Friday 26 September 2008

Questions of the Day

This sucker - is it going to go down? Answers, please, to George Bush.
Will going down on one knee to Nancy Pelosi help? Answers to Hank Paulson.
Is there a way out? Well yes, of course there is - become a teacher...
So the next wave of teachers will be motivated by nothing but the desire to escape the worst effects of the credit crunch by heading for the refuge of a safe job with a taxpayer-funded pension. I'm sure our schools - already, we are assured, the best ever - will become even better.

8 comments:

  1. No one seems to know how much of this 'ere "toxic paper" - subprime loans gone bad - there is. Estimates seem to be around 7-9 trillion dollars. Yes, trillion. So Comrade Paulson's 700 billion is only addressing 10 per cent of the problem. The other 90 per cent will be arriving in a tsunami near you sometime in the next three years. Less going down on one knee, more putting a finger in the dyke.

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  2. That's why all the good teachers I know are trying to get out of teaching. It's become a place for careerist ladder-climbers out to make money and do as little teaching as possible.

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  3. I hope to be going back to teaching -- at the university level -- in January. Thank God we've got an overflow of kids of college age in the U.S. and professors are needed.

    Much as I loved the newspaper biz, the days of journalism as we knew it -- big, lively newsrooms filled with fascinating people -- are over.

    Adaptability is the key to survival in this economy now -- at least for us middle-class types who have to work. I'd be a lot more freaked about $ (as in, why are we on vacation when I'm unemployed and the U.S. economy is tanking?), but I know from experience that my skills are marketable in a variety of jobs.

    Also, I won a lot of money playing blackjack our first day here -- never, ever overlook luck as a variable influencing every situation!

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  4. Teaching in universities is nearly as bad in this country. Even at the better universities, you still have to teach the undereducated products of our school system.

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  5. I'm back, Nige, but I'm still disappointed that you've not stood up against that unwarranted outburst of Oddie baiting that broke out here a few days ago. Judy is still crying about it...

    I too considered going into teaching. It felt like a safe move to make, though that was a good reason why I shouldn't and why I didn't. TV is for me and it always will be.

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  6. Mea culpa Dick. Even I, I blush to recall, have taken the odd pop at Oddie in my time - what was I thinking of? But that sucker Dick - will it go down? I look to you for the inside track...

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  7. Nige, Israeli style, lets declare Bill a Good Person (providing he agrees, when the time comes, to be buried standing up) This in the cause of calmer, more serene blogging, however Richard has to have a quiet word in Bills ear and make him promise , in future to be nice to darling Kate. One problem, at whom do we direct our ire?
    I think I may have answer to the Paulson conundrum (poacher turned gamekeeper) He is actually John Poulson, not Paulson, speaks fluent Maltese. George W would make a very good T Dan Smith. Can you imagine the city mob teaching sums, six and four are - fifty three. Todays lesson, building on sand.

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  8. escape the worst effects of the credit crunch by heading for the refuge of a safe job with a taxpayer-funded pension.

    They can try, but the next bubble to burst may well be the underfunded public pension liabilities of local and state governments and regulatory bodies across the US. And with that happy thought...

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