Great Kids

This evening, my sister-in-law is making one of the biggest decisions of her life - where to attend college. To put it simply, she is a brilliant and truly good-hearted girl, with checkmarks in all the important categories for college admissions: perfect grades, several AP courses, annual church mission trips to Mexico, several varsity sports, touring symphonic choir, yearbook, honor society, and the list goes on. Anyway, the reason to discuss this issue is not (just) to brag about a young woman I'm proud to now be related to, but to remark upon the amazing status of the top notch students in this country - and how lucky they really are.

Education is another issue that I feel very strongly about, mainly that we are blatantly underserving a large amount of the population. While that's true, there are many public schools that are truly Doing it Right. These are the schools that are well-funded, have teachers with masters degrees and years of experience, and have high levels of parental involvement. These are the issues we should be pushing - how to get low income kids into good schools, and how to get parents more involved.

I believe that parents, like children, are easily discouraged - believing that in bad situations, their voices will not be heard. We need to provide good schools with good people and many opportunities for parents to step up and really see what's going on in the classroom. If parents are shown that their involvement makes a true difference in the education of their children, then they will get involved - whatever the cost.

It seems like an obvious statement from the point of view of upper-middle class people - of course parents want to help their kids, and obviously a few phone calls to the teacher showing concern will bump the kid's grades up a bit. What irks me is the often not so subtle belief that lower income parents do not want to help, don't have the time, and just don't care. I can't emphasize how false I think that is. Speak to these parents, listen to what they have to say.

In my community, a segment of the lower-income, mostly African American population has been pushing to get a charter school for its underserved boys. I don't think that anyone can dispute that these students are not getting the best that the system can offer, but what people do believe is that the parents are out of line in the way they try to handle the situation and therefore do not deserve our consideration. The curse and cry at meetings, leading such a bad example for their children. My question is, do those voices sound like those of people who do not care? They care. They are so removed from any possible action that they cry in frustration for the well being of their children. They cry out, begging to be heard, pleading for a way to get their children a step up in life. And what do we, those in power, do? We tsk tsk at their suggestions, look down upon their passion, and smugly state that the proposal wasn't thought through. Heck no, we won't actually *help* the parent make a reasonable proposal - but we'll just feel content that we put that crazy woman in her place.

In order to improve our schools, we need to listen to these parents, we need to help them, and we need to show them that they are being heard. Otherwise, they'll speak loudly - and then learn to give up, at which point we point and say "Look, those parents are not involved. Of course their kids aren't doing well."

So I look at my sister-in-law's public high school, where all of her friends are headed off to top tier universities, and I wonder. I wonder...not only how to make sure my kids go to that same high school...but how to make those opportunities available for everyone. This is an issue definitely worth exploring further.

Whose defeat are we really worried about?

Today, the Senate passed a long anticipated war spending bill with the much controversial time table for troop withdrawal. Given that the majority of the people voted for this Congress with the hopes that they would end the war, it makes sense. However, it also makes sense that Bush refuses to back down from his idea that this is a "timetable for defeat" "cut and run" proposal that "fails to support our troops" Why would he and the Republicans stick to this rhetoric? Anything else would admit defeat. No, not defeat against Al Qaeda, but defeat against the majority of the American people who believe that they are no longer capable of handling this war. And that defeat is simply unacceptable.

Strawmen Fighting

I posted and laughed at a strawman yesterday, so it follows that one of the blogs I frequent had to post about Sheryl Crow as a typical example of crazy conservationist hysteria.

I started this blog as a forum to discuss politics in a reasonable fashion, without any of those logical fallacies so common in too many forms of media. Under the auspices of humor, I posted the daylight savings = global warming strawman and had a little joke of it. I would say that The Daily Show uses strawmen in a similar way (albeit far more effectively), but is pretty darn clear that they are using humor and a plethora of self-deprecating commentary. What kills me are the people who build their careers on strawmen, with complete and utter seriousness.

Global Warming "linked" to Daylight Savings Time!

If this is a joke, then it's a really really good one! Otherwise, I'm pretty concerned that this was actually published. I'm planning a post on global warming, along with my concerns about the spread of misinformation in many communities - religious and otherwise.

Daylight exacerbates warning

You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century. All of the trees were fully leafed out and legions of bugs and snakes were crawling around during a time in Arkansas when, on a normal year, we might see a snowflake or two. This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving Time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would have considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they? Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps next time there should be serious studies performed before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects. CONNIE M. MESKIMEN / Hot Springs

*Arkansas Democrat Gazette, April 16, 2007

http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/187608

Forgetfulness is Competence?

To the most casual of observers, it seems like Alberto Gonzales has a memory problem. During his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 19th, Gonzales claimed a lack of recollection when answering over fifty questions posed by members of both parties. The fact is that he claims no specific knowledge of decisions made, yet is completely confident in the correctness of these decisions. I'm just confused as to how a person could claim such confidence in a decision that he does not recall.

Apparently, our President does not share my point of view. Gonzales's public statements of forgetfulness actually made President Bush more confident in his abilities to do his job. Shall we be reasonable here? Are there any real situations in which a boss is comforted by the forgetfulness of someone he hired? Standing by him based on loyalty, sure. As disconcerting as it might be, we wouldn't be too surprised by President Bush supporting a loyal friend under fire. But more confident? What on earth does that mean in the context of a hearing? If it is widely perceived by most involved that Gonzales's statements were at best simply incomplete (at worst deliberately so), how can a friend, a boss, a leader, say that these statements are in any way something to be proud of?

I guess it just bugs me to see such blatant partisanship and lies under the guises of friendship and loyalty. I do, honestly, understand loyalty. What I do not understand is why our President would put his already shaky reputation on the line for the even shakier stance of Alberto Gonzales. How does that portray our model system of government to the world?

Cheers

Here's to hoping this doesn't become another blog full of good intentions but left to deletion due to inactivity.