Oh, I forgot...nobody cares who's on the APS School Board. Six percent turnout? That's even lower than the "estimated" pathetic 8-12 percent. Down here in the Valley, Dolores Griego won District #1 with a whopping 686 votes. Methinks I could have a small campaign kegger in my back yard and get 686 votes for anything. Total voter turnout in District #1: 1484. Well, it does only extend throughout the entire South Valley and includes, for some reason, the To'hajiilee area....
Note to self: Essays about APS and its School Board are sales/marketing death for Burque Babble. Now I know why my large team of ad salespeople has been suffering so.
Second note to self: More essays about NASA astronuts (sic) driving across the South wearing diapers; fewer essays about the APS School Board.
Reflection Note: How many current APS School Board members wear diapers to Board meetings? Investigate.
More important than the mind-numbingly low turnout is the fact that I guessed right on every single race! Okay, I had an advantage...I know every single person who voted. You can do that when turnout is a pathetic six percent.
Personally, my favorite part of voting yesterday was seeing Maggie Toulouse's signature on the ballot. I admit, shamefully, my first impression upon seeing her name there was to think the ballot had somehow been used as scratch paper. I thought to myself. Why did Maggie Toulouse practice her signature on this School Board election ballot? I wish I were making that up.
Oh never mind. Armed with their massive mandates (or persondates, if you prefer), new School Board members Dolores Griego & Marty Esquivel (he got a whopping 1,638 votes) now have the political capital to sweepingly reform APS, enact a "New Deal" of truly Rooseveltian scope, invade a Middle Eastern country if they so choose. They are invincible, supported by the mighty 2,400 or so losers who took time out of their day to almost embarrassingly show up at a dank, depressing school gymnasium and vote them into power.
American Democracy. You can just feel the ground vibrating from all the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) spinning in their graves.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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5 comments:
Dear Scot,
How did you lose the other t? Anyway, I agree that the 6 percent was pathetic -- or "disheartening" as I told the Journal last night. I'm curious to hear your reason why it was so low. I'd think you'd agree we had some good candidate in Dist. 4. I asumed we would all pull more non-traditional school board voters into this election. Boy, was I wrong. So, it's either an indictment of APS, a lousy job of publicizing the election, burnout from the general election or all of the above. Anyway, I'd be interested in hearing your analysis.
While your at it, tell me what we could do better in the middle schools. Is my idea to identify and motivate sixth graders reading below their level good, bad or unrealistic?
And, by the way, no plans for any thing else politically in the near future. (Which IS a good thing.) Some have speculated and are looking for a viable Heather challenger. But, I owe it to my three kids and my wife to just say no.
Liked the kegger idea. Wish I would have thought of it.
Marty
By the way, pardon the typos in that last post.
Marty:
Congrats on your victory. I know a certain middle school principal and staff who are quite happy that you won. Speaking of middle schools, I'm too short on time this morning and too uninformed on the details of your sixth grade reading plan, and will simply note here that things (i.e. tests) are in place to identify poor readers, and work is being done on the motivation end as well. I've no idea if those initiatives mesh with your ideas. We've love to have you come by our certain middle school and chat about it anytime.
As for the political future, no offense, but history has shown the seeking of office to be quite the narcotic. I hear where you're coming from regarding commitment to family matters, but the past shows us plenty of cases (term limits, e.g.) where the lure of holding office has a "Treasure of Sierra Madre" effect. I'm not saying you're Fred C. Dobbs...I'm just being Walter Brennan here and saying it tends to change a person.
I'll be at that certain middle school tonight. My 5th grader is headed there next year and it's orientation night. She's quite excited. Anyway, let me know about 1) why you think the turnout was so abysmal, and 2) what APS can do better in middle schools. Liked your DCF post on the charters -- thought it was evenhanded. So, I'd like to hear you out on the middle schools. I'm off to pick up one of my kids and then meet with my presidential campaign advisors. Later.
if i may butt in on motivation?
i submit that one person cannot motivate another. at best you can help them find what motivates them intrinsically. my own son hated reading until we found goosebumps and then we couldn't stop him.
teachers need to be able to help students find appropriate but maybe non traditional learning materials.
it is more important that a child learns to read, than what it is they read while they learn. educational pedagogy considered of course.
from my own experience, if i didn't like reading anyway, some of the stuff i had to read in school would have soured me on reading forever.
i would also like to suggest that reading be taught as a separate subject, and that the ability to read well should not be the prereq for every other class.
the way it is now, a lousy reader is doomed in every subject.
why couldn't a history class use video tapes and discussions for students who struggle with history texts?
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