My Beauty Best Teacher

In Africa News Fredrick Mugira writes about the "Death of African Soccer":

The development of African soccer is very slow because Africans themselves lack interest in supporting and promoting local clubs. “How do you expect to develop Ugandan soccer alone?” he -Hajji Mulindwa Katabani an investor in Biharwe FC-laments. He says even people who have enough funds to support such teams shun them because they fear to risk their money in what he called, “such unprofitable ventures.”...If talented African football players leave their countries to play in foreign countries or leave this sport to find alternatives where they can earn a living, who then will develop local football? Abbas Sendyowa, is a committee member of the Pan African Confederation of African Football (CAF). “There is a problem of lack of interest from Africans themselves. Several Africans have a negative perception that English soccer is more entertaining than their local football, as a result this discourages local talents,” Sendowa contends. Africans must develop African football in the way they want it. This does not mean that it has to be on the standards of European soccer.”...[continue reading]

Kind of ironic when you consider that Nigerian Business people are bidding for English clubs...what gives?
Related article on African football's search for cash

Everyone laughed at me when I predicted that electing Barack Obama would bring changes to college football- you all thought that I was just being silly- there was no way our federal government would order college football teams sponsored by private and public education to switch from the BCS system to a playoff system. You thought I was just joking when I said that Obama wants to rule every aspect of our country, and wants to use his power to make everything 'fair', provide 'hope', for all, and 'change' everything. Oh yes, read this post from last November "Overlord Obama Dictates that Change Must Come to College Football", and see what I predicted.

Then read this- today over at cbssports there is a story about Obama and some members of Congress favor a playoff-type system to determine the national champion, and are looking at introducing legislation that will force college football to adopt this system. They claim that the government can do so, using antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights powers.

Now, I know that the story highlights that there are two Republicans involved with this bill (both RINO's), but the Democrats control the Senate and House, and they control the agenda- they determine what is talked about when. Sure, an occasional Republican might jump on the cruise ship too- but this is the Democrat cruise ship, and any bill that their Congress passes and that Democrat Obama supports and signs is on them, not on the RINO's in the Republican party.

So yes, our overlords are going to change the college football system to one that is more 'fair'- and you heard it here first.

This is not a story out of Onion, the fake news, but rather the bizarro world that Democrats are running (and yes, when Democrats control President, House, and Senate, they are running the show, not Republicans)- Congress is threatening the college football Bowl Championship Series. If they can utterly disregard rule of law and limited government and take over auto companies, they can do whatever they want- and they will, including telling banks who to lend to, credit card companies how much to charge in interest to whom, and who gets to go to college bowl games.

"How is this fair?” asked the subcommittee chairman, Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, who has co-sponsored Barton’s bill. “How can we justify this system … are the big guys getting together and shutting out the little guys?”

Democrat Rush demands that college football affirmatively act to give more points and power to the smaller schools out there, and is more than ready to use the power of the US government to force college football teams to play a playoff.

John Swofford, the coordinator of the BCS was bluntly warned by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, “If we don’t see some action in the next two months, on a voluntary switch to a playoff system, then you will see this bill move.”

Swofford better take this threat seriously- if the BCS doesn't switch over to a playoff system and give the smaller schools more more, than tanks and bombers and aircraft carriers will be deployed to employ force and smash whatever liberty and freedom the BCS now enjoys.

Oh, this is serious stuff- I warned about it before in Democrats Order Change for College Football- Must Be Fair to Everyone to Provide Hope to All. The power has gone straight to the Democrats heads, and they are now ruling by decree, utterly disregarding even trying to appear like they are acting in a constitutionally limited manner.

Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University, said the legislation could result in a court challenge. “This is a rare effort by Congress to prevent people from using what is a common description of sporting events,” he said in a telephone interview. The legislation, he said, “may run afoul of the contractual agreements between parties, wiping out benefits that have already been paid for by companies.”

Rare effort? Try increasingly common attempt. And do you think Congress and the White House cares at all about contractual agreements between parties? Nope. Not a bit. Obama laughs at that kind of old-fashioned conservative notion- contractual agreements were not his speciality at law school.

What is happening to our country? Are we seriously becoming a nation where if you don't get your way, you run to your government official, and then he uses the force and power of the US government to make someone change their behavior? Whatever happened to freedom and liberty and choice? Someone read the Declaration of Independence- am I being totally silly or is the US government increasingly sounding like King George? Sorry for all the angst in this post- really, I'm just waiting for someone to put on blue paint and yell "Freedom!"

