1 Comment Posted on public health, sunflower seed shells littering

Spitting Angry When it Comes to Sunflower Seeds

“Eat, Spit and Be Happy.” That’s the motto of ConAgra’s David Sunflower Seeds. That also apparently is the motto of most people who sit in city park bleachers as evidenced by the abundant piles of sunflower seed shells literally left in the dust. 
  
Every time I go to one of my sons’ baseball games in Burbank, I cringe knowing that I have to sit in the bleachers, desperately searching for a clean place to put my rear and feet so that my body doesn’t touch the shells that fly out of people’s mouths. 
  
The main culprit is people who selfishly think that spitting out food debris is okay, assuming city workers will clean up their mess. I observe many people, from senior citizens to young kids, spitting out their shells all over the place.  The benches and the areas underneath the bleachers are blanketed with them.

I was told by one city official that the habit of spitting out shells is an ingrained cultural trait, as old as the game of baseball. 
  
However, what is wrong with posting signs asking people to use the park trash cans? Another city representative said that the problem with posting a sign is that there are too many signs already posted. However, in many areas there isn’t a single sign around.

The mess that greets visitors at city parks does not show off civic pride. Of the Burbank City Council, it appears that the only Councilman Gary Bric cares about this issue since the mayor and three other council members did not feel the issue warranted an acknowledgment to a citizen, let alone a journalist.

I contacted ConAgra to see what they thought about this issue. Company spokesperson Daniel Hare said that he thinks there is no public health issue when it comes to shells from sunflower seeds even though the shells have saliva on them. Does he think the company’s ad slogan encourages young people to spit? He didn’t think it was a problem. Would ConAgra consider a public service announcement on their packaging and advertisements such as “please do not litter”? No comment.

Even if the question of public health is debatable, spitting out shells is still littering. Would these litterers like it if some of the shells fell onto a family member’s hair? How about if a toddler without shoes were to walk on freshly spewed shells still wet? Evidently, it isn’t a health concern. Accompanying my piece is a photo I took last Saturday at Burbank’s Olive Park, Field Number Three. It was early in the morning, before most of the games were played that day and, as you can see, the place clearly wasn’t cleaned in who knows how long, certainly not that day. 
  
Is this the type of impression city officials which to leave with its citizens and visitors, that Burbank parks are dirty?

Why not dedicate one maintenance worker to keep all city park bleacher areas clean via sweeping or blowers especially on days the parks are heavily used?  
  
By not cleaning the mess people leave, it encourages more people to be messy. Think of a park toilet that is unkempt. People are more likely to contribute to the filth rather than control their dirty habits. 
  
And parents and grandparents, what kind of habits are you modeling for your children? Imagine if the shells were cigarette butts. Would people be okay with that? Probably not because smoking is considered one of the worst things a person can do in public in today’s times. But having food products spewing from one’s mouth is fine. 
  
Burbank city officials should seriously consider posting signs at all city park bleacher areas, “Please Deposit Sunflower Seed Shells in the Garbage Cans.” Do we need to resurrect the old public service announcement with Iron Eyes Cody with a tear streaming down his face? Maybe it should be Babe Ruth crying.

 

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education, teaching

Putting the Pro into Profession

Remember the old saying, “dress for success?”

Ever since Presidents have been removing their jackets and rolling up their long sleeves as a way to appear “cool,” proper dressing habits haven’t been the same in quite some time.  Nonetheless, I feel it’s important to dress appropriately when going to work.

One of the ways teachers can help raise the level of professionalization in their occupation is to dress properly for work.  While I understand the urge to deliberately dress down as a way to be on the same level with one’s students, an important ideal of education should be to uplift pupils’ minds.  Coming to work as if one is going to the beach doesn’t foster the notion that learning needs to be taken seriously.

I usually wear a sports jacket and most every day a tie when I teach.  I view it as a teacher’s uniform.  And while I would disapprove of a formal dress policy for teachers, some parameters couldn’t hurt (think the “What Not to Wear” TV program).

On the very first day of the school year, I saw one of my colleagues with an untucked shirt, shorts, and sandals.   This shouldn’t be the initial impression given to one’s students.  I wouldn’t want to see my doctor and have him come into the examination room with shorts and flip flops.  And I wouldn’t want my children’s teachers dressing likewise.

