Quote of the Day
He who holds hopes for the human condition is a fool.
Albert Camus
Jeanine Pirro For Ticketing Doughnut Eaters in NYC: Thumbs DOWN!
A constant theme during the history of this blog is the principle of generality under the rule of law; we have seen 2000-page plus regulatory empire-building during the 111th Congress. We have misleading, arcane exceptions, the heart and soul of crony capitalism. Ever since the partisan passage of ObamaCare, we have seen hundreds of companies apply for exemption, based on the arbitrary decision of some unaccountable federal bureaucrat serving under an anti-business administration. The same type of arbitrariness can occur at the local level where a police officer can decide to apply the white-glove treatment referencing a large inventory of dubious-merit, unknown Big Nanny rules and regulations to which "ignorance of the law is no excuse". Enough of Big Government playing gotcha games: even assuming there is merit to restricting adult access to playgrounds, there are ways to handle that fairly, e.g., prominently posted, highly legible notices on the seats or backs of playground benches and equipment.
When I mentioned two young ladies getting ticketed for getting caught eating doughnuts sitting on a bench in a playground across the street last Monday, I didn't expect to see a random story I initially read in the process of doing background on a different story would actually be featured in a Fox Report segment today. The former prosecutor, judge, and losing GOP nominee for New York Attorney General made short law-and-order analysis of the situation, noting there are posted rules: one of the rules is no adult in the park without a child. Case closed. Move on.
Let me quote one of the women in question (the newspaper headline was 'we were treated like child molesters':
When the cop that was guarding us asked if we had ever gotten summonses before, I asked him if he could show me the sign that alerted people to the fact that they were about to commit a violation by sitting on a bench. ‘We looked at the sign together. "That? I’m supposed to read that?" I asked. He said yes. ‘It was a list of about fifteen park regulations. You would have to be no more than three feet away from it in order to read it.’ ‘However, it just seemed so ridiculous, such a blind application of the law. It was clear that they were just quota filling, which is not such a new story in this city.
I think this is typical progressive Big Nanny run amok, probably some dubious attempt to control against pedophiles, kidnappers, etc. But this law is blatantly unreasonable and presumptuous; I could probably come up with a million examples, but I'll mention just one. The last time I visited my folks, I accompanied my dad, whom has arthritic knees and had to run an errand at the local base exchange. There were interim benches on the way from the nearest available parking spot, and he stopped at each one to rest. If this is a public park, supported by my tax dollars, and my Dad was resting, I would challenge any attempt to enforce such an arbitrary law. (Or say, I'm walking with my girlfriend, and she wants me to push her on an available swing: what's the problem?)
But for Ms. Pirro, whom I prematurely praised in yesterday's post as a FNC contributor, to argue that when we enter an unfamiliar park, we have a responsibility first to go search around the playground to see if there are any obscurely situated, unreadable posted rules (and read all 15 of them--no doubt the cops bust those kids standing on swings all the time just as vigilantly as they interrupt couples eating doughnuts on park benches)--is absolutely ludicrous, rules-for-the-sake-of-arbitrary-rules, mindless, pretentious law-and-order nonsense. If cops lack common sense and can't distinguish between, say, some creep loitering in the area and grown adults at a park bench minding their own business, they need to find another profession. (Besides, I would like to see the statistics showing just how many relevant crimes have been averted by ticketing doughnut eaters... Unless NYPD Blue is staffing the playgrounds 24 hours a day, what's to stop the loitering creep from waiting out the police? Isn't it better simply to have adults at the playground report suspicious behavior?)
A Reprinted Teacher Tribute And A Commentary
This has been knocked around the Internet and via email for several years; I have seen an Australian version in 2006 via Google. I first saw it quoted on the Students First website (obviously by a teacher).
The anecdote is clearly anti-business, but how many people realize that the quote at its heart comes from the ardent socialist, George Bernard Shaw, not a capitalist?
George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman
Bob: I'm so discouraged. My writing teacher told me my novel is hopeless.
Jane: Don't listen to her, Bob. Remember: those who can, do; those who can't, teach.
The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?" To stress his point he said to another guest; "You're a teacher, Barbara . Be honest. What do you make?"
Barbara, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied,
"You want to know what I make?
(She paused for a second, then began...)
Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor winner.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents CAN'T make them sit for 5 without an iPod, Game Cube or movie rental.
You want to know what I make?
(She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)
I make kids wonder.
I make them question.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
I teach them to write and then I make them write. Keyboarding ISN'T EVERYTHING.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math. They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.
I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life
( Barbara paused one last time and then continued.)
Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant.
You want to know what I make?
I MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
What do you make Mr. CEO?"
His jaw dropped, he went silent.
Where do we start? First, the defensive morally self-superior teacher Barbara stands in judgment of parents, whom she brushes with a broad stroke, saying they don't know how to raise their own kids; this is a way of winning friends and influencing people?
Second, what does the CEO do? He and his employees, not to mention the business itself, pay taxes that support school costs (including teachers, materials, and infrastructure). If he doesn't know the needs and wants of his customers, market the right mix of goods and services and meet the challenges of the competition, if he does not develop his personnel (including grooming the right successor), the business could go bankrupt--leaving the government without revenues and many heads of households without jobs. He doesn't get the summer off, and he's probably working 80 hours a week. If a teacher makes a mistake, unless it is egregious (e.g., sexual misconduct), the school administration may find its hands tied with work rules; when a CEO makes a mistake, it can materially affect the livelihood of households or retirees (living off shareholder dividends). I'm not arguing that one profession is more worthy than another; I think the teacher in the anecdote can make her point without attacking parents or employers; Barbara is offended by other people judging what she does in her classroom, but she is engaging in precisely the same type behavior.
