Should Tim Tebow win the Heisman Trophy this Saturday, part of the fascinating story line will be his home-schooling — while availing himself of varsity football opportunities at Ponte Vedra Nease High School. Tebow, however, isn’t the only prominent Florida athlete to make it big after home schooling. Pinellas County’s Brittany Lincicome, the burgeoning LPGA star, was also home-schooled – but played varsity (boys) golf at Seminole High School.
Why Not Ask This?
When all is said and done — and undone — in the myriad of presidential debates, can’t Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer, Tim Russert or Chris Mathews pose something like this to the candidates:
“These are, inarguably, very perilous times for America. It wouldn’t be hyperbole to say that our economy, our way of life and our lives depend on how we answer this question: ‘Where does the U.S. fit in this world, the only one we have? We can mock the U.N. for being corrupt and hypocritical; we can dismiss Olde Europe for being appeasers; we can tell ourselves that Latin America, sans a middle class, will never grow up economically; and we can see what a democratic right to vote has yielded in the authoritarian likes of Iran and the Palestinian territories. It’s tough to be right when everyone else doesn’t get it.
‘So, to reiterate, what is a realistic role for the U.S. and where do we fit in a world of dwindling oil, surging Muslim fundamentalism, increasing national security challenges, expanding global trade imperatives — and the unyielding capacity to still do a lot of good on this globe?'”
That’s The Way It (Embar)Goes
Don’t look for any presidential candidate, including the Democrats, to show real geo-political guts on Cuba. Why should they when no member of Florida’s congressional delegation does? And that’s the way it (embar)goes.
Mohammed The Teddy Bear
You can’t make this stuff up. Gillian Gibbons is the British school teacher in Sudan who allowed her class of 6-year-olds to name a teddy bear Mohammed. Oops. Ultra-strict Sharia law formally frowns on such disrespect. Gibbons was arrested and charged with offending religion and insulting Islam. Punishment could have been six months in jail and 40 lashes. Bottom line: A teddy bear is still an animal. Not acceptable. Mohammed Atta? Not a problem.
Populist Piffle From Crist Not Enough
We know that Gov. Charlie Crist is “innovative” and “open minded,” because he tells us so. We also know he’s all about “the people’s business,” because he keeps reminding us.
Here’s a suggestion: Governor, if you really want to earn that populist self-labeling, get out in front of what is the core, overriding issue in Florida: addressing a tax system that hasn’t fundamentally changed since LeRoy Collins was governor. And that sobering reality is now magnified as Florida flails at adjusting to the end of the rapid-growth era, a budget colored red and the onset of mortgage meltdowns and property tax-cut shell games.
It’s not nearly enough to look at revenues from gambling and bridge leasing and to delegate state services to locals. We’re talking about ending unnecessary sales tax exemptions, especially on services, and getting serious about collecting taxes on online shopping.
To date, Crist has made more news about his hot dates, vice presidential prospects and exotic trade-mission plans. It appears he’s leaving economic security entirely in the hands of the state’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, which will have political cover from “tax-raising” taunts. The Commission can put constitutional changes directly onto the ballot. It meets every 20 years, and this is that year.
But it would certainly help if the governor would use his bully pulpit for something other than pushing an advertising campaign to bankroll passage of a dubious plan to cut property taxes.
A Peer Tribute For Bob Hite
Nice touch on Bob Hite’s farewell broadcast at WFLA, Channel 8. A video of well wishers, topped by iconic anchorman Walter Cronkite, was impressive. Especially classy: tributes from the competition, WTVT co-anchors John Wilson and Kelly Ring.
What’s In A Name? A Lot When It’s A School
The recent flap over a proposed name change of the MOSI Partnership school has reinforced, once again, the dicey task of school naming. In the good name of wanting to honor the honorable — for example, Mayor Pam Iorio’s late father, the beloved John Iorio — we perpetuate a ritual too subjective to be consistently appropriate and uncontroversial.
Except for that limited, elite American pantheon of heroes and high achievers, we’re much better off going geographical or, as in the case of MOSI, making allowances for a school’s special designation. This would avoid needless controversy and would help instill some sense of community in schools too often lacking in identity.
