Posted on 05/04/2003 7:49:47 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
Just before going to bed tonight, as I kissed my oldest boy good night, he perked up and reminded me of the note his teacher had sent home on Friday. I assured him that I would read it, and tucked him in.
I knew that the note was about the upcoming School Book Fair, he attended his first one last year, and it was a great experience for him. It was the first time he was trusted with money to spend all on his own.
He is a First grader with Third Grade reading skills, I was an avid reader as a kid, and every time I see him sitting with a book on his lap, I feel like I'm walking on air.
I went downstairs and looked for the note, I wanted to see what was expected of him, and how payment for the books would be handled.
I have copied the note word by word below, the note written, and sent home, by the person who is teaching my boy to read and write.
I have left the particulars out for obvious reasons.
I am sending the note to Tallahassee, and asking for this teacher's removal.
The Banana Republican
P.O. Box 0001
Banana Republic of Florida.....11110
"He turned in a great figurine of Condi Rice."
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LOL!! Reminds me of an incident I had with a black social worker..in a hospital that I worked at. She was lamenting the lack of good black "role models" that weren't sports stars. I mentioned Clarence Thomas, Thomas Soule..hehehe. If looks could kill...I wouldn't be typing this right now. LOL!!
Would have liked to see the teachers face when your child handed Condi's likeness in...!!
FRegards,
"You have a real problem with anger and control if you seek to remove a person from her profession simply because you don't like the sentence structure of that little note. "
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I fired a plumber once...because he couldn't/wouldn't solder correctly. This guy's profession was " P L U M B I N G " and he couldn't DO IT!! Yeah....that kind of ticked me off.....lol!!
Your sarcasm tag?
Go forth, Luis, and do battle..... and plan for a long term engagement. You already know what to watch for... it's simply how the stupidity will manifest itself that is in question. One of my daughter's jr high assignments was to read the Gettysburg Address and look up and define all the words she didn't know. She had no idea of the historical timeframe of the Address, didn't know what it was about or what it's purpose was.
The most useful thing I ever said, in all my daughter's years of public school was "You need more help. I am going to quit my day job and come down here every day and help you." They turned pale, and were much more cooperative.
Private schools are much better; I am sure homeschooling can be wonderful - but they are not options for all of us.
Oh, and your English is very, very good.
* Edna Kleinmeyer who didn't just teach English: She imbued us with a love of language I carry to this day;
* Charlie Kluckholn, the tough old wrestling coach who taught chemistry and gave me some of the best advise I ever heard;
* Charles Huffman, my homeroom teacher who helped me over a very rough spot in my life;
* Franklin Jefferis, a "lowly" shop teacher, whose love of a job well done was wordlessly communicated to his kids in thousands of subtle ways. Mr. Jefferis died soon after I graduated. One October night, I “visited” him – alone -- at the funeral home and wept as I thanked him one last time.
But the current GS are radically different from the system through which I passed 50 years ago. Know that my concern and hostility are NOT directed at those who still TEACH -- really teach, really want the best EDUCATION for the kids, want to prepare them academically for the future.
Those feelings are reserved for SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS who have socialist/collectivist agendas or quietly acquiesce to the agendas imposed on them from above. They know that what is going on is wrong, but say nothing lest they jeopardize their careers. Author Thomas Sowell calls these folks "the anointed." And as the title of his book on the subject, "The Vision of The Anointed," indicates, they HAVE a vision! That it is NOT the PARENTS’ vision is of no concern to them.
When my kids were still in the GS, my wife and I were quite active. The Principal of their elementary school chose me to represent the school in something called the LSAC (Local School Advisory Committee) program. I attended several meetings held at the County Board of Education headquarters. I came away from the VERY FIRST of those meetings with these impressions:
1. Those folks DID NOT speak English. Through tight little smirks clearly indicative of the low esteem, indeed, contempt, they had for the uninformed and ignorant gaggle of parents arrayed before them, they spoke in buzz words and technobabble code only they comprehended. At one point -- to the visible relief of the other parents -- I stopped one woman’s presentation and asked for a translation of what she'd said. She was NOT pleased!
