Why I hate Politics

Yesterday, election day, the students were very interested in knowing who I was going to vote for. In all my years of teaching I have never discussed politics in my class or given students any indication of who I would vote for, and this year was no exception. Several were quite upset because I would not indicate a preference, but I do not believe in classroom endorsements. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues aren’t of the same mind.

I really don’t discuss my preferences in voting with anyone, not even close friends. Even my wife isn’t sure who I voted for. We host Thanksgiving for the family every year and my only rule at the family gathering is—no discussion of politics in my home. When politics are discussed, invariably everyone doesn’t agree, and a bitter fight ensues. I would rather eat pumpkin pie and enjoy watching football.

In a complete reversal of one of my most strongly held beliefs, I will now tell anyone who reads this blog whom I voted for and why. I voted for John McCain.

I am not a member of the Republican or Democrat Party, and consider myself an independent. The first presidential candidate I ever voted for was George McGovern. I have voted tor Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton in different elections. I almost never vote in a primary, and many times don’t make up my mind until days before the election. Usually something happens in the last few days of an election to sway my vote one way or the other. This year I listened carefully to what each had to say and tentatively decided I would vote for Obama. I believe that taxes should be lower on the middle class and higher on the rich, we should have a health system like that of Canada, and the money many CEO’s make is obscene. I know he is untested and inexperienced, but decided that it was reasonable to give him a chance to “fix” what we both agreed was wrong.

About a week ago I was watching one of those political discussion programs on TV and watched a young woman and an older man debate the candidates. The woman got upset at one point when the older man accused Obama of wanting to raise taxes. She looked into the camera and asked the people “out there” to listen carefully—then stated that Obama would lower taxes on every family that made less than $250K a year and that McCain would lower taxes for the rich only. The older man began laughing; making the young woman even more agitated, and countered that Obama would raise taxes on everyone after taking office. The older man explaining that Obama planned to get away with it by arguing that the deficit was worse than he had expected and had no choice. The next day stories surfaced that Obama’s economic advisors were still debating whether $250K or $125K would be the cut-off for a tax cut.

I brought this up with a colleague who is a vocal Obama supporter, hoping that he would have a better response than the young woman on TV. The only thing he did was to argue that McCain was going to raise taxes on me and lower them on the rich. Trying to discuss this calmly, I told him that I wasn’t afraid of that because the almost certain Democrat control of Congress would not allow it, adding that I wasn’t sure that that same Congress would make Obama keep his promise. At this point he got angry and started yelling at me for being a dangerous “ultra conservative.” This is why I don’t like to discuss politics.

At that point I knew that Obama was a politician, not a leader, and would say anything to get elected. The promise of a middle-class tax cut was a lie, and Obama knew it! More importantly, if he would lie about this, what else were we being promised that he knew he could never deliver, and why should I vote for him, even if everyone else in the world was?

I hope I am wrong and Obama will do, or at least try to do everything he promised. If so I will vote for him in four years. If not, in four years I will be driving around with a bumper sticker that says "Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain" and will have the moral authority to scold those of you who fell for the apparent lie. I almost did

Spare the Rod . . . .

Classroom discipline problems certainly aren’t the same for every teacher or every school. At present, I am mad at one of my sophomore boys and have emailed his mother about his unacceptable behavior. The boy, who is very immature, is quite bright. He is probably capable of A work, but consistently earns C’s and D’s. His work is generally late, incomplete, or just missing and in class he needs constantly to be the center of attention, a real attention whore. He speaks out of turn, makes humorous (?) comments, and generally draws attention to himself. One day I am sure will jump up out of his seat, and wave his arms in the air yelling…”Look at me!, Look at me!” Before this happens I will probably drop him out of Honors Chemistry into a lower level; making him someone else’s problem.

The day after I emailed his mother I got a return message apologizing for him. She knows he is bright and disruptive and does not know what to do. She made him come to me and apologize for his behavior, at which time I told him I was going to demote him out of my class soon if his grade didn’t improve. I am waiting for his quarter exam grade to put the last nail in his coffin as it were.

Perhaps I am spoiled teaching in a private school. My good friend who teaches in the Chicago Public schools tells horror stories that would make you make you cringe. He has had his car fire-bombed in the faculty parking lot, has had a gang fight in the hall spill over into his classroom while teaching, and once found two students in the hall having sex. While it has never happened to him, he claims that there 2-3 assaults a month on teachers by students in the building. He probably wouldn’t even notice a chatty sophomore in his classroom.

Recently I read an article at “news-press.com” about a 9 year old girl who was arrested in a Florida school for attacking her teacher. The girl is in a special needs school and has been diagnosed with obsessive oppositional disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia.

On the day of the incident, the student had just returned to school after serving a suspension for assaulting another teacher who declined to press charges. Two hours after arriving at school, the police were called. The girl, reportedly, threw a chair at the teacher, threatened to stab her, knocked the phone out of her hand when the teacher tried to call for help, and kicked the teacher. She also attacked the officer when he attempted to restrain her. I should be happy that my little criminal is only a pain in the ass and not violently insane.

Different Day--Same Crap.

My friend in the Theology Department reminded me that I haven’t posted anything is several weeks. I have been very busy; first with the 50th anniversary celebration for our school, and then with grading papers that had piled up on me. It is Saturday Afternoon and I have some time so I thought I would write down my thoughts.

Several weeks ago I changed the program that keeps track of the visitors to the blog. There have been about 271 visitors the last few weeks and the tracking information shows some interesting things. I have had visitors from all over the United States, as well as Israel, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Japan. The tracking information does not tell me who they are, but does tell me where they were referred from.


Monday I am scheduled to be observed by one of the assistant principals. I am scheduled this year for a “formal” evaluation. The administrator chosen for this task did my last evaluation and I passed with flying colors.

Weapons of Math Instruction

The link below is to an article posted at “thestate.com” concerning a 10 year old boy who was suspended for having a weapon on school property. The weapon was a broken pencil sharpener.

http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/521009.html From this link you can access the original article as well as a copy of the police report describing the incident.

As the article states, the pencil sharpener was the type many school children carry in their supply boxes. The problem was that the sharpener was broken. The article goes on to say that a teacher at his school saw the boy with what seemed to be a small razor blade, and reported it to the assistant principal. The sheriff’s police were called and the boy was, apparently, taken into custody.

The article also contains a copy of a letter sent home to parents by the school after the incident, explaining what happened and assuring the parents that their children are safe when at school. This letter goes on to suggest that some of the assertions made in the article were incorrect, including that the pencil sharpener accidently broke in school. Other inaccuracies could not be challenged for reasons of “student confidentiality”, according to the letter.

Give me a break! The letter by the school is an obvious attempt to cover their ass after making the incredibly stupid decision to report this to the police, and then being subjected to media scrutiny that makes them look justifiably foolish. The police report is most amusing in contrast to the gross over-reaction by the school administration. Unless the student in question had been a problem in the past, the reaction of the school was worse than excessive, it was incompetent. The article, as well as the police report, implies that the student was so upset he was crying at the meeting with the adminisrator and the police The boy was suspended for two days.

The police report concludes that the student meant no harm and only intended to use the “blade” to sharpen his pencil. The school is unconvinced, stating that they are keeping the weapon pending a hearing to see if any further actions need to be taken.

Has common sense been completely flushed down the crapper? Are schools so afraid of being accused of doing something wrong that no one can make a rational decision anymore? Has it come to the point where rules and regulations are so restrictive that an administrator has no choice but to treat petty problem this way?