On Tuesday September 8, 2009, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, will address the school children of America. And so far, I have received three different official reminders that some parents will be upset about this. Upset. About listening to the President. The President of the United States. Needless to say, I am stunned. But across the nation parents are keeping their children home rather than letting them become exposed to the words of the President. These are the same parents who will happily send their kids to school with the flu.

I Don’t Get It.

“Gang…You have a system that is wildly out of control. And they are capturing your kids…” Well that is what media mad-man, Glen Beck said on his radio show. He was talking in response to a caller’s shrill opposition to the very idea that the President would speak to her kids without her being there. Wow. That must be some message. Is it on AIDS? Birth control? Is the POTUS going to talk about the New World Order or the conversion of all Americans to the new national religion? It must be a heck of a message for people to get so worked up over it. Right? I mean the conservative whack jobs from the FAR right are calling it an “indoctrination”. Oooo…That sounds scary. So. What are we all worked up over?

Here It Is!

OK, brace yourselves people. Here is the essential question in Barack Obama’s speech. A quote from the actual transcript released from the White House prior to the speech being delivered. You might want to shoo the kids out of the room…

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Gasp! Wait…what? Everyone has a gift and staying in school can help you succeed? That commie!

Radio talker/big-box-of-crazy Michael Savage said, “Hitler had the Hitler Youth, and Obama would like to have the Obama Youth.” Really? The President said that? No, of course not, but the followers of Savage don’t know that. And Savage knows that they don’t but he keeps feeding people this crap so that his fearful audience will remain fearful and turn to him for guidance. And the occasional commercial message. You see, Hitler had an amazing propaganda machine and Michael Savage wants to be the Propaganda Czar for the next American Reich.  (Cool huh? Anybody can do it. You can try it at home too…Just subscribe to my new course “Be a Media Hack in 12 Easy Lessons or 6 Hard Ones.”)

The Great Communicator.

Ronald Reagan spoke to students once in 1988. I don’t remember a lot of weirdness surrounding it, even though he went on about taxes and the need for tax cuts. He also told the children, “I would say that the most important thing you can do is to ground yourself in the ideas and values of the American Revolution.” Can you imagine what would happen on conservative talk radio if Barack Obama said those exact same words?

My Problem With The Speech.

I have a minor problem with the President’s speech. Remember the quote from above? “Everyone has something they are good at?” Very, very true. however, No Child Left Behind won’t really allow that to happen. It is all about math and science. If you are artistic, you are considered “left behind”. How can teachers teach problem solving skills when they are teaching “the test”? How can they teach math when they are teaching “calculator” instead? In his speech, President Obama lists occupations for young people. Innovator, inventor, lawyer, mayor, Senator, soldier, nurse, doctor.

“We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.” But where does that leave the poets? The painters, the filmmakers? If a child wants to be an actor or a singer, that child is “quitting on his or her country”? I beg to disagree. Why are the arts the first thing to go in a bad economy in spite of all the research indicating that a grounding in the arts actually makes students achieve at a higher level?

Anyway…

I still don’t get it. If this were a message from the Pope, I would get it. But this is the President of The United States of America. The whole thing strikes me as being a bit unpatriotic.

OK…I’ve been meaning to do some updates here all summer but it seems as if  the summer has just started and here we are already back at work.

Students are in place, new faces and new places are established and the fight for dominance has begun. I only hope the grown-ups win this year.

I’ll have more to say when I have more to say and there are some things that are bugging me. Here’s a taste. Someone forget to tell our young girls that looking like whores might not be in their best interest. Health care reform is on the table, off the table and largely misunderstood. Just because I hate Michael Moore doesn’t mean that he is always wrong. Cash For Clunkers was a success. Or was it? And what are the long-term ramifications? What does any of this have to do with the media?

Well, right now I have no answers. But I will. If only I could get someone to pay for my answers…

Every so often a project drops in my lap that I just can’t say “No” to. In the past I have written about the relationship my video production class has had with a group of local artists and filmmakers. The Association for Visual Arts has been kind enough to team up with us to create a pilot project that brings students together with documentarians to learn more about movie making in a professional setting. We made one movie two years ago, “Golden Grillz & Satan Like Puppies: A documentary on rock, rap the individual and the group.” It was not a bad movie and, as I have written before, it was entirely created, produced, shot and directed by the students. It was shown at several venues in the city and the Mayor’s Office has a copy on file.

