How Much is that Elephant in the Room? The Elephant Wearing Glasses, but not talking and wearing Red on Red! That One?

“I am tired of billionaires telling us what we need to do for our children as if they love our children more than we do,” Lewis continued, as the crowd the union estimated at 25,000 waved signs and cheered. “I want them to turn off the air conditioning at 125 S. Clark, and work like we work. I want them to turn off the air conditioning on the fifth floor of City Hall and let them work like we work.” Chicago Sun Times

Karen Lewis, Leo High School has been standing in solidarity with you on the air-conditioning issue since 1926.  No air-conditioning, no way, no how!  I knew that when I signed a contract with Bob Foster in 1995.  He didn't have no air-conditioning himself.  Our building was constructed beginning in 1921 when air-conditioning was limited to Swift and Armour meat storage houses and box-cars in Canaryville's Stockyards.  Some things will just not configure, or evolve as John Dewey pretends.  

I wish we had a few billionaires concerned for our kids, like CPS.  We have a handful of millionaires pumping in hard dollars, to be sure, but mostly old or aging white guys who managed to safe a few dollars extra, or young black guys making their way in the world thanks to their Leo High School Catholic education. Thanks be to God.

Karen Lewis excoriated Bruce Rauner, a philanthropic capitalist, who wants the best education for Chicago public school children in last Friday's Pre-Wisconsin Style Occupy Union Park Rally column meant to gin-up rage against the machine.

Millionaire capitalist Bruce Rauner, ranked No. 90 on Chicago Magazine's "100 Most Powerful Chicagoans," and who donated enough money to the Noble Network of Charter Schools to get his name on one, published a scathing opinion aimed at Chicago Public Schools teachers in Wednesday's Tribune. The amount of anger and venom Rauner spits out at our hardworking CPS teachers is beyond reprehensible. Chicago Tribune op-ed Sept 14, 2012

Donated money to a school? Let's kick him in the nuts!  

As a Director of Development, I was appalled by a beneficiary of private largess taking a donor to the canvass at all, much less while in the process of squeezing more money from the CPS public coffers emptied with glee by Ms. Lewis et al since 2001.  I could only imagine my life expectancy in the Leo Community were I to call Andy O'Spud Class of 1940 and beef that his recent contribution of $ 200,000 for financial aid assistance was shabby.

My pelt would be drying on the portals of Leo, before I hung up the phone. Not Karen Lewis. She continued in this  
manner on Saturday with the above pasted quote from the Sun Times  at the Hey,Hey, Ho, Ho-fest in Union Park on Ashland Ave. before an estimated 2,500 ( or 10% of the Chicago Membership of CTU). 

 Karen Lewis, I believe in my craven, mean-spirited, child-hating heart of hearts, is merely the gut-wind for the ISO doctrinaire VP of CTU -Jesse Sharkey.  Jesse Sharkey is the CTU leader the media has been told to lay-off. He is much like the daffy Andy Thayer, or odious Kevin Clark who merges Hamas Propaganda Boosterism with Anti-Catholic domestic terrorism in the name of Gay Rights.  Jesse is leader of International Socialist Organization( ISO) and Kevin Clark is a national leader of Hamas affiliated International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

The teachers strike, it seems to me, is more about creating havoc than righting work-place wrongs.  The media has beating the phrase Elephant in the Room,  into a pliable metal of metaphor meant to maintain this havoc.  Who is the elephant? Rahm??? Penny Pritzker??? Bruce Rahm????  What is the Elephant and how much do he cost?  

In an earlier news conference, a grim Lewis ticked off a long list of concerns that her members mentioned about the contract. She said "the big elephant in the room" is CPS' plans to close upwards of what she said could be 200 schools. Teachers are "extraordinarily concerned about that," she told reporters. "It undergirds everything they talked about" in the House of Delegates meeting.
Yes, CPS could be looking at closing and consolidating schools. The real elephant in the room: CPS is exhausting its reserve funds this year and faces an estimated $1 billion budget deficit next year with a massive pension payment hike.

