Real Thought

OK, here is my plan.  To provide health care for all Americans who are currently uninsured here is what Congress has to do, dis-establish the federal Department of Education.  Currently the Department of Education has a budget of $68.6 billion.  If we dis-establish that department, we can then give each of the 47 million Americans without health insurance $1, 460 each yearly with which to buy health insurance.  Or we can take that $68.6 billion and expand the United States Public Health Service and provide health care to the poor and indigent.  Since the federal Department of Education does nothing worth while, it seems to me that this would be the simplest solution to the problem of providing health care to those without insurance coverage.

Of course, I still believe that Universal Health Care is unconstitutional, but then again so is the Department of Education.  If the federal government is going to exert power beyond its constitutional mandate, it might as well provide a tangible benefit to the population.

I am supposed to be teaching a “violence reduction” curriculum one day a week to my first period history class. The main thrust of this curriculum is the reason why violence is on the rise in schools is the “prevalence of guns” in American society. Yep, that is the main thrust. Guns are bad. How about parents who just got out of jail and don’t make it home to see their children because they had to stop at the bar? How about a subculture that glorifies the”thug life”? How about music in which young women are called “bitches and ho’s”? What about a society which sexualizes 11, 12 and 13 year old girls but calls anything a 11, 12,or 13 year old boy might do “violent”, “aggressive” or “sexually inappropriate”? How about a society which teaches parents that they should be permissive and that no one, police officers and teachers included, has any right to discipline their “babies”? How about a school district administration who refuses to expel dangerous and unruly students because that “is just their culture”? What about parents who don’t worry while their children fail every single class but threaten to sue if you send the child home for dressing inappropriately at school? I suppose that none of those things contribute to the rise in violence and increased chaos in our public schools. Yep, guns are bad. Right.

Governor Schwarzenegger just vetoed California’s version of the DREAM act, a law which would provide financial aid to “undocumented immigrants” who attend California state universities.  Most “immigrant rights” activists are calling his veto a “denial of immigrant’s rights to an education.”  Here is the rub, in California “undocumented immigrants” can attend California state universities and pay in state tuition, while those who are “documented” have to pay out of state fees.  Furthermore “documented immigrants” are ineligible for financial aid because they are foreign nationals.

I attended San Francisco State in the 80’s and I did not receive financial aid because my parent’s income was  above the “threshold for eligibility.” No one denied me an education nor a degree because I was denied financial aid.  My parents scrimped and saved to pay my tuition and gave me a very small allowance to live on while I was in school.  I managed to graduate without direct taxpayer subsidy in the form of financial aid.

I believe that California’s current policy and the wishes of the “immigrant rights” activists is all wrong.  In a sane world all “undocumented immigrants” would be considered foreign nationals which, in fact and de jure, they are.  They should be able to attend university but they should have to pay out of state fees and do without financial aid just like their “documented” counterparts.  Sorry, but if you are an “undocumented” immigrant, you are a foreign national living in the United States without their express but possibly with their tacit consent.  When one is living in a country illegally, one should not press for rights which don’t even exist for those who are citizens or legal residents because one may find that the tacit  consent which allows you to stay may just be withdrawn.

I have a colleague at work.  He is a Physical Education teacher, wrestling coach and a pretty nice guy.  He is also a rabid Democrat.  You know the kind, everything is “Bush’s fault”.  “Bush is an idiot.”   “Bush tricked us into an immoral war in the Middle East.”  Well, my principal’s husband just got a job offer in Bahrain.  A company is willing to pay him US $30,000 a month for three years; the catch is that he will have to live in Bahrain for three years.  Of course, Mr “I hate Bush” just had to ask, “Where’s Bahrain?”  Yep, this is a guy who can tell you how and why the Iraq War is a huge mistake but he doesn’t even know the basic geography of the region.  And people wonder why I don’t take the Democratic Party seriously…

According to a new report from Indiana University, 75 percent of high school students are bored with their classes and 22 percent have considered dropping out. Half the students surveyed admit that they have skipped school. Most say that they don’t find the material “interesting”. Evidently that is the result of a survey conducted by the university’s Center for Evaluation Policy. The study surveyed 81,000 students at 110 public and private schools.

