What’s Wrong With Our Education System?

So education in this country is constantly criticized as being less than stellar compared with many other countries around the world. And what I find amusing is that the solution is always to throw good money after bad. That will fix it. Never mind the fact that we pay property taxes and don’t have kids attending public school so it increases the amount they get per kid due to the many just like us. But if we did have kids, we wouldn’t get that money we pay to send them to public school tied to our kids so they could attend a school of my choosing. We’re stuck sending them to the public school of the district we live in, or we can pay money on top of our property taxes to send them to private school. And since that school gets our money regardless of whether or not they educate our kids, they don’t have to compete for our money. They don’t have to be better than the private school we might want to send our kids to. They don’t have to be better than another public school in another district. They don’t have to compete for our money because they get it whether we want them to or not. Even if we move to a new district, someone else will buy or rent our house and the property taxes will still be paid that support the school.

Free market competition isn’t a factor because the government is in charge and has monopolized the system. I understand collecting taxes to provide an education for our children. But it has become sub par, and many people are helpless to do anything about it. Or at least they feel that way. Surely by now most of you have heard of the concept of school vouchers, your tax dollars follow your kid. Some people demonize the concept. They are called teachers’ unions and those sucked into the beliefs of these lazy teachers that don’t think performance standards should be higher than the effort they are willing to put out. And for those teachers who do put out the extra effort, they often go unappreciated, undervalued, and underpaid because of the design of the system.

Just think if schools had to compete with each other what could happen. Bad schools would close. Good schools would grow. Good teachers would be rewarded and likely with higher salaries, as schools would compete for them. Think of the higher education system where they do compete with other schools and in some cases compete for exceptional teachers. My MBA program is a great example as I spent almost a year in Italy. It was a condensed program and I finished in about a year and I got to add the element of world travel and how it relates to business. The bonus I didn’t know about is that we had some of the most awesome, highly sought after professors from all over the US come teach our classes. I chose this program because I hate classroom settings so much that I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible and I’ve always wanted to go to Italy, and my degree is from a university in the US. Administrators, who want to keep their jobs, would look for ways to attract parents and therefore new students to their schools. This could likely result in many alternative methods to education and I like to think more enthusiastic students.

Let’s explore a method I would be very much in support of. I somehow made it through high school and college without much studying. That’s not to say I didn’t learn anything, but it wasn’t my forte and I was bored with the traditional classroom setting. I would have much preferred hands on experience, which some schools offer with shop classes and wood working classes. What if you had a school that helped you find a vocation to work towards while you were still in high school? Where you actually got hands on experience in various professions. For example, if you thought you might be interested in being a lawyer, you’d have the opportunity to work with a lawyer for a few weeks or months, helping him, attending depositions, or court cases or other various meetings. Maybe after some time you’d figure out that you didn’t want to be a lawyer, but if all goes right, you would have developed some valuable skills that might contribute to another job. And you would have weeded a profession out which might help you weed out others due to the things you didn’t like about it.

I like to think of this as some kind of apprenticeship. Because let’s be honest, unless we are doctors and maybe a few other professions I can’t think of right now, how many of us are really doing what we went to school for? My degree is so generic (business management) that I work with people with psychology degrees, accounting degrees, and probably no degrees at all. Meaning most of us learned our job by doing it. The longer we were there, the more we learned. I didn’t need to waste my money going to college to do what I’m doing, but the job description says I need one. Or lots of experience doing exactly what it is I’m doing.

I’m not saying an education isn’t necessary or valuable. I just think people stimulated to learn in very different ways. And I think there are more nontraditional ways to go about getting an education that might benefit many people who drop out of traditional educational settings. And I think our kids deserve a choice so that they don’t graduate high school like I did and say, “hmmm I have no clue what I want to do with my life, I just know I’m supposed to go to college, even if I have no clue what to study.” I just picked business because I hate literature so English was out, I didn’t want to go to medical school, or be a nurse or a teacher, and I figured a generic degree was at least a degree. When it’s possible I could have been successful without a degree at all.

So here’s to improving our educational system, not by throwing good money after bad, but by putting the choice back into it and letting the bad ones fail and the good ones excel.

Why I Love The Office; And Why You Should Too!!

