Comments by spike693#236253

Written on State of Tennessee intervenes in operations of six Memphis City Schools:

Don't you "children" realize that the root problem is discipline? Discipline can solve most, if not all the ADD, ADHD, etc. so called "problems" these kids have. Their home life is irrelevant as a factor if within the 4 walls of any given school there is discipline!

But we see real discipline as inhumane and instead opt for the more civilized option of allowing children to "grow" rather than be "raised", and then have some psychologist "analyze" them (yeah right) and then drug the kids into submission/behavior! Is that humane?

When are children supposed to learn to take responsibility for themselves if they can always blame things on a "condition", lack of drugs, or some other fool thing?

The silly idea of "it takes a village to raise a child" is a fallacy anyway, and while I know that contradicts what I just said above, I still say it takes good parenting and DISCIPLINE from parents, balanced with actual love and care, to RAISE (not grow) a child. But we have fool parents who can copulate all day long and bring this tangible matter - these children - onto this planet and have them walk around, but they refuse to take responsibility for them! They are actually PROUD to say "I have never spanked my child". And so when these ill-raised children come to the schools, they do not know how to behave in a civilized society.

But if there is DISCIPLINE in the schools, this does not need to matter. And there should be discipline, because in a free society we cannot direct parents on how to raise their children. We can suggest but not direct. And that is as it should be.

My point? DISCIPLINE can solve all of the problems in public education. And when I say discipline, I mean good, old fashioned, strict, no nonsense discipline of the sort administered to miscreant children in public schools (and homes) throughout America, in what is now our GRANDPARENT'S time of youth (40's-early 60's and maybe 70's and 80's in some of the smaller communities)!

But instead our children are allowed to grow like weeds, unfettered by anything, because "that's just how kids are", and we fail to remember that we do not make children to be children forever. We make them to be responsible adults. Teaching them responsibility is sometimes not so "pretty". But our "weak as water" crybaby American adults these days can't stomach real child-REARing, which is why you see everybody and their brother and sister CRYING on national television these days, including our LEADERS. Americans are infantile and have no character, and it is because we are in the second or third generation of FOOLS who have NO DISCIPLINE!!!

Written on Stella Marris' party bares watching tonight:

If you are going to keep Cordova, and other neighborhoods like it, "family friendly", then try being a little more accepting and tolerant of adult-oriented establishments in other, non-residential areas of town, or areas of town where these businesses have been operating successfully for years.

Why? Because (and I know this is going to ruffle some of those do-gooder, church-going, feathers out there) young adults who are fresh out of college do not have families yet! This may be a shock to some Memphians, but young people do "have it off" at they say in the UK - always have, always will, and they also tend to like an active night life. Imagine that! And guess what? There's nothing that you can do about it.

But what you are doing is chasing the "Creative Class" OUT of Memphis! (Read Richard Florida's book, "Rise of the Creative Class" which put Memphis near the bottom of the list for NOT being attractive to young, single, dynamic, college educated, creative individuals as a place to live.) I remember a certain columnist, who I will not name, who (in the early 90's) had to go all the way up a certain avenue and pay to go aaaalll the way to the back of a certain adult-oriented establishment - a place where she, nor anyone like her, would even consider patronizing - to satisfy her lust for pious "indignation"! Well, if you have to look that hard to find something to be indignant about, aren't you looking a bit too hard?

Who are these grown, free, liberated, consenting adults really hurting anyway? And don't give me the "spreads crime and drugs" rationale either. That's just bunk! And it is bunk because there are many other cities in the US, larger and smaller than Memphis, that have many adult-oriented establishments of all types catering to all sorts of interests, and those cities are not imploding or falling apart.

In fact, these cities are thriving! And why? Because cities that have a kernel of such establishments, appropriately regulated and appropriately zoned, tend to attract the "creative class" mentioned above and also spawn many other, shall we say, more palatable forms of nightlife. And to the advantage of the cities where they live, these young, educated, creative, enlightened "sinners" who do not have families just yet, but who are interested in an active night life, tend to contribute to the areas which they consciously CHOOSE to call home!

But alas, I doubt that Memphis will wake up from its puritanical mania, and will therefore continue to be a plebian, provincial, unenlightened, uncreative, un-dynamic, intellectually barren backwater.

But hey, fear not! All the corners in Memphis are tapered and all the walls are padded - for your safety! Welcome families, one and all!

Message to young single "creative class" people who could bring a breath of fresh air and new ideas to Memphis - GET OUT! We don't want you!

Written on Editorial: A time out for teachers:

You can contort the institution of education all you wish. You can poke and prod at teachers all day long. The only way that public education of any kind will get any better is to institute real, old-fashioned discipline back in the schools. This would mean that parents are to be held accountable for the tangible organic matter that they made and put on the face of this earth! Teachers did not make these children. Their parents did! Therefore, parents are completely responsible for how these genetic extensions of themselves behave! So all of this, and everything that has happened since the 1970's to try to buttress the continual decomposition of public education in this country, has been in vain. And no, this has nothing to do with desegregation or poverty! It does not matter who you are or where you come from if, when you enter the front doors and go within the four walls of your neighborhood school, there is true, old-fashioned, hard-line, discipline! Moreover, real discipline will thwart more than 90 % of this so-called ADD, ADHD, and every other spoon full of rotten alphabet soup that the taxpayers are being fed every day! So go ahead. Evaluate personnel who are better trained to teach than they have been in the history of public education. Do the multi-million dollar dog-and-pony-show. It won't accomplish anything.

Written on Bicycle lanes appearing on major Memphis streets:

First, how often will these bike lanes be used by bikers? Is all that work disrupting a major commute route to and from the downtown area? Madison would have been much better as it is used less for major traffic!

Second, this is a commute route! I am sick of traffic being disrupted! So now I have less lanes to use because there may be one, maybe two bikes using this lane? And for what? A little joy or fitness ride at 6:00 a.m.?

Maybe if we were already seeing scores and scores of bikes would this be worth it. But I just don't think the "build it and they will come" mentality will work in this instance.

Written on Hotel industry insiders say guests are getting harder and harder to please:

in response to ChrisP:

You obviously don't travel much, so you can be forgiven, but Jawsfan is right.

Did a picture of the end of Jawsfan's slippery slope ever enter your head? Probably not...

By his way of thinking, businesses would be "too big to fail" and would operate like charitable institutions, guilting, fooling, and beguiling the customer into patronage.

The customer is not beholden to businesses, and this includes businesses in the so-called "hospitality industry". I mean, do you even know the definition of 'hospitality'?

Businesses are beholden to the customer!

If the customer wants something, that is called "demand" in basic economics. That demand for that particular thing is what needs to be filled, and the customer dictates what that is in a free market economy, NOT the business.

Demand creates an opportunity for entrepreneurs to provide a service or product to fill that demand - NOT some fictional demand that they create, but the specific demand the customer creates!

The entrepreneur that can most successfully fill that specific demand will be successful.

The entrepreneur that cannot, or in this case REFUSES to fill that specific demand will not be successful and does not deserve the interest of the customer.

The bottom line is that if customers have higher expectations for hotels, hotels should fill those expectations.

Take Starbucks as an example. They got 'too big for their britches' a few years back and they started doing what many businesses do when their business plan is not scalable. They cut corners on the quality of their product and stopped focusing on customer service. Imagine paying $4 for a simple coffee drink and getting FLACK from behind the counter because you want it in a specific way. What is a barista anyway??!?!?!

So, 'mom-and-pop' coffee shops started opening up all over the place and filling the demand from the customer - that being the demand for specific and meticulous and enthusiastic creation of specific coffee drinks as an alternative to the 'one size fits all' of a cup of coffee at a diner, or what you can quite frankly do in your own home!

Starbucks began to see a severe drop in business and if you remember, they had to close many stores and upper management had to figure out what went wrong, because as we all know, upper management is the last to know of any problems that occur in their businesses because of the "CYA" mentality of all the middle managers and their subordinates in this silly country we live in!

But thankfully, Starbucks found out that they forgot the basic tenets of good business:

1 - Hire the best people and fully support the people who are in daily direct contact with the customer.
2 - Make an EXCELLENT product that meets the specific demands of the customer - (NOT the business but the CUSTOMER), and
3 - Engage in EXCELLENT customer service. Take care of your customer because they are the reason you exist!

