The Peter Principle Principal

We had a great time for the Shavuoth holiday with our friends upstate.  Now, back to the race against time to get stuff done before we depart.  I shouldn't really be blogging, but anyone who maintains a blog will surely understand why I still blog.

I do not generally dwell upon the extensive bullying I received when I was a child.  I like to think that, after all these years, I have managed to succeed in spite of it all; in any event I do not consider it to be a valid justification for failure.  If full disclosure be made, however, there were a number of instances in which I succumbed to the appeal of the gang mentality, and participated in the bullying process as a purveyor.  [I also hasten to note that distancing myself from the bullying wolf packs, a process simplified and facilitated by my family's relocation when I was in junior high school, significantly boosted my self-esteem and not only put my bullying behind me, but contributed greatly to my subsequent success in school and in life.].

On one occasion in elementary school, when the wolf pack to which I had become attached was summoned to the principal's office, the principal ("Dr. L") gave us a strong admonition that the objects of our bullying, through no fault of their own, came from a family whose assets and wherewithal were not conducive to their wearing shoes any better than the ones on their feet, which the wolf pack had come to make mock of.  Whereupon the alpha wolf of the pack asked Dr. L what business he, as an educator, had in the schoolyard interactions between students when it was all during recess and not in the classroom.

In one of only two instances where I ever saw Dr. L's face flush out in red anger, he vehemently responded that his primary job was to ensure that the students learn, and if the students feel insecure while attending school then they will have difficulty learning.  After regaining his composure, Dr. L sent us back to our classrooms, with the very credible warning that if we were ever again to make fun of any student's family economic status, he would personally consider it an affront to himself and respond accordingly.  Years later I learned that Dr. L's own upbringing had been below the poverty line.

Of all the school principals I had during my public school career, Dr. L certainly was head and shoulders above all the rest (and, in his retirement, continued to participate in the educational process in various capacities as a consultant, lobbyist, and college professor).  In all fairness to the other principals I personally had, though some of them made a few notable blunders, I do not consider any of them to have been incompetent.  I also note that at least three of the teachers I had would subsequently advance to become accomplished and esteemed school principals in their own right.

And then, there is Joan Monroe, Principal of P.S. 120 in Flushing, Queens, New York.  I am in no danger of conflating her with any of the school principals I ever had.  Seems that PS 120 held a successful fundraiser carnival, on school time.  But only those students whose parents paid the $10 fee could go to the carnival; the other students, more than 100 of them, were forced to sit in a darkened auditorium and watch videos while their classmates went out to the schoolyard to play.  Many of those students come from families that really cannot afford such an expenditure for such a frill.  And Ms. Monroe was the Nazi heavy in the deal.

Okay, okay, the carnival organizers have some very valid points.  Parents do need to take a hands-on attitude to their kids' education.  And education, like every other enterprise, does need cash flow if not financial solvency.  And there is much to be said against the concept of free public education (especially where the children of illegal aliens are involved).  And don't get me started with the flaws in the New York City Department of Education!

But Ms. Monroe seems to forget that PS stands for Public School.  Love them or hate them, they exist in New York by dint of Section 1 of Article XI of the New York State Constitution [Section 3 of Article XI being the New York version of the Blaine Amendment].  And while they do exist, they should not be perverted to the detriment of the children they seek to educate.

Be the school public or private, the students need to learn, which, as Dr. L recognized a half-century ago, means that they need to feel secure when they are in the school.  Ms. Monroe's handling of the situation was the antithesis of security for the children involved.  What kind of lesson is it teaching them?

In the great cosmic scheme of things, the initial L to Dr. L's surname may well be no coincidence at all, for L also stands for Leadership.  School principals need to be leaders and need to practice leadership, both of teachers and of students.   Those who successfully do so are long remembered by their constituencies.  Dr. L was a leader.  The other school principals I had were leaders.

