Friday's Odds and Ends

  

A student in a Dallas suburban school didn't like the assignment he was given, so he mouthed off to the teacher, and now the teacher is on administrative leave, while school officials cleared the student of any wrong-doing. What is wrong with that picture?

Apparently the video of the rant by Jeff Bliss, an 18-year old sophomore, has gone viral on the Internet, and some people are calling him a hero, because part of his rant was to point out what is wrong with education.

I'm sorry. A kid that disrespects his teacher like that is no hero. I don't care if there might have been one valid point contained in the harangue. And there is also the question of what went on that caused the teacher to kick him out of class in the first place. It was that action that led to his now-famous parting remarks.

Sarah Anderson raised an interesting point in a recent column that was published in The Dallas Morning News on the topic of salaries for CEOs. She wrote, "The current tax code lets corporations deduct from their income taxes unlimited amounts of executive compensation, as long as they say this pay is based on 'performance.' As a result, huge companies like BlackRock have an incentive to dole out massive stock options and other so-called performance bonuses."

Her column was in response to the ad by Laurence Fink, who is the CEO of BlackRock, where he is calling for raising the retirement age to 70. According to Fink, people should wait before collecting social security because "most of us have jobs where we just sit around."

That might be true for Fink, but most of the folks I know who are approaching retirement age are not sitting around in their jobs, raking in the big bucks. And if Fink is so worried about the solvency of the social security system, he could just decline his benefits when he retires and live off his accumulated wealth.

Now for some fun from the comic strips. This first one is from Bizarro. by Dan Piraro. A unicorn gets on an elevator and asks the man next to the control panel for the thirteenth floor. The man says there's no such thing.

Here's one from the classic, Peanuts. Charlie Brown is sitting at his desk at school. He says, "A spelling bee? They're going to have a city-wide spelling bee?"

In the next panel he considers, "I should enter it... That's the sort of thing I need to do to gain self-confidence."

Then he smile. "I think I'll raise my hand and volunteer. It'll be good for me... I think I'll just raise my hand and volunteer...."

In the next panel Charlie Brown says,"My hand won't go up. It's smarter than I am."

Today's Literary Lesson comes from 10lb. Penalty by Dick Francis. A character is reflecting on the political process, "Votes are won by laughter and lost by dogma."

Friday's Odds and Ends

In reviewing a play, "I am a Teacher", by Dallas playwright and actor, David Marquis, Dallas Morning News columnist, Steve Blow commented that we no longer just have standardized testing in education today, we have standardized education. "It's a rigid, regulated, one-size fits all approach to teaching. But schools are not factories and kids are not widgets."

I wish every high-level school administrator would recognize that fact. Kids learned more when there were less regulations and oversight and teachers were allowed to teach - not be bureaucrats.

Susan Gubar, a professor of English at Indiana University, the author of Memoir of a Debulked Woman, recently wrote an interesting column about being a cancer survivor. Actually, she said, "don't call me a survivor. Her main point was she thinks the term takes something away from those still fighting,.  She also thinks that the term somehow says something negative about those who do not win the fight against cancer. That somehow they did not try hard enough. "Does it cast those who died from the disease in the role of victims who somehow failed to attain the requisite resiliency to overcome it?"

Non of the cancer survivors I know think that way. They honor and uphold every person who has succumbed. They are also first to say that surviving does not make them heroes. They are just the lucky ones who had several things in their favor, the cancer was found early, the treatments worked and they have been cancer-free for five years or more.

"We urge Indonesian Muslims to calm down, because the majesty and greatness of God and the prophet Muhammad will not be diminished by these insults." Amidan Shaberah of Indonesia, a prominent cleric.

Amen!

 Now for a little fun from The Argyle Sweater: Arnold Schwarzenegger is standing in front of a large to-do list. Number 1, star in movie with DeVito. 2, Get to know housekeeping staff.3,  Become governor of California. 4, Win Oscar. 5, Look great in a speedo after 60. 6, Make movie about baroque composer: "I'll be Bach."

NOTE: I will be offline most of the weekend. Play nice without me.

Friday's Odds and Ends

A Texas jury gave Kimberly Cargill a death sentence after she had been found guilty of first degree murder for killing her babysitter and setting the woman's body on fire. Full story here:  Kimberly Cargill sentenced to death

 

No matter what one thinks of the despicable crime, is the death penalty the best choice? If you were on a jury, would you vote for the death penalty? What if you had to pull the switch or give the lethal injection?