So now, when you walk into a Starbucks, you get an experience more authentic to their roots. I, for one, have noticed!


in response to jawsfan:

Guests are getting harder to please because as a society we are becoming pettier and more demanding. We want the best we can get without actually having to pay the fair and reasonable price for it.

To deliver such good value, businesses have to slash costs to compensate. That means fewer employees and, as a usual result, spottier service and a decrease in efficiency.

Making things worse, businesses promise us the moon to compete for our dollars. With a reduced and less-efficient staff, they will fail to deliver much of the time (or at least fail to meet someone's unreasonably high expectations).

I think the biggest problem with the guests is their unreasonably high expectations. They insist on value beyond their willingness to pay for it. They expect the service to meet their demands regardless of what they are paying to get it. But when the businesses themselves promise the moon and set those unrealistic expectations, they are only perpetuating the issue.

I've always been of the mind that companies should "underpromise to overdeliver" -- they should not promise what they cannot deliver close to 100 percent of the time. If anything, if they promise LESS than they are capable of delivering then they can surpass the customers' expectations at will and look that much more "heroic" in the process. The customer leaves satisfied and delighted because he feels he got way more than he expected and got extra-special treatment.

That won't always work in every competitve environment, I know, because people are suckers for sales pitches and will gravitate towards whoever promises something "bigger and better". It is only later they find out their service expectations may not actually be met.

Good value is all about PERCEPTION. Not everyone's expectations are the same and not everyone derives the same sense of satisfaction or value from a given purchase or experience. The challenge for the hotel industry is that they are chasing an elusive and shifting standard.

Some guests have rational expectations for the goods and services they pay for, some have wildly irrational expectations. The ones with the wildly irrational expectations are the ones who cause industry-wide headaches and contribute to the ever-increasing sense of perceived entitlement.

You can't pay for Salisbury steak and expect Filet Mignon. But many people do. And when they don't get it, they will walk away in a huff and never come back. Hotels not wishing to lose ANY customers will start offering Filet Mignon at Salisbury steak prices, but it turns into an unsustainable promise and business model.

The airline industry has similar problems. Everyone wants First Class treatment at Coach prices. You can't hvae it both ways, and customers complain when they don't get everything they want. But it's not always the airlines' fault -- some customers just have irrational and unrealistic expectations.

So basically what you advocate is that business should engage in the fine art of deception, directed at the paying customer!

No way!

The bottom line is this. The customer is always right!

If you are a business in today's world, you must exist in today's world, and if you endeavor to serve your customers without constantly working to deliver the best possible product and service, then someone else will! Today's customer is tired of the crap, and wants people in the service industry to, well - SERVE!

I am not extremely old, but I have lived long enough to see the general degradation of customer service from an automatic assumption to an enterprise of deigning drudgery. Businesses now do not follow the credo of "the customer is always right" and instead insist that the customer is a cash machine to be siphoned, and beguiled and fooled at every turn.

But there are some customers who have intelligence, and they are choosing to be resourceful.

It is my right to spend my money, the fruit of my labor, anyway that I see fit! And if I do not like what I get for my money, it is my right (under the First Amendment, mind you) to tell as many people as I want to tell about it! And that includes the internet!

If you in the hotel industry don't like it, then you have a choice!

Either try harder, or QUIT! I guarantee you someone else will fill in your place as quick as a flash as long as there is demand for this product!


in response to libertyfirst:

Just don't ask the thugs in government to abide by the laws. That's just for the tax cattle like Smitty.

When law becomes tyranny, resistance becomes duty.

Live like a free man.

Being told that you are not going to plunder God's Creation for the sake of the almighty dollar is not tyranny. It's responsibility.


in response to TheHistorian:

That's great.

My rage though, stems from being lumped in with Falwell. That's what I'm mad about. F that. Typical liberal prejudice, I guess "we're just all the same" to some people.

Just admit you were WRONG, "TheHistorian". Gosh!

Your statements clearly indicated that you did not think any disease cures have been found in the rainforest. Admit it!

That's the trouble with little minds. They are not big enough to comprehend humility.

Written on Group asks DeSoto County schools to halt prayers at athletic events, graduations:

in response to ohitsubob:

Religion = The biggest fraud in the world!!!!

People think they have a right to use it (Religion) to control others.
Isn't that something like communism ????

What happened to "freedom"? Or is it only freedom as long a you worship the way I do or the way I say you have to....

It would be great to live without having religion pushed down your throat every time you turn around????

Most of my comments on here have had a decidedly liberal slant, although I count myself moderate.

But regarding this, and your post, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Yes, religion has been responsible for many injustices throughout history.

But it has also been responsible for much, if not all, of the good in society.

Some believe that humans are naturally good, others believe they are naturally evil and must be encouraged to be good.

I believe human nature tends toward the destructive, selfish, greedy, narcissistic, and self-preservatory when they are crowded with other humans. When humans are relatively solitary, they tend to be benign.

But civilization, as humans have defined it, require that we get together in large groups and live in things called "cities" and "towns" and unite under political umbrellas called "nations". This allows us protection from others who may not think as we do or look as we do, and vice versa (i.e. - relationship between people and government, pros and cons).

So my point is that people, left on their own with no fear of consequences of actions, will tend toward self destruction in the form of breaking all of the Ten Commandments as well as the Golden Rule, etc.

Religion presents a codified way for human beings, who are varied in thought, appearance, and creed, to live on this planet together. Christ, in his time, had the Supreme Vision of seeing the ultimate result of "an eye for an eye", and gave humanity a gift - a way to get around that philosophy so that humans would not eventually destroy themselves through war with his commandment above all others, "Love thy neighbor".

Think of humanity without ever having benefitted from religion throughout our entire history. This is different from rejecting religion as we are, at the end of thousands of years of the practice of religion, which provides a strong basis and tradition for human conduct which has been absorbed into the secular. What I am talking about is never having had religion at any time in our past or present.

We would not be here. Plain and simple. We would have killed each other off long ago. And that would have been the ultimate irreverence to the gift we have been given - that of our very existence.

So religion does have a place in this world, even if you are agnostic, atheist, or secular. It is the one driving immovable force in our world that endeavors to constantly fight for good and the purity of the One Truth that is not affected by fallible human subjectivity.

Say it's a fairly tale and false all you want, but remember that your voice is coming at the foot of, and is absolutely affected by, generations and generations of believers from all over the entire globe who, from an anthropological standpoint, spontaneously discovered a power greater than themselves thousands of years ago, and called that power "God".

Written on Memphis City Council OKs $215 million to finance Pyramid-Bass Pro deal, buy convention center:

in response to mrlevhil:

I really hope Bass Pro sticks around for a LONG time. It is so good to see more corporations taking interest in the downtown area on the North and South ends. Instead of thinking about the loss of the outlet mall, think of the possibility of outlet stores opening locations in or near the downtown area if this all works out. It will be a good investment as long as the city finds creative ways to discourage the trouble makers from visiting. Otherwise, this could all go the way of Peabody Place. But, for some reason, I try to stay optimistic about the rebounding of this city.

You know, you are so right!

Although I hate the idea of what Bass Pro is going to do to our city's icon (The Pyramid, as St. Louis has the arch), I forgot about what happened to Peabody Place!

Before Peabody Place, there was virtually no good retail downtown. That shopping center put us on par, finally, with all the other cities with tourist activity downtown and was the final missing piece of the puzzle to complete the downtown scene (added to Beale St., restaurants, clubs, theatre, etc.).

But parents in the area started using that shopping venue (by virtue of the movie theater) as a babysitter for teenagers. That killed it. Plain and simple. A simple rule requiring all children to be accompanied by an adult, and enforcement of that rule, would have solved it. But there was no political will to do that, obviously.

Since this development is mostly an outdoor thing and there will be no cinema, it may not happen here, but that still does not preclude my dislike for this whole idea.

