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My 2007 Year in Review

Unlike everyone else, I slacked off and waited until 2008 was officially here to do my review. 2007 was my first year of full on blogging. I’d messed around here and there with different blogs before, but 2007 was the year I drank the Kool Aid and went at it for real. I’ll keep this list confined to what occurred on this blog. You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m somewhat guarded about the personal life. Enough about me…here are my thoughts on my 10 most notable posts of 2007:

Ron Paul’s Presidential Run
At times it seemed to me that Ron Paul news was taking over this blog. On one hand I feel like I need to apologize for that, but on the other hand, it’s my blog and that’s what I was interested in. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one who was excited by Dr. Paul’s message, and I hopefully played a small part in helping him get elected. More on that later this year, as I have some thoughts on what is realistic, and what is for the best.

Knox County Scandals
There were more in 2007 than I can even count. That makes you wonder how much stuff is going on that we haven’t even heard about yet. Last week I saw a t-shirt that read, “Miami: A sunny place for shady people.” Knox County seems to have the market cornered on shadiness this year.

Steroids in Sports (and Non-Sports)
My bottom line–WHO CARES? Next topic.

People Getting Nekkid and Almost Nekkid
I got a ton of traffic this year writing articles about Vanessa Hudgens, along with a couple of articles about the Inskip teacher who had arguably inappropriate photos on MySpace. I don’t really care who gets naked and takes photos of it, I just wonder how people can do that and not retain ALL digital copies of the material. Idiots.

Barbie Cummings and the Highway Patrol
This was just a funny local story that ended up causing me to exceed my bandwidth when it went national and I ended up ranking #3 on Google for “Barbie Cummings Blog”. Since then, Ms. Cummings life has apparently changed dramatically, much for the better. How do I know that? I’m resourceful, and it didn’t take much digging anyway. Nevertheless, it seems like she wants to leave that part of her life behind her, so I think it’s time this story finally died and went away, never to be mentioned here again.

Tennessee Smoking Ban
Thank you to our state’s elected leaders for writing and enforcing personal choice laws on private property. If you really want to look out for me and mine, stop wasting our tax dollars on this crap. Next thing you know we’re going to have to provide health care for people who would’ve otherwise died if you’d not spent millions trying to keep them from smoking.

Buddies Blogging
Some people I know IRL also started blogs this year. It’s funny that you can go months or years without talking or emailing with someone, and this medium puts you in the position to “converse” with them every day. Even when it isn’t dialog, you read what they write and they read what you write. Very cool. Not to mention the countless other blogs I’ve begun to read that I never would have learned about if I’d not started blogging for real this year.

The War On Education
Also known as the public school system. I feel like I don’t spend enough time or energy talking about this because I think it’s the number one problem facing our country. Solutions are anything but clear and simple, but one thing I’m very excited about for this coming year is that I’ve got an idea that may help a little, at least for individuals. I’m finishing up some other projects, and then I’m going at it full force.

Blogging About Blogging
As I said, 2007 was my first year blogging full throttle, and boy did I learn a lot. I posted a ton of stuff about monetizing, driving traffic, building networks, linking to other people, and I’m sure lots of other stuff that annoys people. I can’t help it…my interest is peaked. Another project I want to tackle for this year is keeping that stuff off of this site and directing it to a different blog that is dedicated to that subject.

The One I Wish Was More Popular
Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about The Wire. I really wished more people watched this show, especially the season that starts next week which will address the media. I’ve had several great conversations with people who watch The Wire, and I’d love to bring more of them to this venue. In fact, I think I’m going to, despite the fact that most people don’t know about the show. At least I’ll have the bragging rights that a couple of people heard about it from me when they are finally turned on to it.

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Why Are Public Schools All or Nothing?

A friend at work home schooled his daughter up until high school, and one of the reasons he mentioned for sending her to public school this year was that she wanted to be involved in the band. That got me thinking. He pays taxes just like everyone else in the county. Why does his daughter have to accept an entire education that is inferior to the one he can provide her at home just to participate in band?

Then I really started thinking. Why can’t parents pick and choose which courses their children receive from public schools and omit the ones they don’t want? And isn’t disallowing a home schooled child the opportunity to take a single class that their parents don’t feel comfortable teaching them, say calculus, without enrolling in the full curriculum a denial of services afforded to all residents by the Constitution of the State?

I know the initial response to this is that state funds are tied to enrollment, but why can’t the school count students fractionally based on the number of courses (services guaranteed by the State) they use?

I’ll have more to say about this in the future, and I don’t want to jump completely off the cliff until I have time to think about it more and read a little, but this sounds like a reasonable proposition to me. In fact, I wonder if there would be grounds for a lawsuit against a county/state if a parent attempted to try something like this. I’m no lawyer, but it seems reasonable.

What do you guys think?

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School Fundraising–Producing Beggars for at Least 30 Years

Is anyone else really put off when they are attacked by an army of eight year olds in front of the grocery store trying to sell something for their school?  We were just talking about this yesterday after our weekly trip to the store.  Yesterday’s group of kids wasn’t even selling anything, they were just taking donations.

I despise this practice for so many reasons it actually warrants its own post, or several posts.  I have no doubt in my mind that public schools need more money.  After all, what gov’ment run project doesn’t?  How can our schools maintain their mediocre performance without more money?  Financing sports programs alone is insanely expensive, yet essential to providing an average education, right?

