One of the joys I get from posting the Grudge every day is seeing which threads generate the most comments.
Clearly,Monday’s was about Obama’s pitiful writing skills.It got me thinking of my halcyon days in high school.
When I received my class schedule before beginning my junior year(1966-67) I had been one of 22 students from a class of almost 400 for an Honors English course.The teacher was a woman named Gladys M. Ford.Everybody has one teacher who impacted their life to some extent.For me,it was Mrs.Ford.
The first day she laid out her philosophy. “You are in an honors class for a reason.I expect excellence and will accept nothing less.” She also had a sign on her desk:Question Everything.
Some of the kids disliked her to various degrees because they had always just skated through. Woe be unto anyone who came to class unprepared.We went through everything from Beowulf to Mad Magazine.(See if you can guess who suggested that material.)Anytime you wrote a report you better be prepared to defend it.
When you asked a question,she would steer you toward finding an answer on your own instead of just telling you.She felt you would retain what you learned better that way.I always considered myself a wordsmith,but against her I never stood a chance.Ironically,the best piece she claimed I wrote was when we had to write a satire and I chose to retell Paul Revere’s ride from his horse’s perspective.
In August of 1967,just before senior year,Mrs.Ford suffered a massive heart attack and passed away.Nearly her whole class attended her funeral,which was a testament to her dedication to what she called: ‘her children.’ A portrait of her still hangs in the Rockford Auburn foyer outside the theater stage.
She could not have survived in today’s educational system.Her joy was seeing a student’s face light up when they accomplished things they never thought possible.
If Barack H. Obama had been in Mrs. Ford’s class and handed in this rubbish she would have said: “If abusing the English language were a crime you,sir,would be a felon.”
How different things were before the teachers unionized and suborned childrens’ education to their own selfish interests.
I fear the like of Gladys M. Ford will never be seen again,and we as a nation are poorer for it.
polination.blog 
I self indulged too today 😉
LikeLike
Your last line sums it up all too well, but I wanted to leave a note relative to your first line: “One of the joys I get from posting the Grudge every day is seeing which threads generate the most comments.”
I am a huge fan, and though I WAS never known as a lurker in my past, I have become one as a result of being overwhelmed, but want you to know I’m out here, appreciating you, and skim the Grudge report almost everyday as my way of being ‘in the loop’. Please don’t just judge yourself on the comments, or number thereof. There are likely many out there like me. You are invaluable, and very much appreciated. thanks for what you do, most especially, how you do it. I love it when your comments make me laugh out loud as I catch up on what’s going on in the world.
LikeLike
I love reading all the comments on PN, and I comment myself whenever I have the time and can think of anything semi-intelligent to say. But the number of comments each post generates isn’t always a good measure of the number of people who read it. I don’t know if you ever check the site stats, Pete, but in case you don’t, we had a record day last Thursday — 559 views (our average is about 200 views a day) — and of those 559, 371 were for the Grudge Report. Moral of the story: When comments are few in number, do not take that as evidence that no one’s reading what you write! 😉
LikeLike
I forget where I read it–maybe Mark Steyn’s new book. But it was just within the last week or so, and he was talking about “Question Everything.” He wanted to know if that included “question everything.” Interesting question.
LikeLike
You should self-indulge a little more often, Pete!
LikeLike