Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
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What’s wrong with Zero-Tolerance in public schools?
Posted at: Feb/08/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Behavior, Education, Society,
Before I start to rant, I should begin with some background. Zero-Tolerance policies began sweeping the country in 1994 after Congress required states to adopt laws that guaranteed one-year expulsions for any student who brought a firearm to school. By tying federal funding to compliance with the Congressional mandate, all 50 states rapidly adopted similar laws. Public policy towards childr.....read more…
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Wrapping up 2009
Posted at: Dec/29/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Historical Insights,
These things are kind of fun to write. In the theme of fun I will make a best effort at avoiding being verbose. Change is inevitable, how many times have we heard that…but that is the nature of humanity. We are continually changing our world despite how much we also resist change. Seems like yesterday that we were all worried about Y2K and how our technology driven world would be c.....read more…
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Doing the math on energy
Posted at: Dec/21/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Environment,
So I have been doing some reading and math with respect to a "carbon footprint". If the goal is to reduce the amount of carbon being expelled into the atmosphere, then we need a real goal....say 50% reduction. Switching from 160HP gas burning cars to 75HP plug-in electric cars is not actually a savings. In the U.S. we produce the majority of our electricity from either coal or natural gas. Fac.....read more…
Are we really fixing Healthcare?
Posted at: Dec/17/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Healthcare,
It is now the waning months of 2009 and congress has been haggling over healthcare for most of the last 6 months. Some how I feel we are seeing an attempt to control a wildfire with a common garden hose. I guess the real question is “what do you attack first”? Fundamentally the challenge with our current system is the excessive cost to get medical care and the large segment of our p.....read more…
The Challenge of Public Education
Posted at: Oct/26/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, Perspectives,
I have wanted to build an essay on this subject for quite a while, but I have struggled with what direction my theme would take. It has finally dawned on me that this is in itself metaphoric of the issues facing public education. There are so many different internal and external pressures being applied to education that there is no longer any possibility of a simple understanding or a simple solut.....read more…
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Too much bad news
Posted at: Oct/22/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: My philosophy,
It is very easy to feel overwhelmed. In this era of continuous information, 24 hour news channels, pod casts, iPhone, etc it is easy to decide that our world is falling apart. Technology has given us access to a continuous stream of information and most of it seems bad. Bank failures, unemployment numbers, suicide bombers, murder, rape, greed, corruption, tax increases….seems like.....read more…
Barack Obama and the Nobel Prize for Peace
Posted at: Oct/15/2009 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Perspectives,
It was recently announced that President Barack Obama had been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. This announcement sparked criticism, controversy and praise. I have mixed feeling on the award and will try to unload my thoughts with some direction and hope they lead to a conclusion. "Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the developmen.....read more…
Things ain't what they used to be.
Things ain't what they used to be, that sentiment harkens back to a simpler day in which innocence was not met with sarcasm, a man's word was his bond and yadda yadda yadda. How many times have we heard that rant, it’s probably right up there with the “when I was a boy stories” we all get tired of hearing. What a bunch of bull &%#@. I would really like to know which time period in th.....read more…
Why stop at 435?
Related Category: The Law,
During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the delegates supported and debated many ideas. The larger states wanted representation in the one chamber based on population. The smaller states didn't think that would be good for them. The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, was the result of the delegates coming together to devise a better plan. This plan, as we know it .....read more…
Work Life Balance
Posted at: Sep/25/2009 : Posted by: mel
Have you heard the term Work-Life-Balance? This is a very stylish thing to talk to these days. There are books on the subject, professional speakers who purport to be experts in the field, corporate training sessions, so what is all the hype? The noise is about how you live your life. Are you in control of your destiny and your time, or are others. Work-Life-Balance is the balance we seek b.....read more…
