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What did I REALLY HATE during the debate? The Bush-Cheney web site was putting out rss feeds and one site I was watching. But, when I clicked on one to "read more", #1 -- it was just a prepared page and they kept responding with the same pages, #2 -- they had disabled the back button!!! I HATE THAT!! DON"T FENCE ME IN!!
Patrick was assigned watching the debate and taking notes. His take? At 9:03, "Can you get me an Advil?"
My take? Senator Kerry needed to hit a home run and strike President Bush out. He didn't. He spent a fair amount of time making the Michael Moore claims that resonate well with the true believers, "preaching to the choir," but those claims haven't persuaded the unpersuaded. I doubt they will now.
In specifics, I thought Senator Kerry left himself open a few times in ways that President Bush didn't take advantage of.
For President Bush, some of the notes I made:
We'll get you home when the mission is doneVERY STRONG TALKING ABOUT MEETING WITH MISSY, WAY TO FIGHT TERRORISM IS TO SPREAD FREEDOM. EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS, THAT'S WHAT DISTINGUISHES US FROM OUR ENEMY.
Pass a global test -- my attitude is you take action to protect the United States
I'm not going to make decisions just for the sake of being popular in the world
Bush really gets stronger when talking about going on in the world -- like he knows it from been there. Presidential. "Fortunately, the rainy season will be ending there shortly." Grasp of details!
I can't tell you how big a mistake bi-lateral talks are. Just what Kim Jung Il wants.
For Senator Kerry:
Dropping names of generals seemed week.Specifics --14 military bases, not back off Faluja, close the borders, bring the rest of the world in, but NEVER DID GIVE SPECIFICS.
Get all the troops out of their with the minimal amount of training necessary for the Iraqis.
Truth of stem cell research and global warming? huh?? those aren't on the same level at all!!
TYING WAR ON TERROR WITH VIET NAM IS A HUGE MISTAKE. Says we're going to cut and run.
Chris Correa, in a comment to this post, raises the issue of optimism and schools. It's a critical issue. First, a few points:
1. Children have overwhelmingly positive attributional styles, and girls more so than boys.
2. At puberty, this optimism drops.
3. After puberty, girls (and women) rate lower on scales of optimism than boys (and men).
Here's the section on Chapter 8 from my book note:
Failure devastates us. All of us, upon experiencing failure, quit -- at least temporarily. Optimists bounce back and began trying almost immediately; defeat is temporary and achievement is assured. Pessimists, on the other hand, are defined by their failures. They are a failure, and there is no point in a failure continuing to try.
Comment: Children are natural optimists, as discussed earlier, and they sure better be in our schools. We often assure failure by such tactics as grading on the curve. We define relative success as failure. Please note that I am not arguing for low standards or namby-pamby, feel good education. I am simply making a point as to how school is experienced for many students. Is it any wonder that educators report "losing" students as they enter the later middle school years, which is approximately the same time that the natural optimism of childhood wanes. These students are suddenly unable to cope with an environment they have been in long as they can remember. How can such a failure not be a complete turn-off?
Working with Joan Girgus, and building on the work of Carol Dweck, Dr. Seligman and his staff conducted a study of 3rd-grade children from 1995 until they finished seventh grade in 1999. They found that children who began third grade with a pessimistic score on the CASQ were at risk for depression and severely-reduced academic achievement. In addition, bad life events, especially including divorce and parental turmoil, contributed to a pessimistic explanatory style. Over all, boys were significantly more depressed at all points along this age range then were girls.In college, students with optimistic explanatory styles will outperform predictive measures such as SAT scores or high school grades. Students with pessimistic scores will under perform.
From what I've been reading, I thought folks were leaveing Internet Explorer in droves. But, in looking at stats from shearonforschools.com, that doesn't seem to be the case. In September of 2003, IE was 47% of the visitors. This year, it is 62.5%. Am I missing something?
Neat. Two of my interests intersect at MathOnline (Australia): education and MindManager X5 Pro. I'm still amazed at a program that can facilitate brainstorming, knowledge capture, turns mindmaps into Word outlines or PowerPoint displays, serve as its on presentation program that can be better than PowerPoint, and that has already been enhanced through plugins that maket it a project management tool, time-management and organizational tool with special application to Getting Things Done, and builds web sites. Here's some more web sites done with MindManager (through Google). Or, see these book notes I've done:
ACK!! John Smoltz blew a five run lead last night and the Braves lost. But, here's the quote from Manager Bobby Cox:
"He just got some pitches down the middle. Nothing is wrong with him. It's just location."
Given the Braves' record under Mr. Cox, one has to think that he may be on to some pretty sound management approaches to working with talent. From casual reading, it seems he attributes success to core qualities of the individuals involved and failure either to bad luck, external factors, or short term things that will correct themselves. Here, it's just that "He got some pitches down the middle." Not, "His location is bad." The first suggests that everyone's going to throw some pitches down the middle sometimes, Smoltzie happened to do it last night, and of course he'll be hitting his spots next time out. It's a matter of promoting an optimistic outlook.
I've mentioned the role of an optimistic attributional style before, and it has a specific application to sports. For those who might not want to scroll down to this part of my book note, I'm putting the notes on the chapter on sports from Learned Optimism in the cotinuation of this post.
"I'd rather be governed by the first 100 people in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty." William F. Buckley, Jr.
Today's Calvin & Hobbes -- good today only.
title Crazy
program Microsoft Paint
artist Lauren
age 8
home Wigan, England
From the Global Children's Art Gallery
Thanks to David Gurteen for pointing me to this site from his newsletter.
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