LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,771
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
I can do all of those except converting lbs to kgs. Anything that involves mathematical calculation of any kind is completely beyond me.
But think on his: Parents get put in jail sometimes f they let kids go down to the local park. And now they can't have recess at school. And in this era where it's considered child abuse to let kids go and play on their own, can we be shocked that so many are obese? People talk about kids like they all lazy. Some are, no doubt, but can this possibly be a reason why we have generation of kids who are already obese? What options do they have to exercise anymore?
Yeah, I don't remember that ever being a skill that people were good at.I can do all of those except converting lbs to kgs. Anything that involves mathematical calculation of any kind is completely beyond me.
Yeah, I don't remember that ever being a skill that people were good at.
Sadly, kids today seem to depend more on their parents to chauffeur them wherever they need to go because as population increased so has distances. What used to be within easy walking or biking distance when we were kids can now be a major trek, including going to school. Though in recent years I've seen a resurgence of kids riding bikes which seems to coincide with the rise in gas prices when the parents realized that they couldn't afford to drive the kids all over the place anymore like they used to.
And really, today or thirty years ago, how often did you need to do that anyway?
I don't think I ever needed to do it. The only things around here that are sold by the kilo are illegal drugs.
Yeah, I never lived any further than three-quarters of a mile from school in all the years of my education, and I always walked or rode a bike. I never knew a single kid, ever, who was driven to school or school functions by a parent. The buses were for kids who lived in the outlying towns of the district -- there was one bus that served in-town, but it was unpopular because it was always the first one in the morning and the last one in the afternoon. If you wanted to take it, you had to get up at 530 AM, and you didn't get home until almost 5PM. That was the administration's passive-aggressive way of saying YOU STUPID KIDS SHOULD BE WALKING.
And you know this how? (Just kidding)
Growing up, for several years in grammar school we were told that "by the time you are adults, we'll have converted to the metric system" so they jammed it down our throats for a few years and then, magically, it stopped. It was - my unstudied hindsight guess - an educational fad for a few years. Anyone know why it took of as an educational fad?
Probably as part of the Cold War era emphasis on math and science -- the idea being that metrics were the universal standard in such fields, and we needed to keep up. It didn't explain why we needed to buy cucumbers by the kilo instead of the pound, or measure soda by milliliters rather than ounces, but I suspect that had more to do with "free trade" agendas than anything else.
And you know this how? (Just kidding)
Growing up, for several years in grammar school we were told that "by the time you are adults, we'll have converted to the metric system" so they jammed it down our throats for a few years and then, magically, it stopped. It was - my unstudied hindsight guess - an educational fad for a few years. Anyone know why it took of as an educational fad?
The metric system isn't really a "fad", it's the standard for pretty much the rest of the world. We were told either learn it, or you'll silly in front of the rest of the world. We said "OK, we'll look silly". People take this inordinate pride in sticking by our system, even though most people are pretty ignorant of it and can't tell you how many square feet are in an acre or even what the measurement unit for mass is.
I grew up way out in the middle of nowhere, and the elementary school was 10 miles beyond that. The road we lived on was the diving line between school zones. Our side went to the rural school and across the street they all went to a school in town. I'm glad we went to the school we went to, as it was in a 1920s building. It was a good school and I have fond memories of the place. Middle school stunk as we were bussed to the not-so-desirable portion of town, to a school that was as close to an 'inner city' school as the county had. I wouldn't repeat those three years for any amount of money.I never knew a single kid, ever, who was driven to school or school functions by a parent.
As far as measurements go, what I always find confusing is the Imperial quart versus the American quart. I drive a Canadian-made car, which calls for five Imperial quarts of oil in the engine, but when you fill it with five American quarts it isn't enough. I'm always forgetting I need to add a little less than one quart more to top it off.
A perfect example of this is bar soap. I don't know anyone who had difficulty handling the traditionally-shaped rectangular bars of soap, but suddenly all of the soap-producing companies started making them curvy and bent and more rounded and explained that they were "ergonomically shaped". Lies. All they did was figure out that they could re-shape them and give their customers at least 25% less soap for the same price....And apropos of the thread's theme: it drives me crazy when companies sneak in smaller packaging (12oz very quietly becomes 11oz) at the same price. I don't remember the company, but one CEO had the audacity to say - when a news person cornered him - that they did this to "help our customers" as they knew that money was tight and the company didn't want to raise its prices. One, you did raise your prices. And, two, did you pro-actively tell your customers how "helpful" you were being by advertising "same great price but now with less contents."...