It gets better.  Our doorbell rang at 8:00 last night–a little girl selling overpriced stuff I don’t need for her school.  Well, a little of the money was for her school.  The rest was no doubt going to line the pockets of some guys in an MLM program.  Of course the little girl was super motivated by the plastic paddle game, or sticker book, or whatever it was she would get for being the top beggar salesperson in her class.

Or maybe not.  I told her if she wanted to come back the next day and ask the Missus, she may want to buy something.  No dice.  “This has to be turned in tomorrow.”

I at least admire her procrastination.  It reminds me of my elementary school days when I waited until the last minute to sell some insanely expensive junk to people.

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It’s All About The Process

Ken has a great post on a project his kids are working on.  They’ve researched 4th Amendment Supreme Court cases and are filming re-enactments (he hopes).  Technology has given them the opportunity to learn in a way that they couldn’t before, and even if they never get to finalizing filming and editing, he’s okay with that.  Unfortunately, others may not be as excited.

Because process doesn’t fill the seats and it surely doesn’t wow the eyes of the masses.

But it’s not about what they do with their understanding that creates the ‘wow’ factor; rather, it’s about how they reach that understanding that is the educational equivalent of CGI.

I had a ‘wow’ moment a few years ago that was very similar.  Unfortunately for me, I was 30 before I realized that the  process towards the goal is almost always more rewarding and educational than the goal itself.

Think about it.  Looking back, which did you enjoy more–graduation, or being in college?  Winning a championship in a sport, or the hard work you put into training so that you could win?  Getting the girl, or chasing her?

I’m on a tangent now.  Forget what I said, just read Ken’s entire post.

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Higher Education Marketing

Seth Godin has a great post today about what actually matters (and what doesn’t) when choosing a college.

It’s almost as if every single high school student and her parents insisted on having a $200,000 stereo because it was better than the $1,000 stereo. Sure, it might be a bit better, but is it better enough?

Take the time to read the whole thing.

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How Fitting

There’s been some discussion here over the last couple of days about some of the problems with education, and more specifically the distractions from learning that exist in the school systems. And today my trusty reader finds this article…

Thursday night, the future student body got together at Hardin Valley Elementary in hopes of finding something they can all cheer for at Hardin Valley Academy, the high school being constructed next door.

The school’s principal also fielded questions from the students. Many were curious about what extra-curricular activities would available.

Things like a girl’s volleyball team and a football team will be just like normal, but the football team might not have enough seniors to go varsity right away.

Still, the mascot debate had everyone’s attention.

I have an idea…

What about The Sheep?

And in related news…
I was eating breakfast this morning in our yucketeria and overheard a table full of co-workers talking about the big election high school football game tonight. Their conversation was interrupted when they paused to watch a Fox Infotainment story about birth control being dispensed at a Maine middle school. Only one guy at the table had a comment, but it seemed to sum up everyone’s opinion, “That’s not the school’s job.”

I agree. Now back to high school football…

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So What Is The Purpose of Schools?

Taylor the Teacher makes some good points about our education system…

If schools are for parenting, dietary management, public safety, sex ed, driver’s ed, football, lifelong memories, values, morals AND learning, that changes the equation significantly.

If schools are about learning only when learning doesn’t confict with the culture war, get in anyone’s political path, or become too expensive, then the equation is even more drastically changed.

If they are about all of those things plus learning, but we’re going to keep saying they’re about learning, schools are a farce.

But learning still rocks.

The political issues aside, I think the biggest problem lies in kids’ attitude toward school in general. Many see school as all of things Taylor mentioned besides learning. Many more view the completion of their 12 year sentence in the public indoctrination education system as the sum of education of their lives. After that, they’ve “finished”.

Where does this attitude come from? My guess is either their parents, or the schools themselves, who have to tout themselves as the end all beat all of intellectual development in order to justify their place in our communities. Winning football games seems to go a long way in being considered a quality school as well.

Taylor is right. Learning does rock. And learning starts at birth and ends at death. The 12 years between ages 6 and 18 are just a small piece of a real education.

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I Were Wondering the Same Thing

I came across this Mother Tongue Annoyances post by way of Kat Coble at Music City Bloggers. I’m taking a big risk linking to this blog, fearing that Tim W. may visit here and rip a new grammar hole in me.

Ach! This usage of was grates me so intensely because in my opinion it makes the speaker sound so powerfully ignorant. Not necessarily “low-range IQ” ignorant, but “blissfully unaware of the standard rules of English grammar” ignorant. We must recall that the adjective ignorant derives etymologically from the Latin ignorantia (“Not aware”).

This is one RSS feed to which I’m sure I’ll be subscribed for a while. I haven’t had a chance to dig through the archives to see if he’s already written an article on “people who try to look smart but really show how ignorant they are when they use ‘I’ instead of ‘me’ as the subject of a verb”. You’ve seen and heard it many times I’m sure…

“Tim gave a grammar lesson to Chris and I.”

Hopefully, he’s already addressed conjucating “be” as well.

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Who Snitched on the Teacher?

Michael Silence has a possible theory…

So do you think an ex is behind this? If so, let’s move on.

Seriously. In fact, let’s move on either way.

If it was an ex, I’ve already addressed what I think about jackasses like him.

Yesterday, I predicted that “nude teacher photos” would be all the craze in 2008. That still may come to fruition, but I bet there won’t be too many partially nude photos surfacing.

There was no doubt a flurry of activity on MySpace last night, with educators across the country making big changes to their profiles.

Lesson learned.