Best quote I've heard in a while

"(Gay Marriage debate is) a debate about whether you think gay people are a part of the human condition or just a random fetish..."

- John Stewart to Bill Bennet on The Daily Show

Government Sabotage

With daily examples of deliberate sabotage of our government agencies by the Republican party,  I am becoming more and more convinced of one thing. Really everything they do can be boiled down to a few things: reducing necessary public income (taxes) because they don't want to pay a fare share for public government, embracing failed leaders and failed policies to demonstrate that government cannot work, and then blame "government" for the problem so they can take what little public money remains and subcontract public responsibilities to private industry at exorbitant rates (further enriching those who hoard the money to begin with).

A perfect example of this is education. I knew there was something about "No Child Left Behind" that just didn't sit right with me. I know Republicans want to kill public education, not save it. So why was this program embraced?

The logic of testing and rating teachers based on their students' performance is dumbed-down like so much of Republican camouflage (like "Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here," Kerry's "Global Test," or a handful of wet busses in New Orleans) so I knew it couldn't be good for education. But because I didn't have an educator's perspective, I didn't quite understand HOW it served the Republican purpose of damaging public education. Now I do.

I recently ran into this piece on the web which helps you see the poor logic behind "No Child Left Behind."



No Dentist Left Behind

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth. When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.

"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I said. " No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?" "It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average, below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."

"That's terrible," he said.

"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"

"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry."

Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."

"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work. Also many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay. To top it all off, so many of my clients have well water, which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I can't believe that you, my dentist, would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job,and you needn't fear a little accountability."

"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to work where I am needed most."

"Don't' get touchy," I said.

"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. The few educated patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. they may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said. "'Complaining, excuse-making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'…I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.

"What's the DOC?" he asked.

"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved."

"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?"

"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."

"That's too complicated, expensive and time-consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."

"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.

"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."

"How?" he asked.

"If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.

"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"

"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."

"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened.

"I'm going to write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school analogy. Surely they will see the point."

He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed anger that I, a teacher, see in the mirror so often lately.

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If you don't understand why educators resent the recent federal NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT, this may help. If you do understand, you'll enjoy this analogy,

Be a friend to a teacher and pass this on.

Letter to Macy's

To: Y000cds@macys.com
Christine Stewart
Customer Service Specialist

To: Elina.Kazan@macys.com
Elina Kazan
Macy's Spokeswoman

Macy's



Ms. Stewart, Ms. Kazan,

I am offended by Macy's embrace of bigotry and hatred.

By caving-in to the bigotry of anti-gay zealots,  Macy's has offended every patron who believes in diversity and equality. Macy's has removed the mannequins from its display just as these bigots would have every gay person removed from society. The symbolism is not lost on open-minded patrons.

I am a shopper at Macy's, but unless Macy's apologizes for this acceptance of bigotry and restores the window to its original effort to show support for equality, I will return my recent purchases and discontinue shopping at any of your stores.

Sincerely...