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07:41:54 12/28/11
On "If I were a poor Black kid"...
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 07:41:54 12/28/11
[ VIDEO ] Joe Hicks discusses the controversy over Gene Marks' blog post at Forbes entitled " If I were a poor Black kid ". Basically he asks, "Why can't white people contribute to the national dialogue on race and racism?"
It does seem like a cop out to just tell someone that they have nothing to say because they're not a poor Black child so they can't relate in any way. I've had a white geography teacher in high school - GO FALCONS - who said that he could relate because he was poor. Of course the conclusion could be that he thinks all Blacks are poor, but that's only a thought and not necessarily based on reality.
All the same Marks bounces off of a recent speech by President Obama in Kansas where he discussed the gap between the rich and the poor:
> The President’s speech got me thinking. My kids are no smarter than similar kids their age from the inner city. My kids have it much easier than their counterparts from West Philadelphia . The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder. This is a fact. In 2011.
I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.
It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this.
If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.
And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it’s oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home than on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell’s Outlet . Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all. You will see at the end of this posting links to several rebuts to Marks' comments. I will add my two cents just as Hicks and those other links have.
I didn't go to the very best schools in Chicago. I'd say my old elementary school was an average at best school and my old high school - when I attended - was one of the worst. My marks weren't that great in elementary school but for some reason my marks in high school were often in the honor roll range. With that in mind though I consider that a fluke today.
My time in high school wasn't a time to seek out options. I never thought of my grades as a ticket mainly because they were had too easy. It was never a challenge academically and who knows how that would've been weathered. The serious challenge was in college where I struggled to keep up.
If only I had the tools back then that the young people have today to help me study and understand the various subjects. I wouldn't just be ahead of my peers but it would be light years ahead of them. But when I was in public school most of those tools did not yet exist.
In spite of the nay sayers - and I will get to one in a moment - Marks isn't wrong. Make the best grades you can where you are take advantage of all the tools you can. Don't have a PC at home go somewhere to use one, especially the library. At that there are people at your school who if you establish a relationship with them will help you move forward.
This nay sayer, well is making more of this than he realizes:
> No believer in Bell Curv-ish nonsense about black intellectual inferiority, Marks makes clear that the children about whom he speaks are no less capable than his own kids. Of course, one wonders just how much of a compliment Marks really intends for this to be, given his strange habit of dissing his offspring, on more than one occasion, as rather unintelligent, unmotivated, promiscuous and even inclined to petty criminality. Not sure what kind of asshole says things like this about his children in print, but I suppose we can leave that discussion for another day.
No doubt Marks would say that he was simply encouraging poor African American kids to take personal responsibility for their success. He might even say that by acknowledging unfair and unjust structural inequity (and even, indirectly, white privilege), he was doing so in a politically ecumenical way. Certainly Marks would perceive his words and intentions as quite different from those of right-wingers whose hectoring of the poor so often involves blaming those at the bottom of the nation’s economic hierarchy for their station in life. To Marks, poor black kids are not to blame for the position in which they find themselves, but they nonetheless hold the keys to their own liberation, and if they would simply follow his sage counsel they could surely make it, like anyone else: even the cerebrally challenged and oversexed spawn who slumber each night just down the hall from he and his wife.
There is much one could say about Marks’s advice — rather typical bootstrapping fare about studying hard, coupled with a more modern emphasis on becoming a techie like him, and thereby, presumably, an irresistible college or job applicant — and most of it has been said already. Like, for instance, this piece , or this one , or this one , or maybe this one , all of which eloquently critique the privileged and naive mindset displayed by Marks, and explain how even when poor kids of color do everything right, the structures of society are too often set up to help them fail anyway.
...
And it’s this last point that we might do well to explore further. Fact is, Gene Marks knows his readership at Forbes . He knows that it includes virtually none of the people to whom he is ostensibly offering advice, which means that he isn’t really giving them advice at all; rather, he is inviting his mostly white, mostly affluent audience to engage in a perverse moralistic voyeurism at the expense of impoverished African American youth, almost none of whom that readership will ever meet, and whom they will, in fact, go out of their way to avoid. He is offering a kind of secret white-male handshake to others in the club, assuring them that the problems of urban poverty are not theirs to fix, that they are off the hook as it were, and isn’t that a relief? That Marks may not be as vile in his desire to blame the poor for their status as some, hardly acquits him of the charge that by pandering to the biases of his readership, he has, with some 700-odd simple (and simplistic) words, managed to reinscribe all the worst of their prejudices, many of which one can see on grand display in the readers’ comments section of the original article. Make no mistake, Gene Marks’s column is contempt cloaked as compassion and bigotry dressed up as benevolence. And it can do nothing but contribute to the indifference and even antipathy towards the poor that those who rely on Forbes for insights already possess in ample supply. Starting with that last paragraph it's true, Forbes may not have a significant audience in poor inner city communities. Without having to purchase a subscription you can always go to a library to access past issues of magazines. Also with internet access you can access magazines as well and blog posts such as this one which surely don't require a subscription.