Close schools and Karen Lewis will lose membership and numbers is what Jesse Sharkey is all about.
Numbers keep the havoc going!  Numbers of dollars, schools closed, or not closed, air-conditioners, kids in a class, days off, test scores and enemies to be vilified.  You gotta keep the hate going.

There is great jazz tune by Oscar Brown Junior about a child's incessant demands for something over there - in this case a stuffed elephant.


This sums up the continuing strike by Chicago Public School Teachers and no one in the media will ever point to the real Elephant in the Room - the buss-ciut Brooks Brothers Commie in the Red Duds standing behing Karen Lewis and tellling here what to say and do.

Dat Elephant over dere?


The time will march days will go
And little baby's going to grow
I gotta tell her what she needs to know
I'll help her along and she'll be strong

And she'll know right from wrong
As life's parade goes marching by
She's gonna need to know some reasons why
I don't have all the answers but I'll try to do what I can
We'll make a plan

You give the kid your best and hope she’ll pass the test
And finally send her out into the world somewhere
And though she's grown up I bet I never will forget
Mummy, can I have that big elephant over there?

Hey why they do that there? And how you put that there?
Hey mummy, up here! Hey mummy, what that say up there?
Hey mummy, what is fair? How come I have to share?
And mummy can I have that big elephant over there?
And mummy can I have that big elephant over there?
And mummy can I have that big elephant over there?
http://www.suntimes.com/news/15177062-418/union-head-teachers-tired-of-billionaires-telling-us-what-to-do.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-14/news/ct-perspec-0914-lewis-20120914_1_cps-teachers-charter-schools-karen-lewis
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-union-0917-bd-20120917,0,6966289.story

Talkers and Do-ers: My exchange with a Lawyer and Karen Lewis a Be-smears Philanthropist

 " Hey,Hey! Ho,Ho! Spell Czecher Haz Gotta Go! ( repeat as obnoxiously often as if Andy Thayer were Thay-er"

The CPS Strike may be history.  Maybe. I don't believe so,

I do not believe that the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis and her ISO guru Jesse Sharkey, have had anywhere near enough face-time on camera to work their gums.

National labor activists who embarassed themselves in Madison Wisconsin last year are trucking to Chicago tomorrow for an MSNBC flavored bongo and gong sing-along in Union Park near Pilsen.

CTU members and CPS teachers are frustrated and rightly so.  I know many excellent CPS teachers who are burdened by the clowns from both CTU and CPS.  Policies and practices get heaped on them like taxes showered on Chicago citizens and they are expected to not only teach, care for, keep-track of and love their students, but also change the social order and tuck-point the dysfunctional families who send their children to spend hours of the day in their charge.

God love them!  Rahm is playing to cash-cows and public relations at the expense of common sense, whether that means tossing a million dollars to the gang-banger pensioners of CeaseFire, turning Gresham, Englewood and Grand Crossing neighborhoods into the care of Calypso Louis' Bow-tie Precision Marching Teams, or Draconianly changing the schedules of some schools, while appeasing the Mommies and Daddies of Magnet School kiddies, or TIFing more schools into Charters. He wants to be President.

Then there is Karen Lewis.  Ms. Lewis is a face of CTU, the heart of CORE and soul of ISO.  CORE is the Caucus of Rank and File Educators.  ISO is the International Socialist Organization*.  The VP of CTU is Jesse Sharkey an ISO wheel and one time teacher at Senn High School - not listed on staff these days.

Karen Lewis and Jesse Sharkey have "Hey,hey'd and Ho, Ho'd" everyone else in CTU to an Occupy TV moment. They are not about the money, they are about ending the capitalist-running-dog 1% patriarchal hegemony.  Got that?  T'aint too hard.  Bill Ayers understands it and Carol Marin and Eric Zorn eat it up.

So do the loud-mouths and layabouts.  This week John Kass praised Leo High School that Karen Lewis had smeared as not a real school, as this Catholic college prep school for inner city men was open on Monday.  It was a very nice and accurate contrast to the Karen & Jesse Show.

