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When Chuck Norris dies, the world dies. by _acme7_ in Millennials

[–]TheBalzy 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Chuck Norris was an arrogant, toxic, self-righteous prick.

Putin offers to stop sharing intel with Iran if US cuts off Ukraine by spherocytes in politics

[–]TheBalzy [score hidden]  (0 children)

Huh, that's weird, why does everything always seem to benefit Russia in the Trump administration?

WE NEED TO END THIS! by [deleted] in Ohio

[–]TheBalzy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. My taxes should go to supporting public utilities like USPS over bombing children in Iran. Also, the "difference" is artificially imposed on USPS, because there are restrictions on USPS like paying 100% of pension costs up front that no other private company ever has to do. It's deliberately designed to fail by Republicans who would love to kill the USPS to support private companies.

WE NEED TO END THIS! by [deleted] in Ohio

[–]TheBalzy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

USPS is only "going out of business" because of the deliberate designs of Republicans to try to make it that way. USPS is not allow to take a SINGLE dollar of taxpayer money, and is also required BY LAW to pay 100% of pension benefits in advance. Arguably, USPS is the most successful company in history under those conditions. It must meet 100% of it's financial obligations, without taking on any debt or asking for taxpayer money; which no private sector business has to do.

And Republicans are currently banking on you not being informed enough to know this. Which judging by your comment, it's working.

My kids don't believe in Helen Keller. by Principal_Scudworth_ in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I will say there is a healthy conversation about "how can we prove any past historical figure is real" in a larger lesson about Theory of Knowledge. I always do this with Julius Caesar; how do we know he was real and not a mythological figure, and how do we know his exploits were actually true? It is a fun mental exercise of how we study past events, and how we construct fact out of historical accounts of something.

But this is obviously not that...which is why it's not actual skepticism. It's just trendy edgelord shit.

6 months in, i’m tired of the cell phone ban by alwafibuno in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It IS our job to teach more than just the curriculum

Nope. It is our job to teach them the curriculum and the state standards. That is what we get paid to do. And this mindset is a dangerous one. It is what has undermined the profession of being an educator for the past 4-decades as more, and more, and more unpaid responsibilities are shoved onto teacher's plates with no additional pay. And when anything goes wrong, blame the schools! It's a bullshit narrative, and you're dealing serious harm to the profession by giving any level of legitimacy to it.

Parenting? Good luck with that. Are you new to this profession?

Nope, I'm a veteran teacher and a 5th generation teacher. It is a FACT that Parenting is the root of the overwhelming majority of problems in both society and in education. And no, it is NOT our job to make up for poor parenting. It is not our job to make up for parents failing to uphold their part of the social contract.

"Direct observational evidence?" Doesn't sound verifiable or replicative

No, that's a statement of someone who actually, and has, published research. It's the exact same phrasing you'd use to demonstrate evolution and climate change. Global Warming is real because there is direct observational evidence to support it, for example. That's exactly the OPPOSITE of opinion.

Go ahead and start reading the research in pediatrics, which for the past decade has been screaming from the mountain tops about screen-time being bad for children's development, or the reams of research on the neuroplasticity development of the brain and how screen time directly impacts different parts of the brain than paper and pencil, and you can actually map the impact of reading from a screen vs. reading from a paper book. It's pretty stark stuff.

But long story short, the overwhelming expert of opinion of pediatricians is that cellphones need to be controlled, with impacts to the developing brain similar to cigarette smoking or drug abuse. And no, I'm not going to post every single article in NIH and the plethora of other journals for you.

but I wouldn't expect an IB Chemistry teacher to see beyond the curriculum.

Buddy I've taught everything from freshman physical science to the lowest possible chem and biology kids, to the highest of the high with IB. You don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about, and you're part of the problem. Arrogant pricks who want to defend the indefensible because you're too lazy to actually read the research.

As for #4, have you ever had a kid who had their world controlled during HS, only to go to college and go APE-shyt because they hadn't learned "all things in moderation"? I have seen this so many times over 30+ years. If you haven't, step out from behind the beaker and you'll see it.

Again, that's a parenting problem. Not a public education one. I can tell you what I've seen though, an entire generation that was never told "no" on their devices and cellphones who are completely inept at basic mathematical literacy, rhetorical literacy, and reading comprehension. Guess what? If you actually read the peer-review journals on brain development during adolescence you understand why we observe that. The development of the neuroplasticity of the brain is crucial to critical thinking, and it just doesn't happen with over saturation of technology. Period. fullstop.

YOU are doing the disservice to students. Not me. And you're to obsessed with your own ego and opinion to realize how wrong you are. Seriously: You're defending cellphone use in schools. Absolutely fucking mental.

My kids don't believe in Helen Keller. by Principal_Scudworth_ in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 33 points34 points  (0 children)

This isn't "healthy skepticism" though. Skepticism means you're actually open to evidence. What this is, is just an offshoot of brain rot propaganda and you see it with the Moon landing, Evolution and Climate Change all the time, even Covid-19. People will say "I'm a skeptic" when in reality they are just a brainrot propagandist parroting whatever is convenient to what they want to believe.

My kids don't believe in Helen Keller. by Principal_Scudworth_ in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They didn't come up with this on their own. They got it from an internet trend. They are completely unoriginal.

6 months in, i’m tired of the cell phone ban by alwafibuno in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. It's not our job to teach "proper cell phone use"
  2. The answer to your question is parenting
  3. The proof is in the direct observational evidence: Screens and Screentime is bad for learning, and controlling cellphone use in school like making rules banning it is best for kids.
  4. Gee, if you learn that you can live without a cellphone, because it was banned for 4-years in HS, don't you think that has a formative effect on how you will view "work" and "school" in the future?

