I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Honey-Doin'

You know who the last guy in the world who should regulate plumbers is?

Me. Because I've spent all day trying to redo Mrs. Jazzman's powder room ("You use it too!"), and I know just enough about plumbing to know I am completely unqualified to tell anyone anything about it.

You know who the last people in the world who should regulate teachers are?

Politicians, business leaders, and pundits. They have as much practical and theoretical experience in education as I do in home repair.

That doesn't mean I don't know when a plumber has done a bad job, and it doesn't mean they don't know if their kid got a bad teacher. It doesn't mean I can't learn to replace a sink, and it doesn't mean they aren't entitled to give a well-informed opinions about teacher evaluation.

But wide-scale regulation of any industry should be left to those who know what the hell they are doing.

I'm actually proud of the fact that I sweated off a bad toilet valve and used a Sharkbite fitting to replace it. But only an idiot would put me on a panel to design evaluations for plumbing licenses (I burned my thumb and index finger picking up the old valve - putz...).

And I'd be arrogant, a fool, or both to accept the position if it was offered to me (you know who you are).

Teachers need to regulate teachers. It's really that simple.

The secret to good teacher evaluations is duct tape!

(I'll bet 9 out of 10 of you who read this have no idea what this picture is about. Dig it.)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I must say one small, petty thing about your word choice that is unrelated to the larger point. Forgive me. Mr. JCG thinks I'm being overbearing but I'll say this anyway.

'powder room'??? Who uses that phrase any longer? You didn't look old enough to be born in 1925... Would you call the men's room a powder room?

Ok,that's it, I just couldn't help it. I really enjoy and concur with everything else you write. Delete this if you don't want it public.

septic tank canton said...

Hi,Thanks for leading me to your Blog from a comment left on my Blog, some great stuff here, will bookmark it, Thanks again!

Duke said...

STC, you didn't do a Google search on "plumbing" and wind up here, do you?

JCG: I don't call it a "powder room" - SHE calls it that! I call it "the can."