This year’s movie is called “I Are A Genius” It is a documentary film about students taking a look at their own education. Honestly, I am not too sure they liked what they found. Most were surprised to find out that the education system is run like a business and that money matters as much, if not more, than the educational outcome. They were a bit taken aback to find that teachers and administrators and superintendents don’t all speak with a single voice. There is dissension in the ranks, sometimes vocal, sometimes not. They were also concerned about the number of educational professionals who were afraid to speak out against the system for fear of losing their jobs. We are in a down economy, the school system is making cuts and no one wants to make any waves…even if those waves help the students.

The students learned to set and keep appointments and how to talk to a professional without looking “like a kid.” They set up interviews with elected officials, teachers, administrators, students and even the Superintendent of Schools. They impressed me and they impressed themselves. They also impressed the people they interviewed. They shot and directed their own interviews, shadowed students for an entire day, invited their peers to a “round-table” discussion and even brainstormed some marketing ideas. Right now the group is working on a rough, off-line edit and I have noticed that the number of participants is diminishing. That doesn’t surprise me at all.

Editing video is an art and can be very exacting and very frustrating. It is also tedious and, to an outsider, incredibly boring. It also happens to be the part of film-making that I love the most. I can sit at the editor for hours and never even realize that time has gone by. But I can’t expect these novice directors to have my love of video editing. Nor can I expect them to sit for hours at a time doing anything at all. So the students will be a part of the rough edit helping to choose sound-bites and some B-Roll and to have some say in the direction and flow of the movie. Then one of our visiting artists will take the off-line edit and finish it to industry standard.

Anyway, this is just a little update and as soon as I can, I will post a trailer or excerpt from the movie. Until then, I have included a copy of  the poster for the movie.

OK. This one is just for me.

I have been in and out of the video production business since 1979. During that time, I have worked on the radio, as a newspaper columnist, a news producer, creative services director and on and on and on. I have made hundreds of commercials and thousands of promos, directed nationally televised live sports in the fledgling days of satellite networks, and even created and produced my own entertainment program for a local TV station. But that was then. The “now” is very different.

Entertainment has changed since 1979. Back then, if you wanted to see a movie we had to go to the theater. That or wait for it to come on commercial TV in a year or so. Not many people know this, but for years my favorite place in the entire world was inside a dark movie theater waiting to see the next great movie. While living in Baltimore I discovered art films and revival houses. The hours I spent in The Charles Theater, among others, in Baltimore, Maryland are still some of my favorite memories. It might have been the company I was keeping and it might have been the feeling of discovering something that I only vaguely knew existed. Either way, I wouldn’t have traded those days for anything.

But going to the movies isn’t what it used to be. It is a $100 trip out for the family to see some over-hyped, underwritten blockbuster that may or may not be worth seeing. The odd thing is that the movie industry has had to compete against itself ever since the first Betamax and VHS machines made their way into the homes and hearts of Americans. Why spend nearly $100 bucks to sit in a tiny multiplex with sticky floors, crying babies and nitwits yammering away on their cell phones when we can wait a couple of months and buy a copy for less than $20? To keep people into the theaters, movies have gotten bigger but not necessarily better.

But the truth is, to a movie fan, VHS just didn’t cut it. Can anyone imagine watching “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in their living room? What’s the point? I’ve heard the argument that nobody really liked “Eraserhead.” But I did. Every frame, every bizarre turn. And I will never see it again because it won’t play at the Regal Cinema 16 and I think that where I was and who I was with had as much to do with my fond memories of that film as the film itself. Feelings like that just can’t be recreated on a 27″ Phillips TV. Fast forward a few years and DVD is now the standard home video format. The picture is better, the sound is better and the discs last longer than tapes. But the theaters are smaller, the tickets cost more and the movies are just not as good. The last movie I went to a theater to see was Ironman. I took the kids and they loved it and I loved it. So we bought the DVD as soon as it came out. And it just doesn’t hold up to repeated viewings. The pacing falls off, the climax is missing something and the last scenes are out of place. Still like it. Just don’t love it. And that just might be the problem with DVD.

Are movies really designed to be watched over and over again? Is there a single movie that can hold up to repeated viewings without some of the luster being lost? “Casablanca”? (On a side note, the first time I saw “Casablanca” was at the The Charles.) “Saving Private Ryan”? “The Empire Strikes Back?” Any ideas?

Anyway, this isn’t about the death of film making. It actually started out as a celebration of a very specific kind of art. The DVD cover. I just wanted to share a few of my favorite DVD covers. Nothing special, no great revelations here. Just some really good design. It started out as the 10 best and became the 11 best. I will most likely add to the list as something strikes me.whenever I find something else I like.

