Tony Yarusso's Blog

While in an earlier post I discussed misconceptions about things that aren't actually covered under First Amendment protections, that's not to say there aren't things that are actually covered. Imagine that. That said, while IANAL, I'm pretty sure this is the sort of thing that's not supposed to happen still.

More info from Google, and Google News.

Now, most people know that I'm not a huge fan of standardized testing. The main reason for that is because schools/districts start obsessing over the results of the tests for their school, rather than just using them as a useful check of actual learning. This leads to the inevitable situation of "teaching to the test", where curricula become tailored specifically towards artificially inflating the school's score distribution. Of course, the tests were never designed to actually be the curriculum for any student, but rather as a rather piecemeal check on what was being covered and what was being absorbed by normal means. Additionally, students pick up on this, and feel even less inclined to put any effort into their own work during elementary and/or high school since they don't see a particular value to it, removing what little may have been left — and that's for the good students.

Now, on to the funny part! Students in Fort Worth, Texas who failed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills will not be allowed to graduate. Not only will they not receive a diploma, but they can't participate in graduation ceremonies. Now while that makes perfect sense, it seems the students are upset, and would like to be able to walk across the stage even though they can't pass the test. Now, you can read the actual article from WFAA, or, for a far more entertaining experience, just look at this picture of the protesting students/parents. Maybe whatever school you went to somehow thought you were deserving of a 3.5 GPA, but something tells me there's a reason they won't let you graduate, hmm?

So we had someone come into the store today, just doing your usual browsing around and such, and it was pretty slow at the time. For a while, everything was normal, until:

I should probably buy a lock for my bike too. There are a lot of Hispanics in my neighborhood. They steal stuff a lot.

She then went on (and on....) to talk about how she can't even concentrate in the grocery store because there are so many of them around and she's worried about losing stuff, etc. Wow lady, just wow.

So now we as store employees are all faced with a dilemma. Do we:

1. Collapse laughing because it's been totally quiet until then and now she's utterly ridiculous
2. Make a snide comment about why she doesn't just move, to entertain ourselves further
3. Hit her with a wrench for the betterment of society because she's a moron, or
4. Just ring her up for the lock to please the corporate image, but then mock her for the rest of the day

?

We ended up opting for d), sadly, but made full use of the latter portion. One of the points that came up - why call them Hispanics? If you're going to be a racist idiot, why bother using the politically correct term in your blatant stereotyping, rather that something either more generic, or offensive, while you're at it? All the funnier that she was trying to cover up her skewed little mind. Oh, and we did some of a) and b) after she left too, but just by ourselves.

I also know how to make maps. In fact, I have been known to instruct others on how to make and use accurate maps.

I also collaborate with others over the internet for my projects on a regular basis.

You may take me away now.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/02/1839251
http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/2847/chinese-community-rallies-behind
   -student-removed-from-clements-over-pc-game-map
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=5263782
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4766843.html

I've seen a number of instances of people throwing the phrase "free speech" around more loosely than an AOLer with "LOL". While it's great that the concept receives so much attention, it seems that it is getting more and more of the wrong kind of attention, which could cheapen the idea and confuse the populace to the point of it becoming meaningless as far as its original intention.