 

 I know it is easier to make these judgements when one is far removed from the case. We don't know all the evidence against Cargill, but I still hold that life without possibility of parole is a better option. Not just because she is a woman. I think that the death penalty should stop being used, period. Over and above my concerns about the humanity of using the death penalty, there are other reasons to abolish it. It costs much less money to keep a prisoner locked up for life than to carry out the death penalty, and there is no statistical evidence to show that using the death penalty cuts down the number of murders committed each year in the United States.

 

The school year is winding down across the country and summer vacation is upon us. Students and teachers alike are probably thrilled to have a break for several weeks so they can recoup and prepare emotionally for next year. 

 

While the students have to come back, the teachers do not, and some of them won't. Some of them are too worn down by the challenges: endless paperwork, teaching to the tests, inadequate funding, unruly kids, and parents who don't care enough to discipline their kids or supporting their efforts in school. On the other side of that last coin are the parents who are such champions of their children, the teacher is never right. 

 

There needs to be a middle ground - a place where there is mutual respect for each other and for certain rules that make the learning environment more productive. And parents need to support the teachers. One Dallas-area teacher recalled an incident for columnist, Steve Blow, in which a kindergarten student called her a bitch. When she called the parent so some action could be taken, the response was, "That's what she says when she is really mad. What did you do to make her mad?"

 

When I read that, I was astounded. Our son once called a teacher a bitch, and after meeting with her and the principal and the counselor and several other teachers in a conference, I had to agree with him. The woman was unreasonable and obviously had a keen dislike for our son. On the way home from the conference, my husband and I told our son that under no circumstances was he ever to call a teacher a name. Period. It didn't matter if it was true or not, the teacher is a figure of authority and you will treat her with respect. Period. And he was grounded for a week.

 

To read the entire column by Steve Blow in The Dallas Morning News, click HERE. There is some really good advice for parents shared by the teacher, Debbie Hulme Rush.

School Bullies - And They are Not Students

I read a distressing column in The Dallas Morning News the other day about reports of abuse at an elementary school in the eastern part of the city. Apparently the incidents of abuse were frequent enough that the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) prepared a 269 page report that was supposed to shed some light on what really happened.

According to columnist, Jacquielynn Floyd, the report was "a droll exercise in obfuscation, misdirection, and delay." The main body of the document, which totals 75 pages, had 61 pages either partially or totally blacked out.

The mess all started with claims that students at the elementary school were bullied and humiliated by the teachers. Apparently most of the kids who suffered the bullying were Hispanic students, and there were 22 official allegations, of which half were verified by the investigation. Some of the humiliating incidents included being forced to eat without their hands, being told their parents smelled like dirty socks, and there were allegedly threats to have parents deported.

According to the column in the newspaper, the DISD investigation of wrongdoing by teaching staff focused on an outing the teachers took instead of attending a training session on abuse in the classroom. I agree with Jacquielynn who asked why teachers would have to attend a training session to know it is wrong to humiliate and abuse the students.

On the other hand, there are some teacher who obviously need that kind of reminder. This brings to mind an incident that happened to my oldest son when he was in third grade. He had long hair, and it was always falling across his face. The teacher did not like that, so she called him up in front of the class, took a barrette and pinned his hair back in a "girlie" do.

That was wrong on so many levels, and I probably don't even need to detail them here. People of good conscience know.

I went to the school to talk to the principal, countering his initial defense that the teacher was only exercising her right to create a proper atmosphere for learning. My son was getting excellent grades in his classes, so obviously his long hair was not inhibiting his ability to learn.

Luckily my son did not have another teacher like this, but I know his feelings about school, teachers and learning was skewed by this incident. He never went back with the same enthusiasm or did as well academically after that.

Just think of how much worse the long-term effects will be for those students at that East Dallas school who suffered much more traumatic and sustained emotional abuse.

That shouldn't happen. Not to any student at any school. And shame on the teachers, principals, and administrators who cover it up. That casts such a negative spotlight on a profession filled with wonderful people who are dedicated educators; the kind of people who would never humiliate a child like that.

On a lighter note, I saw a great editorial cartoon by Jeff Koterba who is on staff at the Omaha World-Herald. The cartoon was picked up by The Dallas Morning News and features a couple seated at a table in an Internet cafe, sipping coffee. She is reading on an e-reading device, and he has his laptop open to a site about the payroll tax cut debate. He is wearing a button that reads, "I tweeted today." She says, You do realize that is not this same as voting, right?"

Monday Morning Musings

There was an interesting column in The Dallas Morning News last week that was written by a teacher, Jay Riven. He wrote about how troubling it is that children are given trophies at the end of a losing season in soccer or baseball. He mentioned how many trophies his young daughter had just for participating in sports and wondered if the practice of giving kids trophies was a good idea.