A web-paper that publishes my stuff, Chicago Daily Observer linked John Kass' article: Here is one comment from an anonymous goof -DMLawyer:

DMLawyer said:The school will be closed in a couple of years.
White flight to the burbs (Br. Rice, Marist, etc.) was the start of its demise.

I have heard that Leo was on its last legs from guys- in-the- know since 1966.  White flight?  How about that Viking ship in Lincoln Park? So, I responded. 

Pat Hickey said:Where have you been genius?
White flight occurred in the late 1960′s.

Too piquant?  Sorry, that's how I roll when confronted with a spitting bi-ped purported to have been educated somewhere.

Not to be outdone, the pettigogger rose to his full height and rejoined -

DMLAwyer said:
And the effects are still being felt.
At least you finally acknowledge its occurence and have stopped making excuses for racism.

At Least I did that. Yes, yes, and a chastened Honkey-ass bigot I be there, DM. Lord, forgive my bull-whipping of colored folks. Old habits, I guess. 

Sorry.  There I go again. Now, I am just as bad as DMLawyer and would not deem to take a back-seat to any man when an old-timey micturating party is afoot and I responded, thus -

Pat Hickey said:Write check to Leo, DML. All them folks you like to tag as racist do. Nothing kills racism like involvement. Step up; the sidelines are way to thick with talkers. Leo is all about doing -Facta Non Verba. Or do you just like to talk?

I am a pretty nice guy.  Unless someone insults people I love.  Why would anyone publicly ridicule people who do good, without any prompting and also do it so very badly.  Imagine pushing your shopping cart down the aisle and catching the eye of a stranger, give the wink and smile and salute him or her with a cheery greeting of " 'Morning!"  only to be acknowledged with a "#$% You and all you White Flight #$%^-ers!"  -
( that actually  happens to me all the time, but only with family and close friends -never total strangers in my neighborhood)  Why would one do such a thing? Because they feel that they can and, in my experience, these people happen to be educated, wealthy and Progressive.  That is when, I wear my guts on my sleeve and can be singularly unpleasant and even, God forgive me, sarcastic.

Now, I talk . . .in my sleep, Y'all!  My mouth goes like duck's ass when given have the mereest chance . . .No, really. I do chat some.

I also do. I do what I can and often a bit more.  I teach black kids, white kids, Mexican kids and, when the moon sits just right, my very own kids.  I can work a mop, turn on the boilers at Leo, fix the sump pump, chauffer the Canaryvillains, raise money, write grants, write articles, ask for help, make friends, fix bridges and buy lunches.  So does Dan McGrath, Mike Holmes, Mike Joyce, Aurora Latiffi, Mrs. Townsend, Gunny Frank Wilson and most everyone who draws a modest pay check at Leo every two weeks.

Most importantly, I can ask for money.  When I make a phone call, the person on the other side of the line knows I am about to lift his wallet, or rummage her purse.  Most people are willing to step in and help the mission.  We have millionaires, but mostly working stiffs. Some of our most loyal givers are on a fixed income.  All participate.  They mentor the kids, come to assemblies and games and love our lads. I value their gifts.

Karen Lewis has the luxury to slap people who have volunteered to help the public schools.  Today in the Tribune. Karen Lewis insults CPS donor Bruce Rauner. Mr. Rauner is what we at Leo call a "Big Hitter" - someone with oodles of the long-green-difference.  If my Rauner were giving to Leo and he told me that rotting dead alewife made a great deoderant, I'd be smelling like the dumpster behind DiCola's Fish on a hot August afternoon and happy about my new found scent. 

Karen has her own distinctive air - here is some of her gut-wind in today's Tribune

Rauner's solution to all these problems is to increase the number of Teach for America interns in CPS schools, to expand charter schools and to increase standardized testing. Obviously he knows absolutely nothing about education. If he even subscribed to any of the numerous education newspapers, like Education Week, he would know studies are showing Teach for America is not improving educational outcomes at low-income schools, that charter school performance nationwide is only on par with public school counterparts and that excessive standardized testing can have an adverse effect on students.
How much money has Bruce Rauner personally invested in all of these "solutions"?

