It’s a fact that our school grades reflect our community grades (i.e., our schools succeed primarily because of the conditions and culture in our community).
All this reminds me of a poster on a bulletin board outside of an office at a local college: “It will be a great day when our public schools get all the money they need, and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”
Let us remember the wit and wisdom of Mark Twain: “The greatness of the nation lies in our public schools.”
A yes vote means leaving no child behind. Yes, we can continue with “Excellence through tradition and innovation.”
David A. Hancock
Chester
School-Funding Reality
Why is the Cleveland Metropolitan School District having so many financial problems? The answer to this question should be examined from a business approach.
In a business setting—and make no mistakes, that’s exactly where a school system is—the bottom line is the main determination of success or failure. In using this approach, the income statement is the first item to be reviewed. The amount of income determines whether a business lives or dies. And further, what is done with that income will also have an impact.
However, the Cleveland School District has very little control over the income it receives. Unfortunately, it is at the mercy of the government bureaucracy, to wit: Gov. John Kasich’s lower taxes for the rich (to the detriment of all other budgets); the state legislature, which approved the governor’s budget; Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; the City Council; and last but not least, the voters who put all the aforementioned into office.
If the Cleveland School District had some control over the income, there might be some reasonable cause to blame them for poor management, but their only action can be a reaction to the financial starvation diet that is denying it the funds necessary to function in a more effective manner. And a fiscal plan is viable only so long as the rules are stable and do not change. Unfortunately, the rules are always changing, and the school district has to deal with the consequences.
Governor Kasich seems to think that the key to balancing the budget for the state of Ohio is to cut services to those programs that need governmental help the most. His Darwinian approach is out of touch with reality. If he were to tax those entities that can afford it, the approach would be more viable rather than watching a necessary public institution fail, condemning that institution, and then, with the voucher program, diverting money to the charter schools.
The mayor and the City Council have also contributed to the reduction of funding for the schools. In order to lure more businesses to Cleveland, the Cleveland City Government has utilized property tax abatements. These abatements have been given to most of the more successful businesses.
The solution to the problem is to find another source of revenue to fund the schools. The property-tax system has already been declared illegal by the Ohio State Supreme Court. For that reason alone, Cleveland should investigate another method for funding the schools. How about an additional 1 percent income tax to be used exclusively for the schools?
This method of funding would be preferable to cutting expenses by gutting the system of any teachers with experience and/or seniority. To be honest, anytime an administrator starts talking about the evils of seniority, the comment is a veiled reference to the elimination of higher-priced professionals by using less experienced, less costly help. Any individual who thinks that this method is in the best interest of the students is not being honest or realistic.
David A. Hancock
Chester
Look Around: Money Can’t Buy Happiness
To the editor:
The Frank Gruttadauria and Enron sagas should remind us of human vultures—parasites at work. It is quite obvious that these individuals have the disease called “more.” More money, of course. It reminds me of a few enlightening quotes about economics:
“The only thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about losing it.” (Antoine de Rivarol)
“Poor and content is rich and rich enough.” (Shakespeare)
“$1 million doesn’t always bring happiness. A person with $10 million is no happier than a person with $9 million.” (Unknown)
Ben Franklin expressed the folly in trying to achieve happiness through money: “Money never made a man happy yet nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one.”
Total security based on external possessions is another illusion of life. The people who are striving for security are among the most insecure, and the people who least care about security are the most secure. Emotionally insecure people seek to offset their unpleasant feelings by accumulating great amounts of money as security against attacks on their egos.
People striving for security, by their very nature, are very insecure. They depend on something outside themselves, such as money, spouses, houses, cars, and prestige or security. If they lose all the things they have, they lose themselves because they lose everything on which their identities are based.
If money makes people happy then why didn’t Ivan Boesky, who illegally accumulated more than $100 million through insider trading on Wall Street, stop his illegal actions after accumulating $2 million or $5 million but instead continued accumulating more millions until he got caught (or felt guilty)? Sound familiar?
Why do so many well-paid baseball, football, and basketball players have drug and alcohol and gambling problems? Why do doctors, one of the wealthiest groups of professionals, have one of the highest divorce, suicide, and alcoholism rates of all professionals? Why do the poor give more to charities than the rich? Why do so many rich people get in trouble with the law? Why do so many wealthy people go to see psychiatrists and therapists?
These are just a few warning signs that money doesn’t guarantee happiness.
David A. Hancock
Chesterland
Hancock is a science teacher at Monticello Middle School in Cleveland Heights.
