....left to straighten this weary, wary, worried world
out, that is. But as ever, I venture to mention:
***The Current Events' Egregious Error List:***
(1) Riots are exploding around Islam due to a demented
Israeli/Californian's wish to stir the pot of public feeling and
achieve aggrandizement rather than heal any religious rifts.
Free speech is not a free pass to inflame, particularly
when one has previously been legally enjoined to
stay away from the web, as Nakoula B. Nakoula
had been.
(2) Why not let God decide? Whoever believes in
a First Cause, wherever he/she lives, instead of
wanton waste, destruction and death, let God order
the proper punishment. Mere man meting out chaos--
is that likely what Allah would want, would it even
be sufficient, despite all the drama on TV and real
life? Reading the mind of God is an impossibility;
better to act less on "God's behalf".
(3) The U.S. mess in its educational institutions is
accelerating, as a Chicago Sun-Times (08/31/'12)
news item indicated: Dozens of Harvard undergrads
are being investigated, as "...possible cheating was
discovered in roughly [~125] HALF THE TAKE-HOME
[final] EXAMS. Who authorizes take-home finals anywhere?
Hello, Harvard? Have you lost your mind?
(4) The Chicago Teachers' Strike, week two, is a complicated
mess with incompetent and irrelevant behavior all around.
Now an apparent stumbling block is time needed to "peruse"
the 23 page contract working summary. --Peruse, my foot.
We ask older children to read and report on 250-page books,
teachers, so study these 23 pages. Those who HAVE actually
read the proposed contract summary, in contrast to the House
of Delegates, seem to be more willing to deal with the CPS
(Chicago Public Schools) latest offer. Cautionary note: there are
TWO summary versions, one from CTU, the other from CPS.
Contrast and compare here too.
The Rahmster is on shaky legal ground with his injunction
against the CTU (Chicago Teachers' Union).
The City of Chicago AND the CPS have SERIOUSLY ERRED
for decades by:
(a) Allocating 30+ students per classroom. Not enough per
student teaching attention is possible with that many.
(b) Not buying the latest textbooks, not supplying the
classrooms adequately. Teachers have been spending
THEIR OWN MONEY to assist the kids and their own
performance. What IS that??
(c) As others frequently point out, HVAC is deplorable
in many of the schools in poorer areas. Class warfare,
everywhere, always. The "better" areas boast
more physically comfortable sites for learning.
President Jimmy Carter was right on the money, but
few were/are brave enough to realize it and agree: there
is a malaise in our society; if we don't snap out of it,
America's decline will be more abrupt than gradual.
Do you care enough to gird yourselves as if for war?
In other words, strive for less "fun", aim for more
serious and substantive involvement in the polity?
So many errors, so little time....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Chicago Teachers' strike is over, for the moment. Students and parents will feel more relaxed after the new contract is signed. Meanwhile, Both "sides" are mightily exerting
ReplyDeletetheir spin control muscles; Rahm is wasting time and money here too (-Again!).
Google is wrong not to remove that lying YouTube mocking The Prophet--its actors' images were edited and perverted from original scripts, and several are suing. (One actress claims her voice was dubbed over to
say hateful things.)
Looking back over the past thirty-plus years, it looks as if Jimmy Carter was the canary in the coal mine. The intensity of that social malaise seems to become more evident day by day.
ReplyDeleteBut here's my question to you, Amber. Is that malaise borne of lack of personal responsibility or an increasing level of hopelessness?
A lot of folks may not be able to articulate why they feel they matter less in terms of changes in public policy, but they're perceptive enough to know that they DO matter less to most of the poobahs who wield the power.
So, why bother?
Whatever the outcome of the settlement of the teachers' strike, the mayor's ham-fisted attempt to disempower teachers will be hurtful to everyone in the long run, including the kids. Diverting public funding to charter schools is a dicey proposition. Success-wise, they're a mixed bag.
ReplyDeleteBut what happened here in Chicago, as I see it, is really a symptom of a much larger problem: the federal cutbacks in education funding at the worst possible time --- when state and local governments are financially stapped.