also] speed up the TB testing process and can go through up to 1,000 samples per week. Since TB can quickly get worse without treatment, sick patients are able to get the help they need at a faster rate.

#6 see #4

She calls it the "phoney pack," and the magic of the makeshift vault isn't that it keeps devices out of reach. It's that it lowers students' anxiety by keeping their phones in view.

Headline should be
Schools Treat Separation Anxiety After Taking Kids' Phones

Standards based grading would mean a student is not penalized for late work. A student could hand work in anytime during the quarter and receive full credit. Meeting the standard and proving that she has that knowledge and ability is our priority- not when she turned something in. We say high school is to prepare students for the "real world"; the argument has been brought forth that not allowing students to turn late work in is not like the real world at all. In the real world I can pay my bill late, I can come to a meeting late, I can pay the mortgage late. Therefore, not allowing students to turn work in late is actually much more severe than the real world. Or so the argument goes.

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It seems they'll just go from one coddling system to another. My son gets decent grades, between a 3.7 and a 3.8, but I sometimes scratch my head at this---mostly because he hands so much of his work in late, he goes to school late, and he often forgets to study for tests and flunks them. Yet with this system, he does ok. I am left confused as a parent because while there are definitely signs of problems here, his grades say otherwise, and it is hard to push him to do more work, study harder, get things done on time, when he feels like he's doing fine now.

Most cannot find the subject and verb in a sentence longer than eight words. Why? Because many American public schools use a "reader-writer workshop" method of writing instruction that completely skips grammar. In these workshops, students and teachers sit in a circle, play the roles of reader and writer, and give encouraging feedback to essays written on the most inconsequential of personal topics. Lucy Calkins of Columbia University's Teachers College invented this approach, which has spread widely in American public schools since the 1980s.

That method cheats everyone through its rigid insistence that expressiveness is all that matters, and the skills in the basics of capitalization and periods don't matter.

And note that I am not talking about every single school. Some are much better than others. But there is a trend that stretches forth riding on the wings of the educational recommendations coming from the national level by people's whose pockets are lined by the mega super rich who want kids to become obedient workers incapable of independant thought.

Wanna see something scary that is a result of what you and I have been saying?

Schools Took Away Students' Phones. Now They're Treating Separation Anxiety.

Compromises include letting young people see their devices from afar or hold them in a locked pouch.

Before class each day, a high-school teacher in Indianapolis grabs a clear plastic bag and fastens it to her waist with a ribbon. The homemade pouch is a repository for phones that are either confiscated or handed over voluntarily by students who don't want to be tempted to tap or swipe during class.

She calls it the "phoney pack," and the magic of the makeshift vault isn't that it keeps devices out of reach. It's that it lowers students' anxiety by keeping their phones in view.

Again what really blows my mind is how kids have no concept of accountability in school for getting assignments done on time nor being held accountable for poor exam grades. Not in every school but certainly in many public schools.

Again...go talk to school teachers.

The problems are way beyond red state blue state.

Gal_Tuesday you are also bringing up great pointd btw.

#81 What I mean by the kid's environment is that many kids aren't encouraged to read at home and would rather play video games or hang out on social media and the school environment where they aren't encouraged to read or write well. Their environments do not encourage reading.

#74 Again the short attention span is part of it. But teachers are forced to cater to that problem rather than trying to address that problem.

And yeah... Moving pictures etc that started with MTV and then video games and then the internet coupled with PARENTS who used television, video games and the internet as baby sitters only added to the problems of what was happening in schools.

Why would a kid want to read? Look at the environments the kids are in at home anf school.

#73 Friend of mine was a Freshman college professor of English and Argument. He finally quit because he was informed by the university that he wasn't giving out enough A's. He was one of the few that was not dumbing down his requirements.

In the early 2000's he had to take time and teach how to write an essay since many students did not learn how in high school. By the late 2000's he was having to teach many kids how to write just a basic paragraph.

But then the university stepped in and said he was making too many red marks on the essays and not giving out enough A's. After all, it could affect funding from the state if too many students failed!

This mirrored my mom who taught elementary for over three decades. She ultimately quit because she was not allowed to actually teach. And this was in the 90's teaching honors students. She was also told that she shouldn't hand out failing grades on assignments and exams.

#70 the problems began long before social media I am afraid. Not that what you say isn't true.

Like I said in #65, students are not held accountable for their grades like they used to be. I can not even comprehend allowing students to turn in work late constantly and to allow continual retaking of tests.

Not making students even do ONE term paper in high school?

And firing off texts and posts to snapchat only makes things worse. But teachers aren't allowed to fail students who can't write.

Redardless of cell phones and technology and social media students should not be able to graduate if they can not even write a coherent paragraph much less a basic essay.

Heck kids graduate today and don't know the multiplication tables we learned in 3rd grade when I was growing up.

It began long before social media and texting etc. Technology just made it worse.

One thing that has been happening in schools is a lack of accountability. When I was in school if I did not turn an assignment in on time I got a zero. And whatever grade I scored on a test was the grade I got.

Today there are public schools where students get multiple chances to retake tests and are allowed to continually turn assignments in late.

Students are also graduating high school who never had to write a term paper. Some can not even write a coherent paragraph.

Go see for yourselves. Talk to teachers and ask them about test and aasignment grades.

If you do not believe that school districts do not follow national guidines en masse then ask yourself why did so many schools drop teaching cursive almost simultaneously.

It is beyond a money problem. It is beyond a red state blue state problem.

A student's psyche is more important than getting held accountable for failure. National and state testing results are more important to the powers that be than kids learning to think for themselves.

But don't rely on me or anyone else or some google search. Go yourself and talk to teachers from elementary thru college.

Some will even tell you that problems started trickling in as far back as the 1980's.

Ask some college professors what they have noticed in the reading and writing ability of incoming freshman.

Throwing money at it will not fix it.

R.I.P.

#70 That has happened more than once in Texas over the last few years.

See #34 #44 #50.

#70 That has happened more than once in Texas over the last few years.

See #34 #44 #50.

#96 Very sad indeed. I am beyond saddened, surprised and frustrated.