Newspaper Page Text
Viewpoints
Our
Views
Keeping the pace
The most recent report card issued by the Georgia State
Department of Education has some revealing facts about
Houston County schools.
For years, Houston public schools have been labeled as
“very good, among the best” and have been an attraction to
the community for those moving here.
We do not doubt that our schools are doing a good job. Nor
do we suspect current teachers and students are failing to do
the good job their predecessors did.
However, the scores on the report card indicate Houston
County is no longer among the very best in Georgia. Other
systems, which formerly had lower scores, now exceed those
of Houston County.
In some cases, especially among smaller school systems, a
half-dozen students can skew the results of an entire class.
Enrollments of 150 or less in a complete grade are not unusu
al in Bleckley, Pulaski or Dooly counties, for example. Thus, a
radical change in scores in a smaller system may not continue
the next year as large numbers students at either end of the
test scores pass through.
Despite that corollary to the scores, Houston scores are not
as high as perceived. As the chart below indicates, many of
Houston County’s test rankings put the county in the 30s and
40s out of 180 systems in the state.
We would love to see Houston County rank in the top 20,
with upward movement toward the top 10 systems in the
state. We do not see this as impossible. We do not believe the
students in other systems have learned that much more, that
quickly.
Some suspect some of the systems in the state are simply
teaching to the math and language arts tests which are given.
While this produces good test results, we’re not convinced it
produces well-rounded and well-prepared students.
This is perhaps indicated via the much higher rank which
Houston students record in subjects other than math. Here,
we teach the whole student, not just how to take the math and
language arts test and do well.
That is very important, more than top 10 test rankings.
Well rounded students do well in college because they are pre
pared. They do well in the work force because they have been
exposed to a larger field of knowledge.
Top ranking test scores are important. Well educated, well
rounded students are more important.
State of Georgia
Third Grade ITBS Scores, 0-100 range
Gw Avf Hews Rank Bibb Peach Rest
97-98 Reading Comprehension 53 62 48 40 69
96- Reading Comprehension 52 46
97- Mathematics 61 45 80
96 97 Mathematics 59
97-98 Composite Store 57 ■ 41 75
96 97 IJU tatf
I 49
97 98 Molhemal! 78
96- Mathematics. . 40
97- Compasfcfet?. H 74
96- Compositefcetti
High School Grodu#
98 Graduates
Percent Hope
97- SAT Scores
Verbal .491 484 44 465 453 546
Math 417 483 36 448 454 536
Total 978 967 36 913 907 1,082
State Exit Exam Ist Time Passing, 97-98
English, Language Arts -...94 95 49 93 98 100
Math 88 93 28 78 85 100
Soda! Studies 78 83 27 71 77 92
Sdence 74 82 21 61 67 92
All First Time -...68 76 - 55 61 -
Source: 1997-fl Georgia Pubic Education Report Cord
linos-Journal Chart by j| Johnson
Houston mes-Journal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll St. • Perry, Ga. 31069
email timesjmohom.net
(912) 987-1823 (voice) • (912) 988-1181 (fax)
Bob Tribble President
Jj Johnson Editor and General Manager
...Advertising Director
News: Rob Mead, Pauline Lewis, Joan Dorsett; News and
Composition: Charlotte Perkins; Sports: Phil Clark and
Alline Kent; News and Gassified Ads: Stacie Vu;
Circulation and Photography: Eric Zeltars; Bookkeeping:
Paula Zimmerman
r — ~wi —
Our Policies
Unsigned editorials appearing in larger type on this page
under the label Our Views reflect the position of the Houston
Times-Joumal. Signed columns and letters on this page (and
elsewhere in this newspaper) reflect the opinions of the writ
ers and not necessarily those of this newspaper.
Signed letters to the editor are welcomed. Please limit let
ters to 300 words and include addresses and a telephone
number for verification purposes. Letters are not published
without verification. Letters should be sent to P.O. Drawer
M, Perry, Ga., 31069 or brought to the newspaper office at
807 Carroll St., Perry.
Our liability for an error will not exceed the cost of space
Finally, a reason to watch the Super Bowl
Major league sports came to Georgia more
than 30 years ago. Within a few years, four pro
franchises opened in the Atlanta area: the
Atlanta Braves, the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta
Falcons and the Atlanta Flames.
For whatever reason, Georgians did not
flock to see the Flames play, and later, that
team moved to Canada. The others survived,
but set few attendance records because of their
poor performance against other teams.
The Braves and the Hawks were not expan
sion teams, they were simply franchises on a
downturn in their luck. With some manage
ment and ownership changes, they have
become very competitive.
The Braves have dominated the 1990.
Georgians are spoiled and expect to play for
the World Series championship each fall. Fans
express unhappiness with less than 20-win
seasons from the starters.
Basketball fans have found more happiness
in recent years, too. The coach of the team has
Peanut Gallery
IMPEACHMENT PROSECUTORS
fs rr just mc or ts rr I _
GeTTWG * NOT IV j
raytoons@hom.net © 99
Weaving the ultimate urban legend
This column is completely made up, fake
and untrue. I made it all up combining all the
Urban Rumors I could get my hands on. It’s
strictly for laughs. Really, I made it up. I
promise ... maybe.
I know this guy whose neighbor, a young
man, was home recovering from having been
served a rat in his bucket of fried chicken. To
make matters worse, on the way home he
stopped and bought a drink at a service station
and found a finger in the bottle.
Can you believe his luck because he was
still in mourning for his girlfriend who died
from massive black widow spider bites after a
female nested in her hair-sprayed hair and laid
eggs, which hatched and bit her to death. She
was bitten the day after Halloween, which
they spent in the hospital because he’d bfcen
cut by a razor someone shoved in an apple. She
was in the hospital recovering from a' near
fatal overdose of Pop Rocks which exploded in
her stomach, tearing it open.
