drjamesarnold.com

The Apoc-eclipse     I have to tell you right up front that Betsy and I did not catch the eclipselectic fever that seemed to infect most of the country.  We started out the day like most other days, sitting by the pool with coffee and talking about our respective goals and tasks for the day.  Sammie, our little white dog that lives to be petted, goes with us and sniffs everything in the yard that hadn't been sniffed since the day before, pronounces all as satisfactory and sets herself up in guard position so that we would be between her and anything that happened to climb out of the pool. Frogs can be scary when you don’t expect them.  Betsy did ask if I thought we should get glasses for later in the day.  My response was indicative of my lack of enthusiasm, and I told her I was pretty sure they would be cheaper and readily available on Tuesday .  After a few minutes of conversation we parted ways for a few hours.  I went to Troy a...

Singer and songwriter Harry Nilsson observed in his 1971 album “The Point” that “a point in every direction is no point at all" and "if everyone has a point, then I must have one too.”       I had the pleasure of judging several students a few weeks ago as part of a district wide scholarship competition in written essays and face to face interviews.  While the questions were pretty basic (what do you like and dislike about school, what’s your favorite subject) some of the answers were not.  I remembered an old Art Linkletter show called “Kids Say The Darndest Things” and, after the interviews, decided that not only was Art right, but that one viewpoint always missing from the “how can we improve schools” debate was that of the students.  They are, after all, the subjects and the central focus of the debate on school improvement, and their contributions could add a perspective not usually considered.  Their job for now is to be students....

  HB 610 was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 23 2017 by Representative King of Iowa and Representatives Harris and Franks of Arizona.  The bill is a study in brevity by current standards (10 pages in its entirety compared to the 2400 pages of the Affordable Care Act or NCLB legislation of over 1.000 pages) and in its present form is a legislative haiku that says a lot in comparatively few words.     The bill’s purpose is to “distribute Federal funds for elementary and secondary education in the form of vouchers for eligible students and to repeal a certain rule relating to nutrition standards in schools.”     You could probably hear public school parents, teachers and students cheering when they find out about the second part.  Nobody but a dyed in the wool hard core Democrat whose kids don’t go to public school likes school lunches in their current state of culinary purgatory, and the nuts and twig...

  Magic Beans and Silver Bullets    I have a question for you.   If someone said they had a magic solution to your local educational issues that guaranteed your child or grandchild – along with every other child in your community - would be educationally successful and academically competitive with every other child in your state would you be interested in hearing about it?   Of course you would.   “I have such a solution” said Governor Deal, “but I can’t give it to you unless you pass an amendment to the Georgia Constitution.”   Hold on there, pardner.   So you’re telling me that state control is the only way to improve schools designated by the state as failing?   That you can only tell us the secret answer if we give you even more control over educational finances than you already have?   Isn’t that rather childish of the man that’s supposed to be leading our state?   He knows the answer to academic achievement for all but...

Deal or No Deal      Most Georgians are old enough to remember Sonny Perdue’s gift card program for teachers.  Sonny heard that teachers were spending their own money on pencils, paper and classroom supplies, so, out of his great concern for the welfare of Georgia’s teachers in an election year, he authorized about $10 million dollars in $100 gift cards, one for every teacher in every classroom in Georgia.  Rather than raise the amount of money available for teachers to spend on supplies and classroom materials, or, God forbid, give them a raise, good ole’ Sonny - the inventor of austerity cuts for education - saw that he might get a lot of votes for what amounted to a miniscule investment.  Sure it was an election year gimmick, but he showed his concern for teachers by handing out those cards and by imposing the 65% rule that said libraries and media centers and counselors weren’t really valid educational expenditures.  Go Fish - I mean...