From social studies teacher and occasional contributor Steve Flickinger:

“I find it interesting that the State School Board is rethinking graduation tests. Whoever concocted this idiocy should be fined for malfeasance. The emphasis on testing is not indicative what students know. It’s a snapshot of what students know on one day. I don’t think there will be any other time in a student’s life that they will be declared either a success or a failure based on something they do on one day. There are better ways to measure what the students have learned over the stretch of their careers in school.

“For example, the month of April has been a wash as we have reviewed for the state tests for the first two weeks and the students are testing for the next two weeks. There has a to be a better way. These tests don’t measure the many factors that affect students’ lives and are often impediments to learning. As for teacher evaluations based on student achievement, I don’t mind being evaluated, but basing evaluations based on student achievement on state tests is not constructive. That’s like evaluating your job performance based on newspaper circulation numbers. If you’re doing a good job and writing well-constructed articles that are interesting to your readers, circulation should be rising and steady. Of course, there are many factors that affect circulation that are out of your control, right? Maybe the school board is seeing the light. Maybe.”

From Robert L. Lindsey, on the United Airlines controversy:

“How is this even legal? Some so-called official decides a passenger’s right to continue on the flight they are already seated on, does not matter, only the company’s wants are important. People have many reasons to just want to get where they are ticketed to. Everything from a possible impending death, business or just want to get where they are going, which is what the airline promised them. Lost luggage is another consideration, assuming the bags are already on the aircraft.

“The following is the comment I left on Facebook and stand behind: ‘It

United’s problem if they cannot get passengers to get off a flight after buying a ticket. Treating anybody like this for their reason is unethical and should be very illegal. I do not believe in suing for a lot of things, but this seems like a couple million for

forced off a flight against their wishes for every occurrence.’

“I have been on flights that I would not have gotten off of for a any amount of money/incentives. I believe he had every right to refuse to leave. If the other bowed down the company dictator decree, that was up to them. I probably will never fly again at my age, but if I do, it will not be thug airlines like United.”