G. Pascal Zachary writes:

To a greater extent than any of the other regional powers in global “football,” African star players leave their countries and sub-regions to play for higher-paying clubs elsewhere in the world, usually in Europe, which has the best and highest-paying club teams on the planet, and increasingly in Asia and the Middle East. The exodus of football talent from Africa mirrors the general “brain drain” from the world’s poorest continent. The outflow of footballing talent from Africa is singular; it impoverishes African sporting life – and civil life generally — in a more profound way than when Brazilian joins the Italian league, a German plays for Chelsea or a Japanese suits up for a Spanish club.

Continuing he asks:

what’s the damage from “football imperialism.?” I’d argue that even elite Africans in Africa still suffer from an inferiority complex, around race and place, which fuels brain drain and a lack of a “stake” in their own countries, where many talented people – from doctors to goal keepers to university professors – feel under-appreciated because they are under-appreciated. So club football is a kind of proxy for a dysfunctional modernization process in Africa, and in African cities especially.

More here

"...Football Made in Africa demonstrates all the creativity and dynamism of the peoples obliged to deploy a fair amount of cleverness and resourcefulness on a daily basis to be able to indulge in their passion: football...Every episode offers an original angle on a story, a slice of everyday life, where football is present everywhere. From the production of goals in the outskirts of Maputo to the atmosphere in bars where matches are aired on tiny TV screens, the harvesting of rubber tree waste to make balls or the beaches of Cameroon where fishermen use their nets to play. The films are funny and poetic snapshots that reflect the unique imagination and energy of the African continent..."-website

Photo courtesy of TakeFive
via African Digital Art

"...Football Made in Africa demonstrates all the creativity and dynamism of the peoples obliged to deploy a fair amount of cleverness and resourcefulness on a daily basis to be able to indulge in their passion: football...Every episode offers an original angle on a story, a slice of everyday life, where football is present everywhere. From the production of goals in the outskirts of Maputo to the atmosphere in bars where matches are aired on tiny TV screens, the harvesting of rubber tree waste to make balls or the beaches of Cameroon where fishermen use their nets to play. The films are funny and poetic snapshots that reflect the unique imagination and energy of the African continent..."-website

Photo courtesy of TakeFive
via African Digital Art

The yahoo headlines said "Obama must change college football", followed by the headline "Obama 'fed up' with BCS." The story is that our new President, not content with the powers of the President and not caring about the constitutional limitations of power placed on him by the Constitution, now desires to change the college football system, so that any team out there can hope and believe in being a national champion. College football as we now it must change, and the bitter competition of the past must be put behind us, and every team now must get a sticker showing that they are a champion too, as wins are given to losers to spread the wealth, and those rich BCS conferences are made low.

From Africa is a Country

The German shoe and sportswear company, Puma, sponsors at least 12 African national football teams–five of which qualified for the 2010 World Cup. To commemorate the World Cup year (and because it is good PR and to sell shirts), Puma commissioned artist Kehinde Wiley to create four new works of art inspired by the football stars Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Emmanuel Eboué of Ivory Coast

via Bombastic Elements

In the FT Petina Gappah writes about the skill drain:

Football is one of the most visible signs of Africa’s skills exodus: the very best African players are quickly snapped up to play for European leagues where they have become ubiquitous. They represent just a tiny proportion of the skilled Africans of all trades and professions who leave the continent. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, about 27,000 Africans left for industrialised countries between 1960 and 1975. Now, an equivalent number leaves the continent every year.

More here

Shocked and agast, my son's pants were agape. Last night was the final game on the season and, the 26th straight win for the Westwood Wildcats and my son blocked a 270 pound behemoth with his pants flapping in the breeze.

My Westwood Wildcats Football Team 2010, 2011 State Champs winner 26 straight football games

We were picked to lose by 13 or 20 points depending upon who you asked. They had 10 boys over 200 pounds and one over 300 and we had barely 2, maybe.

My son's pants ripped during the last football game. When I say rip, I mean a big old tear from crotch to way up the back. My son's gray sliding pants were his only salvation from indecent exposure.

Last week I had snatched up the pants and was preparing to mend them when my son interrupted emphatically:

"We're wearing the orange pants for state, Mom, don't touch 'em. They'll get fixed in the off season when they send them in to the shop."

