Woohoo - Chupacabras!

I just love all the Chupacabra sightings. They have been doing DNA testing and so far they've turned out to be hairless/mangy coyotes. That seems likely. My first thought, after seeing photos, was that it was a coyote-dog mix of some kind. There are a few hairless dogs that look pretty weird (Chinese Crested, Xoloitzcuintli) and have that odd grey skin color too. Don't forget, most of the World's Ugliest Dog Contest winners have been part Chinese Crested. I actually thought that would be pretty neat, if some pet had gotten lost and bred with a coyote and had enough puppies to form a little band of goat-suckers down in Texas.

WTF: Now I'm pissed!

Okay, this has absolutely nothing to do with school, but I'm going to rant anyway. WTF happened to the price of meat!?! I don't mean the price hike from gas, etc. I'm talking about a different kind of problem. Many years ago, in a world before fajitas, skirt steak/flank steak/whatever was really freaking cheap. Then behold - the mighty fajita reached public consciousness and the price went up.

Last week on Good Morning America, they held a segment about how to save money in the kitchen. And they mentioned two of my favorite items: Tilapia and Chuck Roast. I have been eating tilapia since c. 1995, before it hit big. And my husband and I love to cook chuck roasts in our crock pot. Well, within a few days of that GMA segment, prices sky-rocketed. I don't have the exact price for tilapia, but I did note the price of chuck at our local grocery. Chuck used to be $2.29-$2.49 per pound. The new price of chuck? $4.19 per pound. What the fuck.

WTF: "McDiplomas?"

No, I'm not making this up. There are some new programs in Great Britain, that would let McDonalds (and some others) give employees credit towards a high school diploma if they complete certain on-the-job training courses. Now, in general, I am all for on-the-job training and helping out people who dropped out of high school and now want to get a diploma or GED. But I do worry that the standards may not be as high as a regular high school. If the standards are lower, are we going to get borderline kids dropping out and getting a job at Mickey D's to finish high school?

One of the other companies is a rail company and the article mentions they want to give more advanced training and degrees, like a vocational or university degree. I actually don't have as much of a problem with a vocational degree. I mean, you can go to vocational school to learn to weld and this would be the same thing: learning to do railway type jobs while you're working. That makes sense as long as an educational board oversees the standards. It even makes sense for an airlines.

Maybe my problem is that I have a hard time seeing fast food as an option that someone would intentionally choose as a career. I have known quite a few fast food managers, but other than that, most people seem to be either working in fast food while they go to school, or are stuck in fast food because they don't have any other job skills. And it doesn't seem as if fast food skills would transfer as well - except for running a cash register. Does anyone have any other opinions?

What the F?

This little jewel popped up at me recently. Apparently a small town in Iowa has come up with this idea that giving kids a zero for not turning in their homework is a bad thing. If an A is 90-100%, etc. etc., then an F should be 50-60%. Right now this is just a suggestion, but it is something with which I completely disagree. One of the quotes from the article is this:

"If you get a zero on three assignments, for instance, maybe in the first two weeks, and you do all right in the rest, those three zeros still could mean you're not going to pass." "The message that comes across is, 'You don't have to do the work (anymore) because I've already given you a zero.'"

I would counter with: But if you give them a 50% for NOT turning things in, you're teaching them that they don't have to do the homework. How will this affect them in the long run? Does this mean if I don't feel like going to work tomorrow I still get half my pay for the day? Also, as an edumacator, I tend to take the long view of assignments. If someone does badly on one of my exams but improves on all the rest, then I'll take that into account when I calculate the final grade.

Personally, I like the policy mentioned in this article. It's referred to as "Do your work." If the kids don't make at least a 70 on the assignment (or if they don't turn it in) then they have to come in before or after school to do it again. Supposedly it's really cut down on their failure rate.

WTF: 6-year-old lies

Read it and weep. A six-year-old entered an essay contest to win Hannah Montana tickets. She said her dad had died in Iraq. Except that he didn't. The mother is quoted as saying "we did whatever we could to win." This is the kind of shit that pisses me off! That generation right underneath me, who grew up in the 1980s, got inundated with "me first" and "anything to win." And now they're teaching it to their spawn! What a lesson for life. Yes dear, cheat on the ACTs, cheat on your math tests. As long as you get the A.