Opus 2025-007: Tax Dollars at Work: Dim Your Lights

One of the first things I do every morning is to check the weather.  Actually, I check the temperature.  The rest of the weather is something I’m not too worried about.  This morning I was warned, or told, that there was a “Special Weather Statement” that I needed to read.  OK.  I was open to a little entertainment so I touch the screen.

I was taken then to a “Special Weather Statement” from the National Weather Service.  They informed me, I could just hear the drum roll in the background and I imagine the deep voice, that there will be fog today.  They went on to share with me how that meant that I should drive with low beams, at a slower speed, and leave more space between me in the car in front of me.

Thank you, weather app.  Thank you National Weather Service.  I’m sure that when I went outside, I would have assumed that my glasses were just fogging up because of the temperature change.  When I took them off to clean them, I would’ve wondered why I still couldn’t see.  It’s good that I have the federal government here to tell me that it’s foggy.  I’m sure I would never notice.

Thank you weather app and thank you. National Weather Service for assuming that my father did not teach me how to drive in fog.  Actually I’ve known since before I could drive that you turn your low beams on in the fog.  I also am quite aware that driving 80 miles an hour in a heavy fog on a curvy road with lots of traffic is not a way to live to see your great-grandchildren.

I would suggest that perhaps Elon and Vivek might look at the National Weather Service as one of the things that does not need to be broadcast into every home every day.  I understand if I am flying a jet across the country I might need some kind of heads-up but not for knowing if it is raining outside my front door.  Of course, that could be just me.

We might also need a National Restaurant Service to warn us about putting white powder in our coffee out of those little shakers on the table.  Some wise guru might also tell us that it’s not a good idea to eat your peas with a knife and be careful with that fork because you could make holes in your eyeballs . Also, they might want to remind us that knives can be sharp and that glasses when they were knocked off the table might break.

You are welcome for this heartfelt recommendation.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-062: Tax Dollars at Work: Libraries

Libraries are underused resources.  It always amazes me how many people ignore them.  Library cards are free if you live within a certain zone and some will even issues free cards to anyone with ID.  I currently have 5 cards.  The biggest library system in our area would charge me $200 a year for a card but with the schizophrenia of government you can get a coupon from any library you are part of that you can take to get a limited card for free.  So far I have found more than enough to read in the free sources.

You are paying for them in your taxes so you might as well make use of them.  I will grant that the librarians, being generally woke, do not buy a lot that I think is worth reading but enough sneak through the cracks to keep me busy.

One of the libraries I use has an interesting search function.  After I make a search it allows me to search multiple libraries in the area.  That saves a lot of time.  There are other avenues that I have not tried yet.  You can request books and sometimes they will purchase them.  You can also use the interlibrary loan system that will bring you books from other libraries.  

Turn off your electronics.  Check out a book.  Read.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-005: Unnoticed Promises Kept

One of the goals of President Trump had to do with the country’s infrastructure.  It was one of his promises.  The main reason I remember this is because of the comments I have read in the Fake News that he was doing nothing.  Like everything else they “report”, that is a lie.  It came to my attention as I tried to drive across the country driving a 26 foot U-Haul.  If you have never had the privilege of such a drive, you are blessed.  I shudder when I think about it.

There are some sections of our nations roads that are a joy to drive.  The surface is smooth and well marked.  The scenery is awe inspiring.  You can make good time even in a amateur moving van.  Then you see those dreaded words, “Road work ahead”.  It isn’t just that they make you slow down.  It is because the parts they are working on have been overlooked for decades and the lanes they leave you are narrow, winding and full of sink-holes and bumps.  

Let me tell you that President Trump’s infrastructure plan is in full swing.  Keeping you in lock down so you don’t notice is another side effect of the Progressives*.  I know it is an exaggeration but at times it felt like I spent more time in construction zones than on the open road.  There were twenty mile sections where concrete barriers were just inches from the lines on both side of the road.  Imagine the fun of trying to stay between those lines with no leeway and having an 18 wheeler trying to pass you.  

I made it and the roads are being worked on.  The Fake News acts like it isn’t happening but it is.

Just another promise being fulfilled.  

Keep praying for our country and no matter what the results, start keeping lists and be prepared to vote the sucker out next time you get a chance.  Remember that reform will start with your city council and work its way up.

