I’m back, for now, and I only have a few things to say about the Virginia Tech tragedy: “it’s contradictory that the same people against gun control are pro-life. Everything else has already been said and since Anna Niccole is no longer soaking up our short attentions the hours of VA Tech massacre coverage will be tattooed to our minds. No need to mention that yes, I did write a blog about the Anna Niccole Smith shebang, it was tongue in cheek, I suppose now my foot’s in my mouth. But what if we lived in a country where the VA Tech massacre was a daily occurence? Such places exist.
Here’s a disturbing blogservation: your sitting in the cherished waiting room of your favorite (or least favorite) Doc’s office when you notice an advertisement. The kicker is it seemingly has nothing to do with the services provided here, or so you think. In my case I was reading, minding my business waiting for my sister to emerge from the orthodontist’s torture chamber when a voice from above sings the praises of microdermabrasion procedures (repairing skin). Intermittently for the next two hours the droning continued. I blocked it out, but wasn’t able to block the question “what does this have to do with oral surgery?” from my mind. Apparently parents can enjoy the attached and affiliated spa while their little monsters get their braces installed, tightened and/or removed. Is it any wonder appointments last so long? Just put signs up pointing the direction to the spa and leave us alone. Between the ad loop and the yapping cell phone head next to me, I’ll spend the next visit in the car or on the benches outside.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
16 April 2007
28 March 2007
School’s out(rage) forever
Bedroom community, Anna, Texas has reason to be superstitious; Black Friday, a legend come true rocked the town’s school district on March 9. Dressed fir a funeral, Superintendent Joe Wardell and assistant superintendent Elaine Rulla marched down the halls like sheriff and deputy. Three teachers learned their contracts were not being renewed and Principal Dr. Jenks was demoted to office drone.
Why, in a town of 7,000 would school officials publicly humiliate employees? Intimidation? To perpetuate a rumor? To turn neighbors against each other? Only, no one seems to be on the superintendents’s side. Why embarrass? Revenge.
"Dr. Jenks said she believes the school district retaliated against her because she recommended contract termination for one teacher.
Carol Falls, a first-year teacher, got the news about her dismissal while going to pick up papers in the office about 10:15 a.m. on Black Friday. She thinks she knows why.
Two weeks earlier, Ms. Falls said, she had seen Assistant Superintendent Dirk Callison enter the small TAKS room at Central Campus, home to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and fifth-grade students.
Fifth-graders had taken the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills two days earlier. Their booklets and answer sheets were locked in the room awaiting shipment to the grading company.
The Texas Education Agency has security rules in place because of fears about cheating. TAKS scores determine a district's academic rating, and school officials are under pressure to raise scores year by year.
The sign on the TAKS room door read, 'TAKS Coordinator Only.' And Mr. Callison was not the coordinator.
Dr. Jenks has not identified that teacher publicly, but others said it was Mr. Callison's wife, Jan, an art teacher at Central Campus.
Mr. Callison said his wife's job performance had nothing to do with Dr. Jenks' removal as principal.
'It is a personnel matter, but there is absolutely nothing there,' Mr. Callison said. "
Karen Ayers, The Dallas Morning News
In small towns nothing is left to the imagination, but everyone deserves their dignity. The superintendents show no remorse, perhaps even enjoyed parading through the school with pink slips. Dr. Wardell makes no apologies and poor excuses.
“I've been in education 26 years, and I have not found a good way to tell people that we're not renewing
their contracts."
Karen Ayers, The Dallas Morning News
Um, you could try telling staff in private; what a concept! 26 years in education and you haven’t learned common courtesy? Give me the job! 26 years seems like just enough time for a notorious legend to reoccur. Where’s the justification for these firings? A math and science teacher was dismissed, aren’t they the instructors America needs most? These individuals should receive apologies, reinstatements (although I hope they are too proud to accept) and the superintendents should be scrutinized. Maybe the city could find a reason to fire them.
Why, in a town of 7,000 would school officials publicly humiliate employees? Intimidation? To perpetuate a rumor? To turn neighbors against each other? Only, no one seems to be on the superintendents’s side. Why embarrass? Revenge.
