Maybe school IS the problem...

I've been giving thought to District 150's truancy problem and started wondering, "Why don't kids WANT to go to school?" I loved college but hated everything that came before. College was great because you got to study subjects you were interested in, especially after getting all the general education requirements out of the way. Professors were truly interested in their fields and were interested in what their students had to contribute.

If I had to sum up my elementary, junior high and high school experience with one word it would be BORING. I spent a great deal of my time looking at the clock, counting off the minutes until it was time to bolt out of my chair to go home and... Read. That's right. Read. My parents didn't allow us kids to watch T.V. We didn't even own one until I was in the third grade, when a horrified uncle bought us one.

So, I don't expect education to be entertainment. I don't think it should attempt to mirror Disney World. I do think schools have largely become inefficient bureaucracies with meaningless rules on top of rules, filled with unhappy, bored educators and administrators biding their time until retirement and even unhappier bored students biding their time until graduation.

Of course, there are exceptions. There are teachers who love kids and truly enjoy their work. In my high school, these teachers could be found teaching the best and brightest -and obviously college bound- students, those taking advanced placement classes. However, if you were an average kid, on the mainstream track, you were treated more or less like a nuisance.

Maybe we shouldn't just be looking at increasing teacher pay, increasing truancy fines, decreasing class size and studying economic factors that keep some kids out of class. Maybe we should be looking at the class itself. Would you be looking forward to going to work every day if you were treated like the enemy? What if you were a social outcast? What if you were subjected to the same lectures over and over and had to endure a curriculum that never advanced? What if you were written off as "average" and no one ever bothered to reevaluate your potential as you matured?

Perhaps it is time to make sure that we are providing an education to kids and not just warehousing them until parents get home from work. Perhaps a policy of "Tough Love" and "Like or Lump It" isn't working. We are talking about kids after all. Education should be intrinsically rewarding. School shouldn't feel like prison. Learning something new, accomplishment, and conquering something that you didn't think you were capable of is one of life's greatest joys. Why are so many of our kids missing out?

I don't know who said the following, but I think it deserves a lot of thought... If children don't learn the way we teach, we must teach the way they learn.

Run! Ray! Run!

Today is the big day. Ray LaHood will inform us if he will seek the Gov's job. Kinda hope he does. Sorta think he won't. The slate is already full and he doesn't seem to be the Party favorite. If Edgar doesn't run, I think the Republicans will get behind Judy Barr Topinka. Topinka was the only Republican voters allowed to stay in office in the election following the George Ryan scandal.

Local politicians Morris, Nichting, and Leitch wait LaHood's decision with baited breath.

I wonder if LaHood might announce his retirement instead? I think he has grown tired of congress and wants to spend more time traveling (to France) with his family. I think Ray might be chomping at the bit to make some real money in the private sector as a (nuke energy) consultant. Puke.

Silly Willy Nilly is a Dirty Old Bastard

The name of Willy's blog keeps changing. Is he trying to clue us on his identity? Silly AND a Dirty Old Bastard? Hmm? Gary Sandberg perhaps?

Clyde Gulley, Please Report for a Piss Test

Council members should have to take drug tests. Seriously, I want to know if Clyde Gulley is smoking something. It would be the only reasonable excuse for his asinine comments regarding the truancy plan District 150 and the City want to implement.

Gulley said that he hopes Peoria Police will not be using tasers, chains, dogs or unreasonable force to get kids back into the classroom. Peoria Police rarely uses deadly force when called for, and Clyde thinks they may bring out chains for the brat playing hooky from Algebra? Are you freaking kidding me?

Clyde believes kids from his neighborhood who are truant fail to attend school because they don't have lights, water, food, or soap. Huh? This kid is so poor that his home could be condemned and instead of intervening and trying to help, we should just ignore him until he winds up dead of starvation, dehydration, drug overdose, or a failed robbery attempt?

Poverty stricken families can't afford food and lights, so how in the hell will they pay the expensive truancy fine? Here's a thought. Don't pay it. Get your kid's butt to school. Working two jobs and can't control or force Junior to do anything? Call the police or the District so that Junior can make a choice between school and jail. Moreover, the Truancy Plan calls for kids who can't pay the fine to serve the community on the weekends (10 to 2) by washing police cars or picking up litter. Brilliant.

I've been poor and it really, really, SUCKS. Poverty simply isn't a viable excuse for missing school, and no one should be able to plead "Poverty" when punishment is justified, regardless of the crime. Could you imagine a defendant saying to a Judge, "Um, well, yeah, Your Honor, I was drunk out of my skull when I mowed down that entire family with my car. But, see, I'm POOR and miserable, and that forced me to drink. If you send me to jail then my family will be even poorer, and so, could you cut me some slack?"

Nope.

My sincere gratitude to Council Members Van Auken and Grayeb who called Gulley along with Eric Turner and NAACP President Don Jackson on their racist card crap.