Written on New anti-celebration rule could erase TDs; let the argument -- er, debate -- begin:

When I watched football growing up, you didn't have the flagrant celebrations that trended right before these rules were put in place. The most you got was a spiked ball in the endzone after the points were scored! There comes a point when the slippery slope theory kicks in, and celebrations become "planned productions", planned beforehand, with props, scripts, etc. As soon as a player calls too much attention to himself and starts planning what he is going to do as a complex production (i.e. - jumping into the crowd, choreographed dance steps, whistles, cell phones, hats, costuming, etc.) then it gets undignified and ridiculous.

It's the same as having a speed limit. We all know that it should just be "drive at your own risk", but then where do you draw the line for all the morons who don't know that driving 80 is beyond their risk?

You have to draw the line somewhere, and this is the line - dignity, humility as a member of a team that helped get you to the goal line, and good sportsmanship.

Celebrations, if there are any, should be spontaneous, from the heart, and not planned!


The last plans I saw for this Bass Pro shop at the pyramid entailed either a giant fishing lure sitting on one side and/or dormers cut straight out of all 4 sides of the pyramid.

There is a reason why a pyramid is a pyramid and is unadorned. It is, from a design and engineering and spiritual and aesthetic standpoint - perfect! It needs no adornment.

Further, and I have stated this before, the pyramid is Memphis' "St. Louis Arch". It is an unmistakable icon of our city, invoking our original namesake in Egypt. Altering the symmetry of this beautiful calling card to the world is blasphemy!

Now, I really don't care what they put inside it, but outside, it needs to remain as it is, with the exception of possibly, and tastefully, finishing the original pyramid concept by adding the conveyor to the observation deck at the top!

But having said that I don't care about what is inside the pyramid, I personally do not believe that there will be a significant draw to shop there. The logistics of getting to the store and parking are too horrendous to make it welcoming for that sort of customer at a large enough scale to make it really profitable in the long term. Also, who did the marketing research for this idea? Perhaps I am not familiar with this customer, but I am just not seeing huge numbers of people justifying a Bass Pro shop in the first place. I have been to the Bass Pro shop out on I-40 and it's a cool place but it was not exactly crowded, and the clientele was not exactly affluent, therefore, they were not exactly spending big amounts of cash!

Back to logistics. Who is going to come all the way down off of I-40 or I-240 to somehow find out how to navigate that convoluted mess of exits and access ramps to finally find whatever they put together for parking to make major purchases (i.e. - boats, pontoons, etc), let alone bother with all that for a fishing lure? I wouldn't!

I guess the justification is the "park-like" atmosphere with aquarium and a hotel? Exactly what customer would want to be cooped up at a hotel designed to keep you at Bass Pro shops, with no easy and welcoming access outside of it? After seeing the aquarium or stuffed bears and whatnot for an hour and shopping for a couple of hours, what then? Maybe they could walk to the Pinch District, which is sort of cool. I guess the "trolley" (ha ha) could take you to Beale St. But if you have to get in your car, again, it can be very confusing, all though I have not been down there in a while...

Anyway, I suppose we can just have faith that our brilliant City Council has this worked out already.

Written on Where Mid-South lawmakers stand on cutting the budget, raising the debt ceiling:

in response to CSA:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

That is old rhetoric that may have been true in the past regarding the Democratic strategy, but if what you say is true about income levels, then how do you account for the fact of Bush's 8 years in the White House, and then before Clinton (who by the way presided over the greatest continuous economic climb in our history) Bush I, and before him, Reagan? Surely with all those Republicans in the White House this gap you mention should have been closed long ago, right?

I mean, since 1980 we have had one - ONE Democratic president other than Obama, and the Republicans had more than their fair share of control over Congress. Funny how you did not mention that with your statistics. But logic says that if the Republicans DO care about minorities, they would have pulled themselves up more than this in all that time.

Well, the fact of the matter is that even if you are right about Democrats, Republicans are no less to blame. But the big blame here goes to the Tea Party, who does not have enough class to compromise.

And let's please remember welfare reform under Clinton. That welfare story you mention is part of the past, in good part. And what about corporate welfare? What about campaign finance reform?

And talk about guaranteeing votes from people voting against their interests, the Republicans corner the market on that by courting the NASCAR set (i.e. - working poor bigots who are beguiled by the fear of social change and equal rights for gays and not injecting religion into government, and who therefore vote for the Republicans who care only about the rich).

Lastly, I would appreciate a reference to back your statement that says most educated African-Americans vote Republican.


in response to NEVERAGAIN:

WOW. I can't believe you lowered yourself to read the commercial appeal. I love NASCAR and I bet I make alot more money than you do.

Macy's sells nothing but junk. Everything I ever bot there fell apart. Saks has the ugliest clothes and rudest employees I have ever encountered. Nordstroms basically the same as Dillards.

New Oleans smells so bad, I will never go back.

and yes, you are a snob.

Money has nothing to do with class or breeding, but that still does not mean you make more than I. And if demanding quality goods and refusing to put myself in situations that would be completely unpleasant for me and disagreeable is snobbery, so be it.


in response to Whatever4:

How can he see the forest with his nose so far in the air? I would suggest he take a drive down here, but I prefer he stay north of the state line.

I was born and raised in Mississippi but I stand by my view. I have a right to say anything I want about my home state. But I will say this. Aside from visiting family you have nothing to worry about. I have no intension of going down there to shop at this time.


in response to BluThunder2k1:

EPIC FAIL... Do you realize the development is going to be in Southaven and not Memphis? Do you realize that Southaven is one of Mississippi's fastest growing cities? Do you realize the volume of people who shop and live in Southaven? Do you realize how many people from Memphis travel alone to Southaven to shop? Do you realize all the stores you named are department stores and not "OUTLETS"? Do you realize that New Orleans is a far greater tourist attraction than Memphis/Southaven metro area? As a far as clientele, I guess you dont see the 3 and 4 hundred thousand dollar homes with families who live in them and the working class people? I guess you cant see the forest for the trees

The answer to all your questions are "yes". But you obviously have not read my post completely, or with comprehension. I was speaking about Southaven in the beginning but I wanted to present the observation that there are no truly "upscale" retailers, outlet mall or not, in the entire region.

And you can't buy taste. Therefore, I don't care how much their homes cost down there, they are still tasteless and common hicks for the most part. The population down there is rising because all of the racists who can't take living in Memphis moved down there. So I reiterate my initial view of the clientele of Southaven. You can dress a nobleman in rags and he is still a nobleman. Contrarily, you can dress a commoner in fine clothing and they are still a commoner.

And I can say this, because I lived down there for a while and moved back to Memphis because, with all its faults, compared to North Mississippi it is an oasis of refinement and sophistication and intellectual enlightenment. Don't believe me? Drive around Central Gardens and like areas in Midtown, downtown Mud Island, Chicasaw area, and then go to Germantown a bit. I'm not saying its NYC but compared to Southaven, come on now....


in response to elmerfletcher:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

No, Elmer, the world will not come to an end. The US will go on. I believe that.

But things will happen if our rating is downgraded. When you go and buy a house or car, you will be paying more, because the major banks who finance those purchases will not be able to get low interest rates on what they have borrowed, and make no mistake, the banks are playing the same games now as they were before the recession, so in short, those higher rates banks pay will transfer to you.

The dollar, being backed only by a promise and not by gold, will lose value, and so that will produce inflation.

Reports are out that if the debt ceiling is not raised, SS cheques may not all go out. Other programs may not be funded either - important programs that you may depend on. That is a big question because Congress would have to decide what to fund. That sounds good huh? A government living within its means finally? But what if they decide to cut Medicare? What if they cut SS? What if they cut any number of programs (like FHA for buying houses) that YOU depend on? Then the prospect does not seem quite as rosy huh?

So no, the sky will not fall, but things will become even harder in an economy that is still flailing from the Great Recession (with home sellers foolishly insisting on pre-bubble prices and bankers foolishly continuing their paper pushing practices).

What do you think will happen to the world markets if we default? They will hurt as well. What happens then? After SS and a couple of other domestic programs, 6% of our debt goes to China. What if they, and other nations, suddenly lose faith in the US financial situation and call us on our debts? On the smaller scale, what if international businesses stop investing in the US?

Or what if the rest of the world was even more malicious?

