Last Of The Mohicans

  • Thursday, July 31, 2014
I was thinking about the book above, known as the book of common sense, and what we in the printing industries management in Cincinnati used to gripe about, which was, "There's too many chiefs and not enough indians."

Which brings to mind the fight over Common Core standards, of which 65 percent of the Knoxville voters are against, in a poll, done by Steve Hunley, publisher of the Fountain City Focus, (Con Hunley's brother, the country singer) but of which Lamar Alexander and Joe Carr are fighting about, but of which Jeb Bush, Bill Haslam, and Dr.
McIntyre our school superintendent up here for the Knox County school system, are for.

Now I'm against Common Core standards because they are too advanced, in my opinion, for the very reason, what I've been advocating up here in Knoxville, is that we need vocational schools that teach the tradecrafts like I was taught at Kirkman Vocational in Chattanooga, that no longer exists, to prepare the students for the manufacturing and service sector jobs, of which none of these public schools are doing today.

I've been reading the back and forth opinions regarding Rhonda Thurman who's against increasing taxes for the school system. I remember way back when Dr. Scales was superintendent down there and got run off by Rhonda Thurman and what was called her Gang of Five, so she could get Rick Smith the job, and the obvious rumors of racism because Dr. Scales was black.

I was emailing my friend Duke down there about all this, and showing him these pictures of Gresham Middle School up here in Fountain City. This school is beautiful, it's historic, over a 100 years old, and Duke was saying, jeesh, wish we had schools like this down here, ours are falling apart. You can google Gresham Middle School, they have a webpage.  I was involved with it, writing Donna Parker the principal, given a Gatsby Party. I was invited too back in April down at the Worlds Fair Park. Now in my investigations, the principal makes $75,000 a year, and Donna has two assistant principals, of which was a point of contention by Commissioner Harmon, a former school teacher, when the teachers union and Dr. McIntyre was promoting that three percent raise, that Mayor Tim Burchett was against, and Commissioner Harmon said cut out one of those assistant principals and got rid of the fat, which reminded me of Chain Saw Al, as we called him, back in the 80's era, when big business was downsizing and cutting middle management because there were too many chiefs, and not enough Indians, which is my point of contention of why we need more Indians in today's economy, rather than trying to over-educate kids for jobs that are not gonna be there.

That's why common sense is more important in these days and times, of which we seem to have a  serious lack of, in our public school system.

Donald Woods.....Knoxville

Gresham Middle School in Fountain City
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