Been Down So Long Seems Like Up To Me....

[Warph]

I read a couple of articles this morning that made me realize just how screwed up the American people are getting!



In Sadr City, Baghdad: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012509806_iraq02.html

"'I've never seen good electricity from the day I was born,' said Abbas Riyadh, 22, a barber in Sadr City, the impoverished Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. As he spoke, as if on cue, the lights went out."

In Colorado Springs, CO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/us/07cutbacksWEB.html?ref=us

"It was when the street lights went out, Diane Cunningham said, that the trouble started. Her tires were slashed, she said. Her car was broken into. Strange men showed up on her porch. Her neighborhood had grown deserted at night, ever since four streetlights in a row were put out on Airport Road, the street outside her mobile home park. That is why Ms. Cunningham, 41, and her son Jonathan, 22, were carrying a flat-screen television out of their mobile home on a recent afternoon. 'I'm going to pawn this,' Ms. Cunningham said, 'to get a shotgun.'"

Question: The US has spent $5 billion on rebuilding Iraq's electrical grids since 2003.   How much has it spent on the electrical infrastructure of a similar geographical region in the US?

School systems and transit systems in US cities and states are furloughing and shutting down this year. The "top 1 percent of Americans.... those with incomes [in 2005, I checked] of more than $348,000.... receiving their largest share of national income since 1928.  " Hmmmm...1928.  Am I the only one stunned by these absurdities?  I hope not.  What business do we have rebuilding Iraq (wait'll you see the bill for Afghanistan after 20 years!) if we can't afford basics in our own cities?  Lights out, thumb your ride to work, start education reform by furloughing Fridays for some weeks?  Race to what top?  Reminds me of the book, "Been Down So Long Seems Like Up To Me."  Are we ever going to pause in our friending on FaceBook and following on Twitter, wondering what Lady Gaga going to do next and when will Lindsay Lohan ever stop her self-pitying long enough to PAY ATTENTION?

In his column a couple of weeks ago, Bob Herbert asks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/opinion/07herbert.html?_r=1&ref=bobherbert
"Why is there not serious and widespread public engagement with these issues — and many others that could easily come to mind?" 

Well I'll tell you bob... the beginning of the answer is buried in the 500 million members of FaceBook.  And while I'm at it, can we stop inviting the media whores to pout and spout their trade on the cable news networks?  We know all we need to know about their trade—prostitution.

I love this comment from Bob Herbert's Article:
School Notes from an Old Geezer:

I obtained most of my formal education in the 1950s & '60s. I grew up in a lower-middle-class neighborhood where most of the parents were not college-educated. I think it is fair to say that my grade school (no kindergarten) & high-school teachers were not, in the main, more inspiring & innovative than those today. They certainly had fewer tools, much larger class sizes, & no classroom aides. And the teachers' salaries were lousy -- the grade school teachers earned about $4,000 a year, & out of that they had to pay to take summer college classes. The parents in our neighborhood pretty much cracked the whip, made us go to school, do our homework, shut off the TV & account for poor grades. (Once when I brought home an "A" in algebra, my father said, "Huh. You didn't deserve it." He was right.) A large percentage of my high school graduating class went on to college as first-in-their-families, & I still correspond with a number of them who have had extremely successful & satisfying professional careers.

It's true that governments at all levels must do more to provide quality education. But pouring money into schools will do little to improve the quality of education as long as parents are disengaged & students aren't personally motivated enough to grin & bear classes that aren't "fun" & make sacrifices to complete their formal educations.


....my my, how times have changed ....Warph

[Varmit]

Warph, I agree, parents need to be more active in thier parenting.  However, teachers need a huge increase in the quality of their skills.  I hear alot of ranting from teachers and their unions about how parents need to be more involved in their childs education and its true.  Funny thing is though, that is probably the only profession you'll hear a complaint like that.  When was the last time you heard a mechanic gripe that a car owner needed to be more involved with car repair in order to make his job easier?  Or for that matter, demand tenure?  By the way, what is the purpose of giving a k-12 teacher tenure?

[Warph]

  By the way, what is the purpose of giving a k-12 teacher tenure?

Great Question.  My daughter teaches MS & HS and my son teaches part-time at the college level.  Don't know much about their tenure situations (need to ask, I guess) but, I have read that K-12 teacher tenure is usually controlled by individual state legislatures, and codified in state law.  Each state's tenure laws are going to vary somewhat, of course.  It is my understanding that a K-12 teacher usually must serve a probationary period, and hold a valid teaching license, issued by the State Board of Education of their State.  At the end of the those probationary years, a nontenured teacher may be nonrenewed with a simple letter, usually from the director of schools before the end of the school year, no reason need be given, and there is no legal recourse, unless the nonrenewed teacher can prove that there was a discriminatory motive for the nonrenewal.  Each year, I'm told that, hundreds of nontenured teachers are nonrenewed by local school systems across various States, for reasons good, bad or indifferent.

Good article from John R. LaPlante from the Flint Hills Center, "Decisions on Teacher Tenure Should Not Be Automatic." with well informed back-up links.

http://www.kansasprogress.com/wordpress/index.php/2009/04/07/flint-hills-center-decisions-on-teacher-tenure-should-not-be-automatic/