Friday, January 02, 2009

Thoughts from the Rose Parade

Yesterday was another gorgeous Jan 1 in Pasadena, and the parade was especially enjoyable. A couple of thoughts:

(1) The Ballou (Washington, DC) High School Marching Band was amazing. The kids in the band were remarkably accomplished. This surely has something to do with its band director, Darrell Watson.

Ballou High School has proficiency rates on its standardized math and reading scores of less than 10 percent. The students there show that they can excel--if they have a caring teaching showing them the way.

(2) The National Association of Realtors had a float in the parade. There were lots of snarky comments in the crowd about the theme of the "dream" of homeownership. While the other floats got lots of applause, the silence as the NAR float went by was eerie.

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