You might know this guy’s brother, he’s the
diver who went to the bottom at Hoover Dam
and saw those giant catfish, one of which
attacked him and tore his leg almost off right
below the knee. That was after this guy had
survived an attack by a giant ball of water
moccasins in the same river.
But the incident at the hospital on
Halloween was just before the guy was fired
from major U.S. corporation for leaking the
story that the Moon and Stars symbol is actu
ally a Satanic Reference because the company
is owned by the Ku Kux Klan. While at the
company he was in charge of putting LSD on
kiddie temporary tattoos that Anti-Castro
operatives based in Miami and trained by the
Page 4A
l —Wed., Jan. 20,1999
occupied by the error.
We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or sub
mitted materials unless a stamped, return address envelope is
included.
Our Goal
The Houston Times-Joumal is published proudly for the
citizens of Houston and adjoining counties by Houston
Publications Inc., Perry, Ga. Our goal is to produce quality,
profitable, community-oriented newspapers that you, our
readers, are proud of. We will reach this goal through hard
work, teamwork, loyalty and a strong dedication toward
printing the truth.
Member of Georgia Press Association and National
Jj
Johnson
Editor
one of the winningest records around, and the
quality of players has slowly improved, mak
ing the Hawks competitive each year. Likely
with Michael Jordan out of the league, the
Hawks will have a much better chance of
reaching the higher levels of the National
Basketball Association playoffs.
Alas, the Falcons have done nothing. Make
that n-o-t-h-i-n-g to inspire confidence or fan
support. I remember a few years ago, when the
Falcons celebrated their 25th anniversary. A
speaker came to the Perry Kiwanis Club to
show a film about the highlights of the
Falcons during that quarter of a century.
Ben Baker
Editor
The Wirejgrass
Farmer, Ashburn
planned
to get rich, though, by selling the Nieman
Marcus cookie recipe over the internet for $lO.
He had just about saved enough money to
buy his girlfriend a fur coat at that place just
down the road from his house, but it’s a good
thing he didn’t because the week he got fired,
the place was raided and police discovered a
german shepherd slaughterhouse in the back.
The coats were being made from the dogs and
carcasses sold to an oriental restaurant on the
other side of town.
His girlfriend had divorced her husband
last year after he dumped a truckload of
cement into some other guy’s new convertible.
Her ex thought she and the convertible owner
were sleeping together, but they weren’t; he
just ran out of gas in front of their house. The
convertible was a prize that guy won in a radio
contest by deciphering the backward-recorded
subliminal messages on some John Denver
records that Elvis dropped off at the station a
few weeks earlier.
One day he went to sleep and when he
awoke he was in his bathtub and it was full of
ice and he was sore all over. When he got out
of the tub he saw a note taped to the mirror
saying that he needed to call 911 immediately
because one of his kidney’s had been removed
and stolen.
Houston rum-journal
■
military
would
use when
they held
infant
sacrifice
rituals.
H e
/
Since the Falcons had won but one playoff
game at the time, there wasn’t much to cheer
about. Most of the 30-minute fill centered
around pictures of former quarterback Bert
Bartowski getting up off the Atlanta-Fulton
County Stadium floor.
Times have changed. Likely that highlight
film would be about 90 percent about the 1998
season and the record-setting Dirty Birds.
With Americus native Dan Reeves at the helm,
the Falcons have won more games than ever in
franchise history. More, they have won the
National Football Conference and will play in
the Super Bowl Jan. 31 for the first time ever.
* Just as Braves mania swept across the state
eight years ago when Atlanta won the pennant
for the first time, Falcon fever has a strong
grip on Georgia.
Looks like many of us will have to take a
serious look at the Super Bowl for the first
time in many years.
Go Falcons.
But he was afraid to use his phone because
it was connected to his computer, and there
was a virus on his computer that would destroy
his hard drive if he opened an e-mail entitled
“Join the crew!” He’d been afraid to access his
email for along time anyway because of the
penpal greetings! trojan horse virus that dupli
cated itself and erfiailed itself to everybody on
his address list without his knowledge. He
knew it was.i’t a hoax because he was a com
puter programmer who was working on soft
ware to save us from a new Dark Ages when
the year 2000 rolls around and every utility
company closes down leaving us all in the dark
as every plane in the air crashes and all eleva
tors everywhere get stuck between floors at the
stroke of midnight, Dec. 31,1999.
The program could have prevented a glob
al disaster in whidh all the computers get
together and distribute the S3OO Nieman
Marcus cookie recipe under the leadership of
Bill Gates. Gates told me about this in an
email promising me a free Disneyworld vaca
tion and $5,000 if I would forward the e-mail
to everyone I know,.
It wouldn’t have mattered if he had called
just then, because half the crews were busy at a
house across town where a babysitter had
shoved a baby in microwave to dry the infant
after its bath; that was same microwave in
which apoodle had exploded only the week
before. The other half were at a house a few
blocks away trying to figure out what to do
with the girl who stayed under the sunlamp so
long it cooked her insides.
And so on and so 0n...
(Ben Baker’s column is a regularfeature of the
fViregrass Farmer of Ashburn.)
Newspaper Association.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridg
ing the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances." Your right to read
this newspaper is protected by the First Amendment to the
United States Constitution.
The Houston Times-Journal (USPS 000471) is pub
lished weekly for $21.40 per year (including sales tax) by
Houston Publications Inc., 807 Carroll St, Perry, Ga.,
31069. Periodicals Class Postage paid at Perry, Ga.
POSTMASTER : Send address changes to the Houston
limes-Journal, PX>. Drawer M, Perry, Ga. 31069. ISSN:
1075-1874.