Ms. Monroe's performance may, perhaps, arguably be called competent administratorship.  The one thing it was not is leadership.

Railroad Was Not Running

I haven't posted in a while because (A) have been occupied with professional things, and a death in the extended family; and (B) have had nothing to say that had not already been more eloquently stated elsewhere, including and especially about the elections.

Though running is a regular part of my physical workout, I have not run competitively for 20+ years. Though I have run distances well in excess of 20 miles, I personally have never had any desire to run in a marathon.

Nevertheless, I am all in favor of public marathon events. They give a positive public spin to physical fitness, stimulate economic activity, keep many young people occupied and out of trouble, and push many a negative story off from the front pages of the pulp tabloids.

Today was the New York City Marathon. I did not attend, but understand that it went off quite well. The weather was certainly good for it. My congratulations go to all who participated!

The main problem with the NYC Marathon is that it ties up traffic. Specifically, the Verrazano Bridge is closed until 3 PM. One year this was problematic for us because my parents were visiting us, and they had planned to leave Sunday morning. We convinced them to stay until the next day. Such traffic perturbations are part and parcel of Marathon events, but if they only occur once or twice a year it is not such a bad thing.

This year, however, another monkey wrench was thrown into the works by the shmucks at the Long Island Railroad. The LIRR is finishing its replacement of its 90-year-old switching technology, and the train service during this weekend has been very, very limited. Per my information, travel into New York City from Long Island has been an absolute mess, and the LIRR situation exacerbated the usual problems inherent in holding the Marathon.

It would seem to me that the LIRR people should have known that this weekend was the Marathon (being that the date was known over a year ago).

The LIRR is not known for its fine management of its trains. The riders, of which I was once a regular but now am only an occasional, do not hold the railroad in high esteem, and have no reason to do so. The LIRR is notorious for communicating misinformation to the public, sometimes intentionally so. Every LIRR rider has stories about this; I shall not now get started with mine.

To plan what amounts to a major shutdown on the weekend of the NYC Marathon is emblematic of the Long Island Rail Road and its public-be-damned institutional attitude.

Remember the Passover Story

So now, former President Jimmy Carter is calling Israel's restrictions upon the entry into Gaza of materiels that can be (and in fact are being) used to kill Israeli civilians an atrocity.

No doubt, other real Americans will point out One-Term Jimmy's hypocrisy in his failure to condemn (and indeed, his support of) even greater atrocities, such as thousands of rockets, launched on an almost daily basis, into the civilian town of Sderot. And, no doubt, other real American bloggers will speak out about his other acts of treason.

I only wish to point out two things here:

(1) Everyone seems to have forgotten Jimmy Carter's piss poor record with Muslim terrorists, specifically, the Iranian Hostage crisis. It took a Ronald Reagan to get the American hostages released, after Carter was unsuccessful for well over a year.

(2) As I write this, Carter is now in Cairo, cozying up to the Hamas terrorists. But where is Cairo? It is in Egypt! And what Jewish holiday is coming up in less than 48 hours? Remember that we have been commanded to remember how G-d saved us from our enslavement in Egypt! Hey, Jimmy! Remember what happened to the Pharoah!!!

Passport Snooping

The front page headlines are all making hay over the unauthorized snooping into the respective passport files of Barack Hussein Obama, John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Of course, this is a further symptom of the State Department's general incompetence. And, of course, Obama is now demanding an investigation into the matter.

To which I say, save the taxpayers' money!! Skip the investigation!! We already know what happened! Some State Department "contract employees" got curious, and accessed the passport files.

Unfortunately, these people were not employees (contract or otherwise) of the Internal Revenue Service. Because if they had been, they would have been subject to criminal misdemeanor penalties of fine and imprisonment, and also subject to civil damages lawsuits by the persons whose files were inspected.

Skip the investigation!! Congress already knows everything that it needs to know in order to pass the appropriate legislation to put State Department passport files on par with IRS tax files.