Did you know that Mexico is campaigning to back their currency with gold? Can you imagine a Peso being more valuable than a dollar? You know, Pesos used to be 1000+ to every dollar. How would NAFTA be affected by a gold backed Peso against a dollar backed by an empty promise?

And what would happen if our dollar became absolutely worthless and the Euro somehow rebounds, and the Pound becomes worth even more since gold is now skyrocketing and British Pounds are completely backed by gold and worth twice as much as a dollar BEFORE the bank debacle? What if our economy finally collapsed and we went into another major depression with the world political climate as it is, in the age of instantaneous information and lightning speed activism? Do you think the Middle East would care? What about China and Japan? Would they care and bail us out? Would Europe bail us out? We OWE all of them money!

If we default, our money means less, so our purchasing power means less, so we can't buy anything!

But yeah, the sky won't fall and we would still be the USA, maybe...


in response to ErnieSmith:

Drastically cut government spending. It's the only way to force unproductive people to get off their lazy behind and do something constructive that actually adds value to society. It's also the only way to stop an even bigger, more catastrophic default in the future.

The "by your own bootstraps" principle sounds good, but think about what would really happen. Do you want even more beggers in the street? Soup kitchens? Higher crime? People dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor, including children? Do you want a breadwinner of families who has lost his or her job to have no recourse and end up on the streets starving with his or her children?

You can't just have an "I got mine" mentality and produce a "Pottersville". We decided long ago that we were not going to have that sort of country - the sort of things that occurred in the late 19th century when we were industrializing and there were no unions or laws to protect workers from the tyranny of robber barons (whose goal, by the way, was to indenture their workers for the sake of profit and corner the market on industry by controlling an entire industry).

But we do need to reduce spending, and if you have been paying attention, Reid's plan does that. Reid's plan, a plan Obama endorses, also does not raise taxes. This is what the stupid Tea Party originally wanted, but now that Obama actually agrees, OOOoh no. They can't. So they are moving again and asking for eeeven more - two votes instead of one.

I bet if Obama relented right now and agreed to Boener's plan, the childish Tea Party and Republicans would just say "nyaa nyaa, now I want MORE!" Why not? That's what they have been doing! Spoiled childish BRATS that they are...


in response to tigerclaw:

Alan Nunnelee says that the Budget Control Act will save $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Big whoop. Obama spent over $3 trillion in his first couple of years in office. Why does it take the gov. 10 years to cut 1/3 of what it spent in one year? This is ridiculous.

Thanks a lot A-hole Obama. All your spending has gotten us in one helluva mess. I hope you are proud of yourself. You got what you wanted.

Has the memory node in your brain short circuited?

Do you not remember what your evident heroes have done to our national debt? Do some research! I refuse to go into details as I have done that many times and even once on this thread. But there is ample information out there that says that even though Obama has spent money, he is NOT ALONE in that. We are NOT in this mess JUST because of Obama! Get that through your head.


in response to ChetAtkinsGhost:

Sounds like Neil's got it down, and YOU are clueless. There are 130 Republican members of the House, that weepy, orange drunkard included, that voted without question every time George W. Bush asked the debt ceiling to be raised. There was no "Gee, maybe we oughta consider rolling back expenses instead". They did it because he asked them to.

They've raised it three times so far under Obama. Lest you think this is an unusual amount, George W. Bush had it raised seven times. Clinton only had to have it raised FOUR times. George HW Bush raised it four times, and he was a single termer!

But the real epic was Ronald Reagan, who raised it EIGHTEEN TIMES in eight years. That's right--- The right wing's hero, Ronald Reagan, had to raise the debt ceiling more often than every president since then COMBINED so far. The debt ceiling has been raised 42 times, and Ronald Reagan accounted for over 40% of those raises ALONE.

This is a simple procedure, and never before has Congress dragged their heels on it. And it is the Republican Party doing as the Republican Party always does--- Putting their own electoral needs ahead of the needs of the United States and putting the needs of a handful of billionaires over the needs of 300 million Americans.

Boehner will not agree to anything that eliminates the Bush tax cuts that did nothing for our economy. He will not tax the purchase of corporate jets.

He is useless.

They raised the debt for Bush because of what he was financing - WARS! One war based on an absolute LIE and the other where Bush stopped pursuing the main goal - to capture bin Laden (a feat that Obama ended up having to do himself!)

They won't do it now because Obama wants to help the middle class with programs and tax the rich -those who Republicans like and who Tea Party reps propagandize the NASCAR set to vote for (against their interests) to further cater to the rich!

It's all about WHAT is being financed. As long as its a war or corporate welfare, they don't care how high the debt goes, and in fact, historically, Republican Presidents raised our debt much more than Democratic ones have!

We were the largest CREDITOR nation at the end of Carter, and by the end of Reagan, we were the largest DEBTOR nation! Under Clinton, we had a SURPLUS for the first time in decades, and under Bush, that surplus was handed on a silver platter back to the rich instead of being reinvested in the country by paying off our debts and refining our infrastructure.

So I am on your side Chet, all the way. The Republicans and Tea Party members need to be REPLACED, en masse, by Libertarians! Libertarians and Democrats in government and leave Republicans OUT! We should not have such people who will only represent 10% of the population (or less).


in response to CSA:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

Obama has moved from his original intentions on this deal THREE TIMES in the course of this debate and the Tea Party and Republicans have not moved one millimeter! You are a diluted racist, obviously.

I hope nobody is listening to you, because you are blaming the wrong person. Blame the Tea Party extremists who, like another poster said, are acting like spoiled brats who, if they can't monopolize a toy that others ask to share, BREAK IT out of spite and just so nobody else can have it. That is what the Tea Party and evidently the Republicans want to do. They would rather see our AAA credit rating get downgraded and default rather than COMPROMISE!

You can't blame a man who moved THREE TIMES or more on his original deal to try and compromise with people on the other side of the aisle, when those others refuse to budge! It is NOT Obama's fault.


"Upscale" tenants at this new mall? Has anyone seen the sort of "clientele" that lives in that area? IMO the people who live down there would not know what to do in a truly upscale store. But Memphis is no better it seems, when our economy can only attract, at its peak, Macy's and Dillard's". Heck, Nordstrom was supposed to be at Carriage Crossing right? Where is it?

Memphis used to have a Lord & Taylor in Oak Court in the 90's but they moved out, citing low profits.

And I don't see even the likes of Saks Fifth Avenue knocking on Memphis' door (or even in Southaven LOL!). But New Orleans, a city that is a fraction of our size, has a Saks with a robust business on Canal Street. Tourism can't be the only thing that keeps Saks in New Orleans.

I for one don't even shop for my clothes in Memphis anymore, unless it is work clothes and I get that at Macy's. If I want clothing, I go to upper tiered catalogs or to upscale department stores like Saks, Neiman's, or Barney's when I am out of town because the taste level in this region is just too common.

So this new "outlet mall" will have to accommodate the invariable NASCAR set that will undoubtedly inhabit it as they decide to lure their "upscale" retailers. LOL!

Sorry if that sounds snobby but we are talking about retail here, not saving the world, so save your indignant outrage and judgement for another thread, please.

Written on 'Virtual school' in Tennessee may drain taxpayer funds :

in response to jet#210649:

You are exactly correct. The huge advantage that virtual schools have is that they do level the playing field. A student in the poorest neightborhodd in Appalachia and the poorest neighborhood in Memphis can learn fro,m the same person teaching a kid in Al Gore's neighborhood. The same materials. At the same time.

And it means the person who wants to disrupt the class is merely making problems for his/her own parents who are in the best postion to correct those problems.

You know, it's technically not our problem, but if parents are required to be present with the child every second for the child to behave like a civilized human being, then is the child really civilized at all? Discipline requires that the disciplined behave as they are told to behave whether the authority figure is there or not. I know they are kids, but that is what was expected of kids in the past. Now, kids just grow like weeds and are not disciplined or raised properly.

And like one poster intimated, it is about discipline here. If students had discipline, then public education would be efficient and personal. As it is now, parents will send their kids to virtual school because they are tired of their children missing out because of rotten apples in the school, and the parents of rotten apples will either keep sending their kids to brick and mortar schools to serve as a day care center for their unruly kids, or send their kids to virtual school because they, the parents, are the only people who can curb the behavior of their child.