*(Liberals, educators, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, etc.  Another word for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-320: Tax Dollars at Work: Illegal Education

More money is needed for education, at least in California.  It seems that their budget is going to be $200,000 short this year.  Why?  Because they used it for a left wing political statement.  The Long Beach Press Telegram reports that amount was set aside to help DACA victims apply to renew their position.

Now isn’t that why you voted more money for schools?

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-244: DEFCON: AUTCON

I am wondering if a better name for DEFCON might be AUTISMCON or some such thing.  When I was teaching I noticed a steady expansion of special categories such as autism.  More and more people were being included under the banner.  The reason is, Federal Tax Dollars.  People that you would consider generally normal but flirting with strangeness are being labeled as autistic and given “special services” in order to prepare them for life.  You see the same thing with Spanish speakers, handicapped, the poor and any other group that can attract federal money.

Every year at DEFCON we notice that the halls are full of people flirting with strangeness.  Geeks tend to fit into the description of the autistic.  They tend to be either anti-social or non-social.  They often do not know how to relate to other people.  That is one reason they are so in love with their computers.  Their computers understand them and are non-judgmental.  As DEFCON expands and the ranks are diluted with growing numbers of the mainstream sheep, the stereotype geeks become less obvious.  I would also postulate that they are starting to stay away because of the crowds.

This is not to say that autism is not real.  Some of the real victims are totally cut off from contact with reality.  The big issue is that no one really knows how to help them.  Part of the arrogance of educators is that they think they can fix everything and everyone.  This applies even if they don’t want to be fixed.

Be nice to the autistic.  You might be one and not even know it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-056: Tax Dollars at Work: Cutting Edge Education

I just received my latest copy of The California Educator, February 2017, and it is full of articles that give an insight into modern education.  If you were to ask, “What does education need to be concerned with,” I think you could come up with the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.  In addition you might want skills that would prepare students to be productive citizens.  Let me give you a quick run down of the titles on the cover, saving the best for last.

First we have “Hunger on Campus, Solutions to rising food insecurity” on page 44.  Just when you thought that Michelle Obama’s remake on school cafeterias should be bearing fruit we find out that there is a new syndrome roaming our schools called “food insecurity”.

Then we have “Fighting Back Against Hate,” page 44.  What can I say?

Than we have “Most Innovative Apps” on page 52.  They feature names like Facebook, Google and Microsoft and it looks like all are designed to be used on expensive smart phones that the hungry, hate filled students are not supposed to have out or turned on at school.

Next is “Genius Hour:  A No-Brainer”.  My favorite quote of the featured educator:  “During Genius Hour, they study whatever they want to,...”, page 13.  That will certainly prepare them to be worthwhile employees or else to riot in the streets carrying signs saying, “Not my Job”.  “Work” becomes a trigger word.

But the highlight is an article titled “Riding the Wave, 8 Educators Raise the Bar for Students”.  Sounds good.  One librarian decided that libraries are “outdated”, page 23, and from the pictures turned them into a place where they can play with Lego type toys.  She says that circulation of books has gone up but the novice needs to understand that for educators “books” includes graphic novels which is jargon for comic books.

Another sample is a young black man teaching young black boys to be men, page 24.  It doesn’t say why he is qualified but it certainly is something that needs to be taught.

Another is a civil rights activist who is teaching the kids about the “Occupy movement and how it was spreading worldwide” and of course the Black Live Matter groups, page 26.  I will let you guess his approach.  The next is trying to entice minorities into teaching, page 27.  Then you have the one teaching them to garden and another to cook, pages 28-30.  The next is giving lessons that “are theatrical, culturally relevant, integrated with Next Generation Science Standards, and fun for the whole family,” page 31.  I wonder if that involves understanding the periodic table?

As you can see these students are being given the kind of skills that will prepare them to be the servants of the elitist upper class.  Not your dream for them?  This is education today.

And you are paying for it.

You will excuse me if I did not read every word of this issue.  I get enough of this in my weekly faculty meetings

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-006: Tax Dollars at Work: Winter Break

The I-want-everything-that-I-think-someone-else-is-paying-for masses of the People’s Repubilik of Kalifornia just passed two initiatives to give more money to education.  One was a $9 Billion borrowing spree that the big print said would cost $500 million a year for 35 years to pay off.  Since most of them don’t pay taxes and everyone knows education needs more money, it passed.

I just want to stop and thank all of you working regular jobs for paying your taxes so that I can be a teacher.  I realize how hard it is to pay the bills.  I want to remind you that while you are working, I am at home writing blog posts.  Remember when you had to work all day on December 22?  I got to go home early and got the 23rd off.  Now, on January 5,  I am still off and will not go back to work until next Monday.  I get as much time off for “Winter Break” as most of you get all year.  If you are self employed you don’t even get two weeks with pay.