A school is a special place where special things take place.  Teachers should dress for those occasions.

Leave a comment Posted on Huell Howser

Huell Howser—Historian of Us All

Hearing the news that Huell Howser passed away is a sad day for Angelenos.  His public TV programs, including Visiting and California’s Gold, spotlighted the best in people and places.

When I was a kid, Ralph Story was the TV historian of Los Angeles on Channel 2 News, providing stories of the region of things that I either knew nothing about or very little.  Then Huell Howser came long on the same station.

With a folksy, honest “good to meet ‘cha” attitude, Huell (Mr. Howser seems too formal) could go anywhere with a microphone and a camera and speak to strangers.  In fact, one of his shows was called “The Bench,” where he literally sat on a bench and spoke to anyone who walked by.

There is a lot of stuff to love about California. I’ve lived here all my life and haven’t seen even half of the sights it has to offer. Through Huell, I’ve vacationed vicariously, to the northernmost and southernmost points of the state, to all 21 California missions, to the lady who made art out of lint from her dryer, to the animal trainer saying a last goodbye to his old elephant friend.

And who could not relate to his love of food? From See’s Candy to Stan’s Donuts, he tasted and savored these delicious goodies for us all.

His wide-eyed reaction to all small and large things of marvel was a joy to watch. Even when some would make fun of his wholesome enthusiasm, it was done with much love and respect. In a way, we all wish we could be like Huell Howser and not so cynical and grumpy.

He made his work look so easy, meaning it really wasn’t.

I remember his reaction to the 1992 riots and how dejected he felt that regular folks would loot their neighborhood stores.

I remember him advocating for the protection of Los Angeles landmarks, fighting to save the Farmer’s Market.

He showcased our past as a way for us to remember that those of us living today have a legacy to leave behind.  He brought all kinds of people together like no politician ever could.

He is one of those famous people who while you may never have known him personally, you felt that you did know him. That’s why his death is like a death in one’s family. It is difficult to imagine life without him.

The only good that comes out of a death like this is that it serves as a reminder to all of us that life is fragile. None of us knows how many days we have to live. The cliché of living each day fully, as a gift, resonates strongly.

How ironic that the man who would end each “California’s Gold” introduction with the words “in search of California’s Gold” was as precious as the people and places he invited viewers to get to know.

In a time when ugliness permeates the airwaves, Huell brought us real stories about real people, mainly because he was a real person himself. Yes, we can still watch his programs, and, in that regard, his legacy lives on. Still, a piece of California’s gold has forever been lost.

It is up to us now to never forget Huell Howser.

Leave a comment Posted on Obscenity, Sex in the Media

The Pornification of America

“Sex sells” used to be the mantra of Madison Avenue.  Today it is smut that sells.

People can be very good at trumpeting certain causes, such as outlawing cigarette smoking in public places, making sure animals have rights, cleaning up the environment.  But when it comes to the pollution of the eyes and ears, protests are nonexistent.

So many stimuli exist in the 21st century that makes it practically impossible to shield young children from being bombarded by images and sounds that at the very least makes it quite difficult to explain to young people, at the worst makes life around them coarse and vulgar.

In the past, double entendres were employed as a way to get around a censor.  Nowadays, there is no fooling of what the true meaning of something is.  In fact, often the magnified message is quite clear, slammed in your face super-sized style, leaving no doubt what is intended.

All this crassness in the advertising and marketing industries is akin to a bunch of boys sneaking a peak at a porn website.  They know what they’re doing is considered “forbidden” but it’s fun doing it anyway because they’re getting away with something.

Here are recent samples of promotional campaigns that have appeared in print, on television, on billboards, and, incredulously, on public buses.  Evidently, city transportation agencies have no sense of decency on how they generate revenue.

Look at the HBO series “Hung.”  No, it is not about capital punishment.  According to the series description, “Ray resolves to take advantage of his greatest asset, in hopes of changing his fortunes in a big way.”

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”  Amazingly, some news outlets showed a touch of class by refusing to run the full title of this film.

