MINI POTPOURRI

Still voiceless and also lost sleep last night because the METS are the METS. Hope tonight will be better.

For tonight's debate, which I will tape to watch tomorrow am, will Carson have the center pulpit? He is now ahead of Trump in three national polls.
Will the extreme flankers again be ignored by the moderator? Will the moderator control Trump? We will have to wait and see.

FOR TUESDAY

Woke up Tuesday morning speechless or more properly voiceless due to a severe painless laryngitis this is of course disheartening to one who likes to talk. Messaging is not one of my skills since I never learned touch typing and my fingers ate too klutzy for a cell phone keyboard.

That corner of Ninth St and Arlington has always been a potential accident site. A four way stop if adhered to would help, but attentive plus defensive driving is the real answer. Too many Jersey drivers are aggressive and flaunt the rules of the road if they have the slightest idea what they are.

Tonight it is GO METS night plus the start of the NBA season. I do not like pro basketball but the college game can be great.

Tomorrow night the Trump circus will be in competition with the second game. That debate can be taped and watched Wednesday morning for commentary that is the plan.

The Ledger Sunday in addition to its Anti Christie paranoia did a worthwhile “time line” on the Donald. It is repeat with entrepreneurial adventures and bankruptcies from which Trump had extrapolated his gold and left others holding the bag. There are also many grandiose planned projects that never ever were started much less completed. All Trump lovers should read and weep.

Trump is clamming his drop in the Iowa polls is meaningless as just the results of one run by a vindictive unimportant newspaper and by a pollster who has it in for him. He is right that too much attention is paid to poll results which can be manipulated to produce certain responses. It can be a variation of the old answer Yes or No to “Have you stopped beating your wife”: question.

Today’s WSJ has a long in depth review of Fiorina’s CEO ship at HP. Revealing and informative.

For the Republicans there is at present a question if there will be any viable candidate who has mass appeal. Nobody has yet demonstrated that quality.

At present money rules and the Democrats are giving us only a choice between a bad untrustworthy candidate and a demagogue.

POTPOURRI FOR POTOURRI'S SAKE

Monday went down the tubes due to a lack of sleep Sunday night because of pain in the rib muscles on the right. This morning I have a slight degree of laryngitis; obviously some type of a mild virus.

However writing is not affected except I have not found enough interest among readers in world affairs and/or health care delivery. That coupled with a week away from the computer has not been stimulating.

This week the evenings will be Television oriented with the start of the World Series on Tuesday and the interruption of the next Republican debate on Wednesday.

Isn’t it weird that not only is profession baseball still being played and we are already three fifths through the football season, but hockey is in full swing and basketball starts this week? What ever happened to the four season’s sports year?

I did finally see part of the Oct.13 Council meeting. It is with mixed feelings to learn that Jim’s musical entertainment may be a thing of the past since he is moving to Cranford and I suspect one of the new apartment developments which our astute Council feels are not needed in Plainfield.

Local elections are a week away and I have received only two pieces of self-congratulatory mail from JG’s campaign and none from any other Candidates. Whether it is due to the fact that I have already mailed my absentee ballot since Cook School is not truly handicap friendly; or that those running feel I am a lost cause is a question. This extremely quiet local election seems to be abnormal.

THOUGHTS ABOUT EDUCATION

I did write that the BOE election was farcical. Why so? Of the four candidates three are on a slate sponsored by the Campbells who have controlled the BOE with opaque transparency for too many years.

That husband and wife are serving on the same small board may not be illegal but it certainly creates a power block which is augmented by other members who are alleged to have financial ties with the Campbells. Thus a small group has control of appointments and selection of vendors for the element of the city that has the greatest dollar expenditures.

Since for the first time in memory a JG slate is absent in this so called nonpartisan election one can only wonder if there is a relationship with the employing of Williamson.

Although the high school and others have been removed from the critical list; there could be a question if the dominated board has influenced the variety options and quality of education offered Plainfield students.

Some answers can be found in the 4 year graduation rate and college acceptances under scholarship to upper level colleges.

That would be more revealing than the local PARCC scores. Too often standardized teasing leads to excessive time spent on preparing for the test and not on the basic curriculum. Thus the score may be meaningless in the actual measurement of knowledge.




This is reflected in many cases where a certifying body conducts  an inspection. In hospitals accreditation  comes from the JCAHO which will conduct a multiple days inspection every few years. For days hours on end derived from previous experience and/or information from other institutions previously inspected are spent preparing for that inspection. The quirks of individual inspectors are focal points of the preparation, and reality may be illusionary  with a return to old habits as soon as the inspection is over. There are similar patterns in standardized testing 

The format of the testing methodology has varied over the years and this new one is supposed to better reflect the resulted from the core curriculum. In the eyes of its sponsors it does so, however there are too many educators who feel otherwise.

There need be more openness from the school system, not only from the education level but also from the Board. Will we get it is doubtful.