No government that shelters terrorists can be allowed to exist as the legitimate government of any people on earth.
It is the duty of the United Nations to speedily eliminate such a government and to institute another that will not harbor terrorists, give support or encouragement to terrorists or allow terrorists to operate from its territory.
Thomas F. Wold
© November 05, 2001
School Reform
Most of the children in school will not profit from the last four or five years of their state mandated education. They have no interest in academic subjects and instinctively know that their time in institutions of higher learning are closer to prison terms than educational experiences.
Few children are academically gifted or desire to exercise their minds in institutions of higher education.
Students should be encouraged to leave school at age fourteen or to commence intensive technical training, which would prepare them for the work they will perform as adults. This will free many good teachers to expend their efforts on small classes of enthusiastic, academically oriented youngsters instead of presenting watered-down academic subjects to overcrowded classrooms full of angry, unwilling students.
Higher education for the majority is not a golden gateway to opportunity but a portal to endless frustration.
Thomas. F. Wold
© November 06, 2001
Now, even if you want to immigrate, you can't.
The wonderful "One World” we dreamed of a short time ago has speedily become "One World Bureaucracy", and you aren't welcome anywhere unless you are young, rich and well educated in some critical skill like MD or atomic physicist. And even if you have these three qualifications, NO national government is going to jump for joy when you express your desire to live and work in that country permanently.
It is possible to be a tourist or a student, but resident or citizen…no!
Try it if you don't believe me.
This One World has become one hard nut to crack!
Thomas. F. Wold
© November 07, 2001
Besides, every kind of job seems to have its required specialized certification program–together with numerous “schools” which offer the appropriate training at exorbitantly high prices.
Jobs that a just few years ago allowed for on-the-job training or were considered to be for unskilled laborers now require scholastic documents. This may be wonderful for those “teachers” who got into the education business before the rules congealed – but for the out-of-work masses; this unnecessary certification is just another misery.
But, worse than certification, is the requirement that the job applicant – especially the young job applicant – produce evidence of four or five years of experience in the field.
How is it possible for anyone to get this experience when they are looking for their first job?
Thomas F. Wold
© November 08, 2001
In San Diego California, many elementary schools' classes begin at 7am and don't finish until 2:30 pm. Most children spend seven and a half hours in school five days a week.
The main thing this amount of time in class teaches children is to malinger, to resist quick learning and to do everything as slowly as possible.
Quick learners become expert malingerers by grade three.
Slow learners perfect their malingering skills by grade six.
Academic skills could be far more effectively taught in less than half the time now required, if the classes were taught in rigorous and demanding ways.
I realize that schools are being used primarily as holding areas for masses of potentially troublesome underage citizens while their parents or guardians are at work, but pretending that the children are being taught necessary life skills for long blocks of time is not only counterproductive, but demeaning to the concept of education.
Math, language arts, the sciences and so forth could all be taught in short, intensive morning classes in which both students and teachers are alert and motivated. Later in the day, study hall time could be provided in workrooms provided with small group worktables, study carrels, school supplies, computers and library access.
Daily academic work could easily be finished in three hours.
Any other time needed for children to be supervised (while their parents finish their own workdays) could be filled with outdoor activities, sport, music, art, crafts, and, for older children, vocational training.
Thomas F. Wold
© November 09, 2001
Walking is the best, metro is next, train is next and bus is last…freeways do not even enter into a rational transport equation; only a maniac would choose them or even think of them.
When I moved to San Diego, I had not owned a car for several years. I lived outside the USA and did just fine in small cities where the personal transport option was walking or bus. In the countryside, trains were fast and common. Long distance busses go everywhere roads go…no problem. But when I tried these solutions to the dilemma of getting around in San Diego, California, I found it impossible. The metro (The Trolley) is elegant but expensive and very limited by its layout. The buses are rare and very slow, though the drivers are helpful and professional. The train is infrequent and only for those following the mainline seacoast route.
The freeway is the transport solution by default.
San Diego is one of those unfortunate southern California cities that were designed during the rise of the automobile as personal transport and it is so spread out that a private car is essential.
The freeways are marvels of technology but their wasteful size and complexity make them doomed, expensive, dangerous dinosaurs, and to use these freeways, you must have a motor vehicle, and not just a motor vehicle, but also a new motor vehicle in excellent repair…anything less will cause you problems or get you killed.
You must pay for insurance and the maintenance of this machine. All of these requirements necessary to use the absolutely essential freeway transport are ruinously expensive…and there is no alternative.
De we need to mention the road rage, the stress, the constant real danger and threat of instant death on the freeways?
Popular daily morning commute TV newscasts feature highway reports where the daily auto crashes are shown on freeway maps: “a four-car crash on the 15 and El Cajon on-ramp…an injury accident on the I-5/ I-8 bridge.” These bizarre broadcasts are seen as completely normal.
Though the freeways seem eternally permanent, I believe that they are a temporary aberration and I expect their unmourned demise with eager anticipation.
Thomas F. Wold
© November 10, 2001