I just saw Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on CNN. She was being interviewed about President Obama’s “Race to the Top” program, a plan to improve some of the nation’s poorest schools. I wasn’t particularly interested in the story until she made a slightly off-topic statement that I’ll have to paraphrase. … Continue reading Another union rant
Historically, Massachusetts has been a bastion of liberalism, but providing free condoms for grade school students? Without informing their parents? Without parents being able to stop the distribution? Ridiculous. This doesn’t even count as an abdication of responsibility. This is assuming a whole new responsibility that has no place at all in a grade school. … Continue reading Condoms in grade school!?
When my son mentioned eggcorns and I didn’t know what he was talking about, I had to go find the website. I couldn’t let him be the sole possessor of such knowledge, not when I’m the parent and the former editor. An eggcorn, it turns out, is a word or phrase misheard and then perpetuated, … Continue reading Spade cats and gas turbans
I was channel surfing this evening and came across a story on Nightline about something called “unschooling,” a theory of “education” espoused by a woman named Dayna Martin. As nearly as I could tell, her approach consists of doing nothing — nothing! — about educating her kids. She gets away with it because somehow it … Continue reading ‘Unschooling’ is abdication of responsibility
National news has been the pits lately. But I do have a couple of places I love to visit to unwind. Both are streaming webcams and I’ve mentioned them before. Right now they are better than ever. Phoebe the hummingbird now has two very healthy babies, Hope and Hoku, in her golf-ball sized nest. You’ll … Continue reading Going to the birds
Arizona is getting a lot of negative publicity these days, mostly because of their recently passed anti–illegal immigration law (SB 1070 and amendment). I’ve no problem with that law and see it as little different from typical seat-belt laws — you don’t get busted for not wearing your seat belt unless you are stopped first … Continue reading Much ado about Arizona