Machiavellian Duplicity
The following morsels are ruminations about West Geauga Board of Education member Michael Kilroy’s school-renewal levy campaign ads published in local newspapers. I don’t intend to be crass.
First, I think Mr. Kilroy’s Smart Board campaign and focus on technology in education reflected positive educational leadership. Also, research on interest rates seems to be positive.
However, I am more concerned about the following attitudes and behavior, ego and power. Many statements reflect some common political demagoguery—e.g., Mr. Kilroy’s iconoclasm and intransigent attitude and opinion about the professional positions of superintendent, former business manager, treasurer, and communications director. He seems to think that these positions should be part-time or share them with other school districts. What?
Many of Mr. Kilroy’s statements and comments are a reflection of Machiavellian duplicity: disguising of true intentions by deception, deceptive words, or actions. Obfuscations—“confusing the issues” or “to make obscure” or “discombobulating.” Prevarications—“to deviate from the truth” or “equivocate.” Verisimilitudes—“the quality or state of appearing to be true or real.”
Confabulations—“fabrications.” Hyperbole—“exaggerations.” Caviling—“to make frivolous objections or raise trivial objections.” Captiousness—“an inclination to find fault, especially in certain people.” Sophistry—“subtle deceptive reasoning or argument.” These are all narcissism traits and characteristics.
Mr. Kilroy has obsessive-compulsive thinking about ranking and test scores. Mark Twain said that “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.”
Mr. Kilroy would probably conclude that Chagrin Falls schools have higher test scores than West Geauga because Chagrin Falls spends $11,044 per stu
dent, while West Geauga spends $10,461 per student.
*Ron Hill’s Oct. 29 Chagrin Valley Times parody, satire, caricature cartoon in reference to school cuts and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre reflects Mr. Kilroy’s opinion and attitude in regard to school finance-funding perfectly.
In conclusion, Mr. Kilroy should move to Chagrin Falls and run for the board of education. He would probably be much happier. A sense of pernicious elitism? Change the name of West Geauga School District to Kilroy Pro-Bono Online Smart Board Virtual Academy.
I would also remind Mr. Kilroy that he is a board of education member, not a micromanager or pseudovirtual superintendent.
David A. Hancock
Chester
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
FALLACIES OF NEGOTIATION
Some didactic pensive musings and morsels in reference to faculty (teacher-educators) and boards of education administration (which can be Chagrin), equivoque intended.
Words that describe negotiations: animus, miasma, acrimony, narcissism, megalomania, power, ad hominems, Machiavellian duplicity, and atavistic appeals to indulge in autocratic-dictatorial behaviors.
A recent letter in which a graduate supported giving back to Chagrin Falls teachers reminded me of Henry Adams: “A teacher affects eternity—You can never tell where his/her influence stops.”
It seems that teachers do what lawyers do with less pay, harsher judges, and tougher juries.
“The principle of diplomacy-negotiation(s): Give one take twenty” (Mark Twain).
“Conference: A gathering of people who singly can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done” (Fred Allen).
“Confirmation bias: I will look at any additional evidence to confirm the opinion to which I have already come” (Lord Molson, British politician).
Reform: “It is essential to the triumph of reform that it should never succeed” (William Hazlitt, English writer).
“If you’re going to fight, don’t let them talk you into negotiating, but if you are going to negotiate, don’t let them talk you into fighting” (A. Lincoln).
“Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate” (John F. Kennedy).
During my thirty-five years as a teacher-educator (1968–2003), all in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, I observed administrators elicit boss-dictator personality characteristics who preferred servile minions, sycophants, and milquetoast teachers. We know what happens to these individuals (the miscreants of the corporate oligarchy).
When teachers strike, students strike. Oppositional defiant attitudes and behaviors are elicited. Scab substitutes become supervisors in an urgent day care center orphanage.
I experienced three strikes during my professional career: 1978, one-day “wildcat strike” (very effective, unannounced surprise); 1980, two days; and 1982, eight days. Much community pressure was placed and focused on the board of education administration, not the teachers.
Game theory is the study of strategic, interactive decision-making among rational (hopefully) individuals. Anytime people are making decisions that affect others or in response to the actions or even the expected actions of others, they’re playing a game.
Recommended readings, research, reflections, and assignments for homework and professional development are the following:
•Getting to Yes and Getting Past No by William Ury, Fisher-Harvard Negotiation Project.
•Negotiate to Win by Jim Hennig.
•The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t by Robert Sutton.
•“The Toxic Dozen: 12 Rules for Administrators Who Wish to Subvert Teaching,” Journal of the American Federation of Teachers: Changing Education, Spring 1968.
