Tuesday, February 21, 2006

It turns out . . .

Well, it turns out that the crisis in the California schools isn't as large as first stated. After a group of parents sued the school districts and the state, it was reported that the real number of those facing the no diploma deal is actually 6000. Quite a difference, eh? Could it be that here again the media went for the headline instead of the facts. There are more than 6000 high schools in this state, so seen in that light you could say that one per school is quite an improvement over the past. Though why I am taking the time to write about this I really don't know since I really believe that the way we educate in this country is severely messed up.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

They say we're going to have a revolution

Once in a long while, I try to remember what it was like back then in the 70's. I say this because I want to believe that the things I did, the things my friends and I accomplished, really meant something. This in the face of all the contempory evidence to the contrary. And because I just finished reading Cormac Mcarthy's No Country for Old Men. http://www.cormacmccarthybooks.com

I remember riding my bike to school the day a future school board member came to lecture the student body about the value of "our commitment to the war in Vietnam" and the furor I aroused when I pointed out to my students that this local preacher had arrived in a Cadillac and dressed to the nines, that his company manufactured bomber sights, that his pledge to support the football team was just another way to encourage warfare, and that his values were the ones that were relative.