Who Needs Hallmark?
The Loved One was up almost all night earlier this week designing our 2014-15 holiday card. Her cards, in case you’ve never seen one, are whimsically creative. For my money, they’re the best.
A Little Taste
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We don’t send holiday cards to many people largely because I’m a Grinch and won’t turn over to her any list of people I like. But those we do send them to uniformly are impressed by TLO’s eye and sensibility.
I dunno, maybe I’ll pitch some names and addresses over to her this year — not because I’m becoming less of a winter holiday curmudgeon but because more people should see her great stuff.
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Teach Your Children Well
So, the Monroe County Community School Corporation just laid out forty G’s for a consultant to figure out if voters might pass a referendum to help the MCCSC get more money.
What else can the MCCSC buy for $40,000? Let’s see:
- 166 iPad Minis
- 3333 Social studies textbooks, Amazing Americans: The Rise of Industry: Jane Adams, McGraw-Hill
- 4449 Copies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Grand Central Publishing
- 7286 Boxes, Crayola Crayons, 64-count
- 7421 Mead composition books, tape-bound
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- 13,652 Free student lunches provided by the US Dept. of Agriculture, Food & Nutrition Service, under its National School Lunch Program
- 363,636 Staples No. 2 yellow pencils with erasers, 4 doz. pack
The MCCSC, though, has elected to direct a precious wad of 40-extra large to the coffers of Springsted, Inc., “a public sector advisor with services spanning every stage of your community’s life cycle” (from its website), to gauge the odds of getting more money from you and me.
Money, I might add, I’d be happy to pay for things like, oh, pencils, books, or iPads. In fact, I’d be happy to pony up scads more dough for the kids and their teachers. It can be money well spent.
Not on slick consultants, though.
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Who Needs Books?
Speaking of education, a recent poll commissioned by the BioLogos Foundation and conducted by Calvin College sociologist Jonathan Hill, have found that more than half the citizens of this holy land believe:
- Adam and Eve were real people
- Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design should be taught in public schools
- The Bible is the actual or inspired word of God, without errors
Where’s Your Certainty Now, Moses?
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A full one of five people believe Creationism alone should be taught in our schools.
Slate mag requested Hill’s numbers breakdown for this poll and lays out the details in a piece written by William Saletan. It turns out that when people are pressed on these beliefs they shy away from them a bit. When specific questions about creation and God’s role in it are included in the questions posed to poll respondents, people’s certainty in their beliefs begins to deteriorate.
This reminds me of all those polls that ask Americans if welfare is a good thing and most of them say hell no. Then, when pressed — for instance when asked if federal and state gov’ts should assist the hungry and the homeless — people suddenly become more altruistic.
The devil, you might pardon the pun, is in the details.
“Yes, we’re a creationist country,” Saletan concludes. “But apparently, we’re pretty creative about what that means.”
There might be hope for us yet.
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