That reminded me of when our kids were young and playing soccer. Our son's team was playing a final season game that would determine if they would advance to the finals and they lost. It was a tough moment for all the kids who had played hard and given their best, and we were all a little sad for them. At the picnic following the game, the coach proceeded to give the boys each a trophy, which at first I thought was a nice gesture. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it really was.

A trophy, as Riven pointed out in his article, should be earned by winning, not given as a consolation prize. Sure kids are going to be disappointed when they lose, and a good coach can take some time to praise them for giving a good effort, but that should be it. The trophy should be reserved for those special moments of achievement. Then it will mean more.

Riven calls that "the triumph of achievement."

Our society today seems so focused on building a child's self esteem, some of us have forgotten that losing a game or not getting a trophy is all part of the system. If we want that trophy, maybe we try harder next season and earn it. If we get a poor grade on a class assignment, maybe we try harder for the A next time.

Trophies and passing grades and high praise should not be automatic, they should come in small doses and when well earned. If a child is always rewarded for everything they do, how are they challenged to do better?

What do you think? I'd love to get your opinion.

Monday Morning Musings

I read an interesting column by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times about the worth of good teachers. His column was actually about great teachers and reported on a study that showed that "the difference between a strong teacher and a weak teacher lasts a lifetime."

He quoted some statistics that indicate a student is 1.25 percent more likely to go to college and 1.25 percent more likely not to get pregnant in high school if they have a great fourth grade teacher. While those are not huge numbers, they do represent individual students who did better because of the influence of one particular teacher. Those are students who have most likely grown up to be productive citizens and are not perpetuating an endless cycle of dropping out and either scrabbling for living or relying on government handouts for survival.

I remember that fourth grade was a pivotal year for most of my kids as they made their way through elementary school, and they did have a great teacher. She also happened to be a good friend and neighbor and to this day I thank her for being such a great influence on my kids, especially our oldest son.

David did not have a stellar academic career, in elementary school or high school, but it would have been much worse had he not had Ginger Liening as a teacher. He had a horrible time in third grade and was ready to run away from home and school both at the thought of another school year starting. Ginger, to her credit, didn't judge him on his past school experience or behavior. She encouraged him to start with a clean slate, so to speak, and I'm sure it was her mentoring that kept him from dropping out of school entirely.

So I agree with Kristof that school districts should find a way to keep those stellar teachers and weed out the weaker ones. Maybe then there would be a huge jump in the numbers of kids encouraged on to much better things.

On another note, I hope you will come back on Wednesday when Morgan Mandel is my guest. She is sharing some interesting facts about the Fountain of Youth, as well as a short excerpt from her latest book, Forever Young: Blessing or Curse

Fresh beginnings turn tragic when Dorrie Donato’s husband, Larry, is killed in a hit and run accident a few months after starting a new job at the Life is for Living Institute. Discouraged and desperate after  suffering countless setbacks, Dorie accepts an offer by  Larry’s boss, the famous Angel Man, to  be the first to test an experimental pill designed to spin its user back to a desired age and hold there, yet still retain all previous memories.  The pill seems too good to be true. Maybe it is.

Morgan Mandel is a former freelancer for the Daily Herald newspaper, prior president of Chicago-North RWA, prior Library Liaison for Midwest MWA, and belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC. She enjoys writing thrillers, mysteries, romances and also enjoys combining them. Her latest paranormal romantic thriller is Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, Book One of the Always Young Series, available on Kindle and Smashwords. Other novels by Morgan Mandel include the romantic suspense, Killer Career, the mystery, Two Wrongs, and the romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams. Morgan is now working on Book Two of the Always Young Series, called Blessing or Curse: A Forever Young Anthology, where readers will learn what happens to others who have taken the Forever Young pill.  One more book will follow bringing back the original heroine to close out the series.

Monday Morning Musings

My day started late this morning. Woke up to some pretty good thunderstorms and had to unplug my computer until the sound and fury subsided. Not that I minded all that much. Here in Texas we are desperate for rain, but unfortunately, this morning's storm had less precipitation and lots more lightening and thunder. If we got even a quarter of an inch, that is a generous estimate.

As a result of the prolonged drought, almost the entire state is under a burn ban in an attempt to forestall any more wildfires. The Possum Kingdom Complex in North Texas and the Trans-Pecos Complex in West Texas are among several wildfires burning throughout the state. Since Jan. 1, wildfires have scorched more than 1.4 million acres and led to the deaths of two firefighters. So if it starts to storm again and I have to turn off my computer, I will do so gladly.

