I'm back from another out of town training gig, so here are a few notes from last week:
*Saw an ad for Daytona 500-Fragrance for Men. Because nothing is sexier than smelling like burnt tires and exhaust. I hope my stocking is stuffed with a few bottles (or maybe it comes in a gas can).
*While trying to kill some time by walking through the giant Towson Town Center mall, I passed a store called Leather Man. It took a large chunk of self control to not walk in and ask for Marv Gomez.
*Can we please put a toe tag on the latest incarnation of Family Feud? J. Peterman isn't awful (and he's way better than the wooden Richard Karn), but that show stinks overall. Bone-headed contestants, WWF-style fake posters planted in the audience and some bloody awful questions have made the show difficult to watch. Dispatch Awesome Dawson from the Game Show Hall Of Fame or put this thing on ice for good.
*While dozing in the hotel room, half-watching MSNBC I hear Keith Olbermann mention Wednesday's "Worst Person in the World" is from Salisbury, MD. With a cringe I sit up and listen how a middle school teacher made three students pee in a bottle in the back of class because they were not allowed to go the bathroom unattended and no one answered the teacher's call for an attendant. Wow. A soda bottle? Seriously? Drink it all in here. Now, I know that misbehaving kids caused the policy change and that teachers may have a tough call about who really has to go to the bathroom, but you CANNOT make kids piss in bottles in the back of the classroom. There is a time when common sense must outweigh policy. Hey, but any publicity is good publicity, right Salisbury?
*Finally, after two weeks on the road I realized how much I love being home. I couldn't travel routinely for a living. You spend a week immersed in someone else's environment. It's sort of surreal; everyone else is in their normal routine, but your life (besides work) is in a kind of suspended animation. I know some guys who enjoy it. Maybe they don't have wives to miss or don't miss their wives, but I wouldn't enjoy living out of a suitcase for extended periods of time. My sweet, beautiful wife makes home a fantastic place to be. Thank God she came along and rescued me from a life of solitude.
8 comments:
It's obvious you adore your wife and I know she is glad you are back also. You're right.... some people love to travel. Glad you are not one of them. Glad to have you back!!!! Angela
Ok, the 2 things that Salisbury has made the national news for of late...kids pissing in soda bottles in school and butts getting glued to toilet seats in the local Wal-Mart. Do I sense a theme here?
And that's a really sweet thing to post about your beautiful wife. Lucky girl!
Wow... soundbite journalism. I'm going to pull for the teacher here. The Daily Times, while their story may be accurate according to the folks they interviewed, is not the Wall Street Journal, not even the USA Today.
Having worked for the news "ahem" bureau of the television station just down the street from the Times, I have a gut feeling that like any good storyteller, they looked for a quote that would support the knee jerk reaction we all have when hearing that a teacher lets students whizz in a soda bottle. Then, as a matter of professional responsibility and fair and balanced reporting, get the ambiguous official protected with legalese statement.
The story only scratches the surface of the restroom policy enacted, due to abuse of privledge. The teacher's hands were tied, he could not let them leave the classroom on their own, but he didn't tell them to bottle their own Mountain Dew. He may have joked about it, who of us didn't have a teacher who suggested that to at least one classmate in our youth? After the teacher finished the soda, one student asked if he could have the bottle. In my mind he's thinking 'OK this kid is running with the joke', not 'uh oh, call Mr. Wong to bring a mop'. Only in a subsequent article did they acknowledge that the teacher was not lecturing the entire class, but working individually with students. And, that the three kids with the teacup sized bladders excused themselves to an alcove within the classroom out of sight from most of the class, and my bet is out of sight of the teacher.
The incident, while a shame is being blown up by the media. Who outside of the local area bothered to read the follow up article the next day? As much as I like Olberman, I doubt he, or anyone else on the national front did.
This whole thing would not have even happened if the few students who could not govern themselves accordingly had not abused the privledge of unsupervised use of the restroom. Why is the media not blaming the troublemakers who defaced the washrooms?
And another thing. Why couldn't the three with itty-bitty bladders go before class? Or wait until the end of class? Haven't they reduced the length of the school periods to 15-20 minutes these days?
Seriously, I could, and would, wait all day until I got home just to avoid touching the filthy restroom door handle. (I guess you could call it OCD, but I'd like to think it was training for college weekends.)
Kids these days are weak.
I am a lucky girl. Glad to have my adoring husband home!
Many people, such as my dear friend JoAnn, go months without seeing their husbands or wives who are serving overseas in the military.
I don't know how they do it. People have so much strength.
I am with Rob on this. I must say too, that there are some pertinent details which have been completely overlooked. The story on WBOC's webpage was darn near libel. The students were not "ordered" to do anything. And nothing was done "in front of" anyone. Not only that, having been in the student restrooms at SMS, I would rather use an alcove at the back of a classroom-- especially as paper towels and hand sanitizer were available. Try getting soap or towels in most school restrooms. The climate at that particular school is troubling, and it has nothing to do with that teacher, or any other, for that matter. On a brighter note, SMS was the only middle school in Wicomico County to make Annual Yearly Progress for NCLB. Where was Mr. Olberman then?
I admit I probably don't have the whole scoop, i'm just going on what i read. As for NCLB-yippee SMS can teach to a test. that's wonderful news.
I don't think the real problem is the teacher. Seems like he didn't object to the students using the bottle, but I don't think he forced them to either. The big problem is the policy. You can't punish everybody for the actions of a few. There has to be a better way to curb the actions of the trouble makers.
As for NCLB, if you do indeed respect it, which obviously not everyone here does, the story Olberman should have run was why only one middle school in the county was able to show progress.
get the federal government out of local schools and the decisions of local school boards. nothing in the constitution grants the federal government any authority over education.
you know I'm write.
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