Commission Impossible

whistlers mother

Lon -

You wrote: "how often I screw up its versus it's (pretty often)."

I think it should be "how often I screw up it's versus its (pretty often)."

Dave

That's not Anne Bidwell is it?

Dave,

Its difficult to keep up with all the new-age grammar rules being produced these day. But I try to keep up on the rules by following the guidelines established by the Good Grammer Society. Those rules can be found on it's web site www.goodgrammer.org.

Lon

Trevor-Mark,

Not Annie B. nor whistler's mom.

Lon

Lon,

There is a great way for high school students to start college early and it wouldn't cost the school district a dime... except for all the ADA money they would lose. It's called "testing out". Our daughter did it and she started a year early at Butte College. She is now getting ready to move on to a four year college up in Oregon with most of her GE out of the way. Any high school student can take the California High School Proficiency Exam at the age of 17 1/2. After passing the exam, the student receives a certificate equal to a high school diploma.

It in no way hinders the young scholars ability to get into college. As a matter of fact, the academic counselor at my daughter's future school was quite impressed by the initiative she had shown.

The district does not want parents to know about testing out and goes to great lengths to discourage students from pursuing it once they do discover the option. In fact, it seems the district goes to great lengths to see that any alternative programs are swept under the rug.

No cost of building an additional campus... no headache of trying to decide who gets to go to the new campus. Test out, go straight to junior college.

Its me! Now take down my picture you young whippersnapper!

Suzy B.

It is you. I wonder how to post the winner though? I'll have to think about this one.

Lon

Well, whippersnapper, there's a bit of a CI challenge in the submitter.

Lon,

Thanks so much for your inclusive CI challenge, featuring an important woman in American history who worked for women's education and the right to vote. Thanks, also, for your careful attention to grammar. As an English major, I am proud, and I think we can say that Susan B. would be, too.

Another interesting woman I just saw a documentary on, but who many people don't know, is Madalyn Murray O'Hair. She single handedly took the issue of prayer in school to the Supreme Court, which found it unconstitutional. O'Hair was an interesting woman who met a sad ending. Some people might not appreciate her, but here's some more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O'Hair

OK, enough on our spunky American women lecture for today.

Tempra

Suzy B.

From your IP address I have to assume you're actually Susan B. Anthony Watts. But since I can't really prove that I'll keep the credit listed for Suzy.

Lon

Tempra,

Yikes, that's an awful way to go. Stay spunky yourself, it's tough to fight the good fight. In fact it's tough to fight at all. But someone's got to do it.

Lon

Eleanor,

That's a good point. There are other options, and I think those options are putting pressure on the public school system. That's true of private schools that seem to operate with less overhead.

While I don't think it's entirely common I do know of a couple of public school teachers whose kids are homeschooled or in a private school. That's a pretty bold statement. But to be fair I also know that some teachers at my kid's school have their kids enrolled there.

Lon

"...who apparently posted a comment from the afterlife."

Just so you know; In heaven we have Free High Speed DSL and WiFi that connects to the octa-core Pentium 7 laptops Saint Peter issues at the gate. In Hell they use TTY's on dialup and have cassette tapes for data storage.

Susan B. Anthony Watts:

Wow cassette tapes for storage! I remember using that method with my TRS-80 Model III... that wasn't so bad.

I was thinking they'd be using paper tape...

Which I did use along with the KSR-35 & accoustically coupled modem me and two other local Chico kids bought around 1974 to access the Huntsinger Computer Timesharing BTI-3000 machine that used to live on the NE corner of East Avenue and Pillsbury... Those other two kids now make their living in the computer industry.

I can remember carrying programs from point A to point B on paper tape...with a read/write speed at a blazing 110 baud (with the rotor stop bit, that is about 0.1 K in today’s terms)… Now THAT was Hell.

Lon:

I don’t care about posting that email…just keep in mind that I typed that in about 5-minutes during yesterday’s morning email 50 WPM response blitz, and were initial impressions from the very brief 30 minute presentation Lon and I heard the previous day at Chico Rotary.…definately un-refined thoughts on the matter... I hope that they’re successful…..

That “testing-out” idea is a good one, too….

Here's what Mark sent to me.

The MOU is vague in many respects… Though it is an interesting concept.

