I really need to stop watching the news in the morning. I guess I go for days at a time, before I see something obnoxious on TV news or hear something from the radio. Yet when I do find something toxic, it always makes me wonder why I bother watching at all, erasing all of the “good” days that I do catch the news. Today’s news reports were about average: war protestors, peace advocates, updates on Bridgeport’s former mayor – on trial for accepting gifts for city funded contracts (which is racketeering I believe,) and updates on Waterbury’s former mayor – on trial for soliciting sex from two pre-teen girls via a crackhead prostitute. Quite a bit to stomach with the morning coffee, I’ll admit, but a story on Good Day NY is what cause the rug burn on my chin, because I couldn’t believe what I heard. A mother from Texas was whining about the amount of homework her son has been getting and that there was so much of it, started to do it for him – she even mentioned that it took too long to help him with it, during school nights.

Oh, the story started out innocently enough. The reporter was talking about how there’s been a steadily growing amount of homework assigned by teachers to students each year. She reported about how teachers believe that homework not only helps students being more self-reliant, but they also hope that it can help in the home, by getting parents more involved with their children’s scholastic studies. Then they threw this mother from Texas at me, with her insightful comments. The mother starts to complain that her “poor son” gets far too much homework; given that amount of time he spends there, and the time he spends on his homework, he works as much as an adult does for a full time job. She claims that it’s far too hard for her son to keep up with the class, and since “no parent wants their child to be laughed at, at school,” she started to do some of the homework for him. She demanded that the work load be lightened, because she feels this is ridiculous.

I was floored. I had to go an clean up a small puddle of toothpaste from the floor – I was brushing my teeth while this was being aired – because my jaw went dead and hung open in disbelief. Is this the mindset of parents today or is this one of those “Texas things?” “Don’t bother teaching my child everything that you can, dear teacher, because it’s too much work for him?” What happened to wanting your child to rise to every occasion? Or reaching for a higher level of expectation? Or learning to handle problems themselves? This child has his mother doing his homework for him! In Japan, children have uniforms, entrance exams for junior and regular high schools – not every child is guarantee the very best education because not all schools are equal there – and have a half of day of school on Saturdays. They also instill pride in their children, by putting such emphasis on school work. Their children are reminded that school is for learn – it is in fact a job – and not a six hour social free-for-all. Children are to have fun after school; during school they are supposed to work. Japan does it better; they children are brighter and better citizens for their nation. America needs to find a nice blend between the mockery of education that we current offer – overloaded with “fun stuff” – and the strict educational program of Japan; this will allow kids to still express their creative natures but they will also learn more, which is why we have schools in the first place.

If Texas still wants out of the Union, we should let them go and cheer them on as they leave. In our own self defense, we should at least deport this woman to Mexico, because she’s a fuckin’ idiot – at least we should get her out of the American gene pool, before she conceives again. After seeing “Varsity Blues,” the less children that come out of this state, the better of we’ll be – even if it would hurt the sales of Coors in teenage athletes. They can make it up by targeting NASCAR fans in the southeast; they might appreciate the step up from Bud.

And now, because I forgot to charge my iPod – and I can’t charge it at work, because the PowerBook is still in the shop and my iPod AC adapter is at home – I’ll have no music for my train rides… I have no doubt that it’s a Monday

Oh, and by the way – Happy St. Patrick’s Day!