2. They DID NOT want parents involved! Cookie sales and PTA? OK. Serious criticism of a course or textbook? Verboten! Your option was private or parochial school. There very little home schooling then.
3. Most of these people MAY have once been educators. They were now bureaucrats guarding their turf.
4. Many of those administrative folks were making over $50K and, though I looked for signs of it, I saw little evidence of anything resembling “work.” And this was 20 years ago when the average classroom teacher earned less than $25K.
5. There were WAY too many administrators in the GS. It is a perfect opportunity to provide make-work sinecures for “anointed” members of the educational fraternity. Four years as an Air Force instructor taught me how to spot the signs.
Here’s the “bottom line:” Simply hurling more money into the black hole of the GS WILL NOT WORK. Most of that money will NEVER get to the classroom or into the pockets of DESERVING teachers who actually TEACH. And teach what any sensible human being – REGARDLESS of race, faith or ethnicity -- instinctively understands to be correct, morally defensible material.
Bush is right about one thing: We need accountability! Perhaps you recall Clinton’s asinine plan to send 100,000 PAID Americorps “volunteers” into the grade schools to TEACH KIDS TO READ. Why hadn’t their PREVIOUS teachers – OR THEIR PARENTS! -- taught them to perform that rather basic skill???
Think about what you just read as YOUR local government schools continue to raise YOUR property taxes.
Webster's dictionary entry #3 for glass is "the quantity held by a glass container". So your language usage would be literally correct if the vessel in question was vitreous, and close enough if made of something else.
As a general linguistic convention, though, a "[noun] [container]", as distinct from a "[container] of [noun]", refers to the container itself, and not the object or material it would generally contain.
It gets kind of complex and cool. When journalists use "Paris" when they actually mean the French government or "the Pentagon" to refer to the military leadership, it is case of metonymy. There are tons of interesting examples and it is quite intricate.
Indeed, there are many such metaphorical linguistic uses. One key aspect of them, though, is that they are shorter than the precise phrase they replace. On the other hand, to say one is out of tissue boxes is more verbose than saying one is out of tissues so it can hardly be a "shorthand". More significantly, the initial interpretation ("tissue boxes" refers to the containers themselves) is entirely reasonable until one reads further to discover why more tissues are needed.
The most important rule of good writing is communicate clearly. Upon first reading the teacher's letter, I was bewildered what she needed tissue boxes for. It took awhile to figure that what was needed was not boxes, but tissues. It's not pedantry to suggest that something which is unclear is not well-written.
I took the liberty of translating it into ebonics first.
Whut be a tissue box? To mah' mind, some tissue box be a cardbo'd container. Ah be baaad... Perhaps de problem ain't runnin' out uh boxes, but rada' runnin' out uh tissues.De head homeboy wuz usin' some type uh figurative language knode as some metonym where one doodad be used t'mean sump'n associated wid dat doodad. Example. You's gots invited me into yo' kitchen fo' some lemonade. It be baaaad lemonade. ah' drink it waaay down quickly. Slap mah fro! ah' ax' ya', "Can ah' have anoda' glass?" Do ya'...
A. Say, "Sho' man! Right on!" and pour me some mo'e lemonade.
B. Get out some new glass and hand it t'me.
C. Yell, "So's my glasses ain't clean enough fo' ya'! Right on! Get out, dawg! Right on!"
D. Say, "I know whut ya' mean, but ya' should gots ax'ed fo' some glass uh lemonade, not plum fo' anoda' glass." To which ah' would cut ya' lecture on metonymy.
Slap mah fro! It digs kind'a phat and waaay coo'. When journalists use "Paris" when dey actually mean de French guv'ment o' "de Pentagon" t'refa' to de military leadership, it be case uh metonymy. Slap mah fro! Dere is tons uh interestin' 'esamples and it be quite intricate.
Wayyy to funny !
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