Please, next time you hear someone talking about more money for education remember my Winter Break.  I will take all that you give me.  I am not crazy.  At the same time I always vote “no” on money for education because I am also not immoral.

Seriously.  Thank you.  Just as seriously, stop throwing good money after bad.

Happy New Year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-215: Tax Dollars at Work: We’re Back

School is starting up all across the country.  Current thinking is that teachers are ignorant and lazy so they need to be brought in for what are called “in service” meetings to train them properly.  We have just gone through one day in which our district was in charge and one day in which the local administration was running things.  I thought you might be interested in how we spent our first day on campus.  No?  Then think about it as how your hard earned and easily stolen  tax dollars are at work.

The morning was spent “building community”.  This means all kinds of activities that are designed to get us to share about ourselves and communicate with each other.  It was a nonstop series of ice-breakers.  At one point a room full of college graduates were crowded together bouncing balloons in the air.  There was one balloon for each adult.  If they touched the floor they were out of play.  We were then asked to share what we had learned by this activity.  I am proud of myself because I kept my mouth shut.

Then we each again took a balloon and popped it.  Inside was a piece of paper with a question on it.  We were then to find someone we didn’t know well and share the questions and answers.  My questions was, “Who do you look to as being an important influence on your life?  Why?”  Now my first response was, “Shouldn’t that be ‘whom’?”  I think I was the only one in the room that realized the illiterate nature of the typist. 

We also wrote what I think was called a “life poem” which had open ended statements that we were supposed to complete like “What I fear...” and the next one was “what I am afraid of....”  We also had a pair of questions, “What I dream....” and “What I want....”  Originality and creativity were not in the manual they got this out of.  (Yes, I know you are not supposed to finish a sentence with a preposition.)

The afternoon began with a speaker who was supposed to go 25 minutes and went an hour.  I guess we got more bang for our buck.  She was talking about children in Foster Care which was a timely topic but all she did was tells us we have a lot of them and they have issues.

We also spent time signing papers we sign every year about child abuse and emergency numbers.

All in all it was a waste of your tax money and my time.  I at least have the comfort that I got paid for the day.  For the lowest paid, first year teacher that came to $233 of your money.  As an old horse on the team I got even more.

Thank you.  188 days left.  Dig out your wallet.  Sorry, I temporarily forgot that they take it out of your check before you see it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-93: Tax Dollars at Work: Successful Failure

I have been wondering why certain students come to class every day and refuse to do any work.  They put no effort into passing.  Why? 

I did a little research.  Each of the students in question was failing two classes.  None are worried because our official district policy reads, “To be eligible to participate in promotion privileges..students must adhere to and maintain the following requirements:  No more than 2 F’s in the last reporting period.” 

They can fail two classes and still do all the fun stuff associated with the end of the year.  Is it an wonder that they have stopped working in two of their classes.

So what?  Someday these people will be the clerks behind the counter at the government agency that you need help from.  The way affirmative action is going and with the advent of Obamacare, one of them may be the doctor that tells you everything is fine.

Good luck.  I am old enough that all I will need to worry about is getting my bed pan changed.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-90: Tax Dollars at Work: Horatio Alger Is Back

It was presented as an inspirational story.  A young man was introduced as Captain _____.  He was presented as the youngest man to fly solo around the world and since that isn’t enough in our politically correct world, he was the first African-American to fly solo around the world.  The first was impressive.  The second is racist.

He did a good job in his presentation.  His parents came to the US from Jamaica but he portrayed a childhood lived in the hood.  He had no money but managed to get scholarships for a degree in aeronautical engineering and someone paid for his training as a pilot.  He decided he wanted to fly around the world, had no money and found a way to get people to sponsor him as he built an airplane and made the trip.  He is now traveling around the country working with school children in disadvantaged areas teaching them to dream and follow their dreams.  He claimed that he had kids building race cars from the ground up. 

Good stuff.  The problem is that we had wi-fi available at the meeting and the teacher in the row in front of me Googled the guy.

