Submitted this as an editorial because exhausted with seeing this everytime I go out:

There has recently been a marked increase in the amount of fake charities asking for money and selling candy at storefronts.  What started as initial annoyance has turned into outright disgust as this problem became a constant of going to the Target and Northwest Promenade.  In case you've been spared, here's the scenario: child selling candy obviously purchased at a store.  Adult sits in a lawn chair or car nearby and watches their child ask adults for money.  This most often occurs on school nights, noting that they have been there as late as 9 pm. 
 
I would like to firmly admonish the parents responsible for this.  One, you are insulting the intelligence of every adult your child asks by posing as a charity.  It's obvious you aren't associated with anything legitimate so be honest and tell passersby that you want a dollar for something they could buy for 50 cents.  Secondly, I like making it a few days in my week without being harassed for money.  Now it's a constant anytime I go out in the Northwest.  Stop infringing on my casual day to day happiness.  Third and most important, these are children.  You are teaching them to become liars, to try and cheat people instead of valuing honesty.  You are teaching them to avoid real work. Ultimately, you are teaching them the world doesn't love them because you are abusing their trust every time you force them to beg money while you sit by and watch.

http://www.bakersfield.com/...

“He’s my little boy. He’s not just a case number. He’s my son,” she said.

She said she wants to know why Kern County Probation didn’t put her son in a more secure home.

Good questions there Wanda. I have questions too. Why isn't he living with you? Have you made life choices that might, in some roundabout off the wall way, impacted your son's life?

Why is the first move some individuals make to blame the government or authorities for not being parents themselves? These agencies are overworked dealing with people who refuse to be good human beings and are shucking their responsibility as parents.

You're blaming them for not placing him in a good home? Seriously? How about blaming yourself for not providing it in the first place?  I'm amazed you have the gall to blame an agency publicly.  Most case workers, police officers and social workers see crazy everyday, risk their lives to help the unfortunate and consistently are blamed for others' mistakes.

THANK YOU to the City of Bakersfield for all the workers who do their job with little thanks and much criticism. 

To be at the point where I'm nonplussed by allegations of sexual misconduct by a teacher is a sad state of affairs. The faculty I work with seems like a group of good people, quirky but decent.  However if one of them were to be hauled away for sending illicit photographs to a minor or passing notes during an exam, would I be soul-searchingly shocked? No.  It has become that present in our society, the breaking of professional roles and boundaries.

Blind Item:

Dinner at Toro at the Marketplace. Over cocktails and sushi, my best friend (a lawyer at a prominent firm), his fiancee and our medical student friend, are discussing a teacher recently discovered to have crossed these professional boundaries. As a sidenote, three of us attended Garces Memorial and have our own insight on the issue.  Several things were discussed.

1. No one was surprised.

2. It is alleged that said teacher has trichotillomania; the condition of excessively pulling out your own hair and eyebrow.

3. Med student friend mentioned that trichotillomania is often accompanied by pika, which is the condition of putting inedible objects in your mouth.

4. There has to be more credence given when everyone gets a weird feeling from someone.  It has to be a natural defense.

A tutor assisting one of the courses I teach had this dubious teacher herself.  She confirmed her own suspicions of trichotillomania and pika. It's an interesting situation, reading about the wolf that is currently being prosecuted and having known all along something was not quite right. It's not self satisfaction but its something close; more akin to guessing the killer in the movie and finding out you were right.

Today's lectured in my US History course focused on using the Bill of Rights to win debates. I'm trying to hammer into these kids the concept that they have fundamental rights in this country and that knowledge of them in crucial.  I was talking about how in life, you are constantly in debates about truth. Whether in the classroom, with friends, enemies or other bloggers.  Being able to reference back to the Bill of Rights is always a useful tool because those laws are solidly supported.  As we were discussing the death penalty, a student asked me why this was important, that he never discussed politics.

This led me to recognize again that these kids need a class on real life.  That life is constantly a struggle for what is right and that their life only gets more complicated. I can remember as a kid thinking that adults had all the answers and only the hardcore criminals did things wrong. Each year I became older, I realized more and more that most adults mess things up along the way and no one is 100% sure they are doing everything exactly right.

