from "Tony Hawk's Underground 2"

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You are very correct, my friend!

He is indeed, a world class skateboarder, and holds several world records, for his age group.

He spent an entire summer with Tony Hawk, whose name is very well known in the same circles.  Tony has held records in his class forever, and has several great moves that he invented.  He has said many times that Ryan is the best boarder in the world. That is very high praise, soming from Tony Hawk!

Their summer together was filmed, as they visited some of the most famous skating parks in the USA. That cap is from the video.

The video was later made into a best-selling computer game.

Here is Ryan, doing some of his magic.

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Do the words "protective gear" come to mind!?

There was a show, I believe on E! a short time ago, and they visited Ryan's home.  Nice home.  Even nicer, the BMW in the driveway, that he purchsed with one of his winner's checks.

There's a show called MTV Cribs that visited his home. I have the clip of it. For those that want to see it, here's the link...

It's the Windows Media Format, about 25 megs. Right click save and play is best.
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You learn a lot from this short clip about Ryan. Think about how many 15 year old boys would go on world wide TV and show off the home made father's day card he made! Ryan is very down to earth and real. I like him a lot. Wish I could meet him one of these days.

--Will

Go back to school???

Someone's giving him dumb advice.

Peer Pressure
Bullying
Boring lessons
Rules
Propaganda

Quote:



Well you can do ALL those things without going to school and get a far better education...

..schools generally dumb kids down and turn them into social lemmings.

Given a choice, the best option by far is to avoid school like the plague.

LOL,

That's a hilariously accurate assumption but it is erroneously formed I'm afraid.  In no way is there a cultural bias in Australia that would support my personal beliefs. I'm a libertarian and have never supported the suffocating government or religion dominated educational institutions in this or any other Western nation.

I do support a certain amount of organized group activity for kids as some things are best learnt in a group environment, however there are far preferable ways than succumbing to the brain numbing claustrophobic atmosphere of a 'regular' school... where tedium and myopic indoctrination inhibits genuinely valuable educational experiences.

I was a teacher for many years working in 'regular' school and it didn't take me long to realize the folly of the system. I plied the system as best as I could, bending it this way and that to accomodate my pupils' needs but eventually I'd had enough. I'd witnessed far too many failures and injustices against individuals.

I now have a group of 'private' pupils...  but that's another story.

Remember the great song by Pink Floyd:

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave those kids alone
Hey, Teacher, leave those kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall...

...and that was British.

I'm pretty surprised that Americans are so supportive of their schools...  especially considering that the US has had a series of tragic school shootings, overwhelming numbers of bullying, drug distribution, racism, homophobia, etc, etc, etc

Quote:


I can't speak for all Americans. For the most part, we have no choice. These are our choices...Public schools, private schools, home schooling, charter schools or no school at all...the latter of which will get the guardian and or parent in trouble with the government. Until a child reaches a certain age. it's my understanding that they must be enrolled in some kind of school.

Private Schools: Very expensive for the most part. Only the ones that are a little more well off than most will be able to afford it. Even then, most of the parents leave the choice to the kids. Private schools might not have all the kid's friends in it. Since it's private, there are no boundaries. The friends they make at school might live 30 miles away. Whereas with public school, there are boundaries that one must live in in order to go to that school, thus, everyone lives fairly close to each other. Within 10 miles usually I'd say. I'm speaking generally in a big city area.

Charter Schools: These are publicly funded schools but are not government run, usually. They are where the kids that can't seem to behave and get along with others are sent as their last chance. Most of the time it's not too bad, but the peer pressure and influences there are different than any where else. I speak from personal experience based on one school that I know of where I grew up.

Home Schooling: This is a great idea if you have the time. I was home schooled when I was younger. It was only for one year, but I learned more in that one year than I did any other time I was in school. But my social skills were left out to rust as I wasn't usually made aware of the social events that got advertised and supported by the public schools. My friends saw me as an outsider for some reason and wasn't ever invited to play, unless they wanted something from me. That doesn't mean it's going to happen to everyone, it just taught me that my friends were asses, that's all. Again, I learned a lot that year.

Public Schools: Aside from what you hear on TV about the violence and such. They're not as bad as they sound. At least not all of them. The violence can't be blamed solely on the schools though, can it? It's the kids and the way they're raised, or not raised as sometimes the case may be...ie, lack of a good role model. having to fend for themselves.

So I suppose what we do sometimes, if we don't have enough money or time, we just choose the lesser of the two evils, hope and pray that our kids won't become victim to violence or prejudice of any kind.

Well, I hope I didn't over step any bounds there...but it gave me a chance to voice my opinion into an intelligent conversation without people getting upset.

Have a great day, all!

--Will