Chapter 82.1: So Little Time, So Much to Do

Here we are, in the final week of January, and I feel like I've accomplished nothing. I have valid reasons — who poop and cry and drink bottles like drunken sailors — but it's still amazing to see time evaporate before me.

Anyway, I've been meaning to conduct several interviews for work and haven't even called people to set things up yet. I've got pieces to edit that are piling up in nice messy stacks and I'm only starting to gain the energy to work on them.

So it's nice to see that the world is moving forward regardless of my schedule. The Democrats in Congress have gotten a stimulus package passed despite not having a single Republican vote in its favor. I respect that Republicans might disagree with the amount of money being directed at various programs, including those they consider entitlement programs. But it surprises me that not a single Republican voted in favor of this bill. It's not as though President Obama didn't reach out for their input.

But it's a House bill and this was a stand the Republicans chose to take against the Democrats, who have the votes in the House to pass it. The Senate bill will be different, and if Congress is to get a stimulus package on Obama's desk by Lincoln's birthday, there'll likely need to be compromises made. So much government sausage making.

The way I see it, the issues the administration and Congress are addressing are important, but getting the economy moving in the right direction again will ultimately come down to businesses feeling confident enough in the future to hire people to work instead of laying them off. Big companies like Boeing, and Microsoft, and Target have announced layoffs. These are companies that are relatively strong but recognize that the economy isn't getting better; it's getting worse. So they're bracing for the storm. Friends of mine at other companies have lost jobs, despite having ten, twelve years with their former employers. And the credit card crisis hasn't even hit yet. But it's coming. You can bet your last dollar on that.

It's scary out there. The future looks bleak. Yet, somehow, I think we — my family and those I most care about, including those who are unemployed — will get through it. We'll need to scrimp and save, consolidate things that we used to take for granted, reuse stuff that probably would have been tossed in the past. We'll likely have lots of competitors when we hold a garage sale, and you have to wonder who will be buying. But I think that in the end we'll survive, possibly even come out of things feeling rejuvenated if not a little grayer around the temples.

This is our generation's crisis, and crises mean people step up and do what they need to do. They do what's needed. This is our time to be a great generation. There's no shortage of things to accomplish. We've all heard the ancient curse: may you live in interesting times. Well, at least we won't be bored.

Chapter 77.2: A Sense of Normalcy

It's official: Tom Brokaw will take over the hosting duties of Meet the Press, the most important Sunday morning news and public policy show in the United States. Of course, one of the main reasons why it had become so significant is because of the effort the late Tim Russert put into it.

In my post offering my thoughts on Russert's untimely death, I openly pondered whether Brokaw would host. While I didn't come straight out and say it in the blog, Brokaw was who I was hoping would take the job.

To me it makes the most sense. Brokaw is the first person I thought of as capable of doing the job well while maintaining the sense of decorum that it requires (automatically cutting Chris Matthews out) through at least the election. I for one will miss Russert on election night. Brokaw will offer a sense of normalcy to what I suspect will be yet another odd election. At least President Bush can't win this time.

Soldier on, Mr. Brokaw, and I wish you well. America is watching and looking for you to pick up that torch and carry it forward.

Chapter 58.314159: Good Math

Recently, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer posted a commentary calling for a commitment to emphasizing math in the schools. This call is certainly necessary, and long overdue. However, my pessimism may be getting the better of me. I'm not sure we can expect much. As the commentary states, we need better professional development of teachers, with a goal of training them to be more confident in their role. This takes time. No time like the present to start, but I think what we need to do is get math into more subjects; find where math fits into the history class, perhaps. Or make the examples in math class more accessible to kids: you have 500 songs on your iPod, what percentage of the memory is still available for more songs?

I'm not convinced the math block for many students is due to the subject matter. I think a big part of the problem is that math isn't cool. Maybe each student can have a team in a free fantasy league; each kid must keep their team under a salary cap. Work the numbers.

Easy for me to say -- I'm not teaching. Students who are bored are potentially disruptive, and one of the major challenges for education is classroom management. It takes more than teachers who are confident in their abilities to teach math, it takes teachers who are enthusiastic about teaching -- period. That involves a strong educational environment, a supportive administration, etc.

I'm all for emphasizing math, and I agree with Seattle -- home of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- being at the vanguard of a movement. But this will be a long slog, and the kids will need to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Kids don't implicitly care that the United States' position as an economic leader is imperiled without better math, science, and engineering education. They want to know what it means to them. Once that's been solved, you'll find more eager children.