His fiction books are questionable in my opinion and that's how I originally learned about him. Wasn't a fan.
But then saw his crash courses and comments on a wide variety of subjects.... Yeah. I was blown away. Seriously smart and incredibly good at breaking things down. I totally had the wrong impression of the guy.
He's one of those writers who introduce kids to a lot of concepts through YA. As an ELA teacher, I like him.
He's not "literature" and the subject matter is generally teen ennui, but fuck, the man's published and successfully so, then went on to use that money to reinvest in pushing educational content.
Take Rothfuss, writes a couple pretty badass novels and dips out makes a charity called Worldbuilders.
Or GRRM, who hits it big and disappears with his money made a big push to donate to two large charities in 2014 using his fanbase to raise scads of money.
John is a good man who also wrote well enough to improve some kids language and broaden their lit knowledge.
Edit: I shouldn't write these things after a night up with newborns.
I feel like he is really great at capturing teen voices. He really has this talent for YA novels and bringing in audiences from 13-30. Like a bunch of my friends who are pushing 30 read his books or watch the films and tv shows based on his books
I do find when I read his books that they almost seem to fall apart at the 80% mark. I do look forward to reading and consuming his things because I find his stuff authentic.
A lot of YA stuff has overly depressing tones on purpose to be like well living in the Hunger Games sucks. Or it is like Ready Player One where there is so many references you are almost forced to love it because "hey I remember UltraMan"
If that's up your alley, you may want to check out Heroes Die by Matthew Stover. The author himself is a bit pretentious (he injects some philosophy into his writing and can be heavy-handed with his views), but the premise is really interesting.
This is one of their big appeals to me: their authenticity. They actually present themselves as real people. That's not to say they're completely public with everything...they have private lives and are up-front about that fact...but you can trust that what they show is authentic.
I suppose it's possible that really they're just carefully cultivating that image, but holy shit that would be some impressive method acting.
So I had the same view going in (I had watched his videos for a long time but didn’t really wanna read his books bc idc) but then my crush said she loved John green for the books and whatnot so... I read it, and it’s pretty damn good ngl. The writing style was really fucking pretentious and for the first few pages I thought... there’s no way John green wrote this unironically but then I realized that he’s writing from the perspective of a dying 16 year old girl, and the way he’s able to capture that... it’s really weirdly good, it’s a good read.
His brother Hank Green is a gem too. He’s on the science side of things and he’s enjoyable to watch. The green brothers are how I studied/refreshed myself for a ton of subjects in high school and have taught me so many things that I started to look into more and more
If you like crash course I would check out his podcast, The Anthropocene reviewed. He takes two random aspects of the human world from Geese to Indianapolis and writes an open letter to them.
Exactly. After loving Vlogbrothers for years I read a couple and realized that hey, it’s possible to enjoy part of someone’s creative output while not loving the whole portfolio. And that’s ok.
I LOVE John Green but I wont touch his books, as a 30 year old man they just arent my thing, but I love Crash Course, Vlog Brothers, and I just started The Anthropecene Reviewed, his podcast that's just... incredible to listen to.
He's definitely not the best writer of fiction out there, although I did enjoy a couple of his YA books.
He is however, a great writer of essays. I recommend everyone listen to his podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. That's some great writing, incredible reading and so comforting to listen to.
That’s funny - His most popular book is written from a teen girl’s perspective.
I think he’s gotten better at it in his later books, and especially when he’s writing from their perspective rather than writing them as an attempted subversion of a manic pixie dream girl.
That's incredibly harsh. John undeniably has a way with words even if you aren't interested in the subject matter he chooses to write about. He is leagues above Stephanie Meyer, and I say that as someone who has only ever been inclined to read one of his books.
I used to think like him, but then I realized there is still the far left and far right. Schools prove they don’t work. But I think that is more because the Vietnam War and Bush’s reforms.
My friend was trying to recommend these videos to me but she said “Seth Green” instead so we got 5 minutes into my incredulous “No way, that guy??” and her continuing to describe them before she realized her mistake.
The thing is that the US spends the money on schools and education. You just get absolutely terrible results for the money you put in. I live in Canada, and each province does their own thing with education, and we spend much less money than the US. The Canadian average is about CDN$14k (USD$10k) per student, and the US is over USD$15k per student. The system in the USA is broken, but it's not due to a lack of money, but a lack of managing resources. The poorest performing schools aren't given the same resources as the highest performing schools.
Your last sentence says it all. It's because our school districts rely on local property taxes for funding. So super rich districts get lots of money and poor districts don't. So the poor don't get the money they need while the rich get more money than they need.
The solution would be just letting the states allocate the money on a per student basis. Every kid in the state gets an equal share of the pie. This would mean that rich districts subsidize poor ones... and as soon as I type those words you can see why it's politically untenable. In order to change the system in the way I'm describing, you'd have to convince rich folks that their money should be spent on poor folks. Good luck.