Now I don’t know how many of you watch The Office as religiously as we do, but I’m convinced there’s something in there for everyone to identify with as long as they’ve been apart of a group in the working world at some point in their life. It very accurately depicts work life amongst a group of widely different personalities and work ethics. Most people watching probably can’t figure out which one is most like them but they can pinpoint who they work with that fits the profile of a particular character or combination of characters. This is because it calls attention to the flaws of everyone and none of us have flaws that we know of right??? At least not when we’re at work. It’s all the people that we work with that are crazy or have peculiar habits or aspects of their personalities that either grate at our nerves or make us feel superior to them in some way, shape or form.

For example I’d say I’m like Jim at least his sense of humor. But I don’t play childish pranks on my coworkers. Although sometimes I fantasize about it. And when I was a kid, I wasn’t opposed to playing a good prank now and then. I even orchestrated one or two in my day. But mostly the various crazy co-workers I’ve had over my working years have done a good job of humiliating themselves without my help. So maintain self-control for the sake of being a good worker bee in the hopes of moving up is what I’ve always resorted to. I’m sure my coworkers could probably identify me with one of the not as cool characters like Phyllis or Dwight. But I’m not the one in the office constantly kissing the ass of my boss, so I would argue against being Dwight.

Anyways so I will call attention to my biggest peeve in the office that the show so beautifully depicted. Parties, birthdays and miscellaneous. So Angela is obviously the party planner. I’ve worked with people that waste so much time planning parties that you’d think it’s their full-time job. I know I’m not the only one who gets riled up at this. It’s so non-productive to spend a day and a half decorating or getting decorations ready, or shopping for decorations, or even having a meeting to talk about decorations. Don’t get me started on asking for contributions to pay for these decorations that we’ll turn into a “gift”. Tell you what just, skip the party for me, and don’t bother. I don’t want your stupid decorations as a gift anyway. I didn’t even want the stupid party to begin with. I would say the thought was nice but really it was selfish on your part. YOU wanted to waste time. YOU wanted to make yourself look good. YOU wanted to find anything to do but actual work that you are now over-paid to do in my book.

Of course there’s the other side to parties. Wanting them to happen in your honor so badly that you will go out of your way to make all the arrangements. I love how The Office depicted this dilemma of having individual parties or combining them. Luckily I now work in a group that is so large that they do a monthly celebration and if our individual sub-groups feel like doing something they can. I work in the low-key lunch only group. Anyways the mass group celebrations went from a potluck style competition to see who could bring the best store bought food, to cake and ice cream only. Thank God for that!!! But you’re condemned to the depths of hell if you mistakenly think that you can combine 2 celebrations into one if one of those is for a holiday like…oh say…Thanksgiving and the other is for a birthday. Simple solution. Don’t designate both celebrations on the same day if you’re going to gripe that no one did anything for your birthday. Well no we didn’t do anything extra because we brought dessert for the Thanksgiving feast. You now also expect us to have cake and ice cream again an hour or two later!?!?!? REALLY?? Is it necessary to stuff our faces twice in one day??? Ah now I see the difference between fit people and not so fit people. It’s called portion control!!!! And don’t comment on how much ice cream I’m eating!!! Because I know I will run, walk, dance, play, or whatever it off when I get home. You, I’m pretty sure you won’t. So keep your comments to yourself because I hold my tongue.

Finally let’s not forget that The Office also covers the high-strung employee with inappropriate, often rude, comments at inappropriate times, as well as the creepy guy or girl in the office. We all have at least one or both of these people as a coworker. At least at some point in our life. And those people aren’t always in our department. But often they are. They are rude in the name of “that’s the way I am,” or they are creepy in the name of naivety. Hmmm….should those really go unchecked? Well maybe it does go checked in the form of being non-promotable. It’s so difficult to know when and what’s appropriate to be a whistle-blower/complainer on.

So there it is boys and girls. Watch The Office. You will come to like even the most hated characters because you can identify them in a real live person you know.

Lola's Corner - Dedicated to your pets

Hello everyone, My name is Lola (in case you haven't figured that out) and since my mom knows I'm a working dog, she assigned me to do a weekly column dedicated to your furry friends. Secretly I think it's because she's lazy and has decided to outsource part of her blog to someone much cuter and feistier than she is. I like the dog park, eating random junk I find in the yard, and making my parents chase me like idiots all around the yard.

The purpose of this column will be to share tips and tricks and cute pictures of all your furry and/or winged friends with everyone. I will also review various products that I have tried or currently use for your benefit, should you be looking for advice on a that particular item or category of item.

