Virginia Beach Tax Hike

While I'm happy that the city has decided to raise one of their taxes to help fix the budget deficit for their schools, I'm not really thrilled with the explanation given by a spokesperson. He says that teachers should be thrilled because it will save the jobs that were held by teachers who were given pink slips. Here's why I'm upset:

They did this last year. They fired all their new teachers, found more money and rehired some of the teachers back--at the first year rate again. So if you work for VA Beach schools, you can be a first year teacher for three or more years in a row. I wish that I could say that this time they'll just revoke all the pink slips and hand them out again so that no body loses what they deserve (because some teachers will stay fired), but I'm not stupid.

On School Uniforms

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last week about whether school uniforms should be mandatory. Her main argument is that clothes are a form of expression and using her sister's dissertation on the subject, said that if kids can't self express with clothing, then they will express in other, more dangerous, ways (drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc). I believe that the safety issue trumps any kind of self expression, especially when there are other forms of expression available to students.

I argue that the most important aspect of school uniforms is that they are totally uniform: from the same brand and style of shirt and pants right down to the socks and shoes. For safety's sake, I believe that clothing must fit. But I couldn't care less about style. So I offer this compromise: students are issued their uniforms and then are free to express themselves as they wish with them. They may not add bandannas or other gang related paraphernalia, but if they want to cut off sleeves or pant legs, feel free. If someone really cares enough about their gang to bedazzle the sign on the back of their blazer, they can go for it.

But not all kids care to express themselves with clothes, which is why I'm such a proponent for the arts in schools--music, physical education/sports teams, drama, you name it. Heck, even a sewing club. Then there are the students who express themselves with academics.

I believe in well rounded students, but there are some things that an individual will just love and excel at and I think we need to start focusing our education system on finding these things and feeding them in a productive manner.

Interesting...

So. The great debate between conservatives and liberals over education continues. Actually, I myself find this article to be quite revealing. I never realized that conservatives don't particularly like TJ, but I guess that's only a certain subset. Also, I'm thinking of trying to win that $1000 for charity (maybe for planned parenthood?) because if I remember correctly, the 1st amendment says that there will be no establishment of a religion, which also means that there can be no one religion over any other. SO, if this is a "country under god" that also includes Allah and Zeus. And Christianity isn't a religion, so we can't just say that we're a christian country--sorry peeps, but you can't choose an arbitrary subset as a religion--religions have doctrines and as Westboro Baptist Church illustrates, not even the Baptists can agree on what their religion is supposed to be.

But I'm tired...I'm not even sure how much sense this blurb of mine makes. In any case, it sure doesn't make sense to me that when one party/group makes a decision on content that the story becomes "more balanced"--I don't like being told what I believe--they always screw it up.

Finally. An excellent idea.

 I just read this article and I'm quite impressed.

By the way, my 10th grade class (gosh, 5 years ago) also agreed with me when I mentioned that this is how high school is run in many other countries.