Edjamacation

[Brocke]

School teaches children how to blow noses

A school has started to teach its pupils how to blow their noses.
 
By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 9:04AM GMT 30 Dec 2008

The five- to 11-year-old children at Broad Oak Primary School in Manchester have been shown a DVD telling them the right and wrong ways to act when they have a cold.

But one parent condemned the exercise as "a complete waste of time".

The parent added: "I send my kids to school to learn, not for someone to show them how to blow their nose.

"My lad said 'Everyone knows how to blow their nose, we know to use a hanky not our sleeve'."

Pupils have also been asked to look at a Kleenex-sponsored website at home with their parents, called Sneezesafe, to help them understand cold germs and how they are spread.

Aimed at four- to six-year-olds, it tells the story of two schoolchildren characters who get colds, and how they try to stop them being spread.

Under the heading 'Tissues to the rescue!', children are told: "Nathan still has a runny nose, but now he knows that sniffing is not very nice. And Nathan is not going to wipe his nose on his sleeve. He's going to blow his nose with a tissue.

"He holds the tissue to his nose, breathes in, then closes his mouth and blows his nose.

"Good boy, Nathan! You've blown your nose properly. The germs are in the tissue, not in the air or on your hands."

Sheila Marchant, headmistress at the primary school, said she believed the school was being responsible in trying to reduce the spread of colds.

She said: "It is in the curriculum to teach children safe hygiene from an early age. And at this time of year, there are many cold and flu bugs around."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4028752/School-teaches-children-how-to-blow-noses.html

[mr anderson]

 

[Hagbard Celine]

lol,so obvious it makes me challenge myself as to how deep exactly we are into this.

[Dok]

Sounds like its an add for Kleenex. The Kids are sent to a Kleenex-sponsored website. I bet Kleenex pays a little money to the school also. Get the kids to demand mommy to buy only Kleenex. 

[iks83]

also it seems to not teach how to blow your nose correctly... you can damage your eardrums and other stuff i dont remember the english words for.

[iamc]

lol ,so obvious it makes me challenge myself as to how deep exactly we are into this.

...we are in this DEEP: we have two, and maybe three generations who have been dumb downed and almost stripped of our humanity. My 22 year old daughter works at a day care [infants-pre-school], she tells me some sad stories about the lack of basic parental skills in young parents - and this is a byproduct of the baby boom parents...sad but true!!!

[cladano]

Here's an idea for the next episode "Wiping your dumb ass" sponsored by Charmin and your Government.

[Brocke]

1230 Debate: Arnie Terminates School Books

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is planning to phase out textbooks in schools and use internet texts instead.

Schwarznegger wants to save money by cutting out what he calls "heavy" and "antiquated" books that cost the state nearly £218m last year.

He believes California's tech-savvy youngsters will quickly adapt to learning online.

"Today, our kids get their information from the internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones," he said.

"So why are California's public school students still forced to lug around antiquated, heavy, expensive textbooks?"

From the beginning of the next school year in August, maths and science students in the state's high schools will have access to selected online texts.

Schwarzenegger stresses the new technology will better prepare students because it can be updated and will not become out of date.

But there are fears the governor has been won over by the economic benefits.

California is saddled with debt and facing a £15.13bn gap in the state budget.

Schwarzenegger has been forced to scrap any state funding projects drawn up since March 1 this year.

However, in an article for the Silicon Valley Mercury News, the Terminator star acknowledged his critics.

He wrote: "There are those who ardently defend the status quo, claiming our vision of providing learning materials to students for free would risk a high-quality education."

But in the same article he said: "Even in good economic times, state government should always strive to use taxpayer dollars to the greatest effect.

"But especially now, it is imperative that we find ways to do more with less."

What do you think - should schools switch to learning online? Or do you think the young rely too much on technology?

Have your say here in our lunchtime debate at 12.30pm today.

Joining us is Jonathan Bishop from Broadclyst Community Primary School in Devon, which has computers instead of desks.

A spokesperson from virtual learning environment Fronter, which provides technology used by all schools in London and many across the UK, will also be on the panel.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090609/twl-1230-debate-arnie-terminates-school-3fd0ae9.html

[xfahctor]

 This sounds more like a throw back to the hygene films they showed in highschool in the 50's, I really don't see it as being much different than that. Silly, but hardly anything new.

[Brocke]

[Unintelligable Name]

*claps*

And they'll all come out of there with no clue how to blow their noses. They'll be spraying snot all over themselves like a water mister.

[Dok]

emailed this to some people at work,

Heres one of the responces.
Yeah that song is bad news.

[Brocke]

LOL, this can't be serious...can it?

[Brocke]

Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan

Aug 26 12:27 AM US/Eastern

Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.

Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as "embarrassed" have slipped from her mind.

"I can remember the shape, but I can't remember the strokes that you need to write it," she says. "It's a bit of a problem."

