Sunday: more comments (at end) on Ziggy have come in. Ziggy may be a star. lee
Ziggy has left a new comment on your post "An Elia Attempt to Cover Her Warts with Money Stol...":
"The purloined 'bonus' is attached to the degree to which of the teachers raise the students’ scores. It is for nothing that Ms. Elia has done to honor the teachers. She and the board steal it from them."
So then what? Divide the money between the teachers? That would leave them with only a few extra dollars in their pockets after the money has been spread around. Literally. And even if they did that, why would all teachers get a piece of the pie? You assume that all teachers are the good ones that helped raise student scores. How would you know which ones are the "good ones"? Giving out money based on student achievement is exactly what the educational system is has been criticized for in recent years. Ever hear of something called the FCAT? Schools with better scores receive more money as a reward. So that’s criticized, but its okay if the money goes directly in the hands of the teachers? That doesn’t make any sense. The money should go to the schools so that it can be directly re-invested into the students to continue their success. After all, the students are the primary focus, not the teachers. Teachers should be ready and willing to sacrifice anything to see that their students succeed. If they wanted to get paid more, they should have chosen a different profession.
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Posted by Ziggy to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 12:44 PM
The reason that organized labor opposes bonuses and other kinds of invidious awards is that corrupt administrations would decide them and give them to the suck-ups, not the good teachers.
I was the president of our college union and got the teachers to picket the administration their one and only time for Ambrose Garner’s trying to bust the union. He was the huckleberry that Miami Dade inflicted on HCC with giving him glowing references and not uttering a peep about his addition to chasing secretaries around his desk, a pathology he continued at HCC.
I got a lawyer for one of the sexually harassed women, and her case evicted the old satyr from his post as president. Nobody on the faculty except a few stalwarts would speak to me while I was engaged in this hassle because they were as scared of the administration as the county teachers are terrified of ROSSAC’s Knights of the Dark Side.
So teachers can be cowards, worse than ordinary cowards because most have read the Areopagitica. For some genetic reason, I thrive on hostility and didn’t give a hoot, and they began to not only speak to me but also to fawn over me when the Florida Ethics gendarmes kicked Garner out of the college.
That money for raising scores in the schools should go back into the general budget if it doesn’t go to the teachers. What if each teacher gets only a few hundred dollars? Newton helped me figure out that each teacher would get about $210. That’s a nice bonus for teachers, not a few of whom work second jobs to make ends meet.
I think giving money for raised scores is not the answer. If that is what FCAT does, I disagree with it. The answer is more complicated than money rewards for achievement. It involves both parents and teachers making children want to learn, making them connect their educational achievement to their chances to achieve in life. At its highest reach, success in school is not about professional success but about the ecstasy of learning.
As for giving the money back to the schools, it would be spent the same way Elia spent $30 million of tax money on a tinker toy that is supposed to replace math and English books or Board Member Susan Valdes’s blowing away $50,000 to take board larks while thousands of poor children the county can’t afford supplies to participate in class projects. Somebody is getting a lot of money from this sham learning tool. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Ms. Elia got a bonus under the table from Spring. Otherwise, why the stealth in buying it?
I am aware that all teachers are not saints. I have worked with some real dingdongs. But as a group, teachers are a better cut of wood than administrators. Some of the most influential people in my life have been my teachers—especially those in grammar school.
It is my observation that crooks with useless degrees in tangential subjects from 3rd-rate institutions fill administrations. The minute they get their feeble diplomas, they run to get an administration job because they may not be smart, but they know that’s where the money is.
And don’t romanticize teacher poverty. That settles the question about your employment You are not a teacher. And you are too smart to be an administrator. I have it. You are the new head of the zoo whose supervisor got fired for stealing. The zookeeper makes more money than teachers and gets to buddy up with the monkeys. That's a soft spot you have snagged for yourself. lee
From: Ziggy [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 3:45 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on An Elia Attempt to Cover Her Warts with Money Stol....
From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 10:49 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Help Me, Jesus: Ziggy Is Back.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Help Me, Jesus: Ziggy Is Back":
Maybe Elia is finally feeling guilty about stealing from the taxpayers. Maybe she finally realizes nobody likes her. She is probably pretty lonely at the top with no friends and surrounded by people who want to see her fail. This is probably why she is giving up her bonus this year. She realizes that she's made too many enemies and dropped the f bomb too many times, so she is remorseful and wants to try to buy her way back into Heaven.
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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 7:48 PM
From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008 10:36 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Help Me, Jesus: Ziggy Is Back.
Ziggy's latest comment is illogical. He seems to think since dividing the money up for teachers would only leave each teacher a few dollars, then giving it all to Elia is a good idea. What kind of thinking is that?
Ziggy should go into the schools and work with the teachers I have worked with. They do all kinds of things for students, often things that the students' own parents don't do.
A lot of fights break out and teachers are there to keep them safe as well.
During emergencies like lock downs or bomb threats teachers think of student safety first.
Yet Ziggy doesn't think they deserve a few extra dollars.
Shame on Ziggy for being a Grade A prick.
This just made me laugh so hard.
I have some commas lying around I'd like to share with ms. elia.
Her igorance makes her mean, as well.
Pity the children.
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I don’t think the children see much of Ms. Elia, thank God. And I don’t think she ventures into the schools except to convene the teachers to maintain her self-image of being the apotheosis of ruff ‘n tuff. The last of these congregations, according to my information, was to tell the teachers to listen to her, not to the board, because she was the boss. And then some teacher reported that the rumors abounded that she had instructed principals “to hold teachers’ feet to the fire.” lee
From: Vox Populi [mailto:justme.vox@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 3:38 AM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on The Public Affairs Office Gets Negative PR.
From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 9:35 AM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Help Me, Jesus: Ziggy Is Back.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Help Me, Jesus: Ziggy Is Back":
There are those who always care about the poor, the little people, the workers. Jesus was one who cared about these groups.
Then there are those who care about the people in power and identify with those people so that they can feel like part of an exclusive group and feel privileged. Most conservatives are in this group, and ironically, most religious people are in this group, because they lose sight of what religion is all about.
Ziggy is part of the latter group. We have to pray for him. He has no compassion for the workers.
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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 6:34 AM
As a mother of four and a granny of ten, I intuit that Ziggy is reaching out for something. I think he should remain under observation. I suspect I am the lightening rod for his angst somehow. I don’t know how he picked me. But I have had worse. Zizzy may not believe all he says; he may be testing it to see how it plays. He feels young to me. And I do think Ziggy is y, not x, chromosome. lee
