29 DEC 08: THE WEB BEE
Muscogee County schools are about halfway through winter break. I was stunned several years ago by a local TV news report, urging parents to keep children's brains motivated during the break. Do they really forget things, after only two weeks out of school? How many teachers make children wear name tags in January, like they do in August?
We've decided to hold a winter break "pop quiz" today on spelling. Muscogee County teachers may need it as much as students, after that hearing two weeks ago to fire a kindergarten teacher with misspellings on her posters. You wonder if any other teachers ever bothered telling the teacher about her errors. Instead, they may have acted like first-graders and said, "Ummmmm - I'm telling!"
When we commented on the teacher at Martin Luther King Elementary School [18 Dec], we noted that the school's web site had a glaring spelling error of its own. A check Sunday night showed "counselors" still is misspelled. Oh yes, and the MLK Day holiday date hasn't been updated from last January. The "Media Specialist" who oversees the site may be too busy tracking overdue library books.
We wondered if other local schools are setting a better educational example. But we quickly ran into trouble - as the Muscogee County School District web site was down for some reason Sunday night. The vandals who broke windows at Jordan High School may have unplugged more than they realized....
Keep in mind that I won a grade school spelling title when I was a boy, and took "best-in-grade" honors three years in a row. So we know trouble when we see it - and here's what some browsing around school web sites found:
+ Hardaway High School's news section reports there was a pizza night in August - and "the football team will RECEICE part of the proceeds." Well, this DID happen at Cici's Pizza....
+ The Clubs section of Midland Middle School's site invites students to join the Junior Civitan Club, and become "Builders of Good CITIZANSHIP." Maybe the Civitans require this spelling with other words, such as "beast of burdan."
+ The 17 December lunch menu for Stewart County Schools shows students feasted on "TURNIPS greens" and a cake with "Cream CHEES Frosting." We thank Mrs. Turnip for donating the greens - but is an English teacher double-checking what the cafeteria manager writes?
+ Lakewood Elementary in Phenix City invites you to watch a video clip with "Windows MEIDA Player." The principal's "Protected Reading Time" had better not protect children from the spelling books.
+ Meadowlane Elementary lists one of its Partners in Education as the "Order of the EASTER Star." I think that's supposed to be Eastern - unless this is a secret group operated by a Baptist church.
+ The December Headmaster's Letter from Brookstone School has the word "nonetheless" hyphenated twice. My American Heritage Dictionary disagrees with that - but any faculty member who dares to put fancy words like "acuity" in his letter leaves me impressed.
But all hope is not lost here. Our check found Phenix City Elementary School had no spelling errors on its site at all. So did New Mountain Hill Elementary, Calvary Christian and St. Anne Schools - although St. Anne has a phrase in Latin, and I haven't checked a textbook on that in more than 30 years.
OK, OK - I can hear some of you calling me nit-picky. But if we're going to improve local education, don't we need to redouble our efforts to make everything as accurate as possible? Well, some of us would be happy to see signs of the FIRST doubling.
(Of course, I could be REALLY nit-picky about spelling. People send us e-mails all the time with words misspelled. Those who know better are free to consider them embedded jokes.)
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E-MAIL UPDATE: Since I'm making myself look like Mr. Know-It-All, let's handle this message....
Richard...I just want to say you made 2008 interesting. As we plowed through high gas prices and the low economy you kept us going..Your stories were informative,funny and thought provoking...Thanks for a great year !
Now a couple of questions..When is Chuck Leonard coming come to TV?. .Have you noticed Channel 3 is saying watch their news reported by familiar faces?
As I understand it, Chuck Leonard will be back at the anchor desk sometime next week. And WRBL's main anchor team has been together for several years. But sports anchor Shawn Skillman still isn't familiar enough to earn a spot on the station home page.
Now for some items you might have missed from the long weekend:
+ Which local car dealership reportedly has only about three months to turn sales around, or it will close? We're talking a new car dealer here - as 13th Street in Phenix City has so many used car lots that one probably wouldn't be missed.
+ The Atlanta Falcons ended the regular season by stopping St. Louis 31-27. Michael Turner rushed for 208 yards on the final Sunday, after rushing for 220 yards on opening day. If he keeps doing that in the playoffs, Ted Turner will declare him a long-lost cousin.
(The Falcons will open the playoffs next Saturday at Arizona. The Cardinals are coached by former Atlanta "H Back" Ken Whisenhunt. I never understood what the H meant - so maybe it stood for Huh?!)
+ A proposal was announced to build a new stadium for the Falcons, in the Atlanta suburb of Doraville. It would be built on the site of a closed General Motors plant -- so instead of a "retractable roof," it would be called a sunroof.
+ Instant Message to Sonic Drive-Ins: It's about time you had a "value menu." But c'mon - ONE "fresh banana" for a dollar? I'll hop out of the car and walk inside a supermarket for at least three, thank you very much....
2008 IN REVIEW CON'D: October was a month with many endings in our area. The old Bibb Mill went up in flames. The legal battle over the death of Kenneth Walker ended. And the firing of Tony Franklin ended any thinking that Tommy Tuberville felt like a superior football coach to Nick Saban.
October was a month of change in Phenix City. First Councilor Ray Bush lost a runoff. Then City Manager Bubba Roberts learned he was being run off.
As election fever raged in October, Russell County sheriff's officers received a strange call. Someone left a voting machine at the end of a resident's driveway. The contents of that machine could settle the Senate race in Minnesota yet....
Columbus Council went on the record during October in favor of a national Cesar Chavez holiday every March. But it stopped short of making it a local holiday - perhaps waiting for permission to move the local date to Cinco de Mayo.
"Protect Columbus" billboards sprang up across the city in October, as the police department began filling 100 new positions. The female officer on the right side of that billboard may be in line for a promotion in 2009 - if the police chief allows her to be a "C-Town Hottie" in The Edge Magazine.
But some people simply couldn't wait for those 100 new officers. Frank Lumpkin III was arrested in October, when he tried to make a "citizen's arrest" to reclaim his stolen car. How did Clint Eastwood turn this case into the movie "Gran Torino" so quickly?
Bill Heard employees were stunned in October, when their final checks failed to clear the bank. Imagine how stunned they were two months later, when the new owner of Legacy Chevrolet actually wanted to hire some of them back.
While car sales were stuck in neutral for many dealers, the price of gas dropped sharply in October. Some SUV drivers were thrilled by this - because they didn't have to dismantle the rear-seat DVD players to improve fuel mileage after all.
Yet electricity prices kept increasing in October - and the Alabama Public Service Commission told Alabama Power to get rid of the commercials with talking birds. I think they were last seen flying toward Atlanta, hoping the Falcons will give them a job.
A Cataula man set a Georgia state record in October, by hunting and killing a 680-pound alligator. If only Shane Wilson had kept it alive - to give Glenwood School the scariest mascot in all of Alabama.
A Columbus baseball player appeared in the World Series during October. Since then, Tampa Bay pitcher Edwin Jackson has been traded to Detroit - so it's
no wonder he's resting here, instead of heading north to hear all those complaints about the football team.
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