Surveys indicate the phenomenon, dubbed "character amnesia", is widespread across China, causing young Chinese to fear for the future of their ancient writing system.

Young Japanese people also report the problem, which is caused by the constant use of computers and mobile phones with alphabet-based input systems.

There is even a Chinese word for it: "tibiwangzi", or "take pen, forget character".

A poll commissioned by the China Youth Daily in April found that 83 percent of the 2,072 respondents admitted having problems writing characters.

As a result, Li says that she has become almost dependent on her phone.

"When I can?t remember, I will take out my cellphone and find it (the character) and then copy it down," she says.

Zeng Ming, 22, from the southern Guangdong province, says: "I think it's a young people's problem, or at least a computer users' problem."

One notoriously forgettable character, Zeng says, is used in the word Tao Tie -- a legendary Chinese monster that was so greedy it ate itself.

Still used as a byword for gluttony, the Tao Tie is one of many ancient Chinese concepts embedded in the language.

"It?s like you?re forgetting your culture," Zeng says.

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.74f06613ea91a1f1041b96c96477427f.561&show_article=1


For more on this...

Stupidity rules "FULL VERSION"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU6gZbLv634


This is an interesting book I read many years ago. Although it has a definite New Age undertone it is worth reading if you are interested in symbolism and the dumbing down of society.

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image
In this groundbreaking book, Leonard Shlain, author of the bestselling Art & Physics, proposes that the process of learning alphabetic literacy rewired the human brain, with profound consequences for culture. Making remarkable connections across a wide range of subjects including brain function, anthropology, history, and religion, Shlain argues that literacy reinforced the brain's linear, abstract, predominantly masculine left hemisphere at the expense of the holistic, iconic feminine right one.

[...]

Shlain goes on to describe the colossal shift he calls the Iconic Revolution, that began in the 19th century. The invention of photography and the discovery of electromagnetism combined to bring us film, television, computers, and graphic advertising; all of which are based on images. Shlain foresees that increasing reliance on right brain pattern recognition instead of left brain linear sequence will move culture toward equilibrium between the two hemispheres, between masculine and feminine, between word and image. A provocative, disturbing, yet inspiring read, this book is filled with startling historical anecdotes and compelling ideas.

http://www.alphabetvsgoddess.com/

[attietewd]

Sounds like its an add for Kleenex. The Kids are sent to a Kleenex-sponsored website. I bet Kleenex pays a little money to the school also. Get the kids to demand mommy to buy only Kleenex. 

In my 5th grade grandson's "sex education" class they were passed out booklets which discussed many aspects of "sex education" including the growth and size of the penis.  They don't want boys to feel bad for having small ones.  And we all know how important the size of a penis is to procreation.  Oh by the way, the booklet was furnished by OLD SPICE because we all know how the makers of OLD SPICE are soooo into education.  What BS!!  It IS a commercial!

[kurtaxis]

Sounds like its an add for Kleenex. The Kids are sent to a Kleenex-sponsored website. I bet Kleenex pays a little money to the school also. Get the kids to demand mommy to buy only Kleenex. 

That's exactly what it is.  Many school districts across the United States have to search for various sources of income that are often controversial.  A few years back there used to be Channel 1 "News" that featured soda pop commercials.  There were also yellow school buses that had advertisements painted on them for soda as well.

But this does seem like the "shorts" they use to play in schools about good personal hygiene and posture.

[iks83]

Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan

Aug 26 12:27 AM US/Eastern

Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.

Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as "embarrassed" have slipped from her mind. [...]

I say good for them! And they dont really lose their culture... there are museums for that kind of stuff. If their writing system cant keep up with the modern world then it should die out and be replaced by something better. You dont see us doing calculations with roman numerals do you? Memorizing like 20000 different symbols, how they look, how they are spoken, what they mean and how you draw them is kinda retarded.

[Valerius]

I say good for them! And they dont really lose their culture... there are museums for that kind of stuff. If their writing system cant keep up with the modern world then it should die out and be replaced by something better. You dont see us doing calculations with roman numerals do you? Memorizing like 20000 different symbols, how they look, how they are spoken, what they mean and how you draw them is kinda retarded.

People who understand logographic written languages like Chinese maintain their literacy across centuries and even to some extent across dialects. Where most modern English speakers would have trouble reading Chaucer, Shakespear or even the original script writing of the Constitution (not the typed version.)

If I were Chinese, I would prefer the youth be able to read and write sections of Lao Tsu than the ephermeral trivialities commonly texted.

Also, romanization is really not well suited for the language. The same syllables can mean a lot of different things depending on how it is pronounced. Ma Ma Ma can mean mother insulted the horse depending on the rise and fall of inflection.

[Brocke]

Wow!


Kids asked basic questions
http://www.wimp.com/basicquestions/