I did not read what he found.  I believe that everything the “Captain” told us was based on facts.  What was on the web-sight that he showed me was that little point of info that the speaking fee he charged ranged from $15,000 to 24,000.  That isn’t bad for a half hour presentation.  I would like to think that he came to speak to us for free but I am not naive.  At the beginning of his presentation he shared that he did a lot of deception and con work to get in to see his first benefactor.  I was under the impression when he was billed as “Captain” that he was in the Air Force.  Only slowly did I realize that was not true.  Add to that the fact that there was never any indication that he was being paid to speak.  I am not sure what was true and what was lies.

I’ll tell you what I do know.  We don’t have money for a librarian.  We don’t have money for new text books.  Our furniture is falling apart.  We have ceiling tiles falling in the hallways and floor tiles coming up.  In a world where we can’t supply the needs of the students our leaders somehow find money to pay a motivational speaker.

No we don’t need more money in education.  We need more common sense and honesty.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-64: Tax Dollars at Work: They Only Want to Keep Us Safe

Yesterday I had three men visit my room.  Two of them had clipboards.  They must have felt important.   They were checking the room for safety hazzards.  I am sure they will find some.  After all they need jobs and they want to keep us safe.

Each man is being paid to walk around schools with clipboards.  They will then file a report of things that need to be changed.  Then they will come back to see if we have complied.

I have no problem with safety.  I have a problem with priorities and politically motivated jobs.  We don’t have a librarian any more.  We have not had new text books in history for ten years.  Our desks are falling apart one at a time.  The list could go on.  We don’t have money to deal with what we need but we have money to pay three men to walk around and look for boxes piled too high or electric extension cords that are too long. 

We also are one custodian short.  Guess who the third man was:  Our head custodian.  He had work to do but he was escorting these men around.  I guess their clipboards did not come equipped with GPS.

I can’t wait to find out what I have to move or change.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-55: Tax Dollars at Work: No Skateboards Allowed

On my way to work I pass through our local downtown district.  I noticed that in their desire to keep us safe the Nanny State has been at work again.  We already spent tax dollars tearing out curbs and putting in wheel chair ramps.  Then we paid again as they went back and installed yellow bumps.  I guess these were for blind people in wheel chairs so they would know they were going out into the street.  Or maybe they were for sleeping wheel chair drivers to alert them to danger.  We have now found work for our idle cities workers by again updating the ramps.

I now notice spray painting that states very clearly “Bicycles and skate boards are not allowed”.  I am sure that people on wheels will look at that.  I know when I am on a bicycle I always stop and read signs printed on the ground.  It is good to know we have so much money to spare.  I expect the next update will expand the signs to announce that wheel chair ramps are gun free zones.  Or maybe they will label them “Car free zones”.

I wish our city would put up signs saying, “Fool Free Zone”.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-25: Tax Dollars at Work: Pedal Politics

They are taking away your liberty, one lane at a time.

It is typical Progressive Creep.  First they post the signs and pick a few lanes to confiscate in areas where no one will notice.  Have you seen them yet?  There are places where you have a four lane road and the two outer lanes have signs posted saying that it is okay for bicycles to use those lanes.  That means that in rush hour half of the driving surface can be blocked by a few people in spandex and aerodynamic helmets.  It is here and coming to a street near you.

When the frogs don’t jump out of the warm water it is turned it up another notch and before you know it we are all on buses or riding bikes.  If the Progressives and environmentalists (redundant, I know) can make driving so difficult we take the bus they will have succeeded in taking away the freedom of choice that mobility gives us.  Then we can all shop at the government co-op.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-422: Tax Dollars at Work: A Slice of the Pie

I have not seen it in print yet but the radio was reporting a new scandal involving Marco Rubio.  It seems that when he was a younger politician he may have misusing a government credit card.  I expect it might become a popular theme.  We will see.

Rubio is not high on my list but I am not sure if this is really a big issue.  It isn’t that using tax money for personal benefit isn’t wrong.  It is.  The problem is that our government class is so corrupt that we can put this in the “everyone is doing it” file.

For instance, as I was listening to this on the radio I noticed a car driving beside me.  On the door was the proud seal of the City of Los Angeles.  Below it was the identification of“Public Utilities”.  We were at least three cities away from the boundary of Los Angeles.  There is no way that a city employee of Public Utilities would be out here unless he was simply using a government car to drive home.  Illegal?  Probably.  Common?  Definitely. 

Corruption is more than congressmen passing lucrative contracts to their friends and cronies.  It is also the guy at the bottom getting his slice.  It is too common.  It is still wrong.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-195: Tax Dollars at Work: Retirement Fund Slight of Hand

I have not hear much lately about concern for funding of retirement for public employee union members.  Let me share with you how California is going to deal with it.  The information below is from the Winter 2014 CALSTRS Connection, a quarterly newsletter about the California teachers’ retirement system.