Written on Editorial: Students being held hostage:

I was just thinking about this. Perhaps it does seem like students are being held hostage, but consider an alternative view.

Citizens pay taxes for City Schools, yes. But those taxes go to the City Council and the City Council is responsible for funding the City School System.

If the City Council owes the City School System millions of dollars, then it is the City Council who is at fault - not the School Board. The City Council is not using taxpayer money responsibly!

So, the City School Board says, 'you get what you pay for, and if you don't pay, you don't get.'

Now, let's think about that for a second. What if the Board decided to extrapolate that policy, indefinitely, meaning that every time the City Council was late on their payments, school would be suspended. Think of how that would motivate the students and parents.

You know, sometimes you 'don't know what you got, 'till it's gone.' And taking away something that you may take for granted and making you notice that it takes real money and real action to put into existence tends to make people more appreciative. And by 'people', I mean everyone - the ELECTED City Council, parents, and students! If the City Council, then, can't properly prioritize tax monies from its citizens and put our children first, then parents, who have to deal with the constant threat of school closure for non-payment, would FINALLY be motivated to go to the polls and vote these City Council members who see fit to redirect tax dollars to things that are really not as important as our children!

(And I believe such a policy would, by virtue of everyone being more appreciative, eventually make parents better prepare their children to learn when they go to school, and therefore make their scores rise. It's a snowball effect, you see?)

Written on Editorial: Not the time for a vacation:

- And furthermore, I am generally disgusted, as I watch the debates in the House, at the absenteeism! At a time like this (as this Editorial points out) everyone needs to be there! If they are not listening to the debate in the House, then that means they are intractable and debating is a waste of time. But we need House members who ARE tractable - who do listen and make thoughtful, informed decisions. We need House members who listen to their constituency, yes, but also to their fellow House members!

Written on Editorial: Not the time for a vacation:

To All who have posted so far:

Obama's original proposal for his "Grand Bargain" is seen by many pundits and experts as one that would have been just as acceptable coming from a Republican, were a Republican in the White House. (Also and as an aside, my taxes, that of a middle class person, have gone down from the Bush era, so please take notice of the reality of Bush's tax cuts, which are for the rich only and which are still in place even though Obama has been in office since 2009.) So if anyone who is against "cut cap and balance" is a 'communist pig', then anyone for it must be a card carrying racist as per my above explanation!

Make no mistake, it is the House Republicans who are the outcasts here. Obama's original plan was very balanced (as I and experts stated). But then Obama is giving a little more still by endorsing the "Gang of Six" plan from the Senate! House Republicans do not want that, so they passed (uselessly) their "Cut, Cap, and Balance Plan" (which is an irresponsible waste of time, and therefore political grandstanding since they know their plan has no chance in the Senate or the White House.)

I wrote a letter to Sen. Alexander reminding him that Obama IS LISTENING to Republicans, and as evidenced by his actions, even when Democrats had Congress in the beginning of his term, has ALWAYS listened to Republicans. Obama ran as a moderate, for crying out loud! And so in that letter, I said that enlightened people know how to compromise, and then I challenged Sen. Alexander by asking him if he was enlightened.

I am glad that Senator Alexander seems to be enlightened as evidenced by this article.

But put the blame where it really lies - House Republican Tea Party (i.e. - Republican Rabid Lapdogs) members (who are mostly the House Freshmen Class).

We need an alternative to Dems and Reps. We do need a "Tea Party". We need someone to fight for smaller government. But we also need this new party to accomplish something in an enlightened way. You can't just dig your heels in and defy logic, reason, and common sense. It gets us nowhere. All humans have dignity, and such stubbornness discounts that dignity.


"This is our new normal, absent the energy to demand any better from the characters in our own sad reality show,"

The only energy we need to demand better is the energy that it would take to walk into a voting precinct, press a few buttons, and pull the proverbial lever!

Written on 46 Memphis City Schools teachers join list of jobless:

in response to historynerd:

Your argument makes perfect sense - in theory!!! Sadly, reality is quite different. I have been teaching in MCS for 30 years, and I will be the first to say that seniority is not the way to make these decisions - and that's if they even must be made at all. I suspect that these continual waves of layoffs are actully the administration playing chicken with the city over the budget, but I digress. Yes, I have been around a long time, but my test scores are consistently higher than the state average, and I teach in a very poor neighborhood. I am daily surrounded by teachers who come to work every day to collect a paycheck and nothing more. They embarrass me personally and professionally, and they denigrate a profession that I find noble and fulfilling. We at MCS have a gag order on us under threat of our jobs. If the rest of you are serious about your disgust with current MCS leadership, PLEASE take it beyond these posts. Show up at city council meetings, BOE meetings, the mayor's office, the corner of Union and McLean - just raise some #@#@#! These people are paid with your tax dollars. They, and the people who determine their salaries and their tenure here in Memphis, are accountable to YOU! Do something, PLEASE. I, and the hundreds of other committed, able, teachers in the district will owe you a debt of gratitude forever!

Would you say that most experienced teachers in MCS are there "just to collect a paycheck"? I really believe that most experienced teachers in MCS are quality teachers, and the ones you mention are in the minority. That said, what is one to do if one decided layoffs are the option? This is the fairest way, and besides, it is MEA policy to respect seniority. What if decisions were made differently and you, with all your hard work, were in a school where the administration did not like you, for one reason or another? (And don't say those administrators don't exist - they do!) You could be let go for whatever reason in spite of your record! Admins have a huge amount of autonomy in MCS.

So again, this is unfortunate, but it is the lesser of the evils IF you are specifically talking about having to lay off teachers, which I disagree with.

Written on 46 Memphis City Schools teachers join list of jobless:

in response to pgjw:

Unions are VITAL???!!! OMG Common sence is VITAL and the MCS Board has none. please, the board voted to disband, the citizens voted to disband, give it up and stop trying to take over a good system and screw it up like MCS.. What a bunch of goofballs. You could get rid of 2 thirds of the admin staff at MCS and still be top heavy.

All that aside, if we are just talking about what teachers to fire, specifically, this is the fairest way to do it without getting subjective. It is also the cheapest and fastest way to do it, taxpayer.

Written on 46 Memphis City Schools teachers join list of jobless:

in response to GWCarver:

Sorry Spike, but keeping workers around because they have the most experience is not the way of the world. You need to get out more. The world wants the best bang for the buck. That is what makes a business competitive and allows it to thrive, make money, and hire additional workers. It also keeps older workers on their toes; they have to remain competitive or they will be gone.

Competition makes any group stronger and smarter. Without competition, it is human nature for many workers to slack off and just go through the motions. This is common knowledge, it is just ignored in places like MCS. That is why they will never be the best they can be.

I disagree.

Experience means something, especially when you are talking about those who have been at the job two years or less. It takes about ten years working as a teacher just to get your feet under you.

But I do agree with you about most of what you said though. I think we are both right.

Written on 46 Memphis City Schools teachers join list of jobless:

in response to tesla89:

Seniority based firing is short-sighted. Another reason to get rid of the unions.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be a factor, but it shouldn't be the only factor. I attended the city schools, and I can assure you that there were several really bad teachers that had been around a long time.

But, by far, experience is worth much more than youth. It's the way of the world. And I would wager that the vast majority of those experienced teachers produce a "product" by their efforts that is worth much more than a teacher who has taught less than two years.

This is exactly why unions SHOULD be around. That way, layoffs are academic. Everyone knows that it means "last hired, first fired". It's fair, because it takes the subjectivity out of this particular decision.

People invest time when they work and are compensated, but as people age in their careers, they become less marketable because their training is specific to their particular employment. It is categorically unfair to put people who may have invested decades of their one life on this earth in fine tuning their specific training in jeopardy, while the younger, less experienced (and therefore more marketable by virtue of the fact that they can be more easily trained in other employment, specific to that particular job/company/school system) teachers are somehow kept on board.

So, for this, unions are not just necessary. They are vital!