Missing. 1982

Love the use of blank space. Typography is clever too.

Salesman. 1968

Old school documentary. Color, logo, picture. It all works.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Iconic movie with a great painted cover.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters For DVD

This one has everything. Period.

The Gauntlet

Perfect retro cover for this 1977 Eastwood flick.

This is Spinal Tap.

How much more black can it be? None. None more black.

The Bad Sleep Well

Simple and effective.

The Last Seduction.

Dark. Smoky. Seductive. What else do you need?

Star Wars Trilogy

The cover says it all. It's the REAL Star Wars.

Apocalypto.

Power and intensity.

Brazil.

One of my very favorites.

]]> http://teachingtv.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/the-11-best-dvd-coversthat-i-could-find/feed/ 0 ex8404 Missing salesman bladerunner2discdvd athf gauntlet spinal-tap thebadsleepwell last-seduction star-wars-trilogy apocalypto brazil http://teachingtv.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/what-the-president-said-merit-pay-and-charter-schools/ http://teachingtv.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/what-the-president-said-merit-pay-and-charter-schools/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:39:08 +0000 ex8404 http://teachingtv.wordpress.com/?p=170 ]]>

Libby Quaid, AP Education Writer, opened up an article with the words “President Barack Obama called for tying teachers’ pay to student performance…” Isn’t there anybody in charge of anything who can see the insanity that this simple sentence represents? Exactly how many other professions have a compensation plan that is based on the performance of their clients? And if they did, how would that work? Lawyers are now to be paid only for their innocent clients. Doctor pay will decrease every time a patient returns with another malady. Dentists will have their pay based on the number of cavities the people in their “dental districts” get? The fewer the cavities the higher the pay?

President Barack Obama called for tying teachers’ pay to student performance. Tying teachers’ pay to student performance.  I keep repeating this because I am trying to figure out what it means and why anyone would think this is a good idea. Exactly how much control does a teacher have over a student’s performance? Certainly the teacher has some, based on what is taught, but what about the intangibles? Does the teacher have control over how much television students watch? How much time they spend texting their friends or updating MySpace or Facebook? Can the teacher control a student’s gang activity or how they relate to their parents? Or if they have parents? And what is the definition of merit?

How Do You Measure Merit?

Henry Aubin, a Canadian newspaper writer, wrote an article called, “Teachers’ Merit Pay is a Bad Idea.” In it he says “Merit” is hard to define. If principals decide who’s worthy, there’s a risk of arbitrariness and favoritism. Staff morale will suffer if subservience defines merit.”

So exactly how will merit be defined? Standardized test scores? Then teachers will “teach the test” and students will be denied the opportunity for intellectual exploration. Aubin writes, “The teaching that often ignites students’ intellectual curiosity, however, often deals with material that testing does not cover.” And he is right. There is no art on The Test. There is no marketing or graphic design or auto shop on The Test. There is nothing about work ethic or problem solving or working well in groups on The Test. Why not? Are these things, these intangibles, not important? If you ask employers in your community how to improve the incoming work force, they, with a single voice, will say, “Send me someone who can show up to work, do basic math without a calculator and can solve simple problems. I’ll do the rest.” But since Career and Technical Training isn’t on The Test, it just doesn’t matter. And that is a mistake.

Why Go To School?

I ask students every year, “Why are you here? Why do you go to school?” The answer is, without variation, “To learn.” But to learn what? I am usually told, “You know. Math and stuff.” Math and stuff. So I put a simple problem on the board and out come the calculators. What can calculators teach us? For that matter, what can Beowulf teach us? Where is the relevance for today’s teenager? I am certain that there is relevance, but why isn’t it obvious? Something other than “It’s on The Test.” Wouldn’t high school students be better served learning to read technical manuals? And that brings us to why I think we are in school. We send our young people to school so they can learn to work, get jobs and not be burdens to society. School is basically a 12 year vocational education. And we have forgotten that.

Why do all students have to study Advanced Math and Science when only a select few will need it? Does it take calculus to balance a checkbook? The truth is that the majority of students can do quite well with a comprehensive understanding of Algebra. The kind of understanding that students received before calculators. The kind of understanding that is rooted in basic math and practical applications. The same can be said for science. Advanced science is perfect for anyone who needs advanced science. But at what stage do we ask our students, “What do you want to be for the rest of your life?” At what stage do we take those answers and tailor their educational pathways to make that happen?

