Wednesday, Thursday, Friday!

I learned that from my colleague here at the Teaching Underground.  I think people use the initials of those three words as an exclamation to express surprise, confusion, or perplexity... is that a word, if not, I want credit if you use it from now on.  So what are my Wednesday, Thursday, Friday moments from this week?

First, it's Mitt Romney.  Here's what he told Brian Williams at NBC's Education Nation:

I believe that we simply -- we simply can't have a setting where the teachers' unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians and then those politicians, when elected, stand across from them at the bargaining table, supposedly to represent the interest of the kids. I think it's a mistake.

I think we've got to get the money out of the teachers' unions going into campaigns. It's the wrong way for us to go. We have got to separate that.

Get the money out of the teachers' unions going into campaigns?  Never mind the money coming from Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Phillip Morris, or even PEARSON!  They don't use their money to exercise influence over the decisions of politicians.  And they count as people anyway since they're incorporated.  It's the money pouring in from the overpaid teachers that flooding our political system with graft.

Seriously, I hate to be immature, but this is stupid.  You're going to call out the teachers' unions for having too much influence and suggest their ability to contribute to campaigns be limited.  Maybe there's a better place to start if you want to remove the influence of money from education.

Romney also said:


So I reject the idea that everybody has to have a, if you will, a Harvard expense level degree in order to be successful. I find a lot of people have degrees from a lot of different places, public and private, that are highly successful.

He referenced Geoffrey Canada frequently in his speech and q&a session.  I attended a talk by Canada last year in D.C. where he said as a general rule of thumb, when you don't know what to do in education, "do what the rich people do?"  Romney was referring to the $38,000/year tuition at his former high school.  So, if money doesn't matter, why do rich people spend so much on education?  They're not rich because they waste money, apparently they understand it's value more than most.  So why do they insist on spending a high dollar amount to educate their own children?    Why doesn't the market bring this cost down, or do they just send their kids to keep them away from the riff raff one finds in public education.

Speaking of money, I've addressed my W,T, so here's my F.  One of our local teachers, Michael Farabaugh qualified for Jeopardy.  I'm a little bitter, because I made it to round two with him several years ago when the "Clue Crew" came to Charlottesville.  Neither of us made it to round three, but apparently he persisted while I gave up and helped start this little blog.  He'll be flying to California soon for taping.  Pretty cool achievement wouldn't you say?  Apparently not everyone thinks so.  Here's a link to the news story, but the comments are priceless.  Here's a sampling if you're not motivated to click the link provided to read them for yourself:

-What a shocker! Instead of actually doing what he is paid to do and that is teach, he is going off to try to get even more money, probably during school hours that he is being paid for! Greed! Greed! Greed! That is all we get from teachers! Certainly not results! 

-Are the taxpayers paying for substitute teachers so that these freeloaders can go win money on gameshows instead of doing their jobs?!?!?!?!?

No wonder the kids are as stupid as dead roaches! 

-They should dock his pay an amount equal to his winnings if he is getting paid to teach but is not doing it. 

-It is hard to have a positive impact on students when you cannot even be bothered to show up for your classes you are being paid to teach! I am paying his salary and I say fine him or fire him! 

For what it's worth, congratulations Mr. Farabaugh.  We know you've served your students and this community well and wish you the best on Jeopardy.

As for the comments, all I can say is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

And to preempt any inevitable conservative backlash, be patient, we'll take a few jabs at President Obama and Arne Duncan in the near future.