95% is the best?

We got the graduation numbers back for the area, and we were the highest at 94.6%. The lowest was a smidge over 74%. Seriously? If that school had 100 graduating seniors, fully ONE QUARTER would not have the credentials it would take to work a JOE job. *Sigh* High school seems to be the entrance exam for life anymore, and these kids, fully 10 years into the second millenium are missing out on their entire lives by doing this. Sure, they can get their GQE, but is a college going to take them? Hell no. And that's fine, ya know. You can be anything you want, but 90% of the time, you need to have at least vocational training, which these kids won't be able to get. Even to get into a voc school you need to have a high school diploma. You can't be a diesel mechanic, you can't be a cop, hell, you can't even be a fricking CONSERVATION OFFICER without graduating high school. I mean seriously? You drive around in a truck looking for people fishing, and you can't do it without high school. While I find that kinda absurd, I also can see that these kids must plan on flipping burgers for the rest of their lives.

When you have as much potential as I see these kids have, why not at least TRY to achieve the minimum? It boggles my mind.

On to happier stuff - I'm reading Orwell's 1984 with my creative writing class. It's really freaking them out. Today I put on the board the three tenants of the party:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Under each of these I put news articles and quotes that really happened in today's media (well, for the past 10 years) that illustrates just how far the government would go to uphold the tenants of a dystopian society about which was written 62 years ago. My favorite is a quote from George Bush - "“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're
really talking about peace.”

http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfm

Boggles the mind. Anyway, for more freak-outs, check out www.studentsfororwell.org It's informative...

I've also got contacts. That's right, after a 4 month hiatus we're back to looking like we're not visually impaired. sweeeet....

On the biking front, I biked to work for the first time of the year today - started the day at 30* and ended at 43*. Glorious (or, Glourious for you Tarantino fans). The roads were kinda sloppy, and as a result, the mudflaps got their workout. My shoes are still filthy. *Sigh* I also discovered that iced tea works well in water bottles. Huzzah!