Daily Connotations

Daily Connotations

Entropy Happens.
Join the madness.

You don't have to push the boundaries when you set the standards.

Connotation. 1. a. The configuration of suggestive or associative implications consitiuting the general sense of an abstract espression beyond its literal, explicit sense. b. A secondary meaning suggested by a word in addition to its literal meaning. 3. Logic The total of the attributes constituting the meaning of a term.

Observations, opinions, and ideas, all brought to you by Daily Connotations Company. Who Else?

May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
September 2006
February 2007
March 2007

Disclaimer: Any opinions contained on this page are those of, well, we don't really know who. Any offense taken to anything present should be directed to Sven, who will file and ignore your comments. Praise or compliments can be directed to either Dr. N, Dr. What, or Dr. Olga. All plagarized material has been tested and deemed satisfactory according to the esteemed code of Lehrer, version 2.3.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO VIEWERS:
The Entire Physical Universe, Including This Blog, May One Day Collapse Back into an Infinitesimally Small Space. Should Another Universe Subsequently Re-emerge, the Existence of This Blog in That Universe Cannot Be Guaranteed.

Things We Like

Sven Bjorn Borg: Sven has been with d-con since its humble beginnings, and is responsible for punctuating, finances, guarding the office from rabid dogs and loud noises, and acting as mediator amongst the other members. Dr. Borge is well-known as the world's foremost (and perhaps only) underwater-basket-weaving expert. Sven has recently published no less than 3 books, Klingon Grammar and Vocabulary for humans, Life among the Grapes, and Escher, Bach, Gödel: A gigantic elastic bungalow. In it's copious spare time, the Sven enjoys playing the harpsichord and diagramming sentences. Sven is Chief of Staff and Director of Intelligence in the UPICN,LLC.
Dr. Bob William "The Orange" Lavoisier a.k.a. Dr. Henry Parsons: Dr. N, as we like to call him, is officially the initiator of the Daily Connotations Company, and also holds important Offices in the VVIIPP society of America and The Department of Redundancy Department, which is a place where he holds an important office in the department of redundancy. Henry also spent a good deal of his life studying the behavior of Walruses (Walri?) in the wild, inspired by a long-running correspondence with Mr. J. Lennon, who, in fact, convinced "The Orange" that he was, in fact, a walrus. Dr. Parsons' curriculum vitae is rounded out by his extensive family history (including a brother, Alan), and double Ph.D. honors in Botany and the Study of Scandinavian Languages. Recently, Dr. Henry Parsons was elected president of the UPICN,LLC
The Doctor a.k.a. Dr. What??: Dr. What joins us now as a member of d-Con in very good standing. It is important that the doctor not be confused with his slightly-more-popular brother, Doctor Who, who has carved a niche for himself in the field of time travel. Dr. What never developed the talent for time travel, and has the ability to visit only two distinct temporal locations: The beheading of John the Baptist and that one time when Stanley met Livingstone (or was it Livingstone met Stanley?) Consequently, he spends much of his time knitting (the scarves, natch) on the planet Gallifrey whilst (and at the same time) contemplating Nietzschean philosophies and memorizing much of Immanuel Kant's work, both in the original German.
Dr. Phelealabean: Dr. Phelealabean also uses the alias Dr. Olga Olathe Parsons-Uhlmer. Dr. Parsons-Uhlmer is a sister to Henry and Alan. She has a dual honorary doctorate in Arabian Literature and Language. She also has teaching experience at the University of Rekjavik which was held in a small grass-covered hut. She iswidowed after an incident involving her husband and abandonment which she is not allowed to discuss pending criminal charges. Now that she is alone, she enjoys spending summers with her brother, Henry, in his summer home, The Parsonon.

9.01.2003

And it continues........................

In re-reading my original posts I find I make a reference to "have to solve the problem in the education process that teaches these people in the first place". Sadly in re-thinking this notion I find that it is rather cyclic and pointless. Why? Because the system we would be trying to solve would be no different at the collegiate level than at the high school level, still incompetent or competent teachers only at different levels of education. They are one in the same!

I like Sven's thoughts regarding standardized tests. Such a process is likely what these teachers will have to endure. As quoted in the article by Rebecca Pringle "I have prided myself in staying current and being active in the field. For all that to be reduced to a multiple-choice test is an insult." And it is Rebecca!! It is a crime to say that the $40-50,000 that you spent on an advanced collegiate and continuing education courses is being amounted into a multiple-choice test. Standardized tests are stupid. The ironic point in this whole matter of things is that incompetent teachers may still PASS the test, simply by stealing a trick of their students: guessing. What kind of a filter is an object without anything to catch the "filtered"?

The really sad point behind this is that it deals with humans and people, creatures of our own thinking doomed to all the negativity in the world. Such a thing created by people is likely to cause great disrupt and confusion by it's actions. One person's views of competency are likely to be regarded as incompetent by another.

Frightening is the fact that by such a rigorous screeing process we are killing off what isn't their to kill. Let's face the facts, teachers are an endangered race of people! Let's take an Education major run them through numerous hours of collegiate education, paperwork, expense, and stress and turn them into an environment where in 25 years (of which it's likely some of the same will go on) they will be asked to prove it all over again by going through the same process. Don't misread that I am against accountability I just don't see the efficiency in this piece of legislation; it's kind of like re-washing your clothes a second time each day just so you can make sure they are clean.

Our delvings into this discussion have revealed a true point about us, subconsciously we are victims of it all. The process itself managed by people processed of the same system. What are we becoming? A slowly, ever becoming dumber population? Are these discussions chipping away at the very bones of what is left? Education cannot truly be reformed in my mind until one of the following things happens:

1) We alter the ideals of "no child left behind".
2) We alter the way the government deals with education--guess what?..............According to the constitution the government shall have no part in each state's education system, but they do. It's a giant monopoly; "Don't except our educational policies and you WON'T get funding for a state highway project."
3) We change the way we educate students.

Perhaps number three sounds the easiest, but I guarantee you it's not. Can you imagine going to school and having no textbooks? No sports? No "extra/co-curricular" activities? This is where the solution lies, not in the minds of our teachers.

--Dr. Henry Parsons

--Posted by Kelly D. Norris on Monday, September 01, 2003.