Over the weekend we were taking advantage of a time share presentation to get away for a week end. No, we did not buy. No, I feel no guilt. They keep inviting us and if the deal is good enough we will go and enjoy ourselves. It is a challenge to see how many ways the sales people can spin the facts to try to convince us that we cannot live without this offer.
One of the benefits for my wife is cable TV. We are too cheap to have it at home but she likes to watch certain things while away. She was watching a program that has people bring in the antiques from around their house and find out what they are worth. Sometimes they will make an offer for the object. It sounds a lot like a time share presentation to me, but I digress.
One of the situations this time had a bride-to-be bringing in a family heirloom. If I got the story right it was an old mandolin that had belonged to her grandmother. It turned out that it was one of the few that were really valuable so they made her an offer that she could not refuse. I would not have sold it but I could see her deceased grandmother being willing to contribute to a wedding celebration, so I could live with that.
Unfortunately it did not end there. The future bride was so euphoric about the money that she did what so many of this in-debt generation did. She decided to celebrate. Who knows how much of her inheritance she squandered on drinks and appetizers.
I want to urge you to vote “no” on any increased money for education. My reason is that education acts just like this bride-to-be. It is possible that a small amount of the increased funds might go to actually make education better but the vast amount of the funds is wasted on “celebrations.” Those celebrations take many forms from hiring attendance counselors to buying curriculum on bullying to field trips.
I am a public school teacher. We just lost our librarian, which means our library is just empty space. We still have a speech therapist, a school psychologist, on campus counseling services, truancy counselors, special education aids who do little but sit in class and watch, assistant superintendents who do little but push the latest cool programs and schools that are kept open in spite of reduced enrollment.
The need is not more money but wiser spending.
homo unius libri
Glad I'm not working at your school as I would have been out of a job. It's estimated than only 7% of school in South Africa have fully functional library. When it comes to cost cutting and "saving", the library is the first to go.
ReplyDeleteEver notice, too, how phys-ed gets dropped but not ball teams? Librarians, but not "humanities" teachers?
ReplyDeleteOur city has seven public libraries that the kids could use but they don't. I went to school in this district. Then it was one of the best in the country. Now it is at the other end.
ReplyDeletePriorities tend to line the pockets of the powerful.
Grace and peace.
Georges, Be careful, I am under the title of "humanities" teacher. I prefer "History" teacher but that would mean that I am aware of the past instead of being consumed with self-esteem.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes, I have noticed.
I am playing with new technology so these comments are not coming out where they should.
Grace and peace.