For this week my tip will be on finding out which plants in your yard may be poisonous. This link will take you to the ASPCA poison control center. Half way down the page is a series of links for toxic and non-toxic plants. There is also other useful information with regards to poison control for your pets. http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc

The reason this is so important is because our neighbors decided to poison me before I was even born by planting a Chinaberry tree I think. Anyways it has berries that grow on it. They fall to the grown on my side of the fence, and well me being a mischievous little puppy that likes to eat everything in site, well I was eating them. My mommy and daddy were bad parents for not finding this out ahead of time, although they would try to take them out of my mouth if they caught me with them. But I would run as fast as I could all over the yard so they couldn't catch me. They looked really silly chasing after me. By the time I let them catch me, I had done the deed and swallowed the berries. Luckily these berries are only toxic in large portions and all I got was runny poo. Now they pick up any berries that fall on our side and throw them over the gate so that I can't eat them.

I have an email address all to myself. I'd like to invite you to send me pictures of your beloved cats, dogs, birds, fish, or whatever member of the family that is not of the human persuasion. Email them to me at Lolafrog@gmail.com. Please don't send me pictures that include children or other humans in them as this is an open and searchable blog and I don't want to be responsible for unwanted stalkers or have to go bite anyone. Please send me the name of your pet as well and from time to time I will post fun pictures of your pets.

In case you're wondering why Lolafrog, this is why.

Well and I bounce a lot. I look forward to hearing from you all and bringing you as much enjoyment as I bring my mom and dad.

Slurpy Kisses,

Lola

Econ 101 - Taxes

Whatever happened to personal responsibility? When did people start being raised with the attitude that the government will take care of them if hard times come? When did this attitude become acceptable? Whatever happened to hard work and perseverance leading to pride in oneself? Don’t you want to continually better yourself and your family? Doesn’t that generally come from hard work? I realize that good contacts help but sometimes innovation gets you farther than fancy contacts. I know from personal experience.

Why is it that people don’t ask the one fundamental question when politicians start promising them the fairytale for free? That question you ask. “Since nothing is free, how do you plan to pay for it?” Well with taxing the rich. Sounds great because surely you’re not classified as rich. Well let’s think through this logically because remember this one fundamental truth; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Back to taxing the rich;

Who is classified as rich? Possible answers; leaders of “big business”, trust fund babies, venture capitalists, celebrities. That about covers the gamut right?
How many of these people get regular monthly salaries? Because remember to pay income tax, you must earn income. Answer; CEOs, but lets not forget much of their salary package is tied up in company stocks– and to stretch, celebrities however not necessarily regular in all cases.
How does the federal government get taxes on the rest of that group whose money is tied up in investments? Answer; Every time they realize a capital gain.

So then the tax happy politician’s strategy is two fold. First he’s going to crank up the capital gains tax to cover that group. Second he’s going to go ahead and crank up the top tier of income earners because after all they won’t miss it. They don’t really need to take home that much money to survive. The next set of questions you should be asking yourself are;

What right is it of prince politician to determine how much money a rich person needs if he earned it fair and square? Answer; It should be that they have no right.
How much does one have to make to be classified in the top tier of income earners? Answer; $349,700 and up for married couples and single filers in 2007
Will the increased capital gains taxes discourage people from realizing their capital gains? Answer; Yes as soon as they know this is about to happen they will either liquefy enough assets to whether the tax storm or move assets offshore if they aren’t already there.
Will this cause a problem to the planned federal income level needed to sustain my fairytale? Answer; Big time
What will my prince of a politician do about this?; Spread the tax burden to the next several tiers of income earners.
How much do you have to make to be classified in these tiers? Answer; Tier 2: $195,850-$349,700 married filing and $160,850-$349,700 for single filers. Tier 3: $128,500-$195,850 married filing and $77,100-$160,850 for single filers. And because raising taxes on tiers 1-3 still won’t be quite enough to cover your fairytale, let me go ahead and give you the next 2 tiers. Tier 4: $63,700-$128,500 married filing and $31,850-77,100 for single filers. Tier 5: $15,650-$63,700 married filing and $7,825-$31,850 for single filers. The next tier goes down to $0 for both.

So most of us with personal responsibility probably fall in tiers 3-5. The more you make, the more you pay. Actually many of those without personal responsibility fall in those tiers as well but due to loopholes and irresponsibility they are somehow still able to qualify for government assistance programs or at the very least not pay much or any taxes and they make more than you or I do.

