What Would Wise Men Be Thinking?

Elvis sang that song that says "only fools rush in".

Another way to look at it would be like this:

"All warfare is based on deception. There is no place where espionage is not used. Offer the enemy bait to lure him.
Sun-Tzu
Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC

Another way to look at it would be "if it's too easy, be vewhy, vewhy careful".

Another way to look at it would be to zag instead of zig.


I read the recent post over in "The Abyss". If you have been following the post's there, you would know that there has been some discussion about the rating of the great HCPS. Ziggy has been "defending" the attacks against the HCPS by using the recent "A Rating" as evidence that something must be good about the system. There is something to be said about ratings.


In today's post, Ziggy discusses his/her opinion and apparent displeasure on grading curves and the misplacement of kids into AP classes. What seems to be an area that one could easily rush in to is to say that these acts skew legitimate attempts at true ratings. In other words, rampant grading curves would give a false statistic to someone trying to rate a District.

But the very fact that it seems so easy, I am resisting the temptation to rush in.

I wonder where Ziggy got all of those numbers. Maybe that is the trap. HCPS broad brush attackers would believe those numbers without verifying them.

There is something about Ziggy that I like, but I'm not rushing in.


The Abyss: Ziggy says the unthinkable

Bidding A Munchkin-Open To The New Year

For auditory learners:

YouTube - The Wizard of Oz Sing Along: The Optimistic Voices

For visual learners:

"You're out of the woods, you're out of the dark, you're out of the night. Step into the sun, step into the light. Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place on the face of the earth or the sky. Hold onto your breath, hold onto your heart, hold onto your hope. March up to the gate and bid it open..."

We can either celebrate a new year or bemoan the closing year of a decade.

The Christmas Holidays did not provide a winter break for the local bloggers involved in delving into the workings of the Hillsborough County Public School system. Not only is there unfinished business that is ratcheting up, there are also some new players in the sand lot which bring promise for new and invigorating commentary. Time will tell if these new bloggers will be accused of presenting misinformation, anger and ugliness or if there will be renewed efforts to have commenters show "their papers".

One can only wonder if "Uniting for Quality Education in hillsborough, fl" and "I Am Nobody's Patsy" were taken away by silent storm troopers, and will Eskay be next?

Speaking of Eskay, the ratcheting up of unfinished business is here for all to see:

Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch: Hillsborough County Administrator Is Evading the Florida Public-Records Law

My sources tell me that there are more than a few that wonder why Eskay didn't get a mentor and was provided with personalized training to improve his work performance. There may be some who believe that one must have a 30+ year of tenure in order to qualify for those specialized improvement funds, while there are others who believe it is more about the quality of relationships.

A new player in the blogger's cadre is Ziggy. Ziggy comes from the The Abyss and has tag teamed with Antigrammargrinch. Ziggy shows promise to air out any and all bits of information and opinions while defending the corner of public education. Antigrammargrinch appears to be singularly focused on grammar grappling with Lee, and may even have a breast infatuation that turned sour. Antigrammargrinch has been around for a while but may get more exposure through Ziggy. Staunch supporters of free speech can revel in the candidness of Antigrammargrinch, although some may fear that the writings may be viewed as ugliness that some politicians want to censor.

One early hint of the game within the game is that Ziggy appears to be a strong proponent of the belief that the quality of a teacher is the best predictor of a student's success. It is too early to predict how conditioning factors will effect this game plan or if there will be adjustments made later in the case of "poor raw material" effecting a teacher's performance, just as wilted lettuce and rotten tomatoes effect the quality of a salad made by a master chef.
The hope of a new year is just dawning, and there is promise as we step into the sun.