No Sense of Humor...

Since I'm not a daily blogger, I rarely receive comments about my postings. It doesn't help that I haven't figured out how to make comment postings public; I just don't put that much time into my blog, since I do have other responsibilities, after all.

But somebody decided to comment on my posting about Pam Randall, the outgoing interim St. Louis Public Schools superintendent. This anonymous poster asked:

"What is the reason that you put former cheerleader and dancer first...and then just happened to remember that she was a principal. True, she was a cheerleader in highschool (so that is really irrelevent) and she did teach dance, but she is an educator first and foremost, so that is really all that matters."

Well, as many people out there may know, my wife and I both graduated from Metro in 1997 and I'm generally pretty proud of that fact. Whether my classmates were so impressed is another question. ;-)

In any event, many people were unimpressed with Pam's performance as Metro principal. She replaced the original principal, Betty Wheeler, who retired after 25 years. Pam started there in fall 1997, right after I graduated, so I don't have direct experience.

Nevertheless, I think she sought the Metro position, which she occupied before she even had Missouri principal certification, so she could have a record as principal of the best high school in the system, and get on the road to high-paying administrative positions.

Further, while the fact she was a cheerleader may be irrelevant to her performance as an administrator, it sets a tone when someone of that ilk (i.e., "popular girl") is principal of a high school populated largely by students who would in most schools be the "nerds" and get beaten up a lot. Metro was as much a haven for outcasts from throughout the City and County, as it was a cream-skimming operation.

And her support of Metro's adoption of the International Baccalaureate curriculum was not something I thought to be a good decision. If the IB diploma is so highly prized, why do so few highly-ranked schools participate? Lindbergh High is the only other school in the St. Louis region in the program; Clayton and Ladue, for example, are not. It just seems silly, more about status and appearances than anything else.

It would have made more sense to invest in more Advanced Placement courses, which can really save students time and money when they get to college. Coming out of Metro, I had 25 credit hours to "transfer" when I started at the UMSL Pierre Laclede Honors College. This helped me complete two bachelor's degrees, two minors, and a semester abroad in 3 1/2 years. Not that I'm bragging or anything. :-)

Anyway, I think Pam's administrative style is kinda superficial and not that much about substantive improvements to academic outcomes. And that's not the kind of style that helps a place like 801 N. 11th Street get moving. But I do wish her well in Chicago.

Police Bleep

Well - the moment we've been dreading has come.

"The Board of Police Commissioners voted 3-2 today to revise the residency policy by allowing officers with seven years experience to live elsewhere.

The new policy requires the officers who do leave the city to live within an hour's drive of St. Louis."

What the hell does that mean?? That is totally, totally unenforceable. Is that at rush hour, or at 4 AM? At the speed limit, or at 80 MPH? I thought the "St. Louis County only" proposal was lame, but this is even sillier. So this presumably means they can live in either Missouri or Illinois.

I don't want to think about what this will do to the Southwest City (and, to some extent, Halls Ferry Circle area) housing markets.

And, it's "effective immediately." Lovely.

What's next? Perhaps a drive to amend the City employee residence rule, with the firefighters union taking the lead in seeking parity with police.

Well, at least Fran voted against it.

I Need a Heteroskedasticity Test, stat!

Last night's E.R. was new and dramatic. But there was kind of a running gag about statistics, between Susan and that one annoying resident dude:

"Did you drop the p-values? They want [blah blah blah] expressed as a difference..."

"Did you include the 95% Confidence Intervals?"

Meanwhile, I noticed Carter made some disparaging remarks about the state of HIV/AIDS care in Chicago, and I thought 'hmmm... the producers and NBC will probably be getting a sternly worded letter from the local HIV/AIDS service providers in Chicago.'

And, finally, they kept referring to a woman on a hunger strike against the INS. However, as many people know, the INS no longer exists! It's major functions are now in the USCIS, in the Homeland Security Dept.