And Here... We... Go!

First order of business…

I am The[random]Puma.  Welcome to this wonderful experiment known as my blog.  This endeavor will be either a fun delightful success or a failure of (this next part is me being realistic) few people noticing.  I am hoping for the former while realizing the latter is a real possibility. That is not going to stop me though.  I view the vast internet as missing something, specifically my thoughts and comments.  Now in the blogosphere there are millions of people making comments about a lot of the same stuff I will be commenting on, only they are not me.  As most of the people who will read this know, there is really no one else quite like me.  I am not trying to say I am better than my newfound “peers” only that they are infact different from me.  That little fact will be the whole difference in this experiment and will determine the result.

What is the result I am trying to get though?  Other than people reading what I have to write, nothing.  Actually, let me rephrase that.  Absolutely nothing is what I want to accomplish.  Someone has a better chance of pinning a tail on a live donkey in an obstacle (mouse traps, rakes, chairs, whatever else could be painful to run into) filled room and not getting kicked, before I decide if this is to go anywhere.  All I know is this blog is to be random ramblings of thoughts on anything.  Sure it will have certain emphasis on some areas but that’s because I have interests in certain areas more than others.  Just as I am sure, you, a reader of this rambling have interests of your own. 

So without further delay…

Let’s do this!

First topic up for Rambling is …

WISCONSIN

Personally, I find the situation currently there to be quite irritating.  And I feel it’s been a growing trend in across the nation.  For those who do not know, the Governor of Wisconsin is trying to pass legislation that would ban teachers from seeking CBAs.  The teachers would be forced to sacrifice benefits that they have worked hard for and that most of us take for granted.  Now I admit I am not presenting all the details of all of what’s going on.

But we, as a nation are not presenting or facing all the facts of what is going on either.  First of all, teachers do not have an easy job.  They spend arguably more time with the majority of their students then the parents of the students, especially the younger ones.  For years, education funding has been cut.  Class sizes are growing which means there are more kids for teachers to care about.  But the hours of a school day haven’t changed.  They’ve only gotten longer for teachers with more assignments to grade.  And let’s not forget the bullying and other forms of violence in schools.  There are so many more variables I cannot list them all.

I was watching a movie today and a young student claimed, “Teachers don’t care” and I disagree with his claim.  Teachers do care.  I could tell that from my high school experience.  Many of my friends at WSU and from high school have gone on to become teachers.  I know they care.  They care a lot.  Here is the truth though, in today’s world, they are asked to care for too much.  They have to spread themselves too thinly and fight against classroom distractions (cell phones and Facebook).  It is a foregone conclusion some kids will slip through the cracks but with the continued the reductions, more will.  Simply because it is stupid to ask people to do more work and get better results with less-resources to get the job done.  It’s like giving a lumberjack a herring and telling him to go cut down more trees than what he did with a saw.

Punishing teachers is not the answer.  Setting children up for failure is not either.

We need to value and fund education… or we set ourselves up for failure too.