Written on Memphis City Schools students remain near bottom in TCAP scores:

in response to jason38104:

Do the Memphis City School teachers use a different training curriculum than other teachers in the state?
I think that teachers are part of the problem, but not the entire problem. It stems from an entitlement mentality in the culture of most of the students in the MCS. Welfare, housing assistance, utility assistance, food stamps, child care vouchers...these are all integral and expected entitlements in the families of MCS students that make getting an education moot.

It is common knowledge and also a statistical fact that teachers are better trained now than they have ever been in the history of public education in the United States. Have a conversation with a public teacher once or twice to support the ample data with anecdotal evidence of what a person must go through just to get and maintain a teaching license.

So STOP trying to shift the blame on teachers, once and for all - and this at a time when our state government WANTS TO TAKE TEACHER COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS AWAY! I swear! Do that, and you will see new lows! Because nobody worth their salt will want to teach in the situations we are asking MCS teachers to teach in if they don't even have the right to ANY protection, let alone the feeble protection they now get!

Again, it is the fault of parents and therefore also students - parents who will not discipline their children - parents who say "don't touch my child - don't yell at my child" to the MCS system, yet again, refuse to discipline (or even get involved with) their children themselves!

And it is the fault of the children who refuse to behave in the classroom, inasmuch as they are developmentally able to accept responsibility with regard to their various levels of maturity and with regard to the need for adults to discipline and redirect them to do what they are supposed to do!

Decades of accountability programs and using teachers as "whipping boys" DID - NOT - WORK! If it did, we would be at the top, but we are NOT!

So, once and for all, ad infinitum:




in response to divajant#231672:

Everybody's trying to find out who's at fault. Well everyone is responsible for the failing schools in Memphis. I've never lived in a city so divided, the haves and have nots is what this place is all about. I have managed to raise my children as a single parent here, and I've watched the quality of the education here slowly deteriorate, and all people seem to care about is money and territory. I've had to drive all over the city to get my kids in the better schools, and I didn't have to go to a county school to find them either. The black people blame the white people and the white people blame the black people and the other races are sitting back laughing at all of us playing the blame game. I'm surprised you haven't blamed the President for this sad state of affairs, but there's still time.

No. Everyone is not at fault.

The parents are at fault.

Children, by virtue of the fact that they are children, are not always able to make the correct decisions for their own good. That is why parents must make them do right. They do this with discipline.

The parents are where the buck stops. Teachers and the government are not. If there is anything that the government can do, it would be to provide some support for schools so that schools can administer some hard discipline on these kids and remove kids who disrupt until they decide to behave!

Thankfully, it seems that you are one parent who has possibly made the right parenting decisions. But that can only be indicated by the future accomplishments of your children.


in response to Ichabod4Memphis:

We already know what can be done to help overcome the practices that prevent success. Many of the comments posted here have already answered that for you.

The problem is that there is no one willing to take the necessary steps to affect change. Parental involvement in the education of the child is essential, however, until we find a way to make that "mandatory" then there be no change. We will begin to see change when federal laws allow the withholding of WIC funds if parents do not get involved in the education of the child. We will begin to see change when federal laws are changed to allow removal from public housing for failure to attend parent/teacher meetings and school activities. Until the parents are held accountable with REAL consequences there will be no measurable change in behavior on the part of the parents or the children.

It is a sad story when, once again, the government has to come in and enforce something that should already be done by initiative.

This type of government involvement would be a clear infringement on our personal liberty (i.e. - the right of the parent to raise their own child as they see fit). But sadly and for self preservation, I agree with your assessment.

When the people refuse to be individually responsible in a free society, government has to step in, for the sake of the preservation of society.

In the past, parents revered parenting as an awesome responsibility. Parents stood strong against the antics of their children and were not led astray by their beguiling puppy-dog eyes or by their persistent belligerent badgering (i.e. - mommy can I... [repeat]. Etc. and so forth...). And parents were strong willed in disciplining their children harshly and resisted the temptation to soften in the sight of a crying child, who quite frankly deserves to be crying if they did something wrong.

But now thanks to Dr. Spock, propaganda from the media, and everyone since (including some misdirected efforts by Child Services) spanking is not called spanking anymore. It is called "hitting". Much of what was considered strict discipline in the home by parents in the past is now considered abuse! (i.e. - Sending child to their room without dinner is neglect of child's health. Spanking is hitting. Yelling is emotional abuse. These are all things used on me and I came out just fine!)

So yes. I agree with you. Unfortunately, the government is going to have to eventually step in and force parents to deal with what THEY made and what THEY brought into this world!

But to avoid that intervention, society in general needs to accept the fact that children MUST BE DISCIPLINED and sometimes DISCIPLINE IS UGLY! Sometimes, a child needs to cry. When a young child cries, they are learning! They are learning that they have reached the limit of what is acceptable and cannot go any farther with that behavior!

A parent who "gives in" at the sight of a crying child, or in the process of strictly disciplining a child who needs and deserves it, is harming that child and thereby harming society!


in response to Reddition:

I applaud your success story! Thanks for sharing! Obviously, you broke out of the cycle of poverty and ignorance! Unfortunately, yours was a [blessed] exception to the rule around here.

Well, thank you.

The crux of my point here is that most of these kids come from what is termed "working class" or "working poor" households.

That is different from poverty or abject poverty.

Real poverty, in my experience, tends to produce shame, fear, and an acceptance of social standing. But it also can produce character and morality, if parents do the right thing.

The problem with working class or working poor is that they tend to work long hours at one or even two jobs and so there is less time with the children, but that is only part of the problem. Add a lack of morality and conscience to the mix and you get a parent who wants to indulge the child and who wrongly thinks that giving the chid the appearance and trappings of wealth somehow raises that child's self esteem and can make them feel more confident and therefore rise to success.

This is a fallacy.

So, at the same time these parents indulge these kids with the latest clothes, latest toys, and anything else their "last dime" will buy, they are often not home with the child in the afternoons, or even all night, or even until the weekends! To add to this, the morality and virtue and parenting skills of these parents tends to be sub-par. They value materialism (which is expensive) instead of morals, ethics, and knowledge (which is free).

The result? You get what I call "The Entitlement Society". Quite simply, you have poor kids who are, by hook or crook and the misguided efforts of their working poor parents, spoiled rotten brats!

This is an extremely dangerous combination in children who are poor, because they have been fooled to believe that in life everything just comes to them without any effort (i.e. - all the trappings of wealth acquired by their working parents), but in reality, the child is poor and, in fact, living a very precarious existence, indeed. This is why you see many of these young people walking around with a chip on their shoulders all the time. They cannot understand, as they stand there in their $100 tennis shoes and designer (fake or real) jeans, playing the latest video games, etc. etc., why they don't make good grades or earn honors or get scholarships, or why it is important to comply with teacher's rules, school rules, dress codes or have school supplies, etc.

Their ethics are the exact reverse from what they should be as a result of their warped sense of reality coming from warped parents who think that spending your last dime and indulging your child somehow gives them self esteem, when all they really need to do is impart morals, manners, ethics, and respect for authority, which are all completely free!


in response to PastMaster:

Now do you understand why the people - black and white - in the Shelby County Schools jurisdiction do not want a forced "surrender consolidation" with Memphis City Schools?

MCS is a totally failed institution and now the black political machine in City Hall wants to take over and destroy the county schools to make their empire larger and richer. They think those "white kids' TCAP scores" will get the heat off their butts. Guarantee you as soon as the old city school system board members and administrators -- including Kriner Cash -- take over the county schools, every school's TCAP and other achievement scores will plunge to new lows within three years because the merged school system will be in shambles.

Don't merge the systems together. That will just get the heat off the incompetent MCS administration who will continue to play the game and deliver a third-world education to poor black city school students who deserve a better deal. FIX MEMPHIS AND ITS SCHOOLS FIRST. That is the only fix that will work.

I think that if the systems merge, students will still be zoned into their respective schools, as they are now. Optional schools will probably go away (according to what I read in a couple of documents). So the new system as a whole may have a lower standing as a result of the acquisition of the city students, but within the respective schools I bet the current trends will continue (i.e. - high performing individual schools will stay high, and low will stay low).

