Cute and bourgeois. Just like the rest of us. Well, bourgeois anyway.

my GF's credit is much better than mine, and got a 72/mo finance at 1.9%. That ain't too shabby. I lease my car.

I'm guessing rayz buys his cars outright.

i aint never bought anything in my life that depreciates on credit. ( oops was that a dangling participle or a misplace adjective)??

and i rarely insure anything except for liability. its a gamble and a bad bet to bet your car will be in an accident this year.

How is everyone spending these last few weeks of summer?

I'm mostly bemoaning its passing. More and more, I'm wanting to avoid work.

Same Ray. Cash is king

Live if up boy and stuff like that there: That's how to end summer and avoid work.

I live in LA, where summer sort of ends but doesn't really end.

I work on stuff every single day. I haven't taken a vacation for 4 or 5 years and I have no desire to take another one. I'd go crazy if I wasn't working on something.

I went out last night. It was a total bust.

Went to the first spot where they usually have awesome live bands and there was no music, just "goth" music playing the background. I drank one beer and left.

Next spot, there was some girl eye-balling me. If she wasn't standing next to so dude with neck and face tattoos, I'd have given her the hello. The DJ was also playing house music, which bores me to tears, so I drank one beer and left, went home, then decided to check out a rock and roll show.

The music at that venue was less-than-inspired, so I drank one beer, chatted the bartender (and pissed her off by asking why she cut her hair), and left.

John, I'm getting ready for 4 comp classes at UNLV and I'm also teach at University of Phoenix again....1 class that lasts 5 weeks....it's intro to film and visual arts, so should be fun,

Dom, you still on visiting lecturer payroll? You know, with benefits and such?

No, they got rid of that position, I’m just adjunct again. But I always had health insurance through them, so that’s still there.

Damn. But good on the health insurance.

So is tenured everything in the education game and how do you get there?

My GF is going through the tenure process right now...it's exhausting. Takes almost a year....she's a real academic; I'm not. I'm just an instructor. I'm not on a tenure track. I don't have to deal with any meetings or department BS....I just teach my classes and go home.

But once you're tenured you are made in the shade, right?

I don't know, ask John!

Yes. I am a tenured full professor, and I kind of have it made. Right now, I have a three day a week schedule.

Tenure at community college is easier, at least where I am. Basically, no one who teaches six years is denied tenure. I've reviewed and recommended for tenure about sixty people in the past. But our faculty still sweat the process.

Four year institutions can be much more demanding.

tenure is a ripoff to those that pay the bills and to those that have to suffer through substandard performance.

great for those that get it.

any kind of forced job security breeds mediocre overall performance of the total, though not necessarily an individuals. it has to.

Before the tenure system, at least in public schools, teachers could be replaced (fired) by whomever controlled a town or city's politics.

Hard to get rid of bad public school and college teachers with tenure, but it's not impossible. And most I know change little once they gain tenure.

then teachers were just like an employee at any business. if they didnt conform or produce they got fired.
and if you are good at what you do you can find a better job usually someplace else.

it seems clear our country is falling behind others in education. educators cry for more money. but i bet our public schools get more money per student than most. that figure i dont have.

but about one third to 40% of my property taxes go to the schools. that seems excessive to me.

copied from internet::::
do U.S. students compare with their peers around the world? Recently released data from international math and science assessments indicate that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many other advanced industrial nations.

One of the biggest cross-national tests is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which every three years measures reading ability, math and science literacy and other key skills among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries. The most recent PISA results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

Younger American students fare somewhat better on a similar cross-national assessment, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. That study, known as TIMSS, has tested students in grades four and eight every four years since 1995. In the most recent tests, from 2015, 10 countries (out of 48 total) had statistically higher average fourth-grade math scores than the U.S., while seven countries had higher average science scores. In the eighth-grade tests, seven out of 37 countries had statistically higher average math scores than the U.S., and seven had higher science scores.

After years of growth, math proficiency of U.S. students dips

In 2014, the U.S. spent an average of $12,157 per student on elementary and secondary education, over 30% more than the OECD average of $9,419. ... Total U.S. spending averaged $16,268 per student, 51% more than the average for all of the countries included in the OECD study.Jun 25, 2019.


According to Pearson, the United States has a “cognitive skills and educational attainment” score of 0.39, which makes the United States rank fourteenth out of forty countries ranked in that category. The top ten countries (and their scores) are:

South Korea (1.30)
Japan (1.03)
Singapore (0.99)
Hong Kong (0.96)
Finland (0.92)
United Kingdom (0.67)
Canada (0.60)
Netherlands (0.58)
Ireland (0.51)
Poland (0.50)


According to the Program for International Student Assessment, the average reading literacy score for U.S. fifteen-year old students is 498 (out of 1000 possible points). That is enough to make the United States rank twenty-fourth out of sixty-five educational systems ranked in that category. Shangai, China, ranked first, with a score of 570.

Preview of “High School Literacy Score.xlsx”

According to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, in 2011 the average United States fourth-grade reading score was 541, which makes the United States rank eleventh out of fifty countries ranked in that category. Singapore ranks first, with a score of 606. Here is the list of the top eleven countries and their scores:

4th grade math

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, American students scored 502 in the science component of the 2009 PISA assessment. That was enough for the United States to rank twenty-third out of sixty-five ranked economies. China-Shanghai ranked first with a score of 575.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States spends $10,821 per student on secondary education, which makes the United States rank fourth in that category. Luxembourg ranks first, at $18,144.

Not a problem in Chicago. The teachers union controls the cities (and states!) politics.