"Dr. Jenks said she believes the school district retaliated against her because she recommended contract termination for one teacher.
Carol Falls, a first-year teacher, got the news about her dismissal while going to pick up papers in the office about 10:15 a.m. on Black Friday. She thinks she knows why.
Two weeks earlier, Ms. Falls said, she had seen Assistant Superintendent Dirk Callison enter the small TAKS room at Central Campus, home to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and fifth-grade students.
Fifth-graders had taken the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills two days earlier. Their booklets and answer sheets were locked in the room awaiting shipment to the grading company.
The Texas Education Agency has security rules in place because of fears about cheating. TAKS scores determine a district's academic rating, and school officials are under pressure to raise scores year by year.
The sign on the TAKS room door read, 'TAKS Coordinator Only.' And Mr. Callison was not the coordinator.
Dr. Jenks has not identified that teacher publicly, but others said it was Mr. Callison's wife, Jan, an art teacher at Central Campus.
Mr. Callison said his wife's job performance had nothing to do with Dr. Jenks' removal as principal.
'It is a personnel matter, but there is absolutely nothing there,' Mr. Callison said. "
Karen Ayers, The Dallas Morning News
In small towns nothing is left to the imagination, but everyone deserves their dignity. The superintendents show no remorse, perhaps even enjoyed parading through the school with pink slips. Dr. Wardell makes no apologies and poor excuses.
“I've been in education 26 years, and I have not found a good way to tell people that we're not renewing
their contracts."
Karen Ayers, The Dallas Morning News
Um, you could try telling staff in private; what a concept! 26 years in education and you haven’t learned common courtesy? Give me the job! 26 years seems like just enough time for a notorious legend to reoccur. Where’s the justification for these firings? A math and science teacher was dismissed, aren’t they the instructors America needs most? These individuals should receive apologies, reinstatements (although I hope they are too proud to accept) and the superintendents should be scrutinized. Maybe the city could find a reason to fire them.
08 March 2007
Double Feature: Classic comic import to grace the silver screen and Brilliant billionaires: an American endangered species?
He’s a reporter with a knack for solving crimes before twin dimwitted detectives catch a clue. Any good reporter strives to be a detective anyway; and journalist is the closest you can come today without chasing cheating spouses. But I’m talking about Tintin, Belgium’s number one sleuth, his popularity and likeability has Steven Spielberg himself salivating. DreamWorks will host the world renowned cartoon character’s film debut, but will the adaptation ring true? I’m hoping for classic 2-D animation or even live action featuring actors with appropriate accents. I don’t want to see a CGI movie sacrificing depth and character development for cheap laughs. Conversely, the comic relief distinguishes Tintin, but whatever’s popular in two years dictates the film’s feel, so what do core fans matter? That’s not who Hollywood’s aiming at. Granted TMNT looks terrible, and its graphics will eventually date it, that won’t stop devotees, like me, and restless kids on spring break alike from plunking down $8.
What to do with all the money? Forbes magazine released its billionaires list today and everyone’s wondering what these folks spend their dough on. To anyone rich or poor, doesn’t time matter more than money? I have more time than money, but that doesn’t mean I’m wasting time, I probably waste more money. It’s great more women and Indians made the cut, but how do the rich and perhaps famous spend their time? Bill Gates generously gives hours to citizens of Africa, struggling students ( as a Harvard dropout, he was once one), and overseeing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Ingenuity and creativity founded many of the listed billionaires, while American public schools and standardized tests discourage these two talents. We have many freedoms, but when will our children be free to think again? Proud as I am that the U.S. encourages opinions, I wish school administers would listen to kids, instead of the cha-ching of cash registers. Perhaps it’d put more money in students’s pockets.
What to do with all the money? Forbes magazine released its billionaires list today and everyone’s wondering what these folks spend their dough on. To anyone rich or poor, doesn’t time matter more than money? I have more time than money, but that doesn’t mean I’m wasting time, I probably waste more money. It’s great more women and Indians made the cut, but how do the rich and perhaps famous spend their time? Bill Gates generously gives hours to citizens of Africa, struggling students ( as a Harvard dropout, he was once one), and overseeing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Ingenuity and creativity founded many of the listed billionaires, while American public schools and standardized tests discourage these two talents. We have many freedoms, but when will our children be free to think again? Proud as I am that the U.S. encourages opinions, I wish school administers would listen to kids, instead of the cha-ching of cash registers. Perhaps it’d put more money in students’s pockets.
