Besides this I have started a ‘site’ for my magazine here

With all the different magazines out there, it will definitely be hard to get noticed and harder still to get advertising, but I think we have a pretty interesting start.  And now we have a logo, so we can finally make a business card.  Once we get at least some advertisers, we can put the magazine into production and spread it around New York.  Of course that’s another problem since we have to find places to distribute the magazine on our own.  Ah, the battle.

vgcats.com – comic about video game playing cats
nanda.comicgenesis.com -ugly girl comics that’s about high school life
gpf-comics.com – geek soap opera
candicomics.com – a college life comic
pennyandaggie.com – high school living and rivalries
striptease.com – a comic about comic creators
zapinspace.com – sci-fi comic kind of like star wars but funnier
goblinscomic.com – fantasy comic about the goblins in D&D
antiheroforhire.com – a humorous bounty hunter comic
fanboys-online.com – a video gaming comic
megatokyo.com – a comic about two people trapped in Japan
awkwardzombie.com – yet another video game comic
shifters.comicgenesis.com – comic about humans who can shift to animals
nopinkponies.com – a comic about a girl who opens a comic book store to be close to her crush
countyoursheep.com – the relations between a mother and daughter and the imaginary sheep
pbfcomics.com – random three strip comics

Graphic novels (currently reading)
Fables – based on fairy tales
Loveless – western graphic novel (by Brian Azzarello)
Preacher – god leaves heaven and preacher is now temporary God
Hellblazer – we all know John Constantine
30 days of night – vampires in Alaska

Any suggestions for other comics/graphic novels you enjoy?

I just want to say that I am not religious, have fairly liberal views, and am sarcastic. Fair warning to you all. That being said, let’s get on with the post

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the education recently and how our school system is pretty much in shambles. While I think that Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act was a good idea (accountability for grades, choices in schools for parents, and freedom for states and communities) I think in essence, it doesn’t really do anything. Yes, there are now standardized tests across America to test Math, History, and English. But standardized testing has never been the best measure to test a child’s improvement. It’s easy enough for children to memorize the important facts and then forget them after the test. For those of us who are in college, this is what we all do before the day of the test, we cram. And then as soon as the test is over, we retain very little knowledge of what the hell we just studied. What we need are more teachers, or at least assistants, in classrooms to aid children. We need to instill a good study habit in children at a young age and we need parents to become more involved in school. I am sure that there are plenty of parents out there who are involved, but there are even more who aren’t.

I worked as a teaching assistant at a fifth grade elementary school n New York City, and children aren’t getting the feedback they need from the school or from their parents. Children who have a hard time learning something aren’t given enough time to master the basics and therefore are STILL left behind. And now with these standardized tests, they are even further behind as the teacher attempts to cover everything within a short amount of time. If we want no child left behind, then we have to actually do just that.

These standardized tests also have a huge flaw. They’re too easy now. The scores are lowered because children they are apparently “too difficult.” The regents in high school now allows a passing score of 55 when previously it was 65. In 2002 we lowered the passing grade for these alleged 3rd-8th grade standardized tests because 40% of the children failed. And now in 2007 we’re saying that children have been doing a lot better, while in truth there has been very little improvement. We have not been getting enough funding, as the 2007 budget is 12 billion less than what Bush claimed. What this means is that not enough schools are getting the funding they need to actually implement NCLB programs. In college, the government has been attempting to reduce the Pell Grant and even state-wide there is always the letters to students that TAP would be reduced.  Even government operated schools (state universities) are not receiving necessary funding and are becoming more expensive to the point where some people cannot afford to attend college.  For me, the reason state colleges exist is for the purpose of people who cannot afford private colleges to still attain a degree from a great college (look at SUNY Buffalo, Binghamton, Fashion Institute of Technology they are all amazing schools and state owned).

The idea behind NCLB as stated is good. There does need to be more accountability within schools systems, but we need to go beyond that. If smaller class sizes don’t work, there needs to be more qualified teaching assistants (look at America Reads and America Counts) in these schools so all students can get attention. Maybe even hire current college students who are working towards their education degree to mentor a small group after school. We need teachers to grade tests quickly and then return them back to students to correct immediately. This quick turnaround allows for the children to see what was wrong, ask why it was wrong, and then understand the correct answer. This allows for better memorization, understanding, and retention of materials. If standardized testing is necessary, then raise the bar instead of lowering it. Lowering the standards for achievement only proves that children are NOT learning at school. And if it is to be a standardized test, start from 1st grade rather than 3rd so we can see that children have been learning the same things from a young age. Of course, I am for the abolishment of this standardized testing as it does not allow proper time for most children to truly understand the material.

Of course it is not entirely based on the teachers to provide education as parental involvement is essential to a child’s success. Monthly one-on-one parent-teacher conferences should occur to chart the child’s improvements and to explain to the parents how to involve themselves in their child’s education.

As far as candidates go, I believe that Hillary or Edwards are good choices based on their educational reform as Hillary proposes smaller class sizes, incentives for principals in low income neighborhoods, better funding for special ed, and better access to higher education. Edwards has an interesting idea to create a second-chance school for adults that dropped out of high school. There are a couple places that offer GED classes, but a more accessible and widespread reform is necessary to help people achieve their diploma.