What we have become is a nation that strives for success in education without any clear cut definition of success. It was not so long ago that American schools were the envy of the world. We created engineers and scientists who put men on the moon without much more than slide rules and the multiplication table. But they did so because they had a good understanding of concepts and theory and could apply them to practical situations.  Schools in the 40’s were not planning to teach kids how to be astronauts. They had no idea such things were possible. But they taught basics and showed their students how to apply them to any situation. Including situations that hadn’t even been dreamed of yet. How did we get from there to here?

Where in the current curriculum is there room for critical thinking and problem solving? For initiative and leadership? Who decided to teach our kids that there is no room for failure when anyone who has ever accomplished anything great had no fear of failure? How can we teach our kids to be analytical when it isn’t part of The Test? We are failing to send our kids into an increasingly difficult and technological world with the skill set they need to survive. We ask them to memorize and regurgitate and that isn’t learning.

A Modest Proposal.

I humbly submit this plan to fix our schools. It is very simple. Perhaps too simple but here it goes.

1. Anyone who makes decisions about curriculum, education, merit pay or whatever should spend a minimum of three weeks as a substitute teacher. And not in the highest performing schools. In the lowest performing schools of any given urban environment. Then we can talk about tying teachers’ pay to performance. It will create a common ground and will give all of us a better chance to fix what is broken.
2. Stop trying to come up with new ways to reach students on their level. It won’t work. They are way ahead of you in terms of what interests them. Go to the basics, stir up some curiosity and initiative, put students back in charge of their progress and sit back and watch the magic happen. Don’t believe me? Then talk to a teacher who uses Layered Curriculum.
3. Read Rigor Redefined by Tony Wagner. It should be mandatory reading for anyone involved in education.
4. Stop worrying about peoples’ feelings. There is no shame in going to work. It is important for America to have auto mechanics and bricklayers and carpenters. Where would we be without plumbers and electricians and even that nice young lady who works behind the counter at the gas station? We need these people. What we don’t need is more lawyers and MBA’s and Liberal Arts degrees. An IBEW apprenticeship is worth a dozen Liberal Arts Degrees.
5. Repeal No Child Left Behind.

There. It’s not much of a plan but it’s a start.

January marks my first year as a Web Logger…

I have been writing here on Teaching TV for just over a year now. Not as faithfully as I should and not with the number of readers I would like to reach but a year’s still a year. And, knock wood, I am looking forward to 2009.

It Could Happen.

There are some things that I would like to see happen in 2009. It will most likely be a pretty selfish list but I’m entitled…Right?

1. I would like to update Teaching Television at least once a week.
2. I would like some equipment to come into the classroom that has some real world relevance. No more consumer camcorders.
3. I would like the sun to come out more than four times a month.
4. I would like students to stop emulating some of the ridiculous behavior of their favorite cartoon characters.
5. I would like to start the documentary I have been mulling over. It is on a forgotten piece of Tennessee history and involves lawyers, racism, guns, false arrest, cruel and unusual punishment, technological advances, government oppression and worker’s rights. It also involves a war that nobody ever heard about.
6. I would like to re-start the book I have been working on and throwing away on a regular basis. It involves the same stuff as the documentary.
7. I would like to get better at After Effects.
8. I would like to find someplace to do some freelance work. Or maybe a new job.
9. I would like to find a new series of books as good as the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. Barring that, I plan to reread the 20 books in that series.

I am certain that there are tons more but I am surrounded by half a dozen students who all want to discuss popular culture and the media and Facebook and whatever.

So anyway, it’s a new year and I plan to go into it with enthusiasm. I’ll let you know how I’m doing with that.

Two years ago I was approached by a local artists group about making a documentary. The idea was to create a film using students and allowing them to control every aspect of the film. The group, The Association for Visual Arts (AVA), wanted to bring in several local filmmakers and let them work with the students to guide them through the creation process and, ultimately, to the first screening of their own movie.

Even the most well-intentioned group can’t just walk into a school and borrow some students. Since I have a series of media production classes and teach at a certain type of school, AVA called me to ask if I was interested. Of course I said, “Yes.” So we started with some meetings, had some more meetings and then, just as we were about to start, the whole thing fell apart. I can’t remember if it was funding or lack of interest from outside of the school or whatever. So a year later we started all over again. More meetings, more false starts and one more total shut-down. This time because the person at AVA who was heading up the project from their end changed jobs. I thought that would be the last I heard from AVA and, gladly, I was wrong.