The Center goes on to make the following recommendations; that teachers be more “interactive” and that they assign more group work, discussions and projects rather than lecture. The Center also recommends that the schools find out why students are skipping classes rather than punish them with suspensions or detentions.

OK, ever since the days of the Athenian Academy there have been students who have a thirst and desire for knowledge and there are those who don’t. I am sure that Aristotle and Socrates did not worry why students didn’t show up. Making the curriculum more interesting isn’t the answer. Right now, I have a plethora of technology at my hands to make my lessons “interesting”. Guess what? No matter what I do, there are students who pay attention and get good grades and those who don’t. The bottom line is that students whose parents or guardians value education do well and those who come from households where there is little value placed on education and little discipline do poorly.

The problem lies not with the curriculum nor with most of the teachers but instead lies at home with the parents. Parents who have control of their children and value education will have children that do well in school. Those that don’t, won’t. No amount of school intervention can fix that. I didn’t need a survey of 81,000 students to come to that conclusion.

Yep, tonight is the night in which I get to entertain the parents or guardians of my students. Before you ask any silly questions there are a few things I’d like to get off my chest:

Just once, I’d like the parents who attend this shindig to actually read the student handbook and the various parent letters they have received BEFORE they ask questions about how my class is run. I would really appreciate it if many of them would realize that it is my job to TEACH not to fix whatever psychological problems their spawn may have. Furthermore, I’d like them to realize that if little Johnny or Janey is disruptive or refuses to follow simple instructions such as, “Johnny, quit hitting Bill over the head with your desk.”, it is my right and duty to remove their child from my classroom, by physical force if necessary. There is no negotiation on this point.

Another thing, I was not hired to coddle your child nor to be their friend nor surrogate parent. I was hired to teach your child. My area of expertise is History, not appropriate social behavior nor appropriate dress nor anger management. There are professionals whose forte those subjests are, they are called psychiatrists and psychologists and PARENTS. If your child needs help in these areas, I suggest you step up and help them. If you cannot, I suggest that you seek help from someone with a bunch of letters appended to their name.

Finally, if your child looks like the one in the first picture, he or she will do fine. If he or she looks like the one in the second, well, there isn’t much I can do, Sparky.

Thank you.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a teacher. Here in California the public schools have been on an austerity budget ever since Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. Why? Because the California Republic is fifty billion dollars in debt and constantly spends more than it takes in. This has not stopped under Arnie. On Thursday, the “Governator” said that he woud revise the state budget to provide $5.7 billion in additional funding thanks to a surge in capital gains tax revenue arising from the sale of Google, stock options, strong home sales and a rising stock market. Needless to say, my union, the California Teacher’s Association is pleased. This may well settle a lawsuit the CTA had filed over this very issue.

How stupid is this man? Rather than use the increased revenue to retire some of the state’s debt or invest it to ensure a steady revenue stream, he is going to spend it on additional expenses. Call me crazy, but I see this as financially idiotic. When ever I get a extra service check some of it goes to retire outstanding debt and some goes into investments or savings so that I will not have to be a wage slave for the rest of my life. Shouldn’t good personal economy apply to the state, writ large? Yes, the public education system here in California is a joke but an additional $5.7 billion isn’t going to fix it. Furthermore, this revenue stream shows no signs of being sustainable. How many times can we expect Google to be sold? So, when this wind fall in capital gains revenue is exhausted, what will replace it? Finally, my union is always trumpeting about how we teachers care for California’s children and their future to the public. Well, here is an idea, how about retiring some of the state’s debt today so that the children of California will have a better future? Is that too much to ask? Of course, the governor also said that $2.2 billion would go into a “rainy day fund” and $3.7 billion would go to service the state debt. How about $2.2 billion in a reserve and $9.4 billion to service the debt? That makes much more sense to me.