“E! The Girls Next Door” ran commercials during TBS’s broadcast of the baseball division series last fall showing scenes of naked women’s backsides blurred, a naked woman who had mud on her breasts and nothing else, and women in all kind of lurid poses.  What a nice way to spend the evening with my 9-year-old son.

Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie” had the ad line “life is full of little pricks.”

Quizno’s marketing campaign for its Toasty Torpedo sandwich with a commercial showing a man physically inserting a phallic-shaped sandwich into an oven opening, with the oven speaking to the man ala the computer HAL from “2001:  A Space Odyssey,” “Put it in me, Scott.”

An ad for ”Bad Teacher” showed star Cameron Diaz leaning back at her desk in a classroom, her feet propped upon the desk with her legs uncovered, the words “eat me” on an apple, and the tagline, “She doesn’t give an F.”

What makes it worse is that the subject matter is a teacher.  The real world is crammed with enough true horror stories about inappropriate student-teacher relationships, so is it smart or responsible for a major motion picture studio to make a movie like this and distribute in theatres as entertainment across the country?

You know, not every movie-going patron is an oversexed sophomoric male whose sexual habits get satiated with Internet porn sites.

Clearly, things have gotten out of control.  This is not about censorship.  It’s about boundaries.  It’s about someone, somewhere taking a stand for what is naughty and what is nice.

If your reaction to these examples is “big deal,” then my point is made:  people have become blinded to good taste.

No standards seem to exist anywhere anymore.  Are viewers asleep out there?

We all should feel embarrassed when we see and hear these images.  Evidently shame is on the endangered species list of human traits along with responsibility for one’s actions.

No, using four-letter words and profane depictions is not the end of American civilization.  But why aren’t more people riled up about these gutter tactics occurring regularly on TV, billboards, and webpages?

One of the main problems with so much of this is the blurring of right from wrong.  Children growing up with a coarser culture are bound to be courser themselves.

We don’t know the possible harm that is being done on young people’s psyches.  As human beings all of us should strive to be the best that we can be.  Unfortunately, too many media messages push the envelope in a kind of contest of how crude can people get.

There is plenty of room in the marketplace for garbage.  The public should have the choice whether or not to be forced to look at it and smell it.

Whenever you see something that definitely crosses the line, make a point not to see the movie or watch the series or buy the product.  It is time for good, decent people to let these companies know that enough is enough.

 

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education

Start Charging Parents for Public Schools

With states across the country facing huge budget deficits and potential devastating cuts to services, the time has come to start charging parents tuition for their children’s public school education.

If parents of the 47 million students in the United States who attend kindergarten through

12th grade were billed $360 per child per year, that’s $2 a day for each of the 180 days of instruction, nearly $17 billion would be generated. However, let’s say only half of the parents can foot the bill. That still leaves $8.5 billion to deliver to public schools.

Cutting a week out of the already skimpy school calendar as a way to save money, an idea proposed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is not the solution to a fiscal crisis, though if the week cut out was the one for state testing, many teachers and students wouldn’t mind. Already American kids attend school fewer days than most other industrialized nations. While a free education for all is a wonderful gift, it’s simply not possible anymore.

Can half of America’s parents afford $360 per year for each of their children? For the price of a cup of coffee, a child can get educated for a day. For the price of a movie ticket, a child can get educated for a week. For the price of a cellular phone bill, a child can get educated for a month. For the price of a video game console, a child can get educated for an entire year.

There should be no sticker shock about this. Already parents pay for athletic uniforms, musical instruments, lab fees, school-embossed clothing, and field trips. Plus, they get nickeled and dimed to death from schools throughout the year to donate money for art and music programs, to get their cars washed for athletic programs, to consume cardboard pizza so that a few dollars will go to the schools. Children would no longer have to go begging relatives and neighbors to buy coupon books.

For years community colleges charged no tuition. Then 20 years ago they started implementing a $50 per semester fee which rose to $60 per semester in the 1990’s. “How dare they” demonstrations broke out proclaiming the beginning of the end of community colleges. Well, today the colleges have more students than ever before, and the current fee is $20 per unit. For an average class load of 15 units, the cost of one semester’s tuition of college is $300. Nearly half of community college students get their tuition waived anyway due to their low-income status.

