I read in the paper where the Mobile County Public School System mandates that teachers give students at least a 50%. No student can get a zero. They get numerous opportunities to take and retake tests. The catch phrase is "No Student is a Failure."
Depends what the meaning of "is" is.
The administration has confused their "who" with their "do." If I do not work, I do not get paid. It does not mean I'm a failure as a person and have no right to oxygen. It means that I have done nothing and my reward equals my effort. This is how the real world works. Should we not be teaching this in school, or has common sense and logical consequences taken a back seat along with fine arts, Family & Consumer Science, and other necessary (elective) classes so that more time can be spent raising standardized test scores?
Kids learn that showing up earns them a passing grade for no or next to no work. You show up, you pass. You're "entitled" to a diploma.
Next thing you know, they'll be handing out Nobel Peace Prizes just for showing up.
Oh, wait. Never mind.
What will your children earn by working today?
Oct 15, 2010
Oct 4, 2010
Six-Day Mail Delivery
Here are some (excerpted) stats from usps.com
Congress mandates universal delivery (even to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which has to be done by pack mule.) If delivery were privatized, only people in cities would get delivery at all. Those in remote areas would have to come to town to get their mail.
Congress mandates 6-day delivery. I still can't figure that one out. 200 years ago, US Mail was the only means by which people communicated with loved ones far away. Today we have options about which Benjamin Franklin didn't even dream! My daughter texts me from a mile away. One friend phones me from 3 miles away. I get emails from another friend a thousand miles away. I'm on Facebook with a friend across the Atlantic Ocean. My daughter Skypes with her friend in Japan.
Do we really need six day mail delivery? Congress, it seems, is still in the 18th century by refusing to repeal this archaic regulation. (Speaking of archaic, we won't even get into the fact - right now - that the USPS still uses carbon paper.)
I love stamps. They're like little works of art. I love finding a handwritten note in my mailbox. I want the USPS to succeed. I want Congress to back off and let them do so profitably. I think I'll write my Congresscritters a handwritten note and ask for their cooperation in this matter. I'll mail it via USPS.
To whom will you write a note today?
It seems to me that if the USPS were to stay viable into the next couple of hundred years, a few things need to change. If the last public subsidy was 1982, why weren't the federal mandates ended at that time, too? They tell USPS what they must do, and what they can charge, but won't subsidize the mandates? And people get mad when stamps go up two cents?
1775 - Benjamin Franklin appointed first Postmaster General by the Continental Congress
1847 - U.S. postage stamps issued
1855 - Prepayment of postage required
1860 - Pony Express began
1863 - Free city delivery began
1873 - U.S. postal cards issued
1874 - First commemorative stamps issued
1896 - Rural free delivery began
1913 - Parcel Post began
1918 - Scheduled airmail service began
1950 - Residential deliveries reduced to one a day
1963 - ZIP Code inaugurated
1970 - Express Mail began experimentally
1974 - Adhesive stamps tested
1982 - Last year Postal Service accepted public service subsidy
1983 - ZIP+4 Code began
1992 - Self-adhesive stamps introduced nationwide
2007 - Forever stamp issued
Congress mandates universal delivery (even to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which has to be done by pack mule.) If delivery were privatized, only people in cities would get delivery at all. Those in remote areas would have to come to town to get their mail.
Congress mandates 6-day delivery. I still can't figure that one out. 200 years ago, US Mail was the only means by which people communicated with loved ones far away. Today we have options about which Benjamin Franklin didn't even dream! My daughter texts me from a mile away. One friend phones me from 3 miles away. I get emails from another friend a thousand miles away. I'm on Facebook with a friend across the Atlantic Ocean. My daughter Skypes with her friend in Japan.
Do we really need six day mail delivery? Congress, it seems, is still in the 18th century by refusing to repeal this archaic regulation. (Speaking of archaic, we won't even get into the fact - right now - that the USPS still uses carbon paper.)
I love stamps. They're like little works of art. I love finding a handwritten note in my mailbox. I want the USPS to succeed. I want Congress to back off and let them do so profitably. I think I'll write my Congresscritters a handwritten note and ask for their cooperation in this matter. I'll mail it via USPS.
To whom will you write a note today?
Oct 2, 2010
The Walmartization of America
Walmart hires inexperienced part timers. Pay is low. No insurance. No retirement. No unions. The goal = maximize profits.
Charter schools hire inexperienced teachers. Pay is low. No insurance. No retirement. No unions. The goal = maximize profits.
USPS has a hiring freeze on "career" positions. Only hiring part timers. Pay is low. No insurance. No retirement. No unions. The goal = maximize profits.
Anyone else seeing a pattern here?
Charter schools hire inexperienced teachers. Pay is low. No insurance. No retirement. No unions. The goal = maximize profits.
USPS has a hiring freeze on "career" positions. Only hiring part timers. Pay is low. No insurance. No retirement. No unions. The goal = maximize profits.
Anyone else seeing a pattern here?
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