ARTICLE IN WASH POST ON UDC

OK, so out of 150 students a year, only 7 or 8 graduate. Not so bad, right? WRONG. How ridiculous did ANYONE find that article on the only public university in the Nation's Capital? Why is it still in business? For "nontraditional students"? What are nontraditional students? Iguanas, 90 year olds? According to the article, "...many cannot pass a national standardized test of basic high school level reading, writing, and math skills..." WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING IN COLLEGE THEN? Aw, they deserve it, is that it? Because they are alive and breathing, not because they bothered to learn anything in high school, or even in college for that matter. I cannot take credit for this quote, but when this was being discussed around my school and at home, this thought arose: How are you going to be a teacher if you can't learn???????

I get truly sickened by the thought that actual institutions exist as "edifices of higher learning" when in effect, they are no more than pretend places where people can go who did not bother to attain real skills or knowledge, but still claim that they are worthy of a college degree. And the esteemed councilman Marion Barry is totally for this. Let us keep on pretending that these students are learning, pretending that they are in a real, honest-to-God college, and pretending that they deserve to get jobs based on this pretend education. But God forbid we should give them a standardized test where they are put up against others across the nation in other colleges. Oh now the test is racist? Is it going to be that every single time a person from any minority cannot measure up to a "standard" that the standard is racist?

Police

The police get some really bad press, and consequently many people feel that all police are corrupt. Well, some people do. Especially teenagers. Why is that? The seven police officers at my school today (for a career fair) are all dressed appropriately, are pleasant and interactive with the people who are pleasant and interactive with them, and have given out a great deal of information to the students who have spoken with them. Let's see - if we paid you a wage that is solidly at the low-end of the middle class pay range, required you to work many shifts with changing hours, asked you to put your life at risk potentially every day, and had you interact with most of the worst elements of society in general, would you ever seem the slightest bit aggravated? Or cocky? There are bad police officers, just as there are bad teachers, and bad civil service officials, and bad postal clerks, and bad sales people. What we should focus on is not permitting "bad" behavior in any sector of our society - lying, stealing, disrespecting authority, obeying the law, not having a work ethic, not being responsible, and feeling that everything is owed to you. So, my thought is: if the professional athletes can act any way they want, and actors and rap stars can say anything, then here's to you law enforcement - go ahead - call any teenager "punk" that you want.

More of the same...

As if railing about spelling were not enough ranting for one day, I find out that one particular high school is basically promising kids that they can "do anything" no matter what it is. No basis in reality, no going over the students' records and being honest about what might be a good career pathway, none of that. Just "you are college material"...So what is college material exactly? Is it being able to escape fights in the hallway, is it holding your waste products until you are home because the bathrooms are so disgusting and unsightly and the custodians are too overworked to actually handle these issues HOURLY? Is it making an "Outstanding" on your Senior Project just because you basically showed up to do it and spent a good solid 20 hours or so putting it together, despite the fact that you had an entire year of class to do it? Is it taking an "Intensified" class and having to do crossword puzzles in that class for actual grade credit? When will school administrations realize that they do no employers or the American work force or the American economy favors when they just pass students who cannot read, write, or function in a system that has rules? But surely the answer will be to have more focus groups and committees to address this.

Where the hell has spelling gone?

OK, my question of the day is this - where the hell has spelling gone? Why does NO ONE seem to care how to spell anything? There is a screwball system in place in English curricula that emphasizes "whole language" which means that anyone can write anything in any style with any type of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and as long as it is "from themselves" it is OK. So "I'm OK, You're OK" has been made into a lifestyle. No matter how little you learned in school, no matter your ability to communicate in writing at a third grade level, you are perfectly OK and do not need to change. Every single night on the news, there is a headline or a tagline that is misspelled - last night on Channel 9 there was a headline that was "Cuting Corners" - what is cuting anyway? The act of making yourself cute? It is not that I mind people making mistakes (ha) but the fact that they seem to symbolically roll around in them as if it is their God-given right to screw up and they are immensely proud of it. Which means that maybe my next post should be "Where the hell has humility gone?"

Sorry about the name...

The problem with choosing your "own format" in outlets such as these is that many sensible, albeit unique monikers are taken so you are stuck thinking of something outrageous which will provoke responses from simple agreement to downright hatred. As for mine, I choose my birthplace, from which I am now somewhat divorced, and a wish of mine - to be thought of as someone who pursues the ideal of intellectualism. I do not presume to say that I have attained it, far be it, but I do believe one should work towards a goal, and that is mine. I would like to be thought of, remembered, as someone who tried to learn as much as they could in the time given me.