Rantings

What am I suppose to do, put on a clown suit and dance around the room? The reply, "Well, you don't have to wear a clown suit but the dancing would work." This is the answer I received from a student who says that he is bored in classes. What spurred this thought? Barack Obama. This past week he decided to say that teachers in the United States are not good enough and we need longer school days and school years. Obviously this man has no clue what he is talking about! He is a complete disaster. Number one, education starts in the home. Obama said that kids in South Korea are better prepared and more competitive than kids in the US. Think about this Obama, education in other countries is taken more seriously. In other countries if you want to go to school past the fifth or sixth grade you have to pay for it or take a test that says you are smart enough to go to the next grade. Even if you are not prepared for the next grade most times you are passed to the next level in the US. Another thought, what about sports. Who is making more money in the US teachers or professional athletes? We (US citizens) value sports more than we do education. How many millions do teachers make a year compared to how many millions athletes make per year. Most kids see the millions of dollars made by athletes, singers, rappers, actors/actresses and think that is what they are going to be when they grow up. Those that are famous are never telling kids that they graduated from high school with a 4.0 or went to college or anything like that. Kids also see professional athletes that went to high school, barely passed then went on to stardom and we praise those people. Instead of praising those people shouldn't we be praising those who go to college and do well academically as well as athletically, politically, etc? Barack Obama, before you tear down those that give all they have to their craft and who are the real parents to your children because you're too busy to care about them, walk for a year in their shoes. See how you like being told you're an idiot, not getting the credit or respect you deserve, having parents who never made it out of middle school tell you you don't know what you're doing as a teacher, bashed everyday, and (in some places) placing your life on the line without the CIA, Secret Service, FBI or whoever else protectiong you. Oh yeah, and this whole "merit pay" is a crock. Have you thought about merit pay and who would get it? You are totally discounting the Home Ec, PE, Music, Art, FAA/AG and other elective teachers. Merit pay for test scores? What about areas that kids do not have resources and are at a disadvantage due to no fault of their own? Sorry, I also do not want federal funds going to my school. I don't want to have to answer to the federal government. Our own states can't get their acts together on education what makes you think the representative boneheads in Washington will do any better? They obviously haven't done anything thus far but place us in deeper debt and more problems. What will happen to the competitiveness of US kids if the federal government takes over? Who are you going to blame then when everything fails?