When Passion and Common Sense Clash...

With all the things that are going on around the world today ... I am writing about a teddy bear. After all, the newest round in the Mid-east peace talks is starting up ... In Pakistan, President Musharref is stepping down as head of the Army ... Iran has just announced it has a new missile with a range of 1200 miles ... and in the world of higher education, Montclair State University has made it mandatory for students to carry "school issued" cell phones with GPS tracking devices (costing the students $500.00 a year). So, with all this news (most of which pisses me off), why would a teddy bear win the honor of being the most screwed-up news in the world today? Well folks, it's a tale of stupidity on the part of ALL of the parties involved, and just contributes to increased animosity and downright hatred between the Muslim and Western worlds. Here is the story:

A British primary school teacher has been arrested in Sudan for insulting the Prophet Mohammed. Gillian Gibbons a 54 year old teacher from Liverpool is facing a maximum punishment of 40 lashes, 6 months in jail and a fine for naming a teddy bear Mohammed. Gibbons was following a British national curriculum designed to teach children about animals and their natural habitats. This year the animal was the bear. A student brought in a teddy bear as part of the project and Ms Gibbons allowed the 7-yr olds in her class to vote for their favorite name for the bear. Twenty out of the twenty-three kids voted for the name Mohammed. Some parents took offense and the result was her arrest.

Here is the shared stupidity portion of this story. The British government, as well as the administration of the Unity school should have briefed Ms Gibbons on local customs before she was ever allowed to teach in a school in an Islamic country. The Koran has many references to what is considered idolatry and insult to Islam, and both entities were derelict in their duties to inform this teacher about what could get her into trouble. Ms Gibbons is an idiot for not making sure she knew about local customs before she even went to the Sudan. Most intelligent people research things before they travel to a foreign land ... especially one like Sudan. The parents of these kids need to get a life. If something offends you, what ever happened to complaining to the teacher or the school? I'm sure if they had come to Ms Gibbons she would have apologized and re-named the stupid bear. Finally, the Sudanese government needs to grow up. I realize that ignorance of the law (in this case article 125 of their criminal law) is no excuse, but their is a difference between law and justice. Sudan needs to drop this and either expel the teacher or let her apologize and keep teaching.

Meanwhile, Unity School is currently closed until at least January because they fear riots and retaliation from the community. Can anyone tell me how a little bit of stupidity can cause all this hullabaloo?

Or is the real reason because ... She taught them how to vote???

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Is This The Future Of Public Education?

This past Monday Morning, students filed into the newest public high school on Chicago's west side. The Marine Corps Academy of Math and Science opened it's doors to 130 students and expects its' enrollment to grow to 550 students. This school will combine college prep classes within the structure of a military academy.

The school was officially dedicated by Mayor Richard M Daley and other officials looking on. It will be run and taught by Marine Officers, and is partnering with Argonne National Labs. Argonne will be offering internships for the students.

The purpose of this school is to educate, not to recruit for the military, but one local anti-war activist isn't convinced. "What it does prepare them to do is be good little soldiers, which I'm afraid we've got too much of these days", said Andy Thayer. Well Andy, what I see the Chicago school system currently preparing kids to be is good little thugs and gangstas ... and I think we can all agree that we definitely have too much of that. So Mr. Thayer, please go march with Code Pink, where your views are appreciated.

Haven't we been asking businesses (like Argonne Labs) to partner with schools? Haven't we been moving more and more towards school uniforms? And we now have a school that is not draining our property tax base (the Feds pay the teachers). We shall see how this works.

And Mr. Thayer, don't put your protest signs away just yet. The Air Force plans to open one of these schools in Chicago in 2009. They won't have any trouble finding students, there are currently 15,000 applications for the limited service school slots.

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