Unlike a rose, a school by any other name wouldn’t be the same. To be sure, we all know that what goes on in a school matters much more than what name it goes by. But that doesn’t mean the name is incidental – especially to those who go there or send their children there. Marcus Garvey or Steve Garvey Elementary? Harry or Truman Capote Middle School? Stonewall or Jackson Pollock High School? Jim Davis or Miles Davis Magnet? You bet it matters.
Reality dictates that image and connotation count, along with old-fashioned politics, new-fashioned political correctness and even raw snob appeal. Would Tommy Franks Voc Tech be as attractive — or acceptable — today as it was six years ago? Would it matter if your diploma read: “Sharpton,” “Schwarzkopf” or “Shabazz” High School? You bet it would.
The fundamental problem is two-fold when we name schools after people. For openers, we have many more schools than we have consensus American icons. And the disparity only widens. No problem with the Washingtons, Franklins, Jeffersons, Carvers, Lincolns, Edisons and Roosevelts. But all too quickly we run out of such first-tier names. That gives us a Newsome, a Sickles or a Wharton. Good people who did yeoman work becomes the criteria.
Inherently problematic are scenarios for naming schools after the living: typically local politicians, school board members and business leaders. Not only are they not likely of iconic quality, but the unwritten chapters of their lives can prove awkward for posterity. Sort of the pedagogic equivalent of the Houston Astros’ erstwhile Enron Field. Joe Kotvas Alternative School would have been embarrassing. A Brian Blair Junior High could still happen.
Remember why J. Crockett Farnell High School became Freedom High? Because too many parents took umbrage at having their kids’ school named for the late superintendent who was forced to resign in the 1960s after being convicted of stealing school district property.
Eventually Farnell’s backers re-petitioned and requested a lower-profile middle school in Nine Eagles be named in his honor. The school district acquiesced when it was noted that Farnell’s conviction was eventually overturned on appeal. Now there’s a standard.
To avoid ugly controversies or just awkward, competing petition drives on behalf of good people, we should look to geography wherever we can. Hillsborough High, Turkey Creek Middle School and Ballast Point Elementary work just fine, thank you.
And at a time when the quaint concept of “neighborhood schools” is re-rooting – despite protests from the usual suspects that this is “resegregation” – why not max out on a local community’s identity?
Local Exposure for CNN Debate
Good to see savvy, USF-St. Pete political scientist Darryl Paulson get national face time in the lead-up to last week’s CNN/YouTube Republican debate in St. Petersburg. He knows his stuff and is never sound-bite challenged. Also gaining national exposure was the University of Tampa, which served as the venue (Fletcher Lounge in Plant Hall) for a CNN-organized, 24-member, candidate focus group.
Village Idiocy
The Architectural Review Commission, as we know, can easily morph into the Door Knocker Nazis in their self-important interpretation of what’s appropriate for designated historic areas. But among those in the know, few are disagreeing with the ARC’s approach to proposals for redevelopment of Hyde Park Village.
The ARC has now twice rejected plans by Village owner Wasserman Realty Capital to shoehorn a pair of residential towers into the retail mix. Too big and too crowded, say most residents and Hyde Park Preservation Inc.
Wasserman has incrementally been whittling down the height and mass of its proposed condo structures. A few feet here, a story there. A sop to critics.
It’s not been nearly enough, and most neighbors, HPPI and the ARC aren’t buying it.
Maybe the best advice for Wasserman is this: You’ve done your homework, and you knew what you were dealing with before you bought in. And even your biggest critics realize that status quo won’t succeed in the marketplace the Village competes in. But surely you have an ultimate, Plan C position that you’ve been hoping to better. Well, you won’t.
Put it on the table now.
Ammonia Brain
In the aftermath of that Riverview youth drilling into an ammonia pipe – and resultant evacuations, school closings and environmental harm – talk has turned to pipeline vulnerabilities. A network of more than 900 miles carries gas and hazardous liquids regionally.
It’s been pointed out that a better job of protecting pipes can be done. Of course, it can. It always can – but at some point we reach cost-risk-odds scenarios. And the ultimate bottom line: You can’t fix stupid.