As someone who benefited from CUSD’s once FANTASTIC vocational training, I was upset and dismayed when I came back to town and found those programs long gone…. Electronics drove me to get my Ham license when I was 16 and significantly drove my interest in chemistry, physics and math at the time…I am that way – I need to have a practical application to make me interested in taking in information…. Otherwise, I don’t have a need to know….

In my years at RCA, at one time responsible for over 350 technicians in 4 states, I spent LOTS of time trying to recruit technicians from colleges, trade schools and the military who had the same level of PRACTICAL knowledge that I gained at Chico High! Lots of people had the degree or the certificates but could not live it, breathe it and apply it beyond text book applications…. I’m sure you know what I mean….

Back then we not only had a high school electronics program, but Butte County sponsored a 3 hour per day Electronics ROP course 2-5 pm Monday-Friday at Chico High; and Bill Pope was one hell of a knowledgeable, talented teacher (and college professor), plus Butte College had a great electronics program ……. Shoot… I still use many of the skills that I received from metal shop, wood shop, auto shop, mechanical drawing, etc…Now, all those programs are virtually – gone... But, I digress…

I was listening for some reference to the CUSD Bruce Road property… I heard no reference to that property. Instead, it sounds like the program would be housed at the BC main campus. What they heck are they planning for that Bruce Road property?

I can see that they’re looking for operational synergy with the existing BC programs, facilities and particularly the vocational programs & facilities… that makes perfect sense.

But, if CUSD is contributing to facilities (I have not yet seen or heard any specific reference to this), it seems odd that CUSD would be spending facilities dollars so far from their borders….

If I remember correctly, Butte College (Butte Valley) has Chico phone numbers (mostly), an Oroville Zip Code (95965), is in the Paradise Irrigation District, and is in the Durham Unified School District…. Not exactly what I would call “Chico”.

Some number of high school kids ride a bus from Chico to Red Bluff to attend Mercy High each day, but it would seem that the BC location would be something of a deterrent….

Interesting reading: The yearly per student operational costs for private/parochial high schools vs public high schools (they’re at about half the cost). Which is particularly interesting when taken with the apparently higher “success rate” of those private schools (vastly higher)… Yes, public schools are saddled with significant obligations and red tape, but It would seem that the CUSD/BC program would be saddled with similar if not identical operating restrictions (red tape & bureaucracy) and operational costs as other CUSD schools for the High School portion of the program…..

In the “vague” category is also their long term plans to fund the operation. They were surprisingly ill prepared to comment on that question yesterday. Though, the MOU clearly says that the usual public school ADA would fund the high school portion of the program, while the applicable BC Community College revenue streams (including student fees) would fund the Community College portions of the program.

One of the major “problems” with the delivery of vocational training in public high schools is the notion (and apparently the legal requirement) that everything be free to the student. You can not charge extra for any supplies. So, it would seem that they plan to shift the actual “vocational training” over to BC so that they can treat those as a college activity.

They talked about trying to attract students who might not be doing the best in today’s traditional High Schools, but you’d have to wonder how some of those students will be able to afford to pay the college fees… even though Community College fees are quite low… but vocational training classes typically have higher fees than purely academic classes.

Overall, an interesting concept…. Glad to see them trying to reinvent themselves and to creatively work around some of the operational obstacles that they face…. I certainly look forward to hearing more of the details….

Lon - Sorry for the late post, I was out of town.

This program/MOU sounds a lot like the one from my high school, it was partnered with Sonoma State. The program was called 3-1-3, 3yrs High School, 1 year High School/Sonoma State 3yrs Sonoma State (with the option to transfer within the system). Good program designed for 1st generation college students. As you can see from doing the math 3+1+3, it equals only 7 years, so where did that one year go? While in the program you have to spend every Saturday in a class of all 3-1-3 students.

I did not take the program. I did end up at Sonoma, and was only about 1 year behind all the 3-1-3 kids, but once college hits, they quickly don't finish within that 3 years.

Duke

Duke,

Wow! Every Saturday would be a hurdle I wouldn't have tried clearing when in high school, or college for that matter.

That would impede a lot of part time work opportunities. It would also have hampered social gatherings, which I'm pretty sure is the primary reason for higher education (for me anyway).

Lon