Golden Grillz, The DVD. Cover Design: J. Colbert

The new person involved with the Education Outreach program at AVA had heard of the project and liked it. He decided to start all over again. And to shorten the story, we started pre-production with 13 students and two filmmakers. And me, the Project Coordinator. The kids worked on concept and decided to make a movie on “rap, rock, the individual and the group.” A movie about how the music we listen to impacts the way others see us and the way we see ourselves. It was called “Golden Grillz & Satan Likes Puppies.”

The movie was well received and was shown in several locations around town and a copy is on file at the Mayor’s office. Not a bad result for a group of first-timers. The results were actually far greater than we had hoped and it set the stage for what is happening today. The second documentary film is starting today. The first day is always the slowest but the AVA filmmakers know how to make it work and we have some good kids and I can’t wait to see what this year’s subject is going to be.

The best thing I see out of the students is a new sense of commitment and ownership. We are asking two days a week, two hours each time for almost four months. And the kids show up, they get excited about what they are doing and they take pride in the final project. It makes all the extra time worth it and it makes the whole thing fun.

So…nothing major here. No new educational processes, no major insights, nothing to change the world. Just ten or so kids making a movie and learning a little bit about going to work, dealing with adults and meeting deadlines. Stuff they need and stuff we neglect.

I’ll keep updating…

It’s been a while since I’ve been here. As always, life has a habit of getting in the way. But while I was away, I never stopped thinking about all the things I shouldn’t be thinking about. I have still been trying to engage students who have no desire to be engaged and I have never stopped wondering how we got here from there in education.

The Smug Generation.

In the sixties we created a generation of people who are the movers and shakers (and, yes, the slackers and criminals) of today. People, now in their 40’s and 50’s, who had the benefit of a typical (of the time) public school education and went on to be entrepreneurs, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, teachers, firemen, sanitation workers, astronauts and so on and did so without the benefit of calculators, cell phones or the Internet.

Today we are teaching a generation of kids, The Smug Generation according to Sarah Vine of Times Online, who are defined by their desire for acknowledgment and their need for connectivity. “It’s an irresistible image: a society so softened by wealth and creature comforts that it has produced a group of offspring entirely unaware of its shortcomings,” she writes in an article titled “Generation Smug: today’s little darlings or tomorrow’s little monsters?” An entire generation completely obsessed with money and posting pictures of themselves on-line, valuing entertainment over effort and reward over respect. “Narcissistic praise junkies” is what this generation of young people are called by the United States Navy.

When Did This Happen?

This current generation of young people has never been offline, has never been without a cell phone or a computer. They have never known a world without cable TV or without dozens of cable networks aimed directly at them. They have never had to make it through the world without  iPods or Gameboys or X-Boxes. Today’s rising college students have never know a world without cheap and instant gratification where their entertainment needs are concerned. And let’s not forget about the Internet.

The Internet today is, I am almost certain, not what it was originally envisioned to be. What was once touted as the “Galactic Network”, a global tool for information exchange has become a driving force for commercialism and socializing. MySpace, Facebook, Flikr and You Tube are just some of the ways that “these kids today” have shaped and changed the Internet. But these changes to the Internet have resulted in changes to our society. In the Navy report it states, “Teens are creating new forms of social behavior that blur the distinction between online and real-world interactions — and largely ignore the difference between the two.”

Students in my classes brag about the number of friends they have. One young lady was overheard saying “I have over a thousand friends…” I wondered about that and asked her where she met so many people. “On Facebook,” was her reply. I have to wonder if our definition of “friend” has changed over the years. Not so long ago a friend was someone who would help you move a sofa or let you talk endlessly about a problem without offering advice. Just listening. A friend is the person who doesn’t mind if you go into their refrigerator and grab a drink without asking. Friends were people that we have actually met. Now? Many of our kids are walking around with lists of “virtual friends.” People they have never met except on-line. NPR commentator, Peter Sagal, says that there is something “vaguely creepy” about using “friend” as a verb as in, “I met someone on Facebook and friended her.” But he also admits that he has a Facebook page and over 900 virtual friends. I will also admit that I have a Facebook page and I have 6 virtual friends. Of my 6 virtual friends, I have, at one time or another, actually met 5 of them.

So What?