On another note, I read in yesterday's Dallas Morning News that the managers of the Texas teachers' retirement fund received over $8.2 million in bonuses this year. According to the story this is more than double what top employees in every other state agency combined have received since 2007. And while the managers have raked in large bonuses, thousands of retired teachers have not had a pension increase in ten years.

The rational for giving the huge payouts is that the bonuses attract the top talent in the investment business. That is the same rational given for the bonuses the top executives at Border's Books are receiving, while hundreds of stores close and thousands of employees are laid off.

One would think that a company that is in bankruptcy would be restricted by law from allowing some executives to plunder the business that way, but there is no such law.

Why does it always have to be this way? We decry those who loot during riots, so why don't we decry those who loot and plunder at the highest levels? All those bankers and mortgage experts who got us into the financial mess of 2008 are still in their expansive offices, raking in the dough.

Monday Morning Musings

The headline caught my attention: Music is a lesson in "Yes, you can" By the way, I liked headlines better when they looked like headlines, not a sentence that someone forgot to punctuate. But I digress.

The headline was for a column in The Dallas Morning News written by Tracy Begland, a freelance writer and volunteer at the school her kids attend, shared some heartwarming stories about band and choir and music and how kids benefit from the experience. One girl who was not performing well in an elementary school music program, started to improve after the teacher took time to talk to her outside of class to see what the problem was. Later the girl told the teacher all she needed was a little encouragement.

Another teacher encouraged a mediocre singer by putting her in the top choir and the girl rose to the challenge. She never became the best singer, but she became a better singer and took great pride in that and herself.

Perhaps the most touching story Tracy related was about a boy with cerebral palsy. The middle school band teacher was warned by the elementary music teacher that Bill might be too much of a challenge in the more structured middle school program and perhaps it would be better if Bill's parents were encouraged to remove him from the band program. The middle school teacher didn't notify the parents and accepted the boy into the band. By the end of middle school, Bill showed some physical improvement. His drooling decreased, his fingers worked independently, and he was able to speak more clearly.

When I worked as a hospital chaplain, I routinely provided music in the rehab department. They had a room where out-patient therapy clients recovering from head trauma would gather in between sessions and they would have lunch together. I would come with my guitar once a week, and we would sing after lunch for an hour. I did not realize at first that I was doing more than bringing a little fun and good cheer, but the head of the program told me that the music was benefiting the patients physiologically. The music was helping their brains to make new synoptic connections to compensate for those that were broken.

Just like Bill. And I guess that is why this column resonated so with me.

Kudos to  all the teachers who take the time and make the effort to help and encourage kid who most need it.

Friday's Odds and Ends

Somebody recently opined in a letter to the editor in The Dallas Morning News that teachers are overpaid. He said the average pay is $53 thousand and change, and that there is little to show for it.

First of all, that figure is not the norm. Most teachers make between $30 and $40 thousand - some even less. And they work long hard hours for that pay. If results aren't what people expect, maybe it has more to do with the work ethic of the students and not the teachers.

Earlier this year the government announced that there would be no cost of living increase in Social Security payments. The reasoning was that there has not been a significant increase in the cost of living.

Excuse me, but what about the fact that it now costs $80.00 for four bags of groceries that cost $60 last year. And now we have gas prices going out of sight.

Recently the House voted to cut funding for NPR, which received $5 million in federal funds in 2010.

As if that is really going to significantly impact the federal budget. I'm going to say this again, and continue to say it until somebody in Washington pays attention, CUT SPENDING FROM THE TOP. Sorry about the shout, but it would be so easy to fix the federal budget if we streamlined agencies and administration. Just streamlining the IRS would save hundreds of millions a year. The top agents make annual salaries in the high six figures, with entry level starting at about $50 thousand. And just recently it was announced that the IRS is requesting 1054 new staff members that will cost about $359 million in salaries and offices.

Glenn Beck just couldn't let the tsunami go by without saying it is part of God's plan to punish mankind for how we are behaving. Never mind that the Japanese people have responded with the utmost dignity and character, so what exactly are they being punished for?

Despite the floods and fires and swarms of locusts cited in the Old Testament, I do not believe that the God I believe in would use disasters to punish His people. Stuff happens because it happens, not because God wants to teach us a lesson. The lesson comes from within as we deal with tragedy and disaster.

What have you found of interest in the news this week?

Friday's Odds and Ends

Since the news from Japan continues to be so depressing, I thought I would focusing on positives this week…

A Methodist church in Lewisville, Texas has recently opened a drop-in teen shelter for kids who are homeless and need a place for support. At the shelter teens can get tutoring, mentoring for college applications, Internet access, and a permanent address for college correspondence.