Look, nobody enjoys paying for services that used to be free. However, a generation of people has grown up with cable television and don’t even remember that TV used to cost nothing. Paying $360 a year for a child’s education is half of what the average person spends on watching television. Which is more important?

Attaching a price to “free” services will help students and parents understand the value of education. Psychologically it’s interesting how people view something that is “free”: they tend to place less value on it than if they have to pay for it. Walk onto campuses right after lunch, especially at high schools, and notice the garbage strewn around. Kids would less likely trash their schools knowing their parents had a vested interest in the property.

Beyond charging for tuition, parents should be billed whenever their children are truant. Since schools receive funding based on average daily attendance, parents should foot the bill whenever their children miss school for non-illness reasons.

The Scotts Valley School District in Santa Cruz, California is doing just that. The letter sent home entitled “If You Play, Please Pay” informs parents that one child absent for one day costs $36.13. In 2005-06, the district lost nearly one-quarter of $1 million due to students missing school other than legitimate illnesses. While paying the bill is voluntary, many parents, perhaps out of guilt, gladly pay it, further proof that there are parents out there who would pay for school tuition.

A holiday season just ended where scores of parents spent hundreds of dollars on video games, I-pods and cell phones for their children. Is $360 going to break their backs?

Leave a comment Posted on Public Education

Transforming America’s Public Schools

Almost a half a trillion dollars is spent on K-12 education each year and look at the results.

One out of every four American children reads below grade level.

One out of every three high school students do not graduate, a stagnant figure for thirty years.

In New York City, less than half of students graduate.  In Detroit that figure is one-fourth.  That’s a staggering number that puts new meaning to the term “dropout factories.”

The problem is not all the bad students; rather, all the bad schools.

Who decided that taking standardized tests was going to revolutionize public education?

Why does such a critical job as teaching require only minimum training and pay?

When did parents decide to stop believing the teachers’ point of view, that teachers are the enemy, to be doubted and questioned?

Why are we amazed that kids who are forced to sit still in uncomfortable plastic chairs for six hours a day easily get bored, distracted, defiant?

Like a dilapidated ramshackle fixer-upper that is more cost-effective to scrap than to renovate, now is the time to bulldoze America’s public school system.

The change that is needed in public education must be huge, along the lines of the civil rights movement.  The same fervor people exert in anti-smoking campaigns needs to be replicated in efforts to transform public schools.

The teaching of America’s youth should be viewed as a bulwark against democracy’s demise.  It’s no good to just let students “get by.”

We must demand excellence.  Our country’s economic future rests on it.

What’s needed is a cohesive vision of a new kind of public school system.

Lengthen the school day and the school year.  There is not enough time to cover all the material in 180 days.  By adding 4 more weeks to the school year and an hour and a half to the school day, children will have an additional year and a half of education between kindergarten and 12th grade.  And they will still get 11 weeks off.

Increase class sizes and teacher salaries.  Schools can’t find enough highly qualified teachers so have fewer of them.  Yes this will mean more crowded classrooms but better teachers can handle more kids.  The money saved from fewer employees can be added to the salaries of those instructors who prove themselves invaluable.

Eliminate homework.  With the longer day students and teachers will have more time to go over the work during class.  Kids can leave work at work and spend more time with their families at home.

Place a moratorium on No Child Left Behind.  Enough with the testing.  Put the focus back on where it should be: the work students perform in the classroom day in and day out.

Bring back vocational education.  Instead of shoehorning everyone into college, provide those students who demonstrate non-academic skills with alternative programs.

Kick out the bad kids.  The concept that no matter how badly behaved a child is he still has a seat waiting for him in a school is incredulous and the main reason why parents pay money for private schooling.  If a child can’t meet a certain degree of decorum, let his parents deal with him so that those children who do want to learn can learn.

A four-day work week for teachers.  Other public servants such as police and firefighters work four sometimes even three days a week due to the stressful conditions of their occupation.  Teachers should be afforded the same perk.  On the fifth day highly qualified paraeducators can run the classrooms taking students on field trips and job shadowing expeditions.

