Harry Pollard wrote:
> I ordered 6 hot wings for about $3. The kid put them in a bag and rang them
> up (pressed the '6 hot wings' key). Then I noticed that 20 wings went for
> about $6.50. That looked like a better deal to me, so I told the kid I'd
> take 20. This was a problem for the kid (which, at first, I didn't realize).
>
> There was no key to press to change the order to 20 from 6. The kid finally
> counted out 20 wings and gave them to me but didn't charge me. How could he?
You're saying it -- how could he? Looks like not even a rocket scientist
could have changed the order from 6 to 20 with this primitive cash register
-- so why use this as an example of "uneducated" employees ? Rather looks
like an example of stupid engineers who forgot to add an "undo"-key to the
machine. Or an example of machines so poorly designed that every user is
"mis-qualified". (Remember M$ who blamed the frequent crashes of their OS
on "user mistakes", having the nerve to recommend the users should attend
more PC-cour$e$ to finally "learn" how to use the OS "correctly"?)
Keith Hudson wrote:
> If I remember correctly from the
> news about a week ago there are about 30,000 children who are now excluded
> from school. However, there are about two or three times that number whom
> teachers would like to exclude but are prevented from doing so by various
> appeal boards which over-rule the schools and force unruly children back
> into the school even though they have a disruptive effect on the other
> children. This has become so serious that the government have recently
> announced that schools will have more say and has drawn up a list of
> excludable behaviours. There is a row going on now between teachers and
> the government as to what precise behaviours should be on that list. At the
> same time, for "political correctness" reasons, the government has said
> that they are setting a target of reducing the number of excluded children
> in the next two years by 30%. So the government want it both ways! They
> are giving in to the realities of the hellish classrooms in which many
> teachers find themselves (often at high personal injury risk) but are also
> trying to maintain that they have a reformist agenda.
>
> As I've already written below, state education as a whole is in a
> disastrous state. There are still thousands of excellent state schools in
> the leafy suburbs, but there are now thousands of hellholes in inner city
> areas and socially-assisted housing areas where they can only operate by
> recruiting idealistic young teachers (who can't cope and soon leave) or
> supply teachers (experienced retired teachers topping up their pensions)
> who come in for a few days at a time without any long-term commitment to
> the children.
How is more privatization supposed to heal this "disastrous state" ?
Who among the attendees of these "thousands of hellholes in inner city
areas" would be able to afford private schools ? Sounds like putting
out fire with gasoline.
Chris
_________________________________________________________________
"Too bad that all the people who know how to run this country are
busy driving taxis and cutting hair." -- George Burns
