I'm Back

It's been some time since my last post. I really have been busy. In July I started a new job. It's a great job. I am learning a new skill and honing old skills. I am learning how to take something that is well worn or abused, take it apart and make it like new, or better. The bonus?? It's on AIRPLANES. Fancy, custom interiors on executive type airplanes.
As anyone who knows me will attest, I LOVE AIRPLANES. I flew extensively in my earlier years. I would check out an airplane and go flying just for the hell of it. Just to relax or go to lunch in a city 200 miles away. I even owned my own Cessna for a while. But, as with all of life's pleasures, it just got too expensive so I had to give it up.
My new job allows me to at least be around aircraft. Touch them. Walk around inside of them and make an old, worn out lady new again.

Radom Musings

At what point did Americans become losers? At what point did we stop trying? Did it all start when we decided that terms like "Failure" or "Failing" we politically incorrect? Or was it programs like "No Child Left Behind". No Child Left behind...now there's a cluster that is designed to kill Any incentive to actually learn. Why should a young student work hard to learn how to read or add a column of numbers if he or she knows that they can advance anyway. Whether he meets the standards or not.
Standards. Now there's a good idea gone bad. Education systems all over the country have adopted standards. The students are tested to see if they meet the standards. If a school scores high they recieve more money. If they score low they are shunned, tsk tsked in the local papers and admonished to bring u their test scores. Am I the only one in this room that sees what is wrong with that picture? If a school is struggling to meet those arbitrary standards (who decides what the standards are any way) they should be the ones getting the extra cash. Cash to buy more teaching aids, hiring more teachers, reducing class size.
So now teachers are teaching the test. Never mind there are no life skills involved. Just get those scores up.
What if little Johnny or Joannie can't get it? Don't pat them on the head and say "nice try, enjoy life" then pass them along to another grade and another poor teacher. Why don't we try saying "you have failed the 8th grade. You are being left behind". Maybe, just maybe we would again raise a generation of achievers (winners) and not a generation of underachievers (losers) who feel they are entitled to the trophy, even though they didn't even suit up for the game. Feel they are entitled to the top paying job even though they don't have the skills or qualifications. These "underachievers" should go into politics.

Politicians. Now there's a fine example of Americas best. But that is a subject for another post.