August 17, 2006

Recycling, Biscuits, Education, and Smoking

Watch out... I'm flying off on a tangent here...

Ready?

The other day I was helping my wife’s work a little bit. We were going over old things and recycling some of the materials that weren’t needed for archives and was out of date. Well.. we kept throwing things into the recycling bin.. and I kept looking at the word. The prefix “re” is an odd one. It assumes that it’s a repeat of something that’s happened before… so re-cycling is actually cycling again. Although the recycling bin was on wheels, I doubt that it’s been cycling.

Speaking of cycling… Lance Armstrong is retired… but if we look at the meaning of the word.. it just means “tired again.”

Refried Beans – I don’t think I’ve ever had “fried beans.” I think that would be damned good though… individually breaded beans. Like a carb-carnival in your mouth. Yummy.

On another note, I was making biscuits yesterday… yes I’ve become quite the “Johnny Homemaker” since I’ve started working from home… First thing I ddid was take the frozen biscuits out of the bag ( OK not that much of a homemaker…) and set them up to “rise.” Little did I know, the frozen biscuits had to rise for 6-8 hours… it was 4:00p.m. when I decided to make them….so… here I was at 11:00p.m. making biscuits…

Anyhow, while reading the directions it told me to “place on center rack in oven.” Now, I don’t know how tall your oven is, but mine only has 2 racks… a top and a bottom. I don’t have a center rack. There’s a slot in the center of the oven to put a rack, but technically its not the center rack unless there’s a rack above and below.

Maybe that’s a side-effect of working at a job with PhDs for over 4 years… I keep seeing things too literally. Like Is it “no child left behind” “Not any children left behind” “No humans within school ages left behind?” How about - “Everyone advances!”

This may be a little Ricky Bobby of me (I’ve yet to see that by the way) but I believe there should be a first place. I’m not of the school of mind that all things are equal… every kid should be on the same level, get the same rewards no matter what effort they put into the work. I think those who can do so should be allowed to advance.

I think there are some children who have certain disabilities (mental or physical) who are not going to advance at the same level. It serves an injustice to not allow kids who advance faster to move ahead.

I think that causes more animosity towards the child who needs that extra help. The children who need the extra help should receive that help… they shouldn’t be “left behind” or made examples of or hidden away in another classroom next to the janitors closet…. They deserve an education and if it takes extra work to get it done, so be it..

Now, teachers are the hardest working folks on the planet. If it were up to me teachers would be the highest paid profession in the world. So many rules, regulations, checks and balances… THEN they have to take care of the kids and *gasp* be able to teach them…

Oh…I mentioned janitors. People, do yourselves a favor and make friends with your custodial staff. Janitors hold the place together. If you learn one thing from this little blurb of my thoughts…learn this. The custodial staff RULES. Executives come and go, but custodians, to quote ‘The Breakfast Club” are the “Eyes and Ears of the institution.” If you ever want to know what is going on… two people know: The smokers and the custodians.

Smokers know things because smoking is the great equalizer. The secretary, executive, PR person, and accountant all huddle around an ashtray about 3 times a day. It’s like the water cooler…but cancerous.

Maybe I should go back to making biscuits…
Until next time.

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