Day Two of Hannah's Driving and My Blogging

Here it is Day Two of my blogging and Day Two of Hannah's driving solo. Hannah has safely arrived at her voice teacher's house. I called our insurance company this morning to be sure she was fully covered and to find out our new insurance premium. Oh me! We knew it would be an increase, but more than double the premium? Also, NC does not give any sort of good student discount like other states. I like living here though and I like our insurance company and all teenagers cost more and we only have one child and we can afford insurance and we both work and we have a lot of friends and life is good.

That doesn't mean it couldn't be better. It definitely could. Life would be instantly better if

1. Florida outlawed cameras in courtrooms and/or 24 hour news became a thing of the past
2. Administrators, including presidents, of educational institutions spent a minimum of two years in the classroom under the guidance of a master teacher. 
3. My daughter's university tuition was paid for by the government. That ain't gonna happen but a person can dream, can't she? Germany does it, or used to, so why can't we? 
4. All high school graduates spent two years either in the military or serving some charitable organization
5. High School for non-university-bound students ended after the sophomore year.                                        This one needs some explanation. College prep students would attend three more years and then attend university, entering as juniors. Think of the money this would save Americans! Make higher education tuition free but a result of hard work and dedication throughout a person's educational career. Spend tax payer's dollars on students who want to learn at a high level of scholarship and have the abilities to do well in academia. Community colleges like where I work would become the place where the graduates of the career-track high schools would go. If they excel in the career track, they could choose to apply to the university after graduating, or they could choose to go immediately into their chosen career. There would still be choice but only for those who value their education and prove themselves while obtaining their general liberal arts education. This is lso an idea born out of my study of the German educational system.
6. Parents valued education for its own sake. I believe in liberal arts education because I believe in teaching students how to think. That is what our schools should be doing. To me, the curriculum is secondary. We have information all surrounding us, at our fingertips, but what we need is a citizenry that can wade through all the crap that's out there by effectively analyzing and evaluating the myriad of information that swarms about us. My mother, a librarian, said, "Getting an education means learning how to find things." How true, Mom. 
7. People learned how to write well. Other forms of communication are important too, but writing well is a critical sign of the intellectual health of a person
8. People put other people ahead of themselves. Call it outmoded. Call it cliche. Call it hokey. Call it anything you want. I know it's true. The quality of my life is never better than when I am serving someone else, putting his or her feelings, needs, wants and wishes above my own. The hard part is discerning what that person's needs really are. It's easy to fool ourselves into thinking we're doing something out of sacrificial love when the motive is really pure selfishness. I'm not being self-righteous here. I know how much I fail in this area, and I know that any misery that comes to me, comes when I break the Golden Rule. My father, an ordained minister, said, "If you love people, you can't go wrong." How true, Dad. But so hard to do. 

That's enough words for today. I have much to do and times awastin'.