At Stake is No Less than the Future of Everything

Recently I have blogged about political pundits and about abortion, both of which came in response to blogs that CapeTown wrote earlier. Now I realize that posts bring more posts, often about the topics of those prior posts. Take for example Virginia's response to my earlier post, asking me to propose the actual laws setting the actual limits for things like guns and abortion. Well needless to say I'm not going to do that since I'm pretty sure it requires studying a lot of information that I have neither the access nor the time nor the inclincation to answer to. Instead I would like to call out Virginia to talk about some stuff and offer some opinions on this blog for the first time in what's it been, like a month? That's right, I'm lookin at you, fella.

If you're like me, sometimes you think to yourself: "when are these pundits going to shut the fuck up about abortion and gay marriage, and while they're at it, why are we talking so much about the environment and immigration and terrorism, and guns?" I'll tell you why. Because they're sexy.

Splendid! This calls for a sexy party!

That's right, it's because they're sexy. The news is in the entertainment business and it shows through the things that get put there and the things that people talk about day in and day out, over and (oh I fell) over again. Well I can tell you what isn't sexy and what I want to hear discussed here, despite the fact that I don't see it covered so much in the media. I think that Virginia will agree with my suggestion that education is quite possibly the single most important issue facing this or any country. I mean come on, it's so simple, you fucking idiots!

The importance of education is so obvious that I don't even feel the need to make a single statement explaining it. I mean seriously, if you are not angry at the infrequency to which this issue comes up in proportion to all of this other stupid shit people are talking about I think there is something the matter with you. However if you are like me, you are wondering, isn't anyone going to talk about education? Anyone?

Anyone???!!!

This is why I put it to Virginia, an unsexy man in an unsexy world, to tell us about education. I would do it myself but I don't know as much as he does. Educate me!

In your letter to Steve Jobs, you seemed to say that nothing can change until more money is put in to raise teacher's salaries and that was really the only way to fix things. Is that, is that true? Will raising teachers salaries be a panacea, or at least the catalyst for change? What about other ways to get teachers to go and to stay at public schools? How do you feel about the quality of teachers and why is it the way that it is? What about the quality of administrations? I know how you feel about parents! Also I couldn't really tell whether you supported administrators being able to fire teachers at will, or whether you even consider that important. Also while we're at it, I didn't get where you said "either raise taxes or quit bitching about the public schools," since wouldn't most of the people that are bitching about the public schools also be in favor of making taxes? Isn't that like saying "put Arrested Development back on the air or quit bitching about shitty TV shows?" What do you think about this New York Times article that I read the other day saying that what we most desparately need are middle school teachers because nobody wants to teach middle school and because it is a vital stage in the social and intellectual development of children. What about all of those articles about how much better girls are doing than boys? Is it just testosterone getting boys into more trouble, or does it have something to do with how the schools are treating the genders? Regardless of my questions, what do you think are the questions we should be asking, and where are we to look for the answers?

Given the importance of this issue in regard to the future of this country and world, I think we're entitled to answers.