Couple of things
- Say what you want about Mark Myers, the man knows how to promote his web site.
- Jim Whitehead skips out on another debate, though Atlanta blogger Shelby posed as a chicken in his place. Also, for what it's worth, I don't agree with Nate Pulliam's assessment that a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq will hurt troop morale. I think the seemingly endless fighting away from their loved ones is doing a good job of that.
- Walking, eh?
- I'm doing my talking on Global Warming and Christian Stewardship tonight at First Baptist Church of Athens. It's the summer Wednesday Night Supper series, so we'll see how that goes. I'll probably speak at 6 p.m. or so.
- Adrian's got something on bus drivers getting 'harassed' by UGA police. I don't think they're being harassed at all. While it's arguably an inconvenience, if the driver is doing something which does indeed violate the law, then the officer is well within his or her jurisdiction to cite them for that. Throwing out the phrase 'proverbial bad apples' is too loaded for me since, again, we're talking about an actual violation which has an inconvenient result.
- It's rare that I've ever seen a community that wants to not just disparage its schools, but openly humiliate them. It's more than merely depressing, it's damn near infuriating. And the clincher in the criticism of the Clarke County School District is that it stems from folks who don't send their children there. The number of times I see a letter from someone who lives in Oconee County or Madison County poormouthing Clarke County's schools or hear from someone who has sent their child to private school their entire lives how 'awful' the school are here is too many to count. It's one thing to have experienced a school in some capacity and hold a position on its viability, but it's another to be removed from the situation and possess such an open animosity.
- Flack over at Tondee's Tavern has a way to donate to James Marlow's campaign for those who are interested. And he also had some kind words for me, of which I am most appreciative. Check out his blog too ... if you like progressive-like politics in Georgia.
- As an aside, I officially said that I backed Marlow.
- For some reason, Ed, Matt and I watched Game Three of the NBA Finals last night and got irrationally involved in it. That said ... Lebron was totally fouled on his final shot attempt. That said ... as absurdly talented as he is, until Cleveland gets him someone who can bail him out when he's double- (or triple-)covered, the Cavs aren't going anywhere.
- Jim Whitehead skips out on another debate, though Atlanta blogger Shelby posed as a chicken in his place. Also, for what it's worth, I don't agree with Nate Pulliam's assessment that a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces in Iraq will hurt troop morale. I think the seemingly endless fighting away from their loved ones is doing a good job of that.
- Walking, eh?
- I'm doing my talking on Global Warming and Christian Stewardship tonight at First Baptist Church of Athens. It's the summer Wednesday Night Supper series, so we'll see how that goes. I'll probably speak at 6 p.m. or so.
- Adrian's got something on bus drivers getting 'harassed' by UGA police. I don't think they're being harassed at all. While it's arguably an inconvenience, if the driver is doing something which does indeed violate the law, then the officer is well within his or her jurisdiction to cite them for that. Throwing out the phrase 'proverbial bad apples' is too loaded for me since, again, we're talking about an actual violation which has an inconvenient result.
- It's rare that I've ever seen a community that wants to not just disparage its schools, but openly humiliate them. It's more than merely depressing, it's damn near infuriating. And the clincher in the criticism of the Clarke County School District is that it stems from folks who don't send their children there. The number of times I see a letter from someone who lives in Oconee County or Madison County poormouthing Clarke County's schools or hear from someone who has sent their child to private school their entire lives how 'awful' the school are here is too many to count. It's one thing to have experienced a school in some capacity and hold a position on its viability, but it's another to be removed from the situation and possess such an open animosity.
- Flack over at Tondee's Tavern has a way to donate to James Marlow's campaign for those who are interested. And he also had some kind words for me, of which I am most appreciative. Check out his blog too ... if you like progressive-like politics in Georgia.
- As an aside, I officially said that I backed Marlow.
- For some reason, Ed, Matt and I watched Game Three of the NBA Finals last night and got irrationally involved in it. That said ... Lebron was totally fouled on his final shot attempt. That said ... as absurdly talented as he is, until Cleveland gets him someone who can bail him out when he's double- (or triple-)covered, the Cavs aren't going anywhere.
posted by Jmac at 7:13 AM
5 Comments:
Wait, do you know Mr. Kassay personally or something? I don't see anything objectionable to his letter, unless the facts just don't match his analogy. But his basic point--that # of AP students is not the best or most reliable measure of how well a school is doing--seems fair enough to me. Where's all this coming from about complaints from outside the school system, etc.? His letter doesn't mention anything about that, does it? Maybe you just needed to vent a little, which I can understand if that's the deal.
As for ppl who don't utilize the gov't school system but who still see fit to criticize it, maybe this is b/c a good number of them had experiences with it at an earlier time. There is usually a reason, after all, why people choose to go elsewhere when the gov't system is "free."
No, I've never met the man.
Even with this criticism of the rankings, it seems as if folks are going out of their way to say how bad the schools are here (which I disagree with). I just have to wonder if the same had been said for any of the other schools in the area, if the criticism would be leveled.
I think there's this unfortunate stigma around the Clarke County School District and, as a result, some individuals feel the need to openly disparage the schools ... and, in times when they are honored for something, it seems there are some who have to knock them down.
Regarding your final point, I can concede that. But I think you're arguing more about the actual concept of public education rather than individual school districts. How things worked in, say, Augusta-Richmond County, don't necessarily translate to Athens-Clarke County or Oconee County or Jackson County or wherever.
Yes, your last point is true. You weren't talking about criticism of government-run education in general, but about those who question a particular school district for whatever reason. Point taken.
Regardless of where you were educated Johnathan I have to point out that somewhere you were failed by the education system in this country if you voluntarily sat down and watched the NBA Finals.
JMac, the false citation in 2004 for failure to yield was sheer harassment. Blocking traffic and interrupting an entire bus route to write a warning for high beams in the broad daylight is entirely unnecessary. With your kind of callous disregard for the practicalities and blind worship of rules for rules' sake, I hope that you get stopped for having a tag light out, for violating stop line markings, and for going 60 in a 55 because, buddy, we all make technical violations, and most police officers exercise the sound judgment to focus on dangerous violations.
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