Brooding from CitizenT: Teachers deserve better...our respect.

http://nyti.ms/rsptkR

My business life in a nutshell...

Jessica Hagy has a blog that has been going daily since 2006, and unbelievabley most of her 'index' cards are either hilarious, poignant, or hard-hitting truth. She's received too many alcolades to mention here. But I add mine here.

"Started in August of 2006, Indexed has been noted around the web—much to my continued shock. Thank you to everyone who has shared the link and joined the party.

Originally, I described this site this way: “This is a little project that allows me to make fun of some things and sense of others without resorting to doing actual math.”

Today, I’d have to take the word ‘little’ out of that line."

http://thisisindexed.com/2011/11/thats-amazing-not-expected/

Do You Have a Favorite Teacher?

It's World Teacher's Day, and I found this great article (Please click on title) outlining some great ways to show your appreciation for teachers. So, regardless of your politics, just do it!

http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/10/04/world-teacher-day-5-ways-support-educators-across-america

Bleeding the Beast

Colorado City, Utah 2003. In Jon Krakauer's book Under The Banner Of Heaven 1 he takes a close look at the fundamentalist Mormons that used to be based in Colorado City, UT & AZ (city straddles both states for mostly tax reasons.) Most didn't work, officially anyway, because they practice what they term as 'Bleeding the Beast'. Their disdain of big government runs so deep that they try to do everything they can do to bring down big government, by taking advantage of every social program available to them. All while living in air conditioned 16 thousand sq. ft houses.

These pilfered programs include Medicaid or Medicare, Social Security (even though most have never given a dime to Social Security), welfare (for many 'wives' and children), and many others. As of 2003, $6,000,000, yes $6 million dollars was funneled to Colorado City in public funds.

And they were shrewd too. Lawyers were on duty to hide and transfer and allocate and look for every opportunity to bleed the beast. More than $4 million of 'big government' funds went to the Colorado City Public School District, that was so corrupt with administration overhead, they found the need for a Cessna 210 airplane (for over $200,00), to facilitate vacations for the upper echelon of district employees.

Big business...seems to me they were the very definition of big business. 

Forward to today. 2011. Now, I know that many of you will say "what better reason to get rid of these social programs". Now, I overheard a man in a doctors office in Orem, Utah wearing a G.O.P. hat emblazoned with red, white and blue talking to his wife on the phone. They were discussing whether or not to hire a lawyer to make sure that they got social security disability payments for, what I assume was a catastrophic event in his ability to work. "Aren't you glad we have safety nets like disability?" I asked after a few minutes. He grumbled a little bit, and said "I better get it, before it's gone"

I often wonder if people REALLY thought about the social and economic value of most (I said most, not all) of the programs, not to mention the emotional value, and you needed them...would you say "no thank you, I'm a Republican"?

Teachers deserve better...our respect.

VERY IMPORTANT CITIZENS

But...Parents are the key. As a parent & husband of a certified teacher, I believe that most charter schools are a band-aid (or privatization) approach to a great system that is in need of some reform instead of the 'bleeding dry' reactionary approach of some state legislatures (Utah), and parents who have forgotten about the value of a high-standard community. Some of the teachers at the charter schools are not certified, but have the value of some measure of help from each students parent or parents.

If concerned parents involved themselves in the public school system, as they are required to do in charter schools, then our current system would be much improved, and most of our issues would find themselves worked out. Better Student to teacher ratio. Reading & math scores improved. Bad teachers weeded out by parent word-of-mouth. One-size fits all (otherwise known as No Child Left Behind) would be replaced by teachers trained to teach to different learning styles. Less administration to run poorly conceived programs.

For the past decade or so we have seen schools try to be forced to comply to a business managerial ideology that has all but crushed the common sense and creativity of innovative teachers and schools. I believe now is the time to reclaim schools as democratic learning communities based on shared values and teaching beliefs that realize the gifts and talents of all students. Yes, there are problems. I was told that the 'first in - first out' tenure is now gone in most districts in Utah. Next, we need less middle-management bureaucracy. Last, let's give back the respect that good teachers deserve. Parents...are the key. 



Edit 11/23/11: Thomas Friedman has a great article on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-about-better-parents.html

An Open Letter To President Obama - Air Pollution

I am shocked and extremely disappointed in your request to EPA Administrator Jackson to withdraw the draft of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

I expect your Administration to do everything in its power to stand up to coal and oil polluters who continue to cause illness and premature death in our communities.

A healthy economy requires clean air and healthy people. I urge you to remain vigilant in your support of strong environmental safeguards that protect our air and water from polluters and keep our communities thriving.

And as someone who lives in a natural basin for pollution (Salt Lake City area), we suffer from poor air quality in the summer and winter months. In fact, some days our air quality is the worst in the nation, due to the burning of coal and exhaust from cars. This involves Ozone, Mercury, Carbon Monoxide, Particulates 10 & 2.5, and more. I will not let my 3 girls (ages 9, 12, 15) eat the fish in our streams because of the coal and oil companies haphazard pollution ethics. The Mercury alone will build up in their (our) bodies and importantly brains to cause known and as yet unknown harmful effects.

Please look out for the little man, and stand up to the corporations (who are not people) to prevent continued illness and deaths in my community.

Thank you in advance Mr. President.