OK, so the word "shop" should have let me realize that I was being taken to the cleaners. Imagine my shock when I look at those boys coming out of the locker room and there I see my son's grey sliding shorts and those pants and the big old rip traveling quietly up towards the waist band in the back like spilled syrup on my kitchen counter.

Isn't it funny how we're not shocked at our children as much as we say,

"What is everyone going to say about his Mama, not fixing his pants like that?"

But after the game. After we won a second state championship in a 33-21 nail biter (it was tied 21-21 with 2 minutes to go in the fourth quarter), he sheepishly said,

"Mom, it would have been bad luck for any of us to fix our pants. We all agreed to leave the tears in our pants. When you're winning, you keep doing what you're doing until it doesn't work any more."

At that point, I didn't care what anyone said about his Momma, I was just glad they won (and very glad he was OK.) But his words echoed in my ears.

Fixing What Works Breaks What Works
Sure, it was to the point of superstition and but all I could think of was some teachers I know caught in very nonsensical situations.

For example, in the state of Georgia, there were some schools that were climbing in Math scores but the state required them to move from Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, etc. to Math I, Math II, and Math III and many of the best math teachers were lost in some districts.

They tried to fix what wasn't broken for some schools to fix what was broken for others.

In the south the saying goes,

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But we don't listen to that in education. Here are just a few examples I can think of:

• An amazing teacher does a great job at a certain grade level. She hits her stride and is really doing a great job after a year or two. But "they" decide it is time for a change and give her a new grade level even though she's already taught that grade level at another school and knows it isn't a great fit for her.
  
• A reading program works incredibly well but there is a new curriculum director and she wants to change it because she's "heard" another one is better.
  
• A history teacher has a phenomenal history program and has a book he loves. He's aligned the book with videos and has written quite a bit of content to go along with the book for his students. It is "time' to update the book and "they" go with another program and he looks at the new curriculum to decide if he really feels like starting over. The new book isn't just a new book but a whole new way of teaching it.
  
• A school decides that everyone is going to now be "on the same page" so the teacher who loved to quickly teach more "boring" topics (which were mastered, by the way) to accelerate into some great things that are more advanced is held back because the other teachers in the group don't want to do it that way.
  
• A good teacher is now given a script so administrators can know exactly what is being taught in every classroom over the complaints of those teachers who feel scripts stifle the good teaching they've been doing for more than 20 years. These teachers are told they will be replaced if they can't go with the new turn teaching has taken.
  
• I teach keyboarding with a class average of over 70 words per minute (or gwam as we say.) I use the same textbook my Mom did and teach it the "old fashioned way" because it works. We don't go into software until after I've taught them all the keys. My friends in other schools who were forced to move to a software-based approach run about 30 words a minute and the kids look at their fingers. Many don't care about the right way to teach typing, only that software makes it easier. I'm happy with my circa 1994 textbook and don't want a new one! I'll do it the old fashioned way because it works but in many schools, I wouldn't be allowed to be so "backwards." My students are still blogging, making videos, using QR Codes and doing incredible things but I just need a book to teach typing. (See my 8th Grade keyboarding portfolio using QR codes)

"Get better and better every day in every way."

This is the view from where I sit right now.I am taking up money at the softball gate in 90 something degree weather in the hot blazing sun. Or I was a minute a go.

A Little Umbrella 
Another teacher came by and she gave me her umbrella. It means a lot because now I can read, grade papers on my iPad, and blog!

 You can see the umbrella there in the picture looking out on the field where our 16-0 football team is practicing. (3-0 on this season)If you look hard, you might just see our headmaster / head football coach, Ross Worsham, out there working.

I mention him because he did a little thing on Monday in our faculty meeting. Except it meant a lot.

A Little Question that was a Big Deal
Ross read our devotional made 3 announcements and then he said,

"I want to hear from you. Is there anything I need to notice or be aware of even if it is little, I want to know."

So the teachers told him a few little things - noise in the hall after middle school lunch and small things that if left unchecked could have grown.

The fact that he asked, listened and acted meant so much! In fact this may just be a little thing that means everything.I wish every school could be gifted with a man as good as Ross Worsham and a woman as good as our curriculum director, Betty Shiver. They are in our rooms, they work hard, they love us and the students. We love them.


It is the little things that mean a lot. 
If you are a principal or administrator out there, I hope you'll ask and care about the little things. If you are afraid to ask, you have problems.

