(Sub)Educated

Let's rap about education...or what masquerades as such here on Our Island.

The current "leader" of the education department has decided to penalize directors and teachers who basically "wrapped up" early in December, thus gaining a few extra days of Christmas vacation, by docking those days from their alloted vacation time. My first choice would be to fire these slackers, but that's not allowed, you see. Something about protecting animals or some such nonsense...

As much as I agree with the intent, I can't leave almost-well-enough alone: Where was this same "tough" stance back in May when the government shut down for no reason except politics? Wouldn't--shouldn't--that month's semester-ending idiocy warrant as strong a stance as this month's semester's-ending idiocy?

What say you, you in the back with the slack-jawed look of a Fool? That the secretary couldn't do anything about that because his boss--the jellyfish governor--ordered the closing? Sit down, you gibbering ape. That's exactly why the secretary should have said to the jellyfish: No. Close what you want, but Our schools stay open.

By not opposing the move, despite the fact that only three weeks remained in the school schedule, despite the fact that the teachers would lose no money, despite the fact that the secretary described himself as "educator first, second and third" and vowed to "never be a politician", despite the fact that both Namby-Pamby secretary and Wishy-Washy governor had called education "the top priority of this administration," despite all this and the fact that shutting down the government was ABSOLUTELY unnecessary, despite all this, Namby-Pamby tucked his tongue beneath his clownish bow tie and slunk away.

Now he emerges to slap the wrists of the mentally-unfit who run some of Our schools. Tough on bad employees, a suck-up to the boss. Now that's leadership.

Tack onto this nauseating scenario the report released this week that We have an "excess" of some 1,000 teachers, apparently because We have 20,000 fewer students than We used to. However, (hold on, this is good) the teachers allege that this "excess" is nonexistent because "The students who don't attend class are not counted."

Once the top of My head whizzed back to Earth, I thought the following:

--Absent students do count...when it's convenient.

--We're "only" missing 20,000 students?

--No one really knows how many students We are missing, but the number is much, much higher than 20,000.

--Is this the best argument teachers can come up with?

--I called teachers lazy and stupid. I was complimentary.

The same group of slackers who run off and leave their students hanging now "run" back to these abandoned souls in order to justify their total number of employed. No, We don't have an excess of teachers: We have a shortage of about 40,000. That leaves about 1,500 that are worth retaining and the rest can grab an early vacation someplace far away from here.

And take "Namby-Pamby clowny bow tie" with you.


The Jenius Has Spoken.