Next set of questions you should be asking yourself;
Do I really want to pay for someone’s irresponsibility? Answer; if your answer is yes then may I suggest you write a check of your own free will to the IRS and mark it donation for any wasteful program that perpetuates irresponsibility. If you’re like me, your answer is not just no but HECK NO!!
Does that make me a bad person? Answer- that depends, If you’re like me, you understand that people fall on hard times and there is a time and a place for temporary assistance. But that is best left to the non-profit organizations like churches and hopefully very low overhead charities to handle. And it is for me to decide what or how much I want to give not the government. And I do feel a duty to give to these organizations so in that case no, that doesn’t make one a bad person. Although just because you choose not to give, it doesn’t make you a bad person either. Maybe just selfish. But we are all selfish in one way or another.
Is the fairytale just away to take power out of my hands and give it to the government? Answer; Darn tootin it is!!!! Now you’re starting to get the hang of this.
Don’t I need my money to pay my bills, buy a house, feed my family, and save for my future thereby teaching my kids to take personal responsibility for themselves? Answer; of course you do. And the more taxes you have to pay the less you have to perpetuate personal responsibility.
Do I really want to vote for this politician who is trying to buy my vote and the votes of others with MY money? You have to answer that for yourself.

Let the voter be ware. When a politician promises to raise corporate taxes to “stick it to ‘big business,’” corporations aren’t capable of “paying taxes.” Corporations are merely an infrastructure that provides a means of paying workers, providing goods and services, and collecting taxes from the sale of goods and services, and income tax and transferring them to the IRS. I may have left out a few things but the point is a corporation is driven by it’s workers and its customers. These are real people and these real people are who are paying the taxes. If the corporate tax level is increased, that gets passed on to the consumers with higher prices or to the workers with lower wages. How is that good for the people? How is less money in the hands of real people good for the economy? What are the consequences of raising corporate taxes? Business will look for other countries which will offer them lower tax rates. This in turn takes jobs away from Americans sending the unemployment rate up and taking money out of the U.S. economy and putting it somewhere else. And the government doesn't raise as much tax revenue as they'd planned, so they again raise the taxes of the individuals. Make sure you understand what that politician is promising you, me, and your family and friends.

Just remember a politician can’t offer anything for free. They are trying to buy people’s votes with your money. You have to decide what programs you think are worth paying for out of YOUR pocket and what aren’t and find a candidate who most closely agrees with you.

Andrea and Dylan Kiss?!?! Who's bright idea was that?

So I was inspired to write this as I was watching reruns of 90210 yesterday. Back in the day when it was on I’m pretty sure I was in denial about even watching the show or liking it. I know I caught a lot of the show in reruns while they were still making new episodes. Now I know that everything that happens in the show is just ridiculous to begin with and rarely if ever applied to any of us. But this one particular thing I can’t let go because it is so outlandishly ridiculous that I can’t believe it was written this way and made it through editing.

So Andrea leaves the show after she gets knocked up and married on the show (which is a whole other ridiculous story line that I won't get into here). And in her big emotional good-bye to the gang, she kisses each of the guys on the lips. I can’t remember if she kissed the girls on the lips because I was hung up on the fact that she was kissing Dylan, David, and Steve on the lips when in reality her only real association and reason to be on the show was Brandon. The friendships with the girls were added gratuitously to give her further reason to be on it. I’m not sure that she even talked to Dylan before the last season or two other than in the midst of “the gang.” The closest they ever got was probably taking this promo photo. They struggled the last few seasons to even give her a relevant association with Dylan by having them study together or having him “save her marriage”….HOGWASH I tell you…you don’t kiss that guy on the lips good-bye…Who does that???? Really??? At best he gets a hug. And in reality that's all he's willing to give. REALLY?? Lip to lip contact between Dylan and Andrea?? Think about it.

I had many guy friends in my college and post college years that came and went out of my life. I never ONCE got a kiss on the lips good-bye. And I’ll tell you why. Because it's just weird and creepy.

And doing that in front of your husband or your friend’s girlfriend. Can we say awkward? You just might have started two fights unnecessarily. I mean the South American or European kiss on the cheek would have been much less offensive to me and more believable.

Even though I know television shows aren’t always realistic and usually fantasy based, that was just taking it way overboard. So that’s my peace on how ridiculous Andrea’s exit was.