Well, Bruce???? Tongue got your cat?

Mr.  Bruce Rauner is being impugned as a fat-cat capitalist opportunist by the ethically challenged leadership of CTU in preparation for the Big Labor Pay-Back for Walker Thru Rahm Rally tomorrow.  Money, marbles or chalk ? Jesse Sharkey, a practiced Commie scribe with many articles on his belt for ISO, wrote this piece for the svelt-talented Ms. Lewis.

Karen Lewis does not get direct dough for CTU from Mr. Rauner.  Mr. Rauner is about improving public education. He is a doer.  I disagree that Mr. Rauner's money is well-spent and that it is certainly misdirected.  Bruce Rauner should pop his dough into The Big Shoulders Fund and support Catholic Schools. I'm just sayin'!

Karen Lewis is educated, wealthier than most people I live near, and very Progressive.  

* Now a strike by the CTU over issues that are murky and confusing to the average citizen threatens to distract the electorate just as the Obama campaign picks up lost momentum.How could this have happened?
The ironic answer is that President Obama himself deserves some of the blame. At the top of the CTU leadership is a group of political activists for whom the health and well being of students is not the top priority much less the bread and butter concerns of their fellow union teachers. Instead, they are the hard core of a highly ideological milieu that has over the last decade or more burrowed their way into the teachers’ union.
Now they have their hands on the levers of power of a large urban union and are doing what no sane union leader would do, namely striking at a point where they are least likely to gain allies among Democrats and others on the left whom they normally could, and should, count on in a battle of this magnitude.
Only a group with a different agenda than that of the genuine labor movement would take such a huge risk. Actually, from their standpoint – one which advocates “r-r-radical” change – it makes a peculiar kind of sense because it appears to demonstrate their intransigence. While stalwart militancy can be a valuable trait in a labor leader, mindless militancy of the sort on display among the top leaders of the CTU is dangerous. For too long the democratic left inside the AFT and elsewhere hasignored these risks.
What animates this “mindless militancy”? It is the so-called “social justice” ideology propagated by a sectarian element in American schools of education and among their teacher graduates by individuals like Linda Darling-Hammond, Bill Ayers, Mike Klonsky, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Peter MacLaren and others. Thus, Karen Lewis, the new “fist in the air” fire brand president of the CTU in the words of her ally the Maoist education activist Mike Klonsky. Lewis recently traveled to Seattle not to discuss the tragedy of poor student outcomes in our nation’s schools but to rally the “Shock Doctrine” troops among the social justice crowd to take over the teachers’ union.
Keep in mind that I put quotes around “social justice” because this crowd’s “social justice” ideology has nothing to do with the social justice agenda of the genuine labor movement or the civil rights movement. This is, instead, an agenda about gaining political power, not for the students and teachers of our blighted urban schools, but for the advocates of “social justice” and its allied ideas such as multiculturalism and identity politics.
While proposed as something radical it is important to keep in mind how conservative and reactionary this ideology is, in fact. It represents a retreat from the genuinely progressive and radical agenda of the civil rights movement and the labor movement. And it is therefore not a surprise to realize that this new “social justice” agenda emerged in the wake of the defeat of those earlier democratic movements in the late 70s and early 80s.
The ideology actually leads the labor movement backwards into the divisive morass of politically correct identity politics. In the world of education, for example, it actually helped support the pro-corporate school “choice” movement by the formation of politically correct small schools like the “Social Justice” high school in Chicago. Not a surprise that figures like Ayers and Klonsky back the same idea as one supported by the Gates Foundation.
Thus, instead of creating democratic, transparent institutions that can lead us out of the crisis in our schools, this “social justice” crowd functions like a mirror image of the corporate education reform crowd they so loudly denounce. This faux radical milieu has, in fact, given up, sometimes explicitly, on wider social solutions, such as integration, to the problems of city schools. They promote absurd arguments that the schools are the moral equivalent of apartheid and promote a form of reparations for slavery in the name of repaying what they call the “education debt” that allegedly has accumulated over 400 years. Professor Stephen Diamond: Santa Clara University School of Law

http://stephen-diamond.com/
 http://www.cdobs.com/archive/featured/what-teachers-strike-chicago-leo-is-going-great/#comments
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-perspec-0914-lewis-20120914,0,7374511.story

