Doing the JOB!

    I work in a cabinet factory it’s a major producer of kitchen and bathroom cabinets for the Midwest.  Today as I walked in to the factory a feeling came over me, “I’m going to build the best cabinet to ever be built here”.  I went to the warehouse and selected perfectly matched sticks of cherry lumber, the wood grain lined up without a flaw.  Not only did I measure twice before making the cuts, I measured three times.  Instead of running the parts through the glue applicator I applied the glue by hand before placing the blocks of wood into the clamp assembly.  Normally the cabinet parts would then be run through a progressive sander, it does a good job but I wanted perfection so I sanded them by hand.  The wood was so smooth it looked as if it were covered with a thin layer of glass.  With all the parts ready I began putting them together, the front, the sides and back then the top and bottom, finally I installed the doors.  Stepping back to admire my work I thought to myself what a thing of beauty, you couldn’t see a single seam. It looked as if it had been carved out of a single piece of wood.  Yes it’s truly going to be the best cabinet ever and I haven’t even put the finish on it yet.  Damn I did a good job!  Right about then the plant manager walks up and asked “What are you doing?”  I answered “Making the best cabinet ever”.  Looking it over he said “That has to be the best cabinet I’ve ever seen, YOU’RE FIRED!  The finish line has been down for three hours. “

    See I had a problem, although I work at a cabinet factory I’m a mechanic my job is to maintain the spray booths, conveyors, ovens and such.  When one part of the finish system stops 80 people stop working and a major portion of the factory stops dead.  I wasn’t doing the job I was hired to do. 

                                     Don’t get worried I didn’t really do this but someone did. 

    A Virginia middle school teacher broke his class into four groups, giving each group the assignment of seeking out political weakness on one of four Republican Presidential primary Candidates, and then devise strategies to exploit these weaknesses. 

    OK, I can see where there may be some push back being this was a civics class.  What needs to be considered is the appropriateness of the assignment vs. the age level (12-14 year-old) and the curriculum goals (citizenship).  “Opposition Research” would be a subject best handled in an advanced collage level course.  Let the kids master the basics first.  Sounds like a gentleman doing his own thing on company time… 

YOU’RE FIRED!!!       

    The United States spends more money than any other country on education, roughly $525 billion.  That’s $375 billion more than the next big spender, Japan at approximately $150 billion.   What do we get for this investment? According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the US is ranked only as average against the top 34 industrialized nations (see Pisa note below).

Reading:          United States ranked 14^th     (South Korea was 1^st)

Mathematics:   United States ranked 25^th     (again South Korea was 1^st)

Science:          United States ranked 17^th     (Finland was 1^st)

    Are you kidding me?  We spend more than triple the amount of any other nation on education just to be AVERAGE (below average in mathematics). Little Susan and Little Johnny won’t be able to balance their checkbooks when they get older but they can plot on somebody else’s demise.  The children don’t need an exercise in “Opposition Research” they need a math class with a real teacher.  I’m not anti-teacher; I’m anti-IDIOT that’s pretending to be a teacher (idiot is a bit harsh but this really spools me up).  I know there are some fine teachers out there.  I know two of them.  One that got me started on writing blog’s (Smart young man) and one that’s on his way to becoming a teacher (He’s going to be great, I’ve known him all his life)J

Hit the books Kid-O's              (NOTE This week there will be an additional posting Wensday)

The TOMCAT

OECD Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa) 2009 results, published December 2010.  Comparison of educational performance conducted every three years.  Approximately 470,000 15-year-old children from around the world participated in the 2009 assessment.  Data source: OECD, PISA 2009 Database.

Educational expenditures: usgovermentspending.com