20 August 2008

It's A Humpday, Most Definitely...
OK, kids, enough about alternative energy and climactic change, time to get back to reality.
--All the schools are back in session, and with the new school year come ALL these "ideas" to make learning easier, produce more graduates from high school, and the issue that keeps coming back like the proverbial bad penny, namely all-day kindergarten.
And of course, I have *my* thoughts on all this, having been a successful student within the Philadelphia school system (owned by the city, I might add).
First off, learning isn't SUPPOSED to be "easy", that's why they call it LEARNING. In life, you WILL make mistakes, and (hopefully) you WILL LEARN from them. That's a given.
Learning needs to get back to it's roots, and by that I mean rote education. Repetitive knowledge has to be drilled into those fertile young minds. How do you think they master all the video games? The do it OVER...and OVER...and OVER until they get past that level (or they get the cheat codes, but in life, we don't have that luxury). Simple as that.
And I am also a staunch believer that when kids are IN school, they ARE more productive,will learn MORE, and will have a greater tendency to graduate, and that translates to HIGHER grad rates. But when the chair is empty, none of that is going to happen...period.
Hold the parents accountable AS WELL AS the students, and you WILL see improvement. Settling for anything less is sheer folly.
Have ONE school promoting technical aspects, the arts, and even business. The rest can concentrate in CORE values such as the traditional "3 Rs". It's not that this city has SO many schools that they can spread the "wealth" like the arts. And there is NO reason why ANY school can't have college prep venues with honor programs.
In Philly, we had honor students in damn near EVERY high school having colleges banging their doors down to have them at THEIR university. It's called GOOD HEALTHY COMPETITION, folks!
And that is something we need not shy away from in our classrooms. We SHOULD applaud those who excel, and not summarily dismiss them as "just" good students. And challenging the rest to reach for that higher mark set BY the students that are excelling goes far when it comes to dealing with REALITY 101 (life itself).
When it comes to preschool, do we REALLY need a mandatory ALL-DAY kindergarten? Well, if you ask some lazy-ass parent that hasn't time for their child, they'd say "HELL YEAH WE DO". So we let the state babysit our child for another formative year, while whatever is passing for a parent has "another year off".
Kindergarten was VOLUNTARY in my day, and it was only HALF day. MY folks didn't feel the need to send me, as they were teaching me things before I got to 1st grade. I recall mom and her "flash cards", and showing me how to print letters of the alphabet. And that didn't take from my parents' time at all.
They just felt it was THEIR duty (as a parent) to do that.
--Fort Wayne pays for booze license.
Oh sure, it ONLY cost the city $1,000, but what about all the businesses that had to pay THOUSANDS for THEIR licenses? Did the city jump in and even OFFER to pick up THAT tab?
I think not.
Be nice to ask the owner of Piere's club how much HE had to pay and HOW MUCH the CITY offered to chip in.
But hardball Capital, a HUGE player with money to most likely burn, is spared the burden of paying for the license. never fear, for our city has an excuse...I mean REASON.
Since the new stadium will be a MUNICIPAL stadium, it is prudent that the CITY hold the liquor license.
So the city is in the booze business now. I can see the law for buying liquor on Sunday all but fade away now.
Yeah, I'm good with that, how about you?
And I won't even get into what kind of TAX ABATEMENT "Costaplenty Square" is getting.
--Fort Wayne "International" Airport is going in your pocket (again) and I hope you LIKE having that done to you.
There was a great letter to the editor today in the J/G, and here it is:
Published: August 20, 2008 6:00 a.m.
((Taxpayers penalized for airport --
I see that the Airport Authority is asking to double its tax rate to pay for a failed decision to spend money for Kitty Hawk, and for Burlington before that. In business, someone gets fired or demoted for making bad decisions. Who is getting fired for the Kitty Hawk and Burlington decisions?
I would like to point out a statement from Tory Richardson, airport executive director, on Oct. 15, 2007: "In theory, if Kitty Hawk is gone, the costs they’re covering will be borne on the backs of who’s still there. … The people who have to pay their way are going to see a financial impact."
I didn’t think that meant us, the taxpayers.
JIM WINGER Fort Wayne ))
Now Jim's got his finger on the pulse of what's going on, and kudos to him for saying what NEEDS to be said.
Now, if only we could convince a LOT more of this 250,000+ populace to wake the hell up.
Yeah, we can always hope.
At least THAT isn't costing any more money, eh?

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