Welcome Back Madame!

Zeus never needed a good reason to hurl the zap; don’t take it personally! :)

One thing I meant to say when I spoke about Obama acting differently from the book, or even as he was as a candidate: Did you notice that the “maverick” John McCain also acted differently in the 2008 election, and most especially in his 2010 Senate re-election? Maybe Corpatia has a Tantalus Field (Trek reference alert!), lol!

On front after front, on issue after issue, our society fails or even creates problems, and fails to fix them or sometimes even address them. But with the blathering blanket statement that “education is the answer!” they throw these problems at already beleaguered schools and teachers and command, “Fix them! Oh, and by the way, also do that reading, writing, arithmetic stuff too. Somehow. In your spare time. What are we paying you (barely) for anyway? Be happy you have a job. If your job were really important, you’d be making money and have prestige, so don’t dare complain.” And sales tax forgiveness and tax deductions still don’t go far in making up very much of the painful outlay dedicated teachers make in buying supplies for their classrooms and students.

Requiring board members, teachers, administrators, and elected officials to have their children in the system would indeed be a BIG spur to correction of education problems. Same thing for Social Security and our elected federal representatives.

I was from the first inherently suspicious of the premise (that charter schools are the cure-all and that teachers unions are responsible for much to most of what is wrong in education) of the “documentary” Waiting For Superman. My suspicions were confirmed when Dana Goldstein did an article about some key facts missing from the film, such as: 80% of charters are no better than regular public schools (some are even much worse), some charter school teachers are happily unionized, and there are some nationally recognized public schools that successfully educate poverty-level children. My goad was even more, well, goaded, when the film talked about the Finnish educational system being the best in the world (it may be; you know how fond I am of Finland!), but then conveniently left out (presumably because it would have dessicated the film’s premise) that those teachers are unionized, have tenure, and that Finland, being one of the Scandinavian state-capitalism hybrid societies, has a cradle-to-grave social welfare system. And further, maybe those teachers and schools do so well because, with universal daycare and healthcare, first-rate public transportation, and a community ethic, the children, parents, and teachers are not crushingly burdened or distracted—maybe teaching and learning can readily take place.

Too often this fast-paced society, so fond of false or meaningless praise for children, praises little to nothing concerning adults. I have known grown men to get an award (usually NOT from their employer) after 30 years of working and break down at the positive recognition.

Excellent story about Fiorello. I once heard that story related by a minister who compared it to Christ’s paying of humanity’s fine.

Your own story proves by opposing example most of the entire premise of Vance Packard’s now 40 year old book (A Nation of Strangers).

Your son’s class story is one all too familiar to all too many teachers across the nation. See, America, what your enabling has brought to you. And the communication matter is one in which the students just aren’t going to do it if it’s not their preferred way (usually Facebook, Twitter, or the like).

It is easy to blame the public school system, but we need be careful we aren’t necessarily blaming the usually beleaguered teachers. Teachers are very frustrated. One teacher came under fire (itself a sign that something is deeply wrong at the societal level) for calling students unmotivated, and for even saying it so they could see or hear it. In her words, the students are “rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying. They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative. The students are not being held accountable. They want everything right now,” and are let off the hook at school, at activities, and at home. "Parents are more trying to be their kids' friends and less trying to be their parent," the teacher, Natalie Munroe, told the Associated Press after her blog became widely known.

One of the brighter students agreed with her that high school and higher kids don’t want to do anything. However, this student feels it is the teacher’s job to GIVE STUDENTS MOTIVATION TO LEARN.

Here lies error—the teacher being held accountable to give extrinsically, and completely, what should, and really largely in the long-run only can be, intrinsic.

On other subjects you’ve touched on, if only America was not so arrogant and phobic, we might take a lesson from our European cousins on energy and environment, and travelers such as yourself could help spread the word. Far fewer of you than there should be; “the harvest is great and the laborers are few.”

There are yet other points to take up related to Obama’s book, and I will be on them very shortly.

Again, welcome back to the country, and welcome back to good health!