I beg everybody's pardon, if I inadvertently offended anybody!
After all, this exchange of ideas, as jrbogie mentioned, is just for fun...

And that, probably, means quietly SWALLOWING all the nonsense thrown at me -- without objections!
Oh, I would have, if I'd be here for the purpose of flirting with strangers. * * *

However, I find it very chauvenistic that only MEN are allowed expressing their views. But when a reasonable woman dares expressing her views, she's accused of "vicious personal attacks and childish, schoolyard bullying ..."-- because she's managed to hit a "bull's eye"!!! (i.e. humiliating those seemingly wise men, who -- under close observation -- appear to be nothing more but sorry excuses for men (who've got nothing to offer except of their stale wisdom)!!! Thus -- due to the lack of a better answer -- they're trying to accuse me of not playing fair...
(certainly, that sounds better than "f..en Bich"!) Thank you, I guess!!!
What is the wisdom worth, if it cannot stand the criticizm???

I rest my case!

yep. Fourty five minutes, first period of the day (except those of us who elected to do a zero period lol). Went something like this: 7am final bell rings and a minute later the daily announcements started; 7:10 Teacher starts calling out attendance (unless you had assigned seats, then she just looked quickly through the room t see what seats weren't filled in). 7:15 teacher starts joining in on conversations of what is going on, and the rest of the class is pure social talk.

Pure waste of time in my eyes.

jrborgie:

Comming from a person who despises college education, that question seems like a contradiction!

can you copy/paste here the phrase where i stated that i despise college education? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm? a mature, intelligent and cognitive discussion dictates, among other things, that when you claim a contradiction, you can point to the contradicting words or phrases.

Spoken like a wise woman(or posted like one..lol) As Usual

I totally agree. Education is paramount. It is the great leveler. In our parents age, networking played a huge role in thinning out the haves from the have nots. If your family knew the right openings or the right people in power, they passed the info to you and you followed up with those connections. Word of mouth and reputation went a long way, It wasnt what you knew so much as who you knew for MOST people. Now education is that great divider. Requirements for applicants to have degrees really gives employers an upper hand and an excuse to exclude many from the job pool. College education is not going to guarantee anyone the perfect career but it sure will EXPAND their options much further than just a HS Degree or GED will(unless they are born into connections..)

true but only to a degree. pardon the pun. many people do quite well without a college degree who are not born into connections. the richest man in the world had neither connections or a college degree and managed to found the company that makes the operating system that i'm using on this computer. yes, we all can agree that every degree or credintial one adds will enhance his/her prospects for a good job. but the topic of the thread concerns what should be taught in high school.

the majority of young people entering the work force will not have a college degree. that has always been the case and there is nothing to suggest it will change in the forseeable future. so the question comes back to this as i see it. what should be taught in k-12 to best prepare those kids who will not be fortunate enough to go to college for a prosperous future in the work force? bill gates did not get his computer programing knowhow from college nor did a great many of the millionairs that he helped create. computers can and are being taught in high school. society will always need software designers, website designers, draftsmen, auto mechanics, seamstresses, firemen, policemen, etc., none of which requires a college degree. philosophy may very well prepare someone for college but what in todays budget crisis gets cut so that the minority can prepare for college?

Apparently we still need to teach philosphy somewhere, because I don't have a starbucks in my town.

Never underestimate the coffee making ability of someone with a Phd in philosophy

One major reason Philosophy is needed in schools today is also that it teaches teenagers, yes teenagers not elementary students, the fundemantals of talking with people, discussing ideas, and broadening their minds so that they are not so narrow-minded that they refuse to listen or accept any idea that is nto their own.

The other day I spoke to a philosophy student who assumed I would be unfamiliar with the the "Allegory of the Cave", and also with "The Lottery".

This reminded me that my high school English class read, analyzed, discussed, and wrote papers on both of those.

I think thats how it should be done. Call it interdisciplinary, if you like. We also had a semester of English class that was focused on literary works from various religions around the world. I see no need for a specific 'philosophy' class in public school, but would like to see more English classes (and history classes) bring in more philosophy.

I got a taste of in in "classical western Lit" which I had in high school, because as we read different classical works of the Western Society, we compared the lifestyles and opinions expessed in those novels to today's way of thinking, both in the United States and what we perceived in the world as a whole. So, yes I could agree with you if this was done in all schools (not necesarily a western lit class lol, but definitely a literature class of some sort). And I also agree that it would work great if History was approached philosophically, which we did NOT have the luxury of. Our History teacher stood up at his podium and lectured for 55 minutes every day. Homework was done out of the book with no reference to it in class, and tests were made from both homework and lectures.
Now, I could see it if say when we studied the United States Civil War, we also discussed WHY people were choosing the sides they chose, and why the believed so strongly. That is all a part of History as well, but it isn't taught in schools sadly. And if our kids grow up learning what happened, but not WHY it happened, then they are not going to learn the real lessons behind everything that ahs happened.