Another Op-Ed Regarding ACORN and the NEA

Most union members think their dues are spent on assisting children and enhancing the teaching profession. But ACORN is just one of many organizations that receive funding from the NEA that have little or no connection to supporting children or teachers.

It's a good op-ed, and there's even a plug for CTEN in there.

School Fined $1 For Violating A Student's Rights

A school that refused to allow a student to create a Bible Club on campus ended up paying for the students legal fees, and paid $1 in damages.

This report is shoddy, though. The district "shelled out" money? Is that what they teach in journalism school these days?

Student Ticket For Misbehavior

I actually support the concept of fining students or their parents for excessive misbehavior, but this is taking the idea a bit far:

She said her son has a behavioral disorder and was on medication and couldn’t stay awake in class at Travis Elementary School.

"So he fell asleep again, and when they tried to wake him, he got angry,” Walka said.

She said her son then left the classroom after a teacher tried to restrain him. She said her son also made noise in the hall and he laid down on the floor and wouldn’t get up. For disrupting class, officers at El Paso Independent School District gave her 10-year-old son a ticket for $260 and it is a Class C Misdemeanor.

I can't see fining the kid in this place, but I wouldn't let him back in school until he can get a proper dose of medication that will allow him to function appropriately.

Tuesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
At the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876.

Today's question is:
What was the name of the space capsule in which John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, in 1962?

CTEN Ad Heard In Colorado?

The California Teachers Empowerment Network is currently airing a radio ad in the Los Angeles area--and a like-minded group in Colorado is linking to and writing about it.

Solidarnozc!

Nationwide Protest Against Military Recruiters In Schools

The lefties are at it again; I hadn't heard about this until a friend sent me the link. I hope not to see such losers at my school. Of the 6 pins I wear on my school ID card lanyard, 5 are military--one for each of our service academies, a Troops To College pin, and a US Army pin.

That should be enough. I don't think I need to wear a US Army shirt to school as well.

I was talking to a recruiter back in August. He told me that he likes coming to my school; it's a high-performing school, and he can be sure that students from my school will pass the aptitude/screening tests. The same cannot be said for too many schools in California.

Monday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Taiwan. Formosa is also an acceptable answer.

Today's question is:
Where did General Custer make his “last stand”?

No T&A for This T.A.

Sometimes, offering sex for an improved grade doesn't work well. You don't get the sex, you don't get the grade, and you come across looking like a fool (at the very least).

Via NewsAlert.

Sunday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Friday, June 12, 2009.

Today's question is:
On what island is the Republic of China found?

Almost Half Pay No Income Tax

While most of those are in the lower brackets, there are some in higher tax brackets, too. I don't have a problem with some "progressivity" in income tax rates, but if we're going to have an income tax, everyone should pay something. There are too many people voting on what to do with somebody else's money and that's not sustainable.

Differences Between Conservatives and Liberals

Here's a pretty funny list--funny because it's true.

Playing On The Company Dime

The president of the SF school board has charged thousands of dollars, including a trip to China, on her district credit card.

Maufas reimbursed the district in four payments over several months for the personal expenses, even as she continued to charge personal gas, food, parking and other items to the Diner's Club card. Her repayments did not include interest...

Maufas said in an interview with The Chronicle that she believed that as long as she paid back the personal charges "we were fine."

What I did not find in the story was whether she started repaying these charges on her own or if she was "found out" and then started repaying them.

None of the charges Maufas racked up appeared to be illegal, but Superintendent Carlos Garcia said The Chronicle's investigation spurred him to tighten district policies related to credit cards used by board members and some administrators.

Wouldn't you think that someone besides a newspaper reporter would be scrutinizing credit card bills?

Inconsistent Grading

Math teachers have it easier than some--our grades are much more objective than are the grades of, for example, English teachers, where so much more subjectivity occurs when grading essays and the like. The more subjectivity, though, the more variation:

Douglas Reeves, an expert on grading systems, conducted an experiment with more than 10,000 educators that he says proves just how subjective grades can be.

Reeves asked teachers and administrators in the United States, Australia, Canada and South America to determine a final semester grade for a student who received the following grades for assignments, in this order:

C, C, MA (Missing Assignment), D, C, B, MA, MA, B, A.

The educators gave the student final semester grades from A to F, Reeves said.

I was agreeing with this article until the very end:

The first step toward change, Reeves said, is eliminating "dumb errors."

Giving kids no credit for not turning in work or flunking them in some other way defeats the purpose, he said. A better result would be to force them to do the work, before school, during recess or after school.

I have well over 150 students. I honestly don't see why I should get to school early, stay after school, and give up lunch each day because my students failed to live up to their responsibilities. Throw in legal hurdles (like bus riders and required lunch minutes) and his solution is unworkable. I'm open to solutions that work, but this is not one of them.

Now People Are Paying Attention?

For several years now, and most especially a year ago during the presidential campaign, conservatives were telling the country about how corrupt an organization ACORN was. Only now is that story gaining traction:

Evidence continues to accumulate from far and wide that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is lousy with corruption. The latest revelations come from Louisiana and Oklahoma...These revelations come hard on the heels of the sensational videotapes showing ACORN employees in Baltimore, New York and San Diego giving advice on concealing a brothel featuring 13-year-old girls smuggled here from Latin America.

But this is a liberal organization. I have to believe things would have been handled differently had the Heritage Foundation been caught in such shady dealings.

Have Teachers Unions Really Lost The Backing of The Press?

