My Cute Nerd

This is my daughter:

She's five years old and she just started kindergarten last month.
As you can see, she's a very attractive young lady and she's bound get even more attractive. That's worrisome all by itself. But beyond the troubles that come upon good-looking individuals in our society, I have the additional worry that she's very, very smart. She's already reading. She's not doing chapter books yet, but she can sound out the majority of words in the picture books we have, and she's even reading road signs and advertisements from the car.
The other day, my wife and I went to a kindergarten planning meeting. The teacher talked about some of the "learning activities" they would be doing at the class parties. Things like "walk around on the pictures and then when the music stops, say the "beginning sound" of the picture.
I worry that my very smart little girl is going to stagnate. If we keep helping her improve at home, she'll only get that much more ahead of her classmates and be even more bored. She's already one of the youngest in her class so I don't think that bumping her up a grade would be good for her.
I heard a guy on the radio talking about a documentary he did about our education system. While he was making it, he recognized that he was part of the problem by taking his wealthy, smart kids to a charter school. The public schools, being underfunded and poorly staffed also end up with the students who aren't as academically gifted. Average test scores go down, and teachers get blamed for poorly performing students.
We can't afford to put her into a private school, but even if we could, is that the best thing for her? Is that the best thing for the system? Do I care about the system more than I care about her academic success? I plan on continuing to be an active participant in my daughter's education, and I don't doubt that she'll be a top student in her class. I just want for "top student in her class" to be something she can be proud of.
By the way, it makes me pretty sick that the teacher's union voted against disbanding. They would have gotten DOUBLE their salaries. That would have given so many good people incentive to become teachers. Yes, it would have made it easier to fire crappy teachers, but you people are teaching my kid. If you do a bad job, I don't want you there.
I would have been a teacher if it had paid enough. I would have been a good teacher, and I'd have been able to spy on my daughter in high school to make sure she wasn't hanging out with any unsavory goons.

Burning the Koran

This jerk, Terry Jones is getting quite a bit of attention. In case you don't read or listen to anything but my blog, he's planning on burning the Koran on September 11. Mostly, people are voicing their concerns that this act will make radical Muslims really upset and it will put the United States and her troops overseas in greater danger.

I think this man's actions are insulting and disrespectful to millions of peaceful followers of Islam.

However, I find myself a little bit annoyed by the media coverage. I seem to recall a little while ago that there was some upset over Proposition 8 in California. Lots of evangelical Christians voted to outlaw gay marriage and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was one of the more vocal supporters of the bill. During and following the vote, I heard that numerous people burned the Book of Mormon, a text that is every bit as holy to me as the Koran is to a Muslim. They also vandalized Mormon places of worship.

Why didn't this get more press? Why didn't talk shows and pundits sit around tables and talk about respect for other's beliefs?

I'll tell you why. It's because no matter how many Book of Mormons you burn, a person of my faith is not going to strap a bomb to him or herself and kill a bunch of innocent people in "vengence." Members of the Mormon Church use legal, democratic processes to state their beliefs. If other people don't like those beliefs, and even if the democratic process is overturned, Mormons will not pull out guns to change people's minds. They will keep living and doing as they believe without destroying.

So really it comes down to the violence. This hateful Terry Jones fellow might be getting a call from the president of the United States asking him to reconsider because a small minority of horrible Muslims have made the whole world afraid. How sad that hatred and death have become the language of religion.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Terry Jones went ahead with his burning of the Koran and no reporters or cameras were there to document it? Let him burn it all by himself and let Al-Qaida wonder if they'll get into heaven by blowing him up.