Another Day at School

Imagine you're eight and in the second grade. All you had for breakfast was nothing because your mom leaves for her job in the meat processing plant at 6:00 am, and your older sister (twelve) gets you up at 8:00 am, but she doesn't cook breakfast, and there's no food in the kitchen except some candy corn left over from Halloween and a couple of beers your mom's boyfriend left in the fridge (you already know you don't like beer). Oh, yeh, there's a box of Hamburger Helper, but no hamburger meat. Sometimes the lady next door gives you a peanut butter sandwich, but not today. There's also a half-empty jug of milk next to the beer, but it smells bad.

You're in class. The teacher is saying something about fractions, but you feel embarrassed because the growling in your stomach seems louder than her voice. It's almost lunch time. Not that you care, because you didn't bring anything and you don't have any money for the cafeteria. At this point, which would be the best thing to help you focus on your schoolwork? A wall poster listing the Ten Commandments, or a free breakfast?

 

The Right Person For the Job

Imagine you have a problem with the electrical wiring in your home. You call a company that advertises as an electrical contractor. However, it turns out the owner of the company is not an electrician. He's a guy who used to manage a pizza place, and he often talks about the "concepts of electricity."

You're not worried, because he won't be doing the actual work. He just hired a head electrician. Until recently, this guy was a swimming instructor. He has never attended a trade school to learn the electrician's craft, but he does have several family members who are plumbers or carpenters, and claims to have some important ideas about electricity.

There is another recently-hired electrician who is actually a lawyer, not a licensed electrician. He writes a blog explaining that county building codes do not protect public safety. He thinks building inspectors should be replaced by yoga instructors and nutritionists.

The third employee was a licensed electrical contractor, but his license expired three years ago. According to Yelp reviews, he often tells customers that spaghetti is a good substitute for copper wire.

Knowing all this, would you go ahead and hire this company, or would you look elsewhere?

 

Them Books is Dangerous

My mother, staunchly conservative and a lifelong Republican, taught me that the reason we support public education is that everyone benefits from having an educated population. Today's Republicans, after shutting down the libraries and banning factual education, will be very unhappy 15-20 years from now when there is no one capable of developing new technology, or even repairing old technology; when they can't get lifesaving medical treatments because there wasn't anyone qualified to go to medical school; when TV shows are unable to entertain them because no one can write well; when even people in seemingly menial jobs drive them crazy by not understanding how things work. ^@themrswest