Ugh. 

It took me almost $50 to full up my gas tank last week.  Prices for fuel are high enough that it made more financial sense to fly to lovely Portland, Oregon this month and rent a car while I am here to visit friends and family and do a little volunteer work than to drive the entire way.

My wife has always applauded higher gas prices as she feels that it will bring change faster on our habits as a society.  While I have always thought that made sense, it appears that American consumers disagree.  Despite the gas prices and buzz around fuel-smart cars, American buyers are going with their preference, the SUV .  

Perhaps the think that concerns me the most is the fact that less competitive sales for hybrid and other such cars means that we are still some time away from reasonably-priced versions of those models.  As much as I support the technology, I just can't drop that much money on a car.

While it seems to be that we are reaching a much broader consciousness about environmental issues as a culture, we just aren't there yet on transportation. 

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Don and I chat a lot about the problems with education and most certainly one of them is that a lot of teachers aren't teaching.  When I say that aren't teaching, I don't mean they aren't teaching the curriculum (although that is a problem too), I mean that don't begin the process of actually using their skills to teach kids things.

One example of that is the proliferation of movies in the classroom.  I went to high school just after VCRs were available and at the worst, I saw three movies in any given class.  In the world of DVDs/VCRs/TVs/projectors in most classrooms, some teachers have used that as an opportunity to show many more movies to students.

Don't get me wrong, a movie can be extraordinarily useful in a curriculum.  I certainly use them.  However, showing movies a majority of the time in a class or worse, without critical reflection or discussion (which can come in a lot of forms), they are little more than educational fast food.

This article struck me as an example.  This poor kid was shown An Inconvenient Truth FOUR times in different classes this year.  Now, of course, people like Drudge (who I stole this link from, so I guess thanks to him) think the problem is that this movies with all of it's "liberal science" is being pushed down student's throats.  The truth is, the more offensive part of this is that any movie was shown in four different classes, where there was only a link in maybe one.

I don't think it is hyperbole to say that we are fighting for the soul of education right now.  Great teachers are leaving the classroom in droves and those quality professionals that remain face an extraordinary challenge to actually teach students.  But more than the lack of funds, more than overpacked classrooms, more than falling apart buildings, we have to make sure that the relationship between students and teachers is a productive one.  Anything else?  Meaningless unless we prioritize TEACHING first.

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Though the media would have you believe that there are only two, perhaps three candidates running for the Democratic nomination, these are some of the best ads I have seen in the cycle (below the fold.)

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I'm going to be quite disappointed if Conrad doesn't get charged only because he lost in November. John Doolittle seems to think that is the case:

Alleging political motives in the raid of his home in April,
Doolittle claimed the Justice Department is under pressure to produce
more convictions in the Abramoff case, particularly members of Congress.

Doolittle
noted that other members linked to Abramoff last year — including
former House Republican leader Tom DeLay of Texas, Arizona Republican
J.D. Hayworth and Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns — all had left
Congress or were defeated in November.

"If you really want to get a congressman, I am the one who is left," he said.

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