The headline on page 11 presents a typical Progressive “Tax the rich” scenario.  It reads in bold print,

“2014 Funding Plan Increases Employer Contribution Rate by 10.85 Percent”

Who could have a problem with that?  The greedy employers will pay the cost.  The small print says this will close the $74 billion gap over the next 32 years.  We are told that “Under the plan, employers will pay the biggest share.”  The mindless mass cheer and applaud.  Wasn’t that easy?

Not so fast.  First of all, where will the employers (school districts) get the money?  From the tax payers, of course.  That mean you, and you, and you if you live in California.  Tax increase anyone?  But the math gets even better.  Notice that the headline mentions a 10.85 percent increase.  To most people that means that if you are paying $100 now it will become $110.85.  Simple math, but not the way they teach it in public schools today.  In the small print it tells you that the old rate of 8.25% that employers paid would gradually increase to 19.1%.  The way most people think this is an increase of 131%.  Do you see the slight of hand.  Technically they are correct but they are making people feel a false comfort, deliberately.

The slight of hand doesn’t stop there.  For those who thought the employer would pay it all, there is a little surprise higher on the page under “Member contributions”.  In that paragraph that is easy to miss as you celebrate socking it to the greedy school districts (aka tax payers) it says that the member will be increasing their payout by 2.25 percentage points.  They don’t give the starting numbers but I am estimating that is an increase of about 25%.

And to complete the package in one sentence it says the state contribution will be increased from 5.541 to 8.828%.  I will let you do the math.  And remember that the money the employers are paying is coming from the state.  And remember that the money the state has comes from the tax payers.

So the solution is there for you to see in California. 

The biggest losers will again be the tax payers.  As a public school teacher, I thank you.  As a citizen, I beg you to wake up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-131: Tax Dollars at Work: It’s for the Children

And the veterans.

And the homeless.

And anyone else looking for an excuse to spend your money.

Have you ever stopped to observe how many of the billboards that bombard you every day are paid for with tax money?  It is hidden behind fancy websites and heart warming names, but most of the appeals you see for children and such are paid for with money appropriated by amendments to federal legislation.  It is a form of bribery or crony capitalism.

Take a look at who is sponsoring these ads.  If you don’t recognize the name of the organization as a company it is either a non-profit that is tax exempt or a front for a government group.  Either way you are paying for it.  If the project was something that people really cared about they would use their own money or find citizens to donate personally to support them.  Since it isn’t they hit up a politician to spring some tax money for their great idea.

Enjoy.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-120: On the Street: Numbers Can Lie

I was driving so I may have the numbers wrong but they are close enough to ask some questions.

The two numbers on the giant billboard were 62,300 and 9,100 and underneath the numbers were the words “prison” and “school” respectively.  I think the statement had to do with the cost of one inmate in each institution for a year.  It did not explain what they were proposing.  It just had the numbers.

Did they want to spend less keeping criminals locked up or more keeping children locked up?  Maybe the opposite?  I have been around enough of these people to guess where they are going.  They believe that if we will spend more money on education we will not need to spend so much on prisons.  This is one of many Marie Antoinette moments that Progressives have.  She is reported to have responded to the poor people complaining about a lack of bread, “Then let them eat cake.”  The point is that she was totally out of contact with the world most people lived in.

More money will not solve the problems in education.  Let me make a comparison.  I am a messy.  I do not see mess unless I trip or it is pointed out to me.  Then I quickly forget.  After all, there are always more things to pile higher, right?  You can buy me all the brooms and storage containers you want.  It will just add to the clutter.  You need to change me.

There is no indication that more money improves the product of education.  You can pay for parents to go to parenting classes.  It won’t do any good unless they spend less time at the spa or shopping.  You can buy more technology but technology is part of the problem.  We don’t need more people who can use technology.  We need more people who can design it. 

There are many sources of the problems in crime and education.  There will be no solutions without holding people accountable for their behavior.  The problem for the Progressives is that if people take responsibility for their actions and learn to think, there is no more need for Progressives.  Informed, responsible people are not easy to lead and manipulate.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-289: Tax Dollars at Work: “Get Dirty....”

When I first saw the big print I thought is was an advertisement for a new TV series on female mud wrestling or something.  Then I read the smaller print...

“...for the Drought”

It is a good thing I did not Google it.  I shudder to think of all the porn sights that would come up.

