Standardized Education

Coming from a public school in Pennsylvania I am familiar with the massive amount of enjoyment one gets from taking standardized tests over the years.  Kids anxiously wait every couple of years for their chance to experience all the PSSAs have to offer.  They get to sit in a room, in silence, 3 hours every morning for a week taking a test that doesn't even count towards their class grades.  They are of course reminded however that if they don't do well and make the school look good then they will get to take remediation courses all the next year, but if they do well they might get a ice cream party or maybe just maybe some pizza.  Standardized testing is slowly ruining our public schools.  We no longer have teachers doing what they love to do, they are shackled by the state standards and preparing kids for these tests instead of preparing them for college or life.  I don't think I've talked to anyone in college that praises all the work they got on constructed responses or T-charts with explanations for solving a math problem.  Schools need to go back to giving kids an education instead of drilling them for tests that are meaningless after they get their diploma.

Climate Catastrophe

Climate change is a blazing fiery volcano of a topic that is burning at the very fabric of our great society.  Everyone is worried about what will happen if the ice caps melt and sea levels rise, and they're right, we should be worried.  Many of America's cities, and the world's for that matter are positioned on or near the coast.  If sea levels rise we can say goodbye to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, and defiantly New Orleans.  Also cities on the west coast such as the San Francisco bay area would be under water.  What would happen if we were to lose most of the financial and industrial hubs of our nation?  Would we be set back hundreds of years, forced to be a nation of sustenance farmers with no real unity?  Climate change is a serious problem and we should do what we can to not alter the earth's natural cycle.  How you do that is up to you, I'm not here command.  Have a nice day.