If you are a teacher, you can do little things that mean a lot too! Loaning an umbrella is just the beginning.

 If you are a parent, you can encourage. I used to buy my son chocolate milk and put a sticky note one it and say " Love, Mom." The way to my son's heart is his stomach and beef jerky, gum, chocolate milk, and Big Macs all help him know I love him. (I did draw the line last week when he asked me to bring him 4 Big Macs after football practice- I told him 3 was enough. But you get the point!)

 Will you take a minute today, right now and do something little? It might just mean a lot!

 Due to a blogger API problem this could not be posted live from my iPad. I have found that both Diigo (they fixed it in less than 24 hours after I emailed them) and Blog Press on my iPad wouldn't link to my blogger account!

The Lingerie Football League is the ultimate fan-driven live sports phenomenon, blending action, impact and beauty, and features scantily-clad women wearing shoulder pads and bras and panties, knocking the snot out of other women wearing the same. It started as a halftime Super Bowl show gimmick on MTV, but it has recently become a full-fledged league, with 10 teams across the country where women play 7-on-7 football for teams like the Chicago Bliss, Philadelphia Passion, or the Orlando Fantasy.

And according to LFL Chairman and Commissioner Mitchell S. Mortaza, the league offices are in negotiations with ownership groups to bring into the future LFL teams in San Jose, Houston, Phoenix, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., Carolina, Buffalo, Columbus, New Orleans, New Jersey... and Detroit!

Yes, that is right, soon Detroit could feature a team that has a real shot at winning the super bowl, a 20-woman team of hot babes with overflowing cleavage tackling other women as they try to score touchdowns.

A decision will be made soon on whether or not a LFL team comes to Detroit, but if one does, it is going to need a name. My pick is the Detroit Cougars, what is yours?

For those who are interested, check out

As America descends into tyranny and communism, I am increasingly finding solace watching the gladiatorial bouts in the Coliseum- or, in modern day words, watching professional sports. The Emperor might make me pay more taxes, worship at the alter of the Green God, and increasingly control free businesses, but he can't alter the fact that there is real competition, there are winners and losers, that life isn't always fair- and you can see that by watching sports.

Incidentally, since conservatives and libertarians are usually banned from the media, a lot of them have found their way into sports commentary, and so even though this article is about sports, I think there is a larger moral in it. From the Detroit News, by John Bacon, is this article, called "Rooney Rule has been a super formula":

The Super Bowl. Just three words. One game. And the two dumbest weeks in journalism. With all the buildup, the waiting, and the unbelievably idiotic interviews, the game is almost always anticlimactic. But if you get past the hype and hysteria, there's something happening here -- and what it is, is exactly clear.

In 2002, just two of the NFL's 32 head coaches were minorities -- or 6 percent. That's higher than most industries could claim -- including college football, which has only 3 percent minority head coaches. It's a sad state of affairs when America's colleges, those bastions of open-mindedness, can't compete with the cut-throat capitalistic NFL for minority hiring. But the figures were even more embarrassing for the NFL because fully 70 percent of its players are African-American.

Well, what to do? The league considered affirmative action, but rejected it because it often stigmatizes those who get hired. So, the NFL actually engaged in some original thinking, and came up with the Rooney Rule -- named for Dan Rooney, the second-generation owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the best-run franchises in sports.

Here's how it works. Whenever a coaching position opens, that team is required to interview a minority candidate. Not hire, just interview. Yes, this does result in some token interviews. But it far more often allows good candidates to get past the old boy network, make their pitches when it matters most, and get jobs they might not otherwise have been considered for. It gives them a chance -- that's all.

It reminds me of the classic scene, 40 years ago, when Bo Schembechler first told his Michigan players he would treat them all exactly the same -- like dogs. The white guys got scared ("This guy is crazy"), while the black guys said, "Cool -- now we've got a chance."

Only one team has violated the Rooney Rule: the Detroit Lions, under former team president Matt Millen. They were fined $200,000, but were further punished when their last three coaches, all white, all bombed. Which gives us the Millen Rule, which goes like this: If you own a pro football team, never hire Matt Millen. Ever. That's the rule.

Under the Rooney Rule, minorities don't get stuck on the outside looking in, but they don't get a free pass, either. They just get their chance. After that, they're on their own. But they know that if they get the job, they got it on their merits -- and everyone else does too. In other words, the candidates get to keep their dignity, while the owners get to keep their autonomy.