Is all of this really a problem? In my experience it can be. How can a school be asked to compete with Facebook, iPods, Nickleodeon, The Cartoon Network, the allure of text messages or any one of the hundreds of ways that our students seek their instant gratification. It’s easy to fall back on cliches like “If I had a nickle for every time a kid said ‘This is boring’ to me I could retire tomorrow.” At the best of times, school can be boring. But when asked to compete with the entertainment media, we fail miserably. It can’t be done. I can talk all day, offer hands-on, real-world relevancy, seminar, make Power Points, incorporate the Internet into lessons and still can’t engage my “narcissistic praise junkies.” I can’t sing (doesn’t stop me though), can’t dance and I am not a sophisticated comedian like, say, Spongebob. No matter what I do, I fall short.

If I roll out the computer lab, I spend the day getting the kids to log out of their e-mail accounts or Facebook pages. Even though Facebook is blocked at the state Internet server, the students know every easy (and not so easy) way to get around the block. I actually look at this as a bright side. If my students have the problem solving skills it takes to circumvent a government Internet block, then they can certainly apply those skills to other career related problems, right? Or can they?

The Dumbest Generation.

Mike Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article he called, “American Kids, dumber than dirt.” In it, he recounts an ongoing conversation with a local teacher. The teacher “speaks not merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among students over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy slackerhood, or the fact that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he says, there is zero doubt…We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.“

The teacher, Morford writes, “cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid’s basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at (his school).”

Can it really be this huge a problem? Johnny can’t read because of the media? Is his need to be acknowledged for accomplishments, while having never really accomplished anything, keeping him from knowing the multiplication tables? Because of No Child Left Behind, creativity is lost on an entire generation? Or is the problem just a shift in the generation gap? Are our teachers and administrators aware that the model family no longer resembles “Leave it to Beaver?” Do they realize that today’s students can’t even hear the name of that old TV show without giggling? Do they realize the depth of the competition they are facing and that “The Scarlet Letter” has absolutely zero relevance to teenagers? I would like to think so. Otherwise, an entire generation of teachers are out of touch and, as Mike Morford’s teacher friend states, we really are “at rock bottom.”

Odd title, Huh?

Fact is, things got kind of screwy in the past couple of weeks.  Our school took a week long fall break, grades were due and I HATE grading things. Meetings had to be attended and other meetings had to be proctored. Paperwork piled up on my desk and if I wanted to see the students, I had to complete some of it. But I haven’t forgotten my self-imposed duties here. I’ve just been ignoring them. Like the grass I still need to cut.

Politics.

Things got pretty crazy on the political scene since the last debate. Sarah Palin has all but slipped off the radar while the media has parked their satellite trucks outside of the house of Joe the Plumber. Is it just me or does anyone else find it odd that Joe the Plumber has given more interviews to the press than the republican Vice-Presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin? What are they afraid of and how will impact the election?

I made my students take an ABC News presidential quiz in class. It’s a unique sort of quiz because it is based on quotes from the candidates. Two quotes are shown on the same subject and you pick the one you agree with the most. Both classes ended up choosing Barack Obama but at least they understood some of the issues a little better. And it was fun.

Meetings.

This pretty much sums up what I think about most meetings.

It’s a link. Click on it.

Gas Prices and the American Way.

OK…during fall break gas prices went from $4.09 a gallon to $2.73 a gallon. Awesome. Except for one tiny little problem. Gas went up because we use too much and and don’t plan ahead for little things like hurricanes. So, when we all stopped using so much gas the prices went down. So where’s the problem? I’ll answer my question with another question. When was the last time anyone in this great country of ours learned anything from the past?

Remember the gas crunch of the late ’70’s? Remember the problems Katrina caused with the flow of refined petroleum products? For that matter, am I the only one who can see a correlation between Vietnam and Iraq? What’s going to keep the good people of this great country from forgetting everything and going through gasoline like it’s a birth right thereby driving the price right back up again?

Church Signs.

I love church signs. I started looking at them when I realized that the word “Congratulations” was never spelled correctly. It was always “Congradulations Seniors” or “Congradulations Mr. and Mrs. Jones on your 40th Wedding Anniversary.”

But as I read more I realized that some church leaders have a sense of humor. Some of my recent favorites include these gems:

Stop Drop and Roll Doesn’t Work In Hell.

Wal-Mart Isn’t The Only Saving Place.

Sign Broken: Come Inside For Message.

I’ll keep looking and maybe I’ll keep a camera handy.

Television.

What in the world is wrong with the new TV season this year. I have yet to find a show that I even want to watch, much less get attached to. Even the best show on TV, The Office, is missing the mark.

Anyway.

That’s it for today. I’m working on a discussion of rigor and how this current educational buzz-word is being applied in all the wrong ways.