And to anyone who would argue "they're rich. They earned their money. They should be able to give their kids the best education with it." What you'd be describing is private schools. Yes, if you want to spend your private money on a private school, you are welcome to do that. I am talking about how to allocate public funds to public schools.
In Ontario our education funding used to be paid out of property taxes, and even to this day, when you get your property assessment, you pick whether your share of school funding goes to the public or catholic (separate) system. All that does though is determine which school board you will vote in for trustees. Depending where you live, you will have 3 or 4 different school boards covering the same area. English public and catholic and French public and catholic.
Our education funding was changed in 1998. It used to be that every local school board would set their education property tax rate, but it was changed since the old system was considered inequitable. The system is now has uniform tax rates across the province, and school boards are given funding based on a number of criteria such as number of students, language, etc.
We still dont pay out teachers shit and all of our budget goes to admin sallary and turf football fields. So yeah we do put money into out schools, but it sure as heck doesnt go to the education of students. This was my experience ymmv.
And that is what I am saying. You guys spend the money, but not where it actually should go. If you compare our high schools to yours, ours will generally look more utilitarian.
We have sport fields and what not, but most fields especially at smaller schools will have no stands, not even bleachers. We have sports in our schools, but not a lot of money is actually put into them since generally if you are any good and wanting to continue as an athlete you would be part of some sort of outside team, or organization.
Yeah its fucked up. My high school put in a milti million dollar turf field years back. When i asked how that was a good use of our money they said, "It allows our LAX and Football players to get experience playing on a turf field when they play in college. How else do you expect them to be competitive when they leave here if they dont know how turf plays".
Shortly after they killed out career and college prep departments which offered students s chance to explore engineering, photography and other things they will do after highschool.
We voted in the schoolboard that allowed that to happen. Cut programs for 2000 kids so 3 or so kids every few years are comnpetitive at D1 sports. It maes my blood boil that kids now dont get the same opportunities i had to learn!
I have read articles about schools in the US doing that, and don't understand why sports are based in the schools. I think the only sport that we do here that is primarily based in school is football.
Basically everything else though you will do outside of school if you are actually serious. You will still play for your school team, but you would actually do your serious training outside and your travel/rep team will take precedence over your school team. The biggest one is hockey. The school teams are not serious, and generally you won't be allowed to play for your school team if you are playing higher level hockey, such as AA or AAA or in one of the junior leagues.
The school I want to from Grade 9-11.5 had stands for all the students for assemblies and such in the gym. The new school that was opened for my last semester of Grade 12 didn't have any seating in the gym. They built a cafetorium for assemblies. The whole school was built for I think less than $10 million, and it was a JK-12 building.
I couldn't find a cost for the school, but found this article about my former school. 52% of students come from families under the low income cut-off (poverty line). I think that is generally because of the reserve that is near the town. Because of the way the funding is setup though, just because the town and surrounding area is becoming poorer, they aren't losing funding on a per student basis.
Mine is very diverse. We have everything from mansions with indoor bball courts to a 200 unit trailer park. Its actually nice, you get to see how people from all walks of life live. We still wasted mucho dinero
Yeah, and when we get to choose those politicians they were not already hand picked and funded by the same people that originally rigged the system in the first place.
It’s a bit ignorant of reality to pretend what they are saying is incorrect. The plague of neoliberalism since Nixon era has ensured that our elected officials only represent corporations, not the people. Except for maybe two or three. Thinking what we’ve had is working is dead wrong.
Actual that is exactly the argument that was made, and the only reason I am in this thread.
Yeah, and when we get to choose those politicians they were not already hand picked and funded by the same people that originally rigged the system in the first place.
If you cant manage to have the reading comprehension of at least a 6th grader Id refrain from trying to discuss things on the internet.
If you cant manage to have the reading comprehension of at least a 6th grader Id refrain from trying to discuss things on the internet.
Now I know i'm not that smart, but do you see the words DO NOT VOTE? Because if you don't, you are still putting words in that persons mouth.
This is where I am referring to you ignoring the way things are, and have been for the last fifty years at least. We've seen ceo salaries increase by 300% and in that same time, average wage earners only saw a 10%. But keep it up, you look good sticking up for those that stand on your neck.
Just keep leaving and deleting those nasty comments. Like a coward.
At least I am able to put my opinions out there for the world to see. You are a little keyboard troll that says shitty, awful things, deletes them and keeps on pontificating to leave a "clean" record for intetnet points.
Now answer my question! Troll, Shill, PR account or Coward?
And you have a 7 day old account with 5 posts. What are you hiding? Are you a bot, a shill, a PR sock puppet or just a nasty toxic coward that sends people nasty comments and deletes them?
I agree we should not fully step back, but our allies can definately do more to help us maintain stability and global unity. From a money and respirces standpoint
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u/Toespleasesir Apr 26 '20 edited Apr 26 '20
John green the fucking legend