This Wall Street Journal opinion piece says yes:

Quick: Which newspaper in recent editorials called teachers unions "indefensible" and a barrier to reform? You'd be excused for guessing one of the conservative outlets, but it was that bastion of liberalism, the New York Times. A month ago, The New Yorker—yes, The New Yorker—published a scathing piece on the problems with New York City's "rubber room," a union-negotiated arrangement that lets incompetent teachers while away the day at full salary while doing nothing. The piece quoted a principal saying that union leader Randi Weingarten "would protect a dead body in the classroom."

Things only got worse for the unions this past week.

Saturday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
1 sextillion (teenager snicker allowed).

Today's question is:
On what date did most full-power US tv stations switch from analog to digital transmissions?

Oh Whah! Let's Whine About Republicans Now That Chicago Won't Be Hosting The Olympics

Chicago didn't get the Olympics, and it's Bush's fault. And conservatives are anti-American. Want to read all the whining, try here for starters. Here's another.

While there might be some, I don't see the talk in conservative circles as being happy Chicago lost. I do see a lot of it as more "I told you so" about the President--his arrogant belief that he can just talk and make things happen, his so-called "smart diplomacy", his lack of priorities, his total unpreparedness for the job, his continual rookie mistakes. And come on, this is a funny jab:

"As a citizen of the world who believes that No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation, I'm glad that the Obama White House's jingoist rhetoric and attempt to pay back Chicago cronies at the expense of undermining our relationships with our allies failed". (from first link above)

The world's supposed to love us now! Oh, but after 8 years of George Bush, they don't love us (or Obama) enough. Yeah right.

I'm not a fan of the Olympics. Of course I'll pay attention to the medal count, because I'm competitive that way, and I want the US to come out on top, but if the Olympics disappeared tomorrow it would have zero impact on my life. So it doesn't matter to me where they are held. I'll admit, though, that I can't see anything happening in Chicago without massive graft and corruption, so in that regard the citizens just dodged a bullet. But whether or not the games are held in Chicago or not means nothing to me. When San Francisco lost out (and some of the venues would have been in Sacramento), I felt bad for about 3 seconds and that was it. I didn't hear anyone from either side make any political hay out of it. It's the President who injected himself into this issue, and now that he's failed, the liberals are angry that some are using it for political purposes. Of course, the liberals wouldn't have trumpeted Obama The Great had Chicago been awarded the Olympics; no, it's just those evil Republicans.

How angry liberals are, though, shows that they just can't accept that they're the only ones in the world who see President Obama as a God-man. They view this as a stinging rebuke of Obama himself, and they'll blame anyone they can for it--and if they can blame Republicans, so much the better! It's funny to go to the comments at the links above and read how angry they are. If you don't believe yet that this President has nothing going for him but a cult of personality, go read. There's not one comment there about good Chicago would have been for a choice, how Chicago has a track record of being able to organize such massive events (if indeed it has one), nothing like that. It's all anti-Republican.

Because that's all that really matters to the lefties.

Do We Need Math Teachers In Elementary Schools?

Berkeley professor Hung-Hsi Wu thinks we do.

Teachers Union Slaps Michael Moore-on

Oh, Michael. You enjoy the trappings of life that only capitalism can provide, yet you claim to despise capitalism and even make a movie about it. But you don't use socialist union people to make this movie. Bad, bad, very bad, Michael.

You know who cares about that kind of stuff, though? Union members!

The porcine provocateur is promoting his anti-Wall Street jeremiad by giving free tickets to unions, but the American Federation of Teachers has turned them down because Moore didn't hire any members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Liberal hypocrisy from the Moore-on. Who'd'a thunk?

Kill The Republicans, and Other Statements of Brotherhood and Unity

I don't hear too many Republicans out there saying to "kill the Democrats" or hoping Democrats die. But I hear a lot of liberals talking about Republican "hate speech" and how it could "incite violence" and other such verbal flatulation that is entirely unsupported with any fact.

The same cannot be said for Democratic "hate speech" and the violence it incites. One might even suggest it starts with the President, who told people "if they bring a knife to a fight, you bring a gun". The White House told people to go to town hall meetings and if people disagree with what the President wants, to "punch back twice as hard".

Ken Gladney got beaten by SEIU (that's a union, folks) thugs for having the temerity to pass out "Don't tread on me" flags at a town hall meeting. SEIU apparently got the President's message.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives writes that opposition to proposed health care reforms is un-American.

US Representative Alan Grayson, D-FL, says, on the floor of the House, that "Republicans want you to die quickly."

So-called humorist Garrison Keillor writes that the US could eliminate its deficit by denying health care to Republicans. (Question: who will pay for government once all the productive members of society have been killed?)

There's even the case of a Republican Congressman who was the target of a bomb plot.

Jimmy Carter says that opposition to the President's policies is fundamentally racist--as if we conservatives and libertarians wouldn't be protesting if President Gore or President Kerry were trying to shove this idiocy down our throats. Then Carter has the audacity (of hope!) to claim that's not what he said, completely forgetting (if he ever knew) that we live in a world of YouTube now.

Kinda puts the lie to Roger Ebert's latest blathering:

"Were liberals angry about Bush? Yes. But liberals played by the rules."

So much so that he removed those words from his column (see footnote 12:02 pm). Even Ebert doesn't want to appear that much of a fool.

If "bipartisanship" means "doing what we say" and "free speech" means "only what we want to hear", well...no. And I don't care what color the President's skin is.

Update, 10/2/09: I'd forgotten about Howard Dean's comment, "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for." I'd also forgotten about the piece by an editor for The New Republic, called "The Case for Bush Hatred", which began, "I hate President George W. Bush."

Chickens. Home. Roost?