Leo High School - One of the "Unreal" Catholic Schools Reported by John Kass

Martez Hampton, a gentleman scholar-athlete of Leo High School's Junior Class has the answer - School Reform is Vouchers.


We had the pleasure of John Kass in the house on the opening day of the CPS Strike.  John's visit was prompted by Karen Lewis' announcement of the strike of all CPS teachers with her statement "Real school will not be open (Monday)."

Leo High School is as real as it gets.  John Kass is a south side guy who knows a plateful full of BS is not a prime rib dinner.

Since real school wasn't open, I was compelled to visit an unreal school.A South Side school where 100 percent of the students graduate, and 100 percent are accepted to college. A Roman Catholic all-boys school that draws from poor and working-class neighborhoods, a school where there are no cops or metal detectors, no gang recruitment, no fear.
An unreal school that is mostly black, but with a smattering of whites and Latinos, and where every student who sees a stranger in the halls goes up to the newcomer, introduces himself, shakes his hand, looks him in the eye and calls him Mister.
Leo High School, at 79th and Sangamon, seemed pretty unreal to me, too.

The entire Leo High School Family, students, staff, parents and Alumni ( 1930 -Present) thank you John for you visit and your great appeal to reason on what constitutes Genuine School Reform.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0912-20120912,0,7520520,full.column

SEIU Stands WITH CTU While Scabbing Every Day

SEIU is a Marxist PAC.  It is responsible for not only the decline of American Labor, but also the murder of the American Middle Class that organized labor helped to make a wonder of the world after WWII.

SEIU is led by Reds in purple costumes armed with social work degrees from University of Pennsylvannia with a modest sprinkling of nurses.

SEIU own most Democratic legislators in Illinois, the Mayor of Chicago ( that is why they are allowed to sit this one out)  as well as the President of the United States who have no comment on this strike whatsoever!

SEIU is as phony as every Progressive I have ever encountered.

SEIU will cross the picket-lines.

I wonder if Bruce Springsteen will warble out a ballad about that.

Service Employees International Union Stands in Solidarity with 26,000 public school teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals of Chicago Public Schools.The Chicago Teachers Union is calling for a better school day and adequate resources for students, as well as fair compensation and improved job security for teachers. SEIU supports the CTU if they are forced to strike; however, many of our members are contractually obligated to work in the event of a strike. SEIU members will continue to work at the schools to ensure the safety and health of Chicago’s schoolchildren as their teachers fight for their education.
Strong public schools are critical for working families in Chicago. SEIU Illinois calls on Chicago Public Schools to prevent a strike by giving our students, schools and teachers the resources they need to succeed.

When Rahm fires the membership of CTU, SEIU will welcome their dues!

Teach, mop, dust it's all good!

 Now, that's Solidarity!

 http://www.seiu1.org/2012/09/08/seiu-local-1-stands-with-chicagos-teachers/

CPS/CTU A Skunk Fighting a Raccoon - Catholic Schools Open Everyday!!

It's All About the Children! All is relative and as John Dewey demands of American Public Education All must be Verifiably Satisfying.  Got that?

I got it years ago, when I studied Philosophy of Education at Loyola University.  Truth is a moveable feast for John Dewey that begins and ends with "Inquiry."

Inquire about leadership in American Public Education -Arne Duncan e.g.

Inquire about Chicago political leadership: Rahm's busy raising cash from Hollywood and what's left of 1%-ers for Obama.

Inquire about the  Public Service Union Solidarity - SEIU is set to cross the picket lines.

Inquire about a 19% increase in an average public salary that amounts to $ 71,000 per annum.