Nobody has a problem with the Barbara's in the education system, but the problem is that there are too many teachers like Bob's writing teacher, breaking a young person's spirit. Chances are, the Barbara's are politically aligned with Bob's writing teachers. We want to pay the Barbara's more (merit pay), and we want to deal with fundamental supply and demand issues like in the real world: if there is a shortage of decent math and science teachers, we need to do things like lower barriers to entry (e.g., allow retiring engineers to teach under accelerated programs) and/or pay math and science teachers more. If we want administrators or managers to be accountable, we must give them the authority to get things done and not be held hostage by arcane regulations (often negotiated between crony relationships between interest-conflicted politicians and self-interested teacher unions, disingenuously arguing they are putting students "first") that don't serve the needs of operational efficiency and effectiveness.
Let me be clear: teacher unions have never been for the students; the parents and students do not pay teacher union dues. The individual teachers are with the students. I'm sure that the Barbara's know whom the Bob's writing teachers of the school are, the teachers whom aren't as qualified in their subjects, don't push for the best in their students and are simply punching their time cards. The teacher unions use peer pressure to intimidate the Barbara's to agree to protections that serve only to protect the jobs of the mediocre teachers; the legitimate teacher does not fear objective measurements of his or her own performance.
We need to have a frank talk: nobody is forcing a teacher to socially pass an ill-performing or illiterate student to graduation. Nobody is forcing a teacher to hand out inflated grades. Don't tell me it's not happening--I taught multiple classes per semester for 8 years at the university level, the last 5 as a full-time professor. It's not just the fault of K-12 teachers; I've also had to deal with students not knowing course prerequisites, the responsibility of fellow professors. But I had to deal with students with bad study habits and discipline, unrealistic expectations (e.g., grades and requirements), and poor writing skills.
There are serious issues here that are inconvenient truths. Consider the recently published Academically Adrift; we have this choice finding: "Students…majoring in traditional liberal-arts fields…demonstrated significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study. Students majoring in business, education, social work , and communications had the lowest measurable gains."
Now it may sound as though I have an ax to grind against my former career; nothing could be further from the truth. I experienced things most teachers never see their whole careers, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I still teach but in different contexts, e.g., mentoring junior DBA's or software engineers. I had to fight to teach a course with my standards; I've had to battle administrators, peers and a few malcontent students along the way. These were not fights I wanted; I encountered them doing the right things for the sake of my students. Oddly enough, the students who loved me most seemed to be the foreign students (and we have middling student performance in comparison to other nations). I also have two beautiful, very bright, highly competent, motivated nieces teaching this fall in K-8 schools and one of my sisters is an educator/librarian (no, I did not inspire their career choice...)
I think in all things, whether it's software/database design or the raising of a child, mistakes made early in the development life cycle have larger-scale problems to correct once we see a general release, e.g., a productive member of society. Teachers are only responsible up to 8 hours a day, 180 days a year; parents are responsible the remaining time. Clearly we have parenting issues when an 11-year-old fifth grader breaks his teacher's nose and a towering male teen backs up a 64-year-old teacher against the wall, calling her a "f***ing c***"; teachers deserve respect and have a right to expect a safe working environment.
Revisionist History: The Deification of Che Guevara
I remember some time back watching some TV clip of an interviewer spotting a young woman wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt; when asked about what she knew about the revolutionary Guevara, she quickly admitted not knowing anything about him: she just thought the t-shirt looked cool. One might wonder--why would a libertarian-leaning (Cato) journalist question Guevara? After all, don't those of us whom lean libertarian question authoritarian regimes? Well, of course, we stand for the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property, not to mention due process considerations against majoritarian and/or communitarian abuses of power. We, of course, demand accountability for any government to the people (e.g., through the secret ballot). Che Guevara was part of the problem of the new autocratic regime: life (executions without due process--many of them personally by a zealous Guevara), liberty (political prisoners), and property (land redistribution). The reason why Che Guevara and other Cubans would refuse legitimate open (not manipulated) elections is self-evident. Those of us who demand respect for individual autonomy (so long as we similarly respect the autonomy of others) see no difference in tyranny, either from the left or the right.
Harmonic History: Part 1
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update:
The Hiroshima Syndrome blog notes:
- Friday update: The blogger talks about some misleading Japanese wire report suggesting that corium (melted fuel assembly rods) may have eaten its way through several inches of steel or cement of containment and says the report is not based on the Japanese government report submitted to the IAEA. There is discussion of filtering technology for allowing workers to do work in the plants and purifying seawater; other filtering technology, for the contaminated building waters, is being criticized for not being sufficiently earthquake-proof. He gives us the latest Hiroshima Syndrome synopsis: a Japanese writer all but calling Fukushima another Hiroshima; resistance to restarting functional nuclear power reactors (away from Daiichi); an anti-nuke report intentionally confounding Fukushima Daiichi and Chernobyl.
Political Humor
"President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have agreed to play a round of golf together. Imagine the two of them at the end of that golf game? Boehner will be crying over his score and Obama will be giving three explanations as to why his score is actually better than it appears." - Jay Leno
[Boehner asked Obama what his handicap was, and Obama mentioned his economics team.]
"I heard about a retirement home in California that’s growing its own medical marijuana. Or as the residents put it, 'Who wants to visit Grandma now, you whippersnappers?'" - Jimmy Fallon
[Well, I understand they've been swamped with offers by teenage boys offering to cut the grass for free.]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Chicago/Peter Cetera, "The Glory of Love" (live). One of my all-time favorites...