10 February 2007
Public schools get poor marks for lunch
There’s a revolution of chow. It started in some big city restaurants and spread to entire cities. Now the whole fast food industry is scrambling to remove hydrogenated oil from fries and baked goods. Supermarkets carry alternatives that take the junk out of junk food. Oreos are now not only trans fat free, but vegan.
Americans are buying fresher. People are spending more time in the produce department and less time fogging up the freezer case windows. Have you noticed the jump in fruit and vegetable prices? That’ll subside. But with growing interest in ethnic foods and raw vegetables fresh may also mean fast, thus eliminating “I don’t have time to cook” from the American vernacular.
With all this change afoot, why are public schools calling in sick when it comes to shaping up their menus? French fries are not a vegetable. While pears in heavy syrup we’re once fruit, the nutritional value is canceled out by added sugar. Soda and candy machines serve lunch to millions of hungry high school pupils. No wonder their stomachs don’t stay full for long on empty calories. If eating habits have changed in the home, why are we still poisoning kids at school? Yeah, you guessed it, money.
Students spend a third of their day at school. That may mean a trip to the vending machines in the morning (kids like a caffeine kick, too), during lunch and after the school bell rings, before boarding the bus or cruising the Mustang home. I won’t even get into schools allowing Starbucks to set up camp in cafeterias.
Yum food brands (home of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC to name a few), Little Caesars and Chick-fil-A (God’s official chicken shack—schools aren’t open on the Sabbath—so it’s ok) offer investment incentives to schools willing to stoop and scoop up greasy money. Shouldn’t parents be outraged? Has the fast food business no dignity? What kind of lessons are the children learning from this?
Some may argue that parents and students make the decision to buy school lunch or bag it, but shouldn’t health conscious kids have a choice, too? Cookies and fries for lunch alienate much of the studentry. As diversity in institutions grows shouldn’t menus reflect that? Perhaps the accountants should crunch some numbers and maybe public schools will serve up some variety and still make a pretty penny from school lunch. Grocery stores and restaurants have adapted, schools should be next.
Americans are buying fresher. People are spending more time in the produce department and less time fogging up the freezer case windows. Have you noticed the jump in fruit and vegetable prices? That’ll subside. But with growing interest in ethnic foods and raw vegetables fresh may also mean fast, thus eliminating “I don’t have time to cook” from the American vernacular.
With all this change afoot, why are public schools calling in sick when it comes to shaping up their menus? French fries are not a vegetable. While pears in heavy syrup we’re once fruit, the nutritional value is canceled out by added sugar. Soda and candy machines serve lunch to millions of hungry high school pupils. No wonder their stomachs don’t stay full for long on empty calories. If eating habits have changed in the home, why are we still poisoning kids at school? Yeah, you guessed it, money.
Students spend a third of their day at school. That may mean a trip to the vending machines in the morning (kids like a caffeine kick, too), during lunch and after the school bell rings, before boarding the bus or cruising the Mustang home. I won’t even get into schools allowing Starbucks to set up camp in cafeterias.
Yum food brands (home of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC to name a few), Little Caesars and Chick-fil-A (God’s official chicken shack—schools aren’t open on the Sabbath—so it’s ok) offer investment incentives to schools willing to stoop and scoop up greasy money. Shouldn’t parents be outraged? Has the fast food business no dignity? What kind of lessons are the children learning from this?
Some may argue that parents and students make the decision to buy school lunch or bag it, but shouldn’t health conscious kids have a choice, too? Cookies and fries for lunch alienate much of the studentry. As diversity in institutions grows shouldn’t menus reflect that? Perhaps the accountants should crunch some numbers and maybe public schools will serve up some variety and still make a pretty penny from school lunch. Grocery stores and restaurants have adapted, schools should be next.
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