Inquire about length of school day.

Inquire about tenure, accountability, pension, health benefits, sick-days, and school calendars/

Inquire about test scores, college placement, drop-out rates.

If one must, do inquire. Like I said, I got it ( as in understood John Dewey education as a pernicious,  power mad and "cosmic impiety" that assaults truth).



In the next 24 hours, either CPS will cave and toss more money to Karen Lewis in verifiably satisfying manner, or a strike will take place in verifiably satisfying manner.  Either way, it is the public education you, the taxpayer, votes for, agrees whole-heartedly with, or must live with.

In any event, Catholic Schools in Chicago will be open for learning, sharing and strengthening the values God finds verifiably satisfying. In today's Gospel from Mark, Jesus cures a deaf-mute.  Get a load of these beauties!




Chicago Public education is a skunk fighting a raccoon, in my empirical understanding of its dysfunctional operations.



Stock up on the moral and education tomato juice, Citizens, or get used to smell.

On Monday The Children Will Be in School -Catholic Schools

No less a political genius* and storied-back benching alderman than Thundering Dick Simpson of U of I at Cement City offers this concerning the looming CPS/CTU Strike -


" (Karen) Lewis can claim victory if a short strike ends with a contract favorable to teachers, according to Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. (Karen) Lewis could argue the teachers union flexed its muscles and the Emanuel administration caved.

"The problem isn't so much if the teachers strike," Simpson said. "The question is how long they strike and on what terms it's settled." ( Emphases and Parentheticals, my own) -Thundering Dick Simpson - author of They's CarUption In the Soberbs!

My God!  Why is this man not more of an influence universal? The insight!  The grasp of the obvious!  The cool Dewey-esque arrival at the conclusion inquired of! 

On what meat does this our Dick feed?

Any way.

Leo High School, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Cajetan, St. Barnabas, Mother McAuley, St. Ben's, Gordon Tech, Marist, Brother Rice, St. Rene Groupil, St. Benedict the African . . .etc. and etc. will all be open for school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Yadda, Yadda, Yadda until Columbus Day and then . . .till when summer comes.

Simeon and Morgan Park?  Could be, but then again maybe not.

You can count on Catholic Schools, Lutheran Schools, Dutch Christian Schools and the nopn-sectarian private schools, because the teachers and staff want to be there to practice their professions. If a teacher is unsatisfied with his or her contract, that teacher can say Adios!  More importantly, if a teacher is really unsatisfactory and should be selling Groupon futures and Green Energy ventures over the phone, the school can say, "Here's your hat; leave the keys; leave the stapler and the globe and best of luck in all of your future endeavors!"

School Monday!  Long strike, short strike, outcomes political and actual notwithstanding, Catholic Schools ( and our Protestant and non-Christian compeers) will educate your child, because God is our platform.

For those who think not, keep asking Thundering Dick Simpson what he really thinks. 

Stuff like what is the edge of bowling ball like?

* N.B. - If one were to seek a political insight from a practiced professional and genuine scholar in this Proco Joe Burg, one must consult Dr. Paul Green of Roosevelt University. To paraphrase the eminent restaurateur and lay-historian Jackie Schaller of Schaller's Pump - " Thundering Dick Simposn couldn't carry Paul Green's jockstrap. . .too heavy."

http://www.enotes.com/julius-caesar-text/act-i-scene-ii

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-teacher-strike-politics-20120909,0,6197296,full.story

CPS v. CTU - I Don't Have a Skunk in This Fight

I had plenty of opportunities to become a public school teacher.  I took a pass.   From 1975 right up to this Sunday Mass, I thank God I did not.

I know hundreds of public school teachers, union members all; nevertheless, many are great people who teach kids with authority, great kindness and limitless patience.  Their patience is shredded by the bureaucracy for which they labor, be it Grayslake District # 127 or Chicago Public Schools and the Teachers Union to which they must belong as a legislated condition of employment.

In the words of my salty-tongued departed Dad, they are "between a $hit and a Sneeze."

That's the nature of Public Education.