I was teacher in charge at my school. A female student came in after lunch and told me that a boy had touched her breast. I had her write a statement and asked if she knew the boy’s name. She said “No”. I asked her if she could identify him from the student album and again she replied “no”. I asked her if he did any thing else to her and again she replied “no”. I told her that I would leave the statement for the vice-principal, which I did and not to let other students know she came in so that we could do an investigation. The girl was not distraught, upset or crying. There were no visible marks on her that I saw and she left with a polite “thank you” and went to class.

Today, I was in the office and all hell was breaking loose! The girl’s mother was in the office alleging sexual assault. It turns out that not one, but three boys had grabbed her and one had bitten her on the breast leaving a mark. The mother was rightfully furious. She called the police, the three boys were discovered and suspended pending expulsion and a police report was filed. She wanted to know why I didn’t take the inital report more seriously. I explained that I had no clue that her daughter was assaulted in this manner and recounted the conversation with her daughter. I showed the mother her daughter’s statement which made no mention of three boys or of one biting her breast. I also told her that her daughter couldn’t identify any suspects for me and that I couldn’t punish anyone without knowing who the alleged perpetraitors are. Finally, I apologised for not calling her. She seemed to calm down.

I don’t get it however. The story the girl told me was no where near as serious or graphic as the one she told today and the police were angry because potential evidence was now 24 hours old and possibly contaminated. I really don’t understand why the girl soft pedalled the story initally. The best anyone could tell me is that she was embarassed to tell me. Great! How am I supposed to maintain discipline in a school if students who are victims won’t tell me the entire story?

Many of you may not know but Caifornia has a high school exit exam. This exam is set at the 8th grade level. In order to receive a diploma all seniors have to pass the exam beginning with the class of 2006. Recently a state appellate judge ruled that seniors in the class of 2006 didn’t have to pass the exam and must be awarded their diplomas if they have enough credits to graduate. The seniors of the class of 2006 have had at least four chances to take and pass the exam. The state Supreme Court has ruled that seniors in the class of 2006 must pass the exam in order to receive a diploma.

I applaud this decision. It is about time that we had an objective measure of student achievement before awarding a high school diploma. The test is based on the EIGHTH GRADE CURRICULUM! Let me spell this out, I don’t care how many credits a Senior has, if they can’t pass an eighth grade exam they do not deserve a diploma. Period. This requirement does not apply to special education students by the way. There may be hope for the People’s Republic of California yet. Of course my union, the CTA doesn’t want there to be an exit exam.

One more thing, I will be gone for the next four days with my Sea Scouts. They will be competing at the Ancient Mariner Regatta which is being held aboard the USS Hornet museum in Alameda, California. If you are interested to see why I am an active adult leader in a Scout program, check it out. Of course, that means that there will be no new posts for a few days for the three of you besides my wife and father who actually read this to peruse.

UPDATE: The California Court of Appeals has set a July 25th date to hear oral arguments on the California High School Exit Exam. That means that seniors in the class of 2006 MUST take and pass the exam in order to receive a diploma.

Rears it’s ugly head. Department of Vaterland Homeland Security’s deputy press secretary Brian Doyle was arrested in his home today for trying to solicit sex from an alleged 14 year old girl over the internet. The only problem is that the girl in question was a Deputy Sheriff in the Polk County, Florida Sheriff’s Department. Yep, this is the kind of guy we have in the department which is supposed to keep us “secure”. Creation of the American version of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt has resulted in a governmental agency which has done precious little to improve security but instead has copied the culture of its Nazi predecessor not to mention gobbling up a fair share of the Federal budget. Since the Democratic Party is so concerned about the national deficit how about doing away with the DHS? That would be a start. We could then move on to the Department of Education and then Health and Human Services. How about it Ms Pelosi? Senator Clinton? Senators Feingold or Boxer? Anyone?