Hopefully, there is no strike.
David A. Hancock
Chester
Mysteries of Sexuality
Question: What do the following fallible humans probably have in common? As we know, we are all responsible and accountable for our choices, decisions, and end behaviors. You may or may not recognize some of these names from this sample tryst list: Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gen. David Petraeus, Jimmy Dimora, John Edwards, John Ensign, Mark Sanford, David Vitter, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, and Eliot Spitzer.
Possible answer: They are loony lechers and knaves. “I can resist everything except temptation” (Oscar Wilde). “My brain is my second most favorite organ” (Woody Allen). Narcissistic megalomaniacs.
Are Men Necessary?: When Sexes Collide by Maureen Dowd.
Analysis: The seminal perspicacious writings of Sigmund Freud in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life and Civilization and Its Discontents (and malcontents?) are definitely thought-provoking. Dr. Freud frequently makes the point that we are born between urine and feces, except caesarean sections, in reference to the proximity between the sexual and excretory organs.
Perfunctory sex / coitus is an unsatisfying substitute for masturbation.
Thomas Szasz, MD, in Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary, states, “Traditionally, men used power to gain sex, women, sex to gain power. The new ethic of equality between man and woman must come down to one of two things: either, as the romantics hope, that neither men nor women will use power to gain sex; or, as the realists expect, that both men and women will use power to gain sex, and sex to gain power.”
It took men thousands of years to realize that women are human. It takes only a few decades (for women) to discover/realize that men aren’t!
Also, the uneasy cycle between the sexes seems to be as follows: “Women always fear the men are going to keep them from getting some advantage because of their sex, and men fear that women are going to get some advantage because of their sex.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a magazine interview on his life as a bodybuilder, said, “Having chicks around is the kind of thing that breaks up the intense training. It gives you relief, and then afterward, you go back to the serious stuff.”
Conclusion: What would Dr. Freud think? He might agree with C. M. Meston and D. M. Buss in Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between), which offers an unparalleled exploration of the mysteries underlying women’s sexuality. Using women’s own words, and backed by extensive scientific evidence, the authors delve into the use of sex as a defensive tactic, as a ploy to boost social status, as a barter for household chores, and even as a cure for a migraine headache.
On the tryst list, the spouse of Luv Gov of South Carolina Mark Sanford divorced him, as well as Tiger Woods’s spouse and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s; Judge Susan Webber Wright, who wrote in reference to President Clinton’s tortured definition of his tryst, said, “It appears the president is asserting that Ms. Lewinsky could be having sex with him while, at the same time, he was not having sex with her.”
As John Milton said in Paradise Lost, “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” And Zsa Zsa Gabor in the Observer said, “Personally, I know nothing about sex, because I’ve always been married.”
David A. Hancock
Chesterland
Additions:
•D. J. Trump
•Bill Cosby
(et al)
•Roger Ailes
•Bill O’Reilly
Pedophiles
Peace
War. War. War. The US spends $355 billion a year making war.
That’s $11,000 a second. 1-2-3-4-5. Are we up to your salaries yet?
Of the 22 countries that the US has bombed since the end of WWII—including the long-forgotten raids like Congo (1964), Libya (1986), and Panama (1989)—in how many instances did a democratic government, respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result? None. Iraq will be added to the list.
Maybe we should remember some famous quotes. “In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers” (Neville Chamberlain, 1938). “War is the continuation of politics by other means” (Karl Von Clausewitz, 1832).
“Laws are silent in time of war” (Cicero, 106–43 BC). “I’m not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war” (Albert Einstein, 1931).
“There never was a good war, or a bad peace” (Ben Franklin, 1783). “War hath no fury like a noncombatant” (C. E. Montague, 1922). “Little girl … Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come” (The People, Yes [1936] by Carl Sandburg, 1878–1967).
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? is the title of a 1970 film.
There is no way to peace; peace is the way.
David A. Hancock
Chester Township
USA Has Had Addiction to War From Its First Days
To the editor:
In his State of the Union address, George W. (War) Bush neglected to mention that we are addicted to war along with oil. The greatest injustice is that the people who start the wars are not the ones who fight and die.
“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace,” said George Washington in the first State of the Union address (Jan. 8, 1790). Washington’s maxim has shaped United States policy ever since.
“Preparation for war is the surest guarantee for peace. I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one,” said Teddy Roosevelt.
“So long as anybody’s terrorizing established governments, there needs to be a war,” said George W. Bush.
The Diary of a Mad Public School Teacher Page 8