Originally posted by: tcsenter
It must be alone at the top Tscenter. I get dumber the older I get. But thankfully after I read Isildurs last post it reminded me you come from a different culture than I so perhaps I should try and make nice. Your second amendment arguments are masterful, to me at least, becuase you have a working document, the constitution, to draw from. Where are you drawing your conclusion that Ebonics is worse than geography studies? I don't consider money to be of value anymore.
What doctrines, canons, or annals of Ebonics have furthered your understanding of the world on a level deeper than exercising a little occasional social wit or grace?
I don't gamble, but I'd almost be willing to bet, if happiness could be easily quantified, Tony Hawk ('skate-board studies'), Pappa John (pizza), Hugh Hefner (girls), And Keith Richards (drugs?) are all happier than you. Perhaps you should have stuck with what you enjoyed rather than buy into what you're told or imagined what makes a succesful American man and what buys you happiness. Sleep does'nt count because "What you do is of little signifigance. But it is very important that you do it", do being an active modifier.
It is interesting that you mention Tony Hawk. As a child, Hawk was classified as "gifted" by school counselors and placed in advanced classes. While a senior in high school and owning title to the best professional skater in the world, Hawk bought his first home, yet he stayed in school and graduated with honors.
Tony Hawk is one of only perhaps a dozen professional skaters, out of hundreds of professional skaters to come and go, out of tens of thousands of hopeful amateur skaters to come and go, out of hundreds of thousands of kids who have fancied the idea of becoming a professional skater to come and go, to have been LUCKY enough - not good enough - but lucky enough to make a living at professional skating.
Becoming a professional skater in 1982, and benefitting from the unwavering support of his father, who almost single-handedly promoted and fostered the popularity of skate-boarding we know today, after founding the California Amateur Skateboard League and the National Skateboard Association, Hawk is without question the exceptionally rare example of longevity (and earning potential) in a sport which is not known for its profitability (and never will be).
Even as phenomenally successful as Hawk was, he flirted with financial ruin in the 1990's, when the popularity of skating and major sponsorship plummeted, being forced to sell one home and car to clear debts and refinanced his other home to start Bird House. Had Bird House been a failure, Hawk would be a working stiff, by his own admission, probably as a programmer or web designer. No other skater but Hawk could have carried himself through such difficult times on past earnings, because no other skater has earned enough to, and it is likely that no other will. Hawk found financial stability in business through Fury Trucks and Bird House, not in skate-boarding.
What is your sense of what Tony Hawk would tell his own children about the importance of geography, mathematics, and history (i.e. a good education)?
As for Hugh Hefner, old Hugh may seem like an academic bore, but Hugh has an IQ of 152, which puts him squarely into genius territory. He earned a B.A. in 2 years at the University of Illinois - Champagne and took a semester of graduate sociology courses at Northwestern. Given the wide-ranging articles which appear in Playboy magazine, worldly topics including history, government, law, and politics, what is your sense of Old Hef's views on a conventional education?
Papa John's founder John Schnatter graduated from Ball State University with a degree in Business Administration three years before founding Papa Johns. Are you starting to notice a pattern here? Thank you for those examples, BTW.
As for Keith Richards, what else can you say about Keith Richard's other than your odds of winning the Big Game Lotto are better than replicating Keith Richard's rise to wealth, not to mention his still having enough brain cells left to maintain an upright position.
Speaking of the lottery, your suggestion that kids should be allowed free reign to pursue lofty dreams or ambitions, no matter how remote the odds, to the exclusion of conventional education if need be, is analogous conceptually, and probably stastically, to playing the Lotto as a retirement plan. Care to hazard a guess at the odds of making it to the NFL, or NBA, or as a successful musician or actor?
As for your recommendation that I ought to have stuck with what I enjoyed, like about 95% of other kids, I had many passing fancies; skate-boarding, guitar, drums, motorcross, among others. Like any kid, I was in love with anything and everything new. Also like any kid, each passing fancy didn't last long until I found another, although I imagined, with each new passing fancy, that I would never grow weary of it, and that I would take it as far as it could be taken. How would it have turned out, in your estimation, if with every new passing fancy, my parents allowed me to pursue it to the exclusion of my education?
You seem to be of the mind I was implying that a conventional/classist education HAD to be at the exclusion of other pursuits of passion. I explicitly implied otherwise, there is no reason why one can not pursue hip-hop or ghetto 'studies', or 'scholarship' in mind-altering substances, but they should do so on their own time, after doing their homework, not within the confines or under the auspices of the public education system.
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