Visitors from another land

My mom and Katy (my cousin) arrived here yesterday. Katy is the best to have around! She has never been far from Idaho, except Canada once when she was in elementary school, so New York is quite the culture shock. Her eyes were so wide as she was looking around on the subway. Well, at least they were until the train started to move and she grabbed hold on a railing and held on for her life (at least the way she saw it). I wish I had more time to spend with them. I have a research paper due tomorrow that I am way less than prepared. Just a rought draft, at least. Plus I have a bunch of tom-foolery going on at work to deal with. People are all crazy here. Apparently, a teacher hit a student yesterday. I dont know the details yet, but reliable sources have confirmed that an investigation is occuring. Incredible. Back to the discussion on Arzhangs site a few months ago, there is no point in putting more money into education if you have monkeys at the front of the classroom. There is the argument that More money would mean higher pay which would appeal to better people but I dont buy it at all. The money being higher would attract more people of the lower caliber. At my school, I can work as much as I want doing various other activities like clubs or tutoring and I make around 40 dollars/hour. Some teachers work so much extra that they make Hundreds each month that way. But all of the teachers I know who are doing that, and making money the big priority, are not the teachers who have their heart in it. They are the leeching, scamming teachers. More money could improve other factors that affect teacher stress levels (buildings, classroom materials, benefits, etc.), but I still don't think it would solve enough problems to justify more and more going into education, unless it was a dramatic dumping of money to restructure the whole education system. Then maybe. But for now, I work with monkeys. I wear a raincoat all day in the hallway to keep my clothes clean while they are flinging their...