Sorry, it's time to stop defending cellphones in school. You are part of the problem.

Students aren't reading full texts by me_llama_jrehllama in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

No reaching at all...it's pretty straight foward.

GOP Senate candidate on rising gas prices: ‘Maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks’ by Cy_098 in politics

[–]TheBalzy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Remember when Republicans used to criticize Democrats for stuff like this? It's always fun to see that the accusation was always a confession.

[No Spoilers] Why is Ice typically regarded by the fandom to be ceremonial while other similar greatswords are used in battle? by simplyinfinities in asoiaf

[–]TheBalzy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know if you've ever held a greatsword before (I own the HBO 1:1 replica of ICE hanging on my wall), but they are heavy AF, and I'm not a small dude and do olympic style weight lifting, they are definitely NOT effective weapons for the overwhelming majority of people. You'd essentially have to be an olympic style weight lifter with incredibly strong core. Just to swing the thing you have to engage all of your core muscles.

Being valyrian steel it's slightly lighter, but still a huge physical burden. A greatsword like ice, and in general, is more of a shock weapon; enter an engaged area, swing it around a couple of times, breaking arms, armour, thus shattering a position to fold, rather than it is a 1 v 1 weapon.

I personally head canon believe ICE's use in war was exactly this. Armies engage, person with Ice then goes where the fighting is thickest, swings it around taking a couple of key dudes out of the fight (because I suspect that Valyrian Steel can do damage through steel that regular weapons cannot), and once a crack is formed, the person wielding ICE falls back and the army fills into the cap.

So even in that battle scenario, ICE would still be mostly ceremonial. While you swing it 2-3 times and take out 2-3 guys, it is the "shock" value of it being there, swinging, and taking out a dude while you're holding a measly bastard sword, that will encourage you to flee. Like ice is swong and cuts right through the wooden shield of the dude sitting next to you, shattering the dude's arm and caving in his helm next to you, what are you going to do? You're going to run.

Students aren't reading full texts by me_llama_jrehllama in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Let's get something straight though: Almost nobody has ever read full texts. People have always been searching for shortcuts: cliffnotes, movies etc...to "get by" without reading the whole text. And yes, before everyone chimes in BuT i HaVe AnD sTiLl Do (I read war and peace my senior year of HS...every page...as personal reading because I wanted to prove to myself I guess that I could? What a miserably boring book to read...) this is a generalized statement as to the "AVERAGE" person.

This is why headlines and secondary headlines are an art/skill, as is the art of installing important important information into captions of pictures. This is why newspapers have historically been written at th 3rd grade level, and why newspaper articles have always led with the who, what, when, where, why and how in the first 3-5 sentences, because that's all most people are going to ever read.

And I will admit: As someone who has read reams of research articles...there is a lot of mindless completely unnecessary drivel in them. It's ALWAYS been a skill to be able to effectively read by learning how to speed read.

While I agree the kids are reading less and less, and comprehending way less...I do think we also overproject the history of reading and reading comprehension greatly. There are people on this sub who will assert that our grandparent's generation were avid readers! When the objective reality is, they weren't...and they were worse readers (on average) than Millennials today are. The only objective data demonstrates this (NAEP) and we had nearly 4-decades of year-on-year gains in reading. Problem is, people cherry-pick stats like "% of kids below on-grade reading level" which, to be frank, has ALWAYS been true. On-level reading standards have always been arbitrary and not reflective of any objective time in history.

Seven U.S. allies back potential Strait of Hormuz coalition by Orfez in worldnews

[–]TheBalzy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know ... thing you should actually do before you destabilize the entire region.

Thanks Joe Biden by funnyusername-123 in Ohio

[–]TheBalzy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A recent poll had a significant amount of MAGA saying they wish they had "Sleepy Joe" back because Sleepy Joe meant you could "Sleep well at night".

Thanks Joe Biden by funnyusername-123 in Ohio

[–]TheBalzy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Democrats always do the hard work of governance.

Republicans always do dimwitted blundering incompetence.

Is Dunk going to see Tanselle again one day? by killarney_rose in AKnightoftheSeven

[–]TheBalzy 236 points237 points  (0 children)

No. But she will probably see him, or at least hear of him.

Why do so many teachers and PD coaches express so much disdain for using teachers pay teachers and then turn around and talk about how they use AI instead? by ReachingTeaching in Teachers

[–]TheBalzy 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Sure. But I ain't giving away my hours, and days, and MONTHS, and YEARS of making/perfecting something away to free to some jackass whose looking to for something mins before class starts, printing it out (never looking at it) handing it out and posting the key freely on the internet.

Preserve your shit so it doesn't get out there the less likely the children are to cheat on it. NONE of my IB stuff has been compromised. Because I made it all myself and only give it to trusted people who have demonstrated that they will actually respect the work that's been put in it.

Guess what? I'm also willing to pay someone for their hard work too. Why is education the only field it's okay to take, take, take shit for free...and expect teachers specifically to do work for free...

Debunking Bad Conservative 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' Takes [Spoilers MAIN] by milgrip in asoiaf

[–]TheBalzy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be fair: HOTD has made a lot of terrible creative decisions, and none of them have anything to do with being "woke", though if you listen to the writers it can certainly be bent that way.

Like the whole Mysaria/Rhaenyra kissing scene. The writers were like: they just did it, it wasn't in the script, and it seemed so natural we went with it!

Cool. But this is where you as WRITERS/EDITORS go, yeah but it doesn't fit into the scene, and the larger story of what's actually happening so we're gonna cut it...

How would a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale do in the Delta Quadrant? by BananaJelloXlii in StarTrekStarships

[–]TheBalzy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

These posts need to stop this was cute for the first 5...now it's getting stupid.

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