I'd dig a mandatory class for students that taught the following:

1. Taxes and Bills. Kids need to understand how much it costs to live.

2. Investing. Explanation of bank accounts, stocks and options.

3. Manners: Professional dress and behavior. (Why don't we teach this?)

4. Manners: Everyday. Cell phone etiquette, tipping, and general public behavior. Everyone seems to be free range deciding what's appropriate these days.

5. Tolerance/Respect. An understanding should be mandatory that everyone is different, you do not have to like them but you have to respect them. That means non-verbal attacks, etc. (bloggers need this).

Any other suggestions for what kids should be taught in a Real Life Course?

Drinking a Pepsi and throwing down my regular healthy breakfast of sausage biscuit, I'm skimming headlines.

"Kern High School District trustee Ken Mettler is proposing requirements for all classes to say the Pledge of Allegience. "

I almost threw something against the wall.

It is a ridiculous crime to dominate the education of our children, the school board that decides how to assist them and the town with this frivilous superfluous bull.  What in the world is going on in this town that this is an acceptable use of the school board's time?

Nevermind the state testing scores we have, the levels of increasing poverty on the East Side or South.  Nevermind the lack of materials or funding.

Believe in God and say the Pledge, everything will be swell. If you aren't doing those things, well gee whiz we better spend time and money making sure you do.

Grrrr. I've been debating for several years as that I'm still in my mid-twenties whether to build my family here or move somewhere that has vision, art and direction. Do I stay and fight to improve the town or give my talents to somewhere already headed in the right direction?

That debate still rages on but it's inching pretty darn close to my saying adieu in two years. These people exhaust me.

I never realized until I became a teacher how mind numbingly average the "average" student was.  Skimming through elementary, middle, high school and college with great grades, I assumed that only a few kids were failing, the obvious ones.

Come now in my classroom and every other classroom on my campus. Success and intelligence are the exception, not the rule. The kids I'm teaching are either complacent in their inability to be anything other than poor or inventing excuses for their life, attitude and behavior.  With a rapidly increasing technology sector and the elimination of jobs such as grocery clerk by self checkout, these kids will have a rapidly diminishing selection of occupations.

Hence, we aren't doing any favors with the blind notion that every kid can go to college. Sure, everyone can go to the gym consistently and be in great shape.  Instead, there is a blunt truth that some kids aren't built for college. They won't pursue it. Instead, they will be dropped from high school or passed through and left with no skills other than a fundamental grasp of Math and English. What jobs will they take when technology has taken all the high school equivalent occupations?

As a steadfast prevention of a rapidly increasing poverty class, we need to implement trade schools soon and fast.  These kids needs to be taught jobs and skills that computers and technology can't do on their own, jobs that don't require a college education but require training.  That helps them in their life and in the assurance that they will be contributing members of society. 

It's contradictory to the concept that 'everyone is special' and America is a Holly Golightly kinda world.  Truthful though.  Everyone has different limits.

Teaching junior high in the relative ghetto is a crazy experience for a Garces grad who grew up going to schools that held assemblies when we finally had a black student coming.   I learn a little more each day about life for everyone else in this world, their struggles and how hard life actually is.  I'm having more Jack than Coke in my drink these days.

Yesterday, I stepped in on a conference for one of my students I really like. The conference was to discuss his failing grades in Science, Algebra and English. He's passing my two classes just fine.   The mother doesn't speak English so she gestured a lot and when she started making backhand slap gestures, she broke down and started sobbing.   Her son was next to her and he looked down at his paper. The interpretor explained that the husband was strict. He beat his son for his grades. At that point, the son started crying but tried to busy himself with a worksheet.

I don't see most of these experiences coming. Earlier in the day, I'm worried about a delayed order of custom sunglasses, later that afternoon I'm dealing with child abuse and wanting to hug a kid to reassure him there are people who care but don't because of the potential lawsuit.

It was a martini monday.  I had two.