Civics and the Republic

What is empirical evidence?
What are logical fallacies and why not a valid way to argue issues?
What does the Constitution actually say? And why is that document more important than the Declaration of Independence?
Why do both sides of an issue often accuse each other of the same things? And why are our political rivals ALWAYS LIKE HITLER AND THE NAZIS!?!

The zombie recently posted this picture:


What's the difference? I sometimes forget in my gloominess and cynicism that there are actually people out there who, in spite of great intelligence and skill in other areas, just do not know much about that black hole we call "politics." And why not? After all, if you think about it rationally, what does one actually gain by being "informed?" There are only so many hours in the day. Once you start ladling family and bills and home maintainance, planning for retirement, "" "" weddings, death, and everything else that gets in the way of a responsible person's leisure who the hell wants to read or watch the bad news? That's on top of learning a skill or profession, finding and keeping employment, advancing into a career, and on and on.

In that spirit, a friend commenting on this picture noted how he keeps meaning to read this article about how to avoid sounding like a idiot when discussing politics. Zombie and I chatted for a moment about what it means. No conclusions but maybe there are lots of educated professionals,  certainly not limited to that demo, out there who have mastered their skill, feel comfortable in their career and now want to be involved in the Great Experiment. A bit of irony there, if any truth can be found, that is exactly the reason zombie founded this blog in the first place. He even tried to build a second one called "New Deals and Great Societies" as an educational site. As academics, wannabe intellectuals, scholars even, we thought maybe we could provide a minimally biased and patient environment for a sort of adult civics class.

However, this site is called the Gloomy Historian and it is run by one now. Whatever the zombie's intentions, I feel trying to market information to the frustrated individuals with a deficit of republican virtue would be a complete waste of time. After all, we live in an age of incredible access to information. If there is a substantial population of Americans unable to understand, analyze, or process it, I do not think I can help. Who am I to even think I can make any difference either?

I would trade all my knowledge and wisdom of history, politics, ideology, and human nature for one truly marketable skill. But this is what I have, trouble is that the only politically-engaged folks out there seem to already be pretty set in their ways. Certainty, like consistancy, is a hobgoblin of small-minds and there is nothing to be gained by continuously jousting with cretins.

I would love to be proved wrong.

The State of our Schools

An apology

Education in West Bend district deserves nothing less

WARING
FINCKE

My last column sparked an attack request for an apology from West Bend School District Vice President Bart Williams. As is often the case with those critical of my positions, Williams’ attack was not about the issues I discussed, but directed at me personally. Rather than respond in kind, I offer an apology to the citizens of our community about the state of public education in our school district.
I am truly sorry that we have a school district that has allowed itself to abdicate its responsibility to provide our children with the best education possible. The School Board has approved all of the following, either tacitly or by choice.
We no longer have librarians in any of the elementary schools. There is one for the two middle schools and two in the high schools who cannot leave their buildings while students are present, yet are responsible for all the elementary school libraries. Elementary school librarians helped kids learn to read and research, while instilling a love of books and libraries.
We no longer have any school social workers. With more and more kids from families with multiple needs, our need for social workers to bring much needed assistance to help keep kids in school is greater than ever.
Our high school guidance counselors have been given the workload of the social workers, without any of their training or skills, on top of their own responsibilities to help kids with schedules, college applications and financial aid. They have been limited to 15 minutes per kid for senior planning conferences with students and their parents.
We now have two police officers assigned to the high schools. During the past three years, they have been involved, on average, in more than two incidents per day resulting in citations. Some teachers are apprehensive about going into the hallways during class changes because students, echoing community vilification of and lack of respect for educators, have verbally assaulted them. Discipline is ineffective and it appears that no one has realized that social workers might have been able to avert some of these problems before police intervention was required. The kids who have learned to disparage teachers at home feel free to express it at school knowing there will be no consequences.
Recent class-size increases and the addition of more classes taught have greatly reduced the amount of time teachers can spend with individual students, much less their own families. Specialty teachers, paid by the classes taught, have taken a pay cut through reduction in the number of classes taught while having an increased work load because they have more students per class.
Our superintendent does not have the usual credentials or licensure for his position. He does not live in the district and his own children do not attend public schools, much less our own. His chief operating officer sends one of her children to private school as well. What does it say about the quality of our system when its leaders choose not to send their own children to the schools they lead?
The superintendent’s end of the year thank you staff email was interesting, not just because it was sent out after many had left for the year. In it, he acknowledged not having sufficient resources for teaching supplies by thanking teachers for using their own money to make up the shortfall. He thanked them as well for the unpaid time spent on weekends calling parents and grading papers, and for coming in early and staying late to get their work done.
The district lost more than 20 teacher positions, unfilled after retirement and resignations, this year and also lost programs such as the middle school house system and Avid, which helped at-risk students stay on course. Our superintendent is misleading the community by claiming that the new reforms have allowed a balanced budget without “significant” program losses or staff layoffs.
I am truly sorry for the state of public education in our community and that our School Board has let it come to this. No improvement is in sight, as next year’s projected budget does nothing to fix any of it. Mr. Williams, you have my apology.
(Waring R. Fincke practices law and politics in the town of Barton and is vice chair of the Washington County Democratic Party.)


This is what you get when extremists are allowed to sneak into local office, The Public sphere is starved, Public servants are scorned and demonized, incompetents are appointed. The arrogance is breathtaking, people who have no business running a school system turn around and make ad hominem attacks on anyone pointing this out. Get ready Wisconsin and the US, this is what awaits us unless we can come together and keep these incompetent saboteurs away from our schools.