My neighbors in Chicago Public Schools are taxed with goofy policy that in no way has anything to do with academics and labor fakirs playing with their paychecks and working conditions.  They love teaching and universally despise CPS and CTU.  It's a paycheck.

I predict that the Strike will be used to arm-twist Rahm "Mayor Coon-Eyes" Emanuel with Karen "Big Tuna" Lewis threatening to withhold an endorsement of Obama 2012 and a ubsequent cave-in by Rahm, Jean Claude and all sundry at CPS. Huzzah! It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$ and political hoopla.

I get a paycheck and love going to work everyday.  I never work a day.  In fact I rarely use the word work with reference to my vocation.  I go to school.  That is the difference between teaching in public education and a Catholic School.  I learn as well as impart the little that I know.

Yesterday, I took my love to the Soul Bowl ( Hales v. Leo) on the site of Chicago's oldest college - St. Xavier College(University) - the one that Obama's White House declared no longer a religious insititution.  One building remains from that old Sisters of Mercy college for women on the west side of the Hales Franciscan Campus -just beyond the athletic field.  It was a very long day for Leo High School - our JV Team lost 24-12 and our Varisty bowed to Hales 20-12. Hales Franciscan is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as a Catholic prep school for African American young men and no better way to do so than besting Mighty Lions.

The elegant and lovely young woman with whom I spend my quality time has as much interest in athletics as I would exploring the history and influence of scent -parfumare (through smoke in Latin). However, this opportunity to stand behind the Leo bench and take in the sights and scents of young manhood in energetic combat with opportunity she found enchanting.

MS. S met the Canaryvillains and Bronzevillains, whom I transport to Leo each morning and witnessed their athletic heroics that fell short of victory.  Skinny little tough guys like Brian, Mitch and BK and brawny stawarts like Tommy and the gargantuan Daylon.  BK weighs as much as one of the cheeks of my rump and by dint of courage attention to detail was 'going both ways', recovered two fumbles and made several tackles during crucial downs.  Little Mitch confounded receivers and pushed the play to the sidelines.   Brian weighs less than BK and Mitch and is a wide receiver who snagged several hard fired pigskins from the clutches of two Hales deep-cover agents.
Big Daylon was felled by an ankle injury in the second half and his loss to the offensive line is reflected in the final score. Hales is a quality program and like Leo and every Catholic school in Chicago will not go on strike.

The motto of Leo High School is Facta Non Verba -Deeds Not Words.  That seems the universal motto of Catholic and private schools as well.  Picket signs are not needed to tell the cameras and the media that its is "About the Children."  That is a given.

" We will pay you $ 21,000. . . "  You will like hell, Adios Father!  Good luck filling the spot.

Since 1975, I taught at Bishop McNamara ( '75-88), La Lumiere School ( '88-94), Bishop Noll Institute('94-95) and Leo High School ( 1995-Present) and parted fair-friends and remain most happy.

Nope I chose to take my resume to Catholic teaching, because I am a Catholic and because I find slogans and memes tiresome.  The John Dewey public education doctrine that replaced Truth with Inquiry has always seemed educational poison to me.  I am a professional.  Never been fired. Teaching is my trade and my vocation. Ms. S saw some of the handiwork in the eager, frustrated, baggage-burdened, financially challenged faces of the young men in hard combat on a football field.  She noted the respect and genuine affection each student athlete reflected on their coaches, teachers and administrators. More so, she was over-whelmed by the presence and beefy tactile of the recent graduates who thickened the sidelines.  These guys ( Akim, T.O., Steve - all playing college football) hug hard and mean it even though they had endured and understood the ass-chewings and character remonstrances meted out by us greybeards over the previous four years.

"They really love you guys ( Mike Holmes, Noah Cannon, Dan McGrath, Pete Doyle and even me). You are so lucky to do what you love. It must be great to work at Leo." Or any Catholic School, really. If the pay is too low, exit smiling.

We do not work, we go to school.



http://www.perfume-training.com/Self-Study-Perfume-Courses.html