>> > Those who pay the piper call the tune, as the old saying goes.
>> 
>> Well, we taxpayers do the paying.
> Too often bureaucrats think they are owed the money to with was they
> please.

Yup, it's the born-rich attitude -- weexist only as serfs to increase their  wealth as thewy see fit.

The only difference in the modern way is they allow us the illusion of having  free choices.

>> > Anymore that isn't taught.  Its all too much group think.

I know -- sad, & frightening, considering Orwell wrote about it in 1948  (published the next year) & everyone has had the chance to read it by now (most of us have, I'd say, who are literate communicators.)

The "televsion" references confused us, until when computer screens were  standard, the new generations think Orwell was just writing  set in ancient  times (1984 &/or earlier)

Our TVs moniotor us, too, but not as much as Windows-enabled computers & any  smartphone device or tablet!

Always a bit frightening to see ads for the topics of last night's living room  conversations show up on Facebook, YouTube, & Amazon!

>> True; today's teachers have graduated the new ultra-Lie-beral college
>> grouptrthink 'thinking' & no longer think for themselves nor allow such in
> theirclassroomsd
> I often like to ask a young person (nowadays that's most anyone under 60
> rather then teenagers) "why do you think/say that" when they say something I
> may disagree with.
> I'm not saying they are wrong, when often they are, but how they came to
> that conclusion.
> I seldom get a good defence of their reasoning.

I do much the same, but haven't yet got to where I can be consistently non- accuisatory in doing it.

I lke what one standup comic said: when an older (70/80+) person is wrong,  they're more right than mosdt younger (30/20&<), because they have so much more experience, knowledge,& thinking that went nto their statement.

> One thing that grates on me is the use of the word "feel" for think.  The
> two are not the same.

Yup; & how pollsters ask for people's BELIEFS, then post them as if the facts  were determined by a selection of people's opinions.

Does it really matter how many people think the Earth is flat? It isn't!

> So many seem to think something is real/not real because they _feel_ it
> is/isn't.

True.  I feel sad when I needto say, "I'm sorry, but your opinions & feelings  do not trump tyhe facts I'vcwe just presented."

I'm caerful in my speech & writing -- I use qualifying words so you'll know if  I'm giving a fact I'veindependently verified, or an opinion.

Of course, as with you, my opinions aren't built of smoke, but out of my own  years of experience & living life outside a screen.

It's weird to think back to my yuonger years & picture that person today, or  hearing of today (you people pay MONEY for water?! Why not just suck it out of  any stranger's outside tap for free?) (I was always "properly hydrated," even  without carrying a bottle of water everywhere, in the 1970s.); common sense  again: if thirsty, drink.

>>I'm stil mad, 45 years later that I got marked wrong in Pphonics for spelling
> wordsacorrecly,
> I was an average speller.  There are some words that still through me
> for a loop.
> I was always taught "look it up in the dictionary" which helped a lot.
> Today that would probably be considered child abuse....

No kidding! My wife, who raised a couple kids before we met, during my  childless yeaers of learning & adventuring, will often tell me to stop my old  school suggestions, as that's not how it's done today.

But my son does know how to use Google to answeer his own questions, as I used  encyclopedias -- hecan probably get right to the right article faster than I  ever could, nit I still claim I learned more, as I'df reasd thge entire entry & 4 or 5 others that were listed as "rlated" & a few more I spent impulsively  looking up other things the articles made me think of. . .

Even in theearly 1970-s my mom got in troublefromm,y schjol because I altready  knew the entire yea's curriculuym & much from the two aheads of me.

Dahecck? That's a mom's JOB when there's free time(no outside job) & a first  born-only. Oh, sorry, that's sexiat & white male oppression! oooohh, slap me  with a wet spaghetti noodle, ma; I'll behave!

> I always double check my spelling and writing before I'm done with it,
> on a pc.  (On paper I'm  ok).  Its amazing the times I've mispelt a word, or
> what I wrote made little sense.  (Quiet Daryl).

I have a sill chicken on my email now, as one of my friends was having genuine  trouble reading my emails. (I tended to get excited in chatting with him on  various topics we both enjoy, like language)

> I doubt many kids today know what a phone book is much less how to use
> one.

I suspect you're right; the day they stopped giving out free phone books was a  sad day for me -- my son happily tore apart any old ones we found, to shred to  use as rodent bedding..

Now I can look for numbers on the internet, but so few have a listed number  now, it's useless!

If I haven'ty put them in my phone's contacts, I don't have them; I use the  internet to find business phone numbers when needed & that's handy enough & a  bit more than half the reason I carry my phone with me everywhere.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6