Variety - a silly taskbar program that changes my background randomly from my own selected sources with added random quotes. I have it set to change my background every 3 hours and the quotes every hour I think. I just can’ live without it anymore.

Greed and jail is keeping him in the race. Followed by narcissism and the drive for power. (The last 2 are a requirements for a politician of any stripe).

Lots of promises get made in an election. But you still got to make it happen if you win.

Not really. As a former math teacher, I used to have kids do speed drill quizzes very similar to that elements chart drill a couple times a week. As in how many basic facts, (addition, subtraction. multiplication and division), with the correct answer can you do in one minute. There are just some basic skills you really need to learn and master before you can move on and learn how to blow things up.

The point of the quiz was not to expect you to get them all correct all the time or even get to the end of the quiz, (I was aiming for 30 correct answers in that one minute out of maybe 60 or 70 problems). But the idea was to build a very basic skill set for you. And so that you wouldn’t be afraid of the numbers, (this is a real stress point for students), and to lessen the fear of learning and adding to your skills by eliminating the stress of where to start. If you confidently know what 7x3 is, that’s one less detail you need to work out and worry over when doing a math problem, (another stress point for students).

Education methods sometimes seem dry and useless and even mean to a young student. But they do actually have thought and reason behind the why a teacher might do something. I could never be bothered to try and teach you something that was pointless. I simply didn’t have the time for that kind of effort. Nor do the vast majority of teachers in a classroom.

But before you can look it up, and I’m all for it, you need to know something is possible. That’s what education does for you.

I have nothing against calculators. But I have taught some elementary and jr high school math classes in my old a feeble age. The “why can’t we use calculators” and " what do I need to know this for" was a constant whinge I had to listen to and deal with.

Why I want you to know how to solve a quadratic equation isn’t because that’s what you are going to do for the rest of your life. But rather, I want you to see something like that in the far future and go “Oh, I know what this and that it isn’t gibberish. And I can whip out that smart phone I got and google it to find the howto steps to solve it.” And I want you to acquire the discipline to learn things. Besides, just knowing what 7x3 is, makes everything else so much easier to learn in math. That removes fear and stress point and builds the confidence to tackle more complex ideas.

I probably own more calculators than most here. So, I’m all for them. And I did always allow any student to use a calculator in class. I would just hand you a slide rule…(and yes, I’m that old to have used them in class as a kid and I still own a couple). But, when I was teaching, I really wanted my students get their fingers dirty with the numbers themselves and to learn how those numbers work. While getting the correct answer is very important, as a teacher, I was perhaps less concerned with the correct answer and more concerned with HOW you got that answer. Because if you know what you did to get that answer, you are far more likely to get the right answer than the wrong answer.

In the end, I think education needs to be approached from the idea of making learning more fun. No matter the subject. Sadly, that’s a very difficult trick for any teacher in the typical class room to accomplish.

I have nothing against calculators. But I have taught some elementary and jr high school math classes in my old a feeble age. The “why can’t we use calculators” and " what do I need to know this for" was a constant whinge I had to listen to and deal with.

Why I want you to know how to solve a quadratic equation isn’t because that’s what you are going to do for the rest of your life. But rather, I want you to see something like that in the far future and go “Oh, I know what this and that it isn’t gibberish. And I can whip out that smart phone I got and google it to find the howto steps to solve it.” And I want you to acquire the discipline to learn things. Besides, just knowing what 7x3 is, makes everything else so much easier to learn in math. That removes fear and stress point and builds the confidence to tackle more complex ideas.

I probably own more calculators than most here. So, I’m all for them. And I did always allow any student to use a calculator in class. I would just hand you a slide rule…(and yes, I’m that old to have used them in class as a kid and I still own a couple). But, when I was teaching, I really wanted my students get their fingers dirty with the numbers themselves and to learn how those numbers work. While getting the correct answer is very important, as a teacher, I was perhaps less concerned with the correct answer and more concerned with HOW you got that answer. Because if you know what you did to get that answer, you are far more likely to get the right answer than the wrong answer.

In the end, I think education needs to be approached from the idea of making learning more fun. No matter the subject. Sadly, that’s a very difficult trick for any teacher in the typical class room to accomplish.

It matters very little to me if votes are made public. It’s not even a top 20 reason I’m a Lemmy user.

Edited for clarity. I should have tea before I post…

It wasn’t about wanting to know about photosynthesis, the original question was really about the oxygen tanks. Kids very often are looking for a simple answer. Even though the real answer is far more complex.

As a Dad who helped raise 4 Daughters, (a CPA, a Triage Nurse, PHD Mech Engineer, and a Computer Forensic Expert for the FBI), teaching at home is a crucial part of parenting. Beyond offering a wide variety of materials to learn from, (we built a library of books that filled my office), and being ready to answer those oxygen tank questions, you need to show and make asking those questions and learning from them fun.

And it has gone exactly nowhere either hasn’t it. Nor do those techbros want the legal and moral responsibilities that come with an actual licence to pass the boards.

I think the vast majority of people understand that already. They don’t understand just what all those gadgets are for anyway. Medicine is largely a ''blackbox" or magical process anyway.

The hypesters and grifters do not prevent AI from being used for truly valuable things even now. In fact medical uses will be one of those things that WILL keep AI from just fading away.

Just look at those marketing wankers as a cherry on the top that you didn’t want or need.

But not for Pi Day. Having taught classrooms how to calculate Pi by tossing “frozen hot dgos” and literally timing the period of the swing of an apple pie suspended from the ceiling, it’s pies or nothing!

I like the way you think.

Cheese cake is either a custard or Tart depending on ingredients. But it’s not a pie.

The engineer in me wants to tell you round it up to 3.5 just to be safe. Maybe even 4 might be better…

Do NOT give my one Daughter anymore ideas than she already has!

I have a Daughter who was born on Pi day. When she was little. she would tell you it’s the second most important day, right after Christmas. Pi Day actually became a school wide fun day because of her, (small rural schools can be fun that way). We would bring a couple of pies for her math class to celebrate. Oddly, she much prefers a strawberry cheese cake for her birthday over pies.

I suspect she will NOT allow the change…

Have you considered medial advice from a lingual artificer?

I agree, a perfectly crommulant statement from a Word Warrior.