The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Educate educate educate

But first figure out what the term means.

I contend that the election of our first African American President has exacerbated not only our barely concealed racism, but most importantly our ignorance.

With items like this, and this, and this, appearing all over the news, and the internet, that the 79 billion dollars for education is more necessary than ever.

Ignorance is the problem. Of course Barack Obama isn't helping the situation any If we with little pecadilloes like THIS .

Yes, it's funny to hear the President of the United States tell someone they're not his bitch, however, that is not my point here. Barack Obama is just funny in those clips and I had to share.

Prince Harry apparently said something stupid to a black person. His indiscretion could, and likely should be chalked up to the foolish chatter of a sheltered and privileged young person. Has Harry really been out in the world? I doubt it.

A baker in the West Village apparently thinks blackface is funny. This is racism of the worst kind not only because it insults...well...everyone, but it demonstrates publicly that the inventor of these pastries is of the opinion that LOTS of people would think this is funny so he should share.

Does anyone have to wonder what went wrong with their education? I do.

If we keep the populace stupid, and that's exactly what we're doing with our current mode of education, then what service can we possible be providing as educators and as legislators?

The people are still stupid, they don't know they've been screwed out of a first class education, which should be readily available to anyone who wants it in the richest country on earth, so they're no help.

It's incumbent on the educators to see to it that the people are educated. The legislators can't be expected to be responsible, they're dolts hewn from the same mold as the people, so their lack of education should be a given. Hence their inability to help fix the situation.

The educators, the very ones responsible for seeing to it that the people get said education are mired in bureaucracy. They're beneath worthless. Take the school board of Kansas City Missouri for a prime example.

The board members are volunteers, they are paid nothing, they are subjected to the demands of the taxpayers and the courts, (the desegregation lawsuit against them went on for over 20 years,)they lost accreditation in 1999 for failing to meet ANY of the 11 state standards for accreditation, and were only granted provisional accreditation in 2002 for meeting FOUR of those standards.

Would you want to hire a graduate of such a school system? Of course not.

I have an anecdote to illustrate my position from my life today. There is a process at my job, very easy, you take these things, put them on this cart, take them to this guy,(me) and leave them in his office. In the event that he is not there you will find a yellow bin in the hall. Place the items in that, he will retrieve them on his return. If there is no yellow bin and he is not there and his office is locked, give them to the guy in the office next to his.

Does that sound complicated?

Wait, I'll give it to you just as the supervisor in said department gave it to their employees:

"If the yellow crate is on the table, put the items in the yellow crate.

If the yellow crate is not on the table, place the items on the black cart in this guy's office.
If the yellow crate is not on the table and his office is locked, bring the items to the guy next door to him.

Do not bring any yellow crates from here to put on the table."

I should add that before this email could be sent out the acting supervisor had to call the actual supervisor at home and get her ok, since she is out after surgery. Can you imagine someone calling you at home post-op to ask if they can send out an email?

This procedure was established several years ago when we moved to this location. It has not been modified or altered in any way since that time. Yet about three weeks ago it went flooey. Why you ask? I cannot tell you, but if such a simple procedure cannot be followed does this not indicate that someone involved is simply simple?

Why would people who've been doing the same thing the same way at the same time every day of the week for three years suddenly need to be re-educated?

This indicates either a complete lack of ability to retain simple instruction, or an unwillingness to follow said instruction. This is the problem I am talking about. we are nt educating our own people to be able to follow and retain simple instructions. And yet we hold ourselves forth as the greatest nation on earth. That either takes a lot of Chutzpah, or just plain stupidity. I vote for the latter.

We will never succeed as a nation until we educate our people. We will never achieve the dream of being the "best" again until our citizens have the quality education they're entitled to.

The American Dream shouldn't be to own a house, it should be to be able to read a book, any book, and understand it.

In lieu of being able to fix that mess I'll leave you with this hot mess to ponder.




John Phillip Law was a hottie wasn't he?