Twittering the wrong people

A while back, I was watching the weather channel, waiting for the Local on the Eights. They did a fluff piece on BBQs and someone twittered them to ask how long one could leave meat out?

Why would anyone twitter that to the weather channel? Why would the Weather Channel answer?

I have my thoughts. They're "digital natives" and they can't think because they've come to depend on the magic box. The "digital natives" can't research. They've been able to Google and WikiSearch and copy/paste what seems to be a decent answer. Of course, it rarely is appropriate. It's usually pretty laughable if the administration weren't so keen on promoting it. It certainly smacks of plagiarism and laziness.

Lazy is too harsh a word? Their habits are (1) watch the weather channel, and see a story about a barbeque (2) have a random thought and uhhhhhhhhh ... Twitter the weather channel.

This is something we want to replicate in schools?

Just sayin'

Differential Gear

Just because I think it's neat.

Money isn't everything.

I keep hearing the same refrain: "Why should we keep funding schools? My tax money would be better spent elsewhere. Why should the schools keep getting 3% - 6% increases when I didn't get that this year?" and so on.

Money isn't everything, but not much gets done in this country without it.

If you've been funding your school properly for the last ten years, then you can easily keep the increases to the rate of inflation. Massive increases are unnecessary. Spending cuts will be possible but only for the "spend to the limits of your budget" kinds of purchases. Overall, the budget won't decrease unless you cut Art or do something equally foolish.

If you've been scrimping and underpaying for years, then more money will become necessary. Sooner or later, you'll have to repair, hire, replace, install or upgrade from the twenty-year-old books to something with covers and mentions of post-cold war America. Spending cuts will only make problems worse.