What a wonderful idea, and good for that congregation for stepping up to help teens who want to go to college but see no way of accomplishing even the first steps toward making that happen.

Ebby Halliday, the founder of one of the largest and most successful real estate agencies, recently celebrated her 100th birthday in Dallas. According to all reports, she is still spry, sharp, and well-connected to family and friends.

I'm sure her good health, long life, and wide circle of friends and family mean as much to her as the success she has had since she started as a merchant in 1945, selling hats in Dallas.

Parents in Dallas can now access information about their child's school assignments, tests and attendance via a "parent portal." The portal is up at 50 campuses in the DISD, with plans to eventually have it district wide.

What a great way to use the advances in technology to help parents be more involved in their child's education.

And speaking of using technology in a really positive way. I just read an article by Trudy Rubin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer about how the recent revolution in Egypt was organized in large part by using Facebook. Young people created a Facebook memorial page called "We are all Khaled Said" in honor of the blogger who was beaten to death by police for protesting police corruption in his blog. They then connected with an Egyptian youth organization and a political group supporting the presidency of opposition candidate Mohammed ElBaradei - both on Facebook.

The connecting continued over several months while planning the massive protests and demonstrations on January 25th that toppled the Egyptian regime 18 days later. I guess we can never underestimate the power of Facebook to do more than just let us post our daily status.

And finally, kudos to the brave men and women who are working in the nuclear power plants in Japan, trying to save their countrymen. What an amazing act of courage.



What good news have you run across this week?

Teachers Who Made a Difference

Kathleen Parker, a Washington Post columnist, and recent Pulitzer Prize winner -- way to go, Kathleen -- attributed some of her success to a special teacher she had in high school.

In her column on April 15h, she told the story of Mr. Gasque, her high school English teacher. Kathleen had been called on in class and did not know the answer to the question, but whatever she said made the class erupt in laughter. Mr. Gasque whirled from the blackboard. "No perfectly executed pirouette can top the spin executed by Mr. Gasque that day." she wrote. "Suddenly facing the class, he flushed crimson and his voice trembled with rage. 'Don't. You. Ever. Laugh. At her. Again,' he said. 'She can out-write every one of you any day of the week.'"

Kathleen continued her column by writing, "It is not possible to describe my gratitude. Time suspended and I dangled languorously from a fluff of cloud while my colleagues drowned in stunned silence. I dangle even now, like those silly participles I eventually got to know."

What a wonderful moment, and anyone who has been touched by a special teacher knows that feeling.

In her column, Kathleen encouraged readers to think about those special teachers that touched our lives, and maybe pay them homage.

So I want to thank Mrs. Henderson, my third-grade teacher who introduced me to the joy of books and reading.

I also want to thank myseventh-grade teacher, Mrs. Carpenter, for entering my story in the Scholastic Writing Awards contest. I didn't know she had done that until I was notified that I won an award.

And I want to thank Sister Honora, my high school English and journalism teacher who also encouraged me to write and keep on writing.

It's possible that I could have ended up where I am now - a voracious reader and a published author - without their influence, but I highly doubt it.

What about you? What teachers do you remember who made a difference for you?

What Part of Fraud Don't You Understand?

A news item on Saturday reported that the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) is being investigated bythe Social Security Administration (SSA) for assigning bogus social security numbers to employees hired from foreign countries. Apparently this started as someones bright idea for expediting the hiring system.

The new hires needed something for identificaion purposes to get on the payroll. So this "someone" decided they could use the fake SS numbers as temporary identification numbers until they received real ones. When new numbers were assigned by the SSA, the employees were supposed to tell officials at DISD so the fake SS numbers could be replaced.

That didn't always go according to the plan. In some cases, the fake numbers made their way to retirement accounts, the IRS, and the Social Security Administration. And some of the numbers were ones already legitimately assigned to other people. The legal department of the DISD is looking into the matter as well

I read this news story several time, trying to figure out how someone could not recognize from the get-go that this was a stupid idea. Not to mention a criminal idea. Falsifying Social Security information is a felony.

DISD is already under heavy scrutiny for budget shortfalls, attempting to solve that problem by firing a number of teachers, and other questionable operations. They sure didn't need another problem because the solutions to the problems always seem to impact the students and teachers most profoundly.

Those creating the problems continue to hold their jobs and receive large salaries and bonuses, while teachers struggle to make ends meet and students struggle to learn in an environment that becomes less conducive to learning every day.

And unfortunately, these are not problems unique to just one school district.