Is America the greatest country in the world?

Thirty Bills Unpaid

Wanna see a fantastic lesson on discrimination? Check this out (it's fascinating and worth the watch):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHxFuO2Nk-0

Thirty Bills Unpaid

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Brian has memories of the Civil War lol!

mcgruff10

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Brian has memories of the Civil War lol!

I thought it was the war of 1812?!

PJ_Soul

mcgruff10 said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Brian has memories of the Civil War lol!

I thought it was the war of 1812?!

 It's all of the above, plus the American Revolutionary War.

mcgruff10

PJ_Soul said:

mcgruff10 said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Brian has memories of the Civil War lol!

I thought it was the war of 1812?!

 It's all of the above, plus the American Revolutionary War.

Daaaaaaamn.  Twenty bucks says Brian partied with Ben Franklin. 

brianlux

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Immerse the class. Have the classes participate in the same exercises as you did. Schedule random nuke drills. If you wanted to go completely nuts... dedicate 2-3 days of 'fake news' (attack may be pending). 

Of course... whether it's show a movie or get into role... inform the parents of your tactics ahead of time. 

An interesting idea but, nope, couldn't do it.  I would talk about it a bit, but kids these days have enough concerns of their own.  Plus, it would be like when my folks tried to tell us kids what it was like during the Great Depression.  We could only get a vague notion, enough to know we didn't want to go there.

brianlux

PJ_Soul said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Immerse the class. Have the classes participate in the same exercises as you did. Schedule random nuke drills. If you wanted to go completely nuts... dedicate 2-3 days of 'fake news' (attack may be pending). 

Of course... whether it's show a movie or get into role... inform the parents of your tactics ahead of time. 

Best not to do shit like this these days, from the teacher's perspective. If even one kid ends up traumatized by it, or even having nightmares or something, the teacher could get in shit because too many parents are idiots about such things. It's the sad but true reality of education now.

This would, however, but perfectly appropriate for university students. You could go really dark with it in fact, lol.

Yeah, agreed.  I wouldn't do that to young kids.  College students though, yeah, the full Monty- bright lights, loud explosions, ghastly screaming, the works, haha.

Nah, couldn't do it.

brianlux

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Before my time?  LOL, thank you, McG! 

I was 11 when that went down.  That was when all that I described above went (dare I say it?) ballistic.  My folks, teachers, pretty much all the adults we knew were all on edge all the time during those days.  There was a general feeling of dread, literally an end-of-the-world feeling of dread in the air.  Those days really messed with our pointy little heads.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

mcgruff10

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

Is that the one that occurred right after MLK got assassinated (I can't find your link for some reason)?  If so I am almost positive the teacher got fired for that.  By the way, great video.  I show that every year.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

mcgruff10 said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

Is that the one that occurred right after MLK got assassinated (I can't find your link for some reason)?  If so I am almost positive the teacher got fired for that.  By the way, great video.  I show that every year.

Yup.

I don’t know about her getting fired. The kids grew into adults that completely loved their experience and what it did for them.

brianlux

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

I just watched the whole thing.  The teacher obviously makes a good point and it had a fairly "happy ending", but using kids in an experiment like that seems really messed up to me.  Kind of like, "OK kids, we need to prove a point and we're gonna fuck with your heads for a while before we tell you it's all OK."  Children as guinea pigs?  Please, no!

mcgruff10

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Before my time?  LOL, thank you, McG! 

I was 11 when that went down.  That was when all that I described above went (dare I say it?) ballistic.  My folks, teachers, pretty much all the adults we knew were all on edge all the time during those days.  There was a general feeling of dread, literally an end-of-the-world feeling of dread in the air.  Those days really messed with our pointy little heads.

OH damn you are a primary source!!!  Where you drafted or did you pull a high number?

Thirty Bills Unpaid

brianlux said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

I just watched the whole thing.  The teacher obviously makes a good point and it had a fairly "happy ending", but using kids in an experiment like that seems really messed up to me.  Kind of like, "OK kids, we need to prove a point and we're gonna fuck with your heads for a while before we tell you it's all OK."  Children as guinea pigs?  Please, no!

Worksheets and lectures don’t always cut it though, Bri.

I’m not saying this is necessarily a lesson to emulate, but I am saying teachers need to take some chances sometimes.

No child was harmed in that experience. They’re all likely enriched for having gone through it.

mcgruff10

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

brianlux said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

I just watched the whole thing.  The teacher obviously makes a good point and it had a fairly "happy ending", but using kids in an experiment like that seems really messed up to me.  Kind of like, "OK kids, we need to prove a point and we're gonna fuck with your heads for a while before we tell you it's all OK."  Children as guinea pigs?  Please, no!

Worksheets and lectures don’t always cut it though, Bri.

I’m not saying this is necessarily a lesson to emulate, but I am saying teachers need to take some chances sometimes.

No child was harmed in that experience. They’re all likely enriched for having gone through it.

Jane Elliott is her name and I was wrong, she was not terminated as I had thought. She did receive a lot of backlash for the “experiment”.  

Thirty Bills Unpaid

mcgruff10 said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

brianlux said:

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Brian check out the brown eyes/blue eyes YouTube link I submitted.

I just watched the whole thing.  The teacher obviously makes a good point and it had a fairly "happy ending", but using kids in an experiment like that seems really messed up to me.  Kind of like, "OK kids, we need to prove a point and we're gonna fuck with your heads for a while before we tell you it's all OK."  Children as guinea pigs?  Please, no!

Worksheets and lectures don’t always cut it though, Bri.

I’m not saying this is necessarily a lesson to emulate, but I am saying teachers need to take some chances sometimes.

