Education: September 2008 Archives

The Hound has heard some lame excuses over the years, but the reason Waukegan High School postponed its non-conference tilt Saturday with Maine East was the district didn't want to tear up Weiss Field. The district's groundskeeper must be The Turfinator to run that one by school officials and get it approved.

The reasoning, The Hound was told, is that playing in the drenching rain would devastate the field for the rest of the season. Twenty-two players would chew up the turf, leaving it a grassy, muddy mess. So. If it's that bad for the next game, just spray paint what's left. Start thinking out of the box. After all, you are educators.

The Hound didn't notice a whole lot of dry grass on Monday afternoon, when the rescheduled game was played. So instead of playing in the rain, the molly-coddling district turned tough high school footballers into a bunch of namby-pambies.

The Hound can hear future opponents: They were afraid to get wet! They're afraid of mud! They might have wrecked the field! And that's the clean ones.

Then again, this might have been a field of dreams. The last time The Hound checked, the Bulldogs were pummeling Maine East on Monday afternoon by a score of 41-7. Maybe two-and-half-days of rest was good for the players and for the sod, which wasn't busted.

School District 128 officials are proposing to drop the class ranking system at Libertyville and Vernon Hills high schools. That's it, just keep mollycoddling these kids to believe that out there in the big, bad world that there's no rankings. Somebody should pull rank on these boneheads.

District 128 officials aren't the first ones to go to this "everybody's special" philosophy and they probably won't be the last. Carmel, Deerfield, Highland Park, Lake Forest and Warren Township high schools in Lake County already have moved to this one-size-fits all system.

District 128 officials think that having class rankings puts Wildcats and Cougars at a disadvantage when applying for colleges and universities. The focus should be on grade point average, they say, because class rank only compares students to their fellow students. The logic is that elimination of class rank will improve students' opportunities in the college admissions process.

Well, if that's the case, just don't have them take the ACTs or SATs. Then they can get into college with their charm and good looks. It's not like there aren't rankings when they get into college. Or, how about job rankings, team rankings and military rank.

The Hound can't believe Libertyville and Vernon Hills high students are under-prepared and can't compete with the creme de la creme for the top spots at the nation's universities. Parents pay enough taxes to ensure that, don't they?

With no ranking, that means no valedictorian and nothing to work to achieve, except those straight A's and four-point averages in advanced placement courses. That'll show those college placement officials. And, it sounds like high school counselors won't have to do the math to figure out class rankings. Now, that's the ticket.

State Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, continues on a mission to bring Chicago Public School students to New Trier High School on Tuesday to register for school. If this guy is any indication of where the Illinois Legislature is at, he's already failed. Classes started two weeks ago at New Trier. Trying to enroll two weeks behind at New Trier is like a four-year-old enrolling in second grade.

OK, so Meeks, who also is a preacher, really doesn't want to enroll 70 busloads of CPS students at New Trier. He just wants to make a point about school funding and how Chicago students don't get the same amount of funding as does a New Trier. Isn't this the same politician who was going to challenge Gov. Rod Blagojevich two years ago, but dropped out after getting a promise more school funds for the money pit that is the CPS would be forthcoming? Well, that didn't happen.

Meeks went to Denver last week to save face if a handful of CPS students line up for the buses on Tuesday, which also happens to be opening day for them. Community leaders and school officials are urging students to ignore Meeks' plan. That sounds sound to The Hound because these kids are merely a pawn in a political game.

Meanwhile, New Trier officials say they are ready to welcome the CPS students who will be playing hookie. Knowing those folks in Winnetka and Wilmette, they'll have finger sandwiches and iced tea waiting for those who want to sign up and figure how they'll get to class from Chicago.