It's worked out better than even Rooney had hoped. Just four years after the NFL introduced the Rooney Rule, the number of minority head coaches more than tripled, from two to seven. They've done even better on the job. Of the last six coaches to lead their teams to the Super Bowl, half have been African-Americans. That includes Tony Dungy, who won Super Bowl XXI, and Mike Tomlin, whose Pittsburgh Steelers will play Sunday.

Even if the Steelers win this weekend, Dan Rooney's six Super Bowl rings might be overshadowed by the simple rule that bears his name. The rest of the nation should take note.

Over the years I've made some predictions for the Detroit Lions, with some luck. In 2008, everyone was saying that they were going to be really good, and I called 5-11, and was wrong when they went 0-16. In 2009, everyone was saying that they were going to be really good, and I called 4-12, and was wrong when they went 2-14. In 2010, everyone was saying that they were going to be really good, and I predicted 6-10, and I was finally right when they really did go 6-10. For those doing some math, I was off by 5, 2, and 0 over the last 3 years- I think I'm figuring it out. So, here is my prediction for the Detroit Lions in 2011...

The 2011-2012 Detroit Lions will be a 7-9 football team, although if they suffer any sort of significant injuries, they could be worse than that, so I am very tempted to say 6-10, but since I drink the Kool-Aid, I'll go 7-9. It is disappointing that they have lost almost their entire draft class to injury so far this year, but I think they did improve the linebackers and secondary a bit and another year for their young core should lead to significant improvement and a couple victories.

If they do improve to 7-9 or better, considering where they were under Matt Millon and where they are now, that it just goes to show you that hiring competent and experienced leaders and then sticking to an overall plan of spending wisely and focusing on the basics will always work better than hiring an inexperienced dreamer who spends money wildly on impulses and flights of fancy and hopes it will work.

Now who's ready for some football!

Okey Ndibe writing in Sahara Reporters:

Nigeria (through Mr. Jonathan) has hardly earned the right to rebuke players who are so good they rank among the world’s best. Countries like Brazil and Argentina take their football seriously, and the state pours in resources and pursues other policies directed at the germination and nurturing of players. By contrast, Nigeria’s football administrators often have their sights set on the main chance – for themselves. Look at the line-up of players that Nigeria sent to South Africa. Can we point to a single one of those players and say, with confidence, that Nigeria’s sports administrators or sports policies fertilized his emergence or growth as a player? I doubt it. My point: each and every one of those players earned a jersey by dint of hard work and gritty determination...

More here

Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian writing about sports and its trust building potential:

...this is where football comes in. It brings people together; it builds relationships, sometimes between groups who have had reason to be suspicious of each other. It is the same principle as corporate team-building exercises. The best way for people to get to know and get on with each other is to play a game...[continue reading]

Image of Katine Actors football Photograph courtesy of Dan Chung

My son has been looking for epic music on youtube and listens to these amazing one hour mixes of music while he is writing papers for his honors English class. I've embedded the video below and played it while writing this post.





(Equally breathtaking are the graphics which the YouTube creator says he made with "alphacoders." )

Do we have epic moments?

I had one Sunday as I ran at the school. I looked over the school, snapped a picture of a tremendously beautiful cloud and posted it to the school's Facebook page.

Listening to this music inspires me to be more. It helps me realize that I am pushing forward towards something excellent.

As I ran 2 miles last night between dropping my son off at Tae Kwon Do and our Flat Classroom Certified Teachers meeting, I was listening to another song, Citizen Soldier, and a line intrigued me because it made me think of so many of you teachers I know:

"The strongest among you may not wear a crown."

Yes! This is you!

We know that teachers are front and center of a debate raging across continents about what a good education looks like and who is going to "find" the magic formula.

The magic formula doesn't exist because I doubt you'll ever be able to mass produce greatness unless....

Unless teachers and parents concentrate their very being on finding the greatness within every child. Concentrate on HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE and teach them self discipline and hard work.


So many people want something for nothing. 
 They want a great education for all students without having to spend money...without having to work hard... something that every person can do.

Greatness isn't easy. Epic isn't manufactured; it is earned one bead of sweat at a time.

I remember two years a go our football team was struggling - we lost all but two games and the ones we lost were less than 3 points a piece. It was a struggle and hard. But the boys and coaches decided to start coming in and working out at 6 am three mornings a week beginning in January. Voluntary choices to become better.