This keys into my past posts. It's not about the system or the personnel manning it as much as it is about students who have no discipline in the home and thereby disrupt learning in the school, and about a system in panic that is afraid (by virtue of public non-support of real old-fashined discipline in schools and by virtue of inappropriate accountability of teachers and administrators who are already well trained and hard working) to discipline students properly and/or remove them from the learning environment so they cannot destroy teaching and learning in the classroom.


in response to neighborhood_girl:

At some point, students have to take responsibility for their own learning.

Students are children, and children are not adults.

Students should be MADE responsible for their own learning by the administration of discipline (as per my other posts).

Written on Body found in ravine near Highway 51, Fite Road:

in response to memphismal:

For the government to effectively take all guns out of circulation, there would have to be a repeal of the Second Amendment, and most likely, far-reaching violations of the Fourth Amendment. Progressive, are you willing to open yourself up to unreasonable searches and/or seizures, and other intrusions of your privacy by government agents, to effect execution of your ill-guided theories in regards to gun control?

The TSA already does this every time you fly.


in response to Reddition:

The permanent underclass do not show progress in test scores. That's why they are "permanent." Enough said.

I grew up dirt poor - no air conditioning - no central heat. Our home was heated by wood stoves. The ceiling in my bedroom leaked in 8+ places. Some on my bed. I come from a broken home. My father was a wife beater. My mother was an alcoholic. My mother remarried and put us into the situation where we were dirt poor, because my step father is a Union man, who sometimes was out of work for 6 months or more at a time. So we have seen our share of food stamps and government cheese. There were 6 children in this "house" of two 1960's model trailers hitched together to make a make-shift double-wide. And our "septic" system was a metal barrel shot with a shotgun with PVC running to it from the house, and therefore a cesspool was the norm in that area of the yard.

Yet my mother and stepfather, for all their faults, had a great sense of morality and had a policy of STRICT DISCIPLINE and no tolerance for any backtalk, disrespect, or even questioning of authority! "...BECAUSE I SAID SO" was the typical response given by my parents.

We never had "nice clothes" but we always had clothes that complied with the school's dress code!

We may have gotten reduced lunch, but we knew enough to eat a balanced meal instead of only sweets, because we were disciplined at home to finish our plates and be thankful for the food we had!

And we had books in the home - lots of books. Books are not that expensive, you know.

And we were raised to keep our bodies clean and healthy.

And we went to church every Sunday.

We also had many chores to do to maintain such a home - chopping wood for heat, cleaning the holding tank for the pump to pump our water from a creek down the hill from our house, mowing the 3 acre lawn which was necessary to keep snakes from invading the house, etc...

And somehow, after all that, I managed to graduate every educational institution I ever attended with HIGH HONORS!

Moral of the story:

Nice clothes, games, and other indulgences that may pacify, indulge, beguile, or entitle a child to think they are important is expensive.



in response to tigergirl21:

This is not "Breaking News". Breaking News would be if the scores significantly increased.

We as a community should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this to continue. It's time to clean house & demand accountability from the top to the bottom.

These standardized tests are ridiculous. It's time to get back to teaching the students basic skills of reading, math & writing. Quit trying to teach these kids to pass a standardized test. If they had the core skills, then passing the test would be a breeze. Quit using "social promotion" as a tool in schools. If the student can't pass the basic elements of that grade, then they need to be held back.

For the amount of money spent per pupil in this system, taxpayers should be seeing a better return. MCS Board, don't come ask for more money to fix the problem. You have plenty of funds. Figure out a more effective means of utilizing these funds.

How do we ever expect to reduce unemployment when people are graduating from the school system without the ability to read an employment application, sign their name or perform basic math?

Unfortunately, none of your suggestions will work unless the corrupt political landscape becomes virtuous.

But the corruption, quite frankly, is a product of widespread panic within the system in its attempt to address low achievement problems. This happens with any corporate structure when accountability is demanded, and NO SUPPORT IS GIVEN!

And that's the crux of the problem. Principals and teachers are better trained than they have ever been in the history if public education. By far, the vast majority of these people are great at their job.

But they are getting absolutely no support from the parents of these students, and therefore, the students themselves. Parents of theses MCS students typically "grow" children. They do not raise them. They feed them and clothe them (barely) and then shift the responsibility of moral direction onto the school system, who cannot DISCIPLINE these students by virtue of the lack of public support for strict discipline (as was done on the past) in our public schools.

So, with their hands tied firmly behind their backs, students cannot be paddled. They cannot be removed from the classroom or suspended. Even if they break the most cardinal rules of the school and are "Board Suspended", they are thrown right back into the classroom (to keep them off the streets, etc.) and are allowed to negatively affect the other students with their lack of DISCIPLINE!

Have you ever heard the saying, "one bad apple spoils the basket"? Well, it's an old saying, and there are reasons why old sayings are old. They are true!

You simply can't expect any school system to raise scores when they cannot discipline children strictly to compliance of rules in order to create a good environment for teaching and learning. And, quite frankly, it is NOT THE JOB OF TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS to raise your children to be prepared for a FREE education. That is the job of the parents, who are obligated to the taxpayer to prepare their child to BEHAVE so that they do not waste the teacher's time, and therefore waste taxpayer dollars on public education!


in response to MoCash:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

It is a widely known fact that for every dollar that is spent on each county school student, Memphis City students get three.

Also, and I said this before in another thread so I will keep it simple. DISCIPLINE - Old fashioned DISCIPLINE is the only way this, or any school system is going to pull scores up.

This means parents must prepare their child to receive the FREE and appropriate public education the taxpayers finance. Parents who do not are needlessly costing taxpayers more money with all these stupid contortive programs systems put in place to LOOK like they are doing something when they are really treading water.

This also means that students who do not comply with all the rules at all times are REMOVED from the classroom and stay removed until they behave! To keep such a child in the classroom is UNFAIRLY BURDENING the other students who have decided to comply and unfairly costing taxpayers money in the form of extra time spent to address these needless interruptions by undisciplined students!

This means that corporal punishment needs to come back into the schools, especially in the younger grades, to scare these kids into behaving like they are supposed to. That's the way it worked when I was in school and we had great schools back then! So save the "corporal punishment" is abuse crap for someone else, because it is MORE abusive to allow a child to grow up to be an overly indulged, ADD ADHD DRUGGED, entitled, spoiled rotten brat (and there are those in every income bracket) than to go ahead and DISCIPLINE the child strictly so they will grow up like they are supposed to!

Also, save the "get good teachers and more money and better equipment" crap. Teachers are better trained than ever and most teachers are great teachers, by far - even in the public schools.

STRICT DISCIPLINE takes all the crap out of the way - all the backtalk - all the explaining why you have to do what your teacher TELLS you to do. That saves a lot of time - time that is better spent TEACHING AND IMPARTING KNOWLEDGE (using any teaching method and teaching to any part of Bloom's Taxonomy).

So, in short, education will never show fundamental improvement until we bring old fashioned discipline back in our schools. If the DECADES of trying other stuff worked, we would see ourselves at the top by now, but we are NOT, so the only difference is the lack of discipline!

Written on KIPP plans new middle and elementary charter schools:

in response to TheDoddHouse:

Not true. I had plenty of bad teachers and turned out fine. Any profession is going to have bad and good teachers, with the middle taking up much of the profession (the bell curve).

Think about it. How many teachers did you have that you thought were good. Now how many do you think weren't good?

This is a good point. I actually can't remember having any particularly bad teachers, though. But you are right. Any profession will have a bell curve of abilities. It could be said that it is unreasonable to expect otherwise, as we are human beings, after all.

I mean, the alternative is to absolutely positively ensure that each and every teacher across the nation in public education is top caliber. Is that reasonable? How much would that really cost? At the salaries presented nowadays, would top caliber people flock to the profession? Then, you have the fact that we are not robots, but humans. There is going to be some variance.

So, excellent point there! But I still say that most teachers that I have encountered, by far, have been good teachers (with about 2% or so that I have encountered being bad).

But you know, discipline solves many of those issues naturally. In a disciplined classroom, even a bad teacher can go straight from the text and hand out worksheets and still impart knowledge to students. Students will still get a wealth of knowledge and material, although it may not pacify their indulgent expectations, as encouraged by today's parent who loves to spoil children rather than discipline them in the home...

