As you can tell from the title I've had a small quibble as it were, with a very popular company that I sometimes refer to as "Oh it's Swedish for ugly!". Just kidding, but seriously just because I don't enjoy the overly angular and sometimes not apparently functional designs that have resulted in Ikea's undeniable financial success doesn't mean that their products aren't good. I guess some people just don't have any real sense of style or taste (of course they none of those people wrote this post).
Recently I had to purchase a bookshelf from work, and of course I turn to one of the leaders in cheap furniture...IKEA! I happen to be one of the "fortunate" souls that lives relatively close to 3 different Ikeas so I have a choice of where I can go and I also live within range of getting a delivery. Thinking that like any other major international company Ikea had it's delivery policy at least to a certain level of competence. I couldn't be more wrong. I ordered a bookshelf about a month ago at this point. Last week Ikea sent me an email saying due to an incredible volume of orders they weren't able to process mine. So what does that mean...they have to REprocess my order. Then they proceed to tell me that I won't get my order for another 3 weeks and oh by the way we are gonna slap a 90 dollar shipping fee on the 10 mile drive we have to make to deliver it to your office. I couldn't have been happier.
Ikea you get a big raspberry from me!!! Sorry about all the ranting posts these days. Blame it on the lack of ergonomically designed furniture in my office. As always have a good day and enjoy. ;)
I am 50% Left Brain and 50% Right Brain. Interesting...
| You Are 50% Left Brained, 50% Right Brained |
 Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports. |
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Friday, November 04, 2005
Why I hate NCLB...
*Views expressed in this blog entry belong soley to those of the author.
First for those of you who don't know what NCLB means it's No Child Left Behind a federally funded (there's the first problem) program that was designed to help make school systems more accountable (there's the second problem) for making sure that students are able to learn the curriculum (again here's the third problem).
Why would I refer to these as problems you might ask? Well were anything is federally funded you are guaranteed to find a bureaucratic nightmare, second the only way a school system has any hopes of being held accountable is where parents take an active interest/role in the educational process, and finally majority of public school curriculum is horrific (mild understatement).
Basically it's money the gov't gives the school system in hopes that it will get to the children who need it and help make sure they have a quality education. How can this possibly be wrong one might think. Well...
What you might not know is that after the funds have been distributed to the school system it is up to the school syster to determine how they distribute the funds to each school and how much per child. Well if you think nothing can go wrong with that then...well...you're just crazy. One local school district (I'll call Podunk Unified School District, PUSD) PUSD decided to hire consultants to figure out the best way to distribute the funds because they were to bass ackwards to figure it out for themselves. Well instead of each child in an approved school getting $1600 a year to spend on supplemental education services they are getting less than $800. A big raspberry to you PUSD! What in the world can you get with $800 dollars over a 9 month period? That's less than a hundred dollars a month! You can barely feed a child let alone buy them educational services they desperately need. And a program that is designed to allow a district like PUSD to rip off these children must be inherently evil in my opinion.
But this isn't the real reason I hate NCLB, but trust me it's coming...the biggest evil is the very system itself not the amount of damage that is done every year to students when too much money and too much stupidity meet to create inefficient, inept, and ineffective spending of gov't funds. But what the program does is give money to schools where students aren't making yearly academic progress for more than 2 years. That doesn't sound too bad right? Wrong...the moment the school does a little bit better they pull the funding. The reason the kids were able to do better in the first place is because of the funding now they have to get sucked back down into the quagmire that is public education and almost drown again before they are offered assistance. It's like you're getting paid for doing bad.
PUSD: Uncle Sam we need money to help pay for educational services and supplies, Johnny uses a coloring book in his English class.
Uncle Sam: Talk to me next year when he's using toilet paper instead.
Unfortunately the problem is helped by PUSD being so unorganized and incapable. The hardest task really falls on the teachers who are expected to teach 5 years worth of material in 6 months without the proper tools or resources.
That's all I have to say about that. Sorry about the rant, but the recent work I've been doing with local school districts is enough to make anyone lose it once in a while.
As always have a good day and enjoy.
First for those of you who don't know what NCLB means it's No Child Left Behind a federally funded (there's the first problem) program that was designed to help make school systems more accountable (there's the second problem) for making sure that students are able to learn the curriculum (again here's the third problem).
Why would I refer to these as problems you might ask? Well were anything is federally funded you are guaranteed to find a bureaucratic nightmare, second the only way a school system has any hopes of being held accountable is where parents take an active interest/role in the educational process, and finally majority of public school curriculum is horrific (mild understatement).
Basically it's money the gov't gives the school system in hopes that it will get to the children who need it and help make sure they have a quality education. How can this possibly be wrong one might think. Well...
What you might not know is that after the funds have been distributed to the school system it is up to the school syster to determine how they distribute the funds to each school and how much per child. Well if you think nothing can go wrong with that then...well...you're just crazy. One local school district (I'll call Podunk Unified School District, PUSD) PUSD decided to hire consultants to figure out the best way to distribute the funds because they were to bass ackwards to figure it out for themselves. Well instead of each child in an approved school getting $1600 a year to spend on supplemental education services they are getting less than $800. A big raspberry to you PUSD! What in the world can you get with $800 dollars over a 9 month period? That's less than a hundred dollars a month! You can barely feed a child let alone buy them educational services they desperately need. And a program that is designed to allow a district like PUSD to rip off these children must be inherently evil in my opinion.
But this isn't the real reason I hate NCLB, but trust me it's coming...the biggest evil is the very system itself not the amount of damage that is done every year to students when too much money and too much stupidity meet to create inefficient, inept, and ineffective spending of gov't funds. But what the program does is give money to schools where students aren't making yearly academic progress for more than 2 years. That doesn't sound too bad right? Wrong...the moment the school does a little bit better they pull the funding. The reason the kids were able to do better in the first place is because of the funding now they have to get sucked back down into the quagmire that is public education and almost drown again before they are offered assistance. It's like you're getting paid for doing bad.
PUSD: Uncle Sam we need money to help pay for educational services and supplies, Johnny uses a coloring book in his English class.
Uncle Sam: Talk to me next year when he's using toilet paper instead.
Unfortunately the problem is helped by PUSD being so unorganized and incapable. The hardest task really falls on the teachers who are expected to teach 5 years worth of material in 6 months without the proper tools or resources.
That's all I have to say about that. Sorry about the rant, but the recent work I've been doing with local school districts is enough to make anyone lose it once in a while.
As always have a good day and enjoy.
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