No holds barred in penalizing swindlers
Society deserves something back from Bernie Madoff and all those other finance crooks.
Enslave them in hard labor camps. Test all drugs, tortures and surgical techniques on them – forget animals. Give all their homes and other assets to the people they screwed, not families or friends.
And when they die, donate their organs, preserve what’s left, and hang them naked in front of the stock exchange.
J. Andrew Smith
Bloomfield, N.J.
Obama gives teacher merit pay passing grade
President Obama endorsed teacher merit pay, going against teacher’s unions wanting to bring United Auto Workers’ ways to schools – much as they have ruined GM and Chrysler, with a lot of help from committees of engineers who designed ugly, stupid, wasteful barges on wheels.
Since 1900, there has been a major study every year on teacher evaluation. None found the formula, but the world is not that kind of place.
Even science is not perfect. There is but one law in chemistry for which there are no exceptions. On this, as in medicine, we are simply going to have to “make do” and work to improve schools.
Schools were much better when locally funded and controlled. They were the place for important events and symbols of pride. All parents were involved. That must return.
In elementary schools, the teacher was law and you learned respect, sometimes the hard way, told to bend over to feel the difference between saying you’re sorry and being sorry while learning great respect for anything on high heels and hair in a bun. Dimwitted liberalism took that away and now the children game the system to their destruction.
The critical problem today is that science- and math-trained teachers have been able to make a lot more money working in industry. Coming out of college with big debts, wanting to marry, but how?
They find two cannot live cheaper than one when one has to be fashionable. It is not uncommon for a woman to spend every after tax dollar on fashion even after having snagged “Mr. Right.” If we want good science and math people in teaching, they will have to reach six figures in five years as in industry.
Evaluation may be done by rotating faculty teams whose members review course planning and materials as well as performance. Teaching is interactive with a lot more than sprinkling a presentation with “OKs.”
“Method teaching” is much like “method acting.”
Real teachers bring dry material to life. All the great scientists were men with interesting lives – some heroic or tragic. The greatest chemist of France died on the guillotine.
Teachers must learn to perform in the classroom and be properly paid. I applaud Obama for having this insight. Now if he would change more of his ideas, we could all get along.
Adrian Vance
Lakeport, Calif
Pork is Congress’ special interest
I always tell people the main purpose of government is to take money from the people and give it to the special interest groups that help congressmen and senators get elected.
Of course the founders didn’t intend government to work that way. If you read the Federalist Papers, you will see they feared government would end up working that way.
Another proof that government works that way is the $400 billion corporate welfare bill with something like 9,000 earmarks or pieces of pork attached to it.
That is 90 earmarks for each senator and 20 earmarks for each member of the House. Congress and the Senate is certainly more concerned with helping the special interest groups that helped them get elected than the people they represent.
The statement, “He understands you’ve got to compromise (to get things done)” translated to English means you have to say ,”I will vote for your pork if you vote for my pork” to get something done in Congress, which means Congress is all about pork.
Mike Ross
Tempe