Column for Aug. 30, 2012

This week we sent our now nine-year-old back to elementary school for his fourth grade year.  The one private school in the area closed several years ago, so we never got to send him to that institution.  Our options are down to home schooling, the one county charter school, and our local elementary school.  Since we have neither the time nor the inclination to home school, considering that we have a toddler and a four-month-old in the house, we are going with public school education.  Since I try to be as active a father as I can reasonably be, I went to the back to school orientation night at our local school to meet my son’s new teachers and school staff.

Not being one to shy away from a serious conversation about opinion and common sense, I decided to talk to the two guidance counselors that were there after they offered me a flyer.  “Guidance counselors at an elementary school?  Really?”   That was my expression of frustration at the seeming overkill of staffing.  For several years, I have lamented the existence of a guidance office in an elementary school, seeing it as a huge waste of money.  We then proceeded to have a discussion about how they thought that children needed someone with whom to talk, counsel, and work out their issues.  I retorted that as children, we rode in cars without seatbelts, played with pocket knives and lawn darts, didn’t have counselors in elementary school, and we turned out just fine.  We didn’t have any form of guidance counselors until I was in junior high and high school.  Both were in the same building, so the staff there did a lot of double duty.  The main focus for the guidance counselors was not for making us feel good or to get the free services of a para-psychologist so much as it was to help with planning our academic careers.  I am pretty sure that children in primary school are not yet planning their educational careers.

I am convinced that part of the reason we have the violence we do in society is because we have discipline problems in schools and families.  We caudle children, working to build their self-esteem and the feeling of being equal to everyone else rather than building in them the drive to succeed beyond others or their own perceptions.   What we end up with is a bunch of spoiled, undisciplined brats that feel good about themselves.

John Tedesco, who is running for Superintendent of Public Instruction, asked for online feedback from citizens.  He asked simply, “What would be the first three things you would do to improve schools in NC?”  I read with interest some of the feedback given by others.  Some of it I agreed with, some of it I didn’t.  I am not going to share the words of others, only what I responded.  “1. Return to a focus on the basics. Learn them well and the other subjects can come after a mastery of the basics. 2. Return to as much local control as possible with local funding rather than being beholden to large government bureaucracies for money. 3. Keep staff based upon need and merit, not based upon tenure, available funding, experimentation, concepts such as small class sizes, or programs that just sound good.”

I read an article recently that spoke of how schools are dealing with and still operating after budget shortfalls and staff cuts.  The article also showed how the dire threats by opponents of state education budget cuts were over-stated.  The article had the headline, “After N.C. classroom layoff angst, schools make do”.  Of course they “make do”.  That is what we do.  To quote Clint Eastwood in the 1986 movie, “Heartbreak Ridge”, “You adapt.  You overcome.  You improvise.”  Look, when I was in elementary school, we had ratty old science textbooks that were falling apart and that said something to the effect that “someday, man will walk on the moon.”  The man who just recently died, Neil Armstrong, did that very thing some ten years before I even got that textbook.  Still, the information of pure science didn’t change, nor did the value we got out of those old books.  We didn’t need new ones to learn.  We made do with what we had.

I got what I believe is a decent public school education.  I applied myself and the school faculty challenged me to excel.  And this was in a state that was ranked at the bottom of per capita state education funding yet at the same time had the highest SAT scores in the nation.  We can have that same attitude again in public schools and start producing some well-educated, well-adjusted children rather than under educated brats that feel good about themselves.

Column for Feb. 2, 2012

This political scene just got a little more interesting.  I am not talking about the national campaign scene, either.  There will be several changes that I look forward to seeing play out.  Probably the biggest news is that North Carolina Governor, Beverly Perdue has decided not to run for re-election.  It was actually a bit surprising to me, though I did not really expect her to win if she ran again, anyway.  Apparently, neither did she.  Wish low polling numbers, droves of voters expected to vote against liberal candidates, low funding for a campaign, and a strong opponent for the next election, I guess it was the smart thing to do.  


People have been lining up to announce that they want to seek the governor’s position.  There is already a list of candidates that have either formally announced, announced that they will announce, or there is strong speculation that they will run.  Among them are Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton and hugely liberal/socialist State Representative Bill Faison from Berkley East, meaning Chapel Hill.  

Other possible candidates are former State Treasurer Richard Moore, U.S. Congressman Mike McIntyre, Congressman Heath Shuler (from the western part of the state), and Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx.  Then there is speculation that our old friend, Bob “Who are you” Etheridge may seek the governor’s seat.  If Old Bob runs, that will make for some interesting moments in sports in our family.  My wife’s family literally were Etheridge’s neighbors and think that he was the most honest and helpful statesmen to come along in ages.  I, on the other hand, found him to be your typical, greasy, snake oil salesman of a politician who has no idea what the US Constitution says.


With people like Bev Perdue and Congressman Brad Miller deciding not to seek re-election, I wonder if there was pressure from The White House to step down so as to help Barack Obama in a key battleground state come election season.  I realize that Miller, like Etheridge, is now in David Price’s district with the redrawn election districts, so that may have weighed heavily in his decision.  Either way, I would like to take this opportunity to formally announce that I am NOT seeking the office of Governor of the State of North Carolina at this time.


Another noteworthy decision was that of Wake County School Board member John Tedesco to run for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  I have long supported Tedesco’s stance on local schools and abolishing the so-called diversity policy in Wake County.  He will have my vote.  I was disgusted to see some of the horrible comments that his critics had left on the internet on news stories from the local TV stations about his intent to run.  Keep in mind that these are the sorts of people who call conservatives intolerant bigots.

• “Haha he is such a moron [sic]”
• “I fully intend to support whoever runs against him. He's the WORSE.[sic]”
• “He's a true idiot and can't even put together a coherent sentence.”
• “This is NO good for the state and it is really an insult that someone with so little experience with our state and the educational system in general could even be considered to run for this position! I'm disgusted!![sic]”

I find that last one very amusing considering that Bob Etheridge used to be Superintendent of Public Instruction at one time with no experience in the field of education.  At least John Tedesco has served as a member of the board of the largest school district in the state.

I decided to weigh in on this Tedesco discussion myself and left the following commentary.  “I think that all the previous commentators on this thread are pretty hateful and ignorant.  I will vote for him.  I love his stance for Wake County Schools in getting rid of the useless, (not really) progressive, politically correct diversity policy.  It was only common sense to let children go to a local school.  Any ignorant fool who thought the policy that was in place prior to John Tedesco was actually proper or effective should turn in their voter registration card and stay home.”  I have no idea what comments may have been made after I gave my opinion on that public forum, but then again, I don’t really care.