We are now 18-0. We won state football last year and are working hard to go for it this year. It is becoming epic.

Epic doesn't just happen. It is often born out of incredible failure. IN fact, if you're already good or great - getting greater may not be as epic as if you are at the very bottom of everything and fighting merely to stay alive.

We dream of epic. 
We hope for epic. Epic is something we all want to live.

But teachers, listen to me now (and I hope you're listening to that music too) - you have the ability for your career to be epic. You can be a hero. Go into that classroom and teach every period you are assigned to teach. Don't sit down. Never read a magazine.

Stay engaged with your class. Don't go behind your desk while you have students. Your job is your students - TEACH. When you disengage, you zap the life out of the room. Be part of the learning process. IF they are working, you should be working the room. If they are reading, you should be moving through the room seeing if they have questions. Read with them in the circle - the same thing. Be approachable.

At the end of my life, I hope and pray that there will be many students and teachers, educators and parents who have been encouraged to see the nobility in what we are doing every day to raise a new generation to inhabit our world. What can be more epic than that?

Now I must depart, my friends, for hills and vales unknown.
I am not on a battlefield and yet I pray for greatness to be shown
amid the learning, energy, and excitement in my students' minds.
Insurmountable it seems to reach them all, I'll leave none of them behind
but will look within their very heart to find what each does best
I'll contemplate those "showing out" and ponder them as I rest.
I'll love them and give myself until my life is done
if any life can be epic, a teacher's life is the one.

Be noble. Do RIGHT by your students. Be EXCELLENT. Work HARD. Never quit. Be a great teacher. I'm proud of you.

Last week the US History teachers were teaching about Vietnam, and decided to make it more exciting for the students by inviting in some real Vietnam War veterans to speak to the students. I tell you, the students were really excited for this- they were talking in the classroom before the presentation about how it would be great to see some real heroes, about how it would be a great chance to learn real history and not the modified liberalized version they usually hear. So the students all crowded into the auditorium, full of excited chatter.

And then the speakers will come out to speak to the students. The opening line of the presentation was "We support the troops, but that doesn't mean we support war." It went downhill after there- the speakers were all anti-Vietnam war protesters and anti-Vietnam war veterans.

As the presentation went on, the background chatter and attentive looks on students faces slowly faded away, to be replaced by the usual blank vacant stare that students assume on being brainwashed by leftism. Their natural mental defenses took over, and they began to reject the version of events presented to them by shutting down their mind, the only defense that students who are forced to be there have. Unable to run away physically, their mind flees, and the life fades from their eyes, to be replaced by a glazed look of indifference. I myself went through this process listening to the presentation.

The speakers talked about how the Vietnam War was wrong, about how the nobility was in protesting it, and how students need to always end wars and agitate against any war that we are engaged in. They talked about how it was patriotic to be against America, about how it was right to be wrong, and about how the real heroes were not our troops engaged in battle, but those engaged in battle against our troops.

After the presentation, as students quietly shuffled out, waking up to talk about football or friends and put the bad memory of the liberal brainwashing behind them, I was furious. I approached the teachers who had organized the event to confront them about the speakers they had found, about the impact that it had on the students, and the obvious lack of balance- and found that the speakers who organized it were congratulating themselves with how it went. Their eyes had assumed the fevered cast of a convert who has heard their spiritual leader, and I knew that they would not understand my points, so I turned and left, to once more rejoin the students in the halls and talk of friends and football.

UPDATE: After reading this post, The Designated Conservative asks several important questions-

Who are we as taxpayers that we continue to subsidize a public school system that has failed so completely at responding to the changing needs of our children? Who are we as a nation that we allow such mediocrity and shallowness of thought to be passed on to our children in our public schools? Who are we as parents that we accept the indoctrination of our children by zealous partisans under the guise of education? Who are we as a conservative movement that we continue to meekly yield to the left the high ground of teaching the coming generation about the true principles upon which our country was founded? - that is life, liberty, freedom, and limited government. And who are we as a community that we accept such shoddy and outmoded teaching as described by A Conservative Teacher?

The hearts and minds of our children are indeed under assault every day, from television, to the internet, to school, and if you don't wake up to this fact, you may lose your child to the wasteland of tyranny. Keep reading my blog often for more updates from the world of education.