Life: Random thoughts

Today I met with my friend Bunny and her parents and grandmother for lunch. After she finished telling me about the different kinds of fertilizers and treatments I should use on my new lawn, we changed topics.

For some reason I asked if she had been watching American Idol. She had not. And, neither had anyone else in her family. However, her 80-year old grandmother busted out with, "What is the deal with that Sunjaya guy."

It just struck me as funny to hear such a sweet old lady talking about "that jerk who won't get kicked off the show."

I was curious as to how her family knew about the show, since they never watched it, and I learned that they had heard about the show from FoxNews. Which is, of course the best news channel on the air, barring the Glenn Beck Program on CNN Headline News.

Speaking of Glenn Beck, he was playing clips from the Bill O'Reilly vs. Geraldo Rivera debate the other day on drunk Hispanic drivers. Without a doubt, Geraldo has gone off the deep end, and Bill O'Reilly is right on. Geraldo was claiming something about needing to be fair and equitable to those illegal aliens who come over here. We all know that is insane. They have no rights.

I was telling Bunny's folks about how my parents and several hundred other volunteers routinely go down to the US Mexico border and stand watch and report illegal alien crossings. During the first night of their watch last Saturday, they spotted 300 illegal aliens crossing the border.

There is definitely a problem at the border.

I was relating how Decatur is turning into "Little Mexico" as I call it. It seems everywhere you turn there is a new Mexican grocery store and such popping up.

I have a lot of friends who are teachers and they relate to me how they are appalled at the number of parents who come in and can't even speak English. I am stepping out on a limb and assuming that the parents are illegal aliens. How in the world can their kids be in the public school system if they are not here legally?

Speaking of the school system, I have started to realize a significant problem in the public schools.

I have a question. A class of 25 students is given a test and the resulting grades are shown below. Which of the following schools is doing a better job teaching?


School 1:

A = 15
B = 6
C = 2

School 2.

A = 7
B = 11
C = 7

If you answered School 2, you are correct. Schools which have a large percentage of students making As have a problem (School #1). One of two things is happening. Either (1) The material is not challenging enough which stalls education growth or (2) The teachers are teaching the tests, which is doing a horrible disservice to the kids in the long run.

Based on the laws or probability and statistics, given a random assortment of pupils, after teaching appropriate subject matter, the resulting distribution of test results will be a normal distribution with the majority of students "average" in the middle, and then a few who do really well, and a few who do really bad. It is basically a mathematical law.

That was just a trend I've been noticing lately. It might explain what a lot of kids are stupid these days. Also, I know a lot has to do with lack of parent involvement at home. It is just as much the job of the parent to teach the child as it is the school system.

Hope you all have a great Easter weekend! Go to church!