As for Mr. Tim Wise who wrote the above excerpts, how is he going to call that man out for what he refers to his kids. Yeah it may be wrong to say your kids are very bright, but somewhere out there some parent is doing it. I also recognize that Marks is merely a commentator who is definitely using his platform to say what he wants to say.
The main point surely Marks is making is that his children are not much different than poor inner city children. Just that they have different opportunities living in a different part of the Philadelphia area than the inner city children. Perhaps even different expectations from parents, perhaps different staff and different schools. He didn't write the "poor black kid" piece to denigrate his children.
I think what he wrote was real. It shouldn't be impeached merely for that reason. That alone is weak! Although to Mr. Wise's credit he is at least has some suggestions for Marks to put his money where his mouth is. Marks could always help get the information out aside from using his platform at Forbes.
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23:42:28 10/23/11
Rep - Student Loan Debt is Great, Work More Jobs
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 23:42:28 10/23/11
Rep - Student Loan Debt is Great, Work More Jobs
Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan was asked why he wants to cut Pell grants by a college student struggling with tuition. His response was basically that students should simply work more and take out loans. Occupy Wall Street movement. Ana Kasparian and former prosecutor Steve Oh discuss on The Young Turks. Watch more TYT college stories here: www.youtube.com The Young Turks on Current TV: current.com The Largest Online New Show in the World. Google+: www.gplus.to Facebook: www.facebook.com Twitter: twitter.com Support TYT for FREE: bit.ly From: TheYoungTurks Views: 34771 931 ratings Time: 03:13 More in People & Blogs
2 Views
18:59:21 08/31/11
Leaked Video Names Chinese Officials Spying for Foreign Governments
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 18:59:21 08/31/11
Leaked Video Names Chinese Officials Spying for Foreign Governments
For more news visit ? english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ? http Add us on Facebook ? facebook.com A video showing a Chinese General discussing cases of high-ranking Chinese officials spying for foreign governments has been leaked on the Internet. In the video Major General Jin Yi'nan talks about officials, including ambassadors to foreign countries such as Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Many of these spies were charged with corruption rather than spying, to avoid embarrassment for the Chinese regime. This video appears to show a private presentation to students by Major General Jin Yi'nan. Jin discusses several cases of Chinese officials spying for foreign governments. According to the BBC, the video, complete with presentation slides, comes from China's National Defense University, where Jin is a Lecturer. It was probably intended to educate defense students on the perils of corruption. Yet this video found its way on to the Internet, posted on the popular video sharing site YouTube and other Chinese Blogging services. Jin discusses the case of Li Bin, former Chinese ambassador to South Korea. Li was put in prison on corruption charges, yet Li's actual crime was spying for the South Korean government%mdasha charge deemed too embarrassing for the Chinese Communist regime. [Jin Yinan, PLA General]: "This is a big scandal for the Communist party, the lightness of Li Bin's sentence, just seven or eight years, why? It was to save face. If you look across ... From: NTDTV Views: 295 5 ratings Time: 02:36 More in News & Politics
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20:56:39 05/07/11
Is the iPad Good for School and Textbooks?
[LESS INFO] 12 VIEWS | ADDED 20:56:39 05/07/11
"http://twitter.com/chrispirillo - http://facebook.com/chrispirillo - During live phone calls recently, Craighton gave me a buzz. Craighton is a great kid, who happens to live fairly close to my house. In fact... he's BEEN to my house. He was at Gnomedex last year with us, and attended the Hejira concert at my house back in February when Kat was here. Why didn't he just come on over here to ask his question? In any case, Craighton called to ask me how I could see the iPad used as an educational tool in schools. An example would be all students being issued an iPad with all of their books loaded right on the device, assignments done and turned in this way and so forth. http://chris.pirillo.com"
22 Views
23:43:23 10/15/10
Episode 142
[LESS INFO] 22 VIEWS | ADDED 23:43:23 10/15/10
Back again. Doug, Josh, Matt, and Katie begin the show discussing Josh's theatrical side and the dueling blogs (Morethandodgeball.com and LoveGodLoveStudents.com). Doug also introduces the first members of the 00 club and if someone can be a "recycled podcast virgin", plus a brand new intro song. Don't worry, they still get to your questions and talk about: calendars and scheduling, writing things down, starting with a clean program slate, why matt is cold, guidelines for meeting alone with students, having kids from juvenile hall in your ministry, and the Simply Youth Ministry Conference.
