OT RE: 3D printer $179.99 (today ONLY) (Was: 8-Update

[Jim Manley]

There’s a lot to be said for the Navy manuals because we (22 years in my
case), as all of the branches of the military and, increasingly, industry,
have had to educate our enlisted people in STEM principles, concepts,
practices, and skills.  That’s because the K-12 “education” system has
largely punted on doing this because it’s largely run by people with
humanities degrees and teaching experience.  Kids are more likely to be
asked how something feels about being oppressed by gravity and jackbooted
thugs that walk on them, rather than calculating the force of gravitational
attraction, per g*M1*M2/(r^2).

I know this because, following my Navy and SillyCon Valley careers, I’ve
been teaching 6 - 12 grade STEM and Computing in multiple districts in four
states and have been continually battling to get equitable funding and
administrator/board support everywhere, all the time.  One school district
thought nothing about spending three million dollars for an AstroTurf
football field with a state-of-the-art scoreboard and stadium bleachers,
but my annual budget was a whole $200 for equipment, materials, books,
software, etc.

STEM textbooks were upwards of 12 years old - the periodic tables in
chemistry books didn’t contain the 10 most recently fabricated elements
(atomic numbers 109 - 118).  The Earth and Space Science books had nothing
more recent about planetary probes/landers/rovers since the Voyagers were
launched in 1977 (which I witnessed).  On-line/optical-digital companion
material didn’t exist for any of the STEM textbooks at any price.

I could have taught at universities and colleges, but I discovered that
none of the students were from the local region because they just didn’t
have strong enough STEM academic performance to be able to succeed at the
post-secondary level.  I suspect that the administrators of these
institutions were also swayed by foreign students whose authoritarian
governments are more than happy to pay full freight in tuition, etc.,
because it’s not their money, anyway.  The result is that tuitions, fees,
etc., are rising even faster than they had been due to loan guarantees,
grants, and scholarships.

I’m doing as much as I can as a lone voice in the wilderness.  The
humanities types are complaining that my incessant howling is oppressing
the snail darters, though ...