Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
It’s time to go back to school, and Neal Boortz is indulging in his annual tirade about “government schools.” Read first, then form your opinion.
The government teacher steps in front of her virtual hostages and promptly delivers the first raw lesson in the power of government: She instructs her students to bring all of their precious new school supplies to the front of the classroom and put them into a huge box.
Wait just a minute here! Why am I putting my stuff into that box? My daddy took me to Wal-Mart and bought that stuff for me! It’s mine! You can’t take it away from me!
Oh, yeah?
As your child sits in stunned silence, the teacher tells him and his classmates that these supplies now belong to all of the class. What was once private property has been seized and transformed into community property, courtesy of the teacher’s demands—demands that amount to a government mandate. There is no due process. No rule of law. After all, in school the teacher is the law. Your child’s supplies are now everybody’s supplies, and the teacher has assumed the responsibility of distributing them as needed.
I dunno about this, personally. I’ve been looking for evidence on it, and every now and then Boortz comes up with a specimen or two…it’s certainly not a widespread event.
I’ll tell you what does get under my skin, though. The time-honored tradition of the school “assembly.” I’d say it makes sense if you have a celebrity or public figure visiting the school, and you want everyone to be able to listen to what the guest has to say. Other than that — pure communism.
What’s happening here is a continuation of that sad event that takes place in first or second grade in which the teacher steps up to the head of a small classroom, and asks a question beginning with “let’s see a show of hands, how many…” — and heads start swiveling around. The kids want to see if everyone else is raising their hands.
As the years roll by, our schools should be working to put that phenomenon into a state of decline.
The “school assembly” or “pep rally,” call it what you will, is an event that exists for the purpose of perpetuating it. Look around, see what everyone else is doing, to figure out if you should or should not be doing it. It makes all five hundred of you so much easier to manage, that way.
It is inherently un-American, and any school administrator who works to make the problem worse ought to be fired. And then shipped out of the country. I mean it. It’s got nothing to do with anything that made this country any better, and everything to do with what’s made it worse.
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I dunno about this, personally. I’ve been looking for evidence on it, and every now and then Boortz comes up with a specimen or two…it’s certainly not a widespread event.
I can tell you its absolutely happening in our public school district. I’d probably lose my mind if this happened to my kids. Thankfully they’re not in government schools (though it is bankrupting me to keep them out of them).
- Duffy | 08/11/2008 @ 13:10And you’re in the first state.
Disgusting. This whole charade could use some more publicity.
- mkfreeberg | 08/11/2008 @ 16:28“Don’t make waves. What’s the big deal? It’s only pencils…”
The women (friends of my wife) were annoyed they had labeled everything only to have them seized. The seizing part didn’t bother them. Just that they had wasted their time labeling everything for their kids.
- Duffy | 08/12/2008 @ 10:24I remember the last school assembly we had when I was in 6th grade. My class was on benches in the back of the hall. Another class of 6th graders was seated behind a group of 2nd graders, and those seven year olds were fidgeting something fierce.
Every now and then a girl name of Beverly would tell a teacher about a younger child’s behavior. The teacher would assure Beverly that it would be taken care of, then get the 2nd grader to settle down. This went on until the assembly started.
We got through it with no major casualties, then our principal asked if anybody could explain why we have school assemblies. We heard the usual justifications, and then one of my classmates, a boy by the name of Nathan, stood up and said, “I think we should have school assemblies because it gives Beverly an opportunity to bitch.”
There was a 15 minute standing ovation.
- mythusmage | 08/13/2008 @ 05:51