‘Round the horn we go …
Now, why was this story ghetto-ized onto the Op-Ed page? Is it not really news? Not yet? Kind of a strange editorial decision, but I’m happy for the coverage, anyway.
I’d also like to point out, again, and way too late, the irony of Mr. Romney stating that we wouldn’t need any new tax money to get everyone insured … but being perfectly willing to make folks of very moderate incomes pay $3,000/year to insure themselves. I know, I know, personal responsibility … and in this case, these folks are personally responsible to squeeze blood from a stone. Got that?
While in theory I think merit pay (and promotion, and firing) for teachers is a great idea, I can’t imagine how you’d evaluate teachers for merit — since students are so variable themselves — and who would do the evaluating. Test scores? Yikes. And classrooms are just overrun with confounding variables … and how is that less so with schools? I’m just not sure how this would work. Can anyone edumacate us on this?
Anyway, good thing I’m not a music writer. Here’s Richard Dyer’s obit, with a great quote:
“I remember when we were working on the Fifth Etude, which is all about inflection, atmosphere, and tone, he said, `It should sound like Bill Evans playing Chopin at 5 o’clock in the morning.’ “
That’s a man that knows from atmosphere.
Some of this defeatism was inevitable, given the journalistic predisposition for bad news. (“If it bleeds, it leads.”) And some of it was a function of the newsroom’s left-wing bias — many journalists oppose the war and revile the Bush administration, and their coverage often reflects that hostility.
You know, Jeff, maybe journalists were reporting the bleeding because THE BLOOD WAS COMING OUT OF THEIR OWN HEADS.
Seriously, can we start a fund to send Jeff to Iraq himself? Maybe he and his perfect son can make Mensches of everyone there.
Voters are sick of shtick. They don’t want gloss. Pity the poor candidates who believe they can get by on charisma, pandering, and laugh lines alone.
Substitute “columnists” for “candidates” in the above quote, and you’ll get how I feel. Punishment for McGrory is to read every pdf on this page, every pdf on this page, and Kerry Healey’s books white papers, while standing with and listening to Chris Gabrieli talk about longer school days in a tiny, stuck, stinky elevator.
If there was a cultural equivalent of the headlines of the NY Post, I’d expect to see “Ligeti Splits.” (I also always wanted to write a piece with this title.)
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As a composer, I can say that the development of a clear, authentic, unique voice is the one thing for which we all strive. Ligeti had that in spades.
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A diary regarding Patrick and merit pay for teachers is still on the recommended list, I think. While Patrick’s views appear to be evolving on this issue, I have to take issue with the notion in general. As I said in my comment yesterday, merit pay is fraught with problems and, I believe, is actually more of a red herring than a viable solution. I’m a public school teacher, and I don’t know of a single teacher who supports the notion in practice.