school board madness

Because sometimes it's the only sane thing to do.

great moments in collective bargaining history

Compliments of the greatest union president of all time.

that government is best which governs Wikipedia

Using WikiScanner, Olympian reporters found at least 531 Olympia-area state government edits to Wikipedia.

Many of the changes made by state workers appear to be within their field of expertise. State Historical Society computers were used to edit the entry on the Washington State History Museum, for example.

But even technical changes could be controversial. A Department of Health worker apparently deleted an entry that stated high doses of fluoride can be fatal and replaced it with information on children who develop fluoride spots on their teeth.

And there were blatantly political changes: Several edits of Abramoff's entry were made from Department of Information System's computers, and two changes to the page of possible candidate for governor Dino Rossi were made from the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.

Other subjects were more obscure: Capital High School, heavy metal rocker Glenn Danzig, the knuckleball pitch in baseball, trivia on the "WCW Monday Nitro" wrestling show and Star Wars movie character R2-D2, for starters.

Those changes account for only a part of the Wikipedia editing done at public computers. A search for changes made from Washington government agencies resulted in a list of more than 150 schools, counties and fire districts statewide.

It's unsurprising to me; after all, Wikipedia is a prime source of information, so employees with expert knowledge and an already existing sense of public obligation would be doubly inclined to set records straight.

Nationally, NASA leads the pack, with 6846 edits and counting. And you thought they were busy in basements faking moon landings.

where I've been

Apologies for light blogging this past week. I'm currently enjoying--I think that's the right word--a trip to Chicago and environs, a trip that includes a head cold, sepsis, a tornado, Millennium park, a chipper-shredder, and bean bags, not necessarily in that order.

exposing a crucial deficit in public education

In The Know: Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?

putting the "whine" in "winner"

Every teacher knows and understands.

I guess she figured it was a COLA

Coat goes missing at an Oregon elementary school. Eerily similar coat appears for sale on eBay. Area teacher is caught selling the coat.

The mother alerted another bidder that the coat might be stolen, and the other bidder relayed the information to the seller, Logan. Police said Logan asked the other bidder to outbid the girl's mother.

Logan was put on leave a day after her arrest.

The teacher denies stealing it, claiming the oldest defense in the world: finders keepers, losers weepers.

I don't make as much money as a lot of people

Good thing, too. I don't think I could handle it:

You have to poke way down the list of best paid Washington state employees to find Gov. Chris Gregoire's name.

The higher education Top 100, for instance, is headed by the University of Washington president and everyone on the list makes more than $200,000 a year. On a separate Top 100 of other state employees, Gregoire, the head of government, ranks 29th, with a salary of $151,000 last year.

It turns out that some high-demand college professors and administrators, medical professionals who care for state clients or teach, money managers and a handful of government administrators make the big bucks....

Three of Gregoire's cabinet earns more than she. Doug MacDonald, soon to depart as transportation secretary, ranks No. 12, with pay of $163,000. Budget Director Victor Moore and Robin Arnold-Williams, secretary of the Department of Social and Health Services, are at No. 17 and 18, both earning about $158,000.

After all, as Spiderman warned, with great cash comes great responsibility.

Update: Number One in "general government" says she's really not number one:

Dr. Willa Michelle Terry is on contract with the Department of Social and Health Services for $60 a hour as a consultant. She also works for the University of Washington....

“The point is that in no way have I ever made so much money - since January of '07 when I started the medical consultant position I have worked on average 6.5 hours per week at approximately $60 per hour - so projecting forward my salary … will be more than $100,000 less than published,” she said in an email exchange with financial office and the media Tuesday.

all's fair

Ah, so that's how it works. And by "it," I mean Fox's "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?"

Contestants try to answer questions from elementary school textbooks while real fifth-graders stand by to offer help. Unless you're an accountant, the math is the most frightening: On one show, the pint-size experts easily got the answer when host Jeff Foxworthy asked how many sides are there in a trapezoid.

In adults' defense, the last time they had to think about trapezoids was roughly 10th grade. Let's make it fair and have a show where fifth graders have to fill out a tax form, negotiate for a higher salary, challenge a traffic ticket, choose the optimal route to the nearest fast food restaurant in a van of screaming kids, or even pass a simple driving test.

Keep trying to reach those pedals, shorty. Keep trying.

seeing red means envisioning failure

And here I was, dressing up to teach in a devil costume with red tights and a sweeping red cape. No wonder my students' standardized test scores are in the crapper.

at least they set the bar at fifth grade

"Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" is Fox's highest-rated premiere, and for good reason: no matter the purported failures of elementary education, Americans suspect the answer is probably "no."

Das Kindergarten: or, high Marx for area tykes

Before you get too excited about expanding school choice, be warned: raving ideologues lurk in private schools, too.

The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."

They claimed as their role shaping the children's "social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity ... from a perspective of social justice."

So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. "If I buy it, I own it," one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.

At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that "All structures are public structures" and "All structures will be standard sizes."

Reminds me of my own kindergarten, Lego, and property story: as a lad, I was quite taken with some nifty Lego accessories that were stored in a giant tub in a corner of class. I figured I could sneak a few home, and no one would ever know.

At home, as I was building a Lego house, installing a Lego sink and miniature Lego faucets, my dad wandered over to see what I was building. "Hey, what are these pieces?" he asked, suspicious. I figured the jig was up, and burst out crying. "They belong to teacher," I blubbered. (How did he know? They were cool, limited edition pieces, and we were poor. It's all obvious in retrospect.)

That afternoon I had to return the little Lego sinks and faucets, sniffling in shame as my kindergarten teacher looked on in what was probably amusement. And so ended my life of crime.

Update: The Onion, as always, provides the reality check.

MSN Careers' "Dream Jobs That Aren't": some astounding omissions

Not sure why they missed these ones.

The Dream Job: Astronaut
Floating above Earth in the absence of gravity, dangling from the mother ship by an umbilical cord, gasping at the wonder of Ma Nature, looking for the Great Wall (you can't really see it, sorry), shooting Imax movies, you are one lucky man / woman / chimp.

The Reality
Constant requisite exercise to ward off muscle atrophy. Adult diapers. Astronaut ice cream. Cabin fever.



The Dream Job: Big Game Hunter
Crouched in the jungle, the hunter lifts rifle to shoulder, taking aim at man's greatest fear. Heart pounds. Sweat beads. Time stands still. With a crash, the tiger springs, its claws extended. The hunter has become the hunted.

The Reality
Half the targets are banned, hiding out in nature preserves, shipped in from ranches in Montana, sporting ear tags placed by fervent biologists or carrying Greenpeace placards and chanting "Meat is murder." Your time has passed.



The Dream Job: High School English Teacher
We've all seen the movie: spunky, nontraditional, iconoclastic, poetry-spouting, witty, passion-filled, 24-something wins the hearts and minds of tough-talking, disaffected, disempowered punks / gangstas / goths / prep students. With a few well-timed journal prompts, everyone gets a haircut / goes to college / doesn't commit suicide / commits suicide.

The Reality
Actually, that's pretty much how it goes.