“It doesn’t take much to make the daily round with one’s employer work smoothly. A couple of ‘yessirs’ when you know that ‘not on your life’ is the thing to say. A few expressions of doubt about things you’ve spent… Read More ›
Education
A Man, and a Woman, Out Of Time
“Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.” —George Carlin I got a… Read More ›
Here We Go Again
“She stared at the television. “Why is it that after all the bullets have bounced off Superman’s chest, he then ducks when the villain throws the empty gun at him?” ― Percival Everett, I Am Not Sidney Poitier The… Read More ›
A Christmas Visit From Slatski
“The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that when nations are strong they are not always just, and when they wish to be just they are often no longer strong,” ― Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking… Read More ›
In Case You Doubted, It Truly Takes a Village
“That’s all I’ve ever dreamed of, Mr. Bones. To make the world a better place. To bring some beauty to the drab humdrum corners of the soul. You can do it with a toaster, you can do it with a… Read More ›
How Much is a Punch in the Face Worth?
“Every day there had been rotten cops in the news and still she had been bamboozled. ‘I mean, they’re supposed to protect people, right? How can they be so bad at their jobs?’ ‘They protect people from other people…. Read More ›
The Runaway Bride Hits Nashville
When I was a kid, we had a game we liked to play. You’d take a brown paper lunch bag, fill it with dog poop, place it on some unsuspecting person’s porch, light it on fire, ring the doorbell, and… Read More ›
Well, That’s Clear As Mud
Last week, I wrote about what has become an annual event in Tennessee: the botching of the release of TCAP results. Last year, they came out late, which prevented many schools from being able to include them, as is required… Read More ›
A Pleasant Surprise from a Politician
As I travel along on this journey of educating myself on and advocating for education policy, I come into contact with quite a few politicians. The ones who I would count as friends of public education are usually pretty rare…. Read More ›
Here We Go Again
Here we go again. In Tennessee, like many states in the Union, we test our students using standardized tests every April. In May and June, the results come out and the questioning begins. The last couple of years have seen the questioning get… Read More ›
Dad Gone Wild 