Perdue appoints working group to study
education policies and practices to make
Georgia more globally competitive
ATLANTA - Glynn County
Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael
Bull has been included by Governor
Sonny Perdue to participate in a
working group tasked with inves
tigating innovative ways to create
long-term, comprehensive education
reform to make Georgia more glob
ally competitive.
This working group, chaired by
Dr. Charles Knapp and Dean Alford,
will build off the work of the Invest
ing in Educational Excellence (IE2)
Task Force and review a provocative
national report called Tough Choices
or Tough Times to determine how
Georgia might reform its educa
tion policies and practices to cause
needed change for its educational
system.
“I believe the experts serving
on this group fully understand the
urgency of the challenges we face in
education in Georgia,” said Governor
Perdue. “I am confident that they
will create a blueprint for change
that will facilitate higher achieve
ment, thereby increasing Georgia’s
economic competitiveness through
our most valuable resource — our
children.”
Kid's Health Expo
The second annual Kid's Health
Expo will held at the Glynn Coun
ty Health Department, 2747 Fourth
Street in Brunswick on Thursday,
August 7 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The Expo is fun, interactive and
educational. Immunizations, free bike
helmets, computer activities, informa
tion on local after school programs and
activities for kids will be available, Call
(912) 279-3350 for information. “I
The working group will meet for
the first time on July 17 in Atlanta
to focus specifically on several areas
of education policy reform:
• Moving students to postsecond-
ary-level work as soon as they dem
onstrate the necessary ability;
• Enhancing the quality of pre
school education opportunities;
• Improving P-12 teacher quality;
• Creating high performance
school systems (in collaboration with
the State Board of Education);
• Improving the academic perfor
mance of underachieving students;
• Further enhancing and support
ing a world-class P-12 curriculum;
and
• Ensuring the efficient use of the
financial resources Georgia devotes
to education.
Perdue has charged the group
to identify the policy changes that
should be put into place quickly in
order to make Georgia’s educational
system more competitive in the next
15 years. He has asked them to work
swiftly and submit recommendations
to him in time for consideration for
possible legislation in the 2009 ses
sion of the General Assembly. □
Calendar
Thursday, July 17 7 p.m. Summer
movies at the Ritz. 262-6934
Tuesday, July 22 Coastal Georgia
Historical Society Chautauqua Series
10:30 a.m. A.W. Jones Heritage Center
next to lighthouse. Free.
Tuesday, July 29 Coastal Georgia
Historical Society Chautauqua Series
10:30 a.m. A.W. Jones Heritage Center
next to lighthouse. Free
Saturday, August 1 Summer mov
ies at the Ritz.. 262-6934 □
Back Talk
Continued from Page 20
get upset and try to cover up when men
look at them? It's like face piercings, if
you don't want people to stare, don't
do it!!!
• Competitive eating - this is the
fancy word for hot dog, pie, watermelon
or hamburger eating contests. While it
may be fun to watch your neighbors do
it at a county fair or some kind of fes
tival, apparently there are people who
pursue this in a serious way.
I’m a big guy, who loves good food
and I’ve never watched any kind of
eating contest. It just seems kind of
gross...
And when you think about the fact
that there are people going hungry
right here in America, well, it makes it
seem even more senseless. Like beauty
pageants.
Besides, food should be enjoyed, not
tastelessly wolfed down.
• The old adage that "A dog’s mouth
is cleaner than a human’s."
Bull !!! Not unless the dog is using
Listerene® or the person is licking
themselves where, as Lewis Grizzard
(a great writer) said, "dog’s are wont to
like themselves."
If this one needs further explana
tion, call me at the office.
• I don’t know what to call this one,
but when, and more importantly why,
did 'gross' become fashionable on TV?
Advertisers have been using sex to
sell for years.
That I understand, but what about
the automatic dishwasher detergent ad
where the woman is sitting in the liv
ing room telling everyone what a good
son she has, a son who would never put
dishes in the dishwasher without rins
ing them first.
Cut to the kitchen where the kid is
holding a dinner plate up for the fam
ily dog to lick clean. I’m certainly not a
germ’a’phobe, but don’t pets have their
own dishes for a reason?
Oh yeah, because they lick them-
THE ISLANDER, JULY 14, 2008, PAGE 15
selves "where dogs are wont to lick
themselves." Anyway, the commercial
is nasty and I’m wouldn’t buy the
product, even if I had an automatic
dishwasher.
Then there's the commercial for a
fast food hamburger where the ketch
up and other condiments slop out of the
bun onto the table and the guy wipes it
up with a french fry and eats it.
Really?
And it isn't just commercials, the TV
shows, particularly the CSI series, are
getting grosser and grosser showing
graphic scenes of hacked up bodies on
autopsy tables and slow motion shots
of bullets entering the victims body.
Is it necessary to further the plot to
show some guy or gal with their chest
splayed open?
I don't know, I'm not a writer, but
it certainly scores high on the gore
factor.
That's why I like the Law and Order
series better, they don't waste time
with gore or pretty, panoramic camera
shots of people on jet skis that have
nothing to do with the plot.
On L&O, when the 'Lou' tells the
detectives go pick someone up, the next
thing you see is a door being kicked in,
not a bunch of fashion shots of the New
York or Miami skyline.
• This last one's no big deal, but I
needed something to close out this edi
tion of "Things I Don't Understand"...
And that is people who don't know
what they want to eat, yet still go
through the drive-through at a fast
food joint.
If you don't know what you want, go
inside and look at the menu before you
get in line to order so you don't hold
up the people who do know what they
want.
For crying out loud, it's a burger,
chicken or fish sandwich. The menus,
with the exception of the breakfast bur-
rito, haven't changed in 40 years.
It isn't brain surgery, it's common
courtesy. □
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