Written on KIPP plans new middle and elementary charter schools:

in response to priceless109:

Discipline, while important, is not the answer to a student's success. A bad teacher with great discipline is still a bad teacher.

The answer to Memphis's education issues is bringing in great teachers. Support from parents, small class sizes, and nice facilities are all nice, but they are far less important than the teacher of that classroom.

And, as I stated, administrators should hire teachers that they can support. If they are good administrators, those teachers would be "good", as you say. But in my experience, the vast majority of teachers on the job right now are good!

- But, we are still not #1 in the world in education, and we should be with all the money we are putting into it.

Written on KIPP plans new middle and elementary charter schools:

Put an undisciplined, indulged, and entitled child into the classroom and it is no surprise that teachers get backtalk and flack from them when asking or telling them to do the simplest things. (And by the way, adults do have the right to TELL children what to do, simply because everything that an adult does is for the child's own good!)

I have been teaching for 16 years. I have not been teaching for 20, 30, or 40 years, but I have been teaching for 16 years, and I am a very quick study on things. I have seen all sorts of contortive meanderings in public education - all sorts of "programs" and acronyms and Presidential decrees designed to "save public education" but nothing has really worked on a fundamental level. If it had worked, we would be at the top in the world like we were after WWII. But we are not.

And the one thing that is missing - the one thing that we are too afraid to try - is discipline!

Thanks, Dr. Spock, for beguiling a nation into thinking that it is more cruel to spank a child than to let the child grow emotionally and spiritually as a weed grows in a garden (invasive and out of control), and thinking that it is more cruel to give a child strict, rigid, disciplinary guidelines than to label a child ADD or ADHD by a QUACK psychologist in order to make the child a RECEPTACLE FOR DRUGS so that the pharmaceutical companies can use them as a lifelong siphon of money to maximize profits!

In my opinion, the joke that is "parenting" nowadays has shacked many parents to the status of hostages of their children, always trying to indulge and pacify the child into submission and never standing up to the child. No rigidity in early childhood leads to a constant challenging of authority and to spoiled rotten brats who cannot stand on their own two feet, and that is less cruel than a spanking or rigid discipline? Give me a break!

Written on KIPP plans new middle and elementary charter schools:

in response to clarinetplaya4ever:

The thing is KIPP basically hand selects the good students and thats how they produce good test scores. Naturally if you take all the kids with good grades and behavior and leave the rest your school will seem outstanding. The real solution is still a strict set of parent laws on all public schools parents must be punishable under law if their children can not behave. The problem is not that the kids are dumb but the kids dont want to listen or follow directions. Thats the kind of stuff learned at home. So until someone bites the bullet and really speaks to the problem the parents there will never be any true progress.

To drive this point home, discipline – old-fashioned discipline - is the key to solving public education.

Discipline means corporal punishment as a consequence.

Discipline means suspension - real suspension with real consequences that make students, not teachers, responsible for the student to catch up when they come back from a suspension. It also means that the student is suspended until they are ready to come back into the school and follow the rules.

It means that administrators all over the country need to relinquish their memberships in teachers unions and stop saying they are educators. Only teachers are educators. Administrators are management!

It means that child advocacy is a job (within the school), solely and at the discretion of teachers! Administrators cannot be child advocates and purport to support education. It is the job of administrators to support teachers! If they cannot, then they should not hire the particular teachers they cannot support!

You cannot support students in public education without first supporting teachers! And again, it is the teacher's job to support the students.

Parents should not necessarily be made directly responsible for the actions of students, but again, they should also support teachers because it is teachers who hold the key to the child's future with regard to jobs, higher education, career, etc. It is the parent's job to prepare the child to be able to behave and receive the education that is given to the child for free! And when their child faces disciplinary actions, they need to reflect that same sentiment at home to show the child they and the teachers are both united in their effort to redirect the child in the proper direction! (i.e. - if you get a whippin' at school, child, be advised you will get one from your parents at home as well!)

To finish this point, all adults should unify and hold children directly responsible for their actions, good and bad. That is the only way to teach responsibility and self-sufficiency!

Children are very smart and cunning when it comes to getting what they want. They are wired to look for loopholes in the "system" that is their parental governance and educational governance. They do this because 'what they want and what they need are two different things'. Stupid parents think they are "growing" little adults rather than raising children INTO adulthood, so they do stupid things like trying to reason with toddlers by "discussing" why what they did was wrong, and things like time out for children, which is not a consequence, because the child often does not think about what they did when they are in time out.

So for children, it becomes a game, and if they can whittle the adults in their lives down to a "consequence" that is palatable to the child (i.e. - a "joke" as they may say) then they have won. They get their way and they get away with it.

Written on City argues Shelby County Schools' merger opposition is race-based:

in response to InvisibleBully:

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

Are the African Americans that moved to the county any less "black" than the ones that stayed in the city? What's worse, a racist outside the color of one's skin or within it?

The fact of the matter is that, according to statistics, Shelby County Schools is actually more racially diverse than the city schools, based on percentage. Yet, with $3000 less per students, Shelby County Schools has much better (not just marginally - much) scores!

Now, that is not to say Pickler is not a racist. Perhaps he is. But there are reasons to oppose a merger outside of race.

Written on New York approves gay marriage:

in response to ChrisP:

Actually, surprisingly many of their friends come from homes with "two dads" or "two moms". All of my children have already expressed a solid interest in members of the opposite sex, but they know that we won't love them any less if they went the more "nontraditional route" also.

As for how other parents feel, I don't really care. That's not an important decesion point in how I manage my own family. I'm pretty sure that most of the other families feel about the same way, or they'd have a very hard time dealing with the inclusive, friendly atmosphere that permeates our school.

I would love to know, if you live in Tennessee, how your kids friends could possibly come from homes with two dads or two moms. If this is possible, I am glad.

Written on New York approves gay marriage:

in response to randyl#208930:

Marriage is a private religious matter. If you truly believe in separation of Church and State, then the state should not license marriage.

Does the state license baptisms? Or Rabbis? Or Clerics? Oops, hope I did not just give a politician a new control idea....

Anyway it should be formalized or dissolved only by the institution the couple decides to submit to. If that means a secular humanist or religious ceremony to formalize an agreement of marraige, that should be up to the couple. Even in common law, marriage is recognized as an agreement and therefore the state should not prevent agreements.

It will take quite a lot to dismantle government's takeover of the agreement of marriage but if society at large will demand this freedom be returned it can happen.

Clergy always conclude any marriage ceremony with:

"...And by the power vested in me by the [church] and the state of [state], I now pronounce you man and wife..."

So yeah, clergy do involve the state when sanctioning marriages...

Written on New York approves gay marriage:

in response to conservative:

Couldn't you make the same argument for bigamy and prostitution? These are activities between consenting adults, they don't harm anyone else do they? I would think anyone who enforces these laws is just a bigot right? Oh come on, it's all good. We don't need standards of behavior in our society do we?

Prostitution is legal in Vegas and the sky is not falling there, so yeah, it should be legal. Who cares anyway unless you plan on going to a prostitute!

Also, bigamy is not that big of a deal to me either, although some religions sanction it to the point of men marrying underage girls, which is absolutely wrong! So if bigamy went both directions and only involved adults, it's nobody's business but theirs...

Written on New York approves gay marriage:

in response to baseballJJ:

To anyone that thinks I am a bigot:

so what.... I could care less what you think.

I know what God's word says and I am happy to announce that I will spend eternal life in heaven.

What about you?

p.s. I am a sinner as the Bible says but I am trying my best to be sin-free but that is our nature. "For all have sin and come short of the glory of God" says the Bible but "I repent of my sins" and "I trust in the Lord with all thine heart"

and I will play for all of you!

Only God himself can judge who goes to heaven or not; therefore, you cannot "know" you are going to heaven. You can only be the best "you" you can be and hope God will have mercy on your soul. To pronounce that you know you are going to heaven is to put yourself on the level of God, which is blasphemy - which is a major sin, I think. Doesn't the Ten Commandments say something about taking the name of God in vain?

Anyway, your "p.s." doesn't count if you do it right after such a declaration...