Monday, August 04, 2003

Only In America I came across this little gem at the Boston Globe's website: Superintendent of Schools Wilfredo T. Laboy, who recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for failing a basic English proficiency test, has flunked a required literacy test three times, The Eagle-Tribune reported yesterday. Laboy, who called his failing scores ''frustrating'' and ''emotional,'' blamed a lack of preparation and concentration, and his lack of English skills. Spanish is his first language. Now let me get this straight, this guy is in charge of educating an entire school district and he can't pass a basic proficiency test due to lack of preparation and concentration? This isn't an exam for a Rhodes Scholarship. This is a test that measures a minimum level of proficiency in communicating in English. Of course, there's always a spin to be put on it: "It bothers me because I'm trying to understand the congruence of what I do here every day and this stupid test," Laboy said. "That's what, emotionally, I'm so upset about." Understand the congruence? Let me enlighten you. You're supposed to be an educator. I guess the test wasn't so stupid that it stopped you from putting all of those teachers on unpaid leave. What kind of message does it send to the students in his district when the State Education Commissioner shelters a guy like this and then pays him 150 Large? Laboy says in his defense: "What brought me down was the rules of grammar and punctuation," Laboy said. "English being a second language for me, I didn't do well in writing. If you're not an English teacher, you don't look at the rules on a regular basis." What? Can you believe this excuse. It's like saying that you can't add because you're not a mathematician. I'll be you he can add when he looks at his paycheck to see if they gave him his raise. I'm not an English teacher, yet I'm expected to be able to communicate both in speech and in prose. What the hell, if anything, do we expect from our public schools? If we can't even demand that our so-called educators demonstrate a minimal proficiency in the English language, why should we expect our students to take their education seriously? Welcome to the continued dumbing down of America. And in more dumbass politically correct crap: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) feels that the current names are too "lily white," and is seeking to have better representation for names reflecting African-Americans and other ethnic groups. "All racial groups should be represented," Lee said, according to the Hill. She hoped federal weather officials "would try to be inclusive of African-American names." A sampling of popular names that could be used include Keisha, Jamal and Deshawn, according to the paper. Now just imagine, Congressperson Lee gets to vote on really important things too. Now suppose I said to her that when she talks she either sounds or doesn't sound black. Do you think she'd like that? Or would she call me a racist for making such a statement? I don't really care much for Rush Limbaugh, but in this instance I think he hit the nail right on the head: "It is these elected black leaders, the civil-rights coalitions, they're the ones that keep causing all this racial divide, they're the ones that keep calling attention to all this," said Limbaugh. " They're the ones that keep stirring this pot. They're the ones who don't want there to be any colorblind society. They're the ones who keep being agitated and trying to agitate others over all this, and now it's descended into the meaningless element of the names of hurricanes." Welcome to 21st Century America. 9:23:08 PM