This is the response of the Progressives of Kalifornia (aka Democrats, liberals, socialists, elites, Rinos, extreme environmentalists) to the California routine called “drought.”  They want us to stop washing our cars.  That in itself is no big deal but when they keep extending this to other areas of life it will eventually get to areas that effect sanitation and public health.

Instead of looking for solutions they look for drama.

This suggestions points out how out of contact these Progressives are with the common people.  They obviously have never been responsible for washing a car.  They probably have their servants, who are illegal aliens usually, take care of mundane tasks like that.  Those of us who work for a living know that the best way to make it rain is to wash your car.  By not washing our cars we are insuring the continuation of the drought. 

Or maybe they do know that and don’t really want the drought to end.  After all, a crisis gives them more excuses to take our liberties.  For out own good, of course.

For me this campaign of “Get Dirty” is a good excuse to do what I do anyway:  not wash my car.  I joined the campaign years ago.  Not only do I save water, I save money and time too.  It makes my car the last one to be stolen.  It makes it convenient for friends to leave messages by writing on my windows.

It is another great idea of the left.  Paid for with your tax dollars.  Meanwhile the school across from me has installed new grass, a new sprinkler system and timers.  If you get up early enough you can see them doing what we are told not to do:  watering their lawn. 

More of my tax dollars at work.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-249: Headlines: A Perfect Example of Media Bias

If I didn’t know better, I would think this was news.

“Eric Holder Jr., the nation's first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and 5 1/2 years of fights with Republicans in Congress.”

Having a memory that extends beyond my last tweet, I recognize it for baloney, not news.  Consider the source, NPR News.

This is a perfect example of media bias.  When one of the worst Attorney General’s of all time is about to move on to the gravy machine of being a lobbyist, he is hailed as a paragon of virtue and integrity.  This is how the partisan hack and race baiter is lauded for his response to the recent police action against a violent, drugged suspected robber.

“Five years later, violence erupted between police and protesters in Ferguson, Mo., after a white policeman killed an unarmed black 18-year-old. And this time, the White House dispatched Holder to speak his piece, in effect jump-starting that conversation and helping to settle nerves in the frayed community.”

And in regard to his “civil rights advances” we read,

“Holder most wants to be remembered for his record on civil rights: refusing to defend a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman; suing North Carolina and Texas over voting restrictions that disproportionately affect minorities and the elderly; launching 20 investigations of abuses by local police departments; and using his bully pulpit to lobby Congress to reduce prison sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. Many of those sentences disproportionately hurt minority communities.”

We don’t read about the repeated coverups and uses of his office to advance the Obama vision.  We don’t have a long description of Fast and Furious.  We are told he is noble, principled and the victim of those nasty Republicans.

Unfortunately this is not a humor magazine.  This is NPR, paid for by your tax money.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-231: Tax Dollars at Work: We Are All Leaders Now

We had our bi-weekly faculty meeting on Monday and I am again ready to retire.  Give me a few hours with the students and I am ready to go again but two hours with politically correct ignorance is about all I can take.

We are getting another new mantra.  Common Core Curriculum is not enough.  There is a book out that we are going to be reading at these Monday meetings that has a title of The Leader in Me.  I know because the principal copied the first chapter and passed it out for us to read.  I assume that was illegal but we are educators so it must be okay.  She says she is going to buy the books for us.

Cool.  The only problem is that after reading the first chapter I know it is just another rehash of a failed concept:  We are all wonderful and we are all capable of greatness.  In fact I think those words were actually used about us all being capable of greatness.

On reflection the premise of the book is so foolish that we are afraid to point it out.  What could be more obvious than the reality that we all cannot be leaders and we are all not destined for greatness.  Can most of us improve?  Yes.  Will we?  That is the big maybe.

So now in addition to trying to figure out what the jargon of Common Core Curriculum means and trying to get my job of teaching done in spite of it, I will be expected to find ways to allow the students to be leaders.  What this seems to mean is that they need to feel good about themselves.

The high point of foolishness for me sums up the atmosphere in education.  One teacher was sharing about a student who suddenly exclaimed, “At last.  I understand math.”  That seemed a great moment but the teacher continued, “She doesn’t, but she thinks she does.”  Everyone was happy that she was happy and ignored the endorsement of ignorance.

Someday you may be forbidden from firing that student because of laws enforcing social justice.

It is getting harder to distinguish the inmates from the therapists.

homo unius libri