No child was harmed in that experience. They’re all likely enriched for having gone through it.

Jane Elliott is her name and I was wrong, she was not terminated as I had thought. She did receive a lot of backlash for the “experiment”.  

In the short term.

In the long run, the lesson has been considered outstanding.

brianlux

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Before my time?  LOL, thank you, McG! 

I was 11 when that went down.  That was when all that I described above went (dare I say it?) ballistic.  My folks, teachers, pretty much all the adults we knew were all on edge all the time during those days.  There was a general feeling of dread, literally an end-of-the-world feeling of dread in the air.  Those days really messed with our pointy little heads.

OH damn you are a primary source!!!  Where you drafted or did you pull a high number?

I pulled a fairly low number.  Low enough such that I was called in for the military style physical exam in Oakland, CA. That was a hoot.  Nothing like being in a cold room with a bunch of other guys and being told to drop your drawers, bend over and spread your cheeks.   "Enjoying the view down there, Serg?"

After that, I watched my number grow closer and closer.  It got to within two numbers of mine and I was a nervous wreck and then, suddenly, one day in 1973, shortly after my 22nd birthday, I turned on the news and  heard that the US military involvement had ended and with it, the draft.  I was one lucky S.O.B.  Other guys I knew, not so.  They died for nothing.  And those who lived, I know some of those guys too and they are not very well off mentally.

Some of the things we are "great" at are things not to be proud of.

Thirty Bills Unpaid

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Before my time?  LOL, thank you, McG! 

I was 11 when that went down.  That was when all that I described above went (dare I say it?) ballistic.  My folks, teachers, pretty much all the adults we knew were all on edge all the time during those days.  There was a general feeling of dread, literally an end-of-the-world feeling of dread in the air.  Those days really messed with our pointy little heads.

OH damn you are a primary source!!!  Where you drafted or did you pull a high number?

I pulled a fairly low number.  Low enough such that I was called in for the military style physical exam in Oakland, CA. That was a hoot.  Nothing like being in a cold room with a bunch of other guys and being told to drop your drawers, bend over and spread your cheeks.   "Enjoying the view down there, Serg?"

After that, I watched my number grow closer and closer.  It got to within two numbers of mine and I was a nervous wreck and then, suddenly, one day in 1973, shortly after my 22nd birthday, I turned on the news and  heard that the US military involvement had ended and with it, the draft.  I was one lucky S.O.B.  Other guys I knew, not so.  They died for nothing.  And those who lived, I know some of those guys too and they are not very well off mentally.

Some of the things we are "great" at are things not to be proud of.

Geezuz

Meltdown99

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Before my time?  LOL, thank you, McG! 

I was 11 when that went down.  That was when all that I described above went (dare I say it?) ballistic.  My folks, teachers, pretty much all the adults we knew were all on edge all the time during those days.  There was a general feeling of dread, literally an end-of-the-world feeling of dread in the air.  Those days really messed with our pointy little heads.

OH damn you are a primary source!!!  Where you drafted or did you pull a high number?

I pulled a fairly low number.  Low enough such that I was called in for the military style physical exam in Oakland, CA. That was a hoot.  Nothing like being in a cold room with a bunch of other guys and being told to drop your drawers, bend over and spread your cheeks.   "Enjoying the view down there, Serg?"

After that, I watched my number grow closer and closer.  It got to within two numbers of mine and I was a nervous wreck and then, suddenly, one day in 1973, shortly after my 22nd birthday, I turned on the news and  heard that the US military involvement had ended and with it, the draft.  I was one lucky S.O.B.  Other guys I knew, not so.  They died for nothing.  And those who lived, I know some of those guys too and they are not very well off mentally.

Some of the things we are "great" at are things not to be proud of.

Coming to Canada to avoid the draft, was that an option that you considered. 

mcgruff10

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

mcgruff10 said:

brianlux said:

If I were teaching kids about the history of the cold war I would include in my lessons my own personal experiences with having to watch test broadcast of the the "emergency broadcast system" on TV and having to listen to practice runs of screaming air raid sirens going off and being told to close our eyes if we saw a bright flash outside our window and having to go through regularly scheduled duck and cover practices at school in case of a nuclear attack as if our little school desks were going to save us from nuclear annihilation.  All of that was so lovely, just so fucking lovely.  

Yeah I love teaching duck and cover.  Brian do you have any memories of the Cuban
missile crisis or was that before your time?

Before my time?  LOL, thank you, McG! 

I was 11 when that went down.  That was when all that I described above went (dare I say it?) ballistic.  My folks, teachers, pretty much all the adults we knew were all on edge all the time during those days.  There was a general feeling of dread, literally an end-of-the-world feeling of dread in the air.  Those days really messed with our pointy little heads.

OH damn you are a primary source!!!  Where you drafted or did you pull a high number?

I pulled a fairly low number.  Low enough such that I was called in for the military style physical exam in Oakland, CA. That was a hoot.  Nothing like being in a cold room with a bunch of other guys and being told to drop your drawers, bend over and spread your cheeks.   "Enjoying the view down there, Serg?"

After that, I watched my number grow closer and closer.  It got to within two numbers of mine and I was a nervous wreck and then, suddenly, one day in 1973, shortly after my 22nd birthday, I turned on the news and  heard that the US military involvement had ended and with it, the draft.  I was one lucky S.O.B.  Other guys I knew, not so.  They died for nothing.  And those who lived, I know some of those guys too and they are not very well off mentally.

Some of the things we are "great" at are things not to be proud of.

Damn, that must have been so stressful knowing your number was creeping closer and closer. My dad was drafted and fortunately got into the national guard a few days before his unit shipped out to south Vietnam.