[GCFL-discuss] How Times Have Changed

[Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List]

greenBubble,
I LOVE maps.  I love all of them:  paper ones, globe ones, online ones, fabric ones, old ones, new ones, out-of-date ones, GPS ones.  There is a map store in my town and I could spend 40 hours a week there just absorbing and searching and poring over maps.  I love MAPS!  I am even addicted to GoogleEarth.  When someone tells me about a place, I always look it up on GE so I can see what it looks like from the air, what it's near, etc etc.  I have an innate sense of direction and can almost always point accurately N, S, E or W.  Even as a child, I have always known how we got someplace and how to leave and return.  I think it's because I was always curious and aware of my surroundings.  I was aware of street names and could give good directions.
On the other hand, my eldest daughter is hopelessly directionally challenged.  She doesn't have a clue!  When she moved from Tucson (big and spread out) to southern CA, we bought her a GPS.  She could not have functioned in a new place without one.  I like the idea of driving on streets all over the place just to get to know an area.  I like to drive.
The generation of kids who don't know how to look up a word in the dictionary or find a business in the Yellow Pages scares me a little...
I think I might like being a taxi or bus driver, but I am afraid of crazies.  It seems not unlike working in a Circle K/ 711/MiniMart kind of place where your life is in almost constant danger from bad guys.
Jeanene
- People complain I'm absorbed and self-centered.  And this affects me how?


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies List 
  To: Red 
  Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 8:28 AM
  Subject: Re: [GCFL-discuss] How Times Have Changed


  NYS has standardized tests, called Regents Exams, for HS students.  for math & sciences, high-tech calculators are required.  plotting a graph? use the calculator.  look up a logarithm or trig function?  fugetaboutit.  2 clicks and you have it to as many decimal places as you can handle.
  The flip side is that when we were young, the fractions always worked out to easy numbers, and a little thought would save you a ton of work.  nowadays, you can't make that assumption. 
  Who uses maps these days?  you want to know where something is, you go to mapquest or google.  last week, my daughter took a wrong turn and got lost.  she called me for directions.  i had her drive around a bit just to get my bearings and then i told her how to get home.  Once home, i said to her, "you know there are maps in the door pocket, don't you?"  Her response: "Like I know what to do with a map??!"

  BTW, that's one blessing of the cellphone:  when getting directions, the person giving directions can know exactly what the driver sees and can point out landmarks in real time.  

  greenBubble 


  Subject: Re: [GCFL-discuss] How Times Have Changed


  Good for your mom! ?Calculators were big, rare and expensive when I was in school, but my current philosophy is, nobody should use a calculator until they can do basic arithmetic in their head, know multiplication tables, etc. THEN they can start using calculators when the simple arithmetic is NOT the point of the exercise, just something that incidentally has to be done to get to the solution.

  Siarlys

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