Totally 3rd Grade Blog

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The confirmation of Betsy Devos today by Senate Republicans marks the end of quality education in the United States. By any measure this woman is unqualified to even enter a public school, let alone run all of them.

Seriously, putting a goat in charge would have been a better idea since the goat could possibly double as a school mascot.

Apparently the only thing that matters in education going forward is your ability to buy a majority of congress-weasels.

Shameful…

This video is a very clear synopsis of how our political system actually works, minus the spin that you usually get when political parties try to explain it.

This awkward arrangement is the reason why there are so many political ads running in contested states. It’s also the reason why voting districts are so incredibly distorted (see gerrymandering).

Even so, this is the system that will decide our future.  Don’t let down all of the other like-minded people in your state by being lazy or complacent; in a winner-take-all event like this, your vote matters.

Recently, one of our songs came under attack.  In the closing verse of “Cities, States, Countries and Continents,” we wrap up our size/scale relationship with these words:

A continent is the biggest place that

You or me can ever be from

A continent’s the biggest piece of land

It’s the place that countries call home

The teacher that attacked us wrote:

“I just wanted to let you know that the downloadable song Cities States Countries and Continents has the word ‘ass’ in the lyrics.  I as a teacher do not feel comfortable sharing this with my students for obvious reasons.  Please let me know where I can download the lyrics to the songs before downloading the music.”

It took us a little while to figure out what she was talking about since the word “ass” does not appear in this or any other song we have written, but we finally figured out that she had misunderstood the word “biggest” and had (in her mind) assumed that we had purposely written some kind of profane adjectival description. 

Here is the actual verse:

 http://www.totally3rdgrade.com/Audio/Cities_Blog_Example.mp3

Admittedly, the superlative suffix “-est” does sound a little like “ass,” but why would anyone assume after listening to the eleven preceding verses that we would go with “big, bigger, big ass” as a way to correlate relative size?  Get a grip.

Like many educational music artists, we not only post all of our lyrics, we promote them and recommend downloading them or at least viewing them while our music is playing.  It absolutely increases efficacy. 

Has the current overburdened and declining state of education left teachers so fearful that they now feel like they have to protect themselves from imaginary threats?  

Re-read that last statement.  Slowly.  Think about it.

Consider this well-known adage penned by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839: 

“True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.” 

Is that now off limits because some idiot thinks Bulwer-Lytton is claiming a part of the male anatomy to be superior to a sword?   It’s ridiculous.  I can’t imagine how foul education will become if teachers reach a point where they no longer use vocabulary that could possibly be mispronounced, misinterpreted or somehow mangled in ways not yet known.  Seriously, it’s time to get a grip.