WHY DO WE SWALLOW SUCH OBVIOUS LIES?

     Recently the Canadian government gave fifty million dollars to a charity that promotes education for African girls. Government budgets are made up with a line for international aid. Throughout the year this aid is distributed. In July the government allotted the money 

    Recently the Prime minister announced a donation to the charity at one of their major fund raisers. This was meant  as promotion of the charity fundraiser.

    The opposition in this country twisted the story to make it sound as if the prime minister on his own whim decided to donate the fifty million as if it was his own money.

   Talk about a cockeyed story. 

    So the other day at skating while I was sitting on the bench ( I sit on the bench a lot these days) I heard my 3 buddies discussing this issue. They were in full throated roar. The prime minister was an indescribable monster. They had some lovely descriptions for the man.

    These three guys should know much better. They all have education beyond high school They had to use their education everyday in their work. In other words they took information and made judgments on the evidence.

    One was a teacher, another and administrator and a policeman. I would hope that the teacher taught his students about making judgments.

    I can see that someone may think that spending money on external aid is not a policy they would agree with and that they would be able to support their point. Why would anybody not want to help with the education of African girls? 

   Evidence and fact had blown away like desert sand. 

   Why can't we look at issues or news reports and make judgments as to the validity of the information? Have we lost some marbles? 

More Blogger Mumblings

     I recently did a post on blogging that got away on me. I was interested in two bloggers who were making some serious attempts to change their blogs. Sometimes we need to change to rejuvenate and get out of a rut.

    I have some things that I would like to change on my blog and named them and why I would change them. I also went out on the limb to ask people what they liked and what suggestions they would make about my blog. There were no great surprises and it's always nice to reaffirm what is going on. There were many suggestions. I now know how to live dangerously when I want to change my blog. I have to set up another blog and use it for experimenting.

   Now when you ask for opinions you risk hearing some things you might not want to hear and some things that are just plane wrong. All of your comments were great.

   I then reflected on being able to ask for judgements.

   As a teacher , I went through many evaluations. In the 50's and 60's we had one visit a year from the superintendent. It was a terrifying visit. We didn't know what he was looking for and I don't think he did either. I had one superintendent who was most helpful.

   As time went on teacher evaluation changes. Specific skills were looked for. We were trained to use these skills and when an evaluator came to your classroom you knew exactly what he was looking for.

   Evaluation expanded. Principals and vice principals visited the classroom so we had 4 or more visits per year. Not all of these visits were formal.

  I was a department head and I also did classroom visits.

   I also had many student teachers and had to evaluate them. This evaluation was a pain because of the way the evaluation form was set up. Having student teachers was always a good experience.

   So it wasn't hard for me to ask for opinions and I'm glad I asked as I learned some things and certainly had things reaffirmed.