Venting

Since what I wrote was destroyed by Blogger incompetence (No, I didn't do anything wrong: Blogger has been hiccupping and it swallowed My post between "Preview" and "Publish"), I'll vent about this: Why do Our schools suck so badly?

I've said before (you may look it up) that one problem is that teachers are generally too stupid and too lazy to do other work. I've blamed the Department of (Mis)Education for having no standards, no guts, no brains and too many vegetables in the pantry.

I've blamed The Fools and their idiocies, greed, malice aforethought and even economic conspiracy. But I must add to that list a key culprit: Us. More specifically, the parents of school-age children.

Uh-huh. That includes Me with a second-grader who asks tons of questions and thinks school is a waste of time. This despite a mother who is constantly vigilant about school issues, from homework and grades to events and policy changes. And yes, despite Me, who answers all his questions, asks "What did you learn today?" and makes the boy treat homework like batting practice or free throw drills.

Despite this support, this presence, he's still bored, unchallenged and often frustrated.

So now I'm blaming Me. Here's why:

---The curriculum sucks, with too much "faith" and too little "facts."

---The principal sucks, 20 years past her prime and unaware that the 21st century is well on its way.

---The teacher sucks, being bilingual in the sense that she is utterly incompetent in two languages.


Given all this, the blame lies squarely on Me for not preparing My son to face this pathetic wasteland and understand that if he is to learn--and he must--then it is up to Me to teach him what he's missing to learn well.

That means I teach him that "Mary and Jane does go to school" is not a misprint, it is an example of "too lazy and too stupid."

That means I teach him that four practice problems in math are not enough, especially when the teacher does two of them... and one of them is wrong.

That means I teach him that Betsy Ross never made a flag, that Columbus didn't arrive in Puerto Rico on the Niña, the Pinta or the Santa María and that Our Taíno Indians did not wear feather bonnets, and that the fact that the teacher and the principal don't know this is not a misunderstanding, but a total cock-up along the lines of building dirigibles filled with hydrogen.

Is My spleen plastered all over this? Yeah. Blame Me for part of it, blame Blogger for the other part. My original post was thanking teachers. My how the mood can change...

But going back to My second-grader: It's My job to do what the school can't. Everything else is hot air, also known as "My son's teacher's subsititute for brains."

I can't wait for Blogger to screw another one of My posts!


The Jenius Has Spoken.