Robdog Snoopcat's Blog

Monday, January 16, 2006

Leap Frog Word Wammer Won't Say "God"


Interesting tidbit I'd like to pass on.

My wife and I were playing with our
2 1/2 year old son Caeden last night.

We were playing with the Leap Frog Word Whammer.

It is a little toy which is used to teach
children 3 letter words. The child puts
individual letter blocks in the correct
place. If it spells a real word, the toy
repeats the letters and says out loud
what the word spells.

Without paying much attention, my wife
and Caeden put the following letters in
the toy: G O D

The toy recognized the letters but refused
to say the word GOD.

Can you believe this crap?

The CEO of that company is lucky
he/she wasn't in our living room.

If looks could kill, they'd be dead...

Monday, January 09, 2006

Are school vouchers the answer to a failed education system?


I am a school voucher supporter.
You can read more about my
thoughts on the subject here:

http://robbemorris.blogspot.com/2005/11/charter-schools-and-education-vo
uchers.html

That said, after watching the Florida
Supreme Court shoot down school vouchers
as unconstitutional because they viewed
them as being contradictory to offering
equal education environments in the
public school system, I beginning to
wonder if school vouchers are the right
tactic.

When pleading your case against liberal
activist judges, you just aren't going
to win when winning means tearing down
government institutions.

The end goal of school vouchers is
to get kids out of bad schools because
the government can't seem to fix the
school. I find this utterly amazing.
The school is the government.

I'm not much of a legal mind. I'm
a software architect not a lawyer.
However, I wonder if the following
strategy is worth pursuing:

Why not have privately funded groups
file suit against individual school
districts for violating kids rights to
an equal education? The tests already
provide the evidence you need that the
environment is unequal.

Of course, suing the government is never
easy or cheap. But, I wonder if Florida
law "requires" the administration to
"vigorously" defend the school district.

You see where I am going with this?

Admittedly underhanded and perhaps immoral.

But, wouldn't this be an interesting approach:

A section of the government with high authority
in partnership with private entities conspiring
to take on the mid level of authority controlled
by the unions fighting the fight using the same
tactics your adversary used to beat you time
and time again. An "understanding" between
the two parties could be that they don't file
suit for monetary damages which could hurt
the taxpayer.

If the courts are consistent, they should force
the government to improve the performance of
the school to make it "equal" with our schools
in regards to funding and performance. I wonder if a court ruling would make it any easier to overcome issues with teacher tenure or being able to remove incompetent administrators.

Something to think about. When you aren't
winning the war, review the success of your
adversary, and adjust your tactics. Often
times, an adversary overlooks their own
weakness when it is their greatest offensive
threat.