March 9, 2008 - Usually daylight savings time doesn't take much of a toll on me since I am not a super night person, but since I was up until 3:30 last night (after time change), and then got up at 9 AM, I was working with a few hours less sleep than normal. I played disc golf with Mike at Maximo Park today while Ellie walked the dogs alongside us. Then after showering and changing I drove out to Little Harbor for a gig with Bonnie and Mugabe. We played til 8:30 and then it was a drive back home, stopping at Chilis to meet up with Mike for dinner. Continuing my Presidential Issues discussion, todays topic is education. I think the data available supports that increased funding does not equate better education or better results. My feeling is that it is more important to have educated, engaged parents than it is to throw more money at teaching. If only there were some magic way to direct the money that would have been spent on paying for fancy equipment, newer books, expensive PC's, lower student to teacher ratios, and teacher and administration raises, and have it go to the parents of these children to get an education themselves, to give parents money to be able to have someone at home when their kid gets home from school, to have parents that encourage their children to study and work hard. But unfortunately our system is plagued by the 'throw more money at the problem' society we all live in. I was lucky and attended a school in an upper middle class town and was in all of the honors classes, so I didn't see much disruption from people who didn't care about school. Most people I knew had parents that wanted to make sure they got the most out of their education, and pushed them to succeed. But I know some people who teach in "bad schools" and they have shared their stories with me. The problem, as I can discern it, is parents not setting the example. This is a tragedy, that we have an entire generation of children that have been so spoiled and catered to, with very little discipline, that they have basically missed out on an education and given all the hardworking children (in regards to their school work, I'm not going to go into child labor laws here) in other countries that are going to be kicking their butts on the job site in 20 years. If the government is going to be spending billions and trillions of dollars funding things, it should be spending its resources towards making sure that parents are able to be at home when their children need them. It should fund programs that encourage community involvement in schools, and ensure that every generation of Americans has access to a better education than the previous one.