Daily Blues & Views

Another cheating scandal broke yesterday. Another Superintendent of public schools fired and this time indicted as well. Another example of the misguided policy that passes for education reform. This one could serve as a textbook example. (pun intended) This one featured the deliberate erasing of answers and changing wrong answers to correct ones. Imagine a principal calling in a select group of faculty, calling them the "chosen ones" and then secretly meeting to doctor up the test results. Bad enough right? But then, there is money involved too. Don't forget that the dunderheads that advocate this kind of high stakes testing also advocate merit pay for teachers who achieve high test scores and schools that improve dramatically. Some drama. In my view, the real tragedy is the testing itself. Testing is not teaching. If so much time and energy is spent trying to get students to regurgitate measurable bits of information,...

I was watching a young woman pack up her laptop after doing a bit of what appeared to be school work.  Alternating between a spiral notebook, she was double checking something on the computer screen with a bit of frenzy.  Probably had a class to make on time or catch a bus.  Since it was a nice little Macbook Pro, the older white one, I wanted to ask about the size of the screen.  I did, after explaining that we're looking for a new computer mostly for my wife, but one compatible with my Macbook.   She then took a few unsolicited seconds to tell me  how fantastic the little laptop was.  She was gushing with praise.  I explained that I fully understood and then she added, " This little computer got me through college.  I really think you should get one."  Sold. After she scrambled off I began to think about college with a computer.  With the exception of some graduate work, and of course everything I do now in working with Education...

Imagine a still life in cold remedies. Boxes of pills, for sore throat, runny nose, coughing. Day and Night Quils. Tissue boxes, aspirin, three brands of throat lozenge, lemons, honey and a couple of bottles of fine Kentucky bourbon. This bug that entered our house took it all in stride and has finally decide to hit the road. None too soon.  Of all the medicines, sometimes even pure sunshine, which we get on occasion, there is one that always does the job. It's long been called the "best medicine" and in many ways that is arguably the truth. Humor...laughter...finding the lighter side of that which seems permanently so dark. Scientifically, we know that various enzymes and brain chemicals get released when we laugh. Isn't it wonderful that we can literally save our lives. A good hearty laugh, at anything, is a great antidote for stress, which in turn in an antidote for the ravages of stress. In my misery this week, I lusted after a few good laughs. I soug...

This month is easing out the door. I've had no voice for the last few days due to one of those colds that hang out at mortuaries. Easy to see how one could just deteriorate after a couple of weeks of hacking and sneezing. No strength, hard to breathe, no appetite ...for anything... So this is how it ends? Still, things get done, Spring hovers then drifts away and dissolves into the promise to finish those blossoms now tugging on stems and branches all over town. Next month will be better. Next month will bring baseball and a fishing license, and perhaps a car was that will last for a week. For now it's another variation on chicken soup, convulsive nights, drag your ass to here and there mornings and afternoon naps. I'm not sure this is just a bad cold. Everything is so ovr the top anymore, can't even slip out of a cold in a couple of days anymore.

Drive around Portland Oregon for any length of time and you'll see a phrase displayed all over town.  "Keep Portland Weird."  It's on bumper stickers, on telephone poles, and on the windows of the city's many used clothing stores.  Re-purposed clothing, I should say.  People here are proud of being weird.  Weird goes beyond looking and acting abnormal, it implies tolerance too. For the most part, Portland is weird.  It unfortunately has serious bouts with intolerance, but time and the willingness to change will eventually help out in that department. It is not all that uncommon to see the weird that people here feel the need to advocate.  Once I had the good fortune of taking some friends from out of town around my neighborhood and we chanced to see the unicycle riding bag piper who often plays the theme from Star Wars on his nightly rounds. Weird Portlanders often push gender boundaries.  They do this with hair and clothing most often, but it ...

Sometimes, when I wake up in the morning, my thoughts are clear and clearer,  The first recognizable thought is "I'm old now."  Old  I find wisdom in age, I find less anxiety, more acceptance.  Crow's feet land on my eyes; light sketches line drawings.,  Older  I recall seeing the newly discovered,on back pages.  More things mean less daily,  Still others mean more nightly,  Oldest In rooms I enter, I'm often the most experienced.  At what? I take the time to find out.  Yet my experience hardly encompasses anyone.  Do I appear an other?  Is any deep-rooted truth with me?