16 Views
23:43:23 10/15/10
Episode 142
[LESS INFO] 16 VIEWS | ADDED 23:43:23 10/15/10
Back again. Doug, Josh, Matt, and Katie begin the show discussing Josh's theatrical side and the dueling blogs (Morethandodgeball.com and LoveGodLoveStudents.com). Doug also introduces the first members of the 00 club and if someone can be a "recycled podcast virgin", plus a brand new intro song. Don't worry, they still get to your questions and talk about: calendars and scheduling, writing things down, starting with a clean program slate, why matt is cold, guidelines for meeting alone with students, having kids from juvenile hall in your ministry, and the Simply Youth Ministry Conference.
21 Views
07:24:51 01/25/10
Driving Lesson Road signs and Markings
[LESS INFO] 21 VIEWS | ADDED 07:24:51 01/25/10
I have always taught my learners during driving lessons to look out for and pay attention to road signs and markings not just to pass the test but as it is a good habit to be aware of the information being conveyed to the driver.
In fact I posted on my driving school videos website over a year ago because I noticed that many provisional license holders failed to develop a habit of paying attention to these signs just because they've passed the theory and the students think that signs can be ignored because the DSA Examiner will not specifically ask them about markings or signs as they go past them.
Well with the recent media attention on the new driving test changes in october 2010 , I thought it would be a good time to remind learners the importantance of noticing and paying attention to road signs during driving lessons or while out on private practice in your own car, so have a look at the video below. Independent driving on the test is not just about following signs to navigate a course, but you also might have to remember and follow a series of instructions or diagram, but there is enough debate about that out there, so make of it what you will.
I've always mentioned that the easiest way to pass the driving test first time is to develop a habit of the right skills during lessons as expected by the DSA, that way you don't have to think hard about what to do in a situation once on the assessment.
If you require high quality driving lessons from a very helpful, patient and fully qualified instructor, then why not call or send me a text message on 07956233032 .
Thinking about becoming an instructor? Well red driving school has had enough publicity for you to know the importance of doing the proper research and know all the instructor ADI training options available to you before making a decision or changing careers.
Subscribe to my Driving Test Tips so you don't miss any future articles and get DSA updates direct to your inbox by Email service is provided and powered by feedburner, so I don't personally keep your email addresses, and you can removed yourself anytime after passing the driving test with just one mouse click. Please let me know your views by posting a comment on the blog at http://www.ukadi.co.uk
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12:53:50 07/29/09
Henry Blog Excerpt 3
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 12:53:50 07/29/09
Henry was not personally satisfied with his cooking education, and loves computers. He decided that it was something that to switch over to not only because he liked to do it, but because he understood that taking technology based job would mean higher pay for him in the future. We asked him about his thoughts about his teachers and peers, and he felt that the teacher is the expert. He uses the facilities available to him as much as possible: He stays late for extra help, he uses online resources for learning, and collaborates with other students to solve problems. He likes the smaller classes offered at his current school, and is intimidated by larger classes. Henry told us that being in a lecture hall and not being able to ask questions during the learning process is a problem, which is why he appreciates the one on one time with his teachers and peers.
4 Views
18:50:16 11/05/07
Post Show Chat -Episode Six
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 18:50:16 11/05/07
Co-Producers Patrick DiRenna and Elena Primost talk about The Digital Film Academy, about why they choose to work and teach all on digital, how their programs unlimited lab time and post-graduation facility membership provides students with the tools to truly become an indie film maker, and why they chose to co-produce 35.
1 Views
14:09:44 07/10/07
Laptop vs Desktop
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 14:09:44 07/10/07
http://live.pirillo.com/ - Compucraze64 from the chat room writes in: >
For Christmas, you may or may not know I'm really hoping for a computer as long as I get half of the money for it. And I want a desktop computer. However, my dad disagrees and always says no and that I should get a laptop. I keep trying to convince him that a desktop contains more power and hard drive space for less cost. But, he insists on a laptop. Is there any other way I can convince him into a desktop instead of a laptop.
The real question here is: which is better for your lifestyle?
A laptop has a huge advantage for students and people on the go: mobility. Laptops offer the ultimate in mobility, allowing you to take your laptop almost anywhere. While you may not have as much power, you'll be able to take everything with you much more easily then it would be to drag a desktop across the city.
Desktops do offer more performance per dollar, but they are stationary, and getting your data around can be a bit more difficult.
Chris recommends making an argument - a list of positive reasons - why a desktop would be better to own than a laptop.
Can you help compucraze64 build a list of reasons for getting a desktop or against getting a laptop?
Want to embed our Laptop vs Desktop video in your blog? Use this code:
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