I agree with Doug Clark about Chan Chandler, the Waynesville preacher who helped oust some in his congregation who refuse to agree that President Bush is the Second Coming.  The non-believers might have a legal case against the church.  But, as Doug says...

Of course, no legal case will be necessary if Chandler resigns or is fired. That would be the best resolution.

I, too, hate the embarrassment that the cool little town of Waynesville is enduring over this whole thing.

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The debate over anonymous posting and the N&R's attempts at requiring a small amount of accountability has reached the Chalkboard blog.

Anonymous poster, Teddy Ballgame, was outraged when Jennifer Fernandez posted the N&R's new policy on comment identity.  He got all huffy in the comments, took it real personal and threatened to take his ballgame and go home..

"... Sounds like you want to stop discourse on this subject because you don't like the truth being told, and this happens to be your most popular blog. Well, I'll comply and cease posting to your blogs."

In an attempt to explain why the N&R is exerting some small semblence of control, I went in and and tried to explain things to Teddy and hopefully make him understand why the Town Square project might need to require some valid identity of commenters.  Then, I did the unthinkable...

To put a finer tip on my point to Teddy and others, I made another post that simply said, "See what I mean.  Posted by David Hoggard.", and placed Mr. Ballgame's N&R supplied false identity in the contact information. That post has now been deleted because Teddy complained... loudly.  (So much for him ceasing to post.)

"This action is inappropriate at best, or even may represent an illegal act of stolen identity.

I am expecting a formal public censure of Mr. Hoggard for this action on this blog. You are the blog host, and it is your duty to police such actions taken against your customers. If there is any question of the actual identity of this post as being legitimately mine, Bruce knows my real identity, and I'll verify to him that I am the real Teddy Ball Game."

So now that we know that he/she is "the real Teddy Ball Game." he/she still doesn't get the point.  But I keep trying, with this, later in the comments...

"Do you not see the silliness of your argument? An anonymous poster (you) is trying to bring his/her wrath down on a real-name poster (me) for pointing out the pitfalls of anonymous posting."

I don't know how this whole thing with anonymous, pen name posting will shake out at the N&R, but I'm confident their attorneys will weigh in at some point.  Perhaps they can start with Ballgame's assertion that I be censured by the N&R for what he is convinced was an "inappropriate, misguided and possibly an illegal violation of my privacy and stolen identity."

Teddy, I didn't steal anything... I just borrowed your 'name' to make a point.  Tempest in a teapot comes to mind here.

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This is EOG (End of Grade) testing week throughout Guilford County meaning the last day of school should be this Friday... but no, we still have almost three weeks to go.

Starting next Monday our little minds of mush will all advance their studies of the heavens and earth through the use of audio-visual aids.  In other words, they will spend long days in dark classrooms watching reruns of Apollo 13 and The Lion King.  But first, parents have to get their kids through this week which will be chock full of the most stressful days of their educational careers.  I hate it.

For many families the anxiety of such high stakes testing is palpable as they turn to better living through pharmacuticals.  Benedryl to get their test-fearing kids to sleep at a decent hour, Adderal (aka 'speed') in the morning to make sure they are focused on passing the third grade.  I hate it.

Teachers hate it, too.  There were some educators at our party on Saturday and they were letting off some serious steam in advance of the week that will define if their schools will prove their worth in public education.  I hate it for them.

Accountability is a wonderful thing, but attaining it is killing the most important and essential aspect of assuring life-long learning: fun.  School just doesn't seem fun for many kids anymore, it is a simply a chore that must be accomplished every academic day.

We'll get through it and my children will advance to the next grade, as will 95% or so of all Guilford County students... but it is not about simple advancement anymore.  Real money and academic careers are made or lost on how well seven year-old children perform on standardized tests this week. 

Its just not healthy and I hate it.

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