Do away with tenure and teachers unions.  Let bad teachers be easily fired and not cloak themselves in the teachers union armor.  It is time to elevate teaching to a real profession with rewards and punishments.

Go back and teach students the Golden Rule and have them employ it in mandatory community service.  Look at our society and the mess it’s in.  Much of this has to do with lax parenting and non-existent social teaching in the schools.  Students can become better citizens if schools mandate community service as a graduation requirement.

Put a lid on special education funding.  Nothing has wreaked more damage to the funding of schools than special ed has.  It costs twice as much money to educate a special ed student than a non-special ed student.

Start charging for public schools.  Too many people take public school for granted:  free learning, free books, free supplies, free child care, even free food.  No wonder many kids disrespect their place of learning.

Will there be heated discussions about implementing these changes?  Absolutely.

Do details have to be ironed out?  Of course.

But if we don’t get started with a sound vision of solid public schools, every new school fix-it plan whether it’s more testing, block scheduling or the latest computer software will add up to nothing.

Yes, national security is a top priority (though many people can’t locate Iraq on a map), but the best form of homeland security is education security.  Do we want our military to have poorly educated people in its ranks?  You can’t outsource an army.

Every day forty-seven million children attend public schools.

Every day three thousand students drop out of high school.

What type of experience do we want to provide America’s youth?

The time has come to act.

We must provide a public school system worthy of them.

Leave a comment Posted on Obscenity

Garcetti’s F-bomb Unbecoming a Mayor

When Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared “this is a big f—ing day” while holding up a bottle of beer on live television at Monday’s rally celebrating the Los Angeles Kings winning the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup I thought I was watching a promo for the upcoming “Dumb and Dumber” sequel. 
 
Once you have commercials discussing four-hour erections, cartoon characters passing gas, and elected officials intentionally dropping f-bombs in order to look cool, we are indeed no longer in Kansas.
 
As an educator, I’ve held high standards for myself, including not using obscenities in front of students despite kids feeling emboldened to swear frequently regardless if adult workers are within earshot. Having the Mayor gleefully belt out a curse word in public sends the message that it’s okay to do so because, as he put it, the f-word is “something that plenty of people have heard in their lives.” 
 
Well, plenty of people have seen pornography but that does not mean that the mayor of Los Angeles should be seen watching it.  He was speaking in front of thousands of people, many of them youngsters. 
Yet I wonder how long I can continue struggling against the tsunami of uncivilized behavior that infiltrates our daily lives.
 
My son and I loved watching the Kings playoff run, we cheered when Martinez scored the Cup-clinching goal in Game Five, and we smiled broadly watching the rally.   And then the Mayor spoke.  
 
His remarks spoiled the good feelings we had, stealing attention away from the Kings.
 
Worse than the mayor of the second most populous city in the U.S. swearing was the positive response he received.  Being a politician, he surely knew that his calculated remarks would gain him “hero” status among some citizens.  Let’s hope that those who view dropping an f-bomb as a qualification to hold public office don’t actually vote on Election Day.
 
What does His Honor plan on doing for an encore if the Kings win another Stanley Cup:  drop his pants and moon the opposing team? Surely this would have people roaring their approval, but that does not mean it should be done.   The mayor should aim higher than the lowest common denominator.
 
Garcetti should understand that as mayor he represents all Angelenos and should treat that position with utmost respect.
 
As mores continue to deteriorate, I refuse to be bullied by today’s culture to lighten up and not be a wet blanket in spoiling everyone’s fun at being naughty.
 
Recently I contacted Sit ˜n Sleep founder and CEO Larry Miller about a radio ad that repeatedly substituted the word “sheet” for the 4-letter s-word in every conceivable way, and asked him if he thought it was appropriate to air during daytime hours when little ears can hear it.
 
Miller said that “we have pulled the ad in question and will not run it again” explaining that “sometimes the creative folks go too far.”   At least he realized a line had been crossed and took corrective action.
 
So thanks, Mayor Garcetti, for making my job as a teacher and a parent even harder.
 
I wish he could have seen the expression on my son’s face when he said that expletive, one of confusion not one of adulation.   
 
